Bak Kwa (肉干)

Ingredients:

450-500 g ground pork (not lean)

Marinate:

3/4 tbsp fish sauce
3/4 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup sugar or to taste
1/2 tsp five spiced powder
1/4 tsp licorice powder
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp cooking wine
1/4 tsp salt
1 ½ tbsp honey

Method:

In a container, mix pork with all the marinate ingredients, stir-well to fully incorporate.

Place pork in fridge covered to marinate overnight.

Preheat oven to 100 °C.

Line a baking tray (dimension about 25 x 42 cm) with parchment paper.

Spread the marinated pork portion by portion onto the prepared baking tray as thin as possible (important).

Bake it in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or till firm to touch (test with fork).

Remove from oven and absorb-off any excess oil with paper towels.

Cut the partially cooked pork sheet into smaller rectangular pieces.

Grill each over medium heat for about 10 minutes or till shrink and cooked thoroughly.

French Crepes

Ingredients:

1 egg
1/3 tsp salt
1/3 tsp sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 ⅓ tbsp butter, melted

Sweet Filling Options:

Jam/Apple butter/Nutella/Chestnut cream/Butter and sugar/Sliced bananas with chocolate sauce and whipped cream or ice-cream/Fresh berries marinated with sugar and grand marnier/crepes suzette

Savory Filling Options:

Grated cheese/Sliced ham/Egg freshly cooked on crepe/Sauteed spinach/Sauteed mushroom in cream sauce/Mushroom and chicken in cream sauce/Shrimp and shelled mussels in cream sauce/Ratatouille/Cooked sausage/Green salad with vinaigrette

Method:

In a large bowl, beat eggs with salt and sugar till dissolved.

Add-in milk and mix thoroughly.

Gradually, add the batter to flour and beat to eliminate lumps.

Pour-in butter and beat to incorporate.

Place the batter into fridge for at least 40 minutes.

Heat a 18 cm frying pan or crepe pan over medium-high heat and grease it lightly with butter (about 5 g each).

Pour-in 1/3 of the batter to the preheated pan and swirl it quickly to coat on the pan.

Cook for 2-3 minutes or till the crepe light golden brown on the bottom.

Flip it over to brown the other side.

Meanwhile, fill-in with a preference filling and fold accordingly.

Transfer the crepe to a serving plate with the seams on the bottom side.

Repeat for the remaining batter.

Best serve immediately.

Yield 3 crepes.

Crostoli Pastries

Ingredients:

1/3 tsp salt
3/4 tbsp sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup evaporated milk (substitution: 1/2 cup milk powder in 9 tbsp warm milk or water)
1 tbsp rum (optional)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
2 cup flour

oil for deep-frying
Icing/confectioner/powdered sugar for dusting

Method:

In a large bowl, beat salt, sugar and eggs till very pale, glossy and fluffy.

Whisk-in evaporated milk, rum and vanilla extract.

Gradually, mix-in flour and knead for 10 minutes or till dough begins to blister
and non-sticky (add 1/2 tbsp flour at a time if necessary).

Cover dough with plastic wrap and set aside to rest for at least 20 minutes.

Over a floured surface, roll out dough portion by portion to as thin as possible.

Preheat enough oil in shadow wok or deep-fryer over medium high heat (175 °C).

Cut dough sheet into long and narrow strips (depend on the size of deep-fryer).

Carefully transfer strips into the hot oil and fry till puffy and golden yellow ( may give a mild stretch on each strip by pulling both ends before frying).

Remove crispy strips from oil and drain-well on absorbent paper towels to cool.

Sprinkle with confectioner sugar and store in airtight container.

Cuculli (Chickpeas Flour Fritters of Liguria)

Ingredients:

1 ½ tsp dry instant yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 cups chickpeas/besan/gram flour
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp oregano or chopped marjoram
2 tsp salt
oil for deep-frying

Method:

Dissolve yeast in water, leave for 8 minutes or till foamy.

In a large bowl, dilute flour with water to obtain a thick but smooth batter.

Pour-in yeast solution and set aside to rise for few hours or overnight.

Once the batter has done leavening, add-in oregano and salt.

Heat oil over high heat.

Drop a spoonfuls batter into hot oil and fry till golden yellow.

Remove from hot and drain well on absorbent paper towels.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield 38 pieces of cuculli.

