mercredi, novembre 25, 2009

Chocolate Cheesecake

For my birthday this year I made baked cheesecake for the first time and brought to the office.
And it's a success!
I don't have the pictures taken because the cake is gone within minutes! But here is the recipe. I would surely make it again soon :D

Ingredients:

Base :- 250 g biscuits (speculoos) crushed
- 125 g butter (melted)

Garniture (Basic) :- 500 g cream cheese
- 170 g sugar
- 2 tablespoon corn flour (maizena) + 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 egg yolk
- 200 ml fresh cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla


- 170g cooking chocolate/dessert chocolate (melted)

Preparation :

1) Preheat the oven at 180°C. Line the baking pan (23 diameters) with baking paper and butter, or just with butter.

2) Mix the biscuits crumbs and melted butter. Line the base of the mould with the mix. Put in the fridge.

3) Add all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Beat until the mixture is smooth. Then add in the melted chocolate.
Pour into the mould with base.

4) If you have detachable mould, then wrap the outside of the mould with aluminium paper.
Put the mould into a bigger pan/baking pan, and add hot water (bain marie)

Put the oven temperature to 150 C.
Bake the cake 45-50 mins, not more than that.

Let it cool and over the cake with big plate or baking paper.

It's ready to be served!

samedi, octobre 31, 2009

Agar-Agar Santan Pandan

Wah! So long time I didn't put up my kitchen venture on the net....
This is my latest test in the kitchen... It's the Agar-Agar Santan Pandan.
I have never make anything with Pandan before mainly because it is no easy to get Pandan leaves or pandan essence where I live. Last week, I was shopping at the KY supermarket in Brussels, lo and behold!! I found packs of pandan leaves at the fridge side. There are about 15 big pandan leaves and cost for about 1,70 Euro! What a deal!

One of my favorite Malaysian dessert is agar-agar (lengkong). This is a very easy to eat dessert and especially in hot climate country, this dessert is refreshing. After so many recipes on the internet, I finally settled for the one from TryMasak.com.
On this website, it is called Agar-Agar Batik. I think it is for the look made by the coconut milk and eggs.

The receipe uses cups. But I just use approximate measurement. Hehehehe...

For the pandan jus, I use about 50ml. For the coconut milk, I used 200ml think coconut milk. For the agar-agar, I use 2 packets of agar-agar powder (total of 24g).

Here's the result :D
The ideal agar-agar santan would have an equal part of the transparent and with coconut milk. This is usually perfected with the correct amount of coconut milk, and how much stirring done. But I am happy that it turns out yummy and nice.




jeudi, octobre 15, 2009

Ketupat and Kuah Kacang

Yay!! I got the motivation to cook. And I chose Ketupat (Packed rice) and Kuah Kacang (Peanut Sauce)!

As for the Ketupat, I used the shortcut, where I used the instant from Malaysia. This is the mini version. This is like one of the best invention of Malaysian food. Traditionally these packed rice are made with woven case from coconut leaves.



This is the instant packaging.



So this is the before and after picture:



You can eat ketupat with the peanut sauce, or with rendang (curry thick sauce) or with lodeh (vegies in coconut sauce). Simplest version is with peanut sauce.

So here is my version. I looked up recipes for Peanut Sauce and there are so many version. I took the common ingredients that these recipes have and make my own. I would say this is the quick n go version hihihi...



Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons Chili Paste (I used Sambal Oelek)
1 lemongrass
Oil
Tamarind juice
Palm sugar
Sugar
Salt
Coconut milk
Chopped peanuts

1. Heat oil, and chili paste
2. Add lemongrass
3. Get the tamarind as a size of a golf ball, and dilute in a cup of boiling water, Pour into the chili
4. Add in palm sugar till everything diluted
5. Add a bit of coconut milk
6. Add salt and sugar to taste
7. Add peanuts
8. Add tamarind water and coconut milk till the taste and look is like you want (yes I know I am cooking based on LOL)
Cook till boil.

