Lepat Labu @ Steamed Pumpkin Parcels

Lepat Labu is one of my favourite Malay kuih. 

But, it’s not easy to find one that is not too heavy with flour. 

I prefer it soft and supple, and with plenty of coconut filling. 

It’s easy to make. 

Pumpkin Rice Vermicelli 金瓜米粉

Pumpkin Rice Vermicelli is a popular noodle dish from Taiwan.
But I have never tried it before in Taiwan.

I have no idea if this will be something similar, but I just cooked this based on my own imagination.

Pumpkin Scones with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Glaze - Scones #3

I rarely bake without my weighing scale..but on this day.. it died on me just when I wanted to weigh my flour.

Scones are very forgiving, and you need not to be on the dot, unlike delicate cakes and pastries. It'll still come out alright. A +/- of 20gm flour doesn't matter much, as we don't even measure how much we dust the table during shaping and cutting. As long as the dough is soft and sticky, don't overwork it, you should be on the safe side.

Shark and Pumpkin Thai Red Curry - Thai Curries AFF #4

When I saw this recipe.. the slices of chicken looked sooo enticing, and the pumpkin just sends my Ooo-Lala siren going off.

But I wanted to try something different, and changed the chicken to shark as I happened to have it. Red curry is very versatile and you can use any type of protein.

Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake - Baked Cheesecake #3

This cake was a request from my brother in law. He wanted a pumpkin cheesecake and so, I took this opportunity to try out Rose's recipe.

Largely based on Rose Levy Berenbaum's recipe with quite a lot of adapations. And some regrets too.

Pumpkin Prawn Pilaf - Pumpkin #3

I tried a pumpkin prawn pilaf recipe from a local women magazine, and unfortunately, I found it lacking in flavour (just my own opinion). Personally (you may think otherwise), I will prefer more spices to go with it. The recipe for 4 servings also called for 3 cups of raw basmathi of which is quite a lot! 3 cups raw basmathi will give you around 9 cups cooked (unfluffed) rice and imagine after fluffing.....woah...I can't imagine 4 persons eating that. When I tried out the recipe to serve 3 big eaters plus kids, I cut the rice to half and the rest remained. It looked fine, proportion of rice and prawns looked good, but tasted not as good as I hoped, since making seasoned rice is usually quite straightforward with not much techniques involved. I wonder how many of you have encountered such problems with recipes from women magazines.

Honey Mustard Roasted Pumpkin, Beets and Carrots - Pumpkin #2

I made this for more relatives who came back from Australia few weeks later after the pumpkin sabzi.

They have past their 50's and are conscious of the things they eat. 

Having living overseas for quite a long time, they love to eat roasted vegetables.
Something my hubby find it hard to take in.

I took the opportunity to try out this dish.
Very well recieved by them. I was only so so about this.

Easy Pumpkin Sabzi - Pumpkin #1

The original recipe called for butternut squash, but I used pumpkin. The pumpkins that I buy are always very orangey in colour. Which is why, I find the taste to be similar to butternut squash. I never knew that there was an obvious difference, not until Anne of Pigpigscorner told me during our meet up 2 years ago.

Pumpkin Velvety Butter Cake

Another pumpkin bake. Haha, it's fun to do things in a row.

I loved the texture of pumpkin in cakes, like my soft pumpkin cake. It made the cake taste so smooth. So this time, I tried to make a pumpkin butter cake, and the best reason is that I'm going to meet some bloggers. Good opportunity to get help finish the cake, Muahahahahaha!!!! I'm not going to list them here, as you might have seen this pic elsewhere yonks ago, hahaha. It's boring to read it over and over again, so I'm not going to bore you with this

I had no recipe for this, so as usual, I just dumped things in. Dump, nice word. I like it.

