Shermay Lee - New Mrs Lees Cookbook, The--Volume 2

The New MRS LEES COOKBOOK Volume 2 The New MRS LEES COOKBOOK Volume 2 Straits Heritage Cuisine Written by Mrs Lee Chin Koon Foreword by Former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew Updated by her granddaughter Shermay Lee Food Preparation: Shermay Lee Editor: Lydia Leong Designer: Ang Lee Ming Photographer: Yu Hui Ying Photographer (Portrait): Steve Loh Enquiries: Shermays Singapore Fine Food www.shermay.com (order online) +65 6479 8442 Published by World Scientific Lifestyle An imprint of World Scientific Publlishing Co Pte Ltd 5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224 USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data Names: Lee, Chin Koon, Mrs. | Lee, Shermay, 1975- | Lee, Kuan Yew, 1923-2015, writer of foreword. Title: The new Mrs Lees cookbook. volume 2, Straits heritage cuisine / foreword by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew;
written by Mrs Lee Chin Koon; updated by her granddaughter Shermay Lee. Description: Singapore: WS Lifestyle, [2019] Identifiers: OCN 1117694068 | ISBN 978-981-121-263-5 (hardcover) | Previously published: Singapore: Times Editions, 2003. | Cooking, Singaporean. | Cooking, Singaporean.

Classification: DDC 641.595957--dc23 THE NEW MRS LEES COOKBOOK: STRAITS HERITAGE CUISINE Vol. 2 Copyright 20042019 by Shermay Lee All rights reserved. ISBN 978-981-121-263-5 Printed by Tien Wah Press Pte Ltd

My mother loved good food and liked to cook for her children. When I went to college and had to eat institutional food in the hall, I was miserable. After I married and set up home, we had Cantonese maids. They were good cooks, but they could not quite reproduce the Peranakan dishes my mother cooked.

So we got used to different standards. A year ago, my niece, Shermay Lee, updated my mothers cookbook and called it The New Mrs Lees Cookbook Vol. 1: Nonya Cuisine. It won an international award. She has invited me to dinner at her cooking school in Chip Bee Gardens. Her dishes evoked memories of my mothers food.

But either because with age my palate has become dulled and jaded, or the ingredients are no longer the same; in my memory, my mothers dishes were better. However, for those who have never tasted my mothers cooking, Shermays will be the next best available. Lee Kuan Yew
3 August 2004

Thanks be to God whose blessings are more than I could have asked for or imagined. The overwhelming success of The New Mrs Lees Cookbook Vol. 1: Nonya Cuisine exceeded my expectations by every measure. Relaunching my late grandmothers recipes was something I did with great enthusiasm but also with a sense of responsibility because of the culinary significance of her famous orange-coloured cookbook.

The overall concept of the revised cookbooks is a result of very deliberate choices that my publisher and I made to update and modernise her cookbook without losing its credibility and authenticity. We set out to revamp the layout yet make minimal changes to the recipes, except where absolutely necessary, and to enhance it with photographs that detail the texture and colour of each dish. I added special touches to the first of the revised cookbooks, such as making subtle historic references to the original cookbook. I was encouraged to hear from readers who appreciated these extra efforts. These included the special request I made to Dr Wee Kim Wee to write a new Foreword since he had written the Foreword for my grandmothers cookbook some 30 years ago, as well as the use of the same seasoned kuali (wok) and batu lesung (mortar and pestle) that my grandmother had used in her original cookbook, to illustrate the Basic Kitchen Equipment section. Small details like these may generally go unnoticed but are nevertheless there to add that special touch.

Even more rewarding is the fact that several people told me the cookbook had renewed their interest in Nonya cooking, and many dishes are now re-appearing on their dining tables once again. A few ladies whose mothers learnt cooking from my grandmother are also now attending my classes two generations later. The New Mrs Lees Cookbook Vol. 1: Nonya Cuisine is a collection of the classic Nonya recipes my grandmother mastered when she was young, as she was taught the rudiments of cooking by my great grandmother in preparation for marriage. She later continued to cook these perennial favourites, such as Ayam Buah Keluak, Garam Asam and Mee Siam, as a mother of five, and then as a grandmother of seventeen. 2: Straits Heritage Cuisine, reflects a later phase in her life particularly from the 1950s to the 1970s. 2: Straits Heritage Cuisine, reflects a later phase in her life particularly from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Although the recipes appear very diverse, they testify to her great love of cooking and her ability to embrace new ideas. My mother, the editor of the original cookbook, describes my grandmother as an adventurous and passionate cook who often managed to befriend other chefs, many from famous restaurants, to learn new cooking techniques and recipes. Included in this second volume are a number of Cantonese dishes which my grandmother learnt from Chef Tham Yui Kai. It is likely that she learnt from him such dishes as Sook Muy Tong, Chow Har, Foo Yong Hai, Chicken Filling in a Yam Basket, Chicken and Cashew Nuts, Chicken Wrapped in Paper, Sweet and Sour Pork, Yok Lan Gai and Minute Steak, to name a few. She later learnt how to make dim sum from another chef, although we have no written record of those recipes. She also used to fill her time teaching cooking to expatriate wives, including wives of the diplomatic corps, in particular, wives of British and Australian military officers.

She taught them Curry Tiffin, the simplified version of local dishes such as Satay and Sayur Lodeh, and other home-style Chinese favourites, often altering the recipes to take into account the availability of ingredients in their native homes as well as to suit their palates. In addition, there are a few recipes that must have emerged from the kitchens of Hainanese cookboys in colonial homes or country clubs. These recipes include Boneless Stuffed Chicken, Pork Chops and Chicken Stew. The use of light soy sauce and ginger juice combined with Worcestershire sauce and butter reflect the fusion of East and West before it became fashionable this is what I like to call old school fusion. Her mother-in-law had lived in Indonesia and brought quite a few Indonesian recipes to the family dining table, so there was also Indonesian-Dutch influence in her cooking, for instance, the dish Rissoles. Then there are other popular recipes such as Roti Jala, Mutton Curry and Curry Devil, which reflect the Malay, Indian and Eurasian influences in Singapore and would best be categorised as street or hawker food.