WHITE CHILLI SAMBAL

Yes I'm back ~ It took quite an effort to come back. But here I am again. Again. But honestly.... I have good reasons. Yes I do. 

This was so quick to make, so delicious, so addictive that I had to blog about it. White Chilli sambal is something I learnt to make from my late Mother in law. Yes they are white chilies that she used and I have only seen white chillies in Sabah, East Malaysia. 

White chillies remain white and do not turn red when ripe. Unlike normal bird chillies or othere larger chillies which are green when young and red when ripe. I'm not quite sure why these are white. They were green at first, then they turned white and finally red. H says they are not true white chillies which never ever turn red. They are also not as big as the 'true' white chillies. But cravings make everything possible. So I made some. And they certainly will do. And I found that it really didn't matter if they were white or black. Or red.


This dish is so full of umami you just have to love it. Dried shrimps, belacan and of course the chillies. All sauteed to a fragrant aka smelly pesto. 

H 'banned' me from making this dish years ago because of its fiery spiciness. Bad for the health he says. Anything extreme is bad for the health. This is poison he says! Yes sir. Poison they are. And the more people I don't have to share my poison with so much the better for them. Yes. 

The recipe ~

A handful of white chillies ( you could use green chillies, sliced as well ~ I did once and it was good too)

2 inch square of belacan, dreid shrimp paste

1/4 cup of dried shrimps, soaked to plump and soften it up then drained

6-7 shallots, peeled

2 cloves garlic, peeled

3 T cooking oil

Pound shallots, garlic, belacan and softened dried shrimps until coarsely mushed up. There is no need to pound till fine.

Slice chiiles in half or leave real tiny ones whole.

Heat wok and pour in oil. When hot saute the pounded ingredients until fragrant and the mixture looks cooked through (the onion pieces will be translucent and limp and the whole mixture a slightly darker shade). Throw in the chillies and stir fry until the chillies lok slightly soft and limp. Add salt if necessary. I did not add salt because the belacan and dried shrimps are salty enough.

Serve as an appetizer with steamed white rice and other Malaysian dishes like fried fish, stir fried vegetables, Malay salad or a mild curry. Oh yummm ~

STEAMED BAU WITH A CHICKEN CURRY FILLING

Here's a fictional bau story and a true recipe.

A Bau Story ~ (or skip it) ~

It's hard to picture bau on a plate and Dad on a chair together, face to face. But curry was a different matter altogether. He had to have it everyday. Like water. Especially a fish curry. So if Mom asked (which she would do almost everyday) what she should cook with this or that, accompanied by a plagued and tired look on her face, Dad would simply answer "curry" without flinching, without looking, without thinking. You would think that that would be the end of Mom's problems. But no. That was her problem.

Was that why she left him? We often wondered. Because right after she did she abandoned curry and went for bau. Bau this, bau that, it was bau, bau, bau. 

Finally, exasperated, Janna asked her one day after school 


"What's with the bau Mom? " 

"This is the one thing your father hated. Bau. And I hated all that curry. Everyday. To cook, to eat, to cook, to eat. Why do you think I left him? "

Janna who was strangely unaffected by our parents' divorce until that moment glared at Mom through her dark, almond eyes from behind her thick fringe. Yes, it was a long fringe that she grew so she could stare at a boy at school without looking like she was staring at a boy at school. Then she got up, scraping the kitchen chair backwards against the floor, stomped over and reached for a pau. As soon as she snared it in the palm of her hand she headed for the kitchen door, opened it and stood there for a moment as if debating if that was the right thing to do. Then with a fling of an arm the white, round bun flew like a jet plane and crashed into the Cat's Eye tree about 10 meters away. Leaves rustled, birds flitted, bird wings flapped and Mom opened her mouth to start a cry of astonishment that didn't come. That was when my older sister walked out, lived with Dad and never came back.

Ever since then Mom started making bau with a curry filling. She made it like a machine, emotionless, her fingers deftly pleating white circles of dough over a crimson, spicy filling, her dark eyes blank, her lips a line, almost as if defiance and submission had fought out a duel and neither won. I would watch her and feel my mind wander. Was this what life was all about? Curry or Pau? Either this or that? Or this and that? Or this with that?  Often in bed I would shake my head in the void of the night so that those confounding and senseless thoughts would spill out and things would be right. It never did. Then one day, two years later, Mom whispered in a wasted and dying voice, 

" If you hate something bad enough it will surely come back and haunt you." 

