Nice matters ...

Thanks maya from http://maya-kitchenette.blogspot.com/2008/02/nice-matters-award.html for this.

I would like to pass this award to:

playing with my food
bakingmum

Friendship Ball

Thank you tt (Playing with my food) for this :-)

I would like to pass it on to

Hut of Cranberry

jthorge

Feed My World

Hokkaido Milk Loaf

This has been in my to-do list for quite sometime until I decided to bake it 2 weeks ago. It got lots of good reviews about it being soft even after 2 days and I have to vouch that because it is still soft even after 3 days !

The recipe is taken from here but I changed it slightly by adding more cream and reducing a little bit of the milk. This bread uses cream to replace the fat in butter/oil and I used my breadmachine to knead the dough for me. This recipe yields quite big loaf. You may want to make sure that the pan you have is big enough.

Ingredients
1 egg, lightly beaten
220g fresh milk (original is 250g)
180g whipping cream (heavy cream) (original is 150g)
9g salt
80g sugar
540g bread flour
60g cake flour (high ratio flour)
30g milk powder
10g instant yeast

Method
1. Put the ingredients to the breadmaker pan according to the list
2. Select dough function and let the machine knead the dough
3. Once the machine beeps, take the dough out onto a lightly floured table and punch it down
4. Shape the dough into a rectangular shape using your hands (try not to punch too much air out)
5. Roll it out into a swissroll and place it in a butter pan and leave it to rise till double in size
6. Brush the bread with milk or egg wash and bake in a preheated oven at 170C for about 40mins

Homemade Chicken Sausages

I finally made my own sausages!!!! Yay!! I have been wanting to make them for quite sometime but had a hard time looking for halal casings. After checking locally and the internet, I finally got it! Honestly, this is a pretty expensive sausages because I had to order the casings from Europe. But it's all worth it though. My family can enjoy their sausages free from preservatives and God knows what else they dump into it.

Here is the picture of the sausages I made

I didn't have the sausage stuffer so at first I tried using the funnel but give up halfway. It's too time consuming! I bought myself a cheap piping decoration set (will update photo later) as a backup and true enough, it was easier using that! After the stuffing, I left the sausages in the fridge overnight.

My stuffed raw sausages

After which, I steamed them for about 10-15mins.

The cooked sausages (the meat turns white)

Then they are ready to be pan-fried either with butter or oil (I used olive oil).

Here is my simple trial chicken sausage recipe.

Note: For those who do not have the casing, you can use a plastic wrapper and shape the sausage mixure into a sausage. Tie the ends with kitchen string, leave it overnight in the fridge and then boil it till the meat cooks through and remove the plastic wrap before grilling/pan frying it. I haven't tried it personally but this is what I have read in some sausage recipes.

Ingredients
300-400g chicken fillet
1 medium onion
2 clove garlic
1 tsp garam masala
salt & pepper to taste
Enough sausage casings

Method
1. Blend all the above ingredients will paste like
2. Stuff the casings with carefully not to overstuffed them
3. Twists the filled casing into portions
4. Rest sausages in the fridge overnight
5. Steam the sausages
6. Once cool, you can freeze it or pan fried/grill and enjoy !

Pineapple Tarts

Pineapple tart is a must in almost every household during festive seasons. For us, we like melt-in-your-mouth pastry and we have been using this recipe for a very very long time :-) The original recipe uses icing sugar, but we omit that as we don't like overly sweet tarts. For the pineapple paste, you can either make it yourself or buy it. When I am too busy or lazy, I usually buy the paste from baking supply store and modify it according to my liking. Cuts short the time.

I would recommend those who wants to do it to stick to 1 recipe. I have tried halving it and honestly, it didn't come out as good. I usually make kuih makmur with the same dough. So 1 recipe gives me 2 kinds of cookie. Hope you enjoy doing it as much as I have.

Ingredients
Pastry
500g butter, softened
700g plain flour
100g milk powder
100g icing sugar (I omit this but you can add if you want)
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
a few drops of yellow colouring (optional)

Method
1. Cream butter, icing sugar if using and eggs till creamy and light
2. Add vanilla essence and yellow colouring (if using) and mix well
3. Add flour, salt and milk powder into butter mixture, using your hand mix it till all the ingredients are well incorporated
4. Shape dough into a big ball, wrap and let it rest for 15min or more in the refrigerator
5. Shape the dough to your liking and top or fill with pineapple jam
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for about 10-15mins or till the sides turn golden brown

Important Note
* For melt-in-your mouth effect, it is very important that you do not overmix or overwork the dough. Once the ingredients comes together, stop.

This dough is a little sticky, I usually clip it myself instead of using the mold. If you are using mold, make sure that you flour it a little but not too much to prevent sticking.

This is for evie, I got this recipe from the internet but can't remember the site. When I make my own filling, I don't have exact measurement. It's more of estimation but generally it is similar the one below but I omit the clove and star anise because I don't like the filling with spices :-)

Ingredients
Filling
4 sweet fresh pineapples (about 1 kg total weight) or crushed canned pineapple
600 g granulated sugar (you can adjust this according to your level of sweetness)
4 cloves
1 star anise

Method
1. Grate pineapples and squeeze out juice using a muslin cloth or use the strainer to drain the juice, keep aside
2. Chop or blend pineapple meat until fine
3. Combine with sugar, star anise and cloves in a heavy-bottomed pot and cook over low heat until almost dry
4. Stir constantly until mixture is gluey and thick, the consistency of thick jam
5. If too dry, add abit of pineapple juice
6. Cool and store in refrigerator

Savoury Multigrain Porridge

I was in a mood to make a savoury porridge but chose to use mixed grain instead of the regular rice. It adds more fibre and flavour and I am happy to say that it was well received.

I used this mixed grain that I got from the supermarket. It contains oats, barley and different types of rices.

