Apple Roses Pie

Couple of months ago a friend of mine shared a video on how to make Apple Roses dessert video on Facebook and after watching it I'm hooked.  The video is from a food blogger called Cooking With Manuela and she has many wonderful recipes and videos. 

Here's my Apple Roses Pie.  It looks complicated but it's not.  So very easy and yet so pretty and delicious.  Don't worry, the link to this blogger and her video on how to make this is included below.
Have a go at this and your family will be awed by the beauty of this pie. :)

 



www.cookingwithmanuela.blogspot.com

http://www.cookingwithmanuela.blogspot.com/p/videos.html
 

Bacon and Mushroom Quiche

This is my first attempt at baking a quiche.  My hubby and kids love quiche.  When they first ate this, it was baked by my sis and since then, they fell madly in love with it.  Sometimes when we have family get together, special request from my family to my sis, is to bake this.

Since they like its so much, I decided to make one a couple of weeks ago and yup, it's a hit!.  The recipe is taken from the link here.  I did however, adjusted the ingredient to our taste.  Basically, all the main ingredients are there.  I do hope you will try this as this is really good.

Tasteful and delicious!

Nyonya Assam Prawns

Hi there! My first post for 2014 is this wonderful simple dish.  The Nyonya Assam Prawns.  'Assam' means sour.  In this recipe the 'Assam' actually refers to 'Assam Gelugor' which is Tamarind pulp.

This dish is so versatile.  It's perfect eating on its own but we just love to eat this with hot fluffy rice.  The way to cook this is by using the whole tamarind pulp including the seed as well.  Some people prefer to just use the tamarind juice.  It's personal preference but my late mom loved to cook using the whole tamarind, seed and all.  It's tastier this way. You will be amazed at how ridiculously simple this recipe is and yet it's so so tasty and aromatic.  I hope you will give this a try.

30 medium to large size prawns, cleaned with shell intact
3 - 4 tbsp tamarind pulp with seed mixed with 1 tbsp of water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

1. Mix all together and marinate for 1/2 hour or longer if preferred.
2. Heat 1/4 cup of vegetable oil in wok and wait till it's really hot before you add in the prawns.  Prawns will release some liquid.  Stir fry until the prawns are almost dry.
3. Serve with hot white rice.

Chicken Quesadilla

I love Mexican food.  My family love Mexican food.  Base case, we love food that has cheese and tomatoes. 

It was a lazy Saturday last week and I was feeling a bit under the weather.  Really wasn't up to cooking dinner but hey, I have three hungry mouths to feed.  Thought of eating out but lazy to drive. I tell you, I was feeling extremely lazy on that day!  All I wanted to do was sleep...well! 

Anyway, in the end, decided to make a simple dinner.  Since I have a pack of ready made wraps in my little pantry, I made the simplest dinner ever...Chicken Quesadilla.  I didn't really follow any recipe, just throw in some chicken, onion, capsicum, cheese and that's it.

It's light but yet filling.  Most importantly, I don't have to sweat it out over the stove!

Serves 4:

2 pieces chicken breast, cut into strips

1 large yellow onion, cut into rings

1 large capsicum, cut into small squares

a few sprigs cilantro, chopped

cheddar cheese

8 wraps

1. Marinate the chicken with salt, pepper and barbecue sauce.

2. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, fry the onion, add in chicken breast and stir for a few minutes.

3. Add in capsicum and cook until chicken is done.  Set aside.

4. In another non-stick frying pan, heat the wraps (without oil).  Spoon the chicken mixture onto the wraps (while it's being heated), sprinkle cheese on top and lastly cilantro.  Cover with another piece of wrap and carefully, turn it over until the wrap is crispy.

5. Take it off heat, cut into quarters and serve immediately.

You can serve this with guacamole or sour cream.

Onion Fritters and Cookies & Banana & Oreo Ice Cream Dessert

A colleague of mine had her retirement party last week.  The retirement age in Malaysia is 60.  I envy her for having reached the age where she will have all the time in the world to do whatever she wants.  On top of that, a final big fat check from the Company to cover her retirement years.  How I wish I'm her, er..minus the age, to enjoy the time and $$!!  Well, being envious is all I can do right now as I have a long way to go before I reach there.  Until then, I've to wake up early in the morning, see the kids to school, go to work, come home, go to sleep and the day repeats until the weekend.

When weekend comes, I'm like 'yeay, its the weekend! I can spend time with my family and feed them well!'.  I always look forward to spending time with my family even though the kids will fight and sometimes they irritate the hell out of you, but hey, I'm not complaining.  It'd rather have this than go to work.

Well, being a working mom, my kids always look forward to weekends where they get to eat food prepared by their mom.  I have 3 hungry tummies to feed.  Here, I'm sharing with you a great and easy tea-time snack that you can prepare in such a short time and they are delicious.

Onion Fritters
serves 4-5

1 1/5 cups self raising flour
2 medium sized big onions, chopped into squares
2 fresh red chillies, seeded and chopped
3 sprigs spring onion, chopped
salt to taste
3/4 cup water
100g shrimp, shelled (optional)
vegetable oil for deep frying

1. Mix all the ingredients together and add 1/2 cup water first.  Adjust the consistency of the batter.  If it's too think add more water.  Batter should not be runny.  Should be thicker than pancake batter.
2. Heat oil in wok and drop spoonful of batter into the hot oil.  Fry until they are golden brown.
Serve with chili sauce.

