Mummy's yummy

God is really good to me because I have two brilliant cooks at home. One being my mummy dearest and the other is my brother, the little chef. And when two chefs prepare dinner, one can expect nothing but the best.

Salted smoked chicken by little chef - smoked with tea leaves. The chicken is not overly salty and I love, though the rest of the family feel that it should be saltier. The chicken skin looked a bit spotty.... it's because of the steamer. :D Not bird flu ya.

Take a guess of this dish - vegetable related. Courtesy of my mummy dearest.

Closer look - it's fried pumpkin coated with salted egg yolks. Sliced pumpkin fried in tempura flour and then fried with salted egg yolks (4 eggs) and curry leaves. This dish is not a no no for the health conscious folks. :D Mummy also did my favourite soup - fish head soup with salted mustard leaves.

Am I blessed with all these yummies? Of course I am! Next meal at home involves foie gras, prepared by little chef.

It is SO GOOOOOOD!

While driving back on Tuesday, listening to Jules & Prem on FlyFM, I craved for chocolates. Stucked in the evening crawl, I reached out for a bag of chocolate coated biscuits to munch. Co-incidentally, Jules and Prem were talking about chocolate and how the world would become if chocolate ceased to exist. That to me, would be the end of the world. I can't imagine myself living without chocolate. The famous quote from Forrest Gump, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

Yesterday's dinner menu was chicken sandwiches in tortilla wrap and I can afford to make a dessert. 'Ting' I remembered a friend who loved the brownies I made. Quickly grabbed the book as I knew which cookbook the recipe came from. I don't remember the taste of the brownies because they were gone right after it came out of the oven. So, last night....I had the chance to savour it. Oh my God.... it was so good and it's unbelievable. In that instance, I wished I had a tub of vanilla ice cream in the freezer. With a scoop of ice cream, it would be heavenly. Ok ok, after much raving, I'm sure you are curious which recipe I used right? It's Jamie Oliver's brownies. This recipe is quite fool-proof but pay extra attention when melting the chocolate and butter.

Aligator steak

Ran out of idea what to cook for dinner, Chef Michael Smith decided to take orders from his wife and son. His son ordered Aligator steak. No no no, not that aligator but it's cornflakes crusted oven baked chicken with curry sauce. While watching him preparing dinner for his family, I secretly craving for the aligator steak - golden crunchy on the outside, juicy and succulent on the inside. Mmmm......

Tada .... my aligator steak. Not as good as Chef Michael's but it was alright. Plan to cook it again to perfect it.

The what: 2 Breast meat, 1 cup of flour (seasoned with salt and pepper, and I've added a wee bit of Cajun seasoning), 1 cup of cornflakes (crushed), 2 tbsp of mustard, 1 egg (lightly beaten).

The how: Season the meat with some salt and pepper, and leave them aside. Add the mustard into the egg and beat it till well blended. Preheat the oven to 200C. Coat the meat with flour, then the egg batter and lastly coat it evenly with the cornflakes. Bake them for 20mins or until the meat is cooked. Note: don't over cook it or else the texture's going to be tough.

A date with the Autobots & dinner @ Sushi Groove

Out on a date yesterday with hubby. It has been a long time since we go on a 'real date' - complete with dinner and movie. Pretty excited about the movie because it's TRANSFORMERS! And I'm a big fan of TRANSFORMERS. Ei.... a girl like myself - a Transformer's fan, that's a little odd. I have been hearing good reviews about the movie and was little upset when hubby told me that the cinemas ran out of tickets. Finally, finally he managed to book the tickets at Sunway Pyramid.

The movie was awesome! Love every bit of it and plan to watch it AGAIN! Crazy hor... but what the heck. I enjoyed it so much and it was just so good. But but, in between the movie, I was annoyed by the lady seated next to me. She came in when the movie started and she was happily chatting away with her beau in Cantonese. Come on, you are here to watch a movie and cut all the crap questions. If you want to impress your boyfriend, go do some research about the Autobot and Deception's characters first la. For heaven's sake. Her beau was explaining to her the different characters, OMG! Cannot contain my frustration, I just 'sshhhhh' them off and they moved to the next couple seat. So annoyed with people who doesn't know the proper etiquette. Hmm... maybe I should list down the DOs and DON'Ts in the cinema.

Neeway, we made up our mind to go Sushi Groove for dinner. While walking towards the restaurant, we noticed that it is Tokyo G and not Sushi Groove. A little puzzled, we stop and looked hard at the wait staff's tee who were posted outside. Hey, wait a minute, is that Sushi Groove? Quickly seated and ordered coz we were so hungry! Being in my line of business, I'm a little 'pat' (busybody). I asked the staff whether Sushi Groove is gonna change its name to Tokyo G. True enough, they are changing their name to Tokyo G, effective from 4th July 2009 onwards.

