Classic Nasi Lemak

Hey everyone!

It's weekend and it's nasi lemak time for me..A relaxing weekend calls for a classic nasi lemak, a dish that I have wanted to make since last week. Nasi lemak is an all day dish, so I'm pretty sure I can treat myself on a classic nasi lemak during the weekend.

Since I'm far far away from home in Malaysia, I must admit that I don't eat this dish often now and the truth is I don't make this dish often too but when I do, I will do the best I can. I grew up on classic nasi lemak and I love it.

CLASSIC NASI LEMAK

Ingredients;

2 cups basmati rice
1 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 cup water
2cm ginger, sliced
1 shallot, sliced
A pinch of salt

Method;

- Wash the rice until the water runs clear. Transfer in the rice cooker and add coconut milk, water, ginger, shallot and a pinch of salt. Press the cook button and just let the rice cook itself.

NASI LEMAK SAMBAL 

Ingredients;

1/2 onion, thinly sliced
10-15 dry chilies or more, boil or soak in hot water until chilies softened
1 onion
2 garlic
1 cm ginger
1/2 cup tamarind juice, from 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
Salt and palm sugar/brown sugar to taste

Method;

- Blend chilies, onion, garlic and ginger with a bit of water into fine paste.
- Heat up about 1/4 cup oil in a wok or saucepan and fry sliced onion until fragrant.
- Add chilies paste and cook until the oils separate onto the surface, about 4-5 minutes.
- Add in a bit of water little by little if it too dry. Stirring frequently.
- Add tamarind juice and season with salt and sugar.
- Simmer over low heat and let the chilies paste cook for 20-30 minutes or until the sauce are thickened as desired. The sambal has a good balance of sweetness, saltiness and spiciness taste.
- Serve nasi lemak with basic condiments like sambal, fried anchovies, fried peanuts, hard boiled egg and cucumber.

Happy weekend and enjoy a classic nasi lemak!

Pandan Butter Cake

Hello,

The weather was not so good in the past few days with beneficial showers on several days, some days there is a light drizzle and the weather was cold and cloudy. We hope that next week will be warmer than this week, fewer clouds and more sunshine.

I've made butter cake again this week with pandan flavour because I need a simple cake, something light, moist and buttery, just like my previous chocolate marble cake. This time the pandan butter cake it is!

PANDAN BUTTER CAKE

Ingredients;

250g butter, soften
200g sugar
4 eggs
250g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
100ml milk
1/2 teaspoon pandan essence
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
A few drop of green food colouring

METHOD;

- Preheat oven to 160°, grease and prepare baking pan.
- In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Fold in sifted flour and baking powder and stir in milk, mix well.
- Divided batter into two portions, add in pandan essence and a few drop of green food colouring if needed into one of the bowls.
- Add in vanilla extract in another bowls.
- Pour vanilla batter into prepared pan and follow with pandan batter.
- Bake for 50 minutes-1 hour or until skewer comes out clean.

Happy baking!

Spéculoos Cheesecake

Bonjour,

I've made mango cheesecake few months back and recently I made another cheesecake but with spéculoos. This no bake spéculoos cheesecake is made with spéculoss biscuit base and spéculoos spread mix with cream cheese, in fact this spéculoos cheesecake similar to the Nutella cheesecake.

Making cheesecake is not difficult, but the waiting time for the cheesecake to be set in the fridge can be quite long indeed! Though it takes a little time to make a wait, but it's worth the effort because this spéculoos is delicious.

SPECULOOS CHEESECAKE

Ingredients;

250g Lotus speculoos biscuits
80g butter, melted
450g cream cheese/mascarpone
80g powder sugar
200g speculoos spread
200ml heavy cream

METHOD;

- Prepare springform pan with a parchment paper around, set aside.
- Using a food processor to blitz or crush the speculoos biscuits into fine crumbs.
- Mix with melted butter, stir to combine and spread the crumb mixture into prepared pan, press firmly. Transfer to the fridge while making cheesecake filling.
- Using a stand or hand mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar and speculoos spread and mix until smooth.
- In another mixing bowl, beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
- Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, mix well.
- Spread the mixture over the biscuit base and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- For the topping, melted 150g speculoos spread and pour over the cheesecake, continue to refrigerate until set.

