The Rocky Pastry

Rock bun is a specific type of pastry, distinguished by the hard, crust-like texture and sweet taste. This spicy British pastry usually also has a sugar-crust topping and is full of coarsely chopped dried fruit. Rock bun is also called rock cake as it is a cross between a cookie and a small cake. It is made using the rubbing in method. This method achieves a dry and open texture. Rock bun is baked in small mounds, which take on a rocklike appearance.

I made my very first batch of rock buns at school when I was 14 years old. Ever since then, I fell in love with the rocky pastry. Similarly, my sister and children too love them.

Rock Buns

What do we need:

2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup cold butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup mixed dried fruits
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp clove powder
1 cold egg
1/4 cup cold milk


How do we do it:

In a food processor, place the flour, baking powder and cold butter. At a low speed, mix the ingredients until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Mix in sugar, the spices and the dried fruits with a metal spoon.

Slightly beat the cold milk and egg together. Gradually pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Gently stir just until the dough binds together. Drop the dough by teaspoonful on a greased or lined baking sheet. Bake at 200° C for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and cool on wire rack.



Enjoy Rock Bun with a cup of tea.

A Comeback, an Anniversary and a Birthday

Hello there everyone. Here am I once again, back to the blogosphere after a loooooong gap. I am now living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for good. It took me this long to really settle down.

Yesterday we celebrated 2 occasions, the 5th anniversary of my motherhood and my dearest daughter’s 5th birthday. It is the greatest day in my life. Being a mother is an invaluable gift. 5 years passed by just too fast. My lovely daughter has grown up that it’s now difficult for me to carry her.

She said “amma, for my birthday I want everything princess.” As a doting mother, it’s my duty to fulfill her desire. I made a princess cake, my brother made a princess jelly and my sister dolled my daughter up to become a princess.

The 3 Princesses

As usual I prepared quite a number of items for the party.

The Food Spread

My brother made multi-layered and multi-coloured jelly. I baked Pineapple Jam Cake as the base and Vanilla Cake as the gown.

Princess Jelly and Princess Cake

Prawn Fried Rice

Grilled Spicy Chicken

Carrot and Broccoli Soup

Potatoe and Tuna Bruschetta

Mixed Vege Salad

Rock Bun and Marble Jelly

Cream of the Pastry

Pastry cream or crème pâtissière in French is a rich, thick egg custard that is cooked on the stovetop. It is made with a combination of milk or cream, egg yolks, sugar. Plain flour or corn flour is used to thicken the texture. Other than the traditional vanilla flavouring, it could also be flavoured with chocolate, coffee, liqueurs, lemon or fruit purées.

Pastry cream is used as filling or stuffing for many French desserts like cream puffs, éclairs and napoleons. Also used to fill tarts, buns, Boston cream pie, some Italian and various other pastries.

Pastry Cream

What do we need:

1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp plain flour
1 pinch salt

1 tbsp unsalted butter

How do we do it:

Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds out. Add the scraped vanilla pod and the seeds into the milk. Bring the milk to a boil and remove from heat.

Beat the egg yolks, sugar, salt and flour together. While whisking constantly, pour in half of the hot milk in a slow steady stream into the egg mixture. This is to prevent the eggs from curdling. Add the egg mixture to the remaining hot milk. Cook over low medium heat while whisking constantly until mixture boils and thickens. Reduce the heat to low and whisk for 2 another 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in butter. If using vanilla extract, also stir in.

Cover with cling film and press down so that it touches the surface of the cream. This is to prevent a skin from forming. Cool to room temperature before storing the pastry cream in the refrigerator.

Whisk the cream until smooth when using.

The Green Condiment

This is my favourite condiment. It is a must to go along with chinese food. Therefore, every chinese restaurant would have them served in the centre of each table.

Green Chilli Pickle

What do we need:

15 green chillies
2 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

How do we do it:

Wash and drain chillies well. Thinly slice the chillies. Place the sliced chillies in a jar.

Mix vinegar, water, salt and sugar, until sugar dissolves. Pour mixture into the jar onto the chillies.

The chillies will be ready the next day. It could be refrigerated for months.

The Seeds

Triple Seeds Muffin

What do we need:

1 cup wholemeal flour
1/3 cup plain flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground clove

1 cup milk
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup mixture of sunflower, melon and pumpkin seeds

How do we do it:

Sift the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and the spices together. Mix in the seeds and set aside.

Grease the muffin tray with butter or simply place paper cups into the muffin holes.

Mix milk, egg, sugar, vanilla extract and oil together. Stir until sugar dissolves. Combine the wet ingredients with the flour mixture stirring just until evenly moistened.

Fill muffin holes with three-quarter full. Bake in a preheated oven at 200° C for 15 minutes.

When baking muffins, always place a bowl of boiling water in the oven. If there are unused holes on the muffin tray, pour boiling water into it. The reason is that the steam from the boiling water creates moist in the oven to prevent warping.

