Cekodok/ Banana Balls/Fritters

Ingredients:

3 bananas (large and ripe)

1 cup of all purpose flour

1/4 tsp of baking soda

1/2 cup of coarse sugar

A pinch of salt

Oil to fry

Mash bananas with sugar, baking soda and salt, this preparation doesn't need any water for mixing as bananas with sugar, salt and baking soda will be watery. Finally, add all purpose flour and mix well with the banana mixture. This batter will be slightly watery but do not worry that is the right consistency needed, let the batter rise for about 10 minutes before frying.

Now heat enough oil for frying over medium flame, add in small portion of banana mixture and fry until it's brown. Do not stir the mixture immediately, let one side cook first before flipping to another side.

Moist Banana Cake

I have been planning to bake banana cake for a long time but buying it has been very tough as I didn't get the exact type I was looking for. Two days back, I managed to buy some and immediately planned to bake my favourite cake. The most important thing to get a perfect cake is the mashing of banana to a very fine and smooth paste then let it oxidize for at least 30 minutes to get wonderful cake after baking the cake. Mine didn't turn out as expected as I didn't have the patience to wait for it to oxidize perfectly but the cake was so yummy and finished in two days.

Now let's look at how to bake this yummy yummy cake;

Ingredients:

1 cup of mashed bananas (I have added 2 cups)

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1 and 1/2 cup of plain flour

1 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/4 cup of milk

3/4 cup of soft brown sugar

3 large eggs 

A pinch of salt

Sift plain flour, baking soda and baking powder, keep aside.

Beat brown sugar, salt, vegetable oil and eggs until fluffy then add vanilla extract. Now alternately add the dry ingredients with milk. Finally add mashed bananas and fold in to the cake batter.

Pour the batter into a buttered cake pan and bake for 35-45 minutes at 150-180 degrees or until the cake is well baked. 

Let the baked cake cool for at least 2 hours before cutting and serving it. Now our Moist Banana Cake is ready to be served. I prefer eating the cake chilled, do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Spicy Chicken Sambal

After one week of being fully vegetarian for Thaipusam my husband have requested me to cook Spicy Chicken Sambal for lunch. I have prepared this dish to go with rasam and plain rice, it tasted awesome. Let's see how to make this dish;

Ingredients:

4pcs of chicken whole leg (cut into small pieces)

3 large onions( cut into thick slices)

25 pcs of dried chilli

1 tbsp of chilli sauce

1 tsp of brown sugar

1/2 tsp of white vinegar

4 tbsp of meat curry powder

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Marinate the chicken pieces with salt and meat curry powder, add a little water and keep it aside. Then fry the chicken until chicken is 3/4th cooked, place the fried chicken on kitchen towel to blot the excess oil.

Boil dried chilli for 10 minutes until its soft and drain the water, then blend with little water to form a smooth paste.

Heat oil and fry onions until translucent, now pour in the chilli paste with some water and let it boil until the raw smell of the chilli gone. Then add fried chicken, chilli sauce, brown sugar, white vinegar and salt to taste, let the sambal simmer and thicken.

Now our Spicy Chicken Sambal is ready to be served. Do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Chicken in Spicy Soy Sauce

I love cooking for my family, because they love my cooking. Every time I go back to my parent's house they request me to cook especially my cousin, she loves almost all the dishes cooked with soy sauce so I cooked for her this dish. Compared to my previous Chicken in Soy Sauce this is a spicier version and people who love spicy dishes would definitely love this.

Usually she only have one helping but with dish she took second helping and said this dish is yummy and I don't mind having this dish every day. Now let us check how I made this dish;

Ingredients:

3 pcs of chicken whole leg (cut into small pcs)

1 tbsp of dry chilli paste

1 tbsp of oyster sauce

1 tbsp of light soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

5 pcs of bird eye chilli (slit)

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

2 tbsp of minced garlic

1 tbsp of corn starch slurry(optional)

1 large onion (sliced)

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

2 cups of water

Oil to fry

In a pan, heat oil and add cinnamon stick, star anise, onions, bird eye chilli, minced garlic and ginger garlic paste stir all this until fragrant. Now add chilli paste and chicken, mix well all the ingredient then pour water, let the ingredients boil and chicken almost cooked.

Now add in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and oyster sauce  and let the gravy reduce. Then add in the corn slurry if the gravy is not thick enough. Now our Chicken in Spicy Soy Sauce is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how was it!

Home-made Sambal

As you all know I do share many recipes on Malaysian Favorite Sambal dishes, this time I'm sharing with you how to make Plain Home-Made Sambal which you can add anything like eggs, prawns, chicken, fish, squid, tofu and anything you wish. This is a very simple recipe but its quite time consuming and needs a lot of patience to get the right consistency.

