Tuesday 31 July 2007
Chocolate Ice-Cream Cupcakes
I was away from work a couple of days 2 weeks ago and in anticipation for a makan session at Semenyih that weekend with a few of the floggers, I made this Chocolate Ice-Cream Cupcakes for them as some of them complaint that they never got to taste my cakes. However, sad to say the makan session got cancelled because not enough quorum...
Anyway, back to this cupcake. I had wanted to get the 500 Cupcakes & Muffins By Fergal Connolly book (published by PageOne Publishing) last Christmas but they were sold out at MPH. When Paprika gave me her eggless chocolate cupcake back on our first date, she told me she got the recipe from this book, I know must try to look for it again! Well try hard I did not for Popular Bookstore in Ikano has plenty of them. I got one copy and this Chocolate Ice-Cream Cupcakes is my first recipe from it after I've gotten the book.
Suffice to say, this cupcake is pretty easy to bake. To assemble, just cut the cupcake into half. Sandwich some ice-cream onto them before coating the top with a chocolate ganache. Best part is that they can be done in advance and freeze them. Bring them out of the freezer for about 15 mins (well if you can wait that long!!!) before serving.
Suffice to say my boiboi and myself are big fans of this cupcake! Thanks floggers hehehe... am enjoying them slowly :p
Technorati Tags: cupcake + chocolate
Monday 30 July 2007
Jamie Oliver Inspired Rosemary Roasts
For the baby potatoes, dunk in cleaned potatoes in boiling water and cook till tender. Drain and place in roasting pan. Coat them up with olive oil, chopped rosemary, sea salt and black pepper. Roast them in the oven till golden. I also have some traffic light colours capsicums and sliced brinjal that I spread them in a tray. Again I drizzle over olive oil, sea salt and black pepper combo before chucking in the oven. No rosemary here as 1 pack is seriously not enough for 4 chicken thighs and a bunch of baby potatoes. Need at least 2, must remember this!
Easy peasy eh? The thighs were tender and the skins... mmm crispy, very sinful indeed and I simply loved those roasted vegetables. I have leftovers where I shredded the chicken, mix in sliced potatoes and mayo. Turned them into a chicken sandwich lined with the sweet roasted capsicums, served with a blob of mustard - utmost delish!
Check out my other roast chickens:
One Chook, Five Ways
Babe's Roast Chicken With Vegetables
Technorati Tags: roast chicken
Friday 27 July 2007
Review: Restaurant Wong Poh
We started off with this Kerabu Octopus (RM15.00) that they recommended. When it came, my brother said "got cheated" hahaha when we saw it's just those baby octopus that came straight out from a pack mixed with some mango, red chillies and red onion strips. Served with a squeeze of lime and sprinkling of crushed peanuts. Overall, I give this an okay, quite refreshing and I liked those not too sour mango strips.
We asked for a tofu dish (RM16.00) and came this deep fried homemade tofu bricks braised with a few types of mushrooms. Nothing spectacular here.
Next, we have a plate of stewed pork belly with peanuts (RM15.00). I like the huge peanuts which were stewed to tender perfection without turning mushy. My boiboi lapped the gravy up with some fried mantau.
So it seems fried sang cheung (RM15.00) is Wong Poh's specialty and my brother said it's very good. That's how it ended up on our table. Seriously up till now, we're still debating which part of the pig this came from. Some said it's some part of the intestine but my mom said it's fallopian tubes. Maybe I should ask my butcher tomorrow. Anyhow, these sang cheung came fried with green chilli padis and crispy dried shrimps. This dish with 3 types of crunchiness of varying degrees melded together very well indeed. Definitely a must have.
I can't recall what type of fish is this, could be red snapper (hoong joe?? I'm really lousy with fish names). Mom chose the fish but I asked it to be steamed Teo Chew style (RM52.30). We loved the slight sourish soup and lapped up most of the soup. Certain parts of the fish were slightly over steamed, hence a bit coarse.
Mom asked for the Four Heavenly Kings (RM12.00). Wong Poh's version have long beans, ladies fingers, four angled beans and petai combinations. Stirred in sambal belacan, nothing special here, lacking a bit in "wok hei" (breath of the wok).
Ahhh and finally the piece de resistance - Butter Crabs (RM67.20, I think 2 crabs only if not mistaken)!!! Now this looks like the MUST ORDER dish in Wong Poh cos EVERY single table have a pot of this! Amazing. I know my boiboi was busy mopping the gravy up with mantau and so were the rest of us that we have to asked for more mantau. The waitress "hijacked" one set to serve us first LOL! The fried ones are nicer.
