Fresh Ingrediants

Well, sometime I was thinking manage a blog is not an easy task. You got to write something interesting or get some new ideas to share with friends or readers. I treated my blog as a food diary & share anything related to my interest in culinary or baking.To me, cooking or baking is some sort of like a therapy. It really help me to de-stress after a week hard work.

Today I am going to talk about fresh ingredients. Do you know what make a simple treat so special? The secret is the fresh ingredient you used in your cooking. Sometimes, you might not be able to imagine that the simplest treats tasted the best. Let's me give you an example, bread made with fresh milled flour is the best. Lightly toasted with real butter & fruit jam. Biscotti dipped in a cup a espresso (if you don't mind- you can add a scoop of ice-cream). A simple fresh baked brownie with walnuts. A pizza with simple topping - tomato, basil & cheese. Steam fish with only salt & pepper. Steam fresh fish with asam pedas.I really enjoy such simple treats.
Sometimes, I think it is a luxury to have access to fresh ingredients. In Malaysia, you can get the best dry anchovies from Pangkor Island. After deep fried it, you can add it to vegetables or porridge or nasi lemak. The good things about this anchovies are they are not too salty. They are really fresh.

Fried anchovies:

Fried anchovies on Nasi Lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk)Fried anchovies on vegetables give the crunch.

I was so lucky the other days. The Korean government are doing a promotion on the fresh raw ginseng which is very good for health. I have bought half a kg of those raw ginseng aged 4 years olds. Can't wait to use it in my Korean Ginseng Chicken soup.

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Mussels in Wine - Chinese style

I have got some beautiful New Zealand green mussels from the market. On these raining days, a bowl of warm messels soup is so comforting. Since it is a weekday dinner, I am going to make it super simple & fast. If you do not have mussels, you can replace it with La-La (one type of local clamps).

This is how I make the super fast mussels soup in Chinese wine.

Ingredients:
1 cup of water
6 ea of mussels
Some gingers
half cup of wine (Chinese cooking wine/ optional - white wine)
Salt & pepper
Some spring onion & small red berry

Method:
Boil the water, gingers, wine.
Then add in the mussels. Boil it. Just be careful not to simmer too long.
Before turn off the fire, add in a dash of salt/pepper/ spring onion & red berries.

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Pat's Kid Cupcakes Party

Last week, I have got an order to make some cupcakes for Pat's kid party. What I need to do is to prepare the plain cupcakes & some icing. The children will have fun decoration those little cakes with sugar flower or confectioneries.
I have prepare 2 types of cupcakes: vanilla cupcakes & chocolate cupcakes.
Recipes refer:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/VanillaCupcakes.html

There are tonnes of recipes on cupcakes, just choose any recipes to your liking. It is quite difficult to fail when you bake a cupcakes. You can google "cupcakes" & there are lots of recipes out there waiting for testing.
http://www.marthastewart.com/food
http://www.foodnetwork.com/
http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_result.aspx?keywords=cup~cakes

Honestly, I do not have time typing long details recipes in my blog. However, I will try to paste the link here so that you can refer to the original recipes that I used. Sometimes I do alter the recipes a little bit to my liking. This is what most advance baker did. A little personal touch on their very own recipes just like your mum/grandma recipes. I would like to quote Chef Michael Smith saying, he always says: Try or experiment on different ingredients. I totally agreed with him. Sometimes, I feel like I was doing some experiments in my home test kitchen.hehehehe...

As requested, I prepared the colourful icing in the triangle tube for cake decoration.

Not forgetting to make extra cupcakes for my 6 years old & myself. You can see the little fingers building some icing on the little cakes.


Some cupcakes for myself. Not to mention I am having fun too.

