kook-ing

Roti snack

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:58:00 +0000

Inspired by Kauai's Breakfast Burrito... Hubby and I were in a hurry to get to an appointment and since neither of us ate all day, we were both somewhat peckish.

So, we pulled out the ready-to-fry frozen rotis and while he fried them in an electric pan, I chopped up red salad onions, peppers, tomatoes, avocado, lettuce and cucumber, scrambled a couple of eggs with some of the onions and mixed in the peppers. Seasoned it and threw it on the still warm rotis, topping it with the rest of the cut up fresh greenery and voila. Yummy meal in minutes.

Asian chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:34:00 +0000

It took me a while to do this post because my camera cable went missing but after some searching and scratching I found it in a beach bag of sorts, thankfully!

Anyway, this was my attempt at making something sweet and sour-ish to satisfy the asian binge I'm on of late. I even took the extra effort to make the plate look pretty and all that was missing was a set of chop sticks. Though this wasn't a one pot dish, it was really tasty and my hubby loved it.

You can either use chicken drumsticks or filleted breasts pieces. The drumsticks make for a less dry and more juicier option.

For about 6 drumsticks deboned and cut up into bite size portions:
2 eggs
cornflour

Sauce:
1/2 cup of sweet chili sauce (I used the one from Woolies)
1/4 cup soy sauce
tablespoon of vinegard
chilli powder
chopped garlic
little olive oil

Veggie bed:
1 onion cut in half and thickly sliced
1/2 red pepper sliced
1/2 yellow pepper sliced
cup full of green beans sliced into 1cm pieces
dried chili
Cajun spice

After the chicken pieces are cleaned and cut up, dip it into the egg and lightly roll it in the cornflour. Deep fry the pieces and let it drain on absorbent paper.

For the sauce, you mix all the ingredients together and set aside. I didn't measure exact amounts but tasted as I went along, so use your prerogative.

Stir fry the veggies for about 5 minutes, stir in the dried chili and Cajun spice. Remove the pan from the stove and let is stand to cool.

Then pour the sauce into a pan or a wok and heat it. Add the chicken pieces and let it simmer until the sauce thickens a bit.

Place the chicken pieces on top of the stir fry and pour some of the sauce over it. Serve with a side of rice, garnish it if you wish and dig in.

Baking bread

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:02:00 +0000

Who doesn't love freshly baked bread? Here's my adapted version of the Cheese and Parsley Braid recipe from Shanaaz Parker's cookbook, Indulge.

4 x 250 ml flour
5 ml salt
5 ml sugar
30 ml butter
10 g instant dry yeast
250 ml grated cheese
45 ml finely chopped parsley
1/2 onion finely chopped (I sometimes add a little bit of finely chopped peppers.)
160 ml milk
180 ml lukewarm water
beaten egg to glaze
melted garlic butter

Preheat the oven to 180℃. Sift flour, salt and sugar and rub in butter. Sprinkle in yeast and work through. Stir in cheese, parsley and onion (and peppers if you want to use that). Add milk and water and mix into a soft dough. Knead on a floured surface until the dough is elastic and smooth.

Place in an oiled bowl and cover. Let it rise to double it's original volume and knock it down.
I didn't braid this bread, I used a silicone loaf pan, brushed it with beaten egg and let it rise again. Baked it for about 45 minutes until cooked and brushed it with the melted garlic butter. (The photo's a bit blurry... was having a shaky-hand camera day.)

Hungry for haddock?

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:43:00 +0000

One of my favourite fish to eat, is smoked haddock. I regularly serve it for supper and whether baked, fried, poached or however, I love its salty and pungent flavour.

I'm sharing two of my haddock recipes...
This is my favourite recipe of the two... For about 4 pieces of haddock:

1 and a 1/2 onions, sliced
1 tablespoon of crushed garlic
1/2 of a green, yellow and red pepper, for wonderful colours, sliced
1 teaspoon of crushed mustard seeds
a little bit of cajun spice
butter
crushed black pepper

Braise the onions and garlic in some butter. Add the mustard seeds, peppers and cajun spice. When everything is caramelised, place the haddock on it and put small pieces of butter on each. You can sprinkle some cajun spice on them if you want. Turn a few times, until cooked. Get some black pepper over it and it's ready to serve. Really yummy with fresh bread or baked/fried potato chips.

This one is very simple too. I was hungry and was desperate to have lunch quickly and without much effort. I simply dipped haddock steaks in some spiced crumbs and fried them in a little bit of butter. Had it with some baby potatoes and a fresh salad, I was stuffed!!!

You can use whatever spices to flavour the crumbs, I used the prepacked kind you find in the shop.

