Masakan Istimewa

Our Little Bundle of Joy

2008-04-23T17:47:00.002-05:00

Pardon me for not updating the blog for weeks.. You may already know what's going on if you are one of the frequent visitor :) I would like to introduce you our newly addition to the family - Elyse was decided to say hello to family 1 week early. She was born on April the 7th at 3:17AM.

Check the following link for more pictures.

If you think having a new born is not stressful enough, what about relocating to new city in the coming 3 months and quiting my current job become a stay home mom for at least months to come if not for long term? Yes, that's what's going on with my family right now.. Wish me luck.

Chocolate Loaf

2008-03-31T11:20:00.004-06:00

The chocolate bun from chowtimes really caught my attention for some reasons. I really wanted to bake some bun but due to the time constraint, I don't think I am up to the challenge right now so I turn this into a chocolate loaf.

I reduced the sugar from the original recipe since this is loaf that I probably will eat it with some jam and kaya, I don't want the loaf to be too sweet. The loaf turn out very soft and fluffy. I was quite surprise with the results as I was not convince that regular bread flour can produce a soft and fluffy loaf. But this loaf does give me a whole new perspective on bread flour.

The only downside on this loaf I think is lack of chocolate flavor. I was expecting a richer chocolate taste. I was sure because the recipe to call for any salt or because the cocoa powder I used was not fresh? ( the powder has been sitting in my pantry for a year ) what do you think huh? Maybe adding some chocolate essence will do the trick huh? Anyway.. I am definitely up for experiment again next time with the same recipe and make it a chocolate bun some day.
my adapted version:

Ingredients:

1 cup warm milk
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar ( original recipe 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Method:

Put all ingredients into the bread machine according to your machine manual
Select Sweet function, 2lb loaf with light crust
Start the machine.

Stir-fry Asparagus with Cloud Ear Fungus

2008-03-25T12:43:00.005-06:00

This is one of my family favorite stir-fry I would like to share with you. The original recipe from my cookbook collection uses white fungus, since I am out of the white, I replaced it with the cloud ear fungus.

Ingredients:

1 cup cloud ear fungus ( pre soaked and cleaned)
1/2 lb Pork
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp cooking wine
1 tbsp corn starch
1/2 lb Asparagus
1 tbsp Ginger (julienne)

Sauce:

1/3 tsp salt
1/3 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp corn starch
3 tbsp water

Method:

Marinate pork with soy sauce, wine and corn starch
Cut Asparagus in about 1.5 inch long
On a stir fry pan, heat about 1 tbsp oil, stir in ginger until fragrant.
Add in asparagus and 2 tbsp water and stir for about 2-3 minutes until steamy. Removed and set aside.
Heat 2 tbsp oil and stir fry pork until turn cooked.
Add in fungus, asparagus and sauce. Stir to mix well.

Nutella Crescent Roll

2008-03-19T10:05:00.004-06:00

Here's my shortcut way to satisfy my Italian style breakfast croissant with Nutella spread. Always stock up some crescent rolls in my freezer just in case I ran out of food to snack in between meal or breakfast.
To prepare this all you need it a can of crescent roll and some spread or jam. Add a layer of jam on the dough and roll it up. Bake in the over for 15-20 minutes.. voila.. you got a nice and warm breakfast. how easy is that ?
In case you are interested to know who is always with me while I am in the kitchen preparing meal. Here you go, mommy's little helper in his apron and cooking utensil. haa.. He is sure having fun in the kitchen banging all my pots and pans.

Spice Pork Soba with Dumpling 五香肉荞麦面条

2008-03-17T11:28:00.000-06:00

After reading various way of eating Soba from teczcape - an escape to Food, I decided to come up one with my own. Prepare this over a weekday dinner and in less than 30 minutes... impress??

Recipe?? yes yes.. how can I miss that.

Ingredients:

some blanched lettuce head
Cook soba
cook package dumpling
A can of spice pork cube

Get everything heat up on your stove or microwave.. 30 minutes later tada.a.. Honey dinner is ready!

Char Siu Prata

2008-03-14T10:18:00.000-06:00

Another simple breakfast I prepared during the weekend morning. Have been wanting to try this for long time but never get the chance, since I still have some left over char siu and Roti Prata in my freezer, guess it's the time to get the baby baked.

I want to have this as breakfast, so I prepared the char siu filling the night before and store in the fridge overnight. All I have to do in the morning is thaw the frozen Prata skin, add the filling to the skin and fold over to seal like making a kari puff. Brush lightly with beaten egg yolk to give it a shining look and baked in the preheated oven 395F for 15-25 minutes or until it looks puffy.

Voila... fresh from the oven Char Siu puff is ready for your family.. yum yum..

Char Siu Filling Ingredients

300g char siu
1 yellow onion chopped
1tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp corn starch
7 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
pepper to taste
2 tbsp oil

Method:

In a bowl, mix in oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark sauce, corn starch,water and sugar, then set aside
Heat pan with oil and stir fry chopped onion until soft.
Add char siu and fry for couple minutes
Add the liquid mixture and cook until the sauce is thicken
set aside the filling and let it cold before wrapping with the Prata skin

** the filling yield to prepare about 6-7 puffs.

Cranberries Cream Cheese Loaf

2008-03-11T09:39:00.001-06:00

Have been reading a lots of positive feedback for this cream cheese bread and after seeing this attractive production from Pure Enjoyment, I told myself there is no way I want to skip this. Since I have not been able to stop by the Asian store to stock up the high gluten flour I have been using for all my bread, I bought a package a bread flour from the regular groceries store and want to confirm again what the different between the high gluten and regular bread flour we get in the state.

The results was quite good, even though hubby still think that the bread may taste better with high gluten flour because he prefer a softer and elastic texture of bread as oppose to denser, heavier loaf. One thing for sure, the loaf remain very soft even 2 days after. I think this is another keeper but I probably will 1.5 the recipe.
Trying to be a bit creative here, In stead of a white plan loaf, I added some cranberries to sweeten the flavor so that Aidan can eat it plain. He is serious eating too much sweet stuff from his day care, so want to cut back his sugar intake now haa..

This is my adapted version
Ingredients :(Click here to the original recipe)

160g fresh milk
50g cream cheese
15g sugar
3g salt
20g butter
250g bread flour
1/2 tsp dry yeast
1/2 tsp bread improver (optional)
1/3 of cranberries (optional)

Method:

Put the ingredients according to your bread machine instruction
Select 1lb size with basic white loaf function
Slice and enjoy
for my bread machine, I added the cranberries at the final kneading cycle

Low Fat Yogurt Cupcakes

2008-03-06T10:26:00.000-06:00

Low fat yogurt cupcakes, does this sound healthy to you? It sure did for me.. looking for something not too sweet but yet sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth and I found this from fellow blogger. The cake uses yogurt with very little butter, so no worry about trans fat. Adding yogurt to increase the calcium content, it is just perfect for me, since my doctor advise me to take at least 16oz of milk a day just to make sure I have enough daily calcium intake.
The cake is very light and soft right from the oven. Not too sweet. Since I have about 1/4 cup of chocolate chip left from my previous baking ( not sure when, but must be long time ago), thought just mix it in to kick it up a notch. This recipe enough to prepare 9 cup cakes, instead of using mixture, I whisked everything with hand therefore I did not follow exactly the method used from the original recipe. Next time I would double the recipe for ease mixing the ingredients with electric mixture.

Ingredients:

1 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 whole egg
3 tbsp unsalted butter (approx 45 g)
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Handful of chocolate chips ( optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 355F.
Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Whisk whole egg and set aside.
Beat the butter until soften, gradually add sugar and beat until soften and mixed well.
Dribble eggs in slowly and continue beating for a minute.
Add yogurt and mix well then add the flour to the mixture. Continue beat for another 2 minutes.
Add in choc chip and mix well.
Scoop into lined muffin tins about 3/4 cup full.
Bake for about 17-20 minutes and a tester inserted comes out clean.

** Bake about 9 cupcakes

I do notice the cake get a bit dense on the next day, wonder why? Keen to share any good cupcake recipes that will produce a light and airy cake that last for a couple days?

Ham Roll

2008-03-04T12:26:00.001-06:00

Very simple but quite time consuming dish that I don't usually prepare. It's ham roll with asparagus. All you need are some asparagus and ham. This is quite a tasty dish where you get the saltiness taste from the ham blend with the natural sweetness from the asparagus. I enjoy it very much.
Here's how I prepared.

Cut asparagus into 3 pieces long
Slice the ham and blanch the ham in boiling water to reduce the saltness
Blanch asparagus in boiling water and oil
Roll and seal the edge with corn flour
Steam ham roll for about 8 -10 mins
In a bowl mix in some soy sauce, salt, sugar, water and corn starch.
Bring the mixture to boil and pour on the roll
Ready to serve.

Braised Tofu in Vinegar

2008-03-03T11:42:00.001-06:00

A simple tofu stir-fry I like to prepare for my family. The provided recipe is a rough estimate amount I used, if you interested to try please adjust the flavor according to your personal preference :)

Ingredients

1 cube of tofu
200gm minced meat
4 tbsp chopper scallion
2 tsp minced ginger
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp hot bean paste
1 1/2 cup water
3 tbsp dark( black) vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
corn starch and water as thickening agent
3 tbsp oil

Method:

Heat pan with oil, and stir fry and break the meat into pieces for about 3 minutes.
Add in ginger, garlic, scallion, hot bean paste and bean curd stir fry for another minute.
Add in water, vinegar, sugar and sesame oil, cover the pan with lid and let it simmer for 3 mins.
Add the corn starch mixture
Garnish with some scallion and ready to serve.

Tagged:Before I was a Mom

2008-02-28T10:38:00.000-06:00

Another MEME from LCOM. Here it goes.

The rule to the e-mail was that, once you have been hit, you have to hit 5 pretty Moms, including the one who thought of you today & sent it to you. The idea is that if you get hit again, You will know you are really pretty!

So I thought lets just turn this into a tag instead. But that “hit” part won’t work very well in a tag. So instead of giving a “hit” to the one who tag you, you add your name at the bottom of the tagged persons list, and without bumping the person at the top or bumping anyone off and let the list grow. Hit 5 pretty moms on your list to let them know they are pretty!

Before I was a mum;
I used have at least 8 hours or more sleep a day.

Before I was a mum;
I enjoyed watching TV shows like survivor, Apprentice,Amazing Race, FoodNetwork, HGTV. Now we don't even subscribe to any TV network

Before I was a mum;
Hubby and I traveled quite bit when we get the chance

Before I was a mum;
I used to shop for myself and never thought how much I am saving by getting the kids cloths few seasons ahead

Before I was a mum;
I didn't know Target has 75% clearance on toys twice a year! Now I stocked up toys for presents and for my kid whenever there are sales and clearance.

Before I was a mum;
Hubby and I eat at any place we want, when we return to malaysia we enjoyed hawker food by the street and now we always looks for kids friendly restaurant or places with air conditioned especially in Malaysia when eating out.

The first chain of tag:

1. Lovelymummy
2. Pek Imm
3. Momisodes
4. Ling that’s me
5. Janicepa
6. AnnieQ
7. Allthingspurple
8. Montessorimum
9. clumsy mommy
10. Sandra
11. KittyCat
12. VivianZ
13. Sweetpea
14. Sasha
15. Giddy Tiger
16. Wen
17. Jo-N
18. Janice Ng
19. ViEmwk
20. Little Corner of Mine
21. Masakan Istimewa

I would like to tag the following pretty moms :

Peace Award

2008-02-25T14:11:00.005-06:00

I totally agree with her 'peace above love', but then again you have to love in order to find peace. If everyone can 'love thy neighbor as thyself' ( Leviticus 19:18) as the scripture says, there will not be wars in the world.

Got another award from LCOM . Thanks my friend!
Now I would like to pass it on to

Nam Yee Char Siu

2008-02-25T11:06:00.008-06:00

It's char siu time again but this time I found a recipe to prepare char siu using Nam Yee, one of my favorite ingredient. The recipe does not call for any usual ingredient such as garlic, ginger or hoisin sauce, in stead it uses nam yee, ketchup and oyster sauce.

Since it was snowing out site, this time I decide to baked char siu it in my oven. It was a long process but the outcome was rather delicious. The char siu was juicy and the taste was wonderful.

Here's my adapted version.

Ingredients (click here link to the original recipe)

3lb country style BBQ Pork ribs

Marinade

4 tbsp oyster sauce
4 tbsp ketchup
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
3 tbsp sugar
1 piece red fermented beancurd
1 tbsp Chinese wine
1 tbsp five spice powder

Glaze :

1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp water
Remaining Marinate

Method:

Whisk together all the marinade ingredients in a bowl.
Pierce the pork with a fork and place pork in the marinate in the fridge for overnight.
Mix all the glaze ingredient together and cook over medium heat until it’s syrupy, about 2 – 4 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Line a tray with foil and set the wire rack over the tray.
Place the pork on the wire rack. Pour hot water into ray until enough to cover the bottom of the tray and cover the tray tightly with foil. Roast on the middle rack for 20 minutes.
Remove the foil and roast for another 40 to 45 minutes, until the edges of the meat start to brown.
Turn on the broiler (keeping the rack on the middle rack), brush the pork with glaze and broil the pork for about 3 minutes. Flip the pork over then brush the pork with glaze and broil for another 3 minutes, until the pork is a dark brownish red and evenly caramelized.

5 Facts About Me...

2008-02-21T09:38:00.004-06:00

I have been tagged by Happy Home Baking to do this MEME.

