Banana-Walnut Muffin

Among all baking products that I've tried, I think making muffin is the easiest. Seriously! I got this recipe from this blog called Mad Baker and boy, am so glad I tried it out.

I really like it because the measurement is just a matter of using cup or spoon ( I don't have food weight scale so I hate those recipes that use SI unit - grams, pounds). And one more thing I like, there's no need to use mixer (well, I guess if I have a mixer which is as good as Kitchen Aid or Bosch, I would not have problem with that...hehehe).

And the taste?

Wow...it tasted so delicious! The recipe is so good! I'm not lying. Because since I always sucks at baking and fully dependent on the recipe I got ( I wouldn't know how to adjust a baking recipe), I am so impressed whenever I get a good baking result. Just a week ago I was so frustrated that marble cake I tried to bake turned out to be a flat-hard cake even though I followed the recipe exactly as it is.

So if you like to try, here is the recipe (cut & paste from Mad Baker)

Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

4 ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg & 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Line a 12 cup muffin tray with muffin cups or grease lightly with butter.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a large bowl.
3. In another bowl, beat the mashed bananas, sugar, eggs and melted butter together.
4. Stir the banana mixture and walnuts into the flour mixture until just combined.
5. Divide the batter into the muffin tray.
6. Bake in preheated oven on the middle rack for 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

Ayam Percik

Saya dah lama mengidam nak buat ayam percik sendiri. Sebenarnya nak kata mengidam nak makan tu xde la sgt cuma sy nak try buat sendiri. Tapi cik hubby pon suka ayam percik. So try masakan2 yg dia suka makan, berbaloi la jugak tapi kalau x menjadi sendiri mau ingat la!

Saya amik resepi dari Myresepi. Senang aje buat rupanya. Saya salin resepi dah lama tp x buat2 sbb rasa mcm complicated. Tu lah...tak cuba tak tau kan?

Resepi:

- 4 bahagian ayam ( saya guna bahagian paha bersama rusuk. Kat sini dipanggil schenkel - bahagian ayam yg paling murah)

- 1 1/2 cawan santan pekat ( saya guna 1 tin besar santan)

- 1 labu bawang besar

- 2 cm halia

- 2 batang serai

- 1 sudu kecil ketumbar ( sy guna serbuk)

- 1/2 sudu kecil jintan putih ( sy guna serbuk)

- 1/2 cawan tepung beras

- 3 sudu cili kisar (amaun bergantung kepada kepedasan yg disukai. Sy kurangkan sbb cili kering kat sini agak pedas)

- sedikit asam jawa atau asam keping

- garam dan gula secukup rasa

Cara2:

1. Kisar bawang, halia, serai, ketumbar dan jintan. Perapkan dgn ayam (lagi lama lagi bagus, sy biarkan semalaman)

2. Masukkan ayam yg diperap bersama tepung beras yg digaul sekali dgn santan, garam, cili dan lain2 kedalam periuk. Masak sehingga ayam suku masak dan kuah menjadi pekat.

3. Angkat ayam bersama sedikit kuah dan masukkan dlm loyang pembakar.

4. Bakar dalam oven dgn suhu 200C selama 1/2 jam atau sehingga ayam masak.

Nasi Goreng Daging

Nasi goreng memang versatile kan? Kalau org Melayu, nasi goreng boleh jadi menu sarapan pagi, makan tengahari atau pon makan malam. Macam2 resepi nasi goreng pon ada...nasi goreng paprik la, nasi goreng kerabu la, nasi goreng USA pon ada!

Nasi goreng saya yg kat atas tu, resepinya ikut sedap saya aje apa nak letak. Kalau ada nasi goreng USA, sy panggil Nasi Goreng Jerman, boleh? Hikhikhik...

Ok, sebenarnya nasi goreng tu terjadi sbb sy ada leftover daging dr masakan Stir-fried Beef with Sesame Seeds aritu. Selalu kalau ada leftover, even sejemput pon sy akan simpan dalam freezer sbb sayang nak buang. Kalau simpan kat freezer ngan kadar segera (contoh, right after lepas makan), insyaallah makanan tu ok. Lepas tu recycle la balik. Tapi recycle pon kena ubahsuai supaya ianya lebih sedap (dalam kes saya, supaya cik hubby x reject!) . Contohnya nasi goreng ni, sy tumis macam biasa nak buat nasi goreng, ada bawang merah, bawang putih dan cili kisar. Lepas tu baru masukkan daging leftover ni. Lepas tu perisakan la ngan garam, oyster sauce atau apa2 saja yg anda sukai. Nak bagi colourful tambah la sayur2an.

So kali ni saya x letak resepi la. Nasi goreng sapa2 pon boleh buat kan? Saja je nak tayang gambar (walau gambar x cantik pon...hahaha). Dah habit la sekarang (or should I say tgh ada mood?), asal siap masak je nak amik gambar.

Onion Quiche

This is also something I got from Pillsbury.com. Very easy to make and delicious too. Actually I wanted to make Spinach Quiche but I didn't have frozen spinach at the time so I made my own version of quiche.

And this time, I used the ready-made croissant crust as shown in the video from Pillsbury.com. It's very innovative...I like it!

