Kuih Bahulu Recipe

If not in Dallas, I would not be baking! :) Well the reason I did not bake in Malaysia because I did not have an oven nor a mixer. So to my Malaysian friends who are so surprised that I can actually bake and then start accusing me how come I did not bake for them - that is the real answer. I did not have an OVEN or a MIXER. My dear friends, you are welcomed to my humble home in Dallas USA and I will gladly bake for you :).

Kuih Bahulu is a Malay traditional sponge cake. A favourite among Malaysians of all ages and definitely me included. I remember I always can't resist buying them while I shop at Jaya Jusco as they always sell it straight from the oven. A couple of times, I would stand there just observing on how they actually make it and even boldly asking them what were the ingredients. :)

Kuih Bahulu is soft and slightly dry texture outside and it goes very well with black coffee. Yums!! I like my kuih bahulu slightly dry cos it taste so great when I dip it in my black coffee.

I bought the mould in Malaysia before I came to Dallas. I knew this would be something I will make and I had a feeling it may not be available to sell in Dallas.



I searched the net for recipes and found many and decided to improvise to the one I thought best to make my kuih bahulu.

Simple Ingredients :
1. 3 eggs
2. 3/4 cup sugar
3. 1 1/4 cup flour (sifted)
4. 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
5. 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Oil to brush the mould

Simple Steps :
1. Preheat kuih bahulu moulds in the oven for about 10 - 15 minutes. I brush the mould with some cooking oil before putting it into the oven.

2. Next, whisk the eggs and sugar with a hand whisk or a stand mixer until light and fluffy.





3. Sieve in the flour, and baking powder and add just 1/3 into the egg mixture first. Fold in slowly and lightly. Repeat until all the flour is blended into the batter.



4. Grease the moulds and fill with batter until near full. Bake for 10 - 15 mins on preheated oven at 350F.



5. Bake until golden brown, remove from mould with a skewer stick. It should be removed easily. Remember to grease the mould again before putting in batter and repeat until done.



6. Leave it to cool completely before storing. Store in air tight container.

Get the coffee ready!! I am ready to dip in! :) Yums!!

Curry Puff Recipe- How to make?

Believe me, when in Malaysia, nobody bothers to make their own curry puffs at home. Well, I sure didn't. Curry Puffs are very popular in Malaysia and Singapore and usually served as snacks anytime of the day.

It is basically curry chicken and potatoes fillings and deep-fried in a pastry shell. The fillings may be similar to Asian Samosa though the outer pastry is different. Curry puffs are easily available in Malay and Indian food stalls and even Ikea Malaysia sells delicious curry puffs for just RM1 per piece. (USD 30cents).

Now that I am in Dallas USA where curry puffs are only available at one restaurant (as I know of), I was naturally excited to put my newly "certified baker" to good use!! Haha, I took a part time course in baking and got a certificate! You can read about it at my last posting.

Everything turned out well, the only part I did not like about curry puffs was that it is deep-fried. I am not sure if I ever ate a baked version, but maybe I will try it next time. Anyone has baked curry puffs before?

Simple ingredients



Part 1 Filling:
1/2 cup of finely diced chicken breast meat
2 large potatoes (boiled and diced)
1 medium red onion (finely chopped)

Curry mix - mix together with 1/2 cup of water to make paste
2 tablespoon of meat or chicken curry powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder (as desired if you want it spicy)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

Seasoning
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of water

2 Hard Boiled Eggs (quartered)

Oil for deep frying.

Part 2 Dough :

Pastry Dough A (Outer)- knead into a dough
250gm All Purpose Flour
60gm Shortening
20gm Sugar
4gm Salt
140gm Water



Pastry Dough B (Inner) - knead into a dough
100gm high Ratio Flour (Cake Flour)
65gm of Shortening (or you can use Vege/Olive Oil)

Simple steps

1. Make the filling first. Heat oil in pan and fry onion till fragrant. Add the curry paste mixture and stir fry till fragrant. make sure fire is low to prevent from burning. Add the chicken, potato sugar, salt and a dash of pepper. Add water and cook for 5 mins till mix is dry and cooked. Leave aside to cool.



