What's cookin'?: Potato and carrot soup

This simple yet scrumptious soup has got to be everyone's favorite. I learned to make it from my dear housemate and fell in love with it instantly.

You need:
Carrot
Potato
Chicken stock
Shallot
Ground black pepper
Shrimp

Method:

1. Boil carrots and potatoes with chicken stock (I used one Maggi Chicken Cube) with just enough water to cover all the carrots and potatos
2. Cut shallot finely, fry till golden
3. After carrots and potatoes are tender, blend them together with the water
4. Pour the mixture into a pot, and heat it up on the stove
5. Cut shrimps into small pieces and put in the pot
6. Add ground black pepper and salt to taste
*You can adjust the thickness to your own liking

So easy right???

I had it with homemade foccacia bread, which I will share the recipe later :P

Bon appetite!

What's cookin'? - Ep 7

Salam,

Lama pulak tak buat entry pasal makan. Dah lama tak cuba resipi baru :P

So, presenting to you......

Baked Penne Pasta with Mushroom

You need:

Penne pasta

Garlic

Butter/Olive oil

Mushroom

Salt and pepper

Cream

Mozzarella and/or cheddar cheese

Some thyme leaves

Method:

1. Melt butter in a pan (or you can opt to using olive oil instead, I used both in this recipe :P)

2. Saute garlic till golden

3. Add mushroom (I used chestnut mushroom. The more variety of mushroom you add the better)

4. Add thyme leaves

5. Cook until mushroom is tender

6. Add cream (or you can use milk instead, just cook a little longer till it thickens)

7. Add salt and pepper to taste

8. Then add al dente cooked pasta. Mix well.

9. Transfer half of the pasta into a baking dish

10. Sprinkle cheese

11. Add another layer of pasta and finally top with cheese (if you have breadcrumbs, add it at the top)

12. Bake until the top layer is golden 

Simple yet delicious!

*puji diri sendiri kejap*

Happy trying folks!

Masterchef in the making.

Salam,

The title is a mere exaggeration.

So over a month ago, there was this bookseller who came to our lab and dumped dozens of books in the pantry. At first I thought some kind people donated those books because they thought scientists need a break, and ironically they thought books could give scientists a break. Come on, more books on top of those journal articles and tedious lab work? Give us a REAL break.

That was quite a ramble there.

Turned out those books were for sale, and the bookseller put them there for sample.  

I caught one Chinese guy trying to figure out the price for a Disney Sing-a-long book. He said he was buying it for his niece in China. How adorable!

But most people, guys included, were crazy about this one book.

At first glance I knew I had to buy it. First, because it's pink. Second, it has cupcakes as the cover. Third, it's baking book! (The third one should be the first, LOL) 

I enjoy baking, it's just that I don't have much time for it. *alasan* But I thought, this book was a good bargain. Its retail price is GBP 25 but this seller was selling (and still selling it online) at GBP 10!! Tell me how can I not get it? I convinced myself sooner or later I'm gonna find time to bake therefore I must get this book. So that later in the future, I could have this little conversation with my hubs..

On a nice Saturday evening..

Hubs: Yang, I feel like having panettone for tea 'lah' today.
Me: Coming right up Hun :)

Me: Tomorrow can we have millefeuilles 'pulak'?

Hubs: Uuuuuu I like that :)

BERANGAN! HAHAHAHAHA. I can't even pronounce those two things correctly. LOL

But seriously, it's worth every penny. The book has more than 300 recipes (just my wild guess) and every main recipe comes with a step-by-step instructions like the picture below. It has everything you could think of, sweet to savory, breakfast to tea. Well actually not everything I could think of; I was flipping through it the other day and guess what, no Red Velvet recipe. I think the book is biased towards European recipes because all I can see is 'Italian this' 'French that' 'originate from Germany' and all that jazz. But still WORTH.IT.

p/s: It's been a month or so since I got a hold of this book, but I haven't tried any recipes yet. Hi hi. I'll make time I promise! You're gonna see me covered with tepung and egg in this blog soon. :))

What's cookin'? - Ep 6

Salam,

During my last sleepover with Kekna and Kekngah, Kekna made us wake up early in the morning to go to Tesco. She wanted to cook Spaghetti Aglio Olio for us. Pergi Tesco tak mandi uols, buruk perangai haha. Yelah, malam tu baru balik dari day trip pergi Melaka, sampai rumah at 1 am, tidur dekat pukul 3 am. By 9, semua dah bangun. Konon dah terbiasa bangun pagi sebab pergi kerja :P

I think it was my first time having Aglio Olio and boy was it delicious!

So earlier this week I kinda craved for it, but only got the chance to cook it yesterday.

So you need...

Pasta (I think any kind would do, this time I used Angel Hair)

Large prawns

Dried chilies

Ground black pepper

Parmesan cheese

Black pepper sausage

Garlic

Olive oil

FYI, Aglio means garlic and Olio means olive oil, in Italian. So the basis of the recipe are garlic and oil. And if you haven't noticed, ini bukan pasta yang ada gravy. It's rather dry. But since I am a cheapskate yang kedekut nak melabur RM19.90 for a bottle of extra virgin olive oil, I substituted it with butter. So it's Aglio Burro Pasta tee hee hee.

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan

2. Once heated, saute garlic until golden

3. Add prawns, sausages, and dried chillies (soak your dried chillies in hot water for a bit before adding to the pan)

4. Sprinkle ground black pepper and parmesan cheese

5. Add pasta

6. Add more parmesan cheese and black pepper to your liking

7. Pasta is then ready to serve

8. If you like, you can drizzle olive oil over your pasta before serving

Easy-peasy!

