Quick and easy

“Feng curry is from the Eurasian Kristang (Cristão) culinary tradition in Singapore and Malacca in Malaysia. It is often served during Christmas and also on other special occasions. Kristang cuisine blends the cuisines of Southeast Asia with a western-style cuisine inherited from Portuguese colonial rulers. Other popular Kristang dishes include devil’s curry, eurasian smore (a beef stew), and sugee cake.”

Every christmas, my Aunt Joyce would prepare a big pot of feng for the entire family. Because we’re such a big family, preparing the feng can take up to 4-6people and a whole day’s worth of chopping both meat and ginger. This year, in order to keep the tradition, I prepared it for my brother and I, along with a few friends in London.

You will need:

Pork offal:
1 heart
300g liver

Pork meat:
300g shoulder
300g belly pork

Stock water from offal and pork:
2 tablespoon salt
6 tablespoon sunflower oil
Water

Spice blend:
6 tablespoon cumin
10 tablespoon coriander
5 sticks of cinnamon stick
3 star anis
8 cloves
2-3 tablespoon aniseeds (optional)
2 tablespoon black pepper corns

Blend:
1 onion/ 4 shallot
4 garlic
2 (thumb size) ginger

Sauce:
1 1/2 (thumb size) ginger
Drizzle sunflower oil
3-4 ladles of stock water
4 tablespoon light soya sauce
salt
50ml vinegar

Start off by preparing the water stock by filling water half way up the pan, then add the salt and oil. On high heat, bring the water to a boil, blanch the offals and pork for 5mins then take them out to cool. Keep the water stock aside as it’ll be later used for the feng sauce. Blend the ginger, garlic and onion mix till smooth; as well as blending the spiced mix of cumin, coriander, cinnamon stick, star anis, cloves, aniseeds and pepper corn till it’s become a refined powder. When the boiled offals and pork are cool, dice them into small 0.5cm cubes. Using a new pan, drizzle some oil and fry the finely sliced ginger then add in the blended ginger, garlic and onion on medium to high heat till it’s golden in colour. Add in the blended spices till it’s aromatically fragrant, then slowly mix in the diced meat, soya sauce, stock water. Bring to boil then simmer till the sauce thickens, season with salt and vinegar. Best serve the feng the next day as it’ll allow the spices to better infuse in the meat. Serve it warm with a baguette and acar.