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.

Burnt Cheesecake (Large - 625g Cream Cheese)

The craze in town is the Burnt Cheesecake. It is very smooth and delicious to the palate. It is very expensive if we were to buy it from the bakery. As it is the simplest cake to bake, it would be better to bake it ourselves. The process involves only mixing and baking. We can vary the quantity of the ingredients to bake the cake of the size we desire. We can also any way that we want.

Ingredients:

• 625 g cream cheese
• 160 g sugar
• 5 eggs
• 310 g whipping cream
• 30 g all-purpose flour (or even 50 g to prevent cake from sinking)

Method:

• Line a 9-inch round pan (with removable base) with non-stick parchment paper.

• Pre-heat oven to 200 deg C.

• Add cream cheese and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer. (You may also use a hand mixer or a hand whisk.)

• Start the mixer and mix till sugar is dissolved. Scrape down at least once to ensure that all the cream cheese and sugar are well mixed.

• Add the eggs, one at a time. Scrape down after each addition to ensure ingredients are well mixed.

• Add the whipping cream.

• Add the flour. Use a whisk to mix the flour with the other ingredients till the batter is smooth.

• Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

• Bake the batter at 200 degrees Centigrade for 1 hour or until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

• Let the cake cool down in the oven for about 20 minutes with the oven door slightly ajar.

• Transfer the cake pan to a metal rack.

• Remove the cake from the pan and discard the parchment paper.

• Let it cool down completely before decorating it.

• Transfer the cake to the refrigerator till it is to be served.

Yam Rice

Sometimes we or our family may be tired of eating plain rice with our usual dishes. Or, we ourselves may be tired of cooking so many dishes to go with rice and would like to have an easier time with a 1-pot meal. Yam Rice is one of the best options available. It is savoury and delicious and is definitely a good change for us and our family once in a while. So far, I have not seen it being sold outside and the only way to enjoy it is to cook it myself.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice
• 1 big piece of Shiitake mushroom (May add more.)
• 100 g chicken breast
• 30 g dried prawns
• 400 g yam
• Cooking oil
• 3 pieces of shallots, sliced thinly
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped 
• Seasonings - sesame oil, salt, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, pepper powder (white and black)...to taste

Method:

• Wash 1 cup of rice. Set aside.

• Soak Shiitake mushroom till it is soft. Slice it thinly and set aside.

• Cube the chicken breast. Marinate it for at least 30 minutes with:
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper powder

• Wash and soak the dried prawns for about 15 minutes. Pound them and set them aside.

• Wash and skin the yam. Cut it into cubes of about 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch.

• Heat cooking oil in kuali.

• When the oil is hot, add the yam cubes. Fry them lightly (to prevent them from breaking up during cooking). Remove them from the kuali and set aside.

• Remove the oil from the kuali leaving about 2 tablespoon behind. Add in shallots and garlic. Saute till they are fragrant.

• Add the Shiitake mushroom slices and saute them till fragrant.

• Add the pounded dried prawns. Saute them till fragrant.

• Add the marinated chicken cubes. Fry till they are half cooked.

• Return the yam cubes to the kuali.

• Add the rice to the kuali and stir to mix it up with all the ingredients.

• Add salt (to taste), light soy sauce (to taste), dark soy sauce (according to how dark you want your rice to be) and white and black pepper powder (to taste).

• Transfer the rice and all ingredients to your rice cooker.

• Add enough water to cover the rice and the ingredients.

• Serve while the rice is hot, garnished with green onions and red chilies.

Prawn Fritters

Prawn fritters are very tasty and appeal to many people. They are usually made for snacks and eaten with chili sauce, tomato sauce or mayonnaise. The best prawn fritters would be those which are very crunchy. And the crunchiness should last for at least 2 to 3 hours. So the mixing of the batter is very important. One can add any vegetables to the batter although the common ones would be green onion, carrots and chilies. Besides these, we can add bean sprout, pea spout and fried shallots.

Ingredients:

• 150 g small prawns
• 2 stalks green onions (about 45 g after cutting up them)
• 40 g carrot
• 1 red chili
• 100 g rice flour
• 50 g wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 200 g water
• Cooking oil

Method:

• Wash the prawns and discard any heads which have been dislodged from the body. Also remove all feelers. Set aside.

