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Savoury Pumpkin Cake

Bite-size savoury pumpkin cakes

Aunty No. 2 from my dad’s side of the family has bestowed many slabs of this tasty treat to us when we were growing up and it remains a personal favourite snack of mine. Much like the white radish cakes served at yum cha establishments, this savoury pumpkin cake is made with rice flour and a whole bunch of aromatics; loads of garlic, dried shrimp, chinese sausage (lap cheong) and five spice powder so it does pack a flavour punch! The appearance however, is a little unremarkable especially when left in it’s steamed form but this is rectified by slicing the starchy slab into squares and then pan-frying them to that golden hue. (Pumpkin in chinese translates to Golden Gourd/Melon/Fruit). Pan-frying also adds a slight crisp to its starchy texture. This is considered a snack but it does fill you up pretty quickly and I could definitely scoff a few down with some very fine Tie Guan Yin chinese tea. Mmmmmm….

Making this recently was extra special because the pumpkin, chillies and spring onions were from our garden so it was very rewarding to eat from our own harvest. We are slowly going through our autumn stash of pumpkins (harvested a 5.4 kg beauty plus 19 misshapen butternut pumpkins that leave a lot to the imagination ) Mom was obviously thrilled at our pumpkins and took back (overseas) five as souvenirs!

Well if you’re planning on making this, don’t be deceived by the sticky batter (It does look quite yuck) but once steamed and left to cool and set then pan-fried, it is undeniably irresistable.

My favourite childhood snack!

Savoury Pumpkin Cake

650 g pumpkin flesh, cut into rough 5 cm chunks
250 g rice flour
1 tbsp Green/Mung Bean Flour
700 ml water
2 teaspoons five-spice powder
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon white pepper

8 cloves garlic, minced
90 g/3 sticks of lap cheong/ chinese sausage, minced
100 g dried shrimp, finely minced
2 long red chillies, deseeded and chopped
handful of spring onions, finely chopped
3 tablespoons oil

extra cooking oil for pan-frying the sliced pumpkin cakes

Mix the flours, five spice powder, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
Steam the pumpkin chunks until soft (about 20 minutes); then mash while still warm; add this to the flour mixture then stir in the water to form a batter.
Heat up the oil then sauté the dried shrimps until fragrant; add the minced garlic and continue cooking for about 1 minute or until fragrant; add the minced lap cheong/chinese sausage, chillies and stir-fry this for about 2 minutes (until the oils are released from the sausage). Lastly, add in the spring onions.
Lower heat and add the pumpkin and flour mixture. Stir until batter is well mix ( It will look quite lumpy and sticky at this stage but this is ok.. 🙂 ) Taste and adjust seasoning (you may add a little more salt if you wish)
Pour the batter into a greased 25 cm (10 inch) square tray. Smooth the surface with the back of a lightly oiled spoon.
Steam covered for 40 minutes; remove from heat; mixture will still be soft so wait for the pumpkin cake slab to completely cool down before cutting into smaller squares or cubes.
To serve, heat up some oil in a wok/frying-pan then fry the pumpkin cake slices until all sides are crisp and golden brown. Serve immediately with chilli sauce.

larger squares!

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Egg Tarts

Believe it or not, this is my first successful chinese egg tart attempt! I would say it’s been eight years since I made my very first egg tart, with less than exciting results; burnt blistered top, overly sweet yada yada which I could sneakily disguise as Portugese egg tarts (brulee style) except that it’s not the correct pastry <hehe> But thanks to Wendy of Table For 2 or More, any qualms I have regarding the difficulty level of this treat can now be put to rest. It was pretty straightforward. I have polished many egg tarts in my lifetime; from bakeries to restaurants to dim sum parlours in Hong Kong, on the street etc. Which chinese egg tart do you prefer? The short crust pastry version (pictured above) or dim sum style with the intricate layers of flaky puff pastry? I love both but for the flaky version, it has to be done really really well; it must be petite and not cloyingly greasy as lard is used instead of butter.

Gimme gimme gimme!!

