Strawberries Cookies for Valentine's Day

Tomorrow is a Valentine's Day. Wikipedia says that, "In North America, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished."

Im not too crazy about valentine's day especially the over-charged flowers. I mean I dont have to have flowers that cost 3x more than the other 363 days (they usually start jacking up the price 2-3 days before valentine's day) in the year. A card or even just a wish expressing his love to me (though he says it a few times a day) is enough to make me happy. Yup, its easy (and cheap too!) to make me happy. lol!

Anyways, I just thought its appropriate to make some cookies for this day. Im still new with baking and have yet to have a collection of cookie cutter thus my cookies are just plain round but I like the buttery texture. The strawberry topping compliments the taste nicely. *note to self, go to michael's to get some cookie-cutter*

7oz butter (softened not melted)

1/2 cup sugar

2-2 1/2 cups multi-purpose flour

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Strawberry jam (for topping)

Preheat oven at 325F

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth.

Add the egg, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Continue beating for another 2min.

Gradually add in the flour and stir using a wooden spoon until well blended.

Roll the dough about an inch in diameter. Flattened it a little bit by pressing the top with your index finger to create a 'hole' for the topping.

Put about 1/2teaspoon of strawberry jam on each of the cookies and lay them on a non-stick cookie sheet, an inch apart.

Bake for 20min.

Assam Pedas

Recently Rasa Malaysia made laksa penang which looks so mouth watering that I have to have something sour myself. Since making laksa is a bit too time consuming for me and not to mention that I dontv half of the ingredients, I decided to make Assam Pedas. I took the recipes from drNo and Jun and then changed them a lil bit according to wht I have and my level of malas-ness. Yes, this is the somewhat easy(/lazy)-edition of Assam Pedas.

1-2 piece of fish (anything except salmon)

1 cup water

daun kesum or polyganum leaves (thanks RM for the translation)

7-10 okra/ladyfinger/bendi

4-5 tablspoon tamarind juice (1tablespoon tamarind soup powder)

salt and sugar to taste

3 tbspoon vegetable oil

Blended ingredients;

2 shallots

1/2 red onion

1 garlic

2in ginger

10 tbspoon of sambal oelek (chili paste)

1 teaspoon of tumeric powder

2 teaspoons belacan

1. Heat the oil (medium heat) and add the blended ingredients. Stir for 5-6min

2. Put in the water and add the rest once its boil. Flip the fish one or twice.

3. Cover and simmer for 10min.

This is how I eat my assam pedas. With rice, cut tomatoes and cucumber for salad and sambal belacan. Not seen in the picture is the sweet soy sauce. I cant eat my rice without them!

Sausage Rolls

Reading Catcat's blog last week gave me an idea for Michael's dinner. As you already know, not many food he would eat. No seafood, no bone-in chicken except for chicken wings (but has to be the small ones), no mushrooms, no soups and etc etc. He's a typical american kid. He'd eat pizza, cheesesteaks and hotdog everyday if I let him!

Anyways, back to the 'idea' for dinner. Its sausage in a roll or also known as pig in the blanket. All you need is croissant dough and sausage. First grill the sausage, then wrap them witht the dough. Put them in the oven at 350F for 16-17min.

They are so good that I have to make a 2nd batch for his lunch too!

Soto Ayam - Updated

*Sorry for the kelam-kabut layout. I just cant seem to get them aligned and where I want them to be. Arrrgh!*

1. Nasi impit 2. Add the beansprout

3. Pour the soup 4. Sambal kicap


This is what I made for buka puasa a few weeks ago. Soto Ayam! I promised MsJ that I will share the recipe with her a long time ago but only now I made them. The last time I made them was for Xmas dinner last year. Sorry MsJ.


For today I'll let you enjoy the pics and will write the recipe when have more time ok?

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Ok, here's the recipe for soto ayam. It'l be in Manglish because its easier for me. hehe :)


A.
1 piece chicken thigh,bone-in (u can also use 2 pieces for this recipe)
4 cardamon seed
4 cloves
2 start anise
2in cinnamon stick
4-5 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup santan (coconut milk)


B.
4 shallots
1 onion
4 garlic
2in ginger


Blend items B. Heat the oil in the pot and add the cardamon, cloves, star anise and cinnamon sampai naik bau. Masukkan bahan2 B and stir for about 4-5min. Add in the chicken and water enough to cover the chicken, about 1.5-3 cups. 2 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon sugar. Keep flipping the chicken and continue boiling for abt 15-20min.


