Chinese, Western, Malaysia best foods and recipes blog

Recipe : Banana and chocolate chip cake

Normally, I bake cakes using self-raising flour as it is ’safer’. Self-raising flour is not that much expensive compare to normal flour. You can never go wrong with it. However, I ran out of self-raising flour and realized I have not baking powder as well. The urge to bake cakes was there so I mixed one teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda with 250 grams of wheat flour. Usually, I do not like using bicarbonate of soda because it tends to make the texture dry and if we use too much, there is a metallic after taste.

To get a nicer texture and fluffier cakes, sieve your flour. Normally, I am too lazy to do so with self-raising flour but with the regular flour, there are lots of lumps so I sieved it. Of course, my little boy loves helping in these messy chore because he loves looking at the flour flying every where.

I use the normal butter cake recipe which I posted in the previous post.

I added 4 bananas which have been mashed and a handful of chocolate chips.

Just add the mashed bananas and chocolate chip after you have mixed the eggs and flour. I sliced some bananas to decorate the top of the cake. I used pisang berangan and it turns out fine.

The cake is moist and smells good.

Just a short note on the ingredients I used :
4 bananas - mashed
1 handful of chocolate chips

250 grams flour (either self-raising flour or normal flour + 1 teaspoon baking powder)
250 grams butter
200 grams sugar (reduce the quantity because the chocolate chips are sweet enough)
4 large eggs
(please refer to the butter cake recipe for the method)

OVEN
Someone asked me for recommendation on oven. I forgot which thread it is but I really cannot recommend any because my oven is more than 10 years old. However, if you are planning to buy one, find those which has the microwave plus convection and grill features as these types of ovens will be able to microwave, roast and bake. You can get a quick heating with microwave, roast and grill chicken and bake cakes. The price is around RM2K, I believe.

Popularity: 40% [?]

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Recipe : Chinese Sweet and Sour crabs

To make sweet and sour crabs that packs ooomph, you actually need only a few basic ingredients which are easily found in most kitchens. The key to make a tasty dish is to keep tasting it yourself. Very simple, right?

Here are the ingredients :

RECIPE FOR CHINESE SWEET AND SOUR CRABS

About three crabs or 600 grams
1 large onion, cut into quarters
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 stalk spring onions or Chinese celery for garnishing

POUND OR BLEND the below

2 red chillies

1 bulb garlic, peeled

1 large size ginger

1 tablespoon of fermented bean paste (taucheo)

FLAVOURINGS

1-2 tablespoon of white vinegar (you can get this cheap cuka buatan for mere RM2 and below, it has a very strong smell)
5-6 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
5-6 tablespoons of chili sauce
sugar, salt and pepper
Oil
One egg - beaten

I used flower crabs which is sweeter and although the flesh is not as solid as mud crab, this flower crabs make the best sweet and sour crab dish because it soaks up the gravy very well.

METHOD FOR SWEET AND SOUR CRAB

Heat some oil and stir fry the pounded ingredients till fragrant. Add in the crabs and continue frying. Add in the flavourings except the egg. Usually, it is not necessary to add water because the crab will have leave some juices. Otherwise, add just a little to cover all the pieces of the crabs. Leave to simmer for around 30 minutes.

Taste and adjust the seasoning. Add more vinegar, sugar or salt if needed.

Just before you turn off the fire, add in the beaten egg and give the crab a good stir so that the egg makes the gravy thick and creamy.

This is a very tasty dish, best eaten with white rice or toasted bread. Normally, we do not like order this dish when eating at seafood restaurants because it is really messy and disgusting to be seen sucking and licking those fingers covered with the yummy sauce. Anyway, I can cook an equally evil dish at home at a fraction of the cost outside, so that makes up for it.

The flower crabs are very expensive. The three crabs above cost RM26, at RM32 per kilograms. However, they are really fresh and the female crab is stuffed with roe.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Teh Tiger curry (curry chicken recipe)

Few days ago, I found Teh Shaolin Tiger cooking curries on his blog. Hmm…a British expat showing step-by-step how to cook chicken curry. Very interesting indeed.

