SimPle PleaSures (in EveRy BiTe)

Yes, I consider myself as a cooking fanatic.  I don’t know what it is that makes me love to make something in my little kitchen. (Hint: maybe because I also like to eat). Heheh.

It’s really hard not to cook for people like me.  Every day, I feel like I have to make something.  Have you ever feel this way?  Or is it just me over estimating myself?  I don’t know. 

Yesterday night, I told myself I have to stop cooking or baking so much because it will not help me starting my diet again.  Yes!  Unfortunately I have gained countless pounds the last 2 years and it’s not even funny!

BUT.  But people.  There is this cheesecake I tasted 2 days ago and it was heavenly.  It’s that famous Japanese Cheesecake that a lot of people were and are still raving about.  It’s really soft and light, yet perfectly delicious since it just melts in your mouth.  It’s flavour is similar to NY cheesecake (lemonny), yet, the texture is like night and day.

So, just one more day, I think I have to postpone my diet (what’s one more day, eh!! excuses).  And planning to try this recipe from Riana’s famous and lovely blog:

pennylanekitchen.blogsome.com.

We’ll let you know how it turns out once I am successful at baking it. 

Ciao!

So about 2 years ago, I heard about this steamed brownies.  And there I was thinking, WHAAAT?  Then Mr. Google gave me this one link (I believe it was the first that showed up on the search page at that time) :http://dekap.com/resep/brownieskejukukus.php.

When I first tried the recipe, I successfully made a cake that didn’t rise.  I hated it.  It didn’t even taste like brownies, or a good cake for that matter. 

I was angry at myself for it, so I gave it another whirl.  I couldn’t believe how much it risen the second time around.  Since then, I’ve been using this recipe whenever I want brokus.   I think it taste quite similar to the infamous Amanda Brownies in Bandung. 

I prefer to call it cake more than brownies, since the texture is really not that dense, hence I like!!  .

I haven’t made this cake for a while, like half a year. So I went to my most trustworthy search engine, Mr. Google and typed in "Brownies Kukus".  Guess what?  I CAN’T FIND that recipe from dekap!!  I just don’t see it! 

I literally look up through the google image as well, hoping that maybe the familiar picture of that one brownie piece with cheese layer in the middle will show up, and the link to the website would also be available.

But no.  Nada. Nol.  Zero.  Nothing.

Oh, of course there were a gazillions other brokus recipe that showed up, but Mr. Google Sir!  they are not the same! I want mine!  Where, in the world, IS it?

(At this point, I could not remember for the love of it, WHAT was the site name?  Vicky’s? Indofood? DapurPintar?   )

You know, there is a thing called "favorite" on the IE toolbar that you could have used.
And honestly, I thought I did favorited it.  But nooooo, could not find one inch of it anywhere in my recipe folder! Arrrrgh.

Ok.  I’ve calmed down today.  And I have an hour before he picks me up from work.
And patiently, I tried again, looking over pages after pages of search result. Then, after 3 pages, a site called "Joy of Cooking" emerged from no where.. That’s it!  Why didn’t I see this yesterday when I was frantically browsing?  Wasn’t I using the same keyword? 

It’s amazing, people, how fast the internet grows.  Two years ago, this site, was the most popular one (I am speculating) for a steamed brownies recipe, since it was listed as the first whenever someone type "brownies kukus" in the google search engine.  I was told that’s how Google lists search results. 

Today, it’s waaay down the list.  So, morale of the story, never ever take anything for granted.

Oh, and yes, do mark you favorite links in your favorite folder so that you can save time and energy.  Never follow what I did, unless you want to try another recipe that may dissappoint you because, well, it just doesn’t taste the same!

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups of cake or pastry flour (editted)
• 6 medium eggs, separated
• 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar, combine with egg whites
• 1 cup of fine sugar
• Almond essense
• Strawberry essence
• 1 cup Cedar cheese, grated
• 8 tablespoon butter
• 4 tablespoon sour cream + 1/2 cup of milk or
• 1 cup of milk without the sourcream.

  You will also need:

• Cup cakes moulds
• a water bath in the oven
• love

Filling:

• Pitted cheeries (cut, about 1 cup)
• Strawberry cream cheese (1 cup)
• Icing sugar (1/2 cup)
• 2 egg yolks
• Combine cream cheese with icing sugar and yolks with mixer until soft, add cherries.

Instructions

Heat water bath in the oven. 

