Spicy Scallops

Some things get hidden away and you forget to post about them. I'm sure this isn't the first time I'm saying this and I'm sure it wont be the last. You remember
Sarah's BBQ? The one from way back in October 2008? Well, one dish that I plain forgot to post about was this one!


I love scallops but they are so darned expensive. I had gone to Sabah on a work trip and had bought some scallops in addition to some large prawns (that I used to make BBQ Prawns and also Baked Prawns but this post is about the scallops and not the prawns, so get back on track! The scallops that I got were the frozen variety and they were also rather small. Still, small scallops are better than No scallops!



This is what I did.

Ingredients
1 onion - chopped
3 cloves garlic - chopped
5 chilli padi (Birds eye chilli) - chopped
handful of curry leaves
300g Scallops
1 Tbsp light Soy Sauce
Black Pepper
Spring Onions for garnishing

Method
Fry the onion and garlic till soft. Add in the chillis and fry till fragrant. Toss in the scallops and cook well. Add in the soy sauce and season with black pepper. In a separate pan, fry the curry leaves till crispy. Toss in with the scallops and garnish with sprin onions before serving.

The scallops were really tasty with a hint of spiciness. The next time, I'd add in more chilli padi or maybe make it in a sambal kind of sauce...

Cheesecake the daring way

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

When I saw this challenge, the first thing that struck me was the word infamous - surely we wouldn't be making a cheesecake that was notorious, having a bad reputation, of ill repute? Or perhaps it is Abbey that is infamous - but I think not. I think that in usage, the word infamous has come to mean well known - even if it is usually meant to mean well known for a bad reason.

Whatever it is, I was rather excited. Anyone who has read my
history of my cooking would know that I have had a long history with cheesecake and I enjoy making them. I have my own recipe too but each time I make it, I play around a little bit and although I really like my recipe, I still haven't perfected it. Tastes great, but at times it cracks, at other times the water bath leaks into the pan, sometimes the cake sinks; you get the idea!

As Jenny put it, The real challenge this month was to take the basic recipe given and play with it. Make it unique. Make a showstopper of a dessert. Add flavor, sauces, decorations – dress it up and show it off.




So what did I decide to do?

Well firstly the crust. I used Oatmeal biscuits for the crust and added a touch of chocolate to it.

Next, I followed the recipe exactly except that I left out the alcohol - for no other reason than I just didn't want to put it in. I wanted to see how the cake turned out, taste the cheese and not have anything to detract from it, and if I liked it then Next time I'd play around with alcohol!

I also decided to follow Jenny's tip and use a throw-away foil pan - it helped that I had one on hand.

I was kind of surprised that the recipe called for 24 ozs of cheese - that's 3 slabs and at today's prices it was bloody expensive. Then one day while I was at the supermarket, I found Tatura cream cheese instead of the usual Philadelphia cream cheese. The tatura was a fair bit cheaper (about 30%) than the Philadelphia and although I prefer the taste and texture of Philadelphia, I opted to go with the Tatura.

The cake was a breeze to whip up and I have to admit that the foil pan was a great idea. No seepage of water at all! The cake baked up really well and I followed the timing and temperature exactly. No cracking either and no sinking!!

I had a little left-over crust and cheese so I made two cheese-cakelettes in ramekins. This was a good idea as The Lovely Wife and my princess couldn't wait to taste the cake!



Once the cake was ready and in the fridge, and after devouring one cakelette, I contemplated the best way to 'jazz' up and 'dress up' the cake. I have always wanted to make a chocolate covered cheese cake and thought that this would be a good time to do it.

I decided to jazz it up a bit more by making a Chocolate-Caramel ganache. and poured it over the chilled cheesecake. I then roasted some almond slivers and sprinkled it all over. Finally, to finish off the 'dressing', I 'tarted' up the cake with strawberries!

This is the unveiling of the cake just prior to serving. The kids helped me to 'dress' the cake with the strawberries!





The Verdict?

The cheesecake was a great success. I think I prefer the flavour of mine but this had great texture and a great flavour too. The Lovely Wife thought that this was one of the best cheesecakes she had ever eaten and she liked the addition of almonds and strawberries - although she wasn't quite sure if she liked the ganache topping.

