The only thing that contained my impatience was fear. The fear of being scarred for life and of the kitchen turning into a battleground. So I had to let the can sit like a little tin queen while I threw sidelong glances its way each time I crossed the threshold into the kitchen.
Then it was payback time. I opened it and all that waiting had returned to me a deep, glorious, golden dollop named Dulce le leche (DOOL-seh deh LEH-chey). I called her name and she came. I must have looked surprised because Dulce le leche was divine and regal. I would never have guessed that she had once been a simple little milkmaid. A 'Milkmaid Condensed Milk'.
This is all thanks to Quinn of Quinn's Baking Diary. The young Quinn who bakes like a pro ( you must see her lovely blog) and who made dulce de leche here. I had met sweet Quinn briefly when she returned home for the Chinese New Year holidays earlier this year. She had given me a set of these bright and cheery pumpkin coloured baking accessories. Exactly what I needed.
I have plans for these line dancing dulce de leche. Oh yes I do.
Slide to the right, slide to the left
Cha cha cha......cha cha cha.......
YEEHAW!
The recipe ~
1 can of condensed milk
A large pot
Lots of water
Small fire
Lots of patience
Time
Place the de-labelled can of condensed milk into the pot. Fill it up with water until the can is submerged with about 2 inches of water over the top of the can.
Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Cover pot with a lid and wait. For at least 2 to 3 hours. Or more, like I did. I left mine on a very small simmer for about 4.5 hours. Or was it five?
Once done I left can in the pot for 30 minutes and then placed the whole pot under running water in the sink. When the can is cool enough to handle lift it out and let it stand. NEVER OPEN THE CAN AT THIS STAGE. IT WILL EXPLODE.
Let it stand overnight. Temper your tastebuds to the glory of dulce de leche the next morning.
Note: Thanks to Wendy of Table for 2 or more I realize that what I used was in fact Condensed Filled Milk (but not sweetened creamer) which is different from pure Condensed Milk. Condensed Filled Milk contains part palm oil. But hey! I'm not complaining. I got perfect dool-sey deh leh-chey, no? Sometimes miracles do happen :).
So, my fellow Malaysians, no excuse not to make dool-sey deh leh-chey anymore, yes?
I suppose when one has sucked, slurped and savoured a piping hot Char Kuay Teow from a road side stall no other noodle dish can ever quite make it into your book of heavenly noodles.
I made Pad Thai today. I used rice vermicelli instead of flat rice noodles because I wasn't feeling animated enough to make home made flat rice noodles (I never use commercially made ones).
All in all the Pad Thai was good. This is my second attempt at Pad Thai because I thought I did not quite get it right the first time. What made it different from other local fried noodles is the fact that it had the slight sourness of tamarind to it. I had also added extra chillie powder to the tamarind/fish sauce sauce because I like it hot.
This was a noodle dish that did not blow me away but it was not bad. It was good. I'll give it a 7. I'll give Char Kuay Teow a 12 ~ no matter which competent person fries it. Pad Thai lovers please don't hit me. But you know, maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just a hopeless Pad Thai maker. So go ahead and try this recipe from Chez Pim and hit tell me about it.
I spied Chez Pim's Pad Thai on Ju's lovely blog here and ever since I saw her absolutely gorgeous Pad Thai my left hand has been smacking my right hand into making it. Finally it has. One bookmarked recipe down and 3 million to go.
You'll find the recipe here on the lovely Chez Pim's blog.
There is a first time for everything. A first time for mistakenly attending a wedding reception of complete strangers on a sweltering afternoon and a first time for making a pretty cherry pie. The one gets you feeling hot, sweaty and silly while the other one gets you feeling warm, fuzzy and cheery. I did both this day Sunday. I don't have to tell you which was the better one.
I've had a few questions on how I attended the wrong wedding reception. Well folks, my husband had misread the date of the invitation. (Next time I'll read the invitations). So we went on the wrong day but at the correct place. I got all dressed up just so I could sweat in my nice fancy clothes. Unnecessarily. At the least we provided plenty of amusement for our boys...ho ho ho.
Cherries are so expensive at 56 ringgit per kilo. I had bought a box which was 250 grams at 13.99 ringgit. So I had some adjusting to do for the filling when I decided to do Shirley's of Kokken69 cherry pie recipe from her lovely blog. But it was a perfect amount for the size I made.Which was a sweet 6 inch pie.
The crust however I had followed largely and it turned out light and flaky just as Shirley had described. Lovely.
