KAT'S KITCHEN KEYNOTES - Marking The End Of Twentyten

Baby B Building Sandcastles On Our Last 2010 Seaside Vacation

I apologise for my long hiatus from this blog, where Chicken Rice had reigned for more than three months as my kitchen adventures' finale marked September 14, 2010.  In case you were wondering, I was in my final trimester and needed to bow out momentarily to prepare for the arrival of our newborn.  I assure you that I've never once stopped cooking, baking, creating and tasting, although I've to say that everything I've had to create seemed to take longer, and every bite seemed to take on a subdued pleasure, like I was part of some silent movie. Every movement was slow and deliberate as I waddled up and down the kitchen galley in my barrel-of-a-tummy, one hand on my hip, removing trays from the hot oven, putting them in again, taking a testing sip from a steaming ladle and sprinkling seasoning where it was needed.

During this break I've not stopped documenting my kitchen chronicles and I know you won't be disappointed when I begin posting them again here in the new year. 

A wonderful surprise for our Christmas helped mark the close of twenty ten as Baby C arrived on November 16, two weeks earlier than he was due.  I couldn't prepare for his birth as much as I thought I'd prepared for it...it's much like when I tried making Ice Kachang for the first time--it can be a steep and valuable learning experience as you let yourself go and embrace what you cannot be expected to expect! 

Happy New Year, embrace 2011 with joy, peace, love and here's a toast to more culinary pleasures!

Hainanese Chicken Rice





Kat's Hainanese Chicken Rice - Singapore Style

 
You can't get more Singaporean than 'Chicken Rice'.  Australia only got acquainted with this dish when Malaysian-born TV chef Poh Ling Yeow (host of POH'S KITCHEN on ABC), back-then only a contender of the first Masterchef title, made it for wide-eyed judges George, Gary and Matt who were pretty impressed by the 'uniqueness' of its taste.


Needless to say, it's my favourite and I would've moved back to Singapore simply for missing it, had I not been blessed enough to learn how to create my own home-cooked Chicken Rice, which I reckon is authentic enough to give some restaurants here in Brisbane a run for their money. It's shameless how some would dare to pass it off as 'Hainanese Chicken Rice' when their versions are far from the real thing.


My only grouse is not being able to 'chop' it as neatly as the skilled old uncle you find at your regular hawker stall--I used to just love standing and watching the theatrical sport of how these masters carve the juicy pale-skinned birds with great aplomb, often with cigarettes dangling from the corner of their wrinkly lips, hammering purposefully with their large and dangerous-looking cleavers, segmenting different portions of the chickens into ultra-neat piles, while an assistant coordinates the rapid drizzle of sesame oil, soy sauce and stock onto the white, juicy chicken flesh. 

Hainanese Chicken rice (about family of 4)



Marinade for the Chicken:
1 whole chicken
drizzle of sesame oil
1/2 TB chicken seasoning powder, or crushed chicken stock cube
1 tsp salt
1 TB light soya sauce
1 tsp rice wine, any kind will do (Hua Tiao or Shao Xing are fine)
4-5 cm knob of ginger, grated finely
1 garlic clove, grated finely


Stock* to Steep Chicken:
3 C ready-made chicken stock liquid,
plus enough water to fill 3/4 of a pot large enough for chicken
*reserve some to be served as chicken broth with fried shallots, spring onions and coriander


The Chicken Rice
2 C jasmine rice
2 1/2 cups chicken stock (or as per your rice cooker; obtained from steeping the chicken)
Oil rendered from chicken fat (refer to recipe)
1 TB finely grated ginger
6 garlic cloves, finely grated
3 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt
3 pandan leaves, fresh or frozen (tied together in a knot)
--dark soy sauce; for serving


Garlic Chilli Dip
10-15 large fresh red chillies
1 large tomato, skin removed
10-15 garlic cloves
knob of 5cm ginger
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
(Process above into fine paste, add 1 TB of stock and 1 tsp cooking oil before serving)


Method for Steeping & Cooling Chicken:
Marinade the whole chicken with the marinade sauces but reserve the fat for rendering the oil to cook the rice. Either leave chicken to marinade overnight If not using immediately, or set aside for about 1and a half hours at room temperature. Bring chicken to room temperature if still cold from having been removed from the fridge.


Bring a pot to the boil, ensuring it is wide and deep enough to cover the entire chicken. Carefully immerse the chicken into the boiling stock and water, ensuring every part of the chicken is below the liquid surface. Turn off the heat, cover, and leave to steep for 1 hour and 30 min. Every half an hour, gently ladle the hot stock from the pot into the middle of the chicken's cavity so that the stock flows out to the other end of the cavity This ensures even cooking. At the end of the 1st hour, re-boil the stock so that it remains hot enough to continue the steeping and cooking process.


After 1 hr and 30 min of steeping, remove the chicken and place it into a large bowl of iced water. Let it sit In the Iced water for 15 min, and transfer to a large colander or sieve with a bowl underneath to drain the liquid out.


