Semolina And Cereal Cake

Salut tout le monde,

It's officially Autumn season and of course winter is coming. The weather slightly change and getting cold, the colour leaves changing slowly and soon it starting to fall. No surprise actually as we lived in Brittany, it's always rains here, constantly sunny but it's cold. As everyone wish and hoping this time around the winter won't be too long like last year.

Okay back to the baking story, since I start making a Sarawak steamed cake for several times now, last week I've made semolina and cereal cake inspired by those Sarawak steamed cake. The ingredients for this cake based on the kek lumut that I made a year ago. Nothing much different, I just add some other ingredients and I adding more semolina flour by reducing the cereal Nestum.

SEMOLINA AND CEREAL CAKE

Ingredients;

5 eggs
1 cup sugar
220g butter
1 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup cereal nestum, blend into powder
1/4 cup almond powder
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup tea
Green food coloring

METHOD;

- Preheat oven, place a large pan with hot water for steam bath and prepare the baking pan.
- Using a stand or hand mixer, beat the egg and sugar until light and fluffy.
- In another bowl, beat butter until light and add in to the egg mixture.
- Slowly add semolina, cereal and almond powder. Mix well.
- Add the evaporated milk, tea  and green food colouring. Whisk until everything well combined.
- Pour the batter into prepared baking pan, cover with aluminium foil and steam bath for 1 1/2 hours-2 hours.

Happy baking!

Prawn And Potato Curry

Bonjour,

Prawns again and again, I will never get bored of eating it, whether they are boiled, fried, steamed or grilled, and this prawn and potato curry is one of my favourite seafood dish. Prawn curry suitable to be eaten with roti canai because the gravy itself was so tasty and not too spicy, even my mother in law can eat it. It was a big surprise for me because I don't expect she could eat any kind of spicy food but I'm totally impressed when she likes almost all Asian food that I prepared.

Alors, pour maintenant, let's cook a simple prawn and potato curry for lunch or dinner on the weekend with family and friends.

PRAWN AND POTATO CURRY

Ingredients;

200g prawns
1 potato, cut into large cubes
1 onion, cut into small cubes
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 shallot, thinly sliced
2 cm ginger, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon chili or paprika powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1-2 pieces tamarind peel or 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Mix curry, chili, cumin powder and tamarind peel, add little bit of water to make a paste. Set aside.
- Heat some oil in a saucepan and fry garlic, shallot and ginger until fragrant.
- Add curry paste and cook for a few second and add little bit of water when the paste begin to dry. Repeat the process for two or three times. Stirring constantly.
- Add potatoes and a cup of water and cook for a few minutes until potatoes are almost tender, stirring occasionally.
- Add prawns and onion, season with salt and pepper and cook until the prawns are cooked through.
- Serve the prawn curry with roti canai/paratha/naan or rice.

Bon appetit!

Roti Canai

Hello,

It's been quite some time since I made roti canai or paratha, I'm kinda miss having these flatbread Malaysian style dish after a while. Making roti canai may takes a little time but believe me, it's worth it as we can't get enough with only one piece, it was so delicious to eat with any kind of gravy like curry prawn, chicken or beef and a sliced of onion rings.

We enjoyed our lunch and dinner because I can say that today is our roti canai day. I can make 12 roti canai with this recipe and with the prawn curry on the side, the food was exceptionally delicious.

ROTI CANAI/ PARATHA

Ingredients;

3 cups flour
1 cup water, more or less
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoon condensed milk
A pinch of salt

METHOD;

- Combine flour, butter, oil, condensed milk and salt in a large bowl or bread machine or stand mixer.
- Add water little by little and let the machine work for a few minutes or until the dough smooth and no longer sticks in hands.
- Divide dough into 10-12 small balls and coat each dough with oil and place them in a large plate or baking pan. Pour some oil over dough.
- Cover and let the dough rest for several hour or overnight.
- Flatten and roll the dough as thin as possible and start pleating the dough, carefully stretching between hand and slowly circle the dough.
- Heat up pan with some oil and roll the prepared dough as desirable thickness. Cook the flatten dough for 1-2 minute on both side.
- Slap the bread together to fluff it up.
- For the egg roti canai, pour the beaten egg in the middle of flatten dough and fold into square, cook then flip until golden brown on both side.
- Serve roti canai with prawn curry or any other preferable gravy.

