Presenting: Me, Plus Food :) Sam Tan's Kitchen finally has a logo!

Hello foodie friends!

So, you may have noticed that the culinary shenanigans on my blog have come to a sudden halt these past few months.

After the big conclusion of my Actors Studio Drama School adventure in New York, my fiance Ari and I jumped ship and swapped coasts to Los Angeles in July. I haven't been cooking because we haven't had our own kitchen (we've been crashing on our lovely friends Sue and Sean's couch since arrival), but FINALLY this weekend we will move into our own apartment and hopefully, resume foodie activities!

Not one to like wasting a moment, I have in the meantime taken the opportunity to develop something I've wanted for Sam Tan's Kitchen for a long while: a logo. Something simple and personal to capture the essence of me, something fun and unpretentious to celebrate the joyous nature of food and the sheer happiness a hearty meal can bring.

So here: after many hours of doodling and figuring out Adobe Illustrator, I am proud to present Digital Mini Me, brandishing - yes, what else but a plate piled with food :)

Quite unintentionally (though perhaps subconsciously- I did draw it after all), the plate has been interpreted by most people to either be Hainanese Chicken Rice (my death row meal) or Malaysia's national dish Nasi Lemak. What does it look like to you? :)

I am also steadily working on revamping this site- watch this space for when the new www.samtanskitchen.com will go live :) 

Thank you all for your continued support. Until next time, happy eating!

Sunflower Seed and Coconut Cookies

A riff on my own fah sang peng recipe, using sunflower seeds and dessicated coconut instead of peanuts. Little adorable melt-in-the-mouth bites of fragrant high fibre goodness! :)

Sunflower Seed and Coconut Cookies
Makes about 70 bitesize pieces

Blitz 200g (approx 1 1/2 cups) roasted salted sunflower seeds (I like Trader Joe's) in a blender/spice mill until finely ground. You can leave some coarse bits for texture if you like.

Chuck in and blitz until well-combined:

50 g (approx 1/2 cup) unsweetened dessicated coconut (I use the super dry powdery kind from my Asian grocery store pictured below, NOT sweetened coconut flakes)

200g (approx. 1 1/2 cups) plain flour

100g (approx. 3/4 cup) icing sugar (essential for the fine texture. Do not substitute with normal sugar)

1/2 tsp baking powder

Add a good glug of vegetable oil (any mild variety like corn, soya, sunflower, rapeseed or groundnut will do) and blitz at high speed, adding more oil if necessary until a soft rollable dough is formed. Be sure not to pour in too much oil at one go.

My unsweetened dessicated coconut of choice

Roll into equal sized little balls (about a teaspoonful of dough each) with your hands.

Poke the top with a chopstick to make an indentation. 

*This step is primarily for cuteness. Skip altogether if you don't really care.

Bake at 320 F/160 C fan-assisted (or 350 F/180 C for non-convection ovens) for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Let cool before popping into your mouth one at at time. Exercise self-control.

Zev and Eliza's Engagement Party

SAM TAN'S KITCHEN HAS MOVED! Please visit the new website/online store at www.samtanskitchen.com for all catering enquiries. You can also follow Sam on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Thank you!

With Mr. and soon-to-be Mrs. Lebowitz

In November 2013, a lovely young couple named Zev Lebowitz and Eliza Quanbeck emailed me out of the blue to enquire if I would be willing to cater a full selection of traditional Malaysian dishes for their upcoming engagement party of about 100 guests. It was the first request of this scale that I had ever received, and I was both surprised and more than a little tickled that two New Yorkers who neither knew me personally nor were Malaysian themselves had a) found my little blog online randomly somehow (thanks Google!) b) trusted I was the real deal based solely on my food porn pictures c) seemed to have such a passion for and in-depth knowledge of local dishes I had grown up with and d) actually wanted to pay me to cook the stuff for their friends and family!

Some back-and-forth later, it emerged that Zev and Eliza had just concluded an epic 14-month world tour (check out their fun food/travel blog A Feast Afoot), during which a month was spent eating and attending cooking classes in Kuala Lumpur. To my delight they not only were familiar with but specifically requested rendang, ayam goreng berempah, sayur lodeh and kuih amongst other traditional delicacies, and before I knew it I had agreed with a resounding "yes!" and was standing in their Upper West Side apartment cooking a mini trial taster dinner of 10 different appetizers, mains and desserts.

The food went down well, and we eventually settled on the following menu for the big day on 8 March 2014:

The savouries:

Mini karipap (spiral curry puffs), popiah (fresh vegetable spring rolls), ayam goreng berempah (Malaysian spiced fried chicken), Nyonya acar awak (spicy vegetable pickle) with rice, beef rendang (dry coconut curry) with rice

The sweets: 

Fah sang peng (peanut cookies), kuih ketayap/ dadar/ gulung (pandan crepes with caramelised coconut filling), sago gula melaka (tapioca pearl pudding with palm sugar and coconut milk)

Now, let's get real.

