Snap shot

Looking for household items?

Tucked away and perhaps forgotten, but PJ Old Town still has a lot to offer.....

Rows and rows of household items.

From glass, plastic, stainless steel and more.

Large wok fryers - just massive, almost twice the length of my arm!!! They also sell 'giant' professional whisks.

An unlikely and surprising find.....tamagoki pans!!!! Couldn't believe it.
They actually sell these here and not just one type but 3 styles to choose from!

Will definitely be back to browse again. My first time experience was just too exciting - you know, was literally gob-smack and a little disoriented by the vast array of things offered and so only concentrated on purchasing the things on my list.

Spicy Thai Roast Chicken

These chicken wings are real easy to make and since you can prepare them ahead and bake them when required, I find them a great party dish to serve to hungry guest.

Ingredients

1 dozen chicken wings, washed
4 cloves garlic
2 stalks lemongrass
small knob of ginger
handful of cilantrol
2 fresh or dried chillies
2 small red onions
3 tbsp palm sugar or honey
2 limes, zest and juice
3 kaffir lime leaves, minced finely
2 tbsp fish sauce
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a food processor, pulse all ingredients together (except chicken and honey) until you get a paste.

2. Marinate the chicken with the paste and honey overnight.

3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

4. Line baking pan with aluminum foil (for faster and easier clean-up later).

5. Bake chicken skin down first 15-20min, then turn over halfway and continue to bake the other side until cooked through and the skin is nice and brown.

Dark Gingerbread Pear Upside Down Cake

Sharing this wonderful eggless dark gingerbread pear upside down cake. A light yet moist and flavourful cake.

Pear, ginger and chocolate make a great combination and is a great favourite with DH and mine now :)

Recipe was a combined adaptation from here and here.

For pear base

1 large tinned pear
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
28g butter, melted
60g brown sugar

1. Slice pear and toss into butter ginger-cinnamon mixture.

2. Arrange onto bottom of lined cake tin. While I managed to decorate the base nicely it wasn't obvious once I flipped out the cake. Still need some mulling on how to prepare this the 'inverse-method'. May be I should arrange the cake using a mirror?? [Ps. reason for the lumpy-like mixture is because I was too lazy to melt the butter and used soft butter instead!!]

For gingerbread cake

1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 170g boiling water, set aside to cool
210g all purpose flour
3/4 tsp ground ginger
3.4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
168g butter, room temperature
15g caster sugar (if you have a sweeter tooth, do increase this amount)
80g dark brown sugar
60g organic molasses

3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

4. Shift dry ingredients together.

5. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in slowly molasses.

6. Alternating fold in flour and baking soda solution.

7. Pour batter into prepared tin.

8. Tap tin down gently a few times to remove any air pockets.

9. Bake at 165 degrees for 40-45 min.

10. Cool and serve cake warm with a light dusting of icing sugar or scoop of creme fraiche, if desired.

Bench notes - Cake flavour develops overnight and taste even better the next day!!

Reunion @ BVII

If you are not aware, this restuarant is operated under the same ‘Delicious restaurant group'.

Loved the swanky modern chic soft furnishings, especially use of translucent curtains to separate different dining areas which also provide some semi-private coverage.

My boss was in a generous 'Xmas mood' on christmas eve and treated us to a yummy year-end celebration lunch treat. *Thanks boss*

Appetizers – cucumber with grilled cuttle fish.

Salted egg yolk prawns.

The much hyped Hokkien mee with bits of pork lard and giblets. Quality-wise, it was good. Tastewise it was not bad but can't beat the better known hawker stalls as there was no ‘wok hei’ flavour otherwise I would give it two thumbs up.



Beef with bitter gourd - not bad but it didn't go with the combination of dishes we ordered. Probably better if you ordered rice.

Combination meat platter - char siew and roast pork. My boss loves the char siew here. It was OK but I've tasted better *not sorry as the local competition for this 2 dishes are very fierce*, reasonably good standard for an up-beat restaurant.

Ended the meal with a refreshing mango puree with pomelo dessert.

Address
2F – 17/18, 2nd Floor Bangsar Village 2
Tel : 03 – 2287 3770

Love the atmosphere and would definitely come back for another vist.