Here are some of the asian ingredients which you can get at asian stores.

Tamarind


Palm sugar

lundi, septembre 21, 2009

1 Syawal

What's cooking you ask? :)

Last Saturday I spent the day cleaning, groceries and cooking... yes!! cooking!!
It is always not easy to start myself to cook. But when you got the pan heated up..I'm on for it baby!!

This time there's something new. Spring is long gone, but spring rolls are here :)
To tell you the truth, it has been a long time since I make spring rolls. In fact, I can't remember making them in my own kitchen. It would probably with my mom ages ago.
Anyway, after much googling, finally I got some idea as to what would be the filling for the rolls.

I chose mix of beansprouts, carrots and clear noodles.. that's it!



As for the pastry, you can get a normal spring rolls pastry in any asian stores.

Time to roll up those pastries





Deep fried the rolls.. and there you go.. served with any kind of sauce.



Easy, yummy, filling and fun! You can never fail with these spring rolls

On another note:
I cooked something else, at the same time for the Eid.
It's not so elaborate like last year's
http://frenchfoodie.blogspot.com/2008/10/hari-raya-is-makan-time.html

For this year, it's ketupat (packed cube rice), beef rendang and peanut sauce (clockwise)



SELAMAT HARI RAYA! MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN

dimanche, septembre 13, 2009

Bubur Jagung (Sweet Corn Porridge)

Heya! Another day and another porridge...

This time it is another Malaysian dessert which is the sweet corn porridge.
Easy to make and yummy too.
This time I added sago or tapioca pearls.

The ingredients are: sweet cream corn in a can, coconut milk, sugar, salt and tapioca pearls.

Thirty minutes and there you have it :)
Enjoy!

samedi, septembre 12, 2009

Bubur Kacang Hijau (Mungo Bean Porridge)

Time for a Malaysian treat!

My sister recently made this porridge and I had the urge to eat it too.
Bubur Kacang Hijau is one of oh-so-many Malaysian comfort foods. Bubur means Porridge, Kacang Hijau means Green beans.

This porridge can be served hot, cold or you can even freeze it to make a nice ice cream. This version is the simplest one. You can add other things into it such as sago pearl, durian or jackfruit.

It is very easy to make, and this took me about 1 hour max.
So here is the recipe:

Bubur Kacang Hijau

Ingredients:
250g Mungo Green beans
3/4 can of coconut milk
palm sugar
sugar
water for boiling the beans
pinch of salt



Method:
Boil green beans in water. Put a lot of water because the water ran out fast.
Make sure that green beans are thoroughly cooked. It is OK if you overcooked them slightly. To know this, the bean's skin starts to parted from the bean itself.

Add in palm sugar, coconut milk and sugar and pinch of salt.
Add all these bit by bit and depending on your preferences.
For example, add coconut milk until you get the right amount of "sauce". It should not be too soupy, nor too "dry"
Add sugar a bit then taste it. Depending how sweet you want it to be.

Here is my version, served hot. Yum!!!

jeudi, août 06, 2009

Brownies sans beurre (Butterless brownies)

Hola!

Experiment time in the kitchen today...
A colleague informed me that we could substitute butter in the brownies recipe with apple compote. Hmmm... sceptic, wonder, intrigue.
Butter is the mother of cake and baking. In general you start with butter, sugar and egg. To subsitute with apple? butter.. apple.. Hmmmm...

I can't keep my curiosity intact. I must try it and see how it goes.

I use the same Brownies recipe that I used before. Well, not exactly.
Here's the thing. I always base on used recipe, but each time I tweaked it a little here and there.

