I made creme caramel...

So, there is some cream inside the fridge and knowing me, I do not want to let it be wasted & end up in the garbage bag. Before its expired, I might as well do something about it. And I remember a program I saw on tv last week where the guy made creme caramel. Apa lagi..I pun buat la my creme caramel. The recipe memang sebiji cam creme brulee. The ending jer lain. 

Got the eggs, cream, milk, vanilla extract, sugar and pots out. First thing first, do the caramel. Now, nak buat caramel ni senang jer. Water plus sugar & heat on medium to high until you get a golden brown liquid. Remember to wash the side of the pot with water so the sugar wont crystalized bila dimasak. And please be careful as the caramel is damn hot. So, bila sugar mixture that sudah boiling and the color become golden brown…. 

distribute the caramel equally to all the ramekin. This recipe need at least 6 ramekin. You need to quickly pour the caramel onto the bottom of the ramekin because this mixture get harden very quickly, then it get very sticky. 

So, biarkan caramel tu dlm ramekin and prepare the custard (egg yolks, castor sugar & vanilla extract). 

Using hand mixer, mix the ingredients until you get a yellowish mixture cam ni..

Then masak the cream & milk together in a pot, and heat it over a medium heat until it simmered. 

Bila dah simmering, slowly add the cream mixture into the custard mixture & mix it together. One you dah add smua the cream mixture into the custard bowl, mix for a few minutes. Scrap the bubble …ni ha..nampak kan buih2 tu….

so scrap it using a spoon before pouring the mixture equally into each of the ramekin with the caramel at the bottom.

Heat the oven to 175C and place the ramekin inside a deep oven tray. Fill up 2/3 of the tray with water. Don't forget to cover each ramekin with aluminum foil before placing it inside the oven.

Baked for 35 minutes. Make sure no water go inside the creme caramel ok. Lepas 35 minutes, take out the tray from the oven & cool it off for 5-10 minutes. This is how it look like..ok..I used 2 shape..a round one & a love shape..

Then place the creme caramel inside the fridge for few hrs to chill before serving. When serving, just deep the bottom of the ramekin inside a hot water inside a plate. Run a sharp knife around the side of the ramekin. Take a plate and place it on top of the ramekin and turn it upside down. Shake it a little bit and there you goes..a perfect CREME CARAMEL FOR DESSERT!

Ni I show the love shape pasal the round one, dah masuk perut before I remember to take the picture. Hehhehe…

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cups of sugar (for the caramel)
• 1/3 cups of water
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 cups of caster sugar (for the custard)
• 11/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Have fun trying!!

Homemade Bagel

Woke up this morning, I realized  I have nothing for breakfast!! Hubby just ate the last breakfast bun so I end up eating boiled egg. Well, there is cereal in the pantry cabinet but I don't really like to eat cereal in the morning because I found it is too filling & sweet. I am not a breakfast person because I get very uncomfortable if I eat too early. Normally I just take a mug of hot coffee to start my day.

But I always want to make sure my other half get his breakfast so there I was thinking what shall I bake..bread/bun/bagel? Then it strike my mind that he love to eat bagel so BAGEL it is. I am not a bagel fan but once in a blue moon, I can eat a piece or two. After spending almost 5 hrs cleaning the house & took my morning…or rather afternoon shower, I took out my baking equipment & ingredients and start preparing the dough. Actually, baking bagel is not hard and it almost the same as baking a bread except that it doest not need egg & you need to boil the dough after you shaped it into a bagel, and before you bake it inside the oven.

What you need is bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt & warm water. First, you mix the salt with the flour. Then fill up the measurement cup with warm water and dissolved the yeast & sugar in it. Once everything is properly dissolved, make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour the yeast mixture gradually. You want to result in a moist and firm dough after you have mixed it all. 

Flour the countertop for you knead the dough for at least 10 minute. When you pull the dough and it tear easily, that mean you still need to knead it until it slow to tear as you pull it apart. Then place the dough in a bowl and cover it with a damp towel, and placed it on a warm place to rise. Leave the dough for 1-2hrs until it double the size like this..