Savoury Cheese Cookies/Snack/Sticks

Ingredients:

9 tbsp (50 g) grated cheese (Camembert, Grana or Parmesan cheese)
8 tbsp (60 g) all purpose flour
1/4 tbsp black pepper powder or to taste
1/2 tsp chopped or powdered oregano (optional)
3 ⅓ tbsp (50 g) butter

1 tbsp salt for sprinkling

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 °C.

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

In a bowl, combine cheese, flour, pepper powder and oregano.

Add-in butter, and mix to smooth dough.

Wrap dough with plastic wrapper and chill in fridge for at least 3o minutes.

Roll out dough flat to about quarter inch thick and cut to strips or to the desired shapes.

Arrange the shaped cookies on the prepared tray and bake cookies in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

Remove from oven, immediately sprinkle-on enough salt, transfer onto wire rack and set aside to cool completely before storing into an airtight container.

Yields 35 cookies.

Yeast Taralli (Italian Pretzels)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 tsp instant yeast

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp ajwain/carom seeds
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup warm dry white wine (about 38 °C)

Method:

Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water, leave for 8 minutes or till foamy.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, oil, salt, seeds, pepper and garlic powder.

Pour-in yeast solution into the flour mixture, stir to mix.

Gradually pour-in wine and knead until dough becomes smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes).

Transfer dough into a lightly oiled container and turn the dough to coat lightly with oil; set aside covered to rise until doubled in volume (about 1 ½ hours).

With oiled hands, punch down the dough and divide dough into small portions.

Shape each portions into long and slim pencil, cut to 3 inches length and bring two ends together to join, give to a ring shape.

Preheat oven to 200 °C and bring a pot of water to boil.

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

Drop taralli into boiling water, scoop-up once floated (within few seconds).

Drain well on kitchen towel and set aside to dry.

Arrange boiled taralli onto the prepared tray.

Bake in the preheated oven 40 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

Yield 92 pieces of taralli.

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.

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.

Spiral Curry Puffs with Sweet Potato Curry Filling

Ingredients:

Curry Sweet Potato Filling:

1 medium sweet potato, diced
1 onion, diced
2 ½ tbsp curry powder
1/2 tbsp sambal omelek chili paste
1/4 tsp sugar or to taste
1/4 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 tsp white pepper or to taste
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp oil

Pastry:

Outer/Water Dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1/6 tsp salt
15 g butter
1/2 cup water

Inner/Oil Dough
1 cup all purpose flour
70 g butter

oil for deep-frying

Method:

Filling:

Heat oil in wok or non-stick pan, stir-fry onion till fragrant and golden brown.

Add-in sweet potatoes cubes, stir-fry for another 2 minutes.

Add-in curry powder and chili paste, stir-fry still fragrant (about 1 minute).

Pour-in water, stir for short while to incorporate.

Add-in salt and pepper, continue stir fry till sweet potato is soften, cooked thoroughly and the gravy is thicken (almost dry).

Remove from heat and leave aside to cool.

Pastry:

Water Dough:

Mix flour, salt and butter in a large bowl, knead thoroughly.

Add-in water and continue the kneading process till form a smooth dough; set aside covered to rest for 30 minutes.

Oil Dough:

Mix flour and butter, knead till dough is smooth and soft, leave to rest covered for 30 minutes.

Assembly:

Roll out both water dough and oil dough into long sausage shape and divide each dough into 6 portions.

Roll out a piece of water dough, fill-in a piece of oil dough and wrap up to form dough ball.

Flatten, roll out flat and roll up into a swiss roll.

Repeat the rolling and flattening process for three times.

For the last roll up into a swiss roll, cut dough roll into two pieces with a sharp knife.

Face the cut side down, flatten and roll out to form a circular pastry.

Place enough filling in the center and fold pastry over to make a half circle, pleat the edges to seal.

Repeat the assembly process for the rest of doughs' pieces.

Deep-fry over high heat until golden brown.

Drain on absorbent paper and best serve warm.

Yield 12 pieces of spiral curry puffs.

Spicy Fragrant Crostini with Cheese Topping

Ingredients:

2 Italian bread, sliced to 1/4 inch thickness
45 g butter, melted
1 ½ tbsp tomato puree
1 ½ tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp chili powder
3/4 tsp black pepper powder
1/3 tsp salt
3 tbsp Parmesan cheese for topping

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 °C.

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

In a mixing bowl, mix together butter, tomato puree, garlic powder, chili powder, pepper powder and salt.