For this recipe, I didn't have any specific measurement. I just sort of estimate the amount of ingredients I needed. Use your own judgement to add how much of each ingredients you need.

Ingredients
1 pack mixed grain
handful of dried scallops and dried shrimp, washed
a knob of ginger
7 clove garlic
1 small can braised peanut
Enough chicken stock
Some milk
salt & pepper to taste

Garnish
Spring onion, chopped
Fried shallots
Omelette strips

Method
1. Wash mixed grain and pour into a pot with enough water
2. Blend garlic and ginger into paste and pour them into the pot together with the dried scallops and shrimp
3. Let the mixed grain boil, stir to prevent sticking or burning
4. Add chicken stock and water to get the consistency that you like
5. Once the grains are cooked, add braised peanut and milk, stir and let it simmer for another 10-15mins
6. Turn off and serve hot with garnishes

Swedish Thumbprint Cookie (Rosenmunnar)

Still in the process of clearing up my freezer and pantry, I decided to make this very easy but rich and buttery cookies. I used the recipe was shared by Jasmin at KC with slight modification.

I used strawberry jam for this, but you can use any flavour or even nutella :-)

Ingredients
227g butter, softened (original 225g)
100g icing sugar (original uses castor sugar)
250g plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (original doesn't use this)
Enough strawberry jam

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add sifted flour and vanilla essence, and mix well
3. Shape dough into 1/2 inch diameter balls and place on a lined cookie sheets
4. Imprint your thumb in the center to make an indentation
5. Fill with your favorite jam or preserves
6. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown at the edges
7. Remove to cool on wire rack

White Chocolate Cream Biscuit (Shiroi Koibito)

This is a popular Japanese biscuit also known as Shiroi Koibito which I think is from Hokkaido. I love this biscuit and it is good even on it's own without the cream.

with the fillings

the template that I used

The recipe is adapted from Alex Goh's 'Temptation of Chocolate' with just minor adjustment to the sugar. I would say the white chocolate cream is also so-so, so you may want to use your own better ganache recipe.

Ingredients and Method
Biscuit
85g sugar (original is 100g)
90g butter
2 egg whites
85g flour
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy
2. Add egg whites and cream until batter is smooth
3. Add flour and mix till well blend
4. Pipe the mixture into rectangular shape or use the template to shape it
5. Bake in the preheated oven at 160C for 10mins or until the edges turned golden brown
6. Leave them to cool
7. Once cool, sandwich 2 biscuits with chocolate cream

White Chocolate Cream
100g shortening
40g icing sugar, sifted
200g white chocolate, melted

1. Beat shortening and icing sugar till light
2. Add melted chocolate and mix till well combine

Apple Raisin Muffin

I had 3 apples that were turning soft and didn't have the heart to throw them out. After going through my fridge, I found some raisins, ground almond and butter left waiting to be used. Since my eldest daughter's tutor is coming tomorrow, I decided to bake something simple and muffins came into my mind. Searched the internet and found Paula Deen's apple raisin muffin recipe. I made some changes and it come out pretty good.

Ingredients
1 C water
1 1/2 C sugar (originally 2C)
3 medium sized apples, finely chopped
2 C raisins
140g butter } originally 1C/2 sticks butter
100g corn oil }
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 C ground almond
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 1/2 C all-purpose flour

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C degrees
2. Combine the water, sugar, apples, raisins, butter, oil, cinnamon and nutmeg in a saucepan and bring to a boil
3. Remove the pan from the heat and cool completely
4. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking soda and ground almond
5. Add the cooled mixture to the flour mixture and stir until all the dry ingredients are moist
6. Fill greased miniature muffin tins or muffin cups with batter to the top and bake for 20 minutes or till skewer comes out clean when poked into the centre

Cranberry mini-cupcakes

Another melt & mix bake which I did today. This is an extremely easy recipe with very little ingredients. I would recommend using butter instead of oil as it gives a rich flavour to it. This recipe is good by itself but you can add citrus zest or essence for variety. This time round, I added cranberries, it gives a nice balance of sweet and sour. I wanted to add lemon oil but forgotten all about it, maybe another time.

Ingredient
100g unsalted butter
80g sugar (you can use 70g if you are adding choc chips)
2 eggs
100g self-raising flour, sifted
pinch of salt (you can omit if you are using salted butter)
50g cranberries

Method
1. Melt butter then add sugar and stir till sugar dissolves
2. Add eggs and beat till well blended
3. Gently fold in sifted flour into butter/sugar/egg mixture till well combined
4. Add cranberries and gently mix into the batter, do not overmix
5. Pour batter into small cupcake liners and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 15-20mins or till the top turns slight golden brown
6. Remove mini cupcakes from the oven and take them out of the tray immediately and leave it to cool

Hokkien Mee

This is a chinese noodle dish which uses different types of noodles usually yellow and laksa noodles and served with lime and chilli. My mother-in-law who only eats seafood/fish was coming over, so I thought this would be the best to fits everyone's palate.

