Coconut Grove Dessert Corner @ Bandar Utama

The current hot spell in Kuala Lumpur has been making us craving for cendols and ABC (Air Batu Campur aka Ice Kacang). We visited Gyuniku Signature at TTDI but somehow they do not have stock of cendol. Being the crazy craver, Capt'n Hook asked me where can we head next for cendol nearby. I replied him that there's a place that sells coconut jelly though and "ting" it went on his head... jelly (his fave) is a great alternative. And so off we went to Coconut Grove Dessert Corner which is located at the other quieter part of Bandar Utama in Oasis Business Centre. It's just a small cluster of shops here with ample free parking. A bonus indeed.

And how I got to know about this place? Of course from my fave kar jie ;-)

Capt'n Hook ordered this Coconut Jelly With Cendol (RM5.80).



Such a wonderful idea of melding cendol, gula melaka (palm sugar syrup) and coconut milk with the cold wobbly coconut jelly!!!

And so, one is not enough, Capt'n Hook proceeded with his second coconut jelly, a plain one (RM5.20). That's done to cool him down.



I was thirsty so went for Coconut Grove Signature Shake (RM7.50), an ice blended vanilla ice cream topped with coconut jelly and young coconut flesh. At the bottom, suck out the bouncy rainbow jelly. When it arrived, I thought this is going to be quite heavy tasting but surprisingly it's not. It's refreshing and I slurp down in a jiffy.



As for Boi Boi, he will zoom into anything chocolate. Coconut Grove here serves a rather moist and chocolaty steamed cake. Quite innovative to serve the vanilla ice cream inside the emptied core to prevent the ice cream from melting all over the plate.

The menu is not extensive but there are some light bites such as nasi lemak/mee siam packets; Nyonya kuih and tong sui (sweet soup) that changes daily. On Monday & Wednesday, you'll find Red Bean; Snow Fungus Longan on Wednesday; Mak Chuk (wheat/gandum) on Thursday & Saturday; Black Glutinous Rice on Friday & Sunday and Winter Melon Longan on everyday except Wednesday.

Just when we thought the place is very quiet and remote, in came a few families who almost occupied the entire shop which we happily vacate our table for them.


Coconut Grove Dessert Corner
C-B-02, BU 11,
Oasis Business Centre, PJU 6
Lebuh Bandar Utama, Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan

Opens from 11am till 9pm daily
(till 10pm on Friday and Sat)

Tel : 016-205 1121

Review: OMG! Ooh My Gas Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

It have been quite a long while since we last pop by Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. As we got out of the car park, we are very near Level 1 which of course is the food haven floor. As we walk thru looking for the escalator, we chanced upon OMG! Ooh My Gas Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream.

The ice cream lover BoiBoi was scrutinising the posters and all, while Capt'n Hook and I checked out the row of Kitchen Aid mixers where each of them have some kind of piping which we have guessed must be where the liquid nitrogen would dispense.



Seeing that it's something new to him, we decided to let him try one small serving which is called a Cutie Cup. For a 5 oz serving at RM12.90, you get to pick the colour flavour (more on that later) and a topping.



There are 3 steps in ordering, the first being choosing your base of gelato, ice cream or soy milk (woohoo for those who are lactose intolerant). Next you pick your "colour flavour"which you'll see a range of flavours under nuts, fruits or classic followed by colour. Lastly, pick your toppings.

Click to view a larger image

BoiBoi chose an ice cream base with peanut butter flavour and no colour (I think I must have taught him well hehe for not eating colour enhanced food) with a topping of chocolate sauce. And so the server proceed by adding the concoction into the mixer's bowl. He then secure the bowl to the mixer and start beating the concoction. After a few beatings, we next saw "white smoke" billowing all over making it quite theatrical especially for children. Once done, the server scrape out the frozen concoction into a paper cup before topping with chocolate sauce.

BoiBoi getting a dose of liquid nitrogen smoke which he said it's cold, of course

We have a few bites and the verdict... Capt'n Hook just shrugged his shoulder, BoiBoi of course will say is nice, as for myself... the ice cream was smooth and melt quickly but the flavouring is just so so, nothing to shout about. I supposed it's such a novelty now for the young to watch such dramatic smog that billows from the bowl which ended up freezing the liquid concoction into a frozen delight.





