Autumn 2012

The Autumn finally hits me now. The leaves are falling and the streets are full of leaves. The trees are all burning red and yellow.
Preparing for the worst winter this year. Currently it is mostly raining, windy, cold and dark at this time of the year. Have started going out with my winter jacket and winter gloves now especially when its a windy day.
Some morning, car windows started to be frosted as it has been minus for few hrs during the night.
Have a lovely Autumn everyone!!

Thai Red Chicken Curry

5 tablespoons oil

1 large onion—finely chopped

3 tablespoon Thai red curry paste

2 cloves garlic—finely chopped

1 can coconut milk

1 cup chicken stock

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1kg uncooked skinless chicken breast fillets—cut into bite-sized pieces

2 tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour) mixed to a paste with 2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 large fresh basil leaves—finely sliced

HEAT the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and cook the onion for 5 minutes, 

stirring occasionally. ADD the curry paste and garlic and cook, stirring, for a minute. 

ADD the coconut milk, stock, fish sauce, sugar and salt, then bring to the boil. 

ADD the chicken to the curry and simmer, for a further 8 minutes.

ADD any kind of your preferred vegetables, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes.  

stir in the lemon juice and basil. 

SERVE with rice.

Potluck & karaoke Night

Saturday 13th October a friend from Stockholm, Irene invited me to her house for a gathering with the other Malaysian who are living here in Sweden. It was the first time for me to join this kind of potluck gathering as I have never been to one before.

Mike, Irene husband picked us up by car at the train station as I have not clue of how to get to her place.

The only person I knew there and have met couple of time is Irene, her husband Mike and Johnny. I have not met the rest of the other couples there.  Somehow they were very friendly and it was indeed very nice day spending my saturday.

This is the ladies and children table. Very comfortable, nice and the steamboat cooks faster than the men side. The men has a special sitting place out in a little colder place at the balcony.

There were so much food and really yummylicious. Amazingly 2 of their Swedish husband really enjoyed the steamboat and the chilli dip too. It is not easy to find Swedish enjoying steamboat.

We started eating around 4. When we done, we went over to the living room for some Karaoke time. Almost everyone sang and it was fun.

Then we had very typical asian desert. Before the night end we ate again for the 2nd round. It is truthfully amazing, I never thought we could eat again after we had so much for the first round.

The host Irene.

Thank you for a lovely good dinner and quality fun time with you and everyone there.

Will human being ever learnt?

Some people never learnt what is the meaning of making promises. One thing for certain, promises are meant to be kept. People always take thing for granted until its too late.

On the other hand some people never remember what is it like to lose the one you love. It is certainly a horrible and hurtful feeling. If you are given a chance to get back again that someone you love, would you treasure it or take it for granted? Once again if he/she's alive and you got her back, you are considered lucky, but if she's dead, you will regret it for the rest of your life.

Somehow if you have that mentality, of taking her for granted again that she's afterall all yours now and thinking that you will not lose her ever again, then you for sure don't deserve to be love. Not from her, not from anyone either.

I knew a friend who's name will have to be anonymous, as I do not want to paint the picture name story openly but an idiot to say that he cheated on her. When she found out, things were not as beautiful as it look like anymore. It hurts, it hurts so deep down inside her to know that she was being cheated. The trust she had for him is obviously gone. It hurts to know someone that she trusted and had built a life with all her life had ruin her.

Took a while for her to grasp that it had happened, until one day she finally decided to move on. She started meeting other people and had a lot of friends supporting her. It was really a moment of her rebuilding and see life again.

She finally met someone again but the relationship could never be the same anymore as she is so afraid of being hurt in a relationship again. She was very cautious in her relationship but she was indeed very happy. She got the treatment of respect and cared by her new partner.

The things that pull her forward and back is her child. She adores her child dearly. She would do anything for her child. She felt that her child is not happy seeing the parents seperated. Since then she decided to have a friendly seperation with her husband so her child would feel better.

The story begin, her husband treated her with so much respect, give her so much attention and show her how much he really love her whenever he could. He knew he have to be the nicest guy in the world after what he had done to her.
Finally she fall for his sweet talk trap and take him back and thinking that it will be fine now after seeing her child was very happy too.

For few months everything was painted beautifully. Then finally the respect, attention and love was then taken back to his own selfish, uncaring, stubborn, self centered person again.
She question him again, what is the reason they went back together again if its going to be like this? It is better they get divorce?
Knowingly the change of his other side has re appeared again so he uncaringly replied, if you want to, go ahead.!!

