MKR 2014 Australia

Hullo,

Seronok pulak tengok MKR Australia ni.. Baru habis first group. Tak tahu nak sokong siapa tapi seronok tengok 'drama' from the 2 girls teams, 'Twins' vs 'Gourmet Travellers'. Esok group lain pulak. Seronok tengok they build up their instant restaurant, serving entree, main dish and dessert. Oih, banyak betul taip the word 'seronok' nih.. haha.. But yeah, it's fun. Haha..

Kat Malaysia, mana ada istilah entree bagai nih kan. Masak nasi, lauk 2-3 jenis masuk dalam mangkuk hidang kat tengah-tengah meja.. Cedok nasi dalam pinggan, hah.. silakan masing-masing ambil lauk kegemaran, jangan malu-malu.. Lagi mesra.. Ehehe..

Tapi tadi terfikir, kalaulah saja-saja gedik nak buat instant restaurant yang hidang this complete ala-carte course ni kan.. How would I do it? Ok, first, kita fikirkan tema.. Tentulah Malaysia Truly Asia kan.. Tapi, kadang Maaysian food ni selalu gak terconfuse dengan Indonesian @ Thai food.. Alangkan lagu pun boleh havoc pasal daripada mana asal-usulnya, kalau sembang pasal food origin silap haribulan declare war pulak.. Aish, jangan gado-gado.. At the end of the day, our tastebuds are very similar. Ingredients pun similar.. Jadi, mari kita embrace good food..

So, what would I serve? Well, just throwing out some ideas: 

Entree:

Fresh fruits! Ikut sunnah nabi. :) or 

Ayam goreng berempah or

Satay (3 cucuk je sorang) or

Otak-otak

Satay @ Ummi Alesya

Ayam goreng berempah @ lyokehan

Main dish:

Mestilah nasi dengan lauk. Rendang Ayam / Daging perhaps.. Oh yummy.. Side dish letak telur dengan timun terus jadi nasi lemak.. ahaha..

Rendang Tok @ Elinluv

Dessert:

Hurmm.. Payah gak ni kan.. I love desserts.. Banyak woh Malaysian desserts kegemaran.. Mungkin boleh masak badak berendam, buat comel2, present comel2..  

Badak berendam @ Cikmin

Badak Berendam @ Neni Susanti

Eheh, jangan hidang yang last tu la ye.. Eh tapi kan, tapiiii, kuih badak berendam in English apa eh? Soaked hippo? Ahaha.. Jenuh laa nak translate menu.. Ehehe.. Oh well.. Berangan itu memang indah.. Memandangkan skill memasak masih tak seberapa, maka, kita teruskan je la berangan ye.. haha..

Till next we meet.. Toodles!

My Ultimate Burger!

Ahh.. You just can't go wrong when you have burgers topped with lotsa cheese and crispy onion ring, can ya? haha.. Well, this is our ULTIMATE HOMEMADE BEEF BURGER.. Well, ultimate according to us laa.. kalau orang lain, tak tahu la pula.. These patties are tender and juicy and succulent. So, today, I am gonna put up the recipe for these delectable, (though maybe not THAT appealing to the eyes), yummylicious homemade pattties which is the main and important thing when making burgers.. So, here goes..

HOMEMADE BEEF PATTIES

Bahan-bahan:

1 kg daging cincang

2 biji bawang holland / bawang bombay - didaduk kecil

lada hitam

jintan manis

jintan putih

ketumbar

serbuk paprika

dried oregano

kicap manis

sos worchestershire

breadcrumbs

1 biji telur

sedikit tepung jagung

Cara-caranya:

1. Lada hitam, jintan manis, jintan putih dan ketumbar disangai kering atas api kecil kemudian ditumbuk halus. Lebih mudah dan cepat jika ada grinder. Sukatan agak-agak la ye.. Mungkin boleh cuba dalam setengah sudu besar bagi setiap rempah. Boleh juga kalau nak pakai yang siap serbuk tapi kurang sedap laa..
2. Masukkan semua bahan termasuk rempah ratus yang ditumbuk halus tadi. Gaul sehingga semua bahan mesra dan sebati. Bentukkan menjadi beef patties.
3. Sebaiknya disimpan di dalam peti sejuk lebih kurang 15 - 30 minit sebelum dimasak. Boleh juga disejukbekukan untuk dijadikan stok.

