Sago Pudding with Gula Melaka

I am on a cooking roll and this has been one really productive weekend! This afternoon's project is a simple sago pudding, all readily chilled to have for dessert tonight. Sago pudding has always been one of my favourite local desserts and yes, I really am that impulsive when something comes to mind. :)

Ingredients:
200g sago pearls
200g palm sugar (gula melaka)
Brown sugar
White sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup coconut milk
A pinch of salt
One stalk of pandan (screwpine) leave, tied into a knot

Directions:
1. Soak the sago in water until it softens, then sieve away the water.
2. Boil a pot full of water. When water boils, add in the sago. Constantly stir to ensure that the sago doesn't form lumps. The sago will look translucent when cooked.
3. Strain with a sieve and run the sago under cold water to wash away the starch. Pour into moulds and chill until set.
4. To make the syrup, stir the water, palm sugar and pandan leave over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Stir in some brown and white sugar (the aim is to create a thick, caramelized syrup). Make sure the sugar has dissolved.
5. Remove the pot from the stove. Pour in the coconut milk and a pinch of salt, and stir to mix. Throw pandan leave away. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a gravy jug or a syrup pitcher.
6. Serve each individual sago portion onto a plate, topped with brown sugar syrup.

Alternatively, some people don't mix the coconut milk with the syrup but instead serve them separately.

Oyakodon

On the menu tonight was oyakodon. Oyakodon is essentially a japanese chicken and egg rice bowl. A lot of blogs explain that it literally means "parent (oya) and child (ko)", because both the chicken (parent) and egg (child) are represented in this dish.

Oyakodon is an extremely easy one dish meal to prepare and it took me a little under 30 minutes from preparation to serving dinner, apart from cooking the rice. It's a wonderful fast-cooking dish to prepare if you have nothing but eggs and chicken in the fridge, and you want a nice filling feeling in your tummy.
This is my second favourite donburi dish next to katsu don. The preparation style is pretty much the same, except the chicken meat is not deep fried in this case. Recipe is adapted from justonecookbook.

Ingredients: (for 3 portions)
6 fillets of chicken meat
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 onions, sliced thinly or cut into rings
Seasoned seaweed

Seasonings:
2/3 cup dashi stock (Japanese soup stock made of dried bonito flakes and dried kelp)
3 Tbsp mirin (Japanese rice wine)
1 tsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp sake (optional)

Directions:
1. Cut the chicken meat into bite sizes.
2. In a frying pan, heat the seasoning sauce and bring to boil. Spread the onion into the pan until the onions look soft.
3. Place chicken into the pan, distributed evenly around. Cover the frying pan with a lid and keep the heat on high until the liquid boils. Remove the scum if any.
4. Lower heat and cook until chicken is cook.You can lightly stir the chicken and onion while cooking.
5. Slowly pour the eggs into the pan. Make sure that the eggs are dispersed evenly around. When the egg is about 80% cooked, turn off the heat.
6. Transfer the chicken and egg mixture onto a bowl filled with steamed rice. Garnish with seasoned seaweed. I served my oyakodon with homemade miso soup.

Chicken Katsu Don

Mum says I'm like my dad in many ways. Especially when it comes to food. When a certain food comes to my mind and I crave it, I tend to do everything I can to get my hands on it. Dad tells me that he foresees me flying between continents in the future, all for the sake of food. I might need to save up a lot of money to be able to do that! :p

I was chatting with my friend Karen in Singapore this morning, and one of the things we talked about was how cool it would be if we both lived in the same city and we could have dinner parties and cookouts. From there, it led to what's cooking in our kitchen this weekend and we both decided we'd try cooking a donburi (rice bowl) dish.

I was planning on making oyakodon during the weekend, but as it is, I happened to come home early from work today with katsu don on my mind and since mum hadn't started on dinner yet, it was perfect timing for me to take over. A quick trip to Cold Storage and Tesco for my ingredients and then I'm on my way to cooking my katsu don (recipe adapted from Nami's awesome blog).

Ingredients: (for 3 portions)
6 fillets of chicken meat
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 egg
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
Oil for deep frying
2 onions, sliced thinly or cut into rings
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Seasoned seaweed
Spring onions

Seasonings:
2/3 cup dashi stock (Japanese soup stock made of dried bonito flakes and dried kelp)
1 1/2 Tbsp mirin (Japanese rice wine)
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp sake (optional)

Directions:
1. Season chicken fillets with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour, eggs and panko.
2. Deep fry the chicken meat until golden brown, then drain excess oil away. Set aside.
3. Prepare seasonings and stir to combine well. Pour the seasonings into a frying pan and bring to a boil. Add in the onions, lower heat and let the mixture simmer until the onions look soft.
4. Put the chicken katsu into the pan, and turn up the heat to a medium high. Pour egg evenly into the pan.
5. When the egg is half cooked, turn off the heat.
6. Serve rice in a bowl, with the chicken and egg mixture. Garnish with seasoned seaweed and spring onions. I served my katsu on brown rice because that's what we eat at home.

Lessons learned from my donburi attempt:
1. Turn the heat really high just prior to adding in the egg so that the egg cooks fast and the katsu remains crispy. I was a little too slow so my fried chicken ended up losing its crispiness (what a waste of my deep frying effort because I really dislike getting burnt by spitting oil).
2. My katsu seemed like a mess when arranged on the rice. Next time I must remember to slice up the meat and arrange it nicely in the pan before I pour the egg in. That way, I'll be able to scoop up the meat and egg together and put it straight on top of the rice instead of doing it the other way around and end up with a yummy but not-so-aesthetic-looking piece of meat! :p

Guacamole Dip

I have a holiday today, so as usual when I am lazing around at home, I tend to think of food. Since I still had a packet of Chachos sitting around in the kitchen, I thought I'd make a quick guacamole dip that we could have for a healthy tea-time snack. It's so easy, it only takes all of 15 minutes to prepare (but of course my food presentation could use some improvement :p).