With that she let out her last breath, closed her eyes and died before me. I felt her dry hand go limp in mine. I looked down at the dead tributaries of bumpy veins embossed on the back of her hand. I ran my finger along one of them, slowly. And in that silence, alone with my dead mother I heard my heart thumping and felt my temples being squeezed by God.

I have never, since, hated anything as badly as I hated my mother at that moment, and myself, for not figuring it out. So that she could have saved herself. Because it was not the bau or curry after all. It was hate that consumed her life.  


And Janna knew.

Therefore I am now.....balanced.


I love Bau and Curry. Curry with Bau, Bau or Curry, Curry over Bau, Bau over Curry, Curry inside Bau. I love bau. And curry. :)

The recipe ~

The bau recipe is from my previous post taken from Terri's Hunger Hunger

Chicken curry filling ~

370 gm chicken breast, skinned and diced

1 large medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cm ginger, minced

1 - 2 T curry powder, any, mixed to a slurry with 2 T water

1 T cornstarch mixed to a slurry with a little water

1-2 T cooking oil (I used vegetable oil)

1-2 T oyster sauce

salt to taste

Heat the pan and then add the cooking oil. Throw in the diced onion, garlic and ginger and saute until fragrant or the onion pieces turn translucent.

Add the slurry-ed curry powder and stir and watch carefully so that the paste doesn't burn. Add the oyster sauce. Add the diced chicken, mix well and then add salt to taste. you may add a little water if the mixture seems dry.

Finally pour in the cornstarch slurry and stir quickly so that the sauce won't get lumpy. Taste again and adjust salt.

The final mixture should be a thick curry almost a paste with diced chicken in it. ...like spaghetti sauce or sambal.

To make buns ~

Tear off pieces of risen dough into 50 gm pieces. Roll into a ball and roll out with a small rolling pin on a floured board into a small circle about 3 inches in diameter. Thin the edges by lifting up the circle of dough and pressing the edges with your thumb and first two fingers all around the circumference. Then place the flattened circle of dough onto the palm of your hand.

Then using a teaspoon scoop up some filling and place in into the centre of the dough. Start pleating the edges like in this video. :)

                                                       

I made a mess . Some of the curry sauce leaked out while I was "pleating" and my 'pleats' were not exactly pleats. But who cares :)


As each bun is filled and shaped line them with squares of grease-proof or baking paper and place them in the basket of a steamer (detached from the steamer bottom) about 1 inch apart. Let them rest for 10 minutes but not more (if left to rest too long the buns will rise and flop after steaming). Meanwhile heat the water of your steamer to a rolling boil them place the basket of buns over the steamer pot and steam the buns for 10 - 12 minutes until risen and puffy. 


I didn't count but this recipe definitely made more than 10 buns.

CHICKEN FRIED IN DRY COCONUT SAMBAL ~ AYAM MASAK KALASAN BERSERI

On the occasions when I accompanied my dad to do a take away from the Malay food shops in Section 17 after school I always wondered whether this dish was a rendang that had been cooked until it was bone dry or was it simply a dish of fried chicken with lots of scraps from the bottom of the wok put and piled on top thus making it an accidental but delicious dish. 

I have wondered for more than 4 decades and have never encountered anyone who cooks this at home. I don' t think many know what its called. I could not do a google search because of that. But if  you were to go to a Malay food shop you will surely see it. So I sometimes wonder if all this is just me ? Or is this all just me ?

Then I found a photograph and the elusive recipe of this I-didn't-know-the-name dish on Jom Masak Jom Makan who got it from Ummi of Home Sweet Home. Finally.

The name of this dish is Ayam Masak Kalasan Berseri. It's no wonder I was unable to locate this recipe. It's named after a place I have never heard of and I would never have guessed that this dish was named after a place. That I've never heard of. Phew. I'm feeling rather Nancy Drew-ish.

It originates from an area called Kalasan in Yogjakarta in Indonesia. Apparently Kalasan is famous for its fried chicken fried in this special way. Thus it's name. The original recipe is here. It has a lot more ingredients, uses onions, garlic , chillies, coconut milk...etc.. ..very similar to a rendang recipe. But this shorter version adapted by Ummi is most delicious  inspite of the omission of onions and other ingredients. This is the second time I am making this within a week. Yes it's good. 


