Pai Pau

When I saw the picture of this bun from Florence's site I knew that I had to try making this but she didn't post her recipe on her blog so I was very shy to ask but when 20 other people asked if she could share her recipe I also asked for it. She's posted this recipe for quite some time now and I just found the opportunity to make this yesterday.

Apparently my pan was too small hence my bun is crowded. Next time I'll use a wee bit bigger pan.

Recipe adapted from Florence
Ingredients:
250g bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
5g instant yeast (I used 1.5 tsp)
2 tbsp skim milk powder
45g - 50g sugar
1 egg yolk + milk = 120ml
75ml whipping cream (I used 70ml)
1 tbsp condensed milk
50g pre-fermented dough
40g butter (room temperature)

Method:
1. Mix everything together except butter till you get a smooth dough. Add in the butter and knead till dough is elastic.
2. Prove dough for 1.5 hours or till double in size.
3. Divide into 8 pieces and shape into round balls. Rest dough balls for 15 minutes.
4. Final shaping and then prove for an hour.
5. Apply egg wash and bake at 190C for 15 - 20 minutes.

* I put all the ingredients in the bread machine and use it to knead my dough. As usual my dough was very wet so I had add flour to my dough.
How to make pre-fermented dough:
125g bread flour
80ml water
not more than 2g instant yeast (I used 1/2tsp of yeast)
pinch of salt
Method
Mix all ingredients together and let it prove for at least 2 hours before using.
Left overs can be divided into 50g pieces, wrapped in glad wrap and freeze for use when required.
Frozen pre-fermented dough must return to room temperature before using.

This recipe hit the spot!I am not sure why my lazy bum didn't try this recipe as soon as she gave it to us! I regret not making double recipe because it taste that good even though I don't really care to eat bread so you can imagine how good it was!

Uncle Richie came yesterday when it just got out of the oven and he smelled the buns. He tried it and instantly loved it. He brought some home for aunt L and they finished half of the buns that I gave them. I kept two piece to eat them today and OMGOSH it still taste SO GOOD! I would probably make more soon!

Thanks Florence for sharing this wonderful recipe!It kind off reminds me of the butter bun that I had in Hong Kong before but just not as strong butter taste/flavor.

Heart attack moment!

Milo gave me a heart attack twice on two different day last week. My house is fenced and we've gone all over the area to make sure that there are no holes so Milo and Stanley would not be able to run away. There are a ton of wild rabbits in our neighborhood and for some reason they always find ways to come in to our yard hence we don't let them go out at night by themselves.

Anyway we have a shed at the corner of our yard and hubs has tried to put stuff in between the shed and the fenced so that the dogs cannot run behind the fence. Hubs obstacle has been working for a long time now so I am not worried about them running away. One evening when I let them out (I didn't have my glasses) and I thought Milo ran away and Stanley was just standing near there. I called and called for Milo but he would not come to me or answer me so I quickly coax Stanley in the house and drove my car to the side of my house (I don't have a side gate and is far to walk to the side of the house) and when I called for Milo I saw Milo running to me from the other side of the fence. I told Uncle Richie and hubby about it but they said he was just hiding the other side of the yard and he just ignored me when I called him so I assumed that I was just being paranoid.

Since I thought I was just hallucinating yesterday that Milo ran away I decided to just let Milo and Stanley go out by themselves. Milo ran straight to the hole that he ran away yesterday and proceeded to run outside of the yard. I was bitten a live by the mosquitoes outside (Arghh!!) and could still not find the hole but I knew that Milo was outside because I saw him outside the fenced! I tried to ask him to come to me and even had treats which he would normally but he did not this time. I started getting paranoid and I tried calling hubby and Uncle Richie and no one would answer my call. I quickly coax Stanley in the house again and grab my car keys (I was trying to call hubs) to drive to the side of my yard. Anyway as I was heading out I saw hubby outside on the phone. At the same time he was coming home to get some stuff for work and I told him that Milo ran away and I was going to drive to the side of the house to look for Milo. I told hubby to try and coax Milo to go back in the yard because Milo and Stanley normally gets pretty excited when hubby gets back from work because he's gone all day. Anyway when I got to the side of my house I saw hubby lifting Milo. Hubby said he called Milo and Milo ran to him. Hubs said that Milo ran around the shed and go out through a very small hole (We still need to fix that. The hubs has been busy lately).


As I was driving to the side of my house I was almost brawling. I took some pictures with Milo last night and I thought that it would be my last picture with him. My mind was just going every where and when I was driving to the side of my house I actually saw a big black and brown rottweiler and I thought that would be the life of my Milo now. My last hope is that even though he managed to run away I was hoping that he would be returned since he was micro-chipped and he had a tag on him.