Simply loved the freshness and meatiness of the crabs coupled with the aromatic buttery sauce...! This gravy is slightly thicker than De Foodland Seafood Restaurant and it's way better.
We have a pot of tea (RM11.50), I think 5 plates of rice (RM3.50), peanuts (RM1.50) plus 5% Government tax, so our dinner costed us a total of RM224.18, seems reasonable. Overall, the dishes are just fine but will come here just for the Butter Crabs. Any other style that are nice here??? Leave me some comments. Thanks.
Have a nice weekend.
Restaurant Wong Poh
36 & 38 Jln BM 1/2
Bukit Mayang Mas
47301 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 603-7803 3527
Technorati Tags: malaysian food + crab
Wednesday 25 July 2007
Black Eyed Beans Tong Shui
Got some black eyed beans/peas to make some sweet soup (tong shui) since it has been a long while I have this.
Easy peasy - boil the beans until tender (much faster than red beans!) before adding rock sugar to taste. Then swirl in beaten eggs. Done!
Technorati Tags: malaysian food + tong shui
Tuesday 24 July 2007
Review: Veaty Bites - Pandan Chicken Style
Earlier, I posted a review on Veaty Bites's chicken flavour vegetarian chunk. I've tried the Pandan Chicken Style recently and here's what I have to say...
This was how the chunks looked like straight out from the freezer. The chunks are similar to the chicken flavour ones, just that these babies are marinaded with turmeric, lemongrass and a host of other ingredients just like the real thing. They are then roll with a small piece of pandan leaf secured with a small piece of skewer. I decided to defrost them as I'm so afraid of splattering hot oil even though you could fry them in their frozen state. I had thought of baking in the oven but then again I contemplated since pandan chicken packages are usually deep fried.
After deep frying, wrapped and unwrapped.
My verdict - they are not very flavourful as compared with the real thing. The marinade was sort of like being coated on the chunks hence the inner part of the chunks tasted just like the normal chicken flavoured chunks. However, this is a good party food as it is utmost easy to prepare - deep fried, microwave or bake in the oven in its frozen state. Well, we still enjoyed them nevertheless.
I still have one pack of satay flavoured chunks that I've gotten at BCAF07. Will update when I cook them later.
My other Kawan products review:
Review: Kawan Mini Rice Dumplings
Sweet and Sour Veaty Bites
Chapati, Dhal and Vegetables Curry
Technorati Tags: vegetarian + malaysian food
Ratatouille: Rat-a-too-ee
I caught the making of Ratatouille, the movie, last night. Other than being a food related movie churned out from Pixar's kitchen, I can't help but noticed that I now have the same (well, almost...) hairstyle as Colette (pictured above) albeit a little longer touching my shoulders and side parted... LOL!!!
Coincidentally I had my hair chopped off last Friday without prior knowledge of this hehe...
* Picture from Ratatouille official site.
Monday 23 July 2007
Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake
This Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake from Donna Hay's Modern Classic Book 2 is fast becoming my favourite cake for it's not very heavy and it's filled with apples, lots of them! The slight tang of the apples sort of like cancel off the buttery cake mixture. I really really like them so much that I've baked them many times over. Glad that all the guinea pigs liked them too!
Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake
185g butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2/3 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup milk
Topping:
4 small green apples, peeled, halved and cored
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup apricot jam, warmed
Preheat the oven to 160C. Line base of a 22cm (9in) springform pan with non-stick baking paper.
Place the butter, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and creamy with electric mixer. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Sift flour and baking powder over butter mixture and stir in milk until combined. Spoon the mixture into the pan.
To make the topping, cut a row of deep slits in each apple half and arrange over the top of the cake mixture. Press apples into the batter but not until all the way down, otherwise the batter will cover the apples. Combine the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the apples. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush the cake with the warm jam. Then return the cake to the oven for 10 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
Ref: Donna Hay, Modern Classics Book 2
Note: I've used strawberry jam instead since I did not have apricot jam on hand. Worked as well.
Babe in the City - KL is THREE!!!!
Gee, it just seems like yesterday! Looking back in the early days, I was kinda lonely since there isn't many local food related blog except for Friedchillies forum where I found some makan kakis there. It's funny how things turn out... one of the foodster, Adly, became a true makan kaki and another one, Wai Meng, turned out to be hubby's dharma centre's member. Who could anticipated this? I met Wai Meng at BCAF07 and we managed to chatted up a bit reminising how things have turned out. Things do worked strangely.
Three years after, thank goodness the scenario had changed. There are many local floggers, forums and food portals now, in fact so many that I find it hard to keep up with everyone's postings. Many a time, I resort to reading my feeds but leave no comments. Sorry about that but seriously I have a long list in my feed kekeke... Lots of addiction there!