The recipe ~

Chicken Fried in Dry Coconut Sambal ~ adapted from Jom Masak Jom Makan


I made a large amount using 6 whole chicken legs, bone in. You may halve the recipe.


6 whole chicken legs, bone in, each leg cut into two pieces
3 cups grated coconut, you could sub with dessicated coconut
1 cup water
1/2 cup oil
salt


Dry spices :


4 T coriander seeds
2-3 T black or white pepper

Wet paste :

6-7 stalks lemon grass, white part only, sliced
1 1/2" fresh ginger, peeled
1 1/2" fresh tumeric, peeled
a little water


Dry roast the coriander seeds and pepper in a small pan until fragrant. Then grind in a processor or pound in a pestle and mortar until medium fine. Keep aside.


Process the lemon grass, ginger and tumeric in a food processor until fine. Add some water if necessary to loosen it up. Then mix with the dry ground spices.


Place the gound spices and wet paste into a  large wok or pot. Add the grated coconut and water and mix top combine the mixture evenly. Add the chicken pieces and about a tablespoon of salt and a teaspoon of sugar.


Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, covered until the chicken is cooked through or 3/4 way done. Turn off heat for a moment. It will be still be a wet pasty mixture. Take the chicken pieces out from the pot or wok shaking of excess moisture and the coconut/spice paste.


This is where you are supposed to deep fry the chicken in oil. I did not. Instead, I placed the chicken pieces on a baking tray, brushed each piece with oil and then placed them under a broiler until they turned a golden brown.


While the chicken is broiling in the oven continue to cook the coconut-spice mixture on the stove top until most of the moisture has evaporated then pour in the 1/2 cup of oil and continue to fry until the mixture becomes drier and golden brown. 

Note : Originally this coconut-spice mixture is also deep fried in the oil used to deep fry the chicken pieces. I thought that was too much deep frying for one's health. So I opted to simply add a 1/2 cup of oil and then dry-fry the mix until a golden brown.

By which time the browned chicken pieces should be ready  and thrown back into the coconut-spice mix in the wok. Stir the chicken pieces in with a spatula to coat the chicken pieces evenly and continue to dry fry a couple of minutes more until everything is evenly mixed and golden brown and dry. 


This is simply good served warm or at room temperature with steaming hot white rice eaten with the coconut sambal mixed into the hot rice and accompanied perhaps with a hot vegetable soup or curry.

Wishing you a lovely day ~

SWEET POTATO BOMBS ~ KUIH KELEDEK BOM

I have never been a fan of bombs. Because of that I have never attempted to make them. Generally speaking I like dainty and pretty food which explains why I like desserts. Or at the least I like making them. I like looking at them. But when they look like 'bombs' and are huge the interest wanes.

But when I saw these here on this very practical and interesting blog of Lily Lai Sek Hong's I thought they looked quite appetizing. Although I do think that the name is a little outdated by now. These days their namesakes come in all shapes and sizes. Anything but round I believe. But having said that I can't think of a better name at this moment. So bombs it is.

I followed Lily's recipe largely. Particularly the recipe for the dough. It turned out pretty good but I think H was expecting something more chewy. I watched the back of his head from the kitchen while he ate it and waited for that mmmmmm....sedapppp...but it didn't come.

H was, I know, expecting the other 'bomb'. His favourite cake. The one with the red bean filling. The dough of which is made of pure glutinous rice flour thus making it really chewy and stretchy when you sink your teeth in and pull it away from you. The Chinese Jin Dui.

But these are sweet potato bombs. The dough less chewy in texture than the Jin Dui cakes but both nutty because of the sesame seeds. These, however, had a coconut-ty, juicy and sweet filling of freshly grated coconut cooked in a palm sugar syrup. (My favourite kind of filling). Jin Dui and these look identical. But they are different cakes so it is unfair to compare. I'm sure these taste like they are supposed to taste. I can't really tell because I have never eaten one before. But if Lily's blog is anything to go by I know that this recipe is true.

As a whole these are not one of my favourite local cakes and neither are the Jin Dui-s. But like they say....you must try everything. At least once. Or you have never lived. Or blogged.

The recipe ~

Sweet potato bombs ~ adapted from Lily Lai Sek Hong

11/2 cup freshly grated coconut

1/2 cup palm sugar, grated

1/2 cup water

2 tsp glutinous rice flour

1/2 tsp salt

Place palm sugar and water in a small pan over small heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Put in the grated coconut and salt an mix in until the coconut is covered evenly by the syrup. Add glutinous rice flour and mix well again. Take off heat and allow to cool.