After 1-2hrs, you punch the dough and leave it for another 10 minutes. After 10 minuted, divided the big dough into 8 small round dough. If you want to get an equal size, then I suggest you weigh each dough (I actually did that)..

Take a dough ball and press it gently against the countertop moving your hand and the dough in a circular motion, pulling the dough into itself while reducing the pressure on top of the dough until you get a perfect dough ball shape. Repeat with the rest of the dough ball. 

Then leave the dough ball for 10 minutes to double it size. after 10 minute, take the dough ball and make a hold with your finger at the middle of the dough. Like having a dough for a ring. :) Slowly, widen the hole by stretching the dough for about 1/3 diameter of the dough. And it look like this..

Again leave the shaped dough for 10 minutes while you boil some water in a large pot. Once it is boiling, reduce the heat and start boiling the shaped dough. When u place the dough inside the pot, it will be at the bottom and it will only take second for it to float to the top. Let it be for 1 minute before you flip it over and leave it for another 1 minute. You can either place the dough in the pot one at a time ( like I did) or you can put as much as the pot can possibly fit.

The picture above show that the dough is already floating on top so you can remove it from the pot and place it on a baking tray. If you plan to have some topping, you should do it at this point. For some, they might want to brush some egg wash on the top but I skip that part. I just sprinkle some poppy seed on top of the bagel immediately after I remove it as it is still wet. So, the poppy seed can stick properly on top.

Once all the bagel is place on the baking tray, baked it in a 220C temperature for 20 minutes. Oh ya..remember to heat the oven when you do the boiling ya. Hehhehe..After 20 minutes…the bagel is READY!!

So tomorrow we can have bagel for breakfast!!

Ingredients;

• 31/2 cup of bread flour
• 11/2 tbsp of sugar
• 2 tsp of dry yeast (equivalent t0 20gm of fresh yeast)
• 11/2 tsp of salt
• 11/4 cup of warm water
• poppy seed/sesame seed (for topping)

Double Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache

It has been a while since I update my baking activity so finally yesterday I bake something. I was at my in law the day before helping them cleaning up their rented house since the tenant has move out so I invited them for coffee today at our home. Actually I saw this particular cake few days earlier and trying to find a reason to bake it. Well..if it's only me & my hubby…OMG..it is too much both the size & calories!! 

Bundt cake is very light & it is also very easy to do. You do not have to put any glaze or icing on top but just to make things 'prettier' I just decide to put some frosting but a simple one; chocolate ganache. And I am eager to try my new silicon baking tray. I don't normally use silicon type of tray because I just can't believe that it won't melt inside the hot oven!! hahha…But I am really is a 'curious cat' and I do not want the curiosity kill me so what the heck..guna jer la.

So first, as usual, the dry ingredient: flour, cocoa powder, baking soda & salt. Apparently, this cake need a lot of baking soda in order to make it really kembang. Hehhee..So mix all the dry ingredients..

Then chopped the baking chocolate before putting it in a pan for melting..

In a meanwhile, prepare a different bowl to mix the wet ingredients; sugar, eggs and canola oil/ vege oil Here I am using both brown & white sugar with 70% brown & 30% white.

Then add the egg & canola oil..

And finally the melted chocolate. Then add the dry ingredient alternately with milk & black coffee and u will get something like this..

And I usually used a hand spatula to mix the last part of the dry ingredient into the wet mixture..

Then pour the mixture into your baking tray or in my case, my silicon baking tray..huhuh..this is how mine look like..

I already imagine that it will tip over inside the oven or the tray melted into the cake mixture. Hahhaa…but everything went perfectly. Bake the cake in a 180C temperature for 45 minute. And you get…

A nicely shape bundt cake. I cut off a little bit of the bottom part so it be more stable when place on a cake display. Noo…this is not yet the end product because we have not put the chocolate ganache.

