Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Comfort!


one of the places to visit whilst in Budapest for us is KFC! I tell you it was all worth it going through the hassle of tracking down the only one KFC in the city.
When entering the outlet, you'll immediately noticed the dull ambience, not very KFC-like with bright lited box, colonel sanders plastered around. The neglecting ambience is probably due to fact colonel sanders is relatively unknown here..people prefer the more trendy McD and B King, I guess.

But who cares! I came for the chicken! the crispy deep-fried chicken! I know i know its not healthy..be moderate and I should be fine :p Yummy, it was! I smothered some coleslaw on the chicken and its ooh la la! So yummy, the next morning we decided to pack this christmas set and eat it as brunch...finger lickin' good ;)

Thursday, December 14, 2006

what to eat before you die ?

A tough question to answer! at least for me...here's an idea of what others voted for, compiled by BBC "50 things to eat before you die"..scanning the list, wow! I did good! what about you?

50 cornish pasty 49 caviar 48 haggis 47 jerk chicken/pork 46 tapas
45 roast beef
44 ribs 43 octopus 42 Durian 41 mango
40 Australian meat pie 39 scallops 38 kebab 37 reindeer 36 barramundi
35 paela 34 sushi 33 shark 32 guinea pig 31 venison
30 salmon 29 american diner breakfast 28 squid 27 mexican food 26 burgers

25 Greek food 24 sandwiches 23 chocolate 22 kangaroo 21 oyster
20 alligator
19 cream tea 18 lamb 17 cheesecake 16 mussels
15 pasta 14 pancake 13 barbeque 12 clam chowder
11 Moreton Bay bugs
10 Prawn 9 Curry 8 Crab 7 Pizza 6 Ice cream

5 Chinese food 4 Thai food 3 Steak 2 Lobster
1 Fresh fish

Monday, November 13, 2006

Baklava

I love anything crispy, therefore, preparing snacks with filo sheets can be addictive. It's so easy. Throw in any sweet, or savoury fillings, ensure you treat the filo sheets right, throw in the oven cook til golden brown (first grease it of course). You'll get your snack in jiffy and less oily!

Making baklava which uses 30 filo sheets required more "courage" for me, though. In the end, the anxiety was worth it. Not as good as the ones you get in the shop :p but am PROUD and very sure i'll get it better the next time. Do try this at home, i insist !


Baklava

Ingredients:
30 pieces of filo (strudel) sheet
150gm margarine
300gm ground walnut
100gm sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150gm honey

for the syrup:
1 lemon
100gm honey

Method :-
Pre-heat oven gas mark 3
Heat up the honey with sugar, walnut and cinnamon.
Grease a baking pan, which is the same size as the filo (strudel) sheets, with the margarine.
Put two filo sheets inside, then spread margarine on them, then put two other filo sheets and
so on until 10 sheets. Put half of the walnut filling on it, then 10 new filo sheets again, then the other half of the walnut filling, then the remaining 10 sheets.
Spread some margarin on it in slices with a sharp knife.
Bake it until it has golden yellow colour. (approx 20 mins.)
Pour hot honey and lemon juice – previously boiled in 2-3 dl water - on it.

Friday, November 03, 2006

appetising...

I attempted cook this yesterday. Now who would have thought things can go wrong with such a easy peesy recipe? The rice became mushy when i poured in the sardines, perhaps it is the type of rice and the method of which the rice was prepared (no one uses rice cooker here..can't even find it in electronic shops :(. Then, the canned sardines were tasteless (no ayam brand!!) not tomato-ish enough. In the end, the dish was saved by a simple side dipping sauce of
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sliced chilli with soya sauce saved the day! ;)

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

kohlrabi

In German it means, kohl (cabbage) plus rabi (turnip). I'm curious, can you get this in your country? I'm asking because the vege. is alien to me until I arrived here. They are popular in Hungarian househoulds and great in soup :) In desparation, I use it to substitute turnip when I made spring rolls few months back. Boy! was I glad that it turned out as good as using turnip.
Perhaps you can try a salad
recipe by Rick stein.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Asian Jam

"Kaya" a type of jam made of eggs, coconut milk and sugar. The word "kaya" means "rich" in Malay. Not sure how the name was derived. All I remember was as much as we (siblings) love the jam, we dread whenever mom decides to cook it. It takes ages to thicken to the consistency required. As mom gets older, she stopped making it and anyway, its easily available at the markets these days.

welll, I finally got into action in trying this recipe. I was ready for some serious hand exercise. Surprising, it only took me 2 hours all in to achieve the texture required ;)


Eat it like any jam ; however, it is best with toasted bread, combined with magarine (or a slap of cold butter) a.k.a Hainanese toast. Try it and you'll love it.

Recipe from
here

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup sugar *too sweet for my taste
1 1/3 cup coconut milk (fresh / canned)
5 eggs (XL size) *fresh

Beat eggs and sugar till well blended.
Cook in a slow cooker over low heat.
When slightly thickened, pour in coconut milk in a thin stream.
Stir well until liquid mixture is thick and gooey.
The color should have changed from yellow to a darker shade in 1-2 hours of constant stirring

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Sweet potatoes ...

Let me present what a 800-gm sweet potato yield ...


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1) Sweet Potatoes Fritters
At home this snack is easily obtained by the road-sides. If you crave for it, just drive (walking makes you sweaty) along some residential road you're bound to come across road-side sellers of various fritters delight.

What goes into the batter was an estimation. I used plain flour, an egg, pinch of salt and water to adjust the consistency of batter. I suggest to just lightly coat (texture as tempura) the sweet potatoes before deep-frying in oil.

2) Sweet Potatoes Scones
My first scone recipe, I was quite happy with how it turned out in terms of looks ; however, the taste was too bland in comparison to usual scones, with just little hint of sweet potatoes. So wil not include the recipe here.


3) Sweet Potatoes soup
A sweet soup a.k.a in cantonese "tong sui". Basically, diced the sweet potatoes, boil in water with a few slices of ginger. Add coconut milk ,stir for sometime before switchig off the fire. You may add diced yam,
sago and pandanus leaves if its available to you.

That's it. It was 3 satisfying experience. Not bad for just one sweet potatoe, eh?

Mrs. Becky, a visitor of this blog has been kind enough to share with me one of her recipes which I've extracted below. I shall try it when the next opportunity arise :)

Here's arough "recipe" for it:
1 small onion, sauteed in olive oil or butter.
Then add 3-4 carrots, peeled and cut into med size along with
1 medsized sweet potatos of any variety, cut the same size.
Add 1.5 to 2 L of vegetable stock or chicken stock.
Add 2 pieces of ginger cut into 1cm or so slices.
Salt a bit.
Cook until veg are tender.
Fish out ginger then puree the veg in a blender with a bit of thestock.
Thin it with as much stock as you need for good consistency.
It should stck to the spoon but not be so thick that it resembles babyfood.
Add a squeeze of lemon at the end.
Adjust flavor with salt and pepper.
You can add butter at the end if you want more body or play around withthe flavors with different spices.
Curry or coconut milk goes verywell with it, too.
I've also made it vegan with a bit of white misoadded at the end for smoky, cheesy flavor.


Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Hummingbird, why?

Baking a new type of cake for the first time is exciting,
baking a new type of cake for the first time on someone else's Birthday is nerve wrecking!!

One week before my partner's birthday, I started to surf around food blogs for that special cake (after all is for that special one *goosebump* lol). That should give me plenty of time to ask questions from the blog author. Perusing food blog,
cafe of the east was most fruitful. The author has many unique varieties, plus she gives lots of useful tips. My choice finally, Hummingbird cake. Tadaaa!
also, do check out the lovely cake baked by cafe of the East

I did faced a few glitches when preparing for the cake, for instance we mistaken nutmeg with walnut due to mix up of translation! Then, walnut is apparently out of season..finally, almond was used as a substitute....bla bla bla..some other glitches, i wont bore you

verdict :
There'll be a next time :) its very much like carrot cake, yum yum!
despite the use of pineapple syrup not juice, it didnt turn out too sweet.
The cheese cream frosting didnt taste as I imagine, perhaps I didnt buy a good brand? next round I shall use "Philidelphia" brand.


Hummingbird Cake
Makes one 20cm cake.

[Ingredients]
Cake:
150g plain flour, sifted
75g self-raising flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarb. of soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
220g (1 cup) caster sugar, sifted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
125ml (1/2 cup) canola or corn oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 (about 225g after peeling) firm ripe bananas, diced
200g drained, crushed pineapple + 60ml pineapple juice, from 440g-can crushed pineapple in natural juice
50g (scant 1/2 cup) chopped pecans or walnuts
Cream Cheese Frosting:
60g cream cheese, softened
30g butter, softened
80g (1/2 cup) pure icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

[Preparation]
Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20cm round or square cake tin.
2. Drain the crushed pineapple, reserve 60ml drained juice for the cake. Weigh out 200g of the drained crushed pineapple, do not squeeze the pineapple to remove excess juice. Slice each banana lengthway into 4 quarters, then cut into approximately 5mm thick chunks.
3. Combine all dry ingredients. Add lightly beaten eggs, pineapple juice, oil and vanilla, fold in lightly to combine. Fold in chopped banana, crushed pineapple and nuts.
4. Pour batter into the prepared tin and bake for 60 to 70 minutes. Stand 20 to 30 minutes before turning out. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting before serving.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Message to Ma

hey, ma! guess what's my recent food purchase is?
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hehehe, dont fell off the seat! We got this at another city last w/end and I tell you the size is huge! not forgetting the shocking price as well! It's so precious I'm planning carefully what to do with it. Stay tune ;)

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Take away Baklava

I figure different countries must have different ways of packing pastries for take aways, I thought I'd show you how ours look like.

Since we do not have any fancy franchise outlets here, the packing is more or less similar between shops, using basic wrapper like the photo below. However not all shops use this, which is already considered "fancier" than others


Unwrapping it, reveals the base made out of card board, for larger quantities , a bigger base is used. You can not see it but on top of the pastries, is a piece of transparent sheet to shield the pastry from direct contact with the wrapper..


To those who are unfamiliar with what pastry this is, its baklava, a type of dessert originated from Greek or Syria. I'm currently hooked on this sweet dessert made out of nuts, honey with layers of filo sheets. This particular bakery where I bought the baklava sells tiny small piece per serving, so we usually have to buy 2 instead of usual one (we're on diet) ..good trick to sell more :p)

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

New addition to kitchen

After one year of searching high and low for this sauce, just when I'm about to give up, I stumbled upon it at the local organic shop..duh?! As a child, I wasn't a fan of this sauce. I remember my dad love adding anything and everything with fish sauce. But the smell was just too strong. Why then I buy it? , you may ask.. well, I LOVE thai cuisine! I have in my vault many thai recipes that i hope to try out soon with this new gem in the kitchen :)

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Simple one pot dish

Watching RickStein's food heroes on BBC has been such a pleasure. He talks about food with such passion. Further, his recipes are straight forward, often so simple its all about letting the natural flavour shine through. This is something I learnt from one of the episodes, I didn't even need to take down the recipe, it's so easy, its in my mind! Err....ok, I did checked on-line to be sure I didnt leave out any important ingredients :DFirst brown the mutton / lamb / pork (spare ribs). Grease a pot with butter, cover the bottom of the pot begining with a layer of potatoes (cut round), followed by slices of onions, next put the browned meat, a stig of thyme, carots, repeat again with slices of onions, seasoning. Finished off with potatoes at the top, again with seasoning. Bake at low heat (gas mark 2) about 1-1 1/2 hours (for pork), 2-3 hours for mutton/lamb.


Simple English HOT POT

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Purple vegetables

what else? eggplants a.k.a aubergines. First, please allow the photos to speaks for itself..





Eggplant is not particularly a favourite of mine. It's just that for the lack of varieties of vegetables here, I welcome some colours and different taste. As far as I can remember, aubergines is usually fried over high heat then topped with the spicy chillies. Oh, I love them in curries as well! However, this time round, I'm choosing a healthier method of preparation without compromising on the taste.

Method :-
1) Pre-heat oven at 220°c (gas mark 7)
2) Cut aubergines in to any shapes you prefer, leave the skin on.
3) Place aubergines on baking tray and brush with olive oil, bake each side for 10 mins.
4) Prepare topping - dice onions, tomatoes, paprika (red & green for colours), sauté with some oil, season with salt, pepper & sugar
5) spoon topping onto aubergines, finished off with cheese. Leave in oven for another 5 mins. or until cheese melts.

Voila!

Friday, September 08, 2006

Crazy about beans

can't believe a packet of green mung beans managed to make my day! Moments ago, we went to the organic shop for tofu. This has been the second time I enter this shop. The first was at least eight months ago, for the same intention - to buy tofu. Boy, was I glad that we took time to browse around (B's idea, i was too lazy). My first word when I saw the beans on the shelf was "OMG!!! OMG!!!" I never thought I would react this way over a common staple item from my tropical home and that it can lift my spirit so much. Next of course, I was shocked at the price that they charged! For a 500g packet, the price was about 2Euro, which I think its about 800% higher than what we pay in Msia :o
The green mung beans, as my mom told us, is believe to have a cooling effect for the body. It is especially benefial to boil some as dessert to help reduce the body heat during summer. I must admit the look of the cooked beans is not exactly appetising and may not be everyone's "cup of tea". That said, I do hope you'll try the recipe included below to decide for yourself.
I boil a simple version without milk

Green Mung Beans with Gula Melaka and Coconut Milk
Recipe by Amy Beh (
link)

Ingredients
200g Gula Melaka (palm sugar), chopped
1 cup water
300g green mung beans, soaked for 1 to 2 hours and drained
100g castor sugar
1.5 litres water
2 pandan leaves, knotted

Combine and squeeze to get santan (coconut milk):
1 grated coconut
1 cup water
1/4tsp salt

Method :-
Boil gula melaka (palm sugar) and water in a saucepan until sugar has dissolved completely. Strain the syrup and set aside.

