Almond Crisps

Back in my Singapore days, during the CNY season, my colleague will start selling goodies that her Aunt made and one of my favourites was these Almond Crisps. They were very addictive and you just want to eat and eat. But they were on the pricey side since they were made of Almonds, and lots of them.

It's been years since I had it and I finally found the recipe for it under Aunty Lily's blog, I couldn't be happier. Finally, I found it and I had to make it. I have tried making it a few times, results were inconsistent. The recipe calls for very few ingredients and easy steps....BUT...the big BUT, you need to spread it evenly on a thin layer and you need to know your oven. My oven is hotter and usually takes shorter time than what recipes called for.

After a long break from making this....reason, coz it uses only egg whites and I don't know what to do with all the eggs yolks!! I have decided that it's time for another batch since I bought a whole bag of almonds too.

Ok, everything was easy (check out Aunty Lily's blog for the recipe and many many more wonderful recipes) except the spreading part and the baking part. My oven is hotter and very uneven and my spreading wasn't even too (never seemed to get it right). You can see from the picture how uneven it was BUT they were still crispy and yummy-licious. After taking them out of the oven, let it cool and break them into random pieces. I assure you, one pc of this is never enough, very addictive. 

Korean Hot and Spicy Rice Cake

Ever since I have been to Korea, I have wanted to eat this again but never had the opportunity to go back to Korea again and have no idea how to make it till I saw this video by Maangchi. I realized that making it is really not difficult. In fact, it's quick and easy (which is what I like), and it takes only a few ingredients (like this even more).

Korean Hot Pepper paste and Rice Cake

Again, I improvised since I don't have the Korean rice cake and green onions nor their anchovies. I used ikan bilis, fried them before putting them in the water to boil. Then, added the Korean hot pepper paste (got this from the HK market just so I can make this dish), sugar, a little salt, cilantro and fried shallots to add more taste to the  hot pepper sauce. I used Chinese rice cake for hot pot instead of Korean rice cake and after the dish is done, sprinkled some roasted sesame seeds on it.

End product. 

Don't you think they look like chee cheong fun? Hmmm..thinking of that right now, might be time for me to make some chee cheong fun too. Anyway, these rice cakes were fantastic.

Enjoy.

Pandan Bread with Nutella

I don't really like to eat loaf bread, to me, the feel is different. I rather eat a bun than a slice of bread. And by making buns, it meant I don't have to slice, which I don't really do good at, always uneven.

Pandan buns with Nutella inside. 

Pandan (screwpine leaves) is commonly used in Malaysia and Singapore, but here, I have to depend on pandan paste. I finally bought a bottle some time ago and have been thinking of things to make with it. Again, it's a challenge since nobody in my household really eat the Asian food that I make. K eats some but not much, hence, I have to make something that I think they will eat or help me finish.

A while ago, I made some pandan buns with nutella inside hoping that my little girl would eat it and to my surprise, she liked it even though they were green in color. We figured out that my girl won't eat anything green as she won't eat vegetables and won't even eat Gold Fish that's green.

This is how it looks in a pie pan. 

Decided to make another batch of pandan buns since I have not made any bread for a couple of weeks now. I have adapted the recipe from Happy Home Baking and made them into tiny tiny loaves, added some nutella/choc chips inside (this is to entice my girl to eat them) and instead of putting them in the normal baking pan, I had them in the pie pan, turned out pretty nice actually.

As for the texture, it's light and soft...love it! I grew up eating soft bread and I prefer them to the heavier bread that we get here in the States.

The pandan taste was pretty subtle but it's good enough. Definitely gave this bread a nice green. 

You can even see the nutella/chocolate oozing out in the pic....yummy yum yum. I think the nutella/ chocolate compliments the pandan pretty well.

And if you are wondering, the middle ones have no chocolate in them, I sprinkled some almonds flakes and sugar on them, they tasted good too.

Enjoy.

Simple Laksa

What do you do when you don't have what you need readily available? You improvise! That's what I did tonight for my laksa. In this part of the world, Asian ingredients and spices are not that accessible, so, I used what I have in my fridge and pantry to make this easy one pot meal (yes, I love one pot meals).

What are the ingredients used? Below is the list...I don't have exact measurements to them, sorry..that's how I cook, based on 'agak-ration' (eyeballing).

For soup:
Garlic
Shallots
Dried shrimps
Sambal oelek
Ground Coriander (pinch)
Dried Lemon grass (fresh is not avail here or hard to find)
Santan (coconut milk)
Water

Added Shrimp, fish cake and tau pok to the soup...oh, don't forget the greens - Cilantro! I like adding cilantro to almost everything I make if I have them on hand.

And lastly, cooked some yellow noodles and voila....a nice hot and spicy bowl of Laksa for my enjoyment.

Again..simple...quick....yet so satisfying.