Homemade mini Chapati (Indian flatbread)

I just realized that Chapati is so easy to make, I learnt from an Indian girl who working in the mini market that usually I make my daily marketing. Just surprised that she prepared her Chapati in a healthy way, not adding any ghee oil but just vegetable oil.

Usually kids like mini thing, so I prepared into mini size, also easy for them to eat.


Homemade mini Chapati (Indian flatbread)*makes 15pcs
(printable recipe)
1cup whole wheat flour or Atta flour
1cup all purpose flour
170ml lukewarm water
1/2tsp salt
1tbsp vegetable oil

1. Knead all above ingredients to a soft ball for about 5mins, set aside for 30mins.
2. Equally divided into 15 small balls (40g each). Use a rolling pin to roll into thin circular bread.
3. Pan fry (without oil) over low flame in a non-stick frying pan till both sides cooked (you can see small bubbles on both sides).
4. Serve with curry.

**serve this mini Chapati with Mamak chicken curry, simply delicious..

Happy Cooking !!

Cherry banana smoothie

This morning I saw very fresh and big cherry selling in the pasar (wet market), can't resist to buy some eventhough the price is expensive. Thought to take some cherry to make some pie or tart, but since I just almost recovered from flu, i was runny nose the whole yesterday. I immediate prepare this smoothie today when I saw in a TV cooking show yesterday, i need all vitamins from these fresh fruits to boost my body energy....

-I learnt this from " Chef at home" , very nice, smooth and full of flavours!

Simple recipe to share:-

150g fresh cherries
4 bananas
700ml orange juices
140g natural flavour yogurt

1. Blend all above ingredients and enjoy !!


* I even made some frozen smoothie..

Enjoy your day !!

Classic chocolate cake

This is a chocolate cake well received by my family, very rich in chocolate, not too sweet and less oily, and I especially like the thin top crust. Personally I feel this cake taste even better when keep it overnight.

This recipe was adapted from a TV baking show- Rachel Allen, bake. She only use a wooden spatula to beat the cake mixture, I tried and it seem not that difficult to beat this way, so if you do not have a mixer, you also can bake this cake.

Original recipe required dark chocolate, but I replaced with semi-sweet chocolate since I have one. If you want to use dark chocolate, then increase sugar to 150g.

Classic chocolate cake
**for a 8” round cake tin
(printable recipe)

125g semi-sweet chocolate
3 tbsp milk
150g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
3 eggs
200g plain flour
1 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method
1. Line the base of cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Melt semi-sweet chocolate and milk over simmering water, set aside
3. Beat the butter until soft then add the sugar and continue beat till mixture is light and fluffy.
4. Add egg one at a time, mix well.
5. Add in melted chocolate, combine well.
6. Sift in the flour, baking powder and soda, and fold in gently to mix
7. Add in cocoa powder, slowly combine well. Pour cake mixture into cake tin.
8. Bake at pre-heated oven at 180c for 40mins or until a skewer come out clean.

Happy Baking !!

Steamed BBQ pork, scallop and cabbages

When my daughter and I watching this dish cooking in a TV cooking show recently, this dish made us salivate, my daughter asked me to cook this dish immediately after the show. Actually this dish usually served during Chinese New Year or wedding dinner due to the expensive ingredients and very time consuming.

Steamed BBQ pork, scallops and cabbages(printable recipe)

500g BBQ pork, cut thick slices
300g Chinese long cabbage (Nai Park), briefly blanch in boiling water till soften
12 dried whole scallops, soak in clean water several hours, and steam till soft
10 cloves garlic, pan fry till brown

1tbsp light soy sauce
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp Chinese wine

1. Arrange in a bowl by this sequence-scallops , BBQ pork slices, garlic and cabbages.
2. Pour in the scallop water and add seasonings.
3. Steam over high flame for 60mins.
4. Up side down dish with a serving plate, remove the sauce and cook and thickening with cornstarch /tapioca flour, pour over the sauce on the dish.
5. Serve hot with rice.

Happy Cooking !!

Chicken & Vegetables stew

Hi all, this is the Chicken & vegetable stew that I enjoyed with the yummy bagels. This is very similar to ABC soup (potato, carrot, tomato & chicken soup), but this is more flavourful.

I was adapted this recipe from Flavour Food Magazine wiht minor changes.

Chicken & Vegetables stew*makes 5 servings
(printable recipe)

8 big pieces of chicken
1 large onion, cut into thick wedges
2 ribs celery, cut into 3cm lengths
1 large carrots, peeled and cut into thick wedges
2 tomatoes, cut into thick wedges
300g pumpkin, cut into thick wedges
1 medium zucchini, cut into 2cm diagonal slices
200g fresh button, halved

1tsp dried thyme (if you have fresh thyme, add 2 sprigs)

1tsp ground cumin
1tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/4tsp ground black pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Marinate chicken with cumin, paprika, salt and black pepper for 30mins.
2. Pan fry chicken with little oil till browned, set aside.
3. In a saucepan or casserole, add 2tbsp Olive oil, add onion, celery and carrots, cook till pieces are browned around the edges.
4. Add tomatoes and thyme and cook for few minutes till tomatoes soften.
5. Return chicken to the pan and add just enough water to barely cover chicken.
6. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to boil, simmer for 15mins or chicken pieces are tender.
7. Add pumpkin, cook for 5mins. Add zucchini and fresh button, cook for another 5-7mins or until vegetables are tender.
8. Taste and adjust the seasonings,
9. Serve with bread, rice or paste on the side. The stew can be stored in the fridge in a covered container.

