Max Brenner!

This post is a little late, but I still need to thank my 3 lovely sisters who are in Brissie at the moment! Last week mom went to the Land Down Under to visit them, and look what she brought home for me! A chocolate fondue set from the Max Brenner shop!!!

A packet each of dark and milk chocolate chunks and a fondue tower for 2

I still haven't decide when I'm gonna devour them yet. Well, I'm suppose to share it with my hubby, but I think I might just hoard it for myself and worry about that ill-fitted pair of jeans later.

Thanks Sis!!!

I Love Holiday Season

No, frankly I think I should hate holiday season. It's always time where I stuff my face silly, and skip my dance classes. Which of course translates to extra pounds in unwanted areas because I'm simply adding on calories to my body without burning them off properly. Wait. I do burn them off, all this laughter with family and friends are good cardio exercises! ;) Hey, I just found a reason to eat more!!! *grin*

Fat One BBQ Steamboat Truck

Well, yesterday we had a nice family get together (well, YS invited some of her friends too, since she hasn't seen them for a long time). Ophie also invited her family to join us and unfortunately, TW's family couldn't come because of other commitments. In all we had about 30 ppl and thought it was a good idea to bring in a steamboat truck *drools* For days we pondered on what should be on the list of food in the steamboat session, and knowing the glutton among us *ehem* we almost ordered enough food to serve 70 ppl!!! Thanks to the good advice of Fat One steamboat, we reduced our order to quite a reasonable amount (approx. 400 sticks of seafood/meat/vege).

Extra orders for those not into steamboat and for the x-tra hungry ones

Mom was still worried that we won't have enough to eat, and decided to order some fried mee hoon and fried rice too. At first it still didn't seem enough, but by the end of the day, we were shocked to see how much we have overestimated our ability to chuck in food. We only managed to clear about 50% of the food on the steamboat truck and probably another 30% of the extra orders.

Just like the stuffs you see in pasar malam - only difference is
we get to choose what goes on the truck

It was nice too that they have some bbq sausages and meat to go with the steamboat, and also a pot of boiling tomyam soup to go with our favourite fried fu chuk and oyster mushrooms. Just thinking about it makes me hungry again. Fret not, we still have leftovers from yesterday's feast in the fridge to clear! These nice folks from Fat One Steamboat helped us packed all the left overs nicely, together with all the extra peanut sauce, sweet sauce, chilli and even the tomyam soup!

Birthday cuppies for my cuz complete with yoga poses :)

Also coincidentally my cousin's birthday falls on the Xmas eve, so we decided to surprise him with some cupcakes, made by yours truly and assisted by my 2 beautiful assistants YS and SS, along with our guest decorators Mr. Goo and Joseph... hehe...

We had a splendid evening, with our family members and friends, complete with scrumptious food and lots of laughter. Lovely :)

A Weekend of Food and Fiesta

Last Saturday our farmyard members decided to host an early birthday celebration for TW. Of course it was just an excuse to get together and stuff ourselves silly again. We had a nice dinner at Tong Tong, a restaurant just of 5 minutes walk from my place and after that we had a nice homemade mango ice cream (by yours truly of course) and a cake cutting session :)

That's us trying to blow the candle together
(though I really looked like I was about to suck in the cake)

Sunday it was Father's Day... and this time we thought we'd have a steamboat session, something we haven't done for quite a long time. From the morning I started to prepare the tomyam soup and porridge. Mom got the fresh ingredients from the market while I got the frozen stuff from Giant supermarket. WL on the other hand bought his favourite pork slices from the non-halal section at Tesco Extra.

The table ready for our steamboat session

Everything seemed to be in order at first. I had the table nicely set, we had plenty of food to put into the 2 pots, one for porridge and one for tomyam soup. I had an induction cooker that we could use and mom had another. We were happily getting ready to start when mom's cooker started beeping non-stop and giving funny error codes on the screen.

No matter what we did, the cooker would not stop beeping, and wouldn't even heat up. *sigh* In the end we had to make do with just one cooker and swapped the two pots whenever the other reached the boiling stage. After the dinner we had some durians by TW's family...and some pineapple from Ophie's family.

Halfway through the dinner I had to take a photo ...cheeezzze

There were also a plenty of leftovers. I had porridge enough to feed 3 persons and half a pot of tom yam soup. Fortunately for me, that'll be my breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next 2 days :P

Rock Melon Lime Sorbet

Just the other day I had a sudden urge to make honeydew sorbet... but instead of getting a honeydew, I found a good deal at the supermarket for rock melon, and so I got that one instead. I compared several honeydew lime sorbet recipes online and decided to do some experiments.

