Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Last Friday I was craving some tomyum creamy pasta from Pastamania. I thought I'd have that for my me time lunch. But. I got turned off at the queue with lots of students. Urgh. How much pocket money do these kids get?! So I went NTUC instead and got ingredients for Sunday's experiment meal. I couldn't find much tomyum pastes, which I thought was weird, so I settled for NTUC brand paste. Didn't get any seafood either cos I don't fancy seafood that much. The darling daughter had 3 hours nap, which left me with much time to iron clothes, sweep the floor, cook the pasta sauce and marinate chicken breasts to be eaten with the pasta (I didn't put meat into the sauce). I cooked for dinner for myself and Husband, with agarations as usual since there's no recipe per se. Cooking the veges first Tomyum Creamy Pasta 1 onion, sliced 2 lemongrass, bruised 3 tbsp NTUC tomyum paste  (2 for less spicy) 100ml cooking cream 100ml milk (no need salt!)

I finally nailed it. Made this before but it was either too pedas, or too salty, or not salty at all. This is actually a recipe for nasi goreng kampung but my mum uses it for lontong goreng as well. My Mum's Lontong Goreng 2 packets cooked instant lontong, cut in cubes 4 eggs, scrambled To blend: 2 onions 5 green chillies 5 red chillis 3 tbsp ikan bilis 1 square inch belacan (the flat round one) a little bit of water for blending Fry the blended paste in oil until dry and the chillies cooked. Add in the scrambled eggs and lontong. You can also add in minced meat or chicken if you have them. I am itching to make maybe some salted caramel cupcakes. But who am I kidding. I should go make the caramel first haha! This calls for a trip to the supermarket to get some heavy cream!

Finally after trolling many food blogs and recipes, I got down to making sabsuka. And even though I trolled and found one I thought I'd use, I tried my own mix. I made once for myself only, and yesterday I made another bigger batch so I can keep and use whenever I want to. No pictures, though, but Husband loved the smell when I was frying the meat. Sabsuka 300g minced meat 1 onion, sliced 2 cili padi, sliced 1 tsp coriander powder 1 tsp cumin powder 2 tbsp curry powder 6 tbsp tomato sauce, add more if you want cos I didn't measure coriander leaves Fry the onion in minimal oil until soft, then add in the minced meat and all the powders and tomato sauce. Cook till the waters evaporate, or depending how wet you want your sabsuka to be. Add coriander leaves. To make into sabsuka, transfer to a baking dish, make 2 holes for 2 eggs and then bake for 15-18 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. I made some into a pizza yesterday. Use 1 piece of bread, sprinkle mozzarella

After the egg tarts, I slowly built up the ingredients for shepherd's pie. Reason being I can't cook for a long period of time without having kids cutting in for attention. So I boiled the cauliflower (a whole head!) first while cooking baby's food, let it rest for some time, before frying the minced meat. That too rested in the frying pan until it turned cold. Haha. I added red capsicum, curry powder, coriander powder and 2 sprigs of curry leaves to the meat to make it fragrant. I mashed the cauliflower with low fat milk and cheese, also at another time when the baby was taking her noon nap. Managed to get 4 loaves/servings of shepherd's pie, one I baked for lunch and the other 3 refrigerated for the next few days' breakfasts. Easy peasy, bake it for half an hour, let it rest for another half hour and pack for work! It tastes better after a day, maybe because the cheese and cauliflower and milk have all blended well together. I did not make measurements

Yesterday I was on leave for my baby boy's birthday day out. Was feeling extra hardworking so I cooked salted egg chicken for sahur. Got up earlier to prepare and I'm glad I did! Later that morning I made bombay briyani for buka. Baby girl was at my mum's for the day so we can give full attention to the birthday boy. Salted Egg Chicken These take less than an hour to make, fast and easy peasy and totally yummy! I don't have to buy outside anymore! This is husband-approved! 2 chicken breasts (the big one, not the small pieces) 1 egg white Cornstarch + 1/2 tsp salt 2 tbsp butter 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 inch ginger, finely chopped 3 salted egg yolks, mashed Evaporated milk, about 7-10 tbsp, depending on how thick you want the gravy to be 20 curry leaves, the more the merrier 2 cili padi (I didn't have this so I used 2 green chilies) Cut the chicken into bite sized cubes. Coat them with egg white, then in the cornstarch dip, then deep fr

