Mohinga, Burmese Fish Soup Noodle

Recently, we were invited for Lunch at our friend's place. They are of Burmese origin and had served us Mohinga, a type of Burmese fish soup noodle. According to Wikipedia, Mohinga is a rice noodle and fish soup from Myanmar and is an essential part of Burmese cuisine. It is considered by many to be the national dish of Myanmar.

It is sort of like Asam Laksa minus the spiciness, looks a bit like mee rebus and tasted sweet, sour and a little sourish.. a very refreshing combination of natural taste without the use of salt or pepper which are quite core ingredients of most recipe.

After some googling around checking out on different recipes, I had attempted to try this out. Ingredients are quite easily available and all I needed was a little twist and combining the various recipes to render this version.

Please note that I had adjusted some of the ingredients due to my low carb diet, feel free to switch it to whichever you are comfortable. And this may not be authentic dish like those in Myanmar but rather my own adaptation based on information gathered from the internet.

Ingredients:

• 3tbsp of olive oil (you can use any oil like canola, or even peanut oil)
• 1/2tsp Natvia (if using sugar, use 1tsp)
• 1 shallots (sliced)
• 2.5 big onions (sliced)
• 6 garlic cloves
• 4 lemongrass stalk (2 pcs halved lengthwise and the other 2 sliced)
• 4-5cups of water
• 2tsp of turmeric powder
• 1tbsp of anchovies powder/granules (I used the japanese type)
• 2tsp salted anchovies paste
• 2tsp of tamarind paste
• 6 slices of ginger
• 300-400g of barramundi fish (cut to cube pieces, you may use any white fish and original recipe in Burma uses catfish)
• 1tsp of smoked paprika (if you are not cooking for kids, feel free to use crushed chilli)
• 1/4 cup of chick pea powder/flour (also known as garbanzo bean)
• 2tbsp fish sauce
• 4 hard boiled egg (either quartered it or sliced)
• 4 servings of cooked rice noodles (I used dried laksa noodle, boiled for bout 5-7mins)
• chopped red chilli for garnishing (and spiciness)
• sliced scallion for garnishing
• chopped cilantro for garnishing
• lime wedges (we used one lime)
• a packet of pea chips to serve along

Steps:

1. In the blender, blend these ingredients together till it form a paste: 1/2 portion of the onions, sliced lemongrass, smoked paprika and 3 slices of ginger.
2. In a pot (I'm using the french oven aka enamel coated dutch oven), add in water, turmeric powder, garlic (crushed), lemongrass (the halved), 3 ginger slices, tamarind paste, anchovies stock, anchovies paste and fish sauce. Let the boil and simmer for bout 5-6mins.
3. Add in the fish to the simmering broth and let it cook. It should only takes bout 2-3mins depending on the size of the cutlet. Sieve the fish out and side aside. 
4. Remove the lemongrass, garlic and ginger from the broth.
5. Pour the chickpea flour on a pan, on low heat, saute it till golden brown. Dish out and set aside once done.
6. Using the same pan, heat 1tbsp of oil in the pan, sprinkle the sugar in it and saute the shallots till light golden brown. Once down, dish out set aside.
7. Again on the same pan, add in the balance of the oil, saute the blended onion mixture till fragrant, add in the fish to give it a stir and coat the fish with the mixture. Dish out the fish and set aside.
8. Now dish the balance of the sauted onion mixture to the broth and continue to let it simmer. While simmering slowly stir in the fried chickpea flour so that it helps to thicken the sauce.
9. Add in balance of the onion to simmer. Simmer till the onion soften.
10. Once done, assemble the serving with noodle, top with the fish. Then scoop the broth with the onion over it. Sprinkle with chopped chilli, cilantro, crispy shallot and a piece of the pea chips.

Wanton Noodle

I just love all sorts of dumpling and sui now plus wanton is definitely my other love. So recently I had this craving for it and I had some high fat content minced in the fridge that I want to use up before it spoils..so I make wanton for dinner.

Noodle is definitely to go with it and I decided to make my own instead of buying from the store since I don't have much stuff plan for the day and I need some extra exercise.

