Chinese Spaghetti - Zha Jiang Mian炸酱面

Chinese people have been eating noodles since 3000B.C. There is a legend saying that Italian noodle (spaghetti pasta..etc) was actually invented from the inspiration of Chinese noodle that brought by Marco Polo from China to European countries and then spread all over the world.

From the translation of Zha Jiang Mian - Chinese Spaghetti, you can tell that it is the noodle served with the ground meat sauce on top. It will be also topped with some thinly sliced cucumber, carrot. Some people will add some bean sprouts and celery slices too.



I'm lucky enough to live in a place that is so convenient to get many kinds of ingredients I want for different country's cooking. I got a pack of dried Chinese ramen from Lee Lee Asian supermarket for my Chinese spaghetti making. If it is not available at your area, you may substitute with instant noodle.

A very experimental sister at Tzu Chi told me that I can add whatever ingredients for sauce making as per desired taste. Here is my version of 炸酱面.

For 6~7 servings.

1. 500g chinese ramen (substitute with the instant noodle if ramen is not available)
- cook according to packing direction. Drain and set aside.
- boil some water. Noodle may be too dry and sticky when serving. You may add a spoon of water when you top with the meat sauce.



Meat Sauce (adjustable according to desired taste, add chilly if you want the spicy sauce. It has to be a bit saltier to mix with the noodle)

1. 150g ground pork (I didn't use too much meat for my recipe, add more if you like)
2. 6 cloves garlic - finely chopped
3. 1 inch ginger - minced
4. 3 tbsp crispy onion (油葱酥)
5. 5 pcs dry mushrooms - soaked and minced
6. 1 pc stewed bean curd (卤豆干) - small cubes
7. 100g pickled bamboo shoot - small cubes
8. 100g carrot - small cubes
9. 2 tbsp spicy bean paste
10. 1 tbsp oyster sauce
11. 1 tsp fish sauce
12. 1 tbsp soy sauce or as needed
13. 1 tsp dark soy sauce
14. 1/8 ground white pepper
15. Some sesame oil
16. 2~3 tbsp water or as needed.
17. 1 tbsp Shao Xing Wine


Topping vegetable (adjust the amount according to personal liking)

1. Cucumber slices
2. Carrot slices
3. Chinese celery
4. Green Onion
5. Bean Sprout
6. Cilantro

Steps :

1. Fragrant the garlic and ginger in a greased heated pan.
2. Add in mushroom and crispy onion, cook for 2 minutes, adjust the heat accordingly to avoid burnt.
3. Add in ground pork and ingredient # 5~12. Stir fry over high heat for 5 minutes.
4. Add some water, switch to medium low heat and cook for another 15~20 minutes.
5. Add in some white pepper, sesame oil and Shao Xing wine. Stir well and cook for another 3 minutes.
6. Top on the noodle. Serve with preferred vegetable toppings/garnishing.

BBQ Chicken

Back to 1980's~1990's, whenever someone had a party for a special occasion, they liked to have BBQ, grilling the chicken, corn, sweet potato and "kembung" fish with the charcoal heat. The host and guests took their time hanging around at the party by BBQing and talking or playing games. Those were a greatly cherished moments.

People now are lack the time or afraid it's too much trouble to prepare the food and clean up the mess, they prefer to have a caterer to get everything done, or celebrate at the restaurant.



My family always have BBQ party for certain occasions like Lantern Festival or Moon Cake Festival. Usually , chicken wing is first choice. It is always in short supply due to eating is faster than grilling. LOL!!

Here's our recipe for the BBQ chicken.

1. 2lbs chicken (about 6 chicken drum sticks)

Mix the following marinating ingredients in a mixing container.

