Devil's Food Cake

Ingredients

50 grams best-quality cocoa powder (sifted)

100 grams dark brown Muscovado sugar

250 millilitres boiling water

125 grams soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing)

150 grams caster sugar

225 grams plain flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

For the Frosting

125 millilitres water

30 grams dark brown muscovado sugar

175 grams unsalted butter (cubed)

300 grams best-quality dark chocolate (finely chopped)

Methods

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Line the bottoms of two 8inch round sandwich tins with baking parchment and butter the sides.
3. Combine the cocoa and 100g dark Muscovado sugar into a bowl, pour in the boiling water & whisk to mix. Set aside.
4. Stir in the flour, baking powder & soda bicarbonate together in another bowl, set aside for a moment.
5. Cream the butter & caster sugar together & beat well until pale & fluffy.
6. Dribble the vanilla extract into the creamed butter & sugar & mix then for while. Add in 1 egg & quickly followed by a scoopful of flour mixture, then the second egg.
7. Keep mixing to incorporate the rest of the dried ingredients for the cake, and finally mix & fold in the cocoa mixture, scraping its bowl well with a spatula.
8. Divide the batter between the 2 prepared tins & bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Take the tins out & leave them on a wire rack for 5–10 minutes, before turning the cakes out to cool.
9. As soon as the cakes are baking in the oven, start preparing the frosting. Put the water, 30g  Muscovado sugar & 175g butter in a pan over a low heat to melt.
10. When the mixture begins to bubble, take the pan off the heat & add the chopped chocolate, swirling the pan so that all the chocolate is hit with heat, then leave for a minute to melt before whisking till smooth & glossy.
11. Leave for about 1 hour, whisking now & again. By which time the cakes will be cooled, the frosting should have been thicken & ready for the frosting.
12. Set one of the cooled cakes, with its top side down, on a cake stand or plate & spread with about a third of the frosting. Next, top that with the second cake, regular way up, and spread the remaining frosting over the top and all sides, swirling away with spatula. It is not necessary to smooth the frosting as some swirls created will make the cake looks nicer.

Laksa Lemak / Singapore Laksa

Laksa Lemak is also called as Nyonya Laksa. It is the laksa commonly found in Singapore so it sometimes is regarded as Singapore Laksa. There are many slight variation for this dish and this combination of ingredients is what I like as well as my friends who had tried it. 

The steps to make this laksa might seem to be tedious but it is worth the effort as nothing can beat homemade. One way to ease the lengthy preparation is to prepare ahead the general rempah & prawn stock, you can keep them in freezer for some days or weeks and thaw them to use whenever you want to cook laksa.

Ingredients:
400g generic rempah (detailed recipe see here)
1.5 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted & milled into fine powder
2 tbsp belacan (fermanted shrimp paste) powder, toasted
100g dried shrimps, soaked & flossed 
6 sprigs of daun kesom / laksa leaves (Vietnamese Mint), whole sprig including stem
600ml coconut milk
1200ml prawn stock (see below on how to prepare prawn stock)
1kg rice vermicelli (or yellow noodles depends on preference), blanched & cooked seperately
3 tbsp sugar, adjust to taste
2 tsp salt, adjust to taste
3 tbsp cooking oil

For prawn stock:
1 kg prawns (sea prawns are the best as they are rich in flavor)
1 tbsp cooking oil
1500ml water

Condiments:
10 pcs tau pok (deep fried beancurd puff)
30 pcs medium shell-less fresh prawns taken from ingredients of prawn stock, blanched to cook
200g bean sprouts, blanched
5 eggs, hard-boiled & removed shell, cut into half or quarter
3 pcs flat large fish cake, thinly sliced, blanched
200g fresh blood cockles (optional)
2 to 4 sprig of daun kesom, julienned 

Special Sambal Chilies (optional):
60g generic rempah
20g dried shrimp, soaked & flossed 
50g shallots
3 tsp sugar
1 tbsp shallot oil

