Sweet Crispy Chicken Wings

There's not many post for the past month if you notice. I have been busy completing this blog (business part). Being the Baker, the Writer and the Photographer at the same time is really time consuming, but fun in a way.
I expect it to be completed by next month (insya-allah).

Well, here is a chicken recipe which goes well for those who love sweet stuff. I cant remember the source of this recipe. When I come across a recipe that interest me, I just copy it for future use which normally will be a long time to come. By then I just forgot where I got it from.

1 dozen chicken wings (clean and cut as desired) and marinate for 2 hrs (min)

Marinate

¾ tsp salt

3 tbs chili paste

1 tsp ginger powder or paste

Coating

1 egg

3tbs all purpose flour

2tbs corn flour

Sauce

½ cup water

1 -2 tbs brown sugar

2 tbs honey

1 tsp grated ginger

2 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs vinegar

Some toasted sesame ( did not toast mine)

Ø  Once the chicken has been marinated for 2 hours.  Add in the egg to the chicken and whisk the 2 flours briskly and add to the chicken. Use hand to rub in till all chicken is fully coated

Ø  Heat oil on wok and deep fry the chicken. Use medium heat. The chicken pcs should not be too near each other when frying so that it will turn crispy evenly.

Ø  In the meantime, prepare the sauce. In a large wok add all the ingredients for the sauce and bring to boil till thick (like syrup).

Ø  Place the chicken in the wok and stir till evenly coated. Garnish with sesame seeds

Roselle Coconut Cake

Few weeks back my mum bought me some Roselle. I normally make Roselle drink out of it, but this time round I made the juice and also saved some for an experiment. I cut up the calyces into 1cm pieces and stored it in the freezer till I have the time.

On the day I plan to use it, I took out the frozen roselle and left it out to de-froze. Then I rinse it twice with water which causes the red coloring to flow.

I used a basic butter cake recipe to experiment. Everything was fine until I added in the roselle calyces. The batter turned a bluish grey clay color (as you can see). It looks really yucky! But I still placed it in the oven to bake and voila….. the cake is beautiful. The pigment present in roselle, reacts according to Ph which is what causes the bluish grey color. It turns blue when exposed to alkaline conditions.

The cake itself is flavorful with a little tart taste. Its something different I would say. Here is the recipe:

225gm butter

130gm brown sugar

250gm self rising flour

4 eggs

1–1.5 cup roselle calyx cut into small pcs

80gm of dried / fresh coconut

6tbs of water / milk

1tsp vanilla essence

• v  Pre heat oven to 180’C. Grease an  8’ inch cake tin
• v  Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in vanilla essence
• v  Add in the eggs one at a time while adding a little flour after each eggs.
• v  Add in the rest of the flour
• v  Add in the coconut and roselle.
• v  Transfer batter to cake tin and bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

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 :)