The Roti Prata Woman

After viewing Dr Leslie Tay, famously known as ieatishootipost, on Channel U Ladies Nite, making the roti pratas, I can't help to drool over it! Being convinced by Dr Tay that this is actually very easy to do, I decided to attempt this (only to realise it wasn't as it seems!)

Extracting the recipe from ieatishootipost, I increased the recipe to meet the demands from my household. From his post, there were tonnes of information, and one need to read it carefully to understand them. I had always thought roti prata dough is not so difficult, it's the skill in flipping them. I was proven wrong. Even the dough itself need to be made carefully.


You can find the recipe from Channel U Ladies Nite, or from his blog post. Or watch the video from Ladies Nite.


Here's sharing how I made it, though quite a fair bit of work, but the result was satisfactory, considering this was the first time I made roti prata!

Reposting the recipe for Roti Prata, extracted from ieatishootipost.
(Makes approx 16 pcs)


Ingredients:
1000g Prima Plain flour
450g Water
130g Condensed milk
25g Oil (or melted butter)
2tsp Salt
83g Eggs


Method:

1. Mix all the liquid ingredients together - water, condensed milk, oil, eggs and salt.
2. Pour the flour into a large mixing bowl. Then add in the liquid mixture into the mixing bowl.
3. Using a dough hook, start mixing at low for 5mins. Rest for 5mins. Then repeat it for another 2 times. (So total 15mins kneading time, 10mins rest time)
4. Using a cling wrap, let the dough rest for 30mins.
5. After the resting time, floured a worktop, and knead the dough till smooth.
6. Divide the dough equally, weighing approx. 100g per dough ball.
7. Shaped it round, then oil it and place into a container.
8. Leave it in the refrigerator overnight, or at least 8 hours.

Fillings (your personal preference)

Variations of what I made:

1. Egg only
2. Cheese only
3. Egg, cheese and onions
4. Shredded roast chicken (leftover from the night before) and onions
5. Plain

Making pratas:

1. Bring out the dough from the fridge one hour before making.
2. Oil your worktop well. Prepare your frying pan.
3. Refer to the below video for the novice way to make the stretched dough. If you want to try flipping like a pro, refer to this video link.

One of my nicer membrane dough (limited by the space I have!!)

Once you have expanded your dough into a thin membrane, you can start adding the fillings in the centre.

Then fold up the dough and fried it until brown.

Enjoy while hot!

I thought that since I have fillings in my pratas, I can omit the curry gravy. However, when I tasted it, I found something amiss. Curry gravy is still needed somehow! The prata was thin, sweet and crispy, even though the folded sides were a bit chewy and thick though. As I only tried it after I finished frying all, they had turned cold. I believe when consumed hot, it will be even nicer!

Have enough oil in the pan when frying the prata, otherwise, it can get charred pretty fast. Also, when stretching the dough, try to stretch it as thin as possible. Don't worry about the pockets of breakages. As long as the breakages are not in the centre, you can safely fold it and cover them.

My favourite combination was the egg, cheese and onion prata. The egg was moist, and the onion was sweet. It was very appetising. My children had their plain pratas with chocolate syrup, and they loved it!

Steamed Slit Pau with Stewed Meat

When I stayed home the other day, I decided to try some cooking. Not salmon, but stewed pork belly. I made the slit pau, and my boy loved it! He finished most of them over the next few days. He took the paus for his three meals.

Recipe for Steamed Slit Pau with Stewed Meat, extracted from "Agnes Chang's Delightful Snacks & Dim Sum 开开心心做点心"

Steamed Slit Pau
Ingredients A:
500g HK flour, sifted
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tbsp Instant yeast
100g Caster sugar
240ml Water
3 tbsp Shortening

Ingredient B:
1 tbsp Baking powder

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients A together and knead into a smooth and elastic dough.
2. Cover with a piece of wet cloth and leave to prove until it has doubled its bulk.
3. Sift B on top of the dough and knead well to distribute the baking powder* until the dough is smooth again.
4. Cover and allow dough to rest for 15mins before shaping.

* Note: Make sure you knead very well after adding in the baking powder, otherwise there will be small brownish spots on the pau skin.

