Fried Carrot Cake

To my readers, I apologize for not been updating my blog lately as I was away for about a month. But now I'm back!!! :) So today's post is about Fried Carrot Cake (Chai Tow Kway). This is not that cake you see at the dessert corner. This is a popular dish with Singaporeans eaten throughtout the day, breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper. When I saw Makansutra website and videos... dang!! its making me super hungry and missing Singapore's local food... :(

The main ingredient is white radish. It is grated and mixed with rice flour. Together with water, the mixture is stirred while cooking. Then the thick mixture is poured in a round pan and steamed to form the carrot cake. The carrot cake is cut into pieces and stir with eggs, minced garlic, spring onion, preserved radish. You could even add sweet black sauce if you want the dark version of fried carrot cake. If you like you could even add small shrimp or diced mushroom to give it added texture and taste.

A skillful hawker will not burn the egg when it is stir fried with the carrot cake and will also making you drool with just the aroma alone. If you like it a little spicy, you can ask the chef to put in a small amount of chili.. yum yum!!! I would recommend all visitors to Singapore, should try Fried Carrot Cake. :))

My white fried carrot cake did not look like Mr See Toh's carrot cake pizza.. but it still taste good!!! gonna make the black fried carrot cake next time..

Ingredients:

Radish Cake:

350gm rice flour

600g water, room temperature

600g hot water

20gm carrots, julienned

20gm radish, julienned
1 tsp salt

Fried Carrot Cake:

4 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp preserved radish, chopped

2 nos eggs, beaten

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 sprig spring onion, chopped

Optional:

20gm ikan bilis 

30gm beansprouts

Here is the VIDEO (<--Click) to make Carrot Cake from KF See Toh, Ambassador of Food or many have called him the Makan Guru. :)

Some pics of the carrot cake I whipped up..

My white fried carrot cake with sambal (chili paste) on the side.

Yum-Yum!!!

Bubur merah, bubur putih

This dessert is not unusual with Malay families in Singapore. Usually served at birthday parties or at a thanksgiving feast. My mom would make this dessert using the red color sugar but since I am unable to get any red color sugar here, I used the brown sugar. Many used the glutinous rice but others would use regular rice. The brown/red part is usually sweet and the white part is a little salty. My first time to make this delicious dessert. Wonderful.

Ingredients:

1 cup glutinous rice, washed

2 pandan leaves (screwpines), knotted

water

1/2 cup coconut milk (used 1 cup regular 2%milk)

salt to taste

brown sugar or gula melaka

sugar

In a pot, cover glutinous rice with enough water and milk. Add the pandan leaves and salt to taste. Let it boil under a medium heat. Stir often to avoid the rice from sticking on the bottom of the pot. Once the rice has soften, from 1/3 of the amount of rice. Set it aside. The remaining 2/3, add the brown sugar and stir well. Add the white sugar is not sweet enough.

To serve,  scoop the brown glutinous rice first then drop a tablespoon of the white glutinous rice. Enjoy!

Chicken with mushroom and mozzarella

Yesterday was a rush! I did not have the time to cook what I wanted for Iftar yesterday. So I browsed my recipe book and I found this simple and easy chicken recipe. Made some balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing to drizzle over the spinach and tomatoes..  I had this recipe for a long time in my recipe book but never thought of giving it a try. I'm glad I did last night... It was delicious.  Yummy!!!

Ingredients:

4 pc (600g) chicken breast

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tbsp flour for dusting

3 tbsp butter

1 medium onion, sliced

2 clove garlic, chopped

250g mushrooms (stems removed), sliced

1 tbsp dried mixed herbs

150g mozzarella cheese, sliced to 5mm thickness (used shredded mozzarella)

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dust with flour and set aside. Preheat oven at 350F. Heat 1 tbsp butter. Fry onion and garlic till soft. Add mushroom, stir fry for 3mins or until soft. Remove and set aside. Same pan, heat remaining butter. Brown chicken for 4-5mins. Remove chicken and place in a baking tray. Pour stir-fried onions/mushrooms over chicken and sprinkle with herbs. Top with mozzarella slices. Bake for 15-20mins. 

