Tortellini

Fresh pasta. My first time and it turned out to be quite delicious! I was so pleased and the Mr. said: Well-done wifey! ;)

Ingredients

2 packs of fresh Tortellini with bacon and cheese

1 medium-sized onion-sliced thinly

1 medium-sized paprika-sliced thinly

2 cloves of garlic-sliced thinly
1 pack of baby spinach

10 pieces of cherry tomatoes-in quarters

2 tsps salt

1 pack of creme fraiche

2 tbsps chilli paprika creme fraice

Method

1. Heat up a pan with some oil and fry garlic till fragrant.
2. Add onions and fry till soft.
3. Add paprika, cherry tomatoes, spinach, salt and fry till combined and cooked.
4. In the meanwhile cook the pasta as directed in the package and drain it.
5. Add pasta, creme fraiche and chilli paprika creme fraiche into the pan and combine well.
6. Serve immediately with shredded cheese.
7. Yummy!

   

   Ingredients

   

   Lots of cheese on top

Lo Mai Kai (Glutinous Rice)

I love Lo Mai Kai! I like to have this during dim sum sessions. My munchkins love them too! Hmmm....Let's have a feast of glutinous rice. :)

Ingredients

400g glutinous rice (soaked overnight)

400g chicken meat-marinated overnight ( I like thigh meat)

10 pcs of dried mushrooms (soaked overnight,squeezed dry and cut into small pieces)

2 chinese sausages (sliced and fried briefly)

Glutinous Rice (mixed in a bowl)

2 tbsps oil

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp five spice powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp pepper

2 tbsps light soya sauce

1-2 tbsp dark soya sauce (if u like it darker in colour)

Chicken Marinade 

1 tbsp shaoxing wine

2 tbsp light soya sauce 

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Other ingredients

3 shallots-minced

2 tbsps oil

3 tbsps oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

100-150 ml of water

Hot water for steaming

Method

1. Drain glutinous rice and steam it for 30mins. Set aside.
2. Heat up a frying pan and fry shallots till fragrant and add in mushrooms. Fry briefly.
3. Add in chicken, oyster sauce, soya sauce, dark soya sauce and fry till cooked. 
4. Add 100-150ml of water and let it simmer at low heat for about 15mins. Set aside.
5. Fry glutinous rice in a non-stick pan for about 5-8mins (stirring frequently) and add in seasonings. Stir and combine well. Set aside.
6. Grease some containers for steaming. If you don't have, you can use a heatproof bowl and steam everything. The only difference is it's not individual-type.
7. Layer the chicken, mushroom and sausage at the bottom and glutinous rice on top. Do make sure it's well-packed.
8. Add hot, boiled water into each container till the rice is slightly covered.
9. Steam in a big pot for about 20-30 mins. 
10. Serve warm with chilli sauce and fried onions. 
11. Enjoy!

Steamed Glutinous Rice

Chicken+Mushroom

Fry Glutinous Rice

Seasonings-mixed well

Mix seasonings well in glutinous rice

Place them in individual bowls

Enjoy!

Popiah

It's a dish that has such a great variety of condiments which makes one yearn for more. In fact, the more, the merrier! I can't make so many condiments over here-as I want to get most of the ingredients from the local store without going to the Asian shop, so I make do with about 5-7 items. I can't get 'sengkuang' here so I substitute with white radish and carrots. I miss Rom's popiahs. They were really lip-smacking! Oh! and my munchkins love the popiah skins. They said: Yummy!!! >_<

Ingredients

Main condiment

2 large-sized white radish-cut into strips

2 medium-sized carrots-shredded

5 cloves of minced garlic

2 pcs of dried cuttlefish-cut into strips

3 tbsps oyster sauce

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tbsp salt

1 pack of Popiah Skin from TYJ/Spring Home Spring Roll Pastry 

Side Condiments

4 eggs for fried omelette-cut into strips

100g fried French beans- in small bits 

2 Chinese Sausage - in small bits and fried briefly

1 medium-sized cucumber-cut into thin strips

1 medium-sized carrots-cut into thin strips

200g of blanched small prawns

Optional

Blanched beansprouts

Fried beancurd

Fried peanuts

Fried onions

Chilli sauce for dipping ( I like the Tean's Gourmet Crispy Prawn Chilli)

Hoi Sin sauce for dipping

Method

1. Heat up some oil in a thick bottom pot and fry garlic till fragrant. 
2. Add in dried cuttlefish and salt. Fry briefly.
3. Add in carrots and fry briefly.
4. Add in radish, oyster sauce and dark soya sauce.
5. Stir occassionally and let the ingredients cook at low heat for about 30mins.
6. Set aside and cook the rest of the side condiments.
7. Scoop the main condiment into a siever and drain it on top of a bowl.
8. Start with chilli sauce and hoi sin sauce as the base on the popiah skin.
9. Add other condiments as you wish. 
10. Fold in the sides of the popiah and roll it up. 
11. Voila and start munching!

