Simple PASTA

When parents are not around, we have to eat out at either restaurant or food court but tonight, Margaret suggested to cook pasta. As mentioned, I am already 3/4 dead after work, how to cook pasta?

Our Pasta with Bacon & Asparatus

-First, cook Thai asparatus in boiling water for 5 minutes.
-At the same time, cook the pasta in boiling water for 6 minutes.
-Heat the wok/pan, add chopped garlic into 3 tbsp of olive oil.
-Stir fry our bacon and pour in a 300gm of Campbell's mushroom soup and another 300gm of water.

Tadah!!

Double Boiled Winter Pear with Snow Fungus

冰糖银耳雪梨

* Recipe will be updated *

Which one should I choose?

I am entitled to get a cookbook for free or should I just take the voucher? Of course the voucher amount < than the actual price for the recipe book...*dilemma*

Mango Sago

See, we are really busy today..Here is the recipe from Zu's
Ingredients
600gm mango (abt 2 honey mangoes)
400ml mango juice (Peelfresh or any other similar brands)
125ml evaporated milk
80g sago pearls (original uses 300gm pomelo, split into small pieces)
250ml water
2~3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornflour/tapioca starch
1 tbsp water
extra 100ml water

Directions
1. Boil 250ml water and sugar till sugar dissolves.
2. Mix cornflour/tapioca starch with 1 tbsp water and pour into the syrup and stir over low heat until mixture is smooth.
3. Take syrup and cornflour mixture off the heat and leave it to cool.
4. Cut the sides of the mango and cube them.
5. Scrap the remaining mango and put in a bowl, add 100ml of water to blend, put aside.
6. Add blended mango, cubed mango, mango juice and evaporated milk into the syrup solution (from 1) then stir.
7. Add sago pearls and stir, if too thick, add abit of cooled boiled water or more mango juice.
8. Chill before serving.

Preparation of sago pearls
1. Soak sago pearls in water till they turned abit translucent (About an hour)
2. Boil the pearls with water till it turns totally translucent.
3. Pour the cooked pearls into a sieve and wash it with tap water remove the starch and now it's ready to be used

Hong Kong Styled Chee Cheong fun 猪肠粉 - Failed miserably

After the lousy prawn dumpling, here I have terrible CCF. Maybe these days I shouldn't try cooking, I mean shouldn't have cooked when I am not really in the mood. Bad rolls...

Again, nothing is wrong with the recipe, must be the measurement! I think I need a pair of specs..Margaret suggested me to pour everything in and steam it, yeah, like carrot cake.

Recipe extracted from Baking Mum
Ingredients :
150g Rice Flour
1 ½ Tbsp Wheat starch flour
2 Tbsp Corn flour
1 Tbsp Oil
450mls Water
½ tsp Salt

Method :
1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Slowly add the water, mixing as you add.
3. Lastly add the oil and salt and mix thoroughly. Set batter aside for at least an hour.
4. Prepare your steamer. Grease a swiss roll pan or any aluminium tray with oil and pour the batter directly on the pan and steam for 5 mins.
5. After steaming, using a plastic scrapper roll the ccf up. If you are using ingredients like char siew or prawns, you can sprinkle it over the steamed ccf and then proceed to roll it up.
6. Place in a plate brushed with a little oil. Continue with the rest of the batter.

Sauce
Ingredients :
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp sugar
a few slices of ginger (optional)
½ cup water
4 tbsp mushroom flavoured soy sauce or normal light soy sauce
½ to 1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1. Place ginger with oil and sugar in a pot. Cook over small fire until sugar turns brown.
2. When sugar is brown, add in the rest of the ingredients. Cook over medium fire for about 5 mins. Taste the sauce and adjust taste accordingly. If you find the sauce too sweet, you can add in a bit of salt.

Sweet sauce (cwl's recipe)
1/2 cup water
7 tbsp Hoisin sauce
3 tbsp soya sauce
3 tsp dark soya sauce

Mix all ingredients together and cook over medium heat until it thicken slightly.

Let's Make Acar !!

Acar aka Pickles - my favourite appetizer ... *slurp*

We don't like Malay styled acar --> too blend

We don't like Peranakan acar --> too strong

We don't like M'sian acar --> turmeric powder?

We don't like Taiwanese acar --> just vinegar

Mum has improvised the recipe and here we have our very own Acar ..
Recipe :
(A)
1 Large spanish turnip (mangkuang)
2 Large cucumber
1/2 pineapple
1 large carrot
3 tbsp of salt
Instruction: cut them into slices. Add salt and mix well. Put a side for approximately 20 minutes. Salt will make them crunchy and you will see quite a lot of water after that, remember to pour them away after the vegetables become softer and make sure they are dry before adding (B).
(B)
6 scallots
6-8 fresh red chili
some sesame
Instruction: Slice the scallots and blend the chili. Heat up your wok and start frying the sesame, followed by scallots and lastly, the chili. DON'T COOK THEM ALL TOGETHER! One after another.
When (B) are ready, add them into (A) and mix well. Don't forget to add in approx. 200gm sugar together with half a bottle of white vinegar. Mum said is ok if add too much sugar, because we can always pour more vinegar. If you think is too sour to your liking, then you can add more sugar. Like I've said before, there is no exact amount of ingredients when come to cooking (for my mum only) so sometimes, you need to taste your cooking using your fingers. Haha..

