Lyanne's Coming....

No signs of labour so far.. it's oredi 28 Dec today. A day past my due date.

Baby's rather big, 8 pounds or 3.6kg as on monday. Doc's rather worried about the size. Lydia was only 6.5lbs, or 2.93kg at birth.
So, he won't let me past my due date for long, scared baby will get too big for me.
Tomorrow, Monday, 29th... will be pain day. The day when I will be induced.

I remember being induced when I had Lydia, the pain was.....urrghhh!!!! Well, my waters broke.
Breathless!
Utterly breathless!
I didn't have time to breathe, having severe contractions with just seconds in between to breathe, and I was only 4cm dilated.
I can't stand it anymore! Epidural please!!!!!

Hubby's oredi said, epidural again this time. It's difficult for him to see me having so much pain..
I still have to wait and see... who knows I might have natural contractions tonight, w/o waters breaking. Then I might build up my own pain resistance and refuse the epidural.

I don't know, I just don't know, and I'm anxious.

I'll be going thru traditional chinese confinement, where I will be lavishly fed with all sorts of goodies, chicken essence daily, lots of ginger and herbal concoctions. If one is not careful, one may end up like a fattened goose at the end of the period. Anyone that may be interested in what I had during my confinement, can get a copy of my menu. Just tell me.
I will not endure unhygienic confinement practices like not bathing(I bathe with maternity herbal bath infusion) or not touching water(I've heard that some are not even allowed to wash hands, imagine after going to the loo!!!), altho I will endure not washing my hair, at least the first 12 days). Well,my baby won't be playing with my hair, so to give the old folks the peace of mind, I'd endure this.
I just wonder, how can one take practices that were used in cold China and apply them in hot & humid Malaysia?? Even chinese herbs has to be refrigerated here, if not, they'll go mouldy. I guess I might turn mouldy too if I don't bathe for a month. YUCKS!

We're going to name our baby, Lyanne ... pronounced as lee-ann
Lyanne Chua May Thung
May Thung 美彤 means beautiful red.

Lyanne... mommy, papa and jie jie(Lydia) are waiting for u.... please be quick..

Strawberry Haw Flakes Layer Cake 草莓山楂饼千层蛋糕

The bun is still in the oven... not wanting to follow the sister's footsteps to be out early. The exact due date is tomorrow, doc's dateline to induce is 29th, coming monday. Keeping my fingers crossed that I need not be induced.. The pain is rather unbearable when being induced, I don't even have time to breathe. *sigh*

Ok, so, here's the last of the three layers cakes I made.

Out of the three cakes, and the favourite ratings are:
Horlicks: 35%
Kaya: 10%
Strawberry Haw flakes: 55%
This is just an approximate value of the responses I got.
Not that the kaya one is not tasty... it's just "favourite".
I personally like Horlicks best, then kaya then haw flakes being last.

I might be trying out Milo, Prunes, or even nutella in the future...

Here's the recipe for Strawberry Haw Flakes Layer Cake. I incorporated the strawberry jam because I wanted to have some pink layers in it. And being pink with no flavour is so.... fake to me. So, to be pink, there must be some justification to it.

Ingredients (A)
225gm butter
50gm sugar
5 medium eggs, grade C
170gm Strawberry jam (warmed to liquify it a bit)
170gm sweetened condensed milk (1/3 medium can)
150gm Marie biscuits (finely ground into powder form)
Few drops red colouring

Ingredients (B)
225gm butter
50gm sugar
5 medium eggs, grade C
340gm sweetened condensed milk (2/3 medium can)
150gm Marie biscuits (finely ground into powder form)
Haw flakes … as many as u want

Method:
Ingredients (A)
1. Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
2. Add in eggs one by one. Beating well after each addition.
3. Mix in strawberry jam and condensed milk
4. Add marie biscuits crumbs to batter and mix well.
5. If colouring is added, add in last and mix well

Ingredients (B)
1. Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
2. Add in eggs one by one. Beating well after each addition.
3. Mix in condensed milk
4. Add marie biscuits crumbs to batter and mix well.

Baking:
1. Preheat Oven in grill mode at 220C.
2. Line the base of a 9X9 inch baking pan and grease the sides. Preheat the pan over a pot of hot water or in the preheating oven
3. Place one ladle of (A) in the hot pan.
4. Spread batter evenly. Tilt pan left and right to level batter.
5. Grill for 7 minutes or until cake layer turns golden.
6. Remove cake pan from oven and press cake layer to release air.
7. Put in a ladle of (B) and repeat step 4,5 and 6. Arrange haw flakes on top of layer (B) after step 4.
8. Continue baking cake layers alternating batter (A) and (B) until all batter is used up.




