Flat Rice Noodles (Kuey Tiao)

Cheong fun without filling

Flat rice noodles or kuey tiao (ho fun in Cantonese) are called as such to distinguish them from ordinary rice noodles, which are usually thin and cylindrical, and unlike in China where they are fresh, the rice noodles we get here are dried. Flat rice noodles are popular because they are slippery-smooth and soft with a slight bite. I prefer flat rice noodles to fresh yellow oily wheat noodles because I hate the flavor of the lye said to be an ingredient of yellow oily noodles. Lye is a corrosive chemical (NaOH--sodium hyroxide) found in soap and household cleaning detergents. Still hungry for that bowl of oily yellow noodles?

Flat rice noodles are not that pure too. Boric acid as a preservative is used in commercial rice noodles such as flat rice noodles and the real-fun-to-eat noodles called lao su fen meaning 'mouse tail noodles', which really look more like large worms than tails to me. Many years ago a dozen or more primary school children in Malaysia died after a lunch of mouse tail noodles that had too much boric acid.

I stopped eating kuey tiao about 10 years ago after a shocking discovery. A friend brought me to a noodles factory in Kolombong that makes, among others, cheong fun (rice rolls) and I started serving that for snacks for my cell group. One Saturday, I went to the factory late, around 2 pm, when they were closing, and I noticed bags of noodles stacked on some tables and I asked the girl working there what would happen to the unsold noodles. She nonchalantly replied that the noodles can stay on the tables through the weekend without refrigeration. I just couldn't believe that in our hot weather noodles can stay fresh for more than 24 hours. Just how much boric acid is in the noodles? Boric acid reportedly causes infertility (damages the testes--ouch) and damage to internal organs. Plastics too are out to make sure you don't pass your genes to the next generation. So why do you think infertility is on the rise?

I happened to watch a Korean program last night and was so glad I did. Have you ever wondered how they peel the skins off canned mandarin oranges and orange pulp in orange juice and canned fruits such as peaches? Orange sections are soaked and boiled in hydrochloric acid (HCL) and peaches are soaked in NaOH. Of course, they neutralise the HCL and NaOH with base and acids respectively, and so by law need not reveal that the canning process includes contamination with these chemicals. And besides the treatment by these chemicals, the canned fruits are subject to heat, which destroys Vitamin C and also changes their color so coloring is added. Then because these fruits are picked when still unripe, they add tons of sugar to sweeten them. The result is perfect, processed fruits with very little nutritional value and lots of sugar/calories. In fact, there's so much sugar that 1 large can of mandarins contain the same calories as 13 fresh mandarins! Still like those canned peaches and cherries?

So, given all that, bless you if you still eat flat noodles and yellow oily noodles. But we, the mothers/girlfriends/conscientious cooks can do something about processed food. We can cook from scratch. I truly believe that we should go back to those unprocessed food days.

This is where food bloggers come in. In this case, Zurin of Cherry On A Cake. Zurin recently posted a recipe on home-made kuey tiao. Thanks Zurin! My kuey tiao turned out so successful that I made a batch for afternoon snack and another for dinner, and I suspect I'll make another batch before I post this because I need to take some pictures of the how-to.

Other than kuey tiao, I also made some cheong fun (rice rolls) by increasing the amount of wheat starch to give the noodles more bite. You can adjust the amount of flours to get the texture you want.


Flat Rice Noodles
150 g or 1 1/2 cups rice flour
1 1/2 T wheat starch (tang mien flour)*
2 T cornflour
400 ml or 1 3/4 cups water
1 T veg oil
1/4 t salt (I reduced this from 1/2 t)

* increasing this to 2 T will give the noodles a stronger bite.

1. Mix all the above ingredients well into a thin batter and let it rest for an hour. Do not be impatient like me. I tried steaming 10 minutes after mixing the batter and the rice pancake was soft and sticky. Just before the hour's up, get ready a steaming wok of water.

2. Ladle into a greased pan and steam 3-5 minutes, depending on the thickness and size of your pan. I used a tart pan with a removable base which was stupid because the batter ran through the sides into the water. I think a non-stick cake pan's best but you still have to oil it the first time. It's helpful to remember the amount of batter and size of your cake tin so you can get the same thickness for each pancake.