Enjoy!

Homemade Samosa

Hello,

There is a times when I just don't feel like cooking but there's also a time when I am in the mood to make something, cooking, baking or preparing many things in a day without feeling lazy. This past few weeks since there are quite a lot of cooking program on TV, more or less the program inspired me to bake or cook something every single day.

Samosa, a snack that basically similar to curry puff, not to complicated to make, just a little time consuming and voila the homemade samosa ready in less than 1 hour.

HOMEMADE SAMOSA

Ingredients;

1 cup flour
2 tablespoon butter, melted
A pinch of salt
Water

For the potato curry filling, I used the same recipe for curry puff and net pancake.

METHOD;

- Combine flour, melted butter and salt. Add water little by little, knead and make a dough until they are nothing longer stick in hand.
- Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and set aside until the filling is ready.
- Take out the dough and divide into golf size balls and roll the dough ball into round or oval shaped. Cut each circle in half.
- Take one dough and make a shape of cone, put a tablespoons of potato filling and seal the edges properly, creating a triangle pastry. Moisten the top edge and press the edges together to tight seal.
- Deep frying the samosa until golden brown on both side.

Enjoy the homemade samosa!

Madeleines

Bonjour,

Every Saturday and Sunday normally we go to visit a brocante nearby our place around this region. Most of the brocante are organized by the maire of the city or association all over France. Hunting and finding a little treasures is one of the thing that I love to do and it was a great pleasure indeed. I found a lots of cooking stuff just like this madeleines pan which I brought in brocante for 1 Euro few weeks ago.

I made madeleines recently after watching a TV program showing about these little cake, and at the same time I excited to use my new toys. It was my first attempt, though, these madeleines turns out really good.

MADELEINES

Ingredients;

100g flour
100g butter, melted
100g sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoons fresh milk
1 lemon zest
1 teaspoon baking powder

METHOD;

- Whisk the eggs, sugar until lightens in colour.
- Sift half of the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture and gently fold in using a spatula, and continue to folding in with the rest of the flour.
- Pour the melted butter and oil, mix well until it fully incorporated.
- Add in milk, mix well and lastly add lemon zest.
- Cover the batter and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour to overnight.
- Before baking, prepare the madeleine pan by brushing with melted butter and flour, preheat oven to 200°.
- Spoon 1 tablespoon of batter into the pan and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Happy baking!

Pineapple Fried Rice

Coucou...

We are still in the summer season and as usual, there are a lot of tropical fruits selling in the market like pineapple, mango and even papaya. I've bought pineapple last week but it didn't taste as good as the last one I bought few weeks ago. Usually I can eat an entire pineapple but not for this one, I made pineapple fried rice with the balance anyway.

It's been a while I don't eat pineapple fried rice and don't even think about it, but yesterday night I cooked for our dinner. It was a delicious pineapple fried rice indeed. Mon mari ate a lot of it, it was a pleasant surprise and I'm glad he likes it.

PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE

Ingredients;

2 cups leftover rice
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 eggs
1/2 cup medium or small prawns
1 cup pineapple
1/4 cup fried or roasted cashew nuts
1/2 tablespoon curry powder
Soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and white pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Heat up little oil in a wok or saucepan and fry onion and garlic until fragrant.
- Add prawns and cook for a few seconds and push the prawns to the side and add in the eggs, scramble it just until it half cook.
- Add the rice, pineapple and curry powder and stir together.
- Season with soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and pepper.
- Add the cashew nuts, cook and stirring constantly until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.

Enjoy the simple pineapple fried rice!

Cereal Almond Cookies

Hey there,

Few days ago, we went to visit my mother in law and a good friends of mon mari in Brest. Every time we going back there, I always brought a cookies for my mother in law. She can keep those cookies for more than a week or sometime less because she used to have a friends who came and visit her every week for a coffee and chit chat just like other retired people.

The cookies that I made recently are cereal almond cookies. The ingredients were made with cereal Nestum, the one I brought from Asia and make a steamed cake with it. Recipe source from azlitamasammanis.blogspot.

CEREAL ALMOND COOKIES

Ingredients;

250g butter
120g sugar
200g flour
130g cornflour
60g almond powder
40g cereal Nestum, blend to make a powder
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

METHOD;

- In a mixing bowl, whisk butter, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla just until blended. I used wooden spoon.
- Add in flour, cornflour, almond powder and cereal powder and mix until everything well combined and become a soft dough.
- Cut the dough with cookie cutter or just make a ball and flatten with hand and place in a baking pan, brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with cereal or almond.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Happy baking!

