Will be MIA yet Again!

Finally the long awaited 7 months is coming to an end tomorrow (Monday), where we will close on our new house. Hooray! We will move on Wednesday and sleep in our new house from then on. We are not allowed to enter our new house until the closing day which is also the walk through day. So, I am really excited to see what's the finished product will be. Believe it or not, the walk-through is scheduled at 8am and the closing is at 12pm on the SAME DAY! We were like, they are sure felt very confident about their products (in this case, a house!). One thing though, our next door neighbor just moved in last weekend, at least we know we are not the only house that is occupied in that row.

I am packing getting ready for the moving day. So, no more baking of CNY cookies for me, at least not until I moved and unpacked my stuff first. It's great that we get to move in before the Chinese New Year as one great plus is that my Spring cleaning will be short and sweet because the house will be cleaned and presented to us. And luckily CNY lasted for 15 days!! So, after I moved, I still get to make pineapple tarts (if I'm not too bum out). :P

Therefore, I will be away for a week or so or until I have my Internet connection back again. Will definitely miss checking and reading on my fellow bloggers' blogs. Miss ya!

Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Chai to you!!!

Three Faces of Evy

I took some pictures of my little girl few days ago. Often time when I took picture of the food, she also wanted to be in the picture. Thus, the result of these pictures.

Snapping picture of her is not an easy task these days because she won't sit still for me to snap it. She would sit for a little while and then rush over to see her picture through my camera screen. My digital camera often takes its own sweet time to focus, lock and snap, so by the time the camera done all that, she already standing up ready to come over. As a result, I have all sort of weird and blur pictures of her.


1) Her Smiling Face!
2)Her Laughing Silly Face!


3)Her Serious Face!

Anyway, thought I will share the three different looks of my sweetie. They sure are growing up fast.

Stir-Fry Tom Yam Shrimps

I always looking for way to cook shrimps. I got this idea from Amy Beh's Vietnamese Prawns in her first cookbook. What can I say, I always attracted to easy recipe that tastes good. I made this recipe simpler by using the bottled key lime juice that available in all WalMart stores at the produce section. Hehe...short-cut all the way for me.

Featuring one of my home cook dishes.

Ingredients:

12 extra large shrimps, shelled & deveined but leave the tails on

1 lemon grass, cut into 1 inch length (optional)

2 Kaffir lime leaves, sliced (optional)

4 shallots, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

4 chilli padi (Thai chilli), chopped

2 Tbp. Tom Yam paste

1 Tbp. key lime juice

1 tsp. sugar

Drizzle of dark soy sauce

1/3 cup water

sesame oil

Method:

1. Heat the wok with some oil. When heated, add lemon grass and shallots. Stir-fry for a little while, then add in garlic, chilli padi and kaffir lime leaves. Stir- well until fragrant.

2. Add shrimps, give a quick stir. Add in tom yam paste, key lime juice, dark soy sauce, sugar and water. Stir-fry until the shrimps are cooked and sauce thicken.

3. Turn off the fire and drizzle a little sesame oil on top. Give it a quick stir and serve on a plate.

Stir-Fry Bean Sprouts

Featuring one of my home cook dishes.

Ingredients:

~ Bean sprouts
~ 2-3 cloves garlics, chopped
~ 2-3 Scallion, cut into 2 inches length
~ One small piece of ginger, thinly shredded
~1/4 cup dried anchovies, washed and drained

Seasoning:

Salt to taste, 1 tsp. chicken stock granules & 1/3 cup water.

Method:

Heat oil in a wok. When hot, add in dried anchovies and ginger, stir-fry until anchovies turned crispy and brown then add in garlic. Stir well and add in the bean sprouts. Give a few good stirs and add the seasonings. Let it simmer a little while and then add scallions in the last few seconds. Stir well and dish out. Serve hot.

Note:

Do not overcook the bean sprouts, it shoud be crunchy when you bite into it.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins

Made this using my marble banana bread recipe. But instead of marbling it, I mixed all the batter with the melted chocolate and added chocolate chips, thus made it a double chocolate banana bread muffins.

Note:

1. I think I overbaked it because I found it to be a bit dry.

2. Thus, for those that are trying, add 1/4 cup more oil into the recipe.

Step-by-Step Kuih Bangkit Guide

I didn't know that so many people have problem with making kuih bangkit. Thus, I decided to make mine again with step-by-step pictures guide. I followed my recipe to the T and got no problem at all. No need to add more flour or more coconut milk. And it's all done in exactly 15 mins (baked time). Only the seashell mould ones needed 20 minutes.

For kuih bangkit recipe, click here.


Place the tapioca flour on top of the paper towel and in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute, stirred. Set aside and let cool.


Measured all the ingredients ready before adding into the flour. I put the yolk into the melted butter and gave it a quick stir before adding it into the flour.


This is the thick coconut milk that I used. It's a coconut cream, very fragrant and more expensive but nothing can beat this brand. My kitchen smelled so nice while baking my kuih bangkit.


This is how the dough looks like after kneading.


Roll it on a lightly flour surface to the thinness you like. Flour the rolling pin as well.


Dip the cutter into the flour and then cut it, give it a twist and pop it on top of lined parchment paper cookie sheet.


Like this.


