Claypot Rice at Huen Kee, Jln Pudu

Nothing satisfies better than a hearty meal on a cool night right after a refreshing hike. That's what we did last Sunday. Hubs went for his usual futsal and i didnt want to stay home gorging on cookies so a bunch of us decided to burn some calories. woo hoo! It rained almost the whole day so the weather was really cool - perfect!

Dinner plans were made and off we went to Jalan Pudu for Claypot Chicken Rice. I have never ventured to this area before though I do know there's lots of good food here.

We ordered a large waxed duck claypot rice. Priced at RM40, it was pretty expensive. We all thought it was just okay, overall too salty and there werent many pieces of the wax duck to enjoy too. The small pot costs RM15 and the medium RM30.

Next, the claypot chicken rice which was better. Many large, succulent pieces of chicken. As E kept saying, this is not "fake chicken claypot rice" where the chicken is precooked and added in later. This is the real thing where the chicken pieces are cooked together with the rice over charcoal flames. Imagine all the juices flowing into the rice..yum. The rice was well coated with the dark sauce but hubs would have preferred more burnt rice - he likes eating carcinogenic stuff. Priced at RM6.50[S],RM13[M], RM18[L]. Add extra RM4-RM6 for extra chicken.

Another highlight of the meal was the chicken with chinese wine. (RM21 [S],RM33 [M], RM38 [L]) mmmm wonderful! You can feel the hot soup warming up your whole body. The wine used was sweet, slightly bitter and very heong. MY was commenting that there is a particular sweetness to the soup just like when you boil crabmeat with ginger. wow, my frens sure have specialised taste buds.

Tipsy over Tiramisu

I don't know if this picture actually looks remotely appealing. To me, it looks like bits of yau char quai floating in some weird gooey stuff. S_I_G_H.


This is my tiramisu. And since this attempt took up an hour and a half of my weekend, lots of sweat, mutterings and almost splutters of expletive words, I shall post it!

Before you go ewww and yucks, I have to say, it actually tasted pretty good - probly due to the lashings of Tia Maria.

I suppose there's no point in mentioning the recipe here coz i think my proportions were slightly off :(

There goes all the good stuff down the drain.. Tia Maria liquor, mascarpone cream cheese (this costs RM20 for a small 250g tub), Lindt dark chocolate (RM10 per bar). Savoiardi (lady fingers) Other items included eggs, coffee and sugar.

First i was suppose to whisk the egg yolks and sugar together till pale and creamy. I was pretty tired so I didnt really do a good job here. Then, stir in the mascarpone. Here, i forgot to take it out of the fridge to warm to room temperature so it was hard and difficult to stir well into the mixture. Next, to whisk the egg whites till stiff and fold it into the above mixture. The whole thing was weird and lumpy and i had to squish every single lump to make it combine well into the mixture. HARD WORK.

Just when I thought nothing else could go wrong. The next step, to soak the Savoiardi in the coffee + liquor mixture. How was I to know the darn thing soaked up the liquor in the blink of an eye? I read a recipe which said to leave it for about 30 secs to ensure its soaked well! arrgghhh i had to quickly scoop them up but the damage was done.

I still had to go on.

So i started the layering process. savoiardi, cheese mixture, shavings of Lindt choc, savoiardi, cheese mixture, Lindt... You don't know how it feels like to go on when you already know its gonna turn out bad... its all like a bad dream and you hope to wake up and find out it was all just that - a bad dream.

Anyway, all said and done, in it went into the fridge overnight.

I scooped a mouthful, tasted it and hey! it was OK! not delicious or as rich as I would have preferred but it was EDIBLE. hhaahaa. The oversoaked saviordari was a bit gross, and it didnt have much texture left but! the liquor saved the day.

I shall attempt this again!

This recipe from allrecipes looks worth trying. Either that or i shall attempt this from Tartelette.

The Perfect Mash

Do you make a list when you go grocery shopping? Conversation in the car:

Hubs: Did you make a list?

Me: (realised sumthing and felt guilty) Errr yeah.

Hubs: Good.

Me: its at home....

Sometimes i think its better to shop WITHOUT a list. I mean its so boring when you have a list and u just walk down the aisles, put the stuff into the trolley and methodically strike it off your list. BORING....

I say where's the creativity in that? Its so much MORE fun to go shopping WITHOUT knowing what to get. Then when you see something (let's say an onion), you mentally start creating ways to cook it! Salads or soups or fried onion rings. Its endless!

Only problem is then i wouldnt be able to decide and in the end i'd just get all the ingredients for all the possible ways i'd cook it.

