Dusting the Cobwebs

Look at the cobwebs over here. Geez!

As you know, time is always of the essence and there's rarely enough time for me to spare for this little blog of mine. Granted, I do miss scribbling my flyaway thoughts but gawd, I do not have the patience to wait for my laptop to start up and for this page to load. 

Instead, I prefer to bury my nose in a novel whenever I can. I love the libraries here ... the books are in great condition and I don't have to buy them anymore! I don't have any space on our bookshelves now that Brendan's occupy 1/3 of it. I've stashed my favourite books into boxes and they're hiding in the closet of one of the spare rooms.

Such is my love for my son. :D

So, books. And library.

Yes.

I get to borrow up to 40 items and books can be borrowed for 30 days. It's really such a good deal. I've renewed several toddler books twice and that's me hgging the book(s) for up to 3 months. Gosh. 

Well, just this 1 book. 

Image taken from https://shop.abc.net.au/thomas-amp-trains-of-world-bbk

He's a bit Thomas-obsessed at the moment. I'm not sure how long it will last, but he likes looking at books in general. Thank goodness for that. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but when he was younger (before he was 1 years old), he didn't seem keen on books so I was quite disappointed with his lack of interest.

Now I'm a secretly proud mama. :D

OK, back to me, before I go on and on and on and on about the love of my life. Brendan, not the hubs, mind you.

Last year was spent dedicating most of my time to B. This year, I hope to regain control of my weight and fitness.

My 1st event is coming in 2 weeks and I haven't trained as much as I had hoped. B and I fell sick after we returned from Malaysia last month, and we spent 2 weeks on the mend. It's funny how the unexpected happens, and now I'm rushed for time to get back into shape.

A 10km distance still needs some form of training.

When I first signed up for it in January/February, I had a goal which was to set a personal best (PB). Now I know that it's NOT going to happen. Argh!

Seriously, running 10km today was SUCH a struggle for me. I hope I won't suffer too much on race day.

Anyway, I don't really want to talk about running. Let's talk about food.

Once upon a time I used to judge people who had their freezer packed with frozen food. Now I understand WHY there's a need to indeed stash your freezer with some form of convenience. 

While I'm chopping meat of veg or preparing food to cook for dinner, my son would come to me and ask me to play cars with him. With such hope in his eyes, I do my best to spend a few minutes in between food prep to play with him. I can't deny him just a little bit of attention. Because it's not nice.

I do try to cook 1 pot meals or have the food prepared while he's napping. 

Recipe: http://msihua.com/2012/03/revisit-claypot-chicken-rice-with-a-rice-cooker-recipe/

I've made 'claypot' chicken rice in the rice cooker twice because I really like the convenience of it. It was also because I still had some leftover Korean sesame oil my neighbour had given me - it is REALLY good.

Its aromatic fragrance is more intense than say, the Malaysian ones we're so used to. I am sorely tempted to purchase a bottle (and use it sparingly) as the Asian grocer nearest to us has 1L retailed at $18. My neighbour says that's quite expensive.

Recipe: http://thesweetspot.com.my/?p=5833

Dry chilli pan mee was a almost a disaster for me. I used dried SMALL chillies for the chilli and boy, the heat was ridiculously intense that our heads were perspiring! The only saving grace was my first attempt at making noodles from scratch. They were nice and bouncy. 

The only problem I had was cutting the dough with a pizza cutter and then stretching them a little, before dusting them with flour (to prevent sticking) was a very time consuming job. Dinner was served late, it was almost 8pm when we started eating.

If I'll have to make them again, I'll have to start in the morning!

(Or buy a pasta making machine ...)

Oh gawd. It's time to prepare dinner.

Anak Anak Malaysia Taste Of Malaysia

Saturday, 26th August 2017

In conjunction of Merdeka Day on 31st August 2017, Eco World Group hosted the abovementioned event in South Yarra that day, inviting people to pop in for free Malaysian food.

What's not to love about free food, eh? :)

We arrived at the venue at noon and found the place backed with mostly Malaysians and Singaporeans. 

Upon entry, we were given our ticket cum food voucher which allowed us to select 4 items from each category. I thought it was pretty generous, hehe, but it might not be enough for some to have a full meal.

The choice of satay gave us 2 sticks and they were really delicious. The small square piece of murtabak was paled in comparison. As the satay was made on the spot, the stall always had the longest queue.

