Sticky-date Pudding

I think I first tried sticky date pudding back in Melbourne, Australia when dear Aunty Thina made some really lovely ones over her christmas lunch. I LOVED IT! I still remember how awesome it tasted with her home made toffee sauce, it just melts in your mouth.... This is a version I found online...rather than the overly sweet toffee sauce, I prefer it with vanilla ice cream=)
A little different from Aunty Thina's, certainly not nearly as good as her version, but good enough me thinks ;) it's 'momsfillibaba'.....

Here's what you'll need:
2 cups of roughly diced pitted dates (I bought mine from a regular middle eastern grocer, they are delish!)
125g butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1.5 cups boiling water
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
Self raising flour mixture (I used 2 cups wheat flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 0.5 tsp salt)
3 eggs

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius.
   
2. Roughly dice the pitted dates and place it in a bowl. Add in bicarbonate soda and then the boiling water. Let mixture sit for about 30 minutes (this would allow dates to soften, and turn into almost paste-like consistency)
3. In a cake mixer, beat butter and sugar until thoroughly mixed and then add in vanilla essence and the eggs one by one.
4. Slowly fold in the flour mixture and continue mixing until smooth. Then gradually fold in the dates from (1) and mix well.
   
5. Prepare a 20 or 25'' baking pan. Lightly grease with butter on the base and sides, then dust a little and shake off access flour.
   
6. With a ladle, transfer pudding mixture from (4) into the baking pan. Place pan into oven and bake for about 40-45 minutes (or check with a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake to test if it's cook or not. If it comes out clean then your pudding is ready to serve)

I love mine served warm and topped with a medium scoop of vanilla ice cream...YUMMERss..

Prep time: 1.5 hours

Difficulty: Moderate

Oven-baked Pandan Wrapped Chicken

Here's a simple way to make light, simple and tasty bites. I believe it's Thai origin, and it is yummier deep fried, but i prefer mine oven baked. It works with either chicken breast or tender chicken thighs.

Here's what you'll need:
Chicken meat, I used two large chicken breast pieces (cut into 1-1.5 inch cubes)
pandan leaves
3 inches ginger (grated and squeezed for juice)
1-2 dashes of soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
a dash of sesame oil
2-3 dashes of white pepper powder
3 tbsp of sugar (you may also use honey)

Instructions:

1. Marinate chicken pieces in all ingredients for at least an hour or two.
2. Starting on one end of the pandan leaf, start rolling in the chicken piece. Hold the wrap with a toothpick.
3. In a preheated oven, bake chicken pieces at approx 200 deg. celcius, for 20-25 minutes (until golden brown).
4. serve on its own or preferred dipping sauce
   

Prep + cook time: 1 hour

Difficulty level : easy- moderate

Chinese 'fu yu' (fermented beancurd) Fried Chicken Wings Recipe

I love the taste of this dish. I first learnt to make it from a friend when I was in Australia. It's actually pretty easy to make, as long as you have the right asian ingredients from your fav asian grocer. It's tasty, aromatic, crispy and goes very well with a warm plate of rice.

Here's what you'll need:

a dozen chicken wings (cut into two parts)
3 pieces fermented beancurd (fuyu)
1 tsp fermented bean paste (taocheo)
2 inch ginger (grated)
2 tsp garlic (grated/ finely minced)
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp corn flour
flour mixture for coating (3 tbsp wheat flour, 2 tbsp rice flour, 1 tbsp corn flour, small dash of salt and pepper)
oil for deep frying

Instruction:

1. Clean chicken wings and marinate chicken wings with all ingredients. Rub all ingredients thoroughly with your clean hands. Refrigerate over night.
2. Heat oil for deep frying. One by one, coat chicken wings with flour mixture, making sure that you get a thorough but light flour coating, shake off excess flour before popping chicken into oil. Do not over-fry the chicken. Once chicken enters the oil, turn heat to medium setting.
3. Drain crispy chicken wings and best served while warm and crispy.

Prep + cook time: 1 hour

Difficulty level : moderate