Arya News - Benjamin Oh Jian Wei, 36, grew up learning his mother and grandmother`s recipes and says he is hoping to teach them to his son, too.
KUALA LUMPUR – IN the family home in Petaling Jaya, Benjamin Oh Jian Wei, 36, and his elegant mother, Alice Chai Min Foong, 64, are busy scooping up lavish heapings of jiu hu char onto lettuce cups that have been washed, dried and set aside for this express purpose.
The dish is a labour of love that requires hours of intense preparation, as the jicama and carrots in the jiu hu char have to be hand-julienned very, very finely in order to yield a juicy vegetable medley that is packed with flavour. It is a dish that the family has made numerous times for festive occasions and one that Oh has been involved in making since he was a child.
“That’s pretty much how I started holding a knife and cooking. Jiu hu char takes so long to make that if everyone doesn’t help, the job will never be done. When I was little, if I chose to watch television when everyone was preparing this, I would get death stares,” says Oh, chuckling.
Benjamin Oh Jian Wei (right) and his elegant mother, Alice Chai Min Foong.
Chai, meanwhile, says proudly, “Yes, that’s how my three sons learnt to cook.”
Chai herself grew up in Perak, where she learnt to make a few familiar Hakka dishes that were prevalent in her own family. After she got married and had her three boys, her mother-in-law moved into her home. And that is when Chai’s cooking lessons began in earnest.
“My mother-in-law is a Hokkien from Penang. When she moved in with us, our home became the place that everyone came to for Chinese New Year and other festive occasions. She had seven kids and 14 grandchildren, so there was always a lot of family coming over. So as the host family, we had to prepare 80% of the dishes, and I had to learn her traditional dishes,” says Chai.
A collection of recipes from Chai’s mother-in-law that have been saved for posterity.
Oh grew up watching his grandmother supervise the proceedings in the kitchen and picked up some recipes from his mother too. But it was only when he went to the United Kingdom to pursue a hospitality degree that his interest in food kicked up a notch, accentuated by his experience working in restaurants in England for three years.
Years later, Oh has pivoted to an entirely different career path but his love for cooking remains deeply entrenched. In fact, during the Covid-19 pandemic, he started a home business selling homemade ginger sauce (as an accompaniment to chicken rice).
“I roped in my parents and siblings to help me peel and cut the ginger, so that became a family bonding exercise!” recalls Oh, laughing.
These days, Oh cooks out of pure interest and passion, something his mother and grandmother had a role in instilling in him.
He is the one, for instance, who figured out the exact recipe for his mother’s family’s vinegar pork trotters.
“It’s a very traditional dish with that side of the family and whenever I ordered the dish at restaurants, it never hit the spot. It was always either bland or too sweet.
“I love the one that my aunts on my mum’s side make, so I asked them for the recipe and I did a few rounds of it and this is the version I have settled on,” he says.
Mr. Oh was the one who figured out the exact recipe for his mother’s family’s vinegar pork trotters.
Chai and Oh’s vinegar pork trotters is excellent – sweet, slightly acerbic, coated in a thick, black caramelesque sauce with copious amounts of ginger laced throughout and fat wedges of pork trotters to tide the dish together. It’s also slightly different in that the family recipe calls for the inclusion of radishes and braised peanuts, which add contrast and bite to the dish.
Chai, meanwhile, says that one of the dishes that she learnt from her mother-in-law that her sons have now figured out how to make is satay chicken.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this dish anywhere else. Whenever I tell outsiders about it, they think it’s like grilled satay,” she says.
The dish is quite simple to make and basically is chicken cooked with ground chilli, onions, turmeric, lemongrass, candlenuts and coconut milk. The end result is tender chicken coated in a thick gravy that has heat undulating through it and a rich creaminess from the coconut milk in the configuration.
Jiu hu char is a dish that Chai learnt to make after she got married and Oh learnt as a child.
With the jiu hu char, meanwhile, Oh has stuck to the traditional way of doing things, often staying up late to ensure everything is cut according to his late grandmother’s exacting standards.
“This is the way I know my grandmother likes us to make it – it’s the OG way,” he says.
For Oh, continuing the family recipes is something he is very invested in, as he doesn’t want these precious culinary treasures to be lost over time.
Ms. Chai says she is extremely proud that her son is intent on continuing the family culinary legacy.
“These are things I grew up eating and it’s the kind of taste that you don’t get outside. And if I don’t carry it on, then the legacy will stop with me,” he says.
His mother, meanwhile, can’t hide her pride in her son and says she is happy that Oh will be teaching these recipes to his own son and that everyone in the family will continue to gather and enjoy these heirloom dishes together.
“My happiness comes from seeing my family happily eating together,” she says, smiling.
AH MA’S SATAY CHICKEN
Ah Ma’s Satay Chicken
1 whole chicken, cleaned and chopped into bite-sized pieces 10 red chillies 500g red onion 5cm fresh turmeric 5 pieces candlenuts (buah keras) 500ml fresh coconut milk 1 tbsp sugar ½ tsp salt In a blender, blend the red chillies, onions, fresh turmeric and buah keras with a splash of water until a fine paste is formed.
In a large wok, add the coconut milk, blended rempah and chicken pieces. Leave to simmer on medium to low heat until the chicken is cooked and the curry has thickened.
Add sugar and salt and season to taste. Serve hot with rice and enjoy.
POPO’S VINEGAR PORK TROTTERS
Popo’s Vinegar Pork Trotters
1 pig trotter (foreleg) approximately 1.5kg, chopped into small pieces 1 radish, cut into wedges 1 piece (small, round pre-cut disc) filtered gula Melaka, chopped 100g old ginger, thinly sliced 200g young ginger, thinly sliced 750ml black sweet spiced vinegar 3 to 4 cans braised peanuts 2 tbsp soy sauce or to taste Clean and blanch the pork trotters. Start in cold water and blanch with water for a few minutes, skimming impurities from the top.
Drain and rinse under cold water. Remove bone fragments and coagulated protein from the meat pieces, then let drip dry while preparing the other ingredients.
Blanch radish with salted water for about 10 minutes, until soft but not fully cooked. Drain and set aside to dry thoroughly.
In a large pot, dissolve the gula Melaka, then add in the ginger and stir for a minute. Add the pork pieces and top with the whole bottle of vinegar (ingredients just covered after the vinegar has been added), then leave to simmer for 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally.
At the 40-minute mark, add in the radish and braised peanuts to cook for the remainder of the time or until the pork is fully tender.
Add soy sauce to taste. Serve hot and enjoy.
Photos by Low Lay Phon for The Star