Recipes For Success

Yearning to put your cooking appliances and skills to the test? Have a go at these popular local delights and surprise your family and guests at the next home gathering.

- EMMELYN CINDY MAH

Most, if not all Singaporeans grow up with a very distinct sense of food and cuisine. From a very young age, we're exposed to the cornucopia of cultures in our beautiful country, and nothing showcases this happy marriage more than the food of our people.

From curries to sambal, to stir-fries in our Lonely Planetworthy hawker centres, we've got it all, and boy, are we proud of it.

While homemakers from the older generations may be well-versed in preparing these delectable dishes, many younger ones are intimidated by the amount of prepwork and labour required of the recipes. However, with practise and patience, it is easy to master some local delicacies worthy of a weekend lunch or dinner spread.

With the right kitchen appliances and cooking essentials in place, this is the opportune moment to find out how well your home kitchen can handle the task of whipping up some tasty local recipes.

Commonly found in most hawker centres, dishes like satay and nasi ulam are well loved by the locals because of its robust flavours. Here, we've simplified the steps required to create those traditional favourites. Use the following recipes to see how well your cooking skills stack up too.

NASI ULAM AYAM BAKAR

Ingredients

FOR ULAM

• ½ ginger flower, minced

• One onion, minced

• ½ cucumber, julienned

• 20 g mint leaves, julienned

• 20 g Vietnamese mint leaves, julienned

• 20 g local basil leaves, julienned

• 20 g cabbage, julienned

• 10 g beansprouts

FOR CHICKEN

• 2 chicken Maryland cuts

• 3 cm ginger

• 3 cm galangal

• ½ tsp turmeric powder

• 2 stalks lemongrass

• ½ tsp coriander powder

• 1½ tsp kicap manis

• Salt