La Nina en la Cocina

Chapati

I bought an ayurvedic cook book. The idea to explore the fuss some people make about ayurveda the science of life. The thing is not that I want to sound wise or knowledgeable, coming from an Asian race means one grows up with a lot of undocumented old wisdom. In Malaysia, the older generations seems to know a lot about the goodness and medicinal value of different ingredients in food. Before modern medicine, people were better connected to nature. We consume ginger for the warmth necessary to heat the body internally, cucumber for its cooling properties, turmeric for its healing effect (internal wounds too), tamarind juice to cool fever, etc etc etc

 

I grew up totally conditioned to the need to pay attention to how my body functions, the different types of food which work for me and others which would throw me off balance. Take durian, the smelly spiky fruit for example, while most South East Asians are goo-goo-ga-ga about it. I avoid it as it tends to make me sick. Either with a fever or with a splitting headache. However, I do enjoy it without any side effects if its cooked with coconut and seafood. 

I have recently learned that there's a fancy (well not quite fancy but trendy, perhaps) word which the new age modern people living in metropoles use for such science in food (all matters related to it), its ayurveda. Hence, out of curiosity (one cannot hurt from learning right?), I bought the ayurvedic cooking book to see what is the hoohhah all about.

Basically, it is about knowing and respecting your body type and understanding how to respect it. With your choice of food ingredients and preparation.

I made some lentils and chapati to accompany my raisins and cashew pilaf which was served with chicken and spinach curry as main course. I only used the cooking book for the chapati as I have never made a chapati in my life. 

Ayurveda being an ancient science stemming from India, most of the recipes in the book are Indian. I might try a few other stuff when I host a dinner party. Perhaps one with an Indian summer theme. I'd served gin and tonic, of course.

That (G&T) is also chemistry, science. For those British living in India (ha ha). And Malays in the Netherlands too, when one fancies to be fancy.

Meanwhile, I have discovered that chapati is rather easy to make. As long as one isn't too fussed about the end result (which is nothing like the perfection achieved in good Indian restos in London). Oh well. 

My chapati tasted quite nice. I quite enjoy making it. I plan to make it more often. Milla however disliked the taste of ghee which I used together with wheat flour, salt and water, to make the dough.  

Moist Banana Chocolate Cake

I am back in my baking mood again. I guess, it comes together with my domesticated phase. Last weekend, I have been sorting out my clothes, shoes and handbags in the walk-in wardrobe. Chris and I have been doing  a bit of gardening of late too. The baking is just an icing on the cake of my domesticated mood, really.

Oh yes. I also work. Normally, I do nothing else but work.

I don't mind being domesticated from time to time. It is good for my soul. I am glad I found this really yummy and easy Banana Chocolate cake recipe on Joy of Baking website (my favourite baking site). It is so moist but light tasting, it makes me feel like a superstar baker. Everyone who knows me know, when it comes to baking, I am as mediocre as the word mediocre can ever mediocrely be!

This is such an easy cake to make too. The preparation takes 15 minutes and after 45 minutes in the oven,  it is ready to be devoured.

I could have made the chocolate ganache to serve it with but I always feel terribly guilty when I eat chocolate cake so I prefer not too make myself feel worse by piling on the calories on top of the already sinful consumption of chocolatey deliciousness...

We took some of the cake to Judy and Duncan's place, who just had their second child Cleo. Milla decorated the slices of cake with pink-and-purple Princess delight decorative sugar sprinkles. I am telling you, if you are raising a girl, you should have one of those cylinders of Princess Delight decorative sprinkles in your pantry because little girls simply love decorating cakes (cupcakes and pancakes included) and ice-cream (and everything else too if you let them!) with those sprinkles.

I love this cake and I can recommend the recipe to anyone who loves banana and chocolate, moist (very moist) and light tasting, cake! It is also so easy to make! If I can bake it, everyone else can bake it with their eyes closed and standing on the head!

For the recipe, click here.

Otra ves! La Milla en la Cocina; Baking cookies

Today, we spent some Milly-Mummy hour in the kitchen baking some cookies. It is nothing special. One of those ready-made flour in the box (Kopmann's). The only thing I had to do was to mix the flour-mix with butter and knead the dough, placed in the fridge for 15 minutes, then take it out again. I rolled the dough flat and Milly started with the cookie cutting and decoration. 

