Monkey Swiss Roll 2016

Hi dear bloggers. I wish you and your family a blessed New Year with bundles of  joy and happiness

Whole Wheat Butter Bread Loaf 奶油全麦面包

Like this bread very much. The texture is soft and a bit chewy.  And it is nutritious also when compared to white plain bread.

Recipe: Adapted from Carol's "Original Flavour" Book

Ingredients:

200 g bread flour
100 g whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon instant dried yeast
15 g fine sugar
100 c.c. water (room temperature)

30 g unsalted butter (room temperature)

Method:
1) Put all the ingredients except butter in a mixing bowl. Beat till form a dough.  Add in butter continue to beat till you get a smooth and elastic dough. Place the dough on a lightly greased container or big bowl.  Cover with a damp cloth or cling-wrap. Leave to ferment for  60 minutes or double in size.
2) Sprinkle bread flour on working counter, take out the fermented dough and punch out gas.
divide dough into 2 equal portions. Roll them round, and leave to rest for 10 minutes (cover).
3) Roll each dough flat into rectangular shape. Roll from the width. Rest and cover for 10 minutes again.
4) Roll flat till the length is about 40 cm and the width is the same size as that of your baking mould so that it fits.
5) If your mould is not non-stick, grease the mould and dust with flour. Place the dough into the mould with the end of the folded dough facing downwards. Place the 2 doughs at each side of the mould with some space in between them. Ferment for 60 - 70 minutes till the dough reaches 90% of the rim of the mould.
5) Preheat oven 10 - 15 minutes at 210 deg before the baking time.
6) Cover lid (the lid needs to grease with oil too) . Put into the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes.
7) Take out from the oven and immediately remove the bread loaf from the mould. Allow to cool on the wire rack before slicing them.

Christmas Tree Nutella Bread

Hi! Dear bloggers and friends. Today is Christmas Eve ,here I would like to wish everyone of you a very Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
320 g bread flour
50 egg (whole egg without shell)
3/4 teaspoon instant dried yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
20 g fine sugar
160 c.c fresh milk
50 g unsalted butter ( at room temperature)

some nutella

Method:
1) Combine all ingredients ( except butter) in a mixing bowl . Mix and knead to form a dough.
2)  Add butter and knead till the dough becomes elastic and smooth dough.  Put the dough in a lightly greased  big bowl, cover with damp cloth or cling-wrap.  Leave to ferment for 50 - 60 minutes in a warm place.
3) Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Roll into balls. Cover and rest for 15 minutes.
4)  Sprinkle a little bit of flour on the working surface table, flatten the dough with rolling pin. The shape is slightly square bottom and a sort of tear drop, triangle like  a Christmas tree.   Roll equal size for each piece of dough (long triangle shape).  Got a piece of baking paper lift the shaped dough onto the paper. Spread nutella across the area.  Please watch the video for clear instruction.
4)  Leave to ferment for 40 - 50 minutes. Brush with egg wash and bake in preheated over at 180 deg for 15 minutes.

Happy baking.

Heng Hua Braised Noodle /lor me (兴化卤面)

Ingredients: (Vary amounts according to your liking)

1. Pa-mee  also known as hand make noodle without alkali  (1 kg (feeds 8 people)
2. Wong Bok (chinese cabbage)
3. Prawns 300 g
4. Venus clams 1 kg (soak and wash sand away)
5. Pork belly 100 g
6. Lean meat 200 g
7. Flat taupok 5 pieces
8. One chicken breast

Method:

1. Stir-fry minced garlic and shallots together with sliced pork belly till fragrant or light brown.
2. Add water (about 8 big soup bowls) and chicken breast. Simmer till broth is slightly creamy (about 1 to 1.5 hours). (Add ikan billis if you like.)
3. Use a strainer to remove residue in the broth.
4. In another pot of water, cook the venus clams till they are cooked (opened). Discard those that did not open. Let this water stand for about 30 minutes so that any residual sand can sink to the bottom of the pot. Otherwise, use a fine mesh strainer.
5. Add this water to the broth and bring to boil.
6. Cook the noodles in another pot of water so that the excess starch does not go into the broth.
7. Slice up all other ingredients. Add ingredients and noodles into broth. Mix in the venus clams.
8. Season with salt.
9. Garnish with coriander, spring onions, fried shallots and serve hot.
10. Mince some garlic and chilli  and light soy sauce to make a garlic-chilli dip. This goes very well with the noodles

Pumpkin AngkuKuih - 金瓜红龟粿

Hi dear friends. I have been missing for quite a long time.