A)
1. 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
2. 3~4 cloves garlic - crushed
3. 3 tbsp soy sauce
4. 1 tbsp oyster sauce
5. 1 tsp sesame oil
6. 1.5 tsp dark soy sauce
7. 1/4 tsp sugar
8. 1/8 tsp ground white pepper
9. a dash of 5 spices powder (五香粉)

B) Some butter and honey for brushing

Steps :

1. Rub the chicken pieces with marinating sauce to coat well. Refrigerate overnight, turn once for better marinating.
2. Place the chicken piece on the grate of the preheated grill. Grill over medium heat with lid covered for 10~12 minutes each side for drum sticks (reduce to 7~8 minutes each side for other portions).
3. Before you remove the pieces from the grill, brush the butter followed by honey on both sides.

Dry fried Green Bean (干扁四季豆)

Tom and Cici didn't have too much interest on having green bean before. All the while, they had the canned green bean from supermarket, they got the impression that green bean was always tasteless and soggy.

After tasted my saute green bean, they have changed their mind. Right now, it is one of the most desired dishes for our meal. :-)

Recipe and steps :

1. 350g green bean
2. 3 cloves garlic - chopped
3. 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
4. 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
5. some salt to taste.


Steps :

1. Saute the green bean in a non stick pan without oil for 8~10 minutes over medium high heat. Stir occasionally for better cook.
2. Stir the green bean to aside of the pan, add in the oil in the middle of the pan then fragrant the garlic.
3. Stir the bean and garlic together, season with oyster sauce and salt. Stir and cook for another 3~4 minutes.
4. Serve warm.

Garlic Bread

I can't resist the fragrance of cooked garlic. As you can read from my blog, I use garlic a lot for my cooking.
Garlic bread is most commonly served before the main course in the western restaurants in Malaysia. I love it so much but always ended up pack to go because I need to save some space of my stomach for the main course.



It is very easy to make garlic bread on our own. You may prepare extra garlic butter mixture and keep it in the fridge - you just have to soften it to room temperature whenever you need it.

Here's my recipe :

1. 1 loaf French Bread (cut to 2/3 slices)
2. 100g unsalted butter - soften to room temperature
3. 6~8 cloves large garlic (or as desired) - minced
4. 2~3 tsp parsley flakes
5. 1 tsp oregano flakes
6. 2 tsp (or as desired) seasoned salt & garlic powder
7. Some freshly ground black pepper


Steps :

1. Preheat the oven at 350F
2. Bake the bread slices for 4~5 minutes.
3. Mix well the ingredient # 2~#7
4. Remove the bread slices from the oven, spread over the mixture # 3 on each slice.
5. Return the bread slices to the oven, bake for another 6~8 minutes. The longer the baking time, the crispier it will be.

滑蛋鸳鸯 (Silken Egg Yuan Yang)

I have been busy for my work lately. Even though, I will not stop posting about my cooking, stay tuned, OK?

This is one of the famous hawker food (street vendor) in Malaysia - fried flat noodle sheets mix with rice noodle then served with thicken gravy with or without egg. If you order "hor fun" it will come with just flat noodle. It is also one of the popular item served in most of the Chinese restaurants in US, but I seldom order it. Because I like it best tasted with sambal chili.




To my surprise, Tom loved it and told me don't hesitant to cook it again in future. :-)!!

Here's the recipes :

Ingredients :

For frying Yuan Yang :

1. 500g Hor Fun (flat noodle sheets) - cut to smaller size
2. 150g Bee Hoon (rice noodle/rice vermicelli) - soak in water to soften it.
3. 11/2 tbsp soy sauce
4. 1 tsp dark soy sauce
5. 1 tbsp oyster sauce
6. 1/8 tsp sugar
7. 1/8 tsp fish sauce
8. 2~3 cloves large garlic - finely chopped
9. 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil for frying

For Gravy :

1. 1000~1200ml pork bones stock/chicken stock (cook in advance)
2. 200g medium~large shrimp (can adjust to your preferred amount)
3. 200g pork/chicken slices (can adjust to your preferred amount)
4. Some Choi Sum (vegetable)
5. 2~3 cloves large garlic - chopped
6. 1 tsp soy sauce
7. 1 tsp oyster sauce
8. Some salt to taste
9. Some white pepper to taste
10. 4 tbsp corn starch (or as needed) mix with some water
11. 3~4 eggs - lightly beaten

Steps :

For frying Yuan Yang, it must be done in high heat in order to provide enough "wok hei" - wok breath.

