Singapore Five Spice Powder

.

Aromatic and fragranced  spice powder made with star anise, cinnamon, fennel, cloves and szechaun pepper corns. Its perfect for stirfries and five spice rice.

Ingedients:

5 star anise
2 sticks of cinnamon
10 cloves
1 teaspoon szechaun peppercorns
1 teaspoon fennel seeds.

Method:

1. In a heavy bottomed frying pan , dry  roast the spices for 2-3 minutes to release the fragrance.
2. Leave to cool for few minutes and then transfer them to a coffe grinder and grind to a smooth powder.
3. Transfer to an air tight jar and use as required.

You may Like:
Szechaun Chilli Sauce

Submitting to:
Flavours Of Singapore event by simply.food

Roti Jala- Singapore laced Pancakes

Lacey thin pancakes that are a wonderful accompaniment to a spicy curry.

Ingredients:

4 oz /120 grams  plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
Cold water or Coconut milk  (I used water)
1 egg (I used 1 tablespoon yoghurt instead)
1 tablespoons sunflower oil

Method:

1. Sieve the flour and add the salt and turmeric.
2. Add the yoghurt and mix with the flour.
3. Add water a little at a time to form a batter of dropping consistency.There should be no lumps.

4. Fill a  roti jala cup mould with the batter.(I used an icing bottle or you can use a ketchup bottle)

Image from Baking Frenzy

5. Heat a non stick pan  and oil it sparingly with the oil.
6. When it is hot turn the heat to medium  and using the roti jala cup mould quickly spread the batter in to the pan using a circular motion  or forming vertical stripes as in this video.

7. Once the pancake has set after 2-3 minutes, you can fold it into three and transfer to serving place and repeat for remaining batter.There is no need to flip the pancake.
Serve with curry of your choice.

You may like :
Pudla savory pancakes

Submitting to:
Flavours Of Singapore event by simply.food

Pisang Goreng- Banana fritters.

Sweet banana deep fried in a crispy  crunchy coating ,drizzled with a flurry of icing sugar.

Ingredients:

3 sweet  firm medium bananas (Do not use over ripe bananas)
30 grams / 1 oz  rice flour
120 grams  /4 oz plain flour
60 grams  / 2 oz  corn flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
180ml (approx) water to make batter
Sunflower oil for deep frying.
Icing sugar to sprinkle

Method:

1. In a  bowl add the flours and salt and gradually add the water to form a  thick batter that coats the back of a spoon.(It should be fairly thick so that it coates the banana and doesn't drop off)
2. Peel and slice the bananas into two .Cut each slice into  three pieces and keep aside
3. Heat the oil and when it is hot, dip the  banana pieces into the batter and drop them gently into the hot oil.
4. Deep fry the banana fritters on medium heat  until golden brown , remove from oil and drain on kitchen paper.
5. Sprinkle some icing over the bananas and transfer them to a serving dish.

Serve with Vanilla icecream.

Fritters are very popular in lots of Asian countries. I love all Asian desserts and am trying to cook my way through the different types. If like me you like Asian desserts do check this list of 25 Indonesian Desserts

You may Like:
Coconut  milk  pudding.

Submitting to:
Flavours Of Singapore event by simply.food

Singapore Coconut milk pudding.

Creamy, smooth pudding with a delicious coconut fragrance and taste.

Ingredients:

250 ml coconut milk
1 tablespoon agar agar flakes
2 tablespoons sugar

Method:

1. Add the coconut milk to a sauce pan and heat it up.
2. Add the sugar and agar agar flakes and stir on medium heat untill agar agar and sugar have completely dissolved.
3. Get two ramekin dishes and strain the mixture into them.
4. Leave the pudding  aside to cool to room temperature.
5. Once cooled, place in fridge to set for two hours.

Serve chilled.

You may like:
Coconut Barfi

Submitting to:
Flavours Of Singapore event by simply.food

Szechaun Stirfried Rice

Spicy aromatic rice stirfried in a chilli garlic  Szechaun sauce.

Ingredients:

8 oz cold precooked boiled rice
3 tablespoons Szechaun sauce (Home made recipe here)
8 button mushrooms thinly sliced
1 red onion thinly sliced
1/4 red capsicum diced (small)
1/4 yellow capsicum diced (small)
1/4 green capsicum diced (small)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic cut into thin slices.
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Heat oil in a wok, when it is hot add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds.Add the onions and saute for another minute.
2. Add the mushrooms and pepppers and stirfry for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the salt, szechaun sauce and mix well.
4. Add the boiled rice and toss until rice is evenly coated with sauce and vegetables and heated through throughly.
5. Transfer to serving dish.

You may like:
Singapore stirfried Tofu

Submitting to:
Lets Cook with Rice event by Radhika of tickling palates
Flavours of Singapore and Lets cook with Left overs events by simply.food

 

Szechaun chilli sauce

A spicy chilli sauce that is versatile in all oriental  stirfry dishes.

