Cantonese styled kuey teow with beef stir fry with ginger

i had this for dinner when i ate at a bistro last week. now, when i feel like eating something chinese, i will make this.

100g kuey teow
50g cooked beef, sliced thinly
1 pip of garlic,sliced
1 slice of ginger, sliced
some veggies
beef or chicken stock
1 tb of cornflour
1 tb of sesame oil
some oyster sauce
some soya sauce

heat the oil in a wok and saute the the garlic with ginger. pour in some soya sauce and oyster sauce, then add in the kuey teow. add in the veggie as well. stir until the veggies are cooked. then pour in the stock and the beef. add in the seasoning, then cornflour. voila!

Cream Puffs

i've always adored the small dainty pastries. they are, i think, one of the best baked goods to be served during tea, especially a traditional english tea (along with scones and jam). the first time i made these cuties were more than 5 years ago.

since i have leftover non-dairy whipping cream, i thought it best to make cream puffs (aka profiteroles). my sister was going back to kl and announced that my niece syahirah loves her cream puffs with custard filling and not cream filling. okay, so i obliged her wish.

cream puffs and chocolate eclairs are made from choux pastry. it requires you to boil water and butter, and to add flour until it's not sticky. eggs are added later on.

choux pastry

1/4 litre cold water
125g flour with a pinch of salt
100g butter
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon castor sugar

boil water, butter and sugar. on low heat, add the flour and fold with a wooden spoon until the mixture no longer sticks to the pan. remove the mixture from the pan and put it in another bowl and let it cool down for 15 mins. beat in one egg at a time until it is well-blended and looks glossy.

use a pastry bag and a star nozzle to pipe the pastry onto a greased pan. bake in 200 C for 20 mins. slice the puffs and fill them with custard filling or cream

custard filling (pastry cream)

1/2 liter warmed milk
1 egg
1 egg yolk
30g cornflour
25g custard flour
100g castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

beat the eggs, the flours, sugar and vanilla essence. pour in the milk and mix them well. cook on a medium fire until the custard boils and thickens. cool before using.

Pandan Chiffon

a few weeks ago, a teacher proudly brought her orange chiffon cake for us to taste. it was nice, though a tad tangy. i was thinking, if she could make a chiffon cake, that also means i could too.

so today, i bought a tubed pan, and made the cake. seriously, 10 years ago, i wouldnt have dreamed of making the cake. especially light and airy cakes. i was pleasantly surprised to see that mine is really a chiffon, springy, wobbly, airy pandan chiffon!

here's the recipe, which i've taken from amy beh's column in the star

ingredients
6 egg whites
125g castor sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
6 egg yolks
100g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
5 tbsp corn oil
2 tbsp pandan juice
100ml thick coconut milk (squeezed from 1/2 a grated coconut)
140g self-raising flour, sift

Pandan juice:
5-6 pandan leaves, cut into small pieces
3-4 tbsp water

Method
To obtain pandan juice, put pandan leaves and water in an electric blender and blend to a fine pulp. Strain the juice and measure out two tablespoonfuls for use.

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Whisk egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in an electric mixer until just stiff.Whisk egg yolks, sugar and vanilla essence until light and creamy. Add in corn oil, pandan juice and thick coconut milk. Mix well.Stir in sifted flour and fold in carefully and gently to mix.Pour egg yolk mixture lightly into the egg white mixture. Mix evenly with a metal spoon or a plastic spatula.Pour batter into an ungreased 22cm tube pan. Bake in a preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until cake is well browned and firm to the touch.Remove cake from oven. Invert pan immediately. Leave to cool, then remove cake from pan with the help of a thin-bladed knife.

sponge cake mania

i had always hated making sponge cakes. why? i think, to make sponge cakes, one must have a lot of patience. 2 years ago, i made a black forest cake that someone ordered. the cake sank in the middle! later, it turned out that i used a lot of raising agents. then, last week, the cake i made shrank! it wouldnt matter if it's just 1 layer, but i wanted to make 2 layers using 2 different pans, so 1 cake was smaller than the other.

yes, making sponge cake can be frustrating at times. i find making cheesecake easier. but this doesnt deter me from continuing my quest to become a perfect baker.

yesterday, i had this mood for making coffee cream and nut roll, except that it's not in the form of a swiss roll, but a normal cake. i used blue key recipes, and i was surprised to find that the cake actually taste nice! so here's the recipe for coffee cream and nut roll:

sponge cake
100g self raising flour
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons ovalette
1 teaspoon vanilla (i put in some instant coffee diluted in water)
1/4 cup melted butter

butter cream
125g butter
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon evaporated milk
2 teaspoons instant coffee powder
2 teaspoons water
chopped nuts

whisk all the ingredients except for melted butter. using a spatula, blend in cooled melted butter into the sponge batter. pour the batter into the pan (or tray). bake at 200 C for 7- 10 mins or until cooked.
spread cake with coffee cream and sprinkle chopped nuts.

coffee butter cream
cream the butter, icing sugar and milk together until light and fluffy. dissolve coffee with water. blend into the cream.

i'm so pleased with the cake that today i made another one - it's chocolate sponge with coffee topping. it's the cake in the pic. i used non-dairy whipping cream and added some coffee essence and instant coffee powder.

here's the ingredients for chocolate sponge cake:

3/4 cup self-raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup caster sugar

sift the flour and cocoa 3 times. beat the eggs until thick and pale. add in sugar gradually and continue to beat until it turns pale yellow and glossy. using a metal spoon, fold in sifted ingredients quickly and lightly. bake for 20 mins 180 C or until the sponge cake is lightly golden and shrink from sides of the tin.

