Monday, January 21, 2013

Vietnamese Coconut Cassava Cake (bánh khoai mì nướng)



This is one of my favourite childhood treats. 

On the weekends when I used to go grocery shopping with my parents at Asian supermarkets, my mum would be on a mission to get the week’s worth of groceries that she had planned and budgeted for, she’d be busy scouring bargains to stock up on and haggle with the shop owner for a free goodie once our shopping basket reached a certain amount. Most of the time it would just be a free bottle of oyster sauce but it gets added to practically everything we cook and we’d go through bottles fast. A free bottle of oyster sauce is worth fighting for…and Chinese mums will go to great lengths to save a bit of money here and there.

I would be on my own mission down the sweet aisles eyeing off the shelves overflowing with infamous Pocky, Hello Kitty, Yan Yan and the like, to see what treat I could get my parents to buy for me. It’s hard to resist Asian sweets when they make everything so damn cute!

Asian Snack Attack!

But in the end I would always be drawn to the selection of sweets near the counter. These are generally prepared by people who work from home, and distribute their goods to Asian supermarkets, which sell on commission. It would be fresh, homemade and have my parent’s approval. My favourite was Vietnamese coconut cassava cake.


This cake is unlike Western cakes which are light, fluffy and crumbly. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. It’s dense, sticky and chewy. For people who aren’t used to this kind of texture for a cake, I imagine that it would be quite strange. A lot of Asian cakes are like this and it's not an accident. Back in the day, few households owned ovens so many cakes were made by steaming resulting in a spongy texture. Also, cassava is used, which is very starchy and the plant also produces tapioca starch (similar to corn flour/starch) – a thickening agent for sauce and soups etc., hence it’s glutinous. As people acquired ovens, they adapted and could bake cakes that would normally be steamed. So now you will find steamed and baked versions of cassava cake. I like baked cassava cake as it has a caramelized crispy golden top which is a standard for Western cakes. This is the best part of the cake but it’s still sticky on the inside, so you get the best of both worlds.

Caramelised Crispy Top

I have been trying to recreate my childhood treat. I looked up recipes on the internet and found that a cassava cake is a common dessert across South East Asia due to the tropical climate, cassava thrives in the region. In Vietnam it’s known as bánh khoai mì nướng which literally means baked cassava cake and in Malaysia they call it kuih bingka with kuih referring to bite-sized snack/dessert foods commonly found in Malaysia. 

I’ve discovered that there are many ways to make a coconut cassava cake. It can simply be made with just cassava, coconut milk and sugar, these are the building blocks of the cake. There are various recipes which add other ingredients such as dessicated coconut, condensed milk, yellow mung beans and eggs. Every recipe I came across was different, reflecting the fact that this is one of those homemade treats where every mum would have their own way of making it. So after examining a few recipes, I started baking cassava cake with just a few ingredients and each time I made it, I would vary the ingredients and adapted my recipe until I got something that I felt was better than any other cassava cake I have ever eaten. It’s as sweet as I want it to be, coconutty and buttery with a hint of nuttiness due to the addition of yellow mung beans.

This is also a gluten free cake. It's interesting to note that a lot of Asian cakes are gluten free due to rice flour, tapioca flour, yellow mung beans etc. being commonly used to make cakes as these plants are easily cultivated in their tropical climate, wheat does not grow as well.

Vietnamese Coconut Cassava Cake

(I didn’t follow one recipe, I kept testing and adding in different ingredients until I got my desired taste and consistency of texture but credit goes to recipes by Pham Fatale and Lily’s Wai Sek Hong which I drew the most inspiration from)

Ingredients
  • ~ 900g grated cassava (two bags of frozen grated cassava from Asian supermarket)
  • 150g dried yellow mung beans
  • 170g butter, melted
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ cup of coconut milk + 1 cup coconut milk
  • ½ cup sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 cup dessicated coconut
Note: Fresh cassava requires much preparation (you have to peel then soak to remove some of the bitterness, grate, soak again, settle the starch, combine starch with grated cassava etc.) so I opted to use frozen grated cassava that I bought from my Asian supermarket. 


Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 20cm square baking tin with foil and grease with melted butter.

