Cornflakes Chocolate Nuts Cookies

Salut,

Merry Christmas and  we are only a few hours away from the gift giving day of the year. I'm pretty sure some people are busy in the kitchen cooking and preparing for the Christmas Eve dinner tonight. I've made some cookies few days ago and been giving homemade cookies and cake as a gift for our friends and neigbour. I love giving something as a gift especially cookies and cakes because they are easy to make ahead.

These cornflakes chocolate nuts cookies is one of the recipe that I got from Azlita masam manis blog but I've change the name based on the ingredients in these cookies. I've made these cookies many times and one of the easy cookies to make and it turns out great and delicious every time.

CORNFLAKES CHOCOLATE NUTS COOKIES

Ingredients;

150g butter, soften
150g flour
75g sugar
60g cornflakes
50g chocolate chip/ dark chocolate, chopped
25g almond/ walnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Red cherry or fruits for garnish

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 170° and prepare baking pan.
- In a bowl and using a wooden spoon, combine butter and sugar and just mix until the butter and sugar soft.
- Add flour and mix well.
- Add cornflakes, chocolate chip, nuts and vanilla. Mix until everything combine together.
- Drop a teaspoonfuls dough or make a small ball onto a prepare baking pan and garnish with red cherry or dry fruits.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned.

Joyeux Noël tout le monde!

Fried Tamarind Prawns

Hello,

Everyone has a different taste when it comes to the food and for me I love spicy and sour foods, while the other might like salty, bitter or sweet on their foods. I might not be a good eater who could eat any kind of food but I love certain foods and flavours.

Fried tamarind prawns, super duper easy recipe with only few ingredients. Sometimes I'm looking for a great way to enjoy prawns that are easy to prepare, simple and yet satisfying!

FRIED TAMARIND PRAWNS

300g large prawns
2 tablespoons tamarind pulp or paste
1-2 teaspoons dark soya sauce
A pinch of salt
Oil for frying

METHOD;

- In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients and marinate prawns for at least 1 hour and leave it in the fridge.
- Heat a few tablespoon oil in a wok or saucepan and fry prawns until it cook and slightly crispy.
- Enjoy the prawn with rice!

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

Sawadee kha,

Thai food again and again. Apart from the Pad Thai noodles, Thai pineapple fried rice also one of the signature dish of Thailand. This dish available in almost every restaurant or food stall because pineapple fruits are everywhere in Thailand and they are cheap. I have to wait for summer to enjoy and buy cheap fruits like pineapple and melon when they are in season.

I have made pineapple fried rice not long ago and this dish may seem complicated to prepare in fact they are not difficult at all.

THAI PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE

Ingredients;

1/2 cup pineapple, cut into small pieces
6-8 prawns
1 onion, chopped
1 egg
1-2 cups cooked rice
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1 teaspoon curry powder
1-2 teaspoon fish sauce
1-2 teaspoon light soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- In a wok or saucepan, heat a few tablespoon of oil and fry prawn until golden brown. Set aside.
- Use the same oil and fry onion until fragrant.
- Add egg and scramble slightly until it half cook.
- Add rice, peas, curry powder, fish sauce and soy sauce. Toss until everything mix together.
- Add in pineapple and season with salt and pepper, cook for a few minutes.
- Lastly add prawn and give a quick stir and turn off the heat.

Bon appétit!

Fudgy Chocolate Brownies

Hello,

I've tried many of brownie recipes and until now I'm still looking for the good brownie recipes out there. I am really glad I made a few good brownies before and this fudgy chocolate brownies that I made recently is one of the best.

There are so many varieties of brownies and I believed everyone has a favourite brownie recipe. It's good to know there are people like me who keep searching and looking for the great recipes. Everyday is a learning process for me, and I wish I could continue to learn something new everyday. This recipe come from countyside cravings blog. It's a good recipe indeed.

