Widya Iman is 10!

30 October 2001 - that is Widya's birthdate.  She's grown up to be a sweet young lady.  Well, there's still the constant reminders from me for her to tidy up her room, put her books back neatly and to finish up her school work!!....  These are all the duties of a mother, but she on the other hand is quite a well-behaved, sensible and a very sensitive individual.  She does not ask for much and is quite easily contented.  These are the qualities that make me love her even more each day.  I pray for her to stay healthy, happy and her heart filled with a lot of love and laughter. 

We had lunch at her favorite place and had lots of fun there, talking, joking, laughing and of course, eating!  The night before, we had the usual 'pot-luck' gathering, and there was also a mini birthday celebration for her.  She had 2 birthday cakes this year!  Lovely!  We had lots of yummy bryani and desserts too.  Overall, we had a very fun-filled weekend.

A few days ago, I tried this roll recipe - Orange Macan Roll.  It's wonderfully easy to make, very soft, fluffy and tasty.  I like the combo of orange and coffee.  The smell is delicious too!  I am not good at all when it comes to making any type of rolls or swiss rolls.  I am not very detailed and do not have much patience.  When reading through the recipe at auntyyochana's blog, I was very tempted to give it a try.  Then I saw that this lovely lady  has also tried it.  The determination level was high and straight away I decided to give it a go.  I am not disappointed with that decision I made.  Thanks a lot to these ladies for sharing the recipe.  Give it a try.  It's really yummy.



I want to paint my hands, Mummy!

Today is the eve of Deepavali, and Nadyn has been waiting for this day for quite a while.  She got so excited waiting for this day to arrive.  Come to think about it, she was overly excited  and kept on asking "When is Deepavali?"  We do not celebrate the Festival of Lights.  The reason for all the excitement is this.....hand painting using Henna!

Her school organised a henna painting session for all the children in kindergarten.  All of them looked so cute with their traditional clothes and painted hands!   There were no children running around after school today as all were intent on not hitting another friend as this may lead to a disaster! hahaha..

I made doughnuts a few days ago.  This is a very interesting recipe.  It uses potatoes.  Quite a lot of people have tried this recipe I think.  I got it from Natural Cooking Club - Indonesia and the recipe is from Fatmah Bahalwan.  The texture is not as light and fluffy as the ones you buy from the shops or cafe, but neither is it heavy and dense.  The overall taste and texture is Yummeh!!

Am thinking of making another batch of doughnuts as we have finished the ones I made earlier.  They are so delicious and easy to make...especially when you have potatoes lying around in the kitchen.  Tomorrow is a public holiday and everyone will be at home.  I better make them so that I can serve them for breakfast or tea tomorrow! 

Ta ta...off to the kitchen now!

Makmur....

I found this....

...and decided to make these...

Biskut Makmur is the all time favourite for a lot of people, especially during Hari Raya.  I never did really like this biscuit.  Maybe because of only one reason.....it's too crumbly!  Before even putting it in your mouth, there'll be a trail of powdery crumbs following you from the plate to your mouth!  And do not even think of opening your mouth while munching on them.  If you do open your mouth, you'll be just like a dragon.  But instead of breathing fire, you'd be spraying ashes of makmur! 

My late Nyai used to make lots of them and I think they should be nice as quite a lot of people ordered from her.  I liked the smell of the dough and the peanut filling while my Nyai was making them.  I can still remember that.  It was not until a few years back that I started to eat these biscuits and thought "Hmmmm...they are not that bad and messy after all".  Maybe I didn't know how 'to handle' them when I was young..hahaha..  But still I had no desire to try to make them myself eventhough most of the ones we bought were nowhere near 'nice'...  My husband bought a bottle of biskut makmur from Simpang Renggam about 2 months ago for us to try.  It was a small bottle. There may be about 30-40 pieces in it.  Lo and behold!  It was tasty and not too fragile when being handled!  It did not take us too long to finish up that bottle though.  Two weeks after that, when we went to Simpang Renggam to buy more of them, but there were no more to be found!  The shelves were empty!!  What a disappointment...sigh...

Yesterday, I decided to try make them myself after I found the 'penyepit'.  Found a recipe that looked ok enough for me to try.  Quite easy to make but I didn't really like the texture and taste.  The peanuts I bought was also not that tasty, I guess.  It had a funny smell....  Aaahhhhh...maybe it was just me who did not do justice to the recipe.  I spoke to my aunty last night and asked her if she can give me the original or actual recipe.  Will give this new recipe a go once my existing bottle of biskut makmur is finished!

Epok - epok

Each time I make epok-epok, I have to make 3 different types - potato, sardine and kosong.  The kosong is requested by Nadyn.  If we buy epok-epok, she's ok with the kentang ones but if I make them at home, she will automatically say "I want the kosong one!".  This time round I was able to make quite a lot as my Mum gave me her old trusted pastry roller machine thingy.  Both of us were so happy when we found out that the motor was still ok.  Anyway, if it decides 'to go', I can still roll it manually using the available handle. 

The epok-epok kosong puffed up like a ball in the hot oil!  Once done, it was nice and crispy!