For chocolate ganache I used melted baking chocolate, butter, syrup & cream. First you heat up the cream in a pot then when it is hot enough, you pour the chopped baking chocolate and add corn syrup & butter. Stirred until the mixture is very thick and let it cool down for few minutes before you pour on top of the cake. 

So, finally you get thissss…

Yes…I just cant wait for coffee time! Hehhehe…it is now ready to be serve..

Let me share the ingredients;

• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cups of cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp of baking soda
• 3/4 tsp of salt
• 3/4 cups of vegetable/canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of black coffee
• 1 cup of buttermilk ( I just replace it with milk as I don't have any buttermilk in the house. So if you use milk, you need to reduce the amount because buttermilk texture is thicker as compare to ordinary milk. In my case, I just use 1/2cup of milk)
• 1 bar of baking choc ( approx. 200 gm) * The baking chocolate you need to divided into two part. Used 100gm for the cake & 100 gm for the ganache)
• 3/4 cup of heavy cream
• 1/2 tbsp of butter

So there goes..happy baking!

• 1/2 tbsp of corn syrup

Wind of change

I guess we all (Sarawakian I mean) have heard it. The baton has been pass down to a new face. We Sarawakian has heard of his so called 'retirement' for so many times before that when he mentioned it again this month, I couldn't be bother. But I guess this time, it is for REAL. Living away from my beloved homeland doesn't mean that I do not update myself with what is happening back home. After all, this is an era of technology where news at the other side of the world is just at the tip of our fingers. 

Well..well..well..this time, I will be going home to a new CM. I am not going to say very much about this regime change because I rather play the game  of ' wait & see'. We all hope for the best with this change. It might not be any significant changes for that matter or no change at all! But one thing I feel we Sarawakian most agree with is that, we hope that the prosperity and racial harmony that we enjoy now, will remain the same for many years to come. When people said Malaysian live in sync with one another despite the diverse culture and religion..well..that statement might be a little bit too 'overdoing' if I must say…because it does not really represent the WHOLE of Malaysia. You will not see the REAL racial, cultural & religion harmony until you step your feet in BORNEO ( as we formally known).

Despite all these tension and bickering on religious issues that put Malaysia on the world map lately, we across the South China Sea couldn't be bother. It is just a spec of dust on this wide State of ours, which doesn't effect us at all. We have been able to live with each other despite our differences for ages. When we, Sarawakian meet up, there is no such thing as Iban, Bidayuh, Chinese, Malay…etc..because we only see Sarawakian & automatically speak Sarawakian. Our mutual respect to each other is not something that need to be taught to us in school by some hideous text book or ignorant individual who has no clue that Kadazan is from Sabah, and not Sarawak. We learn to respect each other by simply living among each other. It is not uncommon for us to have more than two different religion within the family and yet we still eat on the same table, using the same plate. There is no need for them to ask how the food is prepare because the trust we have on each other. We live by the saying…"if you want people to respect you, you have to respect them too". Very simple ain't it …which we Sarawakian couldn't understand why our fellow countrymen on the other side can't follow despite claiming that they are more developed (mentally) than us.  

My parent live in one of the earliest housing estate in Kuching and one of my parent's neighbor is a Muslim family, which we have known as far as I can remember. My dad built a bbq pit just outside the wet kitchen, which is literally very near the neighbor backyard. So, basically you can't have a bbq without them knowing. My dad refuse to grill pork meat at the bbq pit because he think it is very rude to do so as the neighbour might smell it ( as if they know what kind of meat is on the grill right?). But that's my dad. He think we should respect others religious belief although they might not know what we do that might offend them. Whenever my sister & her kids come over to Kuching for vacation, my dad will not even buy any beef during the whole time they are there (my brother in law is Hindu so they can't eat beef). My sister don't even eat beef in front of her kid as a sign of respect to her husband and his belief.