I am so thankful that hubby was home the same time and that Milo ran to him. He normally comes to me when I call him numerous times and especially he hears the bag of treats. I think is time to go to the dog park again since he must be pretty bored. Now they are not allowed to go out back by themselves until hubby has time to fix the whole and make sure the there is no other hole yet!

Nasi Lemak /Rice in cream

I've been craving for some Nasi Lemak for a couple of weeks now but have not had the opportunity to make them. Hubby got up in the morning and decided to make a huge pot of chili and I knew that he was going to want to eat his chili for dinner so I had to choose if I wanted to eat chili or something else. I decided to make Nasi Lemak since I've been wanting them for quite some time.

Nasi Lemak or Coconut Rice

Ingredients
2 cups of rice
3 screwpine leaves (tie them into a knot as shown above)
Salt to taste
1 small can of coconut milk (5.6 oz size) or 3/4 Cup of Coconut Milk
Some water

Tamarind Juice

1 cup of water
Tamarind pulp (size of a small ping pong ball)

Sambal

One onion

4 shallots

3 cloves of galic

10-15 Chilies

2-3 chili padi

a pinch of salt

1 tablespoon of belachan (prawn paste)

1 tablespoon sugar

Slice onion

Additional

Ikan Bilis/Anchovies *I put a handful in a bowl, pour oil over it and microwave them until crispy (about 7 minutes with my microwave)

Cucumber

Hard Boil Egg

Method

1. Place washed rice, salt and knotted pandan leaves in an electric rice cooker.

2. Pour coconut milk and water over the rice and leave to soak for about 30 minutes

3. Proceeded to cook the rice and leave in the rice cooker to keep warm until ready to eat.

4. Grind Onion, Shallot and garlic in food processor.

5. Grind Chili and chili padi.

6. Soak the tamarind pulp in water for 15 minutes. Squeeze the tamarind constantly to extract the flavor into the water. Drain the pulp and save the tamarind juice.

7. Heat oil in wok and saute blended onions until fragrant.

8. Add in chili paste and belachan then continue to cook them on low fire for about 30 minutes

9. Add tamarind juice and sugar and continue cooking them on low fire for about 20 minutes.

10. Add in slice onions.

This dish did satisfy my cravings for some nasi lemak but I wish that my sambal was spicier. I used a mixture of red chili and green jalapeno> Even though I had a handful of chili padi but it was not spicy enough for me I think next time I will use all red chili plus a handful of red chili padi. I think my chili padi needs to produce more chili before I can make sambal again because I'm actually running low on chilies unless I buy them from the store.

I think it would go really yummy if I had some cucumber too but since I decided to make this last minute I was not going to run to the store to just buy a cucumber.

I'm really glad that I learned to fry the ikan bilis in the microwave because frying onions, garlic and now ikan bilis in the microwave is such and easy task. I just put it in and make sure that it doesn't burn or over cook that's all.

My house did stunk. My hubby was complaining about the smell from my ikan bilis and finally my sambal. I'm glad that I remembered to shut the bedroom door but the whole house still smells of sambal but luckily Monday hubby goes to work and the weather is nice which would allow me to open the windows to air out the house!

A very simple meal

This week the hubs and I have been eating out almost every single meal (the hubs more than me because he is out working). If we eat out at night I will surely have left overs so I would normally eat it the next day hence I've not been cooking almost all week!Hence I'm super scared of eating out.

Today hubs had to go in to work for a little while and I decided to follow him so that we can go out after that. We went to the mall after work just to walk around and hubs was hungry so we ate out again!(I just had a corn dog). Later in the evening hub asked if I wanted to eat anything and I told him that I didn't want to eat out anymore and that I wanted to go home and eat what ever that's home. Eating out so many meals can be quite costly too even though it is normally just the two of us.

I knew that I had some leftover rice in the refrigerator so I just needed to whip up something quick because I was getting hungry. Hubby wanted to have frozen pizza and I didn't want any part of that too. The last trip my parents came they brought over a few cans of chili tuna and a can of chili salmon. I rummage through my pantry quick and found the can of chili salmon. I decided to warm that up and fry some egg with onions to complete my dinner.

I can say that my dinner was really yummylicious. Although it was so simple and quick I was really satisfied and really happy with my dinner (that's how sick I am with eating out!). Sometimes we don't have to slave in the kitchen but still can whip up a decent edible meal. I love cooking elaborate meals but I love even more to just have a meal in front of you without the hassle.

Stanley's Birthday

When we adopted Stanley from the shelter 2.5 years ago his doctor estimated his birthday to be beginning of December but hubby's has always said that we should celebrate his birthday on the 3rd of November with mine and I've always disagree with that idea. After we had Milo and his birthday is about 2 days apart from hub's birthday we decided to celebrate their birthday together hence we decided that we should celebrate Stanley's birthday with me. I finally agreed and made November 3rd Stanley's birthday too.