There are less layers this time, as I used more batter for each layer, adding in 3 more minutes to grill than the other cakes. And it looks better with more prominently visible layers. It's up to you to have as many layers and as thick as u want it to be.


Top layer haw flakes were hard after baking, so they cracked when I layed the knife on them. Keep the cake wrapped for 2-3 days and the hawflakes will turn soft again.


The earlier 2 Layer Cakes:
Horlicks Layer Cake
Kaya Layer Cake

Kaya Layer Cake 加央千层蛋糕

Kaya is coconut egg jam. Taste really good with bread, and taste good too when incorporated into this cake.

Ingredients (A)
225gm butter
160gm soft brown sugar
5 medium eggs, grade C
200gm Original flavour kaya (1 cup Gardenia Auntie Rosie kaya)
2 Tbsp milk powder
120gm cake flour/superfine

Ingredients (B)
225gm butter
160gm soft brown sugar
5 medium eggs, grade C
200gm Pandan flavour kaya (1 cup Gardenia Auntie Rosie pandan kaya)
2 Tbsp milk powder
120gm cake flour/superfine
1 tsp green colouring /pandan emulco

Method:
Ingredients (A)
1. Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
2. Add in eggs one by one. Beating well after each addition.
3. Mix in kaya and milk powder.
4. Sift flour over batter and mix well.

Ingredients (B)
Same method as ingredients (A). Mix in colouring/emulco at the end.

Baking:
1. Preheat Oven in grill mode at 220C.
2. Line the base of a 9X9 inch baking pan and grease the sides. Preheat the pan over a pot of hot water or in the preheating oven
3. Place one ladle of (A) in the hot pan.
4. Spread batter evenly. Tilt pan left and right to level batter.
5. Grill for 7 minutes or until cake layer turns golden.
6. Remove cake pan from oven and press cake layer to release air.
7. Put in a ladle of (B) and repeat step 4,5 and 6.
8. Continue baking cake layers alternating batter (A) and (B) until all batter is used up.


Previous Layer Cake: Horlicks Layer Cake
Next Layer Cake: Haw Flakes Strawberry Layer Cake

Horlicks Layer Cake 好力克千层蛋糕

I'm going to post 3 layer cakes.... but am posting it one per week.
Made these as christmas gifts.

My ex colleague introduced me to Sarawak Layer cakes, or Kek Lapis Sarawak. I used to think only the Indonesians make layer cakes, I didn’t know that Sarawakians bake these too..and make it to be part of their culture.

The Sarawak version makes paterns with the cakes, to me it looks like their traditional woven cloth, pua kumbu. But I’m not going to go thru that (I’m lazy)… taste is what that matters. And I don’t like it to be a mixture of everything, Horlicks, kaya, peanut butter or whatever u can think of…. I prefer each cake to take on one flavour only.

The original Sarawak Layer cakes use 30 egg yolks in each cake, but I'm not going to do that. Luckily I found a recipe that uses 10 whole eggs *Phew*
Then I made other Layer cakes based on the 10 eggs recipe I found. This is a good site http://rozzan.blogspot.com/search/label/KEK-KEK%20LAPIS for kek lapis, but it's in Malay. Tried and tested recipes.

In Malaysia, the size of canned condensed milk is approximately 510gm each, so I adjusted the recipe to finish up one can of it. Lessened the sugar, added up the milk…

450gm butter
140gm sugar
10 medium eggs, grade C
510gm canned condensed milk
240gm superfine/cake flour
200gm Horlicks powder

1. Preheat oven on grill setting. (My oven has either 230C or 250C setting, so I used 230C)
2. Use a 9x9 inch square pan. Line bottom and grease sides. Heat up pan for step 8.
3. Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
4. Add in eggs, one by one. Beating well after each addition.
5. Mix in condensed milk
6. Sift flour and Horlicks together.
7. Fold (6) into batter.
8. Spread a ladle of batter evenly onto hot pan.
9. Tilt pan left and right to level batter. Grill for 7 minutes or until golden.
10. Remove from oven and press cake layer to remove excess air. Spread another ladle of batter over the cooked layer, and repeat step 9.
11. Repeat step 10 until all batter is used up.

****
Pan needs to be heated up at step 2 for even distribution of batter. You can either heat up in the preheating oven or over a pot of hot water.

Switch off oven fan when u do this cake, if not, the bottom will burn at the end of the baking. If the fan cannot be turned off, like my oven, even on grill mode, bake this cake in a shallow water bath to prevent the base from over browning… I over browned at my first attempt.. the bottom was very brown and dry but after keeping the cake overnight in a tupperware, luckily the dry bottom moistened up. Not too bad, but doesn’t look nice.

Left : Layer Cake press , the one I used to press the layers.

