Roti Canai/Paratha Bread - Step by Step Recipes

One of the things I miss most here in the USA is the Mamak stalls. We like to go there for breakfast or for teh tarik (pull tea) in the evening. My friends and I can just sit there and talk till the wee hours in the morning. Sometimes I do miss that simplicity in life. Roti canai or roti paratha is a flat bread that is flip over and over until they become transparently thin before they fold them with lots of air bubble and ghee inside that when they pan fry it, it becomes light and crispy on the outside and slightly chewy and springy on the inside.

I might look easy to make but they are not. Each time I try to flip it, the dough will stick together and I get the oil all over the kitchen. I gave up and end up stretching the dough will my fingers. The roti canai came out ok. Not as thin and crispy as I wanted it to. I hope I will do a better job the next time I make this again. From now on please don’t take the Mamak roti canai for granted. It involves more hard work than you think ;)

Ingredients:
adapoted from Mamafami

500 grm flour
300 ml water
1 egg
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp condensed milk
1 tbsp margarine
Some vegetable oil

1. Dissolve salt and condensed milk in water. Beat in the egg. Add in the egg mixture to the flour, mix and knead until it forms into smooth soft dough. Leave it to rest for 30 minutes.

2. Divide the dough into 10-11 pieces. Roll it into balls and rub margarine over each ball. Keep the dough balls in a container and leave it to rest for at least 4 hours. Over night will be better.
3. Grease the work table with some vegetable oil. Press and flatten the balls of dough with your palm. Spread a bit of oil on the flatten dough.

4. With your palm and fingers, pull and stretch out dough as thin as possible. Be careful not to tear it especially in the middle because the tear will grow bigger as your stretch. Oil you dough and hands as you go along.

5. Bring the dough to the center to form long dough. If we can get air trapped in the thin sheet at this point, don’t press air out as it would give a lighter, fluffier result. Hold one end of the dough upwards and swirl it down to form a piece of swirly turban. Set it aside to rest for half an hour.

6. Heat up a non-stick pan with a bit of oil. Lightly flatten the dough again with your fingers and place the dough over low heat pan. Cook slowly on one side until golden brown, turn over the dough and cook over the other side until golden brown. Serve warm with some curry.

Note: Be careful when you work with the dough. It can't be re-kneaded or streached out again once you mess it up. You have to throw it away.

I am entering this post in the Muhibbah Malaysian Monday roundup, created and hosted by Sharon of Test with a Skewer and Suresh of 3 Hungry Tummies.

Sweet giveaway from Side Dish! - Dairy Foods

I have a very yummy giveaway for you today from online sweets shop Side Dish.  Laura, the chef and owner behind Side Dish, studied culinary arts in NYC and had also owns a catering company based in Southern Calfornia called Dish Catering.

Side Dish is giving away all these tasty treats (including shipping) to one lucky reader:

1 dozen Chocolate Bouchons (chocolaty brownies)
1 dozen shortbread cookies (lavender or rosemary walnut)
1 dozen truffles (Caramel with sea salt)

These heart-shaped shortbreads are perfect for Valentines Day!  Side Dish also offers french macaroons, fudge and cookies. 

How to enter:

• Head over to Side Dish and check out all the yummy sweets
• Leave a comment on this post with your favorite item
• Eligible to US residents only

The giveaway will end on Wednesday, February 2 at 11:59pm CT. A winner will be chosen at random and announced on Thursday, February 3. Good luck and I look forward to your comments!!

Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Recipes

I’ve got winter blues. The weather is dreary and COLD. We have so much snow until I am so fed-up of shoveling it. We are expecting more snow next week. At this time of the year I wish I am in Malaysia celebrating CNY with my family. I need something to perk me up. What can be better than this sinful chicken dish? When I saw the recipe over at Wendy’s not too long ago, it spoke to me. Actually it yelled at me “Make me right away” ha ha... I did slight changes to Wendy’s recipe. Instead of tapioca starch I used cornstarch and add some garlic to it. This is a wonderful dish and I think it will be nice to serve it for CNY reunion dinner.

Ingredients:
Adapted from Table for 2

2 pieces chicken breast – remove skin and fat and cut into 1” chunks
½ tsp salt
Dash of pepper
1 egg white
½ cup cornstarch

1. Pat dry chicken with paper towel. Mix chicken with salt and pepper. Then put in egg white. Marinate for an hour. Coat the chicken pieces with cornstarch.
2. Deep try chicken until golden brown. Remove and drain oil on paper towel.