Anyway.

So today, I saw a potato and decided to make the perfect mash.

I'd say if this is the source of carbo in your meal, it should be a medium to large potato per person.

Recipe

Potatoes (I read Yukon Gold potatoes make the perfect mash! Couldnt find it here though - the usuals are just Russets and Holland potatoes)

Garlic (this is a great tip I read about!)

Mayonaise

Butter

Heavy/whipping cream

A dollop of Djon mustard

Salt & Pepper

Clean potatoes and boil them. Add several cloves of garlic here. Boil till the potatoes are soft (~15mins). Drain and peel them. Now, mash them up together with the garlic! ooohhhh yummy!

Heat up the cream with butter. Add in to the mashed potatoes a little at a time, continue mashing them until you get a nice creamy texture. Add mustard, mayo and season with salt and pepper.

Served this with Italian sausages and a simple salad.

Wat's in store for 2008?

I have a dream.

Not anything like Martin Luther King's but one that will test every ounce of patience in my Hubby, one that will require him to summon will power beyond what he was ever capable of to smile instead of frown, to give a deserved (even if underserved) pat on the back, to nod vigourously with approval after every bite that will hopefully be swallowed and not quietly hidden and poured into the sink.

what drama.

Actually I just want to learn to cook a new dish every week lah. I have not improved or tried anything remotely new in the cooking category. :( So this year, I declare to be more disciplined. A new dish every week. 52 new dishes. With a 20% rate of success (anything less and I shall be depressed), I should be able to learn 10 new dishes and stop feeding my family with the same old mouldy stuff.

So here's my list! Its not exhaustive - just a coupla recipes I like, basic ones that I should know etc. Any other suggestions?

The Soup Category

I love soups! Healthy (er, then again not always) and filling. 1-bowl meals that can be cooked in advance and heated up to eat any time when hungry.

Creamy Broccoli Soup

Creamy Mushroom Soup

Cream of Cauliflower Soup - (hmm not sure bout this tho, i mean Hubs already has unbearable gas problems... )

Cream of Asparagus Soup

The Baking Category

Look out waistlines!

Cream Cheese Chocolate Brownies

Carrot Cake

Hummingbird Cake

Still trying out variations to get the best Moist Chocolate Cake. (If all else fails, I recently discovered that The Ampang Grocer stores Ghirardelli Cake Mixes hurrah!)

Poppy Seed Cake

Banana Bread/Cake

Peanut Butter Cookies

Apple Pie/ Apple Crumble

Mains

I got this great nonya recipe book as a gift. Hurray! More stuff to experiment with!

Nonya

- Asam Laksa (urrgghh recipe looks like a lot of work but I guess I must learn to cook this in my life time)

- Nonya Fried Rice

- Tau Eu Bak (Soy Sauce Pork)

- Nonya Fried Chicky

- Kari Kapitan (Kapitan Chicken Curry)

- Popiah Chee! ( this will be a great finger food to bring to Pot Lucks!)

Italian

- Spaghetti with a mushroom cream sauce

- Spaghetti alle Vongole (spaghetti with clams)

- Spaghetti with Italian sausages - tomato based sauce

- Must try to a make a Lasagne!

- Must try to make my own pizza - dough plus toppings

- Grandmother's Pie ( apparently one of the most popular and delicious desserts in the Italian repertoire)

- Tiramisu

- Chocolate Truffles

Misc

- A Good Roast Chicken

- A Good Pork Chop - maybe I'll try one version marinate with Guinness Malta.. mm hmmm

I don't really like to mess around seafood (i like to eat them, not cook) coz most of them are smelly stuff before cooked... Hmm... only if i come across a must-try recipe..

A banana in Taiwan

Oh man, I was not looking forward to this working trip. Usually I'd be full of glee, having the chance to be away from gruelling days stuck facing 4 walls but

7 days in a Mandarin speaking land + me, a Chinese who cannot even utter a single word of Mandarin except Ni hao and Xie xie = tremendous, unspeakable boredom.

Now that its over and I'm back in good old Msia, i think it was actually a pretty enjoyable trip. My coliks, the suppliers, the presentation of new products were exciting! And I picked up plenty of Mandarin words heh!

Anyway, as with all of my posts, the topic is on FOOD! First up, we made a trip to Miao Li, and had lunch. And it was full of l-e-m-o-n-g-r-a-s-s. For me, being a product person, lemongrass always equals insect repellant. Blurghh. Lemongrass is not a herb that's commonly used in Taiwanese cooking but this supplier had a thing for it.

