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.