Hainanese Chicky Rice, Tmn Melawati

Above portion is slightly more than 1/2 a chicken, RM18

Lookit that chicken, so beautifully roasted, the flesh is tender, juicy and dripping with flavour. The skin is super 'hiong' and all the fat has melted off from it so you don't have the gross fatty bits. Served with a light sauce and cucumber slices, this dish is just perfect!



The 'yellow rice' as we call it, is cooked with the drippings from the roasted chicken. You can imagine how delicious and fragrant it is. Doesnt the rice look so nice and fluffy too? I love pics that are able to show the details well :)



This shop also serves various side dishes like taugeh, tauhu and green veg.

Good food that's affordably priced with friendly service every time! My parents love the food here too, mum says it serves one of the best roast chicken she's ever tasted!

Located at the food square in Taman Melawati town centre. Opens everyday except Thursday. The chicky runs out fast, problie till 2.30 to 3pm only so head there early for your lunch!

For more reviews and detailed directions:
Heart2 Heart
Past, Present, Future

Soba Buckwheat Noodles

I love the earthy colour of soba. Made from buckwheat flour, its a healthy alternative to normal noodles. Contrary to its name, buckwheat is not related to wheat! According to Wikipedia, the name buckwheat or beechwheat comes from its triangular seeds which resemble the seeds of the beech nut and the fact that it is used very much like wheat.


I roughly know buckwheat has plenty of healthy benefits. A quick research proved this. Several interesting links The World's Healthiest Foods, BBC News.


I couldnt resist buying a pack of organic soba made from buckwheat when I was at Cold Storage. It looked sooo healthy, and I felt immediately healthier after buying it. Ha.





I've eaten cold soba and soba in hot soups at japanese restaurants but havent tried it dry. So I'm breaking the rules (or so I think la). Anyhoo, I threw together a simple dish and was plenty pleased with the results. Must be some inner talent. Finally!


Shredded some carrots finely, chopped up some garlic and sliced up some leek, celery and some cabbage into thin strips. Everything cut and ready, I cooked the soba first according to instructions. Lo and behold that was when I realised hey! this is from China!! Good grief, anyway it isnt white in colour so it shouldnt need to have melamime. But my mind started to imagine stuff and the noodles started to look like strips of cardboard or wood shavings pressed together. HEEELLPP!


oh what the heck. My stomach is growling and I already cut up everything. If its cardboard or wood, it should be pretty neutral to my system so let's continue.


Saute the garlic then add in the leek and celery. Cook till fragrant and slightly soft. Add the carrots and cabbage. Cover and let it cook for a bit. Onwards to the soba, cook it just like pasta, in salted boiling water for about 5-8 mins or until soft. Drain, rinse in cold water then put it into the wok with the veggies and mix em up well.


Add salt to taste and some organic mushroom powder if you have some. Tadah! I love the texture and the taste of the buckwheat soba. Really, you don't need to load it with too many ingredients, just simple veggies to subtly enhance its already distinctive taste.


Go over to Simply Recipes or 101 Cookbooks for more simple recipes on buckwheat soba noodles. Enjoy!

Bellaroma Cafe, Damansara Perdana

Another Saturday, and the hunt for good food is on! I've been having cravings for good Italian food for too long.

Throughout weekdays, I mentally make plans to cook during the weekend. Must eat healthy. Must not spend on extravagant food outside. Must explore more recipes.

Sat morning - off to the market, buying all sorts of stuff that (I think) I need.

Sat afternoon - sleepy... need rest.

Sat evening - Hey! let's go out and call so and so!

I dont know how Hubs bears with me. I know I would strangle myself.

Anyhoo, so yea, I didnt cook and we ended up in Bellaroma. Check out their website. Menu and prices are listed.


As neither of us dined here before, we decided to order Chef recommendations. First up. Appetizers.
Italian Crostini with spinach and ricotta. Topped with Parmesan. Pretty good. But I can never get over how much we have to pay for just 4 mini slices of bread. Not at Bellaroma in particular but in almost all Italian restaurants.

