Fried Fish with Fermented Soy Bean Sauce (ikan masak tauchu)

this is our main dish for tonight. my mom used to make this when i was little...i love this dish its so appetizing and when ever mom made this i will eat alot. now i hardly eat this dish, mainly because my husband can't stand anything that has to do with soy. he hated it, he's not allergic to it but just hated it...

so what made me cook this dish anyway? because i basically ran out of ideas on what to cook. ok lets face it if you're not working and all you do is cook for your family, eventually you'll run out of things to cook especially when you have picky eaters...not an easy task. and also lately i've been craving things from the past and needless to say this dish came to mind. since i have not much option especially with limited ingredients for anything else...my maid asked "bapak tak kisah?"(will he(your husband) mind?) and i told her that its his lost if he refused to eat coz its a delicious dish.

then husband came home and eat everything on the table with out question....i gotta say i was amazed! then i asked his is the fish any good? he said yes absolutely (then i begin to grin) then can i cook this dish again? he then said yes you should! (my smile was from ear to ear) he didn't know...and he liked it i'm happy full stop. i didn't tell him though or he'll freak out for absolutely no reason.

but my trick for the dish is that i use some sweet soy sauce and LOTs of ginger to reduce the 'tauchu'/fermented soy smell.

anyway here's the recipe:

2 pieces/slice of any white meat fish (i love seabass and haddock cut. but here i use tenggiri but i don't know what tenggiri is in english...but i think its Spanish Mackerel but i'm not sure... sorry)

lots of fresh ginger sliced in strips

1 large bombay onion sliced

1 clove garlic sliced

a hand full of cherry tomatoes

1 large red & green chili sliced (if you don't like it hot just de-seed them, here i only have red chili)

1tsp tauchu/fermented soy (you can get this at china town)

a splash of sweet soy sauce

1/3c of water

1tsp corn starch diluted with 2tsp of water.

1tsp sugar

**cook's note: you don't need any additional salt in this dish as the tauchu is very salty but i highly recommend you to TASTE your dish and adjust accordingly.

1. season fish with salt then fry them til cooked and tender. set a side.


2. heat a table spoon of oil and saute onion, garlic, ginger, chili, tomatoes until fragrant.


3. then add in tauchu, stir and reduce heat to moderate to low, add in the soy sauce.


4. then add in water and corn starch mixture.


5. cook until its simmers and the gravy is slightly thicken. remove from heat then pour the gravy on to the fried fish and ready to serve.

Aztec Cookies: Deep Chocolate & Green Tea Cookies

this checkered cookies is still not 'perfect' as i am still learning on how the 'check' it ;)

nice huh?

last night i stumble upon some blogs that bakes absolutely gorgeous cookies. and i'm one of those people who will wonder how to make those gorgeous cookies and will have little sleep (i mean this literally) thinking about the how of the cookies, cakes or whatever the subject of the obsession will be at the point of time. and that 'point of time' now is the checkered cookies and those a like. I call this aztec cookies because i use lots of chocolate powder in it and it taste fabulous (aztec is known for their chocolate its a royal food or something) its very dark and chocolatey and the green tea is just a flavor that i wanted to explore. you can put any other flavour you want actually.

about the recipe, i just simply use any sugar cookie recipe and in my case i use martha stewart's recipe devided the dough into 2 portions and cocoa powder to one part and green tea powder to the other part. quantity? errr...i'm not sure coz i was just experimenting and i forgot to jot down . mmm perhaps next time i'll give you the recipe, a proper and improoved recipe coz at the moment this recipe needs some tweeking.

ok this was supposed to be checkered cookies but i got creative and start to create new designs so ....feast your eyes with ,my new creations...

oh here's some tips on how to make this cookie.

1. to have a nice round shape i find that you should chill the dough first before you cut it (i didn't so my cookies are a tad bit out of shape.