WBB# 15 - Corn Flakes

One of the most popular breakfast cereals is corn flakes. They are made by a combination of coarse meal of hulled corn, sugar, salt and barley malt extract that are cooked slowly until they reach the correct temperature and humidity level. Then, they are rolled and toasted to golden-brown flakes which give the crispy characteristic and appearance to the corn flakes.



Corn Flakes Bread Pudding

How do we do it:

1 cup corn flakes
4 slices bread
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp butter (or more if required)
1 tbsp custard powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sweet corn extract
1/2 tsp salt

How do we do it:

Trim the edges of the bread. Generously butter each slice and tear up the bread slices. In a buttered baking dish, randomly place the teared bread and sprinkle corn flakes in between. Set aside.

Combine milk, egg, sugar, custard powder, the extracts and salt. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour the mixture onto the bread and corn flakes. Sprinkle the remaining corn flakes on top.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180° C for about 20-30 minutes.



Serve warm with a drizzle of honey.



Also check out a healthy breakfast of cornflakes soaked in Banana Chocolate Milk

Jihvā for Ingredients - Toor Dal

Toor dal or Thuvaram paruppu is the most popular and widely used lentil in India. This highly digestible South Indian staple has a thick gelatinous, meaty consistency. Toor dal looks very much like Chana dal but it is smaller. It has a mild and nutty flavour. With its skin on, it is greenish-brown in colour and without its skin, it is yellow.


Toor dal is usually sold and cooked skinned and split. Sometimes it is sold with an oily coating, which should be rinsed off before cooking. It takes a little longer to cook than masoor dal. Toor dal is often used in sambar, cooked as a side dish or ground into flour.

Lately, I have been craving for mutton briyani. Finally, found my way to cook it, after such a long time. I thought of cooking sambar to accompany the briyani. While preparing the ingredients, suddenly something struck me. Hey, why don't I cook both the briyani and sambar together as one meal???

Mutton and Toor Dal Briyani

What do we need:

2 cups basmati rice
1/2 kg mutton, cubed
1/4 cup toor dal
1 carrot
1 onion
1" ginger
1 bulb garlic
2 green chillies
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch mint leaves
1 bunch coriander leaves
1 cup yoghurt
1 cup milk
2 cups water
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp ghee
1 tbsp oil
1 bay leave
1 star anise
4 cloves
a pinch of saffron
2 tbsp cashew nuts, halved
2 tbsp sultanas
2 tbsp fried onion crisps
salt to taste

To grind:
2 tbsp coriander
1 tbsp fennel
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp poppy seed
1 tsp black pepper corns
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 1/2 inch cinnamon stick
3 cardamoms
3 dried chillies

How do we do it:

Marinade the mutton with half of the yoghurt, turmeric powder and salt. Set aside, preferably overnight in the refrigerator.

Soak the toor dal. Wash and soak the rice. Then, drain the water and set aside.

Soak the saffron strands in the milk. Set aside.

Dry fry the spices to be ground and grind them into powder form.

Thinly slice the onion. Half the chilli lengthwise. Grind the ginger and garlic into paste.

Heat the ghee. Fry the cashew nuts and sultanas. Set aside.

Add oil to the remaining ghee. Fry star anise, bay leaf and cloves. Add ginger and garlic paste. Then, onion and chilli. Sautè until aromatic. Add the chopped tomatoes. When the tomatoes turn pulpy, put in the marinated mutton. Add the ground spices, the remaining yoghurt and lime juice. Cook until the mutton is half cooked. Then, add the soaked toor dal. Cook until the mutton is well cooked. Then, put the rice and milk in. Sprinkle the chopped mint and coriander leaves. Season with salt. Cook until rice is fluffy and does not stick together.

Finally, sprinkle the fried cashew nuts, sultanas and the onion crisps. Serve hot.


This is the end product. It was wonderful. As usual, I cooked the biryani directly in rice cooker. I made sure that the toor dal does not over cook and becomes soggy. It was crunchy and just perfect. I am submitting it to JFI-Toor Dal event.

Think Spice...Think Ginger

Ginger is one of the most widespread culinary spices. It is also among the most important and valued spices. No one is sure how old ginger is but it is believed to be cultivated for more than 3000 years. Ginger seems to originate from Southern China. Today, it is cultivated all over tropic and subtropical Asia.

This noble condiment comes from a perennial creeping herbaceous plant that produces an erect stem of 30 to 100 cm in height. The stem is surrounded by the sheathing bases of the bright green lance-shaped two-ranked leaves of 15 to 20 cm long, with a prominent longitudinal rib, enclosing conical clusters of a small club-like spike of yellow-green purple-lipped flowers. The gnarled, bumpy root of the ginger plant is the source of this wonderful spice. Although often called “ginger root”, it is actually a rhizome. Rhizomes are knobby thick tuberous underground stems that have pungent and flavourful flesh. The large thick scaly ginger rhizome has a characteristic stag horn-like appearance. It branches with thick thumb-like protrusions, thus individual divisions of the rhizome are known as "hands".

