Steamed Coconut Blossom

A while back, I came across this Steamed Coconut Blossoms from Bisous À Toi and even asked my cousin to send me a tub of ovalette from Singapore (which its very hard to get in US). I did made my first steamed coconut blossoms at my friend's place while visiting her but I was unable to take much pictures. So yesterday, I tried to make them again. 

I had a packet of the frozen coconut flakes in the freezer so I decided to use that for the filling. But I think I should have bought a whole coconut and shred the coconut meat, much more finer. If you are making Steamed Coconut Blossoms, I would suggest that you make the filling first and let it cool down first before you start with the batter.

When hubby came home from work, he thought it was a cupcake so he grab one and with the look on the face, I can tell, he did not really enjoy these steamed coconut blossom like I do. :(

Ingredients:

3 nos. cold eggs

250 gm sugar

10 ozs (about 280 to 300 gm.) Softasilk flour or any superfine flour (Hong Kong flour) (I used cake flour)

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp ovalette

130 gm (5 ozs.) coconut cream (I used coconut milk)

30 gm pandan juice (blend about 6 pandan leaves) (I did not use)

1 tsp pandan paste (mixed with coconut milk)

Special equipment: 3-tiered steamer

Boil water in the 3-tier streamer.
Beat all the ingredients together until thick and fluffy.

Scoop 1 tbsp of batter into madeleine mould (lined with paper cup), top up with 1 tbsp of coconut filling and then another 1 tbsp of batter.

Steam over high heat for 15 mins.

Coconut fillings:

250 gm grated coconut

30 gm castor sugar

100 gm gula melaka

60 gm water

1 tsp cornflour

2 pcs pandan leaves - cut into small pieces

Cook sugar, gula melaka and water in a wok till sugar melts.

Add in grated coconut and pandan leaves and fry till dry.

Sprinkle cornflour on top and stir till well mixed.

Cool before using.

Inspiration from: Bisous À Toi 

Source: Aunty Yochana

Agar-Agar Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar Jelly)

I realised I have two packets of agar-agar strands sitting in my pantry for a long time. So that day, I decided to use one packet to make some agar-agar (jelly/jello).. Perfect for hot weather!!!!!

What is agar-agar? 

The word "agar" comes from the Malay word agar-agar (meaning jelly). It is a natural vegetable gelatin counterpart, sold in packages as washed and dried strips or in powdered form. It is used to make jellies, puddings and custards.

My very first Agar-Agar Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar Jelly). It is also known as Agar-Agar Gudir as informed by my girl friends in Facebook. This beautiful dessert is another famous dessert among the Malay community. My mum would make this dessert for any special occasions. 

The sweetness come from the gula melaka (palm sugar) and the rich flavor from the coconut milk. Some recipes called for egg whites. For this recipe, I did not add any egg whites.  When the agar-agar is cooled, the coconut milk layer should rise up giving it a two layer effect. This is my first attempt and  it did not show the two layer effect :-(... but it is still good, I just can't help to keep eating them. hehe... :-)

Ingredients:
15gm agar agar strands
200gm gula melaka
1 screwpine leaf (knotted)
500ml water

Mix together
200ml coconut milk
50ml fresh milk

Soak agar-agar strands in cold water for at least 1 hour. Drain and cut into small pieces. In a heat proof bowl, combine agar-agar, palm sugar, screwpine leaf and water. Stirring constantly. Bring to a boil and let it simmer until the palm sugar dissolves. Sieve the mixture and return back to heat. Discard the screwpine leaf. Make sure the syrup is half from its original amount before adding the milk mixture.

Once the milk mixture is added, leave to simmer for about 3 to 4 minutes before pouring into moulds or a cake pan. (I used a 13" x 9" x 2" rectangular pan.) Leave to cool in room temperature for about 20mins. Then chill in the fridge for about 2 hours. Once the agar-agar is set, it is ready to be served.

Notes:

You can replace the gula melaka (palm sugar) with brown sugar, but the taste might differ. When using gula melaka, then try not to add sugar or brown sugar as the sweetness to this dessert should come fully from the gula melaka that you have used.

Karipap Pusing with Curried potatoes, sweet potatoes and ground beef.

My friend host a Project Karipap/Epok-epok (Curry Puffs) from March 13th, 2010 to April 13th, 2010 in Facebook. I've made the regular epok-epok before but this is my first attempt to make Karipap Pusing. Curry puff is a popular snack in Singapore and Malaysia. There are variety of fillings but usually the main filling is potato. Karipap Pusing is like epok-epok but karipap pusing is more crisp after frying because of the patten on the skin. 