Sweet potato dough

I have converted the measurements to grams

600 gm of sweet potato that has been baked till cooked, cooled completely and mashed, ( or about 3 cups) - I used the yellow kind

140 gm plain flour

117 gm glutinous rice flour

1 tsp salt

2-3 T water

Mix mashed sweet potato, flours and salt in a bowl and rub the mashed potato in until it is somewhat mixed. Put in 1 tablespoons of water first and knead a little to bring the mixture together. If necessary add 1 or 2 more tablespoons of water and knead until a smooth ball of dough is formed.  

Pinch off golf ball sized dough one at a time and flatten it out into a disc. Place a teaspoon of the coconut filling onto it and pinch the edges to seal and shape into a ball again.Place on a large tray and continue to use up the rest of dough and filling in the same way. The amount of dough and filling were perfect. I got 21 one balls with only a pinch of dough left over. Each 'bomb' was about 11/2 inch in size (diameter).

When all have been shaped fill a small bowl of water and place on the counter where you are working. Pour about a cup of sesame seeds into a flat dish or shallow bowl and place it on the counter too. 

Dip each 'bomb' into the water and then into the dish of sesame seeds. Roll around the bomb with your dry hand to coat. Keep each coated bomb aside on a tray and continue with rest of 'bombs' in the same way until finished.  Top up the dish with more sesame seeds if necessary.

Heat oil in deep pot for deep frying. When oil is hot drop in several 'bomb's in but do not overcrowd otherwise the dough will get soggy. Lower the heat to medium so that the sesame seeds will not brown too quickly before the dough gets cooked through. When a light golden brown (about 5-7 minutes, I didn't count) lift off the bombs with a  slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

PS: H liked these after all. He says they are easier to eat. 

I am submitting this to Muhibbah Malaysian Monday

Head over to Shaz of Test With Skewer for the round up.

I hope you have a lovely day :)

A GUEST POST ON RASA MALAYSIA ~ SPICY HONEY CHICKEN ~ AYAM MASAK MADU

Like those before me I was ecstatic to be invited to guest post on Bee's blog Rasa Malaysia. It is the food blog that every food blogger aspires to guest post on. Bee asked me if I would be interested. Was she kidding?! If there is a hole in my roof I think I just made it.

Hers is one of the first blogs I scrolled through in my early days of blogging and still follow silently because my jaw hangs each time I stop by. Everything seems professional, the recipes precise, the photography perfect and most of all her repertoire of dishes are endless. It was and still is sheer inspiration. And here I am now making my little mark and taking up a teeny space on the famous food blog of Rasa Malaysia. Imagine that!

Bee has published her first cookbook called Easy Chinese Recipes. I think everyone interested in Chinese cooking or who collects cookbooks  should get it. If Bee's blog is anything to go by I'm sure her cookbook is a treasure.

Spicy Honey Chicken is quite akin to the Malay Ayam Masak Merah (red cooked chicken). In both, tomato ketchup is one of the main ingredients used. It is the Malay version of a Chinese sweet and sour chicken.

Please go over to Bee’s Rasa Malaysia for the rest of the post and recipe ~

More ~

One more ~

   
Take care and have a lovely day ~ On Rasa Malaysia.

I am submitting this to Muhhibah Malaysian Monday

Head over to Shaz of Test With Skewer for the round up

BANANA BITES ~ CEKODOK PISANG

I love my Malay cakes even if they are plain toads (kodok). These are authentic. There is no grated coconut meat in it, no baking powder is used and no egg at all....all of which would give these bites airiness, lightness, puffiness and turn them into dainty, too perfectly round, bland, made-over versions of the original toad bites.

Purists, however,  would swear by the original kampung (village) version which is crisp and chewy on the outside and soft, mushy and banana-ey on the inside. And quite toad-like in looks.....irregularly shaped, flat, heavy, ugly and greasy but absolutely to die for. I love my Toad Bites or Kuih Kodok.

Rice flour is added to the batter for a crisp and chewy skin, plain flour to hold the batter together and of course the mashed banana gives the inside the mushy and banana-ey goodness that we die for. I don't see why anyone would not love these. 

Anything greasy has to be good.  Kiddies especially love these.....imagine chubby little fingers pushing toady bites into chubby little mouths filling up those chubby little cheeks and chomping with their tiny teeth. Chomping on toady bites.....hands greasy...hands touching hair, hands touching clothes, hands touching furniture and their mommies.

