Recipe: Chewy coconut macaroons

A quickie today - a simple but popular snack that is fun to make and a good one to get the kids to help with. I recently made a batch and brought a few of them to work, and it was well received - I made a second batch later in the week for those that missed out the first time. 

Also, for the longest time I thought I had lost this recipe for good. Luckily though, with the help of my siblings (and the wonders of the internet) we have it back . This is another one of our favourites - our mom would make batches and would make us wait until they had cooled.. back then I thought it was torture having to wait and stare at them on the benchtop as they cooled. But now I see why - waiting was so worth it. They are even better when they are more chewy a few hours after baking. I can't wait to teach my nieces and nephews how to make this.. that is if my sister's haven't already done so. Here it is, coconut macaroons.

Ingredients: 

• 2 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 400g shredded or dessicated coconut
• 3 eggs
• 1 can condensed milk 
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• Glacé cherries cut in half for decoration
• Cupcake patty paper

Instructions:

1. Cream butter and sugar together to form a smooth paste. 

2. Add the eggs,condensed milk and vanilla essence. 

3. Add coconut half a cup at a time and once all mixed together, take the mixture and form into small balls roughly the size of a ping pong ball.

4. Place the balls into cupcake pattys and decorate with glacé cherry on top of each macaroon.

5. Bake 180' Celsius for 20 mins or until just starting to be golden. 

Fluffy when warm or my preference let it cool and then store in an airtight container for a few hours and it becomes chewy. Additionally you can drizzle some white chocolate over the top once cooled for a Ferrero Rafaello experience. Bon appetit!

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Recipe: Ginataang Bilo-bilo (aka Alpahor in Chavacano / pidgin Spanish)

Ginataan is one of my all time favourite comfort foods, and is a dessert/snack that can be eaten at any time during the day. I have very fond memories of my mom and aunt cooking these on cold and rainy days - we would stay indoors all day and eat; the adults would chat while the kids watched movies and played board games. 

There are as many different variations of this recipe as there are number of regions in the Philippines. Remember, we have 7,107 islands at high tide and 7,147 at low tide (or so I was told). This recipe is the Batangueño version as it derives from my mom's hometown of Batangas.

The word ginataan (or guinataan) literally means "cooked in coconut milk. It is again very similar to the popularised taiwanese desserts (see here), and consists of sweetened/caramelised fruits and root vegetables accompanied by chewy glutinous rice balls and simmered in coconut milk. Our family usually has this warm, but I do know people who prefer this served cold and it's equally tasty. But I guess it just never lasts that long in our house as it is usually consumed the same day it is made. So here it is, ginataang bilo bilo.... 

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup of glutinous rice flour
• Food colouring/die (traditionally purple, but i used three colours)
• 1 litre of water
• 2/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 small sweet potato, cut into cubes
• 1 small taro, cut into cubes
• 1 cup of jackfruit, cut into strips
• 2 small plantains (or lady finger bananas), cut into pieces

Instructions:

1. Add the water and sugar to a small pot and boil the taro and sweet potato cubes until cooked but firm. This should take no more than 10 minutes. 

2. While boiling the root vegetables, prepare the dough for the bilo bilo (chewy rice balls). In a mixing bowl place the glutinous rice flour, and slowly add water, one tablespoon at a time until you get a soft dough. Knead lightly for 30 seconds but do not overwork the dough. Add food colouring sparingly as it gets darker when cooked. Set aside.

3. Add the jackfruit and the plantains to the pot, and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes. Turn down the heat to a gentle simmer and add 1/4 of the coconut milk.

4. Grab small pieces of the purple dough and roll into small balls approximately the size of your thumbnail. After rolling each, drop it straight into the pot ensuring they are all fully submerged. Once cooked, all the balls will float to the top.

5. Turn off the heat and stir through the remainder of the coconut milk. Let the mixture cool down a little.

Serve warm making sure you get a little bit of each ingredient in each bowl to get the full flavour and texture. Bon appetit! 

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Recipe: Singapore Chilli Crab

I have a confession to make.

Before arriving in Sydney 10 years ago, I had never eaten, let alone set eyes on a pad thai, a bibimbab, a banh mi, kway teo or a "real" chinese bbq pork bun. Hainan chicken? What's that - it looks kinda raw..

I came from a place far far away. Where yum cha meant hearing the beep beep of the microwave in a restaurant's kitchen. Where asian food equalled honey chicken, mongolian lamb, sweet and sour pork or beef in blackbean sauce. A place where meat pies, cream buns, vanilla slices and chips with vinegar (or gravy) were the local delicacy. Now don't get me wrong. I still love all of these. Just now, I love the dishes in the first paragraph too. 

Anyways, enough of my rambling. let's cook!

Ingredients: 

• 2 mud crabs 
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil 
• A small piece of finely chopped ginger
• 4 cloves finely chopped garlic
• 1 red chilli, chopped
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• ½ cup tomato sauce (ketchup)
• ½ cup chilli sauce  (or to taste)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce 
• ½ to 1 cup water 
• 2 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• spring onions, finely chopped
  

Instructions:

1. Wash the crabs, stick a knife where you would think the butt is and twist slightly to separate the top shell from the rest. Put the top shell aside for decoration. Remove the  gills and chop the the crab into quarters. Pull the claws off and set aside for decoration as well.

2. Heat the oil in a wok until very hot and fry the crab pieces including the shell and the claw, a few at a time, until they change colour, turning them in the oil. Remove each lot as they turn red. Set aside.

3. Heat some more oil and gently fry the ginger, garlic and chillies, stirring, until soft and golden. Add the sauces, water, sugar and salt. Return the crab pieces to the wok and let them simmer in the sauce for a few minutes, with the lid on so that the sauce infuses with the crab. 

4. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and dribble in the beaten egg, and gently push the egg around (do not stir like crazy!).  

Plate up the finished goods, garnish and serve with a small bowl of steamed jasmine rice. Bon appetit!

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Sushi Hotaru - Galleries Victoria

OK, I'm going to start with a bold and sweeping general statement, but it's because I love this place so much. Sushi Hotaru is the best sushi train in Sydney. There, I said it.. it's out there, and I'm not taking it back :) *head movements & snaps*. Sushi Hotaru has got to be one of the best sushi trains of late, in fact ever since the demise of Sushi Ark in Pitt St (replaced by the overrated ho-hum Asagao), there hasn't really been a sushi train in Sydney to write home about.

The soft-shell crab hand roll and the salt and crunchy calamari have been the main reasons that this place has become one of our local japanese haunts....  the roll is so jam packed with crispy soft shell crab that you would swear there was a whole crab in there.. no exaggeration, and the calamari crispy salty goodness. 


But seriously it's so good that we've been coming back every other week for the last couple of months. Tonight though, a new dish joined their ranks.. prawn nigiri with egg mayo salad. yum!! 

Below: (i) fighting for the touch screen (ii) beautiful hand-modelling  (iii) edamame beans.

A selection of nigiri sushi, flame torched sea perch, and more agemono (fried foods).

Crispy calamari, Scallop and prawn nigiri, more soft shell crab hand rolls.

with nearly all plates being $3.00 (except sashimi) it's fantastic value.

2 hours and 20+ plates later, things start to get silly.....

"M" provides the entertainment, "T" and "L" crack themselves up. Of course, the best part of the night is the company. Another great night with my fantastic workmates. Thanks guys!

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