I was in the mid of writing this post this evening, but hubs wanted to watch the movie Julie and Julia that we got in the mail today. So I had to save the blog and watch the movie with him. I expected the movie to be good, but it was even better than expected. Its a lovely movie. I really love the movie. After the movie was over, here I am back writing my blog..

Ingredients: 

Filling:

1 onion, chopped

a few curry leaves - for fragrance

1 cup ground beef

300 g potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

200g sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

1 cup water

2 tbs beef curry powder - mix with some water to form a paste 

salt to taste

2 stalks spring onion

cooking oil

In a large saucepan, heat oil and saute the onion and curry leaves till soft and fragrant. Add in the curry paste and stir well. Add the ground beef, diced potatoes, diced sweet potatoes, salt and water. Cover. Cook until the potatoes are soften and there is no water left. Remove from heat. Add green onions and mix well. Let it to cool.

Dough A:

300g all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

1/4 cup canola oil/vegetable oil

1/2 cup lukewarm water

In a large mixing bowl , add salt to flour. Make a well in the center and add the oil and mix well with your fingertips. Add the water bit by bit until the dough does not stick to you hand. Set aside.

Dough B:

150g all purpose flour

100g butter/marjerin

Mix all ingredients in B till a soft dough is formed.

These puffs are meant to be fried. My attempt to fry these puffs were impossible.. They  crack,  break, burst or whatever you call it, when fried... I was filled with despair when looking at the puffs in the hot oil.. Could it be, the heat temperature was a little too high or my measurements could be inaccurate... I do not know.. I had to throw them away because they can't be saved.. (there were 6 pieces) :( So I had another option.... That is when I tried baking. I took a few pieces and placed in the baking tray and brushed egg yolk on the top. Baked in a preheated oven at 350F for about 40mins or until it turned golden brown. Once they were baked, they turned out great.. These puffs reminds me of the curry puffs that I usually get at Polar Singapore. *yum-yum*

Notes:

I found that after baking, my puffs did not really show the patten on the skin as much as when you fried them.

Kuih Keria (Fried Sweet Potato Donut)

Yesterday, I bought some sweet potatoes. I decided to make some Kuih Keria a.k.a Kuih Gelang (the simple fried up sweet potato dough with sugar coating). One of my favorite Malay kuih. Unfortunately, hubby never had this before and he doesn't seem to like it very much.  Its all good, I have more for myself.. hehe.. I think I must make him eat all the kuihs when we go back Singapore.. Looking at the pic, making me miss my mom's kuih keria... She made it so yummy, you just want more..

Kuih Keria (Fried Sweet Potato Donuts)

Ingredients

600 gm sweet potatoes - peeled and cubed
300 gm all-purpose flour
250 gm sugar
250 ml water
125 ml thick coconut milk - from half a coconut
salt to taste
cooking oil

Boil cubed sweet potatoes until soft. Mash the sweet potatoes and combine with all-purpose flour, coconut milk and salt. Knead into a soft dough.

Dust hands lightly with flour and roll each dough piece into a round ball. Flatten it slightly with the back of your hand. Slowly using your finger to poke a hole through and fashion dough into a ring. Set aside. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Prepare oil in fryer at medium heat, and deep fry for 5-8 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towel.

In a small pot, cook sugar and water in a low heat till syrupy and thick. Add fried sweet potato rings and keep stirring till all potato rings are well coated with syrup and eventually crystallized.

Serve it warm or cold.

Kuih Bakar (Pandan Sesame Cake)

Kuih Bakar is a soft sweet pandan flavored kuih with sesame seed on top. Yes, they are one of my favorite kuih but I never thought of making them (in Singapore) because they can be easily found at most of the Malay stalls. Since I am very far away from the Malay stalls, to eat them, I have to make them myself.

Making kuih bakar was not that hard, as I thought it would be. It was easy and fast. I do not know how to get my kuih bakar to be darker green. Since the pandan leaf did not leave dark green color to my batter, I added the green food color and pandan flavoring essence. I do not like the pandan flavoring essence because it has no pandan taste or smell, more like peanutty smell. I don't use the pandan flavoring essence often but I do not want to throw it away either., so once a while, I just use it....  How do you make pandan paste?  Put the pandan leaves and blend it into a paste???? Can anyone help me?

My kuih bakar do not look as great as the ones I saw Za's blog, Stay At Home Mom and other blogs and also at the Malay stalls. :( I decided to use Za's recipe instead the one from my recipe book. Despite the pale green color, my kuih were not too bad actually. They were sweet and soft. I just have to practice more to perfect it.

