Exciting Trip - Dinawan Island Resort

"Exciting" is the only word I can describe from this island trip! oh of cuz, it was full of funs too! We went there by speedboat, it was still raining, and it's about 4-ish evening , we have no choice but must get on the boat despite the rains. Depart from Sutera Jetty, takes about 20 minutes ride. However, The wind & rains plus the high speed of the boat , we were thoroughly wet ! We were like going-against the rain, fighting with the wave & wind! and we were sitting at the most-front-of the boat. I only worried with my camera + hp inside my handbag! I can still remember I get all ways to "protect" my handbag (like protecting a new-born baby) with life-jacket! protecting them from getting wet! how ironic! by the time we reached the island, as if we just came up from sea-diving! ALL soaked-wet . A good fabulous experience as a start.

We also take out our gut to try out this "Underwater Sea walking"! hey, it was good! so good until I want to learn 'diving' now!

We were afraid of fishy kissing our body, so we put on this suit. A Dive Helmet (glass helmet, about 37kg) was given also, to receive breathing air constantly while walk along the sea bed, accompanied by a guide (instrutor).

So when you're ready , almost under the water, the staffs will quickly put the helmet on top, and dive in. Underneath the water, there's walking-path and robe for you to hold, as if you're walking down the staircase.

* It was an incredible experience under the water, saying Hi to fishy just swim in front of you!*

( Just a sample pic of how we're like)

This is where we stay.

nice room, with air-cons

We also put on 'wishing-lantern' on that night!


You get to write on ur wishes on the lantern.

THESE ARE MY WISHES in 2009 ! !!!!!!

Ha, We also got to taste this little fren.

Haha, Thanks to my aunty uncle !

Food Blogger? "FB"

I used to do that everytime when the food arrives, and I need to snap quick! otherwise, parents, especially mum, start nagging !

Now ,I see darl cute doing that ... Lolz

Masterpiece by Hong Yi

I demand for a Poeny flowers sumi-e (Asian wash-painting) from Hong yi , as I know, one day, she will be as famous as Vincent Van Gogh ( A famous Dutch painter) ! (That's why you see I have Dutch Baby Pancakes! ;p) , and this masterpiece will go for Auction one day! (wink)

When I met yi, I wanted to shout at her " You are so...Terri"~ hahaha, as in you are the photostat version of T! ;D Hong yi is a very nice person to chat with, a very active person, like Cameron Diaz! I must say you are even more prettier in real ! o! She's a Formula-1 driver too! ;D~

Anyways, Thank you for the paint. They are beautiful, not everyone can paint that. It will be excellent if both flowers are facing each other. but hey, if u ask me to draw, probably i draw u like this

so now u probably understand why I like this paint! +_~

Books

Books. When I m blogging at nite now, I wish it is a bright sunny day with bit of breeze, and sitting in a cafe, having nice milk-coffee, while reading my delicious books. I'm over-stressed today. It wasnt a good day. Why is everything so chaos these few days? (ha! I realise, it has been 2 yrs I never used chaos to describe my job) and now it comes back.


500 cupcakes & muffin. If not because it offers 20% for TIMES members (my aunt is),I wont buy it, and I feel guilty not buying a RM30 (after %) for a nice paper-quality book. It's about 4.5cm thick (ops! karen & creamy, again) It wasn't a too great book, as when u flip everypage, it will tells u like 225 g butter + 225 g sugar + 225 g flour , which really scares u off! almost everypage are the same...with bit of alternation on the types of fruits/nuts etc, like I give you e.g.
chocolate hazelnut cupcakes
chocolate orange cupcakes
(u probably get what I meant)

200 cakes & bakes: I got this at RM 20 nett from HARRIS (a chain of popular bookstore at 1 Borneo). I like this book, it has very different variety of 2-0-0 cakes & bakes for u to read and read.

However, with 500+200 recipes (we dont count the rest on my shelves)... with 700 recipes! I havent made any of them ! because I have loads more out there to continue read & choose.

Now, I m reading this. Quite entertaining! (,")

Abalone Rose

Happy Chap Goh Mei !

15 Fifteen days of Chinese New year 2009 ends at today 9th Feb 09. (argh, means back to rabbit food? no more carnivorous ? )

Anyways, I love making food into roses, same to this abalone. Just slice as thin as possible (obviously my knife-skill is bad enuff) and make roses for starter! drizzle with sauce and serve it to your beloved guests ;)

Wish you all have an "Ox-picious" year & Happy forever! luv, Denise

*I used less than half abalone to make a medium rose. so If you can slice thinly, I think 1 abalone can make 4 roses! * and guess what? the best is, no cooking is required! :)

Savory Pumpkin Cake

I went back to my bookshelf, flip through some recipe books and read. I like reading recipe books, they are my bed-time story books too. Serious! Lately, I m reading my 500-cupcakes & muffins by fergal connolly & 200 cakes & bakes by sara lewis and they help me to sleep-in fast!

"南 瓜 糕" , steamed pumpkin cake (savory pumpkin cake)

I thought it must be yummy, and it's exactly the same way of making savory taro cake .

After

• pumpkin sweet soup with green beans
• fresh pumpkin muffins

a short conclusion that, food made of Pumpkin gives a natural golden yellow colour, which is so beautiful & appertizing. no artificial colouring. This time I didn't garnish the savory pumpkin cake with cut chillies or fried shallots, those are mainly for photographing. I will still put them to aside , and only eat the kueh (cake).
Ingredients

250 g pumpkin

1/2 cup water

4 Tablespoon oil

30g dried shrimp (add more until 40g to enhance the flavour)

5 cloves minced garlic

salt & pepper

some fried shallots

Batter (Mix it and put aside 1st)
150g rice flour
350 ml chicken stock (*tips)

1 Tablespoon oyster sauce

*tips: I used 300ml chicken stock (I used swanson, easier), and 50ml of water that used to soak dried shrimp.

