Cinnamon bun

Happy New Year! Nothing much to do today so I might as well update the blog with some more food pics. Will treat this blog as a library of all the food I attempted.

Macaron inspired recipe

Today I thought of making macaron after reading a lot about it on the web so I googled the recipe for it and realised that I did not I have the almond for the recipe. Too lazy to go shop for it, I decided to go freestyle again by replacing the almond with sunflower seeds. Recipe also requires icing sugar but I didn't have that also. Anyway, my 'sunflower-caron' was a totally different recipe altogether. I basically just use the concept and created my own biscuit. Probably the first of its kind in the world. Anyway, I made a chocolate sunflower macaron with banana choc fillings. The result was pretty impressive. A nice crunch on the outside but very light and fluffy in the inside. Since I have never tasted a macaron I can't benchmark what the texture should be. Will definitely try the real McCoy when we visit Paris/ France one day.




I made about 7 for my first batch and left it to cool on a plate. It was an exciting EPL weekend, so I went to the room to check some of the football results. Chelsea was leading 1-0 after Frank Lampard's penalty. I was pretty please with the overall result. When I went back to the kitchen, I saw only 1 macaron left. I thought Steph kept it in a container so when I look at her, she gave me one of those guilty look. I knew something was wrong - yes she has eaten the 'missing' macarons. She said it was very good and she couldn't stop munching. I swear I was only away for less than 10 minutes. :)



- Adrian

What a fatty weekend

This weekend has been cooking, baking, cooking and more cooking, so much time spent in the kitchen, oven being used countless times, steamer, washing, and of course Eating. On Saturday we made fried popiah with fillings of shrimps, chicken meat, dried scallops, leeks, carrots for lunch to go together with spicy glass noddles. The popiah was absolutely superb! The shrimps and scallops really added a nice aromatic flavour to the popiah. The glass noodles was a mixture of fish sauce, cajun pepper, balsamic vinegar, sugar and chilli flakes. It was topped with toasted peanuts.

As for dinner, we settle for some easy Thai food, noodles in tomyam soup. Dessert was raspberry cheese cake and appple strudel which we bought from supermarket.

Next morning, Adrian made vegetables bun for breakfast ("chai pau"). Basically these are the same fillings which we used for the popiah. The chai pau really made me miss Msia. Thereafter, Adrian made lamb burger for lunch. It was his first time making Lamburger, so good. Have it with some cheese on, horseradish sauce, pickles, jalapeno peppers.. it's better than those served in the restaurant, reallly. Seriously good!!

Moules Frites

Moules & Frites aka Mussels with fries- Had that last night and it was delicious. The first time we had this dish was in Nimes, France. This apparently is a common way of eating them in Belgium, Netherlands and France.

Well, I cooked my mussels with butter, leek, ShaoXing wine, garlic and cream cheese. Yummy!

-Adrian

Roti canai with dal curry

You can't beat a good hearty breakfast like roti canai. Full of calories and yumminess to start your day on the right note :) Accompanied the lovely roti with teh tarik (using English tea mixed with condensed milk). Yummy!

ps: I didn't make those roti canai because I was too lazy. Bought this from the local supermarket, frozen and they call it Pratha in the UK. I made the dal though.

-Adrian

Nasi lemak with beef+chicken rendang

I probably don't know what Malaysia's national dish is but nasi lemak is probably one of the potential candidate for that spot. Strangely enough, I've never attempted to make nasi lemak before. Just never had the craving or the request for it. So yesterday, I finally did it. Made my first rendang daging and ayam - very time consuming dish. Plate it up with a side of ikan bilis, peanuts, telur mata kerbau (translated literally as eye of buffalo egg aka sunny side up) and cucumber. Too bad we didn't make any sambal or curry to go with it but it was pretty nice on its own. In terms of calorie count, each of our serving is probably around 1000 calorie due to the santan in the rice and the rendang but well worth it. I did try to run it off in the evening but I think I only manage to run for 15 mins before I ran out of breath. I'm so unfit at the moment. Didn't help that for dinner, I cooked rissoto with chorizo which was another calorie rich dish. For dessert we had Steph's home made tiramisu and my Banana Nutella Bread. Happy Days!

