Banana Cake and Indonesian Layer Cake or Spekkoek

Have been having lots of visitors dropping by during tea time and I decided to make some cakes for my friends.  When we have a cuppa, I will serve the cakes warm...verdict...delicious.

Banana Cake is very popular in Malaysia and Singapore and I have been eating banana cake since I could remember.  Since bananas are so cheap in Malaysia and Singapore and you can even find banana trees in quite a number of house gardens, banana cake will be baked at least once a week in most households.

Another cake which I made for my friends is the Indonesian Layer Cake (Spekkoek).  It is also known as a Dutch-Indonesian Layer Cake which originated from this cake called Baumkuchen.  It takes ages to do it as I had to bake layer by layer but the finished product is just awesomely yummylicious.

Here's the photos of my Indonesian Layer Cake and Banana Cake.

Indonesian Layer Cake (Spekkoek)

Banana Cake

Thank you so much for loving my cakes my dearest friends...let's have tea again soon and catch up!!!

Ngo Hiang or Lor Bak

Ngo Hiang or Lor Bak is a local snack which you can find in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. This dish is from the Hokkien and Teochew community.  The stuffing will be rolled inside a beancurd skin and then deep-fried.  It is served with chilli sauce or sambal.

My other half was telling me about his childhood days where he will have ngo hiang with bee hoon as his breakfast. As for me, lor bak is kind of a snack where we will have it during tea time (between lunch and dinner).  Since we were able to find beancurd skin in the supermart...we just had to do make these babies at home..wohoo.

Here's a photo of our Ngo Hiang or Lor Bak.

So happy to say that everyone including our 2 precious loved it!!!
 

Hainanese Chicken Chop...Again!

Hainanese Chicken Chop made a comeback recently as we managed to get some cheap chicken at our local supermart.  So, we got busy cutting and marinating the chicken pieces.  A little history about this baby...

Hainanese Chicken Chop is not from Hainan.  I don't think the Hainanese ever heard of this dish.  This humble dish originated from Malaysia and Singapore during the British times.  According to my Grandma, a lot of Hainanese become cooks, chefs, kitchen hands, etc during the British colonial days. These superb cooks / chefs came out with the own local version of the chicken schnitzel.

This time around, we mixed some mixed veggies into the sauce and this forces our kids to eat it as its in the sauce... :)

Here's a photo of our Hainanese Chicken Chop

Will be posting more soon.....see you all later!

Happy New Year To You

Happy New Year to you!

May every great new day

Bring you sweet surprises--

A happiness buffet.

Happy New Year to you,

And when the new year’s done,

May the next year be even better,

Full of pleasure, joy and fun.

By Joanna Fuchs

We spent our NY Eve slaving in the kitchen to prepare a little feast to say goodbye to year 2013 and to welcome the year 2014.  Here's what we cooked for our little celebration:

Prawn Crackers

Fried Rice

Sweet & Sour Fish

Oyster Sauce Greens

HK Egg Tarts

Fondant Cake with a Pony to kick off 2014

Here's the photos of our little celebration..........

See you all soon...

Happy New Year 2014....

Everything Peranakan...

Peranakan Chinese....this is term which I am proud of as I am a halfie and Peranakan Chinese runs in my blood.  Peranakan Chinese call themselves Babas (for the men) and Nyonyas (for the women).  So, what does "peranakan" means? It means descendant and we are mixed race descendants of part of chinese and part of malay.  Some of the Peranakans are Christians / Catholics and others are Buddhists and other religions.  The Peranakan food is influenced by Malay culture as the Nyonya food uses a lot of Malay herbs and spices.

My other half was looking through the old photos and we saw the Nyonya Kueh and we just had to satisfy our tastebuds.  Hence, I ransacked the kitchen and started making some kueh.  Here's what I came out with...
Pulut Tai-Tai which is delicious with Kaya Jam
Pulut Inti
Ondeh-Ondeh
Kaya Toast

Here's the photos of our version of the Nyonya Kueh...

Homemade Kaya Jam
Kaya Toast

Ondeh-Ondeh, Pulut Tai-Tai which is eaten with Kaya Jam and Pulut Inti

Close-up of Pulut Inti & Ondeh-Ondeh

We finished everything within a day....haha!  That's how much we missed the nyonya kueh...

