To borrow Dicken’s famous line, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’. That’s exactly how I remember high school. Some of my closest friends have been with me since that time. So many of the experiences were truly cherished moments - unforgettable because they marked the first of many. Like the first time I had to compere in Malay (not exactly a language I was proficient in!) and climbing over school fences and bounding over drains just to avoid capture for being late for school. Yes, those were the times when I was nimble and lithe. I bet I could still do it now. However, a trampoline or a ladder might help ensure that no serious repair works need to be done on the fence once I’ve scaled it.

Then there were painful tear wrenching heart stopping bombardment of assignments, handed out one after the other and sometimes all together, depending on the time of year and the mood of the tutors. And of course the exams. We used to tell ourselves that the ‘A’ levels was akin to getting across the  North Korean DMZ. The horror, the horror! So of course, when you can afford to gorge yourself silly during break time on creamy smooth Chinese Egg Tarts, you would. And that’s exactly what I did.Chinese Egg Tarts are synonymous to an escape. And I have never felt more glee in successfully re-creating my escape in my own kitchen and sharing the joy around with my family.

Ingredients: (Original Recipe from here)

Crust:

225g flour
125g butter (room temperature)
55g icing sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Custard:
3 eggs
130g sugar
225g hot water
85g evaporated milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400F.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.



3. Add in the egg, half at a time. Then add the vanilla extract and beat well.



4. Sift in half the flour, beat well, then add the rest. Mix well, scraping the sides once or twice until well incorporated.



5. Bring the mixture together and knead the dough a little until it comes together.



6. Roll out the dough to 1/2in thickness. Cut the dough out so that it is slightly smaller than the diameter of the mold.

Here’s a short video. Some things are easier explained in action.

7. Roll this dough out a little more so that it can nicely sit into the mold. Gently press the dough disc into the mold and around the sides. Set aside.



8. Add hot water into the sugar. Stir until dissolved.
9. Beat eggs & add to evaporated milk. Mix well.
10. Add the egg mixture into the sugar mixture. Then add the vanilla extract and stir to mix well.



11. Sieve the egg mixture.



12. Pour the sieved mixture almost to the brim of the tart shells.



13. Place the tarts into the oven (lowest rack) for about 10 minutes or until the edges turn slightly brown.
14. Then reduce the oven temperature to 350F and continue to bake until the custard starts to puff up.



15. Then open the oven door about 2 inches and continue to bake for another 10min or until the custard is done. Test by inserting a toothpick. If it stands upright the custard if ready.



16. Serve warm or chilled.

With both kids off to school, I decided to pamper myself with some black fried carrot cake. Nothing like a hot plate of black fried carrot cake and a cup of teh-si kosong to perk me up. In case you’re wondering what teh-si kosong is, that’s tea with evaporated milk and no sugar. Rewind to my last post, remember I had portions of carrot cake frozen and ready to use? Here’s what I did this morning. Stuck 1 portion in the microwave, and defrosted  it for about 4 min. While it was defrosting, I brewed my tea and chopped the garlic and beat the eggs. About 8 minutes later, I had the table set and breakfast ready. Now what could be better than a steaming plate of black fried carrot cake, my fav cup of tea and hubby to keep me company at breakfast? Sometimes, the simplest  things in life is all that you need.

Ingredients:
carrot cake - enough for 2 people
4-5 garlic - chopped
3 eggs - lightly beaten
2 - 3 tbsp sweet black soy sauce
1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce
a few dashes of fish sauce (optional)
prawns (optional)
sriracha (optional)
spring onion - for garnishing
1 tsp oil

Method:

1. Heat oil on the griddle and fry the garlic until golden brown.



2. Add the carrot cake and fry for a few minutes, to warm it up.



3. Pour the beaten eggs over the carrot cake and leave it until the bottom part of the egg starts to set.



4. With a flat spatula/frying slice, flip segments of the carrot cake over so that the egg is now on the pan and carrot cake up. Press it down lightly.



5. Then stir fry the carrot cake and the egg. Using a chopping motion with the frying slice, cut big pieces of egg and carrot cake into smaller pieces.

If using prawns, add prawns and continue frying until the prawns turn pink.

6. Add all the sauces and stir fry to mix well.



7. Taste and adjust the sauces to your preference.



8. Serve hot and garnish with sliced spring onions.

Tips:

• Add the fish sauce if you want it slightly saltier
• The sweet sauce will determine how dark the carrot cake looks
• If you have preserved radish, chai poh, you can use it too. Just add it to the garlic and fry.
• Add the sriracha with the sauces if you want it spicy.
• For white carrot cake, omit the sauces. My kids prefer it white but I find it too bland.

