A long overdue post

This is a long overdue post. For quite a while now I had lost the folder with the photos of the occasion. It is a pre-Christmas pot luck lunch at Sonia's home. She is the originator of the “Nasi Lemak Lover” blog.  All of us were to bring a contribution and I took  "chee cheong fun" from my favorite store and home made yong tau fu, the one that my Mum taught me.

Yong tau fu that mum taught me to make, with taucu

Chee cheong fun from my favorite store

the yong tau fu I brought to Sonia's house

The gathering was planned so that we could meet up with Jessie of “Jessie Cooking Moments” and her family. Jessie is  a Malaysian living in Australia and we were all eager to meet and greet.

Yen of “Eating Your Heart Out” and her hubby were there with us too.  Yen brought with her some delicious nama chocolate and banana cake. (Yen, correct me if I am wrong. LOL!).

Sonia was a generous and a terrific host as always. You can see all the food she prepared for us!

What do foodies do when they get together? We make food, of course, and Sonia let us help prepare the “tong yuen” and it was fun to do.

Yen’s hubby was having fun not only making the “tong yuen” but wrapping the poppiah. Check out his original sauce applying idea.

I brought everyone a small Christmas gift as it was the season. I even had a surprise for Sonia’s youngest son, Desmond. 

Please click on the picture to get the recipe

The little one that enjoyed my “otak otak” a couple of years ago, is now a big boy. I thought letting him play this Ang Pau game would be fun for him.  So I had a bunch of red packets with different amount of money inside and I told him that there were big and small gifts and that it was on him to pick out the biggest one.

He was so excited when he heard that. He looked at the Ang paus intensely, as if he could see the amount inside. Then he leaped to pull out an envelope and quickly opened it. From his expression, I could read what was in his head. “OH NO! AIYAH, only RM20.00. Chay!!” LOL!

For those of you who would like to try making popiah at home, click on the photo below to get the recipe. We have popiah parties and have a ball to see who is most skilled at rolling them,and who can eat the most.

Please click on the photo to get the recipe

We had a wonderful afternoon together. I regretted I could not spend more time with Jessie and family as I had to head back home early. But then, I am very glad I got to meet her in person. She is such a sweet young lady. 

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.

Pot luck "LUNNER" (lunch and dinner)

Usually during long holidays, Wendy of "Table for Two or More" will come to KL which gives us the opportunity to meet up, catch up, taste each other’s food, and eat till we drop. Over the recent holiday we had a pot luck “LUNNER” (Lunch and Dinner) and the theme was finger foods. We were reminded by Wendy to make small portions because what we wanted were varieties not quantity. Swee San of "The Sweetspot" kindly offered to host the “LUNNER” in her beautiful home. 

That morning I was  full of anticipation  and got up very early to prepare the food shown below to take to the feast. 

Goody bags for each of my friends - Almond Crisps

(click on any picture to get the recipes)

For finger food, I made pancetta wrapped prawns with gorgonzola cheese

to go with lemon tahini mayo dip dressing

This is another variation for serving the prawn as a starter

(You may click on the photo to get the recipe)

I made two desserts

American soft chewy big thick chocolate chip cookies

using my mother-in-law's recipe

(You may click on the picture to get the recipe)

Apple tarte tartin

(I have not posted the recipe yet, it will be up next week)

Here are the contributions from all my friends. Every dish was made with passion that shines through, don't you agree?

Prepared by Wendy of "Table for Two or More"

Cucumber cups with dried prawns sambal

Mieng Kam Kadok

That is how you eat it. 

Prepared by Esther of "The Fuss Free Chef"

Meat balls

Dragon fruit jelly

Prepared by Sharon of "Feats of Feast"

Shepherd pie

Crackers with caramelised onion mayo

Scotch quail's eggs

Prepared by Swee San of "The Sweetspot"

Double baked potato skins with guacamole

Cassis pear milk chocolate entremet

Prepared by Shannon of "Just as Delish"

Stuffed grape leaves

 and finally Prepapred by Yen of "Eat Your Heart Out"

Moist Brownies

We all agreed that we planned the portion of foods very well this time and there was not much left to “tap pau” (take away). This is the way to go for all future pot luck “LUNNER” so when is the next one?  LOL!

I wish to thank you all for the delicious foods and especially Swee San for being so gracious to host this gathering in her home. And a big thank you to Swee San's mum for taking this group picture for us.