Next, the Mediterranean pizza. Roasted capsicums, olives and feta cheese. Tasty and I love their pizza dough! (sorry for the dark pictures, lighting wasnt good and the only functions I know are whether to have the flash on or off :P)

We also had the Lamb Pizza which came with generous, succulent pieces of lamb, all nice and juicy with crumblings of feta cheese. I would have preferred more rosemary though to cut through the general saltiness of the toppings.

The mushroom and blue cheese pizza was also delicious.

Yes and yet another pizza we tried was the Mafia. This was also savoury and delicious. Beef sausage, olives, onions and quail eggs. How can that combination not make your mouth water?

I think what I like best in Bellaroma is the refreshing combination of ingredients used as pizza toppings. They are like a breath of fresh air and everything just reads off deliciously from the menu. You picture it in your mind while ordering and wait for it patiently. They don't disappoint.

The pizzas stole the limelight, the pastas dimmed in comparison. They were ok but I think pretty standard. We badly wanted to try the pot roasted let of lamb pasta unfortunately it sold out.

Hop over there for good pizzas at affordable prices.

Corn & Wintermelon Soup

I've been cooking almost everyday last week. MY and I were on a 'diet feast!' Talk about oxymorons...

I'll post the whole diet programme one day when we go thru it again coz Hubs took the camera while he was away so I couldnt snap any pics of all my lovely meals :( Boo.

The diet programme allows us to have limitless amounts of vegetable soup to help us through. So we cracked our brains to come up with different types of soups so we wouldnt get bored. Plus its best to work with different vegetables so we don't miss out on a balanced meal.

The soups were the hilight of our grey gloomy days - Nothing beats slurping a hearty, hot bowl of soup when the main meals of the day were just cold fruits or banana & milk.. Man, after this diet, you'll realise how much we rely on food to keep us happy.

Anyway, 2 keeper soups from our brainstorming.

1. Corn & Wintermelon Soup. (I'll post the next one soon)



Beautiful isnt it?
Aren't soups just the best? basically you don't really need to measure your ingredients. So for lazy people, this is great! You can just about dump anything in. You can't go wrong as long as you have the basic ingredients - tomatoes, carrots, onions. Yesiree.

So anyway, this is what I put into this soup- Carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, corn, wintermelon, red dates AND my secret mushroom powder and some onion salt. heh heh not so secret anymore. (you can get mushroom powder from organic shops). Of course, don't forget to season with the usual normal salt and pepper.

Boil boil boil

I've never cooked with wintermelon before this. Some people say to remove the skin, some people say not too. So anyway, because I dont trust the growers and didnt want to clog up my body with pesticides, I removed the skin. Of course remove the seeds to la.

I like to chop up my ingredients into big irregular chunks. Makes the soup look more homecooked and there's more 'solids' to bite into.

What's your favourite soup? :) Do share!

Mooncakes!

"Once you've tried HOMEMADE mooncakes, you'll never be able to swallow another commercially made one".

My friend MY went on about this every 5 minutes or so and I'll say, I've never known anyone so passionate about homemade mooncakes.. ever.. no siree.

So that's when we started to plan our mooncake making party. 8 gals with a do or die mission. (plus poor hubs as by default he had to be in, the party was at my place)

Mooncakes - the ultimate killer diet formula - its all about oil, carbo and sugar

Mooncake moulds. I like squishing the cake out from these moulds and seeing the pretty designs on em.

Masterchefs plus an inquisitive sous chef.

That's us in the beginning. At this point, everyone was still enthusiastic and full of hope - har har

That's the chocolate mooncake skin dough. I'll just post the recipe for the normal Lotus skin.

Mooncake skin:
1 cup golden syrup
1/3 cup oil
3/4 tsp alkaline water
1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate
350g cake flour

- Combine the first 4 items in a mixing bowl. Set aside for 1 hour or more.
- Slowly stir in the flour, mix into a dough and set aside for another 4-5 hours. Leaving it overnight would be good too as the dough would be more 'flexible' and easier to work with.
Note: the last part of mixing in the flour is pretty tough. Get a sturdy wooden spoon and a guy with muscles

Now for the lotus paste filling
Mooncake filling:
600g lotus seeds
1/2 tbsp alkaline water
400-425g castor sugar (use less if you feel guilty)
2 cups groundnut oil (use Knife brand)
60g maltose
60g melon seeds (lightly toasted)
A LOT OF PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE (i'm serious here)

- Boil lotus seeds in water with the alkaline water. Test to see if skins can be removed easily. This should take about roughly 20 mins. Wash and remove the skins immediately.
Note: This part is really tedious. Ensure you have a good supply of friends who have no idea what you're gettin 'em into

Happy innocent folks. So unaware of the tortorous hours ahead

Peel peel peel until your skin gets all wrinkly like a prune.

