Manna from Heaven

Sweet Potato Ondeh Ondeh & Deep Fried Sweet Potato Balls with Taro Paste

2011-02-16T02:58:00.000-08:00

The once every 3-month Girls Cooked Off is coming up again, with the core ingredient being the humble sweet potato. Half of the group are making savoury and I belong to the group making a sweet/dessert.

After unfruitful search on internet, I decided to try making something from Malaysia again. I guess that's because food from my hometown always reminds me of my childhood and my family. There are at least 3 desserts from Malaysia that I really like:

1. Bubur Cha Cha - a popular Nyonya dessert of sweet potato, yam, black-eyed beans, tapioca jelly and sago pearls in thick coconut milk. There are slight variations depending of which part of Malaysia you try this dessert, some even have slice bananas in it.

2. Sweet potato On deh Ondeh - a Nyonya dessert fills with melted gula melaka(palm sugar), and then sprinkle with grated coconut that is seasoned with fine salt.

3. Deep fried sweet potatao ball with taro paste - this is a dessert my grandmother used to make every chinese new year. I have never seen it in a restaurant but I believe it is a teochew snack. If eaten straight after deep frying, the skin is crispy on the outside and chewy inside bcause of the glutinous rice flour.

I ended up making the deep fried potato balls a week before the cook-off and also making ondeh ondeh for the actual cook-off.

Deep Fried Sweet Potato Balls with Taro Paste

Sweet Potato Ondeh Ondeh

If it wasn't for the girls cook-off, I would have been too lazy to make these delicious childhood yummies, especially for the deep fried potato balls which is like an lost art in my home eversince grandma became physically unfit and stopped cooking. My version of the sweet potato ball is far from those made by my grandma but making this snack reminds me so much about her and her kind and childlike smile.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

2011-02-15T02:26:00.000-08:00

Pandan Chiffon Cake

When I think of Malaysian food so many hawker food come to mind such as Penang Hokkien Mee, Char Koay Teow, Penang Laksa ... the list is very long and they come up in my mind in different order depending on what I crave for at that particular time. But when I think of cakes from Malaysia, the first on the list seems to always be Pandan Chiffon Cake. In fact I grew up thinking chiffon cake originated from Malaysia given its popularity in my hometown Penang. So this is a cake that is not only light and tasty, it brings back a lot of memories.

As chiffon cake requires a tube pan for baking, I have not been able to try baking it till last year when I finally invested in a 25cm chiffon cake tin. Ever since I have made a few different flavours including orange chiffon, strawberry chiffon, chocolate chiffon but the best is still Pandan I must say. And family and friends usually vote for Pandan too. Pandan cake is not very popular in Australia (yet!) and its green colour sometimes bring some funny expressions to my colleagues faces, it has been nicknamed "the green cake", until I have time to explain the green colour comes from the Pandan (screw pine) leaves, and that it is in some way similar to how vanilla extract in used in baking.

This is an adapted version of a recipe from a friend, it uses self raising flour but I generally prefer to use cake flour and add baking powder if I happen to have cake flour handy. I feel cake flour gives the cake a lighter texture.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Egg yolk mixture
6 egg yolks
1/4 cup of castor sugar
1 cup of coconut milk
1/3 cup of vegetable oils
Pandan paste (about 1/2 teaspoon, I usually just add to get to the level of green I like, just add a bit at a time to be safe the first time you make this)
1 cup of Self Raising flour (if using cake flour, add 1/2 teaspoon baking powder)
pinch of salt

Egg Meringue mixture
8 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup castor sugar

25cm chiffon cake tube pan

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (176 C). Place the wire rack on the middle in the oven.
2. In a clean, oil-free bowl, whisk the egg whites till foamy. Add the cream of tartar and whisk until big egg bubbles become small bubbles then add 1/2 cup caster sugar gradually and continue to beat till you get stiff peaks. You will know it is ready when the egg white mixture does not fall when you turn the bowl upside down. Set this aside.
3. In another bowl, cream egg yolks and sugar till the mixture looks pale. Add the oil, coconut milk, Pandan paste, whisk till combined. Add in sifted flour (with baking powder if using cake flour) and pinch of salt, whisk till combined.
4. Fold 1/3 portion of the egg meringue (from step 2) into the egg yolk mixture (from step 3). Do this very gently using a whisk. Then fold in the rest of the meringue, again very gently fold until well-incorporated.
5. Pour the batter slowly into the chiffon cake tube pan, use a chopstick (or skewer) to go round the tin a few times to release any bubbles. Bake at 350 F (176 degrees Celsius) for about 20 minutes. At this point, the cake would have risen. Lower the temperature to 320 F (160 degrees Celsius) and bake for another 30 to 40 min depending on your oven. To test if the cake is cooked, insert with a skewer, if it comes out clean, it is cooked.
6. Remove the cake from the oven and immediately invert the pan and leave the cake to cool in the pan. This will prevent the cake from collapsing.
7. When the cake is cooled (at least one hour), unmould the cake by running a knife or skewer round the edges of the cake (at the sides and in the centre where the ‘tube’ is). Serve the cake and enjoy :)

BTW this is the pandan paste I use which can be found in most chinese grocery store in Melbourne:

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

2011-02-15T01:44:00.000-08:00

Combining my two favouite food into one - Chocolates and Chiffon cake.

Orange Chiffon Cake

2010-12-21T22:05:00.000-08:00

Orange Chiffon Cake - decorated slightly for friends' birthday, piping skill leaves a lot of room for improvement :)

Merry Christmas

2010-12-16T02:26:00.000-08:00

Picture of Christmas lights taken on The Boulevard, Ivahoe

Roast Pork

2010-12-02T03:52:00.000-08:00

Summer is almost here but the weather has been colder than average spring and been raining a lot, maybe that's why the idea of making a roast came to my mind. This is the first time doing a roast pork, did not prepare much as it was a last minute idea. Mainly just season the pork skin with lots of coarse sea salt and rub a few slices of lemon on the pork, then put it into the oven for roasting. Used up the leftover cherry tomatoes from green papaya salad, and some green beans and potatoes --- tada ..... a nice winter meal served in spring.

Strawberry Chiffon Cake

2010-11-20T23:41:00.001-08:00

It's official, i am now addicted to Chiffon Cake!

Chiffon Cake seems to be 'out of fashion' these days. The Pandan flavour is the most popular type in Malaysia but having read a Japanese Chiffon Cakwe recipe book last year really opoened my eyes to the variety of Chiffon Cake.

Made this Strawberry flavour Chiffon Cake for the first time. Other than the light and soft texture of Chiffon cake, it carries a very subtle strawberry flavour. Next would be a banana chiffon cake and then maybe orange flavour.

Recipe

A. Egg yolk batter
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup strawberry puree
65g corn oil or olive oil
80g sugar
1 tsp of baking powder
115g cake flour
1/3 tsp salt

B. Egg white mixture
5 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
60g sugar

* Optional:
1/2 tsp of strawberry essence
red colouring

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 345 F. Make sure the rake is in the centre of oven.
2. Combine egg yolks and sugar, beat until well combined (it should look pale yellow)
3. Stir in strawberry puree, oil and strswberry essence (if using)and till well combined.
4. Sift dry ingredients *cake flour, baking powder and salt) into the egg yolk mixture and beat until well combined, add colouring now if desired.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, sprinkle cream of tartar over egg whites and neat till small bubbles form. gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peak forms (to test when it is ready, the egg white meringue would hold and not drop when mixing bowl is turned upside down).
6. scoop 1/3 egg white mixture into egg yolk batter and using a whish, fold into the egg uolk mixture until combined. DO NOT over do it.
7. Put remaining egg white mixture into egg yolk batter and again fold using a whisk until combined but DO NOT overdo as you want to keep the air pockets.
8. Pour into ungreased 20cm tube pan. Give the pan a few bang to get ride of big air bubbles, you can also use a chopstick to swirl the batter.
9. Bake for 30 min, then turn doen heat to approx 320F and bake for another 20 min or until cooked (test with a skewer).
10. Once cooked, removed from oven and IMMEDIATELY invert pan upside down onto heatproof funnel or bottle. Let it cool completely (about 2 hours, depending on weather) before loosening side of cake with knife or long, metal spatula; remove from pan.