Happy trying :P

What's cookin'? - Ep 5

Salam,

Last Sunday night I was down with a weird-feeling stomachache, the kind I never had before. Nak kata senggugut bukan, food poisoning pun bukan. And it lasted till Monday morning :( At work, Dr. Ranald diagnosed me for having gastric when I told him the symptoms and the fact that I didn't have dinner on Saturday night and only had lunch at 4 pm on Sunday. The diagnosis was further confirmed by Dr. Mama. She gave me all sorts of advice including the most random one;

Beli susu kotak kecil2 tu, jangan dah beli handbag and baju, dah macam pokok!

Sempat lagi tu nak bagi pesanan khidmat masyarakat. Dari cerita sakit perut, boleh masuk pasal my shopping habit. Oh mummmyyyyy kuuuu...

I got home after work on Monday, and Kakak the Pharmacist prescribed me some black looking tablets; I refused to take it because of its look (judging a book by its cover). And when I checked at the back, it is actually 'Activated charcoal' hence the color. Lagi lah taknak makannn, charcoal kot! But I googled it, it's actually for to naturalize poison in the body yada yada yada.

From a doctor, Mama became a psychologist, then a nutritionist. She advised me on what to eat and what not to eat. So at the end, I made 'Sup Makaroni', which is the WHOLE purpose of this entry. Hahaha..sorry I took you through the long way :)

SUP MAKARONI

You need: Onion, garlic, cinnamon sticks, star anise, ginger, macaroni, carrot, celery, potato, sup bunjut/perencah sup, chicken stock, cili padi, salt and pepper

Method:

1. Blend onion, garlic and ginger

2. Saute blended ingredients with cinnamon sticks and start anise in a little bit of oil until golden (I didn't have sup bunjut/perencah sup, so I added a bit of serbuk kurma here instead)

3. Add water

4. Once water is boiling, add macaroni, carrot, potato and chicken stock/chicken cubes

5. Now wait forever 

6. Add cili padi to your liking, salt and pepper to taste

7. Add celery

8. Voila! Sup Makaroni siap!

*I really think adding serbuk kurma makes it taste better..hi hi hi*

You can also add some protein, that makes the soup 'Hidangan Sepinggan Lengkap', like we were taught in Kemahiran Hidup very long time ago *uhuk uhuk dah tua*

Traffic jammed deyy in there. If I were to put chicken cubes, lagi lah jammed. 

Last but not least, garnish with bawang goreng and daun sup :)

Oh lapaaaaaaaaar

What's cookin'? - Ep 2

Another simple hearty dinner recipe for y'all.

Made by my sister, I tukang sibuk amik gambar and tukang makan.

Salmon Salad, inspired by Black Canyon Coffee House

You need: Salmon fillet, or just any salmon cuts will do, green coral lettuce, egg, tomatoes, salt and pepper, Thousand Island dressing

The methods are pretty much self-explanatory.

In case you're wondering, my sister just add salt and pepper to the salmon before frying it.

How can you not love salmon?

What's cookin'? - Ep 1

This is long overdue. I made dinner last week and wanted to share the recipes with everyone, but naaaaah I was too busy being lazy. Haha. So I made baked potatoes and Beef in a Pocket (lame gila nama haha). Thanks to Annes for sharing how to make baked potatoes in her blog.

#1 Baked Potatoes

You need: potatoes, button mushroom, tomatoes, parsley, cheese, minced meat, salt and pepper (you can put literally anything you feel like having)

1. Bake potatoes in the oven. Temperature 180C-200C for 30 mins (depends on your oven). Kalau rajin wrap the potatoes in aluminum foil and cucuk-cucuk the potatoes nak kasi cepat masak.

2. Cut whatever you want/have into small edible pieces.

3. Saute with some butter for maybe 2-3 minutes, especially when you add meat. Kalau just veggies takyah saute pun takpe. I like to add either parsley or cilantro because it adds aroma to the mix.

4. Once your potatoes are tender enough, cut them into half, and scoop the potatoes out, leaving the skin behind. Make you sure the skin is still intact, because you're going to fill it later. Then, mix with the thing you sauted just now. There are two ways to eat baked potatoes. Either you do like I did, or you just scoop out some potatoes in the middle, and stuff the hole with the topping of your choice.

5. After you fill in the potato skin, add cheese and bake again until the cheese melted. And then, voila! Ready to eat!

#2 Beef in a Pocket

It is actually like kebab, but since I didn't roast the meat macam abang pasar malam jual kebab, I had to give it that lame name :P This one is super easy to make. Tak payah I share recipe pun takpe. Tapi saje nak letak.

You need: Minced meat (in my case, I used beef patties), onions, BBQ sauce, salt and pepper, mixed veggies, lettuce, pita bread

1. Cook your meat with onions. Put just a little bit of oil at the beginning because beef patties are oily in the first place. Add BBQ sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

2. Cut pita bread into halves, stuff the lettuce in, followed by the beef. Add mixed veggies that have been mixed with mayonnaise. Last but not least, add more BBQ sauce on top.

There you go! Simple dinner on the table. 

Senang kan? Something different. Malam-malam tak lalu nak makan nasi, sebab tengahari dah makan.

By the way, the yellow thing at the bottom is instant cheese sauce, beli kat Tesco 60 sen sepaket. Hihi

HAPPY COOKING! 

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND PEOPLE!