The recipe ~ from Shirley of Kokken69 ~
The filling recipe to which I had made some adjustments because I like a pie fruit filling a little soft and juicy as opposed to somewhat raw. So I cooked it.
250 gm fresh cherries
3 T sugar, according to how sweet or less sweet you want it
Juice of 1 lime
1 T cornflour
4-5 T water
Bring all the ingredients together in a small pan or pot. Make sure the cornflour is dissolved. Stir constantly. Bring to a simmer and allow to simmer until the syrup is thick, the cherries a little soft and and the whole looks juicy ans syrupy. It doesn't take long at all. Just 6-7 minutes or less. Adjust for sweetness. I had put too little sugar and I found it to be not sweet enough.
The crust ~
165 plain flour
113.5 gm chilled butter
1-2 T iced water
pinch of salt
granulated sugar to sprinkle
Sift flour into a medium bowl. Add the salt and mix well. Grate the butter into the bowl. Just use your fingers lightly to mix the butter and flour up evenly. I did not crumble the mixture until it became fine breadcrumbs because I wanted the pastry to be more flaky. Add iced water and stir the mixture and then using your fingers bring the dough together into a firm ball. Do not knead so that the butter does not melt and the gluten is not worked up. Too much kneading will make a tough pastry.
Once the pastry comes together, chill it if necessary and then roll out in between 2 pieces of baking paper to 1/8 inch thick. Cut a round slightly larger than the pie pan and then lift the pastry and line the pan. Cut the edges to neaten.
At this point I beat an egg and brushed the pastry with egg just so that it will not get sogged (I invent my own words just in case you haven't noticed or if you're new to this blog) by the cherry pie filling.
Top with the cherry filling and refrigerate while you prepare the top crust.
Gather up the pieces of dough into a ball, roll out to 1/8 inch thick and cut strips as I did or thinner if you like. Lay the strips over the filling as you like, latticed or not, press the edges to seal, neaten the edges by running a knife around the edge of the pan and then sprinkle granulated sugar over the top.
Bake 30- 35 minutes at 170 C.
Afternoon tea is history. It went out of fashion some 30 odd years ago. What a pity because that is, to me, the most fun meal. It is a dessert meal or a snack meal. It was a sit down meal. It was either cakes, fritters or simple fried noodles. Nowadays it's packaged biscuits ~ Khong Guan cream crackers, Marie Biscuits ~ all dunked in hot milk tea or Milo or commercial buns from the nearest bakery eaten 'on the go'.. No one has the time to sit down as a family to enjoy afternoon tea anymore. No family is smiling and conversing at 4 o'clock anymore.
I doubt my children have any idea that afternoon tea was an actual sit down family meal. Yes I'm guilty of it's extinction too. But I'm not alone. Tuition got in the way. Traffic got in the way. Malls got in the way. Businesses got in the way. TV got in the way. Why, afternoon tea got in the way of the British too. Life had to go on. And so it did.
It's no wonder that our tea time kuih(s) have become an all day long snack food. Tea time has disappeared. But not the hunger for the various kuih though. Besides, men get up to feed at midnight. Old fashioned mung bean fritters fill that new hunger. I don't recall my dad or brother being up at midnight hunting for food. But of course World Cup Football was never shown Live either. These bean fritters are one of H's favourite kuih. They are delicious warm.
The Recipe ~
300 gm green mung beans
1/2 dark brown sugar or granulated palm sugar
3 or 4 or T plain flour
pinch of salt
water
Batter :
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup rice flour
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
enough ice cold water
Place mung beans in a fairly deep pot. Cover with water completely, the water level about an inch and a half above the surface of the mung beans. Bring to a boil and then lower flame to simmer. Cook until the beans are tender, have broken up and until the beans have absorbed all the liquid leaving only a mush of beans in the pot (very much like cooking rice by absorption). Watch the pot carefully towards the end so that it doesn't burn. Transfer the mush onto a flat plate to cool it down completely.*
When the boiled beans have cooled down completely transfer to a medium bowl and add sugar, flour and a pinch of salt. Adjust for sweetness if you like it sweeter. Mix thoroughly until it becomes pasty and then shape into patties about 2 inches in diameter.
Batter :
Mix all dry ingredients together. Add cold water slowly and stop until you have achieved a nice coating batter.
Heat up a pot of oil until hot. Dip the bean patties in the batter one by one and fry until a light golden brown and crispy. Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy.
* It's important that the cooked beans cool down completely so that when the sugar is added it will not melt and make the bean mixture too soft and sticky to handle. Some recipes call for grated coconut instead of flour to firm up the mixture enough to handle and to taste. I didn't have any.
