Tom Yum Style Fried Vermicelli with Thai Omelette

Learnt another new recipe from mum; tomyum fried meehoon! Looks like having her around to help with baby has some unexpected culinary benefits too! Mum got this recipe from another relative and she’s made her modifications along the way, and here’s my version. It’s a fair bit of work and preparation but the ingredients are easy to get and it’s really worth the effort!

Tom Yum Style Fried Vermicelli with Thai Omelette

This recipe is good for 2 pax. Just multiply accordingly if you have a bigger party. I’m using ballpark measurement here as it’s a pass-down recipe.

What you will need:
1. Meehoon (Asian rice vermicelli) - soak and drain half a pack, around 200gms max
2. Garlic - a few cloves, chopped or crushed
3. Red onion - one large palm sized onion, or 2 small ones, sliced
4. Kaffir lime leaves - a handful, around 6 to 8 leaves, julienned
5. Red chilli padi - aka bird’s eye chillies, julienned, around 2 to 4pcs depends on how much heat you prefer! (do not use green chilli padi, they taste different and the color is all wrong!)
6. Dried chillies - 5 to 6 chillies, soaked and roughly chopped, this also depends on how much heat you prefer!
7. Fish cakes - 1 small bowl, sliced (can be replaced with meat/seafood or tofu for vegans)
8. Carrot - 1 medium carrot (6 t 8 inches lengthwise), finely grated
9. Cabbage - half a small cabbage, shredded
10. Lime juice - squeeze approx 6 to get half a bowl of juice, set aside 1 or 2 for garnishing
11. Thai fish sauce - approx 2 tablespoons or more depending on your taste buds
12. Pinch for taste - ketchup, spicy chilli sauce, salt, pepper
13. Cooking oil - duh
14. Coriander and slices of red chillies - optional, for garnishing (I like my food pretty!)

Raw ingredients at a glance.

Prepare everything before you start!

Ketchup and chilli padi sauce optional but the Thai fish sauce is an absolute must!

For Thai Omelette:
1. 2 eggs – beaten along with items 2 and 3
2. Thai fish sauce
3. Sugar, salt, pepper


Method:
1. Firstly make the Thai omelette, set aside to cool, pat of excess oil and slice thinly.
2. Then sauté items 2 to 6 together in hot oil till fragrant.
3. Add the fish cakes or whatever other meat you want, stir-fry till ‘browned’
4. Add carrots and cabbage and stir-fry till softened and cooked.
5. Add in softened vermicelli and stir-fry in low heat
6. Combine items 10 to 12 and pour over the vermicelli as it will get dry and soak up moisture readily.
7. Add water gradually if the vermicelli looks too dried-out (hint: it should not stick to the wok!)
8. Continue to stir-fry in low heat till vermicelli is evenly coated and tastes and feels right.
9. Serve with coriander and sliced chilli with the shredded omelette at the side.

Step-by-step stir-fry illustrated. 

Hint; a sturdy non-stick wok and extra long chopsticks will be great help here!

What makes this so different from the usual fried meehoon are the kaffir lime leaves, the lime juice and the fish sauce which gives it that citrusy Thai-inspired, sour, tangy flavour. I find this a really spicy and appetizing meal for any time of the day. A word of caution though, this is seriously not for those with very mild taste buds!

Kaffir lime leaves (aka daun limau purut) gives Thai food that distinctly citrusy heavenly scent!

You seriously can't do without this!

Dongzhi: Winter Solstice Festival

The Dongzhi is one festival I embrace wholeheartedly simply because I love the delicacy "tangyuen" which are glutinous rice balls stuffed with sweet brown sugar. Our dear mum has been making these balls every year since we were kids. So this year, now that I've been promoted to a mummy, I've decided to create some from scratch while my mum narrated the instructions. Turns out they are really super easy to make! It's definitely a tradition I can upkeep as it's simple and yummy! In the spirit of tradition, I'm happy to share what my mum taught me today.

Here are what you will need, they are ballpark measurement as mum doesn't go with the metric system, it's all in her head!


For the balls:

1. 1.5 bowls of glutinous rice floor (standard Chinese rice/soup bowl)
2. 0.5 bowl of rice floor
3. 1 cup of warm water (not cold!)
4. Brown sugar blocks
5. Food coloring
6. A few drinking straws or chopsticks to dip food coloring

For the ginger soup:

1. Pandan leaves (aka Screwpine leaves)
2. Ginger (roughly chop and crush 4 to 6 inches depending on your desired 'heat')
3. Sweet potatoes/yam (optional, qty depends on your preference)
4. Rock sugar

This recipe is good for about 4 pax depending on your appetites!

