PINEAPPLE POP TARTS

I wish this house was constructed of grilled meat, roast chicken, steamed red snappers, cemented with sambal belacan, furnished with rice and it's roof tiled with pop tarts. So that Starvers will be distracted while The Starvee photo shoots.

Pop tarts are what I made. And as a Malaysian, tarts only make sense when paired with pineapple jam. These........they were very good. The crust was crusty and buttery. And the jam.... it was obligingly sticky and subtly sweet. And the whole...it was out of this world. 

This just cannot be a breakfast food. I refuse to serve it for breakfast. I would probably refuse to share these next time too.

I checked out the recipe for the pop tart crust on Smitten Kitchen and then at Joy the Baker and realized that they were exactly the same. So the credits go to two of my favourite blogs.

Because I live in a green house it was very difficult to keep the dough cool and firm while rolling, filling and sealing it with jam. Constant refrigeration in between tasks was totally necessary. I made this in the evening when it was cooler. (Don't even think of working with this dough on a hot afternoon). I had also rolled out the dough between sheets of baking paper so that I could easily lift them on to a tray to chill in the refrigerator. It was worth it.

But I was not about to pause, evaporate, melt and take photos of the process. So do go here if you would like to see the step by steps. Photo-parantheses is for plants.

The recipe ~ Smitten Kitchen & Joy the Baker
  
Of course you could fill this with anything, ranging from Nutella, sugar and cinnamon, any jam, anything.

Crust

2 cups plain flour 

1 T sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter, cut into cubes

1 large egg

2 T cold milk

1 extra egg for brushing

Whisk flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Work in cold butter using a pastry knife or your fingers until pea sized lumps of butter are still visible and mixture just holds together when squeezed.

Whisk egg and milk and pour into flour mixture mixing until cohesive and the dough comes together in a ball. Divide into two and chill in the refrigerator until firm ..maybe 20 -30 minutes.

Lay a largish sheet of baking paper on the table and roll out one half of the dough until it becomes a rectangle of about 9 x 12 inches and the dough sheet is about 1/8 inch thick. Cut the rectangle into 9 equal sized smaller rectangles. 

Brush the sheet with beaten egg and plop some jam on each rectangle. Place the jammed dough rectangles  into the refrigerator while you roll out the other dough.

Roll out the other dough half (also on baking paper) to the same size as the first dough and cut them up in exactly the same way. Keep aside.

Take out the jammed dough rectangles and place them next to the blank rectangles. Lift each small blank rectangle and place it over a jammed rectangle and press down the edges with a fork to crimp. Finish off the rest in the same way.

Bake in a preheated  oven at 350 for 25 - 30 minutes or until golden brown.

RED & YELLOW WATERMELON GRANITA

I know....... summer in some parts of foodie world is over. But in my world ~  summer is forever. 

So there is nothing like an ice cold headache-inducing water melon granita to keep those heat waves at bay. This was just so refreshing that when my daughter and I mouthed the first few scoops of ice cold crystallized melon juice aka as granita while watching tv the heat outside just seemed to dissipate into a mirage-y blur and I felt transported to several degrees below 100. 

It was a continuous effort between cooling down and an ice cold headache. At times it was like my brain was being flashed frozen and the next minute relieved of it. It was a foodie's fight against nature. As hard as that may sound I would do granita again and again if the heat keeps up. Rain? Come again? Pretty please?

Of course granita turned to pleasant slush afterwards and I wished I had one of those big fat drain pipe straws then. Slurpy slurp.

I used red and yellow seedless water melon for these granitas. Since the watermelon was so sweet I cut it down with a few squirts of lemon juice. While I was at it I chopped some mint and threw it into the red watermelon slush/soon to be granita.  Gosh it was so good. These granitas.

So......

When you're feelin' kinda hotta 

Grab an ice cold and crunchy granita.

The recipe ~ serves many or when summers are forever

1 red watermelon

1 yellow watermelon

Juice of 1 or 2 lemons, if desired

pinch of sea salt

some chopped mint, if desired 

Scoop out the red watermelon meat. Place in a blender and blitz. Add a pinch of sea salt, lemon juice if desired. Swish and pour into a tub and when half frozen take out from the freezer and agitate it with a fork. Do it a couple of more times until you get granita according to the texture that pleases you. Scoop granita into individual glasses, layering the red and yellow granitas if you fancy, garnish with a sprig of mint and serve yourself and others. Best served when the sun is relentless and totally beating down on you. Mmm-hmmm. ~ Cooool ~

Ditto for the yellow watermelon granita.

Photographing these granitas was a nightmare. They slushed on me.

GRILLED CORIANDER & LIME CHICKEN

Rachel Allen made this. Yes the pretty Rachel Allen, with the charming unplace-able accent, whom I always associate with  cakes, pies, cookies, pastry and all things sweet, nice and dainty. And with daisies. Whom I would never place on the same page as fish sauce.

Then one day I caught her making a grilled chicken dish. What a surprise. It was an Asian inspired grilled/roasted chicken dish too. With fish sauce. It was very, very good. FM (Family Members) thought it was sedaaaaap and they kept requesting me to make it again and again. And again. Which is a treat because the aroma of the coriander, lime, lemon grass, ginger, garlic just floated, flirted and flounced with me all around the house. As fragrant as a field of breeze blowin' daisies.

So, my friends, bookmark this grilled/roasted chicken recipe. It'll make us all breeze blowin' happy.

