Wajik

I have stock photos of some recipes that I made this summer; one of the is this glutinous rice cake cooked in coconut milk with palm sugar or wajik.  This diamond-shaped cake is known as “wajik” in Bahasa Indonesia because it refers to the shape of it, and it’s traditionally made with lots of palm sugar to get the dark brown color. Screwpine/pandanus leaves are essential to get the right aroma for this dessert, but a little vanilla extract for substitution would be acceptable.  Mine was a little light in color because I used half palm sugar and half dark brown sugar to see if the wajik differed in taste.  So taste wise it was still delicious surprisingly!

Wajik

Serves 4-6



½ lb. glutinous rice

1 cup coconut milk

¾  cup palm sugar, or dark brown sugar

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1-2 screwpine/pandanus leaf, tied to knots; or ½ teaspoon vanilla extract



Wash and rinse the glutinous rice.  Soak in plenty of water overnight at room temperature.

Drain the rice and place in a shallow heatproof dish.  Steam rice over rapidly boiled water for 20 minutes or just until cooked.  Have ready another shallow heatproof dish, greased lightly with cooking oil on bottom and sides.

Put coconut milk, sugars, salt, and screwpine/pandanus leaves in a wok.  Heat the mixture to almost boiling over medium heat (the edges will start to bubble); stirring constantly to dissolve the sugars.  Do not boil completely because the coconut milk will curdle.

Lower the heat, and add the steamed rice.  Stir constantly until mixture is thick and sticky.  This process will take about 5-8 minutes, and the mixture should be quite gooey.  Turn mixture out onto the prepared dish.  Allow to cool and harden, then cut with oiled knife into diamond shapes or serving-sized pieces.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

I found these zucchini in my parents' garden Monday afternoon.  Two plants grew healthy this summer in the sunny patch and they're starting to produce yields big enough to enjoy.  My mom couldn't contain her excitement when she saw these babies in her garden, she could hardly wait to pick more of them.

The day I picked those zucchini, I saw a post from King Arthur Flour's Facebook page about the double chocolate zucchini bread.  I was salivating looking at the picture that I determined I would make that the next day.  Even I couldn't contain my excitement about making a zucchini bread!

There're a lot of recipes using zucchini and chocolate but I have to say that this one is one of the best.  The amount of zucchini needed isn't outrageous (I hate grating zucchini), the chocolate flavor is really there, the bread isn't overly dry or wet, the crumb was tight, and the level of moistness is just right.  What I did differently were using half bittersweet chocolate and semisweet chocolate in the bread and save 1/4 cup to sprinkle on top of the bread; otherwise everything stayed the same.  Baking time was slightly reduced for my oven, it was around 60 minutes that the bread was done.  And I smeared some Nutella on my bread, mmm....

A bread like this makes me smile; it makes me think of a wonderful summer weather, the harvest from our own garden, and how connected we are to the food we grow ourselves.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Yield one 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf



2 large eggs

1/3 cup honey

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon espresso powder, optional

1/3 cup cocoa powder or Dutch-process cocoa

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups shredded, unpeeled zucchini, gently pressed on a colander over a bowl or sink to release some of its moisture

1 1/4 cups chocolate chips (a combination of bittersweet and semisweet), save the 1/4 cup for sprinkling on top of bread



Preheat the oven to 350°F; lightly grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, honey, oil, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Add the salt, baking soda, baking powder, espresso powder, cocoa, and flour, mixing until well combined. Stir in the zucchini and chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Scatter the reserved 1/4 cup of chocolate chips on top of the batter.

Bake the bread for 65 to 75 minutes, until the loaf tests done (a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center will come out clean, save for perhaps a light smear of chocolate from the melted chips).

Remove the bread from the oven, and let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes before turning it out of the pan onto a rack.  Cool completely before slicing; store well-wrapped, at room temperature.

Summer Ice Pops: Strawberry Mint

So here's the recipe for the strawberry pops. Made with mint simple syrup and fresh Oregon strawberries, the pops look so bloody red! They taste amazing though, the mint is very subtle, the strawberries really shine.  To mix two different flavors, freeze half of the first mixture about 1 hour, then add the second mixture.  Now I'm never gonna go back buying store bought ice pops anymore, this is way healthier and fresher!

Strawberry Mint Ice Pops

Makes approximately 10 3 fluid ounce pops

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1-2 pounds strawberries
4-5 fresh mint leaves

To make simple syrup, gently heat sugar and water, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves. Steep the syrup with mint, remove from heat; let cool.

