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From stale bread to yummy pudding

7 | August 13th, 2008 | Posted in Cakes & sweet stuffs, Recipes

It is the Olympics season and my dear hubby is like glued to the TV. We went out for a quick dinner and he rushed home to watch our Malaysian women single. Too bad his ‘girlfriend’ lost. While he was so excited with the badminton match with Mulan from China (hmmm…what a name) and his ‘girlfriend’, I decided to bake a bread pudding from the half loaf of expiring today Gardenia bread.

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I cannot stand the suspense and agony of watching our Malaysian team losing so that’s why I never watch any matches. Too ‘chi kek’. My bread pudding is very easy to do and I have baked a lot of bread pudding.

For today’s pudding, I use :

Bread - Half a loaf, spread with butter

Banana - three to four, slice into pieces

Raisin - a handful

Milk/cream - About 200 ml but quantity depends on your baking dish (use enough to just make them moist but not overflowing with milk)

Two eggs

Sugar - three tablespoon or reduce if you plan to sweeten them with jam

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Method:

Find a casserole or any deep baking dish and oil the bottom
Spread some butter on the bread and cut them into quarters.
Layer the bread, banana and raisin in the baking dish
Beat egg, milk and sugar
Pour into the bread. Pour enough to cover the bread and let it soak. Do not put too much or you will have soggy pudding. Leave to stand for a few minutes.

Bake, covered with aluminim foil in 200 deg celcius oven for 20 minutes.
Open the cover and bake for another 10 minutes
Leave till warm so the pudding firms up.

Serve with icecream, whip cream, jam or any type of sauce you like.

bread pudding

By the time our Malaysian woman single player (sorry I don’t know her name) tapau balik kampung, my pudding is ready already. And my kids finished them in one sitting. Yumm…..

If you look at my related posts and compared the recipes, you may find some differences. Well, I never stick to one method or ingredients of cooking. Whatever recipes I have here are typed ‘live’, i.e. whatever I remember and used. Normally, I myself refer back to my old posts to recall how I cooked something. Hehehe, that’s me.

Popularity: 16% [?]

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Chempedak and banana cupcakes recipe

3 | August 12th, 2008 | Posted in Cakes & sweet stuffs, Recipes

When the food tastes good, looks doesn’t matter. That’s what I discovered today. I bake a batch of cupcakes using chempedak (the ugly cousin of the jackfruit) and bananas. Both not together but separate as these two tropical fruits have very strong flavour and smell on its own.

banana cupcakes

I have four over-ripen bananas which hubby was about to throw away. I mashed them up and mix with my cake batter and get a batch of these cupcakes which are so moist and delicious.

cupcakes

I was anxious to bake them in one batch and had used too much batter in each casing, hence the ugly, uneven and overflowing batter. I lamented my cakes are ugly. My little boy tried to comfort me by putting the little balls to decorate the photo. See? He gave it a perfect 10!

jackfruit cupcake

We bought a chempedak today and I tried making chempedak cupcake. This is my recipe which I modify from the butter cake recipe. I used brown sugar and evaporated milk and the taste of the cake is really milky and lemak. Nice! :

RECIPE : Chempedak, apple, banana or any kind of fruits, cupcake

Ingredients
1 block butter = 250 gm
230 gm soft brown sugar
4 eggs
250 self-raising flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
about 6 tbsp evaporated milk (or UHT)

Fruits - mash up about a rice bowl of fruits to add. You may want to separate the batter into different bowls and add the different kind of fruits. This way, you will have several types of cupcakes

Method :
Heat oven to 180 - 200 deg C. (180 deg will give you a moist cake, 200 deg will give you fluffier cake, the choice is yours)

In a mixer, beat butter and sugar till white and fluffy.
Add in eggs one at a time, alternating with flour.
Add vanilla essence to milk and mix in.
At this stage - separate your batter and add in mash fruits.
Check the consistency of the batter. It should be of dropping consistency. If it stands peaking and hard, add more milk. Pour into cupcake casings and bake for about 20 minutes.

jackfruit cupcake

The chempedak cake is really delicious and all disappeared the moment they get out of the oven. I have baked a bigger chempedak cake before but these lovely, little cupcakes with the evaporated milk and brown sugar have better taste than the whole chempedak cakes.

If you normally cannot finish a whole large cake, I suggest you try baking them in small casings. You can buy these cake casings and make them into tiny morsels. Do you know that it is almost impossible to bake a small cake by halving the quantities of the ingredients to say, 125 grams each? Somehow, the thing won’t mix well in the mixer. So, I usually mix 250 grams of the ingredients and end up with too large a cake. Another thing is, if you bake them in small casings, the texture of the cake is so much nicer.

The chempedak and durian are still in season. Go try baking them in cakes! Durian cake recipe here.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Recipe for a lazy, simple chicken pie

2 | August 10th, 2008 | Posted in Recipes

I have been sicked since Wednesday and hubby has been buying foods to feed us. I am still sick today but I decided that I have enough of take-away foods. So, I decided to make a quick pie for a Sunday meal. There aren’t much foods in the fridge so whatever I could find, I dump them into this chicken pie.

chicken pie

It looks so lovely and yummy, right? But it doesn’t take much time to do as I use prepared, frozen puff pastry. I cooked through all the pie fillings and hence, I just need to bake the puff pastry till it puffs up and turn a nice golden brown.