My two kids LOVED this cheesecake as you can see in the pictures. They were too busy eating to bother about posing and they had a slice after every meal till the cake disappeard.



We had invited two good friends, Raymond and Priya, to share the cheesecake and they both enjoyed it. Priya - who is another Cheesecake Queen - thought it was superb. Can't you tell how much she enjoyed it?!!


Thanks Jenny for this challenge. It was a lot of fun to make and even more fun to eat!

Chocolate Caramel Ganache
Ingredients
2 tbsp sugar
water
125g chocolate
125 ml cream
Method
Make caramel by melting the sugar in the water and boiling it till it becomes amber. Add in the cream carefully as it will splutter and keep stirring till smooth. Remove from heat and add in chopped chocolate, whisking till smooth. Allow to cool slightly and then pour over chilled cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:
crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.
Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

Snowy BZC Combo or Snow covered Broccoli, Zucchini and Corn

To go with the Burgers we had the other night, we needed a vegetable dish. If it was completely up to me, I reckon the tomatoes and lettuce in the burgers were enough vegetables. The Lovely Wife however, had other ideas. She offered to make a salad but I thought that would just be more tomato and lettuce. So instead, I decided to stir fry a combination of Broccoli, Zucchini and Corn.





Now where in the world did the idea for snow come from? Well, I must admit it was an afterthought when I saw how nice it looked. You see, I had some extra egg white from the Portuguese Egg Tarts I made and so rather than keep them for another day, I opted to throw them into this dish. The result, as you can see, is small specks of white that look like snow!

This is what I did.

Ingredients
3 cloves garlic - chopped
2 tsp rosemary
1 tsp basil
2 zucchini - julienned
1 Broccoli - cut into small florets
1 can corn
2 egg whites

Method
Fy the garlic with rosemary and basil. Add in the broccoli and zuchinni and cook till just tender but still a little crunchy. Add in the corn and stir well. Season with salt. Add in the egg whites and quickly stir everything together to break up the whites to form the small specks of 'snow'.

The Lovely Wife and the kids enjoyed this vegetable dish. In particular, both the kids loved the corn. I have to admit that I loved the corn too! My princess was excited to learn that there was egg in the dish as she just loves egg but was a little disappointed that there was no runny yolk - another thing that she takes after Daddy.

All in all, a very simple yet tasty dish and eye pleasing too.

Home Made Burgers are the best!

I love my burgers. In fact, although I have to admit to liking the fast food variety at McDonalds and Burger King (Hungry Jacks to the Aussies), nothing quite beats the burgers that I used to enjoy at Deli's and even some Milk Bars as a student in Melbourne. You could have your burger 'custom made' there with just what you wanted. My favourite of course was a 'Burger with the Lot' which simply meant that it was a burger with Everything piled on - bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, cheese and sometimes even an egg! Happy Days indeed!!

I like my burgers thick and meaty too and so just the other day, when we were planning what to make for dinner, I suggested home made burgers.


The Lovely Wife and my princess thought this was a brilliant idea although, not surprisingly, my son wasn't too keen. This is simply because he doesn't particularly like bread. He will eat it, of course, but for some reason doesn't really quite like it - unless it is toasted with jam or butter and sugar.




As I have matured (read - grown older) I am not too fond of cheese in my burgers. I still love bacon in it though and so I bought some bacon together with lettuce and tomatoes. And of course the minced beef! I also used lots of tomato sauce and mustard - you got to have mustard in a burger!

This is what I did to make the patties.

Ingredients
3 cloves garlic-chopped
1 medium onion - chopped
2 tsp basil
2 tsp oregano
black pepper
1 kg mince beef
2 tbsp tomato sauce
splash of Worcestershire sauce
Salt


Method
Sautee the onions, garlic, oregano, basil and black pepper. Add into the mince and mix well together with the tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Season with salt and let stand for a little while.
Make the meat into patties either with your hands or use a burger shaper. I have a Tupperware burger shaper and that explains why my burgers are so nicely shaped!
Place on a baking tray and bake in a 180C oven for about 20 mins. This helps the burgers keep their shape. Continue cooking the burgers in a skillet till done to your taste. I like my burgers Well Done.

To add to the fun, I laid all the ingredients out and let The Lovely Wife and kids assemble their own burgers. I learnt that my little princess takes after me and absolutely enjoys bacon!

