CHAR KUEH KAK (FRIED RICE CAKE)

One hour left to 2014..... so i think this is going to be the last recipe to share for 2013.

Have you heard of CHAR KUEH KAK? If you have not, then you are not from Penang Malaysia. Char kueh kak is a typical Penang street food. It is made of rice cake fried with bean sprouts with soya sauce as seasoning. Well to make this dish you need to make the rice cake first. I got the batter right after the third trial. First time..too soft, second time.. too hard, .. Third time i got a perfect rice cake for the dish.Yeah....

CHAR KUEH KAK

Ingredients for rice cake

120 g rice flour

3 tbsp corn starch

1/2 tsp salt

500 ml water

1 tbsp oil

Method

1. Mix all the ingredient in a pan. Stir well until you get a smooth batter.

2. Partially cook the batter. keep on stirring. Remove from heat when the batter start ti thicken.

3. Pour batter into a tray and steam for 20 minutes.

4. let it cool before cutting into cubes.

 Next fry the rice cake.

Ingredients

1 tbsp of oil

2 pips of chopped garlic

1 tbsp of preserved radish/chaipor(soak for 5 minutes and wash)

1 handful of bean sprout/taugeh

dash of pepper

1 tbsp of soya sauce

1 tbsp of dark soya sauce

1 egg

Method

1. Heat up one tbsp of oil in a frying pan.

2. Saute garlic and preserved radish until fragrance.

3. Put in the cubed rice cake and fry.

4. Season with soya sauce and dark soya sauce.

5. Throw in a handful of bean sprout, continue frying. Break in an egg. Continue frying until egg is well mixed 

    and cooked.. Dash some pepper over it. 

6. Dish out and serve.

It is 3 minutes to 12 midnight

wishing everybody a Happy 2014!!!

PIE TEE/TOP HATS

One of my colleagues has been asking me about how to make pie tee. I told her that she needs to have the mold  to make the shells for pie tee.

brass pie tee mold

Mind you  it is time consuming to make the pie tee shells. It needs a lot of patient. but when you put that snack in your mouth... Mmm all the effort is worth it. Here is the recipe

PIE TEE

Ingredients for the 

Pie tee shell batter

200 g rice flour

1 tbsp corn starch

1 small egg

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp oil

180 ml water

Method

1.  Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl to make a thin batter.

2. Heat up half  a kuali of oil and heat up the mold in the oil too.

3. Dip the mold 3/4 way into the batter.

4.Next put the mold back into the oil to cook the batter.

5.Jiggle the mold  , the batter should dislodge from the mold.

6.It should turn crispy after awhile.

7. Take it out and drain on a wire rack.

8. Let the shells cool down before keeping in an airtight container.

use a skewer to dislodge the shell

need to control fire... oil must not be too hot or else you get this

not nice to eat... bitter

this is a better one even though  it is not perfect

pie tee shells are all ready to be filled with cooked yam bean

 The two main ingredients for pie tee will be yam bean/Jicama or sengkuang. 

Next julienne the two root vegetables. I used 2 medium size yam bean an one carrot.

 Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok, saute 1 tbsp of garlic until fragrance.Then  throw in the vegetables and fry until the vegetables are soft,season with salt, sugar and pepper according to your taste.

Dish out and garnish with spring onions.

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Happy cooking

MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE

The easiest moist chocolate cake i have ever made...and is yummy.


MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar( i reduced)

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup butter milk

( don't have butter milk? then add 225ml milk to 1tsp vinegar or lemon juice)

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup boiling water

Method

1. Preheat oven at 150 Celsius

2. Beat all ingredients(except the boiling water) at medium high  speed for 1 minute.

3. Add boiling water, beat mixture until smooth and well Incorporated.

4. Pour into greased baking pan and bake for 40 minutes. ( depending on your oven and size of pan)

Note: recipe source ( The World Best Chocolate Recipe)

GYOZA

Gyoza... you cant stop at  just eating one piece....some called it pot sticker...whatever name you gave it. Eat.