Today I am back and I present here pumpkin dough angku kuih with peanut filling. This is my first attempt using pumpkin to make the dough. I would like to mention here my recipe is just a guideline. You have to adjust the water or flour portion when making the dough.  I used Malaysia pumpkin which contains a lot of water content.  When your dough is dry, add little more of water,  or if the reverse happens where the dough is wet and sticky, just add a little more of flour. Knead till you get a pliable and smooth dough.

Recipe:  (Makes 10)

Ingredients for filling: (Mixed together)
100 g  toasted and ground peanut (available at supermarket)
40 g fine sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon cooled cooked water or coconut milk
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

For the skin dough:
120 g pumpkin (without skin and discard the seed)
80 g glutinous rice flour
1/4 sugar
15 ml or more water, depends on the pumpkin water content

Method:
1)  Cut pumpkin into pieces, steam and mash whilst hot.
2)  Combine flour and sugar with number 1 above. Knead and slowly add in water bit by bit. Knead till form a smooth and pliable dough.
3)  Roll each skin dough into balls. Lightly flatten the dough, wrap in filling and sealed properly.  Press it into mould lightly and knock out on a piece of greased banana leaf. Finish  the rest. Based on the mould that I used, I used 22 g of the skin dough and 18 g of filling.
4)  Steam over medium heat for 8 - 10 minutes until cooked. Lightly brush with oil. Serve.

I even made some pumpkin look-alike kuih.

Cheese Cake Bread (ver. 2)

This is a revised post. This bread is so good and tasty that I must once again share it with you. I like the fine texture of the bread, its cheesy taste and the sweetness and sourness of the blueberry jam. They are a perfect match.

The recipe is here.

Steamed Minced Pork With Lotus Root

How easy is it being a full time housewife, needing to cook dinner 365 days a year?

Let me tell you, it is not easy at all. How many different recipes can you possibly conjure up? Sometimes, I just run out of ideas and resort to simple dishes. The above - steamed minced pork with lotus root, is one example. My first time putting lotus root and minced pork together, I had come across a similar dish at a food court recently.

Not only is it easy to prepare, this dish is healthy as little oil and sugar are used. In fact, you only need about ten to minutes to prepare the ingredients, and let the rice cooker/steamer do the rest of the job.

The usual lotus roots you find are dark brown and coated in mud. However, I used white lotus root here as I find that the crunch adds variety to the minced pork. Choose the younger (smaller and lighter in colour) ones for added crispiness.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
(A)- 300 g minced pork
      - 1 teaspoon salt
       - 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
       - 1 tablespoon water
      -  2  teaspoon corn flour
      -  white pepper powder

 (B) - 100 g lotus slices (cleaned and peeled skin and then sliced thinly)

(C)  - 2 tablespoon or more of cooked water (adjust to taste)
       -  1 teaspoon light soy sauce
       -  1/4 teaspoon dark soy sauce (for colouring, optional)
       -  1/2 teaspoon sugar

Method:
1)  Combine ingredients (A) and mix well. Use a pair of chopsticks  to  stir at one direction until the water is fully absorbed by the meat. Once completed the meat becomes gooey, and the texture is smooth.  Add in  lotus slices, gently crush the lotus root into rough pieces as you blend them together with the minced pork.
2)  Steam the minced pork mixture for 15 to 20 minutes.
3) Once done, drain the sauce from the plate. Mix ingredient C into the sauce and pour back into the dish. Garnish with spring onion and serve with plain rice.

Nasi Lemak, Belacan Chilli Paste

Have been cooking Nasi Lemak for N times but realised that my recipe has never been recorded in my blog.

The essence of nasi lemak is in the coconut rice and the belacan chilli. If you get these two ingredients right, you will have dished out a Nasi Lemak as good as, if not better, than those commercial outlets. Enjoy!

Warning: Please cook more rice. :)

Recipe:

Ingredients for Sambal Chilli paste :
- 100 g dried chillies, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes, drained
- 25 g belacan,  wrap in a kitchen tissue paper and toast in microwave for 1 to 2 minutes, crushed into powder
- 1 big onion, peeled and sliced
- 10 small onions, peeled
- 3 pip garlic
- 1 tablespoon assam keping, mixed with 1 bowl of plain water to get assam water
- 1 chicken cube or ikan billis cube
- cooking oil for cooking
- half bowl or more pre-fried ikan billis

Method:
1) Grind dried chillies, garlic, big onion, shallots and belacan into fine paste. (if you do not want to toast your belacan in microwave).

