My 100th Post!!!

I can believe I've actually posted 100 blahs on this blog! Ha! Anyway, to celebrate my 100th post, I'd like to share with you some the YUMMY food we had this past summer in Malaysia! I say SOME because, we were too busy gobbling up the others! :P

So here they are....please bring a bucket before you scroll down...especially any fellow Malaysians who are living far far away, like us,...don't drool all over your pc! ;) And for those who have not been to Malaysia, I hope someday you'll have the opportunity to visit this lovely country and try some of the best and unique cuisine.

Jalan Imbi's "Chu Yok Yun Fun" - flat rice noodle toss in dark soy sauce (with some special ingredient, that I can't figure out) topped with ground pork and serve with a side of soup and pork meat balls.

Jalan Imbi's famous Egg Tarts. You have to get there early, cos' they close at 2pm. And each tray that comes out from the hot oven, disappears quickly!

This is the famous Seremban siew pau ~ crispy BBQ pork buns.

My friend, Esther's Woo Tau Kou (steamed Taro cake)

This was some bun we ate at "Eu Yan Sang" restaurant in Mid Valley Mega Mall

Murtabak
Unfortunately this wasn't as good as the ones I used to eat during buka puasa month in front of Giant Supermarket in Kelana Jaya.

crabby~ have forgotten what my mom cooked in it

My favorite Chiew Chow style steam angle fish...YUM!

I don't know what's the name of this dish. But according to my mom, she thinks that, back in the days, people didn't wanna put any food (or any part of anything edible) to waste. So someone came up with this idea of using the dried mushroom (often used in Chinese cooking) stems - which often get toss away, to cook this dish. The stems are soak for hours to soften, then it's stir fry with diced carrots, green beans, salted radish, taosted peanuts and dried shrimp. Also one of my favorite dish.

Nasi Ulam, a Nyonya dish, which is serve with raw vegetables over rice, kinda like a "salad with rice". It is SOOOO good...I might have to improvise this with some other greens that I otherwise cannot get it here in US.

This is Dragon Fruit, also called Pitaya. They come in red and yellow skinned, white and red flesh. The red flesh Dragon fruit is ESPECIALLY sweet. The fruit is VERY juicy. It has now become one of my favorite fruits. Unfortunately, we can't get it here. So while we were back home, we ate it (and golden Kiwi from NZ) after EVERY meal.

See the red flesh in there, the black dots are the seeds, which are edible - just like kiwi. If you ever see one in your travels, DO try it!

My favorite Malaysian dessert - cendol - usually consist of shaved ice, with strands of noodle like thingy that we often tell the kids that they are worms or caterpillars ( made out of green pea flour flavored with pandan essence), sweet corn, red beans and top with gula melaka syrup, and coconut milk ~ YUM!

Bamboo razor clams

Baked crab ~ this guy was HUGE - not the guy holding the crab, I'm talking about THE CRAB! ;)

Chow Kueh Kak or Char Chai Tau Kueh (Radish/daikon). Check here for a recipe.

Bang Jian Kueh

Apum Balik

This is the economical fried meehoon mee. We eat this for breakfast, and as afternoon snack. It contains only the noodles and bean sprout, nothing else. YET, it is so delicious! *sigh.... looking at all these food now, makes me homesick*

Seafood (and beef) tom yam

Nasi paprik - this is a malay dish with a Thai influence. One of the dishes I have come to love when my husband, then my boyfriend, first introduce it to me. I have been trying to make it at home. So someday when I succeed, I'll definitely share it here.

Thab Tim Krob (Red rubies)

Mango sticky rice

Otak-otak

Thai style squid salad - very spicy, but very tasty!

And now, I AM HUNGRY!!!! arrgghh! ;P

What? 75 Degrees OFF???!!!!

If you had stopped by my September DB challenge, you will understand that I was facing some problems with my oven temperature. So, yesterday I went and pick up a oven thermometer in the store. I was making granola bars, adapted from Donna Hay's Kids' Magazine.