As usual, when I write, I tend to search the internet to learn more about the product or ingredients used and came across a rather shocking read that liquid nitrogen nearly kill this teenager but luckily she was brought to the hospital on time. Seems that she drank a couple of cocktails that used liquid nitrogen which made the drink so cold that her stomach was damaged akin to frost bite.  Her stomach has to be removed o.O The word of warning would be please ensure the nitrogen has fully evaporated before downing the drinks or whatever, I guess ice cream included!!! So be warned ;-)


OMG! Ooh My Gas Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
Level 1,  Pavilion Kuala Lumpur

No. 168 Jalan Bukit Bintang

55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Review: Cakes at Swich Cafe, Publika

We dropped by Publika Shopping Gallery for dinner and was walking around just to exercise a bit when Capt'n Hook declared that he would love some cake and coffee. Boi Boi and him likes to have dessert after their mains. We stopped by at the information counter and browsed the shops around and looked at the leaflets and chanced upon one that mentioned Swich Cafe's opening just a few days before.

Swich Cafe is no stranger to me, not when I have Lyrical Lemongrass plus a couple of other non-blogger friends who kept posting the utmost delicious offerings especially the out of the norm cakes by Swich Cafe on their Facebook timelines. Made me sounds as if I've known the proprietress, Lim Cheng Cheng, for ages haha. We have tried their offerings during Bangsar Shopping Complex's Epicurious Brunch and was looking for more but the first location at HP Tower doesn't seems to have a very ideal opening hours hence I guess a lot of us out there would think the Publika outlet is really Heaven sent!

When we dropped by, Cheng Cheng was there and oh boy we really does seems like we have known forever! Lol it was especially so when Capt'n Hook, Cheng Cheng and myself were in the same line of business. As the industry was quite small, there were many names exchanged in the conversation. We did that over a slice of Hummingbird Cake (RM10.00) and a Latte (RM8.00).



Capt'n Hook likes moist cakes with lots of nuts and this Hummingbird Cake fitted the bill when the crunch came from the toasted coconut flakes. The cake was packed with banana and pineapple with a nice hint of spices. The coconut cream frosting is a nice compliment without being very sweet.



Boi Boi as expected chose his ever favourite chocolate cake but this is no ordinary chocolate cake but one made with Valrhona Chocolate (RM12.90). The cake is moist with the right amount of sugar and you'll know good quality chocolate is used when the taste can be exquisite and luscious to the mouth plus it was so well made that the ganache shined like a mirror under the bright lightings.



So far business has been picking up and Cheng Cheng hopes to sell more if their savoury dishes but then again she's not helping it when she keeps coming up with so many ingenious desserts using out of the ordinary ingredients like jackfruit, mangosteen or even avocado. I can also vouch that the savoury dishes are not your typical stuff but do expect a married of East and West such as butter prawn or even sweet and sour chilli crab pastas! Can't wait to dig in more of these and we're going to pop by at Publika soon.

Note: There's a 10% service charged on the total bill.

Swich Cafe
Level G3 Publika Shopping Gallery
Solaris Dutamas
Kuala Lumpur
Business hours: 10.00am - 10.00pm (Mon - Sun)


Mezzanine Floor, HP Towers,
12 Jalan Gelenggang, Bukit Damansara,
Kuala Lumpur
Business hours: 10.00am - 3.00pm (Mon - Fri)
Tel: +6018 599 5152
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Swichfinefood/

Harry Potter's Apple Pie

With a brand new year, I would love to share this Apple Pie recipe in The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz for a sweet start. Yup... you heard it, there's actually a recipe book on the food mentioned in Harry Potter series but it's unofficial though. It falls under Chapter 8 Desserts and Snacks at School. Did you drool when you read thru the books over what Mrs Weasley cooks for the kids and the daily feast the elves served at Hogwarts??