2)  Heat up a wok, put adequate oil to cook the ground chilli paste. Stir constantly and cook till the  oil separates from the paste. At this time the colour of the paste is darker.

3)  Add in chicken cube, assam water (adjust your sourness to adapt to your taste bud), sugar, salt to your taste. Dish up.

To Make Nasi lemak sambal chilli:
1) Fry 1 big onion (sliced) till fragrant. Put 2 tablespoon chilli paste, 2 tablespoon assam water, 1/2 bowl water, and sugar to taste. Then add in ikan bilis to toss for a while. Here only a guideline for you - adjust the amount of spicyness and the amount to prepare for number of guests. The remaining chilli paste can be kept in the fridge/freezer for future use.

Ingredients for Coconut rice:
4 cups  rice
3 pandan leaves
2 cm piece ginger, scliced
1 lemon grass, lightly smashed
5 cups santan (coconut milk) from 1 coconut (or l packet  200g  Kara coconut milk add water to get 4.5 cups or 5 cups of water)
1 teaspoon salt

Method:

Wash rice and drain.  Boil together with the  above ingredients  till  the rice is cooked through. Let it stand for 20 minutes. Stir to loosen rice grains before serving.

With this simple and humble basic belacan chilli paste, you can prepare other dishes such as:

Ikan bilis chilli sambal

Sambal Prawns

Fried Dried Mee Siam

Fried Mee Siam:

Ingredients:
300 g beehoon, soaked for 30 mnutes, drained
30 g dried shrimps, soaked for 10 minutes, drained and diced.
2 small (bean-curd) tofou, cut into small cubes, deep fried till crispy.
2 tablespoon fermented beancurd (bean paste)
2 tablespoon basic belacan sambal chilli paste
sugar, assam water to taste
1/2 bowl of chive, cut into lengths
30 cents bean sprouts
2 eggs, beaten and fry, cut into strips
2 shallots, 1 pip garlic, chopped

Method:
1) Heat up oil in a wok, fry dried shrimps, garlic and onions till fragrant.  Add in fermented bean, chilli paste, paste, sugar, salt and bee hoon. Stir fry for few minutes.
2)  Add assam water, cover , and let it cook over low heat for 5 minutes or the beehoon is softened.
3)  Add in bean sprouts and continue to cook for 1 minutes. Pour in chives, toss and mix well.
     Dish up and serve with bean curd pieces and egg.

Mango With Glutinous Rice - 椰汁芒果糯米饭

Recipe: serves 4

Ingredients (A):
200 g glutinous rice (soaked  in water for 30 minutes)
2 to 3 pcs of Pandn leaves

Ingredients  (B)Topping
1 cup coconut milk
2 to 3 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

(C) 1 mango, sliced  (I like rainbow mango from Thailand)

Method:
1) Mix topping and cook over low  flame, keep stirring till just boil.
2)  With microwave cooking method: Drain rice and transfer to a casserole, add water just above the rice.  Place pandan leaves on top. Cover and cook on high heat for 10 to 15 minutes in microwave oven. Check the doneness.  Add 1/2 portion of  Topping into rice and mix well.  Cover and stand for another 15 to 20 minutes.
3)  Transfer  the rice pudding on a serving plate with mango slices and drizzle with the remaining topping.

Enjoy!

Note: You can steam the glutinous rice in a steamer over high flame  for 30 minutes.

Chinese Steamed Rice Cake - 白糖糕

I would like to share with you this simple and tasty Chinese steamed cake.  I made it today. The Chinese steamed cake turned out to be springy and fragrant.  Give it a try if you are a fan of baitanggao (白糖糕）。

Recipe: Adapted from Josephine's Recipes

Ingredients:

A)Yeast Stater:
     1 teaspoon instant dried yeast
     2 tablespoon warm coconut milk (below 38 deg C)

Method: Mix well and rest for 20 minutes.

B) Main batter:
i)   280 g rice flour
     300 ml water
ii) 140 g sugar
     200 ml water
     100 ml coconut milk

Method:
1) In a big bowl, mix well ingredients i) till smooth.

2)  Boil ingredients ii) till the sugar dissolves and the syrup just comes up to a boil.

3) Pour the hot syrup into rice flour mixture. Whisking constantly, and let the batter cool to room temperature.

4)  Add yeast stater into cool cooked batter. Cover and leave for 2 hours at room temperature.

