Watermelon Bites With Lap Cheong

Watermelon ... Lap Cheong? Who would have thought! One of the best combinations, I dare say after helping myself to one after another.

I sat, waited with a grin as I watched my best friend's face light up with a bright smile. He was astonished at how yummy it tasted. At the same time, I was admonished for not making more. "Well, this was an experiment. How was I supposed to know!" I defended myself against the look of displeasure that was made in jest.

This is another Christmas creation as you will notice from the colours red and green. It all came about because of my current infatuation with the Lap Cheong. My mint plant has also made itself very at home on the balcony outside. It was spreading like weed. I thought I'd use the two away in a recipe.

Thus, Watermelon Bites With Lap Cheong was born. Juicy sweet watermelon, savoury Lap Cheong ; intense flavours that are balanced out with a burst of fresh mint. The mint was a nice touch. Really.

Watermelon Bites With Lap Cheong

Here's a little information about Lap Cheongs (Chinese sausage) in case you're wondering what it is. I'm using a variety that is typically found in Malaysian supermarkets. Wikipedia  describes it as:

Lap cheong (Cantonese) or là cháng (Mandarin) (臘腸/腊肠) is a dried, hard sausage usually made from pork and a high content of fat. It is normally smoked, sweetened, and seasoned with rose water, rice wine and soy sauce.

This is the recipe. Easy-peasy! 

Watermelon Bites With Lap Cheong (Toothpick Appetiser)
Ingredients:
- Lap Cheong 
- Sweet ripe watermelon
- Fresh mint leaves
- Cooking oil

How-to:
1) Use a melon baller to cut watermelon out into balls. Leave to chill in the refrigerator.
2) Soak the lap cheong in water for about 30 seconds. Peel the casing (outer layer) off. Cut into thin slices.
3) Pan-fry the lap cheong in cooking oil until slightly charred. Then, remove the lap cheong from the pan and place it on a strainer to drain excess oil .
4) To assemble. Press all the ingredients through a toothpick in this order : Charred lap cheong first. Next, the mint leaf and finally, the chilled watermelon ball.

1) Three ingredients - Watermelon, Mint, Lap Cheong.
2) Pan-frying the lap cheong.
3) Lightly charred lap cheong.

Arrange the Lap Cheong in this order.

Watermelon Bites With Lap Cheong ready to be served!

Yummy Watermelon Bites With Lap Cheong

Eat and be merry, for it is good!

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Fresh Mint Spice Cookies (Grown-up Cookies)

'Tis the season to be jolly. Merrily I went, to whip up a batch of cookies never seen before; in this household at least. I didn't have a particular recipe in mind. So I threw whatever ingredients I thought could work, into the dough, steadfastly staying away from the 'usual stuff'. This is a cookie for grown-ups, mind you. There are no chocolate chips, sprinkles or nonpareils here!

I had one goal, however. The colours red and green, both traditional colours of Christmas, had to be included. As my mint plant was in dire need of a trim, I used that for the green and since I had dried cranberries, why not for the red.

These are fresh out of the oven. I was so pleased with the results that I munched a couple even before it had the chance to properly cool.

Fresh Mint Spice Cookies

The cookie was delicious ; a pleasant, faint spicy aftertaste. A friend rated it an eight out of ten! My other half, of course, loved it! The line, 'sugar and spice, and everything nice' , comes to mind.

It's really easy to do, a matter of mixing all the ingredients together and voila! Still, I did it step-by-step, just to be sure I was combining everything properly.

Fresh Mint Spice Cookies
Adapted from www.spiceupthecurry.com .
Ingredients (18 cookies):
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 110g butter (softened)
- ½ cup soft brown sugar
- 2 tbsp full cream milk
- ½ tsp chilli flakes (seedless)
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 30 fresh mint leaves (chopped)
- 2 tbsp craisins/dried cranberries, pomegranate juice infused (chopped)

How-to:
1) Preheat oven to 170C. Line baking tray with baking paper.

2) In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar using a baking spoon or a whisk. Beat or stir vigorously until it is well incorporated.

3) Then, sift the flour and baking soda over. Add milk. Stir to combine. I resorted to lightly kneading it with my hand midway. It was just much faster.

4) Add chilli flakes, sesame seeds, ground nutmeg, mint leaves and craisins. Knead this into the dough, until just combined.

5) Use a rounded spoon. Place one tablespoon of dough onto the lined baking tray. Use a flat spoon to flatten the dough into a round shape (as pictured below); a little over 1.5inches in diameter for me.

