Something sweet. . .

Diwali ki shubh kaamna! Happy Deepavali to all! :D So I was saying in my earlier post that I wanted to make some sweets right? I made some Rava(semolina) Ladoo! I really likeeeeee 'em. I used almonds, pistachios, dessicated coconut and Semolina. Shall update E recipe later. Now, am off to lalalalalalalalaLANDzzZzzZzzz :p

Fasta Pasta

This was prepared specially for Nk's belated bday get together. E 4 of us dig in to lots of aglio olio with meatballs, mushroom soup and potato gratin. There were Lava cakes too :) It was a cozy meal. Some ppl feel that Aglio olio kinda bland. Personally I feel that adding some prawns/shrimps add a whole lot of difference! I bet adding some beef/chicken bacon would be good too. Best of all, it's really fast and simple to cook this. It's best to serve it hot though! Anyways, I shall share E recipe of Aglio olio again. I already have it somewhere on my blog but some ppl just too lazy to navigate around :P So lazybones aka Norli...this 1 is for u! :D

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter/margarine
5-6 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 Tsp crushed red pepper flakes - more if you like it hot!
Salt
1/2 Packet spaghetti - Cooked till Al dente
Shrimps

*reserve 1/4cup of E water used to cook E pasta

Method:
In a frying pan, melt butter and add shrimps. Cook until pink and just firm.
Remove shrimp to a plate.
In E same pan, add olive oil... fry garlic and pepper flakes.
Add in prawns and toss spaghetti in the pan.
Pour in /4 cup of pasta water.
Season with some salt.
Top with parsley and DIG IN!

Overdressed Karang guni, E visiting chef, diwali orders and a dancing kid.

Hi peeps. Firstly to those who requested recipes, I'm so sorry for E delay. I have been busy with all kinda work....:p I should be able to have ample time next week to reply to emails and recipe requests after Diwali :)

I was E visiting chef at my eldest bro's last weekend. At E same time, I received some Diwali orders and I started late coz I spent 3 days at my brother's house. Spending time with my niece is always fun....and of coz there is my brother. He did his masters in Humorology. He makes you laugh yet he keeps a straight face most of E time. He's just too good!!

E visiting chef cooked a simple fare of Chicken curry, Dhal rice, Egg in Indian
sambar(sambal), Cucumber and mint salad, Creamy rose agar2 and brown sugar
agar2. There were baguettes to go with E chicken curry too. :)

On Monday, I started buying my baking ingredients. I decided to buy all E things at 1 go coz time was not a luxury at tht point of time. E ladies at Phoon huat were very helpful as usual. They know my name by heart :p As usual, of 'em would help to arrange my stuffs in E trolley. This time I had too many things and she ended up tying some bags on E sides of my trolley.

I was aghast when I looked at my trolley. I was telling 'em that ppl might mistake me for a karang guni! Haha! 1 of them said "karang guni where got wear so nice 1?!" Oh well....:p

I decided to take a cab home coz I really had a lotttt of things! E cab driver was an Indian guy and he was really helpful. He offered to help "carry" my trolley (which was a wrong move) He was like "hei, what's in this trolley? Rocks or wat????" Haha!

I gave a smile and replied "baking ingredients." I refused to elaborate :D

Anyways, he was nice. Helping me with my stuffs and all. Nice ppl always makes me happy!

E baking session started on Monday night all E way till 4 hours ago ( Friday, 24
Octobers 2008, 7.30pm) I didn't bake non stop obviously! :p

I didn't have that many orders compared to Eid but 70 bottles within 4 days wasn't that easy considering E fact I had other things to do. I so grateful to mom and my sil in law who often lend me their helping hands. They understand my passion fully :) Anyways, I'm done with all of E diwali orders and I'm planning to take a break from baking for a couple of days before I continue with E other orders I have. I have been sleeping so little and this morning it was taking a toil. I had a bad headache and I was actually seeing doubles! Just imagine....2 Siti (my sil), 2 mixing bowls, 2 moms and everything else in double. 2 Mom= more nagging right? Uh oh! Heeee *Grin*

Besides all of that, I had a last minute cupcakes order too. I didn't have have E heart to turn her down coz It was meant to be part of a b'day present for her bf. Can't help it, am a fan of jude deveraux historical romance...(shall not elaborate as to what I meant here) She ordered a dozen chocolate cupcakes and a dozen black forest. Decorations were kept minimal due to time constraints.

