Ikan Masak Lemak

Bonjour,

It has been quite a long time since I've eaten ikan masak lemak or fish cooked in spicy coconut milk and recently I've been cooking ikan masak lemak by using mackerel fish. Malay cuisine or Malay style cooking sometime used lots of coconut milk, spices and chillies. Different country has a different way to cooked using a different methods.

It's good to have this kind of food once in a while with or without chillies, it still tastes great. For this ikan masak lemak Malay style, some people like the thick gravy and that's really depend on the individual preference.

IKAN MASAK LEMAK

Ingredients;

2 mackerel or any fish
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
A pinch of salt
# Marinade the fish with turmeric and salt for 20 minutes.
3 shallot
2 cloves garlic
5-10 small chillies, optional
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder or fresh
1 lemongrass, smash
1-1 1/2 cup coconut milk
Salt and sugar

METHOD;

- Heat up oil in a saucepan and fry marinated mackerel until the fish cooked. Set aside.
- Using a blender or mortar, blend together shallot, garlic, chillies and turmeric into a fine paste.
- In a medium saucepan, mix the blended paste, lemongrass, and coconut milk, bring to boil for a few minutes or until the sauce slightly thickens.
- Add fish, season with salt or sugar to balance the taste and let it boil for another minutes.

Bon appétit!

Hawflakes Layered Cake

Bonjour,

Layered cakes or kek lapis are traditionally served in Sarawak and this kek lapis Sarawak are so famous throughout Malaysia. When its comes to kek lapis, people knows that Sarawak layered cakes is a colourful cake that comes in different pattern, colour and taste. Sometime I was just wondering how patient the person make a cake that perfectly layered and looks so beautiful, amazing and the cakes looks too pretty to eat!

To be honest, to make Sarawak kek lapis or any layer cake need lots of patience and I am not patient enough to wait the cake done and I can't wait to try it. That's why my hawflakes layered cake was not as pretty as Sarawak layered cake but the taste was good just as what I expected. It seems I need to bake and practice more in the future to make a better layer cake. Recipe I got from Azlita masam manis blog and these cake suppose to be steamed but I baked it. I slightly overcooked the cake and it's a little bit dry.

HAWFLAKES LAYERED CAKE

Ingredients;

5 eggs
225 sugar
220g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
150ml milk/ evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100ml vegetable oil
1 packet hawflakes
Food colouring

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 170° and prepared baking pan, set aside.
- Sift flour and baking powder and mix all ingredients in a mixer bowl except oil, hawflakes and food colouring.
- Beat the batter until light and fluffy.
- Add the oil and fold in with a spatula.
- Divided the batter into 3 or 4 portions. Put any colour of your choice.
- Pour a spoonful one of the batter into prepared baking pan and arrange hawflakes on top.
- Bake for 5-8 minute, take out the pan and pour another coloured batter for second layer and arrange the hawflakes on top.
- Bake for another 5-8 minute and repeat the layers until finish.
- After putting the final layer, bake for 15-20 minutes more or until the cake are fully cooked.
- Let the cake cool before slicing it.

Enjoy baking!

Nyonya Pineapple Tarts

Hey,

Nyonya style pineapple tarts or tat nenas in Malay is one of the must thing have biscuit in many households during Chinese New Year or Eid Mubarak celebration. I've made this pineapple tarts last July and have made again last week. Some Malacca's Nyonya pineapple tarts that we can found in Malaysia are slightly larger is like eating two normal sized pineapple tarts.

Living far away from home just make me miss Malaysian pineapple tarts terribly. So I decided to buy pineapple and make the pineapple jam on my own. Even it takes a little time to cook and prepare this goodies, but its worth it. I've tried two different recipe doughs before that I got it from internet and I prefer the dough with corn flour because the pastry literally melt in your mouth!

There are so many pineapple tarts version we can find in the internet and so far I just made with this two recipe. Perhaps would try another recipe in the future.