Fresh ginger is available in two forms; young and mature. Young ginger, also known as spring ginger, has a pale, thin skin that does not require peeling. It is very tender and has a milder flavour than its mature form. Mature ginger has a tough tan to brown skin that has to be carefully peeled away to preserve the delicate flesh just beneath it. The flesh ranges from pale greenish yellow to ivory in colour. Ginger has a slightly biting and hot note along with peppery and slightly sweet flavour. Its aroma is rich, sweet, warm, pungent, spicy and woody. Whole raw ginger is generally referred to as fresh ginger. It provides the freshest taste. Ginger also comes in dried form. It is sold either ‘black’ with the skin left on, or ‘white’ with the skin peeled off. The dried ginger is available whole or sliced. Powdered ginger is the buff-coloured ground dried ginger. It has fiery and pungent flavour and has warm, sweet and pungent aroma.



When buying fresh ginger, look for mature plump rhizomes with smooth skin that are not wrinkled. Wrinkled skin indicates that the root is dry and past its prime. It should have a fresh and spicy fragrance. Tightly wrapped fresh unpeeled ginger could be refrigerated in the crisper for up to 3 weeks and frozen for up to 6 months. Dried and powdered ginger must be stored in airtight containers.

Ginger is truly a world domestic remedy. It is most commonly known for its effectiveness as a digestive aid. Ginger has been used in Asia for thousands of years for relief from arthritis, rheumatism, sprains, muscle spasms, catarrh, congestion, coughs, sinusitis, sore throats, diarrhea, colic, cramps, indigestion, loss of appetite, motion sickness, fever, flu, chills, and infectious disease. Its therapeutic properties effectively stimulate circulation of the blood, removing toxins from the body, cleansing the bowels and kidneys, and nourishing the skin. Ginger is also used to treat nausea related to both motion sickness and morning sickness. Other uses for ginger include the treatment of asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory problems by loosening and expelling phlegm from the lungs.

Ginger is extremely versatile. It could be used in any type of food. Ginger is used as a spice throughout the world. In Asian cooking, ginger is almost always used fresh. In savoury dishes, it pairs beautifully with garlic. Dried ginger should be ‘bruised’ by beating it to open the fibres, and then infused in the cooking.

Ginger is my staple spice without which I can never even imagine of cooking. As my entry for the Think Spice Event, I have made one of my favourite Malaysian desserts. This dessert is apt for the climate as it is now continuously snowing in Bern. Originaly this dessert does not call for ginger but I have incorporated it to enhance the taste. I have used both fresh and dried ginger. Actually, both have noticeably different flavours. Therefore, I have used them together in the same dish for a layered flavour.

Gingery Mung Bean Dessert

What do we need:

1/2 cup mung beans
2 cups water
1 cup milk or coconut milk
1/3 cup sugar (or more if desired)
1/4 cup sago
1/2 inch knob ginger, sliced
1/2 tsp ginger powder
2 screw pine leaves, knotted
salt

How do we do it:

Soak the mung beans for about 2 hours and drain.

Combine mung beans, knotted screw pine leaves, ginger and water. Bring to a boil for 20 minutes. Gradually stir in the sago and cook until it is transparent.

Add sugar, salt, ginger powder and milk. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes or until the beans are soft and the liquid has reduced to half. Remove from heat.



Serve Gingery Mung Bean Dessert warm. The ginger gives a delicate warm flavour to it.



Also check out an amazingly aromatic Ginger Rice.

Happy Deepavali

Wishing Hindus Throughout The World A Very Happy & Prosperous Deepavali

Think Spice...Think Saffron

Saffron, the world's most precious spice, has been treasured from the remotest times. It is native to Near East and believed to be first appeared in Crete. Saffron has been cultivated for thousands of years.



The small fall-flowering crocus grows well in warm climates. It has thin long leaves and ornamental fragrant deep lavender, purple-veined flowers These flowers bloom for only two or three weeks in autumn. The flower contains three precious protruding yellow-orange to scarlet stigmas and adjacent part of the style yield the saffron. The intensive colour is caused by pigments of carotenoid type. These must be carefully hand-picked and then dried. Saffron is strongly perfumed, with very intensive earthy fragrant, reminiscent to iodoform but much more pleasant honey aroma. It has a unique pungent, slightly bitter-honey taste.

When I was pregnant, I used to drink milk with saffron. Its just incredible how only a tiny little pinch of saffron could transform the milk into a heavenly tasting beverage. I thought why not turn this concoction from something that I could drink to something that I could eat. Thus, came up with this.......

Saffron Milk Jelly

What do we need:

1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
3 tsp agar-agar powder
a generous pinch of saffron

How do we do it:

Mix saffron and milk. Set aside for at least 30 minutes for the saffron to steep.

Combine agar-agar powder, sugar and water and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolve. Pour in milk together with the saffron strands. Bring to a boil.

Pour the jelly mixture into a mould or little moulds. Chill the jelly until well set.




To ease unmoulding of the jelly, ensure that the moulds are wet before pouring the jelly mixture.

The Saffron Milk Jelly was lovely. Hubby′s verdict: "Sehr gut!", which means "very good". This is what I am going to submit for the Think Spice event at Sunita′s World.