Morning Glories

Morning Glories? Yes, u heard me correctly, and most probably the first thought that would come to your mind would be "isn't that a flower?"  That was what came to my mind too, the simple but pretty  flower that comes in striking shades of pink, blue and purple.  Until I got to know that there's a muffin that is known as Morning Glory muffins too.  when I came across them here while looking for something quick and easy plus healthy for breakfast.  Looking at the list of ingredients,having one of them for breakfast would indeed make a glorious start to any mornings.  Wonder if that's how it got its name.  Strangely I couldn't find much about its origin (how it got its name and where did the recipe came from) although it is quite popular.

There's a lot of goodness in these muffins, to start off,  there's whole wheat flour, wheat germ,  loads of fruits (carrots, apples, shredded coconut, orange juice) seeds and nuts too.

Made some variations (used whatever I had in my kitchen).

• Shredded coconuts ~ nutmeg strips
• walnuts ~ Almonds 
• Whole wheat flour ~ Cake Flour
• 1 cup sugar ~ 3/4 cup
• Wheat germ and Sunflower Seed instead of Wheat germ or Sunflower Seed

Verdict?? Glorious Indeed! It's a pity I was too lazy to use an ice-cream scoop to scoop the batter into the cases, so it's a rather flat top :(

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How Do I Live Without You...

I couldn't agree more when I read a recent article in one of our local dailies about smart phone addiction, about how people are using their phones overzealously.  Somewhat quite true, a lot of people seemed to communicate more on their phones than with real people around them.  A scene where you see a group of people around a table but each busy with their own devices instead of talking to each other is not uncommon these days. Do I see this scene in my family? I will be in denial if I say it doesn't, it does happen occasionally.   I speak for myself but I have to acknowledge that I can't do without these devices, they are indeed extremely useful. For convenience, safety, communication, entertainment, information etc, etc, etc.   I guess the trick is to make sure we know where to draw the lines.

Wondering what smartphones have to do with this dish?  Nothing! Just that it reminded me of  how my sister and I were laughing about it over our phones.   Had it not been the phone and the internet we wouldn't be able to keep in close touch frome where she is now.  So, I have technology to thank for it.  We were "What's App"ing each other the other day when she asked what I made for dinner last night.  I said "Chili Babi" which is what you are seeing here :) 

She said WTH was that? Chili Babi literally means Pork cooked in Chili.  Probably because she has never heard of it and to hear a Malay name for a dish which main ingredient is forbidden to them is a little weird.  In fact, being in a muslim dominant country, we rarely used the word 'babi', somehow it it perceived as impolite.   However, we (my sister and I) have this habit of peppering our conversation with words from different languages (a result of our education system, i blame :p), so that's how I ended up with this name!   Actually, it's not so uncommon after thinking about it, the Nyonyas  and the Indonesians have Malay names for their pork dishes too (think Balinese Babi Guling and the likes of it).

Ok, now about this dish.  It's a simple dish but it's a nice dish to go with rice.  Another unique ingredient used in this dish is palm sugar syrup.

Ingredients

• 150g belly pork
• 3 tbsp chilli paste (blend of dried and fresh chili, garlic and shallots)
• 1 tbsp chopped ginger
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soya sauce
• 30g palm sugar chopped 
• Oil

1. Cut belly pork into small strips.
2. Heat oil, fry chili paste until fragrant.
3. Add in pork strips followed by fish sauce, dark soya sauce and palm sugar.  Fry for around 5 minutes until pork is cooked.  
4. I added in some pre-fried arrow root slices (to clear off the leftovers from Chinese New Year)
5. Serve hot with rice!

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The Stomach Way

Some people say "Old tricks don't work" but there's also a Cantonese saying when translated means the opposite, "Do not worry if it's an old trick, what matters most is it works".  I say both are right.  Some tricks do go out of date but there's one which I think  never will...I do  believe one way(yes, one way, not the only way) to a man's heart is through his stomach :)   A meal made out of love will always melt his heart.  And that was the path that I took for hubs' birthday...Happy Birthday, sweetheart! May God bless you with good health, overflowing happiness, wealth (yes, in that order)  and continue to make you a righteous leader for our family.

First up, I made black pepper prawns with pandan rice.    The recipe for this black pepper prawn is courtesy of my sister.  Her black pepper crabs are just so heavenly.  I used her recipe on prawns instead.

