Cooking Crave™

Yam Cheesecake (Or Nee Cheesecake)

2011-10-24T17:20:00.102+08:00

I love cheesecake. I just can't resist this sinful & yummy dessert from my diet :)

I first came across this yam cheesecake recipe in one of our local newspaper The Star last year. For my love & passion in baking, I straight cut down the article & keep the recipe until I found sometime to try it out few months back. I didn't snapped much picture & blogged about it then on my first bake. My kids they love it so much. I would like to thank Sherie Lee's for sharing her recipe of this Yam Cheesecake. The sour cream + coconut milk's topping was a great combination to this cheesecake. I'm loving it !!! I never taste a cheesecake with a truly asian touch & here it is.. hehe. I just love how all the flavors blends so well together :)

To cheesecake lovers out there, this is a must try recipe. Yeah, thumbs up from me!!

Recipe adapted from : Sherie Lee of maameemoomoo

Yam Cheesecake (Or Nee Cheesecake)

(Ideal for 8" cake)

Crust/Base

Oreo cookies - 150g (cream removed*)
Butter - 70g (melted)

Here you go:

Crushed & finely ground the oreo cookies. Pour the melted butter onto the ground cookies and toss well to coat the mixture with butter. Press into an even layer on the bottom of the cheesecake pan. Freeze for at least half an hour.

While freezing the base, proceed to make the filling of the cheesecake.

Filling/Cheesecake

500g cream cheese (room temperature)
120g castor sugar
2 1/2 eggs (I use 3)
150ml whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup yam (peeled, cubed, steamed & pureed)
4-5 tbsp (steamed coarse yam chunks - if you prefer the bites of yam in the cake)*
few drops of purple coloring - optional*

What to do :

Beat cream cheese & sugar until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until it is just incorporated. Gradually add in whipping cream, alternate it with mashed yam & lastly add in salt.

Note: don't over mix because we want to incorporate as little air as possible to prevent cake from cracking *

Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the freezed oreo base cake pan. Bake at 150c for 60 - 75 minutes or till the edge of the filling is set & center is slightly wobbly.

Topping

1 cup Sour Cream
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 coconut milk

Hand whisked together all the ingredients in a bowl. Mixed well & spread on top of the baked cheesecake. Bake 5 minutes at 150c.

Note: Gently whisk it to prevent air bubbles forming **

Cool cheesecake completely in pan on rack, 1-2 hours preferably

Cover cheesecake & chill in the fridge until cold for at least 4 hours or more. It is best to chill it over-night.

Note :

* Bake the cheesecake in water bath. If you are using spring form pan, be sure to wrap the bottom of the pan in 2 layers of foil to prevent any water from seeping into the cheesecake. Alternately, you can just slide in a tray filled with water just beneath the rack.

HAPPY BAKING !! ＾＾

Best Regards,

AMY ONG

Home-made Hainanese Chicken Rice (海南鸡飯)

2011-10-22T20:51:00.007+08:00

Ever since my beloved father passed-away I've been busy. Clean & rent out my parent's home. Now, it's my turn to take care of my mom. My father used to help me fetch my kids from tuition classes or school when I'm half-way baking or cooking but now no one is there to help me anymore :(

I'm sorry to readers who've leave me message. I've got 58 unanswered message in my message inbox and I just realized that I have abandoned this Cooking Crave blog for more than 6 months. I promised will go thru all the message & answer it one by one when I'm free. I'm so sorry for those who really have waited my reply.

From now on, I will try to make sometime to continue blogging and share my recipe with all of you. Thank you so much for being such a loyal follower of my blog. It really put a smile on my face & cheer up my day !! ~

Yeah, today I cooked chicken rice for lunch. There are 2 types of chicken rice available or sold at "kopitiam". Some chicken rice come with roasted chicken & boiled chicken. Normally I will have the roasted type when we dine outside.

For me, I still prefer the steamed chicken type when cook it myself at home. Less oily, juicier & it's very easy to prepare it. At least it won't messed up our kitchen, less work to clean all the oily stuff.. hehe. If you're chicken rice lover, do try this out ... I bet you'll fall in love with it ... haha !!! It smells heavenly too .. yums!!

Hainanese Steamed Chicken Rice Recipe

Ingredient for Rice :

4 cup thai fragrant rice

(can be replace with any type of rice of your choice)

chicken broth

(enough for rice cooking)

1 piece of ginger - about 2-3 inch size

(skinned & smashed)

8 gloves garlic

(lightly smashed with skin intact)

5 cardamom (buah pelaga)

1 cinnamon (kulit kayu manis)

- about 2 inch in size

5 cloves (bunga cengkih)

p.s : don't be greedy, too much of cardamom, cinnamon & cloves will ruin the taste of the rice, just add it accordingly.

6-8 pandan (screwpine) leaves

washed & tie into knot

some salt to taste

1 spoon of margarine

(for stir-frying)

How to cook:

Heat the wok & add in margarine, saute smashed ginger and garlic till fragrant.
Add in cardamom, cinnamon & cloves. Continue to saute till it is fragrant.
Add in washed rice and saute till rice is coated well with the oil.
Add salt to taste (about 3/4 teaspoon is enough).
Stir until it is well mixed.
Place the rice with all the ingredients - spices, ginger & garlic into rice cooker.
Add in the pandan (screwpine) leaves.
Add in chicken broth instead of your usual water.
Cook the rice as usual.

Ingredient for Chicken :

5 chicken drumstick with the upper thigh

(can use 1 whole kampung chicken)

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

some pepper

5 gloves garlic

(skinned & chopped)

- stir-fried it with some oil - garlic oil for garnishing the cooked steamed chicken

some ginger

(skinned & sliced)

coriander leaves (daun ketumbar)

(for garnishing)

What to do :

Clean the chicken, remove the excessive fat and blood. Keep the skin intact.
Place the chicken into a metal plate. Sprinkled ginger slices on top of the chicken, add in soy sauce, sesame oil & pepper.
Place the chicken into the hot boiling pot or wok & steamed for about 35-40 mins. (make sure the water already boiling hot before put the chicken to steam)
In a small pan, heat some cooking out and saute the chopped garlic until it is golden brown. Remove the garlic together with the oil into a small bowl. Set aside.
After 40mins, remove the cooked chicken from the wok. Chopped the chicken into biting size and arrange it nicely into a plate.
Garnish it with garlic oil & chopped coriander leaves.

How to make Sauce for rice:

In a bowl, add 3-4 tbsp oyster sauce, 1/2 tbsp sugar & some soy sauce. Stir to mix before add in some chicken broth. If it is too salty, adjust by adding some sugar to taste. Bean paste, chillies, garlic & coriander leaves can be added too. As my kids they don't like all those ingredients, I didn't add it. (this is my lazy method of making sauce, you can always make your own sauce to eat it with the rice.. hehe)

Ingredient for Ginger Chili Sauce for chicken:

5-6 red chillies, stem & seeds removed

1 inch ginger

5-6 glove garlic, skinned

4-5 limes, juiced

6-7 tbsp chicken broth

What to do :

Blend all ingredients till smooth ... that's it !!

P/S : For the left over chicken broth, I add in some white radish & carrot, continue to boil it for few minutes. Here we have chicken rice served with a bowl of radish soup .. Just in case, you get choked when eating too fast .. hehehe

HAPPY COOKING

Amy Ong

Simple Stir-fry Lady Finger with Oyster Sauce

2011-03-27T00:07:00.001+08:00

A simple & easy dish that's very appetizing ... will share how to cook this soon !!

AMY

Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Breast

2011-01-12T00:41:00.003+08:00

I use to cook crabs & prawns with salted egg yolks. While browsing some of the cooking blog for new recipe, I stumbled across this recipe at Elin's blog. After gone thru the recipe and her yummy pictures I decided to try this recipe. Guess what, all my 3 kids they love it so much. For those who have kids at home shall try this yummy recipe :)

Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Recipe

I piece chicken breast - sliced into smaller pieces

some salt

pepper

1 egg white

tapioca starch

oil for deep frying

Seasoned chicken with salt and pepper and mix in egg white. Marinate for at least 30mins. Coat pieces of chicken with tapioca starch. Dust off extra starch and deep fry chicken pieces until golden and crispy. Set aside.

1 tbsp margarine (I use planta)

2 springs curry leaves, remove from stem, leaves only

1 or 2 bird’s eye chilli, sliced

3 salted egg yolks, steamed and mashed

2 tbsp or more evaporated milk

1 tsp cooking oil

1/3 tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

3 pips of chopped garlic

Heat wok, put in oil and butter. When butter has melted, add in chopped garlic, sliced chilli and curry leaves. Stir till it's fragrant, add in mashed egg yolks. Flatten the yolks and cook until it look bubbly and fragrant. Lower the heat, add milk, salt and sugar. Cook for a little while and put in chicken and toss until well coated.

HAPPY COOKING!!

AMY

Crispy Cashewnut Cookies

2011-01-11T22:48:00.002+08:00

In less than one month's time we'll be celebrating CNY. As usual I will bake some cookies & cakes for this special occasion. For the love of baking, I prefer to bake my own cookies to share with my family & friends. Here are my first batch of cookies baked by me - Crispy Cashewnut Cookies, one of the must have cookies for CNY. My kids they just love it so much. A very crispy & buttery taste cookies topped with cashewnut. Yummy!!

Crispy Cashewnut Cookies's Recipe
- adapted & editted from Agnes Chang's Baking Made Easy

Ingredients A:

240g butter/margarine (I use Golden Churn Butter)

100g castor sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients B (sifted):

350g plain flour

20g custard powder

Decoration:

100g cashewnuts, halved

1 egg, mixed with pinch of salt, beaten

Method:

Cream A till just combined. Mix in B to form into a pliable dough.
Place dough in between 2 sheets of plastic, roll into 1/2 cm thick. Cut into the shapes you preferred using a cookie cutter.
Place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Press a half cashewnut on top of cookies and glaze it with beaten egg.
Bake cookies in pre-heated oven at 180c for about 20mins till golden brown. Remove from oven.
Cool completely before storing.

p/s : The cookies are soft when it's still warm. Make sure it's completely cool before remove the cookies from the baking tray.

AMY

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-01T00:00:00.003+08:00

Fried Chicken Wings

2010-12-31T02:04:00.000+08:00

more pics & will share the recipe soon :)

Chicken Congee

2010-11-29T18:55:00.007+08:00

Congee or Rice Porridge is boiled in more amount of water for a longer period until the rice breaks down and becomes a fairly thick white porridge. Some people will served congee as breakfast and is often eaten with fried bread sticks known as youtiao. Congee are served to the unwell as it is easier to digest and are one of the nutritious food for young infants.

Today, I'm going to share my Chicken Congee recipe here. My girl has been complained to me her toothache and not able to eat rice. She request me to cook her congee instead and she finished 5 bowls (*the bowl that I use in my pic) of congee just for her lunch. " Mommy, your congee are yummy!!!", I'm glad that she loves it so much. I seldom cook congee because I don't really love congee. I will only cook congee when I'm not feeling well (*touch wood!!!) hehe ... Anyway, for congee lovers out there .. do give it a try !! It's easy to prepare and very yummy :)

Ingredients :

2 cup rice

water for cooking congee 3 liter (more or less)

1 piece chicken breast

Average amount of chicken bones - for stock

5 - 6 dried scallops

1 carrot - sliced into smaller piece

1 tbsp "dong cai" - 东菜

small piece of ginger - smashed

Seasoning :

sesame oil

light soy sauce

some dark soy sauce - for color

pepper

***(adjust the seasoning to taste)

some green onion for garnishing

Wash & clean the chicken bones from fat & chicken blood.
When the water boiling add in the chicken breast & chicken bones for chicken stock (approx: 15-20mins)
Remove the cooked chicken breast & chicken bones from the stock.
Wash the rice & add into the chicken stock. Add in sliced carrots, scallops, "dong cai" & smashed ginger.
Increased the heat & bring the congee to boil (approx: 30mins)
When the congee starts to thicken. Lower the heat & continue cook till all the rice breaks & turn soft (*time depend on the congee texture preferred)
Season the congee to taste.
Serve warm with shredded chicken meat floss (*from the cooked chicken breast) & some green onions.

HAPPY COOKING ! :)

AMY

Banana & Cranberries Butter Cake

2010-11-28T20:17:00.007+08:00

I'm not a fan of banana fruit and I don't like to banana unless it was made into banana fritters, banana muffins or banana cakes. I've baked banana chiffon cake, banana muffins, banana bread before and I admit that I just can't get enough of bananas .. hehe!! I just like to try out other recipes that banana was used as the main ingredient. Today, while browsing thru some baking blogs online.. I came through this "Banana Walnut Butter Cake" recipe from My Sweet Hut. Cynthia's Blog banana cake recipe required 100gm finely grind untoasted walnut, since I didn't have grind walnut in my pantry I just replace it with 100gm of self raising flour. I add dried cranberries in it for extra berries flavor to my liking. I really love the texture of this banana cake, it's really soft - very buttery taste - not oily at all and I love the sweet banana's aroma all over my house at the time I baked it in the oven :) Below are the recipe of the cake which I've slight edit to suit my taste buds and easier way method of preparing it - Have a look at the ingredient & start bake one now !!! - - ->>>

Ingredients needed :

230gm butter (room temperature)

2 tbsp honey (can omit this if don't have honey at home)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

4 large eggs (room temperature)

150gm castor sugar

270gm self-raising flour

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp salt

(shift the 3 ingredients - flour/bicarbonate of soda/salt together)

240gm ripe bananas (mashed)

2 tbsp of dried cranberries

The original recipe in Cynthia's Blog requires whisk eggs & sugar in another mixing bowl. I skipped this step and just mixing all the ingredients the traditional butter cake way. Surprisingly, the cake turn out soft and moist with the simple method I use :)

How I bake this cake :

Preheat oven at 170c. Lined the base of two 8"x3" loaf pan or 7" square pan with baking paper (Do not grease the side)
Cream butter, honey & vanilla essence until pale & creamy. Add in sugar and beat till it's fluffy.
Add in egg one at a time. Slowly beat till it's well mixed. (*Crack the eggs in a bowl first before add into the butter mixture)
Fold in 1/2 portion of the sifted dry ingredients (flour+soda+salt) to combined before fold in the mashed bananas. Followed by the remaining dry ingredients, dried cranberries & mixed till well combined.
Pour batter into lined baking pan and bake in a preheated oven for 50mins or until the skewer inserted in the middle of the cake came out clean.
Leave to cool on the baking rack before un-mould it and cut.

HAPPY BAKING!!!

AMY

Moist Chocolate Cupcakes - A MUST TRY !!

2010-11-17T14:59:00.005+08:00

It has been a while since I last bake anything. My beloved father passed-away suddenly and left me with some stuff follow up and my mom are now staying with me. All this while, when I spent my time baking, my father are the one who help me to fetch my kids to & from school and I can just concentrate on my baking work. Now, I really have to planned for the time and make sure the whole process of baking can be done on time or it will ruined everything I do.. hehe ~

I really miss the time when I can just bake anything I want without worrying that I have to fetch my kids ... I miss my dad a lot, he was such a good daddy & helps me whenever I need a helping hand. Since the school holiday have started, I can now steal some of my time to starts baking again... I think I will soon get addicted to baking again hahaha.. Once started, don't feel like stop it!! Today, I bake some moist chocolate cupcakes. My kids they love chocolate cupcakes so much. I already have few recipes on Moist Chocolate Cakes and this time I'm going to try the recipe I got from Ann Journal - what attracts me is the word "A MUST TRY!! " so, why not try it out?? lol ...

Did all of you notice that my cupcakes look so odd? The batter spilled all over the paper liners?? Actually this recipes will make 18 cupcakes, I only filled it into 12 paper liners and I filled it too full for the reason I don't want to waste the remaining cake batter. Lesson learned - do not fill your cup too full or it's end up the odd looking cupcakes like mine ... hehe!! But, it still taste extremely yummy, cake are soft and moist with chocolatey aroma. Not too bad ya?? haha

Ingredients: (Makes 18 cupcakes)

100g butter, softened

200g castor sugar

2 eggs

3/4tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup milk (125ml)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup hot boiling water (mix with 1tsp Nescafe Instant Coffee Powder)

190g flour

1/4 salt

3tsp baking powder

40g cocoa powder

Method :

Sift flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder in a big bowl. Dissolve baking soda in milk.
Cream butter and sugar until light. Add in vanilla essence and eggs, continue beating.
Add in the rest of the ingredients (milk, coffee liquid and the sifted flour mixture) Beat till it's smooth.
Spoon batter into greased paper liners 3/4 full.
Bake in a preheated oven at 160c for about 20mins or until the skewer inserted to the center of the cake comes out clean.
Leave it to cool on rack before icing.
Decorate with whatever type of your preference icing or dust lightly with icing sugar.
It's best to chill first before consumed the cupcakes.

Look at my odd shapes chocolate cupcakes ... although it's odd but taste extremely YUMMY!!

HAPPY BAKING !:)

AMY

Home-made Meat+Prawn Balls & Tofu Seaweed Soup

2010-11-17T03:05:00.004+08:00

My kids they love soup very much and this Tofu Seaweed Soup with home-made meat + prawn balls are one of their favorite. Recently, it has been raining everyday and I like to have a bowl of hot soup at this period of time. I can finished one small bowl of rice with just this soup alone.

