Spicy Salted Eggs/Sambal Telur Masin

This is another dish that I learned from Shereen. She is so amazing that she even brined her own salted duck eggs. I enjoyed eating this simple ‘kampung’ (village) dish with rice.

Ingredients:

3 Salted eggs, hard - boiled and cut into wedges ( remove the shell )
1 Onion, thinly sliced
Salt to taste / if necessary

Gula Melaka Kaya/Palm Sugar Coconut Jam

Making kaya takes time so I don’t make it often and if I do I will make a big batch of it. I will mail some to Diana and keep a couple of jars for myself. It usually will last me a couple of months. I usually will make the regular caramel or pandan kaya but this time I tried using gula Melaka or palm sugar. Since I have a lot of egg yolks leftover from my macarons I decided to use only that in this kaya. It gives the kaya a thicker and richer consistency. For those who are not familiar with kaya you can read about it here .

The kaya turns out really good. It is thick and creamy with the heavenly fragrant of the palm sugar.

Squash Blossom Frittata

One of my favorite to do during summer is to visit all the farmers’ market around my area. I just love the vibrant colors of produce the local farmers were selling. Each time I am at the farmers market I will be on a look out for the bright orange squash blossoms as you would rarely come across it. These blossoms are too fragile and don’t last too long for most supermarkets to handle so you can only find it at farmers’ markets or some upscale grocery stores. These blossoms are generally from zucchini plants, though the flowers of other summer squashes may be eaten, as well. The blossoms have a subtle squash flavor.

I never knew about this delicate delicacy until I came to America. I was walking around the Farmer’s market at Union Square New York and saw these bright orange flowers in one of the vegetable stand. I thought nothing of it until I saw a chef on the Food Network use it in one of his dish. From then on I was obsessed of it. It is pretty expensive but that doesn’t stop me from buying it. I just love to eat the blossom. I normally will make omelet out of it but occasionally I will stuff them with cheese and fried it. I tried planting some zucchini this year but I doubt it will give me enough blossoms for me to make a dish out of it ha ha.. Well, I found some of these blossoms at our local farmers market last week and I grab 2 bags without giving it much thought and get it cooking that very day. I used half of it to make this frittata and with the balance I might make some Korean pancake.

Kuih Akok Kedut - Kelantan Dish 11

I was set to make this kuih for the MFF event after so many people raved about it. Apparently, in Terengganu (a state in Malaysia) kuih akok is smooth looking as they use a higher ratio of flour to eggs whereas their neighbor, Kelantan uses more eggs compared to flour. When a batter has more eggs than flour, the kuih will puff up and then it will shrink upon hitting the cool air hence, the kedut / wrinkly in the name. This kuih is pretty similar to Yorkshire pudding where the kuih will puff up and even the taste is a bit like Yorkshire putting too except that this is the sweet version. As there is quite a substantial amount of eggs in it, the bottom part of the kuih is almost custardy. So, do I like this kuih? I wouldn't sing lyrical on how fantastic this kuih is but it’s a nice enough kuih but not that nice for me to go and hunt for it.

 

 

Kelantanese Egg Curry - Kelantan Dish 10

I've never eaten a curry that tastes quite like this before. The taste is absolutely unique, so don't let the word 'curry' in the title of this recipe fool you. It does not smell or even taste of curry.. not at all! Despite the amount of the dried chilies used, there is not much heat (spicy) to it and thus, this dish is quite kid friendly. There's a hint of sweetness from the coriander seeds used (not sure how to explain this but somehow the coriander actually mellows the rest of the spices) and gives this dish a delicate feel. If you are not a fan of fiery curries, this dish would be perfect and even if you are a fan of fiery curries, do give this a try.

As I was only cooking for two and I do not like to keep hard boiled eggs overnight as they always give me stomach ache ( and also hard boiled eggs don't freeze well ), I only used 5 hard boiled eggs and I reduced the rest of the ingredients by half. The recipe given here is a full recipe by Betty Saw.