The kuih was a hit and miss. I was informed by the stall owner that the rainbow coloured kuih lapis was the Sarawak one but honestly, I don't recall Sarawak kuih lapis tasting so artificial. Perhaps it's due to the amount of colouring used for the kuih.

For the mains, we had the Mamak Mee Goreng and Curry Mee (not stated in the voucher) and both were good. We took home the Mamak Mee Goreng and had it for dinner. :D

I was pretty excited to spot Diana Chan, Masterchef Australia 2017 when she appeared to officiate the event. She held a cooking demo in the developer's office (indoors) so I wasn't there. I never knew she was so tall!

Later on, everyone had an opportunity to have their photo taken with her. We took the chance and I don't think I managed to say anything meaningful to her besides, "Congrats on your win!"

Screenshot of photos from Yarra One Apartment's Facebook page.

Brendan was very mesmerised by her. Diana did try to cajole him to smile but all he could do was look at her with googly eyes. :D

As for me, sigh, why didn't anyone tell me I needed a haircut and better fitting sweater?!

Right after the event, WH and I popped into Zumbo. We practically drooled over the selection but after deliberating for almost 30 minutes, we walked out with a very small purchase: 2 pieces for me and 3 for her. :D

The cheesecake looked really good!

I opted for the passion fruit tart (based on raving reviews) and salted caramel tart. I was sorely tempted to buy a piece of brownie as well but had to force myself to walk away.

The passion fruit tart turned out to be just so-so. Hmmm, I honestly can't remember how it tastes now, perhaps it wasn't tarty enough with passion fruit flavour. The salted caramel one was much better, but hehe, I'll have to say right now that the taste of Bibelot's salted caramel tart is the one that is stuck in my head right now!


Zumbo Patisserie
18 Claremont St
South Yarra, VIC 3141

Bibelot
285 - 287 Coventry St
South Melbourne, VIC 3205

Red Curry Paste Recipe

Ah, I found the curry paste recipe for the Thai Red Curry (for Roast Duck). It was scribbled in my notepad, amongst other recipes I've copied from the Internet. I am old-fashioned as such, I find it easier to refer to a notebook than the IPad. ;)

Red Curry Paste

Ingredients

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp coriander seeds

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

1/2 tsp salt

10 large dried chillies (or 20g), rehydrated/soaked in warm water for 30mins, finely chopped

1 tsp grated galangal

1 stalk of lemongrass, finely chopped

6 coriander roots, washed, finely chopped

2 shallots, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 tsp shrimp paste

8 red birds eye chillies, seeds removed

Directions

1. Dry roast cumin, coriander and peppercorns over medium heat for 2 mins until fragrant. Cool.

2. Grind them until they become powder. Add remaining ingredients and pound until a smooth paste forms.

Alternatively, which I did, add 1/4 cup of water to all ingredients and blend until smooth.

I'm sorely tempted to make the paste right now but it's too warm to be eating spicy food today!

So sorry for the last post - I was too sleepy to end it properly. I was trying to make a list of some of his current favourite books and ask anyone some suggestions for new books to try.

I am excited about going to a books warehouse sale tomorrow - I really hope I snag some good bargains. The best thing about it is that, I'm hoping to get children's book and none for me. HAH!

For me, borrowing books from the library is so much better now as the bookshelves certainly do not have space for both Brendan and my books. :D

Recently Tried Recipes

One of the hardest things I've yet to accept is the lack of time to do the things I want and long to do. Sometimes it gets me down, and I do the unthinkable of blaming it on B, but most of the time I've given up on getting things done ASAP, but choose to spread the work to be done within a few days. Hahaha!

For example, the Serunding Daging (Beef Meat Floss). It took me almost 5 days to get it done because I didn't have time to shred the meat as finely as I wanted it to be. [Tried in August 2017.]

Ironically, despite my attempt in shredding the meat as finely as possible before cooking it, they clumped together during the cooking process. Ha! I shouldn't have invested THAT much time. ;)

The recipe from Fried Chillies I referred to uses coriander seeds, cumin and fennel seeds. I'll probably find another recipe to try out as I didn't enjoy tasting the coriander seeds in my mouth. I picked out as many seeds as I could but alas, guess what? I've still got a container of the floss in my fridge as I haven't picked out as many as I am hoping to before consumption! :D

Nevertheless, it was good eaten with rice or even pasta! It's very useful to have some at standby should you need to have a quick meal to get out of the way.