Does this person deserve to be love? No...
Does this person will ever be happy?
I doubtly think so, he will have a temporary happiness all his life but will never ever find any true love who will die for him through good and bad time.

Absent sharpen the love, presence routine it.
The story continue...

Fried Noodle (Mee Goreng)

Craving for Mee Goreng. Did it for lunch today.

Ingredients:

Yellow Noodle

2 onion slice 

2 garlic chop finely  

(stir fried both onion and garlic with little oil.)

3 tbs Chilli paste

1 tbs tomato paste 

(add in both chilli and tomato paste and fry for another 5 mins)

3tbs Oyster sauce

2tbs Sweet Soy Sauce (Kicap Manis)

2tbs Light Soy Sauce

(Come in those 3 sauce after)

1 egg

Yellow Noodle

(Add in Egg and yellow noodle)

At this stage you can add in any kind off green vegetables.

Salt and Pepper

Thinly slice spring onion

Chopped chilli padi

Slices of hot dog which you fried them first separately.

(optional, I added this as I have to use it before the due date) 

Taco Lasagne with Bechamel sauce

There are so many different ways of making Lasagne  I have tried several different ways of making them during the past years but somehow the one and only type my family love is the one I did with Taco Seasoning Spice, especially my husband and my son. They could really eat a lot. Lasagne is pretty simple to do. My Lasagne with Bechamel sauce is part of my own invention of playing around with the food.

600 gram of minced meat

2 large onion chopped

2 garlic chopped

1pkt Taco seasoning

1 can of peeled tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

Cheese

Bechamel sauce

Preparation of the mince meat first:

In a large skillet, cook the beef, onion, garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.
Add water and taco seasoning; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Once meat is done, I started preparing for the Bechamel sauce. This is the basic recipe of Bechamel sauce.

3 tbs butter

3 tbs flour

2 cup milk

A pinch of salt

Dash of grounded nutmeg

In a saucepan, melt the butter on low heat. As soon as it melts, add the flour and stir until there are no lumps, and increase the heat to medium-low. Add the milk slowly, stirring constantly with a whisk, and continue stirring until the sauce begins to thicken - creamy without being too thick. Remove from the heat and stir in salt and nutmeg. Remove from heat and set aside.

Arrange one layer of lasagna plate onto a baking dish. Pour and spread evenly the Bechamel sauce onto the lasagna plate. Then followed by spreading a thin layer of the mince meat.
Repeat this layer again by starting with the Lasagna plate, bechamel sauce and mince meat.

Top with your own favourite tasty cheese. You can even mixed different types of cheese for much cheesier taste.

Cover and bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.

 I always love the sprinkling over of an additional parmesan cheese before serving.

Fried Anchovy with sweet soy sauce

Very typical Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian dish. Simple and easy to make. In Asia we ate this as a snacks or together with other main dish.

100g Dried Anchovy (Ikan Bilis)

1 large Onion slice

2 Garlic chop

10 Thai chilli 

10 tbs Sweet Soy Sauce (Kicap Manis)

3 tbs Tamarind (Optional)

Pepper and Salt to taste

Instruction:

Wash clean the dried anchovy. Pat with paper towel to dry.

Fried them in a frying pan with some oil.

Once they are crispy, set them aside on a plate.

Stir in slice onion and garlic,

Next Thai chilli,

Put back in the fried anchovy and pour in sweet soy sauce.

Add in a small amount of tamarind if you prefer to have it a bit sour and sweet taste. (I prefer without)

A few dash of Salt and pepper to taste.

Cool and Cheap Fireplace (Kaminer)

These are really cool and extremely cheap fireplace which is called Kaminer in Swedish. Direct translation of  Kaminer is stoves. They are sold in one of the company in Stockholm, Sweden called the Smart Bed. 

With this time of the year in Sweden when it's Autumn, cold and dark outside, this fireplace is so practical. It is also very cosy to have a fire place in your living room, kitchen or bedroom.

They are good looking and be place on the wall, on top of a cupboard or on the floor. Perfect for private home use and also for offices and restaurant.

This gorgeous stoves called the Kamin Idre cost only 1,990 Sek excluding tax.

Size Specification:

H54cm x W60cm x D56cm Fire 22x10cm

Floor Stoves:  Kamin Åre for only 1,990 Sek excluding tax.

H60cm x W70cm x D30cm Glass: H10cm x W50cm x D 0,5 cm, Fire 22x10cm

Wall Stove called the Väggkamin Stockholm for only 990 Sek excluding tax.

