Pancakes

I decided to rekindle my luv for pancakes recently, thinking more of the little one than myself. For my first attempt, I tried the given recipe right off the milk carton. Maybe it was my maiden attempt (after a few decades long), I didn’t like the outcome. I thought it was too cake-y for a pancake. It was not airy, and very heavy.

Hunted for various pancake recipes and after tweaking a few of them, here’s my version:

• 2 cups self-raising flour – to sift first then measure 2 cups
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs – sit at room temperature
• 2 and 1/4 cups buttermilk – sit at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 2tsp of vanilla essence

Preparation:
Sift together flour, sugar, and salt. Aeration causes the pancakes to rise better and therefore become more fluffy. Set your dry mixture aside.

In a separate bowl, beat your egg lightly, do not overbeat. Add melted butter and beat lightly till it blends. Add half of the milk and beat lightly. Add all of the dry mixture, mix. Add the rest of the milk and mix.

Your batter will be lumpy but Never overmix your batter as the lumps will cook out. Approximately 15 secs of mixing is enough, if you want to time yourself.

Using about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake, cook until bubbly, a little dry around the edges, then turn over and brown the other side.

Bubbly on top and a little dry around the edges, then flip:

1 set of blueberry pancakes and 1 set of plain pancakes.

If you can't find buttermilk in the supermarkets, which usually happens to me when I needed it most, you can actually make ur own buttermilk with normal fresh milk. Use 1 tsp of lemon juice for every cup of milk, let it sit for 5 minutes and you’ll get buttermilk. Easy? :)

Oh and You can of cos' add fruits to your batter too: bananas, blueberries, strawberries, anything goes!

I am still happy with this recipe and I prefer the outcome of this recipe a lot more. Unfortunately, my dear son's not a pancake eater. He doesn’t like them! Must be a boy/male thing? Bcos both hubster and son do not take to pancakes well.

But I do.

Yummy to Mummy! :)

Chicken Curry

Chicken is our favourite poultry, like I've mentioned before. And Chicken curry is another favourite dish in the house. Why's that so? For a very simple reason - Because of its versatility. We can have it with baguette, normal white bread, rice and of course with our favourite roti jala too. Yum Yum!

For my curry, I don't use coconut milk. I used lotsa tomatoes though. The thing about cooking curry is you've to make sure that the oil separates properly and only then will your curry 'become' curry, if you get what I mean. If the oil doesn't separate, the taste is not quite there.



Here's my chicken curry recipe, and I cooked curry a lot. It's quite the staple dish at home. :P

Ingredients:
I whole chicken, cut into 8/12/14 pieces.

A)
2 big red onions - sliced thinly (I don't use yellow onions in my dishes. But spicy, huge red onions as they are packed with more flavour too).
2 ripened tomatoes - diced them up
3 cardamoms
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves


B)
2 cloves of garlic - to blend it
1 cm old ginger - to blend it
1 tbsp tomato puree
Mint leaves - loading up on the mint leaves is a treat


C)
1 cup of water
2 potatoes, quartered
2 ripened tomatoes - quartered
2 fresh green chillis - halved


Half a packet of Baba's meat curry powder
coriander leaves - for garnishing

Method:
Fry A) till the sliced onions become translucent

Add in B) and fry thoroughly.

Add the chickens to the mix and cover the lid for around 3 minutes. Then, add half a packet of meat curry powder, mix thoroughly and cover the lid again for around 3 minutes or so, to allow the flavours to infuse through.

Then, add in C). Cover the lid and cooked till the oil separates and the potatoes become soft.
Garnish with some coriander leaves. Voila! The curry's done! :)

Mint leaves are essential as it enhances the curry flavour and gives an enticing aroma that's sure to whet ur appetite further. I've used curry leaves before but mint leaves are still the ones for me.

A gastronomical treat indeed. :)

Grilled Drumlets

I like using my oven a lot, whether baking cakes, cookies or grilling meat.

