Jottings of Life

Steamead Teochew Pumpkin Cake

2012-01-19T11:42:00.002+08:00

With the remaining half pumpkin after stir-frying it for dinner last night, I was contemplating on what to do with it. A few recipes came to mind, one of which was to do a pumpkin Q-yuen, much like those served at Taiwanese Dessert place, but I was low on glutinuous rice flour, so that experiment will have to wait.

Then out of curiosity, I decided to tweek this recent attempt by substituting the yam with pumpkin. This turned out good as well, but the texture was softer, my guess is that this might be due to higher water content of pumpkin as compared to yam. Just my 2-cents...

STEAMED TEOCHEW PUMPKIN CAKE
Yield: 6" round with 1" height
Source: "Yummy Street Fare" page 76
Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp chopped shallot (2 pips)
1/4 tsp chopped garlic (1 pip)
2 tbsp dried prawns (weight is 20g)

400g pumpkin, shredded coarsely (weight with skin is 500g)
50g rice flour
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp fine salt

Method:
1/ Heat up oil, saute chopped shallot and garlic till aromatic, then add in dried prawns to stir-fry till well mixed. Dish up and set aside.
2/ Shred pumpkin into a mixing bowl, add in mixture from (1) above followed by the rice flour, pepper and salt.
3/ Mix well, then pour the pumpkin mixture into 6" square tray and press tight to compact it.
4/ Steam at high heat for 20 minutes or until cooked, then remove and leave to cool before cutting into serving-size pieces for consumption.

Notes:
+ Mixture was wetter compared to the one for yam, and the resulting cake was more moist.

Stir-Fry Pumpkin

2012-01-18T17:23:00.004+08:00

We love pumpkin, do you?
Occassionally I will cook this but I didn't realise I have yet to post a recipe on it. So better to jot this down for future reference.
Good over steamed white rice, this beta-carotene packed dish is so full of oomph.

STIR-FRY PUMPKIN
Serves: 2 pax adult
Ingredients:
3 tbsp oil
2 pips of garlic (chopped)
1 onion (chopped)
2 tbsp dried shrimps (soaked and pounded) [equivalent to 20g]
450g pumpkin (cubed)
200ml water (top up the water used for soaking the dried shrimps to this amount)
1/4 tsp Maggi seasoning
1/2 tsp LKK light soya sauce

Method:
1/ Heat up oil over medium fire in a wok, then add the chopped garlic and onion to fry till fragrant.
2/ Add the dried shrimps and continue to sautee till dried shrimps turned golden
3/ Put in the cubed pumpkin and stir for awhile before adding in the water.
4/ Cover the wok and let pumpkin soften, stirring every now and then for even doneness.
5/ When liquid is reduced to half and gravy has thicken, add the seasoning and dish up.

Steamead Teochew Yam Cake

2012-01-04T16:43:00.003+08:00

This recipe caught my attention as the method used is very unique. There was no liquid used in preparing this Steamed Teochew Yam Cake unlike conventional ones. So of course I was game for it. Preparation time was fast as well since there was no need to par-cook the batter compared to those recipes I have attempted previously.

I only did half a recipe to try out, and it was sufficient for our consumption.

Result was good, tasted so yummy yam-my!!

STEAMED TEOCHEW YAM CAKE
Yield: 7" square with 1" height
Source: "Yummy Street Fare" page 76
Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp chopped shallot (2 pips)
1/4 tsp chopped garlic (1 pip)
2 tbsp dried prawns (weight is 20g)

400g yam, shredded coarsely (weight with skin is 450g)
50g rice flour
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp fine salt

Method:
1/ Heat up oil, saute chopped shallot and garlic till aromatic, then add in dried prawns to stir-fry till well mixed. Dish up and set aside.
2/ Shred yam into a mixing bowl, add in mixture from (1) above followed by the rice flour, pepper and salt.
3/ Mix well, then pour the yam mixture into 6" square tray and press tight to compact it.
4/ Steam at high heat for 20 minutes or until cooked, then remove and leave to cool before cutting into serving-size pieces for consumption.

Notes:
+ Mixture might look dry at step (2), but as it combines, yam will soften and wilt a bit, but this is ok.

Korean Sweet Pancake - Hoddeok

2011-12-21T17:34:00.005+08:00

Hoddeok, a Korean Sweet Pancake with filling. First time I came across this from Frozen Wings' blog (thanks Lena for sharing) and I jumped at trying it. The words that captured my attention - NO KNEADING required. Yes, you read it correctly, this yeasty chewy soft pancakes were done in a jiffy using a whisk and spatula. The longest time would be the proofing, but well, that would be the hard work of the yeast.

Even the tools used were minimalist, I didn't even need to whip out the rolling pin, just flatten the dough with my palms to wrap the filling. The crispy crust and the chewy soft centre coupled with the nutty filling, I downed one piece hot from the ~~wok~~ pan. It was that good.

HODDEOK
Yield: 4 pieces
Reference: Lena
Ingredients:
125ml warm water
1tsp instant yeast
1tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
140g all purpose flour

Filling (mix together):
2tbsp soft brown sugar
a dash of cinnamon powder
1tbsp almond nibs (toasted) *recipe asked for chopped walnuts, but I ran out of this, thus the substitution*

Method:
1/ Pour water into a big mixing bowl, then add instant yeast, sugar, salt and vegetable oil and mix together with a hand whisk.
2/ Add in the flour and continue to mix till well incorporated to get a lump of dough.
3/ Leave to proof in a covered bowl for an hour till doubled in volume, then stir the mixture (fret not it will deflate slightly) and let it rest for 10 minutes.
4/ Divide dough into 4 portions (about 75g each piece for me as the total weight was 300g).
5/ Lightly pat each piece of dough with your palm to flatten it, wrap in one tablespoon of the fillings, then seal tightly.
6/ Heat up non-stick pan with one drop of oil, then pan-fry the wrapped dough on one side for about 30 seconds then flip over to pan-fry the other side.
7/ Once flipped over, use spatula to flatten the dough and fry till both sides are golden brown, then cover the pan to cook the dough for another minute.
8/ Remove from pan and serve hot.

Love this easy as ABC winner recipe. Worth a try, or rather, a few tries.

Maple Syrup Roast Chicken Wings

2011-07-22T10:46:00.000+08:00

Other than using Maple Syrup for pancakes, I was trying to google for a recipe that uses it in some other form. And voila...lots of recipes cropped up for using it to roast chicken. I went for one with oriental touch as I was planning on roasting a whole bird of chicken some time within the week as well, so this was the recipe I used. It was so so easy to do, just marinate the chicken wings, then roast it in the ovenette at 180 degree Celcius for 15 minutes and attack while it is still hot! The balance of the marinade was not wasted at all, I reduced it slightly in the pot over the stove so that it thickens and this went very well spooned over white steamed rice.

MAPLE SYRUP ROAST CHICKEN WINGS
Yield: 3 servings
Ingredients:
6 pieces chicken wings (approximate weight of 750g)
2 tbsp dark soya sauce *I used LKK brand*
3 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp light soya sauce *I used LKK brand*
2 tbsp maple syrup *I used Lyle brand, refer photo below*
1 tbsp Shao Xing wine
3 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp All Spice powder *I omitted because I don't have it at home*

Method:
1/ Marinate the chicken wings with everything on the list and leave it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour for the flavour to soak in.
2/ Line a baking try with aluminium foil and place chicken wings on it, then roast in a preheated oven at 180 degree Celcius for 15 minutes.
3/ At the same time, pour the marinade into a pot and bring it to a boil till slightly thickened and reduced.
4/ Remove the chicken wings from the oven and either pour the gravy over or serve this separately.

The brand of Maple Syrup I used, or rather, it was Maple flavoued Golden Syrup by Lyle.

Dried Shrimps Sambal

2011-07-21T17:16:00.000+08:00

I was in the mood for some spicy food, and chanced upon this in Precious Moment's blog. How timely! Thanks Edith for sharing the recipe, my first attempt at making Sambal Hae Bee passed dh's mark. As I didn't deseed the dried chilli completely, the result was too spicy, so I toned it down with one extra tablespoon of soft brown sugar from the original recipe which requested for one tablespoon only.

Good to go with rice or bread, or even stir-fry. But I normally stick to steamed soft bread or if I am extra hardworking, french toast would be the other option.

DRIED SHRIMP SAMBAL
Source: PM
Yield: 1 cup (250ml)
Ingredients:
10 shallots (approximate weight of 150g)
3 cloves of garlic
15 pieces dried chillies (cut, soaked and deseeded)
5 pieces chilli padi
1 tbsp toasted belachan (approximate weight of 10g)
100g dried shrimp (soaked and cleaned, then pounded)
6 tbsp oil

1 tbsp assam paste mixed with 3 tbsp water to get 1.5 tbsp assam juice
1 tbsp soft brown sugar *I used 2 tbsp*
1/2 tsp salt to taste

Method:
1/ Blend the spices together, then heat up oil and sautee them until fragrant.
2/ Add in the pounded dried shrimp and continue to stir fry till well combined.
3/ Lastly add in the assam juice and fry until dry. Add in sugar and salt to taste, the dish out and leave to cool.

This was the brand of belachan I used, for reference

Almond Longan Jelly

2011-07-20T14:30:00.004+08:00

After making this, I still had more than half a can of evaporated milk plus the balance of the canned longan. What I did was to make something similar, but I wanted the texture to be harder so that I can cut them up into pieces to get more bites. So, I kept the recipe intact except for the portion on agar-agar powder and gelatine. Instead of half teaspoon each in the original recipe, I upped them to one tablespoon each. Also added one tablespoon of chinese almond powder (the one used for almond drink) for a twist.

This makes a lot, and each time I used about a quarter of the big piece of Almond Jelly to go with different types of canned fruits. I've tried with canned longan, cocktail fruits and even peaches only, they go very well together.

ALMOND LONGAN JELLY
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
350g water
50g sugar
1 tbsp agar-agar powder *I used Swallow Globe brand*
1 tbsp gelatine
1 tbsp chinese almond drink powder

100ml evaporated milk or soya milk *I used Ideal brand evaporated milk*
50ml longan syrup from canned longan

Method:
1/ Place sugar and water in a pot, then sprinkle agar-agar powder, gelatine powder and chinese almond drink powder on the surface and cook this concoction over low medium heat until bubbles form around the edges of the pot.
2/ In a measuring jug, mix milk and longan syrup then stir this into the pot of agar-agar solution and turn off the heat, no need to bring to a boil.
3/ Pour mixture into a square container and let it cool and firm up in the refrigerator.
4/ Cut almond jelly into cubes and serve this together with some canned fruits of your choice plus some ice cubes before serving.

BBQ July 2011

2011-07-19T18:10:00.011+08:00

Chicken wings for barbeque, this time for the two of us, I used 6 pieces of wings only. Because besides this, there was the spare ribs, sausages, tri-clor capsicum and fresh mushrooms. Also finished off the 4 slices of canned pineapple rings instead of buying one whole fresh pineapple.

Despite scaling down, we still can't finish up all the food. Should have just stuck to one color of capsicum will do, and one punnet of mushrooms.

The recipe this time was my own creation as I wanted to try how the Smoke Liquid turns out. I bought this bottle during the last last trip to KL at Jaya Grocer @ Empire Shoping Gallery Subang Jaya. There were a few ways to use this bottle of smoke liquid, and adding it to the marinade being one of it. The aroma of smokey flavour was apparent for the propotion I added, which was just one teaspoon for the six chicken wings. Next I might try to sprinkle it onto the burning charcoal while barbequeing to see if the effect is better. One bottle certainly goes a long way.

HICKORY BBQ CHICKEN WINGS
Ingredients:
6 pcs chicken wings
1T honey
1T soft brown sugar
1T McCormick's Hickory Smoked Seasoning Mix
1t smoke liquid
2T Heinz's Barbeque Sauce
a few dashes Maggi Seasoning
1/4t salt

Method:
1/ Rinse chicken wings and pat try, then marinate with all the seasoning above for at least 2 hours in the chiller.
2/ Bring to room temperature before barbequeing, and baste the chicken wings with the marinade from time to time while barbequeing for a moist and succelent barbequed chicken wings.

The aforementioned McCormick's Hickory Smoked Seasoning Mix

The aforementioned Smoke Liquid

Melt In Your Mouth BBQ Ribs

2011-07-19T17:46:00.002+08:00

It was a long weekend, and we didn't have any plans. Was supposed to go Hatyai with family friends, but got aborted at the last minute. So out came the barbeque just for fun.

Tried two different recipes this time, one was self-created to make use of the available stuffs in the pantry. That shall be in another entry for the chicken wings. This Cola Spare Ribs was from here, thanks SIG! I did mine with slight modification because I do not have spices at home as I rarely rarely use them. Won't know what to do with them if I were to grab a bag, which no matter how small a packet they comes in, I will still have balance.

Indeed melt-in-the-mouth, I boiled mine for 2 hours and finished it off in the pit. The pork ribs was about RM10, more than enough to feed two pax.

MELT IN YOUR MOUTH BBQ RIBS
Source: Daily Affairs
Ingredients:
700g pork rib slab (I asked for 3 ribs joined together and have the butcher halved them)
1.5 liter Coca-Cola (I used all because I don't drink coke on its own, and they go flat if kept, so waste not, want not)
1 bulb garlic
Sufficient tomato ketchup

Method:
1/ Place everything into pot and bring it to a boil till meat is fork-tender.
2/ Remove the pork rib from the pot and slather some ketchup over the top and grill them in the oven to crisp till a lovely brown.

