Malay, Meat, Sides, Singapore

Singaporean-style Samosas

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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!

Cakes and Cookies, Desserts

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies I

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I suspect I’ll have many different versions of this cookie. I got one from a colleague already but since I already tried that one, I thought I’d try another recipe. I googled and came to quite a few sites. I went to one, and followed the recipe somewhat. You see, the reason why I can’t stand following recipes sometimes is that they don’t cater to our butter. I mean, what in the world is 1 cup of butter? Our butters come in standard 250g blocks. American measurements come in ‘sticks’. A stick of butter here a cup of butter there…Agh.

So anyway, I improvised. The cookies are supposed to be soft and chewy and when not cooled enough, they turned out rather cake like. It turned out fine but still not perfect. I will continue experimenting till I find the correct recipe…

Recipe

1. 1 Singaporean-sized made in Australia salted butter (250g)

2. 1/2 cup castor sugar

3. 3/4 cup brown sugar

4. 1 T vanilla essence

5. 1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk

6. 21/2 cups plain flour

7. 2 tsp baking soda

8. 1/2 tsp salt

Cream the butter, both of the sugar, vanilla and eggs. Then add in the dry stuff. Add chocolate chips to your heart’s desire and then drop rounded ice-cream scoopfuls onto a baking tray. Bake at 170C.

I only bake cookies for Raya so this is the first time I baked Supersize Me Cookies.
Remember they're soft cookies so the texture is a bit cake-like.
The actual reason why I baked these cookies..to fill up my cookie jar! I had no idea The Hubster and The Kids had been reaching into the cookie jar for cookies...

If you, like me, have only been used to the small crispy cookies, then give these soft chewy ones a go. The Americans love them to bits. I’m going to google for Mrs Field’s cookies recipes next and try them. Will keep y’all posted on how that will turn out!

Salads and Vegetables

Spiced Roasted Squash

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For some reason or other, I like to try Jamie Oliver’s recipes. Maybe because they’ve worked before and I like his style of cooking. I suppose what the Malay moms would call ‘masak campak-campak’. ;p

I tried this recipe last year when I invited my mom and aunts for lunch and today, decided to roast them again. The last few times I made, The Hubby tried only a bit and refused to eat anymore. This time round, it’ll be more worth it because The Helper loves pumpkins.

The recipe is:

A few weeks ago, I went to Borders and bought this…

They sold the star shaped measuring spoons too!
Clean and cut pumpkin into wedges.
Crush all spices and salt and then add olive oil.
Brush over pumpkins and then cook.
What I meant was cook by roasting them in the oven till tender. The skin will be so soft that you can eat the skin together with the flesh.

Something different to serve than the usual mashed potatoes. Try it!

Desserts, Malay

Suji

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As a child, I love love love suji. Unfortunately, my mom or any of my aunts could make it. So once a year, during iftar, the breaking of fast at a relative’s place, we would fight to get hold of the little containers of yellow semolina pudding. Fast forward a few years later, and my MIL makes suji! Ha ha. I couldn’t wait to get hold of how to cook it. I told her I had to watch her cook, just giving me the recipe wont cut it. And you know what, even though I make this quite often, I still cant get it to taste like hers. Anyway, here’s the recipe.

Recipe

1. 4 cups of water (IKEA mugs)

2. 1 tin of full-fat Carnation evaporated milk

3. I cup (IKEA mug) of sugar

4. I cup (IKEA mug) of semolina

5. a bit of yellow colouring

6. a bit of rose water

7. sliced roasted almonds and raisins for garnish

And that’s it. The trick for no lumps is not to let the mixture boil at all. Just a simmer throughout until it thickens.

You can ask a helper to keep stirring the mixture till it thickens.
I like to put mine in little plastic containers (who knows one day I can make a small business selling them) and give away to friends.
They look so pretty. I like the colours.
Poultry

Rosemary Garlic Roasted Chicken Wings

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I learnt of this recipe years ago as an undergrad browsing through the cookery section of the library. It’s a recipe contributed by one of our MPs. So easy to make yet so delicious. All you need is to marinade chicken wings with dried rosemary, garlic, olive oil and salt and then pop them in the oven.

Recently, I discovered this wonderful and beautiful pink fine grain – Himalayan Salt. And they are so cheap at Mustafa. Anyway, seasoning your chicken wings with this pink salt makes the dish so unbelievably delicious that I feel sad not having discovered this wonderful salt years ago. That would have impressed my boyfriend tremendously. Then again, he gets to eat my food every day now. Almost. But I digress.

I watch lots and lots of food shows and one thing that puzzles me is that these Ang Moh (Caucasian) cooks throw away the wingtips. Even Alton Brown, the cooking scientist (or he believes himself to be) said that the wingtips have no culinary value at all. MORON! I am very sure that here in little old Singapore, the wingtip is sucked on, chewed and if crispy enough, completely obliterated in a matter of seconds. Why, I fight with The Little Girl for this ‘culinary goodness’!Hmph!

Anyway, for this recipe, I use whole garlic cloves on top of minced garlic to spread over the chicken wings. The whole garlic cloves will roast and taste oh so wonderful. I used fresh rosemary for this recipe just because I had some on hand. Ah, the smell of it roasting in the chicken. I love olive oil, garlic, good quality salt and chicken all working so harmoniously together in the hot hot oven. The smell, even if you don’t get to eat the chicken (sorry neighbours!) will make you float.

Marinade your chicken lovingly. Dried rosemary works just as well too.
Savoury goodness. This is how savoury smells like. Sorry, if you don't try, you won't know. ;p

See that soft roasted garlic goodness? All mine. 😀 Swooning. I make this dish very often. Very often indeed.