Till next time....salut!

Nasi Paprik & Curry Fish

Been a little busy as my 2 precious are finishing their last semester before the school holidays, planning what we will be doing, where we will be going, doing some Christmas shopping, etc, etc, etc.  A Mother's job is never ending.  I even heard a Mom saying...she is Mom of all trades...haha! That's a good one...and of course, its the truth...a Mother is a wife, a sister, a cousin, a student, a teacher, a friend, a counselor, a mediator, a nurse, an IT expert, a magician, a nurse....the list goes on and on.

We have been doing our Christmas shopping and we walked pass a Thai Restaurant and voila....amazingly, we saw "Nasi Pataya" and "Nasi Paprik"....but when we saw the price....my other half decided that it would be cheaper to cook it ourselves.  So, we did just that.  Some people believe that Nasi Paprik comes from Thailand but others think that its from North Malaysia.  However, a buddy of mine who is from Thailand kindly informed me that Padprik is actually 2 words: Pad - Stir-fry & Prik = Spicy like chilli.  We have been eating Nasi Paprik since we were little and till now, we still love it so much.  Here's a photo of our nasi padprik.

A few days later, we met up with a friend of ours and he shared with us how awesome it was flying home to meet his parents and having so many yummylicious food and one dish just shouted to us - Curry Fish!!! My other half and I just looked at each other with "THAT LOOK" and we knew we had to cook it at home soon....you know how it is when you have been married for so long... So, here's the photo of our version of the Curry Fish which we ate with rice.

I know that my version of fish curry has a nyonya and chinese influence to it as this is my Grandma's recipe.  I love adding okra / ladies fingers and cabbage into the curry plus taupok.  Sometimes, we even add some indian drumsticks into the curry too....its really delicious!!!

Till next time...happy holidays!!!

Kueh Bahulu (Mini Egg Cake)

Kueh Bahulu is a sentimental kueh for me as this little cutie is especially baked during festive seasons such as Chinese New Year, Christmas, etc.  When I was little, my Grandma will gather all her baking stuff and will bring it under the house where the charcoal fire has been lighted and burning softly.  My Grandma will then sit at the front of the charcoal burner and make these kueh bahulu.  My aunties will be there chit-chatting with my Grandma and helps her un-mould these kueh bahulu.  And I will be there holding the fan and upon instruction, I will be fanning away to ensure that there's always constant fire in the charcoal burner. Gosh...how I miss my Grandma Rosa L.

My two kiddos were asking me about my good old days and I was telling them about kueh bahulu and such.  They were so curious that I decided to make some just for them to try it.  Furthermore, my other half was asking for it too.  As I do not have the kueh bahulu moulds, I decided to make do with my little mini muffin pan.

Here's my little kueh bahulu (mini muffin style)....

Hubby said that even though it doesn't look like kueh bahulu, the taste is just the SAME.... 

and....my 2 kiddos love it so much!!! :)

Busy in the Kitchen.....Cakes, Desserts, Noodles, Rice and everything nice...

I have not been blogging for a while as I have just started a new job and am trying to familiarize myself with my new position. Since today is my off day, I decided to blog a little.

Pongteh is a peranakan dish and when someone mentions pongteh, people who knows this dish will directly have an image of a non-spicy dish with pork, pig trotters cooked with preserved fermented soya bean paste.  However, as I had lots of chicken meat in my freezer, I decided to whipped up another version - Chicken Pongteh. Furthermore, my 2 kiddos love hard boiled eggs and I made sure I included that inside the dish.  I often add in stuff which are not suppose to be added in.  However, for a busy Mom like myself, as long as everyone in the family is happy and is eating well, adding or taking out an ingredient is not a big deal for me.  Here's a photo of my version of Chicken Pongteh.

A friend of mine just loves pandan chiffon cakes and she is willing to travel miles just to buy a couple.  As I had some pandan leaves and coconut in my cabinet, I decided to make a pandan chiffon cake for her. Pandan is actually known as Pandanus Amaryllifolius Leaves and chiffon cake is a light airy cake made from oil, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and flavourings ( in my case, its pandan).  I was quite fearful at first as I did not have a chiffon cake mold and I was using my silicon bundt mold but thankfully, it came out pretty OK.  Here's a photo of my pandan chiffon cake.

