Our Thanksgiving Feast

The main star - Roasted Turkey

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Stuffing

Steamed Vegetables

Coleslaw

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Spaghetti with Shrimp and Spinach - 3S's

Look at those big and juicy shrimp! I got the idea to make these Spaghetti with Shrimp and Spinach from Justin of Justcooknyc. His sauce is of course more elaborate and basically from scratch while my sauce is straight from the bottle.

Spaghetti with Shrimp and Spinach
serves 2

Spaghetti - I use whole grain
1 cup spaghetti sauce - more if you like extra sauce
10 pcs shrimp - cleaned, de-veined and de-shelled
1/2 bunch of spinach - cleaned and drained
Salt and sugar

1. Cook spaghetti as per the instruction, drain and put on 2 plates.

2. In a pot, heat the sauce on medium heat and add salt and sugar to taste.

3. Add shrimp and stir for like 30sec to 1min.

4. Turn the heat off and add in spinach. Gently fold the sauce on the spinach.

5. Pour the sauce onto the plate of spaghetti and enjoy immediately.

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A simple and Easy Breakfast

This is among what I would make for myself when I am just too lazy but won't want to settle for toast and butter. I would fry my egg sunny side up and dish up this mixed veggie with a few dash of worchestershire sauce. Have you cooked your mixed veggies like this before? I am not sure exactly how I came to make it this way but I have been doing it for years when I was still living back home. I do like my mixed veggies this way and would make it to accompany my steak or fish.

Mixed Veggies with Worchestershire Sauce

2-3 handful of frozen mixed veggies
1-2 tbs veggie oil
Salt
Sugar (optional)
White pepper (optional)
1 tbs worchestershire sauce

1. Heat oil on medium in a wok or pan and slowly add the frozen mixed veggies. Stir and cover. 2-3min.

2. Uncover and stir. Add all the other ingredients and stir again. 30sec-1min.

3. Serve immediately with toast and fried egg or steak or even fish.

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Marble Cheese Cake

I actually made this Marble Cheesecake a couple of months ago after looking at MamaFami's blog. The moment I saw the pictures and read the ingredients and instructions, I knew I had to make some since it sounded doable and it actually is. As much I love cheesecake, I can only eat so much since I found them a bit too thick and too rich for my taste. And that is why this Marble Cheesecake is just amazing. You get to enjoy cheesecake with half the guilt. *wink* Here is the recipe copied from MamaFami's. Hope you will like it as much as I did.

Marble Cheese Cake


Ingredients :

(A)
185g butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 cup self-raising flour
2 eggs

(B)
250g cream cheese (I used 12 oz Philadelphia cream cheese)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method :

1. Melt butter over low heat. Then add in cocoa powder. Leave to cool.
2. Add in sugar and stir. Add in eggs, one at a time. Finally add in flour and stir until well mixed.. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar till creamy. Add in the egg, vanilla essence and fresh milk.
4. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the cocoa mixture onto the middle of the prepared tin (line with greaseproof paper). Top it with 2 tablespoons of the cream cheese mixture. Continue doing so, until all the mixture finishes.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F C for 45 minutes or until cake is done. Leave overnight before cutting.

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Step-By-Step Pictures of How I Pleat/Fold the Wonton

Pleating wonton can be tricky but I hope with these step-by-step pictures, my readers would be able to do it in no time. You can get the recipe for Fried Wonton from my previous post but for this pictures, I actually used ground turkey instead of ground chicken and they come out very good that Michael kept on eating them.

Add about a tablespoon of the mix at the center and wet 2 sides of the skin

Fold the skin diagonally, pressing the sides together and get rid as much air as possible

Wet 1 end and gently fold the 2-ends by overlapping them together

This is how the wonton would look like once they are done

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Fried Wonton

G & J were kind enough to bring these yummylicious fried chicken wonton to our 24 event and now they are sharing the recipe with me and my readers. Thank you again G & J!

She promised me that they are easy to make but I did not think it would be very very very easy until she emailed me the recipe and I went, "that's it?". Oh I just love good food and what more if it comes with a simple and easy recipe!

Fried Chicken Wonton
makes between 25-30

1lb ground chicken
3-4 stalks green onion (finely chopped)
1-2 finely chopped chili (optional)
Seasoning salt (G&J use Lawry's or Zatarains creole seasoning)
1 pack wonton skin
Oil for frying

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and taste.

2. Fill center of wonton skin with ground chicken, dampen fingers to seal the wonton skin. (You can also use a mixture of water and flour/cornstarch)

3. Fry them batch by batch until golden brown. Serve with sweet chili sauce.

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Kuih Bakar

I apologise for taking such a long time to put up a new post. My notebook has been in a 'workshop' and I only got it back yesterday. Now I know how much I rely on a computer. hehe.


