#169: Sweet Cinnamon Buns : recipe#123

I baked this for fun. The buns were soft even after a few hours.

Ingredients:
11gm yeast+1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 cup milk : boiled and cooled to room temperature
3/4 cup butter
2 eggs-beaten
5 cups flour
topping: egg wash, 1tsp cinnamon+ 1 tbsp sugar

steps:
1. In a bowl, combine yeast mixture, sugar, salt, milk, butter, eggsand 2 cups of flour. stir and mix well.
2. Add in the rest of the flour and mix till well combined. Leave for an hour to allow the dough to rise.
3. After an hour, shape the dough to any shape you like- I did twist and snail-shaped with my dough.
4. Brush the top of dough with egg wash and sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar.
5. Bake the dough in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 10-15 minutes or till the dough are cooked.

#167: Quick tempe sambal: recipe #122

As I mentioned in one of my posts a few months back, I love tempe. There are many ways you can cook Tempe, and as usual , time is a limiting factor for me to cook complicated dishes for lunch before I go to school. Every morning before five, I already wake up to prepare breakfast and lunch for the family. Everything has to be fast. You'll find my kitchen to be very noisy in the early morning as my kids will depart before 6.30 a.m with my hubby whereas, I'll depart to mine at about 6.45 a.m. This dish can be considered a simple dish for any morning mom like me..

Ingredients: serve 4 persons
1 packet tempe- cut into slices and fried
10 long beans- sliced
chili sauce- preferably the singapore chili
shallots
garlic
chicken stock powder

steps;
- heat oil in wok, add in the shallots and garlic and fry till fragrant
-add in the chili sauce- fry till thickens.
-add in the long beans, lower the flame, cover wok with a lid
- when the beans are half cooked, add in the tempe and season with chicken stock . dish up

Note: add a little water, if the sauce gets too dry.

#166: Currypuff: recipe #121

First time I made curry puffs was in Miss Yeow's home science class... and it was a disaster... I tried and tried again at home.. still a disaster, on top of that I couldn't make the edges nice enough. The way I practiced the edges was to do it using the plasticine.. hehe.. in the end I can make nice currypuff edges at only an "acceptable" level unlike somebody I know who can do it at an "excellent" level *wink*. Anyway, I usually made hundreds of these for Sahur during Ramadhan and also for Hari Raya to serve my guests. I have not made these since Raya , so since today I have the mood , why not.. Since these are for us, I made the size bigger. So with the given measurement below, I can only make 12 pieces of currypuffs, if I make for raya serving, I can make 30 pcs of curry puffs. So you can imagine the size of these curry puffs.

Ingredients
pastry:
3 cups flour
3/4 cup butter
1tsp salt+ 1/2 egg +1 cup water

filling
250gm mnced beef
1 medium potato-diced
1/2 onion-chopped
1/2 garlic -chopped
curry powder
1tsp cornflour+ 1/4 cup water
chicken stock powder

steps;
dough:
mix flour and butter in a bowl, rub till the mixture resembled bradcrumbs, then add the egg mixture, mix thoroughly with spatula then knead till the side of the bowl is clean, leave aside for at least 30 minutes before putting in the filling.

filling:
In a pan, combine all ingredients and 1/4 cup of water except the flour mixture . Simmer slowly till minced beef is cooked and the potato softened. Add the chicken stock powder.
Note: you dont need to add oil because the beef will release a lot of oil. Skim the oil with a spoon, and in my case I strain the filling by putting the filling in a strainer.

To assemble:
Divide the pastry into 12 equal balls, flatten the balls and put in the filling. Seal the edges and do the "currypuff" pleats... LOL! - Alternatively, use cookie cutter to make similar size circles before putting in the filling. Shallow fry the currypuffs at medium flame till the curry puffs turn golden brown.