Ingredients:

10 Red dried chillies
1/2 red sweet pepper(long one)
2 cloves garlic finely minced
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon sesame paste
2 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon chilli powder
10 szechaun peppercorns finely ground.
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sweet chilli garlic sauce

Method:

1. Soak the red chillies in hot water overnight.
2. In the morning drain the red chillies remove stalks, seeds and membrane and chop roughly.
3.Finely chop the red sweet pepper.
4. In a blender jug add the sweet red pepper and the chillies and blend to a coarse puree .
5. Heat oil in a pan when it is hot add garlic and ginger and saute for  30 seconds.(take care not to burn the garlic)
6. Add the blended chilli paste, salt and chilli powder , chilli garlic sauce , sesame paste and saute till sauce thickens .
7. Remove from heat and stir in the vinegar.

Add to stir fried rice or vegetables as required.

NB- I added the sweet pepper to keep the heat less, however if you dare replace it with an extra 10 red chillies instead.Also for cooking with the sauce works well with coarse texture , however if you want to serve as dipping sauce blend it smoother.

You may like:
Sweet red chilli sauce

Submitting to:
Flavours Of Singapore event by simply.food

Pather Pheni ( Indian sweet pastry dish) ~ICC January 2012

Royal dessert , crispy, flakey sweet pastry that melts in every mouthful.

This post is for the Indian cooking challenge, event by Srivalli recipe by Harini

Ingredients

8oz fine semolina 

2 teaspoons ghee

A pinch of salt

Water to knead the dough

Sunflower oil for frying

For paste:

2 teaspoons ghee

2 teaspoons rice flour

Sugar Syrup:

8oz sugar

1/2 cup water

Decoration:

Coarsely chopped pistachios nuts

Blanched almonds coloured red.

Method:

Sugar Syrup

1. Add the water  and sugar in a heavy bottom vessel and bring to boil, cook the syrup till it reaches 1 thread consistency. Once it reaches that immediately take off heat and keep aside to cool.

For the Pheni:

1.In a mixing bowl, add the fine semolina, 2 tsp of ghee (in solid form) and work it up to result in crumb like texture.

2.Add a pinch of salt and knead into a soft dough adding water gradually. (The dough needs to be softer than the regular chapati/puri dough. )

3.Cover with a muslin cloth and set aside for a minimum of 1 hour. (The more the resting time the better the quality of the phenis.)

4.In a smaller bowl, whisk the solid ghee and rice flour until they form a smooth paste.

5.Divide the dough into 5 parts  and roll out thin puris out of each of those and cover them to stop drying up.

6.On each rolled out puri, apply the rice flour-ghee paste and layer them one on top ofeach  other.
7. Once you have layered the last puri spread some more flour-ghee paste  and roll the layered puris into a tight log like a swiss roll.
8.Cut the log into 1 inch pieces and roll out each piece with light hands  into a thin puri and keep them covered until ready to be fried.

9.Heat the oil in a pan and allow to heat to medium hot.
10.Fry each of the puris, they should be fryed on medium heat and should crisp up but not change colour they should remain white.
11.Drain them onto paper towel until cool.

12. To decorate the pheni , dip a pastry brush in the cooled sugay syrup and brush the pheni  on both sides with the sweet syrup.(Pheni and sugar syrup both must be cool when  decorating , if decorated whilst either is hot will result in soggy pheni)

13. Sprinkle some pistachio and almond decoration on the pheni and place  on some parchment paper to dry.

14. Store in an  air tight container to keep crisp.

NB- It is not necessary to coat these pheni is sugar syrup, they can just be dusted in icing sugar and served with badam milk instead.

You may like:

Jalebi

Acar Timun (singapore cucumber pickle)

Acar Timun is a tangy crunchy pickle is commonly available is Singapore as an accompaniment to main dishes.It has a sweet and sour and tangy taste and it is served as a cold relish. The original recipe is from here but I have made some changes to here to suit my taste.

Ingredients:

1/2  cucumber
1 large carrot
1 small red onion
1 inch piece fresh  ginger
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 green chilli finely chopped

Method:

1. Cut the cucumber in half and remove the seeds. Cut it in to 2 inch very thin  julienne strips.
2. Peel the carrot and cut it into 2 in very thin  julienne strips.
3. Peel the onion and slice it very thinly and separate all the slices.
4. Pel the ginger and cut it into fine julienne strips
5 Heat oil in a pan , when it is hot add the mustard seeds and wait for them to crackle. Add the onions and stir fry for a minute.
6.Add the carrots, ginger,cucumber and chillies and  stir fry for a further two minutes.
7.Add the salt,sugar, chilli powder, turmeric powder and the lemon juice and toss.(vegetables should remain crisp and retain shape)
8.Remove from heat and stir in the vinegar and mix well.
9.Transfer to a serving dish and chill the pickle.
Serve with any main dish as an accompaniment.