Here are the MeMe rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Man.. this is the tough one.. need to come up with 5 facts about myself, this really got me thinking....

Fact #1: I only shop for clothing when they are on sales or clearance.

Fact #2: My hubby and I got married at Las Vegas. ( ok, not those drive thru kind of wedding)

Fact #3: We have a guinea pig as pet since hubby and I were out of college and move to KC to start out working life together

Fact #4: I love all type of desserts and sweets except American's Pie

Fact #5: I am summer person. I don't like cold weather therefore I don't really enjoy winter season. Winter make me feel depress.

Now here are my tags:

mrshbt @ Stream in the Hip Desert
tigerfish @ Teczcape - an escape to Food
Joanne @ Home Sweet Home

Another Success?

2008-02-19T13:11:00.011-06:00

8 more weeks to go before baby #2 arrive, I guess it's time for me reduce my cooking and baking but stay relax, eat more and get more sleep. I was suppose to gain 1lb each week in my 3rd trimester but I have been loosing weight due to my illness in the past 2 weeks. Not a good sign :( Before I quit I want give my egg tart one more try.
So what do you think of the outcome? A success? well.. Hubby thinks that I still need to work on the crust a little more. I agreed with him but I still call this a success for a second trial. Not bad at all. To be frank, I was so surprise how this turn out as you know my first egg tart was a disaster.
The custard filling was very soft and moist just like the store bought, don't you think? This recipe is certainly a keeper. I am thinking for my next trial, I might swap the water and fresh milk amount to get a creamier custard filling.

Amelia, Just want to Thank You for your wonderful recipe and instruction. You are me hero haa..

Pastry Ingredients:

360 g flour
188 g butter
cold water 3 tbsp
1 1/2 egg yolk
6 tbsp icing sugar
2 tbsp custard powder

Method:

Sieve the flour,custard powder, icing sugar together.
Cut the butter into small cube and use your finger tips to mix till resemble bread crumbs.
Beat the yolk lightly and mix into the flour mixture and add cold water.
Knead lightly till the dough is from and pliable. Do not over knead the dough.
Roll out the dough press lightly into the egg tart mold.
Prick lightly with a fork and bake 320F for 8-10 minutes and remove from the oven.

Custard filling Ingredients :

4 eggs
16 tbsp water
8 tbsp fresh milk
150 g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3 tsp custard powder.

Method:

Mix the water,milk, sugar and boil lightly till sugar melt.
Beat the egg lightly with a fork, add custard powder and mix well.
Pour 1/3 of the milk into the egg mixture and stir well to temper the egg.
Then pour the entire milk mixture into the egg and mix well.
Sieve the egg mixture to remove any lumps before used.
Fill the pastry with custard and baked for 25 to 30 minutes at 320F until the custard is set. ( Adjust temp according to oven)

*** about 15 egg tarts

Black Sesame Filling 2 Ways

2008-02-18T13:29:00.000-06:00

Have been looking for ways to finish my left over black sesame powder before it expire and finally found a recipe online. All I need are black sesame powder, icing sugar, some sesame oil and enough canola oil for smoothness. Mix everything in bowl until a smooth paste is form and chill it in the fridge before use.

Now that I have the filling, what's next?
Green tea black sesame mochi. The mochi recipe and instruction can be found from LCOM. I really like this green tea version, very soft and refreshing especially if you eat it right away. Or you can chill in the fridge. I especially like the chilled version.

Black sesame steam bun. This is one of my favorite steam bun besides the egg custard bun. Not many dim sum place has it but you can certainly get the frozen from Asian Groceries store. I prepared the bun with the store bought pre-package pau flour. The sesame filling was rather dry not sure whether because I over steam the bun? Nevertheless, it still taste ok.

Tagged: 10 Things about Masakan Istimewa

2008-02-18T12:38:00.003-06:00

First tagged from LCOM : 10 Things about Me.

1. Masakan Istimewa loves to: travel around the world

2. Masakan Istimewa hates to: go to work everyday, 5 days a week

3. Masakan Istimewa loves to: try all type of different cuisine

4. Masakan Istimewa hates to: clean especially bathroom

5. Masakan Istimewa loves to: bake and cook especially dessert

6. Masakan Istimewa hates to: prepare everyday meal

7. Masakan Istimewa loves to: cuddle with my little one

8. Masakan Istimewa hates to: take longs hours flight.

9. Masakan Istimewa loves to: watch comedy series or movie

10. Masakan Istimewa hates to: attend all day meetings

Whole Wheat Yogurt Bread

2008-02-14T10:27:00.009-06:00

This is one of my favorite recipe I found from KC forum that I would like to share with you. The original recipe use bread flour to product a white yogurt bread, Since I have some whole wheat flour left just enough for this recipe, I decided to finish up the wheat flour with this Whole Wheat Yogurt Bread.
This recipe produce a very soft loaf of bread and the bread remain soft after 3 days without any bread improver. Due to the yogurt content, I must said that this bread is actually quite sweet compare to milk loaf, therefore it's actually taste pretty good eating it plain or with minimum spread.

This is my adapted version. I reduce the recipe into half due to my bread machine capacity. Instead of using vanilla sugar and plain yogurt, I replaces it vanilla yogurt.

Ingredients: ( click here to view original recipe in French language)

1 beaten egg ( room temperature)
62.5g vanilla yogurt
160ml the whole milk
~32.5g sugar
250g whole wheat flour
1 tsp yeast dry
2 tsp butter ( room temperature)

Method

Put everything in the order listed above or according to your bread machine manual.
Set to dough function for the first 20 minutes.
Then set to auto program for whole wheat bread 1.5lb with light crust to finish the rest of the baking process.

A simple meal I prepare to pair with this wonderful bread. Ham sandwich with swiss cheese, lettuce tomatoes, mayonnaise and some slice avocados. Yum yum..What a healthy meal for the whole family.

Bacon Fried Rice

2008-02-13T14:30:00.000-06:00

Do you have any special fried rice story to share? I remember in one of my team meeting, we were chatting about food. One of my American co-worker mentioned that his Chinese friend add hot dog in his fried rice then the rest of the team was laughing and think that funny. Maybe to American, this is something new or odd, who would have though of hot dog fried rice combination?? To be frank, I have been adding hot dog in my fried rice since I was in college.

Last week, we have some left over rice, no hot dog or any meat left in the fridge but some left over bacon. So this is my new creation as suggested from my hubby - Bacon Fried Rice with eggs and mix veggie.

Keen to share your unusual ingredients to prepare a simple fried rice?

Mung Bean Cookies

2008-02-11T12:31:00.001-06:00

This is my second CNY creation - Mung Bean/ Green Bean Cookies. Another recipe copy from LCOM. The cookies melt in your mouth and have a very similar taste as the peanut cookie minus the peanut. I used mung bean powder instead of green bean flour. I always thought they are the same, can anyone confirm if they indeed mean the same thing? Because mine turn out to be green in color.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. cornflour
3/4 cup mung bean powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg yolk, for glazing

Method:

Cream butter, powdered sugar and salt until creamy.
Mix in sifted flours and hand knead until a dough is formed.
Scoop the dough with a teaspoon and roll into a ball.
Brush the top of each cookie with the yolk glaze.
Bake in preheated 300F oven for 20 minutes.

Another Award

2008-02-08T13:13:00.001-06:00

Another award from LCOM ! Thanks Ching for giving me award!

Chinese New Year Nian Gao

2008-02-08T09:49:00.000-06:00

This is my first CNY creation of the year. How could you complete a chinese new year celebration without a nian gao? So I decided to get some steaming going with this quick and easy nian gao recipe from fellow blogger on Tuesday night and get ready for CNY celebration.
This recipe was adopted from Florence . Never imagine I will make my own nian gao as I heard that there are many pantang larang when steaming a nian gao. I guess due to the culture differences, Hong Kong style nian gao seems to be easier to prepare as compare to malaysia version when people spend all day long just to steam the kuih.

Ingredients:

300g glutinous rice flour
75g wheat starch (tang mien fun)
250g black/brown sugar
250ml water
250ml thick coconut milk

Method:

Boil sugar with water till sugar dissolved. Strain and leave to cool. Stir in coconut milk and ginger juice.
Pour sugar solution into sieved glutinous rice flour and wheat starch. Stir the mixture until well blended. Strain mixture if necessary so that it will be smoother.
Pour nian gao mixture into a greased pan, cover it with aluminum foil and steam for about 45 - 60 minutes.
Stick a red date in the middle of the cake immediately after it is cooked.

Rat's Way to Say Happy Lunar Year

2008-02-07T14:57:00.001-06:00

Enjoy the slice show!!

春节愉快,万事如意!

2008-02-06T11:52:00.001-06:00

GONG XI FA CAI!!

My First Award!!

2008-02-05T12:17:00.001-06:00

It was a hectic weekend which I got nothing accomplished by went to ER on Sunday, admitted to the hospital and spend my weekend and monday in the hospital. Anyway, I felt so much better now and return to work this morning checking my email and found out I got an award from LCOM!!

Yay.. my first award ever! Thanks LCOM for giving this award to me. You truly brighten my week!

I would like to pass this to my friend Home Sweet Home

Pandan Sponge Cake

2008-01-31T09:36:00.000-06:00

I love pandan cake and have wanted try make pandan chiffon cake forever but just never get the chance to do it. Originally I was planning to bake a pandan layer cake for my birthday but plan changed, didn’t really get to bake anything but end up with a mini store bought cake to share with my family. Still tempting to try the panda layer cake until I found this simple recipe from KC forum.

The cake is quite moist, soft and spongy. This is perfect to share with your friend who are lactose intolerance because it doesn't content any butter or milk. However, it has a very high contain of eggs. 8 eggs or more for the cake in this size. Don't think this something you want to eat everyday for health reason :)

This recipe is very simple and straight forward. The only downside is you have to use Sponge Cake Mix which I don’t think you can get it anyway in US. I brought the cake mix from

Malaysia

last Nov and I am so glad that I did.

Ingredients:

435g sponge cake mix
400g eggs ( about 8 eggs)
100g coconut milk
2 tsp sponge gel (ovalette)
1 tsp pandan paste
PAM to coat the cake pan

Method:

Preheat oven to 360F
Grease a aluminum foil or parchment paper lined 10" cake pan with PAM
Using a cake mixer, beat all the ingredients together on low for 1 minute.
Turn to high and beat for another 12 minutes till cake mix is foam-like and very very thick.
Pour into cake pan.
Put the cake pan on a baking tray filled with about 1 cm of water. (This is the baine marie; culinary technical terms)
Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes to an hour
After cake is done, do not remove the cake from the oven immediately but leave the oven door slightly ajar and allow cooling for 15 to 20 mins before remove from the oven.

Japanese Soy Sauce Chicken

2008-01-29T12:50:00.000-06:00

Found this interesting recipe from KC forum and tried it last week. The outcome is delicious especially the sauce. Besides the soy sauce flavor, it also contain the sweetness and rich flavor from the balsamic vinegar. I could be a bit bias because I love balsamic vinegar on everything. From savory dish to sweet dessert.

For this dish I used the lightly aged balsamic vinegar rather the thicken version which is best use for salad and dessert. I made couple modifications the the original recipe. I marinated the chicken ahead of time and remove the chicken from the pot once it looks tender to avoid overcook the meat. This is my adapted version.

Ingredients:

8 chicken drumsticks
1 cup water
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 clove garlic, peeled and bruised
2 dried hot chili pepper

Method:

Marinate the chicken overnight with water, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and sugar.
Place all the ingredients in a saucepan over a high heat.
Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes.
Increase the heat, turning the drumsticks frequently in the sauce, and cook until the drumstick is tender.
Remove the drumstick and continue cook the liquid until it has reduced to a sticky glaze.
Arrange the chicken on a serving platter and spoon the glaze over.

Whole Wheat Milk Loaf

2008-01-28T10:13:00.001-06:00

This is my bread of the week- Whole Wheat Milk Loaf recipe taken from my previous Milk Loaf with minor adjustment.
Besides replacing the gluten flour with whole wheat flour, I also use the sweet dough function instead of the basic loaf function to get a lighter crust
The loaf come out perfect as I expected except it was almost half size smaller than the white bread. I was thinking maybe I should increase the ingredients to 1.5 more on my next loaf but this loaf is seriously quite fulfilling because of its' rich and dense texture. 2 slices of bread can actually stop me from snacking until my lunch time.
Just want to share with you my Saturday morning breakfast. Whole wheat kaya toast with a cup of white coffee. oo. wait.. It was 1/2 cup of white coffee. Try to avoid caffeine if possible but sometime I just need some coffee to get my day started.

Lettuce wrap with Ground Turkey

2008-01-24T13:46:00.000-06:00

Since I have some lettuce head and ground turkey in my fridge, I really want to try this healthy version of lettuce wrapped from Steamy Kitchen. Unfortunately, I totally forgotten about the green apple when I was out for my groceries shopping.As a result, this is what I end up with Asian Lettuce Cups with Ground Turkey ~~& Green Apple~~. I replaced the apple with 1/2 carrot and omitted the fried mung bean noodle.

Ingredients: (click here for original recipe)

1 lb ground turkey
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1/2 orange bell
1/2 carrot
2 scallions
1/2 yellow bell
1.5 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1/4 tsp ground pepper

Method:

Cut all the veggie into cube size.
Heat pan on high heat with cooking oil. Add ground turkey and fry until 80% done. With spatula, make room in the center of pan to fry the aromatics. Just push the meat out of the way. Add a touch more cooking oil if needed. Fry garlic, ginger, scallions until fragrant, about 10 seconds.
Add bell peppers and carrots Cook just a minute until vegetables are slightly softened.
Add sauce ingredients. Mix well and heat through.
Serve with lettuce cups, fried shallot and shaved carrots.