Kuih Tahi Itik Kelantan - Kelantan Dish 6

Kuih Tahi Itik (duck’s dropping cake) is very popular in The East Coast of Malaysia especially in Kelantan, my opinion not because of its taste, but probably because of its notorious name. In the olden days, it was more economic for people to raise ducks for their eggs rather than chickens because duck eggs are so much larger, and some say with a better flavor. Chickens were raised more for their meat to feed the family. So traditionally, people used duck eggs for their baking, not chicken. When making Kuih Jala Emas (Golden Net Cake) and Kuih Pauh Di Layang (Cut Mango Cake) which uses only the duck egg yolks, there would always be unused egg whites. So it's inevitable Kuih Tahi Itik would also be made. If you make these two kuihs, you must make the other, kind of like 'The Three Musketeers' of the Kuih world. Since this Kuih Tahi Itik is made from this 'by-product' (egg white diet wasn't in fashion then so no one gave a toss to worry about high calories, fat and cholesterol), it derives its name Tahi, which is also a 'by-product'.

The appearance of the Kuih doesn't help either as it does resemble duck's droppings, whitish in color and in clumps. Trust the olden day people to have such a sick sense of humor... lol. Another theory of mine ( please don't quote me on this ) as to why this kuih is named as such, is because when you stir the kuih, the mixture will take a greenish hue from the pandan leaves which makes you even more aware of how close the color is to duck's droppings! From greenish in color to whitish and in clumps! Just as its namesake looks! I guess you spread it on toast but I much prefer to have it as it is. The shape of my Kuih Tahi Itik is not traditional... for my sake purely! I don't think I can bear eating something that looks vaguely like its name. I have also reduced the amount of sugar but in my opinion, you can reduce it even more if you prefer. I have always wondered about this Kuih Tahi Itik, now I wonder no more.

Egg and Tomato Sandwich

Thank you everyone for your get well wishes. I am getting much better but the coughing still lingers around and refuse to go away. Like my mom said it might stick around for 100 days but I hope not. I have not cook anything elaborate except making sandwiches and rice porridge for the past 2 weeks so this is something that I made for our dinner one evening.

I hardly buy any white bread but I bought a loaf just to make Argentinean Bread Pudding and there were some leftovers. When I see white bread I always think of egg or sardine sandwiches that I had when I was young. It has been a long while since I had that until when we went back to Argentina. My SIL ordered some egg and ham sandwiches from the sandwich place nearby and there were delicious. There were some very unique combinations of sandwiches that we’ve tried there and I am going to try to re-creates them myself one day. So let’s start with something pretty common that most of you knew how to make them but this is the version that we like

Unagi and Tamagoyaki Sushi Rice Bowl

This is my youngest nephew Eu-Xin absolutely favorite thing to eat. Each time he steps into a Sushi place of Japanese restaurant he will order this. He will be very happy if he get to eat this. I have to make it a point to prepare this for him when I go home. Making this rice bowl is so easy. You can find vacuumed packed pre-cooked unagi at the Asian store frozen section. All you have to do is take it out, bake or broil and serve it with some sushi rice. We will usually have this with some avocado or steamed broccoli but since I don’t have any in hand I just made some Tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelet) to go with it.

Open- Face Egg Sandwich

This is a simple egg sandwich that I like to prepare for our quick lunch. There’s really nothing better than a combination of runny egg yolk and lightly toasted whole-grain rustic bread. There isn’t much of a recipe here as you can experiment with any ingredients your taste bud prefers. Before I eat it I like to ‘poke’ the egg with fork and let the warm yolk run down the side before I sink my teeth into it. DE-LI-CIOUS!

