I was never really a fan of carrot cakes all these while probably because I never had any good experience eating a good carrot cake out there. Maybe the thought of eating a “vegetable” cake deterred me from wanting to try this out compared to chocolate cakes or cheese cakes. Anyway, not any longer ever since we got ourselves a Fagor oven in our new house. Carrot cake rocks! More so when it is topped with lemon cream cheese frosting and eaten slightly chilled.

My wife made this a couple of weeks back and I’m now a fan of carrot cakes. Moist and nutritious, this carrot cake is laden with freshly grated carrots, sweetened pineapples, oven-toasted walnuts and plump raisins. I think the best part that there is no mixer involved (with a little caveat that a mixer would be required to prepare the frosting). Just get yourself a big bowl and spatula and give it a good mix ala manual

What makes this carrot cake so special that I have decided to call it the Ultimate Carrot Cake Recipe? Well, it’s been handed down from my mother-in-law to my wife, it tastes good as reported by many who have tasted this and most of all, one piece is never enough. Need I say more?

This is my mother-in-law’s recipe for Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 240 grammes carrots (grated)
• 120 grammes pineapples (tinned, drained and chopped)
• 60 grammes raisins (lightly chopped)
• 60 grammes walnuts (toasted, cooled and chopped coarsely)
• 240 grammes self-raising flour
• 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon powder
• 1/4 teaspoons nutmeg powder
• 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence (add to eggs)
• 3 eggs
• 210 grammes castor sugar
• 180 ml cooking oil

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 60 grammes butter (room temperature)
• 230 grammes cream cheese (room temperature)
• 230 grammes icing sugar (sifted)
• 1 lemon (grate the skin)

Method

Sift the flour with soda and baking powder. Add castor sugar.

Whisk eggs until frothy in a separate bowl. Add in vanilla essence.

Pour egg mixture into the flour and stir well. Then add grated carrots followed by cooking oil. Add in the chopped pineapples and stir well.

Then add in the raisins and walnuts.

Pour mixture into a greased and floured tray and bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to stand to cool before applying frosting.

Frosting

Put cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed till blended. Gradually add icing sugar (sifted) and continue beating until smooth.

Add vanilla essence and grated lemon and allow to beat till well combined.

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The Ultimate Carrot Cake Recipe

It does not matter whether it is black or white. Black Soybean also known as Black Bean or Black Soya Bean will give you a white looking milk just like its cousin, the soya bean. It may not be common for you to find anyone selling this drink out there but you’d be surprise to know that the cooking method is the same. If you know how to make black soybean milk, you will also know how to make soybean milk

The Black Bean Milk tastes quite similar to the common Soy Bean Milk albeit creamier. It is more expensive to purchase compared to the soy bean but once you’ve made a couple of litres of this, you will then realise that the vendors are making hefty profit out of this nutritious drink (hint : a couple of hundred percent profit). The hardest work involved is the milking process – when you have to squeeze out the milk / juice from the blended beans. Ensure that you get a good filter. I used a cotton coffee filter (the ones which Malaysians use to brew coffee in kopitiams).

Do not keep this drink longer than necessary. Overnight at the most, being kept in the refridgerator. Somehow, my gut feeling is that drinks made from beans are not supposed to last long especially if it did not go through any factory process. Anyway, if you are keen to impress your family or your weekend guests, give this drink a try. It’s nutritious and definitely delicious.

This is my wife’s recipe for Black Soy Bean Milk

Ingredients

• 500 grammes black soy bean (soaked overnight)
• a couple of pandan leaves
• 2.5 litres of water
• Sugar to taste

Method

Drain the black soy bean and place them in a blender. Add some water to cover the beans before blending them finely.

Pour blended black soy bean into a large bowl or pot and add remaining water. Strain / Sieve the contents through a fine muslin cloth.

Place sieved black soy bean milk into a pot, add the pandan leaves and bring to boil very slowly. Ensure that you stir the milk regularly to prevent burning. Turn off the heat immediately upon boiling and allow to cool.

You can either choose to add the sugar whilst bringing the black soy bean to boil or prepare syrup separately and add the syrup prior to drinking.

Serve hot or cold.

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Black Soybean Milk

It’s another Saturday and I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the market this morning. Seeing some fresh medium sized brinjals on sale, I couldn’t resist getting my hands into 5 of them, no longer than 8 inches each. So, shall it be sweet and spicy brinjals or another one of the tried and tested brinjal recipes I have attempted so far? Considering that my wife was baking a cake, the oven would have been set up just nicely for a brinjal roast!