2. Divide both doughs into 2 (equal sizes).
With a rolling pin, roll dough A into a flat round shape (thicker in the middle).
Take dough B and put in the middle of dough A. Wrap up the sides and close up dough B completely. With the rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangular shape. From the top, roll the dough into a swiss-like roll. This is to make swirls on the skin of the curry puffs.



With a bread knife, cut up the dough into 10 - 15 pcs. Roll out each piece and fill the middle with chicken curry filling. Fold into two and pleat the joint edges.

Repeat the same process for the second dough.

3. Deep fry at 180'C till light golden brown



And there you have it, homemade curry puffs right out of my kitchen. I am happy!

My 2 months Baking Course @ Malaysian Institute of Baking (MIB)

I have always wanted to learn baking. Yeah, I dabbled in baking a bit here and there from recipe books but I knew that I wanted to do a proper course so I could acquire the right techniques and tips.

While I was in Malaysia last year, I searched around for some good baking schools. There were quite a few. However, either some were just one off classes, or location was too far for me, or recipes that did not interest me, and yeah definitely some were just too expensive.

I found Malaysian Institute of Baking in one of my searches and immediately liked the overall package. They have full time and part time courses. They teach over 60-100 recipes from breads, pastries, cookies to cakes. Best of all it is a hands-on class with a max of 4 students to a table.

With working full time, I could only take up the part time baking course. It is 3 days a week for 8 weeks. Weekdays Tuesday and Thursday from 6.00pm - 9.30pm and on Saturday 2.00pm - 5.30pm. It seemed pretty taxing so I did not find the right time to do it in 2009. However, this year before I came over to US, I realized that there is never the right time, I just gotta commit and do it! Everything fell in place and the 2 months course would end just before I left for USA. Perfect!

I must say that MIB exceeded my expectations. I found the classes very well done, the students were well taken care of and the hands on class really gave each student the right practice on what was required.

This is my snapshot of my Part Time Certificate in Baking Course with MIB.

The teachers - The institute is headed by Mr Don Yong. He is the principal and the main teacher. He is a nice fatherly figure teacher who is really patient and generous with the students. During the practical/hands on session, there is also a "teacher" assigned to each table. These are the Diploma students who have been in MIB for at least a year. They are there to guide us and give us tips as we do our hands on.



The students - the class consist about 30 - 40 students. Each table has only a maximum of 4 students. We get to do one measurements for the ingredients but the making, folding of the pastries are done individually.



The Class - It starts in a classroom setting for briefing before we head down for the practical / hands on session in the kitchen. Each group has a table with utensils and ingredients as required. After we make the day's recipe, we would all go back to classroom again for debrief and lessons or video class while our goodies are baking. After class, we pick up our goodies :)



The Food - MIB is really generous with the part-time students. Due to the time we come in (usually after work for most people), they make sure we don't get hungry so there is usually a tea break with lotsa of food (different choices every time) from breads, cakes, pasta, curry, sandwiches, lasagna, chicken pies coffee, teas etc etc.



Best of all, the recipes that we make, we get to take them home at the end of the day. Be prepared for the next 8 weeks to be eating breads, pastries, cakes, cookies and more for you and family and also to giveaway. If you have a small family, trust me you can't consume all the stuff that you make cos you are going to class every 2 days and the food just keep coming in.



All in all, I had a wonderful experience in MIB. Not only I got to learn great techniques, tons of recipes but met wonderful teachers and made new friends.

Now, armed with my baking certificate (*beam *beam *grin *grin), it's time to put it to real use. Making all the recipes on my own!




MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF BAKING (Formerly known as English Hotbreads School of Baking (M) Sdn. Bhd.)

11, Jalan 52/8, PJ New Town
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, 46200 Malaysia

Email : info@mib.edu.my
Contacts :
603-7956 9011 / 7956 9043
603-7954 1557 / 7955 2457
6012-235-1661
Website : http://www.mib.edu.my/v3/

The Ultimate Prawn Mee / Mee Yoke / Har Mee / Penang Hokkien Mee

The best thing about moving to a new country is to have family nearby.

