It's April 2020 and we've been in Covid-19 lockdown for just over 3 weeks. Restaurants are closed, we can't travel, the options for ordering in are limited, and we're not allowed to meet with friends for home cooked dinners and tea. Life stuck at home hasn't been boring, I've dabbled in watercolours, handed in two essays from my Masters degree and have been working almost full time... but my tastebuds are aching to try new flavours, my mind racing with ideas and longing to share them with friends and family - and so the blog and more importantly the challenge is born. I have decided to cook at least one dish from every country of the world, by cooking at least one every week... if I did one dish from one of 195 countries a week it would work out at 3 years and 9 months!
I've set myself a couple of rules:
One dish a week minimum - it could be a dessert, main, starter, side dish, or snack ..,. but 1 a week.
It has to be a dish I haven't cooked before - so no spaghetti bolognese or pizza for Italy!
If a dish is eaten in two countries, it doesn't count for both!
The challenge began with a Kaya Kok a Malaysian pastry filled with a delicious coconut custard called Kaya, which is also known as coconut jam which I find slightly less appealing than coconut custard. I tried these at a small Asian Cafe called Rachel's in Oxford, and I was hooked. The pastry was flaky and crunchy, the custard sweet and salty... oh so coconuty, and it was served warm. It was the first thing I decided to recreate in my little student kitchen in Oxford once the lock down began.
I found a couple of recipes online and was fascinated by how the pastry was made, it's a mix of a water based dough and an oil (lard) dough which are rolled together to form the layers which will later become the most beautiful flaked pastry... SO much easier than puff pastry! I mainly followed this youtube video to make the Kaya Koks with a couple of alterations that came about from tasting, lack of pandan leaves and mixing the recipe with another couple - my mum taught me to do this, that way you get the best of all the recipes!
So here's my recipe for Kaya Kok.
Makes 15
Ingredients:
Kaya:
· 5 eggs
· 200g sugar
· 250g thick, good quality coconut milk*
Water Dough:
· 200g plain flour
· 40g butter
· 20g oil
· 1 tbsp caster sugar
· 100ml water
Oil Dough:
· 175g plain flour
· 50g butter
· 50g lard (shortening or butter will also work according to the other recipes)
· 1 egg beaten for egg-wash.
Method:
Kaya
Beat the eggs very well, make sure there is no translucent egg white left, then mix in 150g of the sugar – put to one side.
In a large pan over medium heat add the rest of the sugar (50g) and caramelise, wait for it to turn a rich golden brown, but don't let it burn.
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the coconut milk*. The sugar will initially harden but will eventually dissolve back into the coconut milk.
While the pan is off the heat add in the egg and sugar mix, and stir to make a homogenous liquid.
Return the pan to a very low heat and stir until the mixture is very thick, you can do this step over a water bath if you prefer. If it goes lumpy you can blend it with a hand blender once it's off the heat so don't despair.
Refrigerate the Kaya until you are ready to use. (A few days should be ok!)
if you're anything like me - you will have tasted the kaya and realised it as very sweet! When I tasted it I almost threw it into the bin as I didn't think I would be able to eat it... but don't worry, once it's in the pastry it will be perfectly balanced!
Pastry
Pre-heat the oven to 180C or 350F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
In a bowl mix together the flour, butter, oil and sugar for the water dough. One the butter is mostly incorporated add the water and mix by hand until you have a smooth dough. Wrap in clingfilm and leave it aside for 20 minutes.
Now mix together all of the ingredients for the oil dough - unlike puff pastry it doesn't matter if the butter is a little soft and warm.
Divide each dough into 15 equal sized pieces (I weighed the entire dough and divided by 15), remember to keep them apart. You should now have 30 pieces total.
Take a portion of the water dough and flatten it into a circle thats about 7cm in diameter.
Take a ball of oil dough and place it in the middle of the water dough circle. Wrap the water dough around the oil dough and shape back into a ball.
Repeat with the other 14 sets of dough balls. Now you should have 15 fairly equal dough balls of the combined dough.
Take 1 ball and with a rolling pin roll it out into a flat oblong shape. Then with your hands, starting at the narrow end, roll the dough up into a fat cylinder. With a rolling pin, roll the cylinder back into an oblong shape and then with your hands at the narrow end roll back into a fat cylinder.
Repeat with the remaining 14 balls.
Filling and baking
Take 1 cylinder and roll it out into a fat oval.
With the oval in one of your hands put around 1-1/2 tbsp of the kaya into the centre of the oval.
Fold the oval to make an envelope and seal the edges by pressing the dough together.
Crimp the edges and put the pastry onto the baking tray.
Repeat with the others.
Egg wash the pastry cases on the top side and bake them at 180C for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.
*Coconut Milk - use the best quality coconut milk you can find - otherwise the kaya will just taste like custard.
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