Thaw the frozen cassava. I left it in the fridge overnight and then put it in a strainer to drain away the extra liquid.


Prep yellow mung beans - In a bowl, wash yellow mung beans thoroughly and soak for at least 3-4 hours before cooking. Drain and place yellow mung beans in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to boil, then lower heat and cook mung beans for 15-20 minutes until the yellow mung beans are soft and tender. Drain well and then place the cooked yellow mung beans in a blender and pulse a few times, then add in ¼ cup of coconut milk and process to a fine puree.

Cooked yellow mung beans
Pureed yellow mung beans with coconut milk

In a large bowl, whisk the caster sugar and eggs together, then add in vanilla extract, salt, melted butter, 1 cup of coconut milk, condensed milk, cassava, dessicated coconut and pureed yellow mung beans. Mix together well so that everything is fully incorporated.


Pour the mixture into the baking tin and bake for 1 hour until the top is a crisp golden brown.

Cool and then slice into pieces.




You can’t get more tropical than the combination of cassava and coconut so I am entering this cake into this month’s Sweet Adventures Blog Hop hosted by Dining with a Stud. Enjoy :)



Friday, January 11, 2013

3rd Blog Birthday - Win Blue Apocalypse Cooking Mix CD

I have been blogging for three years now. 

What have I been blogging about?

My blog is mainly about my cooking and a place to share recipes that I have grown up eating, where I recreate what I have learnt from my mum and dad. This will continue to be one of the focuses of my blog as I want to document all these recipes. Blogging has also been a motivation for learning to cook new dishes and revise old dishes. I have become a better cook because I blog and want to share interesting kitchen adventures. Nowadays I like to get a bit more creative with food because
maybe I am feeling a bit more confident at what I do.

Some of my favourite posts from the past year
Vietnamese Tacos


Chocolate Bourbon Cake with Bourbon Cider Jelly
 Mushroom and Rocket Sushi
Vietnamese Coconut Tartlets
Over the past year I did my first series of themed posts. It was a challenge that I put myself up to as my blog gets a lot of apocalypse related keyword searches like what to eat in an apocalypse, apocalypse food, apocalypse cooking, apocalypse spice, apocalypse desserts etc. (please note that my blog is named after the Tool song Eon Blue Apocalypse and has nothing to do with the end of the world!). So in the lead up to the Apocalypse last year on 21.12.2012, I decided to do some apocalyptic posts covering apocalypse inspired dishes, apocalypse related cooking and apocalyptic film dishes. I started out not really knowing what I was getting myself into or if I would come up with anything good. I thought that it would just be a funny thing to do but I took it quite seriously. I spent a lot of time working on apocalyptic dishes and in the end I produced what I think are some of my best blog posts (see links to all dishes here). I really enjoyed researching ideas and the creative process of putting together an apocalyptic dish. I learnt new cooking techniques to put together the elements of dishes and explored how I could relate the apocalypse to food through cannibalism, survival, films and game theory. 

Nuclear Chicken Apocalypse vs Pork Apocalypse
So I have decided to undertake another themed posts challenge for 2013. Music was my first major passion in life but nowadays it’s surpassed by food and blogging. This year I will be putting the two together and doing some music inspired dishes. I am currently researching and brainstorming ideas on how I can link music and food together.

(Read this post on the 10 Albums Which Changed My Life if you want to know about the impact of music on my life)


To celebrate my blog’s 3rd birthday and thank all the readers of my blog, twitter followers and Facebook fans, I will be giving away a Mix CD of some tunes that I like to listen to while I am cooking. The tracklist will be a surprise (concealed in an envelope in the inside cover). All I will say is that it will be an eclectic range of instrumental tracks ranging from jazz, indie, electronica, math rock, post rock and post metal that I spent my summer break carefully putting together.


I also hand painted the artwork (I used oil paints), hand sewn the CD insert and handwrote the tracklist.  



If you would like to win a Blue Apocalypse Cooking Mix CD, just write a comment below that contains the words “I want a Mix CD” and leave contact details (email/website/twitter handle).

This competition closes in 2 weeks at midnight on Friday 25 January AWST (Perth time). 
Winners will be drawn randomly and announced on Saturday 26 January.