• Wash and cut up the green onions into 0.5 cm long. (You can always add more if you wish.)

• Peel and wash the carrot. Then chop it up to get roughly 45 g. (Feel free to add more.)

• Wash and de-seed the red chili. Then chop it up to as tiny pieces as possible. (It is okay to add more. After all, red chili is not very spicy.)

• Add rice flour, wheat flour, baking powder, black pepper powder and salt into a mixing bowl.

• Add the water slowly to the bowl, stirring the flours as you are adding it until you reach a smooth consistency which is neither too thick nor too water. A thick batter will not give you a crunchy fritter. If too runny, you may find it too difficult to fry.

• Heat up a non-stick (if possible) pan with cooking oil (about 1 cm). I pan-fry instead of deep-fry my batter.

•  Scoop a small ladle of batter into the pan. Use the bottom of the ladle to thin the batter and make it round.

• Put a few prawns on the batter.

• Once the bottom is golden brown, flip the batter over and cook the prawns.

• Remove the fritter from the pan once the prawns are cooked onto a kitchen towel to soak out any excess oil.

• Serve with chili sauce, tomato sauce or mayonnaise.

Ondeh-Ondeh Purple Sweet Potato

Ondeh-ondeh are glutinous rice balls, filled with gula melaka or palm sugar and coated with coconut flakes. It can be said that ondeh-ondeh is an evergreen traditional kuih which is found in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei. Ondeh-ondeh are usually green as they are made from the mixing of glutinous rice flour with pandan juice. However, over time, many modifications have been made. Creative housewives have used sweet potatoes to mix with the glutinous rice flour and pandan juice to make ondeh-ondeh. Thus, if orange sweet potatoes are used, then the ondeh-ondeh will be orange. Here, I have used the purple sweet potatoes and, thus, my ondeh-ondeh are purple in colour.


Ingredients:

• 1 cylindrical block of gula melaka
• 150 g purple sweet potato
• 160 g glutinous rice flour
• 5 tbsp of pandan juice
• 100 g water
• Flakes from 1 coconut
• 1/2 tsp salt

Method:

• Shave the block of gula melaka and set aside.

• Mix the coconut flakes with the salt in a metal plate. Set aside.

• Put the sweet potato into a metal plate and steam it.

• Once soft, remove the plate of sweet potato from the steamer and put the plate of coconut flakes into the steamer to be steamed (about 5-10 minutes). Remove and set aside.

• Transfer the sweet potato to a large mixing bowl and mash it while it is still hot.

• Add the glutinous rice flour and the pandan juice to the mashed sweet potato. Knead them.

• Add water, a little at a time to the dough. Knead till the dough is soft and smooth and no longer sticks to the hand.

• Divide the dough into small pieces (15 g each). You may make it smaller.

• Roll each dough into a ball.

• Flatten the ball and make a hole in the centre. Put a teaspoon of shaved gula melaka into the hole and seal the edges. Shape the dough into a ball. Repeat this until all the dough balls are completed.

• Boil a pot of water.

• When the water is boiling, drop the balls into the pot.

• When the balls float to the surface, it means that they are cooked. Let the balls stay in the boiling water for another few minutes to ensure that all the gula melaka inside the balls has melted.

• Scoop up the balls and drop them into the plate of coconut flakes. Coat the ball with coconut plate.

• Spoon them up onto a serving plate.

Steamed Prawns on Glass Noodles

 

Steamed Prawns on Glass Noodles is simply delicious. I first had this in a dim sum restaurant when I was on holiday. I came back and cooked it a few times, improving each time so that it is similar to the one I ate.

Ingredients:

• 40 g glass noodles (before soaking), soaked in cold water till it is soft. (Do not over-soak.)
• 6 pcs large white prawns, washed and de-vein
• 1 stalk coriander, cut into 1 to 2 inch length
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
• 1/3 cup hot water
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• Cooking oil

• Steamer with water
• Small pot of water

Instructions

• Prepare a steamer with boiling water.

• Boil some water in a pot. Blanch the glass noodles in the boiling water. Remove them immediately and place them on a steaming plate.

