HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dear readers,

Thank you for visiting my humble blog. For those that took the trouble to leave me comments, just want to let you know that it is greatly appreciated. Because I believe together we learn from one another.

I feel that I have to say sorry for some of my home cooking recipes because it didn't come with the exact measurement. Thus, I realized that it might not be suitable for the beginner cooks. Just know that cooking gets better with time and trial and error. So, happy cooking and experimenting!

Hopefully the new year will bring all of us joy and happiness and what our hearts desired.

Happy New Year Everyone! :D

Look who came to visit!

This adorable baby boy is Lily's grandson. He is getting bigger from the last time I saw him. Not sure what was up with my daughter. She just sat on the sofa the whole time the visitors were here, no smile and speechless the whole time. Not sure whether she knows how to play with a baby or not! One thing though, she didn't get jealous when I was carrying him.








Isn't he just adorable?

MeMe - You are What you Eat

I got tagged by Tazz to write this Meme, in which I have to write my top 10 favorite food. Got to say, I'm not someone who likes to do this meme homework. Hahaha... Just not a person who likes any kind of homework, not even in college! Anyway, here it is:

1. Nasi lemak - I just love this fragrant oily rice. The coconut rice mixed with spicy anchovy sambal, a little roasted peanuts, some hard boiled egg and crunchy fresh cucumber, can I say YUM!

2. Chicken - I eat chicken all the times because it's healthy and low fat. Normally I buy skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut it into strips and use it for my stir-fry.

3. Vegetable - A must have for my daily cooking. I can't do without veggies because it provide us with fiber, antioxidant and all the good stuff that our bodies need. Not to say delicious too!

4. Garlic - Garlic lover here, the more the merrier. Nothing can beat lots of fresh garlic with some chilli padi in light soy sauce as a condiment with rice. I use it in stir-frying my veggies, make garlic oil for noodle soup, fried rice and more.

5. Tofu - I love all kind of tofu. Soft tofu for my mapo tofu, firm tofu to pan-fry, deep-fried tofu (tau kwa) for curry noodle, pork dish, bak kut teh, taufu fah as a dessert, even sweet soy bean milk. What's more is it's good for our bodies!

6. Chinese Herbal Soup - Oh yeah, I love it! I like Tung Kway and ginseng just to list two because I can't named the others (too difficult to remember). I will try my best to cook it at least once a week for my family, normally with chicken drumsticks or pork bones.

7. Fish - Loveee fish. BUT not all kind of fish though. I don't fancy red meat fish at all like salmon and tuna. I know it's good for me, but I just can't stomach the firmer texture of the fish meat. Love fish steamed or deep-fried, yummy. Oh, definitely not raw like in sushi. Hahaha....

8. Crab & Lobster - This I like but we seldom eat it because it's not cheap. We normally eat it for special occasion or once in a while treat. I like lobster in cream sauce and salt & pepper crabs.

9. Mee Siam & Mee Hoon - Grew up loving it and thus I enjoy eating it now. It's quick and easy meal for my lazy weekend or holiday.

10. Steamboat - steamboat is best enjoy with lots of people, mainly your family, relative or friends. It gave me a sense of unity and closeness whenever I had steamboat. I guess partly because my mom always made steamboat on CNY eve, so I associated it with family unity. The piping hot sweet chicken stock with all sort of seafood, meats, veggies, tofu, fish balls, etc...ahhhhh.

Okay, now the fun part of passing this meme over to:

Lily- Wai Sek Hong

Rantings from a Solidary Reverie

My Kitchen- My Laboratory

Tang Yuan

Tang yuan is so easy to make and yet I hardly ever make it at all (lazy mah). Tazz kept reminding us to cook tang yuan for Dong Zhi day which is Dec. 22nd, guess I got persuaded by her. Hahaha... Her blog these few days have been about Tang Yuan and how it symbolized unity in a family, guess I'm sold. So, here's my tang yuan.



I added red bean as filling because I like mine with filling. I made gula Melaka & ginger syrup to go with it.