Garlic and dried cuttlefish 

Carrots and white radish

Side condiments

Main condiment

Gather all your condiments

My hubby's way of wrapping the popiah ;)

My way ;)

Baked Honey Ribs with Mashed Potatoes

A simple dinner for my little boy's birthday celebration. He loves mashed potatoes and tender ribs. My fussy princess was also chomping down those yummy ribs. My, oh my.. I'm so pleased. :) Our dessert for the day is Oreo ice-cream birthday cake.  Yippeee!

Ingredients

Honey Ribs

700g pork ribs

5 tbsps honey

5 tbsps soya sauce

2 tsps salt

Mashed Potatoes

10 medium-sized potatoes

Slabs of butter 

Milk

Salt to taste

Vegetables of your choice

Method

1. Marinate the ribs with honey, soy sauce and salt for at least 4 hours or overnight.
2. Bake the ribs at preheated oven (200 deg) for 40mins. Do check after 30mins if they brown too fast. 
3. In the meanwhile, boil potatoes and mash them with butter and milk (to taste) till smooth and combined. Season with a little salt to taste.
4. Blanch your choice of vegetables.
5. Serve warm.

Juicy + Yummy

Dessert of the day

p.s. The marshmallows are only for decoration purposes. Somehow, none of us in the family likes them. Do you like it? 

Happy Birthday to my little prince!

21-09-2012. I saw you for the very first time. After 4 hrs of labour,  I got to hold you in my arms and my first thought was, Oh! You have a head full of hair. So sweet and smelly. Haha! Thank you for choosing us to be your parents. It's our privilege and we are very happy and grateful for this. Happy 2nd Birthday, my little munchkin! We wish you good health and happiness always! Lots of love from mummy, papa and jiejie. 

Banana Cupcakes 

Ingredients

Same as the previous recipe post-Banana Cupcakes
Frosting is white chocolate instead of milk/dark chocolate.

Crayfish

I like crayfish. It's like eating crabs and I'm a big fan of crabs. Over here in Sweden, it's a yearly celebration. They call it the 'crayfish party' and the table is decorated with all sorts of crayfish-themed paper plates, serviettes and etc. Usually, it's celebrated in the month of August. I have been pestering my hubby in getting these since the season started and finally, today, we bought them. Took us 1.5 hours to finish all but it's all worth it. Minus the messy fingers. ;)  

Ingredients
Crayfish bought from the fish monger

Vodka/water for drinks

Comfortable chair

Lots of kitchen paper

Patience

Time

Oooooooooo-la-la

Butter Cookies with Chocolate Dip

Buttery, chocolatey and crumbly. The key factors that set those rumbling tummies. I had some free time yesterday, so made these cookies for my little munchkins. They don't look very nice as I'm terrible at piping and decorating. But my munchkins love them! I'm a happy mama!

Ingredients

170g unsalted butter at room temperature (softened)

50g icing sugar

185g flour

2 tsps vanilla extract

1 egg white of a medium/large-sized egg

1/8 tsp salt

Melted milk chocolate for decoration

Method

1. Set oven at 180 degrees.
2. Whisk butter till smooth. Btw, you can exercise your arms. ;)
3. SIFT in icing sugar and whisk till combined and mixed well.
4. Add in vanilla extract,salt and egg white and whisk till combined.
5. SIFT and fold in flour (with a spatula) till combined.
6. Scoop batter into a pastry bag and pipe out desired shapes.
7. Bake at preheated oven for 10-12 mins or till the edges turn slightly brown.
8. In the meanwhile, melt milk chocolate.
9. Take the cookies out and leave to cool slightly and dip into the milk chocolate.
10. Set them aside and let them cool completely.
11. Enjoy!

Add icing sugar and whisk till mixed

Add vanilla extract and egg white

Fold in flour and combine well

M-M-M

O-O-O



Recipe is taken and adapted from eugeniekitchen.com.

Pan-fried Pork Chops with Tzatziki Dip

Not in the mood to cook anything fancy over the weekend. I call it the lazy bug. Some pan-fried pork chops, homemade tzatziki dip, bulgur and some vegetables were in for a dinner plate. Nobody complained, so guess that was acceptable. ;)

Ingredients

Tzatziki Dip

300 ml of natural yoghurt 

2 cloves of minced/crushed garlic

2 tbsps of olive oil

a pinch of salt and pepper

Half a cucumber (shredded)

Bulgur

Cooking directions as stated in the package

Vegetables

Blanch the desired vegetables

Pork Chops

Few slices of pork chops

2 tbsps oil

1 meat stock cube 

1 tsp salt

3 tbsps honey

Method

1. Make tzatziki dip as directed in the pictures.
2. Crush n dissolve cube with oil, salt and honey in a bowl. 
3. Mix well till combined.
4. Marinate mixture with slices of pork chops for at least 3 hours or overnight.
5. Pan fried each slice of pork chop till cooked. About 3 mins on each side.  This depends on the thickness of your meat.
6. Prepare others as accordingly.
7. Enjoy!

