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Finally we cooked Nasi Lemak, a popular and authentic dish of Malay heritage. Nasi Lemak means “coconut cream rice” which is cooked in coconut cream instead of using plain water to give it a nice coconut aroma. You can add in Pandan or screwepine leaves for additional fragrance. Nasi Lemak is traditionally wrapped up with banana leaves with other sides such as roasted peanuts, hard boiled eggs, anchovies (ikan bilis) and most importantly the Sambal (chili).

For a more deluxe version, you can always order other entrees to go with it, such as Curry Chicken, Mutton Curry, Sambal Cuttlefish, Kangkung Belacan, Sambal Egg (mostly spicy dishes) and etc. You can find the recipes in the site and prepare to accompany the Nasi Lemak.

I’ve prepared the Nasi Lemak with Ikan Bilis Sambal (Anchovies with Spicy Chili Paste), serve with sides and the Ayam Rendang (Dry Curry Chicken). Loved it. Toast to the celebration of fall.

Ingredients:

Nasi Lemak
3 cups rice
1 can coconut milk
3 stalk Pandan leaves (knotted)
A pinch of salt
1 tsp cooking oil
2 crushed garlic clove

Sambal Ikan Bilis (Anchovies Chili Paste)
1 cup anchovies (cleaned, rinsed)
1 medium red onion (sliced)
3 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp tamarind juice
1-2 tsp sugar
Salt to taste

To Ground ingredients:
5 red chilies
15 dried red chilies
2 garlic
5 shallots
1 tsp belacan

Other Sides
hard boiled eggs (cut in half)
cucumber (silced)
roasted peanuts

Serve 4 people

Cooking Method:

1. Wash rice then put rice into rice cooker with garlic,  a pinch of salt, and pandan leaves(knotted). Pour in 1 can of coconut milk. Check the level of liquid and add water if necessary up to the correct level.
2. Cook rice until cooked and loosen with rice ladle.
3. Prepare the grounded Sambal ingredients.
4. Heat oil in a wok over medium low, stir fry anchovies till golden. Set aside and drain.
5. Add in grounded sambal into the wok over low heat, let sambal cook and separates from the oil, stir fry till fragrant.
6. Add in fried anchovies, add in red onion slices and stir fry till soft, combine well.
7. Add in tamarind juice, sugar, adjust to taste.
8. Prepare hard boiled eggs cut into halves, slice the cucumber and roast peanuts.

Serve Nasi lemak and Ikan Bilis Sambal on a plate, with sides of hard boiled egg, cucumber slices, roasted peanuts and choice of meat entree.

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Who’s up for a bowl of Bubur Cha Cha (摩摩查查)? Bubur Cha Cha is a popular sweet dessert originated from Nyonya cuisine. It is also known as Sweet Potato And Yam Dessert. The dessert typically uses varieties of sweet potatoes (yellow, orange, purple), taro/yam, colorful tapioca jelly/sago pearls with palm sugar cooked in thick coconut milk dessert. Sometimes you can even add beans like black-eyed beans, red beans and green beans. To make the dessert more colorful, you can also make different colors of tapioca jellies to go with it.

Bubur Cha Cha is a sweet, delightful, colorful yet fulfilling dessert that you cannot resist. You can always serve it hot or put in some ice to get an icy cold Bubur Cha Cha. This is actually very similar to Hong Kong recipe of sweet sago in coconut milk (西米露). Great to serve in any occasions.

Ingredients:

2 small Orange Sweet Potatoes (diced)
1 small Yellow Sweet Potatoes (diced)
2 small Japanese Purple Yam (diced)
1 lb Taro (diced)
3 Tbsp Sago Pearls
1 can Coconut Milk
4 Pandan Leaves  (tied in knot)
2 pieces Palm Sugar (based on sweetness desired)

Cooking Method:

1. Cut the potatoes into dices, steam the sweet potato and yam dices on a high heat for about 20 minutes, or until cooked and tender soft.
2. In a pot, fill in half a pot of water , add in Pandan leaves and bring to boil. Combine coconut milk, bring to boil and turn heat to low.
3. In another small pot, bring water to boil, add Sago pearls and cook for about 5-10 minutes until Sago turned translucent. Drain and rinse under cold water. Set aside for serving.
4. Add in the cooked sweet potato and yam dices into the coconut mixture pot, add palm sugar keep stirring until dissolve. Simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Make sure the potatoes are cooked nicely, not too hard yet not too mushy.
5. Serve in a small bowl, add in cooked sago pearls and mix well. Can be served cold with ice too.

