A m'sian affair in my kitchen

Weather has been moody n chilly these two days; same goes with my mood. LOL. hormonal change? or PMS symptom? Not sure. Sth is bothering me. Whatever it is, one thing that kept me happy was the affair happening in my kitchen.

Nothing beats curry chicken or bak kut teh on a cold rainy day. One word. Awesome.

Curry Chicken with Potatoes - without coconut milk.

My Klang styled bak kut teh affair. So comforting.

Imitation of prawn mee? LOL. Nah. just MAGGI mee with frozen banana prawns n chinese cabbage.

And last but not least, the so sesame affair which continues to be my boost of calcium.


Dual Sesame Biscuits



My day on the 8th March

Phoof, what a day. I don't know why in the midst of such luxury n 'redundancy', i feel extremely stressed out; like as if i have been working 9 to 5. I have several driving 'associated' tests coming up; the final one being the practical test, which i fear so much (i think i am starting to have nightmares). That means more baking episodes; becoz when Joyce is stressed she goes to the kitchen. Sigh, it's not a joke. Can anyone tell me why am i stressed? Apart from that i have several agendas coming up, and hopefully some good news. Please!

Oh well, here's one of my most recommended snacks to munch on when stress kicks in, n guess what; it's less than 100 calories for whole bag! Low fat; n very tasty. But make sure you only buy the 'super crispy' kim chi flavoured ones; coz they'll  rock you like tom yam crackers! Yummy!



Thumbprint Cookies

Saw the cookies on this blog, n tot of baking some with the peach jam i recently made.

Definitely need more improvement!  took me ages to shape them with my amateur skills....n i was completely worn out after that!

What a cookie day!

I think i'm insane. Or addicted. I made like .... well, a lot of cookies today. Sigh. This is what happens when i'm refrained from the oven for a long time. I tend to 'explode' or 'binge' when i am given 'free' access  to baking. In my own space.  **therefore, can't really blame me**it has been a looong time since i had my own personal space.

Rock cakes or Mini Choc Chip Scones.

Ready to enter the oven

Searched everywhere but couldn't find ready made pineapple paste so had to cook this from 2 ripe pineapples

No boob tarts, just normal pineapple tarts.

More peanut cookies

Peach tartlets but biscuits-like coz i baked double sides

Doggies, again

I forgot (or too busy) to snap them when they were just out from oven. Had to take from the container instead. Black sesame butter cookies, ginger pecan shortbread, n chocolate spiral.

My first give away!

My dear hub helped me cook lunch again (after seeing how busy i was) and we had pork rib soup with noodles. I nearly forgot abt lunch or how hungry i was (hub fell asleep on couch after cooking) and we only managed to eat at 3pm.

Yummy, being a soup person, all soups are yummilicious to me.

Basil Bolognese Spaghetti with Meatballs

What an awesome friday! LOL. Hub made lunch, gave me a good head and facial lift massage, n cleared/rearranged the cabinet of food. TGIF. Hehe. How i wish everyday is like this.  Sounds surreal huh. LOL.

Spaghetti with meatballs was what he cooked for lunch this afternoon. Got 500g of 3 star minced lean beef for only $3 (good bargain huh) and marinated whole night long before rolling into little meatballs. Had to freeze half of them as we couldn't possibly finish 1/2 kg, n cooked half (abt 27 meatballs).

Meatballs ready to be cooked. I did this part.

Hehe. In action.

The product. Didn't have fresh parsley, but dried parsley is equally good!



My plate. I don't take pasta so he made me a special version. Boiled cabbage in the cooked basil bolognese sauce with meatballs.

God is soo wonderful! :-)

Purple Cabbage and Royal Gala Coleslaw

My most favourite, Royal Gala is in season! Chumpzzz, i was on top of rollercoaster when i saw them being sold at $2.99 per kg! During summer, apples were one of the most expensive fruits, sometimes reaching $8 per kg, so this is basically quite a bargain. Ain't autmun great?