I really like the taste of the wrap, you don't really need any dipping sauce to add on like the one you get from PF Chang. The only sauce you need to kick it up a notch is probably chilies sauce is what Steamy Kitchen call it a rooster sauce. Definately thinking of giving it another try with the green apple.

Dried Oyster and Chicken Porridge

2008-01-23T10:23:00.000-06:00

Wanted to cook something simple for another lazy Sunday afternoon and thought of the dried oyster and roast pork hock porridge my aunt used cook in Malaysia. When I was young, I don't really the dried oyster flavor except this porridge. Since I wasn't able to get the roasted pork hock, I replaced the roasted pork hock with chicken breast to make it more healthy and less oily.

Ingredients:

* Rice
* Water
* Dried Oyster
* Chicken breast
* Soy sauce and pepper for marinate
* Salt to taste

Method:

I marinated my chicken breast with some soy sauce and pepper for about 30 minutes and put the remaining ingredient into my rice cooker.
Select porridge function.
Serve with some green onions and diced century egg

Wake up with Light and Fluffy Pancakes

2008-01-22T12:31:00.001-06:00

The All You Can Eat Pancakes promotion is going on at IHOP right now and I was considering going there for breakfast during the weekend. After some deep thought, I started to wonder how many pancakes can I eat at 1 time? Is it really a good deal? After all, I don't want to make myself look like a giant pancakes when leaving the restaurant. So I decided to whip up a small batch of pancakes at home for myself and my family of course, just to satisfy my craving and dream.

This recipe was adapted from Florence, Since I don't any buttermilk at home, i uses 2% fresh milk and while i am typing, i just realized i forgot to add the oil to my batter. Oh well.. it still taste good in my opinion without the oil.

Ingredients: (Click here for the original version)

120g self-rising flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
25g sugar
190ml 2% milk
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
4 tbsp oil
PAM to coat the pan
Blueberries for topping ( optional)

Method:

Mixed all ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisk until the batter is smooth
Used a non-stick pan, spray a thin layer of PAM on a medium heat
Pour in desired amount of batter or i used 1/4 size cup over the pan and let it cook pancakes until the bubbles appear on it. You can add any topping or fruit at this point before turning the pancakes over
Turn the pancakes over and cook until brown
I serve mine with Apricot syrup and butter. Yum Yum..

This is my kiddie version for Aidan. 1/2 size smaller then the adult version, no syrup but with fresh blueberries and a touch of butter. He love it so much that he actually finish 4 of the pancakes and still asking for MORE!

Simple Mixed Veggies Stir-fry with Fishball

2008-01-21T12:27:00.000-06:00

I have some left over napa cabbage, bean sprout and carrot sitting in my fridge for almost 1 week now, don't know what to do with them. While hubby was preparing the napa cabbage for his dish, suddenly though of the idea of combining all the left over with some cellophane noodle and fish ball. The outcome was quite delicious in my opinion. I really like veggie combination of this dish. Some crunchiness from the bean spout and the natural sweetness from the cabbage, carrot and fish ball. Yum yum.. definitely a keeper.

Kaya (Coconut Jam)

2008-01-18T13:29:00.000-06:00

Hmm.. Kaya, one of the most famous bread spread in Malaysia. In Ipoh, you can find most of the old style Kopitiam serving homemade kaya toast with Ipoh white coffee in the morning especially at the old town area. I believe it is now become one of the tradition where you can find kaya toast in every Kopitiam in Malaysia.
Kaya reminded me a lot of old time memory. Still remember that my mom used to make kaya all the time when we were teen. She used to prepare kaya toast as our breakfast before we go to school in the early morning. To us, mommy's homemode kaya is the best. Of course during her era, making kaya was not as easy as today. I still remembered that my mom's kaya was cook using the double boiler with fresh ingredients on the charcoal burner. Fresh ingredients mean fresh squeeze coconut milk with the egg from my mom's little chicken farm. Can you imagine how good that is?
In my mind, cooking kaya is such a hassle work and I would never imagine cooking my own kaya until I found blogs talking about cooking kaya with bread machine, slow cooker or even the modern style rice cooking with multifunction. Now that I am able bake some fresh bread for my family, next goal will be cooking a nice kaya to eat with the lovely loaf.

Here's the recipe I used where from LCOM, adapted from Jo's deli.

Ingredients:

3 large eggs
1 1/3 cup sugar
300 ml thick coconut milk
1/2 tsp. clear pandan paste ( you can use any green pandan paste as well)

Method:

In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs until mix well
Put everything including add into bread machine
Set the machine to Jam function and let it do the rest of the job
The kaya will not look smooth after the cooking from the machine. Pour the kaya to a blender and blend until smooth

* When fresh from the blender, the kaya may not look as thick. Don't worry, it will get thicker as it cold down.

Since i was using the clear pandan flavor as oppose to the green pandan paste, I was surprise to see that the kaya actually looks quite greenish. Now, after storing it in the fridge, the kaya is now look more yellowish which is what i expect.

If i remember correctly, the brownish color from the traditional kaya were come from the caramel where you will have to prepare right before the kaya is ready and stir the hot caramel into the kaya mixture until well mix. Not only it gave the brownish color of the kaya but it also add extra caramel kick to it. I was so tempting to try the caramel steps but afraid i will mess up the whole kaya without consult to my mom. Until then, this is definitely one great recipe to keep.
aahh.. who want some fresh bake milk loaf with some kaya and butter on it? Me!! Now that I pass my glucose test.. I can finally indulge my lovely loaf and kaya without any guilt or worry :)

Hokkaido Milk Loaf

2008-01-16T10:45:00.002-06:00

This is another wonderful milk loaf recipe that I would definitely keep and recommend to everyone. Another thanks to for LCOM recommending this recipe in her blog. The loaf came out lovely, soft and fluffy just like the one you can get it from most of the Asian bakery store back home.

At first I was a bit worry about the loaf getting harden without the bread improver and I was wrong.The loaf remain soft and tasty even after the 3rd days. Yum! Yum! it's all I can say about it.

Since this recipe have been try and proven by so many fellow bloggers, everyone seems to have their own way to bake the loaf and this is how my bake mine.

Ingredients (Click here for original recipes)

125g whole milk (warm)
75g heavy cream (warm)
1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg room temperature
40g sugar
270g gluten flour
30g cake flour
5g dry yeast
15g milk powder

Method:

Put everything in the bread machine in the order listed above or according to you bread machine instruction.
Set to dough function for the first 20 minutes.
Then set to auto program for sweet function 1.5lb with light crust to finish the rest of the baking process.
3 hour later … VOILA! The loaf is ready.

30 minutes or less Instant Tofu Pudding

2008-01-15T12:51:00.001-06:00

Bought this instant Tofu Pudding mix couple months back and finally got the chance to try it this week. The package I believed cost about $2.00 USD and it has 6 individually packed tofu pudding mix.

It is very easy to prepare and can be done in 30 minutes of less. I poured the amount of water as indicated on the package into a small pot. Bring it to boil. remove the pot from the heat and slowly stir in the powder mix until well mix. Cover the pot and wait for 15 minutes until the pudding is set.

Scoop out the pudding with my brand new tofu paddle brought my Malaysia (yes, my new toy)and it is ready to serve. No sugar syrup needed because it's all included in the package. Isn't that easy!!
As you can see the tofu texture is very soft and silky just like the one you get from dim sum place, however, taste wise just ok given that I can actually make this in 30 minutes of less. I still prefer my tofu pudding in palm sugar ginger syrup.

Korean Bean Sprout (Sukju-Namul)

2008-01-14T15:00:00.000-06:00

While I was looking for other way to prepare the bean spout, suddenly thought of this Korean side dish we ate few months back from the Chosun Korean BBQ restaurant. I like this dish very much because it taste very light and refreshing especially when they serve it cold. So after some recipes hunting online, I found this recipe and decided to give it a shot.

Ingredients:

250g green bean sprouts
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil
1/8 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp chopped green onion
1/8 tsp white sesame

Method:

Boil some water in a pot
Add in bean sprouts when the water boiling. and let them boil for 2 mins
Drain the water. let them cool.
Sprinkle the salt on top, mix well and let it sit for about 3 mins.
Squeeze the green bean sprouts with your hands to discard the water
Add the remaining the seasoning sauce, and mix them well.

Verdict: Lighter than the one we had from the restaurant but overall I like it. Probably will add a little more salt or soy sauce next time to enhance the flavor a little bit.

Ok..here's how the next picture was taken. It was weekday night I prepare the dish. As you know I broke my camera few weeks ago, so I asked hubby to take a picture of the dish before he eat since I need to feed Aidan. Instead of taking the picture of the spout on the serving plate, he took the picture below. The bean sprout on his rice bowl before he took his first taste... duh! luckily got caught, other wise this will be my only picture to show off the dish hmm...

An Edible Cinnamon Raisin Loaf

2008-01-11T02:58:00.000-06:00

Usually hubby and I will have a glass of milk with cereal for breakfast before we leave to work. This week as we ran out of milk, I decided to bake a loaf of bread with the remaining ingredient I had on hand. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl loaf has been one of my favorite bread of all time. I usually just love it eat it plain. After some googling online, I found a recipe with quite a bit positive reviews and raving about how soft the bread and flavorful the loaf is and the recipe are quite simple and straight forward. So right after I reach home from work around 6pm, I quietly prepare and load all the ingredient into the breadmachine to make sure the bread is done before my time to bed. This time I experiment my loaf with ½ all purpose flour and ½ gluten flour because I want to see what’s the end result of using all purpose flour.

3 hours later, voila.. The bread is ready. It looks ok.. the loaf is soft and raised well when fresh out from the machine. Hubby and I take a few small bites to taste the loaf and we both think that the texture of the loaf was a bit dense and does not smell as good as the milk loaf I baked few days ago. Well I do not expect the loaf to smell as good as the milk loaf as this loaf as much less ingredient compare to the one. But overall, it was ok. At least edible haa.. No recipe post for this loaf as I am not planning to keep this recipe but continue my bread baking experiment with other recipes.

Next week, I will have my GCT (Glucose Challenge Test) for to check for gestational diabetes. My friend told me to avoid taking any sweets 10 days before the test, so I can pass the test. ( I failed the 1 hour test but passed the 3 hours test on my first pregnancy). I really home I can pass the 1 hours test and skip the 3 hours test this time.. it was really a pain to stay in the lap for 4 hours and have the technician drew my blood every hour. Do you think taking less breads and cakes this week will helps? I wanted to try the sponge cup cake recipe and a panda sponge cake recipes so badly in the past few weeks and I just can’t make time to do it. Thinking of trying it this weekend, or should I wait until I pass my test?

Assam Laksa Anyone?

2008-01-08T12:47:00.000-06:00

This is my friend J not so easy version of Assam Laksa. When you are away from home and craving for

assam

laksa, having a bowl of it with the taste as close as you can get it’s like heaven especially to a pregnant women like me. So I call up J last Friday asked for the recipe and invited her family come over to taste and provide me some feed back since I am going to note down exactly the amount of ingredient I put while I was cooking.

So here there are..

Ingredients:

1 package of Hup Loong Assam Laksa spice

2 oz belachan
1 sweet yellow onion
5 dried chilis
½ medium size jicama
1 stalk lemon grass
1 ½ oz Laksa basil

4-5 tamarind skins/Assam Keping
3 can 6 oz tuna drained
2 can 15 oz Sardine in tomato sauce
Soy sauce, salt and sugar to taste

Method:

Add belachan, onion, jicama and chilies into blender and blend until smooth paste. Note may need to add some water to get the blender running.
In a large pot, boil about 12 cups of water.
After the water is boiling, add in lemon grass, laksa basil and blended ingredients and tamarind skins, bring to boil, turn the heat to medium and let it simmer for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Add in tuna and Sardine, a little soy sauce, salt and sugar to taste.
Serve it laksa bee hoon garnish with some lettuce, pineapple, cucumber and red onion.

Note: This recipe can probably serve around 10 people.

Her secret ingredient of increasing the sweetness of the soup is by addition blended jicama and sweet yellow onion. I was also told that, to prepare the soup 1 day ahead to increase the flavor and sweetness from all the spices. I find it rather interesting using jicama for sweetness. Nevertheless, I love the outcome and taste.

Just like a dream comes true …

2008-01-07T10:15:00.001-06:00

Bread or bun making has been in my to do list forever, unfortunately I am not good in kneading dough, therefore I always hold off on baking bread and bun myself. Last year, while I was shopping at Target, I saw this Breadman bread machine was on sale from $87 to $17. 75% off from the original price.. what an incredible deal right? Can’t resist myself to pass this opportunity, as a result, I bought this machine and has been sitting at home for almost 2 months now.

Right after we returned from my trip, I decided to give it a try with a few recipes.. From pandan raisin bun (too ambitious the first time) to a couple simple white bread, fully done by the machine itself, it was a total disaster. The raisin bun taste like a cake than a bun, the first white loaf I tried from the recipes come with the machine was too dry and hard right out of the machine, not to mention what’s that going to be turn out the next day.. like a rock. The 3rd recipe I tried was even discouraging.. taste like flour, and hard like a rock. It end up in my trash right after the bread was cook. What a discouraging experience huh?