This is really so easy and yummy!

Delicious at Straits Quay

2011-07-18T21:14:00.000+08:00

Delicious opened at Straits Quay for a few months now, but we heard that it was jam-packed most of the time, so we thought to let the crowd cool down a bit before checking it out. So last Friday, we were in the vicinity of Seri Tanjung, we went in for tea time treat. Half the restaurant was filled, shows how good a business they are enjoying.

This was my drink - Frosty Lychee & Lime @ RM9.90. Delicious are famous for a couple of lychee drinks, this being one of it per the host that attended to our table. Very quenching for the hot afternoon, it wasn't as sour as I expected it to be, which is good because then, it complements the lychee without overpowering it.

All the desserts at their counter looks inviting, it took us a long while to weigh our options. The Tiramisu in a Glass was luscious, Sticky Date Pudding was equally yummy...and there was the Banoffee Pie. Aww...decision time, in the end, the Applelicious Pie won! It was RM12.90 and came served with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream on the side. The sugary pastry on top was the factor we fell for.

The generous apple filling within the crust, which was cooked with cinnamon powder, thus the dark brown tinge. Eventhough the filling was generous, it would have been great if there is something else to go with the apples, such as raisins.

Delicious was dishing out a lot of fresh cakes at the time we were time, probably in preparation for dinner crowd. Which is good, because then, one doesn't get stale cakes that are dry and yucky. The Cappuccino RM9.90 that dh had was mediocre, and there was not coffee art on it, thus I didn't capture any shots.
Now one item down, what shall we try next?

Fresh Durian Roll Take II

2011-07-17T09:59:00.000+08:00

This batch of Fresh Durian Roll is different from this in terms of fillings. Both the whipped cream and durian are mixed together, so there's even distribution of flavours. The crepe skin is also more pliable, it didn't tear unless I stuffed too much of filling. With one recipe, I managed to get a dozen of this Fresh Durian Roll, and promptly gave away half to my neighbor because I can feel my throat a bit sore from the hot weather. Also, better to share the calories since I know there were so deliciously irresistable.

Guest star for today - D24. I wanted to try other varieties, but I went to the durian stall too early, about 11am and not much selections in terms of choices, so I went for the most plump looking durian. The so-called "peak season" would be from 2pm onwards to get more variety from past observation. Paid RM8 for this, and they were all used up to make the 12 Durian Rolls.

The rolls I got are quite squarish in shape, due to the my non-stick pan size of 6". Wendy's look more like a popiah to me, elegantly longish, wonder if she got magic fingers?!?

FRESH DURIAN ROLLS
Source: Wendy's at Table for 2 , thanks Wendy!
Yield: 12 pieces of 3" length
Ingredients:
70g all purpose flour
10g cornstarch
250g milk *I used Fresh milk because I ran out of UHT milk*
40g castor sugar
20g butter, melted
2nos egg yolk

Method:
1/ Melt butter in non-stick pan over gentle heat, then turn off the heat.
2/ Mix all purpose flour and cornstarch then pour in half the milk to mix with a wire whisk till smooth.
3/ Combine sugar, egg yolks, melted butter and the balance of the milk together, then mix this into the smooth batter.
4/ Let batter rest for at least one hour.
5/ Wipe pan with paper towel to rid if of excess butter, then heat pan over medium heat.
6/ Lower heat to low, then swirl in batter onto non-stick pan and let it cook till surface is matte and doesn't stick to finger. *No need to flip the crepe*
7/ Loosen the sides of crepe and overturn pan onto a chopping board to dislodge the fragile crepe. Transfer to plate when it has cooled down to touch. *This will only be one or two minutes because as it is very thin*
8/ Return the pan to the stove and let it heat up for 10 seconds before making another crepe.
9/ Repeat frying process till batter is all used up.

FRESH DURIAN ROLL FILLING
Ingredients:
1/2 tsp gelatine
1tbsp water
125g non-dairy UHT whipping cream
1tbsp sugar
250g fresh durian

Method:
1/ Freeze mixing bowl 15 minutes before use, and in the meantime, sprinkle gelatine over water and let it bloom.
2/ Melt gelatine over boiling water and set it aside to cool.
3/ Whisk whipping cream until it starts to take form, then put in the sugar and whisk till soft peaks.
4/ Put in the melted gelatine and continue to beat till stiff.
5/ Using a fork, mash up the fresh durian till it gets creamy, then fold this into the whipped cream. *Be careful not to over fold, lest deflating the whipped cream*
6/ Keep this durian whipped cream filling chilled in the fridge until the time to use.
7/ Distribute filling evenly over the cooled crepe, roll up and chill well before serving.

Longan Jelly

2011-07-16T09:08:00.004+08:00

Time of the year for the visiting haze, so it means time of the year for cooling desserts, or so to speak. This Longan Jelly was much softer than those commercially sold at Soya Bean Stalls, and it glides down the throat quite easily, soothing the tract along the way. This scaled down recipe was sufficient for approximately 4 servings, depending on serving size. Sweetness was mild, no need for any adjustment for our taste.

LONGAN JELLY
Source: Sonia
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
1/2 tsp agar-agar powder *I used Swallow Globe brand, refer photo below*
1/2 tsp gelatine powder
50g sugar
350ml water

100ml evaporated milk or soya milk *I used Ideal brand evaporated milk*
50ml longan syrup from canned longan
1.5 tsp lemon juice *I omitted but results turned out ok*

Method:
1/ Place sugar and water in a pot, then sprinkle both agar-agar powder and gelatine powder on the surface and cook this concoction over low medium heat until bubbles form around the edges of the pot.
2/ In a measuring jug, mix milk and longan syrup then stir this into the pot of agar-agar solution. Add lemon juice and turn off the heat, no need to boil.
3/ Pour mixture into prepared vessels and let it cool and firm up in the refrigerator.
4/ Spoon canned longans with 2 tablespoon of longan syrup onto Longan Jelly, and then topped with a moraschino cherry before serving.

Pickled Young Ginger

2011-07-15T19:55:00.006+08:00

I made this Pickled Young Ginger

to eat with this - Century Egg.

Never would I thought I would be able to create this at home, not until Wendy posted it on her blog. Though there were lots of steps involved, it was not too difficult as the illustration given by her was very very very detailed, with pictorial guide even. Thanks Wendy!

I tried with only a quarter of the recipe to get one jar. For 500g, I got about 4 pieces of young ginger about palm-size, and it was RM3.50. Sufficient to try my hands on making it, and enough to justify the time and effort. In fact, after trying the result, I wished I had done more, as it was very crunchy yet not too fiery hot. Besides eating it with century egg, I even snack on it as this pickled young ginger aids in digestion.

PICKLED YOUNG GINGER
Source: Table for 2
Ingredients:
500g young ginger
1 heaped tablespoon salt
150g rice vinegar
150g sugar

Method:
1/ Use a knife, scrape off all the skin of young ginger, then rinse it well.
2/ Slice the ginger thinly using a mandolin, then put salt over young ginger.
3/ Toss it well and let young ginger sit for a minimum of 30 minutes until it is pliable. Means it is limp.
*Young ginger will turn colour to slightly pinkish, but it is ok, don't worry*
4/ Boil vinegar and sugar together until sugar dissolves, then turn off the heat and set this aside to cool down.
5/ Rinse the salted young ginger and squeeze it dry, repeat again this process.
6/ Pour boiling water over young ginger and ensure all the pieces of young ginger are heated so as to rinse off the fiery taste.
7/ Pour the young ginger over a colander and let it drip dry and cool down.
8/ When the young ginger has cooled down, squeeze it as dry as possible.
* Young ginger slices should taste salted but not too salty at this stage, but should no longer taste very fiery*
9/ Place young ginger into a non-reactive vessel (be it glass, ceramic or stainless steel) and pour the ~~cooled~~ *it is ok if the vinegar is not cooled down per Wendy as this won't soften the young ginger slices* vinegar syrup over it. Sitr gently with clean chopsticks and let this sit for at least 2 days before consumption.
* Vinegar syrup might appear thick initially but after mixing it with the young ginger for awhile, it will be diluted to water consistency*

Dinner at Sunny Restaurant

2011-07-12T12:08:00.003+08:00

Just wanted to record down our simple dinner at this place called Sunny Restaurant at Chai Leng Park. It serves simple food, not those fanciful type, but the menu is quite extensive, with one page on food, and the reverse side for drinks. There was a lot to choose from, ranging from dishes to go with rice, or just one plate meal like what we had below. Not to mention, huge portion as well, for an average of price of RM4.50.

Singapore Fried Beehoon which was fried with tomato sauce, hence the reddish hue. Enough wok-hei, so this was good. The restaurant certainly didn't skim on ingredients, look at the abundance of it, be it prawns, charsiew or even vegetables.

My Minced Pork Rice that came with one whole hard-boiled egg, it was certainly too huge a portion to finish.

Together with 2 drinks and a side dish of Century Egg (which I didn't took a photo, sorry!), total came to less than RM20. Certainly can consider coming back again because best part of all, it's air-conditioned. Definitely a welcome relief from the scorching weather we experiencing currently.

Choux with Durian Filling

2011-07-11T18:40:00.008+08:00

Was captivated by the puffy choux that Sonia shared on her blog, and it was oozing with durian pulp mixed with whipped cream.
The bonus was the topping called "Craquelin" - pronounciation in French as "kat-ker-leng". My first time coming across this interesting thin layer of brown sugar crumbs made up of butter, brown sugar and all purpose flour. Simple ingredients, but amazing results as it gave the choux a crispy crunch when consumed warm. It was also very fragrant as I was picking up the bit and pieces of crumbs that dropped off as I was making a slit in the choux for the durian filling.

I did half portion of the recipe and got 14 pieces, which was more than sufficient for the both of us at home. And luckily it was that quantity because it was very difficult to stop popping this Choux with Durian Filling one by one into the mouth until it was all gone.

For the detailed steps, kindly refer to Sonia's blog as she did a superb write-up sharing the recipe generously. Thanks Sonia.

CHOUX PASTRY
Source: Nasi Lemak Lover
Yield: 14 pieces
Ingredients:
60g milk
60g water
60g salted butter
2.5g sugar
125g eggs (2 A-size eggs, stirred lightly)
80g all purpose flour (sifted)

Method:
1/ Boil milk, water, butter and sugar together in a pot over medium heat.
2/ Remove pot from heat and using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in the flour until mixture combines into a ball.
3/ Return pot to low heat, stir content constantly until mixture leaves the sides of the pot and a film forms on the bottom of the pot, approximately 3-4 minutes.
4/ Transfer dough into a mixing bowl and stir till it reaches room temperature, then gradually add in the egg and mix till desired texture. [to check: scoop mixture up using wooden spoon, batter should hang down for about 20 seconds before dropping down].
5/ Fit batter into piping bag with a 1 cm piping tip and pipe with onto baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper with allowance of 2"-3" gap in between each mound.
6/ Top each piece of choux pastry with a small piece of Craquelin.
7/ Bake in preheated oven at 190 degree Celcius for 20 minutes without opening the oven door until choux pastry is all puffed up and browned.
8/ Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

CRAQUELIN
Ingredients:
35g butter
35g soft brown sugar
45g all purpose flour (sifted)

Method:
1/ Cream butter and brown sugar till light and creamy, then add in sifted flour to combine.
2/ Place Craquelin in between two plastic sheets and flatten into a thin sheet of 1-2mm. **
3/ Keep this in the fridge to harden.
4/ Remove from fridge when choux is all piped out and cut Craquelin into small square.
5/ Using a plastic spatula, transfer the delicate piece of Craquelin atop each mound of choux.

Note: I changed the method slightly from that of Sonia's in step 2 because I find the Craquelin hardens faster when it is a thin layer compared to one whole chunk.

DURIAN FILLING
Ingredients:
70g non-dairy whipping cream
150g durian flesh (stir well with fork to break up the fiber and turn durian mushy yet creamy)

Method:
1/ Whip non-dairy whipping cream over high speed till it peaks, then add in durian flesh and mix well.
2/ Keep this chilled in the fridge before using.

Paired with a cuppa of "durian" coffee, would you like any?

The variety of durian I used, for reference - Buaya Mas at RM8. I anyhow picked up a box because there were just too many varieties on the shelf. It was not too sweet but very fragrant, though with a slight bitter end-note which was my preference as we would be savouring the balance of durian not used in the choux, thus I went with our liking.

Orange Marmalade

2011-07-06T01:11:00.005+08:00

Curiosity drove me to try my hands on making Orange Marmalade. I remember this recipe piqued my interest when I first bought Amy Beh's [At Home with Amy Beh 2] way way back, and as usual, I completely forgot about it until few days ago when I was flipping through that recipe book again.

With oranges on hand, I quickly got my act together. The steps were easy to follow, just that it was time-consuming because it can't be rushed. Gentle heat was used throughout to ensure a good golden finish. Since I was just trying the recipe out, initial plan was to halve the recipe, thus using only 2 oranges to see how it turns out. But when I put the oranges into the pot with the required amount of water, the oranges were not covered totally by the water to enable it to simmer till skin-soft stage. So that prompted me to add one more orange, and it was just nice with some room to roam for the oranges in my pot. Recipe below is three quarter of the original recipe which I used to get this 400ml jar of orange preserve.

