MY COMFORT FOOD

13/12/2015
SUNDAY

Raisin Bread Pudding

Had some raisin bread leftover so decided to bake a bread pudding.  No specific recipe just something put together with eggs, milk, cinnamon powder and I forget to add some sugar. Luckily it was still delicious and sweet. 

Mix the eggs and milk and pour over the buttered raisin bread and leave aside to soften 

Sprinkle more cinnamon powder on top. 

Just before baking, I decided to top with some sliced bananas.  (Note: use ripe bananas (mine was not fully ripe otherwise preferable to caramelize the bananas.)  

Baked at 180C for around 20-25 minutes till the egg mixture has set but still soft to touch. Best serve warm. 

Bought another quarter pumpkin from the market again because today wanted to try out the Pickled Pumpkin. Anything pickled is my favorite snack to nibble while watching TV (another favorite snack is peanuts)

Remove the seeds and membrane bits and slice pumpkin thinly as possible.  Toss them with about 1  tablespoon of salt and leave to marinate for about 30 minutes. Rinse briefly and dry pumpkin. Prepare the about a cup of lime juices (I only have 2 small limes so I used 1 lemon too). 

Bring the lemon juice, sugar and the preserved our plums to a quick boil. Remove and let it cool before adding the pumpkin.

Just a handy tip, do not throw away the lemons/limes after extracting the juices- use it for cleaning the microwave oven.  I would place them in a bowl of water and put it in the microwave oven for 5-10 minutes. Those hard bits and pieces sticking in the oven can be easily remove after the steaming. 

Just to brighten, tossed in a teaspoon of the chili flakes.  Place in a covered container and leave in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours before consuming.    

For dinner, it was a one-pot meal of waxed sausage with some blanched choy sum.

I read somewhere that to get the "QQ" rice for this dish is to use a combination of white rice and glutinous rice, so I mixed 1 cup of white rice with 1/2 cup glutinous rice (pre-soaked) and true enough the rice is chewy and "QQ"  The sausages were added once the water  has been  absorbed and off the heat and let them cooked for another 10 minutes.  Before serving, drizzled minced garlic crisp and soya sauce over the rice.    

Have a warm  Winter Solstice celebration this weekend. 

TO THE MARKETS @ JAYA ONE

12/12/2015
SATURDAY
Took time to go shopping at the Markets @ Jaya One.   There were numerous stalls- all handcrafted goodies, pre-loved clothings and food stalls as well.  

Claire organic handmade soaps..

Recycled Paper booklets

Sponsor a meal

Second Chance Dogs Adoption Drive

Garam Haram - Crack Pork
Roasted Pork with Fennel and Rosemary rub.

Carolers at the concourse bringing a festive mood for the shoppers.

After walking around, we took our late lunch at this Thai food cafe. Prices are reasonable and service was fast and  good, but food is just mediocre.    

Pandan and Lemongrass Drink 

Noddles with Thai Green Chicken Curry

Pad Thai 

Dessert- Mango Sticky Rice

SUNDAY BRUNCH

6/12/2015
SUNDAY

My neighbour's daughter is homemaker and she grows some beautiful things. She had given me some succulent long beans before and this morning she gave me half of wintermelon which she had harvested. She told me she was making a savoury soup with dried oysters, so I decided to make a sweet soup with some white fungus and red dates.

I had all long been buying seedless red dates as I was too lazy to remove the seeds manually.  But this time, I bought these big  red dates (tasty to eat them fresh)  and all I needed to do was to bang them with a cleaver and then its so easy to remove the seeds!

After preparing the ingredients for the weekday dinners, it was time for lunch for me and brunch for the girls. 

We went to Bangsar for this delicious vegetarian buffet.  There are a variety of flatbreads, chappatis - plain ones, spicy ones and also 3 types of dhal curry which I forget to note down the names so I will call them creamy yellow, black lentils and red lentils and they are all so delicious..I ate a bowl by itself- don't worry the cutlery are small size. You can refill as much as you like just don't waste food ok? 

 

My second helping and I can tell you after these you will feel full.  These puris are crispy little hollows and they are a hot favourite... gone the minute they are refill at the table.  The Jeera Rice is also very flavour and so are the tiny  corn fritters. They served free Masala Tea (aromatic but a bit sweet for me) and coffee too.    