I just moved to Dallas USA to be with my husband. Obviously he is family but that's not my point. I meant someone close to me that is not necessary my husband's friends or family. The thing about moving to a new country and in my case moving to my husband's "country", everything tend to be his, his friends, his things etc. So what's important is to start building what is mine.

And lucky for me is that my cousin KC whom I grew up with since young is nicely located here in Dallas too and just about 15 mins away from my house. Nevermind the fact that he and my hubby are college friends since their teens, met here in US and infact because of my cousin KC, that's how I met my hubby, BUT I claim KC to be my friend, my family first!

He's been here for more than 10 years and I think he is happy too that I am finally here. He was on leave last week and guess what, he came over to cook some of the Malaysian food he has been craving for.

And we started with Prawn Noodles fondly called as "Har Mee", Prawn Mee, Mee Yoke, Hokkien Mee (to Penang folks). KC has been collecting his big bag of prawn heads/shells for months in the freezer.

Garbage to most people but to make prawn mee, you need these babies!!



Simple Ingredients -

Soup base :-
1) Prawn's heads and shells - from 1-2 pound of prawns
2) Pork ribs -1 pound
3) Water - 10 bowls (approximately 2 liter)
4) Rock sugar - 2-3 small pieces.
5) 2-3 cloves of garlic and ginger (chopped fine)

Chili Paste :-
1) 20 dried chilies (soaked to soften)
2) 5 fresh red chillies
3) 6 shallots (peeled)
4) 4 cloves garlic (peeled)
5) 2 TBSP of water
6) Dried shrimp - optional
Blend all the ingredients. Heat the wok with 4-5 TBSP of cooking oil. Stir fry the chili paste for 15 minutes on low heat. Let the fragrance of the chilli paste fill your kitchen. Dish up and set aside.

Toppings / Condiments:
1) 1/2 pound of lean pork meat (boiled and sliced thinly)
2) 1 pound shrimp / prawns (shelled, deveined - stir fry lightly with some chilli paste)
3) 4 hard-boiled eggs
4) 1 pack of rice vermicelli / mee hoon (scalded)or yellow noodles - enough for 4 servings
5) Vegetable - Kangkung or water convolvulus (scalded)
6) Vegetable - Beans Sprouts (scalded)
7) 10 pcs of shallots - chopped and stir-fried till brown and fragrant

Simple Steps :

1. In a deep pot, put some oil (2 TBSP)and stir fry the chopped garlic and ginger. Add in the prawn heads and shells and stir till prawns turn beautiful reddish orange. Pour in the water and close the lid for it to boil for 2-3 hours.



2. After 3 hours of brewing, the prawn soup should be ready. Sieve out the soup and discard all the shells and heads. Brew the soup with pork ribs or pork bones for another 1 hour minimum. Add salt to taste.



Also put in the 1/2 pound of lean pork loin in soup. Remove after 15 mins (or when cooked), when it has cooled down, slice to thin rectangular slices and set aside as condiments.

3. Next, let's fry some shallots and set aside. Fried shallots are so fragrant and yummy when added on as toppings.



4. Next, in a wok with 2-3 TBSP of oil, stir in the chilli paste in low heat. Continue to stir till the chilli paste is fragrant. Becareful not to let the spice aroma catch your throat or else you will be coughing from the heat. However that also means you have a mean chilli paste going. :) Stir fry for about 15-20 minutes on medium to low heat. Remove from wok, keep some aside and slowly put into soup base. You can adjust the qtt based on your liking. Put more if you like spice. You can make it less spicy to cater for the different taste buds and if some like it spicier they can add on their own when served.

5. In the same wok, with some of the chilli paste, stir fry the prawns. Set aside when ready.



6. For the rest of the other condiments, boil the eggs till ready, peel of shells and cut to half or quarters. In a pot of boiling water, prepare the vegetables and noodles. Scald each item for 2 minutes and remove.

