…because it has pictures!

This is a rather incomplete picture - cucumbers and the kangkung belacan are missing - as Nil and I decided to taste test the first batch, mainly the rice and the sambal, just before dinner got underway.

I based my recipe loosely on Rasa Malaysia’s entry here simply because my mother-in-law didn’t have the right tamarind - she had sweet tamarind instead of the regular sour tamarind - and the shrimp paste was more Thai/Vietnamese than the regular Malaysian belacan. Note to those in Europe or places where they don’t stock Malaysian belacan or shrimp paste. The Thai/Vietnamese version can only be used in dishes whereby the spice paste is cooked so using it for the simple Nyonya sambal belacan is definitely a no-no! Why I say this is because the taste and smell of the shrimp paste in its raw form is absolutely yucky! Nearly like downing bleach!

I opted out on the eggs as my mother-in-law wanted something light for dinner and with the sweet tamarind squid plus garnishings, it was already quite heavy. Now screwpine or pandan leaves are a luxury item for me as the local Chinese store in Neuchâtel doesn’t stock them. I have read somewhere in Amy Beh cookbooks that vanilla flavouring can be used as a good substitute so maybe I’ll give it a go the next time I cook this dish up.

So what’s next? Well, a catch up on blogging, for one…and those assignments again - I got sd memory cards this time!

Seriously, I have a very scrumptious yet simple picture of a national delight…the ever humble nasi lemak made the European way. That probably means that the shallots are twice the regular size, the belacan is actually a Viet version which is AWFUL when it’s uncooked and coconut milk comes from a can and not the local market.

But first, I ought to tell you why I decided to suddenly make nasi lemak when I’m far away from Neuchatel and having to deal with an unfamiliar mother-in-law’s kitchen (I must admit that she’s awesome for allowing Nil and I to meddle around in her kitchen!). Even though my food poisoning bout knocked me off the craving mood for a day, it came back even stronger yesterday and it was then that I had enough…I simply have to make this dish or suffer the constant thought of nasi lemak floating away in my head day and night. Nil was only too happy to obliged and we spent two hours in the kitchen peeling away spices, preparing the rice, and so forth before finally settling down for a smallish bowl of nasi lemak with some sambal ikan bilis and sweet tamarind calamar.

It was heaven for me…truly (even made me forget about assignments like this - auto insurance quote). Now…for the real course - nasi lemak for DINNER!

ps: Recipe will come soon upon my return to Neuchatel and a non-French keyboard!

Having food cravings when you’re far from home is awful. It’s even more awful when you’re in a small town with little to zero access to good South East Asian food. Everything here is either Thai, or Vietnam-based; forget about dim sum. It doesn’t exist here.

Steamed char siew paus or buns made with sweet pork filling are a common sight at dim sum restaurants in Asia, especially in Singapore, Malaysia and naturally, the country in which dim sum originates from - Hong Kong. The filling is usually made with pork belly or tender bits of pork marinated and roasted with a sweet sauce laced with Chinese herbs & peppers (but not sweet as in dessert sweet) before being chopped up into tiny bits to be used as stuffing. In some places, there is more fat than meat but I have opted for a mixture that allows some bit of fat for flavour. Lean pork can be used but thens to produce a drier and less flavourful texture.

I’ve used normal, all purpose white flour instead of the recommended Hong Kong flour which is actually just normal superbleached flour. The difference between the two lies in the appearance. Hong Kong flour, being bleached to its death, produces a typical pure white colour to the buns when cooked. On the other hand, normal white flour will yield an off-white to cream appearance.

If done well, this can be a very healthy meal on its own and if made smaller, it is suitable as a mini-snack. The filling can be replaced with any other - this depends on the maker of the buns. In Malaysia, you can find chicken with egg & mushroom on top of the usual pork filling. I’m tempted to add some Chinese mushrooms in with the pork. For those going kosher or halal or even want something sweet instead, you will find that coconut jam or kaya and red bean paste make good substitutes.

I still have heaps of meat leftover and will probably try to use it for making Seremban siew paus which are similar to this except that the filling has peas, it uses a different pastry and is baked. Hopefully, I’ll have some to show by this week.

With the winter solstice drawing nearer (December 21 is the official start of winter this year), I thought some tong yuen or glutinous rice balls would be appropriate. Plus there is just something about this sticky and chewy balls with hot ginger broth that chases away the cold weather.

I made mine in pink & peach together with white colours and down them in wonderfully strong ginger broth made from grated old ginger and rock sugar. This reminds me a lot of home…excellent actually. On the other hand, Nil, being a typical angmoh can’t fathom my fascination and liking of these little balls.

O’well…you can’t have it all.

It’s been a while since I met up with the girls from the Swiss knitting group on Ravelry; the last time I met them was eons ago in Zurich and since then, I’ve always had an excuse for not showing up. Maybe it has something to do with my lacking of knitting and more of everything else. As promised, I decided to make some baked goodies for the ladies while we chat, gossip and knit away. The question, of course, would be how to smuggle them into Starbucks. But that aside.

These little babies (photo taken above with Nil’s trusty Canon camera) here are a modification of a cranberry poppyseed muffin recipe that I have in one of my baking pocketbooks. I remember seeing some poppyseed on sale at the bigger Coop stores but was too lazy to go all the way there when I bought my supplies last Saturday with Nil. So I opted for some chopped almonds instead. While preparing the ingredients, I realized that I had some hazelnut in as well so why not? The result is a wonderfully moist, not sweet muffin with a slight crunch to it - excellent for tea or breakfast…Nil even gave it his thumbsup with “it’s PERFECT!!!!”.