Before I even begin this post for real, I must take the time to thank everyone who voted for my blog. Thanks a zillion. It was an interesting but short-lived competition but frankly I am satisfied with just having entered the competition. Because of the competition, I have made many more food blogger friends, learned how to tweet for the first time (which unfortunately, I find myself being not very keen on continuing), realized how many people (friends and family) would rise to the challenge of having to register just to show me their support and finally, seeing the blog hit grow by leaps and bounds in 3 days has made the experience totally worthwhile. No regrets…but I wish I made it to the next round. (The perfectionist speaking of course!)

Now back to the post…
Some weeks back, my friend in Canada wrote on her FB that she made herself some fried black carrot cake. Ahhh…if you’ve had some from Banquet, you’d understand why the mere mention of the dish got me started googling for the recipe. I love the black carrot cake, with chili and extra eggs and prawns. *Drrrooolllll* But before I can have black fried carrot cake, I must first have the CARROT CAKE!

If you’re going “Huh? FRIED carrot cake!!??” let me make a statement. It’s NOT the carrot cake that you bake. Not that kind anyway. This is the Chinese version. It’s made from white carrots, carrots and rice flour.

White carrots are more commonly known as radish in Singapore. But if you’re in the States, do yourself a favor and look for Daikon instead. Radish in the States refers to something totally different. Just in case you’re still confused, look at this picture. Got it?

Finally I found a recipe that was promising, rolled my sleeves up and got to work. The result, was a scrumptious dinner. White carrot cake for the kids and black for the adults. Sooooo satisfying. The best part is there’s still more of it in the freezer. A lot more…so if you’re going to use this recipe, be prepared to feed an army or like me, save it in the freezer to tackle the next craving or halve the recipe. I’ll post the fried black carrot cake recipe in the next post. This post is getting a wee bit too long. Stay tuned…

Ingredients: Original recipe from ptitchef

200g daikon (weigh after removing both edges and peeling it with a potato peeler)
150g carrot (weigh after removing both edges and peeling it with a potato peeler)
1/4 cup water
3tsp salt
2tsp sugar
600g rice flour
1.5litre + 1cup + 1/3 cup water
1 tsp oil

Method:

1. Shred daikon and radish. Squeeze it dry.



2. In a pot, heat oil and fry daikon and carrots for a little while.



3. Add 1/4 cup water and continue frying until dry.



4. Mix flour with the rest of the water. Stir just before pouring into the pot.



5. Add salt and sugar.
6. On medium heat, continuously stir the flour-daikon-carot mixture.



7. It will start to curdle.



Getting thicker:




8. When it thickens and become difficult to stir, and very stiff. Remove from heat.



9. Prepare the steamer and grease a heat proof dish with some oil.
10. Pour the mixture into the dish, smooth the top with the back of the spoon.



11. Drip 1 - 2 drops of oil on top and smear it all over.
12. Steam for about 45min or until it is cooked (springs to the touch)



13. Drain water (if any) that has collected on the surface.
14. Leave it to cool.
15. Remove with a spatula.



16. Cut into pieces or use as required.

Tips:

• Drip oil on to the surface before steaming to prevent it from becoming soggy due to the vapor.
• If freezing, make sure it is completely cool. Keep cut portions instead of the whole chunk to make using it easier.
• The amount above will yield a 9in baking tray and a 9 inch Pyrex bowl filled to the brim
• Steaming time will vary according to the size and depth of the dish used
• The carrot cake was firm enough to fry with breaking into pieces and becoming mush, and tender when chewed….just the way I like it….delish!

Oooppss….

Its the last day for voting and I just remembered I promised to put  up the instructions for voting in a new post. Sigh….Oh well. Hopefully the instructions come in time..and you’ll make it to voting for me just in time.

Here’s how to vote:

1) Click on my pic in the sidebar. Yeah, the one with me in shades and looking kinda mysterious except for the ducks in the background.

2) You’ll see my cupcake appear in the first tile on a new page. That’s Foodbuzz’s voting page. Click on the little heart at the corner of my post. Those other tiles are the other competitor blogs.

3) They’ll ask you to sign in or join. Basically, it’s a means to ensure 1 person 1 vote. Choose to join or sign in.

4) If you’ve voted successfully, you’ll see the heart turn red.

Thanks for your votessssss!!!!!!!

I have no idea what was going through my mind when I decided to join the PFB challenge and see if I have what it takes to be a food blog star. PFB - that’s Project Food Blog. I don’t think I need any more challenges in my already challenge-filled day but maybe I was feeling brave, adventurous and a little reckless. Do I need to be a star? Nope. But it sure sounds better than being an idol. And so, unlike all my other blog entries, this entry being my first entry for PFB took some extra effort, extra reflection and a lot of (waaayyyy more) time. I wanted this post to be perfect. But perfection, I figured, is over-rated.

