Old Time Cookies - Kuih Siput

This is for old times sake, not exactly a cookie, more of a snack that my family used to make for Chinese New Year.  And yes, it's been so long since we had this :(  Wonder how many of my Chinese friends out there had this for CNY?  Do you make them still?

If I am not wrong, this snack has a Malay origin, i only know it by its Malay name which is Kuih Siput translated it means Snail/Shell Cakes (i like to think of it as shell which it resembles).  It's crunchy, savoury and spicy which makes it something very nice to munch on especially with a nice can of cold beer, very addictive i warn you!  

My memories recall my Mum mixing the dough and frying it while Pa (plus my sister and I as the little helpers) did the shaping with a grooved board similar to making gnocchi.  My Pa was very skilled at it, he even made his own board for this!  Unfortunately Pa can't recalled where he kept them when i asked him the other day.

I look at a few recipes but was quite lost in terms of the best water/fat ratio.  I had a pretty good idea of the spices that were in it though, so i played around twice and i am going to put the second attempt down for my future reference.  The shaping takes quite a bit of effort, i am still wondering how was it possible that we made them by the tins back then, given that there were 4 of us but still, it's quite a job...

Recipe

Ingredients

• 150g all purpose flour
• 30g butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp fennel seeds, pounded
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds, pounded
• 1 1/2 tbsp dried shrimps, washed, soaked for 10 minutes then pounded
• 50ml water
• 1/2 egg (lightly beaten)

Method 

1. Sift flour then mix with salt, chilli powder, fennel, cumin and dried shrimps.
2. Rub in butter.
3. Mix in egg and stir well.
4. Add in water gradually and mix until a soft and smooth dough is formed.
5. Take a pinch of the dough, press it on a grooved board to get the imprints then using the thumb push it away from you, the piece of dough will roll up forming the shape of a seashell.
6. Heat up oil in a wok or frying pan.
7. Fry the shells over medium heat until golden brown.
8. Ensure shells have cooled before storing in an air tight container.

Note:

1. These are meant to be tiny morsels, making them big will result in shells that are so crunchy.
2. Fry over medium heat, high heat will caused them to brown too easily. 

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Village Fried Chicken

This is my second post for MFF Perak.  I am not particularly familiar with Malay cuisine from the state although it is where i hail from.  The only dish that comes to mind is Rendang Tok :))  I did some searching and bumped into a few writeups that covered a Perak cuisine promotion at a hotel restaurant somewhere back in 2011. It has a good showcase of Malay Perakian cuisine that will leave one mouthwatering! 

One of the dishes featured was Ayam Goreng Kampung Tanjung Malim (aka Tg Malim Village Fried Chicken).  Apparently there is this small restaurant (or warong in Malay) that is very popular for Nasi Padang.  To those who are not familiar, Nasi Padang is rice served with dishes cooked in Minangkabau (ethnic group from West Sumatra) style.

Caught me by surprise as I have not heard of it although I come from Slim River (yeah, we are fortunate to be 'slim' people effortlessly!) which is very near to Tanjung Malim.

Coincidentally there was a recipe for this dish in the writeup by Big Boys Oven.  So i thought i will take this opportunity to try out something closer to home.  Here's Ayam Goreng Kampung Tanjung Malim, Big Boys Oven's take.  I must find an opportunity to try the real mccoy when i go back home the next time.

Kid's first bite before he ended up finishing 2 pieces...

Verdict? 

If you have tried Malay style spiced fried chicken, this one is similar.  I used free range chicken so the meat is slightly tougher although i did take precaution not to overfry them.  There is a nice fragrance to the chicken although there are not too much spices used in the marinade.  I like that the onions and ginger are sliced and not minced as it ended up with lots of shallot and ginger crisps to go with the chicken when eaten with rice.  I made a simple dipping sauce commonly used with Malay dishes to go with it too.  Coupled with some greens it made a decent meal.

