Experimental Kitchen

Sago Gula Melaka

2010-10-31T17:04:00.001+08:00

Sago Gula Melaka, the name itself is something foreign. I only learnt about the existence of this Malaysian dessert or as quoted by my friend a traditional nyonya dessert a few days back! This dessert came into conversation when i was actually at work working while exchanging emails talking about food, now that's what i call multitasking! When i saw the photo attached in the email i was like OMG! i need to learn how to make this! What was so OMG with the pic? Nothing big a deal really , its more like i was intrigued by how easy it looks and yet i've no idea how its made and there and then i got this really itchy bug in me that wanna try my hands on making this dessert. Hence, a lot of sms exchanging done with my friend to find out on the texture and everything else he could remember about the dessert!

I've tried searching for the origin of this dessert but it was a bittersweet experience for me. I was disappointed for i failed to find out the history/story of how this dessert came about nonetheless it was a sweet ending for i managed to find some useful tips that came together with the recipe. As usual, i don't usually stick to a recipe, especially something i've no idea on how it taste like. So i begun my journey of a lot of research and a lot of reading before finally deciding on how i should do. I love it when i could just figure it out or picture the whole process inside my head before actually executing it.

Ingredients
Sago

*1 cup of sago pearls
*5 cups water
*4 pcs screwpine leaves

Method:

1) Put screwpine leaves and water into a pot and boil for 10-15mins so that the water will be infused with the screwpine leaves flavour.
2) Throw in the sago pearls and keep stirring it so they don't clump together. Let it simmer for 10-15minutes.
3) The sago pearls will turn transparent but there will still be a dot of white in the middle. So in order to get it all to turn transparent, turn off the heat and cover the pot with the lid and leave it for about 5minutes and if you can still see the white dot , just leave it a lil longer.
4) Once its all transparent , remove it from the stove and pour in some water and start sieving the sago pearls from the pot and transferring it into a bowl before filling up any moulds or cups. Before filling up the moulds/cups with the pearl , be sure to rinse it so that it will be easier to turn the sago out of the mould when its time to serve.
5) Let it cool completely before transfering it into the fridge to chill.
6) Sago pearl is best served chilled, preferably a few hours in the fridge.

Gula Melaka Syrup
*150gm gula melaka (coconut sugar)
*100ml thick coconut milk

Method:

1) Shave the gula melaka and put about 1tsp water of hot water or you can put the shaved gula melaka in a bowl, add a tsp or 2 of water, depending on the thickness/consistency of the gula melaka you like and microwave it. Let it cool and chill it.
2) Pour the coconut milk in a bowl and microwave it to heat it up and let it cool before transferring it into the fridge.

When its time to serve , turn the sago out from the mould and pour some thick gula melaka on it and top it up with a spoon or two of coconut milk. This dessert is best served chilled.

The above picture is my second time making this dessert. The first time i served it with coconut milk but this time around i omitted the coconut milk for i don't have any available at home.

Note:
By boiling the screwpine leaves and doing this your sago might turn out slightly yellowish for the leaves taint the water with its natural green colour. So for those that want a white transparent sago pearl , its advisable to omit the leaves.

You can let your sago pearls settle down in any mould you fancy , the above picture is a modified and shrunk version of the original size. I used the tea cup where they serve chinese tea in as the mould for i want it to be of bite size.

You can also toast some grated fresh coconut and top it up or you can serve this with caramelised banana, which i'm gonna try next time when i get around in making this dessert again.

Crepes with Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream.

2009-10-07T16:04:00.004+08:00

Today i got back home at about 3ish , slightly hungry due to the early lunch or rather brunch i had before heading over to college. I asked my mom what's there to munch on for tea but as expected , the usual answer from her, nothing. Was slightly disappointed but i knew that now its all up to me to feed my hungry stomach.

I know i've got a tub of raspberry ice cream in the fridge but i definitely didn't wanna go pig out on that tub therefore , i thought of making crepes to go with it , at least everyone at home can have it as a tea time snack.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/2 cup low-fat milk
* 2 tbsp olive oil / melted butter

Method:
1) Sift the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.
2) In another bowl , mix and whisk all the wet ingredients together and pour into the flour.
3) Stir and whisk until combined. Sift the batter to remove any lumps before making crepes.
4) Heat your non-stick pan over medium heat and oil the pan with some butter or olive oil. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter onto the pan.
5) Cook it for approximately 2-3 minutes , turn and cook the other side.
6) Repeat step 4 and 5 for the remaining batter.
7) Serve it with your favourite type of ice cream.

Note:
For those who likes your crepes a lil buttery , add in the melted butter instead of the olive oil.

This recipe makes about 9 pieces of crepes.

Moist Carrot Walnut Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

2009-09-29T20:56:00.001+08:00

Finally i made my first carrot walnut cake! I've been waiting to make this for a while now but didn't really have the time until today. I've had a packet of walnut sitting in my fridge for almost a few months now and i was so glad that i used up the whole pack. Surely didn't wanna leave anymore walnuts in my fridge, cause if i do , i have no idea when will i be able to use it again.

Ingredients

Carrot Walnut Cake

* 2 cups all-purpose flour

* 1/2 tsp salt

* 1 tsp baking soda

* 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

* 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

* 4 large eggs

* 1 1/2 cups brown sugar

* 1 cup canola oil

* 1/2 crushed pineapple

* 2 tsp vanilla extract

* 150g walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

* 360 g raw carrots, finely grated

Method:

1) Toast walnuts in the oven for about 10-15 minutes at 180 degree C, let it cool and chop coarsely.

2) Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon powder in a bowl and set aside.

3) Beat the eggs for about 1-2 mins, until its frothy and gradually add the sugar and whisk until the mixture is light colored and thick, bout 4-5 mins. Add in the crushed pineapples.

4) Add in the oil in a consistent flow then pour in 2 tsp of vanilla extract.

5) Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.

6) Fold in 3/4 of the chopped walnuts and grated carrot.

7) Pour into a 9' square baking pan that's lined with a greaseproof paper and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 of the chopped walnuts on the top.

8) Let it cool and remove from the pan and if desire, you can either divide the cake into 1/2 or 1/4.

Note:

You can add in all the chopped walnuts into the batter, instead of sprinkling some on the top of the batter before baking it. I like my cake to have more texture especially when it involves nuts, that's why i set aside 1/4 of the walnuts to be sprinkled. You can also replace the walnuts with pecans.

Cool the whole cake and frost it with the cream cheese frosting or you can cut it into 4 pieces and assemble it to form a layered cake. If you layered it , then you'll have 2 layered carrot cakes that measure 4 1/2 by 4 1/2.

Since i've two mini carrot cakes, i decorated each of them differently. I covered one of it with finely chopped walnuts and the other only sprinkle it on the top.

For better tasting moist carrot cake, once its cooled, pop it into the fridge or you can just leave it at room temperature and only pop it into the fridge once you've done with the frosting. Leaving it in the fridge will ease your frosting session.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

* 250g cream cheese, room temperature

* 57g butter, room temperature

* 2 cups confectioner's sugar

* 1 tbsp lemon zest

* 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1) Leave both the cream cheese and butter at room temperature. Once its ready , add both in a bowl and mix it until just blended with no lumps.

2) Add in the sifted powdered sugar gradually and mix until fully incorporated and smooth.

3) Add in your vanilla extract and then your 1 tbsp of lemon zest.

4) When the cake has cooled, frost it with cream cheese and decorate it with toasted finely chopped walnuts or just plain cream cheese frosting.

Note:
I cut down the powdered sugar to 1 1/2 cups. Keep tasting the frosting from time to time when you make it so that you can have a better control of the sweetness of your frosting.

Shitakei Mushroom Soup

2009-09-27T01:26:00.001+08:00

Lately i've been craving for mushroom soup but i didn't wanna go out there , order and have it. I want something homemade, something without the typical generic mushroom soup taste that most restaurants offer. Also I didn't wanna get the cream of mushroom from the can as well so that leave me no choice but to figure out how to make something creamy minus the sour cream/ cream on my own. This is also my first time making so i was a lil clueless on what should i include it in.

I definitely need some fresh mushrooms, the dried ones will only add more flavour to it. i don't have any button or straw mushrooms therefore , i've no choice but to use up all the shitakei mushrooms, the remains from the pasta i made a couple of days back.

INGREDIENTS

* 280g fresh shitakei mushrooms

* 1large yellow onions

* 4 cloves garlic

* 2 sprigs fresh thyme

* 1/2 tbsp butter or more

* Black pepper

* Salt to taste

* 500ml chicken broth

* 200ml low-fat milk

* 3/8 tsp vanilla (optional)

* A dash of nutmeg (optional)

Method:

1) Heat your sauce pan and add in butter and olive oil.

2) Saute the garlic and onions.

3) Add in your fresh thyme and stiry then add in the sliced shitakei mushrooms.

4) Season with pepper and give it a stir before adding in salt.

5) Give it another stir then pick out your thyme leaves.

6) Add half of the chicken broth into your sauce pan, leave another half to be added into the blender/food processor.

7) Pour the mushrooms and the chicken broth into the blender/food processor, pulse it once or twice before adding the remaining chicken broth and puree until its smooth.

8) Once you're done, pour the mushroom soup back into your pot and heat it up.

9) Season your soup further with salt or pepper or even nutmeg powder, but thats entirely optional.

10) Add in your low-fat milk and let it simmer before adding in your vanilla extract.

Note:

Most mushroom soups have got some white wine/sherry in it, so instead of using sherry, i substituted it with some vanilla extract, at least that's what i learnt about substitution for sherry.

You can serve the soup with some toasted garlic bread or like me , spread a thin layer of marjerin on a slice of bread and toast it!

I like the texture of the soup but somehow the aroma of thyme was a lil too strong for me , also it has a somewhat bitter end note to it, i'm yet to figure out why though. Perhaps its the type of mushrooms i used. I should have opt for some combination ( portobello, oysters, button, straws) but oh well, its not that bad for a make to do with what's available in my fridge :) Or maybe i've added a bit too much of nutmeg or was it the vanilla extract? Hmm.. i think the next time when i do this, i'll just add some white wine to it instead.

Pork Rolls with Bechamel Sauce

2009-09-26T12:10:00.001+08:00

I'm sure you guys have seen this around and for this dish, you're right , its not entirely my original idea. In fact there's a few version of it available online. Pork rolls also known as Flamenquines in Spanish; a delicious tapa. I've been searching for the origin but there's not much info available but it was said to have relation to the term "flamenco", which means any colourful dish to the native of Andalusia.

You must be wondering why am i serving it with a bechamel sauce instead of salsa, like how the Spanish would. I actually got the idea from a recipe i came across on Flamenquines. In the recipe, we're suppose to dip the rolled pork into the bechamel sauce and then coat it with breadcrumbs and deep fry it. Since i know that i don't have that skill to dip in anything creamy and coat it with breadcrumbs, i opted to serve it as a dipping sauce instead.

Ingredients

PORK ROLLS
* 10 slices of pork loin sukiyaki
* 10 slices smoked black pepper ham
* 10 strips of cheese
* Some minced garlic
* Some minced parsley
* 1 egg, beaten
* Flour to coat
* Breadcrumbs

Method:
1) Place a slice of ham on top of the pork loin and add a strip of cheese on the ham and roll. Secure with a toothpick if needed.
2) Coat the rolled pork with flour and dip it into the beaten egg mixture and coat it with the breadcrumbs mixture; add the minced garlic and parsley into the breadcrumbs.
3) Heat the wok with oil and deep fry until golden.
4) Remove and drain it on a paper towel.
5) Cut about 1/2 inch across and serve.

Note:
I ran out of flour therefore i substituted it with chickpea flour. I add bout 3 tablespoon of chickpea flour and some water to make it into a paste and coat the rolled pork. Instead of breadcrumbs,i added the minced garlic and parsley into some chickpea flour and with the coated rolled pork , i coated it with the garlic-parsley mixture before deep-frying it.

Result, well i think its a little too hard, especially the chickpea coating, i'll definitely use breadcrumbs instead the next time around.. Also, instead of mixing the garlic and parsley together , i think it would be better to spread it on the pork loin instead. Oh well , another round of experiment for me! :)

BECHAMEL SAUCE
* 2 1/2 tbsp butter
* 2 tbsp flour
* 2 cups low- fat milk
* 1/8 tsp nutmeg powder
* Salt to taste
* Pepper to taste

Method:
1) Melt the butter in a sauce pan.
2) Add flour and keep stirring with your whisk.
3) Add the heated milk and stir further.
4) Keep stirring while you season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
5) If its too thick to your liking, add more milk until it reaches the consistency you like.

Note:
For those that wanna skip the warming up the milk step, like i did, due to sheer laziness :) . All you need to do with the cold milk from the fridge is to add a tablespoon or two of milk at a time into your butter-flour mixture until you finished up the milk and keep stirring with your whisk and you'll get a smooth and somewhat thick sauce.

You can add more nutmeg powder and ground pepper to give the sauce more flavour.

The classic French version of this sauce, they uses white onion that is studded with cloves ( take the cloves and stick it into the onion),instead of adding ground nutmeg . The onion-cloves combination give the sauce a unique flavour.

Dischi Volanti with Shitakei and Fresh Basil in Basic Italian Tomato Sauce

2009-09-25T01:03:00.000+08:00

I know what you guys are thinking out there, what a long name for this beauty huh? As of now, my brain's kinda dead from last's night long hours of journal reading therefore, naming the dish right now isn't the best time. Despite the partial brain dead i'm experiencing right now, i'm pretty focus especially when i have something cooking on the stove! All this while i've been a linguine person. and as of late, i find myself liking short pasta more, perhaps its easier to work with and i don't need a big pot to boil my pasta! Also i love experimenting with different shapes of pasta. This is my first time cooking with dischi volanti and it seems like i've already put it in my list of favourite pasta.

INGREDIENTS
* 411g diced tomatoes
* 2 cloves garlic. minced
* 2 medium red onions, chopped
* 8 fresh shitakei mushrooms
* Handful of chopped fresh basil
* Salt and black pepper to taste
* Some brown sugar
* Dischi volanti for two.

Method:
1) You can work on the sauce and the pasta simultaneously if you've more than a stove to work on, otherwise you can prepare the sauce then proceed with the pasta.
2) Cook the pasta according to the package direction or about 10-12minutes. Add some salt and a drop or two of olive oil.
3) Heat your pan with some olive oil and add minced garlic and when it turns golden, add your sliced shitakei mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.
4) Next, add your chopped onions and stir further until it turns translucent.
5) Introduce your diced tomatoes into the pan and stir further and let it simmer.
6) You can season with salt and pepper after you've added the diced tomatoes or you can do it when your sauce is almost done.
7) Sugar is optional. Do add in if you want to cut down the sourish tomato taste.
8) Add in your chopped basil and stir.
9) Add in water or vegetable broth if it starts to dry.
10) Again season with salt and pepper if you didn't when you added your diced tomatoes.
11) Taste from time to time and add what is necessary , salt/pepper/sugar.
12) Remove your pasta from the boiling water when its done and add it to your pan of sauce and stir to combine thoroughly and serve.
13) You can garnish with some torn fresh basil and coarse black pepper or some finely chopped basil with grated parmesan cheese.

Note:
Add in more ground black pepper if you like a spicy after taste in your mouth. I surely did for my pasta sauce.

The red onions used in this recipe is to add sweetnees to the sauce. You can also use yellow onions but do sure to replace the water with vegetable broth for more flavour.

You can also add the chopped basil shortly after you've added your diced tomatoes. Do break up your diced tomatoes with your spatula while cooking.

Banana Pancakes with Melted Peanut Butter

2009-09-24T09:44:00.001+08:00

Pancake has once again made another come back in my choice of food for breakfast. The idea to incorporate banana into my pancake batter came when i was replying a comment on banana related food stuff. As usual i was excited and couldn't wait till the next morning to try it out! Instead of using my usual pancake ingredients i decided to make it simple and see how it will turn out to be. Yup, another experiment! If it turns out great, thumbs up otherwise i'll have a hard time finishing it off!

INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup wheat flour
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 large egg
* 1 cup water
* 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
* 3 medium bananas, mashed

Method:
1) Sift the flour and salt together in a bowl.
2) Make a well and pour in the egg, water and vanilla extract.
3) Mashed the ripe bananas and add it into the batter.
4) Heat your non stick with a drop or two of olive oil and pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto your non stick.
5) Flip the pancake over when the edge dries up and cook the other side until its thoroughly cooked.
6) Dish it out and put it on a plate. Repeat Step 4 until you finish up your batter.
7) Stack the pancakes so that it will keep warm while you fry another pancake.
8) Serve with your choice of filling/jam.

Note:
This recipe made about 6 pancakes. If you find that the batter is too thick for your liking, dilute it further with water. You can also replace the water with milk.

When i was much younger and even now at this age, i still love the combination of banana and peanut butter, be it crunchy or the smooth ones. Some of my friends actually think that the banana -peanut butter combination is simply weird and disgusting , I beg to differ! So its rather natural that i reach out for my jar of peanut butter and spread some reasonable amount on my hot banana pancake and let the warmth of the pancake to slightly melt the peanut butter. The combination is just heavenly and irresistible at the same time!

Mini Baked Raspberry Cheesecake

2009-09-23T13:58:00.002+08:00

These cute babies are the inspiration of petit four and also a mini cheesecake pan i saw online . Ok perhaps what i have over here isn't the exact petit four but that's the best i can come up with especially when i have to make do with the bake wares i have at home.

When i came across the mini cheesecake pan online, i was thrilled cause now i can make my baked goods into bite size, but unfortunately most of the retail shops specializing in baking needs and goods don't carry them. Some have got no idea what i was talking about and one in particular try to sell me an individual mini bake ware, which i'm not too happy with for the fact that i need to pay for each individual ones instead of gettin it in the form of a muffin tray. I'm seriously running out of storage so for now i can't afford to get more items unless i think of ideas on where i can put or keep my bake wares.

INGREDIENTS

Base:
100g digestive biscuits
30g butter, melted
1/2 tsp coffee essence (optional)

Method:
1) Crush the digestive biscuits in the food processor or blender.
2) Once the butter has melted, add in the coffee essence.
3) Pour the melted butter into the food processor and further blend. If you're using a blender then remove the finely blended digestive in a bowl n pour the melted butter in.
4) Spoon about a tablespoon or less of the crushed digestive into the mini cheesecake pan and set aside.

Note:
Since i don have a mini cheesecake pan , i lined my 12' muffin tray with paper liners and spoon about 11/2 tbsp of crushed digestive and flaten it evenly and refrigerated it while i work on my cream cheese.

Filling:
* 250g raspberry filling
* 500g cream cheese, softened
* 1/4 tsp fine granulated salt
* 2/3 cups sugar
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 2/3 cups sour cream
* 2 eggs, beaten

Method:
1) Leave the cream cheese at room temperature until soften before you work with it.
2) Once its soften, put it in the mixer and mix thoroughly until its the batter is smooth.
3) With the mixer still running, add in the sifted sugar and salt. (sieving removes any possible lumps).
4) Add in your vanilla extract and let it mix further.
5) Add in the sour cream slowly and let it further incorporate before adding in the eggs.
6) Beat the eggs and with the mixer still running, pour in the eggs bit by bit until you're done.
7) Take out your muffin tray and fill up the paper liners with about 1/4 cup of cream cheese.
8) Split the 1/4 cup into half, for ease of use, you can opt for the 1/8 cup instead. Pour 1/8 cup of cream cheese , fill with your choice of filling and then top it up with the remaining 1/8 cup cream cheese.
9) Repeat until you've finished all the cream cheese.
10) You can choose to fill up the surface of your cream cheese with some filling as well , like how i did or you can leave it plain n serve with some warm filling upon serving.
11) Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degree C for 20-25minutes.
12) Let cool and store it in fridge.