Combine mung beans, sugar and water in a deep pot. Bring to a boil for 20-25 minutes. Add syrup to the mung beans and simmer over low heat for 20-25 minutes or until the beans are soft and the liquid in the pan is reduced to half.

Stir in coconut milk, add the salt and bring to a low boil. Serve this sweet dessert either hot or if preferred, cold.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Doughnut .....wannabe

The end result of this recipe should look like the photo in this page! My re-production is flat in shape which seem more like a pan-cake! The texture of the "dough" was watery. I have no idea what went wrong. In an effort to thicken the mixture, more flour was added. Not too much though as you wouldn't want it to turn out hard. With the slightly wet texture, I couldn't possibly wrap the fruit into the dough, so I chose to mash the fruit instead.
Verdict : despite all the alteration to the original recipe, the doughnut turned out to be light and fluffy. Quite addictive, actually ;)
the cinnamon powder has gone missing, so only caster sugar was used for coating the dougnut

see the mushy mixture?
biting into moist of bananas

Apricot Doughnut

Ingredients :-
250 gm flour
50 gm sugar
1 lemon zest
1 egg
50 gm butter
20 gm yeast
250 ml milk
20-25 pcs of apricot, coreless
50gm caster sugar for coating
cinnamon for coating

Method :-
Mix the yeast with 20gm sugar in the milk. Set aside for few minutes.
Next, add flour, 30gm sugar, egg, melted butter, zest of lemon and set it aside at a warm place for 40 minutes.
Roll out the dough on a floured board, cut it into pieces and the fill them with half-cut apricot pieces.
Fry the balls in rich, hot oil and coating the doughnut with cinnamon powdered sugar.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Don't throw away the bread!

Hungarians are extremely fond of their bread. The Hungarian bread is delicious and essential for the kitchen. Most importantly they must be served fresh especially when eating with stew and goulash. That said, we do have quite high wastages in terms of stale bread. Well, to reduce the amount of bread being just discarded, its better to make them in to pudding once in blue moon, don't you think?

Verdict : Considering that I haven't actually tasted this before in my life, it was overall a good experience trying for this recipe. Aside that its too sweet to my taste, the positive is the roasted texture on top combined with moist bread inside..simply Lovely!



Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Serves 8.

12 slices day-old baguette; cut into 3/4-inch
4 eggs; room temprature
1/2 cup light brown sugar; firmly packed
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
pinch Salt
4 cups milk
1/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins
confectioners' sugar; for dusting

Method

Lightly butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Spread the bread cubes in it.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until well blended. Pour in the milk and whisk until combined. Pour the mixture over the bread cubes. Let stand, pressing down on the bread occasionally, until it is evenly soaked, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat an oven to 350°F (Gas mark 4).

Scatter the cranberries evenly over the surface of the soaked bread and press to submerge the fruit. Set the baking dish in a large, shallow roasting pan. Add very hot tap water to the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish.

Bake the pudding until a knife inserted near the center comes out almost clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Generously dust the top of each slice with confectioners’ sugar.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Pita Pizza

Yet another easily prepared snack, Pita bread with pizza ingredients. We had this for breakfast this morning since I'm bored with the usual breakfast items. So, the next time you're in the supermarket, please don't forget to buy the pita bread and try making this at home. IMHO, it is as good as the pizza sold in pizzeria ;)

Let's get started! Preheat toaster/oven. Set bread on baking tray, first spread ketchup (or pizza ready made pizza sauce) as the base followed by shreded cheese (any type of cheese which easily melt). Then top with cuts of sausages and salami. Finished off with shreded cheese and mayonaise. Ready to toast.



See how wonderful it look (below). Remove from toaster/over when cheese has melted. You can put anything for the toppings. I don't think anything will go wrong with this tasty bread :)



Friday, August 25, 2006

Anniversary Brownies

A packet of pecan pieces started this baking session. It came all the way from the USA through food exchange project BBM3. That was 7 months ago. Afraid that it will turn bad, I decided to bake the recipe included at the back of the packet.

The brownies turn out great! A tad too sweet, but great first :) After its cooled, dark chocolate icing was added to tone down the sweetness. What a wonderful dessert for our anniversary ;)..
update : tasted even better after overnight in the fridge ..yummilicious !

Fudge Brownies
make : 16 squares

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter or margerine
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 sq. (1 oz) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup sifted flour
56gm pecan pieces

Method
cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat in eggs. Blend in chocolate. Stir in flour and pecans. Bake in a greased 8x8x2-inch pan at 325°F (gas mark 3) for 30-35 minutes. Cool.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Substitution - Spring roll fillings

As the remaining filo pastry in the fridge nearing its expiry date, I needed fillings for the pastry. Sweet or savoury? No contest, of course savoury ;p
First thought popiah a.k.a. spring roll 's filling. The photo you see in the link is the wet version while I made the baked version since I'm using filo pastry . By the way, can filo pastry be fried?

Again this is a "what you see, what you get" recipe. The recipe requires turnip which is not available here. So, I've experiment with Hungarian turnip and still tasted pretty much the same. I'm happy with the outcome...woohoo! I can have spring rolls whenever I crave for them :)

Fillings :-
Carrots (shreded)
Turnip (shreded) (substitute with Hungarian turnip)
onions (chopped finely)
Green peas
Chinese sausages which has a sweet base (in this case, I've substitute Hungarian sausages )
seasoning to taste - salt, peppper, sugar

Friday, August 18, 2006

From the Hungarian kitchen

Eating out for us means fast food, pizzas, burgers, chinese, Indonesian, Indian*,etc. We hardly try-out Hungarian food in restaurants. Reason being, we get to eat home-made Hungarian dishes cooked by B's (my partner) parents. Most of them are quite tasty and suit to my taste. I do have my favourites and today's recipe is one of them.



Hungarian Mushroom Chicken (Gombás Csirke)

Ingredients (serves 4)
12pcs chicken wings (small-sized) or 8 pcs. pork chop
500gm of mushrooms
2 medium-sized Onions
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
3/4 soup bowl of flour
1 1/2 small wooden ladle spoon of paprika
1 small wooden ladle of vegeta (seasoning)
500ml of water
lots of parsley, chop finely
dash of cumin

Method
1) coat meat with flour, pan fry with some oil for about 10 mins. Set aside.

2) Use remaining oil from the pan to sweat onions. Followed by adding mushrooms and a dash of cumin, stir fry for some minutes. In the same pan, make a hole in the middle and pour in the flour and mix well. Next put in the paprika, pour in about 300ml of water, seasoning and garlic continue to stir for awhile, pour remaining of water.

3) Finally put in the meat and let it simmer. Before serving sprikle the parsley into the dish

This dish is great with pasta, and of course best eaten with some sour cream..I guarantee you'll like it :)

*only in Budapest

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Easy peesy pie

mmm..all my favourite ingredients - mushrooms, green peas, cheese dumped into this pie shell, in addition, some mince meats and seasoning and VOILA! easy, aint it?! ;D

How to make the pie shell …

Makes about 24 tarts

INGREDIENTS:

Pastry:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup lard
1/3 cup butter
4 tablespoons hot water, or as needed

PREPARATION:

1) Preheat the oven to 325°F degrees (gas mark 3) and grease the tart pans.

