Terengganu Delights

You might have come across some specialties from the states of Malaysia in the blogsphere the past few months, I think this is the 3rd month if I am not mistaken.   An online event, the Malaysian Food Fest that aims to introduce culinary specialties from the 14 states in the country is ongoing and October is Terengganu month and hosted by Lena of Frozen Wings.   An event worth following, you will get to know many mouth-watering dishes, after all eating is known as one of our favorite pastimes :)

Before this, it was always the beautiful sandy, crystal clear beaches that comes to mind whenever this state is mentioned.   Then comes the Keropok Lekor and Nasi Dagang, now I know there are so many more!  Intrigued by  dishes shared by Phong Hong of Phong Hong Bakes, with recipes coming from  her family's heirloom,  I tried 2 of her recipes Kay Hong and Kay Pachok.   Hints of Nyonya influence from the name of the dishes and the ingredient list was the other thing that caught my attention.

I first tried the Kay Hong which means Braised Chicken in Hokkien.   The original recipe calls for a mixture of chicken and pork belly.  Unfortunately, I only had pork ribs and belly on the night that I chose to try out the recipe, so it was pork ribs instead :)  I am not sure if this twist will deem it unacceptable for submission to the event.  Anyway, it turned out delicious.

This other dish is Kay Pachok, Kay like Kay in 'Kay Hong' means Chicken in Hokkien and as for Pachok, it's the Terengganu Malay dialect for skewer, so it's Chicken on Skewers when put together.  Similar to Satay, another meat on skewers specialty but the spices used are different and this one is lightly steamed before hitting the grill.

Verdict? They were delicious!

Kay Pachok behind a veil?  I love this improvised Malay style food cover :) 

Kay Hong without the Kay?

Recipe source - Credit to Phong Hong of Phong Hong Bakes

Kay Pachok 

Kay Hong

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest, Terengganu Month hosted by Lena of frozen wings 

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One Stone Kill Many Birds

Steaming, the 1 stone kill many (yes, many, definitely more than 2) birds method of cooking.   Easy, fast, retains the original texture, freshness and flavor of the food thus keeping nutrients intact.  Notice the colors remain vibrant too?  One of the healthiest way of cooking.  Works especially well when ingredients are really fresh (fish for example), the heat from the steam gently diffuses through the food and let it cook in its own juice.  Yummeh! 

Besides steaming, this dish has an added health benefit factor.  Some Chinese herbs, specifically red dates, wolf berries and dried longans were used.    Common ingredients that the Chinese used for making herbal soup known to nourish the body.   

What's unique about this recipe is the herbs were first boiled together for awhile to make a soup base before pouring it onto the fish slices and steamed.  Because of this, the taste of the herbs was more prominent and blended into the fish.  The juice from the fish made the broth even tastier which made it good with rice and could be drank directly like a soup.

It is best to take steamed dishes as soon as it is ready.  We had it on a cold rainy day (the monsoon season has started over here) and with a dash of Shaoxing wine on the dish, it did feel so good to have it warm our stomachs :)

Recipe

Source : Steamed Cuisine by Hoe Yee (variations in blue)

Ingredients

Part A

• 500g fish slices (I used threadfin, original recipe was for frog)
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp fried shallot oil (obmitted, lazy on the pretext of trying to reduce oil intake)
• 1/2 tbsp corn flour

Part B

• 8g Dang qui (obmitted, not in little one's favour)
• 10g wolfberries
• 10g dried longan
• 10g Yuk Chuk (refer note at the bottom)
• 10g red dates
• 100ml water

Seasoning

• 1 1/2 tbsp ginger juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Method

1. Place ingredients Part B in a small pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, let it simmer for 5 minutes and leave to cool.
2. Season fish with seasoning and corn flour and arrange on a steaming plate for at least 1 hour.
3. Pour cooked ingredients B (together with soup) on fish and steam on high heat for 7 minutes or until cooked.
4. Give fish a dash of Shaoxing wine and fried shallot oil if prepared.
5. Server hot with steamed rice.

Note:- I made a very silly mistake here, the recipe stated yuzu, and since it was a chinese translated one, I had to guess what yuzu was, I thought it was yuzu the citrus.  After many hours, fish long digested, it suddenly struck me it was Yuk Chuk the Chinese herb!  I was more familiar with it known as Yuk Chuk in Cantonese instead of Yuzu!  I asked hubs to reconfirm from the Chinese characters! What a blunder, but i think it didn't do much harm instead it was nice because Korean yuzu is slightly tangy and bitterish compared to the rest of the herbs which are sweet.   How silly of me!

