The Root

Bought tapioca the other day when I went shopping. Been such a long time since I ate tapioca. It is a very versatile ingredient. Many things can be made out of it, sweet or savoury.

I just love kuih bingka ubi. Have tried making the baked version 4 times. All 4 attempts were failures. Being a person who do not give up that easily, I tried steaming it this time. The result, SUCCESS!!!!

Kuih Bingka Ubi (Tapioca Cake)

What do we need:

500g tapioca
1/4 cup thick coconut milk
3 tbsp palm sugar
2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt

How do we do it:

Peel and finely grate the tapioca. Squeeze out the water content in the grated tapioca to get rid of the starch. Would make about 2 cups.

Mix the rest of the ingredients into the tapioca. Transfer the mixture into a greased pan. Steam on high for 30 minutes.

Cool completely before cutting into desired shape.

Bingka Ubi makes great breakfast or tea time snack.

The Fashion of Fusion

Fusion is a term which implies the combination of several cuisines in one dish. Fusion at its best allows ingredients from all over to be cooked and served together as a one plate dish.

Being a citizen of a multi-racial country, I literally grew up on fusion food. The food of the 3 main races are always mix matched to create a new hybrid dish or to just upgrade a dish to become more interesting and exciting.

My siblings and I do not fancy curries. My ex-office mates back home used to tease me; “Being an Indian, how could you not like curries?”. We do not like anything with curry powder. So, my mom has to be very innovative to create simple food that would attract us. She combines non-indian ingredients and cook them up with an indian touch.

For the FMR-Fusion event at Meenakshi’s Hooked On Heat, I am cooking up one of my family’s favourite fusion fish dish. This kind of simple food goes very well among us. Everyone of us would have a second helping.

Soy Sauced Fish

What do we need:

500g fish steaks
2 carrots
4 leaves of cabbage
1 onion
2 inches ginger
3 cloves garlic
3 dried chillies
1 cup water
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp sugar
salt
oil

Thickening:
1 tsp corn starch
1 tbsp water

How do we do it:

Cut the cabbage leaves into 1 inch pieces. Slice the carrots diagonally. Slice the onion into thick rings. Julienne the ginger and garlic.

Add salt and turmeric powder to the fish steaks. Heat oil and fry them. Set aside.

In the same pan, reduce the fish fried oil to just 2 tablespoons. Sautè the ginger, garlic and the dried chilles until aromatic. Add the vegetables. Stir to mix. Pour 1 cup of water and cook covered. When the vegetables are almost cooked, add the sauces and season with salt and sugar. Bare in mind that salt has already been added to the fish before frying it and there is high content of salt in soy sauce. Add the corn starch and water mixture. When the sauce starts to thicken, add the fried fishes. Stir gently but thoroughly to ensure all the fish pieces are coated with the sauce. Remove from heat.

Other than cabbage and carrot, any other hard vegetables could be used. French beans is a favourite.

Soy sauced fish best served with hot piping rice.

Weekend Baking Session # 5

Here comes weekend again. This time I’m baking a butter cake. Butter cakes are rich cakes and it could be quite sinful with the amount of butter. They are the easiest cake to bake. Hardly fail.

For this week, I have tried to infuse an extra flavour other than the buttery taste of the cake. I chose to use peach. Typically peach has a delicate aroma and acidic tang coupled with sweetness. I am using canned peaches as they are softer. I have lessen the amount of sugar in the recipe as the canned peaches are soaked in sugar syrup.

Peach Butter Cake

What do we need:

1 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 pieces canned peach halves

What do we do:

Purée the peach halves to make up to half a cup of peach purée. Chop the rest of the peach halves. Set them aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. Then, add the peach purée. Fold in the flour gently. Finally, add the chopped peaches and very lightly fold them in.

Pour the mixture into a greased and flour or paper lined loaf pan. Bake at 175° C for 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Remove from oven. Cool completely on a wire rack.

The cake is moist, buttery and peachy.

Red Alert

It’s Friday again. Felt great staying at home on a week day, like a housewife. Had to be home as my babysitter wanted a day off. I was excited and cooked twice, lunch and dinner. For lunch, I cooked a very simple one dish meal. As for dinner, I wanted something special and of course easy. Thought of roti but what roti? Checked out my pantry and finally made up my mind.

Tomatoe Roti

What do we need:

1 1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup bread flour
3 tbsp tomatoe purée
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin powder
salt to taste
water, as required

How do we do it:

Mix all the ingredients together. Knead slowly while adding water little by little, if necessary, until it becomes soft & pliable dough.

