From My Lemony Kitchen ....

Dried Fruits, Seeds and Nuts 'Energy' Balls

2012-01-19T11:48:00.005+08:00

Helloooo my Lovelies.... I am back in Blogging World.

And I hope it is not too late to wish everyone a Happy 2012...

We barely into our 1st month of the Gregorian Calender... another New Year is looming in 4 days ... Chinese New Year. Whoa... feels like eating session will carry on forever!! when will I be able to lose the kilos I piled on during Christmas....

Rabbit is surely moving out of the scene and Dragon will soon be here... which reminds me ~ I have to read about Year of the Dragon and Feng Shui...

What I love about celebrating Chinese New Year in H hometown... ~ its festive atmosphere... somehow the air smelled different... possibly due to the firecrackers blasting all night long... slight smell of sulphur still hangs heavy in the air. The distance sounds of Chinese drums and Cymbals, where the troupe performing Lion or Dragon dance, to bless houses.
Kids were the happiest at this time of the year... they get to put on new clothes, new shoes, could eat all the sweets treats to their heart content... and most of all their faces would be beaming with joy whenever they were handed angpows (red packets with $$$) by their parents, aunties, uncles...

My kids would be making a passing remark on their 'Loss' of angpows,... whenever we celebrated Chinese New Year in Perth, hehehe... awww...too bad kiddos

Visiting relatives is a must during Chinese New Year, paying respect to your elders ie grandparents, uncles, aunties... and guests are served with Chinese New Year Goodies... cookies, dried fruits, mandarins and nuts along with Chinese tea.... followed by 'Steamboat' lunch.

Its Chinese New Year and its time to celebrate... we tend to forget about 'healthy eating' and stuff ourselves with high sugary food... Whats left on the serving tray would be the dried fruits and some odd seeds or nuts...

And what if we mix all the 'healthy' snack left over in the serving tray?

The result would be this Energy Balls... a mix of dried apricots, candied winter melons, pepitas (or kuaci), dried dates, add black sesame seeds, honey and spiced it up with cinnamon.

Kids would not have noticed that these were made from some 'healthy' snack... adults too

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

wishing our families, relatives, friends, followers and readers....

GONG XI FA CAI

Have a good one

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recipe (adapted from Delicious with modifications)

1 cup of almond meal
1/2 cup of oats
100g dried apricots-chopped
50g pitted dates - chopped
50g pepitas
50g candied winter melons - chopped
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
2 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup dried dessicated coconut

Place the chopped dried fruits, seeds, nuts and oats in a food processor and whiz for 2-3 minutes.
Add cocoa powder, cinnamon and honey and whiz for another 2-3 minutes until all the ingredients comes together.
Lightly moistened hand and roll into a large marble size balls.
Roll the balls in the coconut to coat.

Happy Holidays...

2011-12-24T11:36:00.000+08:00

Gingerbread Macarons

2011-12-14T11:30:00.104+08:00

E came home one day... announced that she and her friends were trying to persuade their Math teacher to organise a class party during the last week of term. After much wingeing and whining... I am sure... Mr Math Teacher caved in to their request.

She voluntered to bring macarons ...

Initially I wanted to bake mango macarons... my little mistress said 'Mom, what if someone does not like mango?' ... Strike 1!!!

She suggested ~ why not bake chocolate macarons?... 'But you had that for your Birthday...' was my reply...Strike 2!!!

Then I told her ..'Let me think ....perhaps something Christmas-sy...' and here it is...

Gingerbread Macarons

with

Lindt Orange Intense Dark Chocolate Ganache

phew ... lucky it is not Strike 3!!! If it is ...then there will no macarons at all for the party ....hehehe... poor E...
Baked 5 batches of mini macs for the class party...

E had fun at the party... and so did Mom... stick on little RED Smarties and Pretzels... they became my little Rudolf(s)...I tried giving them eyes after this photoshoot... my reindeers morphed into litte piggy with antlers instead... not cool....

on a more serious note...

Soon we will be singing Auld Lang Syne as 2011 is coming to an end... and so is my post... for the year... will be back in January 2012.

I will not be able to blog or blog-hop as often as I would love to.... from next week onwards till early January... coz ~

I am baking a gingerbread house to bring to a friend's Christmas Party (I'll upload the photo/s in my FB),
D is coming home from his month long trip I can't wait to hug him...
we will have no internet access by the end of year (perhaps 3 weeks or more)
and last but not least... we are looking forward to our exciting BIG move... not far ... less than 2 km away.

If you miss me... and wanted to find out what I am up to (nothing naughty of course... Santa is watching ..) you can find me here (FaceBook) and here (Twitter)

With that... I end my 2011 post... with .

Wishing everyone

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year

GOD Bless....

Lunar Eclipse ~ 10th December 2012

Till we meet again... in 2012

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recipe

80g egg white~room temperature
65g castor sugar
80g almond meal
140g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon of mixed spice

Filling

250g Lindt Orange Intense Dark Chocolate
180ml thick cream
50g butter

Preparation ~ 3 days before making macarons ~ separate egg white from yolk. Refrigerate.

Macronage

Egg white at room temperature
Pulse Almond meal with icicng sugar for 5 minutes. Sieve with mixed spice. Set aside.
Mix the egg white and castor sugar in a heatproof bowl.
Making sure that the bowl will snuggly fit the pot, bring the water to boil then lower the heat to a gentle simmer.
Place the bowl on top of the pot, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the simmering water... aka double boil method.
Whisk the egg white mixture until the sugar is dissolved and the temperature reads 50-55C on the sugar thermometer.
Transfer the egg mixture into the mixing bowl with the balloon attachment.
Add lemon juice.
Whisk on medium speed until soft peak or 'shaving foam' consistency.
Using a flexible silicon spatula, fold in sieved almond mix into the meringue one third at a time. And start counting the strokes.
Continue to fold until all dry ingredients are fully incorporated and it forms a shiny batter with a thick, ribbon like consistency...
Pour the mixture into a piping bag fitted with 10mm nozzle, and pipe onto prepared baking sheets.
Leave the tray at room temperature for 30 minutes or more until the macarons surface are 'drier' to touch.
Pre heat oven to 150C and bake each tray for 15-20 minutes depending on the oven.
Cool for 10 minutes then carefully peel off the baking sheet.
Leave to cool completely before piping in the filling

Filling

Break the chocolate into small pieces and place them in a heatproof bowl.
Bring the cream to boil and pour into the bowl.
Let it stand for 2 minutes.
Using the whisk ballon, whisk until the mixture is smooth.
Add in butter, and keep stirring until its nice and glossy.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or overnight) then piped the filling onto the shells.

Macarons tasted better...after an overnight refrigeration

Lisa's Guest, Post # 1 ~ Malaysian-Thai Chicken Curry

2011-12-06T11:30:00.049+08:00

I came across Leemei and her famous blog ~ My Cooking Hut, in early 2008. I was her silent reader... who would browsed through her blog, looking for recipes as well as admire her amazing photos; food she cooked and places she travelled to.

Then in 2009, I 'broke my silence' ... and started to communicate with Leemei through her blog... followed by email, Facebook and Twitter... we became friends in the cyber world... lets hope that one day, we'll meet in the 'Real' world...

I am so thrilled to have Leemei as my first Guest... Thank you, my dear Leemei.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About Leemei...
She is a Freelance recipe contributor, food stylist and photographer...

Her cookbook ~ Lemongrass and Ginger will be available in April 2012.... am so proud of my fellow 'Anak Kedah'...

"Lemongrass and Ginger Cookbook: Vibrant Asian Recipes, It contains 224 pages, published by Duncan Baird. There are more than 100 clear, easy-to-follow recipes that are diverse, delicious and imaginative. Packed with inspiring, authentic dishes (many with a modern twist), this is a must-have book for the modern kitchen!"

Pre-order your copy at Amazon (UK, US and Canada), Barnes and Noble and Book Depository (UK and US)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's welcome Leemei with her mouthwatering Malaysian- Thai Chicken Curry...

I don’t quite remember how it all started. It was back in 2009, when I was reminiscing some Malaysian food, I stumbled upon a food blog that got my eyes glued on instantly! What got me so excited was when I learnt that Lisa, who writes From My Lemony Kitchen, hails from Kedah! I felt so happy and lucky to have found a food blogger, who comes from the same hometown and knows the food in the region as well as me!

Ever since I stumbled upon Lisa’s blog, I never stop paying frequent visits whenever I could. Lisa is based in Perth, Australia and I am on the other side of the world; when it’s bright and shine down under, it’s always the other way round in London. But, that is not at all a problem as Internet is 24/7 for us!

Quite a while ago, Lisa has written a wonderful piece of article and recipe – Bihun Sup (Rice Vermicelli in Beef Broth) on my blog.

Today, I was really happy to be a guest on Lisa’s wonderful blog. Thank you, Lisa, for such great opportunity to be featured on your blog!

At first, I wasn’t sure what recipe I would make. Then, I thought I would make something that would relate to where we both come from. Kedah - one of the states in Malaysia that is bordering Thailand. So, Thai food isn’t something uncommon. In fact, some of the dishes are very much influenced by Thai.

I put on my thinking cap, trying to recall some dishes that contain the ingredients used in Malaysian and Thai food. Then, I had a sudden flashback of a dish. I wasn’t quite sure the name but I know it’s a curry dish. It’s not a curry with lots of gravy, it’s rather a ‘dry’ curry. The image of the dish appeared quite blurry in my head. I called my mom and asked her about if it was something she used to make. She said no. But, I swear that I tasted it before. Perhaps, in my dream?

I have no idea what to call it. It is like a cross between Malaysian Rendang curry and Thai green curry. Could it be something that I created and tasted in my dream? I can’t answer this question either. It just seems a little bizarre but there is no way for me to track down the origin of this recipe. Guess, it doesn’t matter, does it? As long as it tastes fantastic, that’s all it matters!

Let me clarify, when I said it’s like a cross between Malaysian Rendang curry and Thai green curry - is simply because the used of toasted grated coconut that is added at the end of the cooking process, which is normally done in making Rendang. The resemblance of the Thai green curry element is the use of coriander leaves and kaffir lime leaves.

I have chosen to use coconut cream in this recipe because it’s thick and creamy, which gives a very nice texture, taste and shine to this type of gravyless curry. A lot of times, when I go to supermarket to get some coconut milk, I usually see 2 different terms used on the labels: coconut cream and coconut milk.

Coconut cream is equivalent to the ‘first press’ of the fresh coconut milk, which is always very thick and concentrated. Coconut milk or the ‘second press’ of the coconut milk, which has some water added to it, so it appears less concentrated and creamy.

Nowadays, a lot of canned coconut milk have thick layer on the top (when you don’t shake the can before opening). You can actually scoop this layer and use as coconut cream. Or if you want to make a curry with lots of gravy, then use the combination of the cream and milk.

I can’t stress more how this dish is so versatile as you could eat it with boiled rice or even with noodles or pasta! I have made it pretty mild (but my other half, who is French, said it’s spicy according to his palate!) Perhaps, I should say it’s mild curry, according to a Malaysian’s palate but medium spiciness generally? If you like spiciness like me, you can add a bit more chilies (fresh or dried)!

Recipe (Serves 4)

1 tbsp sunflower oil
200ml coconut cream
450g chicken thighs, skinned, deboned and chunkily cut
1 tsp chilli powder (optional)
2 tbsp toasted grated coconut
4 kaffir lime leaves, cut into thin strips
salt and pepper

Spice paste:

12 shallots, roughly chopped
3 red chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 lemongrass, roughly chopped
3 kaffir lime leaves, roughly chopped
a small handful of coriander leaves with stems

Put all the ingredients of the spice paste into a food processor and blend until they become a smooth paste. Set aside.
In a deep pan over medium-high heat, add the sunflower oil and the spice paste. Gently cook, stir occasionally, for about 4-5 minutes until the paste becomes fragrant.
Add half of the coconut cream, mix with the spice paste and cook for further 3-4 minutes until fragrant and the oil starts to rise to the surface.
Add the chicken, mix thoroughly to coat all the chicken pieces with the spice paste. Cook for 8-10 minutes until the chicken turns opaque and cooked through.
Add the rest of the coconut milk.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the chilli powder, if used.
Stir and bring to the boil for a few seconds, lower the heat to medium and cook for about 10-15 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken.
Add the toasted grated coconut and mix well.
Transfer to a serving plate, sprinkle over the kaffir lime leaves strips.
Serve warm.

Kuih Cara Berlauk/ Savoury Bites

2011-11-30T11:30:00.024+08:00

Hi... I am back...
Computer is all good again. VGA card was the culprit... giving me a headache and heartache. It didn't take long for the computer guy to fix it, max 15 minutes to get it running again... What a relief!!!

However, everything happened for a reason... right?
Those 2 weeks hiatus was good... took the opportunity to settle few important tasks... for I had so many things/events requires my undivided attention within that span of time... chasing datelines... unfortunately cooking, baking and photography took the back seat. Actually... I have not been cooking or baking, let alone play with my camera much lately...

One of the tasks was... to make sure that my son has everything he needed for his trip to Nepal. Yes... he is away for a month and will only be home for Christmas...
I am proud of him to be able to take up the challenge... sleeping rough, eat to live and most of all, he dare to venture out of his comfort zone.
I am not an outdoor type of person... I can't sleep rough and tough (not even in the pitched up tent in our backyard...yes ... I am THAT bad) and I definitely CANNOT live on 3 shirts, 3 pants and 3 undergarments for 30 days... eeeeuuuuwwww

Moulds

I admire these group of youth, who are there to help out with some basic renovations and maintenance work to the school for the orphans, teach them English... before they head out to the lush green foothills of the Himalayas, 12 days trekking the Annapurna Sanctuary, climbing the mountains and peaking at 4300m.

It is very exciting ... lifetime experience, an eye opener and hopefully they'll come home enrich...

Before his trip, we whipped up Kuih Cara (pronounce as Koo-eh Char-ra) or Savoury Bites, one of his favourites Kuihs...
D was delighted ... Kuih Cara has all the ingredients and flavours he loves; Chicken, prawns and spicy...
Before he left... D said to me

'Mom, can I have Beef Rendang when I get home? and NO more lentils please....'