You may like

Carrot pickle

Submitting to:

Flavours of Singapore event by simply.food

Tomato Chappati~ Blog hop wednesday 11th Jan 2012

This is my entry for Blog Hop Wednesday started by Radhika of Tickling Palates. Its a beautiful concept where not only do you get to make new  blogger friends, cook from their blogs but in return they visit your blog and try out your recipes too.

If you are interested in  joining Blog Hop Wednesday here is how it works:

"The plot behind this attempt is to form 2 groups and make pairs with a blogger who will be your partner for that particular month. This happens every 2nd wednesday of the month. You will then go through your partner’s blog, select, choose, cook, click and post the recipe in your blog on Wednesday and vice versa. The following month you will have a new partner. This way not only you tend to your blog at intervals but also learn some new recipes along the way and get to know a lot of bloggers and make friends."

This recipe is  from Hema's Blog. Looking through her blog there were many recipes that I had never tried before, but finally I settled  for the tomato chappati recipe you can find here.
I had to make a few basic changes as I did not have any tomato gojju and as I had never prepared it before  so I improvised.

Healthy delicious chapattis  with a subtle flavour of tomatoes.

Ingredients:

250 grams whole Wheat flour
2 tablespoons sunflower  oil
4 tablespoons oil for cooking the chappatis
1 teaspoon salt
Water to make Chappati dough
6 tablespoons passata (blended sieved tomatoes)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

Method:

1. In a bowl add the flour, salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder, 2 tablespoons oil and mix well.
2. Add the passata and start to mix it into the flour, add water if required to form a soft pliable dough.Cover and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
3.Divide the dough into walnut sized balls and using a little dry flour roll out a thin chappati approximately 6 inches in diameter.
4. Heat a frying pan and place the chappati on it, after a minute flip it over and brush the top side lightly with some oil. Flip the chappati over so oiled side is on the bottom.
5. Brush lightly the top side and once again flip it to cook this side too.Remove from pan and place in a foil wrap to keep warm.
6. Repeat for remaining dough.
Serve tomato chappati with any curry or pickle of choice.

You may like spinach paratha.

Announcing event ~ Flavours of Singapore.

We are are packed and ready to move on to our next leg with our journey in "Flavours of" Series 2 .We have enjoyed wonderful stay in Sri Lanka at Priyas blog and we are now resident in  Singapore for the month of January to sample and cook this wonderful cuisine.

Singapore cuisine hosts a world of flavours,with its rich multicultural heritage, it portrays  an  array of local cuisines such as  Chinese, Malay, Indian and Peranakan among others. Due to the long history of immigration in Singapore, Yusheng as well as traditional Malay cuisine like The Laksa, Satay, and Goreng Pisang have all integrated themselves into the cuisine of Singapore.In addition to these flavours English and some Portuguese influenced Eurasian, known as Kristang is also commonly found.
The cuisine is rich in flavour using aromatic spices such as cumin , cinnamon, coriander, cardamom,clove and nut meg. Other flavours and ingredients commonly found are pandan leaves, kaffir, lime,lemon grass, galangal and many others. Cooking in a wok is very common,and dishes prepared which  incorporate many different types of rice and noodle.


To Participate:
Sharpen your knives, put on your apron,don't forget the chefs hat and then :

1.Prepare a dish  (vegetarian only - eggs allowed) .
2.Please link this event announcement with your entry, this is mandatory.
3.Use of logo is not mandatory but usage is appreciated as it helps to spread the word visually.
4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.
4. Email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please put in subject box : Flavours of Singapore
Please use this format
Your Name:
Recipe Name:
Recipe URL:
Image no larger than 300 pixels.

Event Round up ~Lets Cook for christmas red/ green event.

Thankyou to every one who participated in this Festive event and made it so very successful. It received a total of 65  amazing entries .
Here is the round up of all the delicious entries:

The month of January we have Lets cook with left overs event , to send your entries and find out more details click here.

Event Announcement ~ Lets cook with Left overs.

With the festive season ,we have all  cooked a variety of dishes  to indulge in over the last few days . But I am sure that with so many dishes that were so lovingly prepared and eaten, there are many leftovers of the same dishes that are now sitting in tupperwares in your fridges.
This event is all about being creative and using up leftovers and giving them a new dimension by preparing a new dish with them in order to avoid food wasteage.
To participate in this event you must prepare any dish using  leftovers. You can add other ingredients to your dish to complete it .Only vegetarian dishes allowed although eggs are permitted.

To Participate:

1.Prepare a dish  (vegetarian only - eggs allowed) please link your dish using the linky below by entering your Dish Name and Post URL
2.Please link this event announcement with your entry, this is mandatory.
3.Use of logo is  not mandatory but usage is appreciated as it helps to spread the word visually.
4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.
4.Only in the event of problem using linky you can email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please use this format
Your Name:
Recipe Name
Recipe URL
Image no larger than 300 pixels.