Penang Assam Laksa

It took me this long to finally attempt making Assam Laksa, and if mum says it's easy to prepare, she's quite right there. Just steam (or boil) the fish, add the blended ingredients to the stock and simmer before adding the flaked fish. Then serve with noodles and garnishing. Sounds easy doesn't it? In fact, I think I took more time preparing all the ingredients then the actual process of cooking it (man, those shallots sure took forever to peel, and they brought buckets of tears to my eyes).

Pineapple Tarts and Nastar Recipe

In the spirit of Chinese New Year, I am reposting my recipe for pineapple rolls (see here, here, here and here for earlier posts). I hadn't actually planned on making pineapple rolls this year as I already made pineapple tarts (open-faced ones) a week ago. After seeing so many photos of pineapple rolls being posted on Facebook by friends and cousins, I just couldn't resist the temptation to make them too. Making pineapple rolls are just a little more tedious, messy and time-consuming compared to making open-faced tarts. However, despite the backache that usually comes as a side-effect of crouching over the table making these pretty little pastries, I very much enjoy the process of moulding, rolling and cutting the dough.

Pineapple Tarts

Pineapple Tarts

Ingredients

Pastry:
400g plain flour
250g cold butter, diced
2 egg yolks, cold
2 tbsp iced water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Mix the yolks with vanilla and iced water. In a food processor, pulse the flour, salt and butter until they resemble bread crumbs. With the motor running, add the yolk-water mixture and process until the dough starts to come together. Pour out the contents and gently knead the dough to form a ball. Flatten and wrap in clingwrap. Rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough about 1cm thick. Press out shapes with cookie cutter (dusted with flour) and fill with jam. Bake in oven for 15-18 minutes. Leave on tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

To make pineapple jam, see here.

Indian-style Vegetable Curry

This is a light vegetable curry cooked with mustard seeds, tamarind and a touch of coconut milk. It's something my mum usually makes when I go back home to visit. I found this curry to be the perfect accompaniment for Roti Jala which I prepared for dinner today. But it's just as delicious with steamed rice or Indian breads. Here is the recipe:

Indian-style Vegetable Curry

Ingredients

500g chicken thighs or backbone (bone and skin on)

1-2 stalks curry leaves

3 cups water

1 1/2 tbsp dried tamarind pulp, soaked in 1/2 cup hot water and juice strained
2/3 cup coconut milk
Vegetable oil, for frying

Vegetables (cut into approx 1 inch cubes):

1 cup carrots
1 cup cauliflower
1 cup long beans
1 1/2 cup eggplant
2 potatoes
2 tomatoes

Blend finely:
2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger

Spice mix:

1 tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground fennel
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp mustard seeds
2-3 tbsp chilli powder (or ground chilli paste)

Seasoning:

2-3 tsp salt (to taste)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp chicken stock powder

Method

1. Heat up vegetable oil in a large pot and fry onions, garlic, ginger and the spice mix until fragrant (about 4-5 minutes).  Add chicken and sear all over in the onion mixture. Add curry leaves and water. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Add the tamarind juice and bring to a boil again before adding seasoning to taste.
2. Add carrots and potatoes, simmer for 8-10 minutes until almost cooked, then add the other vegetables. Bring to a boil and simmer until all vegetables are just cooked. Add coconut milk, bring to a brief gentle simmer, stirring occasionally (to avoid curdling). Check and adjust seasoning if necessary. Dish out into a bowl and serve with steamed rice, roti jala or your favourite Indian bread.

Japanese Curry Soba Noodles

I love eating Japanese curry with either rice or noodles. I used S&B Japanese curry mix to make a chicken curry, and boiled some dashi stock with soy and mirin for the noodle broth. The broth and curry are combined with the noodles to make a delicious curry soba meal! Even better with tempura, fortunately I had leftover eggplant fritters (click for recipe) from the previous day. So I baked them in the oven to crisp them up again and tossed them over the noodles. So yummy!