Recipe (from Pasar Malam Delights Cookbook)
Batter

150g plain flour
300ml water
1/4 teaspoon salt
100ml coconut milk
1 teaspoon custard powder
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 egg
1 tablespoon oil

Filling

1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/4 tablespoon chopped ginger
2 tablespoon meat curry powder
150g chicken - diced
500 g cooked prawns - peeled and devein
1tablespoon water

Making....
Batter ~

Combine all the ingredients under 'batter' in a mixing bowl.
Whisk and mix well.
Put it aside.

Filing ~

Heat up oil in wok and saute the chopped garlic and ginger until fragrant.
Add diced chicken.
Keep stirring and add curry powder with 1 tablespoon of water.
Stir until the chicken is cook.

Kuih Cara ~

If you have the 'Kuih Cara' mould ~ heat up the mould (stove top), brush with oil and spoon the batter half way up the mould. And if you dont have one... use frying pan instead (make into pikelet size).
Top up the batter with the cooked chicken and cooked prawns.
Cover and cook using low heat until 'Kuih Cara' is cooked through.
Serve with thinly sliced spring onions and chilli.

Apologies

2011-11-17T06:22:00.001+08:00

Hiya...
My 1000s apologies for the 'No Post' this week. My beloved computer has decided to go on strike... will be back as soon as I can get it up and running again...

Turkish Delight Slices

2011-11-09T12:18:00.005+08:00

Try walking into a Travel agency, pick up some brochures, take them home, arrange them neatly by your bedside table and before you go to sleep, flip some pages.... what do you think will happen the next day when we woke up from our slumberland? Yep... You have been bitten by the 'Travel Bug'...

Travel Bug bit me decades ago, when I was in Uni...

I passed by Thomas Cook Travel Agency...enroute home from class. I loved to see what they had on display.... nice places and some travel deals. Then one day... not too sure what came over me...I decided to step in and picked up some brochures: package tours to France, Germany or even to Scandinavia ambitious me... Scandinavia was out of my budget... and still is... and among many brochures... only one that got me going...

It was Turkey .

The places and photos were amazingly beautiful... my heart was set that I wanted to travel to Turkey for the summer. I wanted to see the Blue Mosque, I wanted to experience and be in Pamukkale and many more...

Since none of my Malaysian friends were interested to backpack with me to Turkey, I forward the idea to my Iranian friend, Yasmin. She agreed to travel with me to Turkey, enroute to Switzerland, where she was schooling before headed home to Iran.

I was so excited... plans were made, Visa applied and approved... but sadly, our plans didn't take off, because Yasmin had to go home as soon as our summer holiday started (Iran was in turmoil at that time)... I understood what she went through... I wished her safe journey home... I didn't see her again when semester resumed in October...and I wish and hope for Yasmin's good health and safe with her beloved family... and Yasmin (1st year Economics at King's College London... and you were head over heels over Rob Lowe), if you are reading this... do keep in touch so I know that you are OK...

Eventhough my travel plan to Turkey didn't take off ....I have not given up hope .... one day I will visit Turkey...

But for now.... lets enjoy my Turkish Delight /Turkish Slice

Recipe (adapted from AWW winter favourite 2011)

185g unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
1/3 cup (50) self raising flour
4 teaspoon gelatine
2 tablespoon water
1/3 cup(80ml) water, extra
1 1/2 cups(330g) white sugar
1/3 cup (50g) cornflour
2 tablespoon rosewater
red food colouring
icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 20cmx 30cm rectangular pan and line base and long sides with baking paper, extending 5cm over the sides.
Beat butter, sugar and vanilla until combined. Stir in sifted flours. Press mixture evenly over the base of the pan; using fork, rough the surface. Bake base for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Put aside to cool.
Sprinkle gelatine over water in a heatproof jug. Using double boil method, stand the jug in simmering water and stir until gelatine dissolves.
Add 1/3 cup of water (reserve 1 tablespoon) and sugar into the saucepan over low heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil. Boil, uncovered without stirring until temperature reaches 116C on candy thermometer. Reduce heat to a simmer, uncovered, and simmer for 5 minutes without stirring, maintaining the heat at 116C. Remove from heat.
Blend cornflour with the reserved 1 tablespoon water, gelatine mixture, rosewater and few drop of food colouring until smooth and stir into the sugar syrup. Return to heat, simmer and stir for 3 minutes or until the mixture is opaque.
Strain over the ready cooled base. Skim any scum.
Stand overnight.
Sprinkle with sifted icing sugar.

Blood Orange Marmalade

2011-11-02T09:35:00.003+08:00

When you read a book ... do you have that feeling... that you ARE in that book? Living, breathing, eating with the characters? I do...I meant 'story' books/ novels, not text book... the later makes me go to sleep...

Remember Enid Blyton's Famous Five, Secret Seven, Mallory Towers, Naughtiest Girl in School, Magical Faraway trees, Enchanted Woods and many more...? I used to live, breathe with these characters... pretending I was the 6th member of the Famous Five, bestie with Elizabeth Allen, joined in the fun and be one of many Enid Blyton's characters...
I went on adventures, go to bed when they do.. and when the sun rises...I was there waiting at their breakfast table... and many a times... they would have toast and Marmalade....

I liked the sounds of the word 'Marmalade'... didn't have the slightest clue what Marmalade was at that time... let alone the taste!!! Dictionary didn't help much either... I so desperately wanted to have a taste... I could find bottles of jam in the supermarket but not marmalade... (Alor Setar was a small sleepy town... nothing much happening...)

Not until years later... when I stepped foot into Sainsbury's in Derby... to my delight, I found bottles and bottles of Marmalade on Sainsbury's shelf... if only you could see my expression back then... just like I stumbled upon a pot of gold or won a mega sweep lottery!!

Phew...I could finally taste MARMALADE...
I loved it since... Elizabeth Allen, I could tell you what marmalade and toast tasted like... and we could be hyper and 'wreck havoc' in class after high dosage of sugar together ....

Dont you just love the vibrant colours of these gorgeous Blood Orange?

After umpteenth years of gorging myself silly and nearly drown in one.... I decided to treat myself to homemade marmalade... My first attempt ~ making Blood Orange Marmalade...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh!!! by the way ...

this is exactly how I imagined them (Enid Blyton's characters...) on their 'Beach' holiday in the South of England..... the photo above was taken on a gorgeous sunny day at Trigg Beach, Perth.

Recipe (adapted with changes from Homemade Preserves)

500g blood oranges
1 medium lemon
1 liter water
300g sugar

Wash, scrub the wax off and dry the fruits.
Halve the fruits and squeeze out the juice with the pips into a muslin cloth lined over a strainer (with bowl underneath the strainer)
Remove pith from the peel.
Reserve the pith.
Cut the peel into thin strips.
Add the reserve pith to the pips into a muslin bag to make a loose bag.
Place the bag in a large pot with shredded peel, juice, and water.
Measure the depth.
Slowly bring the mixture to boil and simmer for 1 1/2 hours until the peel is very soft and the water reduced by half in depth.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the bag.
Put it aside and leave it to cool enough to be able to handle the bag.
Squeeze as much liquid as possible into the pan.
Add sugar and simmer until the sugar has dissolved.
Bring the mixture to a boil for 10 minutes until the setting point has reached 105C on sugar thermometer.
Remove any scum.
Leave to cool until skin starts to form on the surface of the preserve.
Stir to distribute the peel evenly.
Ladle into a sterilised jar, cover and seal.

Lentils and Drumsticks

2011-10-25T11:30:00.023+08:00

October is coming to an end... which means its Halloween time...

While everyone is busy cooking, baking... setting the mood for Trick or Treat , I am falling behind and unable to keep up with the theme.... due to a very busy schedule... I have nothing to offer ... sadly.. but I have a story to tell...

Have you heard of Moringa Oleifera? It is commonly known as Indian drumstick and Malays (from Kedah) would call this... Kacang Munggai.

Just imagine if you grow Moringa Oleifera in your backyard... It will not only gives you, your nutritional benefits, purify your water, it can also protect you from evil spell. And that is why... it is called ~ Tree of Life, or in East Africa... it is called "Mothers' best friend". The benefits are endless... you can Google 'Moringa Oleifera' and read about it.

I would like to add another one to that numerous list... with the story I am about to tell...

As a young girl... I would sit quietly and listen to adults talking and exchanging their hair raising, supernatural, ghostly stories... it scared the s**t out of me... nevertheless I was drawn to their stories.... just like a magnet...

One of the stories would be about 'Orang Minyak' (direct translation would be the Oily Man ) a movie was made, back in 1956 based on this story/myth

I would refer him as The Cursed Man'... his body would be covered, in what the adult would say ..black oil (hence the name). Apparently, he wanted to learn about the spritual world... malice intended. He sold his soul to the devil. In exchange... and to achieve his supernatural powers... he has to de-flower 40 young maiden virgins within a week...

Once the word was out that The Cursed Man is on the prowl... villagers would be on alert and wary of their surroundings. Chaotic time...Men would patrol the village perimeters, hoping to catch the culprit...However The Cursed Man managed to slip into the night unnoticed...

And Mothers would try their best to protect their young girls "innocence" by making the daughters wear their fathers' sweaty shirt at night... giving the impression that they were men instead of young girls...
During this terrifying moments ... parents would be 'frantically' looking for Moringa Oleifera trees... A foot long Moringa Oleifera sticks were given to these young girls, and to be placed under their pillow at night...
The foot long Moringa Oleifera stick has the same effect as garlic had on Dracula... The Cursed Man would stay away... as he was afraid, very afraid... One hit with the stick, his supernatural power would diminished and he'd immediately transformed into a powerless man...

Just imagine the worried look on my parents' face... everytime they hear the news that The Cursed Man is on the prowl again... for they have 4 daughters...

Happy Halloween

Care to share your scary childhood stories with me?

I found frozen packets of Drumsticks in an Indian grocer... and decided to cook a simple dhal and serve with roti.

Wishing my Friends and Readers... Near and Far...

Have a wonderful

Diwali Celebration

--------------------------------------------------------------

Recipe

1cup of washed red lentils
2 cups of water (approx)
1 frozen packet of Indian drumsticks (Moringa Oleifera) - thawed
2 inch of ginger
2 garlic
1 teaspoon of ground tumeric
2 dried chillies - cut up
salt
golden fried shallots
1 stalk of curry leaves

Pound garlic and ginger until smooth. Set aside.
In a medium size saucepan, bring to boil lentils, chillies, curry leaves and drumsticks.
Then reduce to a simmer for about 15 minutes or lentils turned mushy.
Remember to add water if the lentils becomes dry.
Add pounded garlic, ginger, tumeric and salt.
Cook for another 10 minutes and turned off the heat.
Add the golden fried shallots.
Serve.

Scones

2011-10-18T11:45:00.002+08:00

I have this habit of jotting down what I've cooked and when I cooked/baked something, in my little Notebook... it can be cumbersome and annoying but I know I can be a forgetful person at times... most of the times... hehehe... and its easy to refer to at a later date...

Seems that annoying habit paid off recently....
H has been hinting that its been awhile since I last bake scones.... unsure... and didn't want to argue... all I could say was 'errrr... I think so' while in my head I was doing a 180 degree turn and thinking... 'Didn't I just bake some recently?'.
Quietly... I referred to my Notebook, and guess what? H was right. September 2009 was the last time I baked scones... time sure flies. Not wanting to keep him waiting for another 2 years...that same weekend... I made strawberry jam and baked him scones... and this was 2 weeks ago.

Last Saturday, we went out for our coffee/tea at one of Gloria Jeans' outlet... we ordered Macadamia slice and a slice of Maltesers cake... sat down, and while enjoying our quiet moment (without kids..), H said ...

H: did you see the scones?
me: No... why?
H: Its huge.... I was tempted ... but I bet they aren't as light and delicious... as the ones you baked.
me: oh really... at the same time feeling proud hehehe...

awwww.....Isn't he a darling? or he is trying his best to tell me subtly... to bake him more scones??? naughty naughty me for having such evil thoughts... or
Shall I bake him scones every 2 years to get such 'sweet' and lovely compliment again...

This is the best scones recipe (from AWW) I have ~~some~~ come across. The scones are light and fluffy, plus it is easy to make and bake... refer to the note after the recipe...

Recipes (makes about 12)

3 cups of plain flour
30g baking powder
1 cup of cream
1 cup of lemonade -aerated
a pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 190C
Line baking tray with baking paper
Sieve plain flour with baking powder twice.
Add cream, aerated lemonade and salt.
Use butter knife and in chopping motion, mix well.
Lightly floured the pastry board and the circular cookie cutter.
Roll out with floured rolling pin to a 2.5cm thickness.
cut out the scones with cookie cutter
Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
Serve with strawbery jam and cream

Note: dont overwork or overmix the scones or they will be heavy and tough. Substitute plain flour and baking powder with self raising flour... as alternative

I have been tagged by Nami of Just One Cookbook... I will tend to it asap...

Lavender Macarons

2011-10-11T11:10:00.006+08:00

My first tell-tale signs that Spring is approaching... is when my lavender bushes starts to flower as soon as the weather warms up. I am so thrilled to spot the tiny purplish buds hiding within the greyish green leaves...

Spring has always been my favourite season... I love waking up to sounds of birds chirping... then having a walk round the garden to admire and breathe in the fragrance of the early Lavender bloomers...

Everything comes to life...

New Beginning

Spring... reminded me of a friendship between 2 teenage girls that lived in 2 different parts of the world. One in Canada and the other in Malaysia. They would write to each other, exchanged cards and photos. Good old days...the art of communication...using pens, papers, envelopes and stamps ... and oh!!! and Mr Postman too ...

They were "Penpals" for years until one left to UK to pursue her dreams... she lost contact with her Canadian penpal ...

Then one day, she received a message in her Facebook message box...

Are you the same person, who I was a penpal with in the 1970’s and 1980’s? I lived in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and the girl I correspond with was from Malaysia?

The Canadian Penpal was cleaning out her stuff and stumbled upon a box from her teenage years... and found a letter from her Malaysian penpal... she still remembers her Malaysian friend!!! ....

Thank you Cheryl J ... for keeping my letters and keeping in touch again. A toast to our 'Friendship'... with a bite of Lavender Macarons...

