CNY Cookies #2: Peanut Cookies

Another one of my all-time favourite CNY cookies and it’s also my family’s fave. This recipe is a hand-me-down recipe from one of my mom’s friends in our hometown. It’s a rather easy recipe and once you’ve baked this, you’ll never pay to buy another bottle of peanut cookies sold outside.

If you wish to follow the true-blue traditional recipe, the original recipe calls for 50% lard, 50% cooking oil. However, I’d usually use 100% cooking oil.

Melt-in-the-mouth Peanut Cookies

Depending on how you like the texture of this cookie, you can either ground the peanut coarse or fine. If you like a little bit crunchy of texture, then don’t ground the peanuts too fine. However, if you like the ‘melt-in-the-mouth’ texture, then you would need to ground the peanuts to ALMOST paste like.

 

 Ingredients:

Peanut cookies

1 kati (approx 600gm) of peanuts – baked, peeled and grounded (note: I’d been advised that for baking, you should use the small rounded peanuts vs. the longer ones)
1 kati flour (600 gm)
11 oz icing sugar (300 gm)
1tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
12 oz cooking oil (350 ml)
egg yolk for glazing

Method:
1. Sieve the icing sugar into a mixing bowl, and then sieve the flour (including the baking powder).
2. Next, add in the grounded peanuts, salt and mix the above ingredients together. Try to ensure that there’s no lumps.
3. Once the dry ingredients are well mixed, gradually pour in the oil and mix it thoroughly.
4. Once all’s well mixed, roll into thumb-size balls (or smaller) and place on baking tray. Push a dent into the middle with your finger/ pinky (or I use end of a chopsticks). Or you may press half a raw peanut into each cookie. It’s up to you on the variation. Glaze it with egg yolk before baking.
5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at around 160-165C for 15-20mins. or until it’s slightly brown. 

Warning: This peanut cookie is very addictive. Once you start, it’s really difficult to stop!

Tip 1: I would usually glaze it another time as soon as it’s out of the oven to give it a more shining look.

Tip 2: Don’t wait for it to look golden brown because it’ll be burnt by then!!! Trust me, I’m speaking from experience.  😉

CNY Cookies #1: Butter Oats Cookies

Chinese New Year – a start of a new Chinese calendar year. As we celebrate this festival with family and friends, food is a definite part of this celebration.

While there’s the traditional must-have food such as nian-gao, huat-kuih and tang-yuan for prayers, cookies is another must-haves for CNY.

Butter Oats Cookies with cranberries

For me, this Butter Oats cookies is one that I will definitely bake every year. There are a few reasons for this: 1) It’s my family favourite, especially my late dad ; 2) It’s an easy recipe to bake, and believe me because this is one of the very first cookies I baked (when I was still in secondary school) ;  3) It’s really yummy as I love the crunchy texture of this cookie; 4) I can opt not to use egg in the cookie batter thus it’s suitable for those who are vegetarian.

This recipe is an adaptation of a cookie recipe from Quaker Oats which I tweaked over the years.

Ingredients:

Butter Oats Cookies

125g butter (soften) — if you use unsalted butter, then remember to add a pinch of salt.
120g sugar — I’d usually reduced to 100g, and some still find it a tad too sweet
120g plain flour (sifted)
3 level tsp of baking powder (sifted with the flour)
8 tbsp of oats (Quaker Oats/ roll oats)
A handful of raisin (add more if you like raisin, otherwise you may omit this altogether);  or you may substitute this with cranberries (which I did this year)
* 1/3 bowl of desiccated coconut — optional …  (and if I add this, I would reduce the same amount of oats, give a slight variation from the original recipe
* 1 egg — optional
* to make it more colourful, you may also wish to add glazed red/ green cherries on top of the cookies.

Method:
1. Cream butter till creamy then add sugar. Mix it well. (If you wish to add egg, you need to add in at this step)
2. Then add in sifted flour. Use a spatula to fold in the flour and ensure it is well mixed.
3. Add the oats and raisin/ chopped cranberries (and desiccated coconut if you wish).
4. Once it’s well mixed, use a teaspoon and drop the cookie batter onto a baking tray.
5. Baked in a pre-heated oven at 165-170C for 20 minutes or till cookies is golden brown.
6. Remove from tray while still warm and set aside to cool.