Girls Cooking Party - Gourmet Salad

2010-11-20T02:56:00.001-08:00

Green Papaya Salad

The quarterly girls cooking party is on again, with the perfect weather for our theme - Gourmet Salad. The bar has increased since the previous challenge, and everyone seems to put in more thoughts and efforts into this.

No one actually made any common salad such as ceasar salad or coleslaw, which is good to see. Out of the two I have short listed (Japanese and Thai), I finally decided on the Thai Green Papaya Salad. I like the hot/sour/sweet taste and also thought this would be refeshing for warmer weather. Never bought and seen a green papaya before but nowadays the Chinese grocery store is so well stocked, it wasn't difficult to source this. At $8.99 per Kg, I suspect it is imported.

Other salads brought by the girls include mouth watering salads such as 'Chicken Rissoles with Beetroot Relish and Warm Potato Salad', 'Thai Beef Salad', 'Warm salad of Kipfler potato, cabbage and bacon', 'Thai Cold Noodle Salad', 'Szechuan Ma La 麻辣 tofu', 'Coronation Chicken Salad', a sweet salad 'Sweet Salad - Orange marinated with lime juice and honey, topped with shaved chocolates and coconut' and also some Sri Lankan treats - Milk Toffees. Now I have more ideas for salad now for this coming summer!

Thai Beef Salad (prepared by Christie)

The winning dish - Chicken Rissoles with Beetroot Relish and Warm Potato Salad', a Masterchef recipe

Sweet Salad - Orange marinated with lime juice and honey, topped with shaved chocolates and coconut - prepared by Esther.

Szechuan "Ma Lak" (麻辣 — "numb and spicy") shreded tofu prepared by Sarah Lim

Coronation Chicken Salad prepared by Tania, ingredients include chicken in creamy curry sauce, walnuts, grapes topped with alfalfa sprouts

Thai cold noodle salad - glassnoodles, chienses mushroom, fungus, apples, pork slices, shredded carrots and topped with nuts, served with speciallyh made fish sauce - created by Nga.
Milk Tofee - Sri Lankan treats made by Suleka

My Green Papaya Salad

Lunch Box Challenge

2010-09-21T21:58:00.000-07:00

My lunch box

After some brainsotrming and ideas from Tania on the theme for the next girls cooking session, we finally decided on Lunch Box Challenge. Each is to bring 2 set of lunch boxes prepared at home and judging is based on taste, presentation and theme. It was awesome to see everyone put in so much effort despite busy work schedule. The result is lots of variety of good food for the tummy as well as and feast for the eyes.

I love taking opportunity like this to make somehting I would otherwise find too much hassle to make. one particular dishes I miss a lot is Lobak. After some google search I found a "ngoh hiang" recipe (different to the hawker stall lobak) which uses yam (my eyes lit up as soon as I saw yam in the recipe, it's one of my favourite ingredients). I decided to give it a try :)
To add more interest to the lunch box, I also made some Kuih Ubi Bingka as a dessert to go with the lunch box. Though my lunch box missed out on winning the prize, I was very pleased with the lobak, it sure satisfied my cravings and brought back some memories of good old days in hometown Penang.

The winner of the lunch box challenge is Tania, her 'picnic lunch box' stole the lime light with its presentation and creativity. But it wasn't easy doing the scoring as each dish is so tasty, and we could't help wishing if only our daily lunch boxes look like these ones! Pictures of a selection of the lunch boxes:

Tania's picnic lunchbox

Sarah's bread roll sushi and puddings with chocolate flakes toppings

Nga's pandan waffles

Maggie's sushi bento

Esther's sushi bread rolls

Rempah Udand aka Pulut Panggang

2010-05-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

Another Malaysian snack which is one of my favourite - rempah udang. It's made of steamed fragrant glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk, with prawns/shredded coconut/lemon grass fillings and wrapped in banana leaves. It is then pan fried or grilled. I have been put off by making this in the past as I imagined it would be very complicated and time consuming. It does take time as it involves a few processes - steaming the rice, making the prawns/coconut filling, wrapping then pan frying but the ingredients are actually not too difficult to make and the result is rewarding. I must admit it's not going to be something I'll make on an average weekend but only special occasion motivates me to do it, in this case it was the girls cooking/get together party.

Another cake .... but I can't remember what cake it was!

2010-05-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

Made this cake some time last year for my MIL and forgot to post the picture now I can't even remember what cake I made! Silly silly Lisa!

Bread Rolls

2010-01-27T16:21:00.000-08:00

Ever since "Bread Top" sprung up in Melbourne, I have seriously put on some weight. Walking past the bakery on my way to work in the city, i can't help but drawn to the fragrant of the freshly baked rolls. I love their fluffy, soft and fresh baked rolls. There's endless variety too from savoury to sweet bread rolls, not to mention the cakes! I found a few foodblogs with bread roll recipe and thought "hmm why don't I try making bread rolls myself, it's probably healthier and will save me some money too". The main effort is in the kneading, that's hard work but the rest are fun! Especially decorating and deciding what toppings to use.

Curry Chickpeas

2009-12-17T04:44:00.000-08:00

This is a super quick and simple chickpeas recipe. All it takes is 5 minutes:

1 can of chickpeas, drained
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 ripe tomato, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoon white sesame seeds
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon of curry powder
1 teaspoon of coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder

Heat oil, add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds start to pop, add tomato pieces, curry and tumeric powder. Cook a couple of minutes then add remaining ingresients. Stir and cook 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat and scoop to a plate. Easy isn't it? Nice when serve with fresh coriander and as a side dish to rendang beef.

Pancakes with strawberries and bananas

2009-12-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

There's a saying 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day'. Well this might be true but somehow in our household breakfast is something you eat on the run, at the office ....

I have been wanting to make pancake for breakfast, and to have a proper sit down breakfast after my last attempt in cooking a proper big breakfast. Last weekend I finally did and using a very simple pancake recipe.

1 cup self raising flour
1.25 cup milk
pinch of salt
1 egg

Method: Sift flour and salt in a bowl, make a well and add egg and milk (I added the milk slowly instead of one go), whisk till all combined and the mixture is smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for atleast 0.5 hour to 1 hour before cooking. When cooking the pancake, it's easier to put the pancake mixture into a jug, this way it is easier to control the pouring into the pan. Make sure the pan is hot before pouring ther mixture for cooking especially if using a non stick pan. When bubles start to form, the pancake is ready to be turned. Serve with honey or maple syrup with your favourite fruit or drizzle with strawberry sauce or melted chocolate, Yum!

Green Tea Pound Cake

2009-12-10T22:15:00.000-08:00

This is a cake that I make repeatedly as I like the texture and the not-so-obvious cheese flavour and of course the green tea flavour. The result is always consistent and the method is uncomplicated and ingredients are usually readily in my pantry/fridge.

Apple Cinnamon Cake

2009-12-05T21:33:00.000-08:00

The first time I made this cake must be at least 11 years ago. I was still in Uni and living with a few girls who also enjoy cooking when we are not stress over exams, assignments. I didn't even keep the recipe. I stumbled on this recipe again in one of Donna Hay's cookbook recently and thought I will make it again for friends' birthday.

Chinese Peanuts and Chicken Feet Soup

2009-12-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

Many think Chicken Feet is an acquired taste, even some of my chinese friends hesitate at the challenge of trying out chicken feet at yum cha. I must say cleaning the chicken feet is quite a weird experience for me, as i needed to clip the nails! There wasn't a lot more preparation as the chicken feet were very clean when i bought them from butcher. 10 chicken feet only cost about AUD2. This soup is relatively easy to make, the ingredients are: chicken bones (left over from deboning chicken maryland), I also added a few small pieces of pork gravy, about 1/2 cup of raw peanuts, 10 chicken feets and salt to taste at the end.

Roast Leg of Lamb

2009-12-01T14:23:00.000-08:00

Roast Leg of Lamb with Bernaise Sauce and Mashed Potato

YUM!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

2009-11-07T22:57:00.000-08:00

This cake was inpired by the Hummigbird Bakery Cookbook my colleagues and friends gave me as part of my work farewell gift. There are many tempting recipes in there but the carrot cake captured my heart. I must thank my friend who organised a guinea pig session for the girls where everyone is to cook/bake something they haven't made/baked before. HM and I teamed up to make this cake together. The cake making process was fun and we did make a few silly mistakes but that's part of the fun and learning. At the end we realised we fogot to put in the vanilla essence but thankfully this is not critical to the success of the cake.

