Kek Gula Hangus Kukus ( Steamed Caramalised Sugar Cake)

This is one of my favourite cakes. The first time I sampled this cake when I was an undergrad at University Malaya. We had an annual Art Exhibition which got some of my artwork exhibited and one of my colleagues baked this delicious cake for us all. Since then I have always wanted to try to make this cake but as time was flying by, I almost totally forgotten about it until recently when I got the recipe from a friend of mine. This was my first attempt of making this cake and voila! It turned out well! Do try!

Ingredients
1 cup flour
2 tea spoon bicarbonat soda
4 eggs
1 cup condensed milk

Caramalised Sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup hot water
2 table spoon butter

Methods
1. Firstly, prepare the caramalised sugar so you can let it cool. In a pan over a medium heat, add the sugar and cook until they turn sticky and brown. Then carefully add in the water and butter. Put aside and let it cool.

2. In a mixing pot, add in the flour and bicarbonat soda. Mix all ingredients well. Put aside.

3. In another bowl, mix the condensed milk with the eggs before adding in the flour mixture little by little.

4. Lastly, add in the cool caramalised sugar and stir well. Transfer the mixture into a baking mold and cover the top with a foil to avoid water drops.

5. Steam in a medium heat for about an hour.

*serves 4-6 people

Malay Style Fish Curry

This is a typical Malay style curry that you can get at any Malay home. We make the curry similar to how the Indians do it with the exception of coconut milk. Whereas the Indians do not put coconut milk in their curry, the Malays do love coconut milk in their curries. But you can also substitute the coconut milk with plain yogurt or evaporated milk or even omit them altogether if you are watching your calories. Do try!


Ingredients
2-3 fish, cleaned ( you can use any fish you like)
3 garlic, sliced thinly
1 inch ginger, sliced thinly
2 big onions, sliced thinly
2 strands of curry leaves
4 table spoon fish curry powder
2 table spoon mixed herbs (halba), optional
2 fresh tomatoes, halved
6-8 ladies fingers/okra
300 ml thick coconut milk
1 cup tamarind juice
salt, to taste

oil
1 cup water

Methods

1. In a pot, pour in some oil and add in the curry leaves for a few seconds before adding the sliced garlic, ginger and big onions. Stir well and cook until golden brown.

2. Add in the mixed herbs, curry powder and tamarind juice. Stir well and you can add in some water to mix all the ingredients.

3. Let the curry mixture cook well until it is separated from the oil.

4. When the oil has been separated from the curry mixture (where you can see some thin layer of oil on top of the curry mixture) add in the ladies fingers and coconut milk.

5. Allow to simmer for about two minutes before adding in the fish. Put some salt to taste.

6. Lastly, add in the fresh tomatoes and cook for another one minute.

7. Serve with plain white rice while still hot.

* serves 2-4 people

Malay Style Apple Salad

One thing that I like about Malay Salad is that it has a lot of varieties and beautiful ingredients that distinguish from one salad to another. Not only you can take the salad with rice and other delicacies, you can also eat the salad on its own. I love many kinds of salad from the banana's heart salad that you mix with coconut milk and other herbs to bean sprouts salad mixed with pounded and roasted coconut. I have here a very simple salad that you can try at home. I am sure you will make even more Malay salads after this! Enjoy!

Ingredients
3 green apples, cut very thinly
2 table spoon dried shrimps, fry in a pan with no oil and pound until smooth
3 lemon grass, sliced very thinly
4-6 bird's eye chillies, cut thinly
4 kaffir lime leaves, sliced thinly
1 big onion, sliced thinly
1 lime juice
salt and sugar,to taste
1 bunga kantan, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon apple cider

Methods

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and let it cool in a fridge for a few hours before serving.

*serves 4-6 people

Nyonya Laksa

I have cooked nyonya laksa a few times before. My first encounter with nyonya laksa was when I was in my secondary school. The canteen operator cooked a marvellous creamy and sour laksa that look very much like a thin curry broth. I had no idea that it was nyonya laksa not until I grew a bit older. Some might mistaken it for curry noodles, but they are extremely different in taste and texture even though they use the same puff soybean curd and fish balls to name a few. I got this recipe that I would like to share with you. And trust me, you will be asking for more! Enjoy!

Ingredients

1000 ml coconut milk
½ kg fresh Prawns, remove shell and coarsely chopped
Handful laksa leaves (Daun Kesum), chopped
Handful coriander leaves, chopped
20 Fish Balls
20 Bean Curd Puff
Salt and sugar to taste
prawn stock (optional) or water
oil

To be finely grounded into a paste

20 shallots
1 big onion
6 lemongrass , shreded
10 fresh red chilies, half- seeded
4 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
1 inch galangal, sliced
2 inch fresh Ginger, sliced
½ cup dried Shrimps, soaked in hot water
1 fresh turmeric, sliced
15 candlenuts
Water to blend
2 Tables spoon dried chilli paste, to be mixed in the paste
2 Table spoon coriander powder, to be mixed in the paste

Garnishing Ingredients

2 fish Cakes, blanched and sliced
300 g egg noodles or vermicelli noodles ( I used spaghetti)
30 g prawns, blanched
1 hard boiled egg, halved (optional)
½ kalamansi lime (limau kasturi), for each dish
1 cucumber, finely sliced
Handful of raw bean spouts
Chili based sauce (Sambal) – to taste

Methods

1. Heat oil and fry the paste until fragrant on low heat for 10mins until the oil appears on the surface.

2. Add in the fresh minced prawns. Bring to a simmer, then lower heat.

3. Add in chopped laksa leaves and coriander Leaves. Mix well.

4. Add in coconut milk, and season the broth with salt and sugar. Add in fish balls, bean curd puff and simmer the broth for 20 minutes or until oil appears on the surface.

