Gateau Grand-Mere aux Pommes

Salut,

I learned to make this gateau grand-mere aux pommes or grandma's apple cake from my French boss when I was working in cinema catering a while ago. So I made this cake few days back for our afternoon tea break. Though, I'm not a big fan of apple cake but mon mari liked it. I knew that most French people loves apple cake or pie and they really know what to do with them.

GRANDMA'S APPLE CAKE

Ingredients:

3 eggs
150g flour
150g sugar
2 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoon milk
30g butter, melted
4-5 apples, peeled and cut diced

METHOD:

- Preheat oven 180° and prepare grease baking pan.
- Put the cut apples in the prepared pan.
- In a large bowl, mix sugar, baking powder, vanilla and eggs.
- Add flour and milk, mix well.
- Add in the melted butter and stir until well combined.
- Pour the batter over apples in pan, spread the batter so that it covers all apples.
- Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean.
- Serve warm or cooled or with vanila sauce or ice cream, it's delicious.

Bon appétit!

Squid Curry

Coucou,

Cooking squid is easy and can be as simple as cooking prawn. When it comes to squid, I actually prefer the squid to cooked with curry just like my sister style squid curry. For me, the texture and taste of squid goes well with the curry flavor.

For those who like curry and spicy, here is the simple and easy squid curry recipe.

SQUID CURRY

Ingredients:

300g squid
1 red onion or shallot, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2cm ginger, chopped
2 tablespoon curry powder, add little water to make paste
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD:

- Heat little oil in a saucepan and fry garlic and ginger until fragrant.
- Add in onion and fry for a minute.
- Add curry paste, stir and let the curry cook for a few minutes. Add little water if necessary.
- Add in the squids and stir thoroughly.
- Cover and let the squids cook through for 5-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Onde Onde

Bonsoir,

I made this simple and easy Malaysian dessert called onde onde or kuih gula melaka few days ago for our friend farewell party. Onde-onde should be tender and chewy texture made from glutinous rice flour and filled with palm sugar.

These chewy little balls dessert doesn't require many ingredients and it's easy to prepare.

ONDE ONDE/ PALM SUGAR BALLS

Ingredients:

1 cup glutinous rice flour
1/2 cup pandan leaf juice or plain water
1/2 cup palm sugar, chopped
1/2 cup grated coconut, mix with a pinch of salt
Few drop green food coloring, optional
Salt

METHOD:

- Combine glutinous flour and pandan juice or water in a bowl and knead to form a smooth dough.
- Add a few drop food coloring and more glutinous flour or water if needed until you get a pliable dough.
- To assemble, pull off small size portion of dough and flatten in your palm and fill with palm sugar, then fold the dough to seal and gently roll it into a ball.
- When all the dough has been prepared, boil a pot of water and add the balls into boiling water.
- The balls are ready and cooked when they start floating on the surface.
- Removed with a slotted spoon, drain briefly and roll each ball in coconut mixture.

Voila, c'est pret! Bon appétit!

Fried Mackerel in Tomato Sauce

Bonjour,

I love fresh mackerel and it's certainly a lot cheaper than other fish in market. Simple and easy way to do with mackerel is to fried them. This time I cooked mackerel in a different way, but they are still easy to prepare and I'm sure the taste even better with sauce.

FRIED MACKEREL IN TOMATO SAUCE

Ingredients:

2-3 fresh mackerel, cleaned
4 fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 seasoning cube, any choice
Salt and pepper
Oil

METHOD:

- Season mackerel with salt and fry them until cook. Set aside.
- Heat up few tablespoon oil and fry onion and cook for few minutes.
- Add in the chopped tomatoes, seasoning cube and salt and pepper.
- Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the sauce slightly thicken.
- Lastly, place the fried mackerel into the sauce and simmer for another minute.
- Serve with rice or potato on the side.

Bon appétit!

Baked Potatoes

Bonsoir,

There is a time when we keep asking what's for dinner tonight? Sometimes it's happen to me that I'm looking for something really easy to prepare yet delicious. Baked potato, it's the simplest things to bake. I love recipes with simple ingredients that taste so good.

TWICE/STUFFED BAKED POTATOES

Ingrdients:

3-4 large potatoes
1/2 cup sliced spring onion
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper
Milk
Grated cheese

METHOD:

- Arrange potatoes on a pan and baked in oven at 220° for 1 hour or until tender.
- Sliced off the top of the potato and scoop out the pulp without breaking the skin.
- Mix and mash potato with spring onion, butter, a little drop of milk and seasoning.
- Scoop mashed potato into the shells and sprinkle with grated cheese.
- Bake for another 10-15 minutes or until brown.

