LOVE IS

Strawberry Twist

2011-02-18T08:39:00.001-08:00

I replaced the blueberries with strawberries and it tastes just as great!

Saying Cheese

2011-01-12T18:28:00.000-08:00

The entire team enjoyed it so here's the recipe. Easy Peasy.. I made it on a weekday evening and all ingredients can be obtained from your local hypermarket. Just have confidence.

BTW. Happy Birthday Maizul:)

For the base:
About 200gms Mc Vite's Digestive Biscuits
blitz in a food processor / blender with about 100 gms soft butter (i find SCS unsalted most reliable).
Blend till you get an almost wet sand consistency then tip over into a mould. I used a Pyrex tart/ pie dish (about 20 cm in diameter). Use the back of a spoon to flatten base and push some to the sides (see pix and you will know what I mean)

Put in the fridge and chill for about two hours. I chucked it into the fridge and went off to check on Leanne's homework.

When you come back, you can get on with the cream cheese filling.

This is what you'll need:-

200 gms Cream Cheese (Philly - not much choice here and please resist the temptation to go for the cheap ones) - Ensure cheese is at room temperature (this normally needs two hours out of the fridge if you're doing this in the evening/ night).

Whisk into the Cream Cheese, about 30-40gms of icing sugar (sifted please cos you don't want lumps) and about 1/2 tsp vanilla essence. You can use a cake beater or a hand held electric whisk to whisk until smooth.

Once that's done, you'll need to get to the whipped cream (in this recipe gelatin is not used. Its the whipped cream which holds the cheese together)

Use about 180ml of whipped cream (I used Emborg for this recipe but you can also use Paul's) whipped cream until firm (OK this may be the trickiest part of the recipe.. some experience with whipping up cream will definitely be useful).

anyhow, empty cream into a bowl and use a whisk. Whip until it starts to get firm then go slowly. You should whip until it forms soft peaks. When it starts to happen be careful.. because the if you whipped too much it starts to get watery and churns into butter. So with whipping cream, less is more... to be on the safe side... You'll get the hang of it after a while.

Now after the whipping cream is ready, tip it into the cheese mix and slowly fold until both mixtures are combines... Dollop it onto the biscuit base and smooth top. This needs to set over night.

I was looking for fresh cherries/ strawberries for the topping but they were not fresh. There were blueberries though so I decided to make a blueberry compote.

To do this put fresh blueberries ( I used about 200 gms ) and a small bit of water - 3-4 tbsp and 2-4 tbsp of sugar (your call depending how sweet you want the compote to be). Cook over slow fire until blueberries are soft. This took me about 15 minutes. Cool.

I let mine cool over night and in the morning spread it over the cream cheese.

This is optional but if you like you can whip a little more cream (150-200ml) and pipe it on.

I toasted some almond flakes to add some bite to the cake and scattered some fresh blueberries to finish the cake off.

This is an option where you don't have to use too much cheese but you get everything that's needed for a yummy cheese cake. Enjoy!.

Mutton Rendang

2011-01-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

It's strange but for some weird reason I feel compelled to write this post today!
It's for a recipe of Mutton Rendang which I made last night!. I am sure the reason for this will come to me soon and when it does, I will report it.

I followed the recipe on Elise Handy's cookbook - pg 50 for Chicken Rendang. Its a very old cook book and there was no electric cooker back then.

Anyway, here are the ingredients:-

1 kg of Local mutton (cut into bite sized pieces, with excess fat trimmed off, washed and drain)

I have a national electric cooker which I fondly call the magic cooker because you can literally chuck what you want in it, set the programme and it sorts itself out... well not really that simple - you will still have to gauge the timing to make sure that the texture turns out well.

OK on with this...

In the pot , mix together

1. A paste of blended shallots (10-12 -- tip, you can never have too much shallots so go for it, i usually add in a large onion as well), 3 cloves of garlic (now go easy on garlic, in my opinion too much garlic flattens out the taste of a dish, 4-6 tablespoons of coriander seeds (biji ketumbar - no need to dry fry first), 1 tsp of jintan manis powder and 25-30 dried chillies (soaked with hot water and remove most of the seeds, otherwise you get this bits and pieces of it). Tip: Don't add too much water to the spice blend otherwise the rendang will be too watery and by the time it dries, the texture of the meat will be too soft. Just add enough to allow the blender to run smoothly -- what you can do is flick the switch on and gradually add in water until its able to whizz comfortably -- after a while you'll get a hang of this.

2. Throw in 4-5 slices of lengkuas (crushed lightly). Now make sure your lengkuas is fresh because it really makes a difference in the taste. Fresh lengkuas (pinkish and easy to cut into) will make the dish very robust but if you use a old woody one, the taste becomes "dull". So when you go to the market, buy a small root instead of a large on. Lengkuas is on my weekly marketing list and this ensures I always have a fresh root in the fridge. The same goes for serai, ginger (young) and turmeric.

3. Add in 4-6 stalks of serai - lemongrass (if large stalks use less please) - crush lightly.

4. A small cup of fresh coconut milk. Well RM2 if you're buying it from the wet market. Not too much again.. otherwise dish will be too watery.

5. And finally 2-3 tablespoons of kerisik (fried coconut). You can get it from the sundry shops, or the shop where you get your santan from at the wet market or even at the curry powder racks at hypermarkets.

Mix everything together. Give it a good stir. Add salt to taste (abt 2 level tsps).

Now its just setting the pot:-

1. Boil for 30 mins then switch to;
2. Slow cook for 1 hour (well the programme is set to an hour (min) but what I do is, to stop it at about 40 mins and re prog it for another 1 hour of slow cook ...so its about 1 hr and 40 mins of slow cook). If you have more meat, I suppose the time will increase. What I do is after setting the second 1 hour of slow cook, i just leave it and go to bed - and when I wake up in the morning, I have mutton rendang with my home made bread (now that's topic for another session). FYI, the pot keeps the rendang warm for at least 8 hours!

Note: the timing is different for chicken, I haven't perfected that but when I do, I will post it.

So try it, post me your comments/ results.

2009-10-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

Its a piece of cheesecake... recipe coming soon:)

2009-10-16T18:32:00.002-07:00

Cupcakes for sale.. More details soon:)

2009-10-16T18:32:00.001-07:00

OX LUCK!

2009-06-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

OK i am truly guilty of not updating my blog - evidence being - i had to trace the site from Oca's Quispmore blog... for the life of me I could not remember the name of my own blog site!

Updating may not even be the action word here as I never even started...

Well, the year of the ox has bestowed upon me the usual lackluster bought of luck... Given a choice, I would rather go for uneventful... but that would be wishfull thinking:)

I am now without a maid... and without a mom (gone off to babysit my sis's new born)..

I am up at 5.30am and off to bed by 12.30am... i was counting (using my fingers) the number of hours I am awake each day but my math savvy mom advise me to count the hours I get to sleep... cause that makes easier counting... 5 fingers can kautim already...

Ben (my 2-year old) does not want to go to the babysitter's... my sis advised me to rationalise things with him by telling him that "Mommy's got to go to work.. so you have to go to Aunty's house... I told him just that and he said, " Dowan, dowan, dowan... noneed noneed noneed".. so where do I go from there now.

I have an eight year old who "doesn't really care" about her school work... so I have to sit for at least an hour and a half with her in the evenings to make sure she even opens her books! We call her the queen of alergies and she is allergic to dust mites, wheat products, dairy products and schrimp... so its a task just thinking of what to feed her.

Perhaps I shall share, in this blog, my gluten free recipes and recipes for busy working mums who have to feed their families on the go..

So stay tuned:)