American Corn Dogs

Hi Everyone,

I was caught up with a lot of things for the past two weeks. I was so exhausted over the weekends and the only thing I wanted to do was sleeping. Last week, I completely had no idea of what to cook, it was rather unusual, really.

This week, I promised myself to cook something, and eat a proper home cook meal. I had decided to cook this american corn dogs. Something from my childhood.

Dark chocolate and Peanut Butter Pie

Hi  Everyone,

Yesterday was the perfect day to wish every father on earth " Happy father's day!". I have the most awesome and wonderful dad without whom I can't be here. He is someone who I turn to whenever I'm worried or lost faith and confidence in me. He will give words of wisdom and encouragement that awake me

Chocolate brownies

Hi Everyone,

You know spring is here by just seeing berries are stocked high on the supermarket' shelves. Although, I adore winter weather, this winter wasn't particularly welcoming. It was way too wet and windy. But, the beginning of spring is just perfect. I enjoy walking under the sun with cold air blowing lightly at me.

 

Balado of Eggplants

Dear Readers,

Last week was a week full of cheer, joy, and awesomeness. Last Tuesday was my birthday!!! *YAY!* I do feel so blessed and can't be more thankful this year. The beginning of this year was the tough one. Adapting to so many changes were not always pleasant. Thankfully, things have worked out with their own pace. I would like to highlight the biggest cheer in my life! My permanent residency was granted  just a day after my birthday. *happy dance!!*

I reckon comfort cooking is what I need to celebrate it. Not that any apologia is needed, I think going back to the kitchen makes me feel more alive and happier. Obviously, I can use this week luck to whip up something moreish from my childhood.

Coleslaw

Dear Readers,

It's been a while I haven't posted anything here..

I've been busy lately....

Thank goodness, it's almost over.

At least, I can breathe a little bit..

Anyway, I have thousands of ideas..

So, watch out.. ^^

More posts are comin'

Enough with all the talking...

Today, I made crispy prawn sandwich with coleslaw and onion ring (Sounds MAD??!!!)

Savoury Nibble..: Asian Inspired Ribs

Pound and Bundt Cakes Bake off : Part 2!!!

This is the second round for bundt and pound cake bake off..

 First of all..

Thank goodness..

It's sunday.. although.. Hell no to monday..

Monday means work will start to pile up again..

Easter Chocolate Cake

I have a love affair with cake that looks simple, yet pretty.

What I meant by simple.. The filling is sandwiched between 2 layer cake..

with no cream what so ever on the side..

Simple.. and pretty..

Fried Chicken Steak with beer and black peppercorn gravy

This morning, I overslept...  I slept at 3 am, and should woke up at 8am for my 9am class.

In fact, I woke up at 8.45 am..

I couldn't be bothered to go to UNI anymore..

So, I just tucked myself back in the blanket for another hour.

Oh autumn.. Whenever you come, I just wanna stay in bed all day.

Yesterday, I was thinking about fried steak, and gravy.

Some translate fried steak as crumbs covered fillet of beef or chicken

Some refer it as a normal steak with plain flour being coated onto the beef or chicken..

I actually prefered the crumbs covered one..

Since, everything crispy will just buy me literally...

So, I try to make my own fried steak and gravy...

Sodium Overdosed.. SPAM!!

I love this little baby since I was a kid..

Whenever my mom was pressed for time..

SPAM always was there to save the day..

Well, back then.. 

We had no idea the existence of spam..

what we knew was MALING.. 

and actually

MALING = SPAM

except the fact that Maling is the chinese version of SPAM

Prawn and Scallop Wonton

Hi everyone,

Have you watched my kitchen rules??!!

I love to watch this series now..

I can't wait for the final on monday..

Before I watched this series,

I never thought that a home cook can deliver restaurant standard dishes..

I was wrong.. completely..

As long as you have the courage to try.. YOU certainly CAN!

So.. after being inspired by them..

I put myself to the test, to make something simple.. 

and plate it to a restaurant standard dish...

is it easy??!! 

NO!!!

To be honest, I sucked in decorating, or engaging in something artsy..

I have the picture in my mine, but just can't make it right in reality..

Anyway.. My sister helped me to plate up today.. 

So, it wasn't completely me afterall.. but It's kinda my idea at the start..hahaha..

