Chocolate Cup cakes with White Chocolate icing

I was craving cup-cakes last night (I'm not pregnant, just like to sympathise with pregnant ladies), so I quickly did up a batch.
I cheated & used packet mix. (Oh no...I feel my limited credibility dropping further) But you must give me a chance to explain my reasons for using packet mix.
Firstly, it was already 9pm at night. My husband, was already thinking I'm crazy for cooking cup cakes on a week day night, & plus it was already 9pm & Christian wasn't asleep yet. So hence the quick & simple packet mix. I was pretty desperate. (I'm sounding like a pregnant lady again, except I can't force my husband to drive out & buy me cake. I have to cook it for myself!)

Now, hopefully I can re-gain more of my credibility back by telling you about the fantastic "White Chocolate Icing" I put on top.

Makes 12 cup cake toppings

100g white chocolate
2 teaspoons copha
2 tablespoons icing sugar
Sprinkles

Melt chocolate & copha together in Microwave. Heat for 1 minute. Stir. If not completely melted, heat for another 20 secs & stir. Repeat if necessary.
I like to add more vegetable fat (copha) to the chocolate, to make it more runny. It makes it easier to spread over the cup cakes. Add icing sugar & mix well.
Scoop 1 teaspoon amount into the middle of the cup cake & spread out. Sprinkle the sprinkles on top.

Now here's some pictures of Christian enjoying them. I hope you enjoyed them too!

Stir fry Vegetables, Fish & Udon noodles

It's been a little while since my last entry. I was wondering whether it would be my last, but it turns out I couldn't resist! Plus I couldn't disappoint the small, but faithful followers who have taken time out to give me good, encouraging feed back. Thanks guys!

Tonight, I have another simple, after work, chuck stuff in the wok, kinda recipe. It's a weekday recipe & those people out there who work & have young kids will understand the importance of "quick" meals!

Feeds 4, or 3 very hungry people

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic
3cm cube of ginger (optional - I didn't use any tonight, but it gives a very different, but nice taste)
1 dash of sesame oil (optional - but gives a nice smell to the dish)
1 teaspoon - 1 tablespoon olive oil (depends on your non-stick pan & how healthy you want to be)
300g fish cut into wedges (I used snapper, but this breaks up very easily when frying. I recommend "kingfish" or similar white, thick fleshy fish. I think Barramundi would be good too)
Vegetables:
1 bunch of Bok Choy
1 carrot
1/2 capsicum
1 handful of snow peas
1 handful of broccoli stems
(I can keep listing all kinds of vegetables, but any veg is good. Some other suggestions are Cauliflower, Chinese broccoli, mushrooms, onions, choy sum, celery. Nothing, which will result in the stir fry turning wet. I.e. avoid lettuce. Keep the proportion of veggies to fish of 3:1.)
2 spring onion stems
1 cup Chicken stock
1 tablespoon Oyster sauce
1/2 tablespoon Soy sauce
2 teaspoons of corn flour
(mix Chicken stock, Oyster sauce, soy sauce & corn flour all together in small bowl)
500g Udon noodles (You can use any type of noodles, but I prefer Udon or Shanghai noodles) Prepare the noodles per the packet instructions.
salt to taste

Instructions:
Heat wok with oils, garlic & ginger. Add fish & cook till lightly browned. Try not to move the fish around too much, otherwise the fish may break up into flakes. Lightly fry on once side, then gently turn over & brown the other side. Remove the fish from the wok & place into separate bowl to avoid further break-up. Add vegetables to the wok & stir-fry till cooked. (Will take about 5mins). Once vegetables are cooked, add the fish & noodles. Mix all together.
Add the small bowl of flavouring to the wok & continue to mix all together. The corn flour will thicken up the sauce. Add salt to taste.

