Oh my lor.. bak!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Have you ever noticed that in order for the food to taste good, the dirtier the kitchen has to be? Think of the best hokkien mee, BKT, satay, maggi goreng, nasi lemak, curry laksa you've ever had - can you honestly say you were served in the most sanitised and hygienic surroundings?
It's the same with my kitchen. No, it's never that dirty! But in order to come up with something that tastes half decent, the kitchen can never be in pristine condition. Anyone who has made sambal ikan bilis, curry chicken and char kuay teow at home can attest to that. Somehow the taste and authenticity of the food is inversely proportional to the cleanliness of the kitchen.
Which leads to my most recent experiment. I never deep fry. I don't even like to shallow fry. I dislike the lingering smell of oil in my kitchen. And my hair. And my clothes. And that goes without saying, I dislike feeling the oil in my face.
I bake instead. I bake french fries. I bake bacon and sausages. If I could, I'd bake popiah and doughnuts as well. I even (steam)bake fish and meat as well.
Anyway, I digress. I finally found something which we like to eat immensely and I can't make it unless it is deep fried. Oh horrors! But being the true overseas anak Malaysia that I am, when we miss home food, we make it ourselves! It may not be exactly authentic Penang style, but I made it the way I like it. And the way I remembered my late Aunt Peggy used to make it.
Clockwise, from left: 1. Diced meat, marinated overnight with garlic, 5-spice powder, oyster sauce, pepper, soy sauce, sugar and fish sauce. 2. Bean curd skin, preciously hand carried from Sect 17 Sentosa market, wiped clean with damp cloth and cut neatly into rectangles. 3. My little beauties all wrapped up. I call them pigs in satin blankets. 4. The piggies after being steamed for about 12 minutes.
I used tapioca starch to bind the meat, but found that after cooking, the meat tended to be a little slimy from the cooked starch. The sliminess made it taste a bit uncooked. And not very tightly bounded either. Next time, I will use cornflour and an egg instead.
My first few pieces, I fried immediately. Being the inexperienced deep-fryer that I am, I fried it longer than I should because I wanted it to be cooked through. And it turned out darker than expected. So I steamed the rest of the uncooked rolls. That way, I can fry them quickly just enough to have the skin crisp. And this time, I got the colour right!
Aah.. nothing beats homemade lorbak. You know what kind of meat goes in the rolls, and you know the oil used for frying has not been recycled umpteenth times.
I miss my Aunt Peggy. Sometimes I would return to Ipoh and expect her to be there. I would have loved to cook for her. She'd be proud.
It's the same with my kitchen. No, it's never that dirty! But in order to come up with something that tastes half decent, the kitchen can never be in pristine condition. Anyone who has made sambal ikan bilis, curry chicken and char kuay teow at home can attest to that. Somehow the taste and authenticity of the food is inversely proportional to the cleanliness of the kitchen.
Which leads to my most recent experiment. I never deep fry. I don't even like to shallow fry. I dislike the lingering smell of oil in my kitchen. And my hair. And my clothes. And that goes without saying, I dislike feeling the oil in my face.
I bake instead. I bake french fries. I bake bacon and sausages. If I could, I'd bake popiah and doughnuts as well. I even (steam)bake fish and meat as well.
Anyway, I digress. I finally found something which we like to eat immensely and I can't make it unless it is deep fried. Oh horrors! But being the true overseas anak Malaysia that I am, when we miss home food, we make it ourselves! It may not be exactly authentic Penang style, but I made it the way I like it. And the way I remembered my late Aunt Peggy used to make it.
Clockwise, from left: 1. Diced meat, marinated overnight with garlic, 5-spice powder, oyster sauce, pepper, soy sauce, sugar and fish sauce. 2. Bean curd skin, preciously hand carried from Sect 17 Sentosa market, wiped clean with damp cloth and cut neatly into rectangles. 3. My little beauties all wrapped up. I call them pigs in satin blankets. 4. The piggies after being steamed for about 12 minutes.I used tapioca starch to bind the meat, but found that after cooking, the meat tended to be a little slimy from the cooked starch. The sliminess made it taste a bit uncooked. And not very tightly bounded either. Next time, I will use cornflour and an egg instead.
My first few pieces, I fried immediately. Being the inexperienced deep-fryer that I am, I fried it longer than I should because I wanted it to be cooked through. And it turned out darker than expected. So I steamed the rest of the uncooked rolls. That way, I can fry them quickly just enough to have the skin crisp. And this time, I got the colour right!
Aah.. nothing beats homemade lorbak. You know what kind of meat goes in the rolls, and you know the oil used for frying has not been recycled umpteenth times.I miss my Aunt Peggy. Sometimes I would return to Ipoh and expect her to be there. I would have loved to cook for her. She'd be proud.
idly mused by GFAD on Tuesday, September 15, 2009, ~ 
8 comments
8 comments