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Sunday, January 15, 2017 | The Sunday Times

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Goldie Hawn is among the comeback
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CELEBRITIES
FESTIVE
RECIPES
Actress Constance Song and other stars share
their family dishes for Chinese New Year.
Kenneth Goh reports.
C22&23

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ST PHOTO: NIVASH JOYVIN

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 C22 | The Sunday Times | Sunday, January 15, 2017 Sunday, January 15, 2017 | The Sunday Times | C23
Life Food & Drink Food & Drink Life

Festive Bonding over

Shredding
chicken meat
by hand makes
for finer, more
tender meat,
says host-actor
soup preparation
Ben Yeo, who
makes a chicken,
crab and For television host-actor Ben Yeo, bonding with his

cooking
mushroom soup family over reunion dinner starts not at the dining
for Chinese New table, but in the kitchen.
Year. ST PHOTOS: One of his fondest childhood memories of Chinese
LAU FOOK KONG; New Year is helping his mother prepare the ingredients
VENUE COURTESY for sharks fin soup with chicken, crab meat and mush-
OF DE DIETRICH rooms, one of his familys reunion dinner classics.
He and his three siblings were in charge of shredding
boiled chicken meat and peeling crab meat from shells,
while his mother cooked other festive dishes, such as
braised sea cucumber and mushrooms, steamed fish

for the
and stir-fried leeks.
Yeo, 38, says: It was very tedious work, but it was
fun, like playing with play dough.
After years of observing his mother make the sharks
fin soup, the culinary arts graduate from hospitality BEN YEOS CHICKEN, CRAB
institute Shatec came up with his own version when he AND MUSHROOM SOUP
started his own family seven years ago. He has two
sons, aged eight and five, with his wife, Ms Claudia
Cheong, 38, who helps run Big Big Heart, a domestic INGREDIENTS cutting them into three equal parts

family
abuse shelter started by Yeo.
He also runs Western restaurant Tenderfresh Clas-
sic, which has four outlets including in Our Tampines
Hub and Cheong Chin Nam Road.
His soup recipe omits sharks fin for conservation
reasons and also because he says it doesnt add much
taste.
Another modification is replacing tang hoon (glass
noodles) with Japanese vermicelli. Unlike tang hoon,
Japanese vermicelli does not become too soggy when
cooked and has a firmer and more chewy bite, like that
of konnyaku (Japanese jelly), he says.
He also adds enoki mushrooms as they are a family
favourite.
To reduce preparation time, he uses frozen crab leg
meat, but insists on shredding chicken meat by hand
instead of slicing it.
Hand-shredded meat is finer and doesnt fall apart
With less than two weeks to Chinese New easily. And the meat is more tender, he says. It
Year, there is still time to think about what reminds me of my childhood.
He wants his children to learn how to prepare this
festive dishes to whip up to usher in the Year of dish. They are old enough to start helping out in the
kitchen and this also gives them a sense of what their
the Rooster. Four celebrities share the recipes grandmother used to cook.
Besides the soup, Yeo, who hosts Little Life Hacks, an
and stories behind their family favourites info-education series on Channel 8 on Sundays at
10am, also prepares a steamboat meal for his family
with ingredients such as abalone, fish and sliced pork
belly.
Other than feeding his family, another Chinese New
Year tradition he observes is to buy them a new set of
clothes from head to toe, from inside to outside.
He says: The practice helps to spice up Chinese New
Year or else it will become just another holiday.
Kenneth Goh
250g chicken breast, skin removed
1.8 to 2 litres water
100g Japanese vermicelli, soaked
in water
Drain and set aside.
400g store-bought crab leg meat
50g corn starch
50ml hot water
2 litres store-bought chicken stock
200g enoki mushrooms, chop off roots
and discard
10 pieces fresh shiitake mushrooms,
stem removed and julienned
3 pieces black fungus, soaked
in hot water and julienned
Egg whites from three eggs, beaten
White pepper and vinegar to taste
METHOD
1. In a pot set over high heat, add
chicken breast and 800ml to 1 litre
water, or enough to cover the meat.
Cook for 15 to 20 minutes until the
water comes to a boil.
2. Drain and rinse chicken with tap
water to bring meat to room
temperature.
3. Use hands to shred meat into thin
strands. Set aside.
4. In a bowl, soak Japanese vermicelli
for 10 to 15 minutes in water before
with a pair of scissors. Set aside.
5. In a clean pot set over high heat,
add crab leg meat and about 500ml
of water. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
6. Dissolve 50g corn starch in
50ml of hot water. Set aside.
7. In a clean pot set over high meat,
add 2 litres of chicken stock and
500ml of water. Bring the mixture
to a boil.
8. Add enoki mushrooms, shiitake
mushrooms, cooked crab leg meat,
shredded chicken and black fungus
into the mixture at high heat.
Mix contents well.
9. While stirring the soup in the pot,
pour corn starch solution gradually
to thicken it. To check the consistency,
take a scoop of the soup and watch how
it flows back into the pot. It should not
be too thin or starchy. Let it cook for
five minutes till the mixture bubbles.
10. While stirring the soup, pour in egg
white gradually from a bowl and let it
cook for one to two minutes.
11. Turn heat off, scoop soup into a bowl
and add white pepper and vinegar to
taste.
Serves 10 to 12

