Salmon Sweet Sour

I always love the taste of salmon. But back in Malaysia, salmon is darn expensive. Here, with Euro currency, it is quite affordable. The price usually around 7Euro/kg. The other day, I bought 3 slices of salmon and I paid around 3 Euro. So while I'm here, I'm going to enjoy the salmon as much as I could!

Salmon usually is nice to be grilled lightly on the pan, sprinkled with a bit salt and pepper and to be eaten with side dishes - steamed vegetables perhaps or any potatoes meal. But since we need to eat it with rice, I had to cook it the Malaysian way - thus sweet sour!

You can do whatever version you like, but mine goes like below:

Ingredients:

- Salmon steak
- 2 tbs chili sauce
- 2 tbs tomato sauce
- Capsicum (any colors will do...the more the merrier) - chopped
- 1 onion - chopped
- Some garlics - chopped
- Some ginger - chopped
- Spring onion/celery leaves
- Salt/pepper/sugar

Method:

- Sprinkle the salmon steaks with some pepper and salt.
- Add a little cooking oil on the grill pan.
- Grill both side the salmon steak until cook.
- Remove the salmon from the pan, put aside.
- Heat up some cooking oil
- Stir in the garlic, ginger and onion. When they turn golden-brown, add the chili and tomato sauces. Add some water if it too dry.
- Add some salt and sugar to taste.
- Add chopped capsicum. Stir for a while. Don't make it too soft.
- Pour the sweet-sour sauce onto the salmon steak.
- Sprinkle chopped spring onion.
- Serve.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

I tried out this recipe because I wanted to clear out the left-over buttermilk I had used for the banana almond cake the other day. So while browsing the net, I found this recipe from Simply Recipe and decided to make an experiment.

Oh, I was surprise to find out that this chicken looks like the KFC output and tastes quite similar to one too. So after this, I don't have to worry if I do not have the ready-made flour to make this type of coated fried chicken.

So the original recipe is:

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) fryer (see Wikipedia on the difference between broilers, fryers, and roasting birds), cut into pieces - I just used chicken!
2 cups buttermilk
1 large onion, sliced
1/4 cup chopped mixed fresh herbs (parsley, tarragon, thyme) or a teaspoon each of the dried herbs. - I used dried thyme and oregano because that were all I had
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper - just found that this pepper is actually spicy chili powder

For coating:

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon onion salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
2 cups grapeseed oil, or other high smoke-point oil such as canola oil, or peanut oil

Method

1 Soak chicken overnight (at least 8 hours and up to two days) in buttermilk with onions, herbs, paprika, and cayenne pepper.

2 Drain in colander, leaving some herbs on chicken. In a large paper or plastic (sturdy) bag, mix flour with seasonings. Meanwhile, heat 2 cups oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet (cast iron, stainless steel, or anodized aluminum - something that can take the heat) on medium high heat until a pinch of flour starts to sizzle when dropped in the hot oil (but not so hot that the pan is smoking). Remember when working with hot oil, always have a pan lid close by.

3 Place chicken pieces in bag with flour and shake until thoroughly coated. Add chicken to hot pan and fry on 1 side for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown, and then use tongs to turn the pieces over and fry for another 10-12 minutes, again until golden brown.

Be careful to keep the oil hot enough to fry the chicken, but not so high as it burns the chicken. To do this on our electric stove we have to alternate the settings between high to medium high several times while we are cooking.

4 Use tongs to remove chicken from pan. Place on a rack over a cookie sheet or broiling pan for the excess oil to drain. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Potato Cake with Smoked Salmon

Ok, this is also something from Nigella.


I thought it was interesting to make and yummy-looking. But actually it doesn´t taste so great. Just so-so. And I can´t make my husband eat it!

But I just share it here in case anybody would like to try out.

Anyway, since it's easy, I made this a project for the twins for their cooking experience.

Ingredients:
For potato cake
- 3 eggs
- 125ml milk
- 2 tbs olive oil
- a bit chopped spring onion
- a bit lemon juice
- 60 g potato powder ( i used the potato puree)
- 40 g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder

For spreading:
- sour cream ( I used quark with herbs as I couldn´t get sour cream)
- smoked salmon


Method:

1. Beat eggs in a bowl.
2. Add the remaining ingredients for the potato cake and mix well.
3. In a pan, pour the batter as making small-round pancake.
4. Cook both sides of the pancake until golden brown.
5. Remove the pancake from the pan and place in a plate.
6. Spread some sour cream on top of the cake.
7. Place a slice of smoked salmon on top of the sour cream
8. Ready to serve.

Quesadillas

Another recipe from Nigella Express. Based on the Youtube show, I watched her making Quesadillas, a Mexican recipe again. I like it because it´s quick to make. Suitable for any occasions too.

Again, instead of tortillas, I used dürum. And instead of ham, I used Turkish salami.And if Nigella used pickled jalapeno for the spicy taste, I used thai birds chili. How´s that?

Of course, if you are making for children, please omit the spicy ingredient.

I made this for my husband´s breakfast. And I think this is a good option for his quick-bite midnight snack.

Ingredients:

- Tortillas/döner - as many pieces as uyou want to make
- Several pieces of salami or any relevant substitutes
- Shredded/grated cheese
- Spring onion
- Pickled jalapeno/chili - sliced (optional)

Method:

1. Spread one piece of tortilla
2. Lay down salami pieces of half-side of tortillas
3. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on top of the salami
4. Sprinkle some spring onion on top of the cheese.
5. Add some pickled jalapeno/chili slices
6. Fold up the tortila.
7. Brush up both sides of tortilla with some oil.
8. Grill on the pan until both sides become golden-brown.
9. Ready to serve.

Mexican Scrambled Egg

I´m so into Nigella Lawson now. People said she´s not very much a cook since she´s not a trained-professional chef but I just love the way she cooks in her show. Sometimes she only cooks simple dish but it looks so delicious. And even though it is just a common meal, she´s very creative into adding something different in that meal.

This time I tried her Mexican scrambled egg....or I think I better call it Turkish scrambled egg because instead of using tortilla as in Nigella´s recipe, I used dürum. Dürum is a flat bread originates from Turkey and available in most Turkish groceries stores. It´s very much alike tortillas. If tortilla is used for making burito, dürum is used to make döner, just very much the same like burito, I guess.

Durum

Ingredients:

- 1 piece of tortilla/dürum
- 3 eggs
- a bit of spring onion (minced)
- 1 tomato (seeded and cut into small pieces)
- capsicum (cut into small piece)
- salt
-butter

Method:

1. Roll up the tortilla. Cut into portions of 1cm lengtfh.
2. Heat up some oil in a pan. Stir in the tortilla. Fry until golden-brown. Put aside.
3. Beat the eggs in a bowl. Add the spring onion, tomato, capsicum and salt.
4.Heat up some butter in a pan. Pour in the egg mixture and stir continuously to make scramble egg.
5. Toss in the fried tortilla.
6. Ready to serve.

Banana Almond Cake

Hiyeee...I'm back!

It's been a while since I last updated this blog. It was because I wasn't into cooking...well, I still cook continuously, it's just I didn't cook anything fancy or try out any new recipe. I guess my passion into cooking is just periodic.

Anyway, I'm back into the mood of trying out new recipe again. And yesterday I baked Banana Almond cake.