Ingredients:

2 slices of toasted whole-grain bread
2 eggs
1 large tomato - sliced
Some lettuce
Half of avocado - sliced
Some mayo
Salt and pepper to taste

Soy Sauce Eggs

I remember years ago there was a myth that said eating too many eggs is bad for you as it will leads to high cholesterol. As for now they do encourage you to eat eggs as they were a great cheap source of protein. Eggs have such amazing versatility to it. You can do all kinds of bakes with it and cook it in many ways. I will throw in a few hard boiled eggs into my stew all the time. Another way I like to prepare them is boiled them in soy sauce. The savory umami of soy sauce, the simple flavor of the whites and the buttery richness of the yolks are fantastic together. I like eating this with rice porridge.

Ingredients:
Adapted from Kylie Kwong: Simply Magic

½ dozen hard boiled eggs – removed shells
3 tablespoon dark soy sauce
½ cup brown sugar
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine
7-8 slices fresh ginger
1 ½ cup of water

Cheesy Orzo Frittata

I have this habit of buy all shapes pasta to keep in my pantry. It is not that we are big pasta eater but I like to keep them handy when I needed them. One of them is Orzo Pasta. Orzo pasta is a type of pasta which is made in the shape of a grain of rice. This pasta is very versatile, and it can be use in soup, salad, casserole or you can even substitute orzo for the rice. The word orzo is Italian for “barley,” and a reference to the size and shape of the pasta. The small size can make orzo fun pasta to work and cook with.

I found this Chicken and Orzo Frittata by Giada De Laurentiis from Food Network.com. I change the recipe a bit with some leftovers from my fridge. I replaced the chicken with some leftover ham, the roasted peppers with sundried tomatoes and added some olives since Carlos is a huge fan of it. Her recipe also calls for crème fraiche, which I don’t usually have on hand so I substituted it with half and half. This is an easy dish to prepare and we enjoyed it with some salad.

This is my version of the frittata but you can check out the original recipe here .

Eggs in Purgatory/Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce

This is something that I learned from an Italian chef a long time ago. He told me that his grandmother used to serve this as a quick, light lunch so that they can all get back to the farm to continue working. I am not sure why such a dramatic name for such a simple Southern Italian Dish. Basically it is just poached eggs in tomato sauce. For this dish I like using over-ripe tomatoes which are plenty during summer. With just a few ingredients you get a healthy robust flavor meal. Remember to get some fresh Italian bread before you make this as you’re going to need it to slop up all the sauce.

Baked Ginger Milk Custard

When I saw the Ginger Milk Curd at Wendy’s blog I knew I just have to try it out. The 1st attempt I fail miserably. The milk didn’t curd at all. I thought I did something wrong as I didn’t use the thermometer to check the temperature of the milk. I decided to try it again right away. This time with the thermometer in hand and making sure the temperature of the milk is just right before pouring it into the ginger juice. The milk did form a light curd on top and that was it. The bottom was till very watery. I am not sure what I did wrong and I have to do more research on this before trying out again. It might have something to do with the milk. So what am I going to do with all the ginger milk?

Stir-fry Okra with Eggs

When Zue came the other day we went to the produce place together and we bought some Okras. The okras here are so much smaller than the one from Malaysia. One thing good about it is they are very tender and you don’t have to cook them for too long. This is something that I like to cook for my lunch. It is quick and simple and goes well with white rice.

Ingredients:

½ pound of fresh Okra
2 eggs
3 tbsp of Sambal
2 shallots – sliced thinly
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
Salt and sugar to taste

1. Wash and dry the Okra. Cut off both ends and cut into small bite size pieces. Put it into microwave safe dish, cover and cook it on high for 2 minutes. Remove and set it aside.
2. Heat up about 2 tbsp of olive oil in the wok. Stir fry shallots and garlic until fragrant and lightly brown. Break in the 2 eggs into the work. Scramble the eggs until half cook.
3. Push the eggs to the side of the wok, and then add in the sambal and okra. Stir them together for a few seconds and combined everything. Add in salt and sugar to taste. Continue to stir-fry until everything is well mix.
4. Dish out and serve with warm rice.

