Bak kua

This delicious snack is so famous in Singapore,.sweet and fragrant meat that is nice on its own or a side garnish for nasi lemak.

To make a super delicious bak kua, you need to have mince pork with 20% fat and 80% meat mixed. It is the usual predicament between wanting to eat a delicious snack and not wanting to eat fatty food. A compromise would have been mince pork with only 2% fat, and yes I have not missed type it, the trick is to substitute the fat with 2 table spoon of grape seed oil or any other vegetable oil.

The end result is a nice bak kua that is a little bit on the healthy side, leaner and possibly can be made more often as it is delicious and easy to make.

This is recipe from Lily wai sek hong with few minor changes.
Ingredient:
1kg lean mince pork
1 1/2 tablespoon of sake or rice wine
2 table spoon of soy sauce ( reduced salt japanese soy sauce is great)
1 table spoon of fish sauce ( squid brand is great)
1/2 teaspoon of five spice powder
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
170 gr of sugar
2 tablespoon grape seed oil or any other vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon of liquid red colouring

Chewy Blonde

Someone has come up with a very Interesting name, chewy blonde, and these slices or some called it brownie has to be the easiest treat to make as all you have to do is to mix all ingredient together and bake it. It is low in fat as a part from milk, there is only one tablespoon of butter used in the recipe. Make this for afternoon tea with friends and family, its simply delicious over a cup of tea or coffee.

Ingredient:
1 cup flour
1 cup almond meal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1/4 cup choc chips
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
2 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Start with combine all dry ingredient together, except for sultana and choc chips

mixed all wet ingredient together, you could use food processor or just whisk it with baloon whisk.

combined dry and wet ingredient, until it resemble a thick batter, then put in sultana and choc chips, stir gently.

lined square tin with baking paper, pour batter in it, and bake at pre heated oven for 25-30 minutes at 180 degree.

let it cool down before slicing to get a nice square slices.

Nastar~pineapple tart

This is the first nastar I ever made, and after tasting it I must say it melt into your mouth and the tangy pineapple jam is really exquisite. If a clove is added to each piece of biscuit as decoration to make it look like stalk, it gave the biscuit such a nice additional aroma.

This biscuit is traditionally made for new year celebration, be that for muslim rahmadan or chinese newyear, where it is tradition to visit each other and be spoilt rotten with all sorts of cakes and biscuit, this is one of them that is almost always included.

This biscuit is easy to make, if you could make the pineapple jam, put it a side and make the biscuit near your party occasion.

Recipe:

For pineapple jam:

1 pineapple
200g sugar
5 cloves

- 1 pineapple, cut of the skin, remove the hardpart in the middle, cut into chunky pieces, and put in food processer, pulse for a few minutes.

- place this pineapple in sauce pan and cook until half of the liquid is gone.

- put in all of the sugar , cloves and cook until it is nice and thick, and none of the liquid left. discard the cloves.

let this jam be cooled down or leave in fridge, it will be more solid and easier to be filled into the biscuit dough.

Ingredient for biscuit dough:

250g cake flour/low protein flour
30g corn flour
250g of butter cut into cubes
50g of caster sugar
3 egg yolk
egg wash ( 1egg yolk, 1 tbsp milk, pinch of salt)

place flour, corn flour and sugar in food processor, pulse a few times so ingredient are mixed properly. then add butter cubes, and pulse a few times, then add egg yolks, pulse again,you get mixture resemble coarse sand, gather this dough gently until dough come together. It is important not to over process dough, as biscuit will be hard, and not crumbly texture.

If it is a very hot day, you may need to keep part of dough in cool place or place in fridge, as it will be tricky to shape biscuit when the dough has turned too soft.

shape little ball with dough, use satay bamboo stick to make hole to fill pineapple jam in, then re-seal the ball and decorate with clove if you wish.

brush with egg wash to get a nice glossy finish.

bake in oven at 150 degree for 15 to 20 minutes.