Hello Again & Kaya Jam Recipe

mycookinghut February 15, 2015

Hello!! It has been months since I last updated my blog. I was back on track in October last year after some months of disappearance. Then, I published a few posts. Without much realisation, we are now in 2015. Well, Happy New Year! (pretty late to say this!)

I really don’t know where to begin. Since my last post, there has been a big change in our lives! We are now proud parents of a baby boy! That explains my lack of activities on the blogging end. Though I update my Facebook and Instagram from time to time.

baby-pic-1

Taking care of a newborn isn’t easy! It has been really challenging and I realise I have less time to blog. I’m still in the process of establishing my little boy’s schedule. I guess, once his schedule is more established, it will be much better and I’ll have more time updating my blog. Though there will be less updates on here, I promise, I will never give up blogging! 🙂

I’ve been cooking, mostly quick and easy stuff and some of my usual favourites that are on my blog, such as this and this.

Last week, I made my favourite food spread – Kaya also known as Serikaya, that is made of coconut milk, eggs and sugar. Kaya literally means rich in Malay language because of its taste and texture. Pandan leaf is one of the ingredients that is used to flavour the jam. Sometimes, it is also used as colouring. Therefore, you will come across Kaya that looks green as pandan extract is added. The other variation, which is brown, is done by adding caramelised sugar.

Kaya is typically used on toast and served as breakfast. Sometimes, it is served with some desserts that are made with glutinous rice.

I love to have it with toast – the fragrant of coconut milk and pandan are just match made in heaven! It takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to make the below recipe – but it is silky smooth! I’m going try out a quicker method, where you put all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over low flame. Meanwhile, you can give this recipe a go! It makes two 370g jam jars. Kaya is so addicted that we managed to finish both bottles in less than 2 weeks!

kaya-coconut-jam

Kaya (Coconut Jam)

Yield:

Ingredients:

400ml coconut milk
8 eggs
300g sugar
2 pandan leaves, knotted
8 pandan leaves, cut into strips

Method:

1. To make the pandan essence, put the cup pandan leaves in a blender with some water and blend until it becomes a paste. Pour over a strainer and squeeze out the juice and set aside.

2. Crack the eggs into a bowl, whisk until combine. Strain over into a bigger heat proof bowl, then add in coconut milk and sugar. Whisk until all ingredients are combined and the sugar is dissolved. Then, add the knotted pandan leaves.

3. Bring about an 5-6cm of water to a simmer in a saucepan or pot. Set the heatproof bowl in the mouth of the saucepan or pot, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Using a wooden spoon, stir the mixture regularly. It takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour for the mixture to thicken. Once the mixture starts to thicken, add in the pandan juice, stir to combine. Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely and store in a dry, clean jar in the fridge.