Indian rojak

Have been wanting to make this for the longest time ever but everytime I think of the lecehness and the time taken and only me to eat it....

But this time, after seeing so many pictures of it being posted by my friend S, I had to do something about it. So...I have and here it is. I halved the recipe as I only wanted to see what it was like. Actually, it turned out ok. Do give it a try if you are craving for this.

The recipe is a mixture of recipes that I picked up from the internet. The dough recipe is from my friend Zu of Zu's Kitchen..

The recipe below is the full recipe. I only made the dough ingredients and the coconut cake.


Dough

Ingredients
500g all purpose flour
5g instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
500-600ml water
1/2 tbsp tumeric powder

Method
1. Sift flour with yeast, tumeric powder and salt into a bowl
2. Pour water a little at a time till the batter becomes like a fritter's batter.
3. Cover bowl with cling wrap and leave it to proof for about 2.5hr - 3hr or till double in size
[This dough will be used for some of the rojak ingredients ]

Rojak ingredients without dough - deep fried and drain oil well
2 firm tofu, cut into 4
4 tempe, coat with a bit of tumeric and salt
4 fish cake
4 hard boiled egg
2 boiled potatoes

Rojak ingredients with dough
2 hard boiled eggs
2 boiled potatoes
2 tbsp sesame seed
2 firm tofu
some prawns
a bit of orange colouring (optional)

Method to fry dough ingredients
1. Heat oil in a wok/pot
2. Divide dough into 4 parts

1st part of dough
----------------------
- Fry it into balls

2nd part of dough
-----------------------
- Coat the hardboiled eggs and sprinkle some sesame and fry till crispy

3rd part of dough
----------------------
- Coat tofu with dough and put one prawn and fry till crispy-


4th part of dough
----------------------
Coat the potatoes with the dough and sprinkle with sesame and fry till crispy

Ingredients - Coconut Cake
150g fresh grated coconut
100g rice flour
1 egg
1 tsp chicken stock granule
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp salt
2-3 tbsp water

Method - Coconut Cake
1. Combine the ingredients, press some mixture with palm, put into hot oil carefully. Deep-fry over medium heat until golden browned and crispy. Remove and drain well. Leave to cool and cut into pieces. Keep aside.

Ingredients - Rojak Sauce
300g sweet potatoes
200g peanuts, toasted and grounded - I omitted
12 shallots, pounded
4 garlic cloves, pounded
4 tbsp chilli paste / chilli boh
1 tsp shrimp paste powder
100g palm sugar / gula melaka, crushed
50g sugar
4 tbsp cooking oil
800ml water

Method - Rojak Sauce
1. Steam sweet potatoes over high heat until cooked and soften. Remove, leave to cool and peel. Mash or pounded until finely paste. Keep aside.

2. Heat up cooking oil in the preheated wok to fragrant pounded shallots and garlic. Add in chilli paste and shrimp paste powder, stir-fry briskly until aromatic. Pour in water and bring to a boil.

3. Add in sweet potato paste, palm sugar and sugar. Cook until sugar is completely dissolves then blend in grounded peanuts, stir well and continue to cook for awhile. Remove from heat, ready to serve.

Dinner request

Baby sitting and Dinner Request

As we wanted to give the new parents some time off to themselves, we offered to babysit James. They visit quite often on Sundays but this is the first time after 20+ years that I will be looking after a baby for the whole night. I was so worried and had so many what ifs.... but little Mr. was a darling.

His parents dropped him off around 7+ so that's when I fed him, then around 10 gave him his bath -ooo... he loves his bath time, he is ever so quite then, just enjoying the warmth of the water! So anyway, after his bath, gave him his last feed and he only woke up at 4 for his next. Dropped off again straight after that and did not wake up till 8. Hope he will be like this next time we baby sit!

So anyway after his parents picked him up in the morning, I went supermarket shopping as I had invited some friends over for dinner. I offered to make nasi lemak but he was craving chicken rice. He is leaving for Singapore on Wednesday for a holiday and yet he wanted chicken rice. Told him if my chicken rice was not good enough then do not blame me! hehe.

So menu for the night was boiled chicken, har cheong kai (this is more for Pat as he does not like plain chicken), siu yoke and oyster sauced chye sim. Dessert was pavlova and special request of kueh kosui - no pics as you can find them in the archives!

Sorry pictures look terrible as I only remembered to take them halfway during the meal!

Dinner guests

My house guests


Apologies for not posting for some time. Have been busy lately as Pat's father is ill and in hospital, so after work, go home, go to hospital visit him, and then back home and have dinner. So by the time dinner's over, sometimes it is already 9pm and just to lazy/tired to log on. Pat's father is 91 he was hospitalised slightly over a week ago. At first we suspected that he had stroke as he could not speak, but he had the use of his arms and legs, so that could not be. He had a brain scan on Monday and the doctors told us that it was indeed not a stroke and when they did a blood test, we were told he had contracted MRSA and the only place that he could have gotten that was at the nursing home that he was at. So please say a prayer that he will recover soon.

