Kueh Talam Cake (Coconut Tray Cake)

Well, this was a complete FAIL for me and it even came in a box with valid instructions. I bought this a while ago at some international market before I even knew what Malaysian cuisine was like. I still don't know. Anyway, from my google research, I learned that this is called a kueh talam cake or known as coconut tray cake. It is steamed and very glutinous. I somehow thought that it would turned out more like a sponge cake. Why did I think that? No idea. I guess that sounds a lot more delicious than just the thought of chewy flour. Click here to see how someone else did a better much job that I did.

The only ingredient I had to provide was coconut milk and palm sugar but I don't count the palm sugar because I didn't have and had no plans to use any. I know, I can barely follow the instruction on the box! I should also mention that I don't have a steamer but that was okay, I improvise just fine. I also don't own those chinese tea bowls or metal bowls that allow these dessert cakes to come out much easier. Again, they're VERY sticky.

The front of the box. Yes, the brown middle layer is supposed to be the palm sugar that I didn't even consider using. I found the dessert sweet enough without it.

I used coconut milk powder and like it a lot more than regular coconut milk. I don't know - maybe it's because I have to cook it? Something about that makes me feel that the coconut milk is fresh.

This is the one of the layers. It's called the vanilla layer but all I did was add coconut milk to the prepackaged substance. 

This is the other prepackaged substance - it was white as you can see but once I added the coconut milk, it turned green. Just like magic!

I used coffee cups... again, I improvise well and oiled up a piece of napkin to grease 'em cups. 

I poured a ladle-full of vanilla/coconut batter into the cup.

Then steamed it in my good-as-a-steamer steamer.

And waited a solid five minutes for that to get solid while the pandan batter waits patiently for its turn.

Looks pretty solid.

Yeah, pandan.

It's cooked alright... but here's the hard part. How do I get it out of the cup?!

fail.

FAIL.

win. 

It was mildly sweet with a hint of salt. Pretty delicious and filling. 

Homemade Poptarts Attempt I

Don't ask me why but I really, really wanted to make homemade Poptarts. I was okay with making the jam filling but when it came to rolling out the dough and shaping it, I completely lost it. I need a cutter. A much LARGER cutter if I want to make poptarts. These bento-making cutters I have just won't do the job. Until next time...

For the jam, I crushed strawberries and blueberries, and cooked it with sugar. I let it cool in the fridge overnight and the next day, the jam was perfect. Although i didn't get to use much of it in my puff pastry, however, I am looking forward to smearing it over the cream cheese on my bagel tomorrow morning. :D


Here's the jam in process...



and the next morning.



Puff pastry. Bunny cutter. Yeah, you can tell just quite how excited I am in describing this part.



On the baking sheet.



Not quite attractive but very delicious!



I will improve on this recipe and give specifics in the near future. Hmm, maybe after the bar exam.

Marinara Sauce

I have been wanting to make marinara sauce for some time now and especially when I can get tomatoes for cheap at Haymarket, I knew I had to make it. I will recommend that you should use very ripe plum tomatoes and don't make the same mistake I did by using semi-green and fairly firm ones. The recipe is very simple, you will need about 3 lbs of ripe plum tomatoes, some olive oil, basil, and garlic. Season the sauce to your liking.

In a large pot of water blanch your tomatoes until you can peel the skin off pretty easily.



It should look like this. Remove the tomatoes from pot and peel.



Once peeled, throw the tomatoes back into the pot and add 1/2 cup of water. Cook on low-medium heat. You will want to use some kind of masher to help break up the tomatoes. It should become quite easy when the tomatoes have been simmering for some time.



Grab a bunch of basil and a few cloves of garlic and throw it into your food processor with about 2T of olive oil. Pulse for a bit until finely chopped. Pour this into your marinara sauce. Ahh, doesn't that smell wonderful?



After about an hour on low-medium heat, it should reduce down to this texture. If you want a very garlicky taste, throw it some minced garlic, cook for about 5-10 minutes, then serve immediately. The sauce is not as red because one, I didn't use ripe tomatoes and two, I used way more basil then I should have. However, it tastes and smells delicious. I can't wait to have it tonight.

Cooking, Eating, and Blogging away

a brokenheart... as well as study for the bar exam.

The other day, I had to ask my family about my "accomodations" in Vietnam.
Seriously, who asks these questions except my crazy self? Okay, let me explain. Ever since I was a child, I was really, really germaphobic. In fact, I still am but thank goodness not as badly as then. I could not share drinks, straws, cups, utensils, plates with anyone, not even my own mother! The thought of it just made me gagged. In fact, I often refused to eat or drink at my friends' home because I genuinely believed that dish detergent or even clorox could not clean away another person's germs from their dishware. And like that wasn't bad enough, my sharing wasn't just food related... I couldn't stay in someone's home for long, sit on their furniture, use their bathroom, unless I felt that everything was truly very clean. I had such a hard time when I first started school because I refused to use the bathroom - in fact, I would refuse to eat or drink all day just to prevent my need to use the bathroom. It was a real issue.

