Whats with the rush?

I read Kenny Sia's new post. And here I was nodding my head repeatedly in agreement.

If it's the choices made in life that will make a difference,

why narrow down the choices and rushing down to decision while we can really enhance the potential within us just by giving ourselves a chance?

A chance to make a choice by our own that we ourselves really believe in...

Apple & Peach with Oat Crumble

I don't do sports. I don't do fishing. I don't do chess. I don't do pixel. and recently I realised that,

I. don't. do. cookies!

Let's see what cookies have I made for the past 22 years. The usual honey cornflakes cookies, chip chocolate cookies, almond london, chip choc cookies, chip chocolate cookies again and again chip choc cookies, oh and recently sarang semut. What else? I think that's just about it.

So before raya I thought of baking some homemade raya cookies *the kuih raya list if u remember*. So I stocked up some butter but guess what? I keep on postponing the "biskut raya project" because the thought of sitting in the kitchen arranging the dough accurately on the tray one by one *for hours* really kills me! So, I surrendered and start being myself again *fuhhh~*

Now that I know I hate baking cookies I will never try to do it again and I will finish up all biskut raya in everyone else's place and I will love raya for the endless cookies raya will offer.

And because of this confession too I can now bake *without feeling guilty* something that I can really enjoy! *yay!* (or else before this making something other than cookies at this moment of time before raya will seems so wrong!) I know, I have this weird connection with food 0_O. I'm afraid if I start baking cakes or pies or even chicken now, cookies will be offended. But now I had made it clear, I hope cookies will understand :'( *Gosh! that sounds absolutely psychotic! T_T*

Anyways, I made Apple and Peach with Oat Crumble. It's actually Apple Crumble with few adjustment cause I can't find green apples but I guess putting names like Apple Crumble ala Wawa~ sounds too self-centred when what I did was just adding peaches and oats ><"

So here are the ingredients:

Basic crumble:

1/2 c unsalted butter

1 c flour

1/4 c brown sugar

optional: 1/2 c oats (I'm not sure how much did I put in tho)

Fruits:

2 peeled, cored and thinly sliced red apples

1 can of peaches ( I used the 475g Ayam Brand sliced peach)

Method:

Preheat the oven at 200C

Basically, u just cut the butter into small squares, put in all the ingredient and by using the tip of your finger, mix all the ingredients well. You're done when the ingredients forms into crumbles. Heh. Don't roll or try to join them or else you will be making a pie instead of this simple crumble.

Put the fruits inside a see through baking dish *u can arrange them if you want. say u want to put apples underneath the peaches or vice versa or arrange them side to side but I just dump them all together* Then put the crumble on top and press slowly to make the surface even. Don't put too much pressure to ensure that the crumbles are still crumbly.

Pop into the oven for 20-30 minutes until it browns nicely.

You can also serve them with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. But i prefer to savour the sweet taste of red apples and sourish peaches alone.

You can also use granny smith green apples instead if you want it to taste sourish. By doing this, you no longer have to use peaches. You can use 3-4 green apples for that.

I'm using a 7@8 inch baking dish. So, if you're using bigger dish, make more crumble and use more fruits. The fruits can vary from any fruits that you like :)

Tips and tricks:

1.If your fingers are warm, use spatula instead to make the crumble.

2.Put in flour a little at a time so it will reduce the risk of dryness.

Trivial facts brought to u by Wawa:

What's the difference between apple pie and apple crumble?

1. When making apple pie, you have to use green apples and you have to cook them with sugar and cinnamon. But the sweetness of apple crumble comes naturally from the sweetness of the apples ur using.

2. The pie crust vs crumble. Need I say more? (Okay I will say more) Crumble is just very crispy and delicious while crust is just plain boring crust :p *I shouldn't have said more*

3.Apple crumble is easy unlike crust, you don't have to blind bake the crumble before hand.

4.My lil siblings dislike Apple pie but really really love Apple Crumble. Enough said.