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I started to learn baking chiffon cakes two years back from one of my coworkers when she was learning from her roommate. I always love chiffon cake because it is light, fluffy and soft with enough moisture and not greasy at all.  I love all kind of desserts but Eric doesn’t. However chiffon cake is officially one of those cakes that he can gobble up a couple pieces with no problem and be gone the other day. That is one of the reasons I first learned the recipe so that we can enjoy it together.

I’ve tried a couple of chiffon cake recipes such as coffee, green tea and black tea versions. I would like to share the all- time favorite Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe. Pandan leaves also known as screwpine leaves. It has a sweet taste and nice aroma, it is used widely in cooking and baking in Malaysian cuisine with complement of a bright shade of green. In my previous posts, you can find a couple of dishes prepared with pandan leaves such as Pandan Shrimps, Black Glutinous Rice Dessert and Yam Dessert.

One important thing in learning to bake chiffon cake is the process of whisking the egg whites to stiff peak form. The egg white has to stand without dripping or drooling. Whisk the egg white in one direction slowly in increasing speed but turning to low at final stage, whisk until it reaches stiff peak, the egg white mixture should now be so smooth, silky and velvety like ribbon.

The original recipe is referred to www.kuali.com (a famous Malaysian cooking website) but I have made some modifications based on tryouts. The original recipe is too sweet and not enough coconut flavor. For the Pandan leaves you can find at your local Asian food store more likely in frozen section. Also you can get the Pandan essence in some of the Asian supermarkets. Now enjoy your tea time!

Ingredients:

For the Pandan cake batter:
175g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
80g  sugar
50g vegetable oil (warm 20 seconds in microwave)
50g thick coconut cream (warm 30 seconds in microwave)
4 egg yolks
1/8 green pandan coloring (optional)
1 tsp pandan essence (if fresh pandan is not available or add 1/4 tsp to fresh pandan juice for more flavoring)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

For the Egg White batter:
5 egg whites
60g castor sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

For the Pandan juice (blend in food processor):
8 Pandan leaves, cut into 3–4cm pieces
100 ml water

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Blend the Pandan leaves with water in a food processor or blender. Strain to obtain the Pandan juice.
3. In a mixing bowl, add egg yolks and sugar, whisk with mixer until pale light yellow. Add warmed vegetable oil and coconut cream, mix to combine.
4. Add in the pandan juice, pandan essence, green coloring, vanilla essence and mix until well combined.
5. In another clean mixing bowl (preferably stainless steel bowl, make sure no water, completely dry), with mixer at low whisk egg whites until just foamy, add cream of tartar and 1/3 sugar. Increasing speed gradually and continue to whisk. Add in 1/3 sugar, increase mixer speed and beat till soft peak. Pour remaining sugar, increase to high speed, whisk till egg white slowly turn stiff peak. Then reduce speed to low and whisk until egg white at stiff peak becoming smooth and silky. Do not overbeat. Check the tip of your whisk the egg white shouldn’t drip, or turn the whole bowl upside down the egg white shouldn’t drool. Total process takes about 5 minutes.
6. Using a spatula gently fold the egg white mixture in three batches into the egg yolk mixture. Fold and blend lightly until the cake batter is well combined.
7. Pour the batter into the chiffon tube pan (ungreased). Pat the tube  a couple times on the table to release excess air.  Bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes, until the top becomes golden brown.
8. Remove from oven, place it upside down to cool for 30 minutes.
9. When cooled, release cake from mold.

Cut into pieces and serve.