FUDGY CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

Ingredients;

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
40g dark chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanila extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
A pinch of salt

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 180° and prepare baking pan.
- In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, water and dark chocolate. Cook over medium low heat until chocolate melted. Cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, eggs, oil, vanila, baking powder and salt.
- Pour melted chocolate and stir until everything combined. Do not over mix.
- Pour batter into prepared baking pan and bake for 30 minute or until skewer comes out clean.
- Don't overbake for a moist and chewy brownies.

Happy baking!

Creamy Potato Soup

Bonjour,

Nothing can beat home-made soup even though there are so many ready-made soups sells in the shops. Home cooking are good with fresh ingredients, healthy and even cost less than bought a ready-made products. It sure takes a little time to prepare a healthy meal but everyone will satisfied with that.

Sometimes we just need a simple soup for lunch or dinner, and that's it. Creamy potato soup in winter, ahhh, what a good food!

CREAMY POTATO SOUP

Ingredients;

2-3 potatoes, peeled and cut into small cube
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon flour
1- 1 1/2 cups chicken/vegetable broth or water
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Heat up butter in a sauce pan or soup pot and add chopped onion, fry until onion soft.
- Sprinkle with flour and stir until combine.
- Add chicken/vegetable broth or water, mix well.
- Add potatoes and milk, bring to boil until potatoes are tender.
- Reduce the heat and stirring occasionally.
- Once the potatoes are soft, add in shredded cheese and sour cream.
- Season with salt and pepper, stir for a minute.
- Garnish with extra cheese if desired.

Enjoy the creamy soup!

Chocolate Marble Cake

Coucou,

Just like chocolate cake, there are so many variations of marble cake too. I am pretty sure most of the people out there has eaten any variation of marble cake and even made them at home. One simple and easy cake to make but sure they are taste delicious.

Apparently, I like to try out new recipes that I got it from internet, and when the recipes turned out perfectly and satisfying, then after I would posted here and at the same time for my future reference. Sometimes, not all recipes turns out well, there is trial and error, right?

CHOCOLATE MARBLE CAKE

Ingredients;

2 cups flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
170g salted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 180° and prepare baking pan. I usually used medium loaf pan.
- In a small bowl, combine melted butter and cocoa powder, mix well and set aside.
- In a big bowl, combine softened butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.
- Add flour and baking powder and mix everything just until combined.
- Add milk and continue to beat until the batter smooth.
- Divided the batter into 2 and mix one batter with cocoa mixture.
- Spoon a plain batter into prepared pan, cover with chocolate batter and do it until finish.
- Swirl in the batter with knife and bake for 25 minutes.
- After 25 minutes, reduce the temperature to 160° and continue to bake for 25 more minutes.
- After 25 minutes, cover the pan with aluminium foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.
- Cool completely and serve.

Happy baking!

Squid in Spicy Dark Soy Sauce

Bonjour,

I've not cooked squid as often as I've cooked prawn or fish. Squid that I found here not as same as squids in Asia. Some of them are quite big in size and the taste and texture are different from what we had in my hometown sea. I know, there are so many different types of seafood and different sea and ocean has a different squids as well.

Just as easy as cooking fish and prawn, this squid in spicy dark soy sauce are so easy to make and they are tasty too.

SQUID IN SPICY DARK SOY SAUCE

Ingredients;

200g sliced squids
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1cm fresh ginger, chopped
1 green chilli, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 tablespoon chilli sauce or ketchup
2-3 tablespoon dark soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Heat up little oil in saucepan and fry garlic and ginger until fragrant.
- Add in green chilli, onion and squids, fry for a few minutes.
- Add oyster sauce, chilli sauce or ketchup and dark soy sauce and cook over low heat for a another few minutes.
- Season with salt pepper and cook until the squid are cooked through. Do not overcook the squid.

Bon appétit!

Crustless Coconut Pie

Bonjour,

There is a time when I need a quick and easy kind of dessert to prepare. Sometimes I don't believe if there is a snack foods that are so much easy to make. Without using so many utensils in the kitchen to bake something, this crustless coconut pie is one of them.

When I saw this recipe from pinterest, I went to the kitchen and made it right away because I had all the ingredients in hand. Blend and bake, this crustless coconut pie turned out great and delicious!

