I thought I was smarter than my GPS

Zen Garden is a rather new seafood restaurant in Cheras. Tucked at the back of a sports complex, it may not be an easy location to find. I used my GPS but then I was silly not trust it. When I was instructed to go straight, I saw the sports complex entrance. So, I turn around and went the other direction. After going round and round, it still directed me back to the same spot. This time I called the restaurant to check their location and I was told the restaurant shared the same entrance as the sports complex. I should have known, how can I be smarter than the GPS? LOL!

I was invited to taste the food there by my friend, Criz Lai of Criz Bon Apetite. Hey Criz, thanks for the invitation. It was great to meet you in person finally. I am glad to know there is a new seafood joint in Cheras. Next time, when I visit my step brother and his family, we do not need to drive to Teluk Gong for seafood. What I really like about Zen Garden was the ambience and the ample parking space and the varieties of items to choose from in their Menu.

The most expensive item on the menu is probably the lobster which is still reasonably priced in my opinion. Other than the prawns and crabs, the rest of the items are priced at RM6.90 to RM12.90 per serving.

It was nice talking to one of the owners. He seemed to welcome feedbacks from all the invited guests. I could see his enthusiasm in wanting to deliver good quality and delicious food to his customers. 

We had two kinds of soup for the steamboat. I liked the traditional soup over the tom yam soup. There were a variety of sauces to choose from and I tasted everyone of them. They were all good.

The tom yam soup for me was not spicy enough but I reckon not everyone like super spicy stuff like me. I was impressed with the freshness of the seafood and the attentive service. I will return with my family to taste the other seafood dishes on the menu. 

Before we call it a night, we had to snap a shot for the album.

Zen Garden

Jalan Koop Cuepacs 3F Cheras, 43200 Selangor, Selangor, Malaysia.

Tel: 603-9074 0336

Mon - Sun: 5:00 pm-2:00 am

GPS:  3.076974, 101.758691

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zen-Garden/424061350968009

Meet the Pastry Chefs in person at the "Think Out Of The Shell - Vol.II) cook book launch

The time is getting near for the Nutriplus baking competition. Have you send in your entry yet? The closing date is 16th October 2012. Ten more days for you to think out of the shell. If you are selected to compete, you have a chance to meet all the ten Pastry Chefs who are featured in the cook book "Think Out Of The Shell - Vol.II". So what are you you waiting for? 

Want to know who are the judges for the competition? Click on the following link to go find out more. You might know one of the judges of which photo is not shown here.

Here is another idea of what you can bake for your entry.

Cranberry and Bluebrerry Clafouti

Adapted from Martha Stewart

This dessert was featured on Asian Food Channel (Official) Facebook page 

on 11th October 2012

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature, for dish

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

2 NUTRIPLUS jumbo eggs

1 cup chilled heavy cream

3/4 cup whole milk

2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest

1/2 cups fresh or thawed frozen cranberries

1 cup fresh or thawed frozen blueberries

Icing sugar, for garnish

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 1-quart baking dish (not metal) and sprinkle 2 tablespoons granulated sugar over bottom. Sift remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, flour, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Gradually whisk in eggs, 3/4 cup cream, the milk, and zest. Scatter blueberries into dish before pouring batter over top. Bake until puffed, slightly set, and brown around edges,  about 32 to 34 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes (it will sink).

Whisk remaining 1/4 cup cream until soft peaks form. Dust clafouti with icing sugar. Serve with whipped cream. I served mine with vanilla ice cream.

Thoughtfulness in the oven

It made my day when Saw Leng of “Treasure Memories" wrote to me on Quay Po's Facebook Page and informing me that she had successfully made my Orange Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes with orange vanilla custard cream. 

Later, we communicated through emails and she invited me to lunch. What a sweet lady she is. Of course I accepted her invitation and looked forward to meet her.

I got up very early on the day of our lunch and decided to bake banana chocolate cupcakes because I had some very nice bananas called "Pisang Raja" in my freezer. I thought it would be nice to let her taste my bake. At the same time, I could bring a box of the cupcakes to my good friend cum Insurance Agent whose office is in the same building with Saw Leng. I was happy I could killed two birds with one stone. LOL!

In return, I got a box of moon cakes from my Insurance Agent and butter cookies in the oven from Saw Leng of “Treasure Memories”.  She told me, she baked them. I love the cute box she put the cookies in. If I did not tell you, you might be thinking those cookies were really in the oven right?

Clicking on the picture will bring you to her recipe

The cookies were delicious and I really appreciate my new friend's thoughtfulness and her friendship. We had a wonderful lunch and it was so good to know her hometown is near to mine. No wonder, we had so much to share and talked about. 

I saved two of the cupcakes I baked, for my Quay Lo and he told me that this is one of the best cakes I have ever made. Then I reminded him about my carrot cake, 

Clicking on the photo will bring you to the recipe

butter cake, 

Clicking on the photo will bring you to the recipe

and white cake 

which he tasted and raved about. Is this sign of old age or what? LOL!

Later that day, my Insurance Agent’s secretary called to tell me that her boss had shared the cupcakes with her and she loved it. She found to be very moist.  Saw Leng also mentioned in my facebook page that she tasted it and would like to have the recipe. Like I always said, good things must be shared. Here is the recipe and trust me, you will love this super moist, chocolatey yummy banana chocolate cupcakes.

Banana chocolate cupcakes

Adapted from Joy of Baking with slight modification

Make 12 regular size cupcakes

Ingredients:

175 gm granulated white sugar

130 gms all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (regular or Dutch-processed)

3/4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 jumbo egg

1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 1 medium sized banana)

1/2 cup (120 ml) warm water

1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

1/4 cup (60 ml) canola, corn, or vegetable oil

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

100 gms unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

113 gms unsalted butter, room temperature

100 gms icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Line 12 regular-sized muffin cups with paper liners. Put sugar in a large bowl. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and sift them into the large bowl of sugar and whisk them together.

In another large bowl, whisk together the egg, mashed banana, water, milk, oil, and vanilla extract until well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir, or whisk, until combined. (The batter is quite thin.)  Scoop the batter into the cupcakes liner to 3/4 full, and bake for about 20.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack before piping chocolate frosting.

Chocolate Frosting: Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

In an electric mixer bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy for about 1 minute. Add the icing sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add vanilla extract and mix well. Add the melted chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Beat for another 2 to 3 minutes on  medium-high speed until frosting is smooth and glossy.

A note from the "Think Out Of The Shell Baking Challenge" Organiser

Calling all home bakers to send in your entries for Think Out Of The Shell Baking Challenge.  Closing date is on 16^th October 2012.

Don’t be scared by the word “Pastry”. According to Wikipedia, “Pastry is the name given to various kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder, and/or eggs.” Now,  you suddenly realize you are already doing that at home? So it is time to be recognized and rewarded for your passion in baking. Joining the Think Out Of The Shell Baking Challenge  is a great opportunity for you to show off your baking skills.

Here is a note from the Organiser:

“Hello to all Home bakers,

All home cooks and bakers are invited to participate in the Think Out Of The Shell Baking Challenge organized by Nutriplus from Saturday, October 26th, until Wednesday, October 31st 2012, at Aeon One Utama. This baking challenge is open to amateurs who love to bake or have been baking at home. The mission of this challenge is to provide an opportunity to home bakers to showcase and share their passion with the public. 

Workshops from professional coaches will be offered for selected contestants to help them refine their recipes for the competition. There will be awards in the forms of Iphone, I pads and RM 3600.00 worth of workshops provided by The Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia during the World Pastry Forum in Nov 2012, this will be a great chance you to meet with world renown pastry chefs engaged in professionals methods of cakes, chocolates, sugar and etc.

We believe that you have what it takes to pursue further in the skills and knowledge of patisseries, as our coaches and judges here are ready to meet up with you and provide you the short-term training if you require. But most importantly, we believe that you will be playing a part in promoting the interest of baking to the Malaysian public.

I hope to receive enquiries from you. You may send emails to me at nourish.enquiry@gmail.com. It will be a valuable educational experience for all of us as we, from the industrial will get to know those who bake from home and vice versa. If you would like to know more about the rules and regulations, please log into "Think Out Of The Shell" facebook page where there is a website you can submit your recipe.