Note:
This recipe makes about 16 muffin size cheesecake.

You can also replace the digestive based with chocolate flavored biscuits for those that loves the chocolate and berry combination.

Mashed Chickpea Soup with Coriander

2009-09-23T13:28:00.001+08:00

Last Monday, i was at this Lebanese restaurant and the Addas soup served was flavourful and good, especially when you're craving for something hot and soupy at the same time! So today i was pretty bored of cooking up the usual everyday stuff and i thought why don't i make to do with what i have available in my kitchen and i got the idea on transforming my chickpea (garbanzo) into the lentil soup (Addas) i tasted 2 nights ago.

I prefer the dry chickpeas where you can buy in bulk instead of the canned ones. But no matter how i tried cooking the chickpeas, it's never really how i wanted it , tender and yet soft therefore , i resorted to the canned one for ease of use and also minus the time needed to cook it.

INGREDIENTS
* 255g chickpeas
* 2 cloves garlic
* 1 large onion, finely diced
* Salt and pepper to taste
* 7 cups of water/broth
* 2 tsp cumin powder ( adjust accordingly)
* 1/4 tsp turmeric
* Handful of finely chopped coriander leaves

Method:
1) Get ready your chicken broth and keep it boiling.
2) Heat your non-stick with some olive oil and saute the minced garlic and onions while you let the broth boil.
3) Once the garlic and onion's ready, pour some chicken broth and let it simmer for a while more before transferring the garlic and onion into the pot of broth.
4) While its boiling, mashed the chickpeas with your fork if you like some texture, otherwise you can put it in the food processor and blend it before adding it into the broth.
5) After you've added the mashed chickpeas, add the cumin and turmeric powder.
6) Let it boil further before adding the chopped coriander.
7) From time to time , season with salt and pepper.

Note:
For those that like your soup to be on the thick side, you can reduce the amount of water used or add more mashed chickpeas into it.

You can serve it as it is or with a hot lebanese bread or any breadstuff.

Allow a longer duration when you boil your soup because the time will just make your soup more flavorful and taste better; like a good wine that age beautifully with time.

Tom Yum Goong (Spicy Prawn Soup with Fresh Herbs)

2009-09-09T07:39:00.002+08:00

Tom Yum or rather Tom Yum Goong as its widely known is definitely one of my favourite soups. Tom Yum is a name for two very much alike soups originating from Thailand (Thai tom yum) and Laos (Lao tom yum). Lao tom yum is relatively unknown outside of Laos whereas Thai tom yum is widely served in the neighbouring countries and has been popularized around the world.

Though this soup is widely served here, only a few restaurants can produce a good and authentic tasting tom yum. For those who has been to Thailand and tasted the real deal , that taste will serve as a benchmark for you whenever you step into any restaurants serving Thai tom yum.

Ingredients

ROASTED CHILLI PASTE (NAM PRIK PAO)
* 40g (1/2 cup) dried red chillies
* 30g unpeeled whole shallots
* 30g unpeeled whole garlic cloves
* 50g dried shrimp powder
* 2 tbsp shrimp paste
* 2 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar
* 2 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)
* 2 tbsp tamarind paste
* 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:
1) In a wok , dry-fry the chillies over low heat until they are darken and become fragrant. Shake the pan and stir frequently as they roast. Be careful not to burn them. Put the chillies aside to cool.
2) In the same pan, dry-fry over medium heat the shallots and garlic, turning them until they are softened and blistered. Set aside to cool.
3) Remove stems from the chillies and shake out most of the seeds , then cut into small pieces.
4) Peel and slice the garlic and shallots, set aside.
5) Wrap the 2 tbsp shrimp paste in a double piece of aluminium foil and put it in the frying pan and cook for about 5 minutes, turning over once or twice.
6) To save time , i put the dried shrimp, chillies, garlic, shallots, shrimp paste, sugar , fish sauce and tamarind juice in the blender and blend it into a smooth paste.
7) Warm the oil over medium heat and add the paste and stir occasionally until the paste slowly darkens to a deep brownish colour and becomes very fragrant. When cool , the paste can be stored in a tightly sealed container in the fridge.

Note:
This recipe has been adopted from a Thai cookbook with a list twist in it.

Don't be fooled by the long list of steps. Its definitely worth the trouble just to have a taste of the authentic thai tom yum again. The ready-made chilli paste out there tasted rather generic therefore instead of getting a bottle of it and to cut down the preparation time, i chose to make my own just to find out how it will taste like with the soup.

That's just the chilli paste needed for the soup and here's a list of what you should have in your bowl/pot of yummilicious appetizing soup!

SOUP

* 750ml (3 cups) chicken broth

* 20 medium sized prawns

* 2 stalks lemongrass (bruised)

* 8 kaffir lime leaves (sliced)

* 60g galangal, large slices

* 6 bird's-eye chillies

* 4 tbsp fish sauce

* 4 tbsp lime juice

* 150g oyster mushrooms

* 1 tbsp roasted chilli paste

* 2 sprigs coriander (roots included)

Method:

1) Bring the chicken broth to boil, and add in the bruised lemongrass, bird's-eye chillies, galangal lime leaves and the cleaned roots of coriander. Let it boil.

2) Add in fish sauce and mushrooms.

3) Add lime juice and the roasted chilli paste and lower the heat and cook for about 3 minutes or so then add the prawns.

4) Check seasoning, adding more fish sauce or lime juice for a hot and piquant soup.
5) Add chopped coriander leaves when you serve.

Note:
You can choose to add the lime juice and fish sauce just before you serve instead of adding it into the soup. while it boils.

You can choose to shell and devein the prawns or you can just put the prawns with its shell into the soup. I shelled and deveined the prawns for ease of consumption.

Stir-fry Garlicky Nutty Asparagus

2009-09-08T20:39:00.005+08:00

Apart from being a good source of dietary fiber, folic acid, potassium and rutin, its stalks are high in antioxidants. Folic acid (folate) is seen as the key in taming a substance called , homocysteine, implicated in heart disease.

Yesterday when i was out doing my grocery shopping to stock up the kitchen and fridge, i saw some fresh and nice looking organic baby asparagus on the shelf and i couldn't help but to purchase it. It has been a while since i last had asparagus. Most of the time , its the spicy style, where the asparagus will be blanched and topped with spicy dried shrimps.

This time around i thought of trying out a recipe i came across while i was browsing, i like the combination of ingredients but unfortunately i couldn't remember the list of ingredients therefore, i'm just gonna modify the original recipe i came across and tone down the spicy lunch.

INGREDIENTS

* 200g baby asparagus
* 2 tbsp garlic (finely chopped)
* 2 tbsp almond (ground)
* 1 tbsp olive oil
* Salt to taste

Method:
1) Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the minced garlic and stir.
2) Next ,add the ground almond and stir fry further.
3) Add the asparagus. If its too long to fit in to your wok/pan, cut it into half.
4) Stir fry further and season with salt before serving.

Snow-Skin Mooncakes

2009-09-08T14:48:00.014+08:00

Since this is my first time making mooncake, i'd start it off with the easy one (at least it is to me), that is the snow-skin mooncake. Snow-skin also known as ice-skin mooncakes by some, resembles the traditional mooncakes with some modern modifications to it. When i started making these beautiful babies, my mom asked me , what encouraged me to try my hands on this and i replied her saying that it's expensive to buy it and also why do i wanna fork out my cash for an over-priced item where i can make it at home with my own measurements of ingredients.

Since its for home consumption therefore no colouring added to it. Over here i've 3 different colours of snow-skin : light green (pandan paste) , pink (strawberry paste) and the purple ones (blueberry paste). The reason i used these paste is to give the skin a lil flavouring to tone down the smell of koh flour ( fried glutinous rice flour ) and krimwell (shortening that has the buttery smell to it).

Ingredients

SNOW-SKIN
* 200g koh flour
* 140g icing sugar
* 60g Krimwell
* 240g ice water

Method:
1) Sift koh flour and the icing sugar together into a big bowl.
2) Add in Krimwell and rub it in until it resembles crumbles and add in the water and mix thoroughly.
3) Add in your favourite paste or colouring if you fancy, otherwise a white snow-skin will do as well.

Note:
This recipe makes about 20-22 pieces using a 5.2cm diameter plastic mooncake mould.

Those that are interested in colouring their snow-skin its advisable to add the colouring in the ice water before pouring it into your crumbles. This will give you an even colour on the snow skin.

FILLING

Yellow Eggy Custard
* 80g fine granulated sugar sugar
* 20g superfine flour
* 20g cornflour
* 15g custard powder
* 50ml thin coconut milk
* 75ml low fat milk
* 1 beaten egg yolk
* 25g melted butter
* yellow colouring (optional)

Method:
1) Sift all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
2) Melt the butter and set aside to let it cool.
3) Mix all the wet ingredients except the butter and mix well.
4) Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix it thoroughly.
5) Pour in the melted butter into the egg mixture as you stir it.
6) Sift the egg mixture over and over until there's no residue left.
7) Pour the egg mixture into a bowl or plate and steam for 15 minutes or until the mixture is cook thoroughly.
8) Remove and let it cool and shape it into a round.

Note:

This eggy custard represents the egg yolk in most mooncakes.
You can make your own filling or purchase the ready made to cut down on your cooking and preparation time.

For the above mooncakes , i've 3 different flavours , each with an eggy custard in it.

They are :
Light green ones: Pandan Lotus paste + Eggy Custard
Pink ones: Pure Lotus paste & Melon Seeds + Eggy Custard
Purple ones: Yam Lotus paste + Eggy Custard.

Nasi Lemak ( Rice in Coconut Milk )

2009-09-05T14:49:00.007+08:00

Nasi Lemak literally means rice in cream, adopted from the cooking process whereby rice is soaked in coconut milk/cream and then the mixture is steamed. This is my first time tryin my hands on cooking this particular dish. When i was growing up, whenever we have Nasi Lemak served at home , I'd get excited cause i can put as much gravy as i want on my rice unlike the store bought ones, dry without much gravy.

Usually Nasi Lemak would be served with spicy anchovies and since i don't have any at home, i substituted it with spicy prawns (sambal udang). You may also serve this dish with fried fish (sardine, mackerel, etc), peanuts and just bout anything that you desire. I don't quite fancy peanuts, therefore i excluded it.

Ingredients

RICE

* 3 cups rice

* 4 cups of water

* 1/2 cups of coconut milk

* 3 screwpine leaves (knotted)

* 3 shallots (thinly sliced)

* 1/2 inch ginger (thinly sliced)

* A pinch of salt

Method :

1) Wash and rinse the long grain rice for at least 5 times to get rid of the starch and also any particles in the rice.

2) Add in the rest of the ingredients in the rice cooker and let it cook.

3) After 10 minutes or so, stir the rice so that the remaining ingredients will be well blended with your rice.

4) Once the rice cooker's "keep warm" indicator is on , fluff up the rice with your fork and cover it up with the lit and let it sit approximately 15mins before serving.

SPICY PRAWNS

* 800g-1kg prawns (shelled and deveined)

* Tamarind juice to taste

* Salt and sugar to taste

* Olive oil

Spice Paste

* 3 medium red onions

* 3cm ginger

* 5 cloves garlic

* 2 tsp shrimp paste powder

* 5 candle nuts

* 5 tbsp chilli paste

Method:

1) You can either blend or pound all the ingredients for the spice paste.

2) Fry your prawns with a little bit of oil for less than a minute and dish out.

3) Heat up your work and add olive oil and stir fry the spice paste until fragrant.

4) Season with salt and sugar to taste and finally add in your tamarind juice until it reaches the consistency you desire.

5) Taste again and season accordingly if you need to.

6) Add in the prawns and simmer for less than 5 minutes otherwise the prawns will turn hard and rubbery.

Note:

If you like the gravy to be more spicy, adjust the amount of chilli paste you included in your spice paste.

Pan- Fried Chicken Breast Fillet with Mango Salsa

2009-07-29T17:39:00.011+08:00

This week has got me wondering into Mexicanville. The love affair first started with a simple meal, quesadilla then it kinda cooled down for a while and the heat came back with me craving for guacamole and now salsa! At first it was just salsa and i thought i should make it into a meal instead of a side dish therefore i came up with this meal for dinner.

Ingredients

Mango Salsa

* 1 mango

* 4 medium tomatoes

* 1 medium yellow onion

* 3 cloves garlic

* 3 small jalapeno pepper

* 3 tbsp chopped cilantro

* 1/4 tsp salt or to taste

* Juice of one lemon

Method:

1) Dice the mango and tomatoes and chopped the onion and fresh cilantro. Then mince the garlic and jalapeno, set aside.

2) In a large bowl, mix everything together and stir until its thoroughly combined. Refrigerate it while you prepare the chicken.

Note:

For those that don't fancy a sour salsa, pick a sweet mango and add the lemon juice to taste.

Some even added olive oil to this salsa but i chose to omit it since i like it to be light and tangy. Those that love the heat of jalapeno , feel free to add one or two more, make sure you minced it real good so that it will blend together nicely with the rest of the ingredients.

This bowl of salsa can served up to 5-7 people depending on how much they love salsa.

Pan-Fried Chicken Breast Fillet

* 1/2 of whole chicken breast meat

* 1/8 tsp salt or to taste

* Coarse black pepper to taste

* 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

1) Lightly salt the breast meat on both sides and season with coarse black pepper after that.

2) Heat a non-stick with the olive oil and pan fry the fillet.

3) Remove and set it on a kitchen towel before serving it together with the salsa.

Note:

For those that love more flavour on their meat, feel free to season with paprika or even cayenne pepper.

Serve this with the mango salsa on top and some chopped romaine lettuce on the side, if you like you can also add mashed potatoes.

Guacamole Dip

2009-07-24T17:47:00.008+08:00

I've 2 more avocados left in the fridge from the sushi making yesterday and i didn't want those lovely avocados to go to waste therefore i decided to make guacamole out of it. It was both my mom's and bro's first time tasting it and surprisingly they loved it. My mom isn't a big fan of all this "foreign cuisine", she's more into oriental stuff therefore it was definitely a pleasant surprise that she actually liked the dip.

INGREDIENTS

* 2 avocados

* 1/2 lemon juiced

* 1/4 tsp salt

* 1 clove garlic

* 1 small tomato

* 1 small onion

* A handful of coriander leaves

* Black pepper to taste

Method:

1) Mashed the ripe avocados to the consistency you want with salt and lemon juice together in the bowl.

2) Once you're done mashing up the avocados, add in the finely chopped garlic, onions, tomato and coriander leaves. Season with black pepper to taste.

Note:

Choosing a right avocados for the dip is essential. A ripe avocado will yield to a gentle pressure when held in the palm of the hand and squeezed. The flesh turns brown quickly, so to prevent this, lemon or lime juice can be added after they are peeled if you're not goin to use it there and then.

Sushi

2009-07-23T23:15:00.005+08:00

To be honest, i've been procrastinating on sushi making for almost a week now and i thought since i'm rather free today , then this should be the day where this little novice chef embark upon a new challenge - sushi.

I love sushi and i was a lil unsure of how it would turn out. i did some research and read a lil about sushi and everythin i need to know to come out with a decent looking and tasting sushi. I really had fun learning, from the various types of sushi and its name to the process of making each different type of sushi.

Over here, i've a few varieties of sushi. I'll start off from the far left, my very own version of Nigirizushi. Usually the toppings for Nigiri are typically raw fish such as tuna, salmon or other type of seafood. I've made 3 different toppings. The first one i topped with pan-fried marinated pork fillets, the second one i had a filament sticks (crabstick) and the third one i had cucumber and carrot on, all are bound to the rice with a thin strip of nori.

Next, starting from my far left, i have the California maki. Usually its done the Uramaki style but i made it the other way round where i have the nori outside ( Mazi zushi ). In the center, i have the sesame coated Uramaki with crabstick, cucumber and carrot. On my right, that's my crabstick + mayo Gunkanmaki . And the last one at the bottom , that would be another creation of mine with the combination of cucumber, carrot and pan-fried marinated pork fillet.

I wanted to experiment more and have more varieties but since it was my first attempt, i prepared just enough to experiment on it. For a first timer, i was definitely pleased with the end result. There will definitely be another sushi post in the future where i'll be featuring tamago and hopefully the original/typical nigirizushi.

San Bei Ji ( 3 Cups Chicken )

2009-07-22T14:16:00.005+08:00

Despite the name 3 cups chicken, literally translated from San Bei Ji, instead of using a full cup of each ingredients, i've modified the portion. I was first introduced to this dish when i was having dinner with a friend at a Kocha Taiwanese restaurant. That was my first time having it, i like the combination and the aromatic thai basil in this dish , therefore i was looking around and i even asked a Taiwanese friend for the recipe. Too bad she didnt have it but lucky me i found a few versions of the recipe over the net. I like this particular recipe the best.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 whole chicken

* 2 cups basil leaves

* 1/3 cup sesame oil

* Half a bulb garlic

* 10 slices ginger

* 2 chillies

* 3 tbsp brown sugar

* 1/3 cup light soy sauce

* 1/3 cup rice wine (Shao Hsing Hua Tiau)

Method:

1) Crush/roughly pound half bulb of the garlic, cut the chillies diagonally into a thick strip and set aside.

2) Heat the wok/non stick pan and pour 1/3 cup of sesame oil into the wok and add the chopped chicken pieces and stir fry until its bout 1/2 or 3/4 cook. Drain and set aside.

3) With the sesame oil in the wok, add in the crushed garlic and sliced ginger and stir fry till fragrant.

4) Add the cut chillies and give it a quick stir and add in the chicken and stir for a while.

5) Add in the rice wine and the light soy sauce and let it simmer.

6) Lastly add in the basil and sugar and let it simmer.

Note:

Its important to use thai basil for the sweet basil available will not give this dish that particular taste and aroma.

Blueberry Cheesecake

2009-07-20T23:41:00.009+08:00

Cheesecake seems to have made a name for itself in the household, especially with my bro. I've no idea where or when he developed this love affair but i''m definitely having fun experimenting on cheesecake and baking it for him. Instead of the usual oreo cheesecake he loves , i thought i'd give blueberry a shot.

Ingredients

Base

* 320g digestive biscuits

* 1/4 cup melted butter

Method:

1) Crush the digestive with your rolling pin or just put it in the food processor if you have one.

2) Melt the butter and pour over the crushed biscuits and press it neatly onto the baking pan and set aside.

3) Wrap the baking pan with a double layer of aluminium foil.

Note:

The aluminium foil is to prevent the hot water from gettin into the base since i'm using a loose base baking pan.

Filling

* 500g cream cheese , softened

* 2/3 cups sugar

* 1/4 tsp salt

* 1 tsp vanilla

* 2/3 cups sour cream

* 2 eggs

* 1 can of blueberry

Method:

1) Beat the softened cream cheese until its well blended.

2) With the mixture still running, add sugar, salt and vanilla and continue mixing.
3) Next, pour in the sour cream and mix it thoroughly.

4) Put in the eggs.

5) Spread some blueberries on the base before pouring in the cream cheese.

6) Find a roasting pan that you can fit your baking pan in and fill up the roastin pan with boiling water halfway up the baking pan.

7) Bake in a preheated oven at 165 degree C for 1hr and 30mins in a 8inch springform/loose base pan.

8) After baking, allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.

