Air-fryer Sesame Balls

I remembered the sesame balls that I used to have in Malaysia while I was young was filled with ground peanut filling.  After I moved to the US, the ones that I had were filled with mung bean paste or red bean paste.  Even to these days, I have not seen one that's filled with peanut filling, and I missed that.

Then, while browsing my Facebook page, I saw a video clip about an air-fryer sesame balls recipe that caught my attention.  An easier way to make this without the oil and heat while deep-frying sounded just perfect for me.  Furthermore,  by making it myself I can fill it with whatever filling I desired.   So, without further hesitation, let's get working.  I made my own peanut filling by grounding some toasted peanuts and sweeten coconut flakes in a food processor and then added some cane sugar and toasted sesame seeds.  Mixed well to be used as filling.  Sorry, no measurement here as I just eye balling with what I had in my pantry.

Ingredients:

1/8 cup + 1 Tbsp. White cane sugar

175ml warm water

200g glutinous flour

Filling of your choice

Sesame seeds, to suit

Method:

1.  In a bowl, dissolved sugar into the warm water.  Set aside.

2.  In another bigger bowl, add in the glutinous rice flour and pour in the sugar water mixture.  Mix and knead until a soft dough is formed.  You can add more water or glutinous flour to adjust the consistency. 

3.  Then, pinch a piece of the dough, shape into ball and flatten it and wrap the filling inside inside and close it.  Coat the balls with sesame seeds completely. 

4.  Place the sesame balls into the deep-fryer and spray with oil.  Air-fry at 370'F for 10 minutes. Open the air-fryer, and flip to the other side, spray with oil and air-fry for another 10 minutes at the same temperature. 

5.  When it is done,  don't open the air-fryer just yet,  let it sit in there for 5 minutes before open.  Otherwise,  it might cracks.  Then, serve warm!

NOTE 1: It got harden when its cold.  So, air-fry leftover at 330'F for 4 minutes.  Serve immediately. 

NOTE 2:  I still prefer it deep-fried.  Texture wise is better.

Homemade Guilingao

It is very easy to make guilingao at home.  It is a cooling food and I loved to make it when someone in my family is feeling heaty. 

You just need to buy the guilingao powder from the Asian grocery store.  I used 2 Tbsp. Guilingao powder per 550ml water.  Add guilingao powder into the saucepan, then add in the room temperature water and whisk until blended.   Then placed it on to the stove top and heat it until boiling, keep stirring and watching it as not to let it over boiled, around 5 minutes.  Set it aside and scoop out any bubbles.  Let it cool completely.  It will harden.

To serve,

Scoop some into a bowl.  Top with honey or maple syrup and 1 Tbsp. of heavy cream.  Enjoy!

Keep any leftover guilingao in the refrigerator.

Penang Assam Laksa

When I went back to Malaysia last year, the one paste that I really wanted to buy was this Penang assam laksa paste.  I had to search for it in Penang and in the end, my aunty had to bring me to a special supplier house to buy it.  Now, I can have assam laksa in the U.S. :)

This paste is really good, very original and I had my craving fixed.  An otherwise very troublesome recipe to make turned into an easy recipe with a ready made paste.  If you ever go to Malaysia, do stock up on this paste as it is not available here.  Below I will show you the ingredients I used to make this, only need to wash and slice those ingredients to eat with the noodle and that's it!

Prawn paste- optional
Can pineapple rings
I used sardine in olive oil here, just add the sardine and discard the oil in a plastic bag
Red onion
Lettuce
English cucumber
Rice noodle
I don't have mint leave
You can also add red chili padi (bird eye chili) for extra spiciness

Just follow the instruction as the back of the package and thinly slice those vegetable to serve.

Steamed Radish Cake

Homemade steamed radish cake can be so flavorful, soft and delicious!  I always keep a daikon in my refrigerator or Korean round radish.  I used it to make soup, banchan (Korean side dishes), etc.  One day since I have all the ingredients at home, I said to myself, why not make some radish kuih?  I love radish cake, either pan-fried or eating it soft and fresh with Sriracha, so satisfying! This method is considering a short-cut method since I don't have to cook everything in a pan until thicken and then steamed it. Just mixed and steamed!

The end result is so good.  Just substitute taro for taro cake and pumpkin for pumpkin cake.  Or leave it out for a white plain rice cake! (Then you can cook some savory chai por/preserved turnips to eat it with) This recipe should be interchangeable.  Good Luck experimenting!

