Layered Curry Puff

Ingredients for water dough:

140gm plain flour

½ tbs sugar

85gm water

1tsp lemon juice

½ tbs margarine

¼ tsp salt

Ingredients for oil dough:

115gm plain flour

60gm margarine / shortening

Ingredients for filling:

350gm potato (diced)

120gm minced chicken / beef

1 big red onion (diced)

½ tbs soya sauce½ tsp sugar

2tbs meat curry powder (made into paste with water)

Salt to taste

2 hard boiled eggs (mashed)

Methods for fillings:

§  Heat up some oil in a wok. Add in the onions and sauté for a while. Then add in the curry paste and sauté for a minute.

§  Add in 1 cup of water, salt, sugar, soya sauce and potato. Continue to cook till the potato is soft and the filling is thick

Methods for water dough:

§  Dissolve sugar in water.

§  In a big bowl, sift the flour and salt together. Add in the margarine, lemon juice, water (little by little)  into the flour mixture.

§  Knead to form a soft dough. Add flour if sticky.

§  Cover and let rest for half hour

Methods for oil dough:

§  Sift flour and knead with shortening to form a dough

Assembling the curry puff:

§  Dust work top with flour

§  Roll out water dough and place oil dough in the centre and wrap it up

§  Roll out the dough into a rectangle.

§  Fold in 1/3 of the dough from the left and 1/3 of it from the right (over lapping each other)

§  Give half a turn and roll out the dough into thin sheets

§  Roll in the dough like swiss roll

§  Cut out the two uneven edge and put them together. Cut the rest of the dough to 12 pcs

§  Flatten each piece and take some dough from the step above (uneven edge) and place it in the center

§  Roll out the dough and place some filling on it. Damp half the edge with water lightly and fold in the other half

§  Seal it by pinching the edge and folding it in. Keep repeating till its sealed.

§  Fry in hot oil till golden brown

Note: Pressing the little dough in the middle of the larger dough is to prevent the puffs from opening up while being fried. 

Mexican Buns

Mexican buns are many people's favorite me included. It consists of sweet dough, filling and topping. The recipe here is a very easy one. The topping can be made a day before and kept in the refrigerator.

Filling

Butter cut into cubes about 1.5cm each. 

Sweet Dough

600gm bread flour

15gm   instant active dry yeast

210gm of cold water

12gm of milk powder

6gm of salt

120gm of sugar

75gm of egg (cold)

75gm of unsalted butter (omit the salt if using salted butter/margerine)

75gm of whipping cream (i used milk 50gm + 25gm melted butter)

• Mix flour and yeast with dough hook for 30 seconds. Add all dry ingredients and mix for 30seconds on slow speed.
• Add water, eggs & cream and continue on slow speed for 1 minute. Increase to medium speed for 3 minutes and slowly add in the butter.
• Continue for 10 minutes until dough is elastic
• Ferment dough for 1hour  (punch down after 30 minutes)
• Divide dough into 50gms balls and rest for 10 minutes. Then flatten the dough and place a cube of butter and seal it up.
• Prove for 45 minutes or more. Pipe the topping and bake for 12 - 15 minutes at 190'C

Topping

200gm of butter

250gm of sugar (I used 220gm)

250gm of eggs

5gm instant coffee

10gm coffee emulco (I omitted this and used 15gm instant coffee)

120gm of sugar

300gm all purpose flour

·         Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

·         Dissolve instant coffee in eggs and add slowly on medium speed. Scrape down the sides

·         Add coffee emulco. Continue for 1 minute and add flour and mix till well blended.

**NOTE : I used only half of the filling and the other half I freezed it and used it for the next round. It turned out well.  

Hawaiian Nut Cookies (Famous Amos)

A few days back my sister, Kamila wanted to try out this recipe which we got from forwarded emails. This email has been going around for years I think. I remember printing it out and later throwing it away thinking that its a fake thing.

The recipe can be halved. I omitted the Cadbury bar and halved the sugars.

Ingredients:
2 cups of butter
4 cups of flour
2 tsp of baking soda
2 Cups brown sugar

2 Cups granulated sugar
5 Cups Oatmeal (measure oatmeal & blend to a fine powder)
24 oz Choc Chip
1tsp salt
18 oz Cadbury bar (grated)
4 Eggs
2 tsp Baking Powder
3 Cups Chopped Nuts (walnut/cashew/almond)
2 tsp Vanilla

Method:
1. Cream butter with sugar till light and fluffy .
2. Add eggs and vanilla.
3. Mix in flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4. Add chocolate chips, Cadbury bar and nuts.
5. Roll into balls and place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet
6. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 122 cookies

It looks yummy right? Well, its delicious just like famous amos recipe. Taste-a-like  J

My sister added some cocoa powder to part of the dough and it turned out to be superb!

