FISH FLOSS ~ SERUNDING IKAN

When a warm tropical thunderstorm ceases I'm happy. I feel as fresh as a cold, squirmy fish soaking in a sharp, chilly lake in the lush, mountain jungles of Borneo. With a camera. Snapping cheerfully at my bowl of fish floss. Knees in a puddle, slipping about on wet leaves.

It's the after rain feeling I'm having now. A little bouncy, blithe, light and gurgly. Its the ions. You know ~ the negetive ions~.

And strangely enough my fish floss look almost like fish food. Fish food fit for a Fish King. Or for the Queen of Fish. 

That's how gurgly I'm feeling right now.......pheash forgive me.

Tuna is what I used. 3 whole tunas, filleted, skinned, poached and crumbled. And spiced up with some chillie, coriander seeds, onions, garlic, ginger and tumeric. 

It's an appetizer, a side dish, a sandwich filler. It can be eaten as a topping for fried rice, with steamed glutinous rice or with bread for breakfast or as a snack. I love it. It's one of my favourite appetizers. If only it requires less time to make and if it lasts longer around the house.

This is one of those childhood food that I remember fondly of but rather vaguely because it was always presented to us or bought for special occasions but never made.

The light, airy flossed meat, fish or chicken that I remember is not something one can achieve at home. It usually looks like it has been shredded into strands and then beaten to a pulp until it's looks light and fluffy. Like it was done by a machine. Or a maniac.

But if you make it at home it will almost always look a little grainy not light and floss like.


Now..... Zurin here didn't want that. So to achieve that lightness that she does so covet I pulsed the cooked fish floss in the food processor until the little balls of fish floss became fine, light and airy. 


I thought it looked much better. You're welcome.

The recipe..................


650 gm of cooked fish meat (tuna, mackeral or any meaty fish) I used 3 whole tunas about 12 inches from tip to tail. You could also use an equal amount of minced beef or chicken.

6 medium onions
4 garlic
1 inch ginger
1/2 inch galangal
2 stalks lemon grass (white part only)
3 T coriander seed, pounded coarsely
1 T or more chillie paste (bottled or fresh)

2 tsp tumeric powder 
1 T sugar

250 ml coconut milk or cream
5 T any vegetable oil

salt

Poach the fillets of fish in pan of water until cooked. Drain and let cool. Remove bones and crumble the meat until it is as fine as you can get it....like breadcrumbs. Keep aside.


Peel onions, garlic ginger, galangal. Slice the white part of the lemon grass. Place them all in a food proccesor and process until quite fine.


Heat up the oil in a thick based medium pot. Saute the processed spices, while adding the chillie paste, tumeric powder and pounded coriander seeds, until fragrant and the paste turns a darker colour. About 10 to 15 minutes.



Put in the crumbled fish meat, pour in the coconut milk or cream and mix well. Let it cook on the stove on small to medium heat, stirring now and then to prevent burning. Ad sugar and salt. Stir and mix.


The mixture should not have any sauce or gravy but should be quite like a thick wet paste. Cook until it becomes slightly drier and it is no longer too wet.


Transfer the mixture to a large baking tray that has been lined with foil or baking paper for easier cleaning.

Bake in an oven at 170 C, checking and stirring every 15 minutes until the fish floss becomes golden all over. 


Stirring the floss as it bakes is important so that the floss browns evenly. I didn't time the baking but I think it took about an hour. 


Remove and let it cool completely. Pour half the floss into a food processor and pulse until the floss becomes fine, light and airy. Do the same for the rest of the floss.


Store in an airtight container and in the refrigerator.


Top or Snack.

UPSIDE DOWN CHERRY COBBLER

I have been spending the beginning few days of 2010 thinking what I'd like to do more of for the next 12 months of the Gregorian calendar. 

Fireworks went off at precisely midnight not far from where we live. But nothing stirred at home except that we were all up and about. As always. 

We're candle burners. All ...1..2..3...4...5...6 of us. We simply carried on with what we always do. 

Some of us having big exams to face..another working on a book, another working and studying part time and another getting ready for a new course in life. Most of life revolves around the dining table with off shoots to the various bedrooms in the house. 