Penang Style Char Kuey Teow

This is my version of Penang Char Kuey Teow.  For the past ten years, I have never wanted to share this recipe of mine even though it had been asked by my readers. But today, I decided to share it so that for those living overseas who misses this Penang's hawker delight can cook them at home.

I have never measure when I cook this dish and I always cook in individual portion because my little one wants it non-spicy at all.  My elder one wants it mild and we adult like it spicy! Some like it more eggs, no chive, etc.  So, I always cook in individual portion to suit each other taste bud and preference.

You can add lap cheong, sliced fish cake, sea hum or sliced fish balls if you wish.  I would love to have some lap cheong but the ingredient lists scared me and I read that wax meat can cause cancer.  I am trying to eat as clean as possible and away from processed food if I can.  I already switching most processed food consumed in this house to be organic or non-GMO certified. Have to take care of our bodies so that our bodies can take care of us right?  It's common sense, if you keep feeding your body with junk and poison, what do you think it is going to repay you with?  Think before you buy!

Assam Sambal Prawns

We loved nasi lemak or Malaysian coconut rice.  One of the dishes I missed the most when I first came to the U.S. would be nasi lemak.  In my 20s and totally a newbie in cooking, I thought nasi lemak was very hard to make.  It was like eating it would only happen in my dream.  Then one day, a friend taught me how to make it and I was really surprised at how easy it was to make one.  I remembered I once made some nasi lemak and asked my husband to bring it to his school to share with his Malaysian male friends and how happy and thankful they were.

For this nasi lemak, I added turmeric powder thus the yellow color (Since the curcumin in turmeric is good for us so I wanted to incorporate it more into our diet).  The recipe I am sharing here is the assam sambal prawns as I bought some medium size shrimps and I wanted to make a dish that pair well with it.  I was referring this recipe to Nonya Flavours Cookbook and will be sharing the cookbook recipe with some of my changes.  I wonder why the photo in that cookbook looks so oily and red whereas mine looks completely different?

Chicken Wonton Mee

I loved my noodle and can't leave without it.  These days I would cook noodle for dinner at least once a week.  When I shop at the Asian market and see some fresh wonton noodle, I would buy 2 to freeze it at home.  So whenever I feel like eating some wonton noodle (or egg noodle), I can thaw it a night before in the refrigerator.  My husband brought back some Hawaii BBQ chicken for supper one night, but I don't eat supper and thus the leftover.  So, this was what I did with the chicken!

Par-boiled some chai-hsin (Chinese greens), boiled some frozen homemade chicken dumplings, microwave the leftover Hawaiian BBQ chicken and sliced it, chopped some scallions to serve.  I also concocted a yummy sauce for my wonton noodle which I will keep it a secret.  :-P

Snow Fungus Sweet Soup with Lotus Seeds (雪耳莲子糖水)

Sometimes I feel like making some sweet dessert soup for my family.  After reading about how great the black fungus/ wood ear and white snow fungus for our bodies, I decided to cook it more often.  Since black fungus has more health benefits, I cook it quite often in stir-frying dishes.  But I don't want to neglect the snow fungus as it has a beauty benefit that makes one face looking younger just like bird nest.  But bird nest is expensive and not everybody can drink it often, whereas snow fungus is really affordable.  I read that in order to have that beauty benefit, you have to eat it at least three times a week.  I couldn't possibly cook it that often but when I do make it, I am making sure I am cooking a big pot and have at least three bowls of it. :-)

Picture with ingredient names listed for your convenient.

All these ingredients have health benefits, not just the snow fungus so this sweet soup is really nutritious.  For example, goji berries is high in antioxidant and vitamins, red dates/ jujubes nourishes blood and replenishes Qi, lily buds is cooling, reduce heatiness, treats cough and helps with insomnia, lotus seeds improves digestion, removes heatiness and calms the spirit.

I have a question to ask.  Does adding sugar to cook together with the snow fungus making it soft and gelatinous?   For this, I added the sugar in the end and the resulted snow fungus was crunchy.

Roti Jala with Chicken Curry

Roti Jala is a Malay cuisine where 'roti' means bread and 'jala' means net.  You need a special roti jala mould with five holes to make this fish net looking crepe. You can buy the plastic roti jala mould in the bakery supply stores in Malaysia for only RM$1 each, very cheap.  It's texture is more like a soft crepe and the yellow color is derived from the turmeric powder.  It mostly serves with curry or rendang.

