Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Hot Vochlle, For Instance?

Hey..this morning I've woke up and make up my breakfast with this instant hot cocoa drink in a minute - in no time. I just can't have a time for any breakfast meal as I've to hurry for my regular appointments, and I just took for approx. 5 hour for the last night sleep - slept at 5 am and woke at 10.30 am. Is that crazy? Crazy no more. Just a skidded time of work.

So, what I prepared in the kitchen is simple, but I can show you what I have. Just a cup of cocoa drink, made with the Vochelle instant drinking cocoa powder, mixed with a powdered milk and creamer, and a plus of instant oat, it'll gives you the extra ummph of starting energy.

I used milk powder instead of fully creamer because I know that it's a breakfast, and I need something to feed me up because it's already 10.30, and I'm still feeling quite drowsy and need some simple menu to take along with the drink. Added with some oats, this will energize you better when accompanied with a milk.

I may ended up with a teaspoon of vanilla to give the extra aroma, if desired.

This is my drink recipes:

Hot Vochelle with Oats

Ingredients:
1 1/2 teaspoon Vochelle instant drinking cocoa
2/3 tablespoon sugar (depending on taste)
1 tablespoon creamer (Nestle coffeemate, or others)
1 tablespoon milk powder
2 1/2 teaspoon instant oat (depending on thickness)

Method:
1) Add all ingredients in a mug and add hot water (80C) until near the top. Stir until blended and ready for enjoy!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Sandwich ayam merah..?

Ok, last two nights I've been found a good yet nice products that would suit your tasty buds and the feels of culture in our place, like the title goes.. which read it as 'Chicken in Red Sauce Sandwich' in English. This ideas pops into my minds expressly and without any doubt it came into my thoughts thoroughly. What happens at first is I'm busy finding the perfect ingredients to make a so called 'Mexasian' dishes (I'm sorry this terms doesn't yet exist so I created on my own) - where the tastes binds together to create the superb of the two nations together - Mexican and Asian.

How did the ideas came? Firstly, it took me some while where I'm quite thinking of what to have for a dinner that day as both of my parents went out for the outside dinner. After I realized what had left in my refrigerator, I sped up my thought to get almost fit ever dish that could accompany me that only night. When I opened up my fridge, what I first saw is a bunch of tomatoes, a leftover small cube of cheese, a quarter cut of a local long bread (a kind of french stick but this ones is soft - made by federal bakery, sold by the rotimen) and a bowl of a so called dish - 'Ayam masak merah' where in English it reads Chicken in Red Sauce. This dish is hot, so I manage to take almost all of it, mixed in the diced tomatoes and cheese, where firstly sprinkled with an oregano and salt to taste. Note that for the chicken I took out from it sauce first and shredded it a bit, then re-mixed it again with its sauce. After that, I mixed it with the chopped tomatoes and cheese. There it goes, a spicy Mexasian taste for a layer of sandwich fillings. I then took the bread and split it into halves and spread some margarine inside it before spreading over it with the ready made fillings. After resembled the top part of the bread, I baked in my small toaster. What happens next is the topmost part of the bread went burnt as it touches the toaster's internal elements. After I realized the smoke than I suddenly cut off the circuit and I quickly removed the bread and I got shocked of it has been totally burned, but I didn't throw it away but I just took it out and remove some part on its top and have it half cooked. The inner fillings doesn't completely ready, but the cheese seems to be getting melted, and this can make me satisfied a bit if not so much of the other parts of the fillings, as to my thought, if it could take any longer, the other ingredients would blend well, and turns out together perfectly with the molten cheese.

Ok, I will give you the complete recipe below, where this time no copyrighted provided! This time this recipe comes from me myself!!


Chicken in Red Sauce Sandwich (Sandwich Ayam Merah)

1 bowl leftover chicken in red sauce dishes(at least a medium cut of chicken in it)
A quarter of a block of cheddar cheese (approx. 75 g - you can use whatever kind of cheese you prefer)
1 tomato, washed and diced
Oregano and pepper, to taste
A medium size of any sandwich bread or buns(you could use a french stick, but this one quite harder)
butter or margarine to spread.

Method:


1) Dice a cheese into small cubes, mixed with a diced tomato. Sprinkle over with the oregano and pepper to taste, set aside.
2) For the chicken in red sauce, prepare the chicken by removing it from the sauce first and then shred it a little with a fork or knife. You could wash the chicken first to remove the extra sauce that sticks to it.
3) Remix the chicken back with its sauce, and then mix it with the cheese and tomato mixture.
4) Check the taste, if you require more spice, add some more pepper, chillies or garlic.
5) Spread it on the buttered bread, cover with another halves of a bread.
6) Place the bread in the toaster or if you have a bigger oven, just place it inside it as it could be too small to place the unbaked sandwich into the toaster. If you concern about the fillings for being dropped out while baking, wrap the sandwich with a foil before baking.
7) Bake for at least 5 minutes in a moderate oven or longer, depending on the size and how far you want it to be cooked. The sandwich is ready when the cheese is melt.
8) Have your say, watch your taste!


