Tapioca Cake ( Kuih Bingka)

This is my final entry for the Aspiring Bakers event this month. A very common kuih and i've seen quite a number of bloggers making this kuih recently.For those of you who enjoy eating  this kuih but not easily available at your place can try making this at home, it requires very little effort to make this. Just mix all the ingredients with a hand whisk and bake it till set.

I just made a very small batch ..half of the original recipe in a 8.5" x 5.5" baking tin
Original recipe ( from Nyonya Flavours)
some butter/oil  for greasing tin
1 piece of banana leaf for lining tin

650gm tapioca, peeled and grated
200ml thick coconut milk
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp tapioca flour
1tbsp butter/vegetable oil

Method:
1. Grease a 20cmx20cm ( 8"x8" )square tray with butter or oil and line with banana leaf
2. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend together with a hand whisk. Pour into the tray.
3. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 30-40minutes until cake is set. Turn up the heat to grill the cake/kuih at 250C for 5-10minutes, or until the crust is browned and aromatic
4. Remove from oven and leave to cool for several hours beofre cutting into pieces.

 I am submitting this to the Aspiring Bakers# 12- Traditional Kueh ( Oct 2011 ) hosted by Small Small Baker and also sharing this in the Muhibbah Malaysian Monday Event hosted by 3 hungry tummies 

Spooky Fingers Pita Bread

A simple and quick way to make this spooky fingers on a pita bread. Since this is a quickie way, i used store bought pita breads and some chicken sausages to make this. I still have a little pesto left which i made a week ago, i used that as a base for the pizza, arrange the sausages on top of the pesto, sprinkle some pieces of sundried tomatoes and mozarella cheese on top and there you have it, a sausage sundried tomatoes pita pizza.. less than 20 minutes!

To make those spooky fingers, what i did was i cut each sausage into 2 lengthwise, place a piece of almond as the "fingernail" on the end of the sausage. You can cut a certain angle off at the end of the sausage to fit in the almond nicely, some i did and some i did not and not all my almond slices come in one nice slice.. Dab a little ketchup on the sausage to stick the almond onto the sausages. They dont look spooky enough?? or they need some" manicure" ? hehe..no, i'm not celebrating halloween but i'm still going to eat those ' spooky and stiff' fingers!!

Ingredient :
1 piece pita bread
6 sausages, cut into 2 lengthwise
some pine nut pesto or any of your favourite base
some mozarella cheese
2 pieces of sundried tomatoes, cut into small pieces

After you have put on the base, arrange the sausages, spread the mozarella cheese and sundried tomatoes and then you can send it to oven for baking at 180C until the cheese has melted.

October is also a month of many food celebrations and one of them is sausage. I'll be submitting this entry for the Cookbook Party hosted by Louise of Months of Edible Celebrations under " Sausage Month' category
and also to the Halloween Party Event hosted by Hankerie

Pulut Panggang Roll

Pulut Panggang is a kind of traditional kueh made from cooked glutinous rice, flavoured with some coconut milk, stuffed with some savoury fillings and wrapped in banana leaves. If i'm not wrong, there are also some other versions of pulut panggang from elsewhere that comes with meat like fish and will be grilled over roasted fire till cooked. However, most of the pulut panggang that we find in stalls nowadays are usually comes with a simple pre cooked savoury fillings which is just as tasty. This is one simple version that i made, comes in 'sushi' roll form. I've made sushi 2 times, still learning ..so i thought maybe i can make these into rolls too since i have the roasted seaweed sheet and the sushi bamboo mat at home. okay, maybe now the pulut panggang  doesnt look that traditional... err..not that important, right?

without the top garnishing

with top garnishing

Recipe ( with reference from Baking Diary and Awayofmind )
makes 2 'sushi' rolls
Ingredients to make glutinous rice:
150gm glutinous rice, soaked for 4 hours and drained.

blue pea flowers

150gm glutinous rice, soaked with blue pea flower juice for 4 hours and drained. To extract blue pea flower juice, boil a large bunch of blue pea flowers with water (i used about 40 of them) for few minutes and then squeeze out the pulp.
150ml coconut milk
1 tsp salt

Ingredients for filling
100gm grated coconut
50gm dried prawns, chopped coarsely
2 shallots
2 cloves garlic
20gm turmeric
1/2 tbsp coriander powder
1 lemongrass, white parts
80ml water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
some cooking oil

2 pieces roasted seaweed

Frying the fillings: 
1. Dry fry the coconut grated till they turn lightly brown. Set aside. Pound shallots, garlic, turmeric and lemongrass and saute them with oil in wok, add in the dried prawns and  saute all till aromatic. Add in the pre fried grated coconut , taste and season them with sugar and salt. Pour in the water and fry the fillings till dry. Remove and let cool.