I am using the Swiss Method to make these gorgeous Lavender Macarons.

Recipe (Love Food cookbook)

80g egg whites

65g lavender sugar

80g almond meal

140g icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

food colouring

dried lavender seeds

Filling

115g soft Philadelphia cream cheese

2 tablespoon lavender sugar

to make lavender sugar

1 cup of caster sugar

2 tablespoon of edible lavender
muslin cloth

Preparation

~ 2 weeks ahead ~ wrap lavender in muslin cloth, secure with kitchen string. Pour caster sugar in an airtight container, and place the lavender sachet in the container. Give it a good shake everyday.

~ 3 days before making macarons ~ separate egg white from yolk. Refrigerate.

Making Macarons

Egg white at room temperature

Pulse Almond meal with icicng sugar for 5 minutes. Sieve. Set aside.

Mix the egg white and castor sugar in a heatproof bowl.

Making sure that the bowl will snuggly fit the pot, bring the water to boil then lower the heat to a gentle simmer.

Place the bowl on top of the pot, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the simmering water... aka double boil method.

Whisk the egg white mixture until the sugar is dissolved and the temperature reads50-55C on the sugar thermometer.

Transfer the egg mixture into the mixing bowl with the balloon attachment.

Add lemon juice.

Whisk on medium speed until soft peak or 'shaving foam' consistency.

Add in food colouring.

Using a flexible silicon spatula, fold in sieved almond and green tea powder into the meringue one third at a time. And start counting the strokes.

Continue to fold until all dry ingredients are fully incorporated and it forms a shiny batter with a thick, ribbon like consistency...

Pour the mixture into a piping bag fitted with 10mm nozzle, and pipe onto prepared baking sheets.

Sprinkle with lavender.

Leave the tray at room temperature for 30 minutes or more until the macarons surface are 'drier' to touch.

Pre heat oven to 150C and bake each tray for 15-20 minutes depending on the oven.

Cool for 10 minutes then carefully peel off the baking sheet.

Leave to cool completely before piping in the filling

Filling~ beat the cream cheese and lavender sugar until smooth. Piped the filling onto the shells.

Macarons tasted better...after an overnight refrigeration

Middle Eastern Fish Casserole

2011-10-04T13:10:00.007+08:00

We are familiar with '1000 things to do before I die'...even a book was published on... '1000 places to see before you die'.

Well, my dearest darling, H, not wanting lose out... has his own "motto" ~

1000’s Food To Taste Before I Die

(note the 's'... as in many thousands)

This Middle Eastern Fish Casserole marked the beginning of his 'mission'...
hmm... looks like I have to keep on buying cookbooks and spend hours blog hopping. Nevermind that I've been labelled as Cookbook Addict, Blogoholic Mom, and the new title to add to the list ~ 'Prop' Monster.

I have a perfect solution ~ save money, space and time in order to fulfill H's mission ... get me a laptop (preferably the ones with the bitten Apple logo on the cover ... hint...hint)... I can browse, trying out new recipes, following its instruction in the comfort of my kitchen... saves $$$ as I dont have to buy cookbooks, saves me from running to and fro from study to kitchen, save us the 'filing' headache plus storage too...furthermore, we should be environmentally friendly ~ save a lot of trees by not printing recipes on papers...Right?
Isn't this a brilliant idea?

This is my second attempt cooking Middle Eastern Fish Casserole. I used Barramundi fillets in my first attempt. The fish didn't hold its shape, flesh became soft and fell apart... plus I wasn't too excited with the photos I took....
So I use my all time favourite ~ Hiramasa fillets instead of Barramundi... and it tasted much better as Hiramasa soaked in the flavours of spices and fresh herbs .. Excellent.
If I were to describe the taste... I would say it is quite similar to curry with subtle bitterness with every bite, I loved the taste despite the bitterness note: I dislike anything bitter!!!... bitter taste came from the pierced lime, perhaps next time I'll choose the smallest lime I could find..

1 down... many thousands recipes to go, oh well...

Recipe (adapted from Just Add Spice from Lyndey Milan and Ian Hemphil)

1/4 cup olive oil
1 brown onion - chopped
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
2 tablespoon dill (in the tube)
1 bunch of coriander - chopped
2 large tomatoes - chopped
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 lime - pierced few times with sharp knife
1 1/2 cups of water
4 Hiramasa fillets cut into 3cm thick
2 tablespoon flour

Middle Eastern spice

1 teaspoon cardamom pods
2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoon ground tumeric
1 teaspoon salt

Ground all the Middle Eastern spices.
Heat 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan and saute the onion until transparent. Add garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, dill, coriander and lime with 2 teaspoon of the Middle Eastern Spice. Give it a good stir. Add 1 1/2 cups of water. Cover the saucepan, bring to boil then lower the heat to a simmer for 15 minutes.
Prepare the fish while the sauce is simmering...
Pat dry the fish. Rub the remaining of the spice onto the fish, and dust with plain flour. Heat up the frying pan with the remaining of the olive oil, cook the fish cutlets lightly on both sides... to seal.
Transfer the fish to the simmering sauce.
Season to taste and simmer for another 10 minutes until the fish is cooked.
Serve with steam rice.

Nonya Curry Laksa

2011-09-28T13:30:00.002+08:00

If someone offer you a bowl of good laksa... would you politely decline or would you have a Cheshire Cat smile and accept whole heartedly?
Shamelessly....I am the later type of person...

Just in case you were wondering..."What is Laksa?" ...Laksa is a bowl of noodles serve in broth with some garnishing. Its the broth that define what type of Laksa it is... whether its fish based sour and spicy soup or thick and creamy 'curry' like soup.

I wouldn't be wrong if I were to say that Malaysia is a Laksa Haven . I guess I could divide my Laksa 'adventure' into 4 ~ North, South, East Coast and East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak).

Here is my quick snippets of the gorgeous mouth watering Laksa...

North ~Laksa Utara click here for recipe (from Perlis, Kedah and Penang) is mostly fish based broth with sourish taste and serve with Rice Noodles, lots of cut up bird's eye chilli, and local fresh herbs. Slight variants to the type of fish used to make the broth between the States.
South ~ Laksa Johor click here for recipe comes from Southern State (Johor) ~ the broth is again fish based broth with spices and coconut milk added. Spaghetti is used in Laksa Johor instead of Asian noodles (yellow noodles or vermicelli or flat rice noodles).
East Coast ~ Laksa Kelantan. Broth is made up of fish and it has different texture, taste and colour. The authentic Laksa Kelantan is serve with sambal, thinly sliced snake beans and homemade rice flour flat noodles.
East Malaysia ~ Laksa Sarawak ~ again the taste is distinctively different from the rest.

I have another Laksa to add to my list... its Nonya Curry Laksa.

The Flavours of Nonya Curry Laksa is unique, in comparisons to Laksa(s) I have tasted.
To ~~slurp~~ sum it up... ~ I would say its a combination of Curry Mee and Laksa. The burst of flavours were beyond words... obvious from the long list ingredients listed below...
The preparation was laborious.... alas! to be rewarded with a hot bowl of Nonya Curry Laksa is worth all the slogging, sweat and hard work in the kitchen .... so satisfying, even kids were asking for more.

Note :Nonya Curry Laksa uses a combination of vermicelli and yellow noodles, however, all of us agreed that vermicelli absorb the broth flavour better than the yellow noodle...

Do you know of any Laksa and wanted to add on to my list? Feel free to share ...

Recipe (adapted from Pasar Malam delights with modifications)

500g yellow noodles
300g vermicelli noodles
200 g prawns ~ deveined and leave the tail intact
finely sliced ginger flower (bunga kantan)
mint leaves
4 pieces cooked chicken thigh-sliced thinly
Golden fried shallots

Broth

2500ml water
1 tablespoon raw sugar
salt
150ml light soy sauce
5 Sprigs of vietnamese mint (daun kesum)
3 stalks of lemongrass - bruised
6 kaffir lime leaves
300ml coconut cream
12 deep fried beancurd (tau pok) - halved.

Spice for Broth

200ml canola oil (cooking oil)
1 large red onion
15 dried chillies -soaked
2cm tumeric
2 cm galangal
5 stalks of lemongrass
10 candlenuts
1 tablespoon of Maggi prawn paste granules (belacan)

Sambal (Chilli Paste)

10 dried chillies- soaked
1 medium size red onion
4 garlic
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (ground)
1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
1 teaspoon Maggi prawn paste granules (belacan)
3 stalks of lemongrass
salt
sugar
50 ml coconut milk
1/2 cup of oil

Method

Laksa Broth

Blend the spices (under the heading of Spice for Broth) into a smooth paste.
Saute until fragrant in 1/2 cup of oil.
Add in water, sugar, salt to taste, soy sauce.
Bring to boil.
Then add vietnamese mint, bruised lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.
Bring to a quick boil then lower the heat into a simmer for 30 minutes.
Add coconut cream and deep fried beancurd.
Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Sambal (chilli paste)

Blend the spices into a smooth paste.
Cook the blended spice in 1/2 cup of oil at low heat until aromatic (into a thick paste).
Put aside.

Noodles and condiment.

Blanch the yellow noodles and vermicelli (separately) for 5 minutes. Drain.
Divide the yellow noodle, vermicelli, prawns, and chicken slices into individual bowls.
Ladle hot Laksa Broth.
Garnish with some ginger flower, golden fried shallots and mint.

Thank you for the badge

'Cocoa' Tiramisu

2011-09-20T12:00:00.011+08:00

I was a coffee drinker... started at a very young age... perhaps as soon as I took my dislike in drinking milk, at six or seven years of age.
I would have a cup of instant coffee with 2 teaspoon of sugar for breakfast with 3 slices of bread. Then in the afternoon, I would have another cup of Malaysian coffee with sweet condensed milk ... with banana fritters or just dunk the cream crackers.
And when I was in Uni, I would indulge in latte, cappucino, espresso etc...
I could not resist coffee especially when I walked passed the coffee bar with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee in the air... as if its calling my name... I would walked straight into the coffee bar for my caffeine fix.

However, things started to change... I was at work, and had just finished my first cup of coffee... suddenly my heart was pumping so fast that I felt like my ribcage was about to burst... I thought it was work related, you know 'work related' stress!!

It happened again the next few days... not only my heart was beating fast...my head was swimming too... strong headache that I can't even open my eyes... it happened everytime I had a cup of coffee... then I knew the source of my 'excited' heartbeat!!! its

COFFEE

my body was telling me that it had enough of caffeine intake...

It has been 2 decades since I stopped drinking coffee... not even a sip or a bite of coffee flavoured cake, the effect is the same...

Being a sweet-tooth person...Tiramisu is one of the desserts I would love to try but dare not give it a go... all because of COFFEE ...

And being an imaginative person... and not wanting to miss out on good dessert... I had my Tiramisu with cocoa instead.... it was SUPERB...I can't compare with the Authentic Coffee based Tiramisu ... sorry...

So here is my take on 'Cocoa' Tiramisu... can I still call it Tiramisu?

Recipe

1 cup of brewed cocoa
1/2 cup of caster sugar
250g saviordi biscuits
250g mascarpone cheese
300ml thickened cream
1/4 cup Creme de Cocoa (non-alcoholic)

Pour warm cocoa in a shallow dish.
Dip the saviordi biscuits, one at a time, and line either ramekins or glass or cup.
Whip cream to firm peaks.
Mix in sugar, fold in mascarpone cheese and Creme de Cocoa.
Fill the glasses carefully with the mascarpone mixture.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Sprinkle with some grated chocolate or some caramel Hot Chocolate Powder.
Serve

Guest Post # 3~ Lemang/ Glutinous Rice wrapped in Banana Leaf

2011-09-16T19:00:00.042+08:00

I am so excited to be invited by Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yum to write and share with everyone about a traditional Malaysian delicacy, Lemang... (pronounce as Le-Mung). Lemang is a 'must-have' dish during Eid celebration.

Being far away from home, with only glutinous rice, coconut milk and banana leaves easily available, I managed to re-create Lemang at home...
To my fellow Malaysians who reside overseas...and at times have that 'craving' for Lemang... fret no more... you too can make Lemang without bamboo and a huge bonfire in your back yard.

So let us head over to Rosa's Yummy Yum blog to enjoy my Homemade Lemang.
And while you are there, do check out Rosa's exciting photographs of her mouth-watering food and her beautiful homeland of Switzerland... Everytime I look at her beautiful photos .... I was somehow lost in the land of my imagination... and kept on seeing Maria singing away with Von Trapps children... (nevermind that Sounds of Music was filmed in Austria...)

Click here for Beef Rendang Recipe...

Chicken Coated in Yoghurt and Sourdough Breadcrumbs

2011-09-13T11:30:00.034+08:00

This post will be my 'Almost Wordless' post.. After 2 lengthy posts..and another due soon... I think my brain and fingers deserve a break....

Let us sit back and enjoy photos from my garden...

Spring 2011...

Eucalyptus Macrocarpa ~ Red Pom-Pom flowers

Anemone

Daisies

Tahitian Lime Flower buds

Lemon Meyer flowers and the Bee

Recipe

1 tub of light natural yoghurt
1kg chicken breast - slice into 1.5 cm thick
1 Sourdough baguette
1 teaspoon dried herbs
salt

Marinate the chicken strips in yoghurt for at least 3 hours or overnight in the fridge.
Process sourdough baguette in food precessor into breadcrumbs.
Season breadcrumbs with salt and some dried herbs.
Heat up frying pan and pre-heat the oven to 200C.
Coat chicken strips with breadcrumbs.
Spray oil onto the chicken strips and place onto the hot frying pan.
Cook for about 2 minutes on each side to seal the juice.
Arrange on baking tray and baked for about 15-20 minutes until it is cooked.
Serve with roasted vegetable.

Nasi Minyak/ Savoury Rice

2011-09-06T11:28:00.006+08:00

In my previous post, I mentioned that Ayam Masak Merah is a special dish for Malay weddings... and I shall continue with another 'Wedding Dish' ~ Nasi Minyak or Savoury Rice to compliment Ayam Masak Merah.

