Yam Buns

I have some yams in my fridge since last week given by my sis-in-law. Typical me, I get worried if my fridge is too full. Fortunately things went smoothly in the office today so I could leave office on time. Once reached home, I started dumping all the ingredients into the breadmaker & let it does its work. In the meantime I prepared the yam filling which did not take long time to prepare as I had them peeled & cubed yesterday.

(Makes 20 buns)

INGREDIENTS:

1 portion bread dough. See recipe here.

YAM FILLING:

500g Yam

100g Sugar

100g Oil

1 tsp Yam flavour or purple color

1. Steam yam until soft & mash it with sugar.

Mix in Yam Emulco & oil.

Stir on fire until well mixed & smooth.

Cool.

2. Wrap filling & shape as you like.

Bake 180C for 15-20 minutes until brown.

Award from CheMat & CT Delima

Che Mat & CT Delima ni memang kreatif and most of all baik-hati, warm and friendly too. Thank-you sebab sudi kasi award ni pada Along and I appreciate our friendship very much. Mmmmmuah & hug2 (untuk CT jer ler... hehe)!!

Pandan Chicken

Screwpine tree in my garden... Pandan Chicken is marinated chicken wrapped in Screwpine (Pandan) leaves & deep fried. I made mine slightly different than the usual Pandan Chicken as I used woven Pandan leaf to wrap the chicken. This will ensure that the marinate sauce will not escape so much into the oil when deep frying & thus will produce more tasty chicken.

Recipe by: Roz@HomeKreation

INGREDIENTS:
8 pieces small Chicken parts
3 Garlic*
1 inch Ginger*
1 tsp Black Pepper Corns* (* pounded)
2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
2 tbsp Black Soya Sauce
1 tsp Honey


METHOD:
1. Marinate chicken with all the ingredients for 10-15 minutes.
Wrap with Pandan leaves.
Deep fry until cooked.

2. Serve with white rice or by itself.

Fried Bitter Gourd Leaves with Belachan

I always like to try something new that I have not accustomed to before. Bitter Gourd leaves is commonly sold in the Market in Sarawak but not in my hometown in West Malaysia. Surprisingly it is not bitter unlike the fruits and I like it very much.

The typical way of cooking this by the locals is fry it with Belachan and you may add other vegetables like Young Corns, Fungus, etc. For recipe refer here but replace the vegetables with Bitter Gourd leaves.

Here is how the fresh Bitter Gourd leaves look like.... Dinner tonite is Kampung Food theme with the following dishes: Pandan Chicken, grilled Stingray, Dabai & Banana Heart....

Banana Heart from my garden....

Pengat Durian & Roti Jala

It is a Durian season but the price is 10x more expensive than in the West Malaysia. A kg of Durian is sold in a range of RM10-15 and if unlucky you ended up paying for the skin only as difficut to get fresh ones in Miri. However I am lucky as my colleague owns a Durian farm somewhere 100km from Miri. Today he delivered a basket of Durians to my house and I only paid RM100 for 18 Durians...very cheap and his Durians are Grade A - sweet & creamy. Apart from eating raw, the first thing crossed my mind was of course Pengat Durian & Roti Jala which I've been craving for long time! Here is how the two kinds are served together.... Here is how I cook my Roti Jala.... The last time I made Pengat Durian & Roti Jala was long time ago demonstrating to some friends who wanted to learn making Roti Jala. However at that time I did not measure the ingredients and just by "agak-agak" (feel & estimate). Today, I measured all the ingredients so that I could post the recipe for friends and readers.

Here is Roti Jala recipe the way I always made mine:

(Makes 32 pieces)
INGREDIENTS:
250g Flour
1 Egg - beaten slightly
75ml Canned Coconut Milk
450ml Water
1 tbsp Sugar
½ tsp Salt
1 tbsp Pandan Paste

METHOD:
1. Mix all ingredients until smooth.

2. Use Roti Jala mould to net it on a girdle.
(Adjust the water if necessary, i.e. if too thick it will drip and if too thin the net will be coarse)
Once cooked, lift onto a plate & roll/fold.

3. Serve with sweet durian gravy or savoury curry.

To make PENGAT DURIAN:
Place durian, coconut milk, palm sugar, a pinch of salt & Screwpine leaf in a pot.
Cook until boiled.

Pure Mango Juice

Spoil yourself with this cool and refreshing pure mango juice. Just blend mango & ice and ready....! If your mangoes are not sweet enough, you may want to add sugar but mine was perfect without it!

Sambal Pomfret

INGREDIENTS:
1 Pomfret
½ tsp Turmeric powder
4 tbsp Cooking Oil
½ bowl Chilli paste
5-6 Shallots*
1cm Belachan* (*blend/pound together)
1 tsp Tamarind + a bit of water
1 Large Onion - sliced into rings
Salt & sugar to taste
A pinch of MSG (optional)

METHOD:
1. Spread fish with a bit of salt & turmeric powder.
Deep fry until cooked. Lift into a plate.

