Our Dinner - Steamed Fish with pickle ginger

Today i'm in the mood for something simple...Steamed Fish came to mind... its a great choice coz my hubby and son love steamed fish...I got this recipe from my mother in law its really good and you should try.
What you need:-
1 medium sized Baramundi fish - cleaned and soaked with tamarind water to get rid of the mud taste.
1/2c of sauce for steamed fish - you can buy this from the supermarket or any oriental shop
2tbs sliced pickled ginger
several slices of fresh ginger
1/2 large chili - sliced thinly
1/2 bombay onion - sliced
2tsp chopped garlic
1tbs frying oil
How you do it:-

1. heat oil and saute garlic until slightly browned then add the onion, gingers and chili
2. stir fry until fragrant
3. add in the steam fish sauce, stir then remove from heat.
4. place the fish on a plate, pour in the sauce the steam for 15-20 minutes or until fish is done.
5. ready to serve...you may garnish it with coriander leaves

my other side dish would be stir fried long bean with sweet soy sauce, omelete with carrots and shrimp bits, and stir fry spinach with salted fish bits.

p/s: sorry for the unattractive pictures ^_^

Toffee Apple Candy Treat

This is definitely a yummy treat. And kids would love to get involve into making these, its easy enough but please do take extra caution when making this with your kids as the Toffee is HOT! oh, you can dunk dipped apples into your favourite goodies such as chocolate chips, crisped rice cereal, and almond nibs...yummy yumm yumm...For this recipe, i suppose it'll be better if you use miniature apples such as maclntosh coz personally, i think if you use the regular apples (which often is large size) it'll take the fun (eating) away besides it'll be very sweet. I think i've seen those (malcntosh apples) in Bangsar Village centre but i didn't use that just a regular petite apples i got from Pasar Malam.

What you Need:-

A dozen of miniature apples
A dozen of Popsicle sticks or chopsticks (i use fruit sticks- works just fine)
2c sugar
1/2c golden corn syrup
1/4c water
1/2c unsalted butter
2tsp vanilla essence
some of your fave goodies!

How you do it:

1. prepare the apples by washing and drying. stick the popsicle sticks into end of apples and place on parchment lined baking tray
2. bring sugar and corn syrup and water to boil in a heavy bottomed saucepan.
3. cook without stirring, brushing sides of the pot often with water until sugar is a light caramel color.
4. remove from heat and whisk in butter until blended.
5. stir in vanilla.
6. while toffee is warm, dip apples, swirling and swishing to coat. then you could dip it into your fave goodies if you like.
7. place apple back on to the parchment to cool.
8. if toffee become to firm to dip, no worries just reheat it over low heat stirring gently.
9. store apples in a cool dry place. serve with maple walnut Ice cream.

when making these i did have some leftovers of the toffee, so i just dunk in rosted almonds to make candied almonds.

Marinara Fettucinie with Lobster - My Saturday Lunch

I woke up late coz i had a very late night watching my long due DVDs. So when i woke up that morning i felt like having something much more filling then my usual breakfast, so i decided to have brunch instead and before i knew it i've already started cooking my pasta and making the Marinara sauce. This is how i like to take my seafood with my pasta, with the richness of the tomato sweet sour flavor and the fragrant bay leaves and italian herbs oh yeah i do add a couple of table spoon of chilli sauce to add some 'zing' in it..(yeah we asian cannot run far from spiciness) just describing this makes my mouth waters *yumm* i just love this dish even if you go any italian restaurant and got your eyes crossed looking that their menus you can never go wrong with Seafood Marinara Pasta/fettucini, i know coz this is the only thing i'll order if i can't decide...

anyway...this is the recipe: (for 2 person)

what you need:-

2clove garlic - chopped
1 bombay onion - diced
1 large tomato - diced
1/2 can tomato puree
2tbs chilli sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
a dash of sugar
1 bay leaf
a dash of italian herbs
squid - cleaned and cut
prawns- clean devained
any white meat fish fillet - clean and cut to chunks (i use lemon sole fillet)
1 Lobster - cleaned and cut into half
1/2c water

How you do it:-

1. saute garlic and onions until fragrant
2. add in the tomato, bay leaf and italian herbs - stir for a while
3. add in all the seafood except the lobster - stir until seafood is almost cooked
   
4. add in the tomato puree, chili sauce and lobster stock- stir
   
5. add in salt, pepper and sugar - simmer until the sauce is slightly thickens. - ready to serve

To Prepare the lobster:

1. Clean lobster, put it in a deep stewing pot.
2. add in the 1/2c of water
3. if you like you can add in a dash of salt
4. close the lid, cook for a good 20 minutes of until done.
5. when done cut lobster to half then topped it on the fettuccine, dress it! and serve

I prepare it this way because i don't want to complicate it so much as it may loose its marvelous taste (its naturally sweet and tender flavor) so i keep it simple.
Beautifully cooked Lobster...look at the tender juicy lobster meat...yumm!

