Mee Bandung

I love Mee Bandung but I always find the ones in eateries a tad too sweet for my liking. So decided to try my own. My....didn't realize Mee Bandung can taste this good. I'll be making this more often from now on.

Kerabu Bean Sprouts

This is the first of a series of "kerabu" that I intend to try in my bid to go healthy with raw stuff.

Mexican Sausage Potato

This is a dish that is very simple to make and gets gobbled up within minutes. I just found myself the "must have" dish for the week!

Home Made Lo Mai Kai

Lo Mai Kai is a favorite with my hubby. He never misses ordering this whenever we have our weekend dim sum. So it was a must try for Kitchen Trails. Last weekend, I carried out the experiment amidst a lot of reservations. Used my pie foils to do them. Wanted to add some chinese sausages but ran out of it. So ended up with just mushrooms and chicken. For the first time, the kids did not refuse Lo Mai Kai. How satisfying.

A Hearty Nasi Briyani Meal

My sons have all followed after my husband and I in their taste for food...we are all very much into spicy food. Needless to say, Indian rice and curries rank very high on our list of food preferences. For a change, I decided to forget about eating out this weekend and decided to cook us all a hearty nasi briyani meal. I just used normal rice, which turned out quite okay. The second helpings made the work done today all the more satisfying.

Kueh Kochi Santan

Used to love this when I was small. Stopped eating this for a while and recently started patronizing a stall in USJ 2 which sells very good ones. Since my eldest son loved this very much, I decided to give it a try. It didnt turn out as soft as I wanted it too although the taste was just as good. May have gone a little wrong with the water concentration. This one is earmarked for another try some other time.

Home Made Snowskin Mooncake

Moon cake prices - do a survey and you'll find the prices exorbitant to the point of being ridiculous. Much as I think they are overpriced (say what you want about fantastic packaging and creative flavours), it is hard not to get some as the kids really love this annual delicacy. However, after some success in making my own moon cakes yesterday, I think I can forget about paying through my nose for moon cakes now. Plus the kids can have their fill of moon cakes anytime they like.

I brought a recipe book which is dedicated entirely to moon cakes just yesterday. It has five sections ranging from baked moon cakes, to jelly mooncakes, pastry mooncake, shanghai mooncakes and the snowskin variety. I knew well not to be over ambitious and started off with what I believed would be the simplest to pull off, this being my very first try - I settled on making snowskin with red bean filling. I was hesitant to buy the wooden mould which was quite pricey at the baking ingredients shop, so settled on getting a plastic mould (the one used for jelly moon cakes). As you can see, the flower motif didnt come out too well. I can imagine how nice it would turn out had I used the real wooden moulds. I used pandan juice as coloring and flavouring (never like the essence taste used on those that are on sale). The moon cakes turned out a nice light green shade. The snowskin was a great success - smooth and soft as it should be even after refridgeration. Next step is to do the traditional baked mooncakes and if that turns out well too, I'll be ready to get the wooden moulds.

Home Made Ang Koo

I love Ang Koo fried with egg. But when you do it yourself and straight off the steamer, I really don't mind having it fresh as it is. Mum used to have the wooden Ang Koo mould but as with many other things, she had given away to a relative years back. Much as I love this nyonya kueh, I have procrastinated on making it because of the lack of appropriate tools. However, I wasnt about to let that deter me this time, so I went ahead. As you can see, it doesn't look too great but tasted really smooth and soft. Used natural pandan coloring and flavour and grean pea filling for this one.

Carrot n Seafood in Seaweed

So colorful and most aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Raisin and Cranberry Scones

Ever since we tasted the scones at Teapot Cafe, scones have become a favorite tea time snack for the kids and we always benchmark all other scones to the ones sold there. Eaten with lots of butter and a some good quality jam (try the one at Harrods), this is one heavenly tea time treat. I've almost perfected the recipe and can proudly boast that mine taste even better than Teapot Cafe now. Goes to show what a little determination in the kitchen can do. This time round I tried including some cranberries as well.

Home Made Sausage Buns

I guess everyone realises that the cost of breads and buns have been escalating consistently for the last year or so. Bakeries such as Bread Story do come out with rather unique creations and tastes but they can cost more than RM3 each. For a large household, getting buns for school or teatime snacks can be an ill-afford luxury. My kids seem to just love sausage buns so when I decided to try baking some buns lately, it was an easy decision as to what I should bake. Aside from not being able to adjust the heat for a nice finish (you can see it is a little burnt!), I wouldnt term this a "kitchen spill" as it tasted really soft and tasty, especially when eaten piping hot and straight out from the oven. I used sausages filled with cheeze for this one so it was extra scrumptious. Thinking of the first bite with cheeze oozing out at the sides makes me want to give this one another go.

Roti Jala

I saw a plastic roti jala sieve in the Jusco sale recently and because it was cheap, I bought it just to give roti jala a try. If it is successful, I will then get the authentic metal one. I added a touch of kunyit for color but the plastic sieve was a let down (kind of expected it). The holes were far too small and the batter wouldnt flow out. In the end, had to improvise and cut through to make the holes larger. After that the batter flowed through nicely and Fats had a great time helping to make the net-like roti jala and rolled them up. The holes ended up actually a tad too large so the batter flowed out more than I wanted them too resulting in the net being not as fine. But other than that, it tasted just right. Yay!

Chee Cheong Fun (Penang Style) with Sweet Sauce

Successful on my first try...and I thought it was difficult. I resorted to using my pizza pan to lay the rice flour mix and the thickness was just right. Tasted nice, springy and smooth and similar to the ones you would buy. I made my own concoction of the sweet sauce with hoi sin sauce which hubby brought back from Penang. The kids loved it!!! I was afraid it might be a disaster and made just a small portion. So I had a hard time pacifying the kids that I'll make more the next time. If only all my kitchen experiments can achieve this kind of success every time. Sigh!

Another go at Pizza

The last time I made this, it disappeared way too fast. Dad didn't even have a chance to sample it. So, I decided to have another go at it yesterday. I was exceptionally generous with the cheese toppings this time round. Added lots of garlic to the delight of the kids...they are all garlic lovers. I think I have perfected the pizza base and the sauce....YAAAAAAY!

Chilli Con Carne

Wendy's came along and the kids are going ga-ga over Jacket Potatoes...So I decided to get my hand at doing Jacket Potatoes with some Chilli Con Carne two days ago. I managed to get the red kidney beans to go with it but didn't have time to find the large-sized potatoes. So had to settle for the normal ones. As you can see, the chilli topping was way too much for the pint-sized potatoes. Still, since the kids are big on sauce, this suits them just fine. The little one didnt enjoy this too much as it was a tad too spicy for his taste. But other than that, everyone thought it was yummy. Another one conquered, another bit of savings!