eat, drink, man, woman...

A Great Escape

2011-05-02T12:47:00.000+08:00

The front desk
As I write this my body is already longing for another visit to this place. Don’t even let me have a whiff of their special massage oil or the aromatherapy scent that they burn!

I had the pleasure of being invited to experience Urban Retreat Spa’s barely one-month old new outlet at 1-Mont Kiara Mall. I happily accepted as I was already a fan of their spa. In January this year, I experienced a wonderfully relaxing experience at their Curve outlet that left me with feel-good vibes that lasted several days. It was their Honey Black Sesame Scrub Massage, which sadly, is no longer on their treatment menu.

The treatment I was invited to experience was the Hot Ginger Lemongrass Lymphatic massage (for detoxing) and a body scrub which was to take 120 minutes. As the shower was unavailable that day, I was given a slight variation on the body scrub treatment – it became a back scrub instead, which was what I really needed.

The lounge area
Urban Retreat Spa’s new premises in 1-Mont Kiara sports a smaller lounge area but no one really cares when anticipating what comes next! I felt wonderfully pampered when my masseuse came with a pair of slippers and invited me into the treatment area. First came the footwash where my masseuse Ung (I think that how it’s spelt? Pronounced ‘uung’) gently soaped my feet and washed it in a floor basin. Then it was off to the treatment room to prepare for the massage.

Everything in the treatment room is designed to slide you into this blissful state of relaxation – from the gently tinkling Thai instrumental music to the aromatherapy oil burners,to the muted lighting in a room painted in taupe/coffee colours.

Ung, my masseuse proceeded to work on every inch of my body starting with the toes. She used long sweeping strokes on my limbs ending with pressure on points at the top of the limb. In my mind’s eye it was as if she was encouraging the flow of lymph through my body towards the ultimate goal of detoxing. Ung explained to me that my right thigh muscles were very stiff after I winced in pain (that's me trying hard to be tough) when she was working on it. It made sense as I had been unconsciously using my right leg more due to a toe injury on my left foot. Throughout the massage, Ung was attentive, careful to remind me to let her know if anything she did hurt. Before working on my stomach area, she ensured that I had not eaten as recently as less than 2 hours before. So take note if you are thinking of going for a massage – try to go in only 2 hours after eating a meal.

The lymph drainage part of the treatment ended with Ung massaging my head, face with particular attention to the lymph node areas in my neck.

The back scrub I received was invigorating. I was informed that the house recipe scrub was made out of coffee and oatmeal. Another use for my daily breakfast! After the scrub, Ung carefully cleaned off the scrub with a warm towel. I dressed and tottered off to the lounge area where I was served this comforting and delicious Hot Ginger and Lemongrass Tea. Sipping the tea, I found myself suitably fortified to reenter the bustle of life again.

Take home the feel-good factor! More info at their website
Urban Retreat Spa
The Curve, Lot No. 157, First Floor, No 6, Jalan PJU 7/3,
Mutiara Damansara, 47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Malaysia
Tel + 603 77319829/77103239| Fax +603 7710 4240 | Mobile +6012 221 7820

1-Mont Kiara Mall, Lot 15, Second Floor, 1 Jalan Kiara,
Mont Kiara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel + 6012 617 9509 | Mobile +6012 221 7820
www.urbanretreat-spa.com
www.facebook.com/UrbanRetreatSpa
www.twitter.com/urbanretreatmy

Do call ahead to make an appointment if you really want a particular time slot to avoid disappointment. I've noticed that the spa management is pretty generous, often offering freebies to Facebook fans and Twitter followers as part of their promotional efforts.

I have tried replicating this tea at home and here’s the recipe I came up with.

Hot Ginger and Lemongrass Tea

2 cups of water
3 stalks of lemongrass, white part only, bruised
1 inch to 1.5 inches of thumb-sized old ginger, sliced
2-3 tspn brown sugar or honey or according to taste
3 pandanus leaves

Put the water, lemongrass and ginger in a saucepan and bring it to boil. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes, then add the sugar/honey. Put in the pandanus leaves, simmer for about a minute with the lid on before removing the pan from heat.

Strain out the ginger, lemongrass and pandanus leaves. Serve hot.

A 60th Birthday!

2010-02-09T23:24:00.002+08:00

chocolate fudge with vanilla buttercream frosting

This cake was requested by John's daughter - who together with her brother,threw a surprise 60th birthday party for their Dad. As you can guess, John loves to unwind in front of the telly after a hard day of work. He also loves to play the drums. I had such fun researching the possible designs for a cake (bleary eyes and all) and even more fun making the sugarpaste man with his teeny tiny flat screen telly. I'm not sure if anyone noticed but I also put some dimples on the man's face (as the birthday boy has a set!)...but they did notice the buttons on the remote control lol...We were also contemplating putting a full drum kit on the cake but figured it was not possible as the 'living room' would get too crowded!

A Wedding to Start the Year!

2010-01-12T10:08:00.003+08:00

My niece and her new husband chose the last day of 2009 to get married and the first day of 2010 to celebrate their marriage. So fitting I thought, a new year, a new journey in life...all our best wishes go out to you S and H!

I was honoured (and somewhat nervous at various times!) to have been asked to bake the wedding cake. After a few emails, the design was decided on - who knew there were so many different shades of Tiffany blue and aqua colors out there? But when in doubt, always present the bride with a couple of options before proceeding... The topper was chosen after a popular vote - which topper elicited the most 'ooohs' and 'ahs' - yup - the rings definitely had the immediate wow factor.

The cake's bottom tier was vanilla butter cake, the middle tier was chocolate fudge and the top tier was orange poppyseed cake.

if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it..uh-ohoh-uh-ohoh

Calamansi Lime Cordial

2009-10-31T01:42:00.005+08:00

limes...lots of limes...

This very simple recipe for Calamansi Lime Cordial was shared with me by my bff's MIL Aunty C...the nicest lady around with the most soothing presence...sigh. The resulting drink mixed from the cordial is most refreshing on a scorching day and it's even good for you throat to boot!

Lovely!

Calamansi Lime Cordial
(yields approximately 600ml of cordial)

Ingredients
1 kg of Calamansi Limes (yields approximately 1 1/3 cups of juice)
750g of Rock Sugar (honeycomb type) (or known in Malay as "Madu Batu")

available at Chinese Medicine shops/medical halls

honeycomb rock sugar

1. Squeeze the juice from all the limes(be prepared for sore thumbs!)
2. Sieve the juice for any pulp or errant seeds.
3. Pour juice into a non-reactive saucepan.
4. Put all of the rock sugar into juice in pan.
5. Boil on medium heat until sugar is melted. Do not close pan as the liquid foams
up as it heats and could very well boil over.
6. Cool and decant into a clean jar of suitable size.
7. To enjoy a refreshing lime drink - mix to taste - very roughly about 2 tbspns of
cordial,to 200ml of iced water.

et voila!

A castle fit for a princess...

2009-10-29T00:57:00.004+08:00

This cake was requested by a princess who was turning seven. It was a hulking beast of a cake! But figuring out how to 'construct' the cake was loads of fun...as always :) The party was held at Jungle Gym and I experienced some difficulty carrying (read: wrestling) the cake up from the basement carpark of BSC lol...

The bottom tier of the cake was chocolate fudge and the top tier was vanilla. The entire cake was covered with sugarpaste. The towers were not edible - being made from kitchen towel rolls covered in sugarpaste. The princess doll (Princess Rayla from Barbie Pegasus) was a McDonald's Happy Meal toy that I saved for this occasion. Now I'm just waiting for the good folks at Maccas to churn out more princess dolls with their Happy Meals!

Japanese Curry Rice

2009-10-12T08:00:00.000+08:00

Bento Kare Raisu

Japanese Curry Rice. The name of the dish will without fail invoke shudders in my younger sister. Strong feelings akin to disgust... What terrible experience could she have gone through to have such an aversion to this dish? Well, once upon a time, a young secondary school student was sent off as an exchange student to Japan. While she enjoyed all types of Japanese food, having been there before with the family, she just could not stomach 'Kare Raisu' (Curry Rice) as it was NOTHING like the curries she was used to back home. She lived to tell the cautionary tale : NEVER eat Kare Raisu if you can help it, if you can do so without insulting any Japanese hosts who ply you with it.

Fast forward to today... or at least early this year. One of my son's kindy teachers told me he ate curry at school lunch. I was startled, as my kids have hardly any tolerance for spicy food to date.(Bad, bad Malaysian mother! Fail!) Then she quickly explained that it was not chilli hot as it was Japanese curry to which I automatically recoiled on the inside remembering my sister's experience. After that I was so intrigued that I had to buy a box of the stuff to try - hey, anything to add to the list of foods that your kids will eat right?

Vermont Curry Sauce (MILD) mix -

with a smidgen of honey & apple they say

Well, let me put on record that Japanese curry is quite delicious. My daughter, who is usually a small eater will put away 3 times her normal portion when having this for lunch. Can you imagine my delight when she asked for seconds and thirds... It smells like curry due to the usual spices used in the mix like coriander, turmeric, cumin and fennel but without the usual heat when you use the Mild mix. I'd say it may be good 'training wheels' for those wanting to initiate their kids to curry?

The directions are at the back of the box - very simple and straightforward - exactly like making a meat stew with usual onions, carrots and potatoes except that you 'break curry sauce mix into pieces and add to saucepan' towards the end. I think it's great to keep a box of mix in the pantry for when you've come to the bottom of the list of stuff to serve up.

Ah! Japanese attention to packaging details - the pack is divided into segments to help you break the sauce cube up easily

The Surprise

2009-10-07T21:00:00.001+08:00

Two-tier cake covered in Chocolate Fondant

with a sugarpaste monogram topper

This cake was baked for my BFF's surprise birthday party. It was my first attempt at chocolate fondant (yes, the cake is completely covered in chocolate flavoured sugarpaste, made from scratch by lil ol me). I was intrigued by the idea of sugarpaste that would appeal to chocolate addicts and also be more edible (as in less sweet). It actually tastes like a slightly sweeter than usual brownie. The lower tier was vanilla and the upper tier was chocolate fudge (death by chocolate!).

isn't she beautiful?

The Two-Cheesecake Weekend

2009-10-06T17:42:00.008+08:00

Let me tell you about my Two-Cheesecake Weekend. It started with me wanting to bake a birthday cake for a cheesecake lover and had me lugging a 2kg block of cheese home from BWY. With all that cheese lying around, I just had to bake another cheesecake for another birthday. Hence, the Two-Cheesecake Weekend has to do with me baking, NOT eating 2 cheesecakes:)

the no.1 cheese

This cheesecake had an Oreo crust, vanilla filling with a dark chocolate ganache. Australian strawberries set off the richness of the cream cheese very nicely. The best part was a relative who is a chef by profession cut this cake into extremely neat slices...what a difference superior knife skills make...sigh...

the no.2 cheese

This was an experiment with the filling, which is why you can't really see the difference between no.1 and 2. With the no.2 cheese, I swirled in some apricot puree and tried to add more interesting texture with cubes of fresh mango. Alas, it was not to be...the mango I used lacked the true mango-ey flavour that I was looking for. The apricot puree also did nothing much to complement the mango. Sigh. I guess you can't win 'em all.

I'm back!

2009-10-06T16:40:00.009+08:00

Wow! It's hard to believe in a way that it's been more than a year since I last blogged. I've been busy over the past year with loads family stuff to attend to and now I can finally resume my baking adventures... Here are some of the fun cakes I baked recently.

Tamagotchi Cake - with Kutchipatchi on top

This was fun as it's not a conventional request as far as kids' birthday cakes go. I had a blast making ol' Kutchipatchi out of sugarpaste. Inside was a chocolate fudge cake with gooey chocolate fudge frosting.

Lightning McQueen

Oh yeah...take a gooood loong look baby

Kah-chow!

Ol' Lightning McQueen was a bit of a challenge with a lot of details to get right. But in the end it was really satisfying to hear the collective "It's Lightning McQueen!" coming from the excited kids.

Toolbox Birthday Cake

2008-06-21T00:40:00.007+08:00

it's tool time!

Here's a cake I never expected to be asked to make! A Toolbox Birthday cake for Sunday School kids to celebrate June birthdays! The reason why a toolbox cake was requested was because the theme of the month is tools. In line with the theme, the kids have been divided into 4 teams - Screwdriver, Spanner, Hammer and Plier. So the cake had to feature these four tools. I had to google images of the tools to get a closer look,which was a whole heap easier than digging out hubby's toolbox... I was so relieved that the sugarpaste 'behaved' and took about four days to dry out and harden completely. It was fun!

the view from above

C & L's lovely May Wedding

2008-06-15T01:32:00.007+08:00

the wedding cake with the cheeky cake topper

This was what I was busy with for the better part of April up till the beginning of May! I was so stoked to have been asked by C and L to bake their wedding cake and cookie favors. The wedding was beautiful and refreshingly different from the colour theme (olive green) to the dinner celebration at Passion Road.

up close

The couple opted for three different flavors for the three tiers - the bottom tier was chocolate fudge, the middle tier was vanilla and the topmost tier was a fruitcake.

the cake table

monogrammed double-hearts sugar cookie favors

I managed to take some photos of Passion Road where the wedding dinner was held before everyone arrived as I had to be there really early with the cake. It's a bungalow in Lorong Yap Kwan Seng converted into a romantic function venue with lavish use of teak, drapery and lush greens.

the entrance

chairs and tables set up in the front yard

entrance to the main dining area

a very creative arrangement of lamps

My recent creation

2008-04-04T03:25:00.004+08:00

Sorry folks for the longish silence...Easter came and went in a haze of trying to get hot cross buns right but alas...this was not to be...For a change, I restrained myself from going into a baking-cooking frenzy for our Easter picnic! Got the hubby to get some supersized Homi curry puffs (a meal in themselves!) to bring to the picnic.

Anyway, back to the cake... The top-tier is vanilla and bottom is chocolate fudge. The cake is covered in fondant (sugarpaste) and decorated with sugarpaste cutouts. I was using my new Wilton fondant rolling pin for this project which did the job perfectly!

Organic Soft Tofu

2008-03-13T22:11:00.007+08:00

This organic soft tofu that I started buying is just absolutely delicious. It is the most tofu tasting tofu that I have eaten!lol. I would, describe it as tofu 'kau' meaning it has a concentrated soy flavour, like homemade soy milk. This brand of organic tofu is made by Anzen and I found it at Village Grocer, Bangsar Village.

Here's an easy tofu recipe:

Steamed Soft Tofu with Bonito Flakes

1 tub of organic soft tofu
1 tsp of dark soy sauce
3 tsp of light soy sauce
1 tbspn of bonito flakes

1) Prepare wok for steaming and place on heat.
2) Remove tofu from tub and place in dish for steaming.
3) Drizzle the dark and light soy sauces over the tofu.
4) Lastly sprinkle the bonito flakes over the seasoned tofu.
5) Steam briefly for 3 minutes.
Serve immediately.

Chewy Oatmeal Cranberry-Raisin Walnut Cookies

2008-03-05T23:54:00.010+08:00

chewy goodness down to the last crumb...

