Feb 15, 2009
In the spirit of sharing
Madam Sakinah Jamin used to be grouchy about giving away the goodies she made, but has since changed her attitude
By Huang Lijie
For housewife Madam Sakinah Jamin, 55, food is more than just nourishment. It is a powerful social glue that brings people together.
The avid cook, who was fostered to her aunt as a child, says: 'My aunt was a generous cook. Whenever she made cookies for festive celebrations, she would ask friends and relatives to take some home.
'As a kid helping her in the kitchen, I was very grouchy that we had to share the cookies because it was very tiring to make so many of them.'
But when she and her mechanic husband settled in Boon Lay and started their own family, she found herself doing the same thing her aunt did - sharing her food with her neighbours.
She says: 'My Indian neighbour at the time cooked curry that smelled very good, so I asked her what she was making. She invited me into her home to try it and that was how we started exchanging recipes and food.'
She adds: 'Sometimes, my neighbours would realise half-way through cooking that they had run out of certain ingredients such as salt or eggs, so they would come over and see if I had any to spare. There was a very strong kampung spirit among us.'
Indeed, many of her friendships with her neighbours in Boon Lay were forged over food, and the most heart-warming one is with her former next-door neighbour, Madam Bessie Ng, who taught her how to cook Chinese herbal soups.
Madam Sakinah, who has an adult son and daughter, says: 'Bessie boiled herbal soups for me when I was pregnant. And when I was busy, she would help take care of my children.
'Our families have stood by each other through ups and downs in life and I am as close to Bessie as real sisters are. Although we have not been neighbours for more than 10 years, we still visit each other and we always have reunion dinner with her family on Chinese New Year's Eve.'
This strong sense of affiliation to the Boon Lay community is what prompted her to continue on as a grassroots volunteer in the Boon Lay ward in West Coast GRC, despite her family's move to a flat in Toh Guan Road in the Holland-Bukit Timah GRC in 1996.
She helps to cook at grassroots events and a dish she frequently whips up is dry mee siam (rice vermicelli in a spicy gravy).
She came up with the gravy-less version while looking for an easier alternative to her aunt's recipe for the dish.
She says: 'The gravy for mee siam takes a long time to cook. The dry version, however, is a simple stir-fry. It does not require coconut milk either, which is used to make the gravy, so it is healthier.'
Besides the spicy noodle dish, she is also known among friends in Boon Lay for her zesty orange cake, kueh dadar (coconut crepe) and yummy roti jala (lacy pancake).
So when the Boon Lay constituency decided to publish a cookbook to raise funds for programmes for its residents, she was approached to share her recipes.
And she readily agreed.
She says: 'I don't think I'm a very good cook, but I like to share my recipes and it is for a charitable cause.'
She contributed three recipes - orange cake, roti jala and keema (minced meat curry) - to the book, titled Boon Lay... Blending With Food.
The community cookbook features 78 recipes from more than 40 contributors, most of whom are residents of Boon Lay. Its initial print of 3,000 copies has raised more than $2.68 million so far.
The self-taught cook says her culinary interest was sparked by home economics lessons in secondary school. She says: 'I used to help my aunt in the kitchen at home, but cooking then was a chore because you had to do everything by hand.
'Things were different in school. We used modern cooking equipment such as electric blenders and ovens. This made cooking easier and much more fun.'
So enthusiastic was she about cooking that she sat her aunt down and recorded the former's recipes in a note book.
She still keeps the yellowing book, which is crammed with more than 30 of her aunt's recipes, including traditional Malay dishes such as assam pedas (fish curry) as well as forgotten foods such as pudding kundur, a steamed cake made of winter melon strips, soda crackers and milk.
She says: 'My aunt used to say jokingly, as I wrote down her recipes in my book, 'This is my secret recipe, don't give it to others'. But there is no secret to cooking Malay food. You just cannot be stingy with the ingredients.'
Boon Lay... Blending With Food is on sale at the Boon Lay Community Centre at $25 (softcover) and $50 (hardcover). Call 6261-9947 for details.
'The gravy for mee siam takes a long time to cook. The dry version, however, is a simple stir-fry. It does not require coconut milk either, which is used to make the gravy, so it is healthier.'
MADAM SAKINAH, on her gravy-less version of mee siam
MAKE IT YOURSELF: DRY MEE SIAM
INGREDIENTS:
6 eggs
350g fresh prawns, shelled and deveined
10 Tbs cooking oil
400g of firm soya beancurd, cubed
15 dried red chillies, seeded, soaked in water till soft then drained
5 fresh red chillies
6 cloves garlic
15 shallots
100g dried shrimps, rinsed, soaked in water till soft, drained and coarsely pounded
6 Tbs fermented soya beans (taucheo)
400g dried rice vermicelli, soaked in water till soft, then drained
350g bean sprouts
100g Chinese chives, cut into 2cm-long strips
salt to taste
6 limes, halved
METHOD:
1. Boil the eggs, then leave to cool before removing the shell and cutting into thin slices. Set aside.
2. Steam the prawns for 5 minutes until cooked. Set aside.
3. To a hot pan, add 2 Tbs of oil and stir-fry the soya beancurd cubes till golden brown. Set aside.
4. Blend the dried chillies, fresh chillies, garlic and shallots in an electric blender on medium speed until a coarse paste forms.
5. To a hot wok, add 8 Tbs of oil and fry the chilli paste for some 5 minutes until fragrant.
6. Add the dried shrimps and fermented soya beans and stir-fry until well incorporated.
7. Add the rice vermicelli, mix well and stir-fry for about 10 minutes until the vermicelli is cooked. If necessary, add 1/2 cup of water to the noodles to prevent them from drying out.
8. Add bean sprouts and Chinese chives, mix well and stir-fry for another 3 minutes.
9. Add salt to taste.
10. Transfer the noodles to a serving plate. Top with steamed prawns, fried beancurd cubes, and egg. (photo D) Before eating, squeeze the limes over the noodles and toss well.
Serves six to eight
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