FOOD + RECIPES

Easy Milkshakes

| San

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These may not be correctly termed as milkshakes, more like ice blend or 冰沙.  But a favorite brownie store serve us their signature milkshake this way.  We love the fact that they are slower to melt, take longer to savour, plus we love slurping crushed ice that tastes of rich chocolate milk.

Freeze your favorite full cream chocolate milk (we used UHT ones which are creamier that is great for this recipe) in ice cube trays the night before, you’ll yield one serving per tray.  If you do not have enough ice cube trays, freeze them in a few batches to make more than one serving.

To make, just blend these frozen milk cubes for a few minutes in the blender till you get finely crushed ice.  Pour the crushed ice into glasses.  Slurp, … opps I mean, serve immediately.

Works great with strawberry milk too, see last photo.

DIY Buttermilk

| San

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Love the holidays.

Everything is done at a slower pace.  Breakfasts and suppers are longer.  More stuffs are made from scratch.

Like Buttermilk.

Mix lemon juice and milk and leave to stand for a while.  When it starts to curdle, it’s ready.  Cheaper than store-bought ones.  Then you’ll have the best ingredient for homemade pancakes.

DIY BUTTERMILK
Yield 1 cup

1.Mix 1 tablespoon of lemon juice with 1 scant cup of fresh full cream milk,  let it stand aside for about 10 minutes.  Ready once it’s curdled.

BUTTERMILK PANCAKES
// Adapted from : Martha Stewart
Yields : 6 medium pancakes.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 and 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 and 1/2 cups buttermilk
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus some for cooking

1. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl.
2. Whisk egg, buttermilk, butter together and add to the dry ingredients in step 1 above.  Batter would have some small lumps.  If batter still appears runny, let it stand for a while more, it should thicken up.
3. Slightly grease pan with melted butter, and turn on fire to low heat.
4. Pour batter into heated pan, and let it cook over low heat.  Do not let batter spread thin.
5. When pancakes have bubbles on top and slightly dry around edges, flip over.  Cook till both sides are done.  Repeat till batter is used up.
6.  Serve warm, immediately.  Top with more butter (this homemade butter pads here), and this gula melaka syrup here.

DIY Popsicle #005 : Sports Drink Popsicle

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Picked up a bottle of sports drink on impulse after an evening run.  Always find them a tad too sweet, but a sudden urge for the taste of citric acid in my mouth (weird?) kicked in, and I only had a couple of fizzy drinks to choose from the vending machine, so this appeared to be the most rational one after a workout.

As I could not finished the whole bottle, the leftovers went into the popsicle molds.  The good thing about making popsicles with sugar loaded soda/canned drinks, is that you’ll consume lesser of it as a popsicle compared to if you were to drink it as a beverage.  Each popsicle mold has a 70ml capacity, so a can of soda is more than enough to make 4 servings (my Daiso mold comes in set of 4 popsicles).  The Big Man get the same level of satisfaction from eating one popsicle and from drinking a can of soda, but the amount of sugar consumed makes all the difference.

Leave the opened soda can standing on the counter for a few minutes till all the fizz are gone, before pouring it into the mold.  Otherwise, there will be lots of air pockets when the popsicle is done freezing.

The taste of this popsicle reminded me of the 10 cents ice tubes we used to eat during the younger days.

DIY Popsicle Version 005 : Sports Drink Popiscle
1. Base : Any sports drink of any flavor, if carbonated, leave the opened can/bottle on counter for a few minutes to let all the fizz out.
2. For some bites : I did not add any, but I think a few squeeze of lemon or lime could intensify the acidity of the popsicle.  The freezing process tame that down quite a bit.

Pancakes With Molded Butter Pads

| San

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I’m not sure my kids like making the banana pancakes or the butter pads better, but both recipes are pretty fool-proof, and extra fancy for a looong morning breakfast.  If your kids can stir, they can make these.

A plea from the pancakes: use real butter, not man-made margarine.  Make these individual servings of butter with your favorite chocolate molds the night before.  I got mine from Daiso, they have cute looking teddy bear ones too!

DIY MOLDED BUTTER PADS

1. Soften butter (salted or unsalted are fine, individual preference) to room temperature.
2. Spoon softened butter into molds, minimizing air bubbles.
3. Freeze the molds in freezer for 1 hour, or chiller compartment overnight.
4. Remove mold from fridge and tap them on counter top to dislodge the butter pads from the mold.
5. Use immediately, or keep them in a container, but always keep them in the chiller so that they won’t melt and go out of shape.

FLUFFY AMERICAN BANANA PANCAKES
// Adapted from : BBC Food
Yields : 4 fairly large thick pancakes.

