Baked Ice-Cream Cake - A Different Approach

Someone gave me a tub of ice-cream that I didn’t quite like. As I was taught as a kid not to waste food, I ran through my cookbooks and googled for recipes trying to find some use for the ice-cream. My eye caught on some key words and the idea of baking flashed through my mind.

I began to piece together a recipe which I thought doable; and so, here is an idiot-proof recipe to bake ice-cream into a lighter version of a pound cake. I loved the result, especially the fragrance that came from the red-bean ice-cream. If you have a sweet tooth, add another 20 g of sugar to the recipe below.

Baked Red Bean “Ice-Cream”

Ice-cream                    230 g, any flavours and liquefied

Self-raising flour          190 g

Method:

1.     Set oven to 180 degree C

2.     Sift flour.

3.     Stir ice-cream until completely melted.

4.     Add self-raising flour and mix well.

5.     Pour mixture into a cake mould and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.

6.     Test cake with a toothpick. If it comes out clean from the batter, remove the cake from the oven.

7.     Let the cake rest on a rack.

8.     Serve cake plain, or with a dollop of ice-cream.

Scholarly Moon Cakes

In the past, Hokkien moon cakes came in a box of 63 pieces; and they were called zhuang yuan bing or Scholarly Cakes for an interesting reason. During dynastic times in China, scholars sat for the Imperial Examination to fill administrative positions in the imperial court ranging from the most senior to the most minor. Likewise, the moon cakes in the box were arranged in groups of descending weight and size that corresponded to the actual number of positions in each imperial grade. The largest moon cake could weigh as much as 750 grams.

While anyone would baulk at the thought of wolfing down ¾ of a kilogram of sugared paste and pastry at one go, Hokkien moon cakes were actually made of savory minced meat and candied winter melon. But these moon cakes began to lose popularity after WW II, and their traditional savory fillings gave way to a sweet Teochew-influenced filling of red bean paste cooked in lard. Their appearance – that of a white moon -- remained.

The Tan Hock Seng Cake Shop on Telok Ayer Street was established some 63 years ago. Its current owner, Tan Boon Chai, continues to preserve and perpetuate the traditions of Hokkien-style pastry making, like his father and grandfather before him. The production of the moon cake involves painstaking labor. The dough is thoroughly mixed and kneaded until it turns pure white. The filling is a mix of candied winter melon, candied tangerine peel, melon seeds, sugar and lard. And before baking, additional sesame seeds are sprinkled at the base of the cake to give it a distinctive fragrance.

It is easy to distinguish the Hokkien moon cake: it is the one shaped in a white disc with a red “fu” stamped on it.

TAN HOCK SENG CAKE SHOP

86 Telok Ayer Street

Singapore 048469

Telephone: 65331798

The Jumping Table – The Quintessential Malay Feast

It was only after I had lived a few years away from Singapore, that I truly appreciated having grown up in its famously multi-racial milieu. For one, Singapore has bred in me an ethnic tolerance and appreciation that I’ve come to take for granted; for another, it’s given me an omnivorous palate, and taught me the pleasures of indulging in as wide a range of cuisines as possible.

Whenever I get invited to a traditional celebration by a Malay or Indian friend, I see it as a special treat – especially when it involves food.

For me, nothing evokes the Malay love for family, friends and food, and a good time, like the ‘kenduri’. The Malay wedding features the quintessential -- and one of the most common – forms of kenduri. Who hasn’t encountered one in an HDB void deck; seen the ‘ma-chiks’ huddled together and busy with the food preparation; or smelled the delicious aromas wafting up to the upper floors, and heard the music and merrymaking?

Kenduri (pronounced ken-doo-ree) is Malay for ‘feast’. A kenduri is joyous, age-old, and versatile. Kenduris are organized to celebrate everything from weddings, circumcisions and birthdays, to anniversaries, ‘graduations’ from religious or silat (martial art) studies, festivals like Hari Raya, and even first-time pregnancies and the first haircut of a 40-day-old infant. Seems anything is fair excuse for a kenduri. And why not?

