Ee’s got i t down pat
Home cook Ee Hood Liang infuses regular staples with his own innovative twist.
THERE is a delicious smell wafting from Ee Hood Liang’s kitchen. Ee himself is bent over the contents of a wok, assiduously watching the pork sizzling and hissing inside.
His brows are furrowed in concentration, and it seems unlikely that anything will break his sense of purpose.
But then, this single-mindedness and dedication to the craft of cooking is an extension of the innovative, creative streak that defines every single dish that he creates.
Strangely, for someone who loves to cook so much, Ee only picked up the skill when he was 21 and went to the United States on a student exchange programme.
Deep in the depths of mid-western Minnesota, he discovered the joys of cooking.
Initially, it began as a pragmatic exercise to ward off starvation (this often entailed frantic calls to his mother, who dictated recipes over the phone).
“Back then, the Internet was just getting started, there wasn’t even YouTube at the time, so I had a lot of disasters,” he says.
But over time, as the Internet widened, so too did Ee’s cooking repertoire and soon a heartfelt passion was ignited.
“I like to innovate and try new dishes. Not necessarily invent new dishes, but take existing recipes and just add new flavours, to give it a bit of edginess,” he says.
Like his wok-fried tomato egg, which is derived from a dish he tried in Hong Kong.
“The first time I tasted this tomato egg was in Hong Kong and I felt like something was wrong – the tomatoes just tasted raw,” he says.
So Ee worked to fix the dish, improvising the cooking technique involved in creating it and adding both tomato sauce as well as plum sauce to give it more depth.
He says his new-and-improved tomato egg has his own “twist” to it and is frequently requested by friends.
While Ee now works full-time as a senior brand manager with an alcohol brand, cooking remains a central part of his life.
In fact, when the kitchen in his condo was finally assembled, he got so excited, he went out and bought all sorts of fancy gadgets and contraptions!
“When I first moved in, I wanted my kitchen to be like a professional kitchen. So I bought a 90-inch oven (the standard one is 60) so I could cook multiple things at the same time. And I bought a steam oven. All my cutlery matches and I even invested in a blowtorch!
“It’s just the kiasu part of me, to make sure I have everything ready if and when I need it,” he says.
Ee is proficient in both Chinese as well as Western cooking (his pork ribs are reputedly to die for), and while some of his dishes are familiar-sounding staples, his perfectionist streak ensures that he works hard to hone and refine his recipes down to the last detail.
Like his prized sweet and spicy pork, a dish which is ubiquitous in Chinese cooking but isn’t always done well.
“I’ve tasted a lot of sweet and spicy pork (more commonly known as sweet and sour pork), but most of them are soggy. And I don’t like it soggy, so I’ve been trying to find ways to make it crunchy.
“So after lots of experimentation, I discovered that after deep-frying the pork, you have to melt rock sugar in a clean pan and coat the pork in it. This is the secret to sweet and spicy pork that never gets soggy – I can guarantee that,” he says.
He also says there is a misconception that Chinese food is more difficult to tackle than Western food.
“Young people have sort of lost touch with Chinese cooking and opt for Western cuisine because of the perceived ease of cooking Western food, which isn’t true,” he says.
Ee says dishes like sweet and spicy pork and tomato egg require very little preparation time and can be assembled in 30 minutes or less, which is ideal for busy urbanites with hardly a minute to spare.
Even fancier dishes like claypot lap mei fun, which is a Chinese New Year staple, can be prepared for a regular weekday dinner without home cooks having to break into a sweat.
“I think it’s easy to make and I’m a big fan of lap mei fun and I want to eat it as and when. And it’s easy to prepare; it takes less than 45 minutes and it requires little supervision, especially if you pop the claypot in the oven,” he says.
Ultimately though, Ee says he loves cooking because he loves watching his carefully prepared food savoured by others.
“To me, the reason I love to cook is the satisfaction I get when I see people eating my food and enjoying it.
“And even better is when they talk about it and take pictures or share it on social media and ask for recipes.
“I think that is what drives me – the satisfaction,” he says.
