Breadmaker Creations: Pizzas and Cinnamon Buns

I'm never a fan of commercially mass produced pizzas and least of all, frozen ones. However every so often I've a hankering for some slices of this pie! Since I'm not gonna pay exorberant prices for some pitifully topped, mass produced, delivered pizzas and I didn't know of a good pizza place, I would have to delve into the "world" of pizza making. I know that a good pizza requires a good dough and then you're pretty much set. I made a few variations with the toppings here but I definitely made my fav and also a classic, Pizza Margherita, as shown in the second picture. The dough was made using the Bread machine's recipe, no difficulties there, just follow the instructions (I think different bread machine has slightly different method/recipe to follow). Then I attempted (note "attempted") to shape the dough into a round shape, without success, so it turned out slight oval. I also did the throwing in the air thingy which didn't do anything taste wise (I didn't think so at least) except to dust my whole countertop with flour! Oh well.....at least I tried....hehehe..





After the pizza making attempt, I went onto cinnamon buns. Oooohhhhhhh I LOVE THEM! Well....at least I love the giantic ones from Cinnabon. I like it "pure" which means simply just as it is, no nuts no nothing. As you can see from this one, it's got nuts, pecans to be exact. Well, I had made two different batches but the ones with the pecans looked much prettier...hehehe... I make the pecan ones coz Ed loves them...so I know for a fact he wouldn't steal mine!!! Yes, two batches made for a selfish reason!! We gave some away and ate all of it in one day!!!! Yes, we had them for breakfast and brunch and it was gone!! Guess got to make some more. With the breadmaker making doughs(with yeast) are definitely less scary and closer to perfection, I mean, you really can't screw up. For those who thinks I'm cheating...well....it's good cheating then...LOL....with food like this, you can call it whatever....hehehe.....

With the bread maker I think I'm braver to make yeast doughs. I used to make to doughs in the past but they always turn out as failures but with this bread machine, all my yeast doughs are successes!It's GREAT! You don't have to invest on an expensive one, just one works.:)

Vacation Pictures

There were so many of them so picking out these few were seriously tough. We went to Koh Samui, Thailand since it was my husband's hometown and also his brother still stays there. It's a real beautiful island except that it's really hot and humid, as expected!! So let me cut the whole long story and just show some pics


Above is pics of the hotel we stayed in while on Koh Samui. It's the Nora Beach Resort and Spa at Chaweng Beach. Let me say this about this hotel, if you've any young children, this is a good place to be. Coming from a place where child friendly places are part of life, we take it for granted that vacilities attaining to it is an everyday thing. Well, Koh Samui, although a tourist place, does not really provide a lot of kid friendly place, you usually improvised what you have and most of the time, it's not safe for the child. So considering that this hotel gives attention to couples with children, I'm totally impressed!! Both my husband and I love it!!! It's got a big kiddy pool as well! Impressive!! On top of that, it's also a spa, which makes it REAL adult friendly. You can enjoy yourself in peace knowing that your child is also enjoying himself! There were many other activities there as well but we didn't have the time to indulge ourselves that much since most of time is spent with relatives. We had a villa (an upgrade!!NEATO!) and it was fantastic!! It had a small private outdoor courtyard attached to our villa that includes an outdoor shower (if you wanted to use it...*ahem*). A big bathroom with a huge jacuzzi tub AND another shower with a skylight and a rainshower shower head! Cool!! As you can guess being there is definitely one of the biggest highlight for me!! Six thumbs up (me, Ed & Ethan). Oh yah, did I mention that it was by the beach too...:D


Some home cooked food prepared by my sis in law. We had our dinner outdoors, al fresco style, despite the heat and humidity, it was truly enjoyable! Now I'm thinking of adding a dining set outdoors on our sideyard, but I think the Texas' heat is a little too much!! heehhe...


And here's some street food at a central market. Most locals do their groceries at an outdoor market but it was closed by the time we were there, except for the food stands which was fine by my husband..:) He went there for the desserts!!! LOL

A few pics of Ethan enjoying himself at the beach. He wasn't too keen in playing with the sea water but he was crazy over the sand!! He ended up picking handfuls of sand and throwing at the sea, himself and finally at us, coz he thought it was just funny to see us running from him!!!Of course, he was also slathered in about a gallon of sunblock!! Well...he was topless and rather fair, didn't want him to get sun burns!

