Nasi Lemak ( Rice in Coconut Milk )

Nasi Lemak literally means rice in cream, adopted from the cooking process whereby rice is soaked in coconut milk/cream and then the mixture is steamed. This is my first time tryin my hands on cooking this particular dish. When i was growing up, whenever we have Nasi Lemak served at home , I'd get excited cause i can put as much gravy as i want on my rice unlike the store bought ones, dry without much gravy.

Usually Nasi Lemak would be served with spicy anchovies and since i don't have any at home, i substituted it with spicy prawns (sambal udang). You may also serve this dish with fried fish (sardine, mackerel, etc), peanuts and just bout anything that you desire. I don't quite fancy peanuts, therefore i excluded it.

Ingredients

RICE

* 3 cups rice

* 4 cups of water

* 1/2 cups of coconut milk

* 3 screwpine leaves (knotted)

* 3 shallots (thinly sliced)

* 1/2 inch ginger (thinly sliced)

* A pinch of salt

Method :

1) Wash and rinse the long grain rice for at least 5 times to get rid of the starch and also any particles in the rice.

2) Add in the rest of the ingredients in the rice cooker and let it cook.

3) After 10 minutes or so, stir the rice so that the remaining ingredients will be well blended with your rice.

4) Once the rice cooker's "keep warm" indicator is on , fluff up the rice with your fork and cover it up with the lit and let it sit approximately 15mins before serving.

SPICY PRAWNS

* 800g-1kg prawns (shelled and deveined)

* Tamarind juice to taste

* Salt and sugar to taste

* Olive oil

Spice Paste

* 3 medium red onions

* 3cm ginger

* 5 cloves garlic

* 2 tsp shrimp paste powder

* 5 candle nuts

* 5 tbsp chilli paste

Method:

1) You can either blend or pound all the ingredients for the spice paste.

2) Fry your prawns with a little bit of oil for less than a minute and dish out.

3) Heat up your work and add olive oil and stir fry the spice paste until fragrant.

4) Season with salt and sugar to taste and finally add in your tamarind juice until it reaches the consistency you desire.

5) Taste again and season accordingly if you need to.

6) Add in the prawns and simmer for less than 5 minutes otherwise the prawns will turn hard and rubbery.

Note:

If you like the gravy to be more spicy, adjust the amount of chilli paste you included in your spice paste.

Oven Baked Chicken and Tofu Satay with Fruity Peanut Sauce

Personally i like satay but due to the traditional way of preparing it (grilled or barbequed over charcoal fire) i frequently stay away from it. i often find it rather oily for my liking for they often baste the satay with oil using a lemon grass or brush , also i'm pretty picky on how they serve it, where most of the satay sellers included a piece of "fat" together with the lean meat on the skewer.

So due to all that , i've decided to make my own version of satay with just lean meat and also oven bake it to reduce the amount of oil used. Since i'm sharing this new adventure of mine with a friend and her family, i prepared both the chicken and tofu satay for my friend's a vegan.

Ingredients

CHICKEN SATAY

* 3 pcs breast meat

* 6 tsp cumin powder

* 6 tsp coriander powder

* 3 tsp turmeric powder

* 3 stalks lemon grass (pound)

* 3 tbsp+ olive oil

* 6 tbsp brown sugar

Method:

1) Remove the skin from the chicken breast meat if any and cut it into strips or cube.

2) Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl thoroughly and then add the chicken strips to marinate. Its best to marinate it overnight.

3) Skewer the strips when you're ready to bake it at a preheated oven of 210 degree C for bout 15-20mins on each side.

4) Serve with some fresh onions and cucumber.

Note:

Using fresh turmeric to marinate the chicken strips will give it a more fragrant aroma as compared to the powder form.

The longer you bake , the less juicy is your chicken strips, therefore dont overbake it for you'll end up with a dry chicken strips.

FRUITY PEANUT SAUCE

* 300gm roasted peanuts

* 200ml coconut milk

* 1 cup tamarind juice

* sugar and salt to taste

* water

Spice Paste

* 3 tbsp chilli paste

* 10 shallots

* 8 cloves garlic

* 2 stalks lemongrass

* 5cm fresh turmeric (optional)

* 6cms ginger

* 4cm galangal

* 3 tsp cumin

* 2 tsp shrimp paste powder (optional)

* 6 candelnuts

* 1/2 Small pineapple (roughly blend)

Method:

1) Blend or pound the spice paste ingredients.

