Busy Bee Cafe

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.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
450g plain flour
200g sugar
1tbsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/4tsp grated nutmeg
115g butter
300g blueberries

• > Preheat oven on gas mark 4/175C
• > Mix milk and eggs
• > In a separate mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
• > Add butter to the flour mixture and used your hands to blend them together to form a mixture that looks like coarse crumbs.
• > Fold the blueberries to the flour mixture.
• > Add the milk mixture and stir until just combined, DO NOT over mix.
• > Line the muffin tin with paper muffin cups or if you don't have the paper cups, lightly butter the muffin tin.
• > Fill each cup half full and place in the oven for 25 minutes or skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
• > Place on wire rack to cool.
• > Makes 15-18 medium sized muffins.

INGREDIENTS

Cooking oil for deep frying
4 chicken breasts cut into 1 inch cubes
salt
5 shallots
4 garlic cloves
1 inch ginger
1tsp white pepper
1tsp black pepper
2tbsp dark soy sauce
2 cups water
2 red chillies, sliced
1 onion cut into rings

• > Heat the cooking oil.
• > Mix the cubed chicken with salt and deep fry until nice and golden. Take them out and set aside (place them on some kitchen towels to drain the oil out).
• > Put the shallots, garlic, ginger, white pepper and black pepper into a food processor with a bit of water to make a thick paste.
• > Heat some oil (I usually use the oil that was used to fry the chicken), and add the paste. Fry for a couple of minutes and add dark soy sauce.
• > Mix in the chicken and stir for a couple of minutes.
• > Pour in the water, stir and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
• > Add the chilli and simmer for another 5 minutes before adding in the onion.
• > Let it simmer for a couple more minutes and it's ready to be served.

When I first saw the topic, I immediately thought of this:

Then I thought it's such an easy instrument even a monkey could play it... no offence to any monkeys of course... and thought of this:

Unfortunately my hands are in pain tonight and I just can't seem to paint what's really in my head... so this is the best I could do

INGREDIENTS

175g butter at room temprature
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
250g self-raising flour
200g glaced cherries
55g ground almonds
1 lemon zest
3tbsp milk

1. > Preheat oven at 175C (gas mark 4)
2. > Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. > Beat in one egg at a time, adding one tbsp of flour in between to stop the mixture from crudling.
4. > Fold in the remaining flour and add glaced cherries, ground almonds, lemon zest and milk.
5. > Pour the mixture into a cake pan and smooth the top.
6. > Put it in the middle of the oven and let it rise nicely until golden brown and the skewer pierced into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
7. > Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

yati's tip: I usually slice the cherries in half and mix it with the ground almonds before folding them into the mixture. This tends to stop the cherries from sinking to the bottom of the cake.

27 June 2009

It's been so hot that my feet are all swollen. Woke up this morning and they couldn't fit into my Birkenstocks!!! How insane is that?

I think this may be another entry for Illustration Friday - Worn... because I am all worn out by all the changes in my body!