A slow-cooked mixed-vegetable stew of cabbage, dried fungus and beancurd, deeply flavoured by a rempah paste and dried prawns. A staple of the Singapore Peranakan Sunday family meal, said to taste better the next day.
Nyonya chap chye is a slow-cooked mixed-vegetable stew and a staple of the Singapore Peranakan Sunday family meal. Cabbage, black fungus, dried lily buds, beancurd sticks and glass noodles are cooked down with a rempah paste of shallots, dried chilli and belacan, plus dried prawns. The Singapore Nyonya version (sometimes called chap chye masak titik, cooked down in pieces) is a signature at Blue Ginger and other Peranakan restaurants, and is prized for tasting better the next day as the flavours meld.
Soft, sweet, savoury cabbage and glass noodles soaked in a deep rempah broth, the dried prawns and beancurd giving body, a faint sambal heat at the back. Eaten with rice, it is comforting, vegetal and deeply moreish.
The rempah is fried until fragrant, then the hardest vegetables (dried fungus, lily buds, beancurd sticks) are added with water and simmered, followed by the cabbage and finally the glass noodles, which absorb the broth. The dried prawns give umami depth. The long, slow cook and the next-day rest are what meld the flavours; the dish is intentionally made ahead.
Variations
A pork version adds belly slices. Some cooks include bamboo shoots.
On the Palate
Where Nyonya Chap Chye sits in the Singaporean flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
6 steps · 30 min
- 18 min
Soak 20g black fungus, 20g dried lily buds and 50g beancurd sticks separately in water 30 minutes; drain.
- 26 min
Pound 6 shallots, 4 dried chillies and 1 tsp belacan into a rempah.
- 38 min
Fry the rempah in 3 tbsp oil 6 minutes until fragrant; add 50g soaked dried prawns and fry 2 minutes.
Watch outFry the rempah in oil until it smells deeply fragrant and the oil splits — undercooked spice paste tastes raw and harsh and no amount of simmering fixes it.
- 412 min
Add the fungus, lily buds, beancurd sticks, 500g chopped cabbage and 400ml water; simmer covered 30 minutes.
- 58 min
Add 50g glass noodles (soaked) and 1 tbsp light soy; simmer 8 minutes until the noodles absorb the broth.
Watch outAdd the glass noodles near the end and let them drink up the broth — they should soak the flavour in, not sit in liquid; the whole dish is better rested overnight.
- 64 min
Season with salt and sugar, rest 10 minutes, and serve with rice.
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