Strain yoghurt for a couple of hours (till it's dry)

Mix crushed/minced garlic, pepper, salt, olive oil and yoghurt

Add in shredded cucumber and mix well

Voila!

Mini Playground

Gather some egg boxes, mil cartons, containers or basically anything that you can find from the pantry or in the house. Let your imagination run creative and wild! Create a playground for your kids. Have fun! Share some pictures of your work with me. :)

Ooooooo...Woosssshhh...

Ingredients

Egg boxes

Milk cartons

Tape

Boxes

Containers

Anything that can be used!

Creativity 

p.s. I have not much creativity, so that's how simple my playground is. >_<

Chocolate Mousse

Hmmmmmmmmm

This dessert is simple and sinful! Perfect for any celebration. I made these a while ago and my hubby and kids were so happy. They gobbled them up like little pigs. Now, that's what I would say: Jackpot! ;)  

Ingredients
100g milk or dark chocolate 
180 ml whipping cream
25/50g marshmallows (if you use milk chocolate, reduce the marshmallows to 25g)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Decoration
Shredded chocolate, wafers or chocolate sticks and whipped cream

Method

1. Combine chocolate, 1/4 of whipping cream and marshmallows in a bowl and heat it in the microwave for 1 minute. 
2. Take it out and stir around. Heat up for another 1 minute and stir well so that everything is combined and mixed well. Leave to cool.
3. Whip the remaining whipping cream till thick. 
4. Pour 1/2 into the chocolate mixture and fold with a spatula to combine.
5. Pour the remaining whipped cream and continue to fold the mixture so that all is mixed well. 
6. Add in vanilla extract.
7. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving. 
8. Decorate the chocolate mousse right before serving.

Recipe is taken and adapted from eugeniekitchen.com.

Curry with Potatoes and Pork Cutlets

Tean's Gourmet Chicken Curry

Fried potatoes+ a piece of brown sugar

Fried Pork Cutlets

SPICY!

I'm no expert in cooking curries. Usually, I use store-bought sauces or powder. I have tried doing from scratch but it's too much work and doesn't have the ommph that I fancy. I like Tean's Gourmet's ready-made sauces. Easy and yummy! Today, I have decided to do a dry curry type with salted pork cutlets and fried potatoes. Add  2 medium-sized tomatoes, 1 piece of brown sugar and a few stones of rock sugar. These complete the whole dish. If you want it burning in your tongue, forget about the sugar and tomatoes. 

Ingredients

1 packet of Tean's Gourmet Curry Chicken Sauce

6-8 medium-sized potatoes-in cubes and browned

200 g pork cutlets-in desired size and browned (I have some salted pork cutlets left, therefore I used them. You can use any other meat. )

1 small piece of brown sugar

2 medium-sized tomatoes

a few stones of rock sugar

oil  for frying

Method

1. Fry potatoes and pork cutlets till browned and set aside.
2. Heat up curry chicken sauce in a pot and add in potatoes and tomatoes.
3. Let them boil for about 5 mins and add in the 2 types of sugar.
4. Lastly add in pork cutlets, mix well and let the curry simmer for about 10 mins.
5. You can add coconut milk for the creamy taste. 
6. Serve warm with rice or bread. 

Banana Chocolate Cupcakes

Moist and chocolatey..perfect for any occassion! I made these for myself. A celebration for passing my exam. My hubby said this: *Like that also can?* Why not? What do you all think? ;)

Splendid!

Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients
180g white sugar
130g flour
30g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 large-sized banana-mashed
120ml warm water
60ml milk
60ml vegetable oil
1tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Fudge Frosting
90g milk chocolate/dark unsweetened chocolate ( I have used milk chocolate)
113g unsalted butter-room temperature
120g icing sugar-sifted (I have reduced this to 80g as milk chocolate is sweet)
1tsp vanilla extract


Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Line a muffin baking tray with muffin cups/liners.
3. In a big bowl, whisk all dry ingredients (sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt) till combined.
4. In another bowl, mix in all wet ingredients (egg, mashed banana, oil, warm water, milk and vanilla extract) and whisk till combined.
5. Pour in wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir/whisk till combined. The batter will be runny.
6. Scoop batter (3/4 full) into muffin cups.
7. Bake for 20-25mins or till a skewer inserted into the center and it comes out clean.
8. Let the muffins cool completely.
9. In the meanwhile, prepare chocolate fudge frosting.
10. Melt chocolate over a simmering pot of hot water. Let it cool completely.
11. Beat butter till smooth and creamy.
12. Add in icing sugar and continue beating for about 2 mins, till light and fluffy.
13. Add in vanilla extract and beat till incorporated.
14. Lastly, add in chocolate and continue beating till all is combined and the frosting becomes glossy and smooth.
15. Decorate the muffins with the chocolate frosting.

