Puffing away...

I decided to make curry puffs over the weekend... well actually I planned it the week before but since I only made the puff pastry there was nothing much to show... So this weekend I made the filling...

First I had to wake up at a god awful time of 7.15am on a Sunday morning just to do to the morning market... :( The things I do for my little projects...

First off!! Dicing... god... so much to dice... hand also pain... :(

Chicken....

Potatoes...

Onions and garlic and we are ready...

All fried up...

Pastry ready?

Time to get to work...

Now ready for the oven....

Bake bake bake!!! Tadaa!!!

Yum yum... but unfortunately it's not very fluffy... mummy said I was too hardworking at flattening the pastry dough that I flattened the fluff away... sniff sniff...

Well, we can always try again... :) It still tasted good...

My little pasta adventure....

Over the weekend I was feeling hardworking.... hhehe!! actually over the past week I was feeling hardworking so I started to plan for a weekend pasta making session... Yups... my very own pasta... so lets see how it goes...

First we start of with the basic flour well and pop 3 eggs in.... mix slowly until all the egg and flour combined... then you knead the dough until it is smooth.... Then you roll out the dough into a flat sheet and cut out rectangular pieces... I was attempting to make lasagna hence the rectangular size... :)
Here they are... all nicely cut but not in exact shapes...haha!!

Now we need to lay em up... no pictures of the sauce making coz that was my sister's job...haha!! she is the cook in the family.... :) So my hands were occupied with the dough while she was cooking... then I accidently forgot to take pictures of the lay-up process.... but it goes like this: Sauce, pasta, sauce, grated mozarella, pasta, sauce, grated mozarella etc... go on and finish up with the last pasta then sauce and a layer of parmesan cheese.... unfortunately my sis underestimated her portions so instead of the 6 layers which I intended to do, we only got 4 and the top layer didnt have sauce.. :( so it was pasta then cheese.... and the outcome is?

 

Looks pretty decent I suppose except for the fact that the sheet has turn crispy since the pasta and cheese had dried out and hardened... :( here's a closer view...

Now let's see em layers.... tadaa!!! :D

Looks not too bad.... appetising? :) Here's my slice... yum yum!! but not so many layers huh? Well as long as it taste good... Intially after boiling the pasta (my sis did it) she insisted my pasta was not good coz it was too chewy... I was so sad... :( But after it went into the oven and came out... It was the perfect consistency... yaay!! Just the right bite in them.... hehe!! Yippee!!!

Now what do I do with my additional 2 layers which did not make it into the pan?

We make it into fettucini of course... haha!! We shall have that for dinner... just eat em with some ikan bilis sambal... Mmmm..... Looks authentic rite?

At the same time while the lasagna was baking, I also had a go at making my very own cream of mushroom soup... just bought my handheld blender... those that looks like the ones on the AFC channel which they stick into the pot and blend... ya ya... :D So first off is the fry the mushrooms with butter and onion until brown then pour in the stock and bring to boil... then let it simmer for 20 mins then blend... after blending we add in the creme fraiche and stir well.... I skipped the tarragon eventhough I bought it coz while I was chopping it up it just smelt uuurggghh... so lets not... haha!!

Oops... missed blending one... hmm... how did that happen? Nvm, just pick it out and eat it up...hehe!!

The final outcome was surprisingly good... hehe!! though I might have been a bit too generous with the creme so it had a slight tang of sourness but all in all it was quite good for a first try... Elaine can vouch for it... hehe!! Can semi-rival the ones in the restaurant... muahaha!!

My bowl of soup.... But you wouldnt believe how much this whole meal cost... The soup itself was RM60 for the entire pot (serves 7) and the lasagna was another RM60 for the whole pan (serves 8)... This was one costly meals... such ingredients are so expensive in Malaysia... :(

Anyway... since it doesnt happen so often it is okay I suppose... :)

P/S: That nite my mum boiled the fettucini and said it was the perfect dough... very well made.. it was my not so smart sister who under boiled it so it became chewy...sheesh! should never trust her...haha!!

 

My First Bento Attempt!!

Me was hardworking today.... :D

I woke up at 0630hrs to start on my bento. So here is my journey...

Prepared everything last nite... Fried rice, fried sausages and omelette cut out into various shapes... :) today is only assembly.

First step: Line all my bento containers up. Yup! I am ambitious... making 4 at one go... hehe!!

Second step: Disassemble the containers and line them up for filling. Fill up main compartment with fried rice.

Third step: Skewer the fried sausages so they look cute!! Bento is meant to look cute not practical. Hehe!!

Fourth step: Place in the cut omelette so that the shapes can be seen.

Fifth step: Assemble back all the bento sets...

Sixth step: Strap them up coz they are going for a ride!!! :D Just so they dont fall apart along the way...

Seventh step: Apa lagi? Eat la... hehe!!

Here is me unwrapping my bento... :)

It still has a long way to go before it looks like a professional bento but kudos to me for attempting right? I actually bought all my bento stuff last year but never got around to doing it.... so *pats on my back* me proud of meself... hehe!!

