Fried Taukwa with Honey Peanut

I created this recipe with inspiration from a local dish called Rojak which uses prawn sauce and peanuts. I opted to make a sweet version instead.

Ingredients
1 pc of tau kwa extra firm tofu
Honey
1 tablespoon fine sugar
2 tablespoon of crushed peanut
Cornflour
Some cooking oil

Method
Cut a piece of tau kwa into 12 pcs.
Make sure you dry tau kwa.
Coat with corn flour n fry till golden brown.
Set aside on plate.
Mix 2 tablespoon of crushed peanuts with one tablespoon of fine sugar.
Drizzle honey onto tofu .
Scatter sugar peanuts on top n serve.

After frying - absorb oil using kitchen paper towels.

Drizzle honey - I love orange blossom honey.

Mix 1 tablespoon of sugar with 2 tablespoon of crushed peanuts

Plate it and serve! You can also serve with your own sambal chilli if you prefer a spicier dish.

 

Enjoy cooking!

Baked butternut pumpkin with portobello mushrooms

This is quite an amazing dish- easy to make n dish up. 

I adapted the recipe from allrecipes.com.au

I bought this butternut pumpkin from Fairprice. 

I also used this feta cheese for garnishing 

 

Ingredients :

1/4 butternut pumpkin (see picture above)

2 tablespoon of olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 sprig of Chinese parsley - chopped ( I chose only the leaves)

pinch of some salt

about 1 tsp of dried thyme (optional)

1 or more  Portobello mushroom, gill removed and cut into cubes

2 tablespoon of Kikkoman Soy Sauce

Use about 1-2 cm thickness of Feta cheese

 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 Celcius.
2. Remove as much as possible the skin of the pumpkin using a peeler n also the seeds.
3. Cut the pumpkin to 1 cm thick slices.
4.  Mince the garlic.
5.  Chop the parsley.
6. Add in cubed Portobello mushroom
7. Put inside a baking tin.
8. Add in the olive oil, sprinkled salt, thyme (optional) and drizzle the Kikkoman Soy Sauce. Mix everything up.
9. Bake for 30 minutes or until pumpkin is tender. I used about 25 minutes.
10. Dish up and serve with some crumbled feta cheese.

Note : There may be some skin left on the pumpkin. 

 

My husband ate everything but I am a picky eater, and left some skin behind.

Before baking

After baking

 

Serves 2 persons.

Suggested to serve with a green salad as a meal.

 

Happy baking!

 

Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread

This is the first time I am using pumpkin in bread n this recipe comes from http://www.bakedbyrachel.com/2013/10/pumpkin-cinnamon-swirl-bread-recipe/

 

Please follow the above link to get the method.

 

Dough

1/2 cup milk, heated to 115F  ( so I warmed up the milk and added in half unwarmed milk)

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1/3 cup plus 1 tsp granulated sugar, divided

1 egg

1 cup pumpkin puree - steamed the pumpkin and mash it

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp allspice

Pinch ground cloves

1 tsp salt

3 1/2 cup - 4 cup all purpose flour

 

Filling

2 tbsp. unsalted butter,softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 tbsp. cinnamon

 

Egg Wash

1 egg

1 tbsp. water

 

Note :

I omitted the ground cloves and I also could not fit the loaf into my regular loaf tin

Spices used

After proofing the dough - mixed spice filling n unsalted butter

Rolled out dough to spread the butter n filling

After baking / I couldn't fit into my regular loaf tin n I flipped the dough over

 

The bread is really very soft, next time I may divide the dough into 2 portions so that I can fit them into 2 regular loaf tins.

 

I also served my bread with some Planta margarine to eat.

 

Hope you enjoy baking this marvelous soft bread - thanks to Rachel's recipe.

Brown Sugar Meringues

 

Brown Sugar Meringues - recipe from Martha Day cookbook.

Made 18-20 pcs.
Recipe
Ingredients
115 gm fine brown sugar- original is light muscovado sugar
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon finely chopped walnuts(I replaced with almond flakes n semi sweet chocolate chips)

Method
1. Line 2 baking trays with non stick baking paper. Press the sugar through a sieve.
2. Whisk the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until very stiff n dry, whisk in the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until the meringue is very thick n glossy .
3.Preheat oven to 160 deg celcius.
4. Spoon small mounds of the meringue on to prepared trays.
5 . Press a few almond flakes or semi sweet chocolate chips into the meringues. Or sprinkle the finely chopped walnuts on the meringues. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking trays then leave on a wire rack.
Keep inside an airtight container.

Egg whites beaten stiff n brown sugar

Beaten with sugar - till glossy stage

Spoon onto lined trays n press on almond flakes or choc chips or walnuts bits

Yummy meringues ready to eat!

Kek Sarang Semut

This is the first time I made kueh n this using the oven to bake 

I like the caramel taste n my friends also liked the taste.

 

Please refer to original recipe written in Malay from sue-hasue.blogspot

http://sue-hasue.blogspot.sg/2012/11/resepi-kek-sarang-semut-mudah-dan-sedap.html?m=1

Please pardon any inaccuracies from the translation if any.

