Orh Nee or Yam Pudding

 

 

Steaming the Yam

Grinding the Cooked Yam

Cooking the Ground Yam

When I was very young, I only got to eat Orh Nee during wedding dinners. However, nowadays we can easily find it in Chinese restaurants and dessert shops. I usually make it myself to have a healthier version with less sugar and to reduce cost as there are many members in my family; a bowl in the dessert shop can cost more than, say, a 500 g yam. Besides, the processes are not too difficult - preparation of shallot oil can be done a day earlier and so is the preparation of the gingko nuts. (Peeled gingko nuts can be bought from the supermarkets.) 

Ingredients:

• 500 g yam
• 3 pandan leaves
• 100 g gingko nuts
• 200 ml water
• 60 g sugar (or 75 g for a sweeter pudding)
• 4 tbsp shallot oil
• A pinch of salt

Instructions:

• Deshell the gingko nuts and remove the brown skin and the bitter centre green core.

• Add them to a pot with about 250 ml water.

• Boil the gingko nuts till they are cooked. (They turn from pale colour to yellow when cooked.)

• Keep the water as we will be using it to process the mashed yam later.

• Prepare the shallot oil by peeling and slicing the shallots and then frying the slices in cooking oil. (The amount of shallots and oil is up to us as we can always use the fried shallots and oil in our dishes.)

• Peel the yam, cut them into small cubes and steamed them with pandan leaves.

• When the yam is cooked, mash them with a fork or a ricer. (You may skip this step and transfer the cooked yam directly to a food processor.)

• Transfer the mashed yam to a food processor.

• Add 200 ml of water from boiling the gingko nuts to the food process.

• Grind the mashed yam till they are smooth. (Add more water if the yam puree is too dry.)

• Heat up a pan with 4 tbsp of shallot oil.

• Transfer the yam puree from the food processor to the pan.

• Cook the puree till the desired consistency is achieved.

• Serve it hot or cold with the gingko nuts.

Ice Cream

Ice cream is a good snack especially on a hot day. I believe not only children love ice cream but also the adults. We are actually spoilt for choice due to the number of flavours or a combination of flavours we can find in the market. And we can make those flavours which cannot be found in the market ourselves. 

I used to use my ice cream machine to make them. However, this is limiting for those who do not possess one. You can make ice cream even if you do not own the machine to make them. I learnt this from The Weekend Plan. It would be great if you have the ice cream moulds. If you do not have them, you can use any containers to store them.

Ingredients: (This recipe makes 6 sticks of ice cream)

• 150 g whipping cream
• 35 g milk powder
•  200 ml milk
• 10 g crushed Oreo cookies
• 30 g sugar
• 10 g corn starch

Instructions:

• Discard the fillings of the Oreo cookies. Crush the cookies and set them aside.

• Add the whipping cream, milk powder, sugar, corn starch and milk to a saucepan.

• Mix them up.

• Turn on the fire at low heat.

• Stir the contents in the saucepan until the mixture boils.

• Let the mixture boils till it thickens.

• Let the thick mixture cools down.

• Add crushed Oreo cookies to the saucepan and stir.

• Scoop the mixture into individual moulds or one big container.

• Put the moulds or container in the freezer for a minimum of 3 hours before serving.

• Note: You may double or triple the ingredients to obtain more ice cream.

• Enjoy.

Tiramisu

Tiramisu is a no-bake Italian dessert. It is made of layers of coffee-soaked ladyfingers followed by cream, the number of layers depending on the amount of the ladyfingers and cream and finally, a dusting of cocoa powder on top. Most recipes incorporate egg yolks in the cream and alcohol in the coffee and cream. However, I have made the version without egg yolks nor alcohol.

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp instant coffee powder
• 350 ml hot water
• 200 ml heavy cream
• 250 g mascarpone cheese
• 80 g castor sugar
• 24 pieces lady fingers

Tool:

• Glass baking dish 18 cm x 12 cm

Instructions:

• Dissolve instant coffee powder in hot water and set it aside to cool down.

• Whip heavy cream until stiff peak is achieved. Set it aside.

• Beat mascarpone cheese and sugar till sugar dissolves.

• Combine whipped cream with mascarpone cheese till they are well incorporated.

• Dip ladyfingers into coffee and line them at the bottom of the glass baking dish. (Do not soak the ladyfingers; a quick dip will do.)

• Layer cheese mixture over them.

• Line another layer of ladyfingers on the cream.

• Then, layer cheese mixture over them.

• Dust a generous amount of cocoa powder on the cream.

• Chill the tiramisu for at least 4 hours before serving.

• Enjoy.

