| Thursday, November 24, 2005 |
as part of the .gif){kind=small} , i also made these cookies..i thought they were really cute.. haha i got the recipe from Hershey's Kitchens  Ingredients: 1/3 cup margerine, softened 1/2 cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 egg 3/4 cup all purpose flour 1/3 cup cocoa powder 1/4 tsp baking soda pinch of salt  Directions Preheat oven to 350 F Beat butter, granulated sugar and vanilla in large bowl unilt fluffy. Add eggs; beat well. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Divide dough into 24 pieces. On lightly floured surface, roll each piece with hands into pencil-like strip, about 12-inches long. Place strip on ungreased cookie sheet. Twist into pretzel shape by crossing left side of strip to middle, forming loop. Fold right side up and over first loop. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. 
i think adding a lil more nuts (macadamia or almonds) it would be great.. haha.. it looks bit too dark actually, the colour. thts' why i added some buttercream icing on top :P |
We just wanted to make this day (yesterday) a 'kitchen war day' Humble Beginnings.. The whole idea started when Swee n mel got bored during a mamak conversation..and we came up with the idea of a gathering among the three crews of JH..We were juggling with a few ideas to name this historic event..due to the lack of creativity at that moment, we choose to settle with "Kitchen War"..the sad part,yeemei couldn't join swee n mel at swee's kitchen for the war as she was fighting another battle in another kitchen.. The Missions.. Swee : green tea short bread and chocolate pretzel cookies Melisa : caribbean smoothie and mango smoothie Yeemei : tomyam spagetti n samosa Mel's say of the event: Since i have no skills in cooking, i couldnt be a part of the event by doing nothing..So i did 2 type of smoothies for the day..well it's better than doing nothing right?? Swee's say: actually, i wanted to do the cookies for the cookie swap event organized by the domestic goddess. :)
mango,bananas n pineapples for carribbean smoothies...
all fruits in the blender..with a scoop of smooth vanilla ice cream, a splash of tropical juice..and couple of ice cubes... TADA~~~
Mel's Say : I dont have the exact recipe for the Caribbean Smoothie..Y?That's cos i first tasted this drink at JuiceWorks..n i kinda remembered the stuffs they put in..so i just gave it a try..the smoothie turn out pretty fine other than the fact that the mango taste was probably drowned by the other fruits... Next..my 2nd attempt was Mango Smoothie..got the recipe from a site and tried it out as the ingredients use were almost similar..
Swee's turn for her cookies ...
and the green tea cookie, it's great.. it would be better if there're more greentea flavour in it .. Green Tea Cookie Recipe HERE ! Chocolate Cookie Pretzels Recipe HERE !! Mel's say: The cookies were great..umm..would b nicer if the choc biscuit had some nuts in it..n more green tea flavour in the cookies.. All in..it was a great day..would be even more fun if we were a complete team.hehe..there will be a second episode without a doubt... |
It's been a while since i wanted to cook pasta with a tomato base..so today..i finally did it..Geared with everything else i can find in the kitchen..fingers crossed before i begin..knowing the lack of cooking skills in me will spell disaster even with the simplest dish.. so i came up with the below stuffs.. the stuffs.. * spiral pasta * tomato paste * ham * 2 eggs * 1 piece of ham * butter mushrooms
i think it looked alil scary (dont worry..no violence involve while making this pasta)than yummy.. When me n my bro finally tasted the pasta..the verdict was..abit too sour..damn! The sauce was too thick too..but other than that the others are fine..ham slices..mushrooms..n scrambble eggs.. Any pasta experts out there who wanna offer me some advice??Please do so...hehe..
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i wanted to join this .. so i decided to make some cookies earlier.. i got this recipe from Marta Stewart's living page 1 cup all purpose flour 1 tbsp green-tea powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 pound unsalted butter 1/4 cup sugar  method : Sift Flour, tea powder and salt into a small bowl, set aside Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. cream on medium speed till fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add sugar; continue to beat until very light in colour and fluffy; abt 2 minutes. Add flour mixture until well incorporated. Place a piece of parchment on a clean surface; dust with flour. roll dought to 1/4 inch thickness; chill refrigerated or freezer until firm, abt 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 325 F. Line baking sheets with parchment. cut chilled dought with cookie cutters of your choice. Gather scraps together, reroll, chilil and cut shapes. Bake until firm and barely starting to colour, 15-20 mintues, rotating halfway throught. Cool on wire rack   the green tea taste was fine.. maybe a lil bit more would enhance the cookie's flavour.. |
The above is not a statement..but another Western eatery with quite a funny or catchy name.. Today, San and I had our lunch at Bukit Tinggi's Mama Chops Papa Grill after our round of shopping for the day's Kitchen War ingredients at Giant..We were spoilt with choices at 1st for lunch..as the the area we were at was certainly a new food haven in klang..but we settled with MCPG at the end.. To begin with, we walked into the place feeling just alil less comfy..why?cos we were the only customers there..n our watch shows us that it's lunch time..so where are all the peeps?hmm..Looking at the 4 corners in MCPG wasn't helping us much with getting in the mood..