Japanese Curry Soba Noodles

(Serves 3-4)

Ingredients

Dashi broth (combine and bring to a boil):

1 sachet (5g each) instant dashi stock granules (dashi-no-moto)

2 1/2 cups water

2 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp mirin

Salt to taste

Curry:

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3.5oz packet S&B Japanese curry mix

2 onions, 1 chopped and 1 cut into wedges

600g chicken thigh fillets, cut into cubes

1/2 red apple, finely diced or grated (optional)

2 cups water (add more later if necessary)

1-2 carrots

1-2 potatoes

1 small capsicum (optional)

1 tbsp honey

Soba (buckwheat) noodles (or substitute with udon)

Chopped spring onions

Method

Heat up oil in a large pan and fry onions and chicken. After chicken is browned, add diced apple and fry for a minute before adding water and carrots. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add honey, potatoes and capsicum and simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through. Break up the curry cubes and add to the pan. Stir until melted and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the bottom from burning. Add more water if desired to adjust the consistency of the curry.

Cook the soba noodles in rolling boiling water for 3 minutes or until cooked (follow packet instructions). Transfer into a bowl and ladle some dashi broth over it. Then ladle an equal amount of curry into the bowl. Garnish with spring onions and serve immediately. Even more delicious with tempura! Any leftover curry is always a welcome treat with steamed rice!

Eggplant Fritters with Chilli and Sweet Soy

I used to order food from an Indonesian caterer back when I was studying in uni/college. I vividly recall this dish of soggy battered eggplants doused in a black soy sauce with chillies and onions. It didn't look very appealing at all, and heating it up in the microwave didn't do much justice to the already well-soaked eggplants. However, after eating it almost every week for dinner, I grew to like it and started looking forward to it each time, along with sayur assam and other home-cooked Indonesian dishes.

So I attempted to replicate this dish based on memory, and it's a pretty simple dish. The difficult part, perhaps, is in the deep-frying, or should I say, washing up after the deep-frying. But it is still one of my favourite eggplant dishes, and I absolutely love eggplant, as long as they are cooked properly, and not spongey.

Here is the recipe for the fritters and the sauce. If you plan on eating it straight away, then pour the sauce over the fritters. Otherwise, you can serve the sauce separately for dipping. The fritters are also delicious eaten on their own, or dipped in chilli sauce.

Eggplant Fritters with Chilli and Sweet Soy

Ingredients

1 large eggplant (about 500g), cut into 1cm slices
Salt

Batter:
1 cup self-raising flour
3 tbsp rice flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water (approx)

Sauce:
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, sliced
2 red chillies, sliced
1/3 cup ABC kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy)
1/3 cup water
Salt to taste

Method

Arrange the slices of eggplant on a large tray lined with absorbent kitchen paper. Sprinkle salt over the eggplant and cover with more kitchen paper or cloth that will absorb the moisture from the eggplants. Leave for 30 minutes and wipe off excess salt and moisture.

Combine dry ingredients for the batter in a bowl. Slowly add water and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the oil. The batter should not be too watery that it can't coat the eggplant properly.

Heat up sufficient oil for deep-frying in a large wok/pan. Dry off excess moisture from the eggplant. Coat the eggplant in batter and lower it into the hot oil. Fry on medium heat until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Drain on kitchen paper.

To prepare the sauce, heat up 1-2 tbsp oil in a pan and fry garlic and onions until the onions soften, then add chillies. Pour in the soy and water, bring to a boil and simmer briefly until sauce is slightly reduced. Season with a pinch of salt. Serve with eggplant fritters and steamed white rice.

Deep fried eggplant in crispy batter

Going Greek with Moussaka

This is my first attempt at making Moussaka, which is like lasagna but uses lamb mince, potatoes and eggplant. I couldn't resist trying it out after seeing it on Masterchef, and it's really good! I'm salivating just thinking about it now. Click here for the recipe. You can substitute the keflagraviera cheese with parmesan instead.



Rojak with Chickpea-Battered Spinach

Rojak with cucumbers, grilled tofu puffs, sweet pineapple pieces and crispy battered spinach leaves
tossed in a sweet prawn paste dressing with ground peanuts

I was thinking of what to do with the bottle of prawn paste ("hae kor") that was left over after using it for chee cheong fun last week, and rojak came to mind. Rojak is a Malaysian fruit salad that is a combination of local fruits, vegetables and a special prawn paste mixture that is black and sticky, but utterly delicious. It's a textural dish with lots of crunch, bite and juiciness. I love my rojak with chinese dough fritters ("youtiao") and water convolvulus ("kangkung"), but I didn't have any. So I made some deep-fried chickpea-battered spinach leaves and used that as a substitute. Yummo!

