Pumpkin Bingka

I am not a fan of pumpkin but my daughter loves it so much especially sayur manis and pumpkin in coconut milk stew, as she called it. Sayur manis is native to Sabah and it is regularly labelled as 'Sabah Veg'. 

Baking with pumpkin can be as easy as going to the grocery store and buying a can of pumpkin purée. In this part of the world, pumpkin is very cheap. 

There are lots of yummy ways to use this veg. Try this quick and easy pumpkin recipe for your next family get-together. All these ingredients are things you already have in your kitchen like coconut milk, eggs, flour, sugar, ghee etc. This traditional cake is soft, chewy and fragrant.

I cannot believe how great this cake turned out! 

Pumpkin Bingka

Ingredients

300gm pumpkin – cubed, boiled until soft and pureed

200ml thick coconut milk (diluted with ½ cup water)

2½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

300ml water

3 pcs of pandan leaves - washed

3 tbsp ghee

2 whole eggs  

½ tsp salt

Directions

Lightly grease a 10-inch pan with veg oil. Preheat oven to 200⁰C. Preheat the prepared pan in the oven while it heats up.

In a small sauce pan, heat the coconut milk and ghee over medium heat just until bubbles form around the edge and steam begins to rise from the coconut milk. Leave to cool.

Use a pair of scissors and cut the pandan leaves around 2cm length into the blender. Blend the pandan leaves with 300ml water. Pour the pandan pulp through a fine strainer. Use the back of a spoon to press on the pulp to get the juice out. Set aside.

Blend together the eggs, the pandan juice, sugar and half of the flour.

Add in the coconut milk mixture, salt and the remaining flour. Beat until well blended.

Carefully (because you could burn yourself, wear oven mittens as the oven would be really hot by this time) take out the prepared pan from the oven and put it on your counter. Pour the batter into the pan. At this point, you can also sprinkle sesame seeds over it.

Bake for 1 and a half hour until the top develops a lovely golden-brown hue.

Transfer onto rack to cool.

Cornflakes Cookies

I finally found the recipe. Thank you to Roz@HomeKreation. They’re so so good. The cookies are slightly crunchy around the edges. I love the texture. It should be placed about 1-inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet as it spread a little and I had a yield of 108 cookies. I broke my Ikea spatula when making these cookies last week. My daughter will have a fit for these when she wakes up later.

The ingredients are simple and the whole baking process is really a breeze. It takes only about 30 minutes for you to have your first batch of crunchy cookies!

Cornflake cookies

Adapted from Roz@HomeKreation

Ingredients

150g unsalted Butter
80g Icing Sugar
1 Egg Yolk
50g Corn starch
180g All-purpose flour
80g Cornflakes – crushed

1 cup Cornflakes

Directions

Preheat the oven to 175⁰C and line the baking tray with baking paper.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg yolk and beat well.

Sift in the corn starch and the all-purpose flour gradually.

Add in the crashed cornflakes. Roll into small balls and coat with more cornflakes.

Bake at 175C for 10 - 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack completely before serving or else it will be chewy. Repeat with the remaining mixture.

Store in an airtight container until required.

Cheesecuits

During Christmas season, the stores are so beautifully decorated and very festive.  I am not usually a shopper and I rarely go into department stores but during the Christmas season, I love to shop…LOL

I don’t celebrate Christmas but my mother and my other sibs are Catholic. Hence, Christmas is often a time when we spend time with my family. It is different to a normal day because everyone is off work and doesn’t have an excuse to escape family time. This is also a good opportunity for my children to see and spend time with all my relatives. It’s just that there’s no gifts to wake up to on Christmas morning. We usually gather at my mother's house. I live 2 hours away. We spend the day cooking and preparing a big lunch and catching up with each other. Thanks to my family, a practicing Christian family who considerately went to greater lengths to see that everything served was halal and omitted all pork-based products from the table for our sake.  Nope, I am not asking everyone to understand but it’s clear that my family made me truly feel that no matter whom I marry, no religious disparity can change the love we have as a family.

My daughter made this easy and no-cooking-required Cheesecuits to bring along to my mother’s house. We also brought roasted chicken with black pepper sauce, achar, mini pizzas and deep-fried stuffed tofu puffs.

This photo was taken at my office last friday. I brought the ingredients and made it there together with my colleagues, as a Friday sedekah, in the only way I know how -- food.  Thanks to Hub who sponsored the ingredients.

