Nyonya Egg Sambal With Steamed Nasi Lemak

Can you remember the first serious dishes you cooked in your new kitchen? I can... it was some 7-8 years ago when I excitedly cooked my first house warming dishes in my then shiny new kitchen. Among the dishes were 2 Nyonya dishes which I had learnt earlier from Shermay's Nyonya Cooking Class - Tempeh Goreng and Sambal Egg. The Tempeh Goreng, in particular was exotic and had a spritely appetising flavour which never failed to wow and I had repeated that for 3 separate house warming sessions... I didn't repeat this sambal egg dish as often because the vanity in me had felt that it was too easy and was not impressive enough.... Sigh.. I was much younger then and was more full of hot air! As age catches up,the character mellows and starts to appreciate the value of simplicity and functionality.

I have quite a few cookbooks on Nyonya Cuisine but the one that I refer to when I need reliability and authenticity is usually Shermay Lee's double volume 'The New Mrs Lee's Cook Book : Nyonya Cuisine'.  I have bookmarked the Traditional Nasi Lemak(Coconut Rice) recipe in the book for quite some time and have finally decided I would try this to go with the Egg Sambal which is also featured in the book. 

Forgoing the convenience of the modern rice cooker, the Nasi Lemak is cooked by gently steaming rice in 2 stages.For those who have tasted steamed rice, you will be able to appreciate the soft fluffy texture of the rice grain. The rice grains also tend to stay separated and not stick together in clumps as is sometimes seen in rice cooked in boiling water. Steaming the rice takes a longer time and requires one to 'watch and control the fire' more carefully. In addition, fluffing the rice with a pair of chopsticks also needs to be done to ensure that the rice is cooked evenly.

In Shermay's cookbook, apart from the tedious method, she had also published a simplified method. This calls for cooking the rice briskly in boiling water for 5 minutes before draining it out and steaming it for another 5-10mins.


I truly enjoy the rice with the Sambal Egg - which is a little sweeter and a little more tangy than the versions cooked with sambal belachan chilli paste. Hence for those who are less accustomed to flavours with more heat, this would be a delicious alternative. It has just occurred to me that this could be an interesting recipe for those who are looking to cook something a little more exotic for Easter :) 


Recipe : (Adapted from Shermay Lee's 'The New Mrs Lee Cookbook' )

Nasi Lemak (Simplified method)
Pandan Leaf           2 pieces
Water                    2.3 liter
Jasimine Rice         600g
Coconut milk         220g
Salt                        1 tsp

Egg Sambal
Quails Eggs            30 (or 10 small hens eggs) (Hardboiled and peeled)
Coconut Milk         80g
Oil                         4 tbsp
Tomato Ketchup    5 tbsp
Lime Juice              1 tsp
Sugar                      to taste
Salt                        1 tsp

Rempah for Egg Sambal
Ginger                   1 thumb size piece
Shallots                  12 bulbs
Garlic                    2 cloves
Chilli powder        1 tsp (I added more)

Method :
Rice
1. Wash rice. Boil water in a heavy saucepan and add washed rice and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Drain the water from the rice and quickly add coconut milk and salt. Stir well to combine. Cover to infuse for 10mins.
3, Transfer rice to a steamer. ( I place the rice on a shallow bowl and place this in a steamer) Add pandan leave and steam for 10mins.

Egg Sambal
1. Pound / grind the rempah ingredients to form a paste.
2. Heat up a wok until smoking hot. Add oil and (1). Fry for about 1minute. Add tomato ketchup and fry for another 1 minute.
3. Add eggs and fry for 1 minute. Add coconut milk stir well and simmer over medium low heat for a few minutes. Add lime juice and salt & sugar seasoning. Simmer for another 3-5 minutes until gravy turns thicker.

Martha Stewart's Easy Easter Cupcakes - A Peter Rabbit Treat

When I went to the National Library to search for these Peter Rabbit books for the photos, the librarian had told me to look under 'books for babies'. Lucky babies! How fortunate to be growing up with beautiful wholesome illustrations like these. I didn't get to know about the Peter Rabbit series until I was in my twenties. The only books I can remember growing up with during my pre-school years were a couple of big paper back picture books with titles like : Three Little Pigs and Puss In Boots.

When I eventually went to primary school, my reading material were 50cents weekly monochromatic periodicals. My parents would take us to the bookshops during school holidays where we stock up on story books and stationery... Even then, we would only be allowed to buy books that were 'cheap and good'. Hence, I ended up reading the whole collection of Oxford Classic series because they only cost $1 each... while my friends would be showing off their $5 Enid Blytons and Nancy Drews...The good thing that came out of this 'crunch' was that by the time I moved on to Secondary One (equivalent to junior high?), I had already finished reading titles like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Little Women, Wuthering Heights and The Hound of Baskervilles. Hence when we were assigned to read Little Women for our literature class, I had already known the book inside out...:)
I have never griped about not having what my classmates had. In fact, in retrospect, I am really thankful for the foundation those experiences from the early years had provided me.

Today? Books are still a big part of my life. I still have a full wall of bookshelf...albeit the cookbooks are quickly edging all other books out of the shelves..but no worries, I have just bought myself my first Kindle E-reader last month when I was in US and am thrilled to bits with it.

Apart from the E-reader, I also managed to get my hands on these Peter Rabbit Cupcake Kit from Williams Sonoma. Very appropriate for the Easter Holiday. Sigh, why are pretty things like these never available in this part of the world?

To celebrate Easter, I have chosen to make Martha Stewart's Carrot Cupcake with a Tangy Cream Cheese frosting. I am beginning to really enjoy Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook. The last time I worked with a recipe from the book was for the Ginger Bread Cupcake  - the texture and flavours of which I had totally enjoyed.
This Carrot Cupcake is equally wonderful. Totally easy to make, the recipe contains loads of shredded carrot which gives it a very moist and fine crumbed finish. Perfect for children (and adults, like myself) who do not like carrots! The addition of yellow raisins lends another delightful burst of natural sweetness and sunshine to every mouthful.

If you are considering to bake something for Easter, I would strongly recommend this!


Recipe (Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book)
Cupcake
1 pound               carrots, peeled and finely grated
3                          large eggs
1/3 cup                buttermilk (I used full cream milk)
2 cups                 sugar (I used 1.5 cups)
1.5 tsp                vanilla extract
1/2 cup               golden raisins
3 cups                all purpose flour
1 tsp                   baking soda
2 tsp                   baking powder
1tsp                    salt
1 tsp                   ground cinnamon
1 tsp                   ground ginger (I omitted the ginger and cloves because I am concerned about how the
1/8 tsp                ground cloves   my neighbour's 4 year old kid would take to the spices)

Cream Cheese Frosting
225g                  Butter
340g                  Cream Cheese
4 cups                Confectioner's sugar (sifted)
3/4 tsp               Vanilla extract

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 160C.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Whisk together carrot, eggs, buttermilk, sugar,oil, vanilla extract and raisins.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour,baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir flour mixture into accort mixture until well combined.
4. Divide batter among lined cups. Fill each liner to 3/4 full.
5. Bake at 160C for 25mins until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Frosting
1. Cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Lower mixing speed and add in powder suger.
2. Add vanilla extract and mix well. Refrigerate if frosting becomes too soft to pipe.

Assembly
1. Place frosting in a piping bag fittled with a large round tip. Pipe swirl onto cupcake and decorate with Peter Rabbit pick.

Caramel Tiger Almond Cookies

It all started with the bottle of Dulce de Leche which Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets gave me in New York. I tweeted that I was looking for something to bake with the Caramel and that led to a tweeting marathone debating if Dulce de Leche and Caramel (cream based) are the same thing.

I have always made my Caramel by adding cream and butter to a boiling sugar syrup and when I started to see many fellow bloggers raving about the process of making Dulce de Leche with sweetened condensed milk in a can, I recall simply dismissing it as just another novel way of making caramel.

When Gertrude gave me the bottle, she had told me that she was a little amused that so many bloggers in Malaysia and Singapore are crazy about making Dulce de Leche and that I should try this original one from Argentina. I recall feeling a little confused at that point - not understanding why she had said that the original version is from Argentina. Later as I pondered, it started to make a little more sense. Dulce de Leche, is after all, the Spanish term for Milk Candy and it is completely probable that the term should have originated from a Spanish speaking/ influenced region. In fact, the first Dulce de Leche I tasted was from Mexico - made with goat's milk, it had a goaty smell which I have not learnt to appreciate.

Many years later, when I learnt to make my own cream based caramel, I started to use the terms Caramel and Dulce de Leche interchangeably.... though I have to admit that Dulce de Leche does sound so much more exotic, myseterious and... gourmet. The process of making Dulce de Leche, which involves cooking and reducing a mixture of sugar and milk until the sugar caramelises, is basic and straight forward.  Caramel cream, on the other hand calls for caramelising the sugar in water first before the milk component is added. To give it more body and smoothness, butter is often also added.  To me both methods have the same essential components. Milk, after all is more than 80% water and less than 20% milk solids while cream, is just a version of milk that is higher in butter fat content. What differs is the process and my personal preference is the second method which gives me more control over how the sugar caramelises and absolves me from having to deal with curdling boiling milk.

Back to the bottle of Dulce de Leche from Argentina. Truly sensational in its balance of sweetness and body. It conjured up images of  happy children.... and Quality Street's old-world-cellophane wrapped fudgy toffees....



I found this cookie recipe in Tish Boyle's The Good Cookie (yes, again!). A very short almond based cookie, this is another keeper. I would be most content eating the cookie by itself with tea or coffee. Sandwiching and drizzling it with the silky smooth Dulce de Leche just elevated the indulgence to an even more gratifying level.

So thank you, Gert, for the sweet gift. I am looking forward to making more delicious treats with it!


Recipe : (Adapted from Tish Boyle's The Good Cookie)

Almond Cookies
1/2 cup            Almond meal
1.5 cups          All purpose flour
1/2 cup           Corn starch
1/8 tsp            Salt
225g               Butter softened
1/4 cup           Castor sugar
1/4 cup           Powdered sugar
1/4 tsp            Almond extract

Caramel Filling
3/4 cup           Granulated sugar
3 tbsp             water
1/3 cup           Heavy cream
2 tbsp             Unsalted butter
Pinch of salt

Method :
1. Mix almond meal, corn starch, salt and flour together in a bowl.
2. In a cake mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until light in texture. (about 2 mins)
3. Add in almond extract. Lower mixing speed to low and add in flour mixture.
4. Scrape the dough onto a plastic food wrap. Flatten to form a disk and refrigerate for 2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 175C.
6. Roll out dough to 1/8" thick and cut out cookie using a 1.5 inch fluted round cookie cutter. Using a 3/4" round cookie cutter, cut out the center of half of the cookies. Refrigerate for 5-15 mins if dough becomes too soft.  ( I used a Linzer cookie cutter which makes it easier)
7. Bake cookies at 175C for 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.

Assemble :
1. Spread Dulce de Leche / Caramel on to cookie and sandwich with another piece of cookie with the cut out center.
2. Placing some Dulce de Leche/ Caramel into a piping bag, cut a small hole at the tip of the bag and pipe drizzles of the caramel over the cookie.

Caramel

1. In a small heavy saucepan, place sugar and water and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves.  Increase heat to high and cook without stirring and occasionally brushing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush until the syrup caramelizes and turn into a golden amber colour (about 4 minutes).

2. REmove the pan from the heat and carefully add in the heavy cream. Stir the bubbling mixture until smooth. Stir in butter and salt until the butter is melted. Cool caramel down until it is thick enough to spread.

Ginger Scallion Beef With Noodles 姜葱牛肉捞面

If a woman's eternal woe is having a closet full of clothes with nothing wear, I think a home cook's eternal woe is having a fridge full of food and not knowing what to eat....
I visit food blogs for many reasons but 2 of the fundamental ones are to search for recipes and for inspiration and reminders on what to eat and where to eat. Ellie's post on Ginger Scallion Beef 2 days ago was a timely reminder of what a great tasting dish this is. The craving set in instantly and as luck had it, I actually had all the ingredients in my fridge.

