Recipes Articles for the Month of February 2023

1. Start by adding all filling ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine. Chill for 30mins.
2. Make each dumpling by adding 1T of filling to the centre of a wrapper and form your dumpling. Repeat until all the filling is used up. Make sure your dumplings are placed on a clean, dry surface and that they are not touching each other.
3. Prepare your slurry for the lace skirt by mixing the water, flours and vinegar in a bowl/jug.
4. To make one batch of dumplings, heat 1T of oil in your skillet. Add in 8-10 dumplings, making sure the dumpling bottom is sitting in the oil on the pan. When the bottoms start to brown, add in the slurry and cover with the lid. Allow the slurry to bubble in the pan. The steam created will cook your dumplings.
5. Once the water has largely evaporated, uncover your pan and allow any remaining steam to escape to leave behind a dry, crispy, lace skirt at the bottom of the pan.
6. Turn off the heat. Cover your dumplings with a large plate and invert your pot stickers in one action from the skillet to the plate.

Enjoy immediately. 

1. Scoop out the thick cream from the coconut cream container/tin and add to a small pot (leave behind the thin, watery liquid).
2. Add in sugars, salt and a couple of drops of pandan flavouring (a little goes a long way). Gently and stir everything in the pot until all the sugar has dissolved. Turn off the heat.
3. Place egg yolks in a medium sized bowl. Whisk to combine.
4. Continue to whisk the egg yolks as you gradually add in the warm coconut cream mix.
5. Add this egg and coconut cream mix back into the pot and gently heat. Continue stirring this mix with a spatula until it thickens (about 5-8mins) in the gentle heat.
6. Toast some bread & spread your kaya jam over. Add a slab of butter as pictured. PURE INDULGENCE! 

Notes:

• Your kaya will thicken further after it cools.
• Allow your kaya to cool then spoon into a sterilised jar and chill before serving.
• You can use real pandan leaves but we find using pandan flavouring saves so much time! 

A. Make the Coconut Sago Pudding

1. Add coconut milk and sugar into a small pot. Bring to the boil and stir to dissolve the sugar.

2. Immediately reduce the heat once it reaches boiling and simmer on medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Remove pot from the heat and set aside to cool.

3. Bring 6 cups of water to the boil in a large deep pot. Add sago and bring it to the boil again.

4. Stir, then cover and reduce the heat down to medium-low for 15 minutes, stirring every now and then to prevent the pearls from sticking to the bottom of the pot. After 15 minutes, turn off the heat and keep covered for 30 minutes. 

5. Drain the sago into a fine mesh sieve and rinse under cold water.

6. Place prepared sago into a large bowl and pour in prepared sweetened coconut milk. Stir to coat the sago

7. Divide coconut sago mix amongst 6 serving glasses and refrigerate for to set (at least 2 hours best overnight for a chilled dessert).

B. Make the Pandan Coconut Custard

1. Place the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a medium saucepan and whisk until combined.

2. Gradually whisk in the coconut milk and water until smooth.

3. Stir mix over medium heat until the mixture thickens and just comes to the boil. Immediately remove from the heat.

4. Add in a few drops of pandan flavouring (to taste) and mix through to combine. Set aside to cool.

5. When cool, spoon into a piping bag (optional).

C. Assembling your Dessert

1. Divide the pandan custard mix evenly amongst the glasses with a spoon or pipe in the custard using a piping bag.

2. Garnish with sliced jackfruit and young coconut flesh.

Tip: If you prefer your desserts on the sweeter side, you can add more jackfruit garnish. The sweetness from the tinned jackfruit will sweeten your dessert for you and each person can adjust the sweetness level themselves. Alternatively, you can add more (or less) sugar in the first step when you make your sweetened coconut milk mix.

1. Peel bananas and slice in half lengthways. Sprinkle on sugar and gently toss to coat. Leave to marinate for a couple of hours.

2. In a very large mixing bowl, add condensed milk, coconut milk, fresh milk, melted butter, egg, vanilla and salt. Whisk to combine.

3. Cut baguettes into 1” long slices on the diagonal. You should roughly get 5 slices out of each baguette. Add baguette slices into the mixing bowl and coat with the ‘custard’. Leave for 15mins to soak.

4. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm tall round cake tin.

5. Build your cake, layer by layer. Start with a base layer of soaked bread. Make sure the pieces are tightly packed and there are no gaps. Use half of your bread for this layer.

6, Next, arrange half of your bananas to form the next layer. Keep your bananas flat with no overlapping.

7. Add the remaining soaked bread to form the next (third layer). Gently pressed down on the cake to remove any air gaps.

8. For the final top layer, arrange your bananas, cut side up. This is the presentation layer. Gently press down so that the bananas nestle into the bread layer.

9. Bake for about 70 mins.  Cover the top with a piece of foil at around the 45min mark to prevent the top from getting too dark. Remove the foil 15mins later to allow for the top develop a nice golden top until the end.

10. Leave the cake to cool in its tin. Chill overnight to set in its tin.

11. Turn out cake and then serve.

Makes 10-12

Prep: 20mins plus time overnight for setting

Cook: 10mins

Total Time: 30mins plus time overnight for setting

Make the mango puree:
1. Peel and cut up 4 ripe mangoes. Blitz the flesh in a food processor and transfer to a pot.

2. On medium heat, reduce the liquid until you end up with about 2 cups of puree. Be sure to stir constantly to avoid the liquid catching and burning in the pot.

3. Strain the puree through a fine sieve to give you a smooth puree. Set aside.
 

For the pudding, you will need:
1. Add gelatin to med-large sized heat-proof bowl. Pour in water and whisk to dissolve the gelatin.

2. Add in salt and caster sugar. Whisk to dissolve.

3. Pour in evaporated milk and mango puree. Stir until everything is well combined.
4. Using a fine sieve, strain the mix into a large heatproof jug. Fill glasses with pudding mix then add in diced mango to each cup.
5. Refrigerate overnight to set.
6. Pour evaporated milk onto your puddings just before serving.