Chopping the Chicken:


Prepare a chopping board large enough and a large chinese cleaver, chop the chicken from the middle (breast side down) bone into a clean half, then starting with the drumsticks and chicken wings, chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces, ending with the breast pieces. Arrange the chopped chicken neatly on a platter to as closely resemble the whole chicken (before it got chopped!) as possible.


Kat’s Tip: I like to drizzle the chopped pieces with sesame oil, soy sauce and some chicken stock mixed together for extra flavour. Garnish with chopped coriander.


How to cook the rice:


Wash and drain the rice on a sieve,ensuring it is rather dry.

Render the fat (oil) from the pieces of chicken fat in a non-stick pan by heating it on low heat (do not add extra oil). You will see the oil being slowly released as you stir the chicken fat gently.


Toss In the grated ginger and garlic, and fry till fragrant, add the washed and drained jasmine rice and some sesame oil. Cook rice in a rice cooker with the pandan leaf and salt. Add the chicken stock to the rice as indicated on the recipe or according to your rice cooker.


Chicken Broth:
Reserve some chicken broth to be served with the chicken rice as a nice accompaniment, garnish the broth with some fried shallots and chopped spring onions and coriander.
Serve Chicken Rice with dark soy sauce and chilli dip.

Ondeh Ondeh (sweet potato recipe)

There're those who say that Kueh Dadar is similar to Ondeh Ondeh in taste since they both have a strong pandan taste coupled with the unmistakable yumminess of juicy gula melaka (palm sugar) and grated coconut with every bite.  I beg to differ, though, for there is nothing as gratifying as popping one of these green balls into your mouth and having your eyes pop wide open as you're greeted by the 'burst' of sweet honeyed gula melaka filling your whole mouth! YUM! It's like Soda Pops, Asian-style, haha. 

I find the tricky bit is rolling the dough without having the gula melaka ooze out before it reaches your mouth!  It took me so many frustrating attempts and many 'wasted' balls of ondeh ondeh stained with brown spots that were far too ugly to be served and far too 'leaky' to be tasty. 

On watching a Nyonya kueh documentary, I discovered the fool-proof secret is to roll the gula melaka into pea-sized marbles before inserting them into the dough! That was my Aha! moment. 

I've included a pretty good recipe here, and be forewarned: once you start popping, you can't stop!

Ondeh Ondeh With Sweet Potatoes


Ingredients

450 g Sweet Potato, peeled, steamed and mashed up
150 g Glutinous Rice Flour
25 g All-Purpose Flour
4 tsp Pandan essence
150 g Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar), finely grated, rolled into mini balls
200 g dessicated coconut

Method
Steam sweet potatoes for 30 minutes or until the flesh is mushy. Mash the sweet potato flesh to a pulp.


Grate gula melaka (palm sugar) into shreds and using your fingers, roll into mini balls about the size of 2 peas. Mix flours well with sweet potato pulp, add the pandan essence and knead to form a soft pliable dough.

Pour the dessicated coconut onto a wide plate and mix in a pinch of salt, ready to coat the ondeh ondeh once it has been boiled. (Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to the boil, ready for boiling the uncooked dough).


Roll out a small piece of dough (about 20g each) into a small ball and flatten it slightly. Insert a pea-sized ball of palm sugar into the middle and roll the dough to form a ball again, taking care to seal it completely.

Lower the balls of ondeh ondeh gently into the pot of boiling water with a slotted spoon. They are done when they float up to the surface of the water. Remove each one carefully to prevent breaking each one and then quickly toss each ondeh ondeh with the dessicated coconut, rolling them around the plate till each one is completely covered with the coconut.

Fried Carrot Cake (Chai Tow Kueh)

I promised I'll share with you my favourite 'carrot cake' recipe of all--the fried eggy version of radish cake using the same steamed one I made earlier...first, cut the radish cake into cubes and shallow fry them till slightly browned on all sides.  Next, break in about two eggs and let it sit in your wok surrounded by the cubes (low fire) till the eggs set a little. Stir fry a little more and mix well, sprinkle in confetti bits of preserved turnip (chai po) and add the following seasoning according to taste: sweet kecap manis (sweet soy), soy sauce, dash of white pepper and a few teaspoons of crushed chilli if you like. Garnish with sprigs of coriander and onion chives. Voila! You've just dished up one of Singapore's best loved hawker fare at your table, homemade with love. 

Radish Kueh/Cake (Steamed); Carrot Cake-Steamed

There're four kinds of 'carrot cake' as far as I'm concerned, and they are all terrific in their respective ways...let's first omit the western recipe in this case--By CARROT CAKE here (as featured) I meant the kinds that have nothing to do with the delicious cafe-style sweet nutty cake dessert baked from the grated flesh of orange carrots, which I love by the way and will feature here another time, I promise.

