Oven Baked Kuih Kapit (Love Letters)

Thanks Erin for the beautiful season's greetings card all the way from Malaysia...Happy Birthday & Happy Chinese New Year !!!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup egg (from 1 egg)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup thick coconut milk
1/8 cup water
1/3 cup rice flour
1/4 tsp tapioca flour

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Grease a rough surface non-stick tart or cake pan with butter and preheat it in the oven.

In a large bowl, whisk egg with sugar till sugar dissolves.

Pour-in coconut milk and water, stir to incorporate well.

Add-in flours and whisk to smooth batter.

Remove pan from oven.

Spread 1 tbsp of batter onto the heated pan circularly (about 8 cm in diameter) and allow batter to spread out thin by it own for short while.

Return pan to oven and bake for 6-8 minutes or until golden in color.

Remove from oven, immediately remove thin kuih from hot pan, start from all edges, fold straight into a quarter, press lightly with a light object to level the surface while cooling till set.

Allow to cool completely before storing into an airtight container.

Yields 23 kuih kapit.

Acar Telur (Spicy Eggs)

Ingredients:

6 hard boiled eggs, peeled
oil for deep-frying

6 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
6 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
1 knob fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

3 tbsp cooking oil
3 tbsp sambal omelek chili paste
2/3 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tsp sugar or to taste
2 tsp salt or to taste
5 tbsp water (add more if over heat and dry)

Method:

In a wok or deep pan, heat enough oil, deep fry peeled eggs till golden brown, drain on absorbent paper towel; set aside.

With blender/food processor, blend together garlic, onion and ginger to paste; set aside.

Heat 3 tbsp oil in wok or deep pan over medium high heat, saute the blended paste till fragrant and start to golden brown (about 3 minutes).

Add-in chili paste, saute for another 1 minute or till aroma.

Return eggs into wok and add-in all the remaining ingredients, stir-fry till gravy is homogeneous and thicken (adjust taste accordingly with sugar and salt).

Dish-up and best serve hot immediately with rice.

Kuih Rose/Loyang (Crispy Honecomb Cookies)

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups rice flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 egg
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
20 mL coconut milk
80 mL water

oil for deep-frying

Method:

In a bowl, mix well rice flour and all purpose flour; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk egg with sugar and salt till sugar dissolves.

Pour-in coconut milk and water, stir to incorporate fully.

Add-in flours mixture, whisk to smooth batter; set aside.

Heat enough oil in wok or deep pan over medium heat.

Preheat mold by dipping in the hot oil for a while (important).

Transfer small amount of batter into a narrow cup.

Remove mold from oil, dip hot mold into the batter up to almost reach top surface, return coated mold into the hot oil, hold it for short while (may counts to 5), shake mold up and down within oil to drop shaped soft cookies from mold (may use fork to fasten the process).

Deep fry cookies till golden in color.

Drain cookies on absorbent paper and leave to cool completely on wire rack before storing into an airtight container.

Yields 52 cookies.

Kai Chai Peng (Kampar Chicken Biscuits/Savoury Fragrant Biscuits)

Thanks Mei Fong and Kim Yuan for such a sweet watch...after 4 years, it till looks new!!! Hahaha...

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1/2 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking ammonia
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
1/2 tsp five spice powder
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp toasted sesame seed
50 g candied winter-melon, finely chopped (omitted)

2 pieces nam yue (red fermented beancurd), mashed
1 ½ eggs
1/2 tbsp cooking oil
1 tbsp honey

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 °C.

Line a big baking tray with parchment paper; set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients.

In a bowl, mix the wet ingredients of nam yue, eggs, oil and honey.

Add the wet ingredients mixture into the dry ingredients mixture.

With an oily hand palm, knead to smooth and soft dough.

Pick out small amount of dough and form into small dough balls.

Roll out dough balls flat and thin between two lightly greased plastic wrapper by using rolling pin to about 2 mm thick.