CRUSTLESS COCONUT PIE

Ingredients;

4 eggs
1/4 cup salted butter, soften
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups milk
1 cup coconut flaked
1 teaspoon vanila extract

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 180° and prepare baking pie pan, set aside.
- Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour batter into the prepare baking pie pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hours.

As simple as that, happy baking!

Japenese Style Cucumber and Cabbage Salad

Konnichiwa,

Few years back, I've learned a little bit of Japanese language and during the time I could speak a little Japanese but now I just remember a few basic words. It was a long time ago and without speaking and hearing the language, it can dissappear and forgotten as quickly as it came.

I like Japanese language even though I'm not a fan of Japanese food but in some dishes, Japanese food was really good. The reason I don't eat much of Japanese food because I don't like raw food like seafood and meat. I don't mind fish as long as the meat is well cooked or fried. Simple Japanese style salad can be good and perfect for appetizer or as a side dish. These cucumber and cabbage salad was so easy to prepare and the most important thing, they are fresh and healthy.

JAPANESE CUCUMBER SALAD

Ingredients;

1 cucumber
Salt
Sugar
Rice vinegar
A few drop of soy sauce, optional
Sesame seeds

METHOD;

- Thinly slice the cucumber and sprinkle with salt.
- Add other ingredient and season to suit taste. Mix well.
- Let the cucumber salad set in the fridge for a while and sprinkle with sesame seeds before serve.

JAPANESE CABBAGE SALAD

Ingredients;

1/4 medium white cabbage, shredded
1/2 carrot, shredded
4-5 tablespoon rice vinegar
1-2 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon mayonaise
Salt
Sesame seeds
Sesame oil

METHOD;

- Marinate shredded cabbage with salt for at lesast 1 hour. Rinse with water and drain.
- In a small saucepan, heat up the vinegar, sugar, mayonaise and a pinch of salt for 2-3 minutes.
- Pour the sauce into shredded cabbage and shredded carrot, add more salt or sugar if needed to suit the taste.
- Add a few drop of sesame oil and mix well.
- Let the cabbage salad set in the fridge for a few hours and sprinkle with sesame seeds before serve.

Itadakimasu!

Oatmeal Raisin Nut Cookies

Salut,

Festive season, winter month and Christmas holiday is just around the corner. I would start making my Christmas fruits cake and cookies soon. In the coming week I'm planning to make a few batches of fruit cake cookies to give some to our friends as a gift.

We are excited actually to celebrate our Christmas this year in our new home, new place and new neighbours around. Christmas decoration trees and beautiful lights displays just start this week. It's so nice to see our house and other houses surrounded by colourful Christmas lights.

Ok, back to cookies story, these oatmeal raisin nut cookies I made not long ago and they turned out great, chewy and the taste just nice. These simple cookies are perfect for any occasion, anytime and anywhere.

OATMEAL RAISIN NUT COOKIES

Ingredients;

1 cup flour
1/4 cup salted butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanila extract
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup raisin
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 160° and prepare baking sheet.
- In a medium bowl, cream together melted butter and sugar until it well blended.
- Add vanila extract, milk and flour, and mix until just combine.
- Add in oats, raisin and walnuts, mix well.
- Take a little dough and make into small balls and flatten them down a bit and place on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 12-16 minutes, do not overbake.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack.

Happy baking!

Thai Style Fried Bananas

Sawadee kha or Sabaidee,

I think Asian people like fried foods, from sweet to sour and savory, snacks or heavy foods and most of these fried food recipes are easy to make at home. One of the common fried foods that easily can be found in Asia is fried banana. Street food is popular everywhere, and for those who like to travel will enjoy a wide variety of tastes and lots of choices.

Everyone knows fried banana and how to fry them. I know, snacks and fried food are the least healthy food but they are not a bad food at all.

THAI STYLE FRIED BANANAS

Ingredients;

3-4 bananas, less ripe, sliced
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup unsweetened dried coconut
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoons sugar
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup water, more or less
Oil for frying

METHOD;

- In a mixing bowl, combine flours, coconut, sesame seeds, sugar and salt.
- Add water and mix well until it become a thick batter.
- Heat up the oil in a work and dip each banana sliced into the batter, coated and deep fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.
- Enjoy them straight away or serve with ice cream.

Enjoy the fried bananas!

Condensed Milk Pandan Cake

Hello,

When we are not working or away from home, we eat at home most of the time and almost every afternoon I made something like cakes, cookies or just making a simple food for our afternoon tea. I'm just happy being in my kitchen, cooking, baking and I'm excited to try out some new recipes as well.

Eating well with home cooking can be easy and delicious. Most of my food that I've shared here are easy, quick and simple but tasty recipes. Baking a good cake doesn't have to be fussy or difficult just like condensed milk pandan cake that I baked recently. This cake is buttery, moist and so delicious. With or without pandan flavour, they are still as delicious as a pound cake should be. I've got this recipe from Indonesian food blogger, Dapur Mama Aisyah.

CONDENSED MILK PANDAN CAKE

Ingredients;

120g salted butter, soften
40g sugar
150g condensed milk
120g flour
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanila extract
1/2 teaspoon pandan paste
A few drop green food colouring, optional

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 180° and prepare medium size loaf pan 7x3 inch, set aside.
- Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add condensed milk and continue beating.
- Add flour and reduced the speed, add egg one at a time.
- Add in vanila extract, pandan paste and food colouring, if using, mix well.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake using bain-marie for the first 25 minutes.
- After 25 minutes, remove the pan of water from oven and reduced the oven heat to 160°.
- Continue to bake the cake for another 20 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.

Enjoy the delicious condensed milk pandan cake!

Mango Pudding

Salut,

Mango pudding, one of the easy dessert that I've made and this pudding based on the Chinese style mango pudding recipe that I found on the internet. I didn't follow exactly the recipe because I don't use the coconut milk while the real recipe of Chinese mango pudding using coconut milk.

Since imported mangoes easily can be found here nowadays and they are not too pricey, I took this opportunity to make a dessert, salad or just take them like that. It's tastes good, healthy and refreshing dessert.

MANGO PUDDING

Ingredient;

1-2 ripe mangoes, depends on the size, cut into cubes
4g agar-agar powder
110ml full cream milk
1/4 cup sugar

METHOD;

- Place most of the mangoes in blender and add half milk and blend until it become puree.
- In a medium saucepan, heat up another half of the milk, agar-agar and sugar until sugar and agar-agar dissolve. Set aside and let the milk warm a bit.
- Add mango puree into the warm milk and pour the mixture into pan or individual glass or remekins.
- Transfer to refrigerator for a few hours before serving.

Enjoy the pudding!

Cucur Udang

Hello,

I've made cucur udang or prawn fritters many time before but never try to put yeast in the batter. I want my fritters to be crispy and the vegetables not too soft so this time I tried the recipe from one of Malaysian food blogger which is adding yeast to make the fritters crispy.

Cucur udang is one of my favourite snacks and for sure one fritters is not enough for me. For those who want something different for afternoon tea, why not make these prawn fritter as a tea time snacks today!

CUCUR UDANG (PRAWN FRITTERS)

Ingredients;

200g flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
200ml water, more or less
A handful bean sprouts
A handful spring onion
1 small onion, sliced
100g prawn, 1/2 chopped and another 1/2 let it whole with shell
Oil for deep frying

METHOD;

- Mix dry yeast, warm water and a pinch of sugar and let it set for 10 minutes.
- In a bowl, combine flour, salt and turmeric powder.
- Add the yeast water little by little and mix until it become a smooth batter. Add more water if its too dry and vice versa.
- Add bean sprout, spring onion, onion and chopped prawns.
- Let the batter sit for 30 minutes-1 hour. Mix well before frying.
- Heat 1-2 cup oil in a wok or saucepan and place a metal soup ladle to heat up before using.
- Once the oil really hot, turn to low medium heat, place a spoonful prawns batter into the ladle and top it with a shelled prawn and lower into the hot oil for deep frying.
- Deep fried the prawn fritters till golden brown on both side. If the batter continue to stick with the ladle, use fork or spoon to separate it.
- Serve with sweet chilli sauce, or ketchup.

