Udang Masak Lemak Nenas (Prawns and Pineapple Curry)

A famous nyonya dish, Udang Masak Lemak Nenas, is delicious. It is accepted by all the members of my family. It is rich in coconut milk, is spicy, sour, sweet and salty and really brings out the aroma of the fresh turmeric, galangal and ginger. It can really whets one's appetite and one bowl of rice is definitely not enough. For us, we like the sauce to be thick and spicy. However, one can add more water if a thinner sauce if preferred and reduce the amount of chili for a less spicy sauce.

Ingredients:

a. For blending

• 10 g chili padi
• 8 g dried chili
• 75 g shallots
• 25 g garlic
• 50 g lemongrass (white part only)
• 20 g fresh turmeric
• 20 g galangal
• 20 g ginger
• 25 g belacan, toasted
• 15 g candlenut
• 1 cup water

b. For cooking

• all of the blended ingredients
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 350 g pineapple slices
• 3 g assam keping
• 1 cup water
• 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised 
• 1 cups thick santan
• 2 pcs of kafir lime leaves
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 1 tsp sugar
• 8-10 pcs big prawns

Method:

• Blend all ingredients stated above under "For Blending".

• Heat up pan with cooking oil.

• Add all of the blended ingredients to the pan.

• Fry them till they are fragrant and oil splits from the ingredients.

• Add pineapple slices.

• Add water.

• Cook till the pineapple slices are soft.

• Add water, assam keping and lemongrass.

• Let the sauce slowly simmers for about 5 minutes.

• Add the santan and let it boil. (If sauce is too thick, add some water. It should not be too thin either.)

• Add kafir lime leaves.

• Season with salt and sugar.

• Add the prawns. (Do not overcook.)

• Garnish with kafir lime leaves.

• Serve with white rice.

Kuih Ketayap

Kuih ketayap also known as kuih dadar is a very popular traditional Malay kuih. It is pandan pancake rolled up with coconut fillings in it. This kuih can be easily found in most markets. However, we can easily make it at home. We can break up the processes into 2 parts by making the fillings one day before we make the pancake.

Ingredients:

For the fillings:

• 250 g fresh coconut flakes
• 100 g gula Melaka (can add more)
• 50 g dark brown sugar
• 2 - 3 pandan leaves
• 80 g water
• 10 g corn flour + 2 tbsp water to form a solution

For the batter:

• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 400 ml thin coconut milk
• 100 ml pandan juice (blend 6 leaves with 150 ml water)
• 2 tbsp corn oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt

Method:

For the fillings:

• Add the gula Melaka, dark brown sugar, pandan leaves and water to a saucepan.
• Boil the water till the gula Melaka and dark brown sugar melt and the syrup is aromatic.
• Sieve the syrup into a non-stick pan.
• Let it cool down a bit before adding the corn flour solution to it. Stir so that they are mixed together.
• Add the fresh coconut flakes to the syrup.
• Stir the coconut flakes till they absorb the syrup and slowly cook them till they are slightly dry.
• Let the coconut flakes cool down.

For the pancake:

• Add flour, coconut milk, pandan juice, egg, corn oil and salt to a bowl.
• Stir till the batter is smooth.
• Sieve the batter.
• Heat up a non-stick pan over very low heat. (My pan size - 24 cm.)
• Use a piece of kitchen towel to grease the pan with a thin layer of oil.
• Scoop 1/2 cup of batter to the pan.
• Swirl the pan so that the batter covers the pan thinly.
• Cover the pan.
• Remove the pancake when it is done to a plate.

Assembly:

• Scoop some coconut fillings onto the bottom side of the pancake.
• Bring the two sides of the pancake in.
• Roll up the pancake from the bottom to the top.
• Serve.

Mozzarella-filled Bread

 

The Mozzarella-filled Bread is a yummy and rich bread. It is a very easy-to-make bread as there is no intricate shaping of the dough. It took me only 1 1/2 hours to make it.

