Kuih Sago

Kuih Sagu is one of my eldest son's favorite sweets. He has been asking me to make this for him for quite some time now. He said that he did not get the chance to buy this kuih when we went back home for the summer holidays. So I decided to make this for him yesterday. The pictures are without the freshly grated coconut coating.

Ruby Red Kuih Sago

Ingredients

1 cup of sagu
2-2/12 cups of sugar
2 1/2 cups water
a pinch of salt
a drop of red food coloring
1 teaspoon of rose essence

some freshly grated coconut steamed with a pinch of salt.

Directions

1. Grease a square cake tin with a little bit of cooking oil. I used a 6" X 6" cake tin
2. Wash and soak the sago in water for about 10 minutes. This helps to remove any excess starch in the sago.
3. Drain the sago in a fine colander.
4. In a pan heat the water and sugar together on medium-low heat. When the syrup starts to boil add the red coloring and the rose essence. Mix well before adding the soaked and drained sago into the boiling syrup.
5. Stir well until the sago turns translucent. There will be some sago that is still white and not cooked but this is OK. Keep stirring until most of the sago is translucent.
6. Pour the cooked sago into the cake tin and level the surface.
7. When the sago is cool, you can  cut into squares and roll them in the steamed coconut before serving.

Note:
1. It is usually quite difficult to cut and maintain the shape of the sagu so it looks better when the sago is rolled in grated coconut.
2. If you want a softer kuih you can use 3 cups of water instead of 2 1/2 cups of water.

Crunchy Cauliflower 65

I finally found a great recipe for crunchy cauliflower 65. This recipe is from Vahchef.  The cauliflower turned out really crunchy and not oily at all. I made this last Saturday and it was a great hit with the family, We are not usually vegetarians on Saturdays but since my daughter is on a vegetarian fast I did not have the heart to cook non veg all the time. So this Saturday we had really delicious vegetarian food.

Crunchy Cauliflower 65

Ingredients

500gms cauliflower

Mix together
1 tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder
1 teaspoon kashmiri chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika (optional but it gives a deep red color)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 cup of cornstarch
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon oil
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
1/4 cup chopped curry leaves
salt to taste

cooking oil for deep frying

Directions

1. Wash cauliflower and cut in to florets.
2. In a bowl add the cornstarch and the all purpose flour and mix it well.
3. Next add in all dry spices, ginger garlic paste, chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves and oil and mix well.
4. Add a tablespoon of water at a time to the cornstarch mixture to make a thick batter so that the batter can thickly coat the cauliflowers. Add salt to taste.
5. Add all the cauliflowers to the thick masala batter and mix well so that each cauliflower is well coated with the batter.
6. Heat the cooking oil on medium high.  Deep fry the cauliflowers in hot oil until the cauliflowers are cooked and crunchy.
7. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels.
8. Serve with hot rice and dhall curry or sambar.

Southern Style Mac n CheeCheese

Mac n Cheese

The weather forecast said that today will be a rainy day and a rainy day it is. I just love rainy days. Back where I come from, it practically rained almost every day. I would sit out on my porch with my cup of hot coffee and watch the rain..Yes just watch the rain and I kinda remember doing this since I was little. Yes and it also means that I am sitting out in the porch with my coffee almost every day. Well I am a coffee lover and I love the rain so..don't think that I can complain much and also please dont be judgemental,  I just spend a couple of minutes out watching the rain otherwise it wouldn't in be a waste of productive time just sitting out there drinking coffee and waiting until the rains stops (and it takes a like 1, 2 , 3 hours for the rain to stop).

Well here where I live now you can count the days where it rained. It is usually a drizzle which they call rain here and it sometimes lasts for 5-10 minutes. But today it was a good downpour in the morning. It wasn't too cold but the boys had to wear the puffer jackets and caps which they didn't like at all. For me there was no complains at all, although my jeans was wet to my knee and my shoes were soaking wet. OK I wasn't wearing any rain boots simply because I didn't get one. Can you blame me when you just get rain like a few days in a year and just 1 or 2 days of heavy rain.

Anyways since I was enjoying the rain and the cool weather I thought that the boys might enjoy some hot lunch today. Something that both of them would like, like mac and cheese but it wasn't going to be something out of a box. So I drove down to Albertsons to get the stuff that I needed for the mac and cheese despite the pouring rain and my drenched jeans and shoes and fix the meal before I went back to volunteer at my youngest's class at 10.30am. The mac and cheese turned out great, I couldn't taste it since I was on a fast so I need to wait for my kids to get back home to tell me how it tasted. I need to shoot off in the next 15 minutes to deliver my other sons lunch. The mac and cheese is still warm in the oven and I think he will like it although this lunch is way of his wrestling diet (he is doing wrestling this semester). I just feel sad that my daughter can't enjoy the food that I cook, especially mac and cheese which is also her favorite. Cant wait for her to come back home for the Christmas holidays and I can cook all her favorite food for her. I miss you a lot baby.

