1st Week of University

It's been so long since I've been back to school that yes... I did get thrown off balance when I returned to school.

So... how was it? XD Well... I have a lecture mate who's now staying at the same building as me AND I have an event to hold that I'm going bonkers about due to the deadline and the problems that are associated with it. WHY IS TIME RUNNING FROM ME!!!!??@@##!! Oh well...

Law? Usual. Read my English literature; Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

It's a really good book. Introduced me to a different world altogether; the African culture. It has given me real insight towards their culture, their way of thought and how a society braces a different culture.. What's more, I heard a Nigerian boast that he really pays great respect about his parents while reading the book; reinforcing my views as I read further. So... my say? This book deserved the price it won and deserved the number of translation done on it!

I love my Russian class!!! IT RAWKS!!! Just haven't learned to read and write yet. XD

Latest cooking endeavour? Mwahahhahaa... Pop the popcorn!! Pop pop pop!!! 

Ngahahahhahaa.... okay okay okay... From now on... I've also made up a new resolution. I WILL NEVER EAT any deserts if it is not made by me. After all, sometimes... you don't know what's in it and really... the trouble it takes you to do it really makes you think whether it's really worth it to even get the desert in the first place... but yeah... I've toiled and toiled in the kitchen this past week and have come up with a tutorial to make popcorn.

Popcorn

Ingredients

Popcorn kernels

Cooking oil

Directions

1. Pour some hot oil into the wok (enough to contain all your popcorn) and cover it. After some time when you think the oil is becoming hot, add four or five kernels into the wok.
2. Wait till you hear the pop-pop of the kernels before adding the rest of the kernels that you're going to make.
3. While it's popping, shake your pan so that the heat is evenly distributed.
4. When you find that the pop has subsided, set the wok aside. 
5. The pop corn is now ready for seasoning.

Seasonings

Caramel story(I mainly referred to his method to make the caramel but there's basically a long story about this...)

Yes... Like any stupid and confident girl, I thought caramel was as easy as ABC so I made my first batch of popcorn today just after reading a recipe (after much persuasion to try a sweet version) thinking that if I melt approximately 3/4 cup of sugar, 2 tbsp of water and 1/2 cup of oil, things will work out just fine... YEAH RIGHT... it failed... (after I mixed it together with my popcorn {wasting that as well} hoping that it would stick in the end... which it did not). Amateur-ish of me but I am an amateur in the kitchen... XD, but I found this video rather helpful. Gordon Ramsay... you're my savior. Basically, the ratio is 1:1 for caramel sauce, Liquid : Fat.

So good luck playing with the frying pan. ( I tried at least twice before getting it on the third try)

Caramel (Wei Chin's way)

3/4 cup of sugar

Margarine

1. Turn on the fire, place the sugar in the frying pan and follow Gordon Ramsay... XD
2. When it starts to turn amber in color, get the pan off the gas (just switch it off). Continue rolling it until the all the sugar has melted.
3. Then add in the fat (margarine in my case since it was the only one available at the grocery store downstairs).
4. Whirl it around till all fat and liquid has been well-blended.
5. Immediately drizzle it over the pop-corn unless you're planning on making caramel candy.
6. After it is cooled down, pluck the balled up pieces apart and store it well.

Things I've learned from making caramel

• Don't wait too long when before drizzling the caramel on the popcorn. My caramel hardened because I'm doing caramel sauce, the dry way. (2nd Try Mistake)
• To clean the pan or anything containing sugar, simply heat whatever that has sugar on it with water till it's dissolved into the water or easily removable. (Basically, just imagine yourself making a sugar solution - like a Science student conducting an experiment)
• More tips? Refer to David Lebovitz.

Fragrant butter

If you're running low on butter, extend the usage of it's flavor by melting some butter into oil. Then drizzle over the popcorn.

Olive oil and rosemary

Heat olive oil with rosemary and drizzle it over popcorn.

Olive oil + Cider Vinegar Vinaigrette

This mixture does not last overnight as cider vinegar is water hence it will shrink and moisten the whole batch (spoiling it quicker then ever), so... don't do this if you're not planning to use it.