I was browsing through some of my very old postings, omigosh, those of you whom have praised me for the delish looking photos should have taken a looked at my old postings! Goshhhh... looked how ugly those pics were hahahaha... Lucky thing things turn out pretty ok now with lots of practice.
I've gone thru three change of clothings with the current strawberries one being the latest. I still can't get a couple of the links working. Tried every darn thing but it still won't budge, will try again later. There will be some tweakings here and there so please bear with me. I can't get Haloscan to work along side with Blogger's comments, so in the mean time, Blogger's comment it is. I've allowed people to post as Anonymous but I'm thinking of withdrawing that since I would love to see who is commenting. BTW, I did not come out with the template on my own, I just copied and paste from Finalsense. So full credits should go to Finalsense. Do give them a visit if you want a change of template.
Wishing more good things to come, happy 3rd anniversary, dear blog!
p.s.: The cake shown above is Donna Hay's Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake. Will post the recipe in a separate post.
Technorati Tags: anniversary
Saturday 21 July 2007
SHF#33: Tropical Paradise - Mango & Nata De Coco Konnyaku Jelly
Bearing in mind with the heat at this time of the year, I decided to make some konnyaku jelly with some cubed mangoes, nata de coco that came in a can with mango juice.
Easy peasy with a pack of konnyaku jelly powder (I used Jim Willie's brand) and the suggested amount of sugar on the packet. Mix them well together and set aside.
I've some cubed mangoes and drained nata de coco on hand. Place these into individual jelly moulds.
The nata de coco that I've gotten came with mango juice. So I added some water to it until the amount specified on the packet. You can use more mango juice if you want but make sure you cut down the amount of sugar used. Let it come to a boil in a pan and lower down the heat. Slowly add in the jelly powder and sugar mixture by the tablespoon and stir after each addition. Once done, quickly spoon them into the prepared jelly moulds. You'll need to work fast here as the konnyaku jelly sets pretty quickly.
Let them cool down before refrigerate them. To serve, just use a sharp knife and give it a gentle slide on the side to remove them from the moulds.
And there you go, a tropical mango and nata de coco konnyaku jelly for this round of Sugar High Friday. Thanks Mary for being a wonder host. Looking forward to the round up.
Technorati Tags: Sugar High Friday + shf
Thursday 19 July 2007
Merdeka Open House 2007: Muhibbah
The majority voted for "Pick yr fave food fm a diff ethnic. Write in detail & explain why & how it became yr fave."
I read and reread this line, gosh... like so lame haha... yeah too easy as a challenge, so I decided to souped it up. So read on if you're interested to participate. Would appreciate if you could get fellow bloggers to take part as well. They need not be a food blogger since there will be options for those who don't cook as well as for those who are staying overseas.
Pick your favourite dish of a different ethnic from yours but this dish has to be something original and not fusionised or tweaked to fit the modern age. Explain in detail how this dish was introduced to you, why and how this particular dish became your favourite. If you could inject some history or origin of this dish as well, it's all the better! With this, I therefore named this year's topic - MUHIBBAH.
Now, if you can, do recreate this dish in your kitchen. You can stick to the original recipe or your own. Those who can't cook, you can go to your favourite place to dine on this dish BUT you will need to do a little bit more... by writing some history about this favourite dining place of yours and how you stumbled upon this place or it could be that your grandparents or parents whom have brought you there since you're young.
Take a picture of your homecooked dish or the one you have ordered, put it up together with your posting. Email me at babe_kl(at)yahoo(dot)com, a copy of this picture (500x375 pixels) and the following details BY midnight Malaysian time of 29 August 2007 but of course the earlier the better. I need time to compose the round up and post it up by 31 August.
Name or nick
Location
Permalink/URL of your post
Name of the dish
Do put this reference at the end of your post for self-round up, just copy and paste:
Merdeka Open House 2007
As long as you’re a Malaysian, doesn't matter where you're located, you can participate. Unlike last year where I forbade sensitive ingredients ie. pork/beef but I'm not going to do so this time. It's difficult to impose but since this is a virtual open house with the Muhibbah theme, I guess it's ok lah. HOWEVER, if you feel offensive please don't take part and please don't spam me. This is just for fun and I hope you guys don't take things so seriously.
Those without a blog, don't fret, you can join in too, just write your article and send me the details together with the picture (if you have). I will post your article on my blog.
Looking forward to your entries and happy cooking/eating!