Recipe (variation in blue)

Source : Big Boys Oven 

Ingredients

• 1kg Chicken, cut (I used 2 thighs and 2 wings around 600g)
• 50gm Red onion, sliced
• 30gm Garlic, chopped
• 10gm Ginger, sliced
• 10gm Chicken curry powder (2 tbsp)
• 0.5gm Turmeric powder (1 tsp)
• 0.5gm Curry leaves (2 sprigs)
• 2nos Eggs (1 egg)
• Cooking oil
• Seasoning (1 tsp salt)

Method 

1. Marinate the chicken with all ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. Leave it aside for 30 minutes. (I left it for 2 hours)
3. Heat up the cooking oil in a wok.
4. Fry the marinated chicken till golden brown.
5. Remove them from the wok and absorb the excessive oil with kitchen papers before served.

Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 chili padi
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 shallot-sliced
• 2 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce
• 1 tbsp lime juice

Method

1. Mix everything together.

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest Perak month hosted by 

WendyinKK of Table for Two....or more



And

Little Thumbs Up "Egg" event organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY and hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out.

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To Paste or not to Paste?

We are spoilt when it comes to instants pastes on this side of the world.  There are instant pastes for every other local dish that one can think of, even for some that you never know exist.  Like how we laughed over one very interesting one that Mum got as a CNY gift, Concubine Chicken what?? (Psst, still no idea what Concubine Chicken taste like)

So, to paste or not to paste?  It's really hard to decide, since the temptations are really strong.  It's hard to resist convenience at a price ranging from RM4-RM7 especially if time is not on your side.   I know, I know there's the ugly side to consider too.

Ok, confession time.  I do buy them occasionally.   Can't help it , they called out to me when I passed the aisle :))  Usually those for spicy dishes which involves pounding and grinding chillies (especially dried ones).  One hard task, boy those things are pungent, making one tear and cough plus leaving you with burning sensations on your finger tips for the rest of the day!

So, this is one half cheat curry, well you might say a cheat is still a cheat :)

There's instant curry paste but only like 5 tablespoons of it, i never give complete trust to any one of them out there.  So, paste gets half the credit only.   Some extras which basically are ingredients  for a curry paste from scratch goes in there too.  Yes, I still put myself through the painful steps but it's quickly done with when the amount is a lot lesser.  

This half cheat version tasted good though.  Not an endorsement of the particular paste, just one that meets the family's liking.  I was grinning ear to ear when MIL said it was better than hers!    

Curry goes well with rice, noodles, bread or on its own.   I had wanted to eat it with some string hoppers (it was Friday and I wanted to have a variation that meets my Noodle Friday theme :)) but unfortunately it rained real heavy that evening and the Indian man who comes by on a motorbike to sell them didn't turn up that day :(   Otherwise, it would have been nice eating with hands, soaking up curry with the string hoppers, drool!  Ended up rice with curry and vege for everyone. 

Thought I would borrow this photo to show those who are not familiar with string hoppers.   They taste really good with curries, like the one below :)

Photo courtesy of Bharat Moms

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1kg pork ribs
• 5 tbsp instant curry paste (I used A1 Meat Curry Sauce)
• 4 medium size potatoes (quartered)
• 3 tbsp kerisik (toasted and ground grated coconut)
• 200 ml coconut milk

Addition to paste

• 4 dried chillies
• 3 shallots
• 1 thumbsize piece of ginger
• 1 stalk lemongrass 
• 1 small piece of belachan (around 2 cm square, toasted)
• 2 candle nuts

Spices

• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 star anise
• 3 cloves
• 2 cardamom pods (use seeds only)
• 1 stalk lemon grass, bruised
• Handful curry leaves
• 2 kaffir lime leaves

