Crustless Brocolli Cheddar Quiche (Martha Stewart)

So many bakes I wish I could do using recipes from Martha Stewart, so little time in this busy month
This is my last post I can squeeze in, even though tomorrow morning I'll make my first breakfast of the year 2013 using Martha's recipe, and also her brownies recipe for my brownies craving Abby :)

Anyhow, back to the subject... This is a very tasty quiche, albeit it's crustless

Recipe can be viewed HERE, I followed exactly except that I replaced 1/3 of the cheese with gruyere cheese

I'm submitting this post to Cook like a Star, organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Riceball from Riceball Eats

WISHING U A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 :)

Pahang MFF - Fried Sweet Potato Balls

Such a delicious and addictive snack and so easy to prepare
I definitely will make this again, soon :)

I used Vietnamese sweet potatoes. It has purple skin but apparently, even though it's also sweet, but the flesh inside is more to yellowish in color
As shared by Wendy, purple flesh sweet potatoes usually has sticker with purple background and those with white background sticker have yellow flesh
I was not aware of that. All along I just grab those look nice to me and whether it has yellow or orange or purple flesh, as long as it's sweet it doesn't matter to me LOL
It's good to get some new information, though. It can be very important and useful at times
Like making this snack, appearance wise, orange flesh sweet potatoes will give the best result :)

Recipe is from Lena's site but I used half plain flour and half sago flour to get some chewiness, which I didn't regret, i even found it's not chewy enough LOL

Very tasty, indeed. You won't be able to stop at one, or two, or more :)

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Festival: Pahang month hosted by Wendy of Table for 2...or More

Xmas Feast 2012

Sharing what my family and I had for Xmas :)

My church Xmas celebration was on Sunday 23 Dec, and we went to Legoland Malaysia on Monday 24 Dec, so we had our Xmas meal on Xmas day itself, 25 Dec

I was busy in the kitchen the whole day cooking and baking on that day, despite feeling tired after the long day we spent in Legoland
As a result, I felt really tired for the next two days I didn't feel like doing anything, hence the late post cos I uploaded all the pictures only yesterday :)

So, here's what we had for our Xmas lunch...
Lemon maple honey baked ham with roasted vegetables, cream corn soup (cooked by my mum) and aglio olio spaghetti

The ham and vegetables before going into the oven

After out from the oven

 

 

I got the recipe from my sis' friend whom owns a restaurant, he's a great chef and I thank him for sharing this great recipe. This was the third time I used this recipe :)

Sorry but he didn't give the exact measurement of the ingredients used, and I never really measured myself everytime I made this...

 

What you need:

 

800g honey baked ham

salt / pepper

 

For glazing:

sweet dark soya sauce

worchestershire sauce

honey

lemon

maple syrup

salt / pepper

 

Vegetables I used roasted together with the ham: (cut in chunks)

Japanese pumpkin

baby potatoes

Australian baby carrots

green and red capsicums

1. Slice ham crosswise, marinade with salt and pepper, set aside for around 1 hour
2. In a bowl, mix all ingredients for glazing.
3. Arrange all cut vegetables in an oven proof baking dish. Sprinkle a little salt and black pepper also drizzle with a little oil
4. Brush ham all over with the glaze, and place in the middle of the baking dish on top of vegetables and bake in preheated oven of 220degC for approximately 1 hour
5. Turn ham to the other side halfway

 

And here's our dinner...

Still with the same roasted vegetables but this time it's roasted chicken :)

 

Before going into the oven



 

 

I used the recipe I saw at Annie's site

I like the name, I like how easy to prepare this dish and I like the good review she wrote

And so I chose this recipe, and what a good choice it was!

 

I skipped the pan-searing step, which I totally regretted. You see how my chicken looked like and you see hers and you know that this step is not to be skipped!

The next time I make this again, I will surely take the trouble to go through this additional step

 

Taste wise, it's really really good! Just like what she described - crisp skin, juicy and succulent meat

It's so good that there's no leftover on that night, all gone! :)

 

I marinated the bird for approximately 10 hours, from early morning to dinner time

The next time I make this again, I will marinade overnight

 

oh ya, I didn't tie the end of the leg to join them together since no stuffing for the chicken

 

Here's the recipe, thks Annie for sharing :)

 

What you need:

(I made 1.5 recipe for the seasoning)

 

1 whole chicken (I used free range / kampong chicken)

15g MasterFoods Roast Chicken Seasoning

4 tbsp olive oil

15g sea salt

few dashes of pepper

1 tsp of dried rosemary (or fresh rosemary)

