Jamie's Noodle in Singapore

JAMIE ' S N O O D L E IN S ING A P O RE

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BRIEF T HE B OOK

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W HY NOODL ES?

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NOODL ES I N SI NGAPOR E

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AB OUT AUT HOR

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RECIPES me e go re n g

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h o kki e n me e

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ch ar ku ay t e o w

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b ak ch o r me e

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The book This book "Jamie Oliver Does Singapore Noodles" is to let people who does not live or originated from Singapore to know the culture of Singapore and get to know what Singapore noodles are all about.

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Why noodles?

You can find Singapore Noodles in almost every Asian restaurant menu in the Western Countries, however there is actually no such thing as Singapore noodles in Singapore.

In fact, people all over the world must think Singaporean eat "Singapore noodles" all the time in Singapore. The truth is there are various types of noodles in Singapore and people in wetern countries assume they are the same thing.

The purpose of this book is to show you there's no such thing as Singapore Noodls just because the noodle has the name of the country on it, and teach you how to make different type of noodles Singaporean eat.

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stop being a vegan and start enjoying what you eat

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NO O D L E S IN S ING A P O RE

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what are "singapore noodles"?

The dish appears on the menu of almost all Chinese-style (mainly Cantonesestyle) eateries in Hong Kong, the dish is also very popular in English, Australian and American Chinese cuisine. It is important to note that Singapore style noodles is not a cultural product of Singapore and is virtually non-existent in Singapore. Its naming may have been based on the stereotype that Singapore cuisine is generally spicy, and might have originated from an enterprising restaurateur eager to add a dash of exoticism to his menu.

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mee goreng

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Mee Goreng

Hokkien Mee

The dish is derived from Chinese chow mein and believed to have been introduced by Chinese immigrants in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Mie goreng is also similar to Japanese yakisoba. However mie goreng has been more heavily integrated into Indonesian cuisine; for example the application of popular sweet soy sauce that add mild sweetness, sprinkle of fried shallots, addition of spicy sambal and the absence of pork and lard in favour for shrimp, chicken, or beef; to cater for the Muslim majority.

This lip-smacking noodle dish – comprising yellow noodles and thick ‘bee hoon’ (vermicelli) – has juicy prawns, squid, pork belly strips, egg and crunchy fried pork lard (optional) that makes everything taste extra good. It is served with sambal chilli and a squeeze of lime juice for that added zing.

Fried Beehoon This popular rice noodle dish has moved up the Malay peninsula to China and became an important part of Chinese cuisine. Make sure all the ingredients are prepped before you start to cook. This recipe is very authentic!

Wanton Mee The Singapore Wanton noodles was probably influenced by Hong Kong cuisine, but has become entrenched in our culture over the years. The Singapore version is typically eaten ‘dry’, drenched with some light sweet sauce, slices of pork char siew and wanton dumplings filled with pork, with a small bowl of soup on the side. Wanton dumplings may be either deep fried or come in soup dumplings.

Char Kway Teow The extremely popular dish of flat ricenoodles has a vibrant history. In its early days, char kway teow was mostly sold by fishermen and farmers who doubled up as food peddlers at night to supplement their income; they used to use leftovers from meals to whip up this dish, hence its multiple ingredient mix.

Mee Rebus In the past, mobile hawkers would sell Mee Rebus on the road using a pole hanging 2 baskets- 1 basket would hold the ingredients, 1 with the stove and boiling hot water. Mee Rebus is a noodle dish using egg yellow noodles like the type in Hokkien prawn mee, with a brown, sweet curry gravy. Compared to Mee Siam, the Mee Rebus gravy is much thicker and viscous, lacking in the sour assam taste. The gravy is made from potatoes (starch makes it thicker), curry powder, peanuts, dried shrimp and salted soy beans.

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BAK CHOR MEE

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Bak Chor Mee Colloquially known as ‘Bak Chor Mee’, this is a noodle dish with minced pork, liver, meat balls/ fish balls, fish cake slices and a signature vinegar braised sauce that adds some wetness. Typically, the dish is ordered ‘dry’ to savour full flavours of the sauce and you can choose between chilli or ketchup, and the type of noodle to use.

Laksa The laksa broth offers the right balance of spice and coconut milk, a distinctive noodle soup that will tickle the tastebuds. It has a spicy soup stock the colour of a flaming sunset, flavoured with coconut milk and dried shrimp, and topped with ingredients such as cockles, prawns and also fishcake.

Its defining characteristic is the noodles: thick vermicelli cut into shorter pieces that can be easily slurped up with a spoon. At some stalls, you only get a spoon to eat the laksa – no chopsticks needed.

