A selection of signature Singapore cuisine, prepared, by improvising with Austrian ingredients, in my little Greenbox kitchen. Bidding my dear friends farewell by "stuffing" them with flavours from Singapore so they'll head home with no reGraz!
#1: Curry Chicken. Of course you start it off by stuffing your fellow Singaporeans with our red-hot favourite "soup" that goes best with potatoes, steamed rice and bread! (17th June 2014)
#2: Laksa. For my brothers and sisters from 24 and 26, heavily improvised (by using spaghetti) because of the lack of the right type of rice noodles (粗米粉). Wish I had Laksa leaves to add to the flavour as well as taupok though. Oh well, it's the closest I could get to one of our national dishes. Lots of practice needed... (18th June 2014)
#3: Ginger Chicken with White Wine (客家盐酒姜鸡): Marinated and boiled in Italian Wine (in place of Rice Wine) with zucchinis (instead of cucumbers), cabbage, ginger and onions. Typically Asian, for the Asians :P (19th June 2014)
Lunch InvAsian on the Feast of Corpus Christi with Sean 's 肉骨茶 (Pork Ribs Tea Soup), Eunkyung 's 김밥 (Gimbap, not sushi) and 客家盐酒姜鸡 (Hakka Ginger Chicken in white wine)
#4: Sambal Fried Rice. With some help from Alan and Sly. There's still something Singaporean missing about it though and we still can't figure out what it is. Done in 2 batches and topped with tuna fish floss for Estelle 's Goodbye Dinner Party. (20th June 2014)
#5: Sambal Beans with Prawns. Lack of belachan chilli (which I so terribly miss) meant that I had to make do with chilli, prawns and onions. Spicy, but not so spicy, depending on who you ask. "Not salty enough" because I resisted adding more. Prepared for Sunday's dinner in 24 hosted by Geoffrey. The dinner (plus desserts after) was too yummy, you'd have dreams of it after :P (22nd June 2014)
#6: Mittwoch Mushroom Madness (1); Not exactly a Singapore signature dish but this Cream of Mushroom, Potatoes and Onions is my version of Mummy's signature, so it counts too ;) (25th June 2014)
#7: Mittwoch Mushroom Madness (2); Fried Rice with mushrooms, potatoes and french beans. Pulled it off without having any meat in it. Made possible thanks to some Sesame Oil and Soy Sauce. (25th June 2014)
#8: Mittwoch Mushroom Madness (3); Also not a Singapore signature dish but more of a "mixed vegetable rice" (菜饭) dish. Chicken in curry gravy with mushrooms and onions. (25th June 2014)
Mittwoch Mushroom Madness! Not signature-Singapore but more of Singapore-styled mushroom dishes. One less dish to make it a 三菜一汤 combination but oh well... There was some fresh Danish bread and sweet Austrian desserts after to compensate for that
#9: Tom Yum French Beans with Mushrooms. Obviously not very Singaporean since it's Tom Yum but still worth a shot ;) (28th June 2014)
#10: Mui Fan (烩饭), without the Seafood, because the seafood available here is bad :( Made do with Mushrooms, Onions and eggs for the gravy. (28th June 2014)
Mui Fan (烩饭) with a Tom Yum side dish for the first "Singapore meal" of the weekend
#11: Again, not a Singapore Signature because it is clearly western. This Cream of Broccoli and Mushroom Soup was just a little appetiser for what's to come next! (28th June 2014)
#12: Beef Rendang. May not have originated from home but it's most certainly one popular dish in Singapore. Red, hot and spicy, all-in! (28th June 2014)
Cream of Broccoli & Mushroom Soup and Beef Rendang for dinner with my Deutschland friends, or just Daniel and Ramona rather. There's always more than enough for Chris too, especially when he's in "studying mode". Poor guy was still having exams then :(
#13: Curry Chicken (again). The first of the 三菜一汤 (3+1, 3 dishes and 1 soup) for dinner with my Church Home Group. Tweaked the recipe a bit by adding milk so that it wouldn't be too spicy. Turned out creamy too :P (29th June 2014)
#14: Beef with Onions and Capsicum stewed in curry sauce. 2nd of the 3+1. Surprisingly spicier than it was intended to be. Perhaps you could call this Singapore Beef Goulash... Something you'd get at your 菜饭 stall maybe. (29th June 2014)
#15: Carrots with Minced Meat (Faschiertes Schweinefleisch). 3rd of the 3+1. Didn't need any special ingredient to make it sweet. It was all in the carrots! Again, another one which you're more likely to find at a 菜饭 stall. (29th June 2014)
#16: Bak Kut Teh (literally "Pork Ribs Tea" Soup) This is without a doubt, amongst one of our National Dishes! (I don't care what our neighbours say, THIS IS SINGAPOREAN! Bleh! :P) Boiled for a good couple of hours with an abundance of garlic, pork ribs and mushrooms. It's the 1 soup of the 3+1. Really glad brothers and sisters from my Church House Group liked it because I must admit that the flavour and smell is not so easy on the taste buds. (29th June 2014)
