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.