Just though of returning my bread machine to Target ( since I am still within the return period), I saw this wonderful yummy green tea loaf from LCOM. Read the article and follow the thread to Happy Home Baking blog, patiently review all the wonderful comments about this milk loaf. It sound like a little fool proof recipe to me. OK… technically I still have until the end of month to return the machine, I decided to give it a try.

Take a look of what I got. This picture was taken the next morning. This is like a dream comes true to me… a fresh loaf of bread come out from my kitchen.

Not only the bread is soft, it is very flavorful and rich in butter flavor just like how Happy Home Baking describes in her blog. This also reminded me the Hokkaido raisin bread I brought from pavilion during my trip home. Not only the bread taste good when is fresh out from the machine, it taste as good the next day with the softer crust. I gave it light toast on the 3rd day with butter spread; it was still wonderful with a slightly crispier crust. Hmm.. yummy.

Hubby saw that I was so excited with the loaf, he decided to pinch the loaf while taking the picture to show how soft the it was when fresh from the machine :)

Many thanks to LCOM, Happy Home Baking and her reader’s review.. some motivation and encouragement on bread making… Going to try more recipes in this couple week before my return data is DUE!

Ingredient I used (Click here for link to original recipe):

143g warm 2% fresh milk
1 egg (room temperature)
~ 38g unsalted butter (room temperature)
25g caster sugar
5g salt
250g gluten flour
~ 4g Instant yeast (since my scale only measure in 5 gram increment, so I did a rough est)
1 tsp bread improver

Method I used:

Put everything in the bread machine in the order listed above.
Set to dough function for the first 20 minutes.
Then set to auto program for basic white bread 1.5lb with light crust to finish the rest of the baking process.
2.5 hour later … VOILA! The loaf is ready.

While I was searching for bread recipe for my next creation, I saw that bread flour is actually not the same as the high gluten flour I used in this recipe. I know that most of the Chinese bread recipe call high gluten flour and I always thought bread flour = high gluten flour. After doing a little bit of research, found that they are not exactly the same in term of the protein value contain in these flour. Click here for more detail explanation. Seems like high gluten flour actually produce a more elastic effects

Most of the western bread recipe call for all purpose or bread flour. I have been using all purpose flour and bread flour for my previous baking and it was a disaster. I have seen people replace all purpose flour with bread flour or using regular bread flour for this recipe and the outcome is wonderful. This has truly make me wonder how much different will these flour made? Should I try my next bread with all purpose flour or stick with the gluten flour?

Year End Potluck Gathering

2008-01-02T14:37:00.000-06:00

It's the end of the year and we hosted a small party at our house last weekend and invited a few of our close friend to join us for lunch. Hubby was able to capture some pictures of the food everyone contributed in the gathering.

Mini Spring Roll

Stir fry Vegetables

Cream Cheese Dip

Curry Chicken

Fry Bee Hoon and Devil Egg at the Backgroup

Orange Kiwi Seed Agar-Agar in the mold

Mix Fruit Konnyaku Jelly

Happy New Year 2008!

2007-12-31T15:41:00.000-06:00

Wish you all have a wonderful New Year.

Treasure Hunt from Malaysia

2007-12-30T15:01:00.000-06:00

I started my

Malaysia

shopping list right after we bought the air ticket.. so finally here they are all goodies from home..

I must say the most exciting shopping I had was at the bakery specialty store at Taman Megah,PJ. I was able to purchase all items from my shopping list plus additional. Call me crazy or not, besides the bread improver, cake stabilizer, panda paste etc.. I even brought the cup cake liner, aluminum tart mold and to fu fa paddle all the way from home. Glad that hubby was ok to let me shop like a crazy women. Now is the time to get my hand dirty with all these baking goodies. Hopefully I can start to play with them soon.

Next stop was my pre-package spices hunt. I don’t know about you, for me this is a must in my shopping list. We usually don’t get these much is spices from home.. but since we know our next trip home won’t happen in the near future.. I better stock up with no regrets. I went to look around some recommended brand of spices from LCOM and Lily’s website, but have no luck finding them in Malaysia.. I guess.. now that I know I still can get it online.. it won’t be so bad huh.

Then my snack station consist of some local roasted coffee powder( main for hubby), sambal shrimp roll, meat floss roll, Thai peanut, dry guava ( this is my favorite snack of all time), Nestum whole family cereal, Japanese rice crackers for my little one and some Twisties for my friends.. ( no in the picture)

Last and not least, Chinese herbs for my up coming confinement preparation. Chinese herbal soup premix package, homemade ang chiu (Chinese red wine), red dates, goji, dried logan, dong kwai etc..Yes, we are expecting baby #2 this coming April sorry for hiding the news for so long.. . Since my mom will not be to come and help out, she wanted to make sure I get everything I need to take good care of myself during the confinement.

Besides we also brought home some early childhood education books in Chinese for my little one cause we want to teach him Chinese as much as we can before he become americanized by his school and friends :)

I was a bit worry that our luggages will get rejected due to the weight limit but when we checked in at the airport, total weight for a 3 luggages was only 75 lb… still have maybe 20 lb to go.. I wish I can squeeze more stuff in it.. but it’s too late. Anyway, I am pretty happy with what we got right now and felt lucky that we able to pass the US custom without any problem hee..

Home Sweet Home

2007-12-27T14:24:00.000-06:00

Do you feel that time flies like the speed of light when you are on vacation. Still remember 2 months back when we bought the air ticket and I was starting to count down my days for the trip. And now we were back from Malaysia and busy unpacking, catching up some rest, cleaning and decorating the house for Christmas and new year celebration.

We have been home since the 12^th of Dec but were so busy adjusting our sleep routine especially the little one , then working and shopping. Just thought I have a 4 days break last weekend where I can took some nice snapshot of all the goodies I bought from Malaysia, I accidentally drop my camera on the table and broke it. DUH.. so still don't have pictures to show off and yet I need to mail my camera for repair. What a bummer!

Anyway, the trip was great but too short as usual. I wish we can spend more time enjoying the food, the hot weather and just stay relax. This is the first long trip for Aidan. To our surprise, he was doing pretty good. He was able to sleep on the bassinet and play with other kid who sit next to us. He has no problem adjusting the sleep schedule when we reached Malaysia but he was having jet lag when we returned from Asia. Overall, I think it was pleasant experience travel with a toddler as my friend always told us.. prepare the worst and hope for the best.

The main purpose of the trip is to bring my son home to meet my family and relatives. So we did not get to travel to any places besides spending couple days shopping in KL,few days in Ipoh, a half day trip to Pangkor Island and the remaining time mostly stay home with my family.

Can't resist to share with you one of my favorite picture we took from the trip. Enjoy!

No Food but Flu

2007-11-12T10:50:00.001-06:00

Flu season is here.. sometime you definitely not looking forward especially with kids at home.
I started not feeling well last Friday evening and have been sick since then and hubby started to pick up my stomach flu yesterday.. so no cooking, no eating for the whole weekend but depends on milk and oatmeal to survive in the last couple days.

Thanksgiving is almost here, some of you might be start preparing the family feast to celebrate the holidays, for us who don't celebrate, usually looking forward the holiday break to catch up some rest and sleep and shopping especially the day after thanksgiving.

This year.. we are heading home for the holidays.. home I mean Malaysia.. leaving on 21st, mean not much cooking and baking for this coming week but shopping, packing and house cleaning before we leave.

I am so looking forward to this trip especially all the comfort food. First time traveling with toddler, hope I pack enough food and toys to entertain him and at the same time i could some rest.

So see ya in 3 week with more food and trip info.

Bubur Cha Cha

2007-11-07T10:12:00.000-06:00

My friend's son was celebrating his Big One this Sunday, so I helped prepare one of the Malaysia specialty sweet soup Bubur Cha Cha. In Hong Kong they usually cook it with Taro and sago, but Malaysia version we put sweet potatoes, taro and sago. It's has been a while since I had this yummy soup kinda miss it.

To make the dish looks more colorful, I used Japenese sweet potatoes ( yellow), American sweet potatoes or yam ( orange), taro and sago. There are many way to cook this dish. my family use to steam all the roots until they become tender before they add everything in the sweet soup base. Some people put everything in the pot and cook until the roots get tender. I find that American sweet potatoes we get from regular groceries store tend to get soft and mushy quicker then the sweet potatoes we get from Asian. So to prepare this, I cook the Japaneses sweet potatoes and taro over night with my slow cooker and finish up the reminding ingredients on stove the next morning before the event.

Here are the ingredients I used:

Japanese sweet potaoes ( yellow)
American sweet potatoe or yam ( orange)
Taro
Sago
Sugar to taste
Thick coconut milk
Water

One Saturday Morning

2007-11-06T10:36:00.001-06:00

This past Saturday was our 4th wedding anniversary and hubby prepared this wonderful stuff scallop, croissants and scrambled egg breakfast to start the day. It was delicious and healthy breakfast. Love it and thanks hon for the wonderful meal. Wish I can have it every week :)

According to the anniversary gift suggestion, the traditional gift for 4th anniversary is Fruit or Flowers. So in returned, I "prepared" this fruit basket for hubby. Oh wait.. actually I order it from Edible Arrangement. It is called the Perfect Pear. The fruit basket consist of strawberries, pineapple daisy, grapes and my favorite chocolate dipper pear. The basket looks kinda different from the picture showed on their website but overall I am happy with the this order. I wish I can spend some time to make my own though.. maybe one day..

Chosun Koren BBQ

2007-11-02T16:07:00.000-06:00

Last week, a friend of us paid us a visit from Singapore just for a day trip drive all the way from Iowa to KS. It was so nice of him to squeeze out his busy schedule to visit us. Since he has been in KC for so many time, we didn't bring him to all usual visitor location but just spent some time relax and chat at home and of course to play the little one. For dinner, since I have been craving for hot and spicy food lately, we decided to try one of new Korean BBQ Chugon close to out house. This place serve main the the BBQ dish but they do have some soup and appetizer like dumpling etc. Besides bulgugi, we don't really have any korean BBQ dish in the past.. so after check out the fancy menu with pictuce.. we order the BBQ COMBO which consist of Rib and sirloin steak and a bow of soup with share.
As usually the order come many side dishes which include salad, daikon kimchi, nappa cabbage kimchi, soy sauce beanspout and bean cake, cucumber Kimchi and fried chillies anchovies.
Everyone was served with a bowl of rice with a coleslaw salad.

For the BBQ plater, we were served 2 marinated rib and some thinly slice sirloin, mushroom and some onion. This combo was for 2 people serving, within an additional bowl of soup I think it's perfect for 3, not to mention the refill for the sides are free.

Overall, I like enjoy the meal. The food served were not too spicy and the service were great.

Calling all baking expert!

2007-11-01T13:02:00.000-06:00

Hubby has been requesting me to bake egg tart since I started this blog. After N months finally I manage to get the tart mold and put myself together to work on this egg tart recipes I collected long long time ago.
So here are my first egg tarts..
what a total failure and disaster.

The pastry sink after baking and leave no room for the custard. I think I should make is as thin as possible but was wonder why it shrink :( As for the custard, do you think I over bake them. The egg mixture wasn't whisk well as you still can still the egg while in the custard.. What a disappointed egg tart!

Pumpkin Patch visits

2007-10-24T09:02:00.000-05:00

Have been in the state for almost 11 years now and this is my visit to Pumpkin Patch. Well... or I should say our first visit because it was the first for me, hubby and Aidan. After checking out the pumpkin patch available near our area, we decided to go to Powell Pumpkin Patch located at Louisburg, KS for a few reasons:

Where original where the pumpkin grow, not those vendor selling pumpkin by the street and call themselves pumpkin patch
Somewhere not too far from where we live
FREE admission because we are cheap? oh well we just don't why they charge admission fee to enter the pumpkin patch.

Besides approximately 35 acres of pumpkin field you can pick you own pumpkin, they also have some mini pumpkins and squashes available to purchase. They also have some stacking hays for picture, straw men display and maze for the kid.
Too bad that Aidan is too young for the fun.. all he really enjoy was playing with those tiny little pumpkin and people watching. The price for the you pick pumpkin ranges from $1 to $7. For the mini pumpkin and squashed is 3 for a dollar. I think they are pretty reasonable but to me, the most if important of the trip is to joy of picking the pumpkin together and take some nice family pictures.
We never celebrate Halloween in the past, but for this year, we decided to get a medium size pumpkin as the a souvenir from the trip and display it on our porch. Looks kinda weird with just 1 pumpkin on the porch but hey what the heck :)Maybe I make more time to play for my next halloween.

It was a great experience and would definitely return again next year for more fun.

Yogurt Cake with Lemon

2007-10-17T11:30:00.000-05:00

While I was browsing to find out what to bring to my friend's potluck lunch last week, I came across this yogurt cake in a few blogs with different flavor and modified recipes. After reading the comments on the blog on how easy it is to back this cake, I decided this will be my cake of week for my party. The first cake I baked, come out flat, actually the cake sink in the middle when it get cold. I get very disappointment, wonder why and what causes it and whether i should try another one or is it ok to bring the cake to potluck? I spend the whole afternoon thinking about it and decided to bake cake number 2. I once read that the cake sink in the middle might due to the over temperature is too low. I am pretty sure I have the temperature set correctly however, the oven that I had is not convection oven. I suspect the temperature in my oven are not uniform. So this time in stead of placing the batter in the middle of the over, I place it on the 2nd top level. The 2nd cake come out so much better, well at least not sink in the middle. The cake is rather dense as oppose to soft :( I think it's time to get a new oven for myself. I wonder if that the reason why all my cake come out quite dense while i am expecting a soft moist cake??