This dish was inspired by kylie kwong recipe..

from simple chinese cooking

Pancake

Hello everyone,

2 days ago, I drooled for pancakes badly

So, since yesterday I've been making pancakes

What I love about it..

is the smell of vanilla, and butter that are just wafting throughout the house

I just bought a maple syrup from david jones last sunday..

so, I had an excuse to make a batch of pancakes.

I like the soft interior of the pancake, and the merciful golden brown exterior...

It was just perfect for me..

So, today, I managed to grab my camera, and took this picture..^^

 

Saint Patrick's Day Cupcake!

I'm so glad that I can finally post this..

I just had a melt down after dealing with fondant..

I screwed like hell!!!

In my mind, I always have a notion that decorating cupcakes with fondant will be dead easy...

In fact, I spent hours to be fooled by this fondant..

Somehow, this fondant didn't dry * does it suppose to be dry?*

Whenever, I pulled it, It teared apart..

What am I supposed to do??

The morning after, I finally stretched my self and prepared the ingredients for the icing

*I gave up with fondant*

Thank goodness..

The icing turned out very well..

fluffy, and nice..

I used egg whites, and sugar syrup here..

With no irish background what so ever...

Happy saint patrick's day.. :D

My sweetcorn chowder

What a week?!

I haven't been able to cook much these couple of weeks

Just can't imagine, how many things will come across my life in the next couple of months.

Anyway...

This month, I joined this event again.. MASAK BARENG YUUK!!

I love the fact that I will have to cook something that I never cooked it before..

Today, I cooked sweet corn chowder...

I was inspired by Nigella lawson, so I added the corn tortilla chips..
and, It does taste fantastic... It really does..

Here is the recipe..

 My sweet corn chowder

Ingredients :
2 cup frozen sweet corn kernels
600 ml chicken stock
1/4 cup cream
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp semolina
2 slice of bacon, chopped finely
1 small brown onion, chopped finely
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
1/4 tsp chili powder

Plain tortilla chips
Red leicester cheese, or use cheddar cheese, grated

Directions:
1. Pour hot boiling water to the frozen corn kernel, set a side for 3-4 minutes, drain
2. Combine the corn kernel, and minced garlic, and blender it roughly (you want some become mash, and some still hold its shape)
3. Add semolina to the corn mixture, mix well, set aside
4.  Heat up the oil, cook the bacon, and onion until the onion soften
5. Add in the stock, and cream, and the corn mixture
6. Add salt, pepper, sugar to taste
7. Add in chili powder
8. Simmer for 5 minutes

Meanwhile..
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C
2. In a baking tray, scatter the tortilla chips, top it with grated cheese
3. Bake it in the oven, until the cheese just melt
4. Serve it on top of the chowder
I also sprinkle some paprika on top, as a garnish

Serves 2

Oz Day : Chicken and Bacon Sausage Roll

G'Day Mate,

Since Australia Day is just around the corner, I post this recipe that I think really resemble OZ!

Yes,... Sausage Roll...

I don't know how and when it started though, but what I know is that it's DELISH!

Sausage roll basically is just a puff pastry with meat filling wrapped together, and then baked..

But nowadays, it comes with more variations for the filling.

Today, I decided to make the chicken and bacon sausage roll..

Here is the recipe..

Ingredients :

600 gr minced chicken
1 cup of bacon
1/4 cup brown onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup scallion, chopped
27 gr dry breadcrumb
a good grind of black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp of olive oil
Ready rolled puff pastry


Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C
1. Heat up the oil, cook the garlic until fragrant
2. Add in the onion, cook until transparent
3. Add the bacon, and cook until it turns brown, set it aside
4. Combine the bacon mixture with the minced chicken and breadcrumbs, add salt, pepper, and paprika, mix well.
5.Put the mixture into a pipping bag
6. Cut the tip of the pipping bag for about 2 cm in diameter
7. Roll out the puff pastry into 30cm x 25 cm
8. Pipe the chicken mixture near the edge of the puff pastry (leave the edge about 1 cm)
9. Firmly fold the pastry over, and brush the side with egg wash, and fold it again.
10. Cut into 3 pieces,place it on a tray with seam side down, and brush with egg wash.
11. Cook for 35-40 minutes or until it turns brown.

Happy Oz Day! ^^

Happy Birthday Nigella Lawson

Hi there,

I would like to talk about two people who influenced me the most. The first one would definitely be my MOTHER..

