mardi, octobre 16, 2007

Gateau au yaourt



Did I tell you that I bake a lot these days?? hihihihi
Today, it's the Yoghurt Cake (in french Gateau au yaourt). This is spose to be the basic cake among French. The measurement is based on the yoghurt pot. I follow the recipe found on the Maizena Cornflour box. I'll post the recipe later. Kinda lazy to walk to the kitchen.

The first time I heard of this cake is from my colleague. I bought a cake (which I bought, not bake myself), and he mentioned the yoghurt cake and that I should taste it. He said he will bring it one day... but it never happened. And he already left the company. Anyway.. I have always been curious about this cake.
My verdict.. I like it. It is the kind of cake which is spongy and natural.

Hari Raya meal

So what did I cook for Hari Raya?? Well, basically for this Hari Raya, I baked a lot and cook less. Since there won't be anyone coming to my house, so I am not that too keen to cook. I settled for Soto Ayam and Bergedil. It is something that Syl and I will eat.
This is the picture of Bergedil. It is made from mince meat, mashed potatoes, coated with egg and cornflour, then fried. Easy peachy recipe.


Here is the Soto Ayam. Basically it's chicken clear soup, eat with rice cubes (ketupat or nasi impit). One the top is the fried clear noodle. Yummy...

Biskut raya part 3



Continuing from last post... After I baked 2 types of cookies, I baked 2 more!! hihihihi... One is Pineapple Tart (Tat Nenas). I made everything from scratch, including the pineapple jam for the filling.
Here it the recipe that I used (taken from mamafami.fotopages.com):

PINEAPPLE TARTS
Source : Sis Rossya's Fotopage

Ingredients :
500g butter
2 egg yolks
1 egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons condensed milk
800g flour
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk to brush on top of the cookies
Pineapple jam

Method :
1. Cream butter, eggs, condensed milk, salt and vanilla.
2. Add in flour and mix well until a soft dough is formed.
3. Place a bit of dough into the 'samperit' mould and press about 2 inches long.
4. Place the pineapple jam in the middle and cover with the dough.
5. Brush the egg yolk on top.
6. Bake in a preheated oven 170 C till done.


Pineapple Jam
2 pineapples
450 g sugar
1 cardamon
2 cloves

Method :
1. Grate the pineapples and just place them on a sieve to remove the juice. Do not squeeze out the juice!
2. Put them in a pot and cook on medium heat till the pineapple is slightly dried.
3. Add in sugar, cardamon and cloves. Leave to thicken and shiny on slow fire.
4. Leave to cool and ready to use.




Next is Mama Carries. This is a classic Raya cookies when I was a kid. Again recipe taken from mamafami's website.

MAMA CARRIES COOKIES

Ingredients :
250 g butter
350 g flour
100 g icing sugar
150 g corn flour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Topping :
125 g icing sugar
1/2 egg white
1/2 tablespoon corn flour
Chocolate emulco (I used chocolate dessert topping)

Method :
1. Cream butter and icing sugar. Add in vanilla essence and continue stirring.
2. Add in corn flour and enough flour till a soft dough is formed.
3. Roll to 1/2 cm thick and cut using cookie cutter of your choice. Arrange the cookies on a tray lined with greaseproof paper.
4. Spread the topping. For better result, use your finger to do the job.
5. Dip a toothpick into chocolate emulco and sketch on top of the topping.
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 150 C for 17 - 20 minutes.
7. Topping : Mix all ingredients to form a smooth paste.

lundi, octobre 08, 2007

Biskut raya part 2

After baking the Samperit, I moved on to second cookie recipe which is the Cherry Cornflakes Cookie. I like crunchy cookie and this cookie, with the cornflakes bits are even crunchier.