The cake came out really nice, fluffy and fresh. We thought we have grated the carrot too coarsely but it appeared to be just right. The weather was very hot that day and we didn't have enough time to chill the cake long enough otherwise the frosting will look a bit better, it was looking a little tired when we arrived at the friend's house.

Fried Koay Teow

2009-11-07T08:45:00.000-08:00

Almond Crisps

2009-11-04T21:28:00.000-08:00

'King Do' spareribs (hot and spicy spareribs)

2009-10-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

Breakfast

2009-10-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

Lemon Curd Cookies

2009-09-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

Apart from chocolate, lemon curd is something i can't put down once I started eating. Am Absolutely in love with the sweet savoury citrus favour comined with butter yum yum.

These cookies are best eaten fresh from oven as the cookies are still crunchy on the outside and the lemon curd is soft and moist. I let the cookies cooled on a rack then stored into airtight container but because of the lemon curd which is moist, the cookies texture will turn into softer/chewy the next day. It is still delicous, just don't expect it to be crunchy. I baked 2 batches 2 days apart as the lemon curd recipe yielded too much lemon curd and I have lots of left over!

Assam Prawns

2009-08-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Assam Prawns is a Penang speciality dish. I love this dish, the sourish tamrind taste and the sweetness of the prawns is such a good combination. You are guaranteed to find this dish at any Economy Rice stall in Penang. I haven't eaten this dish for many many years, I had the impression it's messy handling tamarind pulp and had no idea where to get it too!

Thanks to the increasing migration of Asians to Melbourne, many Chinese grocery stores now sell ingredients that weren't available years ago, and they also come in easy to use form. Like this Tamarind Pulp Concentrate I found in the store the other day, all i needed to do is to marinade the prawns with this concentrate then pan fried. How easy can it be?!! I am so happy to be able to eat this dish again and it brought back many fond memories of Penang.

Chinese Pumpkin Cake (Steamed & Pan Fried)

2009-08-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin is in season, only $0.99 per kg in a green grocer. I have wanted to make chinese pumpkin cake for awhile, first time tempted was when my friend Sarah tried it out in a care group. I finally stop procrastinating and gave it a go, following Florence's recipe for both the steamed and pan fried version.

I find the pumpkin taste not as strong as i would like it to be, might try to modify a bit next time. Red bean paste does go well with the pumpkin cake. I used the ready made red bean paste from chinese shop but it is a bit sweet. But then i can't really complain too much because I am too lazy to make my own red bean paste from scratch :)

Radish Cake (蘿蔔糕)

2009-08-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Chinese Radish cake is one of my favourite yum cha item. It is usually steamed and then pan fried before being served in chinese restaurant, but I like the steamed version. Eventhough the pan fried version is yummy (especially if it's a little bit burnt) but the steamed version is full of unpretentious radish flavour, I just love it!

What is even better is it's actually quite easy to make and only involved a few simple ingredients: radish, rice flour, chinese mushrooms, dried shrimps and chinese sausages (I used pork meat instead of chinese sausage as it is healthier and taste good too). Using 2.5kg of radish i was able to fill 6 small aluminium round trays to share with friends and family.

No knead Focaccia

2009-07-31T17:55:00.000-07:00

Had been itching to try out this no-knead Focaccia recipe for awhile now. This is a really easy and minimal work recipe and the result is fantastic! David and I enjoyed it so much I decided to bake it again with variation to the toppings tomorrow!

Mocha Choc Muffin

2009-07-05T22:23:00.000-07:00

Have not done much baking in the last 3 months due to travelling, family comittment, got a cold in between too and of course work! The longer this drags on the more lack of motivation to bake. This week I was inspired by a good friend and thought i'd start by baking something quick and simple - muffins.

This recipe only takes me 30 mins to prepare and another 20 minutes to bake. The recipe was originally chocolate muffin but I had dark mocha chocolate block in the fridge so this nicely turned out to be mocha chocolate muffins!

Crispy Chicken With Mango Kerabu

2009-07-01T05:04:00.000-07:00

Had a craving for this dish hence made it for a gathering eventhough it's not mango season.
Supposed to pour the sauce over the chicken but as the sauce is spicy, decided to leave it for people to add the sauce themselves in case some don't take spicy food.

I am quite happy with the crispy chicken, it will nicer if served fresh after frying as it was crsipy.

Mixed berries muffin

2009-02-25T22:34:00.000-08:00

Baked muffins again as this requires very little time compared to baking a cake. Used up the fresh blueberries in the fridge and some frozrn raspberries I usually keep in freezer, add some flour, egg, sugar, milk and baking powder - bake it in a 180C oven for 15 min, then out come this yummy muffins.

Chocolate Chip Muffin

2009-02-14T05:32:00.000-08:00

It has been 2-3 weeks since I last baked something. This is partly due to the extreme hot weather in Victoria (4 consecutive hot days with temperature soaring above 40C one week). On this Valentines Day, I managed to find a time gap of about 1 hour to bake something. I decided to bake some muffins as it calls for much less time and effort (preparation about 25 min and baking time 15 min). Added chocolate toppings and decorated with lollies and they actually look quite cute and tempting :>

[a side story: after baking, a little cow discovered the muffins and drew nearer and nearer towards the muffins. Before I realised, it was devouring the muffins! I've got pictures to prove it!]

Happy Birthday Yuski

2009-01-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

Though this blog is mainly about my cooking experiments, I can't resist sharing the most recent photos taken for my Yuski. In fact today is his special day, his birthday! Thanks Yuski for all the joy, the fun and cheefulness which brihgten my days.

Taro puff pastry - 芋茸酥

2009-01-25T15:11:00.000-08:00

Yam or Taro is one my favourite - Taro buns, Taro bread, Taro milk tea, Taro sponge cake, Taro paste (called "Or Nee" in Teochew), Taro pastry, Steamed Chinese Taro Cake, Taro fried rice, the list goes on and on and on ......!

Have been thinking of making something with Taro for a long time, mainly to satisfy my own cravings. After watching an online video on Taro puffs, I decided to give this a go. When Esther came over last Sat I "convinced" her into helping me making the pastry together. We broke the process into 2 sessions, preparing the pastry and Taro filling then went out for yummy japanese dinner and came back to do the fun part of rolling and wrapping the taro. However for some reasons we are yet to figure out, the pastry wasn't as elastic as it supposed to be hence it took us quite awhile to wrap (or rather force) the taro into the pastry and sealed it.

The baking temperature instruction given in the recipe was a bit confusing and we had to re-adjust the temperature to bake the puffs. It has upper and lower temperature (maybe because it's different type of oven?).

We are quite happy with the result in general, maybe I will try modifying and make green tea puffs next time.

Banana Yogurt Cake

2009-01-15T20:25:00.000-08:00

I bet almost every passionate baker would have a favourite banana cake recipe up their sleeves. Banana cake seems to be a favourite at most occasions and it is also a good way to make use of the otherwise too ripe to eat bananas. For those banana cake lovers, it is true that what is someone's trash is another's treasures. What I mean is some people would throw away bananas which has blackspots, probably thinking it would be smelly and rotten! But this is the best time to make banana cake as you need over ripe banana to make good banan cakes!

This is not my usual banana cake recipe but I've always wanted to try out one with yogurt. To balance the healthy yogurt, I added chocolate chips ... hmmm now it is a "well-balanced" banana cake ;)

First Chiffon Cake - Green Tea Chiffon Cake with Mango

2009-01-02T23:29:00.000-08:00

The clock was ticking away last night and I was struggling to find the motivation to bake a cake for a friend's birthday. The lack of motivation was mainly due to fatigue (well I have been on holiday for more than a week so first day back at work today took a lot out of me haha). Was deciding between buying one or baking one then I thought of trying out chiffon cake. Have been brewing this idea for a long time but I don't have a chiffon baking pan so put this idea on hold for awhile. I finally gathered my enerygy and started weighing the sugar, flour etc and then suddenly I seemed to get more and more alert and the tiredness seemed to gradually go away! Amazing ... maybe this is called cooking therapy?

Initially the plan was to use red bean as the cake filling but at the end I used mango which is in season. I forgot to take a picture of the cross section of the cake, but amazingly it looked really nice - green colour contrasts with the rich yellow mango colour. I am really encouraged to hear some good feedback on my second layered cake, now I can start thinking (or dreaming) of my third ... forth ... etc?

Flourless Hazelnut Chocolate Cake (to die for ......)