#165: Ramekin Pizza: recipe#120

We were watching the discovery travel Channel the other day and featured was the America's Best Pizza places. Amongst the many places that were considered America's best was a small place where pizza were served in bowls... they were known as the croc pot pizza. Off course no recipe was provided, but I thought today, I would experiment to make my own version of croc pot pizza and I came up with ramekin pizza because ramekins happen to be the smallest bowls I can find in the house. So let's cook..

Ingredients: makes 6 ramekins pizza
pizza base:
11g yeast+ 1/4 water -stir to combine
1 and 1/4 warm water
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 eggs
5 cups all purpose flour

meat sauce
250 g minced beef
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 onion- chopped
2 cloves garlic-chopped
mixed Italian herb
cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon
chicken stock to taste

others:
cheese- preferably the sliced cheese
cooked sausages- cut into 5 per sausage
mushrooms- optional

steps:
base: mix all ingredients except 3 cups of flour, stir thoroughly to combine, then only add in the rest of the flour... set aside for 45 minutes, to allow the yeast to undergo fermentation, and the dough double its size.

sauce: In a pan mix everything and simmer till the meat is cooked, the onion and garlic had softened and the gravy thickened

to Assemble:
-Put slices of cheese at the bottom of the ramekin, then add in the sauce and lastly the meat sauce, about 1 large spoon. repeat to the other 5 ramekins
- divide the dough into 6 equal size.
- Take one portion of the dough to form a ball. Flatten the dough and cover the top of the ramekin with the dough. Repeat this step for the other five dough.
- bake the ramekin pizza in a preheated oven at 200 C until the dough turns golden brown. The ramekin will look like mushroom. *smile*

To serve
On a plate, turn the ramekin upside down, remove ramekin from the dough and sauce, scoop all the sauce and cheese in the ramekin and serve hot.

Note: I have to share my pizza with Dayini because I couldn't finish it. It's way too much for me. One ramekin pizza equivalent to 3 large pizza slices.

#164 : Nyonya fried chicken wings: recipe #119

This is another fried chicken that becomes the favourite of the family. The recipe is adapted from a book by Patsie Chong.. Home-made Nyonya:

Ingredients:
A) 8 Chicken wings,
1 tbsp sugar
salt to taste
3 curry leaves

B) pounded - use only juice
8 shallots
3 cloves garlic
3 stalks lemongrass,
1 inch fresh turmeric - Iused I tsp turmeric powder

C) 1 tbsp meat curry powder
1 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tvsp worcestershire sauce

Method:
1. Mix A ingredients and set aside for 10 minutes, Add B and C rub evenly.
2. Marinate chicken wings for 6 hrs or overnight
3. Heat oil for deep frying, add the chicken wings deep fry till golden brown

#163: Pumpkin Puding :recipe #118

A month ago, I had so much pumpkins. This is one of the ways I utilised them.

Ingredients:
A large bowl of sliced pumpkin- microwaved/steamed

custard:
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 glass water
6dsp sugar
4 dsp custard flour + 1glass water
1 tsp salt

Method:
-combine milk, water, sugar and salt, microwave till boiled then add in the custard mixture. stir.
- In a ceramic container, arranged the pumpkin and pour the custard into the bowl.
- bake at 160C until custard set.

#162: Dark fried chicken: recipe #117

One of the many kinds of fried chicken recipes that my children love to eat:

Ingredients:
Chicken pieces
salt
rice wine ...vinegar ( thanks ihsan!)
oyster sauce
soya sauce
White pepper

blended:
roasted corainder, cumin and fennel ( ketumbar, Jintan manis and Jintan putih)
ginger
garlic

steps:
-marinade all the ingredients together, adjust flavour, leave aside at least 15 minutes before frying or better still overnight in the fridge.
-fry till done