But then again, they are both really different things. T_T (I told you these are trivial facts ;p)

Journey to the west

The 3 course meal we had last night for Iftar:

Appetizer- Mushroom Bruschetta inspired by this blog

Entree- Macaroni Lasagna inspired by Zack

Dessert- Apple & Peach with Oat Crumble

P/s: Gonna post the Apple & Peach Crumble recipe real soon! But I'm not going to post the appetizer n entree recipe. I didn't follow the exact recipe so it didn't turn out great :( *sorry recipe owners* But I will try them again and share the recipes here. Meanwhile, you can browse through the links I've put above :)

Honey Chicken with Oil Rice?

Both names are very deceiving don't you think? I mean, when I myself say honey chicken my head will instantly picturing honey chicken from chicken rice shop and when I say oil rice I will be imagining a rice which is sooo oily and unhealthy. Combine the two?eyew!

So I guess certain dishes in Malaysia are just meant to be called by their own names and should never be directly translated like what I just did T_T

Now now, what i had for today's iftar is Nasi Minyak & Ayam Madu. These are the typical wedding dishes you'll eat at a Malay wedding ceremony but you just can't get enough of them! My first time cooking it was with my friends wayyy back in Terengganu. I was so amaze that they can cook wedding dishes! I mean Nasi Minyak kot! *and Ayam Madu here refers to a twisted version of Ayam Masak Merah*. And this dishes is incomplete without sambal belacan!*grilled prawn paste mix with smashed chillies* See? Asian dishes should be taken as they are. If you try so hard to translate it, it will turn into a very weird dish name.

Eyew again. ><"

I got the chicken recipe from Puan Hanieliza. There are quite a lot of her recipes that I've tried and it turned out delicious! What I really like about her recipes are that they are so simple and yet the results are WOW! I took most of her recipes from Forum Cari and I've tried them since I finished school. Thank you Puan Hanieliza! You may not know me and we may never met before but ur recipes gave positive impacts in such a tremendous ways and only Allah can repay you :)))

However, I adjusted her chicken recipe a bit just because my little sibling doesn't it veggies. So I have to eliminate the peas.

Here goes, the ingredient:

Skinless chicken (mix with tumeric powder and fry)

To blender:

20 dried chillies (but I'll put more next time because I want it to be more fiery..25-30 perhaps..hehe)

1 onion

3 garlic

Spices:

1 inch of cinnamon stick

1 star anise

1 cardamom

3 cloves

5 tablespoon tomato sauce @ ketchup

5 tablespoon honey

salt

1 c water

Method:

1. Leave about 2/3 cup of oil after frying the chicken and put in spices until it looks drier but careful not to burn them. *You can smell the fragrant smell of spices at this point*

2. Quickly put in blendered ingredients and by using medium heat stir until it is slightly dry and until there's oil popping out of the wok *naik minyak hehe* This particular stage will take about 5 minutes. So please bear with your spatula and keep stirring. You know you should be doing the next step when the strong smell of dried chillies had lessen or better yet, gone.

3. Put in ketchup, honey, salt and water to taste.

4. Let it boil and put in fried chickens.

4. Mix well and it's ready to be served!

Nasi Minyak

4 cups of washed rice ( if you want better result, use Basmathi rice)

4 tablespoon of margarine @ butter @ ghee

spices *same with the above*

1 onion-blendered

3 garlic-blendered

2 tomatoes-blendered

1/2 cup of evaporated milk

salt

optional:

raisins

pandan leaves (I forgot to put both that's why they are in optional section :P)

Method:

1. Using a rice cooker, heat the fat and put in spices. When the smell is up put in onion, garlic and when they turn slightly dry, put in blendered tomatoes,milk, salt and rice. Put in water and mix well.

If you're putting in pandan, put it together with onion and garlic and if you're putting in raisins, put it after the rice.

That's all for one big hearty meal :D

Kuih Raya 1: Millionaire's shortbread

According to Stephanie Jaworski, this shortbread tasted like Cadbury Twix. So, I decided to give it a try and insert it into my kuih raya list *I had 6 kuih raya in my list for this raya btw*. I baked it earlier this month but it finished in less than a week! So now that it is nearing raya I should really start baking what ever kuih raya I planned to bake.

The good thing about making shortbread is that, you just have to bake it in one go and you'll get a jar full of bars. Compared to baking other cookies you have to shape it one by one and u need to put the baking tray in the oven repeatedly to get one jar full of cookies * unless of course your oven is big*.

