Green Bean Coconut Kueh

It's been a while since I steamed up some Malay goodies, so I thought this weekend I'd play around and experiment with what ingredients I had in my pantry to make a unique version of my favorite Malay sweet...

Green Bean Coconut Kueh

Ingredients:
Coconut Sticky Rice Layer
- 3/4 cup glutinous rice, soaked in water overnight
- 1/2 cup coconut milk + 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- pinch of salt

Green Bean Coconut Layer
- 3/4 cup glutinous rice flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup coconut milk + 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup dried green beans, soaked overnight in water, then boiled until tender
- 1/3 cup dried shredded coconut

Method:
1. Combine the soaked rice, coconut milk mixture, sugar and salt in a bowl. Mix well, then pour into your steaming tray (I used a 6inch round tin). Steam over high heat for 45minutes, until rice is cooked.
2. In another bowl, combine the rice flour, sugar, coconut milk mixture, beans and shredded coconut.
3. Pour the flour mixture into the steaming tray, covering the cooked rice in an even layer. Continue steaming the kueh for another 45minutre, until flour layer is firm and cooked through.
4. Remove tray from steamer, allow to cool. Cut into wedges and serve, at room temperature or cold.

I must say, this was a pretty tasty treat! I guess I've made enough kuehs that I know the basics enough to throw together something decent. I hope one day I'll be able to make a cake/brownie/cookie recipe by heart... but baking takes a little bit more calculative work than steaming. Well... after some early morning kitchen antics, I'm off to watch the Arsenal v. Wigan game that I taped from yesterday (and maybe do some tumblr blogging). See ya!

Cassava Cake (Bibingka)

Well, it's still a swelteringly hot summer day... and you'd think that that would mean that I'd stay away from anything hot and potentially sweat-inducing. However, my addiction to baking has rendered it nearly impossible for me to stay out of the kitchen and away from the heat-producing box known as my oven.
Upon opening the fridge this morning, I discovered that I had about a cup of evaporated milk left over from another dish I'd made (I can't quite recall what though, the heat is seriously melting my brain o_O) and like any normal person I thought that it'd probably be a good idea to use up the milk in another recipe, before the heat rendered it curdled, sour and just plain disgusting.

I put my thinking cap on, and thought long and hard about what I wanted to make... and then it hit me! Cassava cake! Or Bibingka. My dad makes a wicked cassava cake, and I thought I'd try my hand at making one that was as good as (if not better than) his. So, onward with the recipe...

Cassava Cake (Bibingka)
Yields 1 cake ~8-10 servings

Ingredients:
- 1 pack (454g) frozen, shredded cassava root; thawed
- 250ml evaporated milk
- 250ml coconut milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- topping: shredded coconut + brown sugar mixed together (optional)

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients together
2. Pour into two 8-inch round glass pan (or two 8x8inch square glass pans) that have been well greased.
3. Place dishes in a water bath and bake at 350degrees for 1hour.
4. Remove bibingka from water bath and sprinkle on the topping if desired. Continue to bake for another 25-35minutes (without water bath).
5. Set oven to broil and cook for 5minutes (or until the top of the cake is nicely browned).
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool before slicing.

The heat from the oven was unbearable... but the smell that the cake gave off was simply delightful. I couldn't stay away :P And the cake itself, although I'll admit, not as good as my dad's recipe, was pretty darned good. My dad's bibingka is usually more chewy and glutinous than the recipe I made. This bibingka was more like a firm, creamy, egg and cassava pudding... not too sweet, but just sweet enough and with just enough coconut milk to not overpower the cassava taste. I'll have to ask my dad for his recipe... because there's one more pack of frozen cassava in the freezer and I definitely want to learn the secret to his chewy cassava cake recipe.

One thing that I'd probably do differently, is that I'd make the cake a bit thicker. Upon pouring the batter into the glass dish, I realized that I had much more batter than would fit into the glass dish; however, the leftover batter was not enough to make a completely whole, second cake. Perhaps if I had a larger glass dish... maybe a 9x13inch rectangle glass dish would have been just the right size. Well... there's always next time, because this recipe is so simply and easy to make! But, I'll probably wait until the heat dies down before I get back into that blazing hot kitchen.