The Soju myth...

If you are a fan of korean movies or have just seen one passingly I am sure you would have noticed a scene where they ate and drank Soju (usually followed by a drunk scene). They would pour a pec of soju into a small glass and down it as a shot... then they would crinkle their face and let out a sorta sigh... One would imagine that must be some potent stuff right?

So I got curious.... I decided that since I was having some Korean a few nites back, I might as well re-enact the infamous scene... haha!! I even convinced my fren to down the shot like in the movies... So Kan Pei!!!!
The outcome of it was unfortunately quite disappointing... It wasnt potent at all... I mean the achohol level was 19.5% so it wasnt really high... but there was no sharp piercing feeling when you down it at one shot!! None at all!!! Even a normal vodka, tequila or whisky was a better kick... this just went smoothly down... So now I know what those actors were doing in the movies.. "Acting lor".... Haha!! I got conned... but I would recommend this drink to anyone who wants to have a go...It's quite nice to drink... :)

Precious find...

So... I meant to blog this much earlier on but never got myself to do it... I am such a procrastinator... haha!! Anyway... I wanted to share my precious little find tucked in the corner of Central Market... From the looks of it you wouldnt have thot anything great was there... boy was I wrong.... Herein lies one of the best Nyonya food I have ever had....

 



Inside the restaurant it was filled with antique furniture... Every table and chair was of different size and shapes... The decor was very peranakan...






And they had giant tables and chairs... my feet couldnt even touch the floor when I sat down.. of course it is partly due to my lack of height as well but lets not dwell there.... ;)

 

 



As for the food... yum yum!!! It was really so good... we had ju hu char as appetisers but we were so hungry we whallop it all before I could snap a pic.... Even the food below was snapped halfway eating... We had kangkung belacan, belacan omellete, devil's curry chicken and of course lobak!!!

One more item which I found was extraordinarily yummy was the nasi lemak rice... Basically rice cooked with santan and with blue flower for the Nyonya touch. It was so fluffy you knew immediately it was steamed rice and not those from a normal rice cooker.... It was really really good...

Oh I should not forget to mention the ice lemon tea... Yes you read right... Ice Lemon Tea...theirs was as authentic as it gets...really good stuff.... I was one happy camper...or eater.... haha!!

I am obviously not the only one to extoll the virtues of this place... check out the crowd... ironically not many locals know of this place... instead it is packed with foreigners who are either living in Malaysia or visiting.... Being that it is located in a tourist center, I suppose no local actually bothered to check out this place assuming it's just normal food with premium prices... Although it is a tad pricey but definitely worth it.... trust me...

Precious Old China was definitely a precious find.... :) Glad my mum's fren recommended the place.....

Precious Old China
Lot M2, Central Market
Tel : 03 - 2273 7372

 

Alter ego...

Yesterday I made my mooncake's alter ego.... the snowskin... Looks quite successful huh? :D

Mooncake - The Journey

I have always believed that there are a few chinese traditions which should be kept and passed on from generation to generation so that we never forget such tradition.... There is 3 in particular which I have always wanted to learn..

1. Bak Chang (chinese dumplings)

2. Mooncake

3. Lin Kou

Well I have done the first a number of times and this year I felt extra hardworking so I attempted the second one... So here is my journey...

 

I was highly ambitious so I tried both lotus paste filling and red bean paste filling... fuiyoh!! talk about an ambitious first time!! :D

First you start of with the beans... Red bean is pretty easy... You got the beans... cook them til soft... blend them... sieve them... cook them for an hour and a half...

Tadaa!!! all done.... still took about 5 hours as a whole though....

Next up... the lotus paste... now this one is kinda a toughie.... first you need to remove the pith from the 'lin chi' (lotus seeds) so that you dont get the bitterness of it... Then you boil it to soften the shell....

Then you soak it and piece by piece remove the shell... Fuh!! This was back breaking work.. took me 3 hours to remove all the skin....

Clean babies.... they then go into the pot.. cook til soft... blend then sieve... then cook for about an hour and a half again....

Waalah!!! the paste is at last ready.... I slept at 2am to finish this... haiz.... the things I do for tradition..... Next morning it's rise and shine.... time to make the outer skin... after again having a mixture left over nite now I gotta mix the flour in til I get a dough consistency...

Shape the fillings into little balls...

I am ready to make wrap the filling in my mooncake skin.... The mould is nice and oiled... ready for some stamping... luckily I have the modern contraption and not the traditional wooden knock knock wan... that is only for elaine's fishies...

The raw mooncakes ready for the oven... looks authentic huh? Me so proud of meself... hehe!!!

Made a little piggy for fun.... cute huh?

Final step... into the oven it goes.... Oops... kinda over browned some bits... couldnt estimate the temperature of the oven..thank god nothing got burnt....

Check it out!!! looks good huh?

The inside view....

Well I hope it taste as good or even better than the ones bought... hehe!! For those who got a chance to try... please leave your comments... :D