Ingredients:

- 1 pack of ready made croissant crust

- 1 onion - chopped

- 1 red capsicum - chopped

- shredded cheese

- 1 egg

- 1/3 cup milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Take a muffin pan, spray or rub the mould with a bit of oil to prevent sticking. Open up the croissant pack and lay the crust on a clean surface. Take one piece of croissant (triangle shape) and cut into three small triangle. Lay each small piece of triangle into each mould. Repeat the process for all pieces of crust.

2. Fill half of the mould with shredded cheese. Then a bit of onion, and capsicum. The amount of cheese, onion and capsicum can be varied depending on your likeness.

3. Beat the egg with the milk with a bit sprinkle of pepper. Pour the batter into each mould.

4. Bake the quiche for about 10 minutes or until it becomes brownish.

Chicken Pot Pie

I feel in love with the ready-made pastry puff because it saves a lot of time making meal using it. And ready-made pastry puff is also cheap! It´s just 69 cent for one piece of pastry puff.

I´ve been wanting to try this chicken pot pie after seeing the menu in Cafe World. You know...the game in Facebook. So much for introduction eh?

Then I watched a video how to make it from Pillsbury.com. This site has many how-to make-videos using ready-made pastry puff which I like so much.

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

- 2 package of ready-made pie crust (pastry puff)

Fillings:

- 1/3 cup butter

-1/3 cup chopped onion

-1/3 cup all-purposed flour

- 1/2 teaspoon salt.

-1/4 teaspoon pepper

- 1 3/4 cup chicken broth

- 1/2 cup milk

- 2 1/2 shredded cooked chicken ( I boiled chicken meats and then chopped)

- 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables - thawed

Methods:

1. Heat the oven 220C

2. Lay one crust on a pie pan

3. Melt butter over medium heat. Add onion. Cook for 2 minutes. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended. Gradually stir in chicken broth and milk. Cooking and stiring until bubbly and thickened.

4. Stir in the shredded chicken and mixed vegetables. Remove from the heat.

5. Spoon mixture into crust-lined pan. Top with second crust. Seal the edge and flute. Cut slits in several places on top of the crust.

6. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. During the last 15 to 20 minutes of baking, cover crust edge with strips of foil to prevent excessive browning.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

My girls love to eat mushroom soup so much. Back in Malaysia, it's either we will eat it at Pizza Hut (yeah, i know...it was expensive but besides no time, I also didn't have much time to cook it myself), or I will buy the Campbells - from the can!

But here I would to do it myself. The ingredients are cheap and I have ample time to cook (if I don't waste my time in front of the laptop..ngeeeeeee).

For the baguette shown in the picture...well that one, I just bought the frozen package (which has spread of krauter (herbs) and butter in each pieces) from the store and baked it (ok, I cheat a bit here!).

For the soup, I got the recipe from Simply Recipe.

Ingredients:

-1 pack of white mushroom, cleaned and sliced.

- 1 tbs of lemon juice

- 1 tbs butter

- 2 tbs shallots (i used onion)

- 1 tbs chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme

- 1/2 bay leaf

- 1 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

- 2 cups heavy cream

- 1.5 cups chicken stock

- 1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbs water

Method:

1. In a food processor, coarsely chopped mushrooms and lemon juice.

2. Melt butter in a sauce pan, and lightly saute shallots on medium heat. Add mushrooms, thyme and bay leaf, saute over moderate heat for 10-15 minutes or until liquid that is released from the mushrooms disappear.

3. Add salt, pepper, cream and chicken stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes

4. Add cornstarch and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Correct seasoning and add more lemon juice to taste.

Brussels Sprout & Mushroom

Brussels sprout is one of the winter vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and so forth. In Germany it is called Rosenkohl. I've never seen this vege back in Malaysia before. I guess it's not popular there or probably too expensive to be sold because it has to be imported. Unlike broccoli or cauliflowers that can be grown in Malaysia's highland, Cameron Highland.

I don't really fancy this vege too. Because it taste a bit bitter. But I still buy it anyway because during winter season like this, it's not easy to get other type of vege in the supermarket nearby my house. Or even there are some summer veges avaible, which probably imported, the price is darn expensive. So I just make do with whatever affordable, nope...cheap-comes-first- vege.

At first, I did'nt know how to cook this brussels sprout. So I browsed through the internet and one of the blog showed a cuisine of brussels sprout cooked with mushroom and cocktail shrimp. I'm sorry I couldn't remember the blog's name because I just read through the recipe once. It's so simple that I don't even need to write it down.

The taste is something I like. The combination of button mushroom, cocktail shrimps and oyster sauce makes the brussels sprout tastes good to me. This definitely will be something I would cook again and I just bought another bundle of brussels sprout yesterday :)

Let's see how I cook it:

Ingredients:

- Half a bundle of brussels sprout (depends how much you want to cook)

- Half a pack of white mushroom, cleaned and cut into quarter

- a small bowl of cocktail shrimps (or any kind of shrimps

- 2 cloves of garlic - chopped

- 1 shallot - chopped

- 2 tbs oyster sauce

- 2 tbs of cooking oil

Method:

- Cut a bit the bottom of the brussels sprout, halve then wash.

- Put water in a sauce pan. Bring to boil.

- Toss in the brussels sprout and mushroom into the boiling water. Leave them a while.

- Remove the vegetables from the water and drain them. Put the vegetables in a serving plate.

- In a separate pan, heat up the oil and stir-fry the garlic and shallot until yellow.

- Add the shrimps

- Add the oyster sauce and a bit of water to make some gravy.

- Pour the gravy on top of the vegetables.

- Ready to serve.