Gingerbread Men and Women

"Christmas isn't Christmas till it happens in your heart,
Somewhere deep inside you is where Christmas really starts,
So give your heart to Jesus you'll discover when you do,

That it's Christmas, really Christmas for you."

I love this Christmas carol, so heart warming and meaningful for me. Christmas is not about Christmas trees, Santa Claus, merry-making, loads of presents etc... but all about Jesus, it is not X'mas but Christmas. Christmas tradition accummulated through the centuries, some are meaningful, some are not, some are plainly money-making schemes. As for me, Christmas is very special not because I have a good reason to cook but I look forward to spend precious holiday time with family and friends, especially those so dear to my heart. One of those traditions I hold so very dear to my heart is time spent making Christmas cookies and gingerbread men. Don't ask me why ... it's just me.

If you have seen my earlier post, I conducted 2 workshops on this Christmas cookie and Gingerbread men. I have the recipe posted below as a Christmas gift to all of you! Try it next year cos the children in my workshop could make them ... I am certain you can too.

You'll be surprise how long you can keep these little tough men. They can be consumed up to 1 month if kept in an airtight container in the fridge. A wonderful treat with piping hot coffee in the morning after a peaceful night rest.

Home-made Gingerbread Men (20 pcs - 12cm cutter)

125 gm unsalted butter (room temperature)
60 gm brown sugar
90 gm mollasses or golden syrup
1 egg
300 gm all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp ground ginger and 1 tsp soda bicarbonate

1. Preheat oven at 180 degree celsius.
2. Beat butter, sugar and syrup till light and creamy.
3. Add egg.
4. Sieve flour into the butter mixture and knead 2 minutes.
5. Take out and shape into a flat dough.
6. Cling wrap the dough and refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.
7. Take out and put dough in between 2 pieces of greaseproof paper and roll into desired thickness.
8. Cut into gingerbread man shape and transfer onto baking sheets.
9. Bake for 8 minutes or until slightly brown.

Icing

1 egg white
280 gm icing sugar (sifted)

1. Wash and dry mixing bowl to remove any oil.
2. Beat egg white with a fork until foamy.
3. Add icing sugar in gradually.
4. Beat till icing stand in soft peaks.
5. Divide into bowls.
6. Pipe using disposable paper piping bags.

Christmas Dinner for Six

I usually don't get to do a comfy cosy sit down dinner during festive seasons but this is a very unusual occassion. Someone did not manage to defrost 14 XXL size prawns for the Christmas day BBQ which actually turned out to be a wonderful blessing for tonite's six!

Such large prawns deserve to be eaten at its fullest of flavour which happens to be grilled and seasoned with sprinkles of sea salt. In this case, I just grilled them on my pan-grill which saved a lot of time. If you want them to look stiff and straight, just soak some fine bamboo sticks (or satay sticks) in some water for 1 hour and poke it through the prawn from the rear and out of the head before leaving it to grill. As I said, I wanted a quick, without hassle type of sit-down dinner, so no fancy stuff. Just leave them on the pan-grill for about 2 minutes each side. When almost done, sprinkle sea salt on them and serve on a platter. That's the main dish!

Appetiser was stuffed portobello mushrooms, grilled in the oven for 10 minutes at 170 degree celsius. Easy to make and delicious to gobble.... Just use a small vegetable brush or a new toothbrush to brush away the dirt on the mushrooms. Cut off the stem slightly and place them with the stem facing up (like a shallow bowl). Fill the mushroom with finely diced yellow capsicum, zucchini, tomatoes, bacon or ham and topped with some shreaded cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with a little sea salt, a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and pop them in the oven and before you know it, it's ready! Note : Do not rinse portobello mushrooms, it will spoil the taste.

Brussel Sprouts seems to be great idea for tonite's meal, maybe the fibre will scrap down all the cholesterol in the prawns. Wishful thinking. Trim off the bottom part of the stem. Blanche the sprouts and leave aside. Heat a pan, drizzle some grapeseed oil and saute some bacon chips or in this case some chicken ham. Put all the sprouts into the pan and saute for a good 2 minutes, season with sea salt and a dash of white wine.