Lemongrass juice. I felt I was downing a bottle of insect repellant. My coliks loved it though - said it was very refreshing.

Next was better, a plateful of colourful fresh taufus, vegetables, fishballs and meatballs. Taiwanese seem to love freshly cut capsicums.

There was a special sauce prepared to go with the steamboat. Yeap. Its blended lemongrass leaves with a dark sauce. Hmmm this was ok.

You wouldnt be able to guess what this is.

Salt baked fish! And true to the day's theme, it was stuffed with lemongrass! Arrrgghhhhhh

Taiwanese food is always packed beautifully. We had packed lunch boxes on one of the days. They use coloured rubber bands and tied them around the boxes to form patterns.

Woo hoo! not like our regular economy rice pack eh? Pan fried salmon and roasted chicken drumstick, tempura sweet potato and a big juicy prawn... mm mmm. Lots of colourful side dishes too :)


On one of the nights, we went to a shop that was famous in Tainan. For cooking minced meat in a pot that is n-e-v-e-r washed. See the man scooping from that pot over there?

ewwww... I'm not sure what the speciality is but i gather from the conversation that the pot will keep the fragrance of the meat and the dish gets tastier the longer the pot is used.

This is the bowl of noodles with meat from the old unwashed pot. Till date, that pot has held out for 5 years without a wash.

The helpings are small too and people would usually order several bowls. As the Chinese say, One bowl, one mouthful.

There were other pretty unique dishes in this shop too. These are slices of fish eggs served with cuts of white radish. The fish eggs were tasty and pretty strong but it was balanced by the slight bitter taste of the radish.

Slices of fish skin. Another unique Taiwanese dish. Deliciously smooth and went well with the sweet dark sauce.

They also served it in soup with ginger .. yummy.. light and refreshing.

Cheers!

To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine...and to those who don't.

Ben Franklin said:"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria"

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop.

However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum,whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember: Water = Poop, Wine = Health

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk silly, than to drink water and be full of crap.

Almost the New Year

Wow, the past weeks have been extremely hectic! Both with planning and going for get-togethers with our families, coliks and church frens.

Don't you just love this time of the year? Everyone's in a holiday mood (read: daydreaming during work), traffic is clear in the mornings, shoppings malls with beautiful christmas decorations, grocery stores filled with chirstmassy puddings, cakes, gingerbread men, the list goes on!

Of couse, these are not the true meaning of Christmas but I'm glad to see that people relate Christmas as a time of giving and sharing :)

I had grand plans of baking brownies and giving them away as gifts. Grand plans they were but when the time came, I was just too exhausted. Sigh. Well, I hope I'll be able to do it next year *wink.

We just hosted a farewell dinner for E & J yesterday. I spent, oh ok, WE (hubs and I) spent the whole day cleaning and cooking. Boy! I really underestimated the number of people who would turn up. AND, most people came on time!

Anyway, I've blogged about most of the food I prepared in the farewell dinner but here's something refreshing after stuffing ourselves silly with rendang and pulut.

A Colourful Salad

Cherry tomatoes

Capsicum

Onions

Salad leaves

Pine nuts (toasted)

Extra virgin olive oil

Lemon juice

Salads are fun! As long as you have a good mixture of colours and fresh ingredients, you won't go wrong! For my version, start with salting the tomatoes. I read that this will bring out its flavour. Just halve them, rub with salt and leave for about 20 mins. Mix everything together and serve chilled.

And here's another pix for E & J. No goodbyes but a happy see-you-soon wave from Mr. Frumps and us! We're planning a holiday in Kuantan right this moment! Heh :)

Mushroom Caviar!

No this is not something the beluga fish layed after eating mushrooms - that is if fish ever knew how to enjoy this delicious fungi.
I was looking for different ways to cook mushrooms besides the usual olive oil and garlic combo. Found this recipe from Simply Recipes here. and was pretty impressed with the term Mushroom Caviar. Go to this site for the full recipe. For my lazy version:

Recipe
White button mushrooms - or your preferred choice
Garlic
White wine
Butter
Olive oil
lemon juice
Salt & pepper to taste
Wheat crackers

I omited sour cream as its not a usual ingredient in my fridge, shallots as I don't quite like onions, (gimme more garlic any time!) as well as pine nuts simply becoz i forgot! arrggghh i have a whole tub in my fridge and they'll just dry up before i ever remember to use them. sigh.

