Sweet Potato Ondeh Ondeh & Deep Fried Sweet Potato Balls with Taro Paste

The once every 3-month Girls Cooked Off is coming up again, with the core ingredient being the humble sweet potato. Half of the group are making savoury and I belong to the group making a sweet/dessert.

After unfruitful search on internet, I decided to try making something from Malaysia again. I guess that's because food from my hometown always reminds me of my childhood and my family. There are at least 3 desserts from Malaysia that I really like:

1. Bubur Cha Cha - a popular Nyonya dessert of sweet potato, yam, black-eyed beans, tapioca jelly and sago pearls in thick coconut milk. There are slight variations depending of which part of Malaysia you try this dessert, some even have slice bananas in it.

2. Sweet potato On deh Ondeh - a Nyonya dessert fills with melted gula melaka(palm sugar), and then sprinkle with grated coconut that is seasoned with fine salt.

3. Deep fried sweet potatao ball with taro paste - this is a dessert my grandmother used to make every chinese new year. I have never seen it in a restaurant but I believe it is a teochew snack. If eaten straight after deep frying, the skin is crispy on the outside and chewy inside bcause of the glutinous rice flour.

I ended up making the deep fried potato balls a week before the cook-off and also making ondeh ondeh for the actual cook-off.

Deep Fried Sweet Potato Balls with Taro Paste

Sweet Potato Ondeh Ondeh

If it wasn't for the girls cook-off, I would have been too lazy to make these delicious childhood yummies, especially for the deep fried potato balls which is like an lost art in my home eversince grandma became physically unfit and stopped cooking. My version of the sweet potato ball is far from those made by my grandma but making this snack reminds me so much about her and her kind and childlike smile.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Pandan Chiffon Cake

When I think of Malaysian food so many hawker food come to mind such as Penang Hokkien Mee, Char Koay Teow, Penang Laksa ... the list is very long and they come up in my mind in different order depending on what I crave for at that particular time. But when I think of cakes from Malaysia, the first on the list seems to always be Pandan Chiffon Cake. In fact I grew up thinking chiffon cake originated from Malaysia given its popularity in my hometown Penang. So this is a cake that is not only light and tasty, it brings back a lot of memories.

As chiffon cake requires a tube pan for baking, I have not been able to try baking it till last year when I finally invested in a 25cm chiffon cake tin. Ever since I have made a few different flavours including orange chiffon, strawberry chiffon, chocolate chiffon but the best is still Pandan I must say. And family and friends usually vote for Pandan too. Pandan cake is not very popular in Australia (yet!) and its green colour sometimes bring some funny expressions to my colleagues faces, it has been nicknamed "the green cake", until I have time to explain the green colour comes from the Pandan (screw pine) leaves, and that it is in some way similar to how vanilla extract in used in baking.

This is an adapted version of a recipe from a friend, it uses self raising flour but I generally prefer to use cake flour and add baking powder if I happen to have cake flour handy. I feel cake flour gives the cake a lighter texture.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Egg yolk mixture
6 egg yolks
1/4 cup of castor sugar
1 cup of coconut milk
1/3 cup of vegetable oils
Pandan paste (about 1/2 teaspoon, I usually just add to get to the level of green I like, just add a bit at a time to be safe the first time you make this)
1 cup of Self Raising flour (if using cake flour, add 1/2 teaspoon baking powder)
pinch of salt

Egg Meringue mixture
8 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup castor sugar

