Yummies... :)

I guess it's only fair to put up some food pics from Simply Spice Restaurant since i had 'promote promote' in the previous post. :P


Nasi Tumpang with Ayam Bersenggek (signature dish)


Crispy Chicken Fried Rice (my personal favorite)


Penang Assam Laksa


Savoury Pie (choice of chicken, fish or beef)


Chicken Tuna Capers


Oriental Chicken Chop


Chicken Love Boat (deep fried breadcrumbs chicken stuffed with sausage served with chef's special sauce)

to be continued...

Banoffeeeeee pie

Banoffee Pie




OK, I've had a number of Banoffee pie but the best HAS to be the one at Delicious. Seriously, it pwns everything you've ever tasted. When I had it with Lovanilla, we were thinking of what ingredients were in it. Basing on that, here's a rough recipe.

Makes about 6 ramekins of banoffee pie.

Crust
1 1/2 cups of digestives biscuits or graham crackers
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Mix all ingredients until well blended. Press mixture firmly against bottom of ramekins or bowls that you want to use. I would recommend using small bowls instead of a big springfoam pan. It's nicer for it to be individual servings than say... big pie-like to divide. Pop them into the refrigerator for about an hour or so. 2 hours would be great.




Banana



Cut the bananas in segments. I used 2 bananas and it should be enough-ish. If you want more banana, use more bananas! Cut them up and arrange them in a ziplock bag as pictured. You don't have to use ziplock if you don't have them. Plain freezer/greaseproof paper would be ok, just make sure they won't stick to each other when you freeze them for a bit. Just for an hour or so.


Toffee sauce
There are many ways to make toffee. There are the long winded one to the easiest of the bunch. The easiest would be just to buy caramel if they have it in stock. You can also use dulce de leche (I am pretty sure it's not sold here.. at least not at the usual stores). There are a number of ways of making dulce de leche, all using a can of condensed milk (susu cap junjung/susu pekat manis). The way to get smooth caramel is by submerging the can (labels taken off) in water and let it cook for about 4 hours. The thing is, there is a possibility of the air pressure in the can going wonky and the thing will explode. That wasn't a chance I was willing to take. Another is to ensure you have some holes on the top of the can and not fully submerge the can in water. I find that a bit mafan because water MIGHT get into the can or it won't be cooked properly. My method is the worst of the lot. I just poured the condensed milk in a pan and let it cook on a very low heat stirring occasionally. I got really bored halfway (there wasn't anything good on the telly and I was left humming to that 500 miles song!), so I quit stirring and I think that was why mine had darker chocolate spots as the sugar sort of caramelized some parts and not others. It should take about 20 minutes or so. Just see the colour changing. Make sure you do not overcook it as it will turn into hard candy when it's cooled! Just see when it's turn slightly fudge-y. Let it cool for a bit before proceeding to the next step.



As you can see, there are darker spots in my caramel. What to do. It doesn't alter the taste (at least to my tastebuds). It just doesn't look that pretty la if you're that superficial. :P


Assemble your ramekins filled with its set base. Arrange bananas in the ramekins, and pour the sauce on top of it.



It should look something like this once you've filled the sauce. Next step is the topping creamm




Whipped cream
Um, I didn't really measure this.. Maybe about 2 cups of whipping cream? You can use thick cream, double cream, heavy cream. Any cream that CAN be whipped. You can even use the aerosol ones if you like because it's easier but the thing is, if you use them, you have to eat it asap. Otherwise the cream will turn watery and that spoils it. Unless you like that..?

Whip it until it's thick. You can use electric mixer or the good oldskool ways. One of the tips when using the manual whipping ways is that to combine two whipper as one. To create more... um, whipping mechanism? This ensures more air would be trapped in the cream, hence you whipping it manually half the time it would have if you use just one. Want to better it? Use three? The sky's the limits?!!


Spoon some into the ramekins, smooth it over. Add more to make some sort of a mini dome. I am copying how Delicious did it hence the dome. I lack originality. Booo.




Close up sikit.




The ratio for the three tiers is up to you really. You can have.. 1/4 crust, 1/4 banana, 1/4 toffee and 1/4 cream. Or no crust, just banana and toffee and cream. Seriously, do what you like.


Finally! To pretty it up even more. Melt some chocolates (I had some butterscotch chocolate leftover) and add a bit of cream to make it glossy and slightly runny (not too runny!!!). Decorate your pie to your liking. You can use piping or plain old ziplock bag or just a spoon (require super-steady hands!)


Et voilà!



Ignore the fly. It's not part of the ensemble. The flies in my house are super swift. They pounce like a cougar on an unsuspecting victim. I made my brother eat that one.