Anyway, back to my dinner guests 2 Saturdays ago.
I only got to "speak" with terri. of Daily Obsessions recently. I normally read a lot of blogs but I am a silent reader. But because I sent Terri an award, and she replied. That's how I started communicating with her. I learnt that she would be in Europe for 2 1/2 months holiday as her daughter was finishing her 6 month exchange student stint, so she took the opportunity to travel around the continent.

So when I heard that Terri would be coming here, I took the opportunity to invite her over to stay the Saturday night for dinner and then take her and daughter to airport the next day. I live about 20 mins from the airport so it is really convenient! I was so happy that she accepted my invitation! I had a really good time with Terri and Yi. Thank you!

Was not sure of what to cook for dinner, but this was my menu for the evening. And as for dessert, made summer pudding. This is a typical English dessert which Pat loves and now Terri says she loves it too. So Terri, recipe is below and I will post step by step pictures shortly.

Satay Babi
Banana/Mango/Prawn packet
Thai Grilled Chicken
Yong Tau Fu
Nonya Chap Chye
and for dessert - Summer Pudding

I did not take pictures of the food as Terri and Yi were doing so! So my pictures are just file pictures (when I did them before)

Satay Babi - file picture


Banana/Mango/Prawn packet - file picture


Summer pudding
Recipe from Saturday Kitchen - James Martin

Ingredients
400g/14oz mixed berries, trimmed
2 tbsps water
50g/2oz caster_sugar
14 thin slices white_bread, crusts removed
oil, for greasing
200g/7oz clotted_cream/thick cream, optional

Preparation method
1. Heat the berries, sugar and water in a saucepan until boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
2. Blend half of the fruits in a blender and strain the purée through a sieve. Reserve the remaining fruit.
3. Stamp out four circles from four slices of the bread to fit the bottom of four small dariole moulds* and set aside. Stamp out four larger circles for the top of the moulds and set aside. Cut the remaining bread into wide strips the same height as the moulds.
4. Lightly oil the inside of each mould and line with cling film.

5. Dip the small bread circles into the purée and place into the moulds. Repeat with the wide strips of bread and use them to line the sides of the mould, making sure that they overlap slightly.
6. Fill the moulds with the reserved fruit and a little of the purée and press the mixture down firmly.

7. Dip the larger circles of bread in the purée and use them to cover the tops of the moulds. Cover with the cling film competely.

8. Chill the puddings in the fridge until ready to serve.
9. To serve, turn the puddings out onto serving plates and serve with a spoonful of clotted cream or double cream if using.


*Note: I used ramekins

Unexpected Dinner guests

Unexpected Dinner Guests

We went to Katrina's house to have a look at Rob's car as she said there was something wrong with it and wanted Pat to have a look at it. It was a beautful day and I sat in the sunshine while Pat had a look at the car. Then Katrina asked Rob what they were going to do for dinner, so on impulse I invited them to our place for dinner. It was a good thing I went to the supermarket that morning, so I had a packet of chicken and a pack of lamb neck fillet.

As for the sui mai, had already pre made the filling a couple of nights ago as I was craving for it!

So this is what I made. Got home at 6 and got dinner at the table by 7.45. Not bad, right?


Oyster sauce grilled chicken


mixed fried veg


Lamb and spinach curry


Sui Mai

Popiah Dinner

Popiah Dinner!

As Kris was coming down from Wales, we invited Siat as well so we could play a 3 kaki mahjong game. Kris was going to buy a roast duck from Bayswater to supplement our dinner, but as Circle line was not operating she came directly to my place instead. So I offered to make popiah. Of course I did not have bangkwang and and instead of using celeriac as I normally do, thought I would try something different and use kohlrabi to see what the difference in taste would be like. Went to Tesco, walked round the vegetable department and couldn't find it. Asked the helpers there but unfortunately, they were no help as they didnt know what a kohlrabi is and made it seem like my pronunciation was so bad that they did not understand me. Geesh!Hopefully I will be able to find kohlrabi in another supermarket another day and try it and I will let you know which is better! Anyway, am showing pictures of celeriac and kohlrabi here.

Celeriac


Kohlrabi


In addition to popiah, I made Tau Yew Bak as well and remembered that I had some Bak Kwa left over from? Anyway defrosted that and grilled it! Yum!

After dinner, played mahjong till 0230. Hurray!

