Sunday, February 28, 2010

Meeting with Bloggers at Mid-Valley

I had the privilege of meeting up with fellow bloggers for the first time except Elin at Mid Valley a few days ago. It was a glorious few hours getting to know these lovely ladies. We had a great time chatting, sharing blogging, photography and baking tips and getting to know one another. The extraordinary thing was how easily we all click...........no pretense, no awkwardness; no fumbling for something to say.........it was relaxed and genuine and the time went by way too fast! Thank you Elin, Joanna, Reese, Quinn, Tracie, Swee San, Sonia, Pei Lin, Bee Bee and Petite Nyonya, for a lovely time, the flower and the gifts. It was such a pleasure to finally meet you all. We have to do this again the next time.

From L to R : Lovely Petite Nonya, Reese, Bee Bee and Sonia.

From L to R : Lovely Joanna (Elin's daughter) Tracie and Quinn

The 11 bloggers are :-

Quinn of Quinn's Baking Dairy

Elin of Elinluv's Tibits Corner

Joslynn of Petite Nyonya

Reese of Reese Kitchen

Bee Bee of HoneyBeeSweet

Swee San of The Sweet Spot

Tracie of Bitter Sweet Flavours

Pei Lin of Dodol Mochi

Sonia of Nasi Lemak Lover

Joanna Elin's Daughter

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I received a lot of emails requesting for the recipe for this pandan cake. This recipe is similar to my Mandarin Orange Chiffon Cake except minor changes in replacing the orange juice with fresh coconut milk and pandan juice. I baked this cake a few days ago for my family using all the fresh ingredients I can find here in Malaysia. You can see that the color of this cake has a very light yellowish green in color and not the bright green that you see often. That is because I used only fresh pandan leaves and not the artificial pandan paste. This cakes has wonderful fragrant, cottony soft and very moist.

Ingredient A :

3/4 cup sugar
6 large egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Ingredient B :

1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour, sifted
6 large egg yolks
1 cup fresh coconut milk
10 pandan leaves
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree F. Get ready a 9” tube pan. Do not grease the pan.
2. Clean and cut the pandan leaves to about 1” length and blend them in the food processor with the coconut milk. Strain the juice and measure out the 1 cup for use.
3. Whisk ingredients A in an electric mixer until light and stiff.
4. In a mixing bowl, mix egg yolks and sugar until light and creamy. Add in corn oil and pandan coconut milk. Mix well. Stir in sifted flour and fold in carefully and gently to mix.
5. Pour egg yolk mixture lightly into the egg white mixture. Mix evenly with a spatula. Pour the batter into tube pan and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until cake is well browned and firm to touch.
6. Remove cake from oven. Invert pan immediately. Leave to cool, and then remove cake from pan with the help of a thin-bladed knife.

Note : I took the pictures using my old point and shoot camera so you will notice it is not clear and very grainy.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Turkey Pasties

Pasties are very popular throughout Cornwall, Devon, Wales, North East England, other parts of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brittany. The traditional pasty is filled with beef, sliced potato, turnip and onion. The wonderful aspect about pasties is that you can use any kind of fillings from meat and potatoes to cheese and vegetables. I made these pasties with my leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. Since I have leftovers roasted potatoes and gravy I add to it too.

Pastry:

2 1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 sticks/10 tbsp cold butter (cut into bits)
1 tsp of salt
4-5 tbsp. water

1. In a food processor combine flour, butter and salt. Pulse the ingredients until well combined and slowly add water, one tablespoon at a time to form dough.
2. Remove the dough and lightly knead to form a ball. Let the dough rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Filling:
2 cups cut roast turkey
1 cup of roasted potato
½ cup of gravy
¼ cup or cut olives
½ tsp pepper

1. Combine all the filling ingredients in bowl and set it aside.
2. Divide the dough into 6-7 pieces, and roll the dough into circle on a lightly floured surface to about ¼” thick.
3. Put ¼ cup of the filling into the center of the pastry. Moisten the edges with some water, fold into half and crimp to seal.
4. Place on a lined baking sheet and brush lightly with egg wash. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree F oven until golden brown.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Celebrating CNY

Thanks everyone for all the well wishes! I hope you had a wonderful time with your family and friends during this festive season. As for me I am enjoying all the yummy good food and most of all the attentions given by family and friends ;)

No Chinese New Year celebration will be complete without cookies. For this year I only made pineapple tarts , Hup Toh Soh. Other cookies like Almond slices, Almond brittles, peanut cookies, crispy keropok and arrowroot chips were given by friends or relatives.

Here are some of the pictures taken during CNY

Reunion dinner with my family. Too bad Carlos can't join us :(


Tossing the 'Yee Sang'

The 'Yee Sang'



Simple decor for the house

No CNY is complete without the cookies.

Best to be eaten with a cup of Chinese tea.

Mandarin orange is a must for CNY

Hampers or goodies baskets given by friends and relatives

Monday, February 15, 2010

Baked Crunchy Chicken Bites

These home-made chicken bites taste so much nicer than the store bought nuggets and you know exactly what’s in them – that there are no unwanted preservatives or ingredients. It is oven baked and much healthier than the fried ones. I am sure adults’ or kids will love them. You can serve it with honey mustard, ranch dressing or marinara sauce.

