Kerabu Mee Hoon (Rice Noodle Salad)

This is a nyonya style noodle.  This highly appetising noodle dish is spiced up with aromatic herbs and a definate must, tossed with sambal belacan and calamansi juice. I can't get calamansi juice here so I replaced it with lime juice.  One can enjoy this dish anytime of the day, ie for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
This dish is not complicated to prepare but may have difficulty sourcing all the ingredients but that is not a problems you can either omit what you can't find or try substitutuing with another ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 350g rice vermicelli ( mee hoon)
• 20 large prawns
• 10 fresh kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
• 3 stalk lemongrass (use the bottom white part only), finely sliced
• 10 shallots, sliced thinly
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 torch ginger flower (bunga kantan), finely sliced
• 2/3 cup grated coconut, can be replaced with dessicated coconut if can't get the fresh one
• 1/4 cup dried shrimp, soaked
• pinch of salt or to taste
• 3 tbsp fish sauce

Sambal belacan spice blend:

• 6 tbsp sambal belacan
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• juice of 8 calamansi lime

Garnishing:

• handful of mint leaves, finely sliced
• red chilli, sliced
• calamansi, halved
• roasted peanuts, coarsely ground

Merthod:

Prepare kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, shallots, garlic and torch ginger flower. Combine into a large mixing bowl.

In a pan, toast the grated coconut until browned. Add to the mixing bowl.

Drain the dried shrimp and then grind in a food processor or pound in a pestal & mortar until coarsely ground. Then add into the wok and toasted for 2-3 minutes until fragrant and lightly browned. Transfer into the mixing bowl.

Blanch the rice vermicelli for 2 minutes or till cook. Transfer to a strainer & drain. Then add into the mixing bowl.

In a small bowl prepare the sambal belacan spice blend, mixing well to ensure the sugar dissolves. Set aside.

Add 1 tbsp of cooking oil in a wok and pan fry the prawns until cooked. Add to the mixing bowl.

Toss all the ingredients in the mixing bowl including the sambal belacan spice blend to combine. Add garnishing and disg out to serve. This kerabu mee boon can be serve cold too.

Coffee Cake

It's the end of National Baking Week today, therefore decided to bake something British. Went shopping the other day and I came across this bottle.

It says Chicory & Coffee Essence. Not knowing what is it, I bought the bottle and decided to google for it. Kerrrr Chinggggg.....found it on Wikipedia

"Camp Coffee is a Scottish food product, which began production in 1876 by Paterson & Sons Ltd. in a plant on Charlotte St, Glasgow. Almost one-hundred years later in 1974 businessman Daniel Jenks merged with Paterson to form Paterson Jenks plc. In 1984, Paterson Jenks plc was bought by McCormick & Company. Thereafter, McCormick UK Ltd assimilated Paterson Jenks plc into Schwartz. Interestingly, McCormick claims not to be the manufacturer on their main site, and the product can't be found on the Schwartz site either.
Camp Coffee is a glutinous brown substance which consists of water, sugar, 4% coffee essence, and 26% chicory essence. This is generally used as a substitute for coffee, by mixing with warm milk in much the same way as cocoa or added to cold milk and ice to make an iced coffee, but it is commonly found on baking aisles in supermarkets as it is also used as an ingredient in coffee cake and other confectionery.
The label is rather old-fashioned in tone, consisting of a drawing of a Gordon Highlander soldier (allegedly Major General Sir Hector Macdonald) and a Sikh soldier sitting down together outside a tent, from which flies a flag carrying the drink's slogan, "Ready Aye Ready". This slogan uses the form of the Scots "aye" meaning yes so the drink was "Ready Always Ready" to be made. Originally the picture depicted the Sikh as carrying a tray of coffee -- an intermediate version, with the Sikh standing but the tray missing was also used (see the fan site link below for this version of the label) -- it is widely believed that this was changed to avoid the imperialist connotations of the Sikh as a servant, although the company does not confirm or deny this. The original drawing was by William Victor Wrigglesworth.
Legend has it that it was originally developed as a method of brewing coffee quickly for military purposes.
Today Camp is a British icon of nostalgia, as many remember it from their childhoods"

Since it mentioned that this Camp Coffe is also used as an ingredient in coffee cake, I decided to google for a recipes that using this Camp Coffee and found a recipe at MyDish.

