Mee Goreng

Whenever I mentioned Mee Goreng, my friends tend to think its an Indian dish. However, mee goreng is a famous 1-dish meal from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Each race (Chinese, Indian, Malay and Eurasians) have their own version of this humble dish.

For me, I have my own version too which is passed down by my Grandma. I firstly prepare the mise-en-place which consists of garlic, shallots, fishballs/fishcakes, cubed potatoes, cubed chicken meat, beansprouts (taugeh), eggs and the sauces (dark sweet sauce, chilli paste, tomato sauce, chilli sauce, soy sauce and seasonings). Once I get my mise-en-place, its cooking time. Heat up the wok with some oil, and fry the garlic and shallots till fragrant. Add in potatoes, fishballs/fishcakes, cubed chicken meat and goreng (fry) till the meat is cooked. Add in the yellow noodles, fry for a minute or two, make a well and add in the eggs.  Scramble it and mix it with the noodles. Add in the sauce and lastly the taugeh.  Serve it hot (that's the best) and top some fried shallots, a squeeze of lime and red chilli.

Here's a photo of the mee goreng we had tonite....

One word... S E D A P !!!

Oh...before I forget, remember the soft buns which I made...its still pretty soft today!!! :)

Till next time....

Happy cooking!!!

Soft Buns

My 2 precious just love Breadtop breads and I am trying so hard to bake it at home and I found another recipe  from Alex Goh and here's how it went. Even though its Spring now, the weather has turn cold....its 15 degrees C now.

As always, I used my mixer with the dough hook to knead the dough. I don't have any expensive, arty farty equipment...just my humble Sunbeam Mixmixer and a desktop oven. I kneaded the dough for 12-13 mins and once I was able to see the window (window test), I let the dough proof till it doubled in size in the bowl. It took me more than 2 hours for my 1st proof. Once its doubled in size, I punched down,divide and roll into 40g dough balls.  Then, allow it to proof till it double in size again.  The weather turned colder, down to 13 degrees C and I decided to proof it with my MV. Finally, I eggwash and bake it in the oven at 200 degrees C till its golden in colour which took me about 12-15 mins.

What's the verdict? Who are my testers? My 2 precious and of course my DH.  It was really soft and fluffy but I am really not sure it will be so tomorrow and the following day.  My little Princess loved it and asked for seconds. Will update this post in a few days time.

Here's a photo or two of the little buns:

Happy baking, everyone!!!

Wat Tan Hor

Now...this is my another all time favourite 1-dish meal. Wat Tan Hor is a really popular dish is South East Asia countries like Malaysia and Singapore. I even found this dish in Thailand. Some places even sell is with ngau yoke (beef slices).  However, we don't eat beef due to our religion. Therefore, instead of beef, I tend to use chicken and other meat as a replacement.  It a simple dish to prepare...

Firstly, fry the hor fun (flat rice noodles) with oil and sesame oil. Add in some soy sauce and dark caramel sauce to give it some colour.  Fry it till the corners get a little burnt. Scoop and set aside.

Next, prepare the gravy. Just heat up the wok, add is some oil, garlic and ginger.  Add in the meat and stir-fry till its cooked. Add in the stock and bring it to boil. Throw in the fishballs, fishcake and other veggies. Add in cornflour mixture (to thicken the gravy) and seasonings. Once its cooked and just before dishing it out, add in the egg and stir till its cook. Pour the gravy over the hor hun and serve. Sedap!!! (Yummylicious!)

Here's a photo of my humble wat tan hor.

Till next time... Happy wat tan hor-ing!!!

Rice Cooker Chicken Rice with Veggies (new style of Claypot Chicken Rice)

I guess some of you know "Claypot Chicken Rice" very well.  This was one of my favourite dinner dish and I could only eat in on weekends as my family were free to bring me out and makan.  This 1-dish meal is normally served with lap cheong (chinese sausage) and vegetables like pak choy, dried mushrooms, etc. There will also be hum yu (salted fish) on the side. This dish is cooked in a claypot where the rice is cooked first.  Then, the marinated chicken, lap cheong and other ingredients are added in few minutes before the rice is cooked.  One thing I remembered...I had to wait very very long for this dish.

When I was younger, I often urged my Grandma to teach me how to cook this dish and when I grew older and were allowed to use the kitchen, I made this dish each week.  The "adults' always asked me if I jelak or not...since when will I be jelak of my own cooking...ha!ha!

When I got married, I still cooked this dish with a claypot. But, now, with my 2 precious, I take short-cuts. I also add in more vegetables...got to ensure they have their servings of veggies.  So, I ended up using my humble rice cooker.  So, here's my version of the this yummy dish that I don't get jelak with.