There are three Mix CDs available and I will post to anywhere in the world.


p.s it has been a long time since I painted anything, what cover art do you think is the best?

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Nuclear Chicken Apocalypse

 (cauliflower mushroom cloud)

We humans seem to have a continuing fascination with the end of the world and civilization as we know it. This is evident through the popularity of apocalypse films/fiction and also the obsession we have with the impending Apocalypse on 21.12.2012. 

The stories and themes present in apocalyptic films/fiction are generally a reflection of the times and examine very real concerns felt by society. In the 1950s and 1960s, many apocalyptic films/fiction focused on nuclear warfare reflecting fears of a nuclear holocaust occurring after World War II. In the 1970s through to the 1990s, the subject matter of apocalyptic films/fiction centered on government control and corruption. Now in the 21st century, there is a focus on natural disasters reflecting current concerns over climate change and viruses going out of control as a result of advancements in technology/medicine and its misuse which all accumulates into zombie territory - the natural outcome of the apocalypse is that we all eat each other. 


Out of all the apocalypse scenarios that humanity could face, I think that the threat of a nuclear apocalypse is a real concern. Until there are no nuclear weapons on this world, ‘MAD’ (aka mutually assured destruction) could happen at any time.




Game Theory provides an explanation for why countries keep stockpiling nuclear weapons and won’t agree to disarmament. Bertrand Russell famously compared the ‘Game of Chicken’ to nuclear brinkmanship. 


The ‘Game of Chicken’ is a type of strategic interaction in game theory modeled on conflict. It describes a situation where two people are driving their cars towards each other at high speeds on a collision course and there are two strategies available to the drivers – go straight or swerve. One driver must swerve, or both will die in a crash, but if one driver swerves and the other does not, the one who swerved will be called a ‘chicken’. Each driver prefers to not be the ‘chicken’, but the worst possible outcome is when both drivers don’t chicken out. So as each driver attempts to secure their best outcome (ie: not be the chicken), they risk the worst. In the situation of a nuclear arms race, countries are essentially engaging in a showdown that is similar to the car race in that no one wants to back down and appear weak. 



So my final apocalyptic dish is a tribute to the doctrine of ‘rationality of irrationality’, where a rational strategy would be to do something irrational as it can be a way of achieving credibility for threats. The possession of nuclear weapons is irrational but for some nation states it is a completely rational way of keeping away threats and protecting their sovereignty by putting themselves in a self-destructive situation, which is to the detriment of its people as resources are diverted away to building weapons rather than society, not to mention the risks of nuclear annihilation faced by many hundreds of millions of people. This is madness right? (If you want a real world example, look to North Korea)
 

My apocalypse cooking ends with a Chicken Nuclear Apocalypse. 



RECIPES

Grilled turmeric and lemongrass chicken wings from bonappetit.


 (Nuclear Chicken)

Deep fried cauliflower

Cut a cauliflower into florets. Cook the cauliflower in a large pot of salted water for 5-6 minutes until it is tender. Drain the cauliflower and refresh under cold water, allow to drip dry.

Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan. Dust cauliflower in a little flour mixed with curry powder, shaking off the excess. Deep fry until the cauliflower has browned. Remove and place on a plate lined with paper towels.






Baked potato 

Wash a potato, wipe dry with a paper towel and then use a fork to poke some holes in it. Rub some olive oil onto the skin and some salt. Place the potato on a tray and bake for 30 minutes.

Turmeric Rice

Wash 1 cup of basmati and soak in water for 15 minutes. Then drain thoroughly.

In a frying pan heat 1 tablespoon of ghee with 2 cloves and 20 curry leaves. Add rice to the pan, spices (1/4 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon garam masala, ½ teaspoon cumin) and salt to taste. Mix to coat the rice.


Pour in 2 cups of boiling water or stock. Cover with a lid and cook on medium heat till the rice is done 10-12 minutes.