-Adrian

Breads galore

The obsession with baking our own bread started a few months ago and I think we have made a few more different variation of breads. What goes into your bread is really up to you. It is so simple to make. The smell of fermentation is just so..........addictive. Once I got over my fear of yeast and baking, there is just no stopping the creative juices. So far we have made, Apple bread, Coffee bread, Roasted garlic bread, Cinnamon bread and Mixed nuts bread. I'm going to try to make a bread with mixed herbs next. Life is good when you have freshly baked bread for breakfast or just for snacking.

I think this dark coloured bread was the coffee bread

This was the Apple bread. This was made the morning my Mum and Dad arrived in the UK.

This is Steph's first bread (I'm so proud of her). Made it when I was in Norwich. She didn't use enough dough so it came out looking like a flat bread. She cut it into thin slices and spread them with garlic and butter and roast for abit in the oven .. she calls it her garlic bread sticks.

This was our favourite bread of all - Cinnamon bread.Our next few breads would probably be something with Nutella, herbs, cheese or some root vegetables.

-Adrian

First bread making attempt

My personal life for the last couple of weeks have been non existent due to work. Been working down in London the last couple of weeks and spending around 3 hours a day commuting to my workplace. Usually knock off work around 9pm to 10pm. By the time I get home, it is usually time for bed.
It is a public holiday tomorrow so I thought I would have a 3 days weekend but as usual, luck wasn't on my side and had to go in to work this morning. To suppress my disappointment, I thought I will cheer myself up by making something I haven't done before. Making my own BREAD. I prepared my bread dough last night so that I could just pop it in the oven early in the morning.
Call me crazy but I actually woke up extra early to make this. Need to get in to work by 9am so I woke up at 7am to do this. Made a multi-seeded bread (Check out the pictures below) with roasted garlic inside. Making bread makes the whole house smell like a bakery and it was really satisfying to have fresh from the oven bread for breakfast. Warm and crusty. My bread came out looking good but the taste was disappointing. I didn't put enough salt so the taste was quite 'healthy'. But you can always fix 'healthy' bread with a little bit of good old butter/margarine. We had our bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
- Adrian

oh happy day and 6-layer baked aubergine pasta

Today has been a fantastic day - good weather, good food, good company and good news. We went to St Albans, a nearby town to celebrate a friend's baby girl full moon. They served really good food, roasted duck, stewed lamb, pork leg stew, carrot cakes, etc. I can't stop eating seriously. Finally my guilt kicks in after I finished 2 big slices of carrot cake and learnt that Adrian only took a bite. Hmm... need to think of a way to make him eat more so that I wouldnt feel bad everytime I eat.

Y'day Adrian cooked pasta using aubergines for dinner. First he pan fried the aubergine and arrange them at the bottom of the baking dish. For the sauce, he used double cream and chopped tomatoes.

After that, he split a quarter pounder burger into smaller pieces and arrange them on top of the aubergine. He sprinkle a bit of paprika on top to give a slight kick.Next, the penne and loads of chunky garlic and pour some sauce over it. A final layer of aubergine with abit of butter and finally top it up with lotsa cheese.

Baked for about 15 mins and voila.. the 6-layer baked aubergine pasta. Really good.

Oh, almost forgot, I am so happy that Manchester United lost, they are out of the FA Cup! What a day.

- Steph

Easter weekend

Easter break is over! Back to work! In the UK, Easter weekend is a 4 days break cause we celebrate Good Friday and Easter Monday. There are 8 public holidays in UK compared to approximately 13 in Malaysia (state dependant). In the UK kids get Easter eggs (made with Chocolate) on Easter.

Why do we eat easter eggs at Easter?
For Christians, Easter eggs symbolise new life. They believe that, through his resurrection, Jesus defeated death and sin and offers people the promise of eternal life if they follow his teachings. This is why there is a tradition for Christians to be baptised at Easter, which celebrates new life in God.
However, the festival of Easter stretches back to pre-Christian times, too. It gets its name and some symbols, including the Easter Bunny, from the Pagan Spring Equinox festival, which is a celebration of Spring and also of new life.

Weather wise, it was horrible. I think it rained 3 out of the 4 days. So we were indoor most of the time. SO what do you do when you are indoor? COOK of course. Below are some of the dishes we had (some for the first time) over the long weekend. Steph is probably a lot heavier now compared to last Thursday. Well, somebody has to help me finish all my yummilicious dishes.

Roast chicken with stuffing

and the damage done by the both of us.








Fish fingers salads
English breakfast
Sushi
Curry flavoured mee hoon Fruit jello

Custard flavoured buns







Salmon spaghetti in tomato cream

-Adrian