#161: Eggplant, tomato and dried anchovies salad: recipe #116

One of the luxury during my uni years was free lunches at the hostel during fridays and sundays. The caterer that time employed a young Malaysian chef who loved to experiment new recipes. Amongst a few of his many recipes that I loved was ayam rendang kerisik, many types of kerabu and his clear tom yam soup.. When I read Mama fami's Fp the other day, I saw Kerabu tomato and ikan Bilis recipe.. and immediately I remembered one of the chef creation which was very similar to Mama's kerabu and ... here it is..

ingredients :
Dried anchovies ~ fried 2 tomatoes ~ sliced
2 egg plants - roasted, peeled and cut into bite size pieces
bird eye chillies ~ sliced
shallots ~ sliced
2 lemon grass ~ sliced
garlic-sliced
salt to taste
sugar to taste
"limau kesturi" juice

Method :
1. In a bowl, combine all ingredients except anchovies. adjust the flavour.
2. Assemble the salad in a bowl, put the fried anchovies just before serving.

#160: chicken curry bun : recipe#115

When I was sick last week, I was so tired that I made this for lunch. The filling was left-over chicken from the day before. I kind of trying to use my own recipe but found Rinnchan's cinnamon's twist recipe in my drawer. So I used this recipe to make the bun, but offcourse minus the sugar. It turned out to be okay because hubby and Auni ate about 4 buns each. But I felt this was tasteless.. maklum org damam.. anyway, here's the recipe... Thank you Rinn! I cilok your recipe and then remove some ingredients...

Ingredients:
400gm high protein flour
12gm instant dried yeast
1gm bread improver ( used 1/2 teaspn)
6gm salt (used 1 teaspn)
50gm egg (used 1 med size egg)
60gm margarine
190gm water
1 egg yolk, to brush

filling:
shallots
garlic
chicken fillets
curry powder
chicken stock powder
- fry shallots and garlic with little oil, add in the chicken fillets which had been mixed with curry powder. Pan fried till cooked then season with chicken stock powder.

Method :
1. In a large bowl mix together flour, yeast, salt and bread improver. Mix well.
2. While mixing, add in egg and margarine consecutively.
3. Add in water little at a time making into crumble. Knead until dough is formed and not sticky.
4. Cover the dough with plastic film and let rest for 10 mins.
5. Divide dough into 12 equal small dough and round them. Proof for 5 mins. Cover with plastic again.
6. Flatten the dough and put in the filling into the dough.
9. Bake at 190 Deg Cel for 10mins - 15 mins or until golden brown.

#159: lemon cheese slice: recipe #114

Eh, lama sudah inda ada cream cheese ani... about a month sudah... went to Hua Ho, Supa save... still ndada.. so kepunan lah kan makan tiramisu...ni. This was made many months back, I have promised my colleagues, Wee Ter and Har the recipe.. tapi inda pandai masuk blog.. anyway, so guys, here are the recipes... BTW , for your info, I only have 12 invited readers including my hubby. I feel better that way.. no restrictions, no scepticism and I can 100% share my recipes without hesitations..

Crust:
3/4 cup fat
1/2 firmly packed brown sugar
11/4 cups flour
1 cup oats
a pinch of salt

Filling:
1 pkg cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
2 eggs
1 capful Lemon Essence ( about 2 tsp)

others;
strawberry jam
chocolate chips


1) Preheat oven 170C, grease a spring form pan
2) For crust: combine all ingredients, mix till well blended, if the mixture falls apart, add a bit more fat. Press onto bottom of the prepared pan.
3) Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Once cooled spread a generous amount of strawberry Jam on it.
4) In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and flour, beat till well blended. Add in the eggs, mix well. Add the lemon essence. Pour on to the prepared crust. Sprinkle chocolate chips on the filling.
5) Bake for 25 minutes or until set. Cool to room temperature, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before cutting it into slices. Enjoy~

tip: Leave the cake in the oven with the oven's door ajar after you off the oven. This will prevent your cake from cracking. I usually put a small pan of water at the bottom rack and using the oven fan while baking to make the cheese cake less dry.