H54cm x W78cm x D12,5cm Kamin storlek: H44,5cm x W44,5cm, Fire 22x10cm

Table Stove called the Kamin Sälen cost only 499 Sek excluding tax.

H28cm x W36cm x D23cm, Fire 22x10cm

This Kamin Funäsdalen cost only 490 Sek excluding tax.

H28 x W35 x D12cm, Glass sizes: H28 x W35x D0,5cm

Joke of the Day today on Monday!

Our small dinner on Friday night

I did different small dishes on Friday night, we ate together with the children and watch X factor.
There are 4 different types of small dishes on a french bread.
First bread:
Spread mayonnaise on the bread, a slice of turkey, Bearnaise sauce, and cheddar cheese.
Second dish:
Spread of mayonnaise on the bread. As for the beef.
Thinly slice beef, which I stir fried with garlic, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, honey, sesame oil, salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle sesame seed.
Third bread:
Spread of mayonnaise on the bread. Mozzarella cheese, and sprinkle with sun seeds.
4th bread.
Spread of mayonnaise on the bread. Cut into small stripe of chicken fillet. Marinate them with 5 spices, salt and pepper. Dip the chicken stripe with egg beaten and roll them with bread crumbs.Lastly fried them till golden brown.
I put them in the oven at 200 degree for 10 minutes until the cheese melted.

Some fried chicken wings.

And spicy chicken wings.

Cinnamon Roll (Kanelbullar)

Yesterday Thursday 4th October is a Kanelbullar Dag in Sweden.

My son send me an sms at 7:30am while he was on his way to school in a train.
"Mom today is Kanelbullar Dag" (Cinnamon Roll Day)
So I asked him "How did you know?"
Replied, "It's in the newspaper"
There is a free newspaper everyday called Metro newspaper and they are distributed all over every train stations and bus stations here.
So I asked," Did you read it in Metro?"
Replied, "Yes I read it sometime"
So I told him that I will buy for him when he come home from school but thinking about it, why buy when i can do it myself and that boy would not feel that its enough with one bulle.


Rolls:
1 pkt dry Yeast
2 tbs Butter, melted
1 Cup Milk
¼ Teaspoon Salt
¼ Cup Sugar
3 Cups of Flour
1 tps Cardamom

Filling:
2 tbs Butter
3 tbs Sugar
1 tps Cinnamon

Topping:
1 Egg

Combine milk and butter.  Sprinkle the yeast over the milk and butter mixture. Stir until dissolved and let rest. Sift the flour, sugar, and salt and mixed until the dough is elastic and not sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 30 to 40 minutes.

 While waiting for the flour to rise, you can prepare the butter and cinnamon spread.
When the dough has risen, knead for one minutes. Roll it into a rectangle. Spread the filling over the whole top.

I did one roll with Nutella spread

Once rolled cut them between 3 cm depending on how thick you prefer.

This is the next rolled I did with cinnamon and butter.

Usually you need a baking paper cup to lay each and everyone of them inside but since I do not have one at home, I just lay them on a tray with baking paper underneath.

Beat one egg and brush them lightly on top of the cinnamon roll and sprinkle pearl sugar.

This is the pearl sugar.

Baked them in the oven at 200 deg for 20 mins. Sometimes it can be faster so just keep checking them. Once it is brown like the picture below, you can take them out.

This is the Nutella chocolate roll.

This is cinnamon roll.

Stir Fried Beef With Vegetables

Stir Fried Beef With Vegetables

Ingredients

Beef slice very thinly

3 Garlic chopped finely

1 red chili thinly slices

Carrot

Broccoli

Short Bean

Tomato

Light Soy Sauce

Oyster sauce

Corn Flour for thickening of sauce

Salt and pepper to taste.

Add oil in a pan and stir in garlic, red chili

Shortly after add in the thinly slice beef

I rather have the beef stir till the water from the beef evaporate and dries up before adding light soy sauce and oyster sauce

Add a cup or 2 of water till the beef is cooked. If you using a tough chewy meat please let it cook longer.

Once it done, put in all the vegetables, salt and pepper.

Do not overcook the vegetables as it is much nicer when it is fresh and crunchy than soggy.

Lastly add in the corn flour, stir and mixed them in seconds and immediately off the fire.

It's a joy!

Congratulation to my very good friend Suzanne and her husband Bobby for the arrival of their baby girl on the 3rd October 2012, Wednesday. The baby weight 3.3 kg and they have not confirm any name for the girl yet. Very happy that the girl and mother are safe and healthy. Wishing you both all the best and hope that it would be a wonderful journey for your family together.

