Madam Choy’s Cantonese Recipes: Heritage Cookbook, #1
By Lulin Reutens and Choy Wai Yuen
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About this ebook
Having turned 85 years old this year, Madam Choy has a collection of Cantonese recipes which she has kept from newspapers and magazines over the last fifty years—all of them fondly adapted to her own style. Born in a well-to-do family in Seremban, she didn't really have a chance to cook until she was married at 16 and came to Singapore. Her love for cooking grew only in 1957, when she moved to a bigger house with a large kitchen of her own.
As someone who has a discerning tongue, Madam Choy often taught her children the language of food tasting. Texture and fragrance were as important as food to taste. Noodles should be darn ngah "spring off the teeth". Fried dishes must have wok hei ("breath of the wok"). More such Cantonese terms can be found in the book.
To Madam Choy, cooking is more art than science; nothing is measured and every ingredient is added by instinct. After fifty years of tasting and trying, she has more than ninety recipes ready to share. Some of the Cantonese recipes in the book range from the higher-end ones such as Abalones in Oyster Sauce, Bird's Nest Chicken Soup, and Cordyceps soup, to simpler ones such as Bitter Gourd Omelette, Potato Cakes, and Salt Baked Chicken.
This book of Cantonese recipes is compiled with the help of Madam Choy's daughter, Lulin Reutens.
This third revised edition has been updated with the addition of seven new mouth-watering recipes, including Eight Treasures Beancurd and Braised Pork Belly in Dark Soya Sauce.
Madam Choy's Cantonese Recipes is part of Epigram Books' award-winning Heritage Cookbook series, which showcases the best of Singapore's major cuisines through authentic family recipes.
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Titles in the series (6)
Irene’s Peranakan Recipes: Heritage Cookbook, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMadam Choy’s Cantonese Recipes: Heritage Cookbook, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUncle Lau’s Teochew Recipes: Heritage Cookbook, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMadam Krishnan’s South Indian Recipes: Heritage Cookbook, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRobin’s Eurasian Recipes: Heritage Cookbook, #5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUncle Anthony’s Hokkien Recipes: Heritage Cookbook, #6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Book preview
Madam Choy’s Cantonese Recipes - Lulin Reutens
SUPERIOR STOCK
SIONG TONG
This is the basic stock for almost every dish that requires a sauce. Make a big pot and freeze it in half-cup portions in plastic containers. Just melt one container’s contents for making the sauce. Or melt 2 or more cups for a soup. For daily use, you may use store-bought stock in packets or tins, or chicken cubes in hot water, although they don’t have the same intense flavour and most of them have MSG.
Put all ingredients and the soaking water into a large pot and add enough water to cover the ingredients. Bring to boil and reduce the heat. Cover and simmer for 3 hours.
Skim off the froth and oil. Remove the ingredients and strain the stock through a sieve into another pot. Season to taste.
You may vary the intensity of the stock by using more chicken breasts or water.
Tips
Chicken breasts are used here only because they are more convenient and cheap. Mother would use old chicken
when cooking for special occasions. They are larger than the average chicken and cost more. Ask for them at chicken stalls in wet markets. Skin the chicken and cut it into four and cook as instructed above.
Dried scallops are among the most costly Chinese dried seafood; the largest specimens of about 3cm in diameter cost hundreds of dollars a kilo, and have the sweetest and most intense taste and flavour. Fortunately, there are smaller ones which are more affordable, right down to tiny ones which are cheap enough to use by the