Left pic- before putting it in to the oven
Right pic - after removing it from the oven

Recipe from Za, Stay At Home Mom

(Quantity: 30 pieces kuih from this recipe)

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour + 1/2 tsp salt (mix)
2-1/4 cups of coconut milk
4 large eggs
2 tbsp of melted butter
1 tsp of pandan paste + 1 cup water (mix) (I used one pandan leaf and mix into the batter and add a few drops of the green food color and pandan flavoring essence)
sesame seeds - as much as you want

Pre-heat oven to 325F. and greased the muffin pan (I used the spray canola oil).
Beat the eggs, then add milk, butter and pandan paste mixture. Stir until well combined.
Pour into the flour + sugar mixture and use a whisk to mix the ingredients till smooth. (I used a sieve to filter the batter into the muffin pan)
Pour the mixture to fill 3/4 of the muffin pan. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

Kuih Bom ( Fried Sesame Balls)

Kuih, either sweet or savory, I like all. I used to go to the Malay stall near my place, and get a few kuih-muih for breakfast before going to work. Just to name a few of my favorites; epok-epok sardines, abok-abok. popia goreng, kuih lapis, ondeh-ondeh, kuih keria, lopes and lot more.... My mom made kuih-muih for her stall  everyday and I used to help her making some kuih. (To understand better what is the meaning of kuih, click here.)

Although I have my kuih recipe book with me here, I have to searched online for guidance and tips before I start cooking since my mom is so far away. (well I always do that anyways.. hehe..)

Today, I made Kuih Bom (Fried Sesame Balls)  for afternoon snack. It is almost similar to Ondeh-Ondeh but Ondeh-Ondeh is boiled. Kuih Bom is made with glutinous rice flour and coated with sesame seeds. In some recipes, they add mashed sweet potato to the dough. Traditionally the filling is cooked sweet coconut but there are also variety of fillings, such as ground peanuts, bean paste and kaya. 


Recipe from "Aneka Minuman Petang" recipe book

Ingredients

Fillings:

150 gm sugar
150 palm sugar ( I used brown sugar)
125ml water
Grated coconut (from 1/2 coconut)
2 screwpines
1 tsp corn flour + 1 tbsp water

If you using palm sugar, make sure to chop the sugar first.

Combine both sugar, knotted screwpines and water in medium saucepan in a low heat. Leave it to simmer until the sugar dissolve. Add the grated coconut and stir well.  Stir at all times and do not leave the mixture to dry out. While it is still slightly wet, add the cornflour mixture. The filling will slightly be thick. Turn off the heat and leave the filling to cool down completely before using.

Dough:
300 gm glutinous flour
120-130ml coconut milk ( from 1/2 coconut)
pinch of salt

sesame seed
vegetable oil

Combine the glutinous flour and salt in a medium size bowl. Add the coconut milk bit by bit and knead into a smooth dough. Knead until the dough is not sticky to hand. Then shape into balls. Flatten each ball and put about 1 tsp of filling then reshape into balls. Coat fully with sesame seeds. Heat oil and deep fry the sesame balls over medium heat until golden brown.

Tips:

• To avoid kuih bom to "explode" while cooking, make sure it is totally covered with oil. You have to give some TLC... The temperature should not be too high and do not fry them too long. It is best to deep-fry immediately. 
  

• However, Kuih bom is best eaten when it is cold to avoid burning your tougue.

Kuih Lopes or lopez......

This is known as kuih lopes or just lopes. Made from glutinous rice wrapped in individual triangles using banana leaves and left to boil for a few hours. The rice pieces are then tossed with grated coconut all over and served with palm sugar syrup. Glutinous rice is also called sticky rice, sweet rice, waxy rice, botan rice, mochi rice, and pearl rice. It is a type of short-grained Asian rice that is especially sticky when cooked.

Kuih lopes has been my all-time favorite dessert. Well not any kuih lopes ya know. I always love it when mom made her them. Her lopes is soft and the best (my opinion). I would have 2 or 3 pieces or even more and put a lot of the palm sugar syrup..  So this time, I helped her to make kuih lopes and learnt the way she make it. :) She makes a lot of kuih lopes  because she sells them at her food stall and a lot of time, it is always sold out!!! Both my mom and my grandma are so good at what they do when comes to cooking and they do not need to use measuring cups or weighing scale! I wonder how they do it.. For me, its a must.. hehe..

