Bandung Vacation 25 - 27 March 2011

I can't stop coughing!!!
Adoooiihhh..!! dah 3 minggu sakit!!
Tension!!
Stress!!
Moody!!

24 March 2011 - Yasmin and I left for KL on the 8.20pm Firefly flight.


25 March 2011 - My sister Ani, her friend Azura, Yasmin and I took the 9.30am Airasia flight.
BANDUNG ... here we come!
The journey took 2 hours.


Hati dan semangat berkobar-kobar nak ber-holiday, tapi badan kurang sihat. Started off the week having sore throat and then, stuck with an irritative cough till I was almost asthmatic. To have a conversation was pure torture! Tu yang tak tahan! Most of the journey, I was 'silent'.. which was awkward, in a way. Luckily, my iPhone did a good job entertaining Yasmin with the games installed in it.


Arrived Bandung, we checked into Majesty Hotel and immediately made transport arrangements for our 2days shopping spree.


Our first and only shopping destination for the day - PASAR BARU. We were caught up in a very bad traffic jam... the stress made me cough even more!!



At Pasar Baru, cuma sempat beli lace materials jer before the shoplots began to close for the day (6pm). Aiseyman... telekung belum beli ni?? Nampaknya esok pagi have to come back again.


Back at the hotel, the three girls arranged to have a Javanese Full Body Massage. Amboih! bukan main lagi bebudak bertiga ni!


Me?? I prefer to .....

26 March 2011 - 9am, dah siap bertolak ke Pasar Baru.

My latest collections - Telekung bersulam dengan batik sutera.






Haaaa...!!! Tengok telekung yang warna-warni ni.. cantik, kan? Bought all colours, except for the white one!!




Happy dengan telekung-telekung saya!

OK, I'm Done!


Now ... Marathon to the many, many Factory Outlets - for the 3 girls to do their shopping. (Eh! Dalam pada tu, sempat jugak beli 2 blouses and 2 pairs of jeans for myself.. hehehe.. )

27 March 2011 - After breakfast, bersiap tunggu transport untuk ke airport. Flight back to KL at 12 noon.


From KL, Yasmin and I waited for our connecting flight back to Penang scheduled at 5pm. While waiting, we had this ....




.... at CHOCOLATE's.

Egg Tarts

This recipe makes 8 small tarts.

Ingredients -
A:
70g butter
25g icing sugar
1 egg yolk –slightly beaten
14g evaporated milk
110g flour - sifted

B:
150g hot water
2 eggs
40g evaporated milk
50g sugar

1. Heat butter until melt and add icing sugar, stir till sugar dissolve.
2. Add beaten egg yolk to batter. Stir to combine.
3. Add 14g evaporated milk. Combine evenly.
4. Add flour into the liquid batter. Mix to form a dough.
5. Kneed dough for a more crunchy pastry.
6. Put dough aside in the fridge for 30 minutes.
7. Grease the pastry tin. Squeeze a thin layer of dough into the tin mould. Poke holes with a fork to make pastry crunchy.

Filing:
1. Mix 40g evaporated milk with 2 eggs.
2. Pour sugar into hot water and stir. Then add milk/egg mixture.
3. Drain the liquid to get rid of egg lumps and get smooth filling.
4. Fill up egg liquid 80% into prepared pastry.

ran out of pastry for two last tarts (seen bottom centre of tray)

5. Preheat oven at 220C. Bake for 15 minutes.

NOTE:
Using my Healsio Steam Oven, I baked at 200C for 15 minutes (Convection, with preheat) and it turned out like the photo below. Wonder if I should try baking it at 180C instead next time, to avoid the pastry from being too brown? But the pastry is nice and crunchy though.

Remarks:
1. Taste - OK.
2. Next time maybe should make pastry slightly thicker, then the crunchy crust would be able to balance up with the egg filling.

Monday's baking project - Chocolate Chip Muffin

I bought pre-mixed chocolate chip muffin flour quite sometime ago and only got around to baking it recently.

Eh! Apasal muffins tu senget to one side, ah?

The instruction given was to bake at 180degrees for 20 minutes. I experimