Masak

Selepas berhenti daripada mengambil tempahan mengukir stamp,
masa-masa lapang saya banyak digunakan untuk;

Cari resepi.

Shopping bahan masak.

Masak.

Makan.

Dan ulang.

I can see that my family is happier than when I was busy carving.

Hampir saja saya buka satu blog masakan.

Honey and Milk Bread

I like cooking because it is an art too.
But it is a little more special, because you can eat your artwork :)

The previous banana bread requires no kneading (more like a cake),
but this time I really want to try kneading.
Rupanya tak sesusah yang dibayangkan :)
Tak sempat keluar peluh pun.

Never in my whole life,
I had ever imagine I can bake my own bread.
I surprised myself success at the first time.
So I guess making bread isn't that hard anyway,
we just need to give some time for the yeast to do their job.

With the rising concern in the halal status of food products in the market,
maybe we can try doing it our own.
Ditanggung halal!

Senang saja,
jom cuba resipi ini :)

*Recipe*

Cookies...or Cakes?

Neither!

I am still not over yet with my excitement of having a new toy for the kitchen.
:)

Sometimes I found myself fallen asleep while drooling over the photos in the cooking magazine. Not only that they look delicious, but they are also inspirational.

I've been longing to bake some bread, and finally!
My first bread.

Sugarless Banana Bread ~ use dates to substitute sugar.

Pineapple Muffin.

Last but not least, a picture of stamp that I completed 3 days ago
(sedang berusaha menghabiskan sisa-sisa tempahan).

I met an old friend whom I haven't met for 10 years (except in Facebook), and he asked me how's my cake/cookie business doing? Hahahahaa...that's funny!...Really? Those stamps look like cookies and cakes?!

My Pastry Experiments

Only a few months left before I reach 30's.
And this is the first time I got the chance to own an oven.

To think back,
Sometimes I feel...(it's not sad but I don't know what it is)
30 years is quite a very long period (I don't know what have I done with that lot of time).

But ofcoz I feel so grateful whatever it is (we are always more fortunate than some people).

My pastry experiments; Lemon Meringue Cupcakes (made from Mom's homegrown lemons), mini cinnamon rolls (served with cream cheese frosting), pizza (I found one easy and sure-jadi dough recipe by Jamie Oliver~ and I'm still experimenting with different toppings, the list seems endless), and last but not least, moist chocolate cakes/cupcakes. For the time being I just use Nona Cake Mix for the batter because it is economical and quick :) HAHAHAHA. The only thing that is prepared from scratch was the chocolate ganache.

I still remember when we were young,
my dad got a pie dish as free gift for buying a tin of formula milk for my baby brother.
The dish was decorated with an illustrated lemon meringue pie recipe.
I always wonder how it would taste.
Thinking,
when I grow up, lemon meringue pie is one of the recipe I want to try.

Hehe, not yet a pie lah~
but I'm still feeling so content for these humble achievements :)

Happy!!!
... and chubbier :)

Vietnam Pho

I am sorry I am polluting this blog with more and more kitchen experiments. Hehe.

The juicy, chewy tendon is awesome! The broth had been prepared since last night, so now the tendon became very soft and jellylike.

Image source, here.

I use beef feet (orange circle in above diagram)
from recent Raya Korban
to make some homemade Vietnam Pho!

I was crazy about making Vietnam Pho after we came back from Hanoi last August.
So
learning from my Pho googling experience,
beef bones and knuckles are the best for Vietnam Pho broth.
Actually to me I think this time it tastes better and healthier
compared to the one I made last Ramadhan
(that time I used beef knuckles with bone marrow).
The bone marrow is so greasy and fatty!

The recipe is actually very easy
(it wasn't really easy for the first time anyway).
:)

This time, I don't refer to the recipe anymore.
:) Here's how I prepare my Ala-Kulitmanggis Vietnam Pho.

Ingredients:
Note: As usual, these are my estimation only.

1. 1-2kg of beef bones, preferably leg and knuckles
2. 1 big onion, halved (charred on stove or grill until slightly burnt and fragrant, then washed to remove loose, flaky burnt skin)
3. 3 inches of ginger (charred~just like the onion). Click here to see how the charred onion and ginger may look like.
4. 4-5 cloves of garlic
5. Pho spices which consist of corriander and fennel seeds, star anise, cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom pods ~ it's pretty common right? So I just use Rempah Sup Tulang.
6. 1 inch chunk yellow rock sugar
7. 8-10 tablespoons of fish sauce (or as desired)
8. Large chunk of meat, to be sliced later when serving (optional)
9. Salt.

How to prepare the broth;

1. The bones are washed and parboiled for 10-15 minutes. This is to remove impurities like blood particles and excess fat. Drain and rinse the bones and pot, refill with clean water and put it back on stove. Parboiling will give you a clean-tasting broth.
2. Put the bones back into the pot. Add spices, charred onion and ginger, garlic, meat, fish sauce, rock sugar and salt.
3. Let the broth to simmer for 3 hours and adjust the taste with seasoning; fish sauce, rock sugar and salt.