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Stewed Pork Ribs in Orange Juice

I came across this interesting twist to the otherwise quite a common homey dish for Chinese families.  Instead of stewing in soy sauce, orange juice was used.  And because it was stewed instead of fried and drizzled with orange sauce, the flavor was much more intense. The meat was tender but with some crisp parts due to some slight browning and bursting with rich orange flavors. 

Dish was well received, we had this over dinner, hence the poor night lighting photo.  I don't like the shiny finishing caused by flash lights.  So most of the time I try making dishes that are blog-worthy during the day :) But I am glad that the orange tint is quite obvious and with some orange fibre bits in sight for this dish to lift up to its name.

One thing to bear in mind, make sure the oranges are sweet, apparently this is the key thing for this dish.  Not sure to what extend but I took it so seriously that I cut another after tasting that the first one wasn't exactly sweet.

Recipe

Source : Christine's Recipes

Ingredients

• 700g pork ribs
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 1 tsp finely chopped garlic
• 2 tsp white cooking wine

Ingredients for sauce

• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, sifted
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp raw sugar
• 1/2 tsp orange zest (only the orange part) - I obmitted this, was afraid i would end up with some white parts that will make the sauce bitter and spoil the dish

Method

1. Rinse pork ribs and wipe dry with kitchen papers. Season with salt and pepper on both sides.
2. Use a claypot or a large saucepan. Pour in the sauce and bring it to a boil over medium heat.
3. While heating sauce, brown pork ribs on a frying pan until both sides are lightly golden. Push pork ribs to sides of pan, add a bit more of oil and saute grated ginger and garlic until fragrant. Sprinkle wine. Quickly stir to combine all ingredients.
4. Transfer to the boiling sauce and cover with a lid. Cook until it boils again.
5. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours, or until sauce reduced to about 1/5, thickened, and the pork is softened and caramelized. Serve hot with steamed rice.

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月福 wishes to all

It's Mid-Autumn festival today.  I will just do a quick post to share what I have been up to this season and also to wish everyone lots of 月福 with this Nespresso Peach Yogurt Jelly Mooncake.  This is my new mould for this year, I think it's really pretty.

I made this for my self indulgence.  The crazy coffee addict in me put a cup of Nespresso in it.  And how I love the aroma...

To complement the coffee, I put in peach flavored yogurt and some peach cubes.  They blend really well, the bitter sweet coffee and the sweet sourish peach.    

Have lots of fun under the beautiful moon tonight!

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Shanghai Mooncakes

Vroom, vroom...I got my mooncake making engine started over the weekend :) Mooncake festival is in 1 month's time.  I have been making quite a few types of mooncakes over the past 2 years.    And I am really glad to have started learning how to make them, store bought ones are really expensive nowadays.  To kickoff this mooncake making spree, i started with something light and easy (as in lesser effort, lower skill level and no resting time required for the mooncakes, after a year of waiting, this part is mental torture!). These are known as Shanghai mooncakes.

Personally, I feel these are a modern variation compared to their traditional cousins.  Although they have similar fillings, the pastry is very different.  This one has a crisp and buttery crust.

While writing, this question pop  up in my mind, why are they known as Shanghai mooncakes, is that where they originated??    Not much of an answer out there, except that it seems to be more popular in  this part of the world instead of China...?

Pardon the ugly cut, was too impatient to start indulging!

Verdict?
They tasted quite good, not bad at all.  And I think they look pretty with a walnut and a sizzle of sesame seeds :)

Recipe
Source : Mooncake Selections by Khoo See Yew (with a twist highlighted in blue)



Ingredients 
Pastry

• 280g flour (50% All Purpose flour, 50% cake flour)
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 30g custard powder 
• 100g icing sugar
• 1 1/2 eggs
• 75g butter, 75g shortening (150g butter)
• Walnuts and sesame seed

Filling

• Lotus paste filling

Method

1. Mix and sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and custard sugar in a bowl.
2. Mix butter and icing sugar until even, add in eggs then mix in sifted flour until becomes soft dough.
3. I left dough in fridge overnight before moulding them the next morning.
4. Divide the dough into equal portions of 40g each.  Wrap with filling of equal weight. (Original recipe was 30g dough, 20g filling)
5. Brush with egg yolk, sprinkle with sesame seeds and top with a walnut.
6. Bake at 180C for 25 minutes.  After 10 minutes, remove and brush with another layer of egg yolk.

