Soo -Uunn

This little tutorial is in honour of my brother in law P and his 50th birthday. Happy Birthday for yesterday!! In honour of his birthday, I made him a favourite from the past, that my former mother in law taught me over 30 years ago to make even though I never made it quite the same as her. Now she doesn't cook any more, I recently relearnt how to make it the last time I visited her in Brisbane. So yesterday, I cooked it for P and I hope he likes it. This recipe is Dedicated to Lorna.


First up, the list of ingredients.
2 onions, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
2 tablespoons crushed garlic. At least 8 cloves I would say.
slice belecan about 2'' x 1" x 1/4"
100 ml of oil
2 kg lovely legs (you can use any pieces you like or a cut up chicken, I prefer the no skin ones to reduce fat, but the fat does add to the flavour. Tough choice, flavour versus heart..hmmmm. I want P to stick around, so no fat here)
About 5 cups chicken stock
about 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar. taste test.
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 packed dried soy bean curd (sounds yummy doesn't it?)
1/2 packet dried black fungus(sounds even yummier!)
50g packet dried rice vermicilli
A close up of the stuff you get from the asian grocery. This is belecan, this is essential. It comes in a block like cheese. There the similarity ends. Warning: This stuff stinks so you need to keep it in a jar in the fridge a screw top glass one at the back of the fridge. It never goes off and if it did it would be impossible to tell. Don't be put off, it imparts a wonderful flavour when fried up.
Before you do anything, boil the jug and set the dried stuff to soak. Here is from left to right, the bean curd, fungus, and noodles.

This is the dried bean curd as it comes from the shop. It seems like some sort of dried tofu and takes on the flavour it is cooked with. I love it.

This is the rice vermicilli. You can get this in woolies.

This is the dried black fungus. In love this stuff too, doesn't taste good till it is in this dish. It also takes flavour as well as adds. The dish is not the same without it.

Ok now for the method. It is pretty easy really once you have the ingredients and you will need a big pot.

Heat the oil and fry up the onion, garlic ginger and belacan till the onion is soft and the belacan is evenly distributed and the whole lot should be a yukky grey colour. Then dump in the chicken pieces.

Stir around till the chicken pieces have browned.

Then add the stock, sugar, soy sauce and simmer for about an hour till the chicken is tender.

Then drain the soy bean curd, fungus and noodles and add to the pot. Simmer for another few minutes. Test for sugar and salt. Add more soy sauce for salt. Not too much as you don't want to too dark.

Serve with rice. It makes a great soup. as well...