Well this photographed carrot cake I've just made is made from white daikon radish.  It's also a steamed cake or 'kueh' with a savoury taste rather than sweet.  It can be eaten on its own as pictured as  a steamed version of carrot cake.

This brings me to the third--which I prefer, and by a simple twist of texture it brings this kueh to a whole new level: simply by pan-frying after steaming. You can order this pan fried version of the same kueh at yum cha restaurants.  Apparently its origins are from Hong Kong.

The final (and my favourite) carrot cake is the fried version of the above steamed kueh, diced into cubes and stir-fried with preserved turnips, kecap manis and eggs. Mmn..just delectable. I'm including the fried carrot cake recipe soon after this. Meanwhile, you still have to get through making this basic carrot cake before it can be turned into the fried version. Have fun! I did!

Ingredients (flour mixture):
450g rice flour
50g tapioca flour
1200ml water

Ingredients (stir-fry):
500g daikon radish (or 1 big root)
50g dried shrimps (soaked in hot water till soft)
a few shitake mushrooms; dried or fresh
150g chicken or pork (chopped finely)
150g shallots
1 small clove of garlic, minced

Seasoning:
3 T vegetable or peanut oil
1 T sesame oil
2 T soy sauce
1 T oyster sauce
2 tsp salt
1 T sugar
1 tsp white pepper
1 stalk of spring onions, diced into small pieces
bunch of coriander leaves, diced into small pieces
2 small bird's eye chillies, diced

Method:
1. Pour the 2 kinds of flour into a deep bowl.  Adding the water gradually into a 'well' or 'hole' made by your fingers in the middle of the flour mixture, mix the batter well using a whisker till no lumps are visible.
2. Heat up a wok with the sesame and vegetable/peanut oil.
3. Stir-fry some shallots till browned and fragrant, add the dried shrimps and meat and fry for about 2-3 minutes. Add the radish and the seasoning sauces.
4. Pour the flour batter gradually and mix well, stirring until the mixture starts thickening and gets slightly dry, but not completely dry.
5. Transfer the thickened mixture into a steaming tray and steam on high for half an hour or till done. 
6. (CRUCIAL TIP): Pan fry in shallow oil and brown all sides before serving! It tastes so much better! Add the chillies, coriander and spring onions as garnish.

My Barang Barang Nasi Lemak - 'Barang style' (blend of Singapore & Malaysia)

I love Nasi Lemak and never thought that running a restaurant would grow me a loathing for nothing less than what was our bestselling dish at the time! Recovery arrived slowly but surely--and at some point after we had given up the restaurant did I find the courage to eat or cook Nasi Lemak again.  On hindsight, it might've been a case of 'Nasi Lemak Overdose' simply from endlessly handling the ingredients on a daily basis with factory precision at a feverish pace. Then eating it all the time. I mean, ALL the time!  Love cupcakes? Don't start a bakery selling cupcakes! You get the idea, yes.


Well, back to this amazing dish, I hope I've not discredited it in any way citing my gag reflex--afterall it was the past...I did come to love it again, as you can see.  There're virtually hundreds of versions of Nasi Lemak (translates to 'rice in fat'; the fat is derived from cooking the rice in coconut milk) everywhere in Asia but mine is my very own special blend that used to be the best seller at our cafe and restaurant, BARANG. The generic Singapore style version is comprised of coconut rice, fried kuning fish, fried egg, a side condiment of fried chilli-anchovies-peanuts and cucumber, and of course Nasi Lemak won't be what it is without a generous dollop of its signature spicy yet tangy sambal chilli dip that's so tantamount to its taste. I enjoy it even more with some otak-otak and piquant fried crispy chicken wings. Our BARANG version of Nasi Lemak included Beef Rendang and Nyonya Chicken Potato curry, and fried chicken wings.

BEEF RENDANG:

To be pounded in a mortar (till very fine 'rempah' is achieved):
5-6 shallots
8 big red chillies
4 small bird's eye chillies
1 clove garlic
knob of ginger; 2-3 cm, crushed finely
galangal; 4-5 knobs crushed finely
3 stalks lemon grass (only the white part)
6 candlenuts (optional)

120 gm grated or dessicated coconut

1.5 kg cubed chuck or rump beef (I use osso bucco which cost more but is very tender)
1 tsp belachan (shrimp paste); toasted

seasoning:
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
1 T soy sauce
2 T thick dark soy sauce (not kecap manis!)
3 T curry powder (blend with some water into a dry thick paste)

1/2 C coconut milk extracted from 1/2 coconut, OR: 1 can of 450ml thick coconut cream
1 C water, or skim milk.

Method:

1. Heat about 10 T of vegetable oil and fry first the dessicated coconut, belachan, then the curry powder, and finally all the grounded ingredients or the rempah paste, until fragrant.

2. Add beef cubes and seal all the sides. Add the seasoning and stir-fry for about 6 minutes or until the beef is no longer pink.