Hoping to try the Chinese version one day. ONE DAY when I believe I have all the time in the world, haha!

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Angku Kueh (Red Tortoise Cake)

This is one of my favourite childhood snacks to have. My paternal grandmother would bring over tons of it when she visited and the ones with peanut filling were always quickly snapped up. I haven't tried making the peanut filling yet, but like mentioned above, ONE DAY I shall!

Initially I thought it was hard work, but after getting the hang of it the first round, the second one was a breeze. Well, I had the hubs helping me out as we were rushing to have food ready for Brendan's 1st birthday party. :)

Recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover. Tried in May 2017.

Hmmm, I wish I could have some right now. *tries not to drool* It turned out to be a huge hit with my Malaysian and Singaporean friends - and thank goodness there was enough for them to bring some home with them. :)

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Mee Hoon Kueh [July 2017.]

One of my friends was always sharing photos of this dish on Facebook and yes, it seems like most people know this dish as Pan Mee. The hubs said the same thing when he saw it the first time.

Recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover.

I believe they're the same thing, especially when Pan Mee condiments are added to this broth of pulled dough pieces. I made it plain the first time, like how my grandmother did it - just spinach and dough in broth. That was it.

The second and third time I made it, I added Pan Mee condiments of minced meat and mushroom, and fried anchovies.

In all honesty, as much as B loves the dish (he loves his carbs), it is quite time consuming to prepare it as a meal. Letting the dough rest for at least an hour before pulling it and cooking it in boiling water can take a while. Zzzz

Just last night I threw away the rest of the dough I didn't finish using the day before. :(

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Lei Cha [Tried in July 2017.]

I first ate this dish in Ipoh, when the hubs and I were still in an unmarried relationship. His father advised me that not everyone liked this dish and there were two ways of eating it, drown your rice and condiments with the broth, or eat your rice with enough broth as you please.

It turned out that I enjoyed the dish very much. I would request for it whenever we were in Ipoh for the weekend. Later on, we found a coffee shop in Kepong serving it, and some of our friends loved this dish as well.

The recipe I tried is from The Star Online with some of my own condiments. It's extremely hard work and the taste was 90% to what we were used to. The broth is heavy in terms of flavour but it looks watery in the picture. I'm not sure how I'd tweak it should I attempt the recipe again.

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Pumpkin recipes - Steamed pumpkin and radish cake.

I replaced a portion of radish with pumpkin instead, curious to see how it would turn out. Pumpkin, as you know, is mild tasting, so you couldn't tell that it was one of the ingredients in this dish.

Pan-frying leftovers are always so much tastier. I love the colour, if not disappointed in the lack of taste. :)

Pumpkin No Churn Ice-Cream

I was so excited to discover that you can make ice-cream without the need of an ice-cream maker!

I soon realised that unfortunately, I could mostly taste the cream in it, no thanks to pumpkin being mild flavoured, remember? It gives you a gorgeous colour, no doubt about it, but taste wise, it was a bit of a disappointment.

But it didn't stop us from finishing it, especially when you want something cold to end your meal. 

I'm hoping to try another flavour and see if it'll stand out. :)

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Roast Duck Curry [Tried in July 2017.]

OMG ... I LOVED the curry paste!

The hubs had brought home some leftover roast duck he had for lunch with a colleague. He commented that the duck was lean and wasn't very appealing (in taste) so could I please make it better?

I could only think of curry and had to find a recipe I thought suitable. The thing is, I can't recall where I took the curry paste recipe from. *ponders*

The curry was delicious, but would have tasted so much better with lychee and eggplant, both of which I didn't have. Grapes and mandarin just made it weird.

Nevertheless, I wish to emphasize that the curry paste was da BOMB.

Now where the heck is the recipe??

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Kuih Bangkit. [Tried in May 2017.]

I had cravings in May 2017. I was desperate to taste the creamy coconut in my mouth that I trawled the internet for a recipe I could follow.

Whilst they didn't look anything like kuih bangkit as I didn't have the mould, they tasted like it. I was so happy. I asked my friends to try it during Brendan's birthday party and made them take some home, too, otherwise I would devour everything. 