I was honoured and excited, but also mildly terrified. Never in my life had I catered for so many people at once before; 20+ on a low-budget film set maybe, perhaps 50 in a potluck setting with friends where everyone brings food and no one holds it against you if your dish sucks. Absolutely not something like this, where I am solely and fully responsible for planning, prepping, and plating nine different dishes into little canapé size morsels that are tasty, hygienically safe to eat and look pretty, for 100 guests who have never met me and have no reason to expect anything less than restaurant quality.

On top of that, it was a school week where I could only cook in the evenings after I got home from class and rehearsals. AND my kitchen, to put it mildly, is modestly sized with very little countertop space and no professional equipment. AND I live in a 5th floor walk up and don't own a car (ever tried grocery shopping for 100 people and carrying it up the stairs? Who needs a gym!).

Ambitious much? Insanely so.

I do love a good challenge though, and thankfully with adequate amounts of pre-planning, detailed lists and the willingness to forego sleep in order to stir curries on a stove til 5am, everything somehow worked out! Thank goodness for my ever-patient fiance Ari, who would help me roll hundreds of fah sang peng and lug incredibly heavy bags of ingredients (eight pounds of jicama, five litres of coconut cream etc... ) all the way up from Chinatown via the crowded subway. Thank heavens too for my loving and tolerant roommates Adam and G, who didn't complain for one second about my noisy blender grinding into the night, or the perpetual pungency of spice pastes filling the air, or the fact that they couldn't really make any meals for themselves the whole week because I took up the entire fridge and stovetop. G even helped us carry our things into a cab across the street on the day, when my poor planning caused some bags to break and made it impossible for us to juggle everything! I love you all, you guys make my life.

So here below, I share with you some pictorial proof that this actually happened. Thank you Zev and Eliza once again for the leap of faith you took in hiring me, I had a lot of fun and hope you did too!

THE PREQUEL

Step 1: Make detailed shopping list/ timeline of tasks for the week leading up to March 8th

Step 2: Buy gigantic 16-quart pot from Amazon. Worry about where to store it later.

Step 3: Use pot for everything (like making rendang in advance).

Dough for 300 mini curry puffs ready to be shaped

Quick scribbles of my own recipes in shorthand to refer to in the kitchen

(with quantities multiplied for 100 pax)

SHOW NIGHT

Frying the karipap freshly on site. Yes that is a Hard Rock Kuala Lumpur T-shirt. Represent!:)

Some of the plated dishes ready to roll. Clockwise from top left; acar on rice, mini karipap, beef rendang on rice, fresh popiah

Assembling the bitesize ayam goreng. That's Dan Williams behind me,
who led the team of servers for the night

My trusty kitchen elf/ slave/ general helpful fiance. The model of intense concentration as he assembles the shots of sago :)

Friday pops by to say goodnight! (Or maybe he was just intrigued by the curious smells)

Cheesecake Brownies

*Also available made-to-order at $20 (25 bitesize pieces) or $30 (50 bitesize pieces) 

Let's get real now. Why force yourself to choose between a cheesecake and a brownie, when you can do this? :)

For those gluten-free foodies out there, the cherry on the cake is that this recipe contains so little flour (and so much cheese and chocolate and all that good stuff), that you can easily use cornstarch/ground almonds instead without impacting the decadent intensity.

Do it. You won't regret it (though your waistline might).

Cheesecake Brownies

Makes one 13" x 9” pan

*Some tips: 
-Take your eggs and cream cheese out of the fridge in advance to reach room temperature. Hard cream cheese is a real pain to beat!

-Melt your chocolate, then while it's cooling whisk your cheese mix together, then go back and beat the chocolate when it's cold. That saves time, and you don't have to wash your whisk in between (traces of cream cheese in the chocolate won't matter).

-Brownies are a lot more forgiving than cakes so don't stress if you use a bit more or less of anything.

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Make the two separate batters.

• The chocolate mix

In a dry bowl (water makes chocolate seize), melt together while stirring until glossy:

150g butter

1 1/2 cups (240g) semi-sweet chocolate chunks

*I melt by microwave: 15-20 second intervals several times, stirring well in between. DO NOT OVERHEAT- stop microwaving as soon as you have only small chunks left and just keep stirring until they dissolve. If you prefer the traditional bain-marie method, place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until dissolved.

Allow to cool completely. You can get started on your cheese mix while waiting.

Beat together for 2 mins until frothy, then stir into chocolate butter mix:

2 eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
Few drops vanilla extract

2 small drops coffee essence or diluted instant coffee (this is just to enhance the cocoa flavor, not to make it taste of coffee. If you don't have any on hand you can omit it.)