So here it goes:
Butterless brownies

Preheat oven on 180C, and grease baking pan

225g Apple compote (seriously I bought a jar of 370g net, I didn't measure it. I use 3/4 of the bottle)
100g chocolate for cooking
200g sugar
225g flour
4 eggs (3 whole + 1 egg yolk) <== this is also part of experiment
2 teaspoon vanilla essence
helpful of chopped nuts


- In a pot on low heat, melt chocolate and apple compote
- Let cool



- In a bowl, mix sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla together



- Add in the cool Apple compote+choco



- Add in nuts
- Mix well



- Pour into the greased baking pan (or baking paper)



- Put into the oven 180C for 25-30 mins (test with the toothpick/knife. when it comes clean/dry, it is ready)



The result:

Jamie Oliver style



Go-to-office style



Verdict:
It's AMAZING!! I didn't feel guilty of not putting butter in it. It's even lighter, not oily.
First thing I noticed is the top of the brownies. There are no crumbs, no cracks and not dry. Could this come from the fact no butter, or the apple effect, or the 3+1 yolk ?
What do you think?

The reason I experiment with 3+1 yolk is because from my googling, having extra egg yolk cause brownies to be fudgy and dense. I LIKE!

It's still springy like cake, but dense. However, I expect for more fudge brownies. So there are more rooms for experiments!!

lundi, août 03, 2009

Greek Salad

Summer time, this is a thirst quenching salad... Very light with cucumber, olives, tomatoes, feta and hint of pepper. So refreshing.
Eating greek salad reminds me of Bulgarian Shopska Salad. Frankly between Greek Salad and Shopska Salad, I prefer the latter. I'm not a big fan of vegies nor salads. But I could wallop these salads every day.

Here is something simple from the kitchen:

vendredi, juillet 17, 2009

Moules à la crème

I found a supermarket catalogue in my mailbox yesterday. And lo-behold, there is the picture of mussels (moules). Five months in the land of moules frites for sure I have tried them the first month I am here. But after a while I kinda forgot about it. Now I suppose the season is back (as claimed the catalogue). I had this craving to eat the mussels.
For those who do not know me, I am nuts for seafood.
It is kinda sad that there is no wet market new my appartment. I missed Nancy's Market.

Here is what's cookin' in the kitchen today:
Moules à la crème
I had them with some pommes croquettes



And after the big attack....

jeudi, juillet 16, 2009

Inside nyanya's fridge

This time round.. fruits of the season: cherries, red and white grapes :D
yummy!!!

lundi, juin 08, 2009

Curry Udon

Location: My kitchen, XL

Friend of mine just shared her recipe of curry noodles (you know who you are ;) )
So I gave it a try last weekend. I bought fishballs from the asian supermarket, and calamar too.
As for the calamar, I covered them with eggs and flour with some spices (my own original recipe), then deep fried.
I use the japanese Udon because I like this fat white type of noodles more than any kind of noodles. Of course it is very difficult to choose from all different types of noodles that they sell at the asian supermarket. There is one long aisle just different type of noodles.

This is the Udon.


This is bowl of Udon and curry with fishballs and tofu.


Top it with deep fried calamar.


Sluurrppsss!!

samedi, mai 30, 2009

au Chocolat Frappé

Venue: La Gourmandise, rue des Ponts, Nancy.

It has been long time that I want to put up the review. Just could not find the good time to snap the pictures. This place is a chocolate shop but they put some tables inside it.

My friends and I call this place 'Chocolat Frappé' because I introduced them to this place where you can get chocolat and café frappé. It is very rare in France to find place such place. As we all know, french is very strict of café and chocolat. Those starbucks frappés are known in France as coffee with lotsa ice water.
Anyway, I like frappés,and I've discovered this place some years ago. This is as good as frappé that you can get.

Anyway, other than frappés, they have desserts which are called l'instant Américain, l'instant Quebecois and l'instant Croquant. Each has different combinations of toping and ice creams.

We used to have this as our dessert at lunch time :D
This is one of the all-time favorites: l'instant Américain.
It contains vanilla ice cream, white chocolate ice cream, chantilly, chocolate sauce, and... warm chocolat brownies.. mmmmm


samedi, avril 18, 2009

Acardi Cafe, Brussels

Location: Galerie du Roi, Brussels

This cafe is at the tourist spot in Brussels, and yet it has the right price for everything served there.
I took cafe frappé and it costs me 3 euros. The savoury tarts or quiche are big parts too. I played save, so I ordered omelete hihihi... But next time for sure I will try the quiche.