The recipe calls for 320F preheated oven. I preheated to 325F. However, I forgot to stick the thermometer in the oven, so half way through, I place it in. The needle moved slowly. I waited for a while to check on it. and by the time the timer for the bars went off, which was a good 20-30 minutes later, the needle on the thermometer was at 250F!!! I couldn't believe that the temperature was SO off! I thought it was maybe off by 10-20 degrees! No wonder I had so much problem with my banana chocolate bread and my puff pastry challenge! Hmmm...I am hoping that this would lead to a new oven/stove some time soon?! :) Don't think my husband would be please with the news! :P

Anyway, the granola bar still turned out fine. I really like the homemade ones. For one, it doesn't have corn syrup in it. Secondly, I like my granola bars like how I like my fried rice, loaded with ingredients, in this case - dried fruits (I know for sure some of them do not have corn syrup in. I wanted to have dried cherries, but they contained cs, so I went for dried cranberries). They aren't too sweet at all. Here's the recipe:

Homemade Fruity Granola Bars

4-1/2 C rolled oats (I half regular rolled oats and red oats)
3/4 C unbleached all purpose flour, sifted
3 Tbs. brown sugar (loosely packed)
2 1/2 C dried fruits, chopped into 1/4" pieces (I used dried mangoes, apricots, apples and cranberries)
1 C slivered or sliced almond, optional (or any nuts of your choice)
1/3 C wheat germ
1/2 C sunflower seeds, optional
2/3 C combination of honey and maple syrup (I suggest that you lightly spray your cup with cooking oil for easy pouring)
2/3 C canola oil

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Grease and line a 17"x12" rimmed baking sheet (or a 12"x 8" pan) with parchment paper. ( The baking sheet will give you a flatter bar, while the 12"x 8" will give you a thicker bar)
2. Place all of the dry ingredient in a big bowl. Mix well to combine.
3. Place the honey and maple syrup in small saucepan over medium heat, and cook until it is very runny, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the canola oil. Carefully pour it into the dry oats mixture and mix until well combined.
4. Spoon onto the baking sheet/pan. Use the back of your spoon the press it down and flatten with the back of your spoon. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden in color. Cool on a rack, and cut into your desire size.

If you haven't tried making your own granola bar, I urge you to do so. The combination of the ingredient is really up to you. If you don' t fancy dried fruit, replace them with nuts, and or chocolate chips, or add unsweetened coconut flakes for a tropical twist. It's all up to your personal palette, and the best thing about making homemade granola bars, it's EZ!!! --- Especially if you don't have an oven where the temperature is WAY OFF! :)

Almond Raisin Bread and Ham and Cheese Buns

Almond Raisin Bread

Ever since I've exchanged my Cuisinart bread machine for a Zojirushi bread machine, I've been a little crazy about making homemade bread. When I was back in Malaysia, we had a lot of buns/bread from Bread Story, especially during our trip to Langkawi.

Anyway, whenever I go back home, I'd look for local recipe books to purchase. I saw this book in a cake decorating supply store in USJ 1 area, called Magic Bread by Alex Goh. There are some really good recipes in there. Here are the two that I have tried so far - almond and raisin bread and the ham and cheese buns. They both start with the same basic sweet bread dough.

Basic Sweet Bread Dough

A - 100g bread flour
70ml boiling water

B - 300 g bread flour
100g all purpose flour
80g sugar
6g salt
20g milk powder
9g instant yeast

C - 175ml cold water
60g cold eggs

D- 60g butter

1. Add the boiling water from A into flour, mix until combined to form dough. Cover and set aside to cool. Keep it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, with the hook attachment, mix B until well-blended. Add in C and knead to form a rough dough. Add in A and knead until well-blended.
   