Method:
1. Mix all glutinous rice with 2/3 of the coconut milk and steam on high heat for 15 minutes. Fluff up the rice. Pour in the remaining coconut milk and put back to steam for further 15 minutes or till cooked. Remove from fire and let cool.
2. For rice wrapped outwards : Using a sushi roll mat, place one piece of roasted sea weed, with rough side facing up. Spread some glutinous rice over seaweed sheet , press them lightly on the seaweed sheet and flip them over. PLace some fillings across the center of the seaweed sheet and with the help of the sushi bamboo mat, roll them up like sushi. With a sharp knife, trim the edges and cut the roll into pieces. Garnish the top with some fillings.

3. For rice wrapped inwards : Using a sushi roll mat, place one piece of roasted seaweed, with rough side facing up. Spread some glutinous rice over seaweed sheet, press them lightly on the sheet, leaving about  probably 1/2" on one side of the edge. Spread the fillings across the center of the seaweed sheet and roll up.
With a sharp knife, trim the edges and cut the roll into pieces.

I am submitting this to the Aspiring Bakers #12- Traditional Kueh ( October 2011 ) hosted by Small Small Baker and also Muhibbah Malaysia Monday Event hosted by 3 hungry tummies

Steamed Pumpkin Kuih ( Kuih Labu Kukus )

The first time i made this kuih was quite sometime back, not too good as i found it more gummy on the texture. This time around, it's much much better after altering the flour and the water amount. I had eaten this kind of kuih  many years back, at a coffeeshop but no longer selling now and actually quite forgotten what was the texture like. It's not easy to find this kind of a steamed pumpkin kuih in town, i don't know why but it's nice. I am quite satisfied with the kuih this time but i know the next time when i want to make this again, i will most likely use some combination of flours and see again.  Now this you dont really have to eat with grated coconut cos it already has the wonderful fragrant that comes from the coconut milk .

If you are interested in this kind of steamed sweet pumpkin kuihs, do check out some other versions made by some of my blogger friends:
1) Quay Po Cooks - Steamed Pumpkin Kuih
2) My Little Space - Steamed Sweet Pumpkin Kuih
3)My Little Space  - Marble Pumpkin Kuih ( latest update on Oct24 )

Ingredients ( made this in a 6"x6" square tin )
300gm pumpkin, peeled, cut and steamed
120gm sugar
150gm tapioca flour
200ml coconut milk
80ml water

Method:
1. After steaming the pumpkin, while still hot, blend the pumpkin and water till puree.
2. Transfer the puree into a large bowl and combine it with coconut milk, sugar and stir to dissolve sugar. Add in the tapioca flour and stir well to combine, pour into a steaming tin and steam for 40 minutes. Remove from heat.
( Let kuih cool completely before cutting and eating , it will take several hours)

*** update on March27, 2012***
i've made another batch of this kuih and here's a revised recipe as i got feedback saying that the kuih is very soft. The kuih in the revised recipe here is still soft but slightly harder than the original version. Let it cool down completely before cutting. Let me know the feedback if any of you made this kuih. Thank you.

300gm pumpkin
120gm sugar
180gm tapioca flour
200ml coconut milk
60ml water

method is the same as above.

I am also submitting this post to the Aspiring Bakers #12 - Traditional Kueh ( October 2011) hosted by the Small Small Baker and also sharing this in the Muhibbah Malaysia Monday Event hosted by 3 hungry tummies.