2. then you a VERY SHARP knife to cut the dough to ensure a clean cut


3. and dust some flour on your work space when rolling the dough to avoid sticking.

my sister's engagement

doily inspired cookies

this is the 200 cuppies i made...chocolate and vanilla flavors

this is my baby sister...yes it is a bit much but we love it anyway coz its all sponsored!

the groom to be's rombongan with the hantaran. if yo udon't know hantaran, its the 7 trays of decorative goods offerings that the ladies is holding.

yes the flowers are gorgeos and if you look a littel further you can see the people listening to the negotiations on the wedding dates,hantaran etc

*taking a very deep breath* finally i can rest!
today is my sister's engagement day.to all my foreign readers here in Malaysia, the malays take engagement seriously and there will be an event by itself only it is usually an intimate occassion amongst family and close friends. so my baby sister is officially engaged today and it was an excellent event with great food and all. Everything falls into place last minute...(aha..there's a story behind it)

ok ok. ever since my sister is getting married we've been planning her whole occassion since september last year...*paused* i think and i was assigned to do nothing at first. my sister had her own ideas for her doorgifts, alter ect...then come x-mas and the seasonal candy cain is very tempting then came the idea of giving away the candy cains as favors, engagement favors. my sister exitedly bought 12 cartons of candy cains adding up to 200pcs in total....thennnnnn....~

the unfortunate happens when the darn candy cain melted.
then that one fine day mommy dearest called and panicly requested me to make something as favors and later we agreed on decorative cuppies. but i also baked some gorgeous laced cookies its a doily inspired cookies and its absolutely scrumptious. baked the cookies 3 days in advance with 3 flavors mocha, almond and hazelnut.

ahem *clears throat* needless to say it was a hit (yes i'm particularly proud of myself) and got so many orders for the cupcakes and cookies to the extent that i have to reject some of the request...errr...sorry...

mmm..there are also other story about the hantaran cake/fondant cake my sister ordered from our local cake store sugar****** which turned out something totally different from her request but oddly my sister paid the lady anyway (please note that i was not there when she ordered the cake or else i would've shout and screamed at the idiots that improvising the cake without consulting the us; the buyer first) my sister spent almost the whole day crying yesterday and i tried to do something for her but it was too late..literally late for 2 reason 1: limited ingredients 2: its was already 8pm and i was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tireddddddddddddddd....err notice the extra Os?


but even with all that the event turned out great...nonthe less , thank GOD!

Baked me own B'day cake: Double Chocolate Peppermint Sponge

have nothing better to do than baking me own birthday cake as i personally feels that store bought cake is too commercialized... blurghhh~ the thought of secret recipe's cake made me vomit in my mouth a little... i'm so sick of it no offence to the business owners their cakes are good but i'm just sick of it...(you know that i'm telling the truth when i actually had to repeat the word 'sick' twice)

anyway this time i wanted to try something different so i jazz it up with peppermint!

hey, why buy when yo u can BAKE!

besides we loved it....and you probably would too!

175g butter -

150g flour

2tbs cocoa powder

1tbsp baking powder

150g caster sugar

3eggs

1tbsp milk

40g peppermint chocolates, chopped - i use Andes after 8 chocolate mints

some chocolate spred to decorate

1. pre heat oven at 180c. grease two 20cm/8" sandwich cake tins
2. sift flour, cocoa, baking powder into a bowl set aside.
3. melt butter and chocolate chunks and set aside.
4. in a mixer fitted with a whisk beat eggs with sugar until volumed and pale.
5. lower the speed, and add in the flour mixture just until almost mixed.
6. then add in the butter mixture and gently fold in the butter until JUST mixed! (coz we don't wanna loose too much air)
7. pour into the prepared baking tins and bake for 25-30minutes or until set. DO NOT OVER BAKE THE CAKE or it'll be dry!
8. once cooked, let it cool just for a bit then turn out and finish cooling on the wire rack
9. Sandwich together the cakes with the chocolate spread, then drizzle more on top to decorate.

