New York Cheese cake

New York Cheese cake

Katrina said that I hadn't made Cheese cake in a long time and asked her which it was - said she wasn't sure, so I made this first and if it is not the right one, then will make the Japanese cheese cake at another time.

Got this recipe from Lucy's blog.Aunty Yochana.

New York Sweet Crust:

125 gm. plain flour
50 gm. butter
1/4 tsp. baking powder
50 gm. sugar
1 no. small egg

Ingredients for filling:

600 gm. Cream cheese - room temperature
120 gm. Sugar
30 gm. plain flour
4 nos. medium size eggs
125 gm. sour cream
1 Tbsp. Lemon zest
1 tsp. Vanilla essence

apricot gel: 2 Tbsp. apricot jam + 80 to 100 gm. water + 1/2 tsp. agar agar powder + 1/2 tsp. instant jelly

Method:

(1) For crust: cream butter and sugar till creamy. Add in egg a little at a time till evenly mixed. Add in flour and baking powder and mix into a dough. Rest for about 20 mins. Then roll out the dough and lay into a 9" springform tin. Bake at 175C for about 15 mins. then remove from oven and let it cool.

(2) Beat cream cheese with sugar till creamy. Add in lemon zest and vanilla essence.
(3) Add eggs, 1 at a time until finished.
(4) Add in plain flour and then pour in the sour cream and mix.
(5) Pour the cream cheese filling into the baked crust and steam bake for about 1 hour 10 mins. or until center is almost set.
(6) Leave in the oven for about 30 mins (oven switched off) and then remove from oven or you can leave it inside till cooled.
(7) Chill in the fridge and glaze the cheese cake with apricot gel.
(8) Serve chilled.

I tried the crust but next time I think I will use digestive biscuits and butter. And for the topping, I used sour cream.

Katrina came and tried and said "it's nice but not this", so guess I will have to do the Japanese cheesecake another day!

Terong Belado

Terong Belado (Aubergines in Chilli paste)

This is an Indonesian dish and Pat commented that I have not done this in quite a while so here we go. This is a rather easy dish to do.

Ingredients:(for 2 ppl)

1 big fat aubergine
1 onion (quartered) )
1 clove garlic ) grind to a paste
1 tomoto (quartered) )
1 or 2 red chilles )
1/2 teaspoon belachan )
salt
1/2 tsp sugar

Method:

1. Heat oven to 200 deg C.
2. Slice aubergines lengthwise into 2. Score fleshy bit and dab with oil and roast/grill for 1/2 hour or until aubergine is soft. (Take care not to burn it)
3. While aubergines are roasting, grind the rest of the ingredients to a paste.
4. Heat oil in pan and fry the paste ingredients for about 5 mins. Remove and leave aside.
5. When aubergines are tender, "butter" the aubergines with the cooked chilli paste and put back into oven for another 5 - 10 mins.

Sambal chilli and hae bee hiam

Sambal chilli and hae bee hiam (Dried prawn sambal
Everytime I go back to Singapore, I will get my mum to buy me a few packets of this chilli which I will then freeze and when I run out of my sambal chilli, I will make.

Not very difficult to do and you can use this chilli for all sorts of things, eg, nasi lemak chilli, mee siam chilli - you get my drift!

Ingredients:
1 packet of chilli paste
a couple of shallots

Method:
1. Slice shallots finely. Heat oil in pan and when hot fry shallots. Sweat the shallots but do not let it brown. Then add the chilli paste and slowly fry till it changes colour. Add sugar to taste. Shiokadooo!

Chilli paste


Sambal


The other thing that I like to make and store (although it does not last me a week)is my ration of hae bee hiam or in English - dried prawn sambal.



Sambal Hey Bee

Ingredients:
1 cup hey bee (dried prawns) – soaked and finely ground
6 – 8 fresh chillies )
10 small onions ) pound together
a knob of blachan (optional) )
salt to taste
sugar to taste

Method:
1. Heat a tbsp of oil in a fry pan and fry the pounded ingredients for 2 minutes.
2. Add the dried prawns and continue frying till quite dry.
3. Add a little salt and sugar to taste.