This don't goes well that night as I just used a small cut of bread, where the fillings goes upward and this got stucked into my toaster oven. So, what I did after it is proceed with another simple one-step bowl of Maxasian dishes, where it consists of the remaining tomato( I just use half of the medium sized ones for above recipe), and some other cuts of cheese mixed together in one small bowl, and finally poured over by a dollop of hot local chilli sauce(the chilli is a cili api type, where it is a small ones with an extra hot flavor), and there it goes. I think I should microwave it to get the cheese melted a bit and then add some cubed toast. What do you think?

Ok, I will still give you this recipe to try, enjoy!

Spicy one-bowl Mex Chilli and tomato snack

Half a tomato, or a quarter just fine
2 medium sliced of cheese (I used cheddar)
A dollop of Malaysian Hot Chilli Sauce (I used Wanis brand, or you could also try Aminah Hassan)
Some pinch of Oregano or pepper, you may also need a salt.
A slice or two slices of toasted bread, diced.

Method:

1) Combine the tomato and cheese in one small bowl, sprinkle over the spices.
2) Add the sauce, mix well. You can also try the tomato paste, but I recommend the chilli paste. There are a lot kind of chilli paste available in Malaysia, where there are chilli boh - a kind of thick paste available at local supermarkets, but you can try by blend the chilli yourself at home.
3) Put the bowl into the microwave and go for high for about 10 secs, or if the cheese haven't melted yet, give an extra second until melted slightly.(No need to melt too much, or it will be stuck within your spoon and bowl upon eating it).
4) Take out from the microwave and add the cubed toast. You may also add some other salad ingredients, like the corn, salads, or whatever you like. Try it hot!


Sunday, October 7, 2007

Coconut Chocolate Cookies


Welcome back! This time I am able to manage my time to get into my baking times, and this time it was to do with Coconut Chocolate Cookies, a beautiful look at it's design, and sometimes it'll rather looks like a truffle. I do bake the basic dough, mixed with a 125 g of a cornflakes, and then shaped into the balls and baked into a hot oven until slightly brown before cooled and topped with a melted Vochelle baking chocolate and dipped in the toasted flaked coconut. Fuhh.. it sounds good, but it do look great if you tried it. I will rather dip it wholly into the chocolate, but it is quite challenging, as my hand is not quite steady in handling such a tiny items and, yet to be dipped in the hot melted chocolate for a neat result. So what I've done is just a part of the cookies has been dipped, but its still tastes and looks good, with a toasted flaked coconut coated over the chocolate.



You may also substitutes the coconut with the almonds or hazelnut if you like, but I'm still following the original recipes that calls for a toasted flaked or dessicated coconut. It may becomes a perfect match, as the smells of the coconut's fragrance mixed with a hot melted cooking chocolate will produce a superb aroma of a new taste. Coconut and chocolate has long becomes a match, but this times its ones again coming into my nose during this coming raya, where most of the dishes includes a coconut, while this chocolaty tastes dishes, when it comes into the morning of raya humidity as usual as many available cookies, thus matching it with a coconut tastes will increase more of your ready produced appetite.

Ok, so, as usual, I'd like to share this recipe with the readers, even it's still a copyrighted material, taken from a Saji magazine, my lovely mag since a decade ago. I will put its courtesy at the end of the recipe. Enjoy!


Coconut Chocolate Cookies (Biskut Coklat Kelapa)

Ingredients:

3 cups self-raising flour
125g margarine
190g castor sugar
125g cornflakes, finely crushed (I used Nestle)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Cooking chocolate, melted (I used Vochelle baking chocolate)
Dessicated coconuts
Paper cups


Method:

1. Cream margarine, sugar and vanilla essence until light.
2. Fold in cornflakes and baking powder, stir until mixed
3. Fold in the flour. Knead lightly with your fingertips, until the dough is soft, well combined, and suitable enough to form into balls. You may add or decrease the amount of the flour according to your dough condition. (This depends on your humidity and the air temperature of your place).
4. Form into balls, place on the ungreased cooking tray and bake at the temperature of 170 C for 10 to 15 minutes.
5. When cooked, leave the cookies to cool on the tray before dipped into the melted chocolate finally coated with a lightly toasted dessicated coconut. Place into the paper cups and serve.

(Copyrighted. A courtesy of Saji (BUMPER September Edition), page 52)

One thing I would like to let you know is I have been baked this cookies by using the coarse sugar (normal sugar) instead of the castor sugar. I have a hard time finding my leftover caster sugar in my kitchen, but I never found it! Maybe I've misplaced it or maybe someone has used it before. So, without any other choices, I have to used my ordinary available sugar which it looks very eye-catching as it has a greatest quantity in my kitchen, with a volume of full tall tabletop tupperware in front of my eyes.

When I mixed the coarse sugar with the margarine, the mixture seems a bit heavy to blends together, as it took a longer time to increases its volume. I have to use my spatula and insert it into the mixer while it is working, so that it has the extra pressure to makes it raise a little. After all, the cookies also took a longer time to cook maybe because of this sugar, I'd rather think so. However, the result is quite good and I believe it does the same. Try use the ingredients as provided, and make sure you have all the ingredients required in your kitchen before you start. Enjoy your baking!