My chicken curry is made from A1 chicken curry paste.  I added red onion and used boneless and skinless dark chicken meat.  I was thinking of serving it with frozen roti canai that I bought recently but then I saw Sonia's roti jala post and decided to give it a try.  I bought the roti jala mould for years but never tempted to make it.  Glad to say that I finally did it and since it was pretty easy to make, would love to make it once in a while from now on.

5 Spice Powder Ham Chim Peng (Asian Fried Bread)

I tried the sweet one with the red bean filling earlier but I had the soft spot for the savory 5-spice powder ham chim peng.  While looking through my recipes for the pumpkin cake recipe, I came across the red bean paste ham chim peng recipe and I immediately craved for the savory ham chim peng.   Reading through the recipe, I thought I could make it work with the savory ham chim peng.  My mind was set and I set to work the next day.

Glad to say that it was not bad at all considering the steps were very straight forward and easy.  Crispy on the outside and soft inside with hint of saltiness and 5-spice powder.  We had enough for lunch, snack and breakfast the next day.

Crispy on the outside and soft inside

LCOM's Hei Jian (虾煎) Shrimps Omelette

One of my childhood favorites is "oh jian" or Malaysian style oyster omelette.  It is one of the hawker delights and usually we would order this in addition to our dinner (usually fried or soupy noodle).  It has a gelatinous texture and kind of gooey with crispy edges.  Normally serve with sambal.  In Taiwan, they have their own version too which is called "oh ah jian" but theirs was ladle with a lot of sauce.  This starch mixture recipe of mine came from a Taiwanese cooking show.  I adapted their flour ratios and played with the water amount.  I failed the first attempt which created a hard starch and not gelatinous.

Okay, now you should have noticed mine is "hei jian" (shrimp) and not "oh jian" (oyster).  Well frankly I loved the eggs and the gelatinous texture but not necessarily the oyster, also I wanted the convenience of eating it whenever I feel like it and not rushing out to buy the oyster.  But of course you can substitute the shrimp with oyster or simply use both.  But this shrimps omelette pancake (虾煎) can definitely satisfied my cravings.

One think I need to note though.  It is not easy to fry an excellent omelette, it takes skill.  I still need to play with it some more as I don't have the feel yet.  Since I love the gelatinous texture, I might want to add more, but more doesn't means good as the outcome with eggs won't come out great.  It needs to have a balance and I haven't gotten it yet.  I got the starch mixture right but I haven't gotten the technique right yet, I still need lots of practices.  If you know how to fry a killer Malaysian style oyster omelet, please share your technique with me.  Thank you in advance!

Png Kuih/ Png Kueh (饭桃/桃粿)

This kuih is also called Teochew Png Kuih, but I can't call mine that because I didn't use boiled peanuts in my filling, I also out of dried shrimps.  Also I just used my steamed glutinous rice with chicken and shiitake as the filling.  I wanted to kill two birds in one stone you see so that I would have dinner ready as well as afternoon snack or even breakfast the next day.  Because my steamer was small, I had to steam it twice.

My method was unconventional as well as I used a microwave to make the skin.  So, if you are a traditional cook who wants authentic recipe and the traditional way of cooking, skip this post!  This post is for people who loves short-cut and who don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen.

I used the cheap pink plastic png kuih mold to make this instead of the more expensive wood png kuih mold.  Not bad at all as it fell off easily and didn't get stuck to the mold, furthermore, I could still see the print after it's steamed.  For own consumption, I'm happy with it.

Brown Sugar Glutinous Rice Cake (Kuih Pulut Gula Hitam)

I made this Malaysian cake or kuih to bring to a friend's house.  I won't be sharing the recipe because I didn't make a good job of it.  The glutinous rice turned out too soft and I think I picked the wrong method to do this.  Since I made this without measurement, just estimation, I also found it not sweet enough.  Since lots of people know how to make this, I won't be telling you how.  Just that I added brown sugar and sweeten coconut flakes into the coconut fragrant glutinous rice before putting it into a container to shape.

Surprisingly my hubby liked it and I thought he hardly eat any Malaysian cake.  I would definitely try this again and this time with another method of doing it.  This cake is best eaten on the same day.  It is not recommended to put it in the refrigerator as this will harden the glutinous rice.