P/S: The sooner we hear from you, the better we are able to promote this event on youtube, facebook or even recorded in a short video which will be made into TV show.

I really hope to hear from you all.

Best regards

The Organizer"

It is really not as hard as you think to bake something as an entry to the challenge. I just whipped up some spiced fig bars this morning. These are great snacks to have around the house. Nothing fancy or complicating but they are pastry right? Remember, I am not a pastry chef nor I had any formal training in baking. I am just a amateur home baker who started to take baking more seriously 2 years ago. If I can do it, you can too. Join in the challenge and you will be so pleased that you did. 

Spiced Fig Bars

Ingredients:

For the dough:

½ cup unsalted butter

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 large Nutriplus jumbo egg yolk

2 tbsp milk

½ tsp pure vanilla extract

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

¼ tsp baking powder

For the filling:

7 oz dried figs (I use Turkish figs), quartered

1 ¾ cups water

½ tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

¼ cup packed dark brown sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

pinch of salt

In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar and salt using electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 2 minutes. Add egg yolk and vanilla. Beat till well mixed. Add milk and beat till blended. In a bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder and stir into wet ingredients in two batches until a soft dough forms. Wrap dough in cling wrap and put in the fridge for one hour.

To make the fig filling, place the chopped figs, water, cinnamon and nutmeg in pot over medium heat. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to simmer. Cover pot for 25 minutes. The figs should be soft and swollen but there should still be some liquid left in the pot. Add brown sugar and lemon juice. Cover and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until thickened. Remove from heat, set the mixture aside to cool before puree in a food processor until smooth. Let filling cool completely at room temperature. Put it in an airtight container and let it set in the fridge. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough out into a 15x12-inch rectangle. Use a ruler to slice the dough into three strips so that you end up with 3 long thin rectangles that are 5 inches wide and 12 inches long.

Spread one-third of the fig filling along the center of one of the strips of dough. Gently fold one long side of dough over the fig mixture and then fold the second side to overlap the first. You will now have a long tube of dough enclosing the fig filling. Press down gently at the seams. Be careful not to squish out the filling. Repeat this with the remaining two strips of dough. 

Slice the logs into 1½-inch pieces and transfer the cookie bar to the baking sheet with the seam side facing down. 

Bake until slightly puffed and lightly golden, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer cookie bars to a wire rack to cool.

I hate backbiting but I love great bites

I love watching the cooking shows especially the Masterchef New Zealand and Australia because the series includes Masterchef classes where I could learn lots of tips from the chefs. I told my Quay Lo that I don’t like any shows that include a lot of backbiting among contestants and he agrees. For whatever reason the Masterchef series from the U.S. is full of this unbecoming behavior. While I recognize that some of this may be due to editing it still makes me wonder what people derive from putting others down. I can't think of a reason other than some distorted means of elevating one's self at the expense of another. Do they not have a voice of conscience? I really feel backbiting is an evil act and it is so wicked. I hope it is the producers who have deliberately highlighted drama and backbiting in the shows to attract more viewers. Of course then we have to ask ourselves why that would be considered as a device to attract more viewers. What do you think?

In the Masterchef New Zealand and Australia shows, you don’t see the contestants speaking badly about each other. In fact they seemed to be very supportive of one another. I think this is the right thing to do. We can still support each other even in a competition. I think a victory is more honorable if it is won by skill instead of using dirty tactics.

In one episode of Masterchef class, New Zealand, I saw how mango cannelloni was made by one of the show hosts.  It seemed so easy to do and such an impressive dessert. As I am a mango lover, I could not wait to try making this at home. When I started to roll the mango slices, it was not so easy after all. I did it though, but as you will see, it is far from perfect. My rolling was not tight enough and I think the filling was way too wet. In my next attempt, I will reduce the amount of cream and pat dry the pineapple and see if that helps. Perhaps I should chill cannelloni for 24 hours before I cut it. Still, this is a pretty dessert isn't it? I can say that it is delicious. 