What I found different about this grilled/roasted chicken was that the chicken pieces were slashed at intervals before marinating. Which meant that the marinade could get right into that meat. Which is a good thing of course. The only apprehension I had was that the finished grilled/roasted chicken would look quite mutilated and dry. No?

No. Everything looked mouth watering and and civilized especially when the melted chicken fat and juices started dribbling on and into the crusty parts  of the juicy, golden roasted chicken pieces. 

Post meal ~ 

In an an ideal world, scrubbing a roasting pan would not be something one needs to stare at and contemplate over after a meal. But since it isn't (an ideal world) I so do (contemplate).  And my little maid mind told me that if  I lined the pan with thick aluminium foil right up to the sides all I'll have to do, when the roasting's over, is to peel off the foil and I will be greeted by a gleaming and spotless roasting pan grinning back at me. Now that makes me breeze blowin' happy. It so do.

The recipe ~ adapted from Rachel Allen's tv cooking show

6 chicken whole legs, skin on
Juice of 5 limes
8 cloves garlic
2 knobs ginger, grated
2 lemon grass, white bulb sliced finely
1 tsp sugar
about 1-2 T fish sauce (I forgot to measure this)
1 bunch of coriander leaves, chopped


Place all ingredients except the chicken parts into a small food processor and blitz until all ingredients are fairly finely processed. Taste for salt, tang and sweetness. Adjust if necessary. It tasted so good even at this point I was swooning.


Slash chicken pieces at 1 inch intervals. The whole legs may be cut into parts consisting of thighs and drumsticks if you prefer. Rub the marinade all over the chicken pieces, place in a large Ziplock and marinate at least an hour or better still overnight.
Preheat oven at 350 F. 

Place the chicken pieces on the rack of a roasting pan. Save the excess juices for later. 

Roast marinated chicken in oven in a roasting pan with a rack for about 45 - 50 minutes. Check for doneness between the slits. If the juices run clear with no hint of pink, it's done. 

Remove chicken from pan onto a platter and keep aside, covered with a piece of foil to keep warm.

Pour the extra marinade into the roasting pan. Scrape the pan with a wooden spoon so that crusty bits at the bottom loosen up. Stir the extra marinade into them. Push the pan back into the oven and allow the marinade to bubble up and thicken some. Once it looks reduced and fairly thick and syrupy pour that over the cooked chicken pieces. Garnish with some chopped coriander.


Serve this mouth watering grilled/roasted chicken with white rice like I did.

STRAWBWERRY BUTTERMILK CAKE ~ SMITTEN KITCHEN

I had a moment of alarm when I got up two mornings after I had made butter ~ and buttermilk. I had the need to make something out of it quickly. I knew the feeling of regret that would sink in if I finished the butter before it had a chance to be a part of something bigger.

So off I went in raid of Smitten Kitchen's kitchen in search of a buttermilk cake. And I found it ~ a  raspberry buttermilk or 'any fruit' cake. I decided to add a generous cup of ground almonds to Deb's recipe. I loved the way it turned out. 

Over the years I have come to learn to decipher recipes. I know a cake is moist by looking at the proportion of sugar in regards to the rest of the ingredients, particularly flour. The more sugar there is in the recipe the more moist the cake will be because as the cake bakes the sugar turns to syrup. Unfortunately that also leads to teeth rot.

Too much butter, on the other hand, makes the cake greasy (denser and heavier) rather than moist so that you swivel to reach for a napkin to wipe your oil slicked fingers and lips with (if your fork went missing).

So in my book ground nuts make the perfect medium for adding that extra moistness and richness to a cake without the threat of wincing sugary-ness or slick greasiness because the oils from the nuts remain in the nuts and does not seep completely into the cake making the cake softly moist, delightfully crumbly and airy, while the addition of an extra non-sweet ingredient cuts through the sugar to make the cake subtly sweet.

What I also liked about this recipe was that it required only one egg. It was just enough to hold the cake daintily together. 

In nine words ~This recipe goes into my Greedy Book of Cakes.

This simple recipe had also produced the kind of cake that I like the look of ~ a cake that requires no adornment because I can always pass it off as rustic, charmingly  rough-hewn and with amusing sink holes. The last, definitely a giggling point.

What a pity the strawberries turned pale as the cake baked. But the cake was deliciously moist. 

This is a cake I will make again and again. Next time with kalaedoscopic bits of tutti frutties on top. Along with a little prayer that they don't all sink in.

The recipe ~ adapted from Smitten Kitchen

This is supposed to be a very thin cake. The recipe called for a 9 inch pan. I used an 8 inch pan. 

1 cup (130 gm) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup of ground almonds
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 stick (56 gm) butter, softened
2/3 cup (146 gm) plus 1 1/2 T sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest (optional) (I opted out)
1 large egg
1/2 cup well shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries or any fruit ( I used strawberries)

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Whisk together sifted flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a bowl. Add the ground almonds and mix well. Keep aside. 

Beat softened butter and 2/3 cup of sugar until pale and creamy and light with an electric mixer. Add vanilla and egg and mix well.

At low speed mix in flour/almond mixture in 3 batches alternating with the buttermilk and ending with the flour. Spoon into cake pan and spread evenly. Arrange fruits on top as you like and sprinkle the 1 1/2 tablespoon of sugar over the top evenly.


Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until the top is golden brown or a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.