Seasoning

• Light soy sauce
• Salt
• Sugar

Steps

1. Marinate pork ribs with 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp sugar.
2. Combine and grind ingredients for additional paste.  A little water can be added to ease grinding.  After grinding, mix with instant paste.
3. Shallow fry potatoes and set aside.
4. Fry paste until fragrant and oil rises.  Add in spices (except kaffir lime leaves) and continue frying until fragrant.
5. Add in pork ribs and mix well.  Make sure ribs are well coated with paste.
6. Fry until pork ribs no longer reddish in color then add in thin coconut milk (Add water to 150ml coconut milk to around 600ml).  Throw in kaffir lime leaves.
7. Add in potatoes half way through (so that potatoes will not be overcooked).
8. Continue to simmer until ribs are tender and gravy has reduced.
9. Add in kerisik if using followed by thick coconut milk.
10. Season with salt according to preference.
11. Turned off flame once it starts to boil.

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It was a Johor Night!

This is the story of Friday the 22nd... 

On Thursday, my sister was teasing me on whatsapp about what noodles I have in mind for tomorrow since I have recently declared to the world that I am into making noodles on Fridays.   I actually had Mee Jawa in mind but when it went across to her it became Mee Jaws! DYAC!  Huh? Mee Jaws, what?  Immediately the theme song from the movie JAWS played in our heads, if it rings a bell you are as old as I am :p  We were literally laughing tears over it.   I always get caught in blunders like this, thank god no damaging ones so far, most of the time end up rolling on the floor more than anything else :)  

Anyways, she suggested Mee Rebus which i think is quite similar to Mee Jaws(oops, i meant Jawa).  Actually I am not too sure if there are differences.  The ongoing Malaysian Food Fest (MFF)  came to mind so I look around for a Johor style Mee Rebus  I was very happy to land on a recipe that credited a Anak Johor (i.e. Johor state born and bred) and I also found that many have tried this recipe including Annie, the MFF host for this month. 

Mee Rebus is a Malay all in one noodle dish with yellow noodles being used most of the time.  Noodles are blanched then eaten with some condiments on top of a sweet and slightly spicy gravy which unique flavors come from spices, meat and sweet potatoes.

All nice and pretty until...

I spilled some gravy on the beancurd while pouring it over and I was lazee... But it does take a lot to make everything look nice and pretty, take photos, change pose, then continue taking more shots especially when you have something like this staring at you and begging you to eat it while it's piping hot!  So, pardon the blots on the photos!

  

And one final shot before digging in! Yum!

Recipe
Source : Annielicious and Masam Manis, with original source from Iza Akma

Ingredients

• 300g Minced Beef
• 250g Orange Sweet Potatoes
• 35g Dried Shrimp, washed, drained then finely ground
• 2 stalks of Lemongrass, cut into 5 inch length, bruised
• 8 pcs Star Anise
• 5 tbsp Pre-Packed Chilli Paste (More/less per preference)
• 2 tbsp Curry Powder
• 1 tbsp Coriander Powder
• 1 cube Beef Stock (or replaced with chicken stock powder)
• ½ cup Tamarind Juice  (mix 1 tsp Tamarind Paste top up with ½ cup water)
• 50g Grated Palm Sugar/Gula Melaka (More/less per preference)
• Salt per preference
• 1liter water
• 4 tbsp cooking Oil

Spices for Gravy

• 3 onions
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 inch ginger
• 3/4 inc galangal
• 1 candlenut

Noodles and Condiments

• 500g yellow noodles, wash, blanch in boiling water
• 200g bean sprouts, wash, blanch in boiling water
• 3 pieces fried tofu, sliced
• 3 hard boiled eggs, cut into quarters
• 4 calamansi, halfed
• Parsley 
• Red and Green Chillies (if preferred)
• Fried Shallots (if preferred)

