Waltzing w Yeast 3 : Durian Kueh Ambon 印尼榴莲蛋糕

What're u eating? 在吃什么?

吃不饱的. 怕胖要美

 Captivating irresistables

Fingerlicking good.....Durians aren't cheap here in Singapore. None is grown on our precious land. Largely, they are imported from Malaysia or Thailand. Rarely (rather not at all), you could find this kueh flavoured with pure durian. By chance if there is one, your palate is more likely to be doused by low end durian essence and a chemical taste stubbornly clings onto the cavity wall of your mouth throughout the day unless extinguish with a non-sugared tea. Having to endure this discomfort, I rather settle for the good old original.  

premium range

When the season (month of May) is in, the lower grade is very affordable for baking.  The premium ones are still best locked up for direct comsumption.  I somehow got tired of  durian butter cake and durian puffs which most people are drooling over, becoming standard items in bakery stores and cooking schools.  This search for an authentic durian piece taunted me for years till today I decided to endow upon myself the art of separating the mushy squishy flesh without the temptation to lick the fingers. The thought of the aroma lingering on the fingers deter most bakers into any attempt of baking the kueh with the puree.

absolutely delicious

Whatever...the marketplace welcomes this season of durian aroma in the air and the vendors with their thunderous and raucous voices, trying to earn some good $$$ before the nightfall and the fruits rotting.."lelong lelong lai lai lai". Durians are very perishable. 

The addition of pure durian to Kueh Ambon makes it more delightful than just santan only.The regular ambon dun appeal to me anymore. In past I went hunting for them in all kueh stalls in malls or wet markets, surely to bring home a piece in handbag if i spotted someone selling them, perfuming the bag contents with the aroma of santan. Only the tamchik people like me such wouldn't fuss over their wallet , makeup pouch , handphone smelling of food. A slice of delicious ambon was a jewel i proudly showed off  like a fisherman w his abundant catch.

instant yeast

Lately, I also caught on to the baker's yeast bug, reading recipes that use it as a main leavening agent..one after another on the internet every spare time available. This microorganism intrigues me in the joy of baking breads and the excitement of seeing the dough/ batter puffing and bubbling . I often prepare the final mix before sleep time and woke up to a beautifully fermented mix waiting to be baked or steamed. That 8 hours of sleep is so wonderfully sweet, knowing that something good is happening in my shoebox kitchen, very much like the Shoemaker n D Elves. My biological clock automatically sets itself and I happily dashed to witness a miraculous transformation of three simple main ingredients: flour, yeast, liquids. If you are searching for a non-gluten dessert, you got it.

This whole cake uses tapioca flour flavoured by the richness of coconut milk and durian. The spongy texture comes from the blend of tapioca flour and indeed a welcoming change of utilising wheat flour .

Serve this snack to your friends and you'll be showered with hugs and kisses...

Durian Kueh Ambon 印尼榴莲蛋糕

Recipe:

• 6 eggs
• 200g tapioca flour
• 1 1/2 cup thick coconut milk
• 1/4 cup fresh durian puree
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 275g sugar + 1/2 tsp 
• 1/4 cup water or coconut water
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 pc banana leaf
• 3 pandan leaves (optional)

Pointers: sieve flour avoid lumps....avoid hard durian flesh....

Workshop @ Palate Sensations Singapore - 65 64789746

Step by Step Video: 

food quote:  The belly rules the mind. -Spanish Proverb

Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste.  PaulaCookingFingers

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Soon Kueh 5 - Non-Teochew (starchy version)

There are two camps of soon kueh eaters hovering in my social circle. This recipe is for the non-Teochew clan.

Recipe:

100g wheat starch
40g tapioca starch
35g potato starch
25g rice flour

1/4 tsp salt
1/2 sugar
2 tbsp oil
340g boiling water

Dough and filling Preparation Directions: 
Read Teochew Soon Kueh

Workshop available @ Palate Sensations Singapore 

- tel 65 64789746

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Soon Kueh 3 - Hakka

A friend's request for this unknown soon kueh is talk of the town lately. Many would say,"never heard of" while fried abacus seeds is a hot fave of many, even you can't utter a vowel of Hakka. Yam is used in many of their cooking. Rarely this yam dough soon kueh is purchasable, reason likely to be the high cost of yam. 