I made the filling using about 2.5kg of potatoes.  I'll usually make a lot and freeze them in the freezer.  They especially come in handy when you have unexpected visitors at home or as a snack on any lazy afternoon for lazy me...hahaha..  The all-time favourite, epok-epok...

Another Choux for me..

We had this for breakfast yesterday - Choux Fritters.  It's very light and tasty.  I like the fact that it has cheddar cheese in it and on the outside, it is coated with cinnamon sugar.  Niceee...

This is very nice especially if you like cucur bawang, cucur ikan bilis, cucur udang, cucur sayuran, or any other cucur-cucur lah.  Instead of the normal flour batter, this uses choux pastry and is coated with cinnamon sugar.  Quite a nice change.  Tasty indeed!

Choux Doughnuts anyone?

I am crazy about choux pastry at this present moment!  There are so many other recipes to try out, but I end up trying out different choux pastry recipes.  I am in love with "chouxs"!!

My daughter wanted those ordinary sugar-coated doughnuts yesterday.  And so, being a good Mum..ehemmm..I went straight to the kitchen once everything else was settled, and started with the doughnut making.  All seemed to be going on well.  I got the dough and cut them out using the doughnut cutter.  Arranged them on the tray and left them aside to "grow".  After about 45 minutes or so, I came back in the kitchen and checked on my doughnuts.  They did not "grow" at all, not even increased a millimetre!!!  Hmmphh...there goes all my effort.  I was not in the mood at all to try out another recipe.  Tried frying 1 or 2 pieces, but nothing happened.  It turned out hard.  What a waste!

Just last Saturday, I made another batch of Cream Puffs.  This time I added some cocoa powder to the Cream Chantilly.  I liked the result.  Everyone at home liked them too!  Sooo happy lah I!  My Mum, my brother and his family came over on Sunday and I served them some of this cocoa Cream Puff.

Did not take any pictures of those filled with the cocoa cream as I was too busy munching on them!  Hahaha...

I recalled looking through a recipe book that had Choux Doughnuts!  And why not give it a try.  So I took out Alex Goh's - Irresistible Pastry and tried it out.  It did not fail me.  It was such a pleasure to see the doughnuts turning golden brown in the hot oil!  They are just lovely.  You can either coat them with melted cocolate or icing sugar, it's totally up to you.  Ahhh...this is one recipe that I'll use over and over again.



My 'avant-garde' Kue Sus..

What an afternoon!  I had wanted to make something for all to eat at home and have been browsing through my recipe books.  Quite a few looked interesting but I ended up trying out the Cream Puff a.k.a Kue Sus.  I know the taste and I know how it looks like but I have never made it. 

And so I started on my quest.  Rummaged through the kitchen cabinets and drawers, gathered all the ingredients and tools of the trade.  Then I realised there were no more fresh milk left in the refrigerator.  Sighhh...time to go to recipe no. 2!  It's ok, there's still hope of trying out the cream puff.  Wasn't really sure which nozzle to use and also how to fix the attachment for the nozzle!  I just could not figure out how to fix it.  Finally, when all looked ready and ok, I started...Bismillah...

Alhamdulillah, it turned out ok and the taste is delicious, not too sweet and not too rich.  The texture of the Choux pastry is very light and slightly crispy at the edges.  The recipe is also soo simple to follow.  But take a look at the shape of the puff!  It's neither here nor there!  And so, this is the humble beginning of "My 'avant-garde' Kue Sus"!

Don't play-play ok.  It's a bit slanting here and a bit crooked there.  But it's mine, all mine!  Hahahaha!!  There are no two pastries that are alike.  All are different in their own way (especially when I was the one who piped out the pastry..LOL!)

Now take a look at this one.  It's like a mini 'icing sugar/cocoa powder capped' mountain.  My daughter said "The shapes don't look the same from all angles!"  Ahaa..can you actually replicate my cream puffs?  No easy task, right?!?!?

However funny they looked, I still like the taste.  It's so delicious and light.  As for the Choux Pastry, I got the recipe from the blog For the Love of Baking.  She's got a lot of lovely recipes with lovely pictures.  I didn't use her recipe for the filling as I did not have all the ingredients required.  Instead, I used the recipe from Rachel Allen, and I am glad I used that cos it is so sedap!  Now what I need to do is to practice piping the pastry so that it'll at least look like normal choux pastry!  hahaha...

Kue Sus (Choux Pastry)

130gm plain flour

1 tsp salt

100gm butter

4 eggs

250ml water

Place water, salt and butter in a saucepan and set over a medium-high heat, stirring until the butter melts.  Allow the mixture to come to a rolling boil then immediately remove from heat.  Add the flour and mix well.  Reduce the heat and replace the saucepan, stirring until the mixture starts to slightly stick to the base of the pan.  Remove from heat and let cool a while.  Preheat the oven to 200C.  Add the eggs, one at a time - beating either with a wooden spatula or a hand-held mixer.  Mix well until the mixture has softened and has a nice "dropping" consistency.  Place the dough into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle and pipe onto the the tray that has been lined with grease-proof paper.  Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Creme Chantilly Filling

50gm icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

400ml whipped cream (measure when whipped)

Fold the sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract into the whipped cream.  Chill until you are ready to use it.  Make a small slit on the pastry and pipe the Creme Chantilly into it.