Wendy’s recipe produces a really light and delicate texture for both egg custard and buttery crumbly pastry. The pastry does require a little bit of work and finesse as it is so short that it just wants to crumble but the mouth-feel is excellent! I’ve made very minor variations to the recipe; a little salt here, vanilla essence here, icing sugar etc. and have added some notes on how to dislodge the very fragile tarts from the tins. It is so fragile that Wendy recommended eating this with a spoon! I actually couldn’t wait to bake them so I’ve fast-tracked the process by freezing the pastry cases hard for 30 minutes instead of the 2 hour to overnight chilling in the refrigerator <grin….I couldn’t wait>. Any notes or additions on my part are highlighted in blue.

Egg Tarts

Egg Tart recipe sourced from Wendy of Table for 2 or More

Pastry
250g plain flour
2 tbsp castor sugar (I used Icing Sugar)
1 egg yolk
150g cold unsalted butter, cubed (I left this to soften before creaming)
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Filling

150g castor sugar

150ml hot water

250ml milk(1 small pack of milk)

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

3 large eggs
1 egg white (From the same egg where the yolk was used in the crust)

Method

Cream the butter with the egg yolk and sugar.
Add in flour. Mix well. (If the dough is sticky for you , well maybe your yolks are larger than mine, add in extra flour by the teaspoon until it no longer feels sticky, but got a slight flour feel to it, but not too much though, as it will toughen the crust. the borderline of stickiness and dry feel is very thin.. so, add extra flour with caution)
Roll out pastry in between two sheets of plastic (I used silicon baking paper) into thickness of about 4mm. Stamp out 9–10cm circles of pastry with a pastry cutter.
Lightly press the pastry circles into foil tart cases. (I used aluminium tart tins.) Make sure no holes or pastry breakage is visible as the custard might leak and make dislodging difficult.
Refrigerate the lined foil cases/tart tins for 2 hours/ overnight. (I wanted to fast track this so I froze them till solid for 30 minutes)
Melt the sugar in hot water, add milk, salt, vanilla essence. Beat all the eggs lightly and mix in all together. (I chilled this for 30 minutes before using)
Sieve egg mixture and pour into the cold tart crust.
Bake at 180^oC for 25 minutes. (I placed all my tarts on a baking tray and it took 23 minutes to cook as I have a very hot oven. The tarts are ready when the center is still slightly wobbly. Do not overbake! The custard will continue to set when it cools)
Let cool for at least 40 minutes to an hour (It’s cold now in Melbourne so mine cooled really fast). To dislodge the tarts, quickly and carefully overturn the tart flush onto a flat plate. Jiggle the tart tins lightly or with the tip of a knife, just encourage the pastry out of the tin. Carefully overturn tarts onto paper cases. If the tart refuses to come out, then best to eat it out of the tin with a spoon since the custard has leaked and stuck the pastry to the tin.

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Wor Tip: ‘Pot-Stickers’/Shanghai Pan-Fried Dumplings

Whenever J & I opt for a Shanghainese meal out, we always order a serve of ‘Wor Tip’ otherwise also known as ‘Pan/Pot Stickers’. The name comes from the method in which they are cooked; pan-frying and steaming only one side of the dumplings as if they were stuck to the pan. The result is a crisp-on-one-side-tender-on-the-other parcel enveloping a juicy and meaty filling. I believe the key to a great tasting dumpling is ginger juice; lots of it! YEAH! You can pretty much add anything to your mince pork mixture; traditionally, shredded chinese cabbage is added to the mix but I’ve always loved the flavour of chives so I’ve chucked in a whole bunch of this herb to my meat filling together with grated carrot and the very important grated young ginger and its juice. I ‘gasak-ed’ 10 of these tempting morsels for lunch today (gasak = malay slang denoting ‘devoured’ but in a more gluttonous manner) <grins shamelessly> It was by far the best tasting dumplings I’ve ever made; if I may say so myself. Enjoy!