6) Do a test bake (bake one cookie) to find out best baking time and temp for your oven. I baked these for about 8-10 minutes at 170C. It gave me a cookie that's just done; in between soft and crispy. Lower the temp and bake awhile longer if you want it crispier.

Note: The cookies were still good two weeks in an air-tight container.

1) Fresh mint, nutmeg, sesame seeds, cranberries, chilli flakes.
2) Combining the butter and sugar.
3) Adding flour, baking soda and milk.
4) The cookie dough.

1) Add sesame seeds, cranberries, fresh mint and nutmeg into the dough.
2) The completed cookie dough.
3) Spoon one tablespoon out.
4) Onto the baking tray it goes.

Use a spoon to flatten the dough.

Freshly baked and out of the oven!

Mmmm....fresh mint spice cookies!

The back of the cookie.

The texture in between.

This done, my next goal is to bake more of these to give away to friends and family for Christmas! Am I excited!

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This post is linked to Cook and Celebrate: Christmas 2015 hosted by Yen from GoodyFoodies, Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids .

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Tomato Pork Stew With Pasta

The wet season is here, making my days .... brr! I keep warm with cardigans, bowls of hot soup, and can't imagine how I would survive in a place where there's winter seeing that I run for a steaming cup of tea and snuggle up under thick blankets the minute it gets a little cold. It's no surprise that my meals lean toward spicy or soupy recently!

Tomato pork stews show up regularly on my rainy-day menu. I go by the agak-agak (estimate) method when I cook this, throwing whatever I fancy into the mix according to my mood, along with a dollop of tomato ketchup, canned tomatoes or a tablespoon of puree. For this recipe, however, I skipped the bottled stuff and stayed on the path of using fresh ingredients.

Tomato Pork Stew With Small Shells Pasta

It turned out really yummy. Not that I had expected otherwise. The tomatoes I used were bought from the mini-mart downstairs at the apartment where I live, which is supplied by a small-time local farmer.

This is a meal for three.

Tomato Pork Stew With Pasta
Ingredients
- 400g soft pork ribs (rib tips)
- 1 cup Small Shells pasta
- 3 large tomatoes (cut into medium cubes)
- 1 red capsicum (cut into cubes)
- 1 carrot (cut into medium chunks)
- 1 large red onion (chopped)
- 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
- ¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley (chop extra for garnishing)
- ¼ cup Chinese cooking wine (rice wine)
- ¼ cup cooking oil
- 1 tsp ground oregano
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- 4 dried bay leaves
- Black pepper (about 5 dashes)
- Salt
- Water

How-to:
1) Heat cooking oil in a large pan or pot.
2) Saute onions and garlic for about half a minute. Then, add bay leaves and pork. Stir-fry for a bit.
3) Add chilli flakes, black pepper and ground oregano. Stir to combine.
4) Put the tomatoes, carrots, capsicum and parsley in. Season with ½ tsp salt (or to taste). Mix well.
5) Pour in cooking wine, along with 3½ cups water. Cook covered and allow to come to a slow boil.
6) Reduce heat to maintain the slow boil. Leave to cook for at least an hour, until the meat is tender.
7) Taste and season further with salt, if necessary. Finally, add the pasta and cook until done.
8) Garnish with chopped flat-leaf parsley.

1) Ingredients needed. 2) Chopped ingredients.
3) Sauteing the onions and pan-frying the pork. 4) Add all the vegetables in.
5) Stir, then pour the wine in. 6) Add water and leave to cook for an hour.
7) Once the meat is tender, throw the pasta in. Cook until done!

Yummy Tomato Pork Stew With Pasta

Tomato Pork Stew With Pasta

There you go - delicious pasta in a stew of tender pork ribs. Slurp!

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Food Discovery : Salak (Snake Fruit)

Salak is also called snake fruit for obvious scaly reasons. The fruit is grown in several South East Asian regions, one of which is Malaysia where I live, and has several cultivars.

I had my first taste a long time ago through the kindness of an old lady who was running a nursery in Sungai Buloh. She offered me one as I browsed for plants to add into my balcony garden.

To eat, pinch the top off and peel the skin like you would a hard-boiled egg. The seed is inedible.

The salak fruit that I tried, which I cannot confirm it's cultivar, was mildly sweet. It was crunchy, a little dry and left a light sourish acidic taste on the tongue. I wasn't particularly taken in by the whole experience.