Ondeh-Ondeh Jagung

I have made ondeh-ondeh purple sweet potato and ondeh-ondeh pandan before. I decided to look for other ingredients to be added to my ondeh-ondeh dough to make my cooking journey more interesting and to give my family more variety of taste. So, I came up with jagung or corn. I modified my ondeh-ondeh pandan recipe to make my ondeh-ondeh jagung. 

Ingredients:

• 200 g glutinous rice flour
• 50 g all-purpose flour
• 300 g creamed corn
• 150 g coconut flakes
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 3 pandan leaves, wash and knot them.

Method:

• Add salt to grated coconut and steam them for a few minutes.

• Open a can of creamy style corn and weigh out 300 g to be used in the recipe.

• Weigh and sieve the glutinous and all-purpose flours into a bowl.

• Add 90 percent of the creamed corn to the bowl of flours and knead till they are smooth. If the dough is too dry, add more of the creamed corn till you have a soft dough.

• Divide and weigh the dough into 23 g-piece. Roll the dough into balls. (You may weigh to make smaller or bigger dough balls. Note that the balls will enlarge once cooked.)

• Pound the cylindrical block of gula Melaka to break it up into smaller pieces.

• Take a dough ball. Flatten it and scoop 1/2 a teaspoon or more of gula Melaka onto it. Bring up the edges of the dough to seal it. Place it onto a floured plate.

• Repeat this till all the dough balls have been filled.

• Boil a pot of water. Add the knotted pandan leaves to it.

• Drop the dough balls into the boiling water.

• Once the dough balls float to the surface, it means that they are cooked. Let them roll in the boiling water for about 5 minutes more to ensure that the gula Melaka is melted.

• Remove the cooked balls onto the plate of grated coconut. Roll them in the grated coconuts. (I managed to get 24 pieces of ondeh-ondeh from my recipe.)

• Plate them and serve.

 

Chocolate Cornflakes

Chocolate cornflakes are very easy to make.  I usually make them for my own consumption; I consume them after lunch and dinner. I also make them as gift to relatives and friends especially those with children when I plan to visit them. Chocolate cornflakes are good snacks to be made available when relatives and friends visit us with their children. During Chinese New Year, bottles of chocolate cornflakes go into my hampers for relatives, friends and neighbours. I will make them plain if they are for my own consumption. However, if they are to be gifted, I will sprinkle them with colourful sprinklers or put a golden raisin or a white chocolate chip on each chocolate cornflake to make them look more interesting.

Ingredients:

• 350 g cornflakes
• 400 g semi-sweet chocolate coins/bars/chips
• 100 g salted butter
• 25 g sugar
• Cupcake liners (diameter up to you)
• Colourful chocolate rice / golden raisins / white chocolate chips (optional)

Method:

• Add semi-sweet chocolate, butter and sugar to a bowl.

• Put the bowl over a pot of boiling water (bain-marie).

• Stir the ingredients till the ingredients melt.

• Remove the bowl from the pot and let the mixture cool down slightly.

• Add the cornflakes to the mixture. Mix them up thoroughly.

• Scoop the cornflakes into the cupcake liners.

• Optional: Sprinkle the chocolate rice on top if you wish or put a piece of golden raisin or a white chocolate chip on top.

• Put the chocolate cornflakes into the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.

• Remove from the refrigerator and store the chocolate cornflakes in a bottle and put it into the refrigerator.

Longan Soy Bean Agar-Agar

A good dessert to have during a hot day; Longan Soy Bean Agar-Agar or Longan Soy Bean Pudding is easy and fast to make. You can make a lot in little cups and serve them to your guests during any celebrations - birthdays, get-togethers or festivities.

Ingredients:

• 10 g agar-agar powder
• 750 ml pure soy bean milk
• 250 ml longan syrup (from the tin of longan below)
• 1 tin longan (565 g)
• 50 g sugar (more or less according to your taste buds)
• 2-3 pandan leaves
• 6 plastic cups

Method:

• Add soy bean milk to a pot.

• Add 250 ml of longan syrup to the pot.

• Add agar-agar powder and sugar to the pot.

• Wash and knot the pandan leaves and add to the pot.

• Stir the ingredients in the pot till the agar-agar powder dissolve.

• Turn on the heat and boil the ingredients at medium high heat.

• Once they have boiled, turn off the fire and take the pot off the stove.

• Discard the pandan leaves and let the solution cool down slightly.

• Scoop them into the plastic cups.

• Take a spoon and remove any bubbles from the surface.

• Let the pudding harden slightly before putting some longan on top.

• Chill them in the refrigerator before serving.

Pancakes with Coconut Milk

I ate a lot of traditional pancakes in my youth; my mother used to make them for us. They were made from flour, eggs, sugar, milk, water and baking powder. This is the first time I have added coconut milk to my batter and the pancakes were delicious. They will certainly become a regular fixture in my breakfast menu.

