Coleslaw

The word “coleslaw” comes from the Dutch word, “koolsla”, “kool” meaning cabbage and sla, salad. The word entered our English language from the Dutch in New York in the late 1700s. Since then it has been a featured side dish at almost every picnic or barbecue in America. We have coleslaw at least once a week, usually with fish, and often with burgers or hot dogs. Our ways of preparing it are ridiculously simple, one with a mayonnaise dressing, the other with rice vinegar and a big of sugar. Sometimes we add some shredded green apple to the mix. Are you a coleslaw eater? If so, what’s your favorite way of preparing it?

Coleslaw Recipe

Preparation time: 5 minutes.

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INGREDIENTS

Cabbage, either green or purple or both
Carrot
Green onion
For the version with mayonnaise:

Mayonnaise

Yellow mustard
Pepper
For the version without mayonnaise:

Rice vinegar or white vinegar
Sugar
Salt and pepper

METHOD

1 Starting with a head or half a head of cabbage, thinly slice the cabbage until you have approximately 4 cups (not packed) of sliced cabbage. (Using a mandoline helps in this case.) Julienne a half of a carrot. Thinly slice a couple green onions.

1 For the mayo dressing version, add 3 Tbsp mayo, 1/2 teaspoon of yellow mustard and mix in with the cabbage, carrot, and onions. Add pepper to taste.

3 For the non-mayo version, add a couple tablespoons of rice vinegar. Sprinkle with sugar, salt, and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately.

Doughnuts

Ingredients

 1/2 cup(s) Whole Milk
 1 tablespoon(s)
Whole Milk 1/3 cup(s)
Olive Oil 1/2 cup(s) Water
4 1/2 teaspoon(s)
Active Dry Yeast 3/4 cup(s)
Sugar 1/4 teaspoon(s)
Sugar 1/2 cup(s) Sour Cream
2 large Eggs 2
2 large Egg Yolks
2 teaspoon(s) Salt
2 teaspoon(s) Vanilla Extract 4 1/2 cup(s) All-Purpose Flour
4 cup(s) Vegetable Oil, (add more as needed for frying)
1/2 cup(s) Confectioners' Sugar

Directions

 1. Make the dough: Coat a large bowl with vegetable oil and set aside. Gently warm 1/2 cup milk and oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Combine the water and yeast in a large bowl, stir to dissolve, and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add the warm milk and oil to the yeast mixture and stir to combine. Add the remaining sugar, sour cream, eggs, yolks, salt, and vanilla and stir to combine. Add the flour gradually. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Place it in the prepared bowl and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in volume — about 2 hours. Punch dough down, re-cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 or up to 12 hours.

2. Make the doughnuts: Turn the dough out onto a generously floured work surface. Lightly flour the dough and roll it out to about 3/4 inch thick. Cut doughnuts out of the dough using a 3-inch doughnut cutter and transfer them and their holes to a baking sheet. Gather dough scraps, reroll, and repeat cutting doughnuts and holes until all dough is used. Chill doughnuts and holes for 30 minutes.

3.Fry the doughnuts: Heat about 4 inches of vegetable oil in a large deep skillet fitted with a thermometer over medium-high heat until oil reaches 350 degrees F. Fry the doughnuts three at a time until golden — about 2 minutes per side. Remove doughnuts and holes with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining doughnuts and holes.

4.Make the glaze: Combine the remaining milk and confectioners' sugar in a small bowl and stir until smooth. While doughnuts and holes are still hot, dip them in the glaze and transfer to a wire rack until glaze is set and doughnuts are cool. Serve immediately.

chicken satay

Malaysian Satay—those little skewers of meat with satay peanut sauce and ketupat (Malay rice cake) is a very popular dish in Malaysia. Walk down any street in the country and the mouthwatering aroma of satay exudes from practically every corner you pass: roadside satay stalls, hawker centers, pasar malam (night markets), kopitiam (Chinese coffee shops), and even high-end restaurants… Of course satay is universally loved across Southeast Asia. (It’s commonly believed that satay is the region’s distant cousin to the Middle-Eastern kebabs, thanks to the spice route and the culinary influence of the early Arab traders.) However each country has their own interpretation for satay, influenced by their own unique food culture and distinct palate. For instance, Indonesian satay tend to be sweeter because of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) while the Thai satay is slightly less sweet since coconut milk is used instead…

