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!!!

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!!

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:

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....

Inside nyanya's fridge

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

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!!

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