Black Glutinous Rice Sweet Porride - Bubur Pulut Hitam

We are now staying at a temporary housing while waiting to move back to our house. It is still summer holidays for the kids and today I made this sweet black glutinous rice porridge for their tea time break. This is a pretty simple recipe but it takes a bit of time to cook it.

Ingredients

1 cup Thai black glutinous rice or pulut hitam
6 cups of water
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of coconut milk
3 screw pine or pandan leaves, knotted
1/4 cup sago, washed and drained (optional)

Directions

1.  Wash the black glutinous rice thoroughly.  Heat a pot on high heat and add the water ,     
     pandan leaves and washed glutinous rice and let it come a boil. Once it comes to a boil 
     lower the heat to medium. 
2.  Keep stirring the glutinous rice occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking to the 
      bottom of the pot.
3.  When the rice is half cooked, you can add the sago if using. 
4.  When the black glutinous rice has turned slightly mushy and thick and the sago has 
      turned translucent, add the sugar, salt and coconut milk. 
5.  Stir the sweet porridge to combine all the ingredients.  Turn off the heat just before the 
      porridge comes to a boil or when tiny bubbles appear at the sides of the pot.
6.  Serve hot or warm with a drizzle of coconut milk.

Milk Donuts in Sugar Syrup or Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamun is one of my favorite indian desserts.  It is simply a milk donut soaked in syrup.  I love eating it warm.   I have tried making this recipe many time but every time I soak the gulab jamuns in the syrup my gulab jamuns will shrink and harden.  I finally realised that the key to making gulab jamun successfully is in the temperature of the syrup and the fried gulab jamuns. Please refer to my tips below. 

Ingredients
1 cup nonfat milk powder
1/4 cup All Purpose flour (plain flour, maida)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup room temperature whole milk
1/8 teaspoon of baking soda
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup water
4 cardamom pods ground finely
some crushed pistachios
Oil for deep-frying

Direction

1.  First prepare the syrup for soaking the fried gulab jamuns. In a pan combine the water 
     and sugar and bring it to a boil. Once the sugar has melted add in the cardamom powder        and let it boil for a few more seconds before turning off the flame.  Set the syrup aside.  
2.  In a bowl, mix the milk powder, flour and baking soda.
3.  Next add the butter and mix well. 
4.  Slowly add in the milk a little at a time to form a soft dough. The dough will look pretty 
     soft but will harden slightly after a few minutes. Keep it aside for a about 10 minutes.
5.  Grease the palms of your hand with some butter, knead the dough and form into small 
     balls. This recipe will make around 8-10 small balls
6.  Heat enough oil to deep fry the balls on medium low heat.  When the oil is hot add the             balls slowly and deep fry them. The balls will double in size so do not add too many balls.
7.  Keep rolling the balls in the oil so that they brown evenly.  Remove from the oil and drain 
     the gulab jamun on a paper towel. Let the gulab jamuns cool for a few minutes before 
     adding the gulab jamuns into the hot syrup. 
8.  Let the gulab jamuns sit in the syrup for at least 30 minutes prior to serving. Garnish the 
      gulab jamuns with some crushed pistachios.

Tips:
1.  The non-fat milk must be in powder form before measuring otherwise this recipe will not 
     work.  My non-fat milk powder is rough and granular so I always grind to a fine powder 
     before measuring the milk powder for this recipe.
2.  When making the syrup, heat the syrup until the sugar dissolves and is hot. You do not 
      have to boil it.  Ensure that the syrup is just hot when adding the deep fried gulab 
      jamuns, however if the syrup is boiling hot or is hotter than the temperature of the fried 
      jamuns, the gulab jamuns will shrink and harden.  
3.  Make sure that the jamuns are fried in low heat otherwise the jamuns will brown too 
     quickly and the center will not be cooked through.
4.  After deep frying, let the jamuns drain on the paper tower for 2-3 minutes before adding 
      the gulab jamuns to the hot syrup. 

White Chocolate Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

 

This white chocolate raspberry ripple ice cream tasted like the Tillamook ice cream I used to buy. This is a simple recipe and easy recipe to make even without a ice cream maker. 

Ingredients

2 + 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

1 cup of white chocolate chips

for the raspberry compote
1 cup fresh or frozen  raspberries
1/4 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Directions

