Cassava Cake with Shredded Coconut

Once in a while, I have sudden cravings for kuih, or Malaysian sweet cake, which is a delicacy found in Malaysia. I usually crave for onde-onde and kuih bingka ubi (cassava cake). However, making kuih is laborious and takes a long time, and I have no patience to make these two cakes to fix my cravings, so I usually combine two recipes into one and make cassava cake with shredded coconut. The cassava cake looks just like kuih sago, but it’s made with cassava instead of sago pearls or tapioca pearls.

Back home in Malaysia, whenever there is festive season, for example: Hari Raya (Aidilfitri), Malay or Peranakan weddings, various kinds of kuih are served to the guests. I grew up with my late grandmother who was a legendary kuih maker. Every wedding or festive celebration in my family was graced with endless array of colorful kuih, all cut into nice little bite-shaped shapes waiting to be devoured.

Ironically, I didn’t appreciate kuih when I was back home in Malaysia. I was into western-style baking: cakes, cookies, buns and donuts. I thought kuih was unfashionable; little did I know that kuih were such an art form and unique creations of my culture.

Anyway, now that I realized how delectable and dainty these kuih are, I enjoy eating them whenever I have a chance. These cassava cake with shredded coconut is absolutely delightful and lovely, both to the eyes and the taste buds.

(Click Page 2 for the Steamed Cassava with Shredded Coconut Recipe)

Pages: 1 2

Whenever I go home to Malaysia, I would always stuff myself crazy with all sorts of kuih (local sweet or savory cake). One of my favorite is or kuih, or yam cake made of yam (in the US, yam is referred as taro). I have never attempted making kuih in the US though. Today, I have invited a fellow Penangite…

When it comes to baking, I like really simple recipes that are almost fail-proof, yet deliver satisfactory results. Recipes that call for only a few basic baking ingredients, precisely, butter, flour, eggs, and sugar, that create magic when blended together and baked. One example is pound cake. I spotted this perfect pound cake recipe a while ago on Kokken. Seriously,…

Recently, there is a new takeout place near my neighborhood that sells all sorts of popular items—Korean BBQ ribs, japchae, chicken karaage, tonkatsu, coconut shrimp, etc. I have fallen in love with its coconut shrimp and have been packing them for lunch, at least twice a week. The coconut shrimp is unlike others that I have tried before—the shrimp has…

Right after I baked the perfect pound cake, I had some leftover cake flour. Recently, a couple of friends and I were experimenting with layer cake (Indonesian/Malaysian kek lapis) with prunes, so I decided to use the cake flour to make brandy butter cake with prunes, with a touch of brandy added to flavor the cake. I grew up watching…

View the original article here

Shredded Pork Banh Mi Bites- A Take on Tapas

Too much of a good thing is certainly possible. Take for example, my favorite sandwich in the world, Vietnamese Banh Mi. But wait, before you blame me for being biased (you’re absolutely right anyways), allow me to clarify a few things about my subjective love of this sandwich.

Yes, I’m Viet-Nam born, am Vietnamese at heart, and grew up eating banh mi for as long as I can remember when I started chewing solid foods. I often took this sandwich for granted as a grade school kid and was often embarrassed about taking it into my school lunch bag for fear of being sniffed out. As soon as this sandwich emerged from my bag, my classmates would pick up the aroma of pungent pickled daikon and carrots.

The pungent smell of pate and fish sauce laced pork loaf meat was quickly picked up by the rest of my peanut-butter-jelly clan of classmates. Noses would turn up, but not in a hateful way. It wasn’t often that fish sauce scented foods made way into an elementary school cafeteria and pickled daikon was known to clear a room rather quickly.

Still, my humiliation radar turned on. The crusty french bread with fresh pickles, rich pate, flavorful pork meat and tender sprigs of cilantro had no value to me at all. This was not quality food, I kept thinking. This was just embarrassing.

I was wishing I had a ham and cheese sliced white bread sandwich instead. And oh, an Orange Capri Sun would have been nice. I never got Capri Suns in my lunch and wished I was with the cool kids sipping this astronaut looking drink bag. Instead, Mom snuck in a can of tofu milk instead. I’m going off on a tangent, but all this is another long, venting post.

Anyways, fast forward 10 years later in High School. My non-Vietnamese friends are bringing banh mi sandwiches to school that they picked up at the local banh mi shop. Suddenly, banh mi was super cool to have at lunch. The cool Senior bench had cheerleaders sharing a banh mi sandwich and the captain of the football team was sporting a grilled pork banh mi and shrimp chips. Here was the coolest white guy on campus eating a banh mi and I’m sporting a PB & J sandwich. There was something seriously WTF’d up with this picture.