I have seen roasted vegetables in cook shows though roasted brinjals are kinda rare. Meanwhile, spicy brinjals are quite common here but I thought I would take it one step further by roasting the brinjals instead. It’s my maiden attempt and I am glad to report that it received favourable reviews from my wife and my sister-in-law. Though the brinjals were roasted, it was still packed with moisture and juicy to bite. The combination of dried prawns, buah keras and other ingredients which made the topping was nicely roasted to a fragrant aroma and delivered a riot of taste with each bite. For those who are not used to eating hot food, you can choose to ease off with the chilli but for those who prefer it sizzling hot, just add more chilli.

I believe the Roasted Spicy Brinjals would be suitable eaten with porridge (I actually had them with plain porridge) or steamed rice and would look incredibly appetising in any parties. Give it a try and be amazed by how delicious such a simple dish could be.

This is my recipe for Roasted Spicy Brinjals

Ingredients

• 5 medium sized brinjals (cut into half lengthwise)
• 50 grammes dried prawns (lightly soaked and drained)
• 5 buah keras (candlenuts)
• 2 cm belacan
• 3 red chillis (chopped as finely as you can)
• 8 shallots
• 5 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• spring onion for garnishing

Seasoning

• Salt
• Castor sugar

Method

Pound dried prawns, buah keras, belacan, shallots and garlic until well combined. Set aside.

Heat wok and add oil. Saute the combination ingredients above until aromatic and the paste begins to brown. Add chilli and mix well. Turn off the heat and allow to cool.

Heat up oven to 180°  celcius. Meanwhile, oil a baking tray with olive oil.

Sprinkle salt and sugar lightly on fleshy part of brinjal and then coat the flesh with combination ingredients. Lay brinjals (skin side down) on baking tray. Roast for 20 minutes.

Serve hot.

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Roasted Spicy Brinjals

Another lala recipe? Forgive me but I am quite a fan of lala clams and since the lala clams were looking really fresh in the wet market, I couldn’t resist getting my hands on 1 kg of these sweet tasting clams. Initially, I had wanted to whip up a kamheong lala dish but later realised that I’d forgotten to get two of the essential kamheong lala ingredients : curry powder and curry leaves. Without those two ingredients, kamheong lala just won’t be kamheong lala. I’ll kamheong another day then.

Thankfully, as I rummaged through my kitchen, I found some lemongrass and ginger as well as freshly grown bird’s eye chillis. Mum recently moved to my old apartment and I am now babysitting two of her prized bird’s eye chilli plants. In case you are still wondering what is bird’s eye chilli, it is also known as cili padi – probably the hottest local chilli available in this region.

This recipe uses simple but aromatic ingredients which help to lend the dish a sweet and fragrant taste whilst masking any potential “fishy” smell – which is unlikely unless your lala clams are not fresh. Read this post to find out how to prepare lala clams before cooking. Now, though this recipe looks like a stirfry dish, with a little bit of imagination, you can turn this into a sweat inducing and appetising soup. Just add more of the ingredients and water

This is my recipe for Stir Fried Lala with LemonGrass and Bird’s Eye Chilli

Ingredients

• 1 kg lala clams (rinsed and washed thoroughly to remove mud, sand and grime)
• 2 stalks lemongrass (hammered with the flat side of a knife to bruise it)
• 5 cm of ginger (slivered)
• 3 shallots (chopped finely)
• 4 to 10 bird’s eye chilli / cili padi (cut lengthwise, remove seeds to reduce hotness)
• 1/2 to 1 cup hot water
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil

Seasoning

• Salt to taste

Method

Heat oil in wok. Add shallots, ginger, lemongrass and bird’s eye chilli. Stir briskly until shallots just starts to brown.

Add lala clams and stir well. Add 1/2 to 1 cup water and close the lid of the wok allowing water to reboil. Stir occasionally until lala clams open up.

Add salt to taste and dish up. Do not overcook the lala clams or they will turn rubbery.

Serve hot with steamed rice.

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Stir Fried Lala with LemonGrass and Bird’s Eye Chilli

This is a delicious and easy vegetable side dish, easy to cook and tastes really good. I used kailan (aka jie lan, Chinese broccoli, Chinese kale) – which is a popular vegetable in Chinese cooking. It is highly nutritious and has an inherently slight bitter taste (hence sugar is added during boiling to neutralize the slight bitterness).