Melt butter or margarine at low heat, add milk or sour cream.  Remove from heat.  Let cool for about 10 minutes.  In the mean time, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff. Then beat sugar and egg yolks until white and fluffy.  Add shifted flour into the sourcream/butter mix, stir vigourously.  Put into egg yolks mixture.  Beat manually but thoroughly.  Add almond extract into the mix.  Mix well. 

Fold in egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, making sure not to fold too agressively, the mixture needs to still be light and fluffy. Devide it into 2, one with the addition of strawberry esence.  Put the almond one into the cup cake moulds.  Then drop some of the pink/strawberry one to the mixture.

Next, drop 1 tbsp filling in each of the cup cakes.

Then put mold into our (your) lovely oven at 350 F for about 45 minutes. 

Put into the oven (already set at 350 F) on the water bath (should cover the mould about 2 to 4 cm). 30 minutes into the baking, sprinkle some cheese on the top of the cup cakes and switch from bake to broil. Watch so that the cheese doesn’t burn.

Take out of the oven about 45 minutes into the cooking. 

Hope you like it.  I definitely say this is a keeper.  This cake is interesting as the texture is so soft it melts in your mouth!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Ree,

This one is for you.  It took me literally FOREVER to figure out a dish that I think can flip your skirt up!  So I decided to make something that I am 93% sure (I love numbers) you will like.  I am saving the 7% for the other 1000 recipes you are receiving for your contest. Dangit!

To be honest, this dish really reminds me of your posting about your trip to Austin.  I, too, was there years ago, since I went to school somewhere close to that city (about 2 or 3 hours away.. hint hint..).

And I LOVE Egg plant. Don’t you?  I know you do.. You LOOOOVEE egg plant, come on, say it, say it!!  And I know Marlboro Man doesn’t really like fancy dishes as such (is it really fancy, btw?  I don’t know what I am talking about).  But, if he likes lasagna, he may like this one.

The taste of the eggplant is there, definitely, but blends with my lovely white sauce, which, for your information, was created while I was looking for tips to make cake moist… (there is a mayonnaisse part involved here that makes the dish taste yummy tummy..)

Ok, shall we?

Here goes.

Ingredients:

Egg Plant Mixture

1 egg plant
1/2 to 1 yellow onions or 3 cloves of shallots, minced
1 1/2 tsp of sage
1 tsp of nutmeg or less
1 cup of parsley
1 japapeno pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 apple (thinly sliced)—>  optional
2 tbsp light brown sugar
Salt to taste

White Sauce Mixture
1 cup of dried or fresh chives
4 tablespoon of REAL mayonnaisse (non of those fake stuff)
1 cup monterey jack cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese
(The cheeses can be substituted by your choice.. mozzarella and cheddar, mozzarella and mont. jack, asiago and havarti.. etc)
1 cup of milk
3 medium eggs
salt and pepper to taste.

You will also need the following to make this dish:

2 cups of bread crumb or cracker crumbs

2 lovely frying pans of your choice
1 rectangular (I love math) casserole dish of your heart’s desire..
Lots of love for your family..!

To make the egg plant mixture..

Slice one big purple egg plant (not the chinese ones) into thin pieces
Mince garlic, parsley, jalapeno peppers, and yellow onion (I sliced this thinly).
Slice the apple thinly as well.
Eat one slice of apple to lift your spirit up during this process (the apple may taste oniony..can you tell, I was making this at 4 am…!).
Saute them together in 5 – 6 tablespoons of olive oil in one of the frying pans on medium high heat until the onions kind of caramelize..and the smell of garlic fills up the room..


In the mean time, also cook the egg plant in the other pan. Saute the slices with at least 10 tbsp of olive oil or butter until soft and tender.. like this.. Add salt and pepper and sprinkle with Lea and Perrin sauce..



When they are done, put them aside… and now make the lovely white sauce..!  Ehhhhmm.. yummy!

To make tha! sauce:

Combine chives, milk, eggs, cheese, and mayonnaisse in a bowl or tupperware like this.. 





and mix or whisk together until well blended…

Observe for a moment.. are there bubbles?  Yes? Good.. it looks better when there are bubbles.. .
Don’t forget to add about  5 gulp of the lea & perrin sauce to this mixture..

That’s it for the sauce!

Now, get ready to get your good old spagetti sauce or tomato sauce or tomato paste..