Easy-breezy Steps:

1. Get two pots ready; one for boiling plain hot water and one more for the ginger based soup.
2. Boil the pandan leaves, rock sugar, potatoes and ginger together till fragrant.
3. The other pot is for cooking the balls in plain boiling water.
4. Sieve the 2 types of floor together, then gradually add warm water while kneading it with your hand till you get a bouncy dough consistency kinda like Play-Doh, it should not be too watery but hold up well on it's own. To test if it's right, make little balls with it and see if it holds up. If the dough feels too watery, add more floor to balance it out.
5. Separate the dough into batches based on the number of colors you want to have. I have five batches here; white, pink, blue, purple and green. Then use the tip of a straw to dip color unto each dough batch and knead till color is even. Be careful to rinse your hand between each batch otherwise your colors will run everywhere!
6. Cut the brown sugar to little cubes to be used as fillings for the balls. You can also make them plain, or use different fillings like peanuts or black sesame paste which I have no idea how to! But anyway I prefer good old simple brown sugar; sweet and fragrant!
7. Pinch dough into mini balls, insert a piece of sugar and roll between palms to get a nice round shape.
8. Cook the ready balls in plain boiling water, they are ready when they float to the surface.
9. Transfer the cooked balls to individual serving bowls. Scoop ready ginger based soup over the balls and we're good to go!

Have fun trying this out and enjoy yummy "tangyuen"! You know what, you don't even have to reserve this delicacy for the festival, it's easy enough to prepare for any family dinner or just a lazy weekend at home for tea!

Prepare the ginger-based soup, boil till fragrant.

 Separate dough into batches based on the number of colors you want to have. I have five batches here; white, pink, blue, purple and green. Then use the tip of a straw to dip color unto each dough batch and knead till color is even.

  

 Cut the brown sugar to little cubes to be used as fillings for the balls.

 Pinch dough into mini balls, insert a piece of sugar and roll between palms to get a nice round shape.

 Cook the ready balls in plain boiling water, they are ready when they float to the surface.

 The balls will get a little bigger and look really shiny when cooked, color also become stronger and darker. Transfer the cooked balls to individual serving bowls.

Scoop ready ginger based soup over the balls and we're good to go! As you can see in this pic here we had it with some nice keropok lekor!

  Love the way the brown sugar is half-melted inside the ball, it oozes out so sweet and hot!

Happy Dongzhi everyone!

Earl Grey Cupcakes

I came across a beautifully illustrated cupcake recipe book (RM35.80) last week at MPH Subang Parade. This British publication contains recipes from an actual bakery in London known as the Primrose Bakery and they specialise in cupcakes primarily. It’s good to know that the recipes are tried and tested, plus the simple language and gorgeous pictures accompanying each and every recipe makes it a breeze to follow.



A few recipes caught my eye and I’ve shortlisted my “must try” list; these are the few I seriously plan to test out ...

1. Earl Grey Cupcakes (this is the first recipe I’ve tried)
2. Strawberries & Cream Cupcakes (using fresh strawberries)
3. Raspberry Cupcakes (using raspberry jam)

I think there are over 20 types of cupcakes here with an equally wide assortment of icing, so if you mix and match the various cakes with different icing, you’re in business!

Thankfully for the long Raya (Eid) holidays, I found time to test this out and share it here ... presenting the recipe for Primrose Bakery's Earl Grey cuppas....

Here’s the (simplified*) recipe as per the book, comments in brackets.

1. 125ml milk
2. 4 Earl Grey tea bags
3. 110g unsalted butter ( I use SCS salted, it’s fine as well, make sure it’s soft, at room temperature)
4. 225g granulated sugar (you may drop to 210g as I found it rather sweet, especially with the icing)
5. 2 large eggs
6. 125g self-rising flour, sifted
7. 120g plain flour, sifted
   * not word for word

Ingredients for lilac icing:

1. 110g unsalted butter ( I think regular salted butter offsets the sweetness)
2. 60ml milk (room temperature)
3. 500g icing sugar, sifted
4. 1 tsp Vanilla Extract (get the real stuff, not just the fake essence!)
5. I can’t find lilac food colouring so I combined pink and blue food colouring; one tiny drop at a time, these stuff are heavy.
6. Word of caution, this icing recipe makes ALOT of icing, probably enough for 2 batches of cupcakes, so half it accordingly or refrigerate the extra for another batch of cuppas.

