My 24th birthday

What can I say but WOW... what a turnout. I was expecting less than a 15 people to come to my party because of all the last minute changes and whatnot but man... am I glad I have you all as my friends. I'm sorry that I could not really talk with all of you that night or catch up with you at all but a very big thank you to all that came. I hope that you guys weren't too bored with my seating arrangements but that's all I could really do with us being split up into 2 tables...

From the bottom of my heart, thank you all for attending my birthday even though you guys probably had to work hard that day and spend the evening with me as well. Thank you also to those that wished me a happy birthday on Facebook. Also, a big thank you for those that took their time to SMS me and wished me a happy birthday. I am very proud to call you all my friends and I will always treasure every moment that we have together! =)

But it doesn't stop at awesome company!!! You guys had to go one step further and give me really awesome presents too!!! They all deserve their own thank you's... really... SO proud!

Handmade cupcakes & cookies

Fellicia, thank you SO much for your wonderful handmade cupcakes and cookies. I can't believe I finished them off within 2 days... They were truly the BEST birthday present that I have ever received and definitely the one that I will treasure the most. I was so shocked when I saw you walk through the Chemist Warehouse door... I thought you were kidding when you said that you would try to make something for me. The amount of effort you put into these far surpasses anything else that can be bought from a store. I would love to have them again if I ever have the chance to!!! :)

Tips and Tricks haha...

Dian & Michelle, thank you for taking your time off to come to my birthday!! It was fantastic being able to catch up with you guys again... hopefully we'll be able to do something like this again soon! Also thank you for your present!! I know that I'll put it to good use one of these days (just you wait Dian)!! Haha!

Mango Gateau from Breadtop

Teresa, thank you for always being there as my friend! I know we don't catch up often enough but hopefully I'll be able to do that more often (provided your boyfriend doesn't kill me first)! I am always thankful that I have gotten to know you from high school, otherwise I wouldn't have met someone like you to share little secrets with me ;)!! We didn't get to eat your cake but its already in my tummy hahaha!!

Tae Yeon Poster!! Hang up right away!

 What can I say about this chick?? Everything!! She's smart, talented and pretty :) Don't tell anyone what a Fanboy I am!!

Ipod touch! (Revisited)

Terence, Catherine, Verly, Christine, Rubin, Sally, Thawee, Helen, Fran, Chin Yee, Jacinth, Stephen, Zhimin! Thank you for coming to celebrate a day for me to remember. In such a short time, I've been able to know so many of you and it has been my utmost pleasure in announcing you as my friends! I had a really awesome day seeing you guys again and even though we did not have much time to chat tonight, I know that we will catch up soon and share a few laughs again!

Terence, Rubin and Michael : THANK YOU for my Tae Yeon poster... what can I say... HOT!!!!!

Lastly, Michael. Thank you for being my best friend. Thank you for organizing the present and thank you for driving me and my friends around. It is not always easy being my friend but you have been very patient with me this last year and I really do appreciate what you have done for me today. Yes, I do love the present very much! You actually tricked me into believing you were getting something else for me! But really, thank you for being such a good friend. I hope that we will always stay best friends :)

Bubur Cha Cha Recipe

Another 3 months to go before I am able to touch ground in my hometown!!! CANT WAIT!! But, in the meantime, I have decided to make another Malaysian Delicacy. This is called bubur cha cha .... bubur means porridge in Malay. Whilst it is not technically rice=porridge, it does certainly look like it and it tastes fantastic. And the combinations which you can put into your little porridge is really - endless.

Bubur Cha Cha

Ingredients

2-3 pandan leaves

2 cups of water

1can(400ml) coconut milk/cream

400g of sweet potatoes (yellow/red/purple whatever you want)**

300-400g of yam**

300-400g of taro**

50g of mixture of brown/white sugar (or as desired for taste)

50g of sago seeds

Corn starch to thicken

Directions:

1) Firstly, cut the potatoes, yam and taro into bite-sized cubes. You can choose to steam these first or just cook it as I did.

