Dinner...Dessert...3rd Nov 2008

After much motivation to cook, bake.. I've finally decided to have them recorded, to trace my record of failure as well as succesful dishes or so.

Flipping around this recipe book from my mum - 'Yum Yum', I found the 3 dishes that I think easier to cook, as well as a dessert to bake about. This 'Yum Yum' recipe came with both mandarin and english, and instructions are simple enough to follow.

The first dish I cooked tonight was supposed to be ' Pineapple and Ginger Florwer Curry '. It ended up without the pineapple, because I am not a big fan of pineapple.

Ingredients: 100g tomato- cut into small pieces, some celery- chopped, 100g abalone mushrooms, 8 fresh button mushrooms, 5 chilli padi- cut in half length-wise, 1000ml water.

Seasoning: 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp monosodium ( this is also called the ajinomoto).

Results: The taste is nice, but somehow - too little mushroom i felt. Or adam must have eaten most of the mushroom :-). We eat it with chilli padi and dark soy sauce.

Second dish - 'Baked Curry Fish'. I finally baked a fish using my oven. Follow exactly the ingredients - except for - I only baked 2 kembong fish, and guess how much it cost me? MYR 0.53 only...

You need these ingredients to marinade the fish: 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp grated garlic, 1 stalk lemongrass - chopped, 3 tbsp chilli boh, 1 tbsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp light soya sauce, 3 tbsp water, 1 tsp asam paste, 2 tbsp plain flour.

Combine marinade ingredients and mix well. Rub over the fish and marinate for 30 minutes. Tie up the fish with pandan leave and arrange on a baking tray ( covered with aluminium foil). Bake in preheated oven at 200'c for 20 minutes.

Results: Very tasty! Compliments from Adam as well - to be cook next time. Too bad, only 2 kembong fish, it wasn't enough :-D~

Third - normal fried vege with minced pork.

Ingredients: Green beans - or they called it Japanese Edamame, minced pork, garlic, oyster sauce - Lee Kum Kee brand.

Heat the wok with oil, add in garlic to fried. Continuing adding in the minced pork, add oyster sauce to taste. Add water. Then lastly add in the beans and cook until it become soft.

Because we are eating late today, i kept it in the rice cooker. So it was still hot when we eat.

Results: Good taste! To be cook the next time :-)

Dessert for today - 'Luncheon Meat Muffins'

Ingredients A:

1 small tin luncheon meat - shredded, 40g butter - Melt butter in a pan, add shredded luncheon meat and pan-fry until aromatic. Dish up and leave to cool.

Ingredients B:

2 eggs, 35g caster sugar (very fine sugar), 200g dairy whipping cream, 50g butter - melted. - Mix ingredients B in a mixing bowl.

Ingredients C:

250g plain flour, sieved with 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, some black sesame seeds.

Mixed all A, B, C together. Spoon the batter into muffin cups ( I bought it from Best Bakery-USJ 8 at MYR 1.20 for 8 cups). Bake in the preheated oven at 180'c for 25 minutes.

Results: Alot better than the last few bakes I did - cup cake , choc cakes, etc. However, it is still rated too salty. Need to reduce salt. The bottom was burnt- do not know why. Also, couldn't see or taste much on the luncheon meat and the sesame seed - need to increase the next round.

Overall, I rated myself 'improved' this round. More to improve for sure :-) Stay tuned!