This recipe is definitely a keeper since boss compliment that it tasted just exactly like the noodle from the hawker stall, what more, it was seasoned with pork lard.. hehehe...

Ingredients:

• 240g plain flour
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1 teaspoon of lye/alkaline water
• 2 XL size egg
• 1tbsp water

Steps:

1. Mix the flour and salt evenly in a bowl.
2. Then mix the lye water and egg separately in another smaller bowl.
3. Create a hollow in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid mixture and slowly knead the mixture. For me it is too dry and hence I added another 1tbsp of water. If you need more, please do so, but a little at a time. The dough should be very dry and crumbly.
4. Wrapped it up and set aside to rest for 30mins in room temperature.
5. After resting, you will realise that it is much easier to form the crumbly dough into a smoother dough. Instead of kneading it, I press it down with the rolling pin. Not rolling it, not beating it, but press it down. It is just like how those bamboo noodles are made.. (google for info if you not sure how it is).
6. After pressing it around for 5-6mins, let it rest another 30mins, before repeating step 5. By now, the dough is much smoother, but still very heavy and dry.
7. Rest another 30mins (i left it much longer coz i was out to pick up kids and run some errands). 
8. Divide the dough to 3/4 parts. Roll the dough out as thin as you can. I use the pasta roller. Starting with no 1 and stop at no 7 level.
9. After that is done, roll it over the noodle cutter. If you do not own one, just sprinkle the dough with some flour, then fold up and cut with a big knife or noodle knife.

For cooking, I just boil some water, put in the noodle to cook for bout 2mins, then rinse with cold water.

Ramen Tonkatsu Broth with Soy Egg and Charsiew

Hubby had been sort of asking for Ramen for a while and since it is winter, I guess this is a must cook dish. So bought some ingredients and start doing it... extra can be stored to be used for other cooking.

 Ingredients for stock:

• 1+kg chicken carcass
• bout one big take away box of prawn shell (air fried min 10mins on 200c or fry it till crispy and smells good)
• a small piece of gula melaka, 
• a big handful of peppercorn
• one carrot
• pork hock (blanched with hot water to remove impurities and then air fried for 10mins)
• 4pcs bone marrow (blanched with hot water to remove impurities and then air fried for 10mins)
• 6 chicken feet (blanched with hot water to remove impurities and then air fried for 10mins)
• 1 roasted leek
• 1 roasted big onion
• a big handful of dried big anchovies, roasted
• water to cover the pot, roughly 2l
• salt to season to your preference

Steps:

Place all ingredients in the pot and set it to boil for 6-8hrs. Or use the pressure cooker to cook for 2-3hrs.

Note: my pressure cooker can't fit in all the ingredients in one go, so what I did was split it to half, pressure cook half the time then remove the ingredients, place the other half and pressure cook another half the time.

Next the charsiew.
Ingredients:

• 1 slab of pork belly (roughly 800g-1kg)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sake
• 1/2 cup mirin
• 2tbsp sugar
• few slices of ginger
• 1tbsp minced garlic
• few pieces of spring onion white
• string to tie to the pork belly

Steps:

1. Measure roughly 3x the length of the pork. Roll the pork belly up and place the string underneath the belly. Start with the middle of the string at the very end of the belly, inter twine the string and roll tie it upwards, try to tie it as tight as possible as the pork belly will shrink after cooking and you want it to hold on to the round shape. 
2. Prepared some hot boiling water and blanched the belly all sides.
3. Then place all ingredients in the pot. If using pressure cooker, cook for 30mins. If normal pot, cook it for 2-3hrs till tender soft. Try to turn the pork around to absorb the sauce if the pork is not fully submerged in the sauce.
4. Once done, remove and cool it so that it is easier to slice.

Soy Egg:
Ingredients:

1. Eggs
2. Water
3. Soy mixture from the charsiew

Steps:

1. Place eggs in cold water, bring it to a boil and cook (entire process takes 4.5 mins for gooey yolk, 5mins for moist yolk, 5.5 mins for just cooked yolk - this is for winter time... during summer, reduce time by 30seconds).
2. Remove the eggs from the boiling water and run it over cold water.
3. Remove shell, soak the eggs in the soy sauce mixture for min 30mins, the longer the better it absorbs the color and taste to the eggs.