2) Cut the lard. Use a sifter to sift the flour into a large bowl. Work the lard and butter into the flour with the tips of your fingers, until the mixture has the appearance of coarse breadcrumbs. kneading, adding the hot water. Roll the dough into a large ball, cover with wax paper

3) On a large, lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is very thin (about 1/8-inch or 3 to 4 mm thick). Cut the dough in half before rolling out if needed. Use a pastry cutter to cut out 18 circles that are 3-inches in diameter. Fit the circles into the tart shells.

4) Pour the filling into the shells. Bake for about 35 minutes. Then leave to cool.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Working with Filo

A couple of weeks ago, while crusing the local market, I found a 6-pc pack filo sheets. Boy! was I happy 'cos all i've seen on the shelves are the 18-pc pack ones. How not to buy it?! Without having a clue what I'd do with them, I already paid for them. The next thing I knew, the packet was forgotten and will soon expired. In the state of not wanting to waste, I wisked up apple filling, roll them up and baked them in the oven. BIG mistake! some of them turned out okay while others are non-edible :p i.e. the sheets tasted like paper!

Erm.. a second packet soon make way into my fridge :D However, this time I did googled for more info. on cooking the sheets. Following Dilip's method was a success! The link is now safely saved in my 'favourites' ..ooh, the next batch shall be using them for spring rolls! Stay tune:)

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Pibim Pap imitation

You know sometimes when you see a dish that you really fancy in magazines, etc..but it didn't come with a recipe, what do you do? Me, imitate!! I'll lock that dish in mind or if i'm not tooo lazy to get a pen and paper, i'll quickly write down with guesses on what goes into the mysterious dish and hopefully be able to cook it as soon as possible ;)

So, the following dish was inspired under similar situation..Tadaa! my version of Pibim Pap!


Pibim pap is Korean and it simply means mixed (=pibim) rice (=pap) . After researching online, the way to eat this meal is to mix the rice/vege whatnots thoroughly with spoon or in this case, chopsticks. See here for the original serving of pibim pap.

I didn't bother to look for the actual recipe, the ingredient was "what you see is what you get" basis minus some bits which are not available in the 'super' i.e. a bit of Hungarian pickled cabage, 1 egg -sunny side-up, spring onions, toasted sesame and dash of soya sauce and its ready!

The crunchy soury taste of pickled vege. and everything else matches so well, an appetising comfort food, and a keeper for those lazy days.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Rice in cream

That's the translated name of "nasi lemak", the supposedly national dish of Malaysia. Nasi lemak is a dish of rice cooked in coconut cream/milk. Fried anchovies, egg, spicy chili sauce (sambal),peanuts and cucumber are the basic condiments to go with the rice. Of course you have the choice of more side dishes.

Believe it or not, this rich dish is one of Malaysian's favourite breakfasts! The breakfast version is lighter, with simpler condiments. It's usually not cooked at home as it's available at hawker stalls/restaurants and road side stalls at anytime of day. Some of the sellers are so famous that many don't mind travelling far just to sample their favourite food ;)

Enough of intro., already. The recipe I'm sharing is going to be for the spicy chili sauce that goes with the rice. ..pulling this photo from the archive made me crave the medley of creamy rice and spicy *drool* I can't wait to taste the authentic ones back home ..

Spicy Eggs (Acar Telur)
More like a sambal, the thick gravy is sweet, sourish and spicy. It is very appetising and takes off the heavy edge from the nasi lemak.

Ingredients
5 eggs, hard boiled

Ground ingredients:

5 cloves garlic
5 shallots
1 big onion
2cm knob ginger

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons cili boh*
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Method
1. Shell the hard-boiled eggs and heat enough oil in a wok to deep fry the eggs until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

2. Blend, or pound the ground ingredients to a paste.

3. Heat oil in a wok and saute the ground ingredients until fragrant.

4. Add the cili boh. Fry until aromatic before adding the eggs, vinegar and tomato ketchup. Season to taste with sugar and salt.


*dried chili pound into paste

Cooking Rice Noodles

Finding asian cooking ingredients here hasn't been easy. Fortunately, Tesco has a section of shelves that fulfil my needs. Though the supplies are limited, they do stocked general ingredients i.e. the soya sauce, curry powder, various instant sauces, etc. One of the best finds is rice noodle. This rice noodle is not quite like the fine rice vermicelli but some what similar to kway teow.

On the packing, it suggested to pour any flavour of hot soup over the rice noodle. However, for my taste, I prefer dry version instead. The following recipe was inspired whilst watching
Nigella 's cooking programme with minor additions.

As you can see, I've prepared a small portion of each ingredients as we're going to toss these ingredients with the ready noodles. Clockwise - stir fried mince pork, toasted sesame seeds, stir fried button mushrooms, fried onions in oil, finally spring onions.

Usually, the tossing is done for one portion of noodle. In an empty bowl, first put the fried onions in oil, mushrooms, mince pork, dash of soya sauce and pepper to taste, mix the ingredient, then put in the rice noodles, toss til consistent, finished off with a sprinkle of spring onions and sesame seeds. Repeat the same for 2nd portion. This way, the unfinished ingredients can be kept in the fridge and heated up until the next meal :)

Verdict : the rice noodle were smooth and firm. Slurping was very easy! Give it a try :)

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Tiramisu


To start the ball rolling, what I'll do is gather all food photos that i've posted in various on-line sites and re-post them in the next few days incorporating the recipes. First stop, Tiramisu!

This is my first tiramisu recipe that I've ever made and tasted nearest to the ones served in an Italian restaurant I once worked in. They are absolutely addictive! Cream is rich with a hint of rum..yum! Hope you'll try it and let me know your verdic :-)

Ingredients:
4 cartons (1x250g) mascarpone cheese
41g castor sugar3 eggs, separated
250ml kahlua or other coffee-flavoured liqueur
425ml very strong cold black coffee
30 sponge fingerscocoa powder, for sprinkling

Method:
1. Put the mascarpone cheese, sugar and egg yolks in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until evenly blended

2. Whisk the egg whites until standing in stiff peaks. Fold into the mascarone mixture until evenly incorporated. Spoon a quarter of the mixture into the base of a glass serving bowl.

3. Mix the liqueur and coffee together in shallow dish.

4. One at a time, dip one the sponge fingers in this mixture for 10-15 seconds, turning once so they become soaked through but do not lose their shape.

5. After each one has been dipped , place it on top of the mascarpone in the bowl, making a single layer of sponge fingers that covers the mascarpone completely.

6. Continue to layer the mascarpone mixture and sponge fingers alternatively, finishing off with the mascarpone.

7. Sift cocoa powder liberally over the top.

8. Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Serve chilled.

Good luck!

Monday, August 07, 2006

Pilot

What better ways to keep tap of all my culinary experiences than starting a food blog? hmmm.. may be not all i.e. failures or ugly photos won't be recorded :D Okay, that is not true! I will make a note whenever I find the time and mood for it.