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Our Chinese New Year recipe continues with today’s special ingredient, prawn or shrimp.  I came upon this prawn recipe from a Chinese cookbook in the bookstore a couple weeks ago (forgot the name), I thought it is easy yet meaningful that best suits this  festive event. The name of the dish is called 如意蝦 , ru yi xia in Chinese, which literally means ones’ wish or  dream will be fulfilled, a symbol of good luck. You can name it Good Luck Prawn or Wine-Seasoned Prawn (or Shrimp) with pandan leaves.  I have substitute the recipe with 8 large tails of shrimps, that make up the lucky number 8 because it has the similar pronunciation for richness,   fa (發) in Chinese. I hope this dish will bring good luck and many wonders  to everyone.

This dish is really simple to be prepared, the main thing is to prepare the special wine with rice wine (上等白米酒) and rose wine (玫瑰露酒) or any wine preferred for taste and seasoning. These fresh shrimps are so good when they have adsorbed the aroma of the wine. Plus, they are wrapped in pandan (screwpine) leaves which give them an extra pandan fragrant.  When the shrimps are cooked, you can see the vibrant color of reddish orange of the shrimps with a touch of shiny gloss surface, wrapped up in green color pandan leaves. I absolutely love the presentation that would definitely make the dinner more interesting.

Previously I have also used pandan leaves in my Black Glutinous Rice Dessert, many people have asked what pandan leaf or screwpine leaf is. Here I’ve showed you in the picture section. You can usually get them in the frozen section of the Asian market in LA. The pandan leaf is widely used in Southeast Asia dishes mainly because it has an aromatic fragrant that blends well with the food. You can also purchase the extracted pandan essence for cooking or even baking cakes and desserts.

Have a try on the recipe and happy Chinese New Year to you.

Ingredients:

8 tails of tiger prawns or large shrimps (trimmed and deveined)
8 pandan leaves or screwpine leaves
8 toothpicks
1 cup rice wine (上等白米酒)
3 tbsp rose wine (玫瑰露酒)

Cooking Method:

1. Trim the head and legs, devein the tiger prawns or shrimps. Rinse them under cold ice water for 5 minutes for a more crunchy texture.
2. Season the prawns or shrimps with rice wine and rose wine for 15 minutes. Remove and drain.
3. Wrap the prawns or shrimps tightly with pandan leaves, use a toothpick to hold in position.
4. Heat up 5 tbsp oil over low hear, fry tiger prawns or shrimps till turn orange pink. Dish up and serve.

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One of the desserts I love is the Black Glutinous Rice Dessert or Pulut Hitam in Malay which means “black rice”.  This is a dessert that you can find it anywhere in Asia. In Malaysia, this dessert is prepared specially using the pandan leaves (screwpine leaves) that give you an aromatic smell, and also palm sugar that makes it an unique sweetness.  Essentially, the black rice is cooked until it becomes thick and creamy in consistency, somewhat similar to the texture of rice porridge.  That’s why the Chinese actually calls it black glutinous porridge (黑糯米粥). Besides, it is also topped with coconut cream which is a perfect combination to make it even delicious.

This dessert is really rich and fulfilling. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is definitely my cup of  ”coffee” (I love coffee). I can have one after another, especially during these cold days.

Below is the regular black glutinous rice dessert recipe, for those who wants something extraordinary, you can actually add in other ingredients while cooking, such as red beans, green beans, barley, tapioca, and even sea coconut (海底椰) which is my favorite. Preparing this dessert was not difficult at all. The hardest part was the process of waiting, it felt like taking forever while I was craving badly for it. Now stop typing, I’m going to get myself another bowl.

Ingredients:

1 cup Black glutinous rice
2 pandan leaves (knotted)
3 quarts water
1 piece palm sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
Thick coconut cream for serving

Cooking Method:

1. Wash and rinse the black glutinous rice at least  times until water runs clear.
2. Soak the rice in water for an hour or above, or best overnight in fridge.
3. Fill a deep pot with water, add the black rice and pandan leaves. Bring to boil.
4. Turn to medium heat and cook until rice is soft about 30 minutes.
5. Add the palm sugar based on sweetness preference and simmer for another 15 mintus.
6. Serve in individual bowl and top with 1 – 2 tbsp of coconut cream on top.
7. You can have it hot, or chill in fridge for a cool dessert.