Pumpkin Velvety Butter Cake
Recipe source: Wendyywy

200gm sugar
200gm butter
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla
5 large eggs
300gm cake flour sifted together with 1 tsp baking powder
200gm soft steamed pumpkin flesh (no need to puree )
Handful of pumpkin seeds

1. Preheat oven to 160/180C. Line a 8 inch square pan
2. Beat sugar, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy.
3. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add in half of sifted flour, on low speed then beat until well combined.
5. Put in pumpkin and beat until all mushed up.
6. Put in remaining flour and beat until just combined.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.
8. Bake for 50 minutes or until done when tested with a skewer.

Verdict
The pumpkin gave the cake a velvety feel. Very fine and the texture is fabulous.
Glad my experiment worked out fine. LOL. Yeah, those bloggers were my guinea pigs, but I guess they were happy guinea pigs, right gals???

I met almost all of them the next day in another meeting, with additional few like Tracie and Meldylocks

Steamed Pumpkin Muffins

For mothers out there, pregnancy is a wonderful experience. The changes that one goes thru thoughout the pregnancy is sometimes weird and unanticipated.

I've heard of people eating toothpaste, eating shoe polish or some find clay to be tasty. Disgusting, right? But I've only heard about such incidences where those people actually consume a limited diet, and they might be malnourished in some way and the body makes then comsume something that in nature contains the nutrient that the mother so needed. I've never heard of funny stories from people who lived in town, or consumes a veriety of food and never impoverished.

In one of the schools I worked in before, the school cleaner once chatted with me, about how she survived all her pregnancies craving for toothpaste, consuming only cream crackers with chilli paste and drinking only tap water for 9 months!! The rest are all, yucks to her. And she was the one who told me stories about people who eat funny stuff, and those people are relatives of hers.  Hard to believe? But I guess it could be true. Just that we are too privileged to be in contact with people who are never deprived of proper food.

When I was pregs with Lydia, from week 5 onwards, I was binging. Eating meals, not snacks every 3 hours. I gained 4 kg in just 2 weeks. Mike looked at me in horror, to see the way that I'm eating.I told him, I can't help it, my tummy is growling furiously.  But when week 7 came by, my appetite dropped drastically. I could eat nothing except fruits. Food made from rice were the worse. From congee to vermicelli, they all smell yucks! I could look at a burger, just look. I don't feel like picking it up. And if I pick it up, I won't feel like biting. And if I finally bit into it, I don't feel like chewing. After chewing, I don't want to swallow it. The whole eating process is just a torture to me. But if I see fruits, I can eat and eat. I dropped 7 kg throughout this difficult period. Which was 3 kg less compared to pre pregnancy. If I wasn't binging during early pregnancy, I'd lose even more.

Actually that time, my hormones were all crazy and I was having bad constipation. Constipation during pregnancy is due to the increment of progesterone. It's the way that my body reacted and helped me to overcome the problem that I was facing by rejected all foods except fruits. Taking in whatever that is needed to help the mother. When the constipation stopped at week 14, my appetite came back, in a snap! Even now, I totally believe in listening to my body. Eat when it tells u to, and don't eat when it doesn't tell u to. So, if I crave, there's no excuse for not eating. That's one pretty good excuse. Hahahaha!

This time, the pregnancy affected not my appetite, but my kitchen mojo. It hit me so bad that I don't want to wash my cup. I didn't want to touch the sink, didn't want to cook anything at all. I didn't bake anything out of fun, but only out of neccesity. I was craving for something with coconut milk, so I made and oil-less pandan chiffon. It was Mike's birthday and  I made him Chocolate Enigma Cake. With the extra cream from the cake, I baked another cake (I'll post that within this week) And I did a sponsored post with a health product that I've promised way before my pregnancy. I didn't cook a proper meal for almost 4 months!! We were eating out daily. Now that I'm at week 22, I'm pretty much the old me now. Not all there, but almost. Still not cooking 3 dishes 1 soup, but one plate meals mostly, like noodles, pasta, fried rice, and congee mostly. Won't call them one pot meals as cooking rice uses one pot and frying uses another wok. LOL.

