Homemade Kaya from Rosy's Kitchen @ Surrey, UK.

This is for those living in London / UK / Europe and miss having some good kaya to go with your butter and roti!

In March, I visited my relative's place and we had some very delicious home made kaya for breakfast.

Rosy has been making kaya for her own consumption and for friends who wants them. She's also set up a simple website that helps promote the kaya. She makes a few extra bottles when she's making her own supplies for others who might want to get them.

Her modest website:  http://rosyskitchen.wordpress.com/


This photo of the kaya taken at Rosy's Kitchen Table in March 2013.

More about Rosy and her Rosy's Kitchen Kaya:

Based in a home kitchen in Surrey, UK, Rosy's kaya is made using organic, free-range or premium quality ingredients. For example, the eggs are free range eggs purchased drive away from where they live.

The kaya is hand stirred, not using any machine and made in small batches. It's like how mums and grandmas make them. No, she doesn't use a charcoal stove. To comply with health laws, they are bottled in brand new jars. (She has also got her kitchen certified by the health authorities.) So if you want more, she can't fill them up in your clean up jars. You got to buy a new jar.

The taste and looks test: the texture is thick, creamy and fragrant, the colour is caramel brown and not the green kind. If you are living in the UK, having the kaya with freshly toasted bread and British butter, you will not miss the Yakun or Toastbox kaya toast here in Singapore or those from old style coffee shops in Malaysia.

The recipe is from her mum. The reason she uses free range and organic produce is because they eat organic produce daily for their meals. She wants to have good kaya and not a bottle of kaya that is mass produced products and contain preservatives.

The price? 
* One 180g jar of Kaya – £3.50
* Three 180g jars of Kaya – £10

Rosy does drop offs in London at times. Some folks order together and have it sent to a particular address. People do gladly pay for postage because it saves them from getting out of their house.

The day we were there, Rosy was going to the post office to post jars of kaya across the English Channel! There are people who are willing to pay for postage that costs more than the cost of the kaya in other parts of Europe!

That's it. For folks in UK, hope this post will be useful for those of you wanting to get some home made kaya!

Nasi Lemak - Prawn Sambal

We prepared this a few times over the last few weeks. Relatives coming over for a homemade Nasi Lemak lunch. Nasi Lemak made at home just taste extra good. You know the ingredients are fresh and there is no additives. The rice, fragrant and steaming hot right out of the rice cooker gives it an extra uumph!

Cooking at home the last 6 months has been easy because we no longer have to wash dishes. We got that part out by not getting a maid, but a dishwasher! Yup, it saves us water too! We no longer squabble over who shall do the dishes. Now, we have strong opinions on how things are to be stacked. Oh well, quarrels don't stop. LOL.

It was early Saturday morning. Mum and Aunt made an appointment to meet at the market to buy ingredients. I followed them to be their 'Siri'. Siri, please carry this. Siri, please collect this and that from who and who. Siri please pay for this.



This was the Nasi Lemak! 
I decided to document the prawn sambal cooking process and share with you all!




We had 1/2 kilo of fresh prawns. Get small to medium size ones. Too big and the sambal won't look correct. Mum don't want to get the smaller ones, so she does not need to peel so many prawns!



Two onions.



Chilli Boh. We just got the freshly made ones from the fresh food market. To simplify the process.

If you are up to it, you can soak dried chilli a day ahead, clean them and mix them with fresh chilli and other spices to make your own chilli boh.





Mum's recipe does not only have Chilli Boh, she adds in Chilli Powder too.
This is to make it extra spicy!




Heat your kuali. Add enough oil, usually 4 to 5 tablespoons of oil. You need enough oil to bring out the fragrance. It's called 'naik minyak' in Malay.

Fry the Chilli boh first for a few minutes. On medium high to high heat. I assure you, you will choke and cough when you do this! The spiciness will fill the air. Keep stirring before it chars! Around 5 minutes of so, add in 2 to 3 tablespoons of the chilli powder. Fry it a while more and the mixture becomes like a lump. It will smell superb!




Add in the onions!



Looking good eh?




Next we got to add in the Assam Water.

This was about a 2 tablespoon of Assam and we add it into a bowl of water to dissolve it and get the Assam Juice.




Pour it in and the whole mixture turns even more fragrant!




Don't you think it is looking so delicious already?
Mum prefers a dryer version, but I like a wetter version. So we compromised and we settled on this! It's really up to you!

Add in some probably around 2 teaspoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of sugar.



Add in the prawns!



Simmer it for a few minutes, you get the prawn sambal!



After cooking it, you can't wait to have lunch!
We had to wait for 2 hours until lunch time when our guests arrived.

Mum prepared the cucumbers and the hard boiled eggs.
Aunt came over with prawn and fish keropok, fried ikan bilis (anchovies) and fried peanuts that she prepared at her home.



Tempting?



We have been quite busy and for those friends who are asking when are we having the house warming? The answer is "soon". This is a preview of what we will serve!

Cake Recipe: Granny Smith Cranberry Olive Oil Cake

Here is a recipe to share with you all.

Of the many cakes that the wife got for her birthday this year, this was the only home made one and probably the tastiest too! Some of you have seen me post the photo of this cake in Instagram and have asked for the recipe, so here it is.



Mum made it for her new daughter in law's birthday. It's really easy to make and I am going to show you how to make it. Using lots of photos, I will guide you step by step. If you are a pro baker, just bear with me. For newbie bakers, I hope with these photos, you can  almost feel you are in our kitchen making it!

