Singapore has a vibrant mix of Chinese, Indians, Malays and a smattering of Europeans, and offers some of the best street food in the world. Wickedfood Cooking School has visited the city in search of its mouthwatering flavours. Fish head curry is one of the dishes we teach in our cooking class.

100 g shallots
130 g grated coconut
1 cup water
1t turmeric powder
2t cumin powder
3T chilli powder
5T coriander powder
1½t salt
3T oil
½t mustard seeds
½t cumin seeds
½t fennel seeds, coarsely pounded
1t fenugreek
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
10 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 cm ginger, thinly sliced
2 sprigs curry leaves
180 g tamarind mixed with 6 cups water and strained
300 g ladies fingers or brinjals cut into 4-5 cm pieces
4 tomatoes, quartered
1 fish head, about 1-1 ½ kg, halved and cleaned
3 tablespoons finely chopped coriander leaves

1. Blend the coconut and shallots together with the water until smooth.
2. Mix the blended ingredients with the turmeric, cumin, chilli and coriander powder and the salt.  Leave aside.
3. Heat oil and fry the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds and fenugreek until aromatic.
4. Add in the onion, garlic, ginger and curry leaves.  Saute till onion turn golden brown.
5. Add in the blended ingredients and saute  over low heat till oil separates.
6. Add in the tamarind water and boil for about 5 minutes.
7. Add in the vegetables and boil till tender.
8. Lower in the fish head and cook over medium heat till the fish head is cooked.
9. Sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves before serving.

NOTE:  If you don’t have separate curry powders use 9T Fish curry powder

Great Asian recipes – Click here:

Chicken feet

Biryani

Kaeng kari ka – yellow curried chicken

Phanaeng Beef Curry in sweet peanut sauce

Phat Thai

Tom yum kung

Green pawpaw salad

Fish head curry

Warm squid salad in a pineapple

Spiced pork spare ribs

Deep-fried silken tofu

Thai beef salad

3 Cup Chicken

Cooking schools in South East Asia

Thai House cooking school • Bangkok • Thailand

Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School • Thailand

Red Bridge Cooking School • Hoi An • Vietnam

Books reviewed by Wickedfood on Asian food:

Secrets of the Red Lantern

Kylie Kwong: Recipes and Stories

A Passion for Thai Cooking

Balance & Harmony, Asian Food

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Wickedfood cooking school runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these classes are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Singapore is a city at the crossroads of the spice route. With a vibrant mix of Chinese, Indians, Malays and a smattering of Europeans it is little wonder that it offers some of the best street food in the world. Wickedfood Cooking School visits the city and samples some of its mouthwatering flavours for ideas for future cooking classes.

Lau Pa Sat is located in the heart of the buiness district, beneath a beautiful Victorian structure

It’s a sticky tropical evening, slight relief being provided by the overhead fans. The air is filled with the aroma of grilled meat as cooks fan the little charcoal barbecues for a more intense heat. As the sun dramatically sets, and darkness threatens to engulf the sidewalks, the trees suddenly become ablaze as a hundred thousand fairy lights sparkle to life. At 7:00pm sharp (everything is on time in Singapore) table jockeys and satay peddlers claim the adjoining street, setting up rows of foldaway tables and stools, while more barbecue food stalls are wheeled into position. This is the scene every night at Lau Pa Sat Hawker Center, in the heart of Singapore’s business district. And it is not unique.
Food hawkers did not always congregate in food centres. Until fairly recently they wheeled their pushcarts through the streets of the city. With a combination of calls and enticing smells, they lured customers to purchase their daily meal, often purchasing different components from different hawkers to put together a family dinner.
Today you’ll find hawker food centres scattered throughout the city, from plush food courts with air conditioning in all the major shopping centres, to more basic, but often much more authentic little centres adjoining apartment blocks, business districts and markets. They are as much a part of daily Singaporean life as food itself is. Talk to any Singaporean and inevitably the subject will drift to food, many jokingly refer to eating as the national pastime. The standard Singaporean greeting, “Ingapore”, the equivalent of “what’s up?” means “have you eaten?”
Even before the colonization of Asia by Europe, Singapore stood the crossroads of the spice routes. And still today the city’s food reflects the cross cultural diversity of its location, encompassing dishes from China, India, Malaysia and even Europe.

