Chicken Pongteh

I came across the word "Pongteh" through Masterchef Amita in cow's tongue challenge. I didn't watch the episode but my mum, she just loves to update me on what ever happens in Masterchef. Nowadays she will update me on Ustaz Don. T_T

This is Amita! credit to Kak Mimi

Credit to Kak Erna

Pongteh requires Tau Cheo and Chinese Mushrooms (Dried Shitake Mushrooms). This would be my first time handling such ingredients. The seller even gave my mom tips on how to soak the mushrooms: put some sugar.

Chef Wan's look more tempting

I followed Chef Wan's recipe but I didn't have patience to wait until it simmers (20-25 minutes) and I think the taste is already good at that point..hehe..I will definitely be making this again! 

Caramel Ganache

meet the blue container again ><"

The cupcake recipe is not from the book. Only the Ganache is from the book.

I'm heading back to school this evening :"( Only two months to go until the finishing line. I hope everything will run smoothly. Yup, RUN! *I just can't wait to finish school* But at the same time I wanted to savour each and every moment before we were all going apart succumbing to working life and marriage and kids and and T_T

I am trapped in a serious love hate relationship here am I?

By the way, I found this very beautiful piece in the Quran just now and I just can't help but to share it with you guys. This is a lil something I got from The Twins of Faith last year specifically from Wardina.She said every time she finds an Ayah that intrigues her, she will jolt it down and try to memorise it. Great tip!

Vanilla Cupcake

I loveee making recipes that requires oil rather than butter but texture-wise, I prefer using butter. Butter will result in more denser texture and buttery taste *of course la*. But this kind of thing really depends on each and every individual taste. Take my mom, she loves the moistness of the cupcake so much, she ate 5!

I took the recipe here

Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

Recipe by Glorious Treats 

Yields- 15-16 cupcakes

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup oil (vegetable, canola or extra light olive oil)

1/2 cup buttermilk

(or 1/2 cup milk plus 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice- add acid to the milk then set aside for 5 minutes before using)

Directions-

* Preheat oven to 350*F.

* In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir together with whisk, and set aside.

* In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds.  Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds.  Add vanilla and oil, beat.

* Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture.  Add half of the milk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk.  Beat until just combined.  Scrap down the side of the bowl.  

* The batter will be thin.   Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with paper liners.  Fill liners about 2/3 full. 

* Bake cupcakes in pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes. 

* Cool in pan 1-2 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan (carefully) and finish cooling on a wire rack.

* Frost as desired when fully cool.

* Feel free to use this recipe for a cake as well.  The recipe above will work for a 6" cake.  Double the recipe for an 8" or 9" cake.

* A note about Cake Flour-  Cake Flour has a lower protein content than traditional all-purpose flour, which results in a more tender, delicate crumb in the finished product.  If you can not find or access cake flour, feel free to substitute as necessary, but your results will vary from the original recipe.  

I frost them with the leftover strawberry buttercream.

 By the way, my mom bought a new container at Yummie Bake, Bangi for RM21.90. The cupcakes looks more appealing in such space don't you think so?

 It's very spacious and it'll be very easy to keep cakes too :)

Leftover Manhattan Fish Market

I think Giant Fried Platter for 2 can actually be eaten by 4! Usually we go for Grilled Gala Platter but because of the promotion my mom and I settled for the former.

And guess what happens after that? "adik boleh tolong bungkuskan tak?" 

Somehow I glad we did that! Look what I had for lunch today:

The fried seabass *or is it snapper?* goes really well with bread, greens and generous amount of mayonnaise but I don't think I'll ever eat this with chilli sauce again.

Oh, and a plate of rice afterwards. Come on, we're talking lunch here!

Wordless Wednesday

The unplanned plan

Case 1: My cousin has been craving for pavlova and asked me to do it for her when she came over.
Case 2: My mom and lil siblings were craving for dessert but I've been sooo lazy since I came back home for the semester break. We went to Secret Recipe later in the evening but my lil brother didn't tag along and asked us to buy him chocolate lava from Domino's instead. Unfortunately we were just too lazy to drop by Domino's afterwards. *this has been a lazy week I tell ya*

So what I did was making up everything last weekend. The cousin came and the brother helped. Everyone lives happily ever after ><"

Recipe here

This would be my first time making Molten Chocolate Lava @ Chocolate Fondant what ever u call it and I used Gordon Ramsay's recipe.