9) Remove from the oven and let it cool before popping it into the fridge. Once it has totally cooled, spread the remaining blueberries on the cheesecake . Refrigerate for bout 5 hours, preferably overnight before serving.

Note:

For those that dont fancy refrigerating the cheesecake with the blueberry spread on it , do without it and just spread some right before serving it.

If you like , you can mix the whole can of blueberry into the creamcheese batter before pouring it into the baking pan.

To some out there , the display of it might look real disgusting but that's how my bro likes it, with chunks of blueberries on top. Personally i'll not be purchasing the same brand of blueberries the next time i make this. It's not as good as what i was being told by the shop keeper, i guess , she was tryin to push off her stocks eh?

Oven Baked Chicken and Tofu Satay with Fruity Peanut Sauce

2009-07-11T00:10:00.009+08:00

Personally i like satay but due to the traditional way of preparing it (grilled or barbequed over charcoal fire) i frequently stay away from it. i often find it rather oily for my liking for they often baste the satay with oil using a lemon grass or brush , also i'm pretty picky on how they serve it, where most of the satay sellers included a piece of "fat" together with the lean meat on the skewer.

So due to all that , i've decided to make my own version of satay with just lean meat and also oven bake it to reduce the amount of oil used. Since i'm sharing this new adventure of mine with a friend and her family, i prepared both the chicken and tofu satay for my friend's a vegan.

Ingredients

CHICKEN SATAY

* 3 pcs breast meat

* 6 tsp cumin powder

* 6 tsp coriander powder

* 3 tsp turmeric powder

* 3 stalks lemon grass (pound)

* 3 tbsp+ olive oil

* 6 tbsp brown sugar

Method:

1) Remove the skin from the chicken breast meat if any and cut it into strips or cube.

2) Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl thoroughly and then add the chicken strips to marinate. Its best to marinate it overnight.

3) Skewer the strips when you're ready to bake it at a preheated oven of 210 degree C for bout 15-20mins on each side.

4) Serve with some fresh onions and cucumber.

Note:

Using fresh turmeric to marinate the chicken strips will give it a more fragrant aroma as compared to the powder form.

The longer you bake , the less juicy is your chicken strips, therefore dont overbake it for you'll end up with a dry chicken strips.

FRUITY PEANUT SAUCE

* 300gm roasted peanuts

* 200ml coconut milk

* 1 cup tamarind juice

* sugar and salt to taste

* water

Spice Paste

* 3 tbsp chilli paste

* 10 shallots

* 8 cloves garlic

* 2 stalks lemongrass

* 5cm fresh turmeric (optional)

* 6cms ginger

* 4cm galangal

* 3 tsp cumin

* 2 tsp shrimp paste powder (optional)

* 6 candelnuts

* 1/2 Small pineapple (roughly blend)

Method:

1) Blend or pound the spice paste ingredients.

2) Heat some oil in the non-stick and add in the spice paste and stir fry until its aromatic.

3) Add the tamarind juice and stir it for a little while before adding ground nuts.

4) Keep stirring until its thoroughly mixed and add in the coconut milk.

5) Let it simmer and add in the roughly blended pineapple.

6) Add in more water if you like the sauce to be more watery.
7) Season with salt and sugar to taste.

Note:

I bought the readily available coarsely chopped roasted peanuts to save time. For those who can't find that , you'll need to dry fry the ground nuts until its aromatic, cool, remove the skin and pound it.

I also added blended pineapple juice, a few pieces of pineapple with some water. I used pineapple for the peanut sauce to give it a different touch as compared to the normal peanut sauce the satay sellers served. This is a remake of the peanut sauce i've tasted when i was down south.

I waited until the gravy has cooled down and poured 3/4 of the thick peanut sauce into the blender and blend it until its of a smooth and creamy consistency. I poured it back to the non-stick and stir under low heat and add more pineapple juice or tamarind juice until i achieve the consistency i like.

TOFU SATAY

* 3 pcs beancurd

Spice Paste

* 1 tsp cumin powder

* 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

* 8 shallots

* 1 tsp coriander powder

* 1 inch fresh turmeric

* 1 tsp sugar

* 1 stalk lemongrass

* 2 tbsp roasted peanuts

* 1 tbsp olive oil

* Salt to taste

Method:

1) Cubed the tofu to bite size or any size you fancy. Blend or pound all the spice paste ingredients.

2) Baste/coat the cubed beancurd with the spice paste and let it marinate overnight.

3) Skewer the beancurd when you're ready to bake.

4) Bake in a preheated oven of 210 degree C for bout 10mins on each side.

5) Serve with the fruity peanut sauce and some onions and cucumber.

Note:

If you like it to be spicy, add some chilli paste to the spice paste.

Handle the beancurd as gentle as possible when you coat it with the spice paste for you dont want to destroy it before you're able to eat it :). The spice paste will be of a rather thick consistency.

Asam Pedas Bawal Hitam ( Hot/Spicy and Sour Black Pomfret )

2009-07-06T13:52:00.008+08:00

Asam Pedas is a well known dish both in Malacca and Johore.

Different culture has got a different interpretation of this particular dish. As for the one i've prepared over here, i'm not too sure bout its origin because i was told that there's the Malay-style and the Nyonya style of Asam Pedas. But one thing i know and very sure of is that i'm loving this dish!

This dish alone , got my bro goin for 3 servings of rice and for my mom, 2 servings! So i'd take this as a compliment from my bro since he's pretty fusy with fish. He loves his fish to be fried. Typical of him.

INGREDIENTS

* 800gm black pomfret

* 12 okras

* 2 tomatoes ( cut into wedges )

* 1 tbsp fish curry powder

* 5 springs daun kesum (Vietnamese coriander )

* 1 bunga kantan ( torch ginger)

* Oil

* Salt and sugar to taste

* 2 medium shallots (pound)

* 4-5 cups tamarind juice

Spice Paste (pound)

* 2 cloves garlic

* 2 stalks lemon grass (white part only)

* 15 shallots (small)

* 20 dried chillies (soaked )

* 2 tsp shrimp paste powder

* 4cm fresh ginger

* 3cm fresh turmeric

Method:

1) Stir fry the pounded shallots until fragrant and add in the spice paste and stir further until aromatic.

2) Pour in the tamarind juice and let it simmer.

3) Add in daun kesum and simmer a while and add in bunga kantan and okras.

4) Put in the pieces of fish and let it simmer further. Add in the tomato wedges.

5) Season with salt and sugar to taste.

Note:

You can replace the dried chillies with chilli paste to speed up the cooking process.

Its best to use fresh ginger and turmeric instead of the powdered form.

Halved or quartered the bunga kantan. If you like, you can slice it finely.

Add in more tamarind juice for those who wants more gravy to this dish. To make the tamarind juice : 1 1/4 cups water with tamarind pulp the size of small ping pong ball. To make this dish more savoury, always add in tamarind juice, be it thick or thin but never add in water.

Usually stingray will be used to prepare this dish but since my granny dont take stingray , therefore i've replaced it with a black pomfret. You can basically replace it with any type of fish you fancy.

In order to have a less oily asam pedas, be sure to cut down the oil use to fry the pounded shallots and spice paste. Start off with a lil and add more oil if you need to. I used a deep non stick to cook this dish therefore i only needed very little oil.

If you do not like your okras and tomatoes to be to cooked, add the okra at the same time you add your fish pieces and let it simmer and add in the tomato wedges. I added the okra first so that it will be soft enough for my granny.

Ayam Masak Rendang ( Chicken in Coconut Milk)

2009-07-02T16:51:00.004+08:00

Rendang is an Indonesian dish originated from the Minangkabau, one of the etnic group in Indonesia and one of the characteristics food of this culture, it is served at ceremonial occassions and to honour guests. This particular dish is also popular in Singapore and Malaysia and its traditionally prepared by the Malay community during festive occasions. Usually rendang is made from beef but this dish can be prepared with chicken or mutton or even vegie.

Ingredients

* 1.3kg chicken

* 3 lemongrass (bruised)

Spice A ( Pound/blend)

* 15 shallots

* 15 cloves garlic

* 3 inch galangal

* 3 inch ginger

* 9 stalks lemongrass

* 30 dried chillies

Spice B

* 9 cloves

* 9 star anise

* 9 cardamon seeds

Spice C

* 3 cups thick coconut milk

* 3 cups water

* 3 tsp tamarind puree

Spice D

* 18 kaffir lime leaves

* 18 tbsp grated coconut

* 3 tbsp palm sugar

* Salt to taste

Method:

1) Dry fry the grated coconut until it turns golden brown and set aside.

2) Add some oil and stir fry Spice A and Spice B together until fragrant

3) Then add chopped chicken pieces and bruised lemongrass and saute

4) Next, add Spice C and let it simmer , stir occassionally.

5) Add spice D and reduce the heat to low and simmer. Preferably cover your pot/wok. Cooking will take approximately 2hrs for the gravy to dry up.

Note:

You can also add in some turmeric leaves, bay leaves and fresh turmeric. I omitted all of it. Its all up to your preferences. You can also include candlenuts as well.

Do chop your kaffir lime leaves finely when you add in to the wok together with your grated coconut.

The dry fried grated coconut produces oil as well , so its best to sieve the oil from time to time, like how i did it to reduce the amount of oil in the rendang.

This dish is best served with white steamed rice, ketupat or even lemang.

Oreo Cheesecake

2009-06-29T09:57:00.012+08:00

I was browsing around and i saw this lovely cheesecake recipe and i thought to myself i should really give it a try for it has been a while that i wanna bake my very first cheesecake but didn't come across any recipe that i fancy until now..i couldn't help but be so drawn to the combination of oreo and cheese! If you love both of the main ingredients, you would definitely love this!

Ingredients

Base

* 160g digestive biscuits

* 160g oreo biscuits

* 1/4 cup melted butter

Method:

1) Crush both the digestive and oreo biscuits together.

2) Melt the butter and pour over the crushed biscuits and press it neatly onto the baking pan. Set aside.

3) Wrap the baking pan in a double layer of aluminium foil.

Note:

Springform or loose base pan is recommended for easy handling.

If you like , you can replace the digestive with pure oreo base.

Make sure you really compress the base when you pressed the crushed oreos/digestive into the baking pan to create a nice base after baking.

Filling

* 910g cream cheese, softened

* 11/3 cups sugar

* 1/2 tsp salt

* 2 tsp vanila

* 11/3 cup sour cream

* 4 eggs

* 11/2 cups crushed oreos

Method:

1) Beat the softened cream cheese..

2) With the mixture still running, add sugar, salt and vanilla and continue mixing.
3) Once its all nicely mixed, pour in the sour cream and mix it thoroughly.

4) Put in the eggs.

5) Pour in the crushed oreos and stir thoroughly and pour it into the pan.

6) Sprinkle some more crushed oreos on the top if desired.

7) Find a roasting pan that you can fit your baking pan in and fill up the roastin pan with boiling water halfway up the baking pan.

8) Bake in a preheated over at 165 degree C for 1hr and 30mins in a 9inch springform/loose base pan.

9) After baking, allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath.

10) Remove from the oven and let it cool before popping it into the fridge. Refrigerate for bout 4 hours, preferably overnight before serving.

Note:

Since i dont have a 9in springform , i used a 8in loose base baking pan.

I've also added 15mins to the baking time, my cheesecake turn out great but for the next round, i'm might just gonna bake the cake for 1hr 30mins in a 8in loose base pan.

The measurement for the cheese cream mixture above is enough to make two 8in size cheesecake, but of course you'll need to double the measurement for the base. The base was slighty thicker than the usual ones. If you like a thinner base then you can split the measurement of the base into to.

I've also reduced the crushed oreos in the filling to perhaps about 1/2 cup or slightly more

EDIT:

I've tried another batch of oreo cheesecake , this time around i added some coffee to the base and i baked for 1hr 35mins in a 8in loose base pan. The hint of coffee in the base perfected the combination

Adobo Chicken with Ginger

2009-06-29T00:26:00.005+08:00

I recently came across the word, Adobo and i thought to myself , what's this adobo? I did some reading and i was really pleased with what i found out! For those that understands Spanish , adobo means marinade or season. As for the Filipino, this word represents a type of cuisine and often refer to as a common and popular cooking process.

According to some of my friends who have tasted this dish , they claimed it to be really really good, so i thought why not give it a try and see if i like it as much as the 3 cups chicken i tried previously.

INGREDIENTS

* 1.3kg chicken (bite size)

* 1/2 cup light soy sauce

* 3/4 cup vinegar

* 1 bulb garlic

* 2 tbsp thinly sliced ginger

* 2 bay leaves

* 1/2 tbsp crushed black peppercorns

Method:

1) Marinate the chicken with some salt and pepper. Pan fry the chicken pieces, remove and place it on a kitchen towel.

2) Peel and pound the garlic slightly. Stir fry garlic and sliced ginger until fragrant.

3) Add in soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves and peppercorns and let it simmer before adding in the pan-fried chicken.

4) Let it simmer further on a low heat until the sauce has thicken and reduced to half.

5) Dish it out and its ready to be served.

Note:

The method written has been modified. The original cooking style is to dump everythin in the Dutch oven and let it stew under low fire. Since i dont have the required kitchen tool, i decided to do it my way

It tasted good for me , but for those that would want a less tartness, you can adjust the ratio of soy sauce and vinegar to suit your liking. You can add a lil sugar to it as well.

Meat Patties with Side Dishes

2009-06-19T19:37:00.009+08:00

Today i'm in the mood to see a lot of colours on my plate therefore i came up with this dish which i've no special name for it therefore i'm naming it as what the title suggest until i've further inspiration on naming it :). I've limited ingredients sitting around the fridge and i didn't feel like heading out to get new ingredients so i gotta depend on my creativity to whip up a one plate meal for myself.

Instead of making meatballs from the left-over minced meat i have in the fridge, i decided i should turn it into meat patties with some side dishes as my main course. As the main dish, i made meat patties, and as for the side dishes, i've got some cherry tomatoes, blanched brocolli, carrots and baked sweet potato wedges

INGREDIENTS

Meat Patties
*egg ( lightly beaten )
*breadcrumbs
*finely chopped garlic
*chopped onions
*coarse black pepper
*salt
*parsley
*grated parmesan cheese
*cayenne pepper powder
*minced meat (pork)

Method:
1) Put all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix well.
2) Use egg ring ( equipment to make egg banjo) to shape the mixture into patties.
3) Heat up a non stick with some olive oil and pan-fry it.

4) Let it sit on the kitchen towel to drain any excessive oil.

5) Ready to be served with the side dishes.

Note:
If the meat mixture is too wet, add in more breadcrumbs until you get the consistency you're looking for.

Refrigeration will help the patties to hold together during pan-frying.

The egg ring is to ensure patties are in equal size and thickness.

Vegan Bread Pudding

2009-06-18T14:04:00.005+08:00

Personally I don't think i ever tasted bread pudding, well perhaps i did when i was much younger at some buffet dinner but i really can't recall the taste or even the texture. Therefore when i made this vegan bread pudding, i brought some over to my dearest friend so that i can get some feedback , if this is the right texture or even taste.

From what my mom told me, the non vegan version has eggs, butter and milk as part of the ingredients and also some served it with some syrup , perhaps maple or some sweet syrup or even cream, which i'm not too sure of. I read that some baked it in a water bath, but my version is just like how you would normally bake anything.

INGREDIENTS
* 3 cups soy milk
* 3/4 cups brown sugar
* 1 tbsp vanilla extract
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1 cup golden raisins
* 4 cups day old bread (cubed)
* 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Method:
1) Mix all the ingredients in a bowl except the bread and stir well.
2) Arrange the cubed bread in the pan and pour the soy mixture on it.
3) Let the bread and soy milk mixture sit for bout 20-30mins, so that the bread will be even soaked.
4) Bake in a preheated oven of 180 degree C for bout 30mins.

Note:
Instead of mixing the raisins together in the soy milk mixture, i scattered it around the cubed bread before pouring the soy mixture over it. If you like raisins all over , u can even layer your bread and raisins alternatively, which i did. I also omitted the nuts for i don't have any at that time.

I baked it for 30mins like what the recipe suggested but it turn out too soggy and wet for me , therefore i further bake for bout 25-30mins. I let the pudding sit for almost 2-3 hours before i tasted it. The texture turns out great after a few hours of sitting and not when its freshly out from the oven. For those who likes a thicker pudding, add more layers. Mine was only 2 layers of thick cubed bread compressed into a pretty decent thickness after a few hours of sitting at room temp.

Non-Dairy Eggless Brownies

2009-06-10T19:03:00.009+08:00

For those who has been following my blog, I'm really sorry that i took so long to update. I've been pretty busy and due to that i've hardly had any spare time to experiment. But i'm definitely sure that this will be a good post for those chocolate lovers out there!

My dear friend, Denny, taught me a lot about food, especially those with special diets. With all that knowledge, i'm definitely putting it on good use and i'm slowly learning on how to cater for those who doesn't consume certain food/raw materials. My uncle for instance, he's lactose intolerant therefore there's quite a bit of food/desserts that he has to forgo, which is a pity cuz i totally know and understand how it feels to not be able to eat what your heart desires!

So for those lactose intolerant/egg-free lifetstyle people out there, this is definitely a treat you can whip up at home!

INGREDIENTS
* 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 cup water
* 1/2 vegan margarine
* 2/3 cup cocoa powder
* 2 cups brown sugar
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 1/1 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Method:
1) Combine 1/3 cup of flour with 1 cup water and cook on medium heat until thick. Set aside to cool.
2) In a new saucepan, melt the margarine and stir in the cocoa powder.
3) Sift together the remaining flour along with baking powder.
4) Beat sugar, salt & vanilla into the flour mixture. Then add the melt margarine/ cocoa mixture into the flour mixture.
5) Add the above mixture to the sifted flour, baking powder mixture.
6) Bake for about 25mins in a preheated oven of 18o degree C.

Note:

For those who wants a more chocolatey bite, prepare just enough chocolate ganache and pour over the brownies when it has cooled down and voila! your perfect piece of chocolatey dessert!

I've replaced the cocoa powder with chocolate powder for a more chocolatey touch to it. Chocolate powder is a little bit more expensive as compared to cocoa powder but its definitely my preferred ingredient in anything chocolate!

Granny Smith's Apple Pie

2009-04-07T22:11:00.005+08:00

I was suppose to bake some kinda fruit pie like weeks back but i kept remitting due to tight schedule until today when i couldn't absorb anymore of the stuff i was reading and decided that it was a perfect time to take a break and bake that apple pie !

Ingredients

PIE CRUST
* 2 cups flour
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tbsp sugar
* 6 tbsps butter
* 6 tbsps shortening
* 6-8 tbsps ice water

Method:
1) Mix the flour , salt and sugar in a bowl.
2) Add the butter, shortening and ice water into the dry ingredients.
3) Then cut in the butter and shortening until it sticks together and thats the sign its ready.
4) Divide the dough into 2 equal portions and wrap each with a cling wrap and keep it in the fridge for at least 30mins or until its needed.
Note:
According to some pastry chefs, its best not to over mix it, cut the butter into the flour until its no longer bigger than a pea size and then gather it all and form it into a ball shape and avoid as much contacts with the dough as possible and let it sit in the fridge.

APPLE PIE FILLING
* 5 tart peeled apples (I used Granny Smith)
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 tbsp flour
* 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
* 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:
1) Slice the apple and soak it in water with a tbsp of lemon juice.
2) In another bowl, mix the sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and apple cider vinegar and stir to mix.
3) Drain the sliced apple and toss it into the mixture and mix well.