I assemble my burgers by starting of with a layer of lettuce on the bun, then some slices of tomato followed by the beef patty. More lettuce goes over the patty and then comes the bacon. Finally, I spread liberal amounts of tomato sauce and mustard over the bacon and cover it with the top half of the bun.



I have to say the Home made burgers are not only tastier but more importantly, you know exactly what is going into it. And that makes that taste even better!!

A Hong Kong inspiration - Portuguese Egg Tarts

On our recent trip to Hong Kong, The Lovely Wife found that she really enjoyed the egg tarts there. Although egg tarts are available in Malaysia, and they are pretty good too, she found that the ones in Hong Kong were really delicious. On our last night in Hong Kong, she tried Portuguese Egg Tarts and to say that she liked them would be a serious understatement!!

Portuguese Egg Tarts have a puff pastry shell as opposed to shortcrust in normal egg tarts. The egg custard is also a different consistency.

I decided I wanted to try and make these tarts for her!


For starters, I surfed the web. Then I talked to a few friends who had made this before and then I surfed the web some more. I finally came up with this recipe that is an iteration of different recipes off the web and also the experience of my friends.

The recipe calls for puffed pastry but rather than making my own which would take hours, I decided to use a ready rolled sheet - and I had one left over in the freezer!

This is what I did:

Ingredients
1 sheet Puff pastry
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
2 eggs
2 egg yolks

Method
Roll up the puff pastry like a swiss roll and chill for a little while. Meanwhile, make the custard. Heat the milk and cream and then dissolve the sugar into it. Set aside. Beat the eggs and egg yolks until combined and then slowly add a little of the milk mixture into the eggs to temper them. Pour the tempered eggs back into the milk mixture, whisking constantly. Strain the custard mixture and set aside.
Cut rounds from the pastry and roll it out to a thin circle and line a muffin pan with the pastry. Fill the pastry lined muffin pan with the custard mixture till slightly more than 3/4. Bake in a preheated 220C oven for about 25 minutes. The custard will billow up and get browned but will sink back once removed from the oven and cooled.

The verdict?



The Lovely Wife was rather surprised at how well the tarts turned out! It wasn't as good as the one's she had in Hong Kong but she was still very impressed - and that made me really happy. This is a picture of how the Portuguese Tarts in Hong Kong looked like.



Mine don't look too bad in comparison do they??!!


When I surfed the web for recipes, no one told me that the eggs would billow up so I thought that I was in for a disaster! It turned out really well although I think my pastry was a little too thick. Next time I will roll out the pastry till it is thinner and I will also cut down on the sugar a little bit as we found it a tad too sweet.

All said and done though, this was a very successful endeavour and I can now add Portuguese Egg Tarts to my list of things I can make!

As Malaysian as you can get - Sago Gula Melaka - Cultural Exchange

If there was one dessert that was truly 100% Malaysian, this would be it. Then again, that's not entirely true as I can also think of a myriad of other desserts that are truly Malaysian. So let's try again. If there was One truly Malaysian dessert that could be Home Made without any fancy equipment (like Ice Scrapers - think Ais Kacang or Cendol!) then this would be it. Hang on, then what about all the tradional Kuih (sweet cake like things but not quite cakes...)that can also be made at home? That's the trouble with Malaysia - just too many varieties of food and dessert!

Okay. How about this? My Favourite Malaysian Dessert, that can be home made without any fancy equipment would be this!

All said and done, Sago Gula Melaka is definetly a famous Malaysian dessert and a firm favourite Everywhere in the country and especially in my house! I would even go so far as to say that Sago Gula Melaka is the quintessential Malaysian Dessert!


Sago Gula Melaka is really not that difficult to make. All you need are 3 ingredients:

1. Sago (but of course!)

Sago is commonly sold as sago pearls and is actually the starch from the pith of the sago palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottboll). Sarawak, in East Malaysia, is the world's largest exporter of Sago. To get Sago, the trunk of the sago palm is split lengthwise and the pith is removed. The pith is then crushed to release the starch, washed and strained to extract the starch from the fibrous residue. The raw starch suspension is collected and this is then made into flour. Sago Pearls resemble tiny dried pearls that when boiled become transparent, soft and almost spongy. This is what is used for Sago Gula Melaka.