Enjoy the aftenoon tea and happy weekend!

Raisin Scones

Hey,

Scones will always be a favourite tea time snacks for English people and scones also will always have a place in my heart. I made raisin scone one afternoon and believe it or not, mon mari and I ate many scones that we have ever eaten that day. I think we haven't had any scones for a long time and these scones was really good when you eat with jam and butter.

I am planning on making scones again for brunch with our friends next month because these scones are so delicious. I'm pretty sure they would like it as we do. "People who love to eat are always the best people".

RAISIN SCONES

Ingredients;

225g self raising flour
60g cold salted butter
30g sugar
50g raisin or other dried fruits
150ml milk
1 egg, for brushing and add a little milk

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 220° and prepare baking sheet.
- Mix together the flour, sugar and rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Distribute the raisin and then add the milk.
- Mix everything just until the dough comes together.
- Transfer the dough onto the floured surface and knead lightly just one or two times.
- Pat out to a round 2cm thick. Use a cutter to stamp out rounds and place on a baking sheet.
- Brush the tops of the scones with egg and bake for 12-15 minutes until it well risen and golden.
- Serve with butter, jam or clotted cream.

Happy baking!

Spiced Vegetables Soup

Bonjour,

Winter is coming and people often make soup during the fall and winter. This Malay style spiced vegetable soup that I made last month similar to the soto soup recipe from my previous post. The original recipe called sup tulang or soup with beef bones, the recipe that I adapted from Azlita masam manis blog. I did not add beef bones in this soup, is just simple as vegetarian soup.

The soup turned out pretty tasty with taste of leek and celery and I like to serve it with rice noodles and some other condiments like cucumber, fried shallot, salted radish and chillies with soy sauce.

 SPICED VEGETABLES SOUP

Ingredients;

2 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
4 cloves
2 cardamom
1 onion, sliced
1 tablespoon spiced powder, add little bit water to make paste
1 carrot, slices or cubes
2 potato, cubes
1-1 1/2 cups water
Coriander and fried shallot for garnishing
Salt and pepper to taste

To blend to a fine paste;
4 shallot
2 clove garlic
2cm ginger
1/2 carrot
1 medium leek, white part only
1 medium piece celery root

METHOD;

- Heat up oil and butter in a medium saucepan and fry cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves and cardamom for a few second.
- Add sliced onion and fry until onion soft and turn to brown colour.
- Add the blended paste nad continue to fry for a few minutes or until the paste are slightly dry.
- Add in the spiced powder paste and cook for another minutes.
- Pour in water and add carrot and potato cubes.
- Bring to boil for 10-15 minutes or until the potato and carrot are cooked.
- Season with salt and pepper and lastly add coriander and fried shallot.
- Turn off the heat, serve the soup with rice or just add rice vermicelli and other side condiments.

Bon appétit!

Mango Salad

Hello,

Everytime I saw mango selling quite cheap in supermarket, I'm sure I will grab one or two and if the mango taste good, I would return to the shop and buy more. I love mango, raw or ripe, there are always something I could do with it.

This mango salad suitable for lunch or dinner and it was so easy to prepared, taking only a little time and all are thrown together in just a few minutes. This kind of salad often like I'll always want to eat more because they are delicious and refreshing. Spicy or not, either way is absolutely delicious and this mango salad should taste a little bit sweet, sour and salty.

MANGO SALAD

Ingredients;

1 mango, unripe or half ripe
2 shallot, sliced
1 big red chilli, sliced
1 small bird eye chilli, sliced
1-2 tablespoon fish sauce
1-2 tablespoon brown sugar
Lime juice, from 1 lime

METHOD;

- Shredded mango and mix all ingredients and toss well. taste with fish sauce and brown sugar.
- Garnish with coriander leaves.

Let's make mango salad!

Prawn Madras

Namaste,

We had tried several Indian restaurant since the past few years and some Indian food that I have tried just encourage me to try making it at home. One of the Indian dish that I made recently was prawn Madras. I don't expect the taste would be exactly the same as the food in Indian restaurant but these prawn Madras recipe were close in taste.