Bake Along #12 - Chocolate Cherry Bread Loaf

Chocolate and cherry, that's the theme for our this bake along. Initially i wanted to bake a cake or a brownie but i still have a few pieces of cakes in my fridge so i thought baking a bread loaf instead. Now this isnt the fluffy type of bread loaf, i've used a recipe from a chinese book meant for a rustic looking european bread , Pain de Campagne but it's not dense. Just a little soft and chewy kind of loaf. To fit into the chocolate and cherry theme, i've added some cocoa powder to the dough, also some chocolate chips and dried cherries as filling.

Ingredients ( makes 1 big loaf )

hi protein flour 250gm
wholemeal flour 50gm

salt 1tsp ( 6gm)
instant yeast 1 tsp ( 3gm)
caster sugar 1.5 tbsp
cocoa powder
water 190ml

Filling:
40gm dried cherries
30gm chocolate chips

1. Put in all the ingredients except water into the mixing bowl and use a fork to stir to combine all of these dry ingredients.
2. On the mixer on low speed, slowly add in water . Increase the speed of the mixer after you put in all the water and keep beating till a smooth dough is formed. This will take roughly about 10-15 minutes. Remove from machine, on a floured surface, lightly knead to form into a round shape and let if proof until double its volume.
3. After proofing, lightly knead the dough again, shape intpo round and let it rest for 20 minutes. After resting for 20minutes, roll the dough out into round circle  sprinkle the dried cherries and choc chips all over and form into one big round loaf.
4.Transfer the shaped loaf into the baking tin and let it proof for the 2nd time for 45 minutes or almost double its size. Make criss cross patterns on the loaf using a sharp knife ( or scissor ) in my case or just leave it plain round. Bake in a preheated oven 220C at 10minutes, sprinkle with water and then 180C at 25 minutes.

we will be baking Key Lime Cupcakes on Nov21 from the book, Bon Appetit ( page 134) or refer here . You can also use any other key lime cupcakes recipes you have. If you are keen, just post it up on that day and submit your link  to Joyce, Zoe or myself . If you have baked anything with chocolate and cherries, you can link back to this post , the link below is open up till 25October.

Chicken Pongteh ( Braised Chicken with Potatoes )

Heard of Chicken Pongteh many times but it's my first time trying this. A Nyonya Peranakan dish, i believe..it is a kind of chicken stew cooked with potatoes and soy bean paste but unlike the kind of chinese style chicken stew with potatoes, the flavours here are far more heavier, salty sweet and also peppery hot.  It really has its own distinctive flavour here, a taste which i've never experienced before in a chicken dish. With 2 star anise and just 3 small cloves, they contributed so much to the overall flavour of this dish. For those who do not like the taste of these spices, it's alright not to put these in. I also added a bunch of thai basil leaves to give it a more aromatic taste. Anyone knows what "pongteh' means? Is it a Hokkien word?

Recipe (  taken from the book, " The Best Of Chef Wan" with some adjustments to my taste )
Ingredients:
Cooking oil 5 tbsps
Shallots 15, peeled and thinly sliced
Garlic 7 cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
Chicken, about 800gm , cut into pieces
Preserved soy bean paste ( tau cheong)  2 tbsp
Light soya sauce 2 tbsp
Dark soya sauce 1 1/2tbsp
Ginger 2cm knob, peeled and finely sliced
Cloves 3
Star anise 2
Chinese mushrooms 10, soaked in hot water until softened then drained ( i never put mushrooms)
Potatoes 3, peeled and halved
Water 250ml or more
Red chillies 2 , seeded and halved lengthwise
Sugar 1 tbsp or slightly more
Ground white pepper 1 tsp
Pinch of salt
a handful of thai basil leaves

Method:
1. Heat oil in wok and saute the shallots, garlic , star anise and cloves till fragrant and garlic turns golden brown .
2. Add the chicken, preserved soy bean paste, light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, ginger, potatoes and stir them for a minute. Add a little water.
3. Keep stirring them for few minutes and add in water and bring to the boil.
4.Put in the chillis, sugar, salt and pepper. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
5.Throw in the basil leaves, toss to mix, reduce from heat and serve.