Any Other Place

Just came back from Singapore and Thailand with an almost 3.5wks of vacation, welcoming the peace of this moment. Everything's so hectic back home, it's always a rush, even when it's not. Some people might think my mindset is laidback, well, not really, it's just that it would be NICE to, every now and then, stop and smell the roses! I seriously think this idea is lost in the sea of rushing here and there!!
Now that almost everything's back to "normal" and settled, I'm beginning to feel a little homesick. I think me feeling that is mainly coz of Ethan. He seems so lonely without his cousins, aunties and uncles. On the other hand, he's also less crazy and definitely more manageable. I think the heat got to him!! Plus he was teething as well!! So everything IS crazy!
Thing's so laidback here that I feel that I need to get out of here, any where seems better than here!! LOL I guess the grass is always greener somewhere else! Now if I can merge the best of home and here, that would one great place to be residing for sure. Meanwhile I would just have to settle for the "peace' and "quiet" of Dallas. Oh yah, did I mention that Ethan's "suffering" from major jet lag and extreme neediness!!! *sigh*

PS: More posts on this vacation later...:D

Mango Pie with Vanilla Bean & Cardamon Ice Cream

What to do you do when you've half a dozen of seriously ripened mangos in your hand and there's only 2 adults and 1 toddler to eat them all up before those luscious mangos spoil?? Solution= Mango Pie!

It's actually a twist on the traditional Apple Pie which the apples are switched with mangos instead. Not a bad idea and apparently a lot of cooks out there think so too seeing the amount of mango pie recipes!! ehhehe.... I used Ina Garten's Deep Dish Apple Pie's pie crust recipe for this pie and as for the filling, I sliced the mangos thickly and mixed them in a mixing bowl with sugar (amount varies on the sweetness of the mangos), cinnamon, a dash of freshly grated nutmeg, and some cornstarch (to absorb the mango jucies).

Now we all know that everything taste better with a dollop of ice cream! In this case, I've added some of my homemade Vanilla Bean-Cardamon Ice Cream. I don't know if there's any recipe out there for this ice cream but I came up with it myself, inspired by my favourite Indian dessert, Kheer, or rice pudding. I love the flavours of cardamon, the creaminess, the richness of that dessert with a hint of vanilla. I don't know if the original recipe of Kheer comes with Vanilla but I felt it would taste real good with it. And I wasn't wrong! I used Wiliams-Sonoma's Classic Vanilla Bean Ice-Cream recipe for my Vanilla Bean-Cardamon Ice Cream except that I added some cardamon seeds into the steeping process as well. This combination is the bomb! If anyone out there loves Kheer, try this ice cream, it's easy and it's fantastic (yes, I'm tooting my own horn here...) Oh and crush the cardamon seeds to release their aromatics. I had tried (in an earlier version) using them whole and they didn't quite give out as much cardamon flavour as I thought it would. I also steeped them longer, both the beans and pods. Plus I also used less yolks than called for in this recipe (4 yolks only) and used a fat-free half and half. A pretty easy recipe to follow and great tasting to add. My two in house food "critics" love the ice-cream (on the other hand, it IS ice cream...*sigh*)

PC problems!!

Ok...life has been a standstill for me. It was one thing after another. First it was the screwy cable connection and we got that fixed....eventually. Then comes (the very next day!) the wireless router; which means, I didn't have any connection STILL....thhheennn..eventually got that fixed, that took a little longer coz Linksys needed to send us a patch to have it fix. And now, my laptop doesn't have enough memory!!! I think my laptop is about to perform its swan song....*sigh*...it have served me well...but according to Ed "there just wan't enough memory to do all the stuff I was doing". Meaning, I "killed" it. Right now it's so slow that I could bake some banana bread, cook dinner, bathe Ethan and get back to where I was before I started all those chores and it's still uploading....*sigh*... Basically I sucked the life out of my machine... Ed says that he could add more memory but it wouldn't help much since it can only help sustain it for a little longer before I encounter the same problem AGAIN!!! I feel so helpless....I know I would have to give this machine up for a better faster one but I just can't part with it!!!! AARRRGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Meanwhile I'm still using Ed's pc and hating it...this is seriously messing me up! Let's hope that we can find a better solution when we get back from our vacation. Oh yah, did I mention that I'm crazy enough to sign up for a cooking class while I'm vacationing in Thailand! Yes I'm insane! And for some reason unbeknownst to me, I can't even upload pics via blogger either!! Yes...the pc gods are against me....LOL I guess I would just have to accumulate the mass and wait for an oportunity.......*waiting* *waiting*

Grilled Chicken Bulgoggi

Made this some time ago, one of my older post that never got posted. The reason for posting now is that I can't upload new pics to the blog since my wireless router went kaput on me! Yes, first was the cable connection, then (for real, no kidding)the router died the next day after the cable was fixed. Went to get a new router and then my laptop decided that it didn't want to recognize a new router!! So there it is, lying dead! Meanwhile had to use Ed's pc which I'm not used to (I HATE HIS ERGO KEYBOARD!!!). Anyway, for those who are wondering...yes, I'm still alive and *peep* *peep*, yes...still alive......

