Chocolate Cake

My little Prince was singing this little rhyme...My Mummy is great, My Mummy is better than chocolate cake and I asked him where he learnt it and he said its from The Cat In The Hat DVD..ha!ha! That made my DH yearning for a piece of real chocolate cake!

I have been dying to try a recipe given by a friend of mine. She said that its out of this world. So, since there's a request in the house, I decided to bake myself a chocolate cake with ganache icing.  Instead of just adding hot water, I added 3/4 cup of cappuccino. The only that I did not have enough was the chocolate for the ganache....meh, its alright! It would still taste yummylicious!!! What can be more fabulous than chocolate cake since it makes you happy!  Scientists have mentioned that eating chocolate makes you happy because it contains phenylephylamine (the same hormone the brain triggers when you fall in love). I don't mind falling in love with my DH and my 2 precious kids every single day...yes-siree!!!

Here's a photo or two of the chocolate cake.

Bate, bate, chocolate...
Happy chocolate-caking!!!

Mun Yee Mee (Braised Yee Mee Noodles) & Rice Cooker Chicken Rice

Mun Yee Mee (Braised Yee Mee Noodles) is an all favourite 1-Dish Meal in my family.  Its a really easy dish to do. Firstly, I will just "mun" which is a Cantonese word for braised the dried mushrooms with a stock made of chicken broth, oyster sauce, soy sauce, chinese cooking wine and seasonings. Once its ready, just add in the meat of your choice, fishcakes, fishballs, etc. Then add in the yee mee and vegetables. Lastly, break 1-2 eggs into the noodles and braise for another 1-2 mins. Voila...that's it! Lunch is ready!!!

Here's a photo of the Mun Yee Mee.

Hainanese Chicken Rice...this is another 1-Dish Meal which my family won't get jelak with. I can tell you this...they can eat chicken rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner if you allow them to.  Whenever I cook chicken rice for my friends, they will always associate it with Singapore. Hmm..I always wonder why they do that since there's also chicken rice in Malaysia and Thailand.
If you follow the old fashion way of preparing this dish, you will have to boil the whole chicken in a broth made from chicken bones and pork bones (optional).  After its cooked, it will be dipped into ice water and this type of chicken is known as "white chicken" (pak cham kai). According to my Grandma, to maximize the oil extraction, I should use old and fat (plump) chicken. This stock will be for the rice preparation besides garlic, ginger, lard (chee yau char) and pandan leaves. We also have to prepare the chicken rice chilli sauce which consists of red chilli, ginger and garlic with squeezes of lime juice. Some places will have cucumbers, tomatoes and even oyster sauce kai lan vegetable to complete the dish.  This is the method which I followed when I was younger. However, now, I will use any short-cut method I can find or come out with as I am always so busy with my DH and my 2 precious kids. It seems like 24 hours a day is just ain't enough.

How do I do it? Simple...just marinate the chicken with sesame oil and soy sauce for at least 1 hour. Prepare the rice like the old fashion way - fry garlic and ginger with oil and sesame oil. If you want to use lard, by all means. Then I will fry the chicken for a minute or two, scoop up the chicken and fry the washed rice till its coated with the oil in the pot. Pour in your chicken stock, some seasonings and place the chicken on top of the rice. Add in your pandan leaves and cook it in your rice cooker as normal. I am happy to say that this method works well for my family and my friends (they did try it at home and their families loved it).

Here's a photo of the rice cooker chicken rice:

Till next time, happy makan-ing!!!

Spaghetti in Creamy Sauce

My little Prince is growing up and these days, he will come up with a list of things he wants for lunch or dinner :) In the late afternoon, he was asking his sister if they should have the whistling pasta for dinner tonite.  He called the penne pasta as the whistling pasta as he found out that he could whistle with it..ha!ha! However, we were out of penne pasta. So, I told him that we will become Cow-boys & Cow-girls tonite and have lasso pasta...ha!ha!....that's spaghetti to us adults.  He was a little disappointed but since I had time, I played Cowboys and Red Indians with him and that worked...phew!!!

I made a simple pasta for dinner as I was kind of down...might have caught a cold or something. I just boiled the pasta and while it was boiling, I chopped some garlic, ham, cauliflower (must hide this babies or my 2 precious will not eat it) and got ready the mixed herbs, thickened cream and cheese. Made dinner within 30 mins...wohoo!!  Here's a photo of our dinner:

Addio fino alla prossima volta!!!

Thai Fried Rice

My little Prince was asking why we don't go to any restaurants to eat like his friends in school. I guess at his little age, eating at home means eating healthier means nothing to him. So, DH decided to bring all of us to a chinese restaurant in Chinatown for some "restaurant" food. My little Prince fell in love with their Thai Fried Rice and was urging me to cook it again today. So, I came up with a version close enough for my prince to say "Mummy, Mummy! Its just like the one in the restaurant!!!"

Its a simple fried rice with garlic, onions, fishcake/fishballs, eggs, pineapple, kicap manis, Thai sweet chilli sauce and seasonings. Here's a photo of my version of Thai Fried Rice.

Laaeo phohp gan mai!!!!

Sugarworks

Sugarworks or Sugar Sculpture is really where you get your creativity juices flowing.  One really needs to get the techniques right first though - cast sugar, pulled sugar, straw sugar and blown sugar. Rock Sugar, Pressed Sugar, Spun Sugar and Pastillage are also in the list. It really takes time and lots of patience to do this...trust me on this as I cursed a few times under my breath in my sugarwork classes. If you have watched Kings of Pastry, you will know that it gets really emotional too. My heart broke when I watch the beautiful sugar piece broke and shattered and I really salute the Chef who continued finishing his art piece....yes siree!!!

Cast Sugar is the easiest as you just need to pour the sugar into mold or you can even do free hand.  You use this as a base. Here's a piece which was made from cast sugar only.

In the 2nd week, we made Pulled Sugar in class. Once the sugar is cooked, we had to pour it onto the silpat mat and we had to fold, twist and pull. This traps air and gives it a fantastic shine.  Mind you, its really hot and we had to rest our hands on the bench after 2-3 twists and pulls. We can make ribbons, flowers, leaves, etc with pulled sugar.  Here's a piece which was made from Cast Sugar (base) and Pulled Sugar.

In the 3rd & 4th week, we learnt Straw Sugar and Blown Sugar.  We made Straw Sugar from the Pulled Sugar. As the name stated, its sugar that looks like straw. You can even use it as a straw and drink from it...tried it and it worked..ha!ha!  As for blown sugar, you have to take a piece of Pulled Sugar and place it onto the tip of the bronze pipe which is attached to a hand pump. You really have to pump it slowly or it will burst and slowly shape it into anything you want. Here's two photos of Straw Sugar and Blown Sugar.

So...here's the few basic techniques and once you have mastered these techniques, you can create a wonderful sugar sculpture. It seems that sugar sculptures are becoming more and more popular and maybe, just maybe I will find it on a wedding cake one of these days.