Poppy seeds Bagel

I always prefer a savoury bread rather than sweet bread, especially those with crispy crust and chewy texture, example like baguette and bagel. I have never seen bagels sell in bakery shop here, but luckily I found a good recipe and I baked some today and I can’t wait to share with you, it is too good and I love the texture very much!

Recipe was adapted from Honey Bee Sweets, but I replaced sesame seeds with poppy seeds. I have summary the recipe as per below, but please check out at her blog for more detail steps. Thanks to Bee Bee for kind sharing of this lovely recipe.

Actually I was not followed exactly to the recipe as I overlooked the step, I thought the recipe required mashed potato, so I put the whole potato with skin on in the boiling water but did not realized I need to cut into small cubes, so what I got was potato skin water but not potato water, hahaha..Luckily the bagels still turned out well.

Poppy seeds Bagel
(printable recipe)
1 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
500ml water

2 and 1/2tsp instant yeast
30ml vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
650g all purpose plain flour
1.5 tsp salt

Egg wash
Poppy seeds for sprinkling

Method:
1. Cook the potatoes in the boiling water, once done, remove potato from water, reserve water and let it cook till lukewarm.
2. Add yeast, oil, eggs and 250ml lukewarm potato water (from no 1, not potato but water), lightly whisk till well combine.
3. Add in flour and salt, knead the mixture till well combine and elastic, took about 10mins.
4. Placed the dough in oiled bowl and cover with cloth and set aside to proof till doubles in volume, take about 1hour.
5. Punch out the air and separate dough into 6 equal portions. Roll round and cover to rest for another 10mins.
6. Roll each piece of dough into a rope shape, flatten one end of the rope, overlapping the flat end over the round end, pinch together to seal. Repeat for the rest of the dough.
7. Bring water to boil over high flame. Place few bagels in the water and simmer for 1min for each side.
8. Transfer the bagels on a baking tray line with parchment paper.
9. Brush egg wash and sprinkle with poppy seeds.
10. Bake at pre-heated oven at 200c for 25mins.

I will enjoy this yummy bagels with chicken & vegetables stew for today's dinner (at this moment, I still not yet take my dinner), will share the chicken stew recipe in my next post, stay tuned!! Can’t wait to eat them…. yum, yum!!

Happy Cooking and Baking !!

roasted Cajun cauliflower

My kids especially Lucas love roasted cauliflower, especially with turmeric spices, but this time I tried with Cajun powder which I bought at the usual bakery ingredients shop.

Earlier I was adapted recipe from Teczcape-An escape to food, and usually I like to serve this with turmeric rice.

Roasted Cajun Cauliflower
(printable recipe)

300g cauliflower florets, blanched, dried on paper towels

Seasonings
1tsp Cajun powder
a pinch of salt
black pepper
2tbsp butter
1tbsp corn flour

Method
1. Grease roasting pan with butter
2. Place cauliflower and add seasonings.
3. Bake in oven at 200c for 15mins.

Happy Cooking !!

Teriyaki Salmon

Finally I managed to get a bottle of Japanese sake from Jusco (earlier failed to get one as I always searching at the Japanese foods section but not realized sake only sell at Alcohol section as this is non Halal item !!) . I immediately tried my kid’s favourite Teriyaki salmon, learnt how to cook this from a TV cooking show recently. Wor, the taste was exactly like those served in Japanese restaurant, sweet and flavourful, so next time we do not need to go Japanese restaurant to have the good Teriyaki salmon.

-sprinkle with lemon juice, simply delicious!



Important ingredients- Sake, Mirin, Kikkoman Soy Sauce


Teriyaki Salmon
(printable recipe)
3 Salmon fillets

1/4cup Mirin
1/4cup Japanese Kikkoman soy sauce
1/4cup Sake (Japanese rice wine)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp ginger juice

Few fresh lemon wedges

Method1. Marinate salmon fillets with little salt, pan fry till golden brown, set aside.
2. Place Mirin, soy sauce, Sake, sugar and ginger juice in a saucepan, cook over low flame.
3. Keep stirring and cook until thick sauce (when you see a lot of bubbles).
4. Add in the pan fried salmon fillets, coat well with the sauce.
5. Remove Teriyaki salmon and place on a serving plate, pour over the remaining sauce.
6. Sprinkle with lemon juice before serve.

Happy Cooking !!

Nasi Lemak Pizza

The other day, when I was preparing Pizza for lunch and planning to cook Nasi Lemak for dinner, I just got this new and crazy idea to make a Nasi Lemak Pizza. This is a new twist to the normal pizza, and it tasted really delicious. I’m truly a Nasi Lemak Lover, normal pizza can also become Nasi Lemak Pizza, hehehe…

To assemble a Nasi Lemak Pizza- Replace coconut rice with pizza dough, top with sweet sambal, hard-boiled egg, cucumber, deep fried anchovies (ikan bilis) and Mozzarella cheese.



Basic Pizza Dough (adapted from Annie's eats, check out more tips and tricks from her blog, and I still looking to buy a pizza stone in order to make good pizza and bread)

Ingredients½ cup warm water
2 and 1/4tsp yeast
1 and 1/4cup water (room temp.), about 275ml
2tbsp olive oil
4 cups bread flour, about 650g
1 and 1/2tsp salt
1tbsp sugar (not in original recipe)

Method
1. Mix yeast with warm water and leave aside till frothy, about 5mins.
2. Add all ingredients and yeast mixture into a mixing bowl, slowly add in water and knead till smooth.
3. Leave to prove till double in bulk (normally about 1 hour).
4. Roll out, pull gently into small round sheet (you can adjust thickness and size to your preference).
5. Top the pizza as desired.
6. Bake at pre-heated oven at 200c for 12-15mins.

Do you want a piece?

Hokkaido Chiffon cupcakes

For me, this chiffon are just like normal chiffon cakes with custard filling, maybe due to the texture is very light and also it is decorated with icing sugar, look similar like snow in Hokkaido Japan..

suggest you to store this cupcake in the fridge, the custard cream tasted like eating ice-cream, good one..



Recipe adapted from Ai Wei (original from 周老师的美食教室) , Thanks Ai Wei for kind sharing.
I made few changes to the original recipe.
Hokkaido Chiffon cupcakes
*makes 10 cupcakes
(printable recipe)

Ingredients:50g egg yolks (3 eggs)
1/8 tsp of salt
20g corn oil
20g milk
25g self-raising flour

105g egg whites (3 eggs)
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
45g castor sugar

Custard cream filling:
30g non-dairy whipped fresh cream
1tsp custard powder
*just mix these together
Method
1. Whisk egg yolk with salt. Add in oil and milk and mix well.
2. Sift flour and baking powder into the egg yolk mixture.
3. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy and then add in sugar and beat till soft peak.
4. Fold in half of the egg whites into the mixture and mix well. Then add in the other half and mix them evenly.
5. Fill the mixture into the cups
6. Bake at pre-heated oven at 160c for 20mins. Leave cool.
7. Make a small hole at the middle, pump the custard cream into the chiffon.
8. You can either chill before serving or have it straight after filling in the cream.

Happy Baking !!

Attended a Malay Wedding

Just like to share with you few photos taken when I attended a Malay wedding recently.

Extracted from wikipedia-

Bersanding
The bersanding (enthronement) ceremony begins with the groom's procession with friends, relatives, musicians and people waving bunga manggar (palm blossom) to meet the bride. Often various good-humoured attempts are made to waylay or stop the groom from getting to the bride. The main part of the bersanding involves the seating of the bridal couple on a dais and sprinkling them with yellow rice and scented water by family members, relatives and guests as a sign of blessing. Each guest will receive a bunga telur (egg flower), a decorated egg with a fabric flower, as a sign of fertility. The couple are considered royalty for the day, and so various royal customs are performed for them, including musicians playing court music and 'bodyguards' performing a display of pencak silat (traditional Malay martial arts).

performing "Silat" for the groom..



bunga manggar(palm blossom)

Each guest will be given a Bunga telur (egg flower). The egg is cooked with some traditional herbs, something similar to Chinese' s "Car Yeh Tan".

You will be served with some Malay foods and traditional cakes(kueh-muih), one of the dish that I like to eat is Fragrant fried chicken with lemongrass & spices.

This is the sitting area specially set up for groom and bride, with very nice decoration.

see this lovely couple..

Scrambled eggs with carrot and shrimps

Today I gonna to share with you this simple egg dish, I like to serve this egg dish with porridge during lunch time for my kids, a simple and full of nutritions egg dish.

Scrambled eggs with carrot and shrimps
(printable recipe)

1 big carrot, shredded
4 eggs
15 medium shrimps, remove shells, cut into small pieces
3 shallots, slices
4tbsp of cooking oil
½ tsp salt or to taste
1tsp light soy sauce
A dash of pepper

1. Whisk eggs in a bowl together with salt and pepper, set aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok, brown the shallot slices, add in shrimps and light soy sauce, stir fry till colour changed.
3. Add in carrot, stir fry till cooked and mix well.
4. Pour in egg mixture, scramble and stir until the mixture turned lightly brown and cooked.
7. Dish out and served hot.

Happy Cooking !!