As a result of brief boiling to cook the kailan, the vegetable is nicely cooked and retains its crunchiness while the dried scallops (kan bei) jazzes up the dish by making it sweeter and more interesting. I learnt this recipe from watching the local (Singapore) variety show三菜一汤and this was one of the dishes whipped up by Mediacorp artiste Michelle Chong. I was impressed with both her culinary skills and her recipe. I tried the recipe soon after watching the show and I really love it, so yummy. I made this from memory after watching the show so I am probably not following her recipe 100% but the end result is still good. Hope you like the recipe too.

This is the recipe for Kailan with Shredded Scallops

Ingredients (Serves 2-3)

• 300g kailan leaves
• ½ tablespoon chopped garlic
• 4 dried scallops
• Cornstarch solution (about ½ tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp plain water)
• 50ml stock/plain water
• Olive oil/vegetable oil
• Sugar

Directions

Give scallops a clean rinse, then soak them in a dish of water (just enough to cover) for at least half an hour to soften them.

In a wok or saucepan, add water (just about enough to cover the kalian), a bit of vegetable/olive oil and a bit of sugar. When water boils, add in kailan to cook for about 3-5 minutes until cooked (do not overcook). Take out the cooked kalian and arrange on a plate.

In a clean wok, heat a bit of oil and sauté garlic till fragrant. Use your fingers to separate the scallops strands and add in wok. Reserve the water from soaking the scallops.

Add water previously used for soaking the scallops, as well as some stock/plain water. Bring to a boil for about 2 minutes and thicken with cornstarch solution till the desired consistency. Drizzle the mixture over the cooked kailan.

Wiffy, a cheerful Singaporean lady who describes herself as a NoobCook dished out this recipe as my Guest Chef this time around. Yet, the food that she whips up certainly shows that she is not a noobcook as her recipes (which comes with great looking photographs) have been featured in a number of websites. Do check out the droolicious recipes on her site.

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Kailan with Shredded Scallops

When I was an undergraduate studying in the UK, you will always find me buying chicken wings almost on a weekly basis because it’s one of the cheapest chicken parts available. Apparently, for non-Asians, chicken wings are mainly for the grill rather than stir-fries. So, it has lesser demand compared to the chicken breast or drumstick.

Here in Kuala Lumpur, and probably other parts of Malaysia, grilled chicken wings are commonly found in Chinese coffeeshop eateries. Amongst the most famous is Wong Ah Wah Grilled Chicken Wings located at Jalan Alor Peel. But today’s post is not about Wong Ah Wah’s Grilled Chicken Wings. Today’s post is about how I finally started to use my brand new oven to cook something for myself whilst looking forward to sharing the same with all of you.

As always, I prefer something  simple and doable. So, this oven-grilled chicken wings recipe only requires ingredients which you can easily find and are likely to be sitting in your kitchen and fridge right now.  Feel free to experiment with the marinade as each person’s taste buds vary. Cooking time needs to be adjusted depending on the size of the chicken wings used and the portions to be cooked. A peek into the oven every 10 minutes to check for doneness would be recommended.

This is my recipe for Oven-Grilled Chicken Wings

Ingredients

• 5 chicken wings (medium size, cleaned and pat dry)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Marinate

• 1 – 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
• 3 tablespoons of ginger juice
• 1 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 1 teaspoon cornflour

Method

Place chicken wings in a bowl and mix well with marinating ingredients. Cover and allow to marinade in the fridge for at least 5 hours or overnight.

Heat oven to 150 degrees celcius.

Drizzle baking pan with olive oil before placing chicken wings on the pan. Sprinkle some black pepper powder over the chicken wings (optional).

Bake the chicken wings for 30 minutes or till cooked. To check whether the chicken wings are thoroughly cooked, take a sharp knife / chopstick and pierce through the most fleshy part of the wings till it reaches the bone. If clear juice runs out, it is cooked. If not, cook further.

Once chicken wings are cooked, remove juice from pan. Change oven setting to top grille at 200 degrees celcius and grille chicken wings till desired brownness.

Serve hot.

If desired, the juice which has been removed from the pan can be reduced in a cooking pan with a little cornflour.

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Oven-Grilled Chicken Wings

It has been a hectic past 3 months and I have not been able to update this blog with more delicious asian food. I will be moving to a new house soon (with a new kitchen fitted with an oven!) and you can expect more recipes to come your way once I settle down.