I make beef bulgoggi all the time and decided on something new, so had some boneless, skinless chicken thighs on hand and used them instead. What I like about this is that on chicken, the grill marks are more distinguished. The beef I used are so thin that you can barely see the marks. And I like this more (yes, I like chicken) coz it's also a little tastier, definitely something to make again! Plus, my boy loves it (well...he'll eat it as long as it's not broccoli!!! Hmmm...wonders if I grill broccoli this way would he eat?????).

Ingredients
4 Chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
3 stalks Spring Onions, chopped finely
4 pieces of garlic, minced finely
3 TBLS honey, amt varies based on prefereneces
2.5-3 TBS Low Sodium Soy Sauce
Dash of Black Pepper
1 TBLS Seseame Oil
1 TBLS Seseame Seeds, toasted lightly to release oils

Method
-Mix everything except chicken in a bowl, taste and check for the "right" flavor THEN add the chicken to marinate for at least 2hrs or better yet, overnight.
-Set your grill (I used an indoor electric grill set on 400F)and place your chicken diagonally to get grill marks.
-DO NOT MOVE THE CHICKEN WHILE GRILLING ON ONE SIDE!! Only move when you have to turn over to grill the other side!

Note: All the flavors are added to each individual's liking; if you like it sweet, add more honey....so on and so forth...:) just have fun!

Wonderful World of Bread

I bought my breadmaker about a month ago and I think I've done at least 20+ loaves already. Some of them are repeats, some are trial and error. They all looked pretty much the same except when I used the express bake (bakes in 59mins...ok....1 hr!). My husband, odd as he is, likes the "express bake" breads. The breads are denser and smaller and pretty moist. They are also not as "pretty" as the "normal bake" breads. So far the favs are Honey-Oat Bread, Banana-Walnut Bread and Raisin-Cinnamon Bread. The one that I would not be baking again any sooner would most definitely be the Double Chocolate Bread....long story...let's say that there was a lot of vacuuming and screaming after bread was "distributed"...*sigh*....

Verdict: I love the breadmaker and would be trying out its other features(like dough and butter) soon. Meanwhile I'll try out some of the bread recipes that I've been creating in my mind....hehehe... Rosemary Bread???

Spring

Been crazy all this while...first my internet cable connection went berserk so had to call the company to make an appointment so that they could come in (whenever IT'S convenient for THEM even though we are the PAYING CUSTOMER!!). And when he did come, he took 3.5hrs to fix it while cursing under his breath...erm.....I still could hear... Errmmm...he said he couldn't figure out what was going on with the connection (he couldn't get it to connect). Oh well...whatever. So to make a long story short, I'm back.

During the "blackout", I made quite a number of loaves with my spanking new breadmaker. It's been great!! Further post on that. On another topic, we are going back to Sin & Thailand next month...hmm...I know I know...in the midst of every epidemic; HFM disease, Bird Flu, Sars (ok...old story already) and what nots. I guess we just need to be more careful and cautious.



So this is my lil' guy at 22 mths. He's now picking up EVERYTHING he sees to give it to mommy...he's just too funny! He's also pick up a new job. He's the official family welcome wagon! Each time he sees someone, he says "Hiiiiii", quickly follows by a "buh bye".....LOL He's also taken a passion in saying bye bye to everything; his current fav are "bye bye car" and "bye bye ball".....hehehehe...he's one silly boy!! Can't wait to get back home to celebrate his 2nd year B-day!!!

Nasi Lemak

Made one of Ed's favorite all-time food, Nasi Lemak. He loves it and besides I've ran out of ideas of what to cook! ;) Nasie Lemak is fairly easy; make the fragrant rice, slice some cucumbers, get the ikan bilis sambal ready and pretty much the rest are whatever your tastebuds are up to. And in this case, Sambal Prawns. Also pretty easy to make once you have your "base" sambal paste all ready-made. And yes, I used coconut milk for the rice, again, I'm using it to get the authentic taste and the fragrance of it.