Noodle soup to Vegetarian take Three decades of

kick off new year
For more than 30 years, actress Constance Songs first
meal on the first day of Chinese New Year is home-
cooked mee sua soup.
She eats a version of the thin wheat noodle dish at an
aunts house, where 15 to 20 relatives gather for a feast.
The noodles are served in a pork rib stock brewed
overnight and topped with ingredients such as fishball,
abalone and black moss (fa cai).
This is the taste of childhood for the svelte
41-year-old, who is currently seen on Channel 5s
drama series, Tanglin.
She says: Although mee sua is soggy and doesnt
have an al dente texture, I need to eat it to celebrate
Chinese New Year every year. It is a family tradition.
The dish, which is also a symbol of longevity and
good fortune in Chinese culture, is also eaten on birth-
days.
Over the years, she has perfected her own version.
Her soup is a chicken stock spiked with hua diao jiu
(Chinese rice wine) and topped with seaweed, peanuts,
fried ginger slices, omelette slices and chicken.
It is the only dish that Ive learnt to cook from my
mother two years ago, so that I can enjoy it whenever I
crave it, she says.
Song, who is starring in home-grown composer Dick
Lees upcoming film, Wonder Boy, opening in August,
does not cook often and generally steps into the
kitchen only for her lover, son and therapist, a four-
year-old male golden retriever, Murphy. She whips up
dishes such as steamed vegetables with beef for it.
It is evident that the two share a tight bond, with the
dog prancing excitedly around Songs two-storey
terrace house in Upper Thomson Road during this inter-
view.
For this Chinese New Year, Song, who owns Spanish-
Japanese restaurant Bam! in Tras Street, plans to whip
up a noodle soup dish for Murphy that is inspired by
mee sua. The dish comprises chicken and gluten-free
bee hoon in a vegetable stock.
Since Murphy is a part of our family, it should follow
what we eat and our traditions too, she quips.
Her other food highlights during the festive period
are a steamboat reunion dinner with her family with
must-have ingredients of fiery mala stock, beef and fish
and pineapple tarts, which remind her of pineapple
jam biscuits, a favourite childhood snack.
CONSTANCE SONGS MEE SUA SOUP
INGREDIENTS
400g chicken fillet, skin removed
and cut into 5 by 3cm slices
5 tsp light soya sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
Salt and white pepper to taste
61/2 Tbs of sesame oil
400g ginger, shredded
4 eggs, beaten
10 to 20g ginger, sliced thinly
500ml store-bought chicken stock
350ml hua diao jiu (Chinese rice wine)
400ml water
550g mee sua (seven bundles), soaked
for two minutes before rinsing with
water
25g dried seaweed
METHOD
1. In a mixing bowl, marinate chicken
slices with 4 tsp light soya sauce, 2 tsp
sesame oil, sugar, salt and white
pepper. Set it aside for 30 minutes.
2. In a wok set over medium heat, add
4 Tbs sesame oil and fry shredded
ginger till golden brown. Set aside.
3. In another mixing bowl, stir 1 tsp
light soya sauce into four beaten eggs.
Mix well and set aside.
4. In a clean wok set over medium heat,
add 1 Tbs sesame oil, pour egg mixture
in gradually till it fills the pan. After two
minutes, use a spatula to fold the egg
Homecooked
mee sua soup
is actress
into half and let it cook for two Constance
minutes. Flip the omelette to the side Songs first meal
and let it cook for another two each Chinese
New Year.
minutes, till it is slightly brown. Slice
ST PHOTOS:
the omelette into thin slices. Set aside.
NIVASH JOYVIN
5. In a pan set over high heat, add
11/2 Tbs sesame oil, chicken and sliced
ginger, and fry the chicken for three to
four minutes.
6. With chicken slices still in the wok,
pour in chicken stock and let the
meat cook in the mixture till it comes
to a boil.
7. Add hua diao jiu and water and stir
continuously.
8. Add mee sua and cook for two to
three minutes in the stock. Turn heat
off. Use a pair of tongs to transfer
mee sua into a serving bowl.
9. Divide mee sua and chicken into four
bowls. Garnish each bowl with strips of
fried omelette, fried shredded ginger
and seaweed.
Serves four
on grandmas dish
Growing up, actor Nick Shen fondly remembers observ-
ing his late grandmother cook lunch while doing his
homework after school.
Her speciality was steamed fish in Teochew style,
that is, with ginger, salted vegetables and pickled
plums.
These memories have inspired him to come up with a
