Monday 22 April 2019

Ondeh Ondeh in Coconut + Milk


Ondeh Ondeh is the name of a popular local snack made of palm sugar filled glutinous rice balls coated with grated coconut. I was craving for this snack but there was no grated coconut at home. Therefore, I tried serving the glutinous rice balls in cold sweetened coconut milk which was a combination of coconut cream powder, condensed milk and fresh milk.

I prefer coconut cream powder to packet of coconut milk, as the former is easier to store and dispense. Just add the required amount of coconut cream powder to hot water, and you'll get that small amount of coconut milk. To me, this is more feasible than opening up a new packet of coconut milk for that small amount needed. This is just my personal preference, you can use packet coconut milk if it is more convenient to you πŸ˜‰

Avoid serving this cold snack at night as glutinous rice product takes a longer time to be fully digested πŸ˜œ


Servings: 4 persons' snack

Ingredients

95g glutinous rice flour
5g tapioca starch/glutinous rice flour
5g caster sugar
20g hot water

50g water

1~2g pandan paste *

1/2 tsp pumpkin powder #
1/2 tsp water

1/2 tsp purple yam powder #
1/2 tsp water

65g palm sugar/gula melaka granules
a small amount of water

* blend 15g pandan leaf with 50g water into pandan paste. Collect about  1~2g for use.
# I bought the pumpkin powder and purple yam powder from Kitchen Capers near Kent Ridge MRT station


Coconut + Milk Syrup
10g coconut cream powder
20g hot water

20g condensed milk
150g cold milk
20g ice cubes

Directions

1. Mix glutinous rice flour, tapioca starch and caster sugar in a mixing bowl.

Dig a well in the center and pour 20g of hot water into it.

Cover and let it stand for about 10 minutes.

Gradually add 50g of water into the flour mixture, and stir to mix at the same time.

Till the mixture formed into some coarse crumbs. Try not to add too much water at this stage!

Press the flour crumbs together to form into a dough (about 172g). Divide the dough into 3 portions: 72g, 50g and 50g.

2. Add different colour ingredients to create 3 different colour dough:

Pandan dough
Add about 1~2g of pandan mixture to the 72g dough. Mix and knead into a smooth dough.


Pumpkin dough
Take a 50g dough, flatten it slightly, and add the pumpkin powder to the center.

Add water to the pumpkin powder and mix well. Ensure the pumpkin powder is not lumpy before mixing into the glutinous rice dough.

Mix and knead well into a smooth dough.

Purple Yam dough
Similarly, flatten the last 50g glutinous rice dough, add purple yam powder to the center.

Gradually add water to mix the purple yam powder into a thick paste.

Mix and knead well into a smooth dough.

Cover the 3 colour dough with cling wrap and let them rest for about 30 to 60 minutes.


3. This step is optional. You can skip this step if you prefer to add the filling in granules form.
Add water, bit by bit, to the palm sugar/gula melaka granules. The purpose of adding water was to bind the granules together. So, add as needed!

Stop adding water when the palm sugar forms into coarse lumps.

Divide and shape the palm sugar into 30 balls each weighing about 2g.


4. Divide and shape the pandan dough into 12 balls, pumpkin dough into 9 balls, and purple yam dough into 9 balls.


5. Flatten a dough ball and place a palm sugar ball in the centre.

Wrap up the dough.

Give the dough a light squeeze to compact and better seal the dough.


Roll the dough between both palms to form into a round smooth ball.

Place the shaped rice balls in a plate in a single layer.

6. Bring half pot of water into a boil before dropping the rice balls into it. Stir regularly to avoid the rice balls from sticking to the base of the pot.

The dough balls are cooked once they float to the water surface.


Transfer the cooked rice balls to a bowl of icy water. Pour away the water if it become warm. And add another round of cold icy water to the rice balls.

7. While waiting for the rice balls to cool down, prepare the coconut + milk syrup.
Dissolve coconut cream powder in hot water.

Add condensed milk, fresh milk and ice cubes to the above coconut cream. The purpose of the ice cubes was to cool down and dilute the milk syrup. Stir to mix well.

8. Divide the rice balls into 4 cups.

And pour milk mixture into the cups.


