Busy Bee Cafe

Moo was asking for nasi lemak recipe on facebook... which made me realize that I haven't made it for ages!

Nasi lemak is one of Malaysian's favourite dish... if not 'the'.

Again... everyone has their own way of cooking nasi lemak and this is mine... healthier version... in my head at least as it contains no additional salt

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup rice
400ml (1 tin) thick coconut milk
1 cup water
1tsp fanugreek (halba) seeds
1 inch ginger, bruised
2 clove garlic, sliced
3 shallots, sliced
2 lemongrass, bruised

> wash the rice and put it in a saucepan.

> add all the ingredients into the saucepan and cover. Put the saucepan on the hob on high heat and bring to boil.

> turn the heat right down and let it simmer until all the liquid has evaporated. Flake the rice with a fork and now it is ready to be served.

Nasi lemak is usually accompanied by prawn sambal, hard boiled egg, sliced cucumber, crispy fried ikan bilis (whitebait) and peanuts. However, hubby doesn't like seafood... so instead of making prawn sambal straight away, I made sambal without any prawns first. Then I fried some chicken breast for hubby and add the sambal on top... and as for me... I added prawns to my sambal

So here's my sambla recipe.

Ingredients:

10 dried chillies or 7 fresh red chillies
1 capsicum
4 garlic cloves
1 red onion or 10 shallots
1tsp belacan
100g molasses or grated palm sugar
1tbsp tamarind pulp
1/2 cup water

> If you're using dried chillies, remove the seeds from the chillies and soak them in hot water for 15 minutes. For fresh chillies, deseed and chop.

> Place the chillies in a food processor and add chopped capsicum, garlic, onion/shallots and belacan, and blend untils smooth. Add a bit of oil or water to keep the blade moving.

> Heat wok/frying pan over low heat and pour some oil. Add the chilli mixture and stir fry until the oil separates.

> Mash the tamarind pulp in water and squeeze and strain to obtain the juice. Add the tamarind juice and sugar and simmer until it reaches a jam-like consistency.

Now you can add prawns or ikan bilis to the sambal; or as I mentioned, you can fry some chicken and add the sambal on top. Delish...

Bubba and I went to LilliBop Festival last month. It was really fab!! We really hope that there will be another one next year.

Anyway, I decided to make some snacks that we could share with Lizzie and Baby Ivy... so when Sainsbury's sent me an e-mail as I'm in their baby club, I thought... hmmmm... the pasties looks nice and doesn't seem too difficult to make.

Ingredients:

200g young spinach leaf, chopped
1 courgette, grated
2 spring onions, finely sliced
100g ricotta cheese
50g edam cheese, grated
1tsp dried oregano
1 egg, beaten
500g shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten

> preheat oven at 180C or gas mark 4

> Put the spinach, courgette, spring onions, ricotta, edam, oregano and egg in a bowl and mix. Add a bit of freshly ground black pepper, if you like.

> I usually cut the shortcrust pastry block into nine little blocks and roll each at a time. Cut out a circle from each small block with a saucer.

> Pile the filling on to half of the circle and brush a little egg around the edge of the pastry, fold and crimp to seal the edge.

12 August 2010

I know I'm late... but it's better to be late than never! I actually did this over the weekend... while I was having art session with my almost one year old child. In between of telling her not to eat her crayons and stop poking her hand in my water container, it was total chaos!

Anyway... the first thing that came to my head when I saw the title was stargazy pie. It's a Cornish dish originated from the village of Mousehole. There is a legend attached to it, but I don't know what it is to be honest... something to do with some fisherman going out to the stormy sea.

I've never tasted the dish as it contains bacon, plus... there's just something about the head sticking out that doesn't really appeal to me. Oh... don't worry. I have no problem with eating things with eyes... as long as it's lying down. I guess with the heads sticking up looking at the sky, they just seem eerily alive.

My bubba loves her food... but she can be very choosy, like no broccolli but she loves cauliflower; no carrots but she loves sweet potatoes...

She doesn't particularly like haddock but she loves cod. How do I know this?

A couple of months ago I started to make fish fingers for her and have been using cod, but one day, there was no cod on the supermarket shelf so I opted for haddock... which is the favoured fish at fish and chip shops anyway.

Don't get me wrong, she did eat a bit of it with lack of enthusiasm and most of the time pulling it apart and throwing bit by bit off her high chair so I wouldn't notice... so it's back to cod it is.

Ingredients:

1 fillet of skinless, boneless cod
3 pieces of toasted wholemeal bread
1tbsp of chopped chive
2 eggs lightly beated
1 cup of flour
1tbsp corn oil

Cut the cod into finger sizes. Put the toast into a blender to make it into breadcrumbs... you can also add the chives if you're lazy to chop them up separately like me

Get three bowls ready. One for the flour, one for the eggs and one for the mixture of breadcrumbs and chive.

Dip the cod fingers one by one in the flour, then eggs and then cover each fingers with breadcrumbs.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry them til golden brown.

What I usually do is fry three or four fingers and freeze the rest for another time. Babies only have a small tummy and if they eat the cod fingers with mash potatoes and vegetables, they really don't need that many. Saves a bit of time for another day

21 June 2009

I originally posted this up on 22 June 2009 under the title Eggs for Breakfast.

I haven't done much painting since I gave birth to my wonderful, very active child almost 11 months ago... things have been a bit hectic but it's all good. I still check up on IF and when I saw this week's title, I just had to put this up. Maybe it will encourage me to find a bit of me time to start on painting again.

