Pasta

Salad

Moist Chocolate Cake

Yeilds: one 9 inch cake

3 whole eggs, beaten
3 egg yolks, beaten
175gm self raising flour, sifted
200gm butter, softened
30-50gm cocoa powder, sifted
150gm fine brown sugar

1. With an electric mixer, cream the sugar and butter till light in colour.
2. Add the beaten eggs (combine both) a little each time, ensuring it is well integrated each time.
3. Fold in the flour and cocoa powder. I use a metal spoon and fold in the same direction. I start from the middle and make a clockwise motion and end back where I started. Do not change directions as this will break the air pockets that havee been created.
4. Do not overfold. This will result in a rubbery texture. Stop once the flour has been integrated.
5. Pour into a well greased baking tin (or line with baking paper) and bake at 150C for about 45min.
6. When a skwer inserted comes out clean or u can see the sides have retreated a little from the tin, turn off the heat and keep the cake in the tin, in the oven for about 5-10min.
7. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely before storing.

Many recipes call for an oven to be at 170 to 190C. I prefer to reduce the heat and allow a longer baking time. This prevents the cake from drying out and burning and forms a nice even top.

Butter cake - same method, just replace the cocoa powder with the self-raising flour.
Marble cake - same method as butter cake. Aportion out an amount and add cocoa powder. Scoop both mixes randomly. Use a wooden skewer to swirl around the mix, creating the marbling effect.

Cucumber Kerabu

1 local cucumber, sliced rojak style
2-3 shallots, sliced
1 red chilli, sliced
juice of 3-4 small limes (calamansi)
sugar to taste

This is a very simple nonya (side) dish. Just toss everything together and chill in the fridge. Great accompaniment to spicy dishes. My mom used to make this pretty often when I was a kid, especially on days when she cooked curry. Sedap nya...manis, pedas, sour....mmmmm....my saliva glands are going into overdrive as I type.

Onions

There are so many onions available these days. Bottomline, they do add sweetness to your dish, soup, stew etc. but the degree of sweetness varies according to the colour. This is my deduction, in ascending order of sweetness:

1. shallots
2. Small purple onions (resemble shallots but are slightly bigger)
3. Red onions (great for relishes, salads, grilling)
4. Yellow onions (great for soups and omelette)
5. White onions (great for grilling, onion soup)

Pearl onions are smaller versions of white onions but in terms of sweetness, are somewhere between 3 and 4. Great for pickling too.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

This is the sweet and sour sauce I use to make sweet and sour fish. You can also use it for pork and chicken. For the fish, I use my salmon fingers recipe.

Sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
juice of 1 lemon
water
brown sugar to taste

Ingredients
1 small yellow onion
1 small japanese cucumber
1 small yellow or red pepper or both
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup pineapple chunks (fresh or canned)
1 tomato
corn starch (about 1tbsp of corn flour disoolved in 3-4tbsp water)

1. Slice the yellow onion into slivers. Chop the cucumber and peppers into chunks (skin on) and slice the tomato into segments. As for the pineapple, I prefer to use canned ones so that I can also add some of the syrup in the sauce to give that hint of pineapple.
2. In a hot wok, heat about 1 tablespoon of oil and add the onions.
3. When the onions are slightly brown and the fragrance comes through, add the cucumber, peppers and pineapple.
4. Add the sauce mix and stir in the corn starch till you reach the desired consistency. Bring to boil and the sauce is ready to be served.

For the sance mix, you need to taste the mix and adjust the sugar and sourness to your taste.
You can pre-make the sauce and re-heat before serving. Extras can be kept in glass jars and used withint 1 week. Or you can freeze it and use within a month.

Tip #1: To peel the onion easily, simply chop off the top and bottom. Slice the onion into two but not all the way through, leaving the last layer in tack. This will help you peel off the onion easily and beautifully.

Tip #2: To avoid having the onions make you cry and to prevent it from becoming soggy after leaving it to sit a while, slice along the grains (lines you see on the onions).

Green Bean Soup with Sago

300gms green beans, washed
12 pieces pandan leaves
2-2.5l water
2-3 Japanese yellow sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
rock sugar to taste
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup small sago, washed

1. Tie the pandan leaves into 2 bundles and bring to boil with the green beans.
2. When it has reached boiling point, reduce fire to low-medium.
3. When the green beans start to split, add the sweet potatoes and sago and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to ensure the sago does not stick. Remove pandan bundles.
4. Add sugar to taste.
5. Optional - with fire turned off or on low, stir in chunks of kee chang into the soup before serving. This adds a golden hue to the sea of green and makes the dessert very filling.

You can do likewise for red beans, minus the kee chang and adding orange peel if desired.

Baked Salmon Fingers

I haven't been very concientious in keeping this blog updated but I think I must. I chanced upon another blog recently capturing recipes of various peranakan and non-peranakan dishes. The owner of the blog said she was doing it for the sake of her little daughter in the event she forgets the recipe as her memory fails, her daughter will be able to retrieve it from the blog. What a brilliant idea!

This is Nicole's favourite fish dish. She can polish off 4-5 fingers in one sitting.

Ingredients
2 Salmon fillet (de-boned, de-skinned)
2 beaten eggs
bread crumbs or crushed cream crackers
salt and pepper

1. Slice the salmon fillet into fingers of about 2cm in width and 1cm in thickness. Yields about 15 to 20 fingers.
2. Marinade with salt and pepper.
3. Leave to chill in the fridge for about 15-30mins or longer if you have the time.
4. Dip each finger in the beaten eggs and coat with the bread or cracker crumbs.
5. Place on baking sheets and bake at about 170C for about 20-25min or till golden and the crumbs appear crunchy.
6. Remove and serve with your favourite dips. Great on its own as well.

I prefer using cream crackers as they give a crunchier finish. You can also add grounded herbs, chilli powder, paprika or curry powder into the crumbs for coating to give that different edge to the salmon fingers.