Rinse and mash strawberries with a potato masher until smooth. Add 1/3-1/2 cup simple syrup for every cup of pureed syrup, taste as you go, adding more fruit or simple syrup as needed. Note: keep it a bit sweeter because the pop tends to lose sweetness when frozen.

Pour mixture into molds, add stick, and freeze.

Source: adapted from People's Pops by Joel Horowitz and Nathalie Jordi

Summer Ice Pops: Pineapple Ginger Coconut

Okay, so when a grocery store had a sale on pineapples, what do you do?  If you're like me, you'd run to the store and bought more than one pineapple for sure.  Fred Meyer had $1/pineapple this week so I had to have it; in my household, pineapple is a favorite fruit.  I bought one for eating fresh and another one for making pineapple pops.  I have ready a ginger simple syrup in my fridge, something that now I know it's so easy to make, I must have some ready in the fridge for making something sweet.

My flavor combo of this week for the pops is pineapple, ginger, and coconut.  The recipe is a very easy one:  I put one whole pineapple in the blender, then I combined it with ginger simple syrup to make it slightly sweeter than normal.  The sugar will mellow when the pops are stored in the freezer, so you should make your pops always a tad too sweet.  The recipe for the simple syrup here will be most likely used all because it's thicker than a regular simple syrup.  Since I have not bought any popsicle molds, I had to resort using a 3-ounce paper cups again (like I did with this banana blueberry gelato).  I really don't mind using the paper cups though I'm putting popsicle mold in my wish list nevertheless.  I see myself making pops every summer now.

I like to steep the ginger in my syrup for a day or two so the ginger really sings in the pops :)  There's a bit of heat from the ginger that's refreshing yet it's still subtle enough, and with toasted shredded, sweetened coconut in the pops, these add texture and bring more of that tropical island kick to the pops.

And along with these pops, I made strawberry pops that has been mixed with mint simple syrup which was also fabulous.  On some cups I put these two together and they came out very pretty and vibrant.  The recipe for the strawberry pops will be in the next post, don't you worry.  Now, who don't want to have these all summer long?!

Pineapple Ginger Coconut Ice Pops

Makes about 10 3-fluid ounce pops



Ginger Simple Syrup:

1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

5-6 thin slices, peeled, fresh ginger

Combine water, sugar, and sliced ginger pieces in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Heat until sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally.  Keep syrup in a refrigerator after it cools down.  It is best to make this one or two days ahead because the flavor will be more pronounced.



Pineapple mixture:

1 medium size pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces



About 1 cup toasted, shredded sweetened coconut



Put pineapple pieces in a blender and puree until smooth.  Add syrup to pureed pineapple, 1/2 cup at a time; make sure the mixture is very sweet.  Pour pineapple mixture into cups or ice pop molds, add stick when partly frozen if using paper cups.  Freeze until solid.

For a variation:  add toasted coconut in the cup/mold and after the cup/mold is filled.

Start of the Summer

Where has the sun gone today?  It was drizzling, the sky turned grey, and it was cold this morning that it dampened our spirits a bit.  My son and I were to go on a bike ride right after breakfast but since it was drizzling, we decided that we would bake cookies first.  My son has shown a great interest in cooking and baking that I think this summer he's going to do them more often.

He chose a cookie recipe that was easy enough for him to do which was a thumbprint cookies.  I have a strawberry-lemon marmalade and peach-cherry-almond conserve that I think are perfect for the cookies.  We did it good today; he was grinning from ear to ear posing before his creation.  Afterwards, we went bike riding to the park. This bike ride has become our form of exercise of the day that I want to keep it all summer long. I sometimes even add a 4-mile walk at the track, just like what I did today.

On my last post I wrote that I made strawberry pie, but sadly that pie didn't turn out as good as I thought.  The filling was weeping out of the crust when I cut a slice.  I was very disappointed.  My feeling was perhaps I left the strawberries too long with the sugar and cornstarch and it became too juicy.  I should have used ClearJel for the filling, oh well...  From the outside, it had a promising look; the crust was tender and crumbly.  But no matter how bad it looks in the inside, it was great eaten with homemade whipped cream.  My son suggested buying Reddi-Whip while we're buying groceries, but I couldn't bear buying it since I knew whipping heavy cream wasn't hard to do!

Since I have some leftover crepes, they became my son's power breakfast this morning; crepes, strawberries, and whipped cream.  Hmmmm...delish!