For the Love of Cooking - Onde-Onde (Ondeh-Ondeh)

I made onde-onde (or something I call "pop pop") from my left over home made pandan extract.

Onde-Onde is a popular nyonya kuih (kuih means desserts in Malay language) which is believed to be originated from Malacca. One can taste 3 different textures and flavours in one bite. The outer layer of the kuih is coated with crunchy and slightly salty grated coconut, the middle layer which is made from pandan flavoured glutinous rice dough is quite chewy but neutral in taste, while the inner filling is what gives the ultimate sweet surprise.

I personally like to call it "pop pop" because when you bite on it, this cute little ball will "pop" in your mouth, and its deliciously rich, melted palm sugar filling just oozes out...leaving you a mouthful of sweet satisfaction. Absolutely yummy...!

Onde-Onde

Ingredients:

For Dough:
Glutinous Rice Flour	200 g
Water	150 ml
Home Made Pandan Extract	1 tbsp (or judge from the colour of the dough)
For Filling:
Palm Sugar (Gula Melaka), finely chopped	100 g
For Coating:
Freshly Grated Coconut	50 g (or enough to coat the ball)
Salt	1 pinch

Method:

1. Mix freshly grated coconut with a pinch of salt, steam for 5 minutes, and set aside to cool.

2. Finely chop palm sugar so that the filling will melt more evenly when cook.

3. In a bowl, combine glutinous rice flour, water and pandan extract, and knead lightly into a workable dough. (Feel free to add more water if the dough is too dry, or add more rice flour if it's too moist)

4. Divide the dough into 20-25 smaller pieces (about 15g each).

5. Flatten each small piece of dough into discs of about 2-3 inches in diameter.

6. Fill the center of the flattened dough with palm sugar and make sure the filling is well covered so that it will not leak when cooked. 

7. Slightly roll the stuffed dough in palm of hands to form small balls.

6. Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the glutinous rice balls in the boiling water. 

7. The rice balls will float to the top when cooked. Let it cook for another 2-3 minutes to make sure the palm sugar filling has melted.

8. Remove the balls from boiling water, and coat with a generous layer of steamed coconut.

Notes:

1. Brown sugar can be used as substitution if palm sugar is not available, as they share similarly rich caramel flavor. I personally prefer palm sugar for its smoother and more rounded taste, while brown sugar gives you a stronger and sharper caramel flavor.

Palm sugar is made from sap collected from the buds of coconut/palm tree flowers

Brown sugar is made by adding molasses to refined cane sugar

For the Love of Cooking - Pandan Kaya

Received some Pandan leaves from my in laws yesterday, so I processed the juice into home made pandan extract to be used in a few coming recipes. 

* Home made pandan extract can be kept in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks, and it is rather easy to make, perhaps I can share the methods in coming posts. 

One of the first desserts that I made from this sweet-smelling home made pandan extract was Pandan Kaya. 

Kaya is a rich, smooth and creamy jam/spread made from coconut milk, eggs and sugar, which originated from South East Asia. There are two most popular versions of kaya: pandan kaya is made by adding pandan extract, which gives the kaya its vivid green colour and distinctive aromatic flavour; if caramel is used instead of pandan, then you will get a brow colour caramel kaya.

Pandan Kaya

Ingredients

Eggs	4 (Large) / 5 (Medium)
Sugar	280g
Home Made Pandan Extract	10g (or judge from the colour)
Coconut Milk	400ml
Salt	1 pinch
Butter (optional)	1 tbsp

Method

1. Beat the eggs and sugar together, then mix in the coconut milk.

2. Add pandan extract until the mixture reaches the desired green colour.
3. Prepare a double boiler. Fill the base unit with water and bring to boil.