25cm chiffon cake tube pan

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (176 C). Place the wire rack on the middle in the oven.
2. In a clean, oil-free bowl, whisk the egg whites till foamy. Add the cream of tartar and whisk until big egg bubbles become small bubbles then add 1/2 cup caster sugar gradually and continue to beat till you get stiff peaks. You will know it is ready when the egg white mixture does not fall when you turn the bowl upside down. Set this aside.
3. In another bowl, cream egg yolks and sugar till the mixture looks pale. Add the oil, coconut milk, Pandan paste, whisk till combined. Add in sifted flour (with baking powder if using cake flour) and pinch of salt, whisk till combined.
4. Fold 1/3 portion of the egg meringue (from step 2) into the egg yolk mixture (from step 3). Do this very gently using a whisk. Then fold in the rest of the meringue, again very gently fold until well-incorporated.
5. Pour the batter slowly into the chiffon cake tube pan, use a chopstick (or skewer) to go round the tin a few times to release any bubbles. Bake at 350 F (176 degrees Celsius) for about 20 minutes. At this point, the cake would have risen. Lower the temperature to 320 F (160 degrees Celsius) and bake for another 30 to 40 min depending on your oven. To test if the cake is cooked, insert with a skewer, if it comes out clean, it is cooked.
6. Remove the cake from the oven and immediately invert the pan and leave the cake to cool in the pan. This will prevent the cake from collapsing.
7. When the cake is cooled (at least one hour), unmould the cake by running a knife or skewer round the edges of the cake (at the sides and in the centre where the ‘tube’ is). Serve the cake and enjoy :)

BTW this is the pandan paste I use which can be found in most chinese grocery store in Melbourne:

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Combining my two favouite food into one - Chocolates and Chiffon cake.

Orange Chiffon Cake

Orange Chiffon Cake - decorated slightly for friends' birthday, piping skill leaves a lot of room for improvement :)

Merry Christmas

Picture of Christmas lights taken on The Boulevard, Ivahoe

Roast Pork

Summer is almost here but the weather has been colder than average spring and been raining a lot, maybe that's why the idea of making a roast came to my mind. This is the first time doing a roast pork, did not prepare much as it was a last minute idea. Mainly just season the pork skin with lots of coarse sea salt and rub a few slices of lemon on the pork, then put it into the oven for roasting. Used up the leftover cherry tomatoes from green papaya salad, and some green beans and potatoes --- tada ..... a nice winter meal served in spring.

Strawberry Chiffon Cake

It's official, i am now addicted to Chiffon Cake!

Chiffon Cake seems to be 'out of fashion' these days. The Pandan flavour is the most popular type in Malaysia but having read a Japanese Chiffon Cakwe recipe book last year really opoened my eyes to the variety of Chiffon Cake.

Made this Strawberry flavour Chiffon Cake for the first time. Other than the light and soft texture of Chiffon cake, it carries a very subtle strawberry flavour. Next would be a banana chiffon cake and then maybe orange flavour.








Recipe

A. Egg yolk batter
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup strawberry puree
65g corn oil or olive oil
80g sugar
1 tsp of baking powder
115g cake flour
1/3 tsp salt

B. Egg white mixture
5 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
60g sugar

* Optional:
1/2 tsp of strawberry essence
red colouring

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 345 F. Make sure the rake is in the centre of oven.
2. Combine egg yolks and sugar, beat until well combined (it should look pale yellow)
3. Stir in strawberry puree, oil and strswberry essence (if using)and till well combined.
4. Sift dry ingredients *cake flour, baking powder and salt) into the egg yolk mixture and beat until well combined, add colouring now if desired.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, sprinkle cream of tartar over egg whites and neat till small bubbles form. gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peak forms (to test when it is ready, the egg white meringue would hold and not drop when mixing bowl is turned upside down).
6. scoop 1/3 egg white mixture into egg yolk batter and using a whish, fold into the egg uolk mixture until combined. DO NOT over do it.
7. Put remaining egg white mixture into egg yolk batter and again fold using a whisk until combined but DO NOT overdo as you want to keep the air pockets.
8. Pour into ungreased 20cm tube pan. Give the pan a few bang to get ride of big air bubbles, you can also use a chopstick to swirl the batter.
9. Bake for 30 min, then turn doen heat to approx 320F and bake for another 20 min or until cooked (test with a skewer).
10. Once cooked, removed from oven and IMMEDIATELY invert pan upside down onto heatproof funnel or bottle. Let it cool completely (about 2 hours, depending on weather) before loosening side of cake with knife or long, metal spatula; remove from pan.