GYOZA

Ingredients

500 g of mince meat
5 leaves of cabbage(white and long type)
1 cup of chopped spring onions
1/2 cup of chopped carrot
4 pips of garlic (chopped)
1 egg
4 tbsp of soya sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil
50 pieces of gyoza skin/ dumpling skin

Method

1. Sprinkle some salt onto the chopped cabbage and let it stand for 10 minutes. Squeeze  juice out from the
    cabbage.
2. Mix all the ingredients (except the gyoza skin) in a bowl.
3. Put a tbsp of the  mixture on a piece of gyoza skin and pleat it.
4. Shallow fry the gyoza using a non stick pan until golden brown.
5. Drizzle some water on to the gyoza and cover the pan. Let the steam cooks the gyoza.
6. When all the water has evaporated it is done.

pan fry until the base is golden brown

drizzle some water into the pan

it is done when all the water has evaporated

nice when it is still hot

Gyoza goes well with black vinegar ... ENJOY...

PUMPKIN AND TOMATO LAKSA

Laksa laksa.....What/how is your version? For the Penang( a small state in the northern part of Malaysia) people laksa means a bowl of white noodles served in spicy sour fish soup/broth garnish with cucumber, onions, mint leaves, pineapple and of course prawn paste.  This is asam laksa. Drooling? In Singapore when you ask for laksa they will give you a bowl of curry mee/noodles. So different place has different version of laksa. Today i am not going to share with you the recipe for asam laksa but another version of laksa without fish. It is called PUMPKIN AND TOMATO LAKSA. This recipe is from the cookbook "Best of the Best" the best recipes from the 25 best cookbooks of the year. Thanks to my girl for the recipe book.


 PUMPKIN AND TOMATO LAKSA

Ingredients

9 ounces of pumpkin
5 small red bird's eye chilies(i used big chilies)
4 cloves  garlic
1 lump of ginger.. size of your thumb
2 lemon grass
6 stalks of Cilantro + the root
6 lime leaves
13/4 cups of coconut milk
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
24 cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp Nam pla (Thai fish sauce)
1/2 lemon
Mint leaves
Noodles

Method

1. Cut the pumpkin into chunks and steam for 12 to15 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Blend chilies,garlic,ginger,lemon grass, lime leaves and roots and stem of cilantro into a pulp.
3. Place a fairly deep pot over a moderate heat, add the  blended spice pulp and fry it,(without oil) moving it
    the pot so it does not scorch.Do this for a minute or two, then pour in the stock and coconut milk and
    bring to a boil.
4. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add them to the soup with the nam pla and lemon juice. This will take
    7 to 10 minutes to cook.
5. Add the pumpkin and continue cooking for a minute or two.
6. Place a swirl of  cooked noodles in bowl and pour the laksa over and add the mint and the remaining
    cilantro.

     It is simple, right?

 cilantro

Cherry tomatoes

Drooling!!!

HAPPY COOKING AND ENJOY...

Note: If cooking for vegetarian diet omit the nam pla (Thai fish sauce)., but i think it will be less oomp.

TANG YUEN (GLUTINOUS RICE BALLS)

Tang Yuan is a dish of glutinous rice balls served in a sweet syrup. In Chinese culture, it is traditionally served on Dong Zhi, the winter solstice. By eating tang yuan you become one year older. Hehe..
Traditionally people add colouring to the  dough to make coloured rice balls. for me I used natural ingredients for the colours.

Wishing everybody a happy winter solstice. Let us have some Tang Yuen.

TANG YUAN

 Strawberries.. puree them to get the red colour. Last year i used red dragon fruit. Dragon fruit gives a richer red colour

sweet potatoes... steam ,mash and add to the flour to get the yellow and purple dough.

Pandan leaves from my garden... blend to get the green colour

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup glutinous rice flour
• 1/2 cup water for making dough
• steam sweet potatoes, about 2 pieces (yellow and purple varieties)
• 5 strawberries, make into puree

(A) Sweet Soup 

•  1 thumb sized ginger sliced
• 1 litre water
• 80 g rock sugar to taste
• 2 pandan (screw pine) leaves 

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large mixing bowl, add flour and sweet potato paste/strawberry puree. Gradually add water (you don't have to use all of it) and knead the dough until soft, smooth, yet not sticky to the fingers .

2.  Shape the dough to even-sized balls.

1. Bring a pot of water (enough water to submerge the dumplings completely) to boil. Add the tang yuan into the boiling water and cook until they float to the surface. Transfer them immediately to a bowl of room temperature water until cooled or ready to serve.
2. To cook the sweet soup, add (A) to a pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer until the sugar is fully melted.
3. To serve, add tang yuan to a serving bowl and ladle the sweet soup over.

ENJOY...

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