If you use tomato sauce like Ragu’s, you will need about 1 cup of it.  If you use tomato paste, you’ll need to heat it up a bit with hot water so that combined it would be about 1 cup.

OK then.  Get ready to assemble your mixtures!!

Align the eggplants peacefully like soo…

Put crumbs on top of the eggplant, tomato sauce, and white sauce in sequence.

Repeat this layering until the rest of your ingredients are gone and cover with a final layer of white sauce.

Put into over that has been pre-heated to 300 F or 180 C.

Take out of the oven about 40 minutes into the baking.

And enjoy! 

 Ree, I hope you will at least try to make this, and I hope you’ll like it!

 

Ana

Ugh.  Hate it when I fail to make the real thing. 

Well then again, what can ya do, when you only have (read: can only afford) certain ingredients and missing other important ones such as Mascarpone cheese, which, pretty much, well.. let’s just say.. mark the existance of a dessert called Tiramisu, somewhere in Italy.

Can you believe it, they even feed the cows special food to produce mascarpone.  Just like how they feed special food to the cows in Japan to make KOBE steaks. Apparently this type of steak melts in the mouth at first bite!

Anyways, back to my mission of making Tiramisu (haven’t had it in years, I think 6 for sure), I had the good old cream cheese instead, whipping cream, eggs (of course), and strong coffee.  I also had left over cake from my cup cake experiment the other day.  I looked at my cake book and it says that you can substitute the flour to make cake with something else, such as crackers … or other left over cakes, crumbs, etc.

So I made a sponged cake from left over, dried, cup cakes!  The result, man, it’s pretty moist!  I love it!

So, I thought of perhaps making some sort of tiramisu, and this is what it turns out:

The taste?  Let’s just say the husband wanted a second plate!  (He couldn’t wait until tomorrow, you’re supposed to leave it overnight..BUT..I guess that’s not happening, no sirry!.. ).

It’s close to the real thing, but if you really really want to taste how Tiramisu is supposed to taste, go with the real thing.  Get some special cow love and get mascarpone!

In addition to the ganached top cupcakes I made for my co-worker Dharshan, I managed to squezze in time to make marble cupcakes.  The recipe is from the Good Housekeeping collection of cakes and dessert, and I have to say I am a bit dissappointed with what it turns out to be. 

The cake was dry and was not as tasty as my regular sponge cake.  Perhaps it’s because the recipe did not include any egg yolks, which usually makes the cake with softer texture and more moist.  I should have tried to bake this one with water bath. Oh well, I mean it wasn’t bad, but I would definitely prefer the other one…

Dharshan commented that he wanted to take this one home for the wifey, and the cook (moi, yours truly) immediately stopped his plan and said to take the one with the ganache instead…. he tried to convince the cook by saying, “..but I prefer the ones with the little heartssss… “.. These are engineers, people, and they VERY seldom talk cute like this.  Cute is not a word for them. Logic is.   

It’s amazing what food can do to one’s mood. 

:)

For Dharshan…

It has just… begun! Congrats my friend!

Just recently someone (or a family) opened a new no-frills near our house.  No-frills are quite popular here in Toronto as at times this particular grocery chain offers incredibly cheap sales on food such as my much-needed cream cheese, much-needed chocolate milk for the Akang, much-needed yogurt, much-needed juice, and many more much-needed stuff for our tummy purposes.

Anyways, the point of this posting is NOT to advertise on No-Frills, really.  It just happened that we were pretty excited that one is opening close-by and we wanted to check if there were welcoming sales in addition to the regular sales they have.

Turned out they didn’t.  I was bummed. 

However, my wonderful and skillful eyes noticed that a thrift store next to it was having a 50% sale on EVERYTHING in the store. I know it means buying things second hand.  I know it means recycling some things already being used by other beings we have NO knowledge of.

And I know it means that the having to enter at-your-own-risk phenomenon is right in front of me.

But heck! Some of the stuff are still REALLY in good condition.  Some were even probably only being used for a couple of times and then boom—> sent to good will! And all can be bought in fraction of the cost. 

My budget was $10.

So I decided, perhaps, just perhaps, they may have those lovely cake moulds the Bulk Barn is selling for $30.  Or perhaps, just perhaps, they may have those Wilton cake decoration sets.  Or, perhaps, just perhaps, they may have those Better Homes and Garden books I wanted a few years back, only being able to borrow from my ridiculously clean and organized roommate in University (no, it’s not you Dini), and being afraid of her yelling if I accidentally spill some of the mayonnaise on one of the pages while trying to make home made Ranch dressing.