The melon I bought weighed about 2kg, so I split them into 2 so that I could experiment with different flavours. The first half I try to keep the melon taste as original as possible, only adding a little bit of sugar to taste. Add sugar sparingly. It is best to test the melon to see if it is already sweet enough to your taste. In my case I used about 1/4 cup of sugar to half a melon.

The second half I added some lime juice to it. I like this version better. Also added 1 egg white (I used meringue powder as a substitute) as a stabilizer but you can always omit this and keep it simple. But you'll need to get the ice cream out 15 mins from the freezer before serving coz it can get pretty hard to scoop.

Ingredients (makes approx. 1 quart)

Group 1

1/2 rock melon cubes (weighs approx. 1kg before removing seed and skin)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon citrus fruit liqueur (it can be lemon or orange)
1 egg white or meringue powder as a substitute (optional)
--------
Group 2

grated lime zest
approx. 1/3 cup of lime juice


Combine the melon cubes, sugar and fruit liqueur and let it stand for about an hour or so in room temperature, stirring every now and then. Then pour everything (Group 1 and Group 2) into a food processor, and blend until you get a nice smoothie consistency. You can skip group 2 if you would like to have a pure melon sorbet. Also if you plan to use egg white, blend it in now. Refridgerate overnight or at least several hours before you pour it into an ice cream maker.

If you do not have an ice cream maker, you can freeze it directly in the freezer, but every 30 minutes while it freezes, check and stir vigourously with a spoon or spatula. Repeat until ice cream is completely frozen. This should probably take 2 hours or less depending on your fridge.

White Chocolate-Lingonberry Cheesecake Bar

Everyone was back home for CNY, which also means it was a perfect time to bake a cake. Guinea pigs!!! Heee hee hee... Neither my sisters nor their bfs have tried my cheesecake before, so I decided to experiment with another recipe from Kraftfoods. I made some changes to the recipe to suit what I had in my fridge.

The result? I had lots of approvals, though it was possible that they were simply hungry after several rounds of rummy games.

Anyway, here's my own version improvised from the original recipe:

Ingredients

1 packet of Oreo cookies, finely crushed
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
3 squares White Chocolate, divided
500gms (16oz) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp sour cream
2 eggs
1/4 cup lingonberry jam (from IKEA)


HEAT oven to 350ºF. Mix cookie crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch square pan. Melt 2 chocolate squares in a microwave on High for 20-30 seconds.

BEAT cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add melted chocolate; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.

BAKE 25 to 28 min. or until center is almost set. Cool 5 min.; spread with lingonberry jam (or any other preferred preserves. Melt remaining chocolate square; drizzle over cheesecake. Cool cheesecake completely. Refrigerate 4 hours.

*Tip: It helps to line the pan with aluminium foil first for easy cake removal. Apart from acting as a handle, it makes cleaning easier too!

Azuki Bean Ice Cream

I finally succeeded at making some Japanese red beans ice cream that received approvals from my mum, my sisters and and my sister-in-law. The last attempt was a failure as I reduced the amount of sugar required, resulting in a bland and tasteless ice cream. Thanks to my mum's constructive comments, I did another experiment and finally got the right blend :) Here's the recipe!

This recipe makes about 1 quart

For the azuki paste
1 cup washed azuki beans
1/3 cup sugar
3 cups water
A pinch of salt

For the ice cream
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar (or 1 cup if you prefer to have it a little sweeter)
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the azuki paste: Put beans in a saucepan full of water, bring to a boil, then drain in a colander. Return beans to pan, add 4 cups of water, cover and simmer until beans after very soft and have absorbed all the water. Stir in sugar and cook over low heat until sugar has dissolved and beans form a soft, chunky paste. Add salt and allow to cool. (I used the slow cooker for this which save me the trouble of watching over the stove. Simmering time maybe between 2.5-3 hours long, depending on the beans. Also with the slow cooker you can put everything in at once).

For the ice cream: In a saucepan, combine the milk and cream and bring to a simmer. While waiting, you can beat the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl. When the milk come to a boil, turn off the heat and pour about 1/4 cup of the liquid into the bowl with the egg yolk and whisk until smooth. Pour the yolk mixture back into the pan with the rest of the milk and cook over low heat until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (custard like consistency). Stir in vanilla essence. Do not overcook or you may get lumps. Pour it through a strainer if required. Refrigerate until ready to use, preferably overnight.

The original recipe calls for adding the bean paste to the ice cream just 10 minutes before it freezes but I prefer to stir the beans (cooled) into the custard before I refrigerate it overnight. The amount of paste to stir into the custard is according to your preference - I used only half the amount prepared. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Good luck!

Yummy Oreo Cupcakes

Our school is having a fundraising activity this Friday as part of "Our Neighbourhood" theme. Apart from letting the children experience fun baking at school, it's the act of kindness that we would like to instill in them. All proceeds from the bake sale will be channeled to an orphanage.