Arrange the biscuits onto the prepared tray, dock biscuits surface with knives or fork and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from oven, transfer onto wire rack and set aside to cool completely before storing into an airtight container.

Yields 62 biscuits.

Coconut Cake with Cherry Pudding Topping

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 cups cake flour
1 ⅓ tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup (60 g) butter
1 ⅓ cup sugar
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup freshly shredded coconut or dessicated coconut

Cherry Pudding Topping:

3 cups water
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp cherry jam (I take advantage of it color, may use any other preferential jam)
3/4 cup pudding powder (I use mango flavored pudding powder)
1/4 tsp fruit sugar (enclosed together with pudding powder)

Method:

To prepare the cake:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Lightly grease a springform cake pan (18 cm in diameter), dust bottom and side of pan with bread crumbs and tapping out excess; set aside.

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar till creamy, pale and glossy.

Add-in eggs and oil, whisk till homogeneous batter forms.

Alternately, stir-in flour mixture and coconut milk, whisk to smooth batter.

Add-in dessicated coconut, stir to disperse out evenly.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven, let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes.

Run a thin flexible knife or spatula around the pan to loosen the cake, transfer cake onto a plate, protect cake side with the rim of the springform (for pudding topping purpose); set aside to allows it to cool completely.

To prepare the pudding topping:

In a pot, bring water to boil.

Add-in sugar and jam, stir to dissolve.

Remove from heat and immediately stir-in pudding powder, keep stirring for 5 minutes to dissolve the powder.

Add-in fruit sugar, continue stirring for another 1 minute or till pudding solution starting to gel slightly on cold side walls and on stirring ladle/spoon.

Pour pudding solution onto the cooled cake, tilt cake to spread out pudding topping if necessary.

chill cake in refrigerator for at least 2 hours or till set.

Carefully run a thin flexible knife or spatula around the pan again to loosen the outer pudding frosting layer of cake.

Remove the rim of the springform, decorate cake and coat cake side accordingly if desire.

Chilled well till serve.

Ghoriba (Moroccan Semolina Cookies)

Ingredients:

1/3 cup ghee or butter
2/3 cup icing sugar
1 cup fine semolina flour
2 tbsp ice cold water

Garnish:

Powdered/icing sugar for cookies surface dusting (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Line a big baking tray with parchment paper; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter together with sugars till creamy, pale and fluffy.

Gradually, add-in flour and knead into smooth and soft dough.

Wrap well with plastic wrapper and set aside to rest for at least 3 hours.

Divide dough into 15 pieces of dough balls (about a walnut size); set aside covered.

Lightly greased or flour a cookies mold, press a smooth dough ball into mold and tilt out cookies carefully (I use jelly/pudding plastic mold).

Alternatively, roll out dough flat to about quarter inch thick and cut accordingly with cookies cutter.

Arrange the shaped cookies on the prepared tray and bake cookies in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

Remove from oven (If desire, dust-on with some powdered sugar right this moment), transfer onto wire rack and set aside to cool completely before storing into an airtight container.

Yields 15 cookies.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 egg (lightly whisk a egg and divide into 2 portions)
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Garnish:

45 pieces of toasted sunflower seed kernels

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 °C.

Line a big baking tray with parchment paper; set aside.

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter together with sugars till creamy, pale and fluffy.

Add-in egg and peanut butter, whisk to incorporate fully.

Gradually, stir-in flours mixture and knead into smooth and soft dough.

In between two pieces of plastic wrapper, roll out dough flat by using rolling pin to the thickness of 1/4 inch.

Cut dough accordingly with cookies cutter and gashes cookies upper surface with knives.

Place shaped cookies onto the prepared tray and press a sunflower seed kernels onto the center of each cookies.

Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 12 minutes or until aroma and cooked through.

Remove from oven, transfer onto wire rack and set aside to cool completely before storing into an airtight container.

