Showing posts from May, 2009

Yummy Vanilla Slice

May 30, 2009
Miss E planned to surprise me with her super-douper delicious dessert on Mother's day.. she researched on the net and found this easy Vanilla Slice... She is a bit 'green' in her 'culinary' skills, I ended up helping her with most of it.. ( the actual reason: I didn't want her to mess up the kitchen...shhhh..must not let her know!!) Vanilla Slice 2 puff pastry sheets 250ml (1 cup) milk 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 3/4 cup cornflour 1/2 cup custard powder 220g caster sugar 750ml thickened cream 50g butter 3 egg yolks (room temperature) icing sugar to dust Preheat oven to 210C. Line a 23cm square pan with aluminium foil or baking sheet, so that the sheets comes up over the sides (easier to lift out the vanilla slice). Place each pastry on a baking tray and baked for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside to cool. Once cool, place one sheet - cooked side up, in the bottom of the pan ( may need to trim to fit). For the filling: Place milk


From Gado2 to Lontong

May 28, 2009
A lot of leftover vegetables and rice cubes from yesterday gado-gado? No worries.... we'll have Lontong instead... Coconut Soup: Heat up 1 1/2 can of lite coconut milk, add 1teaspoon of tumeric. Add 1 stalk of lemon grass, and tempe. Bring to boil then simmer on slow fire for 10 minutes (Add all the leftover vegetables in the last 2 minutes and bring to a quick boil). Add presoaked glass noodle and salt to taste. Serve with the rice cubes, peanut sauce and sambal..... Yum....


Gado2 from Perth...

May 26, 2009
We improvise the ingredients for Gado-Gado...'kangkong' is the highlight in any gado-gado... kangkong is not readily available here... if we are lucky, we could find kangkong in the market but very costly... so have to make do with what we could get.... beancurd - deep fried and sliced bean sprouts french beans carrots Boiled eggs Rice cubes.... Blanched all the vegetables. Cook the rice on the 'softer' side. Once it is cooked... mashed it up in the pot. Place it in a food grade plastic bag...flatten it to a 1 inch thickness. Place some heavy weights on top..ie phone books etc. Leave it to cool then cut into cubes... Alternative, just buy the packed rice and cook as per instruction (product like Adabi or Nona) Peanut Sauce: 600g peanuts - roasted and ground 20 dried chilli 2 lemongrass 4 shallots 2 garlic 1tsp fennel 1 inch galangal tamarind juice salt and sugar Blend the chilli, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, fennel and galangal. Add tamarind j


Masak Singgang or Sup ikan

May 24, 2009
Some call it 'Masak Singgang' and some call it 'Sup Ikan' or fish soup, depending which part of Malaysia, you are from.... My kids were a little apprehensive when I placed this dish before them for dinner. They have not seen nor taste anything like this before... fortunately they are game to try... I used Rosie Job fish cutlets for this....Its nice sweet, firm flesh fish... 2 cm ginger - julienne 600 gm potatoes - quartered or cut into bite size 60gm soo hoon or tang hun or mung bean noodles or glass noodle... they are all the same thing - soaked in cold water 10 shallots - deep fry till crispy 6 garlic - thinly sliced Spices: 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds, black pepper, cumin and fennel. 1 star anise, 3 cloves, 1 asam keping, cinnamon stick 2 spring onion stalks, and 1 stalk of celery. both thinly slice. Boil the spices, garlic, ginger in a saucepan, add celery, potatoes and asam keping until the potatoes are soft and tender. Salt to taste. Add fish and


Sesame Ginger & Soy Chicken Drumstick

May 22, 2009
Quick Meal... easy to do...20 pieces drumsticks. I used 20 as it fit nicely on my roasting tray... don't have to waste electricity to just bake 8 pieces. can't finish?... freeze it up... and pack for kids lunchbox some other day!! Score the drumsticks. Marinate the drumsticks with Kikkoman's 'Sesame, Ginger and Soy'. Leave it overnight. Pre-heat the oven at 220C. Place the drumsticks on the roasting tray. Bake it for 50minutes to 60 minutes until a nice caramel colour. Serve with steamed rice and vegetables. Tip: Use the roasting tray with the roasting rack. It'll give a nice crispy colour on both side (not wet and soggy). Turn the drumsticks over after 30 minutes to 'brown' the other side. Line the bottom of the tray with aluminium foil for easy cleaning... otherwise you'll have a tough task to clean the burnt fat off!!


