Reika's munch munch !! -- a food blog

Fruit Trifle

2010-10-24T16:22:00.006+08:00

Yesterday I made fruit trifle. It is the easiest dessert recipe, and can be made in so many ways depending on your mood!

I apologize as I can't give measurements for this, because I am not sure how to and it really depends on how much you want to put.

You can alter the ingredients as you see fit. This is what I normally make.

Ingredients:

Cake (butter or marble)

Jelly (prefer the instant type and not the ready-made ones)

Mixed fruit in a can (with some liquid reserved)

Custard (can be thick or thin to your liking)

Whipped cream (can add sugar or vanilla to your liking)

Topping suggestions (but not limited to):

Strawberries

Kiwi

Mandarin oranges in a can (if you want to use fresh instead, I suggest getting rid of the skin)

Peaches

Instructions:

Line your dish with slices of cake (thin or thick, up to you).

Using the liquid reserved from the can of mixed fruit, pour it over the cake. Do not put too much to make it soggy.

Prepare your jelly according to box instructions, and pour it over after letting it cool for 10 minutes. Let it set a little before continuing. If you are using ready-made jelly, roughly mash it up and pour it over.

Prepare custard according to instructions, or use ready-made and pour over the jelly layer.

Cool in the fridge for 30 minutes before topping it with whipped cream. You do not want to put whipped cream on hot custard. If you used ready-made custard, you can put whipped cream over it instantly.

Top with desired toppings. Refrigerate until ready to serve!

Best served cool so allow 1-2 hours in the fridge for best impact. And enjoy!

Quick Idea: Grilled Sandwich

2010-06-22T14:06:00.010+08:00

Hi guys. I know I haven't updated since forever. Been busy!

(want to know what I've been up to? Follow my design blog here)

Anyway, this segment will be a little different, because this recipe will vary on your tastes. So I'll be sharing what I sometimes have as a quick and easy lunch: Grilled Sandwiches!

It's pretty easy to make, fairly fast, and so yummy. This will make you want to eat-in instead of dining out!

Basic ingredients:

Two slices of bread (white is good for this recipe)

Butter

One or two slices of cheese (depending on how cheesy you'd want it to be)

Variable ingredients (can be omitted altogether to make a grilled cheese sandwich):

Meat - Chicken, Turkey or even Beef ham "sandwich squares" slices. One. They usually sell these in flat packs in the fridge section of your local supermarket, and you don't need to cook them very long. I think they're cured meat.

Vegetables - Coriander, shredded carrot, fresh iceberg lettuce, shredded cucumber. You can add other kinds to your liking! These are all I can think of now.

Makes: One serving.

Instructions:

I have pictorial instructions this time! :D

Below are the instructions if you are using only one slice of cheese. (hence why I had to use pictorials)

Butter the bread well first, though. You can either butter both sides or just one side of each bread. And make sure that the bread 's butter-side touches the foil (to make sure it does not stick)

After assembling your sandwich, wrap it loosely in foil and grill or bake it for approx. 10 minutes. If you are baking it, try 175 Celsius. You may need to keep an eye on it after 5 minutes, as this may vary between different ovens.

If you are using two slices of cheese, you do not need to slice them into 6. Just place them as-is :D

You can even make a double-decker grilled sandwich. You will need four cheeses (or two and cut into 6 strips each) but only 3 slices of bread.

From top to bottom:

bread

cheese

vegies

meat

cheese

bread

cheese

vegies

meat

cheese

bread

Why do I insist of having the cheeses touch the bread? For me when it has melted, it acts like a glue, therefore holding everything together. Which is why I also insisted that even if you only have one slice of cheese, you'd still need to have it at the top and bottom of the sandwich.

Oh, my favourite combo? It's Grilled Cheese Turkey Ham Sandwich with shredded carrots and chopped coriander leaves :D yum!!

Little Gingerbread Houses & Gingerbread Man

2009-12-25T22:04:00.006+08:00

Look what I made for Christmas!

This is the first time I am going to plug a recipe. Because I MUST give her credit! See the genius who came up with the Little Gingerbread Houses idea.

I made Gingerbread Man using the same batch of dough. :)

Chicken and Tomato Rice Casserole

2009-09-17T23:20:00.006+08:00

Another rice casserole dish, this time with tomatoes. Casseroles are really easy to make, even if the trade-off is that it takes quite some time to cook. It's still my favourite method of cooking anyway! =)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of uncooked rice
1 chicken breast, diced
1 small onion, chopped
1 small/medium-sized red bell pepper, chopped
2 cups boiled water
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh oregano, or dry oregano flakes (optional)
1 can diced tomatoes, with liquid
butter for greasing, or you can also use margerine or cooking spray

Makes 3-4 servings. You can adjust the rice amount of rice by changing it per ratio with the water and tomatoes.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. (Approx 350 Farenheit)

Wash and rinse the rice in a deep bowl until water is no longer cloudy.

Add the rice, can of diced tomatoes, chicken, red bell pepper, salt and pepper to taste, and oregano (optional) I recommend 1/2 tbsp of salt to help make the rice taste better. Mix carefully but thoroughly. Finally, add the boiling water. Mix.

In a greased casserole dish, slowly add the rice mix and make sure the rice is spread out evenly.

Cover the dish tightly with tin foil and leave to bake in the oven for 1 hour. Remove the foil, and then leave to bake for a further 20 - 30 minutes depending on how soft or firm you want your rice to be.

Serve almost immediately. And enjoy! :D

Chicken and Rice Casserole

2009-09-16T22:52:00.004+08:00

My rice-cooker died recently, so you can imagine my horror. I cannot live without rice! And I really hate cooking on the stovetop because I have to keep watch over the rice, or else there will be burnt bits. Oh, how I took my rice-cooker for granted.

Luckily, there are such things as rice casseroles! If you're looking for a hearty dish, and have little money to spend on it, never fear! For this is one of the simplest recipe ever I've come across. And this dish is heavenly for a chilly winter's night :)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 can Campbells cream of mushroom/chicken soup
2 cups boiling water
Salt and pepper
1 tsp Garlic powder (optional)
1 1/2 chicken breast halves.
Butter for greasing, or you can also use margarine or cooking spray.

Makes 3 servings. You can adjust the recipe according to ratio if you'd like.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. (Approx 350 Farenheit)

Wash and rinse the rice in a deep bowl until water is no longer cloudy.

Add the soup, water, garlic powder (optional) and salt and pepper with the rice. I recommend 1/2 tbsp of salt to help make the rice taste better. Mix carefully but thoroughly.

In a greased casserole dish, slowly add the rice mix and make sure the rice is spread out evenly.

Rub salt and pepper onto the chicken breasts and lay them on top of the rice, pressing down into the dish. It's okay if the casserole does not cover the chicken completely.

Cover the dish tightly with tin foil and leave to bake in the oven for 1 hour. Remove the foil, and then leave to bake for a further 20 minutes.

Leave to cool for a few minutes before cutting. If you'd like, you can put it under the grill to brown the chicken slightly. I didn't choose to do that though.

Enjoy! :)

Lemon Meringue Tart

2009-06-28T21:13:00.003+08:00

Also fondly known as "Lemon Flan", it is a nice dessert comprised of a buttery pastry base, lemon custard and a nice and fluffy meringue topping. Not to sweet if you make it so, but can also satisfy any raging sweet tooth (like me) if you make your own adjustments. Versatile!

Originally, this was a recipe for a Lemon Meringue Pie where it was set in a larger baking dish, but I figured I should put them in tart cases instead.

My reason is simple: with small amounts, people will find it easier to take and eat it, if compared to a pie-version where you'd have to cut a slice. This is especially better for parties :D makes it easier on the guests.

Ingredients:

Approx. 20 tart cases, 2-inch wide.
Some melted butter to be rubbed inside the tart cases
Some flour to be dusted into the tart cases

Pastry
225g plain flour (almost 1 cup)
100g of a stick of butter, grated
50g icing sugar (about 3 1/3 tbsp)
pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp water

Lemon cream
25g caster sugar (about 1 1/2 tbsp)
25g cornflour (about 1 1/2 tbsp)
3 egg yolks
300ml milk
Grated rind and juice of one lemon (approx. 2 tbsp, no more!)

