Assam Pedas Ikan

Assam Pedas Ikan is a spicy and tasty Malay dish.  It is spicy and sour fish curry.  

The recipe is whipped out by a dear friend, Zuriati, who loves to cook for her family.  One of her essential ingredients that she always suggest for all chef to put into every dish, is to sprinkle lots of love into each dish to make the dish deliciously lovely.

Other than love, here are the side ingredients you need to prepare this spicy dish.  They are:

ikan assam pedas

• 2- 3 pieces of fish
• 10-20 chilly and dried chilly blended
• 2 pcs of big onions and 2 pcs of garlic
• 1 inch of kunyit (tumeric)
• 2 strands of lemon grass
• 1 bowl of tamarind juice
• 1 bunga kantan
• 3 pcs of laksa leaves (coriander)
• 5pcs of ladies fingers

1. Heat up 2 tablespoon of oil
2. Pour in the blended chilly and onions and lemon grass
3. Let it simmer, then put in the tamarind juice
4. Put salt and one tablespoon of sugar
5. When it is boiling, pour in your fish, bunga kantan and daun kesom
6. When fish is cooked, reduce the heat.
7. Put in the ladies fingers
8. Continue cooking with small fire for another 10 minutes.
9. Ready to be served with rice.

Pizza with Love

Instead of calling for Pizza, why not bake one.  It is easy and fun and deliciously tasty too.  Here is how you can make and knead your pizza from scratch and you can add any other additional ingredients that you like too:)

This amount to make one small pizza bout the size of the hand.

Pizza with love

Dough Ingredients
75 gm bread flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoon of instant yeast
4 teaspoon of warm water
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

Ingredient for Topping:
1/2 hotdog, sliced into thin round, pieces
 1/2 pineapple ring, cubed
50 gm grated mozzarella cheese
2 teaspoon of tomato paste
1/4 small capsicum, sliced into thin pieces

Method:

1) Make the pizza base.  In the small bowl, add the sugar to the water and stir until dissolved.  Sprinkle the yeast onto the sugar solution and leave for about 10 minutes until frothy
2) Sift the flour and salt into the mixing bowl.  Make a well in the center o the flour.  Incorporate the lour and add 6 teaspoon of yeast in mixture and oil
3) Mix well to form a dough.  Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel for about 10 minutes to allow the dough to proof
4) Preheat the oven to 200 degree celcius.  Grease the baking tin, set aside
5) Knead the dough for about 2-3 minutes till tacky and elastic
6) Roll out the dough on a floured board to 1 cm thick and place the dough onto the greased baking tray.
7) Spread the tomato paste over the dough and sprinkle half of the cheese on the pizza dough
8) Arrange the hotdog, capsicums and pineapple cubes
9) Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
10) Bake for about 25 minutes in the oven till ready.

Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak is one of the popular dish in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.  There are many varieties of nasi lemak, from those packed in banana leaves to those in high end restaurants.  So, is it easy to cook nasi lemak.  It is easy if you know the know how:)

Nasi lemak dishes, pic complimentary from Vanaja

Nasi Lemak, pic from Vanaja

sambal ikan bilis with onions, pic compliments fm Fida

Nasi lemak sambal, pics compliments fm Mei Yoke; recipe and advice from Zuriati.

 The Aromatic Rice

Ingredients for Nasi Lemak

• One coconut, to be grinded and use juice extract for cooking the rice
• 2 pandan leave for flavour
• 2 slices of ginger
• salt to taste

1. One coconut grinded so that you can extract the juice for cooking your rice.  One coconut is for about 2-21/2 cups of rice.
2. How to cook the aromatic rice for nasi lemak.  It is simple, like how you usually cook your rice, replace the rice with coconut juice and add a pinch of salt or to taste.  To add pandan leave tied onto a knot to be placed into pot for added fragrant.
3. Separate a small cup of the coconut juice, and pour it onto the rice just when it is about to be cooked. Stir well.

Ingredients for Sambal for Nasi Lemak

• 8-10 pcs of dried chilli and 2-3 red chilli
• One big onion
• 2 pieces of garlic
• 1 inch of prawn paste belacan
• 1/2 cup of tumerind or asam jawa juice
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• A pinch of salt

Blend chilli, onion, garlic and prawn paste belacan

• Sliced onion (one onion)
• 2 Hard boiled eggs - peeled shell and cut into half
• Peeled prawn or anchorvies with salted fried peanuts 

1. Heat up 1/2 cup of cooking oil
2. Pour the blended chilli paste onto it
3. Let it simmer, then add tamarind juice
4. Add sugar and salt
5. Cook till sambal thickens
6. Add in slices of onion, peeled prawn or anchorvies

sambal nasi lemak

Cook with lots of love.  Recipe and advised from Zuriati.

