Sambal Petai with Brinjal and Shrimps

I love eating the Petai aka the Bitter Bean or the Stink Bean. I believe many people in our  beloved country, Malaysia, love the Petai too, some for the health benefits it provides while others for pure enjoyment due to its taste.

Previously, I fried Sambal Petai with Prawns. Here, I have Sambal Petai with Brinjal and Prawns.


Ingredients:

• 1 brinjal (abt 10 inches long), quartered lengthwise and then sliced diagonally

• Blend: (The amount of chilies may be varied depending on how spicy you want your dish to be.)
• 10 red chilies
• 5 chili padi (optional)
• 5 dried chilies, wash and soak in hot water
• 1 small onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 inch shrimp paste (belacan)

• 100 g prawns, de-shelled and de-veined

• 150 g peeled petai

• Oil for frying

• Seasonings
• 2 tbsps tamarind juice
• 1/2 tsp salt (can add more if required)
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsps light soy sauce

Instructions:

• Heat up oil in wok.

• Fry the brinjal till soft. Remove from wok and set aside.

• Saute the blended ingredients until fragrant and the oil separates from the blended ingredients (pecah minyak).

• Add in the prawns and stir.

• When prawns are half-cooked, add in the petai. Stir the petai and prawns.

• When the petai is cooked, add in the brinjal. Fry to mix the prawns, brinjal and prawns up.

• Add in the tamarind juice and seasonings.

• Dish out.

• Serve with rice.

Yummy Dinner Rolls

I love baking the dinner rolls. They are slightly sweet, very soft and very fluffy. And they can stay soft for 3 to 4 days. We usually eat them whole on their own. However, sometimes we slice them and spread butter, jam, egg custard (kaya) or whipped cream between the two halves. Usually, I will make a lot of rolls at one go to last our family at least 3 days.

Ingredients

• 500 g bread flour
• 100 g castor sugar or you may reduce the amount slightly. (You may use brown sugar.)
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 3 tbsp milk powder
• 2 tsp yeast
• 280 ml lukewarm milk
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 50 g butter at room temperature

Method

• First of all, you have to activate the yeast and this is done by adding a bit of the sugar to some of the lukewarm milk, stirring the milk to dissolve the sugar and then sprinkling the yeast onto it.
• Once bubbles have formed (after approximately 10 minutes), the yeast mixture is ready for you to start making the rolls.
• Pour the rest of the lukewarm milk into the bowl of a stand mixer.
• Transfer the yeast mixture into the mixing bowl.
• Break the egg into the mixing bowl.
• Add in the rest of the sugar.
• Add in the salt.
• Pour in the flour.
• Add in the milk powder.
• Start kneading until a dough ball is formed. Once that is achieved, add in the butter.
• Continue to knead until the butter is incorporated into the dough.
• Continue to knead until the dough passes the window pane test.
• Oil a bowl.
• Transfer the dough into the oiled bowl, cover the bowl with a cling wrap and put a wet towel over the cling wrap. Let the dough proof until it is double in size.
• Slightly flour the table top. (I like to slightly oil the table top.)
• Transfer the dough onto the table top.
• Roll the dough out into a long rectangular shape (horizontally).
• Fold the dough into 3 by bringing the right part onto the centre part followed by the left.
• Then roll the dough out again into a long rectangular shape (vertically) and fold into 3 again.
• Do this process at least 6 times (alternating between vertical and horizontal roll-outs). I usually do 8 roll-outs as I wish to get more of the "peeling" effect in my rolls.
• Once this is done, cut the dough into 15 pieces. (My pieces usually weigh between 62 to 63 g each.)
• Roll these pieces into little balls.
• Cover the little balls with cling wrap and let them rest for about 15 minutes.
• Grease your pan (which should be big enough for the 15 little balls). (I grease and line my pan with parchment paper for easy removal of my baked rolls.)
• Roll the balls into long rectangles and then roll up into small rolls.
• Place these rolls in the pan.
• Cover them with cling wrap and let them proof until double in size.
• Break an egg into a bowl and add some water to it. Beat the egg and brush the rolls with the egg.
• Bake the rolls in a pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 20-25 minutes.
• Remove the rolls from the pan immediately after baking and let them cool down on a wire rack.

Orange Sweet Potato Angkoo Kuih with Mung Bean Paste Fillings

 

 

Angkoo in Hokkien is red tortoise. Angkoo kuih or Red Tortoise Cake is an oval shaped Chinese cake with a sweet filling (usually made from mung beans) wrapped up in glutinous rice flour and steamed.

