Lor Mai Kai - A Cheat's Version

Dear Whosurmommma ...

I know you are far away and is craving for your local Singaporean dish of Lor Mai Gai or Nasi Tim as they call it here in Indonesia .. Here's a quick recipe for 4 portions.

Here's my cheat's way of making it..

1) Soak 1 cup of Glutinious rice (ketan putih) with water in a bowl that fits your steamer. Add more water to the rice if it's soaked. Leave it for about half hour. 

2) Heat your steamer and cook the the bowl of glutinous rice for 15-20 minutes. In the meantime, prepare your chicken & mushroom topping.

Ingredients required:-

1 chicken breast, sliced 

2 shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 small onions or 2 shallots, chopped

1 garlic, minced

2cm ginger, minced 

3) Place the chicken, mushrooms, a bit of ginger, garlic and onions to marinate with 

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon dark soya sauce

1 teaspoon light soya sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1 tablespoon corn flour

4) Sautee the balance onions, garlic & ginger in oil until softened. Add the marinated chicken mixture. 

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon dark soya sauce

1 teaspoon light soya sauce

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp black pepper

A pinch of 5 spice powder (optional)

Salt & white pepper according to taste

5) Add the above ingredients and salt to taste.

6) Remove cooked rice and divide into 4 portions. Portion the chicken into 4 as well.

7) Spread the chicken & mushroom mixture at the base of your bowl.

8) Spread the rice 

9) Spoon some sauce over the rice while smoothing the top. 

10) Steam for 20-25 minutes 

11) Remove from heat, flip onto plate and drizzle Sriracha sauce!

Espresso Marshmallows

This is so fun to make!! Especially with the kids and they love using the hand whisk than our standing mixer!

Firstly, get your espresso machine out!

I used Espresso Intenso for Dolce Gusto or you can opt for other espresso.

1/4 cup of espresso 

1/2 tsp vanilla 

3/4 cup sugar

Heat on low until sugar dissolves. 

3 gelatine leaves , soaked 

Remove from heat and add the soaked gelatine.

Pour into mixing bowl

 Whisk until really frothy! Took me about 5 minutes.

Pour onto container that's covered with cling wrap and spray with PAM or oil. 

Chill it in the fridge for about 2 hours.

To remove the marshmallows, first dust your cutting board with icing sugar and corn starch. Flip the block of mallows. 

Dust again with icing sugar and corn starch and start slicing. 

Eat it on it's own, in s'mores or as topping for your hot chocolate !

Roti Kirai (Asian Crepes)

The other day the boys wanted roti kirai or roti jala as it's known across our causeway .. It's really simple .. And as you would have guessed I use my blender for everything!

All you need is to dump all the ingredients in the blender, blitz and let the dough rest for at least half an hour.

1 egg

2 cups warm water

2 cups milk (I use full cream!)

2 3/4 - 3 cups flour 

1 teaspoon salt

A few drops of yellow food colouring 

 There.. Batter all done! I've made many batches using evaporated milk which is yummy but using fresh milk and warm water makes the dough surprisingly soft! So try it out and see what suits you!

You do need the special tool to make your roti kirai.. It's a scoop with small funnels !

 

Use a non stick pan for this and what I do is fill a bottle spray from IKEA with oil so that I can just spray before "kirai-ing". 

Yes .. I'm too lazy to use a brush!

Swirl the batter on so that you get a web-like crepe. Cook for a about a minute on each side. Do not burn it! You don't want it crispy but a soft crepe to go with your curry and salad... 

Sambal Goreng Udang

Today I decided to cook Nasi Sambal Goreng! That's white rice with sambal goreng, serunding (spicy shredded coconuts) with assorted accompaniments like fried chicken, bagedil (potato patties), paru goreng (fried lungs) & sambal.

Here's a simple recipe for sambal goreng with prawns. 

Blend the following ingredients and sauté until fragrant.

3 onions

2 garlic 

2 inches lengkuas

1 inch ginger

10 stalks dried chilli, soaked (more if you want your sambal goreng really spicy)

1 inch 2cm belachan 

3 stalks chilli, sliced

2 lemongrass root, bruised 

Once the spices are "crispy", add sliced chilli and lemongrass.

1 teaspoon tamarind mixed with water

1 cup water

2 teaspoon salt or to taste

1 tablespoon sugar

100ml coconut cream

200g prawns

Add the liquid ingredients and simmer for a bit before adding prawns. 

Pre-fry tempe and tofu with a bit of salt.

I also love adding sliced French beans 

Tempe 2 blocks , diced

Tofu 5 small blocks, diced

French beans 

Once prawns are cooked, add in the tofu & tempe and lastly the French beans.