Here's the 2nd cake I made:

The recipe is from Orangette.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. grated lemon zest
1/2 cup canola oil

For the glaze:

Juice from 2 lemons
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs, stirring until well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, and zest, mixing to just combine. Add the oil and stir to incorporate. At first, it will look like a horrible, oily mess, but keep stirring, and it will come together into a smooth batter. Pour and scrape the batter into a buttered 9-inch round cake pan (after buttering, I sometimes line the bottom with a round of wax or parchment paper, and then I butter that too).
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cake feels springy to the touch and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.
Cool cake on a rack for about 20 minutes; then turn it out of the pan to cool completely.
When the cake is thoroughly cooled, combine the lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl and spoon it gently over the cake. The glaze will be thin and will soak in like a syrup.
Serve.

Cellophane Noodle Soup Hong Kong Style (豌仔翅)

2007-10-15T15:24:00.000-05:00

This is one of famous hawker food you can find in Hong Kong. I am not sure whether they use the actual shark fin (I hope they do) in the soup but for homemade I am able to find a recipe that uses cellophane noodle (tung hoon) as replacement. The end result of this is more like a cellophane noodle soup Hong Kong style , so I call it Cellophane Noodle Soup Hong Kong Style.

Ingredients:

2oz pork cut into thin strip
1 slice if ginger thinly sliced
3 shitake mushroom soak, drained and cut into strip
1 individual package of cellophane noodle ( I used 2 packages for mine)
Hand full of black fungus, soak, drained and cut into strip
5 to 6 cup soup based
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp salt
White pepper to taste
3 1/2 tbsp corn starch
4 tbsp water
1 tbsp oil

Method:

Mix corn starch with water and set aside
Heat oil in a pot, add in ginger and mushroom stir fry for about 5 min.
Add in soup base and bring to boil
Add black fungus and pork strip, bring to boil
Add in Soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt.
add cellophane noodle and bring to boil
lastly add in corn starch mixture and bring to boil.
Server with some white pepper, scramble egg and red vinegar

You can serve the soup with or without vinegar, but I like it with vinegar because it give some sourness flavor. I think it's probably go well with some chilies too.

Banana Nut Muffin from Tyler Florence

2007-10-11T14:32:00.001-05:00

I love banana but I am not crazy about it. In fact I prefer banana bread, banana muffin, banana fritter and fried banana over just the plain banana fruit. Aidan loves banana, so we usually bought some banana home from our Costco shopping. One thing that I hate about banana is they tend to get ripe all together at the same time unless I brought it from the regular store where I can choose to have different ripeness for each smaller bunch of banana. So this is another day where I have some left over banana in my fridge turning black. Saw the beautiful muffin pictures from rasa Malaysia, I decided to wipe up the banana muffin again, YES again but this time I am trying the recipe from one of my favorite food network star Tyler Florence except I used replace pecan with walnut.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnut, chopped

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly butter 2 muffin tins.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture.
With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it, for a good 3 minutes.
Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.
Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated.
Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula. \Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.
Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.
Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Malaysian Sweet and Sour Eggs

2007-10-09T12:56:00.000-05:00

While I was recipe hunting last week, I saw the sweet and sour egg recipe from RasaMalaysia Check against the ingredients list and looks like I have all them and the cooking is fairly easy. I had never try this egg recipe before but anything that taste sweet, sour and spicy does appeal to me, so I decided to give it a try...... here’s the results…

ok, picture don’t do the justice, check out the recipes and beautiful picture from Rasa Malaysia.

Verdict: yummylicious…

Vermicilli in Pickled Cabbage Soup (雪菜汤米粉)

2007-10-08T10:11:00.001-05:00

A simple vermicelli I prepared for our Saturday lunch. I had never heard about 雪菜 before I came to the State and learn to cook this from my hubby. The noodle soup is very tasty with some sourly flavor. It is very easy and quick meal for a busy day. Here's my simplified version.

Ingredients:

1 package of ready to serve pickled cabbage (雪菜)
1 slice of ginger julienne
Some pork ( can be slice thinking or minced)
Soy sauce
Corn starch
about 2 cup of any soup base
about 100g of vermicelli

Method:

Soak vermicelli until soft, drained and set aside
Marinate pork with soy sauce and corn starch
Heat soup base with high heat, add in pork and cook until boiling.
Add in pickled cabbage and ginger and cook for another 2 minutes or until boiling again
Add in vermicelli and cook until the noodle is ready
Served it on bowl with a dash of white pepper and chilli's( optional)

Stir Fry Chinese Spinach with Dried Shrimp

2007-10-04T12:12:00.000-05:00

Chinese Spinach also known as Red Amaranth is one of my favorite vegetable I like to buy every time I saw this available in the Asian store. This veggie not only taste good but also good source of vitamins and minerals to your body.Click here to learn more about Amaranth.

Usually there are only couple way that my family love to cook this veggie. One is to cook this with Anchovies soup based with some fish ball and fish cake. Another is to stir fry it with dried or fresh shrimps. Here's the stir fry version and it's very simple.. all you need are some chopped garlic, dried shrimp, Chinese Spinach, a little mixture of corn starch and water as the thickening agent and some salt to taste. I like the veggie to be soft..so i usually let the dish simmer for a minute or 2 before adding the cornstarch mixture.

Sardine Fried Mee Hoon

2007-10-02T08:20:00.000-05:00

This is one of my family favorite way of stir fry vermicelli(mee hoon) when you don't have much ingredient in hand but just a canned of sardine fish in tomato sauce. I honestly not sure where this dish come from or whether this is pretty common dish in Malaysia but it seems all my family members even my cousin sister who doesn't know anything about cooking knows how to prepare this dish. When I introduce this to my husband few years ago, he love it and also love the fact how easy it is to prepare this. So these days, we always make sure we have some canned sardine at home just in case if we run out of food.
My family always uses a very fine vermicelli when they prepared this dish. In the state, i am able to find all sort of vermicelli available in the Asian market but after try with all different kind of vermicelli, i think i found my favorite brand and have been using it since then.

Ingredients:

200g vermicelli
1 canned regular Sardine fish in tomato sauce
Bean Spout or chinese mustard green
Salt and pepper to taste
soy source
1/2 red onion thinly sliced

Method:

Soak vermicelli in water until soft and remove from the soaking water.
Heat oil in the pan, add in onion and stir fry until soft
Add in sardine fish and stir fry for a minute
Add vermicelli and mix well for about 5 minutes. ( if you use the thinner type of vermicelli, the tend get cook very fast)
Add in bean spout, soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste
garnish with some scramble egg

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

2007-09-24T11:51:00.000-05:00

Getting lazy these days as you can tell i have not update my blog for decade. Not sure because of the hot weather or what, I have not had any appetite to eat therefore wasn't really into cooking for the past couple weeks.

Since we have not had any Vietnamese food for a while, we decide to make some Vietnamese spring roll for weekend lunch/snack. It is very easy to prepare and they are delicious. Have to admit that this is the 2nd times I make the spring roll, so roll wasn't really look as good.

The filling I prepared for my spring roll are:

Cooked Shrimps
Romaine lettuce
Thai Basil
Mint
Vietnamese Rice noodle for spring roll

Ingredient for Dipping Sauce

Fish sauce
Water
Lime juice
Fresh chopped chillies
Sugar
Ground peanut

Add all the ingredient together and adjust according to your own taste. Just be careful with the fish sauce, it maybe very salty depends on the brand you used.

Love this color shot from my hubby and just want to share with you. Aren't the looks color and yummy?

Malaysia Chicken Curry - Chinese Style

2007-09-13T14:28:00.000-05:00

I found this chicken curry recipe from Kuali long time ago and this is my favorite recipe so far when comes to chicken curry. Before this recipe, my chicken curry tend to be very dry and oily, not much sauce for rice, noodle or even for bread. I get so frustrated because I love those dry chicken curry noodle I used to have at home and I love to eat curry with bread too. This recipe is just perfect for me, more sauce for my rice and it's great for dry curry noodle. yum yum!

Ingredients

750g chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
200g potatoes cut into wedges
1 sprig curry leaves
100ml thick coconut milk
400ml thin coconut milk
3 tbsp oil
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar

Ground Ingredients:

5 fresh red chillies
1 stalk lemon grass, sliced finely
6 shallots
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp belachan
1 candle nut

Additional Spice

2cm piece cinnamon sticks
2 tbsp curry powder
1 star anise
2 cloves

Method

Heat oil in a saucepan, fry lemon grass, curry leaves, additional spices and ground spices until fragrant and the oil separates and the mixture start drying out a nit..
Add chicken and fry for 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in thin coconut milk. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes.
Put in potatoes and cover. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until chicken and potatoes are just tender.
Lastly, add the thick coconut milk and bring to a simmering boil for 3 to 4 minutes.( this is very important, add this thick coconut at the end but don’t let it boiled for too long, otherwise the coconut will turn into oil and you won’t get that much sauce you like.)
Add salt/sugar to taste.

Kuih Ubi Kayu ( Cassava Cake)

2007-09-11T13:29:00.001-05:00

Never know how easy is to make Kuih Ubi Kayu until I saw this recipe from Lily's blog. I love this snack and I remember my cousin used to make this from scratch. Scratch mean buying fresh Ubi kayu, remove the skin and grate the ubi with hand. I was surprise that I am able to get the frozen grated cassava from Asian store in state and still made this delightful snack in less an hour.

Ingredients:

1 lb grated cassava
1 cup sugar
1 cup coconut cream
1 stick (4 ozs) butter
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt

Method:

Preheat oven at 375 F
Mix all the ingredients in a large glass bowl and microwave on high for 1 minute at a time for about 3 minutes.
Pour into greased tin and bake for 30 minutes.
Cool before cutting into pieces.

Abalone Chicken Noodle Soup

2007-09-10T15:26:00.001-05:00

Does Abalone Chicken Noodle Soup sound luxurious huh? Believe it or not, this noodle soup is delicious and yet easy to prepare. All you need are:

A package of uncle Sun Sup Abalone dengan Ayam, some Chinese Shitake mushroom, some dried scallop and dried wheat noodle ( mee sua).
The package instruction said cook this soup on stove for 2.5 hours. For me, I prefer a no fuss cooking method --- Crockpot. Put everything except noodle in the crockpot in the morning before I leave for work set the to 10 hours cooking time. When I return in the evening.. voila.. dinner is almost ready. All i have to do is to cook the noodle and add them to the soup.

Hup Loong Fish Curry

2007-09-07T09:20:00.001-05:00

This dish reminded me one of the Ipoh Famous Curry Fish Head I used to had when I was young. In the hi-tech world today, instead of cooking the curry from scratch, I used the Hup Loong Kari Tumis (Premix curry powder for this dish). All you have to do is follow the cooking instruction from the package. Minutes later.. ta da.. yummy delicious fish curry.
In this dish I used Tilapia Fillet to replace with whole fish. The fillet were easy to breakup, so I have to be very careful when stirring and scooping them to the serving place. To enhanced the flavor, I added some Okra, homegrown tomatoes and some curry leafs. It is delicious. Hubby give it a thumps up.

Aidan's 1st Birthday Party

2007-09-05T13:42:00.000-05:00

After patiently waiting for weeks.. finally the pictures are here! It's Aidan BIG One party. The party was held at our house 3 weeks ago. Our original plan was to invite couple neighbors and friends to have an afternoon tea snack time party but we ended up with around 40 guests including kids and adults.

This was my first time planning for a birthday party, so the planning started long long time ago, maybe a few months back. Kids birthday party is so different between here in the State and Malaysia. Besides the food, we also need to prepare some games, some goodies bag for the guest to take home as a thanks you gift.

Simple Animal Decoration: I chose Zoo Animal as the party theme. I made some animal from the poster board and place them in Aidan's play room.

For the Food:
Since it's afternoon tea party, all the food served were finger friendly food and kids friendly. Even though some people said that usually the first birthday party are more for adults but you will be surprise your 1 year old child may enjoy the food as mush as you do. At least for aidan, he love the tuna sandwich and the fruit.

melting momemt cookie with lemon icing filling

Tuna Sandwiches with sweet radish and mayonnaise

Store bought popcorn chicken

Mixed Fruit Skewer

Hotdog wrap

The Birthday Cake:

Simple chocolate and Yellow cupcakes with animal print.

The cake turn out quite alright. I wish I can spend more time on decorating the cake.

The goodies Bag filled with books, crafts and animal crackers. I don't have a picture for the the bag but i must say this is the most headache process because i have to think what to put in the bag based on their age and gender.

Overall, the party went really well. Aidan was very enjoy meeting with all the friends and was having fun playing with his friend.
Besides, he decided to break the traditions where rather digging in the birthday by himself, he decided the share the joy with mommy and daddy but sharing his cake icing with us. Check out how he thanks me on preparing this wonderful below.

I have been Lazy..

2007-09-04T15:08:00.000-05:00

Have been abandoned for 2 weeks now. I am still patiently waiting on hubby to convert the all pictures from his camera we took from Aidan's birthday party and food we prepared for the party.
Lately, I have been very lazy to cook. Even though we have long labor day weekend, but i didn't actually prepared any food besides porridge for my son who prefer jar food over my cooking and we just bought Chipotle Fajitas for dinner. I guess i should call it a nice relax weekend as I spent most of my time catching up the Chinese drama series I have been missing and catching up my sleeping.

