Papprika Grilled Chicken

We are going to say goodbye to year 2009 in 1 day time. Well, its end of the year, and i find that i've done so little..:( Seems like alot and lots of things I want to do....lots of books i haven't read, lots of new recipes i haven't try....*sigh*..And i always asked myself.."what have I done lately"??
Not much!! That's my answer..;p
Have been looking for something to bake lately, and finally dicided to bake some bread for breakfast tomorrow. And guess what?! The whole afternoon, I have been waiting for my bread dough to rise....was wondering what's wrong with the dough after 2 hours of waiting. The dough doesn't rise an inch!! Then i read and read my recipe again, then i recall....I forgot about the yeast...OMG!! What am I doing?? My mind was wondering about something..but I don't really know what..haha! Really got to concentrate when I bake next time..;)

So end up I'll just post this "Grilled Chicken" today. I've cooked this for my gathering last weekend, and everybody loves it..:) This was the first grilled chicken that i create the marinate sauce myself. Try it out, maybe you'll like it!



Ingredients:
12 Chicken drumsticks or a whole chicken
1 clove garlic (finely chopped)
10 Shallots (finely chopped)
1 or 2 Onion (chopped)

Marinate sauce:
1/2 tbsp Salt (may need more if you wish a more salty taste)
2 tsps Ground black pepper
1 small bunch of Pasley (chopped)
1 Green Bell pepper (chopped)
A little orange peel
2-3 tbsps Papprika powder
1 tsp Red pepper
1 tbsp Oyster sauce
1-2 tbsps Water

Method:
~ Mixed all the marinate ingredients together.
~ Rubbed the washed and dried chicken with the marinate sauce thoroughly.
~ Leave to marinate at least 2 hours or more.
~ Preheat oven to 250'C and grill the chicken for 20 minutes or until cooked.
(Do not add any oil or honey, it will change the taste)

Garnished with some brocolli, cherry tomatoes and curly fries. Well, the colour do looks nice..:)
Enjoy...:)

X'mas cupcakes

Merry Christmas my dear readers..:)
Its Christmas day, but i spent almost the whole day in the kitchen today..;p Yup!! Baking and decorating all these cupcakes for my buddy buddy gathering tomorrow.
I never thought that decorating took such a long time, and i also make sure these cupcakes look really nice due to my failure few times before. And i can say these cupcakes look much much more better than the previous pre-X'mas cupcakes...haha!



These are more organized...;p
I used the easiest and basic chocolate sponge for all these cupcakes. Here's the recipe for you...

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups All purpose flour
3/4 tsp Baking powder
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
170g Butter
1 1/2 cups Grnulated Sugar
3 Eggs
170g Sweet Chocolate, melted
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups Milk

Method:
~ Beat the butter and sugar till light and fluffy
~ Add in eggs and beat well
~ Add in melted choc and vanilla, beat until well blended
~ Add in dry ingredients alternating with milk.
~ Spoon into baking cups and bake for 18-20 mins at 180'C

I used buttercream icing for all the base before decorating with the fondant. That's really fun when moulding those fondant with all the striking colours. And of course i have to involved my girl for that. It really looks like playing her play-doh, she said..;)

Brought over some with the 'Santa' to my dear friend's daughter just now, and i hope they like it..., although its abit out of shape...haha!

All are nicely pack for my buddies tomorrow as door gifts. And to tell you the truth, this was my first time baking X'mas cupcakes for them..;p

Those sprinkles were doneby my girl. Guess she has some baking interest since she always helped and watched whenever i bake.

These 'Snow mans' are best favourite. Sprinkled with some icing sugar, and it really looks like snowing...:)

And the last, were those X'mas tress, which i poked the cake with some ice-cream sticks as handle. Abd these were my girl's favourite. She said it looks like lollipop..hee hee!

Once again, I wish all of you a wonderful Merry X'mas & A Happy New Year!