This diversity has led to some deliciously mouthwatering dishes. Must try Singapore dishes

Nearly every high-rise apartment block in Singapore has hawker food stalls either in the basements or in an adjoining lot. They are cheap and safe to eat at – Singapore hawker food centres

Great Asian recipes – Click here:

Chicken feet

Biryani

Kaeng kari ka – yellow curried chicken

Phanaeng Beef Curry in sweet peanut sauce

Phat Thai

Tom yum kung

Green pawpaw salad

Fish head curry

Warm squid salad in a pineapple

Spiced pork spare ribs

Deep-fried silken tofu

Thai beef salad

3 Cup Chicken

For other articles on South East Asia see:

A Taste of Thailand

Floating markets in Bangkok

Must try Singapore dishes

The ABCs of Singapore food

Singapore hawker food centres

Vietnamese cuisine

Cooking schools in South East Asia

Thai House cooking school • Bangkok • Thailand

Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School • Thailand

Red Bridge Cooking School • Hoi An • Vietnam

Books reviewed by Wickedfood on Asian food:

Secrets of the Red Lantern

Kylie Kwong: Recipes and Stories

A Passion for Thai Cooking

Balance & Harmony, Asian Food

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Wickedfood® Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these classes are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

A little curry powder and saffron elevate the classic combination of cauliflower and cheese to another dimension in this soup. It is ideal as a winter warmer. This delicious cauliflower soup can be served with warm Indian bread or Cheddar on toast.

The recipe is taken from the Wickedfood cookbook-of-the-week – Cooking for Friends by Gordon Ramsey. This recipe will also be included in our cookbook-of-the-month cooking class, when we will be featuring a number of the recipes from the book and reinterpreting them with lots of additional tips for our students.

¼ cup olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1t mild curry powder
pinch of saffron strands
300ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
300ml milk
100g medium or strong Cheddar, grated

1. Heat half the oil in a large saucepan and add the onions and celery. Stir over medium heat for 3-4 minutes until the vegetables are beginning to soften.
2. Add the remaining oil, cauliflower florets, curry powder and saffron, and season with salt and pepper. Stir well and cook for a couple of minutes. Cover the pan and cook for another 4-5 minutes, lifting the lid to give the mixture a stir every now and then.
3. Remove the lid and pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer, then pour in the milk, adding a splash of water if the liquid does not cover the vegetables. Return to a gentle simmer. Partially cover the pan and simmer for 10 minutes until the cauliflower is very soft.
4. Use a hand-held stick blender to liquidize the soup, or blend the soup in 2 batches if using a regular blender.
5. Return the soup to the pan and place over low heat. Bring to a gentle simmer, then slowly stir in the cheese to melt. Loosen the consistency with a little hot water if the soup is too thick, and taste and adjust the seasoning

Serves 4-6

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Wickedfood® cooking school runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these classes are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Bills food, by Australian TV chef Bill Granger, although published in 2002, remains fresh and topical, and is the basis around the television series presently being broadcast on BBC Lifestyle. Following the huge success of his first book, Sydney Food, he returns with a very personal recipe collection to cater for all occasions, from lazy breakfasts to a relaxed family brunch and dinner with friends. Bill’s trademark is simple, stylish market-fresh food that appeals to the eye and the palate, and this collection really captures the tastes and flavours of contemporary Sydney food.

This book also forms the basis for Wickedfood’s cookbook-of-the-month cooking class. Dishes covered in the class will include potato cakes with smoked salmon, mushroom soup, cannelloni, glazed honey and soy chicken, and chocolate pudding.

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Boksburg – (011) 823-5365 boksburg@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these classes are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