1. Mix together all ingredients from #3~7
2. Heat the fry pan with some oil
3. Over high heat, fragrant the chopped garlic, then stir in the flat noodle and vermicelli.
4. Add in mixture # 1, stir the noodle to coat well.
5. Cook for 2~3 minutes, remove the yuan yang from the frying pan to the serving plates.

For gravy :

1. Heat up the pan with some oil.
2. Fragrant the chopped garlic.
3. Add in shrimps and meet slices, stir for 1 minutes.
4. Pour in pork bones/chicken stock
5. Season with ingredients #6~#8
6, Bring to boil, add in vegetable.
7. Thicken the soup with corn starch.
8. Drop the beaten eggs, wait for 5~8 seconds, stir it.
9. Scoop the gravy and others ingredients to top the yuan yang, sprinkle some white peper to taste.
10. Best served with sambal chili.

Enjoy :-)

Onion Ring

Onion Ring is a snack/appetizer that commonly served in US restaurant. Normally the large size of sweet onion will be used for this cooking. It will be cut and split to about 1/3" ring slices then dipped in batter, coated with seasoned bread crumbs then deep fried.



When we talk about deep fried food, it is always give you a sign of unhealthy food. Ya... I know. But, I think it is no harm to eat it once a while, right? We have a saying food, yummy food is always unhealthy, but healthy food is always tasted blend. So, I don't my to spoil my stomach once a while.



To prepare the onion rings, you need :

1. 1 Large size of sweet/yellow onion (about 300g) - cut and split to 1/3" ring slices
2. 1 cup all purpose flour
3. 1tsp baking powder
4. 1tsp salt
5. 1gg
6. 3/4~1 cup of milk
7. 1/2~3/4 seasoned bread crumbs - sprinkle some salt to taste
8. Some oil for deep frying

Steps :

1. Heat up the oil in a deep frying pan.
2. Mix well the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Place the onion ring in the dry flour mixture, dust/coat each ring well.
4. After all the rings are dusted/coated, whisk the egg and milk into the flour mixture to form the batter.
5. Dip the floured onion rings in the batter, then remove and place it on the cooling rack by a kabob skewer (or any thin stick), let the batter drip off a bit from the rings.
6. Get ready the seasoned bread crumbs in a shallow bowl. Move the ring from the rack with a skewer, coat it with the bread crumbs evenly.
7. Deep fry in the heated oil over medium heat for 2 minutes or until it turns golden brown.
8. Serve with tomato ketchup or sweet chili sauce.

Onion rings coated on flour then batter


Bread crumbs coating


Frying

Chai Boey/Chap Chai

I have some leftover turkey and ham bones sitting in my freezer. I wanted to use it for "Chai Boey/Chap Chai". Chai Boey/Chap Chai is a very common dish in Penang that usually cooked after certain celebration/worshiping. It is cooked with a lot of leftover goodies mix together - BBQ pork bones, roasted chicken, roasted duck then simmer with a bunch of big mustard leaves(大芥菜).



I was surprised that Tom actually loves it. When did he start to love sour and spicy food?? That might be my cooking influence. Believe it or not, both of us could finish a big pot of Chai Boey in just a single meal. :-p

The following recipe is prepared according to the flavor of the leftover bones I have. It is adjustable if you have different kinds leftover goodies.

