Tahi Itik~ Duck Poop- MFF Kelantan #2

2nd attempt

Kelantanese kuihs have very cute names.

It's not made of poop. It's made from the remnants, that is duck egg whites from the eggs made into jala mas. Tahi can also mean remnants instead of poop. But is usually understood as the latter.

My Kelantanese friends never introduced this to me. Instead I got to know of its existence through Raykinzoku's site. After thoroughly reading the site, I found out that he is the brother of my colleague in Selancar. I noticed the relation because of one post.. the one regarding the earthquake and so I called up Sofia. The funny thing is that Sofia doesn't know her brother has a blog until I told her The world is kind of small. It's been years since I last heard from this dear friend.

Ok ok, It was through this site that I found a family who made very delicious Kelantanese fare, so good that they supply to the palace for royal occasions. Raykinzoku knew because he is one  :) I was so glad that the royal kuih maker resided not far from town, quite near the hotel where I stayed when I visited Kota Bahru. But I did need to ask around to make sure I got the right house. Even my fluent Malay can't get me around town much as I can't understand them, but they can surely understand me.
The Kelantanese speak in a special dialect that is indigenous only to the Kelantanese that outsiders may barely understand.

Almond Rocher - Nutty Treats #4

As some of you knew, I won a baking competition recently and one of the gifts was a course voucher at Academy of Pastry Arts. At first, I thought, the voucher will be wasted as I need to travel to KL again to attend it, and time plus distance didn't seem to permit.

Things happened with some twists and turns... I managed to grab a course on a weekend where we happen to be in KL for a wedding. And it was the right course, chocolate class. Of all the things that I can learn by myself, this is the one thing that I truly dare not attempt, Chocolate Tempering. It was an enjoyable 2-day course and I learnt the most important thing of all, how to temper chocolate. Besides that, I took home with me 6 delicious recipes, plus a big box of handmade chocolates!

FYI, that was REAL chocolate. Not the same like the budget friendly compound chocolate that I normally use that can be melted and used as I like it. Couverture chocolate is a bit temperamental to use, but absolutely delicious to eat.

Strawberry Meringue Baskets - Strawberry #3

I made this sometime ago because I happened to have a tub of greek yogurt. Ipoh's latest shopping center Aeon Station 18 has opened not too long ago and on my first visit, I saw a new range of products brought into Ipoh city :) Finally greek yogurt has arrived.

I've been visually attracted to this meringue basket sometime ago... and it was supposely to be filled with whipped cream and topped with strawberries. I decided to borrow that concept and use greek yogurt and fill it with strawberries too, rather than just on top. And add some texture and flavour contrast with a chocolate ganache as sauce.

Macarons with Blueberry Compote Buttercream - Blueberry Week # 2

Last 2 weeks when I went to KL to meet up with fellow bloggers like Swee San, Reese, Sonia, Ann and Veronica, Swee San brought a box of macarons. She knew my first experience with macarons was a nightmare. When she described in her blog that it was sweet til the roots of my teeth, it was actually understated. The fact was, it was so sweet that it burned my throat. She had been hoping that I would one day change my mind about these sugary UFOs. When I took the ones that she made and ate one, I was surprised that it was a lot more pleasant. It was sweet no doubt, but not that that crazily sweet that I can’t swallow. But after that, it was ok. Macarons are meant to be sweet, so don’t go about finding one that is not sweet, just not crazily sweet.

Mini Fluffy Pancakes with Pastry Cream - Pancake Quad # 4

If you love dense pancakes, then skip this.

This is a soft and fluffy pancake, that uses CREAM!! Hahaha. If you have that carton of cream and you are scratching your brains on how to use more of it before it spoils, try this out. The pancake uses cream, so does the pastry cream.

*For more whipping cream recipes, check out my whipping cream label on the far right.

Usually pastry cream uses milk, but this recipe from one of my books uses cream, and I tell you, it’s way way better than those using milk. LOL.

*This is a true opinion from a dairy lover*

Salted Egg White Tofu

Why waste the salted egg whites? Salted eggs are no longer as salty as yonder years. I remember when I was a kid, I’d squince when I eat the salted egg whites and would only take yolks.
But the salted eggs nowadays seem to have lost their salt. Not that salty, but still salty.

