I was fortunate enough to be cooking a complete meal of three courses organized by S&P Santan in Sungai Buloh. The I <3 S&P Santan Cooking Workshop is helmed by Chef Andri Hadi – a very interesting character indeed!
I was teamed up with Ceera Noh and I have to admit I couldn’t ask for a better partner. She has solid, practical skills as a mom and seasoned a lot of our dishes to perfection.
I was more focused on plating and I tried very hard not to let her down by doing it professionally.
I dare say that our presentation was best – it wasn’t clownish and kid-like on one side of the spectrum it wasn’t sloppy on the other (did three plates for our main course before I was satisfied).
The I <3 S&P Santan Cooking Workshop is actually a contest between all the participants. There were 5-6 teams of two in total. I humbly named us “Team Awesome”. 
Appetizer: Spinach Broccoli Coconut Soup
The first dish that we cooked. I sliced up the broccoli florets and garlic while Ceera did the vegetable soup stock. We didn’t cook the fresh baby spinach but blended it into the soup later, as the chef did.
I also went up to do the Massimo Wheat Germ garlic bread.
It’s really easy, just butter one side with butter and twist it, sealing it in with another dab of butter.
I love the ease of the S&P Santan Instant Coconut Cream Powder. It comes in 50 gram packs of Original, Omega 3 and Pandan and we used the first for this. You can dilute it with 1 cup of water for heavy coconut cream or 2 cups of thin coconut cream but for this recipe, we just poured it into the saucepan and seasoned it with salt, pepper and nutmeg. I really liked how versatile and convenient the product was.
We worked pretty well as a team and since I proofed myself somewhat adept (at least I didn’t burn down the kitchen) – I plated up. Our spinach broccoli coconut soup is a real French style soup – thick and hearty.
I floated a tablespoon of S&P Santan Coconut Milk on top for contrast and flavor.
It received pretty good reviews from the chef and heartened, we moved on to the next dish.
Entrée: Baked Cajun Chicken Wings
This is something that both of us knew how to do and the chef did a demonstration while asking us to work at the same speed – no problems there.
We shared an oven with another group of two girls and thus we put in our chicken together. There is a great irony somewhere here.
I carefully arranged my chicken wings so that the tips were facing *outside* on the baking tray. This is done so that the heat of the convection oven won’t burn the meat.
Unfortunately, we didn’t know that the oven hasn’t been pre-heated and when the chef came over to everyone’s station to look at their chicken, ours was the very best in the entire class. It’s browned to perfection!
We made the Coconut Pandan Cheese Sauce with Blue Key Superfine Flour, S&P Pandan Santan Coconut Cream Powder and 2 tbsp grated cheddar cheese. Both Ceera and I tasted the sauce and it was good – I made sure that sufficient time has passed so that any raw flour has been “cooked out”.
I plated the chicken in a smear of the coconut pandan cheese sauce and stood two chicken wings up, supported by each other.
…and when it came judging time, it turns out that our chicken was raw. -_-
It needed 3 more minutes in the oven due to the lack of pre-heating (we both thought the other team had done it).
Oh well.
Here’s our dish!
Dessert: Cavendish Coconut Fritters
I learned a very nifty trick during the I Love S&P Santan Cooking Workshop. Banana fritters tastes a lot better if you dip it alternately into batter and desiccated coconut. We used 1 cup of S&P Santan Sejati Desiccated Coconut and 1 cup Blue Key Superfine Flour for the dry coating. The desiccated coconut really comes in handy as it has a longer shelf life and comes in a convenient pack.
We actually learned from the previous mistake and made sure to make two batches. I sliced up one banana for the first test batch while Ceera did the second batch.
Our Cavendish Coconut Fritters were deep fried for 2 minutes in boiling hot oil before we plated up in front of the judge.
I did the plating and I had planned to do a quenelle of vanilla ice cream to show off my skills.
Unfortunately, the ice cream was way too solid and despite heating two ceramic Chinese soup spoons on the burner, I could barely make a passable quenelle. I’m glad I did it though, no one else did and I saw from the blank looks that not many knew what a quenelle is either (except for the chef, of course).
I also finished with a flair with some toasted desiccated coconut and a smear of caramel and passed it to the judge. We were the first team to finish.
Although we didn’t win anything (the winner was a female duo from Weibo) it was fun to cook with someone with a Malay heritage and a practical background as opposed to my more recent and modern interpretation of cuisine. Ceera was the one who seasoned and tasted everything and I felt bad that we didn’t win.
Nevertheless, it was a fun morning and afternoon learning about the various uses of S&P Santan products. Coconut oil and milk is a source of healthy HDL cholesterol and has numerous health benefits. This is something that Australians and people from the United States are finding out and they’re using more coconut milk in their cooking. The S&P Santan products are easy to use and cater for health conscious consumers as they do not contain artificial preservatives and flavorings.
It’s a very trendy ingredient and I have a whole range of S&P Santan products at home now. I’ll share more when I cook soon!
Do you have your own recipes using S&P Santan coconut milk? Share your recipes at the S&P Industries Facebook page and win more than RM 1,900 worth of prizes!
Thanks to S&P Santan and Chef Andri Hadi for a great time! A big thank you to FFM Marketing for providing the superb venue – I loved the clean and well-equipped kitchen islands. It’s open for rental too – contact marketing@ffmb.com.my or 03-61457888 for enquiries.
