KookyCulinary

* Dust Dust* * Dusting cobwebs off the blog! *  Wow, I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since my last entry. I didn’t think that it has been so long but I guess time really flies when you are busy. Actually I have been online but have mostly been busy with work. Time on the blog has been very sporadic. I have also been busy trying to plan Lil’ C’s 4th birthday party. We’ve also been having amazing October weather despite the cold. We are actually seeing blue skies, a rarity this time of the year. Usually it’s rainy and cloudy.So we are spending lots of time outside. We went to the pumpkin patch, the park and even fishing yesterday.  Ok, enough rambling! Back to food!

I really miss the tea-time in Malaysia, especially all the kuih-kuih and fried snacks. I remember there used to be a van by USJ2 that had all sorts of fried stuff like fried bananas, cempedak, sweet potato etc… As heart-clogging as they are, we used to make a lot of snack run to that place during the weekend. Here, we don’t get that luxury. I want my fried cempedak!!!! :( Oh well, I guess fried bananas will have to do for now.

This time instead of making Kuih Kodok, I just cut the banana into bite-size, coat them with this ready-mix flour and fried them. They turned out pretty good. I still prefer the Hup Loong batter flour but I can’t get it here, so this will have to do for now.  

My first Daring Bakers Challenge!! I have to admit when I first saw the challenge, I was a little apprehensive because I’ve never ever made Crackers. Not only that, it had to be vegan-free and/or gluten-free. But hey, I joined the Daring Bakers to challenge myself, so I decided to give it a try.

The challenge this month was to make Lavash which is the soft Armenian flatbread and a dip. The recipe was taken from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. which happens to be sitting on my shelf collecting dust!!

Surprisingly it turned out to be really fun making the lavash crackers. The only problem I had was at the end when I got ambitious and tried to cut out the crackers with cookie cutters. The problem was that I had roll it really thin. So when I cut it, it was hard to remove without losing the shape. In the end, I ended up just cutting it into strips. Then I topped half of the dough with sesame seed and the other half with cinnamon sugar.

As for the dip, I ended up just making a simple peach salsa. The crackers turned out really crunchy and were a big hit with my 3 year old. She was just gobbling them up!

As I was baking the first batch, I realized that some of the dough were puffing up and they turned out to be the ones that were not rolled very thin. I decided to experiment and make the 2nd batch a little thicker. Then use the biscuit cutter to cut into rounds.

The dough puffed out a lot and the final product turned out just like mini pita bread! Since I didn’t have any filling, I just stuff some cheese and it was great. Another item to add my 3 year old’s lunch box. Overall, this recipe is a keeper and I am sure that I will be making it more often.

Since I had some puff pastry leftover from making the Portuguese Egg Tart, I decided to make palmiers. It is another super easy snack to make and very delicious.

How to make them?

• First, roll out the puff pastry into a rectangular shape.
• Sprinkle a layer of sugar on the silpat or flat board
• Lay the piece of puff pastry on the sugar
• Sprinkle more sugar on the pastry
• Then fold one side of the pastry towards the center
• Then fold the other side towards the center
• Repeat again till the pastry meets in the middle
• Then fold over just like a book
• Wrap the whole pastry in a clingwrap and chill in the fridge for about 1 hour
• Remove from fridge and slice the dough into thin pieces
• Place them on the baking tray and sprinkle a little more sugar on top
• Bake at 450 for about 5 mins or till caramelized. Turn the pastry over and bake for another 3-4 minutes.  

I remember during my childhood days, whenever there were festivities, we would always go to a local shop and buy a pound of fresh popiah skin. I love watching the “popiah maker” make the fresh skin. He would hold a ball of dough in one hand, rub the dough on a hot flat plate to form the skin and pulls the extra dough off with a “plop”.

