Coffee Ogura Cake

I have baked many Ogura cake but all failed. Every cake collapsed on me and is inedible. I have to throw them away. Heart pain. For this attempt, I baked it in a tube pan as I usually have better luck with tube pan chiffon cake.

This cake rose beautifully in the oven and kept its height upon cooling. However, the texture of the cake looked so different from the blog. Her cake looked so fine and cottony whereas mine has so many big pores. My cake tasted just like any chiffon cake. Tasty and fluffy. I guess I will try again until I got this cake right in non tube pan.

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Pan-fried Sutchi Fillet with a simple pilaf using HCP

This meal requires minimal washing as I used my Happy Call Pan to fry the fish and cook the pilaf.

First, I melted some butter in some olive oil. Season the fillet with salt and pepper on both sides and pan fried till golden brown. Set aside.

Next, in some olive oil, saute an onion, chopped, until translucent.
   Add in minced ginger and garlic and fry till fragrant.
      Pour in some chopped tomatoes, turmeric and salt and fry till mushy.
         Rice and water in and bring it to a boil.
            Stir lightly. Cover the pan (but do not lock).
               Cook over medium heat until most of the water has evaporated.
                  Lock the pan and cook on low heat until the grain is cooked through.
                     If the water has dried up and the grain is not cooked, sprinkle some water and lock for 5 min.
                        Turn off the heat and rest for another 5 min. Fluff up the rice.

Fragrant rice. If the rice is cooked with stock instead of water, I can eat it without anything else. ;)

Clear-spices Chicken

There is a period of time where I just buy spices that I saw in recipe books. I have no plan to use them, I just want to own them in my pantry.*Faint* Now, I have an array of spices in my cabinet and I have to find some ways to use them in my weekend cooking before they pass their prime.

I realised that by marinating chicken breasts with spices first then bake for 15 minutes in the oven yields a simple and fulfilling meal. In the picture below, I marinated the chicken breasts (cut 3 silts) with rosemary, thyme, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic, salt and pepper. I threw in some boiled potato wedges by the sides and baked it together with the chicken breasts. A well-balanced meal.

Tandoori Chicken

This is a dish that you have to plan ahead as we need to marinate the chicken overnight. As what Alton Brown likes to say, "Your patience will be rewarded". Yes. I was rewarded with a tender and flavorful Tandoori Chicken. I liked the lightly charred exterior as well. I served it with buckwheat for my weekend dinner. This is the recipe to turn to if you want to clear up the spices in your cabinet.

Recipe from Rasa Malaysia

Basic Granola Formula

I seldom buy granola from the supermarket because it is really simple to make a batch at home and it tastes so much better than store bought one.

The nuts and dried fruits are piling up in my fridge. I know by making them into granola, I can reduce the amount by half. I found this recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini which is the basic formula for granola. You are free to use whatever grains or nuts or sweetener or spices that you have at home (or eager to get rid of). You can make your granola more decadent by adding in those optional ingredients. The sky is the limit when it comes to the flavor of the granola, you just have to follow the basic ratio.

Above: Sliced almonds, Sunflower Seeds, Rolled Oats and Dried Cranberries, sweetened with Honey and spiced it up with Cinnamon and Nutmeg

Almond Biscotti

I did not really have a good experience with biscotti as the first piece that I tried almost broke my teeth. Later then I found out that it is meant to be dunk into the coffee. But I still cannot appreciate this cookie until I tried the thinly sliced version. It is so addictive. Nutty and eggy.

I decided to make it at home as this type of cookie comes with a huge price tag. I tried this recipe from Food-4Tots since I have all the ingredients on hand.

The steps are easy, only thing to take note of is to flour your work surface generously. After the first bake, we have to slice the log into 0.3cm slices. Apart from a few breakages at the ends, most of them stayed intact. :p This thickness produced very crispy cookies. Love this recipe to the max. Just to take note, one recipe only yield 52 slices, quite a small batch, insufficient to satisfy my appetite.

Egg Tarts

n months ago, I read about the Hei Ma Ma egg tarts in many blogs. Many bloggers have tried and gave positive feedback. Of course this encouraged me to make it myself but that only happened n months later.

I got the recipe from Small Small Baker. The pastry shell is flaky and buttery and the filling is smooth and wobbly. But there is something to take note of if I were to bake this the next time. For my first batch (the oven is at 160 - 170 deg C), the tarts came out picture perfect, smooth and glossy surface. For my second batch, (the oven warmed up to 180 -190 deg C),the filling souffled in the oven and sank immediately it came out. The surface is wrinkled but the texture is not affected. Lesson learnt, I must monitor the oven temperature closely the next time I bake egg tarts.

Swiss Roll - Honey Yogurt Swiss Roll and Chocolate Swiss Roll

Long overdue post as usual. I made the Honey Yogurt Swiss Roll in celebration of 2013 Father's Day. It is made using the chiffon method with a yogurt based cream. I added some chopped strawberries to balance the sweetness in the cake and cream.

This cake is moist and flexible. I could roll up this swiss roll without any cracks (thank god). This cake has a fine texture and it tasted even better when chilled.

I obtained this recipe from 孟老师的美味蛋糕圈 page 106.

After celebrating Father's Day, it is my hubby's birthday. I asked him what type of cake does he want for his birthday. To my surprise, he requested for a simple chocolate swiss roll but it must be coated with lots of chocolate rice. He told me this is his favorite cake from the local bakery. Of course I agreed to his request.

I obtained this recipe from 孟老师的美味蛋糕圈.

Matcha Chocolate Marble Cake

Finally I got hold of matcha powder and I can't wait to inject it into my bakes. Browsing through my bookmarks, this green tea choco marble cake from No-Frills Recipes caught my eye. I am not in the mood to try something adventurous as I am going out later in the day. This cake only need two bowls and the method used is fuss-free. ^^v

I also got to use the moulds that I bought a few years back. Roses and hearts, perfect for Valentine's Day. This batter is a bit thick so it trapped some air bubbles. And my cakes have pock marks all over it. Sad. Nevertheless, it tasted great. This matcha powder does not have a strange after taste. I like the combination of matcha with chocolate. I had two of them with teh tarik for tea. Yum.

Clearing the Cobwebs

*Hoo* Dust and cobwebs have been gathering on my blog since May 2012. A year has passed by and hopefully I am a year wiser. I made a decision in July 2012 to have a change in my job environment. Ever since, i was like sitting i an emotion roller coaster, ups and downs. Every day I am learning new things, which is something that I like but it can be stressful at times. On some days, I will melt down totally and just dump everything aside and start to moan, cry and talk rubbish. I guess this is life. The Earth will not stop rotating for me. With my work and commitments piling at exponential rate, this blog was left in the basement, untouched.

Now that I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, I  finally found some time to dust off the cobwebs here. Though I know my blog is only for me and myself to read, deep down in my heart, I still hope that someone will pop by and read the rubbish that I write. Haha. No need to write any comments as I don't leave any comments in others blogs too. Haha.

On 12th May 2013, I made a Mandarin Orange Cheesecake for my beloved mummy for Mother's Day. She cooked a big feast for my birthday a few days back. I am not capable enough to wipe up a big feast for her so I only can present this humble cake to her. Thank god, she likes it. :)

I got the recipe from here. Thanks, author of the blog.

I am still quite old school. So here is my journal. Those in the brackets are some minor modifications.

Here's the cake. Enjoy!

Hope to have another post soon. *fingers crossed*