Peranakan Pineapple Prawn - Guest Post On Nyonyafood.com

Few months ago when I was still living in Singapore, I received a pleasant and surprise email from the talented Bee Yinn Low (or Bee, as she is fondly called), who invited me to be a guest writer on her fabulous Nyonyafood blog site - which is also linked to her primary blog site, RasaMalaysia. Bee, who is based in California, is also a Peranakan by heritage and originally hails from Penang, a beautiful island-state in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia known for its fantastic local food. I don't think Bee needs much introduction at all as you may already be familiar with Rasa Malaysia. However, if you love Asian food and have not visited Rasa Malaysia or Nyonyafood before, you simply MUST! In addition to Bee's cooking talent and a wide variety of delicious recipes (including her family's own) that she shares, her food photography technique and simple creativity speaks volume, is refreshing and one of the best I've seen.

When Bee asked if I would like to feature a unique Melaka Peranakan/Nyonya dish based on my family's recipe, Udang Masak Lemak Nenas or Pineapple Prawn in Spicy Coconut Milk Gravy immediately came to mind. This recipe was taught by my wonderful and deeply missed late Mom to her six princesses - my five 'J' sisters and I. I'm proud to say that all of us have learned well from our Mom as she was a great cook and a generous person.

The photo below was my version. Bee has also tried this recipe and I'm glad to say that she gave her thumbs up for it. Do check out Bee's version, more on my guest post and the recipe for this dish on Nyonyafood.

Thanks again, Bee! Keep up your great work on Nyonyafood.

Cheers!

All Shook Up On A Cake For 'The King'

Heard of Elvis Presley's Pound Cake? I'm sure you have if you're a true blue, super die-hard Elvis fan. I was given this recipe by the charming Uncle Lee who truly got me "All Shook Up" with this cake! But before I get into Elvis' cake, let me tell you a teeny weeny bit about Uncle Lee and "A Thing Called Love"! If "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" of which romance brings, sorrow no more. Cross that "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and hop on over to Uncle Lee's blog. He'll dazzle you, romance you, dance with you, charm you, share a story with you, share a song with you, and he'll definitely humour you too. He'll say, "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", and with "A Little Less Conversation", one "Can't Help Falling In Love" as one gets swept by the magic of sweet romance ;)

While I usually find that most pound cakes are rather dense and dry, this one is truly the opposite. It is one of the best butter pound cakes I've had so far. I took the liberty to add dried prunes, which gave the cake a really nice additional flavor and texture.

ELVIS PRESLEY'S POUND CAKE

3 cups granulated sugar (I reduced it to 1 3/4 cups, and which turned out just nice for me)

1/2 pound butter, softened
7 eggs, at room temperature
3 cups cake flour, sifted twice, divided (I added 1.5 teaspoon baking powder to the flour too)
1 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

- Butter and flour a 10-inch pan.

- Thoroughly cream together sugar and butter.

- Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

- Mix in half the flour, then the whipping cream , then the other half of the flour.

- Add vanilla extract. Pour batter into prepared pan. Set in a COLD oven and turn heat to 350 degrees F.

- Bake 60 to 70 minutes, until a sharp knife inserted in cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan and cool thoroughly.

To quote Uncle Lee, "Hold that smile and keep a song in your heart!"

Have a great week!

Mom's Nyonya Kuah Lada (Fish & Brinjal In Turmeric & Peppercorn Gravy)

Kuah Lada ('Kuah': soup/gravy; 'Lada': pepper) is a specialty Melaka Nyonya dish consisting of fish and brinjal (aubergine/eggplant) cooked in turmeric and peppercorn gravy, with a hint of tartness from tamarind paste juice. Mackerel (ikan tenggiri) or stingray (ikan pari) are the two preferred types of fish often used to cook kuah lada, although other suitable fish may be used too, like hardtail mackerel (ikan cencaru) and pomfret (ikan bawal).