3. For kuey tiao, make thinner pancakes. When cool enough to handle, peel it off the pan, roll it up loosely (no need for neatness) and cut it with an oiled pastry cutter into 1 cm pieces. Unravel the flat rice noodles by fluffing them with your hands gently.

4. For unfilled cheong fun (as versus cheong fun with fillings, which should be paper-thin), you can make thicker pancakes and roll the pancakes snugly, then cut into 2 cm slices. Do not unravel. Top the cheong fun with: hoisin sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand is good), Maggi soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, toasted sesame seeds and chopped spring onions.

Last Day Of 2008

And so today is the last day of the year. I was at the beach yesterday, and it was a cool breezy afternoon. As I nostalgically thought about the past year, I felt a little bit sad. It always makes me sad this time of the year. I feel that time is rushing by, and I have accomplished so little. Another year, another 365 days gone.

But I'm not going to beat myself about lost opportunities. I have much to be thankful for. My loved ones are around, my friends are great and life's good. I have no needs, mainly wants, and even that list is shortening with age. Just yesterday I caught the end of a TV program on longevity and it summarized the secrets to a long life:

1. Eat a plant-based diet.

2. Have low-impact exercise.

3. Surround yourself with friends and family.

The first two nourishes our physical body, the third our emotions/soul. I definitely need to improve on 1 & 2, and I think I'm very blessed with 3.

Talking of point no. 3, I get constant emails from many readers, the latest from somebody in France and another from Singapore. It truly makes me happy to know that my posts have been a blessing to your culinary skills, especially when your family enjoys your cooking and I'm known to the whole family. Hang in there with me this coming year, and enjoy our cooking experiences together. I welcome all your feed back, and thank all of you for visiting this blog (and risking your jobs).

Here's a photo a reader, Kamala, sent me from Kashmir many months ago. Kashmir is breathtaking. I'd love to go there one day.



My wish for the new year is "less fighting, more loving". My heart goes out to the civilians of Palestine.

And yes, more cooking. Especially plant-based meals. How come I don't hear any "ayes"? Anyways, I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and wealthy (a Chinese thing, money) 2009!

Merry Christmas!!

Illustration by Hong Yi of our family this Christmas but she has grossly underestimated Wey's weight & size. And her own age.


Tonight's bird was 6.4 kg. I forgot to take it from my friend's shop last night so I had to thaw it in water this morning and dinner was late at 8.30 pm.


Christmas Eve dinner. The cranberry sauce with orange zest and walnuts was very refreshing and yummy. Thanks for recipe David, and thanks to J for the asparagus (blanched and drizzled with lemon juice and butter) hand-carried from Oz. On the side was chestnuts stuffing, a lettuce-pear-walnuts salad and caramelized pumpkin and sweet potato, spiked with some cinnamon, sugar and butter.

Christmas is about love, God's love for us and our love for Him and all men! "For God so loved the world He gave his only begotton son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Merry Christmas Everyone! Have a nice holiday and play nice!

p.s. for those who want to go to church on Christmas Day, come to the Grand Ballroom at Magellan Sutera Hotel at 10 am. The Christmas celebration will be grand, with dance and carols and even a full lunch buffet, all free! Every cool person in town will be there (me too), so see you all!

Turkey With Chestnuts Stuffing

I promised you my turkey recipe before Christmas, so do go and get that big bird before you have to settle for a ham. Not that a ham is a poorer choice because here they are selling for more than RM400 for a turkey-sized ham.

I've done my turkey this way for as long as I've roasted turkeys, which is over 20 years. And I do roast more than one bird a year, one for friends and one for family. I've only tried a commercial (mushroom) stuffing once and it was so bad that I've stuck to my chestnut stuffing since.

This stuffing recipe was--surprise--originally printed in The New Straits Times and was from The Equatorial Hotel in KL. Is the hotel still in existence? The original recipe had chipolata sausages and fresh ground pork but one year my friend Jo of Drool Team whom I had shared the recipe with, told me that she omitted the meat and the stuffing turned out even better. So I tried it the next year and sure enough, it was better. Not just better, but best, so I've done a vegan chestnut stuffing since. It really is better because it goes well with the turkey without messing up the taste of the poultry.