NYONYA PINEAPPLE TARTS

Ingredients;

Recipe (1)
150g flour
2 tablespoons corn flour
1 tablespoon icing sugar
100g butter
1 egg york
A pinch of salt
Pineapple jam for filling

Recipe (2)
225 flour
125g butter or margarine
1 egg
1 tablespoon ice water
A pinch of salt
Pineapple filling

Pineapple filling;
2 pineapple
1 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick

METHOD;

For the pineapple filling;
- Prepare the filling early or one day before.
- Peel pineapple and cut into cubes.
- Using a blender, blend pineapple into puree. Add little bit water if needed.
- Do not adding water for the second time, just use the first puree to mix with others.
- Pour the pineapple puree into a big saucepan or wok, add sugar and cinnamon and cook over medium heat until it thickens and the jam look like a paste. It takes about one hour or more to cook.
- Let the jam cool completely and chill in the fridge before using.
- The pineapple jam can store in the fridge for few weeks or a month.

For the dough;

- Both recipe method for the dough are basically the same.
- Mix flour, sugar, salt and butter, rub in the butter until resembles bread crumbs.
- Add in egg and ice water and lightly combine and gently knead the dough. Do not overwork.
- Wrap dough with cling wrap and allow to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Roll pineapple filling into small ball. Set aside.
- Roll out the dough to desired thickness, cut out with pastry cutter and arrange into baking pan.
- Place pineapple ball onto the centre of each tart shells.
- In other way, roll the dough, place the filling and roll it over. Any shape works well, open faced or enclosed tarts.
- Brush with egg york glaze if desire.
- Bake in the preheat oven 170° for 20-25 minutes or until the tart pastry looked golden brown.

Enjoy the Nyonya pineapple tarts!

Lychee Pudding

Salut,

When I was in Thailand few years ago, I love to eat fresh lychees and other local fruits and almost all the fruits are so cheap especially when they are in season. I saw in some grocery shop sell some lychees but they're so much expensive here.

Thinking of lychees, I bought some canned lychee recently and made lychee pudding with it. This lychee pudding tastes so good, I could even finish it all alone. Simple and easy, yet delicious and refreshing treats.

LYCHEE PUDDING

Ingredients;

4g agar agar powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup evaporated milk
1 can lychee, separated syrup and fruit
Some lychee, cut into small piece

METHOD;

- In a saucepan, mix agar agar powder, sugar and water and bring to boil until sugar dissolved.
- Add in evaporated milk and all lychee syrup and boil for another minute.
- Pour the mixture into glass or jelly pan.
- Arrange some lychee fruit into the pudding and let it cool before transfer to the fridge.

Enjoy the lychee pudding!

Moist Chocolate Cake

Hello,

I love chocolate but I don't really into chocolate cake very much. I like to baked and make chocolate cake, chocolate brownies or any recipe with chocolate. Even sometimes I don't eat much a cake that I've made as long as people around me happy with the tastes, then I'm happy too.

I got this moist chocolate cake recipe from one of Malaysian food blogger, Azlita masam manis. This cake comes out beautifully moist and soft. These cake was great and tasty even without the ganache, but I prefer to put the chocolate ganache on it. All the recipes I have tried from her blog so far turned out great and there are still many recipes that I wanna try in the future.

MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients;

300g flour
100g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
# Mix and sift all dry ingredients
3 eggs
400g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250ml evaporated milk
250ml vegetable oil
250ml hot water

Chocolate ganache;
100g dark cooking chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 170° and prepare baking pan, set aside.
- In a large bowl, hand or stand mixer, beat egg, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
- Add milk and oil and mix well.
- Add flour mixture and use a spatula to gently push the dry ingredients against the wet ingredients.
- Lastly add hot water and mix until everything is well combined.
- Pour the batter into prepare baking pan and bake for 1-1 1/2 hour or until skewer comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool completely and garnish with chocolate ganache or cream if desire.

For the chocolate ganache;
- Place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.
- Place cream in a small saucepan and bring to boil for a few second.
- Pour over chocolate and stir until chocolate has softened.
- Pour over chocolate cake and let the ganache cool before slicing the cake.

Happy baking!