I came across CKC Sambal Rojak at the Asian grocery shop and decided to give it a try, and it actually tasted really good! I used up the whole bottle to make two servings of rojak (for dinner and lunch the next day). Here's what I did:

Rojak

Ingredients

(Roughly cut to bite-sized pieces):

1 cucumber

Some fresh pineapple (my fav!)

Jicama (I omitted this)

4-5 pieces of tofu puffs (I used the triangular shaped ones and popped them under a grill in the oven until crisp)

2 pieces  of chickpea-battered spinach

CKC Sambal Rojak

Some finely ground peanuts

Method

To make one serving, take 2 tbsp of CKC Sambal Rojak and mix with 1 tbsp of ground peanuts. You can add a few drops (like 1/2 tsp) of hot water if you wish so that it "mixes" better. Then toss in the cucumbers, pineapple, jicama and tofu puffs and mix it around until evenly coated. Toss in the spinach and lightly mix. Transfer to a clean serving plate and sprinkle all over with ground peanuts. And it's ready to eat!

Deep-fried spinach leaves in chickpea batter



Rojak

 

Chicken with Black Vinegar and Pineapple Sauce

There was some pineapple that was left over from the other day when I made sweet and sour pork, so I decided to use it and make a sweet and sticky black vinegar caramel sauce, made using a reduction of vinegar with sugar and water, and simmered with pineapple and ginger. This goes really well with the deep-fried chicken, and so here is the recipe below.


Chicken with Pineapples in Sweet Black Vinegar Sauce

Ingredients

500g chicken thigh fillet, cubed
1 inch ginger, shredded
1/2 cup fresh pineapple pieces

Marinade:
1 inch ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp cornflour
1 1/2 tbsp plain flour

Sauce:
3 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar (or to taste)
4-5 tbsp sugar
2/3 cup water
1 tbsp maltose

Method:

1. Combine chicken with marinade and leave for a few hours. Deep fry until golden brown and cooked. Drain and put aside.
2. Heat up 1 tbsp oil in a wok, then fry the shredded ginger until fragrant. Add the sauce ingredients and pineapple pieces and bring to boil, stirring until it reduces and starts to turn into a syrupy consistency. Add the chicken to the sauce and stir to coat evenly for 1-2 minutes. Dish out and serve with steamed jasmine rice.

Sweet and Sour Pork

A simple sweet and sour pork dish with red peppers, onions, fresh pineapple and tomatoes. The pork (which is first tenderised with a meat mallet) is marinated with salt, pepper, chinese cooking wine, sesame oil, sugar, egg and cornflour, then dusted in more cornflour before deep-frying. The sauce is basically just tomato sauce, plum sauce, chilli sauce, white vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper and a dash of chicken stock powder.

The only thing that was wrong with this dish was that I purchased the pork from the local supermarket, which I usually never do except in desperate times. The prepackaged pork from there, as opposed to the one from the Asian butcher, has a strong "porky" taste which I'm not used to. Not sure why this is the case, but bear this in mind when buying pork next time :)

Sayur Lodeh (Vegetable Curry)

String beans, carrots, cabbage, deep-fried tofu and glass noodles in a
lightly spiced coconut gravy with lemongrass, coriander and turmeric.

Sayur Lodeh (Vegetable Curry)

Ingredients

3 cups cabbage, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 cup brinjals/eggplant, halved lengthwise and sliced diagonally into 1 1/2 inch lengths
1 cup  long green beans, cut into 2 inch lengths
1 cup carrots, cut into 1/4 inch thick matchsticks
1 cup turnips, cut into 1/4 inch thick matchsticks
4-5 pieces deep-fried tofu, halved
1 small bundle of glass noodles, soaked in water until softened (optional)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 tbsp ground chilli paste (or substitute with chilli powder)
2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, bruised/smashed
1 inch ginger, sliced
2 tbsp dried anchovies, washed and drained
4 cups water
2 cups coconut milk
1-2 tsp salt, to taste
1 tsp sugar, to taste
1 tbsp grated palm sugar (the yellow type)
1/2 tsp ikan bilis stock powder (optional)

Blend into a paste:
2 medium onions
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp belacan (dried shrimp paste)
2 tbsp dried shrimp, washed and drained, and left to soften
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp ground coriander

Method

Heat up vegetable oil in a pot. Fry the ginger and blended ingredients for 2 minutes, then add chilli paste and fry until the oil separates. Add the dried anchovies and lemongrass and fry briefly. Then add water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add coconut milk and bring to a simmer again. Add salt and sugar to taste, and ikan bilis stock powder to enhance the flavour, if desired. Then add tofu and vegetables and cook on a gentle simmer until just tender (about 10-15 minutes) on low-medium heat. Add glass noodles last and cook for about 30 seconds. Dish out and serve immediately with steamed rice, as the glass noodles will tend to soak up the curry if left for too long.