Note: If you don't peel em well, the blackish skin parts will make your paste look hideous and taste bitter. So PEEL!

- Steam the lous seeds till soft
- Cool and blend them up until they become a smooth, thick liquid. Add a little bit of water if necessary but don't add too much.
- In a cooking pot, put 1 cup of oil and half of the sugar needed. Cook the sugar till golden brown then add the blended lotus. Continue cooking at moderate heat. When all the oil has been soaked up, slowly add in the remaining oil and sugar. Add in the maltose.
Note: You have to keep stirring thoughout the entire cooking process or the paste may burn. I couldnt even stir for more than several minutes coz the paste was so darn heavy!


- When the paste is thick and no longer sticks to the pan (like above) its almost ready. Test with a knife. Cut the paste and if it doesnt stick to the knife then its done.
Note: Be alert at this point. Overcooking it would spoil the whole thing as the oil would then start to come out. We learnt this the hard way - some of our batches didnt turn out due to overcooking.
- Remove and cool. If possible, leaving it to cool overnight would be best.


Add salted eggs yolk if you like em. Wow, don't they look like some sort of alien eggs? Steam em first.

Ok here's the done paste, with the lightly toasted melon seeds

Now start making the cake!

- Divide the mooncake skin dough into 40g balls and the lotus filling paste into 120g (if u intend to add the egg yolks) or 150g (without the egg yolks)

- You see the skin in the background? Roll it out thinly. In the front is the lotus paste filling. Flatten it slightly and put the egg yolk in the middle.

- Roll the lotus paste into a ball then wrap the skin around it. Do it carefully to avoid tearing. Try to get the skin around as evenly as possible.

- Next, grease the mooncake mould well. Press the mooncake ball into the mould carefully. even out the surface.

- Press it out and

Voila! Mooncakes! Beautiful ya? Almost fit to be sold.

If you have extra mooncake skin, knock yourself out by making weird creatures only you know what they are. I'm guessing the above is a cross between a pig and a mouse. S what is it?

Anyway, bake the mooncakes in the oven at 180 deg C. for 10 mins. Take out and glaze them with egg glaze

Egg glaze = 1 egg yolk,1 tbsp water and a pinch of salt.

Leave to cool for 10 mins and then pop them back into the oven to bake for another 10 mins.

And there you have it! HOMEMADE Mooncakes and a lost pig/mouse with a birthmark

Siamese Style Fried Bi Hun

Hello hello all! Sorry i've not been blogging for more than a month! Not that I havent been cooking but time just really flies and every morning when i wake up, its a blur till the time i get back from work.

Thank god for the long merdeka weekend, though I have to keep reminding myself that yesterday was Merdeka day. Celebrations this year are significantly watered down. I used to see plenty of cars flying the Malaysian flag proudly. Some would even madly clutter the top of their cars with mini flags or wrap their bonnet with the Jalur Gemilang. This year.. hmm. Its sad but then again, I don't feel very happy with the state of things in our country.

BUT I almost shed tears of joy with the results of the recent by-election. Ha! These coming 2 weeks should be reaaallllyy interesting eh?

So! today I have something really exciting to blog about! Woo hoo. A couple of us went over to one of my cell member's house for a cooking lesson! Not by her, she only knows how to eat (haha sorry LL) but from her gracious aunt!

Mum and dad, try this!

Siamese Style Fried Bihun (rice vermicelli)


(A)
Tauchu
Apple cider vinegar
Sugar
Water

(B)
Heh Bi (dried prawns) smashed and pounded
Shallots (sliced)
Garlic (finely chopped)

(C)

Shallots (thinly sliced)
Garlic (finely chopped)

Taukua (deep fried first and sliced into small pieces)

Bihun (Soaked but not for too long to avoid the bihun getting too soft. LL's aunt recommended the Golden Dragon brand )
Soy sauce

Garnishing:
Fried Shallots
Ku Chai
Dried red chilli flakes (LL's aunt actually made her own - washed, dried em for 3 days then pounded them)


First, mix items (A) and heat them up. Set aside. This is light sauce/seasoning to pour over the bihun when its done.