Yields 45 cookies.

Malaysian Sambal Chili Chicken

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken, cut into bite size
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 ½ tsp salt or to taste

3 tbsp cooking oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 knob fresh ginger, minced
4 tbsp sambal omelek chili paste
1 ½ tbsp toasted belacan powder (dried shrimp paste)
5 onion, minced
3 stalks lemongrass, minced (use white part only)
1 (400g) canned tomato pulp

Method:

In a large bowl, mix-in turmeric powder and salt, add-in chicken, stir to incorporate well and set aside to marinade for at least 30 minutes (ease to mix with hand).

Heat oil in a wok, non-stick deep pan or pot, over high heat, saute marinated chicken for about 25 minutes or till slightly browned, remove chicken from pot and set aside.

Add-in minced garlic and ginger paste, stir-fry till starting to be golden brown (about 2 minutes).

Add-in chili paste and belacan powder, continue stir-fry for another half minute or till aroma.

Add-in onion and lemongrass paste, continue stir-fry for about 1 minute or till fragrant.

Return chicken into the pot, pour-in tomato pulp, stir-fry till chicken cooked thoroughly and the gravy is thicken (about 15 minutes).

Dish-up and best serve hot immediately with rice.

Kuih Bangkits (Tapioca Cookies)

Thanks to YY for this lovely Swiss Watch...I like it very much...Happy Chinese New Year !!!

Ingredients:

2 cups tapioca flour
1 pandan leaves (fragrant screwpine), roughly cut
1/3 cup egg (from 1 egg)
1/3 cup sugar
1/12 cup coconut milk

Method:

In a heat resistance pot or wok, dry-fry flour together with pandan leave for about 15 minutes, remove from heat, discard leave and set aside to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 160 °C.

Line a big baking tray with parchment paper; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk egg with sugar till turn to milk white, thick, glossy and sugar is fully dissolves.

Pour the egg solution into cooled flour, follow by coconut milk and knead to smooth stiff dough.

In between two pieces of plastic wrapper, roll out dough flat by using rolling pin to the thickness of 1 cm.

Cut dough accordingly with cookies cutter and gashes cookies upper surface with knives.

Alternatively (traditionally), lightly flour a cookies wooden mold, press a smooth dough ball into mold and tilt out cookies carefully.

Place shaped cookies onto the prepared tray and bake cookies in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until aroma and cooked through (cookies should remain whitish in color).

Remove from oven, transfer onto wire rack and set aside to cool completely before storing into an airtight container.

Yields 36 cookies.

Chinese Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups rice flour
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup blanched almonds, finely coarse
1 egg
60 mL almond oil

Egg Wash:

1 egg yolk
1/2 tbsp water

Garnish:

12 blanched almonds, split into half.

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 °C.

Line a big baking tray with parchment paper; set aside.

In a large bowl, mix-in all ingredients and knead to smooth and soft dough, divide dough into 25 pieces of dough balls (about a walnut size); set aside covered.

Lightly greased or flour a cookies mold, press a smooth dough ball into mold and tilt out cookies carefully (I use jelly/pudding plastic mold).

Alternatively, roll out dough flat to about quarter inch thick and cut accordingly with cookies cutter.

Place shaped cookies onto the prepared tray, brush-on egg wash and press a piece of half almond onto center.

Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown and fragrant.

Remove from oven, transfer onto wire rack and set aside to cool completely before storing into an airtight container.

Yields 25 cookies.

Chocolate-Lemon Zebra Yogurt Cake with Chocolate Mousses Topping

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

200 g butter
3 cups sugar
4 egg
250 g plain yogurt
4 tsp zest of lemon

3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ tbsp lemon juice

Lemon Syrup:

1 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
4 tsp zest of lemon

Dark Chocolate Mousse:

200 g bittersweet dark chocolate
50 g butter
40 mL espresso coffee
200 mL whipped cream
2 eggs, separated
1 tbsp icing sugar

White Chocolate Mousses:

100 g white chocolate
25 g butter
20 mL whiskey
100 mL whipped cream
1 egg, separated
1/2 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

To prepare the cake:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Lightly grease a springform cake pan (26 cm in diameter), dust bottom and side of pan with bread crumbs and tapping out excess; set aside.