Mee Hailam PHALINN OOI

Singapore Flag

August 9 is Singapore's National Day. I'll like to take this opportunity to wish Singapore a Happy 45th Burfday!!!! Being so far away, made me miss the place I called HOME and is always in my ♥ ♥heart♥ ♥. In the morning, I got a chance to watch the last part of the "LIVE" webcast and when the announcer said to the audiences to stand up for the National Anthem and Pledge, I actually stood up, sing the National Anthem and Pledge. Though I'm so far away but hey, I'm a Singaporean and I am proud of my country... ;)

Often, I would check out MamaFami's Fotopages for recipes. When I saw Mee Hailam Phalinn Ooi, it really looks good. Both MamaFami and Phalinn Ooi said it is easy and delicious. I just had to give it a try. Yes, indeed, it is delicious and easy. Thanks Phalinn Ooi and MamaFami for sharing the recipe. :))

 

Ingredients:

yellow noodles or spaghetti (used dry chinese style noodles)
beef fillet-sliced thinly, boil for 5 mins & keep the stock (not used) 

chicken fillet-sliced (cubed, boiled and used the stock)
onion-thinly sliced
garlic-chopped 

chicken cube
chilli powder (not used) 

oyster sauce 

sweet soya sauce

light soya sauce

tomato sauce (used tomato paste) 

vegetables (used cabbage and pre-cooked carrots)

fish ball (added) 

cornflour mixed with water-to thicken the gravy

vegetables oil for cooking 

Boil the noodles till soften. Drain and leave aside. Heat the oil in a wok and saute onion and garlic. Add the meat and fry for about 3 minutes. Add in the crushed chicken cube and chilli powder. Stir well. Pour the beef (chicken) stock. Add in oyster sauce, sweet soya sauce, light soya sauce and tomato sauce (paste). Stir well and let it boil. Add in eggs and vegetables. Pour in the cornflour mixture to thicken the gravy.
 

To serve : Put the noodles in a bowl, pour the gravy on top. Garnish with chopped spring onions and fried onions. 

Potato Balls Soup (Sup Berbola Kentang)

Hubby said to me "what took you so long to cook?? I'm hungry!!!" LoL!!!! It's not that I'm taking my own sweet time to cook dinner last night but there were so many steps to make this dish.... the fillings, potatoes, soup then frying the potatoes balls..

Although it took a little while more, its worth waiting. Simply delicious!!! I'm glad he waited for it as he had three servings of my potato balls in soup... hehehe.. 

The recipe is from Ms Adidah Anang that I copied from Suria website. However, I made some changes to it. 

Ingredients:

A) 900g potatoes, peeled, cubed, boiled and mashed

    300g breadcrumbs

    2 eggs, beaten

    salt to taste

B) 300g ground beef

    2 cloves garlic, minced

    1 onion, cubed

    half of green pepper, cubed

    30g meat curry powder (BABA's)

    300g carrots, cubed

    300g corns

    300g peas

    salt and black pepper to taste

C) 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce, (Habhal's Sweet Soya Bean Sauce)

    1 tbsp tomato sauce

    1 onions, sliced thinly

    2 cloves garlic, minced

    2cm ginger, minced

    spices (1 cinnamon stick, 2 green cardamon, 2 star anise, 3 whole cloves) (optional)

    5-6 cups water

    4 cubes beef or chicken stock (small)

    salt and black pepper to taste

Garnish

cucumbers (sliced thinly or shredded)

chopped spring onions

chopped coriander

fried spring onion

spicy soy sauce

Heat large frying pan with some oil. Saute garlic, onion and green pepper until fragrant. Add ground beef and carrots. Add the meat curry powder and stir well. Last add the peas and corns. Season with salt and black pepper and mix well. Leave it aside to cool.

In a soup pot, saute the onion, garlic, ginger and spices in the oil until the onion is translucent, 5-10 minutes. Add water, sweet soy sauce, tomato sauce, black pepper and cubes beef stock. Add salt to taste if necessary. Cook in medium-low heat until boiling.

For the potato balls... Mix all the ingredients together. First, I took some mashed potatoes and flatten on my palm. Scooped some of the filling and put in the middle, then covered with another mashed potato. Shape into balls. Dipped in the beaten egg and fry in hot oil. Drained. 

Place fried potato balls in soup bowls and cover with boiling soup. Garnish with cucumber, spring onions, coriander and fried onions and spicy soy sauce. YUM-YUM!!!