Many months back, some time around Chinese New Year, I was trying to use up 30 egg whites after making a Prune Layered Cake. A blogger friend, SK Fong suggested I make tofu with egg whites. Yeah, rather than making yellowish tofu, egg whites are perfect to retain the whiteness of the soy milk.

So, what I did with the 3 salted egg whites from the salted egg yolk chicken, is to make this into a steamed tofu dish. But then again, please taste the egg whites before you embark on this. Add additional regular eggs if your egg whites are salty and add more soy milk. Just keep the ratio of egg to soy milk, 1:2 and you’ll be fine.


Salted Egg White Tofu
Recipe source: Wendyywy, inspired by SKFong

3 salted egg whites, about ½ cup
1 cup unsweetened soy milk (actually can use 300ml, 250ml is quite firm)
1 sprig spring onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp cooking oil
2 drops of sesame oil

1. Prepare steamer and bring water to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, combine egg whites with soy milk, whisk to combine.
3. Put cooking oil and sesame oil in steaming dish. Rub with fingers or brush so that the dish will be well oiled.
4. Pour the egg white mixture into prepared dish and sprinkle sliced spring onions onto the egg.
5. Steam on medium low heat(lid on) for 10 minutes or until set. Touch the center of the tofu, if it has turned solid and nothing sticks to your fingers, it’s done.

Verdict: Somehow this steamed tofu is much firmer than my other homemade egg tofu. But it's slightly crunchy, like egg whites usually are. It could be due to the eggs being just egg whites and not whole eggs. Egg whites have better coagulating effect than yolks. The spring onions added a wonderful aroma to the tofu. Delicious!

White Chocolate Mousse with Strawberry Compote

I almost screwed up this dessert. Lindt chocolates are not cheap. One bar cost me 2 lunches. 

I read the instructions a few times just to get the feel of the recipe..but I seemed to focus on the earlier part and didn’t seem to notice the last part. And so.. I melted the chocolate with all the whipping cream, leaving none to beat later. (I blame it on the recipe, they didn’t split the cream amount in the list of ingredients . Hahahaha!!!!) It’s not that I can’t open up another pack of cream, but then the ratio will not be correct and the mousse will not set if the content of chocolate is not enough, I don’t want to add gelatin, I want to do a real mousse.

When I realized my mistake, it was already too late. I’ve melted the chocolate and it’s time for the egg yolk. So, well, I put in the egg yolk and dump the whole thing into the freezer for 30 minutes. Then I whipped it on high until it looked like whipped cream again. Yeah, it’ll get fluffy, just like ganache, it is ganache!!! Hahaha. Luckily I still got it fluffy, just that the process order was all out of order now. Lastly I folded in the egg whites and phew!!! I still got my mousse.

This recipe uses raw eggs. And mine don’t look white because I used Omega Eggs that have very orange yolks. Well, Lindt white chocolate isn’t very white as well  It’s a very very soft mousse, because it didn’t use any gelatin. And Lindt white chocolates aren’t very hard unlike those shortening laden so called white chocolates. You might get a firmer mousse if you use baking white chocolate and not eating white chocolate.



White Chocolate Mousse with Strawberry Compote
(Serves-3-4)
50ml whipping cream
100gm quality white chocolate, broken to smaller pieces
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
Pinch of cream of tartar (I added this because I’m worried about the egg whites watering down later)
100ml whipping cream

Strawberry compote
150gm strawberries
½ Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp brandy (optional)

The Real Method:
1. Put 50ml of whipping cream, vanilla and white chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Double boil until chocolate melts. Stirring it every once in a while when it is melting.
2. Let chocolate cool down for 2 minutes, then add in egg yolk and mix well. Let it cool down totally.
3. In a clean bowl, beat egg white and cream of tartar until stiff. Gently fold egg whites into chocolate mixture with a whisk.
4. In another bowl, whisk 100ml whipping cream until soft peaks. Fold into (3).
5. Spoon into 4 serving cups, cover and chill for a minimum of 3 hours or until time of serve.
6. While mousse is chilling, prepare strawberry compote. Combine strawberries, sugar and brandy in a small saucepan. On low heat cook strawberries until it starts to bleed. Remove compote from pan, put into a covered container and chill until time to serve.
7. Spoon strawberry compote on top of mousse before serving.

