Malaysia - Bak Kut Teh

Background
Modern Malaysia is a fairly new country, having come into its modern form with the creation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, joining with the territorries of Sabah, Sarawak, and the city of Singapore. Singapore left the federation in 1965, so we will get back to them in the future. Malaysia occupies the lower bulge of the Malay peninsula and the northern coast of the island of Borneo. As a result of this distance the two parts of the countries have very distinct histories and culture.
The peninsular part of the country has a long standing history as a trade center. Buminputra is the catch all term for Muslims on the peninsula. The non-Muslim groups are the Chinese, Indian, Portuguese and the indigenous Orang Asli. Islam's influence was brought to the island via Indian traders. Indian communities did not establish large communities until the mid 19th century during British rule. Chinese set up long term trading out posts and began intermarrying in the 15th century. Portuguese settlements were established in the 16th century with rapid intermarriage as well.
The Borneo have a wide diversity of indigenous tribes. The coastal tribes have diets consisting of fish and while the hill tribes tend to subsist on roots and game.
The Lonely Planet Food Guide to Malaysia and Singapore is a concise and excellent resource. Finding information on on breakfast was pretty easy for Malaysia. Nasi lemak consists of steamed rice with coconut mist eaten with anchovies, peanuts, cucumbers, and chili sauce. Idli are black lentil and rice patties. Roti bread served with various topping are also common breakfast dishes. Bak kut teh is a broth made with chopped pork ribs and spices and served with rice. The name translates as pork rib tea and this name along with my general love of pork ribs made me choose this one. A chicken version called chik kuh teh is eaten by the Muslim population.
The tea has many novel spices and roots used in its preparation. White pepper is the exact same seed as black pepper except the pepper fruit's skin is removed before before the drying process. Star anise is the seed of an evergreen tree found in the southwest of China. It gets its name from its close taste to regular anise but the actual plants are very different. Several components of the dish are meant for taste and medicine. Dang Gui (angelica root) is considered the female ginseng and is in the same family as coriander and celery. Yok Chok (Solomon's seal rhizome) is a starchy root. Kei Chee (boxthorne berry) are members of the new world nightshade family. I was only able to locate the Yok Chok in a 2 pound bag so I decided to omit the medicinal herbs from the recipe we made. I include the proportion below if you are able to find and use them.
The chopped pork ribs can be purchased at a Chinese market ready to use. If buying whole ribs make sure you are fully awake before going to work with your cleaver, or chop them up the night before.

Bak Kut Teh

• 1 lb chopped pork ribs, 1 ½ inches in length
• 2 heads of garlic, separated, with the skins intact
• 2 red chillies
• Dark soy sauce
• Salt
• Spice pouch
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 6 cloves
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp white peppercorns
• ½ tsp coriander seeds
• ½ tsp fennel seeds
• Herb mixture (optional)
• 5 slices dang gui (angelica root)
• 5 slice yok chok (Solomon's seal rhizome)
• 1 tbsp kei chee (boxthorn berries)

1. Put spices and herbs into a muslin pouch or into cheese cloth.
2. Place ribs and unpeeled garlic at the bottom of a sauce pan.
3. Nest the muslin pouch in the middle of the ribs.
4. Add 5 cups of water.
5. Bring the water to a boil over medium heat.
6. Simmer until the meat is tender. (Our meat took about 45 minutes to be done.)
7. Add soy sauce and salt to taste.
8. Remove the spice pouch and serve in large bowls with short grain rice on the sides.
9. Thinly slice the chilies and place them in a shallow dish. Cover them with a shallow layer of soy sauce and use this for dipping the ribs.

Results and Discussion
This breakfast was not nearly as complicated as it might appear. Once the ingredients are together you can just let it simmer while you take care of other things.
The broth was very surprising. The first surprise was that it was not completely over powered by garlic. I think keeping the garlic unpeeled kept the flavor from overwhelming the broth. The pepper seeds and spices blend into a nice background. The star anise has a nice licorice flavor that hovers over the rest of the flavors. The pork ribs provide the broth with a rich texture, but it is not too heavy.
The chili soy sauce gave the ribs some heat and a nice flavor, but eating them with chopsticks is a bit of a challenge!