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar till creamy, pale and glossy.

Add-in eggs, yogurt and lemon zest, whisk till homogeneous batter forms, divide batter into 2 portions; set aside.

Add cocoa powder and lemon juice into one portion, whisk to smooth batter; set aside.

Gradually, scoop a ladle of plain batter into the center of the prepared pan, follow by another ladle of cocoa batter onto the middle of plain batter.

Alternate the two batters topping and layering till finish (do slowly to allow batters to spread by it own).

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean.

Meanwhile to prepare the syrup, mix all the syrup ingredients in a pan, cook till sugar dissolves; set aside.

Remove cake from oven, let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes.

Run a thin flexible knife or spatula around the pan to loosen the cake, transfer cake onto a plate and pour the prepared syrup all over the warm cake; set aside to allows it to soak till cool completely.

To prepare the chocolate mousses:

In a deep bowl, whisk 300 mL whip cream until stiff, divide into 3 portions and keep in refrigerator.

In another deep bowl, whisk 3 egg whites with 1 ½ tbsp icing sugar over double boiler till soft peak form; divide into 3 portions; set aside.

Dark Mousse: Over a double boiler, melt dark chocolate and butter; pour-in espresso, stir to incorporate; remove from heat; add-in egg yolks to the chocolate mixture one at a time, beat to mix; gently stir-in 2 portions of whipped cream to the chocolate mixture; gradually fold-in 2 portions of egg whites, stir to incorporate well; set aside.

White Mousse: Over a double boiler, melt white chocolate and butter; remove from heat and pour-in whiskey, stir to incorporate; add-in egg yolk to the chocolate mixture, beat to mix; gently stir-in 1 portion of whipped cream to the chocolate mixture; gradually fold-in the remaining 1 portion of egg whites, stir to incorporate well; set aside.

To assemble:

Spoon half of the dark mousse onto the cooled cake and spread out mousse evenly.

Spoon-on the white mousse and gently spread out evenly.

Spoon-on the remaining dark mousse onto the white mousse and gently spread out evenly (spread down some of the final layer of dark mousse all over the sides of cake for sides-frosting.

Coat cake sides accordingly and chilled well before serving.

Pineapple Rolls/Tarts

Ingredients:

Fresh Pineapple Filling:

2 cups grated ripped or half ripped pineapple (from 1 medium pineapple; hard skin and core removed)
1 ½ cups sugar or to taste
3 tbsp lemon juice

Pastry:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter
1/3 cup icing sugar
1 egg yolk

Egg Wash:

1 egg yolk
1 tbsp water

Method:

To prepare the pineapple filling:

In a wok or pot, boil together grated pineapple, sugar and lemon juice over medium heat till sugar dissolves; let simmer for 30 minutes (stir occasionally); continue stirring for about another 10 minutes to thicken the filling; remove from heat and set aside to cool completely; divide into 20 portions.

To prepare the pastry:

In a bowl, mix together flour, cornstarch and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter together with sugar till creamy, pale and fluffy.

Add-in egg yolk, whisk to incorporate fully.

Gradually, stir-in flours mixture and knead into smooth and soft dough.

Divide dough into 10 portions.

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Line a big baking tray with parchment paper; set aside.

With greased hand palms, roll each pineapple portions into smooth balls; set aside.

Form each pastry dough portions into balls, flatten length-wide in between wax plastic papers by using rolling pin (thickness about 1/2 cm).

With a knives, gently gashes pastry surface diagonally.

Carefully, lift-up gashed pastry and transfer onto greased hand palm via spatula (gashed side down).

