Simple Mushrooms & Leek Stir Fry

My Daughter has taken a liking to mushrooms ever since we had a simple mushroom dish served in a restaurant. It was shitake mushrooms simply stir fried in butter with garlic & black pepper. Here's my recreation with leeks and parsley added.

 Simple Mushrooms & Leek Stir Fry

Ingredients:

Mushrooms (Any type or combinations, sliced)

1 -2 Leeks

1 Tbs Garlic

1/4 tsp dried Parsley  

Salt & Cracked Black Pepper, to taste

1 Tbs Butter

1 Tbs cooking oil

Method:

Heat 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon cooking oil together in a pan. Saute garlic on low heat till fragrant but not brown, add leeks, stir fry till leeks are half cooked. Add in the mushrooms, season with salt & cracked black pepper, add a little water if necessary and stir fry until fully cooked. 

Simple, simple, simple!

German Potato Cookies

These cookies have been popping up in blogs everywhere lately and being 'kiasu' (a Hokkien phrase which literally means scared of losing out) I didn't want to get left behind and  jumped in the bandwagon too! Haha!

Sandy, melt in the mouth and at the same time light & tender with a buttery potatoe-y taste. Reminds me of melting moments cookies.

Recipe taken from 'Small Small Baker' here.


Ingredients:

125g butter
40g icing sugar, sifted
125g potato starch
80g superfine flour

Method:

1. Beat butter and icing sugar till fluffy and pale in colour.
2. Sift in potato starch and flour, mix to form a soft dough.
3. Roll into small balls (about 2cm in diameter), arrange on lined baking pan and press lightly with a fork (dip the fork in water after each press to prevent cookie dough from sticking to the fork).
4. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 15 mins.

Kuih Makmur @ Momo

My Hubby came home one day with a half-empty cookie container and raved about what contained inside. Handing over the cotainer to me, he said, "You gotta try these peanut cookies, they're mmmm ... so melt-in-the-mouth, they're really good..... sorry, these are what left".
I took a closer look . Peanut cookies NOT! They're KUIH MAKMUR! 

  

Kuih Makmur also known as Kuih Momo over here in East Malaysia, actually don't contain peanuts. The flour is pre-roasted  to impart a nutty aroma & flavour and one can mistaken as ground peanuts. These delightful icing sugar coated round buttery balls crumble and dissolve into a fragrant nutty paste once popped into the mouth. I've never actually come across anyone who doesn't like these morsels which are usually found during the festive season.

East Malaysian Kuih Makmur/Momo are by no means the same as the ones in West Malaysia. Those in West Malaysia are usually shaped like leaves, not round and has ground peanuts as filling and is coated with caster sugar on the outside.

Here's a keeper recipe for Kuih Makmur/Momo taken from "Sunflower Food Galore".


Kuih Makmur/Momo

Ingredients:

250g plain flour or all purpose flour

40g icing sugar 

75g full cream milk powder

150g ghee (I used QBB brand)

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg yolk

about 1/2 cup sifted icing sugar for coating

Method:

1) In a frying pan, dry fry plain flour at medium low heat for about 5 - 6 minutes. Keep stirring the flour to avoid burning till flour becomes very hot, smells lightly nutty and has turned a very light brown tinge. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
2) Using pestle and mortar, grind salt with 1 teaspoon of the dry roasted flour to a fine powder. Add this to flour.
3) Mix all the dry ingredients together, then sieve. Remove remaining gritty grains.
4) Melt ghee in microwave for about 20 - 30 sec. Beat in the egg yolk.
5) Pour ghee and yolk mixture into the dry mixture. Mix with a folk or spoon then finish by rubbing with fingers till dough is evenly mixed. The dough is crumbly but should form a lump when squeezed together.
6) Take a pinch of dough, squeeze to form a lump then lightly roll between palms into a ball about 2cm wide. Do this without exerting  pressure or it will crumble.
7) Place balls on baking tray lined with baking paper, leaving some space in between balls.
8) Bake in a preheated oven at  150 deg Centigrade for about 12 - 15 minutes till light golden. Momo balls will expand slightly after baking.
9) When the Momo balls are cool enough to the touch, coat generously with icing sugar. Do this gently as they are very fragile. Leave to cool completely.