I am submitting this dish to the Muhibbah Malaysian Monday Event hosted by 3 hungry tummies

Steamed Radish Cake (蒸 罗卜糕 )

Hi, i guess many of us here are very familiar with this kuih, you can find this in food stalls and in dim sum restaurants. Some prefer it steamed and some prefer it pan fried. It's also very similar to the steamed yam kuih which i believe that many of us like eating too. I like to make this too during chinese new year though i dont think it has any auspicious meaning associated with this kuih. Made a small portion here in a  6"x 6" square tin. I copied down the recipe somewhere many years ago , i cant remember where as i didnt write down its source but i think most likely from a magazine and along the way, i adjusted some here and there to get the right texture.

Ingredients:
1 medium sized local radish ( sorry i forgot to weigh my radish), peeled and shredded, squeeze out excess water
80gms dried shrimps, soaked and cleaned, coarsely chopped
1 chinese sausage,  coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 shallots
pepper and salt to taste
some spring onions
some fried shallots
chopped red chillies

Preparation:
1. Pour some cooking oil into the wok and saute garlic, shallots and half of the dried shrimps( 40gms ) till aromatic and put in the chinese sausage. Season with pinch of salt and pepper. Dish up and leave aside.
2. Saute the remaining half of the dried shrimps ( 40gm) till aromatic for topping. Remove from fire and leave aside.

To make the batter:
150gm rice flour
2 tsp cornflour
400ml water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients for batter in a large bowl , stir well to mix and sieve the mixture into another bowl.
2. Return the pre fried dried shrimps and sausage mixture to the wok , add the shredded radish and pour in the batter and cook on low fire till the batter slightly thickens, roughly about a minute. Keep stirring the mixture so that the bottom wont get burnt. When the batter begins to thicken ( you will see probably one or two bubbling ) , remove from fire . Stir well and pour into the steaming tin.
3. Steam for about 40-45 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool in tin, sprinkle with the remaining dried shrimps, chopped spring onion, fried shallots and chilli.  Cut into pieces.
( if any leftovers, you can put in the fridge and pan fry it the next day)

I am submitting this to the Aspiring Bakers #12 - Traditional Kueh ( October 2011 ) hosted by Small Small Baker.

Steamed Tapioca Kueh

this is one type of kuih that i used to make but have not made this since i started blogging and almost forgotten how should the batter consistency like cos this is more like a home recipe. When we make a kuih like this or most of the kuihs, we want to make sure that it's not too soft. Neither do we want it to be tough so while half way mixing in the ingredients, i called up a relative of mine, checked with her regarding the batter again. It should be wet but not watery otherwise i think there could be some difficulty getting it cooked or probably too soft. There isnt any flour being used here just mix in all the ingredients in a bowl and put to steam, simple as that. You can use the white flesh tapioca if you are unable to get the yellow flesh ones, just that i think the yellow ones look more attractive. Do not miss the grated coconut, the kuih tastes more delicious with them.

Ingredients ( made this in a 7" round cake tin )
460gm tapioca, grated and squeeze out excess water
110gm sugar
170ml water
60ml thick coconut milk/santan

For rolling/ topping
1/2 of a young coconut, grated
1/8 tsp of salt
 (mix the grated coconut and salt together and steam for about 10minutes. Set aside.)

Method:
1. Put the tapioca, sugar , water and santan in a big bowl , stir them and mix till well combined. Pour the batter into a baking tin and steam for 45 mins. Let cool down in tin , cut into pieces and serve with grated coocnut.

I am submitting this post to the Aspiring Bakers #12- Traditional Kueh ( October 2011) hosted by Small Small Baker

Potato Pizza

Do you know that there's a whole list of food celebrations in the month of October? oh, maybe this is more applicable to friends staying in america but isnt that nice to know that they have got so much food fun celebrations..october is the national month for apple, cranberry, pasta , pizza just to name a few. Our bake along this time, pizza theme came in timely for me to link this post back to the Cookbook Party  hosted by Louise from Months of Edible Celebrations. There are prizes to be won , just visit the link above to read more about that.