 

Recipe -

125 gm butter melted and cooled.

4 eggs

1/4 cup condensed milk or 2 tablespoon

1 cup plain flour

1 cup water

1 1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoon bicarbonate.

 

Method

 

1. Melt the butter and cool.

 2. Fry the sugar till melt and turn brown.

3. Add the cup of water to it and stir (this part I didn't do too well because the sugar crystallise a bit). cool this sugar water.

4. Beat the eggs lightly and add in condensed milk, stir to combine. Add in the melted butter, flour and bicarbonate. Add in the cooled sugar water and whisk to combine. (remember must really cool the sugar water)

5. Grease a 7 x 7 inch baking pan and sieve the mixture into the pan. Leave inside for 3-4 hours. Bake at 180C for 45 minutes.

 

The result, the sides of my cake turn browner. I cut off about 1.5cm off each side in case that portion tastes burnt.

 

 

Baked Pumpkin Balls

Hi everybody, Halloween is coming this month in October. I decided to try something too out of pumpkin.

I found this recipe Mini Pumpkin-sage balls from recipebridge.com.  When I went to buy sage, they were sold out. I made mine without sage in the end but they are still excellent.

I increased my ingredients from the original recipe but still ended up with 17 balls.

Recipe Baked Pumpkin Balls - makes 17 balls

Ingredients
180 gm pumpkin puree (Malaysia pumpkin excluding the skin)
1/2 onion finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
60 gm panko crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper, about 1/2 teaspoon
1 egg, beaten
2-3 tablespoon oil for frying

others - 1 frying pan and spatula, 1 medium mixing bowl, 1 small bowl to beat egg, 1 baking tray, cooking spray. chopping board and knife, steamer to steam pumpkin, bowl for pumpkin

Method

1. Cut the pumpkin to smaller chunks and place inside a bowl.  Weight of pumpkin 180gm. Using a electric steamer I steamed the pumpkin 20 minutes. Maybe 15 minutes will be sufficient.
2. While pumpkin is cooking, dice the onion and garlic.
3. Heat up the frying pan with 2-3 tablespoon oil.
4. Fry the onion till brownish.
5. Add in the garlic and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Do not use any charred onion or garlic which will give bitter taste.
6. Next, prepare a medium mixing bowl
7. Put the panko crumbs, salt, black pepper inside and mix.
8. Remove the pumpkin from the steamer and mash with a teaspoon.
9. Add pumpkin into the  breadcrumb mixture.
10. Add in the cooked onion and garlic.
11. Beat the egg and pour inside the bowl.
12. Mix everything up well.
13. Turn oven to 190 degree celcius.
14. Spray a cooking tray with cooking spray.
15. Wash your hands and form 16-17 balls about the size of small fishballs.
16. Put them on the tray.
17. Bake for up to 12 minutes only. Remove from the tray when bottom of balls is browned.
18. Do not bake too long or the ball may stick to your tray.  Remove immediately and put onto a plate.
19. Can eat on its own or serve it with tabasco sauce recommended in original recipe.

My ingredients 

Diced onion

Fried onion n garlic

Steamed pumpkin

Mashed pumpkin

Ingredients in mixing bowl.

Add in beaten egg n mix

Mixed pumpkin 

Oil the tray with cooking spray n place the formed pumpkin balls 

After 12 minutes baking - oil has disappeared. Remove balls immediately.

Delicious pumpkin balls!!

Eat on its own or with a dip

Oatmeal n raisin cookies

Oatmeal and raisin cookies

 

When I received a packet of oatmeal, I was really perplexed. I didn't know what to do with a 1kg of oatmeal.  In my memory, I didn't think oatmeal was delicious at all... so I decided to use them for other purpose.

 

Yesterday, my colleague bought some Quaker cookies and they were delicious! I decided to try using the Quaker recipe even though my oatmeal were not Quaker brand.

 

Here is the recipe

 

Ingredients

 

1 cup and 6 tablespoon of butter, softened -I used 195gm butter (SCS)

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used caster sugar)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 and 1/2 cup of plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups of Quaker Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked) I used Captain Oats quick cook oatmeal

1 cup raisin

 

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C .In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. I used an electric hand mixer.
2. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.
3. Add plain flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, mix well. 
4. Add oats and raisins, mix well.
5. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie trays. Please space out as the cookies will spread during baking  ( I will recommend to line the trays - I had to use my dough cutter to remove cookies and some broke)
6. Bake using the middle tray for up to 15 minutes.  Original says 8-10 minutes but they were soft. Cool 1 minute on the trays, remove to wire rack to cool completely.  Store tightly covered.

Most recipes online says cookies can be stored for up to 1 week.  Happy baking!!!

 

 

 

  I used this brand of oatmeal

Mixing the butter n sugars n flours n cinnamon

Added in the oatmeal n raisins

Very wet look after mixing

Space them out on trays

Crunchy cookies