Life goes on seamlessly it seems. Last years thoughts still being pondered upon, last year's mess is this year's mess, birthday celebrations being reminisced, a picture frame dropped in November awaits to be glued. Recipes bookmarked since 5 months ago need trying. 

And cherries.....yes cherries.... purchased in late December 2009 for a cake that never got made awaits, incredulously, to be used any old how in 2010.

A year is a year and it could be stretched no further.

And nothing like a boisterous mark for a new period of time to remind you that while life may carry on seamlessly as we reach back to grasp an old thing like old cherries to make a new thing like a new cake there are endless new tricks to learn and  revelations yet to dawn whilst we are at it. 

Finally too.....I'm done with this book that I've been reading since November last.

And true life protagonist Thomas Cromwell is so right when he says.....

" It's all very well planning what you will do in six months, what you will do in a year, but it's no good at all if you don't have a plan for tomorrow."

I'm glad I trudged through this book....Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.  

It sends a twang through my head and reminds me that the next year is meaningless if each tomorrow is wasted. 

I know what I'll do more of. 

I'll simply "Just do it". Everyday.

This is a very lovely concoction for my last year's cherries. Deliciously moist with a citrus-y edge, it had a texture that was a cross between a pud and a cake. And with a crown of cherries for make believe jewels.


If I had double the amount of cherries, which was what the recipe called for, these little cobbler pies would have looked ravishing.


The recipe..........from Sweet Baking.....


1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup castor sugar, plus additonal 1/2 cup
grated zest of 1 medium orange
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 T cold unsalted butter (I used 70 gm)
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups pitted sour cherries, or one 16 ounce bag of frozen cherries, thawed and drained (I used only 250 gm of cherries because that was all I had)

1 tsp ground numeg



Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter an 8x8x2 baking dish or 4 5 inch shallow pie dishes like I did.


In medium sized bowl of an electric mixer, at low speed, mix flour, baking powder, salt, 1/2 cup sugarand orange zest.


Increase mixer to medium low. Beat in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.


In a 2 cup glass measure mix egg and milk and vanilla well. Make a well in the centre of the flour mix and pour in the egg mix. Increase speed and beat batter until fluffy.


Spread batter in prepared pan or pie dishes. Scatter cherries over the top. Combine remaining sugar with the nutmeg and sprinkle over the cherries.


Bake. If in pan for about 40 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean when inserted. Or 20- 25 minutes in the pie dishes.


Serve warm or at room temperature.

MEETING UP 2

The lobby of The Garden Residence at Mid Valley was calm, quiet and almost empty with just one or two souls hanging about. Waiting. Just like me. 

I had arrived 5 minutes before the appointed time so I waited very patiently and was relieved that I had made it in time. I had rushed dressing up and I really didn't want to be there huffing and puffing and breaking out into beads of sweat. So I was glad for the breather.

I took a seat on a milk chocolaty couch from where I would be able to spy Ju, The Little Teochew, and her family from a distance as soon as they entered the lobby.

Within minutes I spotted that familiar nymphlike figure, then a smaller version of Ju slightly behind her and then a husband and two lovely little boys and their maid. Having arrived all the way from Singapore a few days back they were leaving for home that very afternoon.

I stood up and exhibited my widest grin from about 30 meters away. Ju, The Little Teochew, saw me. We crossed the lobby and met halfway. We sort of looked at each other, grinning, a little dazed and then stretched out our arms for a real life hug. 

Her adorable little girl, her two sweet young men and her most kind and considerate husband left us to ourselves.

We yakked..... about ourselves, each other, her, me, our goslings, our mothers, our husbands, some blogger friends we had in common and a little about food. Punctuated only by laughter. It seemed like we were simply catching up from where we had left off. We were just being what we were, first and foremost. Women.

It's hard to believe that I have come to know Ju and her little family only months ago. And merely through our blogs. Yet her warmth, her desire to reach out beyond that is unmistakable. Which has led to some (funny) email exchanges between us.

Ju looked as gorgeous as she does in her photographs. It seemed that all that was done were some whisperings of life into those images and there you had Ju, young, beautiful, bubbly and warm. And ever so interested in getting to know you better. 

It was a brief meeting, fleeting almost, but so meaningful and immensely satisfying. 


I am so blessed to know and so lucky to have been able to meet with Ju.