Xmas lunch

Definitely OFF ‘christmasy’ traditions this year.

No tree this year as we are still ‘groaning in tiredness’ in un/packing, cleaning and sorting – couldn’t bear the thought of having one more thing to sort out!!! Hopefully it’ll get much better by CNY!!! Ha ha ha

Last minute, decided to have a small do at our place.

While I can only imagine people having their traditional roast turkey with stuffing or roast ham/pork, roasted potatoes and vegetables…..guess what I dished up for our Xmas lunch inviting my parents over for a simple first meal at our place?

…..after much vexing considerations – believe me, had sleepless nights deciding what to prepare – would be chicken, salmon or quiche…..but finally decided on……PIZZA. *ahem, afterall it is a Friday right?!!* Ha ha ha….yep its pizza for Xmas lunch. So not ‘traditional’ ya, no fun bonbons to pull either (but then hey, I’m an Asian leh!!!) Lolz. Of course when D and MP heard about us having pizza, let’s just say there were no protests but a whooping loud unison concurrence!

Might leave the roast chicken or salmon for New Year eve dinner instead – we shall see (got another week to plan this right? And since I’m on leave, got more time to do more).

Not sure about you but I need to prepare mentally what I am cooking otherwise get overly disorganized and kalang-kabut. Of course it also makes getting the groceries easier :)

To celebrate our first meal…..we popped open a champagne. Its no Dom Perignon but well, good enough for us. No proper flute glasses but at least I’m thankful we didn’t need to drink out of mugs or bowls (ha ha ha….reminds me of Uni days – those were fun time too).

Great bubbly....we all got a little 'high' and heady after a couple of glasses *....zzzzzzz...*

MP’s pizza – sausage, ham, crabstick and lots of cheese.

The ‘super-special’ Lot – pepperoni (chicken and beef), ham, mushroom, olive, garlic, sausage and onions.

Gourmet vegan pizza – mozerella, rocket, basil, grilled zucchini, eggplant, garlic and tomatoes. More effort required because you need to grill the vegetables separately first but well worth the effort.

Spicy Thai Roast Chicken

And for dessert.....we had Dark Gingerbread with Pear Upside Down Cake

Merry Xmas

Was looking forward to a low key Xmas this year (still tired from packing and unpacking) until a good friend of mine invited me over to celebrate at her place on the eve. Didn’t leave me much time to plan as I wanted to bring something to share (I mean afterall don’t people spend weeks if not months planning their Xmas menu!!). I know she’s hosting but couldn’t resist bring something over. One thing I like about her place is that she has a big family and its always a delight to share something with them (cos everything good or not gets wallop!) Thought I’d keep it simple by bringing something I’ve done before – that way not too embarrassing in case it doesn’t turn out!! They may be forgiving eaters but don’t want to overextend my welcome, ha ha ha.

Didn’t opt for a traditional Xmas log cake (haven’t tried one yet), baked the Very Vanilla Baked Cheesecake instead. We try not to repeat our mistakes so here’s the cake, decorated slightly better. Must say that the Xmas ornaments helped a lot!

Also brought over an olive bread. Was hoping to attempt a new shape but it didn’t turn – think it is meant for a different type of dough, well there is always next year :) Thought it looked like a big fat roasted chicken!! Glad it went well with the other dinner dishes.



So Merry Xmas to everyone. Master Prince is looking forward to singing some carols and so am I!



Here's a peek of the very yummy Xmas eve dinner served, all with a German twist :)

The spread - roast pork, roasted vegetables, caramelized onions, gravy, brussels sprouts, sauerkraut, olive bread, stollen and chocolate xmas candies :)

The cumin flavoured roast pork was very good.

The Sauerkraut was out of the world, best I've ever tasted. Will never be able to eat those commercial ones served at restaurant anymore :( Understand the trick is to stew the commercial ones overnight with some cured meat and bacon, that will bring out the flavour even more!!

German rum filled Stollen. Very moist and lovely with black coffee!! We were served brewed Vietnamese coffee. It was very fragrant, tasty and kept me up all night!!! Worth every drop though ;)

It was a great night - good company, food and wine filled plenty of laughter and carols.

