Nyonya Snack

Sounds weird to you?

Actually in Nyonya cuisine, the sauce is used liberally in many dishes. It is a legacy of Hainanese cooks who were employed by the rich Chinese tycoons or the British employers who lived in Penang at that time.

The sauce was brought in from England and until now a staple ingredient in Nyonya food.

Again I was lucky to learn how to make it by watching Nyonya Belinda Neoh. She came to teach a group of children from Anak-Anak Kota. They were all secondary students. The boys and girls in this group were learning how to be street journalists at a young age. They got to learn graphic design skills, interviewing skills, as well as other arts. On that day they learned how to cook.

It was interesting to watch how they cope with the task. In my observation, it looked like the boys had a head start.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that some of them were able to chop garlic like a professional chef, as well as being able to crack eggs using only one hand (even I cannot do that!). On the contrary some girls even did not know how to handle a knife properly. So, girls, you really must catch up!

This simple dish, even though used cheap basic ingredients, take a lot of time to prepare. The children were given their own knives and chopping boards. They helped with chopping the garlic and also dicing the carrot, mushrooms and onion.

Later, everyone fried their own nyonya snack - the French toast. Needless to say, the food was all gone in record time.

So here are the ingredients and the methods of how to make roti ayam, a simple Nyonya snack.

Ingredients:

Sauce

• 6-8 fresh red chilies
• Lea and Perrin Worcestershire Sauce

Sandwich

• 1 big loaf sandwich bread
• Oil for deep frying
• 8 eggs

Filling

• 400 g minced meat
• 6-8 cloves of garlic
• 4 onions
• 2 carrots
• 1 can button mushrooms (or 1 cup of soaked Chinese mushrooms)
• 2 tbs corn flour mixed with a little water

Seasoning

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cube Maggie chicken stock

Methods:

Prepare the seasoning for the minced meat/chicken

• Heat 2 tbs of oil and saute the chopped garlic
• Take out from the heat and let cool
• Get the minced meat and season with sauted garlic, light soy sauce, pepper and dark soy sauce
• Set aside

Prepare the filling

• Dice all ingredients
• Heat the cooking oil
• Put in the mushrooms, followed by the carrot and onion.
• Put in the minced meat and mix well with the vegetables.
• Pour in the corn starch mixture to thicken the mix. It is very important to for the filling to be dry. Otherwise, when you fill it in the sandwich, the sandwich will be soggy and you will not be able to make a beautiful French toast with it.

Make the sandwiches

• Get a slice of bread and fill it half with the filling.
• Brush the border of the bread with beaten egg to seal it
• Fold into two and set aside
• Repeat until all filling are done

Fry the sandwiches

Sauce - chopped red chilies with
Worcestershire sauce

• Heat the oil
• Deep fry the sandwiches after coating them with eggs
• Fry until golden brown on both sides
• Should not take more than 2 minutes on each side
• Drain on kitchen towels
• Serve hot with the sauce

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