Burma - Mohinga

Background
Burma (Myanmar) is a large country, around the size of Texas, with 125 ethnic groups. It lies between China and India in southeast Asia. Given the repressive nature of the current military government, I expected finding information on the country to be difficult. I was disappointed. A quick internet search gave lots of results and Wikipedia page on Burmese cuisine was very complete and detailed. While looking for books I quickly found lots of resources.
The three books that were the most useful for both culture and recipes were The Burmese Kitchen, Best of Burmese Cooking, and Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way. Finding what defines traditional Burmese food is rather difficult given that it lies on trade routes between the major culture of India, China, and Thailand. All of these cultures influence Burmese cuisine in some way. Traditional Burmese cuisine is concisely defined as the food in Burma that has not been influenced by it neighbors.
I found three major breakfast dishes. The first is mohinga, which is a fish and noodle soup served by street vendors. Ohhnokaukswe is a chicken and coconut noodle soup in a curry. Kaungnyin paung is traditional farmers dish made of glutinous rice with black eyed peas. Nanpyar is a commonly eaten flat bread, which while mentioned in all of the books it never appear with a recipe except in one book which has it in correctly listed in its index. I chose the mohinga because I like catfish and because it is considered the national dish, but mostly because I like catfish.

Before starting this recipe please be advised that this makes a lot. The recipe below is supposed to give 6 servings but I would estimate it at least 10 portions.

Soup Concentrate

• 2 lbs of catfish
• 2 stalks of lemongrass
• 1 inch fresh ginger
• ¼ tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp shrimp paste
• 1½ tbsp fish sauce
• 4 dried red chilies
• 5 cups of water

1. Break open the ginger to expose the inside.
2. Cut the lemongrass into smaller pieces to fit in the pot.
3. Cut you your catfish fillets in half.
4. Put all the ingredients into a pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 minutes.
5. Remove the fish from the broth and strain out the solids while retaining the broth.
6. Remove any bones from the fish if necessary.
7. While the broth is simmering, prepare the rest of the ingredients below.

Complete Soup

• ½ cup jasmine rice toasted in a dry skillet, then ground to a powder in a food processor
• 2 tbsp roasted peanuts, ground (use nut grinder if available)
• 1½ tbsp semolina
• 8 oz chickpeas, cooked
• 2 tbsp peanut oil
• ¼ tsp tumeric
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ¼ inch fresh ginger
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tbsp salt
• 1½ tbsp fish sauce
• ½ tbsp sugar
• 6 peeled shallots (these are substitutes for banana stems)
• 8 oz of somen noodles

1. Mix powdered rice, semolina, and peanuts in 1 cup of water. Let it stand for at least 15 minutes.
2. Mix chickpeas and 1 cup of water in a food processor.
3. Heat the oil in a pot large enough to contain the final quantity of soup.
4. Add onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and paprika to the oil and cook for two minutes at medium high heat.
5. Add the fish and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir regularly.
6. Stir in salt, sugar, and fish sauce.
7. Add rice/semolina mix and chickpea paste.
8. Bring to a boil, add shallots, and simmer uncovered at low heat for an hour. Stir regularly.
9. Once the soup has thickened, cook the somen noodles and add them to the bottom of a bowl, then cover with soup.
10. Season to taste with lime juice and garnish with scallions.

Results and Discussion
This breakfast look a long time to make. Fortunately we had a dinner of wings and pizza the night before so we were not super hungry. The length of the simmering and the broth making resulted in very deep flavors and this probably better simulated what it would be like to get this from a street vendors who has had their pot going all day. The flavors are very full and as the fish dissolves it gives the soup a porridge-like texture. The lime juice provides a very nice bite. I really gobbled this down. This would be great on cold mornings.
We also used fresh lemongrass in this recipe. When we previously used lemongrass for the Indonesia breakfast we used the dry product and the taste was awful. Using the fresh lemongrass makes a complete difference.
I feel very certain that an equally acceptable version of this could be made in a much shorter time. The initial broth could be made the night before or you could make the paste and thicken it while you are making the broth. Adding less water would also get the job done. Also invite friend over when you make this, because you make a lot!

Thailand - Kao Tome

Note: Yes, we disappeared last week. We did cook breakfast; scroll down to see that post as well.

Background
This week's menu had two excellent sources. A friend from Thailand gave us lots of recommendations. Her first recommendation was pah-tong-goh which is a version of donuts. I found some good recipes and many different spellings of this dish. The logistics of the day meant we did not have enough time to make them. It also seems to be a street food so it may not be something that Thai people make at home. Either way, I want to make this at some point in the future.
The other recommendation she made was kao tome which is a rice porridge. I was hesitant to try rice porridge again given how the cháo bò turned out. I started looking for recipes because it would provide a chance to compare the different approaches to the same dish. I came across the book Real Thai by Nancie McDermott which had a recipe that looked good. According to McDermott, Thai cuisine reflects its geography as it rests between Indian and Chinese cuisine.

