Cee Cee Muffins

Hahah Yes that's what I call these cuties...

Nyanya is back in the kitchen and it's a classic, chocolate chips muffins. I like these muffin cups. They are at the good size and can be used in the oven without the support of muffins pan.

Here's the video:

Cake aux fromages

Yesterday I have a meeting at the head office for newcomers (employees who just joined within past 6 months). It's a potluck meetup. I was thinking to make chocolate brownies, but then I'm thinking to change something. I don't want to bring dessert. Instead I want to bring a salty/savory snack. It was a SUCCESS!!!!

In France, quite often that one of the snacks in a party is this savory cake. There are many ways that you can mix and match ingredients to make a great snack cake. You can have spinach with goat cheese cake, salmon and olives cake, to name a few. I choose to make cheese savory cake. Cheese is usually quite acceptable kind of taste by most europeans hahahhaha...

On another note, did you see the metal that sticked out on the cake? Yes! It's a new addition in the kitchen :D As it says, it IS a cake tester. What did you use when you want to test the doneness of your cake? I have always use steak knife to check on my cakes. But not anymore! This cake tester is just so adorable :D

Here's the recipe for this savory cheese cake:

Ingredients:

150g all-purpose flour

1/2 packet of baking powder (this is roughly about 1 tablespoon)

3 large eggs

100ml olive oil

100ml milk

100g grated Gruyere (Swiss cheese)

salt and pepper 

100g Blue cheese (like Roquefort or Danish blue) - break into small bits

100g mix of Gouda and Cheddar cheese - cut in cubes

Some parmesan

Provencale herbs

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat oven 200C and prepare loaf baking pan

2. In a bowl, add flour and baking powder

3. Add eggs into the bowl, and mix together with flour and baking powder

4. Add olive oils and milk. Mix until batter is smooth

5. Add grated cheese, salt and pepper to taste

6. Add the rest of the other cheese, and some herbs. Pour mixture into the baking pan, and bake for about 45 minutes

Can be served hot or cold.

 Can you see the bits of blue cheese?

Add in Provencale herbs

Instant lamb ragout

Remember last post, I posted about the Maggi Chicken Marinate that comes with plastic bag? This time, I try with some lamb. As you can see from the photo, it's a success!! So yes, you can substitute chicken with either lamb or ribs.

I used the "Provencale Herbs" marinate and I used the lamb part where you use to make lamb ragout. Not really sure which part of lamb it is, but it's mostly layers of lamb meat and fat. Yum yum! With this way of cooking, the lamb is part grilled and partly tender, with reduced sauce. 

Give it a try!!! :D

Look how clean the oven dish is. Save time from scrubbing the pan!

Maggi Marinate and Grill

Huuraaay!1 Product review :P 

This product is so good that I would give this 2 thumbs up. If you ever see this product at your nearest supermarket, do give it a try!!! 

I love grilled chicken / bbq chicken... Yummy yummy....

This product is by Maggi. Other than chicken marinate, it offers also for meat and fish. The pack is divided into 2 section, the top one contains folded plastic bag, and the bottom part contains marinate powder. For chicken, it comes in 3 different choices: garlic (the one I have here), paprika and provencale herbs.

Unfold the plastic bag, alternatively put your chicken pieces (I love chicken wings, so I chose only chicken wings here) But you can use whole chicken, the plastic is big enough for 1 whole chicken. Toss in the marinate powder. Shake the bag. 

It comes with the plastic thing to close and tie your bag with. And it's ready for the oven. You can prepare your meat in advance, and keep this bag in the fridge so that your meat is well marinated.

When the time comes, put this bag in the pan and throw in the oven. Leave in the oven to cook for about 1 hour.

Usually I like to make my own marinate, where I tried all sort of different spices. But this Maggi has a great taste! I love it. Then, the best thing is the bag. It makes the chicken so tender yet crispy on the outside. Just be careful when you open the bag when it's still hot out from the oven. Give this magic bag a try!!!!

MeatballZ revisited

It has been almost 2 years now that I have my not-so new weight :D How time flies!! I have the feeling that it is only 6 months ago I started dukan. I have been trying to keep eating the same kind of food. One of the food that stick to my nutrition is the grilled chicken wings. However, recently I wanted to eat meatballs. I did it only once or twice when I did dukan. I'm feeling meatballzy tonight :D

So here it is.
This time I add some chopped coriander leaves and chopped onion.
Otherwise, I just threw in some spices, a bit of bran oatmeal, 1 egg and a bit of cornstarch.

Balls

I feel like to eat something-balls.. like meatballs or fishballs or turkeyballs
Yum yum....

Rempeyek

What is Rempeyek, you ask? It's a combination of asian spicy crackers/chips and peanut. I found this at the local supermarket. Being a hungry customer, I grabbed this packet without thinking. I've seen this before, but I never want to buy it because of course it won't be the same as the one back in Malaysia. But anyway, it is worth the try.

