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

Home-made Pepperoni Pizza Recipe

Ingredients (2 portion):
A)To make Dough
300 g wheat flour
1.5 tsp yeast
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1.5 tbsp olive oil
180 ml warm water

B)To make pizza sauce
300g crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp olive oil
1 big onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
2 tbsp tomatoe puree
salt and pepper to taste

C)Toppings
grated cheese, Mozarella cheese
mushroom
pepperoni slices
onions, sliced
jalapeno (optional)
olives
bell pepper
olive oil
etc

Instructions:
A) To make Pizza dough

1. sieve flour into a large bowl, then add salt, sugar and yeast, mix well. Make a cavity in the center of bowl.. pour in olive oil and then warm water slowly.
2. mix well and knead until a smooth ball of dough. place in a clean empty medium sized bowl and cling wrap/cover with damp cloth.
3. set it aside for about 2 hours/ until dough has risen twice its original size
4. dust working surface with flour. split dough into two halves. Use rolling pin to roll out pizza dough into a thing, round pizza base.
   
5. Use a fork and gently pierce holes onto the surface of dough, then flip it over and place it on a baking tray.

B) To make Pizza sauce

1. heat a sauce pan and melt in butter and olive oil. Add in onions and stir until translucent.
   
2. add in crushed tomatoes and puree, stirr well.
   
3. add the others : oregano, basil, salt, pepper, garlic. Let simmer for about 10 minutes on low heat.
4. remove from sauce pan and let cool before using on pizza

C) Decorating your pizza

1. spread pizza sauce unto pizza dough. placed all ingredients (C) evenly, and drizzle a little olive oil all over. Then cover with cheese.
   
2. In a preheated oven at 210 degrees, bake for approximately 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Voila, ready to be served =)

prep time : 3 hours
Difficulty level : easy-moderate

Onde-Onde (nyonya desserts) Recipe

Had a craving for Onde-Ondes, so I googled for the recipe and delighted to know it's so easy to make.... I love this because of the delightful sweet surprise you get on the inside. When you sink your teeth into the fragrant chewy ball you'll get liquid sugar oozing out....yummers.. but it's not any ordinary sugar, you'll need Gula Melaka (Palm sugar) (found mainly in south east asia/ sometimes your favourite asian grocer).
Here's all you'll need:
palm sugar (chop and shaped into tiny balls of sugar balls, about the size of a peanut, personal preference)
250 g glutinous rice flour
50 g tapioca starch flour
80-100 ml pandan juice*
grated coconut ( I used coconut flakes)

(* pandan/ screwpine leaves : juice can be extracted by blending 8 leaves with 1 cup of water. It is important to make sure you chop the leaves finely before blending. Then over a sieve, further squeeze juice from leaves with hands into a glass and set aside. Then with the same blended/drained leaves, blend them again with another cup of water to get slightly less concentrated juice.Pandan juice will give the dish a natural green colouring and fragrance)

Instructions:

1. Slowly add Pandan juice to flour mixture. adjust amount of juice according to the consistency desired. You want to knead the dough to get a smooth, green coloured dough.
2. Tear the dough to make approximate 1 inch balls. Make a cavity in center of ball ,place 'palmsugar-ball' and cover up neatly and give it a good roll to get a smooth ball.
3. Place balls into a pot of boiling water. Boil until balls start to float on the surface, further boil for 2-3 minutes to get sugar to melt inside.
4. Remove ball from pot into a bowl of coconut flakes/grated, roll the ball to give it a thorough coating.
   
5. Serve when cooled. Do not keep overnight / in the fridge as they will get very hard to chew.

Cook time = ~ 10 minutes per ball
Difficulty = tricky

Cantonese 'cheong fun' (Steamed Rice-Rolls) Recipe

This is a dish I've always loved. It's my absolute must-have when I go for dimsums. This is a recipe shared by a friend and I didnt know it was possible to make it at home since I've only seen it done with special steaming machines and techniques at the hawkers'.

I'm not gonna lie, if it's your first time making this, it might be a little tricky. Needless to say, I failed to make it aesthetically pleasant the first few times. But practice makes perfect, if you love this dish, it's worth the effort.

Cooking tools:
flour sieve
oil brush
steaming trays
steamer
a flat tool (wide icing spreader works) to assist in rolling of rice rolls

Ingredients (makes 2-3 portion):
220ml cold water 70g sieved rice flour 1 tbsp wheat starch (note: NOT wheat flour) 1 tbsp corn starch 1/4 tsp salt 2-3 tbsp veg oil
oil for brushing
toasted sesame seeds/ fried shallots for garnish
(for the filling, you can choose to use either BBQ pork 'chasiu', fresh prawns (cooked and peeled), or dried shrimps with green onions). The easiest one to make would be the fried shrimps + green onions.

Sauce for dipping (varies depending on desired consistency/ taste):
5 tsp soy sauce
5 tsp warmwater
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp sesame oil

Instructions:

1. Add water in a bowl/pot + rice flour + wheat starch + corn starch + salt + oil, stir thoroughly until no clumps and then cover and leave aside for at least 1 hour before use.
   
2. Prepare the chasiu (I will share the recipe for homemade chasiu some other time, otherwise you can buy ready made ones) dice them into tiny bits. (you can substitute chasiu for cleaned and cooked prawns or wash dried shrimps and chop green onions)
3. Prepare steaming tray : brush oil on surface before pouring in mixture from (1). This is quite tricky (trial and error to get the right thickness/ consistency you like), you dont want it too thick so pour a thin layer just enough to cover the surface of the tray. Sprinkle fillings (pork/ prawns/ dried shrimps+greenonions) generously over the tray
   
4. Steam in the steamer for approximate 7-8 minutes. Remove and let cool for about 1- 2 minutes. Then comes the trickiest part - Rolling & Plating. Brush a little oil on the flat tool before using it to gently and slowly lifting as you roll the thin sheet across the tray.
5. You can plate it and serve as it is or cut them in parts (~1-2inches) and panfry them until crispy.
6. Garnish and serve with dipping sauce mixture.

Voila!

Difficulty level : moderate - tricky
Prep. time : 1.5 hours + 7 minutes steam time per tray