Domesticated Me - Fish Cake & Biskut Sarang Semut

Biskut Sarang Semut (literally translated to Ant's nest biscuit) is my favourite Eid cookie!

I got the recipe last year but did not manage to make it. Now that I'm all domesticated, I thought it's high time I try it. I actually got two recipes and somehow merge them into one that I can actually use with what I have / bought / didn't buy.

First let me give you the simple one from this blog.

Ingredients:
200 g castard flour
100 g plain flour
120 g butter
100 gm sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp of vanilla essence
chocolate rice for sprinkling on the cookies paper cups

Method:
1) In a mixer, cream the butter, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla essence till fluffy.
2) Add in the mixture of custard and plain flour which has been sifted first.
3) Chill the dough in the fridge for about 1/2 hour or more, and grate the dough.
4) Spoon the grated dough into paper cup and sprinkle some chocolate rice on top.
5) Bake in preheated oven of 175degrees C for about 15-20 minutes.

The second recipe taken from mitalika.multiply.com has so many additional items:

16 oz corn flour
2 oz top flour
2 oz Custard powder
8 oz icing sugar
1 tsp vanilin powder
1 tsp baking powder
12 oz butter
Choc rice.

Method is the same.

I wanted to do the 2nd recipe as I reckon with more ingredients, the flavour will come out more. Before that, I had to go and buy the Custard, vanilin powder, baking powder and more butter and choc rice and the cups.


However, I'm not sure if this custard is the same? Usually it comes in a tin and this one even has a Vanilla flavour in it already. But i told myself, nevermind just use it since you bought it already.

There were more chaos about the ingredients:

1. Icing sugar expires two days later. (bought it for last Eid actually but didnt use!hahaha)
2. My mum says she has corn starch but not sure if that's equivalent to corn flour?? Omitted that. Besides, we didn't have enough anyway.
3. Also not sure if I got the right baking powder?
4. Only had 3 eggs left and I blew the first one because i tot egg yolk is the egg white and threw away the yolk. Silly me. Luckily, Ly was there for me to ask. But to my amazement, separating the yolk was pretty easy! hahaha Didn't know I had it in me. Maternal instinct kicks in!

So in the end, I decided to go with the first recipe just replace sugar with icing sugar.

My niece the Little Helper.

So messy! Flour dust everywhere!

Also look at this ANCIENT MIXER - 33yrs old. My Mum's wedding gift.

We actually bought a new one but it got spoilt just after one use! Tells you a lot about quality vintage item huh.

The mixture.

I wasn't sure if the dough was what I was supposed to be with not much baking exp myself. But decided to go with it.

Making into a ball and sending it for a 30min nap in the fridge.

Time to grate the dough. This was when tragedy struck! We only had one grater in the house and it has HUGE HOLES. Look at this:

Squeamish looking thing.

In the bckgrd, Syifaa' helping to open the cups and file them on the tray.

Size looks like minced beef to me. hahahah

Syifaa' helping to sprinkle the Choc rice.

Recipe told me to use spoon or fork to scoop the flour to cups so it won't get pressed. But I didn't care. It was faster just using my fingers and i tot it's ok if the shape's a bit deformed since its already deformed anyway!

Ready to be put in the oven

20min later.

Slightly burnt on some sides of the tray and a bit dry. But the rest of the cookies are mostly OK.

The next day I made a second batch. My custard powder was not enough!! HORROR!! So i replaced that with the corn starch that I wasn't sure if its the same as corn flour. I also added more butter bcos we tot the previous batch was a bit dry. I shouldn't have cos it turned out soooooooooo soft even after adding some more flour. Also adjusted the temperature lower and shorter time to not let it burn. And it turned out perfect, even if i say so myself! =D

I'm actually surprised Mum did not nag about me baking these cookies. I guess because we were only 2 weeks into Ramadhan as opposed to the last few times we baked at the very last minute while she was busy making ketupats (traditional rice cakes). And I cleaned up after myself as best as I could as soon as I could.

Mum did tell me NOT to buy any stuffs cos we won't use it often but I went ahead to buy them anyways. I resolve to use them more often if not regularly.

````````````````

I also made Fish Cakes for Tufeil because we still have some sutchi fillets in the freezer and his food is depleting. Recipe taken from.... either baby center or www.wholesometoddlerfood.com

Ingredients:
1 cod fillet (boned and skinned)

1 cup mashed potatoes

1 egg beaten

1 tablespoon butter

3/4 cup bread crumbs

1 teaspoon chopped parsley

Directions:
Boil, drain and mash potatoes without adding any additional ingredients. Set aside. In a large bowl mix cooled potatoes, parsley, egg and butter. Mix well. Steam cod for a few minutes and flake apart into small pieces, making sure to remove all bones. Add cod pieces to potato mixture and mix well. Shape mixture into patties. Brush with a little milk and coat with breadcrumbs. Place cod cakes on a lightly greased baking tray and bake at 350F for approximately 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Alternatively you can shallow fry in a little oil or butter.

The mixture before adding fish

Steamed the fish in the rice cooker. Peeled out the "fats".

It was quite soft the mixture that I had difficulty shaping them. but the breadcrumbs and refridgeration helped to make it stiffer.

All ready for storage

Fried

Baked.

I dont know why mum always seems to doubt that Tufeil will eat what I cooked. Maybe because she's not used to and doesnt like these western dishes. Just like the Meatloaf, she kept asking, "Can Tufeil eat this?" "Will Tufeil eat this?" "Isn't it too sweet?" "Don't bake it so troublesome". I assured her that it's edible and it's healthy for Tufeil.