Popovers in Malaysia

I found my mom's recipe for Popovers in my recipes and decided to give them a try as they are very easy to make. My mom's recipe is the easiest one I've encountered and usually is failure-proof unlike other fussy popover recipes.

You'll see in the recipe below it says not to over-beat the mixture. So I when I was making them I stirred just enough to mix the batter. Then I realized I had forgot the eggs and was forced to add them and stir some more. Well, this extra stirring I think was the reason that the popovers did not stay large a puffy as they were in the muffin pan when they came out of the oven. As soon as I took them out and put them in the dish, they fell. They still tasted pretty good with butter melted all over the insides. I'll try them again soon R loved them.

Mom's Popovers

1 Cup Flour

1 Cup Milk

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

2 Eggs

Heat oven to 425 fahrenheit (218 celsius). Beat ingredients until smooth - do not overbeat or the popovers will not rise. Overbeating will reduce volume.

Pour mixture into well greased oven-glass cups. Bake for 40-45 minutes or take out before the tops of the popovers burn.

Note: I don't have glass cups here in Malaysia, so I used my muffin pan which worked ok.

Bayam Merah Salad

I decided to try and make a vlita salad yesterday after putting up the Bayam Merah Post. So I searched online and found a couple recipes which I adapted slightly. The salad tasted pretty good, the fresh lemon juice was nice. I happened to have a couple lemons on hand, usually we use more limes. Here's the recipe:

1 Large Bunch of Amaranth Leaves (Bayam Merah, Chinese Red Spinach)

½ Red Onion Diced

1/2 to 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil (enough to cover the leaves)

½ Squeezed Lemon Juice

Salt

Pepper

Sliced Almonds

Cut big stem parts and roots from Amaranth Bunch and clean leaves.

Boil large Wok full of water. Place Amaranth in Wok and cover boiling for 10 minutes, stir occasionally pressing leaves down into water.

Drain Amaranth and paper towel dry excess water. Add to a large bowl and mix in the other ingredients starting with the lemon juice and olive oil.

Chill for a few minutes before to serving. Serve with lemon wedges. Eat the salad in one serving (it doesn’t keep well).

Bunga Kantan Flower

I was at the Seremban Wet Market (some photos and info: http://siewkaiyek.blogspot.com/2007/07/seremban-wet-market.html ) a couple months ago and one of the vendors had these beautiful pink bud flowers for sale. I asked the vendor if they were for decoration and he told me the pink part was used for cooking. I got enough out of him to understand that I could add it to the wok while making stir-fry something. So I bought a bud.

R was totally skeptical, but he allowed me to add a small amount of chopped up flower bud to a chicken and veg stir-fry we were making. And let me tell you, it was great. The bud gave the whole dish a great snappy taste. Zingy we thought. And compared the taste to ginger, but it wasn’t like the ginger we know. We loved it. I searched it online without knowing the name and finally found this Tropical Bloom website: http://tropicalbloom.blogspot.com/2007/06/bunga-kantan-story.html talking about the Bunga Kantan Flower (Torch Ginger Flower) plant. And I was finding exciting Mango and Bunga Kantan Flower recipes like the one on http://1001resepi.com for Kerabu Mangga Bunga Kantan http://1001resepi.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/kerabu-mangga-dan-bunga-kantan.jpg.

Prior to buying the house, I was too busy to go to the wet market, but I couldn’t wait to get hold of some more of this flower after we moved into the house and the kitchen was ready to actually cook in. But guess what? When were were going on the final inspection for the house, we noticed that the plant at the front of the house behind the carpark was getting really tall and had big pink flowers in bloom. R noticed one thin bud and mentioned that he thought it looked like the bunga kantan plant we had cooked. I agreed but wasn’t sure at the time. The plant has been continually in bloom with large pink flowers since we moved in! And today I went over to take a few photos for this site. I cross checked what I saw on Tropical Bloom and am happy to say we have a Bunga Kantan plant on our property!!!!!!!!!!!! Now all we need is the kitchen.

For more information check wikipedia under the plant's Binomial name Etlingera Elatior.