Since then, I’ve found pride again in my native foods and every time I pulled out the white wrapped banh mi sandwich, everyone turns my way in envy, not with their noses turned up. I’m crunching on my fabulous banh mi sandwich with crumbs falling on my lap and with a big beam of pride while everyone around me is barely gnawing on their limp PB & J. Those bastards in my 3rd grade class were definitely losing out. I believe that now.

My menu now at parties normally have a banh mi platter filled to the brim with bite sized sandwiches. But as of late, I’ve been playing with more tapas, bite sized, open faced banh mi bites. I’m loving this because the fillings are exposed and the first bite is always terrific and full of the fresh, flavorful fillings. That’s how my fun parties are started with: tasty little banh mi bites.

Timing was quite perfect last month when I was craving my banh mi bites again and thinking of making some shredded pork for the bites and Gilt Taste contacted us about trying out some organic pork. Normally we don’t accept offers to review food products, but knowing the quality of specialty foods that Gilt Taste offered, it was hard to pass up.

From what I had read at Gilt Taste, their market offers quality food made by artisans and small farmers across the country. We accepted their offer to try the Becker Lane Organic Farm‘s heritage breed Berkshire pork shoulder. We trusted Gilt Taste’s choice to support Becker Lane and quality of the pork and ethics on how the pigs are raised.

The pork shoulder was used to make this shredded pork banh mi and we were extremely pleased with the wonderful marbling and flavor. When pork of this quality tastes this good, you don’t need to eat a whole lot to be satisfied. Better yet, the philosophy of Becker Lane on their farming technique is both admirable and in tune of how we try to be more conscious about where our food comes from.

So thank you to the lovely folks at Gilt Taste for helping us satisfy our craving for more banh mi. Like I said in the beginning, too much of a good thing like great pork on banh mi should always be possible. I never feel a bit of guilt when I can enjoy comfort food from my childhood with fabulous ingredients produced with love.

Enjoy!

diane

Shredded Pork Banh Mi Bites Recipe

This recipe is my standard braised Vietnamese pork banh mi recipe and the only difference is how it’s served. Rather than serving it in a closed sandwich style, I’ve served it bruschetta style. These smaller bites are fun and perfect appetizers for parties and gatherings.

For the recipe and step by step photographs, please refer to my original Pork banh mi post.

You can see from the images on this banh mi bites post on how I served and prepared the final look.

Thanks and have fun with the banh mi bites!

More of my Banh Mi & Vietnamese Recipes:

View the original article here

Chipotle Shredded Pork Enchiladas – Family Recipe from Muy Bueno Cooking

Happy Cinco De Mayo! Today we’re celebrating with a guest recipe from some of our favorite ladies. Please welcome our guest writers today: Evangelina, Yvette and Veronica, the lovely ladies from Muy Bueno Cooking.

Today they are sharing the write-up for their amazing stacked Chipotle Shredded Pork Enchiladas!! They are home-cooks from El Paso, Texas who share their love of family, culture and food on their wonderful blog.

Photography by Todd & Diane (that’s us) and this fabulous Recipe is from Muy Bueno Cooking.

Veronica ~ For years my sister Yvette and I have talked about collecting some of our favorite family recipes and putting them into some kind of cookbook, primarily for our kids. We want them to remember exactly how our grandma Jesusita and our mother Evangelina made our favorite recipes.

Yvette and I have fond memories of family events and holidays and all the recipes that accompanied those special events. But most of the recipes were foods we ate everyday. Every recipe has its unique list of ingredients and flavorful story to tell. We never realized how deeply seeded our memories are and how emotional this journey would be for us.  Apparently one can’t exist without the other.

roasted tomatillos and tomatoes for enchilada sauce

As we travel through recipe after recipe, month after month, holiday after holiday, we are so glad we are taking the time to write it all down. It’s definitely a true labor of love.

After our grandmother, Jesusita passed away, Yvette and I each inherited one of her rolling pins. Grandma made everything from tortillas to empanadas with this simple kitchen tool and it brings tears to our hearts as we fondly recall the hours she logged on each rolling pin. Sheesh, if the rolling pins could talk.

We are not professionally trained cooks nor do we claim to have the best recipes but simply, our family’s recipes. Along this journey we’ve learned some stuff about cooking and every once in awhile we get an idea for a new recipe. Sometimes those recipes are really good…thanks to grandma, we know she is watching over us and maybe just maybe, she whispers sweet nothings into our ear to help us find our way around the kitchen.