This Chewy Oatmeal Cranberry Raisin Cookie has just become the latest addition to my list of comfort foods. Some of you may be thinking, have you been under a rock all this time?? Well, being Malaysian Chinese, our after-school snacks were not a glass of milk with a cookie at all. In fact for most of us, it was just come home and have a lunch of either rice or noodles! But I did ocassionally have 'afternoon tea' (part of our British Colonial heritage)- a glass of Milo with some cream crackers... When we went over to visit in the evenings, my maternal grandma would brew this fragrant local coffee (Stag brand) mix in some powdered milk ('Everyday' Milk) for the kids and give us some cream crackers to dip in. Yummy. Heh, those were the 'unenlightened' days when it was acceptable to let kids drink coffee.

But I digress. This cookie is, obviously, chewy on first bite, the butter in it gives it a wonderful flavour and aroma. Then, as you slowly munch, the molasses in the brown sugar gives the cookie this indescribably satisfying taste that leaves you wanting more. Then there will be the bursts of fruitiness from the dried fruit and the walnut just adds more oomph.

I came across this recipe in Joy of Cooking. Upon reading it, there appeared nothing particularly special about the recipe - just your average oatmeal raisn cookie recipe... I've seen more 'complicated' recipes calling for a mix of shortening and butter or even shortening alone (to create a crispier cookie) for the fat portion of the recipe and some asking for a mix of white sugar and brown sugar. But there is just something about this cookie! I used Country Farm Organics Organic Regular Rolled Oats as I had some on hand.

Chewy Oatmeal Cranberry-Raisin Walnut Cookies
(adapted from Joy of Cooking's Oatmeal Raisin Monsters recipe)

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup cranberries
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit.
2) Beat the butter and sugar till light-coloured.
3) Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well each time.
4) Add the vanilla.
5) Mix in till just combined, the oats, flour, baking soda and salt.
6) Stir in the raisins, cranberries and walnuts.
7) Using a 1/4 cup for each cookie, drop dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Cool on racks.

Makes about 15 3-inch cookies.

Where to find Specialty Flours, Mixes and gluten-free products in KL

2008-02-27T03:04:00.011+08:00

Ever since I became a happy owner of a bread maker, I've been lingering at the organic/health food aisles in supermarkets and shops. It's really been fun learning about the different flours and new (to me) ingredients (Triticale! Spelt! Psyllium Husks!). I'm still on my journey of discovery, but would like to share the little that I've discovered over the past month.

Where to find:

Bob's Red Mill Specialty flours
like rye flour, unbleached pastry flour, Vital Wheat Gluten*, gluten free flour, muffin mixes, waffle mixes, gluten-free waffle mixes etc.
Leda Minton's Gluten-free, Casein-free Biscuits (like Tim Tams) and Choculence biscuits.
- Village Grocer, Bangsar Village.
* I've found that Vital Wheat Gluten is supposed to be the natural alternative to the bread improver.(the chemically derived bread improver is said to be carcinogenic and may exarcerbate ADD symptoms in kids). Vital Wheat Gluten helps to trap more gas within baking breads to achieve softer bread texture. Bob's Red Mill site has got useful product information and recipes!

Giusto's unbleached organic all-purpose and pastry flour (packaged under CFO's packaging with the words "Processed by Giusto's"), CFO brand organic flours, brans,
-Country Farm Organics, Bangsar Village.
CFO's gluten-free range available at the Bangsar Village outlet is quite disappointing. They only had a muffin mix and some cookie mix if my memory serves me right.

Orgran's Gluten-free bread, muffin and cake mixes, gluten-free dried pastas, (Oz company Orgran also offer health bars). Body Basics seem to stock the most variety of Orgran products. They also stock GfG which is what I understand to be the gluten-free equivalent of Vital Wheat gluten.
- Body Basics, Grd Floor, Bangsar Shopping Complex.

That's all the stuff I have for now... Would anyone care to add to the my 'findings'? I'd be happy to hear from you in my comments box...Thanks!

Hot New Potatoes!

2008-02-27T02:14:00.005+08:00

My ever-generous sister-in-law lugged these beautiful new potatoes all the way back from London (Sainsbury's to be exact). I'll never forget the time she brought back Krispy Kremes from London, long before any of us in KL had even got hooked on donuts. Imagine my chagrin (to put it mildly) when my never-heard-of-Krispy-Kremes-then husband told me that he had turned down her offer to bring one home for me to try.

These potatoes are of the waxy variety, meaning that they hold their form well when boiled and roasted unlike Russet potatoes (which are floury) which literally dissolve into the boiling water over time. So they needed very little fussing over being tasty and fun to eat (each small one being almost thumb-sized or abit larger). Just boil them up in mildly salted water for about 10 minutes, drain, a good splash of olive oil and a sprinkling of seasalt then bung em into a hot oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. The crispy skins are a right treat to eat and the insides are soft and mealy.

We had them with Double-dipped Panko Fried Fish and a salad.
The only time double-dipping is socially acceptable : )

Double-dipped Panko Fried Fish

About 400g sole (cut into 4 pieces)
Salt and pepper
1 cup or slightly more Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
2 eggs, beaten

oil for deep frying

1) Pat dry washed sole pieces. Season with salt and pepper.
2) Heat pan with oil for deep frying.
3) Dip the fish pieces one at a time in the beaten egg. Then coat the fish with the panko. Dip the panko coated fish pieces in the egg again and then the panko one more time before lowering gently into the hot oil to fry.
4) Fry till the underside is golden, then turn and fry briefly before removing from the oil. Repeat till all fish pieces have been cooked.
5) Drain on kitchen towels before serving.

Serves 4.

Meatball Soup

2008-02-13T03:49:00.004+08:00

This rough-and-ready Meatball Soup is simple to make and a good start to recovering from all the rich food. I make it on a regularly for the kids as it's a good way to load on all the goodness of meat and veg in one soup. They love it with rice. So depending on your appetite, you can choose to have the meatballs or not (and when laying off carbos, definitely without rice! *grin*).

Meatball Soup
Soup ingredients
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped
4 small ripe tomatoes, chopped
a pinch of salt
2 carrots, diced
4 ribs of celery, diced
1 large potato, diced
1 litre of water (if in a hurry, use freshly boiled water)

Meatballs
About 200g of minced pork
seasoned with:
1 tablespoon of cornflour
2 teaspoons of soya sauce
a splash of Worcestershire sauce (optional)
*seasoned meat refrigerated till ready to use

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1) Prepare soup first. Heat oil in soup pot. Saute onions till translucent, add chopped tomatoes and a pinch of salt. Saute till the tomatoes have released their juices.

2) Add in the carrots, celery and potatoes. Saute each vegetable briefly before adding the next.

3) Add the water and cover the pot leaving to boil at high heat for about 30 minutes.If you have more time, you can leave it at low heat to slowly simmer for a longer time.

4) When just about to serve the soup, prepare the meatballs. Heat oil in non-stick pan. Shape seasoned minced meat into balls and brown them briefly. Add the meatballs to the soup when it is at a rolling boil. The meatballs are cooked when they float to the top. Serve soup hot with/without carbo of choice.

Serves 2-3(adults)

Chinese New Year feasting - the recovery phase begins...

2008-02-13T02:09:00.000+08:00

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! For us Chinese, the feasting goes on for 15 days! Well, at least for the (weekday) moment there is some brief respite but the feasting started the weekend before last in earnest and continued till the last weekend. Sigh. It started with a memorable meal at the Ming Room (check out their addictive homemade green chilli sauce!) in unusually raucous conditions, a lovely dinner at Reunion and several wonderfully delicious family meals.

After all the rich food it was so delightful to sink my teeth into the Sashimi Salad at Sushi Zanmai, The Gardens. The melt-in-the-mouth sashimi - a mix of salmon and tuna on a bed of crisp shredded red cabbage, various greens and studded with tomatoes was just what the doctor ordered. I chose the Sushi Zanmai dressing, which looks like a watered down version of thousand island dressing but I assure you is nothing like that. It is tangy, light yet possesses a rich full-bodied taste which if I guess correctly may come from adding grated garlic and carrot to the dressing.

Sushi Zanmai
"The genuine conveyor-belt sushi restaurant"
T-217, 3rd Floor, The Gardens
Midvalley City
Lingkaran Syed Putra
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 7492 3080
Mobile: 012 989 3080

More, in my next post on recovery!

My New Toy - the Kenwood Breadmaker (BM350)

2008-02-02T19:08:00.000+08:00

"Take me home and loaf me long time..."

This is my new toy - the Kenwood Breadmaker (BM350). We spent about 2 years looking and looking at breadmakers (not that there are a lot of choices in the market!), unable to come to a decision to buy one due to our reservations. Would we have somewhere to put yet another kitchen appliance? Would the bread that it churns out be palatable to our finicky offspring? As most parents, we were concerned about the reports about the amount of preservatives that are found in commercially baked bread.So there we were, in ESH looking to buy something else and suddenly we were happy-nervous owners of a breadmaker. I'm not complaining. (FYI, ESH now sells KitchenAid mixers!)

There was a cheaper model, the BM250 going for much less. When asked what the main difference was, apart from the stainless steel body that the BM350 had, the salesperson told us that the BM350 produces bread with a crispier crust. Now, there are certain food-related words in the English Language that just have me sold the minute I hear them (crispy, grilled, chargrilled, seared are among the many). So you can imagine what influenced my decision-making...

The view from the top

A peek through the window at the rising dough

The control panel

The possibilities are just about endless!

The Breadmaker is pretty easy to operate. But you must follow every instruction down to the letter. They are not complicated. You have to put the ingredients into the breadpan in the order indicated in the recipe (recipe book provided), switch on the machine, choose the type of bread that you want to bake, indicate the size of your bread (500g, 750g or 1kg) choose the crust colour (dark, medium, light) and press start. In a matter of 3 hours and 5 minutes we had a delicious smelling 500g loaf of bread. I love that it is a seriously no-mess business.

they are not taking any chances - measuring cup and spoon included

I felt like a kid again, when the breadmaker beeped for the last time, so excited I was to see the baked loaf. Not having a good track record of baking shaped loaf breads, it seemed almost too good to be true to turn out the loaf from its baking pan. The crust was crisp (as promised) but when pressed gently the loaf was tender.

voila! basic white bread (medium colour crust) - hot from the oven

The smell of baking bread permeated the house and it was quite heavenly. The loaf had to be cooled for at least 30 minutes before it could be sliced.

cooling

The texture of the loaf looks somewhat coarse because I neglected to scrape down the sides of the pan sometime after the first kneading of the bread. Note to self: scrape down the sides next time!

Then came the moment of truth. The tasting. My 7-year old pronounced it quite delicious - more so than the store-bought bread (boy, was I relieved!. She tried it with some kaya and then told me she preferred to eat it on its own. The texture of the bread was more substantial and had more structure with hundreds of tiny bubbles than commercial bread. It definitely did not have the gummy texture that results upon contact with your mouth that commercial bread has. Perhaps it also can be partly attributed to the flour that I used. For this egg-enriched white bread recipe I used Harvest King (Gold Medal) Unbleached Bread Flour.

sliced bread, the best thing since

I am so looking forward to trying out the other recipes that come with the machine. The Kenwood website is very useful, you can download the recipe book and the instruction manual here if you somehow lose them in the future.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

2008-01-31T02:14:00.000+08:00

it's Jerk, baby.

Jerk floated into my chowhound consciousness the first time I read a foodie story about Jamaican jerk and how utterly delicious it is. I just knew it would be good from the description of the dish - chicken (mainly) grilled/smoked over special wood (pimento branches)in the outdoors (da beach, mon!), spiced up with deep robust flavours of secret(always!)herbs,spices and heat from Scotch Bonnet peppers!

ssssmo-kin'!!

After trawling the net for recipes on and off for some time, I discovered that the basic jerk marinade consists of allspice,spring onions (scallions), scotch bonnet peppers, vinegar, thyme and garlic. However, the deal was sealed when I came across Timothy Dzurilla's Spicy Jerk Chicken recipe. After scanning through his list of ingredients, my chowhound gut instinct told me that this was the marinade that would come close to giving me that big wallop of jerk flavour that I was looking for.

Gathering the ingredients for the marinade was more time-consuming than preparing the marinade itself, I reckon. I bought some of my ground spices like paprika and allspice from Cold Storage BSC and was horrified to see one spice had expired since July of last year and the other had one more week to go. I didn't check the expiry dates on the bottles as I was rushing through with my 4 year old trying to gallop ahead. I had to bring the bottles back to exchange and was busy kicking myself to see Village Grocer had spices which were a bit cheaper and had expiry dates stretching into 2011!

Some notes to the recipe:
I substituted habaneros for the Scotch bonnet called for in the recipe, as it is an acceptable substitute. I increased it to 3 habaneros (it is HOT!) So stick to 2 if you are adverse to pain!

yet another habanero pic

I also, used more chicken- 1.5kg of chicken wings instead of 2lbs (907g) of the usual chicken legs.

I couldn't get ground sage so I left it out :P

Green onions would mean spring onions for us Malaysians.

I used less Orange Juice and added the zest of one lime into the marinade.

the Jerk marinade
Primordial Goop of the goopiest kind

After marinating the chicken overnight, I roasted the chicken wings on a rack over an oven tray at 220 degrees celcius for about an hour or until mostly blackened. This must be the only recipe that blackened meat is a Good Thing.

I found the chicken to be almost everything I had imagined and yet something completely new - there was a deep, deep flavour that came from the allspice and cinnamon. Then there was a suspicion of thyme...the huge wallop of heat. Some tangy notes to tease you. The paprika gave the flesh a reddish tinge (almost like tandoori!). It was an experience all right. I'd definitely try making this again with more tweaks!

Hab-anero Day!

2008-01-27T17:45:00.000+08:00

You may be thinking that I'm nuts and that may not be too far from the truth! Hah! Was in Village Grocer (again) gathering ingredients for my first trial of the recipe for Jerk Chicken,(a complete post of that to come later) I came upon this box of gorgeous habaneros grown locally by Sime Fresh retailing at RM4.19. I bought habaneros for my Jerk Chicken marinade as it is a close substitute for the Scotch bonnet chilli peppers normally used. So as soon as I could I snapped as many photos of this hot chile pepper as I could, so enamoured by its cuteness, its irregular shapes - it is one gnarly thang basically!

Some info from Wikipedia on the habanero:
"Like all Capsicum, the habanero pepper originated in Meso- or South America, most likely the Amazon basin or nearby coastal regions. Upon its discovery by Europeans, it was rapidly disseminated around the world, to the point that 18th-century taxonomists mistook China for its place of origin and called it "capsicum chinense"—the Chinese pepper.

The chili's name is derived from the name of the Cuban city of Havana, which was formerly called "La Habana," although many Mexicans claim that the habanero originated in Mexico.

Today, the crop is most widely cultivated in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Other modern producers include Belize, Panama, Costa Rica, and some U.S. states including Texas, Idaho, and California.

Habaneros are an integral part of Yucatecan food. Habanero chiles accompany most dishes in Yucatan, either in solid or purée/salsa form.

The Scotch bonnet is often compared to the habanero since they are two varieties of the same species but have different pod types. Both the Scotch bonnet and the habanero have the characteristic thin, waxy flesh. They have a similar heat level and flavor. Although both varieties average around the same level of heat, the actual degree of "heat" varies greatly with genetics, growing methods, climate, and plant stress.

Recently, the habanero's heat, its fruity, citrus-like flavor, and its floral aroma have made it a popular ingredient in hot sauces and spicy foods."