Cheesecuits

Ingredients

250gm Cream cheese

½ can condensed milk

4 tbsp full cream milk / fresh milk

1/2 cup full cream milk / fresh milk

½ cup Nestum Cereal (Original flavour)

1 packet Cream Crackers

Directions

Line a container or a baking tin with aluminium foil. Set aside.

Beat the cheese until pale and fluffy.

Beat in the condensed milk. Add in 4 tbsp full cream / fresh milk and continue to beat until smooth. The mixture should not be too thick. Set aside.

Pour the ½ cup of full cream / fresh milk in a bowl. Dip the biscuits in the milk and arrange it to cover the base of the prepared container / baking tin.

Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the biscuit layer.

Sprinkle a good amount of Nestum cereal over the cream cheese layer.

Keep layering until all the cream cheese is used up then crash a couple of biscuits and sprinkle on top.

Place it in the refrigerator to let it set for atleast overnight before slicing. Enjoy!

Pakistani Biryani Rice

Everyone in my family loves biryani rice and here is how I normally cook it. To make a healthier meal, I always use organic free-range chicken instead of a high fat lamb. The chicken and spices will flavour the rice to give it a fabulous aroma and taste.

Easy biryani, no marinating or overnight prep required. 

Pakistani Biryani Rice

Ingredients

4 cup bashmati rice – wash, rinsed and drained

1 whole chicken – cut into 12 pieces / 1kg lamb shoulder – cut into 2½-inch pieces

1 stick cinnamon

4 cardamom pods

4 star anise

10 cloves

2 bay leaves

1 bulb of garlic - peeled

3 yellow onion – peeled and diced

4 green chilies – chopped

2 bunches of coriander leaves – chopped

2 bunches of mint leaves – chopped

¼ cup tomato puree

5 tomatoes - diced

1 tbsp fennel powder

1 tbsp cumin powder

2 tbsp coriander powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

3” ginger – peeled and blended

1 cup plain yogurt

½ cup water

4 small potatoes – peeled and diced

3 drops of Orange food colouring

1 1/3 tbsp salt

4 pcs hard boiled eggs - peeled

¼ cup evaporated milk

½ cup of olive oil

¼ cup raisin

Directions

Add about ¾ water in a medium-sized pot and toss in the bay leaves, 1 star anise and 2 cardamom pods. Bring to a boil. Add in the rice and cook until the rice is ¾ cooked. Drain.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, sauté the cinnamon stick, 3 star anise, 2 cardamom pods, cloves and garlic until the garlic is soft and golden.

Stir in the yellow onion and sauté until aromatic.

Add in the green chilies and continue to sauté for 1 minute or so.

Add in half of the chopped mint and half of the chopped coriander leaves then stir for another 1 minute.

Stir in the tomato puree and the diced tomatoes. Add in the fennel powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and blended ginger. Stir to mix well until the oil separates.

Add in the chicken / lamb then stir for another 1 minute or so until the chicken / lamb is nicely coated. Add in the water, yogurt and potatoes.

Add 3 drops of orange food colouring. Season generously with salt and give it a quick stir. Cook for another 10 minutes or so until the chicken / lamb is fully cooked, the potatoes is tender and the gravy has thickened.

Add in the eggs and spread the rice over it. Turn the heat to low.

Sprinkle the evaporated milk. Scatter the raisin and the remaining mint leaves and coriander leave on top. Cook with lid on for half an hour until the rice is fully cooked.

Place the rice on a large serving dish. Serve with a fresh mixed salad or achar. Enjoy!

Mom's Sticky Rice Dumplings

I just learnt to wrap choong from my mother. She is the choong making pro in my family. I have been eating choong since I was able to eat them. Every year my mother will prepare choong to be shared among family and close friends during Christmas or Chinese New Year. My daughter is a huge fan of choong.

This is my 1^st attempt and I must say that making choong is actually quite simple and easy. But I did some modification to suit my daughter’s preference. (Will post the recipe here once I am done writing it). 

My mother wrap choong with pandan leaves instead of the bamboo leaves.  

Khabsa Arabian Rice

Simple and flavourful rice dish. It can be made with many variations. I use lamb and olive oil instead of ghee or vegetable oil for this recipe. If you want a fluffy and dry texture rice then go for the long grain bhasmati rice. Rinse away all of the starch by rinsing the rice until the water runs clear. Don't be alarmed, rinsing the rice does not rinse the nutrients out as the nutrients are inside of the grain and not on the outside. Then dress up the rice a little. 