1. Clean the chicken, cut the feet, neck and tailbone. Wash and pat dry with kitchen towel
2. Mix well in a small bowl: oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and roast chicken seasoning
3. Spread the marinade mixture all over the chicken, including underneath the breast skin, too
4. Keep the chicken in the fridge overnight (in an airtight container or wrapped in cling wrap)
5. Preheat oven to 220degC with fan on, top and bottom heat
6. Pan sear the chicken for 1 minute each side, let it slightly browned
7. Cut the vegetables in chunks, place it in the oven proof baking dish, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with some salt and pepper
8. Place the chicken in the middle on top of the vegetables
9. Put the baking dish into the oven and bake for 40 minutes
10. Reduce heat to 190degC and further bake for 20 minutes

 

Did you see the browned skin on top? It's because I was itchy hand when I saw the bird was not brown enough to my liking, I switched the oven to grill mode at the last few minutes. I ended up having the slightly charred skin :(

But actually, it tasted yum, crisp and brown LOL

Not recommended though, it didn't do the appearance any good hehehe...

 

 

Now, the last thing I did on Xmas day... one bowl chocolate cupcakes from Martha Stewart

 

 

Very easy to prepare with a pretty good result :)

And I decorated some of the cupcakes into this...

 

 

The Xmas tree cupcake, too bad I didn't have anything to make a yellow star to put at the top of the tree...

 

The Xmas wreath

 

And not to forget, Mr Snowman :)

 

 

Here's the recipe for the cupcakes...

 

What you need:

 

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup plain flour

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup warm water

3/4 cup buttermilk

3 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 175degC
2. Line muffin pan with paper liners, set aside (I got 12 mini and 10 standard cupcakes)
3. Sift together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
4. Add in eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and mix til smooth, about 3 minutes with balloon whisk. Scrape the bottom and sides with rubber spatula to assure the batter is well mixed
5. Pour the batter into the muffin cups, 2/3 full
6. Bake til the tops spring back when touched and skewer comes out clean, mini cupcakes about 15 minutes, and standard cupcakes about 25 minutes, rotating pan if needed
7. Transfer to a wire rack, cool completely

 

Okay, so that's about all what I did on Xmas day

What a fun we had on that day, and of course - stuffed! LOL

Really hope you had a great Xmas too! :)

 

The snowman was chosen by Ian and candy cane was Abby's choice - both from Daiso :)

 

 

I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #26 hosted by Alan of Travelling Foodies and Cook like a Star, organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Riceball from Riceball Eats

 

 

Santa Brioche

I was excited to try when I saw this cute idea of making bread in Taste Of Home
And then I saw Vivian did it too, so perfectly. I really wanted to give it a try
So I did :)

 

 

I used brioche recipe I baked before, very soft and tasty
Please vew HERE for the step by step on how to shape the bread

I was quite pleased with the result, even though my Santa looked like he just got back from sun tanning and beard perming sessions LOL

I'm submitting this bread to Aspiring Bakers #26 hosted by Alan of Travelling Foodies

Merry Xmas to you all! Hohohohohoho! :)

Japanese Rolled Cake

This was truly a challenge to be able to do this cake
It took three trials before I was pretty satisfied with the result, not the cake but more to the painting on the cake itself
The last trial I used slightly different recipe and that was a good decision to get it right
Now I know which recipe I shall use in the future
But will I make this again? I'm not sure. It took at least two hours for me to make, and it gave me a pretty high pile of dishes to wash wew.....
This cake is another example to prove that baking is indeed science
To be able to do it quite successfully does give a certain level of satisfaction and that matters :)

My first try - not too bad, but I burnt a little of the white color and it wasn't so smooth cos some parts were stuck at the baking paper that I had to peel super carefully with knife and arranged it back on the cake

I used Nutella for the filling

My second try - not too bad, either but I didn't like the christmas stocking, the red part wasn't smooth at all - even worse than the first try, and yes, some parts were still stuck at the baking paper
I used chocolate ganache for the filling

 

Finally it's smooth and firmly attached to the cake, I was pretty pleased with this one, except for the small stain on the tree and I used non stabilized whipping cream filling for this cake - it wasn't firm enough, hence the not so round shape of this rolled cake
I used whipped cream and cut strawberries for the filling

My first and second try were using the same recipe from Mba R, this recipe was used by many fellow Indonesian bloggers
It gave me a beautiful texture and yummy cake, it's really a keeper
But somehow, I couldn't be comfortable with the recipe for the batter to do the painting, even after the second try