So I'm taking a break now as I'm typing this post. Tomorrow I have to clean up E kitchenette and maybe bake a cake for my nieces and nephew (leisure baking is ok when 1 is on a break :p) coz E whole fam going to my 2nd bro's place on Sunday. It's gonna be a Eid get together I guess. At least that's what my brother said. For me, it's eve of Diwali! I LOVEEEEEEEEE Diwali! Yeay@ Indian sweets!!! :D I already told my mom to get some sweets at Little India tomorrow....but I feel that I should make some too. It's not my forte as yet, but I can try I guess. Let me just think what I can make.....

Before I go and watch Nanny on Hallmark, let me share this short vid. This little may not be able to dance as well as my other 2 nieces as yet, but she has all E potential to overtake 'em. She's only 4 anyways. Shakira couldn't dance when she was 4. (I made tht up) Haha! :D

Yipee!!

Last week I had 2 days "off" I kinda pamper myself a little. Shopping on 1 day....a carnival/concert on E other day.

It all started when I needed to get a spare battery for my cam. Somehow I was not able to find 1 near my place and I really needed E extra battery on Saturday(for E carnival) Got some info from Sony cs and was told that I could find 1 at Parkway parade. Went there, bought E battery...ended up in some jewellery shop, came out a little poorer. Walked around a bit, and proceeded to Borders. Ah, my fav place! There were so many books to buy but I couldn't really decide which are E ones I need! Ended up buying some book on Food and Nutrition. Then I saw this..

Nk is a big fan of Rachael's, so I thought I should get it for her. I mean, E way she gushes about RR....I can't just walk past this book and not pick it up right? :P Anyways, there were only 3 of this book left...so I thot might as well pick up 1 for myself too and leave just 1....hehe! *Grins*

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Product Description

Even your favorite dinner can lose its appeal when it’s in constant rotation, so mix it up! With her largest collection of recipes yet, Food Network’s indefatigable cook Rachael Ray guarantees you’ll be able to put something fresh and exciting on your dinner table every night for a full year... without a single repeat!

Based on the original 30-Minute Meal cooking classes that started it all, these recipes prove that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every night. Rachael offers dozens of recipes that, once mastered, can become entirely new dishes with just a few ingredient swaps. Learn how to make a Southwestern Pasta Bake and you’ll be able to make a Smoky Chipotle Chili Con Queso Mac the next time. Try your hand at Spring Chicken with Leeks and Peas and you’re all set to turn out a rib-sticking Rice and Chicken Stoup that looks and tastes like an entirely different dish. As a best-selling cookbook author and host of three top-rated Food Network shows, Rachael Ray believes that both cooking and eating should be fun. Drawing from her own favorite dishes as well as those of her family, friends, and celebrities, she covers the flavor spectrum from Asian to Italian and dozens of delicious stops in between. Best of all, these flavor-packed dishes will satisfy your every craving and renew your taste for cooking. With so many delicious entrees to choose from you’ll never have an excuse for being in a cooking rut again.
Paperback: 352 pages

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Went to cold storage last and bought some stuffs there. I love to shop without a list. When I don't have a list, its just "leisure shopping" no thinking about orders and stuff. Cold storage is my fav supermarket. Yes, E things are more pricey, but I just love E stuffs they have. E assorted cheese, pastas...herbs...etc2...things you don't really find in Ntuc. Of coz I do end up buying things I don't need too! "Oh I might need this! Hei....thts buttermilk...I should really get this, its hard to find 'em! Hmm fresh rosemary? I remember Oliver using this last week......" *my mind at work* I'm sure this happens to most of you too (plz say yes) especially for those who love to bake. You can easily find buttermilk, sour cream, whipped cream, pouring cream and all kinda stuffs there! Now I'm sounding like Cold storage ambassador! :p

Oh yes, yesterday Sk came over. She treated me to good food and a good book! Williams Sonoma's Baking Book! An amazing book with very good recipes! Thank you so much dear cousin. E 1st sweet treat I bake is gonna be dedicated to you! :)

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Product Description:

Recipes from both classic and contemporary, from the award-winning Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library series. Find delicious preparations for muffins, breads, pizzas, cookies, cakes, pies, and fruit desserts. The basic recipes and techniques section includes an illustrated glossary. Features:
* Each recipe is kitchen-tested and accompanied by a full-color photograph of the finished dish, as well as suggestions for planning, serving, garnishing, and storing
* Step-by-step photographs illustrate instructions and tips for kneading and shaping bread dough, baking and decorating beautiful cakes, and ideas for topping a variety of baked goods
Hardcover: 336 pages

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Well as most of you might have known...I have been working very hard for E past 1 month. I seriously deserve a excuse gift for myself. I ordered this book about 10 days back and it arrived today. E shipping was supposed to take 2 weeks but it was lesser than that. I was so happy! I didn't get time to browse the book when it arrived. E moment I reached home in E afternoon,did some stuffs and settled nicely on E bed and browse each page. I didn't finish browsing E book coz I was really tired. E book was so freaking big and HEAVY TOO! 528 pages!!!!! I lied down and hug E book and closed my eyes and smiled happily (Somebody plz say awwwwwwww) :p Anyways, stories aside....this book is really2 good. I really have to thank Ovenhaven and a few other bloggers who made me feel that It's a book that I SHOULD have.