Pau Skin:
1. Divide dought into 24 pieces and shape into balls. Roll each ball into oval shape and brush surface lightly with seasame oil (or shallot oil).
2. Fold each piece into half and press the edge lightly to seal.
3. Put aside to prove for 15 mins.
4. Steam over high heat for 10mins until cooked.
5. To serve, open up the slit pau and sandwich with one piece of stewed meat.

Stewed Meat:
Ingredients:
4 tbsp Cooking oil
2 tbsp chopped Shallots and garlic
500g Pork belly, cut into 1cm thick

Seasoning:
4 tbsp Soya sauce
1/4 tsp Dark soya sauce
2 tsp Sugar
1/8 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp 5-spice powder
1 tbsp Mushroom sauce (or oyster sauce)
1 piece Star anise
1 tbsp Hua Tiao Wine (or any chinese cooking wine)
250ml Water
1 tsp Chicken stock granules

Method:
1. Heat up 4 tbsp oil in wok, stir-fry chopped garlic and onion until lightly brown. Add pork pieces and stir fry until fragrant.
2. Add seasoning, mix well and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook until the meat is tender and sauce is thick (about an hour).
3. Dish and ready to serve with slit pau.

The slit pau that I made had brownish spots all over. Mainly because I didn't knead well after I added the baking powder. I think it'll be better if it's added together with the rest of the ingredients.

I felt that the dark soya sauce was too light. I would have added more the next time, otherwise, the stewed pork belly looks a bit pale.

Caramel Salmon

I wanted to try something new in cooking salmon. And I like those with sauces on it. So I googled for "Caramel Salmon" and found some recipes for it. I requested my helper to cook it. It tasted really good. My elder son, who is a big fan of fried salmon, gave it a 98%, citing that the 2% was because it was too salty. He simply love this! Therefore, I share this recipe, hopefully you can also agree with me after you have tried it.

Recipe for Caramel Salmon, reference from http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/576793

Ingredients:
5 Big pieces of fried cooked salmon
3 tbsp Fish sauce (can cut down to 1 tbsp as the taste was relatively strong and some people might not like it)
115g Brown sugar
3 tbsp Dark soya sauce
1 tbsp Fresh lime juice
Some fresh black pepper

Method:
1. Heat up the wok. Add some oil.
2. Stir in the fish sauce, brown sugar and dark soya sauce.
3. Add in the fried salmon to the pan and cook until the sauce is dark and syrupy. Sprinkle with black pepper, then stir in the lime juice.
4. Serve with rice. Yummy!

Fried Bee Hoon

Edith, this is for you. :)

I had volunteered to fried bee hoon in an event organised by Precious Moments. Since she requested for a recipe, here it is as promised. :)

Recipe for Fried Bee Hoon
Serves 10 persons (if there are other added dishes)

Ingredients:
430g Peacock brand bee hoon, soaked till soft (5-10mins)
6 Chinese mushrooms, soaked and sliced
1 small Carrot, cut stripped
230g French beans, cut stripped
5 pieces garlic, chopped
5 tbsp Cooking oil for noodles
700g Swanson Chicken Stock
1 ½tbsp Dark soy sauce

4 Eggs, well beaten and add some soy sauce
3 tbsp Cooking oil for eggs

1 sprig Spring Onion, chopped

Method:
1.Heat up the wok on medium heat.
2.Add in 3 tbsp cooking oil. Then the beaten eggs. Cook till browned and remove from the wok. Put aside.
3.Add in the 5 tbsp cooking oil. Then the garlic. Stir fried till fragrant.
4.Add in the carrot, french beans and mushrooms. Stir fry. Add in half of the chicken stock and let it steep for about 3 mins.
5.When the french beans are cooked, add in the noodles, followed by the rest of the chicken stock, and the dark soy sauce.
6.Stir and mix well. Cover and let it cook. Open occasionally to mix. About 5-8 mins in total. Add more chicken stock if too dry.
7.Turn off the heat once it's ready.
8.Chopped the eggs into strips and garnish the noodles with it and spring onions.
9.Serve.

Cheese it all

Salmon was on sales. Button mushrooms were on sales. Bulk discount for Meiji cheese. No prize for guessing what I made for Saturday lunch. The theme for lunch was, anything that can use cheese.