Crystal Prawn Dumpling 水晶虾饺

This is such a super dupper big failure, think I have to discard all, after eating the filling..hehe..The skin is super thick and chewy, don't get me wrong, the measurement is correct, it was me that lazy to use the weighing machine and everything was like agaration and here I have - lousy prawn dumpling !

Crystal Prawn Dumpling (recipe from BakingMum)

Ingredients for the dough
110 gm wheat starch
220 gm potato starch
160 gm boiling water

Ingredient A
3 water chestnut (minced)

Ingredients for the filling
300 gm fresh prawn
3 gm msg
3 gm salt
6 gm sugar
5 gm potato starch
1 tsp sesame oil

Method
1. Combine filling ingredients until elastic. Add in A.
2 Pour in the boiling water to the dough ingredients until half-cooked. Knead into a dough.
3 Knead dough into a long strip. Divide into equal parts, each 15 gm. Roll into flat round piece.
4. Wrap in 20 gm filling and fold into a har kow shape. Steam over high heat for 5 minutes.

My First Pandan Chiffon Cake

My mood is super good today so I decided to bake something.. Many thanks to LeeLee who shares her recipe online! *Extracted from her blog*

Ingredients:
75 gm plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
75 ml coconut cream/milk
4 egg yolks
5 egg white
100 castor sugar
1.5 tbsp corn oil
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp pandan paste **

Methods:
1. Cream egg yolks, 70 gm of sugar until it is creamy and thick.
2. Add in sifted flour and baking powder, vanilla essence, coconut cream/milk, corn oil, pandan paste into the egg yolk mixture. Use machine to mix it well.
3. In a clean dry bowl, beat eggwhite, remainder 30 gm of sugar, cream of tartar and a pinch of salt until stiff.
4. Mix the eggwhite into the flour mixture and mix it thoroughly using a spatula. Pour into the chiffon pan and bake in a preheated oven at 175C for 45 mins. (My oven doesn't have 175C so I baked it at 170C.)
5. When cake is baked, invert it immediately to cool down for about 10 mins. After 10 mins, use a sharp knife to loosen the side and then the bottom to release the cake. Leave it on a wire rack to cool down further.

Look at the texture!

Petai

So malay huh.. fried some petai tonight

pouring the 'asam water'

Our 臭豆 for dinner!

And mum's 南乳焖菜

Beef Rendang..I sukaaaa....

Beef cubes! Saw them at AMK hub today while shoppin' with parents. We are hunting for new fridge...

Big side track right? But still need to eat what..

Simple recipe, lazy bum can go supermarket to buy ready made rendang sauce.

Beef in cubes & curry leaves

Stir fried our homemade chilli with rendang sauce

Add curry leaves and stir fried till you can smell the fragrance

Then add in the beef

Stir fried...stir fried...

Add in fresh milk/evaporated milk

Add in little water and let it boils

Transfer into a pot and continue to cook

Using the invertor cooker, I started it with No.6, once boiled, decrease to No.3, 2nd boiled, decrease to No.2.

Can scoop up once it is soften

Served..

no photos? Still cooking now, will show the final result after my dinner ok?

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Hmm...Nice...

:: YUM YUM ::

Chinese New Year Goodies - Peanut Cookies

Ingredients:
250g ground peanut powder(you can use coarse peanut powder)
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
100g peanut oil

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk lightly beaten with 1 tsp water

Method:

Combine ground peanut powder, plain flour, baking powder, icing sugar and salt in a big mixing bowl till well mixed

Pour in oil slowly and mix till a pliable dough is formed. May need a little more than the stated amount if the dough is too dry.

Shape into small bite-size pieces. We go by feeling.

Place about 2cm apart on lined baking sheet. Apply egg wash.

Bake at 170C for 18-22 minutes or till golden brown so check your cookies regularly.

锅贴 Gyoza

I make some 锅贴 (Gyoza / 'Potstickers') for Ben and Ju today for dinner. Oily Oily~ This isn't my first time frying 锅贴 but first time folding it the Taiwanese way.

See, 弯弯の!

水饺人人都爱吃，年饭尤数饺子香

In China, 北方人每逢过年都会吃饺子。 * Suddenly I am so Cheena*

Okok, I know I am not at China, neither I am a PRC. I also know today is New Year and not Chinese New Year, but who cares? I wanna make some 饺子 today and share with my family, cannot ar? Hahaha...

Parents are away to collect some debt, 没口福咯! Nope, they are not 大耳窿, they just sold their property in KL so they need to go back for few days. Yeah, will come back a bit richer.

*back to topic*I am bit tired to post the recipe, is merely minced meat, some pepper, sesame oil, 韭菜, salt and corn flour. As for the skin, just add hot water into the flour and form a dough. Actually, you can add anything you like for the 饺子, maybe next time I'll use prawn. *wink*

Here are the steps