Tuesday 28 February 2017

Rice "Pizza"






1st Mar 2017

I used to make this for lunch few years ago. Was browsing you tube cooking channel and happened to see this chef using rice cake(he used Japanese rice cake) to make pizza. Back then I was "inspired" to make gluten meal for a family member who has to off gluten for short period of time. While searching what to cook, I saw this  video. Anyway, I did not managed to cook for him as he has resumed to gluten meal. Haha. However, I cooked that for myself instead. Because I was curious how it taste? 

I tried cooking  with china made dried rice cake. I have also tried homemade that using glutinous rice flour add with water and made into a dough. And also tried with Korean rice cake. Didn't try Japanese rice cake as it is very costly.  

Of all that I had tried, the Korean rice cake texture is the best in my opinion. I like chewy texture. China made rice cake is not too bad, the only thing is need to soak in water for few hours before use. Otherwise it will be too hard to even bite. Homemade is good but I couldn't achieve the chewy texture like the korean rice cake. One good thing if use glutinous rice flour, you can have it anytime. The frozen korean rice cake which I bought here has only few months shelf life. Usually I do not stock them up. I will only buy when I need it. Whereas, I always have glutinous flour in my kitchen😊

As usual, I do not follow through a recipe. I did quite a fair bit of changes in term of method and ingredients. 

Ingredients:
1 cup or a small bowl of frozen korean rice cake
1/4 cup cooked meat. Your choice of meat. I use leftover matmite pork
3-4 pork meat balls (optional)
2 tablespoon tomatoes paste (ready sauce for spaghetti)
2 tablespoon mozzeralla cheese


Method:
1.Wash some of ready korean rice cake.
2.Put them into a bowl or plate which can withstand oven temperature 250°c
3. Add  cooked meat. 
4. Spread 1-2 tablespoon tomatoes paste. Those paste for pizza or spaghetti.
5. Sprinkle about 1-2 tablespoon mozzeralla cheese. 
6. Put into oven toaster(if u have) or traditional oven(preheat 200°c) and bake for about 10min or when the cheese turn light brown. 


Serve hot. 



Friday 17 February 2017

Non Bake and Non Dairy Cheesecake






Can't take dairy product  but craving for cheesecake?

Last year my teenage daughter made me non bake carrot cake topped with "creamy cheese" for my birthday. I was surprised and amazed by the taste of the "cheese" that she put on top of the cake though she told me it was non dairy - meaning not cheese and nothing to do with animal fat.

Daughter read alot on non dairy food as she wants to avoid dairy products due acne issue. She trys to avoid  food that are dairy though she love ice cream and pastry and cake and cookies and pizza which are dairy. And usually i will only bake dairy cakes and cookies.

Few days ago, she said "I am craving for cheesecake" .  For her sake, I went into google and search for non dairy cheese cake recipes. Read quite a few recipe online  how others make non dairy cheesecake. I have adopted partial recipe for cheese cake filling from blog.fablunch.com. Did not follow through the entire recipe. In facts, made quite a fair bit of changes in my ingredients for fillings.  For crust, I did the dairy cheesecake way which I usually will do. But change the ingredients by replacing melted butter with coconut oil.

The "cheesecake" taste so like real cheesecake that I forgotten that it was not make of cheese. 😁

One important note is this "cheesecake" MUST put in chiller overnight to achieve the texture of a cheesecake. Try! You will love it.  This is a "cheesecake" that I will make often from now moving forwards. I would say this is probably healthier choice.. but in all things.. eat all food in moderation and exercise regularly to maintain healthy body and lifestyle.

This is the recipe and how I made them :


Crust Ingredients:
5-6 pieces digestive buscuits pound into powder
4-5 tablespoon coconut oil

Filling ingredients
1 cup raw cashew nuts( soak 3-4 hours)
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup maple syrup (to reduce to about 4  tablespoon)
1/4 cup water (cold or room temperature boiled water)
2 tbsp of lemon juice(approx 1/2 big lemon)
1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
A pinch of salt

4 strawberries for topping purpose.

