Corned Beef Kheema

My plan was to have sandwiches for dinner earlier but my tummy was calling out for something spicy. While flipping through a magazine, suddenly I remembered that I have a can of corned beef and frozen instant prata in the freezer. With mixed vege and potato, I made this in under an hour 8-D

I am particular about the corned beef brand and buy only any one of these 3 brands: Libby's, Hormel or Carters. They are a little pricey but good.

This recipe has ketchup/paste that you can omit if you prefer something very spicy. You can also add sliced chilli for extra kick.

Nb: This following recipe is a very basic recipe. You can add more ingredients like fresh coriander leaves, chopped fresh tomatoes, cloves, cardamon and cinnamon to make it more fragrant and savoury.

Ingredients
1 can corned beef, mashed
thumb size ginger
3-4 cloves garlic
5-7 shallots
1 heap tbsp meat curry powder, mixed with a little water to become a paste
1 medium potato, cubed
some mixed vege
3-5 tsp lemon juice
1-2 tbsp tomato ketchup/paste (optional)
2 tbsp oil

Method
1. Blend shallots, garlic and ginger into paste and pour into the mashed corned beef and mixed them well, put aside
2. Heat oil in the pan and once hot, pour meat mixture and stir fry till fragrant
3. Add potatoes and let it simmer for about 10 mins then add mixed vege
4. Add curry paste and continue mixing followed by tomato ketchup
5. Stir the mixture then add lemon juice and let it simmer till the potatoes are cooked
6. For more gravy, add a little bit of water and continue simmer till it has the consistency that you like
7. Serve hot with chapati, prata or flat bread

Chicken Chop

This is one of my daughters favourite dish and made it for dinner a few weeks ago. This is a simple dish and I highly recommend purchasing a millet to flatten the meat a little bit. I don't have a millet and my chicken was a thick piece of meat. Nevertheless, we enjoyed it.

For this dish, I used a deboned thigh meat but you can use breast meat if you like.

Ingredients
2 deboned chicken thigh meat,
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
2-3 Tbsp worchestershire sauce
extra virgin olive oil /olive oil

Brown Sauce
half medium onion, chopped/thinly sliced
2-3 tbsp water
1 tsp flour
sliced mushroom (optional)

Method
1. Marinate chicken meat with pepper, salt and worchestershire sauce for about 1hr or overnite 2. Heat up EVO in a pan and grill the chicken pieces till cooked. Start with the skin side down first
3. Remove chicken pieces and put it aside
4. Add chopped/sliced onion and cook till they turn transparent
5. Add water one tablespoon at a time and stir the mixture
6. Add mushrooms if you are using it and simmer
7. Add abt 1tsp of water into the flour and mix it well
8. Pour flour mixture into the pan to thicken the sauce
9. Add salt and pepper to taste if you like
10.Arrange chicken piece on a plate and pour some of the sauce/gravy over the chicken
11.Serve with potatoes and salad

Note: You can add other herbs or spices to suit your taste.

Phad Thai (Thai Fried Noodles)

I have been looking for a good phad thai recipe and finally found something that is different. This recipe uses fish sauce, tamarind juice and palm sugar - a combination that I am curious to try. The result was truly delicious. You can adjust the flavour by meddling with the above 3 ingredients. If you like salty, add more fish sauce, sourness, add more tamarind juice. For sweet dish, add more sugar.

Ingredients
500g rice noodles (I used ipoh hor fun. You can also use glass noodles)
200g fresh prawns, shelled and deveined
3 tbsp dried shrimps, soaked
1 medium size onion, sliced thinly
5-7 clove garlic, chopped
5 tbsp fish sauce
5 tbsp tamarind juice
4 tbsp palm sugar
100-200g bean sprouts
2-3 tsp ground dried chilli (I omitted this because of my kids)
2 large fresh chillies, seeded and sliced thinly
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
prawn stock
peanut oil

Garnish
chopped toasted peanuts
lime wedges
cilantro & scallions

Method
1. Mix fish sauce, tamarind juice and palm sugar till sugar dissolves, set a side
2. Heat oil and stir fry fresh prawns till they turned pink, remove and set aside
3. Fry onions till translucent and add chopped garlic till fragrant
4. Add dried shrimps and stir through for about 1 min
5. Add noodles and toss it with the ingredients in the wok
6. Add a few tbsp of prawn stock to soften the noodles
7. Push noodles aside and pour beaten eggs
8. Once eggs set, scramble and toss it with the noodles
9. Add cooked prawns and pour fish sauce mixture and stir well and ensure that the noodles are well-coated
10. Add bean sprouts, fresh chillies and stir till well blend heat it through for a few minutes. If noodles too dry, add more stock.
11. Serve hot with sprinkle of chopped peanuts, cilantro and scallions and a few squeezes of lime