Recipe adapted from: The Golden Book Of Desserts. Page One Publisher.

Dulce De Leche Coconut Macaroons

I've forgotten where I got this recipe. I copied the wrong link when I typed out the basic recipe into my MS word. And thank you Quinn for highlighting to me that these are not Macarons, but Macaroons. One "o" different but it made a hell of a difference, as Macarons are those round cute things like a sweet burger that Tartelette is famous for and macaroons are these.

I had some balance from my DDL cake and made this macaroons. They smell so lovely when fresh from the oven, smell like those CNY egg rolls (kuih kapit) and crunchy. But one thing, they soften and gets really chewy quite easily when exposed to the air, so please store them into an air tight container.
If they do soften, just reheat them in the oven :)

Recipe:

30gm egg white (1 egg white)

Pinch of cream of tartar

100gm dulce de leche

½ tsp vanilla extract

200gm angel flakes /sweetened coconut flakes

1. Preheat oven to 160/180C. Line baking sheets with either silicone liners or non stick baking paper.

2. Mix the coconut flakes with dulce de leche and vanilla.

3. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff. Gently fold them in to the coconut mixture.

4. Place heaped teaspoonsful of coconut mixture onto baking sheet.

5. Bake for 15 minutes or until sides of macarons are brown and crisp.

6. Let cool for 10 minutes. (I do this in the oven, door ajar, so that the heat of the oven will further dry it up. And I did it for 30 minutes)

I found that the egg white content was a bit too little. All went deflated when I folded in with the coconut. Maybe you would like another egg white to it.

And another DDL cake that neighbour Maria ordered..... remember I said that she did after tasting my 1st DDL cake???

Mixed Fruits Chocolate Pavlova

After my successful Pavlova tryout, I'm game for a second pavlova, for my Form 6 buddies on Day 4, Chinese New Year. Well if u remembered, 2 days back I posted a post for the main course, fried rice with dried scallops and kailan stems. This is the dessert. And also to use up more egg whites :)

Since I had to serve about 10 dessert hungry wolves, I decided to go ahead with Nigella's recipe with 6 eggs.

What I used,
For the Pavlova
180gm egg whites (6 egg whites from 6 large eggs)
300gm sugar (don't cut on this, if not the pavlova won't hold)
3 Tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
1 Tbsp corn starch
1 tsp rice vinegar
50gm dark chocolate, chopped


What I did,

1. Preheat oven at 180C. Draw a 9 inch circle on a non stick baking paper. Put drawn side down on a large tray.
2. Beat egg whites until stiff (pic 2), add in sugar slowly and gradually, and beat until meringue is stiff and shiny (pic3).
3. Put in sifted cocoa powder and cornstarch. Fold.
4. Put in vinegar and chopped chocolate and fold.
5. Mound meringue within drawn circle, smoothing sides and top.
6. Bake in preheated oven. After you've put the meringue in and oven door is closed, immediately turn down the temperature to 150C.
7. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes. (I followed Nigella's instructions to bake for 1 hour 15 mins, and my pavlova is a bit uncooked. Previously I baked the 4 egg portion with this length of time and it was perfect. So, when the amount is increased to 6 eggs, I guess the same length of time will not be sufficient)
8. When baking time is up. Leave oven door slightly ajar and let pavlova cool in the oven.
9. Remove from oven when it has fully cooled down.

Topping:
350ml dairy whipping cream
3 Tbsp sugar
1 cup strawberry, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup canned mandarin oranges or tangerines, torn smaller
3 kiwi fruits, coarsely chopped

Beat dairy cream until soft peaks, put in sugar and beat until stiff. Mound whipped cream onto pavlova and top with chopped mixed fruits.

All gone within minutes....... what hungry wolves they were.

Hahahahaha!!!!!!

I love those wolves.

Fried Rice with Dried Scallops and Kailan Stems

When I was still staying in KL, Mike and I used to frequent this Hong Kong Culture (yes, this is the name of the shop) in Plaza Low Yatt, whenever he goes there for his IT shopping sprees.