Pre X'mas cupcakes

Hi, my dearest readers! Its been a long break since my last post, and i almost too lazy to start baking. Its a nice December which i have lots and lots of programm and its almost occupied all the weekends. Yea, and i promise there'll be more posts coming up soon...:)

These are the very first baking i did this month for my daughter's music class, which we are celebrating the X'mas. Yup, its too early to celebrate but there won't be any classes during the X'mas week. And again, i find that cupcakes are the most easy one due to my limited time. And i got this idea of keyboards and music notes from my dear friend, Bee Bee. Thanks alot..:)




The recipe is the same chocolate cupcakes i used before. I just played with some fondant, butter cream and jelly icing. My work was rough and i'm not very happy with it actually, but when the kids saw it, they love it so much and grabbed it right away..:O That makes me feel better..haha! Some of the kids even said they wanted to keep the keyboard instead of eating it...haha!
I'll keep up my work and will get lots of practice, ...hopefully one day i'll post a perfect piece for you..:)

Rainbow Swiss Roll

Life is full of colours! Don't you agree? There are lots of ups and downs, happy and sad saperations, reunites....etc etc..;) There are lots of "happenings" around me this year. Good friends around, surprises and lots and lots of fun! Though there are few sad moments but we just have to face it. Take it happily since those 'sad' moments already exist...:)
Went for my medical check up yesterday, but the result was not what i expected...:(
Anyway, i'll except whatever comes to me happily...always tell myself, "I'm blessed"..:)

Okay, back to my kitchen, i'm not going to let anything to ruin my baking interest, hee hee! Here's something that i think will cheer me up!



Colours! Tend to play with those colours in the swiss roll i planned to bake. And the result was satisfactory. That actually cheers my girl more..haha!

Here's the recipe for you..:)

Ingredients:
(A)
5 Egg yolks
40g Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
50ml Cornoil
50ml Milk
110g Flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder

(B)
5 Egg Whites
90g Sugar
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

(C)
Some jam or kaya or buttercream you prefered.

Method:
~ Preheat the oven at 175'C.
~ Rub a baking tray (15x10") with some cornoil then lined with baking paper, then rub another layer of cornoil on the paper. Leave aside before using.
~ Beat the egg yolks and sugar for about 5 minutes then add in the milk, beat until well combined and add in the rest of the (A) ingredients and mix till well blended.
~ Whisk the egg whites fr (B) till form soft peaks. Add sugar and cream of tartar and continue to whip till stiff.
~ Mix (A) and (B) together in 3 portions till well combined
~ Divide the mixture into 3 portions. Mix pink or red into one portion, green in another and leave the 3rd one uncoloured.
~ Pipe each coloured portion into a lined baking tray.
~ Bake at 175'C for 15 minutes, and remove from tray immediately onto a wire rack to cool completely.
~ Spread the cooled cake surface with some prefered jam then roll gently up.


Here's a picture before baking....

Here's the one after baked.....

Try it out and let me know. Bet the kids will love it before they taste it..;)

Enjoy!!

Year End Party

Its almost year end and tomorrow will be the last day of school. As usual, the school will be having a party celebrating the last term break. Time really flies....the older i get, i found the time passes faster. X'mas is near and we are talking about Chinese New Year too..haha! Already started planning for cookies and cakes...wow!

Alright enough for those planning stuffs...;p Back to today's post, it was about the party my girl going to celebrate in school tomorrrow. Therefore, parents have to provide some finger food for the kids. Me?? What else.....CAKES! Thought that will be the easiest of all...:)




Almost the same recipe as before but with some changes of decorations. Using some jelly icing and melted chocolate for topping this time. Thought its was easy, but i took a few hours to finish the piping....*sigh* Luckily those cupcakes still look "okay"...:)



For the chocolate topping, its alittle different from my previous posts. Here's the recipe for you...

Ingredients (Chocolate topping)
100g Dark Chocolate
1 tbsp Butter
1/3 cup Cream , thickened
1/2 cup icing sugar
1.5 cups Butter

Method:
~ Combined the chocolate and 1 tbsp of butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.
~ As the mixture begins to melt, add cream clowly and reduce heat to low. Stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and cool.
~ Combine 1.5 cups butter with icing sugar, beat until light and fluffy.
~ Add melted chocolate mixture and mix well.
~ Spoon onto the cupcakes and let the topping dry slowly.



