Banana Fritters

Hello,

It's been a while since I had banana fritters with ice cream and I am craving for it. I know, these snack certainly is not a healthy one but eating once in a while may sound good enough even it's not as healthy as other dessert. Furthermore, the recipe is easy and does not require too many ingredients and time. I would not avoid these kind of sweet treats because the more I avoid it, the more I crave it.

There are two different recipes of banana fritters that I'm going to post here, sliced and mashed banana fritters. So, for now let's just have a good dessert and enjoy the moment because sometimes we just need a sweet treats such an ice cream and fried bananas!

SLICED BANANA FRITTERS

Ingredients;

3-4 bananas, sliced
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon corn flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
A pinch of salt
Ice water (about 1/2 cup)

METHOD;

- In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients and slowly add ice water and whisk until the batter smooth and reach the desired consistency.
- Add the banana sliced into the batter and coated well in batter.
- Meanwhile, heat up oil in a wok or saucepan for deep frying.
- Deep fry the coated banana until they are golden brown on both side.
- Drain on paper towels to absorb excess oil.
- Serve with or without vanila ice cream.

MASHED BANANA CHEESE FRITTERS

Ingredients;

2-3 banana, mashed
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons shredded cheese
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
A pinch of salt
Water (about 1/2 cup)

METHOD;

- In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients, mashed banana and slowly add water and mix until reach the desired consistency.
- Heat up some oil in a wok or saucepan for deep frying.
- Drop a spoonfuls of banana batter into the hot oil and fry until golden brown.
- Drain on paper towels to absorb excess oil.
- Serve with or without vanila ice cream.

Enjoy the banana fritters with ice cream!

A Different Types Of Fruit Photography

Hello,

I'm not a good photographer but I'm learning and challenge myself to do better and photography is one of my passion. There's trial and error but I will going to practice, learn, go out and shoot as much as I'd like and continue to practice it because I just love photography. Somewhere, I find photography very therapeutic.

I have all these fruits at home, I will photograph. I took the similar photos with different fruit too and this could be a very interesting experiments for me in the future. I am still in the process of learning to take better photographs and always will be.

MELON

PINEAPPLE

BANANA

CHESTNUT

CHILLI

ASSORTED FRUIT AND VEGETABLE

Peanut Sauce

Salut,

We eat peanut sauce and served on the rice cubes every once in a while. Peanut sauce or kuah kacang in Malay normally served with beef/chicken skewer or what we called satay, rice cubes, sliced cucumber and onion. I made peanut sauce with the rice packet whenever I thought about it, it's so simple to make and always tastes good. Sometimes when eating these food we can't simply resist and can be addicted too!

To make a rice cubes just needs one small packet of rice, then boiled until the rice becomes cooked and have fully filled. The compacted rice need to be boiled around 50 minutes to 1 hour and let it cool at least 1-2 hour before cut into cubes and serve with peanut sauce.

PEANUT SAUCE (KUAH KACANG)

Ingredients;

250g peanuts
8-10 red dried chilli,soak in hot water
3 shallot
1 clove garlic
1cm ginger
1 lemongrass (white part only)
Salt and sugar to taste
Water

METHOD;

- Prepare the peanut by fried or baked until peanuts are cooked. Pound or blend the peanuts until fine. Set aside.
- Blend together chillies, shallot, garlic, ginger and lemongrass into a smooth paste.
- Heat up oil about 3 tablespoon and fry chilli garlic paste until fragrant.
- Add the peanuts and a cup of water, simmer for 20-30 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
- Season with sugar or brown sugar, salt and cook until the sauce are slightly thicken and reach desired consistency. Add more water if necessary.
- The peanut sauce can be reheating one or two days.

Happy cooking!

Lo Han Guo

Ni hao,

In Asia, there are quite many choices of healthy beverages both Chinese and Japanese where we could find easily in the shops, restaurant or even from the street vendor are selling variety of cold drinks and one of the drinks that often sold is lo han guo. Lo han guo also known as monk fruit generally use by Chinese as a cooling drinks and can drink either hot or cold, I prefer cold lo han guo anyway.

I've made lo han guo drink with dried dates which I brought from Asia last few months but this fruit sometimes available at any Chinese shops or supermarket. I've bought a packet of 4 in 1 lo han guo, where I just need to boil it with water without adding any sugar, but even with the lo han guo fruit, this drinks are so easy to make.

LO HAN GUO WITH DRIED DATES AND WINTER MELON

Ingredients;

1 lo han guo fruit/ 4 in 1 cube (about 5 cubes)
20g dried dates
50g dried wintermelon
1 liter water
Sugar to taste

METHOD;

- In a large pot, mix lo han guo, dried dates, dried winter melon and water, bring to boil.
- Turn the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Add sugar to taste.
- Serve hot or chilled.

Enjoy the cooling drinks!

Crêpe Breton

Bonjour,

Crêpe Breton and galette are everywhere in Brittany. We are eating crepes quite often as other Brittany people and making crepes are easy, with just a few ingredients and the crepes came out delightful. Ever since we moved to the origin of the crepe and just like the other local people, we eat crepes all year long at any time of the day.

Crepes and galettes are selling at every weekend market, festival, brocante or flea market in this Brittany region. In west of Brittany, they called "crepe au froment" wheat flour for the sweet crepe, meanwhile "crepe de blé noir" buckwheat flour for the crepe with savory filling. But for the Bretons in east of Brittany, they just simply called "galette" for the buckwheat crepe. From savory to sweet filling, galettes with sausage, crepes with nutella, sugar or fruits filling, crepes such a delicious treat!