Singaporean Mee Kuah Daging

I was craving for Singaporean style of Indian Mee Kuah Daging (Noodle Gravy with meat) Since my husband is out for a meeting early in the morning today and will be back only later in the evening, I decided to cook this yummylicious noodle for lunch. This is pretty simple dish to do and I always add in my own ingredients if I do not have all the ingredients I needed for my cooking and usually it turn out well. 

Ingredients:

200 gram meat ( chop in small pieces) I like a little fatty in the meat.

2 large onion

3 Garlic

1 inch ginger

1 lemon grass crushed

2 tbs tomato puree

2 tbs chili paste

1 large potato peel and chop into very small pieces

Meat soup spices ( You can get this in any Asian shop)

Beef boullion

Spring onion ( slice thinly)

Cabbage (slice thickly)

Egg 

Salt and Sugar to taste.

Blend onion, garlic, ginger to a fine paste

Add little oil in a pan and stir fried the blended ingredients and lemon grass for few mins

Later add in tomato puree, chili paste and continue stirring for another 2 to 3 minutes

Once the oil rises, you can add in the meat and mixed them well with the paste. 

Add in water, estimated around 4 cups.You can add in more water during the meat stewing process as the water normally decreases.

Add in chop potato, meat bouillon, salt and sugar.

Lastly add in the cabbage and turn off the fire.

 As for the egg, I did separately in another saucepan with a boiling water and poached them before adding them into the meat gravy.

Served with vermicelli noodle or yellow noodle. 

Sprinkle spring onion before serving.

Enjoy!!

Duck with orange sauce

This duck dish is a mixed of Asian and French origin dish which is called Duck al' orange. The first time I did followed the french recipes totally but later I tried the packet duck marinated seasoning mix and it tasted so much better. My whole family loves my roast duck with orange sauce. 

Wash and dry the duck.

Marinate the Roast duck Seasoning mix on the duck and let it stand for an hr.

Heat the oven to 200 degree and roast them for 1hr 30 min, turning the duck occasionally OR what 

I did was that I cut the duck into half on one side and spread them up so I did not have to turn the duck during roasting.

While duck is roasting I prepared the orange sauce.

For Sauce:

• 2 tbs sugar
  
  
  • 2 cup fresh orange juice either from fresh oranges.( I normally use 1/2 packet orange juice which turn out the same)
  
  
• 1 tbs light soy sauce
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 carrot slice  
• 1 large onion slice
• 3 tbs tomato puree

Direction:

Melted butter in a pan,

Add in onion and carrot for 2 min

Add in tomato puree stiring for another 2 mins

Pour in orange juice, chicken broth, light soy sauce and salt

When the duck is ready, let it cool of before cutting.

Remove the bones and throw the bones in the orange pot.

Let it cook for another 15 mins together with the bones.

Just min before it is ready, add the flour to thicken the sauce.

Filter the rest of the ingredients away and take only the orange sauce.

Slice the duck in thin slices.

  Serves with warm rice, salad, tomato and cucumber.

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Roast Hainanese Chicken Rice

Ingredients for the Chicken
1 Chicken (Whole)
1 Tsp of Honey
1 Tsp of Maltose
1/2 Tsp of Molasses
1/2 Tsp of Five spice powder
Few dashes of Ground white pepper
1 Tbsp of Ginger juice
2 Tbsp of Light soy sauce
2 Spring onion stalks
5-6 slices of Ginger 
Any coarse Salt – for exfoliating the Chicken

Ingredients for the Rice

2 cups of  rice

2 Tsp of Salt

5-6 slices of Ginger

2 cloves of Garlic –pounded

2 1/4 cups of Chicken stock

1 Pandan leaf 

2 Tbsp of Chicken fat with skin attached – obtained by trimming excess fat from Chicken

2 Tbsp of Water 

Ingredients for the Soup

2 cups of Chicken stock

1/2 of a White radish/Daikon – cut into large chunks

1 Tsp of Salt

Few dashes of Ground white pepper

1 Tbsp of sliced Spring onions or Coriander leaves for garnishing

Ingredients for the Chilli Sauce

7 whole Red Chillies

4 cloves of Garlic 

4 slices of Ginger 

1 Tbsp of Lime juice 

1 Tsp of Caster sugar

1 Tbsp of Chicken stock

1 Tsp of Chicken oil - obtained from rendered Chicken fat during the Rice preparation

A pinch of Salt (to taste)

Put all the ingredients in a blender and grind them to smooth.