In villages or kampongs... Malay weddings are celebrated as a community activity. Relatives and neighbours would get together to help out in the preparations, cooking, serving as well as cleaning up after the big event.
Men are assign with back-breaking task such as chopping fire woods, put up tents, arrange tables and chairs while ladies help out in peeling onions, removing rice husks from the rice grains, clean and cut-up chickens and kilos of beef, boil hundreds of eggs, make litres of syrup.
Some would be in-charge of decorating the dais for the happy couple to sit and be blessed by elders and guests, and some would be in- charge with decorating the 'bridal' suite...
Big woks and pots are put to good use. Frying and sautéing would be done on the eve.. with major cooking are done early in the morning on the wedding day.

My nieces in their traditional wedding attire...

Left ~ the beautifully decorated dais for the happy couple. Right ~ the bridal suite...

A typical Malay wedding banquet in small villages...

Left ~ a beautiful diamond ring for the bride.
Right ~ traditional Malay musical instrument known as 'Kompang' to welcome the bride and groom

As a kid, I loved to tag along my mom to weddings. I remembered Mom would put on her best Baju Kurung (traditional Malay attire for ladies), adorned in her finest jewellery. Then we would make our way to the wedding...

I would sit with my mom at the table... waiting anxiously to eat. The 'Mentara' or waiters/ waitresses would placed the dish... one by one...

I would go 'eyeing' each dish... a typical wedding feast would have Beef Korma, Ayam Masak Merah, fresh salad of cut-up pineapples, cucumber, onions and chillies, Beef Dhal Curry or Dalca... and finally plates of Nasi Minyak or Savoury Rice would be placed in front of me...

The aroma of Nasi Minyak wafting through the air was so irresistable....

The sweet aroma of ghee... creamy savoury taste of the rice would make my tummy go wild. But I had to exercise self-control and refrained from reaching out... must not start eating before the adults... and if I 'accidently' did... I would get a good 'secret' pinch on my thigh....

ouch!!

Bunga Telur signifies Fertility... guests wishing the newly-wed ~ a happy marriage and be blessed with offsprings

Finally... when everyone done feasting and chatting... the host would present us with their token of appreciation by handing out 'BungaTelur' ~ a nicely presented hard boiled egg wrapped in a beautiful sachet filled with 'Bunga Rampai' (Bunga Rampai is made out of semi dried finely sliced screwpine leaves mix with rose petals and few drops of rose water.. its the Eastern 'Pot-Pourri').

I would go home, happy and contented that I had my fill of wedding feast... and proudly carrying home my fragrant Bunga Telur...

-------------------------------------------------------

Last but not least.... I am submitting this to Sharon of Test with Skewer for her Muhibbah Malaysian Monday.

My thanks to my nieces and nephews for the wedding photos...

Recipe (for 4-5)

2 inch ginger julienne
2 tablespoon ghee
1 can evaporated milk (375ml)
1 screwpine leaves knotted
2 cups of rice (500ml)
1 cup of water (additional 1/4 cup if required)
3 cardamons
4 shallots - thinly sliced
a pinch of saffron

Bouquet garni

1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 star anise
5 cloves
1 cinnamon stick

Wrap fennel seeds, star anise, cloves and cinnamon in muslin cloth. Secure with cooking string.
Wash and drain rice.
Place the rice in Rice Cooker with the knotted screwpine leaves and Bouquet Garni.
Heat up pan and melt the ghee.
Saute cardamon and shallots until fragrant.
Add in julienne ginger.
Add evaporated milk, water and season with salt.
Gently pour the mixture in the rice cooker.
Add saffron on few spots on the 'about to cook' rice (approximate10 minutes before the rice is done) for the 'yellow' tinge.
Gently fluff up the rice.
Serve.

Guest Post #2 ~ Ayam Masak Merah

2011-08-30T08:17:00.004+08:00

I guess the best way to describe Ayam Masak Merah would be ~ Fried Chicken cooked in rich-creamy Spicy-Tomato sauce.

I am honoured to receive an invite from Bee of Rasa Malaysia, to guest post on her beautiful blog. Thank you, Bee.

Bee is a Penangite who now resides in the US, a mother to the gorgeous baby G and recently published her cookbook Easy Chinese Recipes.

I invite you to join me at Bee's Rasa Malaysia...Click here ...and while you are there, do check out all her mouthwatering photos and recipes...

The recipe for Ayam Masak Merah courtesy from my sister... who happened to be a great cook.

I am submitting this to Suresh Chong of 3 Hungry Tummies for the Muhibbah Malaysia Monday..

Eid Mubarak …

Selamat Hari Raya 2011/ Eid Mubarak 1432

2011-08-27T11:10:00.005+08:00

Wishing my Friends and Readers ….

Kuih Bahulu

To those who are making the long journey... through the horrendous traffic jam... to your respective hometown ... be safe on the road. Your loved ones are waiting with open arms to celebrate this joyous occassion.

And to those who are away from family ... err.. like my family and I , we'll make the best of our Raya/ Eid by celebrating with friends... and Raya cookies, lemang and rendang...

Pineapple Tart

Our Raya/ Eid Celebration will be incomplete without the presence of Kuih Bahulu , Pineapple Tart, Kuih Makmur and I could add Samperit previous post to my list of Raya Cookies...
note : click on the bold blue words to link to recipes... of respectives cookies...

Kuih Makmur

Maaf Zahir Batin... jika ada terkasar bahasa...

Samperit / Custard Cookies

2011-08-23T10:30:00.005+08:00

These are gorgeous 'Melt in the mouth' Samperit, one of many 'favourite' traditional cookies, in many Malay households during Eid Celebration in the 70's to 80's...

Every Raya /Eid celebration... my mom would start her preparation as early as 2 weeks before Eid. She would wash and dry the flat aluminium pot covers, which would served as baking trays later. Then Mom would do a checklist and put aside all the ingredients needed.
She would bake as many as 5- 6 types of biscuits.... and one of the 'must-bake' sweet treats would be Samperit.

My siblings and I, would have Samperit every Raya... but sad to say... we didn't know how to appreciate good things back then. We overlooked, underestimated the traditional cookies, and started to yearn for other exciting fancy name Cookies from the West.

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence...

Since none of her children were looking forward to the traditional cookies anymore... Mom stopped baking Samperit.

2 decades passed.. the craving and longing for traditional cookies started to kick in ...

I missed the 'Custardy-melt in the mouth taste' of Samperit ...

I missed that little yellow Rose flower cookies with the cute little red cherry on the top...

Most of all....I missed my mom baking us Samperit!!!

Samperit Nozzle...

I have been on a quest for few years ... to bake the perfect Samperit but failures came to greet me... , either the dough was too soft that the 'petals' fell flat during baking or the dough was too stiff that my thumb hurts when I was trying to push the dough out of the nozzle...

I gave Mom a call...asking for her recipe... she described in the detail how she did hers... unfortunately the quantities in her recipe were measured by that orange colour tin labelled Brown and Polson Custard Powder ... dang!!!

I surfed the net... found a few... tried but still not as good as Mom's... until the subject about Samperit was mentioned in one of my FB conversations with my former schoolmates... we talked food all the time...NOT!!!

Intan, generously share her recipe... and with her consent, I am sharing with everyone...
Thanks Intan...

Alas... my search for the perfect 'Melt-in the Mouth' Samperit is ....OVER!!!

Recipe (makes approximately 70 pieces)

150g margarine
80g icing sugar
50g cornflour
80g custard powder
120g plain flour
1 egg yolk
glaze cherries - chopped

Fry the cornflour, plain flour and custard powder into the dry wok over low fire until the mixture is light and leaves the side of the wok. Set aside to cool.
Beat the margarine and sugar until creamy.
Add in the egg yolk. Beat the mixture until well combine.
Add in flour.
Pre-heat oven to 120C.
Using the Samperit Nozzle (photo above)... pressed out the dough.
Topped with cut up cherries and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Sago Dessert

2011-08-17T10:56:00.001+08:00

Time flies and another week just flew out of the window... and soon Eid Celebration will be at our door steps...
I have to start my cookies baking soon...

If one were to visit some hotels in Malaysia for their Ramadan (Fasting Month) Buffet Spread... one of the desserts that you are likely to find is Sago Pearls served with dark brown sugar syrup and coconut milk...

And that was where D had his first taste of this gorgeous dessert and has not forgotten about it eversince... it was like ~ love at first taste for him...

With a packet of sago in hand... I asked him... and knowing what his answer would be ...
"Which would you prefer: Kuih Sago or Sago with dark brown sugar syrup and coconut milk...?"

Without a second to waste...I got his reply...

Enjoy this dessert either as it is or chilled for a couple of hours in the fridge.

Like D, you will craving for more ...

I am submitting this to Muhibbah Malaysia Monday #14 hosted by Suresh Chong 3 Hungry Tummies

Recipe (serve 4-6)

2 liter of water
200g sago pearls
2 pandan leaves ~ tie into a knot
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup of water
1 can of coconut milk

Place dark brown sugar, knotted pandan leaves and 1/4 cup of water in a small sauce pan.
Bring to a quick boil then lower the heat.
Leave it to simmer for about 10 minutes
Set aside.
Bring 2 liter of water to boil. Add sago pearls into the boiling water.
Stir continously... so it will not clump together.
Cook until all the pearls become transparent.
Drain off the starch and rinse under cold water a few times.
Spoon into glass or bowl.
To serve, add dark brown sugar syrup and coconut milk.

Pecan and Chocolate Tart

2011-08-09T11:40:00.002+08:00

When I announced... that I wanted to bake Pecan Pie for the weekend... one jumped with joy while the other gave me a 'not-so-happy' face... So, to pleased both; D and E, I decided to bake 2 types of pie ~ Pecan Pie and Pumpkin pie ~ ambitious? yeah... a Mom got to do what a Mom got to do... to please her brood, right?

D loves Pecan pie and E loves Pumpkin Pie... so settled... both were happy. Since I have 4 individual serving loose bottom pans... I baked 2 of each.
H and I can enjoy both pies... (greedy parents ...)

I was busy 3/4 of the day ... making the pastry, line them in the loose bottom pan, bake and mix the filling and bake again...

Finally when the pies were all ready, and we were about to sit down... to enjoy our desserts...

suddenly E asked, 'What type of pecan pie is this?'...'Is it your usual Pecan Pie?'

me~ No.... this time ... I added Chocolate in the filling...
E~ (a long)Ohhhh...... Can I have a bite?

... after her 'Can I have a bite' question.... the rest was history.... the Pecan and Chocolate Tart became hers... and I was left with her pumpkin pie!!!

When she was half way finishing the Pecan and Chocolate Tart... I posed her the million dollar question...

me ~ I thought you dislike anything to do with Pecan or Pecan Pie?
E~ but this is different...This is Pecan and Chocolate... and this is GOOD...

My hope to sink my teeth into both pies.... was quashed....
Looks like I have to bake another Pecan and Chocolate Tart... again...

Recipe (adapted from ABC Delicious Sweet)

Filling

50g unsalted butter, softened
125g light brown sugar
150ml light corn syrup
3 egg beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g dark chocolate , melted
200g pecan nuts, roughly chopped
Icing sugar to dust

Pastry

250g plain flour
110g icing sugar, sifted
110g chilled unsalted butter, chopped
1 egg

Place flour, icing sugar in food processor, pulse to combine.
Add in butter and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add egg and process until the dough comes together and forms a ball.
Enclosed in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
Roll out pastry to line a 23 inch loose bottomed tart pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
Line the tart with baking paper and fill with uncooked rice grains.
Blind bake for 10 minutes.
Remove the baking paper and rice grains and continue to bake for another 5 minutes until its golden and dry.
Filling ~ Place butter, sugar and corn syrup in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add egg, vanilla, chocolate and pecan nuts
Pour the Filling into the tart case.
Bake for 30 minutes or until set.
Set aside to cool and dust with icing sugar.

Goan Beef Curry

2011-08-03T10:15:00.002+08:00

In Bahasa Melayu...
'Saya mengambil kesempatan untuk mengucapkan kepada semua sanak saudara, rakan taulan, sahabat handai yang jauh maupun dekat ~

Selamat Menyambut Bulan Ramadan yang mulia... semoga segala amalan di berkatiNya'

_______________________________________________

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends and readers

Ramadan Kareem.

May this Ramadan brings us peace and joy to the world.

Aameen...

______________________________________________

Visiting Ramadan Market ~ one of the many things I missed ....celebrating Ramadan in Malaysia...

The moment I stepped foot into the market... feels like I was on another planet ...

'Planet Food'.

The arrays of food on sale... flavours from Coast to Coast, North to South of Malaysia... home cooked meals, all time favourite cakes, sweets and traditional kuihs, freshly squeezed sugar cane drink, cenduls....and a lot more... all in one place... ...

I know some of us who now resides in another part of the world... misses Malaysian Ramadan market... right?

Do you have one near you? and what is the market like?

One will not be able to find Goan Beef Curry... in the Ramadan market... perhaps something similar ~ Mutton Curry.

Recipe (adapted from The Food Of India)

8 cardamon pods
1 teaspoon fennel
8 cloves
10 cm cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 teaspoon coriander seeds
3 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 cup oil
2 onions finely chopped
6 cloves of garlic finely chopped
10cm ginger - grated
1kg gravy beef - cut into 3cm cubes
1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
2 teaspoon chilli powder
1 can of 400ml coconut milk
4 potaoes cut into wedges (optional)

Remove the seeds from the cardamon pods, grind in the spice grinder with fennel. cloves, cinnamon, fenugreek, black pepper, coriander and cumin into fine powder.
In a heavy base pan, heta up the oil and saute finely chopped onion, garlic and ginger until fragrant.
Add cubed beef, cook until brown all over to seal the juice.
Add in the grounded spices.
Give a quick stir for a minute, add coconut milk.
Bring to boil then reduce heat, cover the pan and simmer for about an hour.
Add potatoes in the last 30 minutes.
Season with salt.
Simmer until the sauce thicken, potatoes and beef are tender.
Serve with Naan click here for recipe or basmati rice

Green Tea Macarons

2011-07-26T11:42:00.004+08:00

My Macarons journey started in late December 2010...when I was given Secrets of Making Macarons by Jose Marechal as a Christmas present by my sweetie pie, E.

The book became my night read for a couple of months... I would read and re-read... trying to visualize in my head the art of making and baking macarons...