3. Add the coconut milk, water, and simmer (pay attention to stir it often to prevent burning)for 3 hours until tender, or alternatively use a pressure cooker and cook for 20 minutes. The final gravy texture should be thick (not soupy like a curry is), and the oil should have risen to the surface.

Coconut Rice: (about 4 servings of rice)

2.5 C white jasmine rice (for about 4 people)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 whole garlic, with skin on
3 pandan leaves, tied into a knot
1 stalk of lemon grass
2 stalks of curry leaves
150 ml of coconut milk (slightly more than 1 cup)

[Cook the above together in a rice cooker. You can't go wrong!] AT our restaurant, we used to use pandan juice in place of water for the rice to give it an even nicer aroma and flavour...the greenish rice also made it a unique Nasi Lemak.

Caramel Kueh (with dessicated coconut)

There're just some kuehs that you can't go wrong with, such as those you can whip up in a jiffy without worrying about whether you'll attain the right texture of skin or whether the taste will turn out right. I love this easy, light and fluffy sweetish Malay-style kueh, great for tea, breakfast or best as an asian dessert to finish off an asian style meal, like Nasi Lemak which I made for dinner last night.  Trust me, it never fails to please and as a dessert it belongs to the hall of exotic, beating any western type cake or dessert to a pulp!

You'll need:
200g white sugar
100ml hot water
5 T powdered milk
200g flour
1/2 tsp bicarb
4 eggs
6 T sugar
pinch of salt (for serving only)
100g grated coconut or dessicated coconut (for serving only)

Method:
1. Melt sugar on its own in a saucepan on low to medium heat until it caramelises and turns golden brown.  Add the hot water at this stage and bring to a boil until the caramel dissolves completely to a syrup.

2. Sift powdered milk, flour and bicarbonate of soda in a medium bowl.  Meanwhile, heat the steamer with some moulds.

3. Beat eggs and sugar together until mixture is fluffy and light.

4. Fold in the sifted flour mixture into the caramel syrup and then fold in the egg mixture.

5. Sieve the whole batter if there are any lumps.

6. Fill the moulds (just 3/4 full) and steam for 8-10 minutes, or until done. Cool the kueh before removing them from the moulds. Sprinkle some coconut and salt on top of each kueh before serving.

Pan fried Gyoza: Jiao Zi, in vinegar dip

I just love the simplicity of dumplings, whether steamed, boiled, or pan fried like in the case of this 'gyoza' (Japanese) or 'jiao zi' (chinese).  A simple meal can be created by pairing this either with a bowl of soup accompanied by white rice, or noodles either fried, blanched and sauced, or noodles in soup.  What a sumptuous mouthful of dumpling the gyoza is with just a gentle dip into the vinegared dressing to balance the slight oiliness, once fried.  Gyoza should not be confused with its close cousin--the wonton, which can also be steamed, boiled or fried similarly. Their skins are what tells them apart. The gyoza's skin is chewier and has a thicker texture that's also more white and translucent when raw.  It's also usually available in a circular shape rather than its square counterpart, the wonton skin, which is yellow in appearance and much thinner in texture. 

GYOZA - filling:(can be used for wontons as well)

250g chicken or pork mince

3 coriander stems with leaves, chopped finely

3 stalks spring onion, chopped finely

4-5 water chestnuts, chopped finely (optional)

3 shitake mushrooms, chopped finely (optional)

1 T soy sauce

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

few drops of sesame oil

1. Mix the above ingredients into a thick paste, you could add some water if the paste becomes too thick or 'cakey' to handle. 

2. Have a bowl of water with a tsp of cornflour mixed into it, this becomes the

'glue' to seal the skin. 

3. Spoon about 1tsp of filling paste into the centre of each gyoza skin. 

4. Seal the edge by dipping your finger into the bowl of water and cornflour mixture, run it along the circular edge and press skin into a half. Now holding the top of the gyoza,press the skin into a 'sitting position' with a flat bottom, then gently pinch along the edges to make tiny folds.

5. Heat a frying pan with about half a cm of peanut oil, shallow fry the gyoza  first on its bottom, then turn to either sides to brown. Blot with paper towels.

Dipping Sauce:

1 clove garlic, minced or grated very finely

1 knob of ginger, skinned and julienned

2 T black vinegar

INALA, Brisbane's Little Vietnam

BEST IN INALA: (pictured left) Our thumbs up in both taste and value: a steaming bowl of Beef Pho Tai from our favourite Viet eatery Tan Thanh, in Inala. Generous shavings of thinly sliced fresh beef swimming with slithery rice noodles in what I'll call a proper 'gentlemen's serving' bowl of robustly flavoured aromatic pho soup.