Ingredients
500g yellow noodles
500g laksa noodles
300-400g fresh prawns
2-3 medium-sized squids, cut into rings
2-3 fish cakes, sliced thinly
3 eggs, lightly beaten
11 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bunch spring onions, cut into 5cm lengths
150g beansprouts, more if you like
4-5 Tbsp oyster sauce
splash of fish sauce
salt & pepper to taste
lime for garnishing
prawn+squid stock
3-5 Tbsp oil

Method
1. Clean prawns but don't remove the shells
2. Blanch prawns in a pot of water, once they turn pink, remove the prawns (you don't want to overcook it as it will turn rubbery
3. Add squids to the same pot (do not throw the water after blanching the prawns as this will be used as the stock) and remove once they turned white, put aside
4. Remove prawns shells+head and put them back to the prawn+squid stock, simmer for another 20-30mins, strain and put aside
5. Heat oil in wok and add chopped garlic, fry till fragrant
6. Add egg and break into small pieces
7. Add noodles, stir till they are well coated with the egg pieces and oil
8. Add abit of stock, oyster sauce and stir till well combined
9. Cover wok and let it simmer for 5 min
10.Add prawns, squid and fish cake slices and stir, add more stock if you want it to be wet
11.Add fish sauce, salt and pepper to taste
12.Finally add beansprouts and spring onion and mix thoroughly, add stock if it is too dry
13.Simmer for another 5-10 min and serve hot with lime and chilli slices or sambal

Chocolate Yogurt Cake

I have not been baking for a while, so to get the mood back, I chose to do this simple chocolate cake using yogurt which I have some left in the fridge. This recipe uses the melt & mix method which is fuss free - something that I like and the result was very satisfying, soft and moist. You can see from the 2nd photo.

The original recipe is taken off the book 'Best Ever Chocolate Cakes & Slices' by Periplus. I modified a little bit replacing some of the yogurt with milk.

Ingredients
1 1/2 C self-raising flour
1/2 C cocoa powder
1 C caster sugar
200g butter, melted
120g plain yogurt
80g milk
2 eggs

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Melt butter over the stove or microwave and leave it to cool
3. Sift self-raising flour, cocoa powder and caster sugar into a big bowl and make a hole in the centre
4. Mix eggs, yogurt, milk and melted butter together
5. Pour mixture into dry ingredients and mix it with mixer for about 1min till all the ingredients are well mixed (do not overbeat)
6. Pour into a greased and lined baking tin or cupcake/muffin liners
7. Bake for 30-50mins or until skewer comes out clean when inserted in centre of cake
8. Stand cake in baking tin for about 10mins before turning onto wire rack to cool

Assorted Seafood Bakso Noodle

Mee bakso simply means meatball noodles. There are many versions of mee bakso but this time round, I decided to use seafood balls instead for a change. However, I still used beef as the stock base for more added flavour.

Ingredients
Stock
1 kg beef, slightly fatty
1 pkt sup bunjut (this you can buy from the supermarket where all the spices are packed in a small bag. Very convenient)
3L water
salt & pepper to taste

1 pkt bee hoon, soaked in water till tender
fish balls, sotong/cuttlefish balls and crab balls
2 large onion
5 clove garlic
2 inch ginger
2T oil

Garnishes
lettuce, julienne
sliced lime
blanched beansprouts
chilli
chopped parsley and spring onions

Method
1. Boil the beef for about 20mins in a litre of water then throw away the water (this is to get rid of the impurities)
2. Fill the pot with 2L water and add beef and sup bunjut
3. Simmer for about 1-2 hrs till beef is tender, remove spices and put aside
4. Blend onion, garlic and ginger into a paste
5. Heat oil in a pot and fry blended paste till fragrant
6. Add stock into the pot and let it simmer
7. Add beef pieces, balls, salt and pepper to taste and let it boil for about 20mins
8. At the same time, drain bee hoon and pour hot boiling water to tenderised the noodle
9. To serve, pour soup over the noodle with some of the beef pieces and seafood balls
10.Garnish with lettuce, beansprouts, lime, chopped parsley and spring onions and serve

Chicken Nuggets

I am not exactly a nuggets fan but my kids do have them occassionally at the fast food joints. I have tried making my own but they always turn out a little on the soggy side until I tried this recipe which is originally taken off Berita Harian - our local malay paper. The recipe uses chicken wings but I opt for chicken chunks instead and add more spices to it. It's a fairly simple recipe and you can add whatever spice that you like.

Here, the potato starch actually keeps the nuggets dry and the rice flour gives it a crunchy texture.

Ingredients
1 kg chicken fillets, cut into bite size
7 dried chillies
5 clove garlic
5cm ginger
1/2 T coriander powder
1 T garam masala or any spices you fancy
1 C rice flour
1 C potato starch
1 egg
1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate
salt & pepper to taste
oil for frying

Method
1. Blend dried chillies, garlic, ginger into paste
2. Mix blended paste with both flours, salt, pepper, egg and soda bicarbonate
3. Add chicken pieces into the batter and marinate it for about 30mins
4. Heat oil and deep fry chicken pieces till golden brown
5. Drain oil and serve with your favourite sauce

Enjoy !!

Curry Tuna Fritters

This is an easy one, great to have for tea and dipping it with a good chili sauce. I got a can of Curry Tuna (Ayam brand) lying around and I was not in a mood to make a puff. So came up with this instead.

The main ingredient is the Curry Tuna in a can .. heh This is the packaging that you should look out for. You will notice that I mention potatoes in the methods. Just to inform that the curry tuna has potatoes in it.

Ingredients:
1 can Curry Tuna (Ayam brand)
1 - 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
1/4 - 1/2 cup water, you may not need to use all
a bunch of spring onions, chopped
salt & pepper to taste
oil for frying


Method:
1. Mix flour with salt and pepper
2. Add the eggs and 1/4 cup of water, mix till well blended
3. Pour the curry tuna into the batter and mix, mash the potaotes a little
4. If batter is too watery, add about 1 tbsp of flour at a time till the consistency that you like, if too sticky, add 1 tbsp of water at a time
5. Add the chopped spring onions and mix it well
6. Heat oil in a pan
7. Fry a spoonful at a time till golden brown
8. Serve hot with chili sauce

Horse Shoe Nutella Roll

This is one of a favourite during Hari Raya. You will see many homebakers selling this and lots of houses serving this during the muslim festive season. I think the main attraction is the nutella as young and old simply love the taste of this chocolate hazelnut spread ;-)

I got this recipe from Suria a malay channel in Singapore. Since this particular recipe uses lesser egg, I thought of giving it a try. Result is nice but I think there's way too much baking powder being used for the amount of flour in the recipe. I would recommend halfing it the next time.

