Chendol

Chendol is a shaved ice dessert that is famous in malaysia. It's a combo of shaved ice, green jelly (i think made from pandan), gula melaka (malaysian palm sugar) and coconut milk.

I've never been a fan of chendol until this trip back to Penang where my cousin took me to the best chendol stall in Penang. It was quite an experience. There were droves of people surrounding this stall which was situated on a one way street. The road was being shared by this stall, cars, customers and motorcycles. It was standing room only and my usual standards for food hygiene went down a few notches.

Anyway, back to the chendol... I think what impressed my the most was the chendol man. The order of operations was as follows:

1) Get yourself in a position where the chendol man can see you

2) Tell him how many bowls of chendol you want

3) He makes it for you at the speed of lightning (and he keeps count)

4) You pay him

5) You distribute your ordered desserts to whoever else is with you

6) You slurp down your dessert under the beating sun while watching 50 other people do the same - and try not to get in the way of vehicles entering the road

7) You finish your dessert - it didn't take you long.

8) You give your finished bowl to the washing up lady who washes them right next to the stall with several buckets of water.

Here's a video of the chendol man. He'd win the chendol making Olympics.

Happy New Year!

Looking forward to lots of nom noms this year. Abigail is too! :D

I recently returned from a trip to my hometown - Penang, Malaysia. Had a great time eating hawker food and shopping and then eating again. It was a really different experience because it was the first time we've travelled with baby in tow. My next post might be a bit about this experience... anyway, during the trip, I fell in love with a new phenomenon : 3-layered tea! It's a drink that has been marketed by the company that sells evaporated milk so that it can increase its sales of their product. Basically, there are 3 layers - palm sugar, evaporated milk and tea. Simple. Here's a pic of how cool it looks:

See the 3 layers?? Wanna know how to make it? Pretty simple really.. i watched a video :)

Well, when I made it, obviously I didn't think about measurements at all. I just used whatever volumed glasses I had. Then I tweaked the taste. Here's an outline of my method:

Ingredients:

Ice - lots of it... especially if you plan on making this drink for a number of people.

Liquid/pourable palm sugar

Evaporated milk

Tea (i like mine strong)

Method:

1) Pour some palm sugar in glass. This should be the thinnest layer in your glass so measure accordingly. I prefer mine to taste more tea-like rather than syrup-y so I used around 2T.

2) Using a tablespoon, add evaporated milk to the palm sugar. Again, amount given is up to you. Avoid putting too much if you don't like it too sweet.

3) Add ice to the brim of your cup.

4) Pour the tea - don't hesitate. Just pour as per normal. I actually used earl gray which is what I had and it tasted great!

5) Admire the 3 layered effect!

Ta dah!

Anyway, for not much effort, this is a drink that will bring me back to a malaysian coffee shop when I feel nostalgic this year :)

Red Devil's Cake

I am now blogging as a mummy :) My little girl is 14 weeks old and very cute - just look!

I baked a cake recently in honour of her 6 week birthday (that was a while ago now) and thought I'd better blog about it before she turns 1! I've used Stephanie Alexander's recipe for Red Devil's Cake from The Cook's Companion. It's one of my favourite cookbooks as it's not littered with pretty pictures and recipes which don't live up to it's appearances (sometimes). I like how instructions are given and every recipe I've tried from the book has turned out successfully. Also, recipes are grouped by food type so if I've got some chicken about to go off in my fridge, I whip out this book and look under Chicken and try to find a workable recipe.

Anyway, back to the cake. It's a gorgeous chocolate cake that I had baked several times before but this is the first time I took photos of each process. Here goes:

Recipe:

125g softened unsalted butter

200g brown sugar (i reduced this amount by 50g as I don't like my cakes too sweet... and there's already some more sugar going in the chocolate mixture)

2 eggs, separated

1/2 cup milk

250g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (i didn't have this, so I used baking powder instead.. didn't turn out to be quite so fluffy) :(

1 T warm water

chocolate mixture:

150g bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup milk or buttermilk

few drops of pure vanilla (i don't have pure vanilla because it's expensive! So I use vanilla essence - 1 tsp would do or if you really like vanilla, you can add a bit more?)

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

Look at my teddy bear mould! The chocolate is from Aldi. I usually get Lindt 75% cocoa but this is a bit cheaper and Lindt wasn't on special. In terms of taste I think it's comparable to Lindt. I'd still use Lindt though next time... need to stock up when it's on special! :D

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and butter a 24cm round springform or square cake tin (or in my case, a teddy bear mould)

2) To make the chocolate mixture, gently melt chocolate with sugar, milk and vanilla in a saucepan. When smooth, add egg yolk and cook over gentle heat until mixture thickens slightly. Pour through a strainer (i don't usually do this) and allow to cool.

3) Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy

4) Beat egg yolks lightly and mix with milk, then add to butter mixture alternately with flour

5) Add cooled chocolate mixture and combine well

5) Dissolve bicarbonate of soda in warm water and stir into mixture. (I used baking powder instead and the cake didn't rise as high as when I used bicarb of soda) Whisk egg whites until creamy, then fold into mixture.

6) Pour into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until cake tests clean. Cool cake completely before cutting.

Obviously I overcooked my poor bear... next time, don't bake as long! (and use bicarb of soda!)