Inala, Brisbane’s Little Vietnam


There is a hidden nook, a slice of Asia in Brisbane’s west that is the city’s own answer to Melbourne’s vastly Vietnamese-populated Richmond. My favourite hideout for the best beef pho tai (Vietnamese rice noodles with beef slices) followed by my weekly pantry top-up of Asian groceries and the occasional indulgence of exotic tropical fruits such as mangosteen, rambutans and jackfruit—it’s like a south asian migrant’s last laugh since the first ever import and sighting of Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce and durians into Woolworth’s supermarket!

So who could blame the easily excited (especially when it concerns anything edible) foodie in me who was initially in disbelief on discovering that my favourite haunt had a dark past: for there was a time when you couldn’t mention the place "INALA" without getting a fair bit of protest concerning visiting this ‘unsafe neighbourhood’ and shudders stemming from its notoriety due to its prevalent crime-ridden past. Quite ironically the name ‘’INALA” is an aboriginal word meaning ‘place of peace’. There is a certain ‘forgotten’ quality emanating from the charm of this ‘Little Vietnam’, like a disjointed and discarded world that while it resembled yet neither fully belonged in old Asia nor a comparably ‘upscale’ western country like Australia.


You won’t at first notice the hidden gem I’m speaking of from driving up front the Inala Plaza (the "Civic Centre") located on the corner of Kittyhawk and Inala Avenues. You won’t even sense that you’re about to be transported, quite magically without an airticket, to the old Saigon as you cruise around the busy car park scouring for a rare empty lot. And quite right that you’ll have to be incredibly patient to spot one since this is the largest precinct in Inala.

You can't miss it. This has got to be the only place in Brisbane where it's perfectly acceptable to peel open and sink your teeth into a juicy mandarin orange picked from many of the corrugated boxes spread out on the ground outside a fruit stall, all in the name of 'try before you buy'. No one even bats an eyelid even when the Asian woman next to me
spits out her fruit seeds on the ground and tosses the mandarin peel right next to where I was standing, near a styrofoam box of Nashi pears and bunches of wrinkly snake beans. Such is the charm of Inala!

It's also the place to eyeball multicultural forces at work.  Serving an ethnically diverse community of Aborigines, Torres Strait Islanders, Africans and Vietnamese, amongst many other minority migrant groups, Inala is also home to a large number of Government funded community organisations, programs and services such as the Inala Youth Service. Child Safety Service, Probation and Parole Regional Office, just to name a few. Perhaps these are dead giveaways to its once dark past?

Well dark or not, all I notice is its vibrance and colour, and certainly I'm hooked on the variety of edible Asian knick knacks and cheap prices you don't find anywhere else in Brisbane. 

As I clutch my Lady Finger bananas for $1.99 a bunch and my trolley is heavy trodden with a month's supply of colourful fruits and the week's Asian groceries, I spot a girl holding a plastic takeaway container of sweetened soy beancurd, or 'Tao Huay' as known in Singapore.  I just had a huge bowl of pho for lunch but surely who could resist good ol' Tao Huay as a dessert?!  Suddenly I feel transported home again. Thank you, Inala. See you next week.

'PNG KUEH' (Steamed Glutinous Rice Cake)

As far as versatility goes, I can hardly find anything as delicious and satisfying as glutinous rice--you simply can't fault this amazing white grain either as a savoury bite or a sweet dessert.


My favourite savoury kuehs which I miss the most dearly since moving away from Singapore have got to be 'Png Kueh' (as pictured) and 'Soon Kueh'. Between them, the skin remains an unachievable feat for most.  I found the latter to be a tad tricky, but am proud to show off my homemade Png Kueh here, skin not only the right tint of light rouge pink, but most crucially, all intact and not a tear! Yayy


PNG KUEH (Kueh Skin):


300g Rice Flour, sifted
2 T Tapioca Flour, sifted
600ml Water
2 T Oil
1 tsp Salt
2 drops red food colouring (optional, you can make white ones too)


The skin should be made while you are steaming the glutinous rice, then left to cool as you cook the filling.




Method (for skin):
1. First, combine all ingredients for kueh skin in a pot on the stove.
2. Mix well to make sure there are no lumps.
3. Bring mixture to a boil while constantly stirring.
4. Keep stirring till a dough is formed and not lumpy.
5. The dough is ready when it is no longer sticky to the touch.
6. Remove dough from pot and place on a suitable surface dusted lightly with tapioca flour.
7. Knead the dough well and divide into small ball portions.
8. Flatten the dough into a small pancake and using a tablespoon, stuff filling into middle of dough.
9. Seal up all gaps and roll back into a ball shape. Press onto mould
10. Invert mould and place on a greased banana leaf or baking paper cut to size.
11. Cook kueh by steaming over high heat for 10 - 15 minutes.
TIP: Brush steamed kuehs with oil that has been 'cooked'after steaming so they they will not stick to each other.