Variations:
- Rather than fish, use any kind of meat
- Cook steamed rice as a side dish, rather than adding noodles.
- Add 1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce & 3 stems of fresh basil leaves, for a Thai flavour

Simple Steak & Salad - favourite sauces

Tonight I cooked an extremely simple BBQ Marinated Scotch Fillet Steak & Maggie Beer Vino Cotto Salad for 2. This dinner took me <1/2 hr to prepare & cook. It left me time to enjoy the great evening weather & went bike riding with the family.

Below is a picture of my 2 favourite sauces:

1. Maggie Beer's Vino Cotto; it's like a sweet balsamic vinegar. Use it sparingly, drizzled over salad. You don't need a lot of it, to make a statement. Probably only about 1 tablespoon. It's also great with your best olive oil for dipping bread. I first got introduced to it through my sister-in-law who bought it direct from the Maggie Beer farm, but you don't need to travel to the Barrossa Valley to buy it, as it should be in David Jones.

2. Korean BBQ meat marinade. I don't know what it says on the label, but it's a really nice beef marinade. Just a tablespoon of it rubbed over 1 piece of steak, then grilled, is great. You can find this sauce in any Korean Grocery. There are a couple on Grote St in Adelaide city.

I chose 175g Scotch Fillet steak, as I find it to be the most tender, as it has the most fat. But heh, you only live once right? If I'm only going to eat meat once (or twice) a week, I might as well enjoy it : )

For the salad, it was a handful of baby spinach leaves, 6 raw snow peas, 1 tomato, 1 avocado, 1/2 carrot, 1/3 capsicum. These were the only veggies in my fridge tonight, but the dressing will go great with anything.

Almond Shortbread (Greek Shortbread-Kourabiedes)

I'm no expert at Greek cooking, but I was craving a crumbly, almond shortbread type biscuit, so I thought I would try making Kourabiedes. I wouldn't even know how to pronounce it. But what I lack in Greek Literacy, I made up in taste! However, if your Ya-Ya was to come over & complain they don't taste authentic enough, it's probably because I didn't stick word-for-word to the recipe. Once again...I added my own little flare. But it did pay off, as I received a quote; "This is the best tasting biscuit I've ever had!!" However, that was from my husband & he has to say nice things. But today, I do tend to agree with him.

Makes: 35

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoons brandy
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g almond meal
sifted icing sugar, for dusting

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line tray with baking paper.
Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add vanilla essence, brandy and egg yolk & beat till well combined.
Fold through sifted flour, baking soda and almond meal. Take scant tablespoons worth of the mixture and roll. Curve into a crescent shape and place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Pour some icing sugar into a bowl & coat each biscuit while they are still warm. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
When cooled, dust with icing sugar for a more even appearance.

Asam Fish Curry

Yesterday I decided to cook fish curry, but this time I wanted it to be special. Normally I would just use a Malaysian Curry Powder (has to be Malaysian as they are the only ones who know Asam curry & I'm Malaysian) but I wanted it to be better that my past ones.

Spice up your life!....

I bought spices from the Continental Wholesaler, in bulk; whole cumin, whole coriander seeds, whole peppers plus loads more. Cleaned out my pantry. Cleaned out my old spices & made way for tubs of new ones. Then today, I went & bought a coffee/spices grinder from Myer, so I can grind up the spices I bought yesterday. It seems a little excessive to go to this much effort for spices you can buy ground up already, but by doing it this way, the spices, smell & taste a lot better. Also I find that its important to add more spices to the curry powder as a lot of the curry powders have different tastes. Just open different brands of "curry powder" & the colour difference is significant.

Next, choosing the right fish...

It's important to chose a good fish. Normally for this dish I would chose Snapper (even a large Snapper head, to make my mum proud - you'll understand if you're Malaysian). But this time, we decided to chose Kingfish & it was a fantastic choice. (Lucky my Husband's friend works at the fish factory & he recommended it - see husbands are useful too when it comes to food)


The Kingfish isn't as fishy as Snapper & the flesh is also tighter which is better for such a dish. We got the shoulder area, as it's tastier especially sucking the sauce from the bones : ) However, not recommended if you want to avoid the bones, especially with kids. Therefore it's better to stick closer to the tail.


