Hawaiian Buns

Hawaiian buns are very popular here in the Northern CA. I see them sold at every supermarket and bakery here. It is basically a sweet soft roll. I Google for the recipe and found there are quite a few of it out there. Some have the additions of potato flakes and coconut in it. In the end I settle for the recipe which I had all the ingredients in my pantry. Below is the recipe I adapted from Yammie’s Noshery however I substitute a cup of whole wheat flour to the dough and with some minor changes.

We love this bread as they were soft and very fragrant. It remains soft the next day but on the 3rd day it did harden up a bit but 20 seconds in the microwave it is as soft as they are out of the oven. It tastes so good with some butter, coconut jam or fruit jam.

 

 

Dark Chocolate Brownies

Maybe I should call it death by chocolate brownies. This is definitely chocolate lover dreams. It is dark, rich, fudgy and full of chocolate flavor without overwhelmed of sweetness. Diana love brownies but I will indulge her with this once a year which is on her birthday. I bake this and sent some to her last week and share the rest with a couple of my friends. They were decadent but should only be eaten in extreme moderation so can't keep it for ourselves to indulge ;)

Baby Heirloom Tomato Salad

Carlos and I eat a lot of tomatoes. Between 2 of us we can eat 2-3 pounds a week. Our most favorite tomatoes are the plum and heirloom. We like heirloom variety as it has intense flavors. We were shopping at Trader Joe’s the other day and we came across these baby heirloom tomatoes. Aren’t they beautiful!!! They are just so colorful and so appealing. I can’t resist and bought a few punnet of it. With tomatoes like these, you don’t need to dress them up much as they are flavorful, juicy and sweet as it is. With just some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and you are good to go. If you like you can add a bit of chopped parsley or basil to it. This salad is great to accompany any meat dishes.

Crispy Banana and Sweet Potato Fritters with Spicy Soy Dipping Sauce

My parents used to live in Johor because of my dad’s work and we kids live with our grandmother for many years. We get to visit Johor and Singapore once a while especially during our school holidays. I was pretty young during that time and can’t remember much about the food there but I do remember their banana fritters. This posting is not about the recipe of fritters but it is about the unique way the Johorean eat them. They will serve their fritters with sweet soy dipping sauce. I think Johor might be the only state that has it that way. Please correct me if I am wrong. By dipping the crunchy fritters into the spicy and sweet dipping sauce it creates a very unique flavors and bite to it. You can use any type of batter recipe you like but I adapted mine from Madihaa’s .

Batter Ingredients:

200 ml water
110 gm flour
25 gm rice flour
50 gm butter – room temperature
1/2 tsp turmeric powder or a few drops of yellow colouring
¾ tsp Salt
4 bananas - cut into half lengthwise
1 sweet potato - thinly sliced

Tarta De Dulce De Membrillo /Quince Tart

This particular tart is very popular in Argentina. You can see it in every bakery shops or cafes. This is a simple tart feacturing a filing of ruby red dulce de membrillo (mem-bree-yoh) or quince paste. Sometime this tart can be found with dulce de leceh, sweet potato (dulce de batata), guava paste (dulce de guayaba) fillings too but the authentic one is using dulce de membrillo. It is usually eaten with a cup of coffee or mate .

Like most of Argentine recipes, this tart owes its existence to the Italian immigrants who made Argentina their home during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Carlos being an Italian grew up eating this tart and I even bought a few Spanish cookbooks( I can’t seems to find any English cook book there) so I can make some of the Argentinean desserts and dishes for him.

Kacang Phool

I’ve never tasted this dish before but I know it is a popular dish in Johor and Singapore. I Google for the recipe and was stumped as there are so many recipes on the said dish and the ingredients used differ greatly that I am not sure which I should use. I tried reading as much as I could on the dish but none of the recipes actually gave any indication on how the dish should taste. I don't know if it should be spicy or not, sourish or sweet, whether it should have a strong taste of cumin etc. Since I couldn't decide which recipe I should follow, I decided to consult my good friend Shereen and she is kind enough to share her recipe with me.

Focaccia with Roasted Garlic, Pickle Peppers and Olives

It has been a long while since I bake bread. Since the weather is much warmer now I decided to make some foccacia to have it with our beef stew. I used my old recipe but this time I added 1 cup of whole wheat flour to the dough to make it a bit healthier. This is easy to make and I think it is a great alternative to garlic bread. As for the topping you can put anything you like to it.

Acar Darat/Acar Rampai Orang Johor

'Acar' is a Malay word for pickle and 'Rampai' means julienne. There are many variations of acar and I must say that this version is one of my favourites as it doesn’t involve a lot of work. It is very simple to make with very common ingredients that you would probably already have in your pantry. I made this acar rampai to serve with my Ayam Kremes and Sambal Dabu-dabu.

Pork Jerky/Bak Kua and Shrimp Fried Rice

I’ve been very busy for the past 2 months. Flew to New York twice to take care of Diana and don’t have time to do much especially cooking, baking, blog posting or blog hopping. Meals at home are mostly simple salad, sandwiches or one pot meal. Just before I flew to NY, I wanted to finish up the few pieces of Bak Kua in the fridge. I am too lazy to turn on the big oven just to warm them up I simply cut them up and throw it into the fried rice. Carlos like it a lot and told me to cook our next fried rice meal again with it but I told him he might need to wait till the next CNY before I make another batch of bak kua again. So if you have any leftover of bak kua from CNY why not use it to make fried rice. I am pretty sure you are going to like it.