Great with coffee or a cup of cold milk!!!

 

Butter Oats Cookies with raisins and glazed cherries

Quick Simple Meal #3: Mac & Cheese (+vege)

You’d probably notice that in my quick simple meals (for my kids), one of the key ingredients is always cheese!

My kids are what you’d call “banana” – Chinese, but more angmoh (Caucasian) as they prefer Western food over Chinese, speaks mostly English at home and in school. They usually prefer sandwiches, pasta, pizza and anything cheese over rice with dishes.

So, this is another one of their favourite: macaroni and cheese. However, rather than just making the usual plain mac & cheese, I’d usually sneak in some vegetables into their meal.

Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:

My kids’ fav – Mac & cheese

1 cup of macaroni (approx) – cooked per instructions on packaging
1 tbsp of olive oil
A clove of garlic – finely chopped
A small onion – finely chopped
2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup of warm milk
1/2 cup of chicken stock
A bunch of broccoli/ cauliflower florets
Carrots – finely julienne
3-4 tbsp of cooking cream
1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
A dash of Italian herbs *optional
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup of mozzarella or pizza toppings cheese
4-5 tbsp of Japanese breadcrumbs/ panko
Chicken stock cube (knorr/ maggi) *optional

Method:

1. Add approximately 1 tsp of oil to the pan and saute the garlic till fragrant. Then add in the onion and stir till soften.
2. Once the onion is soft, add in the butter. As the butter melted, add in the flour and stir it well. Then slowly pour in the warm milk and keep stirring. The mixture may turn a little lumpy, but it’s ok. Just keep stirring till the flour is cooked.
3. Then pour in the chicken stock and stir till the mixture turns creamy. If it’s too thick, you may add more stock or water.
4. Once you have a nice creamy consistency, add in the vegetable and simmer for a few mins before adding in the cooked macaroni. Simmer for another 1-2 mins. If the sauce thicken, add some water.
5. Season it with salt and pepper (and Italian herbs if you like), and and just before you removed it from the heat, add the cream and cheddar cheese
6. Scoop it out into a baking dish (I used two individual 5″ ceramic pie plate) and top it with the breadcrumbs and mozzarella cheese.
7. Bake for 10-12 mins or till the cheese is browned.
8. Serve warm.

Quick Simple Meal #2: Cheese Baked Rice

Sorry … this was supposed to be posted back in 2014, after the quiche recipe. But one thing led to another and I delayed in posting this. Thus, looks like this will become my first post for 2015. Happy New Year to all (to all reading my blog). Hopefully I’ll be updating this blog more frequently than I did last year. So, here’s another quick meal which I would like to share with you.

Another one of my kids’ (and hubby too!) favourites. However, instead of calling it Baked Rice, they have always called it “sticky rice”.

It is another one of a quick simple meals which I like to prepare for the kids. However, this recipe is a “cheat way” of making baked rice. The right way of it is doing a bechamel sauce (the white sauce) and adding chicken stock before adding the rice and other ingredients.

My cheat way of making the baked rice is using Campbell Cream of Chicken. I use a lot of Campbell soup for my quick meals, although I’m trying to cut down on this as much as I can especially when making meals for my girls.

Cheese Baked Rice

 

Anyway, here’s my simplified version of Baked Rice (The portion below is just nice for 2 kids size meals)

Baked Rice @ “Sticky Rice”

Ingredients:

1 clove of garlic – finely chopped
1 small onion – finely chopped
1/2 cup of mixed frozen vege or carrots & broccoli florets (or any vege the kids like – cauliflower, asparagus, corns)
3-4 tbsp of Cream of Chicken
1/2 cup of fresh milk or cooking cream
1/2 cup of meat – either chicken/roast chicken, ham, sausages or even luncheon meat
1/4 cup of water – optional
1 1/2 bowl (or more) of rice (cooked)
1-2 tbsp of olive oil
1/2 cup (or more) of mozzarella or pizza toppings cheese
Salt & pepper to taste
a dash of Italian herbs (optional)

Method:

1. Add oil into the saucepan, and saute the garlic till fragrant, then add in the onion.
2. Once the onion is soft, you can add in the mixed vege. If you are using fresh vege, I’d suggest you add the carrots first, and leave the broccoli to the last.
3. Next add the protein (whatever that you’re using). Give it a stir.
4. Turn down the heat (low-medium heat) and then add the cream soup. Dilute it with a bit of water, then add in the rice. Mix it well.
5. Pour in the milk or cooking cream and let it simmer for a few minutes. There should be some sauce in the pan, and if you find it too thick, you may either add some water or milk. Season it with salt & pepper. (Note: the cream soup is usually quite salty, then watch out when you add salt to the rice). Alternatively, you may also add another tbsp of cream soup if you like. It all depend on your own taste.
6. Once you have a creamy consistency, you may add some shredded cheddar cheese at this point if you like the cheesy taste in the rice. Otherwise, scoop it up into a baking dish (I usually used two 5″ ceramic pie plate, and topped it with the cheese.
7. Then bake at 160C for 10-12 mins (depending on your oven) on the top heat, or until the cheese has melted and brown.
8. Served it warm

Quick Simple Meal #1: Quiche (Bacon, Ham, Mushroom & Spinach Quiche)

My kids love anything cheese. Cooked them anything with cheese, they’d gladly finish their meal without much of a complain. As I work during the day, I’d try my best to make them dinner, but weekdays dinner would usually be a quick simple yet delicious meal.

Today as I was cracking my head on what to cook for them, I remembered that I have a “ball” of short crust pastry sitting in the freezer for a few weeks now, and when I rummaged through my fridge, I found all the ingredients needed to make a small quiche. So tonight’s dinner – Quiche.

A whole plate of yummy Quiche

 

Yummylicious Quiche

Ingredients

(just nice for 3-4 person)

Fillings for quiche:
4-5 slices of ham (I used honey baked ham)
5-6 strips of bacon
1 onion – chopped
16-20 fresh white button mushrooms – sliced
A bunch of baby spinach
4 eggs
4 tbsp of cooking cream (or substitute with whipping cream)
4 tbsp of fresh milk
1 cup of cheese (I used grated cheddar cheese)
salt and pepper (to taste)

For the short crust pastry:
125 gm of all purpose flour
60 gm of butter (soften & cubed)
1/2 – 1 tsp of sugar (optional – but I like the pastry with a slight tinge of sweetness)
A pinch of salt
ice water

Method:

Pastry:
1. Put the flour, salt and sugar is a bowl and then add the softened butter
2. Use your fingertips to rub in the butter into the flour until you see a breadcrumbs texture. It’s ok to have some small lumps, but just ensure there’s no big lumps of butter. Don’t overwork the mixture.
3. Drizzle in the iced/ cold water into the mixture and work it gently into a dough. Do not knead it. (You just need to bind the dough together and not knead it like a bread dough).
4. Best to cling wrap and chill it for 15-30 mins. (Sometimes when I’m press for time, I’ll just skip this step)

Fillings:
1. Chop the onions, bacon and ham into small bite size. Set aside
2. Slice the button mushrooms
3. Heat up a pan, then add in the bacon and fry till its crispy. Set it aside. In the same pan, add in the ham and the chopped onions and fry till the onions soften. You may add some oil or butter at this point if there’s not much lard from the bacon.
4. Then add the mushroom and stir it till soften and lastly add in the spinach. Give it a quick stir and ladle everything out. Set it aside to cool

5. In a bowl, crack the eggs. Add in the cream and milk and seasoned it with salt and pepper. Mix it well and set aside.
6. Remove the pastry from the fridge and divide it up to two portions. Rolled dough out in a lightly floured surface into a very thin pastry (probably as thick as a 50c coin).
6. Roll it up in the rolling pin and put it over your pie plates. (I used two 6″ pie plates)
7. You can choose to blind bake the pastry for approximately 8-10 mins. (I like to do this to get a crunchier pastry crust)
8. Remove it from the oven and add the cooked fillings & bacon. Slowly pour in the egg mixture till it’s 3/4 full. Then top it up with the cheese. Pour more egg mixture in till it almost reach the brim of the pie crust/ plate.
9. Bake it for approx 25-30 mins at 160C or until the egg mixture is firm or the quiche is golden brown.

Note: I baked it top & bottom heat for approximately 10 mins till the top turned golden brown and crusty and then switched it to just the bottom heat and baked it until the egg mixture firmed up. Alternatively you can just choose to cover the top with aluminium foil if it gets too brown to ensure it doesn’t burn.

