Monday 22 November 2010

Pumpkin Ondeh Ondeh

Ondeh Ondeh/Onde Onde is one of the popular and delicious tea-time snacks in Singapore. Usually they come in green colour (pandan flavour) glutinous rice balls that are sprinkled with grated coconut on the outside and filled with Gula Melaka as the inner fillings. So when you give this Ondeh Ondeh a bite it would burst in your mouth with the melted Gula Melaka oozing out from the rice ball. I love those bite-size and chewy versions with a good grade of fragrant Gula Melaka that makes you keep popping them into your mouth.

There are two different common methods on making this snack; one is made totally using glutinous rice flour while the second method is a mixture of sweet potatoes and glutinous rice flour. But now there are a lot of different varieties available in the stores such as using Yam, Chocolate, Purple Sweet Potato and etc to attract more customers.

Here are the ingredients to make the pumpkin ondeh ondeh so let's get ready on these such as:-

Ingredients: (makes 20 - 24)
150g Grated Coconut
1/4 Teaspoon Fine Salt
4 - 5 Pandan leaves, tied to a knot
15g Tapioca Flour
100ml Water
200g Steamed Mashed Pumpkin
180g Glutinous Rice Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
100g Gula Melaka(Palm Sugar), roughly chopped


These are the photo on the steps on how to make the ondeh ondeh:-

Method:
1. Cut off the skin of the pumpkin, weight about 200g and cut it into small cubes and steam them for about 15 minutes or until soften.
2. Remove it from the steamer rack and let it cool while preparing other ingredients.
3. Mix 1/4 teaspoon salt with the grated coconut and steam for 5 minutes together with the pandan leave. When done, set aside and let it cool.
4. Mix tapioca flour and water together then cook over medium heat until it forms a thick paste.
5. Remove it from heat and let it cool in a mixing bowl.
6. Next add in mashed pumpkin, glutinous rice flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt and knead to form a soft dough.
7. Pinch a bit of the dough and roll each ball into a size of a "fishball(about 15g)".
8. Bring a pot of water to boil while stuffing the filling of the ondeh ondeh.
9. Flatten a dough ball and put a bit(1/4 teaspoon) of Gula Melaka in the centre, pinch to seal the opening and roll again into round shape. Repeat this with the other balls.
10. Drop about 5 - 6 balls into the boiling water while continue making the rest. Cook the balls in boiling water until they float to the surface which takes about 2 minutes.
11. Use a slotted spoon to remove the balls from the water when they floated up and place them on the grated coconut.
12. Roll each ball in the coconut and serve warm or when cooled.

Note:
~ I also coated some of these pumpkin ondeh ondeh with some ground peanut instead of the traditional grated coconut. And it taste taste great with the pumpkin and peanut combination.


After some steaming, kneading, rolling, cooking and rolling, these are our Pumpkin Ondeh Ondeh with dual coating. I guess it would depend on individual liking on whether to pick a grated coconut coating or ground peanut or maybe "both".

These are some of the ready packed Pumpkin Ondeh Ondeh that we bought to our weekly cell group for the after session food time. Does this packing resemble to those "store bought" ondeh ondeh?


Sunday 21 November 2010

Seattle's Best Coffee @ Burger King

Recently Burger King has introduced the branded Seattle’s Best Coffee into their menu permanently. These coffee featuring an Uncommonly Smooth™ taste from their Seattle’s Best Coffee® which is freshly-brewed with great taste that result from the smooth roasting 100-percent Arabica Coffee Beansand. Each cup of coffee costs from S$3.40(prices varies at selected restaurants) onwards depending on your selection.

Thanks to Marcus from Word Of Mouth Communications and Burger King for the complimentary coffee vouchers that has being courier to me together with the press release kit. It was really very innovative for them to send two cups of ¼ filled roasted coffee beans to create an aromatic senses of these branded Seattle’s Best Coffee even before I get to try them out.

Seattle’s Best Coffee is one of the most recognized specialty coffee brands in the United States and it has recently set its foot at Burger King outlets in Singapore. Their coffee is bold and full-flavoured with a distinguished taste that is mellow and uncommonly smooth. You can get to try any of their eight new coffees that brew to tantalize your taste buds anytime of the day at the nearest Burger King outlets(check outlets HERE) in your area.

For hot range you can choose either one of these four to perk you up during sleepy morning or cold days:-
- Americano
- Cappuccino
- Latte
- Mocha

Above is my order of Hot Latte that served together with my favourite Onion Rings for afternoon snack.


But if you prefer something more icy and refreshing perhaps one of these might be your choice:-
- Iced Americano
- Iced Latte
- Iced Mocha
- Iced Caramel Latte

So for us we decided to pick a cup of this Iced Mocha from the cold beverages list. From the 1st sip we agreed that it taste great and smoothing with a just nice sweetness which refreshing for quench the hot afternoon heat.

And in conjunction with the introduction of Seattle’s Beat Coffee in Burger King they also launched a “BK Coffee Smootherizer” application (www.burgerking.com.sg/coffee) that is created to encourage BK fans and new customers to try out BK’s new premium coffee offering - Seattle’s Best Coffee! Visitors are encouraged to upload a photo of their “bad” coffee in the BK Coffee Smootherizer application (www.burgerking.com.sg/coffee) and rate it for before it will be transformed into a 50% discount E coupon for redemption on your next purchase of freshly Seattle’s Best Coffee at any Burger King restaurants(except BK Escape Theme Park).