So, I decided to try out the recipe because I have almost every ingredients at home. The above shows all that I used in the curry (except the chicken).

No grinding, no blending. Merely chop up everything. Which means no hassles or getting all my fingers ‘heated’ up with the dried chillies.

A can of tomatoes which was meant for spaghetti sauce and a packet of meat curry powder which I got free from a food fair.

Curry with a difference. No coconut milk so no guilt. The taste is tangy, sweetish and with just a hint of spices. I love it because normally I do not eat those chicken curries that are cooked by the Nyonya or the mamak curries stalls. I found them too lemak and the smell too strong.

The breadman came by and we bought a loaf of roti benggali. Yum, yum. The curry wasn’t very hot so my kids can eat them too.

A rough guide to the recipe:

Ingredient A

3 chicken breasts

Two potatoes

4 tomatoes

Cut into chunks

Ingredient B

1 huge clove of garlic

2 huge onions

3 stalks chillies

2 stalks lemongrass

1 sprig of curry leaves

Chopped the garlic, onions and chillies. Bruise the lemon grass.

Ingredient C

1 can of tomatoes

1 packet of meat curry powder

1 can of water (measure with the tomato can)

Heat oil, stir fry Ingredient B till fragrant. If you have cinnamon stick, throw in one (’cos the curry powder packet said so). Add Ingredient A and fry for a while. Pour in Ingredient C. Simmer for as long as it takes for the potatoes to soften. Flavour with some salt and pepper. Add a tiny amount of sugar to balance out the tomatoes ’sourness’.

Popularity: 13% [?]

The soup that guarantees to make you BURPPP.

Mint leaves come in different forms. This is the mint leaves that we Malaysians use in our laksa. One can find them sold in bunches in the supermarket.

Mint has a refreshing taste and chewing those green leaves down seem like very healthy. So, what better way than to consume a whole bunch of mint leaves as a meal?

RECIPE FOR MINT LEAVES SOUP

1 bunch of mint leaves (cost about RM1)

a few ikan bilis (anchovies) OR shrimp or dried shrimp OR fishball (this is to make the soup tastier)

1 egg

1 pip garlic (smashed)

a little oil

A bowl of water (amount that you can consume in one sitting)

Remove individual leaves from the sprig. Wash and drip dry.

Heat oil and stir fry the shrimps or anchovies with garlic. Add water and simmer for a while.

Add salt and pepper to the soup. Pour in mint leaves. Immediately, crack an egg and turn off fire. Break the egg slightly to coat the mint leaves.

The heat will usually cooked the egg. Pour in a bowl and serve. One can either take this as part of a meal or eat it on its own.

Note : Eat immediately or else the reaction between the mint leaves and egg will cause the egg to turn an ugly dark purple colour. Be prepared to burppp (and then somemore) after a meal. Mint drives out ‘wind’ from your body.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Lotus root soup

This post is for BigBok of Canada.

Here’s the recipe for lotus root soup. Alternatively, you can change the lotus root with old cucumber, white radish, winter melon, water cress or any hardy vegetables.

Chicken bones for stock (or use spare ribs) total weight abt 400 gms
1 lotus root, about 400 gm
1 dried squid (can omit if not available)
6-8 red dates
1 clove garlic
salt, pepper to taste

To boil the perfect soup…..
Heat a pot of water to boiling point and dip the meats or bones in and let the meat turned whitish and some grime floats.

Take out the meat/bones and wash under tap water until clears. Pour the boiling water away. This pre-boiling will remove some fats and ensure the soup is clear.

Boil about 1 - 1.5 liter (quantity depends on how much you can consume) water. Add in all the ingredients including the meat/bones that has been pre-boiled. Leave them to boil for a few minutes and turn down fire to minimum. Let the soup simmers for 1 hour or more.

If using watercress, remove the small, green leaves and put aside. Boil only the hard stems. Add the green leaves just before serving.

I hope BigBok get to prepare this soup, just like how her mom made?

Popularity: 22% [?]