Egg benedict - Breakfast face lift ^_^

yup just like the title suggested...egg Benedict is our breakfast for today...i called it breakfast face lift coz its actually the same usual breakfast for us and i just dress it to make it more interesting and fool my husband and kids into thinking that they're eating something different :D

all you need:
1 egg
1 remekin or any oven proof bowl - grease it well
1slice of bread - buttered
a dash of white pepper and salt to taste
optional ingredients: grated cheddar cheese, finely chopped spring onions, finely chopped beef bacon
how to:

1. place the buttered bread into the remikins (the bread should follow the remikin's mold)
   
2. break egg into the bread then sprinkle a dash of pepper n salt to taste
   
3. optional: you can sprinkle/garnish the egg with cheese or other optional ingredients
4. bake for 5-10 minutes or until the egg is done at 180c

Lazy Day - Nasi Lemak

yeah my cucumber is missing..

Today its a very very lazy day for me...so i was only thinking to clear my fridge. when i went thru my fridge Nasi Lemak came across my mind...so i check if i have coconut milk and yes i do have some left...immediately i whipped out the Nasi Lemak very very early in the morning (just after dawn to be exact) in my mind it'll be my breakfast and my lunch *grins* boy am i lazy or what?

anyway when i'm done about 90% then i realised that i'm lacking 1 ingredient...which is the cucumber. being lazy...i didn't even budge to go to the market to buy some heheh...besides my hubby is not remotely a vegetarian...i mean he didn't eat his veges*sigh* yeah i know like a small kid...but thats him! how in the world can you teach your child to eat vege when you yourself don't eat veges??? now thats a million dollar question!

if any of you are wondering what is a Nasi Lemak, direct translation: Fatty Rice but a less harsh meaning is err...creamy Rice..? The name is derived from the cooking process whereby rice is soaked in rich coconut milk and then steamed with Pandan/Screwpine leaves and ginger to make the rice be more fracrance.Traditionally, this comes as a platter with cucumber slices, small dried anchovies, roasted peanuts, stir fry convolvulus (kangkung), hard boil egg or fried egg, and hot and spicy sambal. Nasi lemak can also come with any other accompaniments such as fried chicken, sambal cuttlefish, sambal cockle, beef rendang (beef stewed in coconut milk and spices) or fried beef lungs (paru). yeaa writing this make my mouth waters :D

This Nasi Lemak is a Malaysian most popular dish that is usually serve as breakfast. however nowadays we eat it at anytime we please you can even get it in the middle of the night at the Kopitiam (old school coffee shop, nothing like starbucks) how great is that??

Now the Recipe..

What you need:

• For Rice:-
• 2 c of rice
• 1 c coconut milk and 1c water
  
• 1pc of screwpine leave tie into a knot
• 3 slice of ginger
• a pinch of salt
• For the Sambal (Spicy sauce):-
• 6tbs blended dried chili (you can find this at any oriental store)
  
• 4 clove shallots- blended
• 2 clove garlic -blended
• 1 bombay onion -sliced
• some dried anchovies -wash to prevent it to be too salty(you can find this at any oriental store)
• 1tbs tamarind juice
• salt and sugar to taste
  
• Other ingredients:-
• Fried dried anchovies.
• Hard boil eggs or fried eggs
• cucumber slices
• chicken: marinate it with salt, 1tsp tumeric powder and 1tsp curry powder
  

How you do it:

1. Add all rice ingredients and cook in a rice cooker.
2. For the Sambal:
3. Saute sliced onions til fragrant then add in the all blended ingredients. cook in a medium heat for at least 5 minutes or so
4. Then add in tamarind juice, the dried anchovies.
5. Add in salt and sugar. continue cooking until it thickens.
6. then remove from fire. ready to serve.
7. just a tip...i usually add in a tablespoon of coconut milk in the sambal sauce towards the end of the cooking, but this is optional.
   

Brownie in a cup

What you need:

(A)

125g chocolate chips

125g butter

(B)

2eggs

300g castor sugar

1tsp vanilla essence

(C)

115g flour

This is how you do it:

1. pre heat oven160c. line baking cases in a muffin tin
2. melt ingredient (A) using double boiler. then set a side and let it cool
3. beat ingredient (B) until thick and pale.
4. Add (A) into (B) then fold in ingredient (C) gently until well mix.
5. BAke for 25minutes. let it cool then decorate.

this cupcake brownies is good on its own…you can serve it warm (i personally like it warm and eat it with ice cream)

Hantaran Cake & Wedding Cakes

its been a busy week so far... i've made two 2.5kg fondant cake for Wedding hantaran. one of them is bringing the cake to Perak tomorrow for her Akad Nikah ceremony. At first she wanted buttered cake but its not suitable since she's travelling by car to her home town, she then insist coz she said that fondant cake will be to sweet for her liking. After much consideration and persuasion she then reluctantly agreed to the fondant cake. she wanted a modern design rather then the typical 'malay' degisn that habe ribbons or table cloth etc...(i personally hate that design too)

So i decided to make a cake that inspired by an English Hat...with autumn flowers orange-brown tones. i told her about the idea and she liked it...When its done, she was so suprised to see the cake and she thought that its more beautiful than she imagined...honestly i wasn't really that satisfied but i supposed its ok considering that she ordered last minute (i was given only 2 days)...

and these are other wedding cakes using butter cream...what did i tell you a busy busy week!