I had a small quarter of pumpkin the other day and we all know how sweet pumpkins are. But I was bored of stir-frying pumpkin with dried prawns and needed a change. After rummaging through my kitchen cabinet, I found a can of luncheon meat and I thought “why not?”. The sweetness from the pumpkin would complement the slightly saltish luncheon meat and that could be a good combo. So, what I did was to cut both ingredients into equal sized cubes and stir-fried them to make this pumpkin and luncheon meat combo. It turned out quite alright

For this recipe, I cut the pumpkin and luncheon meat into cubes. You can cut them into slivers if you prefer it that way. Somehow, I could not resist the use of dried prawns to give it a slight seafood bite. If you are unable to get hold of dried prawns, I would recommend just omitting it altogether. Do take care with the seasoning as the taste depends on how sweet your pumpkin is and how salty your brand of luncheon meat is. So, use salt judiciously. Otherwise you will have to take extra helpings of steamed white rice and a double dose of water to flush them out

This is my recipe for Pumpkin and Luncheon Meat Combo Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve finally reached the third installment in the Bak Chang series and today, I will feature our family Bak Chang recipe. Now, this recipe is definitely not for beginners as a considerable amount of skill and estimation on ingredients are required. You see, with home-cooked food, we don’t measure ingredients using measuring spoons or cups. Rather, it’s a lot to do with estimation or what the locals call “agak-agak” (“estimate”). So, this recipe is a guide for you so that you roughly know what ingredients go into the Bak Chang and how is is prepared and cooked.

This Bak Chang recipe is quite close to the Nyonya Bak Chang especially in the taste department. It is probably world’s apart from Cantonese Bak Chang which tends to be a bit on the saltish side and contains bigger chunks of ingredients. Those who are fond of eating saltish Bak Changs might find this not suited to their palate because our Bak Chang recipe is sweet and saltish with a slight emphasis on the former. Nevertheless, for those who are craving for a slightly sweetish Bak Chang, this might be the recipe you are looking for. In this recipe, we are looking at making approximately 25 Bak Changs depending on how you wrap the Bak Chang.

This is our family recipe for Bak Chang Read the rest of this entry »

Wrapping a Bak Chang is no mean feat. You are dealing with 2 pieces of bamboo leaves or pandan leaves in hand, folding them into a cone-like shape, filling it with glutinous rice and other ingredients, wrapping it up into a pyramid-like shape and finally, tying them up using banana stem strings or reeds. Some use raffia strings (especially traders) but I am wary of possible leaching of chemicals during the cooking process.

The following video shows you how to wrap a Bak Chang. That’s my dad on the right hand side and my mum on the left. To start off, choose two leaves with the smooth side as the inner side and the rougher side of the leave on the outer side. Fold them to make a cone-like shape. Then, add glutinous rice to the bottom and make a simple well. Next, add the bak chang filling followed by more glutinous rice to almost fill up the whole cone. Insert a small piece of pandan leaf on the side. Wrap the Bak Chang just like how mum does it and tie them securely using the strings or reeds.

Watch the video for a step-by-step guide on how a Bak Chang is wrapped. Read the rest of this entry »

Bak Chang (or Zongzi), meat enclosed in glutinous rice filling, is traditionally eaten in June for the Chinese. It stemmed from the Dragon Boat Festival which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese poet from the kingdom of Chu who lived during the Warring States period. Of course, in this day and time, eating Bak Chang is more of a “seasonal food” though it is not uncommon to see Bak Chang being sold all year round.

I have been brought up to eat Bak Chang made by my parents and for me, our homemade Bak Zhang is incomparably delicious. Many of our relatives will ask for a couple of these southern-styled Bak Zhang whenever they hear my parents making them. Our family Bak Zhang is closely related to the Nyonya Bak Zhang in taste though the presentation is a little different. The pork is cut into bits rather than cubes (which are more common with Cantonese-Styled Bak Zhang) and freshly-toasted coriander seeds (also known as Ketumbar) which are blended into powder are used.

Just like our family Popiah recipe, our Bak Zhang recipe is also lengthy and labourious but the hardwork comes with immediate satisfaction as these delicious dumplings are savoured over a cup of chinese tea. When I was in my teens, I could eat about 4 of these Bak Zhangs in one sitting! There were even times when I had them for breakfast and lunch and had to be stopped from eating them for dinner on the same day because mum was worried about my over-indulgence!

Anyway, this will be a 3 part series on Bak Zhang. Following up from this post will be an exclusive video on wrapping Bak Zhang expertly performed by my parents. It’s nice to see my dad and mum combining their skills to create these delicious Bak Zhangs. The finale will be the unveiling of our family’s secret recipe for bak zhang in the hope that it can be passed on to the rest of the world. So, do watch this space!