All equipment and ingredients were purchased ...and yet no sign of macarons. Kids and H were waiting patiently...
When I finally found my courage... my first attempt was to try out Italian meringue. I followed the 'step by step' stated in the book... they looked good during the drying time 'croutage'... but... Lady Luck was not on my side!!

My first batch was a failure ~ they turned out lopsided...just like a car having 2 of its tyres punctured! The second batch came out from the oven with similar fate...

Devastated... frustrated... not giving up ...

I was determined and desperate to bake macarons successfully. I left few comments on some blogs... citing the problem I encountered...

Xiaolu of 6Bittersweets and Rima of Bisous A Toi... responded to my SOS.

Xiaolu walked me through her experiences in macarons baking... as well as suggested a few links for further reading by successful macarons bloggers ...
Rima suggested that I adapt Swiss Meringue... less temperamental than French or Italian meringue.
Thank you Xiaolu and Rima....

3rd attempt... back to Italian Meringue. Taking in Xiaolu's advice on the oven hotspot, baking tray and baking sheets...I was getting better results... no more lopsided macarons... except that my mix was not fully incorporated, hence the 'peak'.

4th attempt ~ French Meringue... this time, I over mix the macronage... ripples appeared during baking... visble upon close scrutiny on the photo bottom right hand side...

5th Attempt ~ based on my little 'victory' above...I decided to take up Rima's suggestion of Swiss Meringue and I remembered reading an article Demystifying Macarons from Helene of Tartelette ... not to exceed more than 50 strokes when mixing.

Finally... sweet SUCCESS.... was mine....

my First

Green Tea Macarons

Phew.... this Macarons making ... reminded me of my first job working under the guidance of Dr Ting, a renown specialist Engineer in KL... He often reminded us... the nerdy, ambitious young fresh graduates to be Precise, Concise and Consistent... in our work.

The same anology could be applied here... well at least the Precise and Consistent ...

Green Tea Macarons for Elphaba...

Well...to conclude:
It was a good week... I successfully made my first batch of Macarons, we celebrated our 19th Anniversary and enjoyed Wicked the Musical... Wicked is playing in Perth now... if you have the chance... dont miss it... it was brilliant!!

Recipe (makes about 32 macarons shells)
(Recipe adapted from Bisous A Toi; Fillings from Macaroons by Love Food)

Macronage

80g egg white~room temperature
65g castor sugar
80g almond meal
140g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon of green tea powder
1/8 teaspoon of green food colouring paste

Filling

55g unsalted butter ~ softened
3 teaspoon of lemon juice
3 tablespoon of green tea powder
115g icing sugar

Preparation ~ 3 days before making macarons ~ separate egg white from yolk. Refrigerate.

Egg white at room temperature
Pulse Almond meal with icicng sugar for 5 minutes. Sieve. Set aside.
Mix the egg white and castor sugar in a heatproof bowl.
Making sure that the bowl will snuggly fit the pot, bring the water to boil then lower the heat to a gentle simmer.
Place the bowl on top of the pot, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the simmering water... aka double boil method.
Whisk the egg white mixture until the sugar is dissolved and the temperature reads 50-55C on the sugar thermometer.
Transfer the egg mixture into the mixing bowl with the balloon attachment.
Add lemon juice.
Whisk on medium speed until soft peak or 'shaving foam' consistency.
Add in food colouring.
Using a flexible silicon spatula, fold in sieved almond and green tea powder into the meringue one third at a time. And start counting the strokes.
Continue to fold until all dry ingredients are fully incorporated and it forms a shiny batter with a thick, ribbon like consistency...
Pour the mixture into a piping bag fitted with 10mm nozzle, and pipe onto prepared baking sheets.
Leave the tray at room temperature for 30 minutes or more until the macarons surface are 'drier' to touch.
Pre heat oven to 150C and bake each tray for 15-20 minutes depending on the oven.
Cool for 10 minutes then carefully peel off the baking sheet.
Leave to cool completely before piping in the filling
Filling~ beat butter, lemon juice until light and fluffy, then add icing sugar and green tea powder.Piped the filling onto the shells.
Macarons tasted better...after an overnight refrigeration

Apple Fritters with Ice-Cream

2011-07-20T11:15:00.018+08:00

What will you do when you have green apples and can't be bothered to whipped up apple pie?
On my lazy days... fritters will be the answer... only upon request from either D or E or H, then I would roll up my sleeves and start making apple pie.

I am not keen on deep frying food, first ~ the deep fried food tend to splatter and I have a whole stove to clean plus the floor ... and secondly, its not good for health...
Occasionally... I will not say no to fritters either...

My late father, GOD bless his soul... on his pay day every month, would come home with 2 bags of goodies... 1 bag of banana fritters and 1 mixed bag of sweet potatoes fritters, tapioca fritters and yam fritters. I loved them all. Sometimes he would come home with Goreng Sukun or Breadfruit fritters (seasonal).

The fritters were fried to perfection... golden colour, crunchy on the outside. And I loved the crunchy fried batter too... My siblings and I used to 'fight' over the crunchy loose bits.... until my dad had enough of our 'uncivilised' behaviour... he would asked from the vendors for an extra bags of just the crunchy loose bits .... called kerak in Malay. Kerak ~ 'droplets' or excess batter, that goes into the hot frying oil, hence deep fried along with the fritters.

Then I moved out from my hometown, Alor Setar to Kuala Lumpur, the fritters weren't the same anymore...

What's the secret ingredient in the Batter from Alor Setar?...

The batter is made of rice flour, water with salt added. But the 1 teaspoonful of air kapur or slaked lime water will give the batter its extra crunch...
Kapur or slaked lime or Calcium Hydroxide is used in the cooking...and that is the secret... click here to find out more.

The price of banana has skyrocket, and sweet potatoes are equally expensive in winter... there's no way that I would buy them now. My alternative is to use Granny Smiths apples, supplies are abundant and much... much cheaper in price ...
And since the batter uses rice flour instead of plain flour.... makes these gorgeous little delights... gluten -free fritters too...

These golden Apple Fritters are excellent as afternoon tea... even in our cold Perth winter

Recipe

2 Granny Smiths Apples
1 cup rice flour
1 teaspoon air kapur or slaked lime water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water (add 1 tablespoon if it is too thick)
juice of 1 lemon
oil for deep frying
Vanilla Icecream
Crunchy Bar chocolate
icing sugar
ground cinnamon

Squeeze some lemon juice into a bowl of water.
Peel and slice the granny smith into thick slices. Soak the slices in lemon water for few minutes.
Mix the rice flour, air kapur or slaked lime water, water and salt into a thick batter.
Heat up oil to 190C on sugar thermometer.
Pat dry the apple slices and dip into batter and straight into the smoking hot pot.
Deep fry until golden in colour
Dish out onto the kitchen paper.
To serve ~ Either sprinkle some icing sugar and ground cinnamon or top up with a scoop of store bought Vanilla Icecream and sprinkle some crushed Crunchy Bar.

Flu Tea

2011-07-15T15:10:00.005+08:00

We look forward to read the column called 'The Tuckerbox' in the newsletter 'Health, Safety and Environmental Magazine'...issued monthly by the company where H works. 'Tuckerbox' always featured health related or healthy recipes...
I guess it is design to educate its employees to eat better hence better health therefore increase productivity...

H came home one day, with June issue... and casually mentioned about the featured recipe for the month...

H~ this is interesting...
Me~ what is, luv?
H~ this month recipe...
Me ~ a-ha...what is it about?
H ~ Flu tea
Me~ 'still blur'... Oh Ok! what's in the fRuitty?
H~ garlic, ginger...bla..bla...
Me~ 'confused state of mind'... errr... with 'blank look on my face'

At this stage... my brain keep thinking of fRuitty... and for a second I thought H has lost his ability to pronounce letter R and replaced it with letter L... you know sometimes it happened~ the case of slurring, lazy tongue!! it happened to me all the times...hence the word came out as

fLuitty instead of fRuitty

Me~ you meant... fRuitty?
H~ No... Flu Tea... as in Flu...sniffle... sniffle...
Me~ Ohhh!!! Flu Tea....phew!!! that was really confusing...

And I was presented with this Flu Tea a week after our 'confusion' tete-a-tete ... I had runny nose...for 2 consecutive weekends... the body and mind needed pampering and required a lot of attention... as we said it in Malay... 'Manja' time...aka TLC

This Flu tea was excellent...
The ingredients used such as honey, lemon, garlic and ginger... all has healing factor....
Garlic, ginger and chilli have natural heating effect... that quickly warmed up my tummy.
Thyme was added to help with respiratory...
The taste of garlic...phew... not even dracula would want to kiss me after my first cup...

Last but not least...I would love to hear ....

how do you combat flu, cold? what herbal ingredients, or grandmother's recipe would you resort to?...

drop me a line... it will be interesting to share....

Recipe (adapted from Liza Oates ~ Food as Medicine)

2 large garlic cloves or 4 small cloves- crushed
2cm ginger - peeled and chopped
1 red chilli
3 cups of water
sprigs of thyme
lemon
honey (preferably Manuka or Jarrah)

Simmer garlic, ginger and chilli in 3 cups of water for 5-10 minutes.
Add a sprigs of Lemon thyme.
Leave it to steep for another 5 minutes.
Strain into a cup.
Squeeze 1/2 a lemon and add a teaspoon of honey into the cup.

Gomoku Yakisoba / Five Flavours Noodles

2011-07-12T11:40:00.098+08:00

Yakisoba takes me back to my 'rat race' days... The days that I would be less domesticated... the days that we would often eat out or ordered take aways... the days that I piled on kilos ...

Japanese restaurants were the 'in-thing' in the gastonomical Kuala Lumpur... almost everywhere... we were able to find Japanese Restaurants.
Some were classier and posh than the rest... Some restaurants were decorated with little Japanese trimmings and yet called themself Japanese Restaurant.

Our favourite Japanese joint at that time...was Kiri-Te... We would frequent this restaurant, at least, once a month. Kiri-Te was busy during weekdays with office workers, business lunches and so forth. It was less crowded after office hours... and even less patrons during weekends... except for a few Japanese expats... having their quiet dinner, catching up with news from Japan or youngsters keeping abreast with Japanese fashions... or kids engrossed with their Manga series...
The food was reasonably priced ... D and E loved it there... Unfortunately, it didnot survive the economic downturn and had since closed its doors ...

Udon and katsuo-bushi

I would order a plate of Yakisoba or Japanese Fried Noodles... almost everytime we ate at Kiri-Te.
It's one of my favourite Japanese noodles. I crave for Yakisoba over any other noodles for its subtle flavours... everything seems to blend harmoniously.

And other attraction is Katsuo-bushi or bonito flakes used as garnishing... Sprinkle some onto the piping hot Yakisoba and watch these very thin flakes 'dance'... fun to watch ...
Kids will be enchanted by the flakes .... and they will be more than happy to slurp every single noodle strand ...with the hope that katsuo-bushi would still be 'dancing' in their tummy ...

Try making some Gomoku Yakisoba or Five Flavours Japanese Fried Noodles ... experience the flavours ... and the dancing flakes

Recipe (adapted from Masaki Ko)

1 packet of udon
200g chicken breast - thinly sliced
4 1/2 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of ground garlic
1 1/2 cup thinly sliced cabbage
1/2 cup beansprout
1 yellow capsicum - cut into thin strips
1 red capsicum -cut into thin strips
salt and pepper
bonito flakes or katsuo-bushi

seasoning

4 tablespoon Worcester sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cook the udon as per packet instruction.
Heat 1 1/2 tablespoon of oil in a wok and stir fry the chicken until it is just cooked. Remove from wok.
Wipe the wok with absorbent kitchen paper.
Add the remaining oil to the hot wok, add garlic, ginger and cabbage. Stir fry for 1 minute.
Add beansprout, stir for another minute then add red and yellow capsicum. And stir fry for another minute.
Return the chicken to the wok.
Add noodles and seasoning.
Season to taste.
Stir-fry until all heated through.
Serve immediately and sprinkle with black pepper and garnish with bonito flakes.

Seasalt Chocolate Marshmallow Swirls

2011-07-08T11:32:00.001+08:00

Yay... Time to celebrate and do my boogie-woogie dance... ...

Winter

is here...

Cold nights and mornings... few days in a row, sent the thermometer dipping down to 1 degree Celcius... making the house feels like ONE BIG giant refrigerator.

The coldest part of the day ~ when the sun is about to rise... and that is the gorgeous time to capture the sunrise on camera... cold heavy air... everything basking in shimmering ... golden sunlight...

Beauty....

Taken at 7.20 am ... in front of our house, as the sun emerge from the horizon...

Hmm... I wonder how King's Park would look like around this time... nah!!! I will not entertain the idea for the moment... prefer my warm comfy bed... on cold mornings...

And winter is the time to indulge in little pleasures in life....

Hot Chocolate....

Winter and Hot Chocolate is like marriage made in Heaven... top with marshmallows.... and observe the marshmallow oozes....oooh Heavenly...

It was fun making marshmallows... not that difficult either.... be warn .... it is a very... very... STICKY business.

I had to resort to Rachel Allen's cornflour and icing sugar mix to reduce 'sticky-ness' when handling...

Kids were so impatient... wanting to try homemade marshmallows.... keep checking every now and then ~ 'Is it done yet?' ... and 'Can we eat now?'.

After leaving the tray to set overnight....

voila!!!

my homemade

Marshmallow...

yum

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have another good news to share...

drum roll.......please...

I am the second place winner for 'Does My Blog Looks Good In This' or abbreviated to DMBLGIT for the month of June 2011.... hop over to Charline's Cuisine to view other winners too...

and this is the badge that I will proudly display on the side bar....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recipe (adapted from Donna Hay-issue 57 and Rachel Allen's)

1 1/2 tablespoon gelatine
125ml water
385g caster sugar
160ml light corn syrup
60ml water - extra
50g Lindt Seasalt Dark Chocolate - melted
extra ~ 2 tablespoon of corn flour mix with 2 tablespoon of icing sugar

Mix the gelatine and 125ml water in the mixing bowl. Stir to combine and leave it for at least 10 minutes.
Add sugar, 60ml water and light corn syrup in a heavy base saucepan over high heat. Keep stirring until sugar dissolve.
Start and keep the mixer running on low.
Place sugar thermometer and bring to boil and cook until the temperature reaches 120C.
Gently pour the syrup to the gelatine mixture.
Increase the speed and whisk for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is light, fluffy, meringue like.
When the mixture starts to cool, pour into a 20cm by 20cm baking tray, lined with non-stick baking paper.
Top with melted dark chocolate and use a skewer to make swirls...
Cover with plastic wrap and leave it to cool at room temperature for at least 5 hours or until set.
Dust the knife with cornflour mixture and cut into squares.
And dust your fingers with cornflour to coat the sides of marshmallow (it is a very sticky business!!)