2. Gula Melaka

Gula Melaka or Malacca Sugar, is also known as Palm Sugar. Gula Melaka is made from the sap of the flower bud of the coconut tree. Some refer to Gula Melaka as Jaggery but technically, Jaggery is sugar made from the Palmyra Tree. I explained this (with pictures) in my very first post on Cultural Exchange

3) Coconut Milk

Sometimes you take things for granted and assume the whole world thinks the same thing. In one of my earlier posts, when I spoke about Coconut Milk, I realised that a lot of my Western blogger friends think that coconut milk is the juice of the coconut, meaning the clear fluid that you get when you break a coconut. No, no, no! That is what we call Coconut Water - the one that is very good for your daughter (Remember Harry Belafonte and his song Coconut Woman?). Coconut Milk is what the Westerners would call Coconut Cream although coconut cream has been thickened and would be far too thick. Coconut Milk is what you get when you grate the 'meat' of flesh of the coconut - the white flesh inside - and then squeeze it to get a lovely milk that is often used as a thickening agent. We refer to this as Santan
When we talk about Coconut Milk in Malaysia, we also regularly refer to the 'first milk' and 'second milk' or 'first squeeze' and 'second squeeze'. The first squeeze is always the thickest and best tasting and sometime you need to add a little hot water to the grated coconut after the first squeeze to get everything out. Very, very seldom would you do a third squeeze.

So there you have it. The three ingredients for Sago Gula Melaka.

How to make it do you say? Ahhh... well, no real recipe is required and neither do I have measurements for you because it is just so simple!

First, Wash the sago well and let it soak in water for a few minutes. Strain the sago and boil it in water till it becomes soft and transparent. Drain and rinse in cold water to remove the starch. Pour it into a large bowl (or smaller bowls if you like) and let it cool. Whisk in an eggwhite - this is to prevent the sago pearls from sticking together too much. Leave in the fridge to get cold.

Make some liquid Gula Melaka by melting some gula melaka shavings with a little water. Make as much as you like.



Finally, make the coconut milk by grating coconut and squeezing out the milk. If you are using canned coconut cream, thin the cream out with a little water. Some people like to use fresh milk as well but the taste is just not as good.

To serve, spoon some of sago out into a serving bowl, add in as much of the Coconut Milk and Gula Melaka as you like and enjoy!

This is really a most delicious dessert and is found in a large number of Malaysian restaurants and hotels. In fact, I remember many years ago when The Lovely Wife and I were dating, I took her out for dinner. After dinner, I suggested we have dessert at the Crystal Crown Hotel, PJ where I knew they served these Huge bowls of Sago Gula Melaka - for a reasonable price too. Not too sure if they still serve it there... Maybe it's time for a return visit. Good thing for me The Lovely Wife enjoys Sago Gula Melaka as much as I do!

Fond Memories of Corned Beef and Cabbage

When I was young, I used to read the comic strip 'Bringing up Father' in the newspapers and used to get a kick out of Jiggs asking his wife Maggie to make Corned Beef and Cabbage. I used to think that was such a strange combination.

My Mom used to serve us corned beef too. She would buy the canned variety (Libby's) and then fry the corned beef. She would always break up the corned beef and then give it a good stir fry till it was a little crispy on the outside but still soft inside. This was a great dish when we were hungry or she needed to whip up a quick meal.


Since Mom always broke up the corned beef, I never realised till much later that corned beef is supposed to be eaten in slices and not broken up. But hey, who ever said there were any rules when it came to food!



When I was a student in Melbourne, Corned Beef was again always stocked in our pantry. That was the first time that my housemates and I actually made Corned Beef and Cabbage. We enjoyed it like that but as always, decided to Asian-ise it by making it Indian style! We'd mash up the corned beef, add lots of curry powder and chilli powder, fry it till it was cooked then add the cabbage and give it a good stir fry too. Libby's Corned Beef soon became a staple for us and we'd have it at least once a week. It was cheap and eaten with rice was simply delightful.

I was reminiscing with the Lovely Wife recently about how my housemates and I used to enjoy our food although on a tight budget and she decided she would make Corned Beef and Cabbage - minus the curry and chilli powder though!



