I was never really a fan of carrot cakes all these while probably because I never had any good experience eating a good carrot cake out there. Maybe the thought of eating a “vegetable” cake deterred me from wanting to try this out compared to chocolate cakes or cheese cakes. Anyway, not any longer ever since we got ourselves a Fagor oven in our new house. Carrot cake rocks! More so when it is topped with lemon cream cheese frosting and eaten slightly chilled.

My wife made this a couple of weeks back and I’m now a fan of carrot cakes. Moist and nutritious, this carrot cake is laden with freshly grated carrots, sweetened pineapples, oven-toasted walnuts and plump raisins. I think the best part that there is no mixer involved (with a little caveat that a mixer would be required to prepare the frosting). Just get yourself a big bowl and spatula and give it a good mix ala manual

What makes this carrot cake so special that I have decided to call it the Ultimate Carrot Cake Recipe? Well, it’s been handed down from my mother-in-law to my wife, it tastes good as reported by many who have tasted this and most of all, one piece is never enough. Need I say more?

This is my mother-in-law’s recipe for Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 240 grammes carrots (grated)
• 120 grammes tinned pineapples (tinned, drained and chopped)
• 60 grammes raisins (lightly chopped)
• 60 grammes walnuts (toasted, cooled and chopped coarsely)
• 240 grammes self-raising flour
• 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon powder
• 1/4 teaspoons nutmeg powder
• 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence (add to eggs)
• 3 eggs
• 200 210 grammes castor sugar
• 180 ml cooking oil

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 30 60 grammes butter (room temperature)
• 60 230 grammes cream cheese (room temperature)
• 30 230 grammes icing sugar (sifted)
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind (grate the skin)

Method

Sift the flour with soda and baking powder. Add castor sugar.

Beat Whisk eggs lightly until frothy in a separate bowl. Add in vanilla essence.

Pour egg mixture into the flour and stir well. Then add grated carrots followed by cooking oil. Add in the chopped pineapples and stir well.

Then add in the raisins and walnuts.

Pour mixture into a greased and floured tray and bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to stand to cool before applying a thin layer of frosting.

Cake is best served chilled.

Frosting

Beat Put cream cheese and butter in the a bowl of using a hand-held or an electric mixer. Beat on low speed till blended. Gradually add icing sugar (sifted) and continue beating until smooth.

Add vanilla essence and grated lemon and allow to beat till well combined.

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The Ultimate Carrot Cake Recipe

It does not matter whether it is black or white. Black Soybean also known as Black Bean or Black Soya Bean will give you a white looking milk just like its cousin, the soya bean. It may not be common for you to find anyone selling this drink out there but you’d be surprise to know that the cooking method is the same. If you know how to make black soybean milk, you will also know how to make soybean milk

The Black Bean Milk tastes quite similar to the common Soy Bean Milk albeit creamier. It is more expensive to purchase compared to the soy bean but once you’ve made a couple of litres of this, you will then realise that the vendors are making hefty profit out of this nutritious drink (hint : a couple of hundred percent profit). The hardest work involved is the milking process – when you have to squeeze out the milk / juice from the blended beans. Ensure that you get a good filter. I used a cotton coffee filter (the ones which Malaysians use to brew coffee in kopitiams).

Do not keep this drink longer than necessary. Overnight at the most, being kept in the refridgerator. Somehow, my gut feeling is that drinks made from beans are not supposed to last long especially if it did not go through any factory process. Anyway, if you are keen to impress your family or your weekend guests, give this drink a try. It’s nutritious and definitely delicious.

This is my wife’s recipe for Black Soy Bean Milk

Ingredients

• 500 grammes black soy bean (soaked overnight)
• a couple of pandan leaves
• 2.5 litres of water
• Sugar to taste

Method

Drain the black soy bean and place them in a blender. Add some water to cover the beans before blending them finely.

Pour blended black soy bean into a large bowl or pot and add remaining water. Strain / Sieve the contents through a fine muslin cloth.

Place sieved black soy bean milk into a pot, add the pandan leaves and bring to boil very slowly. Ensure that you stir the milk regularly to prevent burning. Turn off the heat immediately upon boiling and allow to cool.

You can either choose to add the sugar whilst bringing the black soy bean to boil or prepare syrup separately and add the syrup prior to drinking.

Serve hot or cold.