INGREDIENTS

  • 135g plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons castor sugar
  • 130ml milk
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter, and slightly more for cooking
  • 1 large banana, sliced

1. Lightly whisk milk and egg in a bowl together, then whisk in melted butter.
2. In a separate bowl, mix sifted flour and powder, salt and sugar.
3. Pour milk mixture in step 1 into the bowl of dry ingredients in step 2, and stir thoroughly with a fork, until the batter has no lumps.  The batter would be thick, not the runny kind, resist temptation to add milk/water to remove lumps, keep stirring and the lumps should disappear.  Let batter stand aside for a few minutes.
4. In a pan, brush some melted butter, and turn on fire to low heat.
5. Pour some batter into the heated pan, and let it cook over low heat.
6. Arrange banana slices on the top of the pancake, tapping them down into the batter slightly.
7. Wait till the top of the pancake starts to bubble, then turn pancake over to cook the side with bananas.
8. Remove pan from heat, and serve cooked pancake onto a plate.  Wipe the pan clean with clean towel, and brush with melted butter first, before repeating step 5-8 for the next pancake.
9. Repeat till all batter are used up.
10. Serve pancakes immediately while they are still warm.  Top with gula melaka syrup (or real maple syrup) and butter pads(above).

Gula Melaka Syrup

| San

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The local paper has mentioned palm sugar / gula melaka for 2 consecutive Sundays.  The earlier week featured it as an ingredient for a cupcake recipe. (Good riddance white sugar!  Definitely trying this out.)  The next week, a brand of granulated version of gula melaka was introduced by the same writer, which I think is more friendly to bake with.  I have been adding granulated gula melaka to my morning coffee, adding a nicely “burnt” aroma as well as a richer taste.  It’s a bonus to know that gula melaka has a lower GI than white sugar, and thus is a healthier sweetener than sugar.

Gula melaka syrup is a pantry basic good to have around if you like your breakfasts sweet, it makes a perfect drizzle for waffles, pancakes and french toasts.  It is cheaper to make gula melaka syrup than to buy maple syrup (Note: NOT MAPLE FLAVORED SYRUP).

And of course, it is also wonderful for cold desserts like sago pudding, shave ice(cendol/ice kachang), and even as a sweetener in an avocado smoothie!  I have written about a popsicle recipe using gula melaka recently.

On a side note: I got a shock when I saw the ingredients “sugar, coconut, water” on a pack of gula melaka that I randomly grabbed from the market.  It wasn’t a familiar brand, and packaging design looked generic, the kind that could be used by any dried goods distributor for their red beans, barley etc.  Isn’t gula melaka simply sap from coconut flower reduced to a solid block through a boil?

“Gula melaka is made by making several slits into the bud of a coconut tree and collecting the sap. Then, the sap is boiled until it thickens after which, in the traditional way, it is poured into bamboo tubes between 3-5 inches in length, and left to solidify to form cylindrical cake blocks.” – {via}

Anyway, I put that aside and bought another pack of my usual 马六甲正椰塘 to make my gula melaka syrup.  Just to make sure.

GULA MELAKA SYRUP
// From : Cuisine Paradise

INGREDIENTS

  • 200g Gula Melaka
  • 2 Pandan leaves, knotted
  • 80ml water

1. Place all 3 ingredients in a small pot and bring to boil.
2. Lower heat and simmer till mixture slightly thickens.
3. Remove pan from heat and allow syrup to cool to room temperature.
4. Remove pandan leaves and pour syrup into a clean container.  Use immediately, or keep stored in fridge up to 3 months.

Creamy Creamless Cauliflower Soup

| San

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4 ingredients : onion, cauliflower, olive oil and water.  No fattening cream used, same rich flavor created, thanks to the onion.  Wouldn’t you be tempted to try?

Without worrying on excessive MSG, fats or sodium level, I am adopting this creamy soup recipe to make healthier versions of other creamy soups like cream of mushroom (adding brown mushrooms, sautéed separately, and blend with cauliflower soup) or cream of corn (add fresh corn kernel to be cooked with cauliflower and onions, then blend).

You may follow the recipe below from The Amateur Gourmet, which yields 6 servings according to the site.  I prefer it thicker and add just enough hot boiling water to cover the cauliflower and onions, lesser than the 5 and 1/2 cups required.  I also cut the cooking time shorter by simply adding chopped cauliflower and hot water at the same time, right after the onions have turned translucent and soft.  The recipe originally called for the cauliflower to be cooked with the onions without water first.  I also do not like to work with very hot liquid in my blender, so I let it cool to lukewarm temperature before blending it, then reheat it again before serving.

CREAMY CREAMLESS CAULIFLOWER SOUP
// Adapted from : The Amateur Gourmet

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
1 head cauliflower, chopped
Salt, to taste
Hot boiling water

1. Heat the olive oil in a pot on medium heat. Add the onions, cook them over low fire until they turn soft and translucent.  Ensure that they don’t turn brown, stir occasionally.
2. Add the chopped cauliflower and just enough hot water to cover the ingredients.  Increase the heat slightly, add salt and allow soup to boil.  Once the soup starts to boil, turn heat lower and simmer for about 15 -20 minutes, till cauliflower is cooked and turn soft.  Let soup cool aside till lukewarm.
3. Pour the mixture in batches into a blender and blend.  When the soup is fully blended, pour it back to the pot and reheat it.
4. Season with salt and pepper.  Serve immediately.