Enjoy with a cup of Hot Chocolate....

Hakka Bamboo Dumplings/ Soon Pan

2011-07-05T09:19:00.003+08:00

Have you tried or heard of Soon Pan (pronounced as soon pun) or Bamboo Dumplings?

We haven't.... and my Hakka man, H, haven't heard or tasted these dumplings before...

There can be one explanation why my Hakka man has zero knowledge of his 'clan' dish ~ his late mom was from different clan ~Teochew, and obviously she would have prepared mostly Teochew meals for her family.

Needless to say that H is more familiar with Teochew dishes than Hakka...

take note kids!!! the hand that rocked the craddle~ shape the future and rule the world... I am refering to me....OK!

~ there are many Chinese clans around the world... dialect, food preparation.... even traditions and customs are different from one clan to another... well ... China is a such a huge country... right?

This is our first time making and tasting Soon Pan or Hakka Bamboo dumplings

Bamboo dumplings may looked like gyoza or pot sticker... but taste nothing like gyoza.

The skin is chewy... reminded me of the Chinese New Year dish ~ yam abacus beads...

on different note: I thought of sharing some good news with everyone by posting this post over the weekend... but then nasty cold took over ... and I had no choice but to stay warm under my doona ... dozing on and off ... the medicine didn't let me stay awake for long either...

What was all the excitement about???

Well.....it was about

a new food website ... It was launched on Thursday 30 June...click here to experience Gojee ... and the good news is... you can find me and my recipes there... and many other recipes by other foodies too... Happy Browsing on Gojee.com !!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am sending this post to Test with Skewer hosted by Shaz for Muhibbah Malaysian Monday #13

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recipe (adapted from Agnes Chang)

Filling

4 tablespoon of oil
1 chopped garlic
75g of fresh prawns - deveined, shelled and chopped
1/2 tablespoon of miso paste
200g chicken breast - finely chopped
8 pieces of chinese dried mushrooms - soaked and diced
300 g of bamboo shoots- finely chopped
1 tablespoon of light soy
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 chicken stock cube
white pepper
250ml water

Dough for Skin

600g yam -steam and mashed
300g tapioca flour
salt
some boiling water to mix (if necessary)

Prepare the steamer.
Filling ~Heat oil in a wok and saute the garlic and prawns until fragrant. Add miso paste, chicken, mushrooms and fry until the chicken is cooked and fragrant. Add bamboo shoots and add seasonings. Cook until the mix is slightly on the dry side. Leave it to cool.
For the skin ~ Combine the mashed yam and flour and knead into a soft pliable dough. Roll the dough into a 3mm thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut into a round shape.
Place the filling and wrap to seal it up.
Place on a greased banana leave and steam for 8-10 minutes depending on the size of the dumplings.
Remove and brush with oil.
Serve with chilli sauce.

note : best to cover the dough with damp cloth...the dough will 'dried up' and turns cakey... due to the tapioca flour...

Chicken Tikka

2011-06-29T13:20:00.002+08:00

Enjoying Chicken Tikka or Tandoori Chicken served with Naan, takes me back to my 'exercise' days with my besties ~ Melinda, Steph, Judith and Shirley.

Once a week, we'd organised our 'Ladies' Night'... we'd meet up at Judith's place in the evening... went for our brisk walking... about 5 rounds around the block... a good 45 minutes walk... burnt out 'excess baggage', worked out buckets of sweat...

We enjoyed the walk... each other company... it was fun and we did all the exercise in the name of 'Keeping Healthy' and being 'Healthy' together...

but then...

After the exercise

we adjourned to the nearby 'Sri Neela' Indian restaurant or Mamak Stall Indian street hawker... only to gain whatever we burnt off... during our walk...

We'd order our Garlic Naan, Tandoori Chicken, Tosai, Iced Lemon Tea... and so forth... and we'd sat there chit-chatting... catching up on our daily life and kids' progress... D and E are besties with Steph's and Melinda's children since the age of 1 plus...

I missed our 'Ladies Night out' in Taman Desa.... and I missed you ladies....

Chicken Tikka on BBQ~ I am so chuffed that I managed to capture the roaring Flame...

Recipe (adapted from Taste of India)

Chicken Tikka

1 kg chicken thighs - cut into cubes
2 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 tablesppoon garam masala
3 tablespoon lemon juice
4 garlic cloves - finely chopped
1 cup of fresh coriander leaves - chopped
200ml plain yoghurt
lemon wedges
few drops of red food colouring.
salt

Minty Yoghurt Sauce

200ml plain yoghurt
1/2 cup finely chopped mint.

Place cut up chicken, yoghurt and spices into a bowl. Mix well. Season with salt. Cover and marinade overnight in the fridge.
Thread the marinated chicken into metal skewers.
Place on BBQ grill and BBQ until the chicken is cooked.
Mix finely chopped mint and yoghurt and season with some salt
Serve Chicken Tikka with Naan, lemon wedge and Mint yoghurt.

Naan Bread

2011-06-25T12:53:00.002+08:00

First and foremost.... my million 'thank you's for voting and supporting me on Babble.com. When I first discovered that I was nominated ... which was 2 weeks ago... From My Lemony Kitchen was at no 300plus... currently as I am typing away... I am at no 94... unbelievable!!! I made it to top 100... thank you... thank you... thank you...

Dont just stop yet... keep your vote coming by clicking here... hugs and from me..

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Its been a long while since we last had Naan... and my first attempt in making homemade Naan was a complete disaster...

After 5 long years, I decided to give it another try ... because... E wanted to have Naan with Chicken Tikka (another post coming...) as her belated birthday treat.

H and I came across this recipe from The Taste of India cookbook.

We had fun making Naan. And at the same time, we wanted to carry out some experiments... to find out the best way to achieve the Best homemade Naan ever... that worked well with our appliances... and of course our palate...

First ~ we experimented with the dough... made 2 batches within the span of 2 weeks... First batch was hand-kneaded and the second was by my 'old and trusty' Kenwood.

We prefer the hand-kneaded Naan ~ it is softer in texture in comparisons to the machine-kneaded Naan.. or could it be I over-mixed???

Second ~ we experimented with the cooking method ~ we baked a few, in the kitchen oven at the given temperature... how I wish I had Tandoor oven.. , and the rest, we cooked on the BBQ hot plate.

Result~ all of us prefer the later... Naan is soft, has some texture and 'meaty'. The oven baked Naan came out... all puffed up (just like Puri ~ Indian deep fried bread) and dry.

The 1st photo is the oven-baked Naan and the last photo is the BBQ hot plate version... Can you spot the difference?

Here... I am giving you both methods... of either baked in the oven or using BBQ hotplate...

the choice is yours

The dough has doubled in size.... after few hours.. hand-knead dough.

Turned the dough onto a lightly floured surface

Divide into 10 smaller balls...

... this is not authentic way of stretching the Naan... but it is less messy

The soft and 'meaty' Naan... using BBQ hot plate.

Recipe (yield 10 pieces)

500g flour
250 ml milk
7g dried yeast
2 teaspoon kalonji
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg lightly beaten
2 tablespoon oil
185ml thick yoghurt

Sift the flour and the baking powder into a mixing bowl.
Add in yeast, kalonji and salt.
In a jug, add in lightly beaten egg, oil and yoghurt.
Make a hole in the middle of the flour mix, pour in about 200 ml of milk and the egg-yoghurt mixture.
Knead into a soft pliable dough. If the dough seems on the 'drier' side... add the remaining milk.
Knead for 5 minutes on lightly floured surface.
Keep the dough covered in an oiled mixing bowl.
Leave it to rest until the dough doubled in size.

Cooking Method

Method 1 ~ oven

Preheat the oven to 250C.
Place a roasting pan with half-filled water underneath the rack. divide the dough into 10 portions.
Spread the dough into a 'pizza' like thickness.
Place the stretched Naan on a lightly greased tray and bake for 7 minutes, then turn the Naan over and cook for another 5 minutes.

Method 2 ~ BBQ

Divide into 10 portions.
Stretched the dough.
Brush the top of the Naan with oil.
Place on hot BBQ plate.
Close the BBQ lid,and cook the for 3 minutes, repeat with the other side.

Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce

2011-06-21T10:50:00.004+08:00

It feels great... to know that someone out there... enjoy reading my post... to know that my 'virtual kitchen' has inspired someone to try out some of the recipes posted...

With all the comments I received... taking in every word... never fail to put a smile on my face... The feeling is indescribable... ....

I love... cooking and trying out recipes, taking photos... although, most of my recipes aren't from famous chefs or best-seller cookbooks... plus I have yet to learn the rope of food-photography ... nevertheless ~I enjoy what I am doing...

Why am I being so emotional on this cold...gloomy Tuesday morning?.. well the reason is this....

I, "From My Lemony Kitchen" is on the list ~ Food Mom Blog 2011. organised by Babble.com. (Click the logo as above on the sidebar to take you directly to the voting page)

(I am currently on page 3 no 123)

I still have a long way to go... to be in the top 100 ... with every little nudge ie your vote, will get me there eventually...

Please vote for "From My Lemony Kitchen" ... I will update the sidebar to indicate 'how well' I am faring in the list....

and I 'thank you' for your vote, love and support... ....

Recipe (for 2)

2 bunches of asparagus
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vinegar

Hollandaise Sauce

50g butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 egg yolk - lightly beaten
1/4 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt

Asparagus

Clean and cut-away the harden end of the spears.
Microwave on HIGH for 2-3 minutes.
Check... and if the asparagus is not quite done, microwave again on HIGH for another 2 minutes.

Hollandaise sauce

Using a double boiler method, melt butter.
Add lemon juice, yolk and cream.
Stir until the mixture thicken.
Remove from heat, stir in salt and mustard.
Keep on whisking until the mixture is smooth.
Cover with cling film.
Leave it to cool.

Poaching egg

Fill about 3 inches high of water in a saucepan. Bring to boil.
Add in vinegar.
Crack the egg in a bowl. Gently pour the egg into the rapid boiling water.
Leave it for 2-3 minutes for a soft yolk.
Dish the egg out with slotted spoon onto kitchen towel.

Drizzle hollandaise sauce over asparagus and poached egg. Season with salt and pepper.

Puah Kiam Ti Chang/ Nyonya Glutinous Rice Dumplings

2011-06-16T11:42:00.006+08:00

We forgotten all about Dragon Boat Festival..until E asked her dad ...Click.here to know and read more about the Dragon Boat Festival and rice dumplings.

E~"Dad, is today the Dragon Boat Festival?"
H~'Ermmm...'
E~"My friend who is doing her class assigment on China... said today is the Dragon Boat Festival"
H~ 'then it must be..' isn't it obvious that he was clueless...

Then I chipped in ~ "isn't it time to make the Chang? Rice dumplings?"

We were a week late to feast on the dumplings... better late than missed out altogether, right?

We opt to make the Nyonya dumplings... It was our first attempt in making the dumplings, be it Nyonya or traditional dumplings...
Why Nyonya? Well... We have tasted the traditional dumplings when my Mom-in-law used to make them when she was still around... bless her soul.
There are vast differences between Nyonya dumplings and Traditional dumplings... from the glutinous rice preparation, colour and the filling... Note~ Authentic Nyonya Dumplings uses pork belly... but I am using chicken instead.

Good wrapping makes the dumplings... if I may say so... Both of us were 'beginners' in wrapping...
H was 'fussy', he wanted the dumplings to have that '3 triangles'... I tried wrapping once, twice ... then I gave up and let him do all the work...
First, I couldn't get my dumplings to have that characteristic, secondly... I dont know how to tie them up!! oh boy...its much easier to wrap Northern ketupat/ dumplings...*sigh*

H lamented ~ he should have learned the wrapping technique from his mom when she was still around..

Well... my dear~ you did an excellent job in wrapping all the dumplings and we did an excellent job in EATING!!!

There are 4 parts to the recipe ~ Prepare the filling, prepare and steam the glutinous rice, wrap and steam again....please follow through the recipe... especially the 'Wrapping' on You Tube at the end ~ that is the crucial part of the dumplings....

This post will also be sent over to Suresh Chong of 3 Hungry Tummies for the Malaysian Muhibbah Monday.

Recipe (adapted from Nonya Flavours)

Duo-coloured Glutinous Rice

500g glutinous rice flour
2 teaspoon blue colouring (or pea flower extract)
250ml coconut cream
salt
water

Filling

1 tablespoon peppercorn- grounded
4 teaspoon coriander seeds - grounded
4 cloves of garlic - chopped
300g chicken thigh - cut into small cubes
100g candied winter melon - chopped
100g peanuts - roasted and pounded
salt to taste

Bamboo leaves and bamboo strings -soaked overnight

pandan leaves- cut into 3 inches strips

Preparing the Filling:

Heat up the wok and saute the spices with garlic until fragrant.
Add chicken and stir until chicken is cooked.
Season with salt.
Add in chopped up candied wintermelon, continue to stir for few minutes.
Take off the heat and put aside
Add chopped peanuts when the mixture has cooled down.

Preparing Glutinous Rice

Wash and divide into 150g and 350g.
Soak both separately overnight. Add blue colouring or extract from pea flower (bunga telang) into the 150g glutinous rice
Prepare steamer.
line the steamer with muslin cloth and add the rice
Steam for 50-60 minutes or until cooked.
Stir in coconut cream
steam for further 10 minutes.

