Muruku

Muruku is a popular snack among most of us at any time as they are savoury and crunchy. However, I believe that it is a must-have snack in Indian homes during Deepavali. It had been a popular snack for us during Chinese New Year for the last few years. Once we start munching them we find it difficult to stop and a few bottles would finish in no time as families gather during this festive season.

There are a few types of muruku - ribbon muruku, omapodi (the short string/noodle ones usually sold with roasted peanuts and green peas), butter muruku, sweet cumin (jintan manis) muruku and garlic muruku. I have made a simple one by just mixing omam ajwain seeds and white sesame seeds to the muruku flour. You may add some sweet cumin to it for a more distinct taste.

Ingredients:

• 500 g muruku flour
• 2 1/2 tbsp omam ajwain seeds
• 2-3 tbsp white sesame seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• 5 sprigs of curry leaves, chopped up very finely (to ensure that they can pass out through a star nozzle)
• 30 g butter
• 1/2 cup santan
• 300 - 350 g / ml water 
• Cooking oil

Method:

• Weigh muruku flour into a mixing bowl.

• Add oman ajwain seeds, sesame seeds, salt, black pepper powder and curry leaves to a mixing bowl. Stir to mix them up.

• Add butter and santan to the mixture and stir.

• Add 300 g / ml of water to the bowl.

• Stir the water with the ingredients to achieve a smooth batter. If the batter is dry, slowly add the remaining water (or more), spoonful by spoonful till you get a smooth and soft consistency (which will allow you to pipe it out easily through a nozzle). (Remember that different muruku flour absorb water differently.)

• Once you have achieved the required consistency, transfer the batter to a piping bag with a star nozzle.

• Heat up a pan with about 1 cm cooking oil. (Do not put too much oil as the batter will move when you are piping it out. You may find it difficult to pipe the batter into the required shape.)

• Pipe out the batter in a circular manner.

• Fry the muruku till one side is golden brown. Flip to the other side and fry it till golden side.

• Scoop out the muruku onto a kitchen towel to absorb excess oil.

• Keep the muruku in an air-tight container when they are completely cooled down.

Pandan Swiss Roll & Floral Pandan Swiss Roll

  

The pandan or screwpine plant is used widely in South Asia and Southeast Asia cooking mainly as flavouring and colouring. As such, we can find lots of pandan plants being grown in many houses in the ground or in pots so that they are easily available when required.

The leaves are bruised and added to rice which is being cooked to enhance the fragrance of the rice for nasi lemak. These bruised leaves are also added to sweet dessert soup like red beans soup, green bean soup and bubur cha cha for the sweet smell. The leaves are also blended with water for the green colour and fragrance in baking and making of cakes and traditional kuih like pandan swiss roll, pandan sponge cake, pandan layer cake, seri muka/pulut kaya, kuih koo, kuih talam, kuih kosui, ondeh-ondeh and many more. Besides these, the leaves are used as wraps for deep-frying, grilling, barbecuing or steaming chicken, meat and fish, for example, pandan chicken. Lastly, we can also use the pandan leaves to make pandan-lemongrass tea.

I grow many pandan plants in my garden as I use them a lot in my cooking and baking. The Swiss roll is one of the cakes in which I use the pandan juice. Sometimes I just make basic plain Pandan Swiss Roll but at other times, I like to draw patterns to enhance the beauty of my Swiss rolls.

Ingredients:

For the Pattern:
10 g egg white
10 g unsalted butter
10 g icing sugar
5 g cake flour
5 g dark cocoa powder

For the Meringue:
4 egg whites, Grade B
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60 g castor sugar

For the Batter:
4 egg yolks, Grade B
20 g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt
45 g oil (I use corn oil)
40 g pandan juice from 12 pandan leaves + water
1 tsp vanilla essence
65 g cake flour
1 tbsp milk powder

For the Filling:
130 g whipping cream
20 g powdered sugar


Method:

Drawing on the Swiss roll:

