Banana Walnut Loaf

I baked some banana walnut loafs for some people who couldn’t make it for our family christmas dinner…they were either so busy at work during christmas and the public holidays like my niece who had to be on call in her hospital ward. Here’s a loaf specially wrapped up for her….

Ingredients
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (ripe)
1 3/4 cups flour ( Half plain flour/ half whole wheat flour)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
2. In a large bowl, beat oil and sugar. Add eggs, milk and mix well. Stir in mashed bananas and vanilla. Stir in flour and salt. Add baking soda to hot water, stir and add to batter.
3. Blend in chopped walnuts. Pour batter into greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
4. Bake for 50-55 mins till golden brown. Cool on wire rack for half hour before slicing.

Steamed Chocolate Brownies

Christmas 2009 was a wonderful season of sharing and catching up with family and friends over good food. I was busy trying out some recipes – to bake some cakes as ‘gifts’ for friends and loved ones.
We usually find or eat our chocolate brownies which are oven-baked. I tried steaming and find them yummy and moist. Here’s my easy recipe for the brownies:

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup flour

¼ cup bread flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 tablespoon Nescafe instant coffee

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate

1 cup cooking oil (vegetable oil)

1 cup of fresh milk

4 eggs (beaten)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup of hot water

Method :

1. Sift together the flour, cocoa & coffee powder, baking powder and soda bicarbonate in a big bowl then add in the sugar and mix well with a wooden spatula.
2.Pour in the oil, followed by milk, make sure that everything is well mixed and then put in the beaten egg. Keep mixing.
3. Add in the vanilla essence and finally the boiling water and stir everything together.
4. Heat up the steamer or wok.
5. Greased baking pan or line bottom with greased-proof paper.
6. Pour the batter into prepared pan and place the pan into the steamer/wok and cover the top of the pan loosely with a piece of aluminium foil.
7. Steam over medium heat for 50 mins.
8. Cool the cake in pan before turning out for chocolate topping.

Note: if you don’t like steaming in the wok you can either steam bake the cake as well .

Ginseng Chicken Soup

These are the ingredients I use for soup – one packet mixed herb spices, some red dates, some wolfberries (or ‘kei zhi’ in chinese), one or two ginseng roots and 4 or 5 pieces chicken wings/drumsticks. I am not sure what type of ginseng I used…but they were the ones my late Mom loves to keep and use for soup. She was an expert in chinese herbs… ( how I missed her cooking…:( )

Wash herbs and chicken. Put to boil with water over low heat for half an hour to 45 minutes. Boil at a gentle pace to bring out the ginseng taste. When chicken is cooked, throw in the wolfberries. Add salt  and a little light soya sauce to taste. Serve soup hot…mmm..it’s my favorite nourishing soup.

Sphagetti – Malaysian style

Sphagetti, an easy favourite meal for any dinner or the weekend! – that’s when Richard and I feel lazy to eat out, where our legs would not go. Here’s how you prepare the beef sauce. Fry minced beef, onions and mushrooms (sliced) with mixed herbs and pepper. Add 1/2 can of Campbell cream of mushroom or chicken soup (my favorite) and some water. Add a little milk if desired. Simmer over low heat till cook .

Pour sauce over the cooked (and buttered) sphagetti and serve with any salads…

My favourite salads…of sliced Japanese cucumber, big onions, small tomatoes, chili padi and sweet pineapples (cut to cubes). Sprinkle with some lime and sugar.Chill before serve.MMm…the salads are spicy, fresh and crunchy.  Penang-Thai style ?…whatever you name! it’s yummmy

Choc Muffins

Here are some muffins I made and brought for the kiddies at the KVA (Klang Valley Alliance) Leaders & Families Retreat, Port Dickson in June. Sorry!…no specific recipes or instructions. They can be found on the leaflet in the pack when you purchase these all-mixed flour from Bake With Yen shop. They have a branch in Puchong. It’s quick and easy – that’s what I like ! Beat up the eggs with milk and oil. Add the mixed flour into the wet ingredients. Spoon the batter into lovely paper muffin cups if you have. Fill up 2/3 of the cup and bake for 20 mins at 180 degrees. Hooray!….your moist muffins are ready for the kiddies and choc lovers. Yummmmmy! 

Penang famous Sos Ulam

The Penang famous sos ulam is a sweet sour spicy sauce. This is the first time I tried this sauce. I had wanted the Thai tomyam paste which is also packed in the same kind of bottle. I happened to pick up the wrong sos while marketing in Giant last week. Anyway, with this sos ulam now in my fridge ( I had no choice ) but to use it, I tried to marinate my chicken pieces with it. Here’s what I produced  :

Steam Chicken (with Sos Ulam)

Marinate chicken pieces with the sos for an hour. Add sliced ginger, onions and chili padi if you prefer it to be more spicy. Steam for half an hour till chicken pieces are cooked. Sprinkle with sping onions.  Chicken’s so sweet and tasty and ready to be served!