Asparagus & Bell Peppers Omelet

Featuring one of my home cook dishes. This is my new discovery dish. Asparagus goes very well with omelet, even better than the french beans, so a must try for everyone out there. :)


Ingredients

~ 3 eggs, beaten with soy sauce & white peppers.
~ 6-8 asparagus, cut into small pieces like shown above.
~ Red bell pepper (about 1/4), cut into small pieces.
~ Yellow bell pepper (1/4), cut into small pieces.


Method

Heat up oil in a skillet. When hot, add in the chopped vegetable. Stir-fry until veggies soften and add in the beaten eggs. Flip it over a few times until both sides are cooked and slightly brown.

Mee Siam Malaysian Style

This is the mee siam I used to eat in Malaysia. I have no idea there is another kind of mee siam which comes with gravy and they called it Singaporean style mee siam until recently. I have not tasted it before and have no idea how it tasted like as well. Would love to try it if I have the chance.



This is my version of mee siam. The main seasoning is of course chilli sauce which gives the noodle the red color and makes it spicy, just the way I like it.

Cookies...Cookies...

Ahhhh....is the season to make some cookies! I have a tea party on Dec. 17th (today) which gave me an excuse to make some cookies, or play with the dough. :P I actually had a few patterns that I wanted to try out, but it didn't turn out so well as I was using the melting moment recipe (added more flour to make it crunchy). The dough was still too soft to shape! Thus got to make do with my last minute patterns, whichever works!



From left clockwise,
Peppermint & Vanilla Cookies, Peppermint Cookies, Strawberry & Vanilla Cookies, Peanuts Cookies, Orange-Cranberries with Brandy Cookies


Individually packed to prevent flavor mixed up.


Then into the gift bags ready to be given away. This is my "Thank You" gift for coming to the tea party. :o) Hope they like it.

Nasi Lemak

Nasi lemak is one of the Malaysia National Food. So simple and yet so good. The translation for nasi lemak is oily rice. The rice is oily because it is cooked with coconut milk. Rice cooks in coconut milk is fairly common in Malaysia. Coconut milk is one of the staple in Malaysian cooking and it is widely used in Malay cooking.



This is my version. I like it simple and original. If it is wrapped in banana leaf, I would be in heaven. Fresh banana leaf is hard to come by here, basically non-existence. Only the frozen one is available in some of the oriental stores here. When I was back in Malaysia, the only nasi lemak I wanted to eat were those wrapped in banana leaf that cost about $1 (used to be 50 cents). I just love the fragrant that the banana leaf gave to the rice. Smell so good.

Who Would Know

Look at what my 20 months old is doing now? She is addicted to pbskids.org and has to be on there a few times a day. Hahaha... Oh yeah, she would climb on top of the chair, sit herself nicely and says, "Mama...mama...PB....". Of course I will get her to pbs kids and from there, she would surf it on her own, find her favorite games and play. If she go to a page that has song, she would dance to the song. She knows how to paint and play some simple games. Look at how concentrated she is in the picture below!



Oh yeah, hope that this early use of computer will make her smarter and interested in the computer. Well, she's definitely interested in it now. I told my hubby, we will have to get her her own computer set when we move into our new house, so that she would leave ours alone. Hahaha...



She is painting one of the boohbahs on the picture above. Boohbah is one of the kid shows feature in PBS T.V. channel here. Boohbah and Teletubbies are suitable for her age to play, and she knows how to go and find it to play.

Vietnamese Honeycomb Cake

Thanks tt for this wonderful recipe. :) I first saw him posting this recipe at Jo's Deli a couple months back. The picture and simple recipe just attracted me to it. Got to copy it and put in on my to-do list.

I have a tea party next Sat. and thus have to think of something to bring. And I saw this recipe again while surfing through tt's blog. So, why not this!



This is my trial & test version because I have not make it before and I just don't want a last minute disaster and plan B kinda thing going on next Sat. Glad to say that it turned out great. I just have to grease and flour my bundt pan the next time I make it. (If you just grease it alone, it will stick to the pan)



This is a close up picture of the cake. This cake tasted like a kuih, chewy with a hint of pandan and the sweetness is just nice. It is called a honeycomb cake because it has holes all over inside of the cake and looks like a beehive.