Ingredients:

• 125 g all-purpose flour
• 35 g sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup santan
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

• Sieve all-purpose flour into a bowl.

• Add sugar and salt to the bowl. Mix well with a whisk.

• Break the egg into a bowl with santan and water. Stir.

• Add the egg mixture to the flour.

• Mix the ingredients into a smooth batter.

• Oil a non-stick pan with a piece of kitchen towel.

• Heat up the pan.

• Scoop a cup of batter into the centre of the pan.

• Swirl the pan in a circular manner to spread the batter.

• Cover the pan.

• When bubbles are seen on the batter, open the cover and flip the pancake to cook the other side.

• Transfer the pancake to a serving plate.

Hup To Soh

Hup To Soh is a very delicious biscuit. It was a very popular biscuit in my younger days. We always buy it from shops specialised in selling biscuits. Some were very crunchy while others melted in the mouth. Nowadays we can seldom find it. So we have to make it ourselves to enjoy it. It is very easy to make this biscuit. We just need flour, sugar, sesame seeds walnut, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, peanut oil and eggs to make it. However, those sold in the shop do not contain walnuts and sesame seeds.

Ingredients:

• 300 g all-purpose flour
• 50 g toasted sesame seeds
• 100 g toasted walnut and crushed
• 75 g sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 egg yolks
• 50 g butter, softened
• 125 g peanut oil
• 1 egg (for egg wash)

Method:

• Add flour, sesame seeds, walnut, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda to a mixing bowl. Stir to mix them up.

• Beat egg yolks and add to the flour mixture. Stir to mix them up.

• Add butter to the bowl. Stir to incorporate the butter into the flour mixture.

• Add peanut oil to the bowl. Stir.

• Mix up all the ingredients till you achieve a smooth dough.

• Line your baking tray with parchment paper.

• Take a dollop of the dough.

• Weigh it to get 25 g. (You can make it either smaller or bigger. Those sold in the shops are much bigger.)

• Roll it into a ball.

• Place the dough ball onto the baking tray.

• Press dough ball down to flatten it and to have some nice cracks along the sides.

• Repeat till all the dough has been used up. I manage to get 30 pieces out of the above ingredients.

• Immediately heat up your oven to 170 deg C for 10 minutes.

• Egg wash your flattened dough.

• Bake them in the oven for 30 minutes to get a nice golden colour for your biscuits. Shorten your baking time if you would like a lighter colour.

• Wait for your biscuits to completely cool down before you store them in a bottle.

Potato Fritters

 

Fritters are ingredients like vegetables, fruits, seafood and meats which have been battered and deep fried. There are 2 types of fritters - sweet and savoury. The sweet ones are mostly made with fruits and the savoury ones with vegetables, seafood and meats. Banana fritters, corn fritters, cempedak fritters and sweet potato fritters are some of the sweet fritters that we eat for breakfast and tea breaks. Vegetable fritters are savoury and good as snacks. Prawn fritters and minced pork fritters are also savoury ones and usually eaten during lunch or dinner.

While a bit of salt added into the batter for sweet fritters will enhance their tastes, ingredients like paprika, coriander, parsley, onions, chilies and seasonings of salt, pepper and light soya sauce make the savoury fritters delicious and us wanting for more. 

Ingredients:

• 3 medium sized potatoes
• 2 tbsp flour
• 3 tbsp rice flour
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp chili flakes
• 1 tsp chili padi, chopped
• 1 big stalk coriander, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 pepper
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• cooking oil

Method:

• Peel and grate the potatoes. You may wash the grated potatoes to remove some of the starch. However, I did not wash them.

• Add flour, rice flour, egg, chili flakes, chili padi, coriander, salt, pepper, light soy sauce and water to a mixing bowl.

• Mix these ingredients well.

• Add the grated potatoes to the bowl and mix them up with the ingredients in the bowl.

• If the batter is too thick, add more water, spoon by spoon. The batter should not be watery.

• Heat up a wok or pan with cooking oil.

• Once the oil is hot, scoop the batter into the wok or pan.

• Fry them till they are golden brown on one side.

• Flip the fritter to the other side to be fried till golden brown.

• Once done, ladle them onto a plate lined with kitchen towel to absorb additional oil from the fritter.

• Serve while they are hot.