This soup are very easy to prepare Unlike most chinese soup which require a longer time to simmer, the actual cooking time of this soup is under 15 minutes. Just get all the ingredients ready and boil the whole things together before season it with some salt & pepper. Yeah, the soup are ready to be serve !!

Ingredients :

1.5 liter water

1 piece of 20cm diameter dried seaweed (紫菜) - cut into smaller pieces

300gm pork belly - minced

200gm shrimp - un-shell & minced

3 tubes of japanese egg tofu - sliced into smaller piece

1 Knorr Ikan Bilis cube - optional

Marinade ingredients (A)

1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
1.5 tbsp corn starch
1.5 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp sesame oil

1 egg white
dash of white pepper

Methods:

Marinade the minced pork & shrimp with ingredients (A) for 30mins. Shape it into individual meat balls (each about 1 tbsp size). Set aside.
Bring water to boil, add in the Knorr Ikan Bilis cube (if available). Add in the meat balls one at a time and make sure they are not stick together. Let it cook for 3 mins.
Rinse the seaweed on running tap water before add it into the soup, cook for a few second.
Lastly, place in the egg tofu and turn off the heat.
Season it with some salt & pepper to taste.
Garnish it with some green onion & serve warm.

AMY

Simmered Pork Belly in Dark Soy-Sauce with Boiled Eggs (Non Halal)

2010-11-17T03:01:00.004+08:00

I grown up eating "Tau Yu Bak" - this is how we call this dishes in "Hokkien" dialect. My late granny from my father's side used to cook this for us (my bro & me) when we are young. Normally this dish are cook in bigger portion. My granny love to add hard boiled eggs in the thicken "Tau Yu" (dark soy sauce) for us. The left over of this dish will be keep refrigerated and to be consumed again the next day. This dish taste even better when kept over-night and it is yummy when eaten with sambal belacan. Today, this dish are my kid's favorite. They love the hard-boiled eggs in it and each time when I cook it, I will add more eggs for them. I omit the chinese mushroom in this recipe as my kids they don't like it.

Ingredients:

500gm pork belly with skin (cut into pieces)
15gm chinese mushrooms (soaked, cleaned - squeeze till it is dry)
2 nos star anise - 八角
4 garlic cloves with skin (flatten)
1 liter water

Seasoning:

1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp "Shaoxing" cooking wine
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar

dash of pepper
salt to taste

6 hard-boiled eggs

Method:

Marinade the pork belly pieces with the seasoning for at least 30mins.
Heat up 3 tbsp oil, fragrant garlic cloves until golden in color. Add in star anises, stir-fry briskly until aromatic.
Add in the marinade pork belly pieces, stir well until the color of the pork changes. Add in mushrooms pieces and water, bring it to boil.
Cover up, lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour until the gravy is thicken. Add in hard-boiled eggs.
Season it with some pepper & salt to taste. Dish up, serve hot.

AMY

Chinese Herbs Soup

2010-11-17T02:58:00.004+08:00

AMY

Curry Prawn & Lady Fingers

2010-11-17T02:54:00.002+08:00

Will post the recipe soon.. !

AMY

Stir-fry Baby Kailan with Prawns

2010-11-17T02:51:00.002+08:00

Watercress Soup (西洋菜汤)

2010-11-17T02:49:00.000+08:00

Stir-fried Squid In Dark Soy Sauce

2010-11-17T02:45:00.002+08:00

My mom's signature dish - Squid In Dark Soy Sauce is our favorite. We don't take squid quite often. Once a while mom will pamper us with her tasty squid dishes. This Squid In Dark Soy Sauce are one of the must have dishes when it come to the festive seasons like CNY. Now, my son too enjoy this dishes very much :)

Ingredients:

10 medium-sized squids

Marinate:

Dark soy sauce

Light say sauce

Sugar

White pepper powder

Garlic (minced)

Oil for stir-frying

Method:

Marinade the cleaned squids with dark soy sauce, light say sauce, sugar and white pepper powder for at least 30mins.
Heat the wok with some oil and add in the minced garlic. Cook till the garlic turn golden in color.
Add in the marinade squids, fried till cooked and the sauce thickening.

H.A.P.P.Y. . .C.O.O.K.I.N.G. . ! . ! . !

AMY

Old Cucumber Soup - 老黄瓜汤

2010-11-17T02:44:00.001+08:00

My family members, especially my 3 kids they all love soup. I think the best way to make sure we drink enough water everyday is by boiling some nutritious soup. This"Old Cucumber Soup" are one of my favorite ... If you haven't try this before, please go to HERE for the recipe of this yummy soup :)

HAPPY COOKING !!!

AMY

Bitter Gourd Omelette

2010-11-17T00:06:00.002+08:00

Bitter Gourd/Bitter Melon are one of my favorite but non of my 3 kids enjoy it. Sometimes, I will just cook it and share it with my mother. We both love bitter gourd - bitter gourd omelette, stir-fry it with roasted pork or chicken meat & black bean paste. I love bitter gourd soup too which can help to reduce our body heat. There are 2 types of bitter gourd, one are the smaller in size, the darker green color which is very much bitter. It was use by the diabetic people to make it into juices and the other one are bigger in size where most people use it for cooking. Always choose the ripe bitter gourd as it will taste less bitter, choose the bitter gourd which has bigger bumps and pale in color - that's the ripe one !!

Ingredients:

1 medium bitter gourd - cut into half and remove the seeds.

1 tsp salt (for marinade the bitter gourd)

5 large eggs - beat lightly

1 clove garlic chopped

salt and pepper to taste

oil for frying

Method:

Wash the halves bitter gourd. Slices the bitter gourd thinly and marinade it with 1 tsp of salt. Set aside for at least 10 minutes.

Squeeze the marinated sliced bittergourd, to remove as much liquid as possible.

Wash the bittergourd under tap water and drain dry.

Heat wok with 2 tbsp oil. Add in the chopped garlic, stir-fry until it become golden color.

Add in the sliced bitter gourd and continue to stir-fry it until the bitter gourd is soft & cooked.

Add salt and pepper to taste into the beaten eggs. Stir to mix it throughly.

Pour eggs over bittergourd and fry until the eggs are set and golden brown.

Serve hot with steamed rice/porridge.

How do you all like bitter gourd?? or any of your don't like it?? Please share with me more recipes on bitter gourd, would love to try it !!

Wish all my blog readers ... SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILADHA & HAPPY HOLIDAY !!

AMY

Taugeh With Beancurd & Salted-Fish

2010-09-10T22:29:00.001+08:00

AMY

开胃汤 . . .

2010-09-10T22:20:00.001+08:00

AMY

Stir-Fried Potatoes & Chicken Breast

2010-09-10T21:25:00.003+08:00

Each time when I ran out of idea on what to cook for my 3 little monkeys at home. I'll came out with this simple and yummy dishes like this. I just cook it with what available and it turn out great. My kids they just love it... the ingredients used are just potatoes, chicken breast meat & some ginger. Seasoned it with some dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar & pepper. It's just that simple !! :P

Ingredients :

1 medium piece of chicken breast (sliced into thin slices)

5 - 6 potatoes (peel it's skin & cut into smaller pieces)

some ginger (cut into thin stripes)

Seasoning :

Dark soy sauce

Light soy sauce

Sugar

Pepper

Salt (please omit this if dish taste salty already)

some sesame oil for stir-frying (can replace it with cooking oil)

Method:

Heat wok with sesame oil and add in the ginger strips. Stir-fried till it's golden brown.
Add in sliced chicken breast, stir-fry it for a little while before add in the potatoes.
Seasoned it with dark soy sauce & light soy sauce.
Add in about half cup of warm water and cover up the wok. Lower the heat & let it simmered for about 5 mins or till the potatoes turn soft.
Cook till the sauce thickened. Season it with some sugar, pepper & some salt if it's not salty enough.
Serve hot with steamed rice or bread.

AMY

Acar Hu -"阿扎鱼"(Acar Fish)

2010-08-20T22:33:00.002+08:00

"阿扎鱼" or Acar Hu (pickled fish in turmeric vinegar sauce) My favourite fish since childhood days :) I can finished 2 plate of rice with just this one dish. A dish that's very easy to prepare and cook. This dish taste even better if we keep it overnight. YUMMY!!

Ingredients needed:

(A)

500g Ikan Kembung (or any other type of fish) - cleaned

1 tbsp turmeric powder

1 tsp salt

enough oil for deep-frying

(B)

100g fresh turmeric (shredded)

50g ginger (shredded)

(C)

300ml white rice vinegar

100ml water

6tbsp sugar (or to taste)

(D)

10 or more pips garlic (removed skin and sliced)

3 red chillies (sliced) - optional, for decoration purpose

3 green chillies (sliced) - "

6 - 8 small spicy chillies (if u prefer it a bit spicy)

2tbsp white sesame seeds (toasted) - optional

METHOD:

(A): Rub fish with turmeric powder, salt and marinate it for 1 hour. Heat up oil for deep-frying. Deep-fry the fish until crispy. Dish and drain.
(B): Leave about 3tbsp oil in wok, saute shredded ginger, turmeric until fragrant. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
(C): Cook all ingredients into saucepan until boiled. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
(D): Blanch all ingredients D in boiling water for about 1/2min. Dish and drain.
Mix A,B,C and D, leave aside for at least 5 hours or overnight. Sprinkles toasted sesame seeds on top and serve.

Tips to share: Prepare B & C one day ahead so that they are totally cool before adding in fish and D. The dish can be kept longer this way.

Out of idea on what to cook??? TRY THIS OUT!

HAPPY COOKING!

AMY

Penang Hokkien Mee - Har Mee

2010-08-07T15:12:00.005+08:00

Penang Hokkien Mee or "虾面" are one of my favourite hawkers' food. We can easily buy & eat this yummy noodles here at any kopitiam or place that sells hawker food. I didn't cook this often unless there are guest or friends come to visit me at home until one day I chatted with a friend of mine in Facebook who stays in USA. He can't get to eat nice "虾面" there, even those he can get at Malaysian Restaurant there tasted not as nice as the one in Malaysia. I promised to share my recipe here and for those who stays oversea can maybe try this out :)

I followed the recipe from "Penang Nyonya A-Ma Secret Recipes" by Chef Plilip Yoong and edit it to suit my taste buds...

Ingredients:

PRAWN SOUP:

1.5kg medium size prawns (washed before we removed it's shell, keep it for soup)

3tbsp oil or lesser

2tbsp chopped garlic

2tbsp chopped shallot

2500ml water

(A)

300g pork's bone

300g pork ribs

1/2tbsp peppercorns (crushed)

(B) - pounded/blend together

25g dried chillies (soaked for 10mins, use less if you can't take it too spicy)

150g shallots (removed skin)

75g garlic

1cm belacan

3tbsp oil

some salt to taste

SEASONING

30g rock sugar

some salt to taste

600g yellow mee

200g mee hoon

300g bean sprouts

300g kangkung

some fried shallots

3 hard boiled eggs (shelled and cut into wedges)

Chilli Sauce For Serving (mixed)

150g chilli boh

75g minced garlic

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp white rice vinegar

50ml boiling water

METHOD:

Prepare the soup: Heat up 3 tbsp oil in a work, saute chopped garlic and shallot until fragrant. Add prawn shell and continue to fry at low heat until it's dry and aromatic. Pour in water, add in ingredients A and bring to boil. Simmer at medium low heat for 30 minutes.
Heat up 3 tbsp oil, saute pounded B until it's fragrant. Add some salt to taste. Leave about 1 tbsp chilli paste in the wok, transfer the rest into boiling soup. Simmer the soup for another 20 minutes. Strain the soup to another pot. Add in seasoning and taste it.
Stir-fry the prawns in chilli paste until cooked. Dish up and set aside.
Blanch yellow mee, mee hoon, bean sprouts, kangkung in boiling water seperately.
To assembling the "虾面": Put some mee, meehoon, bean sprouts and kangkung into a serving bowl. Arrange ribs, prawns, eggs on top. Pour boiling soup over and sprinkle with fried shallots. Serve with chilli sauce.

HAPPY COOKING!

Wish all of you have a nice day!!

AMY ONG

Homemade 'Char Siu' - 叉烧

2010-08-05T17:56:00.007+08:00

叉烧 or 'Char Siu' this is how we pronounce it in Cantonese. I never bother to made my own Char Siu at home as I can buy perfectly delicious barbecue pork at a Chinese butcher stall or restaurant here until I tried the Char Siu made by aunt Yoke Peng. She shared with me her simple recipe on how to make this delicious Char Siu. Believe me, it's really delicious!!

Ingredients needed:

500gm - 600gm lean pork loin (cut into stripes, preferably with some fat)

For Marinade the pork:

3 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
some 5 spice powder
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1 tbsp honey
1/2 piece fermented red beancurd (nam yu)
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cooking wine

Method:

Cut pork loin into long strips. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients for marinade. Place pork strips into bowl, cover and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Open and turn the pork to the other side for better marinade.
Heat a wok with oil enough for frying the pork strips. When to wok is hot, put in the marinade pork strips and fry it in lower heat until it's fragrant. As the soy sauce and sugar was one of the ingredients, the char siu will slowly turn into darker color and sticky.
Flip over to fry the other side till it's fragrant. Use lower heat and let it fry for a longer time to make sure the meat are cooked thoroughly.
Dish out the cooked char siu and let it cold first before we slice it into 1/2cm thick.
Serve warm with steamed rice or noodles.

Happy Cooking!

AMY

Stir -Fried Fish in Bean Paste with Ginger & Green Onions ( 炒鱼-Char Hu )

2010-08-05T01:07:00.005+08:00

This dish are quite famous among the restaurants in Alor Star. It is one of the famous signature dishes for some restaurant here. We called it in Hokkien dialect "Char Hu" here. This dishes are very easy to prepare and it's very yummy. The one they sold in the restaurant are much more darker as they use a lot of thick dark soy-sauce. I reduce the use of thick soy-sauce because I want my "Char Hu" to appear nicer in the pictures for my blog :D

A must try... simple & easy recipe!!

We can use any kind of fish for this dishes. The best I have tasted so far is the baby shark meat. Shark meat are smooth and it taste real good with we stir-fried it this way. Beside that we can use fillet of bigger size fish. Ok, let me share with all of you the ingredients for this dish.

Ingredients :

Fish meat/fillet - (Sorry, I forget to weight my fish before cooking it..)
Ginger (sliced into thin stripes - if u like ginger, put more)
Green Onion (cut it into 1 inch, I use a lot of green onion for this dish)
Bean Paste (please omit the salt if the bean paste taste salty)
Thick Soy Sauce
Sugar (optional) - I didn't use sugar for most of my dishes. My mom diabetic & couldn't take too much sweet food.
Sesame Oil
Cooking Oil

Method :

Clean & cut the fish into 1cm thick. Fry it with oil until it's cooked but not crispy. Set aside.
Heat the wok with some sesame oil + sunflower oil (Approx. 3tbsp - enough for stir-frying)
When the wok is hot, add in the ginger stripes. Stir-fry until it's golden color and add in the bean paste before continue to stir-fry it until it's fragrant (add in enough bean paste for the amount of fish u cook, too much of bean paste will make the dish taste salty - becareful not to add too much of it)
Slowly and carefully add in the cooked fish. Stir the fish to mix with the bean paste slowly and at this time add in the appropriate amount of the thick soy-sauce. Continue to stir-fry it, do it carefully and don't break the fish into pieces.
Pour in some warm water then cover the work and let it simmer for a while. Let the fish asorb the sauce (if u prefer to have more sauce, add in slightly a little more water to get more sauce)
Lastly, sprinkle in the green onions. Stir to mix it well with the fish.
Serve warm with steamed rice.

P/S: If you love it spicy. Add in some chili chunks at the time we add the green onions.

HAPPY COOKING!!

AMY ONG

Stir-Fry Vegetables with Shirmps & Fish Cakes

2010-08-05T01:03:00.001+08:00

Kind of lazy or dunno what to cook?? Why not try this easy dish which is simply yummy... :P

Ingredients:

Vegetables
Shrimp
Fish Cake (sliced)
Garlic (sliced or minced)
Salt to taste
Pepper
Oil

Method:

Clean vegetables, cut them into desirable size.
Heat frying pan with some oil (abt 1tbsp)
Add garlic and stir-fried it until it's golden color.
Stir in shirmp, add in some pepper and continue to stir-fried it till it turn red color.
Add in vegetables and continue to cook it for few minutes.
Add fish cakes and some water (cover the wok & cook for a while)
Add some salt to taste before dish up the vegetables.

AMY ONG

Doughnut

2010-08-05T00:20:00.002+08:00

I made this doughnut quite sometime ago. It was my first attempt on making doughnut and it turn out not very successful. The dough turn out too soft and make it hard for me to get the perfect round shape of the doughnut. I have been wanted to make my own doughnut long time ago. It was one of my favorite food and my kids they love it too. After look at the doughnut made by some of my blogger friends, I decided to give it a try. Look at what I get here, all the odd shapes doughnut but it taste like the one we get from the bakery. Soft and fluffy, not too bad ya? he he..!!

I use the doughnut recipe provided by the bread-maker I bought and made it using my bread-maker. Well, just put all the ingredients in the bread-maker and set it to the dough cycle. Easy and safe up a lot of time. I think I'm really smart to invest a bread-maker for myself.. :P

**Look at these odd- shapes doughnut made from the left over dough after cutting them with the doughnut mold cutter**

Ingredients:

Water + 1 Egg 250 ml
High Protein Flour 400 gm
Sugar 3tbsp
Salt 1/4tsp
Yeast 1 1/2tsp

Butter 40 gm

Method
(recipe using bread-maker)

Put all ingredient into bread-maker baking pan and use dough cycle to knead it.
Take the dough out when the kneading programmer completed.
Scale the dough at 40 gms each and round it. Cut into rings shape and proof till double its size.
Fry doughnut in hot oil till golden brown and coat it with caster sugar.

Have a nice day!

AMY

Comfort Food For Lazy Sunday

2010-08-01T11:56:00.002+08:00

Fried Rice with Taiwan Sausage, Cabbage, Carrot & Eggs

A simple & easy lunch today. Using the ingredients from my fridge I come out with this Sausage Fried Rice. Guess what? It's yummy !! At least it's tastier than many fried rice we ate at the restaurant out there...hehe !

Easy steps & simple ingredients :

Over-night/left over RICE
Eggs (fried and cut it into thick stripes)
Cabbage (cut into smaller pieces)
Taiwan Pork Sausage - sliced(any sausage can be use...provided it's yummy)
Carrot (sliced)
Onion (sliced)
some minced Garlic

Seasoning:
Light soy sauce
Oyster sauce
some pepper

Oil for frying

Simple steps for frying the rice:

Heat some oil in the wok. Add in the sliced onion. Stir-fry it until the onion turn soft and add in the sliced sausage. Continue to stir-fry the sausage until it's golden brown and fragrant.

Set aside the fried sausage. With the remaining oil add in minced garlic, stir-fry till it's golden brown before add in the carrot and cabbage. Add in the rice, stir to mix well with the vegetables. Season the fried rice with some soy sauce, oyster sauce and pepper. Taste it while you adding the seasoning, make sure it's not too salty (**we can always add more soy sauce later if it's not salty enough)

Lastly, add in the fried egg and the cooked sliced sausages. Stir to mix well with the fried rice.

VIOLA ~ THE LUNCH IS READY !! :)

AMY ONG

Pandan Chicken

2010-07-24T15:13:00.006+08:00

Yeah ... I"M BACK !! Please pardon me for not updating my blog for such a long time. I've been facing some personal problem here which makes me unable to cook and blog for a short while.

Today, I'm going to share with all of you one of my 3 kids favorite food. Actually we can just buy the ready made frozen pandan chicken from the market here in Malaysia. Just deep fry it whenever we want to eat it but I prefer to just make this myself. Cheaper and of course the chicken are fresher than the frozen one. The recipe is very simple and I bet all of you can make this at home. A good snack for teatime with a cup of freshly brewed coffee ~ yum!!

I use chicken breast for this Pandan Chicken. Marinate it over-night with tumeric powder, minced shallots, pepper, sugar & some salt.

Ingredients needed :

1 piece of boneless chicken breast (cut into smaller pieces & coarsely minced)
1-2 tsp tumeric powder
2 tsp sugar
2-3 shallots (minced)
salt to taste
some pepper

Enough pandan (screwpine) leaves for wrapping the chicken meat
Some toothpicks for securing the wrap

Method;

Clean chicken breast and cut it into smaller pieces & coarsely mince it with meat tenderizer hammer or knife.
Put the chicken meat into a big bowl and add in all the ingredients. Mix throughly with a spoon (*wear a plastic glove if you are using your hand to mix it - tumeric powder will stain our fingernails)
Cover the bowl with cling wrap and marinate it over-night in the fridge.

Ways to assemble the Pandan Chicken:

Wash the pandan leave and dry it with clean cloth. Cut the leaves into 3 inch long each. Take a piece or 2 marinated chicken breast and shape it into 1 inch oval shape before wrap it up with the pandan leaves. Put the chicken onto one of the pandan leaves end and roll it tightly to the other end. Hold tight and secure the end of the leaves with a toothpick.

Heat enough oil for frying the chicken. The oil must enough to cover the chicken we want to fry. Wait till the oil is really hot before add in the pandan chicken one by one. Lower down the fire to medium heat and continue frying the chicken until it's golden in color. Watch out the heat all the time and don't over cook the chicken. **The chicken will turn dry and hard if we over-fried it.

Serve while it's still warm with your favourite drink.

Fry the chicken till it's GOLDEN in color..

Set aside and let the excessive oil all drip off before we serve it.

If you haven't try this at home. Try it out now, .. it'll be a good snack for small party at home or to serve some guest who come to pay us a visit :)

I hope you like the PANDAN CHICKEN I shared with all of you today!! Have a nice day!!

AMY ONG

Nasi Ulam For Breakfast

2010-07-23T10:54:00.001+08:00

Yum...Yum... I would like to thank my friend Ann Ann for buying me this delicious Nasi Ulam from Alor Star Teluk Wanjah market. It's very thoughtful of her, Thank you! Ann, this nasi ulam really yummy and I tried to figure out what's the ingredient used to made this. I know they have use daun cekur, serai (lemon grass), young mango, minced dried shirmps, chili powder & etc.. Maybe we shall try to make this one day.

Thanks again Ann Ann!

AMY

Fried Chicken

2010-06-01T21:31:00.001+08:00

Pls pardon me ... will share the recipe soon :)

Mee Hoon Kueh - 麵粉粿 (Hand Made Noodles)

2010-03-13T02:27:00.003+08:00

Mee Hoon Kueh - 麵粉粿

When I first tried this Mee Hoon Kueh or some call it Pan Mee, it was cooked by my mother in law. It was one of my mother in law's signature dish. My father in law, hubby, my brother & sisters in law they all enjoyed and love this Mee Hoon Kueh so much. This is one of my hubby’s comfort food and it is now becoming my kid’s favorite dish.

Mee Hoon Kueh Recipe

For the dough:

250 g plain flour

1 egg

100 ml water

pinch of salt

1 tbsp cooking oil

To make the dough, just place all the dough ingredient into breadmaker and use the dough cycle to knead it. After the 30 min dough cycle is completed, place the dough in a bowl, cover with cling film & rest for about 1 hour.

For those who don't have a breadmaker at home:

Mix water with salt, egg and oil until well mixed. In a large mixing bowl, add the water mixture to the flour and mix into a dough. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, until the dough springs back a little when pressed with a fingertip. Shape the dough into a ball, cover with a clean damp towel or cling film and leave to rest for 1 hour.

Anchovy Soup Base

200gm fried ikan bilis (anchovy)

1 tbsp tong choy

chinese spinach (vegetables)

1.5 litre water

6-8 chinese black mushroom (soak in water)

some minced garlic

For garnishing

some green onions

fried ikan bilis

fried shallots

some coriander leaves

Method:

Boil 100gm of fried ikan bilis (keep 100gm of ikan bilis for garnishing) and tong choy in 1.5 litre water. In a wok with little oil, stir-fry garlic & mushroom until it's fragrant. All the fried mushrooms into the boiling soup. Let it simmered for few minute.

Remove the cloth covering the dough and slightly flatten the dough with a rolling pin or using your palms, and then fold it over for a few times.

Tear the dough into small thin pieces and drop it into the boiling soup. Repeat until the whole dough is complete. When the dough is cooked, add in vegetables. Season it with some pepper and salt to taste. Top with fried anchovies, fried shallot, some chopped green onion, coriander leaves & serve warm.

P/S: I love to eat it with the chillies in soy sauce for extra spicy flavors...

To me, authentic mee hoon kueh should be torn into pieces by hand . The pinching of the dough seems to give it extra texture and make it taste better. I love the odd shapes mee hoon kueh!!

My homemade Mee Hoon Kuih - homemade noodles ~

HAPPY COOKING!

AMY

Chocolate Coated Almond Cookies

2010-03-05T23:50:00.006+08:00

Hey gals, thank you so much for all the lovely comments. I'm doing good and even gained weight. I didn't weight myself for quite sometime and only realize I've put on so much weight when I try to put on the new pants I got for myself when I was holidaying in Hanoi last December. After back from Hanoi, I wash and keep the pant for CNY. All the clothes I bought from Vietnam I will wash them first before wearing it. It was very dusty there. On the first day of CNY, I take out the pant to match them with my new blouse I bought and do you believe that I can't even button it. It was about 2 inch apart. I've put on 5kg,..arhhh!!!

I promise myself to on diet after CNY. How can I resist all those sinful food right?? lol ~ Most of my friends they don't even realize I've put on so much weight. Maybe it's because I'm tall. I just hope to get back my ideal weight and really watch out what I eat now.

Okay, I don't want to bored all of you with my grumbling. Here goes the recipe I'm going to share today. This is a must have for my kids when it comes to CNY. They love it so much. Yummy almond cookies coated in chocolate...who will say no to this??

TIGER Angpau's cover I got from Hong Kong. NICE?

Here goes the recipe :

Ingredients A

250g butter
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
100g icing sugar *(actual recipe call for 120g, I reduce it as the chocolate coated on the cookies are sweet enough for me)

Ingredient B

250g plain flour
250g ground almond *(I stir fried them in the work until it's fragrant in low fire, becareful not to burnt it)

200g toasted whole almond *(I toast it at 160c for about 10mins - always keep an eye on it and don't burnt it)

500g cooking chocolate *(melted in double boiler pot)

50 pcs small paper cups

Some rainbow colour sugar rice for decoration *(can use toasted nibbed almost too)

Method:

1. Cream ingredients A till it's well combined. Mix in ingredients B to form soft dough. Wrap the dough with one whole almond and shape it into oval shape. Bake on the lined baking pan at 180c till golden brown. Remove and leave it to cool.

Tip 1 : As I baked double the recipe, I kept the cool cookies in an air-tight container before coated them with melted chocolate the next day.

2. To coat the chocolate :
Melt cooking chocolate with double boil method. Drop the cookies into the melted chocolate before pick it up with chopstick. Place the chocolate coated cookies onto the prepared paper cup. Arrange it on a tray and sprinkle it with the colourful sugar rice or toasted nibbed almond. Leave the chocolate to form at room temperature before storing them into the air-tight container.

Tip 2 : DO NOT REFRIGERATE IT !!! From my experience, once we chill it in the fridge to set the chocolate the cookies won't last long when we took it out from fridge. The cookies will produce moisture and turn wet, it become chewy rather than crispy. The almond too will too turn soft. The worst is, the chocolate that have been put in the fridge will not set well when we take them out from the fridge. It will melts, I don't know why!! I think that's the "pantang larang" we have to bear in mind when making this cookies. PLS TAKE NOTE ok?

Do try this out. It's super duper yummy.... :D

AMY

Welcome Tiger Year !!

2010-02-14T20:14:00.003+08:00

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the readers of my blog a very Happy and Prosperous Lunar New Year. May this year of TIGER bring all of us luck, health & happiness!!! wu...huuu...!!! Ya and before I forget, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to all the lovers all over the world... muakss!

AMY

Peanut Cookies

2010-02-06T16:09:00.008+08:00

Hello all, here is my version of melt in mouth peanut cookies. I made these for Chinese New Year and it was one of the must have item for my family. I bet once you've try it, you'll surely feel in love with it...! **huh! so proud ya**

Since the Chinese New Year is approaching, I would like to wish all my friends who read this and all the bloggers out there who celebrate CNY a Happy and Prosperous year of Tiger. My wish for the new year is to cook and bake more. Trying out more recipes and share my cooking with all of you.

Jars of yummy melt in mouth peanut cookies.

Aren't they look good as a gift for relatives or friends?

I first bake my peanut cookies using the recipe I got from Agnes Chang Recipe book. But, I found the peanut cookies are a bit too sweet and hard for my liking. I like the peanut cookies to be soft and the melt in mouth type. Not too sweet and more peanut aroma. After a few bakes and I edit the recipe before came out with this perfect peanut cookies recipe of mine. The cookies are full of peanut aroma, soft and not too sweet but it's easily breaks. So, make sure you really handle it with care..hahaa!!

The most important ingredients for making peanut cookies are the peanut we use. I prepare my own peanut. Clean and dries them under the sun before I fry them in the wok with low - medium fire till they are cook thoroughly, until I can smell the peanut aroma all over the kitchen and it's colour turn light brown (becareful, not to burnt it!!). Some people they roast it in the oven but I prefer to stir-fry it with wok.

Look what I found in the peanuts I bought for making the peanut cookies?? All those rotten peanuts, peanut shells and there are even stones in it...

I choose and pick up all the rotten peanuts, stones and etc..before I raise the peanuts under the running tap water. Place the clean peanut in a basket and dry them under hot sun before I fried it. Unskinned the peanuts before we grind it with blender. I grind it until fine, it's very important for produce the fine & soft peanut cookies.

**For those who are interested to try out this recipe please leave me message in the comment with your e-mail address. I will e-mail the tips & recipe to you. Thank you!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I'll be away and not free to online for 2 days and I post the Peanut Cookies Recipe here for just in case some of you would like to give it a try.

Here we go ...

Ingredients needed:

600g fried peanuts, removed skin and grind finely.
375g flour
350g icing sugar
1 tbsp butter, soften at room temperature (*optional - but, the cookies will be more fragrant with it)
2 tbsp peanut butter (creamy) (*optional - but, cookies will be more peanut aroma if we add it)
peanut oil for mixing
1/2 tsp salt (taste the dough and add more if it's not salty enough - I put 1 tsp*)
1 egg, beaten with pinch of salt for glazing

Method:

1. Shift flour and icing sugar together in a mixing bowl. Add in the grind peanut, butter and peanut butter, mix well. Slowly add in peanut oil and mix until it can form into soft dough, (I didn't measure the oil, just mix it slowly until the dough can roll into ball without breaking. Becareful,don't over mix the oil*) (Use a wooden spatula to mix it before using our hand...the dough will be oily and sticky at first)

2. Form into small balls, place onto a greased baking pan, or we can lined the pan with grease paper. I press top of the balls with a small round shape mould (Can use pen cap*) Glaze with beaten egg.

3. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180c for about 20-25mins till it crack a bit and golden brown. Remove from oven and let it cool before storing them. (Let the cookies cool before moving them into container as the cookies that's still warm breaks easily*)

Happy trying and let me know the result !

P/S: If you like the bite of sugar in peanut cookies, just replace it with Castor Sugar instead of using Icing Sugar ***

Gong Xi Fa Cai !

AMY ONG

My Hanoi Trip & Food...

2010-01-15T14:46:00.008+08:00

Let me explain the reason of my sudden missing in action for the past 2 months. The kids starts their long school holidays and bring all 3 of them to Hanoi for holidays while visit my hubby who working there at the same time. We stayed there for 1 month and spend the quality time together.

My hubby have been there working for about 2 years and I can proudly said that he now can understand and speak vietnamese(wink*). What is it so proud of it??*** Believe me, vietnamese language is not easy to master. Each word sound so funny to me and worst is, they have many different meanings which will bring us to trouble when we use it wrongly.

When he first stepped his foot there. He don't understand even a word of the vietnamese language, not to said their culture or places. Till now, he still can't remember all the name of the streets there but luckily he hire a vietnamese to be his loyal driver. No one can move around in the city of Vietnam without a good driving skill - kudos to them!!. Vietnam, especially the Ho Chi Minh city and Hanoi city are said to have the most terrible traffic system. Dare you drive a car or ride your own bike there??

I have been to Ho Chi Minh once and Hanoi for more than 5 times. I have tried almost all of the food there and today I want share some of the food we ate during our stay there. I hope this will gave all of you a rough idea on what the local people there normally eat.

Minced Pork Rolls - sorry, I don't know what is it called in Vietnamese. These are fried minced pork rolled with some kind of herbs leaves. (Yummy*)

Prawn Sashimi - We can eat it just like that, dipped with the sauce of our choice or wrapped it in the rice springroll skin together with some herbs, vege & fruits (starfruit/mango) of our choice.

Above are the paper look-alike made from rice, springrolls skin.

Side dishes - Fried beancurd.

Crab - A must have!!

My favourite part when eating crab...hehe!

Fried mini spring rolls with meat

This taste just like our "Acar Timun"

Arrh!!! It takes me like forever to upload my pictures into photobucket. I think I better upload them again in my next post. My dear friends, I have been busy with school re-open where now I have to send my eldest son to the secondary school and my 2 princess to the different primary school. I still cannot make up my time to exploring my baking adventure. I hope to be back sharing with all of you my cooking soon. I wish all of you a nice weekend, enjoy!!

AMY

Miss Me ?

2009-12-04T23:10:00.005+08:00

I know, I've abandoned my blog for quite a long time. I wonder and I'm curious to know that how many of you notice my dissapperance. Anyone of you start to miss me?? lol ~ ~

I've safely reached Hanoi on 24th Nov with my three kids for a long holiday here. I don't think I can share with all of you my cooking recipe for the time being but, I will try to update my blog with some interesting things, food or places that I have come through in Hanoi.

Please come back for my Hanoi trip post okay? and..., I really miss cooking and baking now!!

