I’ve always wanted to get those fresh clams at my nearby fishmongers. I mean, I know these babies are super duper fresh compared to the ones I see at NTUC because they were squirting out water still as I was pondering over whether to buy them or not. In the end, I did and the minute I got home, put them in a basin of salted water. I left them to soak for half an hour, and then cleaned them and proceeded to quickly stir fry them. I had some leftover sambal tumis- a Malay sweet chilli paste. I cooked the clams in a little bit of the sambal tumis and then some leftover pasta sauce and before I know it, the clams are cooked.
I love samosas and I only know how to eat this version. Then when I was in my very late teens, I realised that when you order samosas in an Indian restaurant or hawker, it does not come in the manner I was used to. The real, actual samosas are not made from egg roll pastry, but from real dough/flour! Duh. And they were so hearty and delicious and I suspect healthier?
Anyway, I like the usual local version of samosas too. The Arabic version uses only minced meat. I wanted to learn to make samosas – the folding part- from The Helper, but decided that going to the mall was much more pressing. Ahem.
But I was in time to see her do the folding. The filling is easy. Minced meat fried in onions (in my case, pulverised to itsy bitsy bits that The Hubby’s naked eyes cannot detect), garlic, powdered cumin and fennel. Some people like to add green chillies (most encouraged, just that I didn’t have any today) and a small potato finely diced. You can add mint leaves or coriander leaves too. Don’t forget to season.
More minced meat to potatoes please. Let filling cool.
She makes it look so easy! She finished making one in like ten seconds. And she fried 8, the rest I told her to keep in the freezer but guess what? I didn’t even get to taste one. They all got walloped by The Hubby and The Girl. The ones in the freezer are mine!
I learnt to make these years and years ago. And even though I’ve tried making them with different fillings, I always find myself sticking to this recipe: minced chicken, shredded carrots, light soya sauce, fish sauce, white pepper, minced garlic. Why? Because I never buy water chestnuts to keep in the fridge, and I’m just plain lazy to shell and devein and mince some prawns.
That said, this does not mean that the above recipe is not delicious. Let me tell you for a fact that anything wrapped and fried with a filling inside will taste darn good. What more if you dip them in chilli sauce first. ;p
These wontons were juicy and unlike my family members who like to douse their wontons in chilli sauce, I like mine with sweet thick caramelly soya sauce.
In a bowl, dump all the ingredients and mix well. Wrap filling in ready-made wonton skins. I used the round big kinds and the smaller square ones.You can wrap them like this if using the round wonton skins.Fry till crisp. Serve hot.
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:
Throw in one pandan leaf for flavourWhile waiting for rice to cook, play with child for a while.When rice is cooked for the second time, make the custard topping.Steam for another 20 minutes or until topping is setCut 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
The Occasional Cook 