Y?lets peek at the interior...
The colours of the interior certainly doesnt boast a comfy eatery..it does somehow look like a kiosk..but at least the food can make up a few points for this eatery.. The chops..
my blackpepper chicken.. in the midst of eating..we obviously cant help but to comment about our food (as always...) some of the comments made.. "the coleslaw taste abit weird" "must be the mayonese".. haha..thats quite a pretty conversation..so after we were done with eating..paid the bill and head back to san's place for a kitchen war..haha..guess there wont be another trip to MCPG for a while..
That doesnt look like a happy picture to me..i wonder if mama likes choppin and papa likes grilling..hehe..seriously..the food is quite ok..everything else..hmm... |
| Wednesday, November 23, 2005 |
this one's from Nigella Lawson's book - Nigella Bites as well. this isn't a pudding as in dessert, but as in rifh heavy, airless souffle. this is certainly easy to make, toothsome and comforting to eat.
sweetcorn pudding Recipe:
5 eggs
510g can sweetcorn, drained
418g can creamed sweetcorn
(its 1 whole can of it, u can get them at hypermarkets)
300ml full-fat milk
300ml double cream (i used whipped cream)
60g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 190 C and butter and ovenproof dish.
whisk the eggs in a large bowl, and then add, beating unenergetically all the other ingredients.
pour into the buttered dish and cook for about an hour, by which time it should have set within and puffed up slightly on the top.
Serves 8 (depending on portion)
if u want, u can sepereate the eggs and whisk the whites and turn into lighter, frothier affair. =)
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i've not tried this before. i've never tasted it. i've never seen anyone i know cooked this before. so it's abit risky... but.. i did this for pot luck last saturday heh.. entry overdue i know.. but, i thought i'd just share the recipe here.
ok well, anyway, let's get to the topic don't be surprise by the taste of this dish, because it's orgasmic. (ha, as according to me) there isnt any coke flavour in it.. u can't ... will not guess that there's coke in it.. (unless u've made this dish before, or u're a pro-chef.. haha) but just one thing before i start, dont even consider using Diet Coke; it's full of fat or nothing. ha ok i didnt take pics on the process, because i was busy making other stuffs for the pot luck recipe : 2kg mild-cure gammon 1 onion, peeled and cut in half 2-litre bottle of coca-cola for glaze: handful of cloves 1 heaped tablespoon black treacle 2 teaspoons English mustard powder 2 tablespoons demerara sugar ok.. the trick is, there's a ratio for it .. like 1kg of ham = 1 litre coke = 1 hour cooking time.. get ? as easy as that. gammon is the name of the ham. u can get them at those "non-halal" shops in hypermarkets like giant or tesco. it's about.. RM2.++ for 100 gram. i got about 900gm for RM25. AND !!! don't buy the thing in slice, because u can't cook it.. haha.. if u want to make this dish, buy the whole piece.. say maybe 1 kg or something ok.. now for the cooking method. put the gammon in a pan, skin-side down if it fits like that, add the onion then pour over the coke. bring to the boil, reduce to a good simmer, put the lid on, throught not tightly and cook for just under 2 1/2 hours. but do take into account that if the fammon's been in the fridge right up to the moment u cook it, u'll have to give it a good 15 mins or extra so that the interior is properly cooked.
meanwhile, preheat the oven to 240 C
then the ham's done, take out from the pan (it's up to u to throw away the remaining coke liquid, u can use is for a black bean soup.. if not, then just discard it lah.. ) and let it cool.
then remove the skin, leaving a thin layer of fat. when i bought the piece of ham, it's the ending part, so there were more skin n fats on it..
anyway, score the fat with a sharp knide to make fairly large-diamond shapes and stud each diamond with a clove. then carefully spread the treacle over the bark-budded skin. gently pat the mustard n sugar onto the sticky fat. cook in a foil-lined roasting tin for approx. 10 minutes or until the glaze is burnished n bubbly.
(this is nigella lawson's way) i have no idea what is cloves / black treacle.. and no idea where to get them.. i used black pepper instead (haha) and for demerara sugar.. it's someting like cane sugar (gula tebu) .. i ddint have, so i just used brown sugar.. haha.. i used mustard powder btw. it tasted good.. hahaha.. it can be served with Sweet Corn Pudding :P and by the way, it doesnt really work on chickens this way.. there's another way to cook chicken with coke.. which i've yet to try :P
Disclaimer : This recipe is derived from Nigella Lawson's cookbook, thus, please do not steal and claim that this recipe is yours and you discovered it. thank you |