2008-12-28T21:58:00.000-08:00

Actually thinking back, one of the earliest post on my blog was about a flourless chocolate cake Esther baked for me for my b'day. This time I am baking the same cake for her for her birthday haha! This is a very rich chocolate cake, with hazelnut meal, and I experimented baking with a slower method instead of what the recipe says to make the cake more moist and thus easier to handle. Using the original recipe the cake will crack a little and make it challenging especially when transferring from bake pan to serving plate. Not that there is any problem with the cracking, it's perfectly fine. But since this is for birthday, I wanted to ensure it is presentable.

The recipe baking time is 1 hour but it took mine about 1.5 hours. The method i used is simply baking it in a roasting pan filled with hot water.

This is another timeless recipe, and is taken from Women's Weekly Cookbook.

Mini Cheesecakes (decorated)

2008-12-26T18:40:00.000-08:00

Baked some mini cheesecake for a Christmas dinner. I find this mini cheesecake quite time consuming to make especially if you don't want it to be too plain and want to make it a bit special (i.e to decorate). What i did was to make it 3 layers to make it look more pretty.

The first layer is the crushed biscuits to form the base, then the cream cheese and ricotta cheese mixture and for the last layer I used gelatin and also decorated some with chocolate (thanks to the help of Esther). I divided the batter into 3 types - green tea (added matcha powder), passionafruit (added canned passionfruit syrup) and plain. With the passionfruit ones I then added the passionfruit gelatin. As for the rest I decided to put my piping tools to good use and between Esther & I, we came up with all crazy/creative ideas (like the piggy face, the taichi style, the pac man ghost, the $ sign etc - can you spot them in the photo? maybe not all due to my photo angle). It was a lot of fun *_^ Thanks for your help Esther, I wouldn't have had the motivation to decorate it if you were not there helping.

Mango 'Loh Mai Zhi' 糯米糍

2008-12-25T14:55:00.000-08:00

Mango is a really nice summer fruit, and one of the best ways to enjoy this fruit is to make Mango'Loh Mai Zhi'. You can subsitute the mango with crushed peanuts and black sesame paste, red bean paste, lotus paste etc or can even be creative and come up with something new. It also refrigerates well, up to 4-5 days.

Simple Short Bread

2008-12-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite biscuits is shortbread. You know, just the simple heavenly buttery flavour that melt in your mouth ... hmm. And the recipe is so simple - just 3 ingredients:

One pound of Butter (at room temperature
1 cup of Icing Sugar
3.5 cup of plain flour
(optional: you can add 1 tsp of vanilla extract is so desired)

Combine all ingredients in a big bowl and then have fun getting your hands dirty by rubbing the butter into the flour until it is well combined and come to a consistent texture.
Then either scoop spoonful of dough on to baking sheets or roll dough out on a slightly floured surface and cut out the shape of your liking using your favourite cookie cutter and bake in moderate pre-heater oven (abour 320 degrees F, depending on your oven) for about 10-15 min or until just turn slightly brown on the edges. It's really that simple. Use good quality butter, it does make a difference!

You can also get creative and decorate with chocolate on top =>
This is a different shortbread than one I made last month. The previous one is piped and literally crumble and melt in your mouth. This one is firmer and hence can be cut out in different shapes. Anyway both are my favourites!

Napoleon Cake from a friend

2008-12-19T17:18:00.000-08:00

Got a nice surprise today after coming home from work. Hubby brought something back from work and told me "oh Adrian passed something to you from Sarah" I was so excited as I try to figure out what it could be? Dumpling? cake? biscuits? It was actually Napoleon cake (I think this is what it is called?). It was home made and consists of layers of pastry and cream and fruits. It was yummy and I took a couple of picture before it is all devoured ^_^

Hazelnut Squares

2008-12-13T21:50:00.000-08:00

Have not been able to do much cooking last week due to recovering from a gastro virus. both hubby and I fell sick at the same time, still could not figure out whether it was something we ate, or one caught some virus and passed to another. Whatever the cause was, it has prevented me from any cooking, as not only did I feel weak and tired, I did not have much appetite and also didn't want to pass my virus to anyone else from my cooking.

Thank God we have recovered, and with no end to this cold rainy weather in sight (can't believe this is summer, it feels like winter!), I decided to try out the Hazelnut Squares recipe. Esther gave me this huge tin of hazelnut meal which I thought I can put to good use. Hazelnit is one of my favourite nuts, so are everything else made from hazelnut like Nutella, yum!

This is a very simple, easy to make biscuit, the challenging bit was to spread it evenly. Mine was thicker on the centre, plus I used a bigger tray that what the recipe called for as this is the only thing I have close to the requirement. The important thing is - it taste very good, rich with Hazelnut flavour.

Chinese Radish Cake 蘿蔔絲餅

2008-12-02T22:10:00.000-08:00

After 2 weeks of baking overdose (baked 3 batches of cookies and 4 cakes in the last 3 weeks), I have had enough of baking and decided to switch gear and go back to chinese cooking =)

Not that I haven't been cooking chinese food, I mean I make chinese dishes for dinner most of the time. Steamed fish, stir fry vegies, wonton noodle soup and all that but I want to make something new, something I love to eat and a special treat. I stumbled across a cooking demo video clip on youtube last week, teaching people how to make Chinese Radish Cake 蘿蔔絲餅 which makes me mouth watering. I cannot even recall how I got to the link, I was simply surfing the net visiting many inspiring food blogs and then just like a poor man discovering treasures, I was captivated by this demo. For some talented cooks, making a new dish straight from a recipe book is so easy and they achieve the ideal result on first attempt. As for me I learn better from watching how people cook so this video demo is perfect for me.

The timing can’t be better too, hubby was away on a photoshoot helping a friend to capture precious moments of ballet dancers in Frankston all day. And as if it was fated to be, we reached the internet bandwidth and the speed dropped to a snaily pace in the evening. Reluctantly I have to press the "pause" button on watching my current "must-see" Taiwanese series (fated to love you). But this gave me the incentive to get up from my chair and leave my laptop and I quickly sprung into action in the kitchen.

The challenge of this dish for me lies in making the "skin". The filling is very yummy, can be be served as a dish on its own too. As it was getting a bit late I only used up half of the filling and freeze the other half for next time. not sure if it will freeze well, will tell ya next time.
Hubby finally came home at about 11:30pm. To reward his hard work taking photos today I fed him the freshly fried radish cake, hot from the pan ^_^

Baked Chocolate Cheese Cake and Passionfruit Rasberry Cake

2008-12-01T02:51:00.000-08:00

One of the end of year thanksgiving dinner organised by church group, I was requested to bring cakes. As the dinner is on weeknight, I decided to go conservative and bake something I have experimented before to save time. Work has been very busy lately (surprisingly given we are in the middle of restructuring and awaiting the outcome of my job).

Someone once told me when you do not know what food to bring to a group dinner because you do not know the preference of people well, always bring something you love to eat. Chances are if you like it, someone else would like it too. And if luck is against you and no one likes it, at least you like it and can enjoy it. I reckon this is good advice, and I'm sticking to it LOL.

So here are my two favourite cakes - Baked Chocolate Cheese Cake and Passionfruit Rasberry Cake.

Meaning of Christmas

2008-11-28T17:02:00.001-08:00

Christmas is coming! Yes, it's now less than a month away from Christmas. Shopping centres are beautifully decorated with Christmas decorations and even with the fear of a potential recession due to current global financial market meltdown, department stores still bustled with people and activity.

Myers popular yearly Christmas window display theme is "How Santa Really Works". Needless to say, long queue forms outside the window everyday especially at lunch time, everyone wants to take a peek at it! Though the art work was really nice and very detailed too (see the photos below), let's not forget what Christmas really means.

For many, it means holiday, a break from work. To some, celebration and partying and food and alcohol. Yet some people see it as a time for gifts and spending time with fanily. No doubt all this are activities we do during this holiday season, but the real meaning of Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ.