That's all for now...
Till my next cooking adventure....
Happy makan-ing!!!

Thin Butter Cookies

Butter cookies especially the ones in the big round blue tin (Kjeldens Danish Butter Cookies) was a favourite when DH and I were young. Once we finish eating those cookies, those big tins will be as boxes to store countless of stuff. Whenever I came across any butter cookies recipes, I begged my Grandma to try it, hoping that I could eat those yummy cookies whenever I wanted, not when the "adults" felt like buying it for me. However, I could never ever find any recipes which taste like Kjeldens.

Just few days ago, a friend of mine e-mailed me with a recipe with huge words stating that this is THE recipe which I was looking for since I was a young girl. I could not wait to try the recipe and as always, my tester is my DH...ha!ha!  The request was to have thin cookies...reminds me of thin mints....maybe I should find a recipe for that too... :)

The verdict...the cookies is not Kjeldens but its good enough for the whole family to finish it within the same day...cookie monsters!!!

Here's a photo of the cookies....

Till next time...keep munching, cookie monsters!!!

Mooncakes...

I am on a roll today...ha!ha! Its another post about my rumblings..my nonsense as my DH calls it. The mooncake festival has gone..its over. So, why in the world am I writing about it?  My little Prince was given a piece of mooncake at the temple and he said that the old uncle told him that this mooncake comes from the moon and there is a story behind it. My little Prince kept pestering me to tell him the story about the mooncake and I told him this version and it goes like this (my version, anyway):

There's a beautiful Goddess named Chang-Er who lives on the moon. That's why when the moon is full, if you try hard enough, you will see this beautiful Goddess. She lives there with her only companion which is the Jade Rabbit. Whenever you see the full moon, you know that Chang-Er has visitors and she is doing a wonderful dance for them and chatting with them. During the mid-Autumn festival, a lot of families will set up an altar facing the full moon and worship Chang-Er. Mooncakes are placed on the altar for her blessings and she will blessed her worshippers with good health.  That's why we have mooncakes during the mid-Autumn festival as these mooncakes resembles the moon, in honor of her.  I am not a good storyteller...I just wanted him to associate the moon with Chang-Er and the Jade Rabbit. When he is bigger, I will tell him the real version.

I wanted to make some mooncakes this year but since DH's friends were giving us boxes of it, I decided not to. We tried several brands and I must say that this brand tastes like Kum Lun Tai (our all time favourite)...yummylicious!!!

Here's a photo or two of the mooncakes which we really love eating this year. Its from Hong Kong Elegant Flower. This is called the double yolk mooncake.

Here's the real version of the Chang-Er story from http://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/holidays/mid-autumn.htm

The story of Chang E is the most widely accepted tale regarding the origins of the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is said that in ancient times, ten suns existed and the extreme heat made people's lives very difficult. It was the hero Hou Yi who, owing to his great strength, shot down the nine of the ten suns. On hearing of this amazing feat and the hero who performed it, people came from far and wide to learn from him. Peng Meng was among these people. Later, Hou Yi married a beautiful and kind woman named Chang E and lived a happy life.

One day, Hou Yi came upon Wangmu (the queen of heaven) on the way to meet his old friend. Wangmu presented him an elixir which, if drunk, would cause him to ascend immediately to heaven and become an immortal. Instead of drinking the potion himself, Hou Yi took it home and presented it to Chang E to keep. Unfortunately, Peng Meng secretly saw Hou Yi give the potion to his wife and three days later, while Hou Yi was out hunting, Peng Meng rushed into the backyard and demanded that Chang E hand over the elixir. Knowing that she could not win, she took out the elixir and swallowed it immediately. The moment she drank it, she flew out of the window and up into the sky. Chang E's great love for her husband drew her towards the Moon, which is the nearest heavenly body to the earth.

On realising what happened to his wife, Hou Yi was so grief stricken that he shouted Chang E' s name to the sky. He was amazed to see a figure which looked just like his wife appeared in the Moon. He took the food liked by Chang E to an altar and offered it as a sacrifice for her. Hou Yi's neighbours also burned incense and prepared food to express their good wishes to the kind Chang E. This became a custom later every year.

Till next time....take care, folks!!!

Meet The Dinosaurs...Explore-a-saurus

To continue with my previous post about school holidays....
Besides bring my 2 precious to Fairy Park, we also went to the zoo and to Sciencework where we brought them to Meet The Dinosaurs.  I really had to do some reading up before the trip as I know nuts about dinosaurs except from all the movies I watched.  I ended up reading a simple book about dinosaurs (Meet The Dinosaurs by DK Readers) to my kids and they really enjoyed the trip to Sciencework.  So, who did they meet there?
Apatosaurus
Maiasaura
Muttaburrasaurus
Stegosaurus
Triceratops
Tyrannosaurus Rex

When my little Prince commented that its hard to pronounce the names of the dinos, I remembered The Doodlebops and searched for the DVD and played it for him. After several days of watching The Doodlebops, I am proud to say my little Prince can now call the dinos by their names...wohoo!!!