No surprise then that Malaysian Satay is made with ingredients and spices commonly found in Malaysian cooking; shallots, lemongrass, turmeric powder (kunyit), and coriander powder. The basic recipe calls for the cook’s meat of choice—be it chicken, beef, lamb, or pork—to marinate for many hours or even overnight so as to lock in the flavor. In addition to the peanut dipping sauce, Malaysian satay is served with ketupat, onions, and cucumber. Trust me, the taste of these side dishes complement each other exquisitely. When I make chicken satay at home I often save time by using off-the-shelf satay marinate powder such as Ayam brand satay seasoning (aka “cheated“), but the existence of Rasa Malaysia has motivated me to try making everything from scratch, if possible. So I will admit to modifying the traditional and authentic Malaysian chicken satay recipe with a tint of kecap manis and Chinese oyster sauce substituting for salt and sugar. But as you can infer from these pictures, the end results were delicious. You can almost smell the enticing aroma of the chicken satay from your computer screen, can’t you?

Ingredients:
 4 chicken legs and thighs (preferred) or 4 chicken breasts (boneless and skinless)

Spice Paste:
1 teaspoon coriander powder
2 stalks lemongrass, white parts only
6 shallots (peeled)
2 cloves garlic (peeled)
4 tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons turmeric powder (kunyit)
4 teaspoons of kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
1 teaspoon oyster sauce Bamboo skewers (soaked in water for 2 hours to avoid burning)
1 cucumber (skin peeled and cut into small pieces)
1 small onion (quartered)

 Method:
Cut the chicken meat into small cubes.
Grind the Spice Paste in a food processor.
Add in a little water if needed.
Marinate the chicken pieces with the spice paste for 10-12 hours.
Thread the meat onto the bamboo skewers and grill for 2-3 minutes on each side.
Serve hot with the fresh cucumber pieces and onions.

Leftover Chicken Asian Chopped Salad

It's no secret that I'm a fan of those rotisserie chickens that jump into your basket at Costco, so I'm always coming up with ideas for using the leftover chicken, and this type of Leftover Chicken Asian Chopped Salad is something I'll often make when there's leftover chicken in the fridge. You can vary the ingredients depending on what you have, but for this version that I first posted in 2006, I used romaine lettuce, sliced mini-peppers, sliced sugar snap peas, chopped cilantro, cashews, and black sesame seeds. All those tasty ingredients get stirred together with a slightly sweet Asian dressing, for a delightful salad made from leftovers. This reminds me of the kind of Asian chopped salad you might get in a restaurant; hope you enjoy!

Stir together rice vinegar, soy sauce, sweetener of your choice, ground ginger root, sesame oil, and vegetable oil to make the dressing. (In the photo I'm only making half the dressing to make one salad for myself, but the recipe is enough for 2 or 3 salads.)

Then chop up the leftover chicken and slice the mini-peppers and sugar snap peas. Put the chicken into a small zip-loc bag with some of the dressing and let it marinate. (Photographer fail, forgot to take a photo of that step!)

Also chop up the cashews and cilantro and measure the sesame seeds. (Black sesame seeds look pretty here, but if you only have regular sesame seeds they will still add a nice flavor.)

Tear up the romaine lettuce with your hands and give it a good wash in the salad spinner.

Combine desired amount of lettuce, red pepper rings, sliced sugar snap peas, and cilantro and toss with the dressing.

Arrange the lettuce mixture in serving bowls and top with some of the marinated chicken.

Then sprinkle the salad with the cashews and black sesame seeds, and dig in.

Scramble Eggs

Scrambled eggs can be one of the most fantastic, luxurious breakfasts around if you remember a few key things: always use really fresh free-range or organic eggs and good-quality butter, and always keep the eggs moving slowly over a low heat. Do this and you’ll get luscious, buttery, creamy eggs every time.

