Happy Ramadhan + Syawal

Hello to my dear girlies and also readers out there. I've been m.i.a for quite awhile and after noticing that my girls has each posted something i guess it's high time i did too! At the same time i would like to wish all of you a warm Selamat menyambut Ramadhan and the coming Syawal. I will be missing celebrating Eid this year as I am still in Bangkok and will be facing my final exams during the 1st week of Eid actually. Which means no baking Eid goodies, no family gatherings, no open houses, no ketupat, lemang, rendang, etc...Booooooooooooo... :(

Enough about that, now I think it's time to post about Thai food! These are photos of delicious food all around Bangkok that I've compiled during the months that I've been here so enjoy... :)


Crispy fried beef (daging goreng)


from bottom: Crab fried rice, Stir-fried crab thai style, cockles (kerang rebus)


clockwise from bottom: Condiments to accompany fresh oysters, fresh oysters, deep fried fish with mango salad sauce


Pad Thai (a must have/try whenever in Thailand)


Crispy on the outside with a soft inside bread smothered with chocolate sauce and kaya
I had this in Chinatown and it was sooooooooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooooood! *drools*
There were many other choice for toppings, just to name a few, there's condensed milk, milo, peanut butter, jam, spicy chilli...


Thai style chicken stew on white rice with egg


Som Tum (papaya salad)
This particular som tum was super spicey, look at the amout of cili padi!
I was tearing while eating it but it was good nevertheless.


D.I.Y grilled beef


Pandan chicken


Shrimp and coconut salad appetizer shots and traditional Thai fish cakes


Deep fried calamari


Soft shell crab rolls


Japanese-Thai fusion salad with udon, salmon, oranges, leaves and thai style dressing (funkay funkay...)


Thai green curry chicken


Crispy fried fish (i'm not sure but i think it's sole fish?)


Thai style crab and bamboo shoot curry


Spicy chilli fish


Stir fried chilli crab with basil


Deep fried stingray


Blanched fresh prawns (is that right translation for udang rebus?)


Grilled scallops on half shells with garlic


Yum Pla Salit (spicy sweet and sour salad with crispy fish)
Pla Salit is a certain type of fish which is cut into small pieces and deep fried. One of my favourites.


Clear seafood tomyum soup


Stir-fried fish with thai chilli sauce


Fusion salad with soft shell crab


Geng som pla (sour orange soup with fish)
This Thai soup is usually fiery-hot with both sweet and sour overtones that makes a lively combination, especially with fish or seafood. (similar to our asam pedas)


Fusion spaghetti with Pla Salit (crispy fish)


Khao pad pla salit (fried rice with yet again the crispy fish)


Khao niew ma muang (mango with sticky rice)
The famous dessert of thailand. It is usually just mango, sticky rice and coconut milk but I had this at a restaurant and they served it with coconut ice-cream instead. Extra yummy!

Will be back with more...stay tuned.

Selamat menyambut Ramadhan

To my dearest girlfriends.. Salam Ramadhan to all of you.. can't believe we're approaching year end! How time flies really fast.. Let us all share what we're gonna bake for Eid ok?? As for me I haven't decide anything yet but I definitely want to do something..

I went to Singapore last week and I came across this facsinating cafe..


yeah.. sounds delicious huh? Here's more.. The displayed items...



Unfortunately I didn't get to taste them since we didn't have much time.. The cafe reminds me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!!

Helloooo uolsssssssssssssssss it's about time I post something ok!



I am no cook like you guys, and all I do is toss everything into the kuali if I want to get something done. Or masak maggi. HAH!

But seriously? The crave for keropok lekor was too much. I was insanely excited when I found out (via Village Voice) that they were selling some in an obscure chinese restaurant somewhere in Brooklyn. Sorry la, malas aku nak bergerak sampai 1 jam nak makan keropok. I mean, the article said it as "sticky fish sticks", and since it's owned by Terengganu-ans? I assume it would be the keropok.


Fuck it.


I googled for the recipe. It was simpler than I thought!!!!!!!! WAHHH APA LAGI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Went to the ASEAN Market in Queens (one stop after Jackson Heights), and bought:



Ikan kembung / Mackerel (other types of fish still work)




Mochiko (flour used to make mochi) - for those living overseas like I do, or tepung sagu. We want them sticky ;)



msg- ze important hair loss ingredient!



Katakuriko or potato starch (asians love these things for some reason) to make each lekor piece non-stickish.

----------------------




Air, garam, a tray or mangkuk to uli-uli the batter (batter?). Following the recipe, we skinned the fish, got rid of the bones (mackerels have very fragile bones btw, no worries about tertelan tulang), made shapes out of it.


I repeat, we made shapes out of it. A friend made lekor balls, one made lekor... er, missiles, and I? I am superbly creative. I molded the fish with my talented, magical hands into the shapes of leaves and bowls HAHAHAHAHA.




Otak aku nampak benda-benda tak senonoh dalam gambar ni sial



Boil the lekor until timbul, and deep fried them till it's good enough to eat! PUAS AKU MAKAN WOI!!!!!!!! Seriously a friend commented it took us 15,000 miles from home just to make the damn thing!!!!!!!!!


We also made:


Deep fried squids yang hampir gagal serta popiah sayur gorengggggggg!




brb dyin in happiness

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!

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 ..

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 :)