Yogurt Spiced Wings - Wings #3

It’s almost tandoori wings.

I changed so much of the ingredients to suit my pantry’s stuff that I don’t think the recipe seem similar anymore. It's better not to mislead using the same name.
When this is not for MFF, I am back to me, changing the recipe according to my needs, but still try to be as near as possible with similar substitutions,

Oyster Sauce Chicken Wings 蚝油鸡翼

A lot of people asked me, how did I know so many things about cooking at a young age (back then in my early teens). It was through reading the only cookbook that my mom has, the Wei Chuan cookbook. This book provided basic Chinese cuisine knowledge explaining all the cooking terms and the name of the ingredients in English. I can't read much Chinese so, this book was good for me.

As a kid, I loved flipping through the pages and during that time, my favourite part of the chicken is the wing, the middle wing to be exact. Because it has lots of skin and the texture is soft and nice. The picture of this dish is one of my favorites from the book. Glimmering wings.... beautiful. Took me almost 28 years to finally cook it.

Ayam Pentul, Indonesian Chicken Boxings - Wings #1

Yummy yummy! This dish seems to need more effort, but it's all worth it!

My hubby only had one comment, "Why did you make so few?"
10 and it's not enough to be shared among 3 adults, as there were other dishes as well.
Sigh. It's hard trying to guess how much the man wants to eat, right?

Thank you Nisa's mommy, it's a great dish.

Whipped Cream Cake - Bundts #3

The cake looked soooooo short!! Maybe shorter than what I expected.

I wonder where did I go wrong. My pan was a 12 cup pan, recipe called for 10 cup pan,  just that 2 cup difference, but it looked really short, haha, probably I should find myself a tall slim pan. Malaysia has a pathetic selection of bundt pans. Unless I buy those that cost me 3 digits in upmarket areas. I'm too stingy for that.

And it so happened that Lena also baked the same cake (go see hers), and today we are posting it together.
And we are both using the same pan and have the same short cake, haha!
So, I blame it on the pan.

Rainbow Bundt Cake - Bundts #2

2nd attempt

I made these cakes for my girl to bring to her class party.
I used food colouring this time. Not natural pigments as the outcome with natural pigments is not that easy to control with the long baking time

Actually it wasn't supposed to be 'cakes' but just 'cake'.
The first cake didn't dislodge very well from the pan, and hence, split to half, horizontally.  I was soooo heart broken because the rainbow was almost perfect. Determined, I made it again the next day.

Daffodil Cake - Bundts #1

I had been wanting to bake this cake for a long long time, almost 4 years, because I was so so drawn to the colour contrast of the cake, plus.. the usage of boiling water in the batter. Curious, simply curious to know.

I have been dragging and dragging this recipe for so long because I was waiting for the right eggs. Sometimes they are too pale, sometimes free range eggs (kampung eggs) are too orangey. I want yellow, bright yellow. And it so happened that my current tray of eggs are quite bright and I have no other bakes rushing to do, I made this for my kids.

This recipe uses quite a lot of salt, of which is crucial to offset the sweetness. I have reduced 1/3 of the sugar and still I think it might be sweet for some of you. I am not sure if any lesser of sugar will affect the batter and this cake was stable enough to be cooled upright. I changed the method for white batter slightly because I was a bit chicken to be folding all the sugar in with the flour instead of beating them in. So, I beat in part of it just to make sure the egg white is stable.

Tastewise, I found it quite eggy, but my hubby liked it this way. He said, full of egg flavour. Still a bit on the sweet side, but if you were to have this with coffee, Kopi-O to be exact, it’ll be great. This cake is a Siamese twin of angel food cake and the local bahulu. Best of both worlds : )

And oh yes, the cake slightly overflowed the pan… just a few tbsp of batter on the oven’s base.. so, take some precaution to put this on a tray to bake. I was silly and got myself more cleaning up work to do.

Daffodil Cake
Source: Omnomicon 

White batter
6 egg whites (grade B)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cream of tartar
20+80gm sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
50gm cake flour

Yellow batter
6 egg yolks
100gm sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
75gm cake flour + 1tsp baking powder (sift together)
¼ cup very hot water

Butter for greasing
Bread flour for dusting

1. Grease and dust a bundt pan (12 cup capacity). Preheat oven at 170C (fan off)White batter
2. Sift flour twice and mix with balance of sugar.
3. Beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar and beat until it is very very foamy. Put in 20gm of sugar and beat until soft peaks. Put in vanilla extract and beat for a while.
4. Pour half the flour mixture in and fold with a balloon whisk. Pour the remaining in and fold until incorporated.
5. Pour this white batter into prepared pan.
6. Beat egg yolks with mixer. Add in sugar gradually and beat until very thick and pale. Put in vanilla extract and beat for a while.
7. Add half the sifted flour in then with mixer running on the lowest speed, mix to incorporate. Then add in half the very hot water. Mix until combined then followed by the remaining flour and then hot water.
8. Pour this yellow batter over the white batter.
9. Bake for 50 minutes (I did exactly as per the recipe) and let it cool down to slightly warm.(I left it upright, didn’t invert at all).
10. Gently pry the cake from the mould with a plastic spatula. Invert onto a plate to serve.