AMY

Sweet & Sour Pineapple Chicken - “菠萝鸡”

2009-11-05T17:15:00.012+08:00

Anything that taste sweet & sour will sure boost my appetite. I love sweet & sour food so much. Yesterday, I cook my family's favourite Pineapple Chicken -“菠萝鸡”. We can't finish one pineapple as my kids they don't eat pineapple and end up cooking this dish for lunch. This dish is super yummy!!

It's very easy to cook and taste heavenly...trust me!!!

"Claire, you must try this ya :p ~"

Ingredients:

3 chicken drumsticks (weight approx. 500gm)
1/2 medium size pineapple (skinned & cut into small pieces)
2 red chillies (cut into 1cm pieces)
1 onion (cut into thin wedges)
2 tomatoes (cut into wedges)

some chopped garlic

Marinade:
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 egg
3 tbsp tapioca flour

Sauce:
1 tbsp chilli sauce (add more if you like it spicy)
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp sugar
50ml water (or canned pineapple juice)

Method:

Clean chicken and remove the excessive fats on the chicken thighs. Cut it into smaller pieces. (I remove it's skin. However, it's up to your preference to retain the skin or remove it)
Season with marinade ingredients for at least 30 mins (I marinade it overnight because I was in the rush of time). Deep-fry it in the hot oil until golden in colour. Remove from oil, drain well and set a side.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in the hot wok, add in the chopped garlic, onion wedges and stir-fry till it's fragrant.
Add in sauce mixture and bring to boil. Add in fried chicken pieces, pineapple, red chillies and tomatoes. Stir-fry briskly until well combined.
Thicken with the sauce with some constarch solutions (*optional - just omit this step if the sauce already thick).
Dish up and serve warm with steamed rice.

p/s: Before dish up taste and slightly adjust the taste to your own liking. Add more sugar if you prefer it to be sweeter, more tomato sauce if you like it sourish or some salt if you like it salty.

AMY

Cool & Refreshing Guava Fruit

2009-11-04T22:28:00.004+08:00

I bought some Guava fruit from the market today. I like the seedless Guava and eat them with the preserved plum and some chilli powder. Some of my friends told me, before eating the Guava fruit we must soak it in salt water for a longer time to get rid of the pesticide sprayed on it. Wash few times to make sure it is clean before we unskinned and slice it.

My model of the day. Please meet this 2 lovely Guava!!! hehe

Seedless Guava eaten with this seedless preserved plum are just GREAT.

To prepare this simple and yummy Guava Fruit, we need:

1 medium size seedless Guava (cut into thin slices)

4-5 seedless preserved Plum (cut it into thin stripes)

1/2 tsp chilli powder

Method:

Wash and slice the guava. Drain and place it in a big bowl.
Add in the plum stripes and chilli powder.
Stir to mix thoroughly. Transfer it to a smaller clean bowl.
Chill it in the fridge for 20 - 30 minutes before serving.

This is a real addictive snack. Once we eat this, we cannot stop it!! Try it out!

AMY

Sweet Cinnamon Raisins Bun

2009-11-02T10:30:00.008+08:00

If sausage buns are my kids favourite then my favourite buns will be these "Sweet Cinnamon Raisins Bun". I just can't resist the sweet smell of Cinnamon all over my house when I bake it in oven. I like to have it with a cup of freshly brewed warm coffee and of course together with some girlfriends for our girly talks. That's how I describe a wonderful afternoon :) I baked Cinnamon Rolls before, at that time I just hand to knead the dough and it really takes me like whole life to get the dough elastic and ready. I didn't give up tho, but the texture of the buns sure cannot compare with the one knead with breadmaker, it's more fluffy and soft. The texture of the buns remain soft for the following 3 days.

I use the Basic Sweet Bun Recipe that I use for the Sausage Buns. Just follow the recipe there but omit the sausage and for it's filling I use ground cinnamon, brown sugar, raw sugar and raisins.

Ingredients for filling:
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon (add more if you prefer stronger cinnamon taste) + 2 tsp Brown Sugar + 1 tsp Raw Sugar + 2 tbsp Raisins (soak in warm water for 5-10mins, drained and dry it)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients for filling in a small bowl.
Weight the dough into 60gm small portion. Roll it into 2" x 5" rectangular shape.
Spread the filling mixture evenly with the raisin evenly place on the dough and roll it up like spring roll.
Cut it with scissors at the center of the roll up dough and fold it up. Place the dough (the cut surface face up) into the paper cup.
Bake in the preheated oven at 180c for 12-15mins.

p/s: For more Cinnamon Bun Recipe or idea of it's filling. Please visit Kitchen Corner - Grace's Blog. I like her recipe of soak the raisins in RUM and the use of honey for the fillings. I will definitely try out her recipe soon!!!

AMY

Orange Poppy Seed Chiffon

2009-11-02T10:12:00.003+08:00

Ya, chiffon cake again!! Among all the flavours, orange & pandan chiffon are my family's favourite. I got this idea from a friend of mine Ann-Ann by adding some poppy seeds to my orange chiffon. I like it when in every bite of the cottony soft cake there is this crunchy popping sound of poppy seeds. Those who haven't try this poppy seeds in chiffon shall try it now. I added 2 tablespoon of poppy seeds for this cake but it is not that visible after the cake was baked. I think I shall add another tablespoon in it when I bake the cake again next time.

I just added 2 tbsp of Poppy Seeds in the egg yolk mixture. You can add more like 3 tbsp if you like more poppy seeds in you cake. Please click HERE for the "Orange Chiffon Cake Recipe"

AMY

My Kid's Favourite Buns...

2009-11-02T09:45:00.007+08:00

My kids have been bugging me again and again to bake them their favourite sausage buns. I was in rush to go out and just roll it up this simple way. The most common way we can always seen in the bakery. The recipe I use yield 10-12 sausage buns, they each ate one right after the pictures was taken and keep each for breakfast tomorrow morning. My elder daughter she will bring the bun to school and just drink a cup of Milo as her breakfast. She can't eat much early morning just like me.

Sausage Buns Recipe - (recipe using breadmaker)

Ingredients:

150ml Water + Egg (1 egg & add water till it reach 150ml)
100ml Fresh Milk (I use Dutch Lady Full Cream Milk)
320gm High Protein Flour (Bread Flour)
80gm Plain Flour
90gm Castor Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Instant Yeast
50gm Butter (softened to room temperature)
8 piece of Sausage (I prefer Ayamas brand)

Some roasted sesame seeds (optional)
egg yolk + milk (for brushing before baking)

Method:

Put all the liquid ingredients into breadmaker pan.
Add in the high protein & plain flour.
At the center of the flour mixture, dig a small well (*not too deep) & place the yeast and cover it up.
Add in sugar at the center and salt on it side.
Select "DOUGH" function on the breadmaker and press "START" to start kneading.
After about 5 mins of kneading, add in the softened butter cubes. Let it continue to knead for 20mins or till the dough are elastic.
Let the dough proof either in the breadmaker or in a greased big mixing bowl for up to 1 1/2hrs.
Punch to release the gas capture in the dough. Cut into smaller pieces.
Flatten the dough before place the sausage and roll up it up.
Rest the buns for further 15-20mins at warm place. Cover it up with cling wrap or place them in the air-tight container to prevent it dries up. The buns shall doubled up it's size.
Brush it with egg+milk mixture & sprinkle some sesame seeds on the surface before bake it in preheated oven for 10-15mins at 180c*

HAPPY BAKING !

AMY

Homemade Pizza Again!!!

2009-10-31T22:10:00.005+08:00

Hohoho~ I bake PIZZA for brunch (breakfast + lunch). Friday and Saturday are school holidays for those who stay in Alor Star and Perlis state. Normally, we (my kids + me) will wake up late and skipped our breakfast on that day. I wake up around 9am, not too late actually and got my laundry done and clean my house. Since it has been quite sometime that we last eat PIZZA and I decided to bake PIZZA for our brunch. I don't have to ask my kids about this as they sure LOVE IT!!

This time round I bake the pizza crust using just plain flour and wholemeal flour. Surprisingly, it turn out very yummy. I make two 10" pan pizza with sausage, mushrooms & canned pineapple as its topping (*sound boring right??, but these are my kid's favourite). I sprinkles it with a lot of parmesan & mozarella cheese. I LOVE CHEESE!!

My newly bought pizza cutter. Very convinient when cut the hot pizza.

Pizza Dough: Makes enough for two 10" pizza

250gm plain flour
50gm wholemeal flour
2 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
200gm warm milk (110f/43c)
80gm warm water (110f/43c)
3 tbsp olive oil/corn oil

Method:

Mix plain flour, wholemeat flour and yeast in a bowl. Add in sugar, salt and set aside.

In another smaller bowl mix milk, water and olive oil.

Pour it to the flour mixture slowly bit by bit and stir till it's well combined. The dough will be sticky at this time.

In a flat surface, dust your hand with some flour and slightly knead the dough for 2-3 minutes until it can forms a ball.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover it with cling film and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Remove the cling cover from the dough and punch the dough down so it deflates a bit.

Split the dough into 2 and roll it to the 10" round piece.

Let the dough rest for 5 mins and brush it with some olive oil before we top it with topping.

**You can refer to my previous PIZZA post for the topping idea. We can actually top it with any of our favourite toppings - onions, tomatoes, tuna fish, prawns, bacon, ham, etc... The sauce for pizza also plays the important roles in PIZZA making, make sure you get the right and yummy sauce and don't forget to add a lot of cheese on it.

HAPPY BAKING!!

AMY

Zebra Cake - “斑马蛋糕”

2009-10-28T11:16:00.012+08:00

Zebra Cake??? Well, of course it's not a cake that using ingredients from any part of Zebra. It's just the pattern that resembled Zebra and end up we called it a Zebra Cake. This cake are soft and spongy. Not too oily and not too dry, it's just nice. It taste particularly like the normal sponge cake we can get out there, nothing special. The only thing that make it so unique is it's Zebra pattern on it, very beautiful pattern !!

This cake is not too hard to bake as well. The only thing that we need to look at it is the oven temperature. The cake tend to brown very fast at the top part and I have to adjust - on and off the top heat several time to ensure my cake are not burnt on the top. Actually I have bake this cake 3 times already with different recipes provided by others. But, I still love the one shared by Jo's Deli & Bakery one the most. The texture of the cake are very light and soft. Like I said, it taste just nice not too moist or dry and it's not too sweet as well. If you are free and never tried this cake before, go ahead and give it a TRY!!

seperate the equal portion of chocolate batter and plain batter in 2 different bowl

this is how the first four scoops of batter in the cake pan looks like

finished all the batter and it's ready to be baked in the preheated oven now!!

ZEBRA CAKE RECIPE

(recipe adapted from Jo's Deli & Bakery)

INGREDIENTS:
Makes one 8" round cake

6 small eggs
110g castor sugar
150g cake flour (I use self-raising flour & omit the baking powder)
½ tsp baking powder
½ tbsp emulsifier (I use Ovalett)
100g butter, melted
30g condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

2 tsp cocoa powder
3-4 tbsp water
1 tsp chocolate emulco (I use chocolate paste)
Dissolve cocoa powder and chocolate emulco in water.

Almond nibs or flakes for sprinkling (I omit this, my kids don't like cakes with nuts on it)

METHOD:

Preheat oven at 170c. Prepare and grease a 8 inch round cake pan.
Sift flour and baking powder. Set aside.
Beat eggs, flour mixture, castor sugar and emulsifier (ovalett) on high speed for 10 minutes* or until batter turns light and creamy, i.e. thick ribbon state. **To test, lift beater. Batter drops from beater should disappear when you count from 1 to 10.
Pour in melted butter, condensed milk and vanilla essence (if any). Mix at slow speed.
Divide batter into 2 equal portions. Fold in chocolate solution into one of the batter.
Using small soup ladle (original recipe from Jo's used spoon, I tried it with spoon before and it failed to produce a nice pattern lines on the cake) Scoop 3 of uncoloured batter into center of the greased cake pan. Then, scoop 3 of chocolate batter onto the center of the plain batter you just scooped into the pan.
Repeat until you have finished about half of the batter. Reduce to 2 scoops each now and continue layering. Reduce the amount of batter gradually until you only pour 1 scoop of each batter finally. The circles become smaller and smaller as your pour (Pic. 4).
Sprinkle almond nibs or flakes to cake. Bake at 170c for 35-40 minutes or until the skewer insert comes out clean.
Let cake in pan for 10 minutes before turning it on to a wire rack to cool complete before we cut and serve it.

p/s: I bake this cake at 160c and it takes me 40 mins to get the cake all cooked throughly. Different oven might need different temperature and time for baking a cake. Please take note**

HAPPY BAKING!!

AMY

Steamed Pumpkin Buns - “金瓜馒头”

2009-10-26T22:32:00.010+08:00

Most chinese today will take vegetarian food to celebrate 9 Emperors God. Some people they will take 9 days vegetarian food celebrating the big day. For me, as usual I will take 3 days of vegetarian food each year. Today is the last day of this 9 Emperors God Festival. I went to the temple to pray this morning with a friend of mine Ann-Ann. We go to breakfast together and back home I decided to make "金瓜馒头" Steamed Pumpkin Buns recipe shared by Ann-Ann for my teatime snack and supper. If there is extra left, I will keep it for breakfast tomorrow morning. For your information, this is my 2nd time making it. The first batch are all finished up by my kids before I could snap a pic..!!

I was so silly that I have done something wrong without realising it until the very last minute. I took out the pumpkin from my fridge cut out one big piece and straight I weight it according to the recipe 150gm (I hv forgotten to unskinned them before I weight it**). I washed, unskinned and cut it into smaller pieces, straight I put them into a small bowl and steamed it (I weight the pumpkin with it's skin on and after I unskinned and steamed it, the total weight of the smashed pumpkin is only 100gm - short of 50gm!!!) How??? The idea of adding more water to make up the weight just come into my mind, I added 30gm more water mixed with the smashed pumpkin, luckily it's only 30gm and not 50gm.

I can see the dough are too wet and very sticky...oh, is it because of the water I add?? and, I add some more flour after about 10 minutes of kneading...I know this time my pumpkin buns will not be as fluffy and soft as it use to be. Don't worry, the recipe I share here does produce soft and fluffy buns. But, make sure you don't repeat the mistakes I made here. Unskinned the pumpkin first before you weight it ~ lol!! Lesson learned**

I was so lucky, the buns turn out not as fluffy as usual but it's still acceptable soft. I think it will be better proof if I left it longer before I steamed it. As I was in the rush to fetch my kids at school, I just leave the ready buns under the sun for 10mins. It's better if I can leave it under the sun for couple of minutes longer. I love the pumpkin aroma of the freshly steamed buns in my kitchen. It's smells so yummy, overall the buns turn out a little bit chewy (that's surely because of the mistakes I made) but to my surprise, it remain soft till now. The buns were steamed around 12 noon just now. Not too bad tho!!

Recipe adapted from Ann-Ann's Blog 人生加油站

Ingredients

(A)
Instant Yeast (酵母) - 11gm
Sugar (糖) - 1 tsp
Warm Water (温水) - 150gm

(In a deep mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients above and let it proof for 10-15mins. Set aside)
先把材料A搅均匀，放置待发10分钟。（要用比较大的杯，以上的材料会由半杯胀发到一满杯）

(B)
Hong Kong Flour (包粉) - 500gm
Sugar (糖) - 8 tbsp
Oil (食油) - 8 tbsp
Salt (盐) - 1/4 tsp (少许)
Smashed Steamed Pumpkin (金瓜/南瓜蒸软成泥) - 150gm

Method:

Knead the ingredient (B) until it is mix together then pour in ingredient (A). Knead all the ingredients into a soft dough (20-30mins).
Let it rest for 10mins before divided the dough into 16-18 equal big portion. Roll the dough into a big trangular and roll it into spring roll shapes and lined it with 2"x5" patch paper. (I let it prove for another 10-15mins under the hot sun, covered the dough with cling wrap or wet cloth to prevent it from dries up while proofing)
Steam it in hot boiling steamer for 12-15mins.

AMY

Red Bean Swirl Bun

2009-10-19T21:55:00.003+08:00

I love everything with Red Bean. This time I try skill to make this Red Bean Swirl Buns. I use the homemade red bean paste I bought from a shop here. The bean paste sold by them are just great. It's not too sweet and without preservatives. I have to freeze it in my freezer and defrost it when I'm going to use it. By looking at my buns, I think I still need a lot of practice to shape the perfect looking buns.

Actually it's not that hard to make this swirl pattern. All we need is PRACTICE. The more we practice the better we'll become. Practice makes perfect right? Although the buns are not very pretty but it's soft and fluffy. It's like the one sold in bakery and remains soft for few days. Not too bad right? ^ ^

I made half of the dough into this Red Bean Swirl Buns and the other half I topped it with shredded Cheddar Cheese + Raw Sugar. Both buns are nice and yummy. Click HERE to see my Cheddar Cheese Buns.

Ingredients:

150ml Water + Egg (1 egg & add water until it's 150ml)
100ml Fresh Milk (I use Dutch Lady Full Cream Milk)
320gm High Protein Flour (Bread Flour)
80gm Plain Flour
90gm Castor Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Instant Yeast
50gm Butter (softened)
Some roasted sesame seeds (for sprinkle on top)
Egg yolk + Milk (for brushing before baking)

Fillings:

Red Bean Paste

Please refer HERE for the method of kneading the dough.