2) Heat up the 2 cups of water in a pot together with 3 pandan leaves (knotted). When the water starts to boil, add in your taro and yam first and boil for 3 minutes. Then add your sweet potatoes. Apparently the sweet potatoes cook faster than taro and yam. (IF you didnt have enough water, just add some more till it covers the ingredients)

3) Mix in your 400ml of coconut milk (or more as desired) and continue to boil away till the potatoes are cooked (takes about 15minutes). Then add the sago seeds and stir continuously. If not, the sago seeds will actually clump up. If you prefer a thicker mixture, just add some corn starch. If not, just forget about it.

4) Finally, add the sugar till your desired taste for sweetness.. And thats it. Just serve hot or cold. 

** As I mentioned, the possibilities are endless, you can add purple yam's to make it look purple, you can add tapioca pieces, add/remove sago and do whaaaatever you want. Texture, color and taste depends on what you want to put in. My recipe is by no means the set standard. This is just what I like in mine!

Enjoy guys. I loved making this healthy soup and I hope you will too.

Doug.

Chow Cai Hoon Ngan / Zou Cai Hung Ngan (However it is said) Recipe

Hello guys, after a long period of absence, I am sort of back! This time, i've made a noodle soup which is essentially made of preserved vegetable in chicken stock base. This is a local delicacy from where I come from and it is FANTASTIC for people that love the spicy/sour soup type person.

Hung Ngan/ Hoon Ngan!!

There really is no set recipe for this dish so you can make it however you want.

Ingredients

Preserved vegetable (for this dish I used the preserved mustard)*

Tomato

Cuttlefish ball

Fish slices

Black fungus

Egg

Rice Noodles

Ginger

Chicken stock (you can choose to boil chicken for 1 hour like I did or just use chicken stock for convenience)

Method

1) Preparing the ingredients. If you want to use original chicken stock (trust me, tastes much better). Just get a packet of chicken bones from a butcher, wash it out with water then boil the chicken. Remember to remove the layer of oil otherwise it will be REALLY oily when you make your soup. Boil it on high heat for 20mins then reduce the heat to med-low and continue boiling for 40mins.

2) To prepare the preserved vegetable, make sure to cut it into tiny pieces. If you want it to be more sour, you can choose to use a food processor to mince it to make the flavour come up more. Cut the cuttlefish balls in half, slice the tomatoes into bite sized pieces and slice the fish into bite pieces too.

3) Soak the black fungus in some boiled water to soften (make sure to wash it beforehand).

4) Once all the ingredients are prepared, set up a pot with some oil and fry the ginger till fragrant. Add in your preserved vegetable and continue frying for a few minutes. At this point, add in some chicken stock (do your own estimate I guess.. if more instructions are needed, just let me know and i'll try to write a more comprehensive one). Add all your other ingredients in, cuttlefish ball, fish slices, tomato slices and black fungus and let it boil.

5) Once the mixture is boiling, add in your rice noodles and when it is soft, you can take it out to be served. Please try your mixture before you add in salt. I didnt have to add anything in as the preserved vegetable was already salty enough. Lastly, add in your boiled egg and serve.

And there it is! Simple! Took a little over 2 hours to prepare but as I said, if you want to do it the easy way, just use chicken stock powder. No need to prepare it yourself. Any questions, just let me know =) 

Next recipe: Mantou! Mmmmmmmm....

Doug. 

To All My Loyal,,,, Fan

IT has been 3 months since I stopped blogging... So many reasons for that. Firstly, I have been eating out a LOT more than normal now that I'm in the high-roller club (i.e. Entertainment Card LOL). Also, my mum was here to feed me lots and lots of other home cooked food so I dont really need to cook any desserts/foods anymore.....aaaand that pretty much sums up my 3 months.

Look forward to the next post: Kaya Balls! I just made some kaya pancakes and they are fantastic!! I'll let you know about it laters!

PS: IF you noticed, ball =/= pancake! You'll know why in my next post!

Green Tea Puffs!