Place-on a portion of filling at one end and roll-up pastry to the other end; press gently to join both ends.

Place filled rolls onto the prepared tray.

Brush-on egg wash and bake rolls in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until slightly golden brown.

Remove from oven, set aside to cool completely before storing into an airtight container..

Yields 10 pineapple rolls (To finish the remaining filling, just repeat the pastry).

Penang Lor Bak (Crispy Skin Pork Sausages)

Ingredients:

600 g fatty pork, coarsely chopped
1 ½ tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 large onion/2 shallot, finely chopped (yield about 2 ½ tbsp)
1 ½ tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp soy bean paste, minced
2 tsp five spice powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp chestnut flour
1 ½ tsp salt or to taste
2 tsp pepper powder or to taste (I used black pepper)

2 large bean-curd sheets
1 egg, lightly beaten for sealing (I used leftover egg yolks from dark soy dipping sauce)
16 pieces toothpick
oil for deep-frying

Dark Soy Dipping Sauce:

1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/8 tsp five spice powder
2 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt or to taste
4 tbsp water
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 egg white, beaten

Sweet-Chili Dipping sauce:

3 tbsp chili paste
2 tbsp pounded roasted sesame seeds
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp hoisin or plum sauce
3 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Method:

In a bowl, mix pork, garlic, onion, sugar, soy bean paste, five spice powder, egg, chestnut flour, salt and pepper to make the filling; set aside to marinade for 30 minutes (adjust the taste by pan-fry a bit of the filling mixture).

Rub bean-curd with wet kitchen towel to solften, cut each sheet to four pieces; set aside covered and wet kitchen towel (if bean curd tends to harden quickly, just soften it by soaking into cold water for about 3 minutes and pat dry gently with kitchen towel).

Divide filling into 8 portions.

Spread a portion of filling length-wise on bottom of sheet (spare about 1 inch on all sides for folding and sealing).

Brush-on whisked egg on all sides.

Gently, fold up bottom edge and roll upward till end to form sausage roll, seal both sausage terminals with toothpick.

Alternately, fold-in sides bean-curd while rolling to enclosed.

Heat oil in wok or pot on over high heat, deep-fry sausage rolls till golden brown, cooked through and crispy skin (about 9 minutes).

Remove from oil, drain on paper towels and set aside to cool to handle-able temperature.

Right before serving, cut sausages into 1 inch pieces and serve along with dipping sauces as appetizer or with rice (best serve along with fresh cucumbers slices).

To prepare the dark soy dipping sauce:

In a small pot, mix-in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, five spice powder, sugar, salt, water and cornstarch; simmer over low heat for about 2 minutes or till yields smooth sauce (stir occasionally); whisk-in egg white to form fine white streaks; remove from heat and apply warm or at room temperature.

To prepare the sweet-chili dipping sauce:

In a small pot, bring vinegar to boil, mix-in chili paste, plum sauce, sugar and salt; simmer over low heat for about 1 minutes (stir occasionally); remove from heat; stir-in sesame seeds and apply warm or at room temperature (We use to drop chili dipping sauce into the middle of dark soy dipping sauce and gradually incorporated while dipping-in sausage pieces, like wasabi in soy sauce for sushi eating).

Grilled Spicy Sour Fish/Stingray/Skate Wing

Ingredients:

1 (300 g) fish
1 large piece banana leaf/aluminum foil, greased
1 lime, cut into half
1 tbsp oil for grilling

Paste:

2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 knob fresh ginger, peeled
2 shallot, peeled
1 stalk lemongrass (white part only), sliced
1 or 2 dried red chili, softened in hot water
1/2 tsp belacan (toasted dried shrimp paste)
1 tsp tamarind paste in 2 tbsp water, strained and discarded seed
1 lime juice
1/3 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp fish curry powder
1/2 tsp dark brown sugar or to taste
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Dipping Sauce:

1 shallot, sliced
1 red chili, sliced (I used 2 tsp sambal omelek chili paste, it contributes to the red color)
1 lime juice
1/2 tsp sugar or to taste
1 tsp belacan (toasted dried shrimp paste)
1/2 tsp light soy sauce or to taste
1 bird's eye chili, chopped

Method:

Clean fish, make some gashes on both sides; set aside.

