Land Below the Wind I

As i promised, more posts on food from my trip to KK, Sabah. First place that my aunt brought me and my bro to eat was this really nice chinese restaurant called Tien Tien which i have been to a couple of times from my previous trips. Thankfully it is halal so me and bro got to indulge in our favourite dishes as it is quite difficult to find really nice chinese restaurants in KL which are halal. Usually the ones that are, somehow doesn't quite have that "umph" if you know what i mean especially when it comes to chicken rice. Anyhoo...lets just get on with the photos...hehe



This is the chicken that came with the chicken rice set which me and bro ordered. The chicken is roasted and covered in sesame seeds. It was really yummy... :) My aunt settled for white rice so we could order side dishes and share on top of having a serving of roasted chicken each... (makan sakan la nih...)



This is the beancurd (tofu) with seafood and veggies. It had a fair share of fish, squid, prawns, carrots, snowpeas, black fungus...you name it. Nicely done as well.



Next was this chicken dish which i loved that i "tapau" it a few days later to eat at home with some hot leftover rice. Ooooooh.....just fabulous. Oh almost forgot to tell what it is...i can't remember the name exactly but it's called chicken in black bean and vinegar somethin...it tastes close to sweet and sour but better! Crispy chicken nuggets in sticky vinegary sweet n sour sauce...memang sedap.



Lastly a veggie dish, one of my favourites as well, brocolli with assorted mushrooms stir fried in some sort of soy sauce.



View of my plate...huhuhu I really enjoyed every single dish we ordered. I was one happy and satisfied girl that day :D

The next morning my bro wanted to have breakfast here so my aunt and him had the noodles and i just watched because i can't really eat heavy in the morning.



He had the dry noodles in soy sauce with the same roasted chicken we had with the chicken rice the day before...looks good eh? (dia mimpi ayam tu kot mlm smlm, hehe)



My aunt had the noodles with beef soup. Basically it's a choice of either noodles with chicken, beef or seafood and also either you want it dry or soup.

Itu saje buat masa ini... whenever you go to KK remember Tien Tien...

custard puffs

This post goes out to my girlssss, especially lovanilla because we'll make this the next time I get back and to zetihidayah because she says my mom makes the best custard puff in the world :D



Just before the end of my winter holidays, Sha and I planned to make choux pastry (after the success of red velvet! woohooo!) but we didn't get the chance to due to unavoidable circumstances. I'm quite familiar with choux pastry because my mother made them quite a lot when I was younger but we've not made them as often as we did back then. I don't know why! The thing is, choux pastry is easy to make. You just need strength and patience. Plus, the ingredients are nothing exotic. Just water, butter, eggs and flour (maybe salt or sugar, depending on the type of filling you're putting in).

Anyway, here is the fool proof choux pastry recipe from deliaonline. (I had to find a recipe online cause I can't remember the measurement off the cookery book I have back home. Boooo. I edited a bit la the recipe to suit what I actually did)

Oh, the recipe states that it'll make 30 but I only manage to get 20 out of this recipe. Could be due to the egg size..

- 60g plain flour (sifted). You can add sugar or salt if you want but I didn't.
- 150 ml of cold water
- 50g of butter, cut into small pieces
- 2 large eggs (I used 2 medium eggs instead.)


Preheat oven – gas mark 6, 400°F (200°C)

1. Put 150 ml of cold water in a medium-sized saucepan together with 50g of butter

2. Place the saucepan over a moderate heat and stir with a wooden spoon. Turn off the heat as soon as the butter has melted and mixture comes to boil. Don't delay this as some water will evaporate.

3. Tip in the flour. 2 ways to do this, multitask by pouring the flour in the mixture while beating vigorously. Or how I did it was just pouring the flour quickly and then start beating. I used the wooden spoon instead of an electric whisk cause I don't have it. This will give you a lot of work on your carpis (extensor, flexor and radialis brevis) so you might end up with very defined and toned arm. huhu

4. Beat until you have a smooth ball of paste that has left the sides of the saucepan clean – this will probably take less than a minute.

5. Next beat 2 large eggs well, then beat them into the mixture – a little at a time, mixing each addition in thoroughly before adding the next. (OK, I didn't do it this way. Instead I just added one egg at a time without prior beating. Why? Cause I forgot hahahaha)

6. Beat until you have a smooth glossy paste.

7. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Place teaspoons of the mixture on the baking sheet, leaving 1 inch (2.5 cm) between them, then bake on a high shelf for 10 minutes. After that, increase the heat to gas mark 7, 425°F (220°C), and bake for a further 15-20 minutes until the buns are crisp, light and a rich golden colour.

