糯米飯 and my mom
Made this for a gathering tomorrow. Would have made it on the day itself except we will be busy the whole afternoon cos' one of my ex-colleague (now one of the SIA gals) smsed to say that she will be in town for a day tomorrow, and asked if we could catch up before she flew back to SG.
Making 糯米饭 was sort of an accidental thing. Wilkie has been clamouring for one of those tier-steamer thingy for the longest time becos he is adamant in perfecting his 鸡蛋糕, which he insist didn't "发" as well as it should due to the fact that steaming it in the wok just doesn't provide adequate space for it's 'growth'. Ah so we made a trip to Richmond yesterday, to one of those Chinese household goods store we had passed by before, and procured the necessary steamer so that my dear hubs can continue on his quest to his perfect 鸡蛋糕. But before he could do that, we were faced with the question of what to bring as a dish to the potluck gathering. I've decided on 糯米饭 becos' Wilkie bought a small pack of glutinous rice the other day, as a means to persuade me to get a steamer. You have to admire that devious mind of his becos' i did not want to have a steamer in the first place as i have no wish to be eating anymore 鸡蛋糕. But he knew i like glutinous rice and to convince me on the purchase, swayed me by saying that we can make glutinous rice too! Ahhh..... it is hard to deny a man his wish when his heart is set on 鸡蛋糕...
Anyway... i have a vague idea of how to make 糯米饭 after tasting the yummy creations of my mom's over the years. I tried sourcing other recipes online but nothing looked like what she did. So i called her and asked her for her recipe, and coupled with my vague memories, sought to recreate the same thing. This reminded me so much of my days studying in London which is when i started to cook properly for the first time, being far away from home (and those who do the cooking - i.e. mom and maid). I remembered i would try to make everything from what i've seen my mom/maid made before. The easy stuff isn't too difficult... i guess i DID pick up a thing or two just by being my mom's official tester (she seem to trust my taste bud more than anyone's in the family). But for the complicated stuff, i would brave the cost of an expensive overseas call to clarify with her on a few points of the recipes.
Actually, it is not easy trying to get a recipe out of my mom and -understand- it, if you have never watched her cook before. Becos' like me, she doesn't really bother with measurements. So what you get is alot of ...
"remember what i did with the meat? ya.. just add the sauce until you think enough... and then stir until done. Ah you know should know how it look like right?... don't forget to add the pork last... but if you can also add in before... the amount you see yourself la... you will know when you see it..."
There. No mention of the timing or the measurements of the ingredients/cordiments, and a jumble of the cooking sequences. So to get the full picture of the recipe, you have to either have seen the process before or ask very intelligent questions. But that said, my mom is what i would call an inituitive cook and a pretty darn good one. She cooks without reference to cookbooks or written recipes. Sure, she does watch cooking programs on and off but you will never find her replicating others'. She cooks from experience and adds her own flair to standard stuff (however, her Hakka heritage shows). She enjoys food/cooking and when the fancy strikes her, has the ability to replicate things she tasted from other restuarants/stalls. In recent years though, she has relegate the cooking responsibilities to her maids and played a much more supervisory role but if the you taste the standard of cooking her maids have, you will have to admit that they have a pretty formidable '师傅'. It is not a coincidence that the maid cooks a great deal better whenever my mom is back in town.
For all her idiosyncracies, her ability to whip up delicious food from scratch without a cookbook, is one which i had hoped i would inherit but i doubt it. What i did inherit though, was the inherent belief that my mom's way, my mom's taste, my mom's cooking processes are the best. Which is why sometimes i am insistent of how certain things should be cooked in the kitchen, becos' that's how my mom would do it.
When i was cooking the 糯米饭, i realized that i am really influenced by her in this aspect. I can actually -see- what she has told me and her, what must have been confusing to others, recipe made perfect sense. That's how it is... and it is these times when i felt closest to my mom even though she is thousands of miles away. I am sure i did not do everything exactly like she said but she has given me enough to let me go on my own, as in all things that she (and of cos' my dad) has given me. There never was a step-by-step manual... just a lot of gist, leaving you the room to figure out the missing bits on your own. You can always clarify but in the end, it's you at the stove and trust that 'you will know, when you see it'.
