Four-Dish Meal for Two... Too Much?

Between our hectic and conflicting schedules, we finally manage to meet and have dinner last night... a dinner prepared by me, that is. This guest of honor, Pat, is somewhat of a foodie. So, the stake was high. I had put the list of dishes to make since a week ago, in preparation of hunting down the ingredients since my groceries shopping entails two stops: one at a regular grocery store and another at an Asian grocery store. The menu includes ABC soup, soy sauce chicken, tamarind prawns, and gingko barley dessert. 

The ABC soup is one that Ah Po made quite often over the years. I don't know how the name "ABC" came about, since the initials do not represent the ingredients in the soup. Perhaps it's because the soup contains everything (i.e. meat and veggie) and hence named "ABC," kinda like how "Chop Suey" has gotten its name. It's a really easy soup to make, and yet, it's very tasty. It's light on sweetness from the meat bones and carrots, with a hint of sourness from the tomatoes, and a teasing zing from the white peppercorns. 

ABC Soup

Pat judging the soup...

I picked the recipe for soy sauce chicken and tamarind prawns from a book, Food from the Heart. Turned out, Pat's favorite among all the dishes was the soy sauce chicken. I concur; the soy sauce chicken was delicious. It was not too salty, but slightly sweet with a hint of spiciness. I don't think I do a justice of describing its taste (I wished I had recorded Pat's testimony). The tamarind prawns was a little disappointing and it was bad on my part; I should have cooked it using large tiger prawns instead of medium prawns . The sauce turned out well though.

Soy Sauce Chicken

Tamarind Prawns

Lastly, I made gingko barley for dessert (白果腐竹糖水), since Pat wanted both soup and dessert when asked. I think Ah Po likes this dessert as she made it quite often, even though she has to go through the trouble of cracking and removing the shell of the gingko nuts with pestle and mortar by herself. I remember offering some of Ah Po's gingko barley dessert to my best friend, Reena, once and she developed a liking for it too. 


Unfortunately, by the time Pat and I finished our three-dish meal and the bottle of Clos de los Siete 2007 Mendoza (thanks, Pat!), we were stuffed. We took perhaps an hour to an hour and a half break before proceeding to our dessert, but we were still full. Also, I think Pat was not too fond of the quail eggs...

Gingko Barley Dessert

ABC Soup

1/2 lbs of pork bones and meat

Chicken (optional)

2 medium potatoes, cut into desired sizes

4 - 5 carrots, cut into desired sizes

2 medium tomatoes, quartered

1 large sweet onion, quartered

1/4 tsp of white peppercorns

Boil about 1.5 L of water. 

Put in the pork bones and meat (and chicken) when the water is boiling.

Add in potatoes, carrots, and white peppercorns when water is boiling again.

Add in tomatoes and onions when water is boiling again.

Then, reduce the heat to medium low and let soup simmer for 2 - 3 hours.

Soy Sauce Chicken ("Tau Yu" Chicken)

3 lbs of chicken

2 tbsp of oil

1 tsp of salt

1 tbsp of sugar

10 tbsp of dark soy sauce

2 cups of water

2 red chillies, halved and seeded

1/2 tsp of pepper

10 cloves of garlic, smashed lightly

6 hard boiled eggs

Clean chicken and chopped into bite size pieces. Marinate with a little salt.

Heat oil in wok and fry chicken pieces.

Lower the flame and add the chillies, pepper, and garlic and fry well. Add sugar to glaze the chicken.

Add the dark soy sauce and water to cover the chicken. Put in the eggs.

Allow to simmer, turning occasionally, for 20 minutes or until chicken is tender.

Tamarind Prawns

1 lbs of medium prawns (large prawns is recommended)

2.5 tbsp of dark soy sauce

2 tbsp of light soy sauce

1.5 tbsp of sugar

1.5 cup of water

100 g of tamarind (asam jawa); (substitute: tamarind juice concentrate)

1/2 cup of cooking oil

1/2 tsp of corn flour

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 tsp of salt

spring onions and coriander leaves for garnishing

Clean prawns with shells and heads attached. Trim whiskers, drain and put aside.

Soak tamarind in the water, squeeze pulp into a thick juice. Remove seeds.

Add dark and light soy sauce, sugar and salt. Mix well. Marinate prawns with tamarind mixture for 15 minutes.

Heat oil in wok, fry garlic until golden. Add prawns 2 at a time. When cooked, remove and set aside. Continue until all the prawns are cooked.

Pour the remainder of tamarind juice into wok, stir well. Add corn flour and the cooked prawns, bring to a quick boil and remove onto serving plate.

Garnish with spring onions and coriander leaves.

Gingko Barley Dessert (白果腐竹糖水)

100 gm of barley

1.5 cups of gingko nuts

1 cup of quail eggs 

1 - 2 pcs of foo chuk (dried bean curd)

4 pandan leaves, cleaned and knotted

Rock sugar to taste

1.5 - 2 L of water

Bring water to boil. 

Add barley, gingko nuts, and quail eggs and let it boil on medium heat for 45 minutes.

Add foo chuk and rock sugar to taste and let it boil for another 15 minutes or so.

Serve!