Steps

1. Boil sweet potatoes (skin on) until soften, remove skin then mashed them.  Set aside.
2. Prepare spices for gravy then grind everything together.  Set aside.
3. Heat oil in a wok, add in star anise and lemongrass, fry till fragrant.
4. Add in ground spices, fry until fragrant.
5. Add chilli paste and fry until aroma is present.
6. Add ground dried shrimps and fry until aroma is present.
7. Add in grounded minced beef. (I was greedy, I wanted to try the original recipe and some beef balls like what Annie did...so I added half added in at this stage while the other were made into balls).
8. Add curry powder and coriander powder, mix well.
9. Add water, beef/chicken stock and bring to a boil.
10. Add in meat balls (if made), and stir gently to prevent them from sticking together or breaking.
11. Under medium low heat, add in mashed sweet potatoes, tamarind juice, palm sugar and salt. Continue to stir until the mashed sweet potatoes incorporated into gravy.  
12. Let it simmer for awhile until gravy slightly thickened.  Slightly more water can be added if a more watery gravy is preferred.
13. Prepare noodles and condiments.  Scoop gravy onto noodles, garnish with parsley, fried chillies and shallots.  Savour!

I am submitting this to Malaysian Food Fest Event ( Johor Month ) hosted by Annie of Annielicious Food

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Fried Chempedak and Mum's Not So Secret Recipe

We had these for tea yesterday.  Mum made them and they tasted really great.  And I learned that she has a special deep frying batter recipe which I think is worth sharing.  

What are these? A local fruit fried in batter, in a manner similar to banana fritters.   A street food found  when the fruits are in season.  The name of the fruit is Chempedak, an exotic fruit native to South East Asia.  I searched around and I don't think there's an English name for it, but its close cousin known as Nangka in the local language is Jackfruit in English.  Some say the fruit looks ugly, its edible arils are kinda soft and gooey adding to the ugly definition.  But they have a very strong aroma (which some can't stand, something of the durian category)  and they are sweet tasting.  They can be eaten raw but taste heavenly when fried in batter.

A look at the arils, I love the beautiful orangey hue.  Depending on the size of the fruit, one can get around 50-100 arils in a fruit.

And this is how they looked after being fried.  It's a little unfortunate that the arils are kinda thin for this particular fruit (think Forrest Gump and his box of chocolate).  Note the nice, crisp golden brown and non greasy thin layer of batter.   Can you see its gooey texture??

Now, coming to Mum's special recipe...Typically batter for deep frying would be made from flour and water with a little salt added in.  Out of curiosity, I asked Mum for her recipe because I found hers very light, thin, crunchy and most importantly not greasy.  I wasn't expecting anything extra ordinary but I was pleasantly surprised to know that she added 2 tablespoons of instant oats into her batter! Way to go Mum, such a brilliant way to sneak oats into our diet! Am not sure if it resulted in the nice texture of the batter but it sure didn't taste like it was there!  Besides oats, she used a ratio of 20% rice flour to 80% wheat flour plus a teaspoon baking powder.   Sorry, no exact measurements, simply because Mum doesn't think it's necessary.   Some wise words from her though, the batter should be slightly thick, not runny.  Classic example of Mum's knows best!  

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Green Green Taste of Home

I had the strongest desire to write this down almost immediately.  This is the first time I am making this ever since I started this blog.  Nostalgia, this dish brings back lots of cherished memories from the yesteryears not only for myself, possibly for many of you who are reading this too.   If I am making you miss home a lot more, especially for those in faraway lands, awww...I plead my guilt :)

A simple stir fry green dish but these greens are special.  They grow wild.  Known as paku-pakis in the Malay language it's actually a type of wild fern shoots.  In fact if we share the same homeland, I am pretty sure that just by looking at these photos you would have formed a conclusion that say she's from a kampung (aka village) :) Yes, I was from a kampung :)    This started off as a delicacy of the rural people although it is available in some restaurants nowadays.  These greens cooked in chili paste, dried shrimps and shrimp paste is so crunchy, refreshing, flavorful, spicy...in short heavenly.