Ingredients:
For the sponge cake:

• 250g self raising flour
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 180g sugar
• 125g soft margarine
• 2 medium eggs
• 1/2 the juice of a lemon
• 3 tbsp Camp liquid coffee
• 100ml milk

For the icing:

• 140g butter, softened
• 270g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp Camp coffee

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180C/160C for fan.

Grease and line 2x20cm baking tins.

In a mixing bowl, mix margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the lemon juice, Camp coffee and milk and mix well.

Sift the dry ingredients together and blend into the mixture together with the eggs. Mix well throughly into a smooth mixture and pour into the prepared tins.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until springy to touch. The cake should just coming away from the sides of the tin. Leave the sponges in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

While the sponges are cooling, make the coffee icing. Beat together the icing ingredients until smooth. Put one sponge on a serving plate and spread half of the coffee icing. Top with the other sponge and spread the top with the remaining coffee icing.

 

Carnation Chocolate Fudge Cake

Found this recipe on goodtoknow website. OMG its so easy to make and yes cuts down on the saturated fat!!!! This chocolate cake recipe is based on an American recipe and uses oil instead of butter. I use ready make caramel from carnation and it makes the filling really easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 175g self raising flour
• 21/2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 2 eggs
• 130g castor sugar
• 150ml milk
• 150ml corn oil
• 2 tsbp vanilla extract
• 125g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solid)
• 397g can Carnation caramel
• 1 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C/160C for fan oven.

Base line 2x8" sandwich tins with baking parchment

Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate soda into a bowl and stir in the sugar.

In a jug, measure the oil and milk, then add the eggs, one tsp vanilla extract and mix together with a fork until combined. Beat 2 tbsp of caramel until smooth and whisk into the egg and oil mixture.

Combine the wet with the dry ingredients and mix well. The cake mix will be quiet wet. Pour the mixture into the tins and bake in the centre of thge oven for 20 minutes until springy to the touch.

Cool the cake in the tins for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack. Remove the baking paper and cool completely.

Melt the chocolate in a short bursts in the microwave, stirring until smooth. Add the remaining caramel and vanilla to the chocolate and beat well until smooth and glossy. Sift in the icing sugar and combine thoroughly.

Place one half of the cake onto a plate, spread with a generous amount of the frosting and top with the other sandwich half. Spread the remaining frosting over the top of the cake and down the sides to cover completely. Leave to set and cut into slices.
 

Tau Foo Fah

This is my favourite of all time. Too much work to do from scratch. However a dear friends of mine show me a cheating way to enjoy this delicious dessert. I think it should be called quick & easy tau foo fah....lol. Enjoy

Ingredients:

• 1 litre  of organic soya milk
• 7 fine leaf gelatine (Dr Oetker)
• 1 tsp sugar

For the syrup:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 pandan leaf

Method:

Soak the gelatine in cold water until soft.

Warm 1/2 of the soya milk in a microwave (but not until boil).

Add in the sugar and the soft gelatine. Gently stir until the suagr and gelatine dissolve.

Then gently mix into the cold soya milk. Put the mixture through a sieve and place it into a deep dish/bowl. Remember to be gentle so that you do not get the air bubbles on the tau foo fah. Finally when it cold, put it into the fridge for it to set.

For the pandan syrup:

Put pandan leaf in the water and let it bowl for a while. Then put in the sugar and stir until the sugar dissolve. When the sugar is cold, discard the pandan leaf.

Serve the cold tau foo fah with the pandan syrup.