The first try doesn't come out the way it should because I over baked it

Ingredients:

• 50 g melted butter , for brushing
• cocoa powder , for dusting
• 200 g dark chocolate , best quality you can get, chopped into small pieces
• 200 g butter , chopped into small pieces
• 200 g golden caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 200 g plain flour

Directions:

1. Using upward strokes, heavily brush the melted butter all over the inside of nine 150 ml pudding moulds. Place them into the fridge or freezer. Once they are chilled, brush more melted butter over the chilled butter, then add a good spoonful of cocoa powder into the mould. Tip the mould so the powder completely coats the butter. Tap any excess cocoa out, and then repeat with all of the moulds.
2. Place a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, and then slowly melt the chocolate and butter together. Remove bowl from heat and stir until smooth. Leave to cool for about ten minutes.
3. In another bowl whisk the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale and the whisk leaves a trail. Sift the flour into the eggs, and then beat together.
4. Pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture in thirds, beating well between each addition until all the chocolate is added and the mixture is completely combined to a loose cake batter.
5. Tip the fondant into a jug, then evenly divide between the moulds. These can now be frozen for up to a month and cooked from frozen. If not freezing, chill for a minimum of 20 minutes or up to 24 hours.
6. Heat the oven to 200/180/Gas 6.
7. Place the fondants on a baking tray then cook for 10-12 minutes until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of their moulds. Remove from the oven, and then let them sit for 1 minute before turning out.
8. Loosen the fondants by moving the tops very gently so they come away from the sides, easing them out of the moulds. Tip each one slightly onto your hand so you know that it has come away, then tip back into the mould, put a plate on top and turn it over.
9. Serve with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

I don't have ramekins so I used cups instead-a real "cupcake" huh

Kimbap ala Asyrani~

I am so blessed with many friends who knows how to cook and were never stingy with their recipes and tips. Everytime meeting these friends, unplanned dish will be made. Recently, Asyrani and me were talking about kimbap and I told her how I was sooooo excited about making one by myself after making it with Izan. I even bought a nice kimbap mat and seaweed right after Izan left. Sadly, those things sat nice and pretty on the shelf, untouched. Lol!

Good thing Asyrani came! We spontaneously made one while waiting for the choc cheese to be ready. As I told u, my friends are very good cook, Asyrani taught me how to make the egg nicely. One thing about Asyrani is that she just cannot make anything without perfection! She also told me a secret ingredient - adding mayonnaise.

And on that day itself we found out that the seaweed I bought is super delicious. All the flavors in the kimbap just pops out! The rice tasted great with the seasoned seaweed. Now I know that in order to make good kimbap u need really good seaweed!

Here's how Asyrani made the egg stripes:

Just pour half of the whisk eggs (she uses 2 eggs)

start rolling it

Put aside and add the remaining egg

start rolling it again

there u have it, one nice egg roll :)

cut it in four I guess

Then the stripes will be thick

 We were only left with 3 kimbaps after we're done because we kept eating it right after it is chopped!Haha!

Kimbap ala Asyrani:

Seasoned rice
Seasoned seaweed
Egg stripes
Lettuce
Mayonnaise

The only disadvantage of using this delicious seaweed is that it is very chewy *is it the correct term?* that it is very hard to cut and it doesn't stick well *as u can see above*

Strawberry Swiss Meringue Butter Cream vs Buttercream

My no 1 rule in making frosting is never ever ever follow the rule!Why? Because everyone's taste is different. Some like it sooo sweet some doesn't. For instance, for my cream cheese frosting, I've never put more than 1/4 cup of icing sugar even if the recipe calls for 2 cups! However, it will turn out to be very cheesy and some just cannot tolerate that. In short, frosting should be made according to ur taste.

 So, recently I made swiss meringue buttercream (smb) and the usual buttercream. I learnt SMB technique from Wendy's blog and u can see the review in my previous post. For the recipe and technique I really think u should refer to Wendy's blog. Mine will be at the bottom but is very cincai. :(

Now, the difference *according to my point of view*  between smb and buttercream.

As u can see, I use fresh strawberries for both buttercreams. What u need to do is just mashed it and insert it into the buttercream in replacing the vanilla extract. I used only 1 teaspoon and the result was as follows:

Smb still maintains the taste of fresh strawberries while buttercream tasted more buttery and only a very slight taste of strawberry is left.Unlike smb, strawberry here is more of a strawberry-milkshake taste rather than the fresh strawberry taste.

Smb holds the rose shape really well while buttercream easily melts so only the first rose (on the top) was rather nice-looking while the rest started to melt. Maybe it's my hand that is too warm but smb despite by it's silky smooth texture doesn't easily melt *using the same warm hand*

This is how I made the smb btw:

1 egg white
3 tbs sugar
1/3 pack of unsalted butter-cut into small squares
1 tsp strawberry puree

1. Heat the egg white and sugar until sugar dissolves while whisking. I think the heat was very high at the moment I was whisking the egg, some of it cooked! But I just continued
2. I quickly put it inside the mixing bowl and beat it using hand mixer until stiff peak forms.
3. Touch the mixing bowl to test whether is has cooled or not. In this case, I only use one egg so by the time the stiff peak forms, it has cooled off.
4. Put the butter one at a time while beating. This can take quite a few minutes until u get the result as the picture above.
5. This recipe yields 5 cupackes only.

