Ground Hazelnuts

Ground Hazelnuts

How to ground hazelnuts?  Well, today I am going to blog how to 

ground hazelnuts. It is very easy to make.  

The taste and aroma are better than store bought ready made ground hazelnuts.

250g of whole Hazelnuts.

Toast the Hazelnuts in an oven for 7 to 10 minutes (depending on the

amount of Hazelnuts).  Check every minute while toasting. 

While toasting, shake or stir the Hazelnuts so they roast evenly.

Remove them from the oven when they are fragrant and brown.

Once they are cool enough to handle, rub the Hazelnuts between kitchen

towel and the skins will come off with the friction, leaving  clean toasted Hazelnuts.

Any small amount of skin remaining on the Hazelnuts is normal.

Put into chopper and chop until fine (depends on your requirement).

Keep the ground Hazelnuts into a cleaned jar.

Sambal Tumis

Sambal Tumis

Sambal, whether it is spicy or not, all Malaysians love to eat it.

Told my mother that I wanted to cook Sambal Tumis to keep

in the freezer and will take it out whenever my dish require sambal tumis.

As usual, old ladies will not give us in the exact weight measurements,

 they will agak-agak (estimate).  With their agak-agak (estimate), 

they still be able to cook delicious food. Salute them.

This Sambal towards a sweeter taste and if you prefer not to have

sweet sambal, please omit the palm sugar.

I cooked this sambal last few weeks ago and since I have been

hibernating at home due to my back pain, I force myself to blog this

to kill my boredom. 

 As said above, my mother gave me all these ingredients without any

weight measurements.  Sorry lah.  But by looking at it, you definitely

will know the amount of the ingredients needed.

Ingredients :- (Clockwise)

Shallots / Shrimp Paste (Belacan) / Fresh Chilies / Galangal / Ginger /

Garlic / Onion / Tamarind Pulp / Dry Chilies / Palm Sugar (Gula Melaka)

 This picture is the same of the above (but taken at different angle).

 Tamarind Pulp mix thoroughly with 2 tablespoons of water.

Throw away the seed.

Ingredients A :-

Shallots / Onion - Peel and cut.

Dry Chilies - Wash and soak with water for 5 minutes, 

trim both ends, cut into half and deseed (I prefer less spicy).

Fresh Chilies - Clean, deseed (I prefer less spicy) and cut into half.

Ginger / Garlic / Galangal - Clean, peel and cut.

Dry Chilies - Boil it with hot water for 3 minutes or until soften only

and drain well.

Pan fry the Shrimp Paste for 3 minutes.

Put all the ingredients A, Shrimp Paste and

half cup of water into the blender 

except for the dried chilies, palm sugar and tamarind water

and blend until done like the picture below.

 

Lastly, add in the dry chilies and blend further.

Look like this after blended.

Heat up one cup of cooking oil and pour in the blended paste

and cook until the oil separate from the paste with medium fire.

Keep on stirring.

You will notice that the oil will dry up, then add in another cup of

cooking oil.  My mother told me to add two cups of cooking oil

and I thought one cup of cooking oil is enough, how wrong was I,

at the end I have to force myself to add another cup of cooking oil.

As said above, I have to add another cup of cooking oil.

Keep on cooking until the oil separate from the chili paste.

Add in the palm sugar and tamarind water and keep on stirring.

Switch off the fire and dish out.

Once cool totally, I separate the above into  few containers.  

Each container has half cup of the above cooked Sambal Tumis and freeze it.

You can use this Sambal Tumis for your :-

Sambal Telur / Sambal Sotong / Sambal Ikan Bilis /

Sambal Petai / Sambal Udang / Sambal Bawang Besar /

and many many more recipes that you feel like it.

Fried Shallot

Fried Shallot

Chinese likes this Fried Shallot in their foods.

Just add into pan mee noodle, noodle soup, dried noodle, 

steamed fish, steam bean curds, steamed yam cakes and etc.

I made this last week and yesterday my mother brought us

some steamed radish cake and without any hesitation, 

I added the fried shallot and drizzle some of the balance shallot oil.

Hmmmm.....so yummy.

150g small or medium size Shallots

 I hate to peel and slice Shallot or Onion because it will

make me cry like a baby....yeap it is true.

So, I frozen the shallot and then take it out to peel and slice

the Shallot.  No more tears and no more crying baby.

HaHaHa

 Heat up with high fire, one cup of cooking Oil.

 Once your cooking oil is very hot, add in the sliced Shallot and stir it.

 You must keep on stirring and stirring.