Enjoy the speculoos cheesecake!

Pan Fried Salmon With Creamy Leek Butter Sauce

Hello,

There was a time when the price of fresh salmon in the market quite a bit cheaper than the usual price because salmon is typically much more expensive especially here. Talk about fresh salmon, my favourite way of preparing salmon fillet are either baked, pan fried or grilled.

Creamy leek butter sauce go really well with salmon, that's our personal preference. This buttery leek sauce is sure became our favourite because it tastes really good with grilled or pan fried salmon.

PAN FRIED SALMON WITH CREAMY LEEK BUTTER SAUCE

Ingredients:

2 large salmon fillets or 4 small fillets
Salt, pepper and dried or fresh thyme
1 small leek, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 tablespoon butter
200ml heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Generously season the salmon fillets with salt, pepper and thyme.
- Put little oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat, add the salmon fillets and fry for a few minutes on both sides until crisp.
- For the sauce, melt butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat and fry garlic until fragrant.
- Add leeks, simmer and stirring occasionally for a few minutes until they are soft.
- Add cream and season with salt and pepper.
- Simmer until the sauce slightly reduced, about 2-3 minutes.
- Serve with rice, vegetables or potatoes.

Bon appétit!

Chocolate Marble Cake

Hello,

Few days ago I was thinking about making white chocolate mousse but ended up making this marble cake though this cake wasn't something I'd planned to make. At the end, I'm so glad I did it because this was a really good cake, light, buttery and moist.

Recipe adapted from bbcgoodfood.com, I slightly increase the quantity but the basic recipe it remains the same. Really good recipe indeed! Cake came out perfectly and it's delicious.

CHOCOLATE MARBLE CAKE

Ingredients;

250g salted butter, softened
250g sugar
4 eggs
250g flour, sifted
70ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon cocoa powder

METHOD;

- Heat oven to 160° and prepare baking tin, set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Add the flour and milk alternately in small amount, beating well after each addition.
- Add the vanilla extract, mix until the mixture is smooth.
- Divide the mixture between two bowls. Stir cocoa powder into one of the bowls.
- Take 2 tablespoons and use them to dollop the chocolate and vanilla batter into the tin alternately.
- Bake the cake for 50 minutes-1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.

Happy baking!

Vegetable Couscous

Bonjour,

We have had vegetables couscous at least once or twice a month. Whenever we have a lot of leftover veggies, we will make a vegetables couscous with seven or even more different vegetables. It's kind of lucky to combine seven vegetables in one dish and also a lucky number in the Moroccan culture.

I knew that making traditional couscous could be long but our vegetarian couscous doesn't take much time to prepare. The leftovers vegetables are even better the next day.

VEGETABLE COUSCOUS

Ingredients;

1 onions, chopped
1-2 potatoes, cut in half or quarters
2 carrots, cut into chunks
1 aubergine, cut into chunks
1 zucchini, cut into chunks
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 small can of chickpeas
1 tablespoon ras el hanout powder
1 tablespoon harissa sauce
250g couscous grain
Olive oil

METHOD;

- In a large casserole, heat little olive oil over medium heat and fry onion until fragrant.
- Add potatoes, carrots, ras el hanout spice, harissa sauce and 2 cups of water, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the rest of vegetables and chickpeas, season with salt and pepper.
- Reduce the heat and continue to cook for another 15-20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add more spices to taste and water if desired.
- For the couscous, prepare the couscous grain as per package direction.
- Separate the grains by roughing them up with a fork.

Serve hot and bon appétit!

Cherry Cobbler

Hello,

Last weekend, I made another cherry crumble for my MIL and to celebrate mother's day with her. I still have leftover cherries in the fridge and I decided to make this easy and quick cherry cobbler. Somewhere this cherry cobbler is similar to a French cherry clafoutis with slightly different texture.

I've made peach cobbler before but never with cherries, so this was my first cherry cobbler using fresh cherries. I use the simple basic recipe that can be found from allrecipes.com.

