Akok Kedut / Wrinkly Akok (MFF - Kelantan)

Never ever judge the taste by it's look. Never! The look of this kueh can be deceiving. Yes! But it taste really nice! This palm sugar and coconut dessert is accentuated by their rich, caramel taste and distinctive aroma.

Well, human depend way too much on their sense of sight as it is their primary tool of perception. But this kueh looks like a mega failed soggy cake! How can people NOT judge by it's appearance?

If you scroll down, read the ingredients, and you should be able to imagine how delicious this kueh is. The making process is quite fuss free too! :)

I've got myself some really nice Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar) from Melaka last month. The 1st day when I reached Melaka, I bought a pack of Gula Melaka at the roadside. It cost me RM4.50. The 2nd day, I went Makko Restaurant for some Nyonya cuisines. And I spotted 100% Gula Melaka! It cost RM6.00 a pack. Look at this, just by the color itself, you could tell the difference.

Ingredients (Makes about 18 to 20pcs)
(Source : Wendyinkk)

• 5 Eggs
• 30gm Plain Flour
• 150gm Palm Sugar (Gula Melaka)
• 125ml Water
• 2 blades of Pandan leaves (Screwpine Leaves), snip into pieces.
• 200ml Coconut Milk
• 1/8 tsp Salt
• Oil as needed

Method

1. Preheat oven 200C Fan ON. Apply a few drops of oil on a non-stick muffin tin. You could use aluminium egg tart pans. Put the oiled muffin tin into the oven to preheat together.
2. Chop palm sugar into small pieces. In a saucepan, add water, pandan leaves and palm sugar. Bring to a boil and gently simmer for 5 minutes, lid on. Let it coo to warm. You should get about 150ml to 160ml in the end.
3. Whisk eggs vigorously. I use hand-held mixer to do the fast work. Add in flour and salt. Make sure you whisk until no lumps are seen. 
4. Strain in coconut milk and palm sugar syrup. Discard Pandan leaves. Mix well.
5. Pour batter into the hot muffin tin. Like 2/3 full will do. You won't finish all at one go. You could repeat the baking later.
6. Bake them for 12 minutes or until surface is golden brown. 

The mixture is now done and ready to bake.

When this Akok Kedut is baking in the oven, I sent a photo to Alan and Wendy. Alan asked if I'm baking Yorkshire pudding! Oh well, good guess! *wink*

Once it's out of the oven, the Akok will shrunk and collapsed immediately. Max thought I failed my cake baking when he saw it! Waaahahahaha...

The texture is like.... egg pudding? No. It should be baked caramelized palm sugar egg pudding! Yes! This sounds much nearer :)

Yes, it's wrinkly, it's ugly, it's not appealing. But it taste really delicious! The fragrant smoky sweet aroma is just... just... just hard to resist! Max loves it. He ate quite alot. Haha :)

I am submitting this to Malaysian Food Fest Kelantan Month hosted by Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets

Prosperity Steamed Cod (富贵鳕鱼)

This recipe is meant for my girlfriend Katherine Xu who'd just got pregnant and she's gonna due in another 4 month's time I think. I'll try to post somes dish that's suitable for confinement. So that she would be able to refer to my blog during her confinement if she run out of cooking ideas :)

I like steamed fish. It has less fat which makes it healthy, easy, and most of all, the kitchen is less greasy and less cleaning compared to pan-fried fish. This is my first attempt steaming fish with herbs. And I must admit that it's delicious, and the herbal gravy pairs very well with plain rice.

But I confess, I do use good quality ingredients. Good quality angelica root 当归, good quality red dates 红枣, good quality wolfberries 枸杞子. They are bought from Eu Yan Sang medical shop. I reckon that they do sell good stuffs, but of course, pricier than the usual medical shop of course.

Good quality angelica root 当归 is very important. If you are buying good quality ones, it taste sweet. If you are buying those at a lower priced ones, they taste bitter, and less fragrance of course. This highly revered herbs is very popular. Some people called it "female ginseng", as it used to nourish the blood and is believed to help invigorated blood circulation, strengthen liver, heart and spleen. My mother says it is also a uterine tonic, effective against menstrual disorders. Angelica root sounds powerful eh? Indeed. And it is also explains why angelica root is widely used in confinement soups and recipes to treat postpartum women.

Note : Pregnant Woman should not consume angelica root.

Oh! Come back to my fish. I got a piece of really nice cod fish at Bukit Merah wet market. It's not expensive. I stand at the fish stall and gave my sad puppy look to the fish monger, I end up paid only S$12 instead of S$15. Hahaha! Good deal!

The original recipe ask for normal Chinese dried mushrooms. But I used dried pearl mushrooms instead. I got it in Hong Kong. But some shops in Singapore do sell too. I'm just plain lazy. I don't have to slice them as pearl mushrooms are petite in size.

The original recipe is not really accurate. Especially the seasoning part. The ratio doesn't really work. Especially when the cookbook indicated 1 tablespoon of salt. I was like.... "OMG! You serious about this?" Hahaha... So, I did modification to make it taste right.

Ingredients
(Source : Choong Su Yin's Harvest Rich cookbook, with modification)

• 1 pc Cod Fish 鳕鱼 (Mine is about 220g)
• 2 slices Ginger 姜
• 2 stalks Spring Onions 葱 (the bottom part will do)
• 1 tbsp Shao Xing Wine 绍兴酒 / Hua Diao Wine 花雕酒
• 200ml Water 水 (or more if you want)
• ½ tbsp Wolfberries 枸杞子
• 4 Red Dates 红枣, shredded
• 2 slices Angelica Root 当归
• 10g Dried Pearl Mushrooms 珍珠菇 or 3 slices of Dried Mushrooms 香菇

Seasonings

• ½ tsp Salt 盐
• 1 tsp Sugar 糖
• 1 tsp Sesame Oil 麻油
• Some corn starch (2 tsp Corn Flour 玉米粉 + 4 tbsp water 水)
• Coriander for garnishing.