For Husband's birthday, I didn't want to make a cake like I normally do. Was supposed to surprise him with a roti kirai cake instead, and some yummy beef rendang . Didn't have time to make the happy birthday bunting to poke through the cake though, he woke up earlier than I expected and already took a piece haha. Managed to cook the beef rendang and roti kirai in the wee hours (3.30am!) of the morning, on a working weekday no less! Thank God for my pressure cooker, which did the cooking of the meat (tumis excluded) in half an hour, and if I had done normal stove cooking it would take more than 2 hours. Roti Kirai 1 box of low fat coconut milk (not cream) 450ml water 3/4 tsp salt 2 eggs 2 cups flour Yellow colouring (I used tumeric powder) *recipe edited and 8 August 2017 and it's Husband Approved!*

I have too many things to post. The latest being my second attempt at sugee almond pudding. Along the way I did roti kirai for the Husband's birthday, with beef rendang, failed doughnuts, and now I can't remember what else! OH. Almost famous amos cookies! Let's do them one at a time. First is the sugee almond pudding. I followed the same recipe but I had rose water this time round and that made all the difference. I still did not follow the recipe exactly because I didn't toast the almonds in ghee, used store bought ground almonds, but seems good enough anyway. One batch can serve 8 to 10 people. 900ml water 1 cup sugar 2 tsp rose water 3 cardamoms 400ml evaporated milk (1 can) 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 cup ground almonds 150g semolina Raisins Heat the water, sugar, rose water and cardamoms until it comes to a boiling point.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the ground almonds, salt and milk. Don't let mixture come to a boil.  Add in the semol

I love clearing out the ingredients in my kitchen. Feels good to see the fridge getting emptier without having to throw things away. I made cod potato cakes, or what I'd call fish begedil, early yesterday morning! Complete with breadcrumbs :) They were really yummy, but a bit too soft that some sorta broke while frying. Maybe if I let them cool in the fridge it would have been better. Or I could use fried potatoes instead of boiled like we do in begedil. Loosely adapted from  BBC Good Food . Cod Potato Cakes (makes 12) 1 cod fillet, about 160g 4 small to medium potatoes Milk (as usual I didn't measure) Water (same here!) 2 bay leaves 1 lime Salt & pepper 1 piece of already or almost expired bread, blitzed Skin and cut potatoes into cubes, boil them in water till soft. While potato is cooking, heat up equal parts water and milk in another pan for the fish. Add in the 2 bay leaves and cook the fish till tender. Strain the potatoes, then mash them. Season

Back to work after the long weekend! One of the days Husband requested for ayam masak merah, and good thing I bought coriander leaves and the tomyam spices set before the holidays. This recipe my friends, is totally Husband approved! I used my mama's recipe and accidentally doubled the tomato puree (I know it's one can but I forgot there's a smaller can hurhur) but seems fine still. 1 kg chicken, already fried 2 medium onions, minced 5 cloves garlic, minced 1 stalk lemongrass, cut into 3 and bruised 8 tbsp cili kisar 1 1/2 tsp salt 2 - 3 tbsp sugar 140g tomato puree Coriander leaves (the more the merrier) No pictures though but I could do this again! Amazingly I didn't bake for the past 4 days. I did make my no egg banana pancake and I caramelised some bananas to go with it. Have been thinking about making bread with tangzhong but as usual, I will look for soooo many recipes, read and re-read before actually doing it. I could have done it yesterday

I made pancakes for myself yesterday, and this time round I didn't use egg but I used one overripe banana instead. Banana Pancakes for 1 1/2 cup flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1 overripe banana, mashed 1/2 cup buttermilk You don't even have to add sugar! It's sweet as it is. Kinda tastes like jemput-jemput pisang too. Really good! Oh and yesterday while I managed to make red velvets, I only did laundry and cleaning the toilets haha. Oh wells. I did iron 3 pieces of clothing this morning and that's about it. Need to try and squeeze in some time to iron more on Friday.