3. Add in D and knead to form elastic dough. Let it proof for 40 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into required weight and mold it round. Let it rest for 10 minutes and read to be use. Makes about 2lbs of dough.

If you're using a bread machine, just dump everything in there. You can use the dough program, or set your own if you have a "home made setting". I have set mine as below:

Preheat - off
Knead- 25 minutes
Rise 1- 45 minutes
Rise 2- 30 mintues
Rise 3- 30 minutes

Almond Raisin Bread
Prepare 400g of sweet bread dough. (I used all of it and used two 9" pans instead)

Almond Fillings

50g butter
50g sugar
60g eggs
1/4 tsp. cinnamon powder
100g finely ground almonds
100g raisins

Adequate almond flakes/silvers for topping.

Method:

1. Mold the dough round.
2. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Roll it thin into 14"x 9" rectangular shape.
3. Spread on almond fillings and sprinkle raisins on top. Roll it up like Swiss roll.
4. Cut the dough into 10 pieces. Place it onto a 9" pan, greased and lined the bottom with parchment paper. Let it proof for 45 minutes.
5. Egg wash and sprinkle almond flakes/silvers on top.
   
6. Bake at 350F (175C) at the lower shelve of the oven for 25-30 minutes.

Ham and Cheese Buns

Prepare sweet bread dough as above.

Fillings
Ham slices
grated cheddar cheese
Sliced green onions
Mayonnaise

Method:

1. Divide the dough into 60g each and mold it round
2. Let it rest for 10 minutes, then flatten it. Place a slice of ham on top.
3. Roll it up and fold it into half. Cut the center and open it up.
4. Place it onto a greased baking sheet. Let them proof for 45 minutes or until double its size.
5. Egg wash the surface. Place some grated cheese and green onions on top. Pipe some mayo (I opt out the mayo) onto it.

Bake at 375F (190C) in the middle shelve of the oven for 12-15 minutes.

Ham and Cheese Bread

Daring Bakers' September Challenge - Vols-au-Vent With Michel Richard's Puff Pastry Dough!!!

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

After being gone for 2 months, and another half a month to recover from jet lag and a horrible cough... I'm FINALLY back to participate in my Daring Bakers Challenge!!! And what do you know, when you have missed out so much, this is what you get - PUFF PASTRY DOUGH!!! (yikes)

This is NOT something I have on my "wish to try" list. There's always the convenience of going to the frozen isle in the grocery store and just pick it up. Plus, the fact that you have to wrap the whole chunk of butter in the dough, and making sure the butter doesn't get too soft or it'd oozed out, and folding the dough "this way and that way" for X amount of times --- ai-ya-ya...definitely not for the lazy person that I am, and not for someone who, without fail, get distracted by the kids every 5 minutes ONLY WHEN I'm cooking/baking, cos' by the end I'd really be Huffing and PUFFING on the dough! :P

However, I AM A DARING BAKER! :P (LOL) and a procrastinator, in case you forgot. So I didn't start until 2 days before the dateline. I didn't think much about what I was gonna fill them with. Instead I was worrying about how will the puff pastry turn out! :P

Anyhow, I started with whacking the sticks of butter down, before I prepare the dough, so that the butter can stay cool in the fridge while I prepare the dough. However, I have to warn you that, if you have your kids' pet fishes' bowl(s) sitting on your kitchen counter top, like ME...do give them a warning that you'll be smacking something on the counter top, so that they don't get a heart attack and die. Not to worry...no fish were harm in the process of making this puff pastry...just 3 fishes puffing and huffing out of fear of the crazy mom with a giant rolling pin whacking the hell out of the butter! I did thought about moving them away...but by the time I realized they (especially the 2 gold fish) were "scurrying" about in the bowl, I was almost done with the butter! I think the beta could careless!

The frighten fishes!

I have to say, I was surprise how easy the dough was to work with! It doesn't tear, it just stretches wherever you want it to go! :)

Now, if you're short like me and has a counter top for the average Americans, you'd need your kid's step stool to roll this dough!

