Midnight Chef in Me: Scones

I have the tendency to somehow, one way or another start baking/cooking around midnight. Be it cuz I had a nap right after work, or that I got too distracted with some shows I've been watching on my PC. Yesterday was no exception.

Thankfully, scones are really easy to make and it took less than 15 mins before it was ready to be popped onto the oven for baking.







15 mins in the oven later and voila. 'Supper' if you will. Glad my first attempt of scones turned out well but I suppose the recipe was rather foolproof. Hee!






Best served with Devon clotted cream and jam, or lemon curd (will attempt this weekend or so).

Some other bakers advices that to enjoy fresh scones, freeze the dough for the leftover scones and only bake them when you want to eat them. I reheated mine in the oven (put them in closed container and sprinkle a lil water) and they turned our warm and fluffy, but I don't suppose they'll taste that great after more than 3 days. I'll see how my frozen batches turn out ;)

Plain Scones By Amy Beh from Kuali.com

Ingredients

375g self-raising flour, sifted
1 1/2 tbsp castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
50g butter
180ml UHT milk
(I add in 1/2 tsp vanilla essence)
125ml water (won't use all. I used only very little)

Method

Put sifted flour, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Lightly rub in butter. (i took a little bit of the flour and put into blender with cubed frozen butter and blended until they look like rough breadcrumbs. then pour mixture into flour mixture)
Use a palate knife to stir in milk. Add just enough water to mix until a soft sticky dough is formed.
Turn out dough onto a lightly-floured tabletop. Quickly but lightly knead dough until it is smooth. Flatten out dough evenly to about 2cm thick. Use a 5cm round cutter to cut out the dough into rounds.
Place scones in lightly-greased baking pans. Brush scones with a little milk and bake in a preheated oven at 240 ºC for 15 minutes. Serve scones with a jam of your choice.


Makes about 10 scones depending on thickness and size

Video and recipe from Joy of baking: http://joyofbaking.com/scones.html

Salad with Mayonnaise and Balsamic Vinegar Dressing

Tesco is like, my family's favourite hangout. Now that they've open another Tesco (Extra) in the little small town of SP, they lagi suka go.

Salad's great for a simple meal

During one of these excursion, I saw some salad-greens that were marked down. Mainly cuz they look wilted and not so appetizing. A good dip in cold water would easily fix that! Bought two types for less than RM2...and it was enough to last my whole family 2 meals (okay, they're not exactly salad-eaters).

Here's a simple recipe for salad dressing

'Instant' Tiramisu / Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday Dad :D

Couldn't celebrate dad's birthday last year cuz my ITP was starting the very next day, so I made it a point to be at home this year (instead of lingering around in KL doing...well..nothing :P ). More pics and recipe after the jump!

Soya Bean Milk

Towards the end of my holidays spent at 391D, I was chatting with my sis when she told me she just made soya bean milk the night before. Lately, I've been loving soya bean milk quite a bit. Would buy them whenever I go pasar malam (which is sadly, not often enough) so when she said it was really easy to make them, I got curious and ventured out to buy some 'yellow beans'.

Baked Macaroni Cheese

Khurshid made mac and cheese for his family for Iftar quite some time ago...and it made me wanna make something similar. Went scour kuali.com and found something which is rather easy to make.

Recipe after the jump

Fish Chips with Beer Batter

I looooovvvveeee fish chips but some restaurants can really screw up the fish chips that it makes me think twice before ordering. My sis had tempted me before with beer batter fish chips somewhere in Penang and it made me crave for it ever since. Figured it shouldn't be too hard to do, since I've fried fish chips before using Jusco's tenpura flour. So I googled for the recipe and found one from Videojug. Here's what I came up with...

Bread Pudding

We bought quite a bit of big loaves of bread this semester, and as a result, there's always 1-2 slices left when it expires. What I'd do is, check for mold, and if its clean, toss it into the freezer.

Figure since semester break is approaching, I'd do something with the bread before having to toss them all out to the garbage truck. Decided to make bread pudding, something Amran made quite some time ago (and made us think of it long after it was finished).

Bread pudding: simple way to getting rid of those old breads.

