Sticky Date and Honey Slice

I was browsing for recipes and came across this Sticky Date and Honey Slice from New Zealand Women's Weekly magazine. Gave it a try and this was the result...



Sorry for the lousy pic, it was heavily doctored due to bad lighting.

Anyway, I got interested with this recipe since it does not uses any sugar but honey, plus the method is super easy. The cake turned out very fluffy despite the heaviness of the dates. I find them better after storing in the fridge and also the type of honey will determine the flavour of the cake. My honey gave out a flowery scent which is kinda weird to go with this cake. So might have to experiment more with this recipe. If you're interested to have a go with this cake, you can find the recipe here.

Technorati Tags: cake

Braised Deep Fried Mee Sua

I've some left over deep fried mee sua (flour vermicelli) from my failed Kong Nam Meen adventure and decided to braise (munn in Cantonese) them.

Prepared by cutting the vegetables ie baby corn, capsicum, carrots and celery (whatever I found in my fridge actually). Minced some chicken breast and marinade with some soy sauce, a dash of sesame seeds oil and a bit of cornflour. Shelled some shrimps and devine them as well. I've some sliced up fish cakes as well. Oh yeah, chopped a few cloves of garlic, the more the merrier!

Heat up some oil and fry the minced meat till slightly browned before putting in the garlic. Keep stirring and once fragrant, add in the prawns. Stir till cooked. Next add in the vegetables and fish cakes. Stir till mixed well. Next, pour in some water and add in some oyster sauce and dark soy sauce to taste. Cover and let it come to a boil. Taste the gravy now and adjust with seasonings like salt, pepper and a wee bit of sugar.

Put in the deep fried mee sua (or you can use deep fried yee meen or sang meen) which I've quickly washed with some hot water to get rid of the grease. Ensure there is enough water to cover up the noodles. Lower the heat and cover. Simmer till gravy is slightly dry. Uncover and then stir fry the noodles till they got drier. Dish up and serve with lots of sliced red chillies.

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + noodle

Colourful Vegetables Fried Rice

Hmm it has been a long time I last posted on my fried rice creations. I must live up to my Queen of Fried Rice title bestowed by boo_licious LOL!

I made a very healthy version recently, using loads of vegetables and some eggs cooked with olive oil. By the time I finish chopping and dicing the vegetables, I noticed they were so colourful, hence the name of the fried rice was conjured. From the photo below, you can see I've used carrot, cauliflower, brocolli, green capsicum, yellow capsicumm, french beans, celery and chopped garlic.



To cook my version, first fry a couple of eggs with some olive oil till slightly set. Dish up and set aside. In the same wok, pour in more olive oil and add in garlic when its heated. Stir till fragrant before dishing in the vegetables. Add some salt and mix well.

Pour in cooked rice, I've used half portion of white and brown rice each, and quickly stir to mix. Season with some soy sauce and pepper before mixing in the eggs. Give it some stirs before dishing out.



I'm very happy to see my boiboi eating up the rice happily without any complaint. It has never been so easy to convince him to eat his cauliflowers or brocollis!!! He scooped one tiny brocolli floret and told me "Ohhh mummy, this is so cute... baby brocolli." Awww man... my boiboi digs anything that come in "baby" version which he thinks it's for (big) baby like him! So this is another version of rice where you can "hide" stuff to kid the children.

Note: It's best to use overnight cooked rice that have been kept in the fridge. I usually use the rice straight from the fridge. Otherwise, I find them a bit too sticky to my liking.

Technorati Tags: rice + malaysian food

Review: De Foodland Seafood Restaurant

**Non-Halal Posting**


It's funny even though my side of the family have been residing in Kepong for ages but yet no one at home ever mentioned to go to De Foodland Seafood Restaurant over at Bandar Menjalara. I've read many bloggers from afar singing praises of this place but yet to come across neighbours and friends in the area recommending this place. So finally, I suggested one day we should try this out at least for once, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Upon reaching De Foodland, haiyah, my parents recognised the signage and mentioned that they have eaten at this place during their "shack" days but strangely they never brought me along grrrr... daddy explained to me their location back then, when I recalled they did mentioned about this dai chow (big stir fry) hidden somewhere in the hilltop factory area that can cook up many many styles of crabs! Little did they know De Foodland have expanded so big... at least 2 shop lots, upstairs and downstairs!

Back on our food ordering for 7 adults, hubby asked for chuk tarn (bamboo clams) done kum heung (spicy dried shrimps with curry leaves) style (RM15). The clams were way too small to our liking even though when we asked about the size, they claimed its medium but really, they're so thin. The whole plate is covered mostly with shells! Tastewise oklah. Appologies over the photos cos everyone attacked them before the plate reached my side for decent photo taking LOL.