I would describe its deliciousness as an acquired taste. That said, the sweetness and texture of the fruit also differs between varieties. So, I'm thinking of trying another cultivar to satisfy my curiosity! I will post an update, once I have.

Have you tried a salak fruit before and what did you think of it?

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Orange Marmalade Roasted Chicken

Orange marmalade is the least preferred bread spread in this household. I'm rarely fussy about food, but it is the truth that it is not a favourite when it stands along the likes of Kaya, Nutella and Peanut Butter.

Now that I think of it, we aren't particularly fond of oranges either. Not a whiff throughout the year unless I'm doing a recipe that requires the use of it.

I wasn't worried about it going to waste though. I knew I'd just cook the orange marmalade off somehow and I did, in this yummy roast chicken dish the other day. It's sweet-savoury and finger-licking good, or should I say utensil-licking good.

Orange Marmalade Roasted Chicken

I have always liked roasting chicken with a little more sauce left behind on the baking tray. Hence, a habit of adding water once in between roasting time.

Orange Marmalade Roasted Chicken
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken
- ½ large yellow onion (cut into wedges)
- 2 tbsp orange marmalade (I use a local brand - De'Choice , a sweet jam)
- 1 calamansi lime
- 1sprig fresh rosemary
- ½ tsp salt
- Black pepper
- Water

To combine:
- 2 potatoes (quartered)
- 1 tsp cooking oil
- A sprinkle of salt

How-to:
1) Pre-heat oven to 180C. Rub potatoes with salt and cooking oil. Leave aside.

2) Place the chicken on a roasting dish.  Spoon the marmalade on. Season with salt and several dashes of black pepper. Squeeze calamansi juice over. Rub the mixture all over the chicken, including under the skin and some onto the onions too.

3) Stuff the onions into the cavity. Stick a sprig of fresh rosemary in. Place potatoes on the side. Cover the wing tips with a bit of foil to prevent it from getting burnt (I did this halfway, during basting).

4) Roast at 180C, for about 1hour and 30 minutes (or longer, depending on the size of the chicken). Test with a skewer. If the juices run clear, it's done.

To-do in between: Once the chicken has browned a little, baste using juices on the tray and pour ½ cup water (to preference) onto the roasting dish for a bit of gravy (around 45minutes into cooking time for me).

Tip: Place a piece of foil, loosely, on areas that are browning too quickly so that it doesn't get burnt.

These are the ingredients we'll need!

It's ready to go into the oven.

Tadaaa!

Orange Marmalade Roasted Chicken

Enjoy as is - roast chicken with pleasantly sweet crunchy onions, tender potatoes and delicious gravy.

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Food Discovery : Lucky King Bun, Port Dickson

They say that variety is the spice of life. When it comes to food, there is no shortage of that. My weekends are often dedicated to exploring nearby neighbourhoods for things to do or try. Sometimes, I end up going a little further. Hubster and I made an impromptu road trip out of the city towards the seaside of Port Dickson for a picnic last weekend.

I was up early that Sunday morning, excited by thoughts of 'lepaking' (lazing) under the shady leaves of a coconut tree. My backpack was filled with a picnic mat, napkins and eating utensils.

Before we left the house, I fiddled with my smartphone to search for places to eat. Lucky King Bun appeared top on the google list. For obvious reasons too - surely nothing was more interesting than gigantic buns baked with a pouch of decadent meat curry inside! It was perfect picnic food.

Here's a peek of a piece of droolworthy tender pork meat. 

Yummy Pork Ribs Curry

We drove into the town of Lukut to look for the restaurant. It was easy to spot as it was located by the main road. We were amongst the earliest customers at 11am, and our enthusiasm was obvious as we discussed excitedly over what to get.

"Pork-lah, pork-lah. We have tried chicken before at another place!" I grinned gleefully at the hubster who insisted that I be the one to choose.

Lucky King Bun Restaurant

Three varieties were available - Chicken Curry,  Pork Ribs Curry and  Yin Yong (Pork Ribs Curry & Dongpo Pork). It would have been interesting to try Yin Yong, which is packed with two pouches of gravied pork. Unfortunately, it wasn't ready. So, we vowed to come back for it another day.

Lucky King Bun - It's almost the size of my head.

It was really quite heavy for a bun! We placed it gently at the back seat of the car before continuing on our journey.

I found the bun really heavy.

It was high noon when we finally arrived at the beach. We sat on our picnic mat, admired the scenery for a bit before unpacking our food.