5)  Grease a 20 cm round cake pan and place it in the steamer to preheat for 5 minutes.  Then uncover, pour the batter into the hot pan,  cover the steamer tightly and steam for 25 - 30 minutes until risen and springy -firm.

Angku Kueh

What do I do with mung beans?

Initially I was preparing them for tao suan (a type of Chinese dessert) but changed my mind because none of my children fancy it. So I ground the mung beans into paste as ang ku kueh fillings.

I have made purple, green and yellow ones (link here) and my mood today convinced me to make ang ku kueh with red skin. The skin dough is made up of  sweet potato and glutinous rice flour. The sweet potato used was yellow and after adding a little bit of red colouring, the appearance of the dough turned into a lovely rosy cheek colour . They are lovely and sweet.

Crispy Sardine Croquetts- 香脆沙丁鱼可乐饼

Its tastes so good. The outside is crispy and inside is moist and soft. This croquetts  is suitable for tea-time and even dinner time served on the table with chilli sauce or mayonnaise.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
3 medium sized potatoes
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
350 g sardine (in tomato sauce, drained)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of lime juice

1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups breadcrumbs
Oil for deep-frying

Method:
1)  Boil potatoes. Peel skin off and mash. Heat 1 tablespoon oil, stir-fry onion until fragrant, then add sardines.  Mix in mashed potatoes.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. Allow to cool slightly.

2)  Add lime juice to the sardine mixture. Shape the sardine mixture into oval or round shapes.

3)  Coat with egg, then breadcrumbs.  Place on a tray and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

4)  Heat oil in a pan or wok until hot. Deep-fry croquetts until golden brown and crispy.  Drain, and serve with your desired sauce.

Provencal Beef Stew

Attracted by the colour of its beautiful picture in the recently acquired recipe book, I decided to cook it since it also looked easy to make. It is my first attempt of a French dish. 

Well, its taste is unique and a bit of sourish, and the hint of the orange zest gives out another fruity taste. As I used shallots instead of onion (only found out that I ran out of onion during preparation), this might affect the final result. Looks like i have to give it another try.  

Recipe: Serves 4

Ingredients: 

3 tbsp olive oil

115 g thick-cut bacon, diced

900 g stewing stewing steak cut into 4 cm pieces

1 large onion, chopped

2 carrots, sliced

2 ripe tomatoes, peeled,seeded and chopped

2 tsp tomato puree (paste)

2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped

250 ml/1 cup fruity red wine

150 ml beef stock ( I used 1 beef stock cube + 150 ml water)

1 bouquet garni (thyme/parsley/bay leaf etc) (I used 2 pieces dried bay leaves)

1 small onion, studded with 2 cloves

grated zest and juice of 1/2 unwaxed orange

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

salt and ground black pepper

Method:

1)   Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large heavy frying pan, then add the bacon stir-fry until browned and the fat is rendered.

2)  Working in batches, add the beef  to the pan in a single layer, pan-fry (do not over crowded the pan,  or the meat will stew in its own juices and not brown) until all sides are browned, about 6 - 8 minutes. Transfer the beef to the ceramic cooking pot and continue browning the rest of the meat in the same way, adding more oil when needed.

3)  Pour the wine and stock over the beef in the ceramic cooking pot, then add the bouquet garni and the onion.  

4)  Add the remaining oil and the onion to the frying pan and cook gently for 5 minutes, until softened.  Stir in the tomatoes, tomato puree and garlic, then transfer to the ceramic cooking pot.

5)  Cover with the lid and switch the slow cooker to low.  Cook for 5 -7 hours, or until the beef and vegetables are very tender.  Uncover and skim off any fat.  Season, discard the bouquet garni and clove-studded onion, and stir in the orange zest and juice and the parsley.

BBQ Pork (Bak gua) Butter Cake - 肉干牛油蛋糕

Hi! dear friends and bloggers. I wish everyone of you a very happy and prosperous  Chinese Lunar New Year .

This  would be my first and last post of the month (only one post for this month/February 2015).

I still had some BBQ pork (bakgua or rou gan) left on the shelf and it will be the perfect home for various microorganisms if i left it in room temperature for too long. Moreover, my fridge is already at full capacity so I have to find a way to get rid of it.  Subsequently, I decided to bake a cake with it.  The origin recipe is from Kevin Chai.