Divide the dough into 8 equal sized balls. Cover and let them rest for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough into discs. Place the rolled dough on a medium heated greased griddle. Cook for 2 minutes. Flip it over and cook for another minute.

Tomatoe Roti with Mushroom Stew

I like the colour of the roti, RED and love the taste.

Nibbles For My Toddler # 2

Mahisha turns 18 months today. Which means she is 1 1/2 years old. As usual, I planned to bake something for her. She loves dried fruits. I have done bakings using raisins, sultanas and apricots for her but never prunes. So, this time, I’m going to use prunes as the main ingredient. I make sure that I always use less sugar and healthy ingredients for her.

Prune and Yoghurt Muffins

What do we need:

1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt

1 cup coarsely chopped pitted prunes
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup plain yoghurt
3 tbsp milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

How do we it:

Mix the prunes and yoghurt. Let the prunes soak for 30 minutes. The reason is to soften the prunes and at the same time to extract the taste of the prunes.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.
Prepare muffin tray.

Grease the muffin tray with butter or simply place paper cups into the muffin holes.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg. Beat again. Pour the vanilla extract. Stir in the prune and yoghurt mixture. Mix thoroughly. Then, add the sifted flour mixture and milk alternately. Gently fold in after each addition, starting and ending with the flour.

Fill muffin holes with two-thirds full. Bake in a preheated oven at 180° C for 20 minutes or until golden in colour.

When baking muffins, always place a bowl of boiling water in the oven. If there are unused holes on the muffin tray, pour boiling water into it. The reason is that the steam from the boiling water creates moist in the oven to prevent warping.

Mahisha loves it. So do we.

It’s Spring !!!!

I went to Sri Lanka during Spring 2003, to visit my in-laws. Hubby’s aunt cooked up lunch for us once at her home. She made this terrific tomatoe salad. Though 3 years have passed, I just can’t forget the taste of the salad. Bought some totatoes to try making it.

This tomatoe salad is so simple and easy to make yet delicious. It has only 3 main ingredients. I added very finely sliced curry leaves for the aroma. Also to boost up the taste.

Tomatoe Salad

What do we need:

2 ripe tomatoes
1 onion
1 green chilli
1 sprig curry leaves
1/4 tsp sugar
salt to taste

How do we do it:

Slice all the ingredients very thinly. Season with salt and sugar.

Serve cold.

Weekend Baking Session # 4

Chiffon cake is my favourite type of cake. It is light, airy, spongy, soft and flavourful. It has a unique texture. To gain this texture, instead of butter, vegetable oil is used.

Traditionally, chiffon cakes are baked in tube pans but it can always be baked in round cake pans as well. As I do not have a tube pan, I too bake it in a round pan.

The rules when baking chiffon cake are, never grease the pan. Secondly, do not deflate the egg white when mixing, while it acts as an important leavening agent for the cake. Thirdly, after baking, immediately turn the pan up side down. The reason is to prevent the cake from shrinking and loosing it’s volume.

For this weekend, I choose to bake Coffee Chiffon Cake for the Weekend Baking Session as it is my favourite chiffon cake flavour. I have baked it many times. Even for our wedding anniversary last year, I baked and frosted a coffee chiffon cake. Hubby dear was very much impressed.

Coffee Chiffon Cake

What do we need:

A
1 cup cake flour or plain flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp instant coffee powder or granules
1/4 tsp salt

B
3 egg whites
1/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

What do we do:

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Dissolve the coffee powder in the milk. Add the rest of ingredients A.

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add sugar little by little and beat until stiff peaks form.

Fold 1/3 of the beaten egg white into the coffee mixture to lighten it. Then, pour the lightened coffee mixture into the remaining beaten egg white. Fold gently but quickly and thoroughly to combine both mixtures.

Pour the batter into an ungreased 8″ round cake pan. With a flat knife, quickly cut through the batter a few times to get rid of any very large air bubbles. Bake in a preheated oven at 175° C for about 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and immediately invert the cake pan and let it cool.

When the cake is completely cool, run a knife or a thin spatula around the sides of pan to loosen the cake from the pan.

Can be eaten plain or frosted with favourite frosting as per desired.

A Vegetarian Treat

Last week, I did an online chat with my brother. While chatting, asked him what did he eat for lunch. He said that he ate a super delicious vegetable briyani. It seems that there is an Indian restaurant that has opened it´s new branch in my hometown and the food are very tasty. I have got to try them on my next visit back home.