To assemble the buns:

Weight 50gm dough balls. Roll it into 2"x5" rectangular shape.
Roll the bean paste into 1cm diameter long strip and place it at the center of the dough.
Fold the dough up and roll it again to flatten it.
Use a sharp knife and cut a long the dough 2 lines.
Lift up the dough and swirl it for few times before shape it round. Place the dough into paper liner.
Let the dough proof at warm place for 20-25 mins.
Brush the surface with the egg yolk + milk mixture before sprinkle it with some sesame seeds.
Bake in preheated oven at 180c for 12-15 mins or until it is brown in colour.

AMY

Cheese Topping Buns

2009-10-19T21:27:00.002+08:00

I use the same dough recipe for Red Bean Swirl Buns for this Cheddar Cheese Buns. Click HERE for the recipe.

For topping we need:

Cheddar Cheese (shredded coarsely) + Raw Sugar

Brush the buns with egg yolk + milk mixture first before sprinkle the shredded cheese and sugar mixture on top.

AMY

Chocolate Rice Yoghurt Cupcake

2009-10-14T16:24:00.005+08:00

Each time when I go to the shop selling bakery ingredients, few stuff that I will check out are those super duper lovely cupcakes liners, different design of baking pan or cake moulds and the new recipe books. I just can't resist the cupcakes liner with various designs and colours. I will always check on their new arrivals. I have few different design in my collection now. What about you?? Do you like to collect it?

I came across this Chocolate Rice Yoghurt Cupcakes not too long ago in Happy Flour's Blog. After reading the ingredients used and it's method, I straight bookmarked it. I know my kids are gonna love this. They love cupcakes with chocolate chips or chocolate rice in it. From the picture in the blog, I can see how soft and fluffy the cupcakes can be. This is the cupcakes that I will want to bake for the kids. I don't like the chewy type muffins and this Chocolate Rice Yoghurt Cupcakes recipe are definitely a keeper. It's very delicious!!

Recipe - adapted from Happy Flour

Ingredients needed:
40gm Butter
75gm Sugar
1/4tsp Salt
1 Egg
1/2tsp Vanilla Essence
110gm Cake Flour
1/2tsp Baking Powder
1/4tsp Baking Soda
110g Plain Yogurt
40g Chocolate Rice

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175C.
2. Line muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.
2. Sift flour, baking soda and baking powder together, set aside.
3. Cream butter, salt and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Slowly beat in egg and vanilla essence until well combined.(If batter curdle add in some flour)
5. Fold in flour and yogurt alternately until well combined.
6. Lastly fold in chocolate rice.
7. Spoon batter into the muffin tin until 70% full.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30mins.
9. Remove cupcakes from tin and cool on a wire rack.

This cupcakes are moist, soft & fluffy ... very tasty.

p/s: I doubled the recipes and get 12 medium size cupcakes. Don't fill the cup too full to avoid the batter from spill out in the middle of baking time. Lesson learned*** I'm greedy and fill my cup too full and the cupcakes appears flat on the top, some batter spill out from the side of the cup**

AMY

Peanut Paste Bun

2009-10-13T08:25:00.006+08:00

This time I use Wendy's basic sweet buns recipe for making this batch of peanut paste buns. I filled it with the ready made peanut paste I bought from the shop. Anyhow, you can just replace the peanut paste with read bean, lotus or pandan kaya fillings... it's really up to our own preference. To make the buns look more attractive for photography, I decorate it with some almond slices on top of it.

As a full time housewife, I have to fetch my kids at the time and I just left the ready to bake buns to proof longer before I put them to bake in the oven. It was slightly over proof for another 40-45 mins... The buns however turn out great. It fully proof, doubled it size when I bake them in the oven. It's soft but I found it's skin are a bit hard (I still couldn't get the right setting for my oven *or the oven is too warm and I should switch off the top heat and on it back after the first 8 minutes of baking time)

I give some buns to a friend of mine and she told me the texture of the buns is a bit chewy (only a little bit ok!, I must have done something wrong???) However, for me I found it satisfactory for a newbie like me. I can assure all of you it's not because of Wendy's recipe but, I still have to improve my skill in making buns. Learn the correct way to knead, proof, shape and how to correctly baked buns in the oven. All that are very important in order to get the right texture and yummy buns. For the coming post, I'm sure I will bored you all with many different types of buns again... so, be prepared ya!!!! lol~~~

Look at the texture of the buns... it's really fluffy, moist and soft!!

Recipe adapted from Wendy's Blog
- The Adventures Of Giggles

7gm Instant Yeast
480gm Bread Flour
120gm Cake Flour
110gm Sugar
10gm Salt
25gm Milk Powder
300ml Water
1 Egg
60 Unsalted Butter (softened)

*Mix some egg yolk and milk to brush the surface before place in the oven
*Some butter to brush on the surface after remove the buns from the oven

Method :(If you don't have bread maker, please refer to - Bacon Onion Roll for the hand mixing and kneading steps).

1. Place the liquid ingredients (water and egg) into the bread pan of the machine.
2. Then add all the dry ingredients EXCEPT yeast.
3. Make a small well on the top of the dry ingredients (not too deep to keep yeast away from the wet ingredients), add the yeast to the well.
4. Select the DOUGH function and press start.
5. My bread maker takes - 5 minutes for first knead (mixing) and 15 minutes for the whole kneading process.
6. I added the butter after the first knead.
7. Straight I let the dough to proof 2 hour inside the breadmaker
8. The dough should be triple in size after 2.5 hours.
9. Punch the dough with your fist to deflate the gas.
10. Divide the dough to 60g balls and filled them with the peanut paste.

Let it rise for another 50 minutes, cover with plastic film. *(I put the ready buns 15 mins under the heat of hot sun for better proofing) 15 minutes before rising time up, pre-heat the oven at 350
Place the almond slices on top of the buns. Brush the egg & milk mixture liquid and bake it for 13 minutes.
Remove the buns from the oven, lightly brush with butter for shinny effect (optional)
Temperature and time are to be adjusted as different oven will bring different condition and result.

AMY

Chocolate Toast

2009-10-12T16:47:00.006+08:00

Before I own a breadmaker, this is the type of bread I will usually bought when I go to the bakery. My kids they love this chocolate flavour toast, they will normally spread a thin layer of planta (margarine) and spinkle some sugar on it and they just love to eat it that way. Simple and yummy!

I used the recipe provided along when I bought my breadmaker but the recipe is for plain white toast and I slightly made some changes to it. The texture of the bread turn out to be satisfactory, soft not chewy at all (I don't like chewy bread). The bread remains soft for the following 3 days as well.

Try this out if you like chocolate bread.

Ingredients needed:

270 ml Water
400 gm High Protein Flour
30 gm Choco Powder
1/2 tsp Chocolate paste
1/2 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Castor Sugar (I use 4 tbsp)
1 tbsp Milk Powder
1 1/2 tsp Instant Yeast
2 tbsp Butter

Method:

Mix well high protein flour with choco powder and milk powder. Set aside.
Pour water into the breadmaker pan. Add the flour mixture on top of it, followed by salt at one of the corner and sugar at the center part.
Dig and make a well at the center of the flour mixture and add in yeast (not too deep to avoid the yeast contact with the water). Cover up it up with flour.
Choose the "DOUGH" function on the breadmaker and press start. Let the breadmaker knead the dough.
After about 5-7 mins of kneading add in the butter and chocolate paste. Let it continue to knead. After 30 mins of kneading, let the dough rest for 45-50 mins before we punch on the dough to release all gas inside.
Divided the dough into 3 equal balls, roll and shape it into sringroll shape and place them into the baking pan. Let the dough proof until double it's size before bake them in the oven.
Brush some milk and egg yolks mixture in the surface of the bread before we put in the preheated oven and bake at 180c for 20mins (or until the bread is cooked and brown).

HAPPY BAKING ! . . .

AMY

Sausage Buns

2009-10-11T02:06:00.007+08:00

I'm so sorry for take me so long to post up recipes for this sausage bun. I've been busy with the house chores & the kids. My time was mostly use to cook and bake. I hardly have time to sat in front of the computer to online as my hubby was back for holidays from Hanoi. I have to spent some time to accompany him went out to get his work done.

I never thought that making bread can be as simple as this before I got a breadmaker. After I got myself a breadmaker, my mind was always think of what bread I want to bake for tomorrow. My kids, they are so happy...they got to eat fresh and yummy bread all the time. Here I would like to share with all of you the recipe for this Sausage Bun.

Ingredients:

150ml Water + 1 egg
100ml Fresh Milk
320gm High Protein Flour
80gm Plain Flour
90gm Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Yeast
50gm Butter

Method:

***Normal hand kneading method for bread. If you are using breadmaker - use the dough function. After the dough are elastic and shiny. Place it in a big greased bowl and cover it with cling wrap. Let it rest for 50-60 mins before we punch to release it's gas. Roll and fill it with sausage. Let it proof until double it's size before we bake it. The ingredients above yields 12 buns. Bake at 180c for 12-15 mins

p/s: more sausage buns HERE

HAPPY BAKING!!

AMY

"Star Fish Cake" ABC Soup

2009-10-11T01:51:00.003+08:00

I would like to thank my friend Ai Li giving me a packet of this super cute "Star Fish Cake" and I add them into the ABC Soup. I found that it is just too cute to be eaten... my kids they love it so much. Thank you, Ai Li !!!

For the recipe of the ABC Soup you can refer HERE. I just add fish cake and let the soup boil for a while. This time I cut all the carrots into heart shape using the love shape cookie cutter and I omit the sweet corn.

I think we shall sing this "Twinkle,.. twinkle,.. little stars" song before we drink the soup.. hahaha!! A pot full of STARS soup.. yumm~yummm!!!

AMY

Wholegrain Raisins Toast

2009-10-11T00:56:00.004+08:00

Yay..!! finally after much consideration and waiting. I finally granted my wish. I got myself a breadmaker. I used to hand-knead my bread and it takes really long time and a lot of energy to get the dough smooth and elastic. My kids they just love to eat bread and buns. All the bread sold outside contain to much preservatives, colouring and etc.., not to mention other chemical used to make the bread soft and spongy. Most of the bread I bought from the bakery taste sourish. Breadmaker will be a good investment for my kids and my family. They will get to eat fresh and healthy bread at anytime right?? hehe...

I try out this Wholegrain Raisins Toast using my new breadmaker and it turn out perfectly. A very healthy toast and it taste very yummy too. The bread stay soft after 2 days. Try this out if you want something healthy for your breakfast.

Wholegrain Raisins Toast Recipe
(recipe adapted from Bread Code)

Ingredients

(A)
250g high protein flour (bread flour)
250g wholegrain flour
5g (1/2 tbsp) instant yeast
20g milk powder
40g brown sugar
15g (1 tbsp) honey
10g (1 tsp) salt
320g water

(B)
30g butter

Filling
50g raisins (soak for 5 minutes)
50g walnuts

Method

Blend ingredients A at slow speed in a mixer for 1 minute, then switch to medium speed for another 5 minutes till bread dough is coarse. Add ingredient B, continue to knead till bread dough is shiny and springy.
Place in container and cover with cling wrap, allow to leaven for 40 - 50 minutes till bread dough double it size. Cut out a 500g portion, make it round, proof for 10 minutes, roll it into a long strip, place soaked raisins and chopped walnuts on top, roll up into oval shape, place into bread pan, allow to leave for 40 minutes.
Place into pre-heated oven, bake at 200c for 25 to 30 minutes.
Cold the baked toast on wire rack, sliced and it's ready to be served with butter or jam.

HAPPY BAKING !!!!

p/s: I sprinkled some rolled oats on the surface of the toast and omit the chopped walnuts as my kids they don't like nuts in the bread. *I baked this toast straight with my breadmaker and surprisingly it turn out just perfect, SOFT & FLUFFY! It remained soft for the next 2 days and I have no regret getting this breadmaker after all!

AMY

Butter Cake Recipe

2009-09-26T14:23:00.008+08:00

I have several recipes of Butter Cake and I found this one is the BEST among all. Moist, very buttery taste and soft. This butter cake recipe is definitely a keeper. Try it out and let me know the result ok? Each time when I get to know that there will be guest coming to visit me. Butter Cake will always be my first choice as I know it'll be well accepted by most of us. Kids love it so much, adults and elderly too.

It's perfect for tea-time while chit-chating with group of friends ~ yum...yum!

My favourite butter brand for baking...!

Separate the egg whites and egg yolks into 2 different bowls

Ingredients:

(A)
250 gm Butter (I prefer SCS or Golden Churn Brand) - softened
85 gm Castor Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essense
A pinch of Salt
4 Egg Yolks
1 tbsp Milk
200 gm Cake Flour (if self-raising flour are used, just omit the 5 gm baking powder)
5 gm/ 1 tsp Baking Powder

(B)
4 Egg Whites
85 gm Castor Sugar

Method:

Preheat oven at 175'c. Grease or line the 8" baking pan.
Sifted together flour and baking powder. Set aside.
Beat together butter, sugar, salt and vanilla essense until creamy and light with mixer.
Add in egg yolks, one at a time and beat until creamy. Add in milk and mix well.
Fold in the sifted flour slowly spoon by spoon into mixture till well mixed.
In a separate clean bowl, whisk eggs whites till foamy then add in sugar gradually. Beat to a soft peak and fold 1/4 into butter mixture. Mix well and fold in the rest.
Pour batter into baking pan and bake at 175'c for about 40-45 mins or until cooked (insert a skewer in the middle of the cake and it come out clean)

p/s: I bake bigger cake using 25" x 30" retangular cake pan and use 1 1/2 recipe stated above. I bake my cake at 160'c as my oven temperature tend to get too warm and will burn top of my cake.

HAPPY BAKING!

AMY

Stir-Fried Jicama/Yam Bean

2009-09-22T18:52:00.011+08:00

Do you believe it??? I just learn a new word, I just got to know this "sengkuang" is known as Jicama or Yam Bean in English. Each time when there is any big family gathering like Chinese New Year Eve & etc.., my mother will cook this stir-fried jicama/yam bean dish for us. This is one of her signature dishes and we all love it so... much! This yummy Jicama dish can be eaten with rice or eaten wrapped in fresh lettuce. We can use it as the fillings for popiah but I will mix in the shredded eggs before we deep fried it. You can try this, it's yummy!! It taste even better overnight, yum...yum... !! There is many ways to stir-fried this Jicama and I just follow my mother's way. However, my mother in-law she have the different way cooking it.

Stir-Fried Jicama/Yam Bean Recipe

Ingredients needed:

600g -1 medium size Jicama/Yam Bean (shredded)
1 Carrot (shredded)
300g cabbage (shredded)
5 chinese black mushroom (soaked until soft and shredded)
300g medium size prawn (shelled) /dried shirmp (chopped) &
pork belly (slice thinly)
50g shredded dried cuttlefish (soak till soft & drained)
5 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
4 tbsp cooking oil
some spring onion & fried shallot - garnishing

Seasoning:
1 1/2 tbsp minced fermented bean paste
*(this is well depend to the brand used, just adjust the amount to your preference taste)
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp pepper

some salt and sugar to taste - optional*

Methods:

Heat up oil, saute garlic until fragrant. Add in shredded pork belly, prawns/dried shrimp, mushrooms and stir-fry until aromatic.
Add in the remaining ingredients (*except dried cuttlefish) and stir-fry until well mixed
Add seasoning and continue to fry until well mixed. Cover and simmer till jicama turn soft and water starts to dish out *add in some water, 100ml and cont' cook if the jicama didn't dish out much water. Continue to cook till it is dry. Add some salt or sugar to taste *( I omit the sugar in this dish as I found it's already sweet to my taste)
Stir in shredded dried cuttlefish and mixed well.
Lastly, add in the spring onion and stir to mix.
Dish up, sprinkle fried shallot on top and serve warm.

p/s: *Due to no stock in hand and I was lazy out to market, I cook this dish with prawns and without the dried cuttlefish. For the better flavour, use pork belly and dried shrimp, don't forget the dried cuttlefish ya!!*

Jicama/Yam Bean is a must in this dish. Other ingredients like cabbage and mushrooms are optional.

HAPPY COOKING !!

AMY

Ham Chim Peng

2009-09-21T00:51:00.007+08:00

Ya, these are one of my favourite kuih and I can ate 3 -4 at one GO!! and skipped my lunch or dinner after that. From the picture here, you can see the very yummy looking "Ham Chim Peng" right??? But, I'm gonna to tell you the truth. I follow the recipe given by a friend of mine. Knead the dough by hand but, the dough turn out a little bit sticky and I was having real hard time to shape them one by one.

However, when I fried them the dough expand nicely in the wok. I was so happy and thought this time I'm going to successfully make this "Ham Chim Peng". The "Ham Chim Peng" taste good when eaten warm but once it's cold, the texture turns hard and chewy. "WHY"???...

In this post, I'm not going to share the recipe here. I FAILED...!!! * HELP!!! anyone can share with me the tips of making this kuih????

Anyway, I just want to share with all of you my first "Ham Chim Peng" pictures. Look YUMMY right??? lol~

p/s: I will try it again until I success. Wish me LUCK!! ~ hehehe...

HAVE A NICE DAY!!

