Thai mango sticky rice (Khao Nieow Ma-muang)

Everyday we had this mouth watering dessert (Thai mango sticky rice) without failed when we visited to Bangkok recently. This is actually easy and simple to make at home..just make sure you serve with sweet and nice mangoes.

My husband told me he especially likes the crunchy yellow tiny things (he was not sure what is that ) as he found the usual one we having here is without the fried things. After i tried in Bangkok, I know what he means, actually that tiny yellow thing is fried mung beans..i also re-create this with my own recipe as per below.

I also using the glutinous rice that i brought back from Bangkok..

Thai mango sticky rice (Khao Nieow Ma-muang)
(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

3 ripe mangoes

Sticky rice
350g glutinous rice, soaked for 4hours
220ml coconut milk
1 and 1/4tsp salt
2tbsp sugar
5 pandan leaves (screwpines leaves), knotted

Method
1. Mix all ingredients in a steaming tray, steam over high heat for 45mins.
2. Discard pandan leaves, fluff up rice and set aside to cool.

Fried salty mung mean
40g mung beans
3tbsp cooking oil
1/4tsp salt
1tsp sugar

Method
1. Rinse mung beans several times till water run clear, soak in clean water for 1hour or more.
2. Heat cooking oil in a wok, add in mung beans and fry over lower heat, till light and crunchy.
3. Add in salt and sugar, mix well. Drain on paper towel.

Coconut sauce
½ cup thick coconut milk
1tsp sugar
1/4tsp salt

Method
1. Add all ingredients in a saucepan, cook over low heat till thick ( or thicken it by adding 1/2tbsp tapioca flour and 1tbsp water).

To assemble mango sticky rice
1. Slice mango and place on top of sticky rice.
2. Top with few spoons of coconut sauce and garnish with fried salty mung beans. Enjoy!!

** actually i was forgot to prepare that coconut sauce, the above coconut sauce recipe was retrieved from other's website.

Safari World, Bangkok Thailand

Since I brought my kids along, so no excuse not to bring them to Safari world, Bangkok. This park is huge and is divided into two sections we went first to the marine park which had many shows which included the dolphin show, sea lion show ,orangutan show,bird show, elephant show and etc. But we managed to watch few shows only.

I was so scared to see if this elephant accidently hurt this lady...

The second part was a huge park where animals were free to roam in the open and we took the bus provided by this park and were not allowed to go out as this park had lions and tigers in their natural surroundings.
I could not take many pictures as the bus was moving and made this job a bit difficult..

When our bus passed by, the lions and tigers don't even bother came close to our bus, guess this was normal for them...actually i feel more fun to see tigers and lions in our Zoo Negara KL here, hehehe..

We were not feel so excited about this park, since we had been to Seaworld Gold Coast Australia, the dolphine and sea lion show are almost the same like in Seaworld GC.. But if this is your 1st time to a seaword, this place still worth to visit...

Banana Swiss roll with peanut butter cream

This will be my last roll to enter Aspiring Baker's event. And this time i adapted the basic sponge from Anncoo jounal's blog, straight forward steps but still resulted a moist and soft Swiss roll, another good keeper.

Seeing two bananas sitting on the table and dont think there is anyone wanted to eat this, so I quickly grap it and add into this sponge. This sponge cake taste very similar to Spongy banana cake which i prepared earlier..YUM!
I also tried to make marble effect but was not nicely done...

Banana Swiss roll with peanut butter cream
(recipe source: adapted basic sponge from Anncoo Journal with modification)
* make one 11" x 14" (28cm x 36cm) Swiss roll

Ingredients

4 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
30g corn oil
1/4tsp salt
1/2tsp vanilla extract
70g cake flour
100g mashed banana

4 egg whites
60g caster sugar

1tbsp cocoa powder

Filling
60g peanut butter
60g unsalted butter, room temp
15g icing sugar

To make Swiss roll sponge
1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar till light and creamy.
2. Add salt, vanilla, mashed banana and corn oil, stir well. Sift in cake flour, fold well.
3. In another clean bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until foamy, gradually add in sugar and beat till glossy and soft peaks form.
4. Take one-third of egg whites mixture to mix with the egg yolk mixture using a hand whisk. Then fold in the remaining egg white using a spatula until well combined.
5. Take one-third of batter, add in cocoa powder, combine well.
6. Pour the batter and cocoa batter into baking tray lined with baking paper. Spread evenly with a scraper and swirl the marble effect. Gently knock the tray on tabletop to remove air bubbles trapped in the batter.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for around 13mins.
8. When cake is done, remove from pan and place on a wire rack to cool.

To make peanut butter cream
1. Beat unsalted butter and sugar till light and creamy, add in peanut butter, combine well.

To assemble Swiss roll
1. Carefully turn the baked sponge cake onto a piece of baking/parchment paper.
2. Slowly peel off the attached baking/parchment paper from the cake.
3. Place a new piece of baking/parchment paper over the sponge. Invert the sponge again.
4. Slice out a small piece of sponge from the end.
5. Make two slits across the breadth of the cake at the side nearest to you with a long knife.
6. Spread evenly a layer of peanut butter cream over the entire sponge.
7. With the shorter side/breadth facing you (if using 11 x 14 inch pan), roll the cake up tightly to form a Swiss roll. Wrap with cling wrap and chill in the fridge to allow the Swiss roll to set. Slice to serve.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times hosted by Obsessedly Involved with Food

Kung Pao Chicken 宫保鸡丁

I like to order Kung Pao Chicken (宫保鸡丁, Gong Bao Ji Ding ) when we take meal at Esquire Kitchen restaurant (personally i feel they serve best Kung Pao chicken). At the same time, I also like to cook this dish at home, and this dish is easy to prepare and yet very delicious..