My ex-colleague, Bobby, who is a movie buff... loves to order movies and memorabilia via the net and I was surprised that he actually went all the way to get this recipe book even though he don't cook! He was kind enough to lend me the book (which reminds me that I need to return to him hehe!!!). The book does not have any photos and it was printed to make it look old school. I loved the "hand torn" feel of the long edge bind of the book!

The author is an American hence the measurements are not in metric which is quite a pain as I need to calculate and convert them before using. Anyway, I've only tried one recipe from this book hence I'm not sure if all the recipes work. Another disappointment is there is no recipe for Butter Beer which is something I'm always curious how it would taste like. However there are numerous recipes on the net though just that I haven't given them a go.

The other thing is some of the recipes are pretty lame... like fried eggs and bacon... hmmm perhaps this is targeted at the younger audience?

For this pie, I've tweaked the recipe. Did not have shortening so I've just used butter. Surprisingly the pie is pretty good. The crust is buttery (heh maybe because I've used everything butter) and loved the cinnamon apple fillings. To make it more decadent, I've served it ala mode - with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! For the full recipe, check here.

Apple Pie
The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz

Pie Crust:
560 g flour
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
280 g butter, cut into chunks (it called for shortening as well but I just use butter for the whole lot)
1/2 cup ice water

Filling:
8 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
Juice and grated zest of 1 lemon
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 egg, lightly beaten, for brushing over the crust
Sugar, for sprinkling over the crust


1. Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.

2. Scatter the chunks of butter over the flour and pulse about 20 times, until the mix resembles coarse crumbs. Since I do not have a food processor, I just use my finger tips and rub in the butter.

3. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle on the 1/2 cup water, and mix with a spatula or your hands until the dough sticks together. If it's too dry, you can add more water 1 Tbsp at a time (better too wet than too dry).

4. Divide the dough in half and shape into round discs, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.

5. Preheat the oven to 180C. Remove one of the discs and roll it out on a floured surface into a 11" circle so that it can fit inside a 9" pie dish.

6. Fold the circle in quarters to lift it, then unfold it inside your pie plate. Trim the overhang to about 1", and place the plate in the fridge while you make the filling.

7. Combine the filling ingredients and mix well. The book asked to place the fillings directly on the pie bottom but I cooked it a little just to soften some of the apple pieces and thicken up the liquid. Cool the apples down before piling on the bottom crust.

8. Remove the second discs from fridge and roll out into 10" circle and place on top of the apples. Trim off the excess from the edge and crimp with fork or fingers. There should be excess dough, just make some leaves or flowers with it to decorate the pie.

9. Beat the egg and brush over the crust with a pastry brush. Cut slits in the top to form air vents. Sprinkle the extra sugar generously over the top.

10. Place the pie on a baking sheet to catch any drips and bake the pie on the bottom rack for 1.5 - 2 hours or until the crust is golden.

So which would be my next recipe to try out???

Free-Form Plum Pie

Phew, what a hectic April it was... I'm going to catch a few breather before I could concentrate here :D

Whenever I make shortcrust pastries be it for savouries or sweet items, I tend to double-up the recipe so that I can freeze the leftover to be used whenever I fancy some pies or tarts. To store the pastry, just roll into a thick disc and wrap with cling wrap tighly followed by another layer of aluminum foil. Label the pastry with a marker pen on the type of pastry and the date it is made. Chuck in the freezer. That's it!

For sweet shortcrust pastry, I loved the no-fail recipe from Donna Hay. I did an Apple Crumble ala Coffee Bean Cafe that has a pie layer, apples followed by crumbles. I did a couple of apple pies with this pastry as well.

This time round I have a small portion of the pastry (maybe just 1/4 portion) that I just want to get rid of from the freezer. It's too small for a proper pie but I could do a free form pie enough for 2 - 3 person. I also have loads of plums in the fridge so I decided a free form plum pie as it's really so easy.



I stoned and cut 3 plums into thick wedges. Set that aside.

