healing foods
black sesame & walnut dessert soup / century egg pork porridge
Welcome to Singapore Noodles, a newsletter where I share recipes from my kitchen in the Netherlands. Archived recipes and other content can be found on the index. If you’re looking for a Christmas gift, my cookbook PlantAsia: Asia’s Vegetable Wisdom in Recipes, Stories and Techniques is available for purchase via this link! (From now to the end of the year, I’m offering a 25% discount off with any purchase from my website.) Happy shopping! ✨ — Pamelia
We were in Poland last week — I was invited to give a conference talk to vegetable processors and it was all very exciting! The main message of my talk was how Asia’s vegetable wisdom could help us rethink the potential of vegetables and inform product innovation, wherever in the world we are. The day before the talk, we put together a little kit for each attendee to assemble some tasting bites to illustrate the flavour compass in my book PlantAsia. It was hectic, given how there were 80 attendees and each kit had 10 separate components — imagine 800 little bags of ingredients to pack! Team work saved the day and it was such an experience to cherish, both professionally and culturally.
The dominant emotion at the end of the conference talk was relief, because I had been terribly ill in the weeks leading up to the conference. One of the reasons why the colder months in the Netherlands conjure up such feelings of dread for me — beyond the shorter days, difficulties of cycling, and lack of sun — is that the sharp transition in weather really messes with my body.
Last year, I was down for days with de griep (the local flu), which led to me having had to cancel a couple of cooking classes. This year, my period lasted for three weeks — an unprecedented occurrence that truly freaked me out. Imagine losing that much blood! I went to the doctor, got pills to stop the blood flow and correct the low iron levels, and just when things were looking better, I got hit with COVID. Gone were my sense of taste, voice, and nights of peaceful rest.
To expedite my recovery in time for Poland, I relied on medication, as well as nourishing, healing foods. When cooking while ill, the idea is to keep it simple — you don’t want to be faffing about in the kitchen when you really should be resting. A pleasant discovery was how quickly it is to put together a bowl of black sesame and walnut dessert soup at home. This is a traditional dessert that comes closer to a thick cream in texture, though it is not made with any dairy. You can ring up the changes with peanuts or almonds, in place of walnuts, and it would be just as great. This particular combination, though, is great for replenishing blood, soothing itchy airways, beating inflammation — and is all round soothing on the throat and tummy. It’s as close as you’ll get to a ten-minute dessert.
Black sesame and walnut dessert soup
Serves 2 | Vegan
50g black sesame seeds
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds
70g walnuts, almonds, or cashews
3 teaspoons glutinous rice flour
360ml water
2 to 3 tablespoons of honey, or to taste
Combine the black and white sesame seeds in a dry skillet and stir-fry over medium heat until the white sesame seeds turn golden. Tip the seeds into a blender. Toast the nuts in the same pan until fragrant and tip them into the blender as well. Add the flour and water and blender until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a small pot and set over medium heat. Bring to a simmer. The mixture should thicken up to a creamy consistency. Turn off the heat and stir in honey to taste. Enjoy while warm.
We also had lots of porridge, the quintessential sick person food and an incredibly hydrating and comforting dish when you’re feeling under the weather. Century egg and lean pork porridge is a classic, and I like preparing mine with the addition of tiny, nubbly meatballs — the way we enjoy it at so many porridge establishments in Singapore. The century egg offers two textures: a satisfyingly bouncy white, and a creamy yolk, the source of umami in this porridge. Its alkalinity also helps the starch granules in rice break down; you get a beautifully smooth and creamy porridge in under half an hour.
Century egg pork porridge
Makes 2 to 3 servings