Again we have another of get-together cooking session. A game of mahjong may appeal to many women as an excellent socialising activity, likewise a morning of kueh making with your buddies enrich the friendship and strengthen the bond. While waiting for the dough to rest and shredding the vegetables for filling, there is ample time  for conversation and catching up with each other's busy lives around the table and occasionally roar in laughters to some silly jokes.

From some research efforts, this soon kueh dough can also be achieved by the hot water method of mixing the mashed yam with tapioca flour, but the Hakkas are more fond of pinching out a small dough and boil it till it floats . The boiled dough is then kneaded into the main dough. I enjoyed eating this interesting texture from boiling method - it's spongy and slight chewy with the aromatic smell of the yam. Florence has such a recipe to share , so check her out .

Recipe @ Florence Blog

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Soon Kueh 4 : Teochew Cabbage

先来先吃  迟来没的吃

Lazy hogs and late raisers don't get a chance to buy these cabbage soon kueh from Yong's Kueh. By 9am, you could only see their customers enjoying them and a empty pot. Three trips over the last 12 months, I returned home with yam soon kueh instead. This morning , I decided to extinguish the nagging cravings and hence, sprung forth into my kitchen. These disc-like soon kueh were dished out of the steamer just awhile and onto to a serving platter for a snap. In a moment, I shall devour. 

Basically , I 'm using the Yam Soon Kueh recipe ie softer dough which would bring comforting news to the Pioneer Generation. Read the post for the dough details. The only difference lies in the shaping of the dough and filling. Shape of cabbage soon kueh is disc-like; simply press the outer one-third of the rolled dough thinner. The thicker centre is for the vegetable filling and the edges merely fold over and some pinches here and there to hold all within before inverting it.

a five-flours mix

add two-waters and oil to flours mix

a soft slight sticky dough

The choice of cabbage is preferable the white kind from Cameron Highlands. Chop the harder parts into smaller pieces or they'll be poking into the dough and there you'll get a hole. Korean mushrooms were abundant in the store this weekend and I grabbed a packet for a new mushroom flavour. Steaming time is 20 mins as well. 

thicker centre and thinner edges

get us to the steamer soon

Pointers: Do not add too much corn flour during rolling and wrapping, just very lightly dust hands and the kueh mould. 

Ingredients List

Soon Kueh Dough II-

• 100g rice flour
• 20g tapioca flour
• 5g corn flour
• 5g wheat starch
• 20g glutinous rice flour
• 180g boiling water direct from stove
• 70g tap water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp cooking wine
• 2 tbsp oil

Cabbage Filling:

300g white cabbage
2 pcs mushrooms
2 springs ku chye
some shredded carrots
10g dried prawns
50g pork rough minced - belly pork or "see no sky"
1/2 tsp chicken powder
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp soya sauce
1/2 tbsp cooking wine
1 tsp corn flour
3 tbsp water
3 1/2 tbsp oil
salt sugar pepper to taste

Workshop available @ Palate Sensations Singapore 

tel: 65 64789746

fun quote:  心旷神怡，事事顺利 xīn kuàng shén yí, shì shì shùn lì - a merry heart goes all the way.

Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste.  PaulaCookingFingers

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Huat Kueh with Purple Sweet Potato

Contributed by : Yuliana

又漂亮又好吃

Summer Bloom

Baking Kaki Yu is over the moon today! She had been toiling the past few weeks to perfect the making of Huat Kueh . Several recipes had been tested and achieved no success .  Each batch she passed on to me for evaluation, I  gave her encouragement to strive further. Her preseverance became the source of her success when she stumbled upon Hesti's Kitchen's post. Those kueh just bloomed in the steamer mighty high, gorgeous colour as well....three cheers for her yippee horay !! Yu translated the recipe in English, see below.