Girls Cooking Party - Gourmet Salad

Green Papaya Salad

The quarterly girls cooking party is on again, with the perfect weather for our theme - Gourmet Salad. The bar has increased since the previous challenge, and everyone seems to put in more thoughts and efforts into this.

No one actually made any common salad such as ceasar salad or coleslaw, which is good to see. Out of the two I have short listed (Japanese and Thai), I finally decided on the Thai Green Papaya Salad. I like the hot/sour/sweet taste and also thought this would be refeshing for warmer weather. Never bought and seen a green papaya before but nowadays the Chinese grocery store is so well stocked, it wasn't difficult to source this. At $8.99 per Kg, I suspect it is imported.

Other salads brought by the girls include mouth watering salads such as 'Chicken Rissoles with Beetroot Relish and Warm Potato Salad', 'Thai Beef Salad', 'Warm salad of Kipfler potato, cabbage and bacon', 'Thai Cold Noodle Salad', 'Szechuan Ma La 麻辣 tofu', 'Coronation Chicken Salad', a sweet salad 'Sweet Salad - Orange marinated with lime juice and honey, topped with shaved chocolates and coconut' and also some Sri Lankan treats - Milk Toffees. Now I have more ideas for salad now for this coming summer!

Thai Beef Salad (prepared by Christie)

The winning dish - Chicken Rissoles with Beetroot Relish and Warm Potato Salad', a Masterchef recipe

Sweet Salad - Orange marinated with lime juice and honey, topped with shaved chocolates and coconut - prepared by Esther.

Szechuan "Ma Lak" (麻辣 — "numb and spicy") shreded tofu prepared by Sarah Lim

Coronation Chicken Salad prepared by Tania, ingredients include chicken in creamy curry sauce, walnuts, grapes topped with alfalfa sprouts

Thai cold noodle salad - glassnoodles, chienses mushroom, fungus, apples, pork slices, shredded carrots and topped with nuts, served with speciallyh made fish sauce - created by Nga.
Milk Tofee - Sri Lankan treats made by Suleka

My Green Papaya Salad

Lunch Box Challenge

My lunch box

After some brainsotrming and ideas from Tania on the theme for the next girls cooking session, we finally decided on Lunch Box Challenge. Each is to bring 2 set of lunch boxes prepared at home and judging is based on taste, presentation and theme. It was awesome to see everyone put in so much effort despite busy work schedule. The result is lots of variety of good food for the tummy as well as and feast for the eyes.

I love taking opportunity like this to make somehting I would otherwise find too much hassle to make. one particular dishes I miss a lot is Lobak. After some google search I found a "ngoh hiang" recipe (different to the hawker stall lobak) which uses yam (my eyes lit up as soon as I saw yam in the recipe, it's one of my favourite ingredients). I decided to give it a try :)
To add more interest to the lunch box, I also made some Kuih Ubi Bingka as a dessert to go with the lunch box. Though my lunch box missed out on winning the prize, I was very pleased with the lobak, it sure satisfied my cravings and brought back some memories of good old days in hometown Penang.


The winner of the lunch box challenge is Tania, her 'picnic lunch box' stole the lime light with its presentation and creativity. But it wasn't easy doing the scoring as each dish is so tasty, and we could't help wishing if only our daily lunch boxes look like these ones! Pictures of a selection of the lunch boxes:

Tania's picnic lunchbox

Sarah's bread roll sushi and puddings with chocolate flakes toppings

Nga's pandan waffles

Maggie's sushi bento

Esther's sushi bread rolls

Rempah Udand aka Pulut Panggang

Another Malaysian snack which is one of my favourite - rempah udang. It's made of steamed fragrant glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk, with prawns/shredded coconut/lemon grass fillings and wrapped in banana leaves. It is then pan fried or grilled. I have been put off by making this in the past as I imagined it would be very complicated and time consuming. It does take time as it involves a few processes - steaming the rice, making the prawns/coconut filling, wrapping then pan frying but the ingredients are actually not too difficult to make and the result is rewarding. I must admit it's not going to be something I'll make on an average weekend but only special occasion motivates me to do it, in this case it was the girls cooking/get together party.

