The Roti Prata Woman

After viewing Dr Leslie Tay, famously known as ieatishootipost, on Channel U Ladies Nite, making the roti pratas, I can't help to drool over it! Being convinced by Dr Tay that this is actually very easy to do, I decided to attempt this (only to realise it wasn't as it seems!)

Extracting the recipe from ieatishootipost, I increased the recipe to meet the demands from my household. From his post, there were tonnes of information, and one need to read it carefully to understand them. I had always thought roti prata dough is not so difficult, it's the skill in flipping them. I was proven wrong. Even the dough itself need to be made carefully.


You can find the recipe from Channel U Ladies Nite, or from his blog post. Or watch the video from Ladies Nite.


Here's sharing how I made it, though quite a fair bit of work, but the result was satisfactory, considering this was the first time I made roti prata!

Reposting the recipe for Roti Prata, extracted from ieatishootipost.
(Makes approx 16 pcs)


Ingredients:
1000g Prima Plain flour
450g Water
130g Condensed milk
25g Oil (or melted butter)
2tsp Salt
83g Eggs


Method:

1. Mix all the liquid ingredients together - water, condensed milk, oil, eggs and salt.
2. Pour the flour into a large mixing bowl. Then add in the liquid mixture into the mixing bowl.
3. Using a dough hook, start mixing at low for 5mins. Rest for 5mins. Then repeat it for another 2 times. (So total 15mins kneading time, 10mins rest time)
4. Using a cling wrap, let the dough rest for 30mins.
5. After the resting time, floured a worktop, and knead the dough till smooth.
6. Divide the dough equally, weighing approx. 100g per dough ball.
7. Shaped it round, then oil it and place into a container.
8. Leave it in the refrigerator overnight, or at least 8 hours.

Fillings (your personal preference)

Variations of what I made:

1. Egg only
2. Cheese only
3. Egg, cheese and onions
4. Shredded roast chicken (leftover from the night before) and onions
5. Plain

Making pratas:

1. Bring out the dough from the fridge one hour before making.
2. Oil your worktop well. Prepare your frying pan.
3. Refer to the below video for the novice way to make the stretched dough. If you want to try flipping like a pro, refer to this video link.

One of my nicer membrane dough (limited by the space I have!!)

Once you have expanded your dough into a thin membrane, you can start adding the fillings in the centre.

Then fold up the dough and fried it until brown.

Enjoy while hot!

I thought that since I have fillings in my pratas, I can omit the curry gravy. However, when I tasted it, I found something amiss. Curry gravy is still needed somehow! The prata was thin, sweet and crispy, even though the folded sides were a bit chewy and thick though. As I only tried it after I finished frying all, they had turned cold. I believe when consumed hot, it will be even nicer!

Have enough oil in the pan when frying the prata, otherwise, it can get charred pretty fast. Also, when stretching the dough, try to stretch it as thin as possible. Don't worry about the pockets of breakages. As long as the breakages are not in the centre, you can safely fold it and cover them.

My favourite combination was the egg, cheese and onion prata. The egg was moist, and the onion was sweet. It was very appetising. My children had their plain pratas with chocolate syrup, and they loved it!

Durian Swiss Rolls

I completely agree with Jean! It's truly a month of durians, durians and more durians! I have been eating durians non-stop, at least twice a week since two weeks ago! Even the $2/pc tasted good, don't need to indulge too much on MSW (猫山王), even though I will still yearn to have some during its season!
After my failed attempt on the durian chiffon cake, I still have some durians pulps left over. I decided to make durian swiss rolls. It seems that, there are endless options of using durians nowadays, compared to previously, where only durian puffs, durian swiss rolls and durian crepes were available commercially! Nowadays, you can still bake durian cheesecake with it!