It is one hot chile pepper alright! (Its Scovile rating is 100,000-300,000 according to Wiki!) After cutting up some for my marinade my hands began to burn a little from the minimal contact I had with them. And at some point my throat was also irritated by the 'fumes' that came from the processed marinade.
I only needed 3 for my marinade and it was quite hot. Believe me when I say this as I am abit of a chilehead!

Mushroom Magic

2008-01-23T14:22:00.000+08:00

Three-Mushroom Salad with Ponzu dressing

Chinese New Year (CNY) is fast approaching. We have exactly 2 weeks from today! I am looking forward to the season this year. The build up to the festivities is also rather fun. I am optimistically planning to bake some cookies to give away lol... I am also looking forward to visiting Petaling Street this week, which usually serves up a healthy dollop of CNY festive cheer. How can one fail to get into the spirit of things with loudspeakers blaring CNY music, smoky BBQ meat pits, small towers of mandarin orange boxes lining the street and rows of CNY cookies on sale?

I have been fascinated with the variety of mushrooms available at Village Grocer, Bangsar Village. Their mushroom section is quite impressive. They have a good selection of the usual 'western' mushrooms and 'oriental' mushrooms like Korean enoki, buna shimeji, oyster and shiitake to name a few. I tried the shimeji mushroom for the first time and found it to be the perfect mushroom! Perfect in that its size makes it just right for eating whole, it is still slightly springy with abit of bite even after searing and their flavour has the right amount of meaty-woodiness. Shimejis are fun to eat! I found that the shimejis and the oyster mushrooms provided the right balance to the strong flavour of the fresh shiitake mushrooms in the Three-Mushroom Salad with Ponzu dressing . This recipe is perfect for CNY family gatherings as it's easy to prepare and its refreshingly tangy citrus-based dressing will help to balance off the richness of the other seasonal dishes. Er, and I think it's rather auspicious to serve up mushrooms too?

Enjoy!

(L-R)buna shimeji, shiitake and oyster mushrooms.

Three-Mushroom Salad with Ponzu dressing

Ingredients:
300g baby cos lettuce

8 Shiitake mushrooms
1 pack Shimeji mushrooms
100g Oyster mushrooms

2 tbspn vegetable oil
1/2 thumbsized knob of fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp white sesame seeds
1 tsp black sesame seed

Ponzu dressing
1/4 cup Mizkan Ponzu sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Japanese Vinegar
1/4 cup Japanese cooking rice wine (cooking sake)
1/4 cup Japanese sweet rice wine (mirin)
1 tbspn orange juice
2 tbspn bonito flakes

1) Combine all the ponzu sauce ingredients and refrigerate till needed.
2) Wash the baby cos lettuce and leave to drain in colander.
3)Clean mushrooms by wiping with damp kitchen towel. Slice the shiitake mushrooms. Trim the end bits of the shimeji mushrooms and separate them. As for the oyster mushrooms, gently tear off strips, horizontally.
4) Heat pan with 2 tbspns of vegetable oil(I like to use rice bran oil)and lightly saute the grated fresh ginger. Sear the mushrooms till brownish and caramelised at the lighter parts. Finish off by sprinkling with the black and white sesame seeds. Toss the mushrooms once or twice before removing from heat.
5) Lay out the baby cos lettuce in a single layer on plate. Arrange seared mushrooms over the lettuce.
6) Pour chilled ponzu sauce over salad and serve.

Serves 6-8 as part of a Chinese meal with rice and other dishes.

Cook's note: I've found that the best place (variety and price-wise) to buy Japanese condiments is the CitiSuper at Hartamas Shopping Centre. Village Grocer also has a good selection but I've found the prices to be higher than at CitiSuper. I bought the bonito flakes at Jusco, it comes in a resealable plastic bag. CitiSuper also carries a good selection of Middle Eastern ingredients like the hard-to-find pomegranate molasses AND pomegranate syrup apart from the usual Korean foodstuff.

Hot Stuff : Korean BBQ Chicken Delivery

2008-01-20T02:39:00.000+08:00

BBQ Chicken

I simply have to bash this story out while the fire is in my belly - literally... We discovered this new restaurant BBQ Chicken in Desa Sri Hartamas when they slipped a flier of their delivery menu in our postbox one day. The flier proclaimed itself as "Korea's No.1 Chicken Restaurant". What caught my attention was their claim that their chicken is fried in "100% Olive Oil". A guilty pleasure made less 'sinful' by being fried in Olive Oil?! Surely too good to be true. Click here to find out more about this franchise. These people are cashing in on most of the world's weakness for fried chicken which seems to transcend culture!

After trying their chicken for the third time today, I simply had to blog about it.

Korean Charbroiled Chicken
Under "Korean Charbroiled Chicken", their flier reads "Most tender thigh meat striped(sic) off and marinated in a natural sauce made of 30 secret ingredients, followed by a roasting over hardwood charcoal once, then over earthenware twice, creating Korea's most unique tasting chicken". Just by reading the description, you just know that it's going to be good...all that TLC put into its preparation. The chicken tastes sweet with some hints of spring onion in its marinade but best of all, a deep chargrilled taste permeates the meat.

Crazy-making Hot Hot Drum
Now, you can tell by my own comment above that I am quite partial to the Hot Hot Drum. "Hot Hot" indicates the somewhat incendiary nature of the chicken and "Drum" in that it's all chicken drumsticks. Just by looking at the photo you can see that this chicken is fierce. The chicken drumstick's deliciously crisp exterior is glazed with this addictive sweetish, tangy hot sauce. The heat burns the lips on first contact and leaves a trail right down to the gut. Chilly lovers will understand what I mean by the 'pleasurable pain' derived from eating this spicy fried chicken. Need I say more?

Teri-Q Stick
"Teri-Q Stick" is Fresh chicken drumstick thoroughly marinated with specially formulated Teriyaki sauce with garlic flavoring. Lightly coated with fine Glutinous Powder and fired with 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil" It does not have a particularly pronounced teriyaki flavour and the crispy skin is a little hot with its generous pepper seasoning. Tasty but not mind-blowing.

Fresh Crunchy Slaw
I like their Fresh Crunchy Slaw which they refer to as "Salad" on their menu. It is a side offered with their sets which comprise 3 pcs of chicken, a mashed potato/shrimp fried rice and salad. The salad definitely helps to put out the Hot Hot Drum fire in your mouth!

Shrimp Fried Rice
The Shrimp Fried Rice is one of the carbos offered with the set. A standard fried rice with egg bits and tiny shrimp in it. The mashed potato which I omitted to take a photo of,is quite delicious. It is creamy with a chicken-y gravy poured over it.

great graphics on the takeout box

We've previously tried the Jerk BBQ. I picked it out first as I am currently obsessing about Jerk...that's another story... The Jerk BBQ did not meet up to my expectations as it mainly tasted sweet and a little hot like the type of heat that you get from Tabasco. Overall, there was a certain lack of depth of flavour in the meat. The Smoked Chicken reminded me a little of charsiew with a tad more smokey notes.

BBQ Chicken Delivery Menu

Olive Luxury Chicken
Teri-Q Stick
Korean Charbroiled
Smoked Chicken
Ginseng Power Crisp
Hot Hot Drum
Jerk BBQ
Ginseng Smoke

Korean Charbroiled Sandwich
Fillet Sandwich
Teri-Q Wings
Golden Strip
Fish Cutlet
Golden Strip Salad
BBQ Salad
Green Salad
Col-Pop Chicken

Prices vary from RM14.50 to RM39.90 for different sets
subject to 5% Government Tax and RM3.00 delivery charge.

Delivery : 11.00am - 10.30pm
Tel: 03- 2300 1019

The Restaurant:
BBQ Chicken
24, Jln 27/70A,
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala LUmpur
Tel:03-2300 1019

Latest Birthday cakes and cupcakes

2008-01-16T15:20:00.000+08:00

¡Princesa, Feliz Cumpleaños!

It appears that princess fever has hit every little girl (except, thankfully for mine). Note the abundance of princess or fairy princess related merchandise in the toyshops and also, fairy princess themed storybooks in the bookshops. So I get alot of requests for pink and princess-y birthday cakes. I never thought Dora the Explorer would succumb to the princess makeover till I saw the fairytale princess Dora that the fine folks at Nickelodeon dreamt up... For cryin' out loud, I liked her better when she was running around in her explorer outfit of t-shirt and shorts with her amigo backpack (..back pack..back pack) chanting "Swiper, no swiping!" (Er, yes I have watched too much children's television. Well, don't mind me, I still haven't gotten over Steve quitting Blues Clues...so you know how well I take to people messing with my children's tv characters...lol

Get the princess in your life an edible crown!

Vanilla cupcakes with pink glaze sprinkled with hundreds & thousands

Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting decorated with mini gingerbreadmen

Happy New Year!

2008-01-15T11:27:00.000+08:00

may your 2008 be filled with light!

My new year greetings are a little late but I'm back!
Back with a new look, I've finally gotten round to updating my template...which is still a work-in-progress...needs some more tweaking... so be patient mi amigos...

I'm happy and thankful to say after a 2-month break from blogging I feel refreshed and full of ideas again. Spent November 2007 recuperating from a Laparascopic Cholecystectomy in which I had my troublesome gallbladder removed. Hallelujah! Yes, till date, I still cannot pronounce the procedure smoothly and often rely on what my surgeon says "Lap Choly" which makes me think of a crossbred dog instead. December 2007 came and went with the usual wonderful craziness that comes with Christmas. And here we are in January 2008. Here we are, indeed.

I expect to get up another food related post real soon, so stay posted... I've lots to share!

A Pick-me-up Salad

2007-10-08T02:00:00.001+08:00

salad daze

Needed a mid-week vege boost to improve my frame of mind and found myself scouring the shelves of Village Grocer for some fresh yummies. Grabbed a can of tinned tuna in water, lima beans, beetroot, a pack of mixed salad greens (lollo rossa, lollo bionda and butterhead lettuce) and some cherry tomatoes. No chopping or dicing for me please...Throw in some grapes, a good slosh of salad dressing. Voila! Veges are good for you...

Birthday Butterfly

2007-10-08T01:55:00.000+08:00

A purple birthday butterfly for a little girl.

More pimpin' of a ride...

2007-10-01T01:35:00.001+08:00

This was requested by a little boy for his 3rd birthday.

Birthday Season again...

2007-08-13T00:35:00.000+08:00

It's August again and I've spent the better half of last week baking and decorating these cakes. I really enjoyed the whole process, although I must admit it is hard work especially when done in the wee hours of the morning. But it was great fun because they were kiddie cakes.

this lion makes me smile...
This is a Chocolate Fudge cake decorated with vanilla buttercream.
I was inspired by this episode of the Martha Stewart Show in which she decorated a kid's birthday cake with Felicity Huffman, her celebrity guest of the day. It was a round cake with a lion's face on it, with a bright orangey lion's mane. However, I like my version better as the colours are more sunshiney.

the pimp-my-ride cake
This is a Chocolate Fudge cake covered in sugarpaste/fondant.
I tried my darndest to remember bits from the episodes of pimp-my-ride and various shows on Discovery Real Time when I was decorating/constructing this cake! It was quite painful for me when it came time to cut up the cake to serve but it had to be done amidst shouts of 'Ow!! Kereta potong! Kereta potong!

for the princess
This is a butter cake decorated with vanilla buttercream.
A truly girly cake with the pink castle and violet turrets...

Donuts!

2007-07-23T02:07:00.000+08:00

life is like a box of donuts...

Well. It's been a while since I last blogged...so much has happened in the past month and a half. Part of which involved speeding off to hospital in the middle of the night with a sick child leaving my softening butter to melt into a puddle...(I was going to bake cupcakes that night!)When my child got better I contemplated blogging about hospital food but thought better of it in the end... heh.

So. I never thought the day would come when I would meet a donut worth blogging about. But it has come. I was pretty skeptical when I first read about this new donut shop Big Apple Donuts and Coffee as I am not a big fan of donuts. I also wondered how long this business would survive and on hearing that people were lining up for their donut fix...I was of course, intrigued! Would they go the way of the famous Mexican Bun?

There were so many varieties of donuts to choose from so I just stuck to my usual acid-test flavours like chocolate, mango and green tea. In my estimation, if a shop can do these very well, then everything else should be good. However this time as you will read further down this theory did not hold true.

Cocoring
This gleaming luscious looking donut is covered in Belgian chocolate. It tasted ok but did not deliver the pure chocolate hit that I expected.

Green Teaser
I love unexpectedly green food! This donut was nothing special as there wasn't enough green tea flavour coming through.

this ain't no science experiment
My seven-year old chose this much to my surprise. You'd think that a kid would go for icing heaped,chocolate covered, or coco pops laced donuts... but no, I have a savoury-toothed child on my hands. Guess she inherited those meatfloss-loving genes from the dad. It tasted like, well, like a sugarless donut, yeasty with chicken floss on it...

part of the durian's continuing efforts towards
world domination
This is the coolest looking donut around I reckon. It was filled with a durian-flavoured cream. Nothing special.

Mango Tango
This donut was covered with a mango-flavoured glazed which could do with a smidgen more tartness in flavour. The center of the donut was filled with a dab of mango-flavoured cream.

glazed greatness!
Now this was swoon-worthy. Eaten fresh it was soft, yeasty and satisfying. Brought back memories of those fresh market-bought donuts that we used to eat as kids. It did not have a trace of this oil smell that you find in Dunkin' Donuts. We later tried the semi-glacier which had less sugar for comparison. We found that we preferred the glacier one as the semi-glacier was bland in spots.

Big Apple Donuts and Coffee
(next to Eden)
Lot G72A, Ground Floor
The Street
The Curve
Mutiara Damansara
Petaling Jaya

Tel No: 03 - 7726 4250

Food Republic @ Vivocity

2007-06-07T03:21:00.000+08:00

We were in Singapore for a few days as it is the school holidays. I think half of Malaysia would have headed down there with their kids seeing that they were offering half price admissions for the zoo, birdpark and various attractions. Sadly, I did not make it to Holland Village to check out the retail outlet of Shermay's Cooking School. But I had my fill of checking out the gadgets at Isetan and Tangs. Kitchen Aid at SGD669 at Tangs! I spotted that ball-shaped pepper grinder that Nigella uses at Isetan for around SGD30 (can't remember the exact price) and the Mario Batali wooden spoons that Chubby Hubby raved about sometime back.

We stumbled upon this foodcourt when we were hunting for a place to eat after exploring the huge Toysrus at Vivocity. The people who created Food Republic truly brought the concept of food court onto another level. Of course alot of folks would find the retro theme concept of the place a little gimmicky and cheesy... but hey, I liked it! Right from the distressed wood decor to the strains of old Chinese tunes.The Food Republic offers stalls from famous hawker stalls from around town under one roof.

These were really good. And I am normally pretty indifferent to fritters! The butterfly fritter was sprinkled with sugar and sesame and had a nice crunchy crust. The insides were soft and springy. The other two had red bean and lotus paste fillings and were equally delicious.

I gave the fryerman a sheepish grin after he looked up at me when my flash went off. Not exactly your intrepid photographer here.

Depot Road Claypot Laksa

This laksa was pretty mediocre to me. Not enough oomph. Somehow there was something lacking. It had chicken strips and cockles, no extra herbs or garnishings.