7. Assemble : In a big bowl, add noodles (mee or meehoon as per your liking), add the condiments on top - prawns, pork slices, Kankung, bean sprouts, fried shallots, hard boiled eggs and some chilli paste. Pour in the hot steaming soup and it's ready to be served.



There you have it. A delicious steaming bowl of prawn noodles. 4 hours of work and honestly it took 15 minutes to gobble it down. Trust me...it was worth it!!

I am home and I am back

It's been quite a journey for my hubby and I.

Being a thousand miles apart for months. But that's in the past now. I am back here in USA. And this time permanent for sure.

All these months, this dear food blog of mine has also taken a backseat while I was in Malaysia. Not much motivation to write or even to cook. However, I have a lot of materials, photos, experiences of food adventures and even a baking course in Malaysia but all still kept in archives waiting to be written and published. And since being back in US for the last 3 weeks, I have been cooking up a storm much to my hubby's delight.

I am home and I am back.

I am excited. I can't wait to post all my food adventures in Malaysia and my new adventures in USA.

Stay tuned.

Simple Plain Porridge (Congee) with Yaw Char Gwai

If you watch Hong Kong TVB series, you will realize that nearly every episode, there will be at least one meal scene eg. the family at their dining table having dinner, lunch or breakfast. And I will be looking out at what dishes they have on the table.

I especially like to see what being served at breakfast cos HK breakfast is a lot different from Malaysia. For one, they are always having plain porridge/congee. Congee is often eaten with fried bread sticks known as youtiao (mandarin) or yaw char kwai (Cantonese).

These bread sticks are also popular in Malaysia but I think we do have it anytime of the day, breakfast, lunch, dinner or even supper :). Infact it is more popular when served with Bak Kut Teh.

Anyway, one boring Sunday morning, I decided to make my breakfast more creative. I boil some porridge, then went out to buy some "yaw char gwai". I was most impressed with myself. I felt like I was in a TVB drama :)

Miracle of Golden Raisins and Gin to treat arthritis

It's hard to say whether you want believe this or not. But this is a natural, easy and free "remedy" which is gaining strong credentials. If you are one with arthritis pain and discomfort, there is no disadvantages of trying this remedy. Just do a search on the net and you will find many testimonials.

All you have to do is consume 7 - 9 of these specially prepared raisins and many has confirmed that it relieved them of their arthritis pain.



My mom has had arthritis for a long time. It is getting worse especially on her knees. When I told her about this remedy, she was most willing to try. It is such a simple homemade remedy, that you can start immediately.

All you need a 2 simple ingredients :
1. Gin
2. Golden Raisins ( Don't ask me whether the purple raisin works, I just follow the instructions and it requires golden raisins and I don't question when it comes to old folks remedies)



Simple Steps :
1. Fill the golden raisin into a pyrex bowl, pan or dish.

2. Cover barely to the top of the raisins with gin

3. Let it sit for 7 to 10 days until all the gin has evaporated and the raisin are fairly dry. It is fine if they’re slightly moist.

4. Storage : You can refrigerate when absorption is complete and the gin has dissipated.

Once the gin dries up, all you need to do it eat 7 - 9 pieces every single day and pray that it works! Oh yeah, don't ask me why just eat 7 - 9 pieces, I really don't know but apparently even if you eat more it will not yield better or faster results.

Honestly, there is no official research conducted regarding this special recipe. Some say the aromatic juniper oils of the gin in combination with the sulfer and antioxidants within the raisins help with inflammation. But no one claims to know for sure.

If one can make and use this raisin recipe and receive arthitis pain relief, then it surely is something to consider trying! I for one am willing to try and prayfully it works for my mom. She has started to take it but she is not diligent to eat everyday so it's time I be a discpline master and moniter her intake!!


Click here for more details on this remedy.

http://alternativehealthcommunity.com/blog/raisins-gin-arthritis/

http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine-articles/using-gin-soaked-raisin-to-help-treat-arthritis-619451.html

http://www.healthcentral.com/peoplespharmacy/408/22264.html