In this packet, the rempeyek/spicy peanut chips are the mini version. Traditionally as I know it from Malaysia, the size of rempeyek is about the size of bottom of a mug. But Go-Tan's version is like I said mini version, so it is a size of a bottle cap :/ In my taste, the chips is too thick. Anyway, I'm not complaining coz I'm hungry.. So Ohm nom nom nom :D

Banana Nutella Cake

.. or muffin...
Trying to do a litle bit different on the banana cake, I decided to use some of my husband's Nutella and see how it goes. Verdict: Very soft texture. Taste wise, amazingly it didn't taste much of the nutella. More on the banana. I guess it enhance the banana taste. But it's yummy and this recipe is a keeper :D



Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Nutella
1/3-1/2 cup mashed banana
56gm butter, softened
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Preparation:
- Pre-heat oven at 160-180C and grease baking pan/muffin tin
- In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and sugar
- In a mixing bowl, beat butter, egg, mashed banana, Nutella, vanilla and buttermilk.
- Add in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients
- Pour mixture into the baking pan, bake until the tester came out clean

Spiced up Roasted Cashews

Ever want to have something more than salted roasted cashews? Try this Spiced up Roasted Cashews. It has a mix of spicy, sweet and salted. Really brings a new flavor to the dull salted cashews.

Adapted from Betty's Kitchen.

Ingredients:
2 cups salted cashews
1/8 cup sugar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon red pepper (put more if you like em hotter)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons sugar (optional, I didn't put it)

Long time no see!

Waahhoooo!!! I have been slacking in the kitchen lately. But still I cooked up some stuff. Just that I'm lazy to blog about it HAHAHAHA But I think that my macarons class at Mmmmh couple of weeks ago worth to put on this blog. I just need to get the pictures uploaded and that would take time LOL But don't go anywhere, stay tune and I'll be back :D XOXO

Ninja House - Brussels

I saw this place with big sign outside saying 'Sushi et Grillades A Volonté'. Translated to All-you-can-eat Sushi and grills'. Yay!! This is my kinda place. It's called Ninja House and it's located near St. Catherine in the heart of Brussels city. I decided to try this place and see what's going on. This place used to be a Chinese restaurant because they still have one signboard outside that says it is a chinese restaurant. And yes, I passed by this place quiet sometime and I always thought it is a chinese restaurant. So I went here for the lunch all you can eat. The price is 17.90 Euros per person. I was expecting a buffet type where there is all you can take kinda thing, hahahaha. But, this place has the ordering system. Which is good because having sushi and raw fish on the buffet spread is not that nice.

 What is the system then? 1. You can stay up till 2 hours. - Hahaha So don't think you can stay the whole afternoon there and keep ordering. I wonder how they track this and kick out campers. 2. You can order up to 5 times only - On the order sheet, you have 5 columns. Each time you've ordered, the column will be striked out. So when you strike 5, out you go!!! 3. You cannot order (using the next column) before your current order has not arrived yet - Woohooo... So don't think that you can merge the columns hahaha. But I wonder if there is a timeframe where you can order and put that order in the current column. HHmmmm 4. You must finished what you've ordered - This is to avoid people to happily picking up things from the list and then do not want to eat them. I think the count is 1 euro per sushi left and 2 euros per warm food left. So those are the things that I can remember. Anyway, the system and rules are on the menu in 3 different languages. So don't tell me that you don't know! Boo yah!

 

 The verdict: The place: I went there at lunch time and it's not that busy. So my order came in quite fast. You can see the people in the kitchen (I mean just their heads), but it looks like they have a big kitchen and a lot of workers. It's a big restaurant, with 2 floors. No worries about getting a table here I think. The sushi: I took makis and sushis. For sashimi you need to add 4 euros extra. The sushis are good. I had my favorites: the salmon, the tuna, the tofu skin (inari), the one with fish roe. It's pretty decent I would say. I suspect that they have prepared some of the sushi beforehand, but I didn't detect any coldness. Everything melts in your mouth and between your teeth. So it's good. The warm food: I took the teriyaki salmon. It's really nice. At first look, I was a bit disappointed with the size. But then, I think you can't have it too big in 1 serving. If you like it first time, then order double portion at the next order. The surprise: The lunch comes with ice cream as dessert. I didn't know about this. I was about to go, then the waiter told me that I must stay for the ice cream hahahahaha. Oh well. So you get 1 scoop of ice cream from the choice of either vanilla, coconut, chocolate, black sesame and green tea. I went for the authentic green tea :-) Overall, I think this is a pretty decent all you can eat sushi place. For a sushi place in the middle of Brussels, I don't think this is expensive. The price is about right. I could go back to this place and also invite other people to go there.



 

Simple Afternoon Lunch

Instructed to stay home and rest by doctor since Tuesday afternoon, I've been diligently following the instruction. Nevertheless, I didn't know that the week is this long even though you are not at work hahahaha.... Seriously, I have not been outside since Tuesday afternoon. Sheeeshhh... But on the other hand, I slept as much as I could. I don't know if this is because of the viral infection or because I haven't had lazy days for some time hehehhe....