And so all the teachers got really excited and tried various cupcakes recipes - some plain ones (so that the children could decorate them), and others with a variety of ingredients e.g. orange poppy seed, pandan, etc.

I managed to download a recipe from VeryBestBaking.com, which looked relatively simple. Instead of using chocolate morsels as recommended, I replaced it with Oreo instead. And the result was simply delicious! A must try!

Mmm...heavenly ;)

Recipe

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
220 gms butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 packet of Oreo (150g) - crushed into small pieces

Preheat oven to 180 deg C or 375 deg F.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Meanwhile, beat the softened butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture alternately with milk. Stir in crushed Oreos. Spoon into muffin cups, filling 3/4 full (you'll get about 20-22 cakes with a 60mm size cups).

Bake 18-20 minutes or until top springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

**You may reduce the sugar by 1/4 or 1/2 cup if you prefer them to be less sweet.

Time to go home

Decided to give myself a weigh too after packing my luggage and confirmed that everything is within 20kg. Guess what? I put on 2kg! Where on earth did that 2kg come from???






Hurricane's Grill website
Max Brenner's website

Happy Birthday Aunty Sandra

Sandra invited us to a gathering at Delicious restaurant to celebrate her 22nd birthday. Little did I realise that it was not just a small gathering, but was quite a big group with close to 30 people! Sandra had to go round every table to greet all of us, and while waiting to take photo with the birthday gal, we kept ourselves amused with the camera.

Of course Lyne was always hiding away, and then started taking some nice photos with the glasses and coasters, and that got me going too....

Lyne (her hands) modelled for the photos

Anyway, when finally we got to take photos with Sandra, Michelle looked as if she was possessed :P

Scary...

All in all, we had a good meal, portion was good for the price we have to pay and taste was not bad neither (unfortunately we were so hungry that we licked the plate clean before anyone had a chance to take photos...he he he)

Hope you had a blast, Sandra!

Chef ST

I cooked up a feast for 15 today! A small Christmas get together with close friends and a majority have voted for a tapas rather steamboat. And so I made some tortilla española (wished I had some jamon to go with it), albondigas, mini pizzas, and even sushi!!!

Haha...it's really embarassing... the final result was acceptable but there have been a lot of rejects during the preparation process. Of course, those rejects cannot be presented to the guests, and where did they go? No, not in the dustbin... never waste food! They all went into either my stomach or TW's... he he he... now I see why some chef tend to look a little round :P.

Just a fraction of what I prepared for this small feast

Thanks to all who came and cleaned the plates for me. No leftovers! Hooray! It's possible that I didn't have enough food or they are just being courteous. Either way I am happy that there are no wastage........ except for that extra jug of Sangria in the fridge. I made 2 but only one was cleared. Most have opted for non-alcoholic beverages. Now... how on earth is the 2 of us going to gulp down the balance? :S

And oh, my cookies!!! I finally found people who knows how to appreciate my soft cookies! Muahahaha...

Next year we will have more houses to use as a gathering place now that most of us are married! :D Anyway, TW did ask if I would cook up another meal like this again.... and I replied..."Why not? Just not so soon, need time to recover!!!" Hehehe...

Cookies & Christmas Tree

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way......

I am SOOOOOOOO in the mood for Christmas... ha ha ha... TW thought it would be nice to brighten up the house a little with a Christmas tree, and so we went shopping for one :D Both of us was equally eager to put those decorations on the tree ... but I know we won't be so enthusiastic when it comes to putting it away later! Anyway it was deeply satisfying to see the end result :)

Ain't it beauuuuuuutiful?

Of course I can't miss out baking, can I? SS and I tried to be patissière and attempted to bake some cookies that taste better than Famous Amos. Frankly it didn't taste too bad at all.... with every bite one could taste lots of chocolate chips and nuts. There was one teenie weenie bit of problem though. I must have accidentally used a brownie or a soft cookie recipe... ha ha ha... Other than that it was perfect :D

Better than Famous Amos Double Choc Cookie...erm, I mean brownie

And it's so much fun making little presents for the upcoming gift exchange! Just can't wait!

CNY APIIT Gathering

The Magnificient 7 who turned up on 3/3/07....EHEM...

Vivien has never given up trying to organize a get together for our APIIT gang every CNY. This year is no different. Unfortunately, the number of attendees seems to dwindle every year. I find it sad that some of us are not even making a teenie weenie bit of effort to make it, nor even bothered to reply that they are not coming; c'mon, it's only ONCE a year thingie! (Ok, those who are not in town or with valid reasons can be excused).