I made my durian swiss roll using Pook's soft sponge cake recipe. The sponge cake is really very soft, however, I found that it's a bit "rough" for swiss rolls. Perhaps, this recipe wasn't meant for swiss rolls, more suitable for trifles or other whole cakes! Somehow, I found that using whole eggs and separating eggs really made a lot of difference to the texture of the cakes, especially swiss rolls. I still prefer swiss rolls using the traditional chiffon method, followed by separating the egg yolks and egg whites method, and finally the whole eggs method. The whole eggs method is less cumbersome though.

I hope you can try out this sponge cake recipe for swiss rolls and see if you agree with me!

Recipe for Durian Swiss Rolls 

Soft Sponge Cake, extracted from Daily Delicious
Makes approximately 13" x 11" sheet pan

Ingredients:
4 nos  Eggs
85g Fine sugar
80g Cake flour, sift
A pinch of salt
40g Whipping cream (warm)
Method:

1. Whisk the eggs until lighten, then add the sugar gradually and beat till thick and lighten (Thick ribbon stage).
2. Sprinkle the sifted flour and salt over the egg batter and fold to combine.
3. Take 1/4 cup of batter and mix with the warm whipping cream, fold to combine. Pour the batter back, and fold to combine.
4. The batter will be smooth and thick.
5. Pour into a lined sheet pan, and bake it at preheated oven of 180C for about 12mins.
6. Let it cool completely before frosting.

Fillings:

200g Fresh durian pulps

200g Whipping cream

20g Caster sugar

Assembly:

1. Beat whipping cream with caster sugar till thick (soft peak).
2. Place the cooled cake on a silicon paper. (I merely used back the lined sheet which was used to bake the cake).
3. Spread the durian pulps on the cake evenly and thorougly.
4. Then spread the whipping cream on the cake evenly.
5. Roll it up tightly.
6. Let it chill in the fridge before slicing. (I omitted this part and found they were very messy!)
7. Consume within 2-3 days as fresh durian pulps are perishable, unless it is frozen.

I'm submitting this entry to the Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times hosted by Obessedly Involved with Food.

Durian Chiffon Cake with a T...

What do you think of the outlook of the durian chiffon that I made? Looked pretty on the outside right? Right! When I overturned it to cool, it stayed nicely and neatly on the tube pan too! Never did I expect it to have flaws! I tried this recipe some years back, and it failed. I wanted to give it a try again, thinking that it was perhaps I didn't do it well. I've been successful in chiffons, and I don't think it was due to my skills! *grin*

Anyway, back to this recipe from Kevin Chai's book, I suspected the recipe might not be that good. The last time, it was too watery, so this time, I added slightly less milk to the batter. Still the chiffon didn't work.

On one side of the chiffon...

Any veteran chiffon bakers that can help to advise on what caused the tunnel in the chiffon? Partly also because the pan I used was slightly too small for it to expand. Even so, I believe that was not the reason for the big deep tunnel to form... 

on the other side.

Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Bread

Roasted Garlic & Rosemary Loaf
When Laureen said it's very very good, I really believe it had to be very very good! Bake with one of my two favourite ingredients - garlic and rosemary, it definitely cannot go wrong! I've never explored roasted garlics before. All I had tried was just sauteed garlic or fried garlic as garnish. Roasted garlic? It is truly heaven sent!

I've been baking sweet buns since the day I found the perfect recipe for it! So it's time to cut down on sugars...I just couldn't wait to try the Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Bread when I saw it! Now, it says two heads of garlic...hmm, what does two heads means? Two small  cloves? Or two big garlic cloves? Ah...luckily I still have sanity check. Looking at the ingredients of using 560g of flour, how would two small cloves provide enough taste? So I decided to use two large garlic cloves, unpeeled. Through that, I've learnt two new things - heads of garlic, and roasting garlic.