One of David Meece's song say of this quite well:

We Were The Reason

David Meece

As little childrenWe would dream of Christmas morn

Of all the gifts and toysWe knew we’d find

But we never realized a baby born one blessed night

Gave us the greatest gift of our lives

We were the reasonThat He gave His life

We were the reasonThat He suffered and died

To a world that was lostHe gave all He could give

To show us the reason to live

As the years went by we learned more about gifts

The giving of ourselves and what that means

On a dark and cloudy dayA man hung crying in the rain

All because of love, all because of love

I’ve finally found the reason for living

It’s in giving every part of my heart to Him

In all that I do every word that I say

I’ll be giving my all just for Him, for Him
He is my reason to live

Rich Shortbread

2008-11-26T16:47:00.000-08:00

After baking the Choc Chips Cookies, hubby requested another type of cookies. You know, the type that melt in your mouth. Hence I baked another batch of cookies - Rich Shortbread. I do get a lot of satisfaction cooking/baking for my my hubby, but he is such a non-fussy eater, he usually just eats everything I cook. So I jumped at every occasion when he specifically requested I make something for him.

If you are wondering if there is a lot of butter in the cookies, you are right! Very little sugar. Other ingredients are flour and vanilla essence and eggs, that's all!! Very easy and it literally melt in your mouth and crumble easily. Yummy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies & ANZAC biscuits

2008-11-23T18:16:00.000-08:00

The weather in Melbourne had been very cold lately. Definitely not the typical November Spring weather with rain and wind and temperature below 20 degress C. This is actually a perfect time to heat up the oven and bake some cookies! Flipping through the recipe books I became greedy and tempted tp try many recipes. At the end, I just couldn't resiste the good old chocolate chip cookies and ANZAC cookies!!

Instead of the small sized choc chip cookies I have opted to make the bigger size cookies this time. This cookies turned out crispy on the outside but a bit chewy inside, i wonder if it is because of its size?

The cookies didn't stay long in the container for long .... who can resisit chocolate chip cookies?!

As for the ANZAC cookies, this time it turned out a bit dry and because I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup, it actually made a quite a difference to the overall taste of the cookies. This is a recipe I have tried before so I decided to make some variation to the measurement but though it is still ok, it is not as tasty as last time. The lesson - stick to the recipe!

Volunteering (World Vision) at Richmond

2008-11-20T02:25:00.000-08:00

One of the great initiatives my company is involved in is giving to the community. And of the ways this is done is by giving staff one day volunteering leave per calendar year. Staff can use this one day paid leave to assist any charitable/non profit organisations. This is the second time I utilise this leave, and both times I have chosen World Vision as the organisation i would help.

The previous time I volunteered, it was at Burwood East but this is now being handled by a financial organisation's back office processing at Richmond, where I used to work. Hence I took this opportunity to catch up with Suleka and also saw many familiar faces ... it was great!

The work involves is really very simple - it involves mail opening, sorting the action slips depending on what the child sponsor has elected. For example, donation $5 or over, by cheque or credit card, cash (Yes! some poeple actually send in CASH). Sadly there are also those who willingly donated but they forgot to write credit card details or expiry date! Some poeple also advised changes of address, emails etc so it definitely requires attention to details when sorting the slips. As Christmas is appraching, there are heaps of mails coming in, especially those Xmas cards from sponsor to the child. Some people also send in their photos, personal letters, additional gifts like stickers etc. It is very touching to see the personal touch, and the generousity of the Australian people.

Stack of sorted Xmas card, I think I handled at least 1,500 letters yesterday!

Met many nice people in the processing centre, Federico from Philipines and Priya from Sri Lanka, thanks for making me so at home there. I enjoyed the chats while sorting the mails!

This is truly a great experience, doing something different to my normal work. I am trully encouraged just knowing that there are so many generous giver out there who give to a great cause - sponsoring needy children, provising practical help (money goes to support their living, education, immunisation etc).

If you are not currently sponsoring any child, would you please consider?

Tools of trade - staple machne, letter opener, pen and highlighter and you are set to go!

Processing Centre at Richmond (picture below). It was quiet in the morning as most of these macines are for processing cheques and vouchers, and the operators work afternoon shift till night.

Chicken Rice (my modified version)

2008-11-15T22:54:00.000-08:00

One of my fondest childhood memory is having Hainanese Cchicken Rice with my cousins at a foodcourt near the Penang Bus Terminal. I was probably around 10 years old? During that period of my life, my family lived in a shop house with my grandmother and my other 2 uncles and their families. Including maid servants and other cousins who live in another state but visit from time to time, the shop house sometimes contained up to 18 people. My memory of the best chicken rice was at this run down foodcourt near the bus terminal where my cousins, my sister and I would sometimes go to on our own without adult supervision.

Memory is a interesting gift God has given to us. It consists more than just replay of the events/facts but sometimes we remember a person or an occasion by the senses, smell, thoughts. I can't really recall a lot of things about that place or how we could get away by going there on our own without adult supervsion, or how much we pay for the rice but the taste of the chicken rice stays vivid in my memory and whenevwer i recall this taste or when I smell the fragrant of the chicken rice, it brought back this sweet memory of my childhood.

So I decided to try making Hainanese Chicken Rice today. After doing google search, based on how much work i want to put in (as i have said before i do not fancy too complicated recipe), and taking into account my love for ginger and spring onion, I have modified the chicken rice. I chose to steam the whole chicken instead of putting it in boiling water as one recipe suggests, and I also made the mince ginger + spring onion suce that usually go with cantonese steam chicken instead of Hainanese Chicken Rice. (Love this sauce, I can eat a bowl of rice wit just this minced ginger + spring onion sauce!). The rice is so fragrant even as it was being cooked I can smell it! (this of course is because I used the chicken stock from the steamed chicken to cook the rice instead of water.)

One of the challenge lies not so much in the cooking, but the deboning of the cooked chicken. Authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice (HCC) is served with deboned chicken slices but I have left the drumstick without deboning simply because I think it looks better =)

To complete the meal, you MUST, yes you MUST I stressed again - have the garlic chillie sauce to go with the chicken.

There is heaven and earth difference having HCC with or without this garlic chillies sauce. You can make this from scratch, or purchase from asian grocery store. I am very picky with this chillie sauce. There are so many brands out there, but I prefer one with strong garlic and with a lighter red/orange colour over a darker red one. I think the lighter red means there are more garlic mince in there.

So as I put a spoonful of this chicken rice into my mouth and enjoying every bit of the chicken essence combined with the chillie sauce and soy sauce and ginger mince, it brings back the fond memory childhood again ....

Oh one more thing, I did not serve the chicken rice with soup (typically you will serve this with a small bowl of chicken soup with spring onion sprinkled on top) but i omitted this as i chose to store up the remaining chicken stock for use later as a soup base with wonton and dumpling I have made last weekend.

My fisrt layered cake - Layered Green Tea Pound Cake with Red Bean Filling

2008-11-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

Layered Green Tea Pound Cake (with Red Bean Filling)

I have been day dreaming about making a layered cake but being a queen of procrastination, i have deferred this idea long enough. As we are celebrating 3 birthdays in the care group this week (Daniel, Eric & Sarah), I was determined that I should put my dream into action and bake the cake for them. I used a combination of 2 different recipes - green tea pound cake (one of my favourite cake at all time) and a recipe I read some time ago for the red bean filling (can't even find the blog anymore as i forgot to bookmark it!).

The challenge lies in the layering and making the cream as I have never done that before. I baked the cake a bit too long, the top part was cracked
(even though the cream will hide this eventually it presented some risk when I cut the cake into halves sideway).

I cheated a bit as the cream I made was beaten for too long and the texture didn't turn out as anticipated. It was not smooth, but more coarse, when applied on the cake it doesn't look very presentable. To overcome this imperfection, I bought ready-made whipped cream and applied to the cake to make the finished product more soothing to the eyes. The finish touches - strawberries and matcha powder made the cake looks pretty good :) Now I am motivated to make a different layered cake!

The cake seemed to be well received by all, some friends have requested for recipe so here it is:

Green Tea Pound Cake
125g butter (at room temperature)
3/4 cup of sugar
3 eggs
125g philladelphia cream cheese
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tbp baking powder
1/2 tsp green tea matcha powder (I actually used 4 times the amount as I love green tea)
1/2 tsp salt

Red Bean filling:
600ml thicken cream
1/2 cup red bean

Method:
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy and light. Add cream cheese and beat to mix well. Add in lightly beaten eggs (one at a time). Combine dry ingredients well and sift before folding into the mixture. Pour well combined mixture into lined 8"round cake pan and bake in preheated oven at 180C or 360F for 40-50 minutes. (note baking time can vary slightly depending on your oven).