Mango Cannelloni 

Recipe from Chef Josh Emett, Masterchef NZ

Click on the photo to get the recipe

I’m submitting this recipe to this month’s Cook Like A Star (Masterchef), hosted by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Anuja of Simple Baking and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out

My first cooking video

When Chef Mario Batali introduced a new dish called Uova da Raviolo (ravioli with a soft egg yolk inside) many home chefs may have been persuaded that it was almost impossible to cook at home. In fact, it can be done and it is not as difficult as I thought. My kitchen is very basic and I have no special kitchen utensils, just the usual ones, but with a little attention to detail even in a modest kitchen it can be done with stunning results.

In the following video, you will see my recipe and the steps.  The video was sponsored by Nutriplus, and produced by Nourish magazine, in preparation for the upcoming Think Out Of The Shell - Vol. II cookbook launch and the Nutriplus Pastry Challenge. 

You may pause whenever you want to look at the recipe and directions, which tend to flash by too quickly. All instructions are in text on the video.  

Uova da Raviolo (ravioli with a soft egg yolk inside) 

by Quay Po

You can serve the Uova da Raviolo with sauces, puree or soup of your choice. Think out of the shell, let your creative juices flow and most importantly, have fun. LOL!

By the way, I would like to remind all interested home cooks and bakers to submit your entries for the Nutriplus Pastry Challenge. Don't be shy or afraid. If you have the passion in cooking and baking you will have a wonderful time and have the chance to show off your baking skills. Why not?

Don't mess with granny

While organizing my files in my hard disk last weekend, I came across this video clip called “Granny’s airbag”.

I could not help but laugh out loud watching it again. Not only was the video hilarious, it reminded me of an incident where my Quay Lo hit the car bonnet of a guy’s car when he sped up on him instead of stopping while we were crossing the road. At that moment we were furious but now the drama seemed so funny to me. I showed my Quay Lo the video clip and he too laughed when he saw how fierce that granny was.  He thought it was acted out and staged but then even if it was, I still find it plausible. We chatted for a long time about how people could turn into devils the moment they go behind their wheels. We both agreed that drivers in Malaysia are more aggressive compared to many countries. Pedestrians need to be very careful when they cross the road. 

We enjoyed our chat so much and did not realised it was past our usual dinner time already. Die!, I forgot to plan for dinner. 

When I walked into the kitchen, I saw the bowl of Zespri kiwi fruits sitting on the table. An idea of making kiwi salsa came to to mind. I got dinner ready in less than an hour. This dish was refreshing, delicious and visually appealing. The combination of grilled pancetta wrapped prawns, avocado and kiwi salsa was superb and I love the colors in the dish. There you go, here is the recipe. 

Pancetta wrapped prawns with Kiwi salsa and avocado

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, they were all taken by my iPhone, 

no time to set up my camera, it was late and we were both hungry. LOL!

for 1 serving

Ingredients:

3 to 5 prawns, clean, deveined with the tail on

4 or 5 pieces of sliced avocado

½  lemon, juiced

zest from 1 lemon

1 tomato, seeded and chopped

1/2 small red onion chopped

½ sweet red chili, chopped

½ sweet orange chili, chopped

¼ cup chopped cucumber

¼ cup chopped parsley

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 green Zespri kiwi, peeled and diced

1 golden Zespri kiwi, peeled and quartered

¼ cup feta cheese

salt, sugar, ground black pepper to taste

4 - 5 pcs thinly sliced pancetta

Method:

In a medium bowl, combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, chilis, cucumber, onion, parsley and diced green Zespri Kiwi, salt, sugar, ground black pepper and extra virgin oil. Put salsa in the fridge. Season prawn in ¼ tsp sugar. Make sure prawn is dried before being wrapped with pancetta. Spray some butter on the grill pan and grill prawns till pancetta looks crispy, about 2 mins per side. Remove salsa from the fridge and transfer to the serving plate with a slotted spoon. Top salsa with grilled prawns, sliced avocado and quartered golden Zespri kiwi and serve with freshly baked baguette and corn chips.

Note:

Zespri had given me some cute bookmarks and keychains to give away to Malaysians. If you are a Malaysian and you are a follower either on my facebook page, my twitter or here, you may leave a comment to indicate your interest for either the keychain or the bookmark. I will contact you later to get your address. I have 10 keychains and 10 bookmarks and it will be on first come first served basis.