Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Oven Baked Cornflake Crusted Chicken Fingers


I made this for lunch and since Bella’s is with us I made something that she will eat too rather than cooking something else for her. Bella’s like chicken nuggets and I decided to make something similar. Instead of chicken nuggets I baked some chicken fingers and to get the fried chicken finger crunch, I coated it with cornflakes. My sister and Bella’s love having this. This is a great finger food for kids. It is not only delicious but easy to prepare too.


Sunday, July 29, 2012

Eggless Strawberry Ice-Cream


I am very greedy when it comes to buying strawberries. I will usually buy more than I need when they were on sale. I will usually freeze up the leftovers and when I have enough of it I will blend them up to make sorbet of ice-cream.

This is one of the easiest ice-cream to make. There are no eggs in it and you don’t have to cook it either. I just blend the frozen strawberries with sugar, the cream and milk, then put them in the ice-cream maker and turn it on. Within half an hour I will get the luscious and cream ice-cream. What a treat for summer.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Spaghetti Aglio Olio with Mushroom


I remember the first time I had Aglio Olio I don’t have a very good experience. The pasta dish was swimming in oil and I have to return it back to the kitchen. I never order this pasta dish from the restaurants again. I prefer to cook it myself as I can control the amount of oil I put in there.

Aglio Olio means stir-fry with “Garlic and Oil” in Italian, and one of the simplest pasta dishes that you can whip up with very few ingredients like good quality olive oil, garlic and lots of black pepper. My sister Elizabeth is not a fan of pasta with loads of cream or sauce so this is her favorite. I cooked this for our lunch and added some mushroom to it.


Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Kuih Keria/Sweet Potato Rings


My sister already left for Malaysia and I am missing her already. It is good to have her here for over a month. We had a great time bonding with each other. Thank god I have little Bella with me but I know the house will be real quiet when she leaves too :(

Anyway, this is another popular Kuih from Malaysian. It is also known as ‘Malaysian Donuts’ that are made from sweet potatoes. This type of donut is much easier to make than the yeasty donut. All you have to do is steam the sweet potatoes, mash them up and add some flour to it and form it into ring shapes. Then fry them up till golden brown. Getting the right type of sweet potatoes is important. I remember I tried making it once, and the sweet potatoes I got were the soft watery kind. I kept adding flour to it until I am able to handle the dough and end up with very hard donuts. I threw out the whole batch.


For this, I got the orange kind but the yellow kind works well too. Instead of boiling it I steamed it so not too much water seep into the potatoes. It turns out really well, crunchy on the outside and soft inside. This recipe is from my good friend Shereen’s blog. I can’t link it here as her blog is private so I am just going to type her recipe here.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream Frosting


I am babysitting my friend Emily little girl this month and so happen Isabel (Bella) birthday was last week. I decided to bake her some cupcakes. I made a batch of vanilla cupcakes but with different frosting. I frosted her cupcakes with Cotton Candy flavor while for the adults I made the raspberry frosting. I think we like the latter better but for Bella she prefers the Cotton Candy frosting.


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Red Honeyed Chicken/Ayam Masak Merah Madu


The first time I tasted this dish was at my Malay friend house years ago. Kak Zuliah mom cooks the very best Ayam Masak Merah Madu/Red Honeyed Chicken. This is common dish found in Malay restaurant or food stalls. This dish has a sweetish savory flavor made from tomatoes and honey and it goes really well with rice. I like this dish and will always order it if the restaurant or food stalls have it in their menu. I just love the thick sauce with sweetish honeyed flavor. I think by pre-frying the chicken enhance the taste of this dish.

I made this dish when we had guest over for dinner the other day and everyone just love it especially Carlos. I am actually surprise that he requests me to cook it again next week. Normally he is not very keen of eating dishes like this. I think it might be because I omit some of the spices like cinnamon, cardamoms and cloves when he is not a fan of it.


Monday, July 16, 2012

Dan Dan Noodles


Dan dan noodle is a classic dish originated from Chinese Szechuan cuisine. It consist a spicy meat sauce with preserved vegetables in it and it is served over noodles. You can use either pork or beef for the meat sauce and since I like this noodle on the dry side so I just omit the broth part. I never try the original Szechuan noodles before but I understand that they were pretty spicy. I did put some chili in mine but please feel free to adjust the amount of spiciness to your preferences. I find this meat sauce is pretty good to eat with rice too.


Friday, July 13, 2012

Strawberry and Pandan Chiffon Cake


I’ve been craving for chiffon cake for some time now and finally made one the other day. I wanted to try out the strawberry powder I purchased online on this cake. Since I like pandan flavor too so I combined them together. I think the strawberry powder flavor overpower the pandan flavor a little bit. Nevertheless, it turns out pretty good. I like the look of this cake. It makes me happy ;)


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Chicken and Spinach Calzone


I prepared this for our lunch over the weekend. A little change from our regular homemade pizza I decided to make calzone. Normally calzone is made from pizza dough but I made this with Pillsbury biscuit dough. I always have a tube of biscuits dough in my fridge for days like this when I wanted to make something quick. These were a nice size and easy to eat just with our hands. You can change this recipe to include any fillings you like and it is a great use for leftovers meat you have in hand.


Sunday, July 08, 2012

Hakka Braised Pork with Black Fungus (Char Yoke)

Non-halal

Even though we are not Hakka but my mom do cooked some of Hakka dishes for us like the Yong Tau Foo , Kau Yoke, Mui Choi Kau Yoke, Abacus Beads and this Char Yoke. She will make this particular dish only on special occasions like Chinese New Year or Mooncake Festival. This is quite a simple recipe with not too many ingredients other than the adding the red fermented beancurd and five spice powder to the dish.

I put off making this dish for something because I don’t like the splashing of the oil while deep frying the marinated meat. I did get splashed a bit by the oil while trying to turn the pork but it is all worth it as the dish turns out really well as the pork is tender and the black fungus (woodears) are soft yet slightly on the crunchy side. It goes really well with steamed rice. Since I don’t prepare dishes like this often I cook a bit more so I can freeze some of it. When I wanted to eat it, all I have to do is defrost and reheat it with a few tablespoon of water.


Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Almond Cake


It is so difficult to go back into my blogging mojo after being away from my blog for so long. My sister and I just got back from our vacations and man; we did enjoy ourselves very much. I never thought I get to visit so many beautiful places in such a short amount of time especially Yellowstone National Park at Wyoming . Carlos and I drove past this state during our cross country trip but we didn’t stop to do any sightseeing as we were rushing for time. I am glad I get to visit it this time around. If any of you have a chance, please do visit this place. You will never regret it.

Anyway, back to this cake. I baked it some time ago and only get to post it now. I like the tight crumbs texture with a light hint of lime of this cake.


Sunday, July 01, 2012

Oven Roasted Potato with Garlic Herbs


This is one side dish that I like to prepare for our dinner and it is Carlos favorite too. I will normally prepare a bit more so I can have some leftover for another day. Potato is such a versatile root vegetables; you can boil it, fry it, mash it, stew it and roast it. One of my favorite types of potatoes is the red skin potato. I like roasting it and when it is done simply toss it in garlic and fresh herbs which I planted a lot at my backyard this year.

Ingredients:

1 pound skin potatoes – cut into quartered
3 cloves garlic – chopped
½ cup chopped fresh herbs (spring onions, cilantro and parsley)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Some olive oil