The Waitakere Redneck's Kitchen

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Crispy Fried Yam Ring with Prawns and Chicken

Yam Ring aka Taro Pot or Fatt Put (in cantonese) always has this 'wow' factor when served. It is a very popular specialty dish for occasions like wedding dinners or during chinese new year.

I have always thought it was a time consuming dish but having made this twice since, I have found it is easily done if the yam ring is prepared beforehand. Then just before serving all one has to do is fry the taro ring and the toppings.

The center filling is just a simple stir fry of any combination of your favourite meat or vegetables. For that special occasion more pricey and upmarket ingredients can be used.

Ingredients for yam ring
300 gm yam (skinned, steamed and mashed)
5 Tbsp wheat starch
5 Tbsp boiling water
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp shortening
½ Tbsp sugar
¼ tsp five spice powder

Golden Raisins soaked in Gin

There is a belief that eating these gin soaked raisins can help relieve migraine, gout and some joint pain such as arthritis. Some may think it is all cock and bull or one of those fish wives tales. The first I heard about this was from kwa kwa at Ik. Needless to say I was sceptical but a quick search on the net did prove that there was such a thing.

We are eating these not because we have arthritis but more as a preventative measure for any future aches and pains and besides the raisins are really tasty with our after dinner nuts.

Ingredients
golden raisins
gin

Method
1. Place the raisins in a glass jar. Pour enough gin to completely cover the raisins. Cover with a lid.

2. Give it a stir or shake every 1-2 days.
3. Soak for 2 weeks, adding more gin if necessary.
4. Drain out any excess gin and place gin soaked raisins in a jar with a lid. I keep mine in the fridge.
5. Eat 7 to 9 raisins daily.

Extra Crispy Fried Chicken

I love fried chicken wings but am not allowed to have any too often. Why....? Chicken wings are mostly all skin and if they are deep fried as well, there is a double dose of cholestrol. Just this once I am defying doctors orders.

This recipe is my all time favourite for fried chicken. The skin has that extra flaky coating that is really crispy and the meat juicy and moist.

Ingredients
Seasoning
6 chicken wings
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
dash of black pepper

Coating
50gm cornflour
25gm rice flour
¼ tsp salt
dash of black pepper
¼ tsp garam masala (optional)

Lum Heong Fah Sang ~ Fragrant Braised Peanuts

When you eat at a restaurant in Malaysia, you are usually served with some peanuts to nibble on while you wait for your food. It seems restaurants have caught on that serving oily fried salty peanuts are not healthy and have now changed to serving these lum heong fah sang (fragrant braised peanuts) instead. They do not taste salty but are quite aromatic from the spices and has a tinge of sweetness from the rock sugar.

It usually takes hours to boil peanuts but I have used my trusty old pressure cooker which only took me 40 minutes.

Ingredients
200g raw peanuts, rinse
1 piece mandarin peel
1 whole star anise
1 pcs 3" cinnamon stick
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 cup water

Rosemary Focaccia

Rosemary Focaccia
This focaccia is a very nice crusty bread with the lovely aroma of rosemary, delicious eaten warm or as a filled pocket for cold meat. In the space of a week, I have churned out three focaccias and have found that it freezes very well too. It is at the moment our favourite bread for lunch.

As with any specialty bread, one has to be very patient and not try to rush the proving process.

focassia

Ingredients
355ml water
3 Tbsp olive oil
500 gm Elfin high grade flour (bread flour)
2½ tsp Surebake yeast or 16gm fresh yeast
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp rosemary, chopped (optional)

Topping
a few sprigs of rosemary
½ tsp course sea or rock salt
2 Tbsp olive oil

Rosemary Focaccia

Tahini with a mortar 'n pestle

I had more or less perfected the art of making tahini using my coffee grinder until one day the coffee grinder decided to go on strike and refused to work. What to do....I had everything ready to make hummus except the tahini.

I was so desperate I decided to try making it with the old fashion mortar and pestle. I was quite surprised as to how much easier and quicker it was than the coffee grinder method. It only took 5 minutes and the mortar was so much easier to clean than the coffee grinder.

Making Tahini using a mortar and Pestle
Ingredients
2 Tbsp sesame seed
½ tsp sesame oil
¼ tsp sea salt
½ -1 Tbsp warm water

Method
1. Lightly toast sesame seeds in a small pot over a stove on low heat. This should not take more than 5 minutes. Leave to cool.

2. Grind (it is easier to grind. If you 'pound' the seeds will tend to fly all over the place) your sesame seeds in a mortar and pestle until smooth. Add in sesame oil and salt and mix till well blended.

Feijoa Vodka Jam

I had an abundance of feijoa from my orchard and as I have never tasted feijoa jam before, thought it was about time I made some to try. Feijoa jam is not a jam commonly available in the shops. I found the taste quite smooth and milder in comparison to the strawberry jam which has a stronger and tarter taste. I quite like this jam.

