Fish Balls and Prawn Crackers

Was in Malacca over the weekend and went around in search of things to have for breakfast. Bored with having our usual 'wan tan mi' and nyonya nasi lemak, WK suggested we have 'yu yuan'(fish balls) instead. We usually pack them for lunch but prefer eating them right at the stall this time around. I prefer to eat there even it it means having to eat like a cow (eat standing) just because the crackers are so much more crunchier.



This uncle usually hangs around Tong Hup as early as 10am to about 1pm. But he doesn't stays put at one location. Says that he will follow wherever the sun goes...haha...he'll be in the shaded area until the sun comes, then he'll moves to another location further down the road. He repeats this until the area is no longer shaded and will then move to another street.



This whopping plate of fish balls, 'tau kwa', prawn crackers, fish eggs and cucumber cost about RM 7. A standard plate cost about RM 5. One may choose to have just fish balls and tau kwa alone but I recommend the 'cham-cham' (mix everything).

Hanoi Fried Fish - Cha Ca and more...

We had one morning to do a quick tour around the city, so we asked the hotel reception what we could do or eat. I tried asking her name a couple of times but still could not get the actual pronunciation, so will refer to her as Ms. Hotel. Here's what she recommended:

Ms. Hotel: You MUST try the fried fish. Have you heard about it?
Us: No. Where is it? Is it far from here?
Ms. Hotel: It's on the list of 100 things you MUST eat before you die. You MUST try! It's very famous. It's not far from here, I can help you to call a taxi.
Us: Really, Ok. (in our minds, imagining that we are going to eat a whole fish, wondering what's so special about this fried fish)

Anyhow, we went to this place called Cha Ca La Vong and another street she recommended for rice cake. The whole street was filled with shops selling rice cakes in packages for wedding favors. Will let the photos do the talking....



It's fried fish fillet, not a whole fried fish! Taste wise, something different...tasty but a bit too oily for me.









Dried/preserved fruits...































Rice cake, which taste a bit like the 'ang ku kueh'.

Blackforest Cake

This was a super long overdue post, I actually had great photos taken by *hubs* for this cake....was too busy to transfer the photos from the desktop at home. It took me two days to bake and decorate the cake. Oh ok...not two whole days, but two whole evenings.

The recipe below, was taken from one of those baking magazine...err, can't remember exactly which celebrity chef it was..yeah, I did not want to buy the magazine just for the sake of this recipe. Already had a number of baking books, but this recipe was simple enough for me to want to make this cake. Credits to the chef....I love your recipe!



I omitted the blueberry filling though, added some cherry syrup to compensate for it. The cake turned out to be moist and tasted just like the store bought ones...hehe...sis said that it's the best tasting and best looking cake of all the ones I've been making. Actually, a number of them turned out to be a disaster...one was too sweet, others were too dense, too oily, too blend and too crumbly.

Also opted to use fresh cherries instead of glazed ones for a more natural flavour. But, the fresh cherries were sour and so expensive...will have to use glazed ones next time.....

A slice of blackforest cake anyone?

No Bake Granny Apple Cheesecake

Had 3 small Granny Apples left in my fridge and did not know else what to do with them. Been drinking apple juice for the past 2 weeks...yeah, they were too sour to eat, had to mix with some carrot juice.

Mum's birthday was around the corner and I've always wanted to make her a non-bake cheesecake. Just didn't know what flavour to do, already made blueberry, strawberry and Oreos....wanted to try something new. Found a recipe online but it was with eggs and ground cinnamon....didn't want any of these in the cake so I omitted them and modified the recipe a little...Granny Apple Cheesecake

Crust:
6 pieces Digestive biscuits
1/4 cup peanut butter, melted

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix well. Press firmly into a 8-inch springform pan( I used loose bottom type). Chill for 1 hour.

Apple-Cheese Filling:
1 tbsp gelatine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 cup low fat milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
500 gms Philly cream cheese
100 gms non diary whipped cream
2 large Granny Smith apples, pared, cored
and chopped into cubes (2 cups)

In a medium saucepan, combine gelatine with 1/2 cup sugar. Stir in milk and lemon juice. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk, until gelatine dissolves. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually beat in gelatine mixture. Stir in apple cubes. Chill, stirring occasionally, until mixture mounds slightly when dropped from a spoon.

In a small bowl, whip non diary cream with icing sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold into apple-cheese mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Chill overnight or 8 to 12 hours until firm.

The cake turned out to be a bit wobbly, tasted weird at first (first time tasting chilled apple cheesecake, not sure what to compare to) but the recipe's definitely a keeper.

More Rice Cooker Cake - Lemon Poppy Seed

Felt like eating cake the whole week and since I had a lemon in the fridge, decided to make a lemon poppy seed one. The recipe was from Panasonic's Orange Butter Cake (list of recipes from Happyhomemaker88's). I substituted the orange juice with lemon. Added 1 tbsp poppy seeds just before transferring into the cooker to bake.


It tasted rather sour the first bite but after that it was pretty appetizing. As seen, the cake is a little flat...didn't exactly rise properly but tasted just fine and moist.

Fa Gao and others...