Method, in Shorty's own words:

1. Preheat oven to 160 C (settings should be top and bottom with fan) or 180 C (without fan). I find it more even with the fan on.
2. Heat milk in a saucepan till boiling, then pour over the 4 teabags, let it infuse for 15 to 30 mins.
3. Mix the sugar and butter for 3 to 5 mins till smooth and even. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing in between.
4. Sift and combine flours separately, then add them to the egg+butter mix in batches.
5. Pour in part of the milk infused with tea, alternating with the flour. The final mixture would have a rather liquid / soft consistency.
6. Spoon them into paper cups, about two-thirds full.
7. Bake for about 20 to 25 mins, depending on your oven, it takes about 22 mins in my Fagor for a 12–hole cupcake pan.
8. Insert a toothpick into the centre of one of the cupcakes to see if they are done. If it comes out clean, it’s done!
9. Remove pan from oven, let cakes sit in pan for 10 mins and then remove so they can cool on a wire rack.
10. Once cakes are completely cooled, ice with the icing. Decorate with sprinkles of granulated sugar or purple sugar flowers. I decided to use white chocolate sprinkles. I thought the white looked so delicate on the pastel lilac., anyway it's too much effort to look for purple flowers, unless there's a special occassion.

Look, this recipe makes the cakes nicely brown and evenly raised. I hate it when cupcakes rise lop-sided!

Below; pastel lilac icing with white choc sprinkles.

Shortcake’s verdict?
These cakes are amazingly easy to make, just ensure you have quality teabags and plain milk on hand. The texture is very soft , melts in your mouth and the flavor is very delicate, like milky tea with a hint of bergamot. Perfect for those with a sensitive and well-developed palate, and tea lovers of course. Hubby thinks my ‘lilac’ icing looks like ‘grey’, how ironic.

Shorty’s loving them tea-cuppas!

Recipe for Filipino Pork Adobo

I would like to share my recipe for Pork Adobo. Of course I did not create this on my own, seeing that it's almost completely foreign in this part of the world. This is actually a popular Filipino meat dish where you can also use chicken to replace the pork. I was inspired to try this out after watching Bobby Chinn, World Asia Cafe on Asian Food Channel. Also, hubby loves the Pork Adobo at Cagayan's, so I know if I got this right, hubby will be super pleased.

This is Shortcake's first Pork Adobo.

What I've done here is based on what Bobby Chinn did plus some googling and a touch of personal taste.

The ingredients, this serves 2 to 3 hearty eaters:

1. Approx 500g pork or chicken, estimate more if using chicken on bones or pork ribs. (I had a combination of pork belly and spare ribs, left over in the freezer, so what the heck)
2. 6 to 8 stalks of lemongrass - cut away top parts and crush the bulbs
3. Half cup of white vinegar (I used white rice vinegar as no one seem to specify what kind of vinegar exactly)
4. Quarter cup of light soy sauce
5. Half a head of garlic - finely chopped
6. An inch of ginger - crushed / minced
7. 2 small onions
8. 1 teaspoon of black peppercorn, crushed - or use coarse ground version
9. 3 to 4 red hot chili padi (bird's eye chilies) - sliced off head and slit sides to remove seeds.
10. 2 to 3 tablespoons of corn starch dissolved in water
11. Cooking oil
12. Pinch of salt & some brown sugar (or any kinda sugar)
13. Water

All the main ingredients at a glance.

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a wok (or deep frying pan)
2. Sauté garlic, onions, lemongrass stalks, ginger and black pepper till fragrant.
3. Add the meat to the pan and 'brown'.
4. Add chili padi.
5. Add soy sauce, vinegar and 1 cup of water.
6. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes over medium flame.
7. Add cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken the gravy.
8. Add brown sugar, salt and/or pepper to suit your taste.
9. Cover and simmer for an additional 10 minutes over low/medium flame.
10. Taste check; see if you need to thicken the gravy, then adjust corn starch/water, then simmer again.
11. Serve hot with veggies and steamed rice.
    

Sauté sauté sauté!

Almost there, let it simmer and thicken.

Suggestions, hints and tips:

• I added some brown sugar to balance out the vinegar just a little.
• You can adjust the level of saltiness and color by using less soy sauce.
• Of course you can adjust the flavors by modifying the quantities of peppercorn, salt, sugar etc.
• If chili padi is over the top for you, you can use paprika powder, personally I would have added MORE chili padi but hubby will need a fire extinguisher after that!
• Control the gravy's consistency by adjusting the level of water and cornstarch. We like it thick and rich so it coats the rice nicely!

I hope this is helpful to anyone who loves meat dishes with gravy! If you have any pointers to make this dish better do feel free to share!