Kenduris bring people together in a riot of communal good spirits. Everybody chips in: grandmas to five-year-olds help in cooking, decorating, serving, and running errands, all in the spirit of ‘gotong royong’ (or cooperation). And everyone – guests and all – always has a fun time.

Missing the flavors of the kenduri spread that I grew up eating and loving, I approached one of my favorite chefs recently.

Bubbly and big-spirited Chef Arni used to run a well-known eatery with her husband -- Arni & Yusof -- at Far East Plaza on Scotts Road. The Arni & Yusof kitchen was originally helmed by Arni’s mother, from whom she learned the ropes and succeeded several years ago. I’ve been a patron of the stall for more than 12 years until they closed for good a few months ago. The feast that Arni prepared for my friends and I was replete with the traditional dishes and desserts of the kenduri, including mutton, nasi brani, chicken, pacheri, and in particular, kek kukus, a rarely seen caramelized cake.

A Wedding Kenduri

23 March 2013

Nasi Brani Dum

Kambing Masak Rempah Brani

Mutton in Brani Paste

Rendang Lembu

Beef Rendang

Ayam Masak Merah

Chicken in Chili and Tomato Paste

Sotong Masak Hitam

Squid in Black Ink

What got me hooked on Arni & Yusof in the first place -- sotong masak hitam for more than 12 years.

  

Udang Sambal

Sambal Prawn

Vegetables

Dalcha  / Pacheri  / Achar

Mixed Vegetable Curry with Lentils/Spicy Cooked Pineapple/Cucumber Pickle

Desserts

Kek Kukus / Bubur Kacang / Pisang

Steamed Caramelized Cake/Green Bean Dessert Porridge/Banana

All photos by Mark Ong

Tong Heng - A Sweet Success Story

Success didn’t strike overnight, far from it. This one took patience, grit, and cool business sense.

Tong Heng had its beginnings on Keppel Road in the 1920s, where its founder was one among many who peddled drinks, snacks, and biscuits to shipyard and other blue-collar workers. By 1932 he had saved enough to open a restaurant on Smith Street in Chinatown, selling dim sum. Dim sum was popular food, but competition was again rough; so he streamlined his “business direction” and focused on the bestsellers. Thus began the Tong Heng egg tart’s road to food stardom.

The business today is into its third generation; headed by three sisters, Constance, Rebecca, and Cynthia Fong. And, like many family businesses, it’s managed in a decidedly non-corporate style. Decisions are made around the family table; and since early recipes were not properly documented, the sisters had to resort to research, and rounds of test cooking, to improve, and, finally perfect, the family recipes.

But they almost didn’t get to do it: their father didn’t want them involved in the business initially. But then, community work bogged him down, and an accident he suffered affected his running of the business.

The sisters eventually took over, and their sheer hard work shows in the many popular products sold over Tong Heng counters. Foods sold in their father’s day today appear in new reinventions; and the sisters created and launched the brand’s highly successful range of moon cakes in the late 1970s. They proudly point out that their colored snow-skin moon cakes were the first of their kind in Singapore, and featured four flavors: durian (yellow-skinned), strawberry (pink), vanilla (white), and pandan (green).

Today, with a staff of more than ten in the kitchen, and two retail outlets, the company needs to produce thousands of their signature egg and coconut tarts and other snacks, each day. Like the proud owners that they are, the three women boast of their in-house-made ingredients, such as the red bean and lotus paste fillings, the kayas, and dough.

Tong Heng is today an instantly recognizable name; and, famed egg tart aside, its other bestsellers include the coconut tart, char siew puff, and vegetarian coin-biscuit.  They have even introduced Hong Kong-style desserts at their shops.

Tong Heng

285 South Bridge Road

Singapore 058833

Tel:   6223 3649, 6223 0398