To anyone out there who is reading this :-
Welcome to kitchen at #19, my little cyber kitchen!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Comfort!


one of the places to visit whilst in Budapest for us is KFC! I tell you it was all worth it going through the hassle of tracking down the only one KFC in the city.
When entering the outlet, you'll immediately noticed the dull ambience, not very KFC-like with bright lited box, colonel sanders plastered around. The neglecting ambience is probably due to fact colonel sanders is relatively unknown here..people prefer the more trendy McD and B King, I guess.

But who cares! I came for the chicken! the crispy deep-fried chicken! I know i know its not healthy..be moderate and I should be fine :p Yummy, it was! I smothered some coleslaw on the chicken and its ooh la la! So yummy, the next morning we decided to pack this christmas set and eat it as brunch...finger lickin' good ;)

Thursday, December 14, 2006

what to eat before you die ?

A tough question to answer! at least for me...here's an idea of what others voted for, compiled by BBC "50 things to eat before you die"..scanning the list, wow! I did good! what about you?

50 cornish pasty 49 caviar 48 haggis 47 jerk chicken/pork 46 tapas
45 roast beef
44 ribs 43 octopus 42 Durian 41 mango
40 Australian meat pie 39 scallops 38 kebab 37 reindeer 36 barramundi
35 paela 34 sushi 33 shark 32 guinea pig 31 venison
30 salmon 29 american diner breakfast 28 squid 27 mexican food 26 burgers

25 Greek food 24 sandwiches 23 chocolate 22 kangaroo 21 oyster
20 alligator
19 cream tea 18 lamb 17 cheesecake 16 mussels
15 pasta 14 pancake 13 barbeque 12 clam chowder
11 Moreton Bay bugs
10 Prawn 9 Curry 8 Crab 7 Pizza 6 Ice cream

5 Chinese food 4 Thai food 3 Steak 2 Lobster
1 Fresh fish

Monday, November 13, 2006

Baklava

I love anything crispy, therefore, preparing snacks with filo sheets can be addictive. It's so easy. Throw in any sweet, or savoury fillings, ensure you treat the filo sheets right, throw in the oven cook til golden brown (first grease it of course). You'll get your snack in jiffy and less oily!

Making baklava which uses 30 filo sheets required more "courage" for me, though. In the end, the anxiety was worth it. Not as good as the ones you get in the shop :p but am PROUD and very sure i'll get it better the next time. Do try this at home, i insist !


Baklava

Ingredients:
30 pieces of filo (strudel) sheet
150gm margarine
300gm ground walnut
100gm sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150gm honey

for the syrup:
1 lemon
100gm honey

Method :-
Pre-heat oven gas mark 3
Heat up the honey with sugar, walnut and cinnamon.
Grease a baking pan, which is the same size as the filo (strudel) sheets, with the margarine.
Put two filo sheets inside, then spread margarine on them, then put two other filo sheets and
so on until 10 sheets. Put half of the walnut filling on it, then 10 new filo sheets again, then the other half of the walnut filling, then the remaining 10 sheets.
Spread some margarin on it in slices with a sharp knife.
Bake it until it has golden yellow colour. (approx 20 mins.)
Pour hot honey and lemon juice – previously boiled in 2-3 dl water - on it.

Friday, November 03, 2006

appetising...

I attempted cook this yesterday. Now who would have thought things can go wrong with such a easy peesy recipe? The rice became mushy when i poured in the sardines, perhaps it is the type of rice and the method of which the rice was prepared (no one uses rice cooker here..can't even find it in electronic shops :(. Then, the canned sardines were tasteless (no ayam brand!!) not tomato-ish enough. In the end, the dish was saved by a simple side dipping sauce of
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sliced chilli with soya sauce saved the day! ;)

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

kohlrabi

In German it means, kohl (cabbage) plus rabi (turnip). I'm curious, can you get this in your country? I'm asking because the vege. is alien to me until I arrived here. They are popular in Hungarian househoulds and great in soup :) In desparation, I use it to substitute turnip when I made spring rolls few months back. Boy! was I glad that it turned out as good as using turnip.
Perhaps you can try a salad
recipe by Rick stein.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Asian Jam

"Kaya" a type of jam made of eggs, coconut milk and sugar. The word "kaya" means "rich" in Malay. Not sure how the name was derived. All I remember was as much as we (siblings) love the jam, we dread whenever mom decides to cook it. It takes ages to thicken to the consistency required. As mom gets older, she stopped making it and anyway, its easily available at the markets these days.

welll, I finally got into action in trying this recipe. I was ready for some serious hand exercise. Surprising, it only took me 2 hours all in to achieve the texture required ;)


Eat it like any jam ; however, it is best with toasted bread, combined with magarine (or a slap of cold butter) a.k.a Hainanese toast. Try it and you'll love it.

Recipe from
here

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup sugar *too sweet for my taste
1 1/3 cup coconut milk (fresh / canned)
5 eggs (XL size) *fresh

Beat eggs and sugar till well blended.
Cook in a slow cooker over low heat.
When slightly thickened, pour in coconut milk in a thin stream.
Stir well until liquid mixture is thick and gooey.
The color should have changed from yellow to a darker shade in 1-2 hours of constant stirring

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Sweet potatoes ...

Let me present what a 800-gm sweet potato yield ...


0

1) Sweet Potatoes Fritters
At home this snack is easily obtained by the road-sides. If you crave for it, just drive (walking makes you sweaty) along some residential road you're bound to come across road-side sellers of various fritters delight.

What goes into the batter was an estimation. I used plain flour, an egg, pinch of salt and water to adjust the consistency of batter. I suggest to just lightly coat (texture as tempura) the sweet potatoes before deep-frying in oil.

2) Sweet Potatoes Scones
My first scone recipe, I was quite happy with how it turned out in terms of looks ; however, the taste was too bland in comparison to usual scones, with just little hint of sweet potatoes. So wil not include the recipe here.


3) Sweet Potatoes soup
A sweet soup a.k.a in cantonese "tong sui". Basically, diced the sweet potatoes, boil in water with a few slices of ginger. Add coconut milk ,stir for sometime before switchig off the fire. You may add diced yam,
sago and pandanus leaves if its available to you.

That's it. It was 3 satisfying experience. Not bad for just one sweet potatoe, eh?

Mrs. Becky, a visitor of this blog has been kind enough to share with me one of her recipes which I've extracted below. I shall try it when the next opportunity arise :)

Here's arough "recipe" for it:
1 small onion, sauteed in olive oil or butter.
Then add 3-4 carrots, peeled and cut into med size along with
1 medsized sweet potatos of any variety, cut the same size.
Add 1.5 to 2 L of vegetable stock or chicken stock.
Add 2 pieces of ginger cut into 1cm or so slices.
Salt a bit.
Cook until veg are tender.
Fish out ginger then puree the veg in a blender with a bit of thestock.
Thin it with as much stock as you need for good consistency.
It should stck to the spoon but not be so thick that it resembles babyfood.
Add a squeeze of lemon at the end.
Adjust flavor with salt and pepper.
You can add butter at the end if you want more body or play around withthe flavors with different spices.
Curry or coconut milk goes verywell with it, too.
I've also made it vegan with a bit of white misoadded at the end for smoky, cheesy flavor.


Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Hummingbird, why?

Baking a new type of cake for the first time is exciting,
baking a new type of cake for the first time on someone else's Birthday is nerve wrecking!!

One week before my partner's birthday, I started to surf around food blogs for that special cake (after all is for that special one *goosebump* lol). That should give me plenty of time to ask questions from the blog author. Perusing food blog,
cafe of the east was most fruitful. The author has many unique varieties, plus she gives lots of useful tips. My choice finally, Hummingbird cake. Tadaaa!
also, do check out the lovely cake baked by cafe of the East

I did faced a few glitches when preparing for the cake, for instance we mistaken nutmeg with walnut due to mix up of translation! Then, walnut is apparently out of season..finally, almond was used as a substitute....bla bla bla..some other glitches, i wont bore you

verdict :
There'll be a next time :) its very much like carrot cake, yum yum!
despite the use of pineapple syrup not juice, it didnt turn out too sweet.
The cheese cream frosting didnt taste as I imagine, perhaps I didnt buy a good brand? next round I shall use "Philidelphia" brand.


Hummingbird Cake
Makes one 20cm cake.

[Ingredients]
Cake:
150g plain flour, sifted
75g self-raising flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarb. of soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
220g (1 cup) caster sugar, sifted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
125ml (1/2 cup) canola or corn oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 (about 225g after peeling) firm ripe bananas, diced
200g drained, crushed pineapple + 60ml pineapple juice, from 440g-can crushed pineapple in natural juice
50g (scant 1/2 cup) chopped pecans or walnuts
Cream Cheese Frosting:
60g cream cheese, softened
30g butter, softened
80g (1/2 cup) pure icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

[Preparation]
Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20cm round or square cake tin.
2. Drain the crushed pineapple, reserve 60ml drained juice for the cake. Weigh out 200g of the drained crushed pineapple, do not squeeze the pineapple to remove excess juice. Slice each banana lengthway into 4 quarters, then cut into approximately 5mm thick chunks.
3. Combine all dry ingredients. Add lightly beaten eggs, pineapple juice, oil and vanilla, fold in lightly to combine. Fold in chopped banana, crushed pineapple and nuts.
4. Pour batter into the prepared tin and bake for 60 to 70 minutes. Stand 20 to 30 minutes before turning out. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting before serving.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Message to Ma

hey, ma! guess what's my recent food purchase is?
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hehehe, dont fell off the seat! We got this at another city last w/end and I tell you the size is huge! not forgetting the shocking price as well! It's so precious I'm planning carefully what to do with it. Stay tune ;)

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Take away Baklava

I figure different countries must have different ways of packing pastries for take aways, I thought I'd show you how ours look like.

Since we do not have any fancy franchise outlets here, the packing is more or less similar between shops, using basic wrapper like the photo below. However not all shops use this, which is already considered "fancier" than others


Unwrapping it, reveals the base made out of card board, for larger quantities , a bigger base is used. You can not see it but on top of the pastries, is a piece of transparent sheet to shield the pastry from direct contact with the wrapper..


To those who are unfamiliar with what pastry this is, its baklava, a type of dessert originated from Greek or Syria. I'm currently hooked on this sweet dessert made out of nuts, honey with layers of filo sheets. This particular bakery where I bought the baklava sells tiny small piece per serving, so we usually have to buy 2 instead of usual one (we're on diet) ..good trick to sell more :p)

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

New addition to kitchen

After one year of searching high and low for this sauce, just when I'm about to give up, I stumbled upon it at the local organic shop..duh?! As a child, I wasn't a fan of this sauce. I remember my dad love adding anything and everything with fish sauce. But the smell was just too strong. Why then I buy it? , you may ask.. well, I LOVE thai cuisine! I have in my vault many thai recipes that i hope to try out soon with this new gem in the kitchen :)

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Simple one pot dish

Watching RickStein's food heroes on BBC has been such a pleasure. He talks about food with such passion. Further, his recipes are straight forward, often so simple its all about letting the natural flavour shine through. This is something I learnt from one of the episodes, I didn't even need to take down the recipe, it's so easy, its in my mind! Err....ok, I did checked on-line to be sure I didnt leave out any important ingredients :DFirst brown the mutton / lamb / pork (spare ribs). Grease a pot with butter, cover the bottom of the pot begining with a layer of potatoes (cut round), followed by slices of onions, next put the browned meat, a stig of thyme, carots, repeat again with slices of onions, seasoning. Finished off with potatoes at the top, again with seasoning. Bake at low heat (gas mark 2) about 1-1 1/2 hours (for pork), 2-3 hours for mutton/lamb.


Simple English HOT POT

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Purple vegetables

what else? eggplants a.k.a aubergines. First, please allow the photos to speaks for itself..





Eggplant is not particularly a favourite of mine. It's just that for the lack of varieties of vegetables here, I welcome some colours and different taste. As far as I can remember, aubergines is usually fried over high heat then topped with the spicy chillies. Oh, I love them in curries as well! However, this time round, I'm choosing a healthier method of preparation without compromising on the taste.

Method :-
1) Pre-heat oven at 220°c (gas mark 7)
2) Cut aubergines in to any shapes you prefer, leave the skin on.
3) Place aubergines on baking tray and brush with olive oil, bake each side for 10 mins.
4) Prepare topping - dice onions, tomatoes, paprika (red & green for colours), sauté with some oil, season with salt, pepper & sugar
5) spoon topping onto aubergines, finished off with cheese. Leave in oven for another 5 mins. or until cheese melts.

Voila!

Friday, September 08, 2006

Crazy about beans

can't believe a packet of green mung beans managed to make my day! Moments ago, we went to the organic shop for tofu. This has been the second time I enter this shop. The first was at least eight months ago, for the same intention - to buy tofu. Boy, was I glad that we took time to browse around (B's idea, i was too lazy). My first word when I saw the beans on the shelf was "OMG!!! OMG!!!" I never thought I would react this way over a common staple item from my tropical home and that it can lift my spirit so much. Next of course, I was shocked at the price that they charged! For a 500g packet, the price was about 2Euro, which I think its about 800% higher than what we pay in Msia :o
The green mung beans, as my mom told us, is believe to have a cooling effect for the body. It is especially benefial to boil some as dessert to help reduce the body heat during summer. I must admit the look of the cooked beans is not exactly appetising and may not be everyone's "cup of tea". That said, I do hope you'll try the recipe included below to decide for yourself.
I boil a simple version without milk

Green Mung Beans with Gula Melaka and Coconut Milk
Recipe by Amy Beh (
link)

Ingredients
200g Gula Melaka (palm sugar), chopped
1 cup water
300g green mung beans, soaked for 1 to 2 hours and drained
100g castor sugar
1.5 litres water
2 pandan leaves, knotted

Combine and squeeze to get santan (coconut milk):
1 grated coconut
1 cup water
1/4tsp salt

Method :-
Boil gula melaka (palm sugar) and water in a saucepan until sugar has dissolved completely. Strain the syrup and set aside.