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Black Soybean Milk

I was told that during World War II, tapioca was a staple diet in Malaya and helped to feed many families at that time. It is no more a staple diet now but tapioca (or “ubi kayu” as what it is known in Malay) remains a favourite snack for tea time. It can be steamed and eaten by dipping it into gula melaka or plain sugar. The adventurous might try honey instead. However, it is more common for it to be found sold in markets in the form of a yellow-tint cake. Not the cake as in cheesecake but more a local delicacy.

The yellow-tint comes naturally from the yellow flesh variety of the tapioca. Unlike the white coloured variety, the yellow flesh variety is harder to find. Grab them from the market if you are able to find them. I suspect the market vendors have taken big orders from the kuih vendors knowing that the yellow fleshed tapioca is in high demand. On its own, the tapioca is pretty much tasteless. It is also odourless and hence, you have to add flavouring to it when cooking.

The tapioca kuih or kuih ubi kayu or “chiu cze kuih” (in hokkien) is one of my favourites when I am in the mood to eat kuihs. I never knew how they were made until mum started making them recently, and regularly. So, there’s a good supply of tapioca kuih at home. I thought it must have taken lots of preparation or work but was I surprised when I found out how easy this kuih is to make. Truly, I don’t see anyone having any difficulty making this good looking tapioca parcels at home, save and except maybe trying to perfect it in texture and taste.

This is mum’s recipe for Golden Tapioca Parcels

Ingredients

• 500 grammes yellow-fleshed tapioca (finely grated)
• 5 to 7 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)
• some water or coconut milk
• banana leaves (cut into A4 size)

Method

Clean and steam banana leaves for 1 minute or until it is slightly softened which allows you to fold it without breaking. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Grate the tapioca into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and mix well.

Sprinkle some water or coconut milk and continue mixing and kneading until the tapioca forms a dough which you can shape out. Do not add too much water till it becomes runny.

Place banana leave on the table and add 2 tablespoons of tapioca mixture in the centre. Flatten the mixture a little before folding the banana leaf over it to make a parcel. Repeat with the rest of the tapioca mixture.

Bring water to boil in a steamer. Then place tapioca parcels in the steamer and steam for 25 minutes on high heat. Thereafter, turn off the heat and allow tapioca parcels to stand (remain in the steamer) for 10 minutes before serving.

If you don’t have banana leaves, simply place mixture in a baking tin and steam. After steaming, you can choose to place it under a grill to give the upper layer a slightly baked texture.

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Golden Tapioca Parcels

If you live in Malaysia, you know that you are very lucky where FOOD is concerned. Malaysians are known for the special relationship that they have with food which is evident from the variety of savory dishes and sweets that one can easily find at every corner. This is especially so during the many festive seasons, one of which was only recently celebrated – Deepavali.

One of the favorite Indian sweets eaten during Deepavali is Sugared Ghee Balls, which is also popularly known as “Neyyi Urundai” or “Payatham Urundai”. True, compared to the other more gloriously colored sweets found during this festival, Ghee Balls do not get full points for looks. In fact, its unstimulating colour and simple shape may even be a “put off” for some. But, for many who have tried it, this sweet has easily become a favorite.

Making it from scratch is relatively easy. The only tricky part is pouring the hot ghee into the flour mixture and molding the balls into shape. One may find that the first few balls take a longer time to make than first anticipated. Don’t let your spirits down if you find this happening to you. Persistence pays off and it won’t be too long before you start getting the hang of it.

Once cooled, pop a ball into your mouth and enjoy the taste as it slowly crumbles into a wonderful sensory delight. You won’t regret it!

This is my recipe for Sugared Ghee Balls.
Ingredients

• 2 cups roasted mung beans flour
• Additional 1/3 cup roasted moong beans flour for coating
• 1 cup icing sugar
• about 10 roasted cashew nuts
• ghee
• 1/3 teaspoon salt

Method
If you are using unroasted moong beans flour, you must first dry roast it. Do this by heating a large frying pan or wok to low-medium heat. When the pan or wok is hot enough, pour in the flour and dry roast it until fragrant. Remove from heat and let the flour cool.

Mince the roasted cashew nuts into tiny pieces (but not ground) and keep aside.

Once the flour is cooled, pour it (2 cups) into a large dry mixing bowl. Add the icing sugar, minced cashew nuts and salt. Using a wooden spoon, mix all ingredients together.

On a separate large plate, put in the rest of the roasted moong beans flour (1/3 cup) for coating and keep aside.

When ready to make the ghee balls, heat a small quantity of ghee (approximately ½ cup first) in a small pan, on low heat. Don’t overheat the ghee, but it has to be reasonably hot. (As you use up the hot ghee, add more to the pan if required.) As you make the ghee balls, the ghee pan should remain on low heat close by.

