Konnichiwa! What a long hiatus from blogging, and from cooking in general. But this long weekend, I managed to whip some new things. Well, not all of them old. Like these onigiri!
This time round, I know how to make them into triangles! The trick is to use plastic wrap. Yes, I read this in all the blogsites on onigiri. OK, that’s a hyperbole ;p
Anyway, for that day’s onigiri, I used brown rice. Short-grain brown rice bought from Cold Storage. And the filling was simply bonito flakes. The cute little kawaii smiles? Why, from Daiso of course! They actually have face stampers. So cute right?
Malay curry puffs. epok-epok. Karipap. Whatever the name is, I don’t know any Singaporean who does not like this. I love curry puffs. Then one night (yes, night), I was suddenly awoken from my slumber and could not fall back to sleep. Oh, it wasn’t night though it was very dark for sure. I looked at my watch and saw that it was oh, only two in the morning? So I got out from bed and surfed the net on my portable ipad. And then I decided, what the hey, let’s just go try make some curry puffs. And make them I did. I only had tuna available so I used that for my filling, adding in some green chillies and sriracha (Vietnamese American chilli sauce). It worked! I mean, even though it was five a.m. when I completed the whole thing, I felt amazed that my maiden attempt at making this difficult (in my mind, it was) snack was a success. I brought a few to work and gave some to my mom. The comment was generally positive except that it was rather dry.
The next night, I decided to make again! Even though it was still a school day. This time round, I made sure I added more butter. My recipe called for 4 cups of flour (this will yield plenty plenty of curry puffs), 6 tbsp of margarine (I used olive margarine, but next time, I’ll use the cheaper Planta) and roughly a small IKEA kids plastic glass of ice cold salted water. I used the processor to whiz my flour with the fat and then transfer it to a big bowl and proceeded to add in the cold water to the mixture until a dough is formed. Make sure you don’t add a lot of water.
For the filling, I used minced beef and potatoes, seasoned very simply with powdered cumin and powdered coriander. Next time, I’ll add fresh coriander. And then, because I had years of making curry puff using plasticine as a child, I had no problems making the pretty curls at the end of the puff. What do you call them? The frying is terribly slow. You cant fry them in high heat or you’ll end up with burnt dough. So it takes 20 minutes for a batch to be cooked. However, this second attempt was way much better.
Make the filling first.When the dough is ready, pull of small pieces and make them into rounds. You'll end up with plenty of balls of dough. Take one of the balled doughs and flatten with your palm hard. And then using a rolling pin (a light one) roll it as thinly as you can. Using a round cutter (I used a glass) cut into it to get a circular dough. Using the pin again, roll till really flat, and then add filling. Fold in half, and seal tightly. And then crimple the edge with a fork or like what you see above. It's hard to explain.Fry gently till cooked. Your curry puffs will surely be crispy. Remember to use fridge cold water when making the dough.
2012 will prove to be the most challenging year for me – balancing family life, The Little Girl (exams this year for her!) and a heavy load at work. With more stress, I usually cook less but now, I think with more stress, I will endeavour to cook more. To relieve stress, you know. I think with more organisation on my part and more discipline (to finish marking before the weekend!) I can manage a new dish a week. So let’s start from this week!
I cooked potato and ikan bilis sambal. This is not a usual dish in my family. In fact, I don’t ever remember my mother cooking this while I was growing up but I do remember eating this simple dish at the school canteen – yep, all the institutions I went to served this at one point or other. It’s so simple to make. You start by tumising (frying a paste in oil over a medium fire) the sambal paste (dried chillies, onions, garlic and belacan) and then add a bit of tamarind juice, some sugar and lastly the fried potatoes and fried ikan bilis. Serve with hot rice. Simple and delicious. In many Malay stalls, they only use fried potatoes, or just ikan bilis and fried groundnuts. I like this dish, but I doubt I’ll make it again, given my new resolve to try cook something new each week this year. ;p
My homemade lunch of ayam chilli padi, stir-fried french beans and the sambal potato. A typical Malay meal. Well, in my family at least.
Having to create lesson packages for Emily of Emerald Hill ignited my obsession for Peranakan food for a while. For quite some time, I was craving Peranakan dishes. I made my mother cook mee siam and then bought kueh pie tee shells from Cold Storage so that my mother is forced to make the filling for it. To be fair, the first time I did compensate her but when the craving came again, I just bought the pie tee cups and asked her ever so sweetly to make the filling. Again.
Then one night I decided to open up my old Peranakan cookbook written by a famous Malaysian cook – Florence Tan – and found a recipe so simple that it begged to be cooked that very night. Yes, that very night (anyway, I had a defrosted chicken lying around in the fridge) I made this simple simple dish, following exact measurements given (using my baking cups to measure out my taucheong!) and it was a success. The kids and the adult loved it.
It truly has been ages since I last update but it’s not because of laziness. My MAC was completely spoilt. And while now it seems to be A-OK, it is working at a very slow speed.
So I shall resume by sharing about my latest craze: making my own chicken rice – the authentic way. Including how to chop it up chinese style.
It’s all very simple actually. For the white chicken version, I boiled one whole chicken cut in half for easier handling in a pot of water that has lots of sliced ginger and one or two (if small) whole onions. After 20-25 minutes of cooking under high heat, I turned off the heat off and let the chicken just stay in there for a further 20-30 min. And then when I am ready to take the chicken out, I stand by a basin of ice-cold water and dunk the chicken in there. This step is extremely crucial in achieving a gelatinous, firm skin.
For the rice, I used the same water that I had boiled the chicken in, but before that, I used ready-made Chicken rice paste from the shelf to fry my rice (basmati) in. I also added a pandan leaf. Next time, I will try just using garlic and ginger and nothing else.
For the chilli sauce, plenty of fresh red chillies, loads more of chilli padi (red), lime juice, sugar and salt.
Then I decided to make a roasted version just a few days ago. I marinated the chicken with light soya sauce, sweet soya sauce, honey and garlic/ginger paste. The next time, I will also use five spice powder. The real roasted variety found in hawker centres is actually fried but I’d rather roast mine in the oven. The result is OK but the skin will not be as crispy.
And then, I cloned my chicken rice by assembling it the same way as in my favourite halal chicken rice stall -Tang’s Tea house. I sliced cucumbers thinkly the same way and drizzled a mixture of light soy sauce and sesame oil over my chopped chicken.
The Occasional Cook 