Fa Gao made with Milo....recipe adopted and improvised from Lily's, but they tasted a little hard and weird...no wonder I don't see any recipe using Milo for cakes...


Double chocolate chip cake with chocolate sauce, recipe from Panasonic's rice cooker cake...


Funky fondant deco for sis's birthday cake....sis helped make her own piggy and roses...hehe...

Sweet Corn Ice-Cream with Fluffy Pancakes and more....

Been extremely busy with work lately and just felt like making some simple and appetizing food to cover for the stress....

*Sweet Corn Ice-Cream*
Ingredients:
1 can cream sweet corn (like the ones used for ice kacang)
1 can ready to eat sweet corn (sieve out salted water and soak in cold water for 30mins)
300gms creamer/coffeemate dissolved in minimum amount of water (use more for creamier ice-cream)

Method:
1. Blend 'cream sweet corn' with dissolved creamer until smooth
2. Pour into freeze proof container
3. Add in 'ready to eat sweet corn' and stir lightly to mix (do not stir too much as sweet corn will sink to bottom of container)
4. Freeze overnight



*Fluffy pancakes*
Recipe from here....but halved the recipe (which makes four pieces), except for the egg as I didn't want to make too much.

"Chicken mayo cucumber sandwich"

And other simple recipes...
*Lychee Ice-Cream*
*Stir Fry Angel Hair Spaghetti with mince pork and French Beans*

Banana Yogurt Cake with Fondant Icing

The cake was baked using a rice cooker....not just any normal rice cooker but one with cake baking function from Panasonic, comes with some cake recipes too!


Decided to try out the banana yogurt one because it sounded delicious....turns out quite yummy alright : )


Been wanting to make fondant icing for a long time but did not have the chance to. Since I was already spending time making the cake, might as well do the icing too...found this simple fondant recipe online (can't remember which site tho...copied it last year)

*Simple Fondant*

Ingredients :

15g powdered gelatine

60ml water

10ml liquid glucose

500g cup icing sugar

Method :

1. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water in a bowl and soak for 2 minutes.
2. Place the bowl in a pan of hot water and dissolve over very gentle heat.
3. Remove and add the glucose.
4. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the gelatin mixture.
5. Combine and then knead to a smooth paste.

This icing can be used for modeling decorations as well as covering a cake.

Makes enough to cover a 20cm round cake

And here's the end result...had to throw away most of the fondant tho. Too much sugar's no good but it tasted really good with the cake *all smiles*

Just Fruits...

Attempted to make a cake out of fruits for my dad's birthday....actually, there's no cake...just fruits!



But the wordings in m&m's chocolate failed miserably. Melted blue liquid...*sigh* Shall not use coloured sugar coated chocolates again....

Yummy Cupcakes

I have no baking utensils. BUT, i made do with whatever I have...NO, I did not bake the cupcakes...I have no time for that. Bought the cupcakes at only RM2 for 10 pcs (good deal eh...they also taste GREAT!) I made the icing tho....

Buttercream icing
150gms of margarine (did not use butter because my sis is allergic to milk)
150gms of sugar (used the coarse type...the only type I have at home)
*did not exactly measure these but estimated*
2 pcs of lime
A tiny drop of red colouring
Love letters (from our bunch of snacks)

Creamed the margarine until fluffy white using only a spoon and a metal bowl. Then added in sugar and stir till sugar is not so coarse anymore....my hand aches from the continuous half hour stirring....*sweats* But, the cream still tasted crunchy....Then stirred in the lime juice for some flavouring...was supposed to be for our maggi goreng...*hish*

And finally piped out using plastic and magazine paper....tore out from hon's iproperty.com...he hasn't read it yet...hehe...besides, it's outdated...

Piping failed miserably...ended up using spoon to smooth over the cupcakes instead : )

A Year Older A Year Wiser or Reunion?

Glutinous rice balls or better known with the Chinese as 'Tang Yuan'...if you're wondering what's that strip of thing in the middle, it's ginger : )

I asked mum a long time ago about us having to consume this desert towards every year end (not that it's difficult to savor, in fact, I LOVE it!) Well, she just said that it's for us to grow a year older and wiser. There's also a story that people in the olden days used to work hard for the whole year and do not have time to return for a family reunion. Thus, this festival (the name of the desert actually imply REUNION in Chinese) was created a month before the Chinese New Year to gather relatives to prepare for the celebrations...

Enough said about this desert, the very first item prepared from our new induction cooker. Also, there's the fried rice which took 'Hon' 1 1/2 hours to prepare. Tasted good, no doubt, but I was so hungry that I've already gulped down a bowl of our desert before it was ready.


Of course we had something else to compliment the already ever tasty fried rice...

Never knew that 1kg of this spicy cabbage could cost up to RM36 a bag....

Frozen Kimchi...Good things comes with a price I guess...

Home Cooked Yummies

Can't remember exactly when was the last time I cooked. I very much like to experiment on new recipes but don't have the time and space for it....actually don't have a kitchen of my own yet, so can't do much...anyway, managed to try out these two dishes with whatever was available in the fridge....
my very own mix of sweet & sour chic...


french bean omelet.....notice the platter behind which is also french beans...left over from the omelet...decided to make another dish for variety sake....