Occasion?

Nothing...it's just I am now joining an English Playgroup for the my kids, and feel like taking something to the class.

Well, I really like this recipe. As mush as I always sucks at baking, this time my baking product is generally successful. The cake is moist and smells good and tangy as it has orange zest, ground nutmeg and cinnamon

I got this recipe from Grouprecipes.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c (1/4 lb.) butter or margarine
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 c sliced almonds
• 3 large eggs
• 2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsps ground cinnamon
• 3/4 c granulated sugar
• 1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 1/4 c mashed ripe banana
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsps grated orange peel
• 2/3 c buttermilk
• 1 1/2 tsps baking powder
• 1/2 c whole-wheat flour

Directions

• Step #1 Melt 1/4 c of the butter.
• Step #2 Pour 2 tbsps of the melted butter into an 8-c bundt pan; brush the butter over pan sides & bottom.
• Step #3 Mix together the brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, & almonds.
• Step #4 Sprinkle top bottom of pan with half the brown sugar mixture; mix the remaining mixture with the remaining melted butter; set aside.
• Step #5 In a large bowl, beat remaining 1/4 c butter with granulated sugar until mixed.
• Step #6 Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, until mixed.
• Step #7 Beat in orange peel & banana.
• Step #8 Mix all-purpose & whole-wheat flours, baking powder, soda, & salt.
• Step #9 Add to banana mixture along with the buttermilk; stir until well mixed.
• Step #10 Pour half the batter into prepared pan.
• Step #11 Spoon remaining brown sugar mixture evenly over top; cover with remaining batter.
• Step #12 Bake in a 350° oven until a long wood skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean, about 50 mins.
• Step #13 Cool the cake on a rack about 5 mins, then invert cake onto a serving plate.
• Step #14 Serve the cake warm or cool.
• Enjoy the Banana Almond Cake recipe

Dorade Tiga Rasa

My friend, gave this fish several days ago. In Germany it is called Dorade. Some say it is similar to seabass or siakap in Malay. But to me, it looks a bit diferent from siakap. But it does taste like one.

At first I thought I wanted to make steamed fish but I don't have steamer. So just made do with fried fish with recipe called "Ikan Tiga Rasa" (Fried fish with 3 Flavours - or Tastes?). It basically has the sweet, sour and hot tastes of sauce.

Ingredient:

Fish - any type that suitable for deep frying, wash cleanly.
Some corn flour
1 onion - cut into small cubes
2 cloves of garlic - mince
1 inch ginger - mince
2 tbs dried chili paste
2 tbs tomato sauce
2 tbs chili sauce
2 tbs oyster sauce
1 green capsicum - cut into cubes
1 tomato - cut into cubes
Salt
Sugar
Salad leaves - for garnishing
Celery leaves- for garnishing
1/2 carrot - cut into thin pieces - for garnishing

Method:

1. Sprinkle salt on the both sides of the fish.
2. Coat fish wih some corn flour
3. Deep fry the fish until golden/brown. Toss and put on a serving plate.
4. On another pan, heat up some oil
5. Stir in garlic, onion and ginger, cook until golden.
6. Add dried chili paste. Cook for a while. Add a little water if it too dry.
7. Add all sauces. Mix well.
8. Add some water to lighten the gravy.
9. Add salt and sugar to taste.
10. Add tomato and capsicum.
11. Pour the sauce onto the fried fish.
12. Garnish with salad, celery leaves and carrots.

Mozarella Cheese with Basilikum & Tomato

Honestly speaking, I didn't make this. It was prepared by my friend, Kak Liza who came to my house the other day as we had 'making kuih raya' session. I never had experience eating the above type of mozarella cheese and before eating it, I had wondered whether the taste was awful. And I never make Basilikum as salad either. I bought a pot of Basilikum plant because I thought Basilikum is basil in english. But basil is daun selasih in Malay, isn't it? And boy, this Basilikum smells like daun selasih too. Can anyone clarify this?

The Mozarella cheese apparently have no taste. It is just plain, that's all. And my other friend said, if it got no taste, why bother to eat it? Quite true but I found it nice to eat them with the basilikum and tomato. It tasted so fresh!

It's very simple to make.

Ingredient:

Several round smooth mozarella cheese
2 tomatoes
Some basilikum leaves
olive oil
grounded black pepper
salt

Method:

Slice mozarella cheese anyway you like it.
Slice the tomatoes.
Arrange the mozarella cheese, tomatoes and basilikum leaves together in a serving plate.
Sprinkle olive oil, pepper and salt.

Ready to eat.

Biji Nangka

Ini dessert dari negeri Kelantan. Cik HB ngidam nak mkn dessert ni, sy x penah buat n x tau camna nak buat (kat mesia dia x penah mintak pon makanan2 camni...maklum la mak dia ada kan) maka sy pon cari la resepi kat MyResepi.

Senang je buat rupanya. Sama mcm buat kuih onde-onde cuma xde inti gula melaka didalam dan dimakan ngan kuah bersantan.

Jom tgk resepi (copy paste dr Myresepi)

Bahan2:

Adunan tepung:

• 1 kampit tepung beras pulut
• 10 helai daun pandan -diblender dan di ambil airnya- sy guna pewarna hijau shj
  
• sedikit air kapur- sy x guna pon

Kuah

• 1 biji kelapa (diambil santannya)- sy guna 1 kotak santan + 1 cwn susu segar 3.5%
  
• secubit halba
• 1/2 inci halia (dipotong halus)
• daun pandan
• gula melaka (secukup rasa)
  
• gula pasir (secukup rasa)
• sedikit garam

*Sy hanya guna gula pasir utk mendapatkan kuah warna putih

Cara-cara

1. adunan tepung: letakkan semua tepung beras pulut kedalam mangkuk dan campurkan dengan air daun pandan serta air kapur tadi. uli sehingga doh sebati.
2. ambil sedikit doh tadi dan gentel menjadi bujur dan ditekan sedikit ditengah-tengahnya ( jgn besar2). habiskan semua doh tadi dan letakkan dahulu dalam dulang.
3. rebus air dalam periuk sebingga mendidih dan letakkan doh tadi sehingga doh tadi timbul, dan baru diangkat dan asingkan dahulu.
4. Kuah: santan yang sudah diperah dimasukkan kedalam periuk dan diletakkan halia, halba dan daun pandan.
5. selepas itu letakkan gula melaka, gula pasir dan garam. kacau sehingga sebati bahan2 tadi dan baru diletakkan doh yang telah direbus tadi.
6. kacau sehingga sebati dan baru diangkat. sedia untuk dinikmati seisi keluarga....
7. selamat mencuba......

Daging Goreng Ketumbar

Ni lauk masak utk berbuka smlm. Aiseh! Amik gambar ni guna handphone cik HB jadi gambar nampak sgt x best!

Bahan2:

250g daging
1 sudu minyak masak
2 ulas bawang putih dihiris
2 sudu kecil serbuk ketumbar
Garam secukup rasa
1/2 sudu kecil lada hitam
Sedikit daun ketumbar
Sebiji cili merah, potong serong
1 biji bawang besar - dihiris bulat2.