Have fun trying!

Land Below the Wind II

Mid-week of my stay in Kota Kinabalu...my aunt brought me and bro away for a mini holiday (despite being in KK itself is already a holiday for us) to Nexus Karambunai which is a seaside resort in Sandakan. It's only about 45 mins to an hour's drive from home. So off we went for a 2 days 1 night stay, just me, bro, aunt and grandma. After a day's swimming and soaking in the sea, it was time to relax and have some good food. As usual the hotel's coffee house offers either a buffet spread or ala carte.


My bro was the only one who took the buffet and so i only managed to snap photos of the dessert spread. (Tak larat nak jalan banyak2) As usual the lighting was dimmed hence the darkness of the pictures and plus i was just using my camera phone...didn't have all those funky functions of a digi cam. Anyways, first up was a hazelnut tart with some chocolate deco.


The assorted mousses. The top one is chocolate and the triple colored ones were vanilla mousse with strawberry and mango coulis. Looks so pretty...taste quite good. (suroh adik amik i curi2 makan)


They even had chocolate covered apples...


and sugary covered apples as well...i thought it was toffee apples at first but the reddish sugary coating doesn't look like toffee to me...


Lastly, mini chocolate mousse tartlets. These were the only ones i thought looked interesting, of course there were loads more but it's nothing anyone has never seen before. Now we can go on to the ala carte that me and my aunt ordered.


I had the chicken and pesto focaccia sandwich. The bread was a little hard but the filling was really yummy and it was such a big portion with the fries and veggies that i only ate half and saved the other half for the next day...hehehe...:)


My aunt had the steak pie if i'm not mistaken. I don't think it's steak and kidney but definately steak and something...looks so cute with the mash potato, gravy and salad. Everything was okay but according to her it was a tad bit salty and could have been better.

You must be wondering where did grandma go...well she had egg sandwiches and i totally forgot to snap pictures of those because our order arrived late and everyone was really hungry and grandma was sitting furthest from me...ahak :P

Shepherd's Pie

I had Shepherd's pie a few days ago but didn't take any pictures. The pictures above are taken in the summer when I first tried out the recipe I found here.


Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 celery, sliced
Some mushrooms, quartered
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp salt (it depends if you want to put it but I didn't because I was using Maggi's Beef stock and it's salty enough)
1 tsp oregano
3 tbsp tomato paste
250g beef (diced)
1/4 cup beef stock
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
Some cheese depending to your liking.
Mashed potatoes (see underneath)


Step by step (ooh baby, gonna get to you girl)
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.

2. Heat oil and butter in pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, celery, mushroom, garlic and oregano. Cook until vegetables are tender but not soft (approx. 7-10 mins depending on how big the chunks are).

3. Stir in tomato paste and cook until mushrooms are soft and tomato paste has turned brick red (approx 8 mins, but mine didn't turn brick red. It was just... red?).


4. Stir in the beef and add in the broth, the Worcestershire, some pepper and salt (if you like). Break up any large clumps of meat and cook it until the meat is no longer pink (approx 5 mins, depending on how big the chunks are).

5. Transfer the meat and vegetables to a 2-quart oval casserole dish and spread the mashed potatoes over the top.

6. Sprinkle with cheese, if using. Bake until potatoes brown and the juices bubble around the edge, about 40 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Mashed Potatoes:
1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled quartered
2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup whole milk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Freshly ground black pepper

Put the potatoes in a saucepan with cold water to cover by about 1-inch and add the salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender but not mushy, about 15 minutes. At the same time, combine the milk and butter in a small saucepan and warm over low heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.

Drain the potatoes and return to the saucepan. Toss the potatoes over medium heat until dry. Add the heated milk mixture and mash the potatoes until just slightly chunky, then stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

I didn't use the instructions of making the mashed potatoes because I like mine chunky and rough, not the smooth whipped potatoes you get at KFC. I just boiled some potatoes until it's soft (butter knife cuts through effortlessly), mashed it with cheddar cheese and a bit of milk (or single/double cream, if you like) using a fork. I also didn't peel the potatoes because I used new potatoes instead of russet so you just need to clean it well and it saves you the hassle of peeling it hahaha. It's up to you really, even those instant mash potatoes would be OK, I would think.

I also added a bit of paprika to get that wee bit of zingggg.


I must say that my mother makes the best Shepherd's pie but the ones I made was quite good (angkat bakul!). The great thing about Shepherd's pie is that it lasts for a couple of days and even though it probably would take you up to 2 hours of preparation and cooking time, it saves you from cooking the next 3 meals because you just can pop it back in the oven or the microwave and dinners ready!


Selamat mencuba.