Some prawn Madras recipe content coconut milk but this recipe that I found somewhere in the internet without coconut milk and the prawn Madras that we had tried before doesn't seems cooked with coconut milk. Next time I should buy and use Madras curry powder that sells in Asian grocery store and may be the taste would be more authentic Indian and far more tasty. Who knows right?

Let's cook this prawn Madras and serve with rice or some Indian naan or prata bread, it taste really yummy.

PRAWN MADRAS

Ingredients;

300g prawns,
1 onion, sliced
2 clove garlic,
2cm fresh ginger
3 tomaotes
1 bell pepper, sliced
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teasspoon black pepper powder
1/2 teaspoon chhilli powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
Salt and sugar to taste

METHOD;

- Blend onion, garlic and ginger into a coarse paste. Set aside.
- Blend tomatoes into a coarse paste or can use a canned tomato paste. Set aside.
- Heat some oil in a saucepan and fry onion garlic paste until aromatic.
- Add all spices powder and continue to fry for a few minutes.
- Add in the bell pepper and gently fry for another minutes.
- Add prawns and tomato paste and bring to simmer for about 10 minutes or until the gravy are slightly thickens.
- Season with salt and sugar if necessary.

Enjoy the Indian food!

Banana Walnut Cake

Salut,

Banana walnut cake that I baked recently one of the cake that mon mari said the taste was exceptional. This cake recipe is adapted from food.com and I just add a walnut into the recipe. We brought the cake to work and I knew it, everyone loves this banana walnut cake.

The cake turns out pretty moist with the cream cheese frosting on top and the taste of walnut make this cake really good. My boss even gave me a bag of pecan nuts from their garden and it seems I need to make more of a cake with nuts in the future.

BANANA WALNUT CAKE

Ingredients;

1 1/2 cup bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoon vailla extract
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup walnut

Frosting;
1/2 cup butter, softened
200g cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanila
1 cup icing sugar

METHODS;

- Preheat oven 140° and prepare baking pan, set aside.
- In a small bowl, mashed banana and add lemon juice, set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add egg, one at a time and stir in vanilla extract.
- Add flour alternately with buttermilk.
- Using a spatula, add banana mixture and walnut. Mix well.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool completely before frosting. I let my cake over night before fosting it with cream cheese.

For the frosting;
- Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Add in vanilla and sugar and beat until frosting smooth.
- Spread the frosting on top the cake and sprinkle with walnut.

Enjoy banana walnut cake!

Ikan Masak Lemak

Bonjour,

It has been quite a long time since I've eaten ikan masak lemak or fish cooked in spicy coconut milk and recently I've been cooking ikan masak lemak by using mackerel fish. Malay cuisine or Malay style cooking sometime used lots of coconut milk, spices and chillies. Different country has a different way to cooked using a different methods.

It's good to have this kind of food once in a while with or without chillies, it still tastes great. For this ikan masak lemak Malay style, some people like the thick gravy and that's really depend on the individual preference.

IKAN MASAK LEMAK

Ingredients;

2 mackerel or any fish
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
A pinch of salt
# Marinade the fish with turmeric and salt for 20 minutes.
3 shallot
2 cloves garlic
5-10 small chillies, optional
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder or fresh
1 lemongrass, smash
1-1 1/2 cup coconut milk
Salt and sugar

METHOD;

- Heat up oil in a saucepan and fry marinated mackerel until the fish cooked. Set aside.
- Using a blender or mortar, blend together shallot, garlic, chillies and turmeric into a fine paste.
- In a medium saucepan, mix the blended paste, lemongrass, and coconut milk, bring to boil for a few minutes or until the sauce slightly thickens.
- Add fish, season with salt or sugar to balance the taste and let it boil for another minutes.

Bon appétit!

Hawflakes Layered Cake

Bonjour,

Layered cakes or kek lapis are traditionally served in Sarawak and this kek lapis Sarawak are so famous throughout Malaysia. When its comes to kek lapis, people knows that Sarawak layered cakes is a colourful cake that comes in different pattern, colour and taste. Sometime I was just wondering how patient the person make a cake that perfectly layered and looks so beautiful, amazing and the cakes looks too pretty to eat!

