Chicken Curry Paste

This is our home recipe passed down from my late aunt. When people from her generation share their recipes, it is usually ~ a small bowl of garlic, a thumb-size of ginger, a bigger rice bowl of chilli and so forth. So, what I am going to share later is purely by this "word-of-mouth" and measurement technique. Of course, adding my own discretion and feedback from family members who had said it reassembled their grandma's (aka my aunt) curry, I take it that this recipe is it!

Hope you all will like it as well. Please bear in mind, alot of ingredients are purely by how much you like the taste. For example, I like lemongrass so I tend to put a little more. Chilli padi, in my case, is reduced as we have young children in our midst who can't take too spicy food.


Ingredients :
~ the outcome is about 2kg worth of curry paste. Usually, I make in this quantity as I need to distribute across a few families : )

Dried chilli ~ 100g
Small onions (unpeeled) ~ 250g
Garlic (unpeeled) ~ 150g
Candlenut ~ 100g
Yellow ginger (also know as tumeric) ~ 30g
Blue ginger (also known as galangal) ~50g
Lemongrass ~ about 8 stalks (3 stalks to add during frying, the remaining to grind)
Belachan ~ 20g
Chilli padi ~ 12
Curry leaves ~ 4 to 5 stalks
3 packets of A1 Chicken Curry paste (230g)

A1 Chicken curry paste

Method :  

1) Soak the dried chilli in water to soften it.
2) Peel all the small onions and garlic.
3) Cut 3 stalks of lemongrass into about 6 cm in length for each part.
4) Grind all the ingredients except for the curry leaves, belacan, 3 stalks of lemongrass and the curry paste.
5) Prepare wok and heat up with oil.
6) Fry belacan till fragant. Next, fry curry leaves, small onions, garlic, gingers, candlenut and lemongrass. Next, add in the chilli. Fry till relatively dried up.

All the ingredients lined up

After adding the ginger (the tumeric will make the paste yellowish)

After adding the chilli

7) Add in all the 3 packets of A1 Chichen curry paste. Fry till the paste looks drier.

 

Black Pepper Crab

Crabs .... Singaporeans favourite....

I also like crabs. But since I started a family more than a decade ago, I did not have the chance / time to sit and eat crabs peacefully and till I am full of crabs :) Meals were always hastily completed. Now, as my brood grows older and can take care of themselves, I have more time to enjoy myself.

My family members also enjoy crabs a lot. However, it was primarily due to the old folks that I decided to try and cook the dish for them while they can still taste them......  Of course, the younger ones in the family get to benefit !!! :)

Anyway, time flies and it has been at least 1.5 years since I last cooked crabs. The recipe I have is obtained from a magazine named : Oriental Cuisine (美味风彩). In every publication of 美味风彩,it focuses on a different cuisine. The recipes are also very simple and tasty. If you ever chance upon them, do take a look.


Doesn't these make you drool ? Go and try it! It's really simple !

 



Ingredients :
4 crabs
5 tbsp of melted salted butter
2 tbsp cooking oil
3 cloves garlic (Chopped)
5 tbsp coarsely ground black peppercorns

For the sauce (Seasoning) :
1/4 cup water (about 50ml)
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
1/2 tsp sugar
salt to taste


Method :
1) Cut and clean the crabs.
2) In a bowl, combine all the seasoning ingredients, set aside.
3) Heat butter together with the cooking oil. Then add the garlic and stir briefly or until the garlic is light golden in colour and fragrant.
4) Quickly toss in the black pepper for a few second before adding the seasoning ingredients.
5) Add in crabs, bring to a quick boil and cover the wok with a lid for 8-10 minutes. Adjust seasoning to taste.
6) If need be, add in thickening solution (1/2tsp tapioca flour + 1 tbsp water). Stir until well combined.
7) Remove from heat and serve immediately.




After thoughts :
1) For the crabs, I would say, they should weigh at least 500-600 each.
2) Based on cooking conversion measurement found on internet, 5 tbps melted butter = 90g (UK metric) or 75g (US metric). For me, I like to use more than 90g of butter as cooking with butter is really fragrant! Having said that, should not be dumping in way too much.
3) I usually get black peppercorns (whole), pound them in a mortar and pestle in a traditional way till they break up into smaller pieces. Then I will fry them in a wok first till I can smell the fresh black
pepper.