Its really difficult for me to pipe those bears here, with my shaking hands. Will get more practice...:) As you can see the cakes were covered with a layer of white buttercream before piping the jelly icing on them.

Flowers, smilling faces, ...etc etc.....can't think of anything else due to my aching back...haha!

Hope the kids will like it..;) And hopefully they can give me some ideas for my next project too...:)

Good-day!

Raisin Mexico Buns

Have been looking for some new bread recipes lately. I like all kinds of bread actually, but don't really know how to make most of it. As you can see my bread recipes are not that interesting...hee hee..;p

Finally got this recipe from my collection of books. Its similar to the coffee buns i made before, and it tastes as good as the coffee buns.




Here's the recipe...

Ingredients for Dough:
(A)
230g Bread flour
5g Instant yeast
170g Water

(B)
20g Egg
60g Sugar
1/4tsp Salt
25g Cold water
2.5g Instant yeast
100g Bread flour

(C)
30g Unsalted butter

Mexico Topping:
60g Salted butter
60g Icing sugar
60g Egg
60g Plain flour
** Almond Flakes for deco
~ Mix all ingredients well together.

Filling:
Adequate raisins, salted butter.

Method:
~ Mix (A) till even and rest for 90 minutes
~ Add in (B) to (A) and mix well till form a smooth dough.
~ Add in (C) and continue kneading until elastic. Rest for 15 minutes.
~ Divide dough into 60g each and round up into balls, let rest for 5-10 minutes.
~ Wrap in raisins and butter, seal tightly and let prove double in size (about 20-30 minutes)
~ Pipe the mexico topping on the buns (as shown in the pix below) and sprinkle with almond flakes.
~ Bake at 190'C for 10-15 minutes.

It taste better when serve hot and the topping is much more crispy..:)

Roasted pork / Assorted Cheese Tarts

It has been 3 weeks since we last visit my in-laws in Seremban. They are always very happy when we said we'll be back..:) My mother-in-law will always prepare soup for us and not to forget 'gifts' for my little girl. That is why whenever we told my girl that we'll be visiting grandma....she'll be very excited!! Excited on the gifts actually...haha!
So this time i made something which is their favourite..."Roasted Pork".....YUMMY!
Got this recipe from my mum again, that she highly recommended. Never thought it was a success and its so simple and yummy...:) Thanks Mummy!!



The skin was so crispy even after few hours. The juicy meat was so tender and soft....mmm..its great! Of course i'm going to share this recipe with you.....so make sure you'll try it soon..;p

Ingredients:
1kg Pork Belly with Skin ( width 3" at least)

~ Washed and tapped dry the pork. Cut slightly about 2 cm at the bottom (meat part).

Ingredients for marinate:
1-2 tsps Salt
1 tbsp Chinese wine
2 tps Five spice powder

~ Mix all the ingredients together and stir well.
~ Rub the marinate sauce all over the pork except the top skin.
~ Chill the marinated pork at least 2 days without wrapping, so that the pork's skin will dry completely.

Method for roasting:
~ Preheat oven at 250'C.
~ Place pork on tray and cover the skin fully with Coarse Sea Salt.
~ Roast for 25 mins at 250'C. Take out the pork and removed the salt completely.
~ Roast 2nd time at 250'C for another 25 mins until the top turns brown and crispy.
~ Slice and serve.

=========================================

Assorted Cheese Tarts

These was made for my girl and her friends last 2 days. Since i have those jams left in my fridge, so i decided to use up for those tarts instead.

These were from my old post, only different was those jam used. Actually the cheese tarts taste good even without any jam...:) Hope the kids will like it!!

Simple Sardine Rolls

Don't know what to do with left over bread? I mean if there are too much bread that you can't finish...not those expired ones..haha! Roll it up with any fillings you like and deep fry them......
Mmm....sounds yummy right! Of course its nice especially fried food...;)
Okay this is what i did....a very simple snacks that i actually did once during my teenage time..:)
Wow! Sounds like decades ago...hee hee..;p ...This is how its done...