I don't have a specific recipe for this dip, I pretty much just use what I have available.

Ingredients:
2 ripe avocados, mashed up
1 tomato, finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
1 pip of garlic, finely chopped
Freshly squeezed lime juice (this keeps the avocado from oxidizing), the amount varies according to taste, but usually it's about 2 Tbsp or so.
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp olive oil
Fresh basil, chopped (optional)
1 Tbsp sour cream (optional)
Jalapeno or cilantro, chopped (optional)

Directions: 
1. Mix everything up and stir till everything is blended.
2. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Chuck in the refrigerator for a while for the flavors to blend. Serve with chips.  

A cupcake full of Malaysian goodness

I'm not competitive by nature, but when my friend told me about this contest and when I had a look at the things that some of the contestants did, I was in disbelief! I knew without a doubt that I could do much better.

So here's my take of what makes 1Malaysia. To me, 1Malaysia means living in harmony in a multiracial environment that is unique of our country. My cupcake shows the three major races - Malay, Chinese and Indian (I had an Iban and a Kadazan too but they couldn't fit into my little cupcake) standing under a starry Malaysian sky. Cuteness overload all over!

This contest is judged by the number of LIKES for each picture, and the top 55 entries with the most LIKES will be chosen for a bake-off. Now if only I could clock up to at least 200 votes. :p
So please vote for me (before 20th September):

http://apps.facebook.com/cupcake_challenge/
1. LIKE the Celcom page. It will then take you to the photo gallery.
2. I'm on page 45.

Snow White and her men (The dwarfs, not the huntsman!)

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go!

This song was playing in my head the whole time I worked on my weekend project. The order this time around was for a Snow White and the 7 dwarfs theme on 26 chocolate cupcakes. Celine, who turns 8 today, is short for her age so her mother nicknames her "小矮", meaning little dwarf or something along that line. And that is how we ended up on this theme.

I surprised myself with my little men because of their cuteness overdose. From Dopey with his big ears, to Sneezy with his red nose, to Sleepy who was nodding off and looks like he's almost falling off from the cupcake, to my Grumpy who seems like he's sulking in a corner by himself, to Bashful who just looks so shy, to Doc with his signature glasses (although I have to say that he looks a little like Smee in Peter Pan), and lastly Happy who just looks happy. My signature princess needs to take a back seat this time around because she's been overshadowed by her merry men. Snow White looks rather tubby because she's been having too many apples. You'll see why in the last picture way at the bottom of the page.

I had a tremendously fun time making my little sugar figurines and better still, I had family chip in to help out - not because I can't get the work done by myself, but it's always fun to have company when one works.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Snow White with the 7 dwarfs, and the infamous red apple. My sister gave me that brilliant idea (on the apple, that is). I was originally just going to create animals.

Yes animals. In the cartoon, you know in that forest scene where Snow White and Prince Charming live happily ever after and all that, they're surrounded by a bevy of deer, birds and rabbits? Well if you don't know, it's best you watch the Disney cartoon again. :)

The birdies in the cartoon are purple, red and yellow. I got my colours wrong but hey at least I got my animals right.

And then there are my bambis, but lots of people tell me they look like wolves or foxes. Oh well! :p

This picture was the basis of my theme. See what I mean by the animals? Poor rabbits had to be substituted with red apples. And Prince Charming and his lovely castle, as well as everyone's most disliked character the witch (I figured no kid would be interested in the old hag) had to be left out. If my customer had ordered more cakes, I would have added some mushroom and flowers too. I'm OCD, I know, but that's the trait of a perfectionist. :)

And finally the complete theme; for little Celine who turns 8. I hope she becomes the envy of all her friends. :)

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

After a month hiatus, I'm back in the kitchen with a vengeance. Two weeks in Sydney and hanging around in plenty of kitchens, my fingers are itching to do something in my own kitchen. So today I made a pineapple upside down cake. It was very impulsive, but that's just me. This cake was adapted from the recipe that I got from the JoyOfBaking website.

This was my first time baking an upside-down cake. After a few pokes here and there, it seemed like the cake was perfectly baked. But after popping it out of the cake in, for some reason, the base seemed a bit soggy. Into the oven the cake went again - which resulted in a little burnt portions. Oh well, first times are always buggy but it's the trial and errors that make all of us better bakers! :)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cake flour (195g)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (113g)
1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup milk (120ml)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 can tinned pineapple, drained
A few maraschino cherries (optional)

For the topping:
4 Tbsp butter (55 g)
3/4 cup light brown sugar (160g)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 177C.
2. Basic preparations are as such:
a) Rub some butter all over a round cake tin.
b) Drain the pineapple slices and pat dry (else the syrup will make the cake base soggy).
c) Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form.
3. To prepare the topping, place butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until the mixture becomes liquid. Continue cooking, without stirring, for a few more minutes until the sugar starts to caramelize. You can see bubbles forming around the edges of the mixture. Remove from heat and pour into the cake pan.
4. Arrange the pineapple slices on top of the sugar mixture. Pop cherries in the center of each slice to give it some colour.
5. In a large bowl, mix up the flour, baking powder and salt.
6. In a different bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla extract. Add in the egg yolks one at a time.
7. Add in the flour mixture, alternating with milk, in 3 additions ending with the dry ingredients.
8. Fold in the beaten egg whites into the cake batter in two additions. Then pour the batter into the cake pan. Smooth out the tops. Bake for about 1 hour or until top of cake turns brown.
9. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan and then invert the cake on a serving plate.