ORANGE MARMALADE
Source: Amy Beh [At Home with Amy Beh 2, page 227]
Yield: 400ml
Ingredients:
3 large oranges (weighing 500g total) - washed and scrubbed clean
900 ml water
Juice of 1 lemon (approximately 3 tbsp)
375g granulated sugar
3/4 tbsp brandy/Cointreau (optional) *I omitted this*

Method:
1/ Put oranges and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil then simmer uncovered over gentle heat for an hour or until orange skin turns soft.
*Do NOT use high heat as oranges will burst*
*To test if oranges are ready, use a satay stick to prick through the skin after boiling, if it can be pierced easily, the orange skin is soft enough*
2/ Remove oranges with a perforated ladle and leave them aside to cool slightly.
3/ Slice off four sides of the oranges *refer diagram* then cut the orange rind into very fine thin strips.
4/ Chop up the remaining orange flesh and return the chopped orange and sliced rind to the sauce pan together with the lemon juice to bring to a boil over moderate heat for 30 minutes until liquid is reduced by half.
5/ Add sugar, stir over gentle heat without boling to dissolve sugar completely.
6/ Bring content to a boil uncovered over medium high heat, stirring frequently for about 30 minutes till marmalade jells.
7/ Stir in liquor (if using) then fill orange marmalade into warm sterilised jars to store.

Note:
* Keep orange marmalade for at least a week before consumption for the flavours to meld together.

The Daily Grind

2011-07-04T10:58:00.009+08:00

Located at Bangsar Village's ground floor was The Daily Grind, TDG in short where we had our late lunch the next day after Hoofed!. A name that we had wanted to check out for their famous gourmet burgers with patties of 180g pure meat made in-store. So for this trip, this shall be our only burger meal in lieu of Carl's Jr.

Had a hard time deciding which gourmet beef burger we wanted, as they all looked so good by the description. After like 10 minutes scrutinising the menu, we shortlist it to two - Japanese Yodel Burger rm35 or Avocado & Bacon Burger rm29. In the end, we were won over by the "Avocado cream with crispy turkey bacon and barbeque sauce" burger and this is what's on the next photo. Can you spot the juicy beef patty? I can't too but take my word, it was there. Burger was yummy, and it was made up of all meal without any fillers. Hubby was a happy camper for sure.

We only shared one burger because plan was to budget some calories for this Peanut Butter & Roast Banana Pie. At rm16, it was pricey, but oh-so-good. Those peanut butter piped atop the pie was the attraction. It looked like Kisses chocolate, don't they?

Worth a mention was their Ketchup and Chilli Sauce which The Daily Grind made in-house. Definitely not one of those run-of the-mill commercial type, and we love these thick chunky sauce to go with those fries.

Might want to return to try their other burger selections should we make another trip down south.

Dinner: Hoofed!

2011-07-04T10:19:00.003+08:00

We made a hurried trip down to the capital city during the third week of June for the premier show of S.O.M. It was a weekday trip, so our only chance to have a decent dinner with cousin was on Monday and it was a late one. Thankfully our venue for the night opens till late, and we managed to try what had been on our list for about half a year now. It was none other than Hoofed! at Taman Tun.

Three of us only, so we decided on sharing to enable us to sample more food items from Hoofed!'s limited menu. Ya, the menu was not extensive but the 3 that we tried were awesome. Starting from this Smoked Duck Salad. Sitting generously atop the cucumber sticks and pieces of iceberg lettuce were the smoked duck slices which went very well with the oriental sesame oil dressing. As we tucked in more, we discovered that this restaurant had added century egg besides hard-boiled chicken egg into this salad. It was a good choice, I would say, eventhough initially we were like having second thoughts about this unusual food item in a salad. Ingenious!

Next came this unappealing-looking mains called Devil's Pasta. Despite the appearance, we chowed thism angel pasta down in no time. Partly because we were hungry, and the other part being this was really really good. The caramelised pork was still crispy after being stir-fried with some black soya sauce, and it blended very well with the thin strands of pasta.

Lastly came the highlight - Suckling Pig. We ordered the half portion priced at RM90, and even then, we had to doggy-bag half of it home because it was too sinfully rich. The first piece was excellent because the crackling was oh so crispy, then when tucking into the second, it does get a bit oily so that was where I stopped. I had it just as it was, without the accompanying sauce. Felt it tasted better that way.

Glad that we can now strike this off the food list having tried and tested it.

Cempedak Fritters

2011-07-02T17:23:00.004+08:00

Durian season now, so besides the king of fruits, the durian trader would usually have other fruits like mangoesteen, rambutans and cempedak on sale as well. We prefer to eat durian at the stall so that the car would not have the lingering smell. And it is a totally different experience to be served durian than to do the hard work of prying open the thorny fruit. So I only bought mangoesteen and cempedak, which are going for quite good price now. The former was 3kg for RM10, and RM5/kg for the latter.

With cempedak, comes the fritters. This time also using recipe from the same book, but I modified it by leaving the amonia powder out. Outcome still as crispy, just that there was no bee-hive texture. To review past attempts, here they are: 2009 & 2010.

CEMPEDAK FRITTERS
Adapted from [Traditional Kuih-Muih Step By Step by Mdm. Wong Sip Moi], page 7
Yield: 20 pieces
Ingredients:
80g rice flour
1 tsp tapioca flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp amonia powder *omitted*
100ml water
1 tbsp oil

Method:
1/ Combine everything except the oil and let batter rest for 30 minutes.
2/ Just prior to deep-frying process, add in the 1 tablespoon oil into batter and mix well.
3/ Dip cempedak into batter and coat well, then lower into hot oil to fry till golden.

Passionfruit Chiffon Cake

2011-06-29T11:23:00.007+08:00

Baked a Chiffon Cake this morning using passionfruit, a flavour I haven't attempted before. Very slight modification done because I won't know what to use the remaining 15g of passionfruit pulp for, thus easier to use it all up for the cake. The juice will be a good substitute for the water portion. Sweetness just perfect, with a slight hint of sour only.

PASSIONFRUIT CHIFFON CAKE
Adapted from Alex Goh's [Fruity Cakes, page 40]
Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
50g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
50g vegetable oil
55g passionfruit pulp *I used 80g of passionfruit pulp and omit the water as the passionfruit I used was quite big and juicy*
20g water

100g low protein flour *I used all purpose plain flour*
1/2 tsp baking powder

4 egg whites
100g sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
1/ Mix the ingredients listed from the egg yolks till water together, then add in the sifted powders.
2/ Whisk egg whites till soft peaks, then add in sugar and cream of tartar to continue to whip till stiff.
3/ Add 1/4 of the meringue from step (2) and mix into mixture from step (1) until well combined, then add this new mixture into the remaining meringue and fold till evenly mixed.
4/ Pour into 22-cm tube pan and bake at 170 degree Celcius for 40-45 minutes.
5/ Invert cake till cool once it is removed from the oven.

Steam Butter Cake

2011-06-28T11:36:00.002+08:00

Had some leftover Butter Cake batter after making some cupcakes, which came up to about 500g, so drawing inspiration from Alex Goh's [Magic Steamed Cake], I steamed it for a change.

Cake took approximately 45 minutes to get done in a 6" round baking tin which was covered with aluminium foil to prevent water droplets from creating dimples on the cake surface.

This Steam Butter Cake turned out very moist, but colour wise, I still prefer that of baked version. At least there's a brown top. In terms of taste, there were fine crumbs.

STEAM BUTTER CAKE
Ingredients:
125g butter
80g castor sugar
2 A-size eggs
125g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoon UHT milk

Method:
1/ Cream butter with castor sugar till pale and light, then add in one egg at a time until batter is fluffy.
2/ Spoon in the flour which has been sifted together with baking powder and mix using cutting motion with a plastic spatula. Alternate this with milk until both flour and milk has been used up.
3/ Level into baking pan and steam over high heat till a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
4/ Cool cake down completely before cutting.

Sour Plum Sauce Chicken

2011-06-28T11:10:00.003+08:00

The word "quick" attracted my attention to this in MaryMoh's blog. Not only that, the ingredients used were very basic and available in my kitchen, so I did it right away. Did change the chicken parts used though, and I made this dish with half a chicken breast plus 3 chicken wings. The combination of different types of sauces made the chicken very flavourful, and best part - no oil was used! I thought I read the recipe wrongly, and re-read it, but indeed there was no mention of oil.

SOUR PLUM SAUCE CHICKEN
Ingredients:
1/2 kg chicken
1/2 bulb garlic (peel removed and smashed)
2 tablespoon sour plum sauce
4 tablespoon ketchup
4 tablespoon light soya sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
250ml water

Method:
1/ Put everything into a deep pot and boil for 5 minutes on high then adjust fire to medium with lid on.
2/ After another 5 minutes, remove the chicken breast (if used) and continue to boil without the lid till sauce is reduced and thick.
3/ Turn off the fire and dish is ready.

I skipped the step of thickening the dish with corn flour solution (1 tablespoon corn flour to 4 tablespoon water), but add this after step (2) and bring pot to a boil again if one opts for this.

A Kind of Tuber

2011-06-26T13:17:00.002+08:00

This is a kind of tuber, but I didn't have a specific name for it to google for a recipe. So I did what I know best, to turn it into tongsui by just boiling with some screpine leaves and water, then flavour with some brown sugar slab.

It tasted like a cross between yam and sweet potato. Crunchy but not too starchy at the same time, don't quite know how to describe it. Added some big sago pearls, a lovely dessert which can be savoured hot or cold. We went for the latter due to the scorching heat we are experiencing currently. The purple hue is nice, don't you think so too?

Meatball Baked Rice

2011-06-26T12:44:00.002+08:00

Did a Meatball Baked Rice 2.5 weeks ago using a simple white sauce which I googled online.
Easy steps involved: Cook the rice, grill the store-bought meatball, prepare the white sauce over the stove then mix everything together. Pour into a bake dish and sprinkle with shredded mozarella cheese and baked till golden perfection.

Best eaten with a dash of tabasco sauce to cut the creaminess. Below is the brand of beef balls I used in creating this one-'pot' dish.

WHITE SAUCE FOR MEATBALL BAKED RICE
Source: link
Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp plain all purpose flour
250ml milk
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1/ Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, taking care not to burn the butter.
2/ Add flour and stir till well combined, then pour in milk to continue stirring till it thickens.
3/ Flavour with salt and this is ready to use.

Old Town Kitchen at Kampung Benggali

2011-06-25T07:21:00.003+08:00

Was brought to this place by a friend and her hubby, thus I didn't snap a photo of the food we sampled. But I still jot it down here for reference. The 3 of us had the Assam Curry Dory Fish - the spicy sour taste of the curry was fantastic, but I personally feel that dory is not very suitable in this dish. For meat dish, we had the Or Bak. It was Stir-fried pork with tiny slivers of ginger and black soya sauce. This wasn't oily at all, and the meat, tender. We had Bittergourd with Prawn in the vegetable section, tasted fine by me. As all the dishes came quite small portion, we added one more item, which was the Salted Fish Bone Curry. This was good as well. One thing to note is that I love their Iced Barley Milk drink, something I haven't came across elsewhere. The milky taste plus the bites from barley bits, this can get quite filling on its own.

Then recently, dh and me went for lunch to try their other dishes. First of all, the acar was fantastic. This place still does it like the olden days, which was to sun-dry the vegetables as part of the preparation process. Thus, the vegetables retain a crunchiness amiss in most acar we tasted at other so-called authentic nyonya food restaurant.

The Or Bak, doesn't look appealing but dh loves it.

The Assam Prawn was my favourite dish, with not overcooked prawns. Came with thick wedges of cucumber that had absorbed the tasty spicy gravy.

Lastly, Taucheo Fish for something non-spicy. Again, dory fish was used here, which makes me think that we should avoid ordering fish at this restaurant. Eventhough boneless, which makes eating it hassleless, I still strongly think dory is best used in Fish and Chips and not chinese dishes. But I must say the blend of tomato with taucheo was a good choice.

This is a nice place to visit for home-style cooking, and what I really like is its cleanliness. Orders came very fast as well despite the crowd.

Pandan Waffle

2011-06-23T22:00:00.004+08:00

Made these Pandan Waffle for munching and give away. It was quite filling as I used coconut milk in lieu of whipping cream and milk. I also omit the melted butter called for in the recipe because coconut milk will turn into oil upon heating. Turned out still light and fluffy.

PANDAN WAFFLE
Yield: 8 pieces
Ingredients:
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tbsp castor sugar
500ml coconut milk
4 egg yolks
1tsp pandan paste

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp castor sugar

Method:
1/ Sift flour and baking powder together. Add in salt and sugar then make a well in the centre.
2/ In a measuring jug, combine coconut milk and egg yolks.
3/ Whisk egg whites till frothy then add in the sugar and cream of tartar to continue whipping till soft peak stage.
4/ Pour the liquid content into the dry ingredients and mix till well, then fold in the meringue till mixture is homogeneous.
5/ Heat waffle griddle and make waffles.

Roti Bakar Kopitiam @ Taman Kheng Tian

2011-06-23T21:36:00.003+08:00

This is good stuff! Way surpassing that of Old Town and Pappa Rich combined, which happened to be our craze in that order, but we had ditched them for Roti Bakar Kopitiam. Should have discovered them earlier because by the time we stumbled upon them, they have opened their third outlet.