5. In an individual bowl, put in the noodles and add in the broth. Garnish the laksa with the garnishing.

*serves 4-6 people

Meat Besamah

Meat Besamah or Besamah Daging is quite similar to meat curry except some extra addition to the ingredients like lemon grass and pounded coconut paste or locally known as kerisek. The gravy is a lot thicker and best eaten with glutinous rice or lemang even bread. We had the chance to cook this dish and eat it with steamed glutinous rice a couple of weeks ago and I thought I would like to share the recipe with you. Have a try!


Ingredients
Pounded Items
3 garlic
1 inch ginger
2 big onions
4 lemon grass
2 cm galangal

Other Ingredients
1 kg meat, cubed
1 cup of thick coconut milk

2 table spoon kerisek
6 table spoon curry powder
2 table spoon kurma powder
Water, as needed
salt, to taste

Methods
1. In a pot, heat some oil. When the oil is hot, add in the pounded ingredients. Stir well and cook until they turn aromatic.

2. Add in the curry and kurma powder and stir briefly. Quickly add in some water to form a thick paste. Keep on stirring until the paste is separated form the oil.

3. When the paste is thick and separated from the oil, add in the meat. Stir to ensure all the meat is coated with the paste.

4. Add in some coconut milk and salt. Cook for a few minutes.

5. Lastly, add in the kerisek and cook until the broth thickens.

6. Serve with some glutinous rice, white rice or bread.

* serves 6-8 people

Banana in Sweet Coconut Sauce (Pengat Pisang)

Banana! What can I say about this tropical fruit. It is healthy, full of potassium that is good for our health and variable in taste and sizes. They can be as big and long as a tusk or as small as our thumbs...Well, maybe slightly bigger. But what matters most, banana often be the choice of many of us as they are easy to find. Besides eating them raw, we also fry them with batter, mash them to make delicious dumplings, wrap them in a banana leaf and grill them or turn them into sweet dessert the local way. Me and my family always love to eat bananas. Often they would disappear very fast before I can savour some for myself. The kids would pick one by one banana and would leave me with the skins. When I got a few bunches of bananas recently, I started to think of pengat pisang, or bananas that are cooked in sweet coconut milk. I know that my daughter loves this and when it is cold, it will be even better! So, here is the recipe if you would like to do it my way! Enjoy!

Ingredients

10 medium sized bananas, cut into half
1/2 cup sugar, or as desired

800ml - 1 liter coconut milk
1 cup water, if needed
1 cup palm sugar powder
a pinch of salt
2 screwpine leaves
some cinnamon powder

Methods

1. Put coconut milk, sugar, palm sugar, screwpine leaves in a pan. Heat the pan and cook the mixture thoroughly until they become bubbly. Stir well in a medium heat to ensure that the coconut milk will not 'break' into small 'cheesy like' lumps. If you want more broth, you can add in some water.

2. Add in the bananas and cook for a few minutes until the bananas become softer.

3. Serve in a bowl and sprinkle some cinnamon powder to enhance the taste.

*Serves 3-6 people

Marble Fruit Jelly

Making jelly is one of the easiest, fastest and simplest dessert preparation that I have ever known. You can prepare it beforehand and it takes about half an hour to cook and another 1-2 hours to set. That is why I always have a few packets of dried jelly at home so if I feel like making a sweet jelly, I can just disperse the dried jelly in water and add any flavour that I want. You can use any kinds of jelly. Some will come in a dried version, whereas some in powdered version. Some boxed jelly will have a version of crystal jelly as well but for this one I use dried jelly that you have to melt first before putting any flavour you desire. Besides, I found out that crystal jelly is more suitable to take on its own with its own flavour than adding your own flavour into it, hence the dried jelly would be a better choice. For this marbe jelly, you have to make sure that the first colour you put in is about 3/4 set before adding or mixing another colour of jelly. It's up to your own creativity of what colour you would prefer, but for mine I chose chocolate and vanilla flavour with a little hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. Do try!

Ingredient A
1 packet of dried jelly
1 cup of sugar
Water
1 can of evaporated milk

Ingredient B ( chocolate colour)
2 table spoon cocoa powder

Ingredients C ( light milky colour)
1 tea spoon cinnamon powder
1 tea spoon nutmeg powder
1 tea spoon vanilla essence

Ingredients D
1 can of canned peaches or any canned fruit products

Methods

Stage 1

1. Wash the dried jelly briefly before putting it in a pot.

2. Cover the pot with water about double the height of the jelly that stays in your pot.

3. Heat the pan and let all the jelly melt. When the jelly is melted, add in sugar. You can cut in or add in more sugar depending on your preference.

4. When the sugar has melted, add in the evaporated milk and cook for another 2 minutes or until it becomes bubbly.

Stage 2

1. When the jelly is cooked and well melted, divide the jelly into two equal portion.

2. Add ingredients B into one portion.

3. Add ingredients C into another portion.

Stage 3

1. Pick any mold of your choice, and begin layering the jelly with ingredient D, that is the canned peaches at the bottom of your mold.

2. Add in the chocolate mixture, ingredient B, for about half of the mold and let it set halfway.

3. When the jelly is half set, arrange some canned peaches on top of it and add in the other mixture of jelly as in ingredient C (lighter colour).

4. Wait for a few minutes, and when the jelly is 3/4 set, mix the jelly briefly until it forms marble designs. Do not mix too much as the colours will mix thorougly hence the marble like design might not be achieved.

5. Set in a room temperature for half an hour before transferring it in your fridge.

6. Cut it into a triangular shape before serving.

*serves 6-8 people