Anyway, we did have a great time, with great seafood and Yee Sang of course (probably my 10th time this year) in Unique Seafood Restaurant at Sect 13, PJ. Hopefully next year Vivien will have better luck gathering more people to come - "Don't give up Viv, we still need someone to do the job! Thanks a million!!!"

Colourful Yee Sang

Even before the CNY approaches, I have tossed the Yee Sang for more than 3 times already. This is a unique custom practiced extremely popular in Malaysia (well, and in our beloved neighbouring countries too) as a way to "toss up" good health, prosperity and good luck. However, for our case, its not so much for those reasons listed, but simply because we just adore the dish.

The dish is basically a salad containing vegetables like julienne carrots and white radish (and few others of I-dunno-what, pomelo, crackers, peanuts, and most importantly, the raw fish. Nowadays you can get variations like Salmon, Abalone, Jellyfish, and even Sashimi Prawns! Plum sauce is used for the dressing; and the sweet and sour taste makes it really appetising. :D Last year I had about 7-8 times of Yee Sang. I can probably break the record this year...ke ke ke..

Makan-makan Malaysia

My family forego the plan of going to Taiwan because of I couldn't make it. We headed for Penang instead. It must have been a blessing in disguise cause Taiwan was hit by an earthquake on the same day that we returned from our northbound trip.

So, what did we do in this trip? Well, to start with, the 10 of us set off on Christmas eve morning with a nice dim sum to fill our tummies. On our way, we stopped at Teluk Intan to have our favourite Ah Chai rojak*.

Yummy Ah Chai Rojak

Oh, and did I mention that all the Leong sisters were dressed in a uniform? Well, not exactly a uniform but we had the exact same polo T-shirt. We definitely caught everyone's attention no matter where we went ... he he he...

After that, we visited a goat farm in Chenderiang, a small town next to Tapah. The kids were soooo cute.... when they saw us, they immediately greeted us, "meeehhh... meeeehhhh.....". Yi San tried to carry one of them and the poor fella went "MEEEEHHH!", which I assumed to be "Put me down!".

"MEEEEEHHHH!!!"

From Chenderiang, we headed straight to Penang, and checked-in to the hotel first. Then, for dinner we went to Tanjong Tokong. There we indulged in 4kg of salt-baked prawns, 1kg of grilled crabs, 30 sticks of satay, or chien**, grilled stingray, stir-fried vege, fried meehoon, spicy la-la, gung bao*** mantis prawns and I have probably missed a thing or two from the list. A feast that could feed at least 20. Unfortunately, I had my fingers all dirty from peeling prawns and crabs, I didn't manage to take a photo.

Of course that was not all, immediately after we went to Gurney drive for 2nd helping of Penang food. That was how we discovered that "White" Christmas exists here! There were lots of stalls selling party SNOW spray: 4 for RM10. All the youngsters were having fun spraying at their friends and passerbys, including cars. Though we tried to stay away from them, we were not fully spared as the wind helped spread the "SNOW". I had to refrain from taking photos to avoid getting my camera all "SNOWY". We returned to hotel after having our muar chi and crunchy mango rojak.

Again the very next day it was all about FOOD. We had our routine breakfast at Soong river, one of the restaurants located by the seaside near Gurney drive. Our usual orders: steamed rice noodles with fish (I don't know what type), braised noodles with prawns, fried chicken wings, etc. After breakfast we went to Prangin Mall, and while doing our window shopping, stumbled across a Reflexology center and 7 of us decided to get some massage. Sebastian (first-timer) was heard screaming throughout the foot massage session. Me on the other hand fell asleep during the session. We also had a ear-candling session.

All ready for foot reflexology

If you have been following me closely from the beginning, you should be able to guess by now that our next activity was of course to EAT. It was cendol time :D

Enjoying ice cold cendol on a hot sunny day

Tired yet? Wait! I still have not talked about the assam laksa at our favourite no. 11 stall at Gurney drive (yes, again). And not to forget... *drum rolls* : FRIED CHICKEN SKIN! Yes, you heard me right the first time, an extremely sinful delicacy but Oh, so yummy!

SS taking a bite of the fried chicken skin

That was just a pre-movie snacking. We watched Confessions of Pain at GSC in Gurney Plaza (original plan was to watch Curse of the Golden Flower but it was a full house), and proceeded for our dinner at NS Nasi Kandar. The portion was really big and they gave lots of kuah**** :D

Ok, ok....that's basically the end of our Makan-makan trip. Erm, ALMOST......aside from the breakfast at Soong River again the next morning before our depart and another stopover at Ipoh for char koay teow, sotong kangkung and chee cheong fun. BURP!

THE LEONG FAMILY

*rojak = fruit salad a la malaysian [pronounced as "row jug"]
**or chien = fried oysters with eggs
***gung bao = fried with dried red chilis and dark soya sauce
****kuah = gravy