PINEAPPLE JAM

I feel a little silly doing this again.......But here goes... 

The e-exchange...........

"Oh JU! i am making this tonight!!... LOL ~ I've had the jam in the fridge for a week...and tonight I'm making it ~ what a surprise when I came over and saw your tarts!!! we have the same same mind Ju! :)

~Zurin~

LOL!! Zurin, you must share your recipe with me!!! Looking forward to reading about your bake soon.

~Ju~

GONE Ju .....the tarts did not survive the night....LOL....i only made 25 pieces because I was craving them...i was hoping no one would ask for them but not so. Now I have nothing to blog about..well nothing decent ...unless I blog on my left over chicken curry from last night (before it's time for lunch)...

uh uh.. I don't think so ~.

Anyway I'll just go stick my head into my pantry, the fridge, the freezer ..whatever..and see what I can come up with for this very demanding blog of mine!

The things we do! SIGH 
~zurin~ 

Gone?! LOL!!! Must be really yummy! And er ... 25 pieces won't go very far considering there are more than 2 people in your house! ;) I think 25 pieces aren't enough for my 2 older kids, so you must have rationed your tarts? He he!
~Ju~"


Yes Ju ..only 25...which means..... I have left over pineapple jam!! Wooo hoo!


So the pineapple jam became an overnight star! 


That was my dear friend Ju, The Little Teochew up there :)

 
The recipe............ 

Contrary to what many people think making pineapple jam is as easy as pie. I lied. It's easier than pie. 

You just need to watch the pot and stir it once in a while. And it doesn't take long at all. I think I cooked this in half and hour. 

And I have to say that this is really good. The cinnamon makes all the difference.

1 small pineapple
50 - 60 gm of light brown sugar or more if you like it sweeter 
1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder
1 small cinnamon stick
2-3 cloves

pinch of salt

Peel and chop up the pineapple discarding the fibrous stem in the middle. 

Put all the pieces in food processor and pulse until very fine and mushy.

Place the pineapple mush, the sugar and the cinnamon stick in a thick based medium sized pot over a small flame.

Cook until the jam is dry or as moist as you like it. Add cinnamon powder and a little salt if using. Taste and make it just perfect for you.

Cool and store in a jam jar. Make pineapple tarts or spread on toast. YUM!

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.