Pandan Chiffon Cake

I made Pandan Chiffon Cake for Lily's grandson one month old party. I had tried several recipes that used different quantities of eggs and found this recipe is the best. It used 6 eggs and always produced very high chiffon cake unlike the others that I have tried. I have used this to make almond chiffon cake, orange chiffon cake and lemon chiffon cake before. 

The above is the picture of the Pandan paste that I used, usually selling for 99 cent at the Asian grocery store.  This is the brand and paste that I recommend to produce a fragrant cake, essence and powder form are not recommended. 

Ingredients:

(A)
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 Tbp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar

(B)
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup coconut milk
1 tsp. pandan paste

(C)
6 egg whites
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

3/4 cup sugar

Steps
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1. Preheat oven to 350'F (175'C).

2. Combine (A) in a bowl. Stir well to blend. Add (B). Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.

3. Beat (C) until moist peaks formed. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, beating until stiff and shiny peaks are formed. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolks mixture, fold to mix and then add the rest of the egg whites. Fold gently but thoroughly. Turn batter into ungreased 10" tube pan.

4. Bake for 60 mins or til a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Invert cake and cool completely in pan. When cool, loosen the edges and shake pan to remove cake.

My Note:
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Best kept in the refrigerator because the coconut milk will turn the cake sour if kept in room temperature after 2 days.

Lily's Grandson One Month Old Party

I got invited to Lily's grandson one month old celebration on Aug 27th. Her grandson is so cute and such a good baby. He won't mind being pass around and could even slept through all the noises. Yeah it was pretty loud on that day as Lily and Sandra invited a lot of friends and neighbors.

Look at what Lily cooked!! She cooked a lot and we all had a full tummy. I just love being around this family, makes me feel at home. And I just love homecook meal, so satisfying!

Lemon Biscotti Dipped in Chocolate

Made this for a friend's daughter. I used a basic biscotti recipe and added lemon zest, fresh lemon juice and lemon essence to make it a lemon biscotti and then dipped it in Baker's chocolate.

Ingredients

(A)
1 stick of butter or 1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. lemon essence
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon

(B)
3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 Tbp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

(C)
4 cubes Baker's chocolate, melted
~microwave for about 1 min 15 or 30 seconds or til melted.

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 375'F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, beat together (A) until well blended. Add in (B) and stir to form a dough. Divide dough in half and roll each roll into the length of the cookie sheet. Then move each roll to the cookie sheet and press down to 1/2 inch thickness.

3. Bake for 20-25 mins or til golden brown. Remove to cool on wire rack. When it's cool enough to handle, slice each one crosswise into 1/2 inch slices with a serrated knife. Place the slices cut side up back to the cookie sheet and bake each side for a further 6 mins. Remove to cool on wire rack while preparing the melted chocolate.

4. When cool, dip each biscotti into the melted chocolate and let rest on the wire rack. Put it in the refrigerator for 30 mins for the chocolate to harden. Store in an air-tight container.

Note:
This recipe is very versatile, you can play with it to come out with any combination or flavor biscotti that you like. Like add in nuts, raisin, chocolate chips, etc.

If you want the lemon flavor to be stronger, use zest of 2 lemons and 1 Tbp. of lemon essence. The dipped in chocolate step may be omitted.

Potluck Picnic

A friend and I organized a potluck picnic with the theme Nasi Lemak last weekend. We found a really nice shaded park with a duck pond near downtown where we host the picnic. The turn out was great and everyone was enjoying themselves and the food. We had nasi lemak, sambal ikan bilis , nasi lemak ganishes, curry veggies, curry chicken, curry lamb, beef rendang, otak-otak, sambal prawns, fried chicken, mee goreng, spring rolls, pickled veggies, agar-agar, cakes, cookies, fruit salad and drinks.

Black Sesame Seeds Bun

Made this when I was out of bread. Used the basic sweet bun dough recipe and sprinkle the top with black sesame seeds. Easy to make and my daughter loves it, just the bun not the sesame seeds though.

A Way to Eat French Bread

My hubby took me to an Italian restaurant last week. This restaurant served a kind of bread, looked like french bread but only about 6 inches long. And the way they served it was to present you with a plate of some dried herds and then sprinkle some extra virgin olive oil on it. You ate it by tearing some of the bread and dipped into the olive oil mixture. Oh man, can I say good! I saw people dipping bread in plain extra virgin olive oil on TV, but never really though of eating a bread in that way, you know what I mean? But after this, after I got home I have to make my own since I have lots of dried herbs in my pantry anyway. So, I came out with this mixture (not sure whether it's the same, but it was pretty good).

Simple Dip for French/ Italian bread

A few sprinkles of dried basil
A little salt
A few sprinkles of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1. Place the dried basil and salt on a plate and sprinkle the EVOO on top and serve with the bread.

So easy and yummy as well. And EVOO is good for your heart!! So, do try it and let me know whether you like it or not.

Homemade Ground Chillies in Oil

My friends always praise about my ground chillies and asked me for the recipe. Thus, I would share it here since it's a good spicy chillies.

Ingredients:

3 cups of Dried Chili Peppers (preferably the dried chili padi kind)
2 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Belacan Powder
Few dashes of Paprika Powder
Few dashes of Cayenne Pepper Powder
2 cup of cooking oil (canola or vegetable)

Methods:

1. Put the dried chili pepper in a saucepan, covered with enough water and boil it. When boiled, turned off the heat, covered and let it sit for 15 mins or until the dried chili peppers have softened, drained.

2. Use a Food Processor to process the chili until fine. Add in the remaining ingredients except oil and pulse again to mix well. Set aside.

3. At the meantime, heat 2 cup of oil in a saucepan in medium heat until hot. Add the blended chili and stir it around until well mixed. Turn off the heat and let it cool completely before storing in a clean glass jar. Keep in the refrigerator.

~Can be used in anything, as condiment to fried rice or mee hoon or use it in stir-frying belacan vegetable or ikan bilis chili for nasi lemak, etc.


~Yield 1 big bottle