When I was growing up in Kuching, Sarawak I remembered one of the places where my mother used to take us, me and my 4 other siblings to buy breakfast from this shop (I forgot where) that sold the best egg tarts, cream puffs and this very special egg sponge cake but with savoury mince pork and fried shallots in the middle.

I have tried to recreate this over the years, ahem….decades actually… but the last few batches always ended up in the bins. As I have ‘accidentally’ clicked and bought too many packets of cake flour a couple of months ago from Amazon, I decided to give it another go. Finally I have a recipe I am happy to record and share. This is because hubby asked for a second slice. When he does this it means ‘he passed it’ – kekekekeke

I have always remembered this as something from my childhood which I have eaten countless times growing up in Kuching, Sarawak. This is like 5, 6 decades ago but I am not counting. – kekekeke

Only recently some claimed that this is a ‘Taiwanese street food’ Which is which I am not sure but hubby loves this now as he is not too keen on char sui bao being of fatter pork fillings. The daughter declared today she loves it too. Previously they both have said it was weird being sweet and savoury and refused to eat, hence the bin ate them. Of course that got them the lashing of my tongue as isn’t char sui bao etc sweet buns and savoury fillings too? Here are some TIPs if you want to give it a go.

TIP – When steaming use medium to high heat. Make sure water is bubbling before your batter goes in.

TIP – When steaming second round after the mince and fried shallots toppings do not forget to top up water before doing so.

TIP – You can season your mince a tad saltier because the egg sponge is plain.

TIP – Do not be tempted to add more seasonings to the mince or vanilla essence etc to your egg mixture. You do not add vanilla essence to your char sui bao bun do you? Same concept.

TIP – Remember to lift out your cake from the tin onto a rack to cook. If not you might have a soggy bottom syndrome.

Note : Big NO. NO, this savoury sponge cake from my memory do not have chicken floss! Of course that is not to say you cannot add to your bake but this IS my childhood nostalgia indulgence. My childhood idiosyncrasy if you like.

Last weekend a friend told me she has been hankering for cucuk udang. She asked me for my recipe and I realised that I have not made these for years. I am not sure if she meant just these crispy prawns ones which I love or the ones with beansprouts and kuchai. These are my first choice and those are my second loves.

However she got me thinking where did I put my recipe. One day many years ago I experimented with different combination of flours; with and without egg to find the combination I wanted. I have even fried with prawn stock, not water, the bit softer type and the crunchier types etc etc……… The MAD housewife – kekekekekeke

The final recipe I uploaded to my old blog which I have since lost. In my cooking I am often a bit like a ‘bee in the bonnet’ type of person. I will try and try and try and experiment and experiment BUT once I made it to my satisfaction I will lose all interest and only cook once in a blue moon. In this case it has been a few years. I have to dig around to find my recipe and Facebook recorded my mad moment was on 25th June 2011!!! Luckily I found it! Thus this is an old recipe revived with TIPs.

My husband do not like big prawns so I distributed to other families near me when I made yesterday for the pics taking. Luckily I have willing guinea pigs – hahahaha

IMPORTANT TO NOTE – If you want a crispier outcome then make the batter slightly thinner, ummmmm….like pouring custard consistency and if you want crispy sides and softer middle then make it thicker consistency like thick custard.

If you make very thin batter it is very good to eat with rojak sauce!

Of course if you want to add in beansprouts and beans or Chinese chives then you need the thick custard consistency.

Experiment and enjoy.

p/s I used left over batter + a bit more rice flour and batter chicken strips for my son who also like his Dad don’t eat big prawns. Sigh……… I just have to share my prawns fritters out when I make them.

When my son was young I used to make lunch boxes for him daily as he doesn’t like the food from his school canteen. I actually wanted him to try more different kinds of food so I joined him to the school meals list. It only lasted a couple of weeks!