Method:
1. Place digestive biscuits into a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crash and pound the biscuits into powder. You may use food process if you have.

2. Add coconut oil into powder biscuits and mix them well. Prepare 4 small cleaned glass bottles. Spoon 2-3 tablespoon of crust mixture into each bottle. Number of scoop depend on the size of bottle. Press the mixture to the base of bottle. Then, leave the bottles with the crust in refrigerator for about an hour to be harden.


3. Pour away the water use for soaking cashew nuts. Rinse the nuts. Place nuts and all the fillings ingredients into blender. Blend until you see a creamy texture. If the texture is too thick and difficult to blend, add additional water one spoon at time. DO NOT over add water. Please make sure the water is boiled and left to cool before use.

You may adjust the sweetness according to your desire taste by adding additional or reduce  maple syrup during blending process.

4. Once the fillings ingredients is done. Bring out the 4 bottles with crust from fridge. Scoop the  3-4 tablespoons of creamy fillings into each bottle. Again, number of scoop depend on your size of bottle. Top with strawberries or other berties.


5. Leave in refrigerator over night. Serve.



Enjoy. Share with me your results if you like this recipe. 



Monday 6 February 2017

Simplified Achar


06Feb2017

Ingredients:
2 cucumbers  - cut into length size 1inch, removed seed
3-4 leaves of cabbages- cut into big bite size
1 carrots - remove skin and strip length 1 inch
2-3 tbsp roasted sesame
4 green chilli padi
3-4 garlic (whole)removed skin
3-4 small red onion ( whole) removed skin
1/2 thumb size ginger sheddred
100mil water
120mil rice vinegar/ any kind of white vinegar
2 tsp tumeric powder
4 tbsp sugar, or your desired taste
3 tsp seasalt
2 tbsp homemade belacan chilli , or 1 tbsp of chilli powder if you don't have homemade
1-2 tbsp oil

Method: 
1. Wash and cut cucumber into strip and 1 inch length(remove the centre soft flesh & seed portion) and place them into a large bowl, sprinkle 2 tsp salt and mix them well. Cover. Leave them this way for about 1-2 hour to drain the water out from cucumber.

2. Wash and cut cabbages into bite size and place them into a bowl. Sprinkle 1 tsp of salt. Mix and leave in the bowl for 1-2 hours  to drain out the water from cabbages.

3. Remove carrot skin and cut it into thin strip of 1 inch length. Leave them on kitchen paper towel to air dry.

3. After 2 hours, drain the water from cucumber and cabbages. Squeeze them as dry as possible. Set aside.

4. Place oil in wok and add the whole garlic and onion and ginger. Fry until fragrance. Add water, vinegar, sugar, tumeric powder, chilli paste or chilli powder and bring it to boil.

5. After mixture is boiled, add roasted sesame seed. Off fire. Pour in all cucumber, cabbages carrots and whole green chilli and mix them well. Transfer into a large bowl to leave it to cool. Once it is cooled, transfer into a glass jar with cover and store in fridge. Do not consume it immediately. Let the achar soak/season in the fridge for one day. It will taste very delicious.😊

NOTE : All measurements are based on estimation. Please adjust according to your desired taste.

Enjoy!

Updates 21Mar2017
Today I have added additional ingredients:
1/2 pineapples -cut into small bite size
1 cup of cut cauliflowers

This is how it looks :




Looking forward to eat this. But first has to let it soak in the vinegar gravy for one day. Taste better after overnight.

If you don't have belacan chilli, for quick fix, you may try this at above step 4 :

Blend these together:
4-5 Shallots
4-5 fresh Red Chilies
2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 Candlenuts
30ml Water 

In step 4, add oil in a wok, fry add whole garlic, onions, ginger and chilli blend until fragrance. Add water, vinegar and sugar and bring it to boil. Then follow the above recipe for the rest.

If you have try this, do share with us and welcome you to share in the comments. 😊