Back to the food, Kuih Bakar is a traditional Malay kuih. There is no direct translation for the word kuih but for this context kuih means cake and bakar means bake. Well, bakar actually means burn but for this delicacy, it is best translated as 'baked cake' simply because it is baked. Back in Malaysia when I was working with a holding company, there is always meeting to be held at the office. Foods and refreshments would be served and we were always asked for suggestions. Among other must-haves would be this sweet, creamy cake, Kuih Bakar.

I have always wanted to make Kuih Bakar but never gotten around to making it myself. One day I just knew that I have to have it so I started searching for the recipe. There is quite a few out there but I when I made it, they come out tasting good but looking rather weird like crooked and all. With the help from MamFami, we tweaked the recipe until it comes out nicely. This is the easiest cake to make. There is no beating needed. You just need to put all the ingredients in the blender for a couple of minutes and pour them in a baking pan and bake. Even a 5 year old can do it. *wink*

Kuih Bakar Recipe

1 1/4 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp pandan paste
1 can coconut milk (400 ml)
3 eggs
2 tbs butter
1/3 tsp salt
Toasted sesame seed

1. Preheat oven at 360F and butter a baking pan, preferably round and about 2.5in deep.

2. Put all ingredients except sesame seed in the blender and and blend for a few minutes.

3. Pour the mixture into a baking pan and sprinkle sesame seed. (make sure you fill up to 2/3 of the baking pan, lesser and you will get a thin one like mine!)

4. Bake for 1 hour.


If you like the taste and smell of pandan paste, you might also like Tepung Pelita.

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Chicken and Beef Satay Recipe

As promised in my previous post of Foodbuzz May 24,24,24 here is the recipe for Chicken and Beef Satay with Peanut Sauce. Some of you may already know that I have made and posted the recipe for Satay before but since this time I used a different recipe, I thought I would post it as well. This recipe was given to me by my friend Mai, a wife, mom, doctor and student who is doing her PhD in England. Thank you Mai!

Chicken Satay Recipe

(makes around 100 sticks)

5lb boneless and skinless chicken breast, sliced and cubed into 1in sq and about 1/2cm thick

1 pack grated lemongrass (14oz)
1/3 cup cumin powder
2oz fennel seed (grind)
1 1/4 cups sugar
Salt
1/4 cup turmeric powder
1/4 cup water
Wooden skewer (soaked in water 2hrs prior to being used)
Oil + honey/sugar

1. In a big bowl, mix all the ingredients (except chicken) together and taste. Add chicken to it and mix well.

2. Transfer them into 2-3 ziplock bags and marinate overnight in the fridge.

3. A few hours before grilling, take them out and let them cool to room temperature.

4. Thread the wooden skewer with 3 pieces of chicken each.

5. Grill on a direct fire. Flip every 15-20sec so the meat don't get burned and baste with oil +honey/sugar each time you flip them.

6. Take them of the grill and serve with Rice Cake and Peanut Sauce.

**For Beef Satay, just replace chicken with beef. The marinate are all the same.

I have posted the easy peanut sauce recipe before but to make it easier for you, here they are again.

Peanut Sauce

24oz (680gm) dry-roasted peanuts, (I use store bought)

3 cups water

1/4 cup sambal oelek (less if you dont like it too spicy)

4oz palm sugar

salt

1. Grind the peanuts in a food processor. Longer if you want a finer peanuts.

2. In a large pot boil the water, sambal oelek, palm sugar and ground peanut. Stir continuously.

3. Once its boiled, turn down heat and let it simmer. Add in salt and taste. Give a good stir every 15-20min.. This will take a very long time. It took me between 2-2.5hrs to get the right consistency. The peanut and water should combined nicely.

The recipe will give you a lot of peanut sauce. Just freeze the amount that you are not using for later use.

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May Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 - Summer Party Malaysian-Style

Grilling Satay - Chicken and Beef

Summer is approaching and although we always have bbq at our place, it was never a 'full-blown' Malaysian-style bbq party. So what better way to start the summer than having a Summer Party - Malaysian Style to introduce Malaysian food to our American friends/neighbours? None of those watered-down version of 'Malaysian' food that is normally served at the restaurants here. I am so honoured that my Summer Party proposal was chosen by Foodbuzz for their May 24, 24, 24 event.

The first thing on the menu was of course Satay. Grilled on a charcoal grill (that I specifically asked my husband to get when we moved to this apartment last year!). Both chicken and beef, together with peanut sauce, rice cake and cucumber. The meat was marinated overnight so the taste infused inside the meat and also makes them tender.

Next is Grilled Jumbo Prawns with sambal dipping sauce. I just realised that I don't have pictured of my sambal but the prawn was so yummylicious. Only minimum seasoning needed to retain the taste. They are seasoned with salt, turmeric and a dash of lime juice and off they go on the grill!