Following is a sweet story of how my sister found her way around the kitchen and came up with a recipe. I’m sure she heard sweet nothings whispered into her ear that day

Yvette ~ We grew up eating cheese enchiladas every Friday and so I crave enchiladas often because it reminds me of home. One weekend my craving kicked into high gear and I was disappointed to discover that I did not have any chile pods to make our traditional red enchilada sauce.

While digging through the pantry I found a lonely can of chipotle peppers and knew I had to try to make enchilada sauce with it. My husband prefers shredded chicken in his enchiladas but suggested we substitute it for pork. I was hesitant at first because I’m a cheese enchilada kinda girl, but I set my stubborn Latina ways aside and we tried the pork.

The combination of flavors with smoky-spicy chipotle sauce and the tender shredded pork was a match made in heaven. My hubby and I loved it, we swooned over it, and like piggies we ate our stack of enchiladas without coming up for air. The next morning we raced to the kitchen to do it all over again, only this time we had the sauce over chilaquiles

don’t forget the margaritas! cheers!

 Print This Recipe
Chipotle Shredded Pork Enchiladas
Recipe and write up by the lovely ladies at Muy Bueno Cooking. Taste tested, devoured, and photographed (not necessarily in that order) by us, White on Rice Couple. Warning: This recipe is spicy! If you are a wimp (ahem, I mean not a fan of spicy chile) then use half the can of chipotle peppers or add an additional can of tomato sauce. But don’t forget that the spice in the sauce will get mellowed a touch when added to the tortillas, pork, and other fillings.

Makes: 4-6 servings
Time Saver: Set your slow cooker in the morning and shred the pork in the evening.

Ingredients

Pork

1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin, shredded *see instructions below1 (8 ounce) beer1 bay leaf

Sauce

1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes1 can (7 ounce) chipotle peppers in adobo sauce1 can (8 ounce) tomato sauce (depending on spice tolerance you may need an extra can)2 roma tomatoes, roasted *see instructions below4 tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and roasted *see instructions below½ large white onion, chopped2 garlic cloves1 tablespoon flour½ cup water1 tablespoon olive oilSalt (to taste)

Enchiladas

½ cup canola oil, for frying12 – 18 corn tortillas, preferably white1 medium white onion, diced1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (preferably Enchilado or Muenster)1/2 cup crema Mexicana or sour cream, for topping

Directions

Shredded Pork
Place the pork tenderloin and bay leaf in a slow cooker; pour the beer over the meat. Cover and cook on low until well cooked and the pork shreds easily, 6-8 hours. Discard the bay leaf. Remove the pork from the slow cooker and shred the meat. Set aside for assembly.

Roast Tomatoes and Tomatillos
Arrange tomatoes and tomatillos on a baking sheet. Place your oven rack as close to the broiler as possible. Broil the tomatoes and tomatillos for about 20 minutes until softened, turning over after 10 minutes. If the skin has blackened remove it. Set aside.

For Sauce
In a blender place the can of diced tomatoes, chipotle peppers with adobo sauce, tomato sauce, roasted tomatoes and roasted tomatillos, chopped onion, garlic cloves, flour, and water. Puree until smooth.

Heat olive oil in large skillet. Pour mixture into skillet and stir. Taste and season with salt, usually about 2 teaspoons. If sauce is too spicy, add an additional can of tomato sauce and stir. If sauce is too thick, add water until desired constancy is reached, making sure to add more salt if necessary.

Assembly
In a large skillet, heat canola oil until hot. Fry tortillas until softened. Drain on paper towels. Place lightly fried tortillas, one at a time, in pot of warm red sauce, turning to coat. Place coated tortillas on serving plate. Layer each tortilla with cooked pork, grated cheese, and onions. Repeat layering until stacked three to four tortillas. Serve with a dollop of crema or sour cream and your favorite side dish.

Our family prefers our enchiladas stacked, but if you are cooking for a large group, oven style might be the way to go.

Oven Style
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread 1 cup of the sauce in an ungreased 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Fry tortillas in hot oil just until softened. Drain on paper towels. Fill with cooked pork, cheese, and onion. Roll, placing seam side down in baking dish side by side in a single layer and pour 2 cups of the sauce over enchiladas. Sprinkle with more grated cheese and bake until warm, about 15 – 20 minutes. Garnish with a dollop of crema or sour cream and your favorite side dish.

View the original article here

Get Jacked, as in Ripped & Shredded, With Junk Food

Customers will get Ripped & Shredded quicker than anything else out there with this. Developed by the 1998 Body For Life Champion, he beat 220,000+ entrants using it. Because it works like crazy, this will spread very virally. Get in on the ground floor

Check it out!