Sambal Prawns

Oh my goodness. I have been so incredibly busy for the past few months. A change in lifestyle has meant that the free hours that I use to have at night to bake or write or just be lazy are now gone. Then work got crazy busy and then the kids needed a little bit more of me and then life kicked into overdrive and long story short it's been months of chaos. Tonight though I get to stop the world and hop off and just chill and write and think about food. Ah, the good old days!

In just over a month it will be Christmas. Normally about now I would be researching recipes and digging through boxes for old scribbled notes on cakes or cookies or anything chrismassy. But not this year. In just over 3 weeks the whole crazy clan will be heading to my hometown of Penang, Malaysia. The food haven of Asia. So this year, Christmas prep is a handful of pressies, bags to pack and don't miss that plane! Easy. Love it!

I wanted to share a recipe tonight that is very much a Malaysian recipe. The flavours are familiar and the aromas are so nostalgic to me. It gives me goosebumps and makes me think of Mummy cooking in her kitchen. There is another reason too. My Eligible Batchelor Cousin T2, who doesn't really cook, ok NEVER  EVER cooks but is willing to learn, was chatting to me as I was prepping for the dish and I said I'll show him the steps if he tried to cook it one day. Amazingly brave Cousin T2 said OK so since I was going to be snapping a few pics I thought why not add it to my blog, my poor neglected blog. Thanks Cousin T2.

So here we are, my version of Sambal Prawns. I sincerely hope he tries it as it is delicious and will impress the socks off any seasoned cook. It really will Cousin T2, it really will!

Prawn Sambal

1kg prawns (shelled and headed or not if you like them with)
3 medium onions
6 garlic pips
6 chillies (add 2 birds eye chillies if you want the extra kick)
2 lemongrass stalks (just the white edible part)
1 heaped tablespoon belacan (shrimp paste)
1 teaspoon turmeric
about 5 tablespoons of tamarind juice (quite strong and not too diluted)
2-4 teaspoons of sugar (to taste)
a slurp of soy sauce (to taste)
1 cup of spinach
a handful of baby tomatoes
about a handful of curry leaves (more if you love them like I do)
a little bit of water

1. Blend the onions, garlic, chillies and lemongrass.

2. In a hot wok saute the blended mixture. When the smell hits you like an aromatic slap start adding in the belacan, turmeric, curry leaves and tamarind juice.
**** Give it a good stir making sure the belacan is broken up and mixed right through****

3. Add prawns and stir well and coat in the beautiful spices.

4. Add a little water, maybe about a quarter cup and mix. The add a good pinch or 2 of salt, 2 teaspoons of sugar, about 3 teaspoons of soy sauce and mix. Taste as you go. Add a little more sugar if it's too sour from the tamarind or if it's too sweet add a little water and a drop of soy sauce.
****it's all about the balance so taste as you go as the taste changes the more it cooks****

5. When prawns are cooked throw in spinach and tomatoes and turn the flame off.

6. Serve when hot and shove in face. When I have it with steamy hot white rice, please do not speak to me for a few minutes as I will need a moment to just appreciate the party in my mouth. As you will too. You will need a moment too I promise. ENJOY Cousin T2.

Spiced Layer Cake

One cake that was always a special treat when I was little was the Indonesian Layer Cake. It has layers and layers of thin delicious cake filled with aromatic spices. It wasn't a cake that was had often for 2 reasons, one was that it was a little pricey and secondly it's a very rich cake so a little goes a long way. Because it wasn't eaten often and when you did it wasn't copious amounts of it, I have always remembered it as special.

When I found this recipe and decided to give it a go I realised why it was so amazingly delicious and crazily rich. It's all that eggs and butter. Delish! It's also a very time consuming cake to make but very worth it. The recipe I used was from Poh's Kitchen and I made 2 changes. Poh's recipe called for 5 spice powder but I opted to use mixed spice instead with extra cinnamon and I had no brandy so I made it without.