This kway chap was pretty decent. The braising stock was flavourful. It was a relief as we had an utterly bland one from Newton Circus on the first day.

Yong Heng Fried Hokkien Mee
That was tasty. Once you wrap your KL head around the fact that hokkien mee is not black, gooey and studded with lard fritters. The noodles were al dente and had a nice prawn flavour. The sambal and lime accented the dish perfectly.

Huat Huat BBQ Chicken Wings
Nice to have but nothing exceptional taste-wise.

ambience!

Toastbox - serving up kopitiam food

Mango Pudding

This was a pleasant surprise. Wow. I noticed my six year old silently polishing off the whole bowl by herself. So I got real curious and tasted some. The pudding was meltingly soft and had such a rich mango flavour. The shaved ice had evaporated milk drizzled over it and was studded with multi coloured jelly bits.

ice mountain
This tri-coloured mountain of ice brought out the kid in all of us.

Ice Jelly Cocktail
Very refreshing dessert to end a meal.

The Ice Shop

Slacker's Soy-sloshed Roast Chicken

2007-05-30T00:06:00.000+08:00

For those days when you need to nurture the slacker in you.
Crank up the oven to 220 degrees Centigrade. Throw a couple of chicken legs, a smashed knob of ginger and 3-4 cloves of garlic (slivered) into a resealable plastic bag. Slosh soy sauce twice into aforementioned bag of chicken. Seal bag. Briefly massage chicken in bag. Only Nigella can look elegant whilst doing so. You and I can forget about it, french manicure or no.

Marinate chicken for about twenty minutes. After which, arrange the chicken legs onto a rack over an oven tray. Roast for about 40 minutes or until chicken is golden brown.

Serve with carbo of choice or salad. Or dip in previously mentioned Sri Racha hot sauce.

Hot Mamma!

2007-05-23T19:16:00.000+08:00

People have their chocolate, I have my chilli. To cure the blues, I mean. Back when I was with the bank, tomyam noodles with a small dish of sambal belacan would do the trick. When the drudgery of sifting through legal documents and putting up with general b.s. would get me down I would head off to Central Market where there was a Thai restaurant. The Thai lady boss there would acknowledge me and say in one breath "tomyam-bihun-barley-lime?" Yes, the tomyamhead was here. Again.

I would pretend to read my paper and meditate on the pleasures, virtues even of dining alone ala M.F.K. Fisher. But really, I was impatiently waiting for that bowl that would literally put the fire back in my belly.

When that stainless steel bowl of fiery goodness finally arrived, I would first breathe in the heady aromas of lemongrass, chillies in several forms, onions... Then banzai! dive into the fiery soup. Sweat would come first as the soup was steaming hot, then the pain. The pleasurable pain. Searing my throat, singeing my ears. In the immortal words of Mellencamp, "hurts so gooood, baby, make it hurt so good".
Add in more sambal. Yesss, more searing. By that time the mind no longer thinks about the frustrations of the day. It is only concerned with the immediate pain. After coming to the end of the bowl (coming back down to earth), I lean back and half-heartedly put out the fire with my iced barley-lime drink. Red-faced, I pay my bill and stagger downstairs to look for Ah Leng the fruiterer for further pain relief.

So. Being a chilli addict as aforementioned, I was intrigued when I read about a hot sauce that I'd not heard of in Jonathan Gold's story "The Last Burger Stand" (Best Food Writing 2005) Mr. Gold wrote: : " I'm just a newbie to Hong ( I was a semi-regular at Irv's years ago) but I'm fond of something called a Simon: a pastrami-topped cheeseburger on a French roll, and I have no doubt that after a half-dozen or so more visits, my particular take on that sandwich, with extra-crisp fried pastrami, a shot of Sriracha hot sauce and double pickles, would have my name on it too."

The thought that an American bloke would want a shot of an Asian-sounding hot sauce on their cheeseburger got me hooked. So when I spotted this freebie bottle of Sriracha sauce sandwiched between 2 bottles of Bidor Kwong Heng's light soya sauce, I just had to get it. I have not seen it sold separately anywhere else. This product is not even listed on the Ipoh-mali Bidor Kwong Heng's website.

The sauce is sweet on first taste, with a mild garlic flavour. It is for those who do not want the vampire/people-repelling effect of Kampong Koh or Maggi Garlic chilli sauce. When you're lured into complacency by the initial sweet taste, a slow burn begins in the back of your throat. For some strange reason, I was hooked for while and ended up squirting the sauce on everything. The plastic squeeze bottle it comes in may have something to do with it. It adds a fun factor and certainly beats thumping on a glass bottle to get the contents out. I entertained my kids by writing their names in chilli sauce...

The Bidor Kwong Heng Sriracha sauce is actually not the one that Mr. Gold was referring to in his burger story. It is this one. But the description of the sauce sounds very similar.

The American Cousin

Wikipedia provides some illumination :
"Sriracha (pronounced SEE-rah-chah) is the generic name for a Southeast Asian hot sauce from Thailand. It is named after the seaside town Si Racha, where it was first produced as a local product. It is made from sun-ripened chile peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt. It averages a scoville rating of 2,000.

One of the most famous brands is made by Huy Fong Foods, an American company, that puts an emblem of a rooster on the bottle. The US brand from Huy Fong Foods is often left out on the table at restaurants all day and contains sodium bisulfite as a preservative. Thai people often find the American brand perplexing, as originally Sriracha is still often thought of as unique brand from that town, not a type of sauce. Thai grocery stores carry the authentic Thai version, which usually has no preservatives and is refrigerated after opening.

Both Thai and non-Thai version have a hot, sweet and spicy flavors; however Thai Sriracha sauce generally has a sweeter or more tangy flavour, and a smoother texture. The American (and similar versions) are often chunkier, with a texture similar to ketchup. This is sometimes used as a condiment for phở, along with hoisin sauce. It is never used on noodles or soups in Thailand; instead it is often used as a dipping sauce, particularly for seafood (usually clams). It is also used as a general-use hot sauce, especially with Asian foods."

Read about Americans going nuts about this sauce at kitchen.apartment therapy.com and taunton.com

Anyone know what Bidor Kwong Heng is doing with its own Sriracha sauce? Testing the market by giving freebies? Export stock overrun?

What cake are you?

2007-05-14T01:23:00.000+08:00

I'm Strawberry Cheesecake. Go figure.

What Cake are you???
Strawberry Cheesecake You try to be nice to other people,sometimes it doesn't work!!But you just keep on going and you try your best at most things you do!You like to work alone and sometimes you are the class clown!!
Take The Quiz Now!	Quizzes by myYearbook.com

Yessss, I've succumbed to this rash of quiz fever that's been going round. Slightly ridiculous, but nice just to lighten up with. Well,I had one of the best mothers' days this year for a whole load of reasons. It also coincided with me stepping out and doing something new, which was to put it mildly, pretty intense but all totally goooooood. Now if only I can prevent myself from spontaneously combusting with all these thoughts running through my head processing, analysing....

I like!

2007-05-10T22:22:00.000+08:00

Could not resist posting this for all you dessert-lovers out there...
Check out Dylan's Candy Bar for some eye and tummy candy....

Wedding daze

2007-05-09T01:17:00.000+08:00

orange poppy seed cupcakes with lemon buttercream

Last Saturday I was privileged to attend a beautiful wedding at my church. Thanks to the art direction of Misses Q (decoration coordinators), our stark, utilitarian auditorium was transformed into a romantic setting in which all our senses were engaged. The lighting was subtle but not er-who-are-you dim, the flowers artfully arranged and the icing on the cake was the watermelon scent which wafted around us. The 'altar' was placed in the middle of the room so that everyone surrounded the couple and the officiating minister. The mesh which held some greenery and swaths of fabric reminded me of the huppah used by Jews in their wedding ceremonies (except they didn't have the requisite four poles that make one).

Of course, when the radiant bride came in, all eyes were on her. Nary a meringue or frill in sight, she looked very chic in a strapless gown with a train which had pleated details (er, my years of flipping through fashion magazines fail me at this moment!) and lots of buttons running down the back...if I remember correctly.

This was also the first wedding that I had an order for. The couple wanted brownies. I decided to throw in cupcakes just for the heck of it. And boy, it was really fun making them. I can't explain it, I just love baking and decorating cupcakes. I guess, it's the potential for cuteness factor. I mean, who can resist a cupcake which has been crowned with a lavish swirl of buttercream? Or maybe the hello-kitty-little-twin-star-strawberry-shortcake kid collector still lives in me. Confessions, confessions...

der uber brownie

Nyonya Mee Siam

2007-04-25T00:53:00.000+08:00

There are so many versions of mee siam recipes floating around out there. Many are shortcuts, creating the impression that actual mee siam is just some sourish fried noodles with lots of beancurd and some prawn stirred in. When I first tasted the authentic nyonya version at a party, it was swooningly good. After some searching, I knew I had hit paydirt when I came across the recipe for Mee Siam in Mrs. Lee's Cookbook. I was thrilled to be able to cook this last Saturday as an afternoon snack for some friends. The recipe below has been adapted to my taste-memory.

Nyonya Mee Siam

600g rice vermicelli (bihun), soaked for 5 minutes
1.2kg bean sprouts, rinsed
200g dried prawns, soaked and blitzed or pounded
1 cup of oil
600g water

Garnishing:
1kg medium-size prawns, shelled and deveined, cooked briefly in lightly salted water.
10 pieces beancurd cakes (taukorn), cut into thin strips (to be deep fried)
12 eggs, hardboiled, peeled and cut into 4
15 calamansi limes, halved
chives, snipped into 2cm pieces
2 ginger flowerbuds (bunga kantan), thinly sliced
sambal belacan

Rempah
blitz or pound:
300g shallots
3 stalks of lemongrass, white part only
2 tablespoons shrimp paste (belacan)(toast the belacan beforehand)
4 tablespoons chilly paste

Gravy:
10 tablespoons salted soybeans (taucheong), briefly blitzed
200g thick coconut milk
1.5 litres prawn stock
5 tablespoons sugar

1) Prepare prawn stock: after shelling the prawns, rinse the shells. In a stock pot heat up 2 tablespoons of oil, then briefly saute the shells. Add 2 litres of water and simmer for about 1 hours over medium heat. Strain the stock and discard the shells. Set aside the stock for later use in preparation of gravy.

2) Heat up 1 cup of oil in wok until very hot. Then deep fry all the beancurd cake strips. Remove when browned and drain on paper towels. Set aside for garnishing.

3) Stir fry the rempah for about 2 minutes, then add the blitzed dry shrimps. Stirring constantly, fry until the oil surfaces/separates from the mix. Scoop out a ladleful of the rempah into stock pot for the gravy.

4) To cook the noodles:
Add the 600g water to the rempah and bring to boil. Then add the noodles and mix with the rempah. Add the beansprouts. When the rempah mixture comes to boil again, use 2 pairs of chopsticks to loosen and mix the noodles. Simmer over a low fire for a few more minutes.

5) To make the gravy:
Combine the rempah and all the stock ingredients and bring to boil.

6) To serve:
Dish out the noodles into individual plates, garnish with egg, beancurd cake strips, chives, calamansi and sliced bunga kantan. Put the gravy in a bowl or jug for diners to serve themselves along with the sambal belacan.

Serves 10 as main course or 20 as an afternoon tea snack!

Here comes the bride...

2007-04-12T12:28:00.000+08:00

Finally! I completed all 3 levels of the wilton cake decorating course and 'graduated' from the 3rd level last Saturday. Our 'graduation' project was to bake and decorate a 2-tier wedding cake. The cakes were covered with fondant and decorated with fondant roses and ribbons accented with piped royal icing designs. The bottom tier was a 10-inch chocolate fudge cake whilst the top tier was a 6-inch fruitcake. Boy was it a labour of love! (to put it politely). The operative word being 'labour'!lol But there is something magical (for lack of better word) about creating something like this from scratch(roses and all) - like bespoke suits and handmade quilts... in this age of mass production.

So! Anyone wants to order a custom-made engagement or wedding cake?

Passover Charoset

2007-04-10T00:42:00.000+08:00

We had a passover feast at church on Good Friday. I was asked to research the recipe for Charoset (or Haroseth) last year and make some for our passover feast last year. Before that I hardly had any idea what it was! I'm posting this recipe mainly for those folks who had it on Friday and said they liked it so they can make it for themselves.

Charoset is part of the Passover table's seder plate that contains 5 foods symbolic of what the old testament Israelites went through in the Exodus. Charoset represents the mortar the Jewish slaves used to assemble the Pharaoh's bricks. This recipe is one of the many versions of charoset - as different versions exist all over the world.

Charoset Balls

500g almonds
1kg walnuts
500g yellow raisins
500g sultanas
1/4 cup ribena cordial slightly diluted or red wine
1/2 tsp Cinnamon, optional

1) Grind almonds in food processor separately first but not till powdery. Then add the walnuts and process till fine. Add cinnamon if using.

2) Add the raisins and sultanas and process again. Drizzle ribena or wine on the mixture and pulse once or twice till the mixture comes together.

3) Form 3cm diameter balls from the mixture.

Makes about 200 balls.

Paradise in Teluk Bahang, Penang

2007-03-29T02:36:00.000+08:00

It was a combination of factors that drew us to the Tropical Spice Garden in Teluk Bahang.The Star Penang food guide featured their cafe which had interesting food and views. Mostly I was also hoping to buy a Rebecca Duckett designed t-shirt - which I used to get from Central Market in when I was seventeen. (yes, yes, yet another attempt to recapture the joys of my youth..lol) We were also hoping that the kids would get a good dose of Fresh Air and Nature...

I was completely enchanted by the place. The owners of the garden showed such attention to detail. Right from the start, you are offered squirts of citronella oil for your arms and legs to ward off mosquitoes before starting off on a trail. You are also given a choice of which trails to take and informed how long each would take. I cannot remember a more delightful way of spending a sunny afternoon. The entire garden wound up the side of a hill, so in effect you were climbing up along shady terraces of tropical plants and trees. There were so many different types of plants and flowers, yet each was lavished with the care normally given by a home gardener. Whimsical art installations constructed from recycled materials made the place even more charming. A Secret Garden on a hill.

breadfruit plant "buah sukun"

kids, this is where ginger comes from...

Flowers, flowers, flowers...

Spice Globe art installation by Rebecca Duckett

Colourful jungle animals bench

my favourite - a mosaic in the middle of a path

...more flowers!

To get up to the Spice museum, cafe and giftshop, we decided to take the 'easy' way out - hop on the trailer up to the villa. Turned out to be an excruciatingly slow, grinding journey up the hill with a whole load of Japanese tourists. The funniest part was we later discovered that it only took a hop, skip and jump to get down to the main entrance!

Scenes from the spice museum:

...the giftshop...

We did not dine at the cafe as the kids were already tired from their nature walk. It was rather quiet at that time, but the view of the cafe deck facing the sea was something else.

Tropical Spice Garden
Lone Crag Villa
Lot 595, Mukim 2
Jalan Teluk Bahang
11100 Penang

Last-minute trip to Penang

2007-03-21T22:36:00.000+08:00

We decided to squeeze in a short break in Penang with the kids over the weekend. The weather was great and more importantly, we managed to chow down some great hawker food. Food, that we had been drooling over in the Star's Penang food guide ever since it was published. I must put on record however, that it was due to my other half's great chowhound determination that we were able to track down and eat some great hawker food while the kids were able to enjoy the beach and pool.
The secret to it all is "ta-pau"...takeaway...