After 20 minutes in the oven, the cookies came out really pretty. They taste quite good too!

 

Milly was chuffed with herself although she only ate the sugary sprinkles and decoration off  while watching an episode of Dora and sipping on her tea. 

Little Princesses are rather impossible to please.

Cupcakes - La Milla en la Cocina

In preparation for Milla's summer party, I baked 12 cupcakes and a loaf of poundcake. As I am a lazy bum of a mother/house working wife, I just prepared a simple butter cream frosting for the cupcakes and Milla helped me with the decoration - basically, putting M&M's on the frosting.

It was cheap and cheerful and it was a big hit! The kids (and adults) loved the cakes. Milla was proud to announced she helped mummy. That to me is the sweetest part of throwing a party (despite the fact, I was fighting a flu and was popping Nurofen as if they were M&Ms) - to have a happy child.

Pandanus Chiffon Cake

I have been unattentive to this blog. I have been juggling too many balls in the last few months and 3 of which are my 3 blogs. It is not the case of too many great things happening, too little time to blog. It is rather too many ordinary cooking and too little time to waste writing about it.

Today, I produced yet another one of those ordinary produce... I made a Pandanus Chiffon cake. It is one of those easy stuff which I can whip out of a box and all I have to do is beat 7 eggs until foamy before adding the content of the pre-mixed ingredients. When the mix is smooth and creamy, I added 100ml of coconut milk instead of soya bean oil and put it in 160 degrees hot oven for an hour et voila!....

The interesting titbit about this post is not the cake (which by the way turned out better than it would have if I had dedicated hours for the preparation instead of the 15 minutes) but the brand of the pre-mixed cake mixture. It is 'PONDAN' which in Malaysian Malay means a man who behaves like a woman and vice versa. a.k.a Transvestite

I thought this unimportant little detail is quite funny.

Agedashi Tofu

It has been a while indeed. All the cooking and photographing but no blogging, on this space. A matter of all work and no play indeed.

I prepared Agedashi tofu for entree - for Christine and Ralf, who came for dinner at our home last night. It was a roaring success mainly because thry haven't had the dish before. They are not novice eaters. They are in fact good and well-seasoned foodies. But hey, even advanced foodies, at times, can miss Agedashi tofu. So, thank Goodness, I was saved by the bell.

I have no clue how to prepare this dish properly. But having read a few tips and recipes and paid a brief visit to the Japanese delicatessen, I improvised.

Funnily enough, it turned out suprisingly (and acceptably) delish.

Ingredients
Soft tofu (not silken but soft)
Rice flour
Japanese white bread crumbs
Bokito broth (I used the powder diluted in boiled water)
Mirin
Soy sauce
Seaweed
Japanese pickled ginger to garnish
Spring onions, thinly sliced to garnish

Preparation
I coated the diced tofu in rice flour, followed by the white bread crumbs. Then I shallow fried them in very little oil until all sides were golden. In a separate pan, I boiled some water and added the bokito seafood broth mix, 2 tablespoons of mirin and soy sauce (to taste). I then added the dried seaweed and brought the mix to boil. I poured the bokito seasoning broth over the fried tofu cubes and garnished with the pickled ginger and spring onions.

I love this dish for its simplicity, clean taste and of course, the fact that it made me look like a half-decent cook in front of my foodie friends.

I guess, with me, it is all about narcissism.

Plugging: Vegetarian Duck

I just found another food blog which I love. Actually, I have not just found it. I have been there before but haven't been as glued to it as I have been recently. I love MEM's style of writing - creative and witty. His food ideas are just so excellent. His photos, absolutely delightful.

He makes me want to spend my days and nights in the kitchen or at some exotic food market. Reading him makes me want to cook, cook, cook, learn and cook some more.

I love how he seems to radiate 'ease' with his cooking and how open he is to try so many different cuisines. It is amazing! His girl Mara is also a good cook. Some people are soooo lucky!

I don't know where MEM is originally from but he also lives in Amsterdam. Apparently, he lives in one of those groovy buildings with bars, restaurant and clubs in it. I have to be careful not to be too enamoured with his blog; I might stalk him.

Here's the link to the gem - Vegetarian Duck.

Pandanus Chicken

I made Pandanus Chicken, for the first time ever in my life, a few weeks ago. I was inspired by Zaza, Malay chef extraordinaire.