As for the carbo, an interesting nutty flavoured bread and butter pudding seem appropriate. First, slice one and half sticks of french loaf and arrange them slightly slanted on a oven proof dish. Butter in between slices and throw in some hazelnuts and baby almond (raisins optional). In a litre jug, crack 4 farm fresh eggs, a can of evaporated milk and 250ml fresh milk. Stir mixture together and pour onto the bread slices gently, making sure liquid is pour over every slice of bread. Pop it into the oven marked 160 degree celsius for 15 minutes then sprinkle some demerara sugar over the pudding and drizzle 2 scoops of brandy over it. Pop it back into the oven for another 5 minutes. Cover with aluminium foil if your pudding starts to brown too much. Take out from the oven and sprinkle another tablespoon of sugar and 1 more scoop of brandy. Pudding ready to be served. Note : this pudding has a crispy top layer unlike some other soft spongy bread pudding.

As for dessert, the wonderful christmas cupcake was served. Will post later!

It's Christmas Time!

It's that time of the year again! a time of joy, a time of sharing, a time for christmas baking. This year, I have a rather different approach, instead of the usual non-stop baking of christmas fruit cakes, I decided to share my Christmas baking joy in a couple of Christmas Cookie making workshops in my neighbourhood ingredient bakeshop. The joy of being able to share is so much greater than the joy of just making them yourself. I conducted a "Parent - Child " and "Children Bakeshop", where I taught them kitchen discipline, the making of cookie doughs, baking them and frosting. They loved it and most importantly I loved it. I would not have traded it for anything in the world, to see the joy on their little faces and the truimphant outcome when the cookies were iced and frosted to little kids perfection, not to mention, the adults did me just as proud!

Here's a "Parent and Child" busy with the creative side of baking!

An adult participant cookie decoration.

Christmas cookies and Gingerbread men all rolled and cut-out by my wonderful participants!

A 14 year old girl did this and pretty isn't it!

This is the work of an 8 year old.

Creativity oozing out from a 9 year old with her 5 year old sister.

Another batch of cookies baked to perfection waiting to cool for icing.

Had to say even the boys, all six of them did their parents proud! Would love to have more posts coming but my notebook is still being fixed in the hospital so I am using someone else terminal. For those of you who left messages and comments, I will get to them in due time. My sincere apologies! When the goin gets tough, the tough gets goin!

Vanilla Rosettes Cupcakes

I made this sometime ago using a very basic buttercake recipe. I forgot exactly how many cupcakes this recipe yields, maybe 40 regular ones.

Ingredients
250 gm unsalted butter
150 gm castor sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
6 eggs (room temperature)
200 ml fresh milk
450 gm all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder

1. Heat oven at 180 degree celcius.
2. Sieve flour, baking powder together in a bowl.
3. Cream butter until light and add sugar, beat till it turns a shade lighter and sugar combined.
4. Add vanilla and an egg at a 30 seconds interval, alternate with 2 scoops of flour mixture.
5. Pour in milk, alternating with the rest of the flour mixture.
6. Pour batter into cupcake liners or cups. Fill only half full.
7. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes, till cake skewer comes out clean.
8. Cool completely before icing with vanilla buttercream frosting.

Recipe for frosting
125 gm butter (room temperature)
500 gm icing sugar
a little milk
2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Beat all the ingredients together taking great care not to add too much milk.
2. Consistency must be soft and creamy but does not drop off from the spoon.
3. Pipe using a medium size star nozzle.

Yes, I Am Still Here (Sigh!)

I guess you are probably wondering why I am still here since I predicted I'll be moving to my new domain this week. Wonder no more ... I am still here in blogspot ... this time I predict I'll be here for a while cos my darling laptop has to be admitted to computer hospital. My poor darling is very ill! or maybe it needs to get acquainted with my new virtual kitchen. The list goes on ...

On a chirpier note, I managed to cook a little, nothing too elaborate since my house is still in the mist of very dusty renovation. Aglio Olio pasta was high on my list. Aglio Olio simply means garlic, oil and chili. Sounds easy? Recipe serves 3.

300 gm wholemeal spaghetti

Boil some water and put in the spaghetti, add 1/2 tsp salt and cook pasta to your desired choice. Strain and run under cool water for an 'al dente' texture.

120 ml olive oil

5 cloves garlic (chopped finely)

2 fresh red chilis (chopped finely) or can be substituted with chili flakes

4 Tbsp chopped parsley (sprinkle a little water while chopping, keeps the chopped parsley together)

some julienne carrots (optional) - blanche in boiling water

1. Heat oil in a saucepan, add garlic and chili.
2. Garlic should only be slighly brown, take off from heat.
3. Toss in cooked pasta and parsley.
4. Season with sea salt and crushed black pepper.
5. Garnish with julienne of carrots and parmesan, if desired. (Parmesan is a no, no for me)
6. Because this pasta is so simple, the use of good quality ingredients is highly encouraged.