Serve cold and enjoy πŸ˜‹





Corn Silk Winter Melon Barley Tea ηŽ‰η±³ι‘»ε†¬η“œθ–η±³θŒΆ


When we bought a fresh ear of corn, we usually would harvest the corn kernels and discard the rest. In fact, you can keep the corn silk and brew with China barley, candied winter melon strips and pandan leaf, into a delicious cup of tea. For the health benefits of corn silk, you may want to click the link to find out more 😊

Servings: 3 persons

Ingredients:

30g China barley
15g candied winter melon strips
1 blade pandan leaf
corn silk collected from a corn cob
1000ml water

yellow rock sugar/raw sugar to taste



Directions:

1. Rinse China barley. Set aside.
 Collect the corn silk and wrap in a small leaf of corn husk. This step is optional, it only helps to "organised" the messy corn silk πŸ˜‰

2. Add the rinsed China barley, winter melon strips, pandan leaf, corn silk to 1000 ml of water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 ~ 15 minutes.

Add yellow rock sugar to taste. Simmer for another 5 minutes or till the rock sugar dissolves.

3. Filter the tea and serve warm or cold πŸ˜‹


Palm Sugar Butter Cookie Bun



Soft pandan bun semi-encased under a crispy palm sugar coconut butter cookie crust. Not very oily and sweet as compare to the popular Mexican Coffee Bun. This is one of the recipes that I have tried more than 10 attempts before finding the best recipe porportion for each ingredients to create a soft bun with crispy cookie crust. If expose to humid environment for too long, the crispiness of the crust would reduce. Just heat up in oven and cool down to regain the crispiness πŸ˜‹


Yield: 8 buns
Baking temperature: Preheat oven to 200℃, bake at 180℃ for 15~20 minutes, middle rack. Rest in oven for 5 minutes to dry the crust.

Palm Sugar Butter Cookie Topping 100g

Ingredients:
40g unsalted butter
20g icing sugar
20g palm sugar granules
40g beaten egg
30g top flour
10g rice flour
20g milk powder
20g coconut cream powder



Directions
1. Cream softened butter with icing sugar and palm sugar granules.


Mix in the beaten egg.


Followed by sieved top flour and rice flour. Finally, combine coconut cream powder and milk powder to form a smooth paste.


2. Transfer the cookie paste to a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 8 nozzle.

Store the cookie paste in the fridge and take out to thaw when starting the second proofing of the shaped dough.

Pandan Bun


Ingredients
200g bread flour
20g pandan paste #
100g water
20g beaten egg
20g raw sugar
2g salt
2g instant dry yeast
20g rice bran oil

5g water to be added during folding/kneading

# blend 15g of fresh pandan leaves with 50g of water, and collect 20g of the paste.



Directions
1. Blend 15g of fresh pandan leaves with 50g of water. Collect 20g of pandan paste from the blended pandan paste.



2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Pour the wet ingredients in. Stir in one direction till form into a sticky lump.

Cover with a lid and rest for 30 minutes.
Do 8 sets of stretch and folds per session. Repeat this SF sessions twice at an interval of 15 minutes between each session.
Finally, grab the dough and slap for about 400 times, which will take about 8 to 10 minutes. At the end of the dough-slapping, the dough would become smoother.

Click the link to watch the Stretch & Fold +Slapping method video πŸ˜ƒ


Cover with a lid and let the dough undergo first proofing for about 1 hour.


3. Invert out the dough onto a floured work top. Deflate the dough and divide it into 8 portions.

Shape into balls.

Cover with a lid and let them rest for about 15 minutes.

4. Take a dough ball, flatten it, and shape into a ball again.


Lightly compress the dough ball to create a flat top. This would allow the top to hold more piped cookie dough later.


Place the shaped dough onto a non-stick baking tray.

Spray some water over.

And let the dough proof in a cold oven for about 45 minutes, or till double in size.

45 minutes later.

5. Remove the tray of dough from the oven. Preheat the oven to 200℃.


Pipe the cookie dough onto the dough balls in close spiral way.


6. Bake at 180℃ for 15~20 minutes or till the cookie crust has darkened and become crispy, at middle rack. Rest in oven for 5 minutes to dry the crust.

7. Transfer out of oven to cool down a while before enjoying πŸ˜‹