2) Heat some oil in the non-stick and add in the spice paste and stir fry until its aromatic.

3) Add the tamarind juice and stir it for a little while before adding ground nuts.

4) Keep stirring until its thoroughly mixed and add in the coconut milk.

5) Let it simmer and add in the roughly blended pineapple.

6) Add in more water if you like the sauce to be more watery.
7) Season with salt and sugar to taste.

Note:

I bought the readily available coarsely chopped roasted peanuts to save time. For those who can't find that , you'll need to dry fry the ground nuts until its aromatic, cool, remove the skin and pound it.

I also added blended pineapple juice, a few pieces of pineapple with some water. I used pineapple for the peanut sauce to give it a different touch as compared to the normal peanut sauce the satay sellers served. This is a remake of the peanut sauce i've tasted when i was down south.

I waited until the gravy has cooled down and poured 3/4 of the thick peanut sauce into the blender and blend it until its of a smooth and creamy consistency. I poured it back to the non-stick and stir under low heat and add more pineapple juice or tamarind juice until i achieve the consistency i like.

TOFU SATAY

* 3 pcs beancurd

Spice Paste

* 1 tsp cumin powder

* 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

* 8 shallots

* 1 tsp coriander powder

* 1 inch fresh turmeric

* 1 tsp sugar

* 1 stalk lemongrass

* 2 tbsp roasted peanuts

* 1 tbsp olive oil

* Salt to taste

Method:

1) Cubed the tofu to bite size or any size you fancy. Blend or pound all the spice paste ingredients.

2) Baste/coat the cubed beancurd with the spice paste and let it marinate overnight.

3) Skewer the beancurd when you're ready to bake.

4) Bake in a preheated oven of 210 degree C for bout 10mins on each side.

5) Serve with the fruity peanut sauce and some onions and cucumber.

Note:

If you like it to be spicy, add some chilli paste to the spice paste.

Handle the beancurd as gentle as possible when you coat it with the spice paste for you dont want to destroy it before you're able to eat it :). The spice paste will be of a rather thick consistency.

Ayam Masak Rendang ( Chicken in Coconut Milk)

Rendang is an Indonesian dish originated from the Minangkabau, one of the etnic group in Indonesia and one of the characteristics food of this culture, it is served at ceremonial occassions and to honour guests. This particular dish is also popular in Singapore and Malaysia and its traditionally prepared by the Malay community during festive occasions. Usually rendang is made from beef but this dish can be prepared with chicken or mutton or even vegie.

Ingredients

* 1.3kg chicken

* 3 lemongrass (bruised)

Spice A ( Pound/blend)

* 15 shallots

* 15 cloves garlic

* 3 inch galangal

* 3 inch ginger

* 9 stalks lemongrass

* 30 dried chillies

Spice B

* 9 cloves

* 9 star anise

* 9 cardamon seeds

Spice C

* 3 cups thick coconut milk

* 3 cups water

* 3 tsp tamarind puree

Spice D

* 18 kaffir lime leaves

* 18 tbsp grated coconut

* 3 tbsp palm sugar

* Salt to taste

Method:

1) Dry fry the grated coconut until it turns golden brown and set aside.

2) Add some oil and stir fry Spice A and Spice B together until fragrant

3) Then add chopped chicken pieces and bruised lemongrass and saute

4) Next, add Spice C and let it simmer , stir occassionally.

5) Add spice D and reduce the heat to low and simmer. Preferably cover your pot/wok. Cooking will take approximately 2hrs for the gravy to dry up.

Note:

You can also add in some turmeric leaves, bay leaves and fresh turmeric. I omitted all of it. Its all up to your preferences. You can also include candlenuts as well.

Do chop your kaffir lime leaves finely when you add in to the wok together with your grated coconut.

The dry fried grated coconut produces oil as well , so its best to sieve the oil from time to time, like how i did it to reduce the amount of oil in the rendang.

