Homemade Kaya

I used to watch my grandma making kaya. She will first melt some sugar & add all the ingredients into the cooled melted sugar. The pot will sit in another pot filled with water over the hot charcoal.  This is to prevent the mixture from getting cook too quickly. Today, I used a heavy based pot over low heat.. ;)

Here is a video tutorial for making homemade Kaya. 

http://youtu.be/QvwZC7FoGAE

Here is a recipe from my 4th Aunt.

Homemade Kaya Recipe: 

Ingredients 

1 bowl of sugar 

1 bowl of eggs 

1 bowl of coconut milk 

A few pandan leaves - knotted

1 heavy based pot is preferred

Preparation steps: 

1. Melt one table spoon of sugar. Keep your eyes on it.. As they will turn brown very quickly. Do not burnt the sugar. This browning will give the kaya the nice brown colour. 

2. Once the sugar melted , immediately remove from heat. Swirl to coat the pot & set aside to cool.

3. Add in all the ingredients into the melted sugar. Mixed well & cook over low heat. Stir constantly until mixture thicken. 

Voilà ! 

Chin's notes: 

1. Spread them on bread, biscuits & kuih.

2. Use the same bowl to measure all the ingredients. 

3. If the heat is too hot, the mixture will become lumpy.

Homemade Apricot Jam

Apricot is in season now! They are juicy and yummy.  Last year was not that good but this year is extremely yummy.  Vicky my friend shared this "dead easy" recipe. It was easy but I think I needed more practises! ;)

Here are the steps that how they were prepared.

Apricot Jam, turned upside down and in the cooling process.

Apricots, cleaned.

Halved and add sugar, allow 18 hours to macerate.

Slowing bring to boil and to reduced the syrup.l

Sterilised the jam jars.  I cleaned and boiled them for a few minutes.

Fill up the jars with jam.l

I just have to try them with bread and butter. Yum!!!

Homemade Apricot Jam

Ingredients 

1kg apricots halved & remove seed

750g sugar 

Clean & sterilized jam jars

Preparation steps: 

1. Cleaned apricots, halved & remove seed. 

2. In a clean pot, put the apricots & the add the sugar. Gentle mix, cover & leave it 18 hours to allow the apricot to macerate ( breakdown). 

3. After 18 hours, slowly boil the mixture until syrup thicken. Fill up the jar with jam straight from the pot. 

4. Cover the lid & turn it upside down to "seal" the jam. Turn in back when jam is complete cool. 

5. Store in a cool & dry place ( do not have to be in the fridge). 

6. Voilà! Serve with your favourite bread / scones / biscuits! 

Chin's notes: 

1. Fill the jam to the rim. I should have done that. 

2. It should last for a year if unopen but I won't know until next year ;) 

3. Once opened , stored them in fridge. Always used a clean spoon to take jam from jar to prevent contamination. 

4. Couldn't resist. Opened a small jar of jam to try.. It was delicious!! :p

5. Added on 21 June 2015 - I tried who make some jam again with 500g of sugar to 1kg apricot. It works but the jam a bit on the sour side. I prefer the sweeter jam. 

Pineapple Jam

It is not difficult to make pineapple jam, just that the process takes a very long time.

Using a different sugar will gives you a different jam colour. 

If brown sugar is used, you'll get a deeper brown coloured jam. 

Here is how I prepare my pineapple purée. 

1. Cut the top & bottom of the pineapple. 

2. Cut away the skin. You can cut deeper into the flesh to get rid of some of the "eyes". 

3. Remove the "eyes" from the pineapple, buy cutting a V along the eyes. 

4. Keep going until you have all the "eyes" removed. 

5. Cut them into smaller chuncks to be puréed in the blender. 

6. Drained the juice, to reduce the liquid before the cooking process. 

Pineapple Jam Recipe: 

Yeild about 650g of jam. 

Ingredients: 

1500g pineapple purée

350g white sugar / brown sugar 

2 pandan leaves ( optional ) 

Preparation Steps: 

1. Place the pan on the stove heat on high flame. Add in all the ingredients & give it a good stir & mix well. 

2. Once the purée started to bubbles. Reduced heat to medium mode. 

3. Stir constantly until the liquid level reduced. 

4. Try your jam, if it is not sweet enough add more sugar, tablespoon by tablespoon & continue to cook the jam until texture is dry. 

5. Transfer the cooked jam to a clean , sterlised container / jar. 

6. Seal, label & date your jam. 

Voilà ! 

Chin's Notes. 

1. I like to use heavy based pan, because it can reduced the chances of burning the jam easily. 

2. I like my jam color cooked in brown sugar. The color is deeper & I like the taste too. It is my personal preference.

3. Jam can be kept in the fridge for at least 1 month in a sterlised containers. 

4. Taste the jam while cooking, if it is not sweet enough add more sugar until you get the sweetness that you like. 

5. You can make it slightly sweeter because after you baked them to the pastry, the sweetness is usually reduced. 

6. Different type of sugar was used. The one on the left is cooked in brown sugar & the one on the right is in white sugar.  

7. These are suitable for pineapple tarts. Pineapple tarts recipes :

Pineapple rolls : 

http://fromchinshome.blogspot.fr/2015/01/pineapple-rolls.html?m=1

Pineapple closed tarts : 

http://fromchinshome.blogspot.fr/2014/10/pineapple-tarts.html?m=1