These link, link and link here provide articles on what you should and shouldn't do to get good burgers.. Well, my 2-cents advice would be to use them as a guideline, but hey.. whatever works for you and your family, should be A-ok.. For example, I would imagine 80-20 lean meat/fat ratio would give a tremendous, juicy and succulent result for your burgers.. But I figure if you cook them right, you'd get magnificent burgers with some cheap lean meat as well.. Kebiasaannya saya ke pasar, beli daging pejal dan minta untuk dimesin.. No fat la kan.. So, I know my meat has got no 'funny' stuff added to them since they're being minced right in front of me..  

I think what makes these burgers juicy and tender is the fact that I cooked them in pre-made sauce. Haha, kire menipu la eh? To be honest, I m not very proud of the sauce cuz it's not exactly made of natural ingredients. Still trying to concoct a decent sauce made of natural ingredients. For now, the recipe below would have to suffice..

SOS BEEFBURGER

Bahan-bahannya:

Sos cili

sos tomato

kicap

madu

serbuk lada hitam

Cara-caranya:

Campurkan semua bahan di dalam mangkuk. Boleh dimasak atas api kecil jika mahu, tapi bukanlah satu kemestian.

Tip: Semasa burger separuh masak, tuangkan sos. Jadi, ada ruang dan masa untuk burger menyerap sos. Hehe, makes sense ke? Oh well, this works for me, for now..

Happy trying darls!

Toodles! 

Banana and Oats Pancake

Hallo..

Title tak mengagak, nak nama glemer je.. Walhal orang kampung panggil lempeng pisang je.. Hehe.. This was yesterday's breakfast. Alkisah, ada banyak pisang yang masak ranum.. Rezeki, jiran yang baik hati bagi.. Hajat di hati nak goreng, buat minum petang, tapi asyiklah terlupa.. Sedar-sedar, dah nak lembik dah pisang tu.. Kalau dibiar lama, masuk tong juga nanti.. Kasihan pula, lagipun tak baik buang rezeki orang bagi..

Fikir punya fikir, akhirnya mendapat inspirasi untuk membuat lempeng.. So, sajalah google resepi tu, eh ada pulak keluar result lempeng pisang oats.. Wah, ini sudah bagus.. Oats pun ada banyak lagi dalam pantry.. Hehe, I don't know about you guys out there but I always have this tendency to buy oats dengan harapan nak tukar gaya hidup.. Konon breakfast dengan oats, hidup sihat bla bla bla.... Beli tak mengagak pulak tu, paket besar terus.. Dapat 2-3 kali makan oats pepagi, semangat hidup sihat pun mulai kelam dan pudar, maka oats tersimpan kemas dan rapi je dalam pantry.. Haha.. So, when one finds a recipe to use up the oats, one eagerly jumps on the idea of trying it out..

So, here goes.. Recipe is from the famous food blogger, CMGebu of DTS.. Dia pun ambil dan olah resepi ni dari orang lain.. I pulak derhaka lagi pada resepi yang telah diderhakakan.. Memang layak dibuang negeri.. Haha.. So, ini versi double derhaka, guna apa yang ada di dapur aje..