Clear Fish Noodle Soup

Past 2 weeks have been a little unmanageable, too many things happening at the same time. Next week, I will be moving to audreycooks.com and hopefully all of you will follow me there for more recipes from "somewhere in my kitchen". I have really miss posting regularly and I hope to make up for it soon.

Lately, it has been raining 'cats and dogs' in the afternoons and I though this is suppose to be dry season. Obviously I made the wrong choice to renovate my home during this time. Anyway, what's done cannot be undone, just have to wait it out!

Whenever it rains, I crave for soupy stuffs, wonder you guys feel the same? Today, 'clear fish noodle soup' seems to ignite a growl in my tummy.

Fish Stock
2 thumb size old ginger (washed and smashed)
500 gm fish bones
2 litres filtered water

1. Heat a saucepan and add some olive oil.
2. Fry ginger and fish bones until fragrant.
3. Add water and bring to boil for 15 minutes. Simmer for 30 minutes and leave to cool.
4. Drain stock.

Ingredients
Fish slices (freeze the fish for 30 minutes before slicing - easier)
Julienne of ginger
Tofu
garlic oil
tong hoe or coriander leaves
spring onions (chopped)
Rice noodles (blanche in boiling water for 5 minutes, drain)

1. Put blanche rice noodles (bee hoon) in a serving bowl.
2. Scoop some fish stock into a small saucepan, bring to boil.
3. Put in the ginger, tofu, fish slices and vegetable of your choice.
4. Let it boil for 2 - 3 minutes, season with a little sea salt.
5. Pour over rice noodles in the serving bowl.
6. Garnish with lots of garlic oil, white pepper and spring onions.
7. Serve with a small sauce plate of chopped chilies with soya sauce.

A Regular Home-cooked Chinese Meal (con't)

Sometimes, blogspot gives me strange problems. I posted my earlier draft post and went for a break and found out that it refuse to let me continue downloading photos for this 3rd dish. Besides that, my numbering goes wild. I wander if you guys out there come across the same problem? Ah! just bear with it a little while longer, Audrey.

Stir-fry Scallops with Baby Kai Lan

1 packet of fresh scallops (600 gms, rinsed and pat dry), 1 bunch of baby kai lan (rinsed and leaves plucked), 3 Tbsp oyster sauce, 2 cloves garlic (chopped), olive oil, black pepper.

1. Pre-blanche baby kai lan and arrange on the serving plate.
2. Heat wok and drizzle with olive oil.
3. In goes chopped garlic, oyster sauce and scallops. Fry till scallops turns a little burnt at the sides would be good.
4. Add a little hot water and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour onto the bed of kai lan.
5. A little black pepper over it and serve.

A Regular Home-cooked Chinese Meal

Occassionally, I get this strange nagging feeling that I should be using chopsticks and rice bowls for a nice warm comfortable sit down meal instead of the regular one pot, one plate or even the economy rice-styled kind of 'everything on a plate thingy'. Life can be so hectic at times until there is no time to savour the lovely dishes cooked.

Today is not that type of day, I simply won't allow it! A little chinese setting dinner seems so invitingly heart warming with a pot of hot chinese oolong tea warming up the dining table corner. Just 3 simple dishes cooked with love and placed attractively on the table, surrounded by a few well decorated bowls of steaming white fluffy basmathi rice and dark elegant chopsticks purchased directly from Shanghai, China.

Five-Spice Pork Strip
600 gm pork shoulder (usually sold cut in a 4' round slab)
3 cloves garlic (smashed)
5 slices of ginger
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 Tbsp chinese five spice powder
Dark soya sauce
Light soya sauce
white pepper and sea salt to taste

1. Marinate the pork shoulder slabs with chinese five spice powder overnite in the refrigerator.
2. Drizzle a heated non-stick pan with some grapeseed oil and throw in the garlic, ginger, cinnamon stick and star anise.
3. Fry till fragrant.
4. Put in all the marinated pork shoulder and sear the slabs till lightly browned.
5. Drizzle in some dark and light soya sauce.
6. Add a little hot water and allow it to simmer on low fire for 40 minutes or until pork slabs are tender and can easily be pierce through with a paring knife.
7. Add white pepper and salt to taste.
8. Cut pork shoulders into bite-size strips and garnish with some coriander leaves.
   

