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We are now right in the middle of the 15 day Chinese New Year celebrations, and I am still not over with making goodies yet! I always remember the first week of CNY celebrations in Malaysia as being given unfettered access to the swingsets that are installed in most homes in Malaysia – I love just chilling out there, chatting and of course, eating!

Another one of my favourite Chinese New Year goodies (other than pineapple tarts , bah kwa and yee sang) is Kek Lapis, or Indonesian spiced layer cake. Made by slowly grilling each layer individually, this is a very expensive and back breaking process. The end result though, is so completely worth it.

Just look at this beauty…

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Pack full of butter, egg yolks and allspice, this is a super fragrant and rich cake. Eaten only around South East Asia , this cake is also known as speokkeok. Very similar to the german baumkuchen, the difference is that this cake is scoop-and-grill whilst the baumkuchen is pour and twirl. I halved my recipe as I did not have 20 egg yolks, but baked in the loaf tin, it came out very delicious . You may want to consider baking it in a square tin and doubling the ingredients.

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Indonesian Kek Lapis (adopted from RasaMalaysia‘s recipe)

6 oz butter (softened to room temperature)
2 Tbsp condensed milk
2 Tbsp evaporated milk (or just normal milk)
10 eggs yolks
2 oz icing sugar
1 oz superfine flour, sifted with
1 Tsp all spice
2 Tbsp brandy

Method :

1) Line the bottom of a loaf tin (circa 1l in volume) with greaseproof paper.
2) Beat butter (softened) with brandy, condensed milk and evaporated milk
3) Beat egg yolks until smooth, and add icing sugar and beat until pale.
4) Fold butter into the egg mixture, and sift in flour and allspice powder.
5) Turn on grill/broiler function on your oven.
6) Scoop batter into the pan, ensuring that it is measured because each layer needs to contain the same amount of batter. I use a 1/2 cup scoop.
7) Grill until the batter is golden brown and even. Poke any air bubbles with a fork – I didn’t do mine very well and had air bubbles in my final product.
Repeat steps 6-7 until the batter is finished.
9) Once the final layer have been grilled, turned the oven to bake at 180 C and bake for 15 minutes.

This is SO weird, but due to some fluke calendering, this will be my FIRST Merdeka Day where I will actually be on holiday. Serious.Even whilst working in KL, due to the ‘international presence’, I chose to work during Merdeka Day and take a different day off. I always remember Merdeka Day as the day I zoom down to work double-quick due to the lack of traffic.

And this Merdeka I shall actually be having a lie-in….like millions of other Malaysians. Bliss. Not sure how am I celebrating yet, but am starting the day with assam laksa & nasi lemak that I manage to ‘ta-pau’ from Birmingham on my way home from down south.

Selamat Hari jadi Malaysia

Pan-mee (or in Penang Hokkien: Mee Hoon Kueh (flour cake)) basically means flat-flour noodle. It is quite a favourite in Malaysia, especially for breakfast. Mine usually comes in a plastic bag – as I never wake up early enough! The noodles are freshly made from normal everyday flour – abit like making fresh pasta. I like mine to run through the pasta machine to flatten it, and then go through the fettucinnie setting for it to come out as fat, flat noodles. However, not owning a pasta machine, we just flattened it out with our palms and tore pieces of the flour-water mixture up.

I must admit, this is not something that I usually yearn for, as flavours are fairly mild, which is not my style. When KJean was here over new year’s eve, we were racking our minds of what to have for dinner (it was below freezing, so no going out!) – and somehow KJean said that she missed Pan mee and wished she could get it in London. Well, it was easy enough to whip up, seeing that I had all the inggredients at home. I liked it so much that I made it again the next week with beef mince that I was going to make into bolognese…and it’s nicer with beef!Gonna try it with turkey next, or maybe a mix of beef/pork.

Inggredients for mince
300g mince (chicken/pork/beef/turkey)
10 soaked dried shitaake mushrooms, sliced thinly
Oyster sauce
Sweet soy sauce ( Kicap manis)
Soy sauce, thick
splash of Shaoshing wine (chinese cooking wine)

Marinade everything for about 30 minutes. Pan fry inggredients until cooked, and set aside. I keep mine slightly saucy – this goes to flavour the soup. Tip: Save the water where the mushrooms were soaking in to include in the stock.

Inggredients for stock
A handful of dried anchovies – mine is washed and fried beforehand.
1.5l water
Salt
Spinach

Boil – the anchovies should impart enough of its flavor in about 15 minutes – you can actually smell the yumminess. I usually let it simmer on for about 30 minutes. Add the spinach before serving – traditionally mani vegetable is used. I have no idea what it is in english, but spinach is about the right texture and taste.

Inggredients for noodles
150g plain flour (with extras to dust/add)
one egg
some oil
water
salt

Knead all until it is hard/dry enough to be rolled out with a rolling pin. Be careful with adding too much water – I always add too much water and have to add more flour to make it more ‘viscose’. It should be non-sticky, and easy to roll out using a rolling pin without it sticking. Set aside – you can run this through the pasta machine or just roll it out with a rolling pin when you are ready to eat. If you’re rolling it out, just tear pieces of it and drop it into either a separate pan of boiling water until cooked or do it the lazy way – straight into the stock.

Assembly
Once the noodles are cooked, scoop it all out into bowls – this recipe is enough for 2-3 servings depending on portion size. Place a couple of spoonfuls of the cooked mince on top of the noodles. Add a few scoopfuls of stock, top with a dash of white pepper, and you’re ready to go! Serve with a side of chopped fresh red chillies in soy sauce.

I cheated and and used lettuce instead – hehe. Notice mine has loads of mushrooms – it imparts a lovely flavour, but bacon hates it, so I get to have all of it! I think there is a version where the noodles are only mixed with the cooked mince topping, and the soup is served separately.

Jadi, selamat hari jadi tanahair aku tersayang. Selamat hari jadi Malaysia.

The 50th year of Malaysia was a very meaningful year for the land of my birth. The winds of change are sweeping the nation, and I am extremely proud of my countrymen whom I credit with this revolution of sorts. Last year I did not have any reason to celebrate Malaysia’s birthday, but this year I can proudly say I am flying the Jalur Gemilang, Malaysia’s flay.

So happy birthday my beloved country. Happy Birthday Malaysia.

Sempena perayaan merdeka minggu ini, saya akan memblog dengan Bahasa Malaysia. Ini bukan satu latihan yang senang – walaupun di zaman sekolah saya selalu memperolehi markah baik untuk BM. Sekarang, selepas 10 tahun saya tidak bisa mengarang atau memikir dalam BM, saya memperlu sekurang kurang 5 minit untuk mengarang satu ayat. Lagi selapas ini saya kena menterjermah balik ke bahasa inggeris. Malangnya.

PS: Walaupun karangan saya dalam bahasa melayu sudah terlampau merosot, saya masih petah mencakap dalam bm.

In light of Malaysia’s Independence day this weekend, I have decided to start blogging in Malay. This is not an easy excercise – even though I used to get good marks in school for my Malay. Now, after a 10 year absence of not writing or thinking in Malay, I need at least 5 minutes to write a sentence. And have to translate it to English. Poor thing.

After ten years of not writing or thinking in malay, I realise that there has been changes to many words….to english. My favourite example is monolog, realpolitik, conspiracy and inspiration..even though most of them have a word in malay to describe them.

Right, enough of my monolog. This few paragraphs have taken up 15 minutes. In English it usually takes me about 3. So, now that my dear readers agree with my malfunctioning malay, I am going to try to blog in malay more often.

PS: Even though my writing is absolutely horrible, I can actually still speak pretty well in malay.