Once the chicken is cooked, take it out and let it cool down. Add another cup of water and the coconut milk. (The blended items are wht making the soup look thick and thts wht we want. So make sure you dont add too much water ok?) Let it boil and then only you add the salt and sugar to taste. Banyak mana tu, up to your own tastebud.


Shred the chicken and put the bones back in the soup. You can also put the shredded chicken meat back into the soup if you like. Thats how I make the soup for my soto ayam.


I dunno how to make nasi impit fr scratch since i always buy the nona brand (or any other brand) tht comes in small packets where you just boil them for an hour and cut when its cooled down. Alternatively, you can use meehoon or both. Back home, id def use both.


For the sambal kicap, blend or tumbuk a handful of cili padi. Add a pinch of salt, lemon juice and sweet soy sauce. If ur in Msia, use kicap habhal. If ur like me in the land with no kicap habhal, kicap abc pun jadilah. :P


For garnishing, use daun sop, bawang goreng, soohoon goreng (just deep fry and crash them on top of your soup) and of course beansprout.


Selamat mencuba ye kawan-kawan!

Prawn Curry Kapitan

I made these a few weeks ago but only now I found the time to post the pic. Thank you Gert
for the recipe. Since I have lady finger and eggplant, I add them to my curry too. The only thing that I didn have then was the buah keras but it still turned out very good.

Sambal Tumis Udang

Yesterday I posted the pic of my nasi lemak. Gert and J.T. asked for the recipe. The first few times I made my sambal tumis, Iv always used dried chili but I find the dry chili here in the US to be too hot. So I have farina-ised it so its easier to make and tho stil hot/spicy, its not the kinda that would make u burn ur mouth/tongue for a week. Maybe just for a few hours. hehe! kidding lah. I sure do hope I dont forget any ingredients.

A. 10-15pcs prawn, de-veined
1/2 onion, sliced

B. 1 bottle of sambal oelek (theyr available at regular supermarket too)
5 fresh red chili
1 onion
3in ginger

vege oil (abt 1/4cup )
1/2cup water
1 teaspoon powdered tamarind (or 3tablespoon of fresh tamarind juice)
2 tablespoon salt
1 cup sugar

1. Grind all ingredients in B.

2. Heat up the oil in the wok (med high) and put the B ingredients in. Keep stirring for about 10min.

3. Add water, tamarind powder/juice, salt and sugar. Continue stirring for 4-5min. Taste and add salt/sugar if necessary.

4. Put in the prawn and sliced onion, stir a little a bit and cover for 3-4min.

5. Uncover, stir and taste. Let it set for another 3-4min and serve.

6. Enjoy!

When I made them last week, I made enough that I had the nasi lemak for 2 days and 2 nights straight. Im not kidding you. I did! I also put half of them in a tupperware and freeze them so the next time time I crave for nasi lemak, I dont have to trouble myself. All I have to do is, make the rice and re-heat my sambal tumis.

Chicken on a skewer a.k.a. Satay Ayam

I cheated. I know and im quite ashamed of it but hey! We live in an apartment and the only grill that we have is the electric grill, a x'mas gift from my in laws.

I use minimum ingredients to marinate the chicken. Ginger, shallot, onion, cardamom seeds, lemongrass, salt, sugar, honey and vege oil and tumeric powder. OK. Maybe not minimum but it did sound minimum when I was making them. :P

Just blend all the ingredients and marinate for at least 20hrs. You can do it in lesser time but I like to taste all the ingredients in the meat when i eat them thus the lonnnnngggg marinating time.

Shirley i.e. Meltingwok told me tht I can simply grill them on the electril grill that we have. Just dont forget to keep lathering them with oil and honey. Ialso made the ketupat and peanut sauce (not in pic).

Dapurku Masih Berasap

Its been a while since I last post anything about food. Doesnt mean that I havent been cooking though. Its just that Im too lazy to "present" my food. This is my Clam Fettuccine with light white wine sauce. My 2nd time making them thanks to the recipe that I got fr Rasa Malaysia.


Being lazy-me, I got the basic idea fr her foodblog and then made my own sauce. I just sauteed the thinly sliced ginger with some olive oil, add abt 1.5 cup of white wine and half-cup water until it boils. Add the clam and cubed tomatos, cover for about 3-4min. Uncover, add salt, sugar and pepper to taste and stir for another 1-2min. Pour on top of cooked fettuccine.