You can add or remove some of the ingredients in the filling to your own preference but I find this is a good way to “camouflage” and get my kids to eat more vege.

This is definitely one of the simple dish to make and can be enjoyed by the whole family. Can be served on it’s own or with a side salad.

 

Quiche

 

Singapore Favourites #3: Singapore Hokkien Mee

Hokkien Mee in Singapore is very different from those you’ll find in KL and Penang. In KL, if you ordered Hokkien Mee, you’ll get a plate of savoury dark colored thick noodles ladened with crispy pork lard, prawns, squids and vege. However, if you’re in Penang and you ordered Hokkien Mee, you’ll get a bowl of noodles with rich prawn broth (and in Penang, this nooddle is also known as hae-mee)

In Singapore, Hokkien Mee is also known as Hokkien hae-mee, but you’ll get none of the above. Not even close to it. I had my first encounter with this fried noodle when I visited Singapore more than 30+ years ago. My aunt and uncle asked if I wanted Hokkien Mee and I replied yes! Imagine my shock when the plate was placed in front of me. A plate of gooey looking yellow noodle + coarse beehoon with some prawns and squids on it. A pale comparison to the KL Hokkien Mee for sure. However, when I had my first taste of the noodle, I was surprised to find that it’s very tasty – especially with a good sambal and a squeeze of lime/ calamansi.  A really good plate of Hokkien Mee is usually a full flavoured, tasty, savoury noodle dish. I have to say that this is one of the best hawker food in Singapore, and I would go around Singapore looking for a good plate of Hokkien Mee.

 

So here’s my version of it. I have to say that I haven’t master it yet (as I find that it’s still lack the “ooomph” factor, and the “wok-hei”) but for home-cooking, I’m quite happy with it (for now!).

 

Singapore Hokkien Mee

 

Ingredients:
(Recipe serves approx 6-8)

Singapore Hokkien Mee

500 gm fresh egg (yellow) noodles
500 gm coarse white vermicelli noodles (beehoon)
200 gm prawns (heads and shells removed)
200 gm squids (cut into rings)
150gm pork belly
3 eggs (beaten and seasoned with a bit of soy sauce)
50 gm beansprouts
4-5 tbsp of oil/ lard
3-4 garlic (finely minced)
2-3 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
4-5 cups of stock*
pepper & salt
Chinese chives

For garnishing:
Sambal
Lime/ calamsi
lard cubes (optional)

Method:
1. In a wok, heat up approximately 1 tbsp oil/ lard. Scramble the eggs until 3/4 done but it is still moist and removed from the work.
2. Add 1 tbsp of oil and fry the minced garlic till fragrant and then add the yellow and vermicelli noodles. Add 2 cups of stock and over medium heat, continue to stir to allow the vermicelli to absorb the stock.
3. Meanwhile, in another pot, blanched the prawns, squid and pork belly, and set aside. Cut the pork belly into thin strips.
4. (Back to the noodles) Once the vermicelli has soften, add another 1-2 cups of stock and add the scrambled eggs back into the wok. Cover the wok and allow it to simmer for approximately a minute or two. Uncover the wok, and add the beansprouts. Stir the noodles to mix well.
5. Season the noodles with fish sauce, soy sauce, salt & pepper to taste.
6. Lastly add in the prawns, squids, pork belly and chives. Stir to mix well, and simmer for another 30 seconds (Add more stock at this stage if you find that the noodles are too dry).
7. Serve it warm with sambal, a wedge of lime/ calamansi and top it with pork lard cubes.

 

*To make the stock
Prawn shells (I reserved and freezed the prawn heads and shells over weeks/ months)
Pork or chicken bones (or chicken cubes)
Water (enough to be reduced to at least 4-5 cups of stock)
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
Salt & pepper
2-3 small cubes of rock sugar
Oil

Method: 

1. Fry the garlic in some oil, and then add in the prawn heads and shells. Fry till it’s fragrant.
2. Add water and all other ingredients above, and boil for at least an hour to obtain a rich broth. (The longer you boil it the better!), and season it well.