The Pulau Tikus wet market had lots of delicious goodies on offer for breakfast. Best breakfast I've had in ages! However, we did not manage to get the siu yoke that Audrey from audreycooks.com recommended so highly. Some how hubby got confused by my incoherent babblings about where to find food!

nyonya kuih - the colours!

ban chean kuih and apom balik -managed to maintain crispiness even after some time.

better than the petaling street one - gasp!

what the penangites call 'hokkien mee'(decanted into tupperware)- short on the soup but good to the last precious drop

yamcake

Fettes Park Fatty Loh Chicken Rice at Tanjung Tokong.
Am not claiming that they serve the best chicken rice ever but it is their chicken feet kerabu that keep us coming back for more. This time we dined in - which was quite a pleasant experience as the owners took a lot of effort to plant lots of trees and different plants. One interesting tree that I saw was a pomegrenate tree! (call me suaku if you will but I was pretty amazed)

the rice

roast chicken - with lots of sesame oil flavour

charsiu and siew yoke - no big

chicken feet kerabu - yum!

jagged braised egg

There are no photos of the following as we were literally eating on the fly on the last day before we headed back to KL... We sampled the legendary "Edgecumbe Road Famous Pasembur" at the Kompleks Gerai Makanan Gurney along Gurney Drive. It lived up to its reputation - each fried ingredient (fishcake, prawn fritters etc) was lightly battered and subtly spiced. The gravy was also different, being much thinner in consistency and slightly more tangy than what we are used to. Delicious.

The Padang Brown Chinese popiah was truly an experience in itself. However, I don't get the Penangites preference for dousing the popiah with a stock-like gravy. The popiah did not have the sweet sauce but had just the right amount of chilli sauce. So much so that the main flavour that came out was that of the chunk of real crabmeat that the hawker adds to the filling. Truth be told, it was the report of this real crabmeat being used that drew us to the place. The hawker keeps a large container of only crab claw meat for this purpose. I wonder if anyone has ever been tempted to run off with that container!

We did make the obligatory trip to Gurney Drive at night but somehow did not pick the right stalls. It was hard to concentrate with two kids on tow in that crowded place.

Bahn Xeo (Vietnamese crepe)

2007-03-08T01:11:00.000+08:00

I fell in love with Vietnamese food when I was a student in Melbourne. In those days, one could get really cheap and tasty grub at Vietnamese cafes in Richmond. Nowadays, Vietnamese food in Malaysia only seems to be served in restaurants with funky decor and even funkier prices. I laugh now remembering how I thought of their drip coffee as a substitute for my kopitiam kopi! (for which I was seriously homesick for). It was there that I got my first taste of 'bun cha' (grilled pork vermicelli with a tangy dipping sauce and an assortment of fresh veg and herbs) and 'broken rice' with' pork ribs. I was hooked, who can resist grilled pork?

As for Bahn Xeo, I cannot forget that episode of Globe Trekker (Lonely Planet back then) when Megan McCormick went to Vietnam. I remember us groaning in agony watching her eat 'bun cha' at a hawker's stall. The worst was when she had 'bahn xeo' with Richard Sterling (a writer), watching her wrap the savoury crepe with lettuce, dipping it in nuoc cham and chomping on it fair did us in.

So it was with that very graphic food memory, I tried out this recipe with some adaptations. The results whilst not so photogenic, were delicious.The amazing thing was the results took me completely by surprise - the various textures and tastes flood your senses all at once. The crisp coolness of the Lolla Rossa and herbs, the heavenly crispness of the crepe, the richness of the crepe that is faintly reminiscent of a savoury apam balik, the various texture of the fillings...ahhhh I could go on...and on.

Bahn Xeo (Vietnamese crepe)
Crepes:
1 cup rice flour
1 cup cold water
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
300g bean sprouts
2 finely chopped spring onions
1 cup oyster mushrooms, sliced

Filling:
200g minced pork
200g prawns, shelled and deveined
1 dash of soya sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 tablespoon fish sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, thinly sliced horizontally

Lettuce wrap/salad ingredients
2 bunches of Lolla Rossa or butterhead lettuce, washed and trimmed
a handful of fresh mint leaves
a handful of fresh coriander leaves
1 cucumber peeled and thinly sliced

Makes 8 crepes to be eaten dipped in nuoc cham dipping sauce.(recipe below)
Note: The crepes are very filling! One seems enough for dinner if not ravenously hungry

1) Prepare all the salad ingredients and arrange on a platter. Set aside.
2) To make filling: Marinate briefly the pork mince and prawns with the soy sauce,sugar,fish sauce and cornflour. Heat oil in wok, then saute the onions till soft. Add in the minced garlic, saute briefly. Then add in the pork and prawn mixture and stir-fry till cooked. Remove from heat and set aside.
3) To make crepe batter: Combine rice flour, cold water, coconut milk, salt and turmeric in a heatproof (at least 2 cup capacity)glass jug. Set aside.
4) To make crepes:
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in an 8-inch nonstick pan till very hot.Stir batter and pour a thinnish layer into pan. Tilt pan to spread mixture evenly.
5) Scatter a handful of beansprouts, spring onions and mushrooms, 1 tablespoon of pork mince and 3 prawns on the lower half of the crepe. Reduce heat to low and cover pan to cook briefly. Then fold the crepe and serve it up. Eat immediately after wrapping crepe in lettuce with herbs and cucumber and dipping in nuoc cham!
6) Repeat till all batter is used up.

Nuoc Cham (Dipping Sauce)

2 fresh red chillies, minced
2 bird's eye chillies, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon vinegar
3 tablespoon fish sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients well.
Makes 1 cup of sauce.

lacy and crispy

It's been a while crocodile...

2007-03-08T00:32:00.000+08:00

good to the last bite...
Wow. Has it really been a month since my last post? Had been really sidetracked by various unblogworthy projects. Plus, I temporarily lost my will to bake... Whilst I may have lost my will to bake during the CNY season, I certainly did not lose my capacity to appreciate my favourite treat that hubby orders from the office tea lady (yes, those relics of another age still exist)- a local version of almond 'tuiles'.

Last weekend, I fired up the old oven again and I'm back in action after a nice CNY break. I've discovered that I actually enjoy making Royal Icing flowers! I'm actually quite surprised as I'm not a very girlie girl...

it's amazing what you can do with abit of egg white and...

...a load of powdered sugar!

Last weekend, I completed Course 2 of the Wilton cake decorating course as part of my ongoing effort to upgrade my skills. This is my finale cake decorated in basketweave design and with Royal Icing flowers.

tada...!

Order up!

2007-02-08T01:11:00.000+08:00

Chocolate fudge cake with buttercream icing

This is what I was up to for the second half of last week. The birthday girl wanted 2 designs - rainbow and ballerina - so we ended up with the works.

Last weekend I bought a 2D castle cake pan and a 3D car cake pan which I'm raring to use... I predict icing/star piping them will fair kill me in the end... What to do...I'm quite crazy about kids' cakes.

Marble cupcakes with mini m&ms

Weekend bakeoff

2007-01-30T00:58:00.000+08:00

Green tea cupcake with buttercream frosting and gold accent

I had loads of fun two weekends ago whipping up desserts for an appreciation dinner for Sunday School teachers at church. (I also had a blast pretending to be a chef, plating up ready-cooked food to be served by the kids to their teachers.) Being possessed of this 'disease' which according to my friend M, only afflicts the Chinese,I was afraid that folks 'would not have enough to eat'. Hence I came up with a trio of mini desserts - lemon meringue tartlet, brownies and green tea cupcake.

whatcha? matcha?

primordial goop

I can't help but be enamoured by the emerald green of the cupcakes and the subtle green tea taste which some said was not detectable after a couple of days in the fridge.

There's no photo of the brownies as I have yet to take a photo that does justice to it... But in our chocolate-mad society, it always wins over all the other desserts.

floating on cloud...
These lemon meringue tartlets took abit more time to bake but my first bite took me back to my childhood (starting to talk like an old woman). My mum used to bake lemon meringue pies for us especially during our year-end class parties. That pie never failed to get oohs and aahs from my friends then, with its fluffy meringue piled high, gold-tinged at the edges. At the appreciation dinner however,my daughter's friend was not so impressed when she licked off all the sweet marshmallowy meringue part and hit the tangy lemon part. She very eloquently told me "Dowan". Yes, why do kids always lick off the tops of desserts first?

you tartcases!

The start of something new...

2007-01-18T18:10:00.000+08:00

Pink, creamy and uh, cuddly?

It's a new year and I'm kicking things up a notch (apologies to Emeril?)... After a week and a half's 'trauma' of sending my firstborn off to Year 1, I'm getting into gear to start doing more novelty cakes and catering jobs.
Well folks, I'll keep y'all posted...

teddy bear, teddy bear, turn a-round

Stir-fried zucchini, red pepper and prawn

2007-01-16T16:47:00.000+08:00

I love to cook naturally colourful dishes. I can never resist the vegetables at my favourite place to shop at Bangsar Village's Village Grocer. Moving down the veg section, I almost always pick up their luscious red tomatoes, fresh zucchinis, irresistable peppers available in three colours, crunchy kyuri (Japanese cucumbers) and the list goes on... I haven't even started to mention their local herb section...sigh...

This dish was put together from all the extra veg and prawn that I had from our New Year feasting with friends.

Ingredients:
1 medium sized zucchini, cut into long and thin strips to resemble spaghetti
1 medium sized red pepper, cut into thin strips
200g prawns, peeled and deveined (ugh!), marinated in 1 tsp soya sauce, a dash of pepper and 1 tsp cornflour
1 tablespoon Rice bran oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
A dash of oyster sauce
1/4 or less water

Easy peasy, as Jamie would say.

1. Heat wok with oil in it.
2. Saute garlic till fragrant, taking care not to burn the garlic.
3. Saute prawns briefly.
4. Add the red pepper strips and stir fry briefly.
5. Add the zucchini.
6. Season with a dash of oyster sauce and add water.

Happy 2007!

2007-01-05T16:55:00.000+08:00

all we want is love, peace and understanding...

A very happy and blessed new year to all... May 2007 be full of good things and even more exciting discoveries in life for you!

Post-Christmas Roast

2007-01-05T16:13:00.000+08:00

Okay folks, I know Christmas has long been over but I just have to post this...

There's something about the Christmas-New Year season that finds me peering frequently into the depths of the frozen meat compartment of the super/hypermarkets. And it also signals the start of the "should we have turkey, lamb or beef?" pestering that my longsuffering spouse has to endure yearly. I guess this spike in large-joint meat-eating has to do with the latent caveperson tendencies within each of us. Or, is it from a steady diet of Christmas family movies that we've watched since childhood? Remember those movies where everyone gets all cozy at the table, Dad carves the turkey, Mom comes beaming in with a bowl of something or other togged out in a frilly apron...

Some Aussies may have gotten it right as far as Christmas is concerned, moving away from traditional roasts, preferring light summery foods. I remember my student days when this Aussie family took me in for Christmas. They served cold roast chicken for their Christmas day lunch, which now in retrospect, seemed sensible in light of the scorching summer heat! But my media-addled brain could not quite get used to it. What? No turkey, roasted pumpkin, potatoes... warm christmas pudding...eggnog.. Waahh, now I'm homesick!

Well, to complete the feeling of Christmas, we had to have a roast - better late than never is our philosophy... Hence the post-christmas roast that we had after Christmas but definitely before the new year hit.

This is for those with small families, small freezers... But still when all is said and done, nothing beats carving up the whole beast with friends and family...

Roasted Turkey Legs

Get a couple of turkey legs, slash said legs a few times. In an oven proof dish, marinate with salt, black pepper and juice of half a lemon. Arrange turkey legs on top of 2 halved onions. Add slices of tomato, lemon and smashed garlic. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over before putting dish into a preheated 180 degree Celcius oven for 1 hour then turn it up to 220 degrees and roast for a further half hour.

Roasted Boneless Lamb Shoulder

Tie me up!

Roasted!

I used a 1 kg boneless lamb shoulder here.
Unroll lamb from packaging. Trim the meat of fat and gristle. Pat dry. Stab meat all over. Insert garlic slivers and rosemary leaves into holes. Salt and pepper (black) the meat quite liberally and then smear Coleman's mustard all over insides. Roll the meat up and tie it up for roasting. Place on top of parboiled carrots and potatoes in roasting tin. Roast in 180 degree preheated oven for an hour and half.

Talkin' bout a cupcake revolution...

2006-12-21T02:39:00.000+08:00

Just a few more days to the Christmas weekend! I am no longer capable of coherent thought! Just churnin' them cupcakes out...Other baked goods to follow!
Makin' the world a better place - one cupcake at a time...

Baking frenzy week...

2006-12-19T03:13:00.000+08:00

Now, ain't we festive?

Yes folks, the craziness leading up to Christmas has begun! Having spent the past few nights baking till the wee hours of the morning, I can say that I ain't no spring chicken no more... Nevertheless, the madness will continue!

cupcakes and personalised brownies

To all you out there doing your last minute Christmas prep, keep yourself hydrated and remember to breathe...

Somewhere over the rainbow...

2006-12-14T17:57:00.000+08:00

Somewhere over the rainbow... wayyy up highhhh
Still out of active blogging and creative cooking action I'm afraid... BUT! I promise more goodies in the next week leading up to Christmas... (is it Christmas already?? gasp!) where there will be lots of occasions to cook and bake for...

Meanwhile I just have to tell you about gourmandines' (www.gourmandines.com) booth at Bsc (Bangsar Shopping Centre) Concourse (the newer wing). I was browsing around last weekend and found all this stuff at their booth - Valrhona chocolate, Vanilla pods, silicon moulds, Furitechnics knives, Monin syrups,cheese,those sexy Microplane graters and zesters etc etc... ooohh.. They were also selling a selection of breads and pastries (canneles, madelines)which looked pretty drool-worthy.

Christmas season is also great for foodie magazine addicts like me - I found this cool mag at Popular (Ikano Power Centre) "Desserts from America's Top Chefs" (RM9). The cover of the mag promises "112 luscious recipes" from Mario Batali, Emeril, Sandra Lee, Lidia Bastianich, Paula Deen, Ina Garten, Suzanne Goin among others. Can't wait to get stuck into it.

Mamma mia, MIA me!

2006-11-29T01:01:00.000+08:00

things are looking peachy!

A thousand apologies to those who have been checking in regularly for updates. (and a thousand thanks for doing so...mwah-mwahs all round) Yes, I have been MIA for two weeks as I have been so busy. Firstly, my kid graduated Kindy (yup, graduated)- they had us parents in the school hall, sweating whilst watching our little darlings sashay on stage in their school custom-made graduation gowns with the mandatory mortar boards perching precariously on their little heads. Had to spend lots of time cheering the little girl up as she was sad about leaving kindy. (read: shopping for new craft kits and helping to assemble said crafts from kits)

Then came the school hols - one week and I am floored, body-slammed really. Firstly by the incessant demands of the offspring to titillate, entertain and educate their developing minds. Then the whole family falls sick, including yours truly. We are all still at various stages of recovery, so hang in there for more updates! I have been dying to make this cool Apple cake with Honey Toffee recipe that I saw in some back copy of Vogue Entertaining. The picture of the cake has just been haunting me for weeks!

