Nga ku bento (B#308)

Other than using arrowroot (aka nga ku) as an addictive Chinese New Year snack of fried chips, they can also be cooked in normal dishes such as curries or stews. They taste almost similar to potatoes but not as starchy.

This bento comprise of rice, roasted zucchini, spam, cucumber, stewed chicken with nga ku and stir fried choy sum vegetables.

Yam Rice (Woo Tau Fan)

Yam or taro is one of D’s favourite food. Noticed that it seems to be a popular food in particular people in the post WWII Japanese occupation generation. I'm guessing here the main reason is because food then was scare and yam (including sweet potatoes) were common food as they were easily available or grown wild in the forest. Well aside from my 'conspiracy theory', in general, yams do taste good (depending which variety you get)! ;)

There are various ways to garnish this comforting dish and differs from one household to another – peanuts, small anchovies, spring onions and fried shallots to name a few.

Best quality and type of yam for this dish is to use is the powdery kind from Thailand. Ask your vegetable seller if unsure.

Discovered that there are two ways of cooking this - whether you prefer the cooked yam whole (in cube) or mashed (but rice will be more sticky). Depending on your preference, that will determine when you mix in your yam cubes to cook with the rice. For former, half cook yam cubes and set aside. When rice is nearly cook, mix in yam and continue cooking until rice is cooked. For latter, follow Amy Beh’s recipe as posted below. Note that I added more dried prawns and also 1 tbsp of shiaoxing wine. I prefer mine without meat but feel free to add in a few slices of pork belly or Chinese sausage.




Recipe adapted from Amy Beh.

Ingredients
2 cups rice, washed and drained
250g yam, cubed
3 to 4 tbsp oil
4 shallots, sliced
3 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked and finely chopped
25g dried prawns, washed, drained and blended

Seasoning
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 cube chicken stock
1/2 tsp sugar or to taste
3 cups water
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp shiaoxing Chinese wine
2 pandan leaves, knotted

Method:

1. Heat 2-3 tbsp cooking oil and saute dried prawns until fragrant (starts 'jumping'). Add in shallots and cook for few min.
2. Stir in yam and mushroom, fry for few min until yam is half cooked.
3. Add in rice and seasoning and mix well.
4. Add water and pandan leaves and cook rice as usual. Stand rice in cooker for 10 to 15 minutes before dishing out to serve.
5. Serve rice with a sprinkling of shallot crisps, chopped spring onions and coriander.