Baby Bok Choy with Garlic Oil
500 gm of baby bok choy (rinse well and drained - peeled off some leaves and leave the heart intact)
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic (chopped)

1. Blanche baby bok choy in hot boiling water for 20 seconds and rinse under cold running water.
2. Drain and set aside in the serving plate.
3. Heat olive oil in a small saucepan and put in chopped garlic. Stir until they turn slighly light brown, cut off fire and remove from hob.
4. Pour over baby bok choy and drizzle a little light soya sauce over it and serve.

Pineapple Prawn Curry

Who could have imagined that a sharp-flavoured fruit can go hand in hand with prawns in a curry? The ever faithful fruit "The Pineapple" so thorny and yet deliciously inviting! If eaten on its own, the Sarawak Pineapple is just right cos its so sweet and flavourful.

I have dedicated this food blog of mine to my nephew "Nathaniel" whose birthday happens to fall on 1st November 2006. This little boy eats almost anything and he definitely loves food. Who knows ... when I grow old, maybe he will be the one cooking for me. Hint! hint! and guess what ... my god-daughter got a baby brother on this same auspicious day 1st November 2006! Great news!

We celebrated Nathaniel's one year old birthday gathering with family and everyone brought a dish. We had roast duck, char chap chye, birthday noodles and I made pineapple prawn curry as my part and parcel of the potbless.

Ingredients A

1 kg medium size prawns (only tail intact) - seasoned with salt, pepper and sugar. Keep wrapped, refrigerated in cling until ready for use.

Pineapple (skin discarded and the eyes cut out, then quartered lengthwise and slice into small triangular chunks)

2 Tbsp coriander seeds (ketumbar) - pounded in a mortar with a little water so that it's easier to pound into a paste. Set aside.

3 lemon grass root, sliced finely and the stem, cut an inch long.

Milk of 1 coconut (santan) with a little water added before milking.

Ingredient B

7 dried chili (pre-soaked in water), 5 fresh red chili (discard seeds), 5 bird-eye chili (discard seeds), 1 inch fresh tumeric, 3 clove garlic, 6 shallots, 1 Tbsp prawn paste (toasted). Blend all together in a blender, if no time constrain, pound them using a mortar and pestle. It gives a nicer texture.

Note : In order to pound ingredients or spices effectively in a mortar, try pounding one ingredient finely before adding the next one.

1. Heat oil in a curry pot, add blended or pounded ingredients (including coriander paste) and lemon grass in and stir-fry till fragrant.
2. Add half of the coconut milk and throw in the prawns, stir for 2 minutes add the remaining coconut milk and then pineapple chunks.
3. Simmer for about 10 minutes and add sea salt to taste.
   

Curried Pork 'Thai Style'

It's great to be back and happily clicking on my keyboard again. Gosh! do I miss that sound! Since curry is my favourite dish, it shall be my first post to usher in my new layout design.

I have always loved Thai food, maybe it's the sourness, sweetness and spicyness all together that makes Thai dishes so appetising! As for this dish, it can be curried chicken or even curried beef, just substitute the meat and retain the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredient A
400 gm pork fillet (freeze it for 30 minutes to make it hard enough to slice easier)
2 Tbsp tumeric powder
1 Tbsp chopped ginger
2 Tbsp Thai red curry paste
1 tsp brown sugar

Ingredient B
3 Tbsp grapeseed oil
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 Tbsp Thai red curry paste
5 slices old ginger
5 coriander roots (wash roots thoroughly to rid unwanted earth)
3 generous dashes of fish sauce
100 ml filtered water

1 Tbsp julienne of ginger
1 Tbsp julienne of carrot
Juice of 2 lime

1. Marinate sliced pork fillet with all of ingredient A and refrigerate overnight.
2. Drizzle grapeseed oil in a heated curry pot.
3. In goes the chopped garlic, Thai red curry paste, old ginger, coriander roots.
4. Stir a while before putting in the sliced pork fillet. Stir until pork is almost completely seared then add fish sauce and pour in filtered water and simmer for 8 - 10 minutes.
5. Lastly, mix in the julienne ginger, carrot and lime juice.
6. Sea salt and pepper to taste.
7. Garnish with coriander leaves (if desired)
8. This recipe serves 3 persons.

Important Notice

Here's a note to inform all my faithful floggers that my humble site is under some major construction to restore some lost items, for example my layout, design etc.... I will be back by 1st November 2006.