Chocolate crinkle cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:37:00 +0000

I found this recipe over on Chocolate Bytes and it's the easiest biscuit to make... in the world.

It uses real chocolate, so I simply love it when my choc-craving kicks in. It's also a very kid friendly recipe, since you need to roll the dough into a ball and in icing sugar to make each biscuit. A great way to keep those mischievous hands occupied.

Here's a batch straight out of the oven.

White chocolate mousse with a surprise

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:51:00 +0000

I know I've been quiet throughout Ramadaan. That's because whatever is cooked for iftaar will be eaten by the time I actually manage to find a moment to take a photo.

But I'm making up for it today (or so I think) because I've been waiting to make this for uhm, forever and promised to make it for Eid. Admittedly, I had most of it all by my merry self but I did share because it really ended up being a big bowl overflowing with white chocolate mouse!

My hubby's cousin emailed me a recipe that she and her mom usually uses to make white, milk or dark chocolate mousse, sometimes layered on top of one another. Their recipe goes like this:

300 g chococlate (I obviously used white)
4 eggs seperated
100g butter
250ml cream whipped
1tsp sugar

Melt the chocolate, add the yolks and butter until smooth. Fold in whipped cream. Add sugar to the whites and beat until peaks form. Fold whites into the chocolate mixture.

That's as simple as can be. I wanted to add a spin to mine though, so before the mousse set I made some chocolate ganache (chocolate melted with fresh cream or nestlé cream) and dropped spoonfuls into it. Covered it and put it into the fridge. I whipped more fresh cream to cover the mousse and put halved strawberries on top of the finished bowl of overflowing yummy-ness.

Prawns on pasta

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:14:00 +0000

This was the result of my craving for curried prawns. You can serve this with fragrant white rice if you wish, but I didn't want rice so I searched my kitchen for an alternative form of starch. The options I had were potatoes, couscous or any other kind of pasta. There was about half a packet of garlic and parsley flavoured tagliatelle, and that's what I decided to use.

My prawn mixture:

1kg prawns, peeled, deveined, headless, etc.
2 tablespoons of butter
2 onions, thinly sliced
1/2 pepper, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
salt and pepper
10ml cumin powder
10ml chilli powder
10ml curry powder
10ml turmeric powder
10ml dried chillies
125ml tomato puree
125ml buttermilk
3 sticks of cinnamon
3 cardamom pods
3 cloves
a bay leaf if you wish
chopped coriander leaves

Combine the garlic, salt and pepper, spices, tomato puree and buttermilk in a bowl. In a pot, fry the prawns in some butter until they are pink and cooked, then set them aside. In the same pot saute the onions and red pepper. Add the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf. When the onions are glossy, stir in the prawns and buttermilk mixture and let that cook for about 10 minutes. Add chopped coriander leaves and let it simmer.

My photograph doesn't capture the green tint of the parsley in the tagliatelle, but the colour combination looked good and the flavours were rather complimentary.

Corn cakes

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:55:00 +0000

For some reason I was craving corn and for a quick snack I decided to use my imagination to make some savoury corn cakes.

I took:

1 egg
1 tin of sweetcorn
1 tablespoon of cornflour (for lightness)
2 tablespoons of self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt

I lightly beat the egg and stirred in the tin of sweetcorn. Mixed in the cornflour, self-raising flour and salt. I didn't want to use too much flour, because I wanted more corn than batter and just needed something to hold everything together. I fried tablespoon-full blobs in a bit of oil in a pan and served it with some sweet chilli sauce.

The parsley garnishing, was my husband's idea.

Man-made lasagne and herby brussels sprouts

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:49:00 +0000

How many ladies are lucky enough to have a husband that can cook? I am! We were invited for supper a few nights ago and my hubby decided to make his specialty lasagne to take along. I did help, OK! He was in charge of making the mince filling and messing the kitchen. I was making the cheese sauce and cleaning up after him.

How he does it? He's very secretive so I'm relaying what I've learnt by carefully watching him while he's preoccupied stirring the pot.

Two chopped onions along with freshly grated garlic and ginger, are sauted in butter. Chopped up green, red and yellow peppers are added. Three tins of chopped italian tomatoes are poured into the mix. A variety of spices that included, leaf masala, chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder (and possibly others), salt and pepper were thrown in along with half a cup of sugar. When that was bubbling away, the rinsed mince was added in to cook. The gravy thickened and was set to simmer on low heat. Chopped coriander leaves and parsley were stirred in then. It smelt yummy!