Other than the Seattle's Best Coffe, I would also like to share with you that currently Burger King is having the “You can expect EXTRA” promotion where customers would received a cup of FREE Sandae whenever they order one of the promotional set meal. Here we choose the “WHOPPER with Turkey Bacon and Cheese” set that comes with a regular drink and fries. I love the taste of the crispy bacon that is being sandwich together with their tender beef patty, cheese and lot of fresh crunchy lettuce.


Chong Pang Nasi Lemak

Chong Pang Nasi Lemak starts from a stall in the former rustic Chong Pang Village Hawker Centre way back in 1973. Growing as a Kampong Kid around Sembawang area, I still remember clearly that my dad used to bring us to that old Chong Pang Hawker Centre every weekend to eat our favourite hawker dishes as well as replenished our groceries at the same time.

Today Chong Pang Nasi Lemak has relocated at a coffee shop along Sembawang Road that is next to the Chong Pang Camp. And to be honest even though the stall is just about 5 minutes away from my place I don’t really patronize it that often.

During the previous two occasions where we dine-in at the stall around 6pm in the evening (despite of whether weekdays or weekends) there were already crowds queuing up to get their dinner from their wide range of homecook dishes and signature “coconut rice”. You would also notice from the take-away orders or those customers eating around at the tables, everyone is almost having almost the same items such as Otah, Fried Egg and the "Deep-fried Chicken" which is marinated with specially spices that is so crispy and fragrant to taste. And most importantly I am sure everyone loves their signature sweet and spicy "Chilli Sauce" that makes you return for more.

Apart from the common fried chicken wings, egg and otah, this stall also offers a wide variety of homecook dishes to go with the nasi lemak such as Sambal Sotong, Spicy Long Bean, Sweet and Sour Pork, Ngoh Hiang, Fish & Prawn Platter and etc. But personally I think the dishes are too pricey for example; the two plates of Nasi Lemak shown above that consists of 2 veggies and 2 meats cost a total of S$9.80. And compared to a few years back, we find that the taste of their “coconut rice” seems to be different from what it used to be perhaps due to the cut down of coconut milk for health conscious.

Although for many people this might not be the best "Nasi Lemak" in Singapore, but if you are staying around North area I am sure it is still worth trying some of their signature items. To avoid the crowds of parking diffiuclty you have to be there either before or after dinner crowds in order to find seats and parking spaces.



Chong Pang Nasi Lemak
447 Sembawang Road
Singapore 758404
Telephone: 6756 0048 / 9655 1868
Website: http://www.chongpangnasilemak.com/

Opening Hours:
~ 5.00pm until 7.00am on the next day.




Thursday 18 November 2010

Uncle Sun Bak Kut Teh Spices

In Singapore you can easily get a decent bowl of Bak Kut Teh(herbal pork ribs soup) anywhere near your neighbourhood coffee shop or food centre. And there are also a lot of different types of pre-packed Bak Kut Teh spices available in the market for you to prepare this local dish at home. For me I love these quick and easy pre-packed spices, which could easily provides a bowl of hearty homecook soup to fill our dinner menu by the end of our hectic working day.

Here are the ingredients and steps on cooking this Bak Kut Teh:-

Ingredients: (serves 4)
1 Packet of "Uncle Sun" Sup Herba Oriental(bak kut teh)
1kg of Prime Pork Ribs
2 Litre Water
1 - 2 Bulb of Garlic, depend on the size
1/2 Tablespoon of Black Peppercorn, lightly crushed
4 Red Dates, optional

Method:
1. Trim, rinse and blanched the pork ribs in boiling water for 5 minutes, removed and rinse well. Set aside.
2. Bring 2 litres of water to boil in a soup pot, remove the herbs from the herbal pack and rinse them once before adding them into the boiling water together with the soup spice pack(power pack), garlic bulb, black pepercorns(if you prefer, you can put the crashed peppercorns in a soup bag) and red dates.
3. When the mixture comes to boil, lower the heat and let it simmer for about 5 minutes before adding in the pork ribs.
4. Simmer the soup on medium low heat for about 2 hours until the meat is tender. OR
5. You can transfer the boiling soup after adding pork ribs to a slow cooker and cook it on AUTO mode for about 2.5 hours or more depending on your preference.
6. Serve it with steam rice and cut chilli with dark soy sauce.


You can purchased "Uncle Sun" range of soup spices such as Bak Kut Teh, Ginseng Cordyseps Chicken, Ginseng Chicken and Abalone with Chicken at either Giant, Sheng Siong or Carrefour supermarket. The price is range from S$4.50 - S$5.50 depending on the product that you purchase.

This "Uncle Sun" brand of Bak Kut Teh taste rather different from the usual "Seah's Singapore Bak Kuet Teh Spices" that I have always cook. For this soup the colour is slight darker and you can taste a mild combination of Angelica (Dang gui), Star Anise and Cinnamon flavour that is infused in the soup. So for those who prefer a strong soup broth maybe you can consider to get a pack and try it out if you happen to see it in the supermarket.

Don't worry if you cannot finish the pot of soup as you could always keep the remaining in the fridge and reheat it in microwave on the next day. Or instead of serving it with steam rice, you could also add in some Mee Suah (面线 ) to make a noodle dish for lunch treat too.


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