Ingredients:

For the shortbread:

3/4 cup butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

flour

Preheat your oven at 180 and grease baking pan. Cream the butter and sugar using hand mixer. And put in 1/2 c flour at a time until it becomes crumbly or it forms small balls. Then you press it into a greased baking pan and roll it using small rolling pin or in my case I use an empty jar so that the thickness is even. Lastly, cut it into small squares and prick with fork. (I forgot to cut it before baking it so the result is not as smooth as I want my shortbread to be) Bake it for a good 20 minutes or until it turn slightly brown. Make sure to cool it before starting the next step or the caramel will melt.

This is how the dough should look like after you're done putting in flour. (source: google)

For the caramel:

1/2 c sugar

water

1 tbs butter

1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk *susu pekat manis*

Put the sugar in a pan and put in water just enough to wet the sugar. Don't put too much water or the caramelising process will take a longer time. Just leave the pan over a medium heat and don't stir wait until it turns golden and then you can start stirring to make the colour even and turn off the heat. Quickly, put in butter and keep stirring vigorously at this point, it will be all bubbly and er scary? But fret not, after about 5 seconds, put in the condensed milk *while still stirring vigorously* and it will turn into a very rich golden thick textured caramel. If it's not thick enough, turn on a very low heat and keep stirring. You know it's done when you try to split the caramel you can see the pan longer and the caramel doesn't join quickly. *Err do you get me?*. Then pour it on the shortbread and spread it evenly. At this stage you have to be very quick because the caramel will hardened in just a jiffy!

The chocolate topping:

1 bar of cooking chocolate

2 tbs butter

Using bain marie (double boiler) melt the chocolate and butter. U need butter to hardened the chocolate or else it will not be hardening. And it is a MUST to use good quality chocolate. If the chocolate is not good, then the whole bar will not taste good.

Lastly, cut it into squares and let the topping dry (usually take a the whole day) and then stack em nicely in a jar.

Ribena Lychee

First of all, sorry I had to post this on a fasting day :'( This afternoon I had this sudden crave of having Ribena Lychee. Surprisingly I had only tasted it once at SS2 Murni, Subang and it was few years back. I was not all into this drink at that moment but somehow today I have this irresistible urge to sip it. And it was only 12 noon! ><"

I googled for Ribena Lychee recipe and there they are, all Ribena lychee recipes ready to be tested! And it happens that my Mom got a nice big can of Nikko Lychee in syrup last Wednesday from a very kind neighbour. So, when my mom was about to go out to pick my lil sister * yeah my brother ponteng as usual* I chipped in to buy Ribena!

Unlike other people we don't have Ribena at home. My mom said she heard that Ribena can cause Asthma. But she did grow up with Ribena. In fact she brought Ribena everyday to school! I had this feeling my parents purposely didn't expose us to anything except plain water to save $$$ T_T I grew up thinking only rich people drink Ribena and that thought never did walk away even from the tiniest space of my brain :'(

Since I never bought Ribena I thought the price was RM25.90 per bottle. Apparently it only cost me RM7.90! *evil look to my mom* All of this years I've been restraining myself from Ribena for nothing! T_T

Man that was quite a post on just Ribena! Okay okay I think I should start writing the recipe now.

Ingredient:

One big can of lychee

4-5 scoops Ribena(using a laddle not ice cream scoop ><")

3 cups of cold water

Ice cubes

Method:

In a jug, mix all ingredients except ice cubes. Put ice cubes and scoop 2-3 lychees from the jug into a glass followed by pouring the ribena lychee.

My mom and lil brother and I guess my lil sister too was sooo skeptical about this drink at first. According to mom "Ribena is not for grown ups" My lil bro on the other said "it looks weird" My sister was being skeptical in a very subtle and polite way. She quickly bought Tropical Apple juice when she knew I was making this drink!!! T_T

I had to lie to my lil brother saying the drink was delicious and it may look different a bit *ehem not weird* because it's a 5-star hotel drink that's why. But I forgot that he was 13 already not 3. I got use to lie to him whenever I want to force him to taste whatever I'm making by the way..hehe..