Right: Flat bottomed whiskey glass, can be used as well

Next Layer Cake : Kaya Layer Cake, Haw Flakes Strawberry Layer Cake

Fried Silver Pin Noodles 抄银针粉

I still haven't deliver......... can't wait for it.... When u know it's fully engaged..but dunno when the bb wants to come out, the wait is rather......nerve wrecking!

Malaysians call silver pin noodles as Loh Su Fun 老鼠粉, which literally translates to rat noodles. Why such a disgusting name.. Simply because the noodle looks like a short rat tail.

I’ve once cooked this with my Malay students back in Pahang, 5 years ago. Boy were they shocked when I told them that we’re cooking rat noodles that day, “Mi tikus” , and it got the other teachers scrambling to the Home Science kitchen to see what the heck are rat noodles when they heard that my students will be learning to cook it that day.

I like to cook this the way that roadside hawkers cook “kueh kak” or fried radish/carrot cake, or chow loh bak gou 抄萝卜糕, depends on what u may call it, with preserved radish, chilli and lots of beansprouts…

Ingredients:
450gm Silver pin noodles (loh su fun)
300gm beansprouts (I love a lot of this)
3 eggs
¼ cup peeled prawns
¼ cup chopped preserved radish , 菜脯(I use the less salty type, if using the salty type, chop and soak in water b4 use)
1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic
4-5 Tbsp oil (yes, this much!!)
4-6 Tbsp light soy sauce (depends on the saltiness of the brand u use)
1 heaped Tbsp chili paste (cili boh/giling)

** Work very quick in Step 2-5. You can relax in the later steps.

Method:
1. If u’re using supermarket bought noodles, blanch in boiling water for 5 seconds, drain well. If wet market ones, just leave them as they are.
2. Heat wok until very hot (if not noodles will stick), add in oil. Coat wok well with hot oil.
3. Put in chopped garlic, quickly stir. It’ll burn easily with a very hot wok.
4. Put in chopped radish and prawns. Stir until prawn gets fragrant and half curled.
5. Put in drained noodles and toss well. When noodles are well warmed through, as in 1-2 minutes time, push them aside in the wok.
6. Crack eggs into centre of wok and let the eggs fry for a few seconds before pushing back the noodles onto the eggs. Toss well.
7. Put in 3 or 4 Tbsp soy sauce. Stir well. Taste. Add soy sauce tablespoon by table spoon until desired saltiness is achieved. (I put in 6 Tbsp of Lee Kum Kee light soy sauce). Stir in chili paste.
8. Spread noodles around wok to let noodles dry up a bit. No need to stir too often. Mix and spread noodles every 30 second interval. Do this for about 2 to 3 minutes or until desired dryness is achieved.
9. When desired dryness and fragrance is achieved, put in beansprouts and toss for another 1-2 minute, depending on how crisp u want the sprouts to be.
10. Dish up and serve.

Method of cooking is done differently than the hawkers simply because our home stoves are not as hot as the hawker’s fuming stoves. You need to know the heat level of ur stove to adjust the cooking method stated above to achieve the “wok hei” that is greatly needed to make this noodle dish yummy yummy.





My Lydia were all thumbs up with this dish.. even tho it contains hot chilli!!!

My baby's engaged

My dear blog readers,

Today I visited my gynae, and he told me, that my baby is fully engaged and will be out anytime soon... I'm 37wks+4 by today

So, I might not be posting anytime soon... but will resume to my passion of cooking and baking when I'm in better health later on. Or maybe I'l post confinement recipes during my confinement.... dunno yet...

Keeping my fingers crossed that it'll be soon. baby's at 3.3kg now..rather big.....

Cekodok 香蕉球

#25/6/2019 Updated: New Video below recipe

Cekodok is Malay banana fritters. Or some call it Jemput-jemput pisang. Jemput-jemput means fritters, but it can be type of jemput-jemput.
This is a nice tea time snack.
I like this, and not many that makes this to sell makes it nice. They put in too much flour. Flour is cheap...

It’s only nice when u eat homemade ones.
And my malay friends can never tell me the exact proportion of ingredients, they just say, lots of bananas, little bit of flour, sugar and a pinch of salt. Well, u know, when it’s a traditional recipe, most of them make it by just guesstimate, and they just know it when they mix it, they know the right consistency by experience. So, for me, I’ll just have to find the right proportion of ingredients.

The best bananas to use, Pisang Emas, it’s a Malaysian name which means golden banana, a small banana, sweet and fragrant. It’ s a quarter the size of a Cavendish. If u’re from elsewhere, u can use other bananas, just make sure it’s really ripe and sweet.