Meringue
1 cup caster sugar
4 egg whites
(have an extra 1/2 cup sugar and 2 egg whites on standby in case there is not enough Meringue to cover the tarts, which was what happened to me lol.)

Makes approx 18-20 serves.

Instructions:

For the pastry:

Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees.

Place the flour in a mixing bowl and grate the butter into it. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until it becomes breadcrumb-like.

Create a well in the center of the bowl and place one egg yolk, and rub that in slowly and evenly into the mix. Add one tbsp of water at first, mix it thoroughly, and then add the remaining 1 tbsp water, and mix it all up until it can take shape into a mold.

If you have time, put cling wrap or tin foil over it to cover the bowl and keep in the fridge for maybe an hour or so. If not, just carry on. I skipped this part and it still tasted fine, but I'm sure it would taste better if you did not skip it :)

Roll it out onto a flat surface, making sure that it's quite thin (maybe 1mm or 2mm thick) and grab a round cookie-cutter, maybe 2 inches in diameter and start cutting out shapes.

Butter and dust the insides of your tart cases with flour to prevent the pastry from sticking. Make sure to beat the tart cases lightly to remove any excess flour.

Put the pastries inside and using the tips of your fingers, gently press to follow the shape of the tart case. Take a fork and make some holes in the bottom, just to let the steam escape.

Pop it into the oven for about 10-15 minutes. After that, take the pastry out of the tart cases slowly because it might crumble.

For the lemon cream:

Mix the caster sugar, milk, egg yolks and grated rind and juice of lemon into a pan over a medium fire, reserving maybe a cup of the milk. Mix the corn flour with the cup of milk, this is to properly dissolve the corn flour because corn flour cooks in hot water.

If you are not aware, never put corn flour in hot water right away because the mixture will be clumpy. Corn flour cooks in hot water. You'd want to dissolve the corn flour in water before heating it and slowly cooking it properly.

So anyway. Stir the mixture slowly until it bubbles and it thickens. Careful not to burn it! This could take a while but stay alert anyway. After it is thick and cooked, set aside.

For the meringue:

Beat the egg whites in a mixer on high until "soft peak" form. This is when the egg whites has a fluffy and consistency, and when you put a spoon into it and pull it out, it forms a peak but the tip of it is curled.

At this stage, put in your caster sugar and continue beating till it reaches "hard peak" form.
This is when the egg whites appear shiny and solid, like whipped cream, and when you put a spoon in it and take it out, it forms a peak that is straight.

If you want to know more about this technique, click here.

Putting it all together:

Quickly but very carefully fold half of the meringue into the lemon cream mixture, reserving the other half for the topping. Mix the lemon cream and meringue mix thoroughly, careful not to whisk it at all, and put it into the pastry cups. The reason being that you'd have to be quick with this is because the mix will harden, making it harder to shape I think.

Then using a piping bag with a 1/2 inch star nozzle, put the meringue into the bag and start to pipe the meringue onto the tart. Start from the side and make a swirl towards the center, and upon reaching it, gently pull upwards to form a nice peak.

You might have to make more meringue depending on how much you put on one tart. In my case not all 20 of my tarts had full meringue tops. Some only had a miserable dollop of it, hahaha.

Dust icing sugar onto the top and pop that into the oven at 200 degrees Celcius, for about 10-15 minutes or when the meringue starts to brown.

Put the tarts into the fridge to cool. In my opinion, it should be served cold :) and enjoy!

Roast Chicken (Chef Wan's Recipe)

2009-06-14T19:26:00.005+08:00

I attempted to do this recipe for the first time - and away from home too! And it came out great, thank goodness!

This is a simple roast chicken recipe by Chef Wan. Chef Wan is a popular and reputable chef in Malaysia. He has his own cooking shows and has been doing so for maybe a decade or so.

So onto it:
Ingredients:

1 Chicken (duh)

Rubbing ingredients:
2/3 stick of butter
1 tbsp Paprika
1 tbsp chopped fresh or dried rosemary
1 tbsp chopped fresh or dried thyme
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp ground fennel
2-4 garlic cloves, pounded

Garnish ingredients:
Some potatoes
Some carrots
Some onions, quartered

Sauce:
1/3 stick of butter
1 tbsp flour OR 1 tbsp cornflour diluted in cold water
1 cube chicken stock/cube/bullion
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Mix rubbing ingredients well and rub over chicken and under skin. Leave the chicken to "marinate", the longer the better.

Boil the whole potatoes (skinned) and carrots in a pot of water for about 10 minutes. Drain and quarter them and place them in the roasting pan with the chicken. Make sure to butter the potatoes and carrots so that they will come out crispy on the outside after it's been baked.

Place chicken in the roasting pan and roast in a preheated 180 degree oven. Normally to roast a chicken, calculation is 20 minutes for every pound PLUS 20 minutes extra at the end. One kg equals to 2.2 pounds. If you're wondering, I roasted mine for about 50 minutes, and then added another 5 minutes at 150 degrees (I don't know if this was pointless or not haha)

The chicken is cooked if the leg is loose when you try to move it with your fingers, or if you poke the thickest part of the thigh and the juices run clear.

Avoid over-cooking the chicken because this will make the chicken very dry.

After roasting, take out the chicken and leave to rest minimum 15-20 minutes before cutting. This is very important! This allows the juices inside the chicken to redistribute, making it more juicer.

Sauce:

Put butter into roasting pan and put over fire/stove. I actually skipped it because there the sauce from the pan was already quite oily. Note, If you used a roasting pan that cannot be in contact with direct heat/flame, (like a Pyrex dish, which I used) scrape off everything and into a pot over a medium-high fire.

Add 1 tbsp flour or 1 tbsp cornflour in cold water (2 tbsp if you want lots of gravy), 1/3 stick of butter (which I skipped), add 1 chicken stock/cube/bullion and pepper and salt to taste.

If you added too much salt (which I did, accidentally) you can add some brown sugar to neutralize the saltiness.

Add water to control the thickness to what you want. Serve in a gravy boat or pour it over the chicken, it's up to you!

And that's all! Enjoy! You can serve it with rice, mashed potatoes (if you don't mind having more potatoes) or even some meatless spaghetti, like what I've done today :)

Oven-Baked Cheese & Egg Sandwich

2009-04-26T10:44:00.007+08:00

This simple cheese sandwich is so tasty, you'd think it would have been done in a restaurant! And you'll be surprised how little effort it takes to make it.

Great to have for a chilly morning breakfast!

Ingredients:

2 slices of white bread
Butter
2 slices of cheddar cheese
1 large egg
1/2 tbsp oil for frying egg

Makes 1 serving

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celcius.

While waiting for the oven to become hot, pour a half tablespoon of oil in a non-stick pan and crack an egg into the pan. Turn on the fire on medium-low heat, thus slowly cooking the egg. Cook the egg enough to be able to safely lift it out of the pan without any spills. You don't need to cook it all the way through, just enough for it to set. It will continue to cook in the oven.

Butter one side of both slices of bread.

Butter-side down, place the bread on a tin foil. Place one slice of cheese on top of it, and place the egg on top of it. Place the other slice of cheese on it.

Now place the other slice of bread on top of that, butter-side up.

Pop it into the oven and leave for 15 minutes, or until golden-brown. Remove for oven and leave to cool for one minute before chowing down.

And enjoy!

Chicken Enchiladas

2009-02-18T20:07:00.010+08:00

Now here's a Mexican dish for you to try!

Chicken Enchiladas are rolled tortillas with chicken and a creamy, tangy sauce made up of tomato sauce and sour cream. It is topped with cheese, and sometimes with a dollop of sour cream. Just thinking about this makes my mouth water!

One serving is actually quite big, and a person can be really full from eating it. But it's well-worth it!

If you don't have that many people to serve, you can either lessen the ingredients or you can keep it in the freezer or fridge. Not with the tortillas though, as they taste different after it has been refrigerated. What you can do is just keep the sauce in a container and thaw it when you want to eat it, re-heat it in a pan and then add it to a rolled tortilla and bake it.

In the freezer I guess it would last a long time, maybe up to a month? But in the fridge, it may last up to two days. But make sure you really heat it through before you bake them.