Product Description

The book itself is a grand adventure, as is its size; big and sturdy and printed just right with smooth pages holding glossy photographs and tempting treats of what will be. They are large and detailed so you know what to expect. Her book is broken into:

-Introduction Breakfast Treats A Cache of Cookies

-Pies and Tarts

-Spoon Desserts

-Indispensables (basic recipes)

-A Dessert Makers Glossary of Ingredients, Tools, and Techniques

Hardcover: 528 pages

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So e prob now is, where do I start?? Everything looks good! I guess that has to wait. I received quite a number of orders for Diwali, so leisure baking has to take E back seat.

Oh ya, I mention a carnival/concert right? Oh well, Shahrukh Khan was there, so I HAD to go! I already met him several times...but my heart still raced every time I see him! *ahem2!* Oh well, he's just E best! King Khan title is so befitting for him! I managed to take some pics and vids. It was hard though coz I was concentrating on him...many a times, my cam just went out of focus! :p Anyways shall upload those later....

Souffle Cheesecake

This has been on my to-do list for more than a year now! I bought a 2kg pack cream cheese for 3 cheesecake orders and I had about 300G left. Obviously I wouldn't want to make more cheesecake so I baked this instead. I guess I chose to procrastinate when it came to this cake coz it's kinda tedious. Separating E eggs, separately beating, melting E butter..cheese...etc2!
Anyways, I decided to have a go at this since I had E ingredients and mom was going to my brother's place later so I could pack some slices for 'em. This cake is known to be really fragile and apparently those who tried had problems with E top of the cake cracking. I didn't want any cracks! But then again, cracks are ok if its gonna taste good. Bismillah was my mantra. So at about 12midnight I started whisking, melting...(yeay...I was baking at 12am!) E cake was ready by 2am++. I let it cool down a bit and cut up a slice to try...(yeay2 tht was at 3am) It was good! It's smooth, moist and really fluffy I really enjoyed it. Best of all....there wasn't a single crack! 1 down E list! Only a few thousands left....:D

A slice after all E "hard work" :p

Ingredients:


A
225g cream cheese
50ml fresh cream
100ml milk
80g butter

Melt A till smooth. (use a microwave or a double boiler).

B
25g cornflour
30ml milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
6 large yolks

Mix all these 4 ingredients and add to the cream cheese batter.

C
5 large egg whites
10g cornflour
120g sugar

Beat egg whites until foamy and alternately whisk in sugar and cornflour until soft peaks form.
Add and stir in a big dollop of the egg whites into the cake batter.
Fold in the rest gently until combined.
Grease an 8 inch cheesecake tin with butter and flour the surface. Tap out the excess flour. Cover the bottom of the cake tin with foil to prevent water seeping through.
Pour the cake batter into the tin and sit it in a larger baking dish filled with boiling water.
Make sure the water is approximately 3/4 of the cake height. Bake in a preheated 150 degrees oven. When the top is nice and golden, reduce the temperature to 125 degrees and bake for another hour.

Remove cake from oven to cool for approximately an hour before removing it from the tin

Steamed Fruit Cake - Kek Kukus

Shall update E recipe later...

Say bye-bye to Campbell!

A simple yet delicious soup. It beats the canned variety any day! 1 of my favourite soup especially when it's served with warm garlic bread...

Ingredients:

500g button mushrooms - I mixed both canned and fresh
1/4 cup butter
2 onions - sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic - chopped
2 tbsp all purpose flour
4 cups vegetable/chicken broth
1/2 cup cream
1 cup milk

salt and black pepper to taste
1 sprig fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

Method:

Slice E mushroom thinly.
Melt the butter in a heavy-based pan saute E onion, garlic and thyme for 1 minute.

Add mushroom, salt and white pepper. Cook until the mushroom just softens.

Add flour and keep stirring for a minute.
Pour in broth and stir continuously.

Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Pour in milk and whisk the cream into the soup, then reheat gently, stirring. Do not allow the soup to boil. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and garnish with some chopped chives/parsley/thyme.

Excuses to bake...

October - National Apple Month, Caramel Month, Cookie Month, Dessert Month.