During this duration, I will not be able to post but rest assured, I will be busy cooking! So, be patient and stay tuned for many more wonderful recipes coming your way soon! Thank you for your understanding.

Masak Titik

Ask me how this soup got its name, sorry to dissapoint, my answer is I don't know. For those of you who know, please give me some feedback. Frankly speaking, some use watermelon skin for this delicacy but as for me, I grew up drinking this soup made from wintermelon.

1.5 litres filtered water
500 gm wintermelon (discard skin, cut into chunks)

Ingredients to be pounded in a mortar
5 chili padi (discard seeds)
2 large red chili (discard seeds)
3 shallots (discard skin)
1 Tbsp belacan (toasted)
5 white peppercorns (crushed)
120 gm dried shrimps (soaked in water for 5 minutes and drained) - hae bee
sea salt to taste

1. Bring water to boil in a soup pot.
2. Put in all the pounded ingredients and boil for 15 minutes.
3. Throw in the wintermelon chunks and boil for another 10 minutes then bring to simmer for 30 minutes on low heat.
4. Add sea salt to taste.
5. Soup ready to be served.

The Power of Lime

'Lime' classified under the citrus fruit family, is an essential ingredient in a variety of Malaysian dishes from the ever popular kerabu (sweet, spicy and sour salad) to mee siam (Thai-styled vermicelli). It is also widely consumed as a refreshing lime drink equivalent to its lemon counterpart as in lemonade.

What I would like to highlight here is not how widely it is used but its value as a preventive alternative for the common cold or influenza. This little citrus has high doses of vitamin C which helps strengthens our immunity system to enable us to fight off the common cold before it is full blown.

The minute I feel slightly under the weather, (before the nose gets all stuffy and runny) instead of drowning myself in a glass of high dosage of synthetic vitamin C, I just squeeze 2 limes and drink all its juices. Once in the morning and once at night. For those with gastric problems, advisable to take it after food. Bound to feel better the next morning. If not repeat the process for another day. For children, take only the juice of one lime.

This remedy has certainly helped my whole family and thanks to my sister who shared this little accidental wonder with me. It has in fact saved me a lot of unneccesary medical bills.

Sirloin Beef Canapes

This was one hearty breakfast I had this morning, taking into consideration that it was yesterday's leftover dinner. We had some lovely pan-grilled Australian beef sirloin accompanied by freshly mixed salad greens (pic below) and not to forget that wonderfully chilled bottle of icy cold beer. Cheers! Happy Belated Oktober Fest!

Once in a while, cravings for red meat seem to creep up and haunt me day and night until I sink my teeth into a slab. I guess this was a long overdue craving. If you have noticed, lately the price of imported beef has risen to a very unreasonable price. 3 regular pieces of sirloin about the size of the 'palm of your hand' soared up to approximately RM40.00 a tray.

The recipe for this sirloin steak is very simple. If the meat is fresh, all you need is to rub sea salt, freshly crushed black pepper and a dash of lea & perrin sauce. Sear the steak on a grilled pan drizzled lightly with olive oil. Cook it until it reaches the level of doneness of your choice. Serve straight from the grill onto a plate of fresh salad greens. As for gravy, pour some beef stock into the grill pan and stir until the brownings on the grill melts into the stock and thicken with some flour. Season with salt, pepper and a dash of beer. Pop open a bottle of chilled beer and suck it all in!

When morning came, leftovers were assembled into canapes using slices of french toasts spread with pure butter, garnished with some leaves from yesterdays' greens. Top off with thin slices of leftover sirloin beef drizzled with steak gravy.

My Healthy Diet Day 2 - Steamboat Dinners

Day 2 healthy eating strives for a change of ingredients but still complying to the 3 rules I mentioned yesterday. I guess the first 2 days are tough, having a high metabolic rate body system, I was hungry before I retired for the night. A cereal 'night cap' actually helped me make it through the night. Eventually after the 2nd day, my body adapted slowly to the healthier dinners.

Fresh shiitake mushrooms - a great selection for tonight's meal. Shiitake contains high levels of niacin and riboflavin. They also possess an amino acid that helps lower cholesterol and improves blood circulation, and lentinan, which stimulates the production of white blood cells essential to the immune system. According to some research, it is thought to be effective in fighting hepatitis B and some types of cancer. (write up extracted from "A Cook's Guide to Asian Vegetables" by Wendy Hutton)

Fresh Norwegian Salmon - is the only meat for tonight. Approximately 300 gm per person, sliced thinly or in small chunks, to suit your choice. I just rubbed on some sea salt, white pepper and dashes of white wine, marinate cling wrapped in the fridge until ready to eat.