The good old Ikea step stool!

I was really happy when none of the butter oozed out in between the turns. I was planning on having it for dinner, so time was sorta short. Occasionally, instead of placing the dough in the fridge in between turns, I've put it in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes --- and the dough was still soft and really nice to work with. When it came to splitting the dough, I was so excited to see the layers actually forming... :)

According to the instruction, right before you place the cut out doughs into the preheated oven, you should place a silicon baking mat or parchment on top of the doughs to help even rising. That was what I did. However, mine was a mess! See how my dough was D-R-A-G-E-D along as I tried to lift up the top mat??!!! *sigh*


Thank goodness I still had left over dough in the fridge, and I still had time to go on the DB forum to ask for help. Steph was quick to come to the rescue --- my oven was probably not hot enough. Hmm....this is a wonderful excuse for me to get a oven thermometer! ;P I also managed to skim through some other members' Q&A. And I came across Audax's suggestion on preheating the oven 20 degrees hotter than what it calls for in the recipe, as the dough needed the hot temperature to create the steam to puff the layers.

I did managed to salvage one decent looking Vols-au-Vent shell for the photo taking purpose. I made scrambled eggs with chives and bacon for the filling, and serve with a side of salad. That was our dinner.

Then yesterday afternoon, I rolled out my left over dough. This time, I raised the oven temperature to 420F. I did leave the mat sitting on top of the dough longer than the 15 minutes as suggested in the recipe. I waited until the dough started to brown lightly, only then I carefully remove the mat. However, for some reason, I had forgotten to placed the cut rings on top of the base to create the well for the fillings!!!! What an idiot!!! *shaking my head*

Oh well, so this morning we had our Vols-au-Vent (without a well) with brie and seasoned lox, and the other also with brie, with marmalade (Yesmin and I gobbled it down before I could take a photo! :P).

The vols-au-vent without the well!! : |

They really filled us up, so, even though I made a dessert Vols-au-Vent with mascarpone and blackberries on a bed of raspberry sauce, we haven't actually tried it YET. None of us could put another bite in, and I didn't wanna keep it till dinner as the pastry might get soggy...so I tried calling my neighbor :) Glad she was home. We shall be trying ours tomorrow night.

Mascarpone with Blackberries and raspberry sauce... you can't really see the base of the vols-au-vent here, but there's the BIG ring that I had forgotten to place on top of the base before baking! :P

So, in case you are interested in giving a try on puff pastry, click HERE for the recipe. I would encourage you to give it a try, because, there's a BIG difference between the TASTE of the homemade puff pastry, and the store bought ones!!

Thanks Steph, for this challenge that I NEVER thought I could achieve.

Highlights of Our Trip Home - Malaysia

Finally... some highlights of our trip back home to Malaysia this past summer. There are too many photos to be posted here, visit HERE for the rest of them. Hope you enjoy the photos as much as WE did! :)



I will upload the food photos soon. :)

One of the Most Important Job

Yesterday was the first day of school. I can't believe she's going into 3rd grade!!! Her 2nd grade teacher was looping up with the class, so it wasn't like we didn't know who to expect this time. But it was excited to see who was gonna be staying and leaving (there was a big reshuffling of students in the school due to many reasons).

However, the job I wanna talk about here isn't the teacher. We all know how IMPORTANT a teacher's job can be, and we treasure all the teachers out there, no doubt. This OTHER important job I'm speaking of is the BUS DRIVER ~ who very day fetches our kids back and forth. Really, so often we forget how important their job is, and being a school bus driver, isn't just busing these kids to and back from school...it's more than that!