Change of menu(s) - Chicken porridge

Wanted to cook fried breaded chicken fillets for lunch today...but decided to make Cajun Chicken out of them instead...since I figured QJ would very much prefer that one since its been awhile since I made them....so we had cajun chicken with fried egg, boiled potatoes, and grilled tomatoes, capsicum and onions (they were delicious!)....and immediately felt sleepy right after brunch :P

Planned to go Pasar Malam and stock up on tomatoes and some greens, as well as get dinner and some snacks...but since Razz already had his dinner before we came back from class...decided to eat in for dinner as well...so I made chicken porridge. Dun think I've ever made a proper chicken porridge during my time here yet (I've made all sorts of weird porridge, even the plain white porridge...but never made chicken porridge before...so...weird :P )...turned out so much easier to make and so much nicer than I expected. We ran out of gas but thankfully dinner's done by then...so its chicken porridge for dinner and supper (and maybe still leftover for breakfast...:P )

Mmmm...Now I'm craving for some fish porridge. Time to go get some dory and beer from Jusco...since I wanted to make Fish and Chips with beer batter anyway :P


Been in shitty mood today...but cooking kinda makes it feel better. Kinda. I wish I have a kitty... :S

Chicken porridge

1 cup rice, rinsed and soaked in 1tbsp cooking oil and 1 tsp sesame oil for 15-30 mins (it kinda makes the porridge smooth and extra nice)
A lot of water (depends on how watery you want your porridge to be...maybe a ratio of 1:6 or more?)
1/2 chicken breast (whole)
About 1 tbsp worth of sliced ginger.

1. Put everything together in a pot and boil with slow fire. Check it out after 1/2 hour to see if the rice is soft enough.
2. Turn off the fire when the rice is all softened and the porridge has a good texture.
3. Take out the piece of chicken breast and leave to cool. Tear the meat to 'strings' and return to pot. Stir evenly.
4. Serve with chinese chives or deep fried shallots or deep fried garlic with oil.

Serves 2

Egg Tarts

Been wanting to try these forever...ever since my sister tempted me with photos of her making them with her friends....dah la I have a soft spot for egg tarts :D

Finally had a chance to go buy yellow coloring that day (I think can go without it actually...lol!) so took the chance to make these tarts since I was kinda free. Plus...some of the DND guys were here too so I had some 'guinea pigs'... :P

Before baking

I didn't have the proper tart mould...so I used cupcake mould instead. Works too (but I think the other would would be easier to handle). The crust turned out a bit wetter than I expected and I ran out of flour to fix that....so I had a bit of trouble getting them into the mould at first.

Recipe below is given by my sister...I don't know where she got it from :P

Egg Tarts

Tart crust
250g flour
15g milk powder
60g caster sugar
170g butter
40g beaten egg (I used 1 egg...but the crust turned out kinda 'wet' :P )
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1. to make crust, combine flour, milk powder and caster sugar. Rub in butter until mixture resemble bread crumbs (I used a blender...similar like how I mix the pie crust in my other recipe). Add in beaten eggs, knead to form dough.
2. wrap the dough in plastic wrap, refrigerate for half an hour until ready to use.
3. roll out enough of dough, place into mould. (I used the end of my 'small roller'...wrapped with cling wrap, to press the dough onto the mould)
4. Touch some flour on both thumbs. Press the dough, trim off edge.

Custard filling
340ml water (I think the custard's a little watery...might wanna reduce amount of water a bit)
120g caster sugar
4 eggs
50ml evaporated milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
few drops yellow colouring

1. Bring water and sugar to boil, remove and leave to cool.
2. whisks eggs, combine with cooled syrup and the rest of the ingredients. Lastly to adjust with yellow colouring.
3. bring filling through sieve, then pour into tart cases. bake in pre-heated oven at 180C for 18-22 mins.

Makes about 20-30...depending on size of the mould.

Happy Baking!

Cinnamon Toast

What do you do when you suddenly crave Cinnamon Rolls, too lazy to walk out to buy (and prolly too broke to spend so much on cravings that would serve as dessert...tea...whatever)...and the thought of making Cinnamon Rolls yourself make you groan at the length of the ingredients required....

And what would you do with the leftover bread in the fridge when you dun have jam/kaya/eggs to go with it...out of burger meat to make burger....and not enuff ingredients to make Bread Pudding?

You toast them, butter them up, and sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon powder over it! :9 ...Delish!!! Should think it would be better with wholemeal bread or other non-plain bread but hey...if it helps me finish my bread before they go all moldy...why not?

1. Toast bread until golden brownish.

2. Spread butter over it

3. Sprinkle pre-mixed brown sugar+cinnamon powder (adjust the ratio to your liking) evenly

4. Eat immediately!

What I did was toast it awhile after I sprinkle the mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon powder but it will do fine either way. The bread crusts are the best!

Recipe taken from here!

