Palm Sugar Coconut Cream Sauce

I remember I said I won't be making any "Gan Sui Joong" this year, which are plain alkaline/lye water rice dumplings.
But due to "family" demand, I made them, but plain with no fillings. Mom just loves these.

Again, I didn't use boric acid (pang sar) as the additive to make it bouncy. 

But this time I made this sauce to go with the dumplings. Usually it's plain palm sugar syrup. But I've added some coconut cream into this, just like making a caramel sauce, coconut cream instead of milk cream. Pandan leaf instead of vanilla bean, and palm sugar instead of brown or white sugar.

This is a recipe given by a neighbour, Mrs Teh, the wife of the good man who taught me to make Toddy Buns.
She taught me how to make this sauce when I was 13, for a "Gan Sui Gou" which means alkaline rice cake.
The palm sugar sauce was really nice and the secret ingredient is coconut cream, or thick coconut milk.

So, here's what I learnt from a dear neighbour

200gm palm sugar (here I used gula kabung, which is darker, you may use the regular gula melaka)
few blades of pandan leaves, shredded and tied into a knot.
100ml water
100ml thick coconut milk/cream
small pinch of salt (if prefer a salty tinge to anything coconut milk related, and I didn't put)

1. Cook palm sugar with water and pandan knot on medium low heat until melted.
2. Let the sugar syrup continue to cook until the whole surface is very bubbly, it may take about 3-5 minutes for the syrup to slowly reduce.
3. Pour in coconut milk and salt, stirring or swirling the pot all the while.
4. Then bring the sauce back to a boil, and let it simmer for 1 minute.
5. Strain sauce and serve with dumplings or any other kuih you may prefer.

** the sauce thickens slightly upon cooling down to room temperature, something like runny honey.

Oh, again this is not a backpost. Just made this yesterday at my hometown, Kampar.

Chinese White Honeycomb Cake -Version 4 Bak Tong Goh- 36 hours

Almost similar to Aunty Yochana’s version, but minus 42 hours and the rice fermentation stage. The wine yeast is added directly into the rice flour, which was the kuih starter dough (step 2) in Yochana’s version
Still, this will take you 36 hours to complete. Even though it looks like 3 days, but it started late at night on day one and ended early on day 3, altogether is 36 hours, less than 48. And remember if ever something suddenly came up that makes you unable to do the next stage or steam it on time, just pop it into the fridge for not more than 3 days. But, one or 2 hours delay won’t make much of a difference, should you need the one or 2 hours extra.

It was the picture that seduced me to try this recipe. That was my ultimate result, and I achieved that in Aunty Yochana’s Version. And not many have tried this recipe, not even those in Chinese. I tried googling it based on the recipe, and I only found one on page 10 of google result . What more about this recipe in English…. None.. Well, as earlier said in the 1st version, I never saw any English Pak Thong Gou doing it with wheat starch, of course there will be none with this long version as well.

One weird thing about this recipe is the egg white. What is the function of the egg white? I don’t know. Anyway, when it was put into the hot sugar syrup, it’ll cook and it will be sieved away later. So, why add that? The answer might be that the egg white protein, albumin, is used here as a fining agent in wine making. After reading a few sites . about wine fining, it seems that it’s raw egg whites that is used and not cooked egg whites, so why is this added in as cooked egg white?

Actually the original recipe called for yeast, but yeast to ferment for 18 hours minimum at tropical room temperature? Gosh, I don’t want to make express rice vinegar. The recipe was in Chinese and the original source is unknown, they copy and paste it everywhere on the internet, so the “yeast” they mention, I’m not sure whether it’s the Chinese yeast or western baking yeast. If they call for ½ tsp of baking yeast to ferment that long.. I can still “maybe” accept it, but 2 tsp??? A bit too much, seriously.Maybe in cold China, it can really take that long, but not here. I can make the cake in only 2 hours if I use 2 tsp, just like any of those express versions. So, I'll use Chinese wine yeast. Nevermind, I’m the guinea pig here.