You'd know what I mean if you have chaperon a field trip. The noise and the behavior of these kids can sometimes be extremely overwhelming! We've had 2 previous bus drivers who hardly ever smile at you, who'd honk REAL loud and fierce because the 1st time my daughter, then in kindergarten, was dropped across the street, and I DID NOT know that I had to wait for the bus driver to make sure both sides are clear before we are allowed to cross. I know they meant well for the safety, but if you had looked at HER face, and how LOUD she had honked at us, you too would be scared!

Anyway, last year we had this AMAZING bus driver name Dee Dee. She's friendly, she's nice, she drives safely, and she gives the kids warnings when needed. Every morning, she greets the kids when they get on the bus, and say goodbyes when they get off. Sometimes she'd even chat with them about their day, their siblings...etc!!! She even keeps 2 books, like I Spy, or Where's Waldo type of books, for the kids to read in the bus, if they wanted to (what a great idea, isn't it??)! And of course, on those special occasions, she'd have a bag of candy/cookies for each kid & their sibling, whether or not, the sibling(s) is on the bus too.

So, at the end of last year, I had asked her if she could possibly bus our route again? Many parents have had the same question for her :) She told me that it is unlikely, since our route is the "popular" route, for whatever reason. Plus, the way they pick the routes are by seniority, so she's very unlikely gonna be busing our neighborhood.

However, yesterday morning, when we waited for the bus to arrive...guess who was driving the bus??!!! Yeahhhh!!! It's Dee Dee!!! =D You could tell how happy all the parents at the bus stop were!!!



Thank you Dee Dee and we LOVE you!!! :)

The Golden Years

Not long after our return from Malaysia (yes, I still haven't blog about that trip...in fact I have SO MANY things that are backdated!!), a friend told me that she and her sister-in-law were planning a 50th Anniversary for her in-laws. She later asked me if I could make a cake! You see, I'm not a professional baker. I'm still experimenting. I'm ok with baking for my family and experimenting, but when someone PLACES an order with me, that's A LOT of pressure! Anyway, I said yes! (Which I later question myself if I was just too excited and still haven't overcome the jet lag??! :P )




So, I brought some magazines over for her to look at, to chose the design, talk about the flavor, size..etc. She also came over to my house, and that's when she saw my Yellow cake (the cake I submitted for the State Fair competition), and she liked that design. She needed the cake for 60 people. She called up some local bakery and asked what size would best feed that number of people. They told her a 12" and a 9". Yikkeess...I have never made any cake bigger than a 9"!!! I have covered a 12" dummy cake for the Oregon State Fair cake decorating competition. But THAT was a Styrofoam! I didn't have to worry about a Styrofoam! Nevertheless, I figured this is a great opportunity for me...and I better not screw up!

I broke down the days into making this cake. There was the chocolate cake for the 12" cake and butter/vanilla cake for the top. They are both filled with raspberry buttercream, and covered with fondant. Originally, the number "50" was supposed to be upright. I place toothpick under the numbers to help them stand. As I was placing the other decorated pieces, the number 5 started to "cracked"!!! *sigh* I knew I had no time to make another "5" (gum paste might have worked better in this case), so I had no choice but to lay them down F-L-A-T! :( The design also included fondant roses, which I'm pretty pleased with, but still need to work on placing them on a toothpick/wire stem and working on the calyx. I hand painted the other little golden flowers, the numbers and the pearls with petal dust.

When the cake was done...all I have left to worry about was whether it will stay in one piece all the way until they cut the cake, and if they liked the taste of the cake! It was difficult for me to be the judge...cos' 1st of all, I always set higher expectations for myself...2nd, I don't like to eat cakes...I liked the buttercream I made, that I know (it was a meringue buttercream), but cake?! It was hard for me to judge...I'm not a cake person, I only like to make them for others, I'm VERY picky when it comes to cakes. I like desserts and pastry, but I don't really have a sweet tooth...so, that makes me even pickier!!! :P

Anyhow, I was nervous the whole night....until I saw her e-mail giving her thumbs up! *phew* :) I'm so grateful for A to give me this opportunity.