Ingredients:
2 tbs olive oil
4 tbs curry powder
Additional spices: 1 tbs coarsely ground cumin, 1/2 tbs ground coriander seeds, 1/2 tbs ground fennel, 5 bay leaves
1 Onion, diced
1 can tomatoes, loosely chopped
Water
1 kg fish
300g Okra / lady fingers
Add to taste: Approx 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 tbs soy sauce, 2 teaspoon fish sauce


Instructions:
Heat oil in large deep fry pan/wok. Cook spices all together. The aroma is fantastic!
Add onion. Fry. Add Tomatoes. Tomatoes give the dish the sourness you'll find with Asam curries. Add water & boil for several minutes. Add the fish & okra. Cover & let simmer on medium heat for 1/2 hour. I like to cook this dish for as long as possible, so the flavours get stronger and the sauce gets thicker. All along, taste the dish to make sure it's salty enough. Use the soy sauce & fish sauce for added flavour.

Serve with steam white rice.

This dish will bring out the Malaysian in anyone!

Chocolate chip & Sultana Cookies

I found this recipe in one of my cook books, but I have amended it just enough to make it mine.
I find with most sweet recipes, they have either too much fat, or sugar, so I always amend the recipe so it's not so sweet. (Plus it makes me think that they are healthier). We all really don't need the extra calories, especially when we also add chocolate chips!However, for savoury dishes, I always like adding more flavour & that usually works for me too.

I'm one of those people, who can't take a recipe word-for-word, but must make it my own by changing things. I hope you also do the same to my recipes.
That's what makes cookin' so fun!

Ingredients:
100g unsalted butter
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1 tsn vanilla essence
1 egg beaten
1 tbsn milk
1 3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
1 tsn baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips (in this recipe I used both white & dark chocolate)

1/2 cup sultanas

Preheat oven to 180C & line baking tray with baking paper.
Cream butter & sugar with electric beaters in a large bowl. Mix in vanilla essence & egg, beating well. Stir in milk, flour & baking powder, then the chocolate & sultana bits.

Drop level tablespoons of the cookie dough onto the baking tray. Leave enough space between each cookie. Press lightly on each cookie with a floured fork. Bake for 15mis or until lightly golden. Cool on wire rack.

Family's secret Lamb Skewers

You've all heard about the 11 secret herbs & spices in KFC, but I can beat that & it's only got 3 herbs & spices! & tastes a-heck-of-a lot better!
I don't know whether I should be doing this, but I'm going to share the family's secret Lamb Skewers. You might have already heard about them in the Uyghur Restarant blog, but here's how you can cook them for yourself.
However, you do need to have Stainless Steel Skewers & a coal BBQ for authenticity.

Ingrediants:
500g Lamb
1 Onions
5 tbs Ground cumin (or more. The more the merrier!)
3 tbs Chilli flakes/powder
Salt

Instructions:
Cut up the lamb into 1 inch cubes. Dice the onions. Add at least 3tbs of cumin. Mix well. Adding any tenderising formula (i.e. milk, water, corn flour) is optional. Marinate overnight.

Skewer about 4-6 lamb cubes onto skewer. Discard the onions. Cook over coal flames for an authentic BBQ. While cooking, sprinkle more cumin, chilli flakes & salt over each skewer.
Everyone chats & eats straight off the BBQ.
Grab a skewer of lamb today!

However, if you're lacking the coal BBQ, you can still experience the taste, by frying the lamb in a pan including the onions. Add more cumin, chilli & salt to taste. This is just as great.

Simple Pancakes

Here's a Pancake recipe which even a toddler can make!

Makes 8 (12cm)

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup Self raising flour sifted
2 tbs caster sugar
1 tbs milk
3 drops of vanilla essence

Small amount of butter for frying

Instructions:
Mix everything together. Beat with electric mixer till smooth & has no lumps
Add more milk if you like it runny, or add more flour if you want it thicker.
Heat some butter on medium heat & pour mixture into pan. Turn pancakes over when bubbles appear.