This dish is best served with white steamed rice, ketupat or even lemang.

Coconut Cake with Hidden Treasure

Previously i did an entry on Coconut Muffins and i wasn't too pleased with how the muffins turned out, especially the texture; wasnt as moist and fluffy as i wanted it. Due to that i was even more determined to try that recipe out again but this time around i added a twist in it. I've included chocolate chips in the batter.  

Instead of using the muffin cups i opted the rectangular non-stick bakeware i bought previously.

As for the batter, i used the same Coconut Muffins recipe but with a slight change. I've added more milk this time, bout 1/4 cup more and a lil bit more of the desiccated coconut in the batter.

Before pourin the batter into the bakeware, brush it with melted butter or marjerin, in my case, i used marjerin.  I baked it for bout 25mins.

I was pleasantly surprised and pleased by how the texture of the cake turned out! I thought 3rd's a charm but i suppose its not applicable in my case. I definitely cant wait to bake again!

Baking taught me so much more than just following the precision of ingredients used in the recipe. Patience is definitely a virtue in bakin and determination is another plus point in striving to achieve perfection. 

Coconutty Muffins

Baking with coconut was inspired by a friend. She being the coconut lover somehow kinda turned me into wanting to try experiment with the various aspect of coconut.

This is officially my 3rd time baking muffins and i gotta say im so totally into this baking thing right now. I even got myself a set of piping tools for the cake decorations!

I'm definitely glad that i'm venturin into a new territory right now where there's so much for me to learn and i've got the time to spare as well. 

I've replaced some of the ingredients stated in the original recipe, so here's the revised recipe.

INGREDIENTS: 

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2/3 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup corn oil
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/2 cup dessicated coconut

TOPPING:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh grated coconut
1/8 dessicated coconut
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

METHODS:

1) Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
2) Combine egg, milk,oil and cream in another bowl; mix well.
3) Stir egg mixture into dry ingredients just until combined.
4) Stir in coconut once batter is well combined
5) Grease or line paper muffins cups in the muffin pan and fill it two-thirds full. 
6) Combine the topping ingredients; sprinkle over batter.  Top it up with more desiccated      coconut if you want to beautify it.
7) Bake at 204 degrees C for 20minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

I was happy how the topping turns out to be; crispy, just nice sweetness with a hint of cinnamon! Unfortunately i cant say much bout the muffin, it wasnt as moist and light as i would wanted it to be. I did some research and i found out the culprit so what i'm gonna do during my next  baking session would definitely bear in mind the tips given on muffin makin and try to follow as closely as possible.

Kaya - Coconut Egg Jam

Today i was in the mood to get my hands dirty so i was just browsing around to see what's nice to make or cook. So i decided since i dont have all the ingredients i need for egg tarts, why dont i make Kaya instead. My family sure loves kaya, especially my granny.

To make kaya, its really really easy. You'll only need 4 ingredients ;
1) sugar
2) eggs
3) thick coconut milk
4) screwpine leaves aka pandan leaves.

What i did was, in a large bowl, i broke 7 eggs and pour in bout 300gm of sugar and mix it with a mixture at a low speed instead of hand whisking it.

When i was done with the eggs mixture, i cleaned the screwpine leaves and cut it to about 8 pieces in the lenght of 3cms each. Instead of knotting the leaves i chose to cut it for its easier to handle.

Next, i poured the eggs mixture and the screwpine leaves into a non-stick pan and stir it occasionally under a low heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove the non-stick pan from heat and pour in bout 250ml of thick coconut milk bit by bit while stirring it. Put back the eggs and coconut milk mixture on low heat and keep stirring for another 5mins then remove from the heat and strain the mixture into a double-boiler pot.

Since i dont have a double-boiler pot, i strained the mixture into a pot and place it in a pan of boiling water. Keep stirring the mixture until it thickens.

Once the mixture is to the thickness you desire, remove from heat and let it cool off before storing it in jam bottle.

For those who loves a darker shade of kaya, you can replace white sugar with brown sugar and caramelized it. If you want your kaya to be in greenish in colour, then add some pandan leaves juice/paste/essence.

The screwpine leaves i had in the egg/sugar mixture was to give the kaya a hint of the aromatic leaves.