Spicy Fried Pasta

This dish uses store bought pasta sauce and dried chilli paste. I had half a bottle of Leggo's pasta sauce left in the fridge and I did not want to have another regular pasta dish. This one is a fairly simple dish to make and spicy - something that I have been craving for :-D . For this, you can use any pasta sauce that you like but I like something with chunks of tomatoes, onions and veges and my choice is Leggo's Primavera.

Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 clove garlic, chopped
250-300g pasta
250-300g pasta sauce (you can put more if you want to have more tomato-ish flavour)
2-3 tbsp chilli paste (more if you want fiery spicy)
2 tsp ikan bilis granules or anchovies
100-200g prawns, shelled and deveined
fish cake, thinly sliced
freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tbsp olive oil

Method
1. Boil pasta till al-dente, drained and set aside
2. Heat oil and fry chilli paste till oil separates, then add chopped onions and garlic
3. Once fragrant, pour pasta sauce, stir till well combined
4. Add ikan bilis granules or anchovies and pepper
5. Add prawns and fish cake slices, stir till all ingredients are coated with the sauce
6. Once the sauce starts to bubble, add the pasta and stir till well combined for about 10mins or till the pasta absorbs the sauce
7. Serve hot with chopped scallions/parsley and fried shallots as garnish

Coffee Cookie

This is a must for coffee lover *wink* This recipe was a contribution from an online friend Aishah at M4M. My daughters love this cookie.

The recommended instant coffee powder is nescafe but I use my favourite, BRU coffee instead.

The dough is very soft, so you need to use either piping bag or cookie presser to shape it. Rest it in the fridge for 30mins for easier handling.

Ingredients
1 egg
9oz/250g butter, softened
6oz/170g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
11oz/330g plain flour
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
some chocolate rice for decoration

Method
1. Beat sugar and butter till white and fluffy
2. Add vanilla essence, egg and coffee powder and mix well
3. Once well blended add in the flour
4. Use a cookie presser or piping bag to shape the cookie
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C till the cookies turn golden brown

Choc Chip & Walnut Cookie

The recipe I used for this cookie was taken from allrecipes.com but I made some modification to it. It is supposed to be like Famous Amos cookie but personally, other than the texture, the taste is not there yet. I still need to do more experiment for get the taste that I want. Nevertheless, this is a great tasting cookie - the texture is light and crispy but not overly crispy. Something that I like :)

The original recipe uses 1 cup butter. I have modified it to add a bit of shortening to retain the shape. My first attempt using the original recipe gave me a flat cookie.

Here are some of the other tips that you can follow to minimise flat cookie which worked for me :)

- Use good butter. Ingredients should just be cream and salt. Example of good brand Lurpak, Golden Churn etc
- Do not overbeat the butter. Beat until the mixture turns fluffy and well mixed, then stop
- Chill the dough before use
- Make sure the tray used is not hot

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar (can use demerera or light muscovado sugar)
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (you can use less but make sure the butter and shortening makes up 1 cup)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 - 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used about 1 1/2 cup)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree celsius
2. Thoroughly cream sugars, butter, shortening, oil, egg, milk and vanilla.
3. Add dry ingredients, nuts and chocolate chips.
4 .Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 8-12 minutes. (Cookies are light in color when done.)

Enjoy !

Sugi Cookie

I apologize for not updating the recipe fast enough. Work and house chores were catching up on me and I finally got some time to update :)

The sugi cookie recipe is Chef Devagi's recipe which you can get it from QBB website. But anyway, here is the recipe for those who are interested.

Ingredients
250g ghee
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
500g plain flour
2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda (using this will give the cracking effect)
170g icing sugar
3/4 teaspoon fine salt

Method
1. Melt ghee over low heat or use the microwave oven for about 10-15secs and leave it to cool
2. Add vanilla essence to cooled ghee
3. Sift flour, bicarbonate soda, icing sugar and salt into mixing bowl
4. Pour ghee mixture in flour mixture and knead well to form a firm dough.
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
6. Roll dough into melt-in-your-mouth ball sizes and place on greased tray and bake for 25 - 30 minutes till cooked but not brown. The cookies should be white and crumbly in texture.