Seating is rather limited as you can see the queue outside waiting and parking is also rather congested along the road. Service is prompt and clean and the food is good.

Then it is off to the Big Bad Wolf Sale at The Mines. 

Promised myself that these will be last purchases for the year.

GOLDEN HARVEST

5/12/2015
SATURDAY

Raisins Pumpkin Bread. 

The colours which I always associate with autumn season are gold, yellow, orange and red and pumpkin always come to mind (think of Halloween). In the market pumpkins of every sizes and colours are available and I just picked up a quarter of the pumpkin with no clear idea what to do with it yet.

And after a week in the fridge, it's time to use it and I noted that I have not made pumpkin bread before.   I saw a recent post about making these little "pumpkin bread" (please see Happy Home Baking blog for recipe) and decided to try them.

Straight method of making the bread dough. After kneading one portion, decided to make 2nd portion of the dough.   Its so relaxing to knead the dough by hand.   Set aside to  proof.  There were some leftover puree.  

I then recalled a pumpkin butter cake which I made before.  I added 1 tablespoon of cinnamon powder to the flour and some pumpkin seeds to the batter.  Cream 200 gm butter and 200 gm (reduced to 175gm) caster sugar together till fluffy.  My stand mixer unfortunately gone "crazy" yes literally spinning like mad! It had served me well throughout these years and it needed the rest.  Then 5 eggs were added, one at a time well mixed in.  Sift in 300 gm flour and then add the rest of the ingredients   

More seeds to top the cake and bake at 180C for around 30 minutes. The texture is rather dense, but its moist and soft (due to extra pumpkin added) but cannot detect the cinnamon smell (wonder if the powder has expired its shelf life!)

I again use the Black Sesame paste as filling instead of pumpkin puree. I managed to get 10 buns - dough 46 gm each and paste about 25 gms each.  

Here come the fun part... have some cut twine ready- about 1 foot long and soak in some oil.

So you start to tie around the bun loosely (allow space for expansion). 

Go around the bun to get a 8 section 

Not perfect 8  and cover and leave for 2nd proof .

The 2nd portion of dough... just wanted a simple loaf this time.. 

the last remaining raisins which  have been soaked in rum, pumpkin seeds and knobs of butter. 

Roll up and cut into 2 to fit my loaf tin. 

Ha! the little pumpkin how you have grown and it's time to sun yourself in the oven-

Bake at 180C for around 20-25 minutes till golden brown.   

My golden harvest at last. 

Finally when work all done and home alone, its time to put up my feet and relax with a detoxifying bowl of greens... Hakka Lui cha.

BIG BREAKFAST, SMALL COST

29/11/2015
Sunday

First of all a very Happy Birthday to my son Jeremy.  May God be with you always!

We are not celebrating his birthday as he is over in Sydney enjoying his lunch date with his wife.  We are at home and at the girls' request, I am cooking Big Breakfast for them.

How much should I charged them for this?

Juice to start the day: Blended frozen blueberries (which my sister brought from Australia, don't ask me how she did it long haul! And she even got me a bag of frozen cranberries and mozzarella cheese as well too-Thanks a lot dear Sister) with Yogurt drink.  Usually I would blend watermelon with natural yogurt for them on my market day which is Saturday.   

Vinaigrette dressing for the salad... lemon juice, EV olive oil, salt, pepper

Starter: Mixed Salad of Avocado, cherry tomatoes, roasted red pepper (I always prefer to roast the peppers before cooking) and lettuce.   This was easy to prepare- dice and cut the avocado, half the cherry tomatoes, julienned the roasted red pepper and sliced up the lettuce. Put aside in fridge till ready to eat. The dressing is pour over the salad and toss together only when ready to serve. 

BTW Hero Supermarket opening on 27/11/2015 at Cheras Sentral (formerly it was Jaya Grocer)  and for signing up as new members (free membership),  a free lettuce was given.  Good promotion!  

Sauted Garlic Mushroom. 

1. sliced fresh shiitake mushroom and  finely minced garlic.