Makes 4 jars

Ingredients
1.2 kg feijoa pulp (fruit minus the skin)
juice and zest from 1 lemon
¼ cup water
850 gm sugar
2 Tbsp vodka (optional)

Method
1. Scoop out the fruits from the feijoa. Either cut it into smaller pieces or use a potato masher to gently mash the fruit.

Carrot Cupcake with Passion Fruit Glazing

I usually do not ice or glaze my cupcakes (healthier on the waistline) but since I had lots of passionfruits from my plant, I decided to do a thin glazing on these muffin size carrot cakes. These are adapted from my previous mini carrot cake but have reduced the sugar to compensate for the additional glazing.

As we do not eat the whole batch of cakes at one sitting, this individual mini size cakes are more convenient to freeze and defrost for future tea breaks.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
160 gm sugar
½ cup oil
2 eggs
1½ cup grated carrot
125 gm flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Icing
1¼ cup icing sugar
2 passion fruit

Method
1. Beat sugar, oil and eggs until well mixed.
2. Fold in all the other ingredients.
3. Pour into paper cases or directly into muffin tins.
4. Place a few walnut pieces on top of the batter.

Pla Rad Prig ~ Crispy Fried Snapper in tamarind sauce with spicy chilli topping

The first time we ate this fish was at a food court. The sweet, sour and slightly spicy sauce makes you want to eat more rice. Pla Rad Prig is very easy to prepare and a good dish to tempt fussy eaters.

Ingredients
1 600g whole snapper
½ Tbsp tamarind soaked to sieve out 1 Tbsp juice
1½-2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp fish sauce
4 Tbsp water
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 capsicum, green or red
3 sprigs coriander

oil for frying

Method
1. Clean and score the fish in a diamond cut style. Rub lightly with some salt and dust with a light coating of flour (I find this give the fish a crispier skin and does not stick so much to the pan when frying).

2. Fry the fish with a thin layer of oil in your pan until golden. Do not attempt to flip the fish too early or the skin will break up.

3. Leave the cooked fish in a warm oven while getting the sauce ready.

Woo Kok ~ Crispy Yam Puff

The beehive web effect on the skin of the woo kok is eluding me. This is trial number 2. My first effort over a year ago was a disaster with the whole puff disintegrating before my eye when I lowered it into the oil.

This second effort is better. The taro puff stayed intact, has a nice crispy skin with creamy yam interior and the filling was good. Tasted like the authentic woo kok except without the oiliness.

I read somewhere the web effect can be created by lifting the yam puff out of the oil several times when frying. But obviously that was not the answer.

I wonder what the secret is ? But....I am not going to give up, I am sure I will get there eventually.

As I have not yet achieved what I am after I will not be posting the recipe.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Cumin & Coriander Hummus

Hummus is slowly gaining popularity as a healthy alternative to the traditional dip. It is not difficult to make and definitely cheaper than buying from the supermarket. We prefer our hummus to have a bit of grit instead of smooth and creamy. If you are not watching those calories, drizzle the hummus with olive oil before serving.

The consistency of your hummus will depend on whether you are using it as a spread or as a dip. I usually make it thick to start with and add water to mix if we want it as a dip for chips.

Ingredients
200gm cooked chickpeas
2 Tbsp homemade tahini
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp water from the cooked chickpea or plain water
dash of salt to taste

Cooking Chickpeas with a pressure cooker

If I had not bought a pressure cooker recently I would never have tried cooking chickpeas or even venture into making hummus. With the pressure cooker it is so quick and easy to get the chickpeas cooked and be able to whip up a bowl of hummus within half an hour. The only forward thinking required will be the presoaking of the chickpeas.

Yield : 400gm cooked chickpeas

Ingredients
1 cup dry chickpeas
2½ cup water
1 tsp baking powder

Method
1. Soak chickpeas overnight topped with heaps of water as the chickpea will expand.

Homemade Tahini

Making tahini is easy provided you have the proper blender or grinder. Unless you are making a big quantity, you will need something small or the blade will just go round and round without touching the mix. I used my coffee grinder which worked a treat.

This recipe is double what is needed for my cumin and coriander hummus.

Homemade Tahini
Ingredients
4 Tbsp sesame seed
1 tsp sesame oil
½ tsp sea salt
1-2 Tbsp warm water

Method
1. Lightly toast sesame seeds in a small pot over a stove on low heat. This should not take more than 5 minutes. Leave to cool.
2. Grind your sesame seeds in the coffee grinder until smooth. Add in sesame oil and salt and grind again.

Homemade Tomato Sauce

I waited until I had a glut from my home grown tomatoes to make this tomato sauce. The last lot I made had lasted me the year. This tomato sauce is lovely with fish n chips, bbq sausages, meat patties, fish cakes etc.... It can also be cooked until thick enough to be used on pizza.