Curry Puffs

Having been inspired by the tasty baked curry puffs I now purchase frequently from Satay Garden (a small Malay Cafe by my house), I decided that I would try my hand at baking my new favorite snack. I'd seen a lot of recipes on the web, and familiarized myself enough with the complex method of forming, rolling and shaping the pastry for the curry puff that I felt ready to try my hand at making the flaky, layered dough. Needless to say, that this small snack takes a lot of work to prepare. If you want to make the pastry nice and layered, you have to mold each piece of dough individually. This means you have to have a lot of time on your hands... luckily I did :)

Curry Puffs
Yields 20-24 puffs

Ingredients:
- 1 recipe of potato and chicken curry filling
- 1 recipe of water dough
- 1 recipe of oil dough
- 1 recipe of egg wash
(all recipes are found below)

Method:
1. Make the filling
2. Prepare the dough and fill each piece of puff dough with your curry-potato-chicken filling
3. Brush on egg wash
4. Bake at 350F for about 25mins, or until the curry puffs are a golden color.

Potato and Chicken Filling

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts, grilled and diced into hashed brown sized pieces
- 3 potatos, skinned, boiled and diced into hashed brown sized pieces
- 1/2 cup frozen vegetables, boiled and drained
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp curry powder mixed with 2 tbsp of water
- 5 tbsp canned coconut cream (the thick portion)
- 2 tsp sugar
- Salt and white pepper, to taste

Method:
1. In the wok, pour in oil and fry the onions and garlic until fragrant. Add in the curry powder mixture and the coconut cream.
2. Add in the cooked potatoes, vegetables and chicken pieces. Continue to fry until heated through.
3. Add in the sugar, salt and pepper as desired.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Chill in the fridge until ready to fill the pastry.


Layered Pastry

Water Dough Ingredients:
- 3 cups flour + some extra
- 225 ml water
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp oil (or melted butter)

Method:
1. Combine ingredients for water dough together. Add more flour as necessary to create a dough that is soft and does not stick to the bowl or your hands. Set aside while preparing the oil dough.

Oil Dough Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 2/3 cup lard (you can substitute butter, but lard makes the pastry flakier)

Method:
1. Combine ingredients for oil dough together. Kneading the dough until you gain a soft, non-crumbly dough.

Method For Making Flaky Pastry


1. Take out a portion of the water dough. Roll it into a ball and flatten into a circular shape, like a pancake. Place a portion of the oil dough, rolled into a ball, in the center of the water dough. Wrap the water dough around the oil dough, to enclose it.
2. Use a rolling pin to flatten the pastry dough into an oblong shape.


3. Roll up this oblong shape from one end, all the way to the other (like a swiss roll).
4. Use a rolling pin and flatten this "swiss roll" length-wise, until you have a very thing and long piece of pastry dough.


5. Once again, roll up the pastry dough like a swiss roll.
6. Cut this "swiss roll" into two equal pieces, and voila! You have 2 pieces of pastry, ready to be used in making 2 curry puffs.

7. Roll out the dough into flat circles, and fill them as you would a pierogie.

Egg Wash
Combine 1 egg white + 1 tsp milk. Use a pastry brush to brush this egg wash onto the surface of the curry puffs, just before baking.

Sadly, these puffs weren't as flaky as I would have like them to be; it was probably because I ran out of lard/shortening and had to use butter instead. But, next time I will definitely use lard.... mmm, animal fat :P Aside from the disappointing non-flakiness, I was pleased with lovely curry flavor. They did not compare to the puffs at Satay Garden, but I think that if I wanted to I could charge a pretty penny. My parents loved the puffs, and my sisters ate them up for lunch at school... hmm, I think I will be charging them $1.50 per piece :P Nah, they're family and anyways, I love to bake!

Malaysia Day: Dinner and Dessert

With Malay Day just around the corner (September 16), I've suddenly just felt the urge to brew a South-East Asian storm in the kitchen. My friends wanted to have a get together, before summer drew to a close and figured that it would be really cool to have a theme to the food. I don't know if I'm biased, but I immediately threw out the option for South-East Asian cuisine. Everyone else seemed cool with the idea, although some of them were unsure of what to make. I said that it was okay if they just cooked whatever they felt like and I would bring most of the South-East Asian goodies... and hey, it worked out :)

For the main course, I didn't want to scare my friends away with very exotic dishes (i.e. Assam Laksa, Nasi Lemak, Sambal Sotong) and thought that roti and spring rolls would be too simple and just not exciting enough. So, I stuck with a very Malaysian dish that I think anyone would love to eat... Chicken Satay! I followed a recipe from malaysianfood.net and it turned out very tasty. The aroma throughout my kitchen as I grilled these spicy skewers was heavenly.

I served the Satay on a large platter, covered in banana leaves and accompanied the chicken with cubed cucumbers, red onions, spicy peanut satay sauce and compressed rice cubes (I tried to make Ketupat, but it didn't work out... just left me with a jumbled mess of coconut leaves).