Another cake .... but I can't remember what cake it was!

Made this cake some time last year for my MIL and forgot to post the picture now I can't even remember what cake I made! Silly silly Lisa!

Bread Rolls

Ever since "Bread Top" sprung up in Melbourne, I have seriously put on some weight. Walking past the bakery on my way to work in the city, i can't help but drawn to the fragrant of the freshly baked rolls. I love their fluffy, soft and fresh baked rolls. There's endless variety too from savoury to sweet bread rolls, not to mention the cakes! I found a few foodblogs with bread roll recipe and thought "hmm why don't I try making bread rolls myself, it's probably healthier and will save me some money too". The main effort is in the kneading, that's hard work but the rest are fun! Especially decorating and deciding what toppings to use.

Curry Chickpeas

This is a super quick and simple chickpeas recipe. All it takes is 5 minutes:

1 can of chickpeas, drained
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 ripe tomato, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoon white sesame seeds
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon of curry powder
1 teaspoon of coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder

Heat oil, add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds start to pop, add tomato pieces, curry and tumeric powder. Cook a couple of minutes then add remaining ingresients. Stir and cook 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat and scoop to a plate. Easy isn't it? Nice when serve with fresh coriander and as a side dish to rendang beef.

Pancakes with strawberries and bananas

There's a saying 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day'. Well this might be true but somehow in our household breakfast is something you eat on the run, at the office ....

I have been wanting to make pancake for breakfast, and to have a proper sit down breakfast after my last attempt in cooking a proper big breakfast. Last weekend I finally did and using a very simple pancake recipe.

1 cup self raising flour
1.25 cup milk
pinch of salt
1 egg

Method: Sift flour and salt in a bowl, make a well and add egg and milk (I added the milk slowly instead of one go), whisk till all combined and the mixture is smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for atleast 0.5 hour to 1 hour before cooking. When cooking the pancake, it's easier to put the pancake mixture into a jug, this way it is easier to control the pouring into the pan. Make sure the pan is hot before pouring ther mixture for cooking especially if using a non stick pan. When bubles start to form, the pancake is ready to be turned. Serve with honey or maple syrup with your favourite fruit or drizzle with strawberry sauce or melted chocolate, Yum!

Green Tea Pound Cake

This is a cake that I make repeatedly as I like the texture and the not-so-obvious cheese flavour and of course the green tea flavour. The result is always consistent and the method is uncomplicated and ingredients are usually readily in my pantry/fridge.

Apple Cinnamon Cake

The first time I made this cake must be at least 11 years ago. I was still in Uni and living with a few girls who also enjoy cooking when we are not stress over exams, assignments. I didn't even keep the recipe. I stumbled on this recipe again in one of Donna Hay's cookbook recently and thought I will make it again for friends' birthday.

Chinese Peanuts and Chicken Feet Soup

Many think Chicken Feet is an acquired taste, even some of my chinese friends hesitate at the challenge of trying out chicken feet at yum cha. I must say cleaning the chicken feet is quite a weird experience for me, as i needed to clip the nails! There wasn't a lot more preparation as the chicken feet were very clean when i bought them from butcher. 10 chicken feet only cost about AUD2. This soup is relatively easy to make, the ingredients are: chicken bones (left over from deboning chicken maryland), I also added a few small pieces of pork gravy, about 1/2 cup of raw peanuts, 10 chicken feets and salt to taste at the end.

Roast Leg of Lamb

Roast Leg of Lamb with Bernaise Sauce and Mashed Potato

YUM!