I thaw the pastry out until it's pliable but not totally soft. Roll out the pastry into a round of about 3 mm thick. Remember to flour the work surface lightly before rolling out with rolling pin. Place pastry on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Sprinkle in about 3 tablespoons almond meal on the pastry leaving a 5 cm border all round. Place the plum wedges on top of the almond meal. Sprinkle sugar over the plums to prevent them from drying out. Fold the sides up to partially cover up the plums. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Bake in pre-heated oven 180C and bake until golden brown. Remove from oven a cool a little before dusting some icing sugar over. Serve warm with thick cream or ice cream... oh so yummy!



Here's Donna Hay's recipe from Modern Classics Book 2 if you wish to have it.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

2 cups plain flour
3 tbsp caster sugar
150g cold butter, chopped
2-3 tbsp iced water

Rub flour, butter and sugar with fingers until resembles fine breadcrumbs. You can do this in a food processor. Then add in iced water to form a smooth dough. Knead dough lightly. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins.

Roll out dough on lightly floured surface or in between 2 pieces of non-stick baking paper to thickness required and line the tart tin.

Preheat oven to 180C. Place a sheet of non-stick baking paper over pastry and fill with baking weights or uncooked rice/beans. Bake for 10 mins then remove the weights and bake for another 10 mins or until pastry is golden brown.

Spoon in filling and top with the crumble. Bake until crumble turned golden brown.

Review: Crumbs Frozen Yoghurt @ Pavilion Kuala Lumpur

I have always been a HUGE fan of frozen yoghurt since the days when TCBY and I Can't Believe It's Yoghurt were available in Kuala Lumpur many many many years ago. Sadly both chains just disappeared. I had to find solace at ice cream places that have a small selections of frozen yoghurt but then these are not the soft-served kind. When Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf introduces soft-served yoghurt in their menu, there is no need to say that I became a follower! I liked both natural which is well... like yoghurt - a little tart and vanilla flavoured which is a little sweet. The only problem is NOT every outlet is serving this :(

It has only been recently that stand alone frozen yoghurt business made a come back in the form of Tutti Frutti and now Crumbs. I don't really fancy the taste of Tutti Frutti plus it can really be rather "dangerous" kekeke as their concept is self-help and we only get to know how much our cup of yoghurt will cost at the end after weighing it. It can get quite exorbitant since it's hard to control the amount by pulling the lever and the heavy toppings are not helping either lol.

I had read with interest when an article introducing Crumbs in a local newspaper. It has been on my mind ever since then but just that we never get to visit Pavilion these days. It says that Crumbs is originated from Hong Kong which at first specialised in flavoured scones but after introducing frozen yoghurt, it seems like the yoghurt is now more popular.



We have an appointment near Pavilion so we dropped by to check out Crumbs which is located next to Food Republic (the food court). It has taken over Durian Durian kiosk which has shifted to KLCC. Since we have lunch not long ago, we did not buy any scones to try. Anyway, my main aim is the frozen yoghurt!

Capt'n Hook and I shared a large portion that came with 2 toppings (RM12.90) which I picked their signature crumbs and cute little baby meringues in pastel colours. I guess since they were new, they offered me to try another topping, the handmade mochi. You can see by now, our cup is almost over flowing with toppings!



First of all, we both like the texture of the yoghurt. It's smooth and velvety, a little tart like how yoghurt should taste like. The signature crumbs topping is actually cleverly layered at the bottom and in between, plus a little on top. This way I find that they are evenly distributed without having too much crumbs just on top. By the way, the crumbs are not made from leftover scones :p yes, yes, I was kaypoh (busy body) enough to ask! It lend a slight crunch and is lightly cinnamon scented. I also loved the baby meringues. Can't help eating spoonfuls of them just like that. The mochi came in white and smallish pieces. They have a nice bouncy texture.

As they have like 20 over toppings, I think it's going to take us a while to try out the different combinations. The pricing is quite fair to us with just the addition of RM1.90 for a large portion with an extra topping as the regular sized frozen yoghurt with one topping is going for RM11.00. Each additional topping will cost RM1.50.