This pic is taken by Michael. Somehow, the way I arranged the dishes on my plate amused him. lol! No, I didnt cook the siput sedut. I got them in a box (frozen) from the asian supermarket. Its actually Viatnamese and tyer's pretty sweet to my taste. So what I did was just cut some thai chilis and add some salt when I reheat them. What you dont see in the pic is a bowl of my sambal belacan and a bottle of sweet soy sauce. ;)

Sweet and Sour Crab

I, like most Malaysian, just love seafood. Be it fish, squid, prawn, clams or snails. I dont however eat escargot. The only type of snails that I eat is "siput sedut" or balitong, as the chinese call them. What theyr called in English, I have no idea at all. It doesnt matter anyways since Michael dont eat seafood and I wudn know how to cook them either. hehe.

Anyways, when it comes to crabs, (it doesn matter what kind they are since im the type who's not fussy about their names) i like them in sweet and sour with a little bit of spiciness sauce. The basic ingredients for my sweet and sour crab would be shallot, garlic, ginger (to reduce the fishy smell) and chili paste and lastly an egg. to me, thts what make it sweet and sour crab.

Ingredients

1-2 crabs (cleaned and cut in 2-4 pieces)

• 3-4 red chilies
• 3 shallots
• 2 garlic
• 1inc ginger (pound or blended together)

3 tblspoon of vegetable oil, 4 tblspoon of ketchup, 1/2 cup water, salt, sugar and an egg.

Heat the oil in a wok or skillet and put in the blended ingredients. Stir until they'r fragrant. Add the water, ketchup and continue stirring. Put in the salt and sugar (to your liking) once its boiled. Add in the crab and flip them until theyr well coated with the sauce and cover for about 2-3 min. Lastly, break an egg and keep stirring/flipping the crabs until the egg is cooked.

I like to eat them with steamed white rice but you can eat them ala Fatty Crab (seafood reastaurant in Malaysia) which is with toast.

Malay Chicken Briyani

Nina asked me to post my way of making chicken briyani since she make hers from scratch. *respect* I can be pretty lazy when it comes to cooking. Back in KL, my fav place for briyani ayam madu (briyani with honey chicken) would be at Mahbub Restaurant in Bangsar. I can never have enough of their briyani ayam madu. If you're in KL, you should give it a try. Iv somehow managed to get all my friends addicted to that place!

Nowadays, (since I have to do the cooking myself!) I use Shan's briyani mix for both beef and chicken. Being a sucker for kicap manis (sweet soy sauce), I will always have chopped green chili in sweet soy sauce with my briyani. Im going to share with you how I make the malay chicken briyani.

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice (rinsed)

1 3/4 cup water

2 tablespoon ghee oil (or vegetable oil)

half onion & 2" ginger (finely chopped)

4 spices - 3 cardamom seed, 1" cinnamon stick, 2 star anise seed, 3-4 cloves (rinsed)

4-5 pcs chicken

2 tablespoon shan's briyani mix

1 tablespoon adabi's briyani mix (optional)

Salt, sugar, pepper

Methods

Marinate the chicken with the briyani mixes for at least half an hour.

Heat up the ghee oil in a pot and add the 4-spices until aromatic. Add in the chopped onion & garlic and the chicken. Keep stirring for about 3-4min.

Add the rice and water and salt, sugar, pepper. Stir and let it boil. Cover and simmer for 25min.

Spicy Honey Chicken

There are 2 types of cooking that I can have day-after-day-after-day and they're sweet & sour and soy sauce. Be it chicken, beef, fish, crabs or any kinda seafood. Maybe because they'r just simply delicious or maybe because they'r so easy to make. The basic ingredients would be shallots, ginger and garlic. Lately I have been making a lot of spicy honey chicken since it's always a hit among my friends. As the name goes, chili paste is a must to get the spiciness. Not just cut chilies (for a simple sweet & sour) but the paste.

When i cook, there would be the easy (simply malas or not enuf time) or not so easy way of making them. Here, im gonna share the not so easy but not that difficult way of making it.You can use any parts of chicken or just chicken wings or the whole chicken even. Please do not run away and give up before you read the recipe and method. ;)

Ingredients

A.

10pcs of chicken (bone in)

3 teaspoon tumeric powder

1.5 teaspoon salt

B.

12 dried red chilies (soaked in hot water and deseeded)

5 shallots

3 garlic

2inc ginger

C.