for the spread :

i simply melt (using double boil method) beryl's dark chocolate about 100g-150g or so, then i add in 1/4c of whipping cream, 1tbs butter, a 1.5 tsp of light corn syrup and 1/2tsp of peppermint essence. mix well and ready to spread!

p/s: beryl is a malaysian brand chocolate.

hope that you'll enjoy my wacky creation for myselfon my birthday hehehe~ (i hope that i don't sound pathetic)

Moist LEMON Sponge Cake

look at that texture...just gorgeous and its moist too!

before i start, i'd like to wish to all my christian friends and also to those whom enjoy this particular holiday *you know who you are* a very happy happy Xmas and Happy New Year!!

today i'll be posting my all time fave sponge cake recipe...i was contemplating should i share this incredible recipe or just keep to myself? then after much consideration i decided to share this lovely recipe that i hold it dear in my heart hehehehe ~

this recipe is highly recommended , extremely easy to make with no time to spare...

errr this recipe was actually individual cakes (like bake in a remikin for individual consumption) but i was lazy to make such way so i just poured the batter into a 9" baking tin which is not so advisable...but it still turned out great...

LEMON SPONGE CAKE

3 eggs

1/2c sugar

1/2c all purpose flour

1/4tsp baking powder

1/4tsp salt

1/4c melted unsalted butter

1/2tsp vanilla extract

1tsp lemon zest

2tsp lemon juice

1. preheat oven at 180c .grease and sugar the remikins and place a disk of parchment papers at the bottom of remikins.
   
2. beat eggs and sugar until pale and airy with whisk fitted mixer. this will be more or less 10-15minutes
   
3. mean while sift together all dry ingredients
   
4. combine butter, zest and juice and set aside.
   
5. reduce speed on mixer add dry ingredients quickly but not all at once until just almost blended.
   
6. add in the butter mixture and mix until just blended.
   
7. spoon cake mixture into individual remikins leaving 1/2" for cake expension.
   
8. bake for 20-25minutes
   
9. best serve warm

if yo uclose your eyes and eat this just for a moment you'll actually think that its cotton soft cheese cake!

BEST RESTAURANT @ BANGI

THE BEST RESTAURANT @ BANGI

1. WONG SOLO: offeres indonesian food such as their famous ayam penyet but gotta warn you that the 'sambal' is extremely HOT! dinners will have the authentic Indonesain culinary experience restaurant located behind old town kopitiam @ sec 9
   
2. BERLAUK: offers authentic Kelantan cuisine the restaurant is located in sec 7
3. YANKEES: offers great 'ikan bakar' and ala thai food...although this restaurant has a very BAD service be prepared to have a 1-2hrs delay in eating your food.

THE WORST RESTAURANT @ BANGI

1. CHICO : a chinese muslim restaurant that ironicly did not serve chinese food! went there the 1st week of their opening and it was extremely dissapointing i sincerely hope that they improve their menus.
2. YANKEES: food are great but service is minus 5
3. CHICKEN KING: the idea is there but unfortunately they had to 'cut' down their wastage and serve customer 1-2days old chicken ultimately made the chicken very dry!!

this list will be updated from time to time. i mean no harm but people have to know have the right to know and the right to enjoy their food!

birthday delima

these few weeks were horrible for me coz my family were sick. started of with my son having the viral fever then my husband he is until now not well...its so frustrating coz this weekend is my birthday and my family wanted to celebrate my birthday @ sentosa island, singapore plus that would be alot of fun for my children too..

but i guess that we're not going..what a bummer! i was looking forward for the trip...my mom asked my if i could leave my husband and just go with the kids and suggested hubby to stay at his mom's house...well that's a thought but it doesn't feel right leaving him when he's not well like that. its sad that my kids was too excited and very looking forward to the trip.......

i don't know...i somehow don't feel like going either coz..its just don't feel right celebrating my birthday without hubby although even if i stay we're not celebrating anyway in this situation no one wins!