Busy Bee Cafe

We were out and about yesterday and Little Bee put two broccoli heads in my shopping basket. We passed the cheese aisle and I put a bag of grated cheese in the basket. All we wanted to get really was glue stick but there wasn’t glue stick on the shelf! We did get the glue… but from another shop!

Since we had broccoli and cheese, might as well make something out of them

Ingredients:

170g broccoli florets, steamed for 5 minutes
2 slices of bread (blitzed in the blender to breadcrumbs)
2 eggs, lightly whisked
A handful or more of grated mature cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven at gas mark 5 or 190C
2. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
3. Line a baking tray with baking paper and scoop spoonfuls of mixture on to the tray. You can use your hands and make it into a ball but I didn’t feel like getting my hands dirty.
4. Put the tray in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes and voila… you can let it cool or if you’re like me and can’t wait, just pick one up and keep blowing on it until it’s cool enough to be popped into your mouth

This recipe is adapted from here

Unlike home… as in Malaysia… if I need to use pandan, I would just go to my mom’s back garden and cut one out.

Here, in the UK, you could use pandan essence or pandan paste or buy a big bag of pandan leaves and keep them in the freezer. I had a bag in the fridge as I didn’t have space in the freezer and for the last two weeks has been figuring out dishes to make with pandan. The more pandan leaves I need to use the better. Not that I am complaining as I love the smell and taste of pandan.

Anyway… I saw a picture of a banana and coconut cake and don’t ask me why as they do not resemble or even taste the same, I suddenly thought of kuih dadar. I haven’t had it for ages and the last time I was in Malaysia it wasn’t even on my food I have to eat list. But I do remember my mom made this for me a long time ago and I remember buying it from the school canteen when I wanted a sugar fix and I remember loving the sweet taste of gula melaka mixed with the smell of pandan… and with all these memories, I had to make it as I wanted a little taste of home.

Ingredients:

5 pandan leaves
50ml water (to blend the leaves with)
120g plain flour
250ml santan (coconut milk)
50ml water
1 egg
100g palm sugar
1 pandan leaf
75ml water
100g desiccated coconut
1tsp corn flour

1. Put the 5 pandan leaves into a blender with 50ml water and blend into a pulp. Strain it through a fine sieve and put it aside.
   
2. Add flour, santan, water, egg and 4 tbsp of the pandan juice into a bowl and mix well.
3. In a saucepan, add the palm sugar, knotted pandan leaf, water and heat over medium heat until the sugar dissolved. Add the desiccated coconut and corn flour and stir for another minute. Set it aside.
4. Heat up a frying pan and lightly grease it with oil. Pour in about 3 tablespoon of the pancake mixture and swirl the pan to form a thin layer of pancake… almost crepe like.
5. When it is cooked, transfer it over to a plate or chopping board and spoon on about 2 teaspoon of the filling mixture on to the pancake and roll it up like a spring roll.

Just another Malaysian flavour that I am happy to share.

When it comes to food, I am easily influenced. My friend Jue put up a photo of kuih bakar (burn cake… literal translation) and I went all excited and started to think ‘I HAVE TO MAKE THIS’!

So I did. Big muffin tin for me and little cupcake tin for Little Bee.

And I am lucky that I have Little Bee by my side who is always willing to give a helping hand.

Ingredients:

250ml water
6 pandan (screwpine) leaves
160g caster sugar
250g plain flour
250ml santan (coconut milk)
3 eggs
Oil

1. Heat the oven at 180C or gas mark 4.
2. Put the water and pandan leaves in a blender and whiz. Pour it into a bowl through a fine sieve to get the pandan water. You can also use 1/2 tsp pandan paste if you have it and add about 50ml water.
3. Add sugar, flour, coconut milk and eggs into the bowl and whisk. You can also just whizz them in a blender but my Little Bee insisted on whisking
4. Oil the cake pan, muffin pan or cupcake pan (whatever you choose to use) and put it in the oven until the oil is nice and hot. Take the pan out and pour the mixture in. Sprinkle some sesame seeds and put it in the middle of the oven for about 40 minutes. Let it cool and it’s ready to eat

Little Bee had a playdate yesterday and we decided to make a cake… well, I thought her playdate mommy would appreciate cake and coffee so it was more for us mommmies than the kids… but Little Bee doesn’t mind as she loves being my good little helper.

