I am usually cooking for two: my husband and me.
And I do it most days as we do not like to buy takeaway for our meals, whether from the hawker stall or from a restaurant. I’m never sure about the nutritional quality of takeaway food. The oil may have been reused too many times or the ingredients may be off their peak.
But people do takeaways for various reasons: to save time or to save them the hassle of prepping, cooking and clearing up (their kitchens are pristine!). For some, because they do not know how to cook for just two people. After many years of cooking for the whole family, they are used to cooking with big pots and hence big portions. They would then be faced with the same food for several days after!
It takes a while to adjust to cooking for two instead of for more, but the most important building block when cooking is a good stock that, if possible, is made from scratch. That is, from bones (chicken or pork), or roast meat carcasses. (Thanks to Christmas, I have turkey, ham and roast duck stocks on hand in the freezer.)
You can also rely on a stock cube. Ferret out the better brands with less preservatives. I avoid MSG (or monosodium glutamate) not because I am allergic to it as some are, but because of taste. MSG makes the dish overly flavourful and artificial tasting. It is not the natural sweetness delivered by quality ingredients, which a bone broth offers.
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Being Peranakan, where cooking may start with only water, I can also always rely on a good rempah (spice paste) to give sweetness to the pot. After all, belacan is nothing more than a stock cube of heavenly prawn flavour, which delivers a sweet richness to a spice paste.
We are also lucky that there is a plethora of good (and easy) recipes for Asian stocks, aside from bone broths, that is.
Credit: Sylvia Tan
Straightaway, I could list ingredients such as ikan bilis (dried anchovies) and soya beans, bonito flakes and kombu (dried kelp), dried scallops, dried mushrooms, prawn shells that would all make a good stock, aside from chicken bones and the like.
Ikan bilis and soya beans boiled in water are the traditional soup base for yong tau fu, stuffed vegetables and bean curd products. I use it whenever I need a seafood-based stock.
Bonito flakes and kombu boiled together make dashi, the Japanese stock staple, found in miso soups and stews, while prawn shells, roasted first either on the hob or in the oven, give you the stock base for Hokkien mee, fried or in soup.
Credit: Sylvia Tan
The Chinese have also an easy trick of adding a handful of dried scallops to any bone stock to give an alluring sweetness to the soup. I keep some in the fridge for use at any time. Ditto for dried wolfberries (kei chee) and dried red dates.
The basic stock used most often is chicken stock which I always have in the freezer. I buy a bunch of chicken feet periodically to maintain my supply.
Such stock is used for soups, of course, but can also be used as the poaching liquid for vegetables, chicken and seafood. And braises are made richer and sweeter if you use chicken stock rather than water to start with.
Here’s my recipe to make this basic building block for cooking.
Cooking for two recipe:
Simple chicken stock
(To make 4-5 cups)
Credit: Sylvia Tan
Ingredients
- Chicken bones from a leftover roast chicken carcass or similar amount of chicken feet (roughly 1kg)
- 1 carrot, cut into short lengths
- 1 onion, cut into wedges
- 2 celery sticks, cut into short lengths
- A handful of dried scallops (small-sized are fine) - rinsed (optional)
- 5-6 cups of water
Method
- Cut the vegetables, as indicated. Smaller sizes make it easier for their goodness to exude into the pot.
- Place prepared ingredients including scallops into the pot. Add water to cover.
- Bring the pot to a boil on high. When boiling, turn down the heat to simmering.
- Using a wire skimmer, skim off fat and scum regularly till the soup is clear.
- After half an hour, turn off the heat, cover and leave the pot covered to continue cooking in residual heat for a couple of hours.
- When ready, remove bones and vegetables from the pot and strain stock into containers to freeze for use later.
This stock can be used for the base for many dishes: noodle soups, everyday soups, hearty soups, braised dishes such as claypot chicken and such.
I LOVE soups, and a favourite in my household is egg drop soup. This is a Peranakan soup found in everyday meals, to which you may add fried fish and fried vegetables. It takes minutes to cook if you have the stock ready.
To make it, beaten egg, minced pork and fungus is dropped into a pot of boiling stock, then served with leafy coriander for zestiness. I like it with sambal belacan, that ubiquitous condiment found on nonya tables.
Nonya egg drop soup
(For two)
Credit: Sylvia Tan
Ingredients
- 200g minced pork
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup dried black fungus, reconstituted and roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
- Light soya sauce, 1 tsp or to taste
- White pepper to taste
- 2 cups chicken stock
Method
- To reconstitute black fungus, wash and soak it in water. Watch it expand! Then chop it into smaller pieces. You need only a handful to begin with.
- Marinate minced pork and chopped fungus in soya sauce and rice wine.
- Add beaten eggs into this mixture. Mix well.
- Meanwhile, bring stock to the boil in a pot.
- When boiling, drop spoonfuls of the egg, fungus and pork mixture into the pot.
- Taste soup and adjust seasoning. Sometimes a pinch of sugar enhances the taste.
- Serve with lots of white pepper and fresh coriander leaves, plucked into short lengths.
- Serve with rice and sambal belacan. Enjoy!