Aaah.. the possibilities are endless, I have to say.

So there I was, walking casually into the store, while my husband just followed.  He, on the other hand, had nothing in mind.

Clothing rack, passed.  Too many, too little time.

Accessories and decorations, uhm.. a minute? two minute? Maybe I’ll come back later.

Plates rack!  Aaah. Plates!  Do I need them?  They’re about 50 cents to a dollar each. Not bad for a Correlle, I supposed.  BUT, some were badly chipped.  And I thought they were chip resistance! 

My heart just bleeds seeing those plates.  They weren’t taken care of!  Please, please, take care of your correlle plates.  They are a gem.  They are light.  Their decorations last a lifetime, but often produced only for a limited time.   Sigh.  Don’t need them at the moment, though.

"Hey, what do you think of this?" Suddenly my Akang shuffled my view with a small portable heater, completely covering my view of those butterfly corelle plates. 

The heater was small, black, and.. $2.

"I think if you need it, you should get it.  Your hands are always cold at the office, so it may help?" I answered, while trying to look for an electrical outlet to perhaps try this heater before we decide to buy it. 

My husband looked around too, he was thinking the same thing.  Our eyes instantly froze at an outlet next to the shelf containing books.  Hold on.  Did I see BOOKS?  Oh my.

We went up to the outlet, my husband instantly shoved the connector into it, and tried to dial the fan and heater knob. My eyes were still fixed on the book shelf. 

Biography – pass
How to books – hm.. interesting.. but.. don’t need them now..

"The fan’s not working.." my Akang said, diverting my attention from the books.
"Oh?"
"Yeah.."
"Oh well, I don’t really need it," he continued. "I can look again some other time.."
"OK.."

And he put the heater back to where it was before. 
I happily went back to my books. 

There were so many of them.  From novels, old magazines, renovIation books, science, bio-graphy, and many more.  I was looking for a cake book.

Hey, what’s that?  I wondered as I pulled out a green book out next to a gardening book, it says "Vegetarian Cooking.."  Oooooooh.. and then .. what’s that?  Right next to it.."Fruits". One of "A Good Book" series.  Oooh. My mom used to have one titled "Bread".  In French.  Which I have no knowledge of.

The book was cool, full of instruction and recipes for a beginner like me.  And I am so happy to have found some in English! 

I moved to a couple of books to the right.. "Cakes"  Eureka  It’s perfect. It’s got the step by step instruction I like so much.  This was exactly the book my mom had, yes, yes, the one that I don’t understand cause it was in French, but had oh-so-interesting-food-pictures in it.

So, at the end, I finally found some treasure at the thrift store.  Here they are. 

And what’s best is, it was about $10 in total!

See.. it’s got instructions in them.  Man, I am a happy camper.

My favorite tea in the whole world:

http://tehgopek.tripod.com/

What I am still looking for:

 

What I don’t think tastes like orange pekoe:

http://www.tetley.ca/English/TetleyTeas/Products.cfm.

Just simply taste it as a little bland on the tongue.

But tea is definitely addictive! 

What makes you happy?  What makes you forget all your worries and make you say Alhamdulillah?

I love baking cakes.  I love to see the way it rises in the oven, and the smell it fills my kitchen.I love making trying new recipes, like onde-onde the other day. I love to see the way it turns by itself in the hot oil and the way it floats as a sign it’s almost done.  I really enjoy cake decorating, even though at times it can be so messy and I hate cleaning.

I love talking to my best friend from college.  I miss her dearly and wish she is closer. 

I really looooooooove seeing a rainbow.  To me, it’s a gift from Allah whenever He SWT is really pleased with me.  Hehe.

I love the sound of the leaves touching each other helped by the wind, as well as the sound of rain down the roof.  As if each is carried by an angel with a million wings.

I love to see my beloved and spend sometime travelling with them. 

I like going to markets, only farmer markets.  There is something special about touching fresh fruits and honey while talking directly to the grower.

Mostly, I love that feeling… I don’t know when I am going to get it again, but for sure… that’s number one.

The feeling of being so close to Him, as if He is in front of me. 

How I miss that feeling…. How I regret all the things I’ve done that has prevent me from having that feeling again…

I am so far away… so far away.. yet, I still try to smile .. by embracing those little moments.