Pandan juice and paste chiffon

I have tried real pandan juice chiffon  and the colour was always a bit anemic yellow and not entirely fragrant. I decided to top up with paste and also make this a taller 7 egg cake rather than 6 eggs.

Ingredients

7 eggs, separated

150g sugar (120 for whites, 30g for yolks)

58ml coconut oil or corn/sunflower/canola oil

105ml coconut milk

77ml pandan juice

4 to 5 drops of pandan paste

168g cake flour

½ tsp salt

Method

Follow standard instructions for making chiffon cake (refer to recipe link above).

Gula melaka agar

This works because of science! I didn't set out to make a jelly with the distinct two layers but the densities separated on their own.

Ingredients

Juice of 10 to 15 pandan leaves, topped up with water to make 500ml

¾ block of gula melaka

1 can of coconut milk (approx 400ml), topped up with water to make 500ml

1 packet of Swallow brand agar agar powder

Method

1. To extract the juice of pandan leaves, add just enough water to a blender to pulverize 10 to 15 pandan leaves, snipped into short lengths. Pour into a container lined with cheesecloth and allow to drain. Squeeze out any remaining juice and discard the dredges. Leave the juice to separate. More sediment will settle at the bottom.

2. Top up both the coconut milk and juice with water to make 500ml each.

3. Pour the coconut milk into a saucepan and add the gula melaka. On a medium flame, slowly rotate the gula melaka to melt until completely dissolved. If the coconut milk seems to be starting to boil, pour in a bit of the pandan juice.

4. Once completely dissolved, pour in the remaining pandan juice and add the agar agar powder. Stir to dissolve and ensure no lumps remain.

5. Bring to a boil. Once it starts to foam, switch off the flame.

6. Pour immediately into a prepared jelly mold. Prepared means to wet the mold so that it's easier to remove later.

7. Allow to cool completely before putting in the fridge to chill, at least 4 hours or overnight if time permits.

Kueh dadar (Pandan pancake with coconut filling)

I had some leftover coconut from the last recipe and no idea what to do with it. Decided to try out these recipes:

1. https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/mini-kueh-dadar-rolled-coconut-crepes/ : for the proportions and use of tapioca starch in the batter
2. https://www.asianfoodchannel.com/en/recipes/nyonya-kuih-dadar  : how to extract pandan juice
https://www.shiokmanrecipes.com/2016/11/25/kueh-dadar-kuih-ketayap/ : video and tips

Ingredients (makes 8)
Inti (coconut filling)
200g dried coconut shreds, unsweetened
100g palm sugar or gula melaka
2 pandan leaves
1 tbsp water
pinch of salt

Crepe
200g flour (1 cup + 5 tbsp)
10 pandan leaves
250 ml coconut milk
150 ml water
1 egg
1 tsp tapioca starch
1 tsp oil
pinch salt

Method
Filling
1. Shave up the gula. Add the water into the pan and dissolve the sugar over low heat.
2. Add the knotted pandan leaves and stir. Remove the pandan leaves.
3. Add the coconut and stir until all the sugar syrup has been absorbed.

Crepe
1. To prepare the pandan juice, blend the pandan leaves in 150ml of water. Line a sieve with a cheese cloth and pour in the blended pulp. Squeeze out 150ml of juice. Set aside.
2. Sift the flour into a bowl add the salt. Stir and create a well in the centre.
3. Pour in the santan and mix until no lumps remain. Pour in the pandan juice and mix. Add the oil and mix.
4. Pour on 100 ml of batter and pour in the centre of the pan from a height of about 10cm above the pan. Rotate to swirl the batter as thinly as you can. Keep the heat low so as not to brown the crepe. Cook until edges start to curl. Remove (there is no need to cook the other side but it should be dry). Repeat until all the filling has been used up.
5. Depending on the size of your crepe, use about 2 tbsp of filling per crepe. Fold

Azuki and coconut milk chiffon

I still have a lot of cake flour which I try to use up before summer comes. Decided to use my frozen tsubuan which I made quite some back as well. Based on the density of the tsubuan, decided to adapt the recipe for chocolate milk and cocoa chips because this recipe has more flour which will give it the density to 'hold' up the tsubuan. 

http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2016/02/chocolate-milk-chiffon-cake-with-chocolate-chips/

I substituted the milk for coconut milk and choc chips for tsubuan and some other changes e.g. sugar and milk volume. Didn't turn out too bad. Surprisingly seems a bit undercooked compared to when I usually bake this which comes out really brown. Really moist though. At first I thought the temp may be too high (170 deg C usually is) but as you can see, the top has already cracked.