Cara2:

1. Potong daging nipis2. Basuh bersih2 kemudian perapkan bersama serbuk ketumbar, dan lada hitam selama 1/2 jam.
2. Panaskan minyak dan tumis bawang putih.
3. Masukkan daging yg diperap. Masak dgn api yg kecil sehingga empuk dan air dr daging kering.
4. Perisakan dengan garam.
5. Masukkan daun ketumbar, cili potong dan bawang besar.
6. Kacau sehingga sebati.

Siap dihidang.

Sayur Goreng Tempe (Fried Vege with Tempe)

I found tempe in Asia Shop yesterday and quickly bought it as there was only one pack left. Some items in Asia Shop are often sold-out even on the first day of its arrival. So when I see those hot-stuff items, I quickly grab it because I dont go to Asia Shop everyday.

Tempe is a good source of protein and I just love everything made from soy beans (err....except for soy beans milk). I just made a simple dish out of this tempe....fried it and cook it with vegetable. The best vege, you can use the long beans or in my case I used kacang buncis (haricot beans).

Ingredients:

1 pack of tempe - cut into small pieces, wash and drain
1 bunch of kacang buncis - cut into appropriate length
1 onion - finely sliced
2 cloves garlic -finely sliced
1 red chili - finely sliced
A bit of turmeric powder
A bit of salt.

Methods:

1. Mix tempe pieces with turmeric powder and salt.
2. Deep fry the tempe until it turns brown. Put aside.
3. Heat up a little oil in a pan, fry the onion, garlic and chili until yellow.
4. Toss in the beans. Leave it to cook for a while.
5. Add the fried tempe.
6. Season with salt.

Singgang Daging (Boiled Beef with Herbs)

This is one of the Kelantan's cuisine, a side dish to be eaten with rice. It has nice aroma and very light and more delicious when you eat it along with budu (anchovies paste). But I dont have budu here so I made sambal belacan (chilies blended with shrimp paste and a bit of tamarind juice) instead.

Ingredients:

1/2 kg beef -cut into small pieces

8 shallots - finely sliced

5 cloves of garlic - finely sliced

2 inch ginger -finely sliced

1.5 inch galanga (lengkuas) -finely sliced

1 tbs coriander - lightly grounded

6 pieces of dried chilies - cut into small length and soak in hot water

1 piece of asam gelugor (sour slice)

A bit of sugar ( I used gula melaka)

A bit salt

Methods:

Simmer all ingredients, except sugar and salt in a pot until the beef is tender. Add sugar and salt to taste.

Carrot Cupcake with Cream Cheese Icing

Haven't been doing baking for quite sometime now. But since I'm making juice out of carrot and there are always quite amount of carrot pulps left, so I decided to make carrot cupcake. And tried out the cream cheese icing I always wanted to do.

The recipe I got from Wilton.Com

For the batter:

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
4 cups (approx. 1 lb) carrots freshly shredded
2/3 cup nuts chopped ( I used almond chopped)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line standard muffin pan with baking cups. In medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and baking soda; mix well.
In large bowl, beat eggs with electric mixer until foamy; add oil in a thin stream and beat well. Add flour mixture to egg mixture; mix well. Fold in carrots and nuts. Spoon into baking cups.
Bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pan on cooling rack for 5-8 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely.
Do not use pre-shredded carrots.
Spray pans with vegetable pan spray, then fill each with about 1/2 cup batter. Place pans on cookie sheet and bake 14-16 minutes. Cool in pan on cooling grid for about 8 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely before filling and icing.

For cream cheese icing:

* I only made half of the ingredients and the amount of sugar also been reduced to make it less sweet.

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
8 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (about 2 lbs.)
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
Makes: About 5 1/2 cups of icing.
instructions
In medium mixer bowl, cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add sugar one cup at a time and milk. Mix well. Beat on high until smooth (only 30 seconds to 1 minute). Thin to ice cake smooth; use full strength for piping borders.
NOTE: Do not use light cream cheese or butter substitute. If margarine is used, icing will be softer.

Lamb Chop

Made this to cheer up my husband on the first day of his exam. He likes lamb. To marinate the lamb, I simply took any recipe I found the best from Internet. People said lamb is best to be marinated wih rosemary but when I went to the nearby supermarket, I could not find rosemary, the fresh nor the dried. So I just did without one.

For the lamb chop, I got the recipe from Spanish Home Recipe

Ingredients:

8 rib lamb chops (about 1 inch thick)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp crumbled dries rosemary leaves - I replaced with dried thyme
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 medium-size garlic cloves, crushed with a garlic press

Method:

Rub the chops generously with salt and pepper and the dried rosemary. Place the olive oil in a shallow dish and stir in the garlic. Add the lamb chops and turn to coat with the garlic oil. Grill the chops until cooked to taste, about 4 minutes per side for medium-rare.

Serve with mushroom blackpepper sauce, steamed vege and fries.

Tiramisu

Ternampak resepi dlm blog my friend, Dal beberapa minggu lepas. Dok cari mascarpone cheese kat pasaraya dekat rumah tp x jumpa2...ingat maybe mascarpone ni ditajukkan dlm Deutsch, that's why x jumpa2 kot. Tp bila pegi pasaraya lebih besar... there! Ada pon mascarpone cheese yg mmg ditajukkan as Mascarpone cheese.

Taburan coklat diatasnya agak hodoh dan bertempek2 kerana si kembar insisted nak buatkan. Xpe la, ini pon bukan blog professional masakan.

Bahan2:

Mascarpone Cheese 250 g
Double Cream 200 ml
Telur 2biji
Gula 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract 1 tsp
Strong Coffee 150 ml
Chocho powder, to dust
Finger Biscuit. 2 peket (bergantung pd saiz bekas)

Cara2:

1. Pukul mascarpone cheese dan kuning telur sehingga sebati (guna handmixer)
2. Dalam mangkuk lain, pukul putih telur dan gula sehingga putih (guna handmixer)
3. Dalam mangkuk lain juga, pukul double cream sehingga kembang (guna handmixer)
4. Campurkan bahan 1, 2 dan 3 bersama2. Kacau gunakan senduk sahaja. Masukkan vanilla extract dan 2-3 sudu bancuhan kopi pekat.
5. Susun satu lapis finger biscuits (rendam sebentar dlm air kopi pekat, jgn sampai lembik) dalam bekas. Tuangkan adunan 4 diatas.
6. Buat lapisan biskut dan adunan 2-3 lapis.
7. Sejukkan ia didalam peti sejuk selama 4 jam (atau semalaman)
8. Sebelum dihidang, taburkan serbuk koko diatas tiramisu.

Nasi Kerabu

2nd time buat nasi kerabu di bumi Jerman. Kat Mesia? Tak penah...hehehe. Ye la, kat Mesia kan boleh beli je kat pasar malam, x pon tunggu balik KB sure dpt mkn nasi kerabu buatan mak mertua yg sgt sedap.

First time buat nasi kerabunya adalah kuning. Tapi kali ni warna biru sbb cik Liza telah bg bunga nasi kerabu (yg menghasilkan warna biru itu) yg diimportkan khas dr Mesia. Tp since ianya dah kering, maka effect biru tu x la cantik sgt mcm hasil bunga yg fresh.