However the school actually has a menu of what is being served daily. Once a week we were given a menu and the boy and I have to tick what he wanted for 5 days (weekly). Typical English food like fish fingers, spaghetti Bolognese and such. As my son was not too keen on a lot of the food offered and also he wanted to gobble up his lunch quickly just so he could play footie, he much preferred to have lunch boxes.

There was a year when I forced him to join the school Christmas lunch with all the other students before the school Christmas pantomime. When I went to the school to collect him that day one of the canteen lady told me, “Mrs Olive your son said our gravy is like brown drain water” I was so embarrassed, extremely embarrassed that I did not know where to put my face or how to begin to apologize! We still reminiscent about it to this day with a chuckle. I think he was 8 or 9 years old then.

Anyway one of his favourite lunch box food is my savoury muffins and of course his favourite is none other than cheese and bacon muffins. Sometimes I add in a bit of sweet corn or grated carrots. You do the basic mix and add anything you like within reason. If course common sense is not to overload with vegetables. Let children enjoy a bit.

Use this basic ingredients and adjust add or minus stuff to suits your taste.

The only one golden rule is mix the wet ingredient to the dry and do not over mix the mixture!

Remember when you scope onto your tin, make sure it’s like a mound in the middle and not flat. This si so that your muffins baked like a round ball, prettier.

I would have added chives to today’s bake but I have non at home so I decided to add some larger pieces of bacon on top.

Enjoy and don’t forget to tag me or post your pics here.

Einstein said “Imagination is More Important Than Knowledge” For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

I have been thinking of making this flower rolls for eons. Last year my friend came to my house and noticed my spring onions growing wild! Too many of them. She recommended I made spring onion oils. I am not a big fan cause I do not like the ‘brownish’ looking spring onions after. I’ve never needed to buy spring onions ever for years. They just grow all through winter in my garden which is a South facing little micro climate area in Hertfordshire. I am really lucky!

I lost the use of my bamboo steamer a few years back as I kept it in the shed and it went mouldy. It’s very difficult to buy one of bamboo the size I wanted until recently. I bite the bullet and got a new one few months back as they are expensive! Hubby was ‘you’ve not use your bamboo steamer yet’ few few times already and I pretended to ignored him I know he is hinting for my special ginger parcels.

Today I have made spring onions (scallions) and lap cheong flower rolls. This idea been in my head a long time but I just needed to find out how to make the green of the spring onion remains fresh looking even after baking!

My boy on the other hand do not like to eat spring onions and won’t touch lap cheong (Chinese sausage) and he requested for ham and cheese. so I made some ham and cheese for him too!

While I was cutting the ham I remembered I have some pineapple I was saving for rojak but hey ho I will use it for him to make him a happy boy. So the Hawaiian Flowered roll is born!

My mind was in over drive thinking of all the combinations possible both sweet and savoury now that I have decided I want to use this combination of flours and liquid ratio. It gives me a soft roll and I much prefer steamed rolls to baked really. I find steamed boa/rolls much softer and less dry than bread. Easier on the palate

I tweaked my char siew bao recipe a bit and viola this flower dough roll is born. For the steps to making this dough please refer to https://www.julieolive.co.uk/2020/07/28/easy-char-siu-baozi/ to see how to make the dough.

Use the my fours to liquid ratio as a guide and experiment. I have done a few suggestion here and hope you enjoy it.

Having more liquid makes for a softer boa/roll but the shape would not look as good but eats better.

Having less liquid gives you a better looking bao/roll but do not taste as soft just ecstatically pleasing to the eye.

TIP – To keep your spring onions and chives green even after baking you first soak them in 2 litres of cold water + 1 tsp of baking powder for 30 minutes before slicing for use. In this way your spring onions will still look just plucked from garden even after baking. Refer to my pic

TIP – To eat the next day all you have have to do is microwave it 30 seconds.

When I lived in Bercham Ipoh, there was a man who came sometimes to the market and he sells all manner of fried Chinese dough aka Chinese doughnuts but this is my favourite – Kap Chong.

