Pandan Chicken Wings & Pandan Coconut Swiss Roll

Let's go GREEN today! No, not talking about Earth day. If you know me well, you know half the time I'm referring to food, hahaha. I'm talking about Pandan, yes pandan leaves, A.K.A. screwpine leaves as some will call it. It's fragrant and very commonly used in South-east Asia, especially in Nonya dishes. Not only for cooking purposes, people uses it in ways like repelling bugs and undesired smells in enclosed areas. I remember years ago, whenever I take a taxi in Singapore, inside the cab will always have a bunch of pandan leaves at the back of the rear window area! True story! So anyway, when I was at the wet market over the weekend, I bought 2 big bunches of pandan leaves, which only cost me Rm0.70...so cheap! I remember I had to pay like USD$2 for 5 small sticky leaves in California! So, in order to make full use of the cheap pricing & abundance of this fragrant and versatile leave/herb, I cooked 2 easy and delicious dishes to share with everyone.

This is actually a very simple dish to prepare. I found the recipe in "大牌檔菜" Book 17, cookbook. And since I wanted it to be a "kids friendly" dish, I decided to modified it not omit the curry powder which was called for in the recipe. Here's my version of the Pandan chicken:

Ingredients for Pandan Chicken:
4 chicken wings, cut into half, becomes 8 pieces
8 pieces of pandan leaves
8 bamboo sticks / toothpicks
5 cups cooking oil for frying

Marinate:
2 shallots, remove skin, sliced thin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Dash of sesame oil & pepper
1 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp chicken powder
1 tsp oyster sauce

Method:

• Mix chicken with marinate and let it season for at least 1hr.
• Tie the chicken pieces with pandan leaves and secure it with bamboo sticks/ toothpicks.
• Heat up the oil and deep fry the chicken till golden brown. Dish up and drain oil on paper towels. Serve while still warm.
  

As you can see, I did not really do a good job wrapping the pandan leaves around the chicken pieces. But luckily it did not fall off while it was been fried. Have to tell you the whole house smell soooo good while it was frying up in the kitchen....yummy! The chicken was tender and flavorful with an evident pandan aroma...delish! Shall try making it with deboned chicken thigh next time...so I can pop the whole meat in my mouth, something like a h'orderves. ;) Definitely a keeper....do try it when you can find fresh pandan leaves in the market.

Next up is desert, Pandan Coconut Swiss Roll. Whenever I want a nice piece of fluffy soft cake with some delicious filling...swiss rolls always does it. It's simple to make, much lesser time and trouble to prepare. And since I am on the "pandan theme" today, I decided to make pandan cake!

I do apologise for not taking nicer pictures for this cake. It was kind of a last minute decision to make it, so was in a rush to go pick up my girls towards the end. So did not bother much about the lighting etc etc. :-P I got this delicious swiss roll recipe from "Alex Goh Baking Class : Fruity Cakes". Actually have been putting this recipe on hold for awhile....with all the birthdays and vacation awhile back. ;-P Glad that I can finally get back to baking something simple and yummy. ;)

Ingredients for Pandan Coconut Swiss Roll Cake:
60g butter
60g plain flour
60g coconut milk
green food colouring
1 tsp pandan leaf juice
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
90g sugar
pinch of salt

Filling:
200ml Whipping cream, whipped
1/4 cup sweetened red beans (I used Valrohna chooclate balls)

Method:

• In a large heat proof bowl, microwave the butter till it all melts, about 1 minute on high. Add flour into melted butter and whisk to form thick paste.
• Add the egg yolks and stir to combine. Add pandan juice, coconut milk and green food coloring and stir again.
• Preheat oven to 180°C. Butter a baking tray of about 10cm by 14cm. Line with parchment paper and butter the top of the parchment paper.
  
• Beat egg whites with salt until foamy. Continue to beat the egg whites and slowly add the sugar to it. Beat till mixture is stiff peaks.
• Gently fold in the egg whites to the flour mixture in 3 portions. Making sure most of the white is not visible after folding.
• Pour cake batter into prepared tray and bake at 180°C for 15 mins. Then lower the temperature to 170°C and bake for another 5 mins.
• When done, remove cake from oven and immediately remove from baking tray. Let cool on rack for 5 mins. Then using another parchment or clean kitchen towel, flip the cake over and peel off the parchment paper. Continue to let cool for another 15 minutes.
• In the meantime, prepare the filling. Whipped the cream with the confectioner's sugar and vanilla extract till firm peaks.
  
• Spread the whipping cream on the cooled cake and sprinkle the sweetened red beans or valrohna chocolate balls on the cream.
  
• Then roll up the cake from short side. Kept it roll up in the parchmant / kitchen towel till the cake is "stable". Slice and serve! ;)

Can see that my swiss roll is kind of "deflated" after much handling. Probably because the amount of filling used in this recipe. The original recipe calls for 250ml whipping cream...but I have already reduced to 200ml. I guess it's really up to your own personal preference. :P The presence of Valrohna chocolate balls were like little sweet surprises when you bite into the cake, extra texture, nice! Feel free to omit the sweetened red beans or chocolate balls...the cake is already very nice on it's own .;)
So go green today, try out these pandan recipes...you'll love it! Happy cooking!