When cake is cooled, cut into half.
Whip 300ml thicken cream until soft peak formed. Add in 1/2 cup of red bean and fold in gently with a spatula (I used pre made red bean from a can, easily obtained from Asian grocery store)
Spread the red bean cream filling on the top of the bottom half of the cake.
Cover with top layer of the cake.
Whip 300ml the remaining thicken cream (300ml) until soft peak and spread on top cake layer and side. Refrigerate and decorate with strawberries and green tea powder (or other more creative ideas!) before serving. ENJOY!

Girls lunch at Ambrosia

2008-10-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

If it wasn't for the girls lunch, Berwick remains one of the suburbs considered "out of reach" on my travel radar. Whenever Cranbourne, Berwick and Hallam is mentioned what come to mind first is always "so far away-leh". It was good go out of my comfort zone and break that "false impression" as it is really not far especially with East Link. It only takes under 35 minutes or so (we got lost on the way so it took a bit longer to get there today). Unfortunately Juliana wasn't able to join us today ... well there's always next time! In fact the next girls days out would be Warrandyte Market Day in December.

The place selected for our gathering this time is Ambrosia café-bar-foodstore at Berwick. Actually this is our second choice, the fist being Eighty One. Maybe it's meant to be, Eighty One wasn't opened for lunch on Saturday, so we ended up with Ambrosia.

This nice cafe-bar-foodstore was hidden in the residential area in Berwick. It's still probably a well kept secret - but with it's delicious food, reasonable prices, professional services and open, friendly atmosphere, it probably won't be a secret for too long =)

We started with Tapas plate with a selection of Chef's choice favourite which includes:
** little chicken meat balls with tomato concasse
** Sri Lankan spicy pan roll filled with beef mince
** lemon pepper & sea salt calamari
** delicious dips & flat bread
** chorizo sausage with roasted peppers

It was yummy ... but maybe a little less than we expected in terms of quantity...

Choosing the main meal is a bit of time consuming exercise as there were too many choices, from light meals like pizzas, pastas, risotto, salad, burger, to main such as steak and salmon fillet etc. They all look mouth watering. Tania chose pizza with tandoori chicken, corn, mozzarella, with rocket & yoghurt raita. Suleka set her heart on for pizza with mince lamb and goat cheese and I picked fettuccini with scallop, prawn, mussels & fresh fish with tomato & garlic.

There seems to be endless things to talk about, after all we probably haven't met up for 4 months now?? So i guess the only way is to stay on for dessert and coffee (what a perfect excuse! hehe)

There was a wide selection of desserts. We decided on Affagato: vanilla ice cream served with Baileys liqueur & espresso coffee, Toblerone Cheesecake and sticky date pudding.

Toblerone Cheesecake, Affogato and Sticky Date Pudding

(opps sorry no photo for sticky date pudding too, the photo turned out blurr sigh*)
We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and
I particularly enjoyed the most divine toblerone cheesecake and sticky date pudding ...

"It Started With A Kiss" & Kuih Seri Muka"?? Huh ... what's the connection!??

2008-10-15T23:20:00.000-07:00

It has been while since I last posted my cooking experiment. This doesn't seem fitting since one of the purpose of this blog was to share my cooking adventure. Well, I haven't been making anything interesting lately, and sometimes I am just too lazy to bring out my camera to shoot. And another reason behind is ..... yes .... it is .... well, blame it on the Taiwanese drama series!

I was hooked on the "It Started With A Kiss"ISWAK (惡作劇之吻). This is series based on Japanese Manga. Just realised that the sequel "They Kissed Again"TKA (惡作劇2吻) is out so have been hooked on and watching it online .... I think I am now becoming an addict to this romance/comedy series.

Hoping there'll be part3 but unfortunately the author Kaoru Tada has passes away and the ending of part2 "They kissed again" is also the end of the original Manga (with additional scenes in fact). Maybe they would consider using ISWAK & TKA fanatic's imaginary part 3 (恶作剧狂想) ?

Opps here I go again ... deviating from the main theme of my posting and talking about ISWAK ... where was I again? Oh yes was goign to say that I was having this craving for Nyonya Kuih last week. Found this Kuih Seri Muka recipe on Lily's Wai Sek Hong and I knew I just have to make it. The difficulty was the control of the heat in steaming, As I use electric stove at home, heat control has always been an issue - it's more difficult than gas cooking. Even after taking special care with Lily's advise to steam on very low heat to avoid "mountains and valleys" forming on the surface of the custard, I still ended up with a not-so-even surface.

Well, at least it tasted GOOD! Here is a picture of it, and for recipe please go to Lily's blog as I followed her recipe completely except I didn't have rice flour at home and replaced it with corn flour.

David's TOP GUN adventure

2008-10-07T04:36:00.000-07:00

When David first shared with me the exciting news about winning the prize at the CA (Computer Associates) expo for an introductory jet flight experience, I was excited and worried at the same time. Me, a worrier by nature and not being an extreme sports person, immediately think of all that could possibly go wrong with such a flight. (Well the BAC StrikeMaster, nicknamed Blunty by the Royal New Zealand Airforce, was known to have problem in the main wing structure and was retired by the RNZAF in 1994 and also gounded by the Ecuador at one stage)

Well, last Saturday finally came around and with much anticipation we drove about 90 minutes to Ballarat airport. Surprisingly I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, perhaps David's excitement was contagious! We even played the top gun CD in the car loudly!

The clouds cleared and the sun was shining when we arrived at Ballarat airport Hangar 5. The StrikeMaster just landed with a passenger as we report to the office. It is much noisier and bigger than i remember it (seen it before at the airshow). What follows afterwards was a series of preparation including briefing about safety, watching a video about emergency procedures ~ yay really helpful in bringing back all my fears and worries :(
(Just kidding hahaha)

Then it got exciting as David put on the flight suit, slim line parachute and fighter pilot helmet. Boy he did look like a Top Gun about to embark on a mission! While all that were happening, I kept myself busy with video recording, determined to capture every bit of this thrilling experience! Darren, the pilot was introduced to us, and everything was set to go - there was one last little step left .... signing the WAIVER! This is when you sign your life away!

Well one more important routine before boarding the Strike Master, that is ..... posing for photos!!

While the flight took off the runway and making the aerobatic maneuvers (barrel roll, Derry turns, Wing over and loops) in the sky above me, all i could hear was the noise and the tiny shape of what looked like a bird! The jet must be something like 10,000 feet above me!

20 minutes was up before I finished chatting with the next lucky person who was going for the adventure after David. Needless to say, David enjoyed the ride immensely. He was blown away by the experience and highly recommend it to anyone who are hesitating about taking this adventure.

To reward my hard work (yes very hard work of videoing and patiently going through the suspense with him LOL), we had a little feast at the Europa Cafe in Ballarat city centre. hmmm, yummy chicken and pumpkin risotto, freshly squeezed apple, pineapple and pear juice and earl grey tea (for me) settled my complaining tummy and refreshed us before head back to Melbourne.

Exhausted by the excitement and a busy week of overtime work and day light saving kicking in, I hit the sack before 10pm that night - contended of all we have accomplished that week.

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week

2008-09-06T00:53:00.000-07:00

Spring is here yay! For hay fever sufferer like me this is not too good but there are consolation eg longer day and shorter night, warmer weather and of course the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week. This is the fashion event of Spring, featuring all the hottest designers, labels, styles and retailers in and around Melbourne. A true showcase of all the beauty, fashion and style that is Melbourne this season. There are over 100 free and ticketed public events that celebrate the arrival of the Spring-Summer 2008-09 fashion season.

I attended one of the glamorous Official Evening Parades at the Melbourne Town Hall with a girlfriend. This is my first so was very excited. The show did not disappoint, and the goodies in the show bag is an added surprise for the ladies, from things that make us look good from the inside (TEABAH organic tea leafs, Ducle expresso ground coffee) to things making us look good from the outside (Kevin Murphy shampoo, Kayser stripe stocking, Napoleon nail polish & lipgloss, LA Clinica skin products, Shoobits designer shoe accessory and more).

Taking photos with my little Lumix at the show poses a little bit of challenge but I managed to take a few. Designers brands such as Dhini, Frisonifinetti, Gail Sorronda, James Cameron, Jessie Hill, Leopold are displayed in the pictures below.