Alone but not lonely

The weekend of Hari Raya, I was all alone. My Quay Lo was on a business trip and my Mum had gone to stay with her friend for the weekend. I have a spirit within me that stays connected to my loved ones, even when we are physically apart. I may be alone, but not lonely. I will always make my life the best that it can be. I am happy working on my latest project, or catching up with my friend's blogs, or using social media to stay connected to friends and family. I will always see myself as being alone and not lonely.

My "aloneness" did not last long. The multi-talented friend of mine (she is a good cook, baker, writer and photographer), Chris Wan of "Pureglutton" sent me an invitation to have lunch in her home but I did not know about it until she followed up and messaged ask me if I had received her invitation. I am often confused about navigating facebook, and had overlooked her initial invitation there. I am so happy that she followed up. Otherwise I would have missed this awesome get-together with her and the chance to meet with some lovely people who are also famous bloggers.  Not only that, I would have missed out these sumptious dishes  prepared by Chris herself. Look at all these mouth watering delights!

Rendang Pork to go with store bought lemang

The best Bak Kut Teh I have ever had

Stir fried lettuce with garlic

Beautiful moist and luscious plum cake

As I usually don’t like to go to friend’s houses empty handed, I made a pavlova and some cream puffs to share. I am really very happy that it turned out great. You may click on the photo to get the recipe.

Pavlova with Strawberries, blueberries, pineapples

and golden kiwi

Mini cream puffs

(You may click on the picture to get the recipe)

I had a wonderful afternoon catching up with Chris and get to know some new friends. What was most satisfying was, I got a big reward for the day. Everyone enjoyed my pavlova and it was all gone. Trust me, this is what every cook or baker wants in the end. In the midst of all these creative foodies I GOT PRAISE! (Excuse me while I float away on a cloud.)

The proof, is in the pudding...or... in this case, the "no pudding left"

So, for my Hari Raya holiday I was not alone after all. It was a blast. Thank you Derek and Chris for being such great host and and hostess. Oh, it was a pleasure to meet Ken Chan of "Food point of Interest", Sue Lynn of  "Bangsar Babe" and hubby, and Babara Moullie for the first time and I was very glad to see Evelyn of "My lil oyster" and hubby again.

We came, we saw, we wollop!

What a good excuse for people who love food to meet up and share their passion. Well, my good friend, Arthur Wee of ‘Still Crazy All These Years” was in town last weekend. We all met at Ah Lye Curry Fish Head Restaurant and had a feast. The delight in these gatherings is greeting some old friends and making some new ones. The highlight of the evening was not so much the following food as delicous as it all was.

Lower left: Arthur brought the kompia all the way from Sibu

Lower right: The achar was kindly contributed by Jocel's mum

The real highlight was all these homemade desserts that were shared.

From left: Homemade chocolate truffle by Shannon of "Just As Delish", homemade pineapple tarts by Ping of "Ping's Pickings", Store bought cream puffs contributed by Yee Ling of "Ling in De House"

I was also eager to take a dessert to the dinner. Arthur has said he loves my macarons and he cannot get Hokkaido Chiffon Cakes in Sibu, so I made these and brought them with me to the dinner. The filling for the macaron was kumquat, chocolate, chestnut with Cointreau liquor. For the cupcakes I made a whisky, orange, vanilla custard cream filling. I am thrilled to see people enjoying what I made, and in the end, isn't it what all of us interested in baking and cooking want?

Macarons with kumquat, chocolate, chestnut, cointreau filling

(click on the picture to get the macaron recipe)

Orange Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes with vanilla whisky custard filling

(click on picture to get HCC recipe)

It was a great bloggers get-together and "makan" (eat) session.  We had so much food and dessert that we all were stuffed. Later Ping wrote on Facebook that our fullness could be the reason that she bounced off Arthur's tummy when she gave him a hug to say goodbye. I laughed out loud when I read this because I had this instant vision of all of us saying goodnight in the parking lot and bouncing around.  LOL!  Here we are after calming down.

Back row from left: Quay Po, Arthur Wee of 'Still Crazy All These Years", Kathy and son of "Small Kucing", Shannon of, Ping of "Ping's Pickings", Jocel of "Food and Travel"

Front row: Abby and daughter Yee Ling of "In-house Ling" and Alice. Two camera women not in the picture: my best friend Peng and Arthur's good friend, Mandy.

We all should be happy especially when Santa came to town early this Christmas. Each of us get a bag of these goodies from Santa Arthur. LOL! Thanks Santa, hope you return to Kuala Lumpur again soon.