 

 

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Singapore Month

hosted by Grace of Life can be Simple

Singapore Favourites #2: Chai Tau Kway (Fried Carrot Cake)

Chai-tau-kway (菜头粿) or Fried Carrot Cake (this is different from the ang-moh carrot cake), is one of the most liked hawker food in Singapore. Go to any foodcourt or hawker centers, there will be a stall selling this, typically the stall will also be selling either orh lua (fried oyster/ oyster omelette), char kway teow, or hokkien mee, or all those mentioned.

And there’s two versions of the chai-tau-kway / fried carrot cake: the white version and the black version. What’s the difference? The black version is added with thick black sweet sauce, thus the fried carrot cake has the sweet tinge to it. Personally, I like mine savoury as it is closer to the KL style. So the recipe below is for the white savoury version.

Chai Tau Kway (Fried Carrot Cake)

 

The recipe below is adapted from Singapore Mr MakanSutra and Makan Guru, Mr KF Seetoh

The Carrot (Radish) Cake

Chai tau kway

Ingredients

1/2 medium size radish – approx 250g (julienne/ shredded) – you can add some shredded carrots if you wish to
175g rice flour
600ml water (300ml room temp water + 300ml hot water)
1 tsp salt

 Method:
1.Blanch the shredded radish with boiling water till soften. If need to, give it a quick boil for 2-3mins. Strain the radish and discard the water.
2. Combine rice flour, salt and the 300ml room temperature water in a metal bowl and mix it well.
3. Add the radish into the rice flour solution, and add the other half of water (300ml hot water)
4. Sit the bowl over a pot of boiling water, and stir the mixture till it thickens (or you can also do this step in a non-stick pan/ wok)
5. Once the mixture thicken, transfer it to a metal/ enamel tray and smoothen it down.
6. Steam on high for approximately 30-40 mins.
7. Once it’s done, leave it until completely cool to allow the radish cake to firm up (or best to leave it overnight).

The steam radish/ carrot cake

Frying the Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

The ingredients for frying the chai tau kway

The steamed radish cake (cut enough for 1 or 2 persons*)
(Note: *, the rest of the cake can be stored in the refrigerator)

1 to 2 tbsp chai por (preserved radish/turnip)
2 to 3 eggs (lightly beaten)
3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1 tsp soy sauce or fish sauce (added to the eggs)
3 tbsp of oil (vegetable oil or lard oil)
Dash of white pepper

1 tbsp of thick dark sweet sauce *
(Note: * if you’re making the dark/ sweet version).

Spring onion and/or coriander for garnishing

 Method:

1. Cut up steamed radish cake into small chunks.
2. In a non-stick pan, heat up the oil and fry radish cake chunks till lightly browned and crisp. Set aside on the pan.
3. Add more oil and fry the garlic till slightly brown and add the chai por. Fry till fragrant. Drizzle more oil if it is too dry.
(Note: you may add some chilli paste/ sambal at this stage if you want it spicy, or you may serve the sambal on the side)
5. Add the fish/ soy sauce into the beaten eggs and slowly pour the eggs all over radish cake. Allow the eggs to set slightly before flipping it over.
6. Once you get the crispness that you want, you can plate it up and garnish it with chopped spring onion and coriander

For the “black” sweet version:
– Drizzle the thick sweet sauce towards the end and stir fry it to mix well.
(Note: this is not the favourite of my family, thus I do not make this).

 

Disclaimer: The KL style of CTK has bean sprouts and chives added to it, thus giving it more texture. As I grew up eating this version, I guessed the white version of the chai-tau-kway is thus more palatable to my taste and liking.

Chai tau kway/ Fried carrot cake – the KL style with beansprouts and chives

 

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Singapore Month

hosted by Grace of Life can be Simple

Singapore Favourites #1: Singapore Chilli Crab

Chilli crab is one of the famous seafood dishes that originates from Singapore. According to my search on the internet, the Chilli Crab recipe was created in 1950 by Singaporean chef, Madam Cher Yam Tian with her husband, Mr Lim Choon Ngee. The couple ran Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant on Upper East Coast Road (near the present day East Coast Seafood Centre).

Singapore Chilli Crab

Today, it is one of the favourite dishes among Singaporeans and visitors to Singapore, and it is widely known globally. There are quite a number of versions to the Chilli Crab recipe, and I’ve tried and tested a number of times the recipe and I think the recipe by Violet Oon, Singapore’s cooking doyenne, to have the closest taste to those served in some well-known seafood restaurants in Singapore.