Angkoo kuih is widely sold in the wet markets every day. It is in great demand during festivals when Chinese believers offer the kuih to the deities during prayers. It is also demanded by parents celebrating the "full moon" of their newborns. Full moon is when a baby turns one month old. Usually, parents will hold a ceremony to celebrate the full moon of the babies with special food prepared and served or distributed to relatives and close friends; the food consists of the nasi kunyit (turmeric rice), curry chicken, red eggs and angkoo kuih. 

Angkoo kuih also comes in other shapes like peaches and elongated ones as seen in the mould below. The filling is also not limited to mung beans; we can find peanuts or coconut fillings in angkoo kuih. With the exception of commercial ones, home-makers nowadays prefer natural colours when making angkoos - red from dragon fruits or beetroot, green from pandan leaves, orange from orange sweet potatoes, purple from purple sweet potatoes and so on.

Angkoo kuih is simple to make although there are many steps involved.

Ingredients:

For the base:

• banana leaves
• some cooking oil

For the fillings:

• 200 g mung beans
• 100 g castor sugar (Can be reduced to 80 g for those who do not want to take too much sugar.)
• 2 - 3 pandan leaves
• 100 ml water
• 4 - 5 tbsp shallot oil

For the dough:

• 300 g orange sweet potatoes
• 250 g glutinous rice flour
• 1 tbsp rice flour
• 150 - 160 ml hot water

Method:

For the base:

• Cut the banana leaves according to the size of your mould. My mould measures 6 cm x 6 cm so I have cut the leaves into 7 cm x 7 cm sq. - approximately 60 pieces (30 pieces to be used prior to steaming and the remaining 30 pieces for changing the leaves after steaming.
• Wash the cut banana leaves and wipe them dry.
• Grease the banana leaves with cooking oil so that the dough doesn't stick onto the leaves.

For the fillings:

• Wash and soak mung beans for about 3 hours.
• Put the mung beans into a metal plate.
• Wash and cut the pandan leaves into 6-7 cm length.
• Place the pandan leaves in between the mung beans.
• Bring water to boil in a steamer.
• Place the metal plate in a steamer and steam the mung beans for an hour or until the beans are soft.
• Once the beans are soft, transfer them into the food processor.
• Blend the beans with water, sugar and shallot oil until the beans are fine.
• Pour the beans mixture into a non-stick pan and fry them until it becomes a thick paste which can be rolled into a ball.
• Remove from the fire and let the mixture cool down.
• Once the mixture has cool down, shape them into balls. The weight of your fillings depends on the size of your mould. With my 6 cm x 6 cm size mould, I made the filling  into 12 g so that when it is wrapped inside the dough, the whole dough ball with the filling will fit nicely into the mould. So, you have to experiment a bit before deciding on the weight of your filling.
• Once the fillings have been shaped into balls of the size that you want, cover them with a damp towel and set them aside until you need to use them.

For the dough:

• Wash and cut the sweet potatoes.
• Place them into a metal plate.
• Bring water to boil in a steamer.
• Once the water has boiled, place the metal plate of sweet potatoes into the steamer.
• Steam until the sweet potatoes are soft.
• Remove the sweet potatoes from the steamer and mash them while they are hot.
• Put the glutinous rice flour and the rice flour into a mixing bowl.
• Put the mash sweet potatoes into the mixing bowl. Use a spoon and mix the sweet potatoes and the flours until well combined.
• Add in hot water, bit by bit, until they can be shaped into balls. To fit my mould, the weight of my dough ball is 24 g. So, you have to experiment to get the weight which can fit into (with the filling wrapped inside) the mould nicely.

Assembly:

• Take a piece of dough ball, flatten it and put the filling onto it. Slowly bring the flattened dough to cover the filling and roll it back into a ball.
• Dust the mould with glutinous flour.
• Place the ball into the mould and press it down to cover the mould nicely. If there is any dough higher than the mould, it means that the dough is too big. So, you have to adjust accordingly.
• Knock the wooden block of the mould on a table. The dough will easily drop off if you have dusted the mould well.
• Place the moulded dough on the greased banana leave.
• Repeat this until all the dough balls and filling balls are finished.
• Bring the water in the steamer to boil.
• Once it has boiled, place all the moulded dough onto the steamer rack.
• Steam the moulded dough over high heat for 4 minutes. Open the steamer cover, quickly brush the dough with some cooking oil. Once completed, cover the steamer and continue to steam the dough at high heat for another 4 minutes. This process will help to maintain the design of the kuih.
• Remove the kuih from steamer and let them cool down completely.
• Remove the kuih from the banana leaves and place them onto fresh ones.
• The angkoo kuih are ready to be served.