Sauce:

2 Tbsp butter
2 sprigs curry leaves, remove from stem, leaves only
1 red chili – sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
3 salted egg yolks, steamed and mashed
2 Tbsp evaporated milk
1 tsp oil
1/3 tsp salt
½ tsp sugar

1. In wok, on medium heat, put in oil and butter. When butter has melted, put in sliced chili, garlic and curry leaves. When they are fragrant, put in mashed egg yolks, with spatula, try to flatten the yolks into the oil and cook until it look bubbly and fragrant.
2. Turn heat to low and put in milk, salt and sugar. Turn heat to high and cook until very bubbly. Put in chicken and toss until well coated. Dish out and serve.

Assortment of Pineapple Tarts Recipes

Chinese New Year won’t be complete without these little morsels. Pineapple tarts are usually available during CNY. So, what makes a good pineapple tart? For me it have to be bite size so that you won’t feel too guilty eating too many of it. The pastry has to be buttery, sturdy enough to hold the jam but soft enough to melt in your mouth. The jam is flavored with cinnamon and I like the jam to have a hint of sourness in it. I like my tarts to have plenty of jam on it so I do not skims on the pineapple jam. When the flavor of the buttery tart and the jam comes together, it should strike a blissful balance. I don’t think anyone can stop at just eating one or two. Forget about your diet. Start your diet only after CNY ha ha...

Since most of you already have your favorite recipes for the tarts so I am not going to post it here but if you want it you can always check my previous posting here . I am just showing some pictures of the tarts I made using different design. There are so many designs and patterns out there now compare to years ago which only have one. Enjoy and let me know which one is your favorite design for the tarts.

I am submitting this cookie to Aspiring-Bakers # 3 My Favourite CNY Cookies hosted by j3ss kitch3n

This is the most traditional looking ones

This design has been around for some time now. To make this the dough have to be pretty soft.

This mould do not have an indentation at the center so it is quite difficult to put the pineapple jam.

I like the design of this one. Great for Valentine's Day but not easy to put the jam either.

I like this new mould the best. Great indentation in the center to hold the jam.

I love the design of this one but the mould is not so easy to work with.

This is the design that you can make even without the pineapple tart mould. Just take a round cookie cutter, cut the pastry, put the pastry in a small muffin tray, filling it up with jam and voila!!! Pineapple Tarts

Here are some enclosed ones. These involves more work and longer time to make.

Last but not least all the moulds and tool that I used to made these. Making pineapple tarts is hard work. No wonder people bake this once a year ;)

Welcome, Sweet Treats Party Boutique! - Dairy Foods

I'd like to give a warm welcome to Eat Drink Pretty's newest sponsor, Sweet Treats Party Boutique. Sweet Treats Party Boutique is an online baking boutique owned by three sisters; Elisa, Sasha and Erin. Their shop offers cupcake/baking accessories and party printables.

Here are some of their cute products (don't miss the 20% coupon code at the end of this post!). 

Adorable wrappers add a special touch to any cupcake.
I love these edible icing decals (for anyone that is challenged with piping icing on a cupcake, these are the perfect solution). 

Sweet Treats Party Boutique is offering Eat Drink Pretty readers 20% off their purchase until February 27th.  Please use coupon code EDP20 to redeem the discount.

Advertisers (as well as my readers!) help keep Eat Drink Pretty up and running.  Please check out Sweet Treats Party Boutique and keep them in mind for your upcoming parties! 

If you are interested in sponsoring Eat Drink Pretty please send an email to eatdrinkpretty{at}gmail{dot}com.

Ganache-stuffed chocolate chip cookies - Dairy Foods

{Photo credit: Food and Wine}

I've noticed that indulgent, unhealthy posts on Eat Drink Pretty have disproportionately gone up since I've been on Weight Watchers. A girl can dream right?  And so...here are some delicious looking mini chocolate chip cookies, stuffed with ganache. YUM!

Click here for the recipe from Food and Wine.  I love mini cookie sandwiches, they are damn cute and if you have just one maybe they won't be a diet buster. 

Check out some other cute cookie sandwiches:

Chocolate chip and coconut cookies from With Style and Grace blog
Glittering lemon sandwich cookies
Red velvet sandwich cookies (perfect for Valentines Day)
Mini chocolate whoopie pies
Shortbread sandwich cookies

Kale recipe round-up - Dairy Foods

{Photo credits: Epicurious, Food and Wine, Joy the Baker, Food and Wine and Food Network}

This post is all about kale and it's for my bestie, Amy.  Amy and I have been best friends for about 17 years and have probably not missed more than a day or two talking on the phone since then (Amy lives in DC). 

