FOOD

Lemon Butter Cake + Home made Fondant

2009-10-12T04:15:00.000-07:00

I went for Cake Decoration class last Saturday...and below is the art piece result from the class, also the recipe given by the instructor.
Let me know if you have anything to ask, or any recipe to share :)

Lemon Butter Cake
Ingredients:-
220g butter
120g castor sugar
3 eggs (grade A)
170g self raising flour
30g low protein flour
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon (~ 90grams)

Method:-
1. Sift all dry ingredients together.
2. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
3. Add in eggs one at a time and mix until well combined.
4. Add in flour and juice alternately.
5. Add in lemon zest and mix well.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 160 deg C for 50-55 mins or until cooked.
7. Leave cake in tin for 10 mins before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Home Made Fondant
Ingredients:-
A - 155 g water
- 40g (4tbsp) gelatine
B - 155 g water
- 400 g granulater sugar
- 110g liquid glucose
- 1 tsp glycerine
- 1 tsp cream of tartar

110g shortening
1.5kg icing sugar (sifted(
cornflour ( for dusting/kneading fondant)

Method:-
1. Dissolve gelatine in water (A) over hot water.
2. Grease sides of saucepan lightly with shortening.
3. Place sugar, liquid glucose, glycerine, cream of tartar and water into saucepan.
4. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and boils. Boil on high heat until 116 deg C (240 deg F) or until soft ball stage is reached (about 4-5 mins of high heat).
5. Remove from heat and cool for 5 mins. Add shortening and gelatine.
6. Add icing sugar 1 cup at a time and stir after each addition. It will be a thick paste when all the sugar is added.
7. Whisk til paste is light and white.
8. Allow to cool before storing in airtight container. Leave overnight before use.
9. Knead in cornflour to get the right consistency.

Good luck in trying :)

Cupcakes with Icing

2009-05-10T02:28:00.000-07:00

Size - handy, easy to hold, easy to eat. Preparation - easy, Decoration - fun, Taste - Delicious~!

Makes 24 cupcakes
225 gram butter, softened
225 gram caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
225 gram self-raising white flour
5 tbsp milk

Topping
175 gram unsalted butter
350 gram icing sugar
25gram sweet cake decoration mini balls

Method:-
1. Preheat the oven to 180 'c.
2. Ingredients - butter, sugar, vanilla extract in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the flour and, using a large metal spoon, fold into the mixture of the milk. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.
3. Bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 15-30 minutes - firm to touch and well risen. Transfer to wire rack for cooling.
4. Icing :- put the butter in a large bowl and beat until fluffy. Sift in the icing sugar, beat togetehr until well mixed. Put topping in a piping bag, then choose the nozzle.
5. Pipe circle of icing on top of the cupcakes when the cupcakes cool. Sprinkle the mini sweet balls ( cake decoration ) before serving.

Wholemeal Chocolate Apple Cake

2009-03-22T02:51:00.000-07:00

A baking class at Best Baking Solutions (USJ 8) , cost me MYR 40 to learn two types of cake.
One of them is this Wholemeal Chocolate Apple Cake, and today, on my own practise, here it goes.

Ingredients:
A
125 g butter
70 g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

B
2 eggs

C
100 g cake flour
8 g baking powder
70 g wholemeal flour

D
110 g milk

E
1-2 green apples (chopped into small cubes)
50 g grated chocolate

Method:
1. Cream A until light and fluffy.
2. Add in eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.
3. Sift cake flour with baking powder and mix well with wholemeal flour.
4. Fold flour into the creamed butter alternating with milk.
5. Add in the chopped apple and grated chocolate and pour into 8 inch baking pan.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degree C for about 30-40 minutes.

Taste good! Plus, it is very healthy ~

Terung Lemak ( Aubergines in Coconut Gravy)

2009-02-20T07:04:00.000-08:00

This recipe, courtesy from Recipe book: Nyonya Favourites.

Spice Paste:
50g (1/2 cup) chopped shallots
2 tablespoons dried shrimps
5 medium fresh red chillies, deseeded
1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste (belacan)

Ingredients:
600g (1lb 6 oz) aubergine (eggplant)
2 tablespoons oil
250 ml (1 cup) thick coconut milk
250 ml (1 cup) water
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:
1. Slice aubergine about 1 cm (1/2 in) thick.
2. Lightly brush slices with oil and dry fry in a pan over low heat; alternatively grill or bake in a moderate oven for 10 minutes. The aubergine does not need to be cooked through.
3. To prepare the Spice Paste, blend all ingredients to a smooth paste.
4. Saute Spice Paste in 1 tablespoon oil until fragrant.
5. Add the water, coconut cream, salt and aubergine and simmer until the vegetable is soft.

6. Serve with steamed rice.

Serves 4. The coconut milk made this dish feel so rich.