Nasi kerabu versi made in Germany ni pon byk pengubahsuaian. Contohnya, since budu xde, maka diganti dgn sos ikan dan instead guna ikan kembung fresh yg dibakar utk buat sambal ikan, sy gantikan isi sardin dlm tin (tp perlu guna yg ditinkan dlm natural sos, kalau yg sos tomato tu alamat spoil la rasanya). Then kepala parut pulak adalah kelapa kering. Yg bagusnya kelapa kering ni dah sedia halus, maka x perlu ditumbuk2 lg.

Lagi apa? Oh...bahan2 sampingan mcm telur asin (sbb mmg x jumpa pon kat sini), solok lada, air lada (yg ini sampai skrg x reti nak buat, sure x dpt rasa yg sama mcm yg Mek buat) xde dalam senarai.

Resepi nasi kerabu adalah seperti berikut:

Nota: sumber x ingat sbb copy ke Word, langsung x ingat nak take note website, ntah myresepi ke, blog sapa ke...so kepada pemilik asal resepi, harap maaf kerana tidak meletakkan kredit nama anda disini..harap halalkan ye.

BAHAN2

Nasi:

4 cwn beras (atau bergantung kpd keperluan)
1 sudu kecil garam
4 1/2 cwn air - bergantung kpd amaun beras
2-3 titik pewarna kuning atau biru (optional) - jika guna bunga nasi kerabu, masukkan 3-4 kuntum kedalam beras.
2-3 helai daun limau purut (optional)
1 btg serai diketuk (optional)

Sambal Tumis

5-10 biji cili kering
1/2 bwg besar
2 ulas bwg putih
1cm halia
1cm kunyit / 1 sk serbuk kunyit
200ml santan pekat
2 btg serai
2 keping asam gelugur
2 sudu besar budu/3 sudu besar sos ikan
garam dan gula melaka

Sambal Ikan
1 ekor ikan kembung saiz besar (sy guna isi sardin dlm tin - 2 tin kecil)
1 cwn kelapa kering
2 ulas bwg putih
1/2 biji bwg besar
1 btg serai
1 cm halia

Kerabu

Kubis
Timun
Taugeh
Daun kesum

Semua bhn2 kecuali taugeh dihiris halus. Boleh juga digantikan dgn ulam2 lain seperti daun gajus, bunga kantan atau kacang panjang.

Bahan2 Sampingan

Solok lada
Telur asin
Air lada
Bwg jeruk
Ayam goreng kunyit
Ikan kembung goreng bertepung
Budu

CARA:

Nasi:

Cuci beras dan campurkan semua bahan. Masak seperti biasa.

Sambal Tumis

1. Kisar halus cili kering, bwg besar, bwg putih, halia, kunyit dan serai.
2. Tumis bhn2 kisar dgn minyak sedikit byk sehingga pecah minyak.
3. Masukkan santan dan bahan2 yg lain.
4. Masak sehingga pekat.
5. Perisakan dgn garam dan gula melaka.

Sambal ikan

1. Bersihkan ikan kembung dan bakar (x perlu jika guna isi sardin). Sementara itu gorengkan kelapa kering tanpa minyak dgn api kecil sehingga keperangan.
2. Asingkan isi ikan dr tulang. Tumbuk isi ikan menjadi halus.
3. Tumbuk pula serai, bwg, halia sehingga lumat.
4. Campurkan ikan dan bwg dan goreng tanpa minyak sehingga garing
5. Campurkan isi ikan dan bwg bersama2 kelapa kering. Perisakan dgn gula dan garam

Versi sy: Isi sardin dikisar bersama2 ngan bwg, serai dan halia then terus campurkan dgn kelapa kering yg dah digoreng. Then perisakan.

Sherperd Pie

Masak untuk dinner sebentar tadi. Sebabnya daging and ayam dah abis, so tak tahu nak masak apa. Nasib baik ada daging cincang, so merayap la kat internet, cari apa2 resepi yg menepati bahan2 yg ada. Hence, sherperd pie! So mlm ni semua org dinner ala2 western ok!

Sgt senang nak buat. Sy tak follow pon amount resepi yg asal. Main agak2 aje. Dan bahan2 pon tukar ikut kesesuaian. Contohnya: patut guna kacang pea, sy gantikan ngan kacqang buncis...hihihi.

Bahan2:

1. Kentang - 3 biji besar
2. Daging cincang - 500 gram
3. Karot - potong kiub kecil
4. Jagung - sy guna jagung dlm tin
5. Kacang pea - sy guna kacang buncis yg dirincik halus
6. 1 biji bwg besar - dicincang halus
7. Air rebusan daging - sy ganti ngan stok kiub daging
8. Butter
9. Sos Wochester - 1 sudu teh

Cara2:

1. Rebus kentang dgn sedikit garam sehingga empuk.
2. Dalam pan berasingan, panaskan sedikit butter, tumis bawang besar sehingga kekuningan.
3. Masukkan daging kisar.
4. Masukkan karot.
5. Biarkan masak seketika. Tambahkan air rebusan daging utk elakkan masakan kekeringan.
6. Masukkan kacang pea dan jagung.
7. Masukkan sos Wochester dan perisakan masakan dgn garam dan lada hitam.
8. Bila kentang empuk, toskan airnya dan lecek kentang. Campurkan dgn sedikit butter, garam dan lada sulah (buat seperti mash potato)
9. Menggunakan bekas tahan panas, ratakan campuran daging cincang didalamnya.
10. Kemudian ratakan mash potato disebelah atas daging cincang.
11. Cucuk permukaan kentang untuk memastikan semua bahagian dibakar dgn sempurna.
12. Taburkan keju parut diatas permukaan kentang (jika suka)
13. Bakar pd suhu 200C selama 1/2 jam.

Puding Roti

Utk pertama kalinya, blogging dgn bahasa Melayu pulak ye...asik English aje (konon2 utk international readers, mcm la ada international readers pon!...hehehe)

Dan kali ini, masih dgn resepi roti ok!

Sbbnya si kembar sgt suka makan sandwich Nutella yg disediakan dlm bentuk rama2, arnab (dan ntah bentuk apa lg, x boleh nak ckp) menggunakan acuan cookie yg besar. So selalu lah ada serpih2 roti yg agak byk selepas itu. Nak buang sayang.....so recycle la jawabnya. Yang paling sesuai adalah puding roti.


Maafkan rupanya yg hodoh itu...tp rasa boleh tahan tau! Sepatutnya ada sos kastad tp saya malas nak buat....hehehe

Sumber resepi: E-book 100 Resepi Kuih Muih Malaysia

Utk sos kastard:

1. 1 tin susu cair
2. 2 sudu makan tepung kastad
3. 2 sudu mkn gula

Utk puding:
1. 500ml susu segar
2. 8 keping roti (sy guna lebihan serpih2 roti)
3. 4 sudu mkn gula halus
4. 2 sudu mkn mentega
5. 2 biji telur
6. 1 sudu teh esen vanilla
7. 1 sudu mkn tepung jagung
8. 2 sudu besar kismis hitam

Cara2:

Utk sos kastad:
1. Gaul rata semua bahan.
2. Didihkan sebentar atas api.

Utk puding:
1. Rendam roti yg dipotong 4 setiap satu bersama susu segar selama 1/2 jam.
2. Campur bahan (3) hingga (8) didalam satu bekas dan gaul rata
3. Tuang ke dalam loyang bahan yg telah digaul rata.
4. Bakar dalam ketuhar pd suhu 180C selama 1/2 jam. Angkat dan sejukkan.
5. Tuangkan sos diatas puding semasa menghidang.