Cornflakes Cookies

Ingredients:
210 gm butter
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolk
11/2 cup self raising flour
200 gm cornflakes - crushed (I used Frosties cornflakes)
1/2 cup cherries - chopped
1/2 cup almond - chopped (I used almond powder)

Beat butter and sugar. Then add in egg yolk, and the rest of the ingredients.
Bake in oven temperature 170C(th 3) for about 15-20 minutes.

To shape the cookies like I did, roll the dough into small balls and then press each of them with a fork. Easy!

Biskut Raya part 1

Woohoo... time to do some baking!!!

Since Syawal is in less than a week, I decided to bake some Raya cookies. I have never bake Raya cookies before. Since I am in a baking mood, so why not bake some cookies. I never thought that the process brings so much memory of my childhood. My mom baked Raya cookies a lot while I was a kid. But I think when I was teenager, my mom started to buy those cookies from her friends or friend of a friend. When my mom baked the cookies, usually I would cut the dough with cookie cutter. Then, of course once the cookies were cool off, we will put them in an air-tight container.

On the Hari Raya eve, between changing the curtains and cooking ketupat, we would put the cookies in small air-tight container and put on the main table ready to be served to visitors.

Anyway, I opted for 4 different cookies where each of them are different. Just to give some varieties.

So the first one is Biskut Semperit. I don't know what semperit means, really. But I know that it is an old cookies. To shape this cookie actually you need to pipe it out. I tried with the new piping tool I bought, but the nossle is too small for cookie dough. So I go for cookie cutter in a shape of flower. Then, I added cherry on top. Cute eh. This cookie has the milky taste. Yummy.



This is the recipe which I fished out from one website:

SAMPERIT Cookie

Ingredients :
250gm Butter
90gm Icing sugar (I used castor sugar)
1 egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt
320gm all purpose flour
120gm corn flour
2 tablespoon milk (I used condensed milk)
1/2 teaspoon rose essence (I used vanilla essence)
Cherry

Beat butter and sugar, egg yolk, salt, essence until fluffy. Then add in milk. Beat again. Add in allpurpose flour and corn flour bit by bit. Mix until you get a dough and that it does not stick to your hand. Use samperit piping or cookie cutter, then put the cherry bits on top.
Bake with temperature - 170C (Th 3) for about 15 minutes.

PUSHr

On Saturday, I had the pleasure to shop for kitchen stuff. When I said kitchen stuff, that means impulse shopping on things that can be used in the kitchen hehehehe. I went to a shop nearby called Rejan. This shop sells cheap stuff. I mean cheap as in not high market products. But you can be amazed on cool stuff that you can find in this shop.
Anyway, I found this thing... PUSHr. I need to change the kitchen brush, and as I saw this little thing, I said that's cool! hihihi
So what it is? Well, the bottom part is like the kitchen brush, but the top part is the cool part. Usually kitchen brush came with the long handle. But this little creature comes with dishwashing liquid pot.


The top part is made from rubber, so just lift it off.
And then pour in dishwashing liquid.


There you have it! It just happened my dishwashing liquid does not have any color. But you get the idea, right?

So this is how we use the little thing. When you need to have a bit of soap in your scrubing, just push the center of the top!

samedi, octobre 06, 2007

Tuna Bagel

It's kinda difficult to find freshly baked Bagel in France. It is not a typical bread that you can find here; unlike baguette, pain de mie, pain de cereal, ciabatta, etc.
I think Bagel is more of American type of bread. However, I found an already baked Bagel at the bread aisle in the supermarket, around packs of scones, english muffins and pita bread. So I suppose bagel is categorized as "foreign" bread. It's not freshly baked, but it looks OK. They come in a pack of 4 bagel.


I had tuna bagel... yum yum. Just pour the tuna from the can, and there you have it! Oh! I cut the bagel into 2 and lightly toast it.


Another way to eat bagel is with cheese spread. I like Tartar cheese spread, as you can see below, they come in small cubes with different flavours, of course. My fav is Chèvre Basilic (goat cheese and basil) and Eclats de noix (cheese spread with hazelnut)