I'm a lover for herbs, especially rosemary. I like to buy them too! However, because I know I don't usually use them up fast enough, I will just keep them in the freezer. And I'm happy to just do that so that I can have fresh herbs as and when I want. Well, it might not be as good as freshly plucked ones, but who can tell the difference? :p

You can find the original recipe at Eat and Be Happy. For me, I used a mixture of wholemeal wheat flour, bread flour and plain flour. It turned out to be perfect. I like wholemeal wheat flour in my breads, it made me feel less guilty when eating them! And yes, the recipe really made a HUGE enormous loaf! I will make it into two loaves the next time I baked. It's a rustic dense soft loaf!

*~*.................................................................*~*

Roasted Chicken & Wrap
If you asked me, I have no inspirations lately. However, my love for eating never dies. So what happens when my inspirations are out? Well, just check out other bloggers' and follow them. That was what happened on Friday when I made the Crispy Roast Chicken from Happy Home Baking. Thanks to her detailed explanation, I was able to make wonderfully roasted herbed chicken. Since I used rosemary in my rustic bread bake above, I decided to use fresh thyme for the chicken instead. It turned out to be truly good.

Instead of having roast chicken with the usual rice, I decided to have it with wholemeal tortilla wraps (as suggested by HHB too!) As I've not tried making tortillas, I decided to buy them instead. Just in case it didn't turn out good. Slice out the chicken pieces, place them on the wrap with lettuce, cheese and button mushrooms, then wrapped them up... Hmm, you'll have a wonderfully satisfied healthy meal! Enjoy!

Gastromania Feast @ Far East Square

Few weeks back, I received an email from OMY inviting bloggers to join in one of their three feasts. I was really happy to be invited for the Gastromania Feast. I shall spare the details...Let the feast begin!

1. Zhou’s Kitchen

www.zhouskitchen.com

"Zhou’s Kitchen is a casual Chinese dining concept, catering to the palates and pockets of diners from all walks of life. 周 (Zhou) is the family name of Andrew Tjioe, TungLok Group’s founder and Executive Chairman, and Zhou’s Kitchen as the name suggests, offers all-time Chinese favourites, as well as well-loved private recipes of the Zhou family. Definitely the place for the discerning and time-starved local diners."

Zhou's Kitchen Braised Pork Shank - $24++

Even though I usually don't take porks, I liked the way the pork shank was cooked. The meat was juicy and tender. There was no porky taste. The sauce was light and not starchy. It went very well with the fried and steamed buns. The pickled vegetables were very appetising. Ginseng Chrysanthemum tea served complimented the dish well.

The meat were swiftly and skilfully removed from its bones.

Overall rating - 4.5/5

2. SPRING JuChunYuan 聚春园

www.juchunyuan.com.sg

"Since 1865, “JuChunYuan” has stood for the finest in Fuzhou cuisine. The famous “Buddha Jumps Over the Wall” was birthed in JuChunYuan restaurant in 1876 and has continued to set the standard for fine Chinese restaurants around the world. Now, SPRING JuChunYuan is the only restaurant in Singapore that exclusively serves traditional Min cuisine and carries the remarkable legacy of the original JuChunYuan Fuzhou restaurant."

Floral tea of chrysanthemum, rose and lavender were served in a beautiful tea set.

Buddha Jumps over the wall - $1,288++

This is the delicacy of the whole feast! Each of us were served a bowl of their famous Buddha jumps over the wall. Four days effort just to prepare the soup. A 8-year-old Fujian wine was part of the ingredients in the final preparation. The dish is being steamed, not cooked over fire, to retain the right concentration of the soup. Actually, I don't really fancy the wine in soup, therefore, I didn't finish the soup even though I would like to!

 Our individual portion of the delicacy.

Xing Hwa Bee Hoon

The noodles were specially imported from overseas. It was only slightly thicker than my hair strand! It tasted good even though it was a bit dry. I liked it better with their special sauce which added a slight sweet flavour to the noodles. The sauce was made using red vinegar wine, garlic and sugar. The vinegar taste was not signicant, instead, garlic dominated the sweet sauce.