Note:
Lemon juice will prevent the apples from turning brown. If you dont have any lemon juice, jst add a lil salt to the bowl of water.

I didnt have any apple cider at home , so i jst added white vinegar instead.

PUTTING THE PIE TOGETHER

Method:
1) Take the dough out from the fridge and roll both of it.
2) When rolling, start from the center out.
3) Once you're done rolling, wrap the dough around the rolling pin and bring it over to your pie pan and unroll it.
4) Shape it to fit the inside pan and once you're done doin that , use a fork and poke holes on the fitted dough.
5) Place all the sliced apples into the pie and add some small cubed butter if you fancy.
6) Roll out the remaining dough and repeat step 3 and place it on top. If the sides of the dough's overflowing, just slightly fold n tuck it in.
7) You can use the tip of a fork and create a pattern around the edge of the pie.
8) Use a knife and cut lines on the top so that there's an outlet for the steam to escape during baking or you can latticed it.
9) Bake at 205 degree C for bout 50-60mins

Note:
My pie came out just nice but the bottom crust was a lil wet, mayb i should try bakin the bottom pie first , for about 15mins or so then only add in the apples n the top crust

Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce

2009-03-27T22:18:00.005+08:00

I'm head over heels for pancakes especially when granny make them for me. I still remember how she'd add some fresh desiccated coconut in the batter and she'd make it real thin like a crepe.

Instead of reinventing her version of pancake, i made my very own version. I'm not exactly sure what should be in the batter so i just followed my gut feelings on this. Usually i'd jst get the pancake premix and jst add milk n eggs there you have it , ur pancake batter.

Ingredients

PANCAKES
* flour
* salt
* sugar
* eggs
* milk
* baking powder
* baking soda
* extra virgin olive oil

Method:
1) Whisk all the ingredients together and let it stand for 30mins - 1 hour
2) Give the non-stick a quick rub with olive oil or butter on a paper towel before you start flippin your pancakes
3) Pour the batter on the non-stick and when tiny holes formed on the surface its time to flip your pancake over
Note :
The usage of oil/butter after each pancake, the surface of your pancakes would turn crispy so to avoid tht only rub your pan with oil/butter once before you start making your pancakes.

Those that fancy a sweeter pancakes, add more sugar/soft brown sugar.

STRAWBERRY SAUCE
* fresh strawberries
* orange juice
* honey

Method:
1) Wash and cut out the stems and leaves of the strawberries and roughly chopped it or cubed it
2) Add freshly squeeze orange juice together with the freshly diced strawberries and bring it to a slow heat , constantly stirring
3) If the orange juice is already sweet, you can omit the honey, otherwise add honey/soft brown sugar until you reach the taste you favour.

Note:
You can add a lil corn flour into the sauce to thicken it. For a great homemade sauce, it would be good to get some really sweet and juicy strawberries. As for me , i made it with strawberries imported from Korea; its really sweet and fragrant.

Spiced Panko Prawns with Wasabi Mayo

2009-03-24T23:00:00.004+08:00

This particular dish is inspired by my dearest friend. I had this when i was having lunch with her and i love her version! It was really yummy! Today i was craving for some of it so i decided i should reinvent the dish with a twist.

My bro was the happiest when he saw this dish, he's a big fan of finger food or fried stuff. Even my granny enjoyed it as well.

Ingredients

PRAWNS
* salt
* pepper
* corn oil
* water
* Panko
* Crispy Fry flour
* cayenne pepper powder
* prawns ( deveined and shelled)

Method:
1) Season the prawns with salt and pepper.
2) Mix the Crispy Fry flour with water and corn oil and mix until it form a thick batter.
3) Add in cayenne pepper powder and salt to the batter.
4) Coat prawns with the batter and coat it with a layer of panko.
5) Pour enough oil for shallow frying and fry the prawns in batches.
6) Placed the cooked prawns on a paper towel to absorb excessive oil.

DIP
* wasabi paste
* mayonaise

Method:
1) Mix both together and there you have it , its ready to go with your prawns.

Note:
For those that love wasabi, you can add more wasabi until you reach the exact consistency you like for your dip. You can add some finely chopped onions as well to give the dip more texture.

Eggless Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

2009-03-20T23:16:00.006+08:00

Chocolate and strawberries are two of my very close friend's favourite and i thought this is the perfect timing to blend both ingredients together for i was invited over for lunch at her place and i thought a sweet dessert might be good. Since she doesnt consume eggs, its another good chance for me to try out another eggless cake with different ingredients used as compared to my previous Eggless Chocolate Muffins. I didnt wanna make the usual rectangular or round cake so i thought why not turn it into cupcakes! Easy to consume and cute looking at the same time!

At first i was skeptical on whether to frost the cupcakes or not then i thought why not give it a try and see if she likes it. We both not a big fan of frosting or whipped cream or anythin creamy for that matter so to have frosting on it its a 50-50 thing , where you either like it or hate it. For someone that doesnt like creamy stuff i actually like the taste of the frosting when i was done whipping it. Food definitely taste different when nothing but the best and fresh ingredients used.

Ingredients:

CUPCAKES
1 packet of eggless premix
400gm condensed milk
100ml full cream milk
200ml UHT milk
185gm melted butter
1 tsp chocolate paste/compound

Method:
1) Beat the sugar (came together with the eggless premix) with the condensed milk, full cream milk and UHT milk until sugar dissolved.
2) Add the melted butter and chocolate paste
3) Fold the premix
4) Scoop the batter into the lined muffin tray and bake in the preheated oven of 180 degrees C for 30mins or when the cake tester comes out clean.

Note:
If eggless premix is unavailable you can use the eggless cake/cupcakes recipe available in cookbooks or internet. If you're in a creative mood, feel free to experiment on the standard ingredients used for the eggless cake and add a touch of your creativity in it.

FROSTING

250gm butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp strawberry extract
3 tbsps fresh strawberry puree

Method:
1) Cream the butter until its light and fluffy before adding the sugar.
2) Once it has combined, add vanilla and strawberry extract.
3) Lastly, add the freshly crushed or pureed strawberry.

Note:
Crushed strawberries are good if you like to feel some texture in your frosting when you eat it. You can crush it with your fork.

But if you want a smooth and fluffy frosting then pureed strawberry is good. Put bout 4-5 strawberries in the food processor to produce about 3 tbsps of strawberry puree.

If your fresh strawberries are one the sour note, then sprinkle some soft brown sugar on it and set it aside until later use.

Mini Chocolate Stout Muffins

2009-03-18T21:52:00.005+08:00

Its been a while since i heard or read blogs bout fusing alcohol with food items and i'm really intrigued by it. I've bookmarked a few but never really got down to try it out until this rainy afternoon. I got this recipe over Epicurious. As usual, instead of the whole tray of cake, i made it into mini muffin cups so that its easy to serve and also i dont haveta cut the whole tray of cake my way! :)

The recipe i followed yield 12 servings and by looking at the measurement, it sure was alot for my family so i halved the ingredients used. Since i adopted this recipe, i'll not repeat the ingredients and the methods here.

This particular recipe comes with an icing recipe but i omitted it since i wasn't in much mood for too sweet stuff. No doubt i love to look at beautiful decorated muffins/cupcakes but when it comes to eating all those frosting, i'm really thinking twice. I tried once a big "rose frosting" and i gotta say it was (frosting) too much for me, perhaps i'm gettin real old over here and i'm loosin the craving for sweet, soft and fluffy stuff.

For those that loves chocolate and stout at the same time, this is definitely the recipe to go for. It was really moist and the flavour was superb! I actually find that the mini muffins actually tasted better the next day! I suppose all the flavour settled down!

Spicy Broad Noodles

2009-03-18T18:09:00.005+08:00

As usual i went to shop for grocery and i ended up at the noodles section. So i was just checking out the types of noodles available and this particular Non-fried broad noodles caught my attention. At first i thought of cookin some home made Wantan noodles with the broad noodles but without a good Char Siew in hand, it wouldn't be a complete plate of meal.

Since that was the case, i decided to stir fry it instead.

INGREDIENTS

* broad noodles
* minced garlic
* sliced onions
* prawns
* chilli paste
* shredded carrots
* chopped romaine lettuce
* pounded dried shrimps
* sesame oil & oil
* dark soy sauce
* sweet soy sauce
* oyster sauce
* salt and pepper to taste
* sugar

Method:
1) Cook the broad noodles until they are half cooked, remove and place it in a bowl of filtered water.
2) Marinate the prawns (deveined and shelled, leavin tail intact) with salt, pepper and onion powder. Heat a non-stick with a lil oil n sesame oil and fry the prawns until they turned pink and set aside.
3) Break eggs into a bowl and add a few dashes of fish sauce and pepper. Heat the non-stick pan and scramble the egg. Set aside.
4) Heat oil and sesame oil together and saute the minced garlic until fragrant and add in the pounded dried shrimps.
5) Next add in the chilli paste and stir fry further. Add onions and the shredded carrot.
6) Drain the noodles and add it in. Season with dark soy sauce, sweet soy sauce and oyster sauce.
7) Add in the prawns and eggs and stir fry further. Season with salt, sugar and pepper to taste.
8) Before serving, add in the chopped romaine lettuce and give it a last stir.

Note:
The chilli paste i used is a ready made chilli paste with tamarind juice and salt added into it. You can stir fry the chilli paste with a lil belachan stock granules /shrimp paste before hand and store it for later use in stir fry dishes or serve as a condiment with some freshly squeezed lime/calamansi juice.

You can cook the eggs and prawns together with the noodles. I chose to cook it separately to get a good results cuz i was stir fryin the noodles for 4 persons so its kinda a lot of noodles in a wok.

Eggless Chocolate Muffins

2009-03-11T21:56:00.003+08:00

Having friend(s) that doesn't consume eggs/on vegetarian/vegan diet or egg allergy somewhat make you more alert bout the ingredients you infused into your cooking, especially if you're preparing for them.

I once experimented on an eggless dark chocolate cake but it was rather dry and with a different set of ingredients, needless to say i was rather dissapointed but i read that its not easy to bake without eggs for eggs give more flavour and help with the cake texture. So since its already written that it wouldn't be an easy task, therefore i brace myself for another eggless adventure.

So this time around instead of the usual muffins, i decided to experiment on eggless muffins so that i can work on perfecting it in small batches. The ingredients listed belows are just nice for 9 muffins in my 12' muffin tray.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups of cake flour
3 tbsps cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsps corn oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 cup cold water

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 190 degrees C.
2) Line muffin cups in the muffin tray.
3) Sift the cake flour and cocoa powder together and add in sugar, baking soda and salt.
4) In another bowl, add corn oil, vanilla extract and cold water.
5) Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined.
6) Add the vinegar quickly and stir in - immediately pour into the lined muffin cups and put it in the oven and bake for 25-30.
7) Cool thoroughly and remove from the tray.

Note:
Instead of using all-purpose flour, i replaced it with cake flour and sprinkled some chocolate rice on top before placing it in the preheated oven.

I have no idea how a great delicious- tasting eggless muffins should taste like but i noticed there's a strong taste of baking soda. Perhaps i can experiment further and replace it with baking powder instead. i wonder if the effect would be the same. I've read somewhere that some even use coke in their eggless cake. That coke in cake sure sounds intriguing. I'm definitely tryin that out the next time around

Queen of Spices

2009-03-04T17:30:00.012+08:00

Today the spices ruled my kitchen. I had one of the most exciting kitchen experience today. Not only was it an opportunity for me to try out new ingredients but also new spices. Talking bout spices, how i wish i've got a spice rack! I remember i came across a blog whereby the owner of the blog mentioned somethin bout a spice rack she bought, that was love at first sight for me! Before i day dream bout that rack, i better get back on track :)

I whipped up 3 spice-rich dishes today. Nasi Briyani, Bombay Curry and Vegan Curry's the menu for lunch.

My version of Nasi Briyani is a rather simple one. Perhaps i was thinking of the accompaniment dishes that will be eaten with the rice and at the same time i was also preparing it for a friend. The measurement given below can serve up to 10; depending on if they are small or big eaters.

INGREDIENTS
* 1 kg Basmati rice
* 1 tbsp ghee
* 1 tbsp oil

* 1 star anise
* 3 cardamons
* 5 cloves
* 2 stalks lemon grass
* 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
* 5cm piece cinnamon stick

* 1300ml water
* 1/4 cup natural/plain yogurt
* 2 tsp salt

Method:
1) Wash and drain rice and put it into an electric rice cooker.
2) Put both oil and ghee in a non-stick and fry the spices until fragrant.
3) Add water, yogurt and salt and bring to boil.
4) Pour the mixture into the rice cooker.
5) Turn on the rice cooker and cook the rice automatically.

Note:
This version of briyani would be good if you're gonna add in some meat dishes into the electric rice cooker once the rice is cooked thoroughly.

When the rice is done, remove all spices leaving only the plain rice. Add in the cooked meat dish and mix well to combine. Let the rice stand in the pot for about 20mins or so before serving. By doin this, you'll get a different version of Nasi Briyani from what i've prepared.

For this dish, i'm not sure bout its authenticity of the ingredients used for i've no knowledge of the actual spices used for this Bombay Curry. I did some research and it seems like they've got a few version of this dish.

INGREDIENTS
* 1 kg beef/lamb
* 1 tbsp ghee/oil
* 2 chopped onions
* 2 crushed garlic
* 3 green chillies
* 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
* 1 tsp turmeric powder
* 1 tsp cumin powder
* 1 tbsp coriander powder
* 2 tsp chilli powder
* 1 tsp salt
* 400g plum tomatoes
* 1 cup coconut milk
Method:
1) Cut the beef or lamb into bite size
2) Heat ghee and add in the onions, stir until just soft.
3) Add garlic, chillies, ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander and chilli powder. Stir until just heated through.
4) Add the meat and cook over high heat until meat are well coated and browned all over.
5) Stir in the salt and undrained plum tomatoes. Crush the plum tomatoes with your laddle or fork and let it simmer for bout 1-11/2 hours or until meat is tender.
6) Add the coconut milk and let it simmer until the gravy has thickened slightly.

Note:
For those who love a spicier note of curry, you can add it another 1-2 tsp of chilli powder. Serve garnished with freshly chopped coriander if desired.

I cooked this Vegan Curry specially for a friend since she's on a vegan diet. And i gotta say even by cooking such a simple dish, i learnt a lot on what are the varieties of vegie you can have in a bowl of curry! For a non vegetarian like me, i really really like this dish. You can serve this curry with rice or bread if preferred.

INGREDIENTS
* 200g pumpkin
* 100g long beans
* 1 medium brinjal
* 100g cauliflower
* 150g cabbage
* 5 young sweet corns
* 100g carrot
* 2-3 tbsps oil

Spice A
* 2 sprigs curry leaves
* 3 cm piece cinnamon stick
* 1 star anise
* 5 cloves
* 2 cardamons
* 1 stalk lemon grass

Spice B ( Ground & Combine)
* 2 1/2 tbsps chilli paste
* 5 shallots
* 2cm piece galangal
* 1 1/2 tbsp curry powder
* 1/4 turmeric powder
* 2 candletnuts

Spice C
* 2 tbsps tamarind puree
* 800ml think coconut milk
* 2 tbsps thick coconut milk

Seasoning
* 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
* 1/2 tsp sugar or to taste

Method:
1) Heat oil and fry Spice A until fragrant.
2) Add grounded Spice B and continue to fry until oil rises to the top.
3) Add pumpkin wedges and carrot wedges, fry until well blended.
4) Put in tamarind puree and thin coconut milk and bring to a simmering boil
5) Add long beans, brinjals and cauliflower and simmer for a while.
6) Mix in the rest of the vegie and simmer until the vegie turn just tender.
7) Add seasoning and thick coconut milk and let it simmer .
8) Cover the wok for a while until the oil rises to the top.
9) Ready to serve

Note:
For those that wanted more ingredients in this vegan curry, you can add in some deep-fried tofu and fried gluten puffs.

The chilli paste i used its a 3 in 1 , where tamarind juice and salt has been added to the chilli paste.

Wickedly Peanut Butter

2009-03-03T22:25:00.012+08:00

Sinfully Peanut buttery! That's all that came into my mind when i had my first bite. Its like falling in love all over again with peanut butter! Being an avid peanut butter fan i can't help but evilly indulge in it.

Peanut Butter Muffins

Ingredients:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 tbsp baking powder
* 2 cups full cream evaporated milk
* 1/3 cup low fat milk
* 1/2 cup soft brown sugar
* 1/2 cup + 2 tbsps creamy peanut butter
* 1 tsp salt

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 204 degrees C.
2) Line the muffin tray with muffin cups.
3) Shift flour and baking powder in a bowl.
4) Place milk, eggs, sugar, peanut butter and salt in the blender and blend.
5) Pour the mixture over dry ingredients and fold until just combined.

Note:
I made some changes to the original recipe. The actual recipe only calls for 1 cup of milk but i substituted it with 2 cups of full cream evaporated milk and i added an extra 1/3 of low fat milk and 2 tbsps of peanut butter.

For those who love it to be on a sweeter note and more peanut buttery, feel free to add more creamy peanut butter and soft brown sugar. My version of peanut butter isnt too sweet, in fact i cut down on the sweetness so that the combination of the muffins and the frosting would be just nice and not too overly overwhelming.

Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients:

* 2 tbsps + 3/4 tsp milk or as needed
* 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
* 1/4 cup + 2tbsps butter
* 3/4 creamy peanut butter

Method:
1) Place butter and peanut butter in a bowl and beat it with an electric mixer.
2) Gradually mix in sugar and when it thickens, add in milk a teaspoon at a time until the sugar is mixed and the icing is thick and spreadable.
3) Beat until its fluffy.

Note:
Don't add too much milk for the frosting would be too soft to make a nice frosting on cakes/cookies.

So there you have it, the muffins and the frosting! So what are you waiting for? Get your piping set out and start experimenting with it. This is my first time playing with my new toy and i gotta say i was really excited frosting my own muffins.

Come to think bout it, it looks more like cupcakes now! My frosting skills isnt that great and it didn't turn out very pretty there but i'm jolly happy with the outcome as a first timer on my piping set!

Sambal Prawns

2009-02-27T18:56:00.008+08:00

Its been a while since i last had this dish. I was craving for something spicy and sourish ,so i decided to cook this particular dish. So off to the market i went . i bought some medium-sized fresh prawns along with other stuff from the wet market.

This dish is good to go with Nasi Lemak, especially when the gravy is thicker and spicier. Yummy.. just by describing it makes me wanna have some of that spicy prawns with Nasi Lemak!

INGREDIENTS
* garlic
* shallots
* sugar
* salt
* chili paste
* sliced onions
* tamarind juice
* pepper
* chicken broth
* shrimp paste (Belacan)
* prawns ( deveined and shelled, leavin tail intact)

Method:
1) Season the prawns with sugar, salt and pepper, leave it aside for an hour or so.
2) Heat oil in wok and stir fry till prawns turn pink, set aside for later use.
3) Pound/blend shallots and garlic and stir-fry it until fragrant.
4) Add in the chilli paste and stir further.
5) Add in some sugar and stir until it dissolved and add in the shrimp paste and let it simmer for a while before adding the tamarind juice.
6) Stir until it has perfectly combined before adding in the sliced onions to the wok/non-stick and stir until onions has soften.
7) Add chicken broth and let it simmer. Season with salt and sugar.
8) When the gravy is almost done, stir in the prawns and let it simmer for a short while before serving.