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• a good knob of butter, plus extra to serve
• 4 slices of bread

To cook your eggs

• Crack your eggs into a bowl
• Add a pinch of salt and pepper
• Beat well with a fork
• Put a small pan over a low heat and add a good knob of butter
 • Melt it slowly until it’s frothy
 • Pour the eggs into the pan and stir them slowly – use a wooden spoon or a spatula if you have one, so you can get right into the sides of the pan
• While you’re doing this, pop some bread on to toast

TAKOYAKI

A couple of years ago a good friend of mine gave me an electric takoyaki maker for my birthday. Takoyaki literally translated means octopus fried, but takoyaki isn’t just fried octopus – it’s a tiny, piping hot ball of batter filled with green onions, ginger, crispy tempura bits and octopus. It’s crisp, it’s gooey, it’s delicious.

Takoyaki is one of Osaka’s quintessential street foods. Thankfully for us, you don’t have to travel to Osaka for takoyaki – they’re basically found everywhere in Japan and are quite popular in North America too. If you ever come across a takoyaki stand stay awhile and check out the takoyaki makers. They’re mesmerizing. Professional takoyaki makers have rows and rows of cast iron pans with half spherical molds. A dashi flavoured batter is poured into the molds and then each ball gets a piece of octopus, some ginger, and green onions. When the bottom of the balls are cooked, they’re flipped with skewers so that the inside batter flows out to create the other side of the ball. It’s amazing to watch a real takoyaki maker. They’re fast, furious and churn out the little balls like there’s no tomorrow.

I’m no takoyaki master, but I sure do like the zen feeling that comes over me while I try to make perfectly spherical takoyaki. I’ve only ever used my pan once so when my friend wanted to bring over her takoyaki pan and have a takoyaki party I was pretty excited. I even wanted to have a takoyaki off with one of my Japanese friends but he declined, saying it wasn’t a fair contest as I would no doubt win. Non-contest aside, we had a great time making individualized takoyakis. Everyone thought they tasted just like the takoyaki vendors.

Takoyaki need quite a few ingredients and a specialized pan, but I think it’s worth it. You can find a takoyaki pan on amazon.com or you can use an ebelskiver (Danish pancake) pan. As for the insides, octopus is classic, but feel free to put in shrimp, chicken, or whatever savoury filling you like. I like to do a combo of octopus, squid and shrimp. I also throw in some mozzarella cheese to get an crispy toasted cheese outside with an extra gooey cheesy inside. If you’ve never seen takoyaki being made, do a youtube search, it’ll give a good starting point for how to flip the little balls around.

TAKOYAKI RECIPE

*Batter:
 300g all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1 liter (4 1/4 cups) of cold water
3 grams salt
1/2 teaspoon kombu dashi stock granules
1/2 teaspoon katsuo dashi stock granules
2 teaspoons soy sauce


Fillings:
 cubes of boiled octopus, or your choice of cooked, cubed protein (you could use shrimp, squid, chicken, hot dogs, etc)
sliced green onions tempura bits or rice krispies
shredded cheese

Toppings: Japanese mayonaise
Takoyaki sauce (you can buy this in a bottle at most Asian groceries, it usually has a picture of takoyaki on the front)
bonito flakes
 aonori (powdered seaweed) or seaweed strips

Beat the eggs and add the water, and stock granules. Add the egg-water mixture to the flour and salt and mix well. Heat up your pan and oil the individual compartments with a oil brush or use a paper towel dipped in oil.

 Pour the batter into the individual compartments up to the top. Don’t worry if the batter over flows a bit. Add green onions, your protein, tempura bits or rice krispies, and shredded cheese (is using).

 After a while, the bottom of the takoyakis will be cooked through. At this point, you can use a skewer to turn them over 90 degrees. If you can’t turn the takoyaki easily, it probably needs to cook for a bit longer. Wait a minute or so and then do another 90 degree turn. The balls will become easier to turn the more they cook.

 The takoyaki are done when they’re lightly brown and crispy on the outside and they turn easily in their holes. Overall I’d say it takes about 10 minutes per batch, from start to finish.