The Nasi Rendang Chicken (RM 9.90) came with pandan rice, which was very fragrant. This is by far, the second place we have tasted Pandan Rice, the other being on the 4th floor foodcourt of Queensbay Mall. It is good to be eaten on its own, thus we had seconds of that at RM2 per serving. Rendang was finger lickin' good, not too spicy but flavourful. No choice of other cut of meat apart from chicken thigh, else this plate would have a score of ten from us.

Next interesting dish was Curry Chicken with Home-made Miku. The Miku came ala french toast style - a light coating of egg and shallow fried for a crispy exterior but yielding a pillowy soft centre. Dipped into the curry, this was a good choice for a light meal. At RM7.50, I think it was value-for-money because just look at the big serving of curry with lots of chicken and potato, won't you agree with me?

The Hot White Coffee which dh had was a big let down, while the Iced Honey Milk was too sweet. So much so that I had to keep stirring the drink to melt the ice faster, but that aside, it was a fragrant cup of cold drink that suits the weather perfectly. RM3 and RM4.20 correspondingly. Coincidentally we were so lucky to be entitled to 50% off beverages when we dined there as they were having promotion for a limited time to launch their new menu.

Food wise, it was sumptious. Drinks surely need improvement, especially the coffee. But overall, I know we would return to try their other items because everything on the menu looks delicious.

Mulberry Chiffon Cake

2011-06-19T01:47:00.004+08:00

Wanted to use up the home-made Mulberry Jam that was given by my neighbour, couple with my curiosity to check how many eggs can the square chiffon cake tin take, I decided that by baking a Mulberry Chiffon Cake, I would be able to accomplish both missions. I estimated that it can take the volume of 3 eggs, and it was correct. But I might try with 2 eggs next time to see if I get a better looking cake. The square cake tin was very very tall and silly me, I didn't realise the magnitude of it until I saw how it almost reach the ceiling of the oven. Thus, the Mulberry Chiffon Cake browned too fast to my liking, so only solution: tent it once I achieved an even browning on the surface.

I substituted the pandan juice called for in Pandan Chiffon Cake to get the task done. The overall taste of mulberry was quite faint, but we get to taste some spots of sourishness because I added extra dollops of mulberry jam in between the layers. The sweet and sour taste was a delight to bite into. Let's move on to the recipe:

MULBERRY CHIFFON CAKE
Source: Kevin Chai's [Chiffon Cake Is Done], page 045
Ingredients
Egg Yolk Batter
3 egg yolks
2tbsp mulbery jam
75g coconut milk *I used box type*
1/8 tsp salt
2tbsp cooking oil
40g castor sugar
70g plain flour

Egg White Foam
3 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
50g castor sugar

Method:
1/ Combine everything in the egg yolk batter list in that order and fold in flour last until it all comes together.
2/ Beat egg whites till frothy, then add in cream of tartar and sugar gradually to continuet to whisk at high speed till soft peak stage.
3/ Remove some egg white meringue to mix with the egg yolk batter, and then, mix this with the rest of the egg white till homogeneous.
4/ Bake at 170 degree Celcius for 40 minutes or until the skewer-test comes out clean.
5/ Remove Mulberry Chiffon Cake from the oven and invert it to cool completely.

Bento #358 110604

2011-06-17T20:13:00.003+08:00

One more bento with rice dumpling, and in the bigger compartment, I filled it full of 3 different types of fruits, namely watermelon balls, orange wedges and chinese pear slices.

Bento #357 110603

2011-06-17T19:49:00.007+08:00

This bento was done during the Double Fifth Festival beginning this month. The rice dumpling was given by a friend, and it was superb because it wasn't oily at all. I filled up the rest of the space in the bento box with chinese pear wedges and two strawberry hearts. Some kiwi slices also.

Bento #356 110601

2011-06-17T18:40:00.003+08:00

Half a bento box for fruits and the other half, the mains.
On the left were juicy sweet watermelon plus mangoes dotted with some blueberries.
On the right, scrambled egg with stir-fried eryngii mushroom.

Raisin Cinnamon Rolls

2011-06-17T15:30:00.010+08:00

Cinnamon Rolls waiting to be baked in the oven. The breadmaker did all the work including first proofing, and I continued thereon by giving the dough a big punch. Followed by rolling it into a rectangle, brushing it with melted butter and sprinkling the surface with cinnamon sugar. Extras were 2 tablespoon of raisin plumped in hot water and drained off the liquid. Next step was rolling up the roll from the long side and cut into pieces measuring 5cm in length to fit an 8" square pan. For this, I used the loose-bottom pan which was brushed with melted butter so that dislodging the cinnamon roll after baking would be much easier.

Let the dough proof a second time till double which took approximately 40 minutes and bake for about 20 minutes (but I prefer browner rolls, thus baked longer for 10 more minutes). And here's the tray of inviting Raisin Cinnamon Rolls for tea time or breakfast, or anytime one fancies a snack.

RAISIN CINNAMON ROLL
Source: Mykitch3n, thanks Lydia
Yield: 10 rolls of 7cm x 7cm x 4cm in height
Ingredients:
250g bread flour
50g all purpose plain flour
6g instant dry yeast
30g soft brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
125ml fresh milk
50g butter

25g melted butter (for brushing on dough to let the cinnamon sugar stick to the surface)

*Cinnamon sugar mixture
50g soft brown sugar
1tbsp group cinnamon (equivalent to 10g)
1tbsp all purpose plain flour

*Cream cheese frosting
25g cream cheese
25g butter
40g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1/ Bring milk to a light boil (bubbles appearing on the side of pot) and get ready all the dry ingredients in the breadmaker pan. Remember to put the yeast in one corner while the salt in another far corner.
2/ Switch on the breadmaker with dough function, then let the machine give the dry ingredients a stir, then pour in the warm milk plus egg (amout of mixture should be 200ml, if the egg used is small, then just top up with more milk to get 200ml).
3/ Once dough is formed, add the 50g butter to continue mixing.
4/ Depending on the cycle of breadmaker, once dough has doubled in bulk, remove it from the breadmaker and do as per the paragraphs above.
5/ After second proofing, bake the cinnamon rolls for 10 minutes with 190 degree Celcius then another 10 minutes at 180 degree Celcius.
6/ Prepare cream cheese frosing by combining all ingredients and whisk till a paste is formed, then drizzle the frosting over the hot rolls.

Verdict:
Sweetness is sufficient for us without the frosting.

These soft rolls were great with a strong cup of cappuccino. It was so good that I went on to make one more batch with wholemeal version.

Gula Melaka Char Siew

2011-06-17T11:05:00.005+08:00

I have made char siew a couple of times at home, which first started with long marination hours and then roasted in the oven per this write-up. And then two months down the road, I came across a non-baked version, which suited our taste bud as well. If you ask me my preference, the cooked over the stove type wins hands down because the char siew done this way is more moist.

To my delight, the bi-monthly Yum Yum magazine Issue 72 (April 2011) featured a char siew recipe that uses Palm Sugar (or more commonly known as Gula Melaka). Now I can utilise the Gula Melaka that I bought from Jonker88. I set about going to the market the very next day and got into action quickly. Results was good lah. I went one step further to char the char siew in the oven for the crispy edge, but this is not compulsory.

GULA MELAKA CHAR SIEW
Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
1/2 bulb garlic (smashed with peel removed)
600g pork belly (cut into strips) [I just inform the butcher I want to make char siew and he would prepare accordingly]

4 tbsp light soya sauce *I use LKK Select brand*
50g gula melaka
500ml water

Method:
1/ Heat up oil and saute the garlic till fragrant in a pot.
2/ Add pork belly and brown both sides, then add all the seasoning.
3/ Bring to a boil and lower the heat to cook till meat is tender with the pot lid closed.
4/ Once char siew is tender, remove the lid and let the content to continue simmer till gravy is thickened.
5/ Put the char siew in oven to grill at 200 degree Celcius for 10 minutes to crisp the edge.
6/ Cool char siew before cutting and serve.

Waffle Attack

2011-05-31T14:41:00.006+08:00

As I was tidying up the storeroom, I caught a glimpse of the waffle maker which haven't been seeing much light of the day. And so, that became my tea time snack after the much dreaded chore of dusting and housekeeping. What a treat for the feat. Recipe adapted from here with slight modifications. Another waffle recipe to add to the collection, thanks Jen.

WAFFLE
Yield: 14 pieces
Ingredients:
150g plain flour
1tsp baking powder *
pinch of salt
1tbsp castor sugar
125ml whipping cream
125ml milk
2 egg yolks
1tsp pandan paste (omitted)
60g melted butter
2 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar *
1/2tbsp castor sugar *

Method:
1/ Sift flour and baking powder together. Add in salt and sugar then make a well in the centre.
2/ In a measuring jug, combine whipping cream, milk, egg yolks and melted butter.
3/ Whisk egg whites till frothy then add in the sugar and cream of tartar to continue whipping till soft peak stage.
4/ Pour the liquid content into the dry ingredients and mix till well, then fold in the meringue till mixture is homogeneous.

Baking in Wee Hours of the Morning

2011-05-19T11:22:00.003+08:00

First time ever I baked something from scratch in time for dh to bring to office for his breakfast. I began to panic seeing the scones were still so pale in colour when the baking time was up, so I ramped up the temperature slightly and baked for a longer period. Most probably due to that, I find the scones were slightly dry. Nevertheless, I was happy I persevered and made it despite the mad rush. Very rewarding to start the day with a successful bake, not to mention the aroma that greeted one's nose upon rising from the bed.

SCONES
(adapted from here, thanks Jen)
310g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
40g butter (cut into cubes direct from fridge)
1 tbsp sugar
250ml milk

1/ Preheat oven to 220 degree Celcius.
2/ Sift self raising flour and baking powder into a large bowl, then rub butter into the dry ingredients till it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3/ Add in the tablespoon of sugar at this stage to lessen any floury taste.
4/ Make a well in the centre and pour in some milk, then mix with a flat bladed knife using cutting action till dough comes together in clumps. Remember to rotate the bowl as you work.
5/ With floured hands, gentle gather dough together and pat into a smooth ball on lightly floured surface. DO NOT KNEAD!
6/ Flatten slightly and cut into 6 wedges, then sent for baking after a light glaze of milk for 15 minutes or more until risen and golden.

p/s: Add in a handful of dried cranberries after step (4) if using.

Green Curry Paste From A Bottle

2011-05-18T20:01:00.003+08:00

Paste was bought during the last KL trip couple of months back, but only put to test last month. I only add one tablespoon to cook one pot of Green Curry Chicken using a piece of chicken breast plus a few eggplants and it was sufficiently spicy.

Initially we had the Green Curry Chicken with steamed white rice, and with the leftover, we consumed it with udon. One pot of curry to last us two meals, only complaint would be the color outcome. It was not as green as it should be.

Cheap Eat for Lunch

2011-05-18T19:44:00.001+08:00

Chanced upon this flyer in the mailbox a month back, I kept it in view and had been wanting to give it a go. Days went by and finally had the opportunity to lunch there.

Chose the Honey PrimeRoast with Chicken Rice, quite value for money as it managed to fill my tummy. I missed reading the fine prints, the RM4.95 was before plus plus, so after including the ten plus six percent, bill came up to RM5.80. Hopeful to catch their other items before promotion ends (not sure when because there was no mention in the flyer).

Siam Express Deals

2011-04-12T11:34:00.004+08:00

Siam Express is our go-to at the moment for a quick-fix of Thai food because of their set meals which do not burn our pockets (but our tongue because of the spicy fiery food their offer). Some deals come with drinks thrown in, while others were served with soup, depending on which collection we go for. Another brownie point is also because it is conveniently located in malls, so after getting our groceries done, we can just sit down for a quick meal with prompt service. Can't recall which set we went for, because if not mistaken, there is set lunch, set dinner and another type called all day set meal. Anyway, this was the Belachan Fried Rice which came with some tasty stir-fried slices of chicken breast. The rice was delicious with sufficient hint of belachan, but not over-powering. A good match with the Thai sambal in the little saucer. My fusion pasta was done equally good as well, with thick shreds of abalone mushroom and chicken breast. One thing worth mentioning is that Siam Express uses chicken breast without skin, which makes it a healthier choice compared to some businesses which throw in a lot of those yucky fatty skins in an attempt to save cost and earn more. Back to this pasta, it was creamy with a hint of spiciness, and that, can be adjusted as well. Just let the attendant know how "HOT" you can go, ranging from mild to spicy.

That sums up our mall meal in one of those outing, can't remember when by now.

Home-made Meat Balls

2011-04-12T10:48:00.004+08:00

Didn't realise that thus far, I haven't written any post dedicated to meatballs which I do make quite often at home because it is quite versatile be it for Western or Oriental cuisine. Whip up a sizeable batch and portion into serving size, meals can be readied in half the time. Match this with pasta, rice or bread, you make the choice. Good on its own or with sauce, nobody's complaining (or at least in my household).
I usually go by gut feel, so the list of seasonings I use most of the time varies, sometimes more (when not on lazy mode) sometimes less, but the basics are:
Maggi Seasoning
LP Sauce
white pepper powder
coarse black pepper
brown castor sugar
salt
minced garlic
chopped onion
tiny cubes of carrot
egg
wholemeal flour
cornflour
panko
Nestum *

Mixed everything in one direction until gooey and sticky, then shape with wet palms before deep-frying till light brown and size has shrink a little bit. Drain on paper towel and serve as-is or with dips.
This is my first time using Nestum, and I liked the end result. I added it in because I still have a big jar of this processed cereal in the larder, and when I opened the cabinet to reach for the cornflour, on impulse I got hold of both jars. Afterall, I just need some dry ingredients to bind and hold the meatball in shape, so it proved to be a happy ending.