LL's aunt giving us lotsa tips

Now, heat up some oil and saute items in (B) till fragrant. Break up the Heh Bi into smaller bits. .

Next, its items (C). Saute them up till fragrant. Add the taukua last. Set aside.

Now use remaining oil in pan or add more if you need to. Splash in a generous amount of soy sauce and a dash of pepper. Add the bihun and mix it well. Use a chopstick to detangle the bihun without breaking them. Stir in the taukua.

Serve with lots of the sauce/seasoning you made in (A), sprinkles of the Heh Bi and the rest of the garnishing

Ta-dah!

Corn Casserole

wow, would you look at that! Jagung Mutiara or Pearl Corn. You can eat it raw or steam it over a pot of boiling water and slather it with butter. Absolutely the best corn I've ever eaten - sweet, crunchy and juicy. Its so dense that I couldnt even finish one! We got it from our recent trip to Cameron.

You can even make a casserole out of it but this is definitely not for the faint hearted. Since I had some leftover whipping cream, and I remember reading a recipe from Pioneer Woman on corn... so here goes!

First, slice the kernels off the corn. Now this is a messy and potentially dangerous process for the clumsy ppl. Be careful! I did a pretty lazy job here. Didnt get a clean finish, created such a wasteful mess that I quickly hid it away before Hubs got the chance to ramble on about how many ppl out there are starving. Ok ok i know but my arms are really aching. Anyway, Elise recently came up with some good tips on this. Read it here.

So ok, once you've got all the kernels out, or whatever you can manage, pour in some whipping cream (not too much, you want it to be creamy, not watery), a dash of salt and pepper and of course some butter.

Put the whole thing into the oven and bake for 20-25 mins. And there you have it!

Enjoy!

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Squeezing in a quick post here. Must share this recipe with you guys. Its sooo easy and the results are fantastic!

Cherry tomatoes eaten fresh are great - juicy, sweet but I would say 'mild'. To really appreciate its potential, you gotta let it go thru some fire! (heat lah) haha.

Cut the tomatoes into half, sprinkle some salt and toss it around. Leave for about 15 mins then drain the excess liquids. Now put them into a roasting pan, sprinkle on some olive oil and roast it at 180deg for about 20 mins or more, until the juices have sort of dried up.

Wow. The flavour is deep, intense and sooo good. Trust me. Serve on top some toasty French bread or just eat it on its own.

Tummy Filling Cream of Broccoli Soup

I know some of you may cringe and go eww broccoli soup? I had that with some guys who went ewww .... pumpkin soup? Pumpkin soup was one of the very first recipes I ever tried and got hooked on cooking!

Now, broccoli soup. I like it coz its completely different from pumpkin soup. Its a light green colour. Pumpkin soup is a bright orange colour. So there. I have different coloured soups to blog about.

AND its so much easier.

Chop up shallots and sautee them with oil or butter until they turn translucent. Add in broccoli together with chicken stock. Simmer till the broccoli turns a bright green (don't overcook them!). Save some broccoli florets for garnishing.

Transfer the whole lot into a blender and puree to however fine you want the broccoli bits to be. Pour back into the pot, add whipping cream and lemon juice. Simmer, season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Lamb Chops with Herbs

I saw a whole lot of chilled Australian lamb on promotion and grabbed them off the freezer. I have yet to try my hand at cooking lamb. Hooray! Something new.

I made a simple marinade of dry mixed herbs, added extra dried thyme, then salt, pepper and olive oil. Massage well into the meat and leave in the fridge overnight. To cook, heat up pan with some oil. Cook lamb on one side for about 6-8 mins (depending on thickness of cut) .When its lightly browned, turn to the other side and cook several minutes.

The fat was the best part - all the flavour from the marinade is here and it has a delicious melt in mouth texture.

For more info and tips on cooking lamb, try out these sites

Great Midwest Lamb Company

Lamb cooking guidelines