Yay! So happy haha. Like finally I can make pancakes. So before I forget! I shall jot down the recipe! And best thing is it's for 1 (very hungry) person so no leftovers! Recipe from allrecipes 1/2 cup flour 1/2 tsp baking powder  1/4 tsp baking soda  1 1/2 tsp sugar 1 small egg 1/2 cup buttermilk + milk, fill up almost 1/2 cup buttermilk then top up with milk abt 1 cm deep Ta-da!! Slather with butter and drizzle with honey. Absolutely yummy :)

Yes I know I've been gone for ages!! Junior #2 came out 12 days early, and I haven't really been using the computer haha. I'm blogging from my phone now. Have been trying out some recipes baking and cooking, but I can't remember all of them anymore. So before I forget! Here's my lunch for today. Super simple and fast, this is really a meal under 30 minutes.  I have been trying to use up leftover bits here and there, and I have oranges which I thought I'd save for orange butter cake but I just made apple muffins (recipe is apple cupcakes in my list) few days ago.  Orange Honey Soy Chicken Recipe from Allrecipes.com;  http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/230660/orange-honey-and-soy-chicken 400g chicken breast (works with any boneless chicken) 1 tbsp ginger paste 1 tbsp garlic paste 1 onion, finely sliced (I added this) 1/4 cup honey 1/4 cup soy sauce (I reduced by 2 tbsp) Juice of 2 oranges  Cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes. Fry the onions until fragrant, then the ging

Did loads over the weekend! Friday was check up day (weekly now! haha!) so it was long weekend for me haha. I managed to find butterscotch chips at Cold Storage Novena on the way back home from the hospital so I grabbed one packet! And just to prove that Cold Storage does carry the brand, I went to check at Northpoint as well and yay! Found them again! Fetched my baby boy from my mum's and went home to make nasi goreng kampung which was a tad salty but the Husband said finally it has taste -_- Haha. Nasi Goreng Kampung recipe to be updated soon! I couldn't get my hands away from the kitchen hence I made butterscotch oatmeal cookies as per the recipe on the packet. Started at like 6 and ended at 8. Yes. That crazy. While the cookies taste oh-so-yummy, I had problems getting them off the trays as they tend to stick. Sigh. Very frustrating. Doesn't help that the cookies are brittle and thin. I'm kinda thinking of making another batch without using oatmeal, an

Yesterday night I was still on my hardworking cook streak and so I fried laksa mum's style to be eaten with marinated chicken wings this morning. I always prepare sahur the night before because I know I can't bear to wake up at 4 to cook in a rush. Haha. My mum's laksa goreng is something like bee hoon goreng taucho, and I love it a lot. Got the recipe from her and this is the second time I'm making them. The first time I didn't have taucho and it was a little too salty. This time round although I have taucho I still didn't have vegetables haha. Oh wells. A better try than the first, but still not perfect yet! Laksa Goreng Taucho 420g laksa noodles (because the packet is in 420g haha), washed 1 onion, sliced 4 tbsp chili paste 2-3 tbsp taucho, try not to take the water, just the beans 1 sq cm belacan 1 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp udang kering, soaked for a while Prawns. scrambled eggs (3) and sliced fishballs Tumbuk the taucho, belacan and udang kering u

Am very sleepy and cranky because I don't get enough sleep and my eyes are dry. Yesterday we had a small celebration for Junior at my mum's house. He loved it :) He loves anything to do with cake and candles hahaha. I'm making it a point to make either a smoothie or overnight oats for sahur daily for extra energy and to force myself to eat 3 ajwa dates daily. I don't like dates because they are too sweet, but when paired up with oats and/or milk, they become tasty! So far I tried the following combinations: ground almond + milk + dates quickcook oats + milk + dates banana + milk + slivered almonds + dates all blended together. The last one is my current fave! Super yummy! I still have some bananas left so I'm gonna make more banana smoothies. Maybe add in chocolate and oats this time round hurhur. Banana oatmeal peanut butter smoothie sounds nice too. I'm so excited at the endless smoothie possibilities! Best of all no sugar needed! Okay back to