There was only but a light breeze to keep us cool. Were we mad? Wasn't it hot? Not extremely. You may have heard from the news that several countries in South East Asia are suffering from a haze situation caused by fires in Indonesia. The sun was partially blocked out. It was just another gloomy day for us. I speak only of the weather. Our spirits were high in anticipation at the thought of eating this bun!

Lucky King Pork Ribs Curry Bun

We tore the bun open from the top. There you go - bread and curry all-in-one (pictured below). Peel the bread away from the sides and dip it into the curry, which we discovered was a generous portion, with chunks of meat and potatoes. Hot bread, enjoyed with rich flavourful curry, is the kind of thing that makes me blissfully forgetful how sinful it is to over-eat. 

Pork Ribs Curry with Warm Bread - Yum Stuff!

This is a meal for three adults. I wouldn't keep it overnight. It's best enjoyed fresh out of the oven. One word describes my overall experience - tasty!

Price : 
Chicken Curry Bun (RM30),  Pork Ribs Curry Bun (RM38) and  Yin Yong - Pork Ribs Curry & Dongpo Pork (RM40)
Location : 4366, Taman Aman, Jalan Bandar Lukut, 71010 Port Dickson.

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Steamed Pork With Preserved Vegetables

Chap Fan (mixed rice) aka economy rice is the kind of meal that we identify as having the familiar feel of home-cooked food. It is a makan (eat) stall that typically offers plain white rice along with many trays of meat and vegetable dishes to choose from. That it is affordable and a quick lunch option makes it a popular choice for many office workers. Me included, in the days I was still glued to a 9 to 5 job!

Steamed pork is pretty much a standard offering with Chinese economy rice sellers. It's easy to do and is generally a crowd-pleaser.

Steamed Pork With Preserved Vegetables

I attempted to make something similar, down to cutting it into squares. It is a flavourful dish with a little wine for that oomph and preserved vegetables for a rounded flavour.

Steamed Pork With Preserved Vegetables
Ingredients:
To mix
- 350g minced pork
- ¼ cup preserved salted / pickled mustard greens (rinse well)
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 2 stalks spring onion (chopped)
- 2 ½ tbsp chinese cooking wine (or rice wine)
- 1 tbsp corn flour
- Salt and white pepper to taste

Garnish
- 1 medium carrot (shaved with a peeler)
- Fresh coriander

1) Taste preserved vegetable to check on the level of saltiness. Place all the ingredients to be mixed, into a bowl. Season sparingly with salt (or leave it out) if you feel that the preserved vegetable is salty enough to flavour the entire mix. Add a couple of dashes of white pepper. Combine all the ingredients using your hands.

2) Arrange the pork mixture onto a 7 x 7in square baking tray lined with foil.

3) Steam in a pre-heated cooking pan until cooked, which took about 10 minutes for me.

4) Cut the steamed pork into squares.

5) Serve it on shavings of raw carrots. Pour pork juice over and garnish with fresh coriander.

Best eaten with plain rice along with a spicy soy sauce, bird's eye chilli condiment.

1) Gather the ingredients. 2) Combine the ingredients.
3) Place pork mixture into the steaming pan. 4) It's done after 10 minutes. Cut into squares.
5) Check out the pork juice!

Steamed Pork on a bed of Carrots, garnished with Coriander

Steamed Pork With Preserved Vegetables

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Asam Pedas Stingray

There are two common ways that Malaysians eat stingrays. One, in an asam pedas spicy gravy and two, grilled on a banana leaf.  The former is favoured by home-cooks because it's convenient and is a perfect accompaniment for their rice meal. The latter is widely sold in hawker stalls, a street food that is usually enjoyed on its own.

Asam means sour in Malay, pedas on the other hand means spicy. Wikipedia describes asam pedas as a sour and spicy stew that is popular in Indonesia and Malaysia.

"The main ingredients in asam pedas are usually seafood or freshwater fish. They are cooked in asam (tamarind) fruit juice with chilli and different spices."

Asam Pedas fish is typically cooked with bunga kantan (torch ginger) and daun kesum. In the absence of these ingredients, kaffir lime leaves is another great way to go about it.

Those who enjoy an extra kick will add toasted coconut, black pepper and/or additional spices such as turmeric, cumin, fenugreek or aniseeds. The variations are too many to mention.

Asam Pedas Stingray

How I cook asam pedas is always a simple affair mainly because I don't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen on work days, nor do I wish to fork out too much on a regular meal. Special occasions are a different story, of course!