Spaghetti Marinara

May 14, 2009
Little Miss E takes on Angelina Jolie.... My little Miss E , loves her spaghetti bolognese, but her father loves marinara! So once in a blue moon, I will cook the big Baby , his marinara. Watch out for the mussels.. for those who has an allergy... whenever I cooked marinara or jambalaya using the marinara mix bought from the supermarket, Miss E would developed an allergy reaction, her lips would go 'pouty and red' - and itchy too ... kalah Angelina Jolie!! 100g spahetti per person - cook as per packet instruction 750g marinara mix 750 ml pasta sauce - dolmio or leggo etc 2 cloves of garlic - crushed Saute the garlic in a olive oil for a few minutes. Add sauce, simmer then add marinara mix. That's it. Tip : I was watching this cooking show on tele...the chef mentioned that parmesan does not go with seafood as the taste of the cheese itself 'drowned' the taste of the seafood. So the Italian usually... sprinkle some garlic breadcrumb instead!! Hmmm


Olive oil, Zaatar and Rustic Bread

May 08, 2009
This is an interesting entree... Again something that I learned from either the 'square' box or by talking to people.... Priceless information.... It was from the Discovery Channel (Astro) that our taste buds were once again teased by watching the Italians dipping bread into olive oil. The thought of ' swallowing or eating ' oil on its own, would make our esophagus shrink!! We tried it anyway... and it was yum... Point to take note : must use good quality oilve oil...the fruity taste of olive ... its invigorating... The second part: to dip the piece of bread into olive oil then dip it again in dukkah. I learned this from the Egyptian man who owns a stall in Wanneroo Market. I didn't try to make the Za'atar shown in the photo above. Olive Oil and the Za'atar were purchased in Margaret River. I have the recipes for both Za'atar and Dukkah. Will try it one day and will put up the recipe + photos plus comments.


Ginger Sauce Fish....

May 06, 2009
This is yet another Thai dish...from a Thai cook book. Tried many times... except this time round I grilled the fish rather than deep fry....of course its taste better when fried....the slogan: 'healthy things don't come cheap and don't taste good' seems right...hmmm. 1 whole fish... either trout or snapper. 1 cup of dried wood fungus - soaked and sliced 1 tbspn oil 1 clove garlic 1 brown onion or 2 shallots - thinly sliced 1 tbspn grated ginger 1 tbspn fish sauce 1 1/2 tbspn sugar 1 tbspn tumeric powder 1 cup of chicken stock or water 1 tbspn tamarind juice 1 tbspn cornflour mix with 3 tbspn of water sliced capsicum or julienne carrots coriander sprigs Wash and pat dry the fish. Deep fry or grill. Heat oil in a saucepan, add garlic, ginger, sugar and onion, stir until 'translucent'. Add tumeric, tamarind juice and fish sauce. Sauce should be a little bit sour, sweet and salty. Add the corn flour paste to thicken the sauce. Add vegetables.


Kids' Favourite ~ Food on a Budget

May 04, 2009
Mr H said that I am being pathetic ... and a Blogger addict ... Well, my reasoning is simple.. our kids will not be staying with us forever.., one day they'll spread their wings and fly away. So I am documenting all these recipes (that we have tried and tasted) in this Blog for their easy reference in future. I remembered when I was Danial's age, during year end school holidays, my mom gave us (my sisters and I) a chore to copy all her favourite recipes in her big, thick cover exercise book. Day and night... we copied and copied and copied... and now where is the book, one might asked?? Its with my brother!! Sad... no such technology ..30 years ago!! Anyway....pathetic or not...here it goes, kids... both of you loves ikan goreng and Masak Asam Sardine... It is easy to cook.... Ikan goreng Rub a little bit of salt and tumeric powder onto the fish. Deep fry until golden and crispy. Masak Asam Sardine a can of sardine in tomato sauce from Woollies


Homemade pizza

May 02, 2009
Back in KL, we used to order pizza almost alternate week. Whenever, I didn't feel like cooking, we would order Domino's Pizza Delivery...It was easy to let your finger do the 'tapping' on the phone....But now, our 'finger tapping on phone buttons' has its limited usage, as most of the pizza toppings here would have some salami, pepperoni etc. We resort to make our own dough hence create our pizza... The adults love their pizza with lots of capsicum, mushroom, olives and onion. Mr H Jr loves his with lots of anchovies and olives while Miss E loves her Margharita!! Thanks to P. Reinhart, I have almost perfected the art of dough making eventhough its a very long process,... and to my dearest friend, Stephanie; who gave me the Kenwood Mixer... I don't have to knead and knead the dough...till my shoulder came off its socket!! Pizza dough: 4 1/2 cups of high gluten flour (chilled) 1 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon instant yeast 1/4 cup olive oil or vegeta