Banana Pancakes with Palm Sugar Syrup

I'm not much of a breakfast person and my staple is usually a cup of oats or a slice of bread. As for Carlos it is usually a cup of coffee and an English muffin. I don’t know what got into me last week as I was craving for some good old pancakes. Instead of eating it with pancake syrup I made some gula Melaka/palm sugar syrup to go with it. It turns out really great. The pancakes were light and fluffy and it compliments so well with the rich flavor of the palm sugar syrup. If you are in the mood for some pancakes do try this recipe out.

Ingredients for the pancake:

220 gram flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
2 eggs
300ml milk
1 tbsp melted butter

Mini Donuts

I tried out this mini donut recipe from Ummi’s blog and we like it a lot. I always like the traditional yeasty donut coated with sugar compare to the cakey kinds that were coated with all kinds of toppings. I guess I am the very old fashion kind of person. What about you? What type of donut do you prefer?

I am submitting this post to "Aspiring Bakers #4: Love In The Air! (Feb 2011)", hosted by Cuisine Paradise

Ingredients:

200 gram of bread flour
20 gram sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tsp dry yeast
140 ml milk
20 gm butter

Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups

I realized I’ve been cooking quite a bit of Asian food recently. So it is time to make some Western comfort food for a change. What can be more comforting than Lasagna? With just the two of us, we can’t have all of it. I gave some to my neighbor and freeze some for Diana too.

Ingredients:

12 sheets dried lasagna noodles
2 ½ cups pasta sauce

Filling:

3 links turkey sausage
1 large onion – finely diced
2 cloves garlic - chopped
2 packet 10 oz frozen chopped spinach – thawed and squeeze out all the water
1 tub 15 oz skim ricotta cheese
3 tbsp parmesan cheese
1 egg
½ tsp red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Sambal Chicken

When people ask me what type of food I miss most from Malaysia and my answer is always Malay food? I love the simple fried salted fish, the ulam ulam (salad), sambal belachan and all the spicy dishes. I can eat Western food for a few days and then I will crave for something hot and spicy. I need something to remind me of home. You can take me out of Malaysia but you can take Malaysia out of me.

That is why my fridge will always have a big jar of homemade sambal. I add it into my fried noodles, fried rice, stir fry vegetables, meat etc. This is one dish that I like to cook when craving strike. It is Sambal Chicken. It is nothing fancy or too complicated. It is cooked using my homemade sambal and it goes really well with rice.

Baked Cassava Cake

When I first saw this interesting recipe at Mat Gebu blog I was intrigued by the East meet West kind of cake. I want to make it right away but I don’t have any cassava in hand. So it went into my long to- do list and totally forgotten about it until I saw it at Wendy’s not too long ago. Taking her comments on the taste of the cake into considerations I made some changes to the ingredients. I replace the sugar with brown sugar, milk with coconut milk and also reduce the amount of butter. The cake turns out really well. It is slightly soft, dense and a bit chewy at the same time. Even Carlos and Diana’s love it.

Ingredients:

130gm unsalted butter
160gm light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
½ cup thick coconut milk
140gm flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup well drained grated cassava – 300grm

Stuffed Tofu/Tahu Sumbat

This is one of Malaysian favorite snacks. Famously known as Tahu Sumbat or fried tofu stuffed with vegetables. It is usually sold by the road side stalls especially during the Ramadan month or fasting month. There are usually served with sweet and spicy chili sauce but some like it with peanut sauce.

Ingredients:

3 pieces firm tofu – cut in half diagonally into 2 triangles
Half cucumber – julienned
A small carrot – julienned
A handful of bean sprout – removes the tails and blanched briefly

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Mascarpone Cheese Frosting

Love is definitely in the air and you can see many bloggers posting all kinds of dessert for the occasion. That got me motivated to bake something too. This homemade Valentine’s treats are the sweetest way to say ‘I Love You’ to everyone special in your life and not only that as I am sure your valentine will appreciate the effort you’ve put into it. Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!

Ingredients:

1 stick/113 gram soft butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp red gel paste food coloring
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp distilled white vinegar

GuyLian Artisanal Belgian Chocolate Valentine's Giveaway

The winner for the giveaway is Amy. Congratulations!! I will get in touch with you through email.

Thank you everyone for participating.

Fried Radish Cake/Char Chai Tau Kueh

I have so many backlogs in my files. I have to really sit down one day and clear up everything. I’ve been so busy for the past weeks with cooking, baking, cleaning the house, etc. Now everything is back to normal again. Even the weather is getting better. So far no sign of any snow so no shoveling for this week. Thank God for that.