Remember to be keeping an eye on it the whole time!

To make the ghee balls, use another wide shallow bowl on which you can comfortably work on. (I like to call this the sand-pit). Pour in half the mixed ingredient and loosely spread it around the bowl with your fingers. When you are ready to make a ball, heap a little of the flour (slightly more than what is needed for one ball) into the middle. With a small spoon, make a small ‘well’ in the middle of the heaped flour. The well should only go about 1/3 down the heap and not all the way! Pour in about 1 tablespoon of hot ghee into the well. You will notice that when the hot ghee is poured, the flour will sizzle a little. Using a spoon, slightly press the heap allowing for the oil to ‘catch’ the flour. Then, carefully, pick the oiled heap into your hands and compact it into a ball shape. You may find this a little difficult at first as the oiled flour can be hot.

Once you have made a ball, roll it around on the flour kept aside earlier, to coat it lightly. Keep the coated ball aside to cool.

As you use up the flour mixture in the ‘sand pit’, add more into it and continue the process till all the flour are used up.

Note: The amount of hot ghee you use to make a ball varies with the size of the ball you want. Adjust this quantity to your own liking.

This recipe is brought to you by our Guest Chef Spillay who blogs over at A Pot of Gold. Spillay is a Malaysian who currently resides in Australia with her husband and two gorgeous boys.

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Sugared Ghee Balls

This is another dessert recipe which I was unable to find the right name for it. So, I will call it the 8 Treasures Dessert because in the dessert, you will find 8 ingredients, though only 6 are visible. Anyway, the name is not all that important because what is more important is the deliciousness of this dessert – especially when eaten cold.

This dessert is really cooling, and I don’t mean just because it is served chilled. With a combination of white fungus, ginkgo nuts, lotus seeds, honey dates, red dates and sea coconut served in a chrysanthemum  and sugar-based soup, you will clamour for bowl after bowls of this nutritious dessert. I would recommend that you cook a substantial portion to share because it saves you the effort and your guests are likely to ask for seconds. This is a dessert which is great for parties and hot days.

A point to note. The gingko nut and lotus seeds need to be prepared for cooking by removing its inner core. For the gingko nuts, you will see one end which may show a tiny shoot just about to sprout. Poke the other side using a pointed toothpick. Do not poke at the end which the shoot can be seen. As for the lotus seeds, the technique to remove the inner core is similar.

This is the recipe for 8 Treasures Dessert

Ingredients

• 15 grammes white fungus (pre-soaked and cut into smaller pieces)
• 15 to 20 pieces ginkgo nuts (remove inner core by using a pointed toothpick to poke at the one end )
• 30 grammes fresh lotus seeds (remove inner core by using
• 4 pieces honey dates
• 12 pieces red dates
• 1 can of sea coconut slices (remove syrup)
• 10 grammes dried chrysanthemum flowers (rinsed)
• 100 grammes rock sugar
• 1.5 litres water

Method

Bring water to boil. Add chrysanthemum flowers and turn off the heat. Cover lid and allow to steep for 20 minutes. Strain to remove flowers.

Add in the rest of the ingredients except the sea coconut. Bring the soup back to boil then reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Thereafter, turn off the heat and allow to cool.

If you prefer serving it hot, add the sea coconut slices after turning off the heat and serve immediately. Otherwise, allow to cool, then add the sea coconut slices and chill it in the fridge prior to serving.

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8 Treasures Dessert

Dragon Fruit, also known as Pittaya, is commonly found in South East Asia especially Vietnam and Malaysia. This nutrition-packed fruit is believed to be native to south Mexico but has found itself to be a firm favourite over here in Malaysia. There is the white flesh variety and the other being the red flesh variety. Both come with tiny edible seeds not unlike kiwi fruit seeds. The dragon fruit is actually the fruit from a cactus plant and it has a bright red skin which can be peeled easily. I have previously written a post to document my visit to a dragon fruit farm (with pictures to boot!) and you might want to read that to know more about this fruit. Paris also took some beautiful dragon fruit pictures. Check it out if you are curious how these little dragons look like.

The dragon fruit is best eaten chilled but do take care with your clothing because the red coloured dye drips easily due to its juiciness. With its beautiful looks, it is no wonder that the dragon fruit is also used extensively to decorate cakes and in this instance, to add colour and taste to jelly (agar-agar). You don’t have to use a lot of dragon fruit to make one recipe of dragon fruit jelly. Nice to impress, easy to make.