This dish is cooked using mud crabs, but here I am using flower crab instead (for personal reasons), and it is equally yummylicious. This is not a very spicy dish, and it is well-loved by my whole family including my girl.

Ingredients:

Chilli Crab

Recipe adapted from Violet Oon’s recipe:

3-4 flower crabs (or 1-2 mud crabs) – depending on size
vegetable oil
5-6 cloves of garlic*
8-12 fresh/ dried chilli * (I used dried chilli)
1-3 cups of water
(note: *pounded/ blended to a paste)

2-3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1 tsp pounded brown preserved soya beans or dark miso
5 tbsp tomato sauce
2-3 tbsp sugar (or to taste)

¼ tsp salt (or to taste)
½ lemon to get approx 1 tsp of lemon juice
1 tbsp of cornflour (mixed with a little water)
1 egg (beaten)
2 spring onions
1 small bunch coriander

Method:

1.  In a pot or a large wok, bring the water to a boil and cook the crab till it’s ¾ done. Remove the crab and set it aside, but DON’T throw away the stock.
2.  In a large wok, heat the oil over high heat.
3.  Add garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute, or till slightly brown.
4.  Add the chilli-garlic paste and stir-fry till fragrant, then add the bean paste and fry a little. Make sure you don’t burn the paste at this stage.
5.  Add the tomato sauce, sugar and the stock and stir well. Let it simmer a little.
6.  At the stage, you can add in the crab and let it simmer further.
7.  Once the sauce bubbles up a little, add in the corn starch and stir it well.
8.  Break eggs into a bowl and whisk it a little to break it up. Slowly pour the beaten egg into the sauce (in a few circles), and let it simmer for approximately 10 seconds, and then turn off the heat.
9.  Add in the lemon juice and stir it once or twice. (Don’t stir it too much)
10. Plate it up and garnish with chopped spring onions and coriander.

Serve this with steam or fried mantou. Although more sinful (because it’s fried), my personal preference is fried mantou. It is somehow tastier when dipping it into the chilli crab sauce!

 

Fried mantou

 

Chilli Crab with the yummy sauce for dipping with mantou

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Singapore Month

hosted by Grace of Life can be Simple

 

Terengganu Speciality #2b: Nasi Lemak – The Rice

This is related to my previous post. How can you have sambal for the nasi lemak without the nasi (rice) itself. Right?

To me, to make the meal complete, the rice plays an equally important part. It has to be rich, fragrant and yet fluffy. For me, I can eat this on it’s own, or just with a fried egg and ikan bilis. It is that yummy.

My kids, especially my elder girl loved this to bits. Like me, she can eat a whole plate with just a fried egg.

You can either cook in this in a rice cooker entirely, steam it (nasi lemak kukus), or like what I’d usually do in my “cheat” version – is to cook it in the rice cooker THEN steam it.

Note: the amount below is typically cooking to feed an army! – i.e for approx 20-25 pax

 

Ingredients:

10 cups of rice
500gm of thick coconut milk (divide into approx 3 portions)
3-4  tsp heap of salt
water
pandan leaves
5-6 shallot – finely sliced
1″ ginger – finely julienne

Method:

1. Wash the rice and place in rice cooker. Add water enough (for 10 cups of rice) as per cooking instruction but less approx approx 200gm of water.
2. In place of that, add 200 gm of the coconut milk and approximately 1 tsp of salt. (Taste to ensure the coconut milk-water has a tinge of saltiness)
3. “Tied-up” the pandan leaves into a knot and add into the rice pot. Cook as per normal.
4. Once the rice cooker button pops-up, fluff the rice and divide into 2 portion.
5. Meanwhile prepare a steamer. If you have a 2-tiered steamer, line the top tray with a muslin/ cheese cloth.
6. In a small bowl, take 1 portion of the thick coconut milk (approx 250gm++), and in it add 1 tsp heap of salt. (Taste to ensure the coconut milk is salty).
7. In a clean pot, scoop 1/2 the cooked rice into the pot. Drenched the rice with the salted coconut milk (in #6), and also add in half the portion of the sliced shallots and ginger. Gently stir and mix the rice to ensure each grain of the rice is now coated with the thick coconut milk.
8. Once it is well mixed, pour the rice into the muslin cloth and steam on mid/ high heat for approx 20-30 mins.
9. Repeat #6-8 with the 2nd half of the cooked rice.