The stuffing is essential to a moist turkey plus it is super tasty after baking inside the bird for hours. And my son Wey swears that the best thing about roasted turkey is The Gravy. Yes, what is turkey without gravy. He loves the gravy so much that he eats the leftover (I make sure to make plenty) the next day with rice. And he goes around going "Mmm mmm!"

I like to roast my turkey with a loose piece of foil over for most of the cooking time and then one hour before it's done, remove the foil to brown the bird. I also add water to the pan about an hour into the roasting so that the juice doesn't dry up and burnt. The reason I do not add the water from the start is because I usually have extra stuffing around the baking pan and adding water early would erode the stuffing into a wet mess. I learn from my mistakes sometimes.

To transfer the huge bird onto a platter, do not lift it by the legs because 1) it's too hot 2) It might tear off (learnt from experience again). I use two big frying ladles to lift the bird. A willing man can do this job provided he's not clumsy.

One more advice. Get birds bigger than 5.5 kg. I find that the bigger the birds, the moister they are. It is quite hard to get a bird bigger than 6 kg here (this year's bird was 6.3 kg) because, according to the bird sellers, most families are small and their ovens are, likewise, small. Makes sense.


Turkey With Chestnuts Stuffing
5.5 to 6 kg oven-ready turkey
1 T melted butter*

*I just use the wrapping paper from stick butter, put it into the hot oven for a sec and rub it all over the bird. Saves having to melt butter.

Chestnuts Stuffing
500 g chestnuts, unshelled
300g potatoes
70g day old bread
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 sticks celery, diced finely
1 large egg
about 2 cups fresh milk
70 g grated cheddar or parmesan cheese
3-4 T Bristol sherry or red wine
1 heaped t ground marjoram
1 t salt, 1/3 t pepper

note: alternatively, for a meat stuffing, reduce the chestnuts & potato and make up the weight with chipolata sausages (remove the casing) & fresh ground pork.

For the gravy: bay leaf, black peppercorns, sherry, cornflour and chicken stock cube.

1. Boil the chestnuts for 30 minutes and then shell it. Blend 1/2 the chestnuts with 1 cup of milk until it is like thick puree. Cut the remaining chestnuts into 2 or 3. Toast the bread and cut into 1 cm cubes. Peel and boil the potatoes and mash them with 3/4 to 1 cup of milk and the cheese. Season lightly with salt & pepper.

2. Put about 1 T veg oil in a large pot and fry the onions and garlic over medium heat until they are soft and transparent. Add the wine (I prefer the sherry), stir 10 seconds and switch off the flame. Add everything into the pot and stir well to mix. Taste and season. Do not add too much salt as the turkey is already injected with a broth solution.

3. Switch oven to 190 C. Rinse the turkey and trim off butt and excess fat. Keep the flap of skin over the neck so that the stuffing is covered. Keep the skin over the cavity too if you don't mind the fat. If you remove it like I do, your turkey stuffing may make the bird look like it has real bad haemorroids (that's how someone described my turkey the other day). Btw, do not remove the ovenable clamp that holds the legs together. Put turkey into your baking tray/pan (shouldn't have high sides or turkey won't brown so well) and dab dry with paper towels. Stuff the front neck end with the stuffing and then stuff the cavity until full. If there is excess stuffing, put it around the turkey in round pats or balls.

4. Brush melted butter all over the turkey so that the foil won't stick to the skin or do as I do, use the paper from the stick butter. Tent the turkey loosely with aluminium foil with the loose side towards the front of the oven so that it will be easier for you to peep or add water later.

5. Put roasting pan with turkey onto lower rack of oven. After one hour of roasting, add enough water to the baking pan so that water level is about 1.5 cm high. This will keep the juice from drying out. While turkey is roasting, put the neck and giblets & liver into a small pot and add 2 liters water, 1 large bay leaf and 1 heaped teaspoon of black peppercorns and boil for 2 hours to get stock. If water level has gone down, add water.