Spiced Layer Cake

6 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g icing sugar, must be sifted
15 egg yolks
390g butter, softened and beaten lightly
120g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
2 tablespoons brandy (optional)

1. Whisk whites and vanilla to soft peak.

2. Gradually add sifted icing sugar till stiff peaks form.

3. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well between each yolk.

4. Add butter and beat till well incorporated.

1. 5. Sift the flour, baking powder, mixed spice and cinnamon powder together. Fold in to mixture in 3 batches. Add brandy if you have some.
2. 6. Grease a 20-22 cm square springform cake tin and line the outside of the tin with foil so batter does not leak through any gaps.
3. 7. Turn the oven to grill function.
4. 8. Put about a third of a cup of the cake mixture onto the base of the cake tin and spread it evenly over the base.
5. 9. Put the tin under the grill for 3-5 minutes or until the top is a golden brown. Keep an eye on it or it might burn.
6. 10. Remove from oven and scoop the same amount of batter for the second layer. (There is no need to wait for the cake to cool between layers). Repeat the same process. Keep going until you have finished all the batter.

 

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Crunch Roll Ups

There's something about cinnamon sugar that I just love to bits and back. The only donuts I will eat are cinnamon donuts, forget the glazed ones or the jam filled ones or whatever. My favourite kind of french toast has a generous dash or two of cinnamon. Same goes with custard, there's just something about a light dusting of cinnamon that just does it for me. It's such a fantastic spice, I use it in soups and stews and curries and desserts. I love it. LOVE IT! Enough said.

I saw a recipe for Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rollups on Pinterest a few weeks ago and told myself I must add it to my to-do list. Then a few days ago a girlfriend sends me the very same recipe and said I MUST make it. Well, not one to disappoint, I did and wow, simple ingredients, relatively easy and super uber yummy. Complete crowd pleaser. Everyone who tried it asked what pastry I used and everyone was pleasantly surprise to hear the answer was "pastry? what pastry?". The fact white bread can be transformed into this heavenly crunch with just butter and cinnamon sugar is just crazy. Give it a go.

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Crunch Rollups

20 slices white bread -decrusted (should be a real word)
250g cream cheese - softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 cup sugar - for filling
3/4 cup sugar - for cinnamon sugar
2-4 teaspoons of cinnamon powder - personal choice but I went with 4 of course
75g butter - melted

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a baking tray or 2 with baking paper.

2. Use a rolling pin and roll bread until flattened.

3. Mix cream cheese, egg, vanilla and 1/4 cup sugar. Then spoon about a tablespoon of cream cheese mixture on each slice.

4. Spread the mixture and roll bread into a little cigar.

5. Mix remaining sugar and cinnamon until well combined. Brush rolled bread with butter all over, roll in cinnamon sugar and place on tray.

6. Place in oven for about 20 minutes. The rolls will plump up a little so don't place them too close together.

7. Let cool slightly, just enough not to burn your tongue and then shove in face warm. It's pretty good cold too but having it warm and fresh from the oven is something else!! Enjoy.

Raspberry Meringue Cake with Rosewater Cream

The month of May is a busy month for birthdays in my family. This May was extra special as my husband turned 50 and his sister from London who also had a birthday a day before his was with us to celebrate it. Uber special! I really wanted to make a cake for dear Linda and I wanted it to be different and beautiful and just yummy. After all London is a long way away and the fact she came with her husband was cause for celebration enough but to have a birthday with us as well was too fab!

One of Linda's favourite fruit is raspberry so I wanted to showcase raspberries. I love raspberries with cream and with these 2 ingredients in mind I knew I had to make her a meringue cake. I wanted it to be a little more than just raspberries and cream though so I added rosewater to the cream and can I say, those 3 together, raspberries, cream and rosewater .. OMG! The plan to take the cake to another level was to add crushed pistachios between the layers with the rosewater cream but I ooopsied and forgot. So if your memory is better than mine add some for that crunch, it'll be delish.

