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Recipes with crisp fried shallots

5 recipes that use crisp fried shallots, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Singapore breakfast fried bee hoon, takes 25 minutes. It is most often cooked with shallot, spring onion and sugar.

Run out of crisp fried shallots? Half an onion per 2 shallots.

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Vegetarian mee rebus

Malay hawker stalls at Geylang Serai and the old Adam Road food centre ladle mee rebus from a vat of thick, reddish-brown gravy that is sweet, gently spiced and earthy, poured over springy yellow noodles and heaped with halved boiled egg, fried tau kwa, bean sprouts, green chilli and a squeeze of calamansi. It is eaten any time, but especially on Hari Raya mornings and as a filling lunch. Many stalls build the gravy on dried shrimp and beef stock; this vegetarian version gets its body from mashed sweet potato, its savoury depth from fermented soybean paste (taucheo) and a well-fried spice paste, and uses vegetable stock. The usual mistake is under-frying the rempah, which leaves the gravy tasting raw and sharp; cook it until the oil separates and turns red. Chef's tip: the gravy thickens as it stands, so keep a kettle of hot stock nearby and loosen it to a pourable, velvety consistency just before serving.

65 minSingaporeanPasta & Noodles
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Singapore breakfast fried bee hoon

Before office hours in Toa Payoh or Ang Mo Kio, the economy-rice stalls already have a steel tray of pale-brown fried bee hoon on the counter, and people point at it, then add a side or two from the trays beside it: a fried egg, fried tofu, braised cabbage, a curry potato. The noodles themselves are kept deliberately simple, springy and lightly savoury from soy sauce, threaded with cabbage, carrot and crunchy bean sprouts, then finished with a spoon of sambal chilli. Because it is plain, every strand needs to be seasoned evenly and still separate. The usual mistake is over-soaking the vermicelli, which then clumps and breaks in the wok; soak it only until bendy. Chef's tip: toss the noodles with tongs or chopsticks in a lifting motion rather than stirring with a spatula, so the soy coats every strand without breaking it.

25 minSingaporeanPasta & NoodlesVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Milkfish belly congee

Tainan breakfast stalls open before six for this, ladling it into bowls beside plates of fried dough sticks and braised fish skin. It is not the thick Cantonese kind: cooked rice is simmered briefly in a light, ginger-scented broth, so the grains stay separate, and slices of rich, boneless milkfish belly are poached in it until just set, then showered with celery, fried shallots and white pepper. Milkfish is farmed in the ponds around Tainan; look for boneless frozen belly in Asian supermarkets, or use sea bass belly. The error most cooks make is boiling the belly hard, which breaks the soft fat and clouds the broth. Chef's tip: lower the slices into the pot skin-side down and keep the liquid just shivering; the belly firms gently and keeps its sweet, silky layer of fat.

40 minTaiwaneseBreakfast & BrunchGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Banh canh cua (crab noodle soup)

Saigon's bánh canh cua is a late-afternoon and evening soup, sold from street stalls and small shops where the pots of red-orange broth sit beside trays of crab claws, prawns and quail eggs. The noodles are thick, round and bouncy, made with tapioca or a mix of tapioca and rice flour, and the broth is thickened slightly so it clings to them. Crab meat sautéed with shallots and annatto colours the soup and gives it its sweet, rich taste. Fresh bánh canh noodles are sold chilled in Asian shops; thick udon is a fair stand-in. Chef's tip: stir the crab meat in the annatto oil for only a minute so it stays in big, sweet lumps.

60 minVietnameseSoups
by KrazyBadal 0 views

White rose dumplings (banh bao banh vac)

Restaurants all over Hội An serve 'white rose' dumplings as a starter, and much of the town's supply is said to come from a single family workshop that has made them for decades. The wrapper is a thin, glassy rice-flour dough, pinched up around a pounded prawn filling so that each dumpling looks like an open flower, and the plate is finished with crisp fried shallots and a light, sweet chilli-fish-sauce dip. They are delicate and fiddly, but shaping becomes quick after the first dozen. This home version adds a little pork to the prawn for juiciness. Chef's tip: keep the dough under a damp cloth the whole time; even a few minutes in the air makes it crack when you pinch it.

75 minVietnameseSnacks & Starters
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with crisp fried shallots