Ingredients
Few sliced bread

Fillings:
1 medium size canned Sardine ( need about 2-3 tbsps of the sauce only)
1 onion (chopped)
1/2 tsp Salt
a dash of black pepper
1-2 tsps Light soy sauce
1 tbsps Fish Curry powder (optional)

Method:
~ Removed the bones from the sardines and smashed. Add 2-3 tbsps of the sauce and mix well.
~ Add in chopped onions and the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
~ Rolled the bread until really flat with a rolling pin. (this is to avoid too much oil into the bread during frying)
~ Spread the fillings on the rolled bread and roll up like a swiss roll.(as shown in the picture below)
~ Use a tooth picks to seal the bread.
~ Cut the rolls into half before frying ( can just avoid this step if prefer a longer roll)
~ Deep fry in hot oil until gloden brown. Serve warm.

Its just simple as that. Add this into your parties and gatherings's list....i'm sure its a grab!

Actually it can be done with any other fillings you desire, but just remember to roll the bread FLAT! .....^-^Happy reading..:)

Coconut Cendol Cake

Like "Cendol Ais Kacang"?...If you are a Malaysian, you definetely know what's that! Its a kind of cool dessert with blended ice, coconut milk, palm sugar and cendol (a kind of green jelly). Its very porpular here, where you can get it everywhere.
Well, if you like that yummy ice dessert, then you'll definetely like this cake too. Top with cendol agar-agar with a soft butter cake base..:)



A very simple cake which takes only 1-2 hours to prepare. By the time you mould out the cake, it'll be half gone!! Really yummy when you take it with a cup of green tea,.....that's what i'm doing now..haha!


Alright here's the recipe for you......

Ingredients (Cake):
(A)
120g Sugar
2 tsps Cake emulsifier

(B)
4 large Eggs

(C)
110g plain flour
1 tsp Baking powder

(D)
1 tbsp Water
1 tsp Vanilla essence (optional)

(E)
130g Melted butter

Method:
~ Mix (A) till well blended. Then add in (B) and whip till thick.
~ Add in (C) and continue to whip till light and fluffy
~ Add (D), miz till well blended.
~ Fold in (E) and mix well.
~ Pour mixture into a greased and lined 9" square tin.
~ Bake at 180'C for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.




Ingredients (Topping):
(A)
650ml Water
Pinch of salt
180g Palm sugar (cut into small pieces so that its easier to melt)
2 tsps Agar-agar powder
1 tbsp Instant jelly powder

(B)
2 Egg yolks
350ml Fresh coconut milk
45g Cornflour

(C)
120g Cooked Red beans
200g Cendol (rinsed and drained)

Method:
~ Bring (A) to boil and until palm sugar melted completely.
~ Mix (B) together and add into (A). Continue to cook till thick. Stir constantly to avoid burning the bottom.
~ Off fire and add in (C). Mix well.
~ Pour mixture onto the cooked and cooled cake. Let it cool for about 15 minutes the refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
~ Unmould, serve cold.



Its a nice cool cake serve during this hot weather. Give it a try and let me know whether you like it or not...Cheers!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!
This is the very first time i celebrate Halloween! Only this year i got to know the exact day for Halloween...;p I think its not quite porpular here, in Malaysia. All i know is we got to dress spooky and have lots of sweet treats...haha! And we had a great day celebrating it at our dear friend's house. Lots of sweets, yummy food and desserts! Yum yum..:)

Everyone brought something to the party, as we are having potluck...so i just came up with this silly ideas....;)


Grave Yard Chocolate Mousse

Strawberry Ghost

My very old style Sticky Rice (糯米饭）

All these were brought to my friend's house...together with other delicious food made by my friends, all displayed on the table. All were too good to resist...and now i still need time to digest before i go to bed. Just imagine how much i've eaten...haha!
I really had a great time today, and i hope we'll celebrate this day every year from now. Guess our little girls had fun dressing up and too will look forward to the next Halloween..:)

Nyonya Spiral Curry Puff

Hey my dearest reader, as i promised you before that there will be m0re nyonya recipes be posted...;) Of course i'll keep my promise, but sorry for the delay..;p
Now here's one of the recipe from my favourite Nyonya collection, "Curry Puffs".
I enjy most of the curry puffs selling outside, and i always hope to make those myself one day.
Yeah, this was the first time making curry puffs..;p Not bad ha! I'll give myself a thumbs up for this...;=p

There is not much trouble to prepare this puffs but the washing part was..."sigh"..:( By then i'll wish i have a helper..haha! Ok ok, here goes the recipe and method......