Ingredients:

2 pcs chicken breast
1/2 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
¼ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp of paprika
Marinara sauce or ranch dressing - optional

Coating:

1 egg white
1 ½ cup whole wheat cornflakes
2 tbsp white sesame seeds
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp chopped parsley

1. Remove the skin and fat of the chicken breast. Cut into 1 1/2 “cubes. Marinate the meat with salt, pepper, garlic and paprika for an hour.
2. In the food processor blend the cornflakes into fine crumbs. Remove and add in the chopped parsley, sesame seeds and parmesan cheese. Mix well and set it aside.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degree F. Line a baking pan with some aluminum foil. Drizzle it with a bit of olive oil and set it aside.
4. Mix the egg white into the marinated chicken. Coat the chicken pieces with the cornflakes. Line the chicken on the baking pan, drizzle it with a bit of olive oil and bake it for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Serve warm or at room temperature with some sauce of your choice.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Happy New Year/Gong Xi Fatt Chai


Wishing all my family, friends and readers


Gong Xi Fa Chai and Happy Valentine's Day


May the Year of the Tiger brings you good health, wealth and happiness!!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Pineapple Tarts

Finally my pineapple tarts made it debut here for this year. . I’ve been busy doing last minutes baking since I came home. For these tarts I made the jam as I find the store bought one too sweet and lack of pineapple taste. Making these is time consuming and it took me over 5 hours do 5 big containers but it is all worth it. What is Chinese New Year without pineapple tarts, right? This year I made 3 different designs. . Which one do you prefer? For the recipe you can refer here .

This is the traditional design.

For this I used a flower pineapple tarts cutter.

For this I just used a normal flower shape cookie cutter and then bake it in small paper cups.

Here wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year, Gong Xi Fatt Chai and Happy Valentine’s Day.

Monday, February 08, 2010

Egg Paratha Rolls

I always like to have roti canai or roti paratha for breakfast during weekend in Malaysia. The one that I will always order is roti telur (egg paratha) and eating it with dhal (lentil) curry. It is out of this world. Here in the US we can only get the frozen paratha and I have to improvise it to make my favorite weekend breakfast. Of course it is not as thin and crispy as the one from back home but it still taste pretty darn good with some homemade chicken curry.

Ingredients:

3 pcs of frozen paratha (I used Kawan brand)
3 eggs
½ onion – slice thinly
1 spring onion – cut small
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a bowl beat the eggs, add in salt, pepper, onion and spring onion. Mix well and set it aside.
2. In a non stick pan over medium heat cook the parathas (without oil) until lightly brown on both sides. Remove and set it aside.
3. In the same pan, heat up a bit of olive oil. Pour 1/3 of the eggs mixture into the pan, let it cook for 10 second then place the cooked paratha on top of the omelet.
4. Let the egg set before turning it over to cook through.
5. Remove and roll up the paratha like a Swiss roll. Do the same to the other two parathas.
6. Cut the paratha about 3/4 “thick and you can serve it with some curry.

Note : Do not thaw the frozen paratha.

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Hup Toh Sow/Chinese Walnut Cookies

I remember eating this cookie when I was young and never thought of baking it myself until I saw it at No-Frills Recipes blog. I baked it the very next day for Carlos and Diana to munch on while I am away in Malaysia. I did very minor changes to the recipe. I can’t seem to get the dough to bind together so I added a tablespoon of vegetable oil to it. I think the cold and dry weather here play a role to the dry dough. Nevertheless the cookies turns out perfect and taste was just the way I remember it. I am in KL now and I am going to bake this again for CNY. Thanks Cheah for sharing this wonderful recipe with us.

Ingredients:

150 gm margarine (I used butter)
250 gm self-raising flour
80 gm caster sugar
2 oz coarsely chopped slightly roasted walnuts (optional)
1 egg beaten + a pinch of salt, for glazing
1 tbsp vegetable oil (optional)

1. Sift the self-raising flour into a mixing bowl.
2. Cut in the margarine; add in the sugar and the chopped walnuts.
3. Mix thoroughly till the dough does not stick onto the hands. * At this stage I add a tablespoon of vegetable of oil to it.
4. Pinch off some dough and lightly form into a ball, make a small dent in the centre. Place the biscuits onto a baking sheet, leaving some room between each biscuit.
5. Brush them with beaten egg wash.
6. Bake in preheated oven 190 degree C or 350 degree F for about 30 to 35 minutes or till golden brown.
7. Cool completely before storing in cookie jar.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Tuna Puffs

I always like to have a packet of frozen puff pastry in my freezer and it will become real handy if I want to make a quick snacks. I don’t normally cook on weekends as we will have whatever leftovers from the weekdays or I will make something simple with whatever I can find in the fridge and pantry. One of the snacks that we love is this tuna puffs. This is what you need.

Ingredients:

1 sheet of puff pastry
1 egg - beaten

Filling:

1 can of tuna
1 tomato – cut into small cubes
1 shallot – slice thinly
1 small chili – slice thinly (optional)
1 tbsp of lemon juice
3 tbsp low fat mayo
1 tsp of mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degree F.
2. In a bowl, mix all the filling ingredients together. Set it aside.
3. Thaw the puff pastry. Dust the work table with some flour. Unfold the pastry and roll it out thinly and cut into 6 equal rectangle.
4. Put about a table of filling on the pastry and fold it over to close the edges. Press down the edges with a fork.
5. Brush the pastry with some egg wash and bake until golden brown.