Mini Shrimp and Pork Floss Rolls

I decided to make these for fun, and in the spirit of Chinese New Year :)

Sweet pork floss rolls



Crispy and spicy sambal dried shrimp



Mini spring rolls with spicy dried shrimp

Mini spring rolls with spicy dried shrimp

Fried Black Hokkien Mee

I really miss eating KL Hokkien Mee, and I mean the real thing. Thick yellow noodles braised in a dark soy-based gravy, with nothing more than some cabbage, pork slices and lard, and served with sambal belacan, it's one thing that I have to eat whenever I visit KL.

My version of it has no lard (of course if you could throw in some lard, that would be perfect). It's simple to prepare and my kids love "black noodles". A little like Asian style squid ink pasta. Perhaps a little squid ink in the dish might enhance the flavour.

Ingredients:

500g thick yellow noodles, softened in hot water

4 cloves garlic

Prawns/fish cake/calamari

Sliced pork/chicken, seasoned with soy, pepper, sugar and cornflour

2 cups cabbage, roughly chopped

Sauce:

2 tbsp soy sauce

5-6 tbsp thick dark soy sauce

2 cups stock

2 cups water

1 tsp chicken/ikan bilis stock powder

Salt, sugar, pepper for seasoning

Method

1. Fry the prawns/fish cake/calamari until cooked, remove and set aside.
2. Heat up oil and fry garlic, then fry the meat. Add cabbage and stir-fry for a while, then add sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Add noodles, cover and braise for about 10 minutes or until noodles and cabbage have softened and gravy is thick and starchy. Add more water/stock if necessary to cook the noodles further.
3. When cooked, add the prawns/fish cake/calamari, mix it through and it's ready to serve with some sambal belacan.

Note: I find that this dish usually tastes better the next day after the noodles have soaked up the gravy.

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)

Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee

Cooked in prawn stock, with calamari, prawns, fish cake, sliced pork, garlic chives and egg, served with chilli and lemon

Grilled Spicy Coconut Chicken

Grilled Spicy Coconut Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

800g chicken drumsticks/thigh/legs

Ingredients to be finely ground to a paste:

1 large brown onion

3 cloves garlic

1/2 inch ginger

2-3 tbsp chilli paste (or 4-6 dried chillies)

1 tsp belacan / shrimp paste

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp ground fennel

3 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

200ml coconut milk

4 slices galangal

1 stalk lemongrass, white part only, bruised (otherwise, just add 1 tbsp lemon juice)

3 kaffir lime leaves

1/2 tbsp dark soy, for colour

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste

Coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pot and fry the ground ingredients. Add galangal, lemongrass and chicken and sear the chicken all over till browned. Add dark soy and coconut milk and simmer for 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked and gravy is almost dry. If not dry yet, remove the chicken first and continue to reduce the gravy until the desired consistency. Add brown sugar and salt to taste.
2. Preheat oven grill. Transfer the chicken to an oven-proof dish and put under the hot grill for about 10 minutes until skin starts to crisp/char. Then ladle the gravy over the chicken and continue to grill for another 5 minutes or so until caramelized. Remove and garnish with fresh coriander. Serve with steamed jasmine rice.