It all started one day when one of my dear friend informed me that there was someone in a particular forum trying to clear stock of Meiji cheese because they were expiring real soon! And since it was going at rock bottom prices, and I really mean BOTTOM, I decided to get some. She knew that I like to use cheese in my baking, so she informed me of such good deal. Isn't it nice of her? ;)

I also had a new "toy"- grilling pan, which I bought from Tangs quite some time ago. So I decided to use the grilling pan to grill my salmon fillets. I thought there will be splashing all over. However it didn't. Probably because I used butter? Maybe it won't splashed in the first place. I love the grilling marks it left on my fillet.

Here was the menu for lunch.

1) Salad - coral lettuce, cherry tomatoes, basil leaves, raisins, onions, olive oil, pepper & rock salt.
2) Caramelised onions
3) Stir fried button mushrooms with cheese.
4) Garlic toast - fried garlic with butter and toast.
5) Grilled salmon - Marinated with rock salt and rosemary. Use butter to grill the salmon, then add the cheese after it's cooked.

My children loved the garlic toast amongst the food. Luckily I didn't make a lot, otherwise, they won't finish my salmon. Heehee... :p

Lemon & Tomato Salmon

Since it was a public holiday on Monday, I decided to prepare dinner for the family. It's like once a while treat for them! Heehee... Usually my domestic helper will cook lunch and dinner, but on Monday, I took over the dinner. She can cook very good chinese food. After all these years, her cooking has improved a lot and I can trust her with any new recipes. For me, it's more western type of cooking, which involves baking. Mainly because, I trust myself more with my oven. :p


I read in some SHAPE magazine about Lemon & Garlic Salmon which seemed very easy to prepare and very healthy too! So I copied down the recipe in my handphone and tried to replicate the dish. I did this with some modification. I also baked some herbed potato wedges which was also a sold-out for that evening! Of course, salad was also made to make the meal complete!



Recipe for Lemon & Tomato Fish (modified)
(Makes for 5 adults)

Ingredients:
600g Salmon fish fillet
2 tbsp Lemon juice
1 clove Garlic finely diced
1 Onion thinly sliced
4 Tomatoes, unseeded and diced
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp Brown sugar
2 tbsp Tomato ketchup
1 cup cornflakes
1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese and Mozzarella Cheese

Method:
1. Remove skin from fish.
2. Marinate fish with lemon juice, salt and pepper at least 1 hour before.
3. Place in a swallow oven proof dish.
4. Top with garlic, onion and tomatoes.
5. Sprinkle with sugar.
6. Pour ketchup over the fish.
7. Spread cornflakes evenly over the fish, followed by cheese.
8. Bake in oven at 180C for 30mins or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
9. Serve with green salad.

Chicken and Mousse

I really mean chicken and mousse, not mouse. That was my theme for today. I had already planned, at the beginning of the week, that on Saturday morning, I want to cook glutinous chicken rice 糯米鸡 aka Loh Mai Kai for lunch. This really needed to be pre-planned as rice and chicken pieces have to be bought way before. Even the rice need to be soaked overnight. Surfing through the sites much earlier, I found a simpler version of this, with step by step guide. Using her recipe, I made twice the amount. However, I think I might have added slightly more water, the rice was a bit sloggy, but really easy to chew and swallow. My hubby commented that it was a little on the plain side. As I took the rice with chilli, I can't really tell. :p Too much work for a simple food. Might not be worth to make it afterall!



I asked my elder sister yesterday what she would like for dessert today (after dinner at my parents' place). She said "chocolate..." After a few instant messaging exchanges, I told her I'll make chocolate mousse since she asked for it. Since I've not done chocolate mousse before, I figured I might as well give it a try since I still have my Ghirardelii baking chocolates. I've been eyeing a few chocolate mousse recipes, including this from David Lebovitz's site. After a few rounds, I decided on this recipe from Daily Delicious. This recipe doesn't use butters, and looks more healthy compared to the rest.

I doubled the recipe, and used a mix of 60% & 72% baking chocolates. As I was folding the melted chocolate into the beaten eggs, I can really smell the strong chocolate taste. So when I folded it into the whipping cream later, I can't help but to pinch from the side to taste! The smoothness and the cooling taste just lingers in my tongue...Yummilicious!!

I decorated them with light chantilly cream, topped with coffee bean chocolate and mint leaf. Doesn't it all looked more presentable now?