Check out my other Apocalyptic Posts:


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Yaki Onigiri and Dashi Green Tea Broth – Ochazuke


My first experience of ochazuke was during my first visit to Jun Japanese Kushi-Yaki restaurant a few months ago. My friends and I ordered an assortment of izakaya dishes to share and seeing on the menu a dish called ‘yaki onigiri with salmon flakes in a clear broth’ I had to order it for myself. I love eating soup with rice added in it. The dish came in a bowl with a yaki onigiri inside hot off the grill with a crunchy crust, which gives way to soft fluffy rice inside when you break it apart. With contrasting rice textures, bits of salmon providing flavour against the subtlety of a simple broth, it was very pleasant and comforting to eat. 



I researched the dish and found that I had consumed ochazuke - a Japanese dish consisting of a bowl of rice with different savoury toppings and green tea poured in to submerge the rice. It is commonly served at the end of a meal as green tea is good for digestion, eaten as a midnight snack or enjoyed as a light meal at any time of the day. It’s also considered a good hangover cure as the antioxidants in green tea help to detoxify the liver, and has the qualities of a chicken soup as it’s tasty, hearty and nourishing and something that people like to eat when they are not feeling well. So I can’t find a reason why I wouldn’t want to be eating ochazuke all the time, especially when it’s so easy to prepare. At a very basic level it’s just rice and green tea, which by itself is quite bland but there is a lot that you can do to elevate the flavour and provide different textures. I have been making ochazuke at home containing yaki onigiri to get rice that is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I add salmon flakes cooked Nobu style where the salmon is marinated in sake, mirin, miso and sugar for 2-3 days resulting in a wonderfully tender, sweet and slightly caramelized fish. I like sprinkling furikake over the top, providing a mix of savoury flakes, and instead of just pouring in green tea, I combine green tea and dashi to get a broth that has more depth of flavour with an umami hit. 

Any green tea can be used but I like to use genmaicha which is green tea leaves with roasted brown rice as the rice balances out the grassy flavour of the tea by providing savoury aromatics with a toasted, nutty flavour. 



I love the concept of ochazuke and it has become one of my favourite comfort foods. Here’s my version of ochazuke. Enjoy :)


Yaki Onigiri

Ingredients


•    cooked plain hot sushi rice shaped into a triangle with onigiri mould or shape with hands (use this method)
•    soy sauce mixture - 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 ½ tablespoon mirin
(pack the rice in, insert the top part of the mold, squish down and release your onigiri)
 

 (Onigiri mould)

Method
 

Heat a frying pan with a little oil. On a medium heat, fry each side of the onigiri until the rice forms a crisp skin and is lightly brown, then brush each side with some soy sauce mixture and continue to fry each side on a low heat until it forms a nice crust. 

Note: Keep a careful watch over the onigiri when frying it after it has been brushed with the soy sauce mixture as it can burn.


 (Yaki Onigiri)

Grilled Salmon Nobu Style 


(Adaptation of Nobu’s Miso-Marinated Black Cod recipe via momofukufor2) 


Ingredients


•    2 salmon fillets with skin (about 200g each)
Miso Marinade
•    2 tablespoons sake
•    2 tablespoons mirin
•    2 tablespoons white miso paste
•    1 ½ tablespoon sugar


Method


In a small saucepan, bring the mirin and sake to a boil over medium heat, then turn the heat down to low and whisk in the miso until it has dissolved. Turn heat up to medium, add sugar and cook, whisking until it has just dissolved.


Transfer marinade to a baking dish and let cool. Then add the salmon fillets, turn to coat evenly with marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 days. 


Preheat oven to 200C. Heat frying pan and add some oil. Take the salmon fillets out of the miso marinade and lightly wipe off the excess with a paper towel and pat dry. Add the fillets into the pan and cook skin side down over medium-high heat until browned (1-2 minutes). Flip the fillets over and cook for 10-20 seconds, then put them onto a baking sheet and roast for ~ 10 minutes.


Break apart salmon into flakes.


Dashi Green Tea Broth


Ingredients


•    Japanese Green Tea (I used genmaicha - green tea leaves with roasted brown rice)
[pic – green tea]
Dashi Stock
•    3 cups water
•    10cm square piece kombu (dried kelp)
•    3 tablespoons of katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) 


Method


Dashi Stock
•    Using scissors, make a few snips into the kombu to help release the flavours. Place water and kombu in a saucepan and soak for at least 30 minutes (the kombu will soften and expand).
•    Place the pan over medium heat and bring to boil. Just before it reaches boiling point, remove the kombu and discard. Add the katsuobushi to the pot, boil for 30 seconds. Turn the heat off and let steep for 5 minutes.
•    Strain dashi stock through a fine sieve. Do not squeeze out the flakes, as this will make the stock cloudy and very fishy. 