When I unveiled my contribution to the dinner, everyone was very impressed. Some people even commented by saying "I didn't know you could cook!" <--- WHAT! who are these people and why do I even hang out with them?! I'm just kidding, the thing is that they only know me for my baking skills... but when I revealed the satay on the decorative platter, I must have finally shown them my savoury-culinary side.

So, after everyone had filled them tummies with the goodness of grilled chicken, spicy peanut sauce and rice, it was on to what I'm really known for... my yummy sweet treats :)

Again, I didn't want to spook them with some really exotic flavors and textures, but I did want them to experience REAL South-East Asian desserts. And what could be more South-East Asian than KUEH!!??! I followed this recipe from Kuali.com and made a Red Bean Kuih Talam for dessert. I was a bit unsure if my Caucasian friends would take to this very ethnic sweet, but to my surprise they gobbled down the cute trapezoids and hardly left any for me!

I should have given my friends more credit and trusted them to be adventurous in the food-tasting realm. But alas, I'm such a skeptic, which is why I whipped up another Nyonya dessert for them (in case no one wanted to eat the Kuih Talam). I used this recipe to make ang ku kueh (which actually shouldn't be called that seeing as their not "ang"/red)... and it also gave me a chance to whip out my mooncake/kueh molds :)

Actually, it was a good thing that I made both the Kuih Talam and the Ang Ku Kuih because both of them disappeared fairly rapidly. I'm so glad that my friends liked the food I made them... the fact that they ate every morsel of the meal meant more to me than any thank-you ever could! I really hope to do this again, it was so much fun. (But maybe we'll try a different theme next time)

Malaysia Day Celebration: Satay Garden Restaurant

Rating: Pending

I simply love it when my obsession with trying new Malay/Singaporean restaurants works to my advantage. Today, I had the sudden urge to pick up a take-out menu from this newly opened, family-run restaurant called "Satay Garden". It just opened in the small city-square just a couple blocks from my house. This excited me, because it's very difficult to get authentic Malaysian cuisine without having to make a trip downtown or to Richmond. So, with Satay Garden being within 15mins walking distance from my house I was stoked. The lovely-sunny Sunday weather also encouraged me to go out for a stroll. As I neared the restaurant, I couldn't wait to see what kinds of authentic Malaysian dishes they would offer to the community.


Once I reached the restaurant-front, I was greated by an array of balloons, a Malaysian flag and a crowd of people. Hmm... I thought to myself, "What's all the commotion? This place has been here for at least a month and not once have I seen it this busy!" Then it struck me... today is Malaysia Day! How could I forget? I guess the craziness of summer and all the work that I've been doing caused me to forget (shame on me... I know). But again, my obsession with food brought me back to earth and reminded me of Malaysia Day! As I stood amongst the crowd of people, wondering what I was in store for, the owner of the restaurant emerged... she greated everyone with a lovely smile and warmth and invited the crowd to help themselves to "samples" of her delicious home-made dishes. (I say "samples" only because we were practically all fed a full meal... ah, that's the Malaysian way... feed others until they're full!)

Luckily, I always bring my camera with me everywhere... so guess what!? You're in store for some grand ol' pictures of the free food I just chanced upon at this quaint little Malaysian diner.

I started with their Epok-Epok (curry puff). It was wonderfully flaky, and I wish they had more of it to serve. Sadly, everyone else loved it as well, so they quickly ran out :( Oh well, I can easily go back and buy some :) The inside was filled with curry beef, potatoes and veggies. Just the right amount of filling and a lovely appetizer.

Their Ketupat, topped with some sort of sambal sauce, was also very good. This compressed rice cake was served in bite-sized pieces... I would have loved to see the Ketupat in their coconut-leaf baskets.

The main dish was flat egg-noodle with mushrooms and oyster sauce. Or at least that's what it tasted like to me. It was nothing spectacular, but it was tasty. To the right of the noodles, I spooned on some of their Beef Rendang. I would have liked a bit more spiciness in the rendang sauce, and a little less oil; but the beef was cooked beautifully and was soft and flavorful.

Mmm... hard-boiled eggs with more sambal sauce. Layering the plate is the oil from the Rendang... the oil is being nicely absorbed by the soon-to-be-uncrispy prata. Mmm... oil soaked prata! I'm lovin' it

For dessert, they served up some bubur cha cha. I still prefer my dad's bubur cha cha better. This sweet soup had a lot of sweet potato and yam, but was needing a bit more coconut-milk to add some richness.