Pancakes

Fancy having soft fluffy pancakes for breakfast but don't want to spend money on Pillsbury pre-mixes? Try this recipe :D

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons granulated white sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 cup (240 ml) milk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted + extra for greasing the pan

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and melted butter.

3. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, all at once, and stir or whisk just until combined.

**The batter should have some small lumps. Do not over mix the batter or the pancakes will be tough.

Serve with fruits, jams, chocolate, ice cream (ooooo!) for sweet version, or with fried sausages, burger, ham, egg etc for savoury version

Serving: 3-4 person, (I kept unfinished batter in the fridge...should be fine...I think :P )

Taken from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/Pancakes.html

Lemon herb chicken sandwich with grilled veges

Bought quite a bit of fresh veges from Jusco the other day...and since we were running low on rice, we decided to go on some sandwich meals.

Whipped up this dish based on the lemon basil chicken my sister made for me during ITP last year...modified here and there based on what I'd think would be delish...and turned out it was :P ..would have been better if I had baguette or maybe even croissant...

Here's the rough recipe of it. No picture cuz we were too hungry.

Lemon and Herb Chicken Sandwich with Grilled Vegetables

Bread

The meaties

1 chicken keel, sliced

1/2 lemon juice and rind

herbs (I used dried basil and thyme)

salt and black pepper

1 small yellow onion, chopped finely

3 cloves garlic, crushed and pre-grilled with the veges (optional)

The veges, sliced thinly

1/2 green capsicum

1 tomato

1/2 brinjal

butter

herbs (used dried italian herbs)

black pepper

1. Marinade chicken with all the 'meaties' ingredient except garlic and onion.

2. Grill/bake the veges for about 20 mins. You may like to grill the crushed garlic too before using them for the meaty part.

3. Fry pre-grilled garlic and chopped onions with oil/butter until soft. Add in chicken and fry until onion gets brown-ish and sticks to the pan. Add a bit of water to caramelize the onion. Remove from pan

4. Toast/grill bread (with garlic butter if you like). Assemble sandwich.

p/s: I managed to get QJ to eat brinjals! Yey!!

French Toast for breakfast

The thing about waking up early in the morning is that...I have to eat breakfast. Unlike last time where I wake up just in time for class and just run off without breakfast...I get hungry and...distracted :P Lunchtime is 3-4 hours away...and I dun think I can tahan till then...hahaha.

So French Toast is on the menu today. Unlike last time where I serba tak cukup ingredients (I had to manually ketuk a cinnamon stick cuz I dun have cinnamon powder...I thought Amran forgot to bring his back..damn)...this time I actually have all the ingredients on the shelf...hee..

So here's a recipe of one of the nicest, most fragrant french toast I've ever had, home made (aunt's one still rawks with 'mee koo' tho..mmm rindu)

• 1 egg
  
• 2 egg whites
  
• 1/4 cup milk
  
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon powder
  
• dash nutmeg powder
  
• 8 slices French bread, sliced on diagonal
  

**recipe requires 1 whole egg, and 2 egg whites....I just used 2 whole eggs to save all the trouble of having 2 extra yolks not knowing what I'll do with them later

1. Whisk egg until foamy.

2. Whisk in the milk, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg.

3. Heat up butter in non-stick pan. I used slow fire to prevent burning the bread.

4. Dip bread into mixture, coat thoroughly, and place them into heated pan. Cook until nicely browned.

5. Serve with maple syrup or honey. Jams will do too I think (thinks of blueberry jam..mmm). If you're not eating it immediately, keep warm in oven.

Maggi Goreng Kari

Siew gave me a really nice recipe of maggi goreng kari. Tasted really nice so I'm gonna share it here. Recipe's from him of course.

2 packets Maggi mee curry flavour (the soup one)

1 sachet of maggi mee curry (inside the instant noodle packaging of course) ** if you're only using 1 packet of noodle, then use only 1/2 packet of curry sachet.

1 tbsp margerine/butter

1 tbsp sesame oil

Boil noodle. Strain the water after its cooked. Mix the noodles with the other ingredients. Add into pan and stir fry it for awhile (if you're lazy, can just eat it w/o frying). Goes well with fried egg/sausages.

Another recipe for maggi curry noodle (soup) is given by my friend. 

Boil the soup for the maggi curry noodle before adding in the noodle. Add in wedges of tomato and boil till its soft. Add in 1 tbsp lemon/lime. Add in noodle when tomato is soft. Serve with fried sausages (usually I cut them up into pieces and fry with salt) and fried egg.