Make green tea according to packet instructions


For 1 cup of hot water, I added 2 teaspoons of green tea and let it stand for 60 seconds, then strain.


Dashi and Green Tea Broth


When ready to serve – combine 1 cup of green tea with 1 cup of dashi stock, then season with a little salt to taste. 


Ochazuke


Place a yaki onigiri in a bowl, add salmon flakes on top of the onigiri and sprinkle over some furikake. Pour in dashi green tea broth to submerge the onigiri.


 (Onigiri topped with salmon flakes and furikake)

  (Furikake)







Sunday, December 16, 2012

What to eat in an Apocalypse – Canned Apocalypse.



My apocalypse food haul
In this day and age, when everyone is trying to cook more from scratch using fresh produce, eat better, healthier and sustainably … after much research, I am reluctant to say but I have come to accept that in the event of an apocalypse, canned foods will become your best friend. The reality is that you’ll be fighting your neighbour for the last can of baked beans and it will no longer be anything to be ashamed of. 

Canned potatoes
Throughout human history, food preservation has been essential to survival. Traditional methods of preserving foods include drying, salting, smoking and pickling. Modern food processing was developed in the nineteenth century to serve military needs and canning was invented as a cheap and effective method of preserving large amounts of food for long periods of time. Canning is a form of sterilisation, which involves cooking food, sealing it in cans or jars, and boiling the containers to kill or weaken any remaining bacteria and micro-organisms which cause food decay. The advent of canned food was valuable for feeding troops on the battleground and enabled the extension of military campaigns and larger scale wars. Canned food was then adopted commercially due to the rise in demand for convenience food for working families. Having some canned food in the pantry now would be a staple for most families. 

Canned Mushrooms
It’s interesting to note how a lot of modern technological advancements have occurred during wartime, in times of adversity, technological development is accelerated as we adapt and create tools to solve problems. During the Second World War, there was increased funding for computer development to exploit its potential strategic importance and shortages of natural rubber led to the US government to embark on a program to produce a substitute, leading to improved synthetic rubber production. The capabilities of the Internet were also advanced during the Cold War to create a virtual communications network that would be immune to a nuclear attack. 

So I wonder what technological developments the impending apocalypse will bring?


Looks like the Japanese are already ahead in the game. 


Water Scarce After the Apocalypse? Install These Water-Conserving Cyborg Internal Organs



Japanese design studio Takram are designing a set of robotic organs called the Hydrolemic System which regulates how much water the human body can retain and recycle. This system could keep people alive on just 32 millilitres of water a day! 

This year I have noticed a lot of articles popping up on 3D food printing. Is 3D printing the future of food in an apocalypse?


3D printing could radically change the nature of food and how we consume it.  Edible inks, well anything with a liquid consistency are used to print food that can potentially look like anything. This technology could convert alternative ingredients such as proteins from algae or even insects into tasty looking products by grounding it up and mixing with other liquids to create novel food inks. A food printer could also open the pathway to personalised food where nutritional requirements could be customised and food preferences met. 


3D printing is still in its infancy so in the meantime, canned is the way to go. It is convenient to stock up on canned food in an apocalypse. It’s cheap and accessible to all. 


What canned foods do you currently have in your cupboard? Have you stocked up?


Canned Salmon
There are many benefits of eating canned food in an apocalypse:

•    Canned food is a safe option. Did you know that you should avoid plant life unless you know for a fact that it’s edible (not poisonous) because plants have an array of mechanical and chemical defenses against insects and herbivores. Animals, fish and insect life are a better bet. At least you can without a doubt know that canned food will be safe to eat as long as it is still sealed and the container has not been damaged.


•    Canned food has a long storage life. If stored well in cool, dark and dry conditions at room temperature (between approximately 20-25 C degrees) and not opened or dented, its storage life can be prolonged beyond 2-4 years. Canned food as old as 100 years have been found in sunken ships to still be microbiologically safe to eat. 