Baked goods galore

Being at home on maternity leave with baby still in tummy leaves much time for doing things I normally want to do but don't have time to. Having surfed for hours on end different food bloggers sites, I've been so inspired by their lovely stories and baked creations that accompany them.

So here is the result of my being inspired...

Blueberry & Choc Chip Muffins

(adapted from Lemonpi's raspberry, white chocolate and lavender muffins)

Oaty Caramel Slice

(got this recipe from Teresa in NZ)

This was my first attempt at making a caramel slice. It's different from the conventional 3 layer caramel slice (coconut base, caramel middle, choc icing). I didn't have any coconut so I just substituted it with rolled oats - made it seem a little healthier. It's also quite nice to have almonds sprinkled through the mixture. It was delicious but a bit too sweet after several helpings.

Zebra Cheesecake

(recipe from Not Quite Nigella's Zebra Cheesecake)

This is my 3rd attempt at this zebra cheesecake (pictured with the oaty caramel slice). It's not supposed to be the typical baked cheesecake. It's supposed to be a light, souffle cheesecake and the lightness is achieved by using less cream cheese (only 250g) and baking it in a water bath. I have successfully made a souffle cheesecake before but forgot which recipe I followed as it was a while ago:

Very first attempt at souffle cheesecake (successful)

Anyway, back to this zebra cheesecake attempt. My first two were failures because firstly, the water from the water bath kept getting into through the foil at the bottom of the cake tin. I realised I needed to bigger sized foil. Secondly, the zebra pattern wasn't showing up properly and it was because I wasn't using dutch-processed cocoa. So having got my hands on the proper cocoa and foil, I attempted this recipe again... Unfortunately, the cake still didn't rise therefore, no zebra effect. :( Oh well, at least the top of the cake looks zebra-like. I have a feeling I was too heavy handed when folding the cocoa powder into the mixture.

Will I try again? I don't know. I might just stick with the plain one for now :)

Dinner: Mince and Pickles

This is a dish I learned from my mum. I love this dish because I love anything appetising with rice and this is a very appetising dish... especially with rice...

This is my first time giving a step-by-step photo post, so here goes:

Ingredients:

• 500g Veal mince (pork or beef also works fine)
• 1 packet Chinese pickled mustard
• 4T cooking oil
• 3-5 cloves garlic (depends how much you like garlic)
• small knob of ginger (size depends on how ginger-y you like it)
• 3-5 chillis (depends how spicy you like it)
• 2T oyster sauce
  
• 2T soy sauce
• 1/2t sugar
• 1T white pepper
• 1T lemon juice
• 1/4c water
• 1/2t tapioca flour dissolved in 4T water (just to thicken at the end. Can substitute with cornflour)

For those who don't know what Chinese pickled mustard looks like, here's a pic:

It tastes sour-ish and is crunchy :)

Method:

1. Rinse the pickled mustard in cold water.
2. Chop the mustard into small pieces.

3. Pan fry (no oil necessary) mustard over a medium flame. (this is to dry out the mustard so that it can absorb the juices of the dish later)

4. While the mustard is in the pan, finely chop garlic, ginger and chillies (i usually remove the seeds)

5. Once the mustard has been in the pan for a good 5-10 minutes, you should notice that most of the moisture has evaporated. Remove it and place it in a bowl for later use.

6. Add oil to the pan and add garlic, ginger and chillies. Fry for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

7. Add mince and brown. (you can turn up the heat here) I used veal mince from Coles :)

8. Once the mince is brown, lower the heat. Add the mustard and combine with the mince.
9. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, white pepper and lemon juice. Mix to combine well.

10. Add water and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.
11. Add tapioca flour dissolved in water and mix well with pork
12. Serve over white rice and enjoy!

After a loooong silence...

Macarons!

My first encounter with them was at the Lindt chocolate cafe and they call it a delice... but i think they look exactly like macarons. Wasn't really that impressed by it back then. But the popularity of the macaron have been increased by Masterchef. I think Poh made really fantastic looking ones especially when Adriano Zumbo brought this out. Over time, I've started taking more notice of the macaron and how different food bloggers get excited when Zumbo introduces a new range of macaron flavours. Then Callum from this year's masterchef made this really gorgeous looking macaron. I think what tipped the scales for me was watching the episode where Marion, Peter, Aaron and Alvin made that macaron tower. Seeing how lovely the pink macarons were made me want to make them. ... So when I had some leftover egg whites, i knew that i was going to finally have a crack at making these... and here they are:

Chocolate macarons with chocolate ganache (mixed with morello cherries and blueberries):

They were pretty cracked macarons for my first crack at them but overall not a bad first attempt i reckon. Was quite proud of myself that I made my own piping bag from baking paper which actually held the mixture quite well whilst i piped it and best of all, no need to wash a piping bag which is an activity i find quite annoying.

happy days and fighting fish

I'll hopefully be handing in my last assignment for the semester this friday (*crossing feet and fingers*). Been running low on motivation so procrastination is at a high. Theres also other stresses in my life but I've been listening to and enjoying the lines of the song. "Whom do I have in heaven but You, dear Jehovah. My strength and my heart constantly fail. But God's still the strength of my heart and my portion". (based on Psalm 73) Amen!

We're taking care of our neighbour's fighting fish. They are cuter than i expected. the fallen man in me enjoys watching them get riled up and wanna fight! :) but when they're docile,they're still cute. i like making them jump out of the water to get food. maybe when they get returned we'll get two of our own... who knows?