As head chef at East Brunswick’s acclaimed Etta restaurant, Rosheen Kaul has won acclaim for giving diners a taste of her unique culinary heritage.
Born in Singapore to parents with Kashmiri, Peranakan Chinese and Filipino heritage, Rosheen grew up between Melbourne, Malaysia, China and Indonesia. To her parents’ horror she pursued a career in cooking, working at new-style Chinese diner Lee Ho Fook and Smith & Daughters, followed by Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. When her employer closed at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Rosheen filled her Melbourne lockdown documenting her favourite “inauthentic” Asian recipes with fellow Chinese-Australian Joanna Hu, an illustrator and ex front-of-house at Vue de Monde, Saint Crispin and Fat Duck restaurants. The pair wrote and self-published a Chinese recipe zine called the Isol(Asian) Cookbook, attracting huge media buzz and a publishing deal. The result is the July release of a quirky new cookbook called Chinese-ish: Home Cooking, Not Quite Authentic, 100% Delicious, capturing the unique combination of recipes, photos, illustrations and delicious writing.
These are Rosheen’s five favourite recipes from the new book (with fabulous pictures by Armelle Habib). Try stopping at one.
1. Cereal Butter Prawns
This is one of those unique dishes from Singapore that I’ve never seen outside the country. It’s a typical zi char (Hokkien meaning ‘cook and fry’) hawker-style dish, of shell-on prawns stir-fried with curry leaves, chilli and a heaping of crispy cereal flakes. Cereal doesn’t mean Nutrigrain or Weetbix, it refers to a wheat and oat bran cereal mix known as Nestum that can be found in Asian grocers (but you can use quick oats instead). The cereal is stir-fried into an incredible golden shower of buttery crumbs that envelop the prawns. This dish is crispy, aromatic and so very moreish. It’s nice to stick to the original method by keeping the shells on the prawns, as these impart a much deeper flavour. However, you’re welcome to peel the prawns before cooking, if you like – just be wary of overcooking them.
Serves 4
Ingredients
500g raw prawns
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 egg, whisked
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 tablespoons cornflour
Vegetable oil, for shallow frying, plus 1 tablespoon extra
1 tablespoon milk powder
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder
1 cup Nestum cereal or quick oats
30 g butter
15 curry leaves
2 birdseye chillies, sliced
Method
Use a pair of sharp kitchen scissors to trim the legs and feelers off the prawns. Place the prawns in a bowl and season with the salt and sugar. Pour the whisked egg over the top and toss to coat. Sift the flour and cornflour together over the prawns and stir to combine.
In a wok, heat enough oil to shallow-fry the prawns, until smoking. Fry the prawns in batches until crispy, then set aside to drain on a wire rack.
Mix the milk powder, chicken bouillon powder and Nestum or oats in a bowl to combine. Heat the extra oil and the butter in a frying pan over medium heat and add the curry leaves and sliced chilli, frying until fragrant. Add the Nestum or oats mixture and toast, continuously stirring, until golden. Add the prawns and toss to coat. Serve hot.
2. Crispy Prawn Balls with Fermented Chilli Dip
These little morsels give you all the joy of prawn toast, without the toast. Bouncy prawn rolled in crispy panko, dragged through a vibrant red chilli dip? Delicious.
Serves 4
Ingredients
1⅔ cups (100 g) panko breadcrumbs
2 cups (500 ml) vegetable oil
For the prawn balls…
400 g raw prawns, peeled and deveined
1 egg white
1 teaspoon fish sauce
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Ground white pepper, to taste
Method
To make the prawn balls, place all of the ingredients into a food processor and blitz to form a smooth paste.
Place the breadcrumbs on a baking tray. Using wet hands, roll 1 tablespoon of the prawn paste into a ball, then roll the ball in the breadcrumbs. Repeat with the remaining paste.
Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan to 170°C using a food thermometer to check the temperature, then deep-fry the prawn balls in batches until golden. Drain and serve with fermented chilli dip (below).
Fermented chilli dip
1 tablespoon store-bought fermented chilli paste
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon good-quality store-bought stock
½ teaspoon sesame oil
Method
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Stir and adjust the seasoning to taste.
3. Mum’s Braised Ginger Chicken
If any dish were to taste like home to me, this would be it. Fragrant with toasted sesame oil, a little soy and plenty of warming ginger, this simple, comforting braise makes an appearance on our dinner table any time someone shows signs of illness. The recipe stems from a traditional Chinese confinement dish of chicken sauteed in sesame oil, but mum’s version features much more ginger and some water, turning it into a warming braise from the traditional stir fry.