My dear Stanley..I just want you to know that we love you no matter what. We've not regretted picking you up at the shelter and bring you home with us. Although you are very noisy sometimes but you are the sunshine in mummy and daddy's life. We love you so much my dear boy! xoxo

Peanut Butter Carrot Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup homemade peanut butter
1/2-3/4 cup apple sauce
1 cup shredded carrots
1 egg

Methods

1. Mix flour and baking soda. Add remaining ingredients.

2. Pour into greased 8" round cake pan and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. (I used cupcake pan because it would be easier for the dogs to eat) Let cool.

3. Decorate with more peanut butter and carrots.

This cupcake is even healthier than cakes I make for humans. It was difficult to make Stanley sit like what we did to Milo. It was difficult to make him sit still so we can take a decent picture of him but finally we managed to get a couple of decent ones of him.

Everyone loved their cupcake. Even picky Milo ate the whole cupcake by himself and growl at Stanley when Stanley when close to his cupcake. When I made Milo's cupcake Milo just ate half of his cupcake so I knew that he loved this cupcake. I chose to use peanut butter this time because I know Stanley and Milo both loves peanut butter so using peanut butter as frosting would be perfect. You should see when Stanley puts the whole thing in his mouth and the peanut butter sticks on his upper tough it's super funny because he keeps trying to lick it.

Happy Birthday my faithful companion. I hope that you had a wonderful day on your special day.

Saltgrass Steak House

Hubby suggested that we go Cheesecake Factory for dinner on the day of my birthday but I told hubby that we would go there another day because I knew he would be home late and I didn't want us to have to drive about 30 minutes for dinner on a late weeknight. So I told hubby that we should just go somewhere closer to the house the actual day and go cheesecake factory another day when is not so late.

I decided to go Saltgrass steak house because we've been there before and we quite like the food there and most importantly it is less than 10 minutes from our house so we don't have to spend lot of time traveling.

Our complimentary bread with their butter. The bread was super soft and the butter actually tasted like it had a hint of honey.

My pork chop with baked sweet potato

Hubs ribs with mashed potato and cinnamon apples

Overall the meal was pretty good. My pork was just nicely done hence it was not hard or tough (I hate hard and tough meat because it reminds me of jerky meat!). Hubby's ribs was nicely done so it was fall off the bone ribs..yummy... I also had steak soup as my starters which was pretty good (no photos because I was super hungry) and hubby had Caesar salad. We were so full we didn't have room for dessert because they actually have cinnamon cheesecake promotion for a limited time (What a waste).

The price of this place is not outrageous. Hubby had a glass of beer while I had water. This meal cost us about $55 including tips. I think I will try the steak next time I go there again since is a steak house.

Mun farn/Stew Rice

I've not had rice for about two weeks now and I was having craving for some rice. Although I don't mind making elaborate meals but most of the time I just love to make fast and simple meal. I don't always plan what I want to cook so most of the time the meat etc is frozen because I didn't defrost them ahead of time and hence difficult for me to cook a meal.

I am not sure what is the real name for this dish. I just remember when I was back home in KL this dish is pretty popular at the tai chow aka coffee shop. I am not sure if I even order this before because when I was living in KL I don't really eat rice.

My rice sprinkled with home grown chili padi

Ingredients
Cooked Rice
8oz Siew yoke (Roast pork)
10oz Vegetables
4 cloves Garlic
10oz Chicken Stock
2 eggs

Seasoning
1 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Tapioca Flour *mix with 1/2cup of water
Salt and pepper to taste
oil

Method
1. Heat one tablespoon of oil in a pan.
2. Add in garlic and fry till fragrant then add siew yoke and stir fry it for about 5 minutes. Pour Dark Soy sauce over the siew yoke. Mix well and dish the siew yoke out.
3. Pour one tablespoon of oil and stir fry the rest of the garlic. Pour chicken stock in and bring to boil. Let simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Add in vegetable and bring back to a hard boil. Add tapioca flour mixture and bring gravy to a hard boil to cook flour mixture.
5. Add in Siew yoke and season to taste.
6. Turn off heat and crack in the 2 eggs, stir to cook the eggs
7. Pour gravy over rice.

You can add seafood to this dish too but because I didn't defrost them and hubs not a fan of seafood I decided to omit it. I only took my siew yoke out from the freezer because that was all I had left when I make siew yoke last month and decided to use them up. I love this dish and is so simple to make. Since I love Wah tan hor (egg gravy noodle) and it taste similar like that hence I would be making this dish more often. I don't have choy sum at home so I used the little bak choy I had and cabbage to cook this dish.