I didn't follow the recipe to the T as I omitted the ovalette. I try to bake cakes without using emulsifier as I don't like the after taste of it - to me at least.

The original uses 1tsp ovalette. So if you are using it, you can put all the ingredients except the nutella and melted butter into the mixing bowl and mix it till it doubles in volume. Since I am not using emulsifier, a bit more steps are involved.

Ingredients
6 egg yolk
3 egg whites
50 g cake/plain flour
15 g corn flour
½ tsp baking powder
100 g castor sugar
50 ml fresh milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
75 ml melted butter
1 tbsp chocolate paste/emulco
Nugotin atau Nutella

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 200C
2. Prepare 1 baking tray 10” x 10” x 2”, line with grease paper
3. Melt Nugotin or Nutella using double boiling, bain-marie method till soft
4. Mix and sift flour, baking powder, cornflour.
5. Put eggs and sugar in the mixing bowl and mix it till it doubles in volume (the batter should be thick, shiny and light in colour) then add vanilla essence
6. Fold in flour alternately with milk with last being the flour into the batter and mix it gently
7. Pour melted butter and fold it gently
8. Scoop approximately 250g mixture and leave it plain
9. Add chocolate paste to the remainder and mix it well
10.Pour plain batter into a piping bag
11.Pour the chocolate batter into the pan
12.Pour the plain batter onto the chocolate batter
13.Bake in oven for 5 – 7 minutes only, do not overbake as cake may crack when rolled
14.When fully baked, take the cake out and cool it
15.Spread Nugotin/Nutella on the cake, and roll it from end to end
16.Cool it before cutting cake for serving

Ukoy (Prawn Fritters)

Ukoy is prawn fritters which is an asian dish. Where exactly it is from, I am not too sure but searching the internet, it seems that it is a Filipino dish (correct me if I am wrong). This recipe is taken from a recipe book but I modify it slightly to suit my taste. I added a some tapioca flour to make it a little chewy and I omitted the yam simply because I don't have any at home. But do try with that, I believe it would be delicious.

Ingredients
200g prawns
1-2 cup water
1 1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup corn flour
1 heapful tbsp tapioca flour
2 eggs
chinese parsley, chopped
bean sprouts
1 yam, shredded (I omitted this)
salt and black pepper to taste

Method
1. Boil prawns in water till it turns orangy. Remove the prawn heads and keep the stock
2. Sift rice flour, corn flour, tapioca flour with salt
3. Add 1-1.5 cup of stock and eggs to the flour and mix till well blended (batter should not be runny)
4. Add bean sprouts, chopped parsley, shredded yam (if using) and prawn, mix till they are well coated
5. Heat oil
6. Scope the batter with prawns on top and fry till golden brown
7. Serve with a good chilli sauce or ketchup

Blueberry Sourcream Pound Cake

The last time I made a pound cake was a couple of months back. It was the marble sourcream pound cake. I got a small tub of sour cream and fresh blueberries in the fridge. I was searching for a nice recipe that uses both and finally decided to bake this.

I used the basic sourcream pound cake recipe but I increase the butter a little bit. It came out perfect, moist and rich - just the way I like it.

Ingredients
250g butter, softened
3 cups cake flour (you can substitute with all purpose flour)
2 1/4 - 2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup sourcream
1 cup fresh blueberries, add 1 tsp flour
6 large eggs

Method
1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and put aside
2. Cream butter and sugar till light
3. Add sour cream and vanilla essence into the butter/sugar mixture and mix till well blended
4. Add flour and alternate with eggs with last being flour, mix on low speed till well mixed
5. Using the spoon or spatula, add blueberries into the cake batter
6. Bake in a greased and lined 10" baking pan in a preheated oven of 180C for 1hr 20mins or till skewer comes out clean

Vanilla Frosting and Cuppies

It has been along time since I last update this blog. I apologize as I have been pretty busy with my work and home :-) For those requesting for the vanilla frosting recipe, here it is. This is taken from marthastewart website and I have been using it for most of my cupcake frosting. Here, I use half butter and half shortening so that the frosting will not melt easily in our humid weather. However, you can replace the shortening with butter if you like.

I used the American cake for the cuppies :-)

Vanilla Frosting
Makes 1 cup

Ingredients
25 gm unsalted butter, room temperature
25 gm butter flavoured shortening
2 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Method
1. In a small bowl, beat together butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt until light and fluffy. Use immediately, or cover with cling wrap, and refrigerate up to 3 days.

Before using, bring to room temperature.

Spicy Baked Beans

This is an Indian influenced dish which I was inspired by one of Saturday's Kitchen guest chef. Most of the time, I will have my baked beans just as it is or add scrambled eggs, chopped onions to it and have it with bread. This version came out pretty well and it tastes great with chapati. In fact, you can add some potatoes and curry leaves and use it as a thosai filling - just a thought *wink*

As usual, this recipe is 'agaration', you can add more or less of the items to suit your tastebuds 8-D

Ingredients
3 small tin Heinz baked beans or any brand that you like
2 shallots, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 heapful tsp garam masala powder
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
1 stalk coriander leaves, chopped
mixed vege
1 Tbsp oil

Method
1. Heat oil in frying pan and stir fry chopped shallots and garlic till fragrant
2. Add baked beans, stir till well mixed
3. Add garam masala and tumeric powder and mix them well
4. Once bubbly, add the mixed vege lastly followed by the chopped coriander, stir well and simmer for about 2min and serve it hot with chapati or thosai

Chocolate Chip Muffin

This recipe is adapted from Simply Delicious segment at AFC (Asia Food Channel) and I maanged to memorise the ingredients and wrote it down in my notebook. Well, the original recipe uses flour+baking powder, but I replaced it with self-raising flour simply because to lazy *LOL*. It is very easy to do muffin and tastes very rich due to the butter. It doesn't require any machine, just your hands and fork & spoon and of course not forgetting the weighing machine too .. hehe

Muffins batter is supposed to be lumpy and not smooth. Just ensure that the dry ingredients are moist then stop mixing. Further mixing will give a hard muffin and you don't want that.