Almond Tuiles

If you have lots of leftover egg whites and don't know what to do with them, do try this super thin and crisp almond tuiles to impress your family and friends (and yourself!). The recipe for the batter is a breeze to whip up with minimal ingredients, but I forewarn u first, this is a very time consuming recipe to bake!

To make these tuiles, you need to spread a thin layer of  round circles about 2 inches wide on a baking paper lined tray, and then sprinkle some flaked almonds on top before sending to bake. Each process makes only a few pieces at a time and need to be repeated until you've finished your batter. 

After about  a couple times of spreading -baking-cooling, I got tired & bored. I mixed the flaked almond with the batter and then spreaded the batter into a big rectangle instead. Once cooled, the big rectangular piece was broken into smaller random pieces (you can see from the photos the irregular shaped ones at the bottom). Of course, the round ones definitely look a ton better but if you don't mind and you're not a perfectionist, do try the short cut way.


ALMOND TUILES  
(Recipe taken from 'No Frills Recipes' here )

Ingredients
2 egg whites lightly beaten
60 gm caster sugar
2 Tbsp or 30 gm butter  (melted)
50 gm plain flour
1/4  tsp vanilla
Almond flakes/Pumpkin seeds (amount as desired)

Method

1. Sift flour into a mixing bowl, add in sugar, mix well.
2. Make a well in the centre, add in the melted butter, lightly beaten egg whites and vanilla.  Mix till well combined.
3. Let batter rest for 30 mins.
4. Drop 1 leavel teaspoon of batter onto a baking tray, lined with baking paper.
5. Using the back of the spoon, slowly spread the mixture as thinly as possible to a circle about  2 inches in diameter.
6. Sprinkle some almond flakes onto the centre of the batter.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for about 3 mins, or till lightly brown.  
8. Let stand for a minute and carefully lift the biscuits from tray to cool on a wire rack.
9. When completely cooled, store in an air-tight container or jar.
10. Makes 34 pieces. 

Note:

• I baked my almond tuiles at 160 deg C for about 20 minutes. At 180 deg C, my almond tuilles were not browned evenly. They were almost burnt at the edges and the middle still pale, undercooked and chewy. Please do a small test batch to find which temperature is suitable to you.
• I used baking paper and didn't need to grease. The tuilles were easily removed while they're still warm. I used a pallete knife by sliding it underneath the tuilles, then lifting up from the baking paper.
• I've lightly pre-roasted the flaked almonds  first for better aroma. I did this by dry-frying on a pan on the stove. Becareful not to burn! 

Super thin & crisp!

I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #3: My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011). Details can be found here.

Chocolate Gelato

 



I wanted to try an eggless ice ceam recipe see how it compares with the  custard base one in terms of creaminess & smoothness. This eggless recipe using constarch made very creamy ice cream indeed but it had a slight 'chalky' mouthfeel. I don't know why, probably due to the use of  cocoa powder or it could be due to undercooking the cornstarch. This ice cream was also a little icy and rock hard after freezing and had to be left out a while before serving, but hey, I made this without an ice cream maker!  Misgivings aside, this ice cream turned out extremely chocolaty, good for die hard chocoholics! My daughter remarked, "It's like eating frozen chocolate icing!" I think so too and one spoonful was enough to satisfy my chocolate cravings for the entire day.