Funny right? Hard to believe? I was still posting daily, right? hahaha! What you are seeing were usually posts so stale that they were made months ago. Haha! I still have lots of back logs to last me til I move in March.

So now, if you think that this bun in me is a sausage roll, which explained the different pregnancy experience, nah!!! Even Lydia and Lyanne weren't the same. Being pregs with Lyanne was a breeze. I loved food, especially white plain rice during the first 3 months, whereas I hated rice when I had Lydia. Both were burgers, and yet, different. Even now, both girls are very different. One is lingustic, the other technical and artistic. Haha.

Enough pregs talk, let's food talk.
This is the first thing I made, right after I got back my mojo at week 16. And I attempted this recipe twice.

First attempt flopped bad time. Simply because I read in one of the comments that aunty Yochana said the baking powder has to be double action baking powder, whereas the recipe itself called for only baking powder. My first attempt used DABP and weirdly the muffin was super dense and tasted sourish. I’ve encountered this when I simply substituted regular baking powder with DABP and my baking results were always less than acceptable.

So, with some pumpkin left, immediately I did my 2nd attempt with just regular baking powder. The results were wonderful, all smiling happily and they were all soft and fluffy. I’m now wondering how the taste will be with coconut milk… maybe next time.

Steamed Pumpkin Muffins

Adapted from Aunty Yochana

Yields12 steamed muffins (I used egg tart pans)

125gm steamed pumpkin flesh

1 egg

120gm sugar

100gm evaporated milk or coconut milk

30gm corn oil

180gm cake flour

20gm rice flour

1.5tsp baking powder

1. Prepare your steamer and bring the water to a boil

2. Put steamed pumpkin flesh, egg, sugar, milk and oil in blender and whizz for 30 seconds.

3. Sift cake flour, rice flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl.

4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the blended ingredients into the well. Mix until well combined.

5. Spoon into lined steaming cups and steam on high heat for 15 minutes. It will bloom by itself, no need to make a cross with oil.

Verdict:

I love this. My kids love this. My hubby the pumpkin hater said nothing. But please don't ask me if this taste like Fatt Gou, I have no idea. I've never eaten a proper fatt gou in my life, except once, a very very dry yucky one. The muffin stays soft the next day, not as soft as fresh from the steamer, but acceptable even when cold.

See Lydia's thumb????

LOL

Butternut Squash Muffins

Do you like me from this side of view.... Orrr..

This side of view....... Or do you like me undressed???

Tell me you want to eat me......

Awwww... Why la!!! Don't be so hasty... savour me slowly...

I'm always here, but

NOT FOR LONG!!!!!!

The muffins smell so good when they were baking. The aroma was filling up my head. When the buzzer beeped, I quickly removed them from the oven, and when they have cooled down slightly, I quickly ate one. The walnuts, vanilla and butternut squash was such good combination, the muffin tasted oh so good.

With muffins being a quick bread, it is always leavened with lots and lots of baking powder. Something that I do not wish to consume too much. The baking powder that we now mostly use contains aluminium in the acidic compound of the leavening and it is linked to Alzhiemers. Do read about it here.

So, I changed the method to creaming, and whacked the eggs with the pumpkin in the blender so that I can reduce the baking powder that is required.

You may substitute butternut squash with pumpkins as they really taste pretty much the same. And I’ll label anything with butternut squash on my blog as pumpkins as well.

Butternut squash muffins recipe

adapted from Jamie Oliver

Makes 12 muffins

300gm raw butternut squash , peeled weight, cut into small cubes, (those local long necked pumpkins are actually butternut squash) 

3 eggs
150gm light brown sugar (greatly reduced from original recipe)
100gm butter
Seeds from 1 vanilla pod / 1tsp vanilla extract (original recipe called for cinnamon)
230gm all purpose flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder
50gm chopped walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven at 170/180C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Place eggs and cubed squash into the blender and whizz it for 2 minutes.
3. Sift flour and baking powder, set aside.
4. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla seeds for 2 minutes until pale and fluffy.
5. Put in half of squash, mix until smooth. Put in half of flour, mix on low speed until smooth.
6. Put the all the squash, and all of the flour and mix until smooth.
7. Fold in chopped walnuts.
8. Spoon batter into lined muffin tins.
9. Bake for 30 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.