A Twist On French Toast

Sometimes I really crack my head thinking up new and creative breakfast and brunch ideas for dear hubby over the weekends. Recently I got a hint from a colleague who loved the french toast served at some event held a hotel in KL, they used cheese in between the bread. I tried to recreate what I heard, er, without actually having tried it at all. In addition to cheese, I made do with some left over ham in the freezer.

French toast fans, here are what you need:

1. Bread (I used Gardenia's Break-thru here but I will use white next time around)
2. Ham (I like salty sandwich ham and Bangsar Village Grocer has the best, Euro Deli works for me too)
3. Cheese (Basic Kraft slices will do)
4. Eggs (I think I worked with about 3 eggs)
5. Milk (half a cup or adjust accordingly, full cream please, low fat is boooooring)
6. Brown Sugar (about a teaspoon or so, just adjust)
7. Salt
8. Oil (I use PAM Cooking Spray so it's alot less oily, avoid butter as it browns too quickly in the pan)
9. A good non-stick pan (I am a big big fan of Tefal)

How to:

1. Mix eggs, milk, sugar and a pinch of salt in a semi-shallow bowl.
2. Butter each slice of bread and sandwich the ham and cheese in between. Make some variety, some ham+cheese, some ham and cheese on its own so you know what you'll love best. I think peanut butter would be a good idea too :P
   
3. Slice the sandwiches anyhow you like.
4. Dip the ready sliced sandwiches in the egg mixture, coat all sides, soak longer if you like it 'mushy' and wet.
5. Then simply fry them gently in a flat non-stick pan coated with a thin layer of PAM. Slow to medium fire.
   
6. Make sure you do not break up the sandwiches, they can be quite fragile, so avoid turning too often.
   
7. Serve with coffee and juice. I guess sliced peaches on the side would be a nice touch too. Yummers.
   

Voila, breakfast, or brunch!


Dear hubby's verdict? He wiped the plate clean :)

Hershey's Cuppa Cakes

Firstly this is NOT a sponsored post and I have no association with Hershey's whatsoever.

In fact, I am not exactly a great chocolate fan either.

However, I'm seriously very proud of my Hershey's Cupcakes. I made these for the benefit of hubby who absolutely loves all things chocolate. Hershey's deserve all the credit for that big childish grin on my Hubby's face when he saw the cupcakes I made for him! But I do confess I am not a baking expert and I just started dabbling in this about 2 months back.

I was browsing for chocolaty recipes and stumbled upon this recipe on the Hershey's homepage.

The recipe is here below, exactly as it is from the homepage.

This is the 'recipe picture', taken off the site.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups sugar
2. 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3. 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa (see picture)
4. 2 teaspoons baking soda
5. 1 teaspoon baking powder
6. 1 teaspoon salt
7. 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk* (I used buttermilk, which you can buy easily from Village Grocer)
8. 2 eggs
9. 1 cup boiling water
10. 1/2 cup vegetable oil
11. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Wonderful cocoa powder. Shot by Hubby.

This is how the batter look like.

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F (which is 180°C) . Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups.
2. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl (don't forget to sift everything)
3. Add buttermilk, eggs, water, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (batter will be thin).
4. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter.
5. Bake 15 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Remove cupcakes from pan. Cool completely.
7. Frost with VANILLA FROSTING or "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING.

(Makes 30 cupcakes)

Here are first batch of naked cupcakes, cooling down and waiting to be iced.

VANILLA FROSTING:

1. Beat 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter, 1/4 cup shortening and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
2. Add 1 cup powdered sugar; beat until creamy.
3. Add 3 cups powdered sugar alternately with 3 to 4 tablespoons milk, beating to spreading consistency.
4. About 2-1/3 cups.

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING:

1. Melt 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine (1 stick of butter in US terms is approx half a block of our local butter block, salted or unsalted butter is fine here)
2. Stir in 2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa.
3. Add 3 cups powdered sugar alternately with 1/3 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract beating to spreading consistency.
4. About 2 cups frosting. (I reduced to about 2.5 cups of icing sugar and combined buttermilk and full cream milk here, in future I think I will stir in some strong coffee into the milk or go with Bailey's Irish Cream instead .... wonder how would that go down ... hehehe )

I did not make them 'black & white' as the original recipe suggests, I went with chocolate on chocolate all the way. That's the way hubby likes it; dark, rich, sweet and decadent.

So let's go to the results .... the cake itself was super soft, light, moist and seriously yummy! Not too sweet but absolutely perfect once you get the frosting going.

Here are the iced cupcakes.