To end off the meal, we enjoyed some Tea Tarik! My mom's favorite tea... and it's darn good too. The tea was not too strong, and the milky drink was just what we needed to cap off a wonderful (and FREE) lunch.

So, the lesson here is that being a crazy foodie can pay off when you least expect it. My parents and I were actually thinking about driving out to Richmond today to try Kelong, but both of them were very exhausted from a long day of working. So, this free meal at a nearby Malay restaurant was just the thing they needed to brighten their day.

P.S. The rating at the top is only "Pending" because I'm sure that Satay Garden has a lot more goodies in store to offer, and I'm not about to rate the restaurant based upon a sampling-meal... that'd just be cruel. But don't worry, I'll definitely be back to try out their menu specials and maybe even some of their baked goods and kuehs!

Kueh Talam

I was feeling a little hungry for some Malaysian goodies again, but wasn't quite sure what to make. Remembering that I had a bag of green bean flour just lying around, un-opened, I decided to put it to good use. Now... what Kueh could I possibly make that required green bean flour? I know... Kueh Talam :) and I have all of the ingredients at my disposal.

Kueh Talam

Ingredients (A)

- 70g (~3/4cups) rice flour

- 30g (~1/4cups) green bean flour

- 270ml water

Ingredients (B)

- 1 1/2 cups sugar

- 1 cup water

- 1 tbsp pandan paste

Ingredients (C)

- 225ml thick santan

- 1 1/2 tbsp green bean flour

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 75ml water

- 1/4 cup rice flour

Method:

1. Mix ingredients (A) and set aside to soak for 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Combine ingredients (B) in a small pot, until pandan paste is thoroughly distributed. Add in mixture (A) to the sugar and pandan. Cook over low heat and stir continuously until the batter thickens and becomes slightly translucent.

3. Pour the mixture into a greased 20cm cake tin. Smooth out the batter with a plastic spatula, and steam for 20-30mins.

4. For coconut layer, mix ingredients (C) together and soak for 10 minutes. When pandan batter is finished steaming, pour the coconut layer over the cooked green layer. Steam for another 10 minutes.

5. Cool the kuih well and slice into small diamond-shaped pieces.

The top layer of the kueh didn't need any sugar to be added, because the bottom layer was sweet enough for the entire dessert. My sister really loved the pandan layer, and told me that she could eat an entire bowl of it... maybe I'll make that for her b-day and she'll be more than pleased :P My mom commented that the pandan layer could have been a bit more gelatinous, as it was more gummy and mushy than what she was expecting. Perhaps next time, I will add more rice flour to the pandan mixture ... but overall, this kueh was very tasty.

Soon Kueh

Yeah! Time for more kueh. So here's the deal, I had a bunch of spring onions left over from making jambalaya the other day (because I kind of forgot to garnish the jambalaya :P oops!) But that's okay, because that gave me plenty of onions to make Soon Kueh! I was craving some savory kueh for lunch today and it worked out perfectly, so I was glad. Anyways... here's the recipe

Soon Kueh (yield 8 pcs)

Dough Ingredients:

- 3/4 cup rice flour

- 1/4 cup tapioca flour

- 1/4 cup wheat starch

- 1 tsp salt

- 150mL water

- 2 tsp oil

- Filling (recipe follows)

Dough Method:

1. Mix together all the flour and salt.

2. Remove 1/4 cup of the mixture and set aside.

3. Place remaining flour in a small saucepan and add the liquid, stirring continuously to prevent clumping. Cook over medium heat until the dough begins to firm up (approx 2mins).

4. Remove dough from heat and dump the dough onto a generously floured (tapioca) surface.

5. Add the 2 tsp oil to the dough and add the reserved flour mixture from step 2.

6. Knead dough for 5mins, until it is no longer sticky and forms a nice ball. Add more flour if necessary.

7. Divide the dough into eight equal portions. Shape the dough portions into circles and roll out into an oval shape. Add 1 1/2 tbsp filling to the center of dough piece, fold over and seal shut.

8. Steam for 10mins, or until the dough is cooked and "transparent". Serve hot with chilli and soy sauce.

Filling Ingredients:

- 2 tbsp oil

- 1 tbsp garlic, minced

- 1 cup frozen cooked shrimp, defrosted (if large, chop them into small pieces)

- 7 stalks of spring onions

- 1/8 cup cilantro, chopped

- 1/4 cup beef, uncooked and minced, marinated in soy sauce for at least 30mins

- salt + pepper, to taste

- 2 tbsp chopped chilies (optional)

- 4 tbsp hoisin sauce

Filling Method:

1. Heat oil in frying pan over medium-high heat, add in the garlic and cook until fragrant.

2. Add in the spring onions, continue frying for 1 min. Add in the beef and continue to fry until beef is no longer pink. Add in the shrimp and cilantro, continue frying for 3mins.

