Kaya Balls

Found this recipe in Rinnchan's blog. So made this balls using kaya Kluang brought by Mak Enn in October which I still kept frozen in my handy freezer. It somehow were oval instead of round as I used the kuih cara mould. Does anyone know where I can get hold of kaya ball mould?

Ingredients:

250gm flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

125 gm butter

75 gm castor sugar

4 eggs

200ml milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

Serikaya

Method:

1. Sieve flour, baking powder and salt.

2. Whisk butter and sugar till fluffy.

3. Add eggs one by one.

4. Add milk and flour alternately.

5. Add vanilla essence.

6. Pipe the thick batter into the mould, add kaya and then cover with more batter.

7. Turn the kaya balls a few times till it is cooked.

Cous cous with beef ghoulash

Cous cous after adding hot water

Ainsley Cous Cous

The kids were enjoying themselves making snowman and snow girl in the backyard. I was trying to crack my head for a winter warmer recipe and found this, one of my favourites. The kids love it too. Simple , I use Ainsley Cous Cous- bought in Costco for 3.99, sale price, normal price 4.99. Just add hot water into the cous cous and cover for 5 minutes and it is ready. Then prepare the simple tomato soup called hungarian ghoulash. However I have modified it to make it a little more spicy. Omputih mana makan pedas2 kan..

Beef/ Lamb Ghoulash

1/2 kg beef/ lamb

1 onion- chopped

3 garlic

1 inch ginger

1 tbs ground coriander

1 tbs ground cumin

1 tbs chilli powder

1 can tomato soup

chopped veges eg courgettes, carrots, parsnips, celery.

1/2 cup milk (optional)

Method:

1. Fry chopped onion with garlic and ginger.

2. Add chilli, coriander and cumin powder.

3. Add beef/ lamb.

4. Add water/ stock and tomato soup.

5. Add salt and a bit of sugar to taste and all the veges.

6. Serve with cous cous/ garlic bread/ rice.

Cup cake decor

I have been longing to learn cup cake decoration for a long time. Finally my doa was answered when Yan came to Birmingham. Yan is good at cup cake decor and she had agreed to show me the basic of icing decor. Thanks Yan for the free lesson. I know we had to pay a hefty sum for cup cake decor classes in Malaya.

Here is my first roses on the cup cakes. Not bad uhh?? Cam ni boleh ambil order la pulak..hehe..

Need to order Wilton icing nozzle next.

Basic Butter Cream Icing

250 g butter

250 g vegetable fat/ TREX

5-10 cups of icing sugar (depending on how sweet you want the icing to be)

Method:

1. Whisk the butter till fluffy, add the veg fat.

2. Whisk for about 5-10 min.

3. Add the icing sugar bit by bit.

4. Divide into several bowls and add the desired colourings.

Rolled Mince pie

It's christmas holiday, school and uni are closed for 2 weeks, grrr what to do in this snowy season? Tummy rumbles every 2 hours due to extreme cold weather, just had my lunch at 12 and at 2 pm I am hungry again. This is what happen in winter....The kids had been requesting choc cake since yesterday but I told them, let's try make Gordon Ramsay's simple rolled mince pie. I searched for the frozen ready made jus roll pastry in my cheest freezer in the garage..alhamdulillah, there is one more box left. It's so easy with this ready made stuff. I know Mr Dentist must like this as he loves raisins so much. According to Tok Bak, his dad used to bring Mr Dentist raisins whenever he visited them when he was small.

Rolled Mince Pie

Ingredients:

1 cup mixed fruits

1/2 cup sultanas

1/2 cup ribena (in replacement of red wine/ brandy)

2 tbs sunquick orange

3 tbs honey/ golden syrup

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsc ground cinnamon

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbs orange skin

1/2 cup water

Method:

1. Place water in the pan, add raisins and all the above.

2. Simmer till it thickens.

3. Leave to cool.

4. Spread the ready made pastry.

5. Spread the raisin fillings on the pastry. Roll halfway to the middle, then roll the other opposite half to the middle. Tighten the roll and freeze for 30 min.

6. Cut the roll into 1 inch slices.

7. Bake at 180 C for 15-20 min till golden yellow.

Maybe I should try the fillings on bread dough one day, it's just like cinnamon rolls.

Lebanese Magloba (Nasi ayam oregano)

Got this new recipe from my Libyan friend, Afaf again. Sedaap.....

8 pieces of chicken
4 Holland onion- chopped
potatoes- sliced
carrots- sliced
cauliflower
aubergine- sliced
green peppers- sliced
3 cups of rice
3 tbs Ghee
1 inch ginger
1 tbs oregano


Method:

1. Boil chicken with salt, ginger, oregano and water. Keep about 3 cups of chicken broth.
2. Fry the chicken in butter and set aside.
3. Fry onion in ghee till fragrant and add green peppers.
4. Place the fried onion, layer with potatoes, chicken.
5. Place the aubergine and carrots at the side/ rim of the pot. Pour the rice mixed with more oregano.
6. Pour chicken broth over. Cover the pot.
7. Cook on slow fire for 20 min till the rice is cooked.
8. Once rice is cooked, flip over the content in a big plate and serve. The carrots and aubergine will be seen lining the outer part of the rice.

Libyan Rishda

Yesterday I brought Afaf a pack of nasi lemak to let her savour Malaysian food. Glad that she loved it. Today, in return, she gave me a tupperware of rishda, a home made pasta dish with salted dried meat sauce. It tastes like curry mee with salted beef. Got this recipe from her.



Libyan Rishda

Ingredients:



2 cups home made pasta( can be replaced with tagliatelle/ spaghetti)

1/2 kg salted dried meat (gargosh)

2 tbs tomato sauce

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbs coriander powder

1/2 cup chick peas

1/2 cup fava beans

1 Holland onion



Methods:

1. Fry the sliced salted meat/ lamb with chopped onion.

2. Add 2 tbs tomato sauce.

3. Add chilli , coriander and turmeric powder.

4. Add hot water, chick peas, fava beans.

5. Add the pasta. Serve hot.

Libyan Mbaton

Have a new lab mate named Afaf, an O & G consultant from Libya, also doing PhD like me. Afaf had recently passed her Part 2 MRCOG exam and had been very generous to bring some food for us the whole lab to celebrate her success. Unfortunately I was off sick on the day of the party, but still could have a taste of Afaf's food as she had some food spared for me in her fridge.

Today I have tried this modified version of Afaf's recipe called mbaton, it's actually potatoes with mince meat filling. The kids and Mr Dentist love it.

Libyan Mbaton (the spelling is kind of weird isn't it?)

1/4 kg mince meat

2 tbs korma powder

1 Holland onion (chopped)

1 tbs garlic & ginger paste

5 big potatoes (peel and slice 1/2 inch thick with a slit in the middle to place the filling)

parsley or coriander leaves

2 eggs- beat lightly

4 tbs KFC flour or any other coating flour

Method:

1. Fry the chopped onion with garlic and ginger.

2. Add mince meat.

3. Add salt, black pepper and white pepper to taste.

4. Add the coriander/ parsley.

5. Fill the slit in the potatoes with mince meat above and dip the potato slices into flour, then egg then flour again before deep frying them till golden yellow. Serve hot.