Pot-Sticker Dumplings/ Shanghai Pan-fried Dumplings
method inspired from Pot-Sticker Dumplings, Taste.com.au
makes about 45 dumplings
serves 5 – 6

Ingredients

1.0 kg pork mince
80 g young ginger
80 g carrot (1 small to medium sized carrot)
90 g chives, (one bunch)
500 g packet of dumpling wrappers (the white round ones)
oil for frying
hot water (for steaming)

Seasoning
60 ml/3 tbsp soy sauce
10 ml/2 tsp sesame oil
30 ml/ 1 1/2 tbsp shao hsing rice wine
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
2 tsp sugar

Dipping Sauce
ginger, fine julienne
Chinese black rice vinegar
optional – sliced red chillies

Method

Finely grate the ginger; squeeze out the juice into a separate bowl and set this aside. Finely grate the carrot; chop the chives and add these to the grated ginger.
Combine the pork mince with the grated vegetables, ginger juice and seasoning. With gloved hands, knead all ingredients until well-mixed. Set aside this meat filling for at least 30 minutes.
Fill a small bowl with water. Place 1 heap teaspoon (20 g) of meat filling in the center of the dumpling wrapper. Dip the tip of your index finger into the water; then wet the inner edges of the wrapper. Fold wrapper in half, then pleat or press to seal. Place dumpling on a dry plate dusted lightly with corn flour to prevent sticking. Repeat with remaining dumpling wrappers. See Note
Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a non-stick frying pan; when hot add 10 – 12 dumplings, pleated side-up; reduce heat to medium flame. Fry for 1 – 2 minutes or until brown underneath. Do not flip the dumplings.
With a lid ready, carefully pour 1/2 cup boiling water into the frying pan (watch out for splatters!). Steam half-covered for 4- 5 minutes until all water has evaporated and dumplings start to fry again. They are ready as soon as the bottom regains that crispiness (takes about 1 minute from the time all water has evaporated)
Serve immediately with a side of grated young ginger steeped in black rice vinegar. Add sliced red chillies if you like it hot! Alternatively, enjoy with a touch of chilli oil.

Note
(Adapted from taste.com.au)

I prefer to only make and cook the dumplings in small batches (10 per batch) or close to serving time so they remain piping hot. If you haven’t got the time to do this, you may make the dumplings ahead of serving time (up to 6 hours), placed them on a tray lightly dusted with cornflour to prevent sticking. Cover in cling-wrap, refrigerate and fry them later.
You may also keep the fried dumplings warm (while you fry the next few batches) by wrapping them in aluminium foil and placing them in a 150^oC pre-heated oven.
Leftover meat mixture can be fried and enjoyed with noodles.

the grated and chopped vegetables/herbs

pleated dumplings ready to be pan-fried

Pot-Stickers!

one side is crisp and brown, the other – steamed and tender

need to improve on my pleating skills

gave up using chopsticks with my left-hand – too awkward! So have to ‘unchinesely’ use a fork! Nope, I haven’t got a camera stand

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Taiwanese ‘Pop-Corn’ Chicken with Crispy Basil Leaves

These irresistable salt and pepper coated crispy chunks made the pain of cleaning up after a session of deep-frying worthwhile. Crispy-liciousness got kicked up a notch with golden, translucent deep-fried basil leaves, albeit my leaves were crushed when I tossed them through the fried chicken pieces. Quick and simple, this popular Taiwanese dish makes a very naughty but tasty snack. A balanced salt, pepper and sugar mixture is all it takes to flavour the chicken pieces but you could also include soy sauce, shao hsing rice wine and a tiny amount of chopped ginger to the marinade. A coating of coarse sweet potato flour, available in asian grocery stores, makes the chicken ultra-crispy (hence pop-corn chicken). Coarse sweet potato flour works best for this dish but my sister a.k.a The Frying Queen, suggests that an alternative mixture or cornflour, tapioca starch and rice flour would work as well; especially rice flour for a light crispy result.

To begin with, let’s make a basic salt and pepper mixture. Any leftover can be stored in a glass jar in a cool, dry place. You can use this to season any meat, poultry or fish.