I used to cook this dish quite regularly and I don't follow any recipe for it. I had always taken a Chinese Cooking 101 approach when I made this. Seasoning was standard with soya sauce(both dark and light soya sauce), a pinch of sugar and a dash of pepper. The basic approach is always to season with the components that give colour and taste first, leave it to marinate and infuse before adding corn flour and oil... followed by a little water to keep it moist during cooking.

This beef dish is perfect with steaming white rice but I decided to serve this with tossed egg noodles. I simply cooked dried egg noodles (if you can get your hands on fresh wonton noodles, that would even be better) in water, drained off the water and toss it in a little oyster sauce, light soya sauce, pepper and sesame oil.

Fast, easy, nutritious and totally tasty. Who needs instant noodles or Mac Donalds?


Recipe :

I don't follow a recipe but for those who needs some guideline, please hop over to Almost Bourdain. :)

Prawn Mousse Ravioli with Meyer Lemon Butter

When my first experiment with the Meyer Lemons turned sour (no punt intended), I promised myself that I would not lose heart. With the remaining 3 precious fruits sitting in my refrigerator, I tried my best to lock in the taste of the sweet tartness and the scent of the mild floral zest in my memory...refluxing the phantom flavours over and over on my palate... wondering, imagining, fantasising about how the floral citrusy flavours would work with different ingredients.

I was sure of one thing and that is, I had wanted to abandon desserts and work with something that is more savoury. Picking the brains of ZenCanCook over Twitter last weekend, I found new direction. Stephane had shared that the unique floral aroma of the Meyer Lemons would go well with fish and crudo. This immediately reminded me of the memorable Fluke Sashimi With Yuzu dressing I had at Nobu.... it was simply sublime.

Armed with these new inspirations, the 1/2 kg fresh sea prawns I had bought in the morning and my new Kitchen aid pasta roller attachment, I set my mind on making a Ravioli dish,filled with a prawn mousse which I had seen in one of the Junior Masterchef tag challenges with Justin North and Matt Moran.
The recipe in the challenge dresses the Tortellini with prawn oil which I felt could over power the flavours of the Meyer Lemon. I opted instead for a simple Lemon Butter sauce.


The verdict? Almost sensational.... ;) . The mild tartness of the Meyer Lemon was perfect as a dressing for the Ravioli and the floral aroma of the zest in the dressing and the prawn mousse was simply delightful. The flavour was refined and very elegant. What I can improve on, though, is my pasta. I wish I could get it thinner and more pliable. I am guessing that I did not knead and rest the dough enough to get the right silky and soft texture.

Two Meyer Lemons used up and one more left. I would be happy to simply juice it and enjoy it as a tall cold  lemonade :)

Recipe :
Pasta & Prawn Mousse (Adapted from Junior Masterchef)
Pasta Dough

200g type ‘00’ flour (I used plain flour)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch sea salt

Prawn Mousse

600 g green prawns, whole (about 300 g prawn meat).
¼ teaspoon flaked salt
1 egg white
120 ml cream
zest of ½ a lemon

Lemon Butter Sauce
112g   Unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
2 tsp   Lemon zest
1 tbsp Meyer Lemon Juice
Method :
1. Pasta Dough

Combine flour, eggs, olive oil and salt in food processor. Process until mixture forms a ball.
Remove dough from processor and knead briefly on a lightly floured bench until smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and rest at room temperature.

2. Prawn Mousse

Remove the heads from the prawns then peel the tails to remove all of their shells.
Take the prawn meat and remove the intestinal line by running a small knife along the back of the prawn tail, then scrape out the intestinal track then discard.

Process prawn meat, salt and white pepper in a food processor until a coarsely chopped. Add egg white and blend until mixture is smooth. Add cream and lemon zest and process until just combined. Avoid over mixing. Place into a piping bag and refrigerate

3. RavioliDivide dough into three balls. Flatten each ball into a disk and pass through the pasta machine on the widest setting. Fold pasta in half, lengthways and repeat without changing the roller settings. Cut pasta if it gets too long. Gradually narrowing the pasta machine settings 1 notch at a time. Roll the pasta through until the finest setting. Run through 3 times then cut out 3 rounds with a 10cm round cutter.