Anzac Biscuits

I haven't had Anzac biscuits in ages and the worse thing is I don't have Golden syrup in my pantry so what I did was alternate the golden syrup with a combination of corn syrup & maple syrup! 😍

Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup brown sugar 

1/4 cup coconuts (you can use dried but I used fresh shredded coconuts)

Melt the butter in a microwave. Add in the syrup, water and soda into the melted butter.

60g salted butter

1/2 tablespoon maple syrup

1/2 tablespoon corn syrup

1/2 tablespoon water 

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

Mix well and roll into balls about 2 inches apart as these will expand. Flatten slightly with a fork. 

Bake for 20 minutes on 170 degrees. Let cool and these will crisp up! 

Lontong with Sayur Lodeh

Again ... Every family has their version ... 

This is mine ... Most times I simply use the instant ketupat or lontong from Nona. Boil in the rice cooker (yes I'm lazy like that) with a teaspoon of salt and 1 bay leaf for about 90 minutes. 

Make sure the water is enough to cover your ketupat! My rice cooker can hold about 15 mini ketupat or 4 large lontong packets.

Cool the ketupats for at least 2 hours before serving or cook the night before. 

For the kuah lodeh, blend the following ingredient into a paste. Sauté in oil until fragrant.

2 large onions

2 cloves garlic

2 inch lengkuas

2cm fresh turmeric 

6 pieces of dried shrimp, soaked

10 Ikan bilis, soaked

2cm belachan

1/2 tsp coriander seeds 

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 cup water

2 chillis, sliced

1.5-2 litres of water

200ml of coconut cream (Kara)

1 bay leaf

2-3 tsp salt (to taste)

2 tablespoon sugar

1 tsp tamarind paste mixed with water

Once the sautéed ingredients are nice and "crispy", add water and sliced chilli. Let it simmer and add in your veggies, coconut cream, bay leaf, tamarind and season accordingly. Simmer until vegetables are tender but not soggy.

Note that the gravy will thicken once cool. 

The veggies may vary according to your preference. If you buy from the hawkers, it's usually just cabbage, tofu, carrots and long beans.

For me it's :

Carrots, sliced

Daikon, julienned

Tempe, fried tofu

French beans

Woodear mushrooms , soaked

Lily buds (kincam or sedap malam) soaked

 

Serve sliced lontong with gravy, topped with serunding (spicy shredded coconuts), bagedil, paru goreng, boiled eggs and Sambal.

Pearl Sugar Brioche Loaf

Was so looking forward to some hot brioche and salty butter to start my day but I got hungry waiting for the loaves to rise! 

Anyway these are really simple brioche. You need a mixer with a hook attachment or very strong arm power :-)

1/4 cups warm milk

1 tablespoon instant dry yeast

2 tablespoons flour

Place these 3 ingredients in the mixer bowl, stir and wait for it to froth for about 5 minutes.

2 cups flour, sifted

2 tablespoons icing sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs 

2 tablespoon milk

Add all of the above and knead for about 5 minutes until it all comes together. Then add in the butter and knead for another minute until the butter is combined.

6 tablespoons softened unsalted butter

Place the dough in a greased bowl and let it ties for 30 minutes. 

Once the dough has doubled, with floured hands, roll half the dough into 3 equal balls and place it in a well greased loaf. 

Leave the dough to rise for 1 hour to 1.5 hours depending on the humidity of your kitchen.

Egg wash the top of the loaf and sprinkle liberally with pearl sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes on 170 degrees pre- heated oven or until the brioches turn a lovely golden hue. 

These are my beautiful pearl sugar specially flown in by my lovely cousin from Melbourne! 

You can use the other half dough to make brioche buns or simply 2 loafs of brioche.

For the buns, I divided that half portion of dough into 4 small logs, and twist into a knot. Let it rise after an hour or so, egg wash and sprinkle with pearl sugar. Bake and enjoy! You can also omit the pearl sugar and use the brioche buns for a decadent sandwich!

Acar Nanas (Pineapple Salsa)

This makes a great accompaniment to briyani, nasi minyak and even rendang! Totally forgot to post this last week!

All you need is half a pineapple. Sliced it down from the top to the core and then slice it across from bottom to top and you get nice small chunks of pineapple.

Or if you don't understand my instructions, just chop it any way you'd like.

1/2 onion, chopped

2 stalk chillis, chopped

4 stalks of cilantro, chopped

1 tablespoon sugar,

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vinegar

Just mix everything together and you get a refreshing side dish to go with your spicy main dish!