However, just when the clock strikes "time for berbuka" the drink finished just within 5 seconds! I only manage to drink a glass! But my family being as cruel as always they still doesn't want to admit it was delicious!

Butter Prawn @ Shrimp

Firstly, can anyone tell me the difference between shrimp and prawn? Secondly, is it necessary to differentiate between the two? Okay I'm done with Marine Biology questions let's start with today's recipe! This recipe is so simple yet I cannot be making it everyday because it's prawns! (or shrimps!) *do I really need to state both every time I want to say prawn? or shrimp?Urghhh* so the point is, it's pricey :"(

Usually you can find this dish in Chinese restaurants but I seriously prefer it to be home-made. Top three reasons why you have to make it at home are: 1st: because the restaurant version is too sweet. 2nd: there is too much of the flakes that I have to dig really really deep into the plate to search for the prawns @ shrimps *ok I'm doing it again* and the top reason for me to cook it at home is that it is easy peasy!

Ingredients:

-Cooking oil (to fry the prawn @ shrimp *I know u got it alright just state one!prawn @ shrimp!* and about 1/3 c to start making the butter prawn *finally* or shrimp :P

-1.5kg prawns @ shrimps *I still cannot decide whether to settle with prawns or shrimps*

-2tbs butter @ margarine

-2 eggs (lightly beaten so the whites and yolks are incorporated don't over-beat until it produces bubbles)

-1 clove of garlic

-1 onion

-salt and white pepper

optional:

-oats (but this is a must for me) put it after putting the shrimps

-chopped chillies -put it together with garlic and onion

-curry leaves -put it together with garlic and onion

Method:

1. Fry the shrimp until it turns red. This will only take a minute or two. Lift it and remove excessive oil or moisture by putting it into a basket strainer or onto tissue paper.

2. I usually use another 1/3 c oil but if you only cooking about 200g prawns u can just reduce the oil you used earlier. When the oil is hot, put in butter followed by the eggs.

*Now, this can be quite tricky. If you put the eggs too fast, it can turn into omelette instead. So what you're gonna do is hold the bowl approximately at par with your chest level with your left hand. While your right hand will be swirling the oil using spatula *sudip*. Put in the eggs very slowly and make sure it forms thin layer and vigorously stir it so that the eggs will separate and not joined.

3. Then put in garlic and onion followed by salt and pepper. And lastly put in the shrimps. Stir until it's dry but not burned! There you have it! Simple isn't it?

Tips and tricks:

1. Make sure you had really remove excessive moisture from the shrimps before you begin with the second step.

2. Use new oil if the earlier has turned red or else the eggs will not turn crispy.

3. Make sure all ingredients are ready because the process of cooking butter prawn can be very fast that you will have no time to search for other ingredients while stirring it.

That's just about it. So, how about you guys? What did you guys had for Iftar today?

Wondermilk cupcakes

A few years back, during Raya, I went to a friend's house and his mom made cupcakes. Her name is Mak Cik Rusminah. And Mak Cik Rusminah give me the impression that making cupcakes seems very easy and surprisingly very quick too!

I've tried making cupcakes from scratch before but it turned out horrible! It tasted like cardboard and don't start with the texture!It is as hard as a rock, literally! So I decided to give Mak Cik Rusminah's recipe a try. I coupled it with white royal icing and a little pink heart on top. It was so cute! And it was inexplicably delicious! My family said it tasted like Kenny Roger's without the icing<---the icing was my self-created recipe! T_T

From there, I experimented many many recipes that mostly I got from the net and at last I settled with this vanilla cupcake recipe. This one is the easiest to make and I really love the bread-like texture of it. It doesn't crumble and it's not too sweet. I took it from www.cuppacakes.blogspot.com and yes, it's Wondermilk, the infamous local cupcake boutique. It's Wondermilk people!!!Wondermilk!!!

I adjusted the sugar from the original recipe and wallah! here you go:

1 c butter

1/2 c sugar

4 eggs

4 c flour

1 c milk

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven at 190 Celsius

Mix in all ingredient in a bowl using electric mixer. *This is how I usually make my cupcakes and muffins, I don't cream the butter first and do the step by step bla bla bla*

Bake for 5-7 mins *depending on the size of the cupcake*. Poke the cupcakes using a skewer if it went out clean, you're done!

