Rice porridge

Ran out of ideas what to prepare for dinner, so made porridge with simple side dishes for a change. This is actually inspired by teochew porridge but you can see that the porridge is no way resembles teochew porridge because it's almost smooth and you can't see any grains of rice which is a characteristic of teochew porridge *LOL*

We had fried ikan bilis, peanut, omelette, salted eggs, easy stir-fried french beans with chai-poh (preserved radish) and preserved lettuce (that is on my porridge). Simple yet satisfying :-D

Fruity Vanilla Cake (Japanese Strawberry Shortcake)

My youngest daughter's birthday falls in the month of November with her paternal grand-ma and aunty. Since yesterday was our monthly visit week, I made a simple cake which is supposed to be a Japanese Strawberry Shortcake adapted from Yochana's blog to a fruity one because I didn't have enough strawberries for the fillings. So I replaced the filling with fruitcocktail and use the syrup to brush on the cake instead :-) I also almost made butter out of my whipping cream as I was busy with something else. Fortunately, I managed to save it in time *LOL*

A slice of the cake

I change the recipe slightly by increasing the vanilla and replacing the melted butter with oil because I don't want the cake to be hardened when chilled. However, using butter will give better flavour to the cake. I would recommend it if you like to have a richer flavoured cake.

As mentioned earlier, I don't use kirsch and replaced it with the fruitcocktail syrup and use strawberry jam as the glaze.

Ingredients:
120 gm low protein flour (eg. cake flour, top flour or hongkong flour)
1/4 tsp baking powder
50 gm sugar
100 gm cornoil (original use 50gm melted butter+50gm oil)
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 egg white
65 gm. castor sugar

Decor and Filling
300-400 gm whipped cream
1/2 can fruitcocktail, drain and keep the syrup aside
Enough strawberries to cover the top of the cake
5 heapful tbsp strawberry jam
3 Tbsp hot water
chocolate rice/sprinkles for decor

Method
1. Sieve flour, baking powder and 50 gm. of sugar into a bowl and mix thoroughly
2. Mix egg yolk, cornoil together and then pour into flour mixture and stir till smooth
3. Whisk egg white till slightly frothy, then add the 65 gm sugar gradually and whisk till medium peak
4. Fold egg white into egg yolk mixture and then pour into a 2 9" round baking pan that has been lined and greased and bake in preheated oven at 175C for about 45 mins. or till cooked
5. Leave cake to cool on wire rack
6. Brush each layer of cake with the syrup
7. Whip up the whipping cream and then spread whipped cream onto each layer and sprinkle fruitcocktail on top
8. Put the next layer of sponge and cover it with whipped cream
9. Arrange sliced strawberries on top overlapping one another
10. Heat up the strawberry jam and water and stir
11.Strain the mixture and use it to brush it over the sliced strawberries
12. Pipe some whipped cream at the corner and cover the sides with chocolate sprinkles
13.Chill before slicing and serve

Lapis Betawi (Legit)

I had to test my oven's top double grill function after I had it fixed a couple of months back, after sifting through all the lapis cake (aka thousand layer or speckok) recipes I have. I decided to try this one simply because it uses less eggs, 8 eggs to be precise (as compared to those over 10 or 20 egg yolks) and it is relatively easy. The recipe is taken from an old malay recipe book which my aunty passed to me. I really have to thank her because I love all the recipes featured in the book. Some are pretty alien to me because I never had them before whereas some bring back memories of my childhood 8-) But one of the main reason why I love old recipes is because there is hardly any form of stabiliser used. If you look at the current lapis recipes, you will notice that lots of them has stabiliser/ovalette as part of the ingredient. For me personally, I prefer the old traditional way as much as I possibly can *LOL* Enough of my ramblings, this is the end product.

It looks a little dry because I cut it like 1 hour after baking it. This cake keeps pretty well and it will get moist overtime. The layers are supposed to be thinner but I could not find my medium size laddle *bummer* but taste wise, it's pretty good for a lapis that uses less than 10 eggs *LOL*

This is my treasured book. I don't think it's in print anymore. It has some pretty cool recipes, some are a bit tedious to make but majority are pretty easy to handle.

Ingredients
8 eggs, separated
350g butter (original 340g)
225g cake flour (original uses plain flour)
280g sugar
2 Tbsp condensed milk
1 Tbsp lapis spice (original uses 2 Tbsp, if your spice is mild, use 2 Tbsp)
1 tsp baking powder

Method
1. Sift plain flour, spice and baking and put aside
2. Cream butter and condensed milk till pale, put aside
3. Beat egg whites till frothy, add sugar and continue beating till stiff peaks formed
4. Add yolks and continue mixing
5. Add butter+milk mixture and slowly mix till well blended
6. Using a spatula, slowly fold in the flour mixture into the egg mixture
7. Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 7x7inch baking tin
8. Pour 1 laddle of the batter into the baking tin, use a spoon and level it and bake till it is cooked
9. Switch oven to top grill (adjust to 200C if your oven's temperature needs to be adjusted)
10.Level first layer and pour another laddle of the batter and level it using a spoon, bake for 7 min or till the top is browned
11.Take the tin out, use a glass with a flat bottom, level the cake to let any excess air out
12. Pour 1 laddle of the batter into the tin and level it, bake till top is browned
13. Repeat 11-12 till all the batter is used
14. After the last layer is browned, bring the baking tin to a lower rack and switch oven to top and bottom grill and bake for about 10-15 mins
15. Cool the cake on a rack and store in air tight container once cooled. You can either cut and eat (but will be a little dry) or leave it overnight for a more moist cake

Enjoy!

Sloppy Joe

I have to thank an online friend for mentioning sloppy joe yesterday. I bought a pack of minced meat a day before and still haven't decided what to do with it. So we had sloppy joe for dinner yesterday and it reminded me soo much of A&W connie dog.

I am happy that my kids love it and the best thing is that my second girl actually ate the celery !! The recipe is adapted from recipezaar with minor alteration to suit my kids' tastebud.

Ingredients:
500g lean minced beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 ribs celery, chopped
1 8oz can tomato sauce (I used Hunts brand)
4 Tbsp ketchup (1/4C)
4 Tbsp barbeque sauce (1/4C, I used Heinz brand)
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp mustard
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar or regular vinegar
2-3Tbsp olive oil

Method
1. Heat oil in skillet and brown the minced beef
2. Half way through add chopped onion and celery
3. Stir in the other ingredients and let it simmer for about 30mins or till the sauce thickens enough
4. Add salt and pepper to taste
5. Serve with either hamburger buns or sausage buns and sprinkle with shredded cheese

Enjoy !