CHERRY ON A CAKE

Cherry On A Cake will be slowing down and will be simmering on the back burner for a while. 

I'll pop in once in a while when the mood strikes or when I have something outrageous, interesting or pretty to share. Otherwise I will be gnawing on something that I've been meaning to work on and complete. 

Such is life. Full of distractions.

But that's ok. Blogging made for a riveting respite.

xoxo

Zurin

GLUTEN FREE KOREAN PANCAKE

 Warning : Healthy Recipe Ahead! 

Don't be alarmed..... I'm not turning vegetarian or vegan. But I do enjoy some vegetarian food and sometimes I'm stunned how satisfying and lip smacking they can be. 

I remember the the sambal tempe, the dhall curry, the spiced chickpeas, the kimchi, the chutney, the spring rolls....Oh my god I counted and I actually have 20 vegetarian dishes on my blog!! 

Perhaps I'm in the process of evolving into one. Perhaps.... I'm healthy! GASP.

Divina of Sense and Serendipity has smitten me yet again with her fabulous and healthy recipes. It all started with the beautiful Mochi Chocolate truffles (well, ok, that's not exactly healthy. It's fabulous), then the sensational Tofu crusted in Bonito Flakes and now some fantastic Gluten free Korean pancakes. All from her beautiful and educational blog. 

And the fact that she has the wonderful gift of making all her healthy food look unhealthy doesn't hurt either.

Completely gluten free this pancake uses mung beans or yellow lentils and rice and includes a whole lot of vegetables to pack in all those heavenly flavours. 

It makes you feel that this is what breakfast could be. This is what lunch could be. This is what dinner could be.......this is definitely a pancake that could be. Good for you. 

It is also very adaptable to tastes. You can almost add anything else you fancy or heaven forbid make it high cholesterol and unhealthy by adding prawns, minced meat or top it with a poached egg (which I tried). I can't poach an egg. I tried and it looked weird. It had entrails.

Enough said ...here's the recipe, adapted a little,....from the wonderful Divina of Sense and Serendipity..... 

1 cups mung beans (skinned) I used yellow lentils
1/2 cup jasmine rice
1 cup water 
1 mediumm zucchini, cut into matchsticks
1/2 carrot, cut into matchsticks
3-4 stalks spring onions, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
a small bunch of coriander,chopped finely
salt
cracked black pepper

vegetable cooking oil


Soak mung beans (or lentils) and rice overnight.


Drain them the next day and place into a blender with1 cup of water. Blitz until it becomes a thick batter like pancake batter.If too thixk add extra water a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the desired consistency.


Sprinkle the shredded zucchini with about 1 tsp of salt and let it stand for about 20 minutes. Squeeze out excess liquid.


Add all the vegetables to the batter, add salt n pepper to taste. Mix well.

Heat up pan till very hot then add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil (I used grapeseed oil) and swirl it around the pan.

Ladle the mixture into the pan giving each pancake about 4 tablespoons of the mixture depending on how large or small you want the pancakes to be. I used an egg ring mould but it is not necessary at all.


When little bubbles become visible on the surface flip it over and cook until a golden brown on both sides.


Do the same with the rest of the batter.


Serve with a dipping sauce like this or with kimchi like I did or just enjoy it as is which is also perfect!!

CASSAVA CAKE ~ KUIH BINGKA UBI KAYU

Ubi Kayu (Oo-bee Car-you)or cassava is one of the cheapest potatoes/roots around at 2 Ringgit (US 0.60) per kilo. It became a staple for many when rice became scarce during the second world war when our then Malaya fell under the Japanese occupation. It was a hard time for many.

I did not come from that era but I've heard stories of how cassava or ubi kayu saved many from hunger. It was a poor man's food and still is in many parts of the developing world because it will grow in poor soil all year round and is starchy thus providing much energy for laborious work or to simply starve off hunger while living on meagre means and in poor conditions.

It is a high energy food like rice because it is mainly starch from which tapioca flour is made.

It is versatile. It can be created into delicious desserts, eaten plain, boiled, with curry sauce or dipped into a combo of grated coconut and sugar or slathered with palm sugar syrup or be sliced thinly, deep fried and turned into the most delicious crisps where they are either folded into a sweet, spicy and sticky chillie sauce or sprinkled simply with salt. Heaven help me......those are my favourite crisps ever.

