Raya Cookies III: Dorie Greenspan's Linzer Sablés

Fact oh fact:

1. Sablé is a shortbread-like cookie, a French version of butter cookie.
2. The recipe is printed in Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours, pages 134-135 [ooohh I love all her cookbooks, it's like having her in the kitchen, baking with me #lol #annoying #twitter]. You can also view the recipe here. 
3. Syawal is almost over, and here I am, still talking about my raya cookies.. sigh Ms. P visited me twice this month, hmm, and I haven't got much time left for puasa 6.. 
4. Another weekend is coming, enjoy it, dear readers! 

Black and White Wednesday- Rice Pot

Cutting stalks at noontime. Perspiration drips to the earth. Know you that your bowl of rice each grain from hardship comes? 

~Chang Chan-Pao

Raya Cookies II: Nutty Meringue

These airy crunchy cookies are one of my favorite. A tad on the sweet side to be sure, so next time I won't add as much powdered sugar as stated in the recipe... and as I said previously, I'd returned the recipe book before I could pen down the recipe, so no recipe for this one, for now.  


Adam, on the other hand, loves it so much. The repeatable acts of munching and chomping would not stop until I hid the jar from him. What's up with kids and sugar eh? isk


Made with beaten egg whites, I believed these are "RAYA COOKIE OF THE YEAR", apart from the infamous macarons. They seem to be on every table at every house we visited. Well, macarons are expensive to be baked/bought, so people turned to these meringues instead =P With lots of variations, studded with pecan, walnut, raisins, anything under the sky, my favorite would be the one with dark choc chips. They toned down the sweet flavor well. Love it! :) Note to self 2: Meringue and macaron are best flavored with chocolate/anything with bitter flavor. 


Oh btw, high five if you made/bought these cookies for raya too *high five* =P

Raya Cookies: White & Dark Chocolate Chips Cookies

Raya and Cookies? Who started all this cookies trend eh? 

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Last year, I baked around 8 types of cookies, and none of  the jars were successfully emptied. I vowed to bake less this year (down to 5 types), and the same O is about to happen again. I should have learnt my lesson kan.. Okay..may be it's to early for me to pen down my worries, right here, right now. Let's wait until Raya Haji..  =P 

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Do you know that every homemade cookies have their own expiry date?  I googled on cookies storage tips, and found Baking 911: A Complete Storage Guide. Read it! I probably have to throw away my meringues. They are about to go bad. Note to self..bake more choc and chips cookies and biscotti. They last like forever... =P

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Most of my cookies recipes were taken from the library book and Bisous A  Toi. I forgot to snap the recipes (from the book) before I returned it. Isk. More cookies entries coming soon.. 

Black and White Wednesday: The Bread

"Old bread is not hard.  No bread, that is hard."

Kecoh-Kecoh Raya.

Eid Mubarak! 

Our Raya morning was so kecoh! T_T

 How was yours?

On Family and Food III

Oh my..I've been missing in action for weeks now.. The long awaited mojo still hasn't arrived so far =P I miss you guys.. seriously.. I do hopped into your blog sometimes, but not as much as before... I'm in my 'limbo' kindda world right now.. should I typed sigh now?.. sighed..

Okay..less words, more pics..These are what I've been occupied with in the last few weeks.. ;) I've been taking lots of food photos, and here are some for you guys to drool over ;p eleh..

Eggless Caramel Pudding 

Recipe adapted from My Resipi by Firasyira.. It's a keeper. I've been using this recipe for hundreds of times already and it never failed me and the rest of the eaters. 

Sticky Caramel Chicken Wings

Our weekly dinner.. Easy: Marinate those wings 5-10 wings with a tablespoon of sweet soy, a tablespoon of oyster sauce and a tablespoon of honey for an hour or overnight. Bake Stirfry or bake them with garlic.  Nyum!

Quill Eggs Soup

Err..I don't have the 'right' recipe for this one..but I'll  try to upload it if there's a request for it. I love this soup.. It's a perfect sahur dish ;)

Grilled Corn

Adam and I totally hated it. Period. {He he}

Black and White Wednesday- Salted Fish

I once bumped into a black and white (B&W) recipebook and thought it was the foolish idea ever.. Who's gonna buy or lend a B&W recipebook rite? Before today, I always thought food photos in B&W are just dull and uninviting, but I was wrong.. B&W shots are interesting (not to forget, challenging!) and with a bit of creativity and techniques, it could be as great as the normal colored shots too.. 

Hmm..Where did I get this idea of B&W food photo anyway? From The Well-Seasoned Cook, which I first learned from My Diverse Kitchen blog :) Thank you guys for opening such door. If you guys, readers, are interested to take part in this photo event, you're welcome to dig more infos on both links. 

Psst.. I know it's Friday..but I can't hold this until next Wednesday he he I'm so thrill with this new event.. ;) my foodography mojo is soo back!! 

Psst.Psst..I'm still in Malacca.. ;)

Tuesday- Manhattan Cheesecake

"The king of cheesecake, and every local cafe, restaurant or shop will have this traditional Big Apple classic. You can serve it with a variety of fruit compotes." 

~Eric Lanlard, Home Bake 

I always have such a hard time choosing cheesecake. Put me in front of a cheesecake display, and I'll go numb. It would take ages to get to the right one, which usually either flavored or topped with fruit, nuts, or drizzled with chocolate. Frankly, I'm not the biggest fan of plain and dull-looking cheesecake, except for this one. This is the one that I like and dislike the most he he Plain, yet so rich and creamy. 