Stewed Pork Balls with Egg Tofu

Pork is the most commonly consumed meat in my household. My children prefer eating pork to other meat like chicken. I usually either braise, stew, roast, make soup, deep-fry or roast the pork for them. One of the common pork dishes I often cook is Stewed Pork Balls with Egg Tofu.

Ingredients:

• 3 pieces of dried Shiitake mushroom
• 1 tube egg tofu
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 300 g minced lean meat
• a bit of black moss, cut into shorter length
• 1 small carrot, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp corn/tapioca flour
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 cup of water
• cooking oil
• seasonings
• parsley

Method:

• Wash and soak the mushroom for at least 4 hours. Slice and set aside.
• Cut the egg tofu into 1 cm thickness. Coat with all purpose flour.
• Heat up wok with oil.
• When oil is hot, deep fry the tofu.
• Remove the tofu when it is brown. Set aside.
• Put the minced meat into a bowl.
• Add in chopped carrots. (Keep a tablespoon for later use.) Mix well.
• Add in the black moss. Stir to combine.
• Add in the egg. Stir to combine.
• Add in the corn/tapioca flour. Mix to combine well.
• Add in salt. light soy sauce and pepper to taste.
• Form the meat ingredients into balls. Set aside.
• Heat up oil and saute the garlic.
• Put in the mushroom. Fry them until they are fragrant.
• Add in the kept carrots and fry.
• Add in a cup of water.
• When the water boils, add in the meat balls.
• Let the meat balls cook.
• Add in the tofu.
• Let the sauce simmer. If too dry, add a bit more water.
• Add in the seasonings, to taste. 
• Add in the parsley. Stir gently to avoid breaking up the tofu.
• Dish out into a serving plate.

Pork Slices in Black Pepper Sauce

My family members loves pork more than chicken, mutton or lamb. However, they avoid consuming beef at home; they seldom take beef outside too. One of the easiest way to cook pork is to cook it with black pepper sauce.

Ingredients:

• 300 g lean pork
• ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• salt (according to taste)
• 2 tbsp black pepper sauce (store-bought)
• a sprig of parsley
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

• Slice lean pork thinly.
• Season with ground black pepper, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil and salt for 30 minutes
• Chop up garlic.
• Heat wok with cooking oil.
• Add in the garlic and fry till fragrant.
• Add in the seasoned meat.
• Stir fry till they are cooked, adding some water, bit by bit, as we do not want the dish to be too watery.
• Once cooked, add in the black pepper sauce (store-bought).
• Stir until the sauce boils.
• Dish onto a serving place and decorate with parsley.

Note: If you do not have ready store-bough black pepper sauce, you may make it yourself:

Ingredients:

• A few cloves of garlic, chopped and pounded.
• Water
• Salt
• Black pepper powder
• Cornstarch
• Cooking oil

Method:

• Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
• Add garlic to the oil and stir it till it is fragrant.
• Add some water, salt and pepper. Stir constantly until the sauce simmers.
• Mix some water with cornstarch and stir till the cornstarch dissolves in the water.
• Pour the cornstarch mixture to the sauce, stirring continuously till the sauce thickens.
• The sauce is ready to be used.

Broccoli with Garlic

When we go to a restaurant to have our meals, there may be a number of dishes that we like very much. However, it is not practical to keep on going to the restaurant to eat those food that we like. What we can do is to try to discern what the chef had used to cook those dishes so that we can cook them as close as possible to them. Recently, we had a meal at a Chinese restaurant and one of the dishes that I find fascinating and delicious (even though it is just a simple dish) is Broccoli cooked with garlic.


Ingredients:

• 1 big head of broccoli
• 2 bulbs of garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 5 tablespoons cooking oil

Method:

• Wash and soak the broccoli.
• Cut the broccoli stem off, peel off the skin of the stem and cut them into 5 mm thickness.
• Remove the florets from the head.
• Peel the garlic and mince them very finely.

• Put the cooking oil into the wok.
• Saute the garlic over low to medium fire. Stir all the time. (Remember we do not want to brown the garlic.)
• When the garlic is fragrant, remove them from the wok into a bowl. Set aside.
• If there is too much oil in the wok, remove some.
• Up the heat and pour the broccoli stems into the wok. Stir them all the time.
• Half-way into frying, add in the florets. Keep on stirring.
• Add in salt and soy sauce.
• Depending on how cooked you want your broccoli to be, you may ladle them out into a plate when they are still crunchy or when they are softer.
• Arrange the stems first on a serving plate, followed by the florets on top.
• Spoon the garlic onto the broccoli and the dish is done.