Monday, June 30, 2014

Peanut Butter Banana Cake


My husband love peanut butter and he can just eat it straight out of the jar. I called him peanut butter monster. Since he like it so much I thought I should make him a cake using peanut butter. There are so many recipes for peanut butter cake out there but I end up using the recipe of Amie’s Little Kitchen . For me the cake tasted alright but my husband complaints that it is not sweet enough and need more peanut butter. I will keep that in mind if I bake this cake again.

 

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Rose Shape Steamed Buns


I love making home-made buns and usually make a large batch of it and freeze them up. The filling can be savory or sweet and it all depends on what I have in hand or sometimes just some plain ones like these to eat it with some stew pork. I am not too comfortable eating store bought buns or mantau as I know they put ammonia and other additives to it in order to keep them soft. No doubt these buns do harden a bit when it cools down but you can always steam them up again before you eat it. They are as good as new. These soft and fluffy steamed buns can be eaten plain, with your favorite spread or with any gravy. They are best served hot, straight out from the steamer.


Thursday, June 19, 2014

Squash Blossom Frittata


One of my favorite to do during summer is to visit all the farmers’ market around my area. I just love the vibrant colors of produce the local farmers were selling. Each time I am at the farmers market I will be on a look out for the bright orange squash blossoms as you would rarely come across it. These blossoms are too fragile and don’t last too long for most supermarkets to handle so you can only find it at farmers’ markets or some upscale grocery stores. These blossoms are generally from zucchini plants, though the flowers of other summer squashes may be eaten, as well. The blossoms have a subtle squash flavor.


I never knew about this delicate delicacy until I came to America. I was walking around the Farmer’s market at Union Square New York and saw these bright orange flowers in one of the vegetable stand. I thought nothing of it until I saw a chef on the Food Network use it in one of his dish. From then on I was obsessed of it. It is pretty expensive but that doesn’t stop me from buying it. I just love to eat the blossom. I normally will make omelet out of it but occasionally I will stuff them with cheese and fried it. I tried planting some zucchini this year but I doubt it will give me enough blossoms for me to make a dish out of it ha ha.. Well, I found some of these blossoms at our local farmers market last week and I grab 2 bags without giving it much thought and get it cooking that very day. I used half of it to make this frittata and with the balance I might make some Korean pancake.


Sunday, June 15, 2014

Cranberry Chicken Salad Sandwich


I attended a high tea party at a good friend house last week. It was a pot luck party and I prepared some scones, cheesecake bars and mini chicken pot pie (recipe coming up soon). The host prepared a huge Sandwich Platter and it has a few types of sandwiches in it and one of them was chicken salad sandwich. There were really good and I have been craving for it since.


Well, since I have some leftover roast chicken I decided to make some for our lunch. I won’t consider this as the best chicken salad but this is how we like it. I usually make a huge batch and will have as salad or make sandwiches out of it. The great thing about this salad is you can add toasted nuts, grapes, apple, raisins or some crumble cheese to it but for this one I decided to add some dry cranberries. It gives the salad a nice sweetness.

Monday, June 09, 2014

Walnut Streusel Coffee Cake


This is one of my favorite cakes to bake at home. The cake is tender and moist, with a middle layer of dark cinnamon filling and the best part of it all is the crunchy bits of the streusel topping. Now who doesn’t like that? The friend that I share this cake with just loves it to bits.

Ingredients:

250 gram butter
270 gram flour
230 gram sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup milk


Monday, June 02, 2014

Palm Sugar Coconut Tarts


Carlos has been asking me to make some coconut tarts for the longest time and I finally made some for him last week. I think the last time I made these were a few years ago. I used the same recipe for the pastry of my previous coconut tarts and did some changes on the filling. Since I have quite a bit of palm sugar or gula Melaka brought from Malaysia I decided to use it in the filling as coconut always goes well palm sugar. True enough, we prefer this version of coconut filling to the one using white sugar. These little tarts look so cute and great to have it for afternoon tea. I am planning to make some again for our upcoming tea party. If you can’t find palm sugar you can always replace it with dark brown sugar.