Raspberry Meringue Cake with Rosewater Cream
2-3 punnets of raspberries
4 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/4 cup caster sugar
500ml cream
2-3 tablespoons icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons rosewater
1 cup crushed pistachios (optional)
red food colouring (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 120 degrees.

2. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and draw 3 circles (I used a saucer).

3. Beat egg whites on low speed until frothy then add cream of tartar. Beat on high until peaks hold.

4. Add sugar a little at the time whilst beating to firm peaks.

5. Pour mixture into drawn circle making sure it's not too thin.

6. Bake for an hour and turn off oven. Loosen meringue discs with a spatula just to make sure the bottoms are not stuck. Leave in oven to cool and dry.

7. Beat cream and icing sugar until firm. Add rosewater to taste and just a drop of food colouring for a tinge of colour.

8. To assemble simply place cream on a disc of meringue. Sprinkle raspberries and pistachios (optional) and then sandwich with another disc. Repeat for the next layer. Then garnish the top however you like.

Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting

Until I made this cake I had never ever had a red velvet cake before. It's not a type of cake that automatically pops in my head when I think "I want cake". It's very American in origin and popularity and not one that I've seen in shops here. Excuse my ignorance but I had always thought that all a red velvet cake is is a red coloured sponge. It didn't excite me. But thanks to my very discerning cousin's suggestion that I try to make one I now know better.

After baking and eating one I can say that the red velvet cake lives up to it's name. The colour of the cake is rich and bright and very pretty and contrasts so well with the clean white of the cream cheese frosting. The taste and texture is just amazing. A complete mouthful of this cake should make you think velvety yet fluffy, airy yet substantial. It's light enough to not feel dry but full enough yet not dense. You will taste and smell a very playful hint of chocolate without it being overly chocolatey. It's a sexy cake, even the batter is sexy in colour and texture. It's really hard to describe but all you need to know is this ... it's amazing!

I looked at many recipes online and decided to adapt the cake from Epicurously and my own cream cheese frosting. It's a match made in heaven! It's not an easy add it all in one bowl and stir type of cake but if you follow the required steps and components, I promise you the end product will be delicious.

Red Velvet Cake
2 1/2 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
35ml red liquid food colouring
125g softened butter
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon bicarb of soda

Cream Cheese Frosting
125g softened butter
500g cream cheese
3 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 cups icing sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line the bottom of 2 x 22cm round cake tins or 1 deep one. I used a deep one and cut the cake into 3 layers when it cooled. It's a personal choice. Easier to to have multiple cans.

2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and set side.

3. In a small bowl stir the cocoa powder and food colouring into a paste. Try to make it as lumpless as possible.

4. Cream butter and sugar until light and pale. Add eggs in one at a time. Then add vanilla and cocoa paste. Beat batter well until the colour is even all the way through.

5. Mix in a third of the flour to the mix. Beat well then add half cup of buttermilk. Then mix another third of the flour, then the rest of the buttermilk and finally the remaining flour. Beat until everything is mixed well. Scrape the sides of bowl down to make sure everything gets incorporated into batter.
*** The batter will now look rich and luscious and velvety and just sexy!!!***

6. Mix vinegar and bicarb of soda. It will start to fizzle and froth. Stir this through the batter quickly with a wooden spoon until combined.

7. Put batter in cake tin or tins depending on what you decide to do. If cooking in multiple tins bake for 25-30 minutes. If baking all that batter in one tin it will take about 60-70 minutes. Check by sliding a skewer into the thickest part of the cake. If skewer comes out clean cake is cooked.

8. Put aside to cool. I decided to cut cake into 3 layers but only cut when cake is completely cool.

9. Make frosting by beating butter, cream cheese and vanilla. Then add icing sugar and mix well. Pipe or decorate any which way you like.

10. I added frosting between the layers and then crumb coated the cake. I then piped rose swirls around the cake and topped with silver balls and sprinkles of edible red glitter.