Curry Puffs

The original recipe requires you to deep-fry the puffs. I modified this using my mom's short-crust pastry and baked them in the oven.

Pastry ingredients:
4 oz butter (soften)
8 oz flour
some cold water
a dash of salt

Mix the flour, salt and butter into a bread crumbs texture. Slowly add in some cold water (a tablespoon at a time). Knead until it forms into a dough.
Set aside in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Curry puff filling:
5 tbsp oil
1 onion finely chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup diced chicken meat
2 large potatoes (boiled and diced)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Fry onion, add spices.
Then add chicken and cook for about 5 minutes.
Leave aside to cool

Preheat oven to 375F

Roll out the pastry dough into approx. 1/4 inch thick.
I use a curry puff mold. Or you can cut the dough into circles.
Place some curry chicken ingredients in the center and shape it into a puff, pinching the sides to seal.

Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Lightly brush some egg yolk on top of each puff.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until the top looks golden brown.
Serve warm.

Kuih Bingka Ubi

Ingredients :
1 lb grated cassava (tapioca)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup coconut cream (and 1 tbsp for glazing)
1/2 stick of butter
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375F
Grease a 7 x 7 baking dish (or 6x6 tin)
Mix all the ingredients in a pot and boil over low heat until mixture thickens, stirring constantly.
Pour into the greased baking dish
Bake for 30 minutes
Glaze the top with coconut cream and broil until golden brown
Cool completely before cutting into pieces.

Sweet Potato Onde-Onde

This is a local Malaysian delicacy. It is sticky on the outside with the sweet sensation of oozing gula melaka syrup inside. Gula Melaka (or Gula Jawa) is made from the sap of the coconut tree and boiled down into a golden brown paste. It is usually sold in tubes or in blocks, and tastes similar to brown sugar.

Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes (boiled/steamed, peeled and mashed)
2 cups glutinous rice flour
3 tbsp pandan juice
Warm water

Filling:
Chopped up gula melaka bits

Coating:
Freshly grated coconut (I use frozen grated coconut found in the Asian Grocery stores)

Mix the mashed sweet potatoes, pandan juice and rice flour well. Add some water and knead until a stiff dough consistency is formed. Add more rice flour if needed.
Form the dough into small balls. Make a well in the center and fill it with some gula melaka.
Roll it up again into a ball, making sure the gula melaka is sealed well inside.

Put the balls into boiling water. When the balls float to the surface, remove them with a slotted ladle and roll it in the grated coconut.

Serve

Claypot Chicken Rice

Instead of using a claypot, I made this in the rice cooker, and modified the real recipe and made this using whatever I had in the kitchen and it turned out pretty good.

Ingredients :

1 cup of rice (uncooked)
1 cup of chicken broth
4 drumsticks ( chop up 2 drumsticks into small pieces)
3 slices of ginger

Garnish :
Fried onions
Spring onions (chopped)

Marinate :
1 tbsp black soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp kicap manis
3/4 tbsp mirin sweet cooking sauce
3/4 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp ginger powder
Dash of pepper and salt

Mix all the ingredients for the marinate together.
Marinate the chicken for about 45 minutes.

Place the two drumsticks on a pyrex baking dish, drizzle with some oil and brush some marinate over.
Bake in oven 400 F for about 40 - 50 minutes or until chicken is cooked. (turn chicken over half way during cooking)

Put uncooked rice, chicken broth, ginger and marinated chicken slices in the rice cooker. Add a few spoonfuls of the marinate and stir.
Cook rice. (If your rice cooker is not an automatic one, cook for about 20 minutes or until rice is cooked)

Sprinkle spring onions and fried onions on top of rice and serve.

Note : To make it more authentic, you should add some chinese sausage, shitake/chinese mushrooms and salted fish into the rice. The two drumsticks I made in the oven is just an add-on to the meal and is optional.

Peanut pancake

This is a Malaysian pancake, commonly found at the night market. Also called "Ban Jian kuih".
I got this recipe from Lily's blog, but I omitted the "lye water" (potassium carbonate & sodium bi-carbonate solution) and substituted it with water and white vinegar, and added brown sugar to the ingredients. The brown sugar is acidic and the alkaline in the baking soda needs this to react and neutralize, hence no honeycomb texture but the taste is right.

Ingredients :
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vinegar (add to the milk)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp granulated sugar

Filling :
1/2 cup Peanuts (chopped)
1/4 cup Castor sugar (mixed together with peanuts)
1 tbsp Butter (cubed)

Mix all the dry ingredients together and slowly add in the milk liquid into the flour mixture and whisk until the batter is smooth. Leave aside for 30 minutes (covered)

Lightly grease a pancake pan or any 10 inch non-stick skillet. Set stove on medium low flame.

Pour in all the batter and using the base of the scoop/ladle , spread the batter evenly around and to the sides of the pan. Cover pan.

When bubbles are seen on the surface of the half cooked batter, sprinkle the peanut and sugar filling over. Spread the cubed butter over the filling.

Cover and cook for another 45 seconds (or until batter is cooked).

Use a spatula to release the sides and bottom of the pancake and fold into half.

Cool before cutting into wedges.

Serve warm.