Ingredients
125g chilled butter, cut into cubes
275g SR flour
115g brown sugar
115g choc chips or a block of dark chocolate and chop them into small pieces
1/2 tsp salt
100ml milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method
1. Sift flour and salt together
2. Add egg and vanilla essence into the milk and mix them well, put aside
3. Mix butter into flour mixture, using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour till it resembles crumbs
4. Make a hole in the dry ingredients and pour the milk mixture (2) slowly and using a fork, mix it gently till all the dry ingredients are moist. The batter should be lumpy and not smooth.
5. Scoop into muffin pan or cups and bake in a preheated oven at 175C for 20mins or so till cooked.

Rainbow Egg White Lapis

I got this recipe from the internet - indonesian website (sorry can't remember the site name) but modified it to suit my taste. To me this is more a layered sponge cake and taste wise, not too sweet. You can do variation like sprinkle shredded cheese or chips or dried fruit to make it interesting.

Ingredients
500g egg white
250g white sugar
250g plain flour }original is 300g plain flour
50g self-raising flour }
60ml evaporated milk (original is coconut milk)
100ml melted butter (original is oil)
1tsp vanilla essence (not in the original recipe)
a few drops of red and green colouring
4 pitted dates/prunes or slivered almonds for sprinkling on last layer

Method
1. Beat egg white till bubbly, add sugar little by little and beat till stiff
2. Sift in flour and gently stir into egg white mixture
3. Add milk and melted butter together and pour slowly into egg+flour mixture, mix slowly till well blended
4. Divide batter into 3 leaving one original and the other 2 with the respective colours
5. Pour one scoop batter into a lined and greased loaf baking tin and baked in a 175C preheated oven for 7-10min till brown
6. Change oven mode to grill and increase temperature to 200C
7. Pour 1 scoop of green and grill till the top turns slightly brown, then pour 1 scoop of red over the green. Repeat till you finished all the batter.
8. On the last layer, either sprinkle slivered almonds or prunes or date and grilled till brown then change the oven to baking mode and bake till cake is cooked.

Farah's 7th birthday cake

My eldest daughter, Farah celebrated her 7th birthday on 16th March and she wanted to celebrate it with her friends at her after school care centre. Although I can always order a cake for her, I decided to bake her a birthday cake for her instead. As usual, I bake part of them in little cups with a small centre piece for the candles.

The whole look of the cake


and the little cuppies

I was glad that her friends and herself enjoyed it.

Salmon Gravlax

I love salmon in any form except when it's overcooked. Finally got hold of fresh salmon to make this. This makes a great finger food too.

The basic of curing fish is to remember the sugar and salt amount. It is 1 part sugar and 1 part salt. Mix them together and add chopped fresh herbs. For this, I used dill.

Ingredients
2 pcs fresh salmon fillet
1 part salt } eg. if you are using 1/4 cup salt,
1 part sugar } use 1/4 cup sugar
bunch of fresh dill, chopped
2-3 tbps freshly ground black pepper
lemon zest
cling wrap/aluminium foil for wrapping fish

Method
1. Clean and pat dry the fish
2. Mix salt and sugar till well incorporated
3. Add chopped dill, black pepper and lemon zest into the salt/sugar mix
4. Mix all them till well combined
5. Place one fish, skin side down on a cling wrap/foil
6. Cover the top and the sides with the curing mixture
7. Take the second fish with skin side up and cover the first fish
8. Wrap the fish tightly and place it on a tray
9. Place a chopping board or anything heavy on top of the wrapped fish
10.Keep in the fridge for at least 24 hrs
11.To serve, clean the fish by removing all the salt/sugar mixture
12.Remove skin and slice thinly
13.Serve on it's own or with salad

Kiam Chye & Chicken Soup

Had this during the later stage of my confinement. I needed something that is light and slight salty, so made this easy soup. Surprising, my daughters love it too.

As usual, an 'agaration' recipe.

Ingredients
1-2 pcs skinned chicken breast, cut into cubes
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 slice of ginger, slivered
chicken stock
1-2 tomatoes, chopped with seeds removed
kiam chye, washed and sliced
Enough water to boil
Salt & pepper to taste
Oil

Method
1. Heat oil in pot and stir fry garlic and ginger slices till fragrant
2. Add water and add chicken stock
3. Add chicken and kiam chye
4. Leave it to simmer till the chicken is cooked then add the tomatoes and further simmer for about 10mins
5. Add salt & pepper to taste and serve it hot

Marble Sourcream Pound Cake

I have been wanting to bake a rich buttery cake before my delivery but it didn't materialise. Finally after delaying for soo long, I had no choice but to get my butt to the kitchen and baked this, simply because the tub of sourcream was expiring soon.

The original recipe was shared by an online friend quite sometime back and I made it into a marble version. It came out perfect.

Ingredients
8oz butter
2 1/2 C sugar (original is 3 cups, I still find 2 1/2 c still sweet. You may want to reduce to 2 - 2 1/4 c instead)
250g sour cream (original is 1 cup)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups all-purpose flour
6 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 heapful tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Method
1. Preheat oven to 170C
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat till fluffy
3. Add the sourcream and mix until well incorporated
4. Sift baking soda and flour together and add to the creamed mixture alternating with eggs, beating each egg 1 at a time
5. Add vanilla and scoop out about 1/4 of the batter
6. Sift cocoa powder into the 1/4 batter and mix till well incorporated
7. Pour the original and chocolate batter alternately into a greased and floured tube pan
9. Use a knife to swirl the cake batter
10.Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or till skewer comes out clean

Sroto

I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart for not updating my blog for a very long time. With my new addition to the family is growing big, I managed to find some time to resume my baking and cooking.

