Salted Pepper Fried Shrimp

This is a popular restaurant dish in Malaysia. The succulent salted and peppered shrimp is lightly coated with rice flour and cornstarch with its shell and head intact and then pan fried with oil or butter. The rice flour and cornstarch give a flavorful crunch to the sweet and succulent shrimp.

Ingredients :

1 pound of medium size shrimp - with or without head but with shell and tail intact.
2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of black pepper
1 tsp of Szechuan peppercorn – crush finely
1 tsp of sugar
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 green onions – finely sliced
3 tbsp of rice flour
3 tbsp of cornstarch
2 tbsp of butter
2 tbsp of vegetable oil

1. Clean shrimp thoroughly. Pat the shrimp dry and season it with 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper. Set it aside.
2. In a big bowl combined rice flour, cornstarch, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of pepper and 1 tsp of sugar. Mix well.
3. Toss the shrimp lightly in the flour mixture.
4. Heat up a frying pan to medium heat. Add in 2 tbsp of butter and oil. When the butter melt toss in the shrimp and let the shrimp pan fried until pink and lightly brown on both side. Stir-in the chopped garlic and give the shrimp a few more toss until it is cooked. Toss in the Szechuan peppercorn.
5. Add in the green onions, dish out out and serve immediately.

Gong Xi Fatt Chai

To family, friends and my blog readers,

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year. May the year of Ox brings all of you good health, happiness, wealth, peace and joy!

Here are some of the cookies I baked for this festive season. Two types of Pineapple Tarts, Almond London.

Almond Cookies, Green pea cookies and Kuih Bangkit.
I will feature some of the cookies recipe later.

Mandarin Orange Chiffon Cake

This is one of the most requested cake from my family. Actually this is the 1st cake I baked since I came back to Malaysia. Chinese New Year is just around the corner so there are plenty of mandarin orange around so I used it for this cake. You can always change it to orange or lemon juice for this cake.

Ingredients :

1 3/4 Self Rising Flour
1/8 tsp of salt

(B)
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar
3/4 cup Mandarin orange (tangerin) juice/orange juice
zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup of vegetable oil

(C)
3/4 cup of sugar
6 egg white
1 tsp of cream of tartar

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degree F. Sieve all the (A) ingredient in a mixing bowl until well combined.
2. Mix ingredient (B) until well blended and then add in ingredient (A) and mix until smooth. Set it aside.
3. Beat ingredient (C) in mixer on high speed until stiff peak. It should not fall out when you turn the mixing bowl over. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolks mixture and continue to do so until egg whites is finish. Remember to fold in gently until well mixed.
4. Pour batter into ungreased 10" tube pan and bake for an hour or used a bamboo skewer to test the cake. Just insert the skewer into the center of the cake and it should comes out clean.
5. Invert cake and let it cool complete in the pan. When is cool, loosen the edge of the pan and remove cake.

Cashew Nuts Cookies

I am already back in KL for over a week. What have I been doing? Eat, eat and eat. I have been spoiled rotten by my families. Anyway, I managed to bake a few types of cookies with my nieces for CNY. Here is one of them.

Ingredients :

210g butter
100g powder sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
250g plain flour
60g corn flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
200g ground cashew nuts
1 egg (beaten for eggwash)
some exra cashew nuts for decoration

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degree F. Sift all the dry ingredients and set aside.
2. Cream butter with powder sugar until light. Add in egg yolk and vanilla essence. Mix well.
3. Stir in the dry ingredients and ground cashew nuts. Mix well. Chill dough in fridge for 40 minutes.
4. Shape the dough into small balls or roll it out and cut into desire shapes. Arrange on a lined baking tray. Brush with beaten egg and place half cashew nut on top of cookies and press slightly to flatten it.
5. Bake for 15 minutes or until it is nicely brown. Cool and keep in airtight container.

Spicy String Beans with Shrimps

Hi, I am back to blogging! Sorry for not updating for some time. I just got over the jetlag and now life is pretty much back to normal here in KL . I will try to put up some posting of the food I cook, bake and eat soon.

I've made this simple stir-fry dish with homemade sambal . I will always make a big jar of sambal and freeze it up. It will be really handy when I wanted to cook a quick stir-fry, curry or a simple fry noodles or rice. I made this for Diana and myself just before we left for our vacations.

Ingredients :

1 pound of string beans
1/2 pound of shrimps - clean and peel.
3 tbsp of sambal/chili paste
1 small onion - cut small
1 tsp of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

1) Wash and remove both ends of the string. Leave it whole or cut into 2" lenght. 2) Heat up some oil in the frying pan, add in onions and stir-fry for a minute. Add in the sambal and continue to stir-fry until fragrant.
3) Add in shrimp, stir-fry for a minute and add in the string beans. Drizzle in about 1/4 cup of water and stir fry until the beans are cooked.
4) Add in sugar, check sesoning. Once the beans is done dish out and sever with warm rice.

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

I bake this coffee cake for Carlos so he can have it for his breakfast while I am away. This coffee cake is buttery, cinnamon-y, tender, moist and smell heavenly when you bite into it. The best part of the cake is the cinnamon-y streusel inside and the crunchy streusel on top. It’s great with a cup of or coffee or tea.

Ingredients :

3/4 cup (1 1/2 stick) of butter
1 cup of sugar
2 1/2 cup of flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup of sour cream
4 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla

Seafood Tarts

I love making tarts. Its can be sweet tarts that glazed with cream, custard and colorful fruits or savory tarts. For savory tarts you can fill it up with just about anything. It can asparagus and peas in spring, to tomatoes and zucchini in summer, to pumpkin, leeks and potatoes in fall and in winter with shrimp, salmon, bacon and even scallops. Some of them are custardy, like a quiche and others are simple fillings held together with a bit of cheese or egg mixture.

I did these seafood tarts for our Christmas brunch. You can always used store bought short crust pastry if you don’t feel like doing it from scratch.

Pastry for the tarts:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 sticks or 3/4 cup (12 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 tsp of salt
6 tbsp ice water (more or less)

1. Pulse in a food processor the flour, butter, and salt just until the mixture resembles a coarse meal with some small (pea-size) butter lumps.
2. Drizzle 5 tbsp ice water evenly over the mixture. Pulse until incorporated. Squeeze a small handful of the dough, if it doesn’t hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 tbsp at a time, pulsing until combined. Do not overwork the dough, or the crust will be tough.
3. Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Gather the all dough together then divide it in half. Flatten each half into a disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.

Ingredients for the filling :

2 cup of cooked shrimp – roughly chopped
1/2 cup of artificial crabstick – roughly chopped
1 stalk of celery – cut into tiny cubes
3 spring onions - finely chopped
1 egg
1/2 cup of low fat cream cheese
1/2 cup of light mayonnaise
1 tsp of chili powder
1/2 tsp of sugar
2 tbsp of lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a mixing bowl mix all the filling ingredients together until well combined. Set it aside.
2. Roll about the dough to about 1/8” and line the pastry into little tart moulds.
3. Fill it up with the filling and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree F for half an hour or until the crust is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I'll Be Away!

I will be taking a short vacation back in Malaysia. This trip is more of spending time and Chinese New Year with my family and friends which I didn’t get to do so when I went home in 2006. During this trip I hope to meet up with some Malaysian bloggers. If any of you who are interested to meet up maybe you can e.mail me your phone number and I will get in touch with you once I am in KL. My e.mail address is at my profile.

I will try to update my blog from Malaysia, if I am able to get internet access but in the meantime I already schedule some posting while I am away. I might be late in replying to your comment but rest assure I will try to get to it as soon as I can. Also I might not be able to visit your blog as often while I am away so I hope you don’t mind. In the meantime do continue to visit as I will try to update about my trip home from back home. Take care, everyone. See you KL !!

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake Bars

I will be away for a few weeks so I am trying to clear up most of my perishable stuff in my fridge these past weeks. I still have 2 block of the low fat cream cheese in there and decided to make this luscious, smooth and creamy Strawberry Cheesecake.