Khabsa Arabian Rice

Ingredients

4 cup bashmati rice – wash, rinsed and drained

2 yellow onion – peeled and diced

10 cloves garlic - peeled

2 bay leaves

2 tbsp Khabsa Spices (See below for homemade mix)

4 green chilies – chopped

1 stick cinnamon

4 cardamom pods

2 star anise

500gm lamb – cut into medium large pieces

½ cup tomato puree

2 bunches of coriander leaves – chopped

2 bunches of mint leaves – chopped

1 carrot – peeled and sliced

1/2 cup water

½ cup of olive oil

4 tbsp evaporated milk

Orange food colouring

¼ cup raisin

1 tbsp salt / to taste

Directions

Add water in a medium-sized pot and toss in the bay leaves, 1 star anise and 2 cardamom pods. Bring to a boil. Add in the rice and cook until the rice is ¾ cooked. Drain.

In a heavy-bottomed pot, sauté the cinnamon stick, 1 star anise, 2 cardamom pods and garlic until the garlic is soft and golden.

Stir in the yellow onion and sauté until aromatic.

Add in the green chili and continue to sauté for 1 minute or so.

Add in half of the chopped mint and half of the chopped coriander leaves then stir for another 1 minute.

Add in the tomato puree and stir.  Add in the Khabsa spices and stir to mix well.

Add in the lamb and carrot then stir for another 1 minute or so until the lamb is nicely coated and the oil separates. Add in ½ cup of hot water.

Add 3 drops of orange food colouring. Season generously with salt. Lower the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes or so until the lamb is fully cooked.

Add rice to the pot and lower the heat to low.

Scatter the raisin and the remaining mint leaves and coriander leave on top. Sprinkle the evaporated milk. Cook with lid on for half an hour until the rice is fully cooked.

Place the rice on a large serving dish. Serve with a fresh mixed salad or pickled cucumber.  

Khabsa Spice Mix

1 tbsp cloves

1 tbsp black pepper corn

1 tbsp fennel seeds

1 tbsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp cardamom pods

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp ginger powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

Directions

Heat a skillet over low heat. When the skillet is hot, add the cloves, black pepper corns, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and cardamom pods. Stir continuously to make sure it doesn’t burn.  

Cook them until aromatic and start to pop. Let it cool.

Grind the spices until you have a fine powder. Add the chili powder, turmeric powder and ginger powder. Keep in an airtight jar. 

Bread Pudding

You'll never be stumped with what to do with your leftovers bread again. You can transform them to dessert without much work. This is one of our family’s favorite recipes and is perfect served with a big scoop of ice cream, warm vanilla sauce or just top it with a drizzle of condensed milk. But honestly, it’s delicious just by itself. I do have a recipe for a vanilla sauce but I don’t have a picture of it yet so I’ll be sure to add it to this post when I do.

You can make it ahead of time even a day before then refrigerate it. Just reheat slices in the microwave or if you want to reheat the whole dish in the oven, you could cover it with foil and put it in the oven at 175°C for 10-15 minutes or until it’s warm.

This pudding is cook in a bain marie or water bath, to help the pudding to cook slowly and evenly to avoid rubbery edges or a dry surface. Hope you enjoy the bread pudding!

Bread Pudding

Ingredients

9 slices bread – break into small pieces

2 cup fresh / full cream milk

½ cup sugar

1 tbsp unsalted butter - melted

Pinch salt

3 whole eggs – lightly beaten

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup prune - chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 180⁰C and grease an 8” non-stick square baking pan.

In a small sauce pan, heat milk over medium heat just until bubbles form around the edge and steam begins to rise from the milk.  

Add in the bread cubes. Stir well, then set aside for 5 mins to soak. Stir in the butter, salt and sugar to combine well. Allow to cool before stirring in the eggs, vanilla extract and chopped prune.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan. Put the baking pan in a roasting pan and place it in the preheated oven. Carefully pour hot water into the roasting pan around the baking pan until about halfway up the sides of the baking pan. Avoid splashing water into the nicely filled pudding. If the water evaporates before the pudding is done cooking then add more hot water.

Bake uncovered for 45 to 1 hour until firm and golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.