To be honest, to make Sarawak kek lapis or any layer cake need lots of patience and I am not patient enough to wait the cake done and I can't wait to try it. That's why my hawflakes layered cake was not as pretty as Sarawak layered cake but the taste was good just as what I expected. It seems I need to bake and practice more in the future to make a better layer cake. Recipe I got from Azlita masam manis blog and these cake suppose to be steamed but I baked it. I slightly overcooked the cake and it's a little bit dry.

HAWFLAKES LAYERED CAKE

Ingredients;

5 eggs
225 sugar
220g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
150ml milk/ evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100ml vegetable oil
1 packet hawflakes
Food colouring

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 170° and prepared baking pan, set aside.
- Sift flour and baking powder and mix all ingredients in a mixer bowl except oil, hawflakes and food colouring.
- Beat the batter until light and fluffy.
- Add the oil and fold in with a spatula.
- Divided the batter into 3 or 4 portions. Put any colour of your choice.
- Pour a spoonful one of the batter into prepared baking pan and arrange hawflakes on top.
- Bake for 5-8 minute, take out the pan and pour another coloured batter for second layer and arrange the hawflakes on top.
- Bake for another 5-8 minute and repeat the layers until finish.
- After putting the final layer, bake for 15-20 minutes more or until the cake are fully cooked.
- Let the cake cool before slicing it.

Enjoy baking!

Nyonya Pineapple Tarts

Hey,

Nyonya style pineapple tarts or tat nenas in Malay is one of the must thing have biscuit in many households during Chinese New Year or Eid Mubarak celebration. I've made this pineapple tarts last July and have made again last week. Some Malacca's Nyonya pineapple tarts that we can found in Malaysia are slightly larger is like eating two normal sized pineapple tarts.

Living far away from home just make me miss Malaysian pineapple tarts terribly. So I decided to buy pineapple and make the pineapple jam on my own. Even it takes a little time to cook and prepare this goodies, but its worth it. I've tried two different recipe doughs before that I got it from internet and I prefer the dough with corn flour because the pastry literally melt in your mouth!

There are so many pineapple tarts version we can find in the internet and so far I just made with this two recipe. Perhaps would try another recipe in the future.

NYONYA PINEAPPLE TARTS

Ingredients;

Recipe (1)
150g flour
2 tablespoons corn flour
1 tablespoon icing sugar
100g butter
1 egg york
A pinch of salt
Pineapple jam for filling

Recipe (2)
225 flour
125g butter or margarine
1 egg
1 tablespoon ice water
A pinch of salt
Pineapple filling

Pineapple filling;
2 pineapple
1 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick

METHOD;

For the pineapple filling;
- Prepare the filling early or one day before.
- Peel pineapple and cut into cubes.
- Using a blender, blend pineapple into puree. Add little bit water if needed.
- Do not adding water for the second time, just use the first puree to mix with others.
- Pour the pineapple puree into a big saucepan or wok, add sugar and cinnamon and cook over medium heat until it thickens and the jam look like a paste. It takes about one hour or more to cook.
- Let the jam cool completely and chill in the fridge before using.
- The pineapple jam can store in the fridge for few weeks or a month.

For the dough;

- Both recipe method for the dough are basically the same.
- Mix flour, sugar, salt and butter, rub in the butter until resembles bread crumbs.
- Add in egg and ice water and lightly combine and gently knead the dough. Do not overwork.
- Wrap dough with cling wrap and allow to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Roll pineapple filling into small ball. Set aside.
- Roll out the dough to desired thickness, cut out with pastry cutter and arrange into baking pan.
- Place pineapple ball onto the centre of each tart shells.
- In other way, roll the dough, place the filling and roll it over. Any shape works well, open faced or enclosed tarts.
- Brush with egg york glaze if desire.
- Bake in the preheat oven 170° for 20-25 minutes or until the tart pastry looked golden brown.

Enjoy the Nyonya pineapple tarts!