I have a few favourites from this shop and one of them is this never seen or heard before, fried rice that is done with dried scallops and egg white that was dotted with broccoli stems. It was so delicious. I didn’t know how did they get the sprinkling of shredded conpoy to be so crispy. Did they steam and shred it? Or were they the remnants of the soup base for their noodles?

I never knew until I saw this at a herbal shop lately.

My eyes lit up when I saw this bottle of golden shreds. Immediately I knew what I want to do with it. Fried rice!!! Hong Kong Culture style!!! And Chinese New Year season, there are lots of Kailan stems around.

I did this during my Form 6 mates reunion at my house during Chinese New Year Day 4.

Fried Rice with Dried Scallops and Kailan Stems

(Serves 6-8)

½ cup dried scallop shreds
6 cups cooled cooked rice
3 stalks of kailan stems (peeled and cut into little cubes, about 2 cups. You may substitute this with broccoli stems)
12 egg whites (1.5 cups)
3 sprigs of spring onion (when finely sliced/chopped, should come to about one cup, white and green parts separated)
1 Tbsp chicken stock powder
1.5 tsp salt

1. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Put in kailan cubes and cook for 5 seconds. Strain and keep aside.
2. Heat wok and put in 1/3 cup of oil. Fry dried scallops shreds until golden brown. Dish up scallops shreds leaving behind oil in wok.
3. With the oil in wok, fry egg whites, scrambled until cooked, dish up. Do not overcook.
4. (use the same wok, unwashed, but make sure there are no egg whites left in wok) Put in 2 tbsp oil into wok and put in sliced white parts of spring onion. Saute for 3 seconds and put in rice. Toss rice for about 3-4 minutes until rice is very hot and evenly coated with the oil. Put in cooked kalian cubes. Season with chicken stock powder and salt. Taste and adjust.
5. When rice is nicely seasoned, put in egg whites. Toss until evenly distributed. You may add in fried scallop shreds and green parts of spring onion now or sprinkle them on top of rice later.
6. Serve hot 

My experiment result:

I was there!!! It tasted oh-so similar…. Now I can enjoy my favourite fried rice in Kuala Kangsar.

Now out of the 30 egg whites I had from Prune Layer Cake 2, 4 went to Strawberry Pavlova, 12 here, another 14 to go.... See my next post.

Strawberry Pavlova

I’ve got 30 egg whites left from making a Prunes Layer Cake. And I remembered Nigella making this wonderful crusty dessert called Pavlova. Did some googling and saw that most recipes call for every 2 egg whites, half a cup of sugar be used. Nigella’s recipe seems so huge to me, and this being my virgin Pavlova, I don’t want to risk making a huge one. I followed Joy of Baking’s recipe, with Nigella’s method.

I thought it would be difficult, but hey no.. It’s pretty easy. I succeeded at first attempt. As long as u cool it properly in the oven, do not rush.. rushing is no good to a pavlova… Patience, wait, and you’ll be fine. It will not look perfectly smooth, but with cracks here and there and that does not mean u’ve failed. U failed when u can’t cut the pavlova. Cos the interior isn’t cooked properly. If u can cut, u’ve done it!!

I made a mistake here that I will never do again.. I made a 1 inch tall rim on my raw meringue. Some recipes say to do that rim thing, so that it will hold the cream and fruit. But when my meringue is done, the 1/2 inch wall became 1and 1/2 inches. That’s why u don’t see a mountain of strawberries. My cream and berries weren’t enough to fill up the big crater. Better leave the surface flat so that it’ll form a shallower crater when baked and cooled.

So, what does this taste like??? Sweet!!! Utterly sweet. But, nice.

It has a crunchy crust that melts in ur mouth.

A soft marshmellowy interior that isn’t sticky or gummy. Count to 3, it’s gone.

Accompanied by creamy cream and contrasted by tart strawberries…

It’s really good. Provided each bite of the pavlova be accompanied by some strawberries to offset the sweetness.

Do not try to reduce the sugar, the meringue might not hold. Just add more tart/ tangy/sour fruits to the top and it’ll be fine.