CHOCOLATE GELATO RECIPE
(Recipe adapted from 'Cafe Fernando' here)

Ingredients:
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream

1 cup cocoa powder

1 cup sugar (Reduced to 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon, I don't like my ice cream too sweet)
2 tbsp cornstarch
Pinch of salt

Method:

1. Bring 2 cups of heavy cream to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat, then remove from heat.
2. In another bowl, combine milk, sugar, cornstarch, salt and cocoa powder, then  add to hot cream. Return to stove and cook on low to medium heat until sugar and cocoa dissolve (5-10 minutes).
3. Set aside to let cool, then cover and refrigerate overnight.
4. Process mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions.

Note: I don't own an ice cream maker, hence I had to process the ice cream by hand. After Step 3 above, I poured the ice cream mixture into a container and kept it in the freezer until half frozen. Then, took the ice cream out and gave it a vigorous mix to beak up the ice crystals. Put the container back into the freezer again and repeated the process of 'freezing -mixing-freezing' about 3 times.

Mix Veg Stir Fry

I had eaten a very delicious simple vegetable dish in a restaurant which I tried to recreate at home and the resulting dish is this, I call it 'Mix Veg Stir Fry'. Though it didn't turn out exactly like the restaurant dish, I'm very pleased with the end result and have cooked this many times to date, and this gets thumbs up everytime from my Hubby!  Sweet, crunchy and soft at the same time, this vegetable dish has claimed a permanent spot on the weekly menu for me & my family. When there are leftovers, which is quite rare, I incorporate them into an omelete dish which is equally delicious.


Mix Veg Stir Fry

Timun Jepun


Ingredients:

1 Timun Jepun (a type of dense cucumber)

1 Carrot

200g Wood Ear Mushrooms

2  Leeks
about 100g diced Luncheon Meat / Spam
1 Tbs Oyster Sauce

1 Tbs chopped Garlic
Salt to taste

Note: Luncheon Meat can be substituted with any meat of your choice. I've cooked this with diced marinated chicken and they were good.
How to cook:
1) Slice Timun Jepun, Carrot, Wood Ear Mushrooms & Leeks into thin even strips.
2) Heat up a tablespooon of oil in a pan, saute garlic and luncheon meat till fragrant (if you're using raw marinated meat, cook till meat is fully cooked). Add in the timun jepun and carrot and stir fry a while before adding in  the wood ear mushrooms and leeks. Add oyster sauce and season with salt. Add a little water if it gets a little dry. Stir till cooked or until vegetables are soft to your liking. Done!


Mix Veg Omelette

Ingredients:
leftover Veg Stir Fry
2 Eggs
2 tsp Soy Sauce
a few drops Sesame Oil
a dash of white Pepper

Method:
1) Beat eggs together with soy sauce, sesame oil and a dash of white pepper.
2) Combine the the egg mixture with leftover Mix Veg Stir Fry and cook in a pan heated with 1 Tbs cooking oil. Fry both sides till cooked. Serve.

Green Tea Jelly

Tea lovers are not left out too! Here's a simple Green Tea Jelly recipe for a refreshing and antioxidant loaded treat. 

Green Tea Jelly

(Recipe adapted from here.)

Ingredient:

1 Tbsp Green Tea powder (Matcha)
1 1/2  Tbsp Sugar
500 ml Water
10 gram Gelatin powder (about 1 heaped tablespoon)
Whipped cream for topping (I used pouring cream)

Note: 1 1/2  Tbs sugar was definitely not sweet enough for me eventhough I don't like very sweet stuff. I suggest increasing the sugar to 4 Tbs (or to your taste) or use sweetened cream for the topping. The next time I'm making this again, I will add some lemon juice to give it a fresh lemony tang flavor.


Preparation:
1. Put green tea powder, sugar and 10ml of hot water in a cup and mix well with a spoon.
2. Put gelatin powder in a bowl and add 100ml of water and mix well.
3. Boil 400ml of water. Then mix well with the gelatin mixture. Add in the green tea mixture, combine.
6. Pour into serving cups and let cool for a while.
7. Chill in the refrigerator until well set.
8. Top the set jelly with some whipped cream and sprinkle on green tea before serving.