2. Heat cooking oil in a wok & fry onion rings until brown.
Dish up.

3. With the remaining oil, frychilli paste & pounded shallots until fragrant.
Add in tamarind juice.
Stir fry until fragrant and dry.
Add in large onion ring & pour onto fried fish.

4. Serve with white rice.

Kuih Bakar Jagung (Corn Kueh)

This kuih just came out from the oven and still hot. Let's wait for it to cool tomorrow morning to see how the inside looks like.

Here it comes..... I have some fresh corns from my husband's kampung and my third son suggested for this kuih which I made before. The original recipe is Kuih Bakar Pandan by Joayee from MR but I modified for corn flavour.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Sugar
2 cup Flour
2 cup Fresh Corn Kernels
2¼ cup Coconut Milk
1 cup Water
2 tbsp Butter
3 Eggs
½ tsp Salt
Sesame seeds for sprinkle
Yellow coloring

METHOD:
1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor & blend until well mixed.

2. Pour 1 tbsp oil into a baking tin & heat in oven for 2-3 minutes.
Pour mixture into tin.
Bake 180C for an hour or until cooked.

3. Cool completely before slicing.

Cheese Brownie

There were some leftover ingredients from our baking event the other day so I thought it will be nice to bake something for the ladies who worked hard in my house. So I tried this recipe from Yochana yesterday. It tastes good but the cheese layer is a bit too sweet for me & will reduce the sugar amount next time. I like the brownie layer which is very rich, dark & moist. My kids love it and ask me to make this again.

(Make 1 loaf size)
INGREDIENTS:

180g Butter - melted

275g Brown Sugar

3 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

120 g Self-raising Flour

70 g Cocoa Powder

CHEESE LAYER:

250 g Cream Cheese

45 g Butter

80 g Icing Sugar

1 egg

Some chocolate chips to sprinkle on top

METHOD:

1. Mix melted butter with brown sugar until well combined.

Add in eggs, one at at ime, mixing well after each addition.

Stir in vanilla essence.

Gently fold in flour and cocoa powder and stir till smooth.

2. For cheese layer:

Beat cream cheese, butter and icing sugar until well combined.

Add in egg, beating well.

3. Pour half of brownie batter into loaf pan, then pour in cheese mixture.

Then pour the balance brownie batter on top of cheese layer.

Sprinkle top with chocolate chips.

4. Bake in preheated oven 170C for 1 hour or until cooked.

Sambal Goreng Jering

This smelly fruit if cooked properly will taste like boiled nut with creamy sensation.... dare to try? haha! I am serious, it really tastes like nuts!

INGREDIENTS:
Some matured Jering
2 Red Chillies
2 tbsp Chilli paste
Few Chilli Padi
2-3 Shallots
1cm Belachan
Some Ikan Bilis
Salt & Sugar

METHOD:
1. Peel & boil Jering until tender.
You need to boil it for an hour or more until it become tender.
Change the boiled water few times to get rid of the stinky smell.
Cool & slice.

2. Pound/blend the rest of the ingredients.
Heat up some oil & fry pounded ingredients & Jering until fragrant.

3. Dish up & serve with white rice along other dishes.

Smoked Lumek Fish

Smoked Lumek Fish is another common Sarawak product. I just love the taste and crispiness of it. You can eat it right away or deep fry for short while, like the photo above, to enjoy it hot with white rice. The photo below is the one still in the pack.

Pumpkin / Pumpkin Leaves Masak Lemak

I was thinking about this dish and it was just like a dream comes true when my SIL brought me a pumpkin from her kampung and I found pumpkin leaves sold in the open market on the same day.

This is how pumpkin leaves look like. This much cost RM2.

I must be crazy about pumpkin that I cooked two pumking dishes on the same day. This is just simple fried vegetable with shrimp:
Here is how I cooked my Pumpkin Masak Lemak:

INGREDIENTS:
½ small Young Pumpkin - skinned, diced & steamed
Young Pumpkin Leaves
5-10 Chilli Padi
3 Shallots
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
½ pot Coconut Milk
Salt & MSG

METHOD:
1. Place all ingredients, except pumpkin & leaves, in a pot.
Boil & add in pumpkin & leaves.

2. Serve with white rice.

Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

This lovely moist spongy cheesecake recipe is from MyResipi by Alma. I made it many times before and made it for charity sale recently. The original recipe is plain color but I marbled it with chocolate mixture.

INGREDIENTS:
250g Cream Cheese
50g Butter
100ml Fresh Milk
6 Egg Yolk
1 tbsp Lemon Juice (I skipped becoz I don't like lemon smell)
¼ tsp Salt
60g Superfine Flour
20g Cornflour
140g Sugar
6 Egg White
¼ tsp Cream of Tartar

METHOD:
1. Double boil cream cheese, butter & milk.
Stir until smooth.
Once cooled, mix in flour, cornflour, egg yolk, salt, lemon juice.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk egg white with Cream of Tartar until foamy.
Add in sugar gradually & whisk until stiff.
Add in the first mixture.