I made the frosty topping(based loosely on the original recipe), but in the end I didn’t use it, because these muffins were already a star on their own. I never eat 2 muffins in a row, but these were so good, that.. gosh, I almost wanted to have my third. But I told myself.. no no… 2 is a company, 3 is a crowd. That’s too much.

Double Fennel Roasted Chicken

I saw some fennel at Jusco, locally grown at Camerons. Whoopppie!!! They were cheap!!! I didn’t know what to do with them but I bought them anyway cos I was told, it’s a new produce and it’s not sold often. I’ve seen fennel growing in Camerons before, in Mardi Park in Tanah Rata, but I never knew Cameronians will one day plant this to sell.

Then I saw Australian butternut squash. Usually they are pretty big, but this time I saw some small ones. The name is really enticing, butternut. Is it really that buttery? I won’t know until I’ve tasted it, and that’s for sure. This baby cost me almost RM14. Hahaha!!! The big ones will cost me more than RM30. Crazy!!!
Then I came back and searched on the internet high and low for recipes… and I don’t’ want soup. No fennel soup, no butternut squash soup. In the end, I settled down with roasting them.

1kg Whole chicken legs (3 rather large pieces)
½ Tbsp salt
½ Tbsp fennel seeds
Few black peppercorns or some ground black pepper

2 bulbs of fennel (rather small when compared to imported ones, if imported ones, 1 will do)
Some salt and some pepper
Few cuts of Butternut squash, just as a rack and part of the meal later on (You can substitute with pumpkin)
Some butter and 1 tsp of honey for each leg

1. Mill salt, fennel seeds and black peppercorns until fine.
2. Rub (1) onto chicken legs.
3. Marinate them for at least 1 hour (do not stack them, and leave them uncovered in the fridge to dry up a bit)
4. Preheat oven to 180/200C.
5. Place butternut squash onto baking pan. Slice fennel and sprinkle them over butternut squash. Season with a light sprinkling of salt and pepper. (just like what Jamie Oliver usually will do)
6. Place marinated chicken over fennel and butternut squash.
7. Thinly slice some butter and lay them on the chicken.
8. Bake for 30 minutes until golden
9. Remove chicken frm oven and quickly brush (I just use the back of spoon) 1 tsp of honey on each leg.
10. Pop them back into the oven for another 15 minutes. They will be very golden when done.

The chicken was just nicely cooked, saltiness level perfect. The roasting juices were wonderfully sweet!!!! Not sweet from the honey but from the chicken, butternut and fennel. What could be better than to have some rice to soak up all the gravy… err.. you may like mash potatoes, but we like rice. And I made some garlic rice to go with it. (Recipe for garlic rice, later)

If you ask me what does fennel smell like when raw.. a bit like celery, a bit like parsley.
What it taste like when cooked… Celery, the bottom white part of celery. Just that it has more texture to chew on.

What does butternut squash look like inside : A pumpkin
What does butternut squash taste like when cooked : A pumpkin, hahaha!! Just nuttier.

Any of you have any recipes to suggest me for fennel?? Preferably no soups and salads.

Eight Treasures Pumpkin Loaf 八宝南瓜包

I got this recipe from MeishiChina again. The original recipe is shaped into a wreath and the treasures all strewn on top. I put my treasures inside instead and rolled them up like a swiss roll.

You can use any 8 types nuts or seeds or dried fruit. I find that the fruits are a bit dry after baking, and maybe you can brush some water on the dough before you sprinkle the fruits on, this way, it'll hydrate the fruits better, rather than to have it drawing moisture from the bread.

The plain one that you see in the picture about is filled with only chopped raisins because my kids don't like nuts and seeds.