It wasn't until I was an adult that I could finally begin to share drinks with my friends and family. However, I still seldomly dump my entire drink after someone ask and I cave to let them have a sip.

So back to my original thought... I needed to know because I know that unless everything was clean, I could not stay there. I won't be able to sleep at night, it would just be terrible. It would be better to know the truth now so that I can just book a hotel. You don't understand the many nights I have lied awake at night wondering why the toilet isn't cleaned. What is wrong with me?!

In any case, I was reassured that the entire place will be very nice and clean just for me. YEAH! Anyway, I miss the mornings of making fun pancakes,



Blueberries for the eyes, sliced bananas for the button nose, and apple wedges for the smiles!

Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate Brownies w/ Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur

I had too much fun last night and debated since 7:30 AM whether or not I would be able to make it to my 12 PM personal trainer appointment at Healthworks. Staying very much in character despite a splitting headache, I rose to the occasion like a champ and showed up right on time with a 2 liter bottle of Smart Water. Thank goodness today's appointment was more Q & A, taking some detailed measurements, and completing a simple fitness test.

It turns out I am taller than I thought I was. YEAH! I used to think that I was 5'4" and a 1/4, but today, I learned that I'm actually 5'5" and 1/8th. Although I have gained a bit more than 10 lbs since my first year of law school, my waist measurement was 25" - man, I can't imagine what my waist size was like just a couple of years ago. However, my goal is more about being healthy than losing weight. I just want to lose body fat and gain muscle mass. In fact, my body fat percentage at 18.4% which is considered below average for women my age and size. With that said, of course I made brownies with a whole stick of butter (rarely, rarely do I make anything with a whole stick of butter).

Since I used whole wheat flour in this recipe, I would recommend adding an extra stick of butter (or substitute apple sauce) especially if you prefer that moistness in regular brownies. Don't ask me why I decided to use ww flour again... I think it might be my obsession with the word "whole" when it comes to describing foods.


RECIPE: 1/2 cup ap flour, 1/2 cup ww flour, 3 eggs, 1 cup butter (2 sticks or 1 stick butter & 1 cup of apple sauce), 6 ounces of melted 72% dark chocolate + another 3 ounces of milk chocolate for the dipping sauce*, 1/4 cup of Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt.

*I decided to use extra chocolate instead of sugar.


Turn your oven to 325 degrees.

In a double boiler, melt your chocolate. Again, make sure everything you use is dry b/c water will ruin this.



When it's almost all melted. Throw in your stick of butter. This is the "easier" method or what you can do is cream the butter and eggs in a mixer then fold the flour into it later.



After 10 minutes or so, it should look like this and make you wonder why you don't make this recipe more often.



In a separate bowl, shift flour, baking powder, and salt.



Pour your beaten eggs and chocolate mixture into the flour and combine well.



Spread batter onto your well greased baking dish and add the liqueur. You can do it like this (Anna's way) or the smarter way, pouring it into the batter, i.e., the step before this, and combine well then pour onto baking dish. As you can see, I need more baking dishes.



After 20 minutes in the oven, it should look something like this (not the best photo). Cut it up into desired shapes and wait for it to cool before dipping in melted milk chocolate.



In a double boiler, melt 3 ounces of milk chocolate. Dip your brownies like this. This = what the photo below depicts. I'm out of words.



Then place it on a rack to cool.



Serve these to your friends. Remember to surprise them with the fact that they're eating whole wheat brownies, collect your oohs and ahhs, then surprise them again with how you had to double the butter recipe to using 2 sticks instead of 1. :D

Multigrain Rosemary & Goat Cheese Biscuits, et al.

I literally didn't cook any real meals for a week. In fact, I just finished the last of the leftovers today for lunch. Yeah, so I had the itch to whip something up but due to the fact that I ran out mid-bake to catch JetBlue, I over baked my flatbread. It was still very tasty but ten fewer minutes in the oven would have made it close to perfect. Unfortunately, some sorry news on twitter sent my naive self to Mike's Pastry when I should have been at the State House with my mini flag.

In better news, I have 2 more weeks of law school and free after finals! Oh yeah... holla' at ur girl.

So the other night, I tossed a salad with whatever I had in the fridge - and that was romaine lettuce, enoki mushrooms, and beets. I squeezed in some lemon juice and tossed. It was really delicious for such a basic salad. Anyway, less is more, right? Right.

Chop your romaine. I chopped mine pretty thinly.



In a mixer bowl (imagine that i have five of these blue ones)... combine lettuce, enoki, and beets.



Squeeze half a lemon... salt and pepper to season.



How pretty is that color? It looks so fancy yet so healthy! Not that fancy can't be healthy or anything...



