In Singapore of the 60s, hawker licensing
laws weren’t that stringently enforced. As a result many households were able
to set up makeshift ‘pirate’ food stalls to earn extra cash. Without any sort
of culinary training to speak of, these hawkers would simply cook and sell what
they knew best: food they ate at home, or well-known dishes and snacks from
their dialect groups. I remember them well, these 1st- or 2nd-generation
immigrants to Singapore, the blood of their motherland still coursing thick in
their veins.
I remember too, the type of food they cooked:
robust, unadulterated, and redolent of their origins -- you ate, so to speak,
the real McCoy.
I knew one such hawker family. At 4 in the
morning the mother would wake up and start whipping up a storm in the kitchen
for the morning’s business. Her husband, or sometimes children, would then set
up stall – a couple of charcoal stoves, a table and stools -- at the foot of
their flat. They sold fried noodles, peanut porridge, and a favorite of mine:
fried glutinous rice.
To make fried glutinous rice, in the truly
traditional way, is bicep-building work. You stand at the wok, slow frying the
rice. The grains get stickier -- and increasingly harder to stir -- as the rice
slowly cooks. It’s torture on the arms, but worth it. Properly done, each grain
of rice acquires a light crust and is filled with flavor from the preserved
sausages and other ingredients.
Understandably, the woman would produce only
a small tub’s worth each day, whereupon a queue would form just for it, and the
glutinous rice would sell out before the clock hits 7 every morning. It was
cheap too. You get two mouthfuls for 20 cents – a fair deal by the living costs
of those days, considering the effort to make it.
For a kid, it was a total treat! I’d savor
each bite, and make sure the breakfast lasted.
The rest of the food would usually sell out
by 9. The hardworking mother would clean the hawking space, and return to her
domestic duties.
I’ve listed two cooking methods. The first is
an easier method that anyone could prepare; it would be similar in taste to the
other, and much less work. However, for the purists and traditionalists among
you, the second method is yours! It would give you a true sense of how
strenuous the preparation is…but the end result is worth every drop of sweat;
trust me!
Fried
Glutinous Rice
Glutinous rice 300 g
Water 3
cups
Dried shrimps 20
g, soaked in warm water
Dried mushroom 15 g, soaked in warm water
Salt 1½ tsp
Chinese sausage 30 g
Chinese liver sausage 30 g
Chicken broth 3
tbsp
Light soy sauce 1 tbsp
Dark soy sauce ½ tbsp
Fried shallots
Fried garlic
Spring onion
White pepper
Method:
- Soak dried shrimp and
mushroom in warm water for 30 minutes. Drain them well but keep the water.
- Soak glutinous rice with 3
cups of water plus the water from soaking the dried shrimps and mushrooms.
Drain the rice thoroughly after 3 hours. Add salt in the rice and mix
well.
- Steam rice, dried shrimp
and diced mushroom for 30 minutes. Sprinkle 2 tbsp of chicken broth and
place the sausages on top of the rice and continue to steam for another 10
minutes.
- Remove the sausages and
dice them.
- Pour 3 tbsp of oil in a hot
wok. Fry the sausages till slightly golden brown. Add minced garlic and
rice and continue to fry until there is a light crust on the rice. In between, sprinkle light and dark soy
sauce into the rice. These sauces add flavor and also make the frying of
the rice easier. There should be a light crust in every grain.
- Sprinkle fried shallots,
garlic, spring onion and pepper before serving.
Note: Make sure the rice is hot before
frying or it will stick together.
Traditional Method:
- Heat 1 tsp of oil in a wok.
Fry mushroom until the water in the mushroom has evaporated. Add minced
garlic, shrimp, diced sausages, and fry until it is fragrant. Remove and
set aside.
- Heat 2 tbsp of oil on
medium flame. Add rice and fry for 15 minutes. In between, sprinkle
chicken broth and salt.
- Return the fried sausage
mixture into the rice and continue to fry for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle
soy sauces in between.
- Once the rice is cooked,
sprinkle fried shallots, garlic, spring onion and pepper before serving.