Now that I have the mould (thanks to the BFF for bringing them over), I shall make them again!

But one fine day!

Because, I shouldn't.

If I'm on a diet and all ... :D

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Laksa Johor [Tried in August 2017.]

I've only eaten this dish once, and it was a homemade version of it.

I loved the thickness of it, and the use of spaghetti that the dish just stuck in my head since ... 10 years ago?

For the first round, I blanched the diced french beans as I thought they would be too hard to chew. For the second round with leftover gravy, it was raw and it made such a huge difference. It brought out the flavours of the gravy and the dish was altogether whole.

There are plenty of recipes out there that will tell you what fish should be used (mackerel, tuna, parang or sardines) but I used sardines and they tasted good enough for me.

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Right.

The pictures are making me hungry as I relived my cooking moments.

Have a great weekend!

Beef Korma Recipe - A Keeper!

Hello and happy new year! I hope everyone is fine and dandy!

I have been wanting to dust the cobwebs off my blog for months but I just couldn't find my blogging mojo. Not sure why, as I have tons of thoughts running through my head on a daily basis that I would love to share with everyone ... and then I stop myself. I mean, surely there's just so much pictures of food and cooking experiments I can share??

I am excited to share with you a recipe I found on All Recipes which I tried today!

I think it's good enough for me to save it here as a bookmark. It's a creamy and non-spicy version which can be easily adjusted if you'd like a hint of heat. 

For the spice paste

Ingredients A:

1/2 TBSP of coriander seeds

1/2 TBSP of cumin seeds (I used powder)

1/2 tsp of cardamom seeds (Open up the pods - I think I used about 8 - 9 pods)

1/2 tsp of paprika (I used sweet paprika as it was either this or smoked paprika)

3 whole cloves

Ingredients B:

2 TBSP of water

1/8 cup of almond meal

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 TBSP of ginger, crushed

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Main ingredients

1 medium onion, sliced or diced

600gm of beef

2 TBSP cooking oil

1/4 cup of water

150ml of cream

1 TBSP of plain flour

1/4 tsp of garam masala

1 TBSP of chopped fresh coriander (or as much as you like)

It took me quite a while to pound Ingredients A to a powder as I
don't have a proper mortar. :P

Directions:

1. Grind Ingredients A into a powder. 

2. Blend Ingredients B and combine with Ingredients A.

3. Heat oil in pan to brown the meat. Remove and set meat aside. 

4. Lightly brown onions in pan for 2-3 minutes, and add spice paste. Stir and cook for 4 minutes.

5. Add meat and water to the pan. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes or until meat is cooked through and tender.

6. Stir in cream, flour and garam masala together with meat until it bubbles and thickens. Add coriander and simmer for 2 minutes.

7. Add salt to taste.

*The original recipe calls for yoghurt as well as cream but I omitted it as I didn't have yoghurt in my fridge.

I didn't have 600gm of meat, so I added 4 pieces of chicken drumstick to whatever amount of beef I had. I think if you don't want to wait too long for your meat to cook, just use chicken!

I found the gravy too creamy, so I stirred in another 1/4 cup of hot water to the dish. One bad thing about creamy dishes is that it makes you want to eat it with LOTS of rice! :)

Hmmm ... there wasn't enough gravy!

Tips for future use:

1. Add 1 - 2 tsp of chilli powder to Ingredients A or B for a little bit of heat. This time, I added them at Step 6.

2. Add 2 chopped tomatoes 15 minutes before Step 6. It will cut through the creaminess.

3. Add another 1/2 cup of water (making it a total of 1 cup) as there wasn't much gravy to go around.

4. Probably will taste better the following day when the spices permeates into the meat. :)

Obsessed with Sambal

Hello!

I have recently been quite into perfecting my sambal ("spicy paste") to have it readily available as a condiment for our meals. 

I had a phase (and still do) of craving for spicy Malaysian food such as the nasi lemak and curry laksa, both of which I have not cooked from scratch before.

OK, I think I attempted the nasi lemak sometime in 2014.

Creamy chicken curry, fruit rojak and steamed rice with condiments
of fresh cucumber, sambal toasted anchovies and peanuts

This time I have managed to get the toasted ikan bilis ("anchovies") and peanuts done nicely. It was a far cry from my first ever attempt in 2014!