Pizza Bread

Don't know what to serve for breakfast?

Try this quick-simple breakfast menu: Pizza Bread


I can't remember how I got to know this recipe but this is always my solution when I'm running out of idea what to make for breakfast.

All you need:

-sandwich bread
-tomato sauce
-beef/chicken salami or sausage - cut into small pieces
-onion - cut into small cubes)
-capsicum/tomato (optional) - cut into small pieces
-shredded mozarella cheese

Method:
1. Heat up the oven to 200C
2. Line the sandwich bread on baking tray (as many as you want)
3. Spread tomato sauce on top of the bread.
4. Put some onions, capsicum and tomato proportionally on top of the bread
5. Sprinkle shredded mozarella cheese on top.
6. Toast the breads in the oven for about 10 minutes (depending how much you want the bread to be toasted)

Laksam

I´ve been craving for this cuisine eversince coming to Germany. It is one of the Kelantan cuisine, a type of rice noodle (only thing is, it´s not the long, thin type) and has to be custom-made and eaten with fish, coconut soup and garnished with beansprout, kesum leaves, long beans and beansprouts.

I never made it myself before. As usual back in Malaysia, if you are lazy, you get to buy everthing from the stalls. Plus, I always thought that this cuisine is complicated to make, so I never thought to give a try.

So for the first trial, I got a not-so-bad taste of laksam.

I got the recipe from Myresepi.

For noodle:

Note: To make the noodle, I used spring foam base (in Malaysia, people use the flat pot cover).


Ingredients:

3 cups rice flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
4 cups luke water

Mix all the ingredients and blend well. Rub a little cooking oil on the spring-foam base. Spoon the flour batter onto the spring-foam base to make a thin layer. Put the spring-foam in a steamer. Take out the spring-foam when there are bubbles on the layer. Leave it to cool. Then carefully fold the layer as shown in the picture below:

Cut into short length as desired when you want to eat.

For the soup:

Ingredients:

1.Fish meat - you can use the fresh fish like mackerel, clean it up and boil then separate the bones from the meat or you can use the tinned mackerel with natural sauce.
2. A little bit of garlic
3. A little bit of ginger
4. 2 big onion (or several shallots)
5. Some fresh grounded black pepper (or powder)
6. Coconut milk
7. 2 pieces of sour slices (asam keping)
8. salt (to taste)
9. Brown sugar/white sugar (to taste)

Blend together item 1 to 4. Put the blended item into a big pot and add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer with medium heat until the soup is thick. Add the salt and sugar to the taste.

For garnishing:

Cucumber - cut into small, long pieces
Kesum leaves - mince
Long beans - mince
Beansprout - wash and soak dry
Sambal - fresh chilies with salt and shrimp paste - blend together.

Cek Mek Molek

OMG...I've neglected this blog for more than 2 months!

Not that I didn't cook for the past 2 months, I did...but I was busy with life, hence blogging about cooking is not a priority in daily activities.

Well, this time around I think I should continue blogging about what I have cooked. It may be just the normal, typical food but we are in the internet world, where most people doing search by using Google and perhaps that simple, normal food for you, is something new to somebody else. Maybe I could introduce a food that one probably never heard of, right?

So let´s see I want to blog about....

Cek Mek Molek!

I bet even for some Malays, this delicacy sounds alien to them. Cek Mek Molek is a traditional Kelantan cuisine (my husband comes from there), eaten as a snack. The main ingredient is the sweet potatoes, mixed with wheat flour, a bit of margarine/butter and has sugar filling. I´m not really a sweet tooth person but I made it for my husband.

I took the recipe from Mesra.Net

The ingredients are:

1. Sweet potatoes

2. Wheat flour

3. Margarine

4. Sugar

5. Sugar

6. Cooking oil for frying

Methods:

1. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into small pieces. Put them into pot and cover with cold water. Add some salt. Bring to boil or until the sweet potatoes become soft.

2. Drain the sweet potatoes and mash it. Add wheat flour and margarine (proportion the amount until you are able to make a dough of the mixture).

3. Take some portion, make a ball (about a ping-pong ball size). Then press it flat. Put a small amout of sugar in the middle. Fold the dough to cover the sugar and form it into long oval shape (I made it just oval)

4. Deep fry until golden colour.

Easy, eh?

Banana Cake

When I went to a supermarket nearby my house, I saw some good-looking bananas were sold at very cheap price. 1 bundle of plastic, contained around 5-10 sticks was only 50 cents. It is a norm here that when the bananas turn so ripe and the skin darkening, the price would be reduced but actually the rate of the darkening wasn't so bad, it is not so soft. You can still eat it raw.

So I took 1 big bundle and used them to make banana cake. I found one recipe from my.resepi and it turned out quite ok. It's very easy to make and the kids love it so much.

The recipe:

Ingredients:

4 medium-sized bananas (mashed)
3 medium-sized eggs
1 3/4 cup self-rising flour (I couldn't find this so I mixed the all-purpose flour with 1 teaspoon of baking powder)
1/4 cup corn flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (any cooking oil would do)
1 teaspoon soda bicarbonate
1 pinch of salt

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C. Butter the baking pan.

1. Beat the egg and sugar with electric mixer until thick.
2. Add mashed banana and mix well.
3. Add flour (together with baking powder and soda bicarbonate) and mix well.
4. Add oil and mix well.
5. Put the batter into baking pan.
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Check by inserting toothpick, if it comes out clean, then the cake is completely baked.

Cool down the cake before remove it out of baking pan.

Tom Kha Gai (Chicken in coconut soup)

This is a Thai recipe. I didn't know how it taste before but when I browsed through other cooking blogs, many have recommended this recipe. And since I always cook chicken as the main side dish, it's good to know variety.

It's very simple to cook this and it tastes great! Even my fussy husband likes it. Here is the recipe:

From: Shiokfood

Good quality Chinese chicken stock - 1 cup ( I substituted with 1 chicken cube)
Coconut milk - 1 cup
Fresh or frozen lemongrass - 1/2 a stalk
Galangal - fresh - 6 slices
Kaffir Lime Leaves - 2 (hand-torn)
Thai bird's eye chillies
Fish sauce - 1 tbsp (The saltiness can vary a lot across brands, so start with less always.)
Lime juice - 2 tbsp ( I used lemon instead)
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp
Boneless chicken breast - 50 gm (chopped)
Straw mushrooms (or regular button mushrooms) - 4 (sliced) ( I didn't put this)

Method:

For the lemongrass, use only the bottom white part (about 6 inches) and discard the woody grass part of it. With the flat side of a cleaver or a heavy object, pound and bruise the lemongrass so it releases the flavour. Cut into 2 inch segments.
Put the stock into a pot and bring to a boil. Toss the galangal, lemongrass, sugar, and lime leaves in. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the coconut milk, chillies, fish sauce and simmer for another 5 minutes.
Finally, add the chicken and mushrooms and cook till the chicken is just cooked. The moment you see it turning all white on the outside, it's 90% done.

Chocolate Strawberries

It's spring now and a lot of fruits that hardly available during winter now are widely sold at groceries stores and supermarkets. One of them, strawberry!