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Berrilicious Buns

Been awhile since I made some buns.  One needs a fair bit of time on hand for bread making, what more buns where extra effort is needed for fillings and shaping too.  With the bonus of a public holiday following  a weekend, I took the opportunity to make (and blog about) these over  the weekend.

I prepared the dough using the sponge dough method. This method yields bread that is soft but yet able to give a texture to the bite. Was undecided about the fillings when I started off.  

I proof them in tart pans, love the fluted edge effect.  Price to pay to look pretty (yes, for buns too), pans need to be greased and don't forget the washing that comes with it!

A peak into what's inside...fresh strawberries with cream cheese.   Probably, the thing running in your mind now would be "I don't see any strawberries..."  That was in my mind too when I split the bun as in "Hey, where did my strawberries go?"  Probably I cut them too small and they melted and blended into the cream cheese! Nevertheless, the taste and fragrance was evident.

Another variation with cranberries instead of fresh strawberries in their fillings.

Recipe
Source : Bread Magic by Alan Ooi for dough, Mix and match for fillings

Ingredients for bread dough 
Part A

• 200gm  bread flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 120 ml water 

Part B

• 150gm  bread flour
• 60g sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp milk powder
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 egg
• 50g butter

Ingredients for fillings

• 125 gm cream cheese
• 50g sugar
• Fresh strawberries/dried cranberries

Methods for making bread dough

1. Combine ingredients for Part A.  Mix until soft dough formed.  Leave dough covered in a bowl and let it proof for 2 to 3 hours.
2. After 2/3 hours,  combine ingredients for Part B.  Add in dough from no. 1.  If dough appears dry, drizzle in a little water.  Mix and beat until dough is smooth and elastic to touch.
3. Cover dough for 30 minutes in a warm place until it has doubled in size.
4. Divide the dough into 40g portions and shape them into small balls and rest them for 5 minutes.
5. Flatten dough portions, wrap in some filling.  Seal edges and place on a baking tray.
6. Cover tray with damp cloth and proof till double the size.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 15 minutes.

Method of making fillings

1. Combine cream cheese and sugar. 
2. Beat with mixer.
3. Divide into half, mix one part with strawberries and the other with dried cranberries.

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Of Snowy Mountains and Shining Stars

This one is worthy of a place here.  The name is Hokkaido cupcakes something that was a hit among bloggers some time back and I did catch the bug and tried it out then.   The first attempt didn't turn out so pretty.   Over last weekend, it became my second and third attempt as gifts for friends and loved ones.  When it turned out well during the second attempt, I made another the next day :)

I have to say I am really proud of them.  I think they turned out really well.  I love how they rose right above the brim of the cup with a nice dome and prominent cracks to fill with cream and best of all no shrinking.  Now, I am not sure if this is how they should look like as most of those that I have seen have a flatter or crumbly top.  You will see why mine doesn't if you scrutinize how I twig the recipe :)  I didn't bother to pipe the cream though, just top a tablespoon on each of them.  Made 2 different toppings, strawberries  and the other was dried cranberries, blueberries and a pecan.

Ingredients
Source : Nasi Lemak Lover with variation in blue

• 3 egg yolks
• 25g caster sugar
• 35g corn oil
• 60g milk
• 70g cake flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder 

• 3 egg whites
• 20g caster sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 100g whipping cream
• 20g icing sugar
• 1 tsp instant custard powder

• Icing sugar for dusting

1. Pre-heat oven to 170C.
2. Sift flour and baking powder twice.  Set aside.
3. Use hand whisk, beat egg yolks and sugar until pale in colour.  Add in oil and milk, mix well.  Add in flour.
4. Use electric whisk, beat egg white until foamy, add in lemon juice and sugar in 2 additions until stiff peaks.
5. Fold 1/3 egg white into egg yolk batter.
6. Fold in balance egg white until well combined.
7. Fill in paper cups to almost full.
8. Bake for 18-20 minutes.  I left cakes in oven with door ajar for 5 minutes before removing them to cool completely.
9. To prepare cream, use electric whisk to beat whipping cream and sugar in a bowl of ice water until stiff peaks.  Add in custard powder.
10. Spoon or pipe on cakes when they are cool.  Keep refrigerated.

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