Onde Onde

Very often we neglect the basic/easy to prepare stuffs, the difficulty is to get the it done in the proper way….look at this onde onde, it seems very simple to make but a lot a lot of techniques & skills is needed to prepare it.

Ingredients
200g glutinous rice flour
150g yellow sweet potatoes-u can choose different colors but your onde won’t look classic/authentic lor…(skinned & steamed for 10-15mis until soft)
2 tablespoon of pandan juice-freshly squeeze… (If u lazy can use ARTIFICAL one)
Water –agak agak lor….
120g of gula melaka (crushed or sliced thinly)
½ grated coconut-add a little bit of salt & steam for approx 5-10mins

Methods
Finely mash the sweet potatoes then mix with the glutinous rice flour & pandan juice
Add in the water slowly (if needed), knead into smooth dough
Divide into small portion each and wrap with the gula melaka & shape into small balls
Put in the onde onde in a pot of boiling water and wait until it floats up

Dish out and coat with the steamed grated coconut

Cosmo Noodle House

Thumbs up for this restaurant cause it is the only restaurant in Melaka so far for serving fusion cum authentic food. They have wide varieties of Thai-(which is my favourite) Vietnamese, Chinese & many many more. Thank god, it is also a restaurant which the food taste is competent with the design-a lot of restaurants nowadays can only provide satisfaction to our eyes not our taste buds. The design of the restaurant is very retro….most of walls is painted with pink color….. I personally quite like the design here, everything is very clear cut and straight to the point.




Well, about the food…. They really put effort on it and also the food presentation. Here some of the food that we tried…. Surprisingly the price here is quite reasonable too…..u know lar… mlk food cannot charge too high if not ‘dan chap lap’

Fried special noodles-from china (forget the noodles name liao) with thai sauce-very fusion taste

My thai/viet style noodle soup

Spicy porkie ball salad~yum yum

Noodle with taiwan sausage spicy salad
Lastly, our drink grass jelly & watermeton freeze (if i'm not forgotten)
Overall, i really like the food here. Been here numerous time cause they serve my favourite THAI food.... and also don't forget to visit the washroom when you're there... he he he....

Fruity Truity Jelly

Due to low mood these days... i've make something simple & easy and it help to cheer a bit

Ingredients are pretty simple>kiwi fruit, pineapple, strawberries, lychee, sea coconut, coconut juice, sugar, water, jelly powder & pandan leaves.

Methods>Add in the sugar, pandan leaves & jelly powder in boiling water till the jelly powder fully dilluted. Pour on the mould with the fruits and chilled in fridge for 1-2hours before serving

Dancing with the jelly

The leftover i mixed it with mango/orange yogurt drink

X'mas Specials # Carrot Cake

This is my second attempt on cake…. It’s still something wrong but the taste is good & it's healthy



Ingredients
(A)
150g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
120ml corn oil

(B) Sifted
200g of wholemeal flour
1&1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1&1/2 teaspoon of baking soda/bicarbonate soda
1 teaspoon of mixed spice

(C)
300g of grated carrots
Grated zest of 1 orange
150g raisins & sultanas (optional)

(D)
Juice of ½ orange
1 tablespoon of soft brown sugar

Methods
Whisk (A) for 2-3 mins until the sugar has dissolved
Add in (B) & (C) and mix till well combined
Pour into a greased baking tin & bake in preheated oven @150`C for 1&1/2 hour until cooked and golden brown
While it is still hot, prick holes all over the cake with a skewer and sprinkle (D) over the cake, leave it to cool

X'mas Specials # Curry Chic & Corn Custard Bunz

It looks complicated but not really complicated, the recipe might require longer to prepare but it’s really fun, I enjoyed the whole process









Curry Chicken Fillings
(a)
150-200g of chicken meat, cut into small cubes, dash of pepper, 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1tablespoon of curry powder & ½ tablespoon of corn flour
(b)
100g of potatoes & 50g of sweet potatoes
(c)
2 tablespoon of curry powder, 1 big onion-chopped, 3 cloves of garlics-chopped, handful of curry leaves, ½ tablespoon of chill paste or chili powder (optional) & adequate amount of cooking oil

Seasonings
Fish sauce, salt, brown sugar & msg to taste

Methods
Marinade ingredient (a) for at least ½ an hour
Peel ingredients (b) and steam for 10mins or until soft, cut into small cubes
Heat up the oil, sauté big onion until golden brown and add in the chili paste/chili powder, continue to sauté until fragrant
Add in the marinated chicken & curry leaves-continue to stir fry (add some water if too dry)
Add in ingredients (b) & curry powder followed by seasonings, set aside

Corn Custard Filling
For the corn custard filling pls refer to the ‘tang yuan’ recipe on the previous post. If the custard is too dry add some more corn-creamed to make it more moist






Ingredients for the bunz dough
400g high protein flour, 100g low protein flour, 1 teaspoon of bread improver, 10g milk powder, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of instant yeast, 100g of castor sugar, 1 egg, 200-250ml of water & 75g of butter

Methods
Mix all the ingredients except butter into smooth dough
Add in the butter and continue to knead until the dough turns very smooth and can be stretched into thin layer
Cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise until it doubles up
Punch down and continue to knead again until smooth
Divide into desired portions and shape into balls
Cover with damp cloth for another 15-20mins before adding the fillings

Methods
Roll the dough into thin sheet, wrap up 1-2 tablespoon filling and shape into bunz
Glaze with beaten eggs (1 egg & ½ teaspoon of salt-lightly beaten)
Leave it to rise until it doubles up
Bake in preheated oven @180`C about 15-20mins or until golden brown

X'mas Special # Lemon Cheeze Cookies

Don’t know why, I’ve develop a great interest in pastry recently and I get so excited whenever I visited a pastry shop or bakery. It makes me very happy to see those ‘magic’ artwork created the bakers. To fulfill my never ending anxiety… I’ve develop a great interest in baking to see whether me, myself can create those ‘magic’ too......