Here's some photos to share:

And I will end this post with the Doodlebops song -


If your having trouble
And you can't remember
How to say certain things
All you've got to do
Is sing a little tune and
Make it like a little game

Tricera cera tops tops Triceratops
Tricera cera tops tops Triceratops is the name

Hey, that works really well
What do you think?

Veloca loca raptor raptor Velocarapoter
Veloca loca raptor raptor Velocarapoter is the name

Wow, I like it, it really goes work

Lets try one more time
Here we go

Stego stego saurus saurus Stegosaurus
Stego stego saurus saurus Stegosaurus is the name

All right
Now you try it
With Stegosaurus

Stego stego saurus saurus Stegosaurus
Stego stego saurus saurus Stegosaurus is the name


I think we should do it one more time

Stego stego saurus saurus Stegosaurus
Stego stego saurus saurus Stegosaurus is the name

School Holidays...

This is not a post about food...its about a Mum's roles in a family.  How did I ended up talking about this? Well...as you all know, school holidays have started and I have to put on my planner hat to plan activities for my 2 precious. I chatted with a friend of mine and she was amazed that I had so much energy even though I have 2 active kids. Boy, oh boy, she doesn't see me all tired out, dying to crawl into my warm bed...

I never knew before I got married that being a married woman needs to wear so many hats - Wife (to my DH), Mother (to my 2 precious kids), Daughter (to my parents), Friend (to my friends), Teacher, Artist, Chef, Chambermaid, Cleaner, Taxi Driver, Police Officer cum Detective, Counsellor, Nurse (to my family)....the list goes on, I tell you.  24 hours a day is just not enough and no matter how hard you try, even though you neglect your precious "sleeping hours", somehow, something is just NOT done...like folding the laundry, vacuuming the carpet, etc. There's no more "Me" time once you are a Mother.  So, when DH gives me this precious gift "I take care of the kids and you do what you want to do", I will take it without a single thought as its a seldom thingy. But, DH is my rock...he helps whenever he can and I really appreciate and love him for it.

Spring is here and we finally decided to bring our 2 precious to Fairy Park as we felt that they know the fairy tales pretty well now. So, we head off to Fairy Park at 8ish and we got there within 2 hours.  We had fun there and I was really happy to hear my 2 precious telling us the stories about Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc. I am so proud to hear my 2 precious being our personal storytellers of the day. :)  We walked through the Fairytale Land, went to the Model Trains room, went up the Summit and after lunch, went down to the Camelot Playground.

Here's some photos of our trip to Fairy Park

We really had a wonderful time at Fairy Park.  Will definitely go again...

And they live happily ever after....

Whistling Pasta

Remember when I was talking about the whistling pasta the other day...my little Price kept asking me to cook it for him and his sister and I finally got my DH to buy some Penne pasta and we made this for dinner yesterday. My little Prince stood at the gate between the kitchen and the living room and watched me cooked it. So, I became his "Master Chef" for the day as he puts it.  He wanted the creamy pasta instead of the tomato base ones. He also told me that he wanted ham, cheese, this and that in his whistling pasta. My little Prince is growing up... *teary eyes*

So, here's a photo of our humble dinner...

What will my little Prince wants for dinner tomorrow?

Till then...tadaa!!!

 

Almond Meal Egg Tarts

A friend of mine was dying to have some egg tarts but she is gluten intolerance. We were talking about how she could tahan for so long, etc, etc... I did some research and came out with a recipe using almond meal. Called her to ask if almond meal is OK with her and she said, do the egg tarts please!!!  So, that's what I did and she was all ready to drive to my house..ha!ha!

Almond meal flour is totally different from our usual flour. Its made from ground almonds and it feels like corn meal flour.  Firstly, I made the tart casings with the almond meal, butter and egg yolk and place it in the fridge for 30 mins. I then made the egg custard with eggs, sugar, evaporated milk and vanilla essence. When its ready, I took out the almond meal dough, roll the pieces into a ball and flatten it on my palm. I then slowly, place it into the moulds and lightly flatten it with my fingers. Mind you, the dough is soft and crumbly. Then I poured the egg custard and baked at 200 degrees C for 15 mins.

The tart casing turned out very crumbly but it tasted really nice. Here's a photo or two of the almond meal egg tarts.  My friend came over and had 3 pieces... :)

Mission accomplish! Wohoo!!!