Daging kicap aka beef in black soya sauce is a recipe given to me by a sister.  Simply delicious!

Ingredients :

1 kg – beef (cut into slices)
2 tbsp chilli paste
Beefsteak powder – 3 tbsp (if don’t have can substitute with meat curry powder)
1 small tin of tomato puree
2 potatoes – cut into small pieces (depend on your preference)
Enough sweet / salty black soya sauce.
Enough water

Ingredients to be grinded :

3 pcs of onions
5 pcs of garlics
1 lemongrass (serai)
1/2 inch galangal (langkuas)
i inch ginger

Ingredients to fry without oil and grinded :

Coriandar seeds
Fennels

the above just need to use 2 tbsp of it.

Method :

Fry the grinded ingredients, then add a small amount of water and the beef.  When the beef is tender, add in the beefsteak powder and tomato puree, black soya sauce (both salty and sweet, use more of the sweet than salty sauce … have to estimate the amount) and potatoes.

After it has boiled, then add in the grinded coriandar and fennel seeds.  Salt to taste.

Pau Sambal …. is a Malay snack which uses almost the same ingredients as making donuts except that the pau after frying is cut at midsection and stuff with sambal anchovies (anchovies cook in chillies).  Very spicy and yummylicious! …. My favourite snack of all times

For those who don’t like spicy stuff, well you can substitute the fillings with either sweet red bean paste or kaya paste or custard fillings. Anything you can try as long as the end results is delicious

Pau Sambal …

Ingredients for making the Pau :

3 cups of plain flour

2 tsp of dried yeast – add inside a 1/4 cup of warm water which has already been stirred with 1 tbsp of sugar.
(Leave the yeast mixture aside for about 10 mins or till bubbles appear on the surface)

2 tbsp of margarine

1 egg

1 potato – scrub clean and boil soft.  Mashed the potatoes till become paste.

1/2 cup of water with a pinch of  salt

Method :

Add the flour into a bowl.  Make a hole in the middle of the flour and add in the egg, yeast mixture, margarine and potato paste. 

Mix all these thoroughly with you hand and gentle kneed them into a dough by adding the water bit by bit.

Cover the bowl with a wet cloth and leave it aside for about half an hour.  The dough should rise to double its size.

Once it has double the size, knock the dough hard to release the air inside it.  Kneed the dough again and then take some dough to make small or medium (up to your preference)  ball shape pau.  Leave the balls of pau on a tray(s) which has been sprinkled with some flour.

Leave it to rise for about 10-15 mins.  After which you can start to fry the balls of pau in a small fire. Fry them till golden brown.

Once the pau has cool, cut in midsection and stuff it with the sambal anchovies or any fillings of your preference.

Ingredients for the Sambal anchovies :

1 bowl of dried chillies – soak in water
2 onions
1/2 tbsp of dried anchovies – soak in water
1/2 tbsp of dried prawns – soak in water
1 tsp of coriandar seeds
1 or 2 candlenuts
a pinch of belacan (dried shrimp paste) – (optional)

Ingredients above are to be grinded together.

oil
sugar and salt to taste
1/2 cup of dried anchovies

Method :

Fry the chilli paste with oil till fragrant.  Add in sugar and salt and finally the anchovies.  Ready to serve.

One of my favourite noodle dish.    This recipe is enough for 5-6 people.

Black pepper Hor Fun

Ingredients A:

2 kg kway teow (flat rice noodles)
4-5 tbsp dark soya sauce

Ingredients B :

5 garlic – minced
3 tbsp black pepper – grounded
1 tsp pepper powder
3 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp dark soya sauce
3 white eggs – beaten
1/2 kg prawns – half-skinned
2 fishcake – sliced thin
1 pkt of Chye Sim – washed and cut into 2 cm in length
4 tbsp of cornflour – mix with water
Salt to taste

Method :

1. Fry the kway teow noodles in a wok together with the dark soya sauce.  Fry with low fire about 5-7 mins.  Once done scoop the noodle into a container.  Leave it aside.

2. Boiled a medium size pot of water.  Add in the prawns, leave it to boil for about 3-4 mins or until the prawns are cooked.  Scoop the prawns out and leave it aside.  The stock will be used later.

3. Take a big wok, pour a little oil and fry the garlic.  Next pour the prawn stock into the wok.

4. Add the black pepper and pepper as well as the oyster sauce and dark soya sauce.  Stir and leave it to boil.

5. Then add in the white eggs, pour with one hand and the other hand quickly stir the wok.

6. After that add in the cornflour, stir and add salt to taste.

7. Once the gravy looks about to thicken, add in the chye sim and fishcake.  Let it boil for a while longer and then off the fire when the gravy is thicken nicely.

8. To serve, put the kway teow noodle is a bowl, pour the gravy over it, and garnish with 2-3 pieces of the prawns.  Can also garnish with chopped spring onions and dried onion flakes.