So over the weekend, made this simple and less spicy version of a soto called Sroto. Don't ask me where it came from or why it's called Sroto because I don't have the answer for you .. heh But I do believe it could be an Indonesian dish but I have not idea where.

The recipe is taken off the local malay paper Berita Harian dated 22nd Jan by a well know chef/cooking instructor Aini Salim

Ingredients A
500 g beef (cut into 4)
3 bay leave
2 cm galangal/blue ginger (bruised)
1 tsp salt
4000 ml water

Ground Ingredients
8 cloves garlic
8 candlenut
1 tsp white pepper
2 slices fresh tumeric
6 tbsp oil for frying

Garnish
300g beansprouts
100g vermicilli (soaked in hot water and drained)
2 potatoes (sliced and then fried)
3 hardboiled eggs (sliced) - I also added quail eggs
1 cup toasted peanuts
fried shallots, spring onion and chinese celery for garnishing
lontong or ketupat


Method
1. Boil A till the meat is tender
2. Take the meat out and slice them thinly and strain the stock, put aside
3. Fry the ground ingredients till fragrant and pour it into the stock together with the beef slices
4. Simmer the soup till it boils, turn off fire
5. To serve, prepare a bowl with ketupat/longtong, vermicilli, beansprouts, beef slices, fried potatoes. Pour soup and garnish with fried shallots, chopped spring onions, chinese parsley and toasted peanuts. Top it with enough sambal.


Sambal Ingredients
30 chilli paid (steam and then pound)
40 g toasted peanut (finely ground)
6 tbsp kicap manis
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt (optional)

Method
1. Mixed all the ingredients till well blended

Note: You can replace it with chicken, but you only need half chicken and reduce water to 3500ml.

Raisin & Dried Mango Rice

This dish is inspired by a recipe in last month's Women's Weekly magazine. The original recipe is supposed to be cooking the rice with the ingredients, but I change d it to a fried rice version since I have some leftover rice to get rid of.

I used 7D dried mango slices because that is the best for me at least. The original uses golden raisins but I just replaced it with what I have.

Ingredients
2-3 cups cooked rice
2 tbsp olive oil/butter/ghee
1 medium onion, sliced
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1 chicken stock bouillion
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tps ground cinnamon
drice mango slices, chopped into small pieces
1/3 cup raisin
chopped coriander
salt & pepper
salmon slices or other meat slices
A bit of water

Method
1. Heat wok and add oil/butter/ghee
2. Fry onions till translucent and add chopped garlic, ground clove and ground cinnamon, fry till fragrant
3. Add salmon slices or other meat slices and stir till cooked
4. Pour a little bit of water to the onion, garlic & fish mixture
5. Sprinkle a bit of pepper and add chicken stock and stir till well combined
6. Add cooked rice, stir well
7. Once the rice is coated with the spices, add raisins and dried mango
8. Stir raisins and mango till well distributed and let the rice cook further
9. Throw in chopped coriander, stir and serve

Indian Rojak

I have been wanting to make this for the longest time and finally made it simply because I got attracted to the gravy recipe. This recipe is Asmah Laili's recipe but I adjusted some of the ingredients. I also omitted the colouring since I don't have red/orange colouring. The ingredients is entirely up to you, you can add or omit some of them if you don't like them.

Gravy

Ingredients
500gm sweet potato, wash clean and steam or boil till soft
1 tbsp oats, ground till fine
50ml ketchup
1.5 tbsp sesame seeds, roasted
1.5 l water
a bit of orange colouring (optional)
5 dried chilli
a slice of pineapple
2 green apple
1 red apple
2 tomatoes
2 clove garlic
1 cm ginger
2-4 tbsp brown sugar
salt to taste

Method
1. Grind dried chilli, pineapple, apples, tomatoes, garlic and ginger into paste and put aside
2. Grind steamed/boiled sweet potatoes with water and pour into a pot
3. Add all the ingredients except sesame seed into the the pot and stir till the gravy starts to boil
4. Once gravy starts to boil, add roasted sesame seeds. Make sure gravy is not too thick or too thin
5. Add sugar and salt to taste and adjust accordingly to your taste


Dough

Ingredients
500g all purpose flour
3g instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
500-600ml water
1/2 tbsp tumeric powder

Method
1. Sift flour with yeast, tumeric powder and salt into a bowl
2. Pour water a little at a time till the batter becomes like a fritter's batter.
3. Cover bowl with cling wrap and leave it to proof for about 2.5hr - 3hr or till double in size
[This dough will be used for some of the rojak ingredients ]


Rojak ingredients without dough - deep fried and drain oil well
2 firm tofu, cut into 4
4 tempe, coat with a bit of tumeric and salt
4 fish cake
4 hard boiled egg
2 boiled potatoes


Rojak ingredients with dough
1/2 cup grated coconut
2 hard boiled eggs
2 boiled potatoes
2 tbsp sesame seed
2 firm tofu
some prawns
a bit of orange colouring (optional)


Method to fry dough ingredients
1. Heat oil in a wok/pot
2. Divide dough into 4 parts

1st part of dough
----------------------
- Fry it into balls

2nd part of dough
-----------------------
- Coat the hardboiled eggs and sprinkle some sesame and fry till crispy
- Coat the potatoes with the dough and sprinkle with sesame and fry till crispy

3rd part of dough
----------------------
- Coat tofu with dough and put one prawn and fry till crispy

4th part of dough
-----------------------
- Add grated coconut and sesame seeds, shape into strips and fry till crispy


Garnishes - cut/slice into bite size
salad leaves
onions
green chilli
cucumber

Sweet Bun Dough (2)

I have tried numerous sweet bun dough recipe I got from the internet and this is one of the better ones that I have tried in terms of taste and softness (overnight). Looks like the trick is the amount of butter used. I have tried a similar recipe which is about the same only that it uses half cream cheese and it is as good too.