Roasted shrimp paste is recommended for this dish. The roasted version of shrimp paste is more flavorful than the non-roasted ones. You can also replace this with shrimp paste powder if the roasted piece of paste isn't available.

For those who love a more sourish note to this dish, feel free to adjust the amount of tamarind juice used. You can also omit the sliced onions if you're not a big onion fan. But the sliced onions in this dish sure give it the perfect kick. The whole combination's like a match- made in heaven!

Baked Spicy Tuna Stuffed Portobello

2009-02-22T19:08:00.005+08:00

I have 2 more huge portobello mushrooms left in my fridge and i didn't want those meaty mushrooms to be beggin me to cook them! i was in some kinda desperation state when i saw the two round looking yummylicious thing lookin back at me. So i thought, it sure sounds like the right time to transform them into somethin pretty lookin edible grub on my plate! i didnt wanna make the usual easy Sauteed Portobello with short pasta. I remember i came across a recipe on tuna and portobello so i thought why not give it a try.

INGREDIENTS
* tuna in brine
* sour cream
* olive oil
* thyme leaves
* salt
* lemon juice
* garlic powder
* cayenne pepper powder
* finely chopped tomatoes
* finely chopped onions
* coarse black pepper

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 200 degrees C
2) Season portobello with salt and pepper and bake it in the preheated oven for bout 10mins. Grease the bakeware with a lil bit of butter and drizzle some olive oil over the mushrooms.
3) Combine the tuna, onions, black pepper, cayenne pepper powder, garlic powder and a little bit of thicken light sour cream and a squeeze of lemon juice from a wedge.
4) Spread the tuna mixture over the portobello and topped it up with finely chopped tomatoes and some coarse black pepper and bake it for another 5-10 mins.

After i took it out from the oven, i added some freshly chopped thyme and cheese powder on it. I had it with some Romaine lettuce and some cherry tomatoes. I'm gonna minus the light sour cream i added to the tuna mix the next time i try this experimental creation again. The sour cream somewhat made it too creamy.

I'm not so much of a cream kinda person so it was a lil too much for the i'm-not-into-creamy-stuff taste buds, perhaps butter might be a better substitute . It was definitely peppery n spicy enough for my liking. Bro isnt a big tuna fan, so he had a miserable 1/4 of one of the portobello.

Thyme-y Sweet Potato Wedges

2009-02-22T18:32:00.004+08:00

Today i've this exceptional craving for some sweet potatoes. I remember i came across a lot of sweet potatoes bake recipes given /avail over the internet,so instead of tryin out any of the recipes i decided to experiment it with fresh thyme leaves. I'm currently in this phase of experimenting with fresh herbs so i thought why not make use of the packet of thyme leaves i bought previously. Wht i like bout thyme leaves is that it has it pungent minty with a hint of light-lemon aroma to it.

INGREDIENTS
* sweet potatoes
* thyme leaves
* salt
* brown sugar
* olive oil
* cayenne pepper powder
* coarse black pepper

Method:
1) Wash the sweet potatoes and cut it into wedges. I used a tablespoon to the scrap the skin instead of a peeler.
2) Combine the olive oil, cayenne pepper powder , salt, pepper, sugar and fresh thyme leaves together.
3) Pour the olive mixture to the potato wedges and coat it evenly.
4) Transfers the wedges to a bakeware and bake each side for bout 30mins in a preheated 200 degrees C oven or until tender and golden brown . The size of wedges will affect the cooking time need for the potatoes.
5) When its done, you can serve this as an appetiser or as a side dish.

I personally love the combination of spices on the potatoes! The thyme leaves give an excellent flavour and aroma to the wedges. I ate it plain like that for its already so good to eat it on its on. No dips needed.

Pineapple & Prawns Fried Rice

2009-02-19T23:20:00.002+08:00

Despite me being a pineapple lover, i'm pretty picky and will only devour those that are sweet and juicy. Too bad for me the pineapple i bought earlier isnt that juicy and sweet so instead of whipping up the same thing again (Prawns with Pineapple in Sweet Sour Sauce) i cooked it together with the left over rice from the night before.

INGREDIENTS
* rice
* finely chopped garlic
* sliced onions
* shredded carrots
* chopped coriander
* prawns (shelled & deveined)
* pinapples (cubes)
* light soy sauce
* egg
* salt
* pepper
* brown sugar

Method
1) Saute the garlic and onions
2) Add the shredded carrots and pineapples
3) Next, add the prawns. I seasoned the prawns with salt and pepper 30mins ahead.
4) Add the rice and season with light soy sauce.
5) Make a well in the middle and break the egg into in and add in pepper and light soy sauce and stir till its cooked and fold the rice over it
6) Salt and sugar to taste
7) Add the chopped coriander before you serve.

Leftover rice from the night before is ideal for fried rice. The freshly cooked rice will somewhat make the fried rice rather soggy. I'm not sure bout others but i know i dont fancy soggy fried rice. If there's no leftover then cook the rice for fried rice with a lil less water than the usual, that should do the tricks

Portobello & Bacon in Cheese and Herbs Sauce Fettuccine

2009-02-19T22:43:00.009+08:00

I believe that preparing food that people crave for or wanna try out something new or simply just wanna eat might just unleash some hidden creativity there. I was giving my bro a few suggestions and he wanted carbonara but too bad the usual place where i shop for my grocery do not have any cream and without that i dont think i can make the basic carbonara.

Since no carbonara for my bro, i opted somethin close to it.

INGREDIENTS
* fettuccine
* sliced bacon
* butter
* sliced onions
* finely chopped garlic
* coarse black pepper
* extra virgin olive oil
* water/chicken broth
* portobello mushrooms
*chopped parsley
* Prego - Cheese & Herbs

Method:
1) Boil fettuccine until al dente and drain
2) Fry the bacon with a lil butter until crispy and set aside
3) Saute the garlic and onions in olive oil
4) Add the sliced portobello musrhooms and chopped parsley
5) Add the can of prego sauce and in some water or chicken broth
6) Next add the bacon and the fettuccine and simmer until the sauce thickens
7) Dish out and garnish with parsley and black pepper and some cheese powder if you like

This dish was too creamy for me and my mom and granny dont fancy it much as well. As for my bro, he didnt say much but kept diggin his plate. He definitely added more cheese powder and coarse black pepper to his pasta.

Baked Dory with Garlicky Breadcrumbs

2009-02-13T00:17:00.004+08:00

Today i was feeling a lil particular bout wht to have for dinner. I didnt wanna have wht i had for lunch. Besides i was looking for an excuse to use my oven :). I remember i still have some dory fillets in the freezer and some potatoes and breadcrumbs so i thought why not put all this together and whip a meal outta it.

This is an easy, quick and simple recipe. I had the dory fillet as the main course with mashed potatoes, sauteed button mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and blanched broccoli as the side dishes.

I made 3 sets, one for myself, my mom n bro. Granny isnt much of a western food person. She likes soupy stuff and there's nothin soupy bout this dish.

INGREDIENTS
* dory fillet
* butter (melted)
* breadcrumbs
* salt
* coarse black pepper
* lemon wedge
* finely chopped garlic
* finely chopped parsley

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Brush an ovenproof dish or bake ware with olive oil or butter and line the fillet(s)
2) Season the fillet(s) with salt and coarse black pepper
3) Mix the breadcrumbs and finely chopped parsley together and spread it over the seasoned fillet(s)
4) Mix the butter and chopped garlic in a bowl and drizzle it over the breadcrumbs covered fillet(s)
5) Bake for bout 25-30mins.
6) Now its ready to be served with ur choice of side dishes!

As for the fillet, feel free to use any type of white fish you fancy. You can even opt for cod fish, but with that you can thicken the layer of breadcrumbs spread over it or you can prepare a creamy buttery sauce with some fresh thyme.

Portobello Mushrooms Fusilli

2009-02-11T18:48:00.004+08:00

Previously i used up 3 huge portobello mushrooms as a side dish and i've 5 more left. I didnt wanna keep those lovely mushrooms for too long so i combine both the meaty mushrooms and the tricolour fusilli i have in the cabinet. Since I was in the mood to pick out and separate the tricolour fusilli, i used the orange coloured ones instead of the green and the yellow ones.

Supposedly this orange coloured ones are made outta tomatoes, some source stated that its made outta beet juice. Not sure which is of a more accurate information but i love all colours, and somehow it all tasted the same.

For this simple dish, i made it vegetarian, perhaps not totally cuz i've got butter in it but the rest its al vegie.

INGREDIENTS:
* fusilli
* sliced onions ( one medium size)
* finely chopped garlic ( 3 medium cloves)
* olive oil ( i used extra virgin olive oil)
* butter
* coarsely ground black pepper
* salt
* chopped parsley
* roughly sliced portobello mushrooms

Method:
1) Boil the fusilli until al dente and drain
2) Heat olive oil and butter and saute the garlic and onions
3) Add in the sliced portobello
4) Season with salt and black pepper
5) Add in the fusilli, chopped parsley and toss
6) Serve while its hot

Feel free to add in some grated parmesan. As for me , i didnt feel like adding any cheese for the sauce from the portobello mushrooms is creamy and buttery enough for me.

Bread Muffin

2009-02-10T17:51:00.008+08:00

Its been a while now that my granny has been sayin and asking when am i gonna bake bread for her. I finally did , a few days back but it was a failure. The outer layer was all soft and crunchy at the same time but it wasnt thoroughly cooked when it comes to the inside part. I was thinkin and tryin to figure out where i went wrong. As i was tryin to figure it out, i was hopin i've got a bread machine at home so that i dont have to worry bout the dough n the kneadin part.

Then i was comfortin myself by telling myself that, come on girl..Back then those bakers still manage to make soft, fluffy , beautiful lookin bread without the bread machine! Its a matter of practice, not just practice but perfect practice makes perfect bread!

I knew it was all bout my kneadin technique that caused the failure. I was pretty disappointed but that disappointment made me more determined in giving the bread recipe another shot.

Today after lunch, i tried my hands on bread making again. This time instead of poppin the bread batter into the bread loaf pan, i used the 12's muffin pan instead, therefore the name Bread muffin!

This time the bread turns out soft and beautiful with a layer of butter on it!

INGREDIENTS:
* 500gm bread flour
* 320ml water
* 20gm butter
* 60gm sugar
* 2 tsps instant yeast
* 6 X 1/4 tsp salt
* 2 X 1/4 tsp bread softener
* 6 X 1/4 tsp bread improver

Method:
1) Mix the bread flour and salt
2) Make a well in the flour, add the yeast, butter & water
3) Draw the flour into the liquid & work the mixture into a dough, add a little more flour or liquid as necessary
4) The dough should leave the table and sides cleanly. Knead until smooth, about 15-20mins
5) Cover with a damp cloth and let it rise under the sun for bout 45mins - 1 hour.
6) Bring the batter in and punch it a few times and shape into design you fancy and let it rise for another 20-30mins
7) Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C
8) Bake for bout 15-20 mins. (Note : You can brush the surface of the bread with butter before poppin it in the oven)
9) Take it out and let it cool
10) You can brush the bread with a lil butter on the surface and serve

I was really glad to see that smiling face of my granny when she saw the Bread Muffin when i took it out from the oven. At least now she can have some home made bread with my recent home made jam ( Coconut Egg Jam) ; instead of white sugar, i used soft brown sugar.

Corned Beef Fusilli Casserole

2009-02-09T20:50:00.005+08:00

I've been doin a lot of food research, be it American dishes or cuisine of Argentina. I was very much intrigued by all the foods i came across. I've been meaning to try my hands on some casserole dish and finally today's the day. Since i've a new packet of rainbow fusilli in the kitchen cabinet so pasta casserole it is then.

I'm not so much of a cheese person but i couldnt help but prepare this dish for the family. I'd wanna know how it really tasted like though. From all the reading and the research of recipes i finally wanted to try out my version of casserole. Being part of my family means lab rat indirectly :P

I was feelin happy when i was preparing this dish. Perhaps its somethin new to me and i was like a lil girl, eagerly anticipatin for the final outcome of the dish.

I wanted to use some mince meat but too bad i couldnt get my hands on any, so i replaced it with corned beef. By preparing this dish im somewht breakin one of the household rules. My granny believes that those who practices Buddhism shouldnt be consuming beef. Me being the "black sheep" in the family, i decided that corned beef isnt as bad as the whole chunk of beef. Besides i dont really believe in what can we or can we not eat. Food is all the same to me.

INGREDIENTS:
* corned beef
* chopped onion
* finely chopped garlic
* butter
* Prego Sauce - (Tomato with Basil and Garlic)
* fresh chopped parsley
* shredded carrot
* chopped tomatoes
* freshly ground black pepper
* salt
* mozzarella cheese ( I used low-fat mozzarella cheese)
* cheddar cheese
* water/chicken broth
* rainbow fusilli
* virgin olive oil

Method:
1) Boil the pasta according to the packet instructions, 8-10 mins or until al dente and drain
2) Heat olive oil on a non-stick and add a bit of butter, saute the finely chopped garlic and onions
3) Add in the shredded carrot and corned beef
4) Add in some water/chicken broth and simmer it
5) Add in the can of Prego Sauce, chopped parsley and freshly ground black pepper
6) Let it simmer, add in some butter if you like
7) Lastly season with salt to taste
8) Pour the drained fusilli into the non-stick and coat it with the sauce
9) Grease your bakeware according to the instructions and transfer the pasta into in it
10) Top it up with any choices of cheese ( I used mozzarella & cheddar)
11) Bake bout 20mins in the preheated oven, and you're ready to serve

I served this with some crunchy Romaine lettuce and chopped tomatoes.

Khai Yat Sai - Omelette

2009-02-08T01:02:00.005+08:00

It is also spelled as Kai Yat Sai, its a square stuffed eggs; a type of Thai Omelette. This simple egg dish is one of my best friend's fav!

You can basically stuff your eggs with any type of filling you want. Be as creative as you want. You can even decorate your omelette with strips of tomato sauce if you like.

Ingredients:

Filling
* finely chopped onions
* finely chopped garlic
* chopped tomatoes
* prawns ( shelled and deveined)
* mince meat ( i used lean pork)
* finely chopped carrot ( i substituted with long beans)
* freshly ground black pepper
* sugar to taste
* tomato sauce
* dark soy sauce ( a drop or two)
* chopped coriander

Method :
1) Season the mince meat with sugar, black pepper and fish sauce
2) Season the prawns with pepper and fish sauce
3) Saute the garlic and onions
4) Add in the the minced meat , long beans and prawns
5) Next, add in the chopped fresh tomatoes and stir
6) Add water/chicken broth, let it simmer before adding tomato sauce and dark soy sauce
7) Lastly , add in the chopped coriander. Sugar to taste
8) Set aside

Omelette
* eggs
* fish sauce

Method:
1) Break the eggs in a bowl, add a few dashes of fish sauce and whisk it
2) Glaze the non-stick pan with butter or oil
3) Pour just enough of egg into the pan to form a thin sheet
4) Once the mixture has cooked, spoon the filling and place it in the center of the egg and fold the sides so that it looks like a square
5) Switch off the gas
6) Use an average size of plate to cover the squared omelette and turn your non-stick pan up side down.
7) There you have it, your Khai Yat Sai is ready to be served.

For those that dont quite fancy the distinctive taste of ketchup, you can add in a lil chilli sauce or some chopped bird eye's chilli or dried chilli to give it the "heat". Freshly ground black pepper would be just as good. I gotta admit i'm not so much of a ketchup fan but when it comes to this dish, i simply love it!

Dory Fillet and Soft Tofu Soup

2009-02-06T14:06:00.008+08:00

This mornin when i got up, i've got this craving for some clear soup. I didnt wanna make the usual potatoes, carrots and chicken soup. So i thought why not jst use the two tubes of soft tofu i have in the fridge and the remainin dory fillet i've got up in the fridge.

So for this easy clear soup, here are the ingredients you need.

INGREDIENTS:

* chicken broth
* soft tofu/beancurd (cut into cubes)
* spring onion ( cut into 2cms or so)
* shredded ginger
* few sprigs of coriander
* white fish fillet ( i used Dory since i've some left in the fridge)
* Chinese rice wine ( Shao Hsing Hua Tiau)
* ginger juice
* salt
* pepper

Dory
* cut into bite size or slightly bigger
* season with Chinese rice wine, ginger juice & salt for 5-10mins

Method:

1) Pour chicken broth into pot and bring it to simmer
2) Add ginger, fish fillet and beancurd
3) Bring it to boil over high heat
4) Reduce heat to medium and cook until flavourful
5) Just before turning off the heat, add some Chinese rice wine, pepper and salt to taste
6) Add in spring onions
7) Sprinkle with coriander and serve immediately

So in my own personal bowl, i added more pepper to it :) and my mom was teasin me bout how much i love pepper and when i'm running my own kitchen in the future it'd be all pepper and more pepper for the customers!

Prawns with Pineapples in Sweet Sour Sauce

2009-02-06T01:14:00.006+08:00

I'm a citrus person. I love anythin citrusy. I'm constantly thinking of how do i infuse citrusy fruits into my food. Today i decided i should add in some pineapples to my food. I know that i can use it anytime in my salad but today isnt so much of a salad day but more of a somethin under the water - prawns!

Ingredients:

Prawns
* shelled and deveined
* marinate with salt and pepper ( i used freshly ground black pepper)

Method:
1) Heat butter over low heat and saute prawns until it turns pink
2) Dish out and set aside

Sauce
* finely chopped onions
* finely chopped garlic
* sliced ginger
* tomato sauce
* chilli sauce
* water
* salt and sugar to taste
* cubed fresh pineapples
* sprigs of coriander for garnishing

Method:
1) Heat butter and saute the chopped garlic, ginger and onions.
2) Add in tomato and chilli sauce
3) Add in a little bit of water and let it simmer
4) Next, add in the pineapples
5) Let it simmer for a lil while more before adding the prawns
6) You can toss in some chopped coriander and spring onions, otherwise use it for garnishing.

It would be superb if you serve this dish while its hot with a plate/bowl of steamed white rice. This particular dish definitely got my bro goin for second serving of rice despite him wanting to cut down on food portion! Perhaps the next time around, i can add in some chopped bird eye's chilli to give this dish the spicy kick!

Penne con Polpettine

2009-02-05T12:51:00.008+08:00

Polpettine is Italian for tiny meatballs. As i was goin through my kitchen cabinet, i found bout 1/4 packet of penne left layin around. So i checked for the expiry date and i have till the end of the year, so i thought i might as well cook before i forget bout it. Its been a good few months since i last cooked pasta. And i thought, wht a perfect timing to do it now!

I dont have much ingredients at home so for this dish its more like do with wht i have in the kitchen cabinet and the fridge.

Ingredients:

Meatballs
* lean pork mince
* paprika
* breadcrumbs
* finely chopped onions
* finely chopped garlic
* salt
* black pepper
* egg,beaten
* all- purpose seasoned flour

Method:
1) Combine the first 8 ingredients together
2) Roll tablespoonsful of mixture into balls
3) Then roll the balls in the seasoned flour

Sauce
* chopped onions
* finely chopped garlic
* finely shredded carrot
* chopped fresh tomatoes
* butter
* salt
* sugar
* chicken stock
* black pepper
* tomato puree
* tomato paste

Method:
1) Saute the garlic and onions with butter
2) Next, add the shredded carrot followed by chopped tomatoes
3) Pour the chicken stock in and bring to boil
4) Add tomato puree and paste
5) Season with salt and sugar
6) Add in more butter if you like
7) Lastly add in black pepper.