And the chicken curry that you see in the picture above was a different one from my usual simple recipe. I quite like it as a wider variety of spices were used which made it more aromatic.

Hard boiled eggs with shrimp cooked in sambal, stir fried choy sum and pickled cucumber and mango with steamed rice.

A few days later, I decided to try another sambal recipe (which looked pretty similar to the first recipe I tried for the earlier meal) and ... it still tasted the same but a tad bit more fragrant as the shrimp paste (belacan) was toasted before it was blended with the garlic and shallots.

I think I'm getting the hang of it!

But it sure is hard work.

As a treat, I decided to bring lunch for my colleagues a few days ago. Yeah, it was my imaginary tuck shop. :)

Steamed rice with chicken curry and condiments!
Made onion sambal to tone down the spiciness.

My colleagues enjoyed it, and so did I. Haha! I don't mean to blow my own trumpet but I was testing out a different way of cooking the chicken curry. I tweaked the recipe and used a few different ingredients.

I must say that the curry tasted way much better 2 days after it was first cook.

Serious.

Just for the record, both the nasi lemak and chicken curry are traditionally cooked with coconut milk added to it. For all my cooking done above, regular full cream milk was used for the chicken curry and plain steamed white rice was served. None of that rich and fragrant steamed rice with coconut milk ... a shame as my meals would be have been so much more delicious.

Nevertheless, it's a sacrifice for a healthier meal. :D

Possibly Mooncake Biscuits

Mid Autumn Festival was on Monday, 8th September. Mooncake fillings have evolved from traditional fillings of lotus paste, red bean or nuts to tiramisu, coffee, chocolate, etc. My favourite is always lotus paste with egg yolk, wrapped in snow skin, which needs to be kept in the fridge.


The Asian grocers have been selling boxes of mooncakes for the whole month. The only time I had mooncake was when Gary offered us some when we paid him a surprise visit last month. 

As much as I wanted to eat mooncake (lotus paste with egg yolk, please), I couldn't bring myself to buy a box. *shrug* My cravings weren't that strong.

I thought I'd make my own, haha, although not in the traditional sense. I don't have the moulds!

I went with Shanghai pastry, and followed the recipe here. I bought red bean paste as I was too lazy to make my own.

Do you think they look more like siew paus?

After making a batch sized according to the recipe, I decided to make them a bit smaller, just nice for one person to devour it in 3 bites.

The buttery pastry, although not flaky, is good enough to make you want more. This way, the paste was less sweet. Packaged paste is sadly very underwhelming and next time, I think I'll need to make my own.

I'm not happy with how pale they turned out to be, despite baking them just a bit longer. Perhaps milk should be omitted from the egg wash?

Without salted egg yolks, the recipe can make about 20+ pieces if you prefer smaller sized ones.

Ingredients:

Filling

700gm red bean paste

Pastry

250gm salted butter (mine was unsalted, so I added 2 dashes of sea salt into the flour mixture)

150gm icing sugar

380gm plain flour

1 large egg

60g custard powder

Egg wash

1 egg yolk

1 TBSP water

1 TBSP milk (will omit this the next time)

Black and white sesame seeds for decoration.

Directions:

1. Sift flour and custard powder. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and icing sugar til creamy, for 2-3 minutes only.

3. Add in egg and beat til combined. Mix in flour and custard powder and combine to make soft dough. 

4. Wrap in cling film and store in fridge for 30mins.

5. Roll red bean paste into 1 inch balls, set aside. If you're lazy like me, you'll just spoon 1 inch worth of paste into your dough later on.

6. Remove dough from fridge, roll into 1.5 inch balls and set aside.

7. Prepare small bowl of egg wash and another one with black and sesame seeds.

8. Flatten dough balls and insert paste into middle. Wrap it with dough carefully before rolling it into a ball.

9. Place on tray lined with baking paper. Gently flatten it, brush with egg wash and sprinkle sesame seed on top.

10. Preheat oven at 180'C yet? Anyway, bake them for 20 mins at 180'C.

Put them under the grill for a while (til the top turns a bit brown) to warm them up before consumption.
Yums!

Notes:

*I added some roasted pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds into the red bean paste to add a bit of texture.

*Baked them 5 minutes longer.