Paprika and salt

I basically popped my popcorn in the oil containing paprika and salt for an even coating on all my popcorn (stir the mixture in the oil to prevent clumps), after popping, I added salt and paprika again according to taste ( My first batch of popcorn and honestly... since I like paprika, my favorite)

There are basically more seasoning combos for popcorn but it's really up to you in the end cause you're going to be the one eating it... XD... I try to mix in some spices to kick up the health benefits of the food I eat ; hence producing the above combos but basically, they're also one of my favourite spices; therefore justifying my special mention of these spices. Mwahahha

**Special note, just in case you're going to dismiss popcorn altogether because it's unhealthy... think again for I've got research to back me up! Popcorn becomes healthy or unhealthy due to the choice of seasonings, So good luck at your attempt in making popcorn. XD

Recipe - Red lentil veggie burgers

It's been so long since I've posted a recipe post... so here comes one!! XD

Actually, I've been doing lots and lots of muffins these past semester break ( cause my mum needs me to finish up the two boxes of dates she bought last year) but I haven't posted any...hehe... unfortunately but I'd post them soon... LOL... when I feel like it! XD The last one was really scrumptious using whatever was in my kitchen but hey... I will post it up soon! XD if there is an urge to share my super duper delicious secret muffins... and yeah... they're really healthy and worth it compared to those muffins you buy out there... =P cause mine is super duper delicious and super duper healthy... XD super duper dumb to promote me muffins without proof but yeah... it is super duper worth it to whip it up. Now... drum roll please.... I shall present to you... Red lentil Veggie Burgers.

Why red lentils? Cause it's one of the fastest lentils to cook and I have my stock from six months ago to use before it goes really really old and useless. Just in case you don't know what's lentils... I'll post a picture of it here...Just in case there are people like me who don't know their way in the local grocery store...The cooked and the uncooked kacang dhal merah = red lentils.

I've basically tried to follow the recipe to the letter but ... since I'm dirt poor and stupid at times... I've bought wrong ingredients thinking they were what I thought they were... haha... and used them instead! XD

the Chinese Celery ( I didn't know such a thing existed until I read the label... XD ) I used it instead of Parsley leaves.

wait... I did quite a few changes to the recipe... so I'll just post my adaptation here...

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups red lentils

Cooking oil to stir-fry vegetables and bast the burgers

1 small onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

a few shakes of white / black ground pepper from the bottle if any... at hand

3/4 cup of instant oatmeal (my 'healthy' sister bought them but didn't even touch them)

1 packet of chinese celery, chopped to the approximate length of your palm

2 large eggs, lightly beaten (to hold the burgers)

1 tbsp of salt 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. In a large saucepan, cover the lentils with cold water by 2 inches and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until lentils are very tender, about 10 mins (maybe earlier). Look at my picture to gauge whether yours is cooked. Drain well.

2. In a medium frying pan, heat some oil to stir-fry onion, garlic and carrots over moderately high heat. When carrots begin to soften, add in ALL the Chinese celery (otherwise the celery would be too tough to form into balls/ patties since they'll be sticking out). If not... just follow the lady's example and use a soft vege whereby you can add it later while you're mixing all the ingredients. Stir in the cumin and cayenne and remove from heat.

3. In  a large bowl// the large saucepan you used earlier, combine all of the ingredients. The lentils, breadcrumbs, eggs, SALT, pepper and vege mixture. Mix them well and form it into burgers. Ball them up into small balls and press them down on the pan.

4. Line a baking pan with foil. Brush the foil and tops of burgers with oil and let your oven do the magic for 15-20 minutes.

This smart alec was too lazy to foil up the last pan since this recipe made me about 30 burgers... and guess what... the ones in the pan (fortunately only five) not foiled up broke apart upon removal. This went to my tummy straight/ or the doggies. Not only that... since I forgot to add salt... it smelled fantastic but tasted bland (stupid WC) so they were salvaged by dipping them in chili/ tomato sauce. Last picture courtesy of Damari.

Recipe: Carrot Cinnamon Muffin

Today... I've finished my last supply of Gardenia Wholegrain Bread...TT.TT

I love the bread cause it's just sooooooooooo soft and so effortless...

Just take it out of the plastic bag and plop it into the toaster for a min., while waiting for it to get toasted... use the Milo 3 in 1 sachet to make a cup of nice hot chocolate... then I hear the "ding" of my toaster and wa~lah~ nice crunchy toasted bread.... slather peanut butter on top of one slice... grab a bite... finish one slice... slather peanut butter on another slice...Mmmm~~ delicious

But then... but then... it would get boring just eating this same ritualistic bread right??? right???