AMY

Scrambled Egg with Sausages & Tomatoes

2009-09-20T23:56:00.009+08:00

For those who have been follow my blog I would like to apologise for keep you all waiting for my updates. I have been busy for the pass few weeks. My son finally finished his UPSR - phew!!!, now I will have more time to try out some recipes and sharing my cooking with all of you.

My internet connection have been slow and sometimes I can't be connected at all which cause me a lot of patient when I tried to upload the pictures or updating my BLOG! I don't know what happen to Wimax? When I first sign up, the connection are fast but now, they always have the connection problems.

I've never stopped cooking and baking but just no time to update my BLOG. I will slowly update it. When the lazy bugs attacked me, I will just prepare simple dishes for my kids. One of it is this simple and easy egg dishes - Scrambled Egg with Chinese Sausages & Tomatoes.

Ingredients:

4 Eggs
1 Chinese Sausage (skinned and slice)
1 Tomatoes (cut into wedges)
2-3 Garlic (skinned and slice)
some green onion (wash and cut into 1/2cm)
some light soy sauce to taste

Beat eggs with:
2 tbsp milk
some pepper
some salt to taste
some sugar (optional)

Method:

Heat the pan with some oil, add in garlic and stir-fry till fragrant and golden in colour.
Scope out the garlic slices *my kids don't take this. Add in sausage slices and stir-fry it till fragrant and its oil dish out from the sausage. Lower the fire, add in sliced tomatoes and cook till the tomatoes turn soft. Add some light soy sauce to taste (*this is well depended to our own taste preference)
Add a little more oil if you found it's too dry, higher the heat and pour in beaten egg. Let the eggs cook for a while before using the spatula to flip it and cut the egg into smaller pieces till the egg are dry and wholly cooked. Lastly, stir in the green onion.
Dish up and serve warm as breakfast or side dishes.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI & HAPPY COOKING !!

AMY

Lotus Root Chicken Soup

2009-08-31T23:23:00.006+08:00

My 3 kids they love to drink soup and will always ask me to cook them soup. Lotus Root Soup - one of my family's favourite and it was my elder daughter's favourite too. There is few methods to cook this soup. We can double-boiled it, cook it with the pressure cooker or just cook it the normal way. I love to cook the soup with double-boiled method as I found the soup won't dries up and manage to retained it's natural flavour. We can have very clear soup as well.

I cook this Lotus Root Soup with my pressure cooker. My kids love the peanuts to be soft and it takes longer time to cook it with normal method. I add some white radish to enhance the flavor and the soup taste sweeter too. Try it out!

Lotus Root Chicken Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, clean and cut into 4 piece
500 gm lotus root, skinned and sliced 1/2cm thick
1 white radish - about 200 gm, skinned and sliced
50g peanuts
10 red dates
1 tbsp wolfberries (optional)
some dried cuttlefish, wash and cut into smaller size
1500ml water

salt to taste

Method:

When the water boils add in the chicken pieces, lotus roots & radish slices, peanuts, red dates, wolfberries and dried cuttlefish.
Simmer the soup for 45 mins or till the peanuts reach our desire tenderness.
Add salt to taste.
Scope out the excessive oil on the soup surface and serve warm.

Note: If using pressure cooker, let the soup boils for 20 mins in the covered pressure cooker before turn off the fire, release it's pressure and make sure the pot really cold before open it.

AMY

Cream Puff With Fresh Strawberry

2009-08-04T12:07:00.009+08:00

I always love to bake and cook. It has become part of my life and how I always wish that I can have more time to spent on experimenting new recipes everyday. I like to try out new recipes but my first choice of the recipe to try shall be something that my kids would enjoy eating. I have started baking cream puffs 10 years ago. It was a recipe shared by a friend of my mother in-law. I use to bake cream puffs with her recipe until recently I think I have found another great one from KITCHEN CORNER. Thank you so much Grace!!

At first I just attracted to the lovely pictures of her cream puffs, beautifully decorated with fresh berries and look so yummy. I feel like want to have a bite on it. I give her recipe a try and I think I will stick to her recipe for cream puffs now. The puff appear to be more in shape and the custard taste just nice, not too sweet and not too thick. It's just GREAT !! (*hope you know what I mean here =)

Cream Puff Recipe (Yields 20 puffs)

For the Pastry:

70g plain flour

3 beaten eggs

100g water

60g unsalted butter

Pinch of sugar and salt

Method:

In a cooking pan bring to boil water, butter, pinch of sugar and salt. Off the heat, add in the plain flour and mix with a wooden spoon until well combine and become smooth dough.
Add in half of the beaten eggs and keep stirring until the egg mix into the mixture. Once the eggs completely mix with the dough, you will find it quite dry and hardly to mix.
Continue add the beaten eggs slowly, little by little into the dough and continue mixing. You might not finish using the beaten eggs.
Control adding the eggs to get a smooth and silky consistency of the mixture. When you spoon up the mixture, it should drop back to the pan very slowly. *The mixture should not too dry or too wet
Transfer it into a piping bag and pipe out about 20 dollops of mixture on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Dip your fingers with some water and gently touch the top of the mixture. This is to prevent it over burning while it's baking in the oven. Then spray some water on the mixture surface. (Not too much)
Bake at 200'C preheated oven for 15 minutes until it puff up then turn the temperature to 170'C and bake for another 15 minutes. Transfer the puff on a wire rack to cool down.

For the Custard Filling:

3 egg yolks

200ml milk

60g castor sugar

20g plain flour

10g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract/essense

Ways to cook it:

Boil the milk with sugar in low heat until sugar dissolve but not boiling. Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks and flour into thick paste but no lumps in it. *Add two tablespoon of milk if you find it too dry to mix.

Pour the dissolve warm sugar milk mixture into the egg yolks mixture. Pour slowly, little by little and mix with a hand whisk until everything well combine (*strain the mixture if necessary) Then, pour back the mixture into the cooking pan. Cook in very low heat and keep stirring until it thicken.

Once the mixture thicken, remove from the heat and keep stirring until the heat slightly cool down but slightly warm. Then add in the butter and vanilla extract. Continue stirring until well combine. (*It look silky smooth at this time)

Transfer the custard into a plate and cover with cling film. Make sure the cling film touch on the mixture, this is to prevent it from skin forming on its surface.

To assemble the cream puffs: Spoon in some custard fillings then sandwich it with some strawberries. Chill the puffs in the fridge before serve.

p/s: This recipe needs a lot of stirring. A very good hand exercise... hahaha!

Happy Trying & Enjoy!

AMY

Double Chocolate Cupcakes

2009-08-02T12:19:00.001+08:00

AMY

Easy Sardine Puff

2009-08-01T17:09:00.008+08:00

I bought 3 packets of this frozen puff pastry the other day and decided to give it a try today. I made this Sardine Puff for teatime snack today. The puff turn out very crispy and flaky. I found it's a bit too oily but overall it's yummy!! Great to be eaten with a cup of hot coffee on raining day...hehe!!

I wrapped the puffs this way for a change, rather than wrapping it in the traditional pillow puff and surprisingly it turn out just great. I love to see how it cracked open on the top and show it's fillings.

Sardine Puffs Recipe

Ingredients:

1 packet of frozen puff pastry (I use Kawan brand, consist of 10 pieces)

1 big canned sardine in tomato sauce (remove bones, drained from the tomato sauce)
2 onion, diced
2 tsp minced garlic
1 lime, juiced
chili powder, to taste (optional)
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

some cooking oil

Method:

Heat a pan with oil and saute onion and garlic till fragrant. Add drained sardines in and 3 tbsp of the tomato sauce.
Mash coarsely when cook it.
Season with chilli powder, salt and pepper.
Add lime juice and cook for 1 more minute or till it is dry.
Set aside and let it cold.
Preheat oven to 200c.
Place some filling in the middle of each square skin (make some holes on the skin with fork) and fold the four edges to the center.
Press the edges with our fingers to seal it.
Glaze with some beaten egg and bake till puffed and golden in colour.

HAPPY BAKING!

AMY

Simmered Long Bean Rice

2009-07-29T15:16:00.008+08:00

At times when the lazy bugs attacked me, I will cook this for my family. Easier, faster and less washing involved. This savoury rice are always my family's favourite. Just add in any ingredients of our choice. One of my family favourite are Yam Rice, Roasted Pork with Mustard Cabbage and Long Bean Rice.

Simmered Long Bean Rice Recipe

(A)

350g rice (wash, drained well) - I use Thai Fragrant Rice
600 ml water - *it depends to the type of rice we use*
1 tbsp chopped shallots

(B)

2 chicken drumsticks with thigh (skinned, cut into bite size)

200g long bean (cut into 2 inch or diced )
1 stalk chinese sausage (sliced or diced )
30g dried shirmps (chopped)

Marinade:

1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp "Shaoxing" cooking wine
salt to taste

For Garnishing:

some fried shallots
1 stalk spring onion

Method:

Marinate chicken with the marinade ingredients for at least 2-3 hours.
Heat up 2 tbsp oil, saute chopped shallots until fragrant. Add in entire ingredient (B), stir-fry briskly until aromatic.
Add in rice and toss well. Remove, transfer to the electric rice cooker, pour in water. Cover and cook until the long bean rice is cooked through.
Garnish it with fried shallots and spring onions. Serve warm.

*Note: Becareful when adding water to cook the rice. Add enough water for cooking rice, you can measure it before frying the rice. Too less or too much water will end up uncooked rice or the rice is too sticky.

HAVE A NICE DAY!!

AMY

Pandan Chiffon (Screwpine Chiffon)

2009-07-28T14:46:00.009+08:00

Chiffon again!!! I hope you all won't get bored with my chiffon adventures here. Yeah, I've finally master it already. I was so happy when my friend tried the chiffon recipe here with a great success. I really happy when she told me her kids enjoyed the cake so much and repeatly asking her to bake chiffon for them.

Pandan (Screwpine) Chiffon are one of the most common chiffon we have here. We can always buy this at the bakery or morning market. I don't really like the one they sell out there as I found they use too much of pandan essense or pandan paste. The pandan smells too strong for me and sometimes they are too sweet as well. I use the recipe from Kevin Chai's - Chiffon Cake Is Done and did a few changes to it, I always found his recipe very sweet and need to reduce the sugar used. I use my own way baking it too. The cake turn out soft and fluffy, very fragrant & very yummy! Do give it a try and tell me what do you think okay??

Chiffon cake are easy once you have master how to beat the egg whites foam. Make sure the egg whites you beat reached stiff peak before we mix it into the egg yolk mixture. ***Always use clean, dry, oil free mixing bowl for beating the egg whites. The egg white must not have any egg yolk in it, not even one drop of egg yolk. This are two important thing you must take note before start beating the whites.

Pandan Chiffon Recipe

- adapted from Kevin Chai's - Chiffon Cake Is Done

Egg Yolk Batter:

6 egg yolks (always use large eggs, room temperature)
80g caster sugar (I use 60g* and still a little sweet for my tastebuds, pls reduce it to 55g*)
150g coconut milk (I prefer the fresh coconut milk, thick one pls!)
2 tbsp pandan juice (I hand pound 8 pandan leaves with some water, use less water possible)
1/4 salt
1/4 tsp pandan essense (I use pandan paste and omit the green colouring)
1-2 drops green food colouring (omit this if you use pandan paste*)
4 tbsp cooking oil (I use sunflower oil)
140g plain flour

Egg Whites Foam:

6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I replace this with 15g of corn flour)
100g caster sugar

Method:

Egg yolk batter: Hand whisk egg yolks with sugar till it's a bit dissolved. In coconut milk, add in pandan juice, salt and pandan paste - it's already with green colouring in it. Stir to mix.
Pour the coconut mixture into the egg yolks and hand whisk to mix. Add cooking oil and mix well.
Fold in flour slowly until it forms batter and no lumps. Set aside.
Prepare the egg white foam: In another bowl, beat egg whites till it form soft peak. Gradually add in sugar till it finished. Add in corn flour and continue beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the beaten egg whites foam into egg yolks batter until it is well blended.
Pour batter into ungreased 9" (22cm) chiffon pan. Bake in preheated oven at 170c (I bake at 160c for 30mins) for 30-40mins or until it is cooked.
Remove cake from oven, immediately invert cake onto table.
Wait until it is completely cooled before unmould it.

Happy Baking!

AMY

Scones or English Biscuits??

2009-07-27T18:07:00.007+08:00

I love it with blueberry jam *

My friend told me that this is English Biscuit. I don't know if this is scone or biscuit, I haven't tried the English Biscuit before. To my curiosity, I tried to bake this recipe shared by Happy Home Baking the other day. It's low fat, not too sweet and the texture are soft. My daughters even think that this is bread and ate 3 little scones at one go. She just love it!! I would like to thank HHB again for sharing this recipe. Thank you!

I make it smaller size and I get 13 scones with the recipe shared by HHB.

Please click HERE for the recipe of this yummy scones, or I shall said it's English Biscuit.

Happy Baking!

AMY

Thank You, Anncoo!

2009-07-26T16:50:00.002+08:00

I would like to thank Anncoo of Anncoo's Hobby for award me this BEST BLOG AWARD. I really appreciate it. Thanks again Anncoo!

However this award come with some rules:

To accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.

-Pass the award to 5 other blogs that you've discovered and think are great!

-Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I would like to pass on this award to blogger as below, I found that their Blog are just GREAT!

Let's Get Wokking - i just love the recipe shared in her blog!
My Kitchen Snippets - her blog never stop inspired me, one of my favourite blog.
Lucky Inn - she shared her success and failure with everyone. A nice blog!
Daily Delicious - I love her blog and recipe she shared.
Carol's Blog - check it out, you'll find something interesting in her blog.

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate them.

AMY

Tom-Yum Chicken

2009-07-25T16:27:00.014+08:00

People who knows me long enough will know that I love Thai food very much. I can make a one day trip to Hatyai, Southern Thailand just to enjoy the Thai food there. My appetite will boast when it come to this sweet, sour and spicy food. I will forget entirely about my diet plan or the big "sparetyre" around my waist ~ LOL..

- kaffir lime leaves -

Normally we will have the soup type Shirmp or Seafood Tom-Yum all the time. It's Tom-Yum paste cooked into soup with different seafood in it. Shirmp, squids, fish meat and clams with mushrooms, chilies and tomatoes. Lemon grass and kaffir leaves was added for the extra flavour. It was normally served with the rice noodles (bee hoon) which is has become one of my favourite Thai dishes, a must have when I visit Thai restaurant. It's just delicious, for those who haven't tried Tom-Yum before, please go and find out now!!

Today, I want to share with all of you one easy way to prepare this Tom-Yum recipe, Tom-Yum Chicken. This recipe are perfect for those who is working. Just marinade the chicken with all the ingredients a night before or in the morning if you want to cook it for dinner then just wrap it with aluminium foil before we bake them in the oven and Voila~ you'll have this delicious Tom-Yum Chicken for your lunch, teatime or dinner. Easy right??? This is what I did when I'm lazy to cook. No need to do a lot of washing and it really save a lot of time... hehe!! Lazy me!

Tom-Yum Chicken Recipe

5-6 large chicken drumsticks with thigh(skinned)

Ingredients for marinade:
2 tbsp Tom-Yum Paste (I use Peace Brand, I've tried and it's excellent!)
8-10 shallots (skinned)
5 clove garlics (skinned)
3 red chillies (seeded, cut into smaller pieces)
4-5 small hot chillies/cili padi (I omit this, my kids can't take it too spicy)
4 pieces kaffir leaves (cut into smaller pieces)
2 tbsp honey
some salt

For Garnishing:

lemon (cut into wedges)
some mints leaves

Method:
Wash chicken, remove skin and all the excessive fat. Use knife to cut few lines on it for better marinade.
Blend all the marinade ingredients until fine and in paste form. **Do not add water when blending them.
Rub the ground ingredients on chicken and marinate for at least 2 hours or preferably over night.
Preheated oven at 200c, wrap the chicken seperately with aluminium foil (can line it with a piece of banana leaves if you want-optional) and bake for 30-35 mins.
Serve warm with steamed rice or we can just eat the chicken alone.

Note: ***Adjust the flavour according to your own preference and it's also depend on brand of Tom-Yum paste used. When the chicken is cooked, there will be some chicken juice inside the aluminium foil. **Don't throw that away, that's the best Tom-Yum soup you can ever have!!*** hehe~

Enjoy Your Weekend & Happy Cooking!!!

AMY

Orange Chiffon

2009-07-24T12:29:00.013+08:00

Again, another successful chiffon attempt and this time I baked Orange Chiffon, my kids favourite. It was a great surprise when I see all the comments left in my comment box. I never get so many comments at one time. I'm so happy. Thank you so much my dear friends!!

I decided to post the recipe of this Orange Chiffon now and let any of you who interested, can try it out. This is a good recipe and a successful one. Anyhow, this is my second time baking it. My first Orange Chiffon was snapped up in few minutes time, eaten by my group of girlfriends when they are at my house to see me demonstrate and show them how to bake chiffon the other day. I don't even have any chance to take a picture. The first Orange Chiffon turn out just as GREAT as this one. So, I truly recommend this recipe for all of you to try out.

Recipe adapted from Kevin Chai's ~ Chiffon Cake Is Done and I made some changes to suit my tastebuds. Here we GO!!!