2. Melt butter in pan (it has to be BUTTER and I find that butter really makes the difference in flavour for this) and add garlic and mushroom saute till soft.

3. add a splash of white wine (yes ..so early in the morning!)  

4. add the herbs, season with salt and pepper and dish up 

5. Using the same pan, fried some sausages too.

Bacon and hash browns 

I used some (no, I finished the whole small bottle) maple syrup (gift from my sister) to glaze the bacon. The taste is good, balance of sweet and salty.. yum!  This time I decided to grill the bacon and the hash browns instead of frying them (not so oily).  While they were grilling in the oven, its was time to cook the scrambled eggs which are done in minutes.   

Then its a matter of plating up and trying to get the best  photo-shoot before digging in.

Well I did not actually count the costs because there are still leftovers of sausages, bacon and hash browns. Besides what about the time factor as there seemed to be numerous things to prepare! 

So don't think I can do this every Sunday, not only the money and time factor but think of it health-wise. 

Steamed Black sesame paus 

I bought a packet of black sesame paste and lotus paste intended for making mooncakes.  Well Mooncakes Festival had come and gone and now I have to make use of them in some other ways.  So decided to make some steamed paus later in the evening. Good thing this time, none of them "open mouth" (I opened that particular one to show the filling).  Such soft hot steaming paus on a rainy night. Even the doggies cannot resist them!  

PERSEVERANCE

22/11/2015
Sunday

Very well said, Mr. Chong. 

We shall keep reminding ourselves to preserve our culture and history. He told us about the eviction by the developer and the legal struggle that took place.  The Developer had won the first court action and the 1st phase of the kampong had been taken over and most of the houses were demolished.  Now they have organised these walks to introduce people to Kampong Mantin and hope that more people will support them to fight against further demolition and to preserve this area as a Heritage site. 

Bright sunny morning, time to get out of the house..

along Lekas Highway,  it was a breeze to drive along this highway..

so few cars and great surrounding view as well.

Our destination for the day trip.. a heritage walk around Kg. Hakka, Mantin

the meetup point at the Sekolah SJK Chi Chi, Mantin, Negeri Sembilan.  

From here, we made our way towards the kampong.

along the way, saw this one and only "sundry shop" in the village but not many merchandise for sale. It was more of a gathering place and there was already a table of mahjong game going on! 

Rakan Mantin. Check them up on facebook and please support them 

This meeting place actually belong to Mr. Chong great grandfather. 

Briefing before the walk ..

the honest truth about eviction and hopes for acknowledgement of  heritage status from the government, after all this place is over 100 years old. 

walking as those "early immigrants across rivers and up mountains"...

(only that was a flooded part of the road because of the heavy downpour last night!)

some of the derelict houses

the dilapidated houses and sense of  abandonment and time gone by.. 

most of the houses are vacant and closeup

As explained by Mr. Chong, those plaque above the houses would actually tell you what is the name of the family residing there.  These 2 characters are the surnames of that family eg Chan or Wong etc. 

the primary school  since 1954.  

The sun was getting hotter  and soon we finished our walk and headed back to the meeting place. It was time to introduce us to some Hakka food preparation...

Hakka Yong Tau Foo

Fish paste, minced port, salted fish, minced garlic and shallots mixed together and season with 5 spice powder, salt and pepper and Aunty said, of course a weeny bit of MSG!

getting my hands wet..... they do not remove any tofu for the stuffing instead a cut is made on the tofu and slowly the stuffing is put inside the slit! 

Finally a piece perfectly stuffed without breaking the sides.

The chef in charge of Mantin Kitchen

 she was busy the whole morning preparing our lunch.... 

Hakka Herbal kueh using Ramie leaves 

These shrubs are growing ardently around the kampong and this uncle very kindly pluck a shoot for me to take to grow.

Hakka Chai kueh... vegetable fillings.

These refurnished bicycles were once used by the villagers as they go rubber-tapping.  Now  you can ride them around the village but mind you they are heavy.

Meet the oldest resident of the kampong. She is 90 over years old yet she still cook her own meals and clean the house herself.

She even showed us her wedding photos. 

Lunchtime... yummy and wholesome Hakka flavours..

If you are interested to join the walk, look up Kaki Jelajah Warisan on the facebook.