Noodles...that's like a staple food in my family.  My 2 kiddos just love noodles..just like their Mommy and Daddy.  So, what did I make recently?  A simple version of Wat Tarn Hor (Flat Rice Noodles in Egg Starchy Gravy).  This is a hit with my kids and I suppose its a much loved dish for a lot of kids.  Most of the time, I will just ask my kids what they want for lunch / dinner and then go searching for the ingredients in my fridge.  So, if I run out of one ingredient, I will substitute with another...haha!  Here's a photo of my simple version of Wat Tarn Hor.

I had a friend from USA visiting us recently and we were talking about General Tso's Chicken which is a famous chinese take-away dish in USA and we decided to make it at home.  I did some research and I found out that this dish is not originated from China but from New York, USA.  So, here's our version of General Tso's Chicken and its really yummy with white rice.  My friend gave me 2 thumbs up... :)

Moving on.... I had to do some cupcakes for a function.  They wanted chocolate cupcakes and it must be a little fancy too.  So, I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with a dallop of ganache inside of it and I pipe roses on top of it.  Thank goodness everyone loved it.  Here's a photo of my chocolate cupcakes.

My other half wanted some lor mai kai which is a popular item in a dim sum menu during yum cha hours.  Since I still  have 1/2 packet of glutinous rice left, I decided to make him some since dim sum also mean touch your heart. So, gonna make some lor mai kai to touch my other half heart...haha!!!  Here's a photo of my lor mai kai.

I also made some macarons for a friend of mine who is gluten free.  She just loves macarons and what better way to spoil her than make her a batch of her favourite cookies.  Here's a photo of my macarons.

Had some over-riped bananas in the kitchen the other day and I decided to do some Cokodok (Banana Fritters) which is a traditional Malaysian snack made of flour and bananas and its deep fried.  This snack is delicious when its hot or cold.  Here's a photo of my Cokodok.

And since I am on the topic of snack, here's another delicious snack which I often make when I want something Malaysian.  This is my version of cucur badak (lazy version) and here's my photo of it.

Lastly, I made cupcake bouquet for my lady boss. It's her birthday and I decided to make something so that she can share with her family when they celebrate her birthday with her.  Here's a photo of my cupcake bouquet.

These are some of the things which I made for my family and friends last month.  Most of the time, I just totally forgot to take photos of the things I made as I am always rushing, rushing, rushing...haha!!!  Will update soon.  In the meantime, have fun in the kitchen and see ya!!!

Chicken Pau

I have been wanting to make some pau for ages but I can't seem to find any pau flour.  I googled to see if I can just use plain flour and voila!... I can but the pau might turn out to be yellowish.  Heck man...yellowish is a small issue, what's important is I can taste my favourite pau once again.  So, I told my other half that I am going to do pau with plain flour and he was trying to discourage me as he thinks I might fail. I told him that no matter what, I am going to try..just once.

I took out my family recipe and made the pau.  Everything went well.  The last stage was to steam the pau.  My hubby told me that he will watch the pau and I go and play with my kids. Oh well...since he offered, I accepted it.  When I saw my hubby's face and seeing him munching the pau, I knew I succeeded..wohoo.

Here's a photo of my pau using plain flour

Now that I got it right, I am no longer afraid to use plain flour to do pau..wohoo!!!

June, June...busy busy month of June

It has been a while since I last wrote. Lots of things are happening in June....birthdays and I mean lots of birthdays and school holidays.  I have been so busy making cakes, cooking for friends and relatives and making plans for the school holidays.

Here's some of the things which I managed to take some photos of....busy, busy, busy...

Deep Fried Fish Soup with Rice

Cream Cakes for the June Birthday Boys and Girls

Winnie the Pooh Cupcakes and 2D Cake for my little Princess.  She turned 5...a big girl now.

Japanese Curry Chicken Rice

Prawn Noodles (Hae Mee)

Cream Sponge Cake for a Customer

Right now, I am busy baking cupcakes and a mudcake for my little Prince's 7th Birthday.  He wants me to create a Minecraft Theme and he wants to celebrate it in school...wish me luck!!!

