Monday, 21 July 2008

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 voilĂ !



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!

Sunday, 20 July 2008

Malay cuisine.. coconut theme

Selamat Datang.. Hari ini saya sedikit rajin lalu menyediakan hidangan terkenal kaum melayu, Nasi Lemak & Kuih Puteri Mandi @ Badak Berendam. Kuih Badak berendam ni di tujukan khas buat En.Megat yang telah hampir setahun meminta saya buat tetapi kesibukan saya yang amat... (alasan) akhirnya....

Thanks to kakak (maid) for your assistance.

Memandangkan santan tak dijual hari Ahad, dan mama memberitahu santan kotak tak sedap, saya terpaksa perah sendiri santan..

Hehe.. Kerja keras sikit. Kemudian, bermula lah perjalanan memasukkan semua bahan2 masakan melayu yang harum mewangi.. daun pandan, bunga lawang, cengkih, dan sebagainya.

Sambil menunggu nasi masak, saya mencuba resepi Badak Berendam. Not confident actually.
Bahan2 nak buat Badak pun mcm2.. belum kolam dia lagi. Mula2, masak inti dengan kelapa parut, daun pandan, air & sedikit garam.

Kemudian, masukkan inti di dalam doh (tepung pulut + air pandan), rebus sekejap dan masukkan ke dalam kolam santan.. uish.. can someone count the calory? ;p Sorry, no proper photo for badak berendam since we had to rush packing the foods to our old house in Cheras for Spring Cleaning. This is basically how Badak Berendam @ Puteri Mandi looks like. As u can see I only lifted one of the Badak, the rest is busy swimming in there. And next time i think i should color each badak in pink + blue.. hmm..

So here it is.. Nasi Lemak Hari Minggu..

And the hungry martians..


And finally Mr. Megat came over to Cheras with a Kungfu Panda Orange shirt... Hmm very hungry huh.. But I didn't get to take his photo with Badak Berendam he's been craving since he swallowed all of them while I went up to get his drink. Huhu..


See ya'll !! mwahhhsss ..

Tuesday, 18 March 2008

My promised thai inspired post

Sawadeekaaa...

As promised...thai foood!!!



First up would have to be the ever so famous 'Som Tum', which is spicy papaya salad. You can find almost anywhere in Bangkok. It is traditionally eaten with glutonous rice but i haven't got used to it yet. The first time i ordered som tum on my own the lady then ask if i wanted the glutonous rice and all i did was just stared blank back at her like 'sshheeewaaaaaahht' hahahaha. She must have thought i was a weird thai looking girl who didn't get what she was saying. Main ingredient for this salad is obviously green papaya followed by beans, tomatoes, chilli, garlic, lime, fish sauce, palm sugar, shrimp paste and some other optional ingredients like crab. I've been told there is 3 different variations of som tum but i'm not too sure about what the difference are just yet.



This is a prawn salad and i don't know the name for it in thai. These type of salads are common here, with many different variations of herbs/leaves and substituting the prawns to fish, crab, etc.



Next up is 'Kra Pao Nuer', which is stir fried beef with basil leaves. Basil leaves are widely used here. Sometimes some places tend to put too much of it and the taste of basil overpowers the whole dish and gives a slightly unplesent taste. I don't know if that is how it should be, but i prefer a more mild taste. The beef can also be substituted with chicken, pork, prawn, fish, etc.



This is kuey teow...ok honestly i think i'm missing a word in the front or the back of kuey teow but it is definately called kuey teow something. Obviously because of the use of the flat rice noodles as you can see. This dish has a very interesting taste to it with the mushrooms, fried tofu, beansprouts, dried shrimp, nuts, fried garlic sprinkles, srping onions and the sauce which a type of black soy and then you add chilli flakes, a little sugar and a dash of fish sauce. Sweet, sour, salty, spicy all in one. :)



Deep fried fish with sweet, sour and spicy sauce. What more can i say...



These little chicken bone/tendon nuggets/bites are 'khor kai tod'. A popular snack or appetizer here. It's basically boneless chicken nuggets, sometimes even smaller like popcorn. I like it very much because it's not all chicken meat so you don't get full or 'muak' with it like how some people don't like to eat chicken breast. It's crunchy from the bone/tendon/cartilage but yet you get bits of chicken meat as well. You can either eat it just like that, dip it into some thai chilli sauce or like the picture above. Pop some chicken bits, lime, chilli, onion, ginger and nuts all at once. Funky flavours...