To make the Ravioli, brush one half of each circle with egg place a little of the prawn mousse in the center of each circle (about the size of a 20cent piece) and top each with another wrapper, pressing it around the edges to seal in filling.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 tsp of salt into the water. Working in 2 batches, cook ravioli until they rise to the top, 2-3 mins.
4. Sauce Meanwhile, make the sauce. In a frying pan, add 1/2 the amount of  butter and heat until just bubbling and frothy. Transfer first batch of Ravioli into pan using a slotted spoon along with 2 tbsp of pasta cooking liquid. Add 1 tsp of lemon zest and add half of the lemon juice. Swirl to combine. Transfer to plate.

5. Repeat with the next batch of Ravioli.

Lemon Curd Bites - Experimenting With Meyer Lemons

My business travels wreak havoc on my blogging activities but they also give me interesting new exposure to elements that very often turn into inspirational fodder for my blog.... provided if I find time to tap into those inspirations before they fade away in my memory....

I was back in the Big Apple region for almost 3 weeks, working on business plans. Between the cold rainy weathter, the floods in New Jersey and the first transfixing images of the engulfing tsunami in Japan, I was still fortunate enough to be blessed with 2 sunny, fair weathered weekends to roam the streets of New York. 

I saw these Meyer Lemons at Dean & Deluca on my first weekend in town. Fascinated by the collection of cross-bred citrus varieties available, I made a mental note to bring home some blood orange, meyer lemons and mandarinos... Unfortunately by the time I returned again on the weekend just before my departure, the stock has already dwindled to a haggard looking bundle, stripped of the barrels of sunshine I had seen a week earlier. I picked out half a dozen of the best looking Meyer Lemons I could find and hand carried them on my flight home.

Just a little bit of background on the Meyer Lemons for those who are interested - this citrus is a cross bred between a lemon and a mandarin orange. Believed to have been first bred in China for ornamental purposes, US started to consume this in the early 1900. However, I believe I have only become aware of this after I have seen this featured in gourmet magazines and Martha Stewart's recipes over the last 2 years.

Rounder than the ordinary lemon with a deeper orangey hue, the fruit smelt gorgeous like a sweet grapefruit with a mild hint of the lemony zest.  Taste wise, it is less tart than an ordinary lemon but with alot more tang than a sweet orange. I would think that the juice of the Meyer Lemon would be perfect as it is for a lemonade drink without the need for additional sugar.

I deliberated over what to do with the Meyer Lemons when I got back. Now, on hind sight, I have to admit that I had been too narrow minded and was too boxed in by my own pre-conception that to test a lemon,I would need to make a lemon curd. I played safe and fell back on Tish Boyle's Lemon Curd Bites from her The Good Cookie cookbook. 'The miniature tarts made with a tender cream cheese dough was filled with tangy lemon curd. Very posh, very sophisticated.' - I was sold.


These turned out to be pretty little things and yes, I could imagine them looking posh and sophisticated among a tea party spread but I have to admit that the Meyer Lemons did not quite give the right taste to the tarts. Lemon curd, I have come to conclude, should be smooth and tart. One expects the lemon curd to be bright and zesty. However, the subdued tartness of the Meyer Lemons was not enough to deliver the kick. With this recipe, I found that the curd was a little lost in its flavour. At one point, I think my disappointment even wryly hallucinated me into thinking that I was tasting Benadryl...  now I am really lost...

I have not lost heart. I still have 4 lemons in my fridge. I will think of something.....

After thought : I probably should have cut the sugar for the lemon curd by half and that would give me a more tart finish...


Recipe
Lemon Curd Bites (from Tish Boyles's The Good Cookie)

Cream Cheese Dough
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup confection sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter cut into tablespoons
3 oz Cream chees,cut into 1/2 inch chunks and frozen for 30mins
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon Curd
1 large egg
4 large egg yolks
1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
Pinch of salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter cut into tablespoons

Method:
Dough
1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, confectioners' sugar, baking powder, and salt and process for a few seconds, until blended. Sprinkle the butter and cream cheese pieces over the mixture and pulse about 18 times until the butter pieces are the size of peas and the mixtures resembles coarse meal. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and vanilla with a fork. Add the mixture to hte processor and pulse just until the dough starts to come together.