Yum Yum - Roasted Spiced Chicken

2009-02-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

Spices (grounded):
8 shallots, removed skin
5 pips garlic, removed skin
4 red chillies
4 dried chillies
2cm tumeric, 2 cm ginger
2 cm galangal
2 stalks lemongrass
1/2 tsp peppercorn
5 candlenuts

Ingredients:
2 tbsp oil, 2 pandan leaves
1 onion, removed skin, cut into pieces
1 tomato, cut into pieces
1/2 tbsp dried prawns
2 chicken whole legs

Seasoning:
1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar

Method:
1. Heat up oil and saute spices until fragrant. Add seasoning and stir well. Remove from heat.

2. Put all the ingredients onto a aluminium foil and pour (1) mixture on top. Wrap up nicely.

3. Bake in a preheated oven at 180'C for 30 minutes or until cooked. Remove and serve.

There you go... it taste nice but you need to cook it for longer period of time, the meat will be more tender by then . Happy trying :)

Oven-Fried Drumsticks

2009-02-08T06:27:00.000-08:00

This recipe is courtesy from Yum Yum Recipe Book.

Ingredients A:-
5 chicken drumsticks, 1 tsp salt
1 tbsp garlic powder / mashed garlic

Ingredients B:-
1 tsp chopped dried chilli
1 tbsp chopped spring onion
5 slices soda cracker, crushed

Method:-
1. Rub chicken drumsticks with salt and garlic powder and marinate for 30 minutes.
2. Coat marinated chicken drumsticks with B and bake in a preheated oven at 180'c for 35 minutes. Remove and serve.
Taste superb! A bit spicy because of the chillies grounded in with the soda crackers before coating the drumsticks.
Do not fry the drumsticks, this was named oven-fried because it was suppose to look like fried after baking, but mine is a bit failure on the outlook.

Have a good try, is easy to prepare and nice to eat! :D

Nyonya - Lady's FIngers Fried with Sambal

2009-02-08T05:13:00.000-08:00

After watching this Little Nyonya, I am so motivated to try and cook some of the nyonya food myself. Not so nice thou, but it is pretty ok to eat :)

Ingredients:-
300 g lady's fingers (okra)
125 ml (5 tsbp) oil

Spice Paste (ground):-
40 g (4-5) fresh red chillies
5 g ( 5 large) dried red chillies
10 g (1 clove) garlic
120 g (12) shallots
10 g (4) candlenuts
5 g (1 tsp) belacan, toasted
2 tbsp water, sugar
1 tsp salt
20 g dried prawns - soaked, cleaned & pounded

1. Bring water to boil in a wok & add in the whole lady's fingers. Simmer until cooked - a fork will pierce it easily.
2. Remove from the work & cut away the stalks. Leave whole or slice diagonally. Arrange on a serving plate.
3. Heat the oil in a wok to saute the spice paste until aromatic, about 5 minutes. Add the dried prawns and saute until aromatic. Dish onto the cut lady's fingers or return the lady's fingers to the work & toss together.

You are done! It was pretty good dish, and you can replace lady's fingers with others vegetables like long bean etc. They really taste good. :)

Adam cook tonight -30th Nov 2008

2008-12-01T07:51:00.000-08:00

I wonder which directions the winds blew , but tonight, yes tonight..adam cooked!

Apart from cook, there is also blue berry cheesecake which is quite a successful item.

No way i am going to beat him anytime soon, but i will try my best.

I am so lazy nowadays..don't know why...

People..i need to buck up! I must get myself equipped well.. Pls give me some motivation

Simple dinner - 20th Nov

2008-11-20T05:03:00.000-08:00

I am forced to cook tonight. Why? Because no one to cook for me tonight, also not thinking to eat anything from outside.

Cook simple dinner.
1) left over rice - heat it up
2) fried egg and luncheon meat ( this is simple, and cheap).
3) fried love shape nugget. This is even cheaper. I bought a big packet - only MYR 5. Promotion item in Carrefour.
4) fried vege and sambal belacan sauce.

I am so full now, thinking to go for team building tomorrow, kind of excited also lazy. hehe...

Outsource dinner - Pizza hut - 19 November 2008

2008-11-19T07:12:00.000-08:00

Lazy to cook during workdays, as usual, today we decided to order Pizza. Raining days\, no car to drive, 30 minutes commitment to deliver from Pizza, so here we go.

On the laptop, look at the menu, decide the type of pizza, then ring~~ ring~~ 1300-88-2525. An indian lady answer the call.

Pizza:Can i have your phone number?'

HC: oh okie.. [xxxxxxxx]

Pizza: Sorry we dont have your record.

oh my? okie.. try adam's number. Again she said not in their record.

Fine, so lady, how do i place booking then, i asked her.

So proceeding registering myself by giving her the home address.

Pizza: Madam do you want to place a booking now?

HC: Okie..

Pizza: We have a promotion, do you want to try?

HC: What is that new promotion?

Pizza: Is a new taste - combination of 2 flavor in a pizza - it is called Italian-Japanese.

HC: Ok, so what is the different this and the normal set for 2 person?

Pizza: Is the same except for it is 2 flavor into 1 pizza. And it is cheaper.

HC: How much?

Pizza: RM 21.90

HC: OK then.