Chili-Vinegar Sauce (Prik Dong Nahm Som)
Combine the following ingredients the night before and refrigerate.

• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 10 hot chilis thinly sliced crosswise

Fried Garlic (Gratiem Jiow)
Make the night before

• 1/4 vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp minced garlic

Important Note: This entire process should not take more than 3 minutes. Otherwise you will burn the garlic as I have done in the past.  Also do not use canned pre-minced garlic as the high moisture content will affect the results.

1. Heat oil in a skillet over low heat.
2. Test the oil by dropping in a piece of garlic. The oil is ready if it sizzles immediately.
3. Add the rest of the garlic and cook until it starts to turn golden.
4. When the color change starts remove the garlic from heat.
5. The garlic will finish cooking in the hot oil.

Kao Tome

• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups of cooked jasmine rice
• 1/4 lb minced pork
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/4 cup fried garlic
• 3 tbsp green onion cross sliced
• 1 handful of cilantro
• Chili-Vinegar Sauce

1. Bring stock to a boil and stir in the rice.
2. When the water starts to boil, add the minced pork and cook until the pork is done, about 5 minutes
3. Stir in fish sauce and pepper.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Garnish with fried garlic, green onion, chili-vinegar sauce, and cilantro leaves.
6. Add chili-vinegar sauce and fish sauce to taste.

Results and Discussion
Thai rice porridge was better than our Vietnamese rice porridge. The first major improvement was making the rice the night before and cutting an hour off the prep time. This version also had a much better taste and was lighter because we had a leaner meat. The chili-vinegar adds a nice accent that brings out the other flavors in the meal. The fried garlic is a nice enhancer as it gives little crispness at a couple of points. If I were to retry the cháo bò I would cook the rice the night before and start from there and save a lot of time. I also have lots of leftover chili vinegar sauce and I will have to find a way to use it up. I could see it working as a salad dressing with a couple of additions.

Vietnam - Cháo Bò

Background
The two options for Vietnamese breakfast are pho and chao. Pho is a noodle soup that is served in Vietnamese restaurants. Chao is a simple rice soup. As I had never had chao I decided to make that for breakfast. Chao and pho have many variations and names depending on the meat. We made chao bo with is chao with thinly cut beef. The recipe for the chao bo was a chimera from two books: Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen and Authentic Vietnamese Cooking by Corinne Trang. The major differences between the two dishes was there approach to the broth for the chao. Nguyen's approach required about 3 hours while Trang's recipe simply starts with water. I find it odd that Trang started with water given she writes wonderfully about the importance of broth in her introduction. We split the difference by using our own homemade broth.
We also made Ca Phe which is Vietnamese coffee for after the breakfast. Both books mention side dishes but neither list them so we had no side dishes.

Chao Bo

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 minced shallot
• ¾ cup of jasmine rice
• 8 cups of vegetable broth
• 8 oz ground beef (80/20)
• 2 scallions
• 1 cup cilantro
• ½ cup chopped peanuts
• 1½ tbsp grated ginger
• Fish sauce (nuoc mam)
• Fresh ground pepper

1. Cook shallots and rice in oil over medium heat for five minutes until the shallots become translucent.
2. Add vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer uncovered for 1½ hours.
4. Add in ground beef making sure to break it into small bits so it cooks properly.
5. Cook for 5 minutes.
6. Ladle into bowls and garnish with peanuts, cilantro, ginger, fish sauce, and scallions.

Ca Phe

• 1 heaping tbsp French roast coffee
• 1 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

1. Spoon the condensed milk into the bottom of a cup.
2. Place coffee in brewer and set over cup.
3. Pour 6 oz boiling water into the brewer, wait for it to filter through, and serve.

Results and Discussion
This breakfast was not one of our favorites to make. Most of the time is spent waiting for the rice porridge to thicken, getting hungry, and making some toast. The end product is not visually appealing without garnish. The garnish also gives the dish most of its flavor with the beef and rice giving it most of its substance. I would not make this meal again for breakfast given the long preparation time. It would make a nice part of dinner and then reheat well for breakfast.
We did not have the right equipment to make the ca phe. To do it properly it requires a specialized device that is a hybrid of a French press and a drip. I did not think the coffee using our method was bad but it was weaker than it was supposed to be.

