Kuih Cornflakes

Since Hari Raya is coming, I've decided to make 3 types of cookies.

Here is what I've made (as a trial run) and it's a success

250gm unsalted butter
250gm castor sugar
2 egg yolk
300gm self raising flour
250gm cornflakes
100gm almond nibbles (toasted) *may substitute with almond meal
100gm chocolate bits (the small kind with hersey shape)

Method
1. Beat butter, sugar til creamy
2. Add egg yolks and beat again
3. Add flour and cornflakes bit by bit (alternate)
4. Add chocolate
5. Shape into balls gently and put them into mini cups
6. Bake at 160C for 10-12minutes.

Corn n Prawn Fritters

Saw this on tv programme - Cook like a chef. in case I forgot the recipe, gonna pen it down.

Ingredients:
Sweet Corn Nibblets (dry them on paper towel)
Boiled prawns (dry them on paper towel)
1 egg yolk
some flour
2 egg whites (beaten to soft peak)
spring onions
salt and pepper

I dont know how much sweet corn and prawns used, but basically, use around same amount of sweet corn nibblets and prawns.

Method:
1. Beat yolk using fork
2. Add corn and prawns
3. Add a lil flour, mixed them up
4. Add beaten egg whites
5. Season them
6. Using a ladle, drop them gently into hot oil
7. Fry til golden brown
8. Dry excess oil using paper towel
9. Serve

Once I made this, I'll try to whip up a sauce that will go along with it. I've never actually tried this. I'm sure it'll be crunchy cos of the egg white.

I think to add an asian flavour to this, we can probably throw in sliced chilli for that HOT flavour.

Knowing your ingredients Part I

I've been attending some adhoc baking classes and from that class, I learnt a couple of things from fellow classmates and of course my baking shifu.

1. Cream of tartar is non halal. Who would have thought right? I google it and found out that cream of tartar is actually a byproduct of wine industry.

Taken from source : A crystalline acid forms on the inside of wine barrels. The barrels are scraped and the sediment is purified and ground to form cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is used to stabilize egg whites when making meringue or as an addition to certain frostings to produce a creamy product.

source: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/equivalents_substitutions.asp?index=C&tid=486

2. Vanilla Extract. Dont be confused with Vanilla Essence by Bake King or RedMan. Vanilla Essence does not contained alcoholic content, unless otherwise stated. Always check your labels.

Extract from wikipedia: Vanilla extract is a solution containing the flavor compound vanillin. Pure vanilla extract is made by extracting from vanilla beans in an alcoholic solution. In order for a vanilla extract to be called pure, the FDA requires that the solution contain a minimum of 35% alcohol and 13.35 ounces of vanilla bean per gallon.

3. Gelatine. What exactly is a gelatin?

According to wikipedia, it is Gelatin' (from French gélatine) is a translucent, colorless, brittle, nearly tasteless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones.

So why is it non-halal? Again, taken from wikipedia... Gelatin is derived mainly from pork skins, pork and cattle bones, or split cattle hides.

But doesnt mean all gelatine is non-halal. It depends on the source. It can be from pig or can be from beef. The most important thing is to look out for the halal sign. When in doubt, always check your label :)

When baking, just because your recipe calls for Jell-o or gelatine leaves, dont take it. Jell-O is made from pork and gelatine leaves found in Singapore are non-halal. Take extra caution when serving to Muslim friends.

I'll stop at 3 first. If I have more to add, I'll add to a new post.

Seafood Filling

I made this for the first time back in 2004 and it was a hit amongst my colleague. I made it for Christmas Party that we have every year in the office. The inspiration came from Delifrance's Seafood Filling from Delifrance which I used to eat back in poly days. Their seafood filling is darker because they use more tuna. My seafood filling is whiter in colour because I use less tuna.

The above picture is meant for illustration and not what will come out from the recipe. The picture is from a batch which I made at a larger scale. I made that much because we were raising funds for charity and I sold seafood filling which was totally wiped out within 40mins of sale and people came back to ask if I had anymore left.

For about a loaf and a half of bread (depends on how thick you spread the filling)

Ingredients
200gm of boiled prawns (deveined, deshelled)
10 sticks of boiled crab meat
1 small bombay onion (cut into small dices)
2 cans of Tuna Chunks in Oil or Tuna Chunks in Brine (I use chunks cos it's easier to drain the water or oil away)
Some small chillies (Chili Padi)
Some mayonnaise

Method
Cut boiled prawns, boiled crabmeat into biteable size and mix it together with onions, tuna.
Once they are thoroughly mix, add enough mayonnaise.
Cut enough chilli padi for taste.
Chilled the seafood filling.
It's ready to be served with toasted bread or just plain slices of bread. Sometimes, I served the filling with pasta(cold pasta)

Additional Notes:
I do not use any salt or pepper for this recipe, because the saltiness would have come from tuna. But if you like, you can always throw in more salt, which I wouldnt recommend. I mean, if you're afraid that it's too salty, just add one can of tuna first. Taste. If you think that it lacks that savoury flavour, add another can in. I didnt use pepper cos I like the asian taste to this. To me, adding pepper will make it more jelak (JER LAK). The chilli padi add more kick to this.