Ingredients

7 eggs, separated

210 ml coconut milk

120 ml oil

35 (for yolks) + 135g (for whites) sugar

225g cake flour

¾ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

140g tsubuan or koshian

Method

1) Add the 35g of sugar to the yolks and beat till the sugar has mostly dissolved. 

2) Add the oil and beat until paler in colour. 

3) Add in the coconut milk and salt. Whisk until combined.

4) In 2 batches, sift in the cake flour and baking powder and fold using a whisk. Try not to over beat or you will develop gluten. Set aside.

5) In a very clean bowl (no oil, water, or detergent), beat the egg whites on low speed until foamy and opaque. Add sugar in 3 batches. After all the sugar has been added, turn up the speed to max and beat until stiff peaks.

6) Add the meringue to the yolk mixture in 3 batches. The first batch: incorporate till no streaks remain. You don't have to be too gentle. The second batch: This time, fold in gently so as not to knock out the air. The third batch: This time, return the yolk mixture to the left over third of meringue. Very gently fold in with a whisk (my preferred) or spatula until just combined.

7) In the ungreased 26 to 26" cake tin, pour in ⅓ of the mixture. Top with ½ of the tsubuan, trying to distribute evenly. Top with the next ⅓ of the cake mixture and another ½ of the tsubuan. Finally, cover with the remaining batter.

8) Using a spatula, run around batter in a zig zag manner and pay attention to the edges of the tin and around the centre funnel. This will disperse the bigger air bubbles and also swirl the tsubuan. (The original recipe recommends dropping the cake tin on the counter to dispel more air bubbles but I don't do this if the recipe has a very dense filling which will tend to sink to the bottom anyway as you can see from the picture)

9) Bake at 170 deg C for 65 minutes. Tent in the last 20 minutes or adjust to 165 deg C for up to 70 minutes, checking at 65 mins. Remove and immediately invert and allow to cool completely in the tin.

10) Unmould by running a knife or spatula around the edges and invert onto a plate. The bottom should be the top of the cake because that's where it's flattest.

Recipe feedback

The cake came out very slightly undercooked inside although the outside was quite brown. I have adjusted the recipe to bring down the temp from 170 to 165 deg C and to increase from 65 to 70 minutes. Alternatively, to tent the cake.

Thai red fish curry and tomato rice

There's a japanese tomato rice recipe going around. Basically the idea is toss veg, rice and meat into a rice cooker and cook. Embed a whole tomato in the rice and voila. But reduce the amount of water added by about ½ cup for each tomato added. I totally forgot about this so my rice was too soggy, but that will work out since I tend to make enough leftovers, where the rice can get pretty dry if the right amt of water was added initially. The trick with the meat was also to leave it in big enough pieces to cook during the time it takes to cook white rice. Not too small or it will over cook. Decided rice was boring so I switched up to Thai red curry.

Ingredients 

3 cups rice

4 basa fillets, sliced in half

8 white mushrooms, quartered 

3 tomatoes, uncut

1 can coconut milk (400ml)

600ml water

4 tbsp Thai red curry paste

Method

1) Place washed rice at the bottom of the rice cooker pot. Insert the fish pieces upright into the rice. Place tomatoes whole in between the fish slices. Do the same with vegs.

2) Dollop on tsps of the curry paste.

3) Pour in the coconut milk. I used the the rice measuring cup and topped up the rest with water. Since I used 3 tomatoes, I should reduce the total liquid volume by about a cup.

 

4) turn on the rice cooker and cook! Note that my cooker isn't the 'dumb' type so instead of 20 minutes to cook rice, it takes between 40 to 90 minutes! Not great for cooking rice but great fo these one pot meals!