Egg Tarts

Egg tarts come in many variations .There are egg white tarts, milk tarts, honey-egg tarts, Pandan flavor tarts etc but the traditional one is the egg custard tarts which usually serve at dim sum place or at the Chinese Bakeries. These come in two kind of pastry. One which use the sweet short crust pastry and another one is the puff pastry kind. I made the traditional kind using short crust pastry. The custard filling is made out of eggs, milk, sugar and a bit of vanilla. The custard is soft and silky and it contrasted beautifully with the crispy crust. You can always change the filling to pandan, green tea or citrus flavor.

Ingredients for the Pastry

125 gm. butter
60 gm. icing sugar
1 egg yolk
200 gm. flour

Ingredients for Egg Custard

280 gm. fresh milk
110 gm. sugar
3 nos. eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree F. Beat butter and icing sugar till well mixed. Add in the egg yolk and mix well.
2. Add in vanilla and then the flour and mix into a dough. If the dough mixture is a bit dry add a bit of cold water until the dough comes together. Rest the dough for 30mins. Roll out the dough and line the dough into small tart moulds.
3. Bake the tart shell till half-cooked. This will take about 10 min. The pastry should turn white and slightly brown on the edges. Remove from the oven. Turn the oven heat down to 325 degree F
4. For egg custard, heat sugar and milk together. Once sugar dissolves remove from heat Do not boil the milk.
5. Whisk eggs and pour into the milk mixture. Add in the vanilla.
6. Sift the egg custard and pour into tart shells and bake till egg custard sets.

Note : Check your tarts after 12-15 mins of baking. What you can do is to shake the tray of egg tarts and if the custard wobbles, then it a sign that it's not cook and if it doesn't wobble, then it's set and you can take it out from the oven.

Egg Paratha Rolls

I always like to have roti canai or roti paratha for breakfast during weekend in Malaysia. The one that I will always order is roti telur (egg paratha) and eating it with dhal (lentil) curry. It is out of this world. Here in the US we can only get the frozen paratha and I have to improvise it to make my favorite weekend breakfast. Of course it is not as thin and crispy as the one from back home but it still taste pretty darn good with some homemade chicken curry.

Ingredients:

3 pcs of frozen paratha (I used Kawan brand)
3 eggs
½ onion – slice thinly
1 spring onion – cut small
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a bowl beat the eggs, add in salt, pepper, onion and spring onion. Mix well and set it aside.
2. In a non stick pan over medium heat cook the parathas (without oil) until lightly brown on both sides. Remove and set it aside.
3. In the same pan, heat up a bit of olive oil. Pour 1/3 of the eggs mixture into the pan, let it cook for 10 second then place the cooked paratha on top of the omelet.
4. Let the egg set before turning it over to cook through.
5. Remove and roll up the paratha like a Swiss roll. Do the same to the other two parathas.
6. Cut the paratha about 3/4 “thick and you can serve it with some curry.

Note : Do not thaw the frozen paratha.

Salted Egg Yolk Tofu

The first time I tried this dish was when I went back to Malaysia early this year. Cooking with salted egg yolk is very popular at the restaurant there. They will cook crab, prawns and also chicken in it. For today I am trying to re-creates this dish using tofu. The tofu is pan fried until crispy on the outside and still soft on the inside. The richness of the salted egg yolk complements well with bland taste of tofu. Delicious!!

Ingredients:

3 pieces of firm tofu -cut into 1” length
¼ cup of corn flour
1 tsp of salt
½ tsp pepper

Sauce:

1 tablespoon butter
2 cooked salted egg yolks, mashed
3 tbsp of milk
4 bird’s eye chilies, sliced finely
4-5 curry leaves (optional)
1 tsp chicken bullion
1 tsp sugar


1. Cut the tofu and drain dry on paper towel. Combined corn flour, salt and pepper in a plate. Mix well. Dust the tofu with the corn flour. Heat a bit of oil in a frying pan and pan fried the tofu on both side until lightly brown. Dish out and drain the oil on paper towel.
2. Remove any access oil from the frying pan. Melt the butter and add the curry leaves and chilies. Stir fry until fragrant and add in salted egg yolks and milk. Stir rapidly in a circular motion until well mixed. Add in chicken bullion and sugar. Mix well.
3. Add the tofu and coat well in the mixture. Dish out and serve warm.