Nastar Pineapple Rolls (Pineapple Tarts)



Celebrate CNY with pineapple tarts :)

The quest is over. Loving these buttery melt-in-your-mouth pineapple tarts.  You may also click here to view my other post on Pineapple tarts.

Nastar Pineapple Tarts / Rolls

Ingredients

Pastry:

300g good quality butter, at room temperature

80g icing sugar

3 egg yolks
3 tbsp ghee

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp fine salt

Sift together:

420g plain flour

50g corn flour / custard powder
1 tsp baking powder

Lightly beat together for egg wash:

1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp condensed milk

2 tsp fresh milk/water
Pinch of salt
A drop of yellow food colouring

Filling:

2 medium-sized pineapples (about 1.4kg after peeled and cored), cut into chunks (or 2 cans (about 800g each) pineapple chunks in natural juice, or you can mix both)

300g - 400g sugar, or to taste

2 tsp lemon juice (or depending on how sour/sweet the pineapples are)

1 inch cinnamon stick

4 cloves

1/2 star anise

Method

 

Blend the pineapple chunks with a food processor. Make sure they are fine enough that you can't feel any course chunks when you rub them between your fingers. Pour into a sieve to drain some of the excess juice, but not too dry. Cook pineapple and spices in a wide heavy-based saucepan over medium-high heat until it begins to boil. Lower heat to simmer (or use high heat but stir continuously and watch it to make sure it doesn't burn). Add the sugar and stir for about 30-40 minutes or until mixture is dry, thick and amber in colour. Halfway through, check for sweetness and add more sugar if necessary. Add lemon juice to taste. Leave aside to cool, refrigerate for a few hours and roll into small elongated pieces (about half teaspoon of pineapple jam each) to be used as filling.

Line baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Cream butter, ghee and sugar until light. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Then add vanilla and salt and beat until fluffy. Fold in sifted ingredients and mix into a firm dough. Put dough into a nastar mould and press out into a strip of about 2-inch lengths. Place a piece of pineapple jam on one end and roll up pastry to enclose the jam.

Put the rolls on prepared trays. Brush with egg wash (optional), and bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 15-18 minutes or until it starts to turn golden. Do not overbake as it may turn out too hard, and probably burnt too! Remove from oven and leave on tray for about 5 minutes. Then transfer to wire racks to cool. Store in airtight containers.

Rolling out the pastry using a nastar mould
(Background: Pineapple jam rolled into little balls)



Assembling the pineapple rolls



Just need to brush some eggwash on the pastry before popping them into the oven

Ran out of pineapple jam, so I used the extra dough to make butter cookies for the kids

Mmm....pineapple... (just noticed the pineapple slicer though)

Nastar Pineapple Tarts

Here's my favourite recipe for pineapple rolls, which includes baking powder to create a lighter texture, and ghee for something a little extra!

Nastar Pineapple Tarts / Rolls

Ingredients

Pastry:

300g butter

80g icing sugar

3 egg yolks
3 tbsp ghee

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp fine salt

Sift together:

420g plain flour

50g corn flour / custard powder
1 tsp baking powder

Lightly beat together for egg wash:

1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp condensed milk (optional)

2 tsp fresh milk/water
Pinch of salt
A drop of yellow food colouring (optional)

Filling:

2 medium-sized pineapples (about 1.4kg after peeled and cored), cut into chunks (or 2 cans (about 800g each) pineapple chunks in natural juice, or you can mix both)

300g - 400g sugar, or to taste

2 tsp lemon juice (or depending on how sour/sweet the pineapples are)

1 inch cinnamon stick

4 cloves

1/2 star anise

Method

Blend the pineapple chunks in an electric blender. Pour into a sieve to drain some of the excess juice, but not too dry. Cook pineapple and spices in a wide heavy-based saucepan over medium-high heat until it begins to boil. Lower heat to simmer (or use high heat but stir continuously and watch it to make sure it doesn't burn). Add the sugar and stir for about 30-40 minutes or until mixture is dry, thick and amber in colour. Halfway through, check for sweetness and add more sugar if necessary. Add lemon juice to taste. Leave aside to cool, refrigerate for a few hours and roll into small elongated pieces (about half teaspoon of pineapple jam each) to be used as filling.