This is one of my many favorite homey Nyonya dishes often prepared by my Mom, who was a terrific cook of Nyonya food and cakes. This dish goes so great with a plate of plain rice. Depending on the palate of individual Nyonya household, the degree of tartness can be adjusted by using more or lesser tamarind paste juice. I love mine with more tamarind paste juice as the sour & peppery turmeric taste never fails to whet my appetite. It is also one of the 'specialty & less commercial' dishes that one can hardly find in a Nyonya restaurant, so if you love authentic Melaka Nyonya food, this is worth a try at home.

Ingredients:

4 fish fillets/slices
2 brinjals, cut into 1.5 inches blocks and quarter them
1 tbsp tamarind paste rubbed in 2 cups water (use your fingers to rub and squeeze the tamarind paste thoroughly in the water, then discard the seeds)
1/4 cup oil

Pound/blend together:
40 gms garlic
80 gms shallots
1 inch long fresh turmeric (or half tbsp turmeric powder)
1 fresh red chilli (this is optional)
1 inch block Asian shrimp paste (belacan)
1/2 tbsp white peppercorns
3 candlenuts (buah keras)
salt to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a wok or pan, saute all the blended paste for about 10-13 minutes until fragrant. Transfer the sauteed paste into a small pot, add the 2 cups of tamarind juice, and let it boil on medium heat. Add in the brinjals, let it boil and cook until soft for maybe another 10 minutes, and then add in the fish slices and let it simmer for 5 minutes till they are cooked. Serve with rice.

Cheers,

Light & Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies

This is one of the best recipes for peanut butter cookies I have come across. It is superbly light, crunchy & richly tasty. The peanut-buttery aroma that wafted through the air while the cookies were being baked in the oven was enough to convince me that this recipe by Belinda Jeffery which I had gotten from 'delicious.' - an Australian food mag - is definitely a keeper. As the dough is really soft, it needs to be rolled into logs and refrigerated for a couple of hours prior to slicing and baking. This cookie will never fail to delight both the young & the old. With each crunchy bite, you'll definitely want to go for more. So, be sure to make enough to last for several days. Caution: if you have unexpected guests whom you dislike, do not offer these cookies or else, they might just return again!...Or, if you want to win someone over, go ahead and offer these cookies packed nicely in a pretty ribboned gift box ;-).

Recipe:
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
125g unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup chopped raw unsalted peanuts, plus some for decoration

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Cream butter and all the sugar in a separate bowl till light and fluffy. Add peanut butter, combine. Then add egg and vanilla, combine. Add flour and gently mix. Add chopped peanuts. The dough will be very soft. Divide into 2 portion. Prepare 2 large baking paper and place each portion of the dough on each of the paper. Use your hands to shape the dough into approx 5 cm-thick log. Then roll up with the paper to enclose. Chill them in the fridge for 2-3 hrs or until firm. Preheat oven to 150 deg C, unwrap logs, slice into 6-7mm thick rounds. Place cookies 3 cm apart on trays lined with baking paper. Press extra nuts onto each cookie and bake between 20-25 mins or till brown.

Cheers,

Stir-Fry 'Sea Asparagus' & A Week Of Deprived Connectivity!

I lived through the whole of last week without a computer & the Internet. And what made it worse was that I wasn't on any extended holiday after my HK trip! Long story short...I had to make an unplanned trip to Kuala Lumpur to attend to some personal matters. I think I've read more copies of Reader's Digest in the last 1 week (to fill up the rest of my free time there) than I've ever did in my lifetime! It got me imagining living a life reversed back to the days of pre-Internet!! I wondered if the Internet did not exist in the first place, what would I be doing right now. I realized I'm unable to immediately think of an answer given how pervasive the Internet has permeated my life. I found myself missing my blog, my blog friends & their blogs, my Facebook, my email accounts, Google, Wikipedia and the whole universe of the online system! Ahhhh...how good it feels to be back at home & online!