With blender, blend together garlic, ginger, shallot, lemongrass, chili and belacan till fine paste; set aside.

Heat oil in a wok or non-stick pan over medium high heat, saute paste till fragrant and aroma (about 2 minutes).

Reduce heat, add-in tamarind juice, lime juice, turmeric powder, curry powder, sugar and salt.

Stir to incorporate and cook for another 1 minute or till paste is thickened slightly (adjust taste accordingly).

Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Rub both sides of fish well with half of the paste (including the internal part and inside the gashes).

Spread half of the remaining paste onto the greased aluminum foil, lay-on fish and spread all the remaining paste on fish.

Fold the aluminum foil into a packet and seal completely; set aside to marinade for 30 minutes.

Heat-up grill pan or a heat resistance flat pan with 1 tbsp oil over medium heat, place the wrapped fish on the pan, cook each side for 5-6 minutes or till cooked through.

Remove from heat, squish-on additional lime juice if desire and serve hot along with dipping sauce as appetizer or with rice.

To prepare the dipping sauce, just mix together all the dipping sauce ingredients to form a homogeneous solution and it is ready to apply.

Viennese Mocha-Vanilla Bi-Whirls Christmas Cookies

Ingredients:

Vanilla Batter:

1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 egg
3/4 cup all purpose flour

Mocha Batter:

30 g bittersweet dark chocolate, melted
1/4 cup butter
1/8 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp espresso coffee
1/2 cup flour
1/8 cup cornstarch

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 °C.

Line a big baking tray with parchment paper; set aside.

Vanilla Dough:

In a bowl, cream butter with sugar and vanilla till pale, thick and creamy.

Add-in egg, whisk to fully incorporate.

Gradually, add-in flour, mix well to smooth batter.

Spoon into cake decorating bag; set aside.

Mocha Dough:

Over a double boiler, melt chocolate, set aside.

In a bowl, cream butter with sugar till pale, thick and creamy.

Pour-in melted chocolate and coffee, whisk to incorporate.

Add-in flour and starch, whisk further till smooth batter.

Spoon into cake decorating bag, set aside.

Assembly:

Pipe the vanilla batter onto the prepared tray to snail shape by sparing some internal space for mocha batter (about 1 cm).

Pipe-in the mocha batter to fill the spared space.

With spatula or spoon, push-in terminals, close and smooth to seal.

Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from oven, set aside to stand on tray for 10 minutes.

Transfer cookies onto wire rack to cool completely before storing.

Yields 22 cookies.

Golden Mantou/Baozi/Pau/Buns with Curry Mussel Filling

Ingredients:

Filling:

Dry Curry Mussels

Pastry:

5 tbsp warm water
2/3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp dry instant yeast

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp wheat starch
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp water
1/2 tsp baking powder

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water, set aside for 10 minutes or till foamy.

In a large bowl, mix flour, starch and salt.

Pour-in yeast solution, knead to mix.

Add-in oil and coconut milk, knead to mix again.

Gradually, pour-in water and knead till smooth, soft and elastic dough form.

Transfer dough into a lightly greased container, turn dough to evenly coated with oil, set aside covered to rise till double volume (about 2 hours).

Dissolves baking powder in 1/4 tsp water; set aside.

Punch down the dough, add-in baking powder solution, knead till well-blended.

Roll-up dough into cylinder shape, cut into 8 pieces and shape to balls.

Flatten each piece roundly into 1/2 cm thick, fill-in the prepared filling in the center, twist to seal the top and roll up nicely into balls again.