Verdicts for the cake:  The texture of the cake is soft and moist. It is full of the fragrance of butter. The butter taste overpowers the bakgua, hardly have the bakgua taste. If you want a stronger taste of bakgua, may have to replace butter with corn oil, olive oil or sun flower seed oil.  Let me try out my next attempt and I will let you know the outcome. Hmmm, I may not do it again because I hardly eat bakgua. lol.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

300 g butter

200 g fine sugar

4 whole eggs 

250 g plain flour

20 g milk powder

5 g baking powder

100 ml milk

100 g BBQ pork, blended

Method:

1)  Preheat oven at 160 deg C. Grease and line an 8" x 8" square baking pan.

2)  Beat butter and sugar till creamy and light.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3)  Sift flour, baking powder and milk powder together.  Fold in flour and milk aleternately in 3 batches.  Fold in BBQ pork, mix well.

4)  Pour the batter into  the prepared pan. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes or until cooked.

5)  Remove from oven, leave it cool on the rack. Cut into pieces, serve.

Multi-Colour Huat Kuih -综合发糕

没想到吃发糕可以吃到这么丰富。有巧克力，有绿茶，有草莓，香兰，芋头等等的口味。真的太幸福了！

作天经过厨娘香Q秀的厨房，看到制作美丽又零失败的发糕，今天就迫不急待就开始做了4个口味的发糕；有巧克力搭配巧克力米； 香兰搭配日本黑豆；芋头香精搭配紫色番薯；草莓香精搭配蔓越莓；哇塞，每个发糕都笑到非常灿烂，而且好吃, 成功！

结论：不粘牙，有弹性。冷了有点硬，下次做可以再加多一点水。

Never imagined eating Huat Kuey can be so exciting. There's chocolate, green tea, strawberry, pandan, yam, etc flavours. I feel so blessed!

Happened to visit 厨娘香Q秀, and I couldn't wait any longer to try out their beautiful and successful Huat Kuihs. I made chocolate combined with chocolate rice, pandan combined with japanese black beans, yam combined with purple sweet potato, strawberry combined with cranberry. wow! all came out smiling at me! and delicious too! Success!

Verdict: not sticky on the teeth, with a good level of elasticity. however it was a little hard when cold, so I can probably add more water next time.

Recipe: I made 1/2 recipe of the original

Ingredients:

250 g water

1.5 g salt

30 g  whole egg (without shell)

300 g plain flour

1 tablespoon double acting baking powder

150 g fine sugar

Method:

1) Sift flour (2 x) into a big mixing bowl, add in the remaining ingredients, mix to combine a free lumps and smooth mixture.

2) Divide mixture into  3 or 4 portions, stir in the colour and flavour to your liking.  Pour batter into small cups /mould till 3/4 full. Steam over high heat for 15 - 20 minutes or until cooked.

Steamed Apam - 阿邦蛋糕

Are they huat kuih or kuih Apam?  They are the same thing. Malay calls it Kuih Apam, Chinese calls it fatt koh or huat kuih. .  I personally do not quite like the texture of this kuih , because it is quite sticky. However, they are still delicious and fragrant.

Recipe: source from Steamed Cake &  Kuih Muih

Ingredients A:
140 g rice flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
200 ml thick coconut
115 g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Ingredients B:
150 g caster sugar
120 ml water
20 ml fresh  pandan juice (extracted from pandan leaves)

Topping:
Pumpkin seeds

Method:
1)  Boil caster sugar, water and pandan juice in a pot until the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat, leave to cool and strain.

2) Add in ingredients A mix well thoroughly until no lumps and  smooth mixture. Leave and cover to rest or 1 hour.

3)  Lightly grease the small cups, spoon mixture till 3/4 full, top with some pumpkin seeds.  Steam for 15- 20 minutes over high heat.

4) When cool, remove cakes from the small cups (moulds), ready to serve.

Ayam Ponteh -马铃薯鸡

Recipe:

Ingredients:
500 g chicken, washed and wiped dry, cut into pieces
3 tablespoon bean paste (minced)
10 shallots, diced or chopped
10 pips garlic, diced or chopped
2 - 3 medium size potato, removed skin and cut into wadges
1/2 tablespoon light  soy sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar (gula Melaka)
1.5 cups water
3 - 4 tablespoon cooking oil

Method:
1)  Heat up wok with oil, fry shallots and garlic over medium  heat for few minutes until brown.
2)  Add in bean paste and stir-fry for few minutes until fragrant.  Add in chicken, and stir-fry until the the chicken is covered with paste. Now add in water and potatoes, continue to cook for 20 minutes over medium high heat (cover with lid).  Stir occasionally to prevent getting burnt at the bottom.
3) Pour in light soy sauce and palm sugar. Continue to cook till the meat and potatoes are well cooked.  Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.

