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!

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)

Tuna Roll

I made these last Friday. Yummy and easy tidbits!
I have not venture in pastry yet. So I just bought the ready-made pastry dough from the supermarket. hihihi... Merci, Marie!!!

Banana Loaf

Ok.. other than planning to cook this weekend, I planned to bake as well.
At the beginning I planned to bake cookies. But then, we have bunch of bananas which started to turn brown. So change of plan. I go bananas!
Will it be banana cake? banana muffin? banana bread?
I go for banana bread loaf. Well, don't know what's the diffrence between the load and cake. I chose a recipe from Malaysian cooking website, http://www.kuali.com.

Walnut Banana Bread
by Amy Beh

Ingredients
280g ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
125g margarine
240g castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs, beaten with a fork
300g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder, sifted
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
70ml milk
80g walnuts, coarsely chopped
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C.

Beat margarine, sugar and salt together until light then add eggs and beat for 2 minutes. Add in the mashed bananas and mix well.

Add sifted dry ingredients. Stir in milk to mix. Add walnuts to blend.

Spoon mixture into a lightly greased and lined loaf tin (21cm x 10.5cm x 8.5cm). Level the surface with a palette knife and bake in preheated oven for 45–60 minutes or until cooked through.

Leave in the tin for 5–10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.


I made some changes to the above recipe though, hehehhehe
- I don't have walnut, so I omitted the walnut
- I used butter instead of margarine
- I used only like 75g sugar, because I ran out of sugar! But the cake turned out sweet enough. So I think reducing the sugar is a good idea.
- I add in a 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- For the flour part, I put 200gm self rising flour and 100gm corn flour (maizena)

...And here's the result

Nasi Lemak and Sambal Ikan Bilis

This weekend, I'm undecided between nasi ayam and nasi lemak
Nasi ayam:
- rice cooked in chicken broth
Nasi lemak:
- rice cooked in coconut milk
Until Saturday evening groceries, I haven't got a clue of what to cook.
This morning, I woke up (early mind you), and after I just remember that during groceries I bought canned tomatoes, for anchovies sambal (sambal ikan bilis). Therefore, I decided OK, we'll do nasi lemak then. Sambal can be eaten with basically any rice. But it's best to it with nasi lemak! But to make nasi lemak, I need coconut milk. I rummaged through my kitchen, and there it is! A can of coconut milk (which I don't know how long it's been there ihihihi. I checked the expiry date and it's still OK. So I thought there is no difference between when it's been sitting there in my kitchen or in the shop, rite?
So, rice - check, coconut milk - check, chilies - check, canned tomatoes - check
The anchovies?? I always knew that I have a tupperware of dried anchovies stored in the fridge. My mom posted it to me ages ago. I think early this year or so. I thought.. dried anchovies, in the fridge, in airtight container.. they can't turn bad, can they? I open the container and zooming for any moving micro-organisme. Looks good to me. In fact, the anchovies looked so clean!

I started with the nasi (rice) first. Amazingly I always prefer to cook rice in a pot "manual" way, rather than using the rice cooker.
Went in the rice, water, coconut milk, ginger slices and a bit of salt.
Oh.. I don't have the exact measurement for those ingredients. As for the rice+water+coconut milk proportion, I used the "manual" method, taught by my mom, aunt and grandma. I measure it by using my fingers.
Anyway.. while the rice on the stove, I started omelette. Usually hard-boiled eggs accompanied nasi lemak. But I'm kinda lazy to use yet another clean pot. So I just make do with omelette, so that I could still use the pan to fried the sambal.
Omelette done.

Now the anchovies sambal.
Again I don't use exact measurement, but here are the ingredients:
Anchovies Sambal (Sambal Ikan Bilis)
- Dried anchovies (washed and soaked in warm water)
- Onion
- Ginger
- Garlic
- Ground chilies
- Canned tomatoes
- Salt
- Sugar
- Lemon juice

Drain and fry the anchovies. When they turned yellowish, set aside.
Add a bit more oil, then add in onion, ginger, garlic, ground chillies.
After that, add in fried anchovies, add in canned tomatoes, salt to taste, lemon juice and sugar.
Cook in high heat and toss until the sambal dried as your liking. I like my sambal a bit dry.

Serve the nasi lemak with sambal and omelette.. There you go!


Dried anchovies


Anchovies Sambal (sambal ikan bilis)

Roti

Since it's getting colder these days, I had the tendency to leave work (on time) and straight heading home. Therefore I have ample time to be busy in the kitchen.
Yesterday, I found a Roti Canai recipe on the net, and thought "hey, I have all those ingredients" So I started rolling my sleeves and mix one ingredient to another. Mind you, I don't have electric mixer. All those cooking are by these 2 bare hands! I stored the dough in the fridge so it will be ready when I'm home the next day.
Today, as I got home, I am all fired up to do some Roti Canai.
But, my mistake (a bit), because I didn't leave them to be at room temperature. I straight flatten out the dough and it's a tough task! In addition, I'm all hungry and can't wait to eat my dinner!
For roti canai, you need to spread the dough until it is very thin. If you missed, you might tear the dough. To do so, you need lots and lots of oil. I don't really like playing with oil, coz it's kinda icky. Anyway, it's a good adventure. hihihi
Here are the pics of my dinner: Roti Canai and Beef Thai Curry