Chinese Baby Spinach (Amaranth) - pictured on top of the 'choy sum' in the above photo. I enjoy this vegetable a lot especially in soups. Wonderfully rich in iron and not lacking in protein, Vitamin A, B and C. Also excellent as baby food!

Choy sum (Flowering cabbage) - is another widely used asian vegetable, popular in stir fries and noodle soups.

Pearl corns, snap peas, sliced carrots and canned baby corns complimented tonight's steamboat besides the usual must have (not pictured here) tong hoe, tofu (2 each), garlic oil and chopped chili in soya sauce.

Stock for tonight is yesterday's fresh fish bones saute in some olive oil with some slices of ginger until fragrant and topped up slowly with 2 litres of filtered water. Bring to boil and simmer for 1 hour. Run cool stock through a strainer and pour into steamboat pot.

My Healthy Diet Day 1 - Steamboat Dinners

A home-styled steamboat setting.

Sometime last month I planned a 2 week steamboat getaway for my family. We practically had steamboat every night for dinner but with a variety of fresh healthy food and stock. I guess, it's my way of getting the whole family to detox happily. Rule number 1 on my list of healthy food is "NO Processed Food", rule number 2 is "NO MSG" and rule number 3 is "NO red meat".

As for Day 1, I had lots of fresh chinese celery, asian lettuce, tong hoe (garland chrysanthemum) and carrots.

Chinese celery - is the one pictured above left, it had a distinctive aroma and it's rich in both vitamins and minerals. In some studies, it helps lower blood pressure, acts as a duretic and urinary antiseptic. Widely used in salads and stir fries and garnishes the ever popular Thai Tom Yum Soup and the Malaysian Sup Kambing (Goat soup). In some instances, it is also used as a replacement garnishing in the absence of coriander leaves.

Asian lettuce - is the vegetable pictured above right, it's high on beta carotene, calcium, phosphorus and vitamin C. The softness of the large tender leaves are useful as wrappers for minced meat dishes, ju hu char (for recipe, check under categories, main meals section) and spring rolls.

Tong hoe (Garland Chrysanthemum) - pictured above the sliced carrots. This is one vegetable I cannot do without when I eat steamboat. I just love the pungent smell, a very popular vegetable among the Chinese and Japanese apparently. The leaves are sold in bunches with roots still attached. The roots harbours a lot of earth, so an important tip is to wash the leaves thoroughly under running water. It is rich in vitamins A and B. This is the only way I eat this vegetable.

Carrots - I am pretty confident all of you know this root vegetable even blind-folded, so I will not elaborate.

The only meat for tonight is sliced (sek pan) fish. Has to be a fairly large fish in order to fillet it and slice it thinly for steamboat. Approximately 300 gms per person. Marinated with light soya sauce, white pepper, plenty of julienne ginger, a few drops of sesame oil, 1 Tbsp of garlic oil, sea salt and don't forget a few strong dashes of Shao Hsing fragrant rice wine (absolute must!). Leave fish cling wrapped in a bowl in the fridge until ready to eat.

These are lovely round tofu aka (Tofu Bomb). They are soft and very light, just perfect for steamboat. I got them from my neighbourhood grocer and I estimated 2 round tofu per person.

No steamboat is complete without a bowl of chopped chili in light soya sauce and some pre-made garlic oil. There will be a fresh bowl of chopped chili and garlic oil for every steamboat dinner, just in case I fail to mention later.

Garlic oil - heat a saucepan with grapseed oil. When hot, put in chopped garlic, stir continuously. Garlic burns very quickly. The minute the chopped garlic turns slightly golden brown, take the saucepan off the heat and pour into a heatproof glass bowl to cool. Do not cover with lid until garlic oil completely cool. This is used to flavour the stock before putting in the uncooked ingredients. Just 1 to 2 Tbsp will do just fine.

Chicken stock - for today's steamboat stock, I used chicken stock. 1 whole skinless chicken breast chopped into 4 pieces. Bring 2 litres of filtered water to boil. Put in 4 cloves garlic (whole, with skin) and 1 piece of old ginger (smashed with the back of the knife). When water is boiling, put in the chicken breast and quick simmer for 40 minutes to 1 hour. This is my favourite stock, so I used it quite often in my steamboat dinners. When cool, drain stock through a sieve before placing into the steamboat pot, discard chicken breast, garlic and ginger.