All she did was to fry some onions and garlic, fried the corned beef, added in the cabbage and voila! Corned Beef and Cabbage. A very simple meal and so, so delicious eaten with rice.

Like it? As a matter of fact, I LOVE IT!

St Honore in Hong Kong

The Lovely Wife and I returned recently from a short break to Hong Kong. While exploring this vibrant city, we came across this bakery and I just HAD to share it with all of you - especially all my friends in The Daring Bakers!
For those of you that don't know what the fuss is, St Honore is the French patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs. Saint Honoré or Honoratus (d. 600 AD) was the bishop of Amiens in France. Since he is the patron saint of bakers, that also kind of makes him the patron saint of The Daring Bakers!

So you sort of understand my excitement at seeing this bakery in Hong Kong. The Lovely Wife looked at me rather strangely as I got all excited and started focusing my camera and this cake shop. It was only after I explained the significance to her that she smiled, albeit still with a slightly quizzical look at me...




We found this bakery as we were exploring Flower Market Road and saw the shop at the corner of Yuen Ngai Street. It was only after our return from Hong Kong that I did a search on google and found that this bakery is located ALL over Hong Kong! This is the Website of the St Honore Cake Shop in Hong Kong so if any of you visit Hong Kong, be sure to pay them a visit!!

When the Oven light goes off...

Today, we had some friends of ours visiting from Australia - or is it England, or maybe even the USA...

You see, the guy is from Malaysia but working in Australia. His wife is from USA and living in Australia with him. However, they are both back in Malaysia for a visit en route to London as he is going to work there now. So complicated.

I had decided to make some Brownies for tea and whipped up the batter, poured it into the pan and was about to put it into the oven when I noticed that the oven light wasn't on. I have the kind of oven where the light stays on as soon as the oven is set to any temperature. I felt the door of the oven and it was warm but somehow didn't feel as warm as it should

Aaarrghhh!! I quickly ran to the fuse box to check the ELCB and the fuse. All were okay. There was electrical supply as the television was working. I ran back to the kitchen and swapped power sockets and tried the oven again but the light still didn't turn on. I started to have a little bit of an anxiety attack - not so much over the possibility that I might not be able to serve brownies but more because I feared that I would have to replace my oven, and I have gotten rather attached to this oven that I have owned for more than 10 years.

Then a light clicked on inside of my head. My Engineering training took over and I quickly realised that I should troubleshoot instead of just assuming the oven was on the blink.

I opened the oven door and looked at the element. Then I turned to dial to the rotisserie setting and I heard the rumbling noise of the rotisserie motor turning. I turned the dial to the grill setting and wathced as the element turned red. Yes! The oven was still working. It was the blasted light that had died on me.

I quickly shoved the cake pan in and let it bake. I then grabbed a torchlight and used it to peer into the oven to check on the cake. This is where I realised how valuable a light INSIDE the oven is!

Anyway, the brownies baked up really well, everyone enjoyed them and when the oven cooled, I unscrewed the light bulb and found that it had in fact fused.

Now I just have to go find a place that sells replacement oven bulbs that are rated to withstand temperatures of 300C. Valuable lesson learnt too. Always keep a cool head and remember that just because the light goes off, that doesnt mean that the whole machine has stopped working...

Rosemary Carrots

Oh! Rosemary, I am but a fool,
Darling I love you tho' you treat me cruel,
You hurt me and you made me cry
But if you leave me I will surely die.

Okay, so now we all know that I'm old enough to know Neil Sedaka. Those of you in my age group (or older) would also know that its NOT Rosemary but rather Carol that Neil sings of.

If you arent confused enough already, then just know that this is my little attempt at being funny because today is April 1st and that means its April Fools Day.

In commemorating April Fools day, I first though that I would post my Fools Saffron Rice but realised I had already posted it much earlier together with my Kheema post.

So, looking through my 'as yet to be posted' pictures, I decided to post Rosemary Carrots.

This dish is remarkably easy to make that no recipe is really needed. Just cut the carrots into strips, season with salt and pepper, add in liberal amounts of fresh rosemary, toss with olive oil and then bake in the oven till the carrots are tender but still slightly crunchy.



What could be easier and yet so tasty? This dish is so simple that even a fool can make it - and that's probably why I love it so much!

Happy April Fools Day!