Vegetable briyani has stuck in my mind ever since my brother mentioned about it. As its Friday today, the only day in a week that I practise vegetarianism, I thought of cooking the briyani for dinner tonight. Cooked it directly in the rice cooker, for convenient purpose.

Vegetable Briyani

What do we need:

The Vegetables

The Spices

2 cups rice
2 carrots
2 potatoes
10 button mushrooms
3 baby corn
1 small broccoli
1 red capsicum
1 onion
1″ ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 green chilli
1 bunch coriander leaves
4 tbsp yoghurt
1/2 cup milk
2 cups water
1 tbsp ghee
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp fennel powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp poppy seed powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 1/2″ cinnamon stick
1 bay leave
1 star anise
2 cloves
3 cardamoms
a pinch of saffron
salt to taste

How do we do it:

Wash and soak the rice. Then, drain the water and set aside.

Soak the saffron strands in the milk. Set aside.

Dice the potatoes. Mix with a touch of salt. Heat oil and fry the potatoes until golden brown. Set aside.

Cut the rest of the vegetables in the same size. Marinate them with yoghurt, turmeric powder and a little salt for 10 minutes.

Slice the onion. Half the chilli lengthwise. Grind the ginger and garlic into a paste.

Heat the ghee. Fry cinnamon, star anise, bay leaf, cloves and cardamoms. Add ginger and garlic paste. Then, onion and chilli. Sautè until aromatic. Now in goes the marinated vegetables. Add all the spices. Cook for 5 minutes. Then, put the rice in. Fry for 5 minutes. Pour the milk and water. Sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves. Season with salt. Cook until rice is fluffy and does not stick together.

Vegetable Briyani with Tomatoe Salad

Serve Vegetable Briyani hot with raita or salad.

The Food That I´d Die For # 2

Everybody’s mother is their best cook. My mom too is a great cook. All my friends fondly remember her for her food. Just imagine how much I would miss it.

As she works the whole day, Amma cooks quick and simple food in the night. Most of her cookings are her own creation. Almost everyday we get to taste a different type of food which will not be available elsewhere. One of the many of her masterpieces is a dish made of curried eggy potatoes and achovies. This is one of the food that I’d die for. Each time she cooks this dish, she would have to cook an extra portion of rice while the normal portion would not be sufficient.

Suddenly, today, I had this fierce feeling that I have to eat it, now!!! Though I have never cooked it before, with the guidance of my memory, I managed to cook it up. Not bad I would say but nothing beats Amma’s.

Eggy Potatoes and Anchovies

What do we need:

2 potatoes, diced
2 eggs
3/4 cup dried anchovies
1/2 cup water
1 sprig curry leaves
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tbsp fish curry powder
1 tsp fennel powder
oil
salt to taste

What do we do:

Wash the anchovies and drain the water. Set aside.

Heat oil and sauté the sliced onion, garlic and the curry leaves. Add the washed achovies. Fry until it is aromatic. Now, put in the diced potatoes. Cook until the potatoes are almost cooked. Add the curry powder and fennel powder. Simmer until the liquid becomes nearly dried. Season with salt.

Push the potatoes to the side. In the centre, pour half a tablespoon of oil and break the eggs. Before the eggs start to set, quickly stir the potatoes and the eggs together to ensure all the potatoes and anchovies are covered.

Eggy potatoe and achovies with rice and stir fried red cabbage

Serve the eggy potatoes and anchovies with hot piping rice.

PuSiVa’S CuLiNarY StUdiO is 1 Month Old!!

It has been a month since I started blogging. This morning when I logged on, I was overjoyed to find that the visitors counter has already hit more than 2000. To me it is a great achievement. At this moment, I would like to thank all those out there, throughout the globe, who has visited my blog. I realise that I now have a few regular visitors who come in on daily basis, without fail. I highly appreciate all your comments and encouragements. To celebrate it, I present Carrot Halwa as a visual treat to all of u.

Carrot Halwa

What do we need:

2 cups carrots, grated finely
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp ghee
4 cardamoms, powdered
a pinch of saffron strands
slivered almonds, garnishing

How do we do it:

Heat ghee and fry the grated carrots slightly. Pour milk and sprinkle the saffron strands. Let it boil. Cook the carrot to soft paste stage. Now, add the sugar and continue cooking while stirring. Remove from heat when the halwa looks gooey.

Serve hot or cold garnished with slivered almonds.