My third try I used recipe from Miss B of Everybody Eats Well In Flanders
I must thank her for doing the translation and sharing it in her blog, it's a great help!
I was so pleased with the recipe for the painting batter, and the cake was yummy too, but more to thinner side


The recipe for the cake:

What you need:

5 egg yolks
40g sugar
40ml canola oil
60ml water
80g plain flour

150g egg whites
40g sugar
150g corn flour
1/2 tsp salt

For the painting:
50g egg whites
10g sugar
5g corn flour

For the egg yolk batter:

1. Beat egg yolks and sugar til ribbon stage. In low speed, add in oil slowly, mix well
2. Add in water slowly, mix well
3. Add in flour and mix well til thick. Set aside

For the painting:

1. Prepare swiss roll pan, grease and line with baking paper which has drawing of picture to be painted. Place the drawing facing down
2. Beat egg whites and half of sugar til foamy, add in the remaining sugar gradually while beating in low speed til medium peak
3. Add in corn flour and mix well briefly til well mixed
4. Divide according the need of the painting, how many colors needed
5. Mix each part with each color til well mixed and put it in piping bag
6. Snip a very little hole at the tip of the piping bag and start painting starting from the outline first if there's one, otherwise start from darker color first
7. Bake in preheated oven of 170degC for 1 minute each color
8. Set aside

For the egg whites batter:

1. Beat egg whites and half of the sugar and salt til foamy
2. Add in the balance of the sugar gradually til medium peak
3. Add in corn flour, mix well

1. Scoop out 1/3 of the egg white batter into the egg yolk batter and fold in gently
2. Add in the remaining egg white batter and fold in gently (do not over fold to avoid the batter being deflated)
3. Pour the batter onto the prepared and painted pan, level
4. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes - do not overbake to avoid difficulty in rolling the cake later on
5. After it's cooked, remove the cake from pan, peel the baking paper slowly and carefully
6. When the cake is cool, flip the cake on another baking paper (now painting is facing down) Spread with filling and roll away from you using the baking paper
7. Keep in the fridge for around 1 hour in the fridge til set before opening up the baking paper

I personally love both the cake recipes, but for the painting batter I definitely will use Miss B's recipe :)


I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #26 hosted by Alan of Travelling Foodies and LBT challenge this month

Oatmeal & Dried Cranberries Chewy Cookies (Martha Stewart)

This was a big batch of cookies baked by me and my sis
She has been watching Martha's video on making this cookies, drooling each time
Originally it used dried cherry but we decided to use dried cranberries instead

Recipe is from Martha Stewart's site

What you need:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup dark-brown sugar (I used packed light brown sugar)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

2 cups dried sour cherries (I used dried cranberries)

1. Preheat oven to 175degC. Line baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and baking powder, set aside
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat to incorporate. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating on low speed to combine. Stir in the oats and dried cranberries
3. Drop the dough (50g each) onto prepared baking sheets, leaving 5 inches between cookies. Bake until edges are just turning brown, about 20 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet, then remove to wire racks to cool completely

If you like chewy cookies with oats, you'll love it. If you also like dried fruits, you'll love this cookies even more :)

I'm submitting this post to  Cook like a Star, organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Riceball from Riceball Eats

Pahang MFF - Guangxi Style Steamed Chicken

It's been a week since the last time I updated my blog
Not that I didn't do any cooking and/or baking, not that I couldn't access internet
It's just I had no mood to blog, even though I did do a little blog hopping and was always online in FB
Well, it does happen to me from time to time, blogging blue LOL

Okay, now talking about this chicken dish
My family loves steamed chicken, so when I saw Wendy posted this dish, I knew I would make it, especially she introduced the steam bake method using oven, which I never did before

Oh how I love the steam bake method! The texture of the chicken was perfect! Juicy, flavourful and tasty, and yes, the texture of the skin is really great!

And nam sauce, something new to me too, was just the perfect companion for the chicken, really delicious!
Unless you don't eat chinese chives, you definitely will love it!
A bowl (or more) hot fluffy rice is all you need to eat this hearty dish :)

Recipe is from Wendy

What you need:
(I adjusted according to my family preference and what I had in my fridge)

1 kampong chicken (medium size)
2 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tsp salt
2 spring onion

For nam:
100g chinese chives
40g ginger (after peeled)
a little less than 1/2 cup canola oil
8 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil

1. Rub salt and wine all over chicken, inside out. Prepare oven proof dish and place chicken, fold spring onion and place underneath the chicken
2. Cover dish. I used round pyrex with no cover, so I used aluminium foil, sealed around the sides and made roof on top of the chicken so it didn't touch the skin, lightly oiled the foil facing down (the one in facing the chicken)
3. Bake in preheated oven of 160degC for 45 minutes
4. Leave it in the oven for 30 minutes, remove and let cool (still covered)
5. Chop when already cooled

To make nam:

1. Wash chinese chives, shake water, spread the chives and put on a clean cloth, cover with another clean cloth and press gently til no longer wet. Slice thinly
2. Slice ginger into 1 cm thick slices, smash and chop finely
3. In a dry pan, dry fry til smells good, remove from pan and put in  a heatproof bowl
4. Put 2/3 of the sliced chives over ginger
5. using the same pan, heat oil til very hot. Put in the other 1/3 chives, gently stir around and immediately pour this boiling oil into the raw 2/3 of chives and fried ginger
6. Let sit for approximately 30 seconds and gently stir after that
7. Add in sesame oil and soy sauce

Serve chopped chicken with nam sauce separately or pour nam over it

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Festival: Pahang month hosted by Wendy of Table for 2...or More

Mrs Ng SK Vanilla Butter Cake

Butter cake is one of very well received cake in the house
This special recipe was really hot amongst blogger sometime back, so I gave it a try and wow! This butter cake is indeed really special! Softer than the usual butter cake, finer texture, too and really moist and taste really good!

 

 

Recipe is from Wendy's site

 

What you need:

 

230g butter

200g eggs (no shell) - separate the yolks from the whites

50g + 150g sugar

200g self raising flour, sifted

60ml milk

1 vanilla bean, scraped (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

1. Preheat oven at 180degC. Grease pan, line the base and grease the sides to help the sides rise well (I used 2 20x10cm loaf pans, you may use a 8" square pan)
2. Beat egg whites til soft peak, gradually add in 50g sugar, and beat til stiff, set aside
3. Cream butter and 150g sugar til pale and fluffy. Put in vanilla seeds and beat for awhile
4. Add in egg yolk one at a time and beat well after each addition
5. Put in half the flour and beat in low speed til well mixed. Put in milk in 2 additions and mix well. Mix in the balance of the flour
6. Put in half the egg whites and beat in low speed. Pour the balance and fold
7. Pour batter into the pans and level
8. Bake for around 30 minutes til skewer comes out clean
9. (I covered the top loosely with foil for the last 15 minutes)

 

Somehow I still got a little crack at the top of the cake. Many baked this cake and they were so amazed with the crackless butter cake they got

Not sure whether it's because of the size of the pan I used

Let me try to bake this cake again with an 8" square pan and see if I still see crack :)

 

Bday Cake 4Hubby - Moist Devil's Food Cake (Martha Stewart)

I always a fan of Martha Stewart, she has a pair of super talented hands and fingers, not only in the kitchen but basically in every corner of the house and even outside the house!
So, I'm happy that this month's Cook Like A Star theme is Martha Stewart :)

This is her cake I wanted to try for so long, and this is the time for me to give it a shot, in conjunction to DH's birthday
Recipe is from HERE, very similar to other Devil's food cake recipe, actually
I modified a little and I didn't make the chocolate ganache, I used Nutella instead
Time constraint I had since it's school holiday now (read: me being lazy LOL)

What you need:
(recipe below is 1/2 recipe I made with slight modification)

170g unsalted butter
43g cocoa powder + extra to dust
1/4 cup boiling water
255g sugar
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
145g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup fresh milk
1 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder

1. Grease a 20cm round pan, line with paper and dust with cocoa powder
2. Sift cocoa and coffee powder into the boiling water, whisk. Set aside to cool
3. Cream butter (low speed) til light and fluffy. Gradually add in sugar - around 3 minutes
4. Add in vanilla and eggs one at a time til well mixed
5. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking soda and salt
6. Whisk milk into the cocoa/coffee mixture
7. With mixer on low speed, add in flour and milk/cocoa/coffee mixture into the butter mixture (starting and ending with flour)
8. Pour batter into the prepared pan, bake until skewer comes out clean, around 35 minutes, rotate pan halfway for even baking
9. Let cake cool on wire rack. Cut into two parts after it's completely cool
10. Spread filling evenly on the top part of the bottom layer and top with the other layer

For DH's bday this time, I was so clueless about how to deco the cake
I ended up piped the whole cake with star tip. It looked more like white Xmas cake than birthday cake to me. But the most important thing is, he loved it, not only the deco but also the taste of this delicious cake, and so were the kids and me :)

This post is for Cook like a Star, organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Riceball from Riceball Eats