Asam Pedas Stingray
Ingredients:
- 320g ikan pari slices (stingray)
- 5 ladies finger (halved or whole)
- 2 medium tomatoes (quartered)
- 1 red chilli (julienned)
- 4 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 1 garlic clove (chopped)
- ½ thumb ginger (chopped)
- 2 tbsp dried red chilli paste
- 1 tsp tamarind paste
- 2-3 tsp brown sugar
- Salt to taste
- Cooking oil
- Water
- Oven-grilled slices of red chilli for garnishing (optional)

How-to:
1) Heat some cooking oil in pan.
2) Saute onion, garlic and ginger for a bit.
3) Add tomatoes, kaffir lime leaves, chilli paste and tamarind paste. Stir to combine and fry it for a bit.
4) Then, add the ladies fingers in. Stir to coat.
5) Add about 1½ cups water. Simmer until the ladies fingers are cooked. Then, season with sugar and salt.
6) Add the fish and slices of red chilli. It's done when the fish is cooked. Optional : Garnish with grilled slices of chilli.

Best eaten with white rice.

1) Gathering the ingredients. 2) Chopped and ready to be cooked!
3) Add the paste after sauteing the onions and garlic. 4) Add the vegetables.
5) Finally, add in the stingray!

Asam Pedas Stingray

Enjoy!

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Creamy Coconut Milk Chicken

There were many things we did in the old days to make a living. One of it, was selling coconuts. I used to help grandma gather coconuts for the middleman to collect. It was in my early teens that I started using the wooden coconut grater, the kind that had a seat, to remove the white flesh from old coconuts for cooking.

After grating enough, I would hold a handful between my palms and squeeze the coconut milk out. That was how we used to extract coconut milk in the old days. Using a cloth was unheard of.

Today, coconut milk can be conveniently found in cans and small cartons.

This is another simple recipe (I'm all for anything easy)  that busy people can turn to, if their short on cooking time.

Creamy Coconut Milk Chicken

Creamy Coconut Milk Chicken
Ingredients:
- 400g chicken breast fillet (sliced)
- 1 large red onion (chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 red chilli (sliced)
- 4 green bird's eye chilli (sliced)
- 1 tbsp turmeric power (mix with a bit of water, into wet paste)
- ½ cup coconut milk
- ½ cup water
- ½ tsp sugar
- Salt to taste
- 3 tbsp cooking oil

Optional: canned button mushrooms (sliced)

How-to:
1) Heat cooking oil in pan.
2) Saute onion and garlic for a minute.
3) Add turmeric paste, and stir-fry.
4) Add chicken slices (and mushrooms, if using) along with ¼ cup coconut milk. Mix well.
5) Then, add ½ cup water. Allow the water to come to a boil, and gently stir until all the chicken slices are cooked.
6) Toss in the red and green chilli. Season with sugar and pour in the remainder of the coconut milk.
7) Cook until the sauce thickens a little or until it's creamy. Finally, season with salt.

Best eaten with rice, garnished with fresh lettuce.

1) Ingredients. 2) Saute the onions and garlic. Then, add turmeric.
3) Add the chicken along with some coconut milk.
4) Mix to coat the chicken slices.
5) Add the remaining coconut milk. Cook until creamy.

Creamy Coconut Milk Chicken

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This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (October 2015 : Coconut) organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Jess from Bakericious.

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Cream Corn And Minced Pork Soup

Do you remember comfort foods from your childhood? This soup is that for me. It was a popular dish for working mothers in my kampung because it was quick to make and oh-so-easy to get kids to finish their meals off.

Fast forward today, it's something I hardly make as my preferences lean toward clear soups. However, I don't want to lose my roots completely. So, here it is on my blog today.    

Cream Corn And Minced Pork Soup

I add quite a bit of white pepper to make it peppery. This is because I love a little spice in my soup. It's a personal preference.

Cream Corn and Minced Pork Soup
Ingredients:
- ½ can of 425g whole sweet kernel corn
- ½ can of 425g sweet corn cream style
- 100g pork meat (chopped/minced)
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 2 eggs
- 2 stalks spring onions (chopped)
- ¼ tsp white pepper (or flavoured pepper)
- A dash of black pepper (optional)
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- Salt to taste
- 3 cups water

How-to:
1) Heat oil in wok. Saute garlic until lightly browned.
2) Add minced pork, along with ½ cup water. Stir furiously (to keep the meat from lumping up).
3) Then, add both the corn and remaining water. Wait for it to come to a boil.
4) Once it's boiling, season with salt and pepper.
5) Stir the eggs in, then switch the fire off.
6) Serve garnished with spring onion.