Paruppu Vadai

 

   

I love eating Paruppu Vadai but it has been a long time since I ate them. I used to buy them in my hometown from Indian stalls when they were just out from the oven. They are hard to find where I am staying now. They are delicious with the different tastes coming from the dhal, curry leaves, onions, dried and green chilies, jintan putih (cumin) and salt. Fried till golden brown, the vadai are crunchy on the outside and soft inside. Now that I know how to make them, I am definitely going to make them very often. The process is easy. It is only that we have wait for the dhal to be softened; I soaked them overnight so that they are easy to grind.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dhal
• 1 big onion, chopped into small pieces
• 3 sprigs of curry leaves, sliced finely
• 3 dried chilies, cut into small pieces
• 2 green chilies, cut into small pieces
• 1 tsp jintan putih, washed
• 1 tsp salt
• Cooking oil

Method:

• Wash the dhal and soak it overnight.

• The next day, remove and set aside 2-3 tbsp dhal.

• Grind the rest of the dhal till they are fine.  (If you have a powerful grinder, you need not add water to the dhal. If you are using a blender, add some water to make it easier to blend the dhal. However, you need to sieve the blended dhal to remove the water.)

• Transfer the ground/blended dhal to a bowl.

• Add the onion, curry leaves, dried and green chilies, jintan putih and salt to the bowl.

• Heat up a kuali or pan with cooking oil.

• Shape the batter round and flat and drop it into the hot oil. (Do not move it initially; instead let it cook to hold its shape.)

• Once the bottom has turned golden brown, flip it over to deep fry the other side till it turns golden brown.

• Scoop out the vadai onto kitchen towel to soak up excess oil.

• Repeat the process till all the batter has been used up.

• Best served hot.

Cheesey Savoury Pancake

  

When you find yourself with nothing to eat at all at home for breakfast - no cakes, no bread, no biscuits, no nothing - this is the recipe to go to for a quick fix. This cheesey savoury pancake is super easy to make; it can be done in less than half an hour as minimal work is involved. It can be eaten on its own or, if you like, with chili sauce. If you do not like coriander you can substitute it with chives or green onions.

I used a 24-cm non-stick wok and the recipe yields 5 pieces of pancake. You can increase the recipe by 2 or any number of times depending on the number of people.

Ingredients:

• 125 g all-purpose flour
• 3 g salt
• 3 g chili flakes
• 30 g coriander, chopped
• 10 g garlic chopped
• 30 g dried prawns, toasted and pounded (optional)
• 20 g melted butter and more for frying
• 1 egg
• 3 g baking powder
• 30 g grated Mozzarella cheese
• 235 g water

Method:

• Add all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

• Mix them up till they are well-combined.

• Heat up a non-stick pan with a dollop of butter.

• Let the butter melt.

• Scoop some of the batter into the centre of the pan and use the bottom of the scoop to spread it out in a circle.

• Let it fry till it is golden brown.

• Flip the pancake over to the other side to cook it.

• Once this side has turned golden brown, remove it from the pan.

• Serve.

Cheesey Green Onion Chinese Pancake

Cheesey Green Onion Chinese Pancake is an extension of the Green Onion Chinese Pancake I made earlier. I added dried prawns which had been toasted and ground and chili flakes to make it savoury with a slight tinge of spiciness. I also added cheese as I love it. Lastly, I shaped it differently to get a more crispy pancake on the outside.

Ingredients：

• A. Dough:
• 200 g all-purpose flour
• 125 g water
• 1 tsp salt

• B. Filling:
• 100 g green onions
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 40 g softened butter
• 30 g dried prawns, toast and grind
• 1 tsp black pepper (very peppery. Can be reduced according to taste.)
• 1 tsp chili flakes/paprika, optional
• 60 g grated Mozzarella cheese

• C. For rolling the dough
• 30 g all-purpose flour
• 30 g corn flour

• D. Oil for Frying

Method:

• Add all the ingredients in (A) into a mixing bowl.
• Knead the ingredients till a smooth dough is formed.
• Cover the bowl with a wet towel and let the dough rest for 1/2 an hour.

• Wash the green onions.  Let the water runs off the green onions so that they are as dry as possible. Cut them into small pieces of about 0.5 cm long.
• Add the green onions into a bowl.
• Add the all-purpose flour, black pepper, chili flakes and oil.
• Mix them up well.

• Divide dough into number of pieces of pancakes desired, either 4 big ones or 6 smaller ones.
• Flour the work surface and the rolling pin with the all-purpose & cornflour mixture.
• Take 1 pc of dough and sprinkle the flour mixture on it.
• Roll it out into a rectangle, square or circle as thin as possible so that the pancake will be crispy.
• Brush the dough with the butter.
• Spread the fillings - green onions mixture, dried prawns and cheese on top.
• Take the right side of dough and fold it onto the centre.
• Take the left side of the dough and fold it onto the centre (over the left side).
• Fold the top followed by the bottom (overlapping) to the centre. You will get a rectangular or square dough

• Heat up a non-stick pan with a little cooking oil. Fry the dough till each side is golden brown.