Ingredients
(A)
120g butter
120g cream cheese
180g soft brown sugar
(B)
1 egg
1 teaspoon of freshly grated lemon rind
2 teaspoon of lemon juice
(C)-shifted
300g multi purpose flour
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
½ teaspoon of salt
(D)
150g of almonds-chopped coarsely

Methods
Cream (A) until fluffy.
Add in (B) and beat till well combined
Add in (C) & (D) until well mixed
Divide the mixture and shape into small ball
Arrange them on a greased tray and use a fork to press lightly
Bake in preheated oven @ 150`C for about 25-30mins till lightly brown
Leave it to cool before storing

X'mas Specials # ‘Sunken’ fruit cake

The main reason why I gave the name to the cake is because the name tells everything, this is my first ever baked cake… so u know why the fruits sunk …..But it turns out quite nice eventhough it’s not perfect….

Ingredients
1 packet of mixed fruits skin-approx 200g, 150g of raisins, 50g of chopped red & green cherries.
150 of margarine, 100gof castor sugar, 50g of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence, 5 eggs-separate the yolk & white, 200g of multi purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder

Methods
Beat the margarine, castor & brown sugar, vanilla essence until fluffy
Add in the egg yolk one by one and beat it until even
Add in the multi purpose flour & baking powder-stir evenly
Add in the mixed fruits skin, cherries & raisins-stir evenly & set aside
Beat the egg white until fluffy & add into the mixture slowly
Pour into a greased baking tin & steam for 1&1/2 hour under high heat

After asking around, I was told that the fruits must be mix with some flour or marinate with lemon juice before adding into the mixture in order for the fruits not to be sink....

X'mas Specials # Tang Yuan

Well well well, it’s the end of the year and Christmas is approaching but at the same time it’s the winter celebration for Chinese. Eating ‘tang yuan’ or dumpling is a tradition that symbols we’re goin to one year older liao he~he~he….but at the same time it also reminds us that the new year is approaching and it’s time for new year resolution....

Actually I’ve been preparing the recipe since early November just in time to be publish in the blog…u why la huh?

Rather than the usual dumpling that we used to eat, as usual I’ve tried something with a twist… (aiya… no much different)




Dumpling Dough
Ingredients
200g of glutinous rice flour, 50g shortening (optional), 120-150ml of water

Methods
Mix the glutinous rice flour with shortening & add water, knead the dough until soft
Take ¼ of dough and blanch it in boiling water
Use the cooked dough and mix with the rest of the dough, knead until it smooth & not sticky, then make into balls (size follow your preference)

Custard Filling
1egg, 100g of caster sugar, 60ml of milk, 20g of plain flour, 20g of corn flour, 20g of custard powder, 30ml of thick coconut milk, 25g of butter/margarine, 2 tablespoon of corn creamed-available in can

Methods
Mix all the ingredients above and steam for 30mins under medium heat
Let it cool down & knead the custard for a while
Shape into tiny balls-smaller than the dough balls
Combine both of ‘it’ together into ball shape & cook the dumplings in a pot of boiling water until ‘it’ floats up (that’s mean it’s cooked already)

Red Bean Soup
Ingredients
Red beans 150g, 1-2pcs of dried tangerine skin, 3 pandan leaves-knotted, juice from 1orange, rock sugar to taste and 1 liter of water

Methods
Bring the water to boil & add in the red beans, dried tangerine skin & pandan leaves
Cover & let boil under low heat for 45mins until the red beans soften
Place the mixture into a blender & blend until smooth paste (remove the pandan leaves & tangerine skin before blending) place in the pot again & add another 300-500ml of water
Stir evenly & bring to boil in low heat
Add in the rest of ingredients& simmer in low heat for another 5-10mins
Serve together with the dumplings

Ah Bein

Many many thanks to ah yan for bringing back such a wonderful present from Taiwan…. Through the recipe book I‘ve learned a lot of new things, very basic & simple…. These are some of the simple snack~~more to come





Ingredients for stuffing
Cabbage 300g (finely chopped), minced pork 300g, green onions 50-100g (finely chopped), ginger 15g (finely chopped) 5 garlics (finely chopped) & 1 tablespoon of corn flour

Seasonings
1 teaspoon of five spice powder, 1/2 tablespoon of white pepper, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, msg, sugar, salt, soy sauce & oyster sauce to taste

Blanch the cabbage & soak in cold water to cool down (strained)
Add in the minced pork, green onions, garlics, ginger, cabbage & seasonings-mixed until sticky form

Ingredients for dough (A)
Multi purpose flour 300g, 1 tablespoon of oil, hot boiling water 150ml & cold water 50 ml

Methods
Sift the flour with ingredients A except cold water, whisk slowly & set aside for 5mins or until the mixture cools down a bit
Pour the cold water & knead into smooth dough, cover with wet cloth for 30mins
Divide into approx 20g for each small ball & roll it into thin round shape
Wrap the stuffing into the dough & place up side down
Flatten the top side of bein to make it thinner & easier to cook
Fry both sides of the bein until both sides turned golden brown with a little oil (preferably non stick pan) under low heat

The extra portion of the stuffing can mix with egg & pan fried in low heat