Baked in preheated 350'F oven for 15 mins.


Cool on wire rack.


I made 4 sea shells one from using the mould for experiment (on the left). This one are thicker, need 20 mins baking time.


I bite one into half, trying to let you see what the inside looks like. Too bad, my camera cannot zoom in too much and this is the best I can do.


Remember to line your cookie sheet with parchment paper, if not you would get this. The kuih bangkit would stick and there's no way to get it out unbroken. See, what my laziness cost me! Haha...

Hope these pictures help! So that my whole morning spent making this is not wasted. *whoosh*

Tom Yum Fish

I like to make my own Tom Yum soup sometimes as we can get Tom Yum Paste virtually in every oriental stores these days. Tom Yum Gong is for tom yam soup with shrimps only. But there are a lot of variety these days, you can have seafood tom yum where fish, shrimps and cutterfish would be added. Or you can have fish tom yum, even crabs tom yum would be delicious.

The above is my fish tom yum (short-cut version). It's my way of cutting down on shrimps (or more precisely cholesterol intake).

Kuih Bangkit

I love kuih bangkit and was so happy to have found the recipe at KC, generously shared by Leelee (Hugbear). However, I just realized that I have accidently changed her recipe by converted it to cups by using my lousy conversion table. I also modified some of her steps to suit my lazy lifestyle. Thus, my kuih bangkit is crispy when you bite into it and then simply melt-in-your-mouth. No wonder her kuih bangkit looks so different from mine! Now I will never know how hers tasted like.

Penang Char Kuey Teow

You gals might have think, wait a minute, I don't see any shrimps nor the "si hum" in it right? Hahaha...
Well, it is my version of healthy Penang char kuey teow with boneless and skinless chicken breasts.

This is one of my hubby favorite dishes. He used to fry a killer kuey teow while I seated waiting to be served. See...I have no idea how to fry kuey teow before. He used to order Penang kuey teow from his favorite hawker store while in Malaysia and he learned how to cook it by standing there and watched. Thus, in the first few years while we were married, he was the only one who fried the kuey teow.

I think I started to take over the fried kuey teow last year because I just wanted to show him I could make a really good kuey teow too (I stole his secret while watching him fried the kuey teow a couple of times plus my added years of cooking experience helped). :) Now, I could proudly say I fried a killer kuey teow as well, might even tastes better than his. ;P Because since then, he never wanted to fry any more kuey teow (Men!).

Normally I will fry the kuey toew with shrimps and cut the scallion in 2 inches length unlike the one you see in this picture. But today, I only have some chopped scallions in the refrigerator.

Uh hum...Sorry, the recipe for my fried kuey teow is family secret. However, if you do a search, I'm sure you will find the recipe on the web. :P

Recipe translation from Roman Holiday's blog.

For two:
300g kuey teow

150g bean sprouts

150g shrimps

1/2 chinese sausage, cut

3 eggs

2 green onions, cut

1 Tbsp. chopped garlic

2-3 Tbsp. oil

Chili paste to taste

Sauce:

1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. chicken stock granules

Dash of White pepper

Dark soy sauce to suit

Method:
1. Heat the oil, add in garlic, fry til fragrant,add in the chili paste.
2. Add shrimps, fry til cooked. Add in kuey teow, mix well.
3. Add bean sprout, chinese sausages and sauceingredients, fry to mix well.
4. Push kuey teow to the side, add in some oil and the eggs.Fry together with the kuey teow. Lastly add ingreen onion and fry til dry.

Malaysian Style Spring Rolls

This was my easy version which used only a few ingredients. As this was my last minute subtitute for what I had in mind to cook earlier and thus I didn't have time to thaw the ground pork. You could add ground pork and shredded soften chinese mushroom in your filling.

Ingredients:

-1 jicama, julienned
-1 carrot, julienned
-3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
-1/4 cup of dried shrimps, soften

-Canola oil for stir-frying
-1 tsp. chicken stock granules
-Salt & Sugar to taste
-Sprinkle of white peppers
-A little sesame oil

-Spring Roll wrappers
-Cornstarch glue (2 tsp. cornstarch + 2 tsp. water)
-Oil for deep-frying

Method:

1. Heat up a wok with canola oil. When heated, add in garlic and dried shrimps. Stir-fry until fragrant, then add in jicama and carrots. Stir-fry a little while, add in salt, sugar & chicken granules. Add in a little water. Stir-fry well until jicama soften. Turn off the heat, sprinkle with white peppers and a little sesame oil. Stir well to mix. Dish out to cool in a bowl.

2. When cooled, wrapped the filling in the spring roll wrappers, sealed it with the cornstarch glue. Covered the made one with wet paper towel to prevent them from drying out.

3. When done, deep-fry the spring rolls in hot oil until golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towel. Serve hot.

Chilli Crabs

Believe it or not, I never had a chilli crabs before until I came to the U.S. Didn't even know this dish is so popular in Singapore until my Singapore friend here cooked and served this dish to us. My hubby fell in love with this dish after he tried it. And I finally cooked it for him on New Year day. :)



I adapted this chilli crabs recipe from Elaine (YongOne from KC). I made mine with frozen crabs and ready-made Vietnamese chilli-garlic paste that easily available in the United States.