Well, here's how to do it!

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 onion, chopped 250 g sour cream (which is about 1 tub)
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tbsp dried oregano
1/2 ground black pepper
1/2 salt (optional)
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 water (this amount may change depending on the consistency of your sour cream)
1 tbsp chili powder
1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
8 (10 inch) flour tortillas (I used garlic tortillas for this. very nice!)
1 (12 ounce) jar taco sauce
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese for topping and 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese for topping, mixed together.

Makes about 8 servings

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

In a non-stick pan on medium heat, cook the breast halves until it's no longer pink. Drain the excess fat in the pan.

You have to cube the chicken up and return it to the pan. I guess this helps retain the juices in the chicken, otherwise it would be too dry.

Add the onion, sour cream, cheddar cheese, parsley, oregano and ground black pepper. Stir through until the cheese melts, and stir frequently as you don't want to let it come to a boil. This will, apparently, curdle the sour cream a little.

Lastly add in tomato sauce, chili powder, green pepper, garlic, with an optional of salt if you need it, and water.

Now be careful when adding water to it. I recommend don't add it if you don't need to, because it's not like you're going to boil all the water off. The consistency is supposed to be thick. Don't make the same mistake I keep making because I keep forgetting hahaha.

Put even amounts of the mixture into the tortillas. You may need a toothpick to keep the flaps from opening out again. In which case, just stick it into the top of it, but careful not to drive the toothpick all the way to the bottom. You don't exactly want to put a hole in the bottom and let the juices ooze out later on.

Line them in a greased baking tray/dish. Cover with taco sauce and the cheddar and mozzarella cheese mix. Bake it for about 20 minutes.

Make sure to cool 10 minutes before serving. Really. This step is very important. You'll thank me later!

Serve, and enjoy! :D

Apple Crumble and Banana Crumble

2008-11-11T19:37:00.005+08:00

I made apple crumble today! :D my mom used to make it once in a while, and it tasted so good! And since I had a few apples to spare, might as well try it myself, right?

Ingredients

melted butter, to grease
approx 1 3/4 cups of plain flour
1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
180g butter, chilled and cubed
2/3 cups brown sugar
4 apples
1/2 tbsp caster sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven at 190 Celcius.

Use the melted butter to grease your ovenproof dish.

Combine the flour and 1 tbsp ground cinnamon in a bowl. Add butter and rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips, until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs. If it turns out like dough no matter how hard you try though, add more flour to the mix! Stir in brown sugar.

Take off the skin of the apples, take out the core and cut the apples into bite-sized pieces (or into 1.5cm wide wedges if you prefer). Place them into the dish. Combine the caster sugar and the remaining 1/2 ground cinnamon and mix well, coating the apples.

Bake it in the oven for about 25-30 minutes, but check it during the 20 minute mark to make sure it doesn't burn. When cooked, the cumbed topping will be golden andthe apples are tender but still hold their shape when tested with a knife.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or cold custard :D

Also, apparently the best apples to use for any crumbles or pies/tarts are Golden delicious, jonagold, lady williams and sundowner, but any apples are fine if you can't find any!

You can also substitute the apples for bananas to have banana crumble instead, or even mix them both! :D

Below are pictures for banana crumble, which my mom made sometime early this year:

And lastly, enjoy!~ :D

Beef Burger

2008-11-03T01:11:00.007+08:00

In this post I shall show you all how to make easy but tasty and HEAVENLY beef burger patty :D It really is very simple to make and you can be as flexible as you want with the recipe depending on your tastes!

But here's my recipe, you can change it any way you like depending on how you want it:

Ingredients:

The base ingredients (not to be altered at all):

minced meat (depending on how much you would like per patty, in the photo it is 250 grams split into two = each patty is approx 125 grams)
one egg yolk (to bind the whole thing)

The other ingredients (this is per half a kilo of minced meat):

1 tbsp thyme leaves, fresh or dry, minced
1 tbsp oregano
1 small onion, minced finely
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced finely
2-3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2-3 tbsp tomato sauce

Mix all of the ingredients together and lastly add the egg yolk to bind. Roll it up into balls and they are to be flattened to become your beef patty.

This is very important, to put it in the fridge for at least a half hour before frying because this enables the beef to not crumble easily when you fry. Believe me I have tried before!

When you fry, fry it on a medium-low heat to avoid cooking the outside too fast, because that would mean that the inside would cook much slower and you'd have the outside tasting like charcoal heh heh. When it is cooked, leave it aside for a few minutes. This will make sure that the juice is retained inside the burger.

Also, my tip is, before you fry your patty, make your patty as flat as possible, if you have a roller, use it, because when you fry it the patty will retract and shrink, thus that is why you see my patty is small but very fat.

Others:

As for the bread, you can use any burger bread roll you like. What I did with mine was I put some olive oil in a pan, put a heaped teaspoon of butter in it and I fried the inside of the bread on that pan. After I take it out, I take a half-cut garlic and I just rub it on the hot surface of the bread, to give it that garlicy aroma and taste. Mmm!

If you love onions, what you can do is you slice it in the middle to get the onion rings, and then you pan-fry it on a non-stick pan with little or no oil at all. Leave it to caramelize, or turns brown and soggy. It tastes great!

And the beauty of a burger is: You can top it with anything you want! Sliced cheese, mozzarella cheese, pickles, etc. Try it with your favourite combinations :D you'll get hooked! And it's easy to make too.

You can keep burger patty in the fridge for two days though, and in the freezer for about 3 days. It's not good to keep burger patty in the freezer for too long though because it might get crumbly.

And lastly, enjoy! :D

Banana Bread Butter Pudding

2008-10-12T18:25:00.003+08:00

Last night I made wonderful Banana Bread Butter Pudding! It's a wonderful dish in a sense that you can even use stale bread to make it. Mustn't let food go to waste, yes? Also for those who just wants to finish that loaf of bread that has been sitting around the house since nobody wants to eat it anymore.. Anyhoo, It was my first try and it tasted HEAVENLY :)

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

12 slices of bread
2 cups milk or evaporated milk
3 eggs
2 tbsp honey (or sugar/brown sugar works fine)
1 tbsp ground cinnamon (or more if you love the taste!)
1 -2 bananas, thinly sliced
And some butter
1/2 tbsp ground nutmeg (optional)

Makes 12 servings (around that?)

Preheat your oven to 170 celcius.

While that, butter both sides of the bread. After that, cut off the crusts. You can cut the bread into half or into triangles if you like, be creative! As long as you can line your dish evenly with it.

Whisk your eggs, milk, honey/sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg (optional) together in a bowl/jug.

Layer your bread in a dish evenly, top it off with a layer of banana slices.

Pour the milk mixture over the bread and set aside for at least 10 minutes so that the bread can soak up all those lovely ingredients!

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until puffed and golden.

If you like, like how I did it, cover it with a tin foil for the first 30 minutes and for the remaining 15 minutes take it off, this minimizes the risk of having burnt parts on the top :D

Let it sit for 10 minutes before cutting!

Best served hot with custard, or vanilla ice cream, or even both! :D But then again that's how I like it hehe. Enjoy!

Honey Cornflake Crisps (Cornflake Madu)

2008-10-03T22:24:00.004+08:00

Sorry haven't updated for so long! Been busy and all for the past few months. Now that I have a proper kitchen I will try to post more often!

For this Hari Raya I've baked honey cornflake crisps!

Ingredients: 7 cups of cornflakes 1 cup of softened butter 3/4 cup of honey crushed almonds (optional) pieces of cherry (optional)

Methods:
1. Pour softened butter and honey into a bowl and mix well (or else the crisps will easily fall apart! i think that was my mistake sigh)

2. Pour cornflakes into the mix and mix very well, easier done with hands. Sprinkle with almonds if you wish (i didn't hehe i hate almonds!)

3. Place in cookie cups, sprinkle tiny bits of cherry (i didn't either haha) and bake in 170º for 5-10 minutes to make them crunchy.

Enjoy! :D

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

2008-02-10T15:48:00.000+08:00

Ingredients:

Filling:
500g macaroni (elbow is good but I used the straight type this time around - no stock!!)
6 tbsp butter (actually i used a whole stick of butter lol!)
6 tbsp flour
2 tbsp mustard (i used Dijon mustard) or 2 tbsp powdered mustard
6 cups milk
2 bay leaf
1 tsp paprika
2 eggs
500 g cheddar cheese (i used Kraft cheese slices! cheaper lol)
250 g mozarella cheese, shredded
salt and pepper to taste

Topping:
6 tbsp butter
2 cups bread crumbs (i used wholemeal bread and whizzed it in the blender till fine)

Makes 24 side-dish servings! Holy nuts! Or it can serve 12 people if it's a main meal. It's really filling. Fuh~

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Boil the pasta in salted water until al-dente and run it under running water and set aside to drain in a colander.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large pan (that is enough to fit the macaroni later)

Add in the flour and mix well, making sure there's no lumps. Add the mustard. Mix for about 5 minutes on medium heat.

After that, add in the milk...

...paprika and bay leaves and stir for about 10 minutes or until the mix starts to get a little thick.

Remove the bay leaves.

Break two eggs in a bowl. Slowly add the milk mixture from the pan into the bowl bit by bit, until the egg mixture is almost the same temperature as the dish in the pan, while whisking it gently. This is called 'Temper'-ing, which makes sure that the eggs does not cook immediately when thrown into the dish. It will be solidified and become 'scrambled', which is something you do not want. When the egg mixture is the same temperature of the mix in the pan, add it in.

Add in 3/4 of the cheeses and mix until it has fully melted. Keep 1/4 of it for the topping.

Add in the macaroni, mix it properly, add salt and pepper to taste, and pour into a casserole dish. Put the remaining 1/4 cheese on top.

In a pan, mix the breadcrumbs and butter till evenly coated and cover it. (Unfortunately i forgot this step, so what I did was I grated some butter over the dish. Turned out alright!)

Bake it in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs turns brown.

Let it stand for at least 5 minutes before serving, and dig in!

*is starting to salivate*

Baked Potato Wedges

2008-02-10T14:56:00.000+08:00

I had this as a side dish for lunch today. It feels sooo refreshing having to make your own potato wedges, other than eating it from a fast food chain and it tastes so much better! Lovely! :)

Ingredients:

1 medium potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grated garlic (can be substituted with garlic powder)

1 potato serves one person, so you can just multiply the ingredients if you're serving more than one

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius

Cut potatoes in wedges, in my case i cut them into 6 slices per potato. I kept the skins on but if that's not your thing you can always peel the potato before cutting it! If you want to keep the skin on make sure you scrub it before cutting it up.

In a ziplock bag or even a plastic container, mix all the above ingredients and give it a good shake, makings sure that the potatoes are covered evenly with the mixture

Lay the potatoes skin-side down on a baking tray that is lined with aluminum foil, shiny side up. if you are baking it without the skin, make sure you turn it at least once when it is baking.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Eggs In A Basket

2008-02-01T19:23:00.001+08:00

Simple, yet unexpected and above all TASTY breakfast!

What is it? It's pan-toasted bread with butter and an egg.

Yes you heard me.

But what's unexpected is that the egg is in the middle of the piece of bread!

Ingredients:

1 slice of bread
2 tbsp butter (yeah, that's a lot!)
1 egg
a bit of oil
a round cookie-cutter

makes 1 serving (duh?)

First, get out your pan... it works best if you're working with a non-stick pan. Or else you're going to have a lot of trouble with this one!

Put a bit of oil and some butter in (the oil keeps the butter from getting too hot and burning)

Get out your cookie-cutter, cut a hole in the middle of a slice of bread and fry it in the pan!

Add butter if you like, and keep on checking once in a while to see how brown you want one side to be. Once its done, flip it over!

Quickly dab some butter in the middle and fry it. Put some butter around the edges. Make sure you don't leave the bread to fry long, this is important!

After the butter has melted, quickly but carefully break an egg in the hole. You can cut off any spillings of egg at the sides if you'd like. Leave the egg to cook until the egg inside of the hole is cooked and fit to be turned over. (or else the egg will spill!)

When it is cooked in such a manner, quickly flip it over and let it cook slightly on that side.

And TA-DAH!!

Best served when it is right out of the pan. Really. Because the fallback of this dish is that when it is soggy, it doesn't taste nice :(

You can experiment with the size of the cookie cutter - a bigger one means more egg and less bread, and a small one means more bread and less egg.

I prefer more bread on mine =) how about you?

By the way, if you've watched V for Vendetta before, this is the one that he cooked :p~

Curry Chicken - Indian and Malay-styled

2008-01-27T14:47:00.004+08:00

The simplest Asian dish there is! I love Malay curry, but Indian curry mix has a real OOMPH~~! to it, you know? You'll never know unless you try both!

Ingredients:

Curry powder/mix (I used an indian curry from this one shop in PJ... so shiok lah!!)
1 small onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 tbsp tamarind, mixed with water and sifted.
1 chicken, cut into pieces (I used free-range chicken... skinnier! But healthy!)
3-4 potatoes, quartered
1-2 tomatoes, quartered (optional)
Oil for frying
Curry leaves (optional)
Coconut milk (optional, for Malay-styled curry)

Serves 6 (or more?)

Heat about 4-5 tbsp oil in a pan. Fry onions and garlic till browned.

Add curry powder/mix and fry till fragrant and oil appears thickly over the curry mix.

Add water till the thickness you desire is achieved, and a bit more because it will lessen when you boil it.

Add salt and sugar to taste, I also put in a cube of chicken stock. You can add the optional tomatoes to give it more variety of flavours.

Add your chicken and bring to a boil, then keep it simmering for about 10 - 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked. You may even add curry leaves if you like, but I've omitted it.

Potatoes take around 7 minutes to cook, so add those in around 7 minutes before you take it off the fire.

Add in your tamarind water to taste and bring it to a final boil before taking it off the fire.

And serve with rice!

The recipe above is for Indian-styled chicken curry. If you'd like to try the Malay-styled curry, add 2-3 tbsp coconut milk the same time you add your tamarind water. It gives the curry a thicker and creamier texture. The coconut milk can be substituted for normal milk, but of course the outcome would be different :)

Enjoy!

Chocolate Black Forest Trifle

2008-01-27T14:23:00.001+08:00

...and it tastes just as good as the name!

As the name 'trifle' suggests, it is a triple-layered dessert that can be made up of many different ingredients and sauces. If you type 'trifle' in an internet search engine, you'll be swamped with the different types of trifles!

This version is the Chocolate Black Forest version, and it simply comprises of a layer of chocolate cake buttered with strawberry jam, a layer of cherries and a layer of chocolate custard (I can hear some screaming of joy now!) topped with a nice layer of cream, finishing off with a good amount of dark chocolate shaving... mmm~!!

Ingredients:

10 ounces semi-sweetened dark chocolate (faints), and some for shavings
350 ml of milk (i used fullcream)
350 ml of cream
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
8 egg yolks
1/2 cup of
Cherries in a can, that also has cherry liquid in it... you'll need the liquid. (Do NOT use the Maraschino cherries that I used... too sweet! It's only meant for the tops of cakes, not inside of one!)
1 'loaf' of chocolate cake
strawberry jam (it is better if you use real jam - not the really jelly-like type :D)
Whipping cream

Makes 20-30 servings (I cannot tell!)

First, get your semi-sweet dark chocolate and chop it up into pieces...

...and put it in a double boiler to melt (to prevent it from burning)

mmm~~!! see it meeelllltttt.

while it is melting, you add your milk, cream, (sifted) cocoa powder, sugar and 8 egg yolks in a bowl and beat lightly together.

when the chocolate has melted, pour in the milk mixture.

And stir till it thickens. Best if you use a wooden spoon to stir so you can tell easily if it is thick or not. Leave it in the double boiler for some time, because you need it to thicken or else it will get absorbed into the chocolate cake layer.

While the mixture is in the double boiler, heating up, prepare your cake base. Get your chocolate cake and cut it 1 inch thick.

spread jam between two pieces and make it like a sandwich!

line it at the bottom of your bowl and put your cherries over it, and pour the liquid on the cake and make sure the cake absorbs it. Yummy!

After your chocolate custard has hardened a little, take it out and put it in a bowl to cool down. You may need to put it in the fridge for about 2 or 3 hours.

After the chocolate custard has hardened a little in the fridge, pour it into the bowl and leave it in the fridge overnight.

The next morning, take it out of the fridge and commence with the whipping cream!

Whip an amount enough to cover the top of the bowl. (you might want to add 1/4 cup sugar if you have a real sweet tooth - I'd personally do it because to me, the cream will be tasteless!)

And VOILA! Use some of the dark chocolate to add some shavings on top of the trifle.

And there you have it! Chocolate Black Forest Trifle!

Will try this a second time, but I will use the right cherries this time! (Will try black cherries - the ones used in real black forest cakes! I suggest you try it too)

And also, tempted to pour a layer of strawberry jelly onto the cake layer, to fill in the gaps of that layer and to have the cake absorb it a little. Will update!

Ikan masak Gulai Asam Pedas

2008-01-25T22:56:00.000+08:00

Hehehe... The first Malay dish on my blog! :P unfortunately, no photos tho~ yet, I shall update soon! It should look something like this:

...only this was cooked with stingray. Sourced from Resipi Diana

The title, roughly translated is: "fish cooked in spicy tamarind"... my translation is horrible, I know.

Anyways, basically gulai asam pedas is a chilli/curry-based dish with tamarind. It tastes a bit sour because of the tamarind (asam) and it can be cooked with fish, chicken, beef, or even stingray. (THIS IS MY FAVOURITE OMG)

So this is the fish version :D um. I don't know if there a difference if you want to cook different meats.. Will update on that too soon as well!!

Ingredients

5 dried chillies
5 fresh chillies
1 big onion, quartered
6 cloves garlic
1 tbsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp fermented prawn paste (sambal belacan)
1/2 cup tamarind mixed with 2-3 cups water, strained
3 1-inch-thick slice of fish, or more depending on how much the people eat fish. (will update what kind of fish... to me all fish taste the same but apparently not!)
'Kesum' leaves, a handful (vietnamese coriander... and no you cannot use normal coriander!)
Oil for frying
Salt and sugar to taste

Serves 6

1. Put dried chillies, fresh chillies, onion, garlic, turmeric and sambal belacan in a blender and whizz till smooth.

2. Heat a good quantity of oil in a pan, preferably 4-5 tablespoons of oil. When pan is hot, fry the chili mix till fragrant and the oil appears on the surface of the mix.

3. Add in tamarind water and stir. Add salt and sugar to taste.

4. Add in Kesum leaves, stirring while the gulai is boiling. Taste again for a final time.

5. Add in fish and leave to a medium boil, until fish is cooked and oil rises to the surface.

And serve with rice~~!

And for extra info, Johorians simply call it "Gulai" by itself - it is already understood as gulai assam pedas. But be careful when using the term "Gulai", because the Ipoh-ians's "Gulai" is a curry dish.. Very different. Something my mom had to learn about the hard way! :P

Spaghetti Aglio E Olio

2008-01-25T22:38:00.000+08:00

Also known simply as Algio E Olio, it is translated as "Garlic with oil". And as the name suggests, it is a spaghetti dish that is cooked with garlic and olive oil. Mmm~~!

The secret of cooking this simple dish is the freshness of the ingredients - because a dish that is simple to cook doesn't mean it is easy for it to be delicious!

Ingredients:

Olive oil
10 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp black pepper
2 tsp chilli powder (optional)
1 red bell pepper (optional as well)
3 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped (or 5 tbsp dried coriander flakes)
500g prawns (i used freshwater for this recipe)
1 cup pasta water, reserved from cooking the spaghetti for this dish
1 packet spaghetti (500g), cooked Al dente.

Serves 6

In a pan, heat up about a LOT of olive oil. Probably enough to have a nice thick layer of it on your pan. Keep in mind it has to be enough to thinly coat your spaghetti. On mine it's probably 6 tablespoons of olive oil... If you're a health freak and want it less, it's up to you. You can compensate by adding pasta water later on to make it even wetter.

Fry your garlic, making sure it doesn't brown. Fry it on low heat. Add some black pepper...

...and chilli powder (can be omitted)

and your lovely finely chopped coriander leaves! (it has to be a lot finer than what i've done, folks!)

Stir well, letting it soak up the lovely olive oil~

Add in your prawns and chopped red bellpepper~

And stir well! And when the prawns are cooked, it is time to add your...

Al Dente spaghetti! (another secret to Aglio e Olio is that the pasta must be cooked in salted water (2 tbsps) and it MUST be al dente)

Stir well in the pan~ Let it soak up all those lovely juices. And VOILA! It is done!

If it seems a bit too dry, you can pour some of the pasta water, OR, even better, if you love clams or oysters or any of the shelled stuff (I don't eat them by the way), you can boil that firsthand and add it into the pan after it's all been cooked, and using some of the clam/osyter/whatever juice to give the dish a nice gravy. I'm going to try that next time around :D

Also, if you are a fan of spicy food, you can fry a dried chilli in the hot olive oil and take it out. Or, you can fry finely chopped red or green chillies, or even cili padi (thai chilli - super hot stuff!)

Simple to cook, meatless, delicious, what more can you ask for~~?

Beef Stroganoff

2008-01-16T21:21:00.000+08:00

Beef Stroganoff a Russian dish - and it is made up of sautéed pieces of beef, served in sour cream sauce and it can be served with rice, fettuccine, egg noodles or even potatoes! Yum yum! I made it for tonight's dinner, second time making it and one step away from perfecting it! :D~

Ingredients:

500g sirloin or tenderloin beef (cut into half-inch strips)
1/3 cup shallots or onions
300g mushroom (any kind, button mushrooms or cremini are good)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp of chopped fresh tarragon (or 1/2 tsp of dried tarragon works too!)
1 cup of sour cream
6tbsp butter (or more, if you fancy that!)
Cooking oil

Serves approx 6 people

Clockwise from top-left: mushrooms, beef, onions, tarragon

So let's get to it!! :)

Pour some oil in a skillet and put in about 2 to 3 tbsp of butter. Have the pan hot enough to brown and cook the beef fairly quickly, but not hot enough to burn the butter.

!!yes butter can burn so please be careful when you're frying with butter!!

You may have to do it in batches. Add salt to the beef as you are frying it. After the beef is cooked, set it all aside in a bowl.

In the same pan, reduce the heat a little to a medium and fry the shallots/onions. Fry it for about two or three minutes, and allow it to soak up all of the taaaaasssssty beef drippings that's in the pan! Set aside in the same bowl that has the beef. (important! because this way it kinda give the beef some flavour as well, while you cook the rest of the ingredients)

In the same pan, melt another 3 tbsp of butter. Have the heat to a medium high and put in the mushrooms and let it cook for about 3 or 4 minutes, until you can see it's starting to soften.

Add the nutmeg and tarragon while stirring.

Reduce the heat to low and add the sour cream (because sour cream will curdle if it is too hot I guess) and don't let it simmer either!

Stir everything up well. You might want to put 1/4 cup water to thin the sauce, it depends on you.

Stir in the beef and shallots/onions, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over your choice of rice, fettuccine, egg noodles or even potatoes. In my case I used...

Fettuccine!! Because it's Wednesday today and Wednesdays are Pasta Day at home! Hahaha! :D

I stirred in the Fettuccine in the pan and VOILA! Restaurant-standard food ahahahaha *gets bricked*

Too bad daddy had dinner outside... He would have loved it a lot :P~

what's left of the Buttermilk Coffee Cake...

2007-12-06T20:46:00.000+08:00

If I wasn't on my stupid Atkin's diet, the cake would have finished on the day itself! Aaaaa so much torture!

Seafood Spaghetti

2007-12-06T19:46:00.000+08:00

Haha yes, another entry for the day! Busy busy busy. Hehe. This time tonight for dinner, my mom made Seafood Spaghetti!

I can feel my taste buds tingling now, can you?

With this recipe, you can really taste the seafood-ness of the prawns and clams and squid! Ooooh~~ I admit I don't really like seafood (except for prawn and crabs. I love those!! fish is so-so.)

So here's the recipe for a really mouth-watering Seafood Spaghetti! (even sitting at the table, smelling it made me salivate!):

Ingredients:

Meduim-sized prawns
clams
squid

note that you can be flexible with how much seafood you want, but keep in mind this dish serves 8 people. In my mom's case, she used approx half kg for the three above ingredients.

1 stick butter
1 medium can tomato puree
2 cans diced tomatoes, blended (you may even choose to just blend one and a half cans, the other half will give the dish some colour) (or you can substitute for 10 fresh tomatoes, skin peeled off and boiled till soft and blend that as well)
Parsley, chopped (my mom used English Parsley)
2 cubes chicken stock
2 heads garlic, finely chopped or put through a garlic press
2 tbsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1 packet spaghetti, cooked (refer to this entry of mine on how to cook spaghetti properly)

Serves 6-7 people

First, you shell your prawns and set the shells aside as well (do not throw them out!)

In a frying pan, heat up the oil until hot and fry the prawn shells along with the heads as well. (this is what gives the dish its seafood flavour. the more, the better!) Best if you use olive oil to fry, it gives the dish a good flavour and body to it.

After frying until really fragrant, remove shells and heads from pan. You can discard it now.

Marinate your prawns, clams (set aside half before you marinate, it will be used separately later on) and squid with salt and pepper before frying each individually (that means fry all 3 ingredients separately, removing one ingredient from the pan before adding another to fry) in the same pan. Also, put a slice of butter (approx 1 thick") before you fry each ingredient.

Make sure you discard any clams has its shell unopened after it has been fried - this means it is rotten and should not be consumed.

For the half portion of clams that you've set aside, boil it in some water long enough for the shells to open to make it easier for you to remove it (not too much, just enough to cover almost halfway). Once you've removed the shells, boil the shell-less clams in the same water again till fragrant. This will be the 'clam juice' that will be included into the dish to give it the seafood-y taste as well. Take out the clams and set aside both juice and clam.

Fry your garlic in the same frying pan until it is a bit fragrant. Add tomato puree, blended tomatoes and clam juice. Add sugar, and then add 2 chicken cubes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add water. Bring to a boil, stirring it. Add chopped parsley and let it simmer, with the lid on until you get the consistency that you want. Do not put in your seafood yet, only add it all in just before serving.

Just before serving, add your prawns, clams and squid into the sauce and stir on low heat, long enough to just mix it all properly and take it off the fire immediately. It has already been cooked so further cooking will result in the seafood to become hard.

You can serve this dish separately (spaghetti and seafood sauce) or you can even mix it in the frying pan (if it is big enough) like what my mom has done!

It seems like a tiny bit of a hassle to make, but man, if you know what it tastes like, you won't mind at all!

Oh man I am hungry again even my looking at the pictures! And I just ate! This is a must-try for seafood-lovers! :D~

Buttermilk Coffee Cake

2007-12-06T13:50:00.000+08:00

Two days ago, my mummy made Buttermilk Coffee Cake!

She took the recipe from New Cook Book (limited edition) from Better Homes and Gardeens Books (again! must blog about the book soon, it's really good! It's like our cooking bible now hahahaha)

It tastes HEAVENLY. It actually doesn't contain any coffee or caffeine at all actually, even though the name suggests it; so I'm guessing that this cake goes wonderful with a good cuppa warm coffee. (which I don't take, unfortunately. Bleh.)

In fact, the cake consists of the wonderful flavours of cinnamon and nutmeg! So tasty!

So here's the recipe on how you can make your own Buttermilk Coffee Cake!:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, margarine or shortening (my mom used butter)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 beaten eggs
1 1/3 cups buttermilk or sour milk (I will explain what sour milk is and how to make it)
1/2 chopped nuts (my mom used Walnuts in this case)

Makes 18 servings

First, grease your baking pan with butter (the book says 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan...) and set aside.

In a bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and salt. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, or you can even use your hands and squeeze until the mix becomes crumb-like. Set aside a 1/2 cup, this will be used to top the cake.

In another bowl, combine the eggs and buttermilk and mix. Add it into the flour mixture and spoon the batter into the pan. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs and chopped nuts all over the batter.

Bake it in a oven at 180 Celcius for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Make sure you preheat the oven for at least 10 minutes before putting in the cake!

Best served warm and straight out of the oven because the nuts and the crumbs will be very crunchy, the cake will taste soft and moist, and the combination tastes great! After a while it doesn't seem to be so nice though, but you can always re-heat it in an ovennette or an oven. I recommend you finish this as quickly as possible (and with something so delicious, I think that won't be a problem. hehehe.)

It tastes beautiful with vanilla ice cream as well! (especially when it is hot. mmm~)

Anyway, sour milk is a good substitute for buttermilk if you don't have any around the house. You can make it by placing 1 tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar in a measuring cup, and add enough milk to make 1 cup of total liquid. Let it stand for 5 minutes before using!

So, this is a recipe that is guaranteed to make your day a little special. It tastes great on a chilly weekend morning :)

Try it! You'll grow to like it!

Deviled Eggs

2007-12-06T12:38:00.000+08:00

I made Deviled eggs today for lunch!

looooousy picture. blame the lighting, it was raining today.

"Deviled eggs or eggs mimosa are a common dish in France and the United States, but they actually originated in Rome according to the show The Secret Life Of.... Made with hard-boiled eggs, deviled eggs are served cold. They are served as a side dish and are a common holiday or party food.

The term "deviled" dates back to the 19th century, referring to the use of particularly hot spices in cooking. Contemporary versions of deviled eggs may include a wide range of seasonings and added foods, such as garlic, horseradish, wasabi, cheese, chutney, capers, salsa, hot sauce, mushrooms, spinach, sour cream, caviar, smoked salmon, or other seafood. Thus contemporary deviled eggs are not always particularly spicy."

-sourced from Wikipedia

So basically, it's hard-boiled eggs with a tasty egg-yolk filling! A great side dish for parties and whatnot.

It's also great for those who are on low-carb or Atkin's Diet (like me, so for about one month you will be getting a lot of protein-packed recipes! I lost 4kgs so far in 4 days muahahaha).

There are many variants of Deviled egg, but this is the recipe that I've tried:

Ingredients:

6 eggs (I used 5 today actually, didn't feel like eating that much)
1/4 cup mayonaise OR salad dressing (if on low-carb, check nutritional value beforehand. And I used mayonaise)
1 tsp mustard (I used Dijon mustard with honey!)
1 tsp vinegar
Paprika or parsley springs (optional, but I used it in this recipe)
Salt and pepper to taste

Makes 12 servings (one serving is half an egg...um, duh.)

First, heat a pot of water (enough to cover the egg for about 1") and put in one tsp of salt in the water to give it a bit of flavour. When it comes to a boil, I put the eggs slowly into the pot - best if you use a spoon to place it at the bottom or else it will crack (my first egg did! lesson learned...)

Let the eggs boil for ten minutes before removing. Run the eggs underneath tap water till it can be handled.

To remove the shell, gently tap the egg on the countertop and gently roll it between your hands. Peel off the shell, starting from the wide end of the egg.

After you've peeled all the eggs, cut the eggs in half, lengthwise. Remove the egg yolks and place it in a bowl.

Put in your mustard, vinegar, mayonaise/salad dressing. For me, I added approx half a tbsp of Paprika into the egg yolk mix, and probably a little over a tsp of hot chilli powder. I also added pepper to taste (I didn't add salt tho, it was fine as it is!)

After the egg-yolk mix has been prepared, with a spoon or a small cooking spatula (I used the latter), slot some of the mix into the egg white. If you want to make it look presentable, you can use a piping bag after you've leveled the egg yolk mix (to have a good base first) and be creative! (it looks good with a rosette tip too!) (ahem too bad I didn't do that. Next time then!)

As a last step, I sprinkled some dried parsley leaves over the eggs to give it a nice look.

And... serve!

Originally it is served cold, but for me it tastes good when it is warm :D you can try out both and see which you like best!

You can even try an Italian version, which consists of creamy Italian salad dressing and 2 tbsp of grated Parmesan cheese. Or a Greek version which consists of 2 tbsp of feta cheese, 1 tbsp fnely-chopped pitted kalamata olives (or other pitted ripe olives) and 2 snipped fresh oregano. Season with black pepper also if you wish!

Or you can go crazy! Experiment with herbs and spices, and maybe cream or milk or other types of sauces and see what suits your tastebuds best.

Also, I took the recipe from New Cookbook (limited edition) from Better Homes and Gardens Books. (I love that book! So many different recipes)

I'm sure in the end you will be amazed at what simple dishes can do :)

Reika's Oven-Cooked Parmesan Chicken

2007-12-05T00:17:00.000+08:00

I'm back! This time this is my own recipe. And I can guarantee you, if you love chicken and you love cheese, it is worth a try! :)

And the best thing about this recipe is that you can incorporate this into your low-carb or even Atkin's diet! Dieting never felt so sinful before. Hahahaha!

Ingredients:

1/2 chicken breast, skinned
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated (but more if you want to!)
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Thyme
salt and black pepper to taste
1 egg
1 tbsp butter

serves 1 person

Firstly, preheat the oven at about 190 Celsius.

Beat the egg in a bowl large enough to fit the chicken.

Add Paprika and Thyme into the egg and stir well. Add salt and black pepper to taste.

Dip the chicken into the egg mix. You might want to poke a few holes here and there to ensure that the flavours reach into the chicken. Leave for about 10 minutes.

Put your chicken on a pan and top it with Parmesan cheese. Then put your butter on top of the chicken, and drizzle it with some olive oil to ensure that the butter doesn't burn in the oven.

Leave it in the oven for about 25 minutes.

While I was waiting for my chicken to be ready, I had some egg mixture and Parmesan leftovers.

Instead of letting it go to waste, I decided to use it up - and make an omelet to go with my chicken!

I fried the egg mixture in a small, round pan (hehe!). I let it cook both sides before I sprinkled Parmesan cheese on one side, flipped it over and repeated the process.

My mistake was that I cooked the Parmesan too long, so it actually melted and is quite stringy. Try to cook it enough to just heat it a bit, kay? :)

When it is done, serve!

What I did was I cut into two because I made two servings instead - one for me and one for my mom.

And it tasted WONDERFUL for something that can be eaten during a diet! (I am on Atkins, 2nd day now. Trying to lose 15kgs once and for all!)

Try it, you'll love it! :)

Spaghetti Bolognese

2007-11-24T02:49:00.000+08:00

Every food blog will be incomplete with the famous Spaghetti Bolognese. Lol. It was one of the first dishes I've learned to cook anyway!

Pasta dishes are the easiest thing in the world to cook. And that says something about Spaghetti Bolognese, which is the basic dish for pasta dishes! But it doesn't make it any less delicious... Mmmm... Satisfaction everytime!

And I bet you guys didn't know that the dish originated from... yep that's right, Bologna in Italy!

Anyways, down to it then! Here's how I make Spaghetti Bolognese:

Ingredients:

A handful of cloves of garlic (actually, you can use 3 or 4 if you want. I love garlic, that's why!)
A large onion
1 packet of Spaghetti
1 packet of ground beef/chicken (I forgot what's the exact weight!)
1 large jar of ready-made spaghetti sauce

Serves 6 people

First, let's prepare the spaghetti!

Boil a pot of water. Wait for it to come to a boil. (if you don't, it'll be hard to cook it perfectly)

Now, most people don't know this: Add a tablespoon of salt in the boiling water. That's how you should cook pasta actually. It actually gives it taste!

Add some oil or virgin olive oil as well, just to make sure it doesn't stick.

Then add your pasta into the boiling water.

Pasta is best when it is cooked "al dente" and I will tell you my secret on how to achieve it. (cheh!)

"...describes pasta and (less commonly) rice that has been cooked so as to be firm but not hard."

-sourced from Wikipedia

Look at the box/packaging and see how many minutes it is. Usually it would range around 7-10 minutes depending on the brand. To get it to be al dente, you must actually follow it. (and I know many of you actually don't! Hahaha) If it's 10 minutes, do yourself a favour and save time from checking every 5 minutes, set your timer for 10 minutes and take it out when the time is up. (and remember to stir occasionally to make sure it cooks properly and doesn't stick)

Cute anot my cooking timer? It's a hard-boiled egg!! Hehehe!

When your pasta is cooked, strain it in a colander.

Take note, if you're planning to serve the pasta and the spaghetti sauce separately, run the spaghetti thoroughly under running tap water. You can heat it up later in a microwave. This prevents it from sticking.

If you're going to mix it with the sauce immediately after you strain it, (assuming you've already cooked the sauce) you don't need to!

My highly recommended brand for pasta is San Remo. (it's the red-colour packaging) It's an Australian brand. (shocking!!) and if I have enough money, I'll buy Barilla instead. Barilla is Italian. And I'd choose Barilla over San Remo tho. It tastes so gooooooooood!
Also, I have a tip on to check if your spaghetti pasta is cooked. Cut apart a strand of spaghetti with your fingernail. Look at the part you've just cut. If you see white dots in the middle, it's not cooked. Also, eating it works as well. Eheheh.

I also heard that to check if it's cooked, you have to throw a strand on a wall. If it sticks, it's cooked o_o; you can try it out for yourself. I think that's the 'soft' and 'kembang' type. XD do not want.

Okay, that's the pasta down, now for the sauce!:

Chop your onion and your garlic, or you can use a garlic press to press the garlic into somewhat a paste, like how I did!

Put your meat in a colander and wash your ground meat/chicken thoroughly. In my case I used beef!

Heat up your pan for frying. Have the heat at medium, you don't want to burn the garlic. Add a tablespoon of oil to the pan.

Or, for best results, use virgin olive oil! Look at the bottle for mine! So pretty right? And it's ceramic! And it WILL shatter if I let it fall. Waaaah!

On the left is the actual bottle it came from, the container on the right was actually free with it :D It's so convenient because I don't have to keep unscrewing the cap every time I need to use it ha ha ha ha...

Fry your onions, garlic and meat. (yes, in that order. I realized when I added the garlic and onion first, the garlic will brown much faster, resulting in the garlic being burnt!)

Then when your meat is fully cooked, add your pre-made spaghetti sauce (cheh! cheating!) and come to a slow boil.

For this session, I've used Barilla's Ricotta sauce. The two brands that I highly recommend is Prego and Barilla. Prego is under Campbell's here in Malaysia. Both are really good.

I love Barilla's Ricotta cheese because you can really taste the cheese in it. You don't need to add any extra cheese actually! And you save money because of that hehe.

Okay, stirring ur sauce occasionally, add salt and pepper to taste.

And for me, I usually add my secret weapon!:

Knorr's chicken cubes. Ahahahahaha. *gets bricked*. I only use one cube.

Yes I hear you. Meat with chicken cubes?? But it actually tastes nice in my opinion! (I hate beefy taste anyway ahahaha)

When you're satisfied with your sauce, you can choose to serve the sauce and spaghetti separately, or mix them together for the convenience of people!

And enjoy! :D~

Usually I eat it with a slice of cheese, but since the sauce has cheese in em, I eat it just like that.

So until next time, munch ya guys around!

Crème Caramel

2007-11-18T18:05:00.000+08:00

I made crème caramel today!

Crème caramel, flan, or caramel custard is a rich custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, as opposed to crème brûlée, which is custard with a hard caramel top.

-source from Wikipedia

Basically put, it is a creamy custard dessert topped with a nice glaze of caramel. Very nice!

Before I get down to the details on my way of making it (cheh), I would like to stress that this type of crème caramel is the half-set type, meaning that you cannot flip it over, like what restaurants usually do. (Restaurants will usually put the glaze of caramel on top of the crème caramel and let it set, before flipping it over on a plate)

But it tastes just as good, trust me! ;D so let's get down to business!

Ingredients:

For the crème caramel:

8 eggs + 2 egg yolks
1 can evaporated milk (405 g)
almost 1 cup sugar (I will explain why later on)
water
1 tbsp vanilla essence

For the caramel glaze:

almost half-cup of sugar (again, I will explain why later on)
water

First, let's prepare the crème caramel.

Pre-heat your oven before you start making your crème caramel. Pre-heat it to 200C. This is important because or else, it will not cook properly!!

Then start to make your crème caramel!

Gather 8 full eggs plus two more egg yolks and put them in a bowl.