Stir well to incorporate the ingredients to give a homogeneous batter.

With a spatula, spoon or knife, spread enough batter onto a side of each bread slices.

Line stuffed bread slices onto the prepared tray.

Sprinkle-on cheese and broil in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or till fragrant and toasted.

Remove from oven and ready to serve alone or along with porridge or soup.

Coconut/Thengai Burfi

Ingredients:

1 cup dessicated/freshly grated coconut
1 cup sugar
1/3 water
4 tsp besan/gram/chickpeas flour
6 tbsp ghee

Method:

Greases a vessel with size about 5 x 4 x 1 1/2 inches; set aside.

In a nonstick pan, boil sugar in water till becomes a thick syrup (soft ball consistency).

Add-in coconut and keep-stirring.

Once mixture starts to thicken, add-in flour, stir-constantly till incorporated well.

Add-in ghee, continue stirring for another 1 minute or till well-mix (not to overcooked as it will lead to dry coconut and sugar flakes).

Remove from heat and pour immediately into the prepared vessel; set aside to lightly cool down for 10 minutes.

Cut into desired size and shape while still warm with sharp knife.

Set aside to completely cool down before storing into airtight container.

Mysore Pak

Ingredients:

1 cup ghee
1 cup besan/gram/chickpeas flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 water


Method:

Greases a vessel with size about 5 x 4 x 1 1/2 inches (deepness at least 1 1/2 inches); set aside.

In a nonstick pan, melt 1 tsp ghee.

Add-in besan flour and roast for 2-3 minutes by continuous stirring.

Remove from heat and set aside.

In a wok or pot, heat the remaining ghee till very hot, keep hot on flame.

In another nonstick pan, boil sugar in water till becomes a thick syrup (arrange the hot ghee near to the sugar syrup).

Add 1/4 cup of hot ghee into sugar syrup.

Gradually, stir-in the flour.

Occasionally, pour-in the hot ghee into the flour-sugar mixture while keep stirring the flour-sugar mixture.

Once the ghee separates from dough and mixture thickens, remove from heat and pour immediately into the prepared vessel; set aside to lightly cool down for 15 minutes.

Cut into desired size and shape while still warm with sharp knife.

Gulab Jamun

Ingredients:

250 g paneer/hariali mava/khoya or ricotta cheese
6 tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
oil for deep-frying

Sugar Syrup:

1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups water

Method:

To prepare sugar syrup, boil sugar in water via stirring till the sugar is fully dissolved and sticky (not to over boiling), set aside and keep warm.

In a bowl, combine flour and baking soda.

Add-in cheese, mash and knead the mixture to make a medium-hard dough.

Pick-up enough dough and gently roll with hand palms into bite-size smooth balls; set aside covered with wet kitchen towel.

In a deep pan or wok, heat oil over medium-low heat.

Slip-in balls one by one into the hot oil from the side of pan (dough balls will sink to the bottom of the pan and not to overlap each other).

Not to stir as the dough balls are very soft but shake the pan gently for even frying for the first 10-15 minutes (balls will expand and rise to surface after 5 minutes).

Once balls start to change color (after 10-15 minutes), agitate the pan gently and constantly to ensure even browning till to the desired color of golden brown (another 15 minutes).

Drain on paper napkin then transfer immediately into hot syrup; leave gulab jamun immerse in syrup for at least 2 hours or better overnight for best result.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Mua Chi

Ingredients:

1 cup glutinous rice flour
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp think coconut milk
120 mL water
1/2 tbsp peanut butter
1 1/2 tbsp shallot oil

Coating:

4 1/2 tbsp toasted coarse grounded peanut
2 tbsp sugar

Method:

In a microwable bowl, mix together flour, sugar, coconut milk, water, peanut butter and 1/2 tbsp oil.

Microwave on high for 1 minute.

Remove from microwave and stir-well then return to microwave on high for another minute again (repeat the last two steps till the dough is cooked thorough).

Remove from microwave and stir-well.

Add-in the remaining oil; set aside to cool completely.

Sprinkle-on peanut and sugar to dough.

With greased scissor, cut dough into bite sizes and stir to coat well with the peanut and sugar.

Ready for snacking.

Pistachio-Peanut Sandesh

Ingredients:

250 g paneer or ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cup sugar
10 toasted pistachio, coarsely grounded
1 tbsp toasted coarse grounded peanut

Method:

Place coarse pistachio and peanut in bowls, respectively; set aside.