Phillippines - Longsilog

Background
The title of this week's breakfast is longsilog. The name comes from a portmanteau of the three main dishes: longganisa (sausage), sinangág (fried rice), and itlog (eggs). This method of naming meals is common in the Philippines. The fried rice recipe was found in The Food of the Philippines by Reynaldo G. Alejandro. The sausage recipe was found in Memories of Philippine Kitchens by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan.

Longganisa (Sausage)

• 1 ½ lbs ground pork
• 1 tbsp annato coloring (powder, available at Latin markets)
• 1 tbsp chili oil
• 1 tbsp rice wine
• ½ tbsp rice winegar
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp lime zest
• ½ tbsp salt
• ½ tsp fresh ground pepper

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl, being careful not to pulverize the meat too much.
2. Divide the mixture into 10 balls all of the same size.
3. Shape these balls into sausages 3 inches long and about an inch in diameter.
4. Refrigerate the sausages overnight to give the flavor time to blend and to make handling easier.
5. Heat a frying pan to medium and put a thin layer of water in the pan. This helps to prevent sticking.
6. The sausages cook in about 5-7 minutes.
7. Place done sausages on a plate and keep warm in an oven.

Philippine Fried Rice

• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• ¼ cup minced shallots
• 4 cups of cooked medium-grain rice mashed lightly with ½ cup water
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• ¼ tsp ground black pepper

1. Cook garlic in oil until golden brown.
2. Add all remaining ingredients and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes to ensure the rice is evenly heated.
3. Serve hot.

Scrambled Eggs
Scramble eggs in some of the grease left over from the sausages, top with crushed red pepper.

Results and Discussion
The original recipe for the sausages called for wild boar meat and pork fatback. Clearly the sausages would have been much more awesome had they been made of wild boar meat. I am a city dweller and wild boar hunting season in Somerville city limits is not until the fall. We were left with the choice of lean ground pork. The lean option left the sausages with too little fat and they were a little dry. I would recommend adding some fat back to help prevent this problem.
We used short-grain sticky rice in the fried rice. The stickiness of the rice caused lumps to developed as we fried it. In future attempts at fried rice the medium-grain variety will be used with the hope of minimizing the stickiness.
This was a pretty simple breakfast except for some challenges in finding certain ingredients. The most difficult was the annatto oil called for in the original sausage recipe.  We only required a small amount and all of the recipes yielded 2 cups.  It is because of this that we used annato powder to give the sausages the correct color. I really enjoyed making sausages from scratch and hope to some day be in a position where I can grind my own meat. I hope that will line up with boar season.

Indonesia - Tinutuan

Background
This recipe is adapted from the book Indonesian Regional Cooking by Sri Owen. The recipe is from the city of Manado which is on the north east tip of Sulawesi. We had to vary to recipe at several points. The original recipe called for water spinach instead of kale and fresh lemongrass instead of dried. We omitted the turmeric leaf. The effect of these substitutions on the final product are discussed in the results section.

Ingredients
1/4 cup white rice
3/4 cup of frozen sweet corn
10 oz of peeled and cubed butternut squash
2/3 cups bamboo shoots
1 tsp salt
2 cups of boiled frozen yuca, cubed.
1 tbsp of dried lemon grass
8 oz of fresh spinach
8 oz of fresh kale
20 fresh basil leaves
1 turmeric leaf (optional)

Procedure
Soak rice in cold water for 30 minutes
Bring 5 cups of water to a boil and add rice.
Add corn, squash, bamboo, and salt. Simmer for 20-25 minutes.
Add yuca and simmer for a few minutes.
Refrigerate the soup over night
Reheat soup until hot
Soak lemon grass in 1/4 cup hot water for a few minutes and add to soup.
Add spinach and kale and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add basil leaves, season, and serve hot.


Results and Discussion
The preparation was very straight forward and can be easily done the night before which is what we did. We made several poor choices in our substitutions. Kale was a poor choice for young spinach as it is very chewy and tough. I have not chewed this much at breakfast ever, but I have met my daily fiber requirement. The dried lemongrass was also not a good substitution for fresh. As a result the basil taste of the soup was very strong and lacked a counterpoint. I believe the turmeric leaf would also help with this problem. The texture of the broth was very nice and had subtle sweetness. I would like to try this recipe again with better lemon grass and a green softer than kale.