Tomato n Basil pasta

i'm so sick with the usual spaghetti bolognaise. as if that's the only dish u can cook with spaghetti. which is y, i love this dish, bcoz it's simple, no fuss, it's just 3 key ingredients cooked with pasta.

for the italians, the must haves in their cooking r garlic, basil leaves n tomato. oh yeah, and also cheese.... for 1 serving, i used half a tomato (the redder the tomato is, the better...it has lycophene or lyco something which is a cancer fighting agent) n some garlic, which i liquidised in the blender... then i poured the content into a frying pan (which is coated with some olive oil) n added some basil, pepper n salt...then i added some pasta (i used linguine, which is cooked al dente) n coated the pasta with the sauce... n voila! the dish is done :o)

Butter Crescents & Almond Custard Croissant

Butter crescents r simply divine for breakfast (although they can be served as dinner rolls). i made these more than a year ago, using the recipe taken from http://bread.allrecipes.com/az/BttrCrscnts.asp . these r softer than white bread, bcoz of the egg added. the flour used is just all-purpose flour, so u neednt worry abt hunting for high protein flour. this is definitely easier to do than to make the traditional puff pastry (which i tried 4 times n still i couldnt master it). of course, bcoz it's not made fr puff pastry, expect the crescents to be just like a normal bread n not their rich n fattening cousins the croissants or danish.

when i was in melbourne, i loved eating the almond croissants that r sold at victoria market. i loved them so much that i tried to find one in KL. well...i wasnt lucky. went to delifrance but at that time almond croissant wasnt ready yet. so i had to make do with some danish, which unfortunately, was very dry.

i returned home n tried to find an almond custard croissant recipe. n i found one at http://www.recipelink.com/mf/2/16163 . the dough was a bit hard tho', so next time i'll have to put more milk. the reason y i dont really fancy making puff pastry is the fact that u've to roll the dough n put knobs of butter n then fold the dough n then roll it again....u've to repeat this a few times. my problem is that the dough actually burst n the butter just spilled, which made rolling harder. nevertheless, despite the uneven croissant shape, they tasted nice that my nephew wanted to bring them back.

i would definitely make the croissant again - but when i've ample time, as i treat this as a marathon.

Potato Bread

i like eating potato bread. it's soft due to the potatoes added (n also due to bread improver n softener which r widely used in commercially produced bread) n it has a subtle pleasing flavour, which is not unlike donuts, but a little bit different.

years ago, i had a recipe sent by a chef on how to make potato bread, but sadly i lost it. the one that i made for breakfast today is featured in celebrity chefs don yong's bread recipe book. i'm sorry but due to the copyrights i cant feature the recipe here.

i was pleasantly delighted when i was kneading the dough, bcoz it's soft n pliant but not sticky, unlike some recipes (esp. those taken fr. western recipes) in which u have to make some adjustments. probably it's bcoz don yong is a local baker. pls bear in mind that there's nothing wrong in using a western bread recipe, but u've to take into consideration the humidity of our place, the kind of yeast n the kind of flour we use.

for first time bread bakers, please wear an apron. make sure u have a clean surface to knead ur dough. i purchased a large tile fr the tile shop so that i have ample space to knead the dough. make sure that u measure ur ingredients, bcoz making a bread is also like making a cake. any mistakes in measuring will yield a very flat bread, or a baling-dinding-hard kind of bread. i personally love american recipes just bcoz they use measuring cups instead of metirc measurement. also, make sure that u have a proper measuring cup, not the tea or coffee cup that u have at home. most bread recipes require bread flour, or known as high protein flour. i've used plain flour b4, bt the texture of the bread isnt the same as wat u'll expect fr a typical bread. nevertheless, it's not a sin if u dont use high protein flour. u can find high protein flour at shops selling cooking ingredients n utensils. i use instant yeast, or mauripan, which is so much better than its predecessor of a few yrs ago. a basic bread recipe only needs high protein flour, sugar (which acts as food for the yeast as it begins to ferment), water, yeast n oil. other ingredients such as milk, honey, eggs r used to enhance the flavour n also soften the texture of the bread.

i had a chat with another teacher who's also interested in cooking, n she prefers to knead her dough using the mixer. those who dont have the time can opt for a mixer, but personally, i prefer to use my own hands to knead. after all, i'm a purist...n i just dont feel satisfied with machine kneaded dough, it's as if it's incomplete. by using ur own hands, u'll know when the dough is ready for proofing. normally, kneading a dough takes 8-10 mins. any later than that will make ur dough hard, as the gluten begins to stick.

i'm sorry again for not giving the recipe. pls dont hesitate to ask me regarding bread making.

