BREAD PARATHA

I tried to experiment and coming up with a recipe to use up my nearly expired  bread slices. Since we prefer to have a savory over sweet dish to start our day, this Bread Paratha is created.

The bread slices were slightly toasted before processing them into bread crumbs. The bread crumbs along with flour, onion, mashed potato, green chili, chopped cilantro, minced ginger, milk and salt are then combined to form a pliable dough. Make sure you add the milk/water  little by little until you get a right  consistency. Adding to much milk will result a sticky and hard to roll paratha.

For the recipe below, you will get 4 small paratha but it can easily doubled to suit your requirement. They are best served hot immediately after you've fried them.

RICE FLOUR PUDDING

I always love pudding especially made with coconut milk. It has a special sweet flavor that you can't get with whole milk. After long time, my son requested to make corn pudding this weekend. So have sent him to purchase the most important ingredient for making the pudding,  sweet corn.

I'm aghast and extremely disappointed when he brought home  a can of  corn, guess what?  It's cut young corn. So I have to devise my plan for making another pudding.

This Rice Flour pudding comes into my mind. Have other obstacle, no fruit is available to add in, so go ahead making Rice Flour Pudding without any fruit.

So glad my son really enjoyed having this soft, sweet and creamy pudding.  We completed them in one sitting.

You can make this Rice Flour Pudding firmer by reducing the amount of liquid so as to facilitate easy slicing. Have used one cup of coconut cream or thick coconut milk but if  much creamier flavor  is required, do add more coconut  cream but cut down the water used.  For healthier option, white sugar can be replaced with palm sugar.

PUMPKIN GALETTE

A galette is a free  form pie, baked on cookie sheet instead of pie pan.  It is so versatile, you could actually filled with any seasonal fruit  or make it savory,  the  possibilities are endless.

Pumpkin Galette is made by rolling out pastry dough into large round. The filling is placed in the center of the pastry. The dough is pulled up around the filling and folded over to create a rustic looking tart.

My crust was hand made but it could also be made using a food processor. Another thing, if you are pressed for time, you can always buy ready made crust from your supermarket.

A really good tasting galette  -  the pastry must be light and the filling must not be too overly sweet. Try this Pumpkin Galette and you will see that sometimes simple is indeed the best.

KUIH SAGO / SAGO CAKE GLUTEN FREE

Most South East Asian cakes or kuih as we call it are bite sized dessert or snack,   mostly made with rice flour, glutinous rice flour, sago, tapioca flour or mung bean flour. They are usually steamed than baked or fried.

Kuih Sago is a traditional Asian dessert that was chewy in texture, made of pearl sago. I chose a different method to prepare  instead of steaming it. My cooking style requires constant stirring until the sago turns translucent  after adding them  to the sugar syrup. After cooking it was leave to cool until set. When completely cool, they are sliced and rolled in grated coconut.

Most desserts made with coconut will turn rancid  really  fast so it must be consumed on the same day other wise stored them in a refrigerator.  A jar with resealable lid works perfect to keep shredded coconut fresh and handy  in a fridge.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE SLICE

Who can resist Chocolate Fudge Slice? This recipe was foolproof and pretty darn simple - just basic ingredients and egg free. It's better than any fudge I've ever tried.

I used 11 x 7 in rectangle pan, lightly buttered. The Chocolate Fudge Slice was easy to cut and remove from the pan. It's chocolatey and sweet enough to satisfy my cravings.

Meanwhile, a lot of vegetarian cookery books rely heavily  on eggs, especially for cakes, pastries and pudding. These recipes can be replaced  and the following should provide some ideas.

Eggs are used to bind a dish, when whipped, may  also incorporate air  making a cake very light. Many recipes can be adapted using one of the suggestions below.

Instead of one egg, you can use::

1 medium  mashed banana
1/4 cup apple sauce or pureed fruit  (avocado, pumpkin, squash)
1 tablespoon ground  flax seed + 3 tablespoon of warm water. Let stand 5 minute before using
1/4 cup pureed tofu