In a nonstick pan, mix cheese with sugar over moderate heat till sugar is fully dissolved and the mixture is solidified (about 15 minutes, stir constantly).

Remove the pan from heat and stir the soft dough for another half minute.

Pick up enough dough and forms into bite size balls.

Dip each balls, first into peanut bowl to coat-up all the side surface and secondly into pistachio bowl to coat-up the upper surface.

Serve cold.

Murukku (Chakli)

Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup gram/besan/chickpeas flour
1/2 tbsp ajwain/carom seeds
1/2 tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
3/4 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
27 g (1 3/4 tbsp) melted butter
50 mL lukewarm water
enough oil for deep-frying

Method:

In a large bowl, mix together flours, ajwain seed, sesame seed, red chili powder, garlic powder and salt.

Add-in butter and mix well.

Gradually pour-in water and knead well till soft-wet dough.

Take enough dough and fill into murukku mold (I use thick dry cotton clothes with small hole...God...really hard-works while waiting for my murukku mold to arrive from India :P) .

Press the murukku presser and shape the murukku dough circularly onto individual parchment papers/banana leaves/paper napkins.

Heat oil in a wok or deep pan, carefully slide murukku doughs into hot oil.

Fry both sides on medium high heat till crisp and golden brown (turns the murukku doughs occasionally for even frying).

Filter up murukku from oil and drain on paper towel.

Let cool completely before store into air-tight container.

Ban Jian Kuih (Peanut Pancake)

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp potassium carbonate & sodium bicarbonate solution
2 tsp oil
1 cup milk/water

Filling:

2 tbsp toasted peanut coarse
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp butter

Method:

In a large bowl, combine together the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Add-in potassium carbonate & sodium bicarbonate solution and oil.

Mix well to a smooth batter; set aside covered for at least 2 hours.

Lightly grease a nonstick pan (22 cm in diameter).

Heat the pan over medium heat.

Pour-in all batter, evenly spread the batter via pan swirling or by using ladle.

Once batter turns to translucent (about 5 minutes), sprinkle-on peanut, sugar and butter.

Cook covered for even heating for 15 minutes or till bottom surface become golden brown.

Remove cover, release all sides of pancakes with spatula.

Remove pancake and fold immediately into half; set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.

Cut into triangle shape and serve hot.

Crystal Fruits Jelly

Ingredients:

2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp konnyaku jelly powder

Choices of Fruits:

kiwi
grapes
strawberry or any berries
longan
mango
peaches
orange, etc.

Method:

Dice the selected fruits and put into jelly mould.

Bring water to boil, add-in sugar, stir to dissolve the sugar.

Add-in jelly powder, keep stirring for 10 minutes or till jelly powder is fully dissolved.

Remove from heat and pour immediately into the prepared mould; set aside to cool to room temperature.

Chill covered in fridge for at least 1 hour or till set.

Serve cold.

Yield 14 pieces jelly (size 5 cm).

Yau Char Kway (Chinese Cruller)

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
120 mL water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp cornmeal (optional)
oil for deep-frying

Method:

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

In another bowl, dissolve salt and sugar in water.

Pour water solution to flour mixture, knead dough till soft, smooth and elastic but remain sticky; set dough aside covered to rest for few hours.

Flours working surface, pin roller and hands.

Divide dough into 2 portions.

Shape doughs into rectangular shape on floured working surface, sprinkle-on cornmeal.

With pin roller, stretch doughs out into 1/4 inch thick rectangular with the desired length X width.

With a knife, cut doughs into individual long strips of about 1/2 inch wide each.

With bamboo skewer dipped in water, swipe onto the center of alternate strips to draw a middle line.

Place undrawn strip on top of the drawn strip.

With wet bamboo skewer, lightly press on the double layers strip to create a middle line on top surface, set aside covered with wet towel while working on the remaining strips.

Repeat these stacking and pressing steps for the remaining strips.

Heat oil in deep wok over high heat.

Pick a double layers strip, hold both end and gently stretch it out.

Drop into hot oil, wait till it floated, turn it continuously with wooden chopstick till it fully expands and golden brown on all sides.

Drain on supported wire rack.

Serve warm with or without dipping sauce (example: mayonnaise, peanut butter, rojak sauce, coconut jam and etc.).