I have been on and off work this past week because we were cleaning our home to make way for baby before fasting starts. We've managed to clear loads of stuff and made way for new wardrobes for the spare room (for Husband's long coats etc) and for the kids' room, and got brand new airconditioners for all the rooms! Ka-ching. Our home is all set now, minus the dining table which is still a hand-me-down. Oh and our bed could do with a change too but that can wait. Did some normal cooking and a little baking over the days, made bread pudding and this time round it turned great cos I soaked the bread in the custard for almost an hour. Soaking it prevents the crust from being too hard when baking. Oh and I attempted apple spring rolls too! I think I prefer banana chocolate spring rolls instead. Here's the recipe: Apple Spring Rolls , recipe from Crazy Mom Cook 6 small apples, peeled and diced 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/3 cup brown sugar 2 tbsp butter 2 tsp orang

Very very lazy Monday morning today. Cousin got married over the weekend! Junior was in a good mood for both days, surrounded by family which he loves. This was after the nikah at the girl's side. He was happily making this cute pose and laughing at himself haha. My little king, slightly sleepy yet still wanted to pose with his crown. Managed to slot in semolina pudding on Saturday morning, finally I got to make some. It's kinda hard to find a recipe online cos there's German version, Indian version and others as well. Few weeks ago I came across a recipe book by an Indian/Pakistani Singaporean and the semolina pudding looks like what I was looking for so I tried it out! Sadly I didn't have rose water so the Indian flavour fell flat. Or maybe I should add in more cardamoms next time. Semolina Pudding , by Liza Kassim 900ml water 1 cup sugar 2 tsp rose water (I didn't have this) 1 pandan leaf (Didn't have this either) 2-3 cardamoms 400ml

Back to work. We spent most of the weekend at home since Junior is down with chicken pox. Saturday's menu is ayam masak korma and pengat pisang. Both are The Husband's cravings. So morning I managed to cook pengat pisang for breakfast using the same recipe as before. Got started on my ayam masak korma. I decided to follow the recipe on the korma powder packet cos it seems simple enough and it's catered to that specific spice anyway. So for 1 whole chicken, this is the recipe. Ayam Masak Korma 1 whole chicken 2 onions, thinly sliced 2 cloves, 1 cardamom 1 star anise 5 cloves garlic 3 cm ginger 1 tbsp chili paste (I added because I didn't have fresh chilis) 5 tbsp korma powder, Malabar brand 2 tbsp meat curry powder, Malabar brand 1 packet Kara coconut cream (200ml) Potatoes and cherry tomatoes Thinly slice the onions, pound garlic and ginger together. Fry the sliced onions in oil. Add in the cloves, cardamom and star anise to fry together. On

Yesterday was one of those days I was really hardworking in the kitchen. Cooked Junior's broccoli soup and got started on my beef rendang. I wanted to try cooking pulut kuning using the rice cooker, what rendang compliments pulut kuning beautifully. My SIL just got back from Bandung and I requested this from her! Haha. Have no idea what it's called, but on the packet it says "sale pisang". I love it a lot but can't seem to find it here. This beats getting cloth or clothes as presents haha! She gave me 5 packets summore. I'm a happy girl! :) Anyway back to rendang. Husband requested the addition of kerisik, though I don't know how that will help except bring more fats in :/ I still stuck to my mum's recipe because I refuse to try others hahaha. Once that was about done, I started on the glutinous rice. I tried the recipe from here , and I think I should have reduced the amount of coconut cream and replaced with water. Pulut Kuning Rice Cook

This morning I woke up earlier to get ready and even have breakfast before sending Junior to my mum's via bus. TWO buses sadly. Same town, but at different ends. Our car is spoilt and Husband followed the tow truck to send it to the workshop. I must say, getting up early and forcing yourself to have breakfast is really good discipline. Junior was still sleeping when I was all ready so I had to wake him up. But since he loves the idea of taking buses (he's been asking for it for countless of times), he got up all fresh and ready to go. After sending him off, time for me to take another two buses to work. All in all the journey took about 1 hr 45 min which is not too bad, I reached work around 8.45am. Fatty me was panting by the time I got to office haha! Spent the entire afternoon in the kitchen yesterday, making pineapple tarts and daging masak merah. Junior helped too! He helped pound the garlic and ginger, then later with rolling of the dough. He loves helping out in the k