Since both of us seated quite near to the kiosk, Jaymie, one of the partner of Crumbs, came by to ask for our feedback. We did gave her quite a positive feedback and the only thing they need to do now is to promote Crumbs to generate the interest and awareness of their existence in the mass of food kiosks on that floor. Judging from the few interruptions that Jaymie has to get back to the kiosk to serve customers in between chatting with us, I think they're on the right track ;-)


Crumbs
P1.11.04, Level 1,
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 2141 6020
Opening hours: 11.00am - 10.00pm

Review: Tong Pak Fu @ KLCC

Wheeee we're on a dessert roll... ending the month of October with another sugar rush of flavoured shaved ice aka as snow ice. No doubt snow ice is of Taiwanese origin but I find this Tong Pak Fu from Hong Kong have nailed it. I've tried Snowflakes but just don't understand the queues for them, maybe just not my cup of tea, in fact sweet tooth Capt'n Hook also don't fancy them.

We were in KLCC over the weekend cos Capt'n Hook had wanted to check out his stuff over at Avenue K. We were just walking around trying to get to the carpark after dinner. Took a longer route from the escalator going towards Isetan Food Hall which saw a tremendous transformation with so many mouth watering delicacies at every step of the way. Then we saw this Tong Pak Fu place and decided just to look at the menu at the stand outside. The moment the kid flipped through the pages, Capt'n Hook, the lover of all things sweet especially from Hong Kong, decided that we must make a stop here!

The modus operandi here is grab a table, browse through the menu and make the difficult decision in picking what to have teehehe... head to the cashier counter to place your order, pay up, take the number, head back to your table, place the number on the table and next... twiddle your thumbs and patiently wait for your desserts.

Browsing through their menu whilst waiting, other than snow ice, there are hot desserts like the usual like black sesame cream, red bean, mung beans and of fave peanut cream. Then they have some grass jelly creations topped with snow ice. More of sago & crystal pearls creations, tau fu fa (soy bean curd) of various combinations and a few double-boiled tong shui (sweet soup). They also have a few varieties of Western desserts such as creme brulee (a best seller according to their menu), apple crumble, waffles etc.

Capt'n Hook picked Tracka Snow Ice (RM14.80) after asking the cashier what's the difference between Tracka and D24. We were told Tracka is made from "chuk keok" in Cantonese or translated in English is Legs of Bamboo aka Tekar and so it is and it's more expensive (in fact most expensive of the snow ice range) than D24 which goes at RM12.80. It was the wisest choice indeed as it's one of the best durian ice creation I've ever tasted! The finely shaved ice is so velvety and the durian tasted as if it's straight from the pulp if not better as it's cold and melt-in-the-mouth. It's is served with a small heap of small bouncy glutinous rice balls and largish cubes of grass jelly.



Boi Boi had the Mango Snow Ice which he absolutely loved the pinkish balls on the side that goes popping in your mouth as you bite on them like ikura. Another lovely flavoured shaved ice that came with some honeydew melon balls. As for myself, I'm just happy digging into both whilst having brain freeze and goose bumps on my arms towards the end lol.



You know how well these desserts sell when they are already charging 6% Government tax! This outlet in KLCC is located opposite of Uniqlo's new extension entrance and there's a another branch at Sunway Giza. Just wish they could have more outlets!


Tong Pak Fu Malaysia
Ltot C15F, Concourse Floor
Suria KLCC
Kuala Lumpur

Review: Sumptuous Dessert

Sumptuous Desserts is of no stranger for dessert lovers, especially for the lovers of the king of fruits - durian! Sumptuous Desserts has been churning out luscious Durian Pancakes for the past 4 years out of kiosks which has expanded from Mid Valley to the like of Sungai Wang Plaza, IPC Shopping Center (Ikano Power Centre) and Sunway Pyramid. What I like about their durian pancake is the pancake colour is not electrifying and most importantly the ratio of durian puree is a lot more than the cream!

We have been invited by Steven to check out their desserts and met Lee Lee who owns these sumptuous kiosks in Klang Valley. I've met Lee Lee at Bayan Indah and she even came in to help out in some events. Was glad to meet her again whilst she introduced to us her Cempedak Pancakes. FatBoyBakes who were with us quickly jumped and asked her where she get hold of her year long stock of good cempedak! Apparently, according to these two entrepreneurs, durian is easier to get these days as compared with good cempedak.

