Last week, Sunita taught us how to make Aloo Paratha from scratch and warming Masala Chai. If you missed it, here’s your step by step video and recipe (for paid subscribers only).
Next week is Lunar New Year! Get the details for Loretta’s live class turning dough into dumplings here.
Loretta was born in a small town in the state of Penang, a province in Malaysia famous for its food.
Malaysia is multicultural—with the Malays, the Chinese and the Indians. Or, in Loretta’s words, “a big mish-mash”. Loretta herself is a Nyonya (which is sometimes characterized as a "not-Chinese Chinese person") because she is a third-generation Chinese.
“I’m so ‘malaysianised’ now that when I go to Thailand or China, I can’t relate to the culture that much. Being Malaysian Chinese is quite different from being Chinese in China or Chinese in Taiwan.”
Loretta, the middle among 6 siblings, grew up in a large family and a lot of cooking. With such a big family, everyone was forced to help in the kitchen.
Sometimes, if her mother nagged her too much, Loretta would go out and help the neighbours instead.
She’d help with making the curry paste - grinding the chillies, ginger, onions and shallots. The grinding required a technique (“something that every girl needed to know back then”) where all the paste gathers in the middle of the stone so you don’t have to use your hand to scrape it off.
Loretta’s early memory of cooking is hazy.
But she vividly remembers plucking the tails of the beansprouts. It was a task children can be particularly good at because it required “fine finger work”. She also remembers the chickens and ducks around the home. “Free-range” was the norm for Loretta’s family. They raised and slaughtered their own chickens and ducks. It was very ‘river cottage’ before River Cottage was cool.
“We used to cook over an open fire in our home long ago, before gas and electric became popular.
We had a large stove and used firewood from rubber trees which we cut, dried and burned for cooking.”
All the equipment was big as every meal was big. Aunties and uncles lived nearby so they only used big pans, big woks and big containers.
As a kid, Loretta was a kitchen spy. She’d spy on the chefs during weddings, and copy their techniques at home. Sometimes her mum specifically sent her to kitchens to spy on their tips and recipes.
Loretta is an expert in many cuisines. She cooks everything from Malay to Chinese and in between. She's Nyonya — which refers to a subculture of the Chinese who adopted the Malay influences into their way of life. Some of her recipes are very unique to her community. If you showed them to Chinese people who aren’t familiar with Malaysia, then you would find out that they don’t actually cook this. It’s Malaysianised Chinese food.
“At home, we always ate with our hands. My mum is a Nyonya so she eats with her hands. We have chopsticks and spoons, but not a regular spoon - a duck spoon - we also eat with a fork and spoon.”
The Recipe (serves 4, 45 minutes)
Char Koay Teow is a must-have for Loretta each time she visits Malaysia. It is a Penang speciality. Every hawker makes it in their own unique style. What’s common across the versions though, is that the noodles are fried with high heat to give it a smoky taste.
When making it, Loretta is conscious of Wok Hei, or the Wok’s breath. It refers to a technique of cooking that shows care towards how the dish smells as not just towards how it tastes.
Ingredients
1 1⁄2 pack egg noodles (~400g per pack)
1 pack beansprouts (~350g)
8 stalks Chinese chives, (or 4 spring onions)
4 Eggs
100g raw prawns, shelled
100g chicken julienned or squid cut into small strips
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
1pc Lap Cheong or dried Chinese pork Sausage (optional)
6 tbsp sweet dark soy sauce
6 Light soy sauce
White pepper powder
2 tbsp crushed chillies (or chilli paste, or chilli flakes) - optional
Prep
Wash your vegetables, rinse the beansprouts and put them in a
small container with some cold water.
Shell the prawns and remove the black vein if you wish.
Steps
Divide the ingredients into 4 portions, except the seasoning. (alternatively, measure 1 handful of noodles per portion). The following instructions cook 1 portion:
In a hot non-stick wok or frying pan, add 1 tsp of cooking oil. Put in one portion of the garlic and fry till lightly browned.
Add in the chicken meat and lightly brown it.
Add the noodles. While tossing, add in 1 tbsp of the sweet soy sauce, 1 to 2 tbsp of light soy sauce (depending on how salty you want the dish to be). Toss around for about 2 minutes.
Move the noodles to the side of the wok. Add in the prawns and lightly brown it and then turn and brown the other side. Mix it together and stir fry till the prawns are almost cooked.
Add in the bean sprouts and mix thoroughly for 1⁄2 minutes. Add in 1 to 2 tsp chilli paste.
Push the contents aside and break one egg onto the wok. Add a dash of light soy sauce and a shake of white pepper onto the egg. Mix the egg white and yolk while making sure that you do not scramble the egg. When the egg is still runny but the bottom is set, cover the egg with the noodles and let it cook for about 30 seconds.
Then stir the mixture to mix up the egg and the noodles making sure the noodles are not stuck together by the egg.
Add in the chives and stir to lightly cook the chives.
Dish out, and add a shake of white pepper
(note: the above sauces used are for 1 handful of the noodles. If you use 1 1/2 handfuls or 1/4 of the recipe portion of noodles, use 1/2 tbsp of the so sauce.)
Show us how it comes out @joindiaspo
Simply reply here if you need help with these recipes!