#158: Sambal Petis : recipe #113

One of my favourite dip is petis. Somebody told me it was made from udang with the shell intact. Petis is sold in small plastic container and the smell, Wow! can blow "orang putih" away! When I grew up, My babu often make "rojak suntong" btw. she used to live in Miri... so she usually prepare her own version of petis. If it wasn't her, I seriously thought that i could just use the petis straight from the plastic container.. how silly of me.. anyway, here's the recipe

Ingredients:
1 small container petis
1 bottle lada singapore
1/2 cup gula anau
1/2 cup gula pasir
1/2 to 1 cup kesturi juice

steps:
Simmer the ingredients slowly until gravy thickens
This dip can be kept for a month or more in the fridge

Before serving:
Add grounded udang kering and coarsely pounded roasted peanut into the sauce just before adding to the rojak of your choice~ to make this more pedas, add in chopped bird's eye chillies.
Here I am serving my sauce with tauhu goreng... yummy !

#156: Satay and Peanut sauce MamaFaMi : recipe #112

I had promised my dear friend Cnah, to post something on Satay and rojak. So, I used mamafami's recipe . the only difference is that I fried my beef, when Mama grilled hers. Anyway Mama thanks for the lovely recipe.. will try your other recipes next time :) ( To MamaFami: Kite cilok Mama punya resipi direct from your FP hehe harap Halalkan! and another thing, kite terover kisar the kacang lah Mama, so punye lah halus sangat kuah tue..)

SATAY

Ingredients :

1 kg chicken/beef fillet ~ cut into 2.5cm x 2.5cm pieces - I used beef
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons cooking oil
satay sticks

extra oil and lemon grass for basting

To blend :

3 shallots
2 candlenuts (buah keras)
2 cloves of garlic
3 cm fresh tumeric or 2 teaspoons tumeric powder
4 cm ginger
2 lemon grass
4 cm galangal (lengkuas)
1 tablespoons corriander seed - roasted
1 teaspoon fennel seed (jintan manis) -roasted
1 teaspoon cummin seed (jintan putih) -roasted


Method :

1. Mix sugar, honey, cooking oil and salt into the blended ingredients to form a paste.
2. Rub paste mixture into the diced chicken or beef and leave it to marinate for 3 hours or overnight in the fridge
3. Thread seasoned meat on to satay sticks.
4. Grill over char- coal fire or under hot grill . Baste with oil and water mixture to keep meat moist.
5. Serve with peanut sauce, cucumbers and onion cut into wedges and nasi impit.

( Note: I did not grilled my satay, I pan- bake them slowly in a heavy pan, covered for about 20 minutes)


PEANUT SAMBAL

Ingredients :

500g freshly roasted ground peanuts ~ coarsely pounded
2 stalks lemon grass ~ knocked
1 cup coconut milk
1 piece dried tamarind skin or a bit of tamarind juice
2 - 3 tablespoons sugar
salt to taste
oil
enough water

To blend

20 dried chillies, deseeded
2 cloves garlic
15 shallots
2 candlenuts (buah keras)
2 cm galangal (lengkuas)

Method :

1. Heat oil in wok and fry blended paste and lemon grass till fragrant and oil seeps through the paste, on low heat.
2. Add in the pounded ground peanuts and water, stirring constantly.
3. Add in coconut milk, dried tamarind skin, sugar and salt.

#154 : Baked Cornflakes chicken : recipe #111

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been very busy lately plus the kids and myself are infected with the flu virus.. . I've made this two weeks ago , another variation from the chicken made by Ihsan, food for thoughts and Wee Ter the cookiemonzters..

Ingredients
chicken pieces- cleaned and skin removed
crushed cornflakes
all purpose flour
egg- beaten
olive oil

marinade:
roasted corainder- blended
pepper
salt
vinegar
nutmeg powder
all spice powder

steps:
- Marinade chicken for at least 1 hour before cooking or overnight in the fridge
- coat the chicken pieces with the flour before dipping them in egg.
- generously spread the cornflakes around the chicken and place them on a baking pan
- sprinkle a bit of olive oil on top of the chicken before baking them at 200 degree celcius until the chicken are done.