The recipe I have used is a modification of various recipes I have read on the net including Zaza's.

Ingredients
2 Chicken breasts, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds (I used black ones instead of white)
salt to taste

Pandanus leaves
Vegetable oil, 4 tablespoons

I mixed all the ingredients (except for the pandanus leaves and vegetable oil) well before forming little patty cakes out of them. Wrap the cakes with pandanus leaves to form little parcels. I used 2 leaves per cake. Use cut satay sticks as skewers to seal the parcels. I struggled to keep them tightly packaged, it must be due to my lack of experience in packaging/making food parcels!

I shallow fried the parcels in vegetable oil, over medium heat. Make sure the parcels are not too crispily fried to avoid burning and to keep the meat succulent.

Remove parcels from the frying pan. Stick them in oven proof dish, for the oven set at 180 degrees celcius, for about 15 minutes. If you have guests, you can easily fry the parcels in advanced and place them in the oven closer to the time when you intend to serve them.

It is perfect as a starter. Serve with sweet chili sauce or just as they are, which is what my guests preferred.

This dish is aromatic (pandanus smell), which is something I love. It also looks deceptively difficult to prepare, which is great if you'd like to impress your friends.

Green Tea Drizzle Cake

I made Green Tea Drizzle cake, for dessert, when Tatyana & Rudi came for Sunday lunch 2 weekends ago. I used the recipe from the Wagamama Cookbook which I purchased at the restaurant a while ago. I must say, the cookbook has come in handy - mostly for inspirational ideas and tips. I haven't reproduced anything out of the recipes in the book apart from this drizzle cake but so far, the book has proven to be very good. I use a lot of the tips for sauces. My favourite (mostly produced) is the base sauce for yaki soba (mirin, sake, soy sauce, sugar and yellow bean paste (miso)).

I don't think it is right for me to publish the recipe as it is an IP which belongs to Wagamama. Suffice to say, my guests thought (and I did too) the cake is really light and totally enjoyable with an after lunch tea. The green tea syrup drizzle makes it very sweet but one can skip it (if syrup is served on the side) if one surrenders to bad conscience. I love the subtle taste of green tea in the cake. It is amazing how little macha tea powder I have used and how powerful albeit subtle taste, such a tiny amount of tea powder can be.

Veal & Peppers Cannelloni

I have been going through an Italian-cooking culinary jaunt. 2 weekends ago, I prepared veal and peppers canneloni for dinner, which is my little improvisation of cannelloni caterina - without the ham (as this is about the only Malay-Muslim rule I adhere to, not due to religious reason because that would make me a hypocrite but more due to cultural/traditional habit) and mushroom, instead subsituted by peppers and leek.

For the pasta & filling:
10 cannelloni shells
300gm of minced veal
1/2 of a red bell pepper
1/2 of a yellow bell pepper
1/2 A leek
3/4 pound (350 g) ricotta
A pinch of dried thyme
An egg
1/2 cup (50 g) bread crumbs
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
500ml of sugo de tomato

Begin with the filling: Cut the white part of the leek into rounds, and discard the green section. Julienne the peppers. Sauté the leek in the butter, and when it has begun to color add the minced veal, peppers and thyme. Stir the mix and simmer until the peppers are done, adding a little more water if need be to keep them from drying out. Let the mixture cool, then combine it with the ricotta, egg, bread crumbs, and a half cup of the Parmigiano. Mix well and check seasoning.

Preheat your oven to 400 F (200 C).

To assemble the dish:

Take an oven-proof dish, butter it, and pour two ladles of sugo over the bottom. Stuff the shells with the stuffing. To begin with, as it is my first time making cannelloni, I had difficulties in stuffing the shells but soon got the hang of it. If the cannelloni shells are el dente, the filling process should be a successful one. Start with filling one end and quickly turn over (up-side-down with the shell resting on one palm) to fill the other. Soon the stuffing will move downwards and becomes quite compact in the shell.

Arrange stuffed shells in the dish.

Pour the remaning sugo over the cannelloni. Dust with the remaining Parmigiano and bake for 40 minutes; should the cannelloni look like they're overbrowning, cover them with a sheet of aluminum foil.

I was quite nervous about making cannellonis but this experience has proven, it is not more complicated nor more difficult than making a lasagna. In any case, I would definitely make more of it, with (hopefully) a varriety of different stuffings in the near future!