Ondeh Ondeh

Ondeh-ondeh is a common Asian snack. This is one of my favourite Nyonya Kuih. I have a block of gula melaka which I bought from Malacca for quite sometimes ago and this come of good use.

Recipe Source: Jessie

Skin Ingredients:
150g Mashed Sweet potato
150g Glutinuous Rice Flour
95g Icey Cold Water
125 Caster Sugar

Filling Ingredient:
100g Palm Sugar ( Gula Melaka)

Coating Ingredients:
100g Shredded Coconut
1/4 tsp salt
2 Pandan leaves

Method:
1. Chop the gula melaka till fine crumbs.
2. Mix coconut with salt and steam with pandan leaf till soft.
3. To make the dough, mix flour with sweet potate until resembles coarse crumbs. Add water starting with 50ml, knead the dough. Add little bit of water at a time and knead until the dough is pliable and not sticky.
4. Place the dough in a bowl, cover with a clean, wet tea towel to prevent dryness.
5. Grab a small piece of dough, about 15g and roll into a ball. Either flatten it or make it into a small bowl-shape, place some gula melaka inside.
6. Carefully seal and roll into balls again. Place on a lined tray and cover with a cling wrap.
7. Cook ondeh-ondeh in boiling water until they float up.
8. Very quickly, remove from hot water and place in the cold water.
9. Remove from cold water, then coat with coconut before serve.

Kuih Kosui

A good Gula Melaka makes a lot of difference to the colour and flavour to this classic Malay steamed dessert. This dessert is chewy and soft topped with lightly salted grated coconut. 

Kuih Kosui

Recipe Source: Anncoo Journal

Ingredients:

130g Gula Malaka
2 tbsp Granulated Sugar
100ml Water
2-3 Pandan Leaves, knotted
75g Rice Flour
35g Tapioca Flour
1/2 tsp Alkaline Water
50g Grated White Coconut
3-4 Pandan Leaves, a pinch of salt

Method:

1. Add Gula Melaka, granulated sugar, knotted pandan leaves and 100ml water in a pot and heat until the gula melaka has melted. Turn off heat and  set aside.
2. Sieve through the gula melaka syrub in a clean container and top up with more water to yiel a final volume to 500ml of diluted syrub.
3. Add in rice flour, tapioca flour and alkaline water. Mix evenly and strain the mixture over a pot to remove any flour lumps.
4. Return the pot to stove and over low flame, heat the mixture until it begins to thicken slightly. Use a wooden spoon to mix the batte at all times, especially taking care to scrape the bottom, sides and corners of the saucepan to make sure that the batter doesn't start to cook and harden there. off fire.
5. Pour mixture over small tea cups until three quarters full.
6. Steam for about 12 mins under very low heat or until batter turnes a darker brown and has completely set. Remove from steamer and set aside to cool.
7. While waiting for the teacups to cool down, steam the grated coconut and pandan leaves with a pinch of saltd for 8 mins.
8. When the kuih koshui has cooled down, remove teacups moulds by running the sides carefully with a small knife. Roll over grated coconut and served.

My Anniversary Dinner - Mushroom Soup / Salad / Bake Chicken / Enoki Mushroom wrapped with Streaky Bacon

Mushroom Soup

Mushroom Soup with Garlic Bread

Salad

Bake Chicken with Potatoes & Carrots

Enoki Mushroom wrapped with Streaky Bacon

Chawanmushi / Soba / Grilled Enryii Mushroom

I am a big fan of Japanese food and whenever I dine in a Japanese restaurant, most of the time I will order my favourite side dish, Chawanmushi. Is better to get a good cup with lid so that air will not get into the cup during steaming and to use low heat for steaming too. Another favourite of my dish is the Zaru Soba. This is the first time I am making my own sauce from scratch.

Chawanmushi - Japanese Steamed Egg

Ingredients
3 eggs
1tsp instant dashi powder
540ml water
1 tsp sake
1 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
some shitake mushroom
some chicken and crab stick

Method
1. Beat egg gently and set aside.
2. Mix dashi powder with water. Add sake, soy sauce and salte.
   Toss well and set aside.
3 Sift egg mixture and dashi broth mixture together.
   Set aside.
4. Place mushroom and chicken and crab stick in cup. Pour in egg mixture.
5. Steam for about 15 or 20 mins over low heat.

Soba

Ingredients

- a packet of dried soba

- dipping sauce

- chopped green onion and seaweed

Dipping Sauce

- 1 1/2 cup dashi 

- 1/4 cup soy sauce

- 1/4 cup mirin

Method

1. Put mirin is a sauce pan and heat.

2. Ass soy sauce and dashi soup stock in the pan and bring it to a boil.

3. Stop the heat and cool the sauce.

4. Boil water in a large pot and add the dried soba noodles.

5. Cook for a few minustes.

6. Drain and cool the noodles in cold water.

7. Gently wash noodles with hands and drain well.

8. Arrange the soba on serving plates with dipping sauce in small bowls.

Japanese Salt Grilled Eryngii Mushrooms

Recipe Source: Sonia

3 pcs of Eryngii Mushrooms, sliced.
3 small cubes of salted butter
Sea Salt
Crushed Black Pepper
1/2 tbsp Sake or Mirin - optional

Method:

1. Heat a non-stick pan over high medium heat. Add th butter and place the mushrooms, cut side down, in the pan, for 1-2 mins for both sides.
2. This will sear the bottom of the mushrooms to a nice golden brown, partially caramelizing them.
3. Sprinkle with salt and crushed black pepper to taste and covering the pan for 1-2 mins. This will steam and cook the mushroom further.
4. Sprinkle with sake or mirin, dish out and serve with rice.

Coconut Jelly

This is a very simple and easy dessert to make. During the hot weather, I love to drink coconut juice. It is so refreshing. And I love this dessert especially after a hot spicy meal as it cools off quite well and taste so yummy too. This dessert is very popular in Thailand and I have bookmarked this for quite sometime back when I saw it in Auntyyoung blog. 

Recipe Source: Auntyyoung

Ingredients:

2 young thai coconuts and coconut flesh
lime zests
coconut jelly powder

Method:

1. Add coconut juice from 2 young coconuts to plain water till 3000ml.
2. Bring it to boil.
3. Add in 200g of sugar, coconut flesh and coconut jelly powder and mix well.
4. Bring it to boil and turn off the flame.
5. Pour the mixture into moulds and sprinkle some lime zest.
6. Once cooled, set it in the refrigerator.
7. Best served when chilled.

Charcoal Roasted Fish

Everytime when I go to Bangkok, I would not miss this Charcoal Roasted Fish. It's usually cooked stuffed with crushed lemongrass, rolled in a thick outer layer of salt, and roasted on charcoal. 

Last week when I send my car for servicing, my mechanic maid was grilling this and I was drooling as she was grilling. This is a very simple dish to prepare and if you don't use charcoal, you can even use the oven and grill. Of course if you use charcoal, the taste is better. Most important is you need a generous amount of salt.

The lemongrass adds an extra flavour and also reduces fishiness while the salt keeps the interior flesh moist and flanky. Simply peel back the salted crusted skin, pull the fillets off the bones and dip in Thai chilli sauce. Taste awesome.

Rachel's Birthday Cake

It has been a long time I have not been baking as home kitchen is still under renovation and I have been busy in office packing too as we are moving to a new premises. 

As it was my niece birthday, so I have decided to make a simple cake for her. Recently seen blogger  Eileen  using Kitkak to decorate cakes, so I decided to use this idea too. This is indeed a good idea as it is simple and kids and adults like me also love kitkak.