BANANA & OATS PANCAKE

Ingredients:

250 gms ripe bananas, mashed

200 ml fresh milk

1 cup quaker oats

2-3 tbsp self-raising flour

1-2 tbsp brown sugar, *optional

a pinch of salt

A bit of butter

Steps:

1. Combine all ingredients except butter. Taste for salt.
2. Put it aside and let it rest for about 5 minutes so that the batter would thicken up just a bit.
3. Heat a non-stick pan on medium high heat and just dribble with some butter, or you can just take a clean paper towel, dip in a bit of good vegetable oil and just slightly oil the pan. Or, you can just spray the pan with one of those oil-in-aerosol can-thingy.
4. Ladle in the batter into the pan. You might want to level it with a spatula or spoon cuz the batter is kinda sticky. So, about 2-3 minutes on the first side, flip it and another minute or so on the other side. Well, basically you just want to make sure your pancake is well cooked.
5. Repeat step 3 & 4 for the remaining batter.
6. Serve with butter and maple syrup or honey if desired. A dollop of nutella would be a nice companion too.. Best served warm.

A healthy, delicious meal in the morning.. Happy cooking!

Toodles!

Happy New Year! Welcome 2014!!

Hello.. Hello.. 

Happy New Year everyone.. I know, 3 days too late.. But I bet, some of us still put '2013' when writing / typing dates, right?.. Hehe.. Takes a bit of getting used to eh?

Well, 2013 has been wonderful and challenging for me.. New experiences, new discoveries.. Alhamdulillah, I survived and lived to tell the story.. Am hoping 2014 would be kinder to me.. Hehe.. Oh well, what's life without a little challenge, agree?

Anyway, here's wishing everyone will have a splendid year ahead.. Embrace, and enjoy.. 

Toodles!

Chicken Nuggets

Hello dearies,

Remember I was rambling on and on about yoghurt few months back? Hehe.. So, I kept a few entries that I forgot to publish regarding how I use the yoghurt.. Here's one recipe that I cooked using that very ingredient, chicken nuggets. It's really quite easy to make.. The picture below is the baked version.. I also fried some in shallow vegetable oil.. Sorry, no picture on the fried version though.. Personally, I prefer the fried ones.. But of course, I suppose the baked ones are a  lot healthier.. hehe..

I modified the recipes techniques I posted in this entry. Here's how I cook my Chicken Nuggets..

The marinade & the dip..

1 chicken breast - fillet and cubed

Salt

1 cup cup plain yogurt

1 cup mayonnaise

1 garlic - grated finely like garlic paste

1/3 grated parmesan cheese

1. Fillet and cut your chicken into small bite sized cubes/pieces.
2. Lightly sprinkle some salt.
3. Combine yogurt, mayonnaise and garlic in a bowl. Divide the mixture by half. Add in grated parmesan in one bowl/container. Keep that one in the fridge.
4. Dunk your chicken pieces into the other half of yogurt mixture (the one without parmesan in it). Let sit in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour. 

When it's time to cook the nuggets, take 3 shallow dishes out. I just used 2 flat plates and a shallow bowl.. 

In the first plate (Plate A), I put in these ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour /tepung gandum

A dash of paprika

A dash of oregano powder

And in the shallow bowl (Bowl B),

2 eggs

Salt

Pepper

Lastly, in the second plate (Plate C), I put in:

1 cup breadcrumbs - baked for about 5 minutes

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

A few dashes of garlic powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Spread breadcrumbs in a baking dish and bake until golden, around 5 minutes or so.
2. Combine all ingredients in plate A, Bowl B, Plate C accordingly.
3. The following steps are a bit messy, so you might want to do one step at a time, or one batch at a time.. First, coat the chicken in Plate A, the flavoured flour, then dip in Bowl B, the eggs and lastly transfer to Plate C to coat them evenly in the flavoured breadcrumbs.
4. If you want to bake these delicious goodies, just arrange them nicely on a lightly oiled wire rack (set it inside the same baking dish you use to bake the breadcrumbs). Bake until chicken is thoroughly cooked, for about 12 - 15 minutes. Or you could just spread more bread crumbs inside the dish and arrange them nicely to bake. If you want to fry them, you have the option of using small amount of vegetable oil or deep fry them, your choice.
5. Serve hot out of the oven with your homemade dip. You may sprinkle with some salt and pepper if you like.