I got myself so much Royal Gala, i began to worry how to finish them. You see, my hubby doesn't eat apples. N i can only eat as much as one per day. One thing good abt apples is they can keep very long.;I got some big ones three weeks ago, n they are still staying fresh.

Hence this coleslaw which i specially created for the big guy who doesn't take apples. I thought purple cabbage wld do a better and healthier job than the green ones, coupled with carrots (the orange) n baby spinach leaves as the greenie. Colourful with loads of vitamin n nutrients. Yumz.

Golden Peach Jam

I spent the whole morning making golden peach jam yesterday, and this is not the first time in Melbourne. The first jam was somehow an accident; we had a box of raspberries which was forgotten n left to rot in the fridge, and by the time i discovered it, there were some green stuff growing di. Not suitable for eating, my hub decided i make jam out of it, and since one box is not really enough (the fruits tend to shrink as they are cooked), i added some ripe nectarines which eventually turned out as raspberry nectarine or as i call it 'rasptarine' jam. Just a small bowl of it. I didn't add much sugar then, so it has to be wiped out asap. I love raspberry jam. If you ask me what is my most fave jam, i will tell you without hessitation that it's raspberry. The scent of cooking it is like a sweet aroma dazzling from a berry plentiful yard. Not even a vineyard can beat this smell, which remains even after the jam is cooked. I think raspberry is the most perfect fruit of all to be made jam. If you have tried cooking one before you wld understand what i meant.

Rasptarine jam;my hub could eat many many toasts at one time with this.

I wanted to go back n grab more raspberries for another batch of jam (larger scale with more sugar as preservative), but alas, the price has gone up at least double and it's definitely not economical to make jam out of these expensive berries when you can get a good 100% fruit jam  from the supermarkets for less than $4, e.g. St Dalfour. Since summer is officially over, other berries have also gone expensive. I saw some 'reduced to clear' bananas and apples, but jams out of them definitely won't taste as good as certain fruits (not to mention, i don't eat bananas apart from cakes). Hence the peaches. Not just normal 'red skinned white flesh' peaches, but golden yellow peaches which are only available in Oz (i have not seen them personally in the UK or China, n my mom in law claimed they are sth new to her). 

i believe total weight for both bags exceeded 2kgs.

I got them for $1 per bag coz most of the fruits were either overripe or ugly. Why use rotten fruits, becoz they taste better n the cooking time is relatively shorter as compared to the good/ not so ripe ones. Besides, it's like wasting if you cook a good looking n ready to eat peach which costs more than double per kg.

Since they are rotten, they must be thoroughly washed n soaked beforehand.

I spent more than an hour cooking 2kgs of peach with 800g of sugar n lemon juice to produce the below result. Of course with hub's assistance. You may wonder why so much sugar; sugar acts like a preservative in this case, without sugar the shelf life of the jam wld be significantly short. Brands like St Dalfour who claim their jams are sugar free use grape syrup or maybe other preservative to prolong the shelf life. To me, homemade jams are better even with the extensive amt of sugar, becos the ingredients are purely the fruits, sugar n lemon juice. No gelatine, no cornstarch, no additives but only these three ingredients. Not to mention, cheaper. For a total $4.60, i made abt nearly 1kg of jam that can last us for many mths.

Beautiful colour? I used raw caster sugar instead of normal white sugar.

It is very important that glass jars which are recycled to store jam be sterilised properly. The steps are fairly simple: boil jars in a deep saucepan and heat/dry in a preheated oven at 200oC. Jams must be hot filled directly into these dried jars, n lids fastened without being left to cool so that the trapped hot air can secure the closure n prevent outside air from entering. This way the jams don't have to be refrigerated but only upon opening n consumption.

 



I am thinking of making mixed berries jam end of the year i.e. when the next summer comes. At the moment, we have enough supply to last till then.

P/s:  i am at the moment, considering n applying my master of eng in Mel Uni, and wld appreciate your prayer on this. Has been my long wish to do a postgrad, n i believe this may be the right time considering the fact that upon working or having kids will reduce the possibility of me pursuing one in the near future.