Overall rating: 4/5

3. Garuda Padang Cuisine

www.garudapadang.com

"Garuda, established in 1976, is the most successful and one of the largest Padang Cuisine restaurant chains in Indonesia. Today, in a partnership with TungLok Group, Garuda in Singapore is the only franchised Padang Cuisine restaurant outside Indonesia, offering nothing but the most authentic fare at three locations."

Fried Chicken with Blue Ginger Floss - $5.30++

We were served with Lime Soda. In such a hot weather, this really was refreshing and cooling! The impression I have about fried chicken is usually dry. However, I can't say so for this fried chicken! If I can even say that the chicken breast meat I had was juicy and tender, you can be assured it'll be equally good about drumsticks or chicken thighs! The blue ginger floss was very tasty, crispy and salty. They were deep fried, but it wasn't that oily as in, you can feel the oil oozing out in the mouth! I love the blue ginger floss so much I just finished them all!

 Yummy fried chicken breast with crispy blue ginger floss

Overall rating: 3.5/5

4. Shin Kushiya

www.shinkushiya.com

"Shin Kushiya was established in October 2006 to introduce the Kushiyaki dining concept. ‘Kushiyaki’ is the Japanese term for ‘Charcoal-grilled skewers’. At Shin Kushiya, the freshest meat, seafood and vegetables are arranged artfully on bamboo skewers and grilled with care over Bincho charcoal from Japan to provide a crisp smokiness while sealing the natural flavours within. Paired with freshly-ground sea salt, cracked black pepper and homemade tare sauce, Kushiyaki is a simple and satisfying pleasure."

The chef hard at work, grillling the kushiyaki for us

Yuzu Cooler

This had to be my favourite drink for the day! Yuzu fruit was added to the cooler, gave it a good stir and you can feel the hint of sourness from the yuzu blended into the sweetness of the soda. Without hesitation, I scooped up the yuzu fruit and ate them! (Don't waste it!)

Kushiyaki: Tomato maki, Ebi Shiso Maki, Buta Bara Yaki Miso and Black pepper yakitori.

I liked the tomato maki even though it was wrapped in thin pork meat. The warmth and sweetness of the cherry tomato that exploded in the mouth gave the palate a wonderful sensation! The ebi maki (prawn) was very fresh and juicy. The black pepper yakitori was also juicy and full of coarse black peppers! There were also plum salt and curry salt to complement the kushiyakis. However, the kushiyakis were already so good on its own, you won't want to dip them in anything!

Kuro Goma Heaven (Black Sesame ice cream)

The rich and creamy black sesame compliments the charcoal grilled skewers very much! The thick black sesame paste at the side was so good on its own, although it was supposed to be a dip for our ice cream! Two thumbs up for this wonderful rich black sesame ice cream!

Overall rating : 5/5 (Must go!)

5. Mont Calzone Pizza & Pasta

www.montcalzone.com.sg

"Enjoy hearty Italian cuisine at reasonable prices in this cosy and laid-back pizzeria. Popular dishes include Fried Calamari, Polpa di Granchio (crab meat pasta) and Rucola Mozzarella Pizza. Be sure to leave room for their homemade tiramisu, a scrumptious Italian dessert not to be missed. All pizza selections can be made into calzone."

By the time we went to Mont, all of us were really filled to the brim! We were jokingly said that we could just fall asleep any time due to the over-supply of food! Even though the portions served to us were already halved or much lesser than the original portion, there were still a lot of food consumed!

Pizzas & Pastas

You'll be spoilt for choice with their variety of pizza and pastas! The quality of the ingredients used were fresh and of high standard.

As I was already filled all up, I decided just to go for two pizzas and give the carbos a miss! The pizza's thin crust were crispy. The toppings were quite generous as there were lots of salad and pieces of thick smoked salmon on the smoked salmon pizza! The black truffle "dots" were flavourful on its own. However, when eaten with the crust, the flavour was very faint.