Ko Hyang @ The Gardens

"Reasonably priced Korean food", that's what other bloggers say.

Since I was around MidValley (which is not often as I find both human and car traffic around that area very stressful) thought I'd give this place a go.

Read that this place had limited seating space but didn't realize it was an open space eatery right outside Cold Storage. I was early and so had no trouble getting a seat, the waiters were very attentive, even managed to see the owners of the stall and had no one hounding impatiently around your table wishing that you'd gobble up your food and leave so that they can have your table!!

Wasn't sure what to order but the lady on the next table seemed to be enjoying her bibimbap and decided to follow suit. No regrets here.

Threw in the kimchi for the added spice before mixing it all up. Was quite pleasantly surprised when the waiters offered to top up my kimchi but declined since I already had a big bowl of vegetables.

DH ordered the beef bulgolgi set which was pre-cooked and tasted ok. But he didn't think too much of it since he really only prefers the grilled meat type.

We also ordered a pancake side dish but definitely ordered too much as we were struggling to finish this - but that's ok, can tapow ;) It was nice while it was warm and dipped with the accompanying chili sauce.

Since the set comes with soup, you might want to consider skipping the drink and save your tummy space for dessert instead!!

Rainbow syrup balls

Locally called Tong Yuen (in Cantonese) or Tang Yuen (in Mandarin). Traditionally made to celebrate Winter Solstice or Dong Zhi.

As a child, didn’t really get many opportunities to make these (think I was too busy running around playing with my cousins instead) as there were always many pairs of hands (my aunties) who would be busy in the kitchen rolling these. The traditional colours are white and pink – more white than pink. I recall hoping to get more pink than white, thinking they tasted much better than white. I still think they do, ha ha ha!!

Master Prince was eager to help me roll them out since they really look like ‘play dough’!! There must always be a white colour so I got MP to select 3 other colours. Don’t know what it is about these small, soft chewy balls but MP had about 2 large servings, scooping the coloured balls he wanted. No surprise he took a lot of more green than the other colours *cos he made them mah!!* ;)

The 'fun' part is to see who rolls faster and even in size!! :) Of course the ultimate 'bonding' is always cherish.

Find colouring the dough with paste better than liquid ones as the colours from the latter tends to fade and run more easily.

M helped out with the ginger and pandan infused syrup. All I had to do was supply and cook the balls :) Now that’s what I call good partnering. Think I can soon can pass the cooking of these balls to MP as he was so excited to help me cook them too!!

These coloured balls are real easy to make. Mix some glutinous rice flour (as much as you need) with 1-2 tbsp caster sugar and some water (as much as you need) until you get a soft pliable dough. Colour the dough as desired and roll them out into bite size balls. Cook them over hot water. They are ready as soon as they float up. Store them in a bowl of clear water until ready to serve.

The syrup is also just as easy to whip up. In a pot of water (as much as you need), boil together some gula melaka, a few pandan leaves and knob of ginger. The ginger is optional but I love the taste. Make sure you don't add too much otherwise it will be too sharp!!

In my in-law's house, here is what my MIL traditionally serves, the dry version of Tang Yuen.

In a plate mix together roasted sesame seed and roasted crushed peanuts and some brown sugar. Roll in the cooked balls (as above).


This is a more fragrant version because of the roasted nuts and seeds. Since I grew up with the soup version, obviously I prefer the former but the dry version is a nice change too.

Visit two houses and I get to have both versions all in one night, fortunate huh! Ha ha ha Btw, in the Chinese calendar, as soon as you finish a bowl you are considered one year older than the English calendar. With two different servings, does it mean I am two years older??? Its funny but when you are young, you can't wait to be older but when you are there, you wish you'd stay young forever!

Snap shot

Still cracking your head to shop for the 'perfect Xmas gift', perhaps you might want to consider this.....

Sushi anyone?

Actually its a set of towels, ingeniously and creatively packed to look like sushi, cool ya?