Stir Fry Salted Mustard Green with Pork Belly

I can't remember when was the last time I cooked this appetising dish. Lately, with the terrible haze covering Kuala Lumpur, my appetite too, was rudely affected. Was scratching my head as to what to cook to bring back some sort of cravings ... something salty, spicy and fatty might just do the trick.

Got myself a packet of preserved salted mustard green (the type with some leaves) and here goes ...

300 gm pork belly (cut into bite size portions) - marinate with a little dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, white pepper, sea salt, pinch of sugar and a dash of sesame oil.
3 cloves of chopped garlic.
5 thin slices of old ginger.
3 bird eye chili (sliced, seeds removed).
1 packet salted mustard green - soaked in water to rid access saltiness, drained and sliced thinly. (Squeeze dry by hand)

- Heat wok without any oil, drain all access water from salted mustard green and fry till dry and slightly crunchy.
- Take it out of the wok and cool. (The process above is to maintain its crunchiness)
- Heat work and drizzle a little olive oil, throw in the chopped garlic, ginger and chili. Stir a while and dump in the cut up pork belly, fry until pork turn slightly brown (juices all sealed in).
- Add in the salted mustard green and continue to fry for another 10 minutes, adding a little hot water to keep it from drying up. (This dish has a little gravy)
- Sea salt, sugar and light soya sauce to taste.
- Serve with steaming white fluffy basmathi rice.

Steamed Caramel Cupcakes

150 gm gula melaka (chopped)
80 ml filtered water
hot water for topping up

80 gm butter (melted)
100 ml evaporated milk
1 egg (slightly beaten)

200 gm self raising flour (sifted)
1 tsp soda bicarbonate
A pinch of salt

- Grease heat proof tea cups or coffee cups of your choice with butter.
- Caramelise shaved or chopped gula melaka in filtered water. Put water into small saucepan, then place the shaved gula melaka right in the centre. Bring to boil slowly until consistency becomes thick and gluey. Careful not to burn the sugar. In place of gula melaka, one can also use brown sugar, follow the same process.
- Pour out into a measuring jug and top up with hot water until 150 mls. Stir well and leave to cool.
- Sieve flour, soda bicarbonate and salt together. Make a well in the centre and leave aside.
- Add butter, evaporated milk and egg into the cool gula melaka sugar. Stir well. Pour mixture into the centre well of the flour and stir consistently with a fork until mixture becomes a smooth batter.
- Spoon mixture into the greased cups and place into a preheated steamer for approx. 30 - 35 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Cool, and served drizzled with some melted gula melaka.

Note : In order to achieve the cracked top effect, use teacups with a smaller bottom then the top opening. When steaming, the heat will push the cake upwards thus causing the crackling effect.

I like the texture of these steamed cupcakes cos they are laced with the fragrant gula melaka taste and smell and it doesn't stick to my teeth everytime I take a bite. Absolutely gorgeous and a changed from normal cupcakes!

For those who are thinking "What on earth is this Gula Melaka?" here's a little description. Gula means sugar in the malay language and Melaka is actually a state in Malaysia. "Gula Melaka" is a type of palm sugar made famous in the state of Malacca, Malaysia. It is a rich dark brown harden sugar made from coconut and caramel-flavoured sugar tapped from palm trees. It is boiled until thickens and poured into bamboo tubes to harden hence taking the bamboo segment shape. Sold in many countries and mainly used to flavour desserts.

Semi-Vegetable Dhall Curry

Lately the weather has been really bad for health. Haze, haze everywhere! I just wonder what's gonna happen to the world when we pass it on to our children's generation.

Haze has definitely affected my diet. Vegetable is all I think about lately but then not enough to keep my tummy full, that explains me eating, munching, chomping the whole day through! My mom has this wonderful dhall curry which she loves! Very, very simple to make too!

100 gm ikan bilis (dried anchovies)
150 gm yellow dhall (rinsed, drained)
5 leaves of Peking cabbage (torn to small pieces)
10 baby long beans ( break into 3 equal lengths)
1 huge very ripe red tomato (wedges)
5 inch carrot (thinly sliced)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
2 shallots (chopped)
5 Tbsp fish sauce
5 Tbsp fish curry powder (mix with water until becomes a paste)
filtered water
sea salt to taste

1. Heat some olive oil in a curry pot.
2. Throw in the garlic, shallots and stir till lightly brown and not burnt.
3. In goes the ikan bilis, fry till fragrant.
4. Scrap in the curry powder paste and stir approx. 2 minutes.
5. Top up with a little filtered water (not too watery please) and put in the dhall, simmer 5 minutes.
6. Put in carrots and tomatoes, simmer another 5 minutes.
7. Add a little more water and fish sauce.
8. Put in the rest of the vegetables (I like them slightly raw and crunchy, that's why I put them in last), simmer for 2 minutes. (If you prefer the vegetable to be thoroughly cooked, put them in together with the carrots).
9. Salt to taste.
   