While that was happening, I was squeezed next door on the adjacent plate making cheese sauce. I used a litre of milk and roughly, five tablespoons of cornflower. First mix the cornflower with a little of the cold milk to make a paste. Melt some butter in a large saucepan, then pour in the paste and the rest of the milk, slowly bringing it to a boil. Once the sauce thickens, add some salt, ground pepper and an over-flowing cup of cheese (of your choice).

We used lasagne sheets that didn't need to be pre-cooked and that saves a lot of time. In a large dish, pour a layer of cheese sauce then place lasagne sheets over it. These sheets swell up quite a bit so layer the mince filling generously. Layer with the cheese sauce and lasagne sheets again until the dish is filled, finishing off with a layer of cheese sauce. Top with grated cheese and garnished with chopped coriander leaves and parsley.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 ℃ for 30 minutes and voila!

We ended up having this massive dish. There was still filling left though, so we made another smaller lasagne. There were tons of dishes to eat at supper, that our hostess forced us to bring some home to have the next day. I wanted my hubby's lasagne for lunch, so I made Brussels sprouts to add to the leftovers.

You can boil Brussels sprouts for about 3 minutes or microwave them in a bag with a corner cut off for 4 minutes, turning it around half way through. They shouldn't be over-cooked otherwise, they taste yucky.

A quick vegetable dressing:

2 table spoons of butter
2 cloves of garlic grated
and a handful of chopped parsley.

Melt the butter and mix everything together. If you wish, you can add some salt to taste and just pour it over your veggies, adding a little bit more flavour to their natural goodness.

Not bad for a team effort!

Quick fix akhni

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:15:00 +0000

Nafisa's post left me craving akhni. So I checked my freezer, found some steak and decided to quickly stir a pot.

I followed a similar method to Nafisa's except I didn't use tomatoes (I didn't have any fresh and was too lazy to go to the supermarket) and it still came out fine. I also added a little bit of curry powder, curry leaves, stick cinnamon and cardamom pods. The fragrant white rice, I boiled with a bit of turmeric and two cardamom pods. My mother-in-law taught me a trick, if she doesn't have turmeric, she uses food colouring to yellow her rice.

After mixing the curry and rice together, I put it in an oven proof dish, spotted it with butter and sprinkled some chopped coriander leaves over it. Left it in a preheated oven at 180 ℃ for about 20 minutes.

And yum, yum, yum...

Thanks, Nafisa!

Blueberry flapjacks

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:21:00 +0000

I had blueberries in the fridge and didn't want them to die. So for an after supper treat, I whipped up a batch of these flapjacks.

If you're not lucky enough to have pancake-mix, for a quick batch, beat 2 eggs with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Mix in a little bit of vanilla essence and half a cup of milk. Then slowly add self-raising flour until your mixture is not too thick, but not too runny either. Fry in a pan, making whatever shapes you like. Serve it any way you want and enjoy!

Curried pumpkin

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:42:00 +0000

My hubby recently visited the dentist, so needless to say, he couldn't really chew much. Since he's been having soup and all things liquidised, obviously he's been left craving for something with a bit more flavour. Then I had the bright idea of making some pumpkin, my style:

1 chopped onion
fresh crushed garlic
800g of pumpkin chopped into cubes
500g of beef, chopped, cubed or sliced (optional)
cumin powder
coriander powder
curry powder
mustard seeds
half a cup of sugar
ground cinnamon for extra flavour.
a few pieces of stick cinnamon and cardamom pods
dried chillies

Firstly, boil your pumpkin. You can drop a stick or two of cinnamon into the water. In olive oil or butter, saute the chopped onion and garlic. Once the onion is slightly golden, add the mustard seeds, stick cinnamon and cardamom. If you're cooking meat in the dish, place your meat on top of the onions and cover with water until your meat is cooked. Now, I don't measure my spices, so how much you add depends on how strong you want it. About 1 teaspoon each of cumin and coriander powder; and 1 a half teaspoons of curry powder is enough. When a gravy forms, add your boiled pumpkin, sugar and a little bit of ground cinnamon. If it's cooked soft enough, it will start mashing itself when you stir the pot. Finally add your salt and sprinkle some dried chilli onto it. Serve on a bed of fragrant white rice.

A big biscuit with strawberries on it

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:29:00 +0000

My husband and I are renting from close family friends and we're living on the same plot, so we spend a lot of time over at their place. Eating! I usually make sweet things to take over and I recently made this really nice, quick and easy tart that I found on a food blog that I read.

It has very versatile and easy crust, I'd probably even use it to make a quick batch of plain biscuits. I just love fresh strawberries and served my tart with whipped fresh cream. My photo's not as professional as at bread & honey, but I'm sure my tart was just as yummy.