Duck Noodle Perhaps, if you fancy something different with noodles, why not try it with duck.

The duck meat was specially braised, then served along with boiled egg (optional), bean sprouts, minced onions, flour and then sprinkled with celery leaves. On a separate small bowl was a soup of duck broth.

Fishball Mee Served together with chops of pork meat, cuts of onion leaves, bands of fried flour, the Fishballs rolled on the side. The ingredients all topped the thick cords of yellow mee.

Like most dishes, this came with a bowl of vegetable broth.

Just tender, the pieces of pork meat were matched with the soft yet compact fishballs, but their taste was less flavorful than the cuts of flour.

The trick is to mix this dish very well so that there is some flavor from soy sauce and spiciness from chili paste. It came with a downside, however. As I was reaching the finish line, the greasy oil became too much for me to handle.

Tomyum A strong color means it’s hot. This is true on this serving. The flat and wide Kway Teow is its noodle concocted with crab sticks, bilis (dilis in Tagalog), vegetable leaves and trunks, shrimps, slices of fish, rings and tentacles of squid.

The hot and spicy soup, made sour by tomatoes, is savory only if you want this type of food. This is also good for those with flu. I mean with clogged nose. After finishing this scorching meal, the soup can undoubtedly loosen your airway.

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Jamie Oliver

An English celebrity chef, restaurateur, and media personality known for his food-focused television shows, cookbooks and more recently his global campaign for better food education.

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amie Oliver is a phenomenon in the world of food. He is one of the world’s best-loved television personalities and one of Britain’s most famous exports. Jamie has had huge success with television series The Naked Chef, Jamie’s Kitchen, Jamie’s School Dinners, Jamie’s Great Italian Escape, and Return to School Dinners, Jamie’s Chef, Jamie at Home , and Jamie’s Ministry of Food, and Jamie Does, Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals, Jamie’s Great Britain, Jamie’s 15 Minute Meal, Jamie’s Money Saving Meals and the Emmy Award-winning Jamie’s Food Revolution (ABC), as well as the one-off specials Jamie’s Fowl Dinners, Eat To Save Your Life, Jamie Saves Our Bacon and Jamie’s Fish Suppers (all for Channel 4).

Jamie has inspired people to spend more time enjoying co-oking delicious food from fresh ingredients – and they even started growing

their own food. His programmes have now been broadcast in over 100 countries including the USA, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Japan and Iceland. Having been translated into over 30 languages, the accompanying cookbooks are bestsellers not only in the UK but across the world. His 2010 book, Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals, became Jamie’s first million-selling book in the UK as well as being the fastestselling non-fiction books since records began. His 2013, "Save With Jamie", has topped the charts of the most selling book once again.

The high street restaurant collection ‘Jamie’s Italian’ is hugely popular across the UK and now across the world, and the Fifteen restaurant group which he founded in 2002, provides training for young people in three locations around the world as well as producing food of the highest quality. Jamie’s restaurants also include Barbecoa in London; and Jamie’s Diner with artist Jay Jay Burridge. Jamie lives in London and Essex with his wife, Jools and his kids, Poppy, Daisy, Petal and Buddy.

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SINGAPORE

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Mee Goreng Mee goreng, also known as bami goreng, is a flavorful and spicy fried noodle dish common in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.Sold by all food vendors from street-hawkers, warungs, to high-end restaurants. It is commonly available at mamak stalls in Singapore and Malaysia and is often spicy.

Soak noodles in hot water, while bringing large saucepan of water to the boil.

Drain noodles and drop into the boiling water, allow to return to the boil and boil from 1-3 minutes, depending on the noodles.Some are cooked in the shorter time, while others take a little longer.

Keep testing one strand every half minute of so, because they must not overcook; like spaghetti they must be tender but still firm to bite.

As soon as they reach this stage, drain in colander and run cold water through them until cool or they will continue to cook in their own heat. Drain well.

Shell and de-vein shrimps.

Heat peanut oil in a wok or large deep frying pan and fry onion, garlic and chili until onion is soft and starts to turn golden. Add dried shrimp paste. Add shrimps and stir fry until cooked through.

Add celery, cabbage, salt and pepper and fry for a further minute or just until tender. Vegetables should retain their crispness.

Add noodles and keep turning the mixture so that every part of it gets heated through. Season with soy sauce to taste. Pile into a serving dish and sprinkle onion flakes over the top.

Chop the spring onions, green leaves and all, and sprinkle over. Arrange cucumber slices around edge of dish.