The chicken is our favourite poultry at home. Chicken curry, grilled chicken, sambal chicken, fried chicken, u name it, we love it.

For grilling chicken, I prefer to use drumlets than the wings. Wings are almost always reserved for frying.



This is another simple grilling recipe that I've been using, but it's based on agar-ration.

Ingredients:

Tomato Sauce/ketchup
Chilli Sauce (Lingham chilli sauce is my fav brand)
Honey
Dried oregano
Black Pepper
Salt

Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Mix all the above and marinate the drumlets. I waited 5 hours before grilling the chicken. U can also marinate overnight.

Grill for 20 minutes and then turn over and grill for another 5-10minutes.

I like to dry roast my black pepper first and then crushed it with pestle&mortar for the aroma. Wonderful wonderful indeed!

Oregano helps to enchance tomato or spicy dishes. I used mexican oregano which has a stronger flavor so I have to be careful not to go overboard or it'll be too overpowering.

This is another simple recipe, a bit of agar-ration required depending on the taste that you'd like it to be, more tomato or more honey or go crazy and load on the black pepper. Yum!

Roti Jala

Since I was young, roti jala has always been one of my favourite dishes. I'd always look forward to devouring it either on its own, which is just as great, or with chicken curry. I love it with chicken curry more than any other curries.

I wouldn't be able to resist buying them if I see them too.

Of cos' when the love for such (food) is too strong, it's also proportionate to trying making it on my own, in my cooking and eating rules, as much as possible that is. :P




I went through a few recipes online and I noted the different variations to it; some used coconut milk, evaporated or fresh milk. I've never used milk in my roti jala recipe. Here's the very simple recipe that I have been using:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of plain flour
  
• 1 cup of water
  
• 1 medium or large size egg
  
• a bit of yellow colouring or you can use a few dash of tumeric
  
• some salt
  
• some cooking oil
  

Method:

• Mix all the above ingredients thoroughly. There should not be any lumps. You can either use a sieve to sieve through or blend the mixture in an electric blender to get a smooth mixture
  
• Heat a non-stick pan and grease some oil onto it. Not too much or the roti jala will become too oily
  
• Fill 1/4 of the roti jala mould with the mix and spiral it.
  
• It cooks very fast, so you basically have to stand in front of your stove and get free sauna too.
  
• Fold it into triangle. I usually put 2 pieces of the roti jala together before folding into triangles
  

Put a little bit of oil if the mixture doesnt flow out of the mould easily, if it has 'hiccups' you know. U need to use a little agar-ration here.

I usually triple the recipe above n it'll give me a good 20 to 24 pieces of roti jala (2 X roti jala for each before folding it into triangles).

It's a common dish to serve guests at my place. Also a hit with the hubster and little one. :)

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Whenever I look through recipes whether online or in bookstores, I'll naturally gravitate towards recipes that seem a little different in the ingredients used or the methods of cooking or baking. I don't know why but trying such recipes gave me a great sense of satisfaction, even if they don't turn out well, because at least I've tried and if they didn't turn out well, I will keep trying a few times. If I still don't get it, I'll move on... :p

The hubster has been observing this 'habit' of trying a little bit above simpler cooking and baking recipes that he commented this: " shouldn't u try to make ur life simpler and easier?" *Chuckles* For the record, I don't try complex recipes all the time. I don't.

This recipe caught my attention as it uses chilled water. I mean, how interesting is that! I've just got to try it!


Here are my choc fudge cakes! The cake turns out soft. It isn't as dense and rich like some cakes are. The icing is just yummylicious and chocolicious, complementing the cake very well.





I got the recipe from here.

The recipe is from who else, but the domestic goddess herself, Nigella Lawson.
I used the American conversion as I prefer to measure the ingredients in terms of cups i.e 1 or 1/2 or 3/4, the likes.

American Ingredient Conversions:
2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated or superfine sugar
1/3 cup light muscavado or light brown sugar
1/4 cup best quality cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup corn oil
1 1/3 cups chilled water

For the Fudge Icing:
3/4 cup (6 ounces) dark bittersweet chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
Instructions:
For the Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).