Salt & Pepper Mix

2 tablespoons salt (I used rock salt which I pounded till very fine)
1 1/4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon ground white pepper

To get a fine mixture, grind all ingredients with a pestle and mortar or in a spice grinder.

Taiwanese ‘Pop-Corn’ Salt and Pepper Chicken with Crispy Basil Leaves

2 – 3 chicken thigh fillets (approximately 320 g), cut into 3cm-4cm chunks
1/2 teaspoon salt & pepper mixture
1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
1 teaspoon shao-hsing rice wine
1 teaspoon corn flour
50 g course sweet potato flour (you can also use corn flour but sweet potato flour gives a much crispier result)
1/2 cup basil leaves, washed clean and pat dry with a tea towel
extra salt & pepper mix for tossing & serving

Method

Marinate the chicken pieces with the salt and pepper mixture, five spice powder, shao-hsing rice wine and corn flour. Leave to marinate for about 30 minutes
Heat oil in a deep-fryer/wok/deep-saucepan to about 180^oC (or insert a WOODEN chopstick into the oil; once it bubbles around the chopstick, the oil is hot and ready for frying)
Coat the chicken pieces in the sweet potato flour; brush off excess flour then deep-fry until golden brown; dish out to drain on a paper-towel lined plate and let cool for 2 minutes. Return the chicken pieces into the hot oil and deep-fry for a further 3 minutes (double frying makes the chicken crispier). Drain on paper-towel lined plate.
While the oil is still hot, add the basil leaves to deep-fry (have the deep-fryer lid or a cover ready as the addition of basil leaves to the hot oil will cause some splattering). BE CAREFUL with this step. Fry for about 1 minute until crispy then drain well.
Toss the fried chicken pieces with 1/2 teaspoon of the extra salt and pepper mix.
Serve chicken pieces on a platter; garnish with crispy basil leaves and extra salt and pepper mixture on the side

Crispy Basil

scrumptious!

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Daring Bakers’ March 2011 Challenge: Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

I’ve been baking bread; lots and lots of bread since stage 3 of my patisserie course began in February. As a result, I’ve been feasting on loaves, buns and scrolls despite having unloaded most of the goods to friends and family <stares down at unmistakable tummy bulge> So imagine my face when I saw this month’s DB challenge. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! But I went ahead and completed it anyway – that’s for trying to be a good DB participant. Well, you can’t fault a fresh, hot loaf straight from the oven and with chocolate, spice, nuts and meringue.. well, that ain’t such a bad thing. (well except for unmistakable tummy bulge…urgh!>

I agree with Ria that the sweet yeast dough was super soft, silky and tender to work with. Very nice.

For Ria’s Garam Masala spiced version of the challenge , click here for the recipe

For Jamie’s Chocolate & Pecan version of the challenge, click here for the recipe

Both versions use the same Sweet Yeast dough recipe. Have fun!

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Viola Extract and Pulut Tai Tai with Kaya

Glutinous ‘Pulut Tai Tai’ slathered with home-made ‘kaya’ (coconut egg jam)

Some time three weeks ago, I woke up with dreams and thoughts of flowers oh so pretty, oh so bright oh so colourful and wandered whether I could extract some colour out of the Viola Tricolor species dotting a small section of our garden (they look more like pansies to me but no doubt from the same family). I knew violets and pansies are edible from various culinary programs but it never occured to me that I could extract colour from the petals. Prior to discovering via google that you can make violet extract in the same manner as you would vanilla extract, I decided to pluck and crush a few flowers. With a little bit of warm water added through, I soon got a beautiful royal blue dye.

