Nasi Ambeng - My version

When I make Nasi Ambeng, I have the following things with the nasi:
- Ayam goreng
- Rendang
- Sambal Goreng
- Begedil
I will have on the side, ulam (cucumber, tomatoes, four winged beans, ulam raja and pengaga) and sambal belacan and also masak lemak sayur rampai.
On the rice, I will have thinly slices of omelette and abun (beef floss)

The Rice
I like the rice to be fragrant. So when I boil the rice in the rice cooker, I will always include at least a pandan leave. This time, I also added a lemon grass.

Ayam Goreng
1 large chicken cut into 12 pieces at least
half cup powdered turmeric
quarter cup chilli powder
soya sauce
salt if the soya sauce is not salty enough
powdered or minced garlic

Put all ingredients on chicken and set it for at least half hour. Deep fry until cooked through

Begedil (Potato Balls)
1kg of potatoes
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
1 large egg beaten

Cut potato into long slices and Fry them. Mash the fried potatoes Add salt and pepper and cumin. Make into small balls. Dip into beaten eggs and deep fry.

Rendang
Coconut milk from 2 coconuts
1 kg of beef
6 onions
1 bulb of garlic
6 to 8 candlenuts
2 inches of galangal
4 inches of ginger
A handful of dried chillies (soaked first)
Blend these ingredient except the beef and coconut milk

3 indonesian/malay bay leaves (daun salam)
1 large Turmeric leave
5 Kafir Lime leaves
2 crushed lemon grass
The juice from 12 calamansi
4 tables spoon of brown sugar or palm sugar

oil

Saute the blended ingredients, until it looks slightly crispy. Add beef and thin coconut milk. Add lemon grass. Leave it until the gravy is thick. Add thick coconut milk and calamansi juice and sugar. Salt to taste. Leave it until it is dry. In order to keep it warm, I transfer the rendang to an oven proof dish and put it in low heat over. It will help dry the rendang further....

Sambal goreng
150g beef - cut into small pieces
Chicken liver from one chicken - cut into small pieces
2 bean curd - cut into small cubes
2 fermented soy bean - cut into small pieces
3 onion
half bulb garlic
1 lemongrass
2inches galangal
4 inches ginger
15 pieces of prawn
1 green chilli
1 red chilli
Dry chillies - soaked
Palm sugar
half cup thick coconut milk
Prawn paste (belacan)

Fry each ingrediend separately. Blend prawn past and chilli. Saute it until it looks crispy. Add in coconut milk, sugar. Then add in all the fried ingredients.

Masak Lemak Sayur Rampai
1 tablespoon of the best Prawn paste you can find
2 tablespoon Anchovies (Ikan bilis)
2 tablespoon of dried prawns
1 big onion
1 coconut - extract one cup of thick milk and 2 cups of less thick milk
Different kinds of malay vegetables - daun belinjau, daun ubi kayu, sayur turi.
1 Sweet potato, cut into small pieces

Boil turi leaves and throw away the water (so there will be no bitterness) first. Boil vegetables and sweet potato with the dry ingredients and the think coconut milk. Once it is boiling, add the thick coconut milk and salt.

Chocolate cake

The best and foolproof chocolate cake recipe ever... from Australian Women's Weekly:

185g of butter
2 tsp vaniila essence
1.5 cup of castor suga
2 cups of self raising flour
3 eggs
2/3 cups cocoa
1 cup of water (if you use milk to substitute, you must add more water or milk)

Combine all ingredients and beat on low with electric mixer.



When everything is mixed, change to medium speed and eventually high. Mixture should be creamy and have changed colour. Put in oiled mould. Usually I make it in a loaf tin but this time I tried my more fancy iron cast mould. And the result:



Bake in moderate oven but if you are going to use small moulds, use low oven. The cake has a tendency to crack... but it tastes yummy!

Caramel Choc-Chip Mud Cake

I so like this... It is from the Australian Women's Weekly book on Chocolate

90g white chocolate (I used Valhorna)
90g unsalted butter
1/2 cup (110g) brown sugar
2tbsp golden syrup
1/2 cup (125ml) milk
3/4 cup (110g) plain flour
1/4 cup (35g) self raising flour
1 egg
2 tbsp milk choc bits (I used semi-sweet choc chips)
1 tbsp icing sugar (I don't use this)

Melt chocolate, butter, sugar, syrup and milk over fire.



Cool the mixture.

Whisk (by hand, when I used the machine, it did not turn out as good) the flours (sifted) and the egg.



Once it is all mixed, add in choc bits (it is impt that you let the mixture cool or else the chocolate will melt when mixed).
Put in friands tin. Bake for abt 20-25 mins. Oven is 160degree C, you must have preheated oven first.

Cheesecake

For once, my cheesecake turned out decent - it is not hard and does not crack. I think the secret is in the baking, 10 mins high and 45 mins slow....This is the recipe I got from my friend Noraini Tusin (Nora Aronson)

New York Cheesecake
Ingredients
2 1/2 Cups graham cracker crumbs (Keebler or Honey Maid)
1 1/2 sticks of butter (melted)
1 1/4 cup of sugar
2 pounds of cream cheese (4 - 8 oz)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (8 oz) sour cream
Method
Preheat oven to 450F. In a bowl, place graham cracker crumbs butter and 2 tablespoons sugar; blend well. Press mixture onto bottom and sides of greased 9 inch spring form pan. Chill in freezer while preparing filling. In mixer bowl, beat cream chesses and remaining sugar until smooth and light. Beat in eggs and vanilla just until blended. Stir in sour cream. Pour mixture into spring form pan and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 200F and bake 45 minutes. Turn off oven; allow to cool with the door opened slightly for 3 hours. Remove sides from pan and chill.