I guess you know what am I trying to convey here. The need to respect others do not need to come from a written text books or policies but merely from an awareness that our ignorant attitude and couldn't care less actions could hurt other people feeling. I guess because we used to live with families/relatives/friends from different race & religion, we grow up with more sensitivity & tolerance to others. And this is what me as a Sarawakian, pray & hope will remain regardless who taking over the reign as the CM. No matter what kind of change the new person bring, I hope he will have the same need as most Sarawakian, that is to bring as much development to the State and yet maintain the peace and harmony that we currently enjoy.

Raspberry Tart @ Hindbaer taerter

When I take a look at my pantry cabinet, I saw that I have abundance stock of marzipan. Then I was telling myself..hmm..what shall I do with these marzipan? I bought the marzipan during one of our shopping spree in Germany last year just before Christmas. An activity that we always do before Christmas because one, it is near to drive to Germany from here and two, goods are cheaper over there. Just at the border of Germany & Denmark, there are several hypermarkets where you can get almost everything. And when you shop there, you don't really feel that it is in Germany because almost 100% of the shopper are Danish. The car park is full with Danish car. Hahha..that show how expensive stuff are in Denmark.

Anyway..here I am..holding the marzipan & explore the pantry cabinet and fridge for other stuff that I can mix with the marzipan. Then it came to me..YES! I will bake raspberry tart! Well..it is not berries season yet but I do have stock of frozen berries in the freezer so why the hell not.

First, you need to do the crust or the base, which consist of marzipan, butter, sugar, eggs and flour. Very simple right. Well..it is simple. You just need those 5 ingredients and mix everything together starting with marzipan, butter & sugar. Then add egg one by one. And finally shift the flour and mix well. 

Lepas tu, pour the batter inside a tart tray or any baking tray of your choice that has been spread with baking paper.

And bake for 35min in a 180C oven.  While waiting for it to be bake, I prepared the vanilla cream. For this you need vanilla pod, egg yolk, milk, cornstarch and sugar. ( I didnt take any picture of the process so you have to imagine it yourself. Hehhehe...bkn senang tau nak bake sambik sibuk2 ambik gambar).

First, scrap the vanilla bean from the pod (belah kat tengah and kikis all the bean) and mix it with sugar. So, u will get sugar yang kehitam-hitaman. Then stir the vanilla sugar with eggs yolk and cornstarch. Next, heat the milk on a pan and mix the vanilla egg mixture inside the pan. So, you kacau sampai la campuran tadi menjadi pekat. Then remove from the heat when mixture has thicken and let it cool off for few minutes.

Let the baked base cool off before you place the vanilla cream on top. Bila dah sejuk, then pour the vanilla cream on top & spread the raspberry on top of the vanilla cream. And here you have it....RASPBERRY TART!

Ingredient:

1. Marzipan base

• 200gm of marzipan
• 200gm of butter
• 175gm of sugar
• 4 eggs
• 50gm of flour

2. Vanilla cream

• 1 vanilla pod
• 2 cup of milk
• 2 egg yolks 
• 1 tbsp of cornstarch
• 2 tbsp sugar

And 1 pack of raspberry or any kind of berry to finish up the topping. 

Selamat mencuba!!

Randau ruai ari menua ribai..

Aku tok pagi2 nadai kerja lain, nungga laptop. Nyak meh ko apai tuai ku...ngantik nadai internet, pahai la aku tok. Hahha...tapi amai ah. Bosan ngantik nadai internet..

Anyway, pagi2 ku udah chat enggau ex-housemate aku bak kl subak. Ya benung mandok pansuh babi hutan. Apooo.....balat penyamai utai nyak deh. Badu pengelama aku endak makai jelu utan tok..skali skala ningga org manduk nu tertenguk kedirik especially now udah diau bak menua ribai tok. Ne ka ngulih. Bisi meh jelu utan ditok tang ukai ya ulih ditimbak peneka ati deh. Parai aku tok nu masuk brita lagi..another malaysian being prosecuted for killing endangered animals. Hahhaha..ditok, jelu utan smua endangered animal. Nyamai mai jelu utan ditok neh, terasa selamat sidak diau ditok. Ngantik bak menua kitai din..huh...nu semua belalai bak sepiak2 utan diak meh sidak ya. Enggai ka x bernasib baik masuk periuk...becoming someone's meal. Ukai la madah aku tok a fan of exotic animal tapi skali skala makai syiok amai ah...nama dah kitai anak iban..wlp ukai sejati..hahah..susah ka dipisahkan dgn menu jelu utan. Betul endak???

