Beef Bak Kwa

I miss Singapore .. CNY means lots of sale at Metro, John Little & Robinsons and cheap stuff over in Sheng Siong ... 

Oh well .. The only thing I don't miss is Bee Cheng Hiang's smell because not only we can't eat them but the barbeque smell sticks to you as you walk past! So here I am making my own bak kwa or beef jerky.

All you need to do is mix all the ingredients up, spread it thinly and bake!

300g minced beef or chicken

70g fine sugar (yeap that's a lot of sugar to help the beef caramelize!)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1/2 tsp light soya sauce

1/2 tsp five spice powder. 

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp vinegar

A few drops of red food colouring

For a spicy bak kwa, add 1 tablespoon of chilli powder or chilli flakes ! 

Once mixed, spread over your baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Cover it with cling wrap and roll using a rolling pin. Spread thinly around 4-5mm .

Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees for 18 minutes.

Remove from oven, it will shrink a little.

Use a scissors and cut into desired sizes. I cut them into 8 slices.

Pop them back into the oven at 200 degrees for another 16 minutes or so.. After 8 minutes, flip them to the other side.

Remove from oven and voila... You could also grill them again for a charred sort of bak kwa! Happy trying!

Creamy turkey ham & mushroom fettucine

This is super simple ... The kind of quick dish to cook when you have absolutely nothing in the fridge! Cream is substituted with evaporated milk and corn flour to get that creamy sauce. That was all I had anyway! Hah!

Firstly boil your preferred pasta with salt until al dente - firm but not hard. I like fettucine or any kind of penne because they hold the sauce well. This recipe is for about 2-3 persons. I used my pasta measurer.

1 small onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped 

Olive oil

5 slices of Turkey ham, sliced 

5 champignon mushrooms, sliced

1 cup evaporated milk

1 tablespoon corn starch 

1 teaspoon chicken stock powder

1/2 cup pasta water

Salt & black pepper to taste 

Sautee the onions & garlic in olive oil and once softened, add mushrooms and ham.

Sprinkle cornstarch over the sautéed ingredients then add evaporated milk, chicken stock powder, black pepper and salt to taste. It has to be a little salty to balance the blandness of the pasta. Add the pasta water bit by bit to get the consistency you want. Add pasta into the sauce and stir well to coat the pasta. 

Serve immediately with more sliced ham, parsley and paprika. 

Ultimate Chocolate Cookies

Why ultimate?? The boys call anything that's overloaded ultimate.. Ultimate breakfast, ultimate shake, so now it's ultimate cookies. This is chocolate frenzy overload! 

250g butter

2/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup M&Ms

1 cup chocolate chips

(Extra M&Ms for decoration)

Cream butter and sugar until well blended. Add eggs one at a time so that the mixture don't curdle then the vanilla extract.

Sift the dry ingredients together (flour, soda, salt, cocoa powder) and slowly add it in to the butter mixture.

Fold in your chocolate chips and M&Ms. Chill the dough for an hour at least or in my case, I like it overnight so that the dough is firm and the baking soda has worked it's magic. The dough will feel like harden playdoh! Fun!

Scoop the dough and roll into balls and add more M&Ms as toppings. Make sure you place them about 2 inches apart. Bake in a preheat 180 degrees oven for 15-17 minutes. My big boy loves soft cookies so I bake halve a batch for 10 minutes! 

This makes a huge batch so it's perfect for giveaway or you can halve the recipe. I didn't.. The cookies finish pretty fast! Or you can keep it in the freezer for another batch another weekend! 

Cempedak Goreng

Okayyyyy ... I know ... Why cempedak goreng post right? That's because by accident I had no rice flour, I made the batter using glutinous rice flour and it's awesome! Crispy when hot and soft when cold. I hate how some batter hardens when it's cold.

Bought 1 whole cempedak and this batter was enough to fry all of it surprisingly!

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup glutinous rice flour

1/3 cup tapioca flour 

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder (for a nice golden batter)

Approximately 1/2 cup of COLD water or until you get a batter to coat the back of a spoon

Why cold water? Same reason why tempura batter is made by using cold water. So that when the cold batter hits the hot oil it crisps up! Well that's the theory anyway.

 Mix all of the ingredients. Heat oil oil in a wok and coat the cempedak batch by batch. As you can see, the batter is not too thick and not runny either.

Enjoy with hot tea! Jemput.....❤️❤️

Jelly Donuts

I loooovee jelly donuts which is why no matter how popular Krispy Kreme or JCo or other fancy donut places open up, I still would buy Dunkin's... 

This is a really simple recipe and it would really help if you have a mixer with a dough hook . For yeast, I only use Saf-Instant. It works every time !

1 sachet instant yeast (11g)

30ml warm water 

3/4 cup warm milk

85g sugar

1/2 tsp salt

40g shortening

1 egg

2 1/2 cups flour 

Add 1 sachet of instant yeast to 1/8 cup of warm water (30ml) , 3/4 cup warm milk and 85g sugar into your mixing bowl, stir and wait for it to froth for about 5 minutes. Add egg, shortening & salt and add 1 cup of flour and knead with the dough hook. Add the rest 1 1/2 cups flour and continue kneading on medium speed for 5 minutes until the dough stops sticking to the bowl.

Oil the sides of the mixing bowl and let the dough rise for an hour or doubled its original size.

Roll out the dough on floured surface about 1/2 inch thick and cut into circles. Place on floured parchment paper. You can also cut out another hole in the centre for plain donuts with icing sugar. Don't throw away the centre!!! Mix it back in with the balance dough for more donuts!

Leave it for 15-20 minutes to rise and fry in hot oil until both 

Once fried, drain on paper towels. Snip the side of the donuts and using the edge of the scissors to "empty the pocket". Fill donut with strawberry jam and dust icing sugar on top.

The recipe yield about 18 donuts. 

Awesome 2014

A great start to the new year! My creme brûlée recipe was just published in this month's issue of Gaya Magazine! Ole 2014 !!! Get your copies today folks!

P.S. Who knew lazy cooking gets yourself published huh? 

Last year was also fun when Ahmad Tea USA published my soufflé pancakes recipe!