soothing pink and white

pink and white .... always works well together, many people's chosen colours, soothing to the eyes, heart and soul. .....sweet, romantic and blissful. a simple flower ribbon as the finishing touch with single white and pink clear crystal flower completed the whole sweet look.

instead of colouring the white fondant with pink colour, I decided to make all the roses using white fondant which I made the previous night and later sprayed a few with dry pink powder colour. It gave a different kind of nice to the roses.

six packs of four vanilla cupcakes, with buttercream and fondant deco.An assortment of deco with roses as the main flower, with rolled roses and white butterflies.

All six, packed and ribboned before they were placed in paperbags

besides the fondant deco roses, I also made 50 pink and white roses, 25 of each.

very minimal and simple deco. one rose in the middle with small star nozzle and kelly green leaves, finish off with small blossom with pearl beads.

the other 25, white roses on soft pink base buttercream with kelly green leaves and silver dregges scattered on the base

individually placed in a cup with dome cover.

not forgetting, two packs of lasagna.

as I am updating this entry, received an sms from farah:

"Sedapla k.zue lasagna, suami yg x bape suka pun leh mkn, tq:)

six paperbags whic I prepared earlier, as usual I drew the pictures and Batrisyia did the colouring

now that the cupcakes are in the bags, which ribbon should I use to complete the task

I decided to go for simple red and white ribbon. These would later be given to her neighbours.

buah tangan ikhlas dari

Lasagna

Daging halia and asparagus....beef , ginger and asparagus

mmmmm......sedaaaaaap ......



'Lama dah mama tak buat masak ni, daging dengan sparagus tu", said my eldest daughter. Thats true, I forgot how long ago did I make this dish, one of the recipes from Chef Wan's "Sedaaaaapnya....." book which I bought many many years ago and had his autograph on the third page of the book.

So, when we went groceries shopping last Friday, bought the asparagus, and after sending Batrisyia to school yesterday, made a quick stop at the wet market where I bought the senangin fish and bought the batang pinang ( also bought tulang rusuk,for curry or soup for other days )

I need to marinate the beef with the following:

oyster sauce,salt, juice of young ginger , beef cube and Tabasco sauce ( searched everywhere for it, in the fridge, in the larder but ..nil, I thot I had it ) so I marinated the beef without the Tabasco sauce and left it in the fridge.

When I went out to pick up my youngest daughter from school, I decided to stop by at Gi*nt and looked for the missing ingredient and thankfully the store had it an I just bought a small bottle because this is the only recipe that I knew which used Tabasco sauce and it would be a while before I am making make this dish again, unless somebody request for it again.

Add the Tabasco sauce into the marinated beef.keep aside.

Heat up a little oil in a shallow pan and fry some crushed garlic, sliced young ginger and asparagus.

then just add in the marinated beef and stir for a while till th ebeef is tender and you are done!

salt

"Lama dah mama tak buat

Gulai ikan versi rempah giling

I have found the rempah which suits my hubbys tastebud for fish curry, even if it is not 100%perfect but close.....not Ad*b*, nor B*b*s or Allag*pp*, but home made , not by moi ( i wish it was, but no...wishful thinking on my part ) by a lady who sells coconut milk and kerisek at the local wet market here in Alor Star, at the Souq Al-Bukhary market to be exact.(Thanks to her I can now make gulai ikan yang pecah minyak)

Whenever I feel like making fish curry, be it the whole ikan termenung or ikan senagin or maybe fish head ( ikan merah or jenahak ), I would drop by at her gerai and bought the fish curry paste.It only cost RM1 for one dish or maybe two dishes of gulai ikan depending on the quantity of fish used.

for the above recipe, I used ikan senangin, quite a big one, but I just bought the tail part which cost RM10 which I bought yesterday morning after dropping Batrisyia off at her school

Here's my version of fish curry:

Heat oil, fry sliced shallots , garlics, curry leaves and ( blank... I suddenly cant remember what this net ingredient is called), yang bijik2 tu, ?#@&?
okay, got it, halba campur:)

then, once fragrant, add in the home made (giling or blended i dont know) fish curry paste, stir until cooked.
Add in a little water , and a lttle asam jawa juice too.
leave it to boil and add in coconut milk
and the fish too
if you like, you can also add in some ladys fingers and tomatoes
salt and sugar to taste,

done.