After all it's not a hoax. Happy trying!

Semolina Pumpkin Porridge

Semolina or Sughee is the coarse, purified wheat middlings made from durum wheat, a hard variety of wheat quite unlike the wheat used to make bread. Durum wheat is commonly used in the making of pasta, breakfast cereals and puddings. Semolina is the gritty, coarse, fibre-rich particle of wheat left behind after the finer particles of flour have passed through the refining process.

Semolina can be made into many yummy dishes, sweet or savoury. And here is one of them J

Ingredients:

160gm of semolina flour

2 liters of water

3 screw-pine leaves (knotted)

250ml of full cream milk

300gm of pumpkin (peeled & cut into cubes)

180gm of sugar

¾ tsp of salt

Method:

§  Pour the 2 liters water into a pot and boil the pumpkin and screw-pine leaves till the pumpkin is soft.

§  Add in the sugar. You may add or reduce the sugar to your liking. Add in the salt.

§  When the sugar has melted. Pour in the semolina in a steady stream while continuing to stir. This is to prevent the flour from clumping.

§  Add in the milk and bring to boil for some time. Add more water if the porridge is too thick.

Note: The semolina grain will continue to expand while cooling. It might become pudding like. Just add some hot water and heat it up again



What an egg!

I found this egg in the lot I bought last weekend. Funny looking thing :)

Apple Cakes

Recently I have been experimenting with apple cakes. Either with the apple on the top or at the bottom (upsidedown cake)

The cake batter is the same. Its just the choice of placing the apple at the bottom of the cake for the Apple Upsidedown Cake or placing the apple on top of the batter.

The picture I have here is the Apple Upsidedown Cake. I used light brown sugar so the color is not so dark. The apples can also be replaced with peaches or pineapples. Try to use fresh ones instead of canned ones.

Here is the recipe for both type of cake:

Cake Batter

Ingredients:

226gm of butter
150gm of sugar
4 large eggs
1tsp vanilla essence
380gm all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 tbs of milk
1tbs orange zest / orange oil (optional)

Method:

~ Line and grease an 9'' round cake tin.
~ Sift flour, baking powder and salt and put aside
~ Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add in vanilla and orange zest.
~ Mixer on slow speed, add flour mixture and milk alternately until well combined.

For apple cake :

2-3 medium apples/peaches (peel and slice it)
3 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder

~ Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake tin.
~ Arrange the apple slices on the batter and sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon.
~ Bake for 45-55 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes out clean.
~ Let cool for 10 minutes before moving the cake unto a cooling rack. Brush with warm orange marmalade

For Upsidedown Apple Cake :

2-3 medium apples/peaches (peel and slice it)
4 tbs brown sugar
6 tbs butter

~ Melt the butter and the sugar in a sauce pan. Pour it into the prepared cake tin.
~ Arrange the apple slices over it.
~ Pour in the cake batter and bake for 45 -55 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
~ Let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting it on a serving platter.



Fried Biryani Rice

It took me a long time deciding on which recipe to be on my first post. I have decided on this recipe which I saw on the back of a spice mix packet. I have amended this recipe by adding a few more ingredients. Do give it a try....

Ingredients:

2 cups of basmathi rice (cooked and keep in fridge overnite)

2 cups of chicken (cut into small pcs)

1 cups of medium prawn

1 large onions (sliced)

1 tbs of blended garlic

2 tbs of blended ginger

3 tbs of biryani powder mix

1 tbs oyster sauce

2-3 red chilies (sliced)

5 tbs of ghee

1-2 cups of water

mix vege

cabbage (sliced thinly)

small cinnamon stick

salt to taste

Methods:

• ·    Heat the ghee in a wok. Add in the onions + red chilies + cinnamon. Saute for 2-3 minutes and then add in the garlic + ginger.
• ·    When the onions are turning brown, add in the biryani powder and continue stirring. Pour in some water and add in the chicken, prawn , oyster sos, mix vege and salt. Let it boil till the chicken are cooked and the gravy is thick.
• ·     Add in the cabbage and rice. Stir till the rice and gravy are well combined.

The amount of cabbage and mix vege varies depending on individual preference. If you do not like mix vege or cabbage, you can replace it with long bean. If you dont want to use basmathi rice, then normal rice is fine.