Please add the mayonnaise a spoon at a time because having too much mayonnaise will make it too wet and too jer lak and having too little mayonnaise will make it dry. The key here is add them just nice.

Prawns: You can use fresh prawns, then you deveined and deshelled them or you can always use the frozen ones, which have already been deveined and deshelled for you. Some brands has this crunchy texture when it's boiled for a couple of minutes.

Whenever I use fresh prawns, I always felt that it's a waste to throw away those prawn heads. You can save the prawn heads aside if you would like to make some prawn broth for your soup, noodles, or anything that you can use prawn broth with.

Onions: I use bombay onions over the red ones cos I find that red onions has a sharper taste and the smell is stronger. However, if you prefer the red onions, feel free to use them. I've never try making this with red onions, but according to my friend who likes red onions better, the recipe goes well with the red onions too and it tasted nicer for her.

Good luck!

Su Suka Cook

suka means like in Malay.

Hi. I'm Su and since I like to cook, I named this blog Suka Cook. Susuka sounds like milk (susu = like in malay) and it sounds like a Japanese wannabe, so I just drop one Su and called it Suka Cook. I thought of naming this blog "Suka cook and suka eat", but I dont think I'll be writing much about food places in Singapore cos I find them okay only.

You see, I grew up with a really good cook. So good that people come to our house and go for multiple rounds during Hari Raya and still have the cheek to come to the kitchen to ask for ta pao. Well...maybe that one is called Greed :P

I'm quite fussy when it comes to food. So fussy that my friend, a food lover, gave up trying to bring me to places that sell good food. To her, the food is good. To me, and I've never fail to say this to her: Yes, the food is nice, but my mom's cooking taste better.

She almost killed me cos she grew tired of hearing those words. So, one day she challenged me and said: Bring me those good food that you have been eating at home!!! I did and she fell in love with my mom's cooking.

Due to circumstances, mom and I lived separately (about 2 bus stops away) but I still visit her regularly and she remembers my favourite food. Funny, she's a great cook, but I've never learnt cooking from her. I learnt cooking from watching cook shows, from books, from working in restaurant as a waitress watching the chef cook, from being friends with good cook and helping out with the prep work. She makes great asian dishes, particularly Javanese style cooking. But she knows that I like simple chinese style stir fried food and she learnt them so that I would eat.

I've tried baking and cooking stuff for my mom but she, being an even more fussy person than I am, doesnt really eat what I gave her, except for stuff like butter cake. I hope that I'll be able to find a good ginger cookies recipe cos she loves ginger cookies. The day that she praise my cooking or baking skill will be the best day in my life :)

I started baking only last September 2008. It started because my sister was tellling me that she wanted to make some cookies for Hari Raya and asked if I could help. I bought a hand mixer and as I baked one swiss roll after another, one cookie after another, I fell in love with baking. I'm still learning about the various ingredients. The recipes that I used for baking are not my own originals. I try to bake every once a week, but if I'm tired from school and work, I'll probably bake once a month.

As for cooking, I started quite late. I mean, I've worked at fast food joints and restaurants when I was young and was in kitchen in some occasion, but I think that doesnt really qualify as cooking. I watched a lot of cooking show and the stuff that I used to cook are things like sandwiches, salads and pasta. I do mainly western cooking cos I didnt pick up any skill or recipe from my mom at all. I mean I should since she makes delicious asian cuisines.

Anyway, some of the recipes that I'll be posting are my own original ones but mostly are recipes that I adapt from others, but omit this and that to make it suitable for my tastebuds. If I do learn those asian cuisines from my mom, I'll definitely post it here :)

I've always feel that recipes and cooking are personal and one shouldn't copy another recipe 100%. At least 5-10% has to be your own gauge because different people like different taste. Some people always asked my mom: Why your recipe didnt turn out as nice as what you cooked when I try making them.

Her answer will always be: Lain tangan, lain rasa(different hand, different taste) . To which, I totally agree! The amount of sugar, salt, pepper, chilli, onions, spices that you throw in depends on your own hand. Sometimes, depends on your own gut feeling. The temperature, the pot size, the duration of time cooked all varies from each individual gauge. These factor affects the taste of the food :)

I like savoury stuff and the food I like tends to be a lil saltier than what most people like. As for spicy stuff, I love hot and spicy food and unfortunately, there is so much my stomach can take.

Okay, I shall kick off this blog with some of the things that my colleagues LOVE and kept asking me to make it again and again. One of it is seafood filling and you can use it as a sandwich or as a cold pasta.