Serve nasi lemak rice with sambal and cut eggs.
Cut cucumber into small slices and serve with rice.

Bread Dough

May's baked buns

The below bread ingredients (A), (B),(C) and (D) bakes me about 15-20 pieces of buns, slightly bigger than the size of a fist.

A. Breadflour mix
100 gm bread flour
70 gm boiling water

Mix well, cool it in a bowl
Cover the bowl with cling wrap
Put it in the fridge for 2-12 hours

bread dough

When breadflour mix is ready (2-12 hours later)

B. Bread mix
300 gm bread flour
100 gm plain flour
50 gm sugar
1 teaspoon salt
9 gm instant yeast (about 1 full teaspoon)
175 gm milk
1 large egg

Mix bread mix till well blended.  You can use the mixer.
Then take out breadflour mix and cut it into small pieces and mix with bread mix into dough

C. Dice 60 gm butter and add into dough and knead to form an elastic.

Knead the dough until tacky and soft, not sticky.  Poke a finger into the center of the dough until the bottom.  The hole should not spring back or see if it is elastic by stretching a bit of dough without breaking.  If too sticky, add a little flour gradually (about 50gm or so) and check its tackiness.

Once ready, cover the dough with clingwrap and leave it in warm enclosed place, let it proof for about an hour.

Divide the dough into required weight and mould it round.  Roughly about the size of one golf ball as it will increase in size when it proof.

Cover it for about 10 mins and it is ready to bake.

My dough is usually too soft, so I usually use a fork and spoon to separate the dough into the small pieces that I want.

D. Put aside a bit of egg and another bowl of water to be used for brushing on the bread.

Buns to be baked

Bake for about 30-40 mins at 150 degree celcius in temperature for each tray.

You can add any toppings for the bread or just bake it plain:

• Sliced ham, sliced cheese
• Sliced hotdog
• Sugar and peanuts
• Fried chilly dried shrimp
• Curry chicken 
• Chocolate chips

ham and cheese buns

Healthy Weight Loss Drink

Take a sip of this high vitamin C, healthy weight loss drink after you take the rich cakes, cookies or great culinary dishes.

This honey lemon is easy to do and effective in cleaning the fats or oil in your body.

Honey Lemon Juice

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of honey (Honey in the bottle) in 2/3 of hot water
Squeeze lemon onto honey water (one lemon or half, depending on how sour you like your drink)

Drink it hot!

Chocolate Cake

Moist and delicious rich, chocolate cake

Yummy chocolate cake lovers, here is the recipe to a delicious yummy cake for you and your loved ones.

chocolate cake moistly delicious

Ingredients:

200 gm self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soda bicarbonate
(mix all above and sift well)
140 gm butter
180 gm caster sugar
180 gm Van Houten cocoa powder
4 eggs
80gm of hot water
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
2 teaspoon of milk

Mixed all the above ingredients and mix well with a mixer for about 1-2 minutes.
Grease 8 inches or 20 cm round pan with butter and flour
Heat up oven for about 1 min with high temperature
Pour mixture onto greased floured tray pan.
Bake for about 30-45 mins in 150 degree celcius temperature
Check with a toothpick to see if bottom of cake is no longer moist.

Once cake is ready, you can heat up a bar of cooking chocolate, about 150gm for topping for added chocolatey flavour.

Keep cool in the fridge if not consumed on the same day.  Heat up before serving.

Yummy cake

Butter Cake

Butter cake is a popular cake among the young and old.  Many like it for its great, soft and buttery texture and taste.  The sides of the cake is usually crispy and nice.

The thing about baking your own cake is that you can mix and match and adjust the ingredients to suit your taste once you are familiar with the recipe.

Butter cake is easy to bake once you have got the right mix and pick up the right mixing speed and skills.  Here are the ingredients and method to impress your family and friends with:

Ingredients for butter cake

250 gm self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Sieve the above
250 gm butter
200 gm caster sugar
6 eggs beaten
2 teaspoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Cake Mixture

Cream and mix butter and sugar until fluffy
Gradually put in beaten eggs and essence
Mix or beat until properly mixed
Slowly fold in sifted flour and milk
Mix well

Method:
Heat up oven for about 1 min high temp
Grease and flour 20cm ring cake pan tray
Pour the cake mixture onto tray
Bake for about 30-45 mins at 170 degree celcius
Check to see if cake is ready by testing the bottom texture with a toothpick
Make sure toothpick is clear and not sticky with mixture to ensure that cake is ready