And I found the proportion that I like, this time… just right…

300gm bananas (mashed with a fork)
90gm all purpose flour
1/4tsp baking soda
60gm sugar
Small pinch of salt
Oil for frying

1. Sift flour with baking soda. Mix with bananas, sugar and salt.
2. Drop teaspoonful of batter into hot oil.
3. Fry until brown, nicely caramelized colour.
4. Drain excess oil off fritters on kitchen towels.

******
U can try adding in freshly grated coconut into the batter. My malay colleague tells me it’s nice.
If u want to make the sugar optional to certain members of ur family, omit the sugar in the batter, and roll hot fritters in the sugar to coat it like a donut.

Chilling the batter before frying will make create a crispier crust.

Caramelized Anchovies & Peanuts 焦糖江鱼仔花生

When I was a kid, I love this dish made by grandaunt. It goes very well with plain rice porridge.

½ cup cleaned split dried anchovies (don’t wash them!)
½ cup raw peanuts
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
3 Tbsp cooking oil

1. In a dry wok, low heat, fry peanuts for 2 minutes or until skin is dry and can be removed easily. Remove skins by rubbing them with fingers and blow the skins away.
2. Medium low heat, heat oil and fry anchovies until golden. Dish up.
3. With remaining oil in wok, return peeled peanuts into oil and fry until light golden. Put fried anchovies back in and put in sugar and soy sauce. Stir until lightly caramelized.
4. Turn off fire and continue to toss until nicely caramelized. Try to toss until warm and not hot, so that the anchovies won’t stick to each other later.

Banana Cake 香蕉蛋糕

Best made with pisang emas..




Ingredients (A)
300gm flour
1 ½ tsp sodium bicarbonate
200gm sugar

Ingredients (B)
3 eggs
300gm banana (pureed)
180ml vegetable oil
180ml buttermilk (or substitute with 180ml milk poured over 1 Tbsp lemon juice)

Method:
1. Sift flour and sodium bicarbonate.
2. Mix with sugar.
3. Mix (B) together.
4. Combine (A) and (B) to a smooth paste.
5. Pour batter into a 9X13 inch baking tray.
6. Bake at 170C for 45minutes to 1 hour.

Chrysanthemum Jelly

I was dissapointed with the appearance of this jelly!!! Ugly dirty looking thing!

But, my colleagues comforted me saying that it's ok...... and they loved the taste and texture of it. Springy, with a slight crunch, and fragrantly chrysanthemum...

I might wanna change the solidifying agent to gelatine the next time I make it, so that it looks pretty... or konnyaku powder.... but the texture will not be the same. the greyish colour could be due to the water chestnut starch I used.. it looked greyish. Maybe different brands will yield different results. The pic of the brand I used is down below...

But still, it tasted cool and fresh... not matter how ugly it looks.


Ingredients
750ml water
25gm dried chrysanthemum flowers
100gm rock sugar
250ml water
115gm water chestnut powder
1 Tbsp chopped dried wolfberries (gei zhi)

Method
1. Boil 750ml of water in a pot, turn off heat and put in chrysanthemum flowers. Infuse for 15 minutes. Do not boil the flowers.
2. Strain chrysanthemum infusion.
3. Select a few infused flowers to collect the petals. Discard the yellow centres.
4. Mix 250ml water with water chestnut powder.
5. Boil 500ml of chrysanthemum infusion with sugar and chopped wolfberries. When sugar has dissolved and infusion is boiling, turn off fire. Put in flower petals.
6. Slowly pour (5) into (4), stirring clockwise until mixture thickens.
7. Pour onto a lightly greased pan and steam on high heat for 10 minutes and medium heat for another 10 minutes.
8. Cake will be ready when sit turns translucent
9. Chill in fridge until fully set before serving.

http://www.meishichina.com/Eat/Nosh/200808/45379.html

Orange Raisin Pull Aparts 葡萄橙小面包

The topping is very delicious!

This is taken from a Japanese site… Guessing the translation really makes my head scratch..but nevertheless, here’s my adaptation of it.
Whole process, almost 3 hours. Do this if u are not in a rush.

Ingredients
360gm Bread Flour or High Protein Flour
2 tsp Yeast
60gm sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp milk powder
1 large egg
40 ml orange juice
160ml water

40gm butter (room temperature)
120gm raisins

Topping:
40 gm finely chopped walnuts
50gm sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon powder
Zest from 1 orange
40gm melted butter (not hot!)