Ingredients:

Dough

• 250 g bread flour
• 25 g sugar
• 5 g yeast
• 1 egg
• 2 g salt
• 1 egg
• 125 g milk
• 40 g butter
• Egg wash - 1 egg + 1 tbsp milk

Filling

• 150 g grated Mozzarella cheese

Topping

• 50 g grated Mozzarella cheese

Method:

• Put all the dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer.

• Add the milk.

• Knead till a smooth dough ball is formed.

• Add butter to the bowl.

• Continue to knead till window pane is achieved.

• Transfer the dough to a greased clean bowl. Cover the bowl with a moist towel.

• Let the dough proof till it is double in size.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it onto a greased parchment paper.

• Knead the dough back into a round ball.

• Roll the dough into a big round circle.

• Spread the grated cheese on top of the dough.

• Bring the edge of the dough together to seal the dough.

• Turn over the dough so that the seamside is at the bottom.

• Gently roll out the dough so that it is flattened.

• Egg wash the dough.

• Spinkle grated cheese on top.

• Transfer the parchment paper with the dough onto a baking tray.

• Bake the dough in a pre-heated oven at 200 deg C for 20-25  min or till the bread is golden brown.

• When the bread is done remove it immediately from the parchment paper and transfer it  to a wire rack to be cooled down.

Assam Laksa

Most of us in the family love Assam Laksa; it is spicy, sour, sweet, salty and aromatic. The aroma comes from the torch ginger flower (bunga kantan), the lemongrass (serai), the galangal (lengkuas) as well as the fish used in preparing the soup. I love to use the mackeral (kembong) in my soup. However, some prefer to use the sardine. The thick soup is served over the thick rice noodles and the dish is garnished with cucumber, pineapple, onion, torch ginger flower and mint. Some of us love to eat it with more shrimp paste (hae ko) added to it. Usually one bowl is not enough for each person. Thus, we always have to prepare a lot of soup, noodles and the garnishes so that everyone can eat to his or heart's content.

Ingredients:

• 450 g rice noodles (for 4 pax)

       For blending:

• 100 g red chilies
• 10 g dried chilies
• 70 g big onions
• 70 g shallots
• 3 lemongrass stalks, the white part only
• 1 inch belacan, toasted
• 1 inch galangal

    For the soup:

• 1 kg ikan kembong
• 2-2.5 litres water

• All the blended spices above
• 100 g daun kesum
• 2 lemongrass stalks, bruised
• 2 torch ginger stalks (bunga kantan), quartered lengthwise
• 6 pcs of assam keping
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2.5 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1 tbsp shrimp paste

    For Garnishing:

• cucumber
• pineapple
• big onion
• torch ginger
• bird's eye chilies
• mint, optional
• lettuce, optional
• egg, optional

Method:

• Prepare a big pot of boiling water.
• Add the rice noodles to the boiling water.
• Let the water continue to boil for 15-20 minutes.
• Cover the pot, turn off the fire and let the noodles sit in the pot till they soften.

• Boil 2.5 litre of water in another big pot.
• Add the kembong to the pot and let the fishes cook.
• Once they are cooked, remove them from the pot.
• Remove the fish meat from the bones. Mash the fish meat and return them to the pot.
• Add the bones to a blender. Add some water to blend the bones. Once done, sieve the fish bone water to the pot. Discard the mashed up bone.
• Add all the blended ingredients to the pot.
• Add the daun kesum, the bruised lemongrass, the quartered torch ginger flower, assam keping, sugar, salt and shrimp paste to the pot.
• Let the soup boil. (The longer you boil, the more fragrant and tasty the soup will be.) 
• Test for sourness, saltiness, spiciness and sweetness. You may add more assam keping, salt, chili, sugar or shrimp paste.
• The soup is ready for consumption.

• Garnishing:
• Julienne the cucumber.
• Slice the onion as thinly as possible.
• Slice the pineapple thinly.
• Cut the bird eye chilies.
• Slice the torch ginger flower thinly.