Bento #251 110107

2011-03-08T10:36:00.002+08:00

Let's meet the Botak King & Queen (botak = bald), which was Smiley Hash Brown with the addition of food picks to raise their ranks. "They" went for a picnic beside the bush next to the scrambled-egg pond accompanied by some strawberries under the bright hot sun (as represented by the whole unpeeled little tangerine). Aww...how 'romatic', pun intended!

Bento #250 110105

2011-03-08T10:29:00.002+08:00

This bento also had the same nasi lemak as #249, but I know the flavour for this because I had left the packaging intact. It was Cuttlefish with Egg. One thing that impressed me with this nasi lemak supplier was that they print their own packaging and did not use newspaper as wrapper, which was the normal practice. That's why I put the whole packaging into the bento box without a worry because the ink doesn't dislodge easily.

As my chilli tolerance factor is not very high (let's put it as slightly above average), I opted for juicy Chinese pear so that as least the fruit can help to douse my tongue just in case it got burnt from the fiery red sambal sotong.

Bento #249 110105

2011-03-08T08:36:00.004+08:00

Ready-to-eat nasi lemak which I bought from the wet market, can't recall the flavour now since it was two months ago.

A combination of tiny tangerines, strawberry and black grapes were all that I managed to squeeze into this elongated black no-frills bento box. Love the simplicity of it.

Bento #248 101230

2011-03-08T07:57:00.002+08:00

This, I call it a "guest bento" because it was done for my cousin. We went visiting her place, so that made me the guest. Or should it be she the guest as in guest appearance kind of scenario? Doesn't really matter, but more importantly, I did it to cheer her up as she had to work through New Year's Day (the most demanding type of office job to have to "close the books" as it was the cut-off, so I bet one can guess her nature of work then). The surprise caught her off-guard and she squeeled with delight upon seeing the smiley that greeted her in this collapsible bento. Thus, she was floored! Which in turn made my day as well!

Extra brownie-points was the print on the cover as she loves anything oinky (pardon me if there's no such word). As I was 'working' in someone else's kitchen, I had minimal ingredients to play with. Thus all the store-bought stuff, oh let me correct myself, all except the Pumpkin Sponge Cake as that was a gift from a blogger friend. Recognise the JJ swissrolls on the far right? It was Pandan Custard and Banana Cream Cheese, both flavours "ordered" by her highness. Plus a piece of Beef Rendang Puff Pastry I bought in Ipoh for something savoury.

By the way, this bento marks the last of my bento creations for the year 2010. The year started with Bento #041 100106, It had certainly been a fruitful bento year, so to speak. I didn't expect to chart 208 bentos, thus I'm over the moon now as I learn this fact. Hopefully a projection of 365 for year Twenty Eleven would be achieveable. Let's hop there now with the next post.

Bento #247 101226

2011-03-08T07:45:00.003+08:00

This Boxing Day bento was prepared for my niece who came over to spend Christmas with us and stayed the night, kind of a yearly ritual for her because we have Christmas tree at our place. To kids, Yuletide must be celebrated with Christmas tree in the background, that's per our understanding from her. Don't ask me the logic, but I guess that's how her young mind associate the occasion with the decoration.

A store-bought sausage bun cut into size to fit this bento box, I added some cherry tomatoes with leaf foodpicks for some decoration. Besides that, more fruits in a 'cup' with chinese pear wedges and strawberries with Santa Claus greetings. Since this bento was for a kiddo, I make Hello Kitty's presense be felt so that Santa Claus won't be alone doing his rounds.

Bento #246 101223

2011-03-08T07:37:00.002+08:00

Crispy bacon was the highlight of today. Something that I don't buy too often for the fact that it is processed (okay, better word would be "cured") and over-salted. Plus fresh (as opposed to stale dry looking) ones are not easy to come by where I stay, but I am not complaining.

Grilled the capsicum chunks in the ovenette before putting them in the solo muffin liners, these tasted sweet on their own without any need for seasoning. Definitely a healthy choice, what's more with strawberry and blueberry thrown in at the fruits department.

Bento #245 101220

2011-03-08T07:23:00.005+08:00

Are you bored with eggs by now? I am, but that is the easiest to cook and meets the protein requirement of dh. So unless I purchase/prepare/bake something ahead, by default it would be eggs most of the time. I alternate between scrambled style and omelette for some variety, but the former is preferred because it is easier to consume as dh sometimes eat his breakfast bento in the car while stuck in traffic jam. It is not literally multi-tasking per se, but with a growling stomach and a warm food bento, who can resist making full use of the time stationary in the car? I know I won't.

Two long skewers of sausages with multi-coloured bell peppers in between, and both ends capped with red and yellow cherry tomatoes were the side dishes for today. Fruit wise, there's the blueberries and strawberries. Not to forget, a container of sauce to make the food more palatable.

Bento #244 101218

2011-03-08T02:59:00.002+08:00

The mains in this bento were scrambled eggs with chicken ham bits. The latter looked dark because I sauteed them separately and added a dash of Maggi's Soy Sauce for depth of flavour.

In the small tub of Lilo & Stitch round lidded container was a mixture of ketchup, chilli sauce and bbq sauce. Separating this and the blueberries were two Korean strawberries.

Bento #243 101217

2011-03-08T02:45:00.002+08:00

A moderately elaborate bento for today using french toast to make the delicious chicken ham sandwiches. I added in some slices of red tomatoes and lettuce as well.

The top left slicon cup had mango cubes interspersed with a fistful of blueberries. Into the box two strawberry halves went hand-in-hand.

Bento #242 101216

2011-03-08T02:34:00.002+08:00

Lots of bento posts to catch up (what's new!), better get down to business. Pardon the bento diarrhoea, let's start with a cheery yellow one complete with spork (combination of the word "sp"oon and f"ork" in this Sponge Bob Square Pants laptop bento box.

Store-bought nasi lemak with prawns and egg from the wet market in the big compartment. Whereas 3 plump juicy red strawberries with blueberries in silicon container filled up the smaller compartment's space.

Coffee Break

2011-02-23T14:01:00.004+08:00

Taking a Starbucks break from all the heavy feasting...with this Peanut Butter Creme Brulee @ RM8.50.
It was superb, a firm favourite for the time being for me at Star$ though I don't have it too often. In fact, since this (virgin) piece, I haven't had any. Not even tempted to, and let's hope I can hold my horses now that I am ramping down my food intake to prepare for a run event. Still undecided which category I am registering though I hope to go for longer distance. But 5 weeks is simply too short to prepare so means gotta shelf that for end of the year event. Hopefully I won't chicken out by then.

Back to this slice of cake, it wasn't overly sweet unlike many of the items Starbucks offer, and I can even detect Ferrero Rocher being used in the base layer. And what an awesome way to usher in the 兔年 with this, at the latest outlet of Starbucks at none other than the seafront hangout place of Straits Quay Marina Mall. A few other outlets which I hope will hurry up their store opening there, one of which is Delicious. Can't wait, can't wait.

洗尘 Dinner @ Canton-I

2011-02-23T12:29:00.003+08:00

Since it was quite near CNY when we went for the above mentioned dinner, we got the chance to try out their special selections that were only available for a short period to cater to the CNY menu. There was a period of time when we dined at Canton-I pretty frequently, then we stopped. So now when we went back after a hiatus, realised that the set meals that we felt was quite worth the while was no longer available, thus the choices, sad to say, was limited as well. Honesty be told, I was quite disappointed when I found out about it minutes before the rest of the folks arrived. Too late to do anything but get on with things.

Another reason I can't back out was because when I booked the round table (the restaurant only has limited 2 of these), I also pre-ordered this Poon Choy. We opted for the set that came with Shark's Fin as it was more value for money with an additional RM110 because the Poon Choy alone was RM388.

Spot the "Money Bags" in the hot soup? It was a huge Treasure Pot indeed, filled to the brim with the choicest of ingredients and the bonus...refillable soup at no extra charge.

Let's peep further and what to you see? I was eyeing the 十头 Australian Premium Abalone, of course!

The Prosperity Abalone Treasure Pot revealed...per the brochure, there were 16 ingredients in this with total weight of 8.5 pounds. The top layer had 6 different items only, but as one digs further, more treasures were revealed. I remember the bottom most layer being yam and radish, which came in chunks. These added sweetness to the Poon Choy besides serving as a platform and structure in elevating the rest of the ingredients to the brim.

For the record, this is the excerpt from the brochure:

Australian Premium Abalone (Ten Head)

Australian Sea Cucumber

Japanese Dried Scallop

Japanese Dried Oyster

Premium Mushrooms

Pantai Remis Fresh Sea Prawn

Fish Maw

Roast Chicken

Roast Port Belly

Golden Money Bag

Yam

Black Moss

Chinese Cabbage

Tianjin Cabbage

Deep-fried Beancurd Skin

Radish

After the excitement of the above, this Abalone Thick Soup with Shark's Fin & Dried Seafood pale in comparison for two reasons. The first pot came over-salted, so we got a replacement pot which was just nice in taste. However, by the time the second pot was served, we were happily tucking into the Poon Choy that we neglected it, so we had to pack it home. So to sum it up, we didn't have a pleasant experience with Canton-I's Shark's Fin soup.

Fiery Dried Chili Chicken, one of the many dishes we ordered but I only managed to snap a photo of this and not the rest. Sure tantalised the palate HOT.

Some finger food for snacking while waiting for the Treasure Pot Poon Choy to be readied and served - Nam Yu Chicken Wings, so-so only.

The first of many bowls (two only) I had.

Overall it was a good meal with superb company, but we definitely found out another place which serves better Poon Choy after this, stay tuned!

Bunny Year Feasting Part I of Many

2011-02-22T21:22:00.006+08:00

...started from the eve with Reunion Dinner, of which we had double simply because we had to go dine at both households, my parents and my inlaws, in that order. Mum's place was the traditional steamboat which I grew up with, and most families would have steamboat for reunion, as far as I know of, up until I got married and it was an eye-opener. My inlaws' reunion was ala non-steamboat, so it was dishes and rice. Plus a must-have of noodle which signifies longevity. Good thing also, at least I get varieties, but being a soup person, of course steamboat would be my choice, with lots and lots of vegetables. Ideal to lesson calories intake.

This was my contribution: Yee Sang. Presented differently this year with slight twist to the ingredients. Just don't fancy doing the same thing year in and year out. This was the plate of raw and preserved vegetables. Love the ring of carrot that lent this auspicious dish a splash of vibrant orange, else it was a sea of dull pale colours.

Photo of the Yee Sang here was with the addition of fresh salmon slivers mixed with lime juice and a wee bit of telseed oil to cut down the fishyness, and at the same time, make the fish taste smoother and more fragrant. Also added in the crushed groundnut and toasted sesame seeds, thus this definitely looked more appetising.

The rest of the ingredients which were added last, namely the Pok Choi (crispy crunchy bits in strips) and sauce mixture. Thereafter, it was tossing time using chopsticks, the higher the toss, the better. After tossing and helping ourselves to a bowl of Yee Sang each, we would heap on the crunchy strips in our individual bowl, some sort like garnishing before consumption. Taste better because this way, we can maintain the crispies else they would turn soggy too fast.

Instead of chinese pear strips, it was thin slices of chinese pear. This provided more bite and made the Yee Sang taste so much better, though presentation wise, it didn't look as appealing. It was a happy meal, that was the single most important factor, so presentable or not, it didn't quite matter.

p/s:

Price of a box of Yee Sang has sky-rocketed to about +/- RM20, what a huge increase that took place from the first time I bought one, which was about RM10ish as far as my memory could recall. The perils of inflation, which no one can escape as long as one is still breathing.

BBQ December 2010: Part II of II

2011-02-22T13:55:00.003+08:00

This was the sequel of the BBQ series, exactly one week later, and on Boxing Day. As there were little ones around, the menu was more kid's friendly. Thus the pearl corn on cob and Japanese sweet potato. This time round, we had two different flavours of chicken wings instead, and no ribs at all since our family members are small eaters unlike friends who have gastronomic appetite.

Sausages were skewered on pre-soaked satay sticks to facilitate little hands in consuming them, as they can grip better than fork. It was kinda fun for them as well because it resembles lollipop a bit, what's with the long stick. For something more solid, we had this box of beef burger patties to make up the red meat selection.

These were my kitchen helpers in the chicken wings department. I was only left with one packet of this buffalo wings marinate, so no choice, I had to combine it with another packet of different flavour. Turned out edible, but not as great because the one in greenish packaging was not that strong in taste.

The other marinade for chicken wings was done based on my gut feel. I used a bit of all the available oriental sauces in my pantry which I think can go well together. It turned out dellish, but definitely not something I can recreate because I added in some Master Sauce that had been stored and repeatedly reheated for a full-bodied flavour. That, as the name implies, definitely added some depth to the chicken wings flavour.

BBQ December 2010: Part I of II

2011-02-22T12:24:00.003+08:00

We hosted not one but two bbq parties near the rear end of year 2010. Donkey years ago we only held one but split it into two session, the earlier slot for family members while the later half for friends. Why not combined, one may ask. Well, my parents are early birds, thus they will leave early to retire for the day while our friends are busy folks, they have multiple agendas for one day, so starting late suits their plan. Furthermore, we can chat till late at night over drinks, be it a cuppa or alcohol. Down side is that have one single party to cater to two different crowd drain us bad, we would be too tired to enjoy the whole session. We can feel our energy level dwindling fast as the night progresses. Now exhausted no more, two different parties is the ideal provided we can find the time to fit the double eating into the short December month.