1. 1 kg left over roasted Turkey and Ham bones
2. 1 kg big big mustard leaves (大芥菜) - cut
3. 100g Pickled Mustard (酸菜/Kiam Cai) - OPTIONAL
4. 100 Jicama (莎葛 - "mang guang in Hokkien) - cut to slices
5. 4~5 mushroom - sliced
6. Some dried squid slices (干鱿鱼丝) - OPTIONAL
7. 3~4 cloves large garlic - crushed
8. 4~5 thin ginger slices
9. 1 tbsp bean paste (豆酱)
10. 4~6 dried chili
11. 2~3 Chili Padi (I substituted 1 Jalapeno - sliced)
9. 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
10. 1 tsp dark soy sauce
11. Some Soy Sauce - to taste
12. 1/2 tsp sesame oil
13. 1 pc pickled plum and some syrup to taste
14. 10g Tamarind Paste (Asam Kor)- mix with 30ml water (I don't have Tamarind skin, so I used the paste instead)
15. 1 stalk lemon grass - crushed
16. 800ml~1000ml
17. 2000ml water to cook the mustard leaves.

Steps :

1. Heat a non-stick pot with some oil. In a different pot, boil the 2000ml water
2. Fragrant the garlic crushes and ginger slices.
3. Stir in bean paste and cook for 10 seconds.
4. Add in bones, jicama slices, mushroom slices, squid slices, oyster sauce, dried chili, chili padi/ jalapeno, sesame oil, dark & light soy sauce.
5. Stir and cook for 3~5 minutes, sprinkle some water for better cooking.
6. Meanwhile, cook the mustard leaves in the boiled water for 1 minutes. Drain.
7. Slowly add in the water and drained mustard leaves, pickled mustard, lemon grass into the bones mixture.The water should cover up about 2/3 of the ingredients.
8. Bring to boil, simmer for 15 minutes, stir occasionally for better cooking.
9. Add pickled plum,syrup, tamarind juice to taste.
10. Simmer for another 20~30 minutes.
11. Serve warm.

A pot of goodies!!

Banana Bread Pudding

Tom challenged me to make "Banana Foster" for a dinner with a friend of us. The reason for him to ask so because we had a wonderful experience of tasting "Banana Foster" at The Chop House - a dinner treated by my parents in law for our marriage celebration. It served as a topping on a piece of bread pudding.

I was then browsing around for the recipe of Banana Foster and found that it is best served right after you remove from heat. Another interesting technique is you got to ignite the rum and banana liqueur while cooking it. I will try this if the cooking is done in my kitchen. But, I'm not going to do this in our friend's kitchen, I don't want to burn their house!! LOL!!



I discovered this Banana Bread Pudding recipe while I was browsing for Banana Foster making. I love any breads or cakes with banana ingredient in it. I wanted to try how would it tasted like. I modified the recipe and added some walnuts in it. It tasted like baked version "kuih kodok" (Banana fritter), yummy!!!!! Do you like "kuih kodok" but afraid of the excessive oil?? Then you should try this out! It is really simple.

Ingredients :

1. 1/2 loaf (about 250g) Challah or French Bread - cut into 1" cubes
2. 2 large Eggs - lightly beaten
3. 1 1/3 cups low fat milk
4. 1/4 cup brown sugar
5. 3 large ripe bananas (about 400g without skin) - mash with fork.
6. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
7. 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
8. 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
9. 1 cup (about 90g) walnut - bake for 4 minutes in the oven at 350F, then chop coarsely.


Steps :

1. Lightly grease a 9"x6" baking dish with some butter.
2. Place the bread cubes evenly into the baking dish.
3. Whisk together the ingredient #2~8.
4. Pour the mixture # 3 evenly to the bread cubes.
5. Gently fold in the walnut pieces.
6. Cover it with the aluminum foil.
7. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow the bread soak in the mixture.
8. Preheat the oven at 325F
9. Bake with the aluminum foil cover on for 45 minutes at middle rack.
10. Remove the foil, bake for another 30 minutes.
11. Serve warm or cold.

Bread cubes --> bread cubes soak in the banana milk mixture

Ondeh-Ondeh

Ondeh-Ondeh is a tiny little ball made by glutinous rice flour with the filling of either gula melaka, palm sugar and brown sugar or fried grated coconut. It is then cooked like Tang Yuan (汤圆) then coated with fresh grated coconut. I like the one with sugar filling. It is a wonderful sensation when you pop a whole ondeh-ondeh ball into your mouth, bite down, and have the juicy melted sugar gush out!


