Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red Velvet cupcakes are my daughter, Sophia's favorite.  So when Cathy L wanted to make cupcakes for Rachel C, it had to be red velvet, of course!  The cupcakes were to welcome Sarah to the world!

Ingredients:

310     g flour
45       g cocoa powder
5         g baking soda
3         g salt
225     g softened butter
400     g sugar
4         eggs
230     g sour cream
120     g milk
10       ml vanilla extract
1         bottle red food colouring

Frosting:
225     g cream cheese, softened
55       g butter, softened
30       g sour cream
450     g icing sugar



Method:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celcius.

In a small bowl, sift plain flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a small bowl, whisk red food colouring and vanilla extract. Then add to the above batter.
Mix sour cream and milk together and add to batter, alternating with flour.  Beat well untill well incorporated, but do not overbeat.

Fill each lined muffin/cupcake tray with 2/3 full with batter.  Bake for 20 mins.  Stand for 1 hr.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter till smooth.  Then beat in vanilla extract.  Add one cup of icing sugar at a time.  Beat till smooth and creamy.

Ice cakes and decorate as desired.

Enjoy!

Kangkong with Hoisin sauce

Kangkong with Hoisin sauce

A family favourite especially when I am busy, and the family is in need of fibre and taste!

Ingredients:

1 bunch of kangkong or water convolvulus

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon garlic oil or sesame oil

fried garlic or fried onions

pepper

Method:

Pick shoots, leaves and tender stems off kangkong.  Place in a big bowl or in the sink and submerge in water. Swish the vegetable around.  Remove from water.  Do this till the water is clear.  Ususally 2 or 3 times.

In a separate bowl, mix hoisin sauce, oyster sauce and oil.

Bring to boil about 2 L of water.  Blanch the kangkong for about 2 minutes or until the leaves are wilted. Pour sauce over it.  Mix.  Sprinkle with fried garlic or fried onions.  Dust with pepper.

You might also like Kangkong with dried prawns.

Bulgogi

Bulgogi

Bulgogi or Koren fire meat is a dish that my son, Peter, has been asking me to cook.  This again is from Lily Wai Sek Hong.

Ingredients:

1      kg thinly sliced rib eye steak (freezer section of Chinese shops or ask the Chinese butcher for thinly sliced meat for steamboat)

1/3   cup soy sauce

3      tablespoon sugar

1      tablespoon sesame oil

3      cloves garlic, chopped

1/2   brown onion, sliced

1/4   tsp freshly gound black pepper

Method:

Whisk all the ingredients toether in a shallow casserole except beef and onions. 

When most of the sugar has dissolved, add beef and onion slices to the bowl and massage the marinade with your hands, into each slice of beef.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

To pan fry, place a few slices of beef in single layers, completely flat on a hot, oiled grill or the special Korean BBQ grill, and fry till each side is cooked or the sides are brown and crispy. I did not have a grill handy, so used a hot wok instead.  The fragrance was beautiful!

Tamarind Curry of Seafood

Tamarind Curry of Seafood

My daughter, Sophia gave me a treat to Urban Graze cooking class, with Alvin Quah, one of the contestants from Masterchef 2010.  This is my favorite recipe from that class.

Tamarind Curry of Seafood
Recipe by Alvin Quah


Ingredients:

15       each bulb shallots, peeled
3         each candlenuts, soaked in hot water for 10 mins
1         each 3cm piece galangal, peeled and roughly chopped
7         each garlic cloves, peeled
3         each stalks lemongrass, white part sliced and reserved
2         teaspoons tumeric powder
10-20 dried chillies (soaked in hot water for 15 minutes and drained)
16 g    shrimp paste (belacan)

1/2      cup vegetable or canola oil
3         tablespoon tamarind pulp
21/2    cups water
250     ml fish stock
1/2      tablespoon palm sugar
2         each truss tomatoes, each cut into 6 equal pieces
           salt to taste

250     g barramundi fillet, cut into 10 pieces
10       each mussels
10       each green prawns, head and shells removed and deveined
10       each okra, cut into thirds

Method:

• In a food processor, process bulb shallots, candlenuts, galangal, garlic, lemongrass, tumeric owder, chillies and shrimp paste to a smooth paste.
• Mix the tamarind pulp with water and strain the water to get the tamarind juice.  Set aside.
• In a wok, heat the oil over low heat and fry the ground spice past until the oil and paste separates and is fragrant.  (About 15 minutes)
• Add the tamarind ulp and sugar into the spice paste and bring it to a boil on low heat.  Add fish stock, half the tomatoes and allow to simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  Add okra and the rest of the tomatoes and alow to simmer for another 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, steam the fish, prawns and mussels in a bamboo steamer until just cooked.  They should all take the same amount of time to cook.  About 4-5 minutes.

To Serve:

• Add a piece of fish, a mussel and a prawn into a bowl.  Repeat with the other 9 bowls.
• Ladle the curry into each bowl and serve with rice or crusty bread.

Kangkong with dried prawns

Kangkong or water convolvulus with dried prawns

1 bunch of kangkong

1/2 cup dried prawns, soaked in hot water

1 clove garlic

1/2 onion

1 teaspoon belacan

1 red chilli, sliced (optional)

salt, pepper

1 tablespoon oil

Pick and wash the leaves and young shoots/stems from kangkong. (If it is too long, it could choke some).

In a food processer, grind dried prawns, garlic, onion and belacan.  (If you do not have a food processer, use a mortar and pestal, or roughly chop.)

Heat up the oil in a wok or frypan.  Fry the dried prawn/onion mixture till fragrant.

Add kangkong, frying till it is all wilted and well mixed.

Add in red chilli, salt and pepper to taste.

Plate up and garnish with fried onions or garlic or red chilli, if desired.

Enjoy!

You might also like Kangkong with Hoisin sauce.

Easy Curry Puff

Easy Curry Puff

Curry puffs - a snack in Malaysia, and oh, so moorish, you have to eat more than one!  My mum makes a mean curry puff, and she is always asked to bring some for dinner parties!  They are great as an entree or a savory morning/afternoon tea.  They can be made bite size as finger food, or giant sized for a giant sized meal (think Cornish pasties).

If you want serious flavour, don't use gourmet mince.  But I am trying to keep the Man Of The House alive, so I feed him LEAN mince.  Make sure you cube the potatoes into 1 cm cubes or there abouts or else you might have sight difficulty in keeping the filling in!

4 tbsp oil

1 kg lean or gourmet mince

5 large potatoes (approx 1 kg), cut into 1 cm cubes

2 onions, chopped finely

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely

1 tbsp curry powder

salt

pepper

6 sheets puff pastry

water

milk wash

Method:

Heat up the oil in a wok or large based pot, and brown garlic and onion, on medium heat. 

Add mince.  Stir to break up up the meat, add in curry powder. Then add potatoes, stir till well mixed. 

Turn the heat to low. Keep stirring every few minutes to make sure that the mix does not stick at the bottom of the wok/pot. When the potatoes are soft (could take about 30 mins), add salt, pepper to taste. 

Leave to cool.

Separate the pastry sheets.  Using a sharp knife, cut each sheet into 3 equal parts horizontally and vertically.  (this gives you 9 squares).

Pick up one square and place in your left palm. Place a teaspoon of cooled curried mince and potato mixture into the square. Put a little water on the edges, and fold the square diagonally so that it forms a triangle.  Press edges together.  Place on an oven tray.  Repeat.

Brush with milk wash.

Bake at 220 degress Centigrate till browned.  (about 20 mins)

Enjoy!