The recipe ~

297 gm very ripe mashed bananas,  ( I used pisang berangan)

60 - 65 gm granulated sugar
4 T plain flour
3 T rice flour
1/4 tsp salt

Oil for deep frying

Mix mashed bananas and sugar with a wooden spoon. Stir in both flours and salt until combined.


Heat enough oil for deep frying in a pot. When hot or 180 C drop the batter in by teaspoonfuls. Let fry for about two minutes after which time the fritters would lightly golden, puff up and loosen slightly from the bottom of the pot. Agitate it a little so that it releases completely from the bottom of the pot and turn over to brown the other side. When the fritters are a deeper golden colour lift out and drain on two layers of kitchen paper to absorb excess oil. 


Continue to fry the rest in the same way. 


If you eat these hot or warm you will experience the lovely crunchiness and chewiness that the rice flour gives to the fritters. The crunchiness is lost when cold but it is still chewy and deliciously mushy and banana-ey inside.


Great served in paper cups to kiddies. 

Yes those cute animal picks are from Daiso ~

I am submitting this to Muhibbah Malaysia Monday.

Head over to Shaz of Test With Skewer for the round up.

BAKED PANDAN CAKE ~ KUIH BAKAR PANDAN

She, who invented this "Burnt Cake" cake, would not have seen an oven. This cake was baked over a fire and under a fire once upon a time long, long ago. Probably in the wet kitchen of a remote kampung that was isolated into the backwaters by vast expanses of paddy fields. The batter would have been poured into a brass 'flower' mould, placed on a fire and covered with a brass lid. Red hot coals would be placed on top of the lid so that the cake was being baked in between the two sources of heat. And this cake is called, in today's namby-pamby world, the "Baked Cake".

Thank god for ovens. Proper ovens.

 

Brass moulds are beautiful. And it distributes heat evenly. However, it has become quite impossible to acquire these lovely brass moulds today. They have been replaced by aluminium ones which not only look flimsy and cheap, are insubstantial in weight but are also rather rough around the edges. And they have a very peculiar finish. With a look like they have been given a coat of paint ....aluminium paint. I harbour a fear that they may be toxic. I have fingered them and turned them over and over in my hands many a time..... each time I contemplate on buying them. Then I put them down again and I leave empty handed.

So I have never attempted to make the Kuih Bakar. Until I found these lovely bright red paper cake moulds at Daiso in the exact same pattern of a kuih bakar ~ a flower. I was so excited I felt my brain shudder and shrivel to a point inside of my head. 

And the rest they say is in the baking. 

 

The recipe ~

I so want to believe that recipes written for our local cakes are accurate, reliable and true. Or becoming so.  That we have learnt the importance of detail and accuracy in recipes. That instructions should be unambiguous. Before a cookbook is published and flaunted in glory. And sold for a price in bookshops around the country. 

I dream on.

So here is the recipe after much necessary adjustments ~ It turned out quite delicious. It is a fragrant cake, creamy smooth in texture with a nutty crust and has the bite that we do so covet.

Makes enough for two 6 1/2 inch moulds with 200 ml extra batter that I kept in the fridge for another bake. You might want to halve the recipe for one 7to 8  inch round pan.

Pre-heat oven to 180 C

500 ml coconut cream

200 ml water

8 fresh pandan leaves (each about 15 inches in length), snipped

100 ml water

250 gm granulated sugar

8 eggs

300gm All Purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp gound cumin, optional

1 tsp ground fennel, optional

2-3  T sesame seeds

2 T margarine

Combine coconut cream and 200 ml of room temperature water. Keep aside

Place 100 ml water in a blender, throw in the snipped pandan leaves and blend until the leaves are fine and the whole becomes a thick juice. Strain the liquid through a  strainer, squeezing the ground leaves. Discard the squeezed ground leaves. Pour the strained pandan juce into the coconut cream mix. Keep aside.

Sift flour and salt together and add spices if you use them. I did not. H would cringe.

Beat eggs and sugar together with a whisk until well combined but do not over beat so that it becomes too frothy. A little froth is ok. Add the coconut cream and pandan mixture and stir to combine. Add the sifted flour mix and using the whisk  fold in the flour mix into the mixture until there are no lumps left. To be sure strain the whole mixture through a sieve to completely remove any lumps.