Once done, assemble the noodle, charsiew, egg with the other condiments such as spring onion, seaweed, ginger slice, bamboo shoots, etc.

Layered Kaya Steam Bun aka Asian Mille Feuile

I was looking online for something different to make besides the typical oven bake kinda food for either breakfast or lunchbox and stumble upon this interesting photo. Hence launched into a search for the recipe. It is actually not cake but steam bun layered up with kaya in between each layer. This is soft and fluffy and smells great too... glad my no 1 likes it.

 Trying to make it more "chinese" so added the prosperity word on it... with my home made stencil (mom was wondering since when I can do such pretty chinese word).

Recipe:

Kaya

• 40 g sugar 
• 40 g palm sugar 
• 200 ml undiluted fresh coconut milk (I used coconut cream in the can)
• 4 young, light green pandan leaves wash and cut 5 cm long (no fresh one, dried one, still smells good)
• 4 yolks (make sure there's no egg white at all)

Steps:

1. Dissolve sugar, palm sugar and coconut milk (along with the pandan leaves) on medium high heat, maintain and gentle simmer stage. 
2. Once the sugar melted, scoop partial of the mixture on the beaten egg yolks, little by little (roughly 1/3 to half).
3. Then continue stirring the coconut milk mixture while slowing add in the egg yolks with partial of the coconut mixture all into the saucepan. Stir it at low heat till the mixture thicken to your desired thickness. As I wanted to use it for this recipe, I make sure it is rather thick. It should take roughly bout 4-5mins.

*This is a quick so called 5mins kaya recipe but I had spent longer as I it thick.

Bun

• Part 1: Starter or Sponge dough
• 250g pao or low protein flour
• 200g water
• 1/4tsp (1g) commercial/instant yeast

1. Mix and set aside over night, roughly 12-13hours (room temperature - timing depending on the weather, if hot, not more than 12hrs)

• Part 2: Bun Dough
• 150g pao or low protein flour
• 50g sugar
• 1tsp baking powder
• 40g cooking oil (I don't like shortening and so I substituted it with oil)

1. Knead all ingredients from part 1 and 2 together to form a soft and smooth dough. It takes roughly 5-10mins to achieve that with hand. The dough is rather soft and a bit hard to handle.
2. Leave it to proof for bout an hour.
3. Prepare a baking tin roughly 9inch, layered with non stick baking paper.
4. Divide into 10portions, shape into ball before flattening and roll to round disc (roughly bout 8inch so as to allow space for it to proof).
5. Stack the first piece into the baking tin and spread the kaya over it. The original recipe asked for a tablespoon, but I was greedy, I put in more coz I prefer it to have more of it.
6. Continue stacking the bun doughs and spreading the kaya jam on every layer (except the last top one). Cover with a cloth and let it proof for another 2 hrs.
7. Heat up a pot of water and steam the bun. It should takes bout 30-35mins on medium low heat.
8. Once done, take it out to cool before slicing in... the bun should rise and filled up the entire cake tin, looks really fluffy and felt really light.

Bon apetit 

Note: you may choose to use jam or any other spread if you don't like or too lazy to make the kaya jam.

Hokkaido Cheese Tart

We haven't tasted the real thing before but this is definitely a nice recipe to keep caused my no 1 princess love it.

Each tart is sold at $4+ here and being someone that won't pay for such price, I decided I need make this myself and when is the best time, when Woolies is selling each block of Philly at $2.

Few notes before proceeding to the recipe:
* try to use mould that's smooth and not the traditional egg tart mould, it is easier to remove.
* although a thinner pastry will get you more of the cheese and taste better, but it breaks easily too. So make a thicker pastry.

