Ayam Masak Sambal Kicap & Stir Fry Brussels Sprout

A simple dinner at home last night....ayam masak sambal kicap and stir fry brussels sprout.

This recipe was contributed by Purplegirl at Imperial Kitchen. It is absolutely delicious. No doubt that this dish will be a comfort when I miss Malaysian food.


Ayam Masak Sambal Kicap

Ingredients:
600g chicken thigh, chopped bite size
1 stalk lemon grass, crushed
5 pieces kaffir lime leaves

Sauce ingredients:
3 tbsp ketchup
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp kicap manis

Ground ingredients:
15 dried chilli, soaked
5 shallots
2 small onions
3 cloves garlic
2 cm ginger

Methods:
1. Heat oil in a wok. Sauce the ground ingredients and lemon grass until fragrant.
2. Add in the chicken and some water, and cook chicken until tender.
3. Add kaffir lime leaves and sauce seasoning.
4. Cook until the sauce dry out.

This is dish that is very easy to cook, and yet it is a firm favourite of mine cause I LOVE brussels sprout. I know many people who can't really stand it but definitely not me. I first tasted it in Kampar, when we were eating out in a restaurant there with my relatives. I love it since. Brussels sprout is quite expensive in Malaysia, so I don't get to it it often. When I came to UK, I'm surprised to find that it's quite cheap....but it is only available during the winter months. So, I tend to fill up all my cravings for this during the winter! ;)

Stir Fry Brussels Sprout

Ingredients:

Brussels sprout, halved
1 carrot, sliced
A small handful of dried shrimps, soaked
Oyster sauce
A dash of white pepper
Garlic infused olive oil*

Methods:
1. Heat the oil in a wok.
2. Add in the brussels sprout. Add in water and close the lid of the wok to cook the sprouts faster.
3. When the sprouts soften, add in the carrot.
4. Add in the oyster sauce and white pepper.
5. Serve hot.

* Note: I used garlic infused olive oil because I ran out of garlic.

Nutella Muffin

On Valentine's Day, my division at the University organised a cofee morning for Valentine's Day Cake Appeal to raise money for British Heart Foundation (BHF). All staffs were encouraged to make some cookes or cakes for sale, and all proceed will go to BHF Heart Nurses which raises money to fund more specialist heart nurses.

While surfing the net, I noticed a one-off event, Muffin Monday, at IMBB which is hosted by Elena at Experiment.

Then it strikes me that I can make muffin for the coffee morning. But which type of muffin?? Valentine's day.....chocolate......NUTELLA!!! I was in a big craving for Nutella. No thanks to David because he received a jar of Nutella from a friend, and offered it to me. I turned down his offer, but the craving for it was already imprinted in me! So, I went out and bought a jar of Nutella to make this muffin.




I used the basic muffin recipe provided by Elena and added Nutella into it.

Nutella Muffin

Ingredients:
2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
Nutella

Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Sift together plain flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add in sugar and mix together.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, vegetable oil and milk.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the flour, and fold the mixtures together.
5. Place muffin liners into the muffin tin. Pour muffin mixture into the muffin cups until half full.
6. Add in a teaspoon of Nutella. Swirl the Nutella into the muffin mixture with a toothpick.
7. Bake for 20mins or until the skewer comes out clean.
8. Cool muffins on a wire rack.

Nutella Black and White Cheesecake

I was not planning to make cheesecake for aDe's birthday. I have actually made a mud cake, but it did not turn out well. It was wobbly when I took it out of the oven. I thought it was not cook properly and increased the time a few times, but it was still like that after being in the oven for nearly 2 hours! (original cooking time is 1hr 15mins).

I really had no confidence to bring the cake to the party. I decided to make another cake, and to avoid further disappointment, a non-bake cheesecake will be a good idea. I did not want to make a typical cheesecake and wanted to try something new.




After searching the internet, I found this recipe at Diana's Desserts, but I made my own crust. Again I made a mistake this time....I overwhipped the cream!! It was too late for me to go and get more, so I had to use the overwhipped cream in the recipe. I was really worried that it will turn out horrible. Thank goodness....other than the texture being not that smooth...and probably not as volumnised, the cake was ok. Everyone loves it, so I will definitely try it again another time!