To wrap... refer to the 'You Tube' by Globetrotter Diaries below :

Note ~ with Nyonya Dumplings, follow in this order

1 tablespoon of white glutinous Rice
1 tablespoon of 'Blue' rice,
1 tablespoon of Filling ,
1 tablespoon of white rice, press them gently,
place a slice of pandan leaf
wrap as per video above
Steam for 20-30 minutes

Apple, Salmon and Capers

2011-06-12T09:20:00.002+08:00

Anyone had a good recollection of their younger days? What we used to play during our pre-school... kindy age?

The 'Dark' ages before sophisticated computer games exist, the time when Pac-man was unheard of? Barbie dolls has yet to make its journey to Malaysia?
And Ultraman was our hero...

Yes, we used to play with marbles, draw and cut-out dolls from coloured cards then designed, coloured in its dresses on papers, played skipping ropes...re-arranged chairs in tandem and pretended that we were in a car going on holidays to places... the very next day, chairs morphed into our imaginary boat... sailed away to far away land...

Time when... we were full of imagination, creative and resourceful... we used all kind of things that we could find around the house ~ sticks, pebbles, leaves, coconut shells, dug out clayey soil, mom's hibiscus and jasmines bloom...
Sometimes I would 'pretend' to be 'The Cook'... 'cooking' a storm for my siblings who were the 'Father and Mother' in our imaginary household... producing a colourful array of mouthwatering food... of sticks, stones, pebbles and flowers...

That was then....

And NOW ... with 2 teens and hubby dearest, I could no longer play 'Pretend' to be the cook...

because I am the COOK...

but I could still play with my food...

Apples, Salmon and Capers ~ came about as the result of letting my inner-child out to play...ingredients from my fruits bowl, larder and fridge... with the little fennel sprigs from my vegetable patch...
D just gobbled up salmon and capers (he dislikes apples)... H had no chance of sampling... because E and I cleaned up the platter...
Tasted great ...

Recipe

1 Granny Smith apple
salmon sashimi
1 tablespoon capers
1 lemon

Thinly sliced the apple. Soak for 5 minutes in the lemon juice (half of lemon juice), then drained.
Rinse and strain the capers.
Arrange apple slices in a serving plate, top with salmon sashimi and capers.
Drizzle with the remaining lemon juice.
Serve.

Note: If you are a little uncomfortable or squeamish... to eat raw fish... drizzle some lemon juice and let the lemon juice 'cooked' the fish slices.

Pan Mee/ Tearaway or Pull-apart Noodle

2011-06-07T11:40:00.011+08:00

"What would you like... for Mother's Day next week?" asked H, early last month... and I went.."ermmmm... let me think and I'll let you know"...

H is a practical man... I accepted the fact that he will not bring home a bunch of lovely roses, he would just cut some from our garden... and secretly hoping to dig the rose bushes out too... To him, its a waste ~ as flowers wont last.
Diamonds and gold? not that either... as he knows that I dont fancy those bling... bling...
Designer bags? I dont fancy that either... those days of wanting to look chic and cool... to be seen carrying one is over..

So what do I want or need?... My 'Want' list can go on and on and on... but 'Need'?... yeah Mr 'Need' always stop me in my track ... I have to be practical ... living with pragmatic man ... as well as to set a good example to the kids, so they can be more prudent in digging the coffers...*cough*... our coffers ... and weigh their needs and wants too!!!

This is what I requested for my Mother's Day treat.... Pan (pronounce as Pun..) mee or tearaway /pullapart noodle. A meal to be shared by all...

I missed having this noodle... the last time I had it was 5 years ago...there are many versions and variety... the best Pan Mee, that I have tasted so far is in Oasis Food Court in Megamall Midvalley, Kuala Lumpur...

Note from H ~ there are a lot of ingredients... a lot of preparation... but in the end ... seeing the smiles of satisfaction on everyone's face... worth the while...

I am participating in Muhibbah Malaysian Monday hosted by Suresh Chong of 3 Hungry tummies. and I am sending off this post to the event... See you there..

Recipe

Noodle

300g flour
2 teaspoon cornflour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoon water

Meat toppings

250g mince chicken
4 garlic - chopped
3 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon dark caramel sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
200ml water
2 teaspoon corn starch
white pepper and salt to taste.

Garnishing

Crispy fried anchovies or ikan bilis
Cloud ear mushroom - soaked and thinly sliced
thinly sliced spring onions
Crispy fried shallots
Choy Sum ~ give a quick blanch

Chillies

Juice of 2 limes
light soy sauce
chopped garlic
cut up chillies

Soup

3 liter water
200g anchovies
2 cm ginger -bruised
salt
pepper
garlic

Prepare Noodle ~Place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and add the wet ingredients. Knead into a dough. Set aside to rest for at least 30 minutes.
Prepare Meat Toppings ~Saute chopped garlic till fragrant. Add in mince chicken. Cook until the chicken turn slightly opaque. Add in sauces, sugar, and sesame oil. Keep stirring until chicken mince is cooked through. Mix corn starch with water and add onto the mince mix. Cook until the sauce thicken. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Prepare the garnshings and set aside.
Mix the cut up chillies with lime juice, light soy sauce with chopped garlic in a bowl and set aside.
Prepare Soup ~Mix everything in a medium size pot and bring to boil. and leave it to simmer with its lid on.
To serve~ Bring a pot of water to boil, flatten and tearway or pull-apart the dough into the size of 50 cents coin, and drop it in the boiling water. The tearaway noddle is ready when it floats up. Scoop up with slotted laddle and into serving bowls.
Top with meat toppings, garnish and ladle some soup into the serving bowl.
Serve hot with some cut up chillies.

Thanks my darling... for the wonderful Mother's Day meal...

Granola

2011-06-03T10:30:00.010+08:00

Yay... Winter is here!!!!

Its a nice change to wake up to a less than 10 degree Celcius every morning... I can tolerate cold days but not the hot sweltering heat.

The lawn and garden are greener... beautiful... Days like these makes me want to go out and soak in the winter sun with a cup of tea and a book or magazine in hand, or just potter around the vegetable patch... do some weeding...

Not only winter sun in Perth is gorgeous and beautiful... but the cold weather tend to make me go lurking in my larder, looking for my 'Comfort Food' too... I would snack a lot in winter.... Larder is my best friend when I am feeling peckish...my worst enemy to my waistline...

See what I found... while rummaging through my larder... a packet of sunflower seeds, pepitas, hazelnuts, almond, unfinished packet of dried cranberries and some oats. Looking at all the ingredients ... homemade granola seems like a brilliant idea!!

It is so easy to make granola... measured everything by the cup... mix everything in a mixing bowl. Microwave honey and oil.... and pour into the raw ingredients... good to go into the oven...set the timer and voila...

I thought that I was doing OK with time... so I ventured out into my garden... with my ears trained to listen out to the oven's beep...
And the oven did beep... but....

I burnt my granola... what a bummer!!!

If only I'd listened to my mom's advice... to stay put in the kitchen, whenever I am cooking....

Tipped the whole pan into the rubbish bin.... quickly onto making my second batch... This time I stay put in my kitchen... eyes practically glued to the oven...

And the second batch turned out nice... golden, crunchy GRANOLA... healthy winter breakfast... as well as Healthy SNACK for me...

Recipe (adapted from Healthy Cooking ~ Fiona Hunter)

1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup hazelnuts
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup cranberries
1/4 cup sultanas

Pre heat the oven to 140C.
Roughly chopped almonds and hazelnut.
Mix seeds, oats and nuts in a mixing bowl.
Add canola oil and honey in a bowl. Microwave on HIGH for 20 seconds.
Pour the honey mixture into the seeds mixture.
Stir and mix well.
Bake the granola for 20 minutes until its golden. Keep a close eye on your granola in the oven...
Mix in cranberries and sultanahs (optional).
Leave it to cool.
Store in an airtight container.

Black Quinoa Salad

2011-05-31T08:45:00.012+08:00

'The Gold of the Incas' ~ Quinoa... wonder grains from South America. I will not elaborate further on this wonder grain... just click here to know more about Quinoa.

These tiny grains contains so many 'properties' that are beneficial to our 'well being'~ it helps eases migraine headaches good for me, cardiovascular and many more.. Click here to find out more on the 'health benefit' of Quinoa.

I wanted to try Quinoa ... but held back as I wasn't sure whether I would like the taste and texture of Quinoa... since it is categorised under 'Health Food' ~ the price was a lot dearer than any grains or legumes. To buy or not to buy? is always the question...

Finally... my golden opportunity came...

It was nearly lunch time... and the lunch crowd was growing by the minute... no hope of us getting any seats anywhere in the Food Court ... so we decided to grab some lunch at David Jones instead.

My lucky star must be shining so bright on that day... DJ's Salad Bar had Black Quinoa Salad... I had to have that salad!!!

I was blown away by the taste and the texture, that I had to write down all the ingredients that I could 'see and taste' on my serviette can't always rely on the rusty CPU up in my head anymore, you know.

Its like... South America meet Asia... crunchy nutty bits of Quinoa with a hint of ground cumin and fresh coriander... beautiful ... beautiful... beautiful salad.

And YES I would whip this again ...and again... and again ...
My (improvise) version of Black Quinoa Salad...

and one more thing worth mentioning ~ the salad tasted even better the next day!!!

Recipe

1 cup black Quinoa
1 tablespoon cumin
1 small red capsicum
1 small yellow capsicum
1 carrot
1 small zuchini
1 handful of almond
1 handful of raisins
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup of chopped coriander
salt

Rinse and wash thoroughly black Quinoa. Add the washed quinoa into a pot filled with water. Boil for 15-20 minutes. Wash under cold water and strain. Put aside
Roast cumin in a frypan (dry roast) until fragrant. Then ground the cumin.
Cut the carrots, zuchini, capsicums into matchstick size.
Roughly chopped almond
Mix everything in a mixing bowl.
Season to taste.

Happy Birthday ~ Our Sweetie Pie...

2011-05-27T14:44:00.008+08:00

Chocolate Macarons for her school mates

Today's post will not be about food and recipe (save it for my next post)... it will be about my Sweetie Pie ~ E.

You guessed it right.... the photo above... absolute giveaway!!!...
My Sweetie Pie is another year older ...

Oh Gosh!!! Time flies... it sure feels like it was just yesterday... for the first time, I craddled her sweet smelling, fragile little body up next to mine... with her teeny-weeny head could just fit the palm of my hand... her foot was just about the width of my two fingers... and the labour pain that still gives me 'The Shivers' down my spine...

Oh... yes... She is a definite bundle of joy, a dynamite... amazing to see her bloom...from her boyish baby look...to dresses that was because of hand-me-down clothes from D... , from crop short hair to tresses...

She is our livewire... a rainbow to our gloomy days, a breath of fresh air... grace our everyday life with her sweet, mischievous, caring, loving and forever with a smile on her face...

And here she is... 14 years later

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sweet E

We Love you

May GOD bless you everyday

Enjoy .... Have a Wonderful Day

Cajun Hasselback Potatoes

2011-05-23T12:45:00.006+08:00

Everytime I think of the word~ 'Hasselback'.... and I would go off tangent and think of 'Hasselhoff'... ask me not... why I equate Hasselback and Hasselhoff .

Hasselback~potato and Hasselhoff ~errr...used to be hunky, muscular chap in Knight Rider (before Baywatch...). Perhaps something to do with the 2 words started with 'Hassel...'.

Hasselback... not as muscular as Hasselhoff, is pretty, evenly sliced potatoes and looks presentable... excellent with Sunday roast.

A good technique to have an evenly sliced potato without cutting right through...and go if you do!!!! is to slice the potato on a wooden spatula. Some would use a skewer inserted across the potato... but I prefer using the spatula instead. Its easy and less messy and still look as 'pretty'...

Recipe

8 Potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoon cajun spice

Washed and dry the potatoes with kitchen paper. Set aside.
Mix olive oil and cajun spice in a bowl.
Pre heat oven to 220C.
Slice the potatoes as photo above.
Brush with cajun mix.
Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the potatoes are golden and crisps.

Autumn Fruits

2011-05-20T11:45:00.005+08:00

We spent our last weekend... discovering quaint little town called Dwellingup. It was about 1 1/2 hours drive from our place... approximately 130km.

We wouldn't have made the trip to Dwellingup, if not for D. He was to have his first 'camping expedition' in the Bibbulmun Reserve... preparing him and 60 others for their upcoming 'World Challenge' event to Nepal in November.

We drove along 2 Freeways towards Pinjarra...another small town which is famous for its 'Patisserie'...

We drove another 24 km towards Dwellingup... passing by undulating terrain as far as our eyes could see... where sheeps, cows and horses soaked in the morning sun while grazing...

We reached our destination in good time and on time.

Dwellingup is a small town indeed... about 200m long... and that's it. Blink and you'll miss the town...
It is 'the place' for outdoor-sy people... where one could go cycling or trekking part of Bibbulmun track... Bibbulmun Track is approximate 963 kilometers stretching from Albany to Kalamunda in Perth....

Perth Autumn this year is relatively mild comparing to previous years... therefore not a lot of Autumn displays could be seen... but it was a different scenes altogether in Dwellingup... the Autumn colours are amazing... shades of green turning to yellow to brown...

We stopped at one of the orchards on our way home... bought some really... really fresh fruits... a 5kg bag of mixed fruits... apples ~ various types of apples ..gala, granny smith, hi-early, pink lady and pears for AUD10. I clicked away at the beautiful Autumn colours around the orchard.

I could not resist but to put up this photo of the lone raspberry...
I didn't know that raspberry could be cultivated here... duh!!

We then drove off ... taking different route ~ South Western Highway... and we ended at another orchard... Persimmon Orchard.

The orchard is located much... much... nearer to Perth. My thanks to my blogger friend, Lemongrass, for the information... we bagged another bargains... a tray of 25 pieces of Persimmons for AUD14...

The fruits are fresh, crisp, juicy and sweet... it will be a waste to either bake or do something else with these gorgeous fruits....I decided to just enjoy my Autumn fruits...diced and served with finely chopped mint...

One word came to mind ~

REFRESHING....

Recipe

1 pink lady -diced
1 peckham pear - diced
1 persimmons - diced
1 kiwi fruit - sliced
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 mint leaves - chopped finely

Soak the diced apples and pears in a bowl of water with lemon juice added to it for 1minute, to minimise oxidation or 'browning' to the cut up fruits.
Mix all in a bowl with finely chopped mint
Serve

Radish Cake

2011-05-17T09:00:00.003+08:00

This is what happened when 2 cultures meet... we have vast selection of food to cook... thus enjoy.