Serving

Ingredients;
1. Rice noodles (it looks like kuetiaw, wide and thin. I bought mine at Giant ~ in the noodles section). Blanch in hot water until soft, and put in cool water so it doesn't get overcooked.
2. Fresh scallions and cilantro or coriander (chopped).
3. Lime - cut into wedges
4. Some onions - thinly sliced (optional)
5. Meat - take out the meat chunk from broth and thinly slice.

Combine them together in a bowl ~ just like serving soto or any noodle soup. Can be served with some chillies and soy sauce in separate serving plate as dipping or condiments.


It's difficult to find Halal restaurant in Hanoi, but this is one of the place where you can get Halal food. They serves Malaysian cuisine so you can still have nasi Lemak, asam pedas and mi goreng mamak there. You can see the address clearly in the photo.

This is the Vietnam Pho that we had in Nisa Restaurant.

This is how me and Putri had our Vietnam Pho soup for lunch today.

Flooded rice. Hehe.

Pan-Grilled Fish Wrapped in Banana Leaves

It's not like I'm changing this blog
into a recipe or food blog.

But I find
cooking,
arranging food on the plate,
and taking photos of them,
are so much fun to do!

I don't know what to call this recipe,
I just blend some chillies, onions, ginger, lemongrass,
garlic, shrimp paste, turmeric and dried shrimps.
Add salt, fish sauce, tamarind juice and tabasco.
Marinate, and pan-grill the fish wrapped in banana leaves.

I saw them make the "spring onion curl" in Top Chef recently
(astro ~ don't remember which channel).
The secret is to put the spring onion leaves in cold water.
Here's a simple instructions for making the curls.

Hey, if you guys noticed,
I just created new label for my cooking-related posts;
"my kitchen experiments".

:)

Okay,
Have a wonderful weekend!

Steamed Chicken Wonton

Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha
:)

I'm trying a new recipe today,
Steamed Chicken Wonton.


Ingredients
(please take note below are just my estimation as usually I don't measure them when cooking ~ selalu main campak saja okay).

Wonton:
1. 500g Chicken minced meat
2. 4-5 stalks of scallions (chopped- white part only)
3. 3 large pieces of black fungus - thinly shredded
4. 3 inches of carrot - finely shredded
5. 1-2 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
6. 1 teaspoon of cornstarch
7. 1 egg white
8. 3 tablespoon of light soysauce
9. Salt to taste

Mix everything together. Put some fillings at the center of the wonton skin and and wrap. Just use water as glue. Put in steamer for 15 minutes.

Soup:
1. 1-2 cloves of garlic - crushed
2. 1 inch of ginger - crushed
3. A little bit of oil
4. 500ml of chicken stock (if you want more soup you can add more, then adjust the seasonings)
5. A few dash of dark and light soysauce
5. A few drop of sesame oil just for the aroma
6. Cornstarch (to thicken the soup a bit)
7. Scallions (for garnish)
8. Salt to taste

Saute garlic and ginger in small amount of oil (i like them a bit caramelized). Add chicken stock, dark and light soysauce and salt. Bring to simmer. Add in cornstarch (diluted in water) and add few drops of sesame oil. You may drop the wonton into the soup just before transferring it into serving bowl. Garnish with scallions.

Look! The wonton is happy! No wonder they taste so delicious!
:) <---making wonton face.

Sup Nori "Campak with Love"

Putri and hubby,
were both having fever
(perfect excuse!,
actually I'm just craving for it..hihi).

Let's cook some Nori (seaweed) soup.
If you have no seaweed then
just change the name to Seaweedless Soup.
Haha.

You can find this Nori sheets easily in supermarkets.

Ingredients:

1 Big onion and 2 red onions (sliced), 3 cloves of garlic (crushed), 2 inch ginger (crushed), 6-7 piece of fishballs (i like to cut them into halves), 1 piece tofu (diced), 2 tomatoes (cut into wedges) and 3 sheets of Nori (seaweed) torn into strips.

Preparations:

Saute ginger, garlic and onions till fragrant, and if you like you can let the onions caramelized a bit.

Add fishballs and tomatoes. I like to wait until the tomatoes softened a bit before pouring in water.

Throw the tofu and seaweed strips in.
Stir,
(like a witch preparing magic potion).

Bring to simmer. Salt to taste.

At this point, you can stir-in some eggs if you like but I already use fish, so I don't add eggs.
(Where's the fish you ask me?
Owh~ it's in the balls).
:)

Serve hot.
(Be prepared to compliment yourself. Haha.
For the effort maa...)

Easy peasy right?
*You can use chicken, meat or prawns.
*You can add mushrooms, pepper or stir-in some eggs (like making egg-drop soup).
*You may also add some starch if you like the soup to be thick.
*You can alter the recipe to suit your own taste and give special name to your recipe, like me.

Hehe.