Nutella Black and White Cheesecake

Ingredients:
300g bourbon biscuits
75g butter, melted
250g cream cheese
2 cups whipping cream
3/4 cup Nutella
1/4 cup castor sugar

Methods:
1. Crush bourbon biscuits and mix with the melted butter. Compressed biscuits into a tart tin.
2. In a bowl, beat cream cheese with sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Warm Nutella in the microwave on HIGH for 5 seconds. Whisk in 1/2 cup cream until smooth.
4. Whip the remaining cream until soft peaks. Divide cream into half, fold half into cream cheese and the other half into the Nutella.
5. Spread a layer of cream cheese on the crust. Top with a layer of Nutella. Repeat with another layer of cream cheese and another layer of Nutella.
6. Refrigerate overnight.

Thai Tang Hoon

This dish was an inspiration from Adrian. We were discussing if there'll be enough food for the potluck dinner, and he suggested this dish. We didn't have a recipe for this, but basically had ideas on how to make it. So, I had a quick browse on the internet for similar dishes, and came up with the following recipe.



This dish turned out pretty good. Everyone likes it....so not too bad for an attempt to mix a few ingredients here and there.


Thai Tang Hoon

Ingredients:
200g tang hoon
150g minced pork
1 stalk lemon grass, chopped
1 stalk spring onion, chopped
1 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
Juice from 1 lemon
2 tsp sesame oil
5 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce

Method:
1. Soak tang hoon in hot water. Boil a pan of water, and quickly blanch the tang hoon. When it is soft, run it through cold water to stop it from cooking further.
2. In a non-stick pan, dry fry the mince pork. Add in a dash of light soy sauce and white pepper. Leave aside to cool.
3. Just before serving, add the chopped lemon grass, spring onion, lime leaves and minced meat to the tang hoon. Mix well.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the lemon juice, sesame oil, light soy sauce and fish sauce.
5. Pour the sauce into the tang hoon and stir well to mix....and it's ready to be served.

Braised Mushroom with Broccoli

This is one of my favourite dish that my mom cook for CNY reunion dinner. Now that I thought about it, she rarely cooks this any other time of the year. Since I promised that I will make a vegetable dish for the potluck dinner, this dish came straight into my head.

It is a tradition that all the dishes served during the reunion dinner will have ingredients that are homophones for words that bring good meanings. When my mom cooks this, she will add in dried oyster (hou si) and dried black see moss (fatt choy). "Hou si" means 'Good things' and "Fatt choy" means 'Prosper' in Cantonese.

As dried oyster and dried sea moss is not readily available here in the UK, I had to do without both the ingredients, and uses only mushrooms and broccoli. This dish is dead simple, and I have no doubt that I will be cooking this more often in the future.

Braised Mushroom with Broccoli

Ingredients:
10 flower mushrooms
1 head of broccoli, cut florets
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp oyster sauce
Cornflour water
A pinch of sugar

Method:
1. Soak the mushrooms in hot water the night before. Just add in enough hot water to cover, as the water will be used for cooking later. Remove stem before cooking.
2. Heat some oil in saucepan until hot and add in the garlic.
3. Add in mushrooms and the reserved water. If necessary, add more water just to cover the mushrooms.
4. Add in oyster sauce. When the water comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer the mushroom for about an hour.
5. Before serving, microwave the broccoli on HIGH for 3.5 minutes. Arrange florets around the serving plate.
6. Add a pinch of sugar into the mushroom to taste. Then, add in the cornflour water to thicken the sauce.
7. Pour the mushroom in the middle of the serving plate. Serve hot!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Wishing everyone a Happy & Prosperous New Year!!! I hope that the year of Pig will bring with it plenty joy, happiness and success to everyone!

I did not manage to find a Chinese astrology site that I can trust, so I have not manage to read how the Horse will fare in the Year of Pig. Personally, I hope that this year will bring me more luck than the last and provide me a closure to my current problems.