Melted sugar mixture inside the ondeh-ondeh ball.....yum!! yum!!!

I made Ondeh-Ondeh as one of the snacks for a Tzu Chi couple's wedding ceremony 2 years ago. About 400pcs. Crazy...huh?? The most time consuming process was to grate the fresh coconut. Don't worry, Tom helped me out!! LOL!! Thank you honey! :-p



There are few students in Tzu Chi Still Thought class who come from Southeast Asia families. I was surprised when they told me they like ondeh-ondeh. So, I promised to make some for them this week.

Ingredients :

A)
1. 50g tapioca starch
2. dash of salt
3. 40ml pandan juice - blended from 10 pandan leaves, don't forget to sieve it.
4. 180ml water (220ml if you don't have fresh pandan juice)
5. 1 tbsp vegetable oil

B)
1. 280 Glutinous rice flour
2. 1/2 tsp pandan paste (1tsp if you don't have fresh blended pandan juice on ingredient A)
3. Green food color (optional)

C) Filling
1. 3 tbsp spoon pure Palm Sugar mix with 2 tbsp brown sugar.

D) Coating
1. 80g fresh grated coconut
2. dash of salt

Steps :

1. Mix all ingredients A together in a non stick pot.
2. Cook mixture A over medium low heat until the runny tapioca liquid turns to a translucent dough, stir frequently. DO NOT bring it to boil.
3. Remove the tapioca dough from heat, immediately pour it into glutinous rice flour.
4. With a spatula/spoon, stir to mix the tapioca and rice flour until well combined. Add in the pandan paste and food color gradually. The dough will turn out like 汤圆dough but more sticky.
5. Dust your hands and work surface with some flour, divide the dough into 1" balls. Flatten it with the ball of your thumb, spoon some palm sugar mixture in the middle of the circle and roll it to a ball.
6. Broil a pot of water, add in the ondeh-ondeh, cook it over medium heat. When you see the ondeh-ondeh is floating, cook for another 3 minutes, then scoop out from the broiled water.
7. Immediately drop it into a bowl of ice water. Soak for 30 seconds. (This step is optional, the ondeh-ondeh will be more springy if you put it through the ice water bath, you may skip this step if you want your ondeh-ondeh softer)
8. Remove the ondeh-ondeh by a strainer, lightly pat the ondeh-ondeh with paper towel.
9. Then coat the ondeh-ondeh with the grated coconut.

Palm Sugar I used, Tapioca dough before mix with glutinous rice flour



Glutinous rice flour & tapioca mixture, ondeh-ondeh balls before cooking.

Tandoori Chicken

I am lucky, having being grown up in a country that consists of a multi-racial environment. This special condition not only makes us able to blend well in different cultures, but also provides us varieties of foods to explore anytime, anywhere across the country. It is also interesting that you get the opportunity that to learn different kinds of culinary styles from your neighbors.

Tandoori Chicken is a Punjabi dish that originates from North India. I think it is served in most every Indian Restaurant. The word - " Tandoor" - is a cylindrical clay oven used in cooking and baking. The chicken is normally marinated with yogurt mixed with Tandoori Masala (a mixed ground spices of cumin, coriander, pepper, ginger, cardamom, mustard..etc), then baked in the high temperature tandoor, or it can be also cooked on a traditional grill.



The Tandoori Chicken served in Malaysia usually comes with a mint yogurt condiment. This refreshing condiment makes an appropriate compromise for the strong Tandoori flavor. There is one thing I don't like about the Tandoori Chicken made at most restautants is - the chicken comes out too dry and too red (I think it is not from the red chili -probably red food color instead??)

So, when I make the tandoori chicken by my own, I lower the baking temperature a bit, so my version of Tandoori Chicken is without food color and always yummy and juicy!