Sambal paste recipe
Ingredients
shallots, 10
garlic, 1 whole clove
dried chilli, 10-15 deseeded and soaked till soft (I used the microwave to soften)
belacan, half a thumb size

Method
Blend everything into a paste with a food processor, adding water if needed to get a paste like consistency.
Then heat some oil, add the paste and stir occasionally at medium heat till oil is seen floating on top of mixture.
At this point, add sugar, salt and water( if needed).
Stir some more till fragrant or rather pungent..:D


Nasi Lemak recipe
Ingredients
Rice
Pandan leaves, rinsed, shredded in the middle and knotted
Coconut milk( I use the can version)
Water
Salt

Method
Rinse rice as you would for cooking "regular" rice, minus the water.
Then reduce the amount of water that you would use for cooking the rice by 1/3 and subsitute the remaining 2/3 with coconut milk.
Add the knotted pandan leaves and salt and let it steam in the rice cooker.


Sambal Ikan Billis
Ingredients
Ikan Billis or small anchovies, rinsed
Sugar
Sambal Paste

Method
Fried anchovies till crispy, add sambal paste then sugar and salt to taste


Sambal Prawns
Ingredients
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
Prawns, cleaned
Sambal Paste

Method
Heat oil, add onions, fried till silghtly transparent.
Add prawns and stir fried till prawns are 90% done.
Then add in some sambal paste, stir.
Add Sugar and salt to taste. Serve


Note: Once the Sambal Paste is done, the rest is simply quite easy to assemble. Also note that all the amount varies according to own's preferences. Other sides with the nasi lemak could be fried fish, omelette, fried chicken wings..whatever rocks your boat..:D

Sinful Choco Cupcakes

Recently I bought some fantastic organic chocolate drops. I've never heard of the brand but I trusted the store that I went since it usually sells quality goods. I went back home and tried it, and wow, it's got a really good chocolately taste and somehow, a hint of coffee to it. It was great but I wasn't gonna inhale the whole bag of it (not that I can't...erm...just didn't want to be a pig!!). And I didn't want to "waste" it on making cookies (since I don't really enjoy cookies) but I don't want to spend my whole day on making a cake. Sooo the finally solution, (other than eating the whole bag of it myself...let's share some of the calories with others!!:D) CUPCAKES! Not really a standard cake and definitely not a cookie!!



I used Chockylit's Devil's Food Cupcake with Chocolate Buttercream and it's truly utterly SINFUL! Plus I added (to another batch) peanut butter chips!!! Yup, I was googoo gaga over cupcakes that day! My cupcakes didnt' turn out as darkish brown as Chockylit's but it tasted GOOD!! I saved 6 for us (Ed, Ethan and I) and the rest were given to Ed's colleagues. I was labelled the diet breaker...hehehehhe....What the hell, you only live once...

I went online and check their other products; I WANT ALL THEIR CHOCOLATE!!!! Ok ok... the chocolate that I used was Dagoba Chocodrops 73% ( I like the bittersweets, less of other added stuff). And tomorrow I'll be hitting the grocery store again, this time I'll be stocking up on my Dagoba, they are also a little cheaper than Valrhona and Scharffen Bergen which I used pretty often... :) A really big plus!! Go to their website, they have other chocolate products and they even list the origins of the cocoa beans, how cool!

For Pins and Chair

One thing I like about Ikea is that they have this spacious kid's area filled with a bunch of kids' toys and furniture (obviously their products), we usually let Ethan "loose" there, he loves it!!! Of course, getting him to move on is tough, he usually puts up a fight. Sooooo to make things easier, we usually get him a toy from Ikea (noooo....we are not spoiling him, we already have the intention of getting him one before we "set him loose" and it's USUALLY, not ALL THE TIME!). This time it's a hammer and pins thingy. We don't know the exact name for it but one thing is for sure, ETHAN LOVES IT!!!! He can play with that the whole day!! It's amazing!!! He would knock them in, turn it over and start all over again..take a break, start the whole thing again...it's crazy just watching him do it!! hehehe...he's got so much focus (when he wants too)!

So I decided to capture moments of him with his CURRENT fav toy. The pics didn't do him justice, well, I guess there's so much still photos can do...hehehe.. He would be sitting in his little red chair, resting or banging away on the pins!! LOL He's such a sweet little boy when he's with his toy!! Two cheers for Ikea! Ingenious toy!! :D After 2 months, Ethan's still playing with it, but now he's takng the pins out and trying to put them back....funny lil' boy

Chicken Curry and Rice

I love Chicken Curry on occassions when I'm too lazy to cook. This dish espeically brings back fond memories of home and family. Every special occasions and get-togethers called for chicken curry and with that you always need fried beehoon. For some reason, those two dishes always go so well together.