vegetarian version of the classic Teochew dish of
steamed pomfret.
The dish features slabs of tofu (beancurd) that are
arranged in the shape of a pomfret. They are laid out on
a bed of dried seaweed that mimics the scaly texture
and taste of the fish skin. Covering the body is a blanket
of chewy oyster mushrooms, pickled plums, salted
vegetables and strips of Chinese mushrooms, ginger
and red chillies.
Instead of lard, fried soya bean crumbs are added for
crunch.
One of the first few times that Shen cooked vege-
tarian pomfret was for a family dinner on the first day
of Chinese New Year two years ago for 12 people.
The five-course vegetarian meal included dishes
such as curry with mock chicken meat and potatoes,
broccoli with mushrooms and his signature dish,
lotus root soup with radish and corn.
The 40-year-old recalls: It was pressurising as it was
my first time cooking for so many people. I spent the
whole day in the kitchen chopping and cooking.
It is my way of showing sincerity through the effort
that I put into cooking.
The actor eats vegetarian food most of the time as it is
healthier and environmentally friendly.
A self-confessed perfectionist, the founder of events
company Tok Tok Chiang fussed a fair deal over the
dishs intricate decorations from cutting cherry toma-
toes into the shape of rabbits to crafting flowers from
shredded carrots and Japanese cucumbers during
this interview.
One reunion dinner that he starkly remembers was
the year after his mother died from cancer 10 years ago.
She used to take charge of the festivities by cooking
her specialities such as ngoh hiang and baking cashew
and almond cookies, he says.
It felt so different without her and I particularly
missed her that night.
These days, the bachelor continues the tradition of
decorating the familys five-room flat in Bukit Panjang.
He is also busy during the Chinese New Year season as
he is hired for God of Fortune appearances and Chinese
opera performances in companies and schools.
Shen, who is starring in a Channel 8 drama as a police
officer in March and Zi Char, a telemovie on E City
(StarHub TV Channel 111 and 825) in August, has also
been decorating the corridor of his flat with his neigh-
bours for the past four years.
He says: It always puts me in a festive mood.
Go to http://str.sg/4Wcz to watch Nick Shen
assemble his vegetarian pomfret.
laksa steamboat
Long before it became trendy for restaurants to use
laksa gravy as a steamboat stock, theatre director-
actress Selena Tan, 45, has been tucking into laksa
steamboat during Chinese New Year.
For 30 years, laksa steamboat has been a staple in the
familys reunion dinner and open house, during which
80 to 100 relatives and friends drop by throughout the
day.
The star of the laksa steamboat is the tongue-tingling
stock that is concocted with a blend of laksa rempah
(spice mix) and prawn broth.
More than 20 kinds of ingredients are cooked in the
soup, including yong tau foo, steamed chicken wings
and tau pok (fried beancurd).
The steamboat is not complete without thick white
bee hoon, cockles and a dollop of homemade fiery sam-
bal.
Laksa steamboat is the brainchild of Tans mother,
Daisy, 66, who runs the Peranakan restaurant, Daisys
The classic NICK SHENS VEGETARIAN POMFRET' Dream Kitchen, in West Coast Road, with her son, Roy, SELENA TANS LAKSA STEAMBOAT The laksa stock
Teochew dish 37. that theatre
of steamed Tan, founder and artistic director of theatre compa- director-actress
pomfret inspired INGREDIENTS triangle to form the tail. The ny Dream Academy, says: We like eating all sorts of INGREDIENTS rempah for two to three minutes. Selena Tans
actor Nick Shen 25g dried seaweed (two sheets) remaining tofu will not be needed. ingredients that can soak up the thick and lemak (rich Shells from 20 prawns family make
4. Pour prawn stock prepared earlier
to create a 2 blocks rectangular tofu (600g each) 6. At each side of the body, tuck in Malay) laksa gravy. My siblings and I ate a lot of such 1.5 litres water for their Chinese
vegetarian rempah-based dishes as my mum grew up in a into the pot. Turn heat to high and New Year
2 tomatoes, sliced sliced tomatoes and two dried
version. Malay-Peranakan kampung. 160ml vegetable oil bring mixture to a boil. Stir the mixture steamboat
Chinese mushrooms.
ST PHOTO: 100g dried Chinese mushrooms, While she would not reveal the recipe for the home- 500g store-bought laksa rempah occasionally. contains a