As we chat up with Lee Lee, she shared with us that they have fine tuned the operating procedures, right from harvesting the durians and cempedak, storing and processing them, let alone the manufacturing process of all the delicious desserts displayed at the kiosk. So much so that they're looking into expanding into Singapore right now.

Lee Lee got us to try their latest version of Hokkaido Cake which is essentially a a light, soft and fluffy chiffon cake filled with custard cream but of course over at Sumptuous Desserts, they're filled with durian instead! As I bite into the pillow soft cake... hmmm I noted it's not as soft it should be and Lee Lee had noted that as she is still trying to perfect the recipe as her source of certain ingredients are hard to come by with the competition of a bakery that shall not be named here :p

FatBoyBakes initially who declared that he can't have any more food inside his tummy, however managed to ate the entire Hokkaido cake as it was so light and soft! Due to our excitement in catching up with Lee Lee's business, that I've forgotten to ask her what is the current prices but all I know is they certainly won't break ones wallet as they are so affordable.

We would like to thank Lee Lee, her hubby and children (for being so patience as we were very late for our appointment) and of course Steven whom initiated the invite.

Sumptuous Desserts

Mid Valley Megamall (Concourse Level, walkway towards The Gardens, opposite Eu Yan Sang)

Sungai Wang Plaza

IPC Shopping Center (Ikano Power Centre, LG near Uncle Lim's Kopitiam)

Sunway Pyramid

Check out this recent article on The Star

New Zealand Natural Dessert Workshop: Baking Up An Icy Storm

I had this invite from New Zealand Natural Ice Cream, something that is very hard to say no to since we're already a big fan. Can't help it especially you have a 9 year old kid who loves ice cream and guess who influence him!



The previous invite was by courtesy of The Cooking House which has recently acquired the next door lot and turned that into proper hands-on cooking stations. A major reno underwent which sees a bigger reception area. The industrial kitchen was demolished and turned into an office. The previous demo area became a dining room cum demo area. The new section has rows of spanking cooking stations with the demo island up front. The Bosch ovens, sexy red mixers and equipments made my mouth waters!



After a brief intro, we crowd around the demo island to watch Chef Merkaine demonstrating the first dessert - Chocolate Delirious Cupcake with Stuffed Ice Cream. A very easy peasy cupcake indeed when cup cakes were already pre-baked for us. We just need to remove a hole from the cupcake and roll the ice cream, White Chocolate Raspberry is used here, into melted chocolate to fill up the cut-out hole. Then decorate with non-dairy whipping cream and chocolate ganache. To ensure the ice cream remained firm, you'll have to shape the slightly soften ice cream into small rounds using a melon baller and then freeze them up for up to a day so that it's easier to work with this way.

Chocolate Delirious Cupcake with Stuffed Ice Cream

Ingredients:

Cupcake:
Sponge cake mix
300g chocolate coating (melted)

Chocolate Ganache:
1 cup whipping cream
250g chocolate coverture
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Prepare ganache by heating cream over pan and then pour over chocolate coverture.
2. Whisk till all chocolate have melted and smooth
3. Cool and use once texture is pliable.
4. Scoop ice cream into balls and freeze.
5. Use a knife and remove the middle part of the cupcake.
6. Dip ice cream balls into chocolate coating then freeze.
7. Once hard enough, place coated ice cream into cupcake and pipe ganache over.
8. Decorate as pleased.

Next, we were shown how to turn sponge fingers, espresso coffee, diary whipped cream and Cookies & Cream ice cream into an ice cream stack ala tiramisu. Another simple dessert that even a kid can assemble! This is the non-alcoholic version but feel free to add coffee liqueur into the espresso. Cut the sponge fingers to fit into the size of your glass container. Dip them into espresso coffee briefly as you do not want a soggy sponge, just nicely soaked. Place into a glass. Next, spoon in the ice cream. Repeat with the sponge and ice cream layer. Lastly, spread in a layer of whipped cream and dust with cocoa powder. Voila, a Tiramisu Ice Cream Stack!

