Friday, July 28, 2006

Eat Your Rice!



A couple of weeks back, DH, DD and I made a daytrip to Johor Bahru. As usual, my first stop would be the bakery ingredients/equipment shop. My usual haunt would be Ng Ming Huat which is situated just next to the Crystal Crown Hotel. However this trip, my 'target' is Bake Well Ingredients Centre. Amelia,(whom I got to know through Kitchencapers, a cooking forum)gave me the driving instructions to the shop which is located near the Larkin Stadium. Thanks Amelia.

The shop is chockful of baking ingredients & equipment (what else!), some of which cannot be found at NMH. I saw these bags of Rice Bubbles and immediately the thought of Mi-Chang, a snack not unlike the Western muesli bar, came to mind. This Asian snack is made by mixing rice bubbles, roasted groundnuts & white sesame into a thick maltose-based syrup and left to set before cutting into bars. So I grabbed a 500gm pack (@ RM7.50) to be added along to the shopping basket.

So here I was last evening making my first Mi-Chang. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients A:
1.5 litre water
700g sugar
1-1/2 tbsp maltose
1 tbsp lime juice (strained to remove pulp)
1/2 rice bowl(appx 125ml) cooking oil
1-2 tsp finely shredded lime zest (optional)

Ingredients B:
500g Puffed Rice Bubbles
300g dry roasted groundnuts (remove the brown skin)*
70g dry roasted white sesame seeds

Additional roasted white sesame seeds (optional)


Method:
1) Boil ingredients A over medium heat for about 30 minutes to reduce mixture to a thick syrup. The lime zest can be added towards the end of the boiling time. (Test syrup for readiness by dropping some into a bowl of tap water. If it solidifies immediately, then it is ready).
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2) While the syrup is boiling, line two trays with aluminium foil and set aside.
3) Check that your rice bubbles are crispy. If they have gone soft and chewy (like mine did), dry roast them in a wok over a small-medium fire till they have crispen up again. Leave it in the wok to cool.
4) Toss ingredients B together.
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5) When the syrup is ready, pour this into the rice bubble mixture and mix quickly till the syrup coats everything evenly. Warning: The syrup is extremely hot.
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6) Spread the mixture in the prepared tins and sprinkle with the additional sesame seeds, compact the mixture with a rolling pin and/or a metal compacting presser.
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7) Leave to cool and cut into squares before storing.
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Note:
1) With the above proportions, I made two trays. A larger tray measuring 10" x 14" and a smaller tray measuring 9" x 11"
2) *If roasting the groundnuts is a hassle for you, then do it the 'quick & dirty' method. Buy ready roasted groundnuts. If they are salted, try and remove as much of the salt as possible. (I used double-layers of tissue paper and started 'grabbing' the nuts to absorb the excess oil and salt.)

10 comments:

Aunty Yochana said...

wow, Ginny, great blog. You took the trouble to snap the pics step by step. Who snap for you while you were in action??
I'll yours to mine, is that O.K.??

Aunty Yochana said...

I mean I link your blog to your blog. is that O.K.???

Rusti said...

Hi Lucy. Thanks. No problem to link. I link yours too??

myCoffee said...

Hi Rusti,
Used to love this when I was young. Would love to give this recipe a try. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Hi Ginny,

I love your site, since you know how to make mi thong, do you know how to make sa chi ma?

Lingling

Rusti said...

Hi Lingling
I do have the recipe for sa chi ma although I have not tried it personally. I was the 'assistant' when my sister made it some time back. Let me search for the recipe. Meantime, can you give me your email address? I will try to get back to you soonest. Cheers, Ginny

Anonymous said...

Hi rusti,
Thank you for helping me find the 'sa chi ma' recipe.
My email : lingling_335577@yahoo.co.nz

cheerio,
Lingling

PetitBakes said...

I would like to know the directions on how to go to bakewell ingredient centre in JB. Would appreicate if you can help. Thanks.

www.burgos-3d.com said...

The dude is totally right, and there is no suspicion.

Anonymous said...

It's really helpful thanks for sharing.
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