SPICY PRAWN-COCONUT FILLING IN SWEET POTATO DOUGH ~ CUCUR BADAK

I craved these Hippo bites so badly that I had forgotten to measure the ingredients before making them. By the time I did I was halfway through.

These are literally called Hippo Bites. Because by Malay standards they are big. Cucur or bites of any kind, sweet or savoury, are usually made in dainty bite-sized pieces so that you could pop the whole thing into your mouth in one go ~ without looking like you have just bitten off a hunky chunk of a hippo. But these are made bigger. So relatively speaking these are hippo bites or cucur badak.

Those bright tumeric-yellow cake cups come from Sarah-Jane siliconemoulds.com Gorgeous yellow no?

I LOVE these and I have an all time craving for them. Freshly grated coconut is sauteed in a mixture of pounded onions, chilly and dried shrimps, diced fresh prawns, sliced lemon grass and some tumeric. The dough is the exact same dough used for the kuih keria or sweet potato doughnuts. And also deep fried. A subtle sweet, chewy crust hiding a spicy coconut shrimp filling inside. Wooooooo...... I LOVE. 

Recipe ~

Sweet potato dough ~ same as sweet potato doughnuts without the sugar scabs. You might want to double the recipe..

I can't promise that the amount of dough will match the amount of coconut shrimp filling. You might end up with extra filling as I did. Freeze it for making more another time. 

1 1/2 cups of steamed, completely cooled and mashed sweet potatoes ( I used slightly more than 1 1/2)
About 3/4 cup of plain flour or less
1/2 tsp salt

Mix all above ingredients together until it becomes a firm dough.  

Filling ......approximate values ~

3-4 shallots, peeled and sliced

2 garlic
3 slices fresh ginger
2-3 red chillies

3 heaped tablespoons of dried shrimps, re-hydrated

1 tsp tumeric powder or 1/2 inch fresh tumeric 

6-7 prawns, shelled, de-veined and chopped finely

1 large or 2 skinny lemon grass, the white part sliced finely

2 T cooking oil, any vegetable oil

21/4 cups of freshly grated coconut

Pound the onions, garlic and dried shrimps and fresh tumeric if using, in a pestle and mortar, until it becomes a moderately fine mush. 

Heat a pan. Pour in the cooking oil. Saute the pounded ingredients, and powdered tumeric at this point if using, until fragrant and turning lightly brown around the edges.

Add the diced fresh prawns, sliced lemom grass  and stir to mix in and until the prawns just turn pink. Add the grated coconut and mix well over low heat. Add a touch of water if the mixture seems a little dry. The mixture should be moist but NOT wet. add salt and pepper to taste. Leave aside to cool.

Shape the dough into balls the size of ping pong balls or perhaps slightly larger. Make a spacious depression in the centre and fill with the coconut-shrimp filling. At least a heaped teaspoon of it. Cover up and seal. Shape into a ball and then flatten it so that it looks like a fat chubby disc.  Keep on a plate and finish off the rest of the dough and filling. Any extra filling can be frozen and then defrosted to be used when you make more next time.

Heat medium pan. Add cooking oil to about an inch deep. Heat the oil till hot. Fry the cucur badak until a deep golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper to rid of excess oil. Serve warm or at room temperature. I like it at room temperature.

I am submitting this to Malaysian Monday. Sharon from Test With Skewer is hosting the next Malaysian Monday. Find out more about Malaysian Monday here.

MILK JELLY WITH LEMON ORANGE SAUCE

This jelly made the Top 9 on Foodbuzz 2nd May 2011. Thank you to the Foodbuzz community. Happy Buzzday!

Truth is....I was tentative about making jelly. I rarely make jelly. It's like eating air. Almost. It doesn't fill you up, it doesn't provide you with much nutrition, its not ice cream, it's not pudding, it's simply solidified sweet drink in wobbly form. Neither hunkily solid nor refreshingly liquid. Neither here nor there, neither good nor bad, neither right nor wrong.

So I rarely have never made jelly to the memory of my grown children (have I sinned?). Some of them didn't quite know what it was when I did make these pretty things. They asked. And I answered "Jelly".  Cynical faces. Gelatine was foreign to them too (because I never did speak gelatine to them). So I spoke jelly. Again. Never mind. I gave up.

But when I offered some to Z and R they finished it up and announced  "Sedap". R playfully repeated it several times to aggravate me :) Because he knew there wasn't any left. 

Indeed. It was sweet surrender when I yielded peacefully to the simple combination of fresh milk, sugar and of course gelatine. It proved quite delicious or 'sedaaaap'. It tasted............ pretty. As sweetly pretty as Kate Middleton.  And Jelly humoured me by wobbling all the way as I walked it from the refrigerator to the table. Unlike Kate Middleton.

And look at it.  It is indeed truly pretty after having been set and chilled in those pretty pink moulds. 

Thanks to Sarah-Jane of siliconemoulds.com. Sarah-Jane designs the most pretty moulds ever. The moulds and the jelly were truly and sweetly satisfying. Happy sigh.......and long live the Jelly!

And the silicone moulds too. I practically pushed the jelly out. So easy peasy. Check here if you'd like to see the lovely range of silicone moulds available.

The recipe ~

Yield : Four 170 ml moulds of jelly

2 1/2 cups fresh milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tsp powdered gelatine
3 small egg yolks

Sauce ~


grated peel of 1 lemon
juice if 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 orange
1/3 cup sugar or to taste


Put milk, sugar and gelatine in a small pot and place over low heat. Bring almost to boiling point and stir to dissolve gelatine.. Once gelatine has dissolved remoe from heat. Set aside.


