When I was little, I remember my mother used to buy ready made Swiss rolls at our local Federal Bakery in Ipoh. It was light and spongy with cream filling in the middle. Simple yet so satisfying. A roulade operates on the same principle as making a light sheet cake or in this case a soft meringue and…
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The other day, my sister asked me to make kuih keria. That brought back memories. During my school holidays in my younger days, I would go with my parents to KL to stay with my grandfather.
Every morning, there will be a chorus of boys yelling, “Nasi lemak! Kuih keria! Karipap!” They…
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In Perak, where I come from, rendang pelampong is very popular. This is a rendang made from cow's lungs. The best of it's kind is dry (Perak afterall is the master of dry rendangs) with a wonderful soft texture from the lungs. Now you might think that lungs, like tripe for instance might get rubbery…
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Many parents have come to me asking to teach cooking or baking for their kids. Particularly during school holidays. Suddenly your house is overrun again. Those luxurious cups of coffee you can have in the morning after you’ve packed them all to school is on hold for now. This is the time that some…
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Sometimes I'm more in a mood for Pakistani or Afgani style korma. They of course do not use coconut milk but rather goat's milk or yogurt. This results in their korma being thicker than ours. I always think of them up in the mountains being semi nomadic, they travel with their goats and lambs, dried…
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Since this is chutney week, I was asked to make one. However, I feel that we've covered quite a lot of chutneys in Magnificent 7 so my sister suggested an acar. No one can quite pinpoint the difference between the two. They both use a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, sometimes are cooked or not,…
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Generally when you come for tea at a Malay household, chances are there will be a pengat or a bubur of somekind. While bubur can encompass most things in a gravy from sweet soups to savoury congee, pengat is exclusively sweet. Generally we use pengat for something, a fruit that's been simmered in santan…
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I find that I make briyani when I have something to celebrate- an announcement of a wedding or a birth or just when my family gathers after a long time away. In my family, we prefer it to nasi minyak or nasi tomato. One of my Uncles love it so much that he'll eat it ' terduduk sampai mengah', sort of…
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I learnt how to make laksa Johor from a friend of mine named Mariam. She’s of course from Johor. We used to exchange dishes for buka puasa (break of fast) during Ramadhan. Ah... the art of exchanging dishes for puasa. I wonder if people still do that. I used to have a neighbour from Terengganu and…
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Like anyone, I am not against taking short cuts in the kitchen. I might make a dough from scratch but use filling from a can- nothing wrong with that. Or I'll whip up a white sauce full of thyme and rosemary, add chicken and stuff it in a ready made puff pastry. For pumpkin pie, making it from scratch…
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My late Aunt, married to a policeman used to live in the police barracks. At the time, grocery shopping is not as convenient as today so most of the time the ladies there cooked from rations. This is one of the dishes born out of using what's available. There were always a lot of onions and dried chillies…
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Halloween is a big deal in the States. When I was there and staying with my foster family, pumpkin carving was our main activity. We used to buy five or six gigantic pumpkins for next to nothing (about 30 cents each) because there were so many of them! I suppose being so far away from home, lining up…
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