The mint tea (with fresh mint leaves!) is 2 euros. The desserts there are amazing. If you like fruit tarts, then this is the place! For 4 euros you will get a big part of tart. Yums!!!

Mint tea and Tatin chaude avec glace:




Tarte aux framboises meringue:


jeudi, avril 16, 2009

Smooth the smoothie

Something new in the kitchen peeps!!!!

I passed by lots of juice bars and healthy bars around here. So I had the urge to do it on my own. It is much cheaper too...
A colleague told me about smoothie with Spinach. I looked up on Youtube (yeah so long Google), for spinach and smoothie. Amazingly I found a lot of videos on how to spin the vegies in the blender!

So I have been experimenting on Spinach and different kinds of fruits combo.

For tonight, I tried with these ingredients:
Spinach, Freshly squeezed Orange juice, Banana, Strawberry Yodrink



Here is the result! I like the foam built on top of it.
OK so it does not look that appealing. The green color is something that you have to deal with when you are using green leaves.
But the taste... amazing!!!! It does not have the taste of spinach. From my experience, banana has a strong taste. So basically it tastes the sweet of banana and orange juice. I added the yodrink in order to make the smoothie a bit thicker.
Leave it in the fridge so that it is cold a bit, and then sip it away!!



I don't eat spinach, in fact I hate it.
But I just finished this glass which contains about 100g of raw spinach!
What a great way to get vegies in your body! :D

mercredi, mars 18, 2009

Kitchen is Open!

Amongst the boxes that I unpack first is the Kitchen boxes. As I opened one box, I saw my electric mixer! I had the sudden urge to bake... One thing I missed is to bake for my former colleagues. I know they will eat the cakes. But what about my new colleagues? Would they enjoy as much as the French?
I made brownies and banana cake this evening. This is the first time I make brownies. It is kinda like a suicide mission!
As I pack those square cut cakes in a plastic container, I was thinking of the what ids. What if they don't like my cake. What if there is other people who can make better cake than I am. What if this is too much and that at the end of the day there are a lot of leftovers. What if.. what if...
Anyway, the cakes are made. So what I could do is to bring them to office. That's about it!
I'll post the pic later.

mardi, février 17, 2009

samedi, février 07, 2009

Hibernation

I'm hoping to settle in so that I could start cooking and baking huhuhu...
Although my kitchen in Nancy is small, but I kinda missed it.
I hope to be able to do the moving soon. It's so effing slow here. It is possible that I will be able to re-store my stuff in 2 weeks time.
Be patient my little pots and pans...

dimanche, janvier 11, 2009

Jejemput Pisang



I dunno what is this thing called in english. It is like banana puff or beignet.
Anyway.. all you need ingredients: flour, banana of course, sugar, milk, bit of salt, bit of bicarbonate soda.



Mix all together:


Then deep-fry:

jeudi, janvier 01, 2009

Lunch time! Grilled Salmon

Typical lunch on Sunday afternoon... grilled salmon, grape juice and fruits of the season. Bon app!

Feuilles de Vigne / Olives farcie feta

I've discovered the feuilles de vigne and feta cheese when I was on my first work trip to Sofia, Bulgaria.
Feuilles de vigne literally translated as vine leaves in english.
It is a typical food for those mediterranean countries including eastern europe and Greece. It is usually rolled vine leaves with rice inside it mixed with aneth, lemon juice or some other bit of spices. The feuilles de vigne is best eat with yoghurt sauce. But they are yummy even eating like that.
I bought feuilles de vigne at a market near my house where they also sell different type of olives. My fav is Olives with herbs. But as I like feta cheese as well, so I chose Olives stuffed with feta cheese this time. Feta cheese is a simply goat cheese.
Something that reminds me of the good ol warm Mediterranean weather during the icy cold time at the moment.