Tips and tricks:

Don't over beat! And don't use this recipe for cake. The density is not suitable for a cake. I usually bake it in mini cups @ bite size.

I never get bad reviews from this recipe plus people love it because it's not too sweet! Therefore they can eat like 10 of the cupcakes in 5 minutes! *talk about exaggeration*

Roti Naan

Roti Naan

Ingredients:

1 packet yeast (11 g)

1 c lukewarm water

2 tbs sugar

4 1/2 c flour

1tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tbs palm oil/olive oil/melted butter

1o tbs natural yogurt (I used nestle's 135g)

Method:

First of all you need to activate the yeast!

1. Mix yeast, water and sugar together and stir until combine. Leave for about 15 minutes

2. You know it's done when it looks like this. If it doesn't, make another one. Make sure the water is lukewarm and not hot. Test by putting some on the back of your hand palm (kura-kura tangan)

Secondly, mixed all the dry ingredients in a bowl. As you can see below, make a hole in the centre and put in all the wet ingredient including the yeast. Knead in until it doesn't stick. Put in more flour if it sticks. Then follow the steps in the picture:

Punch the dough and knead it again. You will get a slightly shinier dough at this point.

Then you want to make small balls about 70 g each out of the dough. You will get about 14 balls.

Using rolling pin, roll it according to how do you want your Naan to be. I prefer it to be thin so I rolled it thinly but my lil brother and lil sister like it thicker so I rolled some very thinly and some slightly thick. (Put some flour on the table and rolling pin before rolling to avoid sticking)

Lastly, preheat the pan, and put the rolled dough on. Air bubbles will form, when this happen, flip the Naan. You know it's done when the whole dough had turned into bread-like texture. If you're still not sure, tear it and if it is still dough-like, continue cooking.

The Naan is absolutely divine. The texture is very soft and you can vary it by putting grated garlic or sliced cheddar cheese in between. I ate mine with Tandoori Chicken!I will post the recipe soon!Happy cooking! :)

This is my story- Wardina Saffiyah

I know this is a food blog but I can't help but to share this video here:



I'm sure it touches your heart as much as it touches mine. The most valuable quote I can grasp throughout this whole video other than the obvious ones which are the unconditional love of a mother and the infinite love of the Almighty, is that WE CAN NEVER JUDGE! In other words, Husnuszon!

The prophet SAW (peace be upon him) had this very clear when he always emphasizes that akhlak (attitude) has bigger role to play in dakwah rather than preaching about ibadah or muamalah. Why? because it's human nature that we are attracted to accept something from someone that will make us feel good rather than accepting things from person who will always make us look bad *even if we are*.

And judging people doesn't comes with certain formalities. So most of the time we usually judge people and not realising we're actually judging them. Err do you get me?

For example we just finished 8 rakaat terawikh and we saw one of our friends is rushing to go back. We then asked the friend "what's with the rush? You should stay and perform the witir as well" But the friend just smile back and said "it's okay" and leave. Deep down you're feeling how sad it is that the friend doesn't want to earn simple pahala like that. But for all you know she was rushing to perform another 12 rakaat at home.

By advising the friend to perform witir doesn't seem judgmental at all at first glance. Isn't it? In fact, it seems like we're gaining so much pahala that night. Not just pahala for terawikh but also pahala for the free advice we had given. Little that we know that we are actually judging the friend. We are actually believing that the friend is plain lazy that a simple witir performance is such a burden for her. And god knows how the friend would be feeling! If she's the kind that doesn't want to show off she'll just smile but if she's too, is being judgmental she will think that her friend is so shallow and proudly tell her that she was going to continue performing terawih at home. So there goes the judging scene that shouldn't even occur among us muslims (Wait, why am I sounding like a judgmental-expert here? or maybe I am! T_T)

And that my friend *HIMYM mode* is just one subtle example and there's a lot more! However there are also a lot of people I know that does not judge even to the obvious! So this kind of people for me is the one we should be looking up upon. Not some random people that happens to seem nice at the outside but when you get to know em a bit more closely u will see that they think they are really good that all they do is finding wrong in others.

