Soft Cotton Japanese Cheese Cake again

Today, demonstrated this cheese cake to my mum in law. I know she just loves cheese cakes. Easy peasy, lemon squizy Maisarah said and yummy too. It took only a couple of hours for the whole cake to disappear from the baking tray.

Here is the recipe:

250 g Philadelphia cream cheese (now on sale at Sainsbury's for 75 p per tub of 300g)

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tbs butter

3 eggs (separate the egg white)

1 tbs lemon juice

1 tbs cornflour

4 tbs self raising flour

1 tsp cream of tartar(tak taruk sebab tak dak)

For the icing:

4 tbs icing sugar

1 tbs cream cheese

2 tbs butter- mix all these ingredients well

* To make it less moist and more spongy, U can increase the flour and reduce the cheese.

Methods:
1. Melt in a double boiler the cream cheese, butter, lemon juice and milk. Let it cool and add egg yelow.

2. Add cornflour and SR flour in the cheesy mix.

3. Whisk egg whites till it forms a soft peak/ stiff , add sugar bit by bit, then fold it gently into the cheese mixture.

4. Bake for 45 min at 160 C in a waterbath (au bain marie).

5. Allow it to cool before putting the icing on.

Knowing your personality type

Last 2 weeks I was invited by Majlis Syura Muslimun UK Eire to give a talk on Organising Your Family In A Muslim Perspective. Duh!! What do I talk about? I told the organiser I was not the best person to talk about this issue but they insisted that I would be the most suitable candidate based on my experience. Not to disappoint them, I managed to scrutinize some web pages to gather some points for my talk. Alhamdulillah it went well. I was rather relieved looking at the young naive audience of about 65 people. Hopefully they found my talk useful in some way or another. My talk was scheduled at 2.30 pm followed by my demonstration of making curry puffs. The silent lecture hall turned to be full of giggles and laughter when the boys demonstrated their dodgy curry puffs of all sorts of shapes and finishings.

In order to listen to the morning lecture by a psychologist Dr Isam Ghannam, I came early around 10 am with Cikgu Ju, Madeehah's baby sitter. Obtained some new knowledge on the different types of personality dwelled in us. In summary there are 4 types of personalities:

1. Sanguine- fun and always full of excitement
2. Melancholy- a perfectionist
3. Choleric- a born leader
4. Phlegmatic- too relax, could't be bothered

After the personality test I found myself to be 48% choleric, 30% sanguine, 15% melancholy and 8% phlegmatic. I was quite perplexed but guess that was quite true though. The web says that choleric are usually married to a melanchoy. I think they are right, I am married to a melancholy. Do you agree Mr Dentist?

So for this weekend Majlis Ilmu Wanita Birm I was invited to give a talk on any topics, guess this would be quite an interesting topic to cover, knowing your personality and the people around you. Once you know the personality of a person better, it is easier to deal with the person. So try this website www.oneishy.com and get to know your personality.

Bubur Lambuk Wan

Since my mil is here in Birmingham, I will be posting her recipes. One of our favourites is bubur lambuk. Made this modified version of bubur lambuk for breakfast on Saturday before leaving for St. Mary's carboot sale in Harborne with Mak and Bak while others (the kids and their Papa) were still asleep.

Ingredients:

1 can of tuna in brine

1/2 cup of anchovies

1/2 cup small prawns or dried shrimps-optional

1/2 Holland onion-sliced thinly

1 cup of santan

3 cups of rice

9 cups of water

1/2 packet of fresh British baby spinach

turmeric leaves

kesum leaves

1 tbs black pepper

salt

Methods:

1. Boil rice in water for 20-30 minutes then add onion, blended tuna and anchovies, black pepper, coconut milk.

2. Add spinach, turmeric leaves, kesum leaves and salt to taste before serving. Garnish with fried shallots.

After two months, my kesum has grown quite a bit (despite being plucked so many times for my asam pedas). This shot was taken by Bak just before I plucked the leaves for the bubur lambuk. From 1 vase I managed to grow them into 3 vases already. Currently I am also growing coriander, tomatoes, chives and pumpkins. Jalal's mum taught me how to grow coriander since I am an avid user of coriander leaves.

Lamb steak again

Everbody seems to love lamb here including Tok Bak. So prepared this dish for our dinner last night and for Wan's iftar. Wan is on her day 3 of Rejab fasting. Baked together with baby potatoes and mushrooms when the lamb is halfway done. For black pepper and rosemary marinade, please see previous grilled lamb recipe. It's the same ingredients. Baked in the oven at 200 C for 1 1/2 hours and the lamb was so succulent and juicy. Emm yummy.....

