Orange with Kaffir Lime Granita

Today is Sunday and it is a real sunny and hot day. (The weather lately has been extremely humid and hot here in Malaysia). As usual on weekends I will be busy in my kitchen preparing bread dough for next week’s breakfast.

Dear Hubby and my two sons went out early this morning to the city to get a PC for my eldest son. My eldest son started working this year as he is taking a 6 months break from his studies. (He will be starting his under-graduate studies in August this year). With the money he earned so far, he wants to get his own PC (the one he has now is more than 7 years old).

My daughter stayed home with me. Since it is so hot, I decided to try out the recipe on Orange and Kaffir Lime Granita that was posted by The Little Teowchew recently. It would be just perfect for the guys when they come home later in the day. Moreover, I have all the ingredients especially the Kaffir Lime Leaves as I have a plant in my garden.

It is really easy to make and it is really refreshing. The combination of Kaffir Lime and Orange is just perfect! An excellent choice to serve on a scorching hot day.

Orange with kaffir Lime Granita

(adapted from The Little Teowchew)

For the syrup
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup regular sugar + 3tbsp sugar (I omitted the 3 tbsp as I am cutting down my sugar intake)
- About 6 to 7 kaffir lime leaves, torn (sub with lemongrass if they are more easily available)

For the juice
- 2 cups fresh orange juice, strained

Method
1. In a small saucepan, add water, sugar and kaffir lime leaves. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar until you get a syrup consistency. Discard the leaves and leave to cool.

2. In a 9-by-13-inch glass or ceramic baking dish (I used a metal dish), stir the cooled sugar syrup into the orange juice. Freeze for about 45 minutes, or until ice crystals form around the edge. Using a fork, stir the crystals into the center and freeze for about 30 minutes, until a thicker rim of crystals forms around the edges. Stir again and freeze for about 1 hour longer, stirring every 15 minutes or so until all the juice is frozen.

3. Scoop the granita into serving glasses, and top with vanilla ice cream (optional).

Carrot Cake Bread

I do not know if this is the correct name for this bread. I made it yesterday as I was trying to play around with the ingredients I have.

I have seen some bakeries selling chocolate bread topped with pandan or vanilla sponge cake. Instead of making the same as those bakeries, I decided to make a similar bread with different ingredients. For the bread, I used the Hokkaido Milk Bread with purple rice. The recipe is here. I had this dough prepared earlier and frozen. So, all I need to do is to pull out this dough and let it on the counter to defrost and prove.

For the topping, instead of the normal vanilla sponge, I used my chiffon cake recipe below.

Carrot Chiffon Cake.

Ingredients

4 egg yolks (Grade A)
40 ml corn oil
100 gm superfine flour
1 carrot finely grated and blended with 2 tbsp water (about 100gm)
1 tsp paprika
5 egg whiles (Grade A)
50gm castor sugar (add more if preferred)
0.5 tsp lemon juice (optional)

Method

1. Combine egg yolks, oil, flour, carrot and paprika.
2. Mix till well blended. Set aside.
3. Whisk egg white till frothy
4. Gradually add in sugar and lemon juice and whisking till soft peak is formed.
5. Whisk in 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk batter till well combined.
6. Fold in another 1/3 of the egg white mixture followed by the balance. Do not over mix the batter

To assemble and bake this bread :

1. Once the bread dough doubles in size, punch it down and divide into 4 portions.
2. Shape them into balls and let them rest for 15mins.
3. Form the dough into 4 long strips.
4. Place 2 strips each into 2 loaf tin (lined with parchment paper)
5. Prove for about 45 -60mins until the dough double in size.
6. During the last 10 mins of the proving, prepare the carrot chiffon cake mixture above.
7. Pour half this mixture on top of each loaf tray.
8. Bake in a 170C preheated oven for about 35-40mins.

Since I baked 2 loaves, I gave one to my mother. The bread has a bright yellow colour on the cake portion. No colouring is added as it is purely carrot! The bread portion on the other hand is slightly purplish. Very interesting colour. It taste good as the paprika goes well with carrot. This bread is soft and fluffy and can be eaten plain.

Try it .... It's a keeper!!!!

Bubur Pulut Hitam (Black Glutinous Rice Porridge)

As a child, Bubur Pulut Hitam is one of my favorite desserts. The sweetness of the porridge laden with spoonfuls of slightly salty coconut milk is just so yummy and makes me ask for another serving!

Bubur Pulut Hitam means Black Glutinous Rice Porridge in Malay. Back home in Penang, it is commonly known as “Bee Koh Moy” (in Hokkien dialect). This is easily one of the most popular and common desserts in many Nyonya and Peranakan families. It is made from black glutinous rice (black sticky rice), water, sugar, and topped with slightly salted coconut milk when served.

