Banana Butter Cake

Food cost in Malaysia has gone up tremendously; at least by 25%. With the recent removal of the sugar subsidy, our sugar now costs RM1.90/kg when it was used to be RM1.45/kg and not only that, there is always a shortage, with the local stores limiting purchase of 2 kg per customer. With that, all other food cost that are related sugar have also gone up.

Butter has always been an imported item and again the cost has also gone up. We can never buy cakes or pastries that are 100% butter. Somehow, I always felt taste matters! I still make my own butter cakes,simply because it tastes better and I can't buy them from the local bakeries. They have to be pre-ordered from a 'cottage industry' bakery or home-made.

Here, I have a rich Banana Butter Cake recipe to share. It is always a hit especially among the men, and it is full of chunks of banana.

Tips: (1) Use over-ripe bananas;

(2) Living in a tropical country, I would always chill my butter first.

(3) I use canned Golden Churn Butter, unsalted.

(4) Sift flour with Bi-carbonate of soda at least twice, to incoporate them evenly.

(5) Mash bananas COARSELY.

BANANA BUTTER CAKE

(makes 2 loaves of 5"x9")

12 oz butter, chilled and cut into smaller cubes

10 oz caster sugar

2 tbsp condensed milk

2 tbsp evaporated milk

6 grade A eggs

16 oz flour

1 full teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 1/2 cups mashed bananas or 8 medium bananas

1 Sift flour with bicarbonate of soda at least twice.

2 Beat butter with sugar in medium speed until light and fluffy.

3 Beat in the 2 types of milk, alternating with each other, starting with the condensed milk.

4 Increase beater speed and gradually beat eggs, one at a time, until just combined.

5 Fold in flour in two batches.

6 Mix in mashed bananas quickly.

7 Put mixture into two loaf pans of 5" x 9" and bake at moderate oven (180 deg Celsius) for 1 hour.

8. Cool cakes out of pan in a rack.

Hakka Kao Yuk

This is a traditional Hakka dish. The Hakkas are one of the indigenous people of China (there are more than 1000 different dialects spoken in China). This dish is cooked three times before it reaches the dining table: boiled, fried and steamed. The key ingredient of this dish that's found in the sauce is the 'Nam Yee' which is made from fermented taro or yam cubes, rice wine and ground red rice.

HAKKA KAO YUK

(STEAMED BELLY PORK WITH TARO)

1.5 kg belly pork with skin

800g taro root

1 tbsp light soya sauce

2 squares 'Nam Yee' with 3 tbsp sauce liquid

2 tbsp thick soya sauce

2 tbsp light soya sauce

4 tbsp sugar

1/2 tspn 5-spice powder

4 tbsp minced garlic and shallots

1/2 cup water

1 cup oil for frying

spring onions and coriander for garnishing

1. Wash and remove any hair from the pork's skin.
2. Bring a pan of water to boil and boil pork for about 15-20 minutes in simmering water.
3. Remove and pat dry with paper towels. Coat pork with the 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce.
4. Peel and halve taro length-wise. Slice taro into 1cm thickness.
5. Heat up 1 cup oil in wok. Fry taro pieces until lightly browned. Remove and leave aside.
6. With the remaining oil, fry the pork and brown on all sides and skin began to blister.
7. Remove and soak fried pork in cold water.
8. In a small mixing bowl, combine 'Nam Yee' , dark and light soya sauce, 3-spice powder and sugar with the 1/2 cup water together.
9. Leave about 3 tablespoon oil in the wok and reheat. Fry the minced garlic and shallots until lightly browned.
10. Add in combined sauce ingredients and bring to boil and let simmer for a while or until sugar has dissolved. Let sauce thicken a little and sauce began to bubble and looks glossy.
11. Dish out and leave aside.
12. Slice pork pieces into 1cm thickness and 2" wide. Coat pork pieces with half the sauce.
13. In a heatproof dish, arrange pork pieces alternating with taro pieces, with the pork skin and rounded sides of taro faced down.
14. When finished, pour all remaining sauce into the arrangement.
15. Prepare steamer and steam the dish for about 1 hour or until pork is soft and tender.
16. To serve, turn over onto a serving plate and garnish with shredded spring onions and fresh coriander leaves.

Mini Chicken Pies

My 11 year old daughter had just started secondary school and school ends at 2pm and sometimes at 3pm if there is extra-curriculum activities. She usually had much time to have lunch or the canteen food was not to her liking and she usually comes hungry and wanting to have a snack. I made these pies for her lunch box or for a snack after school.

MINI CHICKEN PIES
(Makes about 10 pies)

2 chicken breasts, deboned and skin removed
1 carrot, diced
250g button mushrooms, quartered or smaller
300g cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 medium Bombay onions, diced
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tspn parsley flakes
1 tspn dried oregano
2 tbsp oyster sauce
salt and pepper to taste
2 tspn cornflour mixed with 1/4 cup water
10pcs x 4" diameter aluminium foil disposal pie dish

400g frozen puff pastry
(I use 'KAWAN' brand ready-rolled puff pastry, 40g x 10pcs pack)
1 egg, beaten for glazing

1. Dice chicken breast into 1cm cubes.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Saute onions until transparent.
3. Add in diced chicken, carrot, mushrooms and cauliflower. Stir-fry until chicken is lightly browned. Stir in dried hearbs, oyster sauce, salt and pepper.
   