Chinese New Year eve is the time when family members all gather together for a reunion meal. Again, this year I will be spending CNY away from home. I really miss celebrating in Malaysia ..... I miss the home cook food, the festive atmosphere, meeting up with friends, and not to forget, the gambling! Hehehee....

aDe's birthday happens to fall on the 1st day of CNY this year. Hence, the usual suspects all gathered together for the traditional potluck birthday dinner, which also double acted as the CNY reunion dinner. I've contributed 2 dishes (Braised mushroom with broccoli and Thai tang hoon) and the birthday cake (Nutella Black and White Cheesecake). Details of the dishes to follow in other posts.

Chinese New Year Almond Rosettes

This is another cookies that got good reviews two years ago. It has a very nice buttery taste and is not very sweet.





The original recipe (from Connie at Kitchen Capers) called for ground hazelnut, but it is not easily available here in the UK.....hence I substituted it with ground almond.

Almond Rosettes

Ingredients:
250g butter
75g caster sugar
55g ground almond
250g plain flour
Chocolate chip for decoration

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add in the ground almond and beat until well combined.
4. Stir in the flour and mix into a dough.
5. Spoon dough into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.
6. On a lined baking sheet, pipe cookie into star shapes and place a piece of chocolate chip on top as decoration.
7. Bake in the oven for 17minutes or until browned.
8. Cool on a wire rack.

Chinese New Year Almond Melting Moments

My second CNY bake is Almond Melting Moments. I've made this 2 years ago, and quite love the taste and texture of it. I think that it is a good replacement for kuih bangkit, which I don't really quite like.

For me, this has a very nice almond taste, and is not as flour-ish. Although kuih bangkit is usually melt-in-the-mouth, I don't like the amount of flour that is in one's mouth. This however is much lighter, so much nicer to eat.





I've found this recipe from Jaschin's blog. As I received good feedback from it before, I thought it would be good to make it again.

Almond Melting Moment

Ingredients:
230g salted butter, room temperature
(recipe called for 227g unsalted butter and 1/4 tsp salt)
175g plain flour
90g cornflour
35g icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp almond extract

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190C.
2. Sieve flour and cornstarch together.
3. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
4. Beat in almond extract.
5. Add in flour mixture, and beat until incorporated.
6. Cover the dough and leave in the fridge for 1 hour, or until firm.
7. With floured hands, roll the dough into small balls and put on a lined tray.
8. Flatten slightly with floured fork and bake for approximately 10mins.
9. Cool on wire rack.

Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies

This is my first bake for this year's CNY. Peanut cookies is an all-time favourite for many Malaysians.....and that include AC and me. For me, they must be aromatic and melt-in-the-mouth and I think I've managed to achieve that with this batch!





I've tried making peanut cookies once 2 years ago....and it was pretty alright. I can't remember where I got that first recipe from, so I had to source for another new one. I found a simple recipe from Jo at Imperial Kitchen. Fellow forumers at IK have tried this recipe and was full of praise for it.


Peanut Cookies

Ingredients:
600g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
450g coarse and/or fine ground peanut (original recipe calls for 400g)
225g caster sugar
320ml corn oil
1 large egg, beaten

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175C.
2. Sieve together the flour, baking powder and baking soda.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the peanuts and sugar together.
4. Add the peanut to the flour. Add oil gradually....mix well until it form a dough.
5. Divide the dough into small balls. I used a chopstick to make a hole on each of the cookies.
6. Brush some egg on the cookies so that it will have a golden coating on top.
7. Bake in the oven for 20 mins.

Note: I made my own peanut mixture by first baking the peanut in the oven at 200C for 15-20 mins, stirring once or twice. The peanut has to be spread out in a single layer. Then, using a rolling pin, the peanut is crushed...hence it's a mix of coarse and ground texture.


AC helped me in making this batch of cookies. It took us approximately 4.5 hours in total to bake the whole batch! We managed to make about 200 pieces of small sized cookies.

Verdict: I think the cookies are nice and they definitely melt-in-the-mouth. AC thought that there's not enough peanut in the cookies, hence making it a bit floury for his taste. But as he consumes more....he finds that they're actually pretty alright!