Methods:
1. To prepare prawn stock: snip off the torn & eyes of the prawn and remove the dirt inside prawn's head. Remove prawn shells for the usage in preparing prawn stock, keep the prawn meat aside. Heat the pan with cooking oil, add in prawn head & prawn shells, pan fry in medium heat until they turned color and the prawn aroma is all over your kitchen. Do not burn it. Pour in water, turn it to medium high heat and let it boil. Lower down the heat & let it boil for 15 minutes. Strain to remove the prawn heads & prawn shell, and the prawn stock is ready for use.
Note: Snipping off the prawns eyes and remove dirt are important to avoid bitter aftertaste of the prawn stock produced.
2.  In a big wok or stock pot, heat up cooking oil. Add flossed dried shrimp paste & saute it for while. Add in belacan powder, coriander seeds powder, general rempah & fry until fragrant.
3. Add in prawn stock & bring to boil. Add coconut milk to create the base. Add in more water to create the desired gravy consistency.
4. Add in daun kesom and this will give the gravy another dimension of flavor. Add in salt and sugar, adjust the saltiness & sweetness to your desired taste.
5. Add in tau pok (deep-fried beancurd puff) into the gravy & allow it to simmer together for few minutes under medium heat. Switch off the fire and do not cover the lid.
6. To prepare optional sambal chilies: Add all ingredients in a pan & saute until fragrant. 
7. To serve: portion the rice vermicelli into a bowl, top with handful of bean sprout. Ladle hot laksa gravy onto the bowl together with 2-3 pieces of beancurd puff from the same pot. Arrange some sliced fish cake, prawns, halved hard-boiled eggs, blanched blood cockles on top. Add more laksa gravy if desired.
8. Garnish with julienned daun kesom, serve immediately with some sambal chilies at the side.

Freezer Friendly Chicken Nuggets

Home made chicken nuggets are always welcomed at home, as slightly healthy snacks for you know what you have put in to prepare them. The plus point is you can decide whether you want to lightly marinate the chicken pieces or leave them plain, and make ahead in bigger batches, freeze them for later consumption. 

Instead of using bread crumbs as the coating, I use pulverize cornflake cereal or sometimes graham cracker crumbs as i find them to be crispier than bread crumbs.

Ingredients:
1.5kg of chicken breasts
1 cup of flour
1 cup of pulverize cornflake cereal / graham cracker crumbs
3 eggs

Marinate (optional - just for light seasoning)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper, grinded
dash of garlic powder (optional)
dash of paprika (optional)

Methods:
1. Cut the chicken breasts into equal nugget sized.
2. Marinate the chicken with marinate for 1 hour.
3. Coat each piece of chicken in flour, followed by the egg, followed by crumbs.
4. Place the chicken pieces on a greased or parchment covered baking sheet, bake at 175°C for 20-25 minutes.
5. Let the nuggets cool as it is important to let the nuggets cool before putting them into your freezer bag. DO NOT FREEZE FOOD THAT IS STILL HOT as this can contaminate the food you are freezing.
6. It is easy to heat the chicken nuggets back up - microwave / fry / bake them as you wish and there is no need to have excessive timing to cook them as they were baked to cook earlier on.

Sarawak Pickled Cucumber / Acar

Sarawak Acar is pickle preserved in vinegar & sugar for days, weeks or even months before it is served. It is also different from West Malaysia's Acar and Singapore Acar. the pickles are sweet and sour and full of turmeric and other spices flavour. It is typical a not-to-missed item during Chinese New Year and it is always eaten together with the 'keropok' (prawn / fish crackers).

Ingredients:
500g cucumbers
200g carrots
3 big chilies
2tbsp dried shrimps, soaked & pounded to floss-like
1/4 cup of rice vinegar
1/4 cup of cooking oil
1/4 cup of white sugar
1tbsp salk
1tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
1tbsp of toasted belachan powder (fermented shrimp paste)

For spice paste:
12 shallots
13garlic clove
4cm ginger
5 candlenuts
1tbsp turmeric powder 
1/2 tbsp chilies powder (optional)


 Methods:
1. Halve the cucumber & remove the seeds, slice the cucumber into bite matchstick bite size, approx. 5cm length.
2. Slice the carrot the same way as cucumber.
3. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of sea salt over the cucumbers & carrots, leave them for 30 mins to sweat. Drain the water out from cucumbers & carrots by squeezing them dry. Dry theam further under the hot sun for 2 hours or in the fridge for 4 hours.
4.  Cut the big chilies into long tiny stripe about the same size as the cucumber stripe and set aside.
5.  Blend or pound the ingredients for spice paste until fine.
6. In a wok or frying pan, add the oil & toast dried shrimp until fragrant, add in belachan and toast for while. Transfer the blended spices to the oil and sauté the spices under medium heat until fragrant & the oils separated. Let the spice past cool down.
7. In a large bowl, mix in all the cut vegetable, spice paste, sesame seeds, sugar and vinegar until evenly mixed.
8. In a sterilized glass jar, fill the mixture and top it with vinegar. Close the lid and let it rest for 1-2 days before eating. The acar could be kept for weeks in fridge for later consumption.