Hong kong Style Rice Cake Pudding - 香港街边 砵仔糕

Recipe: yields 8 small puddings

Ingredients:
80 g rice flour
10 g wheat flour (deng mian fen)
10 g corn flour or tapioca flour
70 g brown sugar ( I used Taiwan brown sugar so that the finished product turns out very dark)
300 ml water

50 g  red bean   - washed  and soaked in  water for at least 4 hour or over night,  and boiled until the beans split open a little.

Method:
1)  Combine all the flours together into the bowl.  Pour in 120 ml water and whisk until there is no flour lumps.  The mixture should be quite thin. Set aside for later use.

2)  Boil brown sugar with the remaining water (180 ml) on medium heat.  Once the sugar is melted, pour into flour mixture, stir constantly as you pour. Transfer the mixture into the measuring jug.

3)  Pour batter 3/4 full into each mould in the steamer (see tips).  Then add some of the beans.  Steam them on high heat for bout 15 - 20 minutes. To test whether they are cooked, just insert a skewer in the middle of the pudding comes out clean.  Remove from heat, cool them on the wire rack.
When cool, remove from moulds and serve.

Tips:
Set up a steamer . Lightly grease the moulds or small bowls you will use for the puddings and steam for a while.

Bitter gourd pudding - 苦瓜凉冻

You can either eat with coconut cream (or fresh cream) or top with ice-cream.

2 years ago, I went on a trip with my family to Sydney and we chanced upon a Chinese restaurant where we had a meal. The owner was very kind and served us complimentary desserts.

On first look, it looked like matcha or green bean pudding. When I tasted it, it was very refreshing and I could not guess what was giving the pudding its subtle flavour. Only after tying up the owners and interrogating her intensively did she finally reveal the mystery ingredient - bitter gourd! It was a surprise. We released her and after many months  of procrastination, I have now finally made my first attempt in making this refreshing dessert.

Bitter gourd is normally not easily acceptable among children (and even adults) and this is a good way to make them eat them for their cooling properties.

Verdict of my end product:
1)  Refreshing
2)  Sweet and slight hint of bitter gourd taste.
3)  Easy to make.

Recipe:

Ingredients A:
120 g sugar
1/2 tablespoon agar-agar powder
1.75 (one and three-quarter) tablespoon galatine powder
500 ml water
2 pcs pandan leaves
pinch of salt

Ingredients B:
150 g bitter gourd - clean and remove seeds
some water

Method:
1) Blend bitter gourd with some water,  Drain and collect 100 ml bitter gourd juice.

2) Combine ingredients A and method (1) in a small pot, boil over medium heat. Keep stirring until the ingredients dissolve and no lumps.

3)  Pour the mixture into moulds. When cool, chill in the fridge. When the puddings are fully set, remove from mould and serve with coconut cream (or fresh cream) or ice-cream.

Thai Style Butter Lemongrass Chicken - 泰式香茅牛油鸡

This is my first post of 2015.  Here I would like to wish every blogger and friend a very Happy New Year, Hopefully this year there would be more peace in the world and less disasters, both natural and man made.

This recipe has been with me for quite sometime.  Until today i have a chance to give it a try. Out of my expectation it turned out better than I assumed it would be. It tastes so good and the chicken is tender.  However, I thought that the Tom Yum paste overpowered the lemon grass. Perhaps I will add more lemon grass in my next attempt.

Gentle reminder, you need to cook more rice .lol


Recipe:  adapted from ho ho jiak! Hawkers' Fair

Ingredients A:
2 chicken whole legs - deboned and cut into pieces
2 tablespoon butter

Marinade:
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
dash of sesame oil and white pepper
1 small egg- lightly beaten
1 tablespoon corn flour
1 tablespoon plain flour

Ingredients B:
1 tablespoon lemongrass - diced
1 teaspoon chilli padi - sliced
1/2 teaspoon chopped kaffir lime leaf
1 tablespoon tom yam paste

100 ml  water

Method:
1) Marinate the chicken in the marinade for 30 minutes.
2)  Melt butter in a dry non-stick frying pan over medium fire, pan fry the chicken until golden brown.
3) Add in ingredients  and stir-fry until fragrant.  Add in 100 ml water and continue to cook  until the sauce has dried.  Dish up and serve.