Ingredients:
Pastry:

• 160g plain flour
• 35g icing sugar
• 10g ground almond
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 90g unsalted butter, cubed
• 2 XL egg yolks

Pastry:

• 150g cream cheese
• 70g mascarpone cheese
• 40g salted butter
• 70g cream
• 20g evaporated milk
• 40g sugar
• 1 XL egg
• 10g cornflour
• 2tbsp lemon juice
• a pinch of salt

Egg Wash

• 1tsp milk
• 1 xl egg yolk

Methods:

1. For the pastry, first combine the flour, ground almond, salt and icing sugar together in a bowl.
2. Add in butter and rub with fingertips till the mixture becomes crumbly.
3. Add in egg yolk and mix till dough form. Wrap in cling wrap or in a ziplock bag, store in fridge to rest for 15mins.
4. Next take enough to press over the mould. Remember note 2, try to be generous and not use too little otherwise the pastry will crumble and makes it very hard to unmould.
5. Prick the base and do with more mould till all pastry used up. Bake at 160c for 10mins. Set aside to cool.
6. For the filling, place the cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, butter, evaporated milk, sugar and cream in a bowl. Place the bowl over a water bath and stir till the mixture mix well and smooth.
7. Add in the egg cornflour, lemon juice and salt and whisk till even.
8. Transfer the mixture into a piping bag. Pipe it into the bake and cool tartlets. Set to chill in the fridge for 30mins.
9. Brush the top of the tarts with the egg wash.
10. Bake the tarts using top grill fan function for 6-8mins. Do keep an eye to prevent the top from burning. If required, at 5-6mins, give the tray a turn.

Red Wine Oxtail Stew

I had adapted Jamie Oliver's insanely good oxtail stew to my own very version due to availability of ingredients in the kitchen and it is way better than insanely good, it is smack good... hehehe...

Ingredients :

• 500-600g of oxtail (scrub with salt and flour, rinse till clean)
• 500ml red wine
• 3tbsp Lea Perrin worchester sauce
• 1/2 cup of 4 mixed beans
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
• 1 onion cut to 12pcs
• 3pcs celery cut to small pieces
• 1 carrot cut to small pieces
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2pcs of bay leave
• 3tbsp olive oil
• 3tbsp flour
• 3tbsp chicken powder (I used my fresh home made one, no beef stock use this as sub)
• 1/2 tsp salt to season (adjust to your preference)
• 500ml water
• 1 big handful of chopped parsley to sprinkle after cooking.

Method :

1. Use high saute mode, heat up the olive oil (half of it). Brown the oxtail, all sides. Sprinkle with 1.5tbsp flour, give it a stir. Take about 10-15mins. Remove and set aside.
2. Add a little more olive oil, saute the herbs and veggies. Do this for bout 5-7mins, then sprinkle with the rest of the flour and stir for another 1-2mins till well coated and the flour dissolve.
3. Add in the rest of the ingredients, give it a stir. Change to bake mode, lid on, valve to bake mode and bake for 45mins.
4. I wanted a more brown effect, so I dish them out and place in oven, 20mins at 160c. If you don't have an oven or find this too troublesome, continue to bake in the PPC for another 15-20mins, till the sauce thicken to your preference.
5. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Smoked Salted Black Tea Chicken

Typical menu for whole chicken will be either to do the Western style roast or Hainanese Chicken rice and I'm sort of bored with that. So when I open up the kitchen cabinet and saw the big basket of black tea there... well.. ok, I'm gonna try smoking the chicken.

Tools Required:

• Oven
• grill tray with the rack
• aluminium foil

Ingredients:

• whole free range chicken (mine 1.2kg)
• 1cup black tea
• 1/4 water
• 2tbsp coarse salt
• 2tsp himalayan salt
• 1/2tsp pepper

Steps:

1. Pat dry the chicken, rub it all over with the himalayan salt and pepper.
2. Mix the black tea with water and salt.
3. Place the tea mixture on the tray before placing the rack over it.
4. Place the chicken on top of the rack. Cover loosely with the aluminium foil to create smoke effect in inside the tray, allowing some smoke to escape.
5. Preheat oven at 100c for 10mins, then place the tray in. Reduce temp to 70c. Use the bottom heat function only
6. Smoke the chicken for roughly an hour to 1.5hrs.
7. Remove the aluminium foil and change to fan forced at 180c. Roast the chicken for another 25mins.
8. Once done, remove to cool for bout 10-15mins before cutting it up.