Beat egg yolks in a medium bowl. Pour hot milk mixture over gradually stirring all the time to mix. Pour into small moulds or a 3 3/4 cup mould. leave aside to cool and place in refrigerator to set firmly for several hours or overnight.


Sauce ~


Place grated zest of lemon and juice of lemon and orange and sugar in a small pot. Place over low heat and stir until the sauce thickens into a light syrup. Leave to cool. Pour around jellies/jelly to serve.

BRIOCHE ~ PRONOUNCED BRIYOSH

These Brioche made the Top 9 on Foodbuzz today 30th April 2011. Thank you to the Foodbuzz community! Happy Buzzday :)

I used Sarah-Jane's brioche moulds from siliconemoulds.com. to make the brioche. They came out adorable with little buns on their heads. I thought it was quite funny when I picked one up and the little bun-head rolled off almost immediately. But it was only the one.  How comic it would have been if all of them had rolled off.

These were the silicone moulds from siliconemoulds.com that Sarah had mailed me. As always nothing could be easier than un-moulding from a  silicone mould.  Effortless. 

A tip I had learnt so that the tops are perfectly middle when they finished baking was to depress the base dough in the middle right to the bottom with your thumb before brushing egg yolk and placing the bun-head on top. Generally, it worked except for a few. But lopsided or not they were delicious, soft, buttery and adorable. What more does one need in a bun.

They photograph well too. But breads always do.

So do milk bottles ~

And then buns. And their bun-heads ~

I wish I had something more to say ~

But I don't. So here's the recipe ~ adapted from Lemons and Anchovies

The brioche dough is usually kept in the refrigerator overnight retarding the dough to develop the flavour and stiffen the rich, buttery and soft dough for easier handling....Wikipedia

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 package dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
• 3 eggs beaten plus one more, beaten, for glazing
• 3 tablespoons room temperature milk
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, diced

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl; stir in sugar and yeast. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the eggs and milk.
 

Beat the eggs and milk together and gradually incorporate the dry ingredients, making a soft dough.  Transfer the dough onto a lightly-floured surface and knead well for about five minutes, until it is smooth and elastic.  I had floured my hands rather than sprinkled flour onto the board when it was sticky.

Add a few pieces of room temperature butter to the dough and continue to knead until the butter is incorporated.  About 2 minutes of kneading for each addition of butter.  Continue this process until you have added all the butter.  I kneaded a few more minutes after the butter has been added until I stopped seeing chunks of butter in the dough.  

I wrapped in plastic wrap anyway and chilled for about 2 hours.

I did not bother greasing the brioche moulds. Take a golf ball size of douh and shape into a ball. Place seam side down into the mould.  Fill up the rest of the moulds similarly and let it rise until double in size. I can't rememebr how many minutes it took. Maybe 30 - 40minutes. Meanwhile shape smaller balls of dough into small rounds for the bun-heads. Keep aside. Press your thumb inot the middle of a risen  risen dough. brush the top with egg yolk and stick a bun-head on the top.  Do the same for the rest.

Cover the balls and allow them to rest for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.  Preheat oven to 400ºF. Before baking brush all buns with beaten eg. Bake until golden and puffed. About 12-15 minutes.

EASTER EGG MADELEINES

I don't celebrate Easter but I did have Easter egg moulds given me by Sarah Jane. Thanks Sarah-Jane. So I made some madeleine 'egg' cakes. Each 'egg' deliciously golden.

They had also the humps without the use of baking powder. So I was very pleased. And they popped out of the moulds very easily without sticking at all. These are the lovely moulds Sarah-Jane had given me in 2 different sizes a few months ago. I used the smaller one. Do go to siliconemoulds.com for even more variety of silicone moulds.

I had buttered the moulds using my finger very lightly. The details of the design came out clear marking the cakes very prettily.As you can also see the cakes came out with a lovely sheen. It was beautiful!

I had gotten the recipe from All Recipes but the one thing that I did differently was regards to the butter. I clarified the butter by melting and heating it until the solids drop and begin to brown, I made beurre noisette. It added a lovely nutty flavour to the cakes and gave the cakes a lightly speckled look.

This is a short post. I am feeling very sleepy   ^0^

The recipe ~ From All Recipes....copied and pasted ~

If you wish to do what I did just melt the butter until the solids drop and begin to brown. Turn off heat immediately and strain the clarified butter through a sieve before adding to the mixture.

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Butter and flour 12 (3 inch) madeleine molds; set aside.
2. Melt butter and let cool to room temperature.
3. In a small mixing bowl, beat eggs, vanilla and salt at high speed until light.
4. Beating constantly, gradually add sugar; and continue beating at high speed until mixture is thick and pale and ribbons form in bowl when beaters are lifted, 5 to 10 minutes.
5. Sift flour into egg mixture 1/3 at a time, gently folding after each addition.
6. Add lemon zest and pour melted butter around edge of batter. Quickly but gently fold butter into batter. Spoon batter into molds; it will mound slightly above tops.
7. Bake 14 to 17 minutes, or until cakes are golden and the tops spring back when gently pressed with your fingertip.
8. Use the tip of the knife to loosen madeleines from pan; invert onto rack. Immediately sprinkle warm cookies with granulated sugar. Madeleines are best eaten the day they're baked. Leftover madeleines are wonderful when dunked into coffee or tea.
9. Variation: Chocolate Madeleines: Omit lemon zest. Increase sugar to 1/2 cup. Substitute 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder for 2 tablespoons of the flour; sift into batter with flour.

Good night. ^0^