Mac n Cheese before going into the oven

Just out of the hot oven..Mmmm smells really good

Ingredients

1 cup of uncooked elbow macaroni (I used the small sized elbow macaroni)
2 cups of 2% milk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon of butter melted
2 teaspoons + 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
1/4 tsp of thyme, crushed
1/4 teaspoon of oregano,crushed
1/4 tsp of paprika
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper powder
1 cup of shredded jack or pepper jack cheese(I used the latter)
1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup of mexican shredded four cheeses

Direction

1. Preheat the oven to 350F or 180C.
2. Cook elbow macaroni as per package instructions until al-dente
3. Drain the cooked macaroni and rinse in cold water.
4. While the macaroni is cooking beat the egg and mix it with the milk and strain the mixture.
5. Next add the melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, paprika, pepper , thyme and oregano and mix well.
6. Add in the drained macaroni into the milk, egg and cheese mixture and mix well.
7. Grease a casserole dish and pour the macaroni mixture in. Mixture will look quite runny.
8. Top up the macaroni with the shredded mexican cheese, sprinkle a little bit of paprika and ground pepper and bake it in the oven for about 40 minutes. Leave to cool for around 10 minutes before serving.

Salmon Fried Rice

I took this recipe from Nami's blog from "Just One Cookbook". This is such a great , simple and absolutely delicious recipe. Since I always have salmon in my freezer, I just had to grab the salmon and the rest of the ingredients to make this dish.

Salmon Fried Rice

Ingredients

2 cups of cold cooked short grain rice
2 eggs beaten
1 stalk of green onions, chop the white and green parts separately
4 oz of salmon fillet
1 red jalapeno pepper
2 tsp soy sauce or to taste
2 tablespoon cooking oil

for the salmon marinade,

mix together:
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon white pepper powder

Directions

1. Cube the salmon fillet into 1 cm cubes and pour the marinate over the cubed salmon. Leave the salmon to marinade for about 1/2 - 1 hour.
2. After about 1/2 or 1 hour of marination, lightly oil a grill pan and grill the salmon cubes. Once the salmon is done, remove from the pan and keep aside.
3. Heat a wok with 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and scramble the beaten egg. Remove the scrambled eggs from the wok and keep aside.
4. Heat the other tablespoon of oil and add the chopped white part of the green onion.
5. Add the cold rice, scrambled eggs, sliced red jalapeno pepper and stir fry for a minute or two.
6. Add in the grilled salmon and season the fried rice the soy sauce.
7. Finally add in the chopped green onions and fry for another 1 minute.
8. Dish up and serve,

Sri Lankan Semolina Christmas Fruit Cake

My brother is visiting us with his wife and daughter. This is our first Christmas here and we feel so honored to have him and his family celebrate the holidays with us. While chatting with my sis in law, she mentioned that one of her Sri Lankan aunties from UK had made a delicious Semolina Fruit cake. I was so tempted to try it so I googled up some recipes and came out with my own version. I think the Sri Lankan fruit cake has cardamom powder added to the cake. I did not add cardamom in my fruit cake simply because I don't like cardamom flavored cakes. My sis in law said that it was very good and quite similar to the one her aunt made. I was quite pleased with my effort.

Nutty Fruity Semolina Fruit Cake

Fruit Cake - cut up for storing

Ingredients

for the fruit marinade:
250g raisins
125g blackcurrants
125 orange & lemon peel
125g  red cherries
125g green cherries
1 cup chopped or halved cashew nuts
1 tbsp rose essence
1 tbsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp almond essence
1/2 cup brandy or rum (I used rum)

Put all the ingredients above in a zip lock bag. Shake it well and leave it t marinate in the fridge for at least a day. I left mine in the fridge for a few days. Actually I left it in the fridge until it was Christmas day and I forced myself to bake the Christmas cake. Well....my so called lazy mood... ;)

for the Cake
2 1/2 + 1/2 sticks of salted butter (113g per stick)
240g  dark brown sugar
2 tbsp of golden syrup
220g of semolina
80g of all purpose flour + 1 tsp of mixed spice, sifted together
5 large eggs, at room temperature