It's the rainy season now, and these ferns grow in abundance in this weather.  Flashback...when I was young and living in my kampung, we got to eats lots of these during rainy seasons.  Big Uncle will pluck them from his rubber estate for Ah Mah to cook.  The other wild plant that we get during the rainy season is a type of mushroom that is so delicious when cooked in chinese wine, i shall not deviate and steal the limelight from this beautiful fern this time around.  Then comes the phone call informing us about the bountiful 'harvest' and asking us to go back to savor them.  There was so much to share, everyone gets to eat their to heart's content! I remember some of us would take a whole rice bowl of these greens and just munch away on them like having a nice green snack.  And today, all I got was this measly amount for RM2.

Here's a piece of advice dished out by Ah Mah ~ 

Since this is a wild plant, there's this risk of picking plants that have been contaminated (possibly from picking the wrong fern or those that got some pesticide sprayed to rid weeds in the estate).  So, the golden words from Ah Mah was to throw in a few slices of ginger when stir-frying, if ginger turns black, this means these ferns are not to be eaten.  

Only the shoots are to be eaten, discard the stems (starting from the portion that you can't break with your fingers).  So, prettily green they are, aren't they?

The greens are then blanched in hot water.  This step is obmitted in some recipes, but we do this to get rid of the puckery taste and also to lessen the stir frying time which will make it look dark and wimpy otherwise.

Recipe

• 1 bundle of paku pakis (approximately 150g)
• 30g dried shrimp
• 1 tsp dried shrimp paste granules
• 5 shallots, sliced finely
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chili paste
• Slices of red chili (optional)
• Juice from 1 calamansi/lime
• 1 tsp sugar

1. Stir fry shallots, garlic, dried shrimps and shrimp paste granules until fragrant.
2. Add in blanched paku pakis.
3. Mix and stir fry until shoots are slightly withered.
4. Add in calamansi juice
5. Dish up and serve hot with white rice.

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Chicken Rice Malaysian Style

Of late, our country has been attracting some attention, unfortunately of the wrong kind. Nothing that has left us feeling proud except for the bit on Penang's Assam Laksa getting the No. 7 spot on the world's Top 50 delicious food, based on CNN International food survey (The Sunday Star, 24 July 2011). Way to go Penang!

A lot of us (myself included) are sadden and disappointed by the state of many events that have happened. It is even worse when racial or religious sentiments are played when in fact these issues are in no relation to it at all. On the contrary, we live among each other in gracious harmony, more so if emotions along racial/religious lines are left unstirred.


Most of us were brought up to respect each other irregardless of races. We got to know each other, learn each other's culture, appreciate each other's delicacies and sometimes adapt each other's ways into our lives without even realising it.

Food is definitely one thing that brought the many races of Malaysia together. We enjoy Malay food as much as they do, we love their Rendangs, Roti Jala, Dodol, Lemang and so much more. Like wise, the Malays love our Hainanese Chicken Rice, Yong Tow Foo, Paus etc, etc. Our Indian friends' Banana Leaf Rice, Roti Canai, Putumayams , Curries etc etc are food to die for.

I hope I have not confused anyone with the title of this post. By no means is this officially recognised as Malaysian style Chicken Rice. It is just me twigging around with some recipes but I would very much like to think that it is reflective of our Malaysian spirit. Typically, I would prepare Chicken Rice the Chinese way where the chicken is steamed. Instead, I chose to grill some chicken wings with spices following the Malay style.

Some greens were prepared in a style common to the Chinese where the greens are blanched in hot water and then seasoned with some oyster and soy sauce.

As for the rice, I substituted it with butter rice instead of the rice cooked with chicken stock as per Chinese Chicken rice. Butter Rice reminds me of my Indian friends' ghee rice.

The taste blended well with each other, just like how we live peacefully among each other. So, who says we are not Malaysians first?? I believe most of us already are ...

Fellow Malaysians, let's pray and do whatever we can for this motherland that we love!