Day 1 :11pm
(A) Starter

Ingredients:
55gm rice flour
1/2 tsp sugar
125ml boiling water (measure after boiling)
2 tsp Chinese sweet wine yeast biscuit (crushed into powder), or ½ tsp yeast (In tropical warm weather, if you follow the original amount, you will have rice vinegar by the end of it)
Method:
Put rice flour and sugar into a bowl. Pour half the boiling water into rice flour and stir. Pour the balance in and stir. Leave to cool down. Put in crushed wine biscuit and stir. Put flour mixture into a non air tight container. Leave to ferment for 24 hours in a warm place, away from direct sunlight. Open container the next morning to let it breathe for a few seconds and cover again. Do this again later in the afternoon.

Day 2: 11am
(B) Rice flour mixture

Ingredients:
175gm rice flour
50gm wheat starch
250ml water
Method:
Mix rice flour and wheat starch with water. Let the mixture sit for a few hours (2-3). The rice flour will settle to the bottom and water will be on top. While preparing the syrup below, carefully pour away the water.

Day 2: 2pm
(C) Sugar syrup

Ingredients:
180gm sugar (original proportion is 300gm)
250ml water
1 Tbsp egg white
Method:
Bring water and sugar to a boil. Turn off the heat. Put in egg white and stir. Sieve syrup and pour into (B).
Cover and leave until 11pm.

Day 2: 11pm
Final rice batter
Method: Mix (A) into (C). Sieve mixture and cover. Let it proof for another 12 hours.

Day 3: 11am
Steaming

Ingredient:
1 tsp oil
Method:
Prepare your steamer .Put in water and bring to a boil.
Put 1 tsp oil into batter. Mix well.
Grease one 12 inch round pan.
Place greased pan onto steamer rack.
Pour rice batter into greased pan.
Cover your steamer and steam on high heat for 20 minutes.

Results:
Good.
But not as good as Aunty Yochana’s. Double decker honeycombs too. Due to the lesser water content than Aunty Yochana’s, this yields a slightly firmer cake. The higher starch content also made this chewier. But less crunchy than Aunty Yochana’s. Aunty Yochana’s version is really the best, and the most time consuming. Try this recipe if you want to do it using only 36 hours compared to Yochana’s 78 hours.
Slightly inferior only. If Aunty Yochana’s version is very good, this is good. Rice flour and yeast version to me is .. I don’t want to rate it.

I’m not sure whether it’s due to wheat starch that pak thong koh can get double decker results , as I did it here as well (although not as equal as those that I got with aunty yochana’s version, it’s thicker at the bottom this time), just like the pic in Haochi123. But mine was a bit wavy on top after being steamed, not as flat. Maybe I was using less sugar. Or maybe I was using high heat to steam rather than medium high heat. Sometimes, sugar do play a role, but I really can’t stand the amount of sugar used in the original recipe. Try out the original amount if you like things sweet, and please let me know.

And oh ya.. I’m going to try out the 1st version again. I won’t cook it this time, and if I still get double decker honeycombs, then I confirm it’s the starch, but if it’s not, I guess it’s due to the wine yeast.

Hakka Dough Dumplings 客家粄粽

Just made these yesterday. This is not a back post :)

Yes, it's almost that time of the Lunar Year again, Duan Wu Festival or Dragon Boat Festival, the day that the Chinese remembers the loyal scholar who commited suicide. The actual day is next Wednesday, 16th June 2010. But I'm making this early for your reference :) I always do my dumplings one or 2 weeks earlier, just for the sake of eating.

Actually I’ve never eaten this, nor have I seen this in real life. I only got to know the existence of this type of Zongzi when I was searching the internet for the real Cantonese Zongzi last year. Malaysia’s Chinese food is already so, so fusioned, that one no longer can distinct between each other, except for certain dishes.

This year Kristy made some sweet hakka dough dumplings.
And I have already planned to make these since last year.

What makes Hakka dough dumplings (客家粄粽) different??. Wait before that, let me tell you there is another type of Hakka Dumpling that is shaped like a pillow... that is a rice dumpling and it is not the same as this dough dumpling.

The difference of savoury hakka dough dumplings is that it uses glutinous rice flour instead of glutinous rice.
Uses minced meat instead of meat pieces.
Uses preserved radish instead of beans.
Fillings are pre cooked and not used raw
Other than these, the mushroom is there, the 5 spice is there. No chestnuts and no salted egg yolks.