I can just eat it on its own! which I did.

Just a note ...

For those of you who frequent my blog, will automatically know that it has evolved into another look. This is totally not intentional and will be back to its normal self hopefully soon. As for all my favourite links, categories etc ... which is not there now will hopefully be back soon too. Thank you for all your continuous support and try and bear with me a little longer..... Cheers!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream Frosting

For the love of Cupcakes!

In my circle of friends and acquaintances, I have yet to meet a person who dislike cupcakes. I have met some who simply find it too troublesome to make them, some who scrap away the frosting instantly before happily tucking into them and some who take them home and keep them in the fridge fearing they might eat them and never see them again. The list goes on ...

I still consider myself an amateur blogger when it comes to "Cupcakes". There is just so much cupcakes out there on the internet and not to mention all the blogs dedicated just for these little darlings! The month of September was pretty exciting for me as I found a good reason to bake a few batches of cupcakes for 3 very macho men as birthday tokens.

As for the recipe, kindly click on 'Chockylit' as found on my inspirational links. This is a wonderful recipe just like the way she described it. I was very satisfied with the results indeed. Utterly delicious!

Stir Fry Greens

Stir fry greens is one of the easiest dishes to whip up. Most vegetables can be cooked this way. The best thing is a variety of greens and vegetables can be used and this dish can never, never be boring. In fact, the selection of vegetable I used for this dish is my favourite Peking Cabbage (very crunchy), dried wood fungus (for color and good for blood circulation), sugar snap peas (sweet), baby long beans (also very crunchy), carrots (vitamin for the eyes) and a bunch of enoki mushrooms (chewy and gathers gravy).

Wash and rinse how ever much greens you need and drain.
Soak wood fungus in some hot water for 10 minutes.
Tear cabbage and wood fungus into bite size pieces.
Slice carrots in thin rings.
Peel off the sides (thread like) of the sugar snap peas and baby long beans.
Chop off the ends of the enoki mushrooms and rinse well.

1 Tbsp chopped garlic
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
A dash of Hsao Shing fragrant rice wine
1 tsp cornflour (diluted in a little water)
Sea salt to taste

1. Heat wok and drizzle some olive oil and add in garlic. Stir quickly to avoid garlic from burning.
2. Throw in the carrots, followed by the rest of the vegetables except enoki.
3. Add oyster sauce and stir. Add some hot water and continue to stir.
4. Add enoki and stir another 2 minutes before drizzling in the cornflour mixture and rice wine.
5. Salt to taste.

Note : Never over fry greens cos they will turn limp and chewy. I like them fresh, crunchy and fragrant! Wok must be very hot when putting in vegetables.

Tomato Egg Drop Soup

Simple as it sounds, this is a nutritious clear soup fit for everyone. Most likely originated from mainland China, this delicious wonder has found its way to my home and placed itself comfortably on my dining table and has never left since. This recipe serves 4 persons.

Stock
1 whole chicken breast with bone (blanche in boiling water to rid impurities)
2 litre of filtered water
3 cloves garlic (washed, whole)
2 piece of 1 inch old ginger (smashed)

Ingredients
3 medium size plum red tomatoes (blanche and skin and seeds discarded - cut flesh into small cubes)
2 soft square tofu (cut into small tiny cubes)
1 egg

Method

1. Bring water to boil in a soup pot.
2. Put in garlic, ginger and chicken breast.
3. Simmer for 40 minutes. Leave aside covered on the stove.
4. Just as about to dine, strain stock (discard chicken breast, garlic and ginger) and bring to boil.
5. Drop in tomato and tofu cubes.
6. Boil for 5 - 8 minutes. Beat the egg and slowly drizzle it into the boiling soup. (cloud effect)
7. Cut off heat. Season with sea salt and serve.
8. Garnish with chopped spring onions or chopped coriander leaves. (Optional)
9. If preferred and thicker soup, just dissolve 1 Tbsp cornflour in normal temperature water and add to simmering soup until it begins to thicken.