4. Add in about half-cup water and cover for about 1 minute or until carrots are soft.
5. Cook further, stirring until liquid has been reduced to about 1/3 of the total mixture.
6. Stir in cornflour mixture.
7. When sauce has thicken, dish out pie-filling mixture onto a bowl and let cool until just warm before using.
8. Roll out pastry to fit pie dish. Using pie dish as a template, cut out 10 pcs that are 1cm larger than the diameter and 10 pcs that are of the same diameter of the pie dish.
9. The larger ones will the base and the smaller ones will be for the top.
10. Spoon in filling after the bases have been fitted into the pie dishes. Add in about 2 teaspoons of gravy to every pie.
11. Wet the edges of the cut pastry and place the smaller rounds of pastry on the top of the pies. Press with finger to seal edges together. Use a fork to make patterns around the edges of the pies.
12. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Brush pies with egg wash and bake for 35-40 minutes

Note: Unbaked pies can be kept frozen and packed in freezer bags for up to 1 month. Thaw in fridge before cooking as usual.

How To Butterfly Your Fish

How To Butterfly Your Fish

Have you ever wish that you could present your fried fish toped with a sauce in a butterflied manner, just like in the restaurant? Actually most good fish mongers should be able to do this for you but sometimes you might overlooked the matter and had to do it on your own at home. Here are photographs to show you how. If you need to deep fry the fish before topping it with a sauce (eg a sweet and sour sauce), dust the fish all over while it is still wet with some rice flour just before deepfrying.

The Perfect Sweet & Sour Sauce

The ever famous sweet and sour pork/chicken/fish is a must-have in every chinese restaurant and take-away food outlet. The balancing of the yin yang is typically and well presented in this dish, blending well the two contrasting flavours. Although this dish appears far too often in Cantonese cuisine, the sweetness varies depending on the region. The ingredients vary and any type of sweetening and souring agent can be used.
Here is the perfect sauce for you to try at home, bearing in mind a few tips for success:

• Plum sauce is used as it gives a shiny glazing for the end result.
• Tapioca starch is used instead of corn flour for thickening as the latter gives a murky looking sauce and the former a transparent looking sauce, thus not giving your meat a 'covering' but instead a see-through coating.
  
• Rice flour is used for the meat (pork or chicken) coating as it give a crispier or crunchier bite as compared to other flour like cornflour or wheat flour.
• Sauce should be just enough to coat the meat and not drown in it.
• Be sure that the oil is hot enough for deep frying otherwise they will be soggy and oily.
  
• Seafood such as prawns and fish are delicate and so the sauce should be complementary and not over-powering. Some fine tuning with lime juice and pineapple pieces or even chillies can be added to give it a tropical flavour.
• When cooking seafood for this sweet and sour dish, they not necessary to be marinated. Just coat the seafood with the dampness from the washing of the seafood with riceflour and deep fry.

If possible, get your local fish monger to 'butterfly' the fish for you. To 'butterfly' the fish is to split by cutting the fish with a sharp knife starting from the tail right up to the base of the head. You will get one side of the fish with the bones intact and othet side without bones.

SWEET & SOUR PORK
(KOO LOO YOKE)
Serves 4

400g shoulder or loin pork, cubed

1/2 tbsp rice wine or Shaoxing wine

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

2 egg white, beaten

4 oz rice flour

oil for deep frying

Sauce ingredients:

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 medium onion, diced

2 tbsp plum sauce

1 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp tomato sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp tapioca flour

1/3 cup water

1/2 red or yellow pepper, diced

1/3 length cucumber, seeded and cubed

Method:

1. Marinade pork cubes with, rice wine, light soy sauce and sugar for about 1 hour.

2. Mix all sauce ingredients together expect the oil and the vegetables.

3. Stir in beaten egg white into marinated pork cubes and toss the pork in the rice flour. Do this in a bowl. Shake off any excess flour.

4. Heat up cooking oil in a wok until hot and deep fry pork cubes in medium heat until brown.

5. Remove and keep aside on a serving platter.

6. Leave about 2 tablespoonful of oil in the wok. Reheat oil and fry garlic until light brown. Add in onions and cook lightly.

7. Pour in sauce ingredients and bring to boil.

8. Toss in bell peppers and cucumber. Boil for a further 10 seconds.

9. Pour sauce onto fried pork cubes and serve.

Chinese Preserved Mustard Greens (Hum Choy)

PRESERVED MUSTARD GREENS

or those who have been living away from home and can't buy them or you may just want to make your own...here is how:

1.5 kg mustard greens (kai choy)*

6-8 tbsp coarse sea salt

2 litre old coconut water or rice water**

2 tbsp sugar

1. Wash the vegetables and put them out to dry in the clothes line, upside-down for about 4-5 hrs or until just withered.