I don't add a lot of sugar in my recipes, because you'll be adding Maple syrup or fruit to the Pancakes. It's not necessary to have them so sweet. Also, I've added lots of eggs, so at least the pancakes have more protein in them, which is better for kids.
Buy the real Maple syrup, as it's not as sweet & tastes better than the fake stuff.

Uyghur Restaurant

392 Prospect Rd. SA ph 8262 1400

This restaurant is far from being a fancy restaurant. Don't get turned off by the initial appearance. It still delivers what you came for; which is cheap, good, home-style cooking.

Tonight we had soupy pasta, lamb skewers and fried noodles. (It's called something better in Chinese, but you can easily point to the pictures in the menu). The hand-made pasta/noodles is freshly made & tastes better than any other pasta you've ever had before. I recommend any dish which has the pasta. Also you must get a serve of the lamb skewers as a side.









The soupy pasta isn't as good as my mother-in-law or Aunty-in-law, but I can't make them make it for me all the time : ) This place still serves as a great surrogate.

There are only a few dishes on the menu, but all of them traditional. You won't be disappointed.
If this is any indication; the restarant has only been open for less than 2 weeks. We have already eaten there 3 times.

Price range of dishes: $6-$20
Average cost to feed 2: $25
Child friendly but no high chairs yet
Service: still improving as it's a new shop

Do you know where Xin Jiang is?

Have you ever tried traditional food from Xin Jiang? Well you're just one of the lucky ones like me who have.

You may think, what is all the fuss about Xin Jiang food? Just sounds like any other Chinese food? Well it's not! Xin Jiang borders about 11 other countries including Tibet, Mongolia, Russia, India etc, it has many of those countries influences in the food. It is very far from the Sweet & sour pork, or Mongolian lamb, which you may think is Chinese food. It's probably closer to Turkish food than Chinese food.

I call myself fortunate as my Mother-in-law's family comes from that region and spoils us with that kind of traditional food whenever we request it!
But for all you "other" people, don't fret.. you also can enjoy this food @ Uyghur Restaurant 392 Prospect Rd, SA. ph 8262 1400.



Uyghur Restaurant
About Xin Jiang

O.K. Let's get started....

The first idea that pops into my head about food is to list my Top 10 favourite recipes, which are quick & easy. Once I have more blogs I'll create a recipe list (But one step at a time..) I can't list them all tonight, but I'll start with at least one of my favourites.
I love to bake! So the simple Banana Muffin is my #1 recipe. Plus, I believe I cook a great banana muffin! Even my husband (the non-sweet-tooth person) always requests them. He likes the added walnut version.

#1. Moist Banana Muffins (with walnuts-for the hubby)

Makes 12

Ingredients:
125g butter (preferably unsweetened)
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
3 ripe mashed bananas. (Leave 1/4 of 1 banana & slice thinly. Use for decoration)
1 3/4 sifted self-raising flour
1 cup chopped walnut kernels - optional

Instructions:
Preheat oven. Get muffin tins lined with muffin papers.
Electric mix the butter & sugar till fluffy. Add 1 egg at a time while beating.
Add the flour, bananas & walnuts. Hand mix together. Scoop muffin mix into muffin tins & fill 3/4 of each muffin pan. Place a piece of the thinly sliced banana on top of the muffin for appearance (It helps keep the muffin top look evenly rounded).
Cook in 200 degree oven for about 20mins, or until light brown. Don't over cook, otherwise you'll lose the moistness.

Variations:
Cream cheese icing: 1 cup icing sugar & cream cheese tub. Mix together. Spread over each muffin. But this defeats the purpose of the sliced banana on top while cooking, so it's better to add banana chips to each iced muffin. Or lay the sliced banana out on a separate tray to cook in the oven separately to the muffins to make your own banana chips.

When I have some time, I'll some of my own photos to this recipe. Just watch this space!