* The next day, I grilled it for a few minutes just to warm them up before having them for breakfast. It'll give a nice brown top and looked much more appetising. Very yummy when served nice and warm.

Food For Friends And Crew

I went crazy last week, drawing up a menu for Sunday's picnic as well as going through my fuel plan. It was the only thing I could do while sitting around and resting during taper week. Besides the night run on Tuesday, I only managed a 5km run on Saturday, just to warm up the legs.

Playing checkers with sable cookies ... I'm so pleased to have successfully tweaked the
chocolate recipe to something I really like! 

Besides cookies, a tray of brownies and some veggie curry puffs, I wanted to bring chicken skewers (without satay sauce) and fried meehoon (vermicelli) but decided against it. Since the picnic will be with the support crews, I doubted anyone would want to move their party to the barbie pit across the road.

My puffs are always so pale!
Brownies, as always, a winner hands down!

Nevertheless, we had chicken skewers for tea on Saturday since I had marinated the chicken the day before.

I think there were 17 sticks in total.

Mmmm, it needed a bit more honey. Otherwise, I love how the finely chopped lemongrass tastes like crushed peanuts, adding texture.

Cooked this a few weeks ago with coriander, dried mushrooms, shrimps, shallots and accompanied
by fresh sambal.

Fried meehoon is a favourite go-to dish of mine, probably because I used to eat so much of it back home when I was younger. Like fried rice, it doesn't really matter what the ingredients are as long as they provide enough taste and colour. 

A celebratory Magnum ice-cream!

Sticking with tradition, I celebrated my run with a Magnum ice-cream. I loved the biscuit bits in the chocolate crust! I wanted to share it with the hubs but he said it was too sweet for him. *shrug* More for me!

Joanne, I think you would love this! 

Me and my Magnum, after Melbourne
Marathon 2013! PB, yay!
p.s. Lemmie the lemon tree is now dead.

Choc Chip Cookies And I Are Not Meant To Be

I have been asking people to share with me their foolproof choc chip cookie recipe but no one has recommended me one.

I gave the ones I have in my recipe folder a second chance but they didn't turn out nice. 

Again. 

Hmmm.

My current 'go to' cookie recipe is a sable cookie one.
Brushed with melted dark chocolate, they are more sinful than usual.

I know it's bad to ensure that the cookie jar is always full.
It's not good.
It's terrible.

But sometimes, I need a couple of cookies for my afternoon tea.
Or a pre-run snack.
Or a post-run snack.

Checkered sable cookies. Who needs an occasion for cookies?

Sable cookies are as good as my butter cookies (cough) but sometimes I want some chocolate in them!

And sometimes, I spend AUD$2.50 on a pack of Tim Tam's, just to try its latest flavours.

Have you tried the peanut butter ones from Coles? Don't bother. They're yuck.

The red velvet one (an Adriano Zumbo's invention) is OK, but no biggie.

I'll stick to the dark chocolate one, thank you.

But this indulgence (buying Tim Tam's) is rare.

(In fact ... yes, I know, I know ... don't nag! I must stop eating cookies!)

A Maggie Beer recipe.

Some time ago, I tried Maggie Beer's jumbo choc chip cookie recipe and I was disappointed. Sigh.

I really have no luck.

Or is it me, too much of a perfectionist in find the right choc chip cookie recipe to satisfy my taste buds?

I think I'll have to give up my quest for my perfect choc chip cookie recipe.

It's futile, and a waste of ingredients.

And bad for the complexion.

And waist line.

So I tell myself. :)

Melbourne Eats: Eating Out in Mt Beauty

We spent the Queen's Birthday weekend in Mt Beauty with the main purpose of climbing up Mt Bogong. As Mt Beauty is a small town, there are a handful of eateries in the vicinity without the need to drive far.

On our drive up to Mt Beauty, we made a quick pit stop at The Provender Country Bakehouse in Yea for a light lunch, comprising of 2 pies and 1 coffee, and a sticky lemon passionfruit muffin to take away. I can't remember which pies we had, possibly a steak and cheese one and a veggie pastie. The coffee wasn't great, but the place was packed, as always!

We first stumbled upon this place when we were driving back from Bright (for the Razorback Run) and we liked their pies. The bakery has been a regular Great Aussie Pie Competition winner for years now, and you'll see a plague in the bakery stating just that.