Of course, I had to make a cake for him.  Birthdays, for me  are just too good excuses to make a not so plain cake.  I tried this Orange Chocolate Baked Cheese cake.  Shredded some orange peel and shaped into a heart.

Inside out...

This cake tasted really good.  The tangy aroma was so evident.  It went well with the chocolate sponge.  The recipe was courtesy of Alex Goh.

So, that was how I feasted my man :) Recipes? Will post it another day, too tired for it right now...

So, fancy going the stomach way for Valentine's? Let's celebrate ♥ tomorrow!  Have a great Valentine's Day with your loved ones!

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My First Blog Award

I was pleasantly surprised and happy when Wen of Wen's Delight shared a blog award with me. This is my first blog award, I am thrilled! I am warmed by the kindness, friendship and encouragement that comes with it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Wen!

Liebster is German and translates to

the English word “dearest”or” favorite”. It’s meant for up-and-coming blogs with less than "200 followers".

Here are the rules:

• Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
• Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
• Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.
• Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed. (Some say just 3 or more blogs of less than 200 followers each).
• Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

I would like to share this award with firstly:-

• Frozen Wings - For all her support and encouraging words, although we only know each other virtually (for now that is). Hop over to her blog as she has so many great recipes to share.

And to 4 other awesome blogs that I feel are special in their own ways (check out their blogs to find out):-

• Sotong Cooks
• Fong's Kitchen Journal
• Away of Mind
• Cosy Bake

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Fried Chempedak and Mum's Not So Secret Recipe

We had these for tea yesterday.  Mum made them and they tasted really great.  And I learned that she has a special deep frying batter recipe which I think is worth sharing.  

What are these? A local fruit fried in batter, in a manner similar to banana fritters.   A street food found  when the fruits are in season.  The name of the fruit is Chempedak, an exotic fruit native to South East Asia.  I searched around and I don't think there's an English name for it, but its close cousin known as Nangka in the local language is Jackfruit in English.  Some say the fruit looks ugly, its edible arils are kinda soft and gooey adding to the ugly definition.  But they have a very strong aroma (which some can't stand, something of the durian category)  and they are sweet tasting.  They can be eaten raw but taste heavenly when fried in batter.

A look at the arils, I love the beautiful orangey hue.  Depending on the size of the fruit, one can get around 50-100 arils in a fruit.

And this is how they looked after being fried.  It's a little unfortunate that the arils are kinda thin for this particular fruit (think Forrest Gump and his box of chocolate).  Note the nice, crisp golden brown and non greasy thin layer of batter.   Can you see its gooey texture??

Now, coming to Mum's special recipe...Typically batter for deep frying would be made from flour and water with a little salt added in.  Out of curiosity, I asked Mum for her recipe because I found hers very light, thin, crunchy and most importantly not greasy.  I wasn't expecting anything extra ordinary but I was pleasantly surprised to know that she added 2 tablespoons of instant oats into her batter! Way to go Mum, such a brilliant way to sneak oats into our diet! Am not sure if it resulted in the nice texture of the batter but it sure didn't taste like it was there!  Besides oats, she used a ratio of 20% rice flour to 80% wheat flour plus a teaspoon baking powder.   Sorry, no exact measurements, simply because Mum doesn't think it's necessary.   Some wise words from her though, the batter should be slightly thick, not runny.  Classic example of Mum's knows best!  

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Nespresso in my cake

Thank God for great household inventions, they do make lives better, don't they?   I have a few favorites (those that I give myself/hubs a pat on the back for buying them), of course there are some regrets hiding around the house too :)   Being the self-confessed coffee lover that I am, one of my recent favourite is the Nespresso machine, brewed espresso almost at an instance from the comfort of your home.  Hmm, I can almost smell it...  How about putting them in some cake?? I always wondered if using brewed coffee would give coffee cake a stronger aroma.  I am not sure if it's the recipes that I used but somehow it is never as prominent as I would like it to be.  So, I tried...

I followed a new recipe instead of using the chiffon recipe that I normally used.  The cake turned out nice and soft.  As for the aroma?? Yes, it was there, slightly stronger but again not as strong as I wished for it to be.  That made me wonder, why is it that store bought ones have this very strong coffee  aroma be it cakes, bread or even sweets?  I think I know why (after scrutinising the ingredients listed), it's coming from some form of artificial flavouring or maybe some coffee essence if we are lucky.  I think I will settle for coffee bakes as it is, I must convince myself if I want anything stronger, I should just make myself a cuppa instead...