As for the meatballs, you can either drop all the balls into the sauce and let it simmer or you can coat it only when you're bout to dig into your food. Also do add in some freshly grated Parmesan cheese on your pasta, if you have any at home. Parmesan will do good in the meatballs mixture as well. Since i dont have parmesan at home, i substituted it for paprika in the meatballs and freshly ground black pepper on my pasta.

Glass-Noodles Salad

2009-02-04T18:46:00.004+08:00

Glass noodles also known as Cellophane noodles, Chinese Vermicelli or Bean Thread Noodles are a type of transparent Asian noodles made from starch. This is one of my fav type of noodle and I'd pick it anytime as compared to other Asian/chinese noodles.

What i have over here is what you called Yam Woon Sen - the Thai Glass noodles with Prawns. Again whatever dish/recipes you see over here isnt the auntentic ones, rather the altered version of whatever my fav dishes are.

Ingredients:

Glass noodles
* soak in water for about 10 mins or until soft dependin on brands and blanch it

Prawns
* marinade with salt & pepper
* simmer in soft brown sugar+ water until the prawns turn pink
* dish out and keep the extra gravy aside to be used as part of the dressing

Mince meat (pork)
* marinade with salt, black pepper and fish sauce
* saute the mince with finely chopped onions until it loses its pink colour
* break the mince into small morsels.

Vegetables /Greens
* slices of tomatoes
* chopped cilantro
* chopped mint leaves
* slices of onions
* chopped bird eye's chilli
* finely shredded carrot

Dressing
* lime juice
* fish sauce
* brown sugar
Note: i mixed the 3 items together and transfer it into a sauce pan n double boil it until the sugar has dissolves and added the gravy from simmering the prawns.

Methods:
1) Put the blanched glass noodles in a large bowl
2) Put in the the list of greens
3) Toss in the cooked prawns and the minced meat
4) Pour over noodles and mix thoroughly

For those that prefer a spicier and tangy note to this dish, add in more bird eye's chilli and adjust the taste of the dressing to your liking.

Orange Chocolate Marble Cake

2009-02-03T13:49:00.005+08:00

I would say chocolate and orange is the perfect combination if anyone were to ask me. Before this, i experimented on a simple orange cake recipe and i find that the recipe i used lack the flavourful and zesty note i was looking for. So me being in the state of dissatisfaction, i started fine-tuning the original orange cake recipe to suit my tastebuds.

I scribbled down notes and jotted down the approximation of measurements i thought appropriate to create that kick i was looking for. I wanted to bake with the revised recipe but i thought why waste the time when i can embark on somethin new.

So instead of just a plain orange cake again, i decided to bake a marble cake with orange cake as the base of it with chocolate instead of the normal butter marbled cake.

I'm pretty proud of myself with my first attempt in tryin out this own recipe of mine. I've also increased the servings from 12 to bout 20 or more.

INGREDIENTS:

* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
* 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 cup sugar
* 3 eggs
* 1 tbsp vanilla essence
* A whole cup of plain yogurt ( Dutch Lady- 140g)
* 1/3 cup corn oil
* 3 tbsps Sunquick Orange
* 2/3 + 1/4 cup milk
* 100gm cooking chocolate (double boil)

METHODS:
1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C for bout 10mins. Grease the bakeware with butter or margerin.
2) In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3) Combine eggs, vanilla essence, yogurt, corn oil, Sunquick Orange and the milk in a separate bowl.
4) Pour the egg ingredients into the flour mixture and mix thorougly.
5) Double boil the chocolate and set it aside to cool. Add a tablespoon of Sunquick Orange into the melted chocolate.
6) Alternately spoon the orange and the chocolate batters into a greased bakeware.
7) Swirl through the two batters with a knife to create a marbled effect on the batter.
8) Bake at 180 degrees C for 50 minutes or until the cake tester comes out clean.
9) As soon as the cake is done remove from the oven, let the cake finish cooling on a rack before serving.
10) You can use the remainin melted chocolate as the topping or you can eat it just like that.

Braised Shiitake Mushrooms with Broccoli

2009-02-03T01:17:00.005+08:00

Both the broccoli and mushrooms are my favourite. And when i say mushrooms its all types of mushrooms ranging from the button mushrooms to golden lilies.

Speakin of golden lilies, its been a while since i have them! Oh oh..and boy! Portobello's really really good! I saw some nice lookin ones today and i thought i might as well get it when im gonna cook it. No point buyin it and then chuck it in the fridge and let it rot!

For the mushrooms, i jst braised it with some sesame oil, soft brown sugar, oyster sauce and light soy sauce. I think i took bout 3+ hours or so, with a low heat to get the mushrooms done. It turned out good; was definitely juicy enough for me but i would definitely love for it to be more tender.

Those that love the really really soft, tender and flavourful mushrooms, i would suggest the slow cooker. You can leave it over night in the cooker and have it for lunch the next day.

As for the broccoli, i just blanched it with a lil salt. I'd love the florets to be bigger than how the restaurants would serve it. I suppose the big portion floret gives a mouthful satisfaction.

Banana Chocolate Chips with Almond & Chocolate Rice Cake

2009-01-29T22:33:00.011+08:00

Today i decided to bake banana cake for my family; they love banana cake. Since i didnt have any ripe bananas at home today, i went out to do some grocery shoppin and also i bought myself a cute pretty lil plate. I was a lil worried bout how the cake would turn out for the previous Peanut Butter cupcake didnt turn out very well. It was edible but not like how i'd wanted the texture to feels like when i bite into it.

I didnt want to bake a plain banana cake so i decided to add a lil twist to it; chocolate chips with almond and chocolate rice as the toppings.

So i went about searchin for the banana cake recipe; found one but as i was mixing all the ingredients together, i kinda fine-tuned it a lil. Here's the revised recipe :

INGREDIENTS:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup corn oil
1/2 cup of plain yogurt ( i used the whole yogurt cup; 140g)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup mashed ripe bananas ( i used 5 small ripe bananas)
2/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk

TOPPING:
1/4 - 2/4 cup of sliced almonds
1/8 cup of chocolate chips

METHODS:

1) In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2) Combine the egg, oil, yogurt and vanilla in another bowl .
3) Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
4) Fold in bananas and chocolate chips.
5) Grease the non-stick bakeware.
6) Pour the batter and top it up with almond slices and chocolate rice.
7) Bake at 177 degrees C for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

And here's the end result of my Banana Chocolate Chips with Almond & Chocolate Rice cake and my newly bought cute lil pretty plate :)

Reunion Dinner Feast

2009-01-26T22:26:00.021+08:00

Usually for the Chinese, reunion dinner means steamboat but as for my family, steamboat isnt really our thing or rather we dont own a steamboat pot so havin a steamboat's rather impossible. Back then when my grandpa and grandma ( my dad's side) was still alive, we'd travel bout 100km+/- for reunion dinner and since they are no longer with us, we dont have steamboat anymore.

Since a few years back, i've been the in-house chef to prepare food for the family prior the reunion dinner. I would say this year's dinner was the most grand i've prepared.

A week before the dinner, i actually asked my family members for opinions, ideas, suggestions on what to prepare or what they would like to have for reunion.

Bro being his sarcastic self answered duck and crab. Its not impossible to prepare those but the bro actually requested Peking Duck and since i've no experience with using duck to prepare a meal, i googled for recipes and so on and i saw a youtube like clip that showed the whole process of preparing Peking Duck and it takes bout 8 hours before you can start feedin on it! Upon knowin that, bro decided it was too much hassle and requested that to check if we can get supply of crabs at our local seafood supplier. Dont know wht made him changed his mind, he decided that he didnt want anymore crabs.

At the end of the day, i'm still left with no suggestions. Then i thought i should do somethin really different this time. Somethin ive not done. Then I've no idea what came over me when i was plannin on the menu for the reunion, i came up with 6 dishes!

The 1st dish: Braised Sea-Cucumber & Mushrooms.

Ingredients:

Sea- cucumber
* young ginger
* spring onion
* Shao Hsing Hua Tiau
* cut into big slanting pieces

Note: stir fry all ingredients to prepare the sea-cucumber

Mushrooms
* medium-sized dried mushrooms,washed
* water
* oyster sauce
* light soy sauce
* sugar
* sesame oil

Note: simmer until mushrooms are soft and keep the remaining stock for later use

Ingredients for stir-frying & gravy :
* oil
* garlic
* young ginger
* Shao Hsing Hua Tiau
* oyster sauce
* light soy sauce
* thick soy sauce
* sugar
* salt
* chicken stock granules
* pepper
* sesame oil
* mushroom stock ( from simmering of the mushrooms)

The 2nd dish: Deep-Fried Crispy Seafood Tofu

Ingredients:

* japanese egg tofu
* soft beancurd
* salted egg yolks
* fish paste
* prawn paste
* spring onion
* chopped red chilli
* cornflour
* plain flour
* salt
* chicken stock granules
* pepper

Note: combine all ingredients and steam it in a tray until cook, remove, cut into strips or cubes then dust the steamed tofu with the combination of tapioca flour + rice flour and deep fry.

The 3rd dish: Sichuan Chili Prawns

Ingredients:

Marinade
* Shao Hsing Hua Tiau
* sesame oil
* finely minced garlic
* sugar

Note: marinade the prawns (deveined & shelled) for a few hours

Sauce
* sesame oil
* salt
* sugar
* chili sauce
* tomato sauce
* corn flourNote: stir-fry the prawns and add in the sauce

The 4th dish : Sweet Pork

Ingredients:

* pork ribs
* brown sugar
* red shallots
* fish sauce
* sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
* white pepper
* coriander leaves
* warm water

Note : dissolve brown sugar and water in a non-stick, add ribs and shallots, followed by fish sauce, sweet soy sauce, pepper and water and simmer it.

The 5th dish : Stuffed Calamari

Ingredients:

Dipping Sauce
* lime juice
* fish sauce
* brown sugar
* chopped red chili

Stuffing
* fish paste (used dory fillet)
* prawn paste
* finely chopped garlic
* fish sauce
* chopped coriander
* lime juice
* brown sugar

Note : prepare the stuffin and fill up the calamari about 3/4 full and secure with a toothpick. Rice flour to coat before pan-fryin.

The 6th dish : Steamed Seabass with Garlic & Lime

Ingredients:

* seabass
* chicken broth
* bird's eye chillies (finely sliced)
* lime juice
* fish sauce
* sugar

Note: You can prepare the gravy and the fish separately or you can steam everythin together.

Separately: Steam the fish with a few tablespoons on the chicken broth and simmer the remaining of chicken broth with the rest of the ingredients and when the fish is done, just pour the gravy over the fish.

Everythin together: Simmer the chicken broth and the rest of the ingredients together and when its done, pour it over the fish and steam the fish until its soft and tender.

So there you have it, my rather elaborated reunion dinner with the family. I gotta say i enjoyed every single bit the work involved in preparin it for my family! Wht's more satisfactory was that all the dishes was wiped out! The faces of my family members piggin out on the food was priceless.

Stir-fry Dory Fillet

2009-01-25T03:02:00.004+08:00

There were 4 big dory fillets in the fridge when i was treasure hunting wht to cook. I wasn't too keen on turnin those fillets into fish and chips so i thought why not experiment on it.

I didnt know exactly wht to prepare with it. So i was like just goin with my intuition. So i took a large piece of fillet out, cut it into bite size.

Next i seasoned it with, salt, pepper, fish sauce and paprika. Let it marinade for 30mins or so, dependin on how much time you have before you need to start cookin.

I glazed it non-stick with some marjerin and pan fried the bite -sized fillet. At first i wanted to dish out on the paper towl but then decided since its pretty wet n it somehow turned into a gravy like thing with the marjerin, so i left it in there n add some sliced red onions and continue stir-fryin.

Since it was definitely too dry, i started to add in plum sauce, tomato sauce, chilli sauce, sugar & salt to taste and before dishin it out i drizzled it with rice wine.

I can taste the paprika when i bite into it, and the fillet was soft and tender but lack the sweetness from the flesh of the fish, i wonder why. With a question in mind, this geek cook will wiki or google to find out the answer!

Meat Balls with Dip

2009-01-23T22:43:00.006+08:00

I've left over mince which i bought earlier and i didnt want it to be sittin in my fridge for an extra day. I'd wanted to turn it into a meat patty but too bad i dont have any burger buns at home to go with so i decided to make meat balls with it.

You can use any type of mince but bear in mind that different type of poultry will require different seasoning ingredients to make it tastier. I had minced lean pork seasoned with black pepper, light soy sauce, fish sauce, cayenne powder, cornflour and salt. Marinate it for a few hours.

Shape the bowl of mince into balls and coat it with cornflour then dip it in the egg batter and finally breadcrumbs. You can shape the mince into balls batch by batch. When you've put the first batch for fryin, you can prepare the second batch n so forth till you finish the bowl of mince.

As for the dip, pound the garlic and shallots together and stir-fry it with butter and after that add in water, chili sauce, tomato puree, hot chili sauce and plum sauce. Sugar and salt to taste. Keep stirring the dip over a lower fire until it thickens. When its ready dish out.

Coconut Cake with Hidden Treasure

2009-01-23T15:50:00.007+08:00

Previously i did an entry on Coconut Muffins and i wasn't too pleased with how the muffins turned out, especially the texture; wasnt as moist and fluffy as i wanted it. Due to that i was even more determined to try that recipe out again but this time around i added a twist in it. I've included chocolate chips in the batter.

Instead of using the muffin cups i opted the rectangular non-stick bakeware i bought previously.

As for the batter, i used the same Coconut Muffins recipe but with a slight change. I've added more milk this time, bout 1/4 cup more and a lil bit more of the desiccated coconut in the batter.

Before pourin the batter into the bakeware, brush it with melted butter or marjerin, in my case, i used marjerin. I baked it for bout 25mins.

I was pleasantly surprised and pleased by how the texture of the cake turned out! I thought 3rd's a charm but i suppose its not applicable in my case. I definitely cant wait to bake again!

Baking taught me so much more than just following the precision of ingredients used in the recipe. Patience is definitely a virtue in bakin and determination is another plus point in striving to achieve perfection.

Coconutty Muffins

2009-01-21T23:34:00.012+08:00

Baking with coconut was inspired by a friend. She being the coconut lover somehow kinda turned me into wanting to try experiment with the various aspect of coconut.

This is officially my 3rd time baking muffins and i gotta say im so totally into this baking thing right now. I even got myself a set of piping tools for the cake decorations!

I'm definitely glad that i'm venturin into a new territory right now where there's so much for me to learn and i've got the time to spare as well.

I've replaced some of the ingredients stated in the original recipe, so here's the revised recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2/3 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup corn oil
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/2 cup dessicated coconut

TOPPING:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh grated coconut
1/8 dessicated coconut
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

METHODS:

1) Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
2) Combine egg, milk,oil and cream in another bowl; mix well.
3) Stir egg mixture into dry ingredients just until combined.
4) Stir in coconut once batter is well combined
5) Grease or line paper muffins cups in the muffin pan and fill it two-thirds full.
6) Combine the topping ingredients; sprinkle over batter. Top it up with more desiccated coconut if you want to beautify it.
7) Bake at 204 degrees C for 20minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

I was happy how the topping turns out to be; crispy, just nice sweetness with a hint of cinnamon! Unfortunately i cant say much bout the muffin, it wasnt as moist and light as i would wanted it to be. I did some research and i found out the culprit so what i'm gonna do during my next baking session would definitely bear in mind the tips given on muffin makin and try to follow as closely as possible.

Scrambled Tofu

2009-01-21T00:02:00.004+08:00

Earlier on i was at a friend's place and i was jst browsin through for some recipes and i saw Scrambled Tofu, the site i was in was a Vegetarian and Vegan site and therefore the name Scrambled Tofu instead of Scrambled Egg.

I didnt click on it but i was curious on how would tofu taste like in a scrambled form. And my opportunity came when ive some tofu in the fridge and mom was outta ideas on wht she wanna cook.

So i took the liberty to experiment with the ideas i have in mind. First, cut the Japanese egg tofu into 2cms of thickness and boil it. If you don’t like the smell of eggs in the tofu you can replaced it with the soy tofu for this recipe. Remove and let it cool in a bowl and roughly break it with a fork to look like scrambled egg.

To make the sauce, i prepared some minced garlic, sliced red onions, chopped red bell pepper, cubed carrots, turmeric powder, cayenne powder, chicken stock granules, chopped coriander leaves, salt and sugar.

Stir-fry the minced garlic and sliced red onions and when its golden brown, add in the cubed carrots then the red bell pepper. Add in some water and let it simmer then put in the scrambled tofu and season with turmeric and cayenne to your liking and lastly add in chicken stock granules, sugar n salt to taste.

Before you dish out, add in the chopped coriander leaves and give it a quick stir and serve while its hot. Since I was preparing it for the whole family, it wasn’t as spicy as I would want it to be. It will definitely taste better if there were more cayenne pepper powder in it.

Blueberry Muffins

2009-01-20T00:20:00.006+08:00

This is my second attempt in bakin muffins and boy am i glad i got it right this time! Though there are still a lot of space for improvement but im so glad i got the basic done, at least the muffins rose unlike the previous one where it sunk in the middle, causin the whole muffin too sweet to consume.

I think i figure out why my first attempt in bakin failed miserably. i was too experimentive (not sure if there's such word), i substituted corn oil with olive oil! look at how crazy i can get. you cant blame me though, i dont have any corn oil at home and i dont wanna be using the cookin oil - palm oil. Perhaps there were more factors that contributed to the failure than the substitution of oil!

I learnt my lesson and in today's baking session, i used corn oil instead of olive. Previously i used a muffin mix, as the same as today's blueberry muffin. I thought i should start of with a muffin mix first then only i start from scratch once im familiar with baking. I cant wait till i bake next. Its gonna be from the scratch the upcoming ones.

Today i baked a dozen of muffins and i suppose i can bake more with a muffin pan with the same amount of batter. Talkin bout muffin pan, i was tryin to talk my mom into allowin me to get a few muffin pans and besides with that i can save on the muffin bakin cases.

So with this muffin mix, all i added was corn oil, milk, eggs and blueberry paste. And it took me bout 45 minutes at bout 175 C. There was no written instructions on the temperature and the duration of baking so i was constantly checkin the muffins with the cake tester i bought earlier.

For display and food photography wise, i should at least frost the cake but i'm not a big fan of frosting and besides i think frostin would be good on cupcakes and not muffins. Muffins are less sweet than cupcakes otherwise its similar

Peanut Butter French Toast

2009-01-19T10:10:00.009+08:00

Peanut butter has been my favourite since god knows when! This mornin when i got up, i had the craving for peanut butter; i love both the creamy and the crunchy ones. So i decided to make peanut butter french toast when i got home from running some errands.

Despite havin a lil sore throat, i still insist on havin both peanut butter and black pepper at a go. I guess the temptations are too great to ignore. Besides who can ignore peanut butter & black pepper? Of course i'm referin to those avid fans of these two items.

For the egg batter, i've had a good amount of black pepper in it. Usually i opt for coarse black pepper due to the texture and also the taste of it when you bite into it!

For those that want a lil saltyness to the combination u can either add a few drops of fish sauce or light soy sauce. Normally ppl would add a dash or two of light soy sauce instead of fish sauce.

Fish sauce gives the egg a different taste and for those that wondered how come the eggs strips you had in a Thai restaurant taste differently or they have a certain distinctive taste to it ( a lil salty & aromatic hint), fish sauce's the secret.

Once you've got the egg batter ready, spread the peanut butter on a slice of bread or both slices if you want a thicker texture or if you want more melted peanut butter oozing out when you bite onto it. You can cut it in any way you desire but for me i cut it diagonally on both sides and ended up with 4 cute triangles.