Condensed Milk Cheese Cake

It has been a while since I last updated the blog, time to start recording down all the recipes that I think is good and worth keeping.

To start with, today I just baked condensed milk cheese cake.

The big boss bought and open up the condensed milk, so got to make something with it before it spoil. And since Philly cheese is on sale, $2 per block from Woolies, hence google turn up with condensed milk cheese cake.

Ingredients:

• 5 yolks
• 1 egg
• 84g cake flour - sieved
• 84g condensed milk
• 200g cream cheese
• 58g canola oil
• Pinch of salt
• 4tsp lemon juice

• 5 egg whites
• 75g castor sugar
• 1tsp lemon juice

Method:
*Note: I had used the 24cm push up round cake pan.. lined inside with paper, bottom and side. Then wrapped the outer bottom with 3 layers of aluminium foil to prevent the water from the water bath from getting in.

1. Melt cream cheese  by double boiling over stove.  Once melted,  whisk lightly to a smooth consistency.  Set aside.
2. Sieved flour, then add in salt, stir well and set. 
3. Mix yolks, 1 egg and condensed milk until well combined and set aside.
4. Heat oil over stove or microwave on high for 10seconds. Once done, drizzle over sieved flour and quickly mix to a smooth paste.  Set aside.
5. Pour the yolk mixture into the cream cheese, mix well. Then add into the flour mixture, mix well. Next add in 4tsp lemon juice, whisk until well combined.  Set aside.
6. Pre-heat the oven at 170c. Prepare the outer tin for the water bath, boil roughly 1.5l water
7. Beat egg whites until foamy, add in 1tsp lemon juice, then add sugar in 3 batches.  Continue beating until attain firm peak.
8. Fold in meringue to the yolk mixture in 3 batches.  Be sure to fold till you don't see any streaks of meringue.
9. Pour in batter to baking tin, tap few times on table top to release air bubbles.
10. Place the baking tin on the outer tin, fill up the outer tin with the boiling water.
11. Send to bake by waterbath method. 170C for 20min, then 160C for another 45min (adjust according to your oven temperature. I had reduce temp to 140c for the last 10mins to avoid the top from over browning.
12. Once done, invert to cool for 5min and remove mould.  Then revert back upright to cool completely.

Pumpkin Donut

This is originally not my recipe, I made amendment to the recipe to fit whatever is in my pantry and here it is with the modification. Original recipe from Mandy in FB group.

Ingredients

• 100g Plain flour 
• 150g Bread flour (original asked for 200g bread flour, without plain flour)
• 20g milk powder
• 4g yeast
• 80g pumpkin (microwaved with a tablespoon of water for 5mins high, then mashed. original recipe called for sweet potato without information on how to prep it)
• 30g raw cane sugar 
• 3g salt 
• 95g of egg + water (1 egg + with water till it is 95g)
• 20g butter (add in after mixture is well mix, the recipe indicate 15mins)
• Oil to fry (I used peanut oil)

Steps:

1. I'm using my Kenwood mixer, with the bread attachment. Place in the wet then dry ingredients, set it to medium low speed and mix for about 3-5mins till all ingredients are well mix together
2. Then add in the butter and mix for another roughly 20-25mins on high speed. I did not wait till it reaches window pane stage coz i was running out of time.
3. Leave it to proof for bout 30mins (it was rather cold last night since winter started, so I proof it over a medium low heat water bath).
4. After 1st prove, deflate air, roll flat and divide into 23 pcs (or up to ur preference), shape into round balls. The dough is rather fluffy and soft to handle. So by the time I'm done with the last, the first is sort of proof again.
5. Pour oil in the pot that you using to fry the donuts and heat it up while working on the donuts.
6. Make a hole in the centre of the ball with your finger, then give it a hoola hoop round in your finger so that the hole in the middle is even, big enough and the entire donut looks even. Make sure the table is well floured.  
7. Proof another 15 mins. (U may prove longer to 30 mins)
8. Be carefully when handling doughnuts. I used my long silicon chopstick that's wonderful for this.
9. Drop in the donut one by one on the oil and fry on low heat till you see golden brown colour. If your oil is hot enough, the donut should float up within 5 seconds you put it in.
10. When done, rest & cool the doughnuts, decorate it the way you like once done.