NIVASH JOYVIN soaked for 30 minutes 7. Cut 1/4 of a piece of dried mushroom made laksa rempah, she says it is a blend of seven ingre- (spice paste) homemade
5. Pour in evaporated milk gradually
and use scissors to cut out a circle. Use dients, including blue ginger, lemongrass and candle- rempah.
150g oyster mushrooms 2 stalks lemongrass, remove white while stirring the mixture in the pot.
the edge of a knife to make a slight nut. ST PHOTOS:
2 to 3 pieces Shantou pickled plums As a healthier alternative, she uses evaporated milk portions and crush 6. Stir 5 Tbs of light soya sauce into the NIVASH JOYVIN
depression on the head of the fish
(squashed) instead of coconut milk and she says the laksa tastes 400ml evaporated milk mixture.
and place the cut-out in it for the eye.
200g salted vegetables just as nice. 5 Tbs light soya sauce 7. Add tau pok into the pot and cook for
8. Cover the body with oyster She also squeezes lime juice into the laksa to inject
6 red dates 10 pieces tau pok (fried beancurd) five to 10 minutes.
mushrooms, pickled plums, salted some tanginess into the stock.
6 roasted almonds vegetables, strips of the remaining As part of their Chinese New Year tradition, her fami- 100g finely chopped laksa leaves 8. Use the laksa stock as a steamboat
ly of 30 gather for a reunion dinner comprising seven base. Add ingredients of your choice,
20g ginger, sliced dried mushrooms, red dates, almonds and sambal to garnish
and 10g of ginger slices.
to eight main courses that are enough to feed an such as yong tau foo, prawns and
2 Tbs sesame oil army.
METHOD cockles.
2 Tbs light soya sauce 9. Drizzle 1 Tbs of sesame oil and 1 Tbs The dishes include pen cai (treasure pot filled with
of light soya sauce over the fish. seafood), ngoh hiang (five-spice prawn roll), roast 1. In a big pot set over high heat, add
6 Tbs vegetable oil
duck, chicken rice and fish maw soup all whipped up shells from 20 prawns into 1.5 litres of Serves 10
10. In a wok set over medium heat,
3 Tbs store-bought soya bean crumbs by her mother and Roy. water. Bring the mixture to a boil, then
bring some water to a boil and steam
White pepper to taste Tan, who will be directing a new musical set in a turn the heat to low and simmer for
the pomfret for 10 minutes.
school called Detention Katong at Esplanade Theatre about 30 minutes. It should be
3 red chillies, thinly sliced 11. In a pan set over medium heat,
from Feb 17 to March 5, recalls that the festive food reduced to about 1.2 litres. Drain and
10g coriander to garnish add 2 Tbs of vegetable oil and fry the line-up these days pales in comparison with the astro-
set aside. Discard the prawn shells.
remaining 10g of sliced ginger till nomical amount of food they had when she was grow-
METHOD ing up. 2. In a wok set over high heat, add 100ml
slightly brown for about three
1. Line a large plate with two sheets of Tan is married to John Pok, 48, who helps run Dream vegetable oil and laksa rempah and fry
minutes. Set aside on kitchen towel.
dried seaweed. Academy. They have a two-year-old son. for a minute. Turn down heat to medium
12. In the same pan, add 4 Tbs of As for one of her favourite Chinese New Year Eve and continuously stir the mixture for
2. Slice tofu blocks into half horizontally. vegetable oil and fry soya bean memories, she says: Wed eat, watch television, go about 45 minutes. Set aside.
3. Slice two of the four slabs of tofu crumbs for three minutes. Set aside comatose and hop into the car to Chinatown at 11pm to
rub shoulders with other shoppers and buy goodies at 3. In a pot set over high heat, add 60ml
into half and then diagonally to get on kitchen towel.
last-minute discounts to get into the festive mood. vegetable oil and rempah. Use a
eight triangles of equal size. Set aside. 13. After the pomfret is steamed,
spatula to flatten the rempah around
4. On the seaweed, arrange two drizzle 1 Tbs of light soya sauce and kengohsz@sph.com.sg the pot. Once the rempah sizzles, turn
remaining tofu rectangles next to 1 Tbs of sesame oil on it. Add white
heat down to medium, add crushed
each other to form the fish body. pepper to taste.
lemongrass stalks and mix well with
Stack two tofu triangles at the front as 14. Garnish with slices of fried ginger,
the fishhead. red chilli and coriander.
5. Place one tofu triangle on each side
of the body. Place another tofu Serves six