Anyway, it's Friday and I'm feeling better. I woke up this morning, without stucked nose. Everything cleared I would say. But I would take 1 day more to rest. But being me, I can't just sit around, and I think it's time for me to open up the kitchen.

Looking at what's left in the fridge, I found the Phyllo sheets, butter and goat cheese with honey. OK. Time to wrap up some phyllo I guess.



Then I saw a box of Francine Crepe mix. Oh well, why not.





So here we are, 1 hour later :

Izaka-ya - Chaussee de Vleurgat, Brussels

Authentic japanese restaurant near where I work.
I like to go to this place because when someone walks in, they staff will yell "irrasshaimase". Hehehehe... I like that so much! Their lunch bento provides the best possible combination and it's only 10 euros with free-flow hot tea.

The best is to sit at the counter and watch the staff work. Usually they are busy preparing the order, or preparing the evening menu.



Usually bento are sold out by 12:30. So you need to come really early, especially on Thursdays where bento contains maki and nigiri. Otherwise, you can order from the menu. My favorite in the menu is the mix sashimi (tuna and salmon). You will also get a bowl of soup, 3 condiments and a bowl of rice.



Itadaki-masu!

Snek Enak MAMEE

This is one of the childhood snacks that I can never get tired of.
Each time I'm back from Malaysia, my suitcase will be full of these packs till the brim!



So what does it look like? It's a ready-to-eat noodles! Yay!!! :D

What's going on???!!!!

Gah!!! No recent post?
One thing after the crazy baking for the Eid, I haven't done any baking. I think I had too much of sugar and butter, so need to tone down it a bit.

As for some food reviews, I think I have some backlogs somewhere. I still need to do the sushi place that I went sometime for lunch. Then, my mom arrived in Europe with lotsa Malaysian goodies :D Yay!!!! Thank you, mommy!

Stay tune, and more things to come, I promise :D

Asian Home Gourmet - Peanut Sauce Mix

Straightaway I'd say this is a big miss. While it gives a good aroma when cooking, but the taste is lacking something. I think it missed the hotness. Yes, it comes from someone who doesn't like to eat spicy stuff. Inside is the peanut powder, and you need to add a half cup water and a tablespoon of sugar (a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine goes dowwwn.... ok side tracked here LOL).

So what did you get with a reduced half cup of water? Even less than a half cup. Not only the taste is minimal, but the quantity as well. It's a serving for half person LOL. So you can see that the sauce is hardly 1 spoon deep. huhuhuuhu

I ate this sauce with mini spring rolls. Yes I love to dip spring rolls into peanut sauce. It wasn't enough for me huhuhu... I even licked the bowl hahahaha....

So if you want to try peanut sauce for the first time, you can use this packet. It's a safe bet. Nothing can go wrong. But if you are thinking to have more than enough, then maybe go for 2 packets. I've yet to try the dutch/indonesian instant peanut mix. Perhaps I'll try them and compare with this one.

Coulis de Prunes/Prunes coulis

I've got some prunes left from the tart, so I've decided to make a coulis (jam?). It's really great to use this coulis on top of anything that has not much taste, like natural yoghurt :D

Just add sugar and reduce the juice...





Finally I can use one of the many empty jam jars in the house :D

Asian Home Gourmet - Mee Goreng

Last time I used Go-Tan Bami Goreng paste. This time I thought I give Asian Home Gourmet a try. I did it with the same ingredient as Go-Tan's, with chicken liver (By now you know that I like chicken liver hehehe).

The taste? I can't remember exactly how Go-Tan's mee goreng, but I would say it's the same as Asian Home Gourmet's. There is no distinct difference that I can pinpoint easily. So basically both are safe bet, and can be used. It's your choice :-) Only that with half bottle of Go-Tan, I cooked the same amount of noodle (150g) as 1 packet of Asian Home Gourmet's. So I think if you want to cook for only 150g noodles, then go for the packet, but if you are going to cook for 300g noodles, than you need 1 bottle of Go-Tan's Bami goreng :D

Tarte aux prunes/Prunes tart

Easiest and yummy dessert in the whole world :D
I bought a ready-made tart base, and cut the prunes, arrange them, throw in some sugar... into the oven.
Some fruits like prunes may contain a lot of water, when bake it oozes out a lot of juice. So the best is to pre-cook your tart base (Cuire à blanc, in french). Like this you can preserve the crispy base.



Bon appetit!

Daifuku - Part 2

Last time I posted ice cream daifuku. This time I got myself a treat... :D
The traditional daifuku with fillings. Most popular fillings are read bean paste, strawberry, taro and peanut.
I went for a mix pack.... Hehehehe :D



So we have sesame coated, starch coated and peanut coated.


Both sesame coated and starch coated are with red bean filling.


The peanut coated are with peanut paste filling.


Don't be fooled with these cuties... I can only eat them 2 at a time (Yeah I thought I could wallop those 6 in one go LOL). However, they are divine. I'm sure there are other version which are great, like it's not come in a pack and freshly made.. Anyway, I'm settling for this, and not going anywhere.. these are mine! :D