Note: You might want to put a small blob of butter on each nugget for that golden effect. I didn't, hence the pale color. :)

So yeah, not too hard to make, aye? Gotta love simple food like these. The dip/marinade can be made ahead of time. It should hold well in the fridge for about a week. Happy cooking.. 

Toodles!

Enchilada

Last Sunday, I woke up wanting to cook lasagne.. But a few key ingredients were missing and I was soo lazy to go to the market.. Inspiration struck, so I changed plan.. I did Mexican fusion food instead.. Enchilada.. Mexicans love their chillies.. So do us Malaysians.. Mexicans have Habanero, Ancho Chillies, Chipotle, Jalapeno, just to name a few.. Malaysians love their bird's eye chillies or cili api.. small but fiesty.. yum!

But this dish I made wasn't exactly fire-y hot.. I mean, not everyone can take a lot of heat.. So, I went a bit mild, using whatever I have in the kitchen.. So, here's my fusion recipe, with some pics.. Enjoy..

For the beef, I basically combined the recipes and techniques from this blog, plus '30 Minutes Meal' cooking show that I watched over Food Network Asia on Astro just recently (The name of the chef is Rachel something if not mistaken).. Anyway, I ended up cooking it this way..

The Minced Beef:

Ingredients:
Olive Oil
1 kilo minced beef
1 1/2 green onion (or bawang bombay)
Smoked Paprika
Serbuk jintan putih (OK tipu... sebab malas nak tumbuk/blend, taruk je dalam keadaan asal.. konon it'll give some bite.. haha)
Serbuk ketumbar
Black Pepper
Garlic Powder
Salt


*The amount of spices is based on pure instinct.. You know, a dash of this, a dash of that.. So, trust your instinct, use your nose, your eyes, your tongue untuk merasa makanan yang anda masak..

1. Heat oil, pour in minced meat.. 
2. Fry on medium heat.. Add in onions and the spices..
3. Stir just occasionally.. Bukannya masak rendang, nak kena kacau selalu.. 
4. When it looks brown and delicious.. Add in some salt..
5. Do the taste test... Grab a spoon and makan..
6. Kalau sedap, then it's done.. Kalau tawar, tambah garam.. Kalau kurang pedas, tambah paprika.. Kalau terover masin / pedas.. Hurm, pasrah je la kot.. hehe..

Note 1: What I would do differently is perhaps tumis bawang sampai agak2 layu then add in cili blender.. Tumis sampai wangi.. Then add in minced beef.. hehe.. Kalau dah tekak Melayu tu kan.. Mesti nak cili dulu, kini dan selamanya.. Hehe...
Note 2: If you like, you may add diced bell peppers as well.. Baru ada feel mexican sikit..

While waiting for the beef to brown a bit, you may prepare the sauce..


The Enchilada Sauce:

You could try to find the sauce in supermarket like Cold Storage, Jaya Supermarket etc, but it's really not that hard to make.. I followed this recipe loosely, using whatever I have in the kitchen.. So, my take on the recipe is something like below:

1/4 cup (or maybe less) vegetable oil - I used corn oil
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp of flour (tepung gandum biasa je)
2 tbsp of chilli powder
1 can tomato soup
1 cup of hot water
1 chicken cube
Cayenne Pepper - ground
Smoked Paprika - ground
Garlic Powder
Salt to taste
Optional:
A dash of Hot sauce / Tobasco sauce
1 tbsp of tomato sauce

1. Heat oil and butter.. Whisk in flour and chilli powder until they are beautifully incorporated..
2. Add in tomato soup, hot water and chicken cube.. 
3. Add in the remaining spices..
4. I added tobasco sauce cuz I had some in the pantry.. If you don't have it, feel free to omit.. I even added in 1 tbsp of tomato sauce, just because I feel like it.. Heheh..