Overall rating: 4/5

6. Mirchi – Taste of India

www.harrys.com.sg

"Mirchi –Taste of India offers an extensive range of delectable and authentic Northern Indian cuisine, with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes to choose from. Favourite specialties include “Tandoori Non-Vegetarian Kebab Platter” an assortment of fish tikka, chicken tikka, seekh kebab and prawns spiced with tandoori masala. “Kadhai Prawn”, marinated prawns with capsicum in onion & tomato gravy. “Rogan Josh”, a traditional lamb curry, an all time favourite from Kashmir. Also, not to be missed is the selection of chicken, lamb, seafood and vegetable Biryani served with Raita."

Mango Lassi

Mango Lassi had to be the one drink you order from a North India cuisine! We were fortunate to be served this popular drink before our meal. The mango lassi was a bit sourish, wasn't overly sweet, and the mango wasn't too strong. However, it was pretty light and I like the taste nevertheless.

Tandoori Non-Vegetarian Kebab Platter: Fish tikka, chicken tikka, seekh kebab and prawns spiced with tandoori masala - $29++

All the bloggers unanimously agreed that the seekh kebab, which was made up of lamb, was a bit dry and too spicy. Otherwise, their tikkas tasted really good. The kind of charred taste on the meat was nice. The spices on the tikka were not overly strong. Dip them in the mint sauce tasted even better! I should have secretly ask them to serve their naans too! 

Full serving platter

Our sampling platter - a very good & generous portion!

Overall rating: 4/5

7. Hock Lam Beef

hocklambeef.com

"Hock Lam Beef has been serving the highest quality Teochew beef kway teow in Singapore. The business spans over 98 years, across 4 generations of the Tan family, and is run today by the original founder’s great-grandchild. Till today, they prepare everything, from the 24-hour boiled gourmet soup with herb base to the homemade 13-ingredient chilli sauce, by hand in-house."

The third generation of the Tan family, and the boss of the group. He is being supported in his business by his daughter, Tina.

Third generation boss...

 His daughter Tina on the right. David (I don't know who he is) on the left, who gave us a history and brief of the place

Original Mixed Beef Kway Teow with soup.

The herb base soup was very tasty and flavourful. The beef briskets were freed from "fishy" smell and were very soft. Except for the noodles, all the ingredients were prepared freshly and within the shops. Even the chilli taste fresh and nice too. The shredded "kiam chye" added a little crunchiness and saltiness to the noodles' taste. This used to be my favourite noodles, until I decided to forgo eating beef!

Overall rating: 4/5

8. Oni Cupcakes

www.onicupcakes.com

"This boutique cupcake bakery uses only the finest quality ingredients, their top-selling cupcakes include Chocolate Lover (Valrhona dark chocolate), Mango Tango (Valrhona chocolate cake with Mango butter cream), along with specialty cupcakes like Healthy Bunny (carrot cake with cream cheese frosting) and The King (Mao Shan Wang durian). With a wide range of flavours, designs and sizes, their custom-made cupcakes will delight both adults and kids."

Assorted Mini Cupcakes

Even though the cupcakes were moist, the buttercream were too rich. Fortunately, it was only a mini cupcake, therefore, eating the buttercream wasn't too guilty. I also tried the chocolate lover. The dark chocolate cream is nice though.

 Don't you just love the high-class feeling from the lighting above?

Overall rating: 3.5/5

My favourite amongst the places had to be.... Shin Kushiya!! Actually I've been to the branch in Vivo City, and I like it very much!

I really had a lot of fun feasting, and getting to know other bloggers. Through my conversation with them, I realised that, most of them, or all of them, were actually much younger than me! They must be the Y-generation bloggers! 

Thanks to Janet Ong and Alvin Lim from OMY for inviting me to this wonderful event! I don't know how they got my name, but it doesn't matter anyway! Thank you, omy!

By the way, please vote for me in omy, 5 lucky voters will also be chosen to win a $50 voucher! Contest will close on 8 August 2011!

Don't forget to check out the "Let the feast begin" promotions!
Check out the OMY's blog post, and its vodcast.