CREPE (CREPE AU FROMENT)

Ingredients;

200g flour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
40g salted butter, melted
500ml milk

METHOD;

- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, egg and sugar.
- Add in melted butter and milk little by little and whisk until smooth. Rest the batter for at least 1 hour.
- Heat up crepe pan or skillet over meduim heat and lightly brush the pan with butter.
- Pour a ladle of the batter into the hot pan, tilt the pan to spread batter evenly.
- Flip the crepe once the edge peel off easily and continue cooking until the other side lightly brown.
- Repeat with remaining batter. Serve with any filling of your choice.

Happy cooking!

Prawn Vindaloo

Namaste,

Prawn vindaloo is one of popular dish in certain Indian restaurant and I remember I order prawn vindaloo everytime we go out for Indian cuisine when I was working in Laos few years back. That was a great moment and I am glad that I had such a great experience living in another foreign country for an extended period of time.

Now, ever since I moved here, I realized that I didn't have a chance to eat more Indian cuisine as much as I did before. Here, even though we had been to Indian restaurant quite some time and enjoyed the food but they are just not the same anyway.

Therefore, whenever I crave for Indian food, I will do home-style Indian cooking at home. Prawn vindaloo is one of that dish and this recipe I found from pinterest.

PRAWN VINDALOO

Ingredients;

300g prawns, with or without shelled
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves
1 sprig curry leaves
2 tomatoes, chopped
4-6 dried red chillies, soak in hot water
4 cloves garlic
2cm ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon blackpepper powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons white vinegar
Salt and sugar to taste

METHOD;

- In a blender or food processor, blend together tomatoes, dried chillies, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cumin, blackpepper and turmeric into a smooth paste. Set aside.
- Heat oil, about 4 tablespoon in a saucepan and fry onion and cloves until fragrant and brown colour.
- Add curry leaves and tomato chilli paste, fry for a couple of minutes.
- Add a cup of water and let it simmer, cook for another 5-6 minutes.
- Add vinegar, salt and sugar, mix well.
- Lastly add in prawns and cook until the prawns are well cooked.
- Serve with naan bread or rice.

Bon appétit!

Cinnamon Walnut Cake

Bonjour,

Summer holiday has come to an end for the kids and all the school have been start the class few days ago. However, everyone have a different holiday and certain people would take their holiday while the others begins to work. We are still in the summer season though, but the weather this week is unpredictable and we are prepared for cold and rainy spells any time of the day.

Last Monday, I've made a cake with the recipe I've found from pinterest and decided to make a cinnamon walnut cake since I have all the ingredients in my pantry. The cake was great and delicious with the taste of cinnamon sugar crumbs in the middle and on the top.

CINNAMON WALNUT CAKE

Ingredients;

115g salted butter, soften
180g sugar
2 eggs
240g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
300g sour cream
1 teaspoon vanila extract

Cinnamon sugar topping
35g sugar
35g brown sugar
11/2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
1 cup walnuts, chopped

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 180° and prepare baking pan.
- Mix all the cinnamon sugar topping ingredients and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in vanila extract and egg, one at a time and beating well.
- Add half of flour and baking powder mixture alternately with sour cream and blending well after each addition.
- Pour half of the batter into prepared baking pan and sprinkle with half of the cinnamon sugar topping.
- Pour the remaining batter on top, spread evenly and sprinkle the rest of cinnamon topping on top.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.

Happy baking!

Nasi Lemak

Hello,

Nasi lemak or coconut milk rice is one of the Malaysian's or Singaporean's favourite dishes, and most of the time people having nasi lemak for breakfast. The basic nasi lemak should have the condiments of sambal chillies, anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and hard boiled egg. But nasi lemak also can served with an additional of fried chicken, fish, prawns etc...

We had nasi lemak for breakfast with friends not long ago and for the first time I guess, they having a spicy food in the morning. Introducing them to the taste of nasi lemak was something that I wanted to do to all my friends here and I suppose they enjoy to discover the new dish. I've made nasi lemak at least once every two or three months.

NASI LEMAK

Ingredients:

For coconut rice;

2 cups rice, Thai or Basmati rice
3 cups coconut milk
2cm ginger, crushed
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 shallot, sliced
Salt to taste

For sambal chilli;

2 onion, sliced
10-15 dry chilli, soaked in hot water until soft
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2cm ginger, sliced
2 tablespoon tamarind, add 1/2 cup water to make a paste
Palm sugar or brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
Salt to taste

METHOD:

To prepare the coconut rice:
- Wash and clean the rice and put it in a pot or rice cooker.
- Add coconut milk, ginger, garlic, shallot and salt.
- Cover and bring to boil and then simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the water has been absorbed. If using the rice cooker, just press the button and let it cook itself.
- Removed from heat and loosen rice with chopstick or wooden spoon.
- Cover up and allow rice to cook in its own.

To prepare the sambal chilli:
- Using a blender or food processor, blend onion, chilli, garlic and ginger into fine paste.
- Heat oil in a saucepan, over meduim heat and sauté blend ingredients for a 5-10 minutes.
- Add sugar and tamarind paste and allow to cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the sauce is slightly thick.
- Season with salt and stir a while, remove from the heat.
- Add fried anchovies as individual preference.
- Dish a serving portion and serve the coconut rice with sambal and other condiments like fried anchovies, fried peanuts, hard boiled egg or fried egg and cucumber.

Bon appétit!