This is my wife’s recipe for Dragon Fruit Jelly

Ingredients

• 25 – 30 grammes agar-agar (jelly)
• 100 grammes sugar
• 1 litre water
• 200 grammes of dragon fruit (red variety, cut into 1cm cubes)
• 3 pieces pandan leaves (knotted)

Method

Bring water to boil in a pot. Add sugar, agar-agar and pandan leaves. Stir on medium low heat till sugar and agar-agar dissolved.

Once sugar and agar-agar completely dissolved, turn off heat. Discard pandan leaves.

Pour mixture onto a suitable 2 inch deep tray or moulding and drop dragon fruit cubes into the mixture. Allow to cool down before chilling it in the fridge.

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Dragon Fruit Jelly

Tang Yuen marks the winter solstice and it is a tradition for the chinese to have glutinous rice balls in syrup to celebrate this occasion. Having its history in China, the chinese who now live in Malaysia and Singapore still practice this tradition. For my family, we make our own Tang Yuen rather than purchase them from the market or store.

Last year, my wife experimented by making a few Chocolate Tang Yuen and it was good. The bitter sweet taste of the melted dark chocolate filling complemented the natural aromatic sweetness of the gula melaka syrup. This time around, we tried the recipe again and we enjoyed it so much that there was not enough to go around. I think we need to make more next year.

This is my wife’s recipe for Chocolate Tang Yuen

Ingredients

• 300 grammes glutinous rice flour
• Water
• 1 bar of dark chocolate

Syrup

• 1 piece gula melaka
• 5 pieces pandan leaves (knotted)
• 500 ml water

Method

Gently rub a little bit of water gradually into the glutinous rice flour till it forms a dough. Take care not to add too much water as the dough will appear runny.

Cut dark chocolate into small pieces about the size of green peas. Alternatively, if you can find them, get Cadbury dark chocolate bits (used for decorating cakes). They are about the size of green peas or smaller.

Take a dough the size of a large marble and roll it into a ball. Gently press the center till it forms a small well. Place a piece of dark chocolate into the center and fold the edges of the dough over it. Roll it on your palms till it forms a ball. Continue with the rest till all completed.

To prepare syrup, melt the gula melaka in the boiling water with pandan leaves. Keep warm.

To cook the glutinous rice balls, cook the balls in rapid boiling water. The balls are cooked once it floats to the surface. Remove quickly and place them into a bowl of iced water. This helps to keep the tang yuen balls separate rather than sticking to one another. Moreover, it gives it a nice springy texture.

To serve, scoop desired number of balls into a serving bowl and pour warm syrup over it.

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Tang Yuen

Lek Tau Suan is hokkien word meaning “Green Bean Pearl”. Actually, the “green beans” are mung beans and they are purchased in split form minus the skin. This dessert is quite popular amongst the hokkien community and is usually eaten hot / warm with some thinly sliced yau char kueh (fried chinese crullers). I usually have 2 bowls in one go and yes, it is one of my favourite desserts.

This dessert is sweet whilst the yau char kueh adds a salty hint to the taste. Usually the softer yau char kueh is used as many people like it to absorb the dessert much like a sponge. Without the yau char kueh, somehow, it is not complete. If you can get your hands on all these ingredients, try this out on a weekend and impress your friends or family

This is my mum’s recipe for Lek Tau Suan

Ingredients

• 200 grammes of split green / mung beans (soak for 15 minutes – if using rice cooker, soak for 30 minutes if steaming)
• 4 pandan leaves (washed and knotted)
• 200 grammes sugar
• 1 bowl potato starch (mix potato flour with water till you get a thick starchy solution)
• 2 litres water

Method

First, cook the split green beans by using rice cooker / steaming. If you are using the rice cooker, place beans in the cooker and add water till water has just covered the surface. Turn on the rice cooker and allow it to cook. If you are steaming the beans, drain water and steam it on a suitable plate for 20 minutes on high heat.

Meanwhile, cook sugar syrup by bringing to boil the 2 litres of water in a pot / sauce pan with the pandan leaves thrown in. Once water is boiling, add sugar and stir till sugar has fully melted.

After the beans have cooked, gently fluff them using a fork. Then, gradually stir in the potato starch into the sugar syrup to thicken the syrup till it becomes gluey. Take care to add potato starch in small amounts at a time and stir well to prevent lumpiness.

Once the syrup has thicken, add the beans, stir well and serve in dessert bowls with thinly sliced yau char kueh.

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Lek Tau Suan