Pandan Chiffon 香兰戚风

My pandan plants grow wildly at the backyard, look very messy, so i cut off few plants and use the leaves to make pandan paste. Later i use this pandan paste to make this pandan chiffon. Nowadays i stop buying artificial pandan paste but prefer to use homemade pandan paste, love the light jade green colour and very nice pandan aroma..





Homemade pandan paste- very easy to make, cut pandan leaves (suggest to use old leaves) as thin as possible using a scissor. Blend it with water, pour it into fine strainer and squeeze the juices.  Pour pandan juices into a glass jar and store in the fridge for few days. Discard the upper layer of water (try not to add in any baking, taste bitter) and only use the thick paste which sink at the bottom (The more pandan leaves use to make the juices, the faster the pandan paste sink to the bottom).

Recently i just bought another new chiffon pan, it is a Japanese type of chiffon pan which is without the metal legs..So I have to invert this way..

This time, i bake with two Japanese chiffon pan, they are cute right? ^_^

Actually i wanted to make 烫面戚风 from Jane's corner but i was in rush, so i just bake a normal chiffon..But this chiffon still turned out very soft, moist and nice aroma.

Pandan Chiffon 香兰戚风
( recipe source:Inspired by Jane’s corner with alteration)
*makes 2 x 6” chiffon pan

5 egg yolks
20g sugar
60g water + 20g homemade pandan paste
80g corn oil
125g cake flour

5 egg whites
90g sugar
1/2tsp lemon juices or 1/2tsp cream of Tartar

Method
1. Lightly whisk egg yolks and sugar till combined.
2. Add in water, homemade pandan paste and corn oil, mix well.
3. Add in cake flour, stir and fold till well combine.
4. Whisk egg whites and lemon juices till foamy, slowly add in sugar and continue beat until soft peak formed.
5. Take 1/3 of meringue and use a hand whisk to mix well with egg yolk batter.
6. Fold in 2/3 or meringue and use a spatula, fold with egg yolk batter till combined.
7. Pour into chiffon tins, bake at pre-heated oven at 160c (fan-forced) for 40-45mins.
8. Once baked, turn your chiffon tin upside down and cool completely before remove from the tin.

Roselle Cheesecake 洛神花乳酪蛋糕

This was my 1st time experimented with Roselle ( some may called as Hibiscus or Ribena flowers). I made this Roselle cheesecake about a month ago, at that time, wet maket was flooded with a lot of fresh Roselle. I saw many bloggers made into Roselle jam or syrup. But for me, when i saw Roselle in the market, remind me of the nice and crunchy picked Roselle that i ate from a piece of expensive (RM30 for a slice) Raspberry Pistachio Cheesecake during my trip to Melbourne. Instead of using expensive and imported raspberries, i replaced it with Roselle in this cheesecake.

In fact, I wanted to make this cake again before i post it here. I want to re-confirm the amount of all ingredients as I was busy when making this cheesecake, no proper record down the exact amount of ingredients and also no time to take photos of the steps and even a photo of the fresh Roselle. But too bad, when i want to make this cake again, i can't find any Roselle in the market anymore. 

My daughter said the Roselle filling tasted similar like blueberry..I feel the filling is a bit thick, next time i want to use the filling recipe and make it to a layer of Roselle jelly instead.

But the pickled roselle worth a try, because it was crunchy, tangy and sweet.

For this recipe, not all amount of the ingredients are accurate recorded, especially the amount of water..When i make this cake again next time, i will revise this recipe.

Roselle Cheesecake 洛神花乳酪蛋糕
(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

Pickled Roselle in Syrup 蜜汁洛神花
10 Roselle, cleaned, removed seeds and keep the petals
1 fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

10 Roselle, cleaned, removed seeds and keep the whole Roselle

Method
1. Add Roselle petals, lemon juices, sugar and water in a saucepan.
2. Boil over medium heat for 10mins, discard Roselle petals and retain the syrup.
3. Once syrup has cooled, pour into a glass jar, add in fresh Roselle, cover and keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.
4. Remove pickled Roselle for decorate the cheesecake, and use Roselle syrup to make cordial.


Roselle filling
60g Roselle
60g sugar
180g water (you may need to adjust accordingly)

1/4cup water (you may need to adjust accordingly)
1tbsp corn flour or corn starch

Method
1. Mix Roselle, sugar and water in a saucepan, cook over low heat for 1hour until Roselle turned soft, stir from time to time to prevent burnt.
2. Blend the Roselle jam using a hand blender till fine.
3. Transfer back to a saucepan, add in 1/4cup water, stir till mix well.
4. Add in corn flour to thicken the Roselle filling.
5. Set aside to cool.

To assemble Roselle Cheesecake

One quantity of baked cheesecake- refer recipe here (I halved the recipe to make a 6” cake)
Roasted pistachio, chopped
Roselle filling
Pickled Roselle
whipped cream

Method- Spread Roselle filling on top of the cake. Then frost the sides of the cake with whipped cream, pat with chopped pistachio. Arrange pickled Roselle on top.

Ajitsuke Tamago (Japanese flavored soft boiled eggs) 溏心蛋

My family love this Ajitsuke Tamago ( Japanese flavored soft boiled eggs ) which served in a Japanese ramen restaurant located at Subang. Usually we like to order additional eggs which cost us RM 2 for one egg. Since it is quite easy to make this at home, i made this when i cooked ramen (i found a good subsitution using local noodles) the other day.

Thanks to Nami Just One Cookbook described to me this marinate sauce in one of my Japan travel post..so easy to prepare this sauce.

Boil egg in simmering water , one egg was cracked. If you ask me how not to crack the egg when boiling eggs, sorry, i don't know, hehehe..

Try to use aged eggs, so easy to peel the egg shell..

Soak eggs in marinate sauce

I tried few batches with difference timing from 6mins- 7mins, we prefer egg done at 7mins, not too runny of egg yolk but still taste soft ..

Ajitsuke Tamago (Japanese flavored soft boiled eggs)
(recipe source: Sauce seasonings as described by Nami Just One Cookbook, by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

10 kampung eggs (organic eggs), aged eggs, weight from 54g-58g each
A pot of water enough to cover the eggs completely
A bowl of tap water

Marinate sauce seasonings
2 cups hot water
1 sachet of dashi stock powder
1tbsp Japanese light soy sauce and 1/2tsp dark caramel soy sauce for deeper colouring
1tbsp Mirin
1/2tbsp Sake
1tsp salt

Method
1. Combine sauce seasonings in a bowl, set aside
2. Bring the pot of water to boil, once boiled, lower the heat to let water simmering.
3. Add in eggs and boil for 7mins (water temperature at 94C). (for my induction cooker, cook at 140C)
4. Once done, immediately cool it down it a bowl of tap water. Once cooled down, peel the eggs.
5. Add eggs into marinate sauce and marinate for 3hrs. Stir the eggs from time to time for even colouring.
6. Do not soak them for too long as the whites will turn rubbery and it might taste too salty.

Stay tuned for my easy ramen post which serve with this soft boiled eggs.

Pulut Tai Tai (Nyonya steamed blue glutinous rice)

Pulut Tai Tai is a famous Nyonya kueh (steamed glutinous rice with blue pea flowers), after i made kaya, i quickly made this Pulut Tai Tai to serve with kaya..

I have a small pot of blue pea flower plant. And i realized that my blue pea flower has more flower petals (about 5 petals) than the normal blue pea flower which only has two flower petals..

Usually i just air dry this flower in open air kitchen..and store dried flowers in a container and keep in the fridge for later use.

See how i extracted the blue colouring water. I have a mini gas burner, i just use 1 cup to cook these flowers over this burner

I don't like to over blue this pulut tai tai, just like to see little marble effect..



Pulut Tai Tai is perfect to serve with homemade kaya..



Pulut Tai Tai (Nyonya steamed blue glutinous rice)
(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

400g glutinous rice, washed and soaked for 4 hours and drained
250ml thin coconut milk (150ml thick coconut + 100ml water)
3pcs pandan leaves
1tsp salt
20pcs dried blue pea flowers (bunga telang)

Method
1. Lightly wash dried blue pea flowers, add 2tbsp water and cook over low heat to extract blue colouring. Discard flowers and retain the blue water.
2. Put rice, salt, 3/4 portion of coconut milk and pandan leaves in a 8” steaming pan. Steam over rapidly boiling water for 20mins.
3. Remove the steaming pan from the steamer, discard pandan leaves, use a pair of chopsticks to fluff up the rice ( as to cook all rice evenly ) and mix in the balance coconut milk, then sprinkle blue coloring all over the rice (to make marble effect).
4. Return to the steamer and continue steam for another 10-15mins. Taste the doneness of the rice and add more water when necessary and continue to steam until right texture.
5. Pour rice to another clean pan (you may line with banana leaf ) and use banana leaf or any plastic sheet to press down the rice till compact (I actually wet my hands with water and use hands to press)
6. Leave to cool completely. Cut into pieces and serve with kaya.

Old-Fashioned Birthday Cake, and party foods 怀旧的生日

The other day when i had conversation about Birthday party with my hubby, and i just realized that both of us never had neither a Birthday party nor Birthday cake when we were young. Our family financial situation was not allowed to have such luxury celebration last time. When i was a kid, our family were staying at the kampung (small town) , to have a Birthday cake is big thing for us, we can only travel to big town like Klang to get Birthday cake because there were no bakery shop at our small town last time..Anyway, we never blamed our parent and we blessed for what we had last time, it also trained us become stronger and appreciate for everything that we achieving now.
Nevertheless, i still have kawan-kawan yang kaya ( rich friends) last time, so i still have chances to attend their Birthday parties, hehehe..When i flipping through those old Birthday party photos the other day, recall a lot of nice memory and nostalgia feeling about these old Birthday parties. So i decided to held an old-fashioned party for my hubby this year..

I tried to recall what foods were served in a Birthday party last time. Here i came out with these old-fashioned cake and foods..I also served these foods with old fashioned enamel plates and Corningware L'ECHALOTE (Thanks to my hubby finally got me this set of classic casserole that i have been wanting to own a set)

Dig out all these old Birthday photos to get the ideas on how to decorate the old-fashioned Birthday cake

The common old-fashioned Birthday cake has those colourful edible wafer flowers, chocolate rice on the sides of the cake, star pipe buttercream..

This time i really made an old-fashioned Birthday cake even the buttercream also taste exactly like those i ate in old time. I learnt how to make this old-fashioned buttercream from the bakery shop that usually i visiting, just realized the buttercream is made with one type of margarine called Creamwell..check out recipe below..



Some of the foods that usually served in a Birthday party last time..The fried chicken also old style, you must be wondering why fried chicken also has old style, hehehe, find out the recipe below..

Must have item -red eggs, recipe here ( i have revised the old post to include exact amount of ingredients )

fried meehoon, recipe here

my hubby's favourite- Hokkien fried mee, recipe here

Chicken curry, recipe here

This is a must have dish, as we like to pour a lot of curry gravy onto fried meehoon or fried Hokkein mee..

One of the kuih that i like to eat in an old-fashioned Birthday party- corn pudding..will share recipe soon..

old-fashioned agar-agar jelly, will share recipe soon

Old-fashioned fried chicken..

In old time, taking Kentucky fried chicken outside also a luxury thing, so usually my mother using this type of pre-mix Kentucky flour to fry chicken..very easy, just coat this flour with chicken and deep fry..

My son Desmond said he likes this old-fashioned fried chicken very much ^_^

Happy Birthday to my hubby!! stay healthy...

Old-Fashioned Birthday Cake
(Recipe: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

One 7” chocolate sponge cake, refer recipe here
One quantity of Creamwell buttercream, refer recipe here
Chocolate rice
Edible wafer flowers

Method
1. Using a cake divider to divide sponge cake into 3 pieces.
2. Frost the whole cake and between layers with Creamwell buttercream.
3. Pat chocolate rice on the sides, and pipe a ring of star buttercream around the cake.
4. Decorate with edible wafer flowers.
5. Cover and keep in room temperature.

** I got this old-fashioned Birthday party idea when i saw Wendy also held one for her husband last time..

How to make Creamwell Buttercream (Krim Well) 旧式牛油霜

This creamwell buttercream is cheap, stable and able to withstand in hot weather, perfect for decoration..It was widely used for decoration of Birthday cake and wedding cake by bakery shop in old time. Nowadays you still can find this kind of cake in pasar malam or small town..

What you need- golden syrup, margarine Creamwell, and butter.
You can get creamwell from bakery ingredients shop..

How to make Creamwell Buttercream
(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

250g margarine Creamwell
125g butter (salted)
50g golden syrup

Method
1. Beat butter till pale and fluffy.

 

2. Add in margarine Creamwell, continue to beat till fluffy.


 

3. Last add in golden syrup, beat till mix well.
 

4. Keep this buttercream in a plastic container, and store in room temperature for later use.