Before I digress any further, I'd experimented with the Chicken Curry recipe many a times and finally tweak it to my liking. Everytime I needed a quick fix of something spicy, Chicken Curry is always on my mind, besides, it's so versatile, who can argue...:)

Chicken Curry recipe(4 servings)

Ingredients
Curry Powder, 3 heaping tablespoons
Curry Leaves (optional), a handful; washed and rinsed
Lemongrass, crushed at the ends
1.5 can coconut milk
Chicken pieces, cut bite-size (I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs)
Potatoes, 3 mediums and cut to bite-size(I usually use Yukon Gold)
Carrots, 4 medium and cut to bite-size

Method
1. Add enough water to curry powder to make into a paste.
2. Heat oil in pot (medium heat) and add the crushed lemongrass, stir a little, then add the curry paste with the curry leaves, stir fry that on medium heat. Add a little of coconut milk if the mixture begins to stick to the pot and continue with the frying.
3. Once oil starts to appear on the mixture, add chicken pieces, potatoes and carrots and mix.
4. Then add the coconut milk into the pot plus the same amount of water.
5. Bring it to a boil, then turn the heat down to simmer. Simmer till the gravy has reduced and thickened.
6. Ready to serve with rice, bread, or noodles.

Note: All the ingredients are portioned to one's liking, it's not exact science so you can pretty much change the amount needed to suit your taste. I used coconut milk coz I like the flavour as such, you can use regular milk as well but the fragrance would be lost. Add extra chilli powder in when mixing the curry powder if you like it spicy, alternatively, you can always add fresh chillis into the curry while simmering.

Cookbooks Have Arrrived!!!!

My terribly belated Valentine's gifts...well, actually, not so much as gifts. I had them in my wish list and my husband thought it would be a good time to get me these books (erm, actually just joined this discount book club and to make himself feel less guilty for buying HIS books, he bought some for me as well...*sigh* so to kill two birds with one stone!!). As for me, I'm happy that I got them.....regardless the intentions....hehehe..

My favourite is the Boulevard: The Cookbook. It's fantastic and I'm dying to try out of the recipes. I can't wait to go to the store to get all my ingredients. It will be interesting since some of these recipes takes a little skill and TIME!! LOL!

I think the "simplest" book to follow is Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners. It's easy and looks soooo tasty and so family friendly!! I love it!! I had tried out 2 of the recipes there (both desserts) and both hubby and son loved it. Plus the fact that the desserts were sweet (too sweet for me). I can't wait to try out more of them!! I had the whole book so laddened with tags that Ed asked why I even bother, I might as well just save the tags and use them to mark those that I wouldn't be trying out sooner!!! WHATEVER!!

The other two books were just as amazing, I just didn't have enough time to scrutinize them enough! hehehe.. My next book would be Batali's books....I think it would be interesting espeically now that I'm into making my own pasta. I think his book would be helpful...

For now I'm seriously contented with these wonderful "gifts" even though they were given under a different motive!!! ;)

Glazed Meyer Lemon Bread

I had to buy some Meyer Lemons the other day. They were still in season and I was inspired to try out some other recipes other than a Meyer Lemons and Ginger Gelato that I'd made some time last year. Meyer Lemons are more like oranges with lemony tones than "pure" lemons. I like it! It's different! And since it's late in the season (I think), the Meyer Lemons looked more like oranges rather than lemons too! It was weird, I had to keep looking at the tags to make sure that I was getting the right thing.

Brought them home and started looking around for some easy to do recipes. Decided on a Lemon Bread(which I made into Meyer Lemon Bread instead) that I had previously gotten from a website. The recipe sounded good and easy to make. The recipe made two mini loaves which I gave one away to a family friend (whom I hope likes lemons!! coz it was rather lemony). Overall, I love the result and I think I'm gonna to twist the recipe a little to see how it goes. :)

Glazed Meyer Lemon Bread recipe

Ingredients
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons (packed) grated lemon peel
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Stir flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat 1 cup sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Add grated lemon peel. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with milk. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake until tester inserted into center of bread comes out clean, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, combine remaining 1/2 cup sugar and fresh lemon juice in small heavy saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.

Transfer lemon bread to rack. Gradually spoon lemon glaze over hot bread, adding more as glaze is absorbed. Cool lemon bread completely in pan on rack. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Turn bread out onto rack. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature.)

Note: I increased the amount of zest used as I like mine to have more of the lemon flavor, the original was rather weak. I used the total of 4 medium Meyer Lemon zest instead. Also I added some lemon juice in the batter as well.
I also decreased the 1 cup of sugar for the batter to 3/4 cup of sugar since I was going to glaze the bread, I didn't want it to be too sweet and kill the whole lemon flavor.
And as for the glaze, I used powdered sugar and lemon juice and simply stir them to the right consistency and taste as I went along so make sure that it's not too tart nor too sweet. The glaze after mixing should be able to coat the back of a spoon but still have excess glaze running off it. I also poke some holes in the bread so that the glaze would be able to run through the whole thing instead of just remaining on the top of it. Finally I also added extra zest in the glaze before glazing the bread.

