Mee akochan!

 

Mee Ako-chan. Mee yang sangat epik. Ayah reka mee ini dan saya memberi nama kepada mee ini bedasarkan salah satu watak dalam cerita aksi bersiri ketika saya masih kecil (Siapa masih ingat Jetman?). 

Pada satu hari ayah membungkuskan untuk kami bawa sebekas besar ke sekolah, dan kerana mee yang dibungkuskan banyak, kami kongsikan dengan rakan sebilik kami. Wah! Sangat digemari ramai. Dengan tahun-tahun yang mendatang, peminat mee akochan ini pun bertambah; bila kami bertukar rakan sebilik, orang baru dapat merasa mee ini. 

Apabila kami adik beradik semuanya sudah memasuki alam universiti, hilanglah peluang rakan-rakan kami untuk menikmati mee akochan ayah yang sedap ini. Itulah yang membuatkan saya rasa saya patut menuntut ilmu dari ayah bagaimana untuk membuat mee ini dan dimasukkan ke dalam blog agar rakan-rakan saya boleh mencuba sendiri resepi ini. 

Bahan-bahan:

Yee mee (pack of 375g)

Bawang merah (+- 1/2 cwn)

Bawang putih (+- 1/4 cwn)

Halia (+- 1x3cm)

Cili giling (1/4 cwn-1/2cwn) bergantung dengan tahap pedas yang digemari

Sos tiram (+- 1/3 cwn)

Kicap (+- 1/4cwn)

Kiub ayam / daging (2 biji)

Lauk (ayam/daging/kambing)

Air / air rebusan

Tomato (1 biji dipotong dadu)

Sayur mengikut cita rasa (lobak merah, seleri, kobis, sawi)

Daun ketumbar (+- 1 genggam)

Garam dan gula secukup rasa.

Telur 4 biji.

Kaedah:

Kalau menggunakan daging atau kambing, saya cadangkan rebus dulu untuk lembutkan daging. Air rebusan daging atau kambing digunakan dalam masakan.

Panaskan minyak dalam periuk , tumis bawang dan halia hingga hampir garing. 

Masukkan cili giling, masak untuk sekurang-kurangnya 10 minit dengan api kecil atau sederhana agar cili masak.

Masukkan sos tiram, masak hingga nampak kuah makin masak.

Masukkan pula kicap. Masak lagi.

Masukkan lauk, Jika ada air rebusan, boleh dimasukkan dalam beberapa minit selepas lauk dimasukkan. 

Masukkan kiub ayam/daging dan tomato. 

Rasa kuah dan tambah garam atau gula mengikut cita rasa. Kuah tidak perlu dimasinkan sedikit atau dimaniskan sedikit untuk sesuaikan dengan mee.

Apabila kuah sudah mula mendidih, boleh mula memasukkan sayur yang sudah dipotong. 

Masukkan telur, terus kacau jika anda suka telurnya kecil, atau biar sebentar jika anda suka serpihan telur yang besar. 

Masukkan mee apabila kuah sudah mendidih. Masak hingga mee lembut.

Tabur daun ketumbar sebelum makan. Mee sedap dimakan panas. Tapi saya suka walaupun mee sudah sejuk dan kembang. 

Naan - plain.. cheese.. garlic

    

   For a while now I am back in Shah Alam in the plan to help my post-natal sister. A few times in every week, she will request her husband to search for her naan. And as luck have it, her favorite restaurant stop producing naan due to the MCO. So her husband need to be creative in searching other restaurant that still serve the bread. So one morning when the young mother has been complaining that she is hungry and there is no breakfast prepared and there seems nothing is available to prepare, I decided to search for a simple naan recipe. I decided to follow the recipe from this webpage. And it yielded somewhat unexpectedly good naan.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 cups of APF

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 cups of water

3 tbsp oil 

Method:

I used wet-mix-to-dry method. In one bowl I put together the dry ingredients, ensuring that yeast didn't touch with salt. In another container, I put together the wet ingredients. I decided to use cold water so the yeast has more time to rise as I usually took a long time to knead the bread. But this method only applicable if you are sure 100% that your yeast is alive. 

I used a mixing machine, as my hand was somewhat injured, but you could always use your strong pair of hands. Knead until the dough tend to stick upon it-self rather than to your hands. Cover and let to rest for about 30 minutes or until double in size.