Combine mung beans, sugar and water in a deep pot. Bring to a boil for 20-25 minutes. Add syrup to the mung beans and simmer over low heat for 20-25 minutes or until the beans are soft and the liquid in the pan is reduced to half.

Stir in coconut milk, add the salt and bring to a low boil. Serve this sweet dessert either hot or if preferred, cold.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Doughnut .....wannabe

The end result of this recipe should look like the photo in this page! My re-production is flat in shape which seem more like a pan-cake! The texture of the "dough" was watery. I have no idea what went wrong. In an effort to thicken the mixture, more flour was added. Not too much though as you wouldn't want it to turn out hard. With the slightly wet texture, I couldn't possibly wrap the fruit into the dough, so I chose to mash the fruit instead.
Verdict : despite all the alteration to the original recipe, the doughnut turned out to be light and fluffy. Quite addictive, actually ;)
the cinnamon powder has gone missing, so only caster sugar was used for coating the dougnut

see the mushy mixture?
biting into moist of bananas

Apricot Doughnut

Ingredients :-
250 gm flour
50 gm sugar
1 lemon zest
1 egg
50 gm butter
20 gm yeast
250 ml milk
20-25 pcs of apricot, coreless
50gm caster sugar for coating
cinnamon for coating

Method :-
Mix the yeast with 20gm sugar in the milk. Set aside for few minutes.
Next, add flour, 30gm sugar, egg, melted butter, zest of lemon and set it aside at a warm place for 40 minutes.
Roll out the dough on a floured board, cut it into pieces and the fill them with half-cut apricot pieces.
Fry the balls in rich, hot oil and coating the doughnut with cinnamon powdered sugar.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Don't throw away the bread!

Hungarians are extremely fond of their bread. The Hungarian bread is delicious and essential for the kitchen. Most importantly they must be served fresh especially when eating with stew and goulash. That said, we do have quite high wastages in terms of stale bread. Well, to reduce the amount of bread being just discarded, its better to make them in to pudding once in blue moon, don't you think?

Verdict : Considering that I haven't actually tasted this before in my life, it was overall a good experience trying for this recipe. Aside that its too sweet to my taste, the positive is the roasted texture on top combined with moist bread inside..simply Lovely!



Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Serves 8.

12 slices day-old baguette; cut into 3/4-inch
4 eggs; room temprature
1/2 cup light brown sugar; firmly packed
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
pinch Salt
4 cups milk
1/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins
confectioners' sugar; for dusting

Method

Lightly butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Spread the bread cubes in it.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until well blended. Pour in the milk and whisk until combined. Pour the mixture over the bread cubes. Let stand, pressing down on the bread occasionally, until it is evenly soaked, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat an oven to 350°F (Gas mark 4).

Scatter the cranberries evenly over the surface of the soaked bread and press to submerge the fruit. Set the baking dish in a large, shallow roasting pan. Add very hot tap water to the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish.

Bake the pudding until a knife inserted near the center comes out almost clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Generously dust the top of each slice with confectioners’ sugar.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Pita Pizza

Yet another easily prepared snack, Pita bread with pizza ingredients. We had this for breakfast this morning since I'm bored with the usual breakfast items. So, the next time you're in the supermarket, please don't forget to buy the pita bread and try making this at home. IMHO, it is as good as the pizza sold in pizzeria ;)

Let's get started! Preheat toaster/oven. Set bread on baking tray, first spread ketchup (or pizza ready made pizza sauce) as the base followed by shreded cheese (any type of cheese which easily melt). Then top with cuts of sausages and salami. Finished off with shreded cheese and mayonaise. Ready to toast.



See how wonderful it look (below). Remove from toaster/over when cheese has melted. You can put anything for the toppings. I don't think anything will go wrong with this tasty bread :)



Friday, August 25, 2006

Anniversary Brownies

A packet of pecan pieces started this baking session. It came all the way from the USA through food exchange project BBM3. That was 7 months ago. Afraid that it will turn bad, I decided to bake the recipe included at the back of the packet.

The brownies turn out great! A tad too sweet, but great first :) After its cooled, dark chocolate icing was added to tone down the sweetness. What a wonderful dessert for our anniversary ;)..
update : tasted even better after overnight in the fridge ..yummilicious !

Fudge Brownies
make : 16 squares

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter or margerine
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 sq. (1 oz) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup sifted flour
56gm pecan pieces

Method
cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat in eggs. Blend in chocolate. Stir in flour and pecans. Bake in a greased 8x8x2-inch pan at 325°F (gas mark 3) for 30-35 minutes. Cool.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Substitution - Spring roll fillings

As the remaining filo pastry in the fridge nearing its expiry date, I needed fillings for the pastry. Sweet or savoury? No contest, of course savoury ;p
First thought popiah a.k.a. spring roll 's filling. The photo you see in the link is the wet version while I made the baked version since I'm using filo pastry . By the way, can filo pastry be fried?

Again this is a "what you see, what you get" recipe. The recipe requires turnip which is not available here. So, I've experiment with Hungarian turnip and still tasted pretty much the same. I'm happy with the outcome...woohoo! I can have spring rolls whenever I crave for them :)

Fillings :-
Carrots (shreded)
Turnip (shreded) (substitute with Hungarian turnip)
onions (chopped finely)
Green peas
Chinese sausages which has a sweet base (in this case, I've substitute Hungarian sausages )
seasoning to taste - salt, peppper, sugar

Friday, August 18, 2006

From the Hungarian kitchen

Eating out for us means fast food, pizzas, burgers, chinese, Indonesian, Indian*,etc. We hardly try-out Hungarian food in restaurants. Reason being, we get to eat home-made Hungarian dishes cooked by B's (my partner) parents. Most of them are quite tasty and suit to my taste. I do have my favourites and today's recipe is one of them.



Hungarian Mushroom Chicken (Gombás Csirke)

Ingredients (serves 4)
12pcs chicken wings (small-sized) or 8 pcs. pork chop
500gm of mushrooms
2 medium-sized Onions
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
3/4 soup bowl of flour
1 1/2 small wooden ladle spoon of paprika
1 small wooden ladle of vegeta (seasoning)
500ml of water
lots of parsley, chop finely
dash of cumin

Method
1) coat meat with flour, pan fry with some oil for about 10 mins. Set aside.

2) Use remaining oil from the pan to sweat onions. Followed by adding mushrooms and a dash of cumin, stir fry for some minutes. In the same pan, make a hole in the middle and pour in the flour and mix well. Next put in the paprika, pour in about 300ml of water, seasoning and garlic continue to stir for awhile, pour remaining of water.

3) Finally put in the meat and let it simmer. Before serving sprikle the parsley into the dish

This dish is great with pasta, and of course best eaten with some sour cream..I guarantee you'll like it :)

*only in Budapest

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Easy peesy pie

mmm..all my favourite ingredients - mushrooms, green peas, cheese dumped into this pie shell, in addition, some mince meats and seasoning and VOILA! easy, aint it?! ;D

How to make the pie shell …

Makes about 24 tarts

INGREDIENTS:

Pastry:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup lard
1/3 cup butter
4 tablespoons hot water, or as needed

PREPARATION:

1) Preheat the oven to 325°F degrees (gas mark 3) and grease the tart pans.