Tiramisu Ice Cream Stack 

Ingredients:

1 pkt of sponge fingers
2 cups of Espresso coffee
2 cups of whipped cream
Cocoa powder for dusting

Method:

1. Pipe whipped cream on the base of the cup.
2. Then place a piece of sponge finger soaked in espresso on top.
3. Then top with Cookies & Cream ice-cream.
4. Repeat and lastly top with whipped cream.
5. Dust with cocoa powder and serve!

Chef Merkaine demonstrated how to literally whip up a Chilled White Chocolate Mousse. She uses pasteurised egg white for this recipe since the mousse is served raw. The texture of the egg white is very thick and stringy. She explained that it takes longer to whisk up the pasteurised egg as compared to normal eggs. So long that she had gotten a celebrity baker to do the task. I really loved the Chocolate Ecstasy ice cream used here, as if chocolate ice cream is not enough to blow your mind but the thick chocolate fudge ribbons did the trick here, no wonder it's named Chocolate Ecstasy!

Chilled White Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

White Chocolate Mousse:
180g white chocolate, broken into small pieces
250ml cream
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract

Almond Brittle:
250g whole almond with skin (roasted)
450g white sugar

White Chocolate Mousse method:

1. Double boil the white chocolate till melted and smooth.
2. Set aside to coo before using.
3. In a mixing bowl, beat cream till stiff and then whish egg white till resemble a meringue.
4. Fold in the cream and egg white together with vanilla extract and white chocolate cream.
5. Pipe white chocolate mousse onto a cup, then scoop chocolate ice cream and finally top with almond brittle.

Almond Brittle Method:
1. Melt sugar in a small pot till the color resembles a caramel tint.
2. Pour onto the almond placed on a parchment paper.
3. Let it cool and break to use.

I had a great time at The Cooking House making such yummy icy treats. Just remember that every 30th of the month, New Zealand Natural offers 30% discount on their Take Home Packs on their "30% on the 30th" promotion at all their outlets at IPC Shopping Centre, Suria KLCC, KL Convention Centre, Centro Klang, Sunway Pyramid, The Waterfront Desa Park City, Queensbay Mall (Penang) and Sunway Carnival (Penang).

Thank you to New Zealand Natural by way of Salina & Associates for the invite and The Cooking House for hosting the class.

Lompat Tikam (With Recipe)

Ok I've some requests to have this recipe posted, so here it is from Flavours magazine (March - April 2011). Happy weekend!

Lompat Tikam
(makes about 10 portions)

Pandan Layer:
6 pandan leaves, cut into 1cm pieces
1 litre water
100g rice flour
1 tsp kapur water

1. Blend pandan leaves with 200ml water and strain mixture into mixing bowl. Whisk in the rice flour and add 300ml water.

2. In a large saucepan, bring remaining water to boil, turn down heat to low. Add in the pandan mixture and kapur water. Whisk continuously for 10 mins until mixture is smooth and thick. Remove from heat.

3.  Divide mixture into 10 small glasses. The pandan layer will set as it cools.

Coconut Cream:
200ml thick coconut milk
100ml water
1 tbsp plain flour
1/4 tsp salt

1. Combine coconut milk and water in small saucepan and stir 2 - 3 tbsp of the mixture into the flour to form smooth paste. Whisk the flour paste into coconut mixture and add in salt.

2. Place saucepan over low heat and bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Remove from heat.

3. Pour a thin layer over pandan layer. Leave to cool.

Gula Melaka Syrup:
150g gula melaka, chopped
75ml water
1 pandan leaf, tied into knot

1. Place all ingredients in saucepan and cook till gula melaka melts and syrup thickens. Remove from heat and discard leaf.

To serve:
Serve lompat tikam drizzle with gula melaka syrup.

Lompat Tikam

Updated:

I've posted the recipe here due to requests.