3. Remove filling from heat, add salt + pepper, chilies, hoisin sauce and mix well. Use to fill your soon kueh.

These were surprisingly good. Hehehe... yeah, I didn't know whether the kueh would turn out nice and soft or hard and chewy, but the end result was somewhere in between the two. The meal was nice and small and just what I was looking for, and now I'm off to my philosophy summer course... wish me luck!

Pandan Agar Agar

Just like I promised... I'm using up the packets of agar agar that I've had lying around my house to make this awesome treat. My mom was so excited when I mentioned I would be making this dessert. Agar agar is her favorite and we don't eat much of it here in Canada. It's my mom's birthday on Marth 3rd and I thought I'd make her this special treat, and bring back some memories of Singapore. But now, I have to figure out what cake to make her... one that'll top this. I got the recipe from roseskitchen and followed it to a "t". No alterations or substitutions. Definitely give this recipe a try!

Chwee Kueh

Hmm... I've been thinking that it's about time I got back to my nonya roots. So today I decided to make somemore kueh. So far, I can't decide if I like the sweet or savory kueh better... but it's a close call. Thought I would attempt a new recipe (I'm adventurous that way) and here's what I came up with.

Chwee Kueh

Ingredients:

- 1 3/4 cup rice flour

- 1/4 cup tapioca flour

- 1/2 tsp chicken broth granules (or salt)

- scant 3 cups water

- 2 tbsp oil

Filling

- 1 cup chai poh (pickled radish)

- 50g dried scrimps, chopped

- 5 tbsp oil

- 3 cloves garlic, minced

- 3 tbsp sugar

- 2 chinese mushrooms, soaked and chopped (optional)

- spoonful of belacan (optional)

Method:

1. Mix together the 2 flours and chicken broth granules.

2. Slowly mix in the half of the water and ensure that no lumps form. Boil the remaining water and slowly add it to the flour mixture, until it thickens. Stir in the oil, until well incorporated.

3. Grease chwee kueh molds and place in steamer, on high, for 5 minutes. Pour in the rice flour mixture and steam for 15 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, heat oil in frying pan and fry garlic until fragrant. Add in the shrimp, chai poh and mushroom (if using).

5. Continue to fry until the mixture becomes dry. Then finally add the belacan (if using) and the sugar.

6. For assembly: unmold the rice cakes onto a plate and top with the filling mixture. Serve hot.

Mini Malaysia

Rating: **** out of *****

What brought me to this quaint restaurant was my mother. She is always searching for the best Malaysian restaurants in the lower mainland and by jove, I think she may have stumbled upon it. In lowly Coquitlam, located in a small strip-mall, next to a dry cleaning business we found this little gem. I would have never guessed that one could find such authentic Malaysian food in Coquitlam, and if you weren't looking for it, you would pass right by. As you enter this family-run restaurant you could just tell that the food would be good. True, the decor could use some touching up, but the atmosphere actually reminded me of being in a small Malay Cafe somewhere back in Singapore. The menu was not extensive, but they did serve the most basic of Malay cuisine. They serve sambal chicken, beef rendang, laksa lemak, nasi lemak, roti canai, beef murtabak, mee goreng... and a bunch of cheaply priced drinks! Woah, wish so much choice, I could hardly decide on what I wanted. Eventually, I settled on my favorite... nasi lemak.

I just love the variety of tastes you get with this dish. There was the usual, coconut rice, cucumber, ikan bilis and peanuts (I thought they should have mixed the two together, with some chili spices... but it was still good), beef curry, egg and sambal.

My mom ordered her favorite, laksa lemak. The dishes came out very quickly, it only took 10 minutes! I was impressed. So here's the address, in case you can't spot it hiding behind some big stores. Definitely go!

Mini Malaysia:

1196 Lansdowne Drive, Coquitlam

Pulut Inti

Okay, so here's the recipe for my Pulut Inti. It's pretty basic and doesn't use any palm sugar, instead I substituted brown sugar. I know it doesn't taste the same, but I find palm sugar a tad too sweet.

Pulut Inti

Ingredients For Rice:
- 3 cups of glutinous rice, soaked overnight and drained
- 300mL of coconut milk
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt (or more, to taste)

Ingredients For Filling:

- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

- 1/2 cup desiccated coconut

- 1 tbsp of water (add more if necessary)

Assembly:

-Banana leaves, washed, dried and cut into 3.5 x 3.5 inch squares

Method:
1. Steam the glutinous rice for 10 minutes, or until cooked.