The final instalment of my Weekend Trilogy of Cooking Craziness was a huge blockbuster with the 4 offerings above. Dinner with my Hauskreise (Home Cell Group) in my little Greenbox flat (with the 9pm sunset in the background). Thank you brothers and sisters for making me feel at home in Graz despite being miles away from home. We may be in different places but we serve and worship the same God. I pray that His Grace, Peace and Blessings always be upon all of you, wherever you go and whatever you do! ♡
#17: Sambal Long Beans with Pork. Stayed away from prawns this time to give it a more meaty feel. Stewed it with some white wine for quite a long while to add extra flavour. Clearly, not much kick for the Mexicans ;) (30th June 2014)
#18: Fried broccoli and onions in eggs and cream gravy. Clearly not very Chinese but I've already deviated so much from signature Singapore food, why not try something different... :P (30th June 2014)
#19: Sweet Corn Pork Ribs Soup boiled with some Bak Kut Teh spices. Probably not a combination you can find in Singapore though. So, just another one of those unique to this Greenbox kitchen. (30th June 2014)
Dinner for the Mexicans, Franco and Pamela so you must have a spicy dish that has just the right amount of chilli. So that has to be Sambal Long Beans! Some Broccoli in cream sauce to balance out the spiciness and what's dinner without soup... and if it's Singaporean, you know it has Pork Ribs in it! Pity Paulina couldn't come along You'll have to come to Singapore for the real deal okay?
#20: Fried Rice with corn and peas. Almost as close to your typical 煮炒 Fried Rice except for the fact that you don't see carrots and more importantly... CHAR SIEW! Oh, I really miss that!!! (1st July 2014)
#21: Cream Soup with Corn and Peas. At this point I'm just doing western cuisine soups with an Asian style of cooking. Not sure if it's the best idea, but at least it's tastes fine. (1st July 2014)
Fascinating but true, this lunch was the first proper Fried Rice that was without chilli or some other spicy stuff. Just plain old corn and green peas. Carrots would have made it the perfect combination but it would still have lacked the most important ingredient... CHAR SIEW!!! It's not proper 煮炒 Fried Rice without that.
#22: Sweet Corn Pork RIbs Soup. Done with the addition of carrots and sweet onions to make it almost like ABC Soup. Close enough to a home-cooked signature for my flat's official farewell dinner where we had typical Austrian Schweinsbraten after! (1st July 2014)
As a bonus... Presenting to you, Daniel's Legendary SCHWEINSBRATEN!
We had Schweinsbraten for our Welcome Dinner Party, so we'll have Schweinsbraten again for our Farewell Dinner Party! Just that this time, you start it all off with something Singaporean i.e. Sweet Corn Pork Ribs Soup! Flat #39: Where we cooked so much, the induction cooker broke down (literally, with huge cracks and all) and Greenbox had to change a new one for us!
#23: Laksa Bee Hoon. Decided to change the noodles from Spaghetti to Rice Vermicelli (Bee Hoon) because that's as close I could get to the proper Laksa noodles. Altered the recipe to reduce the spiciness by multiple levels but it was still too much for poor Giuseppe and Gregory. Chris was still okay with it though. Likely the last dinner I'll cook for my Italian and Dutch brothers :'( So I just had to end it off in a typical Singaporean way... spicy, red-hot and deadly! ;) (2nd July 2014)
Deadly Dinner with the Deadly Duo. Had to do one last proper Singaporean meal just for my Dutch and Italian brothers so Laksa Bee Hoon was the one (although it was a little too spicy despite my best efforts in tuning it down). Won't be the last dinner we'll have together because there's an awesome weekend coming up. Looking forward to our road trip to Hungary!
And for the final meal I'll prepare in Greenbox #39's kitchen, it's a Chicken Rice Set Meal!
#24: Ginseng Chicken Soup to go with Chicken Rice. (3rd July 2014)
#25: Chicken Rice. With extra garlic and sesame oil for just that little bit more flavour. (3rd July 2014)
#26: Wine stew with Zuchinnis, Mushrooms and onions. A variant of the 盐酒鸡 (wine stew with chicken) recipe. (3rd July 2014)
#27: Cabbage Soup with carrots, mushrooms and pork ribs. Just another one from Mummy's kitchen ;) (3rd July 2014)
Since it was the last dinner that I'd be cooking in my little Greenbox #39 kitchen, I decided to invite the neighbours who were still around! Ginseng Chicken Rice along with a huge bowl of salad from Goran and Nora. Then there's Ramona's trademark dessert too. "There's always space for dessert!" Perfect way to welcome the weekend. Lake Balaton, here we come!
And that was it! All my Singapore Signatures dished out for my brothers and sisters from all over the world. It's not the last of Graz though cos there's still some bits of Graz in June to revisit. Don't want to have reGraz now would you?
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