Pulut Tai Tai

I love this blue cake, usually people eats it with kaya. but I rather having it with gula Melaka.
(will be next post)

Bunga Telang It is a perennial herbaceous plant. Its leaves are elliptic and obtuse. It grows as a vine or creeper, doing well in moist neutral soil. The most striking feature about this plant are its vivid deep blue flowers.

The flowers of this vine have the shape of human female pudenda, hence the Latin name of the genus "Clitoria", from "clitoris". (Synonyms: Clitoris principissae.) "Ternatea", the name of the species, comes from Ternate, a location in Indonesia. In some languages (Tamil, Malayalam) it is named after the seashell, which is a euphemism for a woman's external sexual organs.

Owing to its similarity to a human body part, this plant has been ascribed properties affecting the same (a phenomenon also found in connection with the mandrake, among other plants). It was used traditionally to cure sexual ailments, like infertility and gonorrhea, to control menstrual discharge, and also as an aphrodisiac. This practice is rooted in an ancient belief recorded in the Doctrine of Signatures.

Clitoria ternatea root extracts are capable of curing whooping cough if taken orally. The extract from the white-flowered plant can cure goiter. Its roots are used in ayurveda Indian medicine.

Ingredient A
600g glutinous rice, soak in water for 4 hours and drained  |  300ml fresh coconut milk  |
150ml water  | 1 teaspoon salt  |  6 pieces pandan leafs, knotted

Ingredient B
30 pieces Bunga Telang  |  2 tablespoon hot water

Method
Combine all the ingredient A and steam for 45 minutes.

Crush the Bunga Telang with 2 tablespoon of hot water and extract the blue colouring.

Add colouring to 1/3 of the steamed glutinous rice and mix well.

Prepare a 8” x 8” x 2” square container and lay a piece of banana leaves at the bottom of the tray.

Place the colour rice and plain rice into the tray, flatten the rice,
cover with banana leaf and compress it with some heavy stuff,
leave it cool and serve with kaya.

Steamed Fish

Steaming works by boiling water continuously, causing it to vaporize into steam; the steam then carries heat to the nearby food, thus cooking the food. The food is kept separate from the boiling water but has direct contact with the steam, resulting in a moist texture to the food. This differs from double boiling, in which contact with steam is undesired.

Such cooking is most often done by placing the food into a steamer, which is typically a circular container made of metal or bamboo. The steamer usually has a lid that is placed on the top of the container during cooking to allow the steam to cook the food. When a steamer is unavailable, a wok filled less than half with water is a replacement by placing a metal frame made of stainless steel in the middle of the wok.

 













































Overcooking or burning food is easily avoided when steaming it. Health conscious individuals may prefer steaming to other methods which require cooking oil, resulting    in lower fat content. Steaming also results in a more nutritious food than boiling because fewer nutrients are leached away into the water, which is usually discarded.

In Western cooking, steaming is most often used to cook vegetables - it is rarely used to cook meats. In Chinese cuisine, vegetables are mostly stir fried or blanched and seldom steamed. Seafood and meat dishes are steamed.

Ingredients
600g fish, rub with little bit of salt  |  3 stalks spring onion, crushed  |  2 stalks spring onion, shredded  |
30g young ginger, shredded  |  2 red chili, shredded  |  30g minced garlic  |

Seasoning
2 tablespoon ligh soy sauce  |  4 tablespoon hot water  |  1 teaspoon sugar  |
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil  |  a little bit of white pepper  |

Method
Melt the sugar with 4 tablespoon of hot water, after that add in the rest of the seasoning, set aside.

Heat up 2 tablespoon oil to saute the minced garlic until fragrant and turn golden, dish out
and set aside.

Lay 3 stalks of crushed spring onion on a plate, place the fish on it, top the fish with shredded ginger.

cover and steam for 12 minutes with higher heat, dish out.

pour the soy sauce over the fish and garnish with shredded spring onion, shredded chili
and fried garlic.

serve hot with steamed rice.