1.  To make the raspberry compote, add all the ingredients for the raspberry compote into a 
     pot and heat it on medium heat  and stir occasionally until you get a thick raspberry 
     compote.  Keep it aside to cool. Refrigerate the raspberry compote until it is ready to be 
     used. 
2.  Put the white chocolate chips into a microwaveable bowl with the half cup of heavy 
     whipping cream.  Microwave the white chocolate for 30 seconds.  Remove from the 
     microwave and mix the white chocolate.  If the white chocolate is not completely melted, 
     microwave the white chocolate with the cream for another 30 seconds. Mix well until the 
     white chocolate is completely melted.  It took 2, 30 second intervals to completely melt 
     my white chocolate. Keep the white chocolate ganache or melted white chocolate with 
     cream mixture aside.
3.  Next heat the remaining 2 cups of heavy whipping cream with 1/2 cup of sugar and the 
     vanilla bean paste  in a pot on medium low heat. Once the sugar has melted, add the 
     white chocolate ganache and mix well. Don't boil the milk. 
4.  Remove from the heat and pour the ice cream mixture into a mixing bowl.  I poured       
      mine directly into my stainless steel kitchen aid mixing bowl.
3.  Once the ice cream mixture is cool, leave it in the freezer for about 3-4 hours or until you 
      see ice crystals forming at the sides of ice cream.
5.  Remove the ice cream from the freezer and beat it with hand mixer or paddle mixer for 2-
      3 minutes or you can just use an ice cream maker.  I used my kitchen aid paddle mixer to 
      churn my ice cream. 
6.  Put the ice cream mixture back into the freezer for another 3-4 hours.  Repeat step no. 5 
     after 3-4 hours of freezing for the second time. 
7.  After churning the ice cream for the second time remove the ice cream from the mixing 
     bowl.  Take a freezer proof container and place about 2-3 tablespoons of ice cream in it. 
     Take a teaspoon and drop teaspoonful of raspberry compote over the white chocolate ice 
     cream. 
8.  Repeat step 7 until all the white chocolate ice cream is and raspberry compote is used up. 
     Take a table knife and cut through the ice cream to create the ripple effect. Cover the 
     white chocolate raspberry ripple ice cream and freeze it for at least 8 hours or overnight 
     before serving

Sesame Snaps or Tilgul Vadi

I took this easy recipe from Madhurasrecipe.com . I didn't have jaggery at home so I used brown sugar. It turned out just the same except that it took longer to melt the sugar in the microwave. I'm not sure if it the sugar or it just the power setting on my microwave oven. Nevertheless, the tilgul vadis turned out pretty awesome. Thanks to Madhura for his easy recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup of dark brown jaggery or brown sugar

1 teaspoon of ghee

1 teaspoon of hot water

3/4 cup of roasted sesame seeds

1/4 roasted crushed peanuts

1/2 teaspoon of cardamom powder

a pinch of nutmeg powder

Directions

1.  In a heat proof bowl, add ghee and sugar and mix well.

2.  Microwave the sugar and ghee for 2 minutes or until the sugar melts and starts to have 
     bubbles. Mix the sugar at 1 minute intervals . You need to be careful because the sugar 
     gets really hot and so does the bowl.

3.  Once the sugar starts to boil, remove from the microwave oven and add in the cardamom 
      powder, nutmeg powder and hot water and mix well. The sugar syrup tends to splat a 
      little so be careful.

4.  Quickly add in the roasted sesame seeds and roasted peanuts and mix well. If the sugar 
      syrup hardens, just add another teaspoon of water and mix until all the sesame and nuts 
      are coated with the hot syrup.

5.  Pour it into a greased wax paper. Put another greased wax paper on top of the tilgul vadi 
     and roll it a rolling pin to flatten the tilgul vadis evenly.

6.  When the tilgul vadis a little cool, cut them into squares and store them in an airtight 
     container.

Nyonya Sambal Fish

deep fried red snapper

frying sambal paste

oil separating from the fried sambal

tamarind juice added to the fried sambal

oil surfacing to the top of the thickened sambal, indication that the sambal is ready

Directions

1 red snapper around 2 lbs, cleaned or any fish of your choice
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder

cooking for for deep frying the fish

blend together to form a fine paste:
15-20 red chillies
6 garlic cloves
1" galangal, sliced
1 lemon grass, sliced
1" ginger
1" cube shrimp paste or belacan
3 medium shallots, roughly chopped

3 tablespoon cooking oil use coconut oil for a fragrant sambal
1 heaping tablespoon of tamarind paste, mixed in 1 cup of water and strained
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
a bit of lime juice if needed

some finely sliced scallions or green onions or garnishing

Directions

1.  Make a few diagonal slits on both sides of the cleaned snapper.  Rub the snapper salt and 
     turmeric and leave it aside for about 10-15 minutes.
2.  Heat the cooking oil in a skillet on medium heat.  When the oil is hot, pat dry the fish 
     with a paper towel to remove any extra moisture and deep the fish on both sides until the 
     fish is crispy and golden brown on the outside. Remove and drain the fish on a paper 
     towel.
3.  While the fish is deep frying, you can start preparing the sambal. Blend all the 
      ingredients for the sambal until you get a fine paste.
4.  Heat the 3 tablespoon of oil in a pot on medium heat.  When the oil is hot add the sambal 
      ingredients and fry until the oil has separated and all the raw smell of the sambal is gone.
5.  When the oil has separated from the sambal, gently add in the tamarind juice and bring 
      the sambal to a boil. You can a bit more water if needed. Once the sambal has thickened 
      and you can see the oil surfacing on the top of the sambal, you can season the sambal 
      with the sugar and salt.  Add some lime juice if you like your sambal to be a bit on the 
      sour side.
6.  Place the deep fried snapper fish on a serving plate and pour the hot sambal over the 
     deep fried snapper and sprinkle some sliced scallions or green onions. Serve the fish     
     sambal with hot steaming rice.

My fish looked a little sad so I just decorated my pictures with daisies.