3. Pour mixture into a lined 8" diameter tin.
For marble effect take a bowl of mixture & add 2 tbsp cocoa powder.
Pour chocolate mixture alternately with the plain mixture & marble it.
Bake with water bath 160C for an hour.
(I baked mine in microwave oven using cake function).

Sweet Buns

This recipe produced very soft buns and you can put any sweet filling and shape it as you like either plain round buns or creative looking as above. The first photo above was made using recipe from Myresipi by Diana and the the second photo was using Mat Gebu's recipe. We made this recently for charity sale.

Here is the one made recently using the second recipe:

Make 20 buns
INGREDIENTS:
400g High Protein Flour
100g Superfine Flour
100g Castor Sugar
5g Salt
20g Milk Powder
¼ tsp Bread Improver
11g Instant Yeast
1 Egg
250ml Water
40g Shortening

METHOD:
1. Place all ingredients in bread machine except shortening.
After the ingredients are mixed, add in shortening & let it process until the dough is ready.

2. If you don't have bread machine, place all ingredients (except shortening) in a bowl and mix well.
Add in shortening and knead until smooth & let it proof until double in volume (about 45 minutes).
Punch down the dough & knead for a while.

3. Divide dough into 20 small balls.
Put red bean filling & shape as you like.
Rest for 30-45 minutes.
Glaze with egg wash (1 egg + a bit of milk & beat slightly).
Bake at 180C for 20 minutes.

Friendship Gift from Nur

Beautiful phrase and gift from Nur... Maceh Nur sebab ingat kat Along & anggap Along sebagai kawan. Along pun sangat menghargai persahabatan kita.... Semoga kita dapat bersua suatu hari nanti.... Mmmmmuuuuaahhhh! Kiss & hug10x untuk sahabat istimewa ku Nur...!

Hadiah ni Along nak kongsi untuk teman2 Along yang singgah kat umah Along ni.... Amik tau, jangan tak amik.... Semoga our frienship berkekalan....

Charity Bake Sale

On Wednesday 16th October, a group of ladies gathered at my house to bake some cakes and buns to be sold in the following day. The activity is supported by the company by allowing us a day off from office. The profit will be donated to NASOM (National Autism Society of Malaysia).

Here is photo of the hardworking ladies with one of the completed cakes:
The final product..... recipe was posted earlier here.
Meachelle & Liz proudly showing off their first cake of the day. This is their first time experience in making cake and it turned up perfectly.... hehe of course the "Cikgu" (me lah...) feels proud of her sudent...hehehe This is how the final product looks like.... For recipe, refer to my earlier posting here.

The ladies shaping the sweet buns into caterpillar shape.....
The finished products:
We made 60 buns on the day and all packed and ready for sale:

Another product of the day:
At the end we managed to make 9 cakes and 60 buns. A real hard work but the ladies had fun time learning something and most of all feel good that we have contributed something noble. The cakes and buns were all sold out in short period....

HomeKreation Mango Cheesecake

I created the cheesecake filling recipe to serve for our small Hari Raya open house recently. We just returned from kampung with a bag of very sweet mango given by my husband's relatives. Coincidentally, I had a packet of cream cheese and also a packet of cream. I wanted the cheesecake to be rich with mango taste but couldn't find any cheesecake recipe that used pureed mango. Confidently, I created my own recipe based on my own imagination and appetite. The result is awesome...!!

Many of the guests asked for the recipe and here it is:

Made one 9" diameter
CRUST:
110g Butter
2 tbs Brown Sugar
200g Digestive Biscuits - crushed
50g Cornflakes - crushed coarsely
- Melt butter with brown sugar.
- Mix in rest of ingredients.
- Press into the cheesecake tin.
- Chill for at least 30 minutes.

FILLING:
1 block (250g) Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Castor Sugar
1 packet Cream (200ml)
1 cup Mango puree (used 2 large mangoes & my mangoes were very sweet)
1 tbsp Gelatine/Jelly powder - dilute in 1/4 cup water & heat up until melt

METHOD:
1. Cream cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
Add in cream & continue to beat until thicken.
Add in mango puree & stir well.
Add in gelatine/jelly mixture.

2. Pour into the chilled crust.
Chill overnight until set.

3. For topping, arrange mango slices on the cheesecake once it is set.
Mix 40ml apricot jam with 40ml hot water.
Brush the mango topping with apricot jam mixture.
Chill until set.
Serve chilled.

Buah Tangan dari Embun

Ni dapat dari Embun waktu dia datang jalan2 beraya kat sini. Maceh ya Embun, cantik sungguh tambahan Along mmg suka bunga Ros. Embun ni baik-hati ler, selalu jer bawa buah-tangan bila datang sini. Lain kali datang bawak ler kek lapis lak ek...hehehe.... Maceh lagi....Mmmmmuahhh untuk Embun. Hug10x!