CHERRY COBBLER

Ingredients;

400g fresh cherries, stones removed
100g sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon corn flour
50g butter, melted
125g flour
150g sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
120ml milk

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 180° and prepare baking dish.
- Combine cherries, sugar, lemon juice and corn flour in a medium saucepan, bring to boil and stirring for 5 minute. Set aside.
- Pour melted butter into baking dish or ramekins.
- In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and milk. Stir to combined.
- Pour batter over the melted butter.
- Spoon the cherry mixture over batter, do not stir and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy cherry cobbler!

Corn Fritters

Hello,

I made corn fritters two days in a row for our tea time snack and one for an 'apero' at my mother in law's house and also invited an old friend for dinner last weekend. These light corn fritters make a delicious apero, simple and tasty. I'm so glad that everyone liked it even my MIL asking the next day if there any leftover fritters, but sorry to say that there was no leftover corn fritters. I promise I'll be making these fritters again the next time we visit her.

Try these fritters, it won't be disappointed as they were so good!

CORN FRITTERS

1-2 fresh corns or 1 can corn kernels, drained
1 onion, chopped
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
A pinch of salt
Some spring onion, chopped
Oil for frying

METHOD;

- In a medium bowl, combine corn, onions, flour, baking powder and salt.
- Pour in hot water little by little, mix well and add plain water, mixing until a batter forms.
- Add spring onion, stirring to combine.
- Heat oil over low heat in a heavy pot or wok for deep frying.
- Once the oil hot enough, drop a spoonful of batter into hot oil, turning once or twice and fry until light golden on both sides.
- Remove the fritters to a paper towels, serve with sweet chili sauce.

Village Style Fried Rice

Hello,

In Asia, when we think of breakfast, fried rice is one of the dish that we served in the morning. Just like fried noodles, fried rice also is an all time favourite for many people. There are many varieties of fried rice and this village style fried rice or what we called 'nasi goreng kampung' cooked with fried anchovies, long bean and water spinach as a main ingredients. All those ingredients are easy to find when we live in the village and I suppose that's where the name come from.

The only one ingredient I don't have is water spinach, it's almost impossible to find water spinach in our place unless in the Asian grocery store, so far away from home.

VILLAGE STYLE FRIED RICE

Ingredients;

2 cups cooked rice
2 cloves garlic
1 shallot
2-3 small red chili
1/2 cup chopped long beans/french beans
1/2 cup anchovies
A handful water spinach
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Heat some oil in a wok or frying pan, fry anchovies until crispy. Set aside.
- Blend or pound garlic, shallot and chilies to a coarse paste.
- Heat little oil and fry garlic chili paste until fragrant.
- Add the long beans and fry for a few second.
- Add in rice and water spinach, stir fry until the rice is heated through and well coated.
- Add fried anchovies and season with salt and pepper.

Bon appétit!

Tuna Lasagne

Bonjourno,

We eat tuna lasagne at least once a week and this dish is perfect for weekend meals. Nothing complicated in making lasagne, just a few steps but that's not difficult at all. Enjoy this meatless lasagne, all the family and friends will love it.

For those who don't eat too much meat of fatty foods, try this tuna lasagne, I'm sure it won't be disappointed.

TUNA LASAGNE

Ingredients;

2 onion, chopped
1 garlic cloves, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 tomato, chopped
1 canned tomato sauce
1 canned tuna, drained
Lasagne pasta sheets
Salt and pepper to taste

For the white sauce;
2 tablespoons butter
1-11/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons flour
100g grated cheese
70g parmeson cheese

METHOD;

- Heat some oil in a saucepan and fry onion and garlic until fragrant.
- Add the bell peppers, carrots and tomatoes. Cook for a few minutes.
- Add in tomato sauce and tuna, continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes or until the sauce is reduced. Season with salt and pepper.
- For the white sauce, melt butter in a saucepan over low heat.
- Whisk in the flour and stir until the mixture become paste about 2-3 minutes.
- Gradually add in milk little by little and continue to whisk until the sauce is smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
- Remove from heat and stir in both cheese.
- Spread a thin layer of tuna mixture onto base of baking dish, followed by a layer of lasagne sheets.
- Spoon another 2-3 tablespoons of tuna mixture and spread some white sauce on top and layer with lasagne sheets.
- Repeat the tuna layering and finish by tuna and white sauce on top.
- Bake in the preheated oven at 180° for 35-40 minutes.

Bon appétit!