Most cake recipes require very precise measurement, mum has been baking cake for over 40 years and have been modifying them as it goes. This is one recipe she says that does not need precise measurement. No need to have complex machines too! Just a large mixing bowl, a sieve, a whisk, a lined baking tray and an oven.

We are having green apples for this recipe, just because it's one of the wife's favourite fruit.


Ingredients Set A
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of olive oil
3 XL eggs (if you get them from the wet markets) or 6 small eggs (the usual ones in the supermarkets)


Ingredients Set B
3 cups of granny smith (3 or 4 apples depends on the size)
150 gm of dried cranberries
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder

Ingredient Set C
3 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of bi carb
2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt

Preparation Steps to be done first
- Sift the ingredients in set C first.
- Prepare a 9x9 inch square tray and lined it with grease proof paper.


Baking time
- 45 mins at 175 Celsius

Follow me as I graphically show you how it's made:

Step 1: Pour into the mixing bowl, 1 cup of sugar.




Step 2: Add in the 1 cup of olive oil. You do not need to use the most expensive olive oil you have. In fact, we use the Fairprice brand of olive oil. It's just to replace butter.




Step 3: Add in the eggs. The eggs we bought from the supermarket last week was a bit too small. So mum had 6 eggs instead.  If you usually get the super XL eggs from wet markets, 3 is enough. 




Step 4: Whisk the mixture with a hand whisk! It is that simple!

We hate cleaning up. Especially containers from machines that does not really fit into our dishwasher. Keep your Kenwood or Kitchenaid.




Step 5: Add in the 3 cups of granny smith apples. Just a simple mix will do.

You might be asking what's a good size to cut for the apples? If you want to have nice, clean and pretty slices of cakes when you cut the cake when it's done, cut it apples smaller. If the apple is too big, when you cut the cake, you get 'holes'.

If it's for family and you really love the bite of apples, cut it the size you see above. It won't be as pretty when you cut the cake, but you get the nice bite!




Step 6: Add in the sifted flour. If you are making macarons or chiffon cakes, you usually add in the flour in 2 or 3 batches. For this cake, you can add it all in at one go!




Step 7: Add in the dried cranberries.




Step 8: At this point, preheat the oven. Set it at 175 Celsius. We usually set it to 10 minutes.

We sometimes bake using the Bosch Oven or the Many-in-one Panasonic steam oven.  Both works. Just your preference. The Panasonic is smarter sometimes, when it reaches 175 Celsius, it beeps!

Mum prefers traditional convection oven.




Step 9: Add in the cinnamon powder. Apples and cinnamon goes very well together!

Give it a really good stir with a spatula, not the whisk. Same like other cakes, don't fold it too hard or too long. When it's well mixed, stop.




Step 10: Pour the mixture into the cake pan! That's it!




Step 11: Admire your work! I was already salivating when I saw this! There's so much fruits in it!




Step 12: Into the oven it goes!




Step 13: Set it to bake for 45 minutes at 175 Celsius. Wait patiently!

While it's baking, you can clean up. Err... there's nothing much to clean up is there? We used so few 'equipment' to make this cake.




Step 14: The finished product! Test the cake to see if it's done.

Poke a bamboo skewer into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done! If not, give it another 5 to 10 minutes. When it's done, the cake does not stick to the sides of the pan.




Step 15: Cool the cake. I tell you, it smells so good, you can't wait to eat it!




Step 16: Serve the cake! Mum asked if she should prepare some chocolate cream to cover the cake. Everyone at home said no! We usually scrap off the cream, so we say we don't want cream.  Put a Happy Birthday decoration tag on top and candles and it's done!

Sing Happy Birthday, make a wish, blow the candle, cut the cake and EAT!

Hope you enjoy this recipe.
Let us know how you like it when you bake it.

Happy Dumpling Festival!

Wishing all a very Happy Zhang Festival!



Mum is not making any Zhangs this year.
But these are made and given by relatives instead.



Kee Zhang or Alkaline Zhang.
The top bit has been bitten off by Momo ;-)

I don't particularly like Alkaline Zhang.
I like Bak Zhang more. I shall take photos of Bak Zhang another day. ;-)

Brown Sugar and Prapika Streaky Bacon - Tastes like Bak Kwa

Over the weekend, I happened to watch a few minute's of (the cooking show) Paula's Party and I saw Paula and his son prepared something really really sinful!

Paula and Bobby (his son) grabbed bacon and coated with it with lots of brown sugar and paprika.
Even though I can't smell or taste it on TV, it looked really nice. It was also a no brainer to prepare!



That very afternoon, when I was shopping for groceries at Fairprice Finest, I passed by the meat counter and remembered Paula's dish. I grabbed some streaky bacon and also a pack of brown sugar.

I have a can of very nice smoked paprika from Spain, so I did not have to buy that.




Since it's very sinful, I only experimented with 3 slices of bacon.

Coat the bacon with lots of sugar. Sprinkle paprika to your taste. The voila!

Tip: Use a non stick mat if you have one. Melted sugar is a pain to clean up! Non stick mats are life savers!



I baked them for 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

The brown sugar and bacon will be bubbling and it caramelizing. The smell is so heavenly! I am sure you will be salivating even as it cooks!



Tada! The end product!

Guess what? After tasting it, it reminded me of Bak Kwa! Home made spicy bak kwa!

I will still be getting the real Bak Kwa for Chinese New Year.
This will be treats for special friends. Try it!