#152 :Triple chocolate cookies: recipe #110

I had the mood to bake some cookies so here it is...

1 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg-beaten
4 ounces milk chocolate, melted
2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milo
1/2 cup chocolate rice
1 cup chopped nuts ( optional)

steps:
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees
2. Cream butter and sugar, add in the baking soda; beat until blended. Beat in eggs, melted chocolate and milo.
3. Add in the flour little by little. Lastly stir in the chocolate rice and the nuts.
4. Drop dough by round teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake about 15 minutes or until edges are firm. To obtain crispier cookies, bake at a longer period. Cool on cookie sheets for 1 minute. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

#151: Spicy chicken patties: recipe#109

A quick lunch for today. We have been craving for burgers but very much put off by the taste and the amount of fat in it. So this is a healthier version of chicken burger, quick, reduced fat and yummy!

Ingredients:
1/5 kg boneless chicken fillets- coarsely chopped
3-4 tbsp corn flour
extra virgin olive oil

blended ingredients:
1 large onion
2 garlics
1 inch ginger

seasoning:
1 tsp nutmeg powder
1 dsp all spice powder
1 dsp paprika powder
1 tsp white pepper powder
1dsp black pepper- coarse ground
1 tbsp corainder powder
1 dsp SHAN TIKKA KEBAB powder ( can be replaced by 1 tsp garam masala and 2 tsp powdered chillies)
salt and chicken stock powder to taste

steps;
1) In a bowl, combine the chicken with the blended and the seasoning ingredients.
2) Add in the corn flour. Mix well.
3) Divide patties into 6 equal portions , and shape them into balls before flattening them.
4) In a skillet, pour some olive oil and place the patties, and cook slowly at low flame. Cover the skillet to cook the inside part of the patties. When the underside part of the patties have browned , turn them, to cook the other side. ( pan-baking method). The cooking takes about 10-15 minutes.
5) Serve hot with rice or burger bun. Enjoy!

#150: Beef curry with tomato puree: recipe#108

India to me is one of the nation that has a lot of curry dishes. While in Brunei, we tend to resort to cooking curry using the pre-prepared curry available in cans or packets sold in the shops, In India, various curries are prepared from the powder from the different spices available. This is another version of curry just by using corainder powder and garam masala.

	0.7 kg beef- cut into bite size pieces 4 potatoes-quartered
•	Marinade:
•	1 small cup yoghurt
•	1 tbs. oil
•	1 1/2 tbs. coriander powder
•	1 tsp. chilli powder (adjust to taste)
•	Juice of 1 lemon/lime
•	2 tsp paprika powder
•	1 tsp Garam Masala
•	Salt to taste
•	For cooking:
•	1-2 tbs. oil
•	2 medium onions peeled and thinly sliced
•	3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed or grated
•	1 inch root ginger, peeled and grated
•	2 tbsp tomato puree
•	corainder leaves-optional

steps:

1.	Wash and drain beef pieces
2.	Mix all marinade ingredients . Use this to marinate the beef for at least an hour before cooking or in the fridge overnight.
3.	Heat oil in a wok.
4.	Stir beef, along with the marinade, on high flame, for 5 minutes. Take out and keep aside.
5.	In another pan, heat oil and fry onion, ginger and garlic until nicely browned.
6.	Add Tomato puree and fry for a few minutes.
7.	Add the cooked beef and potatoes to the onions and boil briskly until sauce thickens and the beef is tender. ( I used the pressure cooker to cook this for 15 minutes)
8.	Adjust seasonings.
9.	Serve hot with rice or roti kosong.

#149: Adobo chicken liver: recipe#107

This is "the" famous recipe from the Philipines. This recipe was taught to me by a Filipino colleague of mine in my previous school. You can substitute the liver with chicken or beef.