I hope you're not misinterpreting what I'm trying to say here. I don't mean that we cannot advice each other to do good but sometimes the way we advise it sounds more judgmental than being a mere good advice. So it will end up, the person who we wish would change to the better after hearing our advice will change to worst! We don't want that do we? :) In this case, I should salute Wardina's mother that wants her child to change but not by cursing or restricting but by doa and be patient. Only Allah can change a people not us. So, say no to being judgmental people!

I myself need to improve on this. So, actually this post goes to me :P

cek mek molek (kuih bajet comel :P)

I just finished making cek mek molek and this would be the 3rd time I'm making it. The first time I made cek mek molek, it didn't turn out well. It was soaked with oil because the dough was very soft. The second time somehow it became too hard because of the excessive flour.

And today, guess hows the result?GREATTT!! So now you may as well use the tricks and tips I gained below after going through two unsatisfying cek mek molek *this is the whole point of having tested recipes anyways ><"*

Ingredients:

2 c mashed sweet potato

1 c flour

sugar (for the filling)

oil (to grease your hand and to fry :P)

Method:

1. Just add flour to the mashed sweet potato and mix well. You know it's done when it can be shaped.

2. It will still be slightly sticky so you need to grease your hand (I use cooking oil but u can also use shortening, mergerine, butter etc)<----this tip was brought to u by Izan's mom *thank you mak cik! :D*

3. Shape the dough into 1 1/2 inches balls and flatten it on your palm.

4. Then add about 1/2 tbs sugar (put according to your liking) on the flatten dough. Meet both ends and it will turn into oblong shape and if it doesn't just make it until it becomes oblong! *sorry I'm a bit bossy there*

5. Heat about 3/4 c oil in the wok and fry until it turns golden brown :)

Tips and tricks:

1. After going through all the recipes on the net, one thing I saw that all the recipes have incommon is that the ratio of mashed sweet potato and flour is 2:1. So for example, if you have 1 cup sweet potato, use 1/2 c flour. I wouldn't recommend you to use more or less because of the above mentioned experiences T_T

2. Grease you hand after you're done with the dough and before you start shaping it. I should say this tip is the most essential of all. Again, I am so thankful to Izan for sharing this tip. Or else I will forever and ever left with "cek mek molek gone wrong" :(

3. Make sure the sugar in the centre is well-covered or else it will leak and burn when u fry the cek mek molek

There you go. Delicious cek mek molek ready to eat! This kuih may look simple I mean you just have to mash the potato-throw in flour-mix,mix,mix-put in sugar-fry. But you will be surprise to know it can sometimes turn out terribly horrible *that's mean* when you don't know for example when to stop kneading, how much sugar should you place on the center. But fret not, these tips and tricks I've given you will sure help you a lot!

How to make buttermilk

Buttermilk according to Wawa is a soured milk which can be achieved by adding acid to the milk :)

The name, buttermilk for me is very deceiving because for all you know, buttermilk does not contain butter at all! Perhaps the name buttermilk derive from the process of making it which is similar to the process of making butter? But butter does not taste sour at all! My first thought when I stumbled upon the word buttermilk was milk candy sort of like toffee T_T

Anyways, buttermilk is very expensive here in Malaysia. But here's a good thing! You can make it by yourself using acid of any kind e.g vinegar, lime juice, lemon juice etc etc and milk. All you need to do is 'peram' the acid of your choice with milk! (what is peram in english? anyone?)

The basic measurement is:

1 tablespoon acid + milk = until it reaches 1 cup, and leave it for 10 minutes at least.

In my case I want to use only 1/4 c of buttermilk. So I put 1/4 tbs vinegar + milk until it reaches 1/4 cup. I whisk it a bit and leave it for about ten minutes.