'Botched' Baked Cheesecake

We celebrated M's birthday over the weekend. Was too busy and tired to bake anything. Originally wanted to order a cake but because of the public holidays it was all too late. M requested for baked cheesecake - darn, had difficulty finding a decent bakery that sells them. Chilled cheesecake is much easier and faster to make compared to bake but guess M was making it hard for me so that we would not have to celebrate her birthday - naughty girl!!

Got the ingredients only to discover last minute that I ran out of dark chocolate and had to resort to commercial ones. If you've ever try melting these, you'll agree with me that they are in fact much harder to melt and even trickier to pipe!!

Then used the wrong whipping cream - used dairy instead of non-dairy which kind-na melts away as fast as you pipe them out!

Anyway, out of the whole experience, I learnt something. Other than to make sure you got the right ingredients on hand but also the trick of trying to cover up a bad decorating job!! Ha ha...crushed oreos, toasted nuts, cocoa powder, sparkles/sprinkles or in my case, grated chocolate. Sprinkle them all over the cake and no one will notice the earlier botched job you did earlier :) Besides, they'll be secretly hoping to get the slice with the most chocolate sprinkles, he he he.

Don't scrutinize the cake too closely ok, failed badly at decorating the cake :(

Recipe for New York Baked Cheesecake (my version)

For the base
150g digestive biscuit, crushed
60g unsalted butter, melted

1. Mixed the ingredients well before pouring into the base of an 8-inch cake tin. Level and pat down firmly the crushed cookie onto the base of the cake tin.
2. Bake at 165 degrees for 10-15 min. Cool and set aside.


For the cheese filling
500g cream cheese, room temperature
3 large eggs
100g caster sugar
70g whipping cream
50g white chocolate, melted
1 vanilla bean, scrape the seeds out (and recycle the pod for vanilla flavoured sugar or your homemade vanilla essence) Can substitute with 1 tbsp of lemon juice and finely zest of 1 lemon.

3. Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Beat cream cheese for 5min before adding sugar.
4. Slowly beat in eggs one at a time.
5. Stir in whipping cream, melted chocolate and vanilla bean.
6. Pour into prepared cake tin.
7. Bake cake in hot water bath at 160 degrees for 40 min. Make sure you wrap aluminium paper around the cake tin to avoid water seeping into your cake.
8. Remove water bath and continue to bake for 25 - 30 min.
9. Cool and refrigerate.

For the topping
120g sour cream
60g whipping cream
2 tbsp icing sugar, shifted

10. Mix together all the ingredients.
11. Pour onto the top of the chilled earlier baked cake.
12. Bake at 200 degrees for 5 min.
13. Cool and chill well before serving.

So as you can tell, this baked cheesecake takes a lot more effort but it was definitely yummy. *Fingers crossed* Hoping there's still a leftover slice!! Lolz

M informed me later that MP had 5 slices of this cake in total, that is equivalent to almost half the cake!! Of course he didn't do it all in one sitting :) Guess MP enjoyed M's birthday cake most!!

Reindeer Holiday Cookies

Actually wanted to do more for this festive month but one thing lead to another and so instead here I am hoping I can post my first Xmas bento sometime soon!

In the meantime, will leave this with you...some reindeer cookies, made two ways. Hope you will give these a try as they are just so cute, aren't they? :)

Reindeer style no. 1

Personally prefer these flat ones as they were crunchier.


Here's how I made them, using a triangle food cup to shape the face, pretzels for the antlers, M&Ms for the nose and choc chips for the eyes.

Can use other cookie cutters for the face and if it is larger, you can actually use two pretzels as the antlers instead.

If you can get hold of green and red coloured M&Ms (should be easier in this season), they'll probably look a lot more festive :)

Reindeer style no. 2

Remember the 'Horlick Dogs'?

Yes??? Anyway, swap the Koko Crunch ears for antlers and there you have it.....snow buddies!!! Ha ha ha

Here's how I packed them to share with friends. Probably much prettier in a nice box but was too lazy to get any so re-used plastic boxes instead.

Btw, if you are wondering, used the Honey Cookies recipe found here. You can also use the Horlicks Dog cookies recipe if you wish.

.....Just in case I'm caught up an unable to blog as much as I wish, wishing everyone Merry Xmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays and basically the whole bag of warm wishes from MP, DH and I :)