Amy is a vegetarian and loves kale.

We were chatting one morning and she launches into this conversation about how she's obsessed with kale.  Then later that day she Gchats me about how she can't stop thinking of this kale salad she recently had for lunch.  Confession, I have never cooked with kale.  It's about time, right?  I am sure Amy thinks so. 

Kale recipes (I realize not all these recipes are vegetarians but most are):

Potato and kale cakes with rouille
Kale and bean bruschetta
Crispy kale with lemon yogurt dip
Kale spinach and pear smoothie
Kale and potato soup with turkey sausage
Spicy parmesan green beans and kale

Do you love kale as much as Amy?  If you have a recipe you'd like to share please comment below or send the recipe to eatdrinkpretty{at}gmail{dot}com.

Bak Kua/Chinese Pork Jerky Recipes

This is another must have snack for Chinese New Year. Who doesn’t like Bak Kua? Maybe if you are a health nut than you might stay away from it. For me Chinese New Year is the time to indulge into all the sinful food, cookies and other luxury snacks that we don’t eat often. Bak Kua variously translated as dried meat, grilled Chinese Pork Jerky or BBQ meat slices.

Back in Malaysia you can get this jerky all year round but strangely, most people will eat this only during CNY. Many people are willing to queue for hours during this time of the year just to get their hands on the BBQ meat from their favorite store. My family is very picky over our bak kua. We only eat the bak kua from a certain store and it has to be lean and doesn’t have the rancid porky smell.

Living here I don’t have the luxury of eating Malaysia Bak Kua. I am able to buy them in New York but they do not taste good at all. They claimed to be made by Malaysian but it just doesn’t have the taste of the one from home. I tried making this once but it didn’t turn out too well either. It was too oily (because of the fatty ground pork) and the taste was out. I didn’t like it at all. So I stay away from making this for a few years.

I tried making it again this year by tweaking the recipe and lo and behold, it turns out really good. The meat was well marinate, a great balance of sweet and savory with a hint of fruity orange. I used mostly lean meat and I made everything in the oven. No more grilling it outside in the super cold winter. You should see me when I first made this. I was standing at the grill in my heavy winter clothing. My neighbors must be thinking this woman was MAD ha ha… If you want a healthier bak kua with no chemicals and preservatives why not try to make it at home. Since this bak Kua has no preservatives, try to consume it within a few days. I don’t recommend you make too much of it at one time unless you want to give it away to family and friends. These keeps well in the fridge and just reheat it in the toaster oven before consuming.

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground pork –with a bit of fat on it
2 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
Juice of half orange (about 4 tbsp)
Zest of one orange

1. Line 2 baking pan with heavy aluminum foil and set it aside.
2. Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Using a big spoon mix it really well. Cover with plastic wrap and let it marinate in the fridge for an hour.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degree F. Spread the marinate meat thinly onto the baking sheets. Use a spatula or the back of the spoon to do this and dipping it in water occasionally. This way it will prevent the meat from sticking to the spoon or spatula.
4. Place the baking pan in the oven and let it bake slowly for 35-40 minutes. At this stage you can see juices appear, the meat will shrink and the edges dry out.
5. Remove from oven and cool it down a bit and cut it into square with pizza cutter or scissors. Turn the oven to broil.
6. Line the cut meat back on the tray. Broil the meat on both side until brown and sizzle . This will only take 5-6 minutes (you have to watch this as it turn dark pretty fast)
7. Let it cool and keep it in an air-tight container.

Note: I put a bit too much of black soy sauce that is why the bak kua look a bit dark. I already adjust the quantity of the black soy sauce in the recipe. If you like to grill this, you can do so. Just cut and grill it after step 5.

Gorgeous chic dessert table - Dairy Foods

Sometimes I receive submissions from readers that hands down, belong on Eat Drink Pretty.  Those submissions scream prettiness and make me want to drop everything and post immediately.  This gorgeous dessert table was one of those submissions, sent by Louise of Louise Macpherson Wedding Design all the way from Scotland.  Louise is a loyal reader of Eat Drink Pretty and has sent me sweet emails and comments over the past few months.  I love when readers submit their work!

Photo credits to Christopher Currie Wedding Photography.
As told by Louise:

"As is always the case in wedding trends the UK follows where the USA leads, and dessert tables are only just starting to become more common over here. For me they combine two great loves of weddings and baking, so it was a no brainer for me that I included this in my shoot plans.