There are a lot of recipes that calls for buttermilk from the simplest pancake to buttermilk chicken. So now that u know how to make buttermilk, don't be afraid to try those recipes! And one thing for sure, if the recipe calls for buttermilk use buttermilk and don't simply throw in regular milk. Buttermilk will help your food to be more fluffier and lighter :)))

Banana walnut cupcake

I had my first very delicious banana walnut cupcake at my neighbour's party. It was soooo delicious that I put banana walnut cupcake as my #1 favourite cupcake! If you don't like banana walnut cupcake, it's either u had never tasted a delicious one before or u just don't like banana. If the reason is other than stated, pleaseee try this recipe!!!And I got the recipe from the net btw but I forgot which website because I had it long ago. So if u think the recipe belongs to u, thank you kind people!

Ingredients:

1/2 c butter

1/2 c sugar (the recipe calls for more but as usual I lessen it)

2 eggs

1c mashed very very ripe bananas (it's sooo ripe that it will be rotten in a few days)

2 c flour

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 c walnut

Method:

Pour all ingredients except the walnut in a blender @ use mixer and when the batter is slightly incorporated, put in walnuts and beat using spatula. Before that, preheat ur oven at 180 degrees Celsius!

Put a spoonful of batter in a cup (half of this batter will make 16 cupcakes-so if you put two spoons you will get 8 cupcakes) bake for 20-25 minutes until it is brown~

Tips and tricks:

As usual when u make cake, muffins or cupcakes, DON'T OVER BEAT it! If you're making muffins, just pour all ingredient into the mixing bowl and beat it alll at once! but if you're making cake or cupcake, u may want to cream the butter first.

For the walnuts, use it fresh! Don't chop, don't roast and make sure it's not wet!

And this is the most essential part: use pisang emas only!!! *gold banana only :P* if u can't find pisang emas then don't do it yet!

That's all!

Selamat sungkai lovely people! (Happy iftar in Sabah)

This is "pisang emas"

I'm sooo lazy I'm using the blender. Please by all means, use the mixer. This is so not proper T_T

Yup, the baking pan is floating its way to the oven! :P

popiah/spring roll skin

My lil sister Irah still doesn't understand how to make the skin. So I recorded a video just now. I got only two hands *yeah and everyone else got tons ;p*, one holding the camera and the other has to do multiple jobs at once.

Basically, in this video u can see my hand is spreading the very sticky batter on to the pan. Then I covered any holes even the smallest hole. Because u don't want the filling to leak. U know the skin is done when the sides does not stick to the pan ( yeah thats the sound from the tap as I was washing my hands to lift the skin up)

I wish I had Iyah @ Izan here. They are the best! If they were here, they can at least help recording the video or help removing the skin from the pan T_T Miss you two!!

Spring roll/popiah/pai tee (ala naima~)

Mini popiah ;p

I thank you Nadira Naima for today's recipe. If it's not for her, I will never ever try to make spring rolls. Why? because I don't like the spring roll filling. But guess what, Naima gave me the idea of combining spring roll with Pai Tee filling! I've helped people make spring roll few times back when I was in school but the only part I did was fill the skin with the filling and roll. T_T

I usually asked people how to make the skin but to my dissapoinment the answer will always be "beli je". So today, I bravely try to make the skin! My mom said she once made it but it reaped. She gave up and never did make it again.

I guess giving up is never my option when it comes to cooking. I when through failures doing the skin and my sad story is, the batter won't stick to the pan! But after what seems like gazillion times trying, I succeeded! *tears rolling* and to tell you the truth, this is by far the most difficult thing on earth I've ever done (besides from macaroons).

So here's the ingredient for the skin:

1 c flour

1/2 c water

Method:

Mix the ingredient, using your hands, spread the sticky batter on to the greased pan *make sure the pan is not oily!I pour some oil on tissue and wipe it on the pan* You know it's done when the sides has lifted up. This process will take only seconds so make sure you have all the plates, spatula and tissue ready!

Pai Tee filling:

1/2 c shredded carrots

1/2 c shredded jicama (sengkuang)

1/2 c thinly sliced shitake mushroom

2 cloves garlic

1 shallot

1tsp chicken stock

oyter sauce

salt

oil

Method:

Sautee the garlic and shallot when the oil is hot. Next, put in oyster sauce and chicken stock. Then followed by carrots, jicama and mushroom. Taste. If you like white pepper, put some. I don't like the taste of pepper so I neglect it.