2. Add in coconut milk, sugar and salt. Mix until well combined, steam for another 15 minutes. When done, set aside for assembly.

3. Mix filling ingredients together, adding enough water to make the filling "come together" but not turn into a liquified paste.

4. Take a handful of cooled glutinous rice and mold it into a "cube-like" shape. It doesn't have to be perfect.

5. Place a dollop of the filling mixture on top of the "rice cube". Then place your Pulut Inti in the center of a banana leaf.

6. Fold two sides of the banana leaf up, not completely covering the "peak" of the Pulut Inti. Then fold the remaining two sides underneath, to form a pyramid shape.

More Nonya Goodies

Seems like I've been admiring a lot of other peoples nonya cooking but have yet to venture into the depths of this culinary landscape myself... I was simple browsing Lily's website and came across her recipe for Rempah Udang. I thought I test out this recipe (but also vary it a little, because I enjoy the intense flavour of belachan). So here goes...

Rempah Udang

Ingredients For Rice:

- 3 cups of glutinous rice, soaked overnight and drained

- 300mL of coconut milk

- 2 tbsp sugar

- 2 tsp salt (or more, to taste)

Ingredients for Shrimp Filling:

- 1 large onion (or use shallots if you wish)

- 3 cloves of garlic

- 1 lemon grass stalk

- 1 tbsp oil

- 1 cup of cooked frozen shrimp, thawed and chopped into fine pieces

- 2 tsp tumeric

- 2 tsp coriander

- salt to taste

- 1/2 cup desiccated coconut

- 2 tbsp belachan paste

For Assembly:

- Banana leaves (7" by 5", washed and greased)

- Wooden skewers (for easier assembly use staples)

Method:

1. Steam the glutinous rice for 10 minutes, or until cooked.

2. Add in coconut milk, sugar and salt. Mix until well combined, steam for another 15 minutes. When done, set aside for assembly.

3. Meanwhile, dry-toast the desiccated coconut in a frying pan over medium heat, until the coconut looks light brown. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Place onion, lemongrass and garlic in a food processor (or manually grind) until it forms a fine paste. Add in tumeric and coriander.

5. Heat oil in at frying pan, add your fine paste and fry over medium heat until aromatic. Add in the chopped shrimp and salt to taste.

6. Continue frying until the mixture dries up; then add in the toasted coconut. Add in the belachan paste and mix well. Remove from heat and prepare for assembly.

7. Take a banana leaf and spoon rice onto one end. Make a crater in the middle and fill it with the shrimp filling. Cover the crater with more rice and tightly roll up the leaf. Secure the leaf with skewer or stapler and prepare the rest of them in the same fashion.

8. Grill Rempah Udang for about 3 minutes, serve hot.

My parents loved it, but my sisters on the other hand would not touch them. Jacqeuline doesn't like shrimp and Janessa is allergic (*sniff*). So I used some of my leftover glutinous rice to make them some pulut inti. I'm always thinking :) I'll post my recipe for that later, it's so simple but soo delicious!

Crispy Noodles

Okay, so the first few days of school weren't that demanding. Whew! That gave me some time to make dinner. Yay! I really enjoy the crispy noodles from Hon's, but it seems that whenever we go there it's not on the menu :( What's a girl to do? Make it herself, of course! I got the recipe from Singapore Cooking Vol. 2 by Mrs. Leong Yee Soo. The book is amazing, 26 years old but still aiding me in my quest to become a Nonya expert (I wish!). So, here's the recipe...

Crispy Noodles
Adapted from Mrs. Leong Yee Soo's Singapore Cooking

Ingredients:

- 600g chicken, cut into cubes (recipe calls for prawns)

- 1/4 tsp salt (recipe calls for msg)

- 1 tsp ginger

- 1 chicken cube

- 2 tbsp oil

- 200g dry egg noodles

- oil for frying

- 4 tbsp lard

- 6 slices ginger

- 1tsp pounded garlic

- 4 dry Chinese mushrooms (soaked/sliced)

- 285g Chinese mustard greens (cut into 3cm lengths)

- 455ml chicken stock

Seasoning:

- 1 tbsp soya sauce

- 1 tbsp oyster sauce

- 1/2 tsp sugar

- 1 tsp salt (recipe calls for msg)

- 1/2 tsp sesame oil

- 4 tbsp water + 2 tbsp cornstarch for thickening

Method:

1. Place chicken cubes in bowl and season with salt and minced ginger.

2. Prepare noodles by bringing 565ml of water to a boil with one chicken cube and 2 tbsp oil. Put in noodles and cook till noodles separate and become soft (approx. 3-4mins). Pour noodles in colander, immerse in cold water and drain immediately in a steel colander. Allow to cool and dry for 1/2 hour before frying.