Black Glutinous Rice (or known Pulut Hitam) is quite common and popular in South East Asia countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Thailand and Indonesia. The uneven black husk makes the rice looks like burnt rice. It is named ''black'' glutinous rice, in actual colour, it is a lovely burgundy when cooked. Like brown rice, it is high in fibre, and has a distinctive nutty flavour which is perfect to use for dessert (rather than as a main course). Since it is high in fibre it takes a longer time to cook

My mother gave me a packet of black glutinous rice a fortnight ago. I had intended to make this dessert last weekend. However, I totally forgot about it once I kept in inside my pantry until last night. I used the recipe by my Aunt Amy Beh. I halved the portion as we are rather small eaters at home.

It is easy to cook and ummmm so yummmmyyyy….

Bubur Pulut Hitam (adapted from Amy Beh)

Ingredients

300g black glutinous rice

5 litres water

100g castor sugar

100g palm sugar

75g dried longans, rinsed

2-3 pandan leaves, knotted

For thickening : Combine 2 tbsp corn flour with 3 tbsp water

For topping :

Thick milk from 1 coconut

½ tsp salt

Method

• Toss glutinous rice in a hot wok (frying pan) till you see the rice jumping in the wok. This is to release the nutty flavor of the rice.
• Dish it out and let it cool down.
• Wash glutinous rice thoroughly and soak in water for several hours. (preferably overnight)
• Put rice and water into a pot and cook over medium heat until rice is soft and almost creamy.
• When rice has reached the desired consistency, add dried longans and pandan leaves.
• Add both types of sugar and simmer for a further 10–15 minutes over gentle heat. (Never add sugar to the glutinous rice at the start or you’ll have difficulty cooking it.)
• Add thickening to the glutinous rice and bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
• To serve: put two to three tablespoons of thick coconut milk into each bowl of glutinous rice porridge.

Rangoon Creeper (Quisqualis indica)- Simply Spectacular!

When I first saw this particular creeper/vine in one of my neighbours’ garden a few years ago, I told myself that I got to have this plant. However, at that time I was having another creeper in my garden and could not accommodate it. A while back, we decided to discard the said creeper as it was getting too old and unruly. After getting rid of it, I managed to get 2 saplings of Rangoon Creeper from my neighbour. I planted one each on either side of my Pergola. With lots of love and nurturing, it paid off… look what I have now!!! It’s so spectacular and fragrant. Just love sitting there enjoying the shade and smelling the sweet fragrant. It is heavenly!!!

My family's favourite space to hangout !

Originating from Malaysia, Burma, New Guinea and the Philippines it is commonly known as Rangoon Creeper or Quisqualis indica(it’s botanical name) . Locally it is also known as Akar Dani (in Malay). Its other names consist of Chinese Honeysuckle, Burma Creeper, Druken Sailor and Bunga Setanduk.

Rangoon Creeper is a climbing shrub and planted as ornamental plant because of its unique flowers. The flowers are very attractive and borne in clusters. The flower tube is about 5 cm long and the petals are white but turn pink and then red when matured. The flower blooms in abundance and is very fragrant. It is often planted as climber on fences, on specially prepared pergola or left to climb on big trees.

Apparently this plant has some medicinal properties too. I did not know until I research on it just now. Rangoon Creeper is largely grown in Malaysia as an ornamental plant. However, in the Philippines it is used as traditional medicine to kill parasitic worms and treat coughs, diarrhea and body pains. In India it is used to treat flatulence!

Featured in one of the stamp series in Malaysia

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I have not been baking chiffon cake for a while, especially Pandan Chiffon Cake.

I love this cake but have not baked it much as I am kind of lazy to pound the pandan leaves to extract the juice. Yesterday while working out in the gym, a friend told me that the pandan leaf can be blended and used in cake making. Every bit of the leaf can be consumed. Since pandan is used as a diuretic and is believed to be able to lower the Uric Acid in our body, I decided to bake one today.

I did not extract the Pandan juice by pounding it. I cut the pandan leaves into small piece and blended it with a small amount of water.

Here is my recipe :

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks (Grade A)
• 40 ml corn oil
• 100 gm superfine flour
• 60-70ml fresh coconut milk
• 2 pandan leaves blend into juice (add 1 tbsp water)
• 5 egg whiles (Grade A)
• 50gm castor sugar (add more if preferred)
• 0.5 tsp lemon juice (optional)

Method

• Preheat oven at 170 C.
• Combine egg yolks, oil, flour, pandan juice and coconut milk.
• Mix till well blended. Set aside.
• Whisk egg white till frothy
• Gradually add in sugar and lemon juice and whisking till soft peak is formed.
• Whisk in 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk batter till well combined.
• Fold in another 1/3 of the egg white mixture followed by the balance. Do not over mix the batter
• Pour the batter into a chiffon cake tin (18cm) and bake in the oven for 25- 30 mins or till the top is golden brown.
• Remove the cake from the oven and invert it while cooling for 30 mins.

The cake is very fragrant and it has a nice green hue. Since I blended the pandan leaves till fine, there were no bits and pieces of pandan leaves in the cake !!!!

I shall blended my pandan leaves whenever pandan juice is called for ;-D