Purple Yellow Abacus Seeds

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This recipe is certainly not for those who are upset by Mama Bear's tendency to play around with traditional recipes. My friends and two customers greatly appreciate this dish. When I served it at a family gathering that cherished their traditional abacus seeds, I was reprimanded for altering the original. This is for those who enjoy reinventing dishes.

It is a good dish to involve the kids. Get them to help with rolling the abacus seeds.

Yield: Party size that caters to 10 pax

Total Cook Time: 1hr

Ingredients

• Taro Abacus Seeds Dough

  • 1 kg Yam

  • 200 g Tapioca flour

  • 120 g hot water

  • 1/8 tsp salt

  • Mix with purple sweet potato & pumpkin

• Toppings and Seasoning

  • 2 tbsp garlic, minced

  • 5 shallots, minced

  • 40 g dried shrimps, soaked in water, minced

  • 15 g dried cuttlefish, cut into thin strips (1 piece)

  • 30 g shitake mushrooms, soaked and cut into stripes

  • 30 g large black fungus, soaked and cut into strips

  • 200 g meat, minced

  • 1 packet preserved radish (cai poh)

  • 6 tbsp Cooking Oil

  • Seasoning

  • 1 tsp salt, to taste

  • 1 tsp white pepper, to taste

  • 1 tsp light soy sauce, to taste

  • 1 tsp fish sauce, to taste

  • 1 tsp Oyster Sauce

• Garnishing

  • 2 red chillies, cut in halves, then into pieces

  • 1 stalk spring onion, diced

  • 2 stalks coriander leaves, cut into big pieces

  • Pork fat, fried till crispy (1 pkt)

Instructions

1. Soak: Died squid, mushroom and dried shrimp.

2. Do not discard water.

3. Peel and cut yam and into slices.

4. Salt pork fat and air fry

5. Minced Shallots, garlic

6. Sliced: Black fungus

7. Seasonings:

   1. 1 tsp salt, to taste

   2. 1 tsp white pepper, to taste

   3. 1 tsp light soy sauce, to taste

   4. 1 tsp fish sauce, to taste

   5. 1 tsp Oyster Sauce

8. Cook

   1. Steam the yam till very soft and cooked, about 30 minutes.

   2. Check for doneness with a chopstick, if able to poke through the yam, then its cooked.

   3. At the meantime prepare ingredients needed to make the yam abacus seeds which are tapioca flour, cooking oil, salt and hot boiling water.

   4. Once the yam is cooked, quickly transfer it to a mixing bowl

   5. Mix until the hot steamed yam has been mashed.

   6. Add in tapioca flour.

   7. Then add in salt.

   8. And the cooking oil.

   9. Lastly add in the hot boiling water a little at a time.

   10. Mix till the dough comes together.

   11. Continue to mix for about 10 minutes or until you get a pliable dough.

9. Rolling the Abacus Seeds

   1. Roll the yam dough into long logs and cut into small even pieces, about 5g each ( or your desired size)

   2. Now would be a good time to involve the children

   3. Roll each piece in between your palms to form round balls. Use your index finger to make a slight depression in the centre to make it looks like an abacus seed.

   4. Continue with the rest of the dough.

   5. Try to make the seeds evenly sized so that they can be evenly cooked.

   6. Then boil a large pot of water.

   7. Add in the yam seeds in batches, stirring well to prevent them from sticking together.

   8. Boil for about 15 minutes or until the yam seeds float to the surface of the water.

   9. Remove the yam seeds from the boiling water using a strainer.

   10. Immediately rinsed them in cold water for about 5 seconds. This process helps to firm up the abacus seeds.

   11. Drained the water and then drizzle cooking oil to coat the abacus seeds evenly to prevent them from sticking together.

   12. Set aside while you prepare the ingredients to stir fry them. If you don't intend to use them immediately, you can put them in a zip lock bag and put in the freezer.

   10. Stir-fry

   1. Stir fry the yam abacus, first prepare the ingredients needed.

   2. Then heat up some oil in a wok.

   3. Saute minced garlic and shallots till fragrant.

   4. Add in dried shrimp and strips of cuttlefish. Continue to stir fry until they are really fragrant and brown. Add in more oil if needed.

   5. Next add in the strips of mushrooms and preserved radish.

   6. Then add in the strips of black fungus. Fry for about 2 minutes.

   7. Next add in the minced meat and fry for about 5 minutes or until the meat is cooked.

   8. Lastly add in the yam seeds and stir fry gently to combine, about 2 minutes.

   9. Add in oyster sauce ( mix with some mushroom water ).

   10. Add: Seasonings

   11. Then the rest of the seasonings, to taste.

   12. Top with pork fat

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/e0b4fe_d118e61eb7c34e068388f6a29c935625/720p/mp4/file.mp4