Ingredients Pastry:

210g Plain flour

1 Egg

60ml Cold Water

(B)

110g Plain flour

90g Melted margarine

1/4tsp Salt

Ingredients Filling:

(A)

150g Onions (chopped)

80g Shallots (chopped)

1/2 tbsp, each..Curry leaves (shredded) and lime leaves (shredded)

3 tbsps Meat curry powder, mix with 1 tbsp of water into a paste

1 tbsp Chilli paste (optional)

(B)

150g Diced Chicken breast

200g Cooked potatoes (small cubes)

1 tsp Salt

1 tbsp, each..Sugar, cornflour

Method:
~ Making the filling: Fragnant ingredients (A) with some oil, then add in ingredients (B) and stir fry till chicken has cooked. Leve aside to cool.
~ Mix pastry ingredients (A) well and knead into a dough.
~ Mix pastry ingredients (B) well to form the second dough.
~ Wrap dough (B) inside dough (A), as shown in picture below.
~ Flatten and roll out the dough and roll up like a swiss roll, as in picture no.2
~ Turn the rolled dough 90 degrees, and roll out again.
~ Roll up swiss-roll style again, cover the dough and rest for 20 minutes.
~ Divide dough into small portions then flatten it lightly, roll out the dough. After flatten, a spiral will appeared as shown in picture no. 3
~ Wrap up the filling and seal the edge by pinching the edge like picture no. 4
~ Heat up oil and deep-fry to golden brown.

Do remember to place the cooked puffs on a absorbent oil paper to drain away the extra oil.

Its really yummy, and i can easily took 2 right after frying. haha! Opps...got to drink lots of water after eating all these oily frying food, ha!

Somehow, after trying, i find my fillings are not spicy enough. So if you like, do add more chilli paste to spice up. Try it out and let me know how is it..;)

Honey Ma Lai Koh 蜜香马拉糕

These few days have been craving for snacks and kuehs..;p Have been on a strict diet for sometime but guess i couldn't hold it any longer...haha! JUST EAT!!!
"Lives too short for that".....my friend used to tell me..:=) Okay, here i come again.....back to the kitchen and start baking...:)
Already have some recipe planned for this week.....this is the 1st...;p



A very nice recipe from my new book,..actually bought this book quite sometime ago, but never have the time to try it. Why? Read on and you'll know why..;)
Btw, isn't it looks nice..??


The texture is GOOD!! Alright here's the recipe for you...:)

Ingredients:
(A)
150g Low protein flour
150ml Water
1-1/4tsps Instant yeast

(B)
200g Caster Sugar
1 tbsp Honey
1/4tsp Salt

(C)
7 large eggs
60g Low protein flour
50ml Corn oil

(D)
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Baking soda
2 tsps Water
1/8 tsp Alkaline Water

Method:
~ Combine ingredients (A) in a big bowl. Cover and proof for 6 hours.
~ Place the proofed dough in a mixing bowl, add in ingredients (B) and beat till sugar is dissolved.
~ Add in eggs of ingredients (C) and beat well.
~ Add in flour and oil, continue to beat well. Strain mixture into another clean bowl and proof a second time for 12 hours.
~ Mix baking powder, baking soda and water of ingredients (D) together. Pour into the ready dough.
~ Add in alkaline water, mix well. Pour into a lined 8" basket or lined 8" base tin with perforated holes.
~ Steam over high heat for 35 minutes. Test with a skewer, it should come out clean.
~ Remove the cake from the tin or basket immediately and cool completely on a wire rack.

See, this is why i've been waiting this long to make this cake. All the waiting and waiting and waiting.......But it worth all that, really. You'll love it!!