It's definitely one recipe to try....and it's very simple too!!

White Chocolate Chip and Macademia Nut Cookies

I've been craving for cookies for a few days now. I simply love white chocolate chip and macademia nut cookis from Subway! When I see a fellow forumer at Imperial Kitchen share this recipe....I knew I'd just have to try it!

These cookies of mine is crispy, not chewy like those in Subway. But it's still nice....!!! I'll try to make it chewier next time and see if it'll be more like Subway's.

This recipe was shared by cwl at Imperial Kitchen, who found the recipe at aspoonfulofsugar.net. I changed the recipe slightly to make do with what I have in my kitchen. I didn't have enough castor sugar for 3/4 cups, so I ended up by using granulated sugar to make up the rest. I also didn't have enough macademia nuts and chocoate chips as required originally. How I wish I had at least 50g more of each!!


White Chocolate Chips and Macademia Nut Cookies

Ingredients:
110g salted butter
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/8 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
170g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
100g macademia nuts, roughly chopped
100g white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 190C.
2. Cream butter and sugars together until well combined and slightly fluffy.
3. Stir in the egg and vanilla extract.
4. Sift the flour and bicarbonate sugar. Add into the creamed mixture and stir till a soft dough is formed.
5. Add in the chopped nuts and chocolate chips until they are evenly distributed.
6. Using a small ice-cream scoop, drop the dough onto a lined baking sheet. As the cookies will spread, leave some gaps in between.
7. Bake for 8-10mins until slightly golden brown. Cool on the wire rack.

Very belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I know this very belated.......but it's better late than never!! Hehehee.....

Many apologies for not updating this blog! I would certainly love to update it more often, but I don't cook/bake often enough to write. Not that I don't cook for lunch or dinner, it's just that they are too simple to be blogged, or it has already been blogged before. Eating alone doesn't give me much inspiration/encouragement to cook something nicer. And BF tends to cook for me during the weekend.... Guess I must make more effort from now on!!!

I had organised a very last minute Christmas dinner at my place for four. I made roast turkey with sage and onion stuffing, boiled vegetables (brussel sprouts, carrot and sugar snaps), roast potatoes, roast parsnips and gravy. One of my friend brought over some finger food as well (far right plate).







I've also made a Christmas cake....this is the 3rd one that I've made in UK. I think I've achieved a pretty good standard :p I didn't iced it this year as none of us really like marzipan, so decided to keep it pretty plain.




I went to Nottingham for New Year, as usual. Due to horrible weather in the UK, we ended up staying at home. What a way to start the New Year. We were all pretty disappointed really.....but what to do? It still didn't stop us from having our drinks at home though. Hehehe....!!!

AC cooked our New Year's meal. We had (from clockwise) roast vegetables, stuffing, roast pork, roast potatoes and pig in the blanket. It's delicious....!!!!

Tuna Pasta Bake

It's been quite a while since I last had pasta....and I have always wanted to make pasta bake. Remembering that I saw a simple recipe on the Campbell Soup label, I quickly dig out that can of mushroom soup. After reading the recipe, I thought this is real simple....and I have all the ingredients!

A can of soup makes 4 portion.....so I was having this dish for 2 lunches and 2 dinners!





The recipe was taken from the label of a condense Campbell soup can.

Tuna Pasta Bake
Ingredients:
200g pasta
1 can of condensed Campbell mushroom soup
200ml milk
200g tuna
1/2 bunch spring onion, chopped (I omitted this)
100g cheddar cheese, grated
200g sweetcorn
100g green beans, diced (extra)
6 mushrooms, sliced (extra)

Methods:
1. Pan fry mushrooms and green beans in a little oil.
2. Cook pasta as per instructions on the pack and then drained.
3. Stir in the soup, milk, onion, tuna, sweetcorn, green beans and mushrooms into the pasta. Heat through and stir regularly.
4. Transfer to flame proof dish. Top with cheese and grill until golden.

When serving, I added additional cheddar cheese..... and some coarse ground black pepper.