The ubi kayu/cassava also makes one of the most delicious and popular kuih (pronounced coo-way) ever. Made purely form grated cassava, brown sugar and coconut milk this kuih becomes a sticky, gently sweet and a beautifully textured kuih with a good bite about it and with a beautifully crusty golden top.....quite unlike any other. One that every one simply adores. I have yet to know of some one who simply feels neutral about it.

While it baked I simply immersed myself and bathed in its coconutty  fragrance.

It is easy peasy to do. 

I avoided using eggs as I wanted to make this dairy free but if I had used eggs the kuih would be a lovely golden yellow and softer.

N who is the fussiest eater alive that I know of was even tempted to try just looking at it. And the verdict? MMMMMMMMMMMMMM....reached out for more...MMMMMMMMMMMMMM...reached out for more....MMMMMMMM.....and so on and so forth.....

The recipe ~

This makes quite a lot. I would suggest cutting the recipe in half for a small family. It was a lot for us too!

2 kilos Ubi Kayu/cassava 

21/2 cups brown sugar

1 litre thick coconut milk

3 eggs if you wish (lightly beaten)

a pinch of salt

Peel the thick woody skin, wash the ubi kayu and then grate finely. I used a food processor to grate and then used the blade to process into a finer mush. Place in a  muslin bag and squeeze well to drain liquid. I got about 2 cups of liquid out.

Let the liquid stand in a bowl for about an hour or less until a white powder of starch settles at the bottom of the bowl and then discard the excess liquid. Incorporate the starch back into the grated ubi kayu.

Add sugar, salt and coconut milk and eggs (if using) and stir well to mix.

Once the mixture is mixed well pour into a baking tin. I used a round one measuring 12 inches in diameter. you could use a 10 inch one and get a slightly taller kuih which would work just as well.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for about an hour until the top is a crispy golden brown. 

Allow to cool a few hours or overnight before cutting otherwise it will be too sticky to cut neatly.

This is eaten at anytime of the day or night...for breakfast, coffee breaks, tea, dessert or in between all of that.

PINEAPPLE JAM TARTS

Some things find you even when you're not looking for them. Like a little tart press. 


The little tart press worked like a charm. It stamped out smart little crimped tart shells that looked like they were about to march off the baking tray in a fine little procession. And the depressions..... they were simply waiting to be sat on by sticky ole pineapple jam.

My little pineapple tart press, the love of my life.

And the pastry..ahhhh that's yet another joy in my tart life.


I had used a combination of plain flour and custard powder and a little more than half the proportion of butter to the flour mixture. It produced the most light, the most buttery and the most crumbly pastry when baked yet it remained an obliging and workable dough in its raw form.

Without a doubt the magic ingredient was the custard powder which provided the lightness and gave that gorgeous golden glow to the finished tarts. It abolished the need for an egg wash. Magic ~ yes? 

I almost shrieked uereka. And I would have run fully floured and barefoot into the blistering sun, stand squarely in my driveway, roar triumphantly upwards, swing my hair with a jerk of my head and throw some age-tsuki-s with my powderful fists to puncture the sky, had it not been for the fact that life requires some amount of of decorum from a person my age.


So I did a milder but no less limb twisting feat which was quite difficult too. I patted myself on the back, took a few bows in front of the mirror, made a short speech, thanked myself and clapped my hands.


Ho ho ho ~


The recipe ~

5 oz plain flour
3 oz Bird's Custard Powder
5 oz butter, cold and cubed
1 T cold water

Pineapple jam like here but to which......

I have added 1/2 cup of brown sugar and cooked till drier and firmer so that you could just roll a little ball of jam between the palms of your hands easily. the sugar makes the jam firmer.


Make the pastry.....


Sift the flour and custard powder together, Throw ina pinch of salt and mix well with your fingers or a spoon to ensure that teh two flours are well mixed.


Put in the cubed butter and cut up finer with a knife or a pastry cutter and then use your finger tips to crumble it up until it resembles very fine breadcrumbs.


Pour into the flour butter mix a tablespoon of the cold water and using your fingers or the pad of your finger bring the dough together just by pressing, no t kneading. When the dough comes together and is a smooth lump chillitin the refrigerator for 30 minutes.


Roll out and using a pineapple tart press stamp out rounds until the dough is used up.

The tart press looks like a little torchlight...hehe

Roll bits of pineapple jam in your palms and press into the depressions of the tart shells. Make little slivers from the dough and fold them into little v-shapes and place on the dough. This however is completely unnecessary and time wasting.


Bake for 25 minutes or so in a 180 C oven.