And one mistake I did, I thought since this is steamed and not boiled, soI didn’t bother about the small cracks in some of the wrapping. And I also wrapped them quite tight, tried hard to eliminate empty spaces in the wrapping. It is ok, to just form a round ball, with a slightly pointed end and fold the top wrapping loosely over, no need to be too tight cos the dumpling will expand a bit during steaming. Hahaha, the dough seeped out from the cracks during steaming, like Incredible Hulk getting green, cos there was no where to go, except through the wrapping, and caused dumplings that didn't have cracks in the beginning to tear after steaming.

Anyway, it goes into the tummy…..

Here goes the recipe

Hakka Dough Dumpling Recipe

Fillings
5 shitake mushrooms, soaked and chopped, it will come to about ½ cup
200gm minced meat or 1 cup
½ cup or 70gm chopped preserved radish (Choy poh, I used the sweet type, just rinse and chop, if salty type please soak for 30 minutes, squeeze out water before use)
5 shallots, sliced or chopped
10gm (1 heaped Tbsp) dried shrimps, soaked for 30 minutes and finely chopped
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt (you may need less if using salted preserved radish)
Pepper
½ tsp 5 spice powder
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 cup water +1 tsp cornstarch




1. Heat wok and put in 3 tbsp oil. Put in shallots and fry until golden, drain and dish up.
2. Put in chopped dried shrimps and fry until fragrant, then put in minced meat and fry until dry and fragrant, put in preserved radish and fry until fragrant. Put in seasonings and cornstarch mixture. Cook until the water is absorbed by the fillings. Mix in fried shallots.
3. Dish up and let it cool down. Divide into 16 and freeze filling to harden slightly.
4. Meanwhile prepare the dough

Dough
550gm (5 cups) glutinous rice flour
190gm rice flour(1 + 2/3 cups) (If you prefer a less sticky texture, you can substitute some of the glutinous rice flour with rice flour)
2 Tbsp cooking oil
300ml water + 1tsp salt + 1 Tbsp sugar
300ml water (room temp)

1. Mix both flours and make a well in the centre. Put in 2 Tbsp cooking oil
2. Put salt, sugar and 300ml water in a saucepan, bring to a boil.
3. Pour half of (2) into (1) and mix with spoon, bringing in flour slowly into the center. Pour more of (2) and combine. Add the room temp water slowly and knead the flour into a dough. You may not need all the water. Knead dough until smooth. Divide dough into 16 pieces, about 80gm each.

Assembly

16 pieces of bamboo leaves or more, washed and trimmed

Hemp strings or cotton strings

Some cooking oil for coating the dumplings

*click on pic to have a larger view on how to form the cone. This is one of the crucial steps in wrapping. Once I did this in Pudu Girls School, and my students took 2 hours just to learn the wrapping method, and they found the cone forming step is the most difficult of all, besides getting the four corners as pointy corners.
The rest of the wrapping method is in my Bak Zhang Recipe

1. Take one piece of dough roll it round.
2. Lightly flatten it, and make the sides flatter than the center.
3. Place one piece of filling in the center and wrap up the dumpling. Gently rolling it in your hands to seal up. Repeat until all fillings are wrapped up. (I managed to wrap all the fillings with dough in less than 10 minutes, simply due the fillings are hard and clumped together because they are half frozen)
4. Coat each dumpling with cooking oil. Shape each dumpling to look like a green pear, slightly conish.
5. Form a cone with bamboo leaf and place one piece of dumpling(pointy side down) into the cone. Lightly press and fold the rest of the bamboo leaves to form a “pyramid”.
6. Tie with a piece of hemp/cotton string.
7. Steam on high heat for 30 minutes.

So, how did this hakka dough dumpling taste like.... Chewy and the filling taste good. Much chewier than kuih koci, if you want to know the comparison. A fresh change from the usual.

If you prefer a less sticky texture, go with half glutinous rice flour and half rice flour.
If you like it softer, you can use less boiling water and increase the room temperature water. The boiling water here partially cooks the dough, and makes it sticky. When the dough is partially sticky, it needs less water to form a dough and the dumpling will have a firmer and chewier(ngann) texture. But you cannot simply increase the water, you must decrease the boiling water and increase cold water, remember.