Butter and line the bottom of two round 8-inch (20cm) cake pans.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl or wide-necked measuring jug whisk together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla until blended.

Using a free-standing or hand held electric mixer, beat together the melted butter and corn oil until just blended (you’ll need another large bowl for this if using the hand whisk; the free-standing mixer comes with its own bowl), then beat in the water. Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix together on a slow speed.

Add the egg mixture, and mix again until everything is blended and then pour into the prepared pans. And actually, you could easily do this manually; I just like my toys and find the Kitchen Aid a comforting presence in itself.

Bake the cakes for 45-50 minutes, or until a cake-tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes, and then turn the cakes out onto the rack to cool completely.

To Make the Icing:
Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 2-3 minutes on medium should do it, or in a bowl sitting over a pan of simmering water, and let cool slightly.

In another bowl, beat the butter until it's soft and creamy (again, I use the Kitchen Aid here) and then add the sifted congectioners' sugar and beat again until everything's light and fluffy. I know sifting is a pain, the one job in the kitchen I really hate, but you have to do it or the icing will be unsoothingly lumpy. Then gently add the vanilla and chocolate, and mix together until everything is glossy and smooth.

Sandwich the middle of the cake with about a quarter of the icing, and then ice the top and sides, too, spreading and smoothing with a rubber spatula.

(Serves 10 or 1 with a broken heart.)

Makes 10 servings.

Source: Nigella Bites: From Family Meals to Elegant Dinners -- Easy, Delectable Recipes for Any Occasion By Nigella Lawson, Francesca Yorke, Photographer. Publisher: Hyperion; ISBN: 0786868694; 1st edition (October 16, 2002)

This recipe is definitely a keeper. :)

BBQ Meatballs

I've wanted to try making meatballs for the longest time and I did these recently.
The verdict: They were a hit with the hubster and the little one.
Maybe because they are males and males love anything-meat, the carnivorous that they are.

But hey, I love them too so I guess they are a winner (regardless to the XX or XY)!

The meatballs, baked in the oven were very soft and I like how the flavours infused into the meatballs.
These were made using minced beef. I'd like to try mixing minced beef and minced chicken next time.



The recipe is adapted from here

Ingredients:

2lbs ground beef

1 and ½ cup cracker crumbs (I used Ritz Crackers)

I T. mustard ( I used Dijon mustard)

2 medium red onions chopped

3 eggs lightly beaten

¼ to ½ cup of milk

Salt

Black Pepper

Ingredients For the Sauce:

1 cup of ketchup

½ cup brown sugar

1 and ½ tsp dijon mustard

Mix meat, cracker crumbs, mustard, onions, eggs, milk, black pepper, salt . Made into as many big or small balls that you like. I made mine into 15 large balls. I waited out for 2 hours, hoping the flavours would infuse into the meat and then I baked them at 180deg C for 45 minutes.

Fyi, dijon mustard has a stronger flavour and complements meat very well.

For the sauce, mix together ketchup, brown sugar and mustard.

Then spread the sauce over the meatballs and baked again for another 5 to 10 minutes.

As the sauce was a little sweet for my tastebud, the next time I baked these, I’d reduce the brown sugar to 1/4cup or even lesser as brown sugar is sweeter than white sugar.

Overall, it was still great! :)

An Introduction

A big Hello!

Writing has always been a love. And as the name of my blog suggests, baking and cooking are my loves too!

I am a full-time working mother to 1 baby boy. He's actually 3 yrs old, but he'll always be my baby. My weekend therapy and sometimes weekdays are baking and cooking for the loves of my life, needless to say for myself too!

Because some of my bakes (some of the sweeter ones) aren't very adored by the Hubster and little one, I baked for myself then!

I love food and I love eating, so here I am!

Oh and occasionally, I will also 'cook' up ideas on parenting. Well, I am after all, a mummy! Mummies always identify themselves as a Mummy, FIRST. Always. I realised. :)

Enjoy your time here!