Punch the dough, knead for a little bit more to ensure trough distribution. Divide the dough to six small ball. 

Flatten the ball, fill in with cheese (if you want to make a cheese naan) or with grated garlic (if you want to make a garlic naan), close into a new ball and flatten the ball again and cook on a non-stick pan and covered on the smallest heat. If you want a plain naan, you could always skip the filling step. In about 4-5 minutes, flip the naan to cook the other surface. Cook until the surface of the naan have golden spots and a little charred.   

Enjoy with curry, or mint sauce, or tandoori chicken or even on its own. 

Dampfnudeln (German dumpling)

    

    Locked at home (a metaphor), I opt to re-watch The Great British Bake Off series. During season 4 the bread episode, I was re-exposed to dampfnudeln. What a dampfnudeln you ask? According to wikipedia; dampfnudel is a sort of white bread roll or sweet roll eaten as a meal or as a dessert in Germany, Austria and in France. It looked to me as some sort of a bao, but without the need for me to bring out the steamer out. THAT intrigue me. The recipe that was shown in TGBBO was sweet, but as far as I know, bao is usually eaten savory, so I figure I can do that to dampfnudel too, and when I googled, it was written you can do that. So I searched about dampfnudel, don't be side-tracked, I only looked to 3-4 recipe pages.  I opt to use this recipe as reference. 

Knowing myself (I am not a good kneader); I didn't give the yeast time to bloom first before starting to knead nor do I start with a warm milk, rather I used milk in room temperature. 

    But lo and behold! I have underestimated the recipe. The pan that I used was a bit too small, thus even though the dumpling seems cooked, the dumpling was smooshed. So after the 20 that-I-was-not-supposed to open the pan, I transfer the dumpling to another bigger pan and proceed to steam it again, but maybe because the pan is a too-good-of-a heat conductor, even with the smallest heat setting on the stove, burning smell can be detected.. I turn off the stove and enjoy a somewhat smoky dumpling with chicken curry. Hehehe. 

    Im planning to try the recipe again, but to be steamed in two batches...or maybe half the dough..?

Ingredients:

Dough:

3 cup AP flour

1/4 cup of sugar

1 1/2 packet of yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

2 eggs

Poaching liquid:

1 cup milk

3 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup sugar (less or none if you are planning to enjoy the dumpling savory)

1 teaspoon salt (if you enjoying savory)

Method:

Knead the dough until the dough stick to itself better then it sticks to your hands.

Put in a big bowl, cover and left to rise for about 1 hour. 

When it has double in size, knead a bit more, the divide the dough to fist sized balls. 

Put the balls in a large frying pan and cover. Let rise for about 15-20 minutes.

Warm the poaching liquid before adding to the proved dough. 

Cover and steamed on a small heat for about 15-20 minutes. Don't open the cover or you risk the dumpling to shrink. 

Enjoy with jam and custard if you like it sweet, or you can also enjoy it with curry like I did. 

cream maceroni inspired by 5ecret recipe

 

The other day,  my sisters came back home bringing a pack labeled 5ecret recipe, being the nosy person I am, I peeked into the pack, my middle sister directly says "Share with mother". Inside was macaroni with a thin white sauce, and shrimp and melted cheese on top. There are small mushrooms pieces here and there. To be honest, it was quit bland for my taste, but the mushroom sure do help in encouraging me to take another bite. The melted cheese helped too.. I was a bit curious on how to make it, especially when I once watch a korean realty tv show where the participants made spaghetti (I think) cream pasta. Knowing that 5ecret recipe has a menu of it, I use it as reference to search in the internet. By chance my neighbor gave us a pack of grilled shrimp, searching for ways to use the shrimp, I got the idea to made this recipe. 

Ingredients:

2/3 pack of elbow pasta (boiled- a minute to reach al dente)

3 clove of garlic (mince)

shrimp stock

1 tbsp dried shrimp (soaked and blended or crushed)

1 cup of mushroom (shred)

1 tbsp chili flakes

1/2 tbsp thyme

1 1/2 cup milk

salt to taste

3 slice of cheddar sandwich slice

1/3 cup of mozzarella cheese

Method: 

1) Saute garlic and dried shrimp until fragrant.

2) Add the stock. Let it boil until nearing dry. 