Whoa... I didnt even realise it has been such a long time since I updated my blog. I'm a busy guy after all haha... However, fret not! I havent been lazy. I've been trying different recipes still and I've made at least 4-5 different dishes since my last posting but have been quite lazy in updating.

I love a few websites for learning cooking. The main one I have been copying from is http://homekreation-recipes.blogspot.com/ . She is a great cook and a full-time mum to boot!! She has terrific recipes on her website and I've tried making 3-4 of her recipes with great success!! It would be good for you guys to support her too!

The main one I am blogging about today is the Green tea puff which took under 1 hour to actually make. This recipe is originally from About.com (all credits to them) ... not quite authentic but it does taste really good.

Ingredients
3 tbsp of butter
2 tsp of sugar
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of flour
2 eggs


Custard filling
2 tbsp of flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of milk
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp of melted butter

Steps:
1) Preheat the oven to 190 celcius.
2) Beat eggs in a bowl slightly till mixed.
3) Mix butter , sugar and water together and bring to a boil. Add flour into this mixture stirring quickly and turn off the heat.
4) Add the eggs in slowly and mix well.
5) Put it into a plastic bag and pipe 9 even mounds on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
6) Bake for around 30-40mins depending on oven. Cool and halve them (or slit them)

Custard
1) Mix egg yolks and sugar in a pan and add sifted flour and mix well.
2) Add warm milk gradually to the mixture , turn it on low heat and stir constantly till the mixture becomes thick. Now stop the heat and add in the melted butter and stir well.
3) (Optional for green tea custard) Dissolve 1tsp of green tea in 2tsp of water. Add a few spoonfuls of custard cream and mix well. Then transfer to the rest of the custard mixture.
4) Cool and pipe into the prepared puffs.


There you have it. A GREAT tasting product if you are a big fan of green tea.. and oh so easy to make. Till next time my little friends!

Your "fake" Masterchef buddy,
Doug.

Long time coming

Not sure if anyone still reads my blogs but I'm still alive!! :)

The only thing is, I havent really made anything special lately so nothing of note to post up on the internet. Just made some black sesame soup today... however, I consider it a failure because it does not smell like black sesame at all... Dont you just hate it when sometimes you just cant make it perfectly the first time around?? Well, I do! I hate high failure rates... next time though, I'm gonna try making some tang yuan with the black sesame soup.. AWESOME combo if you ask me!!

Anyways, I'm gonna try to make some more biscuits/cookies the next time I have some free time to cook.

What have I been up to you ask? Well, Steven a good friend of mine is moving to Queensland to open up a new pharmacy business with his dad. How awesome is that! The downside though, is that we will not be able to meet up as often anymore as he is in another state. So very very sad. But as always, glad to see him taking a new step up in his career. I definitely wish him all the best with his future endeavours though whilst I'm still only stuck in a pharmacist position. Hope my luck turns around soon and I'll be able to manage or even own my own store. *wishes super hard*.

The boys

The Girls

My life these few weeks consists of eating, eating and eating. Went to Shoya ( http://www.shoya.com.au ) the last night of meeting Steven with a bunch of friends. The set meal was $59 each. A bit on the expensive side, but definitely very worth the money. The ingrediends that were brought out to barbeque were definitely of the freshest quality. Take a look at the set menu on the website. We also had a bottle of sake to be shared between all of us which was fantastic to wash down our bbq with. Besides the food, which I thoroughly enjoyed, the ambience was really good as well as fantastic service from the staff there. I have been there twice already and the quality is still as good as ever! Well done on them and they deserve to be rated highly. I do recommend going there.. even though I havent tried their lunch menu yet.. should do that one day eh?

Thats my life story compressed into one semi-long post. Oh... lets not forget the tragedy in Japan. Pray for their speedy recovery. The loss of a loved one is all too familiar to me and I would not wish that upon anyone.

Your fake-masterchef buddy,
Douglas.