PNG KUEH (Filling):
300g glutinous Rice (soaked overnight or at least 3 hours, steamed for 30 min or till soft)
60g dried mushrooms (soaked for 1 hour, sliced into strips)
100g dried shrimps (soaked for 30 min in hot water)
80g whole peanuts (skins on, soaked for 1 hour)
2 T minced garlic


Seasoning:
1 T dark soy sauce
1 T light soy sauce
2 T chicken stock
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper


Method (to cook filling):


1. Heat 2 T of oil in wok.
2. Add in garlic, mushroom, dried shrimps and peanuts and stir-fry till the aromas form.
3. Add in seasoning sauces and mix well.
4. Add cooked glutinous rice and mix all ingredients, set aside on a deep bowl to cool.

Kat's Craft Studio: Chinoserie themed Card & Gift Wrap

Eversince we gave up our 'baby' (cafe and restaurant--named Barang) so that I could indeed go have a real one and accomplish becoming a full-time mummy, I seem to still be hanging on to what's remained of my memory and concept of our nostalgic asian-inspired chinoserie themed restaurant, and I haven't seemed to have given up reminding friends and family that Barang shall remain an integral part of me, in much of how I've chosen to express myself through my arts and crafts.

Lazy-Ezy-Yummy Banana Bread (Choc Chip & Vanilla)!

Recipe makes 8 generous slices (only 6 pictured here as 2 got hijacked by hubby C during breakfast this morning!)

Don't you get let down so often by recipes that claim to be quick yet predictably nearly always falls so short of the taste test? I've had my fair share of those baking misadventures but fact is, all us busy bees want it quick and yummy and hey why not?!

My banana bread recipe is one such 'fast-to-bake-yum-to-eat' wonder. Quite hilarious to think that I stumbled upon it while watching an over-animated fast-talking TV chef at work and just couldn't scribble the recipe down fast enough..speaking of stumbling, I definitely had to make it up as I went along! It's become such an easy and fast recipe that it's simply our household staple..I mash a couple of overripe bananas, toss and whisk in all the ingredients in a jiffy, scrape down every drizzle of the batter into a small loaf tin with my silicon spatula and stick it into the oven for 45 minutes. Voila! Breakfast or afternoon tea is served. 

Also a great recipe for using up those blackened crescents that used to look like yellow bananas.

(Makes 8 slices)

Ingredients:

50g butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg, beaten

3 large cavendish bananas, peeled and mashed

1 C brown sugar (or 3/4 C white sugar)

250g self-raising flour

3/4 C chocolate chips

Icing:

1 C icing sugar

1 TB milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 TB butter, melted

Method:

1. Whisk all the wet ingredients including the sugar.

2. Fold in the flour and then add in the chocolate chips.

3. Pour batter into a greased and lined loaf tin and bake 45 min on 180 degrees.

4. Ice the top of the banana bread when it has cooled.

Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (Singapore Style) without PORK!

On our most recent trip in February this year to Singapore during the Chinese New Year festivities, the best Fried Hokkien Mee I've enjoyed was, surprise surprise...homemade...by a non-local, actually none other than my sister-in-law's Indonesian domestic helper, and she'd followed a recipe out of a cookbook my sister-in-law swears by. 


I've always thrived better as the 'cook-at-home-who-relies-on-tried and tested taste', so after what seems like years of fine tuning I found my own recipe for this Singapore-style one dish wonder, one of my biggest cravings at both pregnancies!  My sister-in-law's recipe includes pork as one of its main and perhaps most pertinent ingredient, since the pork bones are painstakingly stewed to extract the sweet flavour for the stock then used to stir fry the noodles.  My version here, however, uses chicken to substitute pork as my hubby C and I don't much care for pork.  I also use what I'd call the 'busy-mummy shortcut' which is using store-bought chicken stock coupled with my own homemade chicken stock from the day before's Hainanese Chicken Rice dinner.  I also add about a tablespoon of sugar to 'sweeten' the stock, together with a handful of heads of tiger prawns to substitute for the stewed pork bones stock.  Trust me, it's easier and I'd say just as good as it gets. Instead of pork strips I've sliced the chicken thighs into strips and that's that!

My Fondant Figurines: Too Cruel To Eat?

OK, these weren't moulded like today or yesterday...they were my then-new-craze when I was carrying my 20+over week pregnant bump and having all the time in the world (where did those days go??) to make cupcakes for my baby shower to celebrate the coming of Baby B. But looking at my old stash of photos I couldn't resist sharing them with you. How did I get started? Oh, no, I didn't pay for a fondant making course...You Tube's a god-send, you know? And when there's a will, there're books you can grab hold of that show you how. The internet is great too, with talented fondant crafters only too eager to share and tell.  This year I managed to sculpt Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Elmo for Baby B's 1st birthday cake...and was crazy enough to carry the little darlings in a cold pack for 7 hours on board Singapore Airlines...they survived long enough to make it to the party..all till Elmo's red butt started to sweat and melt before they finished singing Happy Birthday.

ANG KU KUEH (TURTLE CAKE)--How can it become a 'Long Lost Tradition'?