Tassie Trip

2008-08-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

When I shared with a friend before my trip to Tasmania, she commented "Tassie is the poor man New Zealand". I guess knowing that I have been to NZ, she just didn't want to set my expectation too high. Well, now that I've been, I think it is a richman's backyard! Why do i say that? Because many beautiful sceneries are just within half an hour drive from Hobart. It may be less touristy than Queenstown, but I trully enjoyed the trip to Hobart. Next time we will pick another season to visit Tassie like spring, it is VERY cold in Tassie in winter, especially the morning we arrived. After going back and forth with the rental car company about the existing damages on the rented car, we finally set off from Hobart airport at around 8am.

After dropping off our luggages, we head off to the famous Salamanca market. The $3.50 yummy bacon and egg roll and a cup of tea warmed us up immediately and with the sun coming out to greet us we breathed a sigh of relief that the day will get warmer. You can find heaps of stuff here at the market from locally grown organic fruit and vegetables, freshly cut flowers, fine Tasmanian arts and crafts, tasmanian leatherwood honey, hats and scarves, home made jam, chocolates and cookies, talented musicians entertaining you while you shop and an array of odds and ends.

After lunch, we decided to go to Mount Wellington to soak up the beauty of Hobart. The weather has warmed up and the fog has cleared, promising a great view of Hobart. Oh man it was freezing up there, but it was worth it!

Day 2
Tahune Airwalk is a place not to be missed too. The drive to the State forest was not too pleasant as I was experiencing carsick in the backseat of the rented Toyota Otis. I don't usually get car sick so this is quite a new experience .... thank God somehow I made it to the Tahune Airwalk ok, and from then it was fine. The air walk was worth the long journey, it offers a 'bird's-eye' view of wet eucalypt forest, culminating in a spectacular cantilever above the confluence of the mighty Huon and Picton Rivers.

photos below:
A common scene at the airwalk, many big trees have fallen on the path and walking on the swinging bridge.

You can experience walking among the treetops past rare species, some found only in Tasmania, such Celery Top pine, myrtle, beech, blackwood and sassafras. We decided to take an additional route which covers a pair of swinging bridges across the Huon and Picton Rivers. Definitely not for the fainted hearted :)

Our stomach was complaining loudly (with drums and all kinds of string instruments) after 1 hour plus walk. The food at the cafe exceeded our expectations (not just because we were starving), the chicken with peanut sauce was delicious, with a kick of spicyness. We enjoyed the food and the conversation over our late lunch so much we ended up missing visiting the Hasting cave!

Day 3

What a packed day on Day3 - Tessalated pavement, Blowhole, Tasman's Arch at Eaglehawk neck, Pirates Bay, Chocolate factory at Tarana (not Cadbury, but a family owned chocolate factory called "Federation Chocolate") and of course the Port Arthur Historical Site - former convict settlement.

Photo below: Tesselated Pavement
Tessellated Pavement is an interesting natual rock formation looking very much like it was man-made, due to the very straight and parallel lines in the rock formation. I saw a picture of it before this trip and it's one of the must-see for this trip. It did not disappoint. If only we could be there for sun rise to capture the beautiful colour as the backdrop.

There are two main types of formations in the Tessellated Pavement, with the pan formations being concave (ie, pan-shaped), and the loaf formations being convex like a loaf.

The day finished with dinner at Maldini Italian Restaurant at Salamanca Place

Day 4 - Ta Ta Hobart
Our travel partners decided to sleep in on the last day at Hobart. Hee hee, can't blame them, after the full activities yesterday they deserved some rest =)
So David & I went to Rosny Hill and enjoyed a stunning view of Hobart, Sandy Bay, Mt Wellington, The Tasman Bridge and Glenorchy. We also visited the oldest Australia's brewery - Cascade Brewery before meeting our friends and tour around the city.

Photos below: view from Rosny Hill and Cascade Brewery

After a leisure walk exploring Hobart City and lunch, we headed toward Richmond, a historic town along the Coal River filled with stunning Georgian architecture and has charming cobblestone roads.

Richmond is such a charming little town, it felt like being taken back in time to another era where time passes so much slowly and there's no sense of rush. We visited the Richmond Bridge built by convicts in 1823, St John's Anglican Church and a little lolly and ice cream shop to satisfy our tastebuds before heading to the airport and wave goodbye to Hobart.

So our 4 days/3 nights Tasmania holiday was over, but we brought back with us many good memories (and of course Tasmania leatherwood honey, chocolates, craft etc) and lots of photos too. Here are small samples of others pictures I took at Hobart which I like a lot.

Trout Fishing, Apple Farm

2008-06-29T02:03:00.000-07:00

Fishing? Yes, not the type of activity you do in the lectures but the kind you do outdoor - and this time in a pond!! Yes, we went trout fishing at Tuki Farm (20km from Daylesford, Creswick and Clunes and 40km from Ballarat), followed by a visit to Apple Farm at Bacchus Marsh. There are a few fish ponds at the farm, varying in size and level of difficulty. Esther and I were the lucky one that day, we were the only one who had success. But at the end some of our friends "cheated" and catch the trout with net instead of fishing rod =). The farm even clean and cook the trout in the restaurant, it was so fresh.

This is Pick-Your-Own and you can eat while you pick too. Farm fresh apples are indeed very fresh and juicy, taste very different to the ones from super market. We all vowed to come back next year!

Very Easy Quiche (No need of pastry sheet!)

2008-05-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

Being a lazy cook, I treasure full proof easy recipes. So when a colleague of mine (Rowena) share this very easy Quiche recipe with me, I was eager to try out. The best part of this recipe? No need to use frozen pastry sheet! And there's plenty of room for your own creativity. This is a very versatile dish - add whatever you like and as long as you keep the basic the same.

Basic Recipe Ingredients
1 cup pastry mix
1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
3 eggs

Instructions:
Whisk the eggs, and then add in the milk and pastry mix. Stir together until smooth. **(don't worry about getting rid of all the little lumps, it doesn't seem to matter. just stir until as smooth as you can get). Add the grated cheese.

Now you can get creative! With a 3 egg quiche you can add in a can of well drained corn kernel, pre cooked onion and mushroom and bacon. (Omit bacon and add herbs and some salt if you are vegan). Pour into a greased 30cm square container and decorate with tomato slices on top. (I used the pie dish as you can see in the photo and it holds just nice).

Put into preheated oven at 190 degrees C for about 35-40 minutes. (It shouldn't be sloppy in the middle, if it is leave in the oven for another 5-10 minutes). This quiche freezes well.

Note: If you would like to add grated carrots, grated zucchini, spinach etc, just add a couple more eggs to help bind larger quantities. You can just add egg whites if you are conscious of fat and cholesterol. And perhaps reduce the milk by 1/4 cup. Fetta and Ricotta cheese can be used instead of cheddar, it seemed to work ok.

The end result - Thin layer of crust was formed on the side of the Quiche like using pastry sheet but it is a much thiner layer. So for people who likes pastry, this may not be pleasing but it suited me as I prefer less pastry so the thiner layer is just right for me.

Lest We Forget

2008-04-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

This is the second ANZAC Day dawn service my husband and I attended.
Being Asians, we found ourselves the minority at the dawn service which is perfectly reasonable given that ANZAC Day is commemorated by Australia and New Zealand on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I.

However, what motivated us was the sense of belongingness. As migrants to Australia for more than 15 years, we have adopted this beautiful country as our own. I felt almost compelled and obligated to know more about ANZAC Day and as understanding increases, so is the sense of gratitude towards those men/women who served the country to protect the freedom we enjoy today.
We attended the dawn service held at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne (Victoria’s largest and most visited war memorial and is probably Melbourne’s most recognised landmark). Departing home about 3:30am, the air was cold but the walk to the Shrine from Fawkner Park (there's where we parked the car) warmed us up very quickly and the sense of anticipation quicken our footsteps as we met many others walking towards the same direction on the way.
As we reached the Shrine, there was already a big crowd. The crowd huddled together and rugged up in scarfs, hats and gloves. Some smoked, some even laid out a picnic rug and brought foldable chairs, determined to get a good "seat" to hear the speech.
It was later reported that an estimated 35,000 people braving the cold to mark the 93rd anniversary of Australian and New Zealand troops landing at Gallipoli at the Shrine of Remembrance. What is even more encouraging is the fact that it was attended by veterans, as well as young families and children of all ages.

Scone for jam or jam for scones?