Now back to the first one we hosted for friends on 19-December, a Sunday. Christmas was the season for the celebration, thus the red and green cutleries plus a wooden tag for a touch of festival.

Food wise, I made sausage kebabs for a change from the boring frankfurters. This way, I managed to incorporate vegetables into the menu without the need for another dish. Definitely balanced up the nutrients a tad of this otherwise zero-value processed food.

Chicken wings was marinated overnight for better flavour and taste. Same goes for the pork ribs, which we did in two flavours. The ribs needed more work, first was tenderising using pineapple juice but in the end, we used Coca-Cola as that was easier to buy. Then the next day, we marinated the short ribs in Guiness Stout and Barbeque sauce separately. Both came out very juicy and tender, perfectly grilled to retain their flavour. Superb if I must say. Can't really recall what other items we had, but those were the major ones. Not much photography of that night, too busy hosting and of course ~ eating.

A Cup of Abundant Wealth

2011-02-22T11:30:00.002+08:00

So many photos for far too many blog post topics, I don't know where to start. Should I start from where I let off last year, but by the time I get to the current ones in February, it would all be stale news and history by then. Or should I start with the most current photos and go backwards in time? Hmm..I don't know.

Still reeling in lazy mode, hope this strong cuppa will perk me up and help me make the best decision as to which direction I should be heading (definitely not the bed for more Vitamin Z though I seriously need to catch up on that as well).

Meanwhile, enjoy this home-brewed Cappuccino which carried the CNY theme of "ong lai", which equates to "Bring Forth the Wealth". I know today is 5 days post Chap Goh Meh, but guess anytime of the year wealth is welcomed, not necessarily during CNY only, right?

Spring Cleaning Plus A New Look

2011-02-21T23:34:00.003+08:00

Didn't realise it has been two solid months of no-update on this blog, even CNY had came and went. Certainly took me great effort to jump start my almost stagnant 'engine' which had been left cool for far too long an unintended period. After dusting away the virtual "cob webs", it is time for a brand new look for the Hoppy Bunny Year.

Feel dotty already?

Winter Solstice Festival 2010

2010-12-22T13:17:00.001+08:00

A bowl of 汤圆 for the festival. Mom being the traditional type stuck to two colors only, white and pink. Or to be more precise, only one is colored while the other is left in its natural state of white.

This year the glutinious rice balls she made were more QQ because she placed them immediately into a bowl of ice water after they were scooped out of the boiling hot liquid once they were afloat. Bye-bye to soft tang-yuen.

Kitchen Invasion

2010-12-15T08:23:00.001+08:00

My kitchen has been 'taken over' by this bag from GNC temporarily, thus not much cooking done for the time being though I will still be posting bentos and our eating outs or those long overdue write-ups.

This meal replacement settles our dinner with just one single scoop per serving per pax, and we either mixed with iced water or low fat milk. Makes life so easy and kitchen sparkling clean, but I still miss the actions in the kitchen.

Let's see how long we can sustain on this bag which I dubbed as "fertiliser" due to its packaging, pun intended. Hopefully it won't be a permanent resident in our home, but until we achieve our target, I guess I still have to put up with this bulky pack of expensive powder. Wish me luck!?!

Bento #241 101214

2010-12-14T08:27:00.001+08:00

Finished off the last two pieces of puff pastry in this bento for dh, which I reheated in the ovenette besides crisping it.

The other fixed compartment had blueberries with three cheeky snowmen having fun. 2 cut-up strawberries filled up the remaining gap, and that's all for this bento numbered two-hundred-forty-one.

Bento #240 101213

2010-12-13T13:53:00.001+08:00

Store-bought puff pastry housed in the bigger compartment of this pink-bow bento box. One thing good about this type of fixed compartment bento box is that I don't need to worry about moisture seeping out from the fruits and staining the puff pastry, making them soggy.

Let's see what I had in terms of fruits: slices of starfruit, red cherry tomatoes and a handful of blueberries.

This bento #240 was assembled quite fast since it didn't require much work from me apart from cutting the starfruit and crisping the puff pastry in the ovenette for a few minutes, both of which I did simultaneously by multi-tasking.

Bento #239 101213

2010-12-13T08:05:00.000+08:00

This was by far, the nearest I got to making a Christmas bento out of food and not deco. I made a Pancake King, taking a leaf out of gingerbread boy by using a cutter and a crown pick. This was atop a stack of pancakes hidden from view by the aluminium foil.

Marmalade and plum jam to go with the home-made pancakes, then some red cherry tomatoes and bluberries in silicon fancy cups. I threw in a wedge of cheese, as a gap filler as well as upping the protein intake.

Didn't realise there was still a gap until I was reviewing the photo. Guess my bento skill still has lots of room for improvement.

Bento #238 101210

2010-12-10T07:56:00.001+08:00

Today is short-cut bento day, I declare. Happened to be in the market to pick up some eggs, so I took the opportunity to buy some 'butterfly' snacks. It is a cousin of the more common cruellers, but instead of being savoury, it is sweet and can be eaten on its own.

Gap fillers were tomato, strawberry (realised it was hidden in this photograph when I attach it here in this post), kiwi and banana. I found the Santa fancy picks I mentioned yesterday, snd thus, used them to secure a plump blueberry to two of the banana chunk.

Bento #237 101209

2010-12-09T11:54:00.001+08:00

This morning's bento was more elaborate because of the Baked French Toast that took a considerable chunk of time to make. But it was worth the effort as dh loved it to bits. Recipe to follow soon.

One third of the bento box was filled with fresh fruits - green kiwi (the regular in the household currently), plum (hidden beneath the strawberry), strawberry and red cherry tomatoes.

Had to use these cute and simple colourful foodpicks because I had no luck in locating the Santa Claus food pick I bought recently. I have yet to sort out my purchases due to unforseen agendas, despite being back for a week now. Hopefully I would be able to get round to that task later today so that Santa can make a guest appearance come tomorrow.

Bento #236 101208

2010-12-08T08:11:00.001+08:00

I made a meat floss sandwich this morning as it has been quite awhile our household ran out of this item. We only consume one particular brand and the shop is quite a distance from where we stay, then factor in my lousy memory bank, I haven't been able to buy it till yesterday when we were in the vicinity.

There were 2 strawberries and 2 skewers of fruit-kebab on christmas-themed food picks that I managed to add in a frenzy this morning. Deep slumber made me overslept, so I consider this a hurry-scurry bento.

Bento #235 101207

2010-12-07T07:31:00.000+08:00

Facing a fridge that needs re-stocking, this was what I managed to assemble. *phew*

Scrambled eggs and potato chips were the mains while green kiwi and blueberries were the co-star. There were also grapes and tomatoes 'fresh on their vines'.

The little container had mixture if sauce within, namely ketchup, chilli sauce and bbq sauce.

Bento #234 101202

2010-12-04T10:47:00.000+08:00

Dunkin Donuts in this bento were made up of 3 flavours. Cinnamon Sugar was hidden underneath the pile because it kind of disintegrate when I transferred it from the original box to this bento box. Don't know why it only happened to this particular flavour but I noticed that somehow the texture of this Cinnamon Sugar Donut was different from the rest, it was more batter like than bread.

Half Peanut Butter and Jelly Donut with half Sesame Seed Wholemeal Donut took out the rest of the space. The colour was a sea of brown, so to brighten things up, I added a red cherry tomato with pink flower food pick.

As usual, fruits made their presence felt and today we have kiwi, plum and pineapple ring with us.

Bento #233 101124

2010-12-04T10:31:00.001+08:00

Almost identical bento as the previous one, just that I didn't cut the bread slices into fancy shapes.

The middle cup contained assorted fruits of grapes, blueberries and cherry tomatoes.

Bento #232 101124

2010-12-03T21:53:00.001+08:00

Sausage lightly sauteed with soya sauce to go with bread slice which I cut using a metal cookie cutter.

Sides were potato chips and fruits. Find that cutting the kiwi this way makes my life easier without bruising the delicate fruit. Eating also made easier by just scooping the flesh out. The green kiwi us 'adorned' by some bluberries.

Bento #231 101123

2010-11-24T09:37:00.001+08:00

A sandwich bento for this new week was in the form of jigsaw puzzle pieces. I had so much fun fixing this dual-tone cheese sandwich pieces though initially I got stuck. After a few attempts it was a breeze.

Not much space left, I can only put in 4 skewers of fruits made up of cherry tomato, blueberry and grape.

Pre Penang Bridge International Marathon 2010 Dinner

2010-11-23T05:57:00.001+08:00

We had to get ourselves to Queensbay Mall before it closes for the day if we wanted to park near the event venue, else roads will start closing and we would have to park and walk. Since our event didn't start till 6am, we did not want to get dressed in sports attire that early, unlike a lot of other participants who did that for convenience. I think if we were to do that, we will be feeling very uncomfortable and won't feel fresh to start our run.

So we managed to get there before 10pm, and with stomach grumbling, went to have our tummy-fill at TGI Friday's. A lot of eateries were calling it a day since it was getting late, save for the two coffee outlets (CBTL and Starbucks) which were open for 24 hours that day, thus we didn't have much choice. We opted for TGIF's as it was has a bar and closes slightly later, and best part is that it is Starbucks' neighbour, so once we were done with dinner, we can just hop next door to have our caffeine boost to keep us up throughout the night.

Enough of blabbering, now let's move on to the makan. We had our carbo loading with this Outrageous Sliced BBQ Beef Tacos. It was very 'loaded', so much so that I had to wrap a serviette around it to prevent the toppings from falling all over yhe place. The stuffings include frizzled onions, lettuce, chopped fresh tomatoes and yellow onion with zippy Pepper Jack cheese melted over tender slices of barbeque beef. Oh, that was certainly as mouthful as the tacos itself. The Southwestern cream sauce brought everything together beautifully, and with the Jack Daniel sauce we requested as extra, what more could we ask for of RM25.90?

Next up was the New York Chimichurri Strip, done medium-well to our delight. I ever hate it to have my steak overcooked into a thick slab of chewy rubber, so kudos to thr kitchen staff for getting this right to my liking. My last steak experience at Chilli's was atrocious, but let's keep to this topic lest my appetite goes down the drain.

The NY Strip Steak which was air flown grain-fed Australian beef was juicy and tender. The simple preparation of chargrilling brought out the natural flavours of this red meat and with the chimichurri sauce, we had a good plate of steak. The greenish sauce tasted a tad like pesto to us with a light tinge of mint. We also fell head over heels with the side dishes, namely the roasted garlic spud and tomato wedges roasted with garlic nibs. This was at a premium price of RM49.90.

As for desserts, we had the Chocolate Berry Muffin at you-know-where. This is Starbucks' Christmas promotion item for this year.

Glad that we had a good meal that fueled us for the whole 10 kilometre run without any stop nor cramps within the stipulated 1.5 hours to fet the finisher medsl. Thank God for the cool weather with rain showers before and after our event also.

PBIM, we will be back next year for sure. May be can set our goals higher by then (fingers crossed and hands clasped tight in prayers).

Bento #230 101119

2010-11-19T16:06:00.000+08:00

Main compartment housed 2 pieces of square waffles which I cut into triangle halves, so that means a total of 4 pieces. To go with that, some jam and honey in convenient packaging.

Green kiwi, plum and strawberries took up the rest of the smaller space and I managed to squeeze in a skewer of cherry tomato and pineapple with a Christmas pick.

Ain't too early for that Season of Giving, I hope. Let the countdown begin!

Bento #229 101118

2010-11-18T07:08:00.000+08:00

Mind was kind of 'rusty' to get into bento mood, so I resort to using eggs. A fast and easy bento filler for me. In the bigger compartment with the scrambled eggs were 2 sausages cut into half and sauteed lightly for added fragrance. I prefer this method over boiling or steaming since I had used the pan for the eggs, might as well use it also.

The other side, I just put in a variety of fruits. As you can see, there was half a green kiwi fruit cut at a slant accompanied by a medley of grapes, tomatoes, strawberry and blueberries.

Bento #228 101112

2010-11-12T17:51:00.002+08:00

In between this bento and the last, there were some others, I think at least 6 but due to my negligence, I accidentally deleted them while I was transferring the photos from the camera to the laptop. I felt so lousy and crappy when that happened, and tried as I might, I can't get them back despite turning the "Recyle Bin" upside down, inside out. So now on, I have to be more careful and really concentrate when doing that, no more silly mistakes.

This bento has 2 home-made egg tarts, one for each flavour that I baked yesterday. The green one is pandan, while the yellow one is original egg custard. I was afraid that the fragile egg tarts will get squashed, so I placed them in Wilton's fancy cups. They were thicker and more sturdy, which I hope will provide more support for these short-crust pastries. See those bits of crumbs on the green egg tart? They were that delicate despite me being really gentle with them.

One gap was filled with grapes, while the other at the further end, with strawberries. This batch of strawberries from New Zealand called Omaha Strawberries are sweeter and I like that they are redbthroughout as compared to others that I used previously, there would be white parts near the peduncle. Price wise, no difference.