2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and gently press it into a disk. Wrap the dough with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, until firm.

3. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400F (205C). Coat 2 12 cup miniature muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray. Cut out twenty-four 2-inch squares of aluminum foil.

4. Remove the dough from the fridg and divide it in half. Divide each half into 12 portions. Shape each piece of dough into a ball. Place one ball in each muffin cup and press down into the center of the ball with the knuckle of your index finger to form an indentation, then press the dough up the sides of the cup to its rim. The cups should be completely lined with dough. Prick the bottom of each crust with a fork. Line each crust with a alumninum foil and fill with a few pie weights, dried beans or rice.

5. Bake the crusts for 10mins. Transfer the muffin pans to a wire rack and reduce the oven temperature to 350F (175C). Remove the foil and weights from the crusts and bake the crusts for another 7 to 9 mins until golden brown around the edges. Cool down the muffin pans completely before removing tart cases from the pan.

Lemon Curd
1. Set a fine mesh sieve over a medium bowl and set aside. In a medium sized heavy nonreactive saucepan, whisk together the egg, yolks and sugar until blended. Stir in the lemon juice and zest, salt and butter and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens, 7-10mins. (do not let the mixture boil, or it will curdle). Immediately strain the mixture through the sieve, pressing it through with a rubber spatula. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the curd until chilled, about 1 hour.

Assembly

1. Placing the chilled lemon curd in a pastry bag fitted with a medium star tip, pipe a generous rosette of lemon curd into each crust.

Palm Sugar Rice Cakes (Kuih Kosui)

South East Asian cuisine, as one knows, is diverse in a rich and colourful way. Distinct sharp flavours often puctuated by the clever use of exotic spices and earthy fresh ingredients have come to depict the identity of SE Asian cuisine to many.

Needless to say, gastronomy nostalgia for me, with my Singaporean roots, will always have to involve food or ingredients that transport me back to the region. Dessert will always be a category that grips many and for many of us who reside in the South East Asia, Kuih, those bitesized snacks that come in a myriad of textures, colours and taste will always evoke fond memories and comfort.

Common ingredients for Kuih include coconut products, root vegetables such as tapioca or sweet potato, rice flour (SE Asia's staple carb component) and.... Gula Melaka (palm sugar) which transforms our sweets further with its exotic sweetness. Commonly used in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesian cuisine, the palm sugar resembles brown sugar but has a more distinct caramel or butterscotch like flavour. The palm sugar, being more accessible and cheaper than refined white cane sugar was very often the sweet note on the simplest desserts such as sago pudding, coconut milk based chendol and in this case, the no frills, straight forward rice cake, Kuih Kosui.



I have to admit that Kuih Kosui has never been my favourite kuih but it is possibly the one that best celebrates the flavours of palm sugar. Commonly steamed in a tray and cut into rectangular slices to be coated with grated coconut, there are others who also steam these in little cup molds. I have decided today to try to work with these little leaf cups which I had bought at a wet market in Chinatown, Bangkok. However, I must admit regret in dressing up the kuih in these cups for the the dried leafy cup carries with it a scent that I feel do not meld with the palm sugar.

Overall though, this is definitely one classic dessert which sets off the sweet exotic flavours of Gula Melaka in an honest, earthy manner and for many of us who hail from the region, I have no doubt that it will bring back sweet dessert memories we grew with.


RecipePalm Sugar         100g
Water                 100ml
Sugar                  60g
Rice Flour           5 tbsp
Tapioca Flour     2 tbsp
Alkaline water     1/2 tsp
Grated coconut    50g (salted and steamed)
Salt                      1/2 tsp

Method :
1. In a heavy saucepan, place palm sugar and water. Heat up to dissolve the palm sugar. Add castor sugar, and continue to heat until sugar dissolves.
2. Add Alkaline water and Rice flour and Tapioca flour and mix well.
3. Return the saucepan over the stove and over low heat and with stirring, cook the batter until the batter starts to become a thicker flowable batter.
4. In a spearate pot, heat up water to prepare for steaming.
5. Pour (3) into molds (either a rectangular tray or small cups)
6. Steam (5) over high heat for about 15mins.
7. Cool down and garnish with salted grated coconut.