'not clever' noodles

literally translated to BM as Mee Bodoh. is there such thing as Mee Bodoh or Mee Cerdik? i call it Mee Bodoh cos i dont have to think how to make it. everything goes into the wok and not even 10 minutes later, its all done! the omputih would call it Stir Fry Noodles,

we went grocery shopping today and as usual, i bought 2 packets of egg noodles (we normally eat noodles or pasta at mid week) and 1 packet of 'stir fry vege'; Tesco is having an offer on noodles and stir fry vege - 3 packets for £2.50.  and since i wasnt in the mood to cook any kind of rice dishes, we agreed to have Mee Bodoh for dinner.

ingredients 

• fresh egg noodles
• stir fry vege packet (bean sprouts/taugeh, finely sliced green cabbage, carrot in thin strips
• 2 cloves garlic
• fish balls (sliced)
• soy sauce (kicap manis)
• oyster sauce
• sweet chilly sauce
• fresh red chilly (chopped) with soy sauce & bit of vinegar - optional   

method

• fry  garlic, put in sliced fish balls, dashes of soy sauce, oyster sauce and sweet chilly sauce
• put the egg noodles and vege and mix.
• thats it.. all done!

kuih bakar pandan

this is one of the very few kueh melayu that i know how to make, apart from sagu gula melaka, bronok sagu (sagu with kelapa parut)  & ondeh2 or buah melaka and popiah if you consider that as kueh melayu.

my hubby's niece who's studying in Sheffield gave me the recipe - she got it from the web and i had been using it since. its dead easy - every ingredient is measured using cup, not grams or ounces and the recipe never failed me!

i've not made this for a while, today i thought of making to give to a family friend whose mom looks after my little one few afternoons a week. my friend's children call this 'kueh aunt bessie' cos they look like aunt bessie's yorkshire pudding. an earlier conversation with my 4 y.o.
me: "adik, nanti hantar kueh kat wan".
4 y.o :  " i cant hear you.. i dont understand what you are saying".
me: "you send the kueh to wan's house"
4 y.o:  "what is kueh?"
me: "kueh is like cake but it looks like yorkshire pudding"
finally  she said "aaahhh...". she tried a bit but she didnt like it..so unlike her elder sister.

ingredients :

• 1 cup evaporated milk (susu cair)
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup coconut milk (santan pekat)
• 1 cup plain flour
• 3 eggs - beaten
• 2 tbsp custard powder
• 1 tsp pandan paste
• roasted sesame seeds (bijan) - optional  

method :

• put all ingredients in a big bowl, mix till smooth & lump free.
• what i did was - i sieved  the mixture into a jug and pour into greased muffin tray, 3/4 full. the mix can make up to 21 muffin sized kueh. sprinkle  a bit of sesame seeds on top.

•  bake in oven gas 4 or 180 deg C for 45 minutes.

beef noodles

i simply call it mee/kuay teow sup, but the recipe is based on vietnamese beef noodles.

we've had rice for few days in a row and last nite, i just felt like ordering dominos pizza since they are having 2 for 1 offer. but my other half suggested beef noodles, well we normally have pasta or noodles midweek. we didnt have any beef in the freezer, just lamb cuts, so we had vietnamese style lamb noodles instead. this is the way i normally cook it.

ingredients

beef/lamb cuts

1/2 onion - thinly sliced

few cloves  garlic - chopped

thumb size ginger - sliced

3 cardamoms (buah pelaga) 

1 cinnamon stick (kulit kayu manis)

3 star anise (bunga lawang)

juice from 1/2 lemon

1 tbsp fish sauce

fish cake/fish tofu/fish balls - sliced

for garnishing - spring onion, sliced chillies in soy sauce (kicap manis) & vinegar/lemon juice, fried onion (bawang goreng), bean sprout (taugeh).

method

boil  the beef/lamb cuts and let it simmer (i dont have a pressure cooker) until the meat becomes tender. remove the meat from the stock and slice thinly. dont throw away the stock!

heat dash of oil in the same pot and fry the onion till soft, add in the garlic, ginger and the spices. then add in the stock, lemon juice, fish sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

then put in the sliced meat, sliced fish tofu/fish ball into the stock and let it boil for a bit.

to serve, put the kuay tiaw/egg noodles (mee) into the bowl and pour the soup, and sprinkle the garnishes. i didnt have bawang goreng & taugeh, so we made do with spring onion & chillies.

strawberry & vanilla cream sponge

this is actually a bit of a twist from victoria sandwich. the original vic sandwich is just 2 vanilla sponge cakes sandwiched with strawberry jam; the best & easiest vic sandwich was Mary Berry's recipe. but yesterday, for my other half's belated birthday celebration, i wanted  to make it a bit special...recipe taken from bbcgoodfood.com

INGREDIENTS

• 175g unsalted butter , softened
• 175g golden caster sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 175g self-raising flour