The birthday project

 

I've seen lots of beautiful cupcake bouquets on the net and I was inspired to make one too. But one thing about bouquet is u can never make one for yourself. It's like buying yourself a bouquet of red roses. No offense but who on earth does that? 

 

 So, recently on 1st April, I thought of making one for a friend who shared the same birth date as mine.

I made Devil's Food Cake for the cupcake. I found the recipe on the net and the recipe requires mayonnaise. It was so peculiar that I just have to give it a try! I was contemplating a very moist, sinful and rich devil's food cake just as it always turn out using my mom recipe but this one doesn't reach the dfc standard. Therefore, I don't feel like sharing the recipe here.

 However, the frosting was amazing! I got the recipe from our 1st Blogger Masterchef, Wendy. You should really check out her post on this because I just couldn't agree more with her. Swiss Meringue Buttercream is soooo good. The texture is silky smooth and it holds up the rose shape very well. In my case, I made strawberry SMB. and guess what? no food colouring needed, no food extract needed and the best part is, the out come is soo good u can actually taste the fresh strawberry even with only 1 tsp of pureed strawberry! I can guarantee this because I also made the usual strawberry buttercream just to see the difference.*I'll post more on this in a new post* Thank you Wendy for the recipe. Wendy's post was made way back in 2010 btw..hehe..

Cupcake bouquet ready to go~

Nigella's Chocolate Cheesecake

I had a friend over the weekend who came to learn how to make cheesecake. I have always been making caramel cheesecake so recently I thought about making other cheesecake. I googled and I was tempted by Nigella's Chocolate Cheesecake. There are lots of good review regarding this recipe so i gave it a try together with my friend.

The chocolate was sooo rich that I felt in love with it instantly! But I have to admit, it will somehow disappoint cheesecake fanatics out there because the cheese doesn't shine. Sorry! We were left with less than quarter of the whole cake and we kept it in the fridge. The next day, the taste was heavenly! It was a real exclusive chocolate taste and the mousse-like texture is to die for!I am so gonna make it again especially for my big sis who really cannot tolerate the taste of dairy products but a sucker for chocolate.

After the refrigerating it overnight

I altered the recipe a bit because I wanted to show my friend the technique on how to make your own sour cream and a fluffy cheesecake rather than a very dense one. *Maybe that's why the cheese-taste does not pop out* Sorry, Nigella! The next time I'm making it, I will surely follow your recipe exactly!

there's water inside so the base was soaked but not to worry, it turned out fine

P/s: What I really love about this recipe is that it doesn't require blind bake! 

Ingredients

FOR THE BASE

• 125g digestive biscuits
• 60g butter
• 1 tablespoon cocoa

FOR THE FILLING

• 175g dark chocolate, chopped small
• 500g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon
• Bird's custard powder
• 3 large eggs
• 3 large egg yolks
• 150ml sour cream (or just use a 142ml pot)
• 1/2 teaspoon cocoa, dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water

FOR THE GLAZE (OPTIONAL)

• 75g dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 125ml double cream
• 1 teaspoon golden syrup

Method

Serves: Makes 10-12 slices

1. To make the base, process the biscuits to make rough crumbs and then add the butter and cocoa.
2. Process again until it makes damp,clumping crumbs and then tip them into a 23cm springform tin. Press the biscuit crumbs into the bottom of the tin to make an even base and put into the freezer while you make the filling.
3. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180ºC. Put a kettle on to boil. Melt the chocolate either in a microwave or double boiler, and set aside to cool slightly.
4. Beat the cream cheese to soften it, and then add the sugar and custard powder, beating again to combine. Beat in the whole eggs and then the yolks, and the sour cream. Finally add the cocoa dissolved in hot water and the melted chocolate, and mix to a smooth batter.
5. Take the springform tin out of the freezer and line the outside of the tin with a good layer of clingfilm, and then another layer of strong foil over that. This will protect it from the water bath.
6. Sit the springform tin in a roasting pan and pour in the cheesecake filling. Fill the roasting pan with just-boiled water to come about halfway up the cake tin, and bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour. The top of the cheesecake should be set, but the underneath should still have a wobble to it.
7. Peel away the foil and clingfilm wrapping and sit the cheesecake in its tin on a rack to cool. Put in the fridge once it's no longer hot, and leave to set, covered with clingfilm, overnight. Let it lose its chill before unspringing the cheesecake to serve.
8. To make the chocolate glaze, very gently melt the chopped chocolate, cream and syrup. When the chocolate has nearly melted, take off the heat and whisk it to a smooth sauce. Let it cool a little, and then Jackson Pollock it over the chocolate cheesecake on its serving plate. Use the remaining glaze as an accompanying sauce.