2. Divide vegetables into 3 portions. Place one portion on a dry cutting board and sprinkle salt on them. Rub salt onto vegetables against the board so as to bruise the vegetables and let them water and turn a dark green colour. Fold into a neat bundle and place them into a glass jar (washed and dried) with cover.Repeat with the other 2 portions.

3. To prepare the rice water: Wash rice (for about 4 people) with water and collect this ( white murky looking) water and place it in the saucepan. Do this twice to make up about 2 litre. Bring this rice water to boil with the sugar. Remove from fire and let it cool slightly before using.

4. When rice water has cool slightly (for about 10 minutes) but still hot, pour it into the glass jar with the salted vegetables and weight them down with a stone or heavy pestle. Cover.

5. Leave to pickle for about 3-4 days before they are ready for eating.

6. The vegetables will turn a golden brown colour when they are ready. Remove from the salted solution and place them in the fridge. They should keep for about 2 weeks.

Tip: Bruising the vegetables will make the pickling solution easier to penetrate into the fiber. Sugar in the rice water helps to speed up fermentation which cause it to have a slight acidic taste. Boiling the pickling solution, of course, is to sterilise the liquid before using.
* You can also use radish leaves.
** Water from old coconuts can also be used. Coconut water will give a more sour taste than rice water.

Here's a simple fish receipe to cook with your preserved mustard greens:

STEWED FISH WITH PRESERVED MUSTARD GREENS

1 medium-sized flathead or red snapper, washed and pat dry

500g preserved mustard greens, sliced
1 tbsp preserved bean paste

2 pips garlic, chopped

1 red chilli (optional), seeded and sliced

1 cup water

1 tspn cornflour mixed with 1/3 cup water

soya sauce and sugar to taste

Oil for frying

1. Heat up oil in a wok and fry fish until just cooked and browned slightly. Remove and keep aside.

2. Leave about 3 tbsp oil in the wok and fry garlic and bean paste until brown. Add in preserved mustard greens and chilli and stir-fry for another 2 minutes in medium fire.

3. Add in fish and cover it with the preserved vegetables. Add in water and seasoning and let it boil, covered, in medium-low heat.

4. When liquid has been reduced by half, add in seasoning (sugar and soya sauce) to taste. Lastly, stir in cornflour solution to thicken sauce.

5. Remove from fire and serve hot with rice.

Tip: Just in case your preserved vegetables is not sour enough, you may add in about 1 to 2 tablespoons of white vinegar when cooking them. Balance the sourness with the sugar and salt/soya sauce.

Ramadan & Dates

Dates (or Kurma in Malay) are a must at Ramadan, the holy fasting month of the Muslims. The elders say that one must break fast by eating at least three dates before eating other foods. Dates are one of the most complete food in the world which contain all the important minerals and vitamins needed to rejuvenate the body, especially after a fast. This year Ramadan is from 1st to the 30th of September 2008. The dates varies in price and quality; some soaked in syrup and then dried. Some ripen from the tree and then sun-dried. Some airflown, fresh. The ones we talk about here are either from Iran or Saudi Arabia. They are moist and naturally very sweet, about 1" to 1.5" in length and brown in colour when ripen, unlike the ones from China which are red and smaller in size. Although they are eaten as it is like you would dried prunes, but here is a great recipe for an easy-to-make muffin, or for a more elaborate dessert, you can serve it with vanilla ice-cream and a butterscotch sauce. Unlike the usual baked muffins, this is steamed in a wok and the result is very moist and fluffy muffins with the great taste and smell of brown sugar which enhance the flavour further.

DATES MUFFINS

1.5 cups pitted dates, chopped

1 tspn bicarbonate of soda

1 tspn vanilla essence

60 g butter or ghee

1.5 cups self-raising flour*

2/3 cups soft brown sugar

2 eggs

4 dates, extra, pitted and halved

Butterscotch sauce:

90g butter

3/4 cup soft brown sugar

2 tbsp honey

3/4 cup cream

To serve with vanilla ice-cream

Method:

1 Prepare a baking pan with 7-8 large muffin cases.

2 Prepare water for steaming in a wok and place a stand in the middle. Light the burner and cover wok with a lid.

3 Boil dates with 1 cup of water. Bring to boil and simmer for 1 minute. Stir in bicarbonate of soda, vanilla essence and butter or ghee.

4 Sift flour into a mixing bowl and stir in brown sugar. Mix well.

5 Make a well in the center and add date mixture and eggs. Stir until just combined. Do not overmix. Mixture should be lumpy with air bubbles in between.

6 Spoon mixture evenly into cupcake cases until almost full and place a halved date on top. When water in wok is boiling, steam muffins on high heat for 20-25 minutes or until cooked.

7 To make sauce: Place all sauce ingredients in a saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes.

8 To serve: Place a muffin onto a serving plate (remove paper casing) and drizzle warm sauce on top and place a scoop of vanilla ice-cream on the side.

More Tips:

How to convert plain flour to self-raising flour:

Ran out of self-raising flour? Add 2 teaspoons baking powder to each cup of plain flour. Sift twice to incorporate it evenly.

Baking powder is made up of 2 parts cream of tartar and 1 part bicarbonate of soda.