Verdict: The bread had the texture like that of the pound cake without all the pound of butter in it. It wasn't too sweet either which was good. I think I would have reduced the amount of glaze used, I thought it was a little too much. It was defnitely zesty!! If you don't want it to be too "lemony", don't use the zest in the glaze, my husband thought it was a little of an overkill! Oh well.....:D

Char Tau Kway

I think I got the name spelled right(hopefully...). In any case, I'm sure most people who had this would know what it it(even if I can't get the spelling right..) Was a little nostalgic while flipping pages of some Singapore cookbooks and wanted to eat something familiar. Of course, being my greedy self, I HAD to make it immediately. So I dropped everything and started on my quest. I chose this dish coz (I thought it would be easy and quick.......WRONG!)I just wanted a one dish meal. It turned out to be a two step recipe!

First I went to the KC site to get a quick white radish "cake" recipe. Then I had to wait a little for the hot steaming "cake" to cool so that I can cut it to cubes to be fried. Overall result, it was pretty similar to that back home but of course, it's not home.

Note: Oh yah...DON'T feeze leftovers, make whatever you need or cook everything. I freezed mine and thought I could just thaw and make some more Char Tau Kway.....WRONG!!! It turned out soggy, mushy and even though the taste was there...the "cake" was a disaster and had the texture of soggy mushy mash! Not that great! I guess there was too much liquid in the cake when it defrosted and it couldn't hold its shape once it hit the hot wok! My husband didn't mind, but as usual, being the "anal" person that I am, I gave myself -1 out of 10 for the second defrosted batch!! Gross....



Char Tau Kway Recipe (the Dark and Sweet Version)
Servings: 6-8 (depending on how much each wants)

1st Step
Steamed White Radish Cake from KC

Ingredients
1 kg white radish
600 g Chinese Rice flour
6 cups hot water
1 tsp Alkaline Water
1 tsp salt

Method:
1. Shred radish and steam on high heat for 30 mins.
2. Add flour and water, salt and alkaline water to mix.
3. Put it over low heat to boil.
4. Stir continously till dry and sticky.
5. Turn off the stove and pour mix into a large square pan lined with glass paper.
6. Steam on high heat for 45 mins.
7. Wait for it to cool completely before slicing it.

2nd Step
Frying the cake

Ingredients
Salted preserved radish, washed (soaked it for a while if it's a little too salted)
Garlic, minced
Eggs, lightly beaten
Spring Onions, diced
Sambal (optional)

Method
Heat a little oil in the wok, add garlic and radish and fried till fragrant. Scoop them out.
Heat some more oil in the wok again; add the cubed radish cake and let them fry till the edges are a litte crisp and browned. Scoop them out again.
Heat some more oil again and this time, drop the beaten eggs into the wok and when fried it as you would with a scramble. When it's about 80% cooked, put the fried radish and radish cake into the wok and mix it up.
Add your seasonings; salt, sugar, kecap manis (Indonesian sweet dark soy sauce), dash of dark soya sauce and if you want it spicy, add some sambal(optional).
Finally, add the green onions and give a quick stir, dish it out, serve it with a side of sambal.

Note: For the steamed white radish cake, I added the alkaline water which I didn't think it made any difference (yes, I divided the recipe into 2 batches to see the difference). Besides it was a little too stiff to stir in the alkaline water into the mixture.
Also I thought it would have been a little more flavorful if I had added some pre-soaked dried shrimps into the mixture (of course, I didn't...*sigh*)and would have given it an extra "oomph" in the whole dish.
And since my husband was such a "purist", I didn't add any prawns in the final frying which I thought would have been great (I know the ones they sell at hawker centers don't have it).
For the amount of ingredients in the 2nd potion of the recipe; like that of preserved radish, eggs, spring onions and seasoning, they are all dependent on personal taste. Add more or less of each varies with your taste buds. Have Fun!!

Chinese New Year Cookies

Supposed to have made 6 different chinese new year cookies...yah right. I was sick and pathetic!! It was a miracle that I made any but I was determined and delusional from all the cold meds that I was taking that day. Soooo...to make a long story short, I made 2 types of cookies out of the planned 6. Oh well...so much for ambitions. My consolation, at least I did something...hehehe...even when I'm not thinking straight! And since it was close to Valentine's when I made these cookies, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and made one of them heart shape. In any case, for the Cooking Light readers, the heart shaped cookies are of the same recipe as that of the Windowpane Raspberry Linzer cookies in their Dec 2005 issue. It was a real easy cookie to make, just had to tweak the cooking time a little.