Usually i will add cashew nuts but when i saw Terri (A Daily Obsession) added peanuts to this dish. I agreed with Terri, peanuts is far better than cashew nuts after i tried out..

Eventhough i added 1 cup of dried chilies, my little son Desmond has no problem to take this yummy dish.

Kung Pao Chicken宫保鸡丁
(recipe source: largely adapted from A Daily Obsession with minor changes)

Ingredients
450g chicken breast
2tsp finely chopped garlic
2tsp finely chopped ginger

5 sprigs of spring onion/scallion, cut 2” in lengths

1tsp Sichuan peppercorns, optional

1cup dried chilies, cut into 1”-2” lengths

50g roasted peanuts

For the chicken marinate
2tsp light soy sauce
1/2tsp salt
2tsp Chinese cooking wine
1tbsp tapioca flour/cornstarch
1 small egg white

For the sauce

1tbsp white rice vinegar

1tbsp tomato ketchup
2tbsp dark soy sauce
2tbsp sugar
2tbsp water
1tsp cornstarch

Method
1. Cut the chicken meat into small cubes, marinate with the ingredients above for 1hour or more.
2. Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Heat up a non-stick wok over high heat with 1 cup of cooking oil and lightly fry the marinated chicken until they are 80% cook (1-2mins). Drain out and set aside.
4. Remain around 5tbsp of oil, add in Sichuan peppercorns and stir fry over low heat till aroma.
5. Discard the fried peppercorns, add in dried chilies, fry over low heat, until crisp but not burnt (color changed to dark red).
6. Add in white part of spring onion, chopped garlic and ginger, quickly mix well.
7. Return cooked chicken to the wok, pour in the sauce, stirring all the time at high heat.
8. When the sauces is thickening, then add in green spring onion and peanuts, quickly combine well and dish out.

Happy Cooking !!

Nigella's Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins 双重巧克力满分

The other day, I made this super easy and quick muffins when my daughter's friend came over to our house.

I saw this muffin recipe posted by few bloggers, SSB, Cook.Bake.Love and Eileen, yes, this muffin is very good and easy to be prepared. I did slightly adjusted the recipe as i found the batter is quite runny when i added the liquid mixture (i think due to the convesion of cups to kg)..and next time I have to reduce the temperature also as the chocolate chips on top was slightly burnt.

Nigella's Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins
(recipe souce : adapted from SSB, original from here, with minor changes)
*makes 12-14 muffins

250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
170g caster sugar
150g chocolate chips (save 1/4 of the chips for sprinkling, i use twist white choc and chocolate chips)
200ml milk
80ml vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200 deg C (next time I will reduce to 180-190c).
2. Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, and 3/4 of the chocolate chips into a large bowl and mix well.
3. Pour all the liquid ingredients into a measuring jug and mix well.
4. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together with slow and gentle strokes. Stop stirring once the last traces of flour disappear. Do not overmix. A lumpy batter will ensure the muffins stay moist and fluffy.
5. Spoon the batter into paper muffin cases.
6. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 chocolate chips on top and bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy.

**also i would like to thank to a blogger friend who sent me these lovely cupcake liners...

Happy Baking !!

Fuji Japanese restaurant, Bangkok Thailand

Nowadays before I visit to one place, i will start doing some search for some good restaurants and places to visit in my blog list.
I saw Min's blog recommended this Fuji restaurant in Bangkok,
a classy, modern restaurant serves palatable Japanese cuisine at very affordable prices.

The menu is also very exhaustive. and their portions are also quite big. These are foods that we ordered..

Sawdust Pudding 木糠布甸

The other day I was stumbled up this pudding recipe, understand this is a famous pudding in Macau. Sawdust Pudding aka Serradura is actually a layered chilled dessert made up of a sweetened, vanilla whipped cream and crushed Marie biscuits. I immediately try out this recipe since this recipe requires all simple ingredients. I also missed Marie biscuits as I have so long did not eat this biscuit.

We immediately fall in love with this pudding, creamy similar like vanilla ice-cream and the Marie biscuits are perfectly blend into the cream, YUM YUM!

You have to whip the whipping cream to stiff peaks. Learnt from Okashi book, whip the cream over a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and water produced best result.

Sawdust Pudding木糠布甸
(recipe source: adapted from my buttery fingers with minor changes)
*makes 4 cups

Ingredients
200ml dairy Whipping cream
40g Marie biscuits
45g Condensed milk ( not sweet enough, I will increase next time)
1tsp vanilla extract ( I use homemade vanilla extract)

Method
1. Crush Marie biscuits finely in a food processor (you can bash-it-in-a-Ziploc-with-rolling-pin method if you don’t own a food processor).
2. Whip whipping cream to soft peaks over a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and water. Add vanilla extract and condensed milk (Suggests you add 2/3 first, taste, then add more if it needs sweetening). Continue whipping until stiff peaks.
3. Transfer the cream into a piping bag. (fitted with a plain 1 or 2 cm nozzle)
4. Place a layer of biscuit into your vessel (individual moulds, mousse rings or cups) and pipe a layer of cream on top. Repeat until vessel is filled. (Suggests that don't put too much biscuit, or the cream will adhere to only the top bits and the dessert will look messy)
5. Chill in the freezer for two hours. When serving, leave it out for a bit (around 10 minutes) for it to soften.

Happy Weekend ahead to everyone !!