Claypot Beef Rendang

I used this instant Claypot premix to make my beef rendang for Evy's birthday. This packet was given to me by Lily (thanks Lily :*) because I told her I never tried this brand before, she said it's good and I should try it. :D This packet comes with everything, the coconut powder, the rendang paste and the desiccated coconut to put in the end. Very easy all in one.



I totally agreed. This premix is delicious. I added kaffir lime leaves at the end for extra flavor. Yummy, will sure buy this brand the next time I'm in Denver! :)

CALL OUT To Novice Baker:
-----------------------------------
YES! you can make this beef rendang too!! :D

Evy's 3rd Birthday Celebration

This year for Evy birthday I had a little party for her over the weekend, only invited 4 little girls about her age and their parents. It took me two days to prepare the food but I had fun. I hope they enjoyed the food! :)

I made her this birthday cake, but my chocolate fudge didn't set in the middle! :( First time making fudge, very amatuer!

Children table with her Dora theme.

Nasi Lemak and Beef Rendang

Noodle, Soy Sauce Chicken Wings & Spice Chicken Wings

Appertizer & Dessert

The Vegetarian Noodle

Claypot Beef Rendang, I added the Kaffir Lime Leaves

Sambal Ikan Bilis for the Nasi Lemak

Spice Chicken Wings

When my mom see the spread, she will say, " Aiya, you should spend your time holding Edda instead of making all these food!" LOL!!

Yam Rice

I have been wanting to make a good yam rice ever since I had it in Malaysia. Gina's Uncle Willie's Yam Rice recipe at KC looks so good that I just had to try it. Finally bought some yam the other day for this and viola! This recipe didn't disappoint me and the flavor was good. I had it with bak kut teh just like back home.

A1 Bak Kut Teh

I was so happy when I found the A1 Bak Kut Teh Spices in Denver. I quickly bought a packet to try it out. It is indeed good. I was surprised that it called for oyster sauce in the soup, but the flavor turned out great.



I added beancurd sheet in my bak kut teh. By the way, anyone knows what kind of beancurd the store owners use for their bak kut teh? I have discussed this with my mom before but she has no idea. I told her I think they used the fresh beancurd sheet and I'm going to try it next time I make bak kut teh. So, here it is! I used the fresh beancurd sheet, cut it into pieces and then deep-fried it til crispy before adding it into the soup before serving. Is this the right way to make it, I have no idea, would love to have some insight from readers who know. Taste wise, it's pretty darn good, but not sure it's the right one, even my hubby also couldn't recall anymore. But sure tastes good though!

Cream Cheese Mixed Fruit Butter Cake

I have a bottle of Brandy sitting at home, so I'm thinking of soaking it with some mixed fruit and make a fruit cake out of it. But I never make a fruit cake before and eventhough I do like the American version of the dense fruit cake with little flour used, I still prefer the Asian version with more flour and less fruit.



My mixed fruit soaking in Brandy ready to be used. I soaked it for more than two months. Now in search of a recipe to try. Since I'm not going to make the traditional kind, I opted to try Lucy's cream cheese mixed fruit butter cake. You can find the recipe at her blog under October 2006 archives.

These are the nicer bunch of my end product. The rest got stuck to the pan and came out broken. :( So, please grease generously and flour it if you want to try.

This cake is very soft, sweet and moist. Since I used a lot of brandy (1 cup) to soak my mixed fruit, my cake tasted of brandy and if consume too much can get giddy wor. I think I should rename it Brandy Cake. LOL!

For convenient, I posted Lucy's recipe here:

Ingredients:

125 gm. Butter

125 gm. cream cheese

185 gm. castor sugar (probably have to cut down the sugar to 150 gm. or less)

3 eggs (size B)

200 gm. Cake flour, sifted together with

1 tsp. baking powder

150 gm. Mixed fruits - soaked overnight with 2 Tbsp. Rum/brandy/Kirsch

50 gm. Chopped walnuts

5 nos. green Cherries - diced

Method:

(1) Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar together till creamy.

(2) Add in eggs one at a time, beat well after each addition to prevent curdling.(3) Mix 2 Tbsp. of the sifted flour with the mixed fruits to prevent the fruits from sinking.

(4) Fold in sifted flour and then add in the mixed fruits, green cherries and walnuts.

(5) Pour mixture into a 7" square tin and bake in preheated oven at 175C for about 45 mins. or until cooked.

(6) Remove from oven and leave to cool on the wire rack.

My Girls

My lovely girls!


Edda smiling!


She is pushing up finally!

This is for my record, so I will know whether Edda is behind or not.

2 months before turning three, Evy knows:
~ All the phonics (through LeapFrog Phonics dvd).
~ Speak Mandarin in sentences.
~ Speak some English in sentences (self-learn through T.V. and her notebook).
~ Converse with grandpa and grandma on the phone (mummy's friends too).
~ Know most of the animals name in Mandarin & English.
~ Know all the common shapes and colors in Mandarin & English.
~ Learn to recognize and pronounce Chinese characters correctly.
~ A-Z, and sing the whole song correctly.
~ Sing a bunch of English and Mandarin songs.
~ Say 1-20 in Mandarin & 1-10 in English.
~ She can write 0, 1, 2, 10, H, E & F.
~ She can spell Evy, baby and Tad.
~ She can draw circle, rectangle and our family picture.
~ Tell me what to buy her on her 3rd birthday and what kind of birthday cake she wants. *Geez...*

As for Edda, a bit slow on her development. Still not turning over yet. But at least finally she is pushing up on her own. Not enough tummy exercise I guess, but she always cries when I put her on her tummy, so... Well, as long as she can sit up on her own at 6 months, I'm not going to worry about her turning over or not.