And...... we pried our ages from each other. But I'm not telling;)

PS : The pictures above were taken at the beautiful Scotio River in Ohio, USA, 2007 when I visited my eldest daughter and her family.

AN ICE CREAM BIRTHDAY CAKE

There comes a time in your life when age doesn't matter anymore. 

I really don't care how old I am... 'honest';) So there is no need to ask for my age.... because it matters not.

You see...and I'm sure you will agree with me...that at my or our or your age.....it is not how old I or we or you am or are that bothers me or us or you but how old I or we or you appear to be that matters. Agree ? Yes? No?

I assume that is what they mean when they say "Age is just a number".

But when you reach a certain age...where once you took a year to age a year you now take a day to equal that. Unless you were born just 'yesterday'.

Think about it....at what age would you start to check the mirror for a new line on your face? At what age would you start to check the firmness of your assets?  At what age would you start to measure the size of your pores? Or to count the strands of hair that gravitate to the ground? Everyday. At what age.... I ask you....at what age would you begin to measure and to count?
 

And/Or......At what age.... would you start to scrutinize the lines and fats of others in order to provide yourself with some comfort. I ask you.

 'At my age?'. 

But who cares........ 'Age is just a number'.

I wish a very happy birthday to my dearie and wonderful second daughter who is not quite counting nor scrutinizing. Yet. 

We celebrated her __th birthday this very evening.


This picture was taken some light years ago. She's a totally grown up young woman now. 

This is an ice cream cake. A nice creamy chocolate ice cream sandwiched between 2 layers of a very lovely,moist and fluffy Rose Levy's American sponge Cake. Covered with whipped cream, scrolled on and accented with some pink chrysanthemums. The ice cream part requested by hers truly. The rest is history.

It was quite stressful working with whipped cream and ice cream in my warm/hot little kitchen. So the slathering of the cream on the cake and the scrolling was done in quite a rush for fear of the ice cream melting within. 

I used a Wilton no. 6 plain round nozzle for the piping. I wished I had used a no. 4 which would have created a finer line.


Full credit for the design goes to Deeba of Passionate about Baking. Deeba is the Queen of Desserts and the design is her own original creation of which I'm mad about. So simple yet so chic. Thank you Deeba for sharing your Art.

I rushed to the wet market this morning to get those pink chrysanthemums. And I thought they went perfectly well with the pink ribbon that I have had in a corner for ages. 

I also like the fact that art does not equal symmetry. I adore imperfection in art. Deliberate imperfection. Perfectly imbalanced art. 

I hope those are enough excuses for the lopsided ribbon-ing of the cake.

The main dish for the birthday dinner was a spiced shoulder of lamb.

The recipe for the sponge cake.............from Rose Levy Beranbaum's book, The Cake Bible.......

Nancy Blitzer's Classic American Sponge Cake

2 T water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp grated ,emon zest
1 1/3 cups sifted cake flour
1 cup sugar
6 large eggs, egg whites and yolks separated
3/4 tsp cream of tartar


Preheat oven to 350 F or 170 C


In small bowl combine water, vanilla and lemon zest.
Remove 1 T of the sugar and reserve to beat with the whites.


In another small bowl whisk together the flour and 3 tablespoons of the sugar.


In a large mixing bowl beat the yolks and the remaining 3/4 cup ssugar on high speed for 5 minutes or until the mixture is very thick and ribbons when dropped from the beater.Lower the speed and gradually add the water mixture. Increase to high speed and beat for 30 seconds. Sift the flour mixture over the yolk mixture without mixing in and set aside.


Beat the whites until foamy, add the cream of tatar, and beat until sofr peaks form when the batter is raised.


Beat in reserved 1 T sugar and beat until very stiff peaks form.Add 1/3 of the beaten whites to the yolk mixture and fold in gently with a whisk or large skimmer until incorporated. Gently fold in the remaining white in 2 batches.


Pour into pan. Run a knife through the batter to prevent air pockets. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.


The recipe recommended  an ungreased  2 piece 10 inch tube pan. I used a 9 inch round cake pan, grease and lined bottom with paper.

I sliced the cake into 2 layers and slathered softened chocolate ice cream on one layer and topped with the other. Then I whipped two cups of whipping cream to cover the cake completely and to pipe the scroll design all over.