Address: 56 High Street, Yea, VIC 3717.

Links: Trip Advisor

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Flour + Water

171 Kiewa Valley Highway

Tawonga South, VIC 3698

Links: Trip Advisor | Website

We were early for dinner!

We had dinner there on our 1st night and ordered a pizza and one of the specials. The roast pumpkin pizza was topped with pine nuts, feta and baby spinach and I enjoyed it very much.

The lighting doesn't do the food justice. :)

The special was creamy dreamy prawn linguine which was not very dreamy at all, in my opinion. It was bland and sure, there were a lot of prawns, but the sauce lacked depth. There was no prawn-y taste in the creamy sauce, as they may have been cooked separately and added later to the dish.

We shared a bottle of beer. With beer, wine and liquer, I was ready to fall into bed!

Melbourne Eats: Three Bags Full, Richmond

It is impossible to walk past cafes in Melbourne and not be curious about it. Why the queue, and why is the place packed? The food (and coffee) must definitely be good, then!

Earlier last Sunday morning, we were in Studley Park supporting a few friends who ran Race 1 of the Salomon Trail Series. (I took a few random photos at the event.) We were expecting to arrive at the cafe in time for brunch but we got there just as lunch hour began.

Three Bags Full

60 Nicholson Street

Abbotsford, VIC 3067

Links: Website | Facebook | Urbanspoon

The place was packed to the brim but we were lucky to get two seats at the high table. Not the best spot to admire the interior and sneak a few photos, but it had to do. :)

A round table for a big group.

A waitress came and took our order for drinks before our seats were even warm. Talk about fast service!

Laksa Fried Chicken Is Delicious

I thought it was a coincidence.

The night before I cooked this dish, I was wondering whether I could marinate the chicken wings with some laksa paste instead of the usual garlic, spring onions, soy sauce, honey, salt, pepper, etc marinade. I thought very hard about how the laksa marinade would work.

I flicked through Adam Liaw's Two Asian Kitchens absent-mindedly, while watching Masterchef Australia on the telly, when I flicked to the right page.

My eyes opened wide.

So someone has thought about it before, hah!

And it was a brilliant recipe as he combined both his favourite food into one dish. Not bad, not bad.

Rich and aromatic chicken wings.

And who would have thought, coconut cream in the marinade, too!

The cream provides some richness to it, complementing the spices from the laksa paste. The occasional crunch from the  flour, and the dessicated coconut provides a little bit of texture.

As the recipe suggests, it is best to marinade the chicken overnight. My chicken was only marinated for about 6 hours and it was not enough for the flavours to intensify.

Adam Liaw's Laksa Fried Chicken Recipe

Ingredients for marinade:

1 whole chicken, chopped into pieces (I used chicken wings, minus the wing tips.)

1 cup of laksa paste

125ml coconut cream

Ingredients for coating:
75gm corn flour

75gm plain flour

90gm dessicated coconut

cooking oil for frying

Miso Ramen With Korean Soybean Paste

I've been trying to figure out what to do with that tub of soybean paste I bought some time ago when I attempted to recreate Taiwanese oyster mee sua. It was nasty, did I tell you? I am tempted to throw out that bottle of black vinegar I bought as I don't foresee myself using it again in the future. At all!

My tub of soybean paste.

I love tonkotsu ramen, but to cook its broth would require all the time in the world, and I don't think I want to do it. Hmmm, unless I cook it over a campfire, just to save the gas and electricity bills!

24 hours to boil and simmer the broth sounds like a real effort.

Just One Cookbook's recipe is a good one for a cheat's version of the miso ramen. It takes about an hour to prepare and cook it.

The alterations I made to the recipe were:

* Chinese cooking wine instead of sake. 

* I minced some pork from pork belly instead of minced pork.

* Korean soybean paste instead of Japanese miso paste.
* Chilli oil paste instead of chilli bean oil, not sure if it's the same thing.

In all honesty, I don't even know how miso ramen is supposed to taste like!

Nevertheless, I must confess that the dish I cooked was decently yummy. So yummy that one serving wasn't enough.