Chilled tofu with century egg and oyster sauce

Sis and I are crazy about tofu dish, simply because its so easy to cook and taste delicious! The other day, we went to this snack joint in Pyramid..I think it was Shilin. They had this dish on the menu. Being curious, sis ordered the dish and it was totally worth it...well not to say it was very cheap, but we kinda 'bought' ourself another new idea to add to our dinner menu :D

We attempted to recreate the dish with our own version and it tasted quite good.

Chilled tofu with century egg and oyster sauce 1 tube of smooth tofu (not the japanese tofu)
1 century egg
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
about 3-5 tbsp of water, depending on how think you'd like the sauce to be
spring onion for garnishing

1. Prepare the sauce. Mix the oyster sauce, sesame oil, sugar and water together. Heat them up on a saucepan until desired thickness and taste.
2. Slice the chilled tofu and arrange them on a plate.
3. Roughly chop the century eggs and garnish them on the tofu. Pour the sauce on top of this.
4. Garnish with spring onion and serve.

Hard Boiled Egg Sandwich

Sis made me some egg sandwiches the other day...and I simply loved it. It's one of those egg sandwiches you'll always see packed up nicely and sold in those convenient stores or cafes...always been wanting to know how to make them but never quite remember to find the recipes online or ask anyone :P Here's a rough recipe of those yummy sandwiches:

Hard Boiled Egg Sandwich

2 hardboiled egg
1 tbsp mayonnaise (can put more if you want but it made mine kinda a bit too sweet)
a dash of pepper
cucumber (those dark green types are good)
bread

1. Boil the eggs. 5 minutes should do the trick.
2. Mash and mix the eggs, mayonnaise and pepper in a bowl/container.
3. Spread butter onto bread, add cucumber slices and spread the egg mixture.

* You may serve the sandwich with tomato and cheese if you want.

Apple Pie Recipe

Hello dead blog. Hope I have more time to update you now that I'm not playing WoW anymore. Nyek.

I made apple pie again! :D This time in Malacca with limited equiptment (hmmm...actually we're quite 'geared' here, thanks to Amran and myself keep having cooking projects..lol) and no aunt to help...haha...but still the results were satisfying... :D

So here's the recipe, taken from Joy Of Baking and modified slightly according to my methods.


Apple Filling

1.1 kg apples (about 6 large) peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1/4 cup (55 grams) light brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (optional, since I cant find it :P )
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter
1 1/2 tbsp (15 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)

**you may use green apples (more crunchier) or red apples (nicer taste) or mix both. I used green ones.

Method
1. Measure and mix the white sugar, brown sugar, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and salt until they are well combined.
2. Place sliced apples into a container and pour in the lemon and sugar mixture. Stir until evenly coated. Leave the apple to macerate for about 2 hours in the refridgerator. (Original recipe suggests room temperature but its Malaysia here so I'd think its better to leave it in the fridge)
3. Place the apples into a strainer and drain away the juice for 15-30 minutes or until you have 1/2 cup of juice.
4. Mix in 2 tbsp butter and heat up the drained juice until you have 1/3 cup of juice that's slighly caramelized. You can either do this using microwave or heat it up over a saucepan. Its adviced to do this right before baking the pie, as the heated juice will harden once it cools down.


Short Crust Pastry (Pate Brisee):

2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp (30 grams) granulated white sugar
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 - 120 ml) ice water
1 egg yolk for glazing

Method:
1. Using a meat blender (make sure its well cleaned and dried), process the flour, salt, sugar and butter in small batches until mixture resembles coarse meal.
2. Pour mixture into a mixing bowl. Gradually add ice water while mixing the mixture until dough just holds together when pinched. Do not add too much water as it will be messy later.

Alternatively, if you're using a food processor, place the flour, salt, and sugar and process until combined. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal (about 15 seconds). Pour 1/4 cup (60 ml) water in a slow, steady stream, through the feed tube until the dough just holds together when pinched. If necessary, add more water. Do not process more than 30 seconds.