•    Canned food is convenient to prepare as the food inside the can has already been cooked during the canning process so you don’t really need to cook it before eating. Bonus! Cooking time = Zero. 


•    Contrary to popular belief, canned food can be more nutritious than their fresh counterparts. Canned pumpkin has 20 times as much vitamin A as fresh pumpkin because the intense heat of canning breaks the fruit’s beta carotene away from the protein to which it is normally bound. Canned tomatoes contain as much and sometimes more lycopene (cancer protective carotenoid) as fresh ones. Canned salmon is higher in calcium than fresh or frozen salmon because the salmon is canned with its calcium-rich bones, where the canning heat process softens them so they are easily ingested with the meat of the fish.


•    Empty cans have versatile uses – you could use them to store things, make a ‘two cans and string’ telephone to communicate with fellow survivors or use as a weapon to throw at zombies.   





Here are some meal ideas using canned foods I have developed for Apocalyptic times. I have used canned ingredients as well as other non-perishable goods like spices, flour and instant noodles. Stock up!

Warning: There were no fresh ingredients used in the following recipes. This was a first for me!


BREAKFAST – No knead bread and canned sardines



Bread is a food staple and nothing beats fresh bread straight from the oven. I have never made bread before and wondered what would be the easiest way to make bread in case I ever have a craving for it in an apocalypse. I found a no knead bread recipe from the New York Times by Jim Lahey which has become quite well known as the go to simple bread recipe to make at home. It was very easy to make and required almost no effort, and the result was crusty bread with an interior that is spongey and light. 

Baked no knead bread

Canned sardines are the Asian equivalent of canned tuna. I ate canned sardines with tomatoes quite a bit when I was young because my family was poor and it provided a cheap and easy meal. My mum would often prepare it for lunch and we’d stuff a crusty Vietnamese style bread roll with sardines.

Canned sardines with tomatoes
Sardines on fresh baked bread! Couldn’t think of a better way to start the day if I was living in an apocalypse.


I always heat the sardines through but you could probably just have them straight from the can.
 

LUNCH – Canned vegetable and bean patties


Vegetables are readily available canned. In its processed form, straight from the can, I do not find canned vegetables very pleasant to eat as the canning process renders vegetables overcooked resulting in a decline in flavour, soft and mushy (basically blah!). But I found a way to add texture and make canned vegetables palatable – mash up vegetables with spices and make them into patties. The spices provide flavour and frying the patties gives them some crunch factor. A lot of canned vegetables are preserved in just water and salt, thus canned vegetables tend to be salty which reduces the need for additional seasoning. Tip: do not need to add any salt when cooking with canned food.

Canned Vegetables
Recipe 

Add 1 can of potatoes (drained and chopped into 3cm pieces), ½ can of butter beans (drained), ½ cup of peas (drained), ¼ cup of breadcrumbs, 1-2 teaspoons of cornflour and 2-3 teaspoons of spices to taste (I used a mix of ground cumin, ground paprika and ground turmeric). Use a potato masher to mash everything up roughly. Shape the mix into patties that are about 1.5 cm thick and 5cm in diameter. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the patties until golden brown on each side. 



Add some grilled canned asparagus and jarred pickled vegetables as sides. Lunch is served.


DINNER – Instant ramen noodles with canned vegetables and salmon

Stash of instant noodles at my parents
There is always a stash of instant noodles at my parents house (essentials for any Asian household) and growing up I ate instant noodles as much as others would have eaten fast food. They are bad for you but tasty with an addictive dose of MSG and artificial flavours, and can always be depended on for quick meal fix. Instant noodles in my household are never eaten alone, they are always padded out with whatever meat and vegetables can be found lying around in the fridge. All that is required is hot water, although sometimes it can even be consumed directly as a snack without further cooking. 

Gourmet Ramen
So in an apocalypse I can imagine that instant noodles will become a go to meal for me, made into a gourmet meal with the addition of canned vegetables such as bamboo shoots and mushrooms, canned salmon, plus some nori sheets.


Do you cook with canned foods? Do you have some recipes to share?

(p.s I have one more Apocalyptic Dish to post, check back before 21.12.12)

Check out my other Apocalyptic Posts: