Fried Fish Paste You Tiao

This is what happen when a craving strike! I really like the one that stuffed with sotong paste like commonly served in M'sia. But since I don't normally buy squids and also I think it's healthier with fish paste, I tried it out with the ready made fish paste. I seasoned the fish paste with sesame oil, white & black peppers and chopped scallion. Stuffed it in the you tiao and spread some sesame seeds on top and deep-fried until cooked.

Oh, do forgive my clumsy job with the mayonnaise! It's not supposed to be like this, supposed to be thin strips over and across the you tiao and made it really pretty. Little did I know that my mayo cap is the wide type and can't really do any pattern on it. Thus, look so ugly! LOL! My failed attempt on presentation. :P

When I tried it, only then I knew it's the wrong Mayo! Did they use the Japanese mayo in M'sia? Because it's certainly not the American mayo. The mayo served supposed to be on the sweet side and really compliment the fried you tiao well. Not the American mayo though, it just didn't suit and I resorted to eat it with the Thai sweet chili sauce instead. I was thinking either the Japanese mayo or they added honey or other stuff in the mayo. Anyone care to enlighten me?

It turned out crispy and good but it can be better with perhaps ground pork + shrimp paste. Fish paste is not as sweet in my opinion.

Here's to my last post of 2007. Tomorrow will be a new year to look forward to.

May the New Year brings us much joy, health and wealth!!

A Moment Captured!

I was busy preparing dinner and Edda came looking for me. She wanted me to carry her but I told her, mommy cannot carry you now because she needs to cook dinner, why don't you go where your daddy is. And when I turned around and I saw the scene below. I though what a moment and quickly grabbed my camera and took a few shots.

How sweet right?

I am really amaze at how much she understood me. Even though she only know how to say mama, papa, paopao (carry) and make the sound of lion roar, sometimes dog and cat but she can really understand me very well. Whatever I told her to do, she will do it for me. For example, when we were at my friend's A house, I was telling her Edda seem to understand what I said and to illustrate, I took out a jar and a cup from the playset and asked Edda to pour me some water (this was at 13 months). She would take the jar and pretend to pour the water in the cup and set the jar down. Then I told her to bring the cup for me and she did just that. How impressive was that for a 13 months old to do? My friend A said Edda is the most advance toddler she had ever seen, because not only she understood, she acted upon it with precision. I was like really, that's good to know. I was complaining that she hardly say much and then someone said the 2nd one would speak later because the 1st one tends to speak it on her behalf and thus making her least likely to talk. It does make sense or because this mommy didn't read for the 2nd one, that's why! *blush*

Edda, look here! As for daddy, need to censor a little bit....LOL!

Vertical Chicken Roaster

I wanted to show Beachlover my stand rack for roasting chicken. I bought this ages ago, probably with me for 10 years already and I have been using it to roast my chicken. So, not sure whether you can find this in the market these days because the one I have seen on the market now is the one Beachlover's got for herself.

With this, I have to use my own Pyrex pie plate, covered with foil for catching drips and easy cleaning. I also spray my rack before placing the chicken in for ease of cleaning too. I use my convection oven to roast my chicken and each time the skin of the chicken is crispy which my hubs loved. Since the chicken is standing up so the skin is crispy all over and making the chicken really tasty.

So, arm with this great tips, go buy a stand rack if you happen to see it. :)

Almond Mixed Fruit Scones

I made some cream scones again. I have a little of the heavy cream left and I wanted to use it before it expired. I remember this cream scones recipe is very easy and yummy, no beater needed, just a fork/spoon to mix the dry ingredients and lastly pour in the heavy cream (or use a food processor). Form a dough, cut and bake, very easy.



I added raisins and candied pineapples in my almond scones this time. Oh mine, this scones are just so delicious, so good when it was still warm and also very good when it's cold or days later (if it can last that long). I offered my hubby a piece when it was still warm, he refused to eat it. I was like this is a very tasty stuff, still he shakes his head, oh well more for me and the kids then. Guess what, he came home today and decided to try one, less than 3 minutes later he came out from the studies and took the whole container (only 2 left), I had to yell at him, you got to save one for me ya, don't finish all! LOL! It is that good, can even convert my hubby!

Pumpkin Cake

I happen to try some delicious store-bought pumpkin cakes at my friend's house recently which prompted me to make one myself. Since now is the season for pumpkin, the Libby's 15oz canned pumpkin is on-sales for $1 each. So, I grabbed some. After some research, I decided to try the Pumpkin Cake I posted at allrecipes.com.



The alternation that I made was I cut down the sugar to 2 cups. It turned out just nice for me, not overly sweet. I omitted the allspice because I don't have any and I also omitted the walnuts, easier for the kids to eat.


This cake is delicious, best eaten the next day when the crust has soften, easier to slice too. I store my cake in air-tight container.


Just want to show how moist and soft this pumpkin cake is! The spices are not too overpowering, just nice. A very festive cake indeed!


Lastly, while presenting you with this Pumpkin Cake, I want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year! For those who don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays to you too! :)

Nasi Lemak II

Nasi lemak again but this time I wanted to try the Chan Hong sambal ikan bilis that I bought earlier. I read so much great review on this that I just got to buy one bottle and try. And the reviews never failed, this is indeed good and way too convenient. I just pour it in the microwave safe bowl and microwaved for a minute and served with my ever easy nasi lemak side dishes. I sprayed my ikan bilis with canola oil spray and microwaved for 2 minutes, learned that from Lily. I toasted my peanuts in my toasted oven for 8 minutes, cut out my English cucumber (long seedless cucumber) and boiled eggs to serve. Easy!