And come on, you HAVE to make something chocolatey....it's just the rule of thumb!! The first cookie was a recipe from an old cookbook given to me as present. And I thought that it was an easy yet elegant cookie to make, besides it uses chocolate...who am I to complain!:) It's called Biskut Lemak, it's a malay name but what it really means I really don't know but it uses cinnamon powder and I LOVE CINNAMON!! With the two lovely combinations, it's a no-brainer! The recipe calls for quite an amount of butter, one which I've never seen in any cookie recipes. I was skeptical and hence used less WHICH was good coz the cookie wouldn't have hold up with that amount of butter in it. The overall texture of the cookie was that of the melt in your mouth kind (well, with that obscene amount of butter, it would have melted by just looking at it!)and not very sweet at all, in fact rather bland if you didn't take it the decorative chocolate factor. And although I'm not a cookie person (the fact that I'm don't have a sweet tooth), I have to admit that this is a rather bland tasting cookie, solution, add more sugar! But it's real fragrant cookie with that cinnamon-y smell to it!! Love that...yah, I also added a little more cinnamon powder than called for...hehe...

Verdict: Both great cookies, passed the son and husband test but it would be a little while before I re-make them again, they are rather labor intensive due to the decorative nature of those cookies!! And I've also make up my mind to finish up the other 4 planned CNY cookies (even when CNY is over!!) once my little boy gets over his cold. :D





Biskut Lemak

Ingredients
450g plain flour
540g melted butter
1/4 tsp vanilla powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 pkt chocolate, melted

Method
Mix melted butter with vanilla powder and cinnamon powder till white and fluffy. Add flour and knead dough till soft.
Shape dough into a long or round shape. Bake for 15-20 mins.
When cool, decorate with piped melted chocolate.

Note: I've posted the ORIGINAL recipe but in my modified recipe, I decreased the butter by half the quantity and also it's softened buter (room temp) and not melted butter coz it wouldn't knead.
And I also increased both the vanilla and cinnamon powder to twice of their called for amount respectively.
Also I'm a great believer that if you're gonna use chocolate, use top quality chocolate, there's nothing worse than doing all the hard work if you're gonna ruin it all by having lousy quality. I used Valrhona bittersweet chocolate and melted it down.
I also added an extra cup of sugar. As you noticed, there's no sugar added to this recipe which I thought was a little bland. It was a little too dependent on the "fragrance" of both the vanilla and cinnamon powder(I used the sticks and grind them fine, try not to use the ready made powdered version, it gives a better taste of cinnamon to it)
Lastly, try and make the cookies a little smaller so it would be easier to just pop all into one bite coz the cookies a little crumbly to keep on biting on it.

Raspberry Linzer Windowpane cookies from Cooking Light Issue Dec 2005

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
2 tsp powdered sugar

Method
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, stirring well with a whisk.
Place granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until light and fluffly. Add egg substitute; beat until well blended. Beating at low speed, graduallyadd flour mixture; beat just until a soft dough forms. Divide dough into 2 equal portions and wrap each dough portion in plastic wrap. Chill at least 1 hour
Preheat oven to 375
Roll each dough portion into a 1/8 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface; cut with a 2 inch square cookie cutter with fluted edges to form 32 cookies. repeat procedure with the remaining dough portion. Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Cut out centers of the 32 cookis with a 1 inch square cookie cutter with fluted edges. Bake cookies at 375 for 10 minutes or unti ledges are lightly browned. Cool on pans for 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.
Spread center of each whole cookie with about 1/2 tsp jam. Sprinkle cut-out cookies with powdered sugar. Place 1 cut-out cookie on top to make one whole cookie.

Laksa Lemak

Made some Laksa last weekend. It was a really cold weekend and something soupy and spicy sounds seriously appealing! Made the paste myself, and simply put in whatever "seafoody" ingredients you want in the spicy seafood broth. I used prawns, sliced fried fish cake and some fish balls made in shapes of tofu, interesting huh...hehe.. I also added some fried tofu skins and of course, most importantly, laksa leaves as garnish and in the soup stock. Laksa Leaves is sometimes called Vietnamese Mint and it's a herb; finely chopped them and used them as such in this dish. This herb gives this dish its unique flavor and fragrance. It has a very distinct taste which is tough to explain, the best I can say it's that it gives a refreshing and "clean" flavor to any dish. To complete this superb one dish meal, add some spicy sambal on side to make it even spicier......Yyyyuuuuuuummmmyyyyy! And if anyone's interested in the recipe, you can always drop me a note...I'm just too lazy to post the entire recipe on this post.

