Cantonese

Save the Geese, roast Goose siu-ngoh 燒鵝

DutchNews.nl – Some 500,000 geese need to be culled, headline of Dutchnews in The Netherlands, based on article posted in Dutch daily newspaper Trouw yesterday.

“Most of the geese will be gassed, as currently happens around Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, Trouw says. The paper bases its claims on interim reports from provincial government bodies which signed up to an agreement on combating the geese nuisance two years ago.” 

What a shame to gas the Canadian and Nile geese which use to migrate and now remain in The Netherlands. I wonder whether it is contemplated to offer the Geese as a staple food next like chicken, turkey or game meat.

Within Cantonese Cuisine, Cantonese style roasting techniques are renowned as Siu Mei 燒味 literally meaning ‘roast flavored’ meats. The first four are classic types of roasting:

  • barbecued pork (cha siu叉燒)
  • roast goose (siu ngoh 燒鵝)
  • roast pork (siu yuk 燒肉)
  • roast suckling pig (siu zyu 燒豬)
  • roast duck (siu ngaap 燒鴨)
selection of siu mei roasts - warosu.org

Selection of ‘Siu Mei’ roasted meats
Photo credit source Warosu.org

Often alongside the roast meats, you will find these three dishes as well

  • White cut chicken (baak cit gai 白切雞) – marinated steamed chicken
  • Soy sauce chicken (si yao gai 豉油雞) – chicken cooked with soy sauce
  • Orange cuttlefish ( lou seoi mak jyu 鹵水墨魚) – marinated cuttlefish
Siu Mei Shop with all kinds of roasted meats. Photo source credit JIngWen Yu

Siu Mei Shop with all kinds of roasted meats. Photo source credit JIngWen Yu

Roast Goose Siu Ngoh 燒鵝

Roast Goose is popular in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province in southern China. If prepared correctly a true delicacy, Roast Goose 燒鵝 (siu ngoh in Cantonese) is one of the signature roast dishes with a crisp skin where the layer of fat has melted away during roasting process resulting in succulent meat. Roast Goose appears to share similarity to Peking Duck (specially bred BeiJing White Duck) but roast goose is bigger, cheaper as for flavoring it only has a spice rub in the cavity.

Whereas the technique for roasting BeiJing Duck is much more elaborate, way of serving differs as well. BeiJing Duck is brought to the dining table where the meat is sliced in as much of 100 thin flakes each covered with a piece of crispy skin attached. On the dining table a steam basket with pancakes, thinly cut scallion, cucumber and sweet bean sauce or hoisin sauce as accompaniments. The pancakes is spread lightly with plum sauce, sprigs of scallion than duck flakes with crispy skin rolled up and you take a bite to heaven.

The famous Cantonese style roast Goose as a whole chopped and served as a main dish with plum sauce or as well known rice dish known as Siu ngoh fan 燒鵝飯. Chopped pieces of Goose are topped on rice with KaiLan (Chinese broccoli, dark green stem vegetabes with or without tiny yellow flowerbuds) where the drippings of the goose is poured on top. You do not need to be a connoisseur to appreciate and enjoy this dish and agree upon the tender meat, a mouthful of bliss bursting with flavor.

siu ngo fan 燒鵝飯

siu ngo fan 燒鵝飯 Photo source credit Dianping.com

TV documentary Hong Kong to the World

A beautiful documentary series co-produced by RHTK and National Geographic Channel titled “Hong Kong to the World” showcases in one of the four one-hour episodes the secrets of roasting meats ‘Siu Mei’. In the program Siu Mei Kung Fu, episode 1, the famous Hong Kong movie star, Eric Tsang enters into the unfamiliar territory of a traditional roasting workshop. Starting from the most basic roasting techniques, secrets will be revealed and stories behind the delicious Hongkong-style roasts. Affinities to culinary kung fu with reference to hand-to-hand fighting skills as time-honored techniques, balancing yin and yang and involving god-like blade skills, are worthy to be considered “siu mei kung fu”!

One of our favorite destinations discovering Hong Kong to shop for food, electronics and sightseeing on our must see or to-do lists and that behavior hasn’t changed with every visit. Because Hong Kong city and islands still captivates with its spectacular scenery and many attractions. Over time we have introduced ourselves to street food and culinary delights, of which some establishments are famous for more than half a century. One of the restaurants is the legendary Goose restaurant Yung Kee – the fact that we try to visit on our returns makes us long distance regulars – a place to satisfy our roast goose gourmet craving. However over time we have found other locations in Hong Kong which serve roasted goose as good and even less expensive than Yung Kee.

Prepare a trip to Chinatown or Hong Kong, sample the dish(es) or try a recipe

Outside of Hong Kong, Guang Dong Province, in China towns in diaspora across the world you will find the roasted meats to sooth your craving, not often the roasted Goose but most likely the roasted duck version. The more reason to get my hands on a few birds of the large flock of geese which is to be culled soon, Schiphol Airport is not even that far away from my home. Will post separately a roast goose recipe shortly.