8. Pierce the side of each one to let out the steam, then cool them on a wire rack.




You can put anything you want as a filling. Jam, clotted cream, custard, whipped cream, bolognaise, dulce de leche, anything! I love custard. And dulce de leche but it takes a loooong time to make dulce de leche so custard it is!



How to make custard?

It's easy!




Hahaha. I only know how to make custard with its powder, rather than the whole process. Will post if I ever do attempt to make it from scratch. Otherwise, this ready made custard will do it for me.


Anyway, this pastry you can make eclairs! Instead of balling it with a spoon, pop it in a piping bag and make a line of pastry. It should have the same result. Let me know if it works!

xoxo

Fruit Flan...or Tart

While i was in Sabah, i took the opportunity to bake a few things for my aunt cause it's not always that i get to do it since she's so far away...This fruit flan was her choice from one of her recipe books. Therefore, while typing this it just hit me that i'm not able to share the recipe because the book is all the way there!....*sigh* I'll just generally explain the steps...it's quite simple actually and it turned out good... :)

First step is to make a basic shortcrust pastry. The usual flour, butter, a little sugar and an egg yolk. The crust is baked first without the filling and that's the only baking required. The filling was custard which i made from egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and milk....you can just use custard powder or also change it to cream or cheese filling. Anything goes basically.... Last but not least decorate with desired fruit and chill till set. I use red grapes, kiwi and canned mandarin oranges. I wished i has strawberries but couldn't get any!!! (and also bloody expensive)

Sorry again for not having the exact recipe...i think for those who are familiar with baking shouldn't have a problem with it... :)



Cube lah flen kastad buah ni ye!!! hahahaha...

Have you ever seen...

A huge can of cheeeeeeese!!!



Well if you have, then boo hoo for me cause i haven't....hence the jakunness. So story behind this is, i just returned to KL from a one week holiday at Sabah to see my grandma, aunt and uncle. I was doing some grocery shopping while i was there when this huge can of nacho cheese sauce caught my eye...apa lagi...terus peluk pegi counter and bayar! :) The stuff in thier supermarkets there are kinda cool...They have quite alot of imported funky foods that i don't normally see here in KL....But the main topic here is HUGE CAN OF CHEESE....at the moment i have no idea what i'm gonna use it for or what i could use it for...any suggestions? do tell... thank you and that's all...




Of course there will be lots of food posts coming up soon from my trip...till then...

Ciao!

stuffed peppers

This is a Turkish delicacy. I think it's called Biber Dolmasi but I'm not sure cause I googled Dolmasi and macam macam la keluar. I first saw the meal from this film called Gegen die Wand (Head On).

Ingredients
4 peppers suitable for stuffing
2 tablespoons of margarine
1 or 1/2 cups of canned tomatoes with juice


Filling (not feelings ok)
200 gramms of ground meat
2 tablespoons butter
2 medium onions (diced)
1/3 cup of rice
4 cherry tomatoes (or 2 large ones, diced)
3/4 glass water
a bit of dried dill
salt and black pepper to season



Instructions:
1. Cut of the stalks and tops of the peppers to form a lid and remove all seeds.
2. Clean and wash the insides of the peppers and leave aside.
3. Heat olive oil and diced onions in a pan and saute until the onions go soft.
4. Add water and rice. Cook for about 10 minutes.
5. Remove pan from heat, add the ground meat, dill, pepper and salt. Mix for a bit.
6. Stuff the peppers with the filling, and you can either use the top of the pepper to cover it or not. I chose not to.
7. Place in pan, add margarine on top of the peppers, fill with 1 or 1/2 cups of canned tomatoes (until almost level with the peppers.
8. Close the lid and cook for about 25-35 minutes (depending on size).




Et voilà!



I had mine with beetroot (sliced cooked beetroot with dill and lemon juice).


The thing is, I didn't have any meat with me so I used a protein substitute (this thing called quorn, a vegetarian meat substitute, which is handy if you want to make pasta but it doesn't work with this recipe because when the quorn is mixed with rice, jadi macam rice aje. No meaty taste. Boooooooo)


Selamat mencuba!

