Turn your annual Lunar New Year tradition into a luxe affair by making your broths, dips and meatballs from scratch with the best possible ingredients.
Seafood Treasure Broth
Dried pieces of sole fish turn this stock into a wonderfully savoury soup base that is best suited for poaching scallops, clams, prawns and abalone.
Serves 8
Prep time 15 minutes
Cook time 1 hour
3kg fish bones
2 fresh leeks, quartered
120g celery leaves
2 dried bay leaves
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
55g rock sugar
4 litres boiling water
3 yellow onions, peeled and halved
2 slices ginger
2 pieces ti poh (dried sole fish)
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch fish bones for 3 minutes.
• Drain fish bones and transfer to a large stockpot with remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour on low heat.
• Let cool for 1 hour, then strain stock over a fine sieve and transfer to a steamboat as your soup base.
Milky Pork Bone & Chicken Broth
This is the essence of your steamboat so you’ll want a rich, flavourful stock. After long hours of slow cooking over low heat, all the collagen in pork bones and chicken skin lends itself to the soup for a thick, gelatinous mouthfeel.
Serves 8
Prep time 30 minutes
Cook time 5-8 hours
2kg large pork bones
2 fresh whole kampong chickens
1 blood liver sausage, thickly sliced
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
55g rock sugar
4 litres boiling water
3 yellow onions, peeled and halved
1 slice ginger
2 tbsp wolfberries
2 ginseng roots
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Crack each pork bone into two with a cleaver and blanch for 5 minutes.
• Drain pork bones and transfer to the pot of a thermal cooker with remaining ingredients. Place over stovetop and bring to a rolling boil.
• Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer to a thermal cooker and let sit for at least 8 hours or overnight. If not using a thermal cooker, simmer in a covered stockpot over the lowest heat setting for 5-6 hours.
• Strain stock over a fine sieve and transfer to a steamboat as your soup base.
Waxed Duck & Pine Nut Rice
A few small touches of savoury waxed duck, sweet Chinese sausage and toasted pine nuts turn a simple rice staple into a deeply aromatic accompaniment for cooked meats.
Serves 8
Prep time 20 minutes
Cook time 20 minutes
1 packet Golden Bridge waxed duck leg
1 Chinese sausage
3 tbsp pine nuts, chopped and toasted
3 cups new crop rice, rinsed once
3 cups light chicken stock
1 tbsp ginger, minced
• Bring a pot of water to a boil. Lightly blanch waxed duck leg for 3 minutes. Drain and let cool. Remove casing from Chinese sausage and dice the meat.
• Combine all ingredients in a rice cooker. Mix well and set to cook.
• Shred the duck into fine strips, fluff the rice and mix well. Serve warm.
Creamy Sesame Dip
The raw yolk of the quail egg thickens the dip, enabling it to better adhere to slices of cooked meat.
Serves 8
Prep time 8-10 minutes
Sesame dip
8 tbsp creamy peanut butter
8 tsp ginger, freshly minced
4 tbsp roasted sesame oil
2 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Chiu Chow
Chilli Oil
2 tsp premium soy sauce
3 tsp red sugar or honey
6 tbsp warm water
1 tbsp rice vinegar or
apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp coriander root, chopped
Garnishes
8 raw quail eggs
2 tbsp crispy fried shallots
2 tbsp crispy fried garlic
2 tbsp baby shrimps, toasted
• Combine all ingredients for creamy sesame dip and mix well.
• Divide the dip into eight individual sauce plates and crack a quail egg over each. Top with crispy fried shallots, garlic and toasted baby shrimps.
• Coat slices of cooked meat lightly with egg yolk before mixing with sesame dip.
Homemade XO Sauce
This mildly spicy condiment elevates everything it comes into contact with: fried rice, dumplings but especially handmade meatballs.
Serves 8
Prep time 20 minutes
Cook time 30 minutes
12 dried red chillies, pre-soaked
½ cup olive oil
2 cups red shallots, thinly sliced
10 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups dried scallops, pre-soaked
1 cup dried shrimps, pre-soaked
½ cup dried mushrooms, presoaked then minced
5 tbsp premium oyster sauce
1 tbsp roasted sesame oil
2 tbsp premium soy sauce
½ tsp salt
• Pound pre-soaked dried red chillies with a pestle and mortar until you achieve a coarse paste.
• Heat a wok with olive oil. Fry shallots till crisp and golden brown. Drain shallots on kitchen towel and reserve oil. In the same wok, fry garlic and pounded chillies until fragrant.
• Roughly chop softened dried scallops, shrimps and mushrooms to bite-sized pieces. Add them to the wok.
• Season with oyster sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce and salt. Reduce heat to low and continue frying, stirring the entire time, until thickened and caramelised. Toss in crispy shallots and mix well to incorporate.
• Transfer to a deep dish and let cool before serving. To store, pack into sterilised glass jars and cover completely with olive oil. Keep refrigerated.
Lion's Head Crab Balls
Traditional lion’s head is made almost entirely of minced pork. We’ve scaled back on the meat here to incorporate generous portions of lobster, crab, prawns and cuttlefish for a more decadent result.
Serves 8
Prep time 45 minutes
200g cuttlefish paste
100g lobster meat, cooked
50g crab meat, cooked
100g prawns, shelled and
roughly chopped
150g minced pork
50g baby shrimp, minced
2 tbsp premium soy sauce
2 egg yolks
1 tsp sesame oil
35g coriander root, finely
chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tsp corn flour
• Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spatula, fold the mixture together until evenly incorporated into a thickened paste, about 5-10 minutes.
• Scoop approximately 2-3 tbsp of mixture with your hands and mould to the size of a ping pong ball.
• Set aside to cook in the steamboat—they are done when they float to the top.
Credits to:
Text Maria Singh
Recipes John See
Photos Ching
Styling & art direction Thng Wee Nee