Next came Mutt Chup Pai Kuat (honeyed pork ribs RM12.00) which is tender and tasty where the sweetness is not over cloying.



The Foo Yue Yau Mak (stir-fried romaine lettuce in fermented beancurd RM10.00) were fried with enough "wok hei" (breath of a wok). Fermented beancurd used was just right without being too salty.



Loved this deep fried beancurd bricks (RM10.00) with the accompanied chilli dip. Minced seafood can be detected.



The star of the night were the crabs dishes. We have the Creamy Butter Crab which has a lovely butter flavoured gravy. The creaminess is just nice, not to heavy. Funny, my mom who is not a big fan of butter, cream nor milk... tried one piece and did not complained any milkiness in them and I think she ate more than one piece!



Daddy asked for Sweet and Sour Crabs, which in contrast looked so right as compared to our previous experience. It's full of chopped garlic and ginger that enhanced the taste wonderfully. We lapped up the gravy with deep fried bun (RM3.00) and added another roll that the server hijacked to serve us first. Sometimes sitting near the kitchen could be an added advantage hahaha...



Both crabs dishes costed us RM104.00 which is pretty fair but then again we detected some bitterness in the meat. The captain explained that at certain season the crabs from Indonesia would have slight bitterness in them which they claim could be due to their diet. Oh well... not that it's so bitter, luckily we did not order the steamed ones.

Overall I would say their dishes were so so only, even my dad said the same but reasonabily priced though. At least I knew, he enjoyed the crabs a lot. We ought to just stick to their crabs then huh??





Prices above excludes 5% Government tax imposed.

Technorati Tags: malaysian food + crab

Happy Mother's Day

The sweetest sounds to mortals given
Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.
~William Goldsmith Brown

Wishing all mommies, a very joyful and blessed Mother's Day!

Safety Reminder

My fellow blogger Kat had her bag snatched right from her lap whilst she was at The Food Foundry yesterday's evening. It's so alarming to know that this actually happened in a restaurant proper and boo_licious had mentioned that it occured in KLCC as well.

Well this is not something new but it usually happens in hawker places... so far the hawkers opposite Neroteca and at Madras Lane have warned me of such occurrences. Do not leave your mobile phones and wallets on the table while you're eating and now you can't seems to put them on your lap too! I guess the best would be stuffing everything into your pockets!

Well usually I twirl the strap round my arm whenever I placed my bag on my lap, can't imagine what will happen to my arm should the nasty snatch thieves decided to pull some stunts on me.

So be mindful ok.

Mango Royale

Long ago before I could find another Malaysian food blogger in my links... I was busy reading food blogs from all over world. Sassy's blog Pinoy Cook is one of them. I had always admired a busy lady like her could ever have so much time to spend in the kitchen dishing out so many lovely Pinoy dishes. I've learnt so much about Filipino's food from her blog.

This Mango Royale is one of the recipe I had always wanted to try out but somehow I never got round to it. I made a trip to Imbi Market recently for breakie and couldn't resist taking a walk around the fruits stalls. Hmmm seems like mangoes are in season now since every stall is busy promoting them. I bought 2 bagfuls of fruits and of course loads of mangoes too.

With so many mangoes on hand, I suddenly recalled this Mango Royale dessert and proceeded to dig out the recipe. Checked the fridge and I have all the ingredients needed.

I've reduced the portion by using only 50ml condensed milk with 200ml of cream ratio and used crushed digestive biscuits instead. Feel free to adjust the milk to control the sweetness that you would prefer. There was another recipe that Sassy have perfected using crushed graham crackers but I can't seems to find the link but nevermind, just use crushed digestive biscuit will do. You can replace the mango with strawberries or maybe some other fruits that tickled your fancy.

One tip... I did not follow Sassy's recipe asking to press down the crushed biscuits using hands but instead I used the back of a spoon and oh my I really compacted them which is totally a big booboo. The layer of biscuit became very hard after storing in the freezer LOL!!! Yup, even after defrosting for 30 minutes. *Ahem* so lesson learnt here. I've followed her advice though in scooping the halved mangoes with a spoon and used them like it is without cutting them further.

Once done, you might need to remove from the fridge for a while like maybe 10 - 15 minutes before cutting them into pieces for serving. As it turned out... it's one of the best dessert I've tasted in a long long time. The creamy bits complimented the sweet mangoes and seriously they're very very very addictive!!! My guinea pig can testify on that since he has not been saying good things about my cooking of late hehe... check out how mine looked like...



Technorati Tags: mango + dessert

Recipe can be found in Sassy's Pinoy Cook. Thanks Sassy for the wonderful recipe.