Recipe
Source : The cookbook chronicles, adapted from Five Roses Cookbook


Note : My variation in blue.  Slightly less sweetness and dividing the sugar between egg yolk and white batter to help stabilize the egg whites)

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup brewed coffee,
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 cup granulated sugar (3/4 cup brown sugar)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt (fine sea salt)
• 5 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (or other neutral flavored oil, like canola or peanut) 
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract (obmitted)
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar (obmitted)

Method

1. Brew the coffee, and allow it to cool. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar (1/3 of sugar) and salt.
2. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add in egg yolks, vegetable oil, brewed coffee, and vanilla. Stir til combined. 
3. In a separate bowl, add cream of tartar to egg whites. With an electric beater (or stand-mixer), beat until medium-firm peaks. (Beat egg whites till soft peak, add in 2/3 of sugar in two additions until stiff peaks)
4. Pour 1/3 of the coffee batter into the whipped egg whites, and gently fold the batter in until combined. Add another 1/3 of the batter in, and repeat until the batter is completely incorporated into the egg whites, taking care not to over-mix. (Try not to deflate the egg whites–the air is what keeps this cake light.) 
5. Pour batter into chiffon cake pan and bake for 45 minutes at 175C degrees. Turn up the temperature up to 180 degrees and continue to bake for about 10 minutes more. 
6. Invert the cake until cool. Run a knife along the edge of the pan to release.

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Blissful Happiness

If you have read my previous post, you would know I was awfully late for Christmas, so I promised myself  I must have something up for the Chinese Lunar New Year before it arrives.  The Chinese have this tradition of ushering in the new year with lots of auspicious sounding dishes especially during our reunion dinner.  These dishes come mostly with an ingredient that has an auspicious sounding name. Prawns is one of them, it's Cantonese name "Ha" sounds like HAHAHAHA...when one is happy and in laughter or what we also know as LOL in the modern lingo today :)

All set to put something with the 'hahaha' element on the reunion table, I tried out this prawn dish that I saw in our local daily.   I thought it was a refreshing break from other more common styles like butter, ketchup, pepper etc etc and I always love dishes with a fruity twist.  So, Orange Marmalade Prawns was interesting to me.  Verdict? Me and hubs love it but unfortunately little one didn't really like it.  He prefers butter prawns, I suspect it is because orange marmalade has a slight bittery taste that children might not like.  So, will this dish get a spot on the reunion table?? We shall see...

Next came the task of coining a name for it since the dish and its name is equally important for CNY.  Not superstitious but it is all part of the CNY fun, that's how it is for me at least. It never fails to put a smile in my heart when I come across some auspicious sounding dish, it's all about appreciating the creativity behind it. When I saw my "friend" posted on Facebook that she is "Blissfully Happy", i thought, yes..., isn't happiness the bottom line in life? Ultimately, that's all that matters, isn't it? Only when one is happy can one LOL from the heart, so I thought I would name this dish Blissful Happiness hoping that the "Ha" in the prawns will bring us lots of  happiness (If you are reading, thanks for the inspiration).  So, come roaring in dragon and bring us all Blissful Happiness :)

Will be submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers Event#15:Auspicious Chinese Dishes for CNY (January 2012) by Wen of Wen's Delights

Source : Amy Beh, Kuali.com
Ingredients


(A)

• 500g medium large prawns with shell
•  1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• Cornflour
• Oil for deep-frying

(B)

• 1 tbsp chopped cili padi
• 1 orange, shred rind finely
• 1 tbsp chopped ginger

(C) Sauce

• 3 tbsp orange marmalade (jam)
• 2 tbsp honey
• 125ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• Thickening 1 tsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water 

Method 

1. Wash prawns and trim the feelers. Season prawns with salt and pepper with a little cornflour.
2. Heat oil and fry prawns till just cooked. Drain and leave aside.  
3. Leave 1 tbsp hot oil in the wok and fry ingredients (B) till aromatic.  
4. Add sauce (C) and bring to a boil.  
5. Return prawns to the wok and fry until sauce coats evenly over the prawns and the gravy is reduced. 
6. Add thickening if required.  (Didnt add any, prefer the dish with some gravy)
7. Dish out and serve.

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