Method:
1. Combine bread flour, sugar, yeast, salt and milk powder. Mix and make a well in the centre.
2. In a separate bowl, beat egg, add in water and orange juice.
3. Pour (2) into (1). Mix well. Knead for 10 minutes.
4. Put in butter and knead for another 8 minutes.
5. Put in raisins and knead for another 3 minutes.
6. Cover and proof until dough becomes double. (almost 1 hour)
7. Meanwhile chop walnuts, grate orange zest and mix both with sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
8. Punch dough down and knead it for a while.
9. Rub some melted butter onto palms and take a small dollop of dough (as big as a small lime) and roll into a ball.
10. Dip ball into melted butter. Roll ball on palms.
11. Dip ball onto topping (7).
12. Put ball topping side up onto a 12 inch round baking tray, starting from the rim. Arrange dough balls nicely towards the centre.
13. Wait until dough doubles up again. (almost 1 hour)
14. Bake at 170C for 15 minutes and 160C for 10 minutes.

Salad Pie Tee

Actually, this is a very old post that I should've posted long long time ago.

RecentlyI haven't been cooking much... so, I'm looking back into some pics that I've taken some time ago, but haven't post.

I made these during Chinese New Year 2008. Not for the reunion dinner, but as leftovers.. kekeke. There were ground peanuts leftover from the Lou Sang, water chestnut from dunno what, and pie tee that hub's aunts bought.

So, I just mixed equal amounts of water chestnut, carrots, and cucumbers with mayo, fill up the pie tees and top with some ground peanuts.... It was a refreshing change from the regular cooked turnip filling.

Ingredients
Water chestnuts
Carrots
Cucumber (peeled, cored)

2 Tbsp Mayonnaise
1/4 cup ground peanuts

1. Dice water chestnuts, carrots and cucumber into 1cm cubes. Prepare 1/2 cup each.
2. Mix (1) with mayonnaise.
3. Fill up pie tees.
4. Top with ground peanuts.
5. Serve immediately.

Steamed Chinese Whitebait 蒸银鱼仔

Chinese Whitebait, or some call it Silver Anchovies, or baby anchovies, even blue eye anchovies..
Anyway, it's those teeny weeny white coloured dried mini anchovies.

My late father loves this simple dish. My late grandaunt taught me how to make this.

Very simple to make:

Ingredients
50gm mini anchovies (rinsed and drained)
1 tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 Tbsp finely chopped red chili
1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

Mix everything together and steam for 10 minutes or just put plate on top of rice when water in rice cooker is reduced.

Pandan Chiffon Cake 香叶戚风蛋糕

This is my mom's favourite chiffon cake.


The texture's somewhat softer than the coffee version, altho I just tweaked with the type of liquid used. I also used all purpose flour for this, but it's softer. Maybe it's due to the coconut milk. Maybe..


Ingredients:
A)
4 large egg yolks
75ml oil
115ml pandan leave juice (1/2 cup water blended with 1/2 cup cut up pandan leaves, strained)
25gm coconut milk powder
1/8 tsp salt
100 gm sugar
150 gm all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

B)
4 egg whites
90gm sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 170C
2. Warm pandan juice and mix in coconut milk powder. Stir until coconut milk powder is dissolved.
3. Mix (1) with the rest of ingredients (A) until well combined.
4. Beat egg whites until foamy. Put in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks.
5. Add in sugar and beat until stiff.
6. Fold 1/4 of egg whites into (A) and combine well.
7. Repeat step 6.
8. Fold in the rest of egg whites and combine well.
9. Pour batter into a clean tube pan and shake pan lightly left and right to level cake.
10. Bake at 170C for 40 minutes.
11. Invert pan immediately after removing from oven.
12. Cut cake when totally cooled.

Steamed Oyster Mushrooms 清蒸蚝菇

They taste sweet when steamed with some ginger.

Ingredients:
250 gm oyster mushrooms
1 inch ginger (cleaned and smashed, or u can either julienne them)

2 shallots (thinly sliced)
2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

Method:
1. Clean and tear oyster mushrooms to smaller pieces and arrange on plate.
2. Steam on high heat for 5 minutes or until they wilt.
3. Pour away juices.
4. Heat wok and fry shallots in oil until golden.
5. Spoon over steamed mushrooms. Drizzle with light soy sauce.

Jojo and Hung's Birthday

This was last saturday.

I made my eldest brother and her daughter a Strawberry Shortcake. Their birthdays are just 1 week apart.

The deco was simple..but yet, made my niece""Awwwww".. kekekeke

As long as the strawberries are big, red, and there's lots of chocolate... they're happy..keke..

The huge strawberries(min 2 inch long) are from Raju's in Camerons. Darn pricey now. RM30/kg, got a shock when I paid for them. They used to be just RM20 few months back. But believe me, they are worth it. I got them one week b4 I made the cake and the leftover strawberries are 2 weeks old now.. and they're still fine and fresh in my fridge. Still trying to figure out what to do with just 8 strawberries.

Coffee Chiffon Cake 咖啡戚风蛋糕

It's been years since I last made Chiffon Cakes. I know I always say, I haven't been doing this or that for years.. and it's really for years, since I went in Uni and only until recently after I had Lydia did I cook and bake seriously again.