Meanwhile, I leave you with some pics of the cupcakes that I recently made for an event.

ABCDE soup

2006-11-13T17:09:00.000+08:00

soup's on!

There's nothing like a steaming hot bowl of soup to put you back in the va-va-voom after a long day at work. Especially when there's been a storm and you've been caught in it coming home. Growing up, I have always appreciated soups done in Chinese and Western style. Now that's comfort food whatever your culture!

However, when I married into a Cantonese family, I was told by my bemused hubby that I (a half-baked Hakka moi) did not know How To Drink Soup. I watched in wonder when I first joined my (then) new family members for a delicious homecooked meal. Big bowls of soup sallied forth from the kitchen for each person. I was continually urged to drink up as there was more of the good stuff to be had. The amount of soup drank by each person was almost half of the amount that we as a small family used to share together!

One of the secrets of good soup is slow simmering. After bringing the whole pot to a rolling boil for 15 minutes, one should lower the fire till the soup looks as if it is 'barely trembling' in the pot.

clockwise : red dates, Greenlove multi-bean soup mix, chinese wolfberries, pearl barley

ABCDE soup

600g Chicken bones/ chicken parts skinned and fat trimmed off
2.5 litres of water
100g Green Love Multi-bean soup mix (a colourful combo of Kidney beans, Lima beans, Borlotti beans, Chickpeas and Great Northern beans)
30g pearl barley
15 red dates
2 chinese soup spoons wolfberries (kei chee)
2 medium sized carrots, cut roughly into chunks
5 ribs of celery, cut into 1-inch sticks
1 onion, quartered
3 tomatoes, quartered.

1. Blanch chicken bones/parts in freshly boiled hot water.
2. Remove, and put into a soup pot together with the rest of the ingredients.
3. Let the pot come to a boil for 15 minutes.
4. Skim off any scum from the surface.
5. Lower fire, and simmer on low heat for 3 hours.
6. Serves about 6.

Asian Beef Stew

2006-10-28T01:48:00.000+08:00

I stumbled upon this recipe whilst experimenting with some Vietnamese flavours. The results took me completely by surprise. It is one of the most aromatic and lip-smacking beef stews that I have eaten. The aromas that begin to waft up from the pot when the spices begin to mingle with the lemongrass are positively intoxicating. All at once, strangely familiar yet somewhat exotic. Comfort food with a twist.

Asian Beef Stew
300g stewing beef cut into 1-inch cubes
Marinade:
3 tablespoons soya sauce
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 inch fresh ginger, finely minced
3 stalks of lemongrass,white part finely minced
1 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
1/4 cup D.O.M. Benedictine liqueur (optional)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 stick of cinnamon
1 star anise
500ml water

2 medium-sized carrots, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 daikon/radish, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 potato, cut into 1-inch chunks
Salt, to taste

1. Marinate beef with marinade ingredients for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

2. Heat oil in pan, saute onion and garlic briefly till fragrant.

3. Add beef in one layer and brown the meat on both sides. Slosh in the liqueur if using.

4. Stir in tomato paste. Then drop in the cinnamon stick and star anise. Let the meat simmer briefly.

5. Pour in water and simmer under low heat for about 1 hour.

6. Add in the vegetables and simmer for another hour.

7. Before removing from heat, add salt to taste.

Korean-style BBQ

2006-10-28T01:04:00.000+08:00

I have found korean-style barbecue to be a more convivial way of having barbecue together with friends and family compared to the traditional Aussie barbie that we know and love. Convivial in that everyone gets to grill their own food together at the table and enjoy one another's company all at the same time. Definitely more enjoyable than having 2 guys sweat it out in the garden dishing out charred or undercooked meat whilst people hang around waiting for more.

Korean BBQ was around in PJ even back in the late 70's, early 80's. My Dad used to bring us to this restaurant called 'Manna 2' in Taman Megah (which I think is where Fatty Crab is situated now). Back then Taman Megah was a new housing estate and the shophouses were just starting to get filled up. Hard to believe now, how quiet it was then. We really enjoyed our meals there - not only from the novelty but the great taste of the well-marinated meats.Then in the early 90's there was Deli-Q in Jalan Ampang and Bangsar Baru. We still mourn the closing of the Bangsar Baru branch and wonder why they didn't make it! Of course now there are plenty of authentic Korean BBQ joints around to choose from.

I usually like to serve a refreshing Thai-inspired Seafood Salad (see previous post for recipe) and my bacon-and-eggs garlic fried rice (diced bacon, eggs and lots of minced garlic) as sides. Asparagus really tastes divine, briefly grilled. Yellow capsicums are the sweetest when it caramelises on the grill.

As for dipping sauces, a mixture of soya sauce, red chilli, bird's eye chilli and fresh minced garlic is a good enough. I find that the grilled food is so tasty that I enjoy the sweet juices without any sauces.

sizzling tofu

grillmeister

shrimp on the barbie

more!

‘Korean’-style BBQ suggestions as to ingredients for grilling and marinades:

Marinate overnight:
Thick Beef slices (marinated 'bulgogi' style)(Australian beef labeled 'tri-tip BBQ' from Cold Storage seemed to taste pretty good)
to tenderize before marinating overnight- arrange beef on chopping board a few slices at a time with some space in-between. Cover beef slices with plastic wrap, then whack the living daylights out of each piece with a meat mallet or rolling pin till the slice is flattened out. (note: please don't do this if your beef is already thinly sliced, or you will get pulverised beef shreds instead of juicy slices!)
Then marinate in a little sesame oil, some black pepper, sesame seeds, a good slosh of pineapple juice, canned will do (this acts as a natural tenderizer) and some soya sauce/oyster sauce with some slices of ginger.
Lamb cutlets/shoulder - marinate in honey, Coleman's mustard and soya sauce

Marinate a few hours before cooking:
Chicken fillet - marinate in dash of sesame oil, smashed ginger, soya sauce and shaoshing chinese cooking wine.
Squid - marinate in fish sauce, pepper and a sprinkling of turmeric powder)
Teppanyaki-cut pork slices - marinate in Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce

Find the freshest:
Prawns (trimmed of feelers and washed)
White fish fillet
Salmon fillet
Asparagus - trimmed
Yellow or red capsicum - cut into strips
Firm tofu
Brinjal- sliced on the diagonal

Note: Equipment used here is the 'Cornell Fondue Grill' which runs on electricity

Birthday cakes and childhood...

2006-10-24T00:29:00.000+08:00

I baked this cake for a little girl's fourth birthday recently. I like the simplicity of this cake - kinda like a retro American-style butter cake frosted in buttercream. A refreshing change from the usual themed stuff that I've been obsessing over.

Since the birth of my princess, I've gone on a birthday cake frenzy every year - creating more and more elaborate themed kiddie cakes. My sis and I agree that it's all about creating memories via great photos... nevermind how the cake tastes! LOL. Indeed, several great kiddie birthday cakes are imprinted in my mind over the years. The one that most captured my imagination was this first birthday cake made by Alison Smith (local wedding cake designer extraordinaire) for a friend's son about more than 12 years ago. It was a checkerboard butter cake in pink and green. It was taller than usual cakes, decorated in a jungle theme with marzipan animals. The sides had 'jungle vines' creeping up them. It just took my breath away.

My sis and I have had some pretty interesting (for the 70's!) birthday cakes - one was a doll cake that became topless after its buttercream top melted before the party guests arrived. Another one was my first ever ice cream birthday cake in Perth when we were visiting friends there. I was so thrilled as ice cream cakes had not 'arrived' in Malaysia then.

Thai-inspired Seafood Glass Noodle Salad

2006-10-16T01:16:00.000+08:00

This is a definite crowd-pleaser. Never fails to add colour to any spread. We had this as a side dish for the 'Korean' BBQ dinner(that will be the subject of another post!) we had with family last weekend. It is also very refreshing to add a cold dish to your normal Chinese dishes when dining with family. You can change the amount or variety of seafood according to your preference - if you have ample time (or help!) for prep, do prawns,squid and/or crabmeat. Here, I was extremely pressed for time and had this can of Fortune Razor Clams sitting in my store cupboard. I quickly poached the Razor Clams in their liquid and drained them before adding to the salad.

Thai-inspired Seafood Glass Noodle Salad

For the Salad:

A can of Fortune Razor clams, poached gently in their liquid, then drained.
100g glass noodles, softened in hot water then immediately shocked in cold (to prevent overcooking)
3 large pieces of wood fungus,(mok yee), washed thoroughly, soaked for 20 mins and thinly sliced, then blanched with hot water.
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes (halved if the tomatoes are largish, left alone, if not)
3 Japanese cucumbers (kyuri) (the only cucumbers worth eating, in my book..) sliced thinly on the diagonal
A bunch of coriander leaves - roughly chopped and the stalks finely chopped
6 Shallots, finely sliced

For the Dressing:
6 Bird's eye chillies finely sliced - or more depending on what degree of a crazy chilehead you are! (Village Grocer at Bangsar Village sells the most aromatic, fruity even, chilli padi kampung)
2 stalks of lemongrass, the white part cleaned and very finely minced
8 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons palm sugar or brown sugar

1. Combine all of the salad ingredients in a large serving bowl. Refrigerate till serving time.

2. Combine all of the dressing ingredients, then whisk in a bowl or shake in a screwtop jar (my preference) till sugar is dissolved. Taste, and adjust according to your preference.

3. When serving, pour dressing over and toss the salad to mix thoroughly.

Mid-autumn festival

2006-10-11T10:48:00.000+08:00

Right now, I'm writing this as my whole house is reverberating with nerve-wracking sounds of a drill. I'm finally getting my kitchen fixed! Forget about pine or oak or tuscan inspired looks (sigh) - we're going for the 'dai chow' stainless steel look! LOL. The past few days have been a nightmare of throwing away junk and moving stuff out of the kitchen. Never been happier to hear the sound of the drill. It only means I'm one step closer to getting a better functioning kitchen at last!

Because of said malfunctioning kitchen, I was unable to cook up a mid-autumn feast for my family. Here are some mid-autumn festival related pics.

These cool mooncakes were given to us by my sis this year. But every year, she never forgets to order for me Aunty Shirley's homemade mini red bean snowskin mooncakes. They are simple and lots fun to eat! No pics of them as we've scarfed them all up!

feast your eyes on these!

white chocolate mooncake with lemon curd and choc ganache center
and bitter chocolate mooncake with lemon center

greentea and durian snow skin mooncakes from the Shang

Cheesecakes 101

2006-10-05T17:11:00.000+08:00

Cheesecakes aren’t exactly my favourite desserts, but I find it hard not to appreciate anything presented to me that appears thoughtfully made or well-crafted. There is a cheesecake ‘legend’ that’s going around – a café called “Coffee Bean by Dao” in Bangkok (next to the Conrad) which serves cheesecakes that some Malaysians are raving about. (“melts in the mouth”, “the white chocolate cheesecake is divine”, and “not overly rich kind of good..” are some of the words being bandied around. Some have even brought back via hand luggage entire cheesecakes from Bangkok. I have yet to taste, but I am totally intrigued! Some VIP also tried to get them to open up in Malaysia but they declined. Them Thais don’t trust the farang eh? It's that kinda talk that riles me - ey, what so great,why Kuala Lumpur don't have meh?

Ruth Reichl in Garlic and Sapphires says that cheesecakes are the best thing to have in one's repertoire. It's the 'cheapest trick'. I agree with her, now having experimented abit and read up a whole lot more... It boils down to this : after getting the basics right, it's just a matter of combining a myriad of ingredients with cream cheese.I've read that even Catherine Lau, our local cheesecake expert has created a chendol cheesecake recipe! Everyone feels the same way when you bring a cheesecake to the table - it's got the wow factor. Tell them you made it and you would be regarded as their local dessert hero (not however if they are severely lactose intolerant).

Here are some pointers that I've discovered from my reading:
1) Mixer or Food Processor?
The Joy of Cooking ('JOC') has one of the more comprehensive write-ups on cheesecakes - from mixing to storing and serving cheesecakes. In a nutshell, when mixing cheesecake batter with a mixer there is a risk of overbeating if your cream cheese is not softened enough. Overbeating results in too much air being beaten into the batter which causes it to puff up and later crack when cool. (not the craacksss!!!)The food processor method may help in not introducing too much air into the batter, but again if the cream cheese is not softened enough, overbeating may occur.(cream cheese abuse)The result of overbeating by a food processor is a thin, heavy batter that will not rise.
Conclusion: Whichever method you use, make sure that the cream cheese is well softened - in this case, left out of the fridge for 1-2 hours before you start work. Or you can zap it in the microwave for a few seconds - I can't advise you how long as I have not tried!

2) Million dollar question : why cracking occurs
As mentioned above, cracking may occur if too much air is introduced into the batter causing it to puff up and crack upon cooling. Cracking may also occur if the cheesecake cools too rapidly - which may not be a problem in our climate. Some folks even suggest (americanos) inverting a bowl over the cheesecake during cooling process to slow it down. For those using fan-forced ovens, Donna Hay suggests reducing the temperature by 10 degrees Centigrade as generally those types of ovens generate higher heat. Too high heat cause cracking.
Another tip is to quickly run a thin knife blade around the cheesecake sides to release the cake from the sides so that tearing will not occur.

3) What to do if the cheesecake cracketh
Step 1: Resist the urge to throw your head back and howl in anguish, especially if it's about 3 in the morning.
Step 2: Tell your self, "it's not the end of the world", repeatedly.
Step 3: Find some toppings to hide the crack, like frostings, whipped cream, fruit etc instead of moaning to everyone who would care to listen , "see, my cheesecake cracked aaaaarrrrh!"

4) Cheesecake baking methods:
Waterbath vs ‘dry baked’
Dry baked Method (called the the Traditional Method in JOC) is abit trickier - you have to make sure the batter is properly mixed and the oven temperature is not too hot. You also have to watch the cake carefully to prevent overbaking (and cracks!)

The waterbath method is abit more forgiving. There is very little 'disfigurement' caused by baking and as you can see from my previous post, the result is a perfectly smooth cake. And because the heat is very gentle here, there is very little risk of cracking (yay!).

5) Cutting cheesecakes so that people will want to eat them!
A common tip is to dip a sharp long knife into hot water and wipe dry before cutting the cheesecake. Repeat for each slice to ensure clean and neat looking slices. Another good idea which I read is to use dental floss to cut the cake!

The Cheesecake Phase : Cordon Rose Banana Cream Cheesecake

2006-10-02T16:26:00.000+08:00

Au naturel, y'all

Emboldened by my progress in this cheesecake experimenting, I decided to try baking a cheesecake in a waterbath. I was definitely curious to see the differences in results from a change in method. At the same time, I was having visions of spilling boiling water (major klutz that I am) and watching in horror through the oven's glass window at the cheese mixture slowly leaking out the pan into the water. However, none of that happened,thank God!

First of all, to ensure none of the above happened I did took the following measures. Double wrap the springform pan with tin foil! I placed cheesecake batter filled springform pan in the bigger baking tin and put it in the oven. Then poured recently boiled hot water into bigger baking tin halfway up the sides of the springform pan.