Ingredients :

1. 4pcs chicken leg (4pcs) - cut few deep lines on both sides for better cooking.
2. 5 cloves garlic - crushed
3. 1/2" ginger - crushed
4. 2 tbsp lime juice
5. 8 tbsp plain yogurt
6. 5~6 tbsp Tandoori Masala (buy from a well stocked supermarket or Asian/Indian specialty food store, andadjust to your desired spiciness)
7. 1-1/3 tsp salt
8. Some soften butter (optional)

Mint Condiment
1. 2 tbsp plain yogurt blend with 8~10 mint leaves.


Steps :

1. Rub the chicken with the crushed garlic, ginger and lime juice. Set aside for 15 minutes.
2. Mix the yogurt, tandoori masala and salt well.
3. Rub the tandoori yogurt mixture on the chicken until evenly coated. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
4. Leave the marinated chicken at room temperature for 1~2 hours before cooking.
5. Preheat the oven at 425F/220C, place the chickens on the middle rack. Put the chicken on a wire cooling rack, on a baking sheet. This will elevate the chicken above the baking sheet, making sure it cooks evenly, and catches the drippings on the baking sheet. Bake for 30~40 minutes for each side. Turn once or twice.
6. 10 minutes before the end of baking, brush some softened butter on the chicken and return to baking.
7. Serve warm with cool mint condiment.

Salmon Steak with Oregano Pepper Wine Salsa

I like steamed fish, but the frozen fish that is sold in supermarkets here is not suitable for steaming. The most important factor for steaming fish is - fresh!! fresh!! fresh!! Normally, the steamed fish served in Chinese restaurant here is Tilapia, but I don't like the "muddy" smell that comes along with it. I have been spoiled by the freshly caught ocean fish that are available in varieties of choice in my hometown - a place just few minutes away from a very famous seafood village - Bukit Tambun."Sigh"......!! I miss fresh seafood so much!!

When I tired of chicken, beef, pork!!! I take salmon. Salmon is rich with Omega 3 and protein. Believe it or not? The salmon sold in supermarket here is cheaper than in Malaysia. Maybe we are much closer to the place that produce majority of the salmon in America - Alaska.

I usually marinate my salmon with some zesty herb and just pan fry it. This time, I tried a different recipe, I thought it might not taste as good as the zesty herb salmon when I tried the wine salsa when I started cooking. But once I coated the salmon with salsa.....ooooiyorrrr, it was just like a magic, the match of wine salsa and salmon just amazing!! yummy!!!!!!

Ingredients steps :

1. 2pcs salmon steak (about 1lb)
- 30 minutes before cooking, sprinkle with some salt and freshly ground black pepper

2. 1 tbsp olive oil
3. 1 tbsp minced garlic
4. 1tbsp chopped fresh oregano/ 1/2 tbsp dried oregano
5. 1/2 tbsp parsley flakes
6. 2 tbsp chopped red pepper
7. 1 cup dry white wine

Steps :

1. Warm the olive oil in a non-stick pan, pan fry the salmon steaks over medium-high heat until cooked through. Turn once, about 4~5 minutes each side (depends on the thickness of the steak)
2. Remove the salmon steaks from the pan. Switch to the medium heat, saute the garlic, oregano, parsley and red pepper for about 2~3 minutes.
3. Add in the white wine. Simmer with uncovered until the wine salsa is reduced by half.
4. Return the fried salmon steaks to the pan and coat well for both sides.
5. Serve warm! Enjoy!!!

上汤菠菜 xxx Baby Spinach

I could not think of better English name for this dish?? May be call it "Thin Soup Baby Spinach"?? Sounds weird to me! LOL!!! You may help me to name it.

I had this dish at a famous Teo Chew restaurant (Bee Chin Hiang) located at Chai Leng Park 3 years ago with my colleague. Some people like it so much, some people may not. It depends on your personal taste bud. It usually consists of salty egg and century egg. Since Tom doesn't like century egg, so I omitted it.



It is a quick and easy dish, if you are a salty egg and century egg lover, you should try it.

