A Special Birthday Cake

Ngoc, turned 9 early this month and i made this cake for her, she chose the color of the doll's dress and the colors  of the icing.  It might not be very matching but it is her choice and i have to grant her wish.

Gluten-Free Cheese Puffs

 

The best part was that they come out of the oven, rregularly shaped, and none of them were really spherical as the "balls" name suggested, they had attitude.

Rice Wine Residue Sweet Soup

Soup gives you warmth that goes far beyond temperature to that feeling of comfort that few other foods can match.  

Step-by-step Mui Choy Kau Yoke

As promised, the step-by-step on how to assemble the Mui Choy Kau Yoke::

Mui Choy Kau Yoke

I got too hyper and usea a little too much soya sauce for the skin therefore making the skin darker than it should be. So, sad, the picture did not do justice to the dish, it was so delicious and worth all the effort. Be light handed with the soya sauce especially it is the darker one. This dish can be cooked family style - follow the recipe Braised Belly Pork WithMui Choy.

I meant to post step-by-step on 'How To' but Blogger uploading of pictures are not behaving.  So, look out for it in the coming post.

Kuih Pandan Lapis Batavia

I was left home alone one day, the silence was killing me. There were no one to bug me and knowing me, cannot sit still and do nothing - my sister said that 'it must be the catholic schooling' in us - we feel guilty if we are not doing something.' So, what a good time it was to stand in front of the oven and layer away. This is a scale down from Kuih Lapis Batavia, not by choice but necessity, cos i had only a dozen eggs. I have increased the sugar and egg white slightly thus making the batter lighter and the layers browned faster with the addition of a little baking powder and the batter was sweeter.

Taro Ku

When i was growing up, the only 'ku' i know was colored red or orange with a sweet filling. Nowadays, 'ku' comes in all sorts of colors and shapes with either sweet or savory fillings. Thank you to enthusiastic cooks who come up with new ideas which kick up a few knotches to the traditional this kuih. Btw - 'ku' is in hokkien meaning Tortoise and Tortoise symbolizes longevity. When the 'ku' kuih is shaped like a tortoise shell, it creates a high symbolic and ritual value, very appropriate for ritual offerings during religious events. These 'ku' , it must be red in color and that is why it is called 'Angku' - 'Ang' means red in hokkien, is an important gift when a child is born (one month old) or during birthdays. Outside the ritual or gift context, it is also a very popular snack, eaten at all times of the day, be it for breakfast or tea=time. Have you ever tried pan-frying leftover/overnight 'Angku'? - they are delicious.

Below is a recipe with a new twist - Taro is added to the dough which gives the 'ku' a purplish hue and a fragrance which taro lovers will recognize. The filling can be sweet or savoury and a spicy one will be met with satisfaction.

Sweet Potato Ku

I cannot be any happier that these 'ku' turned out exceptional beautiful. The color was so natural and sweet, of course it was - no food coloring added - the culprit was orange sweet potato/yam. The filling is the usual mung bean - oh oh i have a story to relate about this filling, yes this particular bag of mung bean filling. It was a leftover from one of our cooking sessions(a group of us ladies gather every sunday and we cook and bake). So, one sunday, I was the first to arrive at Nellie's and Nellie went through her freezer and pulled out this bag, she asked if i wanted to eat durian. Of course i said yes, and we had to defrost it fast before the other ladies turn up, there won't be enough to go around. the durian looked so good, yellowish and looked seedless too. So, into the microwave it went for defrosting. After a minute of two, the bag came out of the microwave, Nellie and I laughed until tears came down and me with my incontinense, had to rush to the rest room - It was not durian but a bag of mung bean filling. The moral of the story was, we were bad hearted, we did not want to share and we got none too. I have learned my lesson and am sharing the mung bean filling with those who turned up for dinner last weekend. Hope they liked these cute bite-size 'ku'.

Kuih Kosui

I like Kuih Kosui to be steamed in a cake pan, then cut into pieces and coated with coconut. To me, if this kuih is steamed in tiny cups, then it would be 'Kuih Lompang'. While kuih lompang can come in other flavors like pandan or plain but of different colors, Kuih Kosui is not. It has to be made with 'gula melaka/palm sugar and caramelized sugar, so therefore it is brown.

Cheesecake with Ganache

I was thinking and staring at my pantry,  I found some semi-sweet chocolate and thought that a ganache frosting would be a good beauty to cover the 'beast'.  The Ganache did save my day and the cake was received with ooos and ahhs. 

The moral of this story - never bake when you are tired and it is late in the night.

Kuih Gading Galoh

My sisters have always told me that i take too much upon myself in whatever i do, and they are absolutely right. And, do i learn???? No! Same old me, repeating my habits and trying to do too much. Like last saturday, i had a potluck to go to and not satisfied with just bringing one kind of kuih, decided to make another one at the eleventh hour. See, what happened to the most delicious kuih made, it was shabbly cut cos it was not cold enough and there was not enough time to do a good job. I hate myself for that but do you think i will make kuih in a hurry again, you guessed right, i will.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kuih Lapis Rainbow

  

It is strange but it is true with our tastebud, there are so many kinds of food that i do not like when i was younger but love them now. Kuih Lapis which is chewy is one of them, I like this Traditonal Nyonya Kuih Lapis which is rich and soft. But!!! now that i have tried making this recipe after too many requests for this chewy type, and surprising i liked it. I think i know why i did not like this chewy type cos i have eaten too many badly made ones. I found that this kuih will be good if a considerable amount of thick coconut milk was used in the recipe. I shall not call this 'Nine Layers Koh' cos i have made it with 10 layers. I wanted to have 3 colors, so i ended with 9 layers - 3 layers of every color and a topping layer thus making it 10 layers.