Heat up the non-stick pan and glaze it with marjerin or butter then coat the triangles lighty with the egg batter. Do not let it soaked for too long for it will turn the bread soggy. You wouldnt wanna bite into a soggy bread would you? Then pan-fry the triangles on both sides and dish out onto a paper towel to absorb the excess marjerin.

Roti Jala - Lacy Pancakes

2009-01-16T01:25:00.014+08:00

Lacy Pancake's one of my favourite when i was a lil girl till now! When i was lil i always wonder how do they make the pancakes look like that. Finally i had the opportunity to witness how a roti jala seller make a fresh batch of roti jala for the customers. I was amused by how that lil roti jala mold would be able to create such masterpiece.

I never thought that one day i'll be makin my own lacy pancakes. Here's the list of ingredients you need to make this yummy lacy pancake.

Lacy Pancake:

2 cups superfine flour
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt2 1/2 cups of coconut milk
pinch of tumeric powder

This dish is usually taken with curry; chicken, fish, beef or even mutton. For lunch, i prepared two types of curry - chicken curry with potatoes and vegetarian curry, the Aloo Gobi style.

For those who has been followin this blog, i'm sure by know you know my style of cookin, yes, thats right, i dont give out the precise unit of measurement of the ingredients i used cuz i have no idea the exact measurement of the ingredients i have on my dish. Whenever i prepare somethin its all bout intuition on how much to put and everythin is to taste.

Chicken Curry

* Whole bird of chicken cut into bite size
* Marinate with salt and pepper for 4 hours or so
* Fry it

Seasoning:

* Water or chicken broth
* Candlenuts (ground)
* Star anise
* Sliced onions
* Tamarind Juice
* Chicken stock granules
* Ground garlic + shallots
* Thin & thick coconut milk
* Salt and sugar to taste
* Cinnamon Stick ( since i dont have it, i used cinnamon
powder instead)
* Curry leaves ( only leaves used)
* Curry meat powder ( mix with water & make
it into a paste)

First, fry the chicken and set it aside. Next, to make the gravy, stir fry the grinded garlic+ shallots, curry leaves, star anise, cinnamon stick, sliced onions. Add in the curry paste and stir fry till fragrant before adding the tamarind juice. I added some sugar before adding in the tamarind juice. Add in the thin coconut milk when the oil breaks and keep stirring and lastly before you dish out, add the pounded candlenuts and thick coconut milk and let it simmer. If the gravy is too thick to your liking, add water. Add sugar and salt to taste.

Vegetarian - Aloo Gobi

* onions
* potatoes (cut into cubes)
* cauliflower ( cut into florets)
* curry leaves
* green chillies (cut diagonally)
* tomatoes ( cut into cubes)
* curry powder
* tomato sauce
* brown sugar
* water

Overall i was happy how the lacy pancakes tasted but i definitely need more practice with the mold! Which means i'll be preparin roti jala for the family again and this time i'm determined to make the strands more fine and also a richer and creamier kind of curry to go with it.

Drunken Coriander Prawns

2009-01-13T18:05:00.008+08:00

You must be wonderin why the name drunken coriander prawns? The word drunken is derived from one of the ingredients used in this dish and along with that i've inserted my favourite - coriander leaves! A lor of people dont fancy the taste nonetheless the smell of it. Both my bro and mom isnt a big fan of this herb. But me and my dad, we're both into zesty herbs.

I would say this is one of the easiest dish to cook. It doesnt require much ingredients and the cookin time is short as well. This dish is best to be cooked with the shell intact to give more flavour to the gravy. Since the prawns i have in the fridge are already shelled i've not much choice but to use it.

For those who have the prawns in shells, do remember to trim the feelers of the prawns neatly with the kitchen scissors.

Ingredients you need would be : - medium-large prawns in shells , oil, sesame oil, minced garlic, finely shredded ginger. As for the sauce, you'll need chinese rice wine, salt and sugar chopped coriander leaves.

Heat wok with both types of oil, stir fry minced garlic and shredded ginger until fragrant. Stir in the prawns and fry a short while , add in rice wine and bring to boil. Next, blend in sugar and salt to taste and add the chopped coriander and let it simmer for a while and dish out onto a bowl or platter. If you've slightly marinated ur prawns with salt then you can ommit adding salt into the sauce.

My granny loves to have a lil more gravy with her rice so my version of the drunken prawns has a lil more gravy to it. If the taste of the gravy is too thick for you, do add in hot water to diluted the taste a lil.

Easy Egg Tarts

2009-01-12T20:00:00.008+08:00

Egg tart's one of my fav desserts in the morning when i have dim sum. Come to think bout it, its not only during dim sum sessions but also when i visit the bakery! My personal favourite would be the Portugese Egg Tarts. I'll definitely look for the recipe to try it out.

Since this is my first attempt in bakin egg tarts, i'm gonna start of with the easy egg tarts recipe i came across earlier.

What you need for these egg tarts are:

Filling
* 2 eggs
* 200ml milk
*1/4 cup castor sugar
*1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Dough
* 80gm butter
* 21/2 cups flour
* 2/3 cup water

You'll need to preheat oven to 160 degrees C and beat all the ingredients listed in the filling. Next combine butter , flour and water to make the dough.

If you've muffin pans then butter it with a brush. Roll out the dough to approximately 3mm thin. Next, you'll need to cut rounds of dough with an upside-down cup to fit halfway up the muffin holes. As for me , since i dont have any muffin pans at home, i resorted to round aluminium foils for my dough to sit in.

Pour the egg mixture through a strainer into each dough- lined up foil/muffin,leavin bout 5mm of rim. Bake for 15 minutes. Turn up heat to 175 degrees for the lower part of the oven. Bake for another 6 minutes. Since i was using my good old-fashion oven, i baked it for bout 20mins.

The egg tarts turn out pretty but the crust was rather hard, perhaps its due to my own oven or mayb its the way i was doin the dough. I wasnt very happy with how the crusted tasted like but i suppose its aint that bad for a first attempt.

Anyhow, i'm planning to try out some other recipes for the dough. Perhaps i'll try to search for Betty Crocker Pie Crust Mix for the crust the next time around.

Kaya - Coconut Egg Jam

2009-01-11T18:30:00.010+08:00

Today i was in the mood to get my hands dirty so i was just browsing around to see what's nice to make or cook. So i decided since i dont have all the ingredients i need for egg tarts, why dont i make Kaya instead. My family sure loves kaya, especially my granny.

To make kaya, its really really easy. You'll only need 4 ingredients ;
1) sugar
2) eggs
3) thick coconut milk
4) screwpine leaves aka pandan leaves.

What i did was, in a large bowl, i broke 7 eggs and pour in bout 300gm of sugar and mix it with a mixture at a low speed instead of hand whisking it.

When i was done with the eggs mixture, i cleaned the screwpine leaves and cut it to about 8 pieces in the lenght of 3cms each. Instead of knotting the leaves i chose to cut it for its easier to handle.

Next, i poured the eggs mixture and the screwpine leaves into a non-stick pan and stir it occasionally under a low heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove the non-stick pan from heat and pour in bout 250ml of thick coconut milk bit by bit while stirring it. Put back the eggs and coconut milk mixture on low heat and keep stirring for another 5mins then remove from the heat and strain the mixture into a double-boiler pot.

Since i dont have a double-boiler pot, i strained the mixture into a pot and place it in a pan of boiling water. Keep stirring the mixture until it thickens.

Once the mixture is to the thickness you desire, remove from heat and let it cool off before storing it in jam bottle.

For those who loves a darker shade of kaya, you can replace white sugar with brown sugar and caramelized it. If you want your kaya to be in greenish in colour, then add some pandan leaves juice/paste/essence.

The screwpine leaves i had in the egg/sugar mixture was to give the kaya a hint of the aromatic leaves.

Steamed Char Siew Pau

2009-01-10T20:30:00.006+08:00

Pau's one of my granny's favourite besides Loh Mai Kai. Since granny has been hinting for quite a while now that she wants some home made pau, i finally made some pau for her today.

This is my first time tryin my hands one pau making. I was lucky to have bought the char siew today at the market. Its all bout timing. If i were late for another 5mins, my char siew would have been other's char siew for the day. I wasnt sure of how much i should buy, so i told the butcher i want 1kg of it. Since he has a lil less than a kg on his tray, i told him i'll take the amount that he has.

I used only char siew as the filling. For those who are into making everythin from scratch, you can even roast your own char siew to be used as the pau's filling. You can add some green peas and chives or scallions to the filling.

You'll need seasoning such as water, sesame oil, oyster sauce, sugar, dark soy sauce, cornflour, peanut butter,pepper and chinese cooking wine for the filling.

First you'll need to mix all the seasoning together on a non-stick pan and stir on a low heat until the sauce thickens before adding the finely chopped char siew and for those who wants the green peas and chives/scallions, you can also add it in when you add it in chopped char siew.

As for the dough, i bought the pau flour from Blue Key (500gm,shifted) and added some other ingredients such as instant yeast (1/2 tsp), castor sugar (100gm), water (240ml), shortening (3tbsp) and single- action baking powder (2tbsp) since i dont have double- action baking powder at home.

First, you'll need to knead the flour mixture into a smooth and elastic dough. Once u're done, cover it with a we cloth until the dough double its bulk.

After that, shift baking powder on the dough and knead well. Cover the dough and allow to rest for 15mins or so. Divide the dough into small balls, approximately 18, depending on the size of the portion. Fill up each small dough with about a tablespoon of filling and fold it.

Before putting it on a steamer, make sure that the water is boiling. Once the water is boiling, put the rack of pau on it and steam for approximately 10-15mins.

Though the result isnt exactly what i was hoping for but i'm glad it didnt turn out to be a disaster! After steaming the pau, there's brown dots all over the pau. Not sure why not. Mom said it might be the yeast , but since i used the instant yeast , there's no need to mix it with water. Perhaps i can mix it and dissolve it in the water first before addin it to the flour mixture. The brown dots made my pau looks like its wholemeal pau! I'll definitely give it a few more try until i achieve like the ones available at the dim sum place, so white and fluffy!

Edited :

I found out why there were brownish spots on the pau skin. Its due to the lack of the very well kneading of dough after adding the baking powder! Lesson learnt, next time around, a well kneadin is needed for the brownish spots to disappear!

Tangy Mango Slaw

2009-01-09T15:28:00.006+08:00

Like i mentioned yesterday, i'll get my hands on the pie tee mold and make some decent looking shells but i wasnt in the mood to test out my patience , so i embarked in this new recipe.

This is actually the recipe meant to be my new filling (the modern vegetarian filling i mentioned) for the pie tee.

Instead of eatin it together with the pie tee shells, i decided i should jst eat it like a salad. Besides havin it as a salad, u can use it for a side dish to a pasta, chicken or even seafood dish.

Mango slaw is one really easy recipe. All you need is one shredded firm ripe mango, shredded cucumber, shredded carrot, slices of red onions, shredded or thinly sliced red bell pepper (capsicum) and some chopped coriander leaves.

For the dressing, its a simple vinaigrette. Usually vinaigrette's a mixture of vinegar and oil with some flavoured herbs, spices and other ingredients.

Instead of vinegar, i used lemon juice with some honey, a dash or two of black pepper and a pinch of salt.

For those who loves honey, you can put more of it to tone down the tartness of lemon juice.

To get a more flavourful salad, leave it a lil longer after mixing it in the salad bowl. The shredded vegies will absorb all the tangy-ness and you'll have a less raw taste to the green vegie. This is most suitable for those who do not fancy capsicum or fresh onions.

For those who wants more stuff in it , you can put it some shredded cabbage/purple cabbage, pineapples, mandarin oranges, you name it.

The more colourful ur platter is the better!

Top Hats - Pie Tee

2009-01-09T00:01:00.008+08:00

Today i got the Pie Tee mold i ordered and to be honest i was eager to try it out and see if i can get the pie tee cases/shells like how some restaurants served it.

I thought it would be easy but i was so dead wrong! There are rules to follow though. For instance, ur mold cannot be to hot and it should not sizzle when its dipped in the batter. It might sound really easy but i had a tough time doin it and i wasted quite a bit of batter experimentin on how to do it and get it right.

At last i manage to get one miserable shell after a long try. Of course the test didnt just stop there, i couldnt get a proper one after that! The mold was too hot and when i dipped it in the batter, it sizzled! So again, i wasted more of the batter.

But at last i managed to get a few decent lookin shells but the bottom part of the shell isnt exactly flat. I'm still wonderin on how do they get it to look that flat.

Despite so many failed attempts, I'll be tryin to make those shells again tomorrow. I'm feelin rather dissatisfied today but hopefully tomorrow's attempt will be a successful one.

As for the pie tee fillings, i used shredded jicama (yam bean), shredded carrot, finely chopped french beans, finely chopped garlic, fresh prawns (chopped into smaller pieces), salt, sugar, oyster sauce and some chicken stock granules.

You can actually put anythin as the fillings. For those who loves mushroom, you can add it in but do slice it finely for it will fit into the shells. I've tasted some with deep-fried beancurd in it as well. So basically you can get creative with the fillings.

Talking bout fillings, since i'm gonna try making the shells again tomorrow, i'll have a slight idea for the fillings - it will be a vegetarian filling and a modern one too!

Besides the fillings, you'll need the toppings too. Again its all bout creativity. You can have anythin as the toppings. You can even prepare a few toppings and voila a range of combinations will be formed!

As for me, since i couldnt get the scallions today and i dont quite fancy fried shallots with it, so i only had shredded omelette and a dash or two of Sri Racha hot chili sauce.

For those who loves a lil raw green, u can add shredded cucumber on it too and perhaps a lil finely chopped onions as well.

Here are some miserable shells that i managed to make. So stay tune for a better lookin shells. Am gonna make sure this time i get it right.

Told a friend i did this and he told me its a very hard process. Oh well, be it hard or easy, am gonna fine tune it to perfection.

Old Fashion Oven Chicken

2009-01-07T15:28:00.008+08:00

You must be wondering what's this old fashion oven huh? Well, its actually my mom's or perhaps my granny's. My family members dont bake or have the interest in any oven-related stuff so there's not a need to have an oven at home.

Being somewhat curious on whether that old-fashion oven i have at home,stored somewhere in the house might be of use, i took it out and tested it by hittin the switch and wait too see if it warms up. To my surprise it warmed up and im more than glad to start making full use of it.

Previously i bought a dozen of drumsticks and i've had half of it turned into Lemony Chicken so i thought i might as well marinate the rest overnight and cook it today. Well i'm totally clueless on wht i should be cookin with that old-fashioned oven. Why? It has no temperature control knobs on it and i have no idea how high is the celcius scale when u hit the switch and leave it on.

So wht i did was i heated the oven for bout 10mins or so and then i lined the rack of the oven with the marinated chicken drumsticks.

Since i marinated the drumsticks im sure there will be sauce dripping from it so i placed a round flat metal place below for the drippings to be collected.

After about 15mins or so, i went to check on the drumsticks and it looks good to me, not exactly the roasted kinda look i was hoping for but it was good enough, at least the drumsticks are on its way to perfection. So i brushed a lil of the left over sauce from the marination of each of the drumsticks and closed the oven.

The next time when i went to check on it, i brushed more of the sauce on it and 10mins after that, i turned the drumsticks around and left it for another 10mins or so then went back to brushed the remainin sauce on it.

After 10 mins, i went back to check on it and this time it looks like its done. So i dish it up and brushed it with the remainin sauce on the flat metal plate i had below the rack.

As for the marination, i had quite a bit of seasoning in it. I've had sesame oil, maggie seasoning, sweet sauce soy, light soy sauce, oyster sauce and pepper in it. These combination might be a lil salty so be careful with the measurement used.

Before i marinated the drumsticks, i used a fork to make holes on the drumsticks so that when you marinate it , it will get a fuller flavour. Its best to keep it marinated over night.

China Arrowheads

2009-01-06T18:57:00.006+08:00

Arrowheads (Ngaku) also known as Chinese potato or swamp potato since it grows in the water is a seasonal vegetable as it is only available during the CNY celebration.

Its been weeks since i've seen people flockin around the arrowheads' baskets in the market or the hypermarket. I suppose the sight of those people standin around and pickin the best ngaku from the basket got the better of me and soon i was one of them! When i was there, perhaps i was early, i was the only one standin there and takin my own sweet time pickin the best available ngaku of the bunch.

Before this, I've tasted ngaku but i've no idea how it looks like until i did some research on it. i've tried ngaku crisps, the crisps are addictive, crunchy and tasty; once you start munching on it , its hard to stop!

I've not personally made the crisps before, so i thought why not get some back home and see wht else i can do with it besides fryin it.

I bought a packet of it, roughly bout 600gm or so. Wanted to get more but told myself i can go back and get more if i need them. The uncleaned version of it was rather dirty, so when i got home, i cleaned off the dirt and left it aside until im ready to use it. I divided the ngaku into two portions. One for the crips and the other for stir-fryin. I heard that ngaku was originally stir-fried with pork during CNY celebration.

The ngaku crisps are really easy to make. All you need to do is to peel the skin of the ngaku and slice it. You can either use a shredder to do so or the traditional way where u slice each and every one of it.

For me, i sliced bout 3/4 of it using a shredder and the rest i do it the traditional way for i dont have defying fingers and also i dont plan to injured my thumb again, after twice cutting myself on the same spot by a shredder!

After slicing it, i pat dry it with kitchen towel to absorb the excessive water to prevent the "fightin" session between the oil and the water. Spluttering of oil can get pretty dangerous and you might just get hit in the eye area!

Heat oil in the wok or non-stick pan like in my case and when its hot enough, drop the sliced ngaku and when it turns brown scoop it up and drain in absorbent paper.

For those of you who like it a lil salty, you can add fine salt over chips. Shake to mix it evenly and you can store it in an air-tight container or glass bottle.

Once i was done with the crisps, i cut the rest of it into 1/8 instead of 1/4 which is rather a big chunk. I've no idea on what to stir fry it with, i didnt want it to be with soy sauce again so i thought why not add in some curry powder to it. The only available curry powder at home was the meat curry powder so i've no choice but to use that.

For this dish, i used curry leaves, minced garlic, sliced onions, marinated minced pork (soy sauce & pepper), chicken broth, sweet soy sauce, curry powder and lastly the arrowheads.

First stir-fry the garlic then add the onions then the curry leaves, minced pork and leave it in a while and add it curry powder and continue stirring it. Add in a lil chicken broth and let it simmer for a while and add in sweet soy sauce and stir fry a lil while more and the dried curry ngaku's ready to be served.

Lemony Chicken Drumsticks

2009-01-05T23:39:00.004+08:00

I was browsing through and i saw this recipe with Lemon Chicken as the name. It sure does sound interesting to me. Besides this, I've this friend who's a Canadian told me that there's this chinese restaurant that he patronises served Orange Chicken and i thought to myself, why not experiement on lemon first and next i'll move on to orange?

So today i did the lemon version. Well i wanted it to be spicy lemon chicken but it didnt quite turn out that way. Perhaps the coating powder i used wasnt as spicy as i expect, perhaps i should add in more chilli powder in it.

I marinated the chicken with rice wine, light soy sauce and egg yolk for a few hours n just before fryin, i coated the drumsticks with the spicy fryin powder i bought and set it aside for bout 5-10 mins to avoid the oil from lookin cloudy.

