EVERYTHING ROSELLE

ROSELLE  FRUITS

The Roselle is a hibiscus flower and the calyx of the fruits can be eaten.  They are rich in Vitamin C and use primarily to make drinks or even jam or preserves. In here I would like to share with you recipes to make drinks, jam/preserves, pie and muffins.

ROSELLE FRUIT JUICE

1 kg Roselle fruit calyx (stem and seeds removed)

500 g coarse grain sugar and 1 litre water for syrup

3 litres water, extra

Method:

1.  In a saucepan, bring sugar and water to boil under sugar is melted. Cool syrup before use.

2.  In a fruit juicer, juice the Roselle calyx. Reserve the pulp for making jam/preserve later.

3.  Add the cooled syrup and the 3 litres water extra to the extracted Roselle juice.

4.  Serve chilled.

5.  Keep well in the fridge for up to one week.

ROSELLE JAM

Reserved Roselle pulp (from above recipe)

juice from 2 lemons + seeds for pectine

1.5 litre water

1.5 Kg coarse grain sugar

Method:

1.  In a large heavy-based stainless steel pot, bring to boil the Roselle pulp, lemon juice + seeds and water to boil.  Simmer for 45 minutes.  Off fire and leave to soak overnight or for 8 hours.

2.  Add sugar and bring mixture to a slow boil until sugar is melted.  Boil rapidly for about 30 minutes.

3.  Bottle the hot jam into sterilized jars and seal immediately.

4.  To vacuum-pack the jam, keep bottle upside down until jam is cooled to room temperature.

5.  Keep refrigerated.  Keeps well for up to 6 months.

Serving suggestions: 1. For toasts, pancakes or waffles as a spread. 2. In muffins/cakes making 3.  As an accompaniment to roast meat. 4. As a filling for pies and tarts 5. For ribbon sandwiches with roast meat or cold cuts

ROSELLE  MUFFINS

250g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

4 large eggs

250g all-purpose flour, sifted

1 heapful tspn Bicarbonate of Soda

1 cup Roselle Jam + 12 tspn Roselle Jam,extra

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 180 deg Celsius.

2.  Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

3.  Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until just combined.

4.  Fold in flour and sodium bicarbonate.

5.  Stir in jam.

6.  Spoon into muffin cases until about 3/4 full.

7.  Top with a teaspoonful of jam each.

8.  Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes.

9.  Makes about 10-12 muffins.

Nasi Kerabu Kelantan (Kelantan Rice Salad)

This is a very healthy rice salad that is tasty and nutritious with lots of herbs and rich in Omega 3 from the sardines.  The rice is coloured with blue pea flowers.  The sardine fish floss can be made ahead and frozen until ready to use.  You might want to reheat it by tossing it in a hot wok for a few minutes. Below is a picture of the blue pea flowers:

For the Fish Floss:

1 Kg sardines, cleaned and gutted.

2 cups firmly packed grated coconut (white part only)

16 shallots, peeled

4 lemon grass/serai, white part only and sliced thinly

2" ginger, skinned and sliced

molasses sugar, pepper and salt to taste

1.  Heat up a grilling pan and grill sardines until just cooked. Remove bones and flake fish. Mash and keep aside.

2.  Pound shallots, lemon grass and ginger until fine.

3.  In a wok, dry-fry the grated coconut until quite brown. You can see some that are still white but quite dry.

4.  Add in the pounded ingredients and the fish meat.Continue to fry, tossing constantly with your ladle until fragrant and quite dry, about 20 minutes.

5.  Stir in molasses sugar, salt and pepper to taste.

6.  Divide into 4 portions. Each portion will be for 4 servings.  You will need 1 portion here and freeze the other 3 portions for use another day.

For the blue rice:

300 g rice

20 clitoria (blue pea) flowers

1 lemon grass, about 4" length, bruised

water for boiling rice

salt to taste 

1.  Wash rice with a few change of water.  Add salt and lemon grass.

2.  In an electric blender, blend flowers with some water until fine.  Strain the coloured water into the rice cooker.  Top up with more water, up to double the volume of the rice.  