Kuih kasoi

Bahan:

1/2 kg tepung gandum
3 cawan air gula merah
3 cawan air
1 tsp garam
1 tsp air kapur


Cara:
1. Masakkan gula merah dalam air untuk hasilkan 3 cawan larutan gula merah.
2. Campurkan tepung dengan 3 cawan air, kemudian masukkan air gula merah, garam dan air kapur.
3. Tapis adunan dan masukkan di dalam dulang. Kukus selama 1/2 jam.
4. Sejukkan dan potong dan golekkan di dalam kelapa parut yang dicampurkan dgn sedikit garam.

Kuih Tako Ibu Mertuaku

Bahan

Utk lapisan bawah (hijau):
1 paket 55 g tpg HanQue
1 1/2 cawan gula
1 cawan santan
3 cawan air
5 biji sengkuang cina/ water chestnut (kat Wing Yip, ada dlm tin)- potong dadu kecil2 5 mm saiz
1 sudu besar esen pandan

Utk lapisan atas (putih):
1/2 cawan tepung jagung
2 cawan santan
2 cawan air
1 tsp garam


Cara:
1. Masukkan tepung HanQue, air, santan, gula, esen pandan ke dalam periuk dan kacau atas api sederhana sehingga pekat atau meletup-letup. Masukkan dalam cawan puding atau takungan daun pandan. Jangan lupa masukkan sengkuang cina yang telah didadu dahulu.
2. Masukkan santan, air, tepung jagung dan garam dan kacau atas api sederhana sehingga pekat. Tuangkan atas lapisan hijau tadi.
3. Sejukkan dalam peti ais hingga sejuk dan hidangkan.

EBV Meeting, Brighton

Attended the Europen EBV (Epstein-Barr Virus) Meeting at University of Sussex Medical School in Brighton, South England with 8 other lab members including Paul, my supervisor. Stayed for nights with my Sri Lankan buddy, Zumla as my room mate at The Lanes Hotel right infront of the pebbly beach. The weather was lovely with loads of sunshine. The 2 day meeting was attended from delegates from all over UK and Europe. The talks were very good. Well at least I managed to understand more things about molecular pathology as compared to when I first came 1 and a half year ago. Hehe...Took some shots unfortunately the camera batteries went flat.

On the way back by 1 pm Southern Train to London, stopped over at Oxford Circus station to meet Aunty R, her daughter inlaw, I and daughter Z. Went shopping at Bond Street while waiting for my 7.23 pm Virgin Train to Birm. In and out of Bally, Cartier, Ferragamo, Chanel, LV, Burberry, Mulberry, Gucci and a lot more. Had a nice time though touching all the expensive handbags, shoes etc and then putting them back on the shelves after looking at the price tag, 750 pound for a hand bag? Gulp!! Fof God's sake, I can buy 750 handbags at carboot..haha but not from the same brand lah....who cares? Being a half choleric and half sanguine, handbags and shoes are not my priority. I am the type who sticks to only one handbag and 1 pair of shoes and will only buy another one if the current ones are torn by wear and tear. I hardly use handbags since living in the UK anyway. Shoes?? My Clarks boots are comfie enough, hopefully it will last till the end of my PhD if not longer. Why waste money right, when you have 7 mouths to feed?

Navarin of lamb

Navarin of Lamb


Ingredients (serves 8)
2kg lamb grilling chops, trimmed
30g butter
2 slender leeks, trimmed, halved, washed
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 1/2 tablespoons plain flour
4 cups beef stock
8 sprigs thyme
3 dried bay leaves
1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
2 bunches baby turnips, peeled, trimmed
1 bunch Dutch carrots, peeled, trimmed
3 small parsnips, peeled, roughly chopped


Method
Cut lamb into 3cm pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Melt butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan over medium-high heat. Add half the lamb and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until browned. Remove to a plate. Repeat with remaining lamb.
Cut leeks in half crossways. Return lamb and juices to pan. Add leeks and garlic. Cook for 1 minute. Add flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
Add 3 cups stock, thyme, bay leaves and half the parsley. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover surface with 1 sheet baking paper. Cover with lid. Simmer for 1 hour 15 minutes or until lamb tender.
Discard baking paper and bay leaves. Add turnips, carrots, parsnip and remaining stock if required. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with remaining parsley. Serve.