Nah... but I needed to not put the other baking ingredients in the kitchen to waste...XD... So I baked another muffin out of the blue~

Carrot Cinnamon Muffin

1 1/2 large carrots (finely shredded)// 1 medium sized bowl // 1 cup

1 1/4 cups of wheat flour

1 cup of oats

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of nutmeg

1/4 tsp of fennel seeds

1 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp of vanilla extract

2 medium sized eggs

1 cup of milk

1 tbsp of baking powder

1/4 cup of oil

1/4 cup of sugar

1. Line muffin tin with baking paper. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Sift the flour, salt, nutmeg, baking powder and cinnamon together in a bowl. Stir in the oats and fennel seeds until it's evenly distributed.
3. Whisk the egg, milk, oil, sugar and vanilla extract until it's well mixed in a separate bowl.
4. Mix the carrots together with the dry ingredients (in hopes of it not sinking to the bottom of the muffin).
5. Mix the dry to the wet mixture (in my case it's this way cause my wet mixture is in a bigger bowl to avoid spillage). Mix it up in about six to eight strokes.
6. Using the 1/4 cup earlier, put mixture into the baking cups.
7. (optional) Sprinkle sesame seed and oat on top of each muffin.
8. Bake the muffin in the oven till you're satisfied that it is sufficiently cooked.
9. The convection oven at home took longer than necessary... I'd put mine at 35 mins next time to see how it would be like but maybe yours would take a shorter time... at about 25-30 mins..
10. The pics will be coming out later cause I just baked it.

Verdict... First and second time rebaked came out a little undercooked, but each time I ate it, it tasted great... SO... not bad for an amateur like me... Mwahhahahahaha

Yoghurt Cinnamon Muffins

Hesitant to waste all the good yoghurt that was due to be expired next week...

Yes... I basically tried to make a yoghurt muffin with all the leftover yogurt from my previous bran muffins (can't make bran muffins cause there were no more raisins at home...TT.TT)...

However, the only problem that arose is that there isn't any specific recipe for me to refer for such a recipe, so this time, I basically dumped what I liked ( a little ) to pop this recipe out.

Yogurt cinnamon muffins

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/3 cup soft brown sugar, a little on the excess side
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1-1/4 cup plain yogurt
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup of toasted pecans (chopped)

1/4 cup of toasted walnuts (chopped)

1. Preheat the oven at 200C
2. Sift together the all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Stir in the quick-cooking oats, pecans and walnuts. Ensure all of it is evenly distributed with each other.
3. Whisk the eggs, soft brown sugar, vegetable oil, yogurt and milk in a separate bowl.
4. Add in the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Then, with the flat spatula or something to stir with, go about making 12 strokes to the mixture to ensure that the dry is wet.
5. Then, using the 1/3 measuring cup, scoop the batter into the muffin pan.
6. Baked in oven for 25-30 minutes (I put mine at 27 mins. and the top was going golden to a little golden brown for some... lol) and check with the toothpick test. Cool in pan for a few mins. then move the muffins onto a wire rack till it cools.
7. Take a picture of the muffins.

My honest opinion about these muffins??

Mwahahhahaha... To tell the truth... I was basically so hooked on them I couldn't part with them at all... I just felt like eating them continuously after getting used to the yogurt taste...

They are addictive... Seriously... I couldn't separate myself from the muffins... They are addictive... Yes... so very addictive... I'll probably add another 1/4 cup of flour next time... cause I don't know why... but cooked, the muffins don't come apart from the muffin cups easily...hmm...and maybe more cinnamon because I barely tasted the cinnamon... 1tbsp next time... mwahahhahahaha... IT sounds crazy but I should test it out next time and see if it makes a difference, yeah?

Bran Muffins

Okay... Today I've finally tried Nancy Silverton's Bran Muffins Recipe I got from David Lebovitz's website...

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/07/nancy-silvertons-bran-muffins/

What can I say?

I basically ate four of it in one day... Yes... that says a lot doesn't it???

mwahahhahahah.... I reduced the sugar to just 1/3 cup of brown sugar and switched wheat bran with oat bran because that's what I can easily find....