Raspberry Friands

This is one of my favourite current bake. I got the recipe from Marie Claire's breakfast recipes:

125 g plain flour
185 g (but I use only 150g at most) icing sugar
100 g hazelnut meal
45 g dessicated coconut (I don't like coconut, so I just increase the hazelnut meal by 40g)
180g butter, melted and cooled
100g raspberries
50g marschmallows
10 extra marsh mallows
5 egg whites

Preheat oven. Grease friand tins (you can get friand tins from Sun Lik, they are slightly smaller than the silicone ones, but they will do. they are only 50 cents a piece)

Sift flour and icing sugar. Add in hazelnut (and coconut if you use cococnut)

Whisk egg whites until foamy, fold in the dry ingredients above. Mix also the melted butter.

Mince the raspberries and marshmallows. Fold them into the mixture.

Pour about 1.5 to 2 tbspoonfuls into the tins and bake for about 15 to 20 mins at 150 degrees centigrade.

Savoury Tart

I first tasted savoury tart when I was at the three tarts cafe in New York (9th Avenue). I have thereafter tried to reconstruct it. Here is my version:

Crust:
50g plain flour
50g wholemeal flour
50g butter (cold)
3 tablespoon of shaved parmagiano cheese
1 teaspoon of mustard powder
Salt (very little and only if you like it)
Cold water

Rub in butter with flours until they resemble bread crumbs. Mix with cheese and mustard powder and salt. Add just enough cold water to knead. Once it resembles a ball, refrigerate for twenty minutes. Bake the crust blind first until 80% cooked.

Filling
3 red onions
5 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar (I use the one with caramel)
1 tablespoon of brown Sugar
10 Olives - chopped
5 pieces of dried but soft figs
Good quality olive oil
Water
Feta cheese

To make caramalised onion, slice the onions thinly. Heat 2 tbsp of oliveoil. Put in sliced onions, brown sugar and 2 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Cook onions, stirring occassionally.

In time, soak fig with the rest of the balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoon of olive oil and water, just enough to cover the figs. Leave at least 2 hours if not overnight.
Chopped to pieces

Assemble the tart - drizzle olive oil, put caramelized onion, figs, olive. pour the liquid from the soaked figs. Top with feta cheese. Bake for about 10 mins.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

In New York, I bought the recipe book from Magnolia Bakery... there were two recipes I was dying to try... black bottom cupcakes and red velvet cake with creamy vanilla frosting...

I finally baked the black bottom cupcakes yesterday. It is actually a chocolatey cupcake with cream-cheese on top.

Here's the recipe:

Cream Cheese Filling

1 1/2 packages of cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup of miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

- Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add egg, beat again. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside and do the cupcake.

Cupcakes

13/4 cups of all purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

salt a little

1/2 cup oil (I had to add more, like half to one cup more of oil)

1 cup sugar

1 cup buttermilk (I had to add more)

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

- Combine flour, cocoa and baking soda. In another bowl, beat oil and sugar. Add flour mixture and alternate it with buttermilk and vanilla. (The problem is that the mixture looks too dry if the recipe is followed exactly, you will have to use your own judgment to add oil and buttermilk to the right consistency)

Assembling

Fill cups with 2/3 of cupcake mixture, top with cheese mixture (about 11/2 tablespoon)

Bake in preheated oven for about half hour. Temperature - 350 F or about 160 Celcius.

[I must admit... I finished assembling the red velvet cake today... it did not turn out as well... i followed the ingredients... but i think the red colouring i used was of inferior quality... so there is a bitter after taste... (so i will not bother putting up the recipe)....the creamy vanilla icing was good though.....]

Tiramisu

This was first made by my friend Dlt. She said she got it from the front pack of the Saviordi. Due to my dietary restriction, i make my own tiramisu without alcohol. As it turned out, many people can do without the alcohol in it....

Ingredients
1 250g package of saviordi (also known as lady's/sponge finger biscuits, can find in Cold Storage, Jasons, Giant and Carrefour)
1 big pot of very strong coffee (espresso) with milk and very little sugar (the sponge fingers is coated with sugar)
1 500g pack mascarpone cheese (Carrefour has the cheapest)
5 eggs (separated)
2-3 tbsp of castor sugar
2 tsp of vanilla essence

Method
Get a transparent dish, about 8cm by 25cm by 5 cm
Lay out sponge fingers in tray, pour spoonfuls of coffee on the sponge fingers.
In a large bowl, mix the cheese, sugar, vanilla essence and egg yolk with a hand held mixer until it is nice an fluffy.
In a separate smaller bowl, beat the egg white until it becames creamy (not watery anymore)
Fold the egg white into the cheese mixture.

Layer dish first with coffee-soaked sponge fingers, then the cheese mixture - you should get four layers


Put it in the fridge (covered preferably)
Just before eating, dust cocoa on top....

Semolina (Sugee) Cake

This is the recipe I got from my friend Pah, I think it is from her aunt "Hamidah Baboo Shahib". It is delicate but it works. I have tried it.

Ingredients
280g butter
220g castor sugar
4 eggs
3 egg yolks only (Note - this is in addition to the 4 eggs)
125g Softasilk flour (I use Top flour, Redman Brand instead)
3 tablespoons condensed milk
125g semolina (the most premium brand you can find)
30g ground almond
1 teaspoon baking powder

Method
Heat oven.

Put eggs, sugar, semolina and baking powder in a bowl and beat until thick and creamy.




In another bowl, beat the butter and condensed milk until the butter turns lighter in colour.





Mix the two mixtures together.



Then add the flour and ground almond.



Grease the cake mould (I use a 19 X 19 square baking tin)

Bake in oven with about 150 degree Celcius for about 25 mins to half hour.

Note: the Centre is the last to cook... just be patient....