Gladly I admit that this is an imperfect blog. A photographer would probably want to teach me how to dress up my photos, angle my shots better and use a different lighting. A chef would probably wrinkle his nose in distaste at the lack of finesse in the presentation of my dishes and a reader might have much to say on how to improve my writing, work on my voice. I would gladly take their advice. But for each imperfect post, I can say with conviction that it was written with honesty, sincerity and confidence that it would not bring anyone trying the recipes here to tears unless they were tears of joy and excitement. Most importantly, it will not fail my children when they are old enough to use this blog to satisfy their craving for mommy’s food.

My children - this brings me to the main reason I started this blog. Ever since we moved to Seattle, I have become the fairy godmother who clangs pots and pans to make food happen (wish I had a magic wand – so much easier!). I’ve had all sorts of requests because they’ve been craving all sorts of things. Grandma’s Indian kal-ke-chu-de, the fragrant store-bought Hainanese Chicken Rice, the Malay Kuih Pinang dessert and the latest crave, was for Chocolate Cornflake Cups normally prepared as an Eid treat. I have matched each of their request and now they tell people triumphantly that, “Mommy can cook aaaanything we want!” (*Blush* Don’t kids say the darnest things!) Well I don’t only want to feed them, I want them to be able to feed themselves. I believe there’s a saying that goes “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach the man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”

Well I soon realized after the first few posts that just penning recipes down didn’t make the cut. I needed pictures because they made things so much easier to explain and videos because pictures were limited by the 1000 words that they painted. I wanted the recipes to be presented simply, clearly and accurately. It had to be inspiring, not daunting for them.

Unfortunately, I have another more selfish reason for this blog. I wanted to capture my culinary feats. Coming from Singapore, and if you’ve been to Singapore or known a Singaporean you’ll probably be grinning…no…smirking, it’s not a wonder that I’m so into food. I think we must be the only people who find food so fascinating. It is a staple in our conversations. We discuss food as others would discuss the weather. I think eating comes close to being our national pastime ( I dare say it is!); not exchanging food gossip would be very unusual. It is no wonder that we pride ourselves as being a food haven.

That however spelled bad news for me when I moved. I’d been spoiled for choices; fast-food (not a healthy option) - MacDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, numerous hawker centers (which I must say aren’t necessarily the healthiest or most hygienic options but they were delish) and a gazillion exotic restaurants like the Turkish Sofra, the Indonesian Sanur, the Thai cuisine Bali Thai, the Korean Seoul Garden and I could go on (but there’s a word limit in this competition).You’ll just have to visit Singapore to check the food scene out for yourself. These places were halal-certified (basically means according to Islamic dietary specifications) so as a Muslim, it was  simply a gastronomical opportunity. Not that Seattle lacks a vibrant food scene but because I eat halal, my choices were being whittled: mostly Indian and Pakistani restaurants, Mediterranean eat outs and selected dishes on the seafood menu, plus the one and only Indian-Chinese fusion restaurant called Inchin’s Bamboo. There is only so much deprivation one can stomach. I needed to create my own food haven. I believe that we set limits for ourselves and there should be no limits when it comes to trying food. As some would say, the world is our oyster. I say, let’s enjoy the oyster and keep an eye for the pearl.

Here’s a Chocolate Cornflake Cup to sweeten your day and Eid Mubarak!

If you think this post is worth voting for and you enjoy reading my blog, do vote for me so that I’ll be one of the 400 contestants to proceed to the next round. That’s 400 out of 1882 contestants! Details for voting will be up in my next post.

Ingredients: (Recipe from Shahidah, my student more than a decade ago)

200g butter
170g plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
85g granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla essence
115g cornflakes, crushed lightly
Mini colored cup cake cases
180g semi sweet cooking chocolate (chopped)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 340F.
2. Sift flour and cocoa powder.



3. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.



4. Add vanilla essence and beat to mix well.



5. Fold the flour and cocoa mixture into to creamed mixture.



6. Add the cornflakes and mix well. It will be quite a stiff mixture.



7. Spoon the mixture to fill the cups about half full. Bake for 15-20min. Leave to cool.



8. Melt the chocolate using the double boil method and drizzle/spoon the chocolate over the baked cornflakes.



9. Leave to cool before storing in an airtight container.

Tips:

• When creaming butter, rem to bring the butter to room temperature or until you can leave a dent when you press a finger into it.
• You can spoon chocolate all over the cornflakes to completely cover it.
• Top it off with roasted chopped walnuts or chocolate rice or sprinkles for a more finished look.
• We like them simple.