350gm bread flour
80gm sugar
1 tsp instant yeast
1/3 tsp salt
1 large egg
180gm pumpkin puree
50gm butter
1 ½ cup mixed fruits and nuts (6 types: golden raisins, black raisins, bing cherries, cranberries, almonds, pistachios), coarsely chopped
½ cup mix seeds (2 types: pumpkin and sunflower), placed in a tray big enough for the loaves

1. Mix bread flour, sugar, yeast and salt together. Make a well in the center.

2. Combine pumpkin puree with egg. Pour pumpkin mitxure into the well. Combine and form a dough.

3. Knead until smooth, add in butter and knead until stretchy. (the whole kneading process by hand will take about 30 minutes or more)
4. Put dough covered (with a small opening) in a warm place (I just put the whole basin I knead my bread with into my cool oven) and let it proof for 1 hour until double in size.
5. Punch down and give it a good knead for another 2 minutes.
6. Divide dough into 2 loaves.
7. Take one piece of dough and roll it into a rectangle. Spread half the mixed fruit and nuts onto rolled out dough. Roll dough up (from the shorter side), and pinch the ends to seal.
8. Brush loaf with water and roll it in the seed mix.
9. Repeat with the other piece of dough.
10. Proof loaves for another 45 minutes.
11. Bake in a preheated oven at 170/180C for 20 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped at the bottom of tray (Put a small tray of boiling water at the lower rack of oven while you bake the bread)

Pumpkin Mantou

The mantou looks blur, but the background is clear. That's my phone. See how my current town, Kuala Kangsar looks like.

That clock tower is the major landmark in town. It shows you, there's you've reached town!!! It's in the middle of a roundabout. When you reach this roundabout from the mainroad from the highway, 9o'clock is where I am, 12 and you'll go towards the Perak Royal Grounds, and 3 o'clock is the other half of  the town.

Well, besides it being a landmark, it has its historical significance. It was erected by the British during their rule here, and it not only functions as a clock, but also acts as a marking post for floods. Major floods are not uncommon here. The worst that current residents still remember had the water covering the whole tower except for the dome. That was in the 60's, when pictures were still in Black and White. Mike's grandpa took a picture of it. There are copies of significant floods for sale around tourist areas. The worst that my husband ever saw was that the waters rose almost covering the 1st floor of their shop. I don't hope for anymore floods.. not that I'm staying here now.

I hope you still remember those pumpkin buns. I made them again, this time, plain, with no filling.
When Lydia saw them, she was ecstatic. But when she cracked the bun open, she said "No jam". Hahaha, she was really looking forward to the pumpkin filling. Anyway, both my kids loved this. Good to bring along when you need to travel, near or far. They are soft and don't spoil easily. Best is kids can eat them w/o a mess.

She has finished her share of the bun and Lydia looks bored in the car while waiting for Papa to do some stuff....

Soft Pumpkin Cake 松软南瓜蛋糕

Pine nuts. First time tasting this and it is so so good. My MIL got me a small pack of pinenuts when she came back 6 months ago. It's pretty pricey here. I don't think I'll buy it here, because it's really expensive.. but come to think of it, it's almost like the price of blueberries.. oh... I don't know. Maybe I will, maybe I won't buy. I don't know yet.

This cake is very very light and yummy. For pumpkin lovers, this is a must try. For no pumpkin lovers also must try. My husband who doesn't fancy pumpkins was cheated into eating this. My brother who is watching his cholesterol levels, didn't know that it's pumpkin in it, and thought it was egg yolks, still ate it cos it is so good. And when he knew it's pumpkin, he gave a sigh of relief and ate even more. There might not be any pumpkin smell or taste in this cake, but the texture is marvelous. And the pinenuts added a wonderful aroma to the cake. Feel free to subtitute with flaked almonds or almond nibs if you don't want to use pinenuts.