On another note, I recieved some cookbooks for Valentine's!!! WHOOOO HOOOOO!!! Those were books on my wish list and I'm finally recieving them!!! Bad thing is that they haven't arrive, good thing is, they have been shipped and will be here in a few more days.....CAN'T WAIT!! Will blog on those wonderful books in a later post....ohhh...I'm getting the goosebumpbs thinking about them!!!

Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich

One of Ethan's favourite food!! I made this from pure inspiration one day and it turned out that he really enjoyed it!! Heheheh...he's one weird kid! I know he loves bananas and he enjoys peanut butter (I hardly give it to him in fear of potential all-in-my-head allergic reaction to peanuts OR nuts in general). But I figure that he's a real hardy kid and so far no allergic reaction to any foods I'd given him that giving him peanut butter would be A-OK.

First I got some freshly grounded smooth peanut butter(some place offers you the option to grind the peanuts so you have just pure peanut butter instead of the other additives like sugar and sugar and more sugar...). So anyway, slap a thin layer of that on a whole wheat bread, top it with some thinly sliced bananas ( I used one whole banana) and closed the sammy with another peanut buttered slice of whole wheat bread. Then use a cookie cutter or simply a knife to cut it up to smaller pieces.

It's a pretty healthy meal (ermm....at least I'd like to convince myself...hehe)and Ethan would INHALE that sammy in a heart beat!! He loves it. I try not to bore him by giving it to him too often...I guess I make it more like a treat for him...so that he would enjoy it more...:)

Panna Cotta: A taste of heaven

I had this dessert at an italian restaurant gazillion years ago, I fell in love on the first bite. It was the most heavenly taste and not something I would forget. Unfortunately that was my first and the last time I had it, I never came across another restaurant that has Panna Cotta on their menu.



While internet surfing for something else, I came across this panna cotta recipe and the memories of that wonderful evening that I chanced upon this scrumptiouslicious dessert came back. I looked over the recipe, it was EASY!!!! I mean, it was too easy that I had to look over it again AND AGAIN, just to make sure that it's THAT easy!! On top of that, I actually had all the ingredients in my fridge...no kidding right! I used the Molto Mario recipe and had to make it low-fat.....:( I know, I know, I should have stuck to the actual recipe and it would have been the real deal...but know what...it was just as wonderful when done...Oh yah...I also used half and half instead of heavy whipping cream. Figure that it was interchangeable...:D



So was thinking that since I'm making an italian dessert that I might as well make something italian for entree as well...hehehe.. So...... ended up making this, clam linguine with white wine sauce. The white wine being a Pinot Grigio and also our drinking wine..hehehe...the "experts" always say to use the wine you drink to cook...so there you go...




The wine was great and the dessert....even better....although I did think that putting black pepper on the dessert was a little too weird for me, so I omitted that out...the topping on the panna cotta was as it, strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar. In regards with balsamic vinegar, I'm a true believer that you get what you pay, which is also the reason that I always pay a little more and get a better quality then pay a little less and get a seriously lesser quality balsamic vinegar. Although my husband would argue that a vinegar is a vinegar is a vinegar...NOTE: this is also a comment coming from a person who used to think that a mudpie is baked in the oven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lil' Architect

We had bought him this box of Legos some time back but all Ethan did (back then) was throw them around and left them all over the place. Ed and I decided that we just need to keep it away and give it back to him at an "appropriate" time. Meaning when we get over tripping at every corner of the house!!!! So anyway, one day Ed left the child's gate unlocked in the dining room (there's where we had "hidden" the box of Legos), Ethan went in, saw the box, brought it to the living room, tipped the box upside down, and poured every single piece of Legos out of the box!!!! By the time we had "discovered" his discovery, Ethan was happily sitting on the floor, constructing with his Legos blocks!! He was so contented, intent, peaceful and happy that we thought it was better to just live him as it is....he was just too adorable.

Now this Legos obsession took on a life of its own. Day in, day out, all Ethan did was sit there with his Legos, "building", thing is, he would only build one direction, upwards. Now we all know that these infant Legos are not the most secure things in the world!! It was "stick" till a certain extent but he was building it so high that it would keep toppling down!! And Ethan would get frustrated and smack the rest of his "skyscrappers" down as well!! So to discourage his frustration and encourage his "patience" (or lack thereof!), I had to make sure that his buildings don't fall down by looking for loose placements and holding them in place, so inadvertably, I had become his "foundation".

Here's my little architect trying the build the "tallest" legos block possible!! Meanwhile I'm trying to take pictures and PRAYING that those blocks don't collapse!!!! But he was so adorable when he's so intent that I had to take his pics!! LOL