When the filling and skin is ready, spoon the filling on to the skin about 1 tsp (I put cheddar cheese in some of em) and fold the side that is near you and fold in the sides of the skin and start rolling until it forms the shape of a cylinder. To finish it, tap some water to 'glue' it so it sticks together when frying. Using hot oil, deep fry it until it turns delicious brown ;p Don't put in oil that is not yet hot or your spring roll will be oily and don't fry too long. It will only take few seconds *or at least I think it is as fast as few seconds hehe*

The result is, I will start eating spring rolls! (I cannot say "I won't be buying it again and will always make it by myself!" since I never bought spring roll except cheese popiah at Nuin. Gosh that one is an exception because it doesn't taste anything like spring roll it tasted like risoles my fav!!)

And to Naima, I think I kind of succeeded the Chicken Rice Shop Pai Tee taste because my lil bro who likes to act all George form Masterchef said, (just after the first bite) "Ni ape ni?Rase mcm Pai Tee kat Chicken Rice Shop" So there you go. My Pai Tee Popiah adventure! ;p

P/s: There is still left over filling so I guess I will be making it again soon.

sweet potato pie (ala wawa~ again :P)

When I was in Bogor, Indonesia, I bought 6 kilos of 'cilembu' sweet potatoes. It is soooo goood and I thought it was going to be finished in a jiffy but man was I wrong! Half of them was gone earlier for cek mek molek and kueh keria I made with Izan, then my mother roast some and made pengat. And today, while I was driving home from picking up my lil siblings, I thought of how pumpkin is similar with sweet potato and I figured maybe sweet potato pie will do as good as pumpkin pie (not that I've ever tasted one before). So I googled the recipe here and there and came out with this recipe:

Ingredients:

Pie crust:

3/4 c all purpose flour

1/2 c butter

1 1/2 tsp salt

Sweet potato filling:

2 c mashed sweet potatoes (about 5 sweet potatoes with the size of apple)

1/2 c butter (giant is having a buttercup and giant brand sale!I bought Giant brand for the 1st time because it is unbelievably cheap!RM2.99 instead of RM3.49!)

1/2 c evaporated milk

2 tbs sugar (depends on the sweetness of your sweet potato the original recipe is 2 c!)

2 whisked eggs

1tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp nutmeg-optional

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes

2. While waiting for the potatoes to soften, mix in the pie crust ingredient in a bowl. Mix until it doesn't stick to the bowl. If it is too dry and it wont stick together, add cold water but if it is too soft it sticks to the bowl, add more flour. Form into a ball-shape, put in plastic bag and refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

3. When the potatoes are soft, remove the skin and mash. (At this point make sure you preheat your oven at 200c, so u dont have to wait ten minutes to preheat afterwards. And you can take out the pie crust to leave it to room temperature) Add butter, mix and then milk, mix and then whisked eggs, vanilla and finally sugar and nutmeg. If it is not sweet enough, add more sugar.

4. If the batter still curdles, put it into a blender and blend until smooth. If you have food processor, just do the whole process using food processor.

5. Roll the pie dough and put into 9 inch pan. Pour the filling on the pie dough and pop into the oven for about 35minutes.

6. You know it's ready when the filling is evolving and the crust turns slightly brown. *Don't the the poking test u do on cakes!*

Btw, I won't be buying agricultural product whenever I'm abroad ever again! because my father said if I was caught I can be fined for RM1000! I seriously don't have any clue about the do's and don'ts of custom and its regulations. Alhamdulillah, nothing happen.*kissing floor*

This is it! When I saw something is growing from it I thought, hey! we can actually plant it! And so I excitedly told my parents but proving how I don't have green fingers, my mom and dad replied "mana boleh!kena ada batas, tanah tak sesuai etc etc" T_T

Making the pie crust

The 9 inches pan ;p

Okay people, don't do this at home! Please roll the dough. I'm an exception because I'm just a lazy bum my rolling pin is just too heavy ;p I pressed the dough using my hand until it looks pleasing like this..hehehe..

If u notice, when it is cold, the filling deflated a bit leaving it flat and not as volcano-ic as before.

So, there you go..happy fasting lovely people!