This noodle is best eaten with pickled green chillies.

Optional : for those who like more vegetables in their noodles, can always add in cauliflower or carrot into the gravy.

“Ayam Farhana” hmm yummy!! ….  which literally means “Farhana’s Chicken”.  Mmmm perhaps the original cook of this dish was name Farhana thus it is called so.  Anyway, this dish is specially written here for my sister Farhana (you know who you are .. )

This recipe is from Asmah Laili’s cookbook entitled… “Minta ampun sedapnya…” 

Ingredients A :

1 whole chicken – cut into 12 pieces and washed.
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1/2 cup water
Salt to taste

Ingredients B :

1 1/2 tsp fennel
1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 1/2 tsp urud dhal
1 tsp tumeric powder
2 tbsp of garlic and ginger paste  (which can been pounded/grinded)
1 tsp pepper powder
4 dried chillies – cut into two
1 big tomato – minced

Method :

1) Heat oil in a wok and fry ingredients B for about 2-3 minutes. Do not forget to keep stiring them.

2) Add in the chicken pieces, salt and water.  Stir thoroughly and cook for another 10 mins.

3) Then add in the garam masala and coriander leaves.  Leave it to cook for another 5 mins or until the chickens are tender.

4) Once ready, serve it hot with either rice or slices of french loaves.

pix source from the cookbook ….

Today our lunch menu are rice with Dal telur and Sambal kacang ikan bilis.  ‘Dal Telur’ is an Indian dish, it means eggs cook with lentils.  This is my eldest girl favourite dish.  She loves it when I cooked this and serve together with Sambal kacang ikan bilis

Dal Telur

 
Rice with Dal Telur and Sambal Kacang Ikan Bilis

Ingredients :

1 cup of split lentils (dal) – soak for about half an hour.
2 stalks of curry leaves
1 big onion – sliced thinly
3 stalks of dried chillies – cut into 3-4 pcs about 1 inch 2 cm in length
4 eggs
2 potatoes – skinned and cut into 4
1 box of coconut milk – (I use 200 ml of Kara Coconut)
1 tsp of tumeric powder

Ingredients to be pounded :

1/2 tsp of cumins (jintan putih)
1/2 tsp of fennel (jintan manis)
2 garlic

Method :

1) Pour 1/2 pot of water and add the lentils.  Cook over the fire till lentils are 1/2 soften (add more water if required)

2) Then add in the potatoes and let it boil further till potatotes are 3/4 cooked.

3) While waiting for the potatoes to cook, take a small saucepan and saute the onions with a little oil, add the dried chillies and curry leaves.  After a few minutes, add the pounded ingredients.  Fry till fragrant. Off the fire.

4) Add the saute ingredients to the pot and stir.

5) Add the eggs, tumeric powder and lastly add the coconut milk.  Stir every now and then till the eggs are cooked.  Add salt to taste.

6) This dish best eaten hot with rice and Sambal kacang ikan bilis (Spicy ground peanuts with anchovies).

This is a simple yet refreshing dessert.  I know that during the Japanese occupation, a lot of family in the Asia countries depended on sweet potatoes as their main food staple.  I knew for a fact that in the past my mother used to cook this and we ate this not as dessert but as a main dish during the hard times.  Now it is so commercially sold as a dessert instead.  How time have changed not only the people but also the way we eat certain foods.  Remarkable

Ingredients :

450 g sweet potatoes – skinned and cut into cubes
700 ml water
150 g red sugar (gula merah)
2 pcs of screwpine leaves (daun pandan) – washed and make a knot

Note : Some people prefers to add 2-3 slices of ginger, 2 pcs of cardamon (buah pelaga) and 2 pcs of cloves (bunga cengkih) into the soup (optional)

Method :

Pour water into a pot.  Put it to boil together with the screwpine leaves.  Once boiled, add in the sweet potatoes.  After the sweet potatoes have soften then add in the sugar.  Stir and let it boil for a few more minutes and ta-daaaa its ready to be serve.  This dessert is best eaten warm.

 
Fish tandoori

Ingredients :

3 pcs of Kerisi (sea bream fish) – clean and washed

Ingredients A (to be mix together in a big bowl) :

1 tbsp coriandar powder
1/2 tsp white cumin (jintan putih)
1 1/2 tbsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
1 tbsp cooking oil
4 tbsp lime juice
salt to taste

Method :

Marinate the fishes for about 3 to 4 hours with the ingredients A.  Put aluminium foil onto the grilling tray and place the fishes and grill them till cook.  Once cooked, turn them over and continue to grill till both sides are cooked.

Note : You can add a dash of red colouring to the fishes during the marination to achieve a nicer tandoori colour (optional).

pix courtesy of “My Periuk Belanga”

This is one of my family favourite cake.  Usually when I bake it, I would use muffin cups instead of the cake tin.  The pixs above is taken from “My Kitchen Is Burning”, its from her that I got to bake this wonderful cake.