And I also switched whole wheat flour with oat flour because I don't have the former as well....

Well, it cooked alright... tasted alright... Will I cook this again?

Most probably if I have lots of raisins because I just finished my last supply of raisins which was in my fridge for I don't know how long.... yeah...

That's what I sincerely think about this whole thing... hahahhahahhaha...

I think I'm not going to eat any of the muffins for awhile... got kind of sick of the muffins... hehe...

Too many in one day... it's not goodie for me stomach...hahhahahahhaha

Simply Perfect Pancakes from King Arthur Flour

I also tried another recipe yesterday from King Arthur Flour,
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/simply-perfect-pancakes-recipe

It tasted and looked like a regular pancake compared to my previous attempt from RasaMalaysia.com. So, I think I'll keep this recipe for pancakes in the future!

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 3 tablespoons melted butter or vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar

I did a few changes, like substituting 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour with 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp quick-cooking oats blended in the blender and adding a grated apple into the mixture to keep it moist longer.

My younger sister prefers an eggier pancake so maybe I'll add an extra egg for her next time when I have honey for it to go along with her pancake. I on the other hand suggest eating it when it's just hot right off the stove to really enjoy it or microwave it before eating.

Directions

1. Whisk the eggs and milk until light and foamy. Then stir in the vegetable oil.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the flours, salt, baking powder and sugar.
3. Then, quickly mix the wet and the dry mixture together evenly and let it sit for approximately 15 minutes (the batter will thicken).
4. Then, if you're poor like me and can't find a cooking spray, use a kitchen towel, dip it in oil and oil a sizzling frying pan (sufficiently hot to start cooking the pancakes).
5. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and wait till you see lots of bubbles popping on the surface of the batter. Flip it now!
6. Then, just wait awhile, check the other side to see if it's golden brown (or cooked pancake look), then voila! into the stomach it goes! (Basically, you only turn the pancakes over only once to get the cool pancake look)

This recipe is really simple, takes awhile to cook up with so stop wasting your money buying those pancake mixes in the stores... you can just donate the money to a poor unfortunate soul (like me). hehe...and this pancake is a wholegrain breakfast with the oatmeal in it... LOL... try it out if you're craving for the English pancake...

I ate my pancake with my tomato jam I previously posted about and it is, without doubt, DELICIOUS!

Apple Spice Bread

Today, I've tried a recipe from About.com... with a few renditions here and there, I think I'll do it more often~! hehe
This is the Apple Spice Cake Recipe I got from
http://southernfood.about.com/od/quickbreadrecipes/r/bl50823i.htm
The recipe given called for 2 loaves so I basically halved the recipe.

Well... I think I'll give my next adaptation here...

• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups coarsely chopped apples
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup melon seeds, toasted
  
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
• 1 teaspoons sugar mixed with a sprinkle of cinnamon
  

Preparation:

1. Sift into a bowl, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.
   
2. In a mixing bowl, combine sugar and oil. Beat in eggs and vanilla, then stir in chopped apples, raisins, and seeds.
   
3. Add the dry ingredients and mix until well blended.
   
4. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pans and line bottoms with waxed paper. Greased waxed paper(FOLLOW THIS INSTRUCTION OR THE CAKE WON"T COME OUT AND IT"LL LOOK HORRIBLE).
5. Pour batter into pans, smoothing the top with a spatula or spoon. Bake for 20 minutes at 160°C. Pull out rack and sprinkle loaves with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
   
6. Continue baking for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Cool for 10 minutes; turn out onto a rack. Slice and serve or freeze.

The cake basically turned out quite moist, in my case with my not so pretty bread, sufficiently flavourful, not too sweet which is fantastic in my case, a little eggy ( thanks to me adding an extra large egg into the recipe) but all in all it was quite nice! I'm going to try adding a tsp of fennel seeds or a tsp of cumin seeds next time for an extra punch!

Carrot Raisin Bread

I've tried this recipe last week but due to my sister's camera which was out of battery the last time, I didn't post about it, hehe... but have no fear!!! I AM BACK! with my sister's camera!