Bak Kut Teh (Meat Bone Tea)

We love bak kut teh...its an awesome dish.  My Grandma often make BKT and there were always stories that came with each dish.  I remember her telling us that the kuli (asian slave) were the first people who ate BKT as it was a herbal tonic to "pu" their bodies. My Grandma has 2 versions of BKT - light colour broth which is peppery and dark broth with medicinal herbs.  When I was a teenager, my Grandma surprised us with another version - Chic Kut Teh (instead of pork, chicken is used).  We normally eat BKT with yau char kway (deep fried dough stick) and perserved vegetables.

The weather is turning cold and soup is the way to go right now.  So, we decided to whip-up this delicious BKT for the whole family.  I have no time to make the yau char kway and my other half said not to bother as we don't really eat it anyway.  The most important thing is the BKT and the preserved vegetables.  Here's a photo of our BKT.

Till next time....lets do the BKT dance!!!

Happy Mother's Day with Pork Kuey Teow Teng (Pork Rice Noodles Soup Version)

Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers!!!

I remember when I was young when my Grandma will be simmering a pot of stock (chicken bones, pork bones, seafood, etc) to make Kuey Teow Teng for Mother's Day. Its a tradition in my family where all Mother's will be served with this delicious one dish meal upon waking up. Besides this delicious broth, there will be all sorts of yummylicious meat and seafood such as prawns, minced pork, fishballs, fishcake, liver, all sorts of seafood, etc, etc, etc which is served with this dish. This is a day where all Mothers' will be pampered to the core and this delicious soupy dish will boost the immune system.

I decided to try to make this delicious dish for Mother's Day....its for my whole family on this cold and rainy day.  I made the broth a day before to enhance the taste. As my Grandma used to say, the longer you simmer the broth, the more sedap it will be. I wanted to get all the condiments just like my Grandma but my other half told me not to do so much....just use whatever we have in the house...alamak!!! can die!!!  Oh well, since its raining, I tak kuasa to go to the supermart.  So, in the end, I just use what I can get my hands on.

Here's my version of my Grandma's Pork Kuey Teow Teng.

Got to go now...my kuey teow teng is waiting for me....

Mee Siam (Siamese Noodles)

Mee Siam (Siamese Noodles)....ah, I remember this one dish meal very well.  I had my very first taste of this wonderful dish when I was a junior.  I was so interested in the colour and the "slurp-slurp" sound that the parents, uncles and aunties were making plus their chit-chatting in between that I had take a spoonful of it from my Grandma's plate.  As you guys may have guessed it, I screamed as it was super hot, (pedas - chili hot!!!)... sweet and sourish in taste.  This is not a taste which a junior's taste buds will accept. I stayed away from Mee Siam till I was in kinder and after one spoonful of this delicious dish, I will always ask my Grandma for her Mee Siam at least fourth nightly.

My Grandma told me that she learnt it from her Thai relative and its called Mee Kati and even though we are Peranakan, my Grandma often reminded me that Mee Siam is not an "original" dish from the Babas and Nyonyas, but its from Thailand. That's why its called Mee Siam as its from Siam (Siam changed its name to Thailand in 1949).

So, what is Mee Siam? Firstly, there's 2 version of Mee Siam - the dry version and the gravy version. Mee Siam is a popular one-dish meal in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. It is made of rice noodles (bee hoon) and serve with a special hot, sweet and sourish gravy.  For the dry version, you will still use the same special sambal which you make the gravy from. My other half loves the udang kering (dried shrimps) and whenever I make this dish, I will make sure I increase the udang kering. The special sambal is made of fermented soya bean paste, chili, buah keras, belacan, coconut milk, onions and tamarind. My Grandma will also fry the rice noodles with taugeh (bean sprouts), ku chai (chinese chives) and banana blossom. However, over here, its a little hard to get my hand on some banana blossom and ku chai. Therefore, I will only use taugeh and spring onions.

Here's a photo of my humble Mee Siam.

Oh...oh.....
Before I whisk myself from here to have another round of Mee Siam, here's a photo of the Nasi Lemak which we made this week. Nasi Lemak is just so delicious that we have to make it at least 2-3 times a month.

jəə gan mài kraao-nâa!!!!