3. Divide the dough into 2 and form into a ball (I usually leave more dough for the bottom crust). Using plastic sheets (you may use cling wrap, but I find it a bit too soft. I use the plastic sheets that ppl usually use to wrap nasi lemak), wrap the dough and place them into the freezer for about an hour.
4. Remove bottom crust dough from the freezer. Placing it between 2 sheets of plastic, roll it out until it fits your pie pan (recommended to use 9inch pan). Remove the top sheet of plactic, and slowly guide the crust into the pie pan. Press the pie crust to fit the pie pan snugly (while still having the plastic sheet on. This makes things a lot easier and less messy). Remove plastic sheet.
5. Add 1 1/2 tbsp cornflour into the drained apples and mix well. Arrange apple slices so that it stacks evenly and even thickness. Pour the caramelized apple juice over the apple slices.
6. Bring out the 2nd ball of dough and roll it out in similar method. Moisten the edge of the bottom pie crust and place the top crust over the apples. Tuck any access pastry under the bottom crust or remove them. Pinch the edges together.
7. Glaze the top of the pie with egg yolk and make 1cm slits from the centre to the edge of the pie to allow steam to escape.
8. Bake at 220°C for 45 minutes. Make sure to cover pie with aluminium foil to prevent over-browning of the top crust.

Leave pie to cool for 3-4 hours before cutting. Serve warm, and best with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Potatoes!

"...when I worked for Joel Robuchon he was famed for his pomme puree (French for potato puree), and it was only 30% potato." - Chef Gordon Ramsay

In one of the recipes found online of Robuchon's famous mash has a butter to potato ratio of 1:4....wow. No wonder they taste so nice...

In March-April 2008 issue of Flavours, there was a feature on mashed potatoes...and I'm loving it to bits. Among great tips that they offer is how to make silky smooth mashed potatoes: by passing your mash thru a fine wire mesh. I honestly never thought of that.

Also, always warm up milk or cream before adding to mashed potatoes. And for lighter texture, whip the cream untill stiff before folding gently into the mashed potatoes just before serving. Whipping cream adds richness to the mash.

Here are a few recipes I'd like to try out from this issue:


Basic mashed potatoes (6 servings)

1kg potatoes, unpeeled
100-250g cold butter, diced
150-250ml milk or UHT cream or combination, heated
salt and pepper to taste


Wash and place potatoes in saucepan with enough water to cover them. Add 1 tsp salt. Bring to boil and lower heat to simmer until tender. Drain and peel. Mash until desired texture is obtained (while hot).

Warm milk and cream but don't boilt them. Add butter and seasoning to the mlik. Add the hot liquid to the mash. Mash or whisk until smooth.

For silky texture, pass mash through fine sieve with help of pastry scraper while hot.


Croquette

flour for dusting
1 egg, beaten with 1 tsp oil
salt and pepper to taste
30g breadcrumbs
oil for deep frying

Dust worktop and coat hands with flour. Shape the potato duchesse into 5cm- length cylinders. Dip into beaten egg and then breadcrumbs. Deep fry until golden brown and crisp.



Potato duchesse (for croquettes)

1kg potatoes, washed
100g butter, softened
5-8 egg yolks
salt and pepper to taste


Place potatoes in saucepan and cover with water. Bring to simmer over medium heat and cook until tender.

Peel and mash potatoes while hot, adding butter and egg yolks and seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.

Gyoza (Pot Stickers)

Recipe taken from the net. Forgot to take down the site...again. Sorry...its slightly modified.

INGREDIENTS:

* 1/2 pound ground pork (1 cup)
* 3/4 cup shredded cabbage

* 1 green onion, diced
* 2 teaspoons minced ginger

* 1 tablespoon soy sauce
* 1/4 teaspoon hot chili oil, or to taste (optional)

* 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil for frying, or as needed
* 30 gyoza wrappers, or as needed (Available from Tesco)

PREPARATION:
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the shredded cabbage until it is tender but still crisp. Plunge into ice cold water, remove, and drain thoroughly.

In a medium bowl, combine the ground pork, cooked cabbage, green onion, minced ginger, egg, soy sauce, chili oil and sesame oil.

Wrap in gyoza wrappers.

**Note:
i. I didn't exactly accurately measure the amount of ingredients...just roughly measure.
ii. The actual recipe did ask to put in an egg the first time I did with egg, I find the mixture too watery...but from the following attempts, the Gyoza tasted nice enought without egg.
iii. This is, of course, not halal. However, I should think the pork is replaceable with chicken...hee :D...won't taste the same tho.
iv. I lost the link to the site that learnt how to wrap the Gyoza...but you can just simply put the filling in the middle of the wrapper, put water at the edges of the wrapper and fold the wrapper in half, then stick them together. If you'd prefer a more fancier pattern, google it :D You may just find sumthing...hee~

Mushroom Fettucine

My first white-cream (alfredo like) pasta, finally!

Kid will go all "this is turning into a foodblog" again...lol! I'm following a few foodbloggers and I'm pretty sure mine's nowhere near them. Hats-off to them.

Anyways...here's the recipe.