Anyway, I was back in Kuching early March and my mother-in-law cooked this dish which I found most interesting indeed. Here, we have the bitter gourd (some find it bitter, some insists that it is bitter sweet) given a stir fry and coated with salted egg to give it a unique light salted taste. The other interesting thing I found about this dish is that the bitter gourd is not sliced diagonally or sliced across but rather, the bitter gourd is sliced length-wise, not unlike the satayman who deftly slices cucumber to pair with satay. Basically, you hold the bitter gourd and slice away from you and slowly turning the bitter gourd clockwise or anti clockwise as you continue slicing through. The seed is discarded.

This recipe is easy to cook though I must confess that I did not taste it at all. In case you forgot, I am not partial to bitter gourd. Nevertheless, my wife loved it and there were no leftovers. If you are a fan of bitter gourd and you are bored with the usual bitter gourd chicken recipe, why don’t you give this recipe a try?

This is my mother-in-law’s recipe for Fried Bitter Gourd with Salted Egg

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized bitter gourd (sliced, seed discarded)
• 1 salted egg (break into a bowl and using a butter knife, gently cut the yolk into smaller pieces in the bowl)
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Seasoning

• Salt and pepper to taste (if necessary)

Method

Heat oil in wok till smoking hot. Reduce heat to low and add garlic. Stir briskly and add bitter gourd. Increase heat to high and stir well.

Sprinkle warm water once in a while to keep bitter gourd moist and cook until bitter gourd is limp or to desired softness.

Once bitter gourd is cooked to desired softness, pour salted egg over the bitter gourd and stir until salted egg is cooked. Add seasoning if desired.

Dish up and serve with steamed white rice.

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Fried Bitter Gourd with Salted Egg

Yee Mee or Yee Mein (in cantonese) is a type of dried noodles which looks like lengthy rubber-bands. They are brown in colour and usually come shaped like a small cake. It is usually cooked with some sort of rich gravy and in some food courts, you will find it being served on a sizzling hot plate. Though it is quite common, nevertheless, it is still not as popular as the yellow noodles, bee hoon or kuey teow. I think this may have to do with the taste.

In its sold form, the Yee Mee can have a distinctive muski-smell which some might find it a tad artificial. To reduce this “artificial” smell, it is recommended that the Yee Mee be blanched in hot water for a couple of minutes before plunging it into cold water prior to cooking it proper with sauces. You will find that the water used to blanch the Yee Mee will turn brownish and thoroughly unappetising.

In some parts of Malaysia, you can find what is known as Sang Har Meen (fresh prawn noodles) wherein Yee Mee is predominantly used. With that in mind, I decided to cook my very own Braised Seafood Yee Mein using fresh sea prawns and fresh lala clams. I could have boosted the taste further with fresh slices of fish meat and cuttlefish but I couldn’t get my hands on them. Anyway, home cooking is usually not so extravagant. Prawns and lala clams are good enough for this session.

This is my recipe for Braised Seafood Yee Mein

Ingredients

• 4 pieces Yee Mein (1 piece per person)
• 200 grammes lala clams (rinsed thoroughly to remove mud and grime)
• 400 grammes medium prawns (remove shell leaving head and tail intact. Devein. You can also shell it completely. No worries)
• 300 grammes of choy sum (rinse and cut into smaller sizes)
• 3 slices of ginger
• 4 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 500 ml hot water (for cooking)
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil

Seasoning

• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon light soya sauce
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon chinese cooking wine

Method

Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch Yee Mee for 2 minutes until semi-soft. Drain and plunge into cold / iced water. Drain.

Heat wok until smoking hot. Add 2 tablespoons oil and 2 teaspoons chopped garlic. As the garlic sizzles, add Yee Mee and stir briskly for 1 minute. Remove and set aside.

In the same wok, add 2 teaspoons chopped garlic and prawns. Stir until prawns have curled up by half. Remove and set aside.

Then add ginger and stir until aromatic. Follow by water and seasoning (except salt, pepper and chinese cooking wine). Bring to boil before adding Yee Mee. Stir well and cover with lid for 1 minute.

Add prawns, choy sum and lala clams. Stir well and cover lid again for an0ther minute. Add salt and pepper to taste followed by chinese cooking wine.

Dish up when prawns have fully curled up and lala clams have opened up. If gravy is too thin for your liking, add a little cornstarch to thicken.

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Braised Seafood Yee Mein