Directions
1. Roast semolina under medium low heat with 1/2 a stick of butter until you get a nice nutty smell. Refer to picture below. Leave it to cool.
2. Beat butter, sugar and golden syrup until light and fluffy.
3. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Beat in vanilla essence.
5. Mix the cooled roasted semolina with the flour and spice and add it to the butter-egg mixture, alternating flour and the marinated fruits and nuts.
6. Line a 9 x 9" cake tin with four layers of grease proof paper.
7. Pour cake batter into 9 x 9 " into cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 300 F for about 21/2 to 3 hours or until a skewer inserted inside the cake comes out clean.
8. Once cake is done immediately remove cake from the oven and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of rum.
9. Cool well before refrigerating. Cut the cake when it is cold otherwise cake will be crumbly.
10. Cake tastes better after a few days. Enjoy :))

Semolina roasted with butter

Applewood smoked Pulled Chicken

This recipe is another one of my family favorites. Everyone loves it, so do I but I just keep to the cooking and not the eating. I usually make it without the smoked applewood since I dont have a smoker or grill at home, however I decided to try smoking the chicken in the oven after eating applewood smoked pulled pork at Subway.

Boneless chicken breasts marinated with garlic powder, black pepper and lime juice

Dry Mix

Chicken thighs marinated with the dry rub and onto the smoking skillet for searing

Chicken thighs being seared on the hot skillet

Tomato Sauce and Chipotles in Adobo Sauce

Seared chicken thighs, tomato sauce, mustard, barbeque sauce and chipotles

Damp applewood chips wrapped in foil and ready to go into the oven

After about 2 hours of cooking in the oven. I removed the foil with the applewood chips and I started hitting the meat slowly with my spatula 

All the chicken thigh meat is pulled out and mixed with its sauces

Wallah...delicious applewood pulled chicken with creamy coleslaw on a soft bun

Ingredients

Marinade for the chicken thighs
3 lbs of boneless chicken thigh, remove excess fat and clean (I used organic free range chicken)
2 tbsps garlic powder
1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
juice of 1 lime

for the dry rub (mix everything together)
1 cup of brown sugar
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp paprika powder
2 tbsp onion granules or onion powder
1 tsp cumin powder

For the sauce:
1/2 cup barbeque sauce
1 tbsp French's yellow mustard
1 454g can of tomato puree
1 tbsp of onion granules
2 tsp chipotle paste (I ground "chipotle peppers in adobo sauce". It comes in a tin and you can find it in the hispanic aisle in at the supermarket)

to smoke
Applewood chips

Some kaiser rolls
Creamy coleslaw

Directions

1. Heat a dry cast iron skillet on high heat until it starts to smoke
2. In the meantime, take the dry rub and rub all over the chicken thighs and arrange them on a plate.
3. When the skillet is smoking, pour 1 tbsp of canola oil and grill the chicken thigh with the dry rub,  a few pieces at a time. Once the bottom part of the chicken i browned, turn it over the brown the other side. We dont have to cook the chicken, but just brown the sides.
4. Once the chicken thighs are browned on both sides, remove them from the skillet and place them in a nice dutch oven or casserole dish. I used my Le Creuset large casserole pan which works great for this dish.
5. Once all the chicken thighs are browned, add the sauce mixture to the browned chicken thigh and give it a good mix.
6. Next take two layers of heavy duty aluminium foil over a clean plate and place some damp applewood chips(spray some water over the chips) on it and wrap the foil tightly. Poke some small holes on the top of the foil and place it on top of the chicken. I used this method to get the applewood smoke into my chicken.
7. Place it an oven and set the temperarure to 250F. Cook the chicken for about 2 hours or until the meat is very tender.
8. Once the chicken is done, take it of the oven and remove the applewood wrapped foil.
9. Remove the chicken thighs and hit the chicken thigh gently with a silicone spatula  or pull it with your fingers to separate the meat. This should be pretty easy if the meat is very well cooked
10. Put the pulled chicken back into its sauce and taste for salt and sugar. Add more barbeque sauce if needed.
11. Serve on a toasted kaiser roll topped with some creamy coleslaw and enjoy.

Home Made Candied Lemon and Orange Peel

When my brother and his family were visiting us, my sis-in-law mentioned that she just loved sugee fruit cake. I decided to make some sugee/semolina fruit cake for her but I did not have any fruit mixes and I couldn't find any at the store. So I googled up some recipes to see what proportions of dried fruits I should use. That part came easy but I also had to get some candied lemon and orange peel. Again I googled up some recipes and made my own candied lemon and orange peel for the cake. It is best to keep the candied peel for a few days before adding it to the cake.

Candied Orange Peels

Ingredients

100g of lemon peel, cut into small cubes
100g of orange peel, cut into small cubes
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
1 tsp of lemon juice.

Directions

Boil sugar, water and lemon juice until sugar syrup is quite thick or reduced to 1/3. Add in the cubed orange and lemon peel and boil syrup for a further 2-3 minutes. Cool and refrigerate.

Bottled Candied Peels