Recipe is from joyofbaking.com with minor changes.

Shepherd's Pie

Hmmm...shepherd's pie... a lovely dish for cooler days. I like the combination of mashed potatoes and stew in a dish. Fulfilling and yummy. That's the key.

Ingredients

10 medium potatoes-boiled and mashed, seasoned with salt, butter n milk to taste

300g minced beef

1 medium carrot-in mini cubes

1 medium onion- in mini cubes

2 cloves garlic-minced

2 'sticks' of celery-in mini cubes

1 piece of beef stock cube

salt and pepper to taste

few pinches of oregano, rosemary and thyme

Method

1. Heat up a frying pan with some oil.
2. Fry garlic till fragrant. 
3. Add in onions and fry till soft and translucent.
4. Add in minced beef and fry till cooked.
5. Add in carrots and celery and fry till cooked. 
6. Season with salt, pepper and beef stock cube and simmer for another 5 mins.
7. Ladle all into a baking dish and top up with mashed potatoes.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degs for about 20mins or till golden brown.
9. Serve on its own or with some bread.

Golden brown

Yum yum

Fried Sesame Balls

This is my favourite snack to order when I eat at dim sum restaurants. Unfortunately, it's not easily available here. I had some red bean paste left from making the SH mooncakes so making these was perfect! Well, I'm supposed to get 12 pieces but 6 was burnt and uncooked. The heat was too high. What a pity! Nevertheless, these 6 are just nice and I'm savouring them like a tortoise... ;)

Yippeee!

Ingredients

(A) Dough 30g wheat starch
75ml water

Method

1. Warm wheat starch over a pot of simmering hot water.
2. At the same time, boil up the 75ml of water and mix well with wheat starch.
3. Cover and leave to rest for 10 mins.

(B) Syrup
120ml water
40g white sugar
A pinch of salt

Method

1. Boil up sugar, salt and water in a pot and set aside.

(C) Dough
150g glutinous rice flour-sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1tbsp cooking oil

Method

1. Mix glutinous rice flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl.
2. Add in warm syrup (B) into the flour mixture and combine well.
3. Add cooking oil and wheat starch dough (A), and knead till smooth (about 1 min) cover and leave it to rest for 10 mins.

Filling 
120g red bean paste
Sesame seeds

Method

1. Divide red bean paste into small round balls (about 10g each).
2. Divide dough into small round balls (about 18-20g each) and cover with a cloth.
3. Flatten the dough and wrap red bean ball into the flour dough and roll into round ball. Repeat the rest. 
4. Damp your hand on each ball and roll it on a plate of sesame seeds.
5. Fry the sesame balls over low heat till golden brown.

Recipe is adapted from nasilemaklover.blogspot with minor changes.

Murtabak Parcels

Squares

Triangles

Ugly

Better

Yummy!

Besides roti canai telur, murtabak is my next favourite order whenever I eat in mamak stalls/restaurants in Malaysia. I have some beef in the fridge and murtabak came to my mind. Not very nice-looking but tasted quite good. Hubby ate as many pieces as he could. I'm a happy wife today! :)

Ingredients
300g minced beef
1 large onion-cubed
2 cloves of garlic-minced
3 medium potatoes-cubed
4 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp sugar
3 tbsps Baba's meat curry powder
salt and pepper to taste
100-150ml water
2 eggs - beaten well

Method

1. Mix curry powder, Baba's meat curry powder, chilli powder, sugar, salt and pepper with a few tbsps of water to form a paste.
2. Heat up some oil in a frying pan and fry garlic and onions till soft and cooked.
3. Add in minced beef and curry paste mixture.
4. Fry the minced beef till cooked and try the separate them well.
5. Add potatoes and water and simmer till cooked and water is reduced. (about 20 mins) Leave to cool completely. Add beaten eggs into the mixture and mix well.
6. Lay a piece of spring roll pastry and ladle 1 tbsp of curry beef mixture in it and seal with another piece of spring roll pastry. I seal with some dollops of water.
7. Heat up some oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry the parcels till golden brown.
8. Serve warm and enjoy!

Recipe is adapted from mykitchensnippets.com