 JACKET BAKED POTATOES

Ingredients:

3-4 large potatoes
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Butter/ cream

METHOD:

- Clean the potato and rub a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Wrap whole potato with aluminium foil.
- Bake in preheat oven 220° for 50 minutes to 1 hour.
- Before serving, cut across the top and squeeze the side to open them up.
- Top with butter or cream of your choice.

Enjoy the baked potatoes, a plus!

Homemade Tuna Pizza

Salut,

One of the good things about making homemade pizza is we can choose any kinds of topping we love. I would prefer making homemade pizza at home rather than buy the ready made pizza from supermarket. I realize that how easy to make my own pizza dough at home and in fact, the tastes much better than store-bought.

With this recipe, I can make 2 medium size pizza and serves for 2-3 people.

HOMEMADE TUNA PIZZA

Pizza Dough
1 packet dry yeast (7g)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
125ml warm water
225g flour
1 teaspoon olive oil
A pinch of salt

Method:

- In a water jug or bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar into warm water and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
- Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and add the warm water slowly.
- Knead dough for a few minutes until smooth.
- Cover dough with dry clean towel and let it rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Pizza Sauce
1 can diced tomato/ crushed tomato sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 cup button mushroom, sliced
1 teaspoon dry oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil

Method:

- Heat little olive oil in a pan and sauté onion for few minutes.
- Add mushroom, tomato sauce, oregano and salt and pepper.
- Let it simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes.

Toppings:
1 can tuna
1 capsicum, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 mozarella cheese
1 cup shredded cheese

Assembling:

- Preheat oven 220°.
- Take and knead the pizza dough and pat into round shape baking tray and continue to shape the circle.
- Let it rest and rise again for 10 minutes.
- Top with pizza sauce, toppings and sprinkle with some shredded cheese.
- Baked for 20-25 minutes.

Voila, c'est pizza pret et bon appétit!

Mamak Style Fish Curry

Salut,

Fish curry can be prepared in many ways, with or without coconut milk, it still turned out good. Some people like to eat with bread, roti or on top of rice, but either way they are delish!

My previous post fish curry using coconut milk but for this recipe, I didn't use coconut milk but I used tamarind paste in the curry gravy.

MAMAK STYLE FISH CURRY

Ingredients:

300-500g fish fillet, any fish
3 tablespoon fish curry powder, add little water to form paste
1 teaspoon chilli paste or chilli powder
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 spring curry leaves
2 tablespoon tamarind pulp, add 2 cup of water
8-10 okras
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

Blend ingredients,
1 onion
2 shallot
2 cloves garlic

METHOD:

- Heat little oil in pot and fry sliced onion, garlic, fennel, cumin and coriander until fragrant.
- Add in the blended ingredients and stir fry for a minute.
- Add curry paste, chilli and curry leaves, stir well and let curry cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Add tamarind juice and let it boil.
- Once the sauce begins to boil, add fish, okras and tomatoes.
- Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil for a few minutes or until fish are cooked.

Bon appétit!

Short Break Holiday

Bonjour,

I am home.. After a couple of weeks being in my hometown for a short break, now it felt good to be back home again. I haven't had a problem with long-haul flight because it saved at least and also I had a great flight. It just my feeling after few stories of airplane crashed few months back, I have been feeling a bit scared to fly but I always know that I'm in a good hands. Somehow I still love to travel and I enjoy it.

I felt refreshed after a short vacation. I'm just so happy I managed to get my stuff done like dentist, buy my food stuff that I need here and spending time with my family and relatives. Eventually things went pretty good for me.

" We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open".

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things".

I had some food photography during my holidays to post here and most of them are traditional food specialities. Different place, different food and all with good home food.

I had nasi lemak or coconut rice with condiments at the airport before my flight to my hometown two weeks ago.

'Ambuyat' is a traditional dish of Borneo. Ambuyat made from sago flour and comes with a set of local vegatables and grilled or fried fish.

Another local vegetables dish of Borneo, 'umbut and papaya vegetable'.

Plenty of local dishes during our lunch in Brunei at my cousin house.

Brunei style assam pedas fish.

We had barbeque parties at home last weekend with family and friends.

Plenty of choices to please everyone and it's kind of normal for us every time we had a gathering. 

Local dish from my hometown, it's called marunggai or malunggay vegetable.

Bitter gourd salad.

'Tapai' is another tradional food popular in Borneo as a dessert.

Modern macaroni fruit salad for dessert.

Some local food above it seems new and sounds weird to Europeans but it's not weird at all. They are all good, fruits and vegetables, healthy foods and healthy eating.

Fun picture, my brother has pet baby monkey and kids like to play with him. This cute baby monkey named Bobo.

A plus!