Siakap kukus

I finally found the simplest, the easiest and the yummiest steamed fish recipe. Didnt quite knew how to make this dish before though I know that this is one of the easiest recipe to cook fish, simply throw anything in and steam ahead, but not to me, I struggle to make 'ikan kukus but when I came across this recipe on TV during Chef Kamarul's show. It's one of those shows where he would be cooking a few dishes with a celebrity or an artist and I thot I'd give a try . Guess what? I've got thumbs up from my kids, especially the youngest who could easily finish off the whole small siakap on her own, I'd stick to this recipe for now.

here's the recipe ( semua main agak2 ya....)
SIAKAP KUKUS
one siakap, cleaned and place in a deep bowl or plate and rub some salt and squeezed some lemon juice on it.put aside.
get the steamer ready.
meanwhile, heat cooking oil in a small frying pan, fry sliced lemon grass with sliced onions till fragrant,
then add in a few cloves of garlic and a little chunk of sliced ginger, red chillies, green chillies, cili api.
then, add in some oyster sauce to taste.
add in some water for the gravy.
place the fish inside the steamer tray and pour the gravy on top of it. If you like, you can also put in thinly sliced carrot
cover the steamer and steam the fish for about 10 minutes.
before serving, just sprinkle some spring onion on top for colour.
serve with hot rice

lasagne

mmmmm.... not good at taking photos, dunno if it looked scrumptious or not but it din't fail to impress my kids...they loved it, so they said...hehe.....

"Tsara'! Ameer! Batrisyia!" Time for lunch! It's Garfield's favourite food today!", you could hear the mum of the house calling her kids down for lunch yestersay afternoon. what prompted her to make lasagne, I don't know. Perhaps, the fridge was running low on stocks of chicken, fish, etc? No.. still had some chicken pieces in there, meat, yes, another portion of prawns, but no more crabs or squids, tulang rusuk, fish..time to go 'early morning'shopping again, time to stock up the freezer

Ameer asked me, have I made lasagne before? Of course I did. One time? no. Twice? No, thrice? No... many many times already but not so often. there was always a long gap in between unlike spaghetti bolognese or spaghetti goreng.

well...just felt like it, once in a while, you just didn't feel like having rice for a meal or rather you were clueless as to what to cook for the meals. It happened to me so many times, sometimes I would just stare at the freezer shelves, looking at the fish,sometimes we had bawal. merah, siakap, grut grut,terubuk, kembung, kerisi, etc and they stared right back at me!

saw the unused portion of the minced meat (i forgot what I used the other half for), some meat balls and remembered that there's still half a jar of bolognese sauce still in the fridge, balance of the spaghetti bolognese which I did last week, I still had the cheddar cheese block, still intouched and the expiry date was very near, that triggered me to make lasagne, after all, it's been awhile, so okay, let's be Italian today.I mean, yesterday.

here's the actual recipe which I obtained from couldn't remember where. Had been using this recipe since my student days:
LASAGNE
1 lb minced meat
425g tin tomatoes
1/4 pt beef stock
2 tbs tomato puree
1 onion
1 garlic
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar

Chopped and fry onion and garlic, then stir in the minced meat.then , put in the rest of the ingredients.
Bring to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.

CHEESE SAUCE:
60g/ 2 oz butter
1/3 cup plain flour
salt, pepper
pinch of nutmeg
2 cups milk
125g/ 4 oz cheddar cheese
3 tbsp grated parmesan

Melt butter ina saucepan, add, plain flour, salt,pepper, nutmeg. Blend in until smooth. Stir over heat for abt 1 minute. Gradually add milk. Stir until sauce boils and thickens
reduce heat, cook 1 minute.
Remove from heat, stir in grated cheese. Stir until cheese melts.

Layer pasta, meat sauce and cheese sauce. then repeat
Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake in moderate oven 375f/190C or gas mark 5. for 30 minutes or until browned and bubbling. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Feel free to try, I did the easier way, by using the bolognese sauce which came in a bottle, forgot which brand did I use, either Pr*ego or D*lm*o

Anything Italian, pasta I mean, is just yummy.....bon jorno!
Ciao!