Strawberry Pavlova Recipe

4 egg whites (120gm)

200gm castor sugar

1 Tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp vinegar (I used rice vinegar)

1tsp vanilla

*If using non convection oven, pls raise the temperature by another 20C

1. Preheat oven at 180C. Draw an 7 inch circle (use a baking pan or plate/dish) with a pencil on the wrong side of a non stick baking paper. Place drawn side down on a large baking tray.

2. Beat egg whites until stiff. Beat in sugar by the tablespoons until meringue is stiff. Put in cornstarch and beat for a while (10 seconds, Don’t worry, it won’t deflate). Fold in vinegar and vanilla. (Make sure all the sugar is dissolved )
3. Mound meringue onto drawn circle, smoothing the sides and top.
4. Put into preheated oven and close the door. Immediately turn down the temperature to 130C and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes.
5. When the meringue base is ready, it will look pale and may have some cracks. Leave meringue in oven with door slightly ajar to totally cool down. If u feel that even the baking tray is cool, then it’s really cool.

Topping
200ml whipping cream
1 Tbsp sugar
200gm strawberries or more (hulled and cut into chunks)
(I stabilized my cream by adding in gelatin solution -1/2 tsp melted in 1 Tbsp water)

1. Beat whipping cream until almost stiff and put in sugar. Beat until stiff. Beat in gelatin mixture (if using).
2. Spoon cream onto cooled meringue and top with strawberries.
3. Serve immediately.

*If u want to make the meringue in advance, after baked and cooled, keep in air tight container for up to a week or two. Do not put topping on base if not served within an hour or 2.

Almond Puff Fingers 杏仁条

These are called Almond puff pastry if you ever see them in Baker’s Cottage (a Msian bakery chain). I prefer calling them almond puff fingers, as they are finger sized.

This is a copycat version of those found in Baker’s Cottage. Not as buttery as theirs, as mine uses frozen store bought puff pastry. More convenient!!! Sacrificing on flavour.... 'sigh'

I tried this 2 times, doing it better the 2nd time around. First time, the top was a bit chewy because I used pure egg white and Hub said it’s not sweet enough. 2nd time, I mixed the egg white with sugar and it tasted similar with the ones bought from BC.. 2 thumbs up from Hub.

1 pack puff pastry
2 Tbsp egg white
2 Tbsp fine sugar (not icing sugar)
80gm almond flakes
2 Tbsp fine sugar

Method:
1. Roll out pastry in between 2 sheets of plastic to thickness of 5mm.
2. Mix egg white with 2 Tbsp sugar.
3. Peel upper sheet of plastic and spread egg white mixture evenly on top of pastry.
4. Sprinkle almond flakes all over pastry.
5. Replace top sheet of plastic and lightly roll to press almonds onto pastry.
6. Remove upper plastic sheet and sprinkle remaining sugar over almonds.
7. Put pastry into the freezer for half an hour to set the topping.
8. Preheat oven to 180C(fan)/200C.
9. Cut pastry into finger sized pieces. ( I cut up 40 pcs of them ) Place them onto a baking sheet. No need to grease baking sheet.
10. Bake for 12 mins on 180C and 30 mins on 140C.

*****
Period of baking varies depending on ovens. The first bake of 180C should end when the almonds achieve a very light golden colour and the pastry is well risen. 2nd bake of 140C is to make it crunchy. You may need to bake it longer if it’s still not crunchy enough. But raising it to 150C may produce a slightly browner colour. Do what you may think is suitable for your preference of colour.



Almond flakes sprinkled onto rolled out pastry that had been applied with egg white and sugar


Sprinkle on more sugar...


Cut them up into finger sized pieces


All puffed up and ready to be munched!!!

Scrambled Egg Whites with Prawns 虾仁抄蛋百

After making 2 strawberry mirror cakes in a week, I had 8 egg whites left in my fridge, what to do with it besides making meringue or other desserts?? Make some scrambled egg whites then..

Ingredients:
Half cup shelled prawns
8 egg whites
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp cooking oil
1 Tbsp chopped green onions

Method:
Heat wok and put in oil. Fry prawns with salt until they are fragrant and pink. Pour in the egg whites and stir with the spatula until all egg whites are cooked. Don't cook the egg whites for too long, else they will be tough and not smooth. Stir in chopped green onions and dish up.