When I proudly distributed Ang Ku Kuehs to my friends in  Brisbane to mark baby B's first month (or Man Yue/Moon Yut/)celebrations together with 2 chocolate eggs in a 'goody bag' inclusive of an announcement note complete with the significance of her Chinese name, many were astounded by this unexpected gesture to preserve an age-old tradition. So was I trying to make restitiution for another collateral damage of cultural modernisation? I baulked at hearing how bakery vouchers were now conveniently presented to friends and family in place of giving out Ang Ku Kuehs, so that people could select what they actually preferred and at their own time.  My ears rang from the mere frivolity of this suggestion--I mean, imagine others giving out deli vouchers at Christmas instead of the traditional Christmas turkey roast, ditto the Christmas puddings and Christmas cookies--yes why not get 'em all replaced with pattiserie vouchers! Granny'll just hang up her apron ths year! I pictured myself hovering picket stake signs that screamed 'BRING BACK ANG KU KUEH', with other like-minded sensible people in a march, and was all ready to become a 'voucher-burning-culturist' (borrowed from 'bra-burning feminist').


While migration had meant I'd forsaken my birthplace, I wasn't quite so ready to forsake my Chinese culture.  I stood as one Singapore-born Chinese adamant not to acknowledge that my favourite childhood kueh (cake) popularly served at milestone birthdays has become elbowed out by modernisation. 


Here's my favourite Nyonya Ang Ku Kueh recipe. Please keep it going. For all our sakes.


Ingredients for KUEH SKIN:
120g glutinous rice flour
150g sweet potatoes--steamed and mashed while hot, skins removed
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 T vegetable oil
1/4 C very hot water to seal


Other materials required:
1 Ang Ku Kueh mould
Banana leaves/dried lotus leaves soaked and cut into mould size/ if you can't find any of these,
use baking paper which I did in the picture above


FILLING FOR KUEH: - PEANUT FILLING
200g crushed peanuts
100g castor sugar, or less according to taste
1/2 tsp salt
water to mix into a thick dry paste


MUNG BEAN FILLING:
150g dried mung beans (boil till split and mash while hot)
100g castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
120ml pandan juice


METHOD:
1. Steam split green peas and blend immediately/ mix up peanut paste filling
2. Add glutinous flour, sweet potato puree, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl.  Whisk or beat (add water to stop it getting overly dry)well to make a soft pliable dough. Add cooking oil a little at each time. Ensure that the dough is not sticky to the touch.
3. Roll the dough into a long log and divide into 12 equal pieces. 
4. Roll each piece into a ball and flatten each piece. Insert filling of preference into centre and seal up ball.
5. Dust mould with excess flour and carefully shape and press ball of dough into the mould.
6. With a few light taps to the side of your hand, tap out the sough and place onto leaf/baking paper cut to size.
7. Arrange on a steamer and steam on low for about 5 minutes. Uncover the steamer and steam kueh, this time uncovered for another 3 minutes till cooked fully.

NOCTURNES by Kazuo Ishiguro – My ''Read & Raise' Book Review-by Kat Ngoi

NOCTURNES – Read & Raise
Nocturnes, internationally-acclaimed writer Kazuo Ishiguro’s (best known for his masterpiece The Remains of the Day) first collection of short stories after volumes of award-winning novels, leaves you pining like a lost lover for what you wish were happier endings and perhaps most of all--closure. However, the style and prose which the familiar single narration weaves each poignant story is typical Ishiguro—rich and rewarding, masterful storytelling at its best.


Each deliberately short lived tale is threaded with the same theme of heartache, regret and disappointment of promises receded, the continuous strife of holding on to life’s hopes and lost dreams. The result is a play of romance, marital love and discord, and the inevitable regrets that lie await in the passage of time. These interwoven subjects pepper the five stories that unfortunately, either purely due to their short length or lack of a satisfying finish, fail to live up to their initial premise as paralleled by the dashed or unfulfilled dreams of the characters.

In CROONER, the first story, a jazz guitarist from a café band in Venice chances upon his late mother’s music idol Tony Gardner and his courage to extend acquaintance with the fading star is rewarded subsequently with a romantic assignment to play aside the aging crooner in a moonlight serenade to his wife steered in a gondola. The guitarist Janeck soon realizes that beneath the romantic gesture lies a grim truth: their marriage has ended and that was an unrequited Gardner’s romantic farewell to his best friend and soon-to-be-divorced wife, Lindy.

The same wife makes a return in another quite unrelated tale NOCTURNE, of her chance meeting and brief friendship with an undiscovered musician with all talent and no looks—just the reverse is true for Lindy Gardner herself. The unlikely pair strike up a memorable episode of nightly escapades in the same hotel they are holed up in while healing from their cosmetic surgical scars. Turns out that they each have hearts as bandaged as their faces, and both require deep healing of the emotional kind.


