Simple Egg Fried Rice

*Note : This recipe for my own reference, as such the unplugged text, in case anyone is reading for ideas.

2 full cups rice (enough for 5 pax for this household).   cook and let cool.

 3-4 eggs  fried, scrambled put aside.

2-3 tbsp olive oil, generous.

1 medium onion cubed

4 chilli padi chopped

Carrot cubed and whatever vegetables la.. long beans, peas etc.

Chicken cubed mixed with white pepper powder and sesame oil (optional if available) 

1 cube chicken stock

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp kicap manis (Malay sweet soy sauce)

sauté onion till soft in that olive oil, then add chilli padi, mix mix mix

add the chicken cubes, mix  mix mix.. 5 mins or till chicken cooked

add the veges.  add light soy sauce and chicken stock.  mix until chicken stock well mixed.

put in the rice, mix well,

and then put in the scrambled egg.. mix well and add the kicap manis as desired.   

mix well and serve

Petite (17cm) Lemon Cake

90gm butter, melted
80gm flour
80gm sugar
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1tbsp lemon juice
zest from 1 lemon

1. preheat oven to 180deg Celcius, line the cake pan, melt butter in microwave, sift flour.
2. In a large bowl, add eggs, sugar and salt.  Over the double boiler (hot water around 50-60deg Cel) whisk the egg mixture until it becomes lukewarm and sugar dissolve.   Remove the bowl and whip the mixture until very thick and double in size.
3. Add sifted flour in 3 parts, fold in gently with spatula until incorporated.
4. Add melted bugger, mix well.
5. Add lemon juice and lemon zest and mix until just combined.
6. Pour batter into pan, bake for 30-35 mins.

For icing, mix well 50gm of icing sugar and 1/2 tbsp lemon juice and drizzle/spread over cake once it's out of the oven.

Simple Mac and Cheese

With the maid gone for her holidays, I'm left to think, especially on weekends, what to feed the kids.
On Sunday, I was in Singapore and I had wanted to get them nasi ayam or maybe pasta from spice.. and then I saw that the price was like SGD12 - this is for a single meal.
So I thought.. for that price, I can go get the ingredients and cook for 5-6 person at home, something simple.

So I looked up for a 'simple mac and cheese recipe'. And alhamdulillaah I found one..
Simple to me means, not too many ingredients, especially ones that I don't recognise.

This is again, my version of the recipe I got, because of several factors. Things like, I don't have enough of the ingredient.

They asked for 220gm shredded cheddar cheese. I remembered I have it (un-grated) in the fridge. I was happy to see the box indicate that it's 220gm, but when I took the cheese out, I saw that some of it was already cut.. I weighed the cheese, I only had 170gm left and the one end of that cheese was hardened. I grated what I could and threw away the hardened part.

Then they asked for '220gm all American cheese' - what is that? I saw that we have some sandwich cheese, 3 of them weighed about 60gm, so I used 11 of them. About 220gms

Mustard - dry mustard? I couldn't find 'dry mustard' at the supermarket. So I just got a small bottle of mustard. As for the pepper, I didn't realise the recipe asked for black pepper, I just grabbed normal pepper powder and put a heavy dash or two.

In conclusion, the final product turned out OK - just nice. Not too cheesy, Masyaa Allaah.
So I'm sticking with this recipe, insyaa Allaah.

Ingredients:

1/2 medium size onion
30 gm butter.
220 gm macaroni (like half the usual packet)
2 tablespoon flour
3/4 teaspoon mustard
A dash or 2 - of pepper
450 ml milk
150 gm shredded cheddar cheese (actually the recipe calls for 220gms.. but I only had 170gm, and 10-15 gms was hardened.. I just used what I can get and it was cheesy enough!
10-12 pieces of the sandwich cheese cut into stripes or just koyak2 kan - we're going to melt it anyway.

Method :

1. Bismillaah.
2. Preheat oven at 175 dec C.
3. Boil the macaroni with a bit of salt and a tsp of olive oil until soft - like usual.
* (this is optional, I put it in so that the macaroni don't stick to each other).
4. Cut onions into small cubes or chop.
5. Heat butter in pan until melt, then put in onions.
6. Saute onions until soft.
7. Put in the flour and mix well. (1-2 mins)
8. Pour in the milk and mix well again.
9. Put in the mustard and pepper.
10. Keep on stirring and mixing all until the whole mixture thickens and boils.
11. Put in all the cheese and mix well until all cheese have melted and is well mixed.
12. Drain macaroni and put into the pan for baking. Pour in the milk mixture and mix with macaroni well.
13. Put into oven and bake until it's hot and bubbly (about 10-15 mins)
14. Let it cool a bit (about 10 mins) before serving.