Anyway, heat up the butter and saute the mushrooms till tender. Add garlic, salt and pepper. saute for another 5 mins. Stir in the white wine and cook for another minute. Squeeze the lemon juice when it has cooled down.

Its suppose to be served chilled but being a typical Malaysian, I couldnt bring myself to eat cold food. Unfortunately after I was done taking more than a dozen pics, the mushrooms were already cold.

I spread the 'caviar' onto the wheat crackers, munch munch... and thought... Hmmm a lot of improvement needed. I don't know why but it doesnt taste as good as I thought it would. Perhaps its the wine that I used or because I used white button mushrooms? (I usually prefer Shitake).. hmmm

I'll have to try again with Shitke and maybe some oyster mushrooms.. Any ideas?

crabs, Crabs & more CRABS!

Go fly kite! In Malaysia, that has a pretty nasty meaning... so practice care when you want to invite ppl to go fly kites here.


I laughed when I saw my CG leader's sms- lets go fly kites! Haha. On one of the Saturday's back, our cell group organised an outing to fly kites somewhere around Kepong area. (The park is situated on the left side of MRR2, headed towards Bandar Sri Damansara or Manjalara). Flying a kite requires lots of patience. I saw a girl pulling and running in circles trying to get her kite to fly higher. Then she just collapsed in a heap of laughter coz she realised how ridiculous she must have looked. And she saw me laughing at her too.


You'll see all sorts of kites there, from the big flashy ones to the tiny humble kites that somehow seem able to do a better job. As soon as you hit a certain height, it will be quite steady and you won't have to keep pulling and nudging your kite to catch the wind. Hmm.. an interesting hobby which i may consider in future :)






Anyway, the highlight of the day (for me) was dinner! I didnt know my CG leader had booked dinner at a seafood restaurant. Woo hoo! i have not had crabs in agesss..

De Foodland in Bandar Sri Manjalara, Not a new place, just that i have not been there. When you have been deprived of these tasty morsels... the place I believe, may not matter so much. Just as long as I get to crab and claw my way into its flesh.

Creamy butter crab (one of the recommended choices). The sauce was really good though some of us felt the crab wasn't really fresh as the meat was too soft and not firm and succulent.

Pepper salt crab. Now this is what i'm talking about. Sweet juicy crab meat flavoured just right with 2 simple seasonings. This. was. good.

Crab with salted egg yolk. My all time favourite style. Also one of the recommended choices here. Talk about cholesterol - this is THE works. Not bad as well but I had a better version at Tak Fook (yet to blog about this place).

Pork ribs with Guinnesss stout. Swoooonnnn. So absolutely delicious! What a winning combo! I am going to search for the recipe and try cooking it one day!

Meal was FOC as my CG leaders paid for 'em. Thanks E & J! Prices here are slightly expensive and helpings are not very large though.

Kung Fu Chao at Alexis

My idea of unwinding is either to glue my eyes to the laptop and watch movies or to have a satisfying meal at a place with good ambience. After our US trip, Hubs and I have been on a more watchful mode and are trying not to spend too much on meals. When i was not paying for my own home and bills (ie staying with parents) I didnt think much of forking out RM50 for a good meal. Well, things are different now ...

However, the past few weeks at work have been horribly hectic and stressful. Our company had a recent restructuring exercise and I ended up with double my current portfolio. So all i remember from the past few weeks were running up and down, solving issues, understanding the flow of the new products, meeting up with even more suppliers and basically just moving along from one day to the other without really knowing wat went on. Who wants to work like that?

Anyway, complaining about work is something everyone will have a say on. This blog is meant to be an account of my happier times so i shan't rant here.

Hubs ended up as runner up for one of his company's presentation 'competitions' (?) so he got rewarded and what better way to spend that money than on his wife? muahaha.

So here's how we ended up at Alexis and broke our solemn vow of spending less on food.

Truffle pappardelle with cep. Tastes like Kung fu chao. hmmm I havent tried this sort of pasta before. Pappardelle reminds me of kuey tiow. Flat ribbons of pasta -smooth but they all kinda stuck together in clumps. The truffles were deliciously juicy and i think they were soaked in wine and the light cream sauce complemented the pasta well.

Hubs had a simple linguini with pesto. Tasty and well done.

Dessert - For me, Alexis's classic cake, the Tiramisu (RM12). I love Alexis's version of it. The best! Sponge cake generously soaked in liquor, cheese filling was delicious and had lots of chocolate rolls in it and the cake was topped with crunchy bits of toasted nuts and glass candies.


Hubs had a brownie which came nice and warm with lots of fudge and a dollop of ice cream. (RM12)