Kueh Kosui

Kueh Kosui
After so many years of not making kueh kosui, my mum suddenly forgot the measurements for it and asked me to give it to her. I will disgress a bit from this post to tell you about my mum. (Be prepared for long post!)
Mum will be 81 this year but she is still strong and unlike other old ladies, she still has friends asking her to make mee siam or buah keluak or kuehs for parties or whatever. Like last year when I was back in December. Our church had a Christmas Treat - it's a yearly affair and there are food stalls, etc and it's all in the name of charity. So, my mum offered or they asked her to make mee siam to sell for this Fun fair. And it was a good thing that I was there cos there was no one to help her this time as a friend who normally does went for retreat!
So left the house at 6.30am with 4 big bags and a big sauce pan. Can you imagine how she was going to do it if I wasn't there?! So anyway caught a taxi and went to Church. Arrived at Church and whilst retriving one of the many bags, a trolley bag fell over and the kueh sarlat that she made to sell as well which wasn't tightly closed, went flying onto the road. Aiyo, so sayang but what to do. But what made me even more incensed was that this lady who saw this just said "Aiyo sister, sayang hor that it fell out" and went on her way. Not even stopping to help us to carry the bags! Call yourself a Catholic and going to Church! Hmm.... sorry I know I shouldn't judge but ..... Anyway, to continue, set up things, etc and even before the last Mass was over we had finished selling. We had a lady there to help us man the stall but she had to leave at 1200. And at 1200 another lady came to help out but we told her that we had finished and my mum told her that she made (I can't remember the quantity now) so much and the lady said "oh next year, then you can make more!" OOh, ooh.. wrong thing to say, I got so pissed off with her comment and said, "And ya, who is going to help her carry the stuff from her house to Church?" And the lady said, "Oh if you tell us, we will" - oh yes, like someone will come to her place at 0630 in the morning to help her carry the stuff. PULEASE!!!! Anyway luckily my mum told me that she won't be doing it again next year as it was too troublesome.

Sorry for this long blab.... you guys still here? Anyway, back to Kueh Kosui - she has like monthly or weekly church meetings and she will make snacks to bring, so she wanted to make kueh kosui.

This is a recipe from Corner Cafe.but I have modified it slightly. Thanks SeaDragon!

[Ingredients]
A:
50g tapioca starch
30g rice flour
125ml water
1/4 teaspoon alkaline water (lye water)
1/8 teaspoon salt
B:
75g palm sugar (gula melaka), roughly chopped
45g white granulated sugar
170ml water
3 pandan leaves, torn 3-4 times along leaf veins & knotted together
C:
100g freshly grated coconut, or frozen grated coconut
1/4 teaspoon salt
http://cornercafe.wordpress.com/
[Preparation]
1. Prepare a 15cm round steaming tray or baking pan and grease lightly with cooking oil.
2. To prepare (C), mix together grated coconut and salt. Steam over high heat for about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. To prepare (A), put tapioca starch and rice flour in a mixing bowl. Slowly add water, stirring at the same time to mix well. Stir in salt and alkaline water *. Set aside.
4. To prepare (B), put all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a slow boil over moderate heat, stirring continuously to dissolve the sugars, about 5 minutes.
5. Pour hot sugar syrup slowly into the flour mixture. Stirring continuously to mix evenly into a thin batter. Strain to remove pandan leaves.
6. Place prepared pan into the steamer and steam until hot.
7. Pour the batter into the hot pan in the steamer and stir until the bottom of the batter starts to set, about 2-3 minutes. Stop stirring and cover the steamer. Steam over high heat for about 15-20 minutes, or until set*.

*
Notes:
1. As I couldn't find any alkaline water, I omitted this and it turned out ok.
2. Before pouring the batter into the hot pan in the steamer, I put it into a microwavable bowl and nuked it for about a minute until it was very sticky then poured it into a pan and steamed it for about 10 mins.

Popiah Dinner

Popiah Dinner!

As Kris was coming down from Wales, we invited Siat as well so we could play a 3 kaki mahjong game. Kris was going to buy a roast duck from Bayswater to supplement our dinner, but as Circle line was not operating she came directly to my place instead. So I offered to make popiah. Of course I did not have bangkwang and and instead of using celeriac as I normally do, thought I would try something different and use kohlrabi to see what the difference in taste would be like. Went to Tesco, walked round the vegetable department and couldn't find it. Asked the helpers there but unfortunately, they were no help as they didnt know what a kohlrabi is and made it seem like my pronunciation was so bad that they did not understand me. Geesh!Hopefully I will be able to find kohlrabi in another supermarket another day and try it and I will let you know which is better! Anyway, am showing pictures of celeriac and kohlrabi here.

Celeriac


Kohlrabi


In addition to popiah, I made Tau Yew Bak as well and remembered that I had some Bak Kwa left over from? Anyway defrosted that and grilled it! Yum!

After dinner, played mahjong till 0230. Hurray!

Meat Ball Spaghetti

Meatball Spaghetti
Another easy weekday meal which can be prepared in a hurry!

Have been cooking quite a few Chinese dishes lately and suddenly have this craving for spaghetti.

Ingredients:
(For meat balls)
6 Pork Sausages - I used cumberland sausages (remove from casing)
1 tablespoon panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
Salt and pepper

(For sauce)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 onion (chopped)
1 carrot (chopped)
2 celery sticks (chopped)
1 clove garlic (minced finely)
1 beef cube
1/2 cup red wine or white wine (your preference)
dash of worcester sauce

Method:
1. Mix sausage meat with panko and seasoning and stir well. Make into little or big balls as you like.
2. Heat oil in pan until hot. Add onions, carrot, celery and garlic and let it sweat for about 5 mins.
3. Add in chopped tomatoes, red/white wine, beef cube and drop in your sausage balls and let it simmer for about 15 mins. Remember smaller sized balls take shorter time to cook.
4. After about 15 mins, add dash of worcester sauce and add seasoning to taste.