(In this case, 300g rice is actually two measuring cups of rice and water should come up to level 2 markings inside the rice cooker).

3.  Put rice to boil as you normally would.  

4.  After cooking, keep rice warm until ready to use.

For the sambal tumis sauce:

3 tbsp chilli boh (Dried chilli paste or sambal olek)

5-6 shallots, peeled

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/2" ginger

1 stalk lemon grass, about 4" length, sliced

1.5" square belachan/prawn paste

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 tbsp tamarind paste, mixed with a little water and discard seeds

cooking oil

2 tbsp brown sugar

salt to taste

1.  In a food processor or mortar and pestle, process or pound shallots, garlic, ginger and lemon grass until fine.  Mash in the prawn paste and the chilli paste.

2.  Heat up some oil in a wok and fry blended ingredients until fragrant in medium fire.

3.  Add in tamarind paste and coconut milk and bring to boil, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes.

4.  Add in sugar and salt.  Sauce should be not too thick in consistency.

5.  Dish out and serve as a condiment at the side with the rice salad.

Tossing of the rice salad:

You can use a variety of herbs you like for the rice. The common ones are turmeric leaves, basil leaves, cekur (finger root) leaves and polygonum leaves.  You can also add thinly sliced string/long beans or four-angled beans and blanched bean sprouts.

2 fresh turmeric leaves, remove center rib, roll up and slice thinly

1 bunch of basil leaves (use either Thai Basil or Sweet Basil), sliced thinly

1 bunch cekur leaves, sliced thinly

1 bunch polygonum/daun kesum leaves, sliced thinly

100-150g long beans or 4-angled beans, sliced thinly

2 cups bean sprouts, loosely packed, blanched

1.  In a large deep serving bowl, toss the rice with the sliced herbs and the fish floss close to serving.

2. Serve rice accompanied with the grilled assam fish or prawns and sambal tumis at the side.  You can also serve it with salted duck eggs, if preferred.

Ham & Vegetables Soup

HAM & VEGETABLES SOUP

1 chunk smoked ham, about 600g, cubed

4 bacon rashers, chopped

2 large onions, chopped

2  tbsp all purpose flour

1 litre chicken stock

1litre water

4 sticks celery, chopped

2 large carrots, cut into chunks

4 waxy potatoes, cut into chunks

2 tomatoes (optional)

3 Bay leaves

Freshly crushed black pepper

Chopped parsley for garnishing

1. In a heavy based pot, brown the bacon until crispy.  Add in onions and stir-fry until transparent.

2.  Add in flour and fry until brown, stirring constantly in medium fire.

3.  Fry ham pieces lightly for a minute.

3.  Pour in chicken stock and water.  Bring to boil, covered.

4.  When boiling, add in all vegetables and bay leaves.  Bring to boil again and simmer for about 1 to 2 hours.

5.  Served garnish with chopped parsley and ground black pepper with garlic bread on the side.

Serves 6-8

CINCALOK PORK OR CHICKEN

CINCALOK PORK

1

1 strip belly pork*, about 1" wide, skin removed or 2 pcs boneless chicken wholeleg (Marylands)

2 tbsp cooking oil

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tbsp cincalok**

1 tbsp tamarind paste

2 tbsp brown sugar or to taste

1/2 tspn dark, thick soy sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce or to taste

1 medium onion, sliced into thin wedges

1 red chilli or 4 bird chillis, sliced 

brown shallot crips for garnishing

1. Slice belly pork thinly. Mix tamarind paste with a little water.  Remove seeds.

2.  Heat up oil in wok and brown garlic.  Add in pork and stir-fry until cooked.

3.  Make a well in the center and put in cincalok and let it cook for a few seconds. Stir.

4.  Add in tamarind water, sugar, light and thick soy sauces and chopped chillies.  Stir-fry until quite dry.  Check the taste.