3) Add the mushroom, chili flake and thyme. Cook until tender. 

4) Add the pasta and milk, mix and let cook for 2-3 minutes.

5) Add the cheddar slice and salt to taste.

6) Lower the heat, sprinkle mozzarella on top the pasta, close the pan and let it steam for 5 minute before turning off the heat. 

7) To be enjoy warm. 😊

Tomato bread

It's been awhile since I last made my sundried tomato bread. Honestly I so love that bread.. but the act of drying drying the tomato (I can't seem to find any sundried tomato sold anywhere) was so time and electric consuming.  So, I searched for another tomato bread but using tomato puree. I think it comes out quiet nicely. My daughter certainly think so..

ingredients:

3 1/2  cups apf

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 package active yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup shredded cheddar

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp garlic powder

 1/4 tsp dried thyme

1/3 cup tomato puree

1 cup water

1 tbsp olive oil

Methods:

1) In a saucepan; heat tomato puree, water and oil. Set aside.

2) In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, cheddar and herbs. Ensure when putting in the ingredient; do not put yeast and salt next to each other as salt could kill the yeast. Using a fork or whisk, mix the dry ingredient. 

3) Make a well and pour the wet ingredient in the well. Mix if you are using a mixer, or knead until smooth and elastic. 

4) Leave in a oiled bowl and cover. Let to prove until double the size ( for about 50 min)

5) Knead for about 5 min, shape the dough, put in the bread pan and let it prove for another 40-50 min 

6) Bake for about 30 minutes.

No bake peach cheesecake

 

Since my daughter starting to star my videos, she has been hankering me for us to make a cheesecake. I kept on delaying as cream cheese is not an easy find, and even if you found it, the price can hurt your wallet. But as her grandfather's birthday nearing, I comply.

Ingredient:

Crust:

7-10 piece of digestive or marie biscuit

2 tablespoons of sugar

70g butter

 

Cake:

500g cream cheese

¾ cup of fine sugar

1 small box of cream (about 200 ml)

5 peach halves (pulverised)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Orange food coloring (optional)

1 small pack of agar-agar (8-10g)

1 cup of water

 

Decoration:

Jelly or konyaku (prepare as instructed on packaging)

Peaches halves (cut to preference)

 

 

Methods:

Prepare the crust:

Crush the biscuit to preference. I prefer the biscuit some big pieces, some prefer it finer.

Add the melted butter and sugar.

Mix thoroughly

Pour into prepared springfoam pan that have been layered with cling film

Packed the biscuit using the base of a clean cup (or anything else that flat bottomed)

Put in fridge to solidify.

 

 

Prepare the agar-agar:

Pour the agar-agar powder in a saucepan.

Add in water and let it bloom for about 5 minutes

Melt on a small flame just before adding to the cheese base

 

 

Cake:

In a mixing bowl, put in the cream cheese and sugar. Beat until somewhat fluffy

Add in cream, crushed peach, and vanilla. Continue beating until fully incorporated

Add the hot agar-agar slowly while beating.

Pour the cheese base into the prepared cake pan

Put into the fridge to cool for at least 4 hours

 

Decorating:

Cut the peach halves to your liking and arrange it on the cake as your preference.

Pour prepared jelly or konyaku to solidify the arrangements.

Chill to set.

Chocolate cake - minus the egg

 

Since the start of the 1st MCO,  I've been staying at my mother's house which accidentally act as her bakery. Seeing her grandmother bakes everyday makes my daughter also wants to join in the fun. As luck have it, we are stuck at Kota Puteri at the present MCO. With not much she can do, she is begging me to allow her to bake (of course I did all the baking, she only do the pouring the ingredients into the mixing bowl). And around the same time my sister has been requesting me to edit a video of my daughter making fruit tarts for her work, that inspired me to record and edit my own video.  Being far from any known bakery, I was a little heavy hearted to let her use all of my butter stock for her baking, so I searched for recipe that uses oil rather than butter. This is the recipe I've decide to use and I do not regret one bit..

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 cups water

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoon vinegar. 

Methods:

Preheat your oven to 175 C and prepare your baking pan.

Mix all your dry items in a  bowl

Mix your wet ingredients in another bowl

Mix both of the wet and the dry ingredient until fully incorporated. 

Bake for about 40 minutes or until the toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.