• Making the batter for the pattern:
• Add the egg white into a bowl.
• Add the butter to the bowl.
• Add sugar to the bowl.
• Add flour and cocoa powder to the bowl.
• Mix all the ingredients until there are no lumps.
• Put the pattern batter into a piping bag.
• Tie up the piping bag with a rubber band.
• Set it aside.
• Choose a pattern that you like.
• Place the pattern on your baking tray.
• Place a piece of parchment paper over the pattern.
• Secure the parchment paper to the baking tray with a paper/cellophane tape.
• Cut off the tip of the piping bag.
• Use the tip of the piping bag to trace the pattern onto the parchment paper.
• Once done, remove the paper/cellophane tape and the pattern below the parchment paper from the baking tray.
• Place the parchment paper on the baking tray into the freezer.
• Take out the baking tray with the parchment paper from the freezer when you are about to pour your Swiss roll batter into it.

Making the Swiss Roll Batter:

• Put a tray of hot water into the oven. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Centigrade. (Adjust according to your oven.)

• Line a rectangular pan (10 inch x 14 inch) with a good quality parchment paper. (This is to ensure that the cake will not stick to the parchment paper.)

• In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg white with a hand mixer over low speed. (Please ensure that your bowl and beaters are dry and have no traces of oil otherwise the egg white will not rise.)

• Once large bubbles are formed, add the cream of tartar.

• Whisk till small bubbles are formed.

• Add sugar gradually in 3 batches.

• Whisk the egg white till stiff peak.

• Once stiff peak is achieved, set the meringue aside.

• In another mixing bowl, add in the egg yolks, sugar and salt. Whisk until they are creamy.

• Add the oil and continue to mix until they are well combined.

• Add the pandan juice and vanilla essence. Whisk to mix them well.

• Sieve the cake flour and milk powder into the egg yolk mixture. Mix until well combined and the batter is smooth.

• Take 1/3 of the meringue and add to the batter. Use the whisk to mix the meringue with the batter gently, taking care not to deflate the meringue.

• Add another third of the meringue into the batter. Gently mix it with the batter.

• Add the remaining meringue and gently fold it into the batter using a spatula.

• Pour the batter into the baking pan and spread it evenly with a spatula.

• Drop the pan onto the counter-top from about 1 foot high to break out any large bubbles. Repeat this 2 to 3 times.

• Bake in the oven at 160 deg C for 20 minutes until the cake surface is golden brown. Do not over bake or the cake will crack when you roll it later.

• Once the cake has baked, remove the pan from the oven.

• Drop the pan from 1 foot high onto the counter-top to prevent shrinkage of the cake.

• Remove the cake from the pan onto a wire rack.

• Put another sheet of parchment paper on the cake and invert it to remove the parchment paper below.

• Let the cake cool down completely on the wire rack.

• While waiting for the cake to cool down, whip the cream with the powdered sugar till it is stiff. (Test for sweetness. Add more sugar if the cream is not sweet enough for you.)

Filling and Rolling Up the Swiss Roll:

• Cut 3 shallow slits (about 1 foot apart) across the cake at the end from which you will start rolling the cake. (This is to aid in the rolling of the cake i.e. to ensure that it does not crack when you start rolling it.)

• Spread the cream evenly on the cake.

• Roll the cake and wrap it in the parchment paper. Put the roll into a plastic bag or cling wrap it to prevent dryness.

• Keep the roll in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

• After 3 hours, remove cake from the refrigerator.

• Remove the plastic bag or cling wrap and parchment paper and slice the roll.

• Serve chilled.

Barbecued Chicken

Giving my family a new dish to whet their appetite, this BBQ Chicken is sweet, salty and just slightly spicy. It is delicious and can make one add on more rice onto one's plate than required. The ingredients used to make this dish are readily available in the market and supermarket. 

Ingredients:

• 1 piece chicken breast
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• 1 tsp paprika 
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 cup barbecue sauce
• 2 tbsp honey
• Cooking oil

Method:

• Wash and cut the chicken breast into pieces. (The size is up to you.)

• Add flour, salt, black pepper powder, paprika, chili powder, baking powder and chopped garlic into a mixing bowl. Stir to mix up these ingredients evenly.

• Add the chicken pieces into the mixing bowl.

• Coat them well with the flour mixture.

• Prepare a baking pan; line it with parchment paper and grease the parchment paper with cooking oil.

• Place the coated chicken pieces onto the baking pan.