Line baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Cream butter, ghee and sugar until light. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Then add vanilla and salt and beat until fluffy. Fold in sifted ingredients and mix into a firm dough. Put dough into a nastar mould and press out into a strip of about 2-inch lengths. Place a piece of pineapple jam on one end and roll up pastry to enclose the jam.

Put the rolls on prepared trays. Brush with egg wash (optional), and bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 15-18 minutes or until it starts to turn golden. Do not overbake as it may turn out too hard, and probably burnt too! Remove from oven and leave on tray for about 5 minutes. Then transfer to wire racks to cool. Store in airtight containers.

Caramelized Pork with Pineapple

I cooked this dish for dinner last night as I had some pineapple leftover from making pineapple tarts. My sister, who dropped by to collect some curry puffs, tried some and loved it! This is similar to the chicken version that I made a couple of weeks ago, except that it uses pork instead. An utterly delicious alternative to the soy-braised pork belly that I usually cook for the kids. And I can still have my chilli at the same time!

Adapted from a recipe by Luke Nguyen, The Songs of Sapa:

Caramelized Pork with Pineapple

Ingredients:

500g pork belly, skin on, cut into 3 x 3 cm pieces
1 tbsp garlic, chopped finely
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
1/2 sweet pineapple, cut into 3cm pieces
2-3 bird's eye chillies, sliced
5 spring onions, white part only, halved crossways
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:

1. In a bowl, combine half the garlic, 1 tbsp of the fish sauce, the oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper. Mix well, add pork and coat in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and brown the pork for about 3-5 minutes until golden all over.
3. Add remaining garlic and spring onions and mix well.
4. Add pineapple, remaining 1 tbsp fish sauce and 1/2 cup water. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 1-2 hours or until pork is tender.
5. Dish out into a bowl and garnish with sliced chilli, and serve with jasmine rice.

Caramelized Chicken with Sweet Pineapple and Balsamic Vinegar

This recipe is adapted from Luke Nguyen's book called "The Songs of Sapa". The original recipe uses pork, but since I didn't have any pork, I substituted it with chicken instead. The recipe also called for fresh pineapples. Well, I didn't have any of that either, so I simply used up the leftover canned pineapples from the previous day (when I made pineapple fried rice). I added balsamic vinegar to the dish towards the end of cooking to bring out the flavours and give it a little tanginess and acidity. I suppose if using fresh pineapples, the vinegar may not be necessary, depending on whether the pineapples are sweet or sour.

We loved this, and so did the kids, but of course, we omitted the chilli for them. It goes perfectly with steamed jasmine rice (make sure to ladle lots of gravy over the rice), and the sliced bird's eye chillies together with the sweet, salty and sour gravy and pineapples are sure to set your tastebuds dancing!

Caramelized Chicken with Sweet Pineapple and Balsamic Vinegar

Ingredients:

500g chicken thigh fillet, diced into 3cm cubes
1 tbsp garlic, chopped finely
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp palm sugar (optional)
3/4 tbsp balsamic vinegar (or to taste)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup canned pineapple pieces, drained (or use fresh if available)
3-4 bird's eye chillies, sliced
4 spring onions, white part only, halved crossways
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:

1. Marinade chicken with half the garlic, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper and cornflour. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and brown the chicken, for about 3-5 minutes.
3. Add remaining garlic and spring onions and mix well.
4. Add pineapple, remaining 1 tbsp fish sauce and 1/2 cup water. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked and sauce slightly thickened.
5. Add balsamic vinegar to taste (if using fresh pineapples, vinegar may not be necessary if there is sufficient acidity from the pineapple).
6. Check for seasoning and add more sugar or vinegar if necessary. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with sliced chilli. Serve with jasmine rice.