So, I still referred to Eclectic Recipes for this but with just some alterations with the ingredients~

Carrot Raisin Bread


Ingredients

1 1/2 cup finely shredded carrots (I just used about 1 medium sized bowl that looked kind of full)
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (I hope I used this amount because I accidentally sifted it with the flour so it didn't go in well, so I just presumed I readded it into flour with approximately the same amount...hehe... cause I didn't use a measuring spoon...hehe)
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg (AA the biggest one in the market)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup raisins (1/4 cup golden, 1/4 cup black)
2 tsp cinnamon (I used more than 2 tsp since mine is expired so it's less effective)
1/2 tsp nutmeg (same as the cinnamon)
1/2 cup of toasted seed (1/4 cup melon, 1/4 cup pumpkin)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.
   
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. Toast the seeds in a frying pan. Just stir it with a wooden spatula like I did with no oil.
   
4. Grate carrot and add to large mixing bowl. Add sugar, molasses, salt, eggs, and oil. Mix very well.
5. Then stir together the dry mixture (2) and wet mixture (4) together until just combined. Just try to get almost all of the flour wet with the mixture in my case.
6. Then stir in raisins and toasted seeds. Pour the mixture into a loaf pan and try to keep the batter even in the pan.
   
7. Bake in an oiled loaf pan for 50-60 minutes, or until bread passes the toothpick test(mine was done in 50 minutes).

Tomato ginger jam from The New York Times

My latest food venture, other than bread is Tomato ginger jam!

I HONESTLY LOVE TOMATOES...

Tomato...tomato...tomato mato mato...Tomato... tomato...tomato mato mato...

Gosh... Tomato above sounds like the bananas in pajamas lyrics~!

XD....Okay... Enough said... IT WAS delicious... and I know I'm going to eat that jam with my bread tomorrow instead of that sickening sweet St. Daflour's Strawberry jam.

hehehehheehhee....XD

I'm in love with the jam~!

Okay...

Well... I did some adjustments to the recipe, added 1/2 a tablespoon of honey lime, more cloves than asked for, used fennel seeds instead of cumin seeds (cause I didn't know the difference until a few days ago) and I'd probably want to try the peppers with dried chili flakes next time...hehe

The link to the recipe is below...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/dining/201mrex.html

and a little reference as well...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/dining/20mini.html

*sniff sniff... but I nicked myself while making the jam on Sunday...so be careful when you're coring the tomatoes if you're making it!!!

XD... I honestly didn't eat the jam till Tuesday cause my mom insisted on eating dim sum on Monday..TT.TT...ooh... Too bad I couldn't eat the jam earlier~!

Apple Caraway Bread from Eclectic Recipes

Woot~! Today I've finally started baking!!! GOSH!!! Okay...
So here's the picture~!

Apple Caraway Bread (a.k.a. Apple Cumin Bread)

Cumin and caraway seeds are one and the same. It's a seed of a herb, so it gives off a nice herb/spice flavour. In malay, caraway seeds are known as biji jintan.

This is basically the link to it...
http://eclecticrecipes.com/apple-caraway-bread

I'm not sure how to HTML this but if you do know how, do tell me, kay?

For this recipe, I basically followed it ingredient by ingredient.
Urm... Just the apple part though, I wasn't sure how many apples to use, so I used three granny smith apples, I presume that's 1 3/4 cup? and the oil I used was a 10% mixture of olive oil and 90% canola oil (due to lower saturation of fats compared to palm oil by 80%). Check it out here...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_oil

LOL... Anyway... it was nice and filling. Got quite full eating just 2 slices of the bread simply as it is with a cup of milk. Hehehe... Nice and comfy in my tummy~!

___________________________________________________
LOL... I have to announce that I'm now the proud owner of a brand new pair of running shoes~!

Actually, during my study week in college, the second last week in college, I've already been doing research on what shoe I needed to buy if I'm going to keep running, cause I believe I can't be running in my sports shoe everywhere, it's not good for me feet...XD...
So I bought a pair of NEW shoes~! Yeah~!

It cost my mom RM 269, but it's from NewBalance, and cause I like it and cause I run a lot... So it's worth it~

So, what am I going to do with my old shoes???

Mwhahhahahhaha... I shall bring it to college for all the events that will dirty my shoe!!! This shoe survived a quick-mud (like quicksand but it's quick-mud) , so it will survive anything else~! Mwhaahhahhahhahhahahah

That's all from me today~!