Ingredients 250 g Fine egg noodles 250 g Shrimps, raw or cooked 4 tablespoons Peanut oil 1 Onion, finely chopped 3 cloves Garlic, finely chopped 1 Fresh red chili, seeded and sliced 1/2 teaspoon Dried shrimp paste 2 stalks Celery, finely sliced 1 teaspoon Salt 1/2 teaspoon Pepper 1-2 tablespoons Light soy sauce Small wedge of cabbage, finely shredded

Garnish 4 Spring onions Thinly sliced cucumber Fried onion flakes

Serve hot.

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all i ever wanted to do was to make food accessible to everyone; to show that you can make mistakes i do all the time but it doesn't matter.

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Fried Hokkien Mee

Hokkien Hae Mee or Fujian prawn noodles is one of the most iconic hawker dish in Singapore. The Singapore version is pale and uses a mixture of yellow noodles and thick (sometimes thin) rice vermicelli/bee hoon.

Preparing the Hokkien prawn soup stock from scratch is the most tedious part of the recipe but it is rewarding.

If you are busy, you can substitute with store-bought chicken stock. If you do not consume pork, omit the lard and replace pork bones with chicken bones.

For the home-made Prawn Stock Recipe, In a soup pot, add water, blanched pork bones, clams, ikan bilis and prawn shells. When water comes to a rapid boil, add squid and prawns; cook for 2 minutes and remove from pot.

When cooled, peel the prawn shell (leaving the tail on); return the prawn heads and shells back to the soup pot. Slice the squid to thin rings. Continue simmering the stock for 40 minutes and strain the broth. Season the stock with fish sauce and dark soy sauce. Yields about 500ml of rich prawn stock.

For the Hokkien Mee Recipe, heat 1 tbsp oil in wok and add beaten egg. Scramble the egg quickly with a spatula until it is semi set. Add yellow noodles, rice vermicelli, bean sprouts, another tbsp of oil and 2 ladles of prawn stock. Stir fry on high heat for 1 minute.

Push the wok contents to one side, add another 1 tbsp oil to the wok. Stir fry garlic and lard pieces for 15 seconds. Add chives, mix everything together, add 2 more ladles of stock and cover with lid to simmer/braise for 3 mins.

Turn off the heat. Ladle the remaining stock over the cooked noodles. Return the prepared prawns and squid into the hot wok and mix in evenly with the noodles.

Divide and portion to four serving plates. Serve each plate with a cut lime and some sambal at the side.

Some Hokkien mee is served with pork belly as well.

Par-boil a piece of pork belly together with the soup stock. Slice to smaller pieces when cooled and add them to the wok when stir-frying the Hokkien noodles.

Ingredients For Prawn Stock 2 tablespoons garlic, chopped 2 tablespoons shallots, chopped 4 tablespoons oil 2 ½ pounds prawn shells 1 quart water 1 pound pork bones ½ pound Vongole clams (optional) ½ tablespoons white peppercorns 1 tablespoon rock sugar 1 tablespoon fish sauce 2 ounces dried anchovies (Ikan bilis)

For Fried Hokkien Prawn 5 tablespoons oil 2 eggs, beaten ½ pound dried thin beehoon ½ pound yellow wheat noodle 5 cups prawn stock (see above) 2 cups beansprouts 2 tablespoons garlic, minced 2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce 10 prawns, deshelled and parboiled 2 ounces fishcake, sliced 10 squid rings, parboiled 2 ounces pork belly, parboiled & sliced thinly Salt to taste ½ teaspoon soy sauce 1 ½ ounces chives, cut 2-inches long

Garnish 2 Calamansi lime, halved Spring onions

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Char Kuay Teow This is a recipe for Singapore Char Kway Teow, a favourite local hawker delight. The name of the dish is Hokkein for stir-fried flat rice noodles. I personally love a small amount of yellow mee (local yellow egg noodles) to balance all that kway teow.

Use high heat when stir-frying char kway teow. For halal and healthier choice, replace lard oil with olive or vegetable oil and omit the fried lard pieces. You may also add prawns and chye sim for a more sumptuous version.

Heat oil in wok. Stir fry garlic and crispy lard for a few seconds.

Add kway teow, yellow mee, sambal chilli, lup cheong and fish cake. Pour the dark sauce over the noodles and stir fry over high heat until the colour is even.

Add bean sprouts and Chinese chives, stir fry briefly to mix everything, then pour beaten egg over the noodles.

Stir fry until the egg is dry and evenly distributed.

Add cockles and cockles juice, stir fry for a further 10 seconds and serve on the table immediately.