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If you have the current copy of Flavours magazine, you would agree with me that the cover really made one salivate over! All the tea time treats in this edition are all really yummilicious looking. In fact when I first got my copy, I quickly got on my toes to make Lompat Tikam contributed by Rohani Jelani which looked so good. Lompat Tikam is basically a green pandan custardy layer topped with a white coconut milk layer and served with gula melaka syrup.



Anyway, my version doesn't turned out as good as it looks :( the pandan colour is so pale in comparison and I think I know why lol cos Rohani's pandan leaves are huge and very green in colour. I have doubled the amount of leaves but yet the colour looked so pale sighhh. My version also doesn't set firm which I think maybe I did not cook it long enough. The pandan and coconut layers do not contain any sugar and it's sweetened by the addition of the gula melaka syrup which is great as we can control how sweet we prefer these to be.

Go grab this copy of Flavours for this Lompat Tikam recipe and other tea time treats or if you can't get a copy, do drop me a mail. My next mission is to recreate the sago kuih rolled in fresh grated coconut featured on the cover. Wish me luck!




I'm submitting this for Muhibbah Malaysian Monday blog event. This event is the brainchild of  Shaz (Test With A Skewer) and Suresh (3 Hungry Tummies). Read more here.

Review: Hokkaido Ichiba @ The Gardens

Hokkaido Ichiba (the ice cream parlour) with it's neighbouring Kita no Zen (the restaurant) and Shojikiya (the snack shop) specialises on Hokkaido ingredients on the 3rd floor of The Gardens. These three are part of Super Dining and Super Sushi group of restaurants - read Rakuzen, Sushi Zanmai, Pasta Zanmai etc! Gosh they are really building an empire especially in Midvalley City! lol

We actually have our dinner at Sushi Zen (which is also part of the group located on LG) as we do not wish to queue at either Sushi Zanmai nor Kita no Zen (yes yes the queue is lonnnggg here too!!! Amazing!) *chuckle* Since we promised BoiBoi some ice cream after his tooth extraction, we took him to try out Hokkaido Ichiba. We first tried Hokkaido ice creams at MOF in Pavilion and we were sort of expecting similar stuff here. There were a bit of similarity but in terms of flavours there were more here!

BoiBoi and I were glued to the ice creams and sherbets ice chests right up front of the store. So many choices but so little stomach space :p BoiBoi was quick as usual since he almost always pick his fave Vanilla and this time another scoop of white chocolate ice cream. These double scoops are 40ml each and costed RM6.80 and we have to add another RM1 for a cone. There are options of single scoop that goes RM4.80 for a 60ml size or RM3.80 for a 40ml size. Sounds reasonable you might think but the 40ml scoop is actually a rather small scoop but perfect size for us after a meal. No pic of his cone cos he walloped before I could whip out my phone for a pic. My compact cam need to be hospitalised :( I managed to try a teeny bit of the white chocolate flavour and it's quite chocolaty rich.

Capt'n Hook did the same with his Macha Ice no Hokkaido Milk Parfait (RM8.80) so what you see is almost half eaten portion! Just imagine his concoction has a small scoop of creamy green tea ice cream served in a pool of Hokkaido milk with 2 chewy glutinous rice balls (all gone), green tea jelly cubes topped with Hokkaido red beans.



I had earlier on tried the Niagara Wine Sherbet and I really liked it! It's refreshing indeed and not as sweet as the real wine, well if they had really meant ice wine but I'm not really sure here. As I flipped thru the menu, I stumbled upon this Hokkaido Melon to Niagara Wine (RM8.80) and ordered it.



One small scoop each of Hokkaido melon ice cream and Niagara wine sherbet on an emptied honeydew melon skin with some rock melon balls on the side. The melon ice cream is only slightly creamy and loved the wonderful melon taste and smell, a perfect marriage with the sherbet.

Seems like a good first experience for us and I can't wait to drop by again to check out the other items on the menu! Well, if only the parking fees have not gone up in MidValley City sighhhh... gonna be a pain as there is no maximum rate from this month onwards *ouch*

Hokkaido Iciba
T-201, 3rd Floor,
The Gardens,
Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra,
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603-2283 3060