Steamed Pumpkin Cake

My mother didn’t like to cook much apart from the usual main meals. This was one of the rare snacky things she used to make. As I said in the last post on Fried Radish Cakes, you can make radish cakes using this recipe; just simply substitute the pumpkin with grated radish.

Ingredients

500g pumpkin mash, I like to leave some in cubes for a bit of texture

300g rice flour

2 tbsp plain flour (optional if you are going gluten free)

750ml water

50g dried shrimps, roughly chopped

1 Chinese sausage, chopped

150g pork mince (traditionally finely chopped belly pork is used)

4 stalks spring onion, chopped

1 fresh chilli, chopped (optional)

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Fried shallots for garnish

Method

1.          Heat oil in fry pan.

2.          Sauté garlic, shrimps, mince and sausages.

3.          Add pumpkin, flour and water, all half the chilli and 1/3 of the spring onion.

4.          Add salt and pepper to taste.

5.          Stir until the batter thickens a bit.

6.          Pour into a greased tray.

7.          Steam at high heat for 45 minutes.

8.          Remove from steamer; sprinkle the top with the chilli, spring onions and fried shallots.

9.          Cut into squares to serve when cooled.

Fried Radish Cakes/ Chai Tau Kueh

This is one of the street foods of Malaysia, and one that is not often sold in restaurants here as it’s considered too “homely”. You can make the steamed radish cake yourself, or in this case, I bought a block from the Asian grocer. I will post a recipe of the homemade radish cake soon, although when do I tend to make the pumpkin version at home, just because that’s how mum used to make it.

Ingredients (serves 2 or one very greedy hungry person)

250g of steamed radish cake, cut into 2cm cubes

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 stalks of spring onion, chopped

2 tbsp of chai poh (preserved daikon)

A handful of fresh bean sprouts

Optional fresh chilli sliced

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 clove of garlic, chopped finely

½ Chinese sausage, thinly sliced

2 tbsp cooking oil

Method

1.          Heat oil in pan.

2.          Sear the radish cake cubes, turn the cubes around for even browning.

3.          Add garlic, chilli, Chinese sausage and chai poh.

4.          Add soy sauce stir without mushing the radish cake.

5.          Add eggs and stir to scramble.

6.          Lastly add the bean sprouts, put the lid on to cook it for 2 minutes.

7.          Sprinkle on the spring onion and chilli to serve.

Banana Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Muffins

Despite the banana price inflation at the moment, we managed to have over-ripe bananas leftover this week. I came up with this recipe that the boys would like in their lunchboxes.

Ingredients

1 cup self raising flour

¾ cup Hazelnut meal

¾ cup wholemeal self raising flour

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup buttermilk

120g butter, melted

½ cup choc chips

2 mashed overripe bananas

2 eggs

Method

1.          Preheat oven to 170°C fan force.

2.          Mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

3.          Add in the wet ingredients and stir.

4.          Do not overmix.

5.          Bake for 18 minutes in 170°C oven.