Take almost 1 cup of sugar. The reason why it is almost 1 cup is because, in my opinion, 1 cup is too sweet, whereas 3/4 cup is not so sweet. Maybe I should call this 5/6 cup? Hahaha there isn't such thing as a measuring cup of that quantity anyway.

Pour the sugar in with the eggs.

Pour in one can of evaporated milk.

And with that same can, fill it up with water and pour that in too. (basically a 1:1 ratio)
hahahaha it doesn't look like water, right?

Slowly mix it until all the ingredients have been dissolved. If you don't have a mixer, you can use a whisk or maybe even a fork/spoon. Anything as long as you can mix it properly. And be careful when mixing. Do not whisk it too hard because you don't want it to have air bubbles in them.

Also, make sure you don't leave any sugar at the bottom of the bowl. I did :( just gently scrape the bottom of the bowl to check if there is any sugars that hasn't been dissolved yet.

Pour everything into a glass/Pyrex dish, one that can withstand the oven.

If you see some transparent goo, it's actually the egg's chalaze. Remove it with a spoon. The chalaze is kinda like a rope, and it is what keeps the egg yolk suspended in the middle of the egg. There are two chalaze in an egg, one from the top and one from the bottom.

Put it in the oven.

Now here's a part where you have to pay attention. Pour hot water into the tray, surrounding the dish. If you only have a flat tray, you can try putting the dish into a bigger dish and fill it with water. This method is called cooking with a water bath.

A water bath is a technique to gently cook an item or seal a jar.

Cooking with a water bath -

The item to be cooked is placed in a shallow pan of water. The water heats and cooks the item gently. This is especially important for Flan, custards, sauces and mousses to prevent curdling.

-source from About.com

Basically you steam it while cooking as well. Also, the water bath method keeps it moist.

Bake it in the oven for 20 minutes. (remember, your temperature must be 200C)
How to tell if it is over-cooked: The surface will have bubbles and/or pockmarks.

And how to tell if it is cooked? Well, if it is not cooked, if you tug at the dish you can see the top wobble a lot. Like as if it was water. The top-part will even start to fold if you yank it a bit. When it is cooked, it will still the whole thing will still wobble but the top part of the crème caramel will not stretch or fold in any way.

And, since this is a half-setting crème caramel, it will not really set after you take it out of the oven. Make sure you've baked it well for consumption before you take it out.

Soooo... that's how you make crème caramel! Now let's do the caramel glaze that you will pour over it:

Get a regular pan. Put the fire on high. Have ready your almost-half cup of sugar. Again, I thought that half cup was a little too sweet so I went just a little under. But you can try your own method, maybe half cup works for you!

Pour in the sugar, and with about the same ratio, pour in water. Let it boil, and make sure you keep stirring to make sure that the consistency is there. You wouldn't want one side to be darker than the other! Make sure you scrape the sides as well or that part will be overly-burnt as well.

It will start to turn brown after a while. You have to be very alert because when it starts to brown, it browns really really quickly. Take it off the fire just before the colour that you want, and pour some water over it to cool it down - and to prevent it from further browning as the pan is still very hot.

So readers, this was a mistake I did:

- I did not check the thickness of the sauce before I poured it over the crème caramel. To my horror, it was too thick!! It was like rock-candy.

So please, check the consistency of your caramel before you pour it over your crème caramel. You need it to be really runny, almost like water but slightly thicker.

You can see my teethmarks on the tip of the spoon. That's how hard it was!
This is NOT the consistency that you want.

But my mom saved the day for my case! She quickly boiled some water in the same pan and poured it over the crème caramel, so the caramel quickly melted. Then I got the consistency that I wanted. Thank you mummy! :D

And TA-DAH!! Finished.

Put in it a refrigerator for a few hours or until cold, and ENJOY!

Will update soon with a picture of the really finished one, straight from the fridge! *is waiting for dinnertime to come around now* *hungry*

----*~**~**~**~*----

Edited at 8:22pm:

I've just had dinner, and so here are the results!:

haha you can see my mummy's face in the caramel's reflection

Doesn't it look gooooood?

My thoughts about it:

The caramel glaze was too bitter for my taste, altho my mom told me that's how many people like it. If you don't like it bitter, perhaps you should really go with one cup, or just don't burn it like I did! *smacks self*

The crème caramel itself was nice. But instead of 8 + 2 eggs, I think I will try 6 + 4 next time. Because the one I did today was a bit stiff for my taste. I like it when it is really creamy and smooth! So if you like it stiff, go with 8 + 2. If you like it soft and creamy, go with 6 + 4. The amount of egg whites decide how stiff it should be. The more it egg whites there are, the stiffer it will be :)

Crème caramel and ICE CREEEEAAAAMMMMM *orgasm*

So until next post, see ya around everyone! *bites into Pocky stick*

A birth of a new blog! + Pavlova

2007-11-18T01:08:00.000+08:00

Hahaha yes, I couldn't resist making another blog dedicated for food! Since my love for cooking has grown, (and that I am going to try out an array of different dishes) I decided to make a separate blog for food and share recipes I've tried out. Also because of my passion for good food!

But since I still have one week left in my semester, I can't post any recipes yet because I will not be cooking until I am done.

Ah, but for a start, I can talk a bit about this:

This is called a Pavlova. My mom made it. Sorry for lousy photo, it was taken with my phone camera. It is so sweet that it is has to be sinful!

Pavlova is basically a light & fluffy meringue. (pronounced muh-rang, "muh" sounds like 'mercy' and "rang" as in 'the school bell rang') (I suck with telling people how to pronounce, gimme a break) It is a dessert dish that can be commonly found in Australia and New Zealand.

It is a sweetened, whipped egg that has been cooked (no, not like scrambled eggs. try whipping 4 egg whites until it is fluffy plus sugar and other stuff, you will get a very different effect) that is topped with whipped cream and fruits! Usually the fruits that they use are kiwi slices and strawberries.

It's crunchy on the outside but marshmallowy-soft inside. And it's so sweet I am salivating right now even thinking about it! No wonder Australia and New Zealand are fighting over which country it originated from! (my mom swears it's an Australian dish since she first tried it there, but I really have no idea!)

what a sliced Pavlova looks like
image source from here

My mom did add something extra tho, she added custard below the layer of cream. DOUBLE DROOL. For the fruits, we just used a fruit cocktail from a can - green grapes, cubed cherries, peaches, mango etc.

I've had Pavlova before when I was in Australia, but it was really different from what my mom made. The one in Australia was like a cake, but the one that my mom made was thin like the picture of the sliced Pavlova above.

A different version of Pavlova
image source from here

Though, this picture (the one right above this paragraph) was what I had when I was in Australia. See the difference? This one looks like a cake! It's so... big! And not to mention thick.

My mom tells me that the one she made (the thin version) is the original version. Only recently did the cakey-version come about. She says it might be because the cakey-version is made to be sold commercially. I don't know about that either hahahaha. But I do know that the home-made ones are always the thinner version. How do cake shops get it to be so tall??

But either way, I welcome both versions. Truly, it is food for angels!

I will try to make it soon, and I shall post better and more appetizing pictures and recipes as well!

Reika's *munch* *munch* !! -- a food blog

Fruit Trifle

Quick Idea: Grilled Sandwich

Little Gingerbread Houses & Gingerbread Man

Chicken and Tomato Rice Casserole

Chicken and Rice Casserole

Lemon Meringue Tart

Roast Chicken (Chef Wan's Recipe)

Oven-Baked Cheese & Egg Sandwich

Chicken Enchiladas

Apple Crumble and Banana Crumble

Beef Burger

Banana Bread Butter Pudding

Honey Cornflake Crisps (Cornflake Madu)

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Potato Wedges

Eggs In A Basket

Curry Chicken - Indian and Malay-styled

Chocolate Black Forest Trifle

Ikan masak Gulai Asam Pedas

Spaghetti Aglio E Olio

Beef Stroganoff

what's left of the Buttermilk Coffee Cake...

Seafood Spaghetti

Buttermilk Coffee Cake

Deviled Eggs

Reika's Oven-Cooked Parmesan Chicken

Spaghetti Bolognese

Crème Caramel

A birth of a new blog! + Pavlova

Reika's munch munch !! -- a food blog