So how did my 糯米饭turned out? Well let's just say that, though there can always be improvements (and i am sure i will, with time), i don't think i will disappoint the woman who gave me my starting point.
Making 糯米饭 was sort of an accidental thing. Wilkie has been clamouring for one of those tier-steamer thingy for the longest time becos he is adamant in perfecting his 鸡蛋糕, which he insist didn't "发" as well as it should due to the fact that steaming it in the wok just doesn't provide adequate space for it's 'growth'. Ah so we made a trip to Richmond yesterday, to one of those Chinese household goods store we had passed by before, and procured the necessary steamer so that my dear hubs can continue on his quest to his perfect 鸡蛋糕. But before he could do that, we were faced with the question of what to bring as a dish to the potluck gathering. I've decided on 糯米饭 becos' Wilkie bought a small pack of glutinous rice the other day, as a means to persuade me to get a steamer. You have to admire that devious mind of his becos' i did not want to have a steamer in the first place as i have no wish to be eating anymore 鸡蛋糕. But he knew i like glutinous rice and to convince me on the purchase, swayed me by saying that we can make glutinous rice too! Ahhh..... it is hard to deny a man his wish when his heart is set on 鸡蛋糕...
Anyway... i have a vague idea of how to make 糯米饭 after tasting the yummy creations of my mom's over the years. I tried sourcing other recipes online but nothing looked like what she did. So i called her and asked her for her recipe, and coupled with my vague memories, sought to recreate the same thing. This reminded me so much of my days studying in London which is when i started to cook properly for the first time, being far away from home (and those who do the cooking - i.e. mom and maid). I remembered i would try to make everything from what i've seen my mom/maid made before. The easy stuff isn't too difficult... i guess i DID pick up a thing or two just by being my mom's official tester (she seem to trust my taste bud more than anyone's in the family). But for the complicated stuff, i would brave the cost of an expensive overseas call to clarify with her on a few points of the recipes.
Actually, it is not easy trying to get a recipe out of my mom and -understand- it, if you have never watched her cook before. Becos' like me, she doesn't really bother with measurements. So what you get is alot of ...
"remember what i did with the meat? ya.. just add the sauce until you think enough... and then stir until done. Ah you know should know how it look like right?... don't forget to add the pork last... but if you can also add in before... the amount you see yourself la... you will know when you see it..."
There. No mention of the timing or the measurements of the ingredients/cordiments, and a jumble of the cooking sequences. So to get the full picture of the recipe, you have to either have seen the process before or ask very intelligent questions. But that said, my mom is what i would call an inituitive cook and a pretty darn good one. She cooks without reference to cookbooks or written recipes. Sure, she does watch cooking programs on and off but you will never find her replicating others'. She cooks from experience and adds her own flair to standard stuff (however, her Hakka heritage shows). She enjoys food/cooking and when the fancy strikes her, has the ability to replicate things she tasted from other restuarants/stalls. In recent years though, she has relegate the cooking responsibilities to her maids and played a much more supervisory role but if the you taste the standard of cooking her maids have, you will have to admit that they have a pretty formidable '师傅'. It is not a coincidence that the maid cooks a great deal better whenever my mom is back in town.
For all her idiosyncracies, her ability to whip up delicious food from scratch without a cookbook, is one which i had hoped i would inherit but i doubt it. What i did inherit though, was the inherent belief that my mom's way, my mom's taste, my mom's cooking processes are the best. Which is why sometimes i am insistent of how certain things should be cooked in the kitchen, becos' that's how my mom would do it.
When i was cooking the 糯米饭, i realized that i am really influenced by her in this aspect. I can actually -see- what she has told me and her, what must have been confusing to others, recipe made perfect sense. That's how it is... and it is these times when i felt closest to my mom even though she is thousands of miles away. I am sure i did not do everything exactly like she said but she has given me enough to let me go on my own, as in all things that she (and of cos' my dad) has given me. There never was a step-by-step manual... just a lot of gist, leaving you the room to figure out the missing bits on your own. You can always clarify but in the end, it's you at the stove and trust that 'you will know, when you see it'.
So how did my 糯米饭turned out? Well let's just say that, though there can always be improvements (and i am sure i will, with time), i don't think i will disappoint the woman who gave me my starting point.
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