Orange Chiffon Recipe

Egg Yolk Batter:

7 egg yolks (I use large size eggs, room temperature)
50g caster sugar (I reduce 10g and I found it's still too sweet*)
1/4 salt
4 tbsp cooking oil (I use Organic Sunflower Oil)
2 tbsp grated orange rind (I blend it using blender)
60ml orange juice (I squeeze juice from 1 orange)
few drops orange colouring (I omit this)
110g self-raising flour (I use cake flour)

Egg Whites Foam:

7 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar ~ I substitute it with 15g (approx: 1 tbsp) corn flour.
130g castor sugar

Method:

Prepare the egg yolk batter: In a mixing bowl, combine egg yolk, salt and sugar. Hand whisk till the sugar dissolved. Add in oil, orange rind and orange juice. Stir till well combined.
Fold in flour until it forms batter and no lumps left. Set aside for later use.
Prepare the egg white foam: In another bowl, beat egg whites till it form soft peak. Gradually add in sugar till it finished. Add in corn flour and continue beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peaks form. **(Check with your finger, press on the egg whites and you can feel it's hard and the egg whites won't dropped out when you over turn the bowl)
Gently fold the beaten egg whites foam into egg yolks batter until it is well blended.
Pour batter into ungreased 9" (22cm) chiffon pan. Bake in preheated oven at 170c for 30-40mins or until it is cooked.
Remove from oven and immediately invert cake onto table until it is completely cooled before unmould it.

Happy Trying & Enjoy!!!

Note: For those who still new in baking chiffon, egg yolks and egg whites have to be seperated and place in different mixing bowl. Make sure you use the clean bowl and beater, free from oil to beat the egg whites. The process of beating egg whites are very important, make sure it is already in stiff peak foam before you started to mix it in the egg yolk mixture.

Click HERE to see my Orange Poppy Seeds Chiffon.

AMY

Cranberry & Raisin Scones

2009-07-22T21:07:00.004+08:00

This was my very first time baking scones. I tried scones years back when I tour europe and I didn't have a good first impression on it. The scones there are rocky hard and I could hardly cut them half to spread the butter. I don't bother to learn baking them as I have bad impression for scones until I see this Blueberry Scones baked by Wendy - The Adventures Of Giggles

I was totally inspired by her lovely blueberry scones. Too bad, I can't get all those fresh blueberries here in Alor Star. I failed to get the frozen one as well, maybe not much people demanded for it. What I can get is only blueberry puree, the one which is more sticky like jam type and I can't use that to bake scones. To replace blueberry, I substitute them with dried cranberries and raisins. But, according to Wendy, blueberries are the BEST for scones. I really want to taste it now. Wendy, keep one for me okay?? lol

After I bake the scones, I totally change my impression toward it. The recipe shared by Wendy are fantastic! The scone are soft and yummy. Not too sweet and it's best eaten warm with some butter or fruit jam. However, I still prefer the eat them with butter. Do give it a try!!

I was lazy to retyped the recipe and please feel free to click HERE for the recipe from The Adventure Of Giggles!

**I substitute the blueberries with the same amount of dried cranberries & raisins mixture.

Happy Baking!

AMY

Nutella Cup Cakes

2009-07-22T18:08:00.006+08:00

A quick bake for my kids and they loved it!!

Nothing will go wrong with Nutella. It's simply yummy on anything. If you are a chocolate lover ~ make sure you didn't miss this Nutella Cup Cakes. I have baked it many times and will repeat to bake it again and again in future.

Please refer HERE for the recipes. Do give it a TRY!! Cheerz~

Important Notes: ***I reduced 1-2 table spoon of sugar in the recipe as I found it's too sweet to my taste buds, the nutella itself are already sweet. I only add 1/2 teaspoon of Nutella chocolate spread on each cupcakes, don't add too much or it'll be too sweet and for those who don't like the buttery taste on cakes just substitute the butter with the same amount of margarine. HAPPY TRYING!! ***

AMY

Pizza ~ Simply Tasty!!

2009-07-20T09:35:00.004+08:00

Once a while, my 3 kids will crave for Pizza when they are getting bored with rice. Taking the kids out to dine at Pizza Hut are quite expensive, I might as well bake one myself. I can't afford to bring them out too often, each trip normally will end up spending RM50-RM60 sometimes more, including all the side orders like chicken wings, garlic bread, salad, mushroom soup and drinks. Sigh..! economy so bad, must save a bit ~ lol

Pizza are very well depended on the sauce used and the most important part is CHEESE. It didn't went wrong with a lot of cheese and it's not hard at all to bake our own pizza. Mix all the ingredient for the crust and let it proof for 20-30minutes. Spread the dough on pizza pan and top it with our favourite toppings ~ tuna, bacon, hotdog, mushrooms...etc, etc. I used this Prego Pasta sauce on my pizza and it taste fantastic!!

Baked this pizza for my kids so, I made their favourite toppings - hotdog, mushroom, onion, pineapple and a lot of cheese...yum, yum!! I use Mozzarella cheese. If you are cheese lover, you can always spinkles some Parmesan cheese powder on pizza before serving for more cheesey flavour. I'm hungry now, when think of the pizza...haha!

Pizza in the oven

Look at the melted cheese...at this time you can smell the yummy pizza from the oven.

For the PIZZA recipe, please click HERE!

Believe me or not?? It's simply tasty!!

AMY

Thank You, Tracie !!

2009-07-19T16:03:00.012+08:00

I would like to thank Bitter Sweet Flavours - Tracie for giving me this Kreativ Blogger Award. This is the first award I got since I started blogging...hehe! Thanks again sweetie!!

When I first look at Tracie's Blog, it doesn't even come across my mind that she is only 18 years old college girl. When I was her age, the only cake that I bake is Butter Cake, nothing more than that. She is a genius, very smart girl. Look at her latest post on the Chocolate Banana Cake, it really impressed me, the cake look no different with the one sold in Secret Recipes. Congrats, girl!! I wish my 2 girls will grown up to be like her, a very creative girl !!

The Kreativ Blogger Award comes with some rules:

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated

Okay, now let me share 7 facts about myself :

I love the smell of the freshly baked cakes, bread or cookies out from oven.
I love to walk bare foot on soft sandy beach. Enjoy the wind & sound of waves.
I love to collect recipe books, mostly are books with pretty pictures of cakes or desserts.
My life will be boring and dull without chocolate and ice-cream. I love vanilla flavoured ice-cream with Bailey...Yumm!! (I love to have ice-cream on winter time-when it's extremely chill~lol*)
I love THAI food the most and I enjoy Japanese food as well, sashimi ~ slurppsS
I wish I could have more time to bake and cook. I got so many recipes lining up, waiting for me to try out...hehe!
My other hidden talent is knitting and I don't have time for it now, I'm too BUSY!

The next seven 'Kreativ Blogger' holders would be..

Fad About Food - Constance, she is my very first blogger friend who encourage me to have my own food blog. My best pal and I miss her.
The Adventures Of Giggles - Wendy, we have been friends for more than 15 years since college days. She finally found her beloved hubby, married and now residing in Arizona, USA.
My Kitchen - Lydia Teh, I love the collection of recipes in her blog and the beautiful foodie pictures in her blog.
Kitchen Corner - Grace, her success in baking chiffon without cream of tartar and baking powder inspires me to try out her recipe. I love her blog a lot.
Tartelette - I love her unique creations and everything in her blog.
Closet Cooking - Kevin, his cooking never fails to impress me, he is a GREAT chef !
Nasi Lemak Lover - Sonia, I always found her blog very informative and interesting. One of the blog I will repeatly visit and read.

AMY

Moist Chocolate Cake, Anyone???

2009-07-18T15:27:00.013+08:00

This is the best chocolate cake I've ever tried. I baked the Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake not too long ago and was wondering how is this oven baked Moist Chocolate Cake turn out, will it be nice?? Anyway, I stumbled upon this wonderful recipe at My Kitchen (original recipe is from kak izan on MyR) This recipe is definitely a keeper. Try it and you will know why I'm saying so...hehe!!

I LOVE everything that is related with chocolate. So, I decided to give this recipe a TRY!! Ya, this cake turn out almost perfect, moist and rich in chocolatey taste. It's worth a try if you are one of the chocolate craze out there.

I use Hershey's natural unsweetened cocoa powder to bake this cake. This is one of my favourite brand for cocoa powder. However, I still found the cake are a bit on the sweet side. I will reduce the amount of sugar use on my next bake. My kids enjoying eating it so much, they just love it!

Ingredients:
(5"x8" loaf pan)

Chocolate Paste:
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp instant coffee (optional)
1/4 cup castor sugar (reduce 1-2 tbsp if you prefer it less sweet)
1/2 cup hot water
1/4 cup evaporated/fresh milk (I use low fat milk)

pinch of salt

125g butter, softened
1 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essense
2 large eggs

1 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder

Method:

Grease and line bottom of cake pan with baking paper and preheat the oven to 180c.
Combined all ingredients for chocolate paste except MILK in a mixing bowl. Hand whisk mixture till sugar are fully dissolved.
Add in milk, stir to mix well. Set aside.
Sift cake flour and baking powder together for later use.
In another bowl, cream butter and sugar till it is light and fluffy. Add vanilla essense and continue with eggs one at a time. Beat till well combined.
Gently fold in flour mixture, alternate with the chocolate paste. *Start with flour and end with flour.
Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or till it is cooked.
Leave it to cool before unmould the cake.

One of the BEST chocolate cake EVER!!

AMY

Ayam Kurma (Kurma Chicken)

2009-07-18T06:45:00.006+08:00

This is my youngest daughter's favourite. What's the different between this Kurma Chicken with other curry out there? It's more yellowish in colour and it's not hot at all, slightly in the sweet side. With the use of different spices, it taste totally different with the normal curry we always had. My kids just love it with a lots of potatoes and tomatoes.

Let me share on how I cook this yummy "Ayam Kurma" here.

Ingredients:

600gm chicken/meat (1/2 chicken), cut into pieces

Blend together:
4 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
1 green chili, seeded
1 inch ginger

1 packet of Adabi Kurma curry spices (mix it with some water to form curry paste)*
1 lemon grass, smashed
1 inch stick cinnamon

2 candlenuts (grounded)
1 piece tamarind skin (can replace it with some tamarind juice)

3 potatoes, skinned and cut
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 large onion, cut into wedges

1 cup of coconut milk (reduce it if you prefer it less santan taste, adjust according to your own liking)

some cooking oil
sugar & salt to taste

-this is ADABI KURMA spices -

Method:

In a wok, heat some oil. Add in the blended ingredients, lemon grass and cinnamon. Saute until it's fragrant.
Add in Adabi Kurma paste and ground candlenuts. Stir till it's a bit dry and fragrant until the oil appears on top of it, keep on stirring it to prevent the curry paste sticks on the wok (At this time, we can lower the heat and this take sometime to cook it)
Add in the chicken pieces, stir to until all the chicken is cover with the paste and change colour, slightly pale. Add in some water and let it cook for a while.
Pour in the coconut milk, add in the potatoes. Let it cook till the potatoes are soft (we can always boil the potatoes half-cooked ahead)
Add the tamarind skin, salt and sugar to taste (I didn't add any sugar as I found the curry is already sweet)
Lastly, add in the tomatoes and onions wedges. Stir and let it cook till the tomatoes and onions are cooked.
Serve warm with steamed rice or tomato rice.

I hope you all can try to cook this at home. A good dish to prepare when there are gatherings or party.

Wish you all a wonderful weekend and Happy Cooking !

AMY

Fried Eggs With Preserved Sweet Turnip & Onion

2009-07-18T06:24:00.010+08:00

Both my girls loved egg dishes so much. When I was out of idea on what to cook, I will just did this simple fried eggs for my family. I got all the ingredients in my fridge and what I do is just cut and chopped and put all the ingredients together, season it with some soy sauce and fried it...Easy right???

To make this simple egg dish, we need:

4 eggs (beaten)
1 large onion (sliced)
2 tbsp chopped preserved sweet turnip (cai por)
1 tsp soy sauce
some cooking oil for frying

Method:

Cracked the eggs in a bowl, add soy sauce and beat it to mix.
Heat the wok with some cooking oil.
Saute the onion slices until it's fragrant, add in the chopped preserved sweet turnip and stir-fried for 2 second (lower the heat if the wok is too hot)
Spread the fried onion and preserved turnip in the wok and pour in the beaten eggs on it.
Do not move the eggs for few minutes (lower the heat to prevent the eggs got burnt)
Check on the eggs if it already cooked before we flipped over and continue to fry the other side (add a little more oil if the eggs sticks to the wok)
Dish up and serve warm with steamed rice.

Happy Cooking!

AMY

Chocolate Marble Chiffon

2009-07-13T16:28:00.009+08:00

After successfully baking my very first chiffon cake - Banana Chiffon Cake. I straight got hooked to this new method of baking cake. All the while I will just bake butter cake and cupcakes or muffins. As mentioned in my previous Banana Chiffon Cake post, I don't bother to learn baking chiffon cake as we can easily get them in the supermarket or morning market. But, after all I don't think we can get the banana flavour, chocolate marble chiffon, green tea flavour etc..etc.. out there, right?..

I think I have found a chiffon's cake master - Kitchen Corner, most of the chiffon cake she baked turn out fantastic and I hope to try out all her recipes. What attract me to try out her recipe beside viewing on her yummy cake pics is her chiffon recipe without the use of baking powder, soda bicarbonate or the cream of tartar. Amazing right??? I always limit the use of flavour essense or food colouring in all my baking. I got excited when I know I can bake a cake without baking powder and cream of tartar. Simply interesting right?? and,.. the cake turn out GREAT! Soft and spongy, not too moist or too dry. It's just perfect!

I modify the recipe from Kitchen Corner to fix my size 23cm cake pan. I reduce some sugar as I still found it is still a bit sweet. Guess what, I bake this Chocolate Marble Chiffon twice in one day. My first cake all gone in 30mins time. I give half of the cake to my mother in law. My kids each had 2 slices for breakfast. As I wanted to give some to my parent as well, so I bake another cake...hehe! The second cake turn out with even nicer marble pattern or effect... yeah!! I can bake it very well already~ hahaha! Oh well, practice makes perfect right? teehee..

Here is the recipe I modify from Kitchen Corner
(my recipe is for 23cm cake pan, please refer to recipe at Kitchen Corner if you are using a 21cm cake pan)

Chocolate Marble Chiffon Recipe:

(A)
95g egg yolks
25g caster sugar
pinch of salt
1 tbsp honey (optional)

(B)
80g cooking oil (I use corn oil)
80g water

(D)
10g cocoa powder
10g flour

(E)
240g egg whites
120g caster sugar (I reduced to 110g)
15g corn flour

Method:

Cream ingredient (A) with hand whisk till sugar dissolved.
Add in ingredient (B) in respective order and mix well before adding the next item.
Fold in ingredient (C) and mix till no lumps.
Divide the egg yolks mixture into two equal portion in two separate mixing bowl.
Mix 10g flour into one of the egg yolks mixture and 10g cocoa powder into the other bowl of egg yolks mixture respectively. Mix well till no lumps.
Beat egg whites in a clean large bowl until soft foam. Gradually add in sugar, one tablespoon at a time and finally add in corn flour. Mix well.
The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny.
Gently fold in half of the egg whites mixture into the cocoa egg yolk mixture and plain mixture accordingly until well combined (Note: Make sure the egg whites are well combined with the egg yolks mixture, do it slowly and gently without breaking the egg whites)
To assemble the marble effect: Spoon in the plain batter to three or four different corner of the 23cm cake pan, then continue to cover the plain batter with cocoa batter. Layer by layer till the end. Bake at preheated oven at 170c for 35-45 minutes or till it's cooked.
Invert the cooked cake immediately on a wire rack until it's completely cool before remove the cake from cake pan.

HAPPY BAKING!

AMY

Butter Raisin Cupcakes

2009-07-11T13:29:00.009+08:00

On Thursday, I bring my 3 kids to pray at a temple near Naka. It's about 1 hour drive from Alor Star. The temple there held the candle lighting prayer. It's believe will bring us brighter future and success in whatever we do. I bake this butter raisin cupcakes and bring it along, just in case my kids hungry they can have a bite on it. A quick bake, nothing fussy or complicated ~ 12 Butter Raisin Cupcakes are ready in less than an hour time.

Tada... here is my 12 yummy cupcakes!!!!

Ingredients needed for baking this yummy cupcakes:

This recipe yields 12 cupcakes

140 g butter, softened
110 g castor sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essense (increase it to 1 tsp if you prefer it more vanilla flavour)
200 g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
45 g raisin

Method:

Sieve cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter and castor sugar till it's pale and light (Approx. 2 mins)
Add in egg one at a time and mix till it's well combined.
Add in vanilla essense.
Preheat oven at 170c.
Fold in flour mixture slowly until finished all the flour.
Lastly, add raisin and mix well.
Scoop the batter into cupcake liners and bake in the preheated oven for 30 mins or till it's golden brown colour and cooked.

A very easy recipe for baking newbie out there. Do give it a try!!

P/S: If you wish to add more raisin, reduce the amount of sugar used or it'll be too sweet.

HAPPY BAKING!

