Oriental Tamarind Prawns

This recipe was given by a special Chinese friend, Mrs. Toh. I love the sweet and tangy tamarind taste in this dish..You must try this!!YUMMMMMMMM......and its super easy!!

15 large prawns
1/2 cup of tamarind
1 teaspoon of white pepper powder
2 tablespoon water
2 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoon vegetable oil.

In a bowl, marinade the prawn with the tamarind, white pepper and water for 30 minutes to an hour.
heat up oil in a wok and put in the prawns and tamarind in the wok. put in the sugar and pinch of salt. Stir-fry till the sauce thickens. You may add some sliced Thai chilli or some chilli paste if you like it hot.

My favorite snack - Corn Fritters

2 ears fresh corn -slice out the kernels

6 shallots

5-6 dried  - seeded (1/2 snip thinly with scissors, 1/2 soaked for a while and pound with shallots)

2 tablespoon dried shrimp (washed and pounded with the shallots and chillies)

1 cup all purpose flour

3 tablespoon rice flour

1/2 cup thick coconut milk

2 teaspoons tumeric powder

1 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon food seasoning (optional)

vegetable oil for deep frying

1. Ground with a mortal and pestal or a blender, the shallots , half of the dried chillies, dried prawns and tumeric powder into a paste.

2. In a bowl, mix together the flours. Put in the corn and the sliced shallots and snipped chillies. 

3. Add in the pounded paste, coconut milk, salt, seasoning and water . Mix well

 4. Let stand for about 1-2 hours.

5. Heat up some oil in a wok.

6. Using a teaspoon, spoon the batter into the oil and fry till golden brown.

Prawn Fritters with peanut sauce

Prawn Fritters or "cucur udang" is a very popular Malaysian snack. Making prawn fritters brings back childhood memories of breaking of fast time in the month of Ramadhan. This is my special recipe for Prawn Fritters - notice I use fresh chillies and oysters sauce...

15-20 medium size prawns (cut into 2-3 pc)
1 cup bean sprout
1 cup chinese chives (kucai) -cut into one inch strips
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup rice flour
2 fresh red chillies
5 shallots
2 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon tumeric (optional)
1 cup of water
vegetable oil for deep frying

1. With a mortar and pestle  pound together the chillies and shallots. Mix in the tumeric and oyster sauce.

2. In a bowl put all the dry ingredients and the vegetables . 

3.Add in the prawns and the chilli -shallot paste

4. Put in the water and mix everything well. the mixture should be slightly thinner than the normal pancake batter.

5. Heat up vegetable oil for deep frying. Using a spoon drop the batter into the oil. Fry until golden brown.

6. Dry on paper towel till cool. Cut into bite size morsels.

7. Serve on its own or with peanut sauce.

The Peanut sauce - the sauce is slightly hot, sweet, sour and salty so you may adjust the sugars,salt and tamarind to your liking
1 cup of peanut - roasted without oil, skinned and grounded ( or you may use peanut butter in which case you may omit the sugar)
3 dried chillies -roasted in a wok and finely grounded in a blended
1/2 teaspoon of shrimp paste -roasted and grounded into powder (optional)
1 tablespoon tamarind mixed with 1/4 cup water
brown sugar and white sugar for taste ( about 2 tablespoon each)
1/2 cup water
In a small saucepan mix all the above ingredients and bring to boil. 

Mexican Churros - Fun snack for tea time

This is a real fun snack for party or tea time and yummy too... real easy to make and uses very minimal ingredients too.. try it!!:)

1 cup butter
1 cup water
1 cup flour
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
oil for deep frying
cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

1. In a saucepan melt the butter in the water. Turn the heat off

2. Put in 1 cup of flour and quickly stir into a ball (cheux paste)

3. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for 15 minutes to cool.

4. Mix in 0ne egg at a time , mixing well after each one.

5. Pipe using a star cookie presser or star tip onto a plate.

6. Heat up oil for frying. Drop the piped churros into the oil for deep frying. Fry until golden brown.

7. Mix some sugar with some powdered cinnamon and sprinkle over the churros while they are still hot

8. You can also serve the churros with chocolate sauce.

Yorkshire Pudding - great with roast chicken or beef.

This recipe I found on the internet has proven perfect every time I tried.. I forgot however who it was from..




To make 12 puddings you will need:

2 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup of milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 cup vegetable oil

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk until light and frothy.
2. Add milk and salt and whisk breezily.
3. Sift flour into the egg mixture, a little at a time, whisking all along the way. This is important so as to incorporate a lot of air to make the pudding light and pluffy and tall.
4. Let sit at room temperature while you pre-heat your oven to 425F (220C)
5. Swirl some oil in each of the muffin tin
6. Pre-heat the oiled pans
7. Place the oiled tins in the oven for 5-10 minutes until smoking hot.
8. Remove from oven and place on a low heat burner.
9. Spoon batter into the tins - 3/4 full.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes until batter has risen high above the tins and brown to your liking