Dinner March 08, 2007

I made Purplegirl's Ayam Masak Sambal Kicap, recipe can be found at IK, under Asian Dishes. It's pretty good!


Stir-fry sugar snap peas/sweet peas with chicken, babycorn, straw mushroom and carrot in oyster sauce. I just love the crunchyness of this peas as oppose to snow peas.


I have the leftover sweet potatoes from making the fried nian gao, so I cooked Bobochacha with Boba multi-color tapioca pearls as dessert.

Sambal Dried Shrimps Okra

Featuring one of my short-cut homecook dishes:

Ingredients:

1 pkg. of frozen cut okra (you can use fresh of course)

About 2-3 Tbp. of dried shrimps, soften in hot water, drained

2 big shallots, sliced thinly

2 Tbp. shrimp paste with bean oil

2 Tbp. sambal oelek ( or less or more depending on how spicy you can take)

Fish sauce to taste

1 tsp. of sugar

4-5 Tbp. cooking oil

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a wok. When hot, add shallots, stir-fry for a while. Then add dried shrimps. Stir until fragrant, then add the frozen okra. Stir well and add the rest of the ingredients. Add a little water when need to.

2. Cover the wok and let the okra cooked through (this is if using the frozen okra), keep stirring if necessary. Serve hot!

Tean's Gourmet Curry Laksa Paste

Finally I tried the well talk about Tean's Gourmet Curry Laksa! It is indeed very good, like Malaysian curry mee. I didn't have the yellow noodle, so I used the instant noodle as substitute. It came out just as good with beehoon. I also added the crispy prawn chilli for extra kick as suggested by Ray. You can buy both of these at myTasteOf Asia.com. I know I will certainly order more when I ran out of these items.


This is how the package looks like. Oh, I used 1200ml of water and 200ml of coconut cream as opposed to 1500ml water and 150ml of coconut milk as suggested.


This is the yummy crispy prawn chilli.

Dinner March 06, 2007

Fish maw with lily buds, silken tofu and tang hoon in homemade chicken stock.


Ground Pork with diced fresh mushroom and carrot.


Sambal dried shrimps okra.

Braised Mushrooms

This recipe will only give the ingredients and techique used because that was how I cooked this dish.

Ingredients:

Dried Chinese mushrooms

Dried lily buds

Dried beancurd rolls

Dried wood ear fungus

Fa cai (optional)

(A)

Oyster sauce

Dark soy sauce

Light soy sauce

Sugar

A little chicken stock granules

Method:

1. Soaked all the dried ingredients with boiling hot water until soften.

2. For the mushrooms, cut the stem off of each mushroom. For the lily buds, cut the top harder part off (like a black tip) and tight it into a knot. If you used pieces of big woodear, just cut it into smaller pieces. Cut the beancurd rolls into 1 inch pieces.

3. In a big saucepan, add some water to boil. When boiled, add the mushrooms, beancurds, woodear and (A). Let it simmer for an hour or so. Lastly add in the lily buds and fa cai (if used) and let it simmer for 5-10 mins. Serve hot!

Chap Goa Mei (15th night)

Chap Goa Mei in Hokkein means the 15th night. It also marks the end of CNY celebration. So, I decided to cook and invited my neighbor for dinner. Fellow members at IK told me that people eat Tang Yuen at this last day of CNY, preferably the one without syrup that roll in ground peanuts. Some said people also eat the fried nian gao on chap goa mei. The fresh nian gao they eat it during the first few days of CNY and the last day of CNY, they eat the fried version. Maybe less fresh so they fry it?


I cooked four dishes (seem like three huh?). The one on top is too dark to be seen. Anyway, I stir-fry a mixed veggies, baked a soy sauce chicken, steamed some cod fish fillets and lastly braised some mushrooms (pic. below).


This is my braised mushroom with lily buds, wood ear, dried beancurd and fa cai.


I also made red bean paste tang yuen with ginger brown sugar syrup for dessert (don't have ground peanuts, so eat with little syrup lor).


This is Evy's hot dog tang yuen (as she called it) that she made herself. I thought she is too innovative so I snap a picture of her creation to share with you. :D


I fried some nian gao with sweet potatoes for lunch in the afternoon. This nian gao was given to me by Lily. You can look up her recipe at her blog.

Tong Sum Chinese Herbal Soup

This is one delicious chicken herbal soup that's good for us. I have been drinking this soup for ages, my mom used to cook this soup for us when we were little. And now I took over the cooking of chicken herbal soups. This is also the soup that I drank during confinement because dang kwai was not allowed in the first two weeks.

Cereal Prawns

Just showing a picture of the cereal prawns I made for a CNY gathering. Sorry no exact recipe because I was using a cereal prawns premix. You can buy it at Giant supermarket in S'pore.

Ingredients stated in the premix are cereal, sugar, non-dairy creamer, pepper and seasoning.

Method:

1) Deep-fry the prawns. Dish out and discard the oil.

2) Add 2 Tbp. of butter, when melted add curry leaves and chilli padi. Fry til fragrant then add the prawns and the premix. Fry and serve.

3) If you don't have the premix, just add those ingredients listed. I will try to make this myself without the premix next time.

Note: For the seasoning, it's probably salt and msg. For the cereal, it's just crushed cornflakes cereal. You can substitute with oatmeal.