So was there any difference in a cheesecake baked in a waterbath vs the ones not? A picture paints a thousand words, no? As you can see below, the surface of this cheesecake is almost perfectly smooth and pale (not puffed and golden as you would get in a 'dry-baked' cheesecake). It was so pale I had to touch it a few times to make sure that it was properly set! As to texture, it was creamy and light but was unable to discern any marked increase in creaminess...

smooooothhhh...

This cake was made from the Cordon Rose Cream Cheesecake (banana variation) recipe from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum.I also made this cheesecake without a crust/base ('au naturel') as the author of the recipe, Rose Levy Beranbaum said that this cheesecake is firm enough to be served without a base.My princess enjoyed it without a crust, however I would prefer it with.

As for the taste,this recipe calls for sour cream (2 cups!) to be added to the basic 16 oz cheese-1 cup sugar batter. Somehow, sour cream and banana make for a magic tangy-sweet combination. Ms. Beranbaum also recommends adding 1 tablespoon cornstarch to prevent "a small amount of liquid" from seeping out upon unmoulding. But states that she prefers not to, in order to achieve maximum creaminess.(!!)

A note about The Cake Bible:
About 8 years ago, I found out about this book ( I forget how but am sure it is internet-related!). I saw it on Amazon and I HAD to have it! A very generous friend on a business trip to Singapore agreed to purchase it from Borders for me and I was ecstatic! Yes, she lugged it all the way back to KL for me. I love this book mainly because of the author's passion for cake baking, detail and proper instruction. It is so evident in every page of the book in which she will tell you in detail what to do and why you must do so. She also lists ingredients in several ways - by volume, ounce and gram which is immensely helpful.The only grouse I have is that the recipes mostly lists cake flour in its ingredients. You can either choose to use the expensive Softasilk or do the plain flour + baking powder conversion by trial and error (she also tells you how in the book). All-in-all, a great resource to have.

Banana Muffin with Chocolate 'Lava' (Bakin' with my baby)

2006-09-27T11:11:00.000+08:00

Krackin' Krakatoa

Ever so often, I remind myself to involve my princess in my baking. Afterall, these days, parents are quite ready to spend money for their offspring to attend kids' cooking classes why not make it a point to do it at home? When I was a kid, my mother was, like Nigella Lawson (that's where the similarities end) "a great believer of child labour in the kitchen". I, by virtue of being the older one had to wash rice, peel dried ikan billis (anchovies), peel onions (hated it, and still do), grease cake pans and sift flour. When we got older we also had to cook for our pet dogs - a chore which my sis and I bickered over whose turn it was... Now come to think of it - Jacques Pepin also started his apprenticeship cooking for dogs... hmmmm yeah...right!

look ma, no flow!

My princess loves to do anything hands-on. She helps me decorate gingerbread men and cupcakes. Being creative by nature,she does a good job. Plus her little hands are better equipped to handle tiny sprinkles and stars. Lately, she has gone on to making this banana muffin recipe. The tasks that she can safely do are: whisk the dry ingredients (I measure, of course), cut and mash bananas (Ikea's plastic knife please!) and fill the muffin cases with batter. I also always try not to be overly anxious (read: anal) about spills, not wanting to suck the joy out of cooking.

Mummy's Little Helper at work

Banana Muffins with Chocolate 'Lava'

Ingredients A:
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Ingredients B:
1 large egg
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/3 cups mashed ripe bananas
6 tbspn vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup chocolate sauce

Preheat oven to 180C.
1) Whisk together thoroughly all Ingredients A and set aside.
2) Whisk together in a large bowl all ingredients B
3) Add Ingredients A to B and mix together with a few light strokes till the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not overmix, the batter should not be smooth.
4) Fill the muffin cases till 1/3rd full with the batter, then drop a teaspoon of the chocolate sauce into each case. After that, top each case till 3/4 full with the remaining batter.
5) Bake for about 15 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into 1 or 2 muffins tests clean (this is abit tricky, try to avoid the chocolate centre for obvious reasons. Just test the muffin part)

Simon says...buh-bye

2006-09-25T02:05:00.000+08:00

The cake says it all...but we know who will miss you mostest!

Yesterday, we had a mini-farewell of sorts for our friend and talented musician, Simon, who will be off to London to further his music studies this week. And of course, it would not have been quite complete without some cake to drown our sorrows with and also to honour him... with a 'Cupcake Facial'! (not recommended for those with oily skin..)

I decided to make cupcakes because frankly, I am crazy about them as you can tell by the amount of photos that I have uploaded *grin* Any of you go through what I do? I start gabbing about cupcakes and the hubby's eyes start to glaze over or your listener starts to give you polite nods but all the time thinking that you probably been staying home for too long.

The middle part of the cake is made of fudgy chocolate brownie and the message was made out of sugarpaste cutouts. I chose the blue green colour combination as I wanted to go with a cool 50's colour scheme for a guy.

green,green, don't lick the screen?

twosome, ain't lonesome?

true blue

chocolatey fudgey goodness

Herbal Chicken

2006-09-13T22:42:00.000+08:00

Easy peasy Herbal Chicken

I love to make this easy version Herbal Chicken whenever I've run out of ideas what to cook for the family or also when I haven't much time to cook. Just make some cheat's chicken rice with Kee's Hainanese Chicken rice mix and blanched bokchoy with oyster sauce et voila! you have your complete meal!(Yes I know, some of you food purists are shuddering here...)
This dish does not require alot of attention. All you need to do is make sure that your steamer pot is adequately supplied with water throughout steaming.

Herbal Chicken

1 free-range chicken (ayam kampung) - about 1.2 kg with skin intact
A splash or 1/3 cup of D.O.M. Benedictine liqueur (or none at all, according to your preference)
Salt (to rub on skin)
Angelica (tong kwai) - 6 slices
Astragalus(puk kei) - 4 slices
10 red dates (hoong choe)
2 tablesppoons of chinese Wolfberry (kei chee)

1. Trim off any excess fat from chicken. Wash and pat dry.
2. Place chicken on a sheet of heavy-duty tin foil large enough to wrap the entire chicken.
3. Splash the liqueur (if using) on chicken, making sure some goes into the chicken cavity.
4. Rub salt on the skin.
5. Place a slice of tong kwai, puk kei, a few red dates and kei chee in the chicken cavity. Arrange the rest of the herbs under and around the chicken.
6. Wrap up the tin foil securely around the chicken and place on plate. Steam in wok or better yet a large capacity stock pot for about 1.5 hours, always making sure that your pot is adequately supplied with water.
7. Unwrap after steaming, and enjoy the whoosh of heavenly herbal aromas being released before digging in.

Whither thou goest mine K-beater?

2006-09-13T22:18:00.000+08:00

Those of you who use Kenwood kitchen machines may find this post useful in the future... In a week fraught with many freak mishaps, I ended up having to buy a replacement part (the K-beater) for my faithful Kenwood Chef mixer. Don't ask what happened...but it was painful..too painful to talk about.

So! If you ever find yourself needing to buy a part you can check out www.kenwoodworld.com first. But ultimately you will need to mosey on down to their service centre to buy the part. You can't get the parts at any of the electrical appliance shops. (I tried asking) Just to give you an idea - the replacement K-beater cost RM78.00 for the KM300 Chef model.

Kenwood Appliances (M) Sdn Bhd
Suite 1-1, 1st Floor, N-Tatt Building,
No. 2, Jalan TP 5.
Taman Perindustrian UEP
47600 Subang Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 603 - 8023 8330 Fax 603 8023 8660
Office hours: Mon - Fri: 9.00am to 5.30pm
Sat: 9.00am to 12.30pm

The Cheesecake Phase: Mango Cheesecake

2006-09-11T03:46:00.000+08:00

At last I managed to find time to bake this over the weekend. This recipe is reasonably easy as it does not require baking the cheesecake in a bain marie/ water bath. I am still leery of the bain marie method although I have read that it produces a more melting texture in the cheesecake. This recipe actually managed to achieve the melting texture without having to risk (ahem!) kitchen accidents in the middle of the night.

MANGO CHEESECAKE

Crust
1 1/2 cups digestive biscuit crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
80g unsalted butter, melted
Filling
About 1.2 kg very ripe mangoes (Chokanan used here), peeled, pitted, coarsely chopped
750g cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
Mango note: If you want to splurge, by all means use premium Indian or Pakistani mangoes. My favourite mango is the Australian variety. They do pack a more mango-ey punch than Chokanan which is more subtle.

To make crust:
Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a 9-inch-diameter springform pan with heavy duty tin foil. Stir crushed digestive biscuits and sugar in medium bowl to blend. Add melted butter and stir until evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom (not sides) of prepared pan. Chill for 15 minutes
To make filling:
Puree mangoes in processor until smooth. Set aside 2 cups mango puree.
Process cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in food processor until smooth.(do not overprocess or the batter will be grainy and not set properly) Switch off processor. Add eggs 1 at a time, pulsing after each addition. Add 1 1/2 cups mango puree and pulse. Pour filling over crust in pan and use the remaining 1/2 cup mango puree to create swirls.

Bake cake until set and puffed and golden around edges (center may wobble very slightly when pan is jiggled), about 1 hour 25 minutes. 10 minutes after removal from oven, run a butter knife between cake and sides of pan to loosen and ensure that no cracks appear during cooling.
Refrigerate uncovered overnight after cooling.

Thai bites

2006-09-07T09:46:00.000+08:00

Crispy shrimp and garlic chilli

Just when we thought we were over out addiction to Thai food, my hubby got called away to Bangkok and brought home more goodies!
This is a crispy shrimp, garlic and chilli concoction guaranteed to get you hooked. At first bite, the fried crispy garlic and shrimp aromas tantalize, then BOOM! the chilli powder hits and leaves you gasping. Then crazy chillihead that you are, you go back for more punishment...
This was purchased from the Chatuchak market and was made in Chiengmai,so you'll probably find this in Chiengmai too. My sister-in-law sprinkles this over fried tofu. We sprinkle it over just about anything! From meat floss sandwiches, fried rice, fried noodles, instant noodles... you get the picture. But be forewarned, a little goes a looong way...

J-Koong Crispy shrimp and garlic 'paste'

Back view of J-Koong jar

This is another snack bought from the Chatuchak market. Perfect for snacking during TV watching. A mixture of fried anchovy (ikan bilis), dried bird's eye chilli, peas, kaffir lime leaf and spices coated in caramel and sesame seed. Genius concoction! And yes, those little chillies are as lethal as they look especially when you accidentally get one in your mouth without looking (thinking it's an ikan bilis!)...

Wee bitty cupcakes

2006-09-04T11:18:00.000+08:00

Ain't you the cutest???

Baked some mini chocolate cupcakes for snacktime at Sunday School yesterday. There is nothing like baking for kids! The look of wonder on their faces when you open the cake box, the crowding round (and shoving) and the impatience to get at the cupcakes.

Altogether now!

Vietnamese Caramel Sauce Fish

2006-08-31T12:49:00.000+08:00

I recently made this from some leftover fish fillets that I brought home from a 'korean' BBQ dinner that we organised for my mum's birthday. The procurer of the fish fillets, my sis said that it was 'frozen dory fillets' bought from Giant. However, any firm-fleshed white fish fillet will work here. This recipe is good when you've run out of ideas as to what to do with fish other deep frying or stir frying.
The first time I tasted this dish was in a Hanoi restaurant set in a restored colonial building back in 2003. It was winter(!) and we were made to dine al fresco as we did not have reservations. I could not figure out if the snootiness was a holdover from the French or just plain communist.The taste was surprising as I was more accustomed to spicy, salty or tart in fish dishes. However, one learns to appreciate the smoky full-bodied caramel flavour after the initial surprise.

Vietnamese Caramel Sauce Fish

Ingredients:
300g white fish fillets
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 slices ginger shredded finely
half a lime (optional)
coriander leaves to garnish
Caramel sauce:
80g sugar
70 ml fish sauce
4 shallots thinly sliced
a dash of black pepper

To make the Caramel Sauce:
1) Melt sugar in a sauce pan on low fire until it begins to caramelize (turn a nice shade of amber).
2) Remove from heat and stir in fish sauce. Be careful as the mixture will bubble up furiously at this stage, so don't be tempted to use a shallow pan.
3) After the bubbling subsides, put the pan on fire again and stir until caramel begins to turn syrupy.Turn off heat.
4) Stir in shallots and black pepper.

To cook the fish:
1) Heat the oil in the wok and briefly saute the fish fillets
2) Add the caramel sauce and bring the mixture to boil.
3) Add the ginger.
4) Reduce the heat to low and cook till fish is done.
5) If preferred, when serving up, garnish with coriander leaves and perk up the flavour with a squeeze of lime juice.

The Cheesecake Phase

2006-08-31T11:45:00.000+08:00

New York Cheesecake with strawberries

Some of you on my Test Subjects list may be pleased to note that I have officially entered into my Cheesecake Phase. Intensive tests will be carried out over the next few months...

Up close and personal

This New York Cheesecake recipe was taken from Ruth Reichl's book Garlic and Sapphires. It is a basic lemon cheesecake with sour cream topping and crumb crust. I bought a pack of small strawberries (local) from Village Grocer, Bangsar Village to decorate the cake.

bake, bake, bake

2006-08-18T02:20:00.000+08:00

Ah! The merry month of August when a whole bunch of people near and dear to me celebrate their birthdays...
This ballerina cake was a compromise with my princess who wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine cake to bring to school.. Wow. Some compromise huh? hahaha call it superior powers of persuasion...And don't ask me how my gentle princess got to like Thomas...
Oh yeah. The Cake. It was as requested by the birthday girl to be a butter cake with plain buttercream frosting. I guess that's a subconscious reaction to having the whole house engulfed in chocolate and cinnamon aromas for the past 2 weeks!

Shall we dance?

Prior to that, I had to bake like 100 gingerbread people and 100 cupcakes (choc and vanilla) for a school fundraiser... It always is a swell and exciting idea until you're pulling all-niters, caffeinating yourself into normality and reeking of chocolate, butter and cinnamon all week.

Doh! Said one gingerbread man to the other.

On the rack...

Hey Gingey!

All my pretties all ready to go...

More birthday cakes

2006-07-08T12:56:00.000+08:00

Madagascar themed cake. This was rather fun to do, figuring out how to make 'sand', the 'foamy waves'etc. The sand was crushed digestive biscuits and I managed to buy some candy 'rocks' from Guten Braun cake supply shop in SEA Park. The grass was piped buttercream. The animals were from the usual plastic animal zoo set. Later on whilst strolling at the Curve's Saturday market we saw the actual Madagascar animals figurines selling cheap! Sigh.

Send in the clowns... This was my first attempt making figurines out of pastillage (modelling material made mainly out of icing sugar which sets rock hard). I didn't know any better then and could only get the recipe for pastillage. Man! Was it hard work! The rest of the chocolate cake was covered with fondant.

Birthday cakes

2006-06-21T12:00:00.000+08:00

Birthday season is the craziest over in my household. There is always a marathon baking season for me as my kids' birthdays are only a couple of days apart.Here are some of the kids' novelty cakes that I've baked over the years for friends and family.

Pink! Pink! Think Pink! The birthday girl was (and still is) into pink! This 3-layer fondant decorated cake was chocolate hazelnut with chocolate buttercream and fudge filling.