Cobalt Beauty – the front one has a slight purplish tinge whereas the one behind is pure blue

Calming effect: I could stare at this natural blue dye for ages

Now that I’ve extracted a rice-bowlful of dye, how best to use it? So caught up was I with the experiment that I didn’t consider what I would make from it. Fortunately, there was a packet of glutinous rice in the pantry so Pulut Tai Tai (a Nonya kuih) was instantly on the menu. It’s such a shame that I haven’t got any banana leaves which imparts a gorgeous fragrance to the steamed glutinous rice but I had all the other necessary ingredients to still produce a tasty afternoon treat. Traditionally, Pulut Tai Tai is made with the natural blue extract of the Butterfly Pea flower/Blue Pea Flower/Clitoria ternatea/Bunga Telang (in malay) but I’m not sure whether you can source dried ones here (I haven’t looked) but J purchased some Blue Pea flower seeds from Ole Lantana’s Seed Store (Australian) which we have yet to sow.

With 700 g of glutinous rice as per the recipe in ‘Nonya Flavours’, my natural blue dye wasn’t potent or concentrated enough to colour the rice a deep dark blue so I added a tiny drop of blue gel colouring to the rice mix (the dye in the photos above are all au naturel i.e. without any food colouring). Since I had no banana leaves, I added more pandan leaves to perfume the rice and combined both traditional method and shortcuts to make the the ‘kaya’ (coconut egg jam). I will explain this in my ‘Notes’ under the recipe below. My curiosity with the violas awarded me with a tender, springy and coconut milk enriched afternoon treat. Can’t complain! 😉 Pulut Tai Tai must be enjoyed with the Kaya jam;a certified match made in heaven!

“Pulut Tai Tai, meet Mr.Kaya!” (it was love at first sight)

Pulut Tai Tai
(adapted from Nonya Flavours: A Complete Guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine)

30 butterfly pea flowers (bunga telang)
3 tbsp water
700 g glutinous rice, washed and soaked for 4 hours
2 pandan leaves, knotted
200 ml thin coconut milk
400 ml thick coconut milk
1 heaped tsp salt
1 banana leaf

Wash and pound the flowers and mix with water. Strain to extract the indigo blue colouring. Set aside.
Mix the rice with half the thin coconut milk and allow to absorb for 5 minutes.
Line a steaming basket with muslin cloth (I just used a slightly greased cake tin) and put in the rice and pandan leaves. Steam over rapidly boiling water for 10 minutes. Add the rest of the thin coconut milk, stir through, and continue to steam for another 10 minutes.
Remove the steaming basket from the steamer and add the thick coconut milk and salt. Stir with a pair of chopsticks.
Add the blue colouring to 1/4 of the steamed rice and return to the steamer to cook for 10 minutes.
Line a shallow 18 cm (7″) square pan with banana leaf. Grease the surface of the leaf before spooning in the cooked rice, alternating the blue portion with the white. Mix well. Level the surface and press down the rice with banana leaf. Cover the top of the rice with a banana leaf and place a heavy object on it to compress the rice. Leave to cool before cutting into pieces to serve with Kaya.

Kaya (Coconut Egg Jam)
Below is the full recipe. (I halved everything)

550 g (9-10 medium sized) eggs
500 g sugar
2-3 pandan leaves,washed and knotted
600 ml thick coconut milk, from 3 grated coconuts (I just used canned coconut milk)
50 g sugar, extra

Beat the eggs and sugar together with a hand whisk for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, fill the base unit of a double boiler with water and bring to a boil (or you can sit a metal bowl atop a pot of boiling water, make sure base of bowl isn’t directly touching the water). Lower heat and strain egg mixture into the top unit of the double boiler, add the knotted pandan leaves and steam over the base unit, stirring all the time until sugar has dissolved.
Remove the top unit from the heat and strain the thick coconut milk into the egg mixture. Mix well.
Return top unit to the base pot and double boil over simmering water, stirring all the while with a long wooden spatula until it reaches a smooth custard consistency, about 30 minutes.
To get a nice brown colour: Heat the extra sugar in a metal ladle directly over the flame until sugar melts. (I just caramelised the sugar in a small saucepan). When the caramel browns, add it to the egg mixture and stir well. (Be careful when caramelising sugar. As it is a small amount, it burns quickly so work fast; once you get a golden caramel, pour it into the egg custard)
(I didn’t follow step 6, I figured I couldn’t wait 5 hours for the kaya to steam so I’ve worked out a shortcut –>see Notes. However, I’ll include step 6 here for your reading pleasure. This is how it is traditionally done) Wrap the lid of the double boiler with a clean cloth (to prevent steam from entering the custard when steaming) and secure. Cover the pot with the lid and double boil custard for 4 – 5 hours. Do not stir the jam during steaming. Do top up the water in the base unit when level recedes.
When jam is cooked, discard pandan leaves and allow jam to cool before storing in jars. Keeps well for a week at room temprature. Refrigerate for a longer shelf life.

