Kaya (Malaysian Coconut Egg Jam) Recipe

Kaya (Malaysian Coconut Egg Jam) on home made Milk Toast

Happy Friday everyone! 

Since I like Friday to be sweet, I am going to share my take on this ever popular Malaysian jam called Kaya. It is a very fragrant and sweet jam made from coconut milk, sugar, eggs and pandanus leaves. Usually eaten on buttered toast, it can also commonly used as a filling in pastries and buns. You can also slather it on top of waffles, pancakes, crumpets, the list goes on! 

The ingredients I use for Kaya

Most families will have their own recipe for Kaya, passed down through the generations. However, the trick about making this jam is that it has to be constantly (I greatly emphasise the word "constant" here) stirred over a double boiler for at least an hour. Because of this time consuming method, most people nowadays have opted for commercially produced Kaya. I think that if you could spare the time, nothing beats a homemade Kaya. The fragrance will knock you over and you will smile when you eat it simply because you know it is a labour of love.

Kaya and warm melted butter sandwiched between homemade Milk Toast

The recipe I am sharing today uses brown sugar. It produces a rougher more granular texture in the Kaya as compared to using castor sugar. I do find that I prefer the richer more caramelised taste and texture of brown sugar. Maybe it is because it is the way my mama makes it. Funny how a jam can trigger memories of an 8 year old you standing over the stove helping to stir the Kaya! 

Crunchy Oven Fried Chicken

Crunchy Oven Fried Chicken

I think most home cooks can agree that deep frying at home causes a huge mess as well, you stink, your kitchen stinks. I find that the greasy smell lingers in my kitchen for days and I have to scrub down every inch of it. Not very nice. I do wonder how life will be if you have one of those Acti-Fry fryers. Give me a shout out if anyone has tried one :)

Well, with all that said - the next best that we can do is opt for oven fried chicken. Like any diligent home cook, I did my research and came across some beautiful recipes from Jo Cooks and Oh Sweet Day. As I have never used Panko breadcrumbs before I decided to give it a go. I like how it is always crispy and light. So off I went to get some Panko and it is revolutionary. No more soggy, thick, clumpy batter. Why am I so late to this Panko game? 

This crunchy oven fried chicken recipe that I am sharing with you is very easy to make. Hardly any kitchen mess and the taste is superb. It kind of reminds me of chicken poppers. It is really tough to stop eating them. 

Spicy Tofu with Mushrooms

Spicy Tofu with Mushrooms

Hello! How was your weekend? I mentioned in my post on Friday that I was going biking at Kielder Water and Forest Park over the weekend. That I certainly did. Let me tell you, it was a challenge!

We rented mountain bikes over at this bike rental place called The Bike Place. Be warned, they do have 2 outlets. One in Bellingham and the other at Kielder Castle. You need to go to the outlet in Kielder Castle if you want to bike in and around the trails at Kielder Water and Forest Park. We of course turned up at the one in Bellingham and had to be redirected.

Our route of choice was the Lakeside Way, that is, a 26 mile circular route around Kielder Water. It is very convenient because we picked up our bikes from Kielder Castle and just made a big circular loop back. Did I mention it took us novice bikers 5 hours? All in I must say it was an exhilarating experience and the views are breathtaking. The route was also very well signposted and we didn't have any trouble with navigation. I didn't bring my trusty point and shoot Canon Powershot so I had to rely on my phone. The photos didn't really do the views justice but it will have to do. There are of course many other routes which you can choose according to the level of strenuousness that you want, a good starting point is the Kielder Water and Forest Park website.

Trying hard not to fall

Janus Chairs at Kielder Water

In Kielder Forest Park

View around Kielder Water

Fast forward to Monday and yes, a meatless one at that. We do try to observe Meatless Monday in our household. It doesn't happen all the time, but try we do. After being totally shattered after the bike ride on Saturday, I was indulging in one of my favourite past times of late - pinning on Pinterest! I was searching for tofu recipes and came across quite a few. There is one here, here, another here and lastly, here.