Ingredients:
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp white vinegar
3 bay leaves
1 dsp. coarse ground black pepper
200g chicken liver
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
sugar (optional)

1) In a large bowl, put 1/3 of the chopped garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves and ground black pepper. Stir to mix. Put in refrigerator to marinate at least 1 hour. Preferably overnight.

2) Heat oil in wok, add the rest of the chopped garlic and fry till fragrant.

3) Add the liver with the juice in the bowl, stir in 1/2 cup water, and bring to boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer gently 15-20minutes, turning the liver a few times.

4) Remove lid from pan and turn heat to medium high. Cook another 5-10minutes, or until sauce has thickened.

#148: Pumpkin croquette: recipe #106

My first try was during My honeymoon 12 years back. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 cup boiled pumpkin- mashed
1/4 cup chopped leeks ( daun kucai)
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg-beaten
bread crumbs
1-2 cups flour

blended ingredients:
2 fresh red chillies
1/2 cup dried prawns-pre-soak in water
1/2 large bombay onion
2 garlics

steps:
- Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl except egg, gread crumbs and flour. Stir to mix.
- When the mixture is well combined, add in the flour little by little until you can shape the mixture into small balls.
- flatten the balls, dip into beaten egg and coat with bread crumbs before shallow frying /deep frying them.

#147: Silverfish Sambal with Petai; recipe #105

For the first time, I am venturing into eating fresh petai. I usually ate the canned ones... :) The fresh petai beans are bitter.. much bitter than the canned ones, just like the bittergourd but with smell. However... its taste with the "ikan pusu/bilis" was incredible. I kind of addicted to it, so yeah, I certainly will make this dish again !

Ingredients:
250 gm dried silverfish- rinsed and drained
1 handful fresh petai
3 shallots-sliced
2 garlics-sliced
3 tbsp dried chilli paste
tamarind juice
salt and sugar to taste
3 dsp coconut milk
1 crushed lemon grass

steps:
1) heat oil in wok, add in the chilli paste, fry till the oil separates. Stir constantly
2) Add in the lemon grass, shallots and garlics. Fry till fragrant.
3) Add in the fish, petai, coconut milk, tamarind juice and seasoning, stir to combine and continue cooking till the silverfish cooked and the "sambal" is a bit dry.

#146: Quick Cendol Puding : recipe #104

Auni loves to eat Cendol. I made this for her. Preparation took me less than 10 minutes, It's the cooling that took more time.

Ingredients:
1 small packet powdered Agar
1 packet ready made Cendol ( 300g)- drained and rinsed
3/4 can coconut milk + water to top up till 1 litre
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt

step:
Boil the water+ coconut mixture , Agar, sugar and salt- keep stirring.
When the mixture boils, add in the cendol and pour to mould
When the agar has cooled, keep it in the fridge before serving

#145:Nyonya Acar: recipe #103

Nowadays it seems that my dishes are "express" type * sigh*. This is another quick recipe that I obtained from one of the old cook books. This is nice but not as nice as my lengthy Acar Tumis that I make once/twice a year .. :) . Yummy if eaten with local "kerupok"

Ingredients:
1 cucumber- seeded and cut into strips, mix with salt-keep aside
1 carrot- cut into strips, mix with salt -keep aside
4 fresh red chillies-seeded and julienned
vinegar
sugar
salt
roasted sesame seed

blended:
dried prawns
a little shrimp paste powder
Dried chillies paste
4 inch ginger
2 cloves garlic
10 shallots

steps:
1. Drain cucumber and carrot
2. Heat oil in wok, add in the blended ingredients, stir to mix and fry till fragrant.
3. Add in the vinegar, sugar and salt, stir till gravy thickens.
4. Add in the Cucumber, chillies and carrots. mix well, adjust seasoning.
5. Sprinkle with roasted sesame seeds, dish up.