For dessert, here's Cookies & Banana & Oreo Ice Cream.

Strawberry Scones and Cameron Highlands Holiday Get-a-way

The last week of the 2-weeks school break in mid June brought us to a short holiday in Cameron Highlands.  Yup.. again! If you have been following my earlier posts, my big big family and I went there last October.  We had a great time there and now, it's only us.

It was a last minute decision which we enjoyed the much cooler air in the highlands as it was freaking hot in KL!

This time, we discovered a small old fashion cafe that serves tea snacks such as scones, pies, cakes and sandwiches.  Their scones are really yummy and the best part, the food there is so cheap.  If you ever go to Cameron, I highly recommend you to visit The Lord's Cafe at Tanah Rata.  This quaint little cafe is on the first floor of Mary Brown outlet.  You can't miss it as it's right smack by the main road of Tanah Rata.

After eating their homemade strawberry scones, I felt inspired to make some when I get home and I did.  The recipe is at the end of this post.  Here are some of the pictures of our holiday.

 Lavender Farm

  

Me and my mini me at the Lavender Farm

   

 Taken at the Rose Farm

A small cabbage patch in the Rose Farm

Below is the strawberry scones that we had at Lord's Cafe.

And now, here's the recipe for my strawberry scones.

1 stick chilled butter, chopped, plus extra for greasing
3 cups self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup icing sugar, extra for sprinkling
1 cup dried strawberries, chopped
scant 3/4 cup milk, extra for brushing

1. Pre heat the oven to 160dC. Grease a 12-inch square cookie sheet.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bow,add the salt and butter, and cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.  Add the sugar, strawberries and milk and mix to form a dough, adding a little more milk if the mixture is too dry.
3. Sift flour onto a clean countertop and roll the dough to 1 inch thick using a rolling pin. Cut out 10 scones with a 1 1/2 inch round cutter, gathering up the trimmings and re-rolling as necessary.
4. Place the scones on the cookie sheet so that they are touching each other, which helps the scones to rise up straight. Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk and sprinkle with icing sugar.
5. Bake 12 - 15 mins until the scones are golden brown and sound hollow when you tap it from the bottom. Remove from oven and serve warm with strawberry jam and whipping cream.

 I served these scones with my homemade strawberry jam.  Where did the strawberries come from?  From Cameron Highlands, off course!..hheheheh..

 To wash it all down, nothing beats the strawberry tea..from the Camerons too.  Simply fantastic and satisfying tea!

Wanna have some scones?? 

Homemade Chicken Pie

One of the long lists of things to make, is the homemade chicken pie.  Mmm..mmm.. so yummey!

But I have to admit that I cheated.  Cheated on the pastry. Hah! One thing that I am lazy with is making pastries and breads.  If you ever find me making those, then I'm in one of those rare moods to want to make  it.  So as I'm very lazy as usual, I used the frozen pastry puffs.  It worked, didn't it?  And most importantly, it tasted good and my family enjoyed it.

The filling is my own recipe.  You can have it a bit spicy if you like by adding curry powder or if you like it creamy, use cream and milk etc.  I like mine to be neither.  More like stew type.

 For the filling, you will need:
2 pieces of chicken breasts
1 big onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 can button mushrooms, sliced
1 small floret cauliflower, cut into small chunks
1 small can of green peas, drained
2 tbsp butter
dash of olive oil
1/4 cup water
salt and pepper
worchestershire sauce
white wine vinegar
dash of sugar

Store bought frozen pastry puff, thawed at room temperature
1 egg wash for pastry

Pre heat oven to 180dC.
1. Heat a saucepan with some olive oil and butter.  Add onion and fry till soft.  Add chicken and fry till chicken to half cooked.
2. Add in cauliflower and celery, add water and cover for 1 min.  Add in mushroom and green pea.
3. Add in salt, pepper, worchestershire sauce and white wine vinegar.  Cover and simmer for 2 mins.  Add in sugar to taste.
4. Once chicken is cooked and vegetables are soft, take off heat and let cool.
5. Line disposable pie foil with puff pastry if you like.  (You can omit this and just place the pastry on top to cover.)
6. Add in the filling and cover with puff pastry.  Brush with egg wash and place on baking tray and bake till pastry is puffed and golden.

Serve immediately.

Apple Pie

Let's welcome the New Year with good old Apple Pie and a new look for 2013!  Hopefully this year will be full of good surprises just like the apple pie with its flavorful spices and softness in the inside and crispiness on the outside.. in the end, a very satisfying bite!

4 extra large green apples, cored and diced

1 cup raisins

1 lemon, zest and juice

1/2 cup brown sugar (add more to suit your taste)

30g butter

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 packet of frozen ready-rolled pastry puff (6 pieces in a pack)

1 egg, for the egg wash

Mix all together and cook over medium heat till half soft.  Take off heat and let cool.

Dust cutting board with some flour so that the pastry will not stick on the board and cut pastry puff into 4 squares.  

Place a spoonful of apple filling into the center and fold over. Using a fork, seal the sides. Transfer to a baking tray with parchment paper.

Brush egg wash all over and bake in pre-heated oven at 190dC for 20 mins or until golden.

My kids are already grunting about going back to school tomorrow.. and I follow suit! sigh!  Vacation's over!

Have a great year ahead, everyone!