Ingredients :

200 g self-raising flour – sieve
230 g butter
220 g castor sugar
5 eggs – medium size
1 tsp vanilla essence
20 g cocoa powder – sieve
50 ml fresh milk
a few drops of green colouring
2-3 drop of mint essence (if prefer more of the mist taste can drop more…)

Method :

1.  Heat the oven at 180 degree celcius.  Line the cake tin with baking paper and grease it with a little butter.

2.  Beat the flour with butter till it became like a paste.

3.  In a different container, beat the eggs together with the sugar using high speed till white and fluffy. Add in vanilla essence and beat again for a while.

4.  Mix the eggs mixture into the flour mixture and beat thoroughly.

5.  Divide the mixture into two.  The first one add the cocoa powder alternating with the fresh milk.

6). The second one add the green colouring and mint essence.

7.  Scoop the chocolate mixture first and pour it into the cake tin (in the middle of the cake tin) and then add the mint mixture on top of the chocolate mixture.  Do this alternately until finish.

8.  Once done, using a fork or a chop stick, make a swirl pattern on the cake tin so that it will looks like a marble pattern.

9.  Bake in the oven for about 40-45 mins or until it cooks.

Okay since I had a long weekends thanks to the Chinese New Year celebrations, I had a lot of free time at hand.  So I spent part of it making another batch of the roll pineapple tarts, curry puffs and murtabak crackers.  For those who do not know what is “murtabak” … well it is an Indian dish famous in Singapore and Malaysia … .suitable to be eaten during tea time or supper.  But this murtabak crackers that I made is not made from the dough that the shop usual use but instead the base is used using cream crackers …. thus the name murtabak crackers

I got the resipi from the TV show “Sedappp…. by Asmah Laili”.  Its simple to make and most importantly ….. its delicious!

Okay here’s the resipi for ‘Murtabak Crackers’.

 
before cutting into slices

 
the murtabak crackers                                                                   

Ingredients :

500 g of cream crackers
1 basin of water – to soak the cream crackers
8 eggs (if not enough, add more) – beaten with a dash of salt and pepper)
2 onions – diced finely
3 red chillies – seedless and diced.
1 stalk of spring onions (daun bawang) - chopped finely
1 stalk of Chinese celery (daun sop) – chopped finely
500 g of minced meat – fry without using any oil, add 1 tbsp of meat curry powder, salt to taste and pepper
1 cake tin – greased lighly with butter

Method :

Ready the minced meat first and the rest of the ingredients. Next, soak a few pieces of the cream crackers into the water (note : do not leave them too long, just long enough for the water to soak the crackers).  Lift a cracker and press lightly on it to squeeze the water out.  Place the cracker onto the base of the cake tin. Arrange them nicely till it covers the whole base of the cake tin.

Once the base has been covered with the crackers, sprinkle some of the minced meat, then the onions, chillies and spring onions/chinese celery.  Pour some eggs over them.  After that continue the whole process of placing the cream crackers , minced meat, chillies etc. again till it reach the top of the cake tin.  The last layer must be the cream crackers covered with eggs on top.

Once ready, bake it in the oven with 160 degree celcius for about 50 – 60 mins till cook.  Cool it first before cutting into pieces for serving.

First time ever I made pineapple tarts, and I did not even try to make the traditional type first instead I straightaway try out one of the modern version which is the Roll Pineapple Tarts.  The dough itself is not hard to make but the rolling … phew! it takes me a while before I could get it almost right.  So appearance wise the tarts do not look that great BUT the taste more than make up for it

For a start, before embarking on making this roll tarts you will need a special rolling pin.  It looks like this :

the special rolling pin

Roll pineapple tarts – before baking
So how to do this?  Well, you will need :

525 g plain flour
30 g corn flour (I use rice flour because I did not have corn flour at that time)
60 g castor sugar
375 g butter
3 eggyolks only
1 tsp vanilla essence

pineapple filling – I just bought 1 packet of the readymade ones and I add a bit of hotwater to the filling, just a bit so that they won’t be too dry.

For the dough, you will have to mix the dry ingredients together first and then using the rubbing-in method, mix them with the butter.  Then make a hole in the middle of the mixture and add in the eggyolks  and vanilla essence. Mix again thoroughly.

Next, roll the dough onto the pastry board, cut away the edges till you form either a square or rectangle.  Add the pineapple fillings near the edge of the dough and carefully roll it.  Next use the special rolling pin and gently roll it on top of the rolled dough.  Then cut the tarts into your desired sizes (see the pix above as example) and place them in the baking tray.

Spread/glaze some egg yolk on top of the tarts and bake them in the oven for about 20-25 mins or until golden brown at 180 degrees C.

Roll pineapple tarts – after baking.