I tried to arrange it like a snowflake, haha... does it look like a snowflake?  :-P

BoBoChaCha 2

I made BoBoChaCha before but this time with the added tapioca strips.  I steamed the cubed yam for 25 minutes and set aside.  Then, I cooked the cubed sweet potatoes in a large pot with water.  Boil in low heat for 20 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft.  Then, I add in the Chinese bar shape brown sugar or you can use Gula Melaka or gula Jawa.  Dissolve those sugar to taste.  Lastly, stir in the cooked sago pearls/tapioca pearls, cooked tapioca strips, cooked yam and stir to mix well.  Add in some coconut cream to increase the overall fragrant of this dish.

In the next page, I will show you what the dried tapioca trips package looks like.  You should be able to buy this in any Asian or Vietnamese market store.  Instruction to cook this will be provided as well.

Steamed Pumpkin Cake (Pumpkin Kuih)

My one pumpkin can help me create so many new dishes.  If you have been following my blog, I have been popping out all sort of pumpkin recipes recently, have you even noticing it?  And it's not over yet, I still have more pumpkin recipes to share.  Just stay tuned!

I love my stir-fry pumpkin with eggs, so yummy delicious and this steamed pumpkin cake, soft and moist and so well seasoned.  It's so great eating it this way, but I also like it pan-fried because I like the crispy crust on the outside before I bite into the softness inside.

I was so happy I created this recipe.  I never thought of making this kuih in the first place but once I found out that the defrosted pumpkin was soft in nature, I had to change my plan.  Since the soften pumpkin contained lots of liquid so I needed a recipe that suitable for this.  Once I planned on making this, I realized that I only had 100g of rice flour, no more and no less, so I had to create a recipe based on 100g of rice flour.  Luckily it turned out so well and delicious.

This recipe is not hard to make at all.  If you try it, feedback to me ya! ;-)

Nam Yee and Red Bean Dumplings/ Ham Chin Peng/ 油炸面包

Firstly, this is not my recipe, I couldn't possibly invent a Ham Chin Peng recipe.  I saw this recipe at my friend's house while reading her cookbooks' collection.  This recipe was from a cookbook called Pasar Malam Delights.  When I saw this recipe, I got to have it because it has my favorite Ham Chin Peng recipe which the book called Nam Yee and Red Bean Dumplings.  What got my attention was the easy one step method (no starter, no ingredient I couldn't recognize) and furthermore, I already have all the ingredients at home.  You know me, I don't attempt any difficult recipe, anything too complicated, too troublesome, I passed.  If you are like me, this is one recipe you should look at and try. 

The end result, crispy skin, soft fried bread, sweet red bean paste and Nam Yee smell in the bread.  Next time, I will try the savory version using this recipe, just replace the red bean paste with salt and five spice powder and wrap it differently (I liked the savory one more).  I have a little step-by-step pictures in my next page and tips/note.  Living abroad and everything have to make ourselves, this recipe is good enough for me.  The one we get at the Vietnamese bakery store in Denver is plain, unlike the ones in Malaysia.

Sweet Lily Buds and Lotus Seeds Soup

This is a pretty common Chinese sweet soup in Malaysia. I know I didn't like this soup when I was little or when I was back in Malaysia. It is just not my thing especially the lotus seeds and lily buds, not something that youngster would like. But as I got older, my taste bud changed as I am more into healthy food these days or food that would provide benefit to my body as to the opposite. I came into this soup again and the benefits of drinking this simple soup really changed my mind about this soup. This soup is said to be supporting heart, nourish kidney, fight memory loss, insomnia, loss of appetite, nourish brain especially for students or white collar workers who need to use brain to think a lot and anti-aging. I believed in Chinese medicinal soup for prevention and overall body wellness so I guess I will cook this sweet soup frequently from now on. Yeah, I thought my girls wouldn't like this soup but surprisingly they both loved it, even finishing all the lotus seeds, longan, wolfberries and lily buds I gave them. I seriously thought they wouldn't eat the lotus seeds and lily buds like when I was young.

Char Kway Teow Malaysian Style

Since I haven't cooked fried kway teow (fried flat noodle) for awhile, while shopping at the Asian grocery store recently, I picked up the necessary ingredients and cooked it at night. The Asian restaurants here serve this noodle in a different way, they called it beef or chicken hor fun (炒牛河 or 鸡炒河). It is cooked differently from our Malaysian kway teow.