Fold in:

2 tbsp flour (or cornstarch/ground almonds for gluten-free)

1 cup (160g) semi-sweet chocolate chunks

• The cheese mix

Stick this all in a bowl and beat together with an electric whisk until smooth:

2 packs (1 lb oz/454g) cream cheese, softened to room temperature*

1/2 cup (about 100g) sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp flour (or cornstarch)

Pinch of salt

*In the UK cream cheese is called full-fat soft cheese, and tends to come in 300g packs. I usually just chuck the whole lot in.

Line the pan with baking/wax/greaseproof paper (if using a Pyrex baking dish, you can skip this step). Dollop the chocolate and cheese mixes randomly, and swirl with the edge of spatula to make a marbled effect.

Swirly-whirly :)
(This picture depicts a small 9" pan, half this recipe)

Bake for 35 minutes or until set at 350F/180C. Let cool in the pan totally, then refrigerate until chilled to intensify the flavors. Slice with a sharp knife only when completely cold.

Exercise self control.

Nyonya Acar Awak (Malaysian Spicy Vegetable Pickle)

Visually vibrant to the eye and refreshingly piquant to the taste, acar awak is a traditional cold Malaysian pickle bursting with a lip-smacking blend of sweetness, tang and spice as well as a spectrum of textures and crunch levels. A joyride for your tongue, if you will, especially when served alongside hot rice and as an accompaniment to cut through heavier curries.

Some recipes omit the pineapple; I personally find it adds a juicy, succulent sweetness that really elevates this dish. The blending of the paste takes a bit of work, so feel free to double or triple the quantities and make a large batch at one go. Be sure to top liberally with more chopped peanuts and roasted sesame seeds just before serving.

Nyonya Acar Awak (Spicy Mixed Vegetable Pickle)

Serves 12 as a small side

Chop the following into 2” sticks:

1 medium-large cucumber (about 300g), pulp removed

1 medium carrot (100g), peeled

A handful long green beans/French beans (100g)

¼ of a white cabbage (150g)

*You can also use cauliflower or other crunchy vegetables. Measurements are approximate, adjust to taste

Stir in 1 tbsp salt.

Slice 200g pineapple into small chunks.

Line a baking sheet with paper towels and spread everything except the pineapple onto it. Bake on very low heat (about 100C) for about 25 mins to dry out (or if you live in Malaysia/somewhere very hot, feel free to lay it out in the sun for a few hours!)

• Spice paste:

Grind the following together and fry in oil over medium heat for 10 mins until fragrant:

5 shallots/1 large cooking onion

5 cloves garlic

5 dried chillies, deseeded and soaked

2 candlenuts

1 tsp turmeric powder (or 1” fresh turmeric )- if you are multiplying this recipe, do not increase turmeric quantity too much as it can taste bitter. Just add a bit more than 1 tsp.

1 stick lemongrass, white part only

1” galangal

Optional for non-vegetarians: a bit of belacan, dried shrimp

Stir in and bring to a boil:

¼ cup rice vinegar

2 tbsp sugar

Stir in and immediately turn off heat:

Prepared vegetables

2 tbsp roasted sesame seeds

1/4 cup (about 50g) roasted ground peanuts

Allow to cool completely and refrigerate in a glass jar overnight (or for up to 4 weeks) so flavours can intensify. 

Before serving, leave at room temperature for a short while (so it's not stone cold) and top with extra ground peanuts and sesame seeds. 

Devour with hot steamed rice!

Really Easy Dark Gingernuts/ Ginger Snaps

The holiday season calls for spice and all things nice, so here I present a great basic recipe for a British classic that will have your home smelling like Christmas in no time! :)

Crunchy, buttery and surprisingly easy, these delicious gingernut biscuits (or ginger snaps as they are known Stateside) are just the right snappy texture and flavour, starting warm and robust in your mouth then gradually melting into a pleasant fragrant sweetness as you chew. They will also take you less than an hour from start to finish (great for last-minute plans!), require no machinery at all and are endlessly adaptable to your personal taste.

I stirred in some black treacle for a deeper darker flavour, but feel free to omit this and use all golden syrup if you prefer the normal version. You can also use honey, molasses, dark brown sugar, more or less ginger and other spices if desired.

Happy baking and happy holidays y'all, may you have a joyous food-filled 2014 ahead!:)

Really Easy Dark Gingernuts/ Ginger Snaps

Makes 30 tasty biscuits

Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C.

Melt 1 stick (about 100g) butter in a pot on the stove, or in a large bowl in the microwave.

Remove butter from heat and stir in:

1/2 cup (about 100g) soft light brown sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup (if you don't have it, substitute with honey)

2 tbsp black treacle (substitute with all golden syrup/honey if preferred)

My trusty red can of Tate & Lyle that a friend 

brought from London. Thanks Jasmine!:)

Sift in and stir until well-combined:

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground ginger (more if you like it strong!)

Optional: Dash of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice or even black pepper if you're inclined

Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into a ball with your hands. Place on baking sheet well spaced out, and press down slightly to flatten.

Bake 15-20 mins. Remove from oven and allow to cool til hardened.

Enjoy dunked in a cuppa!