Desserts – Page 13 – The Occasional Cook

A few days ago, even as I was hacking away intermittently, I decided to try something new. Just because I was feeling bored. The beauty of having a domestic helper I realised is that I have pockets of free time available. And I have somebody to store away the dishes after ( I love washing dishes so I clean most of the things I use in the kitchen) ;P

Since I had a packet of glutinous rice in my cupboard, I thought I’d make good use of it. I trawled the internet for a good recipe for ‘puteri salat’ but I couldn’t find many. That’s because in different regions, the kuih is called by other names. Seri Muka for one. Or Nyonya Kueh. Anyway, I found two rather simple ones, but I didn’t follow the recipes to the T. Firstly, I only had a small aluminium pan that could barely fit into my steamer pot. Secondly, I didn’t have a piece of banana leaf to press down the glutinous rice (I used plastic). Thirdly, I could only use pandan leaves from The Hubby’s garden outside. This is how I made the kuih.

First, I made pandan juice. Easy Peasy. Just blend 6-8 pandan leaves with water and strain. Get about 200 ml of juice.

Before this, I had soaked the whole packet of glutinous rice in a container for roughly 3 hours. But what I used was just enough to cover half the aluminium pan. I mixed the rice with one packet of coconut cream and salt. I steamed the whole thing for about 20 minutes till done. After that, I fluffed the rice, pressed down a second time till even and steamed for a further 10 minutes.

To make the topping, I beat 3 eggs with palm sugar. I added in one packet of coconut cream, the pandan juice and 2 tablespoons of plain flour and heat the mixture over a small fire till its fairly cooked. It should thicken slightly. After that I strained the mixture and poured the smooth paste over the steamed rice and cooked again.

The outcome? It looked alright but I didn’t like it because the rice was too bland. I thought it was tasteless. I should have put in more salt. Coconut and salt are best friends. When I gave some to my mother, she said it wasn’t sweet enough but the rice was very nice. (puzzled) She told me not to use gula melaka but regular castor sugar. This weekend I shall make one more batch and if it turns out perfect, I will post the exact recipe here. In the meantime, this is how my very first attempt at making a kuih looks like:

P3070383 — Throw in one pandan leaf for flavour

P3070386 — While waiting for rice to cook, play with child for a while.

P3070387 — When rice is cooked for the second time, make the custard topping.

P3070390 — Steam for another 20 minutes or until topping is set

P3070396 — Cut into squares or diamonds and give away to unsuspecting relatives

The texture, the look was all fine. I just have to remember MORE SALT and MORE SUGAR. Forget the high blood pressure and diabetes. ;p

Yesterday I decided to bake a cake. I had a slab of Philly cream cheese that had been sitting in the fridge for more than two months and I thought since we weren’t going out, why not bake? And bake I did. I consulted my trustworthy Chef -Chef Wan’s Sweet Treats and turned to the cheesecake section. Now, as a busy mom, my main focus when choosing a recipe to cook depends on only two things – #1 the list of ingredients (the shorter the better) #2 availability of ingredients in my larder (ha! what an archaic word but I did grow up with Enid Blyton. ‘s books.) So the simplest was his Orange and Chocolate Cheesecake.

I gathered all my barang-barangs and when I wanted to put the cream cheese into the bowl I realised that one packet was only 250g. I needed 500g so off to the nearby NTUC I trudged. I bought oranges for the recipe too (initially I intended to substitute oranges with my readily available lime juice). So, I managed to follow his recipe for the filling but I noticed that although his recipe was called Orange and Chocolate Cheesecake, there was no chocolate at all. The chocolate bit was simply the crust – made up of crushed chocolate chip cookies mixed with toasted hazelnuts and melted butter. I felt that it was simply wrong to use ‘chocolate’ that way and so I tossed in half a packet of Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate chips into the filling. Now, for the crust. I didn’t have chocolate chip cookies but what I did have was cream crackers and so I, with the help of my useful daughter, hammered them crackers and mixed it with melted butter.

Into the oven it went. It was supposed to be baked for ’40 minutes or until the mixture was set’. I couldn’t tell if the mixture was set or not so 40 minutes later, I took it out of the oven and it looked brown enough. I cooled it for as long as I could wait but being the greedy glutton that I am, I cut a slice to try. The minute I felt the knife go through the cake like softened butter, I knew that maybe, it wasn’t baked long enough. The cheesecake filling was very very good. Warm and very soft (in fact, I wouldn’t even call it a cake, more like a mouse) and the melted chocolate bits that go down your throat like warm velvety…chocolate. Oh well. I am no Pulitzer Prize winner. Anyway, when the cake was left in the fridge, it did set and tasted more like cake but because it was cold, the warm chocolate chip bits hardened. And so for today’s tea, the cheesecake tasted fine but it wasn’t fantastic as when it was half-cooked. Ironic.

P2270211 — The top bits look burnt; they’re actually the melted chocolate chips.

P2280287 — Sliced after one day in the fridge

I learnt from a show telecast on the Asian Food Channel, that if you change three ingredients in a recipe, that recipe is then yours. So I reckon, this is a Shasha Original. However, I strongly advise you to try out Chef Wan’s recipes to the T.

Learning points:

#1 Chocolate chips harden when cooled!

Category: Desserts

First Try on making Puteri Salat

Orange and Choc Chip Cheesecake