Soft Pumpkin Cake

(Source: XiaoMeiZhu)

(A)

4 egg whites

Few drops vinegar

50gm sugar

(B)

4 egg yolks

50gm pumpkin puree

50ml milk

50ml Corn oil

80gm cake flour

(C)
Handful of pinenuts
Buttercream for filling

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 140(fan)/160C
2. Combine pumpkin puree with milk. Then add in egg yolks and oil. Mix till well blended and put in flour ad mix til smooth.
3. Put egg whites into another bowl and beat until frothy. Put in vinegar and continue to beat until soft peaks. Put in sugar and beat until stiff (pointy stiff)
4. Fold 1/3 of egg whites into (B) . Pour (B) into remaining egg whites and fold.
5. Pour into a 10 inch lined square pan, level the batter.
6. Sprinkle some pine nuts over cake and bake for 25 minutes.
7. When cake is done, remove from oven. Let it sit in the pan for 5 minutes, remove from pan (be gentle) and tear down the side liners. Let cake cool down totally.
8. Overturn cake and peel off lining paper and cut into half. Spread one side with butter cream and top with another side of the cake. To make slicing nicer chill cake for 30 minutes before slicing to serve.

Steamed Pumpkin Buns 南瓜包子

I made my first batch of these using the same recipe from the same food magazine of those not so tender steamed banana cakes. I want to give the author a 2nd chance. Oh-no, I was so wrong. The buns from the original recipe turned out like leather!!!! Nothing like what was in the picture. How I hate these local publications.

And if you see a pumpkin bun recipe calling for
150gm cake flour

1/2 tsp B.P.

30gm egg white
60gm sugar
90gm pumpkin puree
Run away from it!!!!!!

These taste Urrrgghhh!!!

But…… the filling is really good (Lydia ate all the leather buns… err.. all the filling from the leather buns).
Well, part of the recipe works. The filling, they look like salted egg yolks. Look only… but taste absolutely pumpkinny.

Let me try to tweak the recipe of the bun dough.
I did by changing the flour, adding in some DABP, butter , and yeast, took out the egg white And now.. voila, a total change!!!! Absolutely yummy.
My MIL are always believe that some recipe book authors never tell you the whole story… and maybe she’s right this time.

Making pumpkin puree

Steam pumpkins until easily penetrable with a chopstick. Puree until fine.

For the filling
300gm pumpkin puree
30gm sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
Cook until thickens and use 2 teaspoons to form into little balls and place on a lined tray. Chill until time of use.

For the bun (retained the amount of sugar, pumpkin and flour from the ori recipe that you can see above, but tweaked the type of flour, additional yeast, DABP and butter)
60gm sugar
90gm pumpkin puree
1 tsp instant yeast (Mauripan doesn't work well with this recipe)
150gm pau flour
1 tsp double acting baking powder (or just use regular baking powder)
10gm butter

1. Combine sugar, pumpkin puree and yeast.
2. Combine pau flour, D.A. B.P and butter. Mix to form crumbs.
3. Pour (1) into (2) and mix to form a dough.
4. Knead dough until it is smooth and no longer sticky.
5. Let dough proof in a warm place until double in size. Remember to cover it.

Assembly.
1. Punch down dough after it has doubled. Knead it for 2 minutes and divide dough into 12 pieces.
2. Remove pumpkin filling from the fridge.
3. With lightly floured hands, take one piece of dough and flatten it, making it thinner at the sides.
4. Place one piece of filling, round side down onto flattened dough.
5. Wrap and seal bun.
6. Seam side down, make marks that resemble a pumpkin using a dinner knife.
7. Let buns proof (covered) for 45 minutes and steam on high heat for 12 minutes.

And now that they are done, please eat with your eyes

Well, I did this at night when Mike was around to take pics of me wrapping the buns. The next morning, when I tried to take pictures of them in the morning sun, because I was so dissatisfied with the pictures I took that night... this happened

Luckily I did take some pictures before Lyanne snatched the buns from the plate

How can Lyanne resist this bun, right???