Not only they are cheap (500gram range between EU0.99 to EU1.99), they are sweet and fresh. Most of the time we just eat them raw and plain or I add into my morning cereal. Then suddenly I remember the Chocolate Strawberries which became so famous back in Malaysia when Malaysia's famour singer, Datuk Siti Nurhaliza shared her love story how this chocolate strawberries made her fall in love with her husband. I heard after that, people started selling and buying chocolate strawberries like hot cake! Well, I never bought....

So now since strawberries are easily available, why not making the strawberries coated chocolate myself?

It's very easy to make. All you need; strawberries as much as you want- don't remove the leaves, a bar of cooking chocolate and some vegetable shortening or butter. Melt the chocolate and vegetable shortening in double-boiling method. Once the chocolate melt, remove it from the heat and dip each strawberry into the chocolate. It would be easier if you use tooth pick to hold the strawberry (I didn't have tooth pick). Then hold the strawberry by making the tooth inserted onto strayfoam (or anything equivalent) to let the chocolate harden.

Taraa!!! It's ready!

Asam Pedas Ikan Merah

In my place, fresh seafoods are scarce and expensive. There are frozen seafood sold at Asia Shop at reasonable price but I try to reduce eating the frozen seafood because I read somewhere the amount of chemical used for frozen items could be hazardous to one's health. Unless I'm so craving to eat seafood, would I buy these frozen stuff.

Few days ago I went to Morocco's groceries shop and saw some fresh seafood to be sold. I saw these red fish and thought how nice to cook asam pedas using this fish. I'm very sure whether this fish is exactly the red fish I know in Malaysia but I just thought 'why not give it a try?'

The cost for these two red fishes is EU5.00 which was ok! I wanted to buy more but since I wasn't sure how did it taste, I just made do with two first.

So, here is my asam pedas ikan merah with tomatoes and lady fingers. Yummy!!!! The fish tasted so delicious and I'm hoping I can find this fish again at the Morocco's groceries shop.

My recipe for asam pedas:

Ingredients:

1 big onion*
3 cloves garlic*
1 inch ginger*
Some belacan (shrimp paste)*
2-3 tablespoons blended dried chilies ( I used sambal oelek)
2 red fish - clean and cut into two (depends on the size of the fish, if one small fish is used, then you don’t have to cut it)
1 small bowl tamarind juice
1 stack daun kesum (Vietnamese coriander)
5-6 lady fingers ( add more if you like)
2 tomatoes (cut into four)
Salt
Cooking oil
* To be blended with some water

Methods:

1. Heat up cooking oil. Add the blended onion, garlic and ginger.
2. Add chilies/sambal oelek. Cook until the chilies turn a little dark.
3. Add tamarind juice and some water.
4. Add daun kesum.
5. When the gravy has boiled, add lady fingers and fish. Leave it and stir occasionally.
6. Add salt to your taste
7. Add tomatoes and cook a little while

Ready to serve with white rice.

Brownies Cupcake

Oh, again the first-time attempt! Making brownies cum cupcake....whatever. I got this recipe from Wilton website. After browsing through all the cupcake recipes, I decided to try this one cause it is simpler and I have all the ingredients needed.

The problem is, after baking, the tops were cracked. Why? Any comment?

Anyway the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 squares unsweetened chocolate chopped
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter cut into pieces
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs lightly beaten
2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract
2 cups pecans chopped (optional)
Makes: Each cupcake serves 1. Makes about 20 standard cupcakes or 4 Mini Tasty-Fill cakes.

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Line standard muffin pan with baking cups.
In medium bowl, combine flour and salt.
In small heavy saucepan or microwave-safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate; stir until blended.
In large bowl, combine chocolate mixture with sugar; mix well.
Whisk in eggs and vanilla.
Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture; mix until blended.
If desired, stir in nuts.
Distribute brownie mixture evenly into baking cups.
Bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool cupcakes in pan on cooling rack for 5-8 minutes.
Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely.
Any of our cupcake recipes may be prepared in our Mini Tasty-Fill pans. Spray pans with vegetable pan spray, then fill each with about 1/2 cup batter. Place pans on cookie sheet and bake 14-16 minutes. Cool in pan on cooling grid for about 8 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely before filling and icing.

Burger Malaysia

My friend, Liza is expecting and one of the food she craved for is this Malaysia's delicacies: Burger Malaysia. Instead of beef or chicken fillings, it has the anchovies chilies and sclice of cucumber. So I made for her.


Here is the recipe:


Sumber: E-Book "100 Resepi Kuih-kuih Malaysia"


For anchovies chili filling:

2 tbs cooking oil
Blend together1 big onion
2 cloves garlic -
Some belacan (shrimp paste)
10 dried chilies (boiled and blended) – I substituted with 2 tbs sambal oelek
½ cup dried anchovies – deep fried
2 tbs brown sugar
½ cup tamarind juice
1 tsp salt

For dough:

250g wheat flour
120ml water
2 tbs margarine – I used butter
2 ½ tbs fine sugar
½ tsp salt
2 tsp dried yeast

Cucumber – slice into thin pieces
Cooking oil for deep frying

Method:

For anchovies chili:

1. Heat cooking oil, fry in the blended onion, garlic and shrimp paste
2. Add blended chili and cook well.
3. Add brown sugar and tamarind juice and salt. Adjust the amount to your taste.
4. Add anchovies. Mix well with the chili.
5. Turn off the heat and set aside.

For dough:

1. Put Ing. 1 – 6 into large bowl. Knead the mixture until it turns out to dough (no longer sticky). Make big round dough. Leave the dough to expand twice the original size.
2. Punch the dough and then divide the big dough into several small round dough (I made 15). Again, leave the dough to expand twice.
3. Heat the cooking oil for deep frying (medium heat)
4. Fry the dough until golden brown. Toss.
5. Cut the dough in the middle to allow some space to put the filling (pocket).
6. Put one sliced cucumber and anchovies chili in the pocket.

Ready to serve.

Ayam Harum Thai ( Fragrant Chicken Thai)

I got this recipe from my friend's blog, Liza. It's another way to cook using tomyam paste because for me tomyam paste is always meant for tomyam soup. It's good to know the variety. So here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Ingredients A - all ingredients to be sliced thinly

• 1 big onio
  
• 4 garlics


• 1 inch ginger
  

Ingredients B - to be mixed well to make a paste

• 2 tablespoon chili sauce


• 1 tablespoon tomato sauce
  
• 2 tablespoon tomyam paste


• 2 tablespoon light soy sauce


• 2 tablespoon sweet soy sauce


• Lime juice taken from 1 lime ( I substituted with lemon juice)
  

Ingredient C

• 1/2 chicken - cut into small pieces


• 2 lemongrass stalks - punch a bit


• 4 pieces of kaffir leaves ( daun limau purut)


• 1 capsicum - cut into several pieces


• celery leaves - for garnishing
  

Methods:

1. Heat up some cooking oil in the pan. Put Ing. A and cook until fragrant.


2. Add in Ing.B. Cook until fragrant.


3. Add chickens, lemongrass and kaffir leaves. Cook well.


4. Garnish with celery leaves.

Chocolate Cheese Cake (another failed recipe...)