Place the filled buns on individual parchment papers, cover with kitchen towel or in a covered container and leave to rise for another 20 minutes (not to over rise).

Steam buns covered over high heat for about 15 minutes.

Remove from steamer (best serve warm immediately if prefer soft skin buns).

Heat oil in a pot over medium high heat, deep fry buns till golden brown (turn buns continuously for even browning).

Drain buns on paper towels and set aside to room temperature.

Dry Besan Curry Chicken

Ingredients:

1/2 chicken, cut preferentially
125 g plain yogurt
6 tbsp meat curry powder

6 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 slices ginger, minced
1/2 large onion or 1 shallot, minced
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp sugar or to taste
1 ¼ tsp salt or to taste
1 tbsp besan/chickpeas/gram flour

Method:

In a bowl, marinade chicken with yogurt and curry powder for at least 30 minutes (ease to mix with hand).

Heat oil in a wok or non-stick deep pan over medium high heat.

Stir-fry garlic, ginger and onion until fragrant and starting to be golden brown (about 5 minutes).

Add-in marinated chicken, stir-fry for about 3 minutes to shrunk the chicken slightly.

Pour-in water and let simmer covered for 15 minutes or till chicken is tender and cooked thoroughly.

Remove the cover and stir chicken for short while.

Remove chicken from gravy, add-in flour and stir continuously to cook and smooth the gravy.

Once the gravy reach the smooth consistency, return chicken into the wok, add-in sugar and salt accordingly, stir to evenly coat and to further thicken the gravy.

Dish-up and best serve hot immediately with rice.

Fast and Simple Jam-Yogurt Marble Cake

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups cake flour (tipo oo)
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 ¼ cups sugar
125 g yogurt (plain or flavored)
2 eggs

2 tbsp jam of choice (I use cherry jam)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Lightly grease a springform cake pan (18 cm in diameter) or 11 x 25 cm loaf tin, dust bottom and side of pan with bread crumbs (or flour) and tapping out excess; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk all the cake ingredients together till yield homogeneous batter and divide batter into two portions.

Add jam into one portion, stir well to incorporate.

With ladles or big spoons, drop plain and jam batters alternatively into the prepared pan (do like a chess board for two layer).

Run a fork from one side of batters to the other side once in zig-zag motion (not to over mix the batters).

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven, let cake cool in pan for at least 10 minutes (allow cake to shrink from cake pan).

Run a thin flexible knife or spatula around the pan to loosen the cake, transfer cake onto a plate.

Decorate accordingly (optional) and serve chill or at room temperature.

Chinese Fried Rice

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked rice, cooled
3 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger (1 ½ inch)
1 onion/shallot, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup Chinese chives, cut into 1 ½ inch length

Seasoning:

2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp Shao Hsing wine or any others rice wine
1/3 tbsp sambal omelek chili paste or to taste
1 tsp sugar or to taste
1/2 tsp white pepper powder or to taste
1 tsp salt or to taste

Sprinkle:

1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp crisp fried shallot

Method:

One day before, cook rice and keep in refrigerator covered to prevent sogginess fried rice.

In a bowl, mix together all the seasoning ingredients and set aside.

Heat oil in a wok or non-stick deep pan, saute garlic and ginger till fragrant and start to golden brown (about 3 minutes)

Add-in onion and continue stir-fry until aroma (another 2 minutes).

Add-in cooled cooked rice and stir fry for about 1 minute to spread out rice grains.

Pour-in seasoning mixture, stir-fry till all the ingredients are well incorporated.

Scrape rice to side, pour egg into middle and stir quickly to scramble the egg.

Cover scrambled egg with side rice, sprinkle-on chives, continue stir-fry to spread the egg and till chives just right cooked thoroughly (adjust the taste accordingly).

Dish-up, stir-in sesame oil, sprinkle-on crisp fried shallot and best serve hot immediately.