Singapore Dinner [complete with recipes and an onde onde istimewa tutorial]

Every week, someone from from my apartment will cook a dinner for the four of us and we will sit down for a 'family' dinner. Last week, Lucie prepared a wonderful baked fish, complete with starter, appetizer and dessert. I had told the girls, they will cook something Chinese, Indian and Malay this week so they get to taste food from 3 of our 4 different Singaporean cultures.

Like my table set up? Orchids cut out from a paper bag I found in a dollar store and Indian mango design napkins. Plus there were chopsticks for them to try out and bubble tea!
On the menu was: Black Bean Paste Stir-Fried Noodles
Indian style, Spicy Cabbage
Sweet Potato Onde Onde in Sweet Coconut Milk
Passion Fruit Bubble Tea

I was in the kitchen from 11:00am to 7:00pm. Incredible? Well maybe, but it was worth it because my house mates liked the meal!

The noodles were easy, I just sauteed the mushrooms and set them aside, then I stir fired the mock chicken bits in sesame oil and soy sauce and set it aside. Next I heated some oil, stir fried 1 chopped chili, 1 chopped onion and 4 tablespoons of black bean paste and then I dumped in the noodles, chicken and mushrooms. It was really good, not too salty and very authentic tasting.


The Indian style cabbage was probably my favourite because it reminded me of my grandmother's cooking. I stir fried 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped green chili and 1 chopped red chili until soft. Then I stirred in 1 tsp of grated ginger, 2 cloves of garlic chopped and 1.5 teaspoons of tumeric. Next I added in 4 cups of shredded cabbage, mixed well and left it covered on low heat to soften. After 10-15 mins, I added salt and a pinch of cinnamon, stired and served.

The Bubble Tea was quite fulfilling to make, becuase it is probably the one thing I miss more than anything else...I can have up to 2 cups a day in Singapore - not healthy I know, but I love it! I didn't manage to find black tapioca pearls but I found white ones, so I boiled them in water first and then boiled them again in a sugar syrup (water plus brown/white suagr) and let them soak in the syrup for hours after that.



Then I brewed green tea and chilled it. Right before serving I added a light passion fruit syrup into the tea and put in a couple of spoonfuls of 'pearls'. My room mates were quite fascinated by the 'pearls' and weirded out that I would put fruit syrup into tea, but they all liked it. And so did my singaporean friends who came over later to finish up what was left :)


The highlight for me was dessert! I made sweet potato onde onde. But mine had a twist because I could not find dry, grated coconut. Here's a step by step tutorial hehehe :)

1.Boil or steam the sweet potato to soften them. I used one large and one small sweet potato, but I did not measure anything so use however much you like.


2. Mash the sweet potato and mix it well it glutinous rice flour. Again I did not measure how much, I just kept adding flour until the paste stopped being very sticky.




3. The instant you can easily form a ball that does not stick to your fingers, stop adding the flour.



4. Mix one part white sugar, one part brown sugar and one part grated palm sugar and in a bowl for the filling.

5. Time to shape! Pinch small amounts of dough and shape it into a ball, using your thumb make a small well and fill it with the sugar mixture.
Pinch the opening in
the dough close and shape into a ball again. You will end with with orange spheres like so.



6. Bring to boil, a pot of water with 4-5 pandan/screwpine leaves tied in a knot. Drop in the orange balls and wait. Once they start floating up onto the surface, they are ready to be rescued.




7. Remember I said this was a different kind of onde onde because I would not find dessicated coconut? Well here's what I did, I heated up some coconut milk and stirred in some of the left over sugar mixture that was used as filling for the orange balls. This is the coconut sauce that the onde onde balls will swim in.


8. Voila! The finished product!

Not bad for a first attempt in my opinion. The Singaporean guys liked it too. The only mistake was that after boiling the balls I put them together so when I when I wanted to scoop them into the glass of coconut sauce they sometimes stuck together and tore, letting all the filling out. So you may want to put them on a sugared/floured surface and make sure they are not touching.

Otherwise, it was a really yummy treat and the room mates were pleasantly surprised.

Enjoy!