My first chiffon cake, a pandan chiffon cake was as a birthday cake for my Mom... way back in 1997. It was a last minute thingy.. I called up my dear fren Kah Hoe for the recipe, and the cake was done in less than 2 hours (shopping, baking, cooling, cutting)... and just in time for my mom to came back from work.. She was really happy! It was her favourite cake. It was nice and fluffy. Luckily I saw her made it few years before that, if not, I don't think I would've succeeded by first attempt.

I have to say, I do not find making chiffon cakes difficult (compared to sponge cakes.. kill me man!!!). This recipe can be found in Alex's Goh's Creative Making of Cakes. It's a rather fool proof recipe, provided, the egg whites be beaten stiff, and I mean real stiff. Not just passing the over the head test, but the egg white peaks be short and pointy. And it must be well baked.

I think I might post pics of how to make Chiffon cakes in near future (I hope hubby's there to take pics)

I did a mistake here.. I lightly greased my tube pan... which resulted in a dome shaped chiffon cake, rounded at the top. Lydia's nanny, who's an avid baker, advised me not to grease it, as it needed the grip to rise well. Ok.. I learnt my lesson here. She also taught me to use 3 in 1 coffee mixes next time, as it gives it better flavour. I will try to use Old Town 3 in 1 White Coffee next time... that's a nice coffee mix.

This is what I did this time.. you may alter it to whatever brand of coffee u have, I altered the original recipe anyway.. kekeke, using milk instead of water and adding more sugar to balance up the bitter coffee.

Ingredients:

A)
5 egg yolks
85 gm corn oil
115 ml hot milk
1 1/2 Tbsp instant Nescafe Gold
120gm sugar
150gm flour
1 tsp baking powder

B)
5 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
90gm sugar



Method:

1. Dissolve coffee powder in hot milk. Leave to cool down.
2. Preheat oven to 180C.
3. Combine milk with the rest of ingredients (A) until it becomes a smooth paste.
4. Beat egg whites until frothy. Add in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks.
5. Add in sugar bit by bit and beat egg whites until stiff.
6. Put in 1/4 of egg whites into (3) and fold to combine.
7. Repeat step 6.
8. Pour (7) into remaining egg whites and fold to combine well.
9. Pour batter into clean ungreased tube pan. Lightly shake pan left and right to level the cake.
10. Bake at 170C for 40 minutes.
11. Immediately remove from oven and turn cake upside down on table. (cake will sink if not done fast)
12. Leave cake to cool completely before dislodging from pan using a flat knife. Cut with a sharp knife.


******



I was very satisfied with the texture, springy and fluffy, but not with the aroma... **sigh**



******

Guinness Chicken 黑啤鸡

I haven't been cooking often lately. Eating out mostly, cos I know when the burger bun is out from the oven... it's home cooking everyday.
BTW, my gynae calls the female genitalia that we see in ultrasound scans, hamburger effect. Two pcs of bun with a slit in the middle... Muahahaha! So, wonder if the male genitalia will be called hotdog effect. Duh!

Let me tell u, this is yummy!

I came across Guinness Stout Pork Ribs in Chinese restaurants in recent years.. And I want to replicate it. And I've got chicken wings in the freezer and hubby just opened a bottle of Guinness Stout... Yah! Gimme some stout!

Ingredients:

6 chicken wings (middle and drummets seperated)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup Guinness Stout or whatever stout

1 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp light soy sauce

1 cup oil for frying

Method:

1. Marinate chicken wing with salt and worcestershire sauce for half hour at least.

2. Fry in oil until golden, but not dry.

3. Discard frying oil and retain 1 Tbsp oil in wok. Put in stout and cook to reduce a bit.

4. Put in sugar, soy sauce and chicken wings and further cook until gravy almost dries up.

*****

you can use pork ribs

*****

I'm going to try doing a non alcoholic version using malta.. wonder if it'll be good.

ABC Soup (ABC 汤)

This post is for u, Ai Yieng..

This can be said as the unofficial favourite soup of the Malaysian Chinese. It's like, people who won't or can't cook will at least know how to do this soup, cos they love it so much.

It's not Alphabet soup, it's like chicken broth... except with no celery, and it can be done with either pork bones/ribs or chicken.

Very easy

Ingredients

300gm pork ribs/bones or chicken breast with bones on

1 cup potato cubes (use boiling potatoes, never use Russet!!)

1 carrot, cut slanting

2 medium sized tomatoes, quartered

1 large red onion, or 2 med red onion, quartered

10 white peppercorns, smashed

2L water

1/2 tsp salt, or more

Method
1. Scald pork. If using chicken, leave it raw.