Tuesday's offer - free Kinky QQ (tuna roll) with two orders of main rice/noodle dishes.

Tempura Udon - Ebi and vegetables tempura (onion, potato, sweet potato and broccoli) with udon. I find my tempura crispy though oily. Probably during the frying, the oil isn't hot enough.

Unagi don - hubby seems to be happy with his unagi don. I guess one can't go very wrong with any unagi-related dishes.

30% on the 30th!

No no, it's not Baskin-Robbins but it's New Zealand Natural. 30% off on every 30th of the month. While looking high and low the NZN, Hubby lamented, 'Hon, I know that you can eat ice cream for dinner but I can't. Can we find a decent place for dinner first?' Heheheh! I'm an ice cream lover and I stocked up my freezer with tubs of ice creams. Like hubby said, I CAN have ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My loot - Boysenberry Dream (Boysenberry ripple through smooth rich boysenberry flavoured ice cream) & Chocolate Ecstasy (Rich chocolate fudge, swirled through their famous chocolate ice cream)

It's July already!

I can't believe it myself, half a year gone and we are in the second half of the year. This is a tough year for me, and I pray that the last half of year could be better. Today, I was touched by some these quotes....

We make them cry who care for us
We cry for those who never care for us
And we care for those who will never cry for us

This is the truth of life, it’s strange but true
Once you realize this, it’s never too late to change

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Don’t make promise when you are in joy
Don’t reply when you are sad
Don’t take decision when you are angry

Think twice, act wise

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Time is like a river
You cannot touch the same water twice
Because the flow that has passed will never pass again

Enjoy every moment of life

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When you keep saying you are busy

then you are never free.

When you keep saying you have no time

then you will never hard time.

When you keep saying that you will do it tomorrow

then your tomorrow will never come.

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Happy moments, praise God

Difficult moments, seek God

Quiet moments, worship God

Painful moments, trust God

Every moment, thank God!

Banana Leaf Rice @ Yap Kee, Klang

Hubby has been bugging me to go with him for banana leaf rice in Klang town. I've pushed the thought aside because of the scorching hot weather. The day finally came whereby I needed to pick up a postage from the Klang Pos office and my hubby was so delighted. The shop that we frequent is very popular among the Klangites, particularly the older generation. We are the only 'youngsters' in the shop and mind you, we aren't that young. :D So you can imagine the how old is this shop. The shop is located opposite the famous under the bridge bak kut teh, Seng Huat Bak kut teh. The signage is barely visible but if one stand close enough, it reads Yap Kee. This place is packed during lunch and if you are keen in trying out this place, perfect time to go is about eleven-ish or 12pm, and not later.

The indian brother will come with banana leaves, papadum and condiments. Hubby and I asked for our usual gravy - fish curry, loads of it.

I like to have loads of papadum on my plate.

Our must order - mutton curry!

My must order, fried chicken thigh

My portion!

Hubby's portion - H.U.G.E!

Pastry weekend frenzy

Over the weekend, I did some baking marathon and it's pastry related. Baked some rugelach, a Jewish pastry made from cream cheese, a mushroom bacon quiche and some instant sausage puff pastry.

Rugelach

The what: 250gm of cream cheese, 250gm of butter, 3 tbsp of castor sugar, 2 1/2 cups of plain flour, 1 cup of chopped walnuts mixed with 2 tbsp of brown sugar.

The how: Cream the cream cheese and butter together on high speed with the sugar till light and creamy. Sift in the flour and mix well with spatula. Sprinkle more flour if the dough is a little sticky. Knead slightly and divide the dough into two portions. Refrigerate them for 2 hours. Roll out the dough into 5mm thick and cut it into a round shape. Divide the circle into 16 portions. Sprinkle the chopped walnuts onto the dough. Roll from the wide end to form a mini croissant. Brush with egg and bake in preheated oven at 190C for about 20 mins or until brown.

My disastrous quiche which turned out ok although the pastry could be better. It's my first time making the pastry from scratch. Hope to do better in the future. The last time I made a quiche, I used a ready made frozen shortcrust pastry which is so much easier. But then, home made pastry tasted so much better, love the buttery taste. :D The mushroom sauce is a pre-mix by Mc Cormick, just add water. Didn't like it and reckon home made brown sauce taste better than that.

My instant sausage pastry

The what: Frozen puff pastry sheets (I was trying to clear them from my freezer), some Ayamas frankfurters (halved), cheddar cheese slices.

The how: Cut the pastry sheets into desired shape, roll it with cheese slice (desired size) and frankfurters inside. Brush the pastry with generous amount of egg wash (egg and a wee bit of water) in order to achieve the crunchy pastry. Bake them in preheated oven at 200C with the fan function.