Props to Denise and Michele for their tireless photography and cheers to my team-mate Ceera Noh for being awesome! 🙂
I’ve seen these packets at some Malay food stalls in town.
Yup, it’s the most famous brand of santan! 🙂
I’ve used S&P Santan before – cooked nasi lemak for my better half.
Call me jakun, I don’t use coconut milk in my cooking.. Ok, maybe I don’t know how to cook food using coconut milk.. Like curry chicken or kuih with santan.. Mum used to buy a lot of coconut milk packets to cook her curries, but I think she is using Coffeemate as substitute now, and most of her curries now are without santan, taste good too.. But I have to admit food with santan taste better.. Like red bean tongsui with santan, or sago gula melaka with santan, oohh la la, nice!
By the way, the way you cut your shallots, hmm, they say you should place your knuckles out, thumb in, can imagine ahh? To avoid cutting your own fingers, hehe..
I got recipes for three meals now! 🙂
Haha! Went to the cooking workshop by Chef Hadi. It’s quite a useful and versatile ingredient.
Healthy too – coconut milk has a lot of good cholesterol. It’s very useful for people like my niece who is lactose intolerant. She usually drinks soy milk but S&P came out with coconut milk too.
I tasted it at the event – was the first of the public to do so. They’ve got the proper packages and also the R&D packages (both tastes the same) and they will launch it soon, but I don’t think they’re launching it in Malaysia yet.
Thanks Princess Ribbon! That’s how I always cut things. I know it’s not the proper way but I’m used to it. 🙂
I uses that for my nasi lemak.
The food presentation looks lovely
Yeah, I cooked nasi lemak for my better half too! 🙂
Thanks Kathy! I thought we would win. Haha.
It turns out that a female duo from Weibo won, our chicken was slightly raw coz the oven wasn’t pre-heated (shared oven, but we should have checked).
That reminds me of how Americans were evasive towards coconut oil somewhere in the 80s and 90s. O.o Anyways, I don’t usually use coconut milk in my cooking (and that is IF I’m behind the stove); it’s always liquid milk that we use, and that’s partly because I don’t want to spend too much time washing and washing the wok.
I really like the way you and your team member incorporated the use of coconut milk into all of the dishes and presentation wise, it looks really good!!! Plus, there’s not too much elements going on in that plate. Good job! =D
Yeah, that’s the way Americans have always been! 🙂
First with cars, then consumer electronics, they’ve steadily declined in terms of R&D to Japan and now Taiwan and Korea. I remember they were against palm oil too, but it’s so prevalent in the industry (especially in making candy) that they have a rainforest certification now.
Thanks Ciana! We just followed the recipes, the presentation is something I like to do and luckily my partner didn’t mind me plating up.
You’re welcome! =) Well, have you ever considered on joining those cooking competitions like MasterChef Australia? =)
Anyways, I was watching this program on AFC about palm oil in the States, and it’s a real surprise that they’re importing it in bulk now – for candies and deep-fried dishes. Oh well, a signal of a changing tide, I suppose.
Indeed! 🙂
Palm oil is essential for the candy bar industry, even in the States and UK. However, locally made ones has a higher percentage of palm oil instead of milk fat though.
Yeah, I am interested in joining, but I’m not sure I’m good enough! The MasterChef Australia Season 6 batch had to cook 99 dishes to even be considered!
Good for you as you learnt some new dishes in this workshop.
Cheers mate! 🙂
Yup, I particularly liked the Cavendish banana fritters recipe, it’s very crispy but soft and juicy on the inside. I’ll love to do that again – it uses S&P Santan Pandan flavor for extra oomph.
Oh wow you got on a cooking show! Your partner looks beautiful and familiar, is she an actress or model or something? I’ve seen that packet in the mall somewhere, maybe I should try it soon. They have pandan you say? 😀
Ceera? She’s a blogger too! 🙂
It’s not a cooking show, it’s a cooking workshop. It was fun though, I’ve always liked cooking and it’s good to learn and see how the skills stack up.
Yeah, S&P Santan is the market leader, it’s everywhere – in hypermarkets etc. They have Original, Pandan and Omega 3 variants!
They also have a new packet drink but I don’t think it’s going to be launched in Malaysia yet – I was just lucky enough to be there and tried the R&D packs and the first production batch.
after dengue become master chef. way to go~
I’ll love to get on that show! 🙂
MasterChef Australia that is, the US one isn’t a cooking show at all and the Malaysian one is too unimaginative.
This is a cooking workshop by S&P Santan, but it’s a lot of fun!
Perhaps, you could meet George, Gary and Matt up in person if they’re still the hosting the show by then? =P
But yes, I don’t fancy the US version either; a lot of, well, swear words flying around the studio kitchen. =(
I’ve met George and Kylie Kwong in person! 🙂
Kylie has been doing the immunity pin challenges this season consistently, she’s even on the promo banners as an (unofficial) “fourth judge”:
http://sixthseal.com/2014/07/3-interesting-stalls-everleigh-farmers-market/
Yeah, the US MasterChef isn’t really a cooking show, the Australian version is the closest one. I prefer MasterChef Australia too! (and not just coz I lived there for 4 years)
I am very particular about the santan taste so I am definitely going to get this SP Santan to try out since it is difficult to buy grated coconut to squeeze our own santan.
Yeah, it’s always available! 🙂
I like the S&P Santan Sejati Dessicated Coconut, it tastes like regular grated coconut but there’s also the convenient S&P Santan packs. Let me know what you think!