4-spices (3 star anise seed,6 cloves,6 cardamon & 2in cinnamon stick), rinsed

7 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoon ketchup

1/2 cup water

salt

3 tablespoon oil

1/2 onion, sliced

Method

1. Marinate the chicken with tumeric powder and salt. Deep fry (slowly) them and keep aside.

2. Grind ingredients in B with a little bit of water.

3. Heat up the oil in the wok and add the 4-spices until fragrant and then add/stir-fry items B.

4. Add the rest of the items in C and continue stirring.

5. Keep tasting until you get the desired taste and lastly put the chicken in. Stir and serve.

Sambal Belacan

From wikipedia.com:

Sambal Belacan
A Malay style sambal. Chilli is pounded together with a little toasted belacan in a stone mortar. Tomatoes are optional ingredients. Sometimes, sweet sour mangoes or equivalent local fruits are added. Salt, sugar and lime juice are the last items added. Eaten with cucumbers or 'ulam' (local leafy herbs) to add zing to a meal of rice and other dishes. A Malaysian Chinese version is to fry belacan with chilli.

There's no other thing that compliments the simplest meal of white rice and fried ikan kembong other than sambal belacan with ulam. Doesn mean that you cannot have your sambal belacan with your rice if you're having anything but simple meal!

Mmy friends have been asking me for a "malay"-style sambal belacan. Apparently there's a malay-style sambal belacan and I didn even know it. lol!

Ok. This is how I make my sambal belacan here in the US. The reason why I said, "here in the US" is because its not easy to find red chili (cili hidup) and there's no limau kasturi either. The size of the red chili is also only half or 1/3 of what Im used to back home.

5 red chili
3 thai chili
1/2sq inch of belacan
2 teaspoon sugar
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoon lime juice

Method

If you have a mortar & pestle, you can use it to pound all the ingredients. I do have them but minre is too small so what I normally do is to grind the chilies in the food processor and then only I transfer them. I still use the mortar & pestle to pound the rest of the ingredients. If you find it too hot, play around with the amount of sugar, salt & lime juice until you like what you're tasting. Like I said before, the same thing made by 2 different ppl will not taste the same.

Pisang goreng (Fried Banana)

Im already drooling just by typing those words. I can have pisang goreng everyday for breakfast and tea, just like i can have currypuff, nasi lemak, cekodok, kuih keria, pulut panggang and if I dont stop now, il be in deep trouble.

Among all those things that I mentioned earlier, pisang goreng is the easiest one to make. All that you need is plaintain (sliced about 1cm), vegetable oil and the batter. To make the batter, here's the ingredient: (which btw is the 1st time I use measurement!)

2 tablespoon of flour (multi-purpose)

1 tablespoon of tempura flour

A pinch of tumeric powder

A pinch of salt

12 tablespoon of cold water

Method

Heat the oil in a deep pan. Mix all the ingredients above into batter. Coat the plaintain with the batter and fry them when the oil is hot. Keep turning them until they are golden brown and serve. That's it. ;)

Philly Cheesesteak

Im sure most of you have heard/tried a cheesesteak before and if you live if PA, theres no need to make it yourself. Just go to any pizza place and order some. Unfortunately here in CA, its hard to find a good cheesesteak. Yes, there's a lot of place that sells the so-called "cheesesteak" and if you have never had the real Philly cheesesteak, im sure they would taste pretty good. but for hubby (who doesnt eat a lof of things), it does make a difference. So eversince we moved here, iv been making the philly cheesesteak myself. Its actually pretty easy so if you like them, i hope you'l try mine. Oh, the easiest way to slice the meat very thinly is to do it while they'r stil frozen.

Ingredients

1lb of meat (thinly sliced)

1 cup of chopped onions

2 tablespoon of oil

salt & pepper to taste

2 rolls

mayonaisse

cheese

Method

1. Spread the rolls with mayonaisse and place a piece of cheese. Put aside.

2. Heat the oil on high. Add the meat and onions, stirring constantly.

3. Add salt & pepper and continue stirring until the meat is brown.

4. Put the meat in the rolls

5. Enjoy!

Pisang Palembang (banana in syrup)

I cudn remember what it was called until my cousin, Farah told me about it. So I changed the title fr sira pisang to pisang palembang. Thanks Farah. muah!

My first food posting. You would have probably known by now (fr my previous ranting on makan) that i love banana. Our last visit to albertson, i found a few plaintain much to my delight. I guess its a season thingy coz its been months since i last find them at the supermarket.

Anyways, i decided to make my fav dessert which is sira pisang or basically banana in syrup. All you need is:

1 banana or plaintain (sliced)

1 egg (beaten)

oil to fry

Syrup

2/3 cup sugar

1.5cup water

Firstly, boil the water and add sugar. Set it aside. Heat the oil. Dip the sliced banana in the egg and fry them until golden brown. Lastly, put the banana in the syrup.

You can have it hot or cold. I prefer mine cold/chilled so I will put them in the fridge for a few hours before enjoying them.