AMY

(Non-Halal) Braised Fried Pork Belly - Hakka Style（客家炸肉）

2009-07-07T22:32:00.010+08:00

Braised Pork Belly - Hakka Style（客家炸肉）。This is one of my mother in-law signature dishes and one of our family's favourite. My mother in-law will cook this dishes whenever there are special occasions like Chinese Lunar New Year, etc. Although we are not "Hakka" but we just simply cannot resist this yummy dishes of "Hakka" people. In "Hokkien" we call it "Zhar Bak" means "Fried Meat". The used of 'reddish cheese' - （南乳）make it taste differently with other meat dishes we have and I love the black fungus in the dish. It's yummy!

Ingredients A:

1kg pork belly with skin
100g black fungus (soaked & cut into biting size)
30g chopped garlic
1 stalk coriander (sectioned)
1 1/2 tbsp plain flour
1000ml water

Ingredients B:

150g shallots
8 garlic cloves

Marinade:

1 egg (beaten)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp lime juice
1 1/4 pieces reddish cheese（南乳）
1 tsp five spices powder
2 tbsp rose wine

Seasoning:

1/4 tsp reddish cheese（南乳）
1/4 tsp five spices powder
1/2 tbsp "Shaoxing" wine
1/2 tsp salt

Method:

Blend ingredients B finely become paste and squeeze, reserved the shallot and garlic juice. Set aside.
Clean and cut the pork belly into small pieces. Marinate it with the marinade ingredients and the shallot & garlic juice (ingredients B), marinate for at least 4-5 hours or preferably overnight in the fridge wrapped with cling wrap.
Coat the meat with plain flour and deep fried into hot oil at high heat until it's golden brown in colour. Dish out and leave aside.
Leave 2 tbsp oil in the wok, fragrant 1 tsp chopped garlic, add in water, seasoning and bring to boil.
Place in pre-fried pork belly pieces and black fungus, bring to boil. Cover, simmer at low heat for 30-40 minutes until the pork belly pieces are tender and the flavour has been absorbed.
Lastly, add in the remaining chopped garlic and mix well. Cook for further 5 minutes, sprinkle with coriander. Dish up and serve warm.

P/S: This dish will be tastier if we keep overnight. We can always prepare this dish one day ahead and keep it in the fridge before we heat it and serve.

Just in case you don't know what's reddish cheese/red fermented beancurd（南乳）or how it looks like??

source of picture from flickr Piggy

HAPPY COOKING!!

AMY

Banana Chiffon Cake

2009-07-07T10:16:00.005+08:00

Chiffon cake is one of my favourite cake. I love it's spongy and soft texture, not too oily and very light. I don't even bother to find out it's recipe as I can get it at the market with cheap price. A friend of mine, Ai Lee borrow me her Chiffon Cake Is Done - Bake with Kevin Chai recipe book the other day. After flipped over the pages and read it, I finally make up my mind to try this Banana Chiffon Cake since I have all the ingredients needed.

-the top of the cake after 3hrs cooling time-

-texture of the cake ~it's very soft and spongy-

This recipe will be a great keeper for sure. My first chiffon cake turn out GREAT! The texture of the cake are just nice, it's soft and spongy, not too moist or dry. I follow exactly the ingredient stated in the book without reduce the amount of sugar and the sweetness of the cake are just nice, not too sweet. I omitted the usage of banana essense and colouring. However, this cake still contain natural sweet banana smells on it even though without the usage of banana essense.

-my first chiffon cake-

Ingredients:

Egg Yolk Batter

6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp salt
60ml corn oil
170g banana puree
1/2 tsp banana essense (optional)
50g caster sugar
few drops yellow colouring (optional)
110g plain flour (I use super soft flour)
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Egg White Foam

6 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
100g caster sugar

Method:

To make egg yolk batter: Combine egg yolks, salt, oil, banana puree, essense (if you are using), sugar and colouring (if you are using) in a mixing bowl. Mix till well combined.
Fold in flour and bicarbonate of soda until forms batter. (sieve the flour with soda first before mix it in the egg yolk mixture)
To make egg white foam: Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add in sugar, beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peaks form. (*make sure the bowl and the mixer use to beat the egg whites are free from oil*)
Gently fold the beaten egg white foam into egg yolk batter until it's well blended.
Pour batter into ungreased 9" (22cm) tube cake pan. Bake in preheated oven at 170c for 30-40 minutes or until it's cooked.
Remove from oven, invert cake onto table until it's completely cooled before unmould it.

This is a worth-try recipe. Do give it a try when you free.

HAPPY BAKING!!

AMY

Double-Boiled Peanut Root Chicken Soup

2009-07-06T23:25:00.009+08:00

I made this Peanut Root Soup for my 12 yrs old son after I got to know it's nutrients and that this soup help youngsters to grow taller. It help to increase immunity and promote better health especially when given to them during their teen years. I don't know how true is it and there is also no scientific report on how the soup made from peanut root would affect the growth of children but, it's no harm to try right?? Nevertheless, the soup is very tasty!!

- This is how the peanut root look like-

To make this soup we need:

100g peanut roots (wash and clean it's soil)
1 young male chicken (cut into 4 pieces)
10 red dates
1 tbsp wolfberries
1 bowl of water
salt to taste

What to do?

1. Place peanut roots, chicken, red dates and wolfberries into the pot.

2. Pour 1 bowl of water in it. Fill the lower layer of the pot with water and bring to boil.

3. Lower fire and cook it for 3 - 4 hrs.

4. Add some salt to taste. Serve warm.

5. It's best taken at night before bedtime.

HAPPY COOKING!

AMY

ABC Soup

2009-06-29T17:19:00.008+08:00

ABC Soup, why it's call ABC soup since we didn't see any of the 26 alphabets in it??? This is actually soup with potatoes, sweet corns, carrots, tomatoes and onions as ingredients. Maybe, it's the mixture of all those colourful ingredients got it named "ABC soup" This soup is famous among children. They just love it so much, and so do I ! ☻

My kids requested me to cook them their favourite ABC soup today. I use chicken bones to make the stock for this soup as my kids normally won't take the meat. They just love the potato, corn and carrot in it. This soup taste naturally sweet and it's very easy to cook.

Here is the recipe for this ABC Soup:

Ingredients:

600 g chicken bones (can replace it with the same amount of chicken thigh)

2 sweet corns (unskinned and cut into 4 big chunks)
500 g potatoes (peeled & cut half)
1 large carrot (peeled & cut into bite size)
2 large tomatoes (quartered)
2 large onions (peeled & cut into wedges)

some peppercorn (about 1/2 tbsp, smashed)

2 litre water

salt to taste

Method:

Get all the ingredients ready. Remove the skin, blood and fat on the chicken bones. Clean it with water and set a side.
In a pot, bring the 2 litre water to boil. Add in the smashed peppercorn, chicken bones and sweet corn. Let it cook for 5 - 10 mins.
Add in potatoes, carrots and onions. Continue to let it boil for 10 mins. Lower the heat and continue to simmer until the potatoes and carrot turn soft.
Lastly, add the tomatoes and salt, continue to simmer for 5 - 10 mins until the tomatoes are cooked.
Serve hot with dash of pepper on it.

p/s: Click HERE for more ABC Soup related post!!

Happy Cooking!! ☻

AMY

(Non-Halal) Pork Belly & Preserved Mustard Cabbage -“梅菜猪肉”

2009-06-16T14:14:00.009+08:00

For those who follows my BLOG, I'm sorry to keep you all waiting for my updates. I was busy and also down with fever last week. After my son was down with fever, it's me and then my youngest daughter. It's school holidays and all of us are sick...too bad ya!!

“梅菜猪肉”- Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Cabbage are one of my favourite dishes. I can finished one big bowl of rice with it.

For pork lovers out there, try out this dish and I bet you'll love it straight away. It's great to go with rice or porridge. If u eat them with rice, don't forget the sambal belacan ~ slurppss!

Here is my very own recipe to cook it, try it... :)

What you need:

800g pork belly with skin, thickly sliced
400g salted preserved mustard cabbages
80g garlic cloves, skinned & flatten

Seasoning:
1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 1/2 tbsp "Shao Xing" cooking wine
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
sugar to taste

3 tbsp cooking oil

What to do:

Wash and sliced the meat. Drain the excessive water and marinate it with oyster sauce, cooking wine & dark soy sauce for at least 30 mins.

Rinse to clean the preserved mustard cabbage from salt. Cut the preserved mustard cabbage finely and soak into clean water for 20-30 mins (this depend on the saltiness of the mustard) Remove, squeeze it's moisture and set a side.

Stir-fry preserved mustard cabbage in hot wok without oil for approx. 5 mins until aromatic and dry.

Heat oil in wok, fry the garlic till it's fragrant and golden brown. Add in just the meat (set aside the marinate meat sauce) and stir-fry briskly until it's aromatic. Stir in the preserved mustard cabbage and continue to stir-fry it till it's a bit dry and fragrant. Pour in the sauce from marinated meat, add sugar to taste and continue to stir-fry for 2-3 mins.

Place the half cooked meat into a small pot. Add water, enough to cover 80%-90% of the meat (too much water will make it tasteless) Bring the meat to boil. Cover and simmer at low heat for 1 hour. Stir constantly to make sure all the meat are evenly cooked.

Serve warm with rice.

HAPPY COOKING !!~☻

AMY

Stir Fried Sweet & Spicy Chicken With Cashew Nuts

2009-05-31T10:40:00.006+08:00

I'm sorry for not updating my BLOG for such a long time. What have I been up to lately??? Oh well, I've been busy with doing some spring cleaning. Clear my home from the unused stuff that I've kept all the while but will not using it anymore☻

Today, I would like to share this simple and easy recipe with all of you. I especially dedicate it to my friend Maggie in Canada who have been follow and try out my recipes. This dish is very easy to prepare and cook. It goes well with warm white rice and simple stir-fried vegetables.

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast (about 400g), sliced 0.5cm thick
50 g roasted cashew nuts
3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
1 onion, sliced6 dried chillies, soaked and cut into half

Marinate the chicken with:

2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp black soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp 5 spice powder
1 tbsp cooking wine (shao xin rice wine)
some salt to taste

What to do??

Marinate the sliced chicken with the ingredients. Stir to mix well and cover it with cling wrap and place it in the fringe for an hour.

Heat the wok with some oil. Stir-fried garlic, onions and dried chillies for a minute.

Add in the marinated chicken and stir-fried for a while. Add in a little (about 3 tbsp) water and cover the wok, let it simmer till the dish dries up and chicken is cook. Stir occasionally.

Stir in the roasted cashew nuts when the chicken is cooked. Lastly, add salt to taste (this is depend to the saltiness of the soy sauce we used) If the dish already salty enough, just omit the salt.

Serve with warm rice.

HAPPY COOKING!! ~ ☻

Sugar Cane Herbal Tea

2009-05-20T15:51:00.008+08:00

A cup of refreshing Sugar Cane Herbal Tea, anyone??

BEFORE & AFTER

The change of weather have cause many people are down with flu, fever and sore-throat. Herbal tea-(凉茶) are one of the traditionally drink that use to get rid our body inner heat. But, my kids won't take some of the herbal tea which have very strong herbal smell and taste bitter. I came across this "Sugar Cane Herbal Tea" when I shop for grocery at TESCO Shopping Mall. I buy 2 packets and try it. Surprisingly, all my kids love it. It taste just like sugarcane drinks. I don't know what ingredients are used as it is not stated on the packing, I can see it's the dried sugarcane in it, something look like carrot- i think so, and some chinese herbs in it.

Aren't the orange coloured one look like CARROT??

Ways to prepare it :

1 packet of Sugar Cane Herbal Tea Mix
some rock sugar to taste
2 litre of water

Wash the herbal mix with water.
Place the ingredients in Slow Cooker and cook it in low heat over night.

AMY

Onion Bacon Quiche

2009-05-20T14:44:00.007+08:00

I first got to know this "Quiche" from my friend Wendy's Blog and I never tried this before. Quiche (pronounce as "keesh") is an open savoury tart with the fillings made from eggs, milk, cheese, meat (bacon) or vegetables (spinach, tomatoes)..etc, just add in any ingredients of your liking.

I made this Quiche for our dinner yesterday. It is a French cuisine that usually served for breakfast, lunch or as snack for teatime or picnic.

Ingredients:

Tart Crust:
1 ready made 8" pie/tart crust (deep dish shell)
or
180g all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
80g cold butter, cut to pieces
40g margarine, cut into pieces
3~4 tbsp iced water

Fillings:

5 slices bacon
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 chopped green onion
2tsp olive oil
2 egg
2 egg whites
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup low fat milk
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
some salt to taste
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 cup grated cheese (your preferred cheese)

Method:
Prepare the Crust/Tart:

1. Sieve the flour and salt into a mixing bowl.
2. Rub in the butter and margarine until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
3. Stir in just enough water to combine (if the dough are already wet enough, then omit the water)
4. Shape it into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for about 20mins.
5. After 20mins emoved the chilled dough from fridge, let it soften slightly at room temperature.
6. Roll the dough into a 3mm thick piece, it has to be 50mm larger round than tart pan.
7. Transfer to a 8" tart pan and trim.
8. Prick the face all over with the fork.
9. You may decorate the edge with the fork or fingers (up to your creativity)
10. Cover crust with aluminum foil and freeze for 1 hour before use.

Fillings for Quiche:

1. Preheat the oven at 425F/218C (the temperature are depend to the oven brand we use, i bake at 200C)
2. Fried the bacon slices until crspy in the non-stick pan without oil - crumble and set aside.
3. Saute the onion with olive oil until fragrant, stir in the crumbled bacon and green onion. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Whisk together the eggs and egg whites together. Then add in evaporated milk, low fat milk, cornstarch, black pepper, salt, nutmeg. Whisk till well combine.
5. Mix grated cheese into cooled onion bacon mixture, then spoon the mixture into the crust.
6. Slowly pour the egg mixture in even layers.
7. Bake on the lower rack in preheated oven for 30~40 minutes or until the filling is set (it took me only 30mins to bake it)
8. Served warm.

Notes:

Make sure all the cheese are cover by the milk mixture to avoid the brownish/burnt top when baking. Mix the grated cheese with bacon onion before pour the milk mixture on top of it and not sprinkle the grated cheese after we pour in the milk mixture.

Happy Baking!

OREO Butter Cake

2009-05-12T10:04:00.008+08:00

Who doesn't like OREO?? I think most of the kids who taste it will love it. The black coloured chocolatey taste cookies with white cream in it. Crunchy and yummy!! I came across this OREO Butter Cake recipe few months ago and straight away I bookmark it. Ya, I'm going to bake this no matter how it taste because it use OREO as one of the main ingredients. Not only my kids love OREO but I'm also OREO craze. I love OREO and anything with it. One of my favourite are Oreo Vanilla Ice-cream ~ Yumm..yum!!

The original recipe use 170g sugar but I reduce 10g and only use 160g, it taste just nice for me. The texture of the cake are soft and rather fine. I remove all the cream of the cookies and place it in a small bowl before I crushed them and beat the cream together with butter and sugar. My kids love it. You can try this brand new OREO flavour butter cake once a while when we are getting boring with the normal butter cake. It's DELICIOUS, trust me!!

Oreo Butter Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

225g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder (omit this if you are using self-raising flour)
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
85g unsalted butter, cut into smaller pieces
170g sugar
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup(240ml) non-fat unsweetened yogurt (I use Dutch Lady Natural Flavour)
1 tsp vanilla essence
80g Oreo cookies, roughly crushed (I use mini Oreos)

**Some Whole OREO Cookies for decorating the cake**

What to do ?

Preheat oven to 180C and grease or line a 8-inch round cake pan.

Sift cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Cream butter, Oreo cookies cream and sugar till it's light and creamy.

Add in eggs slowly. About 1 tbsp at a time and beating constantly for about 2 mins.

Fold in gently 1/3 of the flour mixture until well combined. Follow by ½ of the yogurt and continue fold in 1/2 of the flour mixture, mix till well combined. Then followed by vanilla extract and fold in the the remaining yoghurt and finally the remaining flour.

Lastly, add the crushed cookies and mix well.

Pour the batter into greased pan and arrange whole Oreos on top.

Bake for about 40 - 50 mins till skewer inserted comes out clean.

Note: I bake this cake at 160c for 50mins. My oven tend to get too hot than normal one.

Deep Fried Anchovies - "Ikan Bilis"

2009-05-11T14:23:00.007+08:00

Anchovies - "Ikan Bilis" are little silver, salt-water fish that is versatile in cooking. We bought from wet market and supermarkets. It's dried, preserved in salt and we then deep fried at home. It is commonly seen served with Nasi Lemak. There are just so many ways you can use it - stir-fry it with sambal, add to soups for that extra sweetness & flavour, stir-fry with vegetables or just toss in the salads for the crunchy feel. We also can eat it just like that as snack.

What you do:

Remove it's head, bones and wash the anchovies. Repeat till the water is clean, drain water and let it dry under the sun (so that there is no more moisture & the oil won’t splat, splat, splutter when you’re deep frying them later on). Then deep fry in medium high heat for about 5 minutes, or until they are golden brown & crispy. Remove from oil and wait the anchovies to cool before store it in an airtight container. We can keep the left over Ikan Bilis in the fridge and it can be kept up to 2 weeks.

Click HERE to read more about "Ikan Bilis".