Best eaten with white rice or on its own, as a starter.

1) Garlic, Corn, Minced Pork, Egg. 2) Cook the pork.
3) Add water and corn. 4) Flavour and add the egg.

Corn Soup Garnished with Spring Onions

Yum-yum Corn Soup

The easy way of doing this soup : Add water into a soup pot, along with the corn. Stir to combine. Then, wait for it to boil. Stir the minced pork in. Once it's cooked, season with salt and white pepper. Finally, stir the egg in. That's it!

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Gingery Pumpkin Chicken

In our family, ginger (zingiber officinale) is often used as a herb to aid postpartum mothers in their recovery period during the first month. I remember grandmother cooking Tapai Chicken (Rice Wine Chicken) with a generous amount of ginger. Some of us have taken a great liking to it, and the dish is now a regular appearance on the dinner table all year round. I was taught to cook this in my teens.

It is mentioned in the book 'HERBS'  that ginger has medicinal purposes. Soothing menstrual cramps is another one of its benefits.

I habitually use ginger in my cooking when I want a little spicy oomph in my meal that doesn't involve using the chilli. This is such a recipe.

Gingery Pumpkin Chicken

Gingery Pumpkin Chicken
Ingredients:
- 335g chicken drumettes
- 350g pumpkin (cubed)
- 1/2 cup grated/blended old ginger (that's about 5-6 thumbs of ginger)
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce (or to taste)
- 1 tbsp corn flour (mixed with 1 tbsp water) (optional)
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 stalks spring onion (chopped)
- 2 cups water

How-to:
1) Heat oil in pan.
2) Saute ginger for awhile. It will be quite dry.
3) Add chicken. Stir for a bit. Then, add the pumpkin.
4) Add water and oyster sauce. Mix well and leave to gently boil.
5) Simmer until the pumpkin is tender and the chicken is cooked. This took between 5-7 minutes for me.
6) Using the spatula, mash the pumpkin a little. Switch the heat off. Stir in the corn flour mixture to thicken the gravy slightly (optional).
7) Finally, stir the spring onion in.

1) Grated ginger. 2) Cubed pumpkin.
3) Rinsed chicken. 4) Sauteing ginger and chicken.
5) Adding pumpkin into the mix. 6) Season and leave to simmer.
7) It's done when the pumpkin is tender and chicken is cooked.

Yum with rice!

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Steamed Lap Cheong Cakes

Have you ever had a craving for something so strong that it creeps into your mind at every 'hungry' opportunity? I've been walking around with visions of me tucking into scrumptious steamed cakes laden with bits of Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausage). After weeks of torment, I finally decided to put the matter to rest!

I took to the kitchen, slamming cabinet doors along the way as I gathered the necessary ingredients. Soon, Steamed Lap Cheong Cakes were born. I held one warm luscious cake in hand. The first bite I took was so satisfying that I felt an overwhelming desire to give myself a big hug!

This is what it looks like fresh out of the steamer.

Steamed Lap Cheong Cakes

For the cake recipe, head on to Piggy's Cooking Journal at http://www.piggyscookingjournal.com/2007/09/steamed-cake.html .

These are the changes I made. I replaced olive oil with corn oil. Instead of sesame seeds or pine nuts, I added lap cheong that I had sliced into small bits. Quantity used: 1 regular tube of lap cheong (about 6in long) was sufficient. An inch out of it was kept aside and used as topping.

This recipe produces 6 regular cupcake-sized cakes, which is great because these are best eaten when it's fresh and warm. Although taste-wise it remains great the next day, the texture of the cake is less than satisfying even after re-heating.

Below is a photo of the batter, already mixed with lap cheong bits and spooned into the cake mould.

Filling The Cake Mould With Batter

I used a toothpick to test if the cakes were done. It was and took only 15 minutes in a pre-heated steamer.

After 15 Minutes Of Steaming

The cakes were soft, yet bouncy to the touch, much like babies' cheeks.

Allowing The Hot Cakes To Rest

A close-up shot I took whilst waiting for the cakes to cool a little.

A Close-Up Of A Rogue Lap Cheong Bit

As soon as I could, I eased one cake out and started eating. Before I knew it, I had finished two.

My thoughts ran along, "Gosh, this is yummy..."

T

Munching On A Warm Lap Cheong Cake

The verdict: Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausage) is one of the best ingredients I've ever added to a cake!

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