It still looked so good under the sun... like a daffodil :)

Penang Hainanese Pork Satay- Penang MFF #9

actual amount of satay  from recipe

Satay is skewered thin pieces of meat that is grilled. Commonly found in South East Asia and usually made with either chicken or beef, but non Muslims have the pork version as well. You can also find pork satay in Bali. The Hainanese migrants that arrived on Penang's shores have made a version to call their own.

Hainanese Pork Satay is found in a few places in Malaysia, and Singapore as well. But Penang's version is something different.
I came to know of this dish via surfing the internet. I have never eaten this before.

Hoon Kuih - Penang MFF # 8

My friend HM who is born and bred in Penang sent me a recipe for Hoon Kuih, and told me, it's a kuih found in Penang that is very popular.
She told me it is usually tinted pink and smelled of infused pandan. I looked at the recipe and it looked quite simple. Almost like making kuih tako, but a lot lot easier. But then I suspected the flavour.. starch, sugar and infused pandan.... should be ok I think. Just like old fashioned agar-agar without the coconut.

Belanda Hu~ Threadfin with Aromatic Tamarind Gravy- MFF Penang #7

When I saw this recipe... by the looks of it... rather dull, rather boring.
The picture in the book was all beige.... beige only. I can't even see the chilli
But after tasting it.. nooooooooo, it's not.

How often we are taken just with looks, right?

The name.... I curious, how does this fish relate to the Dutch? Belanda is Dutch in Malay. And Hu is fish in Hokkien. Fusioned name :)

Penang Nyonya Hong Bak (Braised Pork with Aromatic Spices) - MFF Penang #6

Hong Bak is a dish common among the Hokkiens. Somehow I do get confused with the Hokkien's version of Tau Yew Bak and Hong Bak, what's the difference? Please let me know because they do look similar to me. Hope to learn more :)

From what I know the East Coast Chinese descendants in Kelantan and Terengganu makes another version and they combine pork with chicken and the ingredients are different too.

Hainanese Spring Rolls - MFF Penang #5

Alan asked me to make this, haha!

Hock Chai, the talented chef cum owner of ZiZai restaurant posted a droolicious picture of Hainanese Spring Rolls that he once ate. Alan saw it and interrogated him on this dish, LOL, and in the end, asked me to do it.

Personally I have never eaten this before, but I think by the looks of it, it looks rather similar with the one that Hock Chai posted.

Fiddlehead Fern Salad~ Kerabu Pucuk Paku- Penang MFF #4

My hubby's aunt has a favourite Penang nonya restaurant in SS2 Petaling Jaya and we dine there quite often together with her. One of the dishes that she always orders is this "kerabu pucuk paku"

Actually I didn't plan to cook this for MFF Penang, but that fateful morning..... after a hot spell, came the rainy days and the wet market was once again selling fern shoots and that morning's collection was utterly beautiful! Sometimes, they look matured and skinny but not this morning... it was fat and young, not too young that it's super slimy, but just perfect! I totally cannot resist and quickly bought everything I needed for this dish.

Rice Dumpling Videos

I've caught the video making bug.
I've recorded both attempts of my dumpling wrapping session this year.
I hope they will be useful to you all.
My wrapping techniques aren't perfect, but just to share how I do it.

For recipes of dumplings, visit here

Inche Kabin (Nonya Fried Chicken) - Penang MFF #3

Inche Kabin, no matter how it's spelled (yes, there are many variations to its spelling- Enche Cabin, Inchi Kaybin.. or whatever!) is a Penang Nonya dish. Said to be invented by the Hainanese chefs who used to work for the rich nyonya families in Penang.

I first had a taste of this dish in a coffee house, haha, yeah, 20 years back, coffee houses were everywhere. It's not like Starbucks that sort of stuff, but one goes to these places to have sundaes and chicken chop, set lunch and probably get that cup of instant coffee with sachets of  creamer and sugar. I ordered this dish because the name sounds special, I expected something Japanese, LOL.

Acar Awak - MFF Penang #2

I love acar  awak.

The one I grew up eating was similar to the one by Rasa Malaysia, that is vegetarian with no belacan and dried shrimp, and consist of only the basic 5 vegetables. I couldn't decide on an exact recipe to follow because a lot of recipes do differ from one to another, but the basic idea is the same, hot and sourish pickled vegetables with lots of peanuts and sesame.

Tee Nya Kuih - Penang MFF #1

This month's MFF is Penang's turn. One of the most famous spots for good food in Malaysia.

If you ever ask me about Penang food that I can't find out of the state, this will be the first answer from me.

Famous Penang cuisine like Asam Laksa, Prawn Noodle, Char Kway Teow or Nasi Kandar is found all over Malaysia, and in almost every Malaysian restaurant overseas. But not Tee Nya Kuih.