Technorati Tags: Merdeka Open House 2007
Wednesday 18 July 2007
Steamed Brinjal With Garlic Oil
My mother used to make this Steamed Brinjal as it's simple and healthy. I recreated it at my kitchen. She used to boiled the brinjal/aubergine whole in water but I steamed them instead. After steaming the brinjal till soften, let it cool down a bit before working on it. Peel off the skin but be careful as it can be very hot. Remove the seeds by scraping them away with a spoon, not easy but you can leave them as it is if you don't mind the seeds. It's ok to leave some seeds behind otherwise you'll end up having very little brinjal left. Oh yeah, you'll need to use more brinjal for this recipe as after removing the skin and seeds, there isn't much left behind.
To serve, simply drizzle some soy sauce to taste and garlic oil. Topped with the garlic bits and chopped fresh red chillies. Best served with sambal belacan on the side.
Note: To make garlic oil, chopped some garlic. Make sure they're quite even in size otherwise will have problem making them brown evenly at the same time. Drop them into hot oil and fry till light golden brown. Shut off the heat and pour into heat proof container. The hot oil will continue to brown the garlic, hence do not over brown them earlier. Usually I make a large batch and keep it for blanched vegetables or to make dry version of noodles.
Technorati Tags: malaysian food
Monday 16 July 2007
Review: Restoran Muar
Remember the night we got turned away to Max! Kitchen & Wine??? Well, we ended up at Restoran Muar right across the road. Had meant to try this place for some time back but some how never got the chance.
We sat on a huge round table since there isn't any smaller tables left... seems very promising. Behind us, there is a large group of diners chowing down and I tried to peep back, left and right before I check the simple menu. Hubby then got the lady boss to recommend us dishes.
Started off with a dish of Petai Squid and Prawn (RM16 for small). I don't really like the sambal taste of this dish. Somehow something is missing but I can't pinpoint, and I hate chewing on the large pieces of dried chilli bits. Luckily, the seafood is fresh and loved the petai bits.
Hubby originally asked for Kangkung Belachan but they ran out of kangkung, hence we opted for sweet potato shoots instead (RM6.00). Aisay, they've used the same sambal as in the Petai Squid and Prawn. Had to dig out those chilli bits, so minus points there.
Next, we have this Crispy Fried Eggs (RM5.00). 3 eggs deep fried into a lacey omelette, served with a few dashes of dark soy sauce. The simplest dish but yet the most satisfying of all!!! Loved the crispy whites coupled with the runny egg yolk... simply divine. Hubby told me that his mom used to deep fry their eggs this way, wahhh... so nice but not my mom as she usually shallow fry them.
We ended our dinner with cendol of fine shavings of ice, drizzled with gula melaka and thin coconut milk; and topped with cendol. As we dug further, red beans are abound underneath the ice. It was on a special price of RM1.00 but it's a very small bowl. Hubby asked for second. This time round, the lady boss made it herself and the ice was not shaved as finely as the Indonesian helper. A week later, we are delighted that they started to serve cendol in two sizes, big for RM2.50 and small bowl remained at RM1.00.
The sambal dishes are not to my liking but there are a few more other dishes that I would loved to try, so might go back there for them. Will comment further then. Was told that reservation is a must on weekends.
Restoran Muar
No. 6G Tengkat Tong Shin
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603-2144 2072 or +6012 219 2199
Technorati Tags: malaysian food
Friday 13 July 2007
Almost There...
BTW, I'm not sure if you could click on the icons at my links that will expand and collapse the long long list. I can't seems to be able to click on them on my side. Will check later at another location. Oh yeah, do you prefer to remain in this window when you click on links or would rather have it to open in a new one??? Let me know ok cos for the time being, they will open in the same window.
Hey tummythoz, I got the navigation bar back up there!!! Thank goodness for search engines. :p
In the meantime, about the Merdeka Project, I've got an idea but need to spend some time to cough the words out here. Gimme till next week to come out with the post ok. Sorry for the delay.
Happy weekend all!
Thursday 12 July 2007
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At babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use visit babeinthecitykl.blogspot.com, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.
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As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.
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Wednesday 11 July 2007
Shanghai Nian Gao - Vegetarian Style
I made a vegetarian version using White Rice Cake. Check out my Hokkien style version on how to prepare the rice cake aka Shanghai Nian Gao.
This vegetarian version have very minimal ingredients of vegetarian ham, soaked dried mushroom, cabbage, choy sum and carrot. Just fried the ham and vegetables with some oil before adding the rice cakes. Pour in some water and add vegetarian oyster sauce and pepper to taste. Bring to boil, lower heat and put on the lid. Simmer till water dried up, stir and served. As simple as that.
Technorati Tags: noodle + malaysian food