Monday, July 28, 2014

Blueberry Streusel Scones


I always have a soft spot for scones. It reminds me of home Malaysia where I baked them so often when my two sisters come over to my apartment and we will have English high tea together. I will prepare a few types of finger sandwiches, cakes and scones. They love having English high tea especially Angela. The last time we had high tea together was in Ontario Canada. I miss them a lot.


Now I baked them to share it with very special friend Bonnie. She just loves scones. What special about these scones is the streusel topping. The cinnamon crunchy topping compliments the mild-sweetness from blueberries and it is so hard to resist over eating it. If you have no self control with bake goods, then I have a perfect solution for you. Send some to your family or friends like I did. They will love you for it.


Friday, July 25, 2014

Potato Pancakes


Potato pancake is a great alternative to your regular side dishes. There are so quick and easy to make and with just a few ingredients you can create a mouth watering side dish. You can make a few version of it and it all depend on your preference. If you like creamy potato pancake you can use some cook mash potatoes and if you like the chunky version you can grate your potatoes. As for me I like in between the smooth and chunky version so I blend the raw potato in a food processor.


I've made a few version of it but what I feature here is the simple version. There are times I like adding a whole load of herbs to the mix, sometime chop chilies and curry leaves for an Asian twist. Besides that you can also add some carrot, sweet potatoes, cook ham, bacon or cheese to it. The possibilities are endless but do be careful though not to add too much of it as you should not let these extra ingredients to overpower the potato. You still want to taste the potato in the dish. These pancakes are shallow fried and they were crispy on the outside but soft and smooth on the inside. They were really good!


Monday, July 21, 2014

Sambal Shrimps/Shrimps in Spicy Chili Sauce


This is one of my favorite Malaysian dishes. It is sweet and spicy and goes really well with rice. Sambal is a terms used in Malaysia and Indonesian cuisine to describe a variety of spicy condiments and side dishes used to add flavor to other dishes. There are different types of sambal available in the stores but I will usually make my own. Every household will have their own version of sambal so there is no right or wrong to it. As for me, I like adding some dry shrimp to my sambal and some might not. I will usually make a huge batch and freeze them up and whenever I want to use it for my cooking it is readily available. I use the sambal to cook chicken, beef and seafood.


For today dish I used shrimp. I left the shrimps unshelled but you can always shell it if you find that easier to eat and you can substitute the shrimp with squid, chicken or beef but it will take longer for it to cook. You can get the sambal recipe here

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Baked Scallion/Green Onion Pancakes


Crispy, flaky, and savory scallion pancakes are one of our very favorite Chinese restaurant treats. This Chinese pancake is very much like the Indian parathas and other type of flatbreads. When I saw these pancakes at Seasaltwith Food website I know I just have to try it out as they look so fluffy and crispy. Best of all it was baked and not pan fried. I’ve done this before but it is without the yeast so the pancakes were much denser. True to how Angie’s described it. They were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Do hop over to Angie’s website to check out her step by step video on how to make this.


Monday, July 14, 2014

Fried Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms



I look forward to these delicate each summer. In fact I have two zucchini plants at my backyard and they gave me quite a few flowers every 2 days but mostly male flowers. I wish there gave me more female flowers though as I would like to have some zucchini too. So far I saw only 4 zucchini out of the 2 plants.

Anyway I collected quite a few of it and stuffed some of them up. I am not too keen on stuffing it with cheese as it oozed out while I was frying it and it was a mess. Oil spatters everywhere. This time I stuffed it with some meat and dipped it in light batter and deep fried them. The batter coats the flowers so lightly but it still gives a satisfying crunch when you bite into the savory center. We like this version so much better.



Sunday, July 06, 2014

Mixed Fruits Frangipane Tart


I always have weakness for cute and dainty little fruit tarts. I just love baking them when I have overload of berries or stone fruits in my fridge. I usually buy a lot of them during summer and toward end of the week they don’t look too good anymore so I will usually incorporate them into my bake goods like these tarts.
These tarts not only pretty they taste really good too. With the flaky buttery pastry, sweet and nuttiness of the filling and the fruits provides a slight tartness to the tarts. They were just prefect to have it with a cup of coffee or tea after a meal.