Mango Cheesecake (No bake)

I am allergic to mango. Yes !!! Truly !!! I get rashes around my mouth and face. Had a few bouts of it in my teens and have not dared to try them since.

Anyway, baked this mango cheesecake primarily because my hubby and children love mango and cheese. I have not tasted it before due to my allergy but I gathered it must be nice as family and friends usually finish it off quite fast :)

I have made this cheesecake primarily based on Cynthia's blog (The Baking Biatch).

Cynthia's Mango Cheesecake Recipe

This recipe yields one 7" round cake 

OR a 16cm heart shaped cake with 3 - 4 mini cheesecakes

180g digestive biscuits

80g unsalted butter, melted

250g cream cheese, room temperature

75g castor sugar

250g mango yoghurt

100g water

2.5 tbsp gelatin

100g fresh mango cubes

125g fresh mango puree (blended from fresh mangoes)

125g water

25g castor sugar

1 tsp gelatin

fruits for garnishing

1 tbsp apricot jam

1 tbsp hot water

There is also a video demonstration by Cynthia. Do watch it if you are keen. If not, I have also listed the steps as clearly as I can below.


For the cheesecake
Method:
1) Prepare a ziploc bag for the digestive biscuits. Place the biscuits in the bag, seal it and crush the biscuits using a hard object (such as a spoon/ ladle/ tiny hammer/ rolling pin).
2) Once the biscuits are crumbly and sandy, pour in the melted butter. Seal the bag again and mix well by just squeezing the mixture over and over again. Once the mixture is done, it should look like wet sand.
3) Pour the mixture into the cake ring and compact it with the back of a ladle or flat object (we are making the cake base here). Put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes for the base to harden.
4) Next, add the gelatin to the water and mix well. Warm up the gelatin mixture for a few minutes via a pot/ microwave. Then leave the mixture to cool.
5) In the mixer, put in the sugar and add the cream cheese that is of room temperature. Mix well on low speed till creamy and of pale yellow.
6) Add in the gelatin mixture that has been cooled to room temperature. Mix well on low speed.
7) Add in mango yogurt and mix well on low speed.
8) Remove the mixture from the mixer. Then, add in fresh mango cubes and fold in the cubes.
9) Remove base from freezer and pour the mixture on top of the base.
10) Pop it back into the freezer to set for about 1hr 15 min.
11) To a pan/ pot, pour in the mango puree, castor sugar, gelatin and water. Bring to boil on high heat. Sieve the mixture and allow it to cool.
12) Take the cake out from the freezer and slowly pour the mango mixture on top of the cake.
13) Return to freezer for another 15 min or till the top is firm.
14) Using the back of a paring knife, slowly and gently run it along the sides of the cake ring. Gently remove the cake ring.



For the glazing
Method :
1) Mix 1 part apricot jam to 1 part hot water to form the glaze that is to be brushed onto the fruits to prevent them from drying.
2) Garnish the cake with the glazed fruits.  
 

Almond Jelly

I, personally, do not like the overwhelming smell/ taste of almond milk. If you have the same aversion as me, try this out ! It will definitely make you eat almond jelly from now on (of course, probably these homemade ones only). And to top it off, this is one of the simplest desserts to make and everybody will simply love it !

Ingredients :
(enough to fill 35 to 40 plastic containers of diameter about 7cm)

1 Bottle of almond syrup
1 can of evaporated milk (usually I will buy Full cream milk)
1 packet of agar agar powder (White)
2 cans of longans
1 cube of rock sugar (size about 3-4cm cube)
1.5 - 1.75 litres of water

 

Method :
1) Boil the water and let the rock sugar dissolve completely in the water.
2) At the meantime, prepare your plastic containers and put 2 longans into each container.
3) If the sugar mixture is boiling, turn the fire down and slowly pour the agar agar powder in the water. Keep stirring the water as you pour so that the powder gets dissolved quickly in the water and not become lumpy. As the agar agar powder gets dissolved in the water, you can turn the fire up again.
4) Pour in the entire can of evaporated milk.
5) Next, pour in the almond syrup and let the mixture heat for about a minute. Turn off the fire.
6) Fill up your containers with the completed mixture.

After notes :
1) You do not need to wait for the mixture to boil as the milk and syrup can actually be readily consumed. There was once when I left it to boil and I realised that the milk and almond taste have somehow evaporated away.
2) Leave the jelly out in the open but not too airy a place to harden up. There was once I left it in a place where it was very windy and the jelly could not solidfy at all.