I did make this cake before but it was a rush and I didn’t let it cool down properly that it was crumbly when I sliced it up. But it was still lovely… at least I thought so and that’s why I decided to make it again.

The recipe is adapted from the BBC Good Food page here. I don’t have an electric mixer and mix by hand and I didn’t make the icing as I do think that I personally do not need extra calories

Ingredients:

25g poppy seed
185ml warm milk
185g unsalted butter, soften
220g caster sugar
3 eggs
300g self raising flour
1 lemon’s rind, grated

1. Put the poppy seed and milk in a bowl and set aside.
2. Mix the soft butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and continue mixing. Add the flour and poppy seed and milk mix, alternating between the two (I did it three times as in a third of the flour and then a third of the milk and poppy seed, mix and then again until all are mixed together). Add the lemon rind and mix further.
3. Pre heat the oven at 180c or gas mark 4 (I did it now so I won’t waste any gas )
4. Lined the bottom of a 10cm x 20cm loaf pan with baking paper and lightly butter the side. Pour the mixture in and bake on the middle of the oven for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, cover the cake with tin foil to avoid browning, and bake for another 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let it cool in the tin on a wire rack for about half an hour. Tip it out and let it cool further on the wire rack or just slice it up as it’s nice to have cake when it is nice and warm

I baked it much longer as 40 minutes, which was the recommended time on the original recipe, was not enough in my oven. Your oven might be more high tech than mine so 40 minutes might be enough.

Sometimes, you open your cupboard and discover it bare. No bread, no cereal… no breakfast unless you get out of your pyjamas and put layer upon layer of clothings as it is cold outside just to walk five minutes to the shop to get bread and cereal. Sometimes, you think I really cannot be bothered.

Hey! Look! There’s a sweet potato.

And that one single realisation has saved you from getting out of your pyjamas and suffer the empty tummy syndrome.

Sounds familiar? No? Oh well… it must be only me

Anyway, it was lucky that I did have a large sweet potato, coconut milk, tapioca pearls and pandan leaves. I had a lovely breakfast… but I’m not too sure if Little Bee liked it and hubby didn’t even touch it. Not that I’m complaining as it’s more for me.

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potatoes diced to your preferred size
400ml water
400ml coconut milk
50g palm sugar (molasses would be good too)
2 pandan leaves
1/2 cup tapioca pearls (soaked, rinsed and drained)

1. Put the diced sweet potato and water in a pot. Let it simmer until it is soft right through.
2. Add the coconut milk, sugar, pandan leaves (tie them into a knot) and tapioca pearls. Once the sugar has dissolved, the pudding is ready.

Seriously, it is that easy.

Add more water if you think that it’s too thick. Add or reduce the sugar depending on your taste.

Enjoy!

It seems from my posts that I’m having a bubur spree Well, sometimes it happens but the truth is, bubur is the easiest dish that people tend to forget and take it for granted.

Bubur kacang hijau is actually a dessert or pudding rather than a meal itself. However, saying that, it is very filling and probably is a meal by its own right.

The reason I made it is because Little Bee has a cold. When I have a cold, I usually just boil ginger in water and then make kopi jahe (ginger coffee) but somehow I just don’t think that Little Bee would like ginger juice on its own… I might be wrong as I’ve never tried.

Anyway, I made this pudding because I can still boil in the ginger and it’s sweet and I was hoping that Little Bee would eat it… but it turned out that Little Bee doesn’t like it. Little Bee doesn’t really like pulses so I can’t really say that it’s the fault of the dish… because it’s not. I love it… maybe it’s my fault for reducing the sugar in the recipe but I do find it to be very sweet when I have it in Malaysia so I prefer it with less sugar. In Malaysia, if they serve it hot, I then add ice cubes to it to cool it down and also water it further so it won’t be to sweet.