Oct 3 - Caramel Custard Day


Oct 5 - Apple Betty Day


Oct 7 - Frappe Day


Oct 8 - Fluffernutter Day


Oct 9 - Dessert Day


Oct 10 - Angel Food Cake Day


Oct 11 - World Egg DayOct 14 - Chocolate-Covered Insects Day


Oct 16 - Liqueur Day


Oct 18 - "Sweetest Day," Chocolate Cupcake Day


Oct 21 - Apple Day, Pumpkin Cheesecake Day, Caramel Apple Day


Oct 22 - Nut Day


Oct 23 - Boston Cream Pie Day


Oct 25 - Greasy Foods Day


Oct 26 - Pumpkin Day, Pretzel Day, Mince Meat Pie Day


Oct 27 - Potato Day


Oct 28 - Chocolate Day


Oct 29 - Oatmeal Day


Oct 30 - Candy Corn Day, "Buy a Doughnut" Day


Oct 31 - Candy Apple Day, Halloween!!!



I didn't even know that such days existed! Chocolate cupcake day is kinda cool...but nut day?? I guess even E nuts have their day...:p

Rich Butter Cake

I was supposed to bake a butter cake for my mami (Aunty)....but I wanted to try a different recipe this time. Upon tastegoblet's recommendation, I tried this recipe The cake was moist, rich are soft. E amount of butter and egg yolks were overwhelming, but I guess just a slice on special occasions won't do much harm ;) This recipe is indeed a keeper.




INGREDIENTS
375 g Butter
10 Egg Yolks
1 Cup Sugar
1 ½ Cups Self raising flour (original recipe uses 1.5cups Plain Flour+ 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder)
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence (I used 2tsp)

METHOD:
1. Melt the butter.
2. Mix egg yolks and sugar until creamy.
3. Add in the cooled melted butter.
4. Sift the flour and fold into mixture.
5. Add in Vanilla essence.
6. Bake at 150˚C for 45 minutes or when done.

Summing it all up in a post!

Eid Mubarak to all Muslims! I guess its a very busy period for most people now. E visiting need to be done, E exam papers to be marked...E pouring of guests every now and then....all totally inevitable.

I have been busy myself. I was baking for about 3 weeks during Ramadan. I baked thru E afternoons and nights. I had more than 2000 triple chocolate chips, 1300 melting moments, 700 pineapple tarts, 600 makmur, 500 london almond cookies, 1000 Viennese fingers, 800 oreo cups, 600 Sugee and lots2 more. I must have baked about 10,000 cookies of 14-15 varieties! It was an increase of 40% from what I did last year. E pressure was slightly more though because, most of my customers are complete strangers this time....people who saw my blog and recommendations from my food ambassadors aka my beloved cousins.

I had E most orders for triple chocolate chips to E extend that I get little headaches whenever E intense smell of chocolate lingers around in my kitchenette. I couldn't not even eat a morsel of that! There were a few nice discoveries this year. Once I was done with E orders, (5 days before Eid) I took another 2 days to finish baking E cookies for my brothers and my household. I wanted to try a few different ones, so I tried a few new recipes which were just fabz! E almond cookies, marble shortbread and scottish shortbread were such hit with E guests! Infact I loved 'em too. I have to say that E scottish shortbread was a super hit. It was so freaking good! E almond cookies were so good too. I kept popping and popping while it was fresh from E oven...crunchy yet it melts in E mouth...oh YUMZ!! I don't have pics of those though! I'm planning to make them again for Hari Raya Haji though!

On E eve of eid, despite being busy with cooking coz we were hosting on E 1st day of Eid, I still had orders for Tiramisus and Brownies. If was a lovely feeling knowing my sweet treats would be serve in many households and a lot of ppl would be able to try 'em. I had very2 positive feed backs. There wasn't any negative feedback and I'm so grateful that everything went smoothly.

Anyways, I managed to capture some pics ad-mist being busy. Most are mainly for memories sake. Would love to blog about it individually but not right now due to time constraints. I shall keep that thought aside for now and update some recipes later.

THE GUESTS - All Smiles....

THE SPREAD - Tandoori chicken in kashmiri butter sauce, beef sambal, harisa
rice, cucumber salad, chutney, fried bihun, aglio olio with meatballs, cream of
mushroom soup, potato gratin, sabsuka, cottage pie, tiramisu. butter cake, fruit
cake, kaya roll. All by yours sincerely...

THE SMILES - My cousins, my ambassadors...

Eid is such a joyous festival. Looking at all these smiles makes me wonder, why
do I dread Hari Raya at times?! Just look at her.....