Something for the eyes

I was at Hotel Istana a couple of days back and so i just took few pictures of their dessert spread...not that clear tho' cause the lighting was dimmed at the time. Oh well, just enjoy!


selection of 4 types of cakes in mini sizes


a local favourite of layer cake


le opera cake...


close view on the usual fruit custard mini tartlets


strawberry, coffee, and 'i can't figure out the other flavour' layered sponge cakes

That's all...overall i would say the cakes were just mediocre. Other desserts there were the normal creme caramel, custard and jelly in glasses and some pudding.

The day i made 3 course dinner...

Well well well...about 2 weeks ago i don't know what came in to me to make a 3 course dinner for my family. OMG, just as i was writing that now i remember...haha, it was because my cousin had come down from Penang for his birthday and my dad has been bugging me to make pie and so my mum told me to cook. Yes yes..that is why. The initial plan was to make broccoli soup, some sort of beef or lamb filling for the pie and panna cotta for dessert. But i ended up with a creamy chicken filling because there were loads of chicken meat at home and a last minute change of dessert to something simpler like fruit jellies.


check out my soup design...(semangat :P)

BROCCOLI SOUP

2 cup vegetable stock
approx 200g broccoli
2 potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
1/2 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat up stock in a pot then add broccoli and potatoes. Cook until vegetables are soft.
2. Let in cool abit then blend until smooth.
3. Add the cream and season with salt and pepper.
4. Gently reheat without boiling and serve warm.

easy peasy lemon squeezy....taste good too!


close up on the chicken + mushroom filling oozing out of the pie

INDIVIDUAL CREAMY CHICKEN PIE (makes 6)

SHORTCRUST PASTRY

3 cups plain flour
pinch of salt
3oz vegetable shortening, cut into cubes
3oz butter, cut into cubes
approx 6 tbsp cold water

1. Sift flour and salt together into a bowl. Add the shortening and butter.
2. Using both hands, rub the fat into the flour between finger and thumb tips. After few minutes there should be no lumps and mixture will look like bread crumbs.
3. Add water, stirring with fork until the mixture starts to stick togther. Collect it together and knead lightly to give a firm smooth dough.
4. Allow to rest in the fridge for about 15-30 minutes.
5. Sprinkle flour on a surface and roll out dough evenly. Cut out 6 circles to fit the base of pie containers and another 6 for the pie tops. Any leftover dough can be used as decoration like my cookie cut out star shapes :)

CREAMY CHICKEN FILLING

6 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed into bite sizes
1 can of mushrooms
1 cup sweet corn
1 small onion, chopped
40g butter
2 tbsp plain flour
3/4 milk
3/4 chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in pan. Add onions and mushrooms and cook till fragrant. Set aside into a large bowl together with chicken and corn.
2. In a pot, melt the butter. Add flour and stir till combined. Add the milk and stock gradually while stirring constantly until mixture boils and thickens. Season with salt and pepper.
3.Remove from heat and add to the bowl of chicken and vegetables. Stir till combined.

Finally, place a piece of the circle dough in the bottom of the pie tin then add the chicken filling. Cover the top with another piece of circle dough and place any cut out shapes for decoration on top. Lastly brush with egg wash. Bake the pies for apporx 25-30 minutes at 190ºC or until pastry is golden brown.

Serve while still hot.



fruit jelly, last minute creation by yours truly

FRUIT JELLIES (makes 8 small individual servings)

You can use basically any fruit to your liking, i just so happen had the following fruits at hand.
approx 3-4 plums
2 apples
1 pear
honeydew melon, which has been melon-ballered (approx 2 balls per serving, hehee)
150ml water
50g caster sugar
juice of 1 lemon
25g gelatine, soaked in 6 tbsp cold water
150 white grape juice
if desired, pouring cream for serving

1. Cut fruits into same size cubes and place equal amounts into the prepared bowls.
2. Put the water, sugar in a pan and heat gently yo dissolve the sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes then add the gelatine. Stir until dissolved.
3. Leave to cool then add the lemon juice and grape juice. Strain into a jug.
4. Pour into the prepared bowls and chill until set.
5. Decorate with the cream to serve or serve the cream separately.

Tadaaaaaa....habis!!! I'm so tired from typing, just can't comment further..must stop here.

Enjoy!