This is my hubby and daddy favorite dish. I don't normally eat this dish while I was in Malaysia. But once I came here, all these hawker style noodles, like char kway teow, hae mee, curry mee, mee rebus, mee goreng, or lam mee became something special. I guess the saying is true, you don't know how to appreciate when there is in abundance, but you will see the value when it is scarce.

Satay Dinner Again!

While replying to Cooking Ninja regarding my satay sauce and compressed rice, Evy walked by and saw the satay chicken. She loved satay chicken and of course requested that I make it for her. I was salivating looking at the pictures and reminiscing how good the satay sauce taste, so I told her I will make satay for dinner the next day.


Yummy and moist satay chicken! Help yourself ya!


My homemade compressed rice, seedless cucumber and shallot.


Peanut satay sauce. Dipping sauce for the satay chicken and accompaniment.



And guess what I ended out using? The Rasaku satay marinade & sauce mix!! I was pleasantly surprised with this brand because I was quite skeptical when I saw the satay sauce that came in the packet. It was in powder form and all I needed to add was water and oil. I was contemplating of making my own sauce or using this powder and decided to give it a try. The sauce looked okay when thicken, so I did a taste test and it was not too bad. But I wanted more flavor out of it and creamier in texture, so I added some creamy peanut butter and toasted ground peanuts into the sauce. Now it looked really good and tasted superb. I won't be hesitating in buying this brand again, just for convenience and it's authenticity in taste. If you want to try it too, you can buy it online at MyTasteOfAsia.com. I just checked the website and now this paste is on sales for $1.95! Grab it before it's gone!

Merdeka Open House 2007: Murtabak Muhibbah

Babe in the city left an invitation at my comment box for this year Merdeka Open House 2007: Muhibbah. This year theme is to create a different ethnic group dish and explain how this dish has been known to me and why it has became my favorite. It was an honor to be invited and I am proud to present you my first participation in the Merdeka Open House.



Murtabak is a well-known Indian pancake stuffed with curry meat, onion and egg. It is also known as Martabak in Indonesia. This Indian Malaysian snack is commonly found in the mamak stall or pasar malam (night market). Mamak stall or hawker stall is very common in Malaysia and it usually filled with mouth-watering food and snacks.

While growing up in Malaysia, I love to go jalan-jalan (walk) in the night market. Since the night market is not only filled with food but also things to see and buy. I guess it is also one of Malaysian way of passing time or people watching. But these days, the youngsters might prefer the air-conditioned mega Mall instead of pasar malam. Haha! Anyway, that was how I discovered murtabak! While walking around the pasar malam searching for my dinner and got attracted by this Indian man making and cooking his murtabak for sales. He cooked his murtabak in a big rectangle griddle. First he spread the thin dough on the griddle and then he put in the filling, spread beaten egg on top, wrap it up and pan-fried until cooked and crispy on the outside. That's how I got introduced to Murtabak, by watching how the Indian man cooked his and bought some and tried it myself. Murtabak is delicious because it has the crispy exterior and thus crispy as you bite into it and then your mouth just filled with the delicious curry filling of meat and veggie. Who wouldn't love it? That's how it became one of my favorite snacks to eat.



I got my Murtabak making inspiration from Teczcape. T, thanks for providing me with this idea to fulfill my Muhibbah project. :)

Here's my adapted recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 small yellow onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup green peas
2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. turmeric powder
Salt to taste
1 tsp. sugar
1 egg, beaten
5 Springs Home frozen plain roti paratha

Method:

Heat 2 Tbsp. canola oil in a non-stick pan and add in onion. Fry til soften, add in ground pork, separate and fry til cooked. Add in bell pepper and green peas and all the seasoning. Add a little water if needed. Mix well and pour the beaten egg on it. Fry til the egg is cooked. Dish out and set aside.

Let the roti paratha soften til foldable consistency, about 5 minutes. This can be quite a sticky job. Spread the filling in the center of the roti paratha and fold in on all edges to close. Put fold side down on a med. heat non-stick pan with a little oil and pan-fry until brown and crispy. Then, flip to the other side and do the same.

Serve warm! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.


Lastly, for all the Malaysian around the world, I would love to wish you a Happy Independence Day! Kepada semua rakyat-rakyat Malaysian, Selamak Hari Merdeka ya! :D

Tags: Merdeka Open House 2007