Now let's check how to make this;

Ingredients:

20 pcs of dried red chilli

1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste

2 large onions sliced

1 tbsp of chilli sauce

2 tsp shrimp paste

2 tsp of soft brown sugar

3 cups of water

2 tbsp of oil

Salt to taste

Blend together red chilli, 1 onion, shrimp paste and water until fine and smooth, keep aside.

In a pan, heat oil and fry onion until translucent then add ginger garlic paste, pour the blended items and let it boil until it reduces to half the quantity. Now add soft brown sugar, chili sauce, salt and let it completely thicken. The sambal should be thick and oil separated from the sambal, check for seasoning if you are happy with the taste then dish it out.

Now our simple Home-made sambal is ready to be served. Do try and et me know how was it!

Almond London Cookies

No story today, I'm extremely busy meeting customers orders all the stock must go out in next few days, I have tried this recipe from Mat Gebu's Dapur Tanpa Sempadan. This is a very simple recipe but very time consuming because I prepared more than 500 pieces, I don't know how this cookies got its name but I'm sure its not available in London. 

Let's look at the recipe;

Ingredients: (Recipe Yields-300 pcs)

250 g of butter

550 g of all purpose flour

140 g of castor sugar

1 tsp of emplex (for cookies crispiness-I didn't add)

300 pcs of whole almond ( baked for 10 minutes)

2 egg yolk ( I have used whole eggs)

1 tsp of vanilla extract

300 pcs of small paper cups

Topping:

600 g of cooking chocolate

1 tbsp of vegetable shortening

50 g of almond nibs (baked for 5 minutes)

Whisk butter, sugar, vanilla extract, eggs incorporate well

Add flour knead the dough well until soft and pliable

Take 1 whole almond and wrap some dough covering it, per piece should be 5g each 

and arrange on a baking tray, bake at 150 degree for 10- 15 minutes

All perfectly baked, set aside to cool down while we prepare the topping

Double-boil the cooking chocolate and once it completely melted turn off the flame 

and add the shortening for shine, I kept the bowl over the water bath until I completely 

finish decorating the cookie as the chocolate will harden if left too long outside

Arrange cookie on a small paper cup 

Spoon over some melted chocolate over the cookie

Drain the excess chocolate

Cookie well coated in melted chocolate

Add some almond nibs and let the chocolate harden

Cookie coated in melted chocolate and almond nibs

All the cookies should be arrange very near to achieve the oval shape, 

once chocolate harden transfer to a container and seal tight

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

I'm sending this recipe to Love2Cook Malaysia's Event Deepavali Deights 2012

Biskut Suji/ Semolina Cookies

It has been a very tiring day, baking cookies for Diwali can be very tiring especially if you do it in big quantity all by yourself but that's the fun part of it. Would be nicer if the whole family can participate in baking but my husband and my brother are too busy with work and couldn't help me baking. My brother helps me to get the ingredients from bakery suppliers near his work place.

Okay now let's get back to today's cookies, this is a very popular cookies among many of us in Malaysia especially my husband. I took this recipe from Kak Ita's blog Masam Manis, it tastes so good and you will definitely stick to this recipe if you are making it again. You have to follow the exact ingredients used for this cookies to get the taste but for vegetarians you can substitute buttermilk for egg.

Ingredients:

A)

150 g of ghee

100 g of butter

100 g of castor sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 egg yolk ( I used whole egg)

B)

100 g cornflakes (ground fine)

100 g corn flour 

50 g of semolina

C)

280 g all purpose flour

Garnishing:

Icing Sugar

Whisk all the ingredients listed in A

You don't have to beat until fluffy just have to mix it well

Add in ingredients B and C one by one and mix well

Knead well the ingredients and mix coloring if you like, I have used 

a few drops of red coloring on one part and original for another

To get a standard size I have weighed the dough to 7g per ball, you can 

even flatten the dough and cut using preferred design

Arrange the semolina balls in baking tray and bake at 170 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes depending on the size of the balls and your oven requirements, mine call for 150 degree for 10 minutes

Roll the baked cookies in icing sugar and place in small paper cups for better presentation

Our Semolina cookies are ready to be served now

Do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

I'm sending this post to Love2Cook Malaysia's Event Deepavali Delights 2012

Malaysian Style Pineapple Tart

This s very famous cookie in Malaysia, almost everyone would have tasted at least once. I have got order for this cookie also, it's delicious Pineapple Tart. Let me introduce star of the show;

Let us check how I made this cookie, its quite tedious but fun making it...