She is a great cook. I admire her passion in cooking very much. She is the person who will rescue me when I made countless mistakes in cooking, and also she is someone to talk to about tips and tricks in the kitchen.

Besides her, there is one other person who has a great love for eating and cooking, Nigella Lawson *the domestic goddess*.

Nigella Lawson

She started her career as a journalist, but only her love for food that brought her this far. I love whenever she talks about food, everything seems so delicious. She always says that cooking is always forgivable. I absolutely agree with her. There should not be a rule for it.

I love Nigella because of her passion, her enthusiasm , and her honesty....

I dedicated this post for Nigella Lawson, Happy Belated Birthday...

Better be late than nothing (her birthday was on 6th of Jan) ^^

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sauce
-Nigella Lawson-

Ingredients

175 ml Double Cream

100 mg Milk Chocolate, chopped (I used chips)

100 mg Smooth Peanut Butter

45 ml Golden Syrup

 
Directions

1. Put all ingredients together in a saucepan

2. Heat up, and stir every 1 minute until all the chocolate chips melt completely

n. b. I thinned the sauce a little bit by using around 2 tbsp of water

Served with ice creams of your choice
^^

Chicken Satay

Instant.. Express.. Fast....

When I was a kid, I thought who would ever buy instant spices, or mixes...

But now, I would!!!

Once I moved to Syd, everything is changed...

I need to cook for myself, and as a student I do have plenty of other jobs to do..

I can't be bothered grinding up some spices anymore...

This is where the instant spices or mixes come in handy and rescue me in my repertoire.

We become very close now ^^..

Today, I cooked Chicken Satay/ Sate ayam..

I marinated the chicken with indonesian kecap manis, coriander seeds, salt, pepper, and palm sugar

In my case, I used substantial amount of kecap manis,

So I don't really think it's a good idea to add palm sugar to it.

I fried it using a normal frying pan *can't be bothered to do it on my barbie ^^*

Here, I used a store bought peanut sauce, which could be dissolved easily in hot water...

Job Done...

Have a great weekend ^^..

Sunday cook off

Sunday.. Time to lay down, relax, and unwind.. But, not today...

I need to pull up my sleeves for the cook off in the kitchen.

Today, I cooked 3 dishes.. 1 for afternoon tea, 2 for our dinner..

 

Chocolate Pear Pudding w/ Chocolate Sauce

Creme brulee

Always have been a dream to use a torch.. But, the fact that I have to fill my own torch with butane, my dream is gone with the wind.

Butane is a flammable liquid, and after taking the safety course, I just can't bare looking at dangerous stuffs around me, yes, it freaks me out.

Thankfully, I found the head of a torch only, so I just clamp it onto a butane gas cylinder, don't even have to bother of refilling. It's a genius..

So, I tempted to test my torch by making a creme brulee..

The important thing that I noticed is the size of ramekin does matter. From the recipe that I used, it said that it should be baked for 1 hour, but in my case it took me almost 2 hours. If you use a small shallow dish about 2 cm in height, probably you can bake it for just 1 hours.. I used the normal ramekins for a souffle which is about 6 cm in height, which took longer, and used 2 smaller ones which a lot quicker than those big ones. So, I do suggest the 2cm in height ramekin.

The taste of the creme brulee was amazing. Yum.. yum.. so lucious, it's perfect...

Here is the recipe....

Crème Brûlée

By Dorie Greenspan

1 ¼ cups  heavy cream

½ cup  whole milk

3 large egg yolks

¹ / ₃ cup  sugar

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

About 6 tablespoons sugar or sifted light brown sugar, for topping

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 200ºF. Put the six baking dishes on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

2. Bring the cream and milk just to a boil.

3. In a 1 or 2-quart (approx. 1-2 liters) glass measuring cup or in a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla together until well blended but not airy. Still whisking, drizzle in about one quarter of the hot liquid---this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won’t curdle. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the cream and milk. Give the bowl a good rap against the counter to de-bubble the custard, then strain it into the baking dishes.

4. Bake the custards for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the centers are set---tap the sides of the dishes, and the custards should hold firm. Lift the dishes onto a cooling rack and let the custards cool until they reach room temperature.

5. Cover each custard with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, preferably longer. (The custards can be kept covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.) For the sugar to be successfully caramelized, the custards need to be thoroughly chilled.

 
 Have a good weekend ^^