Sambal Prawns

 My mum used to cook Sambal Prawns and remember eating it with fond memories. This is similar to her recipe but because of availability of certain ingredients, I have substituted or omitted some of the ingredients. In Malaysia, this dish is called Sambal Udang. Traditionally, the paste is pounded in a pestle and mortar, which can be therapeutic but time consuming. But if you have a blender, the preparation time is reduced.

Ingredients
500g raw prawns(peeled and devein)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp tamaind paste
4 tbsp oil
4 tomatoes, quartered

Paste Ingredients
10 red chillies (deseed and cut into pieces) - check how spicy the chilli that you are using is and reduce the number if very spicy
12 red shallots (I used 1 red onion - cut into small wedges)
1 stalk lemon grass (cut into small pieces)
3 candelnuts (I used 8 blanched raw almonds)
1.5 x 2.5 x 0.5 cm piece of shrimp paste/belacan (I omitted this)

Steps

1. Season peeled and deveined prawns with sugar and salt.
2. Blend the paste ingredients in a blender or if you prefer in a pestle and mortar.
3. Prepare 1 cup tamarind juice by pouring  a little more than 1 cup of hot water to the tamarind paste in a cup or bowl. Strain it.
4. Heat oil in a wok or pan and fry the blended ingredients till well cooked (about 4-5 minutes).
5. Add prawns and stir until prawns are lightly cooked.
6. Add tomatoes and tamarind juice. Stir and simmer until the prawns are cooked.
7. Season with salt and sugar according to taste.
8. Serve with some cooked rice. 

Note: You can add some curry leaves when frying the paste. This would make it very fragrant. Sometimes, I would crack an egg at the end of the cooking process and lightly stir it until partially cooked. This idea is similar to Chilli Crabs.
 
Blend the paste ingredients in a blender.

 

Frying the blended paste in a wok under medium heat.

Prawns are lightly cooked. Add tomatoes and tamarind juice. Stir and simmer until prawns are cooked.

Season with salt and sugar. Ready to be served with some cooked rice.

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Chinese Roast Pork (Siu Yuk)

Siu Yuk is a Cantonese cuisine traditionally prepared by roasting an entire pig with seasoning in a charcoal furnace at high temperature. Roasted pigs of high quality have crisp skin and juicy and tender meat.

Siu Yuk is comfort food for me that I indulge once in a blue moon, due to its high fat content which is an integral part of this dish. When I saw a unique recipe shared by Grace Howie in a Facebook group, I knew that I have to cook this. Grace's sister, Jennifer Choong experimented and tweaked different recipes and the result of her effort is definitely worth it. This recipe is exceptional because it produces the crispest and fluffiest crackling with moist meat.

The secret is in roasting the pork at 60C for one hour. This keeps the meat moist. Best of all, this recipe is easier than most others and I am sure you can do it too. All you need is patience, as you need to dry the pork skin in the fridge for at least 2 days.

Ingredients
1 kg pork belly
1/2 - 1 tbsp salt (I used 1/2 tbsp salt as I do not like it too salty)
4 tbsp white vinegar

 Marinade
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp oyster sauce(optional)
1 tbsp red fermented bean curd sauce (I used miso paste)
1/2 tsp five spice powder
1 tbsp shaoxing wine (I used sherry)

Steps

1. Wash pork and pat dry. The piece of pork I bought has already have slits on the skin. Otherwise, cut slits about 1 cm width. When ready, cut the Siew Yoke along the slits.
2. Cut a few slits on the meat side so that the marinade can penetrate through the meat.
3. Mix the marinade together and rub marinade on the meat side.
4. Rub salt on the skin and place pork on a tray with skin side up. Chill in the fridge uncovered.
5. Brush the skin with vinegar twice daily for 2 days and leave to dry in the fridge.
6. On the third day, preheat the oven to 60 Celsius. 
7. Place pork on a wire rack on top of a tray(with some water in the tray) and roast for 1 hour.
8. After 1 hour, turn the oven up to 250 Celsius and bake Siew Yoke for another 30 minutes. I had to turn my Siew Yoke 180 degrees because the heat in my oven is not even.
9. Cut into small pieces and serve with rice.

Note: Each oven is different. If the skin has not finished crackling, leave it on for few minutes longer. I ended up putting under the grill to finish the crackling.

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Flaky Curry Puffs

These curry puffs produces a layered flaky pastry. It is so yummy. As you can see from the photo, these curry puffs are made with two types of dough which is similar to puff pastry. The original and most recipes normally divide the two dough in 12 or 24 equal portions and wrapping one dough with another and individually roll each one, which I normally do and this is very time consuming. But, one day when I was going to do that, had a aha moment and thought to myself why not roll it like puff pastry. I did and the result is the same and saves me plenty of time.

For water dough
* 200 g plain flour
* 100 ml water, mixed with
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 tablespoon butter

For butter dough
* 100 g plain flour
* 75 g butter

For filling
* 3 tbsp oil
* 220 g potatoes (cubed and par-boiled in some water, drained)
* 100 g big onions (cubed)
* 2 tablespoons curry powder, mixed with some water to make a paste
* 1 sprig curry leaf (optional)
* 1 tablespoon oyster sauce (optional)
* salt, to taste
* sugar, to taste
* light soy sauce, to taste
* 1 dash pepper

Steps

1. You can make the doughs by hand or like me, use a food processor. This would save you plenty of time and i does a better job too. 
2. To make WATER DOUGH, place flour in a mixing bowl.
3. Rub in butter until it resembles breadcrumbs and add in the water. (Food processor, put flour and butter in bowl and mix until butter resembles breadcrumbs. Then add water and mix)
4. Knead into a smooth dough and leave aside to rest for 10 minutes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. To make BUTTER DOUGH, rub butter into the flour to form an oily dough. (Food processor: put flour and butter into bowl and mix until it form a dough). Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. To make FILLING, heat pan with 3 tbsp oil.
7. Fry onions until soft and add curry powder paste until fragrant.
8. Add the other ingredients and add some enough water to cover the potatoes and fry till potatoes are cooked and dry. Add more water if needed.
9. Cover the pan and turn the potatoes every now and then so that it does not burn.
10. When cooked, dish onto a plate and cool before using.
11. Roll the pastry as illustrated below and wrap the potatoes in the pastry. Seal the edges.
12. Pinch the edges to form a scallop design or any design you fancy. 
13. Deep fry in medium hot oil.

Note: You can make the filling a bit more saltier because when you eat it with the puff it will make the filling taste blander.

Two types of dough


Rol1 the water dough bigger (about 32 * 32 cm) than the butter dough(30 cm * 15 cm).


Wrap the butter dough by folding the water dough.


Roll the wrapped dough to a square and fold again similar way and roll again.


Then roll it into a sausage


Depending on the diameter of the "sausage" and how big you want your curry puffs, how thick to cut each dough. Try one, and then cut the rest.


Put a dough on the cut side and roll into a circle.



Wrap the potato mixture and fold.

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