2. Boil water, put in pork/chicken, all the vegetables and peppercorns.

3. Simmer on med low heat for 2 hours. Turn off the heat and add salt in last.

**

This soup is very flavourful, therefore not much salt is needed. Do not add in salt too early, if not the potatoes will soak up the salt, and they will end up salty, and the soup tasting bland.

Don't cook this soup with a slow cooker, it's not tasty!!!

Pandan Kaya Sponge Sandwiches

My sis in law’s mother in law gave us a bottle of home made pandan kaya.. and it’s been weeks, we still can’t finish it.
So, I made this cake, used the kaya as filling.. yummy, yummy.

Ingredients:Sponge:
160gm sugar
1 Tbsp Ovalette (cake emulsifier)
5 eggs
125gm flour
1 tsp baking powder
40ml thick coconut milk
1 tsp pandan paste
75gm corn oil

Filling½ cup whipped cream
2 heaped Tbsp of pandan kaya

Method:1. Preheat oven at 180C. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. ( I used 2 trays of 10X10inch pan)
2. Beat sugar and ovalette until sugar looks crumbly and yellow.
3. Put in eggs and beat until combined.
4. Sift in flour and baking powder and combine to a smooth paste.
5. Pour in coconut milk and pandan paste. Beat until mixture is thick and fluffy. It will double up. 6. Fold in corn oil and bake in 2 baking sheets for 20 minutes each.
7. Cool cake and mix whipped cream with pandan kaya.
8. Place one layer of cake, surface side down and spread filling evenly.
9. Cut into desired size.



*** this cake freezes very well. Just thaw it for a while and yummy, yummy. Hub asked me to make this and freeze it, so that he can have some whenever he is hungry.

Kerabu bihun 酸辣米粉沙拉

First attempt! Liked it a lot, so did the guests at Lydia's birthday in KK.
Got the idea from a magazine I read few years back.



Kerabu is Malay salad. One can use anything to make kerabu, there's kerabu perut (cow's stomach salad), kerabu sotong (squid with salad), kerabu mangga (young mango salad), kerabu paku (fern shoots salad), kerabu jantung pisang (banana flower salad) and many many more... It's basically hot and sour, with a light tinge of sweetness and laced with local herbs and spices like lime, lemon grass, torch ginger flower, coconut and the list goes on, depending on the dish.

Ingredients
250gm bihun (rice vermicelli, I love Hutou Rice Vermicelli, it looks like Tang Hoon, but not as fragile and sticky like Tang Hoon, can be found in Tesco )

½ cup lime juice
4 tbsp sugar
1 ¾ tsp salt
2 Tbsp chopped bird’s eye chilli
2 stalks torch ginger flower (bunga kantan, finely chopped)

1 large red onion (sliced, marinate with 3 Tbsp vinegar, 1 ½ Tbsp sugar, it’ll turn pink)
1 ½ cups very finely julienned carrots
½ cup finely sliced green onion (cut into 2 inch lengths, then slice vertically, soak in cold water)
½ cup squids (blanched)
½ cup shelled prawns (cooked)
5 eggs, fried into thin omelettes and finely julienned

Method
1. Soak bihun in cold water.
2. Mix lime juice, sugar, salt, bird’s eye chilli and chopped ginger flower. Taste. It should be sweet, sour and a bit over salty.
3. Blanch bihun in boiling water until cooked. Put cooked bihun under running cold water, drain well.
4. Pour in (2) onto bihun. Mix well. Taste. The saltiness should be slightly less, but the sourness will surface, accompanied with subtle sweetness. Anyway, adjust it to ur liking.
5. Drain red onion from marinade, do not discard marinade. Mix squids and prawns in marinade for few seconds, drain.
6. Sprinkle carrots, green onion, squids, prawns, egg strips and red onion onto bihun. Toss well.

Chinese Chives Omelette 韭菜煎蛋

There was once in my life, during uni days... when I was left with just RM50 for the whole month for food and petrol for my bike. I didn't have the guts to ask for more from mom, cos I overspent through out the semester.

What to do??? I had to make do with just RM1 a day for food.

What can I eat with RM1/day?? Instant noodles? Nah, not a balanced meal, can't even afford to add in an egg..it'll add up the cost.

The solution? Plain rice porridge with omelette! Eggs during that time, cost less than 20 sen each, and 50 sen chinese chives is sufficient for 4 meals.... So, I'll make 2 big bowls of plain rice porridge for my 2 meals/day, accompanied by this omelette.... OKOK.. I didn't eat this for a month..but I'd say 50% of the time. I made other omelettes as well, preserved radish, onion, and my favourite, remains to be this one.

And at the end of the month, I was left with RM17.. even after paying for my bike's petrol! What a feat! But I dun think I want to challenge myself this way again. It wasn't voluntary.