Note 1: Use 1 tsp. of Pandan paste for more pandan flavor. I only used 1/2 tsp. and my hubby complaint not enough flavor. He wanted it sweeter too.


Note 2: Made my second batch yesterday using a 8" square pan. Added 1 tsp. pandan paste and 1/4 cup more sugar. This definitely more to my liking as the flavor and sweetness go. (added 12/17)

The recipe is posted here:
tt's blog

Coconut Shrimps

After I tried a coconut shrimp in a seafood restaurant here, I have been thinking of how to make it myself. It's very popular here, normally served as an appertizer or your choice of main side dish.

This is my version of it, shouldn't be too far off from the real thing and very easy to make. It's crunchy with a hint of coconut, even my hubby said it's good.

Homemade Chicken Floss

This is my first time making chicken floss, all the while I have been making pork floss. Why the trouble of making my own floss right? I just have no idea how long the floss here have been sitting on the selves because the one sold here are just not fresh like the one we buy in M'sia. And since it's a meat product, I just couldn't bring myself to buy it. My life would be easier if I can take the leap isn't it? Haha...

Anyway, the method is the same as my pork floss just that it only takes an hour or less to simmer. I added some curry powder and no dark soy sauce in this. Since chicken meat is fairly tender, it's very easy to shred and I got the flossy texture that I want in a floss.



However, I have encountered a few problems on the way that I have no idea what went wrong. I got the flossy texture but the floss turned out to be hard and chewy!! Thinking that my heat must be too high, I added some water and turned the heat to low and stir-fried it some more. To cut the story short, I did that twice in order to save it but still ended out with chewy floss, the one that's hard to swallow.

Think...think...think....finally my last attempt of saving my chicken floss, I placed it on a baking sheet and baked it at very low temperature (200'F) for 30 minutes. Now I have crispy chicken floss. Still not the fluffy one that Lily and I wanted but better than hard & chewy anytime. A failure chicken floss! :(

Questions:
1. Not sure why it takes longer for me to stir-fry the chicken floss compared to pork floss? I thought it should be shorter.

2. Why the flossy texture didn't produce a fluffy taste? *scratching head*

I think it will be a while before I attempting to make any meat floss again. Hahaha....

Bah Kut Teh

Made this bak kut teh for dinner yesterday. I used the Yew Chian Haw bak kut teh premix. I love this brand as it comes with pieces of herbs and got a herbal flavor. I added tau pok in mine.

Vietnamese Influence Turkey Noodle Soup

The best way to get rid of the turkey bones or the drumsticks and wings is to make stock or soup. If you make a lot of the stock, you can freeze it in some containers and take out one to defroze overnight in the fridge for next day use.

For this noodle soup, I used one back bone, two drumsticks and a wing and did a Vietnamese twist to it by adding lemon grass, star anise, 5 spice powder, roasted onions and ginger, fish sauce and salt & sugar to taste. I simmered it for four hours. I got the inspiration from tt's beef noodle. :D



As to serve, I got some fresh basil, saw tooth herb, quick blanched bean sprouts and onion, turkey meats and DoDo fish balls. Oh tt, if you read this, the saw tooth herb really won't hurt my mouth. Hahaha... Thanks!



After the noodle had been assembled. The herbs gave it such a nice fragrant and the crunchy bean sprouts gave it an extra bite to the noodle soup. I served it with Sriracha Hot sauce and Hoisin sauce.

BoBoChaCha

I made this as a dessert on Thanksgiving night since I have some leftover yam from the yam kuih. Bobochacha is actually very easy to make and here's my version.

Ingredients:

~Yam, cut into cubes and steamed for 30 mins.
~Sweet Potatoes, cut into cubes and steamed for 10 mins.
~Gula Melaka or the yellow hard sugar, to taste.
~Coconut Cream/ Thick Coconut Milk.

Steps:

1. In a saucepan, add in the amount of water you want. When boiled, add in the gula Melaka, add to the sweetness you like (need to taste test, if too sweet, add some hot water, if not sweet enough, add more gula Melaka). Stir until sugar dissolved. Lower the heat and add in the coconut cream and the steamed yam & sweet potatoes, stir to mix well, about 5 mins. Turn the heat off. Serves hot or cold. Enjoy!