As for the sauce, i used freshly squeezed lemon juice, some grated rind of lemon, chicken broth, soft brown sugar ( i used both the soft brown sugar and honey) and some cornflour to thicken the sauce. It has jst the right amount of tartness for me but it was a lil too lemony for mom n granny's like. For those who like it on the sweet side, feel free to experiment on the sugar or honey added in, also a more concentrate chicken broth is also good. My chicken broth was kinda deconcentrated so perhaps due to that the sauce is more tangy than it should be.

Next time around, am definitely gonna try a different cookin method in preparing this dish. Pan- fryin and replacing the drumsticks with strips of breast meat minus the rice wine and more chilli powder might jst give this dish more kick to it. Mayb i can try it out on my next project - Orange Chicken, for i've 6 more drumsticks left in the fridge.

Quesadilla

2008-12-29T17:41:00.012+08:00

Ah..finally i've got my fav quesadilla up here! My first time takin pic of it. All this while i'd prepare it for the family but never once get down to takin pics of it. Its funny how i can jst have it at any time of the day. I've had it for breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea , dinner and even a supper snack! I guess i can make do with this my whole life. Its been a while since i make this and today's quesadilla was jst so good cuz there's so much for the filling! I've prepared some black pepper and spicy mince for the fillin and also i managed to get basil last night! For the wrap, i got the traditional and the potato tortilla, wanted to get the wholemeal but i doubt my mom n bro's up for it.

These are the one with the meat filling in it. In this pic, i've prepared both the black pepper mince and the spicy mince filling for the photo takin session. Basically you can have your fav fillin in this wrap , you can even have tuna, bacon or roast chicken in it!

For the filling, i've chopped romaine lettuce, sliced tomatoes, black pepper/spicy mince and cheese! You can use parmesan or a mixture of the cheese. I used cheddar cheese for all the quesadillas i made. i jst love the combination of cheddar and tortilla. I'm also a big fan of basil so there you have it i used a lil of the chopped basil as the decorative item.

To make this its really simple, all you need is a non-stick pan, your fav tortilla wrap and fillings. Place the tortilla on the non-stick pan and heat it over a very low fire, while you're at it, arrange your fav fillings on one side of the tortilla. First i arranged the tomato slices then some chopped romaine lettuce then the stir-fried mince and covered it up with cheese. When you can see bubble formin on the tortilla then its time to cover up the side with the ingredients on. Leave for a few seconds then flip to another side and then its ready to be served. Pay attention of the fire for you dont wanna end up gettin ur tortilla burnt.

Next, its my turn to savour my version of the quesadilla. Both my mom n bro love the meat version better. They dont fancy the smell and taste of basil so i've got all the chopped basil for myself. So wht i've got in the wrap are : slices of tomatoes, romaine lettuce, chopped basil and cheese. If you like , u can put a lil butter or marjerin before placin the tortilla on the non-stick pan. For those who loves garlic, you can also get the garlic tortilla to go with any of your fav fillings.

Pai Kut Ong

2008-12-28T16:21:00.006+08:00

This dish has got the same name as my previous entry but its not spareribs. Usually people will cook this with spareribs but instead of spareribs i opted for some lean meat. It makes cookin easier and also less the saturated fats!

I chose to slice the meat to a moderate thickness and in the form of a rectangular shape instead of a squarish shape. The thickness of the slices should be moderate and not too thinly sliced.

Before frying the sliced meat, i marinated it with rice wine, light soy sauce, black pepper, sugar and cornflour since i dont have any bakin soda available at home. Leave it to marinate for a few hours. Dip the sliced meat into beaten eggs before fryin it. I used only the yolk instead of the whole egg. Repeat the same process for the rest of the slices.

Once i was done fryin the meat, i fried some sesame seeds in a non-stick pan. Fryin the sesame seeds will give it a more distinctive and aromatic taste when you bite into it. Fry till its golden brown and set it aside.

For the gravy, i used tomato ketchup, maggie seasoning (no more Worcestershire sauce left), sugar and water. Cornflour can be added to help thicken the sauce but i omitted this for i was preparing the sauce under a very low fire and stirring it occasionally till it thickens. Before serving it, toss it some sesame seeds and add the fried sliced meat and coat it thoroughly. You can sprinkle some sesame and a twig or two of coriander leaves and you're good to go!

Spareribs

2008-12-27T03:39:00.003+08:00

Am not sure if this it the right name for it , Bah Kut Sooi (sweet, sour & spicy spare-ribs). In my household , we call it Pai Kut Ong. There's so many names for a particular dish but i suppose what sets them apart are the ingredients used. So, the reason why i name this as Bah Kut Sooi cuz of the plum sauce i've included in this dish.

When i was stir-fryin the paste ive grounded, i was afraid that it might be too spicy for my family's liking but it turn out to be jst nice for mom and granny but definitely lack the spicyness for both my bro and me.

Grind and combine garlic, dried chillies, preserved bean paste ( tau cheong) and fry till its fragant before adding the spare-ribs. After that add water and let it simmer over very low-heat till meat is all tender before adding the seasoning - sour plum sauce, tomato sauce, sugar ( its always brown sugar in my case) & light soy sauce. Adjust the seasoning ingredients to your liking and let it simmer until the gravy turns thick and if you like u can garnish a lil with parsley or coriander. For those whole love your food to be on a more spicy note, add more dried chillies when you grind and a lil extra preserved bean paste for that extra oomph to the taste and more plum sauce if you'd like it more sourish of course not forgettin the sugar for the finishin touch..

Soft Food

2008-12-25T17:34:00.002+08:00

Today i'm feelin a lil under the weather so i decided i should be consumin some soft food and not further jeorpardise my stomach. I've no idea what's goin on with it but am not gonna worsen it with more oily stuff in the system

So i decided to have porridge for both lunch and dinner. Yea, i know, it might be really blunt and all but its good to have it once a while. People often associate porridge with a person being sick. Well even if im not feelin sick, i still love porridge. Its easy to make and at the same time its nutritious.

This is like my fav combination of porridge. Shredded carrot, cabbage and a lil minced meat. For the base, i used chicken broth and a lil soy sauce for the seasoning. All you need is to let the rice soak a lil while, perhaps bout 10-15 mins; rice is brittle then its easier for the cookin process. Under a slow fire, place the crushed rice into the pot and pour in the chicken broth and slowly add in the minced meat .

After a while, place the shredded carrot and cabbage into the pot and let it boil under a slow fire and constantly stir so that the rice will not stick at the bottom of the pot. Some would love to have their porridge with some sauteed garlic but i love it as it is..

Spicy Honey Chicken

2008-12-24T15:49:00.005+08:00

I remembered when i was in high school, we had this Kemahiran Hidup (Living Skills) lesson; it had 5 units to it - Cooking, Gardening, Sewing, Woodwork and Electronics. During the cooking week, the students were required to look for a recipe to try out during class on that particular week.

Some actually thought it was a bane to look for a recipe and to get the raw ingriendents to school and place it in the fridge in the morning when we reach school. As for me i find it really fun but i was more concern bout the cleanliness of the utensils available in the school. So usually before the cooking session starts, we were required to choose the utensils from the " utensils store room". After we got what we wanted, i'd wash the utensils squeaky clean before using it for god knows what was running around when it was stored in the store room or if the previous person who used it even cleaned it properly, didnt wanna risk gettin stomache at the end of the day.

We were expected to work in a pair so i was working with this punjabi girl. I couldnt remember exactly the exact ingredients we used but i knew that we split the ingredients on who to bring what and so on. So for that cooking week, we prepared 2 dishes. One was some masala cauliflower and the other honey chicken or so some masala spicy honey chicken or something.

On one particular morning, mom was lazy to think of what to cook so she got me to cook up a dish of chicken for her. And i was thinking, what else can i do with chicken, definitely not the usual curry or fried stuff, so i thought of the stuff i used to cook when i was in high school. I remembered that masala spicy honey chicken thingy me and my cooking partner used to cook, and i pretty much like how it tasted like but i forgot the ingredients used and since i dont have masala at home, so i did my version of the chicken and i called it the spicy honey chicken.

The pieces of chicken were marinated with a lil salt, egg yolk, sesame oil & a lil cornflour. I left the marination in the fridge for an hour or so and deep-fried it first before preparing the gravy/sauce. For the gravy i used grinded dried chillies + shallots+ garlic+ brown sugar+ salt and top it up with honey before i dish it out.

I personally hate the smell of dried chillies, so instead of having it seeded and pound or grind it, i bought the ready made available in a packet. I've tried both, the home made n the ready made avail, they both have a different effect on the food, perhaps the other ingredients also contributed to the taste of it but since i discovered that the ready made ones didnt' have that dried chillies smell, i've been using it since. Also stir-frying the chilli paste longer till the oil breaks also help in gettin rid of that greenish chillish smell to it.

Potstickers

2008-12-23T18:41:00.003+08:00

I injured my thumb while i was preparing this but that didnt stop me from completing my mission.

To be honest, I wasnt totally happy to see the end result though, some how i felt that i could do better in terms of appearance wise and also the filling. The filling suppose to be spicy minced meat but it wasnt that spicy, but its ok cuz then my mom can really enjoy it for she's not a big fan of spicy stuff.

This also known as gyoza but my family members find it hard to pronounce or even remember so i told them its like our version of "wan tan".

For this, i first stir-fried the fillin first before i fill it up. Mayb next time i could jst wrap the raw ingredients in the gyoza and pan-fry it. Previously i deep-fried my gyoza and this is how it looks like.

This deep-fried version i have over here is rather too "brown", for those who intend to deep-fry it, its best to keep an eye on it n not divert you attention to some other stuff like me! I actually left my gyoza floatin in my freakin hot pan while i was mincing the garlic away, bad idea to kill two birds with one stone when you're cookin! of course if u're a real pro then perhaps one can juggle wth it.

Anyway, since the pan-fried gyoza isnt up to my expectation, im plannin to finish up my gyoza pastry skin tomorrow with a new fillin inside. Mayb i can fill it up wth sweet potatoes.. i jst love sweet potatoes!

Thai Affair

2008-12-23T10:54:00.003+08:00

I personally love thai food but the person who sparked my interest to try my hands on thai cuisine is my dad. He's a big fan of thai cuisine so i learnt up a few dishes but now im gonna blog bout a whole different range of what i used to prepare for my dad.

The 3-flavoured seabass was inspired by my bestie's mom. In general i love this as well! i've tasted the authentic thai version as well as the Malay version of this dish but i never got around tryin it out at home until my bestie's mom asked if i know how to prepare this dish. If i've the recipe to it, it'll definitely gimme a better idea on the combination of ingredients but what surprised me was my bestie's mom actually kept a newpaper cutting with this particular recipe on! which is so cool cuz not only can i learn but also fine tune a lil on the taste as well. I actually tried it out at home before preparing it for my bestie's family and the outcome i got made my day. From then on, i just love preparin this dish. Its so easy and so yummy at the same time. Of course for those who love a more spicy note to this dish , cili padi's ( bird's eye chili pepper) the answer to it.

Mango kerabu is also another of my favourite thai dish. This one is solely on experimental basis. I've no idea on what they (thai restaurants) use as their dressing. So i did some readin and research on thai cuisine and majority of the dishes have nampla (fish sauce) as one of the ingredients in the list besides lime, cilantro and bird's eye chili. That gave me an idea on how i should do my dressing. For the dressing, i used nampla, brown sugar and lime juice. The amount of both the nampla and lime juice are the key to fine tune the taste of the dressing. Sugar would act like a neutraliser when the taste gets too overwhelming. For this dish, i stir-fried (on the non-stick pan) the pounded dried shrimps and a lil shredded cuttle-fish to be sprinkled on the dish when its done together with some bird's eye chili pepper and sliced fresh shallots.

The dish would be superb if the mango its on the sour note and do avoid from gettin the powderish texture of mangoes, that will so destroy the whole combination. And when u're done arranging the shredded mangoes on the plate and sprinkled it wth the stir-fried pounded dried shrimps & cuttle fish, bird's eye chili and fresh shallots then you can pour the dressing over it n voila! Of course its good to mix it up before u actually eat it to get a more balanced combination of all the ingredients.

I call this dish the Thai Spicy Minced Pork. For those who ran outta ideas on what else they can do with minced pork, they can try this out. This dish isnt as spicy as the others. It might be on a mild note for those who are not a big fan of spicy food. I myself, at times i wonder if my taste buds are all dead! Sometimes my taste buds get too extreme with me. The ingredients you need for this dish are :-

1) onion, garlic, red fresh chillies, tomato, shrimp paste (place it in the food processor & process until roughly chopped.

2) sesame oil to stir-fry the blended ingredients

3) minced lean pork and seasoning [fish sauce, lime juice & sugar ( i used brown sugar)]

4) add coriander and fresh shallots before serving

Vegetarian Nyonya Style Pumpkin Cake

2008-12-22T22:08:00.003+08:00

I got this idea of making this yummylicious pumpkin cake when i was in Melaka. On the last day before i leave Melaka, my friend took me and a friend to the market area to get some local delicacies for breakfast. So i bought the pumpkin cake cuz over here where i'm from they dont have this and i was curious bout the taste as well. When i tasted it i instantly fell in love with it. Not sure why but i jst did , i guess thats how they explain love at first sight n i suppose this is wht i call love at first mouthful!

I even asked my Melaka-born friend for the recipe but he didnt have it so all i've left to figure out was my taste buds. To be honest, while i was eatin it i was there tryin to decipher wht's the ingredients for it, so i thought, why not i give it a try on the vague ingredients i have in mind. So a few days has passed and i was craving for this particular cake so i thought, now's the perfect timing to make it.

So i bought an average size of golden pumpkin when i was doin the household's grocery shopping. The first try out was a non-vegetarian pumpkin cake for i've added some dried shrimps into the process to make it more aromatic. The second try out, i did it the vegetarian style, with no dried shrimps but replaced it with shallots, pepper and 5-spice powder.

Egg Tofu with Hoisin Minced Pork

2008-12-22T21:36:00.004+08:00

Omg!~ its been ages since i blog on this site! Not that i forgot that ive got this blog but i kinda lost my password and after discovering my password i can start posting food-related entry here!

This has become one of my fav dish! I was clueless on how people get their tofu to look nice but after discovering the "secret" i cant help it but to experiment on those egg tofu i bought. It came in a pack of 3 tubes, but since ive got a rather big eater bro, i gotta cook all of it and there's no such thing as leavin a tube of two before for the next cookin session.

So i begin the preparation by cuttin the tofu into cubes of approximately 2cms width or so and lightly coat each and every one of it wth cornflour. Then when the non stick pan's hot enough i pour a the oil and when its ready , i lowered those delicate tofu into the pan n gently turnin each one of it until they turned golden brown and dish it out onto the paper towel i have on the plate to sieve any excess oil.

Next, its time to prepare the gravy. A lil hoisin sauce, carrot, shiitake mushrooms, onions, garlic, mince meat (marinated wth pepper, soy sauce, rice wine & dark soy sauce) are all that i needed to make the gravy.

Curdled soybean milk

2007-09-23T02:18:00.003+08:00

Sweet sour bean curd

well , as for this dish , its one of my personal favorites. easy, simple & deliciously yummy! (i'm a sucker for bean curd) :)

on second thought , i might wanna rename this dish cuz it ain't exactly sweet sour kinda taste though, at least not the kinda taste you get out in the restaurant.

as for this dish , you'll only need 7 ingredients : bean curd , tomato sauce , chilli sauce , garlic , shallots , sugar (brown / white) and for garnishin , sprinkle a lil chopped coriander.

STEPS :

1) bean curd can in in triangle or in lil square cubes like the one the pic. i personally like it square. perhaps i think its cute n also the food presentation. after that you can either boil ( for those who doesn't like deep fry stuff) or deep fry ( but do make sure u've got lotsa kitchen towel to soak up all the oil)

2) mix tomato + chilli sauce in a bowl & add in sugar

3) set aside the bean curd , and stir-fry the minced garlic n shallots until golden and add in the mixture of tomato + chilli sauce

4) u might want to add more sugar or perhaps a pinch of salt to taste. if the gravy's too thick, add a lil hot water (chicken stock is also another option) & simmer for a few secs

5) add in the bean curd, stir & time to serve! oh yea, not forgettin the coriander.. :)

there you go , your lil own yummy bean curd!

A meal in the out door

2007-09-21T19:53:00.003+08:00

Black pepper sauce fusilli

well , the pic on my left , i dont have a name for this dish yet though. perhaps i'll just name it Black pepper sauce fusilli.

its my first time tryin out this combination. i'll always go for tomato based sauce but i thought i might as well come up with somethin new. besides i was preparing this for a friend.

well basically for the fusilli , i chose the green and red varieties, just to add colour to the food. what do i have in it? basically its a very simple dish, chicken cubes ( preferably breast meat , marinade and diced in cubes), lotsa garlic (minced) , margarine (to replace the oil) , black pepper sauce ( sauce & coarse black pepper added) and lotsa chinese parsley (coriander).

STEPS :

1) add fusilli to boiling water & cook until al dente ( dont forget to add salt to the boilin water).

2) heat up margarine ( for those who like butter , u may do so) & add in the minced garlic n stir till its golden brown & add coarse black pepper to taste.

3)add in the black pepper sauce & stir & add it hot water to the level of dilution u prefer ( not too thin for it might not coat the fusilli well, dont want your fusilli to be swimming do you?) sugar & salt may be added to taste.

4)in a large bowl , pour in the fusilli and pour in the black pepper sauce n chop some (in my case , lotsa ) chinese parsley and drop it in the bowl & mix well
5) ta-da! there u have it , ur simple Black pepper sauce fusilli.

Garlic mashed potatoes

from the name of it , i'm pretty sure you can figure out what's in it. anyway here are the list of ingredients in it.

INGREDIENTS :

1) russet potatoes
2) low- fat milk
3) coarse black pepper (preferably white pepper for display purpose & a more pungent taste)
4) salt
5) grated parmesan cheese
6) garlic

STEPS:

1) peel & add russet potatoes and garlic (dont forget to peel) into boiling water.

2) pour the potatoes and garlic in a colander & transfer it to a big bowl.

3) add in salt (to taste) , grated parmesan cheese and coarse black pepper (for black pepper lover) & start mashing.

4) next add low-fat milk to the mashed potatoes. the more milk u add the creamier your mashed potatoes will turn out.

5) you may add more parmesan cheese & coarse black pepper if you like.

And there you have it, your very own garlic mashed potatoes! oh yea , before i forgot , for those who are a garlic lover , you can add more garlic clove to it or black pepper if you like that spiceness! i'm a sucker for both but again moderation is good otherwise it wouldnt be garlic mashed potatoes :P

Mini Pita

You can have this for breakfast too , or as a snack. If the mini pita is unavailable you may go for the normal size pita . This is the simplest recipe of all.

All you need are mini pita breads , chicken ham ( u can replace this for your personal fav.) , slices of cheddar cheese (or any kinda cheese) and again , my fav, chinese parsley.

To make one wholesome mini pita , you need two slices of mini pita.

STEPS :

1) pan toast both slices of pita and remove it once its hot.

2)on a slice of the pita , add chicken ham , chinese parsley & cheddar cheese , u can a dash or two of black pepper if you fancy & lastly cover it up with another slice of pita.

3) pan toast the pita again (to melt the cheese & get it all yummy sticky!) n u may use a kitchen towel to press of the surface of the pita so that the filling stay intact. constantly flippin the both sides to get the even crunchiness on the crust.

4)you may cut it into half like what i did or you can have it just like that.

So there you go , 3 easy simple recipes! :) happy tryin for those who are interested to get it hands on!