Le Pudding

Bonjour,

There are bunch of French TV shows about cooking or baking competition that became a favourite of mine. The TV show like "le grand patissier" and "la meilleure boulangerie de France" always makes me want to bake the dessert right away. One of the dessert that I made today and it's came from this show, called 'le pudding'. It was similar to bread butter pudding but I have more interested by the way they make them, present them and sell them in their shops.

Le pudding, one simple dessert that everyone can do it. I found the similar recipe from cuisineduplacard.canalblog.com. The pudding it's even better if it serve with caramel sauce or vanilla sauce.

LE PUDDING

Ingredients;

400g brioche/sweet bread, cut into small pieces
3/4 liter milk
75g salted butter
3 eggs
150g sugar
1 lemon zest
150g dried fruits, I used raisins and figs

METHOD;

- Prepare 2 loaf pan or large pan and grease with butter, set aside. Preheat oven 180°.
- Heat up milk and butter just until butter melted.
- Whisk the eggs just until the yolks and whites are blended, set aside.
- Place the brioche in the large mixing bowl. Pour in the milk and add sugar and lemon zest, mix well with wooden spoon.
- Add in egg, mix well and lastly add the dried fruits and mix just until everything combined.
- Pour the batter into prepared baking pan and bake for 1 hour or until set.
- Serve with salted caramel or vanilla sauce.

Happy baking!

Net Crepes

Salut,

I remembered my childhood time where my mom and my sister used to make net crepes or "roti jala" filled with potato curry for our afternoon snacks. Roti jala can be made without any filling but most of the time there'd be served with chicken or beef curry or any other curry on the side. Some people prefer roti jala to be serve with 'sambal anchovies' and it's really depends on individual preference.

I've made these roti jala last week in the afternoon and we feel full until dinner time. Roti jala is a great snacks indeed.

NET CREPES/ROTI JALA

Ingredients;

For the crepe;
11/2 cup flour
2 cups water
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
A pinch of salt

Potato curry filling;
1 potato, cut into small cubes
1 sweet potato, cut into small cubes
1 tablespoon curry powder, add little water to make paste
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Firstly, prepare a special mould to make net crepes or punch a few holes at the bottom of plastic bottle/tin can or plastic cup.
- To make a crepe, mix all the ingredients and strain batter to remove any lumps. Set aside.
- To make the potato curry, heat up little oil in a saucepan and fry garlic and shallot until fragrant.
- Add curry paste and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add potato and a cup of water and simmer for few minutes.
- Lastly add in sweet potato, season with salt and pepper, cover and cook the potatoes until tender and the gravy has thickened and dry. Keep aside to let it cool.
- Brush a little oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat and pour a little batter into roti jala mould/plastic bottle.
- Move the mould in a circular motion over the pan to form a net pattern. Cook until set about 2 minutes.
- Transfer the crepe onto plate and add a spoonful potato curry filling and roll just like making a spring rolls.

Enjoy the Malaysian style net crepe with potato curry filling!

Stir Fried Mix Vegetables

Hello,

I love vegetables and some vegetables I like to eat when they are raw or half cooked but there's also vegetables that shouldn't be eaten raw like potato. I prefer my stir-fry vegetables half cooked, tender and crispy, not to forget a little bit of spicy and everything would be great.

A quick and easy vegetables stir-fry is one of the basic meal that we can prepare in a few minutes and at the same time it's a great way to use up any leftovers veggies in the fridge. Let's have a stir fried vegetables for dinner!

STIR FRIED MIX VEGETABLES

Ingredients;

Cabbage, shredded
Carrot, sliced
French beans, sliced
Garlic, chopped
Small red chili, optional
Oyster sauce
Light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon cornflour, mix with a few tablespoons of water
Salt and pepper

METHOD;

- Heat up some oil in a wok or saucepan and fry garlic and chili until fragrant.
- Add all vegetables and stir frying for a couple of minutes and season with oyster sauce, soy sauce and salt pepper.
- Stir fry for another few seconds over high heat and pour in cornflour mixture to thicken the sauce a little bit.
- Dish out and serve while they are still hot.

Bon appetit!