BUT don't be fooled, one serving is enough to fill you up nicely. :)

Ingredients:

2 large cloves of garlic, minced

1 TBSP of ginger, minced

1 shallot, minced

 4 cups of water

1 TBSP sesame oil

1/4 lb minced pork (about 100gm)

1 tsp chilli oil

3 TBSP of soybean paste

1 TBSP of Chinese cooking wine

1 TBSP sugar

1 TBSP of sesame seeds, grounded with mortar and pestle.

1 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of white pepper

2 servings of ramen noodles

water to boil the noodles

Toppings:

hard boiled eggs

strips of nori (seaweed)

spring onion

cha shu or pork loin

mayu (black garlic oil)

Almost got my runny hard boiled egg right!

Directions:

1. Boil 2 pots of water, one for the noodles and the other (4 cups) for the broth. Set aside.

2. Loosen up ramen noodles as per instructions and set aside until it's time to cook them.

3. In a medium pot, heat up the sesame oil on medium heat to saute the garlic, ginger and shallot. Once soft, add the meat.

4. Increase heat to medium high and cook until meat changes colour.

5. Add chilli oil and mix well.

6. Pour in the water (4 cups) and add the seasonings. I let it simmer while I start to cook the noodles in the other pot as per the packet instructions.

7. Once the noodles are ready and divided into the bowls, I bring the broth to a boil and take it off the heat.

8. Pour into the bowls.

9. Garnish with your preferred toppings and serve.

This recipe serves two.

Notes:

1. For the hard boiled eggs with runny yolk, boil water in a pot. Once it is boiling, put the eggs in and set your timer for 7 minutes. When time is up, scoop them out and cool them in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes. Gently peel them under a tap of running water and set aside. Only cut them in half before serving. Here's another recipe.

2. Mayu, or black garlic oil gives a tiny kick of bitterness to the broth. Use 5 cloves of garlic, minced, and fry with 1/4 cup of sesame oil on low heat. Stir occasionally. In about 10 minutes, garlic will turn black. Pour mixture into a heatproof bowl and cool for 30 minutes. Blitz. Pour 1 tsp of mayu into your bowl of  ramen. Keep the rest in a bottle until the next time. BUT, mine didn't turn out as smooth as this recipe's. Mine was still grainy. :P

3. Chopping the nori sheets into fine shreds was freaking tiring! Cut them into large squares and serve, or buy a packet of seaweed strips instead.

4. The next time, I may blitz the mixture in step 5 before adding water. The soybeans and meat needed to be a bit more fine, in my humble opinon.

5. I may also use chicken or beef as an alternative to minced pork the next time.

Have fun trying this out!

p.s. I tried it with our Malaysian taucu, and although it wasn't as strong as the Korean's soybean paste, it was equally delicious!

Best Scones Ever

I love watching The Living Room (Channel Ten) on Friday evenings because they are funny. I simply adore Miguel with his Spanish charms, and he never fails to make me chuckle.

A few weeks ago, his segment was of him participating in a scone making challenge with a bunch of ladies. It was interesting when he mentioned that his secret ingredient was lemonade!

Who would have known ...

The recipe is so simple, and here's one from Taste's website.

3 cups of self raising flour
A pinch of salt
1 cup of cream
1 cup of lemonade*

*Alternatively, use 1 cup of sparkling water and 1 tsp of icing sugar.

Directions - Preheat oven at 220'C. Sift flour and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour cream and lemonade into it. Mix with a knife until the mixture comes away from the bowl. Pour out onto surface coated with flour and knead for about 5 minutes. Roll into a rectangle of about 1 inch thickness. Cut into 2 inch squares and arrange closely together (with a teensy bit of gap in between) on tray lined with greased baking paper. 

Recipe says bake at 220'C for 10-12 minutes but I preheated the oven at that temperature and baked at 200'C for 25-30 minutes. Best bake at 22 minutes and check, before baking for another 5-8 minutes. Or simply, bake until golden brown.

OK, they don't particularly look good here.

I baked them for 20 minutes at 200'C the first time, and realised that they weren't well cooked inside. So back into the oven they went, for another 10 minutes.

Much better.

These scones are light and you can smell the hint of cream in the air while they're baking in the oven.

A shame we didn't have clotted cream and strawberry jam with a bone china tea cups to fit the picture, so we made do with raspberry jam and cream and mugs of coffee.

Still fab. 

They tasted soooooo much better than my 1st attempt, which were dense.

This weekend's project: a vegan vanilla cake.