2) Cut the lard. Use a sifter to sift the flour into a large bowl. Work the lard and butter into the flour with the tips of your fingers, until the mixture has the appearance of coarse breadcrumbs. kneading, adding the hot water. Roll the dough into a large ball, cover with wax paper

3) On a large, lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is very thin (about 1/8-inch or 3 to 4 mm thick). Cut the dough in half before rolling out if needed. Use a pastry cutter to cut out 18 circles that are 3-inches in diameter. Fit the circles into the tart shells.

4) Pour the filling into the shells. Bake for about 35 minutes. Then leave to cool.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Working with Filo

A couple of weeks ago, while crusing the local market, I found a 6-pc pack filo sheets. Boy! was I happy 'cos all i've seen on the shelves are the 18-pc pack ones. How not to buy it?! Without having a clue what I'd do with them, I already paid for them. The next thing I knew, the packet was forgotten and will soon expired. In the state of not wanting to waste, I wisked up apple filling, roll them up and baked them in the oven. BIG mistake! some of them turned out okay while others are non-edible :p i.e. the sheets tasted like paper!

Erm.. a second packet soon make way into my fridge :D However, this time I did googled for more info. on cooking the sheets. Following Dilip's method was a success! The link is now safely saved in my 'favourites' ..ooh, the next batch shall be using them for spring rolls! Stay tune:)

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Pibim Pap imitation

You know sometimes when you see a dish that you really fancy in magazines, etc..but it didn't come with a recipe, what do you do? Me, imitate!! I'll lock that dish in mind or if i'm not tooo lazy to get a pen and paper, i'll quickly write down with guesses on what goes into the mysterious dish and hopefully be able to cook it as soon as possible ;)

So, the following dish was inspired under similar situation..Tadaa! my version of Pibim Pap!


Pibim pap is Korean and it simply means mixed (=pibim) rice (=pap) . After researching online, the way to eat this meal is to mix the rice/vege whatnots thoroughly with spoon or in this case, chopsticks. See here for the original serving of pibim pap.

I didn't bother to look for the actual recipe, the ingredient was "what you see is what you get" basis minus some bits which are not available in the 'super' i.e. a bit of Hungarian pickled cabage, 1 egg -sunny side-up, spring onions, toasted sesame and dash of soya sauce and its ready!

The crunchy soury taste of pickled vege. and everything else matches so well, an appetising comfort food, and a keeper for those lazy days.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Rice in cream

That's the translated name of "nasi lemak", the supposedly national dish of Malaysia. Nasi lemak is a dish of rice cooked in coconut cream/milk. Fried anchovies, egg, spicy chili sauce (sambal),peanuts and cucumber are the basic condiments to go with the rice. Of course you have the choice of more side dishes.

Believe it or not, this rich dish is one of Malaysian's favourite breakfasts! The breakfast version is lighter, with simpler condiments. It's usually not cooked at home as it's available at hawker stalls/restaurants and road side stalls at anytime of day. Some of the sellers are so famous that many don't mind travelling far just to sample their favourite food ;)

Enough of intro., already. The recipe I'm sharing is going to be for the spicy chili sauce that goes with the rice. ..pulling this photo from the archive made me crave the medley of creamy rice and spicy *drool* I can't wait to taste the authentic ones back home ..

Spicy Eggs (Acar Telur)
More like a sambal, the thick gravy is sweet, sourish and spicy. It is very appetising and takes off the heavy edge from the nasi lemak.

Ingredients
5 eggs, hard boiled

Ground ingredients:

5 cloves garlic
5 shallots
1 big onion
2cm knob ginger

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons cili boh*
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Method
1. Shell the hard-boiled eggs and heat enough oil in a wok to deep fry the eggs until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

2. Blend, or pound the ground ingredients to a paste.

3. Heat oil in a wok and saute the ground ingredients until fragrant.

4. Add the cili boh. Fry until aromatic before adding the eggs, vinegar and tomato ketchup. Season to taste with sugar and salt.


*dried chili pound into paste

Cooking Rice Noodles

Finding asian cooking ingredients here hasn't been easy. Fortunately, Tesco has a section of shelves that fulfil my needs. Though the supplies are limited, they do stocked general ingredients i.e. the soya sauce, curry powder, various instant sauces, etc. One of the best finds is rice noodle. This rice noodle is not quite like the fine rice vermicelli but some what similar to kway teow.

On the packing, it suggested to pour any flavour of hot soup over the rice noodle. However, for my taste, I prefer dry version instead. The following recipe was inspired whilst watching
Nigella 's cooking programme with minor additions.

As you can see, I've prepared a small portion of each ingredients as we're going to toss these ingredients with the ready noodles. Clockwise - stir fried mince pork, toasted sesame seeds, stir fried button mushrooms, fried onions in oil, finally spring onions.

Usually, the tossing is done for one portion of noodle. In an empty bowl, first put the fried onions in oil, mushrooms, mince pork, dash of soya sauce and pepper to taste, mix the ingredient, then put in the rice noodles, toss til consistent, finished off with a sprinkle of spring onions and sesame seeds. Repeat the same for 2nd portion. This way, the unfinished ingredients can be kept in the fridge and heated up until the next meal :)

Verdict : the rice noodle were smooth and firm. Slurping was very easy! Give it a try :)

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Tiramisu


To start the ball rolling, what I'll do is gather all food photos that i've posted in various on-line sites and re-post them in the next few days incorporating the recipes. First stop, Tiramisu!

This is my first tiramisu recipe that I've ever made and tasted nearest to the ones served in an Italian restaurant I once worked in. They are absolutely addictive! Cream is rich with a hint of rum..yum! Hope you'll try it and let me know your verdic :-)

Ingredients:
4 cartons (1x250g) mascarpone cheese
41g castor sugar3 eggs, separated
250ml kahlua or other coffee-flavoured liqueur
425ml very strong cold black coffee
30 sponge fingerscocoa powder, for sprinkling

Method:
1. Put the mascarpone cheese, sugar and egg yolks in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until evenly blended

2. Whisk the egg whites until standing in stiff peaks. Fold into the mascarone mixture until evenly incorporated. Spoon a quarter of the mixture into the base of a glass serving bowl.

3. Mix the liqueur and coffee together in shallow dish.

4. One at a time, dip one the sponge fingers in this mixture for 10-15 seconds, turning once so they become soaked through but do not lose their shape.

5. After each one has been dipped , place it on top of the mascarpone in the bowl, making a single layer of sponge fingers that covers the mascarpone completely.

6. Continue to layer the mascarpone mixture and sponge fingers alternatively, finishing off with the mascarpone.

7. Sift cocoa powder liberally over the top.

8. Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Serve chilled.

Good luck!

Monday, August 07, 2006

Pilot

What better ways to keep tap of all my culinary experiences than starting a food blog? hmmm.. may be not all i.e. failures or ugly photos won't be recorded :D Okay, that is not true! I will make a note whenever I find the time and mood for it.

To anyone out there who is reading this :-
Welcome to kitchen at #19, my little cyber kitchen!