Unfortunately the only popiah skin that are available here are the frozen ones. Normally I use them for making fried spring roll. They are good but sometimes I crave the non-fried version. I have tried to make my own. The dough turned out good but I found out that that rubbing & plopping requires a whole lot of skill!! I just don’t have that skill!! :(  Then someone told me to try steaming the frozen popiah skin, and so I did. To my surprise, it turned out pretty good. Of course, the fresh ones will always be the best but this will do for now till my next trip home.

I forgot to take a photo of the filling. The filling consists of jicama, pork, dried shrimp and chinese sausage.

When I first share this with a South American friend, she thought that it was empanada. Even Lil’ C calls it empanada. She learned it from Dora! She refuses to call it curry puff! I guess they are pretty similar since both are stuffed pastry and they are wrapped the same way.

Back to my curry puff, I have tried making a few different types of curry puff but I always find myself coming back to my shortcut curry puff which is using store bought pie crust. They are so easy and most importantly, taste really good. Yes, I do deep-fry it instead of baking the pie crust. If you like to make it from scratch, I usually use the spiral curry puff recipe from Jo’s Deli.

Mise en place: cooked curry chicken filling, hard-boiled egg & pie crust

Want one?

By the way, out of curiousity, do you put a wedge of hard-boiled egg in your curry puff? I grew up eating Old Chang Kee curry puff which does have hard-boiled egg in it. So I was a little surprised when some of my Malaysian friends thought it was strange to have eggs in their curry puff. What do you think?

Roti canai or roti prata, however you call it, it’s delicious and one of my favorite food. Usually it is best eaten with curry. But recently it has become my instant go-to snack for my little girl. Since she is not too crazy about curries, I have resorted to other fillings and toppings.

For my instant snack, I use frozen roti canai which can be bought at the local Asian grocery store. If you prefer homemade roti canai, please refer to my homemade roti canai recipe. Anyway, back to the frozen roti canai, just pan-fry it till it’s golden brown and crispy. Then top with any toppings or fillings that you like.

Our recent favorite is this nutella and banana roti canai. Yum! 

We have also tried it with tuna and even kaya (coconut jam). So if you need a quick snack, do try this yummy snack.

Another one of my Chinese New Year snacks. I am not sure what is the exact name for this snack but it is really good. To make this snack, just roll the spring roll skin into tiny rolls, seal with eggwash and deep fry till golden brown. Remove from oil, drain and roll it in sugar and sesame seed.

Happy New Year everyone! I’m back from my vacation but haven’t been cooking much this week. I need to get over my lazy spell and start cooking next week! In the meantime, just sharing a favorite snack of mine.

• Place a single layer of nachos in a baking sheet.
• Top the nachos with shredded cheese (I usually mix a blend of cheese but mozzarella cheese will be fine) and bake in the oven till the cheese is all melted.  
• Serve with salsa & green onion

It’s very simple, delicious and a great snack or appetizer. 

I’m baccckkkk…. I survived my little gal’s first week of pre-school!! If you are interested, see here & here for details. How about starting this week with some sugar-high??? Donuts, anyone???

When I saw these mini jelly donuts, I thought they were so cute! So I decided to try them out. I omitted the jelly filling & went a little crazy with the shapes again. You may have noticed I have been using my cookie cutters a lot recently. It’s because I have a little helper who’s been invading my kitchen recently, so I’ve been trying to find recipes that she can “help” me!! : )

Oops, I digress, back to the donuts, they were really yummy! Without the jelly & with lots of powdered sugar, they taste just like the famous beignets from Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. Thanks EMWK for sharing the recipe! I’ll definitely be making this again.

After a taste of the bak kua I bought in Canada, it triggered off a craving for it. Since I can’t buy it here, I had to make it myself.

Here it is before going into the oven for the drying process.

After the drying process, cut into little pieces & throw them on the grill . . .

Nice grill marks! Almost there……..

Tada….. the final product. Looks a litte burnt but that’s the way I like it. Yum, so good! I might be a little biased but I think it taste better than the ones I bought! hahaha……