My neighbours liked them a lot, and hahaha, indeed this dumpling was a stranger that no one knew before this. But now, at least now, my family knows that this thing exist :)

Recipe adapted from these places:

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/CarrieC/13934825&tpage=1
http://www.951b.com/meishi/200912/10-18682.html
http://www.hk32168.com/viewthread.php?tid=146573

Oh yes, I'll be making more Zongzi this weekend, Both Cantonese and Hokkien varieties.
Not making any Gan Sui Joong.....


Video on how to wrap (updated 6/6/13)

Black Sugarcane Infusion 黑皮甘蔗凉茶

This infusion is made with Black Sugarcane. In Chinese it is called 黑皮甘蔗 or 药蔗. You can google this can see lots of pictures of this beautiful sugarcane.

There's a lady who lived near my brother and she often comes by the house to chat. One day while my mom brought Hannah to tuition class opposite this lady's house, she asked my mom whether she wants to have some black sugarcane. Of course my mom won't said no. And this lady gladly pulled up 2 stalks of this sugarcane, chopped it into smaller pieces, packed it into some strong HDPE rice bag and handed it over to my mom. My mom happily brought them home.

I was lucky to be there the day mom got them. And she made me this wonderful drink.

Just in case some one gives you a bunch of this or there are lots in you backyard, here's how to do it. Works the same way with any other sugarcanes. We like it plain. Plainly sugarcane. A lot of people will add in other herbs, but we don't. Feel free to do what you like.

 

1. With a sharp knife, clean the nodes by paring off any roots or hardy parts.
2. Wash sugar cane and cut them into smaller pieces to fit your pot.
3. Use a mallet or pestle or a hammer, hit the sugarcane until it splits.
4. Put them into a pot and cover with water.
5. Bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for 3 hours. There is no need to sweeten with sugar.

*If the sugarcane is still flavourful, you can boil with some more water (but not full amount) and mix with the first infusion.

So, how do the plant look like

And how do other sugarcanes look like

And of course there is the red sugarcane, but I don't have a picture of it :)
Red sugarcane stems look like black sugarcane. But to distinguish it, look at the leaves. Leaves of the black sugarcane is green and organized.
And the red variety's leaves are red and not so nicely upright..

And the final cup of the infusion, I let you drink.... ok??

All pictures (except for 3 in the instructons part) are taken with my phone :)
I can't believe that it can produce such pictures :)

But now, it's lost.. gone at the disabled washroom in Ikano's LG floor, near Manhattan Fish Market.
I went in there to change Lyanne's diapers cos she was so wet, then I accidently hurt her while buckling her on her stroller. She cried so loud that I forgot about everything else.  Then stupid me only realised my missing bag after 10 minutes. Somebody already took my bag to the info counter and somebody also took my phone.
It's not an expensive phone, but sigh... all my contacts gone.

Luckily I was with Pei-Lin, she looked after Lyanne while I ran looking for my bag. And when I realised the phone was missing 20 minutes later, (yeah I only know that it was missing when it was time to call Mike), Pei-Lin lent me her phone to call hubby dearest. I'm glad I was with her that day.

I can't retrieve my numbers via my service provider, as I have never subscribed to their back up service,
And I can't block the phone using the IMEI number because this service do not exist in Malaysia. One can only block the number and SIM card, but not the phone.  Maxis's Customer Assistance over the phone went all blank when I asked him about blocking phone using IMEI. He totally didn't know what was I talking about and keep asking me my number and block that instead, even when I've told him few times, this is my new SIM card and the old one was already blocked, and a new SIM was issued. Maybe his ears were made of wood or that he needs some cotton bud.

*****Sigh.. *****
I'm now using my old Nokia.. wonder when will my new phone come.............................
***** Sigh  *****

Swedish Meatballs with Pasta

Last Christmas, family friends, The Cha Family, gave us this pack of oh-so-cute bear shaped pasta.
I only managed to cook it lately with swedish meatballs. I used the gravy pack from Ikea and served it with Ikea's meatballs, bear pasta and some blanched brocolli.

Everybody loved it.
Thanks Wai Hoo, Winny, Loius and Lucille

:)

 This is Lydia and Lyanne's portion. They loved it a lot. Lydia don't eat brocolli florets but loves the stems.

Mike and my portion :)