SWEET & SPICY PORK Serves 4
450g semi-lean pork loin, chopped into 3cm cubes
For the marinade
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce 1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp five-spice powder
For deep-frying
4 tbsp corn flour, mixed with 2 tbsp potato flour oil, for deep-frying 8 small pieces rock sugar (or 3 tbsp sugar will do just fine)
For the additional ingredients
3 tbsp sunflower oil
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped 2 cili padi, sliced
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
1/2 red capsicum, cut into pieces 1/2 yellow capsicum, cut into piece 1/2 green capsicum, cut into pieces pepper to taste
1/4 cup chilli sauce
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup plum sauce
To marinate the pork
Mix all the marinade ingredien together, and coat the pork well w it. Allow to marinate overnight, o at least 4 hours.
To fry the pork
Lightly coat the marinated pork with the flour and deep-fry it in a of oil for 8-10 minutes, or until go brown.
In a separate pan over medium heat, add rock sugar and allow it melt. Place the pork in the pan an ensure each piece is lightly coated with the rock sugar. This will ensu the pork stays crunchy.
To cook and complete the dish
Heat oil in a wok. Add garlic an fry until aromatic. Add the cili pa onion and all the capsicums. Fry f minutes to cook the vegetables be adding the pork. Pour in the 3 sau (chilli, tomato, plum) and stir wel before serving.
CLAYPOT RICE WITH WAXED MEAT (Lap Mei Fan)
Serves 4
For the rice and assorted meats
3 cups rice, washed
3 cups water pinch of salt
1 tbsp sunflower oil
2 Chinese sausages (lap cheong) 2 goose/duck liver sausage (fun cheong) 1 waxed duck thigh
50g waxed belly pork
For the sauce
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 small piece salted fish, finely chopped 3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1/2 tsp sesame oil pepper to taste sugar to taste
To garnish
chopped spring onions
For the claypot rice
Place rice in a heated, mediumsized claypot and add water and a pinch of salt. Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat and open the lid to stir the rice. The water level should have gone down by half. Drizzle the oil around the side of the claypot, allowing it to flow underneath. This will ensure the rice doesn’t get burnt. Add in all the meat ingredients on top and turn the heat to low. Let it cook for 10-15 minutes. Leave to rest, covered, for 5 minutes.
For the sauce
In a pan over medium heat, add the sunflower oil. Once the oil is heated, add in the chopped salted fish. Stir-fry until it becomes aromatic before adding in the garlic. Stir-fry the garlic until it is golden, then switch off the fire and add the remaining ingredients, stirring to mix well.
To serve
Drizzle the sauce on the well-rested claypot rice, according to your preference. Garnish with spring onions. WOK-FRIED TOMATO EGG
Serves 4 For the egg
5 kampung eggs or 4 table eggs 1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil pinch of pepper
For the sauce
5 tbsp sunflower oil, for frying eg 3 large tomatoes, chopped into 5 tbsp tomato sauce
5 tbsp plum sauce
1 tsp sugar
For garnishing
2 large lettuce/cabbage leaves edible flowers (can be swapped with coriander leaves)
To cook
Mix eggs, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and pepper together in a bowl and whisky gently for 30 seconds.
In a wok, heat sunflower oil and pour the egg mix in once the oil is hot. Swirl the egg concoction around the wok with a spatula to even out around the wok. Allow brown before flipping over to brown the other side. Use the spatula to cut the eggs into medium size pieces.
Reduce the heat to low. Throw in the chopped toma toes and allow to simmer an soften with the eggs. This wi 4 to 5 minutes. Add the toma and plum sauce and stir well to ensure all the eggs are coated with the sauce. Now add the sugar and stir for 30 seconds to allow it to melt before serving.
To serve
Scoop the cooked eggs into the “cup” of lettuce leaves and garnish with edible flowers. Serve hot. RED BEAN SOUP WITH SESAME DUMPLINGS
Serves 4
100g red beans, rinsed well 2-3 litres water
2 pieces dried tangerine peel (or mandarin orange peel) 3-4 pieces palm sugar 4 sesame-filled glutinous rice balls (available frozen at the supermarket)
To make the dessert
Soak the red beans for at least 6 hours. Put the beans into a pot and add water. Bring it to a boil before adding the tangerine peel. Lower the heat to medium after 30 minutes of boiling and add the palm sugar. Boil for the next hour before serving.
Add the glutinous rice balls towards the end and stir constantly to prevent them sticking to the base of the pot. Serve hot or cold as desired.