DON'T LEAVE IT UNATTENDED.

 Keep on stirring and you will notice it is getting browning.

Turn the fire to medium and keep on stirring.

 Once it is 90% brown, turn the fire to high and keep

on stirring for one minute and then turn off the fire.

The hot oil will still frying the shallots (if you do not turn

off the fire, eventually the hot oil will burn your shallots).

Quickly dish out the fried shallots into a colander to drain 

the oil and let it fried shallot to cool and keep inside

a cleaned jar.  

Because we wanted to have crispy

fried shallot, that is way we are not adding in the cooked oil.

Some people also like to keep the cooked oil together

with the fried shallot, just like drizzle into dried wan ton mee.

Choice will be your.

Have a Happy Wonderful Weekend.

Chicken & Pork Balls In Tomato Sauce

Chicken & Pork Balls In Tomato Sauce

To me, cooking and baking give me one kind of satisfying feeling,
good and happy mood and also has good therapeutic effect.
Every time when you see your end result whether it is a success or
not so success :), the negative feeling, unhappy or sad feeling or

stress from work which linger inside your head earlier will be
DeFiNaTeLy GONE!
While my dear husband was eating this dish, he asked me "you bought it?".
I replied him "no, make it my own...chicken and pork meat" and
from the corner of my eye, I can see he is enjoying it.  See...am I right?
That is the moment that you wanted to see and feel from the people
that you love to cook or bake for them because we know deep
inside our heart that they will enjoy our home cooking or baking.

Chicken and Pork Balls (please click here for the recipe).

Once all your meat balls are cooked, add back into the same pot

(of course without the oil) and pour in the ready made tomato sauce.

Let it boil and then switch off the fire.

Please do not boil for too long, the meat will absorb all the sauce.

Ready to be eaten with it own or mix with pasta.

Choice will be yours.

Apple Pie Puff Pastry

Apple Pie Puff Pastry

Eating Apple Pie with your favourite drink, isn't it is wonderful?

I am not a Coffee Drinker but crazy on Tea.  Anything to do with Tea,

I just love it especially this Harrods Green Tea with Jasmine.

The taste and aroma just wonderful.

I made this Apple Pie last few weeks ago and hope you will like this recipe.

Happy Baking.

Few slices of Ready Made Puff Pastry (thaw for a few minutes),

not to long please, cause the pastry will become very soft which will

make it harder to work with.

Some Apple Pie Filling (click here for the recipe)

Place one Ready Made Puff Pastry on top of a working top.

Place one tablespoon of the Apple Pie Filling near the center line

of the Puff Pastry.  Not to much please, cause the filling will ooze out.

Fold it like the above photo.

Use fork to close it and to make pattern also.

It is easier to lift up the Apple Pie Puff Pastry by using a thin spatula.

Place it on a lined baking tray and bake at 190 Degree Celsius for 

30 minutes or until done.

Once baked, take it out and let it cool completely.

Instead of my daughter enjoying the Apple Pie Puff Pastry, I also

enjoying my day reading my favourite novel, eating Apple Pie Puff Pastry 

and sipping Green Tea.  What a wonderful day!

:)

Apple Pie Filling

Apple Pie Filling

My "wai sek" (like to eat) daughter has been bugging me for a few weeks 

to make apple pie for her.  Last weekend, when my husband, daughter and 

I were at McD Drive Thru to buy late supper for our son, she keep on poking

at me to bake apple pie for her.  She added that one of her best friends, Fiona

wanted this recipe....is it coincidence or what?  At the end, I gave up and 

bake for her the next day.  Well, this recipe is to show you how to make 

the apple filling. So, please bare with me a few more days to load how 

to make apple pie with this apple filling.

4 Green Apples / 20g Butter / 1 tablespoon **Cinnamon Powder /

70g Brown Sugar / 2 tablespoons Corn Flour.

** (Note : I like cinnamon powder, thus I put 1 tablespoon and

if you prefer not so strong of cinnamon, by all means lessen it)

Peel off the skin and dice or slice the apple. Choice is yours.

Add the diced apple, brown sugar and butter into a pot and cook at a 

medium fire.

When you notice the brown sugar and butter has melted, 

taste the sweetness of the filling and add more brown sugar, if necessary.

  

For me, I added extra 10g brown sugar.  After cooking a while,

you will notice the water ooze out from the apple.  Turn the fire to low.

Then add the cinnamon powder and corn flour and stir until well done.

Once the filling thickens, turn off the fire.

Isn't it is delicious looking?