Thirty-three Ingredients by Chef Ace Tan of Ards
by Ace Tan
@ 05 Jan 2018
18 mix grains (each 100g)
200g Japanese rice
Stir-fried Vegetable
15ml cooking oil
30g (each) dried shrimps and gingko nuts
50g (each) shiitake, shimeiji, enoki and maitake mushrooms
30g (each) chesnuts and white fungus
10g bamboo fungi
50g (each) red beans, green beans and mountain yam
30ml soy sauce
Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper, to taste
Sea Cucumber
100g sea cucumbers
10g rock sugar
3g sea salt
200ml water
50ml apple cider vinegar
15ml (each) dark soy sauce and xiao xing wine
Lotus Root
100g tempura flour
10g curry powder
3g sea salt
150ml water
300g lotus roots, scrubbed clean and cut into 1.5-cm thickess slices
Cooking oil, for deep-frying
Daikon Sauce
200ml daikon juice
Sugar and potato starch
Tang Oh and roasted chestnuts, garnishing
Pumpkin oil, for drizzling
- Soak the mixed grain rice and Japanese rice in water for about an hour. Strain well and transfer the soaked rice into an electric pressure rice cooker. Add in 354ml water and cook until rice is tender. Set aside.
- For the stir-fried vegetable: Heat cooking oil in wok over a high heat, add in the dried shrimps and stir-fry until fragrant. Add in gingko nuts, all the mushrooms and fungus and chesnuts. Mix well. Season with soy sauce and reduce heat to low . Add in red beans, green beans and mountain yam. Mix well and season with sea salt and white pepper powder.
- Press a small portion of the steamed rice on top of each lotus leaf and top with stir-fried vegetables. Wrap it into a ball and place onto a heatproof dish and steam in a prepared hot steamer for about 3 hours.
- For the sea cucumber: Cook the sea cucumbers with the rest of the ingredients in a cooking pot over a medium heat to a boil. Reduce heat and braise for about an hour. Remove and cut the braised sea cucumbers into small pieces. Set aside.
- For the lotus root: Place tempura flour, curry powder and sea salt into a mixing bowl. Gradaullay add in all the liquid and whisk until well incorporated. Coat the lotus root slices with the batter, and then deep-fry in a pot of hot cooking oil until golden brown. Remove and drain well on abosorbent paper towels and then cut into quarters.
- For the daikon sauce: Heat daikon juice in a saucepan over a medium heat to boil to separate the fiber. Strain with a coffee strainer. Season with salt, pepper and sugar and then thicken with potato starch.
- Spoon the daikon sauce onto each serving plate and top with sea cucumber, water chestnuts, deep-fried lotus roots and tang oh. Drip five drops of pumpkin oil. Place a stemed rice ball in the middle on top of the sauce.
Adapted from the Jan Feb 18 issue of Cuisine & Wine Asia.