I learnt to add in dried shrimps to this omelette from my sis in law's sister. It adds a whole lot of difference to the omelette.

Ingredients:

100gm Chinese Chives

3 eggs

1/3 tsp salt

1 tsp dried shrimp, very finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely minced

3 Tbsp oil

Method:

1. Cut chinese chives into very short lengths... about 7-10mm.

2. Heat 2 tbsp oil and put in garlic and dried shrimp, fry until fragrant and slightly golden.

3. Put in chinese chives and stir fry until fragrant.

4. Dish up and mix well with 1 Tbsp oil, eggs and salt.

5. Pour a thin layer of egg mixture onto a frying pan and spread it well.

6. Fry omelette until golden.

**

I like my omelette really thin..... Mine is 2-4mm thick only. Thin ones are nice for porridge, but u may make them thicker to eat with rice.

Mango Pudding 芒果布丁

If you like Cocon's Mango Pudding, you'll like this one.

Before Konnyaku Jelly came into the market, I was scratching my head..... How come the commercial packaged puddings have this springy texture that we can never achieve with gelatine, or agar or whatever....... Now I know.

I looked at the packaging, and tried to figure out the ingredients to make a copycat version.. and I finally got it.

I made loads of this for my home church's fund raising event, and it sold like hot cakes... No one could figure out how to make this.. Now, I'm revealing the secret.

Ingredients

10gm konnyaku powder (no malic acid added)

200gm sugar

1.5L water

100 gm creamer powder (coffeemate)

200ml mango concentrate ( Tesco Value, or Sun-Up will best replicate the taste)

Nata de coco (as much as u want)

Method:

1. Mix sugar and konnyaku powder together

2. Boil water, then add in creamer. Stir to dissolve.

3. Slowly spoon in sugar mixture.

4. Stir well, and let simmer for 10 minutes on low fire, stirring once in a while

5. Fill moulds with Nata de Coco with desired amount.

6. Turn off fire and pour in mango concentrate. Stir.

7. Pour jelly mixture into moulds. Chill well before serving.

Sandwich Dirt Cakes 三文子泥土蛋糕

I made Dirt Pot Cakes for Lydia's 1st birthday party. And I made these again for my colleagues on Lydia's actual birthday. But in sandwich form... without any flowers or worms


The dirt pot cakes in paper cups on Lydia's birthday

With flowers and worms...

Sponge:
(A)110 gm flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
50gm sugar
5 egg yolks
50ml milk
50ml corn oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

B) 5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
100 gm sugar

1. Heat oven to 170C
2. Combine A to a smooth paste.
3. Beat egg whites until frothy.
4. Put in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks, add in sugar and beat until stiff.
5. Fold in 1/4 of egg whites to A, when well combined, fold in another 1/4 egg whites, then the rest of it. Do with a quick hand.
6. Place batter onto a 10 X 10 inch lined baking pan and bake for 25 minutes.

Filling:
200ml non dairy topping, whipped (u'll get about 2 cups of icing)
1 can of fruit cocktail, drained and chopped.

Topping:
Crushed oreo cookies

Assembly:
1. Cut sponge into 2 slices.
2. Mix 2/3 of whipped topping with chopped fruits.
3. Spread filling onto the first layer, and top with another layer of sponge. Press well.
4. Spread remaining portion of whipped topping onto cake.
5. Sprinkle crushed oreo evenly onto cake.
6. Chill for at least 1 hour before cutting cake.

Lydia's 3 Birthday Parties

It's finally over!! 3 parties over 3 weekends!!

I'm exhausted... frankly..it's not the actual physical work, but more on the mental side.. Maybe a bit from worrying whether I can finish cooking on time.


First Party (16 Aug 2008, Kampar)


Her 1st birthday cake.. mini Strawberry Shortcake .. very ugly icing.. and it's dairy cream on a hot night.... It was done in a hurry... Forgive me for the hole down there.. wonder why hubby din see that when he took this pic


The spread... taken from both sides


All the children that came



Jojo, Hannah and Louis giggling over the dirt pot cakes


The favourite among kids... worm topping


2nd Party (23 Aug 2008, KL)

Well, it was not a actual party for her, it was a family gathering intended for my uncle. So, her cake was just an add on to the occasion... The more the merrier...

Aunt Wan Ching bought her this jelly cake


3rd Party (31 Aug 2008, Kuala Kangsar)

Didn't take the pic of the whole spread... forgot about it.




The wording's red colour was weeping onto the cake..... cos I piped it on the day before..but sofar this was my best iced cake... Still learning to do it better


It's peach cake with orange sponge... tasted very good actually


Clapping to her birthday song..


Getting fed with cake by nanny..