Soooo... when she soak the glutinous rice in water, she add this thing, I am not sure what it is but mom said it is "abuchang", something like soda (i dun even know if the spelling is right). Well, if you are unable to get this, it doesn't matter. You can omit this and soak the rice until it expand. Here is the pic to show you, how "abuchang" looked like:

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 kg glutinous rice

1 - 2 piece "abuchang"

Water

Banana leaves

a few drops of green color (optional)

Coconut

1/2 coconut - grated

pinch of salt

Palm Sugar Syrup

2 cup palm sugar (gula melaka), roughly chopped

1-1/2 cup water

pinch of salt

2 -3 pandan leaves

To make the palm sugar syrup, place the palm sugar and water in a small pot. Add a little bit of salt. Heat over low fire till the sugar completely melts and the mixture is slightly thick and sticky. Tie a knot on the pandan leaves and drop in the syrup. Once all the sugar melts, strain the syrup and set aside. You can make the syrup a few days before. The syrup can be kept for a few weeks in the refrigerator. 

For the coconut, use only the white part and steamed for about 30 minutes with a little salt. You may use the desiccated coconut but it won't taste as good as the fresh coconut. But try this, put the desiccated coconut flakes, coconut milk, salt and sugar in a small saucepan under a low fire. mix well and cook just for a short time.

To make the lopes, wash and soak glutinous rice with "abuchang" for at least 1 or 2 hours or until the glutinous rice has expand. Put through a strainer, wash and rise again.

Soften the banana leaves by dipping in hot water. Tear them into 3 inches strips. Then fold the the banana strips into a cone  by the end.  Fill in 2 tablespoons of the glutinous rice and fold compact like you folding a samosa. stack 3 triangles together and tie them up with raffias or rubber-bands.

In a big pot, fill with 3/4 full of water and let it boil under a medium heat. Place all the lopes and let it boil for 3-4 hours. The banana leaves will be soft and so as the rice. About 2 mins before you remove the triangles, add a few drops of the green color and mix well. - to be very gentle and careful not to break the lopes. The green color will make the lopes changed to green color. Once cooked, drain and cool thoroughly.

Discard the banana leaves and cover lopes with steamed coconut and have it with your palm-sugar syrup.. Yummy... 

Enjoy! :)

Kuih Dadar (Coconut Pancake)

I am very sorry that I haven't been updating my blog the past 2 weeks or so. Not becoz I am lazy but I've been busy. I came back to Singapore 2 weeks ago and then I went to Shah Alam(Malaysia) last week. Gosh.. I kinda hate the long traveling part.. tiring... Other than traveling, I also had a job interview in Singapore. (on a quick note, I got the job... yay!!) Anyway now I have to get back on blogging... :) This month, I have so many baking to do and I am so excited to start back working on it.

Well, yesterday early morning, I helped my grandma to make some delicious kuih for my mom who would sell the kuih-muih* at her food stall at Kim Keat Ave (Singapore). I love this kuih because its simply delicious and easy-to-make. The wrap is a combination of flour, eggs, and water or some use coconut milk. The filling is grated coconut, sweetened with gula melaka (palm sugar). Since my grandma do not use any measurement cups or weighing scales when mixing the ingredients, so I have to find the measurements... :)

*Kuih is the term given to various manners of bite-sized food items in Malay. They are usually - but not always - sweet and intricate creations, including cakes, cookies and puddings. It can also be described as pastry, however it is to be noted that the Asian concept of "cakes" and "pastries" is different from that of the Western one. Kuihs, plurified kueh-mueh or kuih-muih in Malay are more often steamed than baked, and thus very different in texture, flavour and appearance from Western cakes or puff pastries. Kuihs come in different shapes, colours, texture and designs. Some examples are filled, coated, wrapped, sliced and layered kuihs. Also, as mentioned earlier, most kuihs are steamed, with some being boiled or baked. They can also be deep-fried, and sometimes even grilled. Kuihs are not confined to a certain meal but are eaten throughout the day. (wikipedia)

Recipe: Kueh Dadar (Coconut Pancake)
Ingredients:

Filling:
90g palm sugar or brown sugar
40ml plain water
200g granted coconut, skin removed
1/3 tsp salt
1 egg

Cook palm sugar with water till palm sugar dissolves. Add grated coconut and salt, stir-fry till mixture is fairly dry. Then add the egg and mix well. Remove and set aside.

Batter:
100g all purpose flour
1 egg
1/3 tsp salt
1 tbsp pandan juice or green food colouring
150ml plain water
a few drops of vegetable oil

Sift flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the egg, pandan juice or green coloring, vegetable oil and water. Use a hand whisk to mix well and form a batter. Add a little more water if the batter is too thick.

Heat flat-bottomed frying pan and pour in a little oil. Pour enough batter and lightly swirl pan to let batter spread into a thin pancake.

Heat till pancake is cooked then remove and let cool.

Place the coconut filing on pancake (the top part when you cooked it).

Fold the left and right side first before the center part.

Roll the pancake like a spring roll.

Enjoy! :)







Remarks: Coconut filling you can make 1 week beforehand and keep cool inside fridge.