FILLING AND TOPPING

• 4 tbsp strawberry jam
• 284ml carton double cream or whipping cream
• 2 tbsp icing sugar , sifted
• 1 vanilla pod , seeds scraped out or 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pink or red coloured granulated sugar (usually found in tubs with mixed cake decorations in most supermarkets) 

METHOD

1. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and base line two 18cm sandwich tins. Beat all the cake ingredients together in a large bowl until smooth. Divide between the tins and level out. Bake for 20-25 minutes until they are well risen and spring back when lightly pressed. Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes then turn out onto a rack and peel away the paper. Cool completely.
2. Spread the jam onto the base of one sponge. Lightly whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla seeds and spread half of it over the top of the jam. Sandwich the other sponge on top. Spread the remaining cream over the top with a palette knife.
3. Make a heart shape in the centre of the cake by making a cone with some greaseproof paper, pouring in the sugar, snipping off the tip and using like a pen.

my notes :

1. i used the normal caster sugar as there's no golden ones left in the pantry 
2. for the filling and topping, i used whipping cream & vanilla extract - vanilla pod is soooo expensive!.

HAVE A SLICE!!!

brocolli pesto pasta

today is my other half's birthday, meant to bake him a cake last nite for him to bring to work this morning but somehow my baking mood went down the drain..so he bought Dominos Pizza for his workmates today (and they said thats a good idea)..

i was teaching all day, finished at 5pm and got home at 6pm so no time to cook fancy meals. looked into the pantry and fridge and i ended up making 2 types of pasta dish -  tagliatelle in white sauce (cream + smoked salmon + grated cheddar & parmesan) for the little one cos she doesnt eat anything 'spicy' and not really adventurous with food and for the grown ups, i tried a new recipe - brocolli pesto pasta,  which i found online (bbcgoodfood).  big missy had both.

birthday boy said the brocolli pesto pasta was nice & different & refreshing.



Ingredients

• 400g penne , farfalle or conchiglie pasta 
• 250g broccoli , cut into florets
• 1 garlic clove , peeled
• 1 large lemon
• ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
• 3 tbsp pine nuts
• 5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsp Parmesan (or vegetarian alternative), grated

Method

1. Tip the pasta into a largepan of boiling salted water and cookaccording to pack instructions. Meanwhile,bring a smaller pan of salted water to theboil, add the broccoli and boil for 4 minutes.
2. Drain the broccoliand return it to the pan. Lightly mash thebroccoli with a potato masher or fork.Finely grate the garlic and zest the lemon,then mix into the broccoli with the chilliflakes and pine nuts. Cut the lemon in halfand keep for later.
3. Drain the pasta andreturn it to the pan. Stir in the broccolipesto and squeeze over the juice of1⁄2 lemon. Pour in the olive oil andgenerously season with salt and pepper.Spoon in the grated Parmesan, toss thepasta well and serve.

My notes :

• i used tagliatelle cos i ran out of penne or fusilli.  spaghetti works just as well for this recipe
• i didnt use pine nuts cos i dont have any,  but i added in 1 tsp of Sacla Green Pesto. the basic green pesto sauce is made using pine nuts, basil, garlic and olive oil; so i guess brocolli is an alternative to basil and it tastes just as nice, if not better.

sunday breakfast

we only have cooked breakfast at weekends, usually on sunday mornings. why not on saturdays? because sometimes we're in a hurry to go out on saturday mornings for grocery shopping or for other chores or sometimes drive out of notts but we stay in most sundays. weekdays - we only have coffee in the mornings, milo for the big missy & cereal for little one.

this is our usual sunday breakfast spread, kenyang sampai lunch time..

other half's breakfast - toasted breakfast muffin with egg, baked beans, mushrooms and mini sausages

mine - i dont particularly like breakfast muffin but i love waffles (this one is belgian waffle)

the big missy isnt fussy except that she doesnt eat eggs but she will eat french toast. the little one's breakfast is either cereal or fruit salad with yogurt or pancake or waffle or bread with butter & jam.

kek pisang pasar malam

my other half's favourite omputih cake is banana walnut and his favourite melayu cake is kek pisang ala pasar malam; you know the long rectangular gebu loaf  they sell at pasar tani or pasar malam or in our case, to be exact, the stall outside Giant Taman Permata in Ulu Klang. i searched high and low on the internet for the recipe and took the risk in trying this particular recipe (on http://www.jintanmanis.com/)  which i thot should be the one, just by looking at the measurement - semua sukat guna cawan & use oil instead of butter which could possibly mean its a traditional recipe. and true enough..it taste just like the kek pisang that i used to eat when i was young and the one we got at pasar malam..

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1 cup caster sugar
3 small over-ripe bananas - mashed ( i sometimes buy over-ripe bananas or buy good ones & leave to ripen in fruit bowl)
1/2 cup cooking oil (can use vege oil or corn oil)
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs

method

1. oven 180 deg C
2. sieve the flour, bicarb soda & baking powder into a bowl
3. in another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar  till fluffy, add in essence & mashed bananas and beat further.
4. add in flour and oil and mix and pour into mould.
5. bake for 40 minutes.

i've not used any other recipe for kek pisang since...