Notes

After step 5, remove the pandan leaves and transfer the kaya to a microwavable dish (Pyrex or Corningware is fine) then microwaved it on High for 3 minutes. Give it a stir then microwave it for another 3 minutes. I repeated this once or twice more., stirring in between. The kaya will leave the sides of the dish. Stir until smooth, cool then store in jars. Refrigerate. Alternatively, if you really want a smooth blend, give it a quick whizz with a hand-held electric blender. Works like a charm! 🙂

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Sweet Architextural Night: A Sugary Fanfare

Charmaine of Heartsoul Desserts and I attended a sweet exhibit almost two weeks ago at St. Kilda’s Esplanade Hotel. This 2011 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival event was a culmination of talent, blood, sweat and tears of two B&P teams: Ian Burch and Darren Purchese of upcoming Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio in South Yarra plus UK’s renowned Jellymongers Sam Bompas and Harry Parr of Bompas & Parr.

‘Twas a night designed to feed the senses; a dim-lit room flashed with bursts of disco lights, loud catchy ‘sweet soundtracks’ such as Christina Aguilera’s ‘Candyman’ and Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies aptly played to the whimsical theme of candies, chocolates, bubbles and whatnot. There were waitresses with gravity-defying hair housing a fake bird each, tutu-wearing ballerinas doubling as chocolate carriers, a statuesque human Marie-Antoinette walking table, wonderful and wobbling jelly structures to behold, an audience enraptured by billows of liquid nitrogen in the air as a maestro of the patiserrie world conjured up frozen treats in mere minutes. A mysteriously veiled stage separated the audience from something promised to be a spectacle of pure delight!

After almost two hours of being fed and watered a continuous flow of champagne, sparkling water, choux swans with sweet fruit jelly and foie gras, vegemite and BLT popcorn, beetroot and pineapple batternberg cakes, cucumber, mango and passionfruit sorbets, celery jellies and gin and tonic marshmallows <foodsze pauses to inhale>, the crowd’s amplified anticipation was quelled when Mr. Cravat a.k.a. Matt Preston counted down the 10 seconds to the great unveiling of the most glorious display to take center stage. In my melodramatic mind, I saw a would-be stampede of sugar-aficionados making a mad dash for the magnificent dessert buffet splayed in front of us but of course no such ferocity took place in reality and everyone queued up in orderly fashion, patiently waiting to feast their eyes and pile em’ plates high with desserts that tasted as delicious as they looked. The spread was indeed decadent at its best: soft as a pillow, tangy lemon gingery macarons complemented with cream and crunchy ‘soil’ possibly made with ginger nut biscuits, banana and mousse concoctions, little chocolate coconut shells, pink and berry infused chocolate dominoes, a realistic ‘earth soil’ made entirely of chocolate, more jellies, torched beehive meringues adorned with equally cute chocolate bees and chunks of honeycomb and lots more! When not busy savouring tempting morsels, we were marveling at the bold and colourful Melbourne iconic structures created entirely out of jelly by the quirky jellymongers Bompas & Parr. See photos below.

Needless to say I had a sugar hangover the day after but in any case, this succesful night proved to be a prelude to what we can expect from Burch & Puchese’s Sweet Studio at South Yarra, soon to open its doors to the public. Get ready to be dazzled as they take you on a multisensory sugar-coated journey. Check out their blog Burch & Purchese or follow them on their Facebook page for more updates. Enjoy the photos!