This was my first ever attempt with fondant. And the kid was clamouring for Spongebob! Had big ambitions to make a fondant pineapple home for ol Spongebob but it was not to be... Cake was 2-layer chocolate hazelnut with chocolate buttercream filling.

Carrot orange cake with buttercream frosting. Blues Clues was the order of the day.

This was for a first birthday. The design was inspired by a cake I saw on the net. Orange poppyseed cake with buttercream frosting. The boy in party hat was made of fondant.

A taste of Thailand leaves one wanting more...

2006-05-17T11:43:00.000+08:00

A recent 4d/3n trip to Phuket with the famille left me wanting more and found me plotting the next time I could get back there to taste more of their wonderful food! We've found that each trip always leaves a lasting effect on us - in that we'll experience an insatiable craving for Thai food for months after our trip. This time we had 1 preschooler and 1 kindergartener on tow so we could not schlepp around to the roadside stalls. I was so longing for a taste of their beef ball noodles and would gaze wistfully at the stalls when our tuk-tuk chugged along on dusty roads.

Here are some highlights of our short trip:

Dinner at Thai Thai,
Hilton Arcadia Resort and Spa
Traditional Thai cuisine. Diners will be entertained by live traditional Thai music.
(open Mon- Sat 6 evenings only)

This place was recommended by a good friend whom I texted during dinner in between mouthfuls-“Thanks to yr fine recommendation. Am in gastronomic bliss right now”
We made sure that we were seated a distance away from the musicians - just in case offspring no 2 decided to give them some vocal or percussion accompaniment. We did not intend to be embarassed or thrown out of that fine establishment!

We had:
1.Crispy soft shell crab fried in garlic and pepper
Very crispy and fun to eat punctuated by peppery bursts from the skin . Not at all greasy and had a delicate taste.
2. Roast duck in red curry
It was a roast duck breast similar to that found in Western cuisine. I had expected a chinese-style roast but hey, what do I know about traditional thai cuisine? The gravy was a perfect blend of the essentials of Thai cuisine of salty, sweet and tart. The sweetness came from the litchis and the tartness from the fresh grapes found in the curry. My one grouse was that the grapes could have been seedless, as the seeds interfered with my total enjoyment of the dish. (I had to keep removing the seeds from my mouth as genteelly as I could!)
3.Charcoal grilled seafood salad
A heavenly concoction of crab, squid, prawn, thai herbs and frisee.
I am a sucker for anything that says 'charcoal grilled' and what more if it is seafood. What more can I say? It was very good.
4. Tom yam goong
Seafood in a moderately fiery red soup a tad too watery for our liking – we are accustomed to soups padded out with coconut milk and more galangal.Perhaps our tastebuds are getting jaded! One day I would like to research the different types of tom yam there are – which region does the tom yam in clear soup and which in red… I have a feeling that David Thompson’s Thai Food has the answer. (a purchase I have been putting on hold since it costs about RM160!)
5. Khao Pad (Thai fried rice with seafood)
Of course we had to order a fried rice for the kiddies whilst mum and dad gorged themselves on the spicy stuff.They enjoyed it as there were no major objections.
Service was impeccable, our waitress did sound a bit tetchy when she muttered that there was no space for all the dishes we had ordered. Really! These greedy farang she seemed to be thinking.
The restaurant was surprisingly very kid-friendly,as they provided kiddy platters and cutlery. Kid-doting more like. Gave the little Princess a flower bracelet made up of fresh jasmine with a purple orchid charm. The scent of it filled the whole hotel room for hours after that.Sorry no photos of food – was struggling with small children in a relatively posh restaurant.

Interesting finds at Tesco Lotus

1. Kom Kom Miracle Zig Zag knife
First knew about this knife when I read Jeffrey Steingarten's "It must have been something I ate". He wrote about this 'miracle' knife that can peel, core and shred vegetables for thai salads.The fact that he brought it back all the way from Thailand to New York made me sit up and take note. Besides, who could forget a name like "Kom Kom Miracle Zig Zag knife"? It works like a charm despite its plasticky appearance. It produces delicately shredded vegetables for salads. Tesco's price was about RM18.90 which was cheaper than the Robinsons in Phuket town.

2. Wooden pestle and mortar. Wooden because we were worried about being overloaded with stuff. Retailed at THB239 whereas the stone one was about twice the price.

3. Tamarind paste. I know, this is no big deal but I saw Nigella use it on her show (kerala curry) Yes I am secretly a slavish follower of what Nigella uses in her kitchen– and I don’t see any tamarind paste sold in jars in Malaysia – only the same old packaging in plastic with seed. This comes sans seeds….

4. Lays potato chips – Made in Thailand in exotic flavours – Nori Seaweed (like saying ‘ayam chicken’ heh) Grilled Lobster (again! Sucker for anything grilled) and mexican barbecue (huh?)

5. Lime powder – wonder if it’ll take off in Malaysia. I reckon it’ll be nifty to have as a pantry staple… especially if you don’t have your own ‘kitchen garden’ where you can pluck off a fruit anytime you need to…

6. Nam prik narok etc. Didn’t know what exactly they were but there was a whole section on them seemingly different ones from different provinces. Wanted to buy them all! They look like the Thai version of sambal belacan – the packaging showed it as a dipping sauce for veg

7. Nescafe 3-in-1 Turbo
Whoa! Just what you need to get you going on those 'scrape-me-off-the-floor' mornings!

There was also very tasty fresh fruit with sweet chile dipping sauce and prepacked spicy sugar. Mango, pink guava (jambu air), pineapple. Normally I would turn up my nose at hypermarket precut and packed fruit as they invariably end up tasting like the stuff packaging… but these were good!
Various traditional kuih in all types of colours. Went like a kid for the purple balls in coconut milk (tapioca flour balls with green bean filling).Had to restrain ourselves and tell ourselves not to be gluttons buying more than we could eat.
The piece de resistance was the mango with sticky rice. The mango was just the way I like it – a bright orangey yellow ripe and juicy with a hint of tartness to offset the sweet and starchy sticky rice. And the coconut milk used was amazingly fragrant and not too rich. Delivering the right hit of coconut flavour. And at one third of the price charged at mid-range Thai restaurants back home! That has to be the best tasting thing that ever came out of styrofoam packaging for me!

Kam Earng
Chalong Bay

A table with a view, al fresco.
The thing that got us hooked was a blurb we read in some local guide that said that this was the seafood restaurant that locals bring their relatives who visit from other provinces to. Not watered down to suit western tastes apparently. And the view! To make up for not being able to make it to eat seafood at Port Kelang.

1. Hor mok (otak2 thai style THB15) About RM1.50!!!! I wanted to pack like a whole bunch back to Malaysia…
2. Crispy catfish with green mango salad
I read somewhere that Thai catfish are meatier – and that is so true…. Crispy heaven!
3. Tom yam goong
It packed a bigger punch than the one at Thai Thai.
4. Tamarind prawnA little bit disappointing as it reminded me of a dish I already cook back home from Mrs.Lee's cookbook!
5. Crispy Soft shell crab fried in Garlic and pepper (again)

Again apologies for no food photos – have to get into the habit for this blog. Too busy scarfing down the goods.

In terms of delicacy of touch and quality of ingredients – Kam Earng could not match Thai Thai. Hey, you get what you pay for I guess. Their prices are understandably half of Thai Thai. I was happy though that we a hotel restaurant actually did well and proved that hotel restaurants serving indigenous food do not have to be bland and watered down for the farangs.

To market, to market 2

2006-03-17T02:22:00.000+08:00

I have fond memories of the characters in the Petaling Street (Chinatown) wet market. I used to frequent the place during lunchtimes when I worked nearby in 2002. It was there that I began to appreciate wet markets and good produce. My favourite ‘lane’ in that maze is the one that leads out into the street itself adjoining Bangunan Pak Peng. It used to freak me out going into there with its funky smells and horrors of horrors – rows of live chickens standing guard at the entrance of the lane. I would always try to walk abit faster past them without being too obvious, always worrying if one of them would make a break for it.

The vendors themselves were colorful characters whose antics used to send my colleagues and I into hysterics. There was the vegetable vendor – who had the most variety of veg I have seen and always fresh. Always something that looked unusual (read ‘exotic’ not ‘mutant’) and appetizing - baby pak choy, the cheapest cherry tomatoes and dried ginger I’ve ever found. I was informed that they supply restaurants and what is sold at the stall is the excess from their wholesale business.

The stall was run by a Chinese man and his fragile mother. The man in his 40’s had impeccable manners always addressing his customers in dulcet tones ‘siao chieh…. what can I help you with….?Yes, this vege will go very well simply stir fried with some garlic or this other one braised with mushrooms..’. But the main attraction (or object of fascination) was his mother, a little old lady who looked like she wouldn’t hurt a fly. A potty-mouthed old lady! She possessed biting wit and the perfect deadpan expression when letting fly a string of Cantonese obscenities whilst chatting with the chicken and fish vendors. Many a time I had to bite my tongue to keep from guffawing aloud whenever she said something risque.And the way she did it was in such a mocking manner that you just knew that she was poking fun at the shock value of such words. She would not suffer fools gladly too Any indecisive and overly fussy customer would receive the brunt of her sharp tongue.

The tofu vendor next door was another old man who looked exactly like his products, fragile and soft. We used to laugh, saying that he looked like the wind could blow him over. Fluffy white-aired with parchment skin and watery grey eyes. He would offer his two- cents worth whenever there was a lull in conversation. You could see that resignation in his eyes that life had not been easy for him at all. When asked why he was still working so hard in his old age, he said that he could not rely on his adult son as he was "mou yung" – ‘useless’ in Cantonese.

They are still here today, or at least when I made my mandatory pre-Chinese New Year trip there. But it was quiet there that day...

Ironchef, not!

2005-11-25T11:42:00.000+08:00

Ah… the second wave of holiday season is descending on us again… After kicking back and enjoying the ghosttown quietness of Deeparaya, it’s my turn to get busy. My gastro brain kicks into high gear and I suddenly have the urge to drag out all my precious back copies of foodie mags and flip, flip, flip… my adrenaline starts pumping…turkey! Couscous stuffing! Trifle! Christmas cake! Pannacotta! Gingerbread house!

This year, I fear that I may burn out before December even hits! In a perverse sort of way I am enjoying it, much like how one enjoys a Thai massage…. It seems like a good idea before you start and when you’re in the middle of it – you wonder what you’ve gotten yourself into! A lot of sighing and groaning is also involved. I have volunteered to help raise funds for underprivileged children by cooking or baking food to be sold. Two weekends ago I made gingerbread men, apple walnut muffins, lemon poppyseed muffins (all from Joy of Cooking), vanilla cupcakes (from www.marthastewart.com) , chocolate cupcakes (Maida Heatter) and Belacan fried rice to be sold. I fear I am a soup kitchen type of cook – no fiddly bits for me like placing delicately made decorations on teeny tiny cupcakes. Normally I bite off more than I can chew so I rarely have the time to concentrate on delicate stuff.

I made the gingerbread men in one night (2 nights before the event) – all 54 of them with eyes, mouth and sugar star buttons/cufflinks. The whole house reeked of molasses and cinnamon. Spent the wee hours of the morning packing each of them in little plastic bags till my vision blurred. I salute those women who sell cookies and ‘kuih raya’ for a living churning out hundreds of cookies! (especially those pineapple jam tarts with fiddly bits)

Then the evening before I started on the cupcakes and muffins – which ain’t no walk in the park if you’ve got only one regular 12-hole muffin pan! Tried to beat the problem by buying those sturdier brown muffin cases and putting them to bake on a cookie sheet. My apple walnut muffin batter behaved beautifully, rising just a little above the tops of the cases and staying there. My lemon poppyseed batter as a disaster, bubbling up like volcanic lava over the tops of the cases and solidifying in a mess on the sides whilst sinking a little on the top. Soldiering on, blurring vision and all, I peeled off the ugly bits but it didn’t look as nice but by which time I was somewhat past caring!

My plans to make a gleaming chocolate glaze for the choc cupcakes were quickly shelved as I began to run out of time. Afterall, there was still the belacan fried rice to make... Phwoah... imagine having your fresh early Sunday morning breath of air and suddenly you choke on the fumes of belacan toasting. And then you get assaulted by the first slam of chilli padi and ikan bilis frying up in the wok. Let me tell you, I don't think the neighbours were impressed! Anyway, I made it to the event more calm than I had expected. But I only recovered the next day, ready for another punishing round of cooking the next weekend.

Best 23

2005-11-15T12:49:00.000+08:00

Checked out Best 23’s new outlet in Paramount Garden. Have never been to the original store in Subang but when I read in Flavours magazine that Catherine Lau (cookbook author of cheesecake fame) had opened up a branch in a more accessible location to me I was dying to check it out being the kitchen equipment/ingredient junkie that I am. Parking was a breeze at nearly 12 noon on a weekday, I could park right in front of the store. The store itself was a little bare (as compared to Bake with Yen, Taman Megah where you can hardly breathe in) but the visit was somewhat fruitful. I found the following items of interest to me:

large round clear plastic cake carriers
deli- sandwich triangles for packing sandwiches
shiny green coloured wire ties
Vietnamese rice paper rolls in 2 sizes (and cheaper than Giant/TMC) but of a different brand
8 inch square plastic food containers (larger versions of the ubiquitous 6"x4")
demerera sugar

Well, I’m sure that there were more but I was somewhat hampered by a (heavy) sleeping toddler on my shoulder!
Catherine herself was in attendance – dispensing baking advice to her customers which I found very refreshing. Apparently, she will be based in the Paramount Garden branch as her test kitchen is on the upper floor. At the words 'test kitchen' my ears perked up and I soooo wanted to see it... sigh. Perhaps some day.

To market, to market

2005-10-27T17:48:00.000+08:00

I'm sooo jazzed with myself today - I finally made the time and got up enough nerve to visit the pork section of the TTDI market! Before you kill yourselves laughing over my utter ineptness- let me tell you that negotiating the gauntlet of the row of strange meat vendors who may or may not be calling out to you to buy their produce is no uh, walk in the park?

To my surprise, I found only 3 ( I kid you not) pork sellers in the dungeon area of the market and instantly gravitated to the store that had the most number of hausfraus waiting to be served. And in only a matter of minutes I found out why.

There was the butcher-guy (early thirties), babyfaced, radiating bonhomie and wielding his cleaver with such style. You could see that this guy actually enjoyed his job. Mr. Babyface was dispensing advice on how to cook various cuts of meat in rapidfire Cantonese peppered with English translations of the various cuts. I heard words like 'babyback ribs','pork chops' and I was sold.

Here was the place where I would finally decode the mysteries of Pork! I had been cowardly buying my pork at TMC and Euro deli where the cuts were clearly labelled (and also had the smell of polystyrene on them when unwrapped). I nervously asked for fah lam ( as I was told is the cut for making sweet & sour pork by one who speaks no english) and was told by Mr. Babyface's mom(?) that it's 'pork belly'. hah! Well, a new day has dawned for me...

There, I've finally done it...

2005-10-27T17:25:00.000+08:00

After spending an inordinate amount of time shilly-shallying, I have finally gotten myself a piece of the blogging pie. Sure, the pressure is still on to sound witty and captivating on print - even when I'm aware that I may be engaging in an ultimately narcissistic exercise of seeing my thoughts on print... Well, life is short. Carpe diem and whatnot.