Verdict-The base crust is thick and not soggy, which I like. The filling part is creamy and tangy, a cheesecake taste that I always after.. but thumbs down to the soured cream topping..ugh..wished I had a tin of sweet cherries to eat this along with. 

Psst..I have not been in a mood to do any blogging-related thing lately. I'm having a writing, cooking and foodographying block..naah 3 in 1.. ;p I'll write, cook and foodograph some more when the mojo is back.. ;)

Psst..Psst..I'm going back to Melaka this weekend and will stay there for 2 weeks!! Yippee!! But before that, since my husband had to fly somewhere during that weeks, I had to settle with MAJOR ironing job first.. isk isk...

Manhattan Cheesecake

{Adapted from Eric Landlard, from Home Bake recipebook}

Serves 10-12

Preparation time:20  minutes+resting and chilling

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

For the base:

75g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

300g digestive biscuit, crushed

For the filling:

1kg cream cheese (the drier the better)

250g caster sugar

3tsp plain flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

3 large eggs

300ml soured cream

For the topping:

150ml soured cream

1tbsp caster sugar

icing sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the base and side of a 23cm or 9 inch springform cake tin with extra butter, and line the base with baking paper

2. For the base, melt the butter in medium pan and stir it into the biscuit crumbs. Press the mixture into the bottom of prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Cool on the wire rack while preparing for the filling

3. For the filling, increase oven temp to 220C

4. In a mixer fitted the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese at medium low speed until creamy, about 2 mins. Then gradually add the sugar, then the flour. Continue by adding the vanilla and lemon zest and juice, then whisk in the eggs, one at the time. stir in the soured cream until well blended. the batter should be smooth, light and somewhat airy. 

5. Pour the filling into the prepared tin. The top should be as smooth as possible. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 mins. Reduce the oven temp to 140C and bake for 25 mins more. if you shake the tin, the filling should have a slight wobble. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside the oven with door closed. The cheesecake may get a slight crack on top as it cools.

6. For the topping, combine the soured cream and caster sugar. Spread over the cold cheesecake right to the edges, then refrigerate overnight. Dust with icing before serving.

Friday- Singapore Chicken Laksa {using spaghetti}

''Most restaurants (and hostesses) that feature pasta provide guests with a large spoon as well as the knife and fork. The fork is used to spear a few strands of spaghetti, the tips are placed against the spoon, which is held on its side, in the left hand, and the fork is twirled, wrapping the spaghetti around itself as it turns. If no spoon is provided, the tips of the fork may be rested against the curve of the plate.'' ''The New Emily Post's Etiquette,'' Elizabeth L. Post, 1975 By CRAIG CLAIBORNE 

The above excerpt is from NY Times.com, which highlights the right way of eating spaghetti, using fork and spoon. Instead of fork, I choose to twirl it with a pair of chopstick and Chinese soup spoon this time he he 

This chicken Laksa is specially made for Food Pixel Contest by Dario Milano. There's no grand prize, and everybody signed up for critiques and fun! Since the latest contest theme is spaghetti, I'd to substitute the laksa noodles to angle hair spaghetti. FYI, this is not a new thing-read: the subs. We'd been doing this for years already. 

This flavorful noodle soup, is made with coconut based sauce that is scented with rempah paste and served with any number of condiments. Sometimes people called curry mee. I knew I could easily ordered this at most of the hawker streets here, but I choose to make it from scratch today. Such a sweet time of headache he he 

Anyway, this was my first attempt making Chicken Laksa and the result was not bad at all. The taste is almost the same like hawker-styled Chicken Laksa. My only concern is the sidekick, the chili oil. Perhaps I should put belacan [shrimp paste] next time? *sneeze**sneeze*

Singapore Chicken Laksa Recipe
{Adapted from Almost Bourdain's Curry Laksa}

Serves 6-I halved the recipe tho

Rempah Paste:
20 Asian shallots
10 cloves garlic
10 dried chillies, soaked in warm water
10 fresh red chillies
2 tsp toasted belacan-
3 tbsp dried shrimps, soaked in warm water
6 candlenuts (buah keras)
3 tbsp curry powder

5 tbsp oil
3 stalks lemon grass, bruised
3 sprigs curry leaves- skipped
1 litre chicken stock
1 litre thick coconut milk
salt to taste

Toppings:

Lime, quartered

200 g tofu puffs, cut into halves
300 g bean sprouts, blanched
3 hard boiled eggs, halved
2 pieces fried fish cakes, sliced-skipped
12 large cooked king prawns-I subs it with chicken breast
12 seared fresh scallops-skipped
600 g rice vermicelli noodle (Bee Hoon), blanched- I subs it with angle hair spaghetti

Method

1. To make Rempah Paste: Mix all ingredients and pound into a paste with mortal and pestle, blender or food processor.
2. Heat up oil in a soup pot, saute rempah paste, lemon grass and curry leave until fragrant.
3. Add chicken stock and bring to boil.
4. Lower heat and leave to simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
5. Add thick coconut milk and bring to a boil again, stirring all the time to prevent it from curdling.
6. Add tofu puffs and bring to a boil. Add salt to taste.
7. To serve: Divide spaghetti and bean sprouts into individual bowls. Spread prawns, scallops, eggs and fish cake on top. Pour curry gravy and tofu puffs over and serve immediately.

Chili oil
{Adapted from RasaMalaysia}

110g chili paste
25g garlic, pounded175ml to 200ml oil
50g dried shrimps, soaked with water-I added
Method

Blender both chili and dried shrimp together until it become fine paste. Saute garlic and chili-dried shrimp paste in oil until the chili disintegrates and oil floats to the surface. (Use this to garnish when serving.)