Serves 4
Ingredients
¼ cup sesame oil
6 cm piece old ginger*, skin on, sliced
6–8 chicken thigh fillets, cut in half
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
Steamed rice, to serve
Method
Heat the sesame oil in a wok or a frying pan over medium heat, add the ginger and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the chicken pieces and stir-fry until they start to brown, 4–5 minutes.
Add the salt, sugar, 2 ½ tablespoons water and soy sauce and stir. Cover and allow to simmer for 7–8 minutes. Pour the Shaoxing wine over the top and simmer briefly, until the chicken is cooked through. Serve hot with steamed rice.
* Old ginger is spicier than regular young ginger and has a fibrous, dry texture. Find it at most Asian grocers. If you can’t source any, use regular ginger instead.
4. Dan Dan Mian
There was a Sichuan restaurant in Kuala Lumpur that my family used to frequent. My sister and I loved their dan dan mian, and no matter how many more versions I ate in Singapore and here in Australia, I couldn’t find another that tasted the same. When I went to Chongqing, I had dan dan mian again, and I knew then that the one I’d eaten in KL was a most accurate representation. I gave up trying to find it in a restaurant, and instead took the time recreating my flavour memory at home. My sister’s husband is from Xinjiang, and his father from Sichuan. I cooked this for them both, and received the highest praise I could ever receive – “This tastes just like I remember”.
Serves 4
Ingredients
250 g pork mince
½ teaspoon light soy sauce
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon grated ginger
½ teaspoon grated garlic
¼ cup ya cai *
1 teaspoon Sichuan or regular chilli powder *
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
250 g dried thin wheat noodles
2 cups good-quality store-bought stock, plus extra to serve
1 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorns, to serve
Sauce
1 tablespoon white tahini
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinkiang black vinegar
1 tablespoon grated garlic
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon chilli oil
1 teaspoon caster sugar
Method
Combine the pork, light soy sauce, white pepper and salt and allow to stand for 30 minutes to marinate.
Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan over medium heat. Add the ginger and garlic and fry until fragrant. Add the marinated pork mince and fry until crisp, 10–12 minutes.
Add the ya cai, chilli powder and dark soy sauce. Fry gently for 1–2 minutes, then turn the heat off but leave the wok on the stove for now.
Cook the noodles in a saucepan of boiling water according to the packet instructions, then drain.
Mix all of the ingredients for the sauce together to combine and divide between four bowls. Stir ½ cup (125 ml) of hot stock into each portion to create a loose, creamy sauce.
Divide the noodles between the four bowls, top with the crispy pork and ground Sichuan peppercorns. Add another tablespoon of hot stock and stir thoroughly before eating.
* You can find ya cai (Sichuan pickled vegetable) and Sichuan chilli powder at most Asian grocers.
5. Sichuan Sausage Sangas
An ode to the great Australian sausage sizzles, Chinese-ish style. Spicy, juicy, Sichuan peppercorn-spiked pork sausage, a generous helping of herbs and a bright squeeze of lime juice on cheap white bread? Yes please.
Serves 4
Ingredients
450 g pork mince
50 g guanciale or pancetta, finely chopped
2 teaspoons grated ginger
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons caster (superfine) sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour (cornstarch)
1 teaspoon iced water
Vegetable oil, for shallow frying
Spice mix
3 teaspoons Sichuan or Korean chilli flakes
2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
To assemble
4 slices white bread
Coriander leaves
Mint leaves
Kewpie mayonnaise
Lime wedges
Method
Place the pork mince in the freezer for 30 minutes before using.
To make the spice mix, place all of the ingredients in a small frying pan and toast over low heat until very fragrant, taking care not to burn the chilli flakes. If they turn too dark, start again. Set aside to cool, then blitz into a fine powder using a food processor.
Add the chilled pork mince, guanciale, ginger, fish sauce, light soy sauce, Dijon mustard, sugar, cornflour and iced water to the spice mix and pulse until combined. The mixture should bounce back when pressed. Refrigerate the sausage mixture for 2 hours.
Using wet hands, roll the sausage mixture into four 2 cm x 10 cm (3/4 inch x 4 inch) logs and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to set.
Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add enough vegetable oil to evenly coat the base of the pan. Cook the sausages until they are a deep golden-brown, rolling them around continuously for about 10 minutes.
To assemble, wrap the sausages in white bread with a generous handful of fresh herbs, a decent smear of mayonnaise and a good squeeze of lime juice.
Chinese-ish by Rosheen Kaul and Joanna Hu. Photography by Armelle Habib. Murdoch Books RRP $39.99.