Tomato, tomaaato, tomayto

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:21:00 +0000

Next to potatoes and freshly baked bread, I think tomatoes is one of the best inventions ever! It's great in salads, on cheese sandwiches and I even eat them sliced up on a piece of toast, seasoned with some salt and pepper. But mostly cooking a tomato sauces makes a great accompaniment to almost any meal.

For supper last night, it was a bit of a quick fix. I fried some freezer-packed crumbed fish and potato wedges. I served this with a generous side portion of my tomato sauce ensemble. I didn't get around to snapping shots of the dish, but there was some left-over tomato that I decided to recycle for lunch, just by adding some penne noodles.

A simple way of making this sauce is by using:

1 onion
chopped garlic, fresh garlic is always better
a combination of green/yellow/red pepper, or whatever you have
spices of your choice, the simplest spice needed is ground cumin
3 small tomatoes
1 teaspoon of tomato concentrate
about 1/3 cup of sugar
salt to taste
fresh coriander leaves

You can chop, grate, pulverise or by whatever means you want to use, get your onions and the like, into small pieces. I chopped my onions and peppers. First sauté the onion in a little olive oil with the garlic. If it sticks add a little water. When the onions are glossy and starting to change colour, add the peppers. Whatever spices you want to use, throw it in. In this particular instance, I only used some cumin and leaf masala. There are times where I get extra daring and sometimes add a variety of spices including curry powder, chilli powder or even cajun spice, amongst others and if wish to execute your taste buds, feel free to add vast amounts of freshly chopped chillies.
I grated my tomatoes, you can chop or even blend them if you want to and add it to the mixture. Add the sugar and some water to slightly thin the mixture, then let it cook for about 10 minutes to become saucy. Add your required amount of salt and just before serving, stir in the coriander leaves.

This tomato sauce can be served as a side dish or add some meatballs or sausage for a meatier meal. I like this with pastas and it's great for a more flavour filled macaroni and cheese.

Easy vegetable soup

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:56:00 +0000

I think this is a nifty, time saving recipe. I usually make this without tomato as it stays fresh a little longer this way and I can freeze it in a few 750ml containers to use later on. It's nice for a quick lunch or light supper when you're pressed for time and need something that can just be heated up.

I use:

1 cup of dried soup mix and/or split peas.
4 carrots
2/3 potatoes
1 onion
some celery
a little olive oil
a few cloves and all spice
seasoning of your choice

I use a combination of soup mix and split peas, preferring more split peas. It's your choice with what quantities you'd like to use. Boil this with a little olive oil until it's cooked, you could even microwave it if you want it to cook a bit quicker. While you're waiting; peel, clean and grate the carrots, potatoes and onion; and wash and chop the celery. Once the split peas are cooked, add about 1,5 litres of water and the cloves and all spice and bring to boil. Add the grated vegetables and let that cook for about 20 minutes. Once the rest of the vegetables are cooked, add the celery and seasoning and let it simmer. You can add a little more water to this if you like your soup to be less thick. If you decide to freeze it, add the salt when serving as it loses the flavour when defrosting.

I still had some stored in the freezer here at work, so I had a nice mug full with toasted rye bread for lunch.

Chocolate cake

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:30:00 +0000

I'm still in the process of gathering recipes and photos of food and cakes I've made, so initially my posting will be a bit slow.

But to start off, I'll share my favourite thing to bake. The good old, flop-proof, chocolate cake. More recently I've started decorating them rather fancily as well and enjoy it so much that I've made a few specially prettified birthday cakes.

My recipe is:

4 large/5 small eggs, seperated
1 and 3/4 cups of sugar
5ml of vanilla essence
1/2 cup of oil
3/4 cup of luke warm water
1 and 3/4 cups of self-raising flour
2 heaped tablespoons of cocoa
1 tablespoon of baking powder

Set aside the egg whites to beat later. Beat the yolks and sugar until the colours turns a pale yellow. Add the vanilla essence. Then alternately add the oil and lukewarm water. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix it into the mixture. At this point, you beat your egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold it in. Bake it in a preheated oven at 180℃ for 30-45 minutes or until your skewer comes out dry.

I use different baking tins depending on my mood. In the photograph, I used a 20" square tin, but I've used chiffon and ring pans. I also use the same recipe to make a chocolate slab, to slice up or even muffins.

Kook-ing away...

noreply@blogger.com (Nielfa Hanifa) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:00:00 +0000

After reading many food blogs, I've decided to start one of my own. I'm not the greatest culinary master in the kitchen but my skills are satisfactory. The dishes I've served have filled plates with second servings, by no means involving me forcing it down anyone's throat.

Hence, from now on, I'll have a fair share of posting filled with my kooky experiences of cooking, baking and all things edible.

So, do watch this space!