Udah nyak sikok dah gik bala madah benung mandok kelawar (sori..endak ku nemu nama iban ngangau kelawar tang bak bidayuh we cal it nginyawat). Ngantik endak salah ku..tok kelawar buah nyak..mit ya. Endak entu maioh isi laban ka slim amai. Hahhaha..endak ingat ku bila last aku makai tok tang seingat ku maya aki belah indai ku agik idup subak, bisi gak few times makai. Ka ku madah nyamai x gak tang edible. Di pandok kami enggau asi and other stuff ( endak entu ingat lbn udah lama). Aku endak nemu la kati bala iban mandok laban nyak tadi style orang bidayuh. Tenguk nyawa ningga bala makai nyak.

Ditok..aku madah aku makai kaki manok orang udah capoh. Endak ku nemu ngantik ku madah aku makai kelawar. Hahah..Kitai iban tok almost semua jelu di empak. Janji x bisi mali, empak jak. Maya aku diau bak China, you name it, you get it. Lebih kurang sama meh kitai enggau orang cina tok, we eat anything that move. Hahah...almost! Tang bak din extremist mai gak sdk ya sampai placenta baby pan sidak dadu sup awak ke bajik. Aduss...endak ku sanggup eh..aku tok adventure with food, jenis ke rindu cuba macam2 tapi I have my limit when it comes to fellow human being. Huhuhu..Skali aku kala ke pasar basah maya bak China din...apooo...endak ku nemu kati ka madah. Aku tok jenis ka kuat semangat pan asai ka leput!!! Kamah diak..bau diak..that is the first and the last aku kia. Endak cukup adventure ku ka makai utai diak. Hahah...apa jak binatang x diak..ular bisi..manok..babi..chapi..seafoods..kura2..biawak..dan pelbagai jenis jelu. Engka ngantik udah di pandok, ka aku makai tang bila medak sidak nyiang diak enggau perut2..darah..errrrr....gue enggak bisa!!

Tapi best bak China..aku ulih makai kaki manok..katak...kaki babi..lelabi...ikan sungai (lbn ikan din sama enggau ikan kitai)...nice! Ditok..laban bala mensia kelalu merti & kelalu sayau ka jelu..animal ethics kata..smua utai endak ulih empak kecuali yang biasa2. Hehhe..Pesan apai ku subak sebedau aku mupok ka China..."dik ulih makai smua utai tang 3 jelu tok endak tau di empak kitai; jugam..kera..ular sawa.." . Ya madah mali. Ngantik makai...ulih ka gila2. Amai endak ..endak gak ku nemu tang enggai gak aku testing teori nyak enggai ka amai gila. Hahha...Diatu aku udah cukup gila, niboh ka nambah agik meh kan. :)

Nyak meh randau ku tadi,ngenang ka pemadu manah utai dempak kitai di menua. Bila dah jauh, u appreciate it even more. Walaupun aku tok la paling jarang pulai menua tang aku endak kala lupak asal usul dirik empu. Asai ya bila aku tak tetiba lupak dirik alu speaking ko orang ribai, x nemu jako Iban..x nemu adat iban..aki ku bak kubur nyin..kada ke dani baru ngingak aku. Hahhaha...

I heard of this statement before & would like to share it with uols..." a person who forget his/her roots is a person who will not go far in life". Agree or disagree...bisi amai ko orang ka ngeluar ka jako tok. 

Ok. Tok jak randau ku saritok. Bisi siti dak gik topik tang aku tok alu bedau mandi. Lagi meh kitai randau ruai agik aok. Tatata..have a good Saturday!