Snow

Winter Wonderland?

Snow last year was early. Since I have been here, it normally snows after Christmas but last year, it snowed on 21 Dec. That was the day I was due to arrive back from Singapore. Boy was I worried because normally when I go to Singapore even in winter, I do not take a coat with me as it is too bulky and I always think that Pat will pick me up, so that will not be a problem. But on the morning (0600) that I was dur to arrive, the forecast was for -5 deg. Yikes! I only had my cardigan with me but with 2 pcs of T-shirts underneath, I managed to brave the cold and got picked up without being frozen!

Then the same day because it was snowing so badly in the daytime, Pat could not leave his office as the roads were so jam packed. He finally got home around midnight. When he arrived home the next day he told me when he drove to work in the morning, there were cars literally abandoned on the roads. Because it was so icy and because of the jams the night before, people just left the cars and walked home!

As for me, because I have a rear drive car,it will not take me up the slope outside our house, so I was snowed in for 3 days. I was panicking as I had not done my Christmas food shopping yet. Pat was working and could not take me until 23 evening. Whew!

These are the pictures that I took yesterday but the first one was taken last year in Feb when Liana was still here and when we built the snowman together.



Taken from doorway

Steamed Pomfret

Weekday dinner

Went to Loon Fung which is a Chinese supermarket about 15 miles away. Go there once every 2 - 3 weeks to stock up.

Pomfret was one of the things I bought so decided to have easy steamed pomfret.


Also bought some kangkong and as I have my stash of ready made rempah, so add oil to the hot pa, add the rempah and the add the kangkong and it's done!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year 2010 to my dear friends and readers

We had a very quiet New Year eve, watched the fireworks on TV as did not fancy going out in the cold watch 10 mins of fireworks then jostling with the crowds to go back on the tube. No the 2 oldies preferred the warmth of our home!

We invited M and K over for dinner as a sort of thank you for feeding Pat while I was away! Menu for the night was: Itek Sioh, Lor Ark (Stewed Duck) Satay Babi, Otak, French beans with minced pork and Prawn, Mango and Banana parcels.The Prawn, Mango and Banana was something new that I have not tried before but everyone loved it!

The duck was originally meant for Christmas dinner but as we had the children back, had turkey instead, hence the duck for tonight's dinner. And I though duck 1 way was boring, so cut it into 2 to make 2 separate dishes!

Satay Babi


Prawn, Mango and Banana parcels



French Bean with Minced Pork



Lor Ark (Stewed Duck)


Otak



Itek Sioh


Ayam/Itek Sioh (Chicken/Duck in thick Tamarind Juice)

Ingredients:
(A)
3 tbsp coriander seeds, roasted and ground finely
6 tbsp sugar
salt/pepper to taste
2 tbsp dark soya sauce
15 shallots – grounded

1 whole chicken or duck – cut into pieces
fistful of tamarind – soaked in 300 ml water and squeezed.

Method:
1. Mix (A) together with tamarind juice.
2. Add chicken or duck pieces and leave to marinate for a few hours.
3. Transfer chicken/duck to heavy bottom saucepan and bring to boil. Cook over moderate heat for 20 minutes and reduce to low and simmer for 30 minutes for chicken and further 30 minutes for duck (or till tender)

Dessert - Pavlova with Blueberries, Raspberries and Strawberries


Pavlova - by Delia Smith

Ingredients:
3 large fresh egg whites
6 oz (175 g) caster sugar
For the topping:
10 fl oz (275 ml) whipping or double cream, whipped
12 oz (350 g) prepared mixed soft fruits, such as raspberries, strawberries and redcurrants
a little icing sugar
Method
Place the egg whites in a large clean bowl and have the sugar measured and ready. Now whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks and you can turn the bowl upside down without them sliding out (it's very important, though, not to over-whisk the egg whites because, if you do, they will start to collapse).
When they're ready, start to whisk in the sugar, approximately 1 oz (25 g) at a time, whisking after each addition until all the sugar is in. Now take a metal tablespoon and spoon the meringue mixture on to the prepared baking sheet, forming a circle about 8 inches (20 cm) in diameter.

Then spoon round blobs next to each other so that they join up to form a circle all around the edge. Now, using the tip of a skewer, make little swirls in the meringue all round the edge, lifting the skewer up sharply each time to leave tiny peaks. Now place the baking sheet in the oven, then immediately turn down the heat to gas mark 1, 275°F (140°C) and leave it to cook for 1 hour.

Then turn the heat right off but leave the Pavlova inside the oven until it's completely cold. To serve the Pavlova, lift it from the baking sheet, peel off the paper and place it on a serving dish. Then just before serving, spread the whipped cream on top, arrange the fruit on top of the cream and dust with a little sifted icing sugar. Cut nto wedges.