1. clean the dried shrimp , and soak with warm water for 20 minutes. After that, keep the water (about 50ml) for the batter. Mince the shrimp.

2. Skin the pumpkin, and measure it. Cut the pumpkin into 1cm x 1cm .

3. mince the garlic.

4. Heat up the wok with cooking oil, stir fry garlic until fragnant. Add in minced dried shrimp. Fry longer, until very fragnant. (becareful, due to the heat from wok and the minced shrimp, dont get too close to the woK).

5. Add in pumpkin now. Keep frying for at least 5 minutes.

6. At this point, u will notice the pumpkin cubes still quite hard. So add in 1/2 cup of water or bit more, until the pumpkin simmer a bit, smash & Flatten the pumpkin with the back of spatula. Add bit of salt of pepper.

7. Turn the heat to small fire. Pour in the pre-mix batter, and keep stirring.

8. Slightly turn the heat to medium fire and keep stirring, until the batter get thicken and half-cooked. Off fire.
9. Oil-grease a plate. and put the batter on the plate* ( use smaller plate for this recipe, look at mine, quite short. due to larger plate I used)

10. Heat up the steamer. Press down the batter until flat. and put into steamer for 45 minutes on high heat.

11. When is ready, let it cool. serve with sweet chillie sauce and fried shallots.

* serve with kopi-O ! hahaha

Fresh Pumpkin Muffins

Aunt gave me a good quality pumpkin a week ago, and I wanted to bake Ganache's Pumpkin Muffin for quite some times.

Smashing pumpkin is fun! Look at the above picture,after the pumpkin cubes are steamed* (*note: don't boil it, just steam, otherwise all the sweetness will disolve in the boiling water) and just 1 press-down(Pic 1) , it became so smooth. And when u press, the water will squeeze from the pumpkin (pic 2), and left the 'mash' on the sieve. That's how you derive the pumpkin puree (pic 3).

* I did not throw the water just like that, that's the best natural sweetness from the pumpkin! hahaha, I sip all!

Recipe ( I halve from Ganache's)

(So this recipe should give 5-6 standard muffin cups), but mine is 8, cuz i m using a smaller version cup)

60g unsalted Butter

1 Egg

10g Honey ( I didnt measure mine, I just make 1 big squeeze from the bottle around my mixture!)

75g pumpkin puree

45g flour

15g high protien flour (bread flour)

3g baking powder

30g sultanas (I soaked mine in water until plump, then drain it well)

[copy from Ganache]

Shift the 2 flours + baking powder together and put aside 1st.

Cream butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Add egg and continue beating until smooth. Add honey & pumpkin puree to the mixture, mix until well combined. Add in sifted flour into the mixture, fold through ( Dont overmix), lastly add sultanas.

Scoop to muffin cups until 2/3 full, baked in preheated oven of 180C for 20-25mins***.

**** Notes: Due to the size of the muffin cups I used, (mine quite small & short as compared to the standard one)...so I only baked at 12 mintures. So, always check ur muffin, start from 10 mins onwards, use skewer test.

Lemoney Lemon Bars

This is my first attempt on Lemon Bar, and guess what? my first time eating Lemon Bars. I used to see these bars in the cafe, and they were so dry and just not getting my attention to buy them.

my sis requested for a "Lemon" recipe. She's the type who love "Linzer Torte" kind of food. I'm happy, I have a "western" tongue sis with me now. (note: she is my 1st younger sis, not the youngest sis whom wasted my unbaked mango cheesecake )

I search for Lemon bar recipe from tastespotting ... and get this Very good recipe from Smitten Kitchen.
Sometimes I am thinking, Picture really says everything! Smitten's Lemon bar picture really makes me drool !!! and I think , like I say, picture says everything. the recipe turned out good. (Thanks God I pick the right recipe)


* Argh, compared to Smitten, my picture really bad enuff! haha. However, this bars, give a slight moist lemon creamy mixture on top, then middle slightly dense, and bottom with buttery crust.*

Again, the second thing I like about this recipe is the crust. I 'm very particular with crust or any cookies type (butter + flour + sugar) food. As advise by smitten, u can adjust the crust a bit. I hence reduce the sugar, add slightly more salt ( probably 2 sprinkle). And I guess the portion of flour & butter is good, as It gives a crumbly light crisp crust. ee I like this crust! *lolz*

recipe (I halve from Smitten's and change a bit)
crust:
half bar of unsalted butter. ( I used anchor brand)
2 T of sugar only
1 cup of flour
2 dash of salt
1 T lemon zest ( I added this part)

lemon layer:
3 eggs
1 cup sugar ( original calls for 1 1/4cup)
*using 1 cup sugar , lemon layer turned out quite sour, but we like*
2T lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice + 2 T ( I added extra 2T )
1/2 cup flour

Icing usgar for dusting.

1. prehead oven to 350 Degress F. ( 180C)

2. Cream butter & sugar until light in a bowl. I used Whisk to cream ! no machine here. Then combine flour, salt & zest. Dont over mix. U will get something like the pic. After that, gather the mixture and form a ball.

3. Grease the baking dish or pan. ( I dont have square flat pan) Then flatten the dough and press into the greased dish..

4. Bake the crust for 15 - 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool outside the oven, while leave the oven on.


5. For the lemon layer, whisk together eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice & flour. U will notice the mixture give lots of lump. For me, I pour into a sieve and use a whisk to keep stir on the sieve, until the lump gone. then pour back the zest into the mixture.

6. Pour the lemon layer over the crust and bake for 30-35 minutes.