This time, I made pinwheel pizza bread. The filling is a regular pizza filling with pizza sauce, sausages, cheese and herbs.

I have to thank Lynna and also the original contributor of this recipe (Roshayati Johari). I halved this recipe and made some slight mod to the liquid.

Ingredients
(A)
250g bread flour
50g sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
15g milk powder
2 tsp instant dry yeast
(B)
100-120ml water (add 100ml first than slowly add if dough is too dry)
27g egg (if using cream cheese, omit the egg)
(C) **
20g butter 20g shortening/cream cheese

Method:
1. Mix well all ingredients in (A)
2. Add (B) into (A) and knead till smooth
3. Add (C) and continue kneading till smooth and shiny and dough does not stick to your hand. 4. Leave to prove for 60 minutes or double in volume
5. Punch down the dough lightly to let the air out
6. Divide the dough according to the weight you wish, shape into balls and leave to rest for 10 minutes
7. Shape accordingly and leave to prove for 40 minutes - 1 hour
8. Brush with egg wash
9. Bake till golden brown
10.Once taken out of the oven, brush with egg wash again for extra shine

** I have tried combination of butter+shortening and butter+cream cheese. Both yield similar softness but cream cheese give more flavour.

For those using breadmachine, put all the ingredients according to the manufacturer's instruction and select the dough cycle. Leave the dough to further proof for about 45min after the end of the dough cycle.

Banana Bread

This is a very easy to do banana bread but very delicious. The original recipe was contributed by Iris from KC. I made some slight changes to it. This one does not need to use mixer, just hand power is enough. Great when have it with a hot cup of tea, English/Earl Gray would be nice.

Ingredients
1/2 cup oil (vegetable or corn oil)
slightly less than 3/4 cup sugar (can use brown sugar)
2 eggs
4 medium, ripe bananas, mashed (if using del-monte like bananas, 2 is enough)
35g toasted, chopped walnuts
40g sultanas (can omit this if you don't like it)
1/2 tsp banana essence (optional)
185g self-raising flour, sifted
1/4 tsp salt

Method
1.Preheat oven to 180 deg C
2. Grease and line a loaf tin
3.Beat oil, sugar, essence and eggs well
4.Fold in mashed bananas, nuts and sultanas
5.Fold in flour and mix well
6.Bake for 45-50 minutes or till done when skewer inserted into cake comes out clean

To make it look more presentable, you top up the bread with cream cheese frosting. You can make this a day before but remember to frost the cake after the cake is cooled.

You can make variation with this frosting by adding abit of lemon juice or orange juice or other essence that you like ;)

Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
1 (4 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sifted icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method
1. In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until cream
2. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the icing sugar
3. Store in the refrigerator after use.

Vegetable Curry Pau

I have always been wanting to make paus but failed terribly 2x with 2 different recipes. It was really disappointing until I saw this recipe shared by a member from an online forum which I frequent (thanks Lena). This one came out perfect for me, of course this is not the kind of paus you get at those dim sum places. The dough tastes almost like the ones you get outside (those regular steam paus) and I really liked it a lot.

Although the recipe uses sponge dough, you can do a straight dough method too.

Ingredients
A: Sponge
400 gm HKG/pau flour (Recommended using Bluekey pau flour)
210-240ml water * (pour bit by bit - need not use the 240ml)
1 ½ tsp instant yeast.

B: Ingredients for the pau
100 gm HKG/pau flour (Recommended using Bluekey pau flour)
120g gm sugar
10 gm shortening
1 ¼ tsp double action baking powder

Method
1. Mix ingredients A together
2. Knead until smooth and elastic
3. Let it rise for 40 mins
4. Mix dough from method 1 with ingredients B. and knead until well blended
5. Cut into equal portions about 40g
6. Wrap in filling
7. Let it rise for 20 minutes
8. Steam over high heat for 15 minutes

* I used Bake King's hkg flour and this flour absorbs quite a bit of water. So I reduced the water to around 210-220ml instead of 240ml. For those using other flours, please add water 200ml first and followed by the rest.

Note: I used my breadmaker to knead the sponge then followed by using the mixer when adding B. But you can use the breadmaker to knead the dough and take it out once the breadmaker stops kneading. No need to wait till cycle ends.

I made the dough first and freeze it and shape it the next day. You can freeze the dough too right after mixing the sponge with B. To use, thaw it before shaping and follow step 5 onwards.

Tomato Bruschetta

I ran out of ideas what to have for dinner and too lazy to cook. Hubby also has not been eating heavy dinner lately due to his runny nose - which is good actually .. heh. So settled for this, an easy one. The only thing I need to cook is to toast the bread 8-) I like to make a big batch and chuck it in the fridge.

Ingredients
2-3 plump tomatoes, cubed
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/3 tsp salt
dashes of italian seasoning/dried basil or other herbs that you like
cream cheese spread
toasts
2 clove garlic, cut into half

Method
1. Mix the chopped tomatoes, olive oil, salt and herbs
2. Toast bread slices
3. Rub cut garlic on the hot toast
4. Spread cream cheese on toast and top it with the tomato mixture

You can have variations for this, sprinkle cheese and toast it or have meat slices to go with it.

Tofu Balls

I got a bit sick of eating plain deep fried firm tofu so decided to make them into balls. A pretty easy snack and it's best eaten hot. Hubby finished the whole plate of it while I only get to eat like 3 of them 8-(

You can also use breadcrumbs for a crispy texture.