There’s a close relationship to the foods of Northern South-East Asia – the Yunnan Province of China, Laos, Vietnam, Khmer (Cambodia), Northern Thailand and the North East corner of Burma (Myanmar). They are all touched by the Mekong River, which has always played an important part in the area’s cuisine, providing an easy means of transport. It is home to one of the oldest inhabited regions of the world, and the area where rice was first cultivated. The region has always been an area of conflict.
The Vietnamese originated from northern Vietnam and were ruled for almost 1 000 years (until 938AD) by the Chinese. In the 13th century they repelled Mongol invaders and in 1428 defeated and expelled the Chinese for the last time. The Khmer controlled southern Vietnam and the whole delta from the 9th to the 17th century, when the delta was ceded to Vietnam. They then started to expand their empire southwards and in 1802, with the help of the French, laid their final boundaries. Vietnamese culture further expanded in recent history from 1949 to 1975 during the post-colonial wars in the region, where large communities of Vietnamese were displaced to Cambodia, Laos and north-eastern Thailand.
Vietnam has one of the richest and most varied cuisines in the world. With its great diversity of climate and terrain, it produces almost anything which can be eaten. Vietnam’s culinary traditions are relatively different to its neighbours. Being on the crossroads between north and southern Asia, it has a diversity of flavours, foods from the south are hotter than their northern cousins.
As in China and Thailand, the Vietnamese kitchen shares the concept of five flavours – a balance of salt, sweet, sour, bitter and hot. One or two flavours may dominate a dish, others play a pleasant harmony. Bowls of soup in a variety of guises are the fast food of Vietnam. These are whole meals, noodle based, usually with a clear stock, a few shavings of meat and a handful of fresh herbs. Sir-frying is also an extremely common method of preparation, but using less oil than in China. From the French came baguettes and coffee.
Fresh salad leaves and herbs play an important part in everyday meals and are ever present on the table, often used as wraps together with rice paper, for morsels of fried or grilled meats and fish. Salads are usually presented in separate piles as opposed to tossed, allowing diners to choose what leaves they prefer. Presentation plays as an important role as does taste. Rice is served with every meal, whether in grains or in noodles.
Vietnamese dishes have more of a tarty base from a combination of lime and tamarind juice, and fish sauce. Chilli is used as a dip, allowing diners to establish their own degree of heat. Fish sauce (Nuoc mam) is the most important ingredient, replacing soya sauce. Vietnamese Nuoc mam is regarded throughout South-East Asia as the best fish sauce.

The Vietnamese table
Vietnamese eat their meals with chopsticks from rice bowls, when not eating with their fingers. For soups, a soup spoon is used for the liquid and chopsticks for the solids. A table setting always includes a pot of dipping sauce (nuoc cham) and a bottle of nuoc mam. The meal is composed of rice and something else. A meal without rice is regarded as a snack. Ideally a meal includes vegetables, fish or meat and a soup. All food is brought simultaneously to the table.
A distinctive ingredient is rice paper, used in a variety of guises to wrap food in. Throughout Vietnam you will see disks of rice paper drying in the sun. It is a major cottage industry, and once you master the procedure, relatively easy to make.
Vietnam has three distinctive food styles, southern, central and northern. Southern is thus by far the spiciest, northern the most bland, while the central cuisine is the most complex.

Herbs and spices

Herbs especially, play an incredibly important role in the cuisine, with a wide variety being used on a daily basis, served fresh as a salad base. The most important herbs in the cuisine are:

• mint – indispensable, it comes in a number of varieties;
• star aniseed – coming originally from China, it has cloves which resemble an 8-pointed star, with a strong licorice flavour, it is essential in the making of pho.
• turmeric – related to ginger, the ground powder with its deep yellow colour is used as a dye as well as in curries.
• chives – are sold fresh by the bunch, with a stiff flowering stem being most sought-after.
• cane sugar – unrefined is an essential ingredient, with the cane itself used as one of Vietnam’s national dishes, wrapped with a prawn paste.
• chillies – are used mainly for garnishes and dips.
• coriander – is an essential herb, especially with fresh salads.
• basil – with its mild anise seed flavour is used as a garnish in soups, especially pho.
• Vietnamese mint – an important fresh ingredient with a slightly anise seed chilli flavour. If unavailable a combination of mint and coriander is a good substitute.

What’s on the menu?
At Wickedfood Cooking School our cooking classes on South East Asian cuisine takes the students into the Vietnamese kitchen and teaches them how to prepare a scrumptious combination of some of Vietnam’s best love dishes. Click here for more information.

Great Asian recipes – Click here:

Chicken feet

Biryani

Kaeng kari ka – yellow curried chicken

Phanaeng Beef Curry in sweet peanut sauce

Phat Thai

Tom yum kung

Green pawpaw salad

Fish head curry

Warm squid salad in a pineapple

Spiced pork spare ribs

Deep-fried silken tofu

Thai beef salad

3 Cup Chicken

For other articles on South East Asia see:

A Taste of Thailand

Floating markets in Bangkok

Must try Singapore dishes

The ABCs of Singapore food

Singapore hawker food centres

Vietnamese cuisine

Cooking schools in South East Asia

Thai House cooking school • Bangkok • Thailand

Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School • Thailand

Red Bridge Cooking School • Hoi An • Vietnam

Books reviewed by Wickedfood on Asian food:

Secrets of the Red Lantern

Kylie Kwong: Recipes and Stories

A Passion for Thai Cooking

Balance & Harmony, Asian Food

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Boksburg – (011) 823-5365 boksburg@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these classes are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.