Vermicelli noodle salad with prawns, basically the same style of salads here just different main ingredients.

I'll stop here for now, will update more soon. Also more updates on pastries from school. Till then...Khorb khun ka :)

Sunday, 3 February 2008

Sawadeekaa...

*mula-mula tu terkejut biler bukak blogger tengok semua dalam thai.mampos mcm mane nak baca ni...hahaha

Sawadeeka, sa bai di mai ka to everyone. Greetings from Bangkok. It's been 2 weeks now and i'm adjusting well. Missing nasi lemak already!!! I don't know how i'm going to survive without it. On the other hand everything else is great here.

My latest updates on food or should i say DESSERTS!!! sorry nothing Thai inspired today but i promise in my future posts.

First up, i came acroos this ice cream parlour called Cream & Fudge and fell in love with it. I'll have to add it to my lists of Haagen Daz & Swensens. It literally took me about 15 minutes standing there deciding on which flavour and concoction i wanted. I fianlly settles on this...feast your eyeballs...


oooohhh aaahhhhhh i want more!!!

Here, the rival for Dunkin Donuts is Mister Donut...ahahha (kelakar tak kay?) anyways i had already took out my camera to snap away but they wouldn't let me. Boo :( I can't say they taste better but their products sure do look interesting and mostly cute. They have mini donut lollipops, bunny shaped, donuts on sticks and more.


Sorry as i only have a photo of the packaging. Was awwed with the smiley face i totally forgot about the actual donut. Hahahaha.


Mini donuts i bought at the market...not bad and inexpensive as well.


Random fact...i love the coconut ice blended here....very refreshing.

One of the specialties here are these...


It's balls of deep fried rice noodles with a meat filling. Could be chicken but most of the time it would be pork and this particular one happens to be the latter. So boo hoo to me...it looks yummy ha? I forgot what's it called...(thinks for 10 minutes) damnit still can't remember...

Finally we go to school...will show you a few of what i've made since i arrived.


Shortbread cookies... very rich and nice (mcm butter cookies yg dlm tin biru tu)


Fruit Cake


Almond sponge cake with almond fondant flower and leaf


Tarte aux Pomme....apple tart..my favourite....pomme tart :)


Mini Fruit Tarts...these are like to die for...i just love em. Filled with pastry cream and topped with any fruits to your liking....*drools*


Same fruit tart but bigger version with more mixed fruits...i still have half of it in my fridge. Mmmm *winks* (kay, ummi, nanie...want some?)


Lunettes...a softer version of the shortbread cookies with strawberry filling.

That's all for now...will go jalan-jalan around Bangkok and hope to write a more thai inspired post. :)

Wednesday, 16 January 2008

Japanese Food

Hello food lovers..!!

2007 was a great food year for me, tried varieties of foo
d that fulfills my tummy.
Dad was invited for a farewell dinner by China delegates and we got lucky coz they mentioned "and family". Went to Fukuya Restaurant in Ampang the setting was superb! Traditional Japanese with bamboo gates, u could fell JAPAN.. moshi moshi!

The meal? Fantastic! They served food with sakura leaves. It's oysters + dried fish + persimmon with some stuffings. The sakura leaves are imported from Japan, and its seasonal. I wonder how much the restaurant charged the sakura leaves. Anyway i just love it! Sorry for the poor image quality.

This one here is scallop and radish. Taste fine. Very "under the sea". huhuhu..

And this is my favourite part..DESERT!! It's mocha ice cream served with cream and strawberries.
I tried to take as many photos but one of the delegate is right in front of me. Nampak sgt jakun. U can have better view of the place and foods from their website http://www.fukuya.com.my

Gurls, we should have outside activities for our blog. Maybe we can organize our own "jalan2 cari makan" virginredvelvet style! ;)

Love,
Nanie

Yes. I thought this should be a tribute to my boyfriend, who's constantly raving about pide, a sort of turkish bread.






HAHAHAHAHAHA

Death Eater?



This is called "death by ice chocolate" from Delicious Cafe in Bangsar Village. Tried last year in Ramadhan. Not bad..