Recipe for Dark Chocolate Mousse, extracted from Daily Delicious Blog.
Makes approx 12 cups (about 2½" ramekins)

Ingredients:
240g Dark Chocolate, 50%-60% cocoa mass, chopped
80g Dark Chocolate, 72% cocoa mass, chopped
60g Sugar
6 whole eggs, about 270g
340g Whipping Cream (Original ask for 43% fat, mine is only 35%)
2 Tbsp Dark rum
A dash of salt

Method:
1. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Half fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil.

2. Remove from the heat and place the bowl over the pan, making sure it is not touching the water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate has melted. Leave to cool.

3. Using electric beaters, beat the eggs, salt and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is thick, pale and increased in volume. Transfer to a large bowl

4. Using a spatula, fold in the melted chocolate with the rum, leave the mixture to cool, then gently fold in the lightly whipped cream until just combined.

5. Spoon into the ramekins or dessert glasses..

6. Refrigerate for 2 hours, or until set, or overnight. Decorate with extra whipped cream and mint leaves. Sprinkle cocoa powder if desired.

Peranakan Mee Siam Workshop

Armed with a carrier of empty containers, an apron and camera, I set out early morning on Saturday, looking forward to my mee siam workshop. I met up with my dear friend and her family for breakfast at Marine Parade. After breakfast, I set off to my mee siam workshop.

As the instructor was staying at the top most floor, the scenery, facing the sea was really marvelous. With my Fujifilm Finepix, I was able to zoom and captured them far far away!

Circled in red is the vessel with steam...


Zoom in 15x using my Fujifilm, I found the vessel with the steam up close!


Back to my mee siam workshop, there were 16 of us, quite packed I should think. This is roughly what I had captured.


1. Ingredients for frying the dry mee siam.
2. Blending the ingredients for rempeh for the mee siam gravy.
3. Mrs Fong showing us that after one round of soaking assam in water, there are still a lot of "fresh" stuck to the seeds.
4. Draining out the assam water.
5. Mrs Fong showing the correct way to hold the ladle when cooking the rempeh.
6. The real way of cooking mee hoon is using tongs. This is to maintain the "longness" of the mee boon.
7. Initial basic ingredients placed on the table when we arrived.

These were the final food presentation at the end of 3 hours.
Mee Siam gravy that was simmer for 1½ hours.


Peranakan Dry Mee Siam decorated by my groupmates. Sambal Chilli for Mee Siam cooked mostly by me.


Finally, a group photo with my wonderful groupmates with team efforts!

On Boxing Day

The day after Christmas, known as Boxing Day, was supposed to be back to work. Somehow, I didn't. It is also a day to open presents? Somehow, I don't have presents to open. :p

I happened to be watching a show on Channel 5 this morning at 11.30am, known as "Bills Food II". I just found out that he is an Australian chef and restaurateur, Bill Granger. He happened to be cooking "Caramel Salmon" and I thought it was pretty easy and looks very good too. So I decided to give it a try in the evening and cook it for dinner! It turned out be really good! This is the recipe from my memory and my trial & error. Hope you can try it too!


Caramel Salmon, from "Bills Food II Show" today (with some modifications)
Ingredients:

500g Salmon Fillets, cut into 3"x1"x2" approx
1 medium Red Onion (I used Salad onion), cut into strips
5 cloves garlic, chopped
6 tbsp Brown Sugar
8 tbsp Fish Sauce
1 1/2 tbsp Soy Sauce
4 small lime, or 2 thai lime

Some salt
Some Olive Oil (to pan fry)
Some spring onions & parsley & chilli strips to garnish

Method:
1. Marinate Salmon fillets with some salt.
2. Pour some olive oil to the pan and pan-fried the salmon fillets for about 1 min on each side. (#1)
3. Remove the salmon fillets from the pan.
4. Fried garlic, followed by onions till fragrant.
5. Add soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar to the pan. Mix well til sugar caramelised.
6. Squeeze the lime into the pan, and mix well.
7. Put the salmon fillets back to the pan and heat them up. Don't stir and mix. (#2)
8. Cooked for about a minute or so, then remove the salmon fillets and place them on a plate.
9. Pour out the sauce onto the salmon fillets, and garnish them with spring onions, parsley and chilli strips. (#3)

This dish goes well with rice, and serves six. The recipes may be adjusted to suit individual tastes, whether sweeter or more sour. My family loved this dish very much!