Pizza: Ok let me repeat the order. 1 set of regular pizza - italian-japanese flavor, 1 garlic bread, 2 cans of soft drinks. Do you want pepsi or sprite?

HC: Pepsi and more chillies.

Pizza: Ok. Total amount is MYR 30.25

HC: What? You just told me is MYR 21.90

Pizza: Sorry madam, it is MYR 26.90

HC: Ok then.

Pizza: It wil be deliver in [pronounciation sounds this - alp arh]

HC: Pardon?

Pizza: half an hour.

HC: ok then, thanks.

Delivery reached like 30 minutes later, but the receipt came to MYR 30.25. Because it is added sales tax MYR 1.35 and Delivery charge of MYR 2.00.

I am not informed of, and i don't recall see it anywhere in the website.

Got furious, i called back the call center. Just want to tell them, can you make it clearly to your client the next time how much is the total? The call center just made another pissed off. He did apologize, but before he apologize he sounded like 'why are you arguing when you have gotten your pizza?'

Is just another call center story :D

Oh yeah, although it was not my cooking tonight, reason to put in is to share the new taste, as well as the experience of Pizza Hut call center's.

I think the taste is ok... but im still full as of now. How to sleep? .... Good night

Instant Noodle Dinner

2008-11-16T07:18:00.000-08:00

Ah....tonight is one of the night that we always lazy to cook nice food, and also have no idea to tapao what kind of food to eat. We - johorian are kinda of selective when comes to tapao. I always think all the hawker centre - sells the same kind of food. Asam Laksa, pan mee, tai chao - fried fried stuff, chicken rice, wantan mee, Mee Udang, Loh Mee. What's new?

Nearer to my house there is a KFC - 24 hours. Not possible to eat KFC always - not good for health and digestion.

Adam took a picture of me: - holding the kettle, wearing a pick cute apron ( bought it from the 2 ringgit shop) ha ha...

So, tonight we have intended to bake the fish we bought yesterday - same baking method i did on the 3rd Nov. Fish is good..my mum always say - fish is good for the brain - for calculation, things like that. I wonder how truth the content, because those finance manager that i met, do not like to eat fish :D

ok, where is the rice? We are not intending to eat rice tonight, so guess what? We cook instant noodle. Mipoh goreng pedas...

Cook the noodle in a pot of water, until it is soften. Then bring them to the plate, and add on seasoning. The whole process take less than 5 minutes. Added some minced pork, and mushrooms to it. Taste ok!

So that's all for the dinner tonight, simple, easy, ok to eat. Let me try to cook some nice dishes when i'm more free.

Tomorrow is a Monday again, start of the week and another working week. Oh this is so so boring. I hope Christmas comes earlier :) Wondering what is Adam gonna give me as a gift or how should we celebrate christmas..maybe i should think of some dishes to cook for him :D

Agar-agar - Ros flavor

2008-11-16T07:04:00.000-08:00

This is my very first dessert i did in my life - the Agar-agar/ Jelly.

I tried several flavor before - my mum taught me. Some with lychee and milk, some with egg and santan. Either not sweet enough, or too hard. This time round both success. Just nice - the soft/hardness, the sweetness, the color.

Well, the easiest is this time as well. I made the Ros flavor. It is from the agar-agar powder itself.

One packet of this , if not mistaken is at MYR 0.99 at Giant, RM 1.15 at Carrefour. See if i compare this way, Giant is cheaper :P

There is a guideline on this pack, 1 Liter of water and 250gm of sugar - Liar! Don't do it! I did the same, it ended too sweet and i have to add water and add powder. So ended 2 Liter of water, and 2 packet of powder. Cooked them, put to the mould, wait for it to cool down, then put it to the fridge. About half an hour later, it can be eaten.

This agar-agar i made on 13th November night, is actually for my staff during the team meeting the next day. Abit sad thou, none of them appreciate, in fact i felt they take it for granted! i don't want to do for them the next time.... :D

The picture when completed..

Herbal Drink - 'CIncau'

2008-11-16T06:48:00.000-08:00

Was quite sick last 2 weeks, viral fever and bad cough. The weather! i blame it on the weather.. sees alot of durians by the road side- ah ha! that is the season where a lot people get sick, drive all the way to the clinic, taken some medicine - some jabbing , and then the last stage - medical leave.

Can't eat much - no appetite and was so so tired that i kept sleeping. But a little food is still a must before i eat the medicine..so what i had for most of the days are - the bread. I bought some from the Berry - some gardenia... the bread day.

This day - friday (7th November) in the afternoon, i made myself some herbal tea. Some calls it Leong Fun, some Cincau, Liang Fen..etc etc. Bought it from Carrefour - one strip, made some sweet syrup, add on cincau, then mixed them, add a little plain water, ice - i am done!

Can take it as a dessert, cool drinks.. etc. Not bad....

Additional suggestion : -add in some soya drink - it become 'michael jackson' and it is very very tasty. One of the famous kopitiam - Papparich also do this - teh tarik + cincau..also taste nice! Yummy......

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

2008-11-03T05:52:00.000-08:00

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!