My husband was very happy with this and said no need to cook lunch, he can have these for breakfast as well as lunch.

Luckily I can still make these because have not made them for like 10 years since I moved down from Devon to London’s as Chinatown is just half an hour train ride away.

I prefer my sticky rice to be “can see each grains” type. I fermented the dough overnight.

The second batch I made I used ley water and I have to say I did not like the taste! So I adjusted to my taste with amonia powder and after the 4th time (discounting the 2 times that went into the rubbish bin) I am happy to post this recipe. I have certainly made a little dent into the bread flours I bought before lockdown – kekekekekeke

I actually made Kap Chong with Chinese 5 spice and Kap Chong with fermented red beancurd because I forgot which taste I prefered more.

However the hubby and I found out that we much prefer the Chinese 5 spice taste more.

Why making these at home? Well you can adjust the amount of Chinese 5 spice to suit your taste, the amount of sugar, salt and dough. My husband requested for more glutinous rice and I can adjust that too. The taste is entirely up to you.

The next batch I make I will freeze half to see how well they freeze. I know dough when proofed can be frozen but I just do not like to handle them when defrosted. I will update when I have done so. I have already decided to freeze them individually with grease paper separation but at the moment I do not have freezer space spare.

It will be nice to be able to just put some to defrost overnight in the fridge and fry the next morning for breakfast.

My next project as I have kilos of glutinous rice left – kekekekekeeke (blame lockdown)!

TIP – I made the rice baton the night before.

TIP – I let my dough ferment overnight too.

Cekodok Pisang or Banana Fritters is one of Malaysia’s best-love snack. It’s one on my favourite.

I am almost embarrassed to post this as this is so easy to make. However I have since been persuaded that it is not everyone that can make it so here’s a post on my blog.

Living in the UK, I have never found it taste quite the same as in Malaysia for we do not have that much choice of bananas here. I always leave my bananas to go to almost rotten before I use them to get as close a taste to home as possible.

However I do not make this often even though hubby loves them. He will eat this till the cows come home but he will never on his own eat a fresh banana. Go figures.

I don’t make this often because bananas when ripe contains so much sugar and as a diabetic I cannot afford to use up my sugar rations.

When we were growing up, my sibling and I, the five of us enjoys my mother’s butter cakes and often we have to fight over the last few pieces. Now I can laugh about it but I remember then there were even tears! This is my 3 parts Rich Brandy Butter Cake.

I also recollect that my mother used both brandy and vanilla essence. My mother had forgotten which recipe she used. However I have over the years tweak this recipe a bit by bit and I am now satisfied with the taste. I used a good vanilla paste so I can use 50ml of brandy.

I am sure if I wait 24 hours before eating it, the brandy taste will matures a bit and I was going to wait for 24 hours before slicing but hubby came home from work and was giving me his best ‘I am hungry’ look.

Now half the cake is gone so I will bake another tomorrow to keep for 24 hours!

I actually love to eat cakes naked. I do not like icing, fondant and such. A good old school butter icing made with butter, icing sugar and ice cubes like how my mother used to make by hand is not too bad. since living in UK I am partial to fresh cream and crème anglaise on cakes. My repertoire of cakes is just about a dozen. I guess I am extremely fussy.

I bought a baking tin with a bit of groves at the sides the last time I was in Milan. It was made in Italy. Collecting baking tins and cookbooks is my ‘must do’ when I travel.

The best butter cake to me must be extremely buttery, extremely dense, sweet without being too sickly sweet but RICH. Above all else it must be perfumed with butter. Perfect with a cup of black freshly ground coffee or plain tea. This is such a recipe.

Note – Please use the best butter you can afford. It makes ALL the difference in my honest opinion. If you use a salted butter then omit the generous pinch of salt. If you are using unsalted butter then use at least a tsp of salt.