Note that the recipe originally called for everything in ounces but I work in grams, hence the “uneven” measurements below.

Cranberry Nut Muffin

Ingredients
113 gms unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups crème fraîche*
2 large eggs
284 gms plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
227 gms brown sugar
70 gms hazelnuts & chopped almonds
72 gms dried cranberries
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp honey

* I used about 3.5 dl or 350 ml of crème fraiche

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190 C or 375 F. Line muffin tins with greaseproof or baking paper so that they resemble muffin cases. Melt the butter, leave to cool for a minute or two, then beat in the crème fraîche, followed by the eggs and the vanilla extract.
2. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Stir this gradually into the sour cream mixture along with the cranberries & nuts until the flour is coated but the batter remains lumpy.** It is okay if there are tiny lumps of flour in the batter.
3. Fill each of the prepared muffin cases with the batter (about 2/3 of the cases) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Test with a skewer - it should come out clean if muffins are done. Lift onto a cooling rake, brush the tops with some maple syrup & honey mix. Serve while warm or for breakfast/tea.

** DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT do this step with an electric mixer. It may and often results in overbeating which will give your muffins a dense and dry texture because of gluten formation.

Sweetness galore…seriously. But if you just want to settle for the smell of freshly baked cookies, this is just what you need!

Now, I found the recipe a bit tad sweet, although it would go very well with espresso or unsweetened black coffee, so I intend to cut down on the caster sugar bit the next time I make it. Nevertheless, it’s very airy and light due to the baking powder. For those of you Malaysians, this is so similar to those yummy Famous Amos cookies!!!!

Oh, if the center dips a little, don’t fret…some cookies are meant to do that when you pull them out of the oven and as they cool. Mine dipped quite a bit for some because I accidentally made the fork (used to flatten them) too wet.

Also, I love my cookies nutty so I used up all the chopped hazelnuts in the batter and sprinkled the top as well with more nuts! Less if you like more dough, more if you like…that crunch!

Chocolate chip hazelnut cookies

Ingredients
115g or 1 cup plain flour
5ml or 1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
75g or 1/3 cup butter
115g or 1 1/2 cup caster/fine white sugar*
50g or 1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
5ml or 1 tsp vanilla essence
125g or 2/3 cup chocolate chips
50g or 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts**

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C or 350 F. Grease 2 to 3 baking sheets. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl before putting it aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until it’s pale and light with an electric mixer. Beat in the egg and vanilla essence until well combined. Add in the flour gradually on low speed and mix well.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips and half of the hazelnuts, using a wooden spoon or spatula.
4. Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture on to the prepared baking sheets to form 2cm mounds. Space the cookies 2.5 to 5cm apart.
5. Flatten each cookie lightly with a wet fork and sprinkle the remaining hazelnuts on top of the cookies.
6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and leave to cool.

* I’d cut down on this since I find the cookies too sweet for my liking
** You can replace this with almonds, walnuts or cashews…it’s up to you!

On the menu tonight, some Northern Indian food in the form of Fragrant Prawn Rice, or perhaps more commonly known as prawn briyani. Although a little time-consuming on the preparation side, this recipe is creamy and fragrant. Definitely a keeper!

So what’s on the menu tomorrow? I’m not too sure but chocolate chip & hazelnut cookies are on the list…

It has been a while since I made up something sweet and googy in the form of a cake and so after hunting around for some recipes, I stumbled across one that is agonisingly yet wonderfully sinful - chewy brownies! The recipe is fairly easy to follow yet because I’ve been out of the whole “baking sweets” action for a while, my brownies turned out to be rather soft in the middle but oddly enough, after 24 hours of sitting out on the dining table, they are now a little bit more firm. Sinfully delicious though…

Do note that chocolate should not be cooked or melted via a direct flame but by using a bain marie; essentially, you place the chocolate in a bowl over a pot filled with simmering water. The steam rising from the water gets trapped under the bowl and generates gentle heat which will melt chocolate chunks. Cooking the chocolate with a direct flame will result in the separation of fats and cocoa in the chocolate - something that is NOT desirable!

Chewy Brownies
Makes about 24

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 heaped tbsp dark unsweetened cocoa powder
300 gms dark chocolate
1 cup unsalted butter
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 3/4 cup brown sugar
5 large eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C and butter the sides & bottom of a 9 inch pan.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and cocoa powder until well-blended.
3. Put the chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a bowl, place on a bain marie and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter have completely melted and is smooth. Turn off the heat, and add in the sugar while keeping the bowl on bain marie mode. Whisk until completely combined and place aside.
4. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until mixed well. Add the remaining eggs and mix well again. Finally add the vanilla and stir. DO NOT overbeat - it will result in a cakey brownie.
   Add in the flour mixture gradually while folding it with the chocolate mixture using a spatula. Again, do not whisk or beat. Combine until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the centre of the oven for 30-40 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway. The cake should be ready when a toothpick is inserted and comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it.
6. Remove from the oven and allow the brownies to cool completely before cutting them into squares.
7. Serve as is or with a side serving of yoghurt or vanilla ice cream.