This is the picture of the bottle. This product is one of the best sellers at mytasteofasia.com so grab some to try. This is not a sponsor post okay, I just want to introduce or recommend a product that I have tested and loved it to my readers. I think this is best for someone who doesn't know how to cook sambal ikan bilis or doesn't have time to cook. Or someone like me who is just curious and wanted to try something new or maybe lazy too lah. :P Oh BTW, new products are in stock now. Even has belachan powder!

This sambal tasted like the Malay nasi lemak bungkus with banana leaf sambal at mamak stalls. Medium spicy.

Christmas Cookies

Butter cookies

Made some cookies as a gift and these were some of them. You can use a basic butter cookie dough , add peanut butter chips for color effect. And below, I added green coloring and pure peppermint extract for the season. As for me I used my melting moment recipe, added more flour and make it into a crispy cookies. All with the feel by hands, so don't ask me for recipe ya. But you can certainly experiment with it. I did this few years back with the same recipe and I played around with it and created 5 different cookies.

Only when I wanted to make Christmas cookies did I realize that I don't even have a Christmas tree, snowflake and ginger breadman cookie cutters! Guess now I will have to look for those to buy when it's on sales or cheap to keep for next year! I really thought I have this common cookie cutters! *Duh right?*

Peppermint Cookies

Orange Mixed Berries Pistachio Biscotti

I love my biscotti flavored with orange zest or lemon zest. It seem to bring out the flavor more and make it really tasty. You can eat it just like that because it's so flavorful.



Ingredients:

(A)
1/2 cup canola oil
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. orange essence
1/4 cup fresh orange juice (omit this to yield harder biscotti)
Zest of one orange

(B)
4 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup mixed berries
1/2 cup pistachio, coarsely chopped

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375'F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Beat (A). Add (B). Stir and knead until it formed a dough.
3. Divide dough in half and roll each roll into the length of the cookie sheet. Then move each roll to the cookie sheet and press down to 1/2 inch thickness.
4. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove to cool, then cut into slices with a serrated knife. Place the cut side up and bake for additional 5 minutes. Flip it over and bake the other side for 5 minutes. Remove and cool on wire rack.

My Thought:
I substituted the butter with oil to make it healtier. This biscotti turned out to be flavorful because of the orange zest and juice. It's not the very hard type that needs to be dunk in coffee (if not you will break your teeth type). I was actually surprised that my hubby loved it and he finished most of the biscotti.

Winter Wonderland

It has been snowing again. It snowed the past Saturday and today and it is freezing cold. Currently at -8'C (but feel like -12'C) and tonight low is -13'C and tomorrow high is only going to reach 1'C. V, if you are reading this, the weather in Singapore is so much nicer compared to this cold. Enjoy the hot weather there as you would probably home to snow and COLD! I am not sure who wants to go out in this kind of weather unless has to.



Look at the accumulation on my deck! But this is nothing compared to foots of snow we got last year. I took these pictures on my sliding door as I would not want to step outside in this cold. Just want to share with those in Asia what it is like here where I live. It spelled C.O.L.D! *shivering*

Btw, winter solstice festival or tang yuen festival falls on Dec. 22nd. Let's make some tang yuen on this day, it's a fun time letting your little one plays with the dough too. Evy has been asking me to make tang yuen, but this lazy mommy told her, wait until winter solstice day first since mommy is lazy. :P

Apple Crumble Pie

Frankly we were not an Apple Pie fan. Not even the Bakery's apple pie can convinced us otherwise. And then we were introduced to Apple crumble pie ages ago while having dinner at an American couple's house and thought that hey it was actually not bad at all. Perhaps it was the crispy top? Or the spices she used in her apple pie filling? Not sure...but her apple crumble pie just tasted great. So, I was more open-minded from then on.



I went online and came across this recipe at Allrecipes.com and decided to give it a try. I totally loved it and have been making this pie ever since. Years went by and I am glad that the recipe is still there and gaining popularity.



This time, I also added some oats, raisins and chocolate chips in my crumble topping just for some variation. Serve with a scoop of your favorite ice-cream or a dollop of whipped cream and here's a slice of your pie! Oh yeah, this pie tastes better the next day. Looking at the picture, I need to go get myself a slice again. LOL! The top stayed crispy for days, just don't cover it with anything. I keep mine uncovered in the oven.

My First Bento

Just sharing a bento I made recently. This was for myself as Evy doesn't eat much and her share couldn't fill the bento. LOL! Got this Hello Kitty box at Dollar Tree for $1, what a steal right?



I made rice mold for Evy too in her dinner plate and she totally loved it as well. She said, I want the carrot for the eyes too. LOL! Next time might have to use black sesame seeds cause the toasted sesame seeds didn't stand out.

Sweet Potato Pie

I finally made my sweet potato pie today, ahem... 4 days after Thanksgiving. LOL! Why? Because I already bought the sweet potato and every time I opened the refrigerator, it has been screaming at me to bake it. Oh well, it is the season for pie so let's have some pies before I have no mood to bake pie anymore. Therefore, I will have another one of my favorite pies coming up. But have to wait until we finish this pie first, got to do it one at a time.

I made everything from scratch, even the crust. Home made crust is so much better than the frozen pie crust, so even as lazy as I am, I just have to make my own pie crust. I guess a bonus now is I own a food processor, so it's way easier to make the crust, just let the food processor does its' job. While the pie dough resting in the refrigerator, I will prepare the sweet potato pie filling.

This is my favorite recipe that I have been using for years. It has never failed me and I totally loved it. I got the recipe from Allrecipe.com so click here for the recipe. Oh, I added 1 Tbsp. of cornstarch into the filling to thicken it more. Serve with whipped cream on the side. Little Edda totally loved it and always requested two pieces for herself!