I used a star icing tip and disposable piping bags I got from a bakery mart in D'sara Utama. I was so so super excited to do the icing, I've envied and coveted one too many images of beautiful cupcakes and I finally get to ice my own creations. I dotted a few of them with little shiny sugar balls for that festive touch! *syok sendiri*

Packing up some of the goodies for mum and Totoro. Thirty cuppas are helluva alot! Seriously.

On keeping them; I will refrigerate them the next day. Use an airtight container. Take them out for about 10 mins before you want to have them or they will be hard and cold. I normally keep them for about 4 days max in the fridge.

What's the best way to enjoy Shortcake's Hershey Cuppa Cakes? With freshly brewed coffee of course!

First Housewarming Menu

Shortcake & hubby had the first housewarming dinner with the family! This was the perfect opportunity for Shortcake to show some mettle and make my parents proud of me! We had so much fun planning the menu and shopping for stuff.

So what's on the menu?

1. Starters: Smoked salmon parcels, blue cheese and walnuts.
2. Mains: Oven-baked dory with herbs and lemon served with olio angel hair
3. Desserts: Carrot & walnut cupcakes with cream cheese icing

A little bit more about the gastronomical drama this evening for the culinary-inclined ....

Smoked salmon parcels
I was surfing the net for a simple starter that required little or no cooking at all, these salmon parcels were inspired by Nigella Lawson's 'Salmon Wraps' off her website. My twist was the use of cream cheese, rocket leaves (love rocket!) and lettuce as the filling instead. We served the parcels on a bed of lettuce and added a little blue cheese and walnuts on the side for kicks.

The super-easy-to-make salmon parcels with rocket leaves and cream cheese.

Oven-baked dory
The dory was a no-brainer, really simple to make. Just buy frozen dory off any good supermarket, Cold Storage has a good variety. Thaw and dry the fish, marinate with salt, pepper, lemon zest, lemon juice, a variety of herbs and leave it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. When the guest are just about to arrive, lay the fish on foil on a baking pan, add fresh thyme, zucchini and carrots and bake for about 30 mins or until they all look pretty cooked.

The fish combo in the oven ....

I served the fish with the actual baking pan; so much less washing up to do and it keeps warmer longer. Added some sliced lemons for drama too.

Olio angel hair
The pasta was a really easy classic recipe I got off an Italian cook book. All you need are garlic (loads), olive oil, chopped fresh parsley, chili flakes and herbs. I use "Ground Chili" flakes and "Italian Herbs", both from Masterfood. The latter saves me headache on which herbs are for what and you can store them like forever. Sauté everything in olive oil until fragrant, then, stir in cooked angel hair and fold them in until they are nice and even. My only regret; I was too conservative, should have made MORE and daddy suggested to add real dried red Chilies for color and texture. I will definitely try that next time.

Angel hair olio in progress ....

How to serve the angel hair ... plain or with leftover salad leaves and cherry tomatoes. If you have meat eaters in the midst, sprinkle liberal quantities of bacon flakes!

I love cupcakes ... not just eating them and looking at them, but I've always dreamed of making them! These carrot cupcakes especially was something I've been dying to make ever since I tried the same at D'Lish at Mid Valley. Fortunately I found the recipe from Nigella Lawson's How to be Domestic Goddess. The recipe was easy to follow despite not being ultra-specific, i.e. she does not tell you how long or how fast you need to mix certain stuff so it's gut feel and your own estimations. The cupcakes turned out to be absolutely superb. I totally forgot to get the cinnamon which I totally regret as that would have spiced it up but it was still super yummilicious in the end. My dad and sister in law loved it so so much they each took one home for breakfast! I was so super honored! Thanks to Nigella!!! :)

Carrot cupcakes fresh from the oven, about to be iced .....

My first batch of cupckaes!!! Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing and walnuts. Sadly, I screwed up the icing a bit, it was too 'watered down' :( *bummers* ... And I would love it if I had marzipan to make little carrots to decorate the icing.

The dinner looked like this ....

The FIRST housewarming dinner!

Overall, we a very healthy feast of baked fish and loads of greens. I'm typically a meat person and would prefer spicy green curry beef anytime but I knew daddy would like the light & easy fish; and I was right. They enjoyed the light dinner and still had room for cupcakes and coffee! Which was so wonderful. And I really outdid myself with cooking and baking all at one go, I never imagined I can do this .... *beaming with pride* ... hehehe :P

It was really wonderful having the parents over for dinner. I miss mum terribly after we moved to the new love-nest. Hubby was wonderful; just showing them around and washing up and cleaning the kitchen after all the fiasco, what on earth would I do without him? Well, overall, we had a lovely time and I can't wait to do it again, next round, I'll be attempting Thai. Sawadeeka :)