Another experiment with the Penang famous sos :
My Favorite Fried Meehoon

Ingredients for the meehoon :
2 teaspoon chicken stock, 3 tablespoon sos ulam, salmon or chicken ball (cut into pieces), dried prawns, daun limau ( lime leaves), sping onions, lots of shallots and onions & cut limes.
For the meehoon, I prefer the Thai brand which is shown in the photo. They do not become soggy or lumpy after fried. I normally soak the meehoon for 15 minutes. Drain off water and then throw them into hot boiling water for 5 mins. Pour water away and drain meehoon dry.

Fry 3 or 4 tablespoon of the sos in a little hot oil. Add chicken stock dissolved in a little water. Add in dried prawns, salmon pieces, cut daun limau and fry. When ingredients are ready, switch off fire, add in the cooked meehoon to mix. Serve hot with sprinkled onions and chili . Squeeze some limes.

Quick Chicken Curry

I always like quick easy methods. Here’s my recipe for chicken curry. There is the favorite fresh (wet) curry spices from SS2 market which Richard recommends. It’s his favorite stall for getting any spices for curry or rendang.  Saves you the trouble of pounding and grinding…everything’s in and it’s nice and spicy hot. Just add some chili padi if you prefer curry to be hotter.

Ingredients :
* 1 pack curry spices (wet) from SS2 market
* 1 small chicken – cut into pieces
* 2 or 3 potatoes
* 3 tablespoons Campbell cream of chicken soup (dissolved in half cup water)
* 1 teaspoon chicken stock
* half packet of Dutch lady milk (low fat) or you can use yogurt.

Marinate the chicken with chicken stock. Fry the curry spices and chili padi (add a few serai if you wish). Add the cut chicken pieces and potatoes, cover with spices and continue to fry chicken till they are half cooked. Pour in a little milk and add cream of chicken. Transfer into a pot and pour in the remainder milk or yogurt. Simmer over low fire until chicken is cooked and potatoes are soft.
And hooray..my chicken curry is ready to be served.

This is what I had for lunch today…curry to go with brown rice and some leftover salads and tomatoes. Plus a cup of my favorite Japanese green tea. Healthy lunch?

Nga Ku Chips

Nga Ku ( in cantonese) or what we called the ‘arrowhead’ or arrow roots made into chips will be one of favorite snacks come this Chinese New Year. Some people will use these to fry and simmer with duck meat or roasted pork. Today I had some ‘hot’ moments in the kitchen of Kenosis Home helping the ‘Phase 2′ residents to produce nga ku chips. Nga Ku can be bought in bulks from the wet market or hypermarkets like Giant or Tesco stores . They are imported from China and are usually available during the chinese festive season. 
Nga Ku chips taste like potato chips and you can be quite addictive to them once the bottle cap is opened.

‘nga-ku’ or arrowheads. Peel the skin and slice them thinly for deep fry.

richard busy frying the sliced nga-ku

This is how they should look-crispy and lightly brown after fry. Lift them up from the oil .Toss, drain and cool over a basket laid with some serviettes to soak up any oil.

Bottle of nga-ku ready for sale at RM16.00 per bottle.
This is one of Kenosis Home project to help generate funds for the Home.
Contact Richard Lee 016-6115129 and give your support if you can.

Sweet passions of the Lee Clan

 

“Oh! eee liiiii…..ciou…ss.” exclaimed one year-old Lu Anne Lee (richard’s grandniece).
“Mmmmm, it’s good…” Richard mumbled as he slowly savours the cream and waffle.
It was an evening out with the Lee family when Mathew (richard’s nephew from Singapore) was here for his Master project with UM. We headed to One Utama after dinner and set foot at Waffle World (2nd floor, new wing) for some coffee and desserts. Here’s what we ordered :

dark chocolate waffle with rich chocolate ice-cream

vanilla waffle top with blueberry ice-cream

and see the ‘waffle war’……..  

“that’s my waffle!”

‘Gone!’

Besides the famous waffles from Waffle World, there are also hotdogs,pancakes and light western meals and salads. If you have sweet cravings like the Lee’s, delicious waffles top with various flavors of ice-cream will be just right for you… 

Cheeeeesy Pasta

 

I came up with this pasta recipe with my half small bottle of cheese cream. A friend blessed us with some Italian sausages recently, and coupled with some leftover German ham in the fridge, I decided to cook up a cheesy sauce for pasta.
Combine cheese cream with some milk, 4 tbsp cream of chicken (from Campbell), 1 tbsp of cornflour, a pinch of salt, some mixed Italian herbs and 1 cup of water. Put to boil. Slice ham and sausages thinly and microwave. Spread them generously over the boiled pasta. Pour cooked cheese sauce over it and sprinkled with some chopped chinese parsley (my favorite).
Hmmm…. delicious. Serve it hot.

” Dear!, are you hungry?….your supper’s ready!” I called out to Richard.