Hainanese Chicken Chop

We have been eating chicken schnitzel and chicken parma for a couple of weeks now and we are quite sian (bored) with it.  My other half was thinking of the Hainanese Chicken Chop which we were so in love with when we were in Malaysia.  So, we decided to try out hands on it after I made several phone calls to my darling Aunty.

Hainanese Chicken Chop is not from Hainan.  I don't think the Hainanese ever heard of this dish.  This humble dish originated from Malaysia and Singapore during the British times.  According to my Grandma, a lot of Hainanese become cooks, chefs, kitchen hands, etc during the British colonial days. These superb cooks / chefs came out with the own local version of the chicken schnitzel.  I remember the good old days when my cousins who studied overseas will come back and correct us all whenever we the children will beg our parent to bring us for "chicken chop" and these cousins of ours will say "No, No, No...its chicken schnitzel, silly" or "No, No, No....its called a chicken cutlet".  We really didn't care if its called a schnitzel or a cutlet...to us, its good old chicken chop and its really sedap (delicious).

Firstly, we crumb the chicken exactly like how a chicken schnitzel is crumbed. Then we proceed in making the potato wedges which we deep fried. Now..the sauce is the one which makes this dish special and it consists of tomato sauce, HP sauce, worchestershire sauce, oyster sauce, chicken booster, seasonings and lastly thicken it with cornflour solution.

Some people eat this with rice and some just eats it by itself.  Here's our humble Hainanese Chicken Chop.

We are so happy to watch our 2 kiddos enjoying themselves and asking for me.  This really brings me back to the good old days when I was just a kid like my 2 children and asking for more too....

Silver Needle Noodles ( Lou Shee Fun)

Silver Needle Noodles....its a much better translation compared to what my family used to call it.. rat noodles...haha!  I guess the reason why its call rat noodles is due to its shape...it looks like a rat's tail.  Lou Shee Fun is made from rice flour and it can be made into soup noodles, stir-fried noodles or claypot style.  When I was young, whenever I see my Grandaunt taking a claypot out from the cabinet, I will shout...lou shee fun, lou shee fun, lou shee fun...

Moving forward, now, my family loves lou shee fun too and I cooked it my Grandaunt's style. I don't even have enough time to clean the claypot as my children were asking for their lunch, even my DH pinched some. So...here's a quick snapshot of my lou shee fun before it was whisked off.  Please ignore the mess around the claypot...just focus on the lou shee fun....

This is a popular dish in Malaysia and Singapore.

Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice)

Nasi lemak...oh...its one of my favourite food during my childhood year and its still is.  Nasi lemak is rice cooked with coconut milk, slices of ginger, screwpine leaves and a pinch of salt.  Nasi lemak can also be found in economical rice stalls where one can choose between plain white rice or nasi lemak rice and then we can pick whatever side dishes we want. Traditionally, nasi lemak is served on a banana leaf laid on top of a plate or if its a take-away, its wrapped with banana leaves.  For my family, this delicious rice is accompanied with deep fried tumeric chicken, deep fried fishballs, sambal prawns, deep fried anchovies, 2 types of eggs - hard boiled and fried eggs, cucumber and tomato slices. Of course, you can add in any side dishes you want...its really up to you.

Here's a photo of our nasi lemak...

This is just so sedap....

Hokkien Mee

When Malaysians and Singaporeans talk about "hokkien mee", they are actually talking about different kinds of noodles. In Singapore, when someone mentions "hokkien mee", is actually hokkien noddles cooked in prawn stock. However, when a Malaysian mentions "hokkien mee", its fried noodles in dark sauce. In this household, we love both types of "hokkien mee".

We were yearning for some local food from our childhood days and my hubby decided that we should whip-up some Singapore style "Hokkien Mee".  We made our prawn stock with prawns and pork bones. We even made "chee yau char" (deep fried pork lard). Here's our humble "hokkien mee"...it was gone before we could even count to 10....haha!!!

Hokkien Mee is really sedap with freshly cut red chilli with soy sauce.  Some people prefers sambal belacan.  No matter what, its just delicious!!!