Malaysia Trip Count Down Started

2007-08-29T16:48:00.000-05:00

It's official now, our trip to Malaysia during Thanks Giving is confirm. Hubby and I were busying arranging the itinerary yesterday and finally we bought the ticket. We will be leaving on the 21st of Nov and returning on the 11th is Dec. It's only 2 weeks trip because i only have these much vacation save up this year.

The air fare was reasonable but the problem is all the day we selected has no opening seats available so we are force to travel during the weekdays. I guess the good news is we save up some $$ by traveling on the weekday but use up more vacation by staying longer. Oh well.. not actually a bad thing cause that mean I can spend another day in Malaysia eating delicious food.

Since yesterday I started my Malaysia shopping list as well and packing list. This will be our first time traveling with Aidan. A lots to pack and things to remember when comes to traveling with a toddler.

Any suggestion what stuff i should get from Malaysia before i regret? Any advice on traveling with a toddler? So looking forward to the trip minus the time we are going to spend on the plane :(

Mee Goreng ( Indian Style)

2007-08-22T16:49:00.000-05:00

Finally, I was able to get some decent looking bean sprout from the asian store and craving for mee goreng. I decided the try this recipe found from my recipe collection. The taste is quite satisfy and hubby love it. Definitely a keeper.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 red chilies, sliced ( Optional)
1 medium potato
1.5 tbsp chili paste ( adjust according to your own taste)
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste
1/2 lb shrimp
4 deep fried tofu, cut into cube size
1/2 red onion,thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
8 oz bean sprout
6 oz thin spaghetti
2 eggs
2 tbsp crispy shallot
1 lime wedges
2-3 tbsp oil

Method:

cook the spaghetti noddle according to the package instruction. Drained and rinse well with cold water and set aside.
Boil potato in a hot water until cook. removed skin and cut into cube size
In a bowl, mix in ketchup, soy sauce, suger and chili paste.
Heat oil in a pan. Add onion slice and stir fry until soft and a little brown.
Add in potato, tomatoes, chilies slice and stir fry for about 2 minute.
Add in noodles and sauce mixture. Stir and mix well for 1 minute.
Add in bean sprout and stir fry for another minute.
add salt to taste
Push noodle aside and make a well in the middle. Add 2 table spoon of oil and crack eggs into the well and scramble them.
Mix egg an noodle thoroughly
Garnish with crispy shallot and lime wedges.

Chilies Paste

8 oz red onion ( about 1.5 medium size onion)
1 oz dried chillies
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp dried shrimp paste (belacan)
2 oz dried anchovies
12fl oz oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Method:

Grind onion, dried chilies, garlid and shrimp paste until fine.
Heat about 4 fl oz oil in pan and fry anchovies over medium heat until crispy. Drained and pound coastly
Heat the remain oil in the sam pan and stir in onion paste and fried until fragrant and the oil comes through.
Add in sugar and salt.
lower the heat and the anchovies, cook for 2 minutes.

This recipe make plenty of chilies paste. you can either freezer for later use or eat it with other dishes or noodle soup.

Stir Fry Bitter Melon with Chicken

2007-08-21T14:50:00.000-05:00

Bitter melon is not something you want to eat everything, but if you are looking for something different, you might want to give it a try. The melon has quite intense bitter taste if the fruit is unripe, but they tend to get less bitter if they are fully ripe. More info can be found from here.

Ingredients

10 oz chicken
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp ginger
14 oz bitter melon remove all the pith and seed, cut into strip
1 tbsp brown bean paste
8 tbsp water
1/4 tsp sugar
salt to taste

Method

Heat oil in a pan, stir fry garlic,ginger and brown bean paste for a minute.
Add chicken and stir fry for another 2 minutes
Add butter melon and mix well.
Add water and bring the pan to boil.
Cover the pan with lid and turn the heat to medium high and let it simmer for 3 - 4 minutes.

Steam Glutinous Rice Malaysian Style ( Lor Mai Kai)

2007-08-13T16:30:00.001-05:00

Do you realized that Malaysia Loh Mai Kai is very different that Lor Mai Kai people served at the Dim Sum place in the state. The one they serve here usually wrapped with lotus leave and don't have a lot of ingredient. Malaysian style serve in a bowl( usually a metal bowl) with chicken, Chinese sausage, pork and mushroom. Don't recall when is the last time I had Malaysian style Lor Mai Kai and hubby never had one for sure. So this week, I made some Lor Mai Kai Malaysia style for him to try. Pretty satisfy with the outcome and it is not very difficult to prepare at all.
Ingredients:

500g glutinous rice
2 chicken thigh cut into 8 pieces
7 slice Char Siew(bbq pork) - slice
1 Chinese sausage (lap cheong), slice
4 black Chinese mushrooms, soaked and cut into half

Chicken and mushroom marinade:

1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp ginger juice
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Shao Hsing wine
1 tsp oil
1 tsp corn starch

Seasoning:

3 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp oil
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

Method:

Wash glutinous rice, then soak it for overnight.
Marinate the chicken and mushroom for about one to two hours.
Heat oil in pan, add glutinous rice and seasoning until well mixed.
Grease 7 small-size rice bowls.
Arrange mushroom slices, a few slices of Chinese sausages ,chicken and bbq pork slices.
Top up with glutinous rice and press down with a ladle.
Fill the bowls with water make sure the water level is above the rice.
Steam for 20-30 minutes.
Turn over the rice bowl onto a plate and serve

Stir fry Broccoli with Mushroom

2007-08-10T09:31:00.000-05:00

Back home, we don't eat broccoli as often but here, what vegetables can you gets if you don't to the Asian food store. one of our favorite veggie we get from the regular groceries store is broccoli. I like broccoli a lot especially steamed broccoli with some mushroom seacucumer sauce where people serve in the Chinese banquet. I remember when I was young, I was told that broccoli is good for you brain development.. hmm is it true? Here my simple quick stir fry broccoli with dried shitake mushroom.

Ingredients:

*Broccoli Crown
*Shitake Mushroom
*Garlic, chopped
*Cooking Oil
*Cormstarch
*water
Salt to taste

Method:

Clean and cut broccoli into bite size
Soak shitake mushroom until soft and cut into thin strip
Mix 1/2 tsp of cornstarch and 2-3 tsp of water and set aside. This is use as the thicken agent.
Heat pan with cooking oil, add in garlic and stir fry until brown.
Add in mushroom and stir fry for another 2-3 minutes
Add Broccoli and mix well in the pan. Add in water and cover the pan with lid and let it simmer until soften.
Add salt to taste, and finally add in the thickening agent to thicken the sauce.

BBQ Pork ( Char Siu)

2007-08-08T14:17:00.000-05:00

Running out of idea what to cook last weekend and the BBQ Pork country style was on sales last weekend for $1.29 per lb, so we decided to grill up some Char Siu and I could probably made some Lor Mai Kai from the left over.Here's the simple ingredient for marination

Ingredients:

3lb BBQ Pork Country Style
10 tbsp Hoisin sauce
4 tsp garlic powder
8 tsp soy sauce
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp wine
2 tsp 5 spice powder
2.5 tsp salt
Dash of pepper

We used the plain old charcoal grill to BBQ the Char Siu for about 30 minute until the meat is cooked. Grilling with charcoal added some smoke flavor to the char siu, that's why we always prefer to use charcoal for grilling.

I prepared some BBQ for Aidan as well. Grill chicken tender. Aren't they looks delish?

Sambal Udang

2007-08-06T10:24:00.001-05:00

I love sambal dish whether it's sambal meat, seafood or just egg. A few tablespoon of these hot ans spicy dish could make you finish yup a whole bowl of rice, no wander most of the malay family only cook couple dish for a meal compare to Chinese who usually prepare 3 or 4 dishes for a meal. This my shortcut version, It's very hard to get fresh southeast asian ingredient here especially when i don't go to the asian store. So i cheated this dish with some pre-made jar, sambal olek to replace the fresh chillies and galangal powder.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp sambal olek
3 shallot
1 medium red onions, chopped
1.5 tsp galangal powder
10 cloves garlic
3 candle nut

1/2 cup oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp thick coconut milk
4 tbsp lime juice
1 lb shrimp

Method:

Blend first 6 ingredient until fine
Heat oil in saucepan, fry the blended ingredients for about 10 min or until fragrant
Add brown sugar, salt and coconut milk and bring to boil
Add lime juice and shrimp, simmer for 5 min until the shrimp is cooked.

Godiva Dessert

2007-08-02T14:33:00.000-05:00

Hubby gave me this box while I was having my early dinner yesterday. I was told that this will be my dessert tonight. hmm.. What's in the box?

A box that fill with Godiva goodness - Chocolate Cover Berries. Yum.. yum...Chocolate cover Strawberries, my favorite. Chocolate cup with raspberries and blueberries, wonderful. Chocolate cup with blackberries, hmm.. hmm..hmm. Needless to say, I love them all. Thanks hon.

Don’t know when Godiva start selling the chocolate frozen drink in their store, I think they taste ok nothing really outstanding besides they use Godiva Chocolate.

Coffee Cupcakes

2007-07-31T13:51:00.000-05:00

I need to prepare a cake or 8 cupcakes for my last week cake decorating class, while I was searching for unique recipes for cupcakes, i came across this Vietnamese Coffee Cupcakes recipes from Cupcake by Chockylit. Coffee Cupcakes sound interesting, since I don't have the Vietnamese coffee equipment at home and i do have a big tin of Foldger that we trying to finish up before long, i modify the original recipe by replacing the Vietnamese coffee with Foldger. This is my modified recipe.

Ingredients:

1 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup Splenda
2large eggs, room temperature
1-3/8 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
3/8 cup strong brewed coffee
1/8 cup milk
1/2 tsp coffee grounds

Method:

Beat butter until soft, about 30 seconds.
Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
Measure out coffee and milk together.
Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
Add about one third the coffee/milk mixture and beat until combined.
Repeat above, alternating flour and coffee and ending with the flour mixture.
Fold in the teaspoon of coffee grounds.
Scoop into cupcake papers about half to three-quarters full
Bake for 20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Make 12 cupakes.

This cake has a super intense coffee flavor which is delicious, but the downside of the cake is the texture is quite dense compare to the regular cupcake. The cake get dried out if you don't finish it soon enough or keep it too long in the fridge.

Steam Chinese Eggplant

2007-07-27T12:33:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine send me a Chinese Toddler Cookbook from Singapore last month when she was looking for some food recipes for her daughter who are 2 months older than Aidan. I was so excited when I received this book and can't stop myself glancing everything in the book.
Besides all the delicious pictures and the recipes, it also provide nutrition information, notes and tip about the dish that parent needs to be aware. In addition, it also contain guidance on how to wean toddler from milk and feeding schedule. However, I think the feeding guideline provided in this book are quite aggressive where it said we should start the feeding the baby with the cup sometime in the 4th month and stop the bottle complete by 9th month and start the cow milk before one which is quite contradict with most if the advice you found from the pediatric in the state. All in all, Hubby and I think we should try the recipes for the family rather than just for Aidan as he is enjoying adult food more than a baby food except milk.
The first recipe from this mini cookbook is steam Chinese eggplant. Since the target audience for this recipe are toddlers, the flavor is very light and don't require a lot of ingredients. Here's the modified adult recipe.

Ingredient:

2 medium size chinese egg plant
2 clove of garlic chopped
3 shallots thinly slice
enough oil to fry the shallot
some light soy sauce
some olive oil for frying the garlic

Method:

Heat oil in a pan, add shallot the pan and fry until golden brown. Remove shallot from the pan and set aside
Remove the skin of eggplant and cut the eggplant into strip
Steam the eggplant in the steaming pan for 10 minutes. Remove eggplant from the plan and place it on the service plate
Heat olive oil in pan and add in chopped garlic. Fry until golden brown. Remove from heat and pour the garlic and oil on the eggplant.
Add in some light soy sauce to taste
Topped with fry shallot

This is Aidan's version. Remove the shallot and soy sauce and replace with some salt and water for the sauce. He loves it. Adding the garlic give the whole dish a richer flavor.

"My Pick" - 3 in 1 White Coffee

2007-07-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

I am not a regular coffee drinker but I do enjoy coffee once a while especially during the weekend. I used like Nescafe 3 in 1 before the 3 in 1 pre-package white coffee exists. But since then, white coffee become our pick for both my and my hubby. We have been purchasing OldTown White Coffee for years. Every time when we went back to Malaysia, surely we will bring a couple packs from home.

Lately, I found that there is more and more 3 in 1 type of coffee or tea available in the market. Maybe because finally people realized how easy to make your cup of joe at home with one of this coffee mix. I was surprise when I saw the OldTown White Coffee actually available at one of the groceries store in town. Each package contains about 15 individual package of mix cost about 5.99USD which I think it's quite reasonable. Nowadays, these coffee mixes are not cheap in Malaysia and even more expensive in Hong Kong.

While I was planning to pick up a pack, I saw that there is another brand call Chek Hup Ipoh White Coffee was on sale for 3.99USD. I picked up Chek Up coffee and double check to make sure this is Buatan Malaysia, in fact the manufacturer is from Ipoh. Finally, we picked up the Cheong Hup brand for testing.

White Coffee

Brand	Chek Hup	Old Town
Price	$3.99	$5.99
Comment	Sweeter and creamer than Old Town	Rich coffee flavor, darker in color
My Pick		***** I think both have similar aroma and you couldn't tell the different when you drink them in hot, but you could definitely tell the different in flavor when you drink them in cold.