Soto n Blackforest recipe

Soto

for tumis
A -kayu manis, bunga lawang, buah pelaga, bunga cengkih

B -bawang merah, bawang putih, halia, lengkuas, a bit of kunyit, buah keras, serai, some serbuk ketumbar, jintan manis n putih, plus white pepper (blend)

some chicken meat n chicken cubed stock.

tumis rempah A, then masukkan B, masukkan chicken. add water n chicken stock. biar menggelegak lama.condiments:meehoon or nasi impitkacang, tauge, daun sup, bawang goreng n shredded chicken taken from the kuah soto, n fried soohoon

BlackForest Cake
Sponge cake
5 eggs
150g sugar
140g flour
10g cocoa
a pinch of salt
75g melted butter.

beat the eggs with electric beater for 8-10 mins. fold in flour and cocoa alternately with melted butter. pour the batter into greased n lined baking pan.bake at 180C for 10 mins (note : time for baking may vary from an oven to another oven)

Topping
2 cups of non dairy whipping cream
1/2 cup of milk or cold water
1 cup of chocolate sprinkles
1/2 canned of black cherries
100g cooking chocolate, grated

to assemble the sponge cake should be cut into 3 layers. beat the cream with milk until it becomes stiff. moisten each layer of the cake with some cherry syrup. pour some cream onto 1st layer n arrange the cherries on top. repeat with the other 2 layers. top the top layer with the remaining cream n decorate with grated chocolate, chocolate sprinkles n cherries

Forevah Summah with Hershey

ok, u dont see nigella lawson the cooking goddess in this blog whipping up some exotic looking food, i'm just giving some simple recipes to cool the heat now that drought season is here. like jamie, kylie n nigella, i'm not going to give exact measurement. anyway, i simply love the way those celebrity cooks just throw stuff in in that nonchalant, i-m-the-expert way of theirs. it's a pity sazi doesnt give me my own cooking show. haha now that's a laugh.

okay, here're some recipes for u out there

grilled chicken
a few chicken breasts
some pepper,garlic, olive oil, salt n soya sauce for marinate.

grill for 20 minutes or until it's done.

pineapple stew
1 pineapple, cubed
some sugar
water
a screwpine leaf (daun pandan le)

in a pot, add in pineapple cubes, sugar n enough water. cook for around half an hour, then put in screwpine leaf b4 u turn off the stove.

chocolate ice cream (taken frm hershey's recipe)
14 oz condensed milk (i used less than a can of our local produced condensed milk)
1/3 cup of cocoa
2 cups of cream
1 cup of light cream (i used evaporated milk)
1 tb vanilla essence.

In medium saucepan, stir together sweetened condensed milk and cocoa. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat; cool slightly.2. Gradually add whipping cream, light cream and vanilla, beating with whisk until well blended; refrigerate until cold.3. Place in ice cream freezer container. Freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.when it's about to crystallise, i took the container out frm the freezer n beat it with a beater. u may do this once or twice. the ice cream will turn out perfect! oh, i added in extra cocoa since i'm a chocoholic, n i added in choc chip as well

My Love Affair with Food

i always associate food with the family. with ppl that i love. bcoz my earliest memory of food is associated with coming home of all my siblings during raya. that's when Mother would wake up at 4am to cook nasi dagang on raya morning. or the time when Abg Mi n Kak Dah would bake semprit or biskut arab. on raya, there would be arrays of cakes n cookies on our chinese roundtable, along with our nasi dagang n gulai ikan tongkol (or known as ikan aya in the east coast or better known as tuna ) n in the centre, is a cake complete with icing, looking too pretty to be eaten.

as i grew up, more family gatherings were held - most of the time they're barbeques. we're a very tolerant lot, so the barbeques were often western styled concoction, complete with beef steaks, frankfurters, lamb chops, mashed potatoes n gravy n salad.

all of my sisters took home ec., except for yours truly. they love to bake, n cookbooks r plentiful at their houses. 2 of my sister-in-laws also love to cook, one of them being a Filipina born in a family who also love to eat.

we do enjoy local fare as well, our absolute favourite being nasi beriyani. in fact, when my siblings talk of the old days, they will talk abt my mother's nasi beriyani recipe (written in jawi) with such reverence n awe. my mother is a purist who believes in cooking almost every dish from scratch. being the youngest n the most who spend time with Mother, i've also become a purist. Aside fr the nasi beriyani, i love nasi minyak, which is eaten as breakfast here in terengganu (yes, we love heavy food here - breakfast menu consists of nasi dagang, nasi lemak, nasi minyak, pulut kuning or laksam).

it is no surprise then, with such passion for food in the family, that i've become passionate abt food as well. cooking, in my opinion, is an art that one should master, n should not be treated only as a means of survival. wat more better way than to make ur loved ones happy by presenting them with ur work of art?