5.  Lastly stir in onion wedges and cook until just done.

6.  Dish out and garnish with brown shallot crisps.

Serves 4

Notes:
* You can replace belly pork with boneless chicken whole leg with skin removed. Slice along the grain.
**  Cincalok is preserved tiny shrimps in brine and fermented rice. If you are living overseas, you can buy it from Asian food stores:

BASIC PRAWN STOCK

Do you always throw away the prawn shells and heads after you peel a batch of prawns or shrimps? Well, the next time that you do, reserve the heads and shells and keep them in the freezer until you have collected enough to make a basic prawn stock. The stock can later be used to cook Thai Tom Yam Soup, Malaysian Prawn Noodles or even a starter soup for a hotpot or steam boat.  Here is the method to make the Basic Prawn Stock:

Basic Prawn Stock

Prawn shells and heads from peeling a batch of 1 kilogram of medium-sized prawns or shrimps.

2 pips garlic, crushed and peeled

1/4 cup cooking oil

2 liter water

Heat up oil in a wok. Add in prawn shells and heads together with the garlic and stir-fry until the shells are dry, crispy and aromatic.  Transfer to a pot and add in the 2 liter water. Deglaze  the wok by adding a little water and add this to the pot as well.  Bring pot to boil and simmer for about 2 hours. Strain and use as required.  Discard prawn shells and heads.

The  stock can be used as a base stock for Thai Tom Yam soup, Ipoh Kueh Teow soup, Penang Mee Yoke (Prawn Noodles), Singapore Laksa, Sarawak Laksa.

Chinese Barbecue Pork (Cha Siew)

CHINESE BARBECUE PORK (CHA SIEW)

(Serves 6)

1.2 kg belly or shoulder pork

sugar, salt and pepper

oil for shallow frying

This is a very simple recipe that it is NOT about the recipe but the method in cooking this dish. The meat is cooked in a pot and the result is a golden, sticky and tender caramelized pork strips.

1. Cut pork into 1" strips as shown below and marinade pork with sugar, salt and pepper.  Allow about 1 tablespoon to sugar per strip of pork while salt and pepper  about 1 teaspoon each.  Leave to marinade in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

2.  Heat a heavy-based pan and pour in oil to come up to about 1/2" from the base of the pot.  When oil is just hot,  arrange strips of the marinated pork in a single layer in the pot. Add in half of the marinade Reduce fire  to a minimum and cover.

3. After about 35-40 minutes, the sugar would just began to start to caramelized. Add in the remaining marinade.

4.  Once the underside has started to get  brown, turn over to cook the otherside, covered.  After another 15-20 minutes, the meat would have turned a golden brown.

5.  Remove and drain. Cool slightly before cutting into bite size pieces.

Note:  You can substitute pork with boneless chicken whole leg (leave whole).  Cooking time should be reduced by half by allowing to cook in medium-high fire so as the sugar can be caramelized faster and chicken requires shorter cooking time.  

BANANA & PEACH CRUMBLE

(Serves 8-10)

This recipe is not your usual fruit crumble recipe. This crumble mixture has a cookie texture which makes it more 'short' or buttery that my family likes.  You can also add about 3-4 tablespoons of rolled oats to the crumble mixture for more bite.

1 large canned peaches in slices, drained

3-4 large bananas

2 tbspn lemon juice

grated rind from 1 lemon

few dashes of cinnamon powder

Crumble mixture:

160g g butter, chopped
1.5 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup soft brown sugar

1 cup chopped nuts (almond or walnut)

1.  Using a 8"square glass pan (I use Pyrex), place sliced peaches at the base of pan.

2.  Peel bananas and slice thickly (about 1/4") and place these on top of the peaches.

3.  Pour in lemon juices and sprinkle on rind and cinnamon powder.

4.  In a mixing bowl, rub in chopped butter into flour and stir in brown sugar.  You can also do this very quickly in a food processor; just put the crumble mixture into the food processing machine and process until just combined.

5.  Spread crumble mixture evenly on top of the fruits.  Top with chopped nuts.

6.  Bake it preheated oven in moderate temperature (180 deg C) for about 30-40 minutes or until brown.

7.  Serve hot or cold with vanilla ice cream.