Our Little Bundle of Joy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 :

• Happy Home Baking
• Stream in Hip Desert
• Home Sweet Home

Peace Award

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

• Stream in the Hip Desert
• Happy Home Baking
• Teczcape
• Home Sweet Home
  

Nam Yee Char Siu

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...

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chinese New Year Nian Gao

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

Enjoy the slice show!!

春节愉快,万事如意!

GONG XI FA CAI!!

My First Award!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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 :)