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Lost Child

Last Sunday, we were in a shopping mall, my hubby spotted a child crying in the crowd, calling for mummy. Without 2nd thought, I went after the child immediately. It is a 5 years old gal, same age with my gal. I grab hold of her & tell her that I will help her to look for her mummy. At the same time, another lady was also trying to catch hold of her. At that point of time, I sound like a bloody con women. That is because every time I tell my gal, pls do not believe in any aunty/uncles telling you that she/he will bring her to mummy. Even though, this is not my child, I really hope that she will get back to her mummy. Human trafficking is not unusual in this country. The pain of losing a child is unbearable. Parents really have to keep their eyes on their kids. Do you know that it is not that hard to persuade a child to follow a stranger....?

She just couldn't stop crying. It is so crowded & she got disoriented & wondering around in the crowd. In the mean time, I think others parents among the crowd also noticed what is going on & showing me the direction (pointing) to the security counter. Then, on the way to the security counter, we met with her parents. They are so anxious. You know what? We stay in the same condominium...no wonder the child looks so familiar. I often see them playing in the playground.

Pls keep an eye on your children. It was a great lesson to my child, she must hold daddy mummy hand when we are shopping. If my hand are full, she must hold my cling bag or my shirt. I can feel her pressure while she is pulling my bag/shirt. I confessed I am very paranoid on child safety. Do you know that the child parent was in the north court, while the child is wondering to the south court direction.........Never let your eye off your child.

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Steam Black Promphet

Most of you will disagree with me : Steam black promphet? Are you sure you know how to cook a black promphet? Honestly, I even ask myself these questions before I try to steam the black promphet as recommended by my friend. The answer is your black promphet must be extremely fresh (direct from fisherman) for this purpose. Or you can do this with a live black promphet from restaurant that is selling the fish ( still swimming). Otherwise, you are not able to create this wonderful dishes.

Black promphet is very common in the wet market Malaysia. But, it is not common to buy fresh fish directly from the fisherman. Black promphet is a cheaper version of the white/silver promphet. It is very unusual to steam a black promphet, normally people will fry it in salt or ginger because it tends to have fishy smell. Then, loaded it with heavy hot & spicy sauces like asam pedas, sambal belacan, tomato & tau chu (soya bean) sauce.

Clean the black promphet thoroughly. Marinate with a little salt. Make a few cut on the fish body so that it would cook quickly. Can you see how fresh & firm is the fish?

Normally, I don't like to fry fish on a week day because we do not have time for the cleaning up. We would prefer to eat steam chicken, steam fish or some light cooking that required minimum cleaning up.

Just lay the fish on the plate & load with the hot & spicy sauce on top of it. I bought a packet of pre-prepared sauce from the store. Just get a good brand will do. Steam the fish for about 15-20mins depend on the size of your fish. Very easy.

If you have more time, you can make your own spicy sauce, refer below link:
http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=3173


I think the fish look handsome & great.
To make the fish looks perfect, I also add additional chili, onion, scallion & coriander.

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Eggs - Chinese Style

Simple yet delicious recipes is very import. Children is not easy to please. They are the most fussy food critic. However, mum need to have some "secret recipes" that is really simple & fast.
Most children like to eat eggs. They would love this Chinese Style Eggs with white rice.

Recipes:
3 eggs
half a red onion
1 ea Chinese sausage (sliced it)
Some spring onion
Some shredded carrot

Method:
1) Heat pan with little oil.
2) Fried the Chinese sausage until crispy, add in the red onion, carrot, eggs.
3) Last in the spring onion.
4) Flip the eggs mixture over & cook it thoroughly.

Simply delicious ;)

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Beautiful Bruschetta

Bruschetta : is an appetizer whose origin dates to at least the 15th century from central Italy. It consists of grilled bread rubbed with garlic and topped with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Variations may include toppings of spicy red pepper, tomato, vegetables, beans, cured meat, and/or cheese; the most popular recipe outside of Italy involves basil, fresh tomato, garlic and onion or mozzarella. Bruschetta is usually served as a snack or appetizer. In Italy, Bruschetta is often prepared using a brustolina grill.