Last Night's Dinner

2010-11-12T17:15:00.002+08:00

We were told to be prepared to brace for wet weather now that the monsoon season is back.
That means eating home more because going out in the rain is so much hassle.
And then also a good opportunity to clear the freezer of old stock (for re-stocking, that is).

So for this dinner, I just need to thaw the mantou (Chinese Oriental Buns) and deep-fry them to heat up, giving them a crispy exterior and a fluffy inside that went very well with the store-bought mutton curry. The mutton was very tender, and I only need to add some potato wedges for some volume.

What I did was to cut 2 potatoes into 6 or 8 wedges, then deep-fry them till cooked. Then put them into the curry and steam together with the mutton to heat up. The flavour gets soaked in just nice at the end, as I had used a deep bowl and layer the mutton at the top. This way, the mutton would weigh the potato down and make the potato submerge in the gravy totally.

One of my lazy ways of preparing dinner which can't get any lazier.

Mirror Mirror on the Egg Tart

2010-11-12T15:47:00.001+08:00

Who is the fairest of them all?
Often times, I'm drawn to making egg tarts because the process is quite fast, the only tedious part is keeping a close watch towards the end of the baking time to make sure the custard gets set without boiling.

Was happy that my attempt at this recipe gave me such a shiny sheen on the custard surface. I nearly lost it for my first batch, which was the yellow egg custard. So the story goes...As the 30 minutes baking time recommended by the recipe was up but the custard was still watery, I moved the rack higher to be closer to the top heating element for a further 10 minutes. Then I got distracted by some other chores, and when I came back to check inside the oven, there was this big huge balloon greeting me. I panicked and quickly removed the tray and luckily the balloon deflated without much damage. The remaing 8 pieces of the egg tarts were still good, what a scare I got.

One set of the recipe gave me 9 pieces using half an egg for the crust, and what do I do with the other half of the egg? I decided to make another batch, but a different flavour - pandan. Colour was a wee bit too strong for my liking, could have done with 1/8 tsp of pandan paste. Lesson learnt, that's for sure. But the pros is that it turned out great in the photography.

It took a longer time for the pandan custard to set, not sure if it was the weather as it was raining hard when I baked them later in the night, thus the temperature of the environment might have reduced the overall temperature in the oven as I use a stand alone oven. Or it could be the additional 1 tbsp of evaporated milk I added in the pandan custard because in my first batch, the last piece of egg tart was short on custard. Your guess is as good as mine.

Longer baking time or not, I was extremely please with the results. No blind-baking of the crust for this, and the recipe gave exactly 9 pieces. Thanks to Mikiko for sharing! Her site is in Mandarin, so here's the translation.

EGG TART
Yield: 9 pieces (top 8cm diameter, base 5cm diameter, height 1.5cm)
Egg Custard: (yield 350ml)
140g water
60g castor sugar
2 nos egg
40g evaporated milk [equivalent to 2 tbsp]

Method:
1/ Boil the water and sugar together in a pot till melted, whisking with a balloon whisk at the same time.
2/ Turn off the fire, then add in eggs and evaporated milk till combined.
3/ Sieve this 3 times and set aside for use later.

Pate Sucree (yield 300g)
150g plain flour
5g custard powder *I used 1 tbsp in lieu of milk powder*
8g milk powder *I omitted as we only have milk in liquid form at home, so I upped the custard powder instead*
4g castor sugar *I used 1 tsp*
1/2nos egg [equivalent to 2 tbsp]
90g butter (melted by double-boiling)

Method:
1/ Sift the plain flour, custard powder and milk powder and make a well in the centre.
2/ Put the sugar and egg into the cool melted butter then stir till homogeneous.
3/ Pour the mixture into the flour and mix till just combined, do not overwork the dough.
4/ Push a ball of the dough into the egg tart mould and pressed using your thumb till even thickness.
5/ Fill with custard to the brim and bake at 160 degree Celcius for 30 minutes.

Note:
+ I double-boil the butter over the pot of syrup, so as to multi-task and save time.

Verdict: Crumbly crust, but not as short as the other two attempts. Sweetness just nice, no need to adjust.

Bento #227 101104

2010-11-12T15:23:00.002+08:00

This was my lunch bento last week, didn't realise I haven't posted it up yet till now. How delayed. Some dry instand noodles with nori shreds on the bottome half as the mains. A corn cob and a de-skinned chicken drumstick from the pot of soup I made took up most of the rest of the space, so I only managed to add some kyuri sticks and 2 cherry tomatoes.

This was how I ate the bento: Shred the chicken and mix them to go with the noodles and nori, then eat the corn before ending the meal with the fresh vegs.

Easy Tomato Pasta Sauce III

2010-11-10T12:00:00.001+08:00

3rd attempt of this easy recipe, we can't seem to get enough of it. Another reason is that I have a lot of pasta to use up, as each time we eat only 70g, and so it takes us approximately 7 meals to finish up a pack of 500g.

I paired this with home-made meatballs which I will usually prepare a big batch and freeze, then thaw as and when needed. Using ovenette to cook, it took me 30 minutes to brown them, and because of this slow cooking process, the meatballs shrunk quite considerably.

Today's batch of sauce was made using "La Valle" brand, bought from Jaya Jusco Kinta City. Can't recall the price as I've misplaced the receipt.

Bento #226 101104

2010-11-04T13:58:00.003+08:00

My bento has different fruits combination for the smaller tier, with the addition of orange wedges. Dh don't fancy them because eating this juicy citrus fruit is a messy affair for him as the juice might drip, what's more, the juice might even leech onto the other items in the bento box, thus I avoid adding oranges in his bento.

All else remains the same - the Scrambled Egg Wrap, Cucur Badak, cherry tomato and grape (though a different variety). These dark purple grapes were sweet and seedless, best of all, crunchy. I also like the dark hue which provides colour contrast to bentos.

Bento #225 101104

2010-11-04T13:49:00.002+08:00

Was left with only one last piece of the Garlic Tortilla, so in order to maximise it, I cut them into quarters. I made them into cones and lined with some green lettuce, stuffed the remaining cavity with some scrambled eggs. As the wraps were smaller this time, it was a challenge to hold them without unravelling. I can't seem to wrap the paper liner tight enough around the base as well, so handling that took me quite some time.

Clearing the chest freezer's stock, I defrosted a box of Cucur Badak (a local Malay kuih with spicy desiccated coconut) and when morning came, I just warmed them up in the ovenette and they were good to go. Three pieces went into this bento together with some grapes and red cherry tomatoes.

Finished using quite a number of things this week, which is a good sign because normally, the vegetables will beat me to it by turning bad before I get a chance to use them. That would also mean, time to stock up during this Saturday's Jusco sale.

Bento #224 101103

2010-11-03T12:51:00.002+08:00

My bento had the same wraps as the former, but I only vary the fruits. Orange slices was ok for my bento box since I'll be eating them at home after the morning jog, and some juicy Red Globe grapes took up the rest of the space.

It was a good wrap, loved the crunchy sweet capsicums and japanese cucumber.

Bento #223 101103

2010-11-03T12:38:00.003+08:00

Using the tortilla wrap featured in this post, I made a chicken wrap for dh's bento. It's only a single wrap using the whole piece of tortilla filled with lettuce, capsicum strips and kyuri sticks. Then I added in shredded chicken and some sauce before closing the flaps. Oh before that, I lightly steamed the Garlic Tortilla to infuse some moisture into it so that it won't crack while I roll.

The Garlic Tortilla Chicken Wrap was later further wrapped with a serviette to make eating easier and less messy. I added in fruits which are 'dry' so that the serviette won't be dampened, so it's bananas and some Autumn Royal grapes with 2 umbrella picks since it has been raining loads these two days.

Recipe: Easy Tomato Pasta Sauce II

2010-11-02T22:18:00.000+08:00

I made this again, but this time using butter and it tasted way way much better. The aroma from the butter made this very flavourful, so from now on, calories or not, it shall be butter for this recipe. No substitution. But I scaled down the butter portion a bit.

I used tri-colour fusili pasta and served the platter with 2 meatballs kebab on the side, another one-dish meal was done. I know I will be making this again and again because it's just so easy and good, and pasta has lower GI than white rice, all the more reasons to check out the different brands of canned whole tomato to try. So at least there's some variation and not the same old same old.

EASY TOMATO PASTA SAUCE II
5 tbsp butter (I googled and 1 tbsp of butter is approx 15 g) *I used 50g butter*
1 can whole tomato
1/2 bulb garlic - crushed but with peel intact
1 onion - quartered

For the record, I used La Doria per Javapot's recommendation, which I found at Giant's.

Cool Blog

2010-11-02T20:24:00.002+08:00

It's a drink.
Not my blog.

I got teased by dh that since I've got a blog, I just got to blog about this Blog. And it ain't any blog for that matter, it has to be the Cool Blog. So I rose up to the challenge and blogged about the Blog, ain't it cool?

It's an ice-blended drink with different flavours that one can choose from their extensive menu, and then there's the option of adding different extras, which came with you-guessed-it, extra charges. We normally like to add those big chewy bubbles (a.k.a. sago pearls) in our drinks. Just look at the cute black "dots" sinked at the bottom of this cup, that's what I meant. This one in the picture was Mocha and it was not too bad, at least it doesn't taste artificial. You know how it's like with too much of flavouring, that's what we meant by artificial. The other time we tried ABC Blog, which was from their 'Local Dessert" Series. That one also not bad, but a bit on the sweet side.

The colourful plastic cover which sealed the drink air-tight using a special machine, and made it leak-proof. No more messy drips that's a sticky affair with this now.

Want a blog?

Go grab one at their kiosk.

Sponge Pancake

2010-11-02T14:17:00.004+08:00

I was itching to bake something.
But the flu bug won't leave me alone.
So I was not keen to do elaborate recipes.
As that means more clean-up.

Then came Wendy's posting on Sponge Pancakes.
*ting* That fits perfectly into what I can do.
First, I can bake (but this one is using the pan).
Secondly, only 3 ingredients were called for.
So all I had to wash were the mixer bowl and attachment, measuring spoon, strainer, pan and spatula.
Exactly what I was looking for.

Thus saw me in action whipping this up. It might look easy, but it certainly was NOT!! The part of getting the pancake to cook was tricky to me at least. I can't get the top part to dry without burning the bottom, despite using the smallest flame I can grab hold of. Any smaller, I will be cooking with just the gas, without the flame.

I just arranged some slices of cling peach and centre a cherry tomato for colour contrast. Would have been better to use a strawberry for the red, but I had used the last piece in this morning's bento, tough luck.

Also, this sponge pancake was quite fragile, so handle with lots of care in order not to dent it. This being my first, I punctured some air in this and as such, a little bit of the peach went out of place. Overall, I'm happy with the visual. Just need to be more careful with it for next attempt.

So in the end, I had to just content myself with eating the fruits and a little bit of the pancake after discarding the charcoal part. Did not get much to taste much of it, but spongy soft was all I can say.

SPONGE PANCAKE
Ingredients:
2 egg whites
2 tbsp sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp all purpurse flour (sifted)
1 tsp butter for oiling the pan

Method:
1/ Beat egg whites till frothy then add in sugar and whip till medium stiff peak.
2/ Mix in the egg yolks, then fold in the flour.
3/ Heat up pan, swirl butter to melt and coat all surface.
4/ Turn heat to low, pour in the batter and add toppings.
5/ Cover with lid and cook sponge pancake until sides look golden while the centre doesn't stick to fingers when touched.
6/ Dish up and serve.

On The Trail of 3 Layer Tea

2010-11-02T12:56:00.003+08:00

Fifth taste of 3-Layer Tea was at Sin Kim San Kopitiam. Pretty thick, and they were not stingy with the syrup. At RM2.50, I was a happy tea-drinker for that morning.

To read more about previous posts:

First at Pelita

Second at SCM's Food Court

Third at Eng Loh

Fourth at Kapitan's

Sakura Charity Festival 2010

2010-11-02T12:05:00.003+08:00

After the previous event, we made our way to Traders Hotel for this function which was organised by The Women's Club of Penang Japanese Association. It's an annual event where jumble sale of pre-loved items were sold off by those expats leaving the country to raise funds for charity. It is a better idea as compared to donating those items direct to charitable organisations because the items might not suit their need, but by so-doing, demand and supply can be met, and the moolah collected will be of more use to the organisations that need the funds. This yearly event had been in the running for 10 years or so now, usually at the year end and it has always been Traders Hotel (formerly known as Shangrila Penang).

We bought this RM5 ticket to gain entry to the exhibition area where handicraft and food items were sold. There were also Ikebana showcase and Tea Ceremony demonstration but we quickly queued up for the cakes counter. From past experience, the baked goods sell like hot cakes and it's the first to run out. True enough, by the time it got to our turn, at least 3 items we wanted to get ran out, so we opted for these instead. Each person can only buy 3 pieces, and average price was RM7, so all in, we gave RM21 to charity for these three slices of yummy home-bakes by the Japanese women.

Pear Tart was quite buttery, sweetness just sufficient.

Castella Cake (above) and Green Roll (below) were good, at least now I know how it should taste like because previously, eventhough I baked Castella Cake before, I didn't have any standard to benchmark against. The honey aroma was evident enough, while the green tea was not overpowering in the swiss roll.

All these we had with Starbucks Coffee, match made in heaven.

