Beef Quiche

I think of all the quiches that I made, this is still the family favourite ...

Pastry dough

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

6 tablespoons iced water

With rubbing in method, add the flour, butter and salt and rub in until you get course grains.... Add the ice water bit by bit until you get the texture you like. Let the dough rest for 5 min. Roll the dough on a floured surface and flip onto your pie dish. Trim the edges and make sure the the dough is nice and smooth 

Poke with a fork and blind-bake them for 25 minutes on 170 degrees. 

Blind baking is to cover the raw pastry with a piece of grease proof paper and top it with beans so that the dough stays nice and flat throughout baking.

300g Minced beef

1 carrot (chopped)

1 onion (chopped) 

1 garlic (chopped)

Salt, black pepper, paprika

Sauté the onions and garlic in oil until fragrant, add the carrots and once a bit softened, pour in the minced beef. Season well with salt, black pepper and paprika.

Pour the minced beef on the pastry.

Quiche sauce

4 eggs (whisked)

355ml milk

(For a richer taste, you can substitute half of the milk with cream or evaporated milk)

Salt, pepper 

Red and white cheddar cheese (grated)

Whisk the eggs, milk and seasonings and pour over the beef mince, sprinkle generously with cheese and bake at 180 degrees for 35 mins or until the quiche is set. Serve with a side salad & dressing! Bon appetit!

Martabak Daging

Feeling peckish.... Porridge does that to me ... So here I am making martabak... Woot woot!!

Minced beef filling 

1 onion thinly sliced

2 garlic chopped

1cm ginger grated

300g minced beef

Sauté the above until the onions softened , add the beef.

2 tablespoons curry powder

1/4 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Add the seasonings and set aside.

Dough

2 1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup oil

1 tablespoon ghee or softened butter

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1 cup warm water 

Mix all the dry ingredients and add the water bit by bit until you get a soft pliable dough. About 5 minutes in a mixer or 10 minutes by hand. 

Portion the dough and let it rest for about half an hour... 

Oil your board or tabletop and start spreading one dough at a time and add more oil until it becomes a thin square or rectangular shaped dough. (At this point my hands were too oily for any picture! :-))

More sliced onions 

Spring onions

Eggs 

Minced beef mixture

In a small jug, crack an egg, add in some sliced onions, spring onions and about 2 tablespoons of the minced beef mixture (its good to season your beef slightly salty so that once its mixed with the egg, you don't need to season it again)

For an amateur, I find cooking a small portion of the filling on the pan first to solidify it and then placing it on the prepared dough and then adding more egg mixture before folding it makes it easier to be placed in the frying pan.

I used 1 egg per martabak

I made the first martabak like at the mamak stall by filling the dough with the eggy filling and the egg mixture started seeping out when I transferred it to the pan! Blearrghhh big mistake! So for all my other martabaks, I precooked half the filling and then add more before folding. That seemed to work!

Pan fry both sides until nice and golden .. 

Serve it with dahl, sambal or even chilli sauce! I like it with a side of sliced cucumber and onions in tomato ketchup.

This recipe yields 8 portions of martabak. So I par-cooked them and kept it in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow before pan frying them again! 

Dry Beef Noodles

Today i was sooooo craving beef noodles at The Banquet in Jurong Point. Its so awesome that i had to make it today. Of course its not even close in my opinions (im always critical of my own cooking) but the Hubs throughly enjoyed it ! But man the broth / beef brisket took 5 hours to cook! Don't be scared... 5 hours passes quickly if you started cooking other appetizers like I did ... :-)

For the broth,

1/2 chopped yellow onion

1 large shallot

1 tablespoon grated ginger

1 tablespoon chopped garlic 

Sauté the above ingredients in a bit of oil until fragrant.

1kg beef brisket or any part that you prefer - cut into 1 inch cubes 

Add the beef and sear all sides.

5 whole cloves of garlic

1 cinnamon stick

3 cloves 

2 star anise 

2 liters of beef broth / vegetable stock

1/2 cup chopped coriander

2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

Add the above ingredients and simmer for 5 hours, continuously adding more water to keep the water level above the beef. Once beef is really tender continue simmering until you get about 4 cups broth. Season with salt / pepper to taste 

For the gravy,

1 tablespoon garlic paste

1 tablespoon ginger paste

2 cups of beef broth

Sauté in oil until fragrant. Add the beef broth and let simmer. Add in the following seasonings.

2 tablespoon dark soya sauce

1 tablespoon light soya sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tablespoon oyster sauce 

1 tsp pepper

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 cup water (mix)

Add the cornstarch water mixture into the simmering ingredients and pour over your noodles. I couldn't find the laksa noodles here in Jakarta or the flat kway teow but I found Fortune's Hong Kong Noodles and I used that! 

If you decide to use the same noodles I did, all you need is a pot of boiling water, blanch the noodles in and once cooked, rinse with water to remove the starch and then pour the gravy in.

I blanched some cai sim, added sliced spring onions, lettuce and fried shallots over the noodles with a side bowl of that delicious beef broth! Don't forget your chilli! I sprinkled chilli flakes for more heat!