• Bake the chicken at 180 deg C for 40 minutes.

• Transfer the chicken from the baking tray to a mixing bowl.

• Add honey to the barbecue sauce and stir.

• Add the barbecue sauce to the mixing bowl and coat the baked chicken pieces thoroughly.

• Transfer the chicken back pieces to the baking pan.

• Bake the chicken pieces at the same temperature for 10 minutes.

• Transfer the chicken onto a serving plate.

• You may decorate with some toasted sesame seeds or chopped green onions.

• Serve with rice.

Brinjal Fritters

We have been eating a lot of brinjal as there are lots of benefits of eating it. According to Steadfast Nutrition, Premium Sports Nutrition, some of the benefits are as follows:

• Brinjal is a rich source of dietary fibre hence promotes digestion.
• It helps in maintaining blood sugar levels.
• Helps in maintaining blood cholesterol levels.
• It is good for our heart health.
• It contains phytonutrients which protects our cells from getting damaged.
• It aids in regulating blood pressure levels.
• Brinjal also has strong anti-bacterial properties.
• It also enhances cognitive functioning.
• Rich in nutrients like iron, calcium, and potassium.
• Good for bone health.
• Strengthens our immune system.
• Enhances liver health.

The simplest way to cook the brinjal is by steaming it and then drizzling it with garlic oil, light soy sauce and chopped chili padi. Or, brinjal can be added to the various types of curry. Another way to cook it is to stir fry it with sambal petai and prawns. It can also be added to eggs to be fried as omelette.

A new dish which I came out with is to make brinjal fritters. They are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. They are so flavourful that no dipping sauce is required.

Ingredients:

• 1-ft long brinjal, cut into 0.5cm slices.
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup rice flour (or 1 cup if you want it to be very crunchy on the outside)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 cup water

Method:

• Mix flours, egg, salt, pepper & baking powder in a mixing bowl.

• Add water to the flour mixture slowly to form a batter.

• Coat the brinjal slices evenly and pan-fry them, turning midway so that both sides are golden brown.

• Serve immediately.

BBQ Chicken in Rice

I am bored with cooking the same dishes for my loved ones and although they did not complain I am sure they will be bored with eating the same dishes ever so often. So, putting on my thinking cap, I was able to come up with this new dish - BBQ Chicken in Rice. I have all the ingredients needed to cook this dish readily available in my refrigerator and larder. 


Ingredients:

• 1/2 piece of chicken breast
• 1 cup of barbecue sauce (normal or smoky); I used the smoky type.
• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper powder
• 1 tsp mixed herbs
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• Water
• Cooking oil
• Parchment paper - 4 pieces (6 inches x 5 inches)
• 4 wooden skewers

Method:

• Boil the chicken breast till cooked.

• Shred the chicken breast by hand; it should yield 1 cupful of shredded chicken.

• Mix the shredded chicken with 1 cup of barbecue sauce. Add more sauce if it is insufficient to cover all the shredded chicken.

• Divide the mixture into 4 portions.

• Put 1 portion onto the parchment paper. Shape the mixture into a long cylindrical shape.

• Push a wooden skewer into the centre.

• Roll up the parchment paper and secure it with a stapler.

• Do the same for the other 3 portions.

• When completed, place them onto a metal plate and place the plate into the freezer.

• While waiting for the chicken to be slightly frozen, prepare the rice batter.

• Add the cooked rice, flour, salt, pepper, mixed herbs (you may reduce if you do not like your rice to be too strong), egg and baking powder into a mixing bowl.

• Stir the ingredients to mix them up evenly.

• Add water, tablespoon by tablespoon, till the rice batter holds together.

• Divide the batter into 4 portions.

• You may place each portion onto pieces of plastic for easier handling.

• Remove the chicken skewers from the freezer.

• Remove the parchment paper from the chicken skewers.

• Place 1 stick of the frozen chicken onto the rice batter.

• Roll up the rice batter to embed the frozen chicken in it.

• Repeat the process for the other 3 portions.

• Heat up some cooking oil in a pan.

• Deep fry the chicken skewers till they are golden brown on all sides.

• Serve with more barbecue sauce or chili sauce or tomato sauce.