Please take note of the proper sequence of the cooking process. Also, great Char Kuey Teow should be medium brown in color. It shouldn’t be too dark with too much dark soy sauce.

Ingredients 1 tbsp lard oil 1 tsp minced garlic 1 tsp crispy fried lard 200 grams kway teow 30 grams yellow mee 1/2 tbsp sambal chilli 1/2 lup cheong 40 grams fish cake 80 grams bean sprouts 3 stalks Chinese chives (koo chye) cut to 5 cm (2 inch) length 2 heaped tbsp fresh cockle meat 2 tbsp cockle juice 1 egg lightly beaten 1 tbsp dark soy sauce to taste 1 1/2 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) to taste 1/2 tsp fish sauce to taste

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It’s about making people more streetwise about food and inspiring them to reconnect with it, regardless of their background.

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Bak Chor Mee

This is a recipe for one of Singapore’s most popular and iconic hawker dish – “bak chor mee” aka minced meat noodles.

While I have featured the recipe for fish ball bak chor mee, this is the other version with stewed mushrooms, minced pork, pork ball, pork liver and sliced pork.

The quantities stated for the stewed mushrooms is doubled the serving required for four to six persons, as it takes some time to stew them and the excess keeps well in the fridge (up to a week). Feel free to reduce the amount used according to your preference.

Soak mushrooms in a bowl of hot water for 30 minutes until softened, trim and discard stalks and squeeze out excess water from each mushroom cap. Using a pair of kitchen scissors, cut the mushrooms as thinly as possible. Add sliced mushrooms with the rest of the ingredients at (A) in a small pot. Simmer for 30 minutes until the mushrooms are tender. Transfer the stewed mushrooms together with the stewing sauce in a small bowl and set aside. Optional: Keep the stewed mushrooms warm and tender by keeping in a mini slow cooker on low until serving time.

Marinate (B1), (B2) and (B3) in individual small bowls for at least 10 minutes. Divide to four equal portions (i.e 40 grams of marinated minced pork, 2 slices pork liver and 2 pork slices per person).

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B1

B2

B3

C D

In a pot, add soup stock (or water). Bring to a boil, then simmer pork balls until cooked, a few minutes. Keep the soup bubbling at a low heat.

Cooking and assembling the bak chor mee.

In each serving bowl, add (D). Stir with a spoon to mix it well. Add one ladle of prepared hot soup base over each individual serving bowl of marinated pork and pork liver. Set aside. Meanwhile, bring another pot of water to boil. Cook noodles and bean sprouts through a slotted ladle until just cooked, about 30-45 seconds. Rinse the noodles in tap water for a few seconds. Add drained noodles and beansprouts to serving bowl.

Return the bowl of marinated pork and pork liver in hot stock back to the soup pot. Cook for a few seconds using a slotted ladle and separate the minced pork to smaller pieces with wooden chopsticks. Drain and top the serving bowl with minced pork, pork liver and pork slices.

Garnish with stewed mushrooms, lettuce and spring onions. Add a small piece of seaweed to a small bowl and ladle hot stock over. Serve with a saucer of sliced chilli padi in soy sauce.

Mix the noodles thoroughly with the sauce before eating.

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50 grams Chinese dried shiitake mushrooms 750 ml water 1 tbsp dark soy sauce 1 tsp light soy sauce 1 tsp rock sugar 150 grams minced pork 1 tsp light soy sauce 3 dashes white pepper powder 1 tsp corn flour (starch) 1 tsp sesame oil 8 thinly sliced pork liver 1/4 tsp light soy sauce 2 dashes white pepper powder 1/2 tsp corn flour 8 slices lean pork 1/4 tsp light soy sauce 2 dashes white pepper powder 1/2 tsp corn flour 1 litre ikan bilis stock 8 pork balls 1/2 tsp Chinese fish sauce 1 tsp black vinegar 1 tbsp mushroom stewing sauce 1 tbsp hot stock 1 tbsp sambal tumis 1 tsp crispy lard pieces 1 tsp lard oil one bundle of fresh "mee pok" or "mee kia" a small handful of beansprouts saucer of sliced chilli padi in light soy sauce small slices of dried seaweed chopped spring onions a few leaves lettuce torn to smaller pieces by hand

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It's not the extremes and the treats that are the problem.

It's the everyday.

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T HE C HE F TH AT G RE W U P W IT H T HE G RA N D M A W H O C OOK S T E N D S TO A LW AY S B E AT T HE C H E F T H AT W E N T TO THE CULINARY INSTITUTE. IT 'S IN T H E BLO O D.