Generic Spice Paste / Rempah

This generic spice paste is the basic for many Nyonya dishes, such as Laksa Lemak/ Singapore Laksa, and other Nyonya and Malay dishes. It can be prepared in advance, and kept in freezer until it is needed for cooking.  

Ingredients (making a batch of 1kg rempah to save efforts in making multiple batches): 
280g Red Chillies, remove seeds 
40 Dried Chillies, soaked in hot water until soft, remove seeds
20 Candlenut / buah keras
440g Shallots, peeled
100g Garlic, peeled
80g Ginger, sliced
40g Turmeric Root, sliced
40g Galangal, sliced
16 Stalks Lemon Grass (use only the lower 1/3 whitish portion), sliced
8 Bird's eye chillies / cili padi, remove seeds (Optional) 

Methods:
1. Chop and blend or pound all spice ingredients together into a fine paste. 
2. Heat up generous amount of cooking oil over medium low heat, gently saute blended spices until fragrant. The spices should darken considerably and starts to glisten as the oil begins to separate from the paste. 
3. When spice paste is cooked, leave it to cool completely. Store the paste in air tight container in the fridge for next day's use, or portion the paste to desired portion and keep it in the freezer for later use. 

Beef Rendang

Beef Rendang is an Indonesian dish made by simmering beef for hours in coconut milk and spices until the liquid has evaporated. It's then fried in the oil the meat releases, caramelizing what's left of the sauce around each piece of meat.

Of course if you are not a fan of beef, you can change the meat to chicken or even lamb. Please take note that chicken cook much faster than beef or lamb, so you need to cook the spices and coconut milk for some times before putting in the chicken. Otherwise the chicken meat might be too soft at the end of your cooking. 

Ingredients:

For spice paste

8 shallots

3 clove of garlic

2 thumb-size of turmeric

1 thumb-size of ginger

2 thumb-size of galangal

8 stalks of lemon grass

8 dried chilies

8 chilies padi / chilies

2 Aniseed

For Kerisik

100g grated coconut

1 tsp cumin seeds

3 tsp coriander seeds

1 whole chicken chopped in pieces or 1kg beef  cut into cubes

200g grated coconut for fresh coconut milk

Salt to taste

8 Kaffir lime leaves (squashed, 4 pcs finely sliced)

1 cube of gula Malacca (or brown sugar)

Methods:

1.       Preparing kerisik:  Toast all ingredients for kerisik in a non-stick frying pan till it turns light brown. Be watchful during the toasting process in order not to burn the ingredients.

Cool the toasted ingredients before blending it in a blender until it is finely blended.

2.       Preparing fresh coconut milk:  Add grated coconuts into 2 cups of water and squeeze the juice out of it. For second round, do the same thing with 1 cup of water instead for a thinner coconut milk.

Keep a handful of the squeezed grated coconuts and blend it with the thinner coconut milk.

3.       In  a non-stick pan, add the blended spice paste and half of the coconut milk to boil.

15 minutes later, add in lime leaves, gula Malacca and kerisik.

4.       For Beef Rendang:  Add in beef cubes and continue to simmer for another 1 hour until the oil is separated from the sauce.  Stir occasionally to avoid the sauce sticking on the pan. Add in the thicker coconut milk and continue to cook for another 20 minutes.

For Chicken Rendang: Simmer the paste for 40 minutes before adding the chicken piece & the thicker coconut milk. Continue to simmer for another 20 minutes until the oil separated from the sauce and chicken is cooked. Stir occasionally to avoid the sauce sticking on the pan.

5.       Add salt & sugar to taste.

6.       Dish is ready to serve, it taste better overnight.