Ingredients
2 firm tofu, drained and mashed
1-2 stalks spring onion, chopped
salt & pepper to taste
1 egg, lightly beaten
enough cornflour for coating
oil for frying

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients except egg and cornflour
2. Shape into balls and coat it with egg followed by cornflour
3. Deep fry till golden brown
4. Serve with sauce of your choice

Garlic & Rosemary Focaccia

This is hubby's favourite bread. He likes to have his sandwich with this or have it on it's own. Focaccia is not a difficult bread to make and the ingredients used are fairly few. There are many methods to making focaccia, but I chose to use the direct dough method using my breadmaker to do the kneading work ... hehe

It would be good have holes in the focaccia. So try not to let the air out too much during shaping.

Ingredients
250ml water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
3 cups/450g bread flour
2 tsp yeast
1/2 tbsp oregano/italian herbs

Toppings
3 tbsp olive oil
garlic powder
dried rosemary
rock salt (optional - if you don't want to sprinkle salt, up the salt in the dough a little bit)

Method
1. Place ingredients into bread pan in the order listed in the recipe
2. Select dough program and let machine runs
3. Once cycle complete, leave the dough to further proof for another 45min - 1 1/2hr (this gives a softer texture)
4. Take dough out and press into a lightly greased pan
5. Loosely cover with lightly greased cling wrap and stand in warm area for 30 mins or doubled in size
6. Remove cling wrap and use your fingers to make the depressions
7. Brush dough with olive oil and sprinkle with toppings
8. Bake in preheated oven 200 degree for about 25-30 mins or until golden brown

Mocha Bread Pudding

The original recipe of this is just a regular bread pudding using white bread and milk. Since I have some leftover coffee bread that I baked a few days ago, I decided to tweak it a little into this.

Bread pudding is one of the simplest yet delicious dessert. I don't eat it with custard because I like the way it is.

For those who don't like too sweet a dessert, you can replace the white sugar with brown sugar or use slightly less than 3/4 cup sugar.

You can also add chocolate chips if you like or replace the chocolate milk with other flavoured milk like coffee milk.


Ingredients
6-10 slices day-old coffee bread
2 tablespoons butter/margarine, melted
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup chocolate milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 pcs tim tam, roughly chopped

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius
2. Break bread into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan
3. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread
4. Sprinkle with raisins and chopped tim tam
5. In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk and sugar and beat until all are well mixed
6. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped

Double Chocolate Muffin with Yoghurt

This recipe is taken from Simply Her magazine shared by an online friend at KC. I have replaced some of the items and reduce the yoghurt. It's a very moist and delicious muffin. It's very easy but yet very yummy especially if you use a high quality cocoa powder like Varlhona.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
3/4 cup brown sugar (original is castor sugar)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
100g butter, melted
1 egg
3/4 cup plain yoghurt
1/2 cup chocolate milk (original is regular white milk)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Method
1. Preheat oven at 180C
2. Sieve flour, bicarbonate soda and cocoa powder together then stir in sugar
3. Beat egg and vanilla essence together, add in all the wet ingredients to into flour mixture
4. Fold together using a fork until the flour is dampened, but not smooth
5. Spoon mixture evenly into lined or greased muffin tray
6. Bake for 20 mins or until the until skewer comes out clean

Bubor Lambok

This is an easy dish, quite kids friendly provided you don't add too much pepper. I used the slow cooker to make this and it took about 2-3 hrs to get that thick consistency. You can also cook this over the stove if you don't have a slow cooker. To me, using the slow cooker gives a nicer texture to the porridge and hassle free too as I don't have to worry about burning it *chuckle*

The garnishes is really up to you want to add. For me, I just had it with crispy ikan bilis, groundnuts, slices of omelette and prawns with a sprinkle of parsley and fried shallots.

My mom's version uses mince meat, but for mine, I used dried shrimps and dried scallops.


Ingredients
1 cup Thai rice, washed
4-5 cups water
7 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 thumbsize ginger
2 tbsp dried shrimp
2 tbsp dried scallops
2/3 cup coconut milk
pepper
salt

Garnishes
Fried ikan bilis, groundnuts, sliced omelette and cooked prawns


Method
1. Blend garlic, ginger and onion into paste
2. Add rice, water, dried shrimp, dried scallop and blended paste into the slow cooker
3. Stir mixture and turn knob to high
4. Stir porridge every 1 hr and add water if it's too dry
5. Once porridge is thick, add salt & pepper to taste
6. Add coconut milk into porridge and stir till it's well blended and let it cook further for 30-1hr 7. Serve with garnishes

Nasi Briyani

I made this a few weeks ago for one of our weekend meal. I used the Shan brand briyani but I didn't follow the instruction. Instead, I cook the rice using a recipe that I have but the meat gravy I used the one in the package 8-)

The rice is fairly simple to make and tastes real nice. But the colouring isn't so great because I was still pretty new with this.

Ingredients
1kg basmati rice, soaked for 30 minutes and drained
2-3 tsp ghee/butter
1 star anise
2 sticks cinnamon
4 cardamoms
2 stalks lemongrass, bruised
5 pandan leaves, tear the middle and tie into a knot
1/4 cup yoghurt
3 cups evaporated milk
3 cups water
salt
some saffron or use colouring
some toasted almond slivers or cashew nuts + raisins fried in ghee/butter for garnishing

Method
1. Heat ghee, fry the spices till fragrant
2. Add the rice and stir fry for about 2 minutes
3. Transfer everything to the rice cooker
4. Add lemongrass, yoghurt, water, evaporated milk, salt and pandan leaves and stir the mixture
5. Switch on rice cooker and cook
6. Once cooked, sprinkle saffron or colouring to the rice and mix gently
7. Sprinkle toasted nuts and fried raisins and serve