Then I decided to make a whole wheat flatbread with summer squash, portobello mushrooms, and goat cheese. I know, by now I am just recycling ingredients, oh well. Plus I have been craving for carbs like mad!

In another mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of lukewarm water with 1 tsp of instant yeast dissolved, and 1 tsp of kosher salt. You should have the consistency of a thin pancake batter. Allow it sit for about 15-30 minutes before you bake it in the oven. There's not too much rising here.

Set your oven to 425 degrees.



Prep your ingredients. Feel free to use whatever you like on your flatbread.



Grease, grease your baking dish with a lot of olive oil. Like 3 Ts! Pour in your batter and make sure it spreads evenly. Use a spatula to help you. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until the edges are nice and crisp.



I'm too ashamed to show you what mine looked like but here's the better photo with the toppings. Throw it back into the oven on broil, low heat, for about 3-5 minutes until the cheese has melted then serve! It was really delicious and addictive. And look how easy it was to make a flatbread pizza from scratch!



Ta Da! Cut into cute pieces and impress your guests.



Multigrain Rosemary & Goat Cheese Biscuits. These guys were quite the winner. In the same oven (heated at 425 degrees), I baked these puppies for about 8 minutes.

In another mixing bowl (theoretically), combine 2 cups of multigrain flour, 2/3 cup of milk, 3 Ts of canola oil, and 3 ounces of goat cheese. Mix well then knead the dough in the bowl (it's too sticky to knead on a work surface) then scoop out onto a baking sheet. No need to grease but can slightly grease if you're concerned about sticking like I am.

I know, not the most attractive looking scoops of biscuits. Use a biscuit cutter if you have one... all I have are measuring spoons.



After 8 minutes...



they're so fluffy and full of flavor. I love multigrain.

Sweet Potato & Carrot Multigrain Gnocchi w/ Apples

For a while now, I have been wanting to make gnocchi and finally taking the plunge a few days ago. I read a few recipes, felt like I understood the concept and science behind making these little suckers, and got to work. This was a lot harder than I thought... hard to shape was really the problem. At first, I couldn't seem to get the dough to that "dry" consistency that some recipes describe then I could not, for the life of me, roll out the dough and shape it into cute forked gnocchi. Eventually I gave up on beauty and just did my best to roll them into some form of spherical shape and threw them in boiling water until they floated. At that point, I transferred them to an ice bath to cool down before I slightly tossed them in a shallow pan on medium heat with some olive oil.

I also made a "sauce" for the gnocchi. Pretty much, I took the roasted vegetables I made a few days ago and blend it with 2T of olive oil, 1T of sun-dried tomatoes oil, 2 T of olive juice, and a few sun-dried tomatoes. After that, I poured it into a small sauce pan and added about 1/3 cup of water, some paprika and salt, and allowed it to simmer for about 15 minutes.


In a blender, combine a variety of (about 4 cups) roasted vegetables (i had cauliflower, green beans, summer squash, portobello mushrooms and apples), olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes oil, olive juice, and sun-dried tomatoes.

(my kitchen was a mess!)



Squeeze in a wedge of lemon juice.



Once done, transfer it to a small sauce pan. Mine was obviously too small. Add water/paprika/salt and allow to simmer for a bit. It definitely smells really yummy and mediterranean (?)!. Once done, set it aside to serve over gnocchi and roasted lamb (optional, of course, i think any kind of roasted meat would work).



In a medium sized pot, cook 2.5 lbs of sweet potatoes, and .5 lb combination of carrots and some apple slices. This will take about 30-45 minutes or if you want, nuke them in the microwave for about 10 minutes, then you would only need to cook them for another 10 minutes or so in the pot before they're soft enough to mash. Oh... peel your roots!!!

Try to drain your roots completely before you begin to mash or put them through a strainer.

In a large mixing bowl, add the mashed roots.



Pour in the multigrain flour (4 cups, if you don't like the taste of multigrain then you can substitute 2 cups of plain flour or all plain flour - up to you), make a hole in the middle, and pour in 2 beaten eggs. Slowly combine.



Slowly it will start to look something like this... you might need to add more flour if your dough is still too wet (soggy). The trick is to really drain the roots well. I hand mashed mine so I can see small chunks of sweet potatoes.



This was the best that I could do with the dough... I just took a pairing knife and cut 1/2 inch pieces.



I boiled them, waited until they floated to the top, threw them in the ice bath, waited until they cool down, sliced them up into smaller pieces, drizzled with olive oil, then tossed them in a pan w/ a bit more olive oil when I was ready to serve.



I served my gnocchi with the roasted lamb I had for Easter. The sauce worked really well w/ the lamb and mild sweetness of the gnocchi. Although they weren't very pretty, hence why they're all the way at the bottom of the plate, they tasted very delicious. I would definitely make these again since I could easily freeze them for later.