Sometimes we just dont know where to start or which to choose from... as there are so many 'childhood' favourites that we want our kids to appreciate with some glimmer of hope that one day... they will reminisce their younger days through their tastebuds too...

H grew up with Chinese food... while I grew up with Malay and Indian food. Between the 2 of us... we 'practically' have 'Malaysia Gastronomic' in our kitchen... Note : I am dropping the 'Mr and Miss' from now on... to be less formal and less alphabets for me to type...

And Radish Cake~ one of Chinese delicacies... that would have come 'unnoticed' to me... until H came along...
D formerly known as Mr H Jr and E were introduced to Radish Cake on our trip to Kuala Lumpur in January this year... they loved it... especialy D, who adores deep fried food... between them... they almost finished the Radish Cake in record time... Two hungry teens! Looking at D and E ate so heartily... and 2 packets weren't sufficient for both...I made a mental note to get H to cook Radish Cake when we returned home...

Nearly 4 months after our trip... the kids were delighted when we presented them... with Radish Cakes... Believe me ... when I say that these little delights are addictive, and we finished it all, in record time too...

Finally... I am posting this to Muhibbah Malaysian Monday #11 hosted by Sharon of Test with Skewer

Recipe (adapted from Agnes Chang)

500-600g of radish- shred finely
2 garlic - chopped
3 tablespoon of dried prawns - soaked and chopped
120g of chicken breast - diced
salt and white pepper for seasoning
1/2 teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice
300g rice flour
75g tapioca flour
4 cups of water (including water from cooking radish)
For garnishing ~ chopped chillies, thinly sliced spring onions, golden fried shallots
Chilli Sauce to serve

Place the shredded radish in a medium size pot with 1 cup of water, boil until the radish is soft and tender. Drain the cooked radish and reserve the water (to be added on to the water above to make 4 cups of water). Leave it to cool.
Mix the 2 flours and the water together. Sieve.
Heat up wok, add oil and stir fry chopped garlic and dried prawns until aromatic.
Add in diced chicken. Cook until the chicken is slightly opaque in colour.
Add cooked radish, batter and seasonings.
Meanwhile... spray some oil onto the tray and prepare the steamer. Steam the tray for few minutes.
Continue stirring the batter until thickened.
Lower the heat and pour the batter into the heated greased tray and steam for 45 minutes to an hour.
Leave it to cool. Cut into slices.
Heat up the wok with 1/2 cup of cooking oil and fry the radish slices till golden colour on both sides.
Garnish and serve with chilli sauce.

Chocolate Brownies

2011-05-11T09:15:00.006+08:00

Hope you had a fabulous Mother's Day celebration... being pampered by loved ones... and wouldn't it be nice if every weekend is Mother's Day?

My 'Mother's Day' started quite late-ish... as the person who was planning to make me breakfast in bed ... was still in her 'slumberland'.

I am an early riser... would usually be awake by 5 am ... and last Sunday, I was staring at the ceiling... blinking away... I even managed to web browse under the duvet... as not to disturb Mr H and to pass the time... Alas... my eyes were strained to the max.. squinting away at the teeny-weeny screen ...

I decided to get up and go to the study and switched on my computer, lo and behold, the minute I plonked my bum onto the chair... she walked in. Obviously "someone" was not happy!!... but not for very long... with a promise that I would not step foot into the kitchen... and would get back into bed... the minute she started with breakfast... she was all smile and chirpy again...

While Mr H was cooking... his version of 'Pan Mee' for lunch... (next post... maybe... when he has decipher his recipe code for me to read and type!!), Miss E busied herself preparing to bake Chocolate Brownies... for tea-time... with lesser sugar and instead of using white chocolate chips ... she scattered lots of chocolate milk chunks...

Last but not least... I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #7 – Chocolate Delight (May 2011) hosted by DG of Tested and Tasted

Recipe (from the Nestle Baking Cocoa)

150g butter
1 cup baking cocoa
4 eggs - lightly beaten
1 1/2 cup raw sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 bar of cooking milk chocolate - break into chunks
Optional ~ some cooking white chocolate - melted

Pre heat the oven to 160C. Line baking tray 20cm x20cm with greasedproof paper.
Melt butter in microwave for 30 seconds or more. Stir in baking cocoa. Leave it to cool slightly.
Mix in eggs, sugar and vanilla. Add in sifted flour and baking powder into the mixture. Mix well.
Pour half of the mixture onto the prepared tray.
Scatter the chunky milk chocolate.
Pour in the remaining batter.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
Leave it the pan for 20 minutes before cutting the brownies into square.
Drizzle the melted white chocolate over.

Marbled Rye Bread

2011-05-07T08:35:00.002+08:00

I can't help but to mention again and again... on how good Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice (BBA) book is... and I am sure that I have said this more than once that~ this is the best Bread book I have come across. My kids often ask for his 'pizza dough'... not my lazy way of using Lebanese Bread as pizza base!!! and Miss E has mentioned once or twice that it has been a long time since she tasted homemade baguette using Peter's recipe... soon my dear... I am planning to make one soon...

This is another marvellous bread recipe from Peter's BBA... Marbled Rye Bread... and my second attempt.

My first Marbled Rye was a disaster... I could not pin point the exact mistakes... but I could think of a few factor that may contribute to my failure...

1st ~ American cup measurement is different from Australian
2nd ~ I didn't knead long enough as I was afraid that I might overmix the rye... hence did not pass the window pane test.
3rd~ I should have halved the recipe to fit into my standard size sandwich loaf pan...

Based on my assumptions ~ above... I halved the recipe, set my digital scale to 'ounce or oz' too lazy to convert to metric, and knead the dough until both passed the windowpane test..

And voila... marvellous loaf of bread...

Oh... one more thing before we proceed to the recipe...

Noticed the watermark on the photos? My million... trillion and gazillion thanks to my lovely daughter, Miss E... for the brilliant artwork and being ... so... patient with my 'forever change of mind'... love you, babe..

Happy Mothers' Day to everyone...

Recipe

Light Rye

3 oz white rye flour
6.8 oz unbleached bread flour
0.19 oz salt
0.1 oz instant yeast
0.1 oz caraway seeds
0.38 oz molasses
0.5 oz shortening
5.5 oz + 2 tablespoon of water at room temperature

Dark Rye

3 oz white rye flour
6.8 oz unbleached bread flour
0.19 oz salt
0.1 oz instant yeast
0.1 oz caraway seeds
0.38 oz molasses
0.5 oz shortening
5.5 oz + 2 tablespoon of water at room temperature
0.5 oz cocoa powder

Eggwash ~1 egg plus 1 teaspoon of water, whisked until frothy

Step 1~ Light Rye

Stir well flours, salt,yeast,caraway seeds and molasses in a bowl of an electric mixer.
Add shortening and 5.5 oz of water.
Attached dough hook and turn the dial to medium.
Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is soft, supple and pliable.
Lightly oil the dough and transfer to another bowl.
Cover with cling film and set aside.

Step 2~ Dark Rye

Similar to the above... but remember to add on the cocoa powder.

Step 3~ Next stage

Ferment both doughs (separately) at room temperature until both doubled in size.
Turn each dough on lightly floured surface and flatten into a rectangular shape.
Lay both dough on top of each other and roll.
Place the dough in an oiled sandwich loaf pan.
Set aside to proof again for another 90 minutes or until doubled in size.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
Brush the top gently with egg wash.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Remember to rotate the pan half way through baking for even baking.
Remove from pan immediately and leave it to cool on the cooling rack for at least 1 hour before serving.

Salmon Croquette with Wasabi Mayo

2011-05-04T09:00:00.035+08:00

First and foremost... I would like to apologise to all... I made a blunder by accidently clicking the "Publish Post" button for the non-existence post 'Sweet as Sugar'.... I was trying to create a link with another blogger friend... My sincere apologies for my technology handicap..

There aren't many shops near my suburb selling reasonably priced fresh seafood... where you could still see the glassy eyes, the gills are still bloody red and the runny egg-white like goooeey stuff. The nearest would be Progressive IGA but it is not as fresh as our favourite ~ Kailis Brothers Seafood shop in Leederville...
We could spend few good hours ... walking to and fro ... looking around ... ended up buying whole salmon ... anyway its cheaper to buy the whole fish and get them to cut into whatever cut ... I would have one side filleted with skin on, the other side.. filleted and skin-off.

Half of skinned off will usually ended up as our lunch ~ sashimi.

On numerous occasion... we were good and managed to finish every single slices of sashimi on the plate.... but this was one time that we could not ... instead of keeping the remainder in the freezer... not wanting to waste a good piece of fresh salmon, I made some Croquettes for their lunch-box ... served with Wasabi Mayo (and tomato sauce for Miss E).

This is my first ~ salmon croquettes... it was a combination of internet search for recipe and make do with whatever I have in my pantry. I love the crunch of polenta on the outside and the soft salmon mix on the inside... and the wasabi mayo gave an extra kick to these golden delicious croquette...yum... definitely will be making these again...

Recipe

300g fresh salmon
2 potatoes
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1 brown onion - finely chopped
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
polenta
some oil
1 teaspoon wasabi
1/4 cup of mayonaise

Mix wasabi and mayonaise until smooth. Set aside.
Peel and boil potatoes until tender and soft. Roughly mashed it with fork. Set aside.
Thinly sliced salmon. Look out for bones and pull it away.
Add mash potatoes, salmon, breadcrumbs, chopped onion and egg in a mixing bowl. Mix well.
Add in plain flour, salt and pepper. Mix in well and able to make little patties.
Roll the patties in polenta.
Heat up frying pan and pour in cooking oil (about half the height of the patties).
On medium heat, fry the salmon croquette until golden.
Serve with wasabi mayo and slice of lemon.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-04-30T08:38:00.012+08:00

Late last year, Miss E brought back from school... the list of 'electives' subjects, for students to choose for the following year. Since she is in the Music Programme... she was limited to two electives. She decided to do Home Economics and Photography, as her elective subjects. Was I surprise? No... I 'kind of' expected that she would picked up these two subjects...the little girl who wants to grow up and be "like you MOM"...so she said

They would cook or bake something... and everytime, she'd bring home some for us to taste ... but sometimes when she made something nice like these Chocolate Chip Cookies ....

"Mom... the cookies were so good that I finished them all...sorry..." with her Cheshire cat smile ... "but I'll bake some during the school holidays...OK?"

and here she is... baking her cookies for us...

She did everything ... I only helped her with the oven and of course cleaning up afterwards... oh! taking photographs as well...

Carefully ... she placed them onto the baking trays...

She was looking forward to sink her teeth into this Ginormous Cookies...

but.... it broke...in transition, from baking tray to cooling rack

who is the culprit????

scroll down after the recipe.... to know that guilty person...

Recipe (yield about 12 cookies~ adapted from Miss E folder)

125g butter
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1 ½ cups self raising flour
100-200g choc chips

Pre-heat the oven to 180C
Cream together butter, sugars and vanilla essence
Add lightly beaten egg gradually, beating after each addition.
Mix in sifted flour.
Add chocolate chips and mix well.
Shake teaspoon full of mixture into small balls, place on a lightly greased oven tray, allow room for spreading.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Its ME....

pss.. I've linked to Lisa's @ Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Aromatic Chicken with Yoghurt Sauce

2011-04-26T07:30:00.011+08:00

Indian cuisine has lots of flavour with every bite... with wonderful aromatic spices like cumin, black pepper,coriander, cardamon as well as the use of fresh tumeric, ginger, coriander and mint.

Among those wonderful spices...my favourite spices are coriander seeds and cumin, and I have them in big bottles...stock up in my pantry. what's your favourite spice/s...?

Going down memory lane... when I was in my teens and my sisters left home to either work or start their family, and I was the only 'girl' left in the house to help my mom in her kitchen... boys were spared and barred from the kitchen... dont ask me why!! I haven't a clue till today mom would asked me to prepare spices for her...either cumin or coriander.

I had to pound the spices... using mortar and pestle, I kept crushing and pounding until my hand ached but the aroma from the spices permeated my senses that makes everything worthwhile... my love for cumin and coriander blossomed... The taste of cumin or coriander added to curries or any Indian cuisine... is heavenly... Cumin and coriander had made a rubberstamp in my brain sensory cells...

That's one of the reasons, I love Indian food... the aroma of the freshly grounded spices... and a good memory~ spending time with mom...in her kitchen

Aromatic Chicken in Yoghurt Sauce is an exquisite Indian Cuisine that uses plentiful of fresh herbs with spices, that one would fall in love with ...every single bite... plus it has grounded coriander

Dont be discouraged by the long list of ingredients... it just takes a matter of minutes to blend the spices, yoghurt and herbs before adding to the chicken and straight to oven...

Recipe (from The best of Indian Cookery)

1 kg of chicken thighs
3 tablespoon poppy seeds
2 tablespoon almonds
3 tablespoon golden fried shallots (plus 1 tablespoon for garnishing)
300 ml Greek Yoghurt
2 tablespoon Hara Masala (chopped mint and fresh coriander)
2 teaspoon Garam Masala (store bought)
400ml water
1 tablespoon coriander- grounded
2 tablespoon Four Spice (ginger, garlic, chilli and tumeric - blended into a smooth paste)
3 tablespoon of oil and dollop of butter
salt

Wash the chicken and pat dry with kitchen paper.
Heat about 2 tablespoon of oil in the frying pan, brown the chicken to seal the juice. Remove and place the chicken in a casserole dish and set aside.
In another frying pan, roast then grind poppy seeds and almonds.
Place the grounded almond and poppy seeds into a blender together with Greek Yoghurt, golden fried shallots, Hara Masala, Garam Masala and 200ml water. Blend into a smooth paste.
Pre heat the oven to 180°C.
Reuse the oil (chicken earlier) and reheat in the same dish with a dollop of butter.
Add the Four Spice and grounded coriander and fry until fragrant.
Pour in the blended yoghurt spice and the remaining 200ml water, leave it for 5 minutes until the mixture is heated through.
Pour the mixture over the chicken.
Baked in moderate oven for 1 hour or until the sauce thickened...
Garnish with golden fried shallots and serve...