DIY Popsicle #004 : Gula Melaka Coconut Milk Popsicles

| San

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Gosh, it has been drizzling pretty often recently, hasn’t it? But the temperature hasn’t really come down after the rain, neither am I enjoying any cool breeze from my kitchen window. So the DIY popsicle project continues….

Sticking to the preference for creamy popsicle, I turned to ingredients commonly found our local dessert for inspiration : Gula Melaka Sago / Cendol. I removed the sago and cendol bits as I don’t think they taste good frozen, but I kept the red beans (think: potong ice-cream).

You may end up with extra Gula Melaka Syrup, depending on how sweet you want your popsicles. Keep them in clean glass jars, and consumed within a few weeks.

DIY Popsicle Version 004 : Gula Melaka Coconut Milk Popiscle
1. Base : Make Gula Melaka syrup by melting 100g Gula Melaka with a bit of water (50ml) in a small pot over low heat. Add Pandan leaf (1 qty, knotted) and simmer till mixture slightly thickens. Remove pot from heat and let syrup cool down slightly, about 15 minutes. Remove Pandan leaf. Mix 1/8 tsp of salt to 1 cup of coconut milk. Add Gula Melaka syrup to coconut milk slowly till preferred sweetness level.
2. For some bites : Boil and cook 2 tablespoons of red beans till soft. Fill the base of the molds with some red beans first before filling the rest of the molds with Gula Melaka Coconut Milk Mixture.

Credits :
Gula Melaka Syrup via Cuisine Paradise
Gula Melaka Sago via My Kitchen Snippets

Veggie Tempeh Sub

| San

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The first time I bought “fresh” (those wrapped in banana leaf and newspaper) tempeh from wet market, I thought it had turned moldy and threw it away.  Little did I know that these fermented soy beans are ranked so high on nutritional scale because of these “moldy” qualities.  Since then, they have turned up pretty regularly on my grocery list.

Besides deep-frying them to make tasty crispy snacks, tempeh is also great as a meat replacement patty.  The trick is to marinate the tempeh to taste “meaty” and saute till brown after.  Garlic powder, Worcestershire or BBQ sauce are great for that purpose.  I boil the tempeh slices first before dipping them in marinate so that they can absorb the sauce better when they are still hot.  After topping up with mushrooms, alfalfa sprouts (another superfood!) and caramelised onions, my kids can’t even tell that there is no meat in this sandwich.

VEGGIE TEMPEH SUB SANDWICH
Makes 1 sandwich
INGREDIENTS
- 2 tempeh slices
- 1 Ciabatta bread
- Olive Oil
Tempeh Marinate :
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
Toppings:
- Cheddar cheese slices
- 1 big portobello mushrooms, sliced
- 1/2 yellow onions, sliced
- Alfalfa sprouts
INSTRUCTIONS :

01. Mix marinate ingredients in a saucer, set aside.
02. Cook tempeh in boiling water for about 3 minutes, remove tempeh from water place in marinate sauce.  Prick tempeh with fork a few times and marinate for about 10 to 30 minutes.
03. In a heated pan with olive oil, saute onion slices till they turn soft over medium heat.
04. Add portobello mushrooms and continue to saute, add more oil if necessary.
05. Once onion slices have caramelised and mushrooms turn soft, remove from pan and set aside.
06. Add some oil to the pan, and saute marinated tempeh on both sides.

ASSEMBLY :

01. Slice Ciabatta bread into half, and toast with cheddar slices. Place tempeh slices.
02. Add saute mushrooms and onions.  I added some chopped uncooked onions as well for some crunch.
03. Lastly, top with alfalfa sprouts and serve immediately.

DIY Popsicle #003 : Banana Puree Popsicle

| San

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First, an easy ice cream recipe : Always stock a small tub of frozen cut bananas in the freezer, that is all you need to make “healthy, sugar-gluten-dairy free, single ingredient ice cream” on a hot day.

Just puree the frozen fruit in a blender till they look like sticky “cream”, you may need to start-stop the blender a few times and use a spoon to move the frozen bananas around so that they get into the blades.

The end result is so close to the real thing; tastes, melts and glides around in your mouth just like normal ice cream, minus the guilt.  You can re-freeze the puree to get a firmer texture, but I usually can’t wait, just scoop them out and serve direct on a cone, sometimes with toppings like chopped almonds or peanuts.  Today, I blended more bananas and mold them into popsicles.

For the today’s popsicle recipe,  I blended a bit of natural yogurt with the banana puree made from 2 large bananas.  This is to add some tangy flavor, which I like in my popsicles, totally optional.

DIY Popsicle Version 003 : Banana Puree Popiscle
1. Base : Banana Puree.  Blend and blend 2 large frozen cut bananas and 2 tablespoons of natural/ greek yogurt (optional) till you get a sticky mixture. Fill popsicle molds with puree.  Tap the molds on the table a few times before freezing, to get rid of air pockets inside the mixture.
2. For some bites : None.