Alternative Way to Cook Yu Choy

2007-07-24T10:17:00.000-05:00

Not sure this is because I am living in the mid west or what, every weekend before heading to oriental groceries store, I already know what to expect from there in terms of Chinese vegetables selection. The basic selections that are always available all year long are: baby bak choy, yu choy, gai lan and bak choy. Once a while you can get some decent quality kangkung, Gai Choy, Chinese celery, etc.

Getting tired of stir frying green vegetables with oyster sauce but can’t think of any other best way to cook. So this week, the new experiment was stir fry chinese mustard green with canned vegetarian abalone. This is very simple dish; all you need is a can of canned vegetarian selection and some green leafy vegetables.

Melting Moments

2007-07-23T14:51:00.001-05:00

One day I was searching for food idea to prepare Aidan’s birthday party snack and came across this blog. The first thing that caught my eyes was the picture of the cookies, then the name of the cookies. Melting Moments, what an interesting name. I wonder if that how you feel when you place a cookie in your mouth. There aren't any other way to find it out besides to try it out myself.

The original recipe can be found from Feed Me I'm Hungry and this is my modify version.

Cookie Ingredients:

250g Unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp Vanilla extract
60g confectioner sugar
175g Plain flour
60g Corn flour

Cookies Method:

Preheat oven to 340 degree F
Beat butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract until soft and fluffy.
Sift together corn flour and plain flour and fold into butter mixture in two lots.
Line baking trays with non-stick baking paper or spray the cookie sheet with PAM
Scoop 1 tsp of the cookie dough and place on the baking tray. Ensure that the cookie dough is placed approximately 1.5 inch apart from each other.
Bake in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes or until biscuits are a light golden.
Remove from oven and cool.

Orange Buttercream Filling

100g confectioner sugar
100g Unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp orange juice

Method:

Beat sugar, unsalted butter and orange juice until light and fluffy.
Place about 1/2 tsp of buttercream into one of the cookie halves and sandwich with the other half.
Store in an air tight container.

Makes 30 sandwiched cookies

Verdict:

Before adding the icing, hubby thought the cookie taste very good by itself without the icing (He is not an icing lover). This is my kind of cookie, rich buttery flavor but not too sweet.

After adding the icing, he was amazed with the outcome. The first word from him was GOOD! He told me that he never understands what they mean by Melting Moments and now he got it. Everything, the cookie and icing is literally melted in your month. This cookie reminded me the Christmas butter cookie except it is more fragile and crisp, the icing make this whole thing taste more interesting. Definitely a yes to the birthday party snack.

Comfort Food

2007-07-20T11:00:00.000-05:00

What food can make you feel comfort when you are not? This is my version of comfort food for my family especially my dearly son.Aidan has been having diarrhea since Monday. Not exactly sure what’s wrong. He doesn’t have any fever nor did he act any different in the past few days. We didn’t bring him to his doctor because we think that we are not going to get anything out of the doctor’s visit like we did in the pass besides to make sure he eats well and sleep well which he does. Since we ran out of food to eat yesterday (can you believed it !!) I decided to cook some porridge from some fish fillet, dried scallop and some ginger.

A pot of comfort food for the whole family, what a great idea and easy solution for dinner. Aidan ate quite a bit yesterday, I hope he feel better today. But one thing for sure, he did not poop this morning.

My First Tropical Fruit Agar-Agar

2007-07-19T15:26:00.000-05:00

While I was researching party food for my son's up coming birthday party, agar-agar was the first thing pop into my mind. It has be a while since I had my last taste of agar-agar and I don't quite remember how to make this simple dessert. I decided to do a little experiment before the event. Picked up the agar-agar strip from the oriental and didn't even realized that nowadays people actually using agar-agar powder instead. Hunting for the recipe online but most of the recipe used agar-agar powder. At last, I followed the instruction provided at the back of the package except the fruits and this is what I come up with. what do you think?

Hubby thought they taste ok but I wasn't really happy with the result. I think the agar-agar were little too hard and wasn't impress with flavor. Feel kinda silly that I don't even know how make a simple dessert like this. hmmm...

Can you tell what agar-agar mold I use?

Grilled Sesame Chicken Drumstick

2007-07-18T16:34:00.001-05:00

This is another grill production from my hubby except that this time I am the one who prepared the chicken. The recipe was from Zu’s kitchen. The pictures showed in her blog looks mouth watering, I just can’t resist myself from trying this. Instead if oven bake, we were grilling with our new grill. Here’s mine modified version.

Ingredients

5 chicken drumsticks
100 ml water
150 ml oyster sauce
50g brown sugar
1 tbsp 5-spiced powder
1 large garlic, smashed
1 inch ginger, smashed
salt to taste
some sesame seed for sprinkling
some sesame oil for drizzling

For oven roasting method, check out Zu’s kitchen

Stir fry Smooth Loofah (水瓜, 絲瓜) with Shrimp

2007-07-17T09:55:00.001-05:00

This is my all time favorite vegetable. In fact, my family loves except my mom because she is allergy to shell fish. Last week, while I was looking for some vegetable to cook, I spotted this loofah, they looks ok. So I picked up 2 of them for my stir fry. I never know what the western name is for this plant is as we always speak the hokkien name for the veggie and they call it differently in Cantonese. When I was googling the name, interestingly I found there are variations of name for this type of veggie. Even for Chinese itself, some people call it 水瓜, other called it 絲瓜. Anyway, you should able to find this veggie in any of the oriental store especially Indian store.

Ingredients

2 Smooth Loofah, removed all the skin and cut it into pieces.
1 tbsp of dried shrimp ( I prefer fresh shrimp but since I don’t have any at home, I substitute with dried shrimp)
1 glove of garlic, minced
½ cup of water
3 tsp oil
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a pan, add garlic to the pan and stir fry until it turn yellow.
Add shrimp and stir fry for another minute or until the fresh shrimp turn pink.
Add loofah and mix well with the shrimp.
Add water and bring to boil. Cover the pan with lid and let it cook until loofah get soften.
Add salt to taste.

While I was searching for the loofah, iI came across this picture that show how you cut the loofah. Not sure if this is the standard way how Chinese cut this veggie, but my family always slice the loofah in this method. Picture below show how they look before it cook. Picture and another recipe provide by POCO Chinese Food Forum.

Hubby New Toy

2007-07-16T11:56:00.000-05:00

I bought hubby a new gas grill as a birthday gift this year. The grill has been sitting the garage since few weeks back. This week we decided to invite some friends over to our house for BBQ, so hubby can show off his new toy and his BBQ skill :)

For a startup, hubby decided to try baby back rib. We bought a slap of baby back rib and marinated with the Spice Rub Recipes from Little Corner of Mine's BBQ recipe.

Ingredient:

1 Tbsp + 1/2 tsp. paprika
1 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 3/4 tsp. cumin
1 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 tsp. dried oregano
3/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. white pepper
1/2 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp garlic powder (optional)

Method:

Rub the spice on both side of the rib the day before and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
Preheat the grill by turned on 2 out of the 4 burners alternately to high heat.
Once the grill is heat up, places the rib in between the burner to make sure there is no direct heat to the rib and turn the heat to low.
Covered the grill and let it cook next 30 minutes.
Turn the rib over and cook for another 15- 20 minutes.
When the rib is almost ready, brush the rib with your favorite BBQ sauce and let it cook for another 5 - 10 minutes. Turn to other site and repeating the sauce brushing process.

*If you interested in oven grilling, check out the method provided from Little Corner of Mine

Hubby and friends loves the BBQ rib very much, and his friend even consider to try again sometime soon. ( Hope we are invited for the feast.)

So what's your next BBQ agenda, Honey?

Babi Masak Kecap

2007-07-12T16:17:00.000-05:00

Another recipe I tried last week from the Green Mangoes and Lemon Grass with slightly modification and substitution. The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cup of water, I only use 1/2 cup and mine has more sauce than the one showed in the recipe... hmm not sure why.

Ingredients:

6 dried chilies
8 shallots
4 cloves garlic
2in ginger
1 tsp balacan powder
11/4lb pork cut into cube
3 tbsp sweet dark soy sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
3 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

Method:

Process chillies, shallots, garlic, ginger in a food processor until smooth paste
Heat oil in a pan, add chili paste and balancan powder and stir fry over low-medium heat until fragrant.
Add in pork and stir fry over medium heat until it changed color. About 5 minutes.
Add soy sauce, water and lime juice. Bring to boil. Cover with lid and let it simmer over low heat. Stirring occasionally. Cook until pork is tender and the sauce has thickened.
Add salt to taste.

Vinegared cucumber salad

2007-07-11T08:41:00.000-05:00

I find this salad is very refreshing especially accompany with some spicy meaty main dish. I never added shallot or red onion to this dish when I made this in the past. This week, I decided to try this recipe from Green Mangoes and Lemon Grass. Since I ran out of shallot, I substitute the shallot with red onion. They turned out quite good. I was surprise that with a little addition of red onion made quite an impact to the flavor for the whole dish.

Ingredient

4 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp water ( optional)
3 tbsp castor sugar
1 tsp salt
1 medium size cucumber
3 dried chilies (the recipe call 1 large red chili)
1/4 red onion (the recipe call for 2 shallots) thinly slice
Crush peanut ( optional)

Method:

Mix vinegar, sugar and water in a bowl and stir until dissolved.
Cut cucumber in half lengthways and scrape out the puply only if seeds are well formed.
Cut across 1/2 in slice and toss in the vinegar mixture
Add chilies and red onion.
Cover the salad and refrigerate for at least 30 min before serving.
Serve with crushed peanut. ( optional)

Hubby play with the food

2007-07-10T08:28:00.000-05:00

It was a tiring Saturday evening after all the grocery shopping, house cleaning cleaning and food preparation for the up coming week. Hubby found a tuna rice recipe from one my chinese cookbook collection. He suggested that maybe we just cook something easy for dinner that night. I wasn't in mood for cooking and eating, anything can keep my stomach satisfy, I am happy. So hubby was tasked to cook Tuna Rice for dinner.

About 45 minutes later... Dinner is ready!

My comment: Thanks for the dinner Honey. But this is not really my favorite dish. I think the rice and tuna are quite plain and flavorless. Sorry :(

My ID4 Snack

2007-07-06T10:08:00.000-05:00

Saw this Loh Mei Chi from chowtimes. It is so simple. All you need to do is just mix everything together and microwave for a few minutes. During the ID4 holiday, we have a pool gathering for my son and his friends, so I decide to make some mochi for snack. Since I don't have red bean paste with me, I used roasted peanut and sugar for the filling. The recipe provided enough make around 8 mochi balls. This is just about the right quantity for me since they don't taste as good if left overnight.

My husband certainly not a mochi eater like me except ice cream mochi.

Laksa Lemak

2007-07-05T09:46:00.000-05:00

When you are in Malaysia, sometime it is very confusing it come to laksa because there are many versions and depends on which part of Malaysia you at, the have a different name and different taste.

Basically, there are 3 type of laksa: Asam Laksa (Penang Laksa), Curry Laksa and Laksa Lemak.

Asam Laksa or Penang Laksa is the one without coconut milk. The soup base was mainly cook from Mackerel and has the spicy and sourly flavor. This is one of the Penang Specialty. If you get a chance to visit Penang, don't miss it.

Curry Laksa and Laska Lemak contain coconut milk. I didn't know Curry Laksa until I went to KL for my college because back in my home town, we always call it Curry Noodle without the word Laksa. So in short Curry Laksa is actually mean Noodle in Curry soup based.

Laksa Lemak is another version I think is from Melaka Nyonya. This is not as common as Asam Laksa or Curry Laksa you can find in Malaysia. If I remember it right, the first time I had Laksa Lemak were from my cousin sister in law. (She is a great cook) She cooked this from scratch and delicious is the only word I can think off.

I bought this Hup Loong Laksa Lemak from Malaysia, and it has been sitting in my pantry for a while. So I decided to treat myself some nice Malaysia noodle soup last weekend. Since we can hardly get Mackerel from here, I substitute the fish with canned Sardine. It taste great and I love premix spice. I actually prefer Hup Loong Laksa Lemak than the Hup Loong Asam Laksa. I think the Asam laksa they have are too spicy for me and lack of flavor. But for this, all you need are some fish, onion and a canned of coconut milk.Yummy!

Sometime, I think it is weird to ask my hubby how's the food taste? Especially Malaysia food that he had never eaten before like this one. He will response with good or OK. Without knowing what to expect and what's the actual flavor of the food, it is very hard for him to give me comment besides great and ok. But I just can't stop myself from asking this question, because I want to know what's his thought about my cooking :)

Crisp Fried Anchovies

2007-07-03T09:47:00.000-05:00

Another alternative way to cook anchovies besides Nasi Lemak but this dish can be serve as the side dish for Nasi Lemak as well. When cousin sister-in-law cooked this at home, I thought it was a very simple dish; all you need is some peanut, anchovies and sugar. It turns out I was wrong. It takes more than that. The moment I saw this recipes from Green Mangoes and Lemon Grass and I know I must try this. I love eat this especially with plain porridge.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup Oil
2 cups dried cleaned anchovies
1/2 cup peanut
6 shallots, processed until coasty ground
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp chilies powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder

Method:

Head 2 tbsp oil in a pan
Add anchovies and stir fry over medium heat until crisp and brown.Remove from pan, drain on paper towel.
Discard cooking oil, clean the pan.
Heat the pan and add peanut. Stir fry over low-medium heat until peanut cooked. Remove from pan
Heat remaining oil in a pan.
Add shallot, stir fry over low heat for 2 minutes.
Add sugar, chilies powder and turmeric powder then cook for another minute or two.
Return anchovies and peanut to the pan and mix thoroughly.
Allow to cool before serving.