Bread Base:
If you have a large loaf, cut it in half, then slice it crossways about 1cm/½ inch thick. Chargrill these slices on a barbecue or in a griddle pan until they are crisp on both sides, then lightly rub each piece a couple of times with a cut clove of garlic. Drizzle with some good extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with a tiny pinch of salt. You can eat the toasted bread just like this, but make sure the oil is the best you can find otherwise it will never taste good.

Tomato & Basil Bruschetta:
Topping:
Tomato
Basil
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Touch of vineger

1) De seeded the tomato & cube it. The ripe tomato will give better flavor.


2)Picked basil leaves,add in salt, pepper, olive oil & vinegar. Taste it. Make sure the flavor is well balanced.

3) Serve & impress your guest. Enjoy.

I have invited my friend over for lunch. The appetizer is bruschetta.
The main is sandwich -HLT (Ham, Lecttuce & Egg).
Simply delicious~

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Stir Fry Roast Pork Chinese Style

Somewhat during the CNY, I have surplus of Chinese roast pork. The yesterday left over roast pork is not really nice to eat on its own after the crispy skin became soggy. Well, being a Chinese, we will keep these left over roast pork in the freezer for tomorrow. This is my grandma recipes, it is so simple & fast. It taste great with white rice.

Ingrediatns:
Ginger
Black soya sauce
Light soya sauce
Red Onion
Roast Pork

Method:
1) Heat pan with oil, then stir in the ginger, fry until fragrant. In the pork, fry for 1 min, then the black & light soya sauce, fry for another 2-3 mins.
2) Done & serve.

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Korean Japchae

According to Wikipedia, Japchae (jabchae, chapchae) is a Korean dish made from cellophane noodles (called dangmyeon), stir fried in sesame oil with various vegetables (typically thinly-sliced carrots, onion, spinach, and mushrooms), sometimes served with beef, and flavoured with soy sauce, and sweetened with sugar. It is usually served garnished with sesame seeds and slivers of chili. It may be served either hot or cold.This dish is served at Korean parties and special occasions, with seasonal vegetables added.

Japchae is most commonly served as a side dish, however, I serve it as a main dish. Weeks ago, I found this product on the Korean food section, I am kind of curious & would like to try it out. This glass noodle was served in the Korean restaurant as a side dishes.

Step 1: Get a packet of the SWEET POTATO glass noodles & cook 250g according to the packet instruction. Set the cool glass noodles aside & prepare the following ingrediants for stir fry.Ingredients for stir fry:
3 tbsp light soy souce
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt to tast
2 tbsp any vege oil
100g carrot
100g spinach
150g beef/ pork(can pre-marinated with garlic, sesame oil, soya sauce)
5 dried shitake mushrooms
100g onion
Any vegetables in season that you like [ i add bell pepper, black fungus (wood ear), even surplus fish cake (need to clear stocks) etc....]

Step 3: Stir Fry
Normally, the Korean will stir fry the vegetables separately. But, I don't.
What I have did is, heat the vege oil for stir fry, in the pork/beef, mushroom, fish cake about 2 mins. Then, i will add in the glass noodles, with additional 5tbsp of water mix with light soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar& salt. Then top the vegetables on top of the noodles. Lid on, simmer for about 3 mins, let the noodles adsorb the flavor of the beef/pork/vegetable.

Step 4: Serve! The good things about this noodle is, you can serve it hot or cold. It is delicious.

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Fluffy American Pancake

I love to prepare breakfast for my family during weekend. We vote for the fluffy American pancake this week. My gal love it. It is so good with maple syrup.

The simple & fool proof recipes from JO:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/other-recipes/pancakes-usa-stylie

And here is the step by step guide on how it was made,

Step 1: Beat the eggs white until it become fluffy. This is important to make a pancake fluffy.

Step 2: Mix the beaten egg white into the flour batters.

You can see a little hand still wearing her pink pajamas helping to stir in the batter.

Step 3: Cook batter on the non stick pan & fried it until golden brown. A high quality non stick pan would be very helpful. Otherwise, it would be a mess.
Step 4: Top with any fruits in season. The Korean strawberry is really sweet & drizzle with the best maple syrup. Delicious!

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