• Arrange the prawns on top of the glass noodles.

• Spread the coriander on top.

• Add the seasonings - sesame oil, soy sauce, salt and white pepper powder and hot water into a bowl. Stir to mix them up.

• Pour the mixture over the prawns and glass noodles.

• Steam the prawns and glass noodles over high heat for 8 minutes (prawns will be over-cooked if steamed longer than this).

• Meanwhile, saute the garlic till fragrant. Remove and set aside.

• Once the prawns are cooked, remove them from the steamer.

• Sprinkle the sauteed garlic over it.

• Serve immediately.

Sambal Ikan Bilis Buns

The Sambal Ikan Bilis Buns are savoury - a bit salty, a bit sweet and (a bit or can be very) spicy, delicious to the palate. It can be easily bought from the bakeries. However, they will not be generous with the sambal ikan bilis as compared to the ones we make ourselves. Good for breakfast, afternoon tea or supper, these buns will surely be snapped up by family members and will be finished in no time.

Ingredients for the sambal: (to make 150 g of sambal)

• 10 pcs red chilies
• 10 pcs dried chilies
• 5 pcs bird's eye chilies (chili padi) (optional)
• 1 small onion
• 3 pcs shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 inch shrimp paste/belacan

• 75 g ikan bilis
• 5 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tbsp sugar
• Salt, to taste

• Instructions:

• Remove the stems of the red chilies. Wash and dry them. Then, cut them into smaller pieces. Some people may not like the seeds and would like to remove them. However, I do not remove them.


• Remove the stems of the dried chilies. Wash and soak them overnight or soak them for at least 4 hours with hot water. When they have softened, cut them into smaller pieces. You may or may not remove the seeds but I did not.


• The bird's eye chilies are for those who want a very spicy sambal. You may leave them out if you wish. if you are including them, then remove the stems and wash them.


• Remove the skin of the onions and slice them.


• Remove the skin of the shallot and slice them.


• Remove the skin of the garlic and chop them up roughly.


• Toast the shrimp paste.


• Put all the ingredients into the grinder/blender.


• How fine you want your sambal to be depends on you.


• Heat up wok with cooking oil.


• Add the ikan bilis and fry them till they are crispy. Remove and set aside.


• Add your blended chili paste into the wok.


• Saute the chili paste till it is fragrant.


• Add the ikan bilis back to the wok.


• Add sugar and stir till it is melted.


• Add salt to the chili paste (according to taste).


• Fry till the sambal is dry.


• Divide your sambal ikan bilis into 10 portions.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 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

• Egg Wash:
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp milk

• Instructions:

• Activate the yeast - Add a bit of sugar to some of the lukewarm milk, stirring the milk to dissolve the sugar and then sprinkle the yeast onto it.


• Once bubbles have formed (after approximately 10 minutes), the yeast mixture is ready.


• Add flour and milk powder into the bowl of your stand mixer.


• Add in the rest of the sugar.


• Add in the salt.


• Transfer the yeast mixture into the mixing bowl.


• Add the rest of the lukewarm milk into the bowl.


• Break the egg into the mixing bowl.


• 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.


• Grease a bowl.


• Transfer the dough into the greased 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).


• Once this is done, cut the dough into 10 pieces of about 95 g each.


• Roll these pieces into little balls and cover them with cling wrap.




Assembling:

• Take a dough ball and roll it flat into a 5-inch circle.


• Put one portion of the sambal ikan bilis in the centre of the circle.

• Gather the sides to close the dough and pinch to seal.


• Turn the dough ball so that the seam side is below.


• Cup the dough ball with both palms and move it in a circular motion till it is round and smooth.


• Place it onto an greased cupcake liner and place the liner onto a baking tray.


• Repeat these steps until all the sambal ikan bilis have been embedded in the dough ball.

• Cover the tray with cling wrap and let the dough balls proof for 1 hour or until they are double in size.


• Break the egg into a bowl and add the milk to it. Beat the egg and brush the dough balls with the egg-milk mixture.


• Bake the dough balls in a pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 20-25 minutes.


• Remove the buns from the tray immediately after baking and let them cool down on a wire rack.