Pressure-cooked Meaty Pork Bones

 

 

This is the most aromatic dish that has ever been cooked in my kitchen. I have cooked it a few times and it was loved by my children. It is easy to cook; just marinate and pressure-cook. It is very versatile; you can eat it with white rice or with various types of noodles. Here, my children ate it with spinach noodles.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg meaty pork bone
• 6 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
• 1 tsp 5-spice powder
• 2 tsp white pepper powder
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 3-inch cinnamon stick
• 250 g onions (3 medium size)
• 100 g garlic (1 bulb)
• 1.5 cup water

Method:

• Preparation of pork:
• Wash meaty pork bones.
• Boil a pot of water with 1 tbsp vinegar.
• Blanch meaty pork bones for 5 minutes.
• Remove and dry them.

• Preparation of marinade:
• Into a bowl add:
• light and dark soy sauces
• sesame oil
• Chinese cooking wine
• 5-spice powder
• pepper
• honey
• salt
• Mix all together.

• Peel and cut the onions whichever way you like.

• Peel and slightly smash the garlic.

• Add the meaty pork bones, marinade, cinnamon stick, onion, garlic and water into a big mixing bowl. Stir well.

• Cover the bowl and let the meaty pork bones sit for 1 hour.

• Transfer all the ingredients to a pressure cooker.

• Cook for 15 minutes.

• Serve with white rice or noodles.

Plain Banana Muffins

We always buy a lot of bananas from the pasar tani as my husband and I always eat a banana in the morning after our one cup of water. Sometimes the bananas ripen too quickly. However, I have never bin my bananas. I will either freeze them for later use or bake them immediately into banana cake, banana muffins or banana bread. But my son will always make a smoothie out of them.

Ingredients:

• 290 g or 4 big ripe bananas (I use Pisang Berangan.)
• 200 g cake flour (You may use all-purpose flour.)
• 120 g brown sugar (You may reduce if your bananas are very ripe and sweet.)
• 1/4 tsp salt, only if you are using unsalted butter
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 115 g melted butter
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 eggs

Method:

• Preheat oven to 175 degree C.

• Line a 12-hole muffin pan with muffin liners. 11 liners only if you want a dome-shape muffin.

• Add the dry ingredients - cake flour, sugar, cinnamon powder, salt (if you are using), baking powder and baking soda - into a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine all the ingredients evenly.

• Mash the bananas.

• Add the wet ingredients - mashed banana, melted butter, vanilla essence and eggs into another bowl. Whisk to combine these ingredients.

• Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until both are well-combined. However, do not over-mix to avoid dense muffins.

• Scoop the batter into the muffin liners.

• Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes.

• When done, remove the muffins from the muffin tin and let them cool down on a metal rack.

Apam Harun Manis

 

Apam Harun Manis brings back my childhood memories. I have not seen this traditional Malay kuih being sold anywhere. Thus, I have to make them myself to savour them as well as to introduce them to my children. The method of making them is easy - just mix and steam. However, you need to have the small porcelain or plastic cups them.

Ingredients:

• 140 g gula Melaka
• 160 ml water
• 2 eggs
• 70 g sugar
• 170 g all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• A pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 pisang raja, sliced thinly
• 25 porcelain or plastic cups, greased

Method:

• Prepare a steamer with boiling water.

• Boil gula Melaka and water till the gula Melaka dissolves. Sieve and set it aside to cool down.

• Beat eggs and sugar with a whisk till the mixture is double in volume

• Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl.

• Add egg mixture to the flour and mix till no flour can be seen.

• Add gula Melaka syrup and vanilla essence to the flour and mix till the batter is smooth. The batter should not be too thick nor thin. You may add a bit of water if it is too thick and a bit of flour if it is too thin.

• Scoop the batter to the greased cups (up to 2/3 of each cup). 

• Place a slice of pisang raja on top of the batter.

• Steam the batter for 20 minutes.

• When done, let the kuih stay in the cups for about 5 minutes before removing them from the cups.

• The kuih should be flat or a big sunken on top. (I had filled my batter to the brim in order to steam all in one batch and I had not allowed the kuih to rest in the cups for 5 minutes before removing them. Thus, the kuih had a rounded top.)