Baked Corned Beef & Cheese Springrolls

This was featured in Berita Minggu (our local malay paper) a few weeks ago. An easy snack, good if you have a can of corned beef and you do not what else to do with it *LOL*

I baked the springrolls instead of deep frying them - trying to be a little bit healthy.

Ingredients
1 can corned beef, mashed (I like using Hormel brand)
250g cheddar cheese, cut into strips
a few fresh green chili, sliced and remove seed
enough springroll skin
enough oil for brushing or melted butter
cornflour mixture, for sticking springroll skin

Method
1. Take 1 piece of springroll skin and put a tsp of corned beef on it
2. Put cheese slices and chili slices on top of the corned beef and roll springroll
3. Repeat 1-2 till you have used up your springroll skin and corned beef
4. Arranged springrolls on a lightly greased baking tray
5. Brush springroll with oil and bake in a preheated oven (about 180C) till skin turns golden brown about 15mins
6. Turn over springroll after 5-10mins
7. Serve hot with dipping sauce

This is how I eat my instant noodle

Instant noodle - good or bad? I eat instant noodles occasionally likewise my kids. Sometimes when I am just too lazy to cook or have no idea what to eat, instant noodle is my answer *LOL* Who doesn't love the salty, msg laden soup that accompanies the springy noodles which can be prepared in under 5mins? Now, there are msg-free instant noodles available which we stock up for our lazy days and late night light supper.

Vegetables, fishballs, fishcakes, prawns, meat slices etc are usually added to the noodles to turn it into a more wholesome meal. If I run out of veges to add, I will dump a handful or two salad mix into the bowl then pour the hot noodle onto it. Very satisfying and healthy I should say *LOL* This is inspired during my trip to Vietnam as this is how they eat their noodles, always accompanied with a plate of fresh veges and lime slices .. This is how I usually eat my noodles.

Mango Mousse Cake

I made this for my hubby last year, his 35th year mini celebration but didn't have the time to upload until today. It's a simple mango mousse cake with sponge base. I didn't bake the cake specifically for this cake but used my leftover sponge cake that I had.

A slice of the cake

This recipe is adapted from Rock Melon Mousse cake shared by Lucy (auntyyochana). I replaced the rock melon with mango because that is the only thing i have with me. I will only share the mousse recipe. For the base, you can use any sponge cake bought or made and put a layer before pouring the mousse over.

Ingredients
Mousse
200g mango puree
1 Tbsp gelatine powder + 50g water (soak together for about 5 mins)
2 egg yolk
30g sugar
150g Non-dairy whipped cream
Some chopped mangoes

Method
1. Boil mango puree and sugar together till boiling , take off from the heat
2. Add in egg yolks to the puree+sugar mixture and stir till smooth
3. Put back onto stove and then add in gelatine mixture and stir till dissolved
4. Leave to cool till lukewarm
5. Add choppped mango and fold in whipped cream
6. Pour on top of chocolate sponge cake and leave in the refrigerator to let it set
7. Serve chilled

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