Just as i was thinking what pizza should i be making  for our bake along, i saw Jessica from Kitchen Belleicious making some Smashed Potatoes with Garlic Butter. I love that idea, the seasonings sounds good and i thought that might just be a good idea to transfer that to a pizza. I did not smash the potatoes, i sliced them instead cos i wanted to arrange them on a pizza and i put in what she put in. I made that garlic butter as the base for the pizza, arrange the sliced potatoes on top with little sprinkles of olive oil and put in dashes of salt, cajun seasonings, black pepper all over the pizza. Yes, it was good , the cajun and the black pepper makes it more tasty on the garlic potato bread. Now i would like to see what pizzas are Joyce and Zoe making too, drop by their blogs and find out. Wai Kitt from 一日三餐 is also joining us for this pizza theme, using crackers as a base, a crispy pizza ,you can check it out here

I use a vegetable peeler to slice the pizza into very thin slices, some slices are really thin and i cant feel eating the potatoes..ha!

Pizza dough recipe(  from 500 pizzas and flatbreads) makes one 12" round pizza
or any of your fav pizza recipe
i made into two 5" round pizza
58gm plain flour
67gm bread flour
a little less than 1/2 tsp of sugar
a little less than 1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of instant yeast
1/2 tbsp of olive oil
75ml warm water

Method:
1.To prepare the pizza dough, mix half of the flour mixture with sugar, yeast and salt in a bowl of a standing mixer. Set aside. Combine olive oil and warm water. With paddle attachment, slowly stir in the water and oil
into the flour mixture until well combined. Mix in the remaining flour.
2. Change to dough hook attachment and knead on low for 4-5 minutes until dough comes together as a ball and is smooth. If not using a standing mixer, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for about 10minutes.
3.Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with clean paper towel. Set aside in a warm spot for 1-2 hours or until doubled its volume.
4. Once dough has risen, divide the ball into 2 pieces or 1 piece , flatten them to form a disc and using a rolling pin or fingers, stretch them out to desired sizes.

Garlic Butter Base
30gm butter, softened
3 cloves garlic, minced
some dried parsley/dried oregano

mix all the ingredients together to make the garlic butter herb spread.

Topping ( no exact measurement)
1 large potato or more,  sliced into thin
some salt, black pepper, cajun seasonings, drizzle of olive oil.

Preheat oven to 210C. Spread the garlic butter herbs compote onto the pizza, arrange the potato slices, drizzle some olive oil over the potatoes. Lastly, sprinkle some salt, black pepper and cajun seasoning all over pizza and sent for baking for around 15-20 minutes or until the potato slices turned slightly brown.

Our next bake along will be anything with chocolate and cherries, if you are keen, post it up on the 20 Oct.

English Cottage Bread Loaf

Would like to share another great loaf of bread with all  of you using straight dough method. Soft and i think the crumbs are quite well developed too. As usual, i did all these using my mixer, no hand kneading. I find this bread richer in taste compared to the normal plain white loaf . i also like the crust this time, a little thicker and  very slighty chewy.  Though i'm baking breads quite often, i seldom get this kind of crust. I also doubt if this is the kind of traditional british english cottage loaf cos most of the recipes i checked on the internet do not have eggs or butter but anyway, this is still a nice bread...alex goh's version. I guess he has worked most of his recipes to suit local preferences :)

Recipe ( from the World of Bread by Alex Goh )

Ingredients A
400gm bread flour
100gm plain flour
45gm sugar
10gm salt

20gm milk powder
3 1/2 tsps instant yeast

Ingredients B
1 egg
260ml cold water

Ingredients C
60gm butter

Topping( optional)
Butter and sugar

Method:
1. Mix (A) till well blended. Add (B) and knead to form a dough.
2. Add (C) and knead to form a smooth and elastic dough. Let it proof for 60 minutes.
3.Divide the dough into 2 portions and shape them into balls. Let them rest for 10mins, flatten it and roll them up like swiss roll.
4. Grease 2 loaf tins ( 20cmx11cmx11cm). Put 1 roll in each tin. Leave to prove for 45 mins or till they double their sizes.
5. Using a sharp knife, slash once lengthwise across the top of the bread, place some butter and sprinkle some sugar on top.
6.Bake at preheated oven at 180C for 30minutes. Remove from  mould and leave to cool.

* i made one loaf in a 10"x6" loaf tin and another one in oval shape and baked in a baking sheet.