A couple of months ago when Nora started teething, I started thinking of teething biscuits. Nora was a bit tired of carrot sticks and needed a bit of food variety. At this point I prefer making things myself rather than buying because at least I know what goes into the food that I give my child. I am starting to buy biscuits here and there but I think I might as well stop because it's not that hard making them and most of the time preparing doesn't take more than 15 minutes; it's the baking that takes time.

Anyway, this is my first 'biscuit' I baked for Nora. And the best thing about it, I only use half of the loaf to make the bread sticks and the other half I keep so I can have a slice with my tea

Ingredients

1/8 cup molasses
1/2 cup corn oil
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (I usually mash 3 bananas)
1 3/4 cups flour
2tsp baking powder
1/2tsp baking soda
1/2tsp vanilla essence
a dash of ground cinammon

Instructions

Preheat oven at gas mark 4. Combine all the ingredients and mix well. If the molasses are a bit sticky, it might be a good idea to mix it first with egss and bananas to disolve it; or you don't have to include it because the banana is sweet enough.

Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan and put it in the middle of the over for an hour or the skewer is dry when you poke the middle of the loaf. Let it cool in the loaf pan for 10 minutes and then transfer it on to a wire rack to cool it down further.

Cut the loaf into sticks of your preferred size and lay them on a baking tray. Put it back in the oven at really low heat for more or less another hour. It all depends on how crunchy you want the bread sticks to be.

Voila! Bread sticks for the baby and a slice of cake for the mama. Isn't life perfect?

It's been a while since I've updated this blog and was actually going to wait until I have a brilliant inspriations from Illustration Friday...

But I just heard a sad news. The Sultan of my home state of Johor has passed away at the age of 77.

As my sister said, he was quirky but he always thinks the best for his subjects. I have so many fond memories of him and I'm sure all of his subjects have their own interesting story about him.

My fond memory was us sitting on a sofa comparing our Mickey Mouse watches. Of course his was more grand than mine. But that was when I was really young and were friends with one of his princess. I doubt he remembered me... but I'll always remember him as a nice, and pretty cool, dude.

21 August 2009

Albert doesn't like cold water...

21 August 2009

A couple of days late as I've been a bit busy

The first thing I thought about when I saw this week's topic is little girls playing dress up with mom's make up and clothes

24 July 2009

INGREDIENTS

55g dark chocolate
1tbsp brewed espresso
290g self-raising flour
1/4tsp salt
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
115g unsalted butter
250g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1tsp vanilla essence
3/4cup soured cream
1/3cup milk

• > Preheat oven at gas mark 4 (175C)
• > Melt the dark chocolate with the coffee in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Set aside.
• > In another bowl, sift the flour, salt and cinnamon together. Set aside.
• > In another bowl, cream the butter and gradually add sugar. Beat the mixture about 5 minutes until it's nice and fluffy.
• > Add 1 egg at a time to the butter mixture and continue beating.
• > Beat in vanilla extract and soured cream into the butter mixture.
• > Alternate at adding flour mixture and milk into the butter mixture, and mix well.
• > Pour half of the mixture into the bowl with the melted chocolate and stir.
• > Spoon in a couple of spoons of vanilla batter into the cake pan and alternate with a couple of spoons of chocolate batter.
• > When all the batter is in the cake pan, to have the marble effect, using the handle end of a spoon, gently swirl the batter. DO NOT OVER MIX.
• > Place the cake pan into the preheated oven for about an hour or until the skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the the cake.

21 July 2009

Two cats eyeballing each other. A start of a fight? A start of a friendship? Let's just enjoy the dance until they make up their minds!

11 July 2009

INGREDIENTS

200g plain flour
1/2tsp salt
2tsp sugar
2tbsp butter, softened
1/2cup milk
2tbsp oil
4 onions, cubed
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and diced
500g lamb mince (can be substituted with beef, chicken or mutton mince)
2tbsp ground cumin
1/2tbsp chilli powder
1/2tbsp garam masala
1/2tsp ground black pepper
1tsp salt
4tbsp coarsely chopped corriander leaves
1 green chilli, diced
5 eggs

• > Start by making the dough.
• > Combine flour, salt, sugar and butter in a mixing bowl and mix with your fingertips.
• > Add milk and mix to make a pliable dough.
• > Knead the dough for about 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface, until it's smooth and elastic.
• > Roll the dough into a cylinder and divide into 5 equal pieces.
• > Roll each piece into a smooth ball, coat it with butter. Place them in a bowl and cover.
• > Leave the dough to rest for at least 1 hour.
• > While dough is resting, make the filling.
• > Heat the oil and fry the ginger and half the onion for a couple of minutes.
• > Add mince, cumin, chilli powder, garam masala, pepper and salt and stir-fry until the meat is browned.
• > Transfer the filling into a dish and add the rest of the onion, corriander and chilli. Mix well and let it cool
• > Place a doughball on a clean tabletop, lightly drizzled with butter.
• > Flatten the doughball evenly with your palm and stretch it out as thinly as possible.
• > Divide the filling into 5 portions.
• > Place one portion in a bowl and add 1 lightly beaten egg and mix.
• > Place the filling in the center of the circle. (see the picture below)

• > Fold the dough over the filling to make a nice neat package. (see the picture below.

• > Heat a frying pan over low heat and drizzle a bit of butter.
• > Transfer the murtabak on to the pan and cook each side until golden brown on the outside and the filling is cooked.