For the puff pastry, I use 7 sheets of 4×4 inches square pre-made sheets. I use a bakeware which is about 12 inches.

pie fillings

For the fillings :
Boil three eggs and one potato in its skin. (cube the potato, slice the eggs when cooked)

400 grams of boneless chicken - Season with mustard, salt, pepper, two teaspoon of cornflour and some herbs if you have. I use fresh but dried sage.

3 pips garlic, half an onion - Chopped finely

a handful of green peas

a handful of mushrooms (I use some China mushroom that looks like a male organ LOL)

1 egg beat with 200 mls of milk

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Method :

1) Heat some butter or olive oil
2) Stir fry chopped garlic and onion
3) Add the chicken and fry till cooked.

Remove from pan.

pie fillings

To assemble

Put the cooked chicken, mushroom, beans, egg and potato into a shallow dish. Any kind of dish that can withstand baking. Go get some from IKEA, it’s cheap.

Mix through so that you have a nice combination. Pour in egg-milk mixture. Sprinkle some cheese if you like. I used some leftover matured cheddar.

pie

As I am using tiny squares of puff pastry, I arranged them as above. I use up 7 sheets of the Kawan Puff Pastry. I give the top an egg wash, press the sides to the baking dish and then, sprinkle some Pescano cheese on top (or Parmesan).

pie

I bake the pie for about 30 minutes at 200 deg celcius. It turns out so lovely and really tasty.

chicken pie

You can make the pie more nutritious by adding vegetables like asparagus, carrots, french beans or broccoli. As this is just my lazy day creation, I just grab whatever I have in my fridge and it works well too.

If you want a spicy version, you can add some meat curry powder and curry leaves when seasoning the chicken and make this like a curry puff too. The combination of the crispy puff pastry, the slow baking of the ingredients mixed with milk and egg alone make whatever you put into the fillings tasty. Instead of chicken, you can also alternate with fish fillets.

I have made this pie several times but each time, it is worth sharing because it is really easy, cheap and good.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Spring rolls and the Olympics

2 | August 9th, 2008 | Posted in Recipes

Yesterday evening, while the world was glued to their TV to watch the live telecast of the launching of the Olympics 2008, I was busy wrapping spring rolls.

I love deep fried spring rolls but lately, the prices of the spring rolls have gone crazy. One tiny bite costs 70 sen. So, I decided to DIY because it is really easy to make spring rolls. I bought a packet of the prepared spring roll skins. There are 50 sheets in there. Do buy those which is labelled ‘Eggs’ because the skin is nicer than the plain flour type.

spring rolls

I do not like fancy stuffs in spring rolls because as it is, the deep fried, crispy skin and a touch of chillies sauce are flavourful enough. So, here’s what I used in my spring rolls fillings :

Vegetables

Turnip - about 300 grams

Carrot - 1 medium size

Cabbage - about 200 grams

And here’s the no brainer way to prepare the vegetables. Just grate them with one of those cheap food grater. You get a huge plate of nicely cut vegetables.

Next, under running water, mix all the three vegetables together. This will make the carrots, turnip and cabbage combine nicely.

For the flavourings,

Pound one handful of dried shrimps. Otherwise, use those pinkish Japanese crabsticks and cut them finely.

Chopped three pips garlics

Salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar

Oil

Method

Heat oil. Stir fry garlic and dried prawns till fragrant. Add in the vegetables. Fry till the vegetables are limp, add the flavourings. Taste. It should have a sweetish/saltish taste.

Remove the vegetables from the wok and leave to cool. If the vegetables are soggy or has gravy, use a sieve and gently press out all the liquid. Otherwise, your spring rolls will be too limp and soft.

spring rolls

Once the fillings are cooled, wrap the spring rolls and deep fry. You can see how to wrap spring rolls from my previous post.

To make spring rolls, you just need to remember few basic things, ie. the vegetables which can be anything like cabbage, turnip, carrots, french beans, beans sprout or fresh mushrooms. To make the vegetables tastier, add something like fresh shrimps, soya bean cake, crab meats, dried Chinese shitake or dried shrimps. Simple, right?

If you wish to find a more elaborate recipe for spring rolls, do go to my other food blog.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Nostalgia over a can of Yeo’s curry chicken

3 | August 7th, 2008 | Posted in Food & drinks

I am sure all Malaysians and Singaporeans have their share of canned curry chicken. Of all the brands, I think Yeo’s is the first to hit the market with canned curry chicken. So, I have sort of connect curry chicken in a can with the brandname Yeo’s.

curry chicken

When I was pregnant with my two older children, I have cravings for Yeo’s curry chicken. I would even chew the bones. When I told my doctor about my need to eat bones, he gave me calcium supplements. :) I have woken up in the middle of the night to cook a packet of Maggi Asam Laksa and opened a can of curry chicken to satiate the cravings.

curry chicken

But the fondness for curry chicken in the convenience of a can went way back to schooling days. Who hasn’t bring a can or two of curry chicken to camps? There is nothing more delicious than having bread, crackers or white rice with curry chicken.

I haven’t buy Yeo’s for a long time already. Recently, I grabbed one can and tried it. The taste is still the same but unfortunately, there is less gravy in there.

So, when was the last time you have had a can of curry chicken? What’s your favourite brand?

Popularity: 21% [?]

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