Another my first-time attempt - cheese cake. Back in Malaysia, I used to visit famous Malaysia's cake house, The Secret Recipe for their delicious cheese cakes. Here in Germany, since I'm staying at home, I thought cheese cake project would be fun. So I browsed thru the Internet and decided to try this recipe called Chocolate Cheese Cake from Hanieliza's Cooking.

The result:

After baked. Looked nice....

But when I cut, it looked ugly!!! Doesn't look like cheese cake huh? The cheese part was so hard and compressed! And the colour is not so dark chocolate

The cheese cake should look like this! My..my..what have I done?

Anyway, though my cheese cake didn't look as what it supposed to be, it still bore the cheese cake taste. And my husband still ate it anyway...thahks hubby for the support!

Though it is a failure, I'm not going to give up. I'm determined to bake more. Besides, practice makes perfect, isn't it?

Bihun Singapura

This is one simple meal that I like because you can use whatever meats or vegetables you like as long as you put black pepper. I never knew the exact recipe of Bihun Singapura, I always make it my own version after an ex-colleague introduced to me this bihun years ago. She told me verbally how to cook it. And this is how I cook it:

Ingredients:

• Half a pack of bihun (rice noodle) - soak into hot water for 2-3 minutes then drain
• A small bowl of chicken breast cut into small pieces (or u can substitue with beef/squid/prawn)
• 2-3 garlic - mince
• 1-2 teaspoon grounded black pepper ( depends how you like it, the more the hotter)
• 1 table spoon oyster sauce
• 1 small carrots - cut into small long pieces
• Some sawi - cut into small pieces
• Fried shallots (can buy ready made from Asia Shop)
• Celery leaves - mince
• 2 table spoons cooking oil
• Salt

Methods:

1. 1. Heat oil in a cooking pan, stir in the minced garlic. Cook until fragrant.
2. Add chicken, cook well
3. Add black pepper and oyster sauce, stir.
4. Add carrots and cook until soft.
5. Put in bihun and sawi, mix well everything in the pan
6. Add salt (depends on your taste buds)
7. Serve with fried shallots and celery leaves garnished on top

I also always serve this bihun with a small bowl of kicap cili api soy sauce with Thai chilies) or the ready made chili in garlic oil bought from Asia Shop....makes the bihun tastes superb!

Twisted Sausage Bread

This is my first attempt making bread on my own. Since most of the bakeries don't sell halal meat bread, I decided to try making them myself. I found one recipe from here. But I made several adjustments to the recipe. For example, I used whole meal bread flour that already had yeast added. So I didn't put yeast anymore. Then the original recipe used breadmaker to make the dough but I don't have one, so I just used my two hands.

Before bake

After bake

The recipe is all follows:

Ingredients:

190 ml water
400 gm bread flour
5 table spoons sugar
1 tea spoon salt
2 table spoon milk powder
1 egg
2 tea spoons yeast
60 gm butter
sausage
mayonese/chili sauce

Methods:

1. Mix the flour, sugar, salt, milk powder, yeast water and egg in a large bowl. Mix well and knead until it forms a dough (smooth not sticky).

2. Divide the dough into several small round dough. Leave for 20 minutes.

3. Roll one dough big enough to put a sausage.

4. Put the sausage on the dough and roll the sausage.

5. Cut the dough into several parts but with joints at the bottom.

6. Twist the dough to the right and left one after another.

7. Repeat the method for the rest of the dough and sausage.

8. Leave the doughs for another 40 minutes.

9. Bake at 180C for 12 minutes.

10. Garnish with mayonese and chili sauce. Ready to serve.

Boiled Fruit Cake

I found this recipe from Joy of Baking and after reading through the recipe and I thought 'Hey, this one sounds easy to make!'

So I gave it a try and well...it's not so bad. It is so rich of fruits and I love it!

Ingredients:

1 cup (210 grams) light brown sugar
1 cup (240 ml) hot water
1/4 cup (56 grams) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon ( I think I would reduce this amount next time as I found it too strong)
1/2 teaspoon ground clove (I didn't put)
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (I didn't put)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (125 grams) seedless raisins
1/2 cup (65 grams) dried cranberries
1/2 cup (75 grams) dried cherries
1 1/2 cups (210 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (175 grams) candied and chopped mixed peel


Methods:

1. Butter, or spray with a nonstick vegetable, a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 x 13 x 8 cm) loaf pan.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). (Note: if using a dark colored pan reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C).)
3. In a large saucepan, over medium heat, bring to a boil the sugar, water, butter, spices, raisins, cranberries, and cherries. Boil for five minutes, remove from heat, and let cool till lukewarm.
4. Stir into this mixture the flour, baking soda, vanilla extract and candied fruit.
5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45 - 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
6.Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.
7. Cover and store, if possible, for a few days before serving.

I tried to cut the cake after 2 hours of cooling but the cutting was not nice so I kept it for another day. So next day when I tried to cut it, it turned ok. So if you want to cut it nicely, leave the cake for several days as suggested.

Mee Ladna

Another noodles recipe which is easy to prepare, it is called Mee Ladna. Since I lacked certain ingredients, so I made it my own version ( the Germany's version of course...hehehe). I couldn't find the fresh yellow mee like the one in Malaysia. But a friend has taught me how to turn spaghetti noodle to yellow mee. All I need to do, when I boil the spaghetti (with some oil and salt), add some turmeric powder in. Then once the spaghetti is cooked well, quickly drain the spaghetti under cold water. And I get the yellow mee!

Ingredients:

1. Half a pack of spaghetti

2. 1 cup of beefs - slices into small pieces ( can also use or add chicken/prawns/squid)

3. Half onion - mince

4. 2-3 garlic - mince

5. 1 small carrots - cut into long cubes

6. 1 cup of cauliflowers

7. 1 egg

8. 1-2 spoon of oyster sauce

9. 2 spoon of black thick soy sauce

10. 1 tsp ground black pepper

11. Celery/onion leaves for garnishing

12. Fried shallots for garnishing

Methods:

1. Heat some cooking oil in the pan

2. Stir the minced onion and garlic until fragrant

3. Add beefs. Cook well.

4. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce and black pepper.

5. Add carrots and cauliflower. Cook well.

6. Add the noodles (spaghetti). Mix well.

7. Add the egg, mix well.

8. Add salt if you like (but most of the time this is not necessary as the oyster and soy sauce already provide the salty taste)

9. Garnish the noodles with the celery leaves and fried shallots.

Guten Appetit!

Spaghetti Bolognese

Ok, another pasta recipe which is also easy to be cooked. And I cook it my own way, ok!

Ingredients:

500g beef mince
1 big onion
1 box (about 400 gram) tomato puree
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons oregano
two cloves of garlic
1 packet of long spaghetti pasta

Method:

1. Put the pasta in a boiling water, add some cooking oil (to prevent the pasta sticking to each other) and some salt. Cook until the pasta undercooked. Toss the pasta well.

2. Heat the olive oil in the cooking pan.

3. Add garlic and onion. Stir fry for a while.

4. Add minced meat, cook until well browned.

5. Add tomate puree (add water if the sauce is too thick)

6. Add salt, oregano, black pepper. Leave it to simmer.

7. Add parmesan cheese and mix the sauce well.

8. Serve the spaghetti with the sauce poured on top.

Ayam Masak Szechuan (Szechuan Style Chicken)

Got this recipe from my friend, Liza. The photo of the recipe in her blog, showed a very dark gravy but mine is lighter. Again, I blame the soy sause I bought here. For those who like sesame oil taste, this is the recipe.


