Ayam masak merah

Serves 6 people

Ingredients

Chicken - half, cut into small pieces

Turmeric-salt mix - sold ready mixed

Garlic - 6 pips (siong), crush and slice

Red rose onion/shallot - 6 small bulbs, slice

Bombay onion - 1 big bulb, slice

Kaffir lime leaf (daun limau purut) - 1 piece

Lemon grass - 1 piece, cut 3 inches lengths and crush

Red tomato - 2 pieces, cut into wedges

Ground chili, non spicy (cili boh tak pedas) - 1 packet

Ground chili, spicy (cili boh pedas) - half packet

Palm sugar (nise, gula Melaka) - 2-3 small chunks (1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm)

Soy sauce - use HABHAL salty soy sauce

Hot water - half cup

Method

1. Rub crushed and chopped garlic on chicken pieces. Then rub turmeric-salt mix on the chicken pieces. Fry the chicken pieces till lightly brown and fragrant. Remove fried chicken pieces to a bowl.
2. Fry red onions (both shallots and Bombay onions) till fragrant and light brown, but not burnt.
3. Add both ground chili (non spicy and spicy). Stir to fry and add hot water. Let chili-onion mixture cook to avoid mixture becoming stale easily upon storage.
4. Add fried chicken pieces. Stir to mix.
5. Add tomatoes.
6. Add 2-3 tiny chunks of coconut palm sugar (nise, gula Melaka).
7. Add a few dashes of salty soy sauce. Stir to mix.
8. Taste and adjust saltiness and spiciness.

Serving

Serve with freshly cooked hot rice.

Ayam masak merah

Orange marmalade walnut raisin cake

Faridah Abdul Rashid

24 September 2021 

I baked a cake! Again!

Orange walnut raisin cake … delicious!

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I created the recipe for this special cake based on ingredients which I bought in Makkah on my last Hajj in 2019, just prior to COVID-19 pandemic. 

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This recipe uses approximate measures as I feel that is the best way to bake this cake. You have to estimate how much cake mixture you wish to make and then use your own judgement on the measures. 

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Try and try this recipe till you get it right. In sya Allah. It will work for you as it has worked for me.

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This recipe is for 2 loaves of cake

Ingredients

There are 5 components to handle with care:

A. The oily component

*Margarine 100 g - this is a quarter of a 400 g block of margarine at room temperature (cut and use at room temperature)

*Cooking oil - half cup of palm oil (don't use olive, groundnut, sesame seed, canola oil or coconut oil; cooking oil gives sponginess to the cake; don't use too much oil)

B. The aroma component

*5 hen eggs (don't use duck or ostrich eggs)

*Vanilla essence - 1 teasp (vanilla removes the hen odour of the eggs, your cake won't smell of raw chicken or gok ayam)

C. The sweetness component

*Fine castor sugar 100 g - same amount as margarine

*Marmalade jam - 2 tabsp

*Sunquick orange concentrate (or any citrus flavoured concentrate) - 5 tabsp

*Seedless sultanas or raisins - a handful (chop or snip them if they are big; if you don't cut them into smaller pieces, they will sink to the bottom when baking and the cake will be soggy at the

 bottom)

D. Crunchiness component

*Raw walnuts - a handful (crush them with your hands; if they are large pieces, they will sink to the bottom and burn during baking; don't use too much as walnuts tend to give a bitter aftertaste; too much walnuts will offset the sweetness of this cake)

E. The volume & rise components

*Plain flour - less than 50 g flour; sift into a big rice bowl (too much will give a cake flour-tasting cake; too little will give a soggy oily cake)

*Baking powder + baking soda (a pinch of each)

*Ovalette - 1.5 tabsp (prevents cake from crumbling)

Method

1. Beat together margarine, cooking oil, Ovalette, sugar, eggs and vanilla.

2. Sift flour and add baking powder and baking soda. Mix with a dry spoon. Add a spoonful of flour at a time to mixing bowl and mix.

3. Add crushed walnuts and chopped raisins.

4. Place cake batter into 2 baking trays.

5. Bake for 1 hour at 140 C. Cake should rise but the flat top remains white.

6. Continue to bake the cake at 160 C for an additional 10-15 minutes or until a dark crust forms. This dark crust is the hallmark of this golden cake!

Serving

Eat this cake hot or warm. It can also be eaten cold.