Having Nocturnes for company is like taking a slow, pensive stroll by the moonlight while a string quartet’s faint music is resonating either in your imagination or in the faraway distance. While you long for daylight to break the melancholy, alas, time seems to stand still, dusk remains and so does your shattered heart.

Red Bean/ Tou Sha/Japanese An Pan Buns

Choosing to migrate to Brisbane and not glorious Sydney with its ample supply of Asian eateries and chinese bakeries meant I've had to learn to bake and cook everything I miss, especially my favourite Tou Sha red bean buns--they sell for an arm and a leg here and yet taste rather like leather purses.  You know what I'm talking about--we want our buns like back in Singapore: soft and spongy, sweet to the bite and just that teensy bit of crustiness to the surface for extra texture.

I went through great pains to fine-tune this recipe, pinching bits from many recipes until I managed to perfect the ultimate An Pan red bean bun I so adore. I hope you'll try it and tell me how you went. After you've mastered the dough recipe you could virtually add any type of filling to your buns...I've even made kaya, tuna and custard ones. Just YUMMMMYYY.


KAT'S RED BEAN / ‘TOU SHA’ AN PAN JAPANESE BUNS – makes 12 small buns

Ingredients:
125g Full Cream Milk (warmed slightly), less than ½ C
75g heavy cream (warmed), less than 1/3 C
½ tsp + ¼ tsp salt
1 large egg (room temp)
40g sugar
300g plain flour (+ 1 C plain flour during middle of cycle)
1 tsp yeast
3 tsp milk powder


Method:


1. Load all the ingredients into your bread machine (liquids before dry ingredients), set it to the dough cycle.
2. When dough is ready, remove from the machine and punch down to release air.
3. Divide dough into 12 pieces, roll into balls and flatten.
4. Add filling to middle of flattened piece, then seal with fingers and roll into a bun shape.
5. Transfer buns into lined muffin tray and proof for further 25 min with a spritz of water in the oven for 30 min till doubled in size.
6. Bake at 170 degrees for 15 min.


Glaze for bun:
Mix 2 T melted butter with 1 T sugar till dissolved, brush on tops of buns.
Sprinkle sesame seeds.


Red Bean Filling:
1 ½ C red kidney beans
4 C water
½ C oil/butter
1 C castor sugar


Method: Boil till beans are soft, drain, then puree. Transfer to medium bowl with oil and sugar to make a thick gooey paste. Cool before filling the buns.

CHOCOLATE CHIP-HONEY CINNAMON SCROLLS

These gooey yummy cinnamon buns or scrolls as they're widely called are just my favorite snack and breakfast...they make me the ultimate domestic goddess to my hubby, C.  He devours them faster than I can make them, really. I used to bake them as our cafe's special-homemade-dessert-of-the-day. They sell for way too much in the shops but few know how easy they are to make in your own kitchen especially if you invest in a bread machine!  Try this recipe--it never fails me, and you'll never have to pay for them again!

Kat's Chocolate Chip-Honey Cinnamon Scrolls

DOUGH for 1, 1 1/2, or 2 Ib
2 1/2 all-purpose flour
3/4 C milk
1 tsp yeast
2 T sugar
1 egg + water to fill 1/4 C
3 T butter


FILLING
1 tsp cinnamon ground
2 T melted butter to brush dough
1 egg, beaten
1/3 C brown sugar
1/4 C chopped raisins
*1/2 C chocolate chips
*4 T honey


VANILLA/ORANGE FROSTING
1/2 C confectioners' sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 tsp milk or: *Cointreau/ or Grand Marnier/ (any type of orange liquer)


1. Load bread pan with wet ingredients first, then the dry, and select dough cycle. When done, remove to greased bowl, cover and let rest for 30 min in fridge or overnight  if not using immediately. Otherwise, leave in machine for another 1 hour.


2. Roll out dough to 10x16 " rectangle. Spread melted butter, sprinkle with brown sugar,cinnamon, raisins and *choc chips. *Drizzle honey all over the top. Roll up like a jelly-roll to a 16" log. Seal with some beaten egg. Slice into 12 equal portions.


3. Place slices in 9x13" pan, ensure they are not touching. Spritz with some water, let rise in warm place for 30 min (nearly doubled). Brush with remaining beaten egg.


4. Bake in 180 degrees for 15-20 min, until lightly browned. Mix the icing ingredients together till dissolved. Drizzle or spread on scrolls.

I like to give credit to the original recipe writers, though I've created my own scrolls with the basic recipe I've used--you'll notice the *asterisk points are where I've customised these scrolls to make it my own.
But if you'd like to get hold of the book (I think it's a GREAT bread baking book for your library), here's the details: EASY BREAD MACHINE RECIPES by Rob Wanless

SEW EASY- Miss Polly the Dolly

Her original name's MISS POLLY, and actually she was the first I made for Baby B, out of scrap fabric from my other crafts. Her stripey rainbow legs were once my old pair of funky toe socks...