2008-04-19T05:13:00.000-07:00

On a sunny glorious autumn day, what better place could one go other than the Dandenong? I am so glad Esther suggested the wonderful idea of a visit to Mount Dandenong and the famous Miss Marples Tea Room. (http://www.missmarples.com.au/
The last time I visited the tea room was in summer when my mum and sister were visiting melbourne. The cozy tea room is famous for its scone and jam and generous serve of cream :)
We also tried for the 1st time -

Welsh Rarebit Fingers (with mature english cheddar, eggs, guinness, mustard and spices)
Next to the tea room is a tea shop (how appropriate!) which sells all sorts of tea pots, tea cups, large selection of tea and coffee beans. We found something interesting - mug with a cow inside :) of course not literally.

Wonder how practical it is - how do you stir your coffee when the cow gets in the way. Anyway, it is cute and i think it would still make a nice birthday gift or even just to display at home. But after distracted by other nice mugs and tea cups in the shop, we lost interest and ended up getting something more practical - chocolate with coffee beans inside! yum yum.

The Results .....

2008-04-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

Looking back at what I ended up making for the lovely couple, I have mixed feelings .... The main dish - Grilled Chicken with Dukkah coating turned out great, but the same cannot be said about the garlic bread and the dessert. What could go wrong with garlic bread you may ask - it's so simple! Yes I know but what would go wrong would go wrong *sigh :(

Alright, let's start with the disasters then to the good story:

Don't get me wrong the garlic bread tasted good but maybe somehow the lemon zest i added to the garlic bread (as per the recipe given), actually turned light green on the bread and it looked kinda of weird - green garlic bread urghh! Anyway the guests were very gracious and ate the garlic bread without complaining or expressing fear of being poisoned, so I am grateful to them hehe. Unfortunately i forgot to take a picture of the garlic bread so it's up to your imagination!

As for the dessert (marbled choc cheese cake), all were going well - until yes, until i put the mixture into the oven and forgot to check the setting is on "bottom filament". You see i have this old style oven which has 2 settings: top and bottom filament. The bottom filament should be used for baking biscuits, cake etc and the top filament is more for roast/grill. I used the top filament for my dessert and as you can imagine, the top was burnt while the cake was still cooking! Well to help your imagination, here is a picture of it! I just have to laugh when the cake was taken out of the oven - the top is so black and hard.

Thank God, I managed to salvage what is left of the unburnt part and managed somehow to serve the cake disguising the fact it was kinda of a failure. How did i do it? Simply cut off the burnt part and return the cake to the oven =)

Phew, now that we got over the disastrous garlic bread and cake, now let's talk about the success story :)
The grilled chicken coated with dukkah with apple salad was a success - thanks to the recipe posted by Su Yin.

The guests enjoyed it and it is a dish i am sure to make again ^_^

Trying out new recipes

2008-04-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

Having a lovely couple over for dinner tonight and i was wondering what the menu should be... I was given some tips from the guest - NO PORK, NO PROCESSED FOOD and NO SEAFOOD. This poses a bit of challenge as I love pork and have to throw out many familiar recipes. But of course there many other recipes for beef/chicken/lamb to try so i am excited about what to whip up tonight as it would be something i don't normally cook. Well of course it also has to pass my one and only rule - nothing complicated. Did i tell you i hate complicated cooking before? Yes i love food but love simple cooking. Complicated cooking to me is when ingredients exceed 8 items and the cooking steps exceed 6 steps ... haha ...I find it hard to use up all the ingredients, especially short shelf life ingredients and find it a waste if they go bad before i had a chance to use them up. If i really want to enjoy a delicious complicated cooked meal - i will head to restaurant. Found a great garlic bread recipe from Cooking 101 and the story behind it. The recipe is so simple but it is the way the story was told that adds character to it. I am going for it! Did a google on garlic and found 2 interesting quotes to share with you:

"Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good!" - Alice May Brock

"A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat." - Old New York Yiddish Saying

Cake reigns

2008-03-31T03:16:00.000-07:00

If the first thing you do when reading a menu is the unstoppable urge to flip straight to the dessert section, then we have something in common! I love cakes, period. *wink wink >p

Here are two of my favourites - Green Tea Pound Cake and Passionfruit and Raspberry Cake. I baked the green tea cake in a loaf pan and cut into little slices to bring to work to share with my colleagues. Most of the raspberry cake was also given to a friend to thank her for always giving me a lift from a Bible Study to home, thanks CM, you are God sent! :)

These are 2 very different cakes, the green tea cake is light, fluffy while the raspberry and passionfruit cake is very rich and sweet.

An important question to ponder ...

2008-03-28T06:07:00.000-07:00

And the question is .... what is Leadership? Ya i know on hearing this, some are probably yawning and thinking - what a boring question. But wait! If you think about it, most of us are doing it, maybe without the title but are influencing and "leading" in some ways. Well the reason of this question is due to attending a 2-day course on Leadership Essentials. The course has been stimulating, eye and mind opening and created a lot more reflective thinking and discussion than i thought it would do to me.

Numerous definitions of Leadership can be found in books, internet etc but the main themes are around "influencing" and "vison". I won't bored you here with the definitions and all the details learnt from the course but hopefully it makes you a bit curious and want to find out further. In the course we watched a short interview with Ricardo Semler and i was so inspired by him, his thinking. Read more about his unconventional leadership and corporate work practices, it's very inspiring.

2008-02-24T16:40:00.000-08:00

One of the must have when I go home to Penang is tasting all the yummy "nyonya Kuih". Nowadays Melbourne chinese grocery do sell many types and they are of high quality and authentic such as "Ang Koo Kuih", "Kuih Lapis". "Ondeh-Ondeh", "Cassava Kuih" etc. I always thought kuih cassava is difficult to make, but when i discovered the recipe, i was thrilled and excited to try as it is super simple. This is especially so because grated cassava is so readily available in chinese grocery store. So I decided to give it a try and it turned out very well :)

I couldn't wait for the cake to completely cool down before cutting a slice and try, i am sure some of you can identify with that kind of temptation. Most importantly the taste just bring back so many memories of Penang and the time with family and friends ... it's amazing, almost thought for one second i am in Penang! After the success with this kuih, i am now more confident to try some other kuih when i have the time and craving, so come back another time to check out what i will try next! This is definitely a good start if you haven't made kuih before and want to give it a try.

Here are some i packed up and bring to work to share with workmates, they do look like the ones from the shop, isn;t it?

A Special Treat : Flourless Chocolate Cake

2008-02-22T22:46:00.000-08:00

Hooray! Special treat from my best friend Esther celebrating my Big day in advance. What can i say - it is really sweet :) Thanks Esther.
It's one of my favourite cakes and she made it so well, with beautiful star icing. But good food should always be shared with friends, so we did!

Home Made Soup

2008-02-21T02:22:00.000-08:00

Down with a cold and flu. Staying home feeling sick and bored. Lost appetite for food but suddenly the penny dropped - how about home made, heart warming soup?! ... so today i decided to make some chinese soup with chokoes and carrots and lean pork. Hmm it sure tastes good and it is not only good for the body but for the soul! Soup is such comfort food in winter or when one is sick :)

The ingredients are simple:
approx 400g of pork muscle or pork gravy
2 carrors, roughly sliced
2 small Chokoes, skin and sliced
1 dried fig (optional, it adds to the sweetness of the soup)

Method:
1. Briefly blanch pork in boiling water in a pot
2. Remove water from pot, add in carrots, chokoes, 1 dried fig & 4 cups of water
3. Bring to boil and then turn down heat, simmer with low heat for about 1 hour
4. Turn off heat completely and reheat on low heat for another half an hour before serving. (I have found that the letting the soup sit for awhile allows the flavours to really come out)
5. Garnish with chopped spring onion before serving.

I did not add any salt as it is very tasty as it is and is good for one's health. You can use pork spare ribs, pork bones or pork gravy to make this soup, it all depends on your preference. I prefer pork gravy/pork muscle because they are lean. You can eat the meat but in my case most of it always go to Yuski .... Homemade soup can be very simple, my recipe is not complicated at all but it has all the natural nutrients and is very healthy.

Yuski has been accompanying me while i am recovering at home, so i took a couple of his pictures too, thanks Yuski for cheering me up! kiss kiss ;p

Manna From Heaven

2008-02-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to "Manna From Heaven". This is my first experiment with blogging. I'll be sharing my journey of life, passion for cooking, my pet Yuski and much more. Watch this space, i will be posting my cooking experiments/recipes and what my cheeky Yuski is up to. Do come back and visit this site soon.