Serve the rice with the sambal ikan aye/ sambal nasi lemak.

 

Terengganu Speciality #2a: Sambal Ikan Aye (for Nasi Lemak)

I have to confess…. this recipe is crafted based on my own knowledge of cooking nasi lemak sambal and with a lot of trial & errors that I came up with this recipe.

I first cooked nasi lemak while studying overseas. Till today whenever my uni-mates and I meet, they would tell me that they still miss my nasi lemak.  🙂   Back then it was a cheat version using bottled chilli found in Asian grocer store, add some sweet onions and ikan bilis (which I usually would bring from homeland) and voila! we have the sambal for nasi lemak.

This version is slightly more complicated and more similar to the Terengganu version’s of sambal nasi lemak, especially since I’m using Ikan Aye (mackerel tuna fish). For a more simplified version, you can cook just the sambal without adding the fish, or you can just add ikan bilis instead.

 

Ingredients:

Singgang Ikan Aye – base for Fish Stock

Sambal Nasi Lemak Ikan Aye

3kg of Ikan Aye/ Ikan Tongkol (or the Chinese called it “blood fish”) / Mackerel Tuna
(usually we’ll get about two of the 1++kg fish and cut the fish up into 3-4 big chunks per fish)
4-5 pieces of asam keping (asam gelugor)
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 big onion – quartered
a few slices of lengkuas/ galangal
2-3 tbsp salt (depending on how much water is used as the fish stock need to be well salted)
Enough water to cover the fish for boiling (to be used as fish stock)

Sambal
1.5 kg of red onion
—  1 kg roughly chopped, blended with approx 5-6 tbsp of cooking oil into paste
—  0.5 kg cut into smaller cubes or slices (for texture)
40 gm of dried chilli – soak, then blended with ½ cup of water into chilli paste
5-6 shallots – sliced
4-6 tbsp of cooking oil
3 tbsp salt ^^
1 tbsp asam paste^^ (I use Adabi brand – Asam Jawa Xtra) or you can use asam jawa and mix with a few tbsp of water to get the asam juice
12-15 tbsp sugar^^ (substitute with 2-3 tbsp of palm sugar if you have)
The fish stock from the singgang
Note: ** the above measurement is used if adding the fish stock from the “singgang ikan aye”;
if cooking just the sambal (without the singgang), the seasoning maybe slightly different:
3 tbsp salt
2.5 – 3 tbsp asam paste
15-18 tbsp sugar
9-10 cups of water or more

Method:

For the Singgang
1. In a big pot, put the water to boil with all the ingredients except the fish. Once the ingredients soften/ break down, add in the fish and boil for at least another 30 mins or the fish is cooked. Close the lid and leave it to cool in the pot.
2. Best to cook this overnight or a day earlier before making the sambal

For the sambal
1. In a hot wok, add the sliced shallots with the 4-6 tbsp of oil and fry till shallots are browned.
2. Then add the blended onions. Cooked this till the moisture from the onion has reduced and the onions has a slightly brownish tinge.
3. Add the chopped onions and stir till the onions turned opaque/ soften
4. Add in the chilli paste. Stir it till the “raw” chilli smell is reduced, and then add in the fish stock and seasoning.
5. Simmer it in low/mid-fire, stirring occasionally. Simmer for approx 2+ hours or till the sambal “pecah minyak” – ie. you will see sheen of oil with the sambal is bubbling. The sambal will also turned into darker shade of red.
6. Once it’s season to taste and have the right texture, lowered off heat and at this point, if you have the fish, add it in and let it simmer for approximately 5-10mins.

Sambal (while cooking)

When cooking this, I’d usually cook a big pot of the sambal and would invite my family/ relatives or close friends over for a “makan” (eating) session. Of course the sambal is served with the nasi lemak rice (coconut rice) and condiments. Any leftovers can be kept and eaten over the next few days. Great to make into sandwiches or topped it with instant noodles too.

Note: the above recipe could probably served between 20-25 pax (or more, depending on how much each would eat)

Nasi Lemak ala Terengganu