 To serve, place the takoyaki on a plate and drizzle with Japanese mayonnaise and takoyaki sauce. Genrously sprinkle on the bonito flakes and aonori. Enjoy, but be careful, the insides are hot!

currypuff

Curry Puff was the last thing my Mum wanted to make before her operation; when she was still conscious. That was what she promised the wonderful nurses at her ward at Mt Elizabeth. She never fulfilled that promise. Not that she could. Making curry puffs may sound like a lot of work for most. And having tried it, I can tell you it is not for the lazy. But it seemed like my Mum loved making it, even when her own health was failing. And it never failed to please. Family, friends, church members and even clergymen had been amazed by her packets of pastry encrusted curried potato with bits of chicken and a slice of hard-boiled egg. A snack it may be but it was always difficult to stop at just one or two. When you had downed your third, you knew that you have had your meal. It has taken me a while. I finally got round to making her curry puff. So, how did it go? Did we nail it? We did press it, roll it, fill it, fry it. My gifted niece with her nimble hands worked at the pastry. There is a simple but interesting art in making the spiral design using two types of dough. Since Old Chang Kee crust is plain and simple - and it looks like thousands here love it - the bother to do the pastry this way was not so much to please the palate but to honor my Mum's tradition. If I am to call it "Auntie Ruby's Curry Puff", it better be. Her curry puff raised the bar very high. And this is one reason why I will hesitate to claim that we have arrived just after 2 tries. No, it is going to take us a many more rounds to perfect it. In fact the first batch I made tasted so different that my dear called it a "Curry Poof." We were dismayed with it. We were amazed by it (version 1.2). But did we nail it? My Mum's recipe Let's just say that the filling was spot on but mastering the crust - texture, design, size, consistency - will need some further rounds of puffing. Her written recipe for the pastry seemed amiss and it was either her mistake or more likely, her scribe's. After all, it was written that the inner pastry needed 500 kg of flour. Wow. I can imagine Terry Wonka and his Curry Puff Factory as he dives and disappears into giant heaps of flour. This written recipe is certainly not inerrant though her original recipe must be almost flawless by the time she had made her hundredth batch (and each batch is usually >100 pieces). This written recipe was an important guide but we had to trace the errors to get closer to her original version. And I think we are getting very close. Some pieces looked and tasted exactly like hers only to have the next few cracking up or inconsistent. But they all tasted very nice...poof, puff, puff, poof again... but more puffs than poofs, we are getting there. I will first describe her curry puff and why I think it was so good and popular. And then, you get her "true" recipe. The Filling It is not rocket science to do the filling well but I still wonder why so many versions I have tasted did not get this right. I think one reason is the effort put into making the pastry sometimes overshadows the need to do the filling well. Firstly, her potatoes are cut into half a cm squares. They are not chunky like Old Chang Kee's. And there is no mashing here. It is all hand-cut. Then the diced potato cubes are fried separately first. This ensures separation and subsequent coating with the dry curry spices. For convenience, my Mum used curry powder. Curry powder is basically powder of spices like coriander, aniseed, cloves etc along with chilli powder and turmeric powder. If the powder is fresh, by all means use it. Then she blends the shallots, yellow ginger and dried chilis. She also added curry leaves. There is the usual chicken meat. But she always added prawn meat for the sweetness and some variety to the texture. Adding a piece of boiled egg was a later addition at my request as the famous local versions all have it (and I love especially the old Old Chang Kee which used to be sold very near the old site of Trinity Theological College). All this is done in the wok. In a sense, the filling wasn't difficult to do. Just put in some effort and the steps are not unlike those needed to make good curry chicken. Done right (don't over cook the potato), the filling is very very good. We used to love eating it with white bread whenever she had leftover filling. At this point I will say that the written recipe seems to have gotten the meat-potato proportion wrong. The 1:5 ratio can be improved on to about 1:4 or even 1:3 if you, like me, love more chicken in your puff. The Pastry It is important to note that her version does not use the western puff