6. Once an hour or so, check on the water level in the baking pan. After 2 1/2 hours (for 5.5 kg bird) or 3 hours (for 6 kg bird), remove the foil completely and increase the heat to 200 C. If the turkey is browning too fast, you can put a small piece of foil over those areas or turn the heat back down to 190 C. Baste it every 15 min or so. I like to brush on some dark soy sauce (mix with some juice from the pan) to help the browning. You can use browning sauce if you prefer.

7. Carefully remove the baking pan from the oven, then lift bird onto a large platter and let it sit for 20-30 minutes before carving. For neater slices, carve out the whole breasts and then slice them rather than slice pieces off the bird. Meantime, do the gravy.

The Gravy
1. Pour the juices from the roasting pan into a pot. Skim away the oil. Add the stock from the turkey neck to boil.

2. Break in 1 chicken stock cube if like. Mix 1/4 cup cornstarch or plain flour with some water and thicken the gravy with this, stirring well. You may have to add more flour/cornstarch. Season with salt, pepper and 5-6 T sherry.

3. Strain the gravy through a fine sieve.

Note: I don't have to tell you to use leftover turkey for sandwiches. But do you know, I used to throw my turkey bones away until a dear friend, VMS, told me that the bones make the best soup with carrots, celery, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, a bay leaf, barley if you like...we love the smell of turkey soup permeating through the house. It's a tradition for us to have turkey soup for lunch the next day.

Christmas Before Christmas

We had about 40+ people over for dinner last night, mostly church members and their friends. It was a pot luck, and there was so much food. I only did the turkey with chestnut stuffing and a light fruitcake with plenty of rum (rum just goes so well with butter cakes). I have been roasting turkeys for well over 20 years now (first one was to impress my then boyfriend and in-laws to be) , about 2 birds for each Christmas, so turkeys are truly the easiest things to cook for me. It's just an over-sized chicken. Stuff it, push it into the oven and forget about it until 4 hours later.

I didn't have as much success with my petit fours. The light fruit cake turned out delicious and I topped it with a thin layer of marzipan. My intention was to make pretty festive petit fours with Christmas trees and stars for the grown ups and pipe the kids' names on their fours. But it turned out that glace icing is not easy to make. I didn't use the usual water and icing sugar recipe. I consulted books and websites on the pouring fondant or glace icing for petit fours. And I was SOOO upset when the glace icing turned transparent, and worse, hardened before I could even use it. I warmed it, but it turned grainy. Does anyone have any advice on this?

In the end I just served the cake with the marzipan layer on. I was disappointed that many of my guests just peeled off the marzipan, thinking it was just sweet icing. It was lovely marzipan from England, and it cost me a bomb because it came in a 2.5 kg slab.

Am kinda stressed. There are many things I need to do before next week's many holidays (we get 25 & 26th Dec off only but many businesses are winding down as people get into the festive mood) so I will post my turkey recipe this weekend. Btw, if you haven't yet got your turkey, I'm not sure if you should get it from Hong Seng because mine was from there and last night's turkey had a strong refrigerated smell that most people didn't notice! They probably thought turkeys should smell like that. I've never had such a bird in all these years. If my MIL hadn't already got another Norbest turkey for me, from Merdeka Supermarket, I'd go for the Butterballs in Tong Hing. I've never cooked a Butterball turkey and I remember the ads in Canada & US where they zoom into the turkey as the knife cuts in, and the juice drips out and the meat falls off to reveal moist tender flesh...ah, next year I'll get a Butterball.


These cymbidium orchids are from Taiwan. They don't grow well here because it's too hot. I love orchids, they are so extraordinary in their design. Their irregular symmetry is so artistic.


I love red roses at Christmas. So romantic and autumy.


Year after year, I use the same door wreath a friend bought from Germany.


This year the chairs get the poinsettias.




I completely forgot that I'd given our old tree to Vero two years ago. Yi came up with this gorgeous creation one hour before the party. It really is the best tree we've ever had! She was going to complete it today but the painter came this morning to repaint the TV room and took everything down--she doesn't know it yet, she's out.








I imagined that this was a female turkey so I dressed it with whatever fruits I had.