A festive wheat pudding

Semolina pudding or is known as Sugee by the Arabs here is a sweet milk pudding made from semolina grains and flavoured with heady cardamom and tinted a golden yellow by saffron strands. Its usually eated during festivities and weddings. My grandmother spends a minimum of 4 hours cooking this in a pot, involving frying the grains for at least two in a dry clean wok. She blends almonds with milk and adds it in too. Its actually real easy to make, as easy as cooking a bowl of oats for breakfast. This recipe is courtesy of an Arab friend and it has been in her family for generations. My metric conversions are awkward but its pretty simple if the cans itself are used for measurements.

 

Sugee

Makes a huge portion, serves at least 20

 

Ingredients

1 can evaporated milk (405g)

1 can condensed milk (388g)

8 cans water (using the evaporated milk can as measure, equivalent to 3240ml)

250g butternc

20 cardamom pods

1 tsp saffron strands

1 can King’s brand semolina grains (454g)

3 cups sugar

 

Topping

Sultanas

Toasted Cashews

Toasted sliced almonds

 

Method

Boil evaporated milk, condensed milk, water, butter and sugar in large pot. Crush cardamom pods and tie in muslin cloth. Add into mixture. Add saffron strands. Bring to a boil. While stirring steadily, pour semolina grains in a steady stream over 3 mins. Do not pour all in at once or it’ll clump together. Continue stirring till mixture thickens and semolina grains swell and turn translucent.Pour into mould. Sprinkle topping on while still hot. Best served chilled.

Mr tuckshop man tomato pasta sauce

Pasta always pleases. I got this recipe from a kind elderly stranger who ran a western stall in a tuckshop in a secondary school. He has a theory that any tomato based pasta must be based on 6 vegetable ingredients: tomato, carrot, celery, onion, mushroom and garlic. To this base, add seafood and it becomes pasta marinara, minced meat and it becomes a bolognaise. Add chilli and the spice gives it an entire new dimension. I blitz all the ingredients in a blender and fry up with olive oil for a smooth sauce. When I’m too lazy to lug out the blender, I just dice everything up and mush it all together in the pan for a more chunky, rustic sauce, For pasta, it’s a matter of personal preference. But I strictly reserve certain sauces for certain types of pasta. This definitely needs long strands to slurp up. Use angel hair, spaghetti, fettuccini or parpardelle (that’s in increasing thickness of strands). The brand Barilla makes the most delicious pasta. Get it from Carrefour or Cold Storage. My repertoire of pasta dishes has grown as H really loves pasta. He has a theory that it is the least fattening of all carbs. Haven’t been able to verify that though.

Mr tuckshop man tomato pasta sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 stalk celery

1 large onion

1 red chilli

½ a large carrot

3 cloves garlic

5 tomatoes

4 button mushrooms

Choice of meat: made mine with slices of pink salmon

Choice of pasta, boiled

Salt and pepper

½ tsp mixed dried Italian herbs

Method

Chop all ingredients. Fry onion till golden brown, add rest of vegetables. Add water and simmer till tender, about 10 mins. Add in pasta, toss. Season to taste and serve garnished with chopped basil.

Zucchini and Caramelized Onion Foccacia

We stumbled upon a wonderful gourmet shop while near Serene Centre, La gastronomia. H fell in love with the olive and sun dried tomato foccacia. He couldn’t get his hands off it, and I managed to catch a shot while it was on my lap in the car. Yes, H couldn’t wait for it to be fashioned into a sandwich at home. It inspired me to make my Zucchini and Caramelized Onion Focaccia recipe adapted from Bread Winners by Don Yong. Use anything in your fridge or pantry. Simple herbs, dried or fresh will make a lovely herb loaf. I use Herbs de Provence by Carrefour. A little goes a really long way. Put slices of eggplant and tomato for a mediterranean feel and a substantial lunch.I make double the quantity and wrap a piece in paper for H to have at lunch with slices of smoked salmon and sour cream. I usually use wheat gluten in breads that I make, its what gives bread its chewy texture. The only place I can find it is at Jason’s supermarket and its call Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten. It was out of stock for really long so I’ve made bread without it too. I think the difference is in the day after. Bread seems to last longer with the addition of the wheat gluten and bread conditioner. Find bread conditioner in specialty baking shops. Its called Bread Softex at Ailin Cake house at Tanjong Katong Complex. Use a kitchen mixer with a dough hook for easy mixing. Or it’ll be 15 mins of elbow grease, real hard work.

Zucchini and Caramelized Onion Foccacia

 Ingredients 

500 g bread flour

2 tbsp wheat gluten (optional)

1 tbsp bread improver (optional)

11g dried yeast

1 tsp mixed dried herbs

310ml cold water

2 tbsp olive oil

Topping

1 zucchini sliced  ½ cm slices

1 large onion sliced

1 clove garlic diced

Salt and black pepper

Olive oil

Method

Mix all the dry ingredients for 1 min at low speed. Add water and mix for 2 mins. Slowly trickle in olive oil. Mix on medium speed for 15 mins. Place dough in an airtight container (important!) coated in olive oil. Leave to rise in a warm place for an hour. Divide the dough into 3 portions and pin out into a flat circle about 1 ½ cm thick. Prove for 1 hour. Poke holes in dough with fingers. Saute ingredients of topping till zucchini tender. Put topping of zucchini and onion on. Brush with good amount of extra virgin olive oil. Bake in preheated oven at 220C for 20 mins. Immediately brush with olve oil when out of oven. Transfer bread on wire rack to cool.

 

 

Sunday morning hot chocolate

Hot chocolate is a lazy Sunday morning ritual for H. It’s the prelude to sometimes the only home cooked meal of the week. Its been made more special with a nifty tip from Jamie Oliver. Heating the milk till boiling, and then shaking it vigorously in a tightly capped bottle produces a lovely froth as good as any on a cappuccino without the need of expensive espresso machines. The trick is to only half fill the bottle, tightly cap it and shake it as long and as hard as you can. Its important not to fill the bottle completely or there’ll be no space for the foam to form. A mineral water bottle will do but it tends to be bent out of shape after. Keep is specially for this purpose. Hold it with a dish cloth as it gets really hot. When you uncap it, be weary of the hot steam. Its best to uncap loosely first. This is the recipe adapted from Jamie’s recipe.                                   

Hot Chocolate

Makes 1 

ingredients

2 tsp cocoa powder

2 tsp sugar

¾ mug of fresh milk 

Method

Heat milk till boiling. Microwave on high for 3 mins or in a saucepan on the stove top. Put cocoa and sugar into mug. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the hot milk into the mug and stir well. Pour the rest of the milk into a bottle, cap tightly and shake hard for 3 mins. Pour into mug and heap on the froth. Good with marshmallows on top and a sprinkling of cocoa powder.