Braised pork in soy sauce

Braised pork in soy sauce

Was going to make beef with asparagus but thought would do a Roast Beef Dinner on either Sunday or Monday, decided to make braised beef and Fried Okra in Sambal instead.

Braised Pork


Sambal Okra

Guests for dinner

Dinner - No Soy

We had guests for dinner but one of them had an allergy to soy - so I had to cook without using soy sauce. Well, Chinese cooking uses a lot of soy sauce, so I had to crack my head to think of things to cook without soy.

As there were only 4 of us, I only made 5 dishes:

Gado Gado - Indonesian salad
Sweet and sour fish
Ngor Hiang - rolled pork
Chicken marinated in Tamarind
Satay Babi - Pork cooked in Chilli coconut paste

Gado Gado


Sweet and Sour Fish


Tamarind Chicken


Satay Babi


Ngor Hiang


Dessert - Mascarpone Panna Cotta

Had friends over for dinner last Saturday and made the following:

Chicken Tempra


Fried Hijiki (Seaweed, Carrots and Taupok)


Gado Gado (Indonesian vegetable salad)


Siew Yoke


Also made Otak, Shrimp Wanton and Ngoh Hiang but forgot to take pixs as was busy trying to serve the food!

Decided in the afternoon that I was going to have Asparagus and Crab rissotto for dinner, so here it is.



Ingredients: - to feed 2 people
(Preparation time: 10 mins, cooking time 25-30 mins)
1 cup arborio rice
25 gms butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion - chopped finely
1 clove garlic - minced
1 bundle asparagus
crab meat
1 cup white wine
1 litre stock - vegetable or chicken (I used chicken)
Parmesan cheese

Method:
1. Break the ends off the asparagus and add it to the stock. Then cut the asparagus on the diagonal and blanch it for about 2 mins in the stock. Remove and refresh in ice-cold water to retain the green colour. In the meantime, keep the stock on low heat in the saucepan.
2. Heat pan and melt butter and add oil. When butter has melted, add minced onion and garlic and fry till translucent - about 5 mins.
3. Add rice till well coated with butter/oil.
4. Fry for about 3 mins, then add in the wine and cook till it is absorbed by the rice.
5. Slowly add in the stock a ladleful at a time and stir constantly. Add in the next ladleful only after all the stock has been absorbed by the rice.
6. Cook until rice has plumped out and cooked.
7. Add in the grated parmesan cheese and stir.
8. Lastly, add in the asparagus and crab meet and fold in gently to heat up.
9. Serve!

Dinner

Last night's dinner.
Asparagus with enoki mushrooms

Fish in Batter

Dinner - 2 nights ago - Fried Spaghetti

This is the western version of our fried noodle. I fry spaghetti with tomato ketchup, seafood and anything else I can find in the freezer. This is good when I come back late from work and need to whip up something in a hurry

Siu Yoke - Roasted Pork Belly

My Singaporean friend and her Belgian husband were in London for a holiday. Invited them to dinner and these are some of the dishes that I cooked for them last Wednesday. As it was a weekday, there was no time to make dessert!



I have modified the Siew Yoke recipe from Hungry Bear's recipe.

Siew Yoke – Roast Pork

Blanch the belly pork in boiling water for about 20 minutes, immersing the pork completely.
After the 20 minutes is up, drain the pork in a colander.

Stab skin with a fork or skewer, literally on every part of the skin, do not be afraid of overdoing it. This is very important as it helps the skin to blister without the need in over salting the skin.

Rub good quality salt on the skin. Then rub a mixture of 5 spiced powder and freshly ground white pepper all over except the skin.

Place pork skin side up on a rack on a roasting tray. Then place in oven at 220 deg C. Roast for about 45 minutes, depending on your oven.

The switch oven to grill mode at about 150 deg C and place skin as close to the grill as possible. You have to watch carefully as the skin blisters very quickly under the grill – about 5 – 10 mins is more than enough!

Rest the meat for at least ten minutes before cutting.

Enjoy

Babi Assam (Pork in Tamarind Sauce)

Ingredients:
1 Kg pork belly – cut into thick slices

(A)
4 candlenuts )
80 gm shallots or 1 big onion ) grind together
1 tbsp shrimp paste )

2 tbsp tau cheo (preserved salted soy beans, ground)
30 gm tamarind – squeezed in 200 ml water and strained
1 tbsp sugar
salt
4 green chillies –slit lengthwise

Method:
1. Heat oil in wok and fry ground ingredients A until fragrant and coloured. Add preserved soy beans and stir over low heat for 5 mins.
2. Add in pork slices and tamarind water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 1 hour till pork is tender. About ½ hour into simmer, add green chillies. (if gravy is low while pork is simmering, add a little more water). Add sugar and salt and adjust seasoning.
Serve hot with rice.