Ingredients:

Crust (150pieces)
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
2 1/2 tbsp of custard flour
2 tbsp of corn flour
1 tsp of vanila extract
1 tbsp of sugar
1 cup of butter
1 tbsp of ghee
1 egg yolk (beaten for egg wash)

Pineapple Jam
1 whole pineapple grated
2 cups of sugar (reduce if pineapple is sweet)
1 screw-pine leaf

Cook over low heat all the ingredients for jam, it takes about 3- 4 hours to get thick jam. Cool it while making the dough for crust.

This is a very simple crust making method, mix all the dry ingredients 

to the wet ingredients and knead well until soft, leave aside

Using a cookie press, squeeze out dough like above

Roll out small amount of pineapple jam and place it on one side of the dough, you 

may ask why I have two jam rolls, I just wanted to make everything fast because 

it do take a long time to complete the whole process

Roll out the end of dough where we have placed the jam and roll to a complete cylinder

See how to roll it?

Arrange the tarts on a baking tray 

Apply egg wash on one side of the cookie and bake at 150 degree for 15- 20 minutes, 

make sure you heat the oven 5 minutes earlier before baking

Our Pineapple Tart now is ready to be served

Do try and let me know how it was!

I'm sending this recipe to Love2Cook Malaysia's Event Deepavali Delights 2012

Chicken in Soy Sauce/ Ayam Kicap

Ingredients:

2 pcs chicken thigh (cut small)
1 tbsp of sweet soy sauce
1 tsp of thick soy sauce
1 tsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of chili sauce
1 onion diced
1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste
5 bird eye chili (slit)
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1/4 cup of water
Oil to fry

Lightly fry chicken to golden color, keep aside.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil add cinnamon stick, star anise, ginger garlic paste and onion fry for a while. Now add chili fry for a minute and add chicken with all three soy sauce and chili sauce. Mix everything well and pour water and let the gravy simmer and thickens.

Taste for seasoning, adjust if needed and now our Chicken in Soy Sauce is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Nasi Lemak/ Coconut Rice with Prawn Sambal

One food Malaysians can't live without is Nasi Lemak or Coconut Rice. Nasi Lemak is usually served with variety of dishes Chicken Sambal, Squid Sambal, Prawn Sambal, Anchovies Sambal, Hard Boiled Eggs, Fried Groundnuts, Fried Anchovies, Fried Eggs, Clams Rendang, Beef Rendang and many more to list down.

I have served my Nasi Lemak with prawn sambal, hard boiled eggs, fried groundnuts and fried chicken nuggets. Okay now let us look at how to prepare the rice for Nasi Lemak first;

Ingredients:

2 cups of rice (soaked and drained)
3 shallots finely diced
1 lemon grass sliced thinly
1 pc of ginger sliced thinly
1/2 cup of coconut milk
2 1/2 cup of water
5 pcs of cloves
1 tbsp of ghee
Salt to taste

I have used rice cooker to cook this. In a rice cooker, heat ghee and add all the aromatics (lemon grass, shallots, ginger, cloves) and fry for a minute. Add in rice, water and coconut milk with some salt to taste and cover until rice completely cooked. 

The rice should be fluffy and not too moist nor grainy. Let rice to cool and use chopstick or fork to separate the grains, let it cool down before using a spoon to serve the rice. Now our Nasi Lemak rice is ready to be served.

Prawn Sambal;

250g of prawns (soaked and drained)
3 large onions sliced
1 small piece of belacan/shrimp paste
30 pcs dried red chili (depending on preference)
1 tbsp of chili sauce
1 tsp of brown sugar
2 cups of water
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

Blend shrimp paste, dried red chili and 1 onion with 2 cups of water until fine and set aside. I'm making a watery chili paste so that I don't have to add water later while cooking the sambal.

In a pan, heat oil, add balance 2 onions and fry for until onions turn translucent, now add the chili paste and let it boil and water almost evaporates. Now add the prawns and let it simmer, finally add salt, brown sugar, chili sauce and let the sambal thickens.

I have added 30 pcs of dried red chili because I prefer it spicy, you can reduce if you can't consume very spicy sambal.

Now our prawn sambal is ready to be served with Nasi Lemak, garnish with hard boiled egg, fried groundnuts and what ever you prefer to go with Nasi Lemak..

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Soy Sauce Tofu/ Tauhu Kicap

Ingredients:

3 firm white tofu (cubed)
1 tbsp of sweet soy sauce
1 tsp of thick soy sauce
1 tsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of chili sauce
5 bird eye chili (slit)
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1/4 cup of water
Oil to fry

Lightly fry tofu to golden color, keep aside.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil add cinnamon stick and star anise fry for a while. Now add chili fry for a minute and add tofu with all three soy sauce and chili sauce. Mix everything well and pour water and let the gravy simmer and thickens.

Taste for seasoning, adjust if needed and now our Soy Sauce Tofu is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!