Now, the assembly.. You'll need:

Baking Dish
Cooked Minced Beef
Enchilada Sauce
Tortilla Bread - Beli yang brand Mission tu je.. most supermarkets sell them.. I used plain ones, but you can use garlic ke, apa ke, ikut suka
Cheese - I used mozarella and easy melt cheddar
Veges - I used sliced tomato and carrots cut into match sticks.. You may use zucchinis, bell peppers..

1. First of, preheat oven to 180C.
2. Then, take your baking dish and ladle in your sauce until the bottom is fully covered like the picture above.
3. Take a piece of tortilla.. Put about 2 - 3 tbsp full of cooked minced beef in the middle.. Scatter some veges, pour in a 1/4 ladle of the sauce, and scatter some cheese.. See picture above for reference. 
4. Roll. You can leave the ends open or tuck them nicely inside before rolling. As for me, I find it a lot easier leaving the ends open. 
5. Place seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat with the rest of the tortilla..
6. Once you're done, and the rolled tortillas have lined up snugly in your baking dish, pour in your remaining sauce.. Scatter cheese all over.. See picture below for example.
7. Bake for about 30 minutes.. 
8. Eat with a side of salad or sour cream.. Yummy..

Sorry, no picture of my baked enchilada. Well, it's basically just like the last picture, but with cheese melting all over. :) In a glance, the recipe seemed long and difficult.. But trust me, it's really not that hard.. You can even make it beforehand, and just pop it in the oven an hour before guests arrive.. Happy cooking dearies!

Toodles!

Ice Cream DIY

So it turns out, I'm not such a bummer after all.. In fact, I made ice-cream a day earlier than planned.. I found another seemingly easy 'ice-cream-in-a-blender' recipe in MyResipi.. The steps are basically just about the same, but it uses less ingredients.. There's a saying, less is more.. Or is it really? Well, we'll just have to see if that's true.. 

Ingredients:

1 cup milk (I used full cream milk)
1 cup powdered creamer
1 tbsp of honey
1 tsp of vanilla essence

Crushed graham crackers / biscuits
Crushed macadamia nuts


Steps:

1. Combine and blend everything in a blender until it is well mixed. 2 minutes should be enough, I guess..
2. Put the mixture in a container and freeze.. Since I'm using a blender with many mugs, I just put the lid on and keep it straight into the freezer. I'm sure people won't notice of one missing mug..
3. After about 2 hours or so (or before it truly freezes), take it out and blend it once again, but this time a bit longer.. For a smoother textured ice-cream, you can repeat this process a number of times. That is, if you are truly rajin to wait 2 hours & blend, and wait another 2 hours & blend.. I only did it twice.. Then I went to sleep.. The second time I put in crushed biscuits and nuts.. 
4. Freeze overnight and enjoy the next morning.. 

Note: I kinda enjoyed using the magic bullet blender.. Although not in favour of the noise it made.. But it saves me from washing few utensils, had I used the normal blender.. Gotta love that.. :)

And here is the picture of my home made ice cream in the freezer.. Sorry I don't have a proper picture of the ice cream.. I went shopping and took the mug along.. So, no picture of it sitting nicely in an ice cream cone or cup.. But hey, talk about convenience, eh? You open your freezer, take your mug of yummy ice cream, grab a spoon on your way out and off you go.. You now have something nice to eat in the car.. Haha.. Tetibe semangat buat promo tak berbayar untuk blender ni pulak..

I must say, initially I was skeptical about this recipe, cuz I've actually tried making ice cream with no machine once before, but the result wasn't as I'd hope it'd be.. And I also thought the ice cream would melt rather easily.. Surprisingly, it holds up quite well.. And the texture is also as passable as a good ice cream.. So hey, this recipe sure is a keeper.. Altho I might try to tweak it a bit, for I do have certain issues with using the coffeemate creamer.. Looking for suitable subs.. Oh well, till we meet again..

Toodles dearies!