3. Heat aluminum/iron wok till hot; pour in oil and heat until hot. Put in noodles, a little at a time according to the amount of oil in the pan. Fry till crispy and light brown. Scoop out with wire ladle on to absorbent paper. Keeps the noodles warm.

4. Heat iron wok till very hot. Heat 3 tbsp lard and fry ginger and garlic until brown. Add mushrooms and mustard stalks and fry. Add mustard leaves (I also add a variety of other vegetables to this dish), chicken stock and seasoning. Bring to a boil.

5. Arrange the chicken over the leaves, cover pan and cook over high heat for 5 minutes (until chicken is cooked). Remove lid, gradually pour in the thickening, stirring as you pour. Lower heat, wait for sauce to boil once again and add the last tbsp of lard. Transfer noodles to serving plate, pour sace over noodles. Serve hot.

My sisters quite enjoyed this special treat. When we eat this dish at Hon's we usually end up fighting for the crispy noodle, leaving the "soggy"-sauce-soaked noodles behind. But when I served it, I placed the sauce on the side. That way, they could control the soggy-ness of the noodles. Yum! Well, it seems the upcoming week is going to be a busy one for me. Don't think I'll plan on making anything. Bye for now!

Beef Rendang

I choose to make Rendang for supper because I had a bulk of the ingredients on hand at the time. All I really needed to buy was the beef and galangal. It was actually quite difficult to find the galangal. I went to T&T but was unable to find it in the produce section, so I ventured into the dried/preserved vegetable aisle. I found a package of dried galangal for only $0.79! Not too shabby... and all I needed to do was soak the slices for 1 1/2 hours and I would have "almost-fresh" galangal.

You would not believe how many variations of Rendand they have posted on the internet. I know, I know, you're probably saying, "Then why use an internet recipe anyways?" I don't really know, but I'm sure that my laze factors into the equation somehow! That and I don't have a recipe for Rendang in any of my cookbooks.

I finally settled on the recipe from foodsafari.com and the only change I made was to double it. You know what probably sold me to this recipe? The fact that there's a "how to" video for this recipe! I love watching cooking shows... and when they're making things that I have all the ingredients for, it's the best :)

Looking at the Rendang I was thinking of a way to improve the presentation of my meal. I spent so much effort making it, and I didn't want to just slap it onto a bowl of rice and serve... that would not be worthy of my masterpiece. I had always wanted to make Nasi Lemak, and so that's what I decided to present my Rendang as.


"Nasi-Lemak" with Rendang

Assembly:
- Pickle some onions and cucumbers in a mixture of vinegar, salt and sugar (to taste)
- Hard-boil 2 eggs (or more if you like), quarter them and place two on each plate
- Mould some steamed rice in a bowl and place one mound on each plate
- Top rice with some pre-made ikan bilis
- Finally, just before serving, spoon the rendang onto each plate.


My parents were quite impressed with the full flavour of the Rendang. It tasted way better than the packaged stuff and the spice was extremely intense. Even my mom, who's use to eating spicy foods found my Rendang to be very hot.

Ma Lai Koh x2

This is my second attempt at making ma lai koh... this time I used all-purpose flour instead of cake flour. The cake came out a bit more dense than when I used cake flour the last time I made it. I ran out of my pretty, pink, cupcake liners but these white ones have their own aesthetic. This'll be one of my shorter blogs... c'est fini!

Onde Onde

After making all those savoury goodies for dinner and lunch I decided to get back to my real passion... sweets! Of course, everyone loves sweets so I guess it's not so much a passion as it is just a deep, deep love :P I also love making malay sweets which use rice flour and coconut, so since my dad had bought a sweet potato that has been sitting in our pantry for the last 3 weeks I decided to make ONDE ONDE!!! Hooray (I cheer for myself way too much, eh?). Anywho, I used the recipe posted by the baker who cooks. The only difference is that I made a smaller batch (because I didn't have enough sweet potato), and used brown sugar instead of Gula Melaka; the end result tastes very similar. Yes, I am too lazy to post the exact recipe I used but I will show pictures of my onde-onde making!