Makes 6 300ml jars

Ingredients
2kg tomato
600g apple, skin off
3 big onion

510g sugar
55g salt
300-350ml vinegar

10g clove
½ tsp black peppercorn
½ tsp whole all spice

Hot Cross Buns

I look forward to Easter so that I could indulge in my favourite hot cross buns. These are amazingly soft and fragrant with cinnamon and mixed spice and are irresistible especially fresh from the oven.

I added some rum to the fruits for extra kick . Rather than marking the buns with a traditional flour-paste cross , icing was used which tasted much nicer. For those who don't like the overpowering taste of spices and fruits, these buns will be ideal.

Makes 9 or 12 buns

Ingredients for Main Dough
85g starter dough *
210g bread flour
55g plain flour
20g milk powder
40g sugar
½ tsp salt
3¼ tsp Surebake yeast
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice
30g egg
80g water
20g unsalted butter

40 g raisins
40 g sultanas
35 g mixed peel
1 tsp rum

Frying of Sambal, Curry or Spice Paste

When I first started cooking curries, the frying of the paste 'until fragrant and oil separates from the paste ' was a puzzle. No matter how long I fried it, no oil appeared. So I had to resort to guess work as to when the paste is considered ready. One day I decided to try out the gas bbq wok burner to fry the paste and voila - oil did start coming out of the paste.

This is the sequence of frying the spice paste for my satay sauce.

grinded paste ready for frying

Pic 1. The paste is fried in 2 Tbsp of oil.
Pic 2. After a few minutes of frying, the oil is slowly absorbed.

Fish Head Curry

This fish head curry is the closest to what I can remember eating in Malaysia. The texture of the flesh from the fish head is so smooth and surprisingly there was quite a lot of flesh to eat.
As Mr Redneck did not like the idea of eating the head, I added fish fillet so he can enjoy the dish as well. Currently salmon fish head only cost me $4/kg - which is really cheap.

Ingredients
1 (500g) salmon or snapper fish head
200 g fish fillet (optional)
5 okra (ladies finger), halved
2 long slender brinjal, cut into 2" pieces
1 tomato quartered

1-2 Tbsp oil
2-3 sprig curry leaves
3 Tbsp Baba curry powder mix with 1 Tbsp water
2 cup water
1 Tbsp tamarind pulp soak in ½ cup water
½ cup thick coconut milk
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar

Spice paste (grind together)
5 garlic cloves
1 big onion
2 red chillies
1 piece (1") ginger root
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 stalk lemon grass

Optional
½ tsp ginger powder
½ tsp chilli powder
¼ tsp mustard seed
¼ tsp fenugreek

Kangkong Belacan ~ Water Convolvulus fried with Spicy Shrimp Paste

I cook this dish of kangkong sambal belacan as often as I can especially during the summer season. That's when it is really cheap and fresh. The aroma from the belacan will make your mouth water. The kangkong have to be stir fried over a very hot stove very quickly so as not to loose its crunchy texture. A simple yet very popular and uncomplicated dish.

Ingredients
250 g kangkong
½ Tbsp belacan
1-2 Tbsp dried shrimps
3 red chillies
1 small onion
4 garlic cloves
1-2 Tbsp oil
2-4 Tbsp water

Crabstick Salad

We don't go ga ga over salad but this crabstick dish is by far our favourite summer salad. Great with a barbecue or steak and even on a filled roll. It is really cool and refreshing especially on a hot day.

Ingredients
4-5 lettuce leaves
3-4 crabsticks
3 medium size tomatoes, diced
2-3 Tbsp Best mayonnaise

Method
1. Shred lettuce leaves into narrow strips. Dice tomatoes and slice crabstick.

Yeh Chi Tong ~ Coconut Sweets

Yeh Chi Tong is a lolly with a very rich flavour.

Makes 185 g

Ingredients
100g gula melaka
75g mak ngah tong (maltose)
2 tsp sugar
125ml thick coconut milk

Beef & Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Satay is an all time favourite with almost anyone. I decided to experiment and create my own combination of marinade and satay sauce. It also gave Mr Redneck a chance to test out the new barbecue. Needless to say he was pleased with the performance of the bbq - it passed the satay test without burning the sticks or the satay! The satay and sauce were good and Mr Redneck said it was by far the best and most authentic satay sauce I have ever made and it tasted like those we had from Malaysia.

Don't let the long list of ingredients deter you. The tedious part in making satay is the stringing of the meat to the sticks but Mr Redneck does a wonderful job of this.

Makes 21 chicken & 31 beef satay

Ingredients
600 gm chicken breast
400 gm porterhouse beef

Marinade
1 Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp ground fennel
1 tsp ground tumeric
3 stalks lemongrass, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp garlic flake or fresh garlic
1 Tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt

Method
1. Soak 50-60 satay skewers in cold water for at least 2 hours to prevent them from burning during grilling.

2. Cut the meat into small strips about 2" long and 3/4" wide.

3. Grind marinade ingredients until fine and mix with the meat to marinate overnight.

4. Thread 4-5 pieces of the meat onto the skewer.