Popiah Skin

This project has been put on hold for a long time and finally, I bought the Lodge raw cast iron pan and thought of giving it a test run with this recipe. And it is absolutely fantastic.. it works.

Ingredients:

• 100g sourdough discard
• 100g flour
• 105g water
• a pinch of salt

Steps:

1. Mixed the ingredients well and stir it hard up and slam it down. Do this till you see the mixture begin to form "fibre". If too tired or lazy, just use the mixer with the dough hook, that should just take bout 1-2mins, but iIjust needed some hand exercise so i used the hand and the spoon. 
2. Cover well and store in the fridge to rest over night. you may use the dough once warm to room temperature.
3. Heat up the pan at medium heat and lower it once you can start to feel it out of it when u place your hand above it.
4. Use the hand to grab the dough mixture and dollop it to the pan. for reference, you can youtube the instruction how to it. However I had done a shortcut/lazy job and used the ladle instead for this task. I drop bout half a dollop on top the pan and quickly spread it out to as thin as I can.
5. Once done you may peel it off (I had timed mine at 2mins each) and let it warm up another 20seconds before doing the next sheet. Refer to the video below of me peeling it off and almost burnt my fingers... hehehe

Note: The skin will be rather crispy/tough when you peel it off. Place it on a plate and cover with a piece of cloth. It will soften once it cools down.

Sourdough Soft Bun

I love those cotton like texture from bread and buns and had hope to be able to make it without the use of commercial yeast. After some thought.. I tried substituting the yeast with the sourdough starter and see if it works. I had used the recipe that required poolish starter for the bread. And indeed, it works marvellously.

Ingredients:

• 310g sourdough starter that has been fed and is bubbly and ready to use
• 100g plain flour
• 15g milk powder
• 45g raw sugar (you can substitute with caster sugar)
• 5g salt
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 70g water
• 50g butter

Steps:

1. Place all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and stir it. 
2. Then add in the rest of the ingredients except the butter.
3. Use the dough hook and knead the ingredients with medium low speed till it forms a dough shape.
4. Increase the speed and slowly add in the butter little by little in small cubes size.
5. Knead till the dough reach window pane stage (it took bout 10mins with the Kenwoood at high speed).
6. Set aside to rest for about 1hr to 1.5hr (it is ready when u poke a finger on it and the dough does not bounce back up).
7. Punch and shape the dough according to your preference, you may even fill it with your favourite filling.
8. Let it rest for another 20-40mins (it won't rise as much as those using commercial yeast) till almost double in size.
9. Brush some egg wash on the surface of the bread.
10. Bake at preheated oven at 180c for 28mins (for my oven, you may need to test and trial with your oven setting).

Home Made Luncheon Meat

I had been rather lazy recently and have not been updating the blog as often as I used to. But I guess I can't miss this recipe out. Made this specially for a friend that is currently pregnant and craving for luncheon meat.

Ingredients:

• 500g pork minced (I used ready store minced and I have no idea the fat vs lean composition)
• 100g pork belly (rind removed) - cut to small pieces
• 30g chicken (coincidentally got left over)
• 30g plain flour
• 30g potato starch
• 1tbsp sugar
• 2tbsp soy sauce
• 1tbsp sesame oil
• 1tsp ginger juice (I can't squeeze that much so actually just shred some into the mixture)
• 1tbsp chinese cooking wine
• 1tsp paprika
• 1tsp 5 spice powder (I think it is rather over powering, should reduce to max 3/4tsp should do)
• 1tsp white pepper powder
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2tsp salt

Steps:

1. Place the cut pork belly in the food processor and blend till the meat are finely blended. 
2. Add in the chicken and minced into the food processor and blitz it for roughly 10-15seconds. This is to further processed the meat till they are very fine so that the texture of the luncheon meat is not coarse.
3. Add in the rest of the ingredients and blitz for another 20seconds to get all ingredients mixed properly and evenly.
4. Prepare either a bowl or pan or whatever container that you will want to use to steam the meat. Oil the container and place the mixture into the container. Press the meat down and try to compact it as much as you can. It is rather hard to do this since the mixture is very bouncy and soft. I just used the back of the spoon to press it down. 
5. Oil the top of the mixture and then cover the container with an aluminium foil. Then use your hand to further compact the meat down by pressing over the foil.
6. Prepare a wok of water and set to steam the meat. I used the Philips electrical pressure cooker and just pour in cold water and put in the container. Use something heavy to place at the top of the aluminium foil. This is to prevent the meat from expanding during the steaming process and create air bubbles in the luncheon meat.
7. If you are steaming it manually, steam over high heat for 45mins. With the pressure cooker, I used steam mode and steam for 20mins.
8. Once done, removed the container and let it rest. Do not remove the aluminium foil. This is to ensure that all the moisture can be retained in the meat and not have juices flowing out when you cut it. Since the weather is  rather cold still tonight (I guess it is below 11c), I waited for bout 15mins before opening and removing the whole piece of meat to cut (rested another 10mins out of the container before cutting).
9. Fry the meat the way you like or like me, place it in the air fryer at 180c and fry for 7mins on each side.

Sourdough Chocolate Brownies

As the sourdough starter is being fed, it gets more and more and I need to use it or discard it. As usual, I try to avoid wasting so I googled up for some usage and decided to make brownies with it instead.

Ms No 2 loves it so much coz it is all chocolate... yum

Ingredients:

• 170g dark chocolate chips
• 113g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 80g sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1tsp vanilla 
• 1 egg
• 20g cocoa powder (I used milo coz my girls love it)
• 113g of matured sourdough starter (I used it on the 5th day)

Steps:

1. Place the chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl. Heat it up at high for about 1min.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa powder and sugar. Then stir in the chocolate and butter mixture.
3. Next stir in the egg followed by the sourdough starter and the rest of the other ingredients.
4. Lightly greased the baking pan and pour the mixture into it.
5. If baking in the air fryer, just bake for bout 20mins on 180c. If using normal oven, preheat the oven at 200c. Then bake for 30-40mins. The outer layer of the brownie should be set but still looks wobbly.
6. Let it cool before removing to cut and serve.

First Successful Rustic Sourdough

This is my first successful sourdough bread. It is not a 100% sourdough bread though as it contains 2g of commercial yeast.

Personally, I don't quite like the taste (maybe I didn't put enough of salt in it) coz it is quite bland. The skin of the bread it crusty though and the inside is quite fluffy and soft.

Ingredients:

• 227g levain (the one that is fed and has bubbled up and spongy
• 340g lukewarm water (I used half hot and half cold as it is winter here)
• 7g or 2 tsp of instant yeast
• 14g sugar
• 2.5tsp salt
• 600g all purpose flour

Steps:

1. Place all ingredients in the mixing bowl and knead it to form a smooth dough.
2. Allow the dough to rise in a lightly greased covered bowl until it's doubled in size. It took mine bout 1hr and 5mins.
3. Gently divide the dough in half. It is ok if it deflates.
4. Gently shape the dough into two oval loaves or long loaves and place them on greased parchment lined baking sheet.
5. Cover and let it rise until very puffy, roughly bout an hour. 
6. At the end of the second proofing, preheat the oven to 210c.
7. Spray the loaves with water then make two deep diagonal slashes in each with either a serrated or very sharp knife.
8. Then bake the bread for 25-30mins, depending on your oven until it is deep golden brown.
9. Remove and cool on rack.

Sourdough Starter

I remember bout a year or more back, I had attempted to make sourdough but failed terribly. This time, not sure what got into me, I decided to retry again.

The starter took bout 6days (winter now) to be ready.