Then we have Beef with Potato Murtabak and Pickled Onion on the side. I usually used spring roll skins but this time I used lumpia wrapper. They are equally good although for pictures, I would have to say that I prefer spring roll wrapper since they give that nice edges while with lumpia wrapper you would not get it since they are softer and thinner.

G and J made these droolicious Fried Chicken Wonton that are to die for! I was too busy (and too tired!) to really eat anything yesterday but I am glad I managed to eat some of these. They are crunchy and their bite-size made it easier to eat while one was going back and forth, in and out of the kitchen and patio.

For something heavier, S made these Mamak Mee Goreng with seafood. They are spicy and very flavourful. 1 of my neighbours is of American/Korean parentage and as expected, Mamak Mee Goreng is her favourite and she could not stopped for talking about how good they are.

Honey Barbeque Chicken

Among all the things that I made for the Summer Party, I would have to say that making Fried Popiah is the trickiest one. They are yummy to eat but rolling them and making sure that they are wrapped properly is a skill that I discovered I have yet to master. Thank god for K who used to worked in a chinese restaurant who helped me with wrapping them.

For dessert, I made this Malay kuih called Kuih Bakar. This pandan and coconut milk based kuih/cake is as easy to make as it easy to eat. They are usually made with a flower design mould that I could not find here until I found this disposable mould with curves that gives a little bit of that flower effect.

I would like to thank all my friends (especially S and K for helping and taking most of the pictures) and neighbours who came (and help!) to the party and also Foodbuzz for choosing my Summer Party-Malaysian Style as part of their May Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 event. My SUmmer Party that started at 4pm ended till past midnight after a game of poker. Everybody leaves happily and with a full stomach.

I hope I have managed to introduce you a little bit of how we Malaysian do our party which basically involves lots and lots of food. I will be posting the recipes in my next post.

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Bread and Butter Pudding (Puding Roti)

Simple is usually the best way to prepare food. Don't you agree? Like bread and butter pudding. I just love them and I expect everybody would too only to find out that Michael do not. I really have to change my mentality that not everybody enjoy food. Some people eat because they just have to.


Back to bread and butter pudding. Since I love them, I have tried a few recipes and all of them are too elaborate for my taste. I realised that I don't like 'stuff' like raisins or nuts in them. I remember one time I made it with all the ingredients that you can think of and my friends love it but I didn't. Since then I scaled down the ingredients used in my bread pudding until I am satisfied with the taste. This reminds me of Gordon Ramsey's show The F Word. On 1 episode he and another guy had a showdown on bread and butter pudding. As usual his is very fancy shmancy while the other guy's is very simple and once they are done, were served to the customers 'in the dark'. The result? Well, the other guy's bread and butter pudding won hands down and Ramsey was shocked! I thought that was funny. hehehe.

Bread and Butter Pudding

6 slices of bread
3 eggs
1 3/4 - 2 cups milk
1 tbs vanilla extract
6-7 tbs sugar
3 tbs melted butter
Chocolate chips
Cinnamon powder


1. Butter baking dish or use cooking spray

2. Cubed 4 of the bread and lay them on the baking dish. Add chocolate chips on top.

3. In a bowl, whisk the egg, add milk and vanilla extract.

4. In another bowl, add sugar with butter. Butter the other 2 slices of bread with them and sprinkle with cinnamon powder. Cut into 4 pieces each. Set aside. (This is for the topping)

6. Combine the egg mix with butter and stir well. Pour them on top of the bread in the baking dish. Let it rest on room temperature for 30min.

7. Preheat oven to 325F.

8. Add the topping to the baking dish and bake for 1 hour.


*** I got the idea for the topping from here.***

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Green Beans with Egg

I just realised that I do not eat enough vegetables although I love them. Maybe because Michael is not a huge fan of vegetables and the vegetables that they sell at the asian supermarket usually came pre-packaged. Huge packages. So recently I got myself a (huge) bag of green beans. I actually prefer long beans but they are hard to come by and when they do they are usually not fresh and skinny. I like my beans to be fat!


I made this Green Beans with Egg to go with my Squid in Soy Sauce. Of course back home it was long beans instead of green beans but the taste is still there so I am happy. This recipe is very easy to make and would take you less than 20min from preparation to cooking to cleaning.

Green Beans with Egg


2 1/2 handful of green bean, cleaned and cut in half lenghtwise
2 garlic, thinly sliced
1 red chili, sliced
1 egg, whisked
Salt and sugar to taste
2-3 tbs oyster sauce
2 tbs vegetable oil
Water

1. In a wok, heat the oil and saute garlic. Slowly add water before the garlic becomes crunchy. Stir. *be carefulof splatter when you are doing this*

2. Stir in oyster sauce, salt and sugar and then only add green beans. Toss a little bit, increase heat to high and cover. 30second.

3. Uncover, add chili and egg, stir well.

4. Served hot with warm white rice.

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