pastry. It is closer to Old Chang Kee's. The flakiness is introduced through the way the dough is rolled our and prepared. Apart from making the puff pretty, spiraling the puff with two types of dough (outer water dough, inner oily dough) introduces interesting variation in the texture. It enhances the eating experience. If you like this is not a "stereo-type" puff of just crust and filling. As you sink your teeth into it, the music seems to come from multiple directions as you crunch into the varying textures in the crust and filling along with the exploding flavours of every bite. Ironically, her written recipe had some significant errors. That is understandable as Mum made her version from experience and hand-feel. Maybe the scribe was hard of hearing on the fateful day when my Mum rattled off her recipe. Maybe my Mum just estimated and got her sums wrong. The written ratio of a glass of water to 1 kg of flour was definitely off. I suppose this is what this blog is about. I could have just copied her recipe and pasted it here. Without sight nor taste to guide you, the recipe is as helpful as giving you a song's lyrics and asking you to sing it when you have not even heard the music or song before. A score will be slightly more helpful ( and most good cookbooks help us that way) but still, unless you have tasted it yourself, you will never be sure. In any case, here is what I believe a written recipe of my Mum's famous curry puff should look like. Bear in mind that my Mum was always on a quest for the best. Don't let the work involved put you off, especially her two-dough spiral approach. You can easily modify it to something simpler i.e just use the outer pastry and your guests will still be speechless! (after all, how can anyone speak when his mouth is full of the puffy goodness? :)) ------------------------ Auntie Ruby's Curry Puff's Recipe by Aunty Ruby Wong and son, aka The Food Canon To serve 40 pieces Filling Chicken – 200 g Prawn Meat– 300 g cut into small pieces/ cubes Big onion 1 bulb (or shallots) – cut into small pieces Potatoes – 0.5 kg Remove skin Cut into small cubes of half a cm Fry in some of oil Remove fried potatoes Use oil to fry paste Paste Dried chillies – 10 pieces, soak in hotwater and blend Lemon grass – 3 sticks Shallots – 15 pieces Buah keras – 5 pieces Yellow ginger – ½ thumb Blend into paste Curry powder – 2 Tbsp Cooking the filling Using some oil, fry paste till fragrant. Add curry powder Add curry leaves – 20 leaves Add salt – 2 teaspoon Add sugar – 4 teaspoon Add chicken, prawns, diced onion, potatoes Add ½ bowl of water for smooth texture Hard boil 5 eggs. Cut each egg length-wise into 8 pieces. Curry puff pastry (outside) Plain flour – 500 gm Margarine - 100 g Salt – 1 teaspoon Cold water – 1 cup (about 200 ml) Mix, knead flour Separate into 3 balls Curry puff pastry (inside) Plain flour – 250 gm Margarine - 150 g Mix, knead flour Separate into 3 balls Making the curry puff (Check the visuals below) Flatten outside pastry Wrap around inside pastry ball Flatten both Roll up and flatten - 3 times Cut roll into 3 mm width Flatten individual pastry into puff toplace ingredients Close pastry over ingredients and create the side "flower". Ready for deep frying For storage: These puffs are suitable for freezing and to be fried just before serving. Place puffs on plastic sheets. Set each piece separately. Place in freezer To Cook To deep-fry immediately after removing from freezer. Don’t thaw. Fry it in low heat. The oil must be gently bubbling. When it is light brown and the bubbling has stopped, remove it. If you leave it in there for too long, it will absorb the oil. Best eaten about half an hour later when the puff is warm but not hot. So, how healthy is this snack? I can tell you that you cannot enjoy it and hope to have a healthy option. It is carbo heavy (pastry, potato) and the deep frying will impart some oil, though with good technique, you can minimise that. But it is not unlike other types of fried snacks. Just eat it in moderation.It can be lunch in itself. Summary I will make a video at some point as I think that is the best way to show you how to make the spiral pastry. Meanwhile, the photos below may be helpful if you already have some experience in making pastry. Even if you do not two-dough the pastry or make the spiral, it will still be a great curry puff using parts of her recipe. You can use the recipe for the outside pastry. That will work well too. Even store-bought pastry will taste better with her filling. This post won't be the last on her curry puffs. As with all her classic recipes, they just deserve more attention to details so that you can enjoy some of the tastes which I was so blessed to grow up with. I will work at better ways of helping you to replicate her recipes. Stay tuned.