Method

1. Clean fish, pat dry using kitchen towel. 
2. Heat up a tablespoon of oil, fry ginger and spring onion till fragrant. Add in Shao Xing wine and water, bring to boil over low heat. 
3. Once water is boiled, discard ginger and spring onions. Add in wolferries, red dates, angelica root, mushrooms and seasonings. Under low fire, let it simmer until fragrant. Set the sauce aside.
4. Steam cod fish under high heat for 5 minutes (mine is just 220grams, 5 minutes is really good enough). 
5. Once fish steamed, pour away excess water. 
6. Reheat the sauce, once it's boiled, add in some corn starch mixture, teaspoon by teaspoon. Until it achieve the ideal thickness that you wanted. 
7. Garnish with coriander and serve immediately with rice. 

The original recipe ask for normal Chinese dried mushrooms. But I used dried pearl mushrooms instead. I got it in Hong Kong. But some shops in Singapore do sell too. I'm just plain lazy. I don't have to slice them as pearl mushrooms are petite in size. You just go ahead to use normal Chinese mushrooms. Slice it before use. It's fine.

The thing about cooking is that, you find the taste right, but it might not suit others. When the recipe ask for ½ tsp of salt, but to others, they might think that it is too salty or it is not salty enough. So, I always emphasize to all my readers to adjust the saltiness / sweetness to suit your own preferred taste.

I looooove the umami sauce! Woohhhh!!

Happy cooking!



Do visit my other steamed fish recipes too :)

Hong Kong Style Steamed Cod Fish (港蒸鳕鱼)

Canto Style Steamed Red Grouper (清蒸红石斑）

TeowChew Style Steamed Pomfret (潮州式清蒸鲳鱼)

MFF Johor Round Up

Last month has been hectic for me. Picking up the new task at work, my prof is giving us really hard time on our assignments and I really didn't get to spent much time to monitor the whole process of MFF Johor. I'd like to apologize for that.

Even though I'm really busy with my work and study, it is always encouraging when I sees people email me and submit their Johor dish cooking. It keeps me motivated. I'm so glad that the entries this month is indeed encouraging :)

Here's all the participation from all the fellow supporters who'd replicate Johor dishes at home. 

* * * *

Noodles

Mee Bandung

Vivian Pang of Vivian Pang Kitchen

Mi Bandung Muar

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Mee Racun@ Poisionous Noodles

WendyinKK of Table for 2.....or More

Soto Johor / Mee Soto

Annie of Annielicious Food

Soto Muar

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Johor Style Kwayteow Soup

Alice of I Love. I Cook. I Bake

Pork Kuey Teow Soup (Johor style)

Sonia of Nasi Lemak Lover

Mee Rebus Johor 

Annie of Annielicious Food

Mee Rebus

Adeline of Lite Home Bake

* * * *

Chicken Dishes

Ayam Masak Merah

Mui of My Little Favorite DIY

Ayam Masak Merah

Ivy Sew of Simply Beautiful and Healthy Living

Ayam Masak Merah

Cass Tan of 揾到食

Ayam Masak Merah

Cindy of yummylittlecooks

Assam Pedas Ayam

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

* * * *

Fish Dishes

Sting Ray Assam Pedas

WendyinKK of Table for 2.....or More

Assam Pedas Ikan Kembong

Mel Lee of Through The Kitchen Door

Asam Rebus Ikan Johor

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Pindang / Singgang Serani

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Stingray Assam Pedas

Lena of Frozen Wings

Asam Pedas Ikan Pari Johor

Hody Loh of Cook 4 you & me

* * * *

Roti Jala

Roti Jala / Roti Kirai

Annie of Annielicious Food

Roti Jala / Roti Kirai

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Roti Jala with Vegetable Curry

Kelly Siew of Kelly Siew Cooks

Roti Jala

Hippomamalai of Hippomama's Kitchen

Roti Jala

Bee Bee of HoneyBeeSweets

Roti Jala/ Roti Kirai

Cindy of yummylittlecooks

* * * * 

Ogura Cake

Ogura Cake 斑兰相思蛋糕 

Joceline of Butter, Flour and Me

Pandan Ogura Cake

Christine Choy of Food@home sweet home

Irresistible Coffee Ogura Cake

Christine Choy of Food@home sweet home

Ogura Cake

Angeline of Angeline's Side of Story

* * * * 

Kacang Phool / Pool

Kacang Phool

WendyinKK of Table for 2.....or More

Kacang Phool

Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets

Kacang Phool / Kacang Pool

Shannon Lim of Just As Delish

* * * * 

Acar Darat

Acar Darat

Lena of Frozen Wings

Acar Darat/Acar Rampai Orang Johor

Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets

* * * * 

Johor Snacks / Side Dishes

Begedil (Deep fried potato patty)

Annie of Annielicious Food

Begedil Daging

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Crispy Banana and Sweet Potato Fritters with Spicy Soy Dipping Sauce

Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets

Telur Pindang @ Leaf Braised Eggs

WendyinKK of Table for 2.....or More

Talam Tokyo

Annie of Annielicious Food

Kuih Talam Tokyo

Cindy of yummylittlecooks

Kuih Kole Kacang

Rozita of Cerita Ita

It is indeed quite hectic for hosting Johor MFF last month. But I learnt alot through the process. I'm glad that I'd given the opportunity. See you all this month in Kelantan Month, hosted by Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets.

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