4. Add kaya mixture to the top unit of the double boiler.

5. Stir every 5-10 minutes for about 1 to 1 1/2 hour, or until the mixture turns into a smooth, thick paste. 

Metal bowl over a pan

Notes: 

i.  Butter is optional. I add it for extra richness and for smoother texture.

ii. Home made pandan extract may vary in concentration and colour, so please feel free to adjust the amount of extract used, by judging the colour of the kaya mixture. If you like a depper colour kaya, use more pandan extract, and vice versa.

iii. The colour of the end product will usually be 1-2 tone greener compared to the initial liquid mixture.

iv. If you don’t have a double boiler, any metal or glass bowl that fits snugly over the top of a saucepan can be used. 

iv. Home made kaya can be kept in the refrigerator for 1-2 months.

After 2 hours of hard work, finallly it's time to enjoy the yummy kaya with a piece of bread and a cup of coffee...

For the Love of Cooking - Marble Cake

It was a beautiful Saturday.

Hubby and I woke up in the morning, spent some time fooling around in the bed, then headed to Klang Wai Sek Kai for a Char Kuey Teow brunch. 

With a full stomach, we went to Jusco for some weekend shopping. Hubby bought 2 pairs of pants for me, some BB stuff for BB, and nothing for himself.

Then it’s nap time. Feeling fresh from my quick nap, since hubby still Zzzz, I decided to bake a cake – marble cake. 

Marble Cake

Ingredients:

Butter	115g
Sugar	200g
Salt (after reduced)	3g (1/2 tsp)
Flour	250g
Baking Powder	9g (2tsp)
Egg (A Size)	3
Milk Powder	75g
Water	160ml
Vanilla Essence/Extract	5ml (1tsp)
Cocoa Powder	35g

Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Dissolve cocoa powder in a little bit of hot water until well-dissolved into a mud like paste. This is an optional step, I usually do this to eliminate any lumps from the cocoa powder, and to make sure it dissolves well.
3. Dissolve milk powder in 160ml of warm water. Set aside to be used later.
4. Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer until pale yellow in colour and fluffy.
5. Add eggs to butter-sugar mixture, one by one, until roughly incorporated.
6. Sift flour and baking powder. Also, this is an optional step, to remove any lumps, loosen up the flour and to mix the baking powder with the flour.
7. Gently stir in 1/3 of the flour to the butter batter, alternate with 1/3 of the milk; continue for 3 rounds until you incorporate all the flour and milk into the batter.
8. Divide the smooth batter into 2 equal portions: 1/2 as vanilla batter, 1/2 as chocolate batter.
9. Add vanilla extract to the vanilla batter, and the dissolved cocoa powder to the chocolate batter.
10. Intersperse globs of vanilla batter with chocolate batter into the baking pan.
11. For the marble effect, use a spatula or chopstick, twirl the batter together in a few figure-eight motions. Do not over stir, or you will get a well-mixed light chocolate batter.
12. Bake in oven at 180°C, for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Voila! In less than an hour time, we got to enjoy a moist marble cake with a strong chocolate flavour!

T had a bite. Oops...It's a bit too salty

I give myself 70% for the cake. The taste of the cake was fine, but I could have used a bit less salt. I think I should reduce the amount of salt from 9g to just 3g next time, as I was using salted Planta margarine instead of unsalted butter required in the original recipe.

I like free and easy Saturday like this one…Happy Saturday = happy family day!

For the Love of Cooking - Carrot Cake

This was my first attempt to bake a carrot cake. Thanks to Mimi's recipe, I would say it is quite an easy cake to make, and taste extremely yummy and moist.

Like usual, I've made some adjustment here and there to the original recipe, eg. adding 1 more egg, cutting the amount of sugar and adding some honey, used almond instead of walnut etc. I always feel that cooking is like an art, we need not to stick to the rule too strictly, just do what you like and enjoy process.

Hubby had 2 slices of the cake and likes it very much. He kept saying yummy yummy...and rewarded me with a "chip" on the cheek. How can I not fall in love with cooking... :)

The Outcome !

Slices of Carrot Cake