Anyway, below is a really simple dish I cooked prior to my travel last week which I had no time to post it then. I've been keeping a can of imported Chilean sea asparagus (the seafood variety) in my pantry for the longest time and I was figuring out how & what to cook it with. So, I decided to prepare a simple, slightly spicy stir-fry with a variety of veggies. First of all, don't be confused by the name on the can if you happen to see it in the supermarkets (sorry, I've forgotten to take a picture of the can with its label). Although it was written 'sea asparagus' on the can label, it is not the plant variety which grows abundantly along salt marshes, beaches and mangroves. It is in fact, a variety of razor clams. In Malaysia, it is known as 'bamboo clams', and in Spanish, 'concha navaja' (watch this video to see a swimming clam). If you have not eaten it before, it has a mild & delicately chewy texture, and is delicious whether steamed with sauces or stir-fried. These clams live on the sandy seabed and they camouflage themselves against being preyed upon by digging & hiding in the sand. The best time to 'collect' these clams are during low tide season.

Here's the recipe:

Blend to a paste:
3 fresh chillies
4 shallots
2 pips garlic
2 candlenuts

1 can seafood 'sea asparagus'/razor clams
2 stalks celery
1 carrot
Snow pea
Cauliflower florets
2-3 tbsp cooking oil
Salt to taste

Heat the cooking oil in a wok/pan and saute the blended paste till fragrant. Mix in the clams and stir fry under high heat for about 40 seconds. Add in all the vegetables, salt to taste and stir fry for 3 minutes. Cover with a lid for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and serve with rice.

Cheers,

Nyonya Kuih Genggang

I'm off tomorrow to HK for a week of holiday! Yippeeee...as it means lots of good food, dim sum and flea market shopping! But before that, here's the traditional and popular Nyonya 'kuih genggang' which I made for M, a good friend of mine.

Other than in my hometown, Melaka, kuih genggang is more widely known by its commercial name - kuih lapis or layered cake - throughout Malaysia. There isn't any direct English translation for kuih and the closest is cake. However, unlike cakes as we understand them in the Western world, kuih refers to the traditional local cakes in Malaysia & Singapore and they are often made of plain flour or rice flour or glutinous rice flour or tapioca starch flour or wheat starch flour etc. Given that Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country, one can enjoy a wide variety of kuih- Nyonya kuih, Chinese kuih, Malay kuih etc. Kuih are normally either steamed, grilled or baked, and for Nyonya & Malay kuih, coconut milk is often a main ingredient.

Kuih genggang is easy and cheap to do, and also delicious to eat. Its texture is sticky and gooey. It is a favorite tea time treat for many. Kids enjoy eating it by peeling off a layer by a layer. It is made by steaming it a layer by a layer also but it doesn't take very long to complete. It is best eaten on the same day that it's made as it can't keep for very long.

(Other variety of Nyonya food from Malaysia can be found at Nyonyafood.com).

Recipe:
- 180 g rice flour
- 200 ml water
Mix the above together and leave aside for 1 hour.

- 180 g sugar
- 350 ml water
- 2 srewpine (pandan) leaves, knotted
Boil the above together and leave the sugar syrup to cool.

- 250 ml thick coconut milk
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1-2 drops red/pink coloring

- Add the coconut milk, salt and sugar syrup into the rice flour mixture after 1 hour. Stir well and divide the portion equally into 2. Color one of it with 1-2 drops red/pink coloring.
- Heat up an 8 inch round pan in a steamer setting. Grease it lightly with cooking oil first. Pour half cup of the white batter, cover the steamer with lid and steam for 5 mins or until the layer is cooked. Do the same with the next batch of 1/2 cup red/pink batter. For the final top layer, you can add more red/pink coloring to distinguish it or for presentation sake. (Note: make sure to give the batter a really good stir each time before taking 1/2 cup to pour for steaming). Leave to cool completely before cutting into diamond shape.

Cheers, have a great week ahead & see you next weekend!