Lions Charity Fun Walk 31-October-2010

2010-11-02T11:28:00.005+08:00

Last Sunday saw us attending this event organised by Lions Club Of Penang Light. Note that the banner stated time as 7.00 am, and you know what, the flag-off was not until 9.00am!! Lots of protocols and speeches, including waiting time for the VVIP were what contributed to the delay. Thankfully the weather was cooperative, it was not draining and the sun was hiding behind the clouds, but for that 2 whole hours, we had to occupy ourselves in order not to get bored. So tempted to just walk away from the event without participating, but since we came all the way, it's only wise to just hold on.

With the above RM20 ticket, we get a goodie bag which was fully sponsored. So that means the $ collected from the ticket sales was channeled to charitable organisations.

Let's see what's within the nice brown paper bag - a 500ml of drinking water, a certificate of participation, a packet of instant noodle and a red bean bun.

This was how the certificate looked like after unrolling.

The event t-shirt which was in bright green. It was such a catchy colour that one can be spotted metres away. For obvious reason, we only wore that for the event, after which, I will usually donate them away (after washing clean and drying, of course). Too many t-shirts from too many an event.

It was a loop that took us 30 minutes to come back to the starting point, which also acted as the finishing line. We didn't stay for the lucky draw, so just pass the ticket chit to some other participants in order not to waste it. Breakfast was the call of the day, but before that, we detoured to somewhere else, to read more, hop on to the next post.

Juru's Sakae Teppanyaki & Izakaya

2010-11-02T10:40:00.004+08:00

Last Saturday, there was a Halloween Party and 8TV's concert at Juru Auto-City, so there we went for a look-see cum dinner. There were quite a lot of impressive dress-ups but I didn't snap any photos because of the dark settings, coz my camera don't perform well at night. Don't want to end up with blurry shots that waste my time and energy, so there's only food of the dinner only to share.

We ate at Sakae's outlet and that place was packed, unlike normal days. Even at 9ish pm, there were still patrons coming in, and some of those who dressed up made their way there as well. Guess they must be hungry after all the posing with eager individuals wanting to have a photograph with them, there was even a queue for some of them. Their make-up was that real.

Anyway I digress. A quick skim at the menu, we decided to go for 2 dons and one teppanyaki, so that we got room for some desserts. Most of the time we didn't get a chance to savour the tempting desserts after a teppanyaki set, so now we remembered to go easy on the mains.

Here's our Rib-Eye Steak with Brandy Sauce, done medium-well to our liking right before our eyes. Just a subtle hint of brandy, but meld very well with the beef at RM14.80.

Shishamo at RM6.80 for this plate of 3 pieces, just squeeze the lemon juice over them and enjoy the whole fish, from head to tail, nothing was wasted.

Chicken Katsu Don (RM10.80) was ok only, but there were lots of rice. So much that we can't help it but to leave some leftover, it was simply too much carbo.

RM12.80 Seafood Curry Don was pretty fragrant, but my grouse was that it was missing a scallop!! Supposedly to have squid, tiger prawn and a fresh scallop, but where's my succelent scallop? After checking with the manager, she decided to give us a 5% discount off total bill for this error on their part.

Imo Caramel was so-so only, but I certainly felt the pinch to fork out RM5.80 for these miserable 5 pieces. Never again.

With the scant 5 pieces of japanese sweet potato above, we ordered this Dango which is green tea mochi balls. It came plain and we can choose to have either the red bean or black sesame as dipping sauce. We opted for the latter, and I regretted because I can detect some peppermint in the watered down black sesame sauce. This was RM7.80 by the way.

Total was RM66.45, but since I get 50% for birthday month, and this is the only Sakae Teppanyaki outlet in the whole of Malaysia that I can collect my points, I'm not so unhappy eventhough service could have been better. Their staff must have been a little overwhelmed with the crowd for that night as the volume was high.

Bento #222 101102

2010-11-02T10:32:00.002+08:00

This bento would be my snack for later during the day. A piece of Chinese Pancake which I picked up at the wet market as well, after sacrificing RM0.80. This is Ban-Chiang-Kuih, and of the thick variety where a whole big pan was made and later sliced into pieces. There is another type of ban-chiang-kuih which is individually made and we can tailor suit the choice of fillings. My preference would be for the latter, but no choice since it was so early in the morning, only one stall for me to buy this from. I only get to choose white sugar or brown sugar, and of course, brown sugar I chose. This thicker type of ban-chiang-kuih is chewy compared to the other one, which is crispy, thus it provided good jaw exercise.

Top tier were fruits, namely chinese pear and the last piece of strawberry.

Bento #221 101102

2010-11-02T10:25:00.002+08:00

After fixing the other 2 bentos posted earlier, I realised our kitchen was running low on eggs, so I made a quick dash to the market to get a tray of 30s. Managed to get back within 15 minutes as it was still dark, market was deserted with customers. Then while at the egg trader's, chanced upon these lovely packets of pre-packed nasi lemak, so I grabbed two, one for each flavour - prawn and salted fish.

This bento box would be dh's lunch then, with 2 bananas. I shall skip cooking his oats for today, give him a change from the daily diet.

Bento #220 101102

2010-11-02T10:21:00.003+08:00

I'm getting the hang on eating bento for breakfast, and it's more economies of scale if I prepare both dh's and mine at the same time, so you will see some items repeated in both bentos. Of course my portion would be smaller.

The other half golden kiwi fruit can be seen in my bento, with a silicon container of red cherry tomatoes and slices of kyuri. These lotus leaf mantous were good, went very well with the flavourful braised chicken which we had for dinner last night.

Bento #219 101101

2010-11-02T10:03:00.003+08:00

Been meaning to use this packet of Lotus Leaf Mantous but never got the chance until today. I defrosted it overnight and give it a light 'sauna' (steaming) over rapid boiling water for 5 minutes to warm up.

Then put in a piece of green lettuce, some shredded Miso Braised Chicken and it was good to go. Half of the box were a gathering of 3 fruits, namely a bunch of Autralian's Red Globe grapes, half a golden kiwi cut slantly and 3 red chery tomatoes.

I managed to get this completed in about 15 minutes.

Bento #218 101101

2010-11-02T09:56:00.004+08:00

This was my bento, with the same Salmon Wraps as the previous entry. The souffle cup had some persimmon wedges and kyuri.

The top compartment of this chicky bento box, I filled them with half a golden kiwi, some Autumn Royal grapes, some red Cherry Honey tomatoes and 2 sachets of sauce to go with the wraps.

Since this bento's preparation was riding on the one before it, I only took like 5 minutes to get it ready.

Here's a photo of the tortilla wraps I bought, for reference. It came in a pack of 5 pieces, and there were a few flavours to choose from. For a start, we try this Garlic Tortilla, the garlic aroma is quite prominent, so if garlic is not your cup of tea, give this a skip and opt for plain tortilla instead.

Bento #217 101101

2010-11-02T09:26:00.003+08:00

2 salmon wraps graced today's bento box. I changed the method of cooking the fish, just lightly rub the piece of salmon with salt, then grill it in the ovenette at 180 degree Celcius for 15 minutes till cooked through. Let it cool then flake it with a fork, add in half a chopped onion bits and one squeeze of lemon to rid the fishyness. I also added in a little bit of mayo to combine everything, else it was too crumbly and makes eating such a mess.

Cut the tortilla into half to get a semi-circle, then with the straight edge at the bottom, fold the left flap to the centre followed by the right flap and there you go, a triangular pocket to be filled. First, line the tortilla cone with some green lettuce, then some yellow capsicum strips and lastly scoop some of the salmon mix into the cavity. Use a cake liner to wrap the bottom of the tortilla cone so that hands won't get dirty when eating the wrap.

If you were to look carefully, one of the tortilla wrap has mayo on top, while the other was without. I just wanted to try and see which option was dh's preference, and he came back saying that the one with mayo tasted better as it was not as dry. As long as he's not complaining about the calories, I'm fine as well.

And then I filled a red capsicum cup with some peach cubes and topped with 2 skewers of grapes heart and a strawberry. Thanks Kel for the idea and the tutorial.

As this oblong hamburger bento box has 3 trays, I filled one with 2 sachets of sauce and a small box of raisins so that they stay dry. I also moved the capsicum cup to the top-most tier because after placing the tortilla wraps flat, there was no more space for the fruit cup. It was just nice as the cover was concave, thus nothing was squashed.

Cooking time plus all the preparation work zapped away 15 minutes, then fitting them into the bento another 10 minutes, so all in, approximately 25 minutes.

Recipe: Stir-fry Kyuri, Carrots and Onion

2010-11-02T09:11:00.003+08:00

Lately, I prefer to serve our dinner in individual portion so that I have less leftover to deal with. I can thus avoid the situation whereby we would be pushing the 'chore' of finishing up the last piece of food, be it chicken or potato or beef or carrot to the other half. Of course, the portion size has to be reasonable also so that we don't overeat. Example such as below.

3 rice balls which looked little, but in fact, it was our usual serving when it comes to rice consumption. The side dish of greens was done a tad bland to complement the Miso Braised Chicken posted earlier on. I like the crunch of the kyuri, just make sure your action is quick so that they won't go limp with overcooking.

STIR-FRY KYURI, CARROT AND ONION

Ingredients:

1 tbsp oil

3 cloves garlic - smashed with peel removed and minced

1 kyuri - sliced thinly with a mandolin slicer

1/2 carrot - sliced thinly with mandolin slicer

1 onion - sliced into thick rings

3 tbsp hot water

1/2 tbsp Chicken Stock Concentrate *I used Maggi brand*

Method:

1/ Heat up oil, add garlic and fry till golden and aromatic.

2/ Add kyuri, carrot and onion and fry till evenly mixed.

3/ Drizzle the hot water onto the sides of the wok and let it glide down to create some sizzle.

4/ Season to taste with Chicken Stock Concentrate and serve.

Note:

* Alternatively, oyster sauce can be used but the resulting product will be dark brown in colour. I opted for chicken stock concentrate for the light colour, choice is yours.

Recipe: Miso Braised Chicken

2010-11-02T08:30:00.004+08:00

Miso, the Japanese fermented soybean paste which was normally served as soup, can be used for cooking various dishes. One of which is this, braised chicken. I've bookmarked Anncoo's recipe since she published it end of August 2010, but only got round to cooking it yesterday because I simply didn't know which brand of Miso to go for. There were so many varieties at Jaya Jusco's shelf that I can't make up my mind, so each time I left empty-handed. Finally I plucked up the courage to just randomly pick up a tub, and here's my choice at RM16.90 for 500g.

Then I quickly got down to cooking this recipe, which I halved using half a bird of chicken. Just nice a portion for our consumption, and like what the writer wrote, the resulting dish was smooth with a faint hint of Miso. I followed everything to the T except for the thickening with corn starch part. Thanks Anncoo!

MISO BRAISED CHICKEN
Ingredients:
1/2 kg chicken - cut to pieces
250g Potatoes - remove skin and soak in salted water for a while then cut to pieces
1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp garlic - minced
1 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp dark soy sauce *I used Lee Kum Kee's select brand*
1/2 tsp sugar
125ml water

Method:
1/ Season chicken with 1/4 tsp each of sesame oil, salt, pepper and 3/4 tbsp dark soy sauce and marinate chicken for 1-2 hours.
2/ Heat up oil in wok, add chopped garlic and miso paste and fry for a while till aromatic, then add in chicken pieces with another 1 tbsp dark soy sauce and 1/2 tsp sugar, continue to stir fry chicken well.
3/ Lastly add in cut potatoes, mix well with the chicken, add in 125ml water to cover the chicken. Bring water to boil and cover with lid, lower heat and simmer for about 20 mins or potatoes soften.
4/ Remove the lid and leave the sauce to dry up a little.

Served with white steamed rice with a side dish of vege stir-fry, that was our home-cooked dinner, cheap and good.

Bento #216 101030

2010-10-31T06:20:00.003+08:00

This pink oink-oink bento box was quite deep, thus I was able to place the food higher. Again, some baby potato salad made its appearance on the left corner. Then some persimmon and tomato wedges arranged in between slices of kyuri for some colour colour contrast. Lastly, a golden kiwifruit half took up the remaining space.

The top white tray in the same shape was filled with more fruits on the left smaller area. Can you spot the "mushrooms" made using dates and capped with canned longan? Weather had been quite wet and damp, thus the mushrooms were able to thrive. Two strawberries from the last of the lot before I get new supplies. More scrambled eggs with black pepper, this seems to be my fall-back bento item when in a rush.

Bento #215 101030

2010-10-31T06:16:00.002+08:00

I just varied the cooking style for the egg in this bento, which was scrambled. Then cut some bananas into chunks and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar in the star-cup, a container of sauce and finally 3 wedges of tomato as I ran out of cherry tomatoes.

Thankfully I remembered to poke in a blue triple-heart pick to liven this bento a bit.

Bento #214 101030

2010-10-31T06:11:00.003+08:00

Woke up late, thus was rushing for this. A haphazardly assembled bento with omelette, a cup of persimmon wedges and a lone strawberry in the paper cup, some potato chips in the other corner and lastly, a container of sauce to complete this.

My mind was drawing a blank, thus I even forgot about any foodpicks to spice things up.

Bento #213 101029

2010-10-31T06:06:00.002+08:00

A two-tier bento in which I placed some boiled baby potatoes topped with some mayo plus a sprinkle of black pepper, followed by some baby carrots and scrambled eggs.

Some fruits to fiber in the other tier were four strawberry halves with half a golden kiwi in the middle punctuated with a butterfly pick. One piece of cling peach fits snugly into the remaining space.