Ingredients :

1 ¼ cups graham crumbs
¼ cup butter, melted
2 packet (8 oz each) I used low fat cream cheese, softened at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp flour
3 tbsp of lemon juice
2 eggs
1/3 cup strawberry jam

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF. Grease and line an 8” x 8” square baking with parchment paper with leaving an overhang on both side (for easy removing you slices later)
2. Mix crumbs and butter together and press firmly into bottom of the pan. Set it aside.
3. Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour and lemon juice in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition, just until blended. Pour over crust.
4. Heat up strawberry jam slightly in the microwave. Gently drop jam by small spoonfuls over top of batter. Cut through batter several times with knife for marble effect.
5. Bake 40 min. or until centre is set. Cool. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight before cutting it.

Fried Chicken Drumsticks

I have been craving for some fried chicken for the past few days and finally made some yesterday. Carlos is not a fan of deep fried food but he went for seconds after he took the first bite of it. The chicken drumstick is perfectly seasoned, crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside.

Ingredients:

8 chicken drumsticks

Seasoning

1 tsp of salt
½ tsp of black pepper
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp of chili powder
1 tsp of brown sugar

Flour Mixture

1 cup of flour
4 tbsp of cornstarch
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of pepper
1 tsp of paprika
1 tsp of chili powder

1. Wash, clean, removes skin and fat from chicken drumsticks. Give the drumstick a few cuts with a knife.
2. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and place it in a large bowl. Add all the seasoning and mix well. Let it marinate overnight or for at least 4 hours.
3. Mix all the flour mixture ingredients together. Mix well and set it aside.
4. In a frying pan, put in some vegetable oil and bring it up to medium heat.
5. Lightly coat the drumstick with the seasoned flour, shake off the excess flour. Fry the drumstick, turning it often so that it cooks evenly and doesn’t get brown too fast.
6. Cook until drumstick it’s done and golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve warm or at room temperature.

Steamed Tofu with Minced Meat and Mushroom

I cooked this tofu dish for our quick lunch before taking Diana to the aiport. I used silky tofu and the topping is just some miced chicken, mushroom and carrots. A simple dish yet delicious!

Ingredients :

1 piece of silky tofu
3 oz of ground chicken meat
10 white button mushroom - sliced thinly
1 small carrots - cut into small cubes
2 spring onions - cut small
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp of soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup of chicken stock + 1 tsp of cornstarch
salt and pepper to taste

Marinate for chicken

1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of soy sauce

1. Marinate the meat and set aside for 15 minutes.
2. In a steamer, steam the tofu for about 5 minutes. Remove the excess water and set aside.
3. Heat up the oil in a pan. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant. Add the meat and carrots and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add in mushroom, stir fry for a minute, add sugar, soy sauce and pepper and immediately stir in the chicken stock. Bring it up to a boil and cook until sauce thicken. Check seasoning.
5. Pour the sauce over the tofu and garnish with spring onions and serve warm.

I am submitting this dish for Weekend Wokking . This month’s star ingredient is mushrooms and is hosted by Marija of Palachinka .

Mix Fruits with Grass Jelly

Let start off the New Year with something simple and sweet. Even though the weather is cold we still like to have something icy cold after dinner. I made this with Diana using the little ice-shaving machine. It was really hard to shave the ice with that little machine and we finally gave up and just put some ice cubes in the dessert. This type of dessert is something my family likes to prepare for family gatherings. For Chinese New Year we always add in some glutinous rice balls to it.

Ingredients :

1 can of black grass jelly - cut into little cubes
1/2 can of lychee
1/2 can of longan
1/2 can of sea coconut
some fresh strawberries - cut small
some fresh kiwis - cut small
juice of 2 lemon
some syrup from the lychee and logan
(amount of syrup depend on the sweetness you want you like)
Some ice cubes or shave ice

Mix all the above ingredients together in a big mixing bowl and serve cold.


Note : You can get the can lychee, logan, grass jelly and sea coconut from the Asian Store.