Basic Scones

3 cups (375 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 cup (100 grams) white sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (170 gm) butter (just out of the fridge/freezer)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup (235 ml) milk
1/2 cup raisins. (optional)

1. Start with Bismillah.
2. Preheat oven to 200 deg C.
3. Lightly grease a baking sheet on tray.
4. In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
5. Grate the frozen butter using the larger holes of the grater, into the flour mixture. Then, mix the butter with the flour mixture using your fingers until it all become like breadcrumbs. You can try to selawat while doing all these.
6. In another bowl mix the beaten egg and milk. Then pour into the flour mixture, mix until all is moistened.
7. You can add the raisins at this point if your husband insist on raisins, like mine do.
8. Use tablespoons to scoop whatever the spoon can hold, and put onto the greased baking sheet, leaving a little space between the doughs, cause it will be slightly larger when baked.
9. Bake for about 15 mins or until golden brown at the top.

Update 14 May 2013:
The above recipe makes about 25 pieces of spoonful mixture scones, which may be too much for a family of small eater or a family of 2, 3, 4.

So here is half the ingredients that I tried the other morning, which was just nice for my family of small eaters.
Makes about 12 pieces of scones.

190 grams all purpose flour
50 grams white sugar
3 grams baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
90 grams butter
1/2 of 1 beaten egg.
110 ml milk
1/4 cup raisins, if you want. Well actually, for the raisins, it depends on how much raisins you like in your scones. If you like more, just put more.

Mini Bread Puddings

Yesterday, about a month! after Fazi, my good friend, my lunchmate, gave birth, I visited her at home. I didn't want to visit her right after birth, cause I felt like if it was me, I could do with some rest time, alone. But I also didn't intend to visit this late. Anyhow, I finally visited her yesterday.

I'm surprised that she had time to prepare for me bread pudding, which she served on a small ball. It's not like the normal bread pudding I've seen before. Normally they are in a square pie tray or something, and I'd always try to go for the edges, because I want the more 'crispy', or 'chewy' part. Then we'd need to pour some cream over it.

This one is different. It is round, about 3 inch diameter (baked using mini pie trays). And since it is small, the whole thing is crispy. Furthermore it was just out of the oven. We didn't need to pour any cream over it - it already tasted like all in one.

I liked the taste and asked her for the recipe. I want to bake it myself, for my family, when I got home.

Apparently she got the recipe from allrecipe.com. In allrecipe.com, we are asked to melt some butter and pour it over the bread. However, my friend said spread the However, spreading of butter of the bread before tearing it would ensure that all bread pieces had some butter on it. Also it means one step lesser - we didn't have the melt the butter. I'm always for lesser ingredients and lesser work.
And the one on allrecipe.com also calls for vanilla extract.

Vanilla extract is a point of contention for the Muslims. Some Muslims says it's not halal since vanilla extract would definitely contain 30% alcohol, that makes it vanilla extract (MUIS standpoint). Other say, what is forbidden is intoxicating drinks or any thing that intoxicates. This alcohol is in another form already, part of a vanilla extract, and will not intoxicate. Therefore it is halal (Dr Muhammad Salah view).

My baker friend Tina said, vanilla extract or vanilla essence, are ingredients that you can live without. It only adds a little flavour in the form of a nice smell to the food. Does not noticeably affect the taste. As such, if I can do without vanilla extract I would.

So, after the long story, what I want to say is, I didn't use vanilla extract in my bread pudding.

Oh, the main reason for this entry is, I want to keep the recipe. I've baked and cooked successfully before. And I'd write the precious recipe in a notebook. But because sometimes I lose momentum to bake or cook, for months or years at times, I also lose the notebook. It has happened a couple of times. So this time, I figured the safest place to record what I have done successfully is in this blog, which alhamdulillah, I have not lost for the last 6-7 years.

So here goes:

Mini Bread Puddings


* Makes about 6-9 round (3 inch diameter) bread puddings.

Ingredients :

4 pieces white bread.
Enough butter or margarine to spread over bread.
2 eggs
235 ml milk.
75 grams fine sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
Some raisins (optional)

1. Say BISMILLAH (In the Name of God).

2. Preheat OVEN at 180dec C. (about 10-15 mins before using it)

3. Spread BUTTER OR MARGARINE over 4 pieces of WHITE BREAD. Try to cover the whole surface of the bread.
Then tear the bread to pieces.

4. In another bowl mix thoroughly the other ingredients : EGGS, MILK, SUGAR & GROUND CINNAMON.

5. Then pour this mixture onto the torn bread pieces. Press with fork to make sure all the break pieces absorb the mixture.
You can mix some raisins if you want at this point.

6. Then divide the bread mixture into the small mini pie bowls or pan, about the size mentioned above (3 inch diameter).

7. Put it in the oven (middle level) and leave to bake for about 22-25 mins.

8. When done, the white part of bread should look golden and the bread edge will look kind of crispy in darker brown.