Rocky Road Squares

Another simple recipe I tried out a few days back:

Step 1-

Melt 350 grams of dark chocolate, 250 grams of butter and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup

Step 2 -

Split about 1/4 of the melted chocolate into a different bowl.
Mix in 100 grams of crushed digestive biscuits and 100 grams of marshmallows (could be more if you like) with the 3/4 part of the melted chocolate and cover them all with the chocolate sauce.

Step 3 -

Spread the chocolate covered biscuits and marshmallows into a pan.

Pour over the 1/4 part of the melted chocolate over the biscuit and marshmallow mix for a smooth finish.
Refrigerate for 3 hours or more.

Step 4 -

When set, sprinkle some icing sugar on top and cut them into even squares.

Makes 24 to 48 squares.

Happy trying people! :)

Red Velvet Cupcakes :)

I finally made the red velvet that I've been dying to make for so long only, instead of making a cake, i made cupcakes. The cupcakes came out beautiful and tasted pretty good too :) I got the recipe from this website. You can visit it and get other cool recipes but I'm sharing the red velvet recipe here:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 1/3 cups of cake flour
• 2 tablespoons of Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of buttermilk*
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of distilled white vinegar

Frosting ingredients

• 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
• 2 - 3 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

*You can make your own buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of distilled white vinegar to milk and letting it stand for about 10 minutes.

METHOD

The cupcakes

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Beat the butter and sugar in an electric mixer for 3 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy.

2 Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is fully incorporated. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

3 In a large bowl, sift together the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl whisk together the buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla extract, and red food coloring.

4 Add a fourth of the dry ingredients and mix, then add a third of the wet. Continue adding in a dry, wet, dry pattern, ending with the dry ingredients.

5 Scoop into cupcake papers, about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Rotate the pan after the first 15 minutes of baking to ensure even baking.

6 Allow to cool for one minute in the pan then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cupcakes.

The Frosting

1 Cream the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

2 Add the vanilla extract and mix.

3 Add the powdered sugar, continually taste to get to desired sweetness. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

cooling before frosting

the recipe said it makes 2 1/2 dozen, but I managed to get 40 out of one batter

frosted with cream cheese

differed from the recipe a little by adding a chocolate surprise in the middle :)

It's really quite simple to make and worth the effort.

Good luck!

Company Iftar at Halia (in Sime Darby Convention Centre)

It has become a tradition of sorts for Ingeniouscare Sdn. Bhd. to hold a buka puasa dinner for its employees during Ramadhan. Since I first joined the company, our pick for the company dinner every single year has been Halia, in Sime Darby Convention Centre.

This year, we made no changes to our plans and pre-booked 4 tables at the Ramadhan buffet in Sime Darby two months prior to the occasion. While we've always been pretty happy with the food they serve, we took notice that every year, the seating grew in number and the buffet lines got longer and longer. This time around, Sime Darby opened its doors to a crowd of 700pax per night. And at the rate of RM 70/pax, they were making a hell of a lot of money.

Although the buffet spread is more extensive this year compared to other years –expanding from the generic Malay food to roast lamb, to Yee Sang and Dim Sum—we still much prefer the original way they did things; small crowd, good food. I guess with 699 others racing to get the same dish, you just figure in the end that it’s not worth the fight, especially when you feel full after 3 bites anyway (a disease I managed to catch since Ramadhan started—go figure!).

But, in the spirit of good cheer and merriment, we made the best of it. And I ate enough to make me feel not only bloated but positively brimming and on the verge of sickness (Alhamdulillah…I think?).

 

with Mikhaila, doing our "perempuan Melayu terakhir" pose

the big boss and her kids 

 

the team that holds the four forts down 

the young generation ;p

that's most absolutely the worst face she's ever made for a photo. that girl...

We will definitely make it a point NOT to go there again next year and find good cheer elsewhere.

Bumbu Desa: A Food Review

My sister Jehan, bought us lunch a few weeks back to celebrate her graduation. Stepping into the double doors of Bumbu Desa in The Curve--with the Indonesian tradition inspired interior, the smiling faces of the simply dressed hosts and servers, the traditional Indonesian music playing softly overhead, and the smell of authentic Indonesian food wafting around us--we couldn't help but to instantly feel transported to Indonesia.

 

We were brought to our seats then asked to choose our dishes from the spread. My mom picked out the fried talapia, ayam panggang, begetil, sambal terung, ulam with cabai ijeu, and a mushroom dish I can't recall the name of, and these were all served with a pot of hot rice. The dishes were all scrumptious. The crunchy talapia, paired with the soft mushroom, the succulent begetil, and the shock-to-the-brain spicy cabai ijeu was perfect. And the ayam panggang was so good, I practically ate the bones. My mother said, it tasted exactly like the food she ate in Indonesia.

     

look at that spread! you'd wish you could eat it all

  

our dishes of choice

For dessert, we had their pulut durian. To put it in as few words as possible, the durian sauce was cooked to perfection. It was the right amount of sweet and because we shared the dessert, we had a spoon war to get the most of the pulut durian.

  

the scrump-didly-icious pulut durian

our drinks

All in all, Bumbu Desa was satisfaction all in one; great food, good ambiance, and fantastic service.

Thanks Jay for the meal! :)

the faces of satisfied customers :)

we'll definitely be going back

its my way, or the highway, baby!

I made spaghetti bologna yesterday for lunch and made the HUGE mistake of telling my chef-friend Diniy who quickly told me that the way I did it was "tak best tak best!" He then took the liberty to give me his recipe. Apparently its good enough to give you orgasms ;) This is a Ragu sauce people. So, Prep time MAY TAKE 10 minutes, but cooking it will take your entire life. heheheheh.

Prep time: 10 minutes (according to Diniy who can chop super fast so jangan percaya)

Cooking time: 2 hours at least

Serves: 5 to 6

 Ingredients:

360 grams finely chopped onions

180grams finely chopped celery

180 grams finely chopped carrots

1 finely slice of whole garlic clove

453 grams of minced lean beef.

beef bacon 130grams finely chopped

400 grams of canned or peeled tomatoes and 200 grams of tomato paste

or

500 fresh tomato puree and 200 grams tomato paste

400 grams of beef stock (apparently I’m supposed to make my own...tsk)

250 ml of milk

Steps:

1.       Firstly, heat up the pan. Once heated, add oil, then add butter

2.       Then add the onion, celery and carrots. Sweat it (which is cooking but you don’t burn it...right Diniy?)

3.        Add the garlic. Before it starts to brown, add the beef and the chopped beef bacon

4.        Stir constantly till the beef is brown (about 20 minutes)

5.       Add in tomato paste and stir constantly for about 5 minutes.

6.       Add the milk and let it simmer. Stir constantly till the milk is absorbed

7.       Add in the tomatoes—tomato puree + canned tomatoes/peeled tomatoes

8.        Bring to gentle simmer, and cook for about...2 HOURS! (!!!!!!!!) Stir occasionally.

Okay, phew, that's it :) happy trying!!!

makanmakanmakan

D'Cengkih, Taman Tun (same row as Ismail Restaurant)

Try, people, and make your own judgments :)