I cooked this dish many months ago and I just found the pictures in one of the many files. It is known as Char Chai Tau Kueh or Fried Radish Cake. This famous hawker food is made from steamed radish cake and then stir fried with pickle radish, bean sprout, chilies, chives and eggs. This dish is popular during Chinese New Year too and since it is still CNY I might as well post it here ;).

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of diced radish cake – you can get the recipe here
2 cloves garlic – chopped
2 tbsp chopped preserved turnip (chai poh)
1 red chili – cut small
A handful of bean sprout
Small bunch of Chinese chives – cut into 1” lengths
1 egg

Yee Sang and CNY Dinner 2011

This year CNY falls on a weekday so it is just like any other working day here in the US. Diana can’t be home until Friday so we decided to have our dinner only on Saturday, the 3rd day of CNY. I prepared the usual CNY dishes like Yee Sang (Asian Salad), Ngor hiang (5 spice meat rolls), Siew Yoke (roast pork) Hong Bak (siew pork in black soy sauce), sweet and sour chicken, Butter prawns and a mix vegetable dish. It took me nearly the whole just to prepared and cook these dishes. By the time it was done I was dead tired ha ha... but most important we enjoyed the meal and so was our guest.

This is the first time I prepared Yee Sang and it turn out really well. I even made this dish for our Malaysian get together the very next day and it was well received by everyone. I am happy with that.

GuyLian Artisanal Belgian Chocolate Valentine's Giveaway (Closed)

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and you can see all the store shelves are overflowing with boxes and boxes of chocolate. Recently I was contacted by GuyLian, asking me if I wanted to try some of their chocolate and do a Valentine’s Day Giveaway. Of course I said yes. I never turn down a box of good quality chocolate.

Guylian “ultra-indulgent” luxurious chocolate seashells are 100% pure, silky smooth, dark or white Belgian Chocolate and are filled with rich, decadent creamy chocolate praline truffle. The Guylian brand dates back to the late 1950’s when Guy Foubert, a passionate Belgian Chocolataire married his love, Liliane who then joined names creating Chocolaterie Guylian. Today, Guylian crafts the finest authentic Belgian Chocolate Truffles, utilizing the original handmade recipe of Guy and Liliane. The original signature truffle recipe is still made in small-batch copper kettles exclusively by Guylian’s Master Chocolatiers in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.

I always like the beautiful seashells design of their chocolate. They were so cute that I almost didn't want to bite into it. From the first bite I was in love! I just love their Extra Dark Chocolate Praline Truffles. The dark chocolate seashell truffles have a 74% dark cocoa shell with an extra dark and decadent chocolate praline truffles center. I took small bites of the chocolate and let each bite melt in my mouth. It was pure chocolate heaven! As for Carlos who has extra sweet tooth prefer their Chocolate Praline Truffles. He said their chocolate is very rich and creamy. I have to agree with him on that.

The Gift:

There are plenty of ways to express your love for others and what better way to do it than with a box of delectable chocolates. You have a chance to win a Valentine’s bag (similar to the picture shown), with a box of Guylian Originals Seashells, 4.4 oz, and a box of Guylian Praline Original Temptations, 4.4 oz

How to enter:

All you have to do is leave a comment with your email address here and tell me what was your most memorable Valentine’s Day? I am so sorry but this giveaway is open to US residents only and will end on February 11, 2011 at 11:59 PM (EST). The winner will be chose using a random number generator from all eligible entries. The winner will be notified via e-mail and will have three days to reply with a name and mailing address (no PO Box) or a new winner will be selected. The package will be shipped directly to you by Guylian. Good Luck!!

My Kitchen Snippets Full Disclosure: Guylian provides me with product to test and review. I only promote things that stay true to my taste and interests. The opinions expressed here are my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments. Thank you Guylian for sharing your wonderful chocolate with us!

Onions and Pine Nuts Focaccia

I always like focaccia. I’ve learned to bake this bread when I took up Italian baking lesson at New York Culinary School with the famous pastry chef and cook books writer Nick Malgieri. It is rustic and very easy bread to make which requires no kneading to the dough. The most common topping to this bread are olives, anchovies and rosemary but you can actually put any type of topping to it. I will usually put fresh basil and tomatoes but today I used onions, pine nuts and parmesan cheese. We had this freshly baked bread with some salad for our dinner.

Dough Ingredients:

4 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1 envelope/ 7 grm active dry yeast
1 2/3 cups warm water (110 degree F)
3 tbsp of olive oil

Peanut Cookies and Happy Chinese New Year 2011

This is the last cookie I baked for CNY. This is by far Carlos and my sister Elizabeth most favorite CNY cookie. I will post the recipe here later.

Here I would like to wish my family, friends and all my blog readers Gong Xi Fa Cai. May the year of Rabbit brings you good health, happiness and prosperity.