Source
Grilled Chicken Wings Malay Style ~ Dapurku Sayang
Butter Rice ~ Nasi Lemak Lover

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Purple Duo

Love the color more than anything else :) These were made from Purple Sweet Potatoes. According to little one Purple is the new Red, whatever that means! For now, purple is his favourite color since he's still feeling a little Bieberish!!

1. Purple Sweet Potato Swirl Bread

I thought this time i will attempt some swirls instead of making an entire purple loaf. It turned out to be a shade of pink instead of purple! Probably because the potatoes were from a different species, they had a light instead of a dark purple hue. The bread was very soft, potatoes always have that effect on bread. Moreover, this recipe used the tangzhong method. A nice hint of potato fragrance and sweetness in its presence.

2. Purple Sweet Potato Ondeh Ondeh
Had to find something else to make with leftover sweet potatoes from the breadmaking session. It was between this and a chiffon cake.

Ondeh-ondeh, a traditional Malay kuih (meaning cake), normally served during tea time or as dessert. Err, mine is a wee bit of digression from the traditional ones. Those are made from yellow sweet potatoes and infused with pandan juice, giving them a green shade. These little balls are essentially mashed sweet potatoes mixed with glutinous rice flour. They are then filled with some Gula Melaka (palm sugar) in the centre and boiled. Once ready, they are rolled in fresh grated coconuts, giving them a furry look :) Something that i learned to make during the early days of my Home Science subject, a long long time ago... The best part about eating this is when you bite into them, the palm sugar will squirt in your mouth,blending with the rice balls giving them a nice, sweet, fragrant and slightly chewy bite.

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Lace Crepes?

What is in a name? Everything or nothing? A rose by any other name smells as sweet, so the proverb goes :) Nah, I think there is something in a name...at least for me.

When I saw how the humble Roti Jala (which most Malaysians would know) was 'christened' Lace Crepes over the Net, all I could say was Wow! How glamourous! Like how Cinderella became a princess overnight when prince charming swept her off her feet :) Exaggeration overboard? ...but standout in a menu it will I am sure :) Jala literally means Net and Roti is Bread, had I been the one to do the christening, the word Net will make its presence, it wouldn't have crossed my mine to replace it with something so intricate as Lace! So vain and uppity! Hats off to the one who thought of it !

Actually, this is very similar to crepe. Made from similar ingredients except that coconut milk is used in this one minus the butter plus some turmeric powder. The other thing is the appearance. While the crepe is like a thin piece of pancake, this one uses a mould to get the effect of a circular shaped net. Herein, lies the challenge, this is where one takes pride of her 'roti jala'; the more net like and the thinner, the better. Pretty obvious that there's not much claiming that I can do yet :(

The batter is poured into the mould and you twirl it in circular motion to create the net effect onto a hot non-stick pan. The trick for a beautiful net is to ensure the batter is thin and smooth (by pouring it through a strain first) and to put in a considerable amount of batter into the mould (3/4 full) so that it creates a force that makes a consistent flow through the holes otherwise you will get polka dots instead of nets!

These crepes are a delicacy of the Malay origin, typically served during festivities and eaten with curries. The serving dish is another thing that deserves mentioning, a modified version of a traditional Malay food cover (known as Tudung Saji). It has a serving tray attached to it. In a tropical country like ours, food has to be covered constantly to prevent flies from settling on them. The traditional Malay food cover has a net like material (yes, nets again) sewn on to small frames made from the mengkuang (from the screwpine family), before plastic ones reared its head that is...

Enough said, one thing that we Malaysians are truly proud of is the variety and diversity in our food, a heritage from our multicultural society. The taste? Delicious. I think besides making it look pretty, the holes serve a purpose too. It makes it lighter and less overpowering compared to a whole complete piece. It goes very well with curries. Little one had at least 10 pieces in total over lunch and again for tea. Need I say more?

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