I used two 6 1/2 inch moulds placed on a baking tray. I had about 200 ml left over which I kept in the refrigerator for baking in paper cups tomorrow.  

Put 1 or 1 1/2 tablespoon of magarine into each mould. Place the moulds in the oven and heat until the magarine melts completely and browns a little around the edges. Take the pans/moulds out and swirl so that the bottom of the mould is completely covered with the fat. 

Pour the batter into each mould up to the brim over the melted magarine. (Make sure the moulds (if you are using paper moulds) are placed on a baking tray for support.

Put into oven and after about 7 minutes check to see if the sides are beginning to firm up. If they are take them out from oven and sprinkle sesame seeds all over the tops generously. Place into oven again. 

Continue baking for a total of about 35 to 40 minutes or until the centre feels firm and is not wobbly when gently pressed and the edges are a light golden brown and crusty. Allow to cool completely before cutting into wedges and serving.

I am submitting this for Malaysian Monday hosted by Sharon of Test With Skewer. Find out more about Malaysian Monday here. :)

SPICY PRAWN-COCONUT FILLING IN SWEET POTATO DOUGH ~ CUCUR BADAK

I craved these Hippo bites so badly that I had forgotten to measure the ingredients before making them. By the time I did I was halfway through.

These are literally called Hippo Bites. Because by Malay standards they are big. Cucur or bites of any kind, sweet or savoury, are usually made in dainty bite-sized pieces so that you could pop the whole thing into your mouth in one go ~ without looking like you have just bitten off a hunky chunk of a hippo. But these are made bigger. So relatively speaking these are hippo bites or cucur badak.

Those bright tumeric-yellow cake cups come from Sarah-Jane siliconemoulds.com Gorgeous yellow no?

I LOVE these and I have an all time craving for them. Freshly grated coconut is sauteed in a mixture of pounded onions, chilly and dried shrimps, diced fresh prawns, sliced lemon grass and some tumeric. The dough is the exact same dough used for the kuih keria or sweet potato doughnuts. And also deep fried. A subtle sweet, chewy crust hiding a spicy coconut shrimp filling inside. Wooooooo...... I LOVE. 

Recipe ~

Sweet potato dough ~ same as sweet potato doughnuts without the sugar scabs. You might want to double the recipe..

I can't promise that the amount of dough will match the amount of coconut shrimp filling. You might end up with extra filling as I did. Freeze it for making more another time. 

1 1/2 cups of steamed, completely cooled and mashed sweet potatoes ( I used slightly more than 1 1/2)
About 3/4 cup of plain flour or less
1/2 tsp salt

Mix all above ingredients together until it becomes a firm dough.  

Filling ......approximate values ~

3-4 shallots, peeled and sliced

2 garlic
3 slices fresh ginger
2-3 red chillies

3 heaped tablespoons of dried shrimps, re-hydrated

1 tsp tumeric powder or 1/2 inch fresh tumeric 

6-7 prawns, shelled, de-veined and chopped finely

1 large or 2 skinny lemon grass, the white part sliced finely

2 T cooking oil, any vegetable oil

21/4 cups of freshly grated coconut

Pound the onions, garlic and dried shrimps and fresh tumeric if using, in a pestle and mortar, until it becomes a moderately fine mush. 

Heat a pan. Pour in the cooking oil. Saute the pounded ingredients, and powdered tumeric at this point if using, until fragrant and turning lightly brown around the edges.

Add the diced fresh prawns, sliced lemom grass  and stir to mix in and until the prawns just turn pink. Add the grated coconut and mix well over low heat. Add a touch of water if the mixture seems a little dry. The mixture should be moist but NOT wet. add salt and pepper to taste. Leave aside to cool.

Shape the dough into balls the size of ping pong balls or perhaps slightly larger. Make a spacious depression in the centre and fill with the coconut-shrimp filling. At least a heaped teaspoon of it. Cover up and seal. Shape into a ball and then flatten it so that it looks like a fat chubby disc.  Keep on a plate and finish off the rest of the dough and filling. Any extra filling can be frozen and then defrosted to be used when you make more next time.

Heat medium pan. Add cooking oil to about an inch deep. Heat the oil till hot. Fry the cucur badak until a deep golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper to rid of excess oil. Serve warm or at room temperature. I like it at room temperature.

I am submitting this to Malaysian Monday. Sharon from Test With Skewer is hosting the next Malaysian Monday. Find out more about Malaysian Monday here.