Note: If you are planning a trip to Hong Kong soon and are compiling a bucket list of places to visit, things to see, do click on all the highlighted links in this post for information and watch the mentioned documentary TV episode it’s worth to watch, read and experience it by yourself. Here’s another 25 reasons to go to Hong Kong by Condé Nast Traveller.

 

 

 

Huat Kueh 发糕 or Prosperity Cake by Louisiana van Menxel

wpid-storageemulated0PicsArtLouisiana-Huat-Kueh_wm.jpg.jpg

A Guest recipe contribution from my Indonesian-Chinese friend and fantastic home Chef Lousiana van Menxel. Both our family moved around the same time to India and she has single-handedly rocked New Delhi with her famous Sate’s and left a lingering Indonesian food impression behind. They were sad to see her leave and I am very happy to enjoy her up close again, a more than welcome opportunity to sample even more of her dishes.

Louisiana shared her recipe of making Huat Kueh 发糕 (Fa Gao aka Fa kueh) or Prosperity Cake. Kue’s are a popular snack in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, (even Vietnamese and Thai dessert versions) as a former colony it is also popular in The Netherlands. What makes it so special is that besides local native specialities you can distinguish many different cultural influences as Chinese and European pastry making methods.

Another indication is language in Chinese-Indonesian culinary culture, mainly through loanwords derived from the Hokkien, Hakka and Cantonese dialects for many snacks and dishes. For example kue is derived from the Hokkien pronunciation ‘kueh’.

Huat Kueh or easier pronounced Prosperity cake, the name originates due to leavening process when the cake produces a bloom that bursts, opening up the top like a flower symbolizing a burst of prosperity.  The prosperity cakes were often used as props in many Lion dances during Chinese New Year’s celebrations or business openings to bring prosperity and good luck.

If not by friends or family food talk, a simple search on the internet will provide an impressive overload on recipes and making methods for Huat Kueh, which also proves how popular this scrumptious little cake is in south-east Asia and in Chinese diaspora’s across the globe.

'Huat Kueh' 发糕  Prosperity Cake

‘Huat Kueh’ 发糕 Prosperity Cake

 

The earliest method of making these cakes comes from the tradition of making Chinese rice wine as was customary in the old days in many farm households, a sustainable life was a survival necessity. Nothing was spoiled and everything has it purpose or re-used, so were the wine lees (sediment after wine is filtered). Wine lees* as well as soy pulp (okara) were fed to the pigs on the farm or the lees were used to be mixed with rice flour into fermentation in making these prosperity cakes, hence the wait for a couple days but it is absolutely worth it.

Fermented rice has many purposes and I have seen the product in plastic containers at the Oriental Supermarket in The Hague on display directly in front when you pass through the entry gates. Worth to note is that in south-east Asia you will often notice the use of Eno* as a substitute for baking powder.

Can’t wait to try my hand with Louisiana’s Huat Kueh, have devoured these on many occasions and now they hopefully will burst as prosperous out of my steam pan soon and yours too 🙂 However if you rather like to just east them, she is happy to make them for you, send me an e-mail request to connect with Louisiana HomeChef.

Terima kasih banyak, Lousiana! ♥ 非常感谢!

Huat Kueh 发糕

Louisiana’s resep asli in Indonesian for English recipe box below;

Bahan:
Mix A:
250 beras
2 sendok air
2 sendok teh ragi/ tape
2 sendok teh gula
Campur semua diamkan 2 hari

Mix B:
300 gr gula
4 gelas air
Di masak dan diamkan dingin

Menggabungkan:
A+ B di mixer di halusin semua baru campur 600 gr tepung beras dan diamkan 9 jam dan baking powder 2 sendok teh.

sebagai langkah terakhir:
Panaskan royang 20 menit
Taruhkan mangkok ke dlm kukus
Taruh ENO 2 sendok
Baru tuangkan kedalam mangkok kukus 20 menit.

Dingin dan Selamat makan

 

Prosperous tray of Huat Kueh

Prosperous tray of Huat Kueh

Note:

  • The Japanese sake rice lees makes a perfect marinade base for meat, vegetable or fish, read this food & wine article by Makiko Itoh. Digesting of brown lees is also good for health especially lowering the risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease according to a PubMed (US National Center for Biotechnology Information) article click to read for more information.
  • Eno (a fast-acting effervescent fruit salts, used as an antacid for upset stomach and reliever of bloating) contains; sodium bicarbonate, citric acid with anhydrous sodium bicarbonate, when it gets mixed with water the bubbles of CO₂ gets produced which relieves gases. The soda neutralizes the acids in the stomach. Hence their tag-line; “Gets to work in 6 seconds”. Available in little 150 gr. jars or 5 gr. sachets  at most Asian shops and supermarkets in The Netherlands and other European countries, however since 2013 it is withdrawn from the UK market. While Eno can be taken  by diabetics, their competitors with alternative fruit salts use sucrose making it unsuitable for diabetics.