My starting point was my brand colours of grey and a minty green, with lots of white to keep it clean and simple. The gorgeous cupcakes and cake pops were supplied by a local small business, but I wanted to show how easy it is to create a stunning cake on a budget so I made the two-tier cake myself, and used velvet ribbon and a big corsage to decorate. I think it looks fantastic and the decorations cost under £10! The meringue 'kisses' were a last minute late-night baking addition. To make sure the images kept a wedding-y feel to them I wanted to add some flower bouquets, but nothing too over the top. I finally settled on a small bouquet of baby's breath which I'd not really considered before (again, this is a much under-used flower in the UK) until seeing your sister's wedding on your blog."









Wow, this cake is STUNNING! I can't believe Louise made it herself!

Louise's gorgeous dessert table proves you can achieve huge impact with simplicity and limited budget.  Thanks so much for your submission, Louise and best of luck with your wedding planning business!  Be sure to check out Louise's lovely website.

Vendors
Cupcakes and Cake Pops - Cup Couture
Stationery - Lovat Press

Do you have a party/dessert table/shower/wedding you would like to share with Eat Drink Pretty readers?  Please send your submission to eatdrinkpretty{at}gmail{dot}com.

Sweet and Sour Crab Recipes

Let skip a CNY cookie posting today and post this dish that I cooked some time ago. Diana and I love our seafood. Be it fish, shrimps, squid, clams and crabs. When she comes home I will usually try to cook her favorite dish. We don’t eat crab often as it is not easily available at our small Asian grocery store here and also I don’t really like to deal with live crabs. So happen I saw them selling it not too long ago and I grab half a dozen of it. There is not much meat on this type of blue crab but they do have a lot of roe on it which we like. I like cooking it this way with plenty of spicy, sweet and sour sauce so we can mop it all up with some mantau (Chinese Steamed Bread) Eating crab is a messy affairs but we were completely satisfied with it.

Ingredients:

6 blue crabs
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 large red chili – finely chopped
2 spring onions – cut into 1” length
1 egg - beaten

Sauce:

3 tbsp of tomato ketchup
3 tbsp of sweet chili sauce
2 tbsp of vinegar
1 tbsp of sugar
½ tsp of corn starch
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup of chicken stock

1. Wash and scrub the shell of the crabs well. Remove the shell, rinse well under cold running water, and remove the gills and inner parts. Remove the claws. Using a large cleaver, cut the crabs into half and crack the claws. Set it aside.
2. Mix all the sauce ingredients and set it aside. Heat up the wok, add in about 2 tbsp of olive oil, and add in garlic, chili and ginger and stir fry until lightly brown and fragrant.
3. Add in the crabs, continue to toss and turn until the crab shells turn into pinkish color. Add in the sauce, stir well and bring it up to a boil. Cover and turn down the heat to medium and let it simmer for 5 - 6 minutes. Continue to stir until the crab is cooked and sauce thickens.
4. Add in a bit of more stock if necessary. Drizzle in the egg, give it a quick stir and turn off the heat. Add in the spring onions, dish out and serve immediately.

I am entering this post in the Muhibbah Malaysian Monday roundup, created and hosted by Sharon of Test with a Skewer and Suresh of 3 Hungry Tummies.

Chinese Peanuts and Sesame Candy Bars Recipes

I grew up eating this peanut candy and it is Carlos favorite snacks too. This candy is something that we will have on our CNY snack tray too. I Google for it and the only recipe I find is from Aunty Lily’s so I used hers. Here is a note to myself the next time I am making this again. Do not talk on the phone while making this!! The phone rang when this was cooling down and by the time I hang up the phone, the candy got way too hard when I tried cutting it so I end up breaking most of it. That is why you see the ugly pieces here. I am submitting this cookie to Aspiring-Bakers # 3 My Favourite CNY Cookies hosted by j3ss kitch3n

Ingredients:
Recipe adapted from Aunty Lily’s

1 cup sugar
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
2 1/4 cups skinless roasted peanuts

1. Line a 6 ½" x 10" cake pan with foil and greased it generously with oil. Combined half of the toasted sesame seeds and peanuts together and lay it evenly on the pan.
2. Combine sugar, vinegar and water in a heavy bottom saucepan. Cook over medium heat until it reaches 300° F on a candy thermometer. (I just let it reach to light brown color stage)
3. When the sugar mixture has reached the required temperature, carefully pour the sugar mixture over the nuts in the baking pan.
4. Smooth the surface with a spatula. Sprinkle with the remaining sesame seeds and cool slightly.
5. While candy is still warm, remove from pan by lifting the foil. Cut into 2" by 1" pieces and then allow to cool completely.

Note: Be careful when you eat this as they are very hard.