Homemade Orh Nee! Recipe inside!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I saw my friend, Rachel, post her homemade orh nee (yam paste dessert that's usually a staple dessert for Chinese wedding dinners at restaurants) recipe and it looked so darn good that I felt that I had to try and make it too! Anyway, here's a pic of her orh nee that really got my saliva glands going into turbo mode!

Rachel's orh nee!

Her recipe as follows, which she has kindly given the A-OK to share:

Orh Nee (Yam Paste).

Ingredients:
- 2 medium Thai yam (I went for two packets of ready peeled and cut 500g ones available at NTUC)
- 50 cents pork fats (I bought $1 worth from NTUC as the wet market stalls had already closed by the time I went there)

- 5-6 shallots
- 500ml coconut milk
- 5tbsp caster sugar (I used white sugar here)

The ingredients which I bought from Kovan's NTUC. Added this pic today, 28th Dec, cus I decided to make some more orh nee!

My pre-peeled and pre-cut yam + pork fats from NTUC

Method:

Peel, cut and steam the yam until soft. Mash it.

Yam in the steamer

Cut up the pork fats into smaller chunks and melt them over medium fire. (I added some oil together with the fats) When the bits are golden, scoop them out retaining the oil in the wok. Add in sliced shallots and sautéed until fragrant and scoop out fried shallots leaving the oil in the wok. 

I actually had the fire on low, since it was my first time cooking (sorta, other than the usual maggi mee or eggs lah..) and I didn't want to risk cooking the things too fast over a hotter fire and burning them.

At this point, I must add too, that I had my hob on, and couldn't really smell if it was fragrant or not after having them in the wok for quite a few minutes on a low fire, so I switched it off... And voila, I could get the fragrance! So I quickly removed them from the wok.

I actually burnt the fats a little bit. Because noob mah... :(

Le shallots!

Add in another 3-4 tbsp of cooking oil, add in the mashed yam and stir fry it over medium fire until the oil is absorbed into the yam. 

Mixing the mashed yam with the oil

Add in the sugar and coconut milk. Rachel recommends using a whisk at this part to incorporate everything together easier. I didn't have a whisk, so I just stirred till I thought it was ok. Check the sweetness. I sprinked maybe about 2 tablespoons of sugar, maybe less. I had elders coming over for lunch, so I didn't want it too sweet. Easier for something to be sweeter later on, but if it's too sweet, then jialat liao cus how to remove the sugar? 

When the paste starts to 'boil', turn off the fire and you are done.
 

Rachel used canned ginkgo nuts, added to water + sugar to boil and also recommended throwing in some pumpkin to boil together too. When the pumpkin is soft, take it out and mash it with a fork. 

I skipped the pumpkin though, decided not to try too many things when I was cooking for the first time. Other than the usual cook-maggi, cook-egg, lah of course. 

And here's the end result of my orh nee: 

I added ginko nuts later on after I transferred the orh nee to a pot. Finished up the stuff and guests da bao-ed before I could remember to snap a pic, haha!

My Christmas lunch guests liked it, yay! So I guess it was a little success? My wife felt that it could be a little smoother though, and guessed that there may not have been enough oil. Will try making it again the next time round!

Anyway, my little girl celebrated her first Christmas! A real joy and blessing to our family for which we are thankful for. :)

Note: Checked with Rachel on orh nee smoothness, and she suggested blending it after it has cooled to have it smoother.