CNY is around the corner.... Part 4

Good morning my fellow bloggers.. CNY is just in 2 days time.. I am so excited and sad at the same time. The only reason I am sad is because I cant spend it in Sibu like I usually do. All those visiting different relatives and friends as well as enjoying the spectacular fireworks at night at 12am does really make me miss celebrating it in Malaysia. In addition to that, food during CNY is always awesome... we have a whole range of cakes, cookies, random snacks and sweets to be consumed. One would normally gain at least 2-3kg's in the few days of chinese new year visiting. But no matter! Its still an awesome time to be at.

Continuing on like I usually do, I've decided to show everyone the type of cakes that we eat during chinese new year. Cakes from Sarawak are usually steamed and not baked. The result? A spongy yet sticky and moist cake which is absolutely delightful to the tastebuds. It takes a lot of time to make layers if you do decide to make layers but they taste awesome and its totally worth it at the end of the day. The two cakes that I decided to make are the Kek Lapis Kopi (Coffee Layer Cake) and also Kek Horlicks/Belacan (A cake with a mixture of horlicks and kaya). This is the first year that I have succesfully made them so I am plenty excited! =)

Kek Lapis Kopi Recipe / Coffee Layer Cake Recipe

Kek Lapis Kopi (Coffee Layer Cake)

Ingredients:
10 eggs
227g of butter
300g of kaya
375g of condensed milk
1/2 tsp of salt
142g of castor sugar
227g of flour (plain/hk)
2.5tsp of baking powder
25g of coffee powder

Steps
1) Beat the sugar and butter together till it becomes fluffy. Then combine the eggs in one at a time while beating.
2) Pour in the kaya, condensed milk and salt. Then add baking powder+flour mixture. Mix till it looks even and there are no clumps remaining.
3) Seperate the mixture into two. Now, dilute the coffee powder in some hot water and add to one of the mixtures.
4) Now that the mixtures are ready, steam it over high heat in the wok/double boiler. Alternate the layers as seen in the photo. Each layer takes roughly 10-12 mins depending on the temperature of the day and the strength of the fire. The layer is ready when it is no longer fluidy.

Tips:
* This may seem stupid... but... try not to use cold butter/eggs.... they clump REALLY badly and I had to warm them both up before I used it. So if you live in Australia, leave it outside if its a really cold day for at least a few hours.
** Add more coffee if you are a coffee-holic like me =) I LOVE ME SOME COFFEE WOOOOO~
** This recipe is NOT sweet... so you do not need to modify the recipe anymore unless you want a really bitter cake.
*** If you dont have HK flour, you can use plain flour. The main reason for using HK flour is that it is bleached and is more glutenised. So it holds its shape a little bit better. 

Kek Belacan/Horlicks Recipe

Ingredients

225g of butter

110g of caster sugar

5 eggs

200g of sweetened condensed milk

200g of kaya

100g of horlicks (can be substituted for milo if preferred)

150g of plain flour

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

40ml of browning essence

Optional (2.5tsp of baking powder) if you prefer a fluffier cake

Steps:

1) Beat the sugar and butter together till it becomes fluffy. Then combine the eggs in one at a time while beating.
2) Pour in the kaya, condensed milk and horlicks. Then add flour. Then add vanilla extract and browning essence.
3) This recipe makes a 15cm cake.
4) Now steam the mixture on high heat for at least 30mins. You can test the cake by poking it with a stick/chopstick and the stick should come up clear. When that is done, the cake is ready.

Tips
* If you steam it for 4 hours, then it will last a little longer than a week. So if that is preferred, you can do that. Make sure though, that you do not let the pot run dry!
** Any ingredients can be increased be it horlicks, kaya or condensed milk depending on your tastes. I love my horlicks so I added another 20g to it!




Credits DUE!
Kek Lapis Kopi Recipe (http://www.malaysiabrides.com/forum/Layer-Cake-Kek-Lapis-reciple-t5402.html)
Kek Belacan/Serikaya/Horlicks (http://cornercafe.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/kek-belacan/)

Please go thank these fantastic fellows for actually sharing their recipe online!! And thank me too :P Took me half a day just to look for those recipes!

Douglas.