Hakka Abacus Seeds Recipe
Huang Lijie | The Sunday Times | Sun Jun 1 2008
The promise of good fortune often compels one to swallow auspicious Chinese food without hesitating over its taste.
A moment of gastronomic ransom paid by chewing through gooey, tooth-achingly sweet nian gao, or glutinous rice flour cake, seems to count for little in exchange for a successful year.
Thankfully, suan pan zi, or abacus seeds, has one counting his blessings the minute one bites into the springy discs of yam, shaped after its namesake.
This traditional Hakka dish is eaten during festive celebrations such as Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival for prosperity, says Madam Lee Li Chin, 56, a Hakka food expert with the Nanyang Khek Community Guild, the chief Hakka clan association here.
Her fondness for this dish, though, lies in the richness of its origin. She says: “The use of yam, a hardy vegetable that grows easily, highlights the resourcefulness of Hakkas. The Hakkas are also known for their sharp business acumen and the abacus symbolises that.”
She adds that it is a pity there are no records on who came up with the dish and when it became popular, although it is known to have originated from the Hakka district of Dabu, in Guangdong, China.
The avid cook says knowing the history of Hakka dishes has made her more passionate about heritage food. She began researching the origins of traditional Hakka food after her appointment as head of the culinary department of the guild in 1996.
Poring over books in the guild’s library was no chore for the director of a metal finishing business, who majored in history at Nanyang University. “When I realised that what I imbibe is more than just food but a people’s culture, the process of cooking and eating became more meaningful for me,” says the mother of two grown-up daughters. Her husband is the managing director of the company she works in.
Indeed, she is so inspired by Hakka food history that she talks about it whenever she conducts cooking classes at the Char Yang (Dabu) Lee Chee Association, another Hakka clan association here.
Madam Lee, who spent her childhood pottering around her family’s fruit and vegetable plantations in Pulau Tekong and helping her mother in the kitchen, is no stranger to cooking. But it was only after she started her own family in 1976 that she began learning in earnest the finer points of cooking Hakka food from her mother.
She cooks dinner for her family every day and her repertoire of Hakka dishes spans about 30 recipes, including salt-baked chicken, niang doufu (stuffed beancurd), and her personal favourite, huang jiu ji, a chicken stir-fry with home-made glutinous rice wine and ginger.
Her enthusiasm for cooking is also evident from the pots of herbs she grows in her Jurong East condominium, such as basil and mugwort, which are common in Hakka food.
She says: “Authentic Hakka food is not difficult to make but it sometimes demands a fair bit of preparatory work in the kitchen and this can discourage people from cooking it at home.”
Abacus seeds, however, is a simple dish to make. The only things one needs to pay attention to, she says, is the tapioca flour-to-yam ratio, and the process of kneading the dough. Too much flour, and the yam discs become hard. Too much yam, and the seeds will not hold their shape.
It is also important to knead the yam and flour together while the boiled yam paste is still warm. She says: “The heat from the yam paste might be a little uncomfortable but doing so ensures that the abacus seeds have a springy bite.”
So whether you are looking for a quick-fix to your flagging fortunes, or an easy-to-cook dish that will evoke gastronomic bliss, Madam Lee’s recipe below for Hakka abacus seeds should come in handy.
Ingredients
1kg purple yam, cleaned, peeled and thinly sliced
4 tsp salt
700g tapioca flour
6 Tbs cooking oil
10 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
100g dried shrimp, coarsely blended
150g dried Chinese mushroom, soaked till soft and sliced
500g minced pork
2 tsp pepper
Method
1. Place yam in a pot and fill with water until yam is just covered. Add 2 tsp salt and bring mixture to a boil.
2. Allow the boiled yam mixture to cook for another 20 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally until it forms a smooth paste.
3. Place the tapioca flour in a large mixing bowl and add hot yam paste to it, stirring it in well.
4. When the yam and flour mixture has cooled for about 5 minutes, knead it to form a dough.
5. Pinch off enough dough to roll into a ball 2cm in diameter. Press the ball between your thumb and forefinger so that it is depressed in the middle and shaped like an abacus seed. Repeat until dough is used up.
6. Fill a pot with water to the three-quarter mark and bring it to a boil. Place abacus seeds in the pot and cook it for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the seeds from sticking to the bottom of the pot. When cooked, the seeds will float to the top.
7. Scoop out the cooked abacus seeds and leave them aside to drain.
8. To a hot wok, add 4 Tbs of oil and fry the garlic for 2 minutes till golden brown before adding dried shrimp and mushroom. Stir fry the mixture for another 5 minutes, then set aside.
9. Add 2 Tbs of oil to the hot wok and fry the minced pork for about 10 minutes until all the moisture in the wok has evaporated.
10. To the minced pork, add in the cooked garlic, dried shrimp, mushroom, abacus seeds as well as pepper and 2 tsp salt. Stir fry for 5 minutes.
Serves 5 to 6 persons.