Pineapple, Coconut and Turmeric Fried Rice

The area where we live is dotted with many Thai and Italian eateries, which is why when we order take-out, it's usually pizza or stir-fried rice noodles. We just had Thai the other day, and we love the spicy basil rice noodles. As the kids do not take chilli, we ordered a pineapple fried rice for them (which was fortunately a large portion, so I had a share of it too). I'm usually a little wary of ordering pineapple fried rice as they are pretty bland most of the time, looking like plain fried rice. This one was not bad, with a hint of sweetness from the pineapple, with juicy raisins and crunchy roasted cashews. The rice had a lovely yellow tinge that made it more convincing to the eye and palette that it IS pineapple rice. Well, I did have some canned pineapple in the pantry, so I thought why not try making it at home, which is what I did two days later (after cooking some extra white rice the following night). I had already conjured up the idea of what to put in it, although I did forget to garnish it with pork floss (another one of those things sitting on my pantry shelf) as I originally intended to, just for the extra sweetness, flavour and texture. I also boiled down the pineapple juice (I used a 400g can of pineapples in unsweetened pineapple juice) and reduced it to a thick syrup before adding it to the rice.

Coconut Pineapple Fried Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked jasmine rice, refrigerated

1 chicken breast fillet, thinly sliced

3 eggs, beaten and seasoned with soy sauce and pepper

2 tbsp butter

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

2 tbsp dried shrimp, finely chopped and fried in oil for 2-3 minutes.

Handful of peas

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 cup pineapple pieces

1/2 cup pineapple juice, boiled and reduced to a syrup

1 tbsp sugar (or to taste)

1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)

1/4 cup dessicated coconut, toasted in pan till golden brown

1 tomato, halved and quartered

1/4 cup raw cashews, fried in oil till golden brown

Sliced red chilli, fried shallots, coriander leaves, pork floss (optional) for garnish

Wedge of lime/lemon

Vegetable oil, for frying

Marinade for chicken:

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

3/4 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp pineapple juice

1 tsp sugar

Pinch of salt

Dash of pepper

Pinch of soda bicarbonate

1 tsp cornflour

Method:

1. Marinade the chicken for an hour, then fry in oil till cooked. Dish out and put aside.
2. Scramble the eggs in wok and cut up into small pieces, dish out and put aside.
3. Heat up 2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp butter in a wok. Fry onions till softened, then add garlic, fry for half a minute. Add dried shrimp and peas.
4. Break up the rice with a fork and add to the wok and fry till well mixed. Add soy, fish sauce and the pineapple syrup and stir into the rice. Sprinkle turmeric over the rice and mix.
5. Mix in the chicken, eggs, pineapple, coconut and tomatoes. Season with salt and sugar. Toss in the cashews.
6. Transfer to a plate and garnish with coriander leaves, pork floss, fried shallots and sliced chilli, and a wedge of lime/lemon.

Pineapple "Crumble" Tarts

It's the Hari Raya season and I thought I'd join in the festivities by making some pineapple tarts. These tarts come in various shapes and sizes, but I like the open-faced tarts, which are round cut-out pieces of pastry with a ball of jam in the middle. I also like the ones made with the nastar mould (the rolled up ones). However, as I did not have the particular shaped cookie-cutter nor mould, I made them into little round balls instead.



Golden caramelised pineapple jam


I made the pineapple jam using canned and fresh pineapples, combining both elements of sweetness and tartness. The pineapple that I had bought the previous day was not sweet enough to eat on its own, so just as well, it went into making the jam. The pineapples were grated and cooked down with sugar to an amber colour. It turned out well, still juicy and not overly sweet, with a subtle hint of spices which were cinnamon, star anise and cloves.




Pineapple tarts fresh out of the oven...smells heavenly!


In making the pastry, I added some cornflour to the dough to create a more delicate texture. The pastry was then shaped into round discs and filled with little round morsels of jam, then rolled into a ball with a clove stuck into it. I think it looks pretty this way :)




Delicate little gems filled with luscious pineapple jam

 This was my first attempt at making pineapple tarts. That probably explains their "rustic" appearance in the photos. The jam filling was still moist and juicy, partly due to it being enclosed in the pastry, and hence protected from being dried out in the oven. The addition of the cornflour to the dough produced a more delicate and flaky texture, such that it crumbles and melts in your mouth together with the luscious jam filling to yield the perfect bite. That's the measure of a good pineapple tart.