Shrimp Omelette

I love eggs and I can eat it everyday but I limit myself to eat not more than 3 eggs a week. This is a dish that my mom used to cook for us and it is usually served as a complimentary dish to other dishes on our dinner table. Sometimes she will add long beans, preserved radish, tomato and even pork to it. This is such a versatile dish and you can add just about anything you like to it.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 onions – slice thinly
1 clove of garlic - chopped
8 shrimps – peel and deveined
2 spring onions – cut about 1" length
1 red chili – slice thinly
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Break eggs in a bowl, add a bit of salt and pepper to it. Beat it with a fork and set it aside.
2. Heat up some oil in a non-stick pan, add in onions, garlic, and chili and stir-fry until lightly brown and fragrant.
3. Add in shrimp, stir-fry until the shrimps turn pink, add in some salt and pepper, pour the eggs into the pan, sprinkle the spring onions on top, wait for 2-3 minutes till it is cooked through, and then flip the other side.
4. Cook for another minute and dish out. Serve with warm rice.

Hard Boiled Eggs in Spicy Sauce (Egg Sambal)

I've been really lazy lately. Lunch and dinner is always something that I can cook in a short period of time with minimal ingredients. Eggs are one of them as they are probably the cheapest source of protein around, and quite a complete meal in itself. There are many ways of cooking it. I like them in omelet, steam, soft boil and hard boil. If you are looking for something easy and simple to cook Sambal Eggs is one of them.

Ingredients:

5 hard boiled eggs
1 large onions – sliced thinly
1 clove of garlic - chopped
2 tbsp of chili paste or sambal olek (more if you like it spicy)
2 tbsp of tomato ketchup
1 tbsp of lemon juice (optional)
Some water
1 tbsp of sugar
Salt to taste

1. Heat about 2 tbsp of oil in pan and shallow fry the hard-boiled eggs till eggs are slightly browned. Remove eggs and set aside.
2. Add in garlic and onion and stir well until aromatic and lightly brown. Add in the chili paste and tomato ketchup. Stir for a few second and gradually add in some water.
3. Add salt and sugar to taste. Return fried eggs to the sambal mixture coat evenly and allow to boil until sambal is reduced in liquid.
4. Serve warm with rice.

Note: Be careful when you pan fry the hard boiled eggs as it splatter a lot.

Steamed Egg Custard

After all the heavy meals let's have something light and easy to make. This much love Japanese steamed egg custard or Chawanmushi tastes absolutely delicious, flavorful, light and smooth texture when serve warm. Chawanmushi is the perfect comfort food for fall season.

Ingredients for the custard

2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups of low sodium chicken stock
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sake - optional
a few dash of white pepper

Filling/topping:

4 small shrimps - blanch in boiling water for 1 min
2 crab stick - cut small
4 slices of carrot - blanch in boiling water for 1 min
Some green peas
some spring onions for garnish
Some aluminium foil

1. Prepare a steamer. Bring the water to a rapid bowl and then lower down the heat.
2. Put all the custard ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Strain the mixture over a fine sieve and set it aside.
3. Arrange the filling ingredient into the small cup or remekin. Pour the custard into the remekin. Cover the top of the remekin with a piece of foil so that the steam will not mar the surface of the custard.
4. Steam the custard in gently simmering water for 20 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the egg and if the liquid stay clear, its set. Remove from steamer and serve hot.

Note : You can replace the filling ingredients with fish, asparagus, mushrooms, ginko nuts, etc.