Well… with Little Bee not wanting it, more for me! So, I’m not complaining

Ingredients:

200g mung beans
750ml water
5cm cinnamon stick
3cm fresh ginger, bruised
4 pandan (screwpine/pandanus) leaves
60g non-refined granulated sugar
250ml coconut milk

1. Rinse and soak the mung beans over night. The next day, drain the beans and put it in a pan and add 750ml water with cinnamon stick, ginger and pandan (tear in half length wise and tied into knot). Bring to boil, reduce the heat and cover and simmer until the beans has soften.
2. Add sugar and coconut milk. Bring it back to a boil. Switch off the heat.

It can be served hot or cold… and trust me it’s yummy! Even if Little Bee doesn’t like it

This is the simplest and filling and, I think, the most understated yummiest dish ever. This is the first dish that I remember eating as a child. This is the dish that I will make when I’m feeling ill… it is to me chicken soup to others. When I have a sore throat, it much easy (and yummier) to swallow than any other food out there. This is the first ever dish I made for Little Bee during her baby led weaning stage and still gives to her as it’s the only dish she would eat her vegetable with.

It is the humble bubur – rice porridge.

It is usually cooked plain (boiling the rice in water with a bit of salt) but I like to cook mine with chopped up onion, garlic (quickly fried before adding the rice and water) and vegetables (without salt), hence the reason I love cooking this for Little Bee as the vegetables are boiled together with the rice, so even if she push the vegetables away (which she never does when I make this) at least I know the goodness is in it.

And when serve it to Little Bee, it’s with egg, ground fried ikan bilis (white bait) and kicap manis… and mine with the additional sambal belacan.

Tonight, we had bubur and Little Bee licked her bowl clean

I was browsing through Pinterest when I saw some really yummy looking white chocolate and coconut truffles and suddenly my sugar cravings just shot up to its maximum capacity!

Yes, it would be easy just to go to a shop and buy but I haven’t seen any white chocolate and coconut truffles in any of my local shops… and how hard can it be? I guess it is easy as the recipe is there but I’m not known to follow recipes… even my own. Maybe that’s why none of my dishes ever taste the same if I don’t taste them while cooking

So, instead of following the recipe, I changed it a bit and maybe that’s why it was a bit sticky in the end, who knows. But I didn’t feel leaving 20g of chocolate as I had 200g of white chocolate when the recipe stated 180g. Yes, I could eat that 20g but it is currently Ramadan and I was fasting. Plus, everything is in cup measurement which just irks me and I was too lazy to look up the exact amount in ml or grams.

Saying that, I don’t think the end result looks or taste bad.

I like it. Little Bee likes it. Her friend Natey likes it. And Natey’s mom says it’s nice… or maybe she’s being kind.

Anyway, below is the ‘measurement’ that I used but I think I might try to follow the recipe from the site next time to see if it comes out less sticky when I’m making the balls.

Ingredients:

200g white chocolate
150ml double cream
1tsp vanilla extract
200g dessicated coconut

1. In a saucepan, melt the chocolate with the cream in low heat. Constantly stirring. Add the vanilla extract and leave to cool.
2. Add 150g dessicated coconut and mix well. Leave to cool to room temperature.
3. Pour the 50g leftover of the dessicated coconut into a bowl. Take a tablespoon (if you want it smaller, take half a tablespoon) of the mixture onto your palm and roll it into a ball. Then roll the ball on the dessicated coconut.
4. Leave it in the fridge to set.

What do you do when you feel like having peanut butter on toast but there’s no peanut butter in the house but you do have a bag of honey roasted nuts?

Make your own!

Just pour the honey roasted nuts in a food processor and whizz it until you get to the consistency to your liking! Crunchy or smooth… it’s up to you

I made mine quite smooth. I know it doesn’t look that appetising but Little Bee loved it on her toast and that’s all that matters.

After falling off the swing and being stung by nettle in the garden, I decided that Little Bee shall have some indoor activity today. She wanted to bake and these were what she made

I got the recipe off here. I… excuse me… Little Bee followed the recipe to the t so you could just click on the link if you’d like to try it out. Seriously easy! Oh… we used red colouring instead. Little Bee loves sprinkling the decorations… and eating them… and with sugar overload, it took a while to settle her to sleep this evening. *sigh*

Tomorrow, we’ll go back to the garden as I’ve pulled out most of the nettle… plus we have some broadbeans to repot.