Ingredients & Steps :

1. 200g baby spinach (may substitute with baby yam leaves - 嫩藩薯叶)
2. 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil mixed with 1/2tsp sesame oil.
3. 3 cloves garlic - minced.
4. 2~3 thin ginger slices.
5. 8g little dried fish(小鱼干/江鱼仔) - washed. (may substitute with mushroom slices if you like to make purely vegetable meal)
6. 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce.
7. 1/2 salty egg - cubed.
8. 1/2 century egg (皮蛋) - cubed. - can be omitted.
9. 80~100ml water.

Steps :

1. Grease the heated frying pan with the vegetable oil and sesame oil.
2. Saute the garlic and ginger slices until fragrant.
3. Add in dried fish and stir for 10~15 seconds.
4. Add in baby spinach and oyster sauce, stir over high heat 30~45 seconds.
5. Add in water (adjust to your preferred saltiness level), salty and century egg cubes, lightly stir to mix with well, return to boil.
6. Best served in warm.

** The longer time you cook, the saltier the soup would be, as it contains dried fish and salty egg ingredients.**

Swirl Skin Curry Puff

Curry puff is a popular snack in Malaysia. It can be easily found at many food stalls across the country. The filling usually consists of curry potato or chicken with thicken curry gravy. Sometime, you may get it with sardine filling too.



I used to have curry puff as my daily afternoon snack back to my working life in Malaysia. I stopped to take it for a while as my throat got sensitive by eating too much deep frying and spicy food. After then, I took it again everyday, stopped when my throat protested... :-p!!



I like to make curry puff whenever I am craving for it. It can be done ahead and frozen until you need it. Here are the ingredients and steps :

A. Filling
1. 150g chicken chunks - marinate with some salt and curry powder
2. 200g diced potato
3. 20g chopped carrot
4. 30g diced tomato
5. 250g minced shallot
5. 1 stalk lemon grass - crushed
6. 5~6 curry leaves
6. 2tbsp spoon curry powder - mix with some water
7. Some sugar and salt to taste
8. Some water
9. 2~3 tbsp coconut milk

B. Water Dough
1. 350g all purpose flour
2. 40g margarine
3. 180ml water
4. 1/3 tsp salt

C. Oil Dough
1. 120g all purpose flour
2. 60g margarine


Steps :
A. Filling
1. Heat up the pan with some oil, stir in the minced shallot, cook until fragrant.
2. Add in lemon grass, curry leaves and curry powder, stir for 2 minutes.
3. Add in potato dices, carrot and tomato, stir and cook for another 5 minutes or until potato slightly tender. Slowly add some water for better cooking.
4. Add the chicken chunks and cook until they are done.
5. Sugar and salt to taste.
6. Stir in coconut milk, cook for another minute or two.
7. Remove from heat and set aside.

B. Water Dough
1. Melt the margarine, salt in the broiled water.
2. Make a well in the middle of flour, pour in the margarine salt water.
3. Mix well and knead to form a smooth dough. Let it rest for 15 minutes. If it is too dry to handle, rub your hands with some water to work on it.
4. Divide the dough to 8 portion.

C. Oil Dough
1. Rub margarine into flour until they mixed well, divide to 8 portion.

D. Wrapping (for 2" diameter curry puff mold)

1. Wrap the oil dough with water dough.
2. Flatten it to a 4" X 6" piece sheet
3. Roll it up lengthwise like Swiss roll
4. Repeat the step #2 and # 3.
5. Cut the roll into 6 portions.
6. With the cutting edge facing down on your work surface, roll it to a 2.5~3" circle skin.
7. Place the skin on the mold, fill up with the curry filling, fold the mold and trim the extra skin.
8. Remember to keep the sealing edge clean and oil free, or your curry puff will "pecah" when you fry it.
9. Fry the curry puffs until golden brown.

Roll up like Swiss Roll..--> cutting edge facing down


Roll to 2.5~3" dia. skin...--> Filled, Folded and trimmed