Ingredient:

1. Chicken (can also use beef or squid)
2. Garlic - 2 or 3 cloves, minced
3. 1 onion - cut into 4
4. 1 tsp cornstarch (mix with water)
5. Dried chilies
6. Onion leaves
7. Sesame oil
8. Oyster sauce
9. Dark soy souce
10. Cashew nuts ( I didn't put as I didn't have it)

Methods:

1. Heat the coking oil + sesame oil
2. Fry the dried chilies until crispy - put aside
3. Fry the onion and garlic
4. Add in chickens
5. Add in oyster sauce and dark soy sauce
6. When chickens are cooked well, add in fried dried chilies and cashew nuts.
7. Add the cornstarch batter and mix well.

An der Lache Salad

Never heard of it? I bet sure you haven't, it's the salad that I made sesuka hati and I named it myself...hehehe. An der Lache is where I live, if one wonder what is it.

I'm trying to eat as healthily as possible, that is why I'm making a lot of salad things now. The above salad is the combination of green salad, red capsicum, apples and raisins. Then I mixed with mayonese and ground black pepper. Delicious!

Spaghetti Carbonara

One kind of pasta I love to eat. In Malaysia, I never cooked this thing myself. My favourite place to eat this; KLCC Signature, the food court.

Actually it's very easy to cook this pasta. Only thing is in Malaysia, it would be quite costly if I cook myself because the cheese and whipped cream are considerably quite expensive. Besides you don't eat this pasta so much, you tend to be muak after a plate. So I didn't bother to cook myself.

Here in Germany, cheese, cream, pasta can be considered cheap. A small box of cream costs only EU0.45. And a pack of grated Parmesan cheese is EU1.09. And why dine out when it is expensive and most of the time not halal. So I cook.

Here is the recipe:

- 2 yolk eggs
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 cup. cream
- Half packet of spaghetti (can use other types of pasta)
- some sliced salami, cut in strips
-1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
-Salt & pepper to taste
- Add grounded thymian if you like.

Eggs, butter and cream must be at room temperature. Beat together eggs and cream until blended. Cook spaghetti 10 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain well. . Toss pasta with butter and pepperoni. Pour egg mixture over and toss. Add cheese and thymian, toss to mix. Serve immediately.

Eat with steamed broccoli if you like....

Moist Chocolate Cake

I'm not really good at baking. Most of the time, my baking end result is always a dissappointment. Anyway I would'nt give up as one quate states '"In order to succeed, you must first be willing to fail."

In the series of baking chocolate cake, I actually tried this one recipe I'm very familiar with and done it several time in Malaysia. It's very simple and when I baked it before, it always turned good. But don't know for what reason, when I madfe it here, it was a total disaster. When I baked it in the electrical oven, the batter just boiling and flowing out of the baking pan...CATASTROPHE!

I gave up a little while then decided to look for another chocolate cake recipe from Internet. I had promised my girls that I would bake a cake so I just couldn't give up, ok. I found one chocolate cake recipe from Mat Gebu so I gave it a try. And walla!...it came ok. Thanks Mat Gebu for sharing the recipe.

Anyway, the physical look was not that pretty cause I was so excited, I took the cake out from the pan before it had the chance to properly cool down. Resulted in breaking cake. It didn't really matter as long as I can pour the chocolate ganache on top of it and then the girls poured the chocolate rice for the decoration. An interesting activity for the girls to do.....

For those who one to try, this is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS :

-1 cup of cake flour/self-purpose flour*

-1 teaspoon baking powder*(*mix together and sift 3 times)

-1 cup of castor sugar

-2 eggs (gred A)

-125 g butter

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-1/2 cup of cocoa powder*

-1/2 teaspoon coffee powder (nescafe)*

-1/4 castor sugar*

-1/2 cup hot water*

-1/4 cup milk* (*mix together to make a chocolate paste)

FOR GANACHE :

-100 g cooking chocolate

-50 ml UHT Whipping Cream (or with 100 ml milk)

-1 teaspoon butter

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven at 175C.

2. Butter the baking pan and place the bottom with parchment paper.

3. In electrical mixer, beat the butter and castor sugar until creamy and smooth

4. Add the vanilla extract and eggs one by one. Beat the mixture until creamy and smooth.

5. Reduce the mixer speed, add the flour and chocolate paste (in small amount) one after another until finish. Mix well the batter.

5. Pour the batter into the baking pan. Bake in the oven for about 45-50 minutes.

6. Once the cake is properly bake, cool it down first before you decorate with chocolate ganache (optional)

FOR GANACHE:- Mix the chocolate and UHT Whipping Cream in a heat-resistance bowl. Melt the combination in double-boiler method (put the heat-resistance bowl inside a cooking pot with water over a medium heat). When it is completely melt, turn off the heat and add the butter. Mix well. Leave it to cool a while then pour it on the cake.

You can add chocolate rice or chopped almond nuts on top of the ganache . It is all up to your creativity. Happy baking!

Sambal Tumis Udang Petai (Prawn Chilies with Petai)

I guess for Malays this is just a typical cuisine. But since I have told my Korean friend about my cooking blog, this is an opportunity to expose her to Malay cuisines.

Well, wonder how I get petai here in Germany? Thanks to Asia Shop, I get to buy all the exotic foods (exotic for me because they are imported). From petai, daun kesum, lemongrass, kafir leaves are all available in this shop. Cause other Asian like Thais, Vietnamese also use these ingredients in their cooking, these items are always available.

Typical sambal tumis uses blended dried chilies but my Malaysian dried chilies stock has long gone. There is Thai dried chilies sold in the Asia Shop but it is of cili api. More than 3 chilies, it is already so spicy so it is not possible to make sambal tumis as we want the sambal tumis to have this red-colour look but but not that spicy.

A friend had introduced this sambal olek (also available in Asia Shop) to substitute blended dried chilies. A very user-friendly ingredient, I would say....hehehe, save me from dealing with boiling and blending the dried chilies.

Then the shrimp powder (belacan) of course plays important role for the authentic sambal tumis. The one I used is from Malaysia. You can still buy it (paste in the bottle) from Asia Shop but it is of Thailand make. Not really our Malaysian taste...

Ok, let's the ingredient based on my own recipe:

Ingredients:

1. 500 gram of shrimp (the bigger the better)

2. 2 spoons of sambal oelek or dried chilies paste (if you like it spicier, add more)

3. Petai (as much as you want)

3. 2 onion - 1 cut into small cubes (shallots are better, but here in Germany shallots are expensive, so I used onion) and 1 cut in round slices.

4. 3 garlic cloves (cut into small pieces)

5. Shrimp powder ( 1 spoon)

6. Tamarind juice

7. Sugar and salt to taste

8. Some cooking oil

Method:

1. Heat up cooking oil

2. Fry the onion (small cubes) and garlic until yellow

3. Add the chilies. Leave it to cook properly. Stir once a while.

4. Add shrimp powder, sugar, salt and tamarind juice.

5. Add shrimp and petai. Leave it to cook.

6. Add round sliced onion. Leave it for a while.

Ready to serve!