Here's the rice flour dough... what a nice orange-y color

Filling the dough with brown sugar and desiccated coconut

These onde-onde just need to be boiled and rolled in desiccated coconut; then they'll be ready for eating *drool*

Kueh Seri Muka

It has been a long time since I've tried my hand at the art of "kueh making" I decided to have at it once more. This time I wanted to try Kueh Salat... being that this was one of my mom's favorite treats when she lived in Singapore. Sadly it's very hard to buy it here in BC... but lucky for her, I am here to steam up this lovely kueh for her :)

Okay, so the truth is that I'm very cheap and didn't actually have enough eggs to make the Salat's kaya layer... so I turned to another kueh very close to Salat that used fewer eggs. Here is the recipe for my Kueh Seri Muka

Kueh Seri Muka

Ingredients:

Rice Layer
- 2 1/2 cups uncooked glutinous rice
- 200ml thick coconut milk with 100ml water added
- 2 tbsp pandan juice (if you don't have it, use the essence)
- pinch of salt

"Kaya" Layer
- 1 egg
- 100ml coconut milk
- 1/4 cup castor sugar
- 1/4 tsp pandan paste
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp rice flour

Method:
Rice Layer
1. Soak rice for 2-3 hours, or overnight. Drain
2. Steam the rice with the pandan juice and a pinch of salt for 15-20 mins, or until tender.
3. Remove from heat and add in coconut milk. Mix well with a wooden utensil.
4. Steam mixture for another 10 mins.
5. Line an 8-inch round pan with banana leaves/ greased paper; place steamed rice in the pan and press firmly with a banana leaf on top to compact.
6. Steam the rice for 5 mins.

NOTE: The bottom layer must be hot when the top layer is poured in.

Method:
"Kaya" Layer
1. Beat egg lightly and mix in the rice flour, until mixture is smooth.
2. In a pan cook coconut milk, pandan paste and sugar over low heat. Continue to stir and add in egg mixture. Allow mixture to thicken.
3. Pour the "Kaya" mixture over the steamed glutinous rice in the steamer slowly. Steam for 15-20 mins or until set.
4. Cool the kueh completely before cutting.

My mom was so excited to try out my version of Kueh Seri Muka. She said that it tasted very similar to the traditional kinds steamed in Singapore! Hooray for me :) I was happy that my mom enjoyed it and she was happy that I made it... what a perfect duo!

Henglong finds...

I've been shopping at Henglong for as long as I can remember... it's like a more quaint (small-scale) version of my favourite supermarket T&T. Being that it has most of the things T&T has (and lots more) at very reasonable prices I love Henglong just as much. I remember the days when my mom and dad would take the five year old me to this market, and they always treated me to my favourite treat... an ice cold red bean (and sometime durian) popsicle. Henglong use to be the only place you could find this treat, and then T&T rolled around stealing some of their business :(

I still enjoy buying bakery goods from Henglong that are usually only found if you go to Vancouver's Chinatown... seeing as how gas and bus fare is super expensive the only way to get the authentic nonya/chinese goodies are from Henglong. Here are some of the treats I purchased the other day...

Colorful Bak Tong Goh... with salty coconut cream sauce

Sweet, green, mungbean-filled rice cakes... with salty coconut cream sauce

Carioca... I had never heard of this one before and was interested to try it. They described it as deep fried sticky-rice flour, so I was expecting something like Jin Dui.

It was very much like Jin Dui, but had no redbean... the melted sugar syrup on top was delicious and tasted like gooey cotton-candy.

Sniff... sniff

Well, my entire family (all four people :P) have left me to go on their Spring Break trip to Disneyland. I'm slightly depressed, seeing as how no one will be around to sample my cooking... and of course because they're going on a trip without moi! They're going to 10 days, stopping off in Ventura (not quite sure where that is) and then ending up at the "Happiest Place on Earth" for their final 3 days. Alas... but I will get to spend some quality time with my puppy and maybe we'll do some good bonding, who knows.

I didn't want them leaving me behind empty handed, so I made them some breakfast to take along with them (they driving down to the U.S. isn't that crazy?!!?). I told myself to stop cooking anymore dishes until they come back; otherwise they'll return from their vacation to a fridge full of old food... bleh! Truthfully, I don't know how well that command is going to stick. Anyways, I made them some steamed Malay cakes, otherwise known as Ma Lai Koh. As you can see, I was in the lovey-dovey mood when I was making them... I just love my family soooooo much!

I just love Florence's Blog, she has a ton of delicious malay bun recipes. You can also find alternate recipes for Ma Lai Koh at: My Zest or jodelibakery.com but I prefer Florence's, it's much simpler and I find it less oiley.

Well, I hope my family enjoys their vacation... I should be celebrating being home alone; but without my sisters, and mom and dad home just doesn't seem so homey :(

Hope you're reading this... HAVE A GREAT VACATION!