Spicy Water Spinach (balancan Kangkung)

2007-07-02T13:54:00.000-05:00

I believe that Balancan Kangkung is one Malaysia specialty. There are so many way to cook balancan kangkung. Some people will make the balance mixture from scratch where they pound all the garlic, shallot, chilies and etc with a mortar. Other simple versions include chopping the garlic and chillies with knife, and mix the cube balancan with water and stir fry all ingredient together. For me, I always use the Hup Loong pre-mix balancan powder for the heat and add more some dried shrimp and balance powder.

Last week, I wanted to try something new. I saw this recipe from a cookbook call The Food of Asia and decided to give it a try. The only I omitted from the original recipe is the sesame oil. I don't recall my family adds sesame oil when they cook this dish in so many versions and I think this dish will taste great without it.

Ingredients:

2 lb Kangkung (water spinach)
3 tbsp dried shrimp, soak soften
6 cloves of garlic
6 shallots
2 tsp sambal olek
1 inch ginger
2 tsp dried shrimp paste powder (Balancan)
3 tbsp oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
Salt to taste

Method:

Blend dried shrimp until fine.
Blend garlic, ginger and shallot until fine.
Heat oil in a pan, add garlic mixture and dried shrimp. Cook over low heat. Stir frequently for 5 minutes until fragrant.
Add sugar, soy sauce and mix well.
Add kangkung and stir well.
Turn up the heat to high and cover pan with lid until kangkung is tender.
Seasoned with salt to taste.

The dish does taste great but I prefer the my shotcut version.

Stir Fry Chicken with Potatoes

2007-06-29T09:14:00.000-05:00

Lately I am the mood of blogging my everyday dish. Since I won't able to try something special during the weekend as much as I would like to, I think maybe i just start from my everyday simple cooking. This dish is my husband favorite dish. Not that he love to eat this but the fact that it is so easy to made. I remember every time when I run out of idea what to cook for dinner, I will asked him for suggestion. He will response with what do we have in the fridge. If chicken is one of the ingredient, his response will be "what about Stir Fry Chicken with Potatoes or Stir Fry Chicken with Cream Corn?" so here you go. Ingredients:

1 clove of garlic, minced
1 scallion, julienne
4 chicken thigh, de-boned and cut into bite size
2 medium size potatoes cut into cube
1 tsp shao xing wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
1½ tbsp oil
1/3 tsp salt to taste
½ tsp sweet dark soy sauce
¾ cups water

Method:

Marinate chicken with soy sauce and wine.
Heat oil in a pan and add garlic and scallion, stir fry until soft
Add in chicken and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until chicken turn brown.
Add in potatoes and stir fry for another 2 minutes
Add in water and dark soy sauce. Cover the pan with lid and bring to boil.
Turn the heat to medium and continue simmers for 15 – 20 until the potatoes are soft and sauce are thickened.

Fig

2007-06-28T13:20:00.000-05:00

Co-worker A brought some Figs to the office yesterday for us to try. I had never tried a fig before and was not originally plan to try.

After a few emails floating around within team with these comments,

Co-worker B, C, D and E all gave them a resounding "hey! ... they're not awful".

E said “I rather liked them personally - better than 'not awful' :-)”

Response from my manager “Ugh” and in return from co-worker A for my boss response “Says the guy that likes a glass of grapefruit juice with chocolate cake :)”

I couldn’t resist myself to try it out.

My response: “ No too bad, quite sweet”

So the next question is would I buy it for snack?

Answer: Maybe not, but when I come across a better way to enjoy this fruit in some dessert form, I will surely it.

Out of my curiosity, so I google the nutrition fact for this fruit and found that Fig is high in dietary Fiber, good source of calcium, sodium free, cholesterol free and fat free fruit. This is a prefect fruit for those who are trying to loose weight. More information can be found in World Healthiest Food website. Maybe I should include Fig as one of my fruit shopping list.

Pork and Taro Root in Fermented Bean Sauce

2007-06-26T22:38:00.000-05:00

When I ran out of idea what to cook, I will ask my mother in law for suggestion. This is one of the recipes she provided via a phone call to HK long time back. She doesn’t provide the exact quantity she uses but just a rough idea on the ingredients and method. I try to recreate this dish from my memory and these are the ingredient and quantity I used. You may adjust the quantity to suit your taste.

Ingredients:

8oz minced pork
½ tsp corn starch
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1lb of taro root quartered and slice into 1/4inch thick
2 tbsp fermented black bean
3 clove of garlic
2 tbsp oil
1 cup water

Method:

Marinate pork with soy sauce and corn starch. set aside.
Clean the fermented black bean water and discard the water.
Remove the skin of garlic. Minced the garlic together with black bean. You can use mortar to mash them into paste consistency.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan, add the garlic and black bean paste in the pan and sauté until fragrant.
Then add in pork and stir fry until the pork turn brown.
Add in taro root and stir fry for another minute.
Add in water and cover the pan with lid. Turn the heat to medium and let it simmer for 10 minutes or until the sauce is thicken. Depends on the thickness and the taro root, you may add more water if needed.

Steam Bun

2007-06-25T10:11:00.001-05:00

In my previous post, I mentioned that I am going to cook something simple this weekend and look this is what I come up with - Chinese steam bun. I have a Vietnamese steam bun flour in my pantry and there are some left over BBQ pork in my fridge. so I decide to come up with char shiu pao for my Sunday breakfast.
I made the dough according to the instruction listed in the package. Overall, it took me about 2 hours from start to finish. The bun taste ok. A little dry and not soft as those you get from the restaurant. I am always curious how people made the bun so soft and tasty... if you have some tips, please let me know..

Misc Cupcakes

2007-06-22T15:56:00.001-05:00

Another Friday afternoon, spending most of my time researching and planning for Aidan's birthday party, i just don't see myself can have any break this weekend. Still no clue what food project this weekend but I am sure it's not going to be something complex. Want to take a break from food recipes but just want to share with you some left over cupcakes photo taken from my hubby last week.

Shrimp Pasta Alfredo

2007-06-21T12:44:00.000-05:00

A lazy Sunday lunch with limited ingredient on hand. This is what I can come up with a simple pasta dish that took me no time to prepared.

Ingredients:

12 oz of pasta
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup diced onion
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup heavy cream
2 tsp black pepper
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
I cup frozen mixed veggie
1 ½ cup shrimp
Some dried parsley

Method:

Cook pasta in a pot with boiling water and some salt
Heat pan with olive oil, sauté onion and garlic until soft
Add shrimp and sauté over high heat until the shrimp turn pink
Stir in heavy cream and cooking until the sauce thicken, turn off the heat
Add in pasta to the sauce and mix well
Finally sprinkle parsley, pepper and cheese

Mimosa Rice

2007-06-20T10:53:00.000-05:00

Saw this recipe from Green Mangoes and Lemon Grass. According to the book, this is an Vietnamese dish. It is like a fried rice but the rice is cooked with coconut milk. I modify the recipe slightly to suit my own taste and replaced the chicken with shrimp. The rice smell absolutely wonderful with coconut scent. Hubby gave it a thumbs up and thinks that shrimp is the best option to go because it added some seafood flavor to the whole dish. Here's my version and cooking method.

Ingredients:

560 ml coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
2(400g) cup long grain rice
4oz pork fillet diced
2 Chinese sausage
4oz shrimp diced
1 tbsp oil
1 clove garlic crushed
2 spring onion, minced
1/2 cup green peas
2 hard-boiled egg separated
3-4 tsp fish sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce

Method:

Put the coconut milk and salt into rice cooker.
Add in rice and cook accordingly
Marinate pork and shrimp with fish sauce, sugar and pepper
Steam the chinese sausage until done and cut into slices.
heat oil in a pan, then stir fry the garlic and spring onion until soft.
add the shrimp and pork and stir fry over medium heat for 5 minute.
Add peas, chinese sausage and stir fry until cooked.
Add in cooked rice from the rice cooker and dark soy sauce to mix well.
Transfer to a serving dish. Place the egg white on the top then sprinkle the top with egg yolk. and some fried shallot.

Happy Papa's Day

2007-06-19T15:03:00.001-05:00

This is hubby first Father's day as papa. We didn't not have any special plan but stay home and spend some fun time with Aidan.
The celebration started with cupcakes baking and peek-a-boo card making. I found this cute cupcakes decoration and this handmade card from a magazine (Thanks to my weekly allergy shot. I was able to check out some cute idea from magazine while waiting in my doctor's office), and decided to give it a try.
The card was made from a cutout Aidan's hand print and his cute dinner picture I took last week. Since Aidan love peek-a-boo game so much, I thought this was the perfect card for happy papa's day.
As for the cake, to make sure I won't screw up the cake, I decided to go with a cake mix route. I baked 24 cupcakes from Pillsbury pineapple cake mix and decorated with homemade cream cheese frosting. The cake was light and soft and the frosting is super sweet, in my opinion.
Overall, it was a relax and easy Sunday( except for my car broke down in the 2nd half of the day).

Shortcut Glutinous Rice

2007-06-18T15:48:00.001-05:00

Traditional cooking involve soak the rice over night, and steamming and mixing. I like this shortcut version because all I need is to mix everything together and let my rice cooker take over the job. Easy and delicious!

Ingredients:

5 dried mushroom
4oz pork thinly slice
1 chinese sausage cut into small cube
2 tbsp dried shrimp
2 cup of glutinous rice
2 tbsp of soy sauce
½ tbsp of wine
½ tsp of salt
1 tsp of sugar
½ tsp of white pepper
4 tbsp oil
2 shallot slice thinly
2 cups of glutinous rice
1 ½ cups of water ( for each cup of rice add ¾ cup of water)

Method:

Soak mushrooms in water until soft then cut into think strip.
Rinse dried shrimp and drain.
Marinate pork with ¼ tsp of white papper and ½ tsp soy sauce.
Heat 4 tbsp oil, sauté shallot until brown then add mushroom and chinese sausage. Continue sauté for 5 mins then add dried shrimp. Stir fry until fragrant.
Add pork and stir fry until brown.
Add wine, remaining soy sauce, salt, sugar and pepper, sesame oil and mix well.
Finally, add rice to the mixture. Turn off the heat and mix the rice with the stir fry until all the ingredients combine.
Pour the rice into rice cooker, add 1 ½ cup water and let the rice cooker do the remaining job.

Vegetarian Stir Fry

2007-06-13T14:55:00.000-05:00

This is a traditional Chinese New Year dish my family prepared during the first day of Chinese New Year. My mom doesn't cook this very often because preparation work is quite lengthy. Therefore, she will usually prepare everything ahead of time before the actually cooking.

Ingredient:

1/4 cup of black moss (fat choy)
1/4 cup of black fungus (cloud ear)
7 dried mushroom
1 sheet of dried bean curd skin
1 bunch of cellophane noodles
1/4 cup of julienne carrot
1/4 cup bamboo shoot
Some Napa cabbage
1 1/2 piece fermented red bean curd (Nam Yee)
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp garlic
1 tsp soy sauce
MSG to taste
1 cup vegetable stock or water

Preparation:

Soak mushrooms in water until soft then cut into think strip. Keep the water.
Soak black moss (Fat choy) and divide into smaller portion, discard the liquid.
Soak black fungus and cut into bite pieces, discard the liquid.
Soak cellophane noodles until soft, discard the liquid.
Mix 2 tbsp of water into the fermented red bean curd and mash it with fork until become paste consistency.
Heat 2 tbsp oil to fry the dried bean curd skin until turning light brown.

Method:

Heat pan with 1 tbsp of oil and sauté garlic until fragrant.
Add mushrooms, carrot, black fungus and bamboo shoot and continue stir fry for another 2 minutes.
Then add napa cabbage and 1 cup of liquid from the mushroom.
Cover with lid and bring to boil.
Add the remaining ingredient: black moss and cellophane noodles, and stir fry for another 2 minutes. Add more water if the sauce gets dry out.
Add soy sauce and pinch of chicken bouillon to taste.

Banana Muffin

2007-06-12T16:40:00.000-05:00

What do you do if you have some ripe banana sitting in your kitchen? Found to recipe from my favourite food blog. A steam banana cake or banana muffin. So hubby think that steam banana cake sound a little wierd so we decide to try lily's banana muffin this time.

Ingredients:

75g/3oz vegetable oil
250g/9oz self-raising flour or 250 g all-purpose flour + 3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
½ tsp ground nutmeg
115g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp banana essence
3 medium, ripe bananas
2 large eggs
125ml/4fl oz milk
Walnuts

Method:

Heat the oven to 375F
Mash the bananas well. Sift flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a large bowl, add caster sugar and stir through.
With a fork, beat together the eggs, vanilla extract, banana essence, oil and milk in a second bowl. Add the mashed banana and stir through.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the egg mixture, fold in with a biggest spatula (don't over mix) until it is a lumpy paste.
Grease the moulds well with a little extra oil or butter and using an icecream scoop, spoon in the mixture until almost full. Top each one with some walnut.
Bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins come away from the side of the pan when touched. Rest the muffin tray on a wire rack for five minutes then remove the muffins and leave on the rack for another five minutes before serving.

Serves 15