Recipe English version

Starter:

60g cake flour

110g water

12g instant yeast

Main batter:

390g purple sweet potato (steamed n mashed)

300g sugar

3 eggs

380g cake flour

300g warm coconut milk

pandan leaves

1/2 tbsp salt

Directions

• Starter: Mix all ingredients and let it rest 30- 40 mins. 
• Bring to boil coconut milk with pandan leaves. Switch off fire after slightly boiling. Set aside.
• Main batter: a) Steam purple sweet potato and mash it. Add brown sugar and salt. b) Mix them till sugar melts. c)Add beaten eggs slowly and mix to combine. d) Add the starter and mix them again. e) Alternately, add sifted cake flour and warm coconut milk and mix them into a batter. f) rest batter for 30 mins.
• Preheat steamer and oil cup moulds.
• Pour batter into each cup mould 3/4 full. Cut X with scissors on each batter surface  of each cup mould.
• Let water in steamer boil very fast then steam for 20 mins on high fire.

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Kueh Splendour 9: Apam Balik Durian

又有口福

Durian stalls are sprouting every corner in the heartlands' marketplace since month of May. Its distinctive sweet fragrance yet strong and penetrating smell lingers in the air and there is no way any non-durian lovers can avoid during the season. It's a tragic and sad to see them exhibiting negative appreciation while the rest of us are digging fingers into the custard-like flesh of the seeds. Musang King, a popular cultivar with bright yellow flesh and its highly potent taste has a hefty price tag to it. While enjoying the smooth and almost seedless one ($14 per kg) at the stall, I was also waiting for the inperfect ones to be sold at a song $5 per pack which I planned to stir into the apom balik batter. Returned home happily with a $5 pack in bag; and the next day , Yuliana and I had a great time dishing out these petite apoms to others' delights.

Step one, get hold of a medium size mixing bowl, sieve the flour, add in the salt, sugar, yeast and baking powder. Get a whisk and swirl them a few strokes for a even blend. In a small cooking pot, melt the crushed gula melaka and three knotted pandan leaves over low fire. Always sieve gula melaka syrup to remove the unknown inedibles and set aside to cool.  

Get both hands into disposable gloves to remove durian seeds. Avoid direct contact with the durian pulp. The durian smell stubbornly clings to the skin for at least two days and isn't aromatic as I described above. Combine water with durian pulp and gives it a quick blend. Lastly, combine the gula melaka syrup and durian pulp blend with the dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Using a whisk helps to achieve a smooth texture faster.

 

Heat up a frying pan or apam pan and lightly grease the surface. Fill two thirds with the batter and cook over medium low fire. Once the surface of the batter is dry, use satay stick to loosen edges and flip it to form semi-circle.

Ingredients List

150g top flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp instant yeast

1/8 tsp salt

pinch of sugar

100g gula melaka

3 pandan leaves

1 1/2  eggs - 55g size

200g coconut cream

260g water

100g durian pulp

fun quote:  心旷神怡，事事顺利 xīn kuàng shén yí, shì shì shùn lì - a merry heart goes all the way.

Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste.  PaulaCookingFingers

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Kueh Bangkit

What're u bingeing? 又在吃什么?
吃不饱的. 不想吃饱.

Unblemished minds

chinese legendary icons

the kingdom of the oceans

symbolic food

makeover

food quote:   鶏鳴狗盜： cunning or petty ruses
Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste.  PaulaCookingFingers

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Gastronomic Wondrous of Black Sesame Seeds

一天到晚不停吃

不吃不眠 

Relentless temptations

Black sesame steam baos

Workshop available @ Palate Sensations Singapore 

- tel 65 6589 8843

Food Quotes:  種瓜得瓜，種豆得豆："As you sow, so shall you reap." You get what you pay for

Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste.  PaulaCookingFingers

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