Congee

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The ratio I like is about 10 cups water/stock to 1 cup of uncooked rice (2 cups cooked). You can use less or more depending on how thick you like your congee.

Malay Herb Rice Salad

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You can leave these out for a vegetarian version.

Homemade Egg Noodles

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For flat and thin egg noodles, which have a springy, chewy texture, use bread flour. For thick round egg noodles, which are softer and denser, use plain flour; the wheat-intolerant can even get away with using white spelt flour.

Torn Handmade Noodles

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Plain flour works best here, though you can swap part of it for bread flour if you like a chewier texture. I have also experimented with white spelt flour with good results.

Baked Glass Noodles

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Marine Stewardship Council.

Clear Fish Noodle Soup

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Any firm, fine-textured white fish is good here (e.g. bream, bass, pollock, hake).

Birthday Mee Sua

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The tender boiled trotters are good simply dipped in light soy sauce with chopped chillies or added to a soy sauce braise (see here).

Hokkien Prawn Noodle Soup

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Marine Stewardship Council.

Katong Laksa

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You can also use a couple of large squid. Separate the tentacles from the tube, and cut the tube lengthwise to open it up. Lightly score the inside surface and cut into bite-size pieces.

Shortcut Crab, Omelette & Tomato Soup

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Vietnamese noodle dishes often come with fresh herbs on the side, including hot mint, perilla mint, banana blossoms, etc. I find these three (mint, coriander and Thai basil) to be a delicious combination and, more importantly, they can either be found in shops or grown easily at home.

Teochew Steamed Sea Bream

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Raw pork fat is laid across the fish so that the lard renders out and keeps the fish fragrant and moist while cooking. The Teochews and Hokkiens love using lard to add extra flavour to their food, though this is less common now in modern Singapore. Pork fat is easy to get from a good butcher. You can skip the fat if you don’t want it, and just add a touch more fried shallot oil.

No-cook Sea Bream

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Firm white fish is preferred – bream or bass. The lime and spices can also take on oily fish like mackerel. Don’t use more fragile fish like sole, as they can turn rubbery in the acidic marinade.

Braised Fish Steaks

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Hake, grey mullet, mackerel, bass or bream are good here. You can also use smaller flat fish, but as they can’t exactly be cut crosswise, braise them whole instead.

Homemade Fishballs

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I have made this without the need for egg whites or starch but using only the specific types of fish found in Asian waters, which have flesh that’s, for lack of a better word, ‘sticky’ enough. Pollock, hake, bream or a mix of these are good in the UK. Fishballs used to be made by poor people who didn’t want to waste whatever scraps of fish they could find, so I would feel strange using expensive cod or haddock for this, though you could.

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Pollock, coley, hake, bream or a mix of these are good here.

Fishcakes

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You can do this with most medium-sized firm fish, like sea bream, bass, snapper, mackerel or herring.

Roasted Butter Prawns

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Marine Stewardship Council.

Caramel Pork Ribs

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Sometimes I stop at this stage to get a quite different dish altogether. You don’t get sticky ribs, but you get tender pork and a glossy, sweet dark sauce that is delicious spooned over rice.

Mum’s Twice-cooked Pork Belly

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Try to get the butcher to cut you a piece about 8cm wide, from the middle part of the belly rather than the end. There is no need to pull out the ruler; this is just a rough estimate so that you get nice generous slices of pork belly with a good ratio of meat, fat and skin.

Mum’s Twice-cooked Pork Belly

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Also available frozen from Asian stores if you are feeling lazy.

Steamed Buns

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These buns are not as white as commercial ones, which use highly bleached flour. I’m not too bothered about the ‘homemade’ colour of my buns. But you can add some vinegar to the steaming water if you want whiter buns.

Mutton Satay

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You can also use lamb shoulder, beef steak or chicken thighs.

Nyonya Grilled Quails

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Alternatively the quails can be roasted in the oven, skin side up, at 180°C/gas 4 for 15–20 minutes, until the juices run clear, then turn the grill setting to high for a minute to get the skin crisp and slightly charred.

Son-in-law Eggs

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Old eggs are easier to peel. I always insist on good free-range eggs anyway, but in dishes like these where the eggs and their golden yolks are the star of the show, it is especially important not to skimp.

Steamed Eggs

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This old-school method of measuring the liquid to egg ratio has never failed me. I don’t have to remember numbers or worry about the size of eggs. Don’t worry about cracking your eggs into perfect halves; there is room for ‘agak agak’ (approximation) in this recipe.

Homemade Chickpea Tofu

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You can replace fish sauce with light soy sauce if you’re feeding vegetarians.

Mum’s Fail-safe Vegetables

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If you can’t have lard, chicken fat is a good substitute. If that too is not an option, stick to groundnut oil.

Mum’s Fail-safe Vegetables

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If using a hardier vegetable like cabbage, cover the pan after adding the soaking liquid and simmer on a medium heat until tender. You may need to add an extra splash of water or stock halfway through. Peeled and chopped pumpkin and other sweet winter squashes work extremely well too, using the same technique.

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If you can’t have lard, chicken fat is a good substitute. If that too is not an option, stick to groundnut oil.

Asparagus with Salted Egg Mayo

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Or sweet potato chips, if you’re feeling more decadent.

Spicy Peranakan Mixed Pickles

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The quantities are very rough estimates. You can add more of whichever vegetable you like, though do use a heavier proportion of cucumbers, because they will lose quite a lot of their weight in water later.

Crispy Steamed Pumpkin Cakes

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They can also be warmed up by steaming, then served with crispy fried shallots and a sweet chilli sauce.

Lacy Pancakes

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This also works with white spelt flour for the wheat-intolerant.

Raspberry & Coconut Jellies

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You can play around with other seasonal fruits and natural colours. To make green agar agar, snip the pandan leaves into smaller pieces and blend with water, then strain to get the fragrant green pandan extract.

Pandan Crêpes

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White spelt flour and gluten-free flour blends work just as well here. You might want to adjust the liquid ratio slightly.

Barley Water

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Depending on how thick you like it.

Avocado Shake

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A good non-dairy alternative would be thin coconut milk, or almond milk. Soya milk has too assertive a taste.

SWEET ASIAN PICKLED VEGETABLES

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I would not pickle my radishes for more than half a day because they lose their lovely pink.