So, what I did was stir 113g of flour with 113g water (warm). Cover it loosely. This time, I used all plastic, plastic container and plastic spoon (I think it makes a difference. Do not use metal).

Place it by the windowsill in the afternoon and in the evening, put it near any warm source.
Next day, add another 113g flour with 113g warm water, continue for 5day.

By the 5th day, I took out 113g of the bubbly starter to add in 113g of water and 113g of flour in a separate container and place near to a warm source.

By the next morning, the levain has doubled and looks really fluffy and spongey. This is ready to be used.

According to many websites, the bubbly starter is ready  to be used when it can float on the water. I was so happy when mine manages to float.

Keropok Lekor aka as Malay Fish Fingers

This is oil fried version

This is air fried version

This is how it looks like before slicing to fry

What happens when you are in the land that you don't get what you crave for easily or almost not available, you try making it yourself. Keropok lekor is one of my favourite snack from the night market back home. This is actually my second attempt of making this snack. The first was a failure maybe due to the type of fish used. I used basa fillet the first time and it tasted more just like normal fish cake and lack of that spongy feel for the thick type and not crispy for the thin type.

This time, I used barramundi and it works nicely. Maybe it is due to the "kaoness" of the fish. It is the stickiness effect that the fish achieve after being mashed.

Here is the recipe for this yummy snack:

Ingredients:

• 450-470g of fish fillet (I used barramundi, you can use tuna or even ready made fish paste
• 1 1/4 cups of tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup of plain flour
• few pieces of ice cubes
• a pinch of salt
• 10g butter
• 1cup plain flour for dusting
• 1 pot of salted water for boiling
• oil to fry

Steps:

1. Place the 6 ingredients in the food processor. Mix till it is even.
2. Dust the working top with plain flour and scoop the mixture out to shape.
3. Divide the mixture into 6 parts and dust it generously with the plain flour.
4. Shape it into long tube of roughly 12cm with diameter of 2.5cm. Place them aside.
5. Boil the salted water. Once boil, place in a few pieces of the fish tubes and let it boil for bout 4-5mins. It is ready once the tube floats in the water.
6. Remove the fish tubes and let it dry and cool down.
7. Once it is cool and dry, slice it to the thickness of your preference and fry.
8. If you using the air fryer, it takes about 8-10mins at 200c. Time varies with the thickness you cut the cracker.

Ayam Percik

After hub has his craving for nasi goreng kampung, it is my turn to crave for ayam percik. When I was young, I'll anticipate for the days of the night market and this is the only thing mom will let me buy. Haven't had it for years and just feel like eating it.

But there is no night market here. So, the only way is to make it myself. Worse, the winter cold is catching up and there is no way to do it with the bbq at even 5pm coz it is already dark by then. So, I resorted to my beloved AF to do the job.

Ingredients:

• 6pcs of chicken drumstick, deboned (you can either buy one that's ready or do it yourself)
• 2tsp tamarind sauce
• 2lemon grass, bruised
• 3/4 cup water
• 3/4cup thick coconut milk
• 1.5tbsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3tbsp oil
• Marinate ingredients:
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1tbsp sugar
• 1tsp chilli powder
• 1tsp turmeric powder
• Ingredients to blend:
• 4 candlenuts
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 8 dried chilli, soaked in hot water
• 2cm ginger
• 4 shallots
• 2.5cm galangal

Steps:

1. Clean the chicken and pat it dry. Marinate the chicken with the marinate ingredients and set it aside to marinate for at least 30mins.
2. Place the ingredients to be blended in the blender and blend till fine.
3. Heat up the oil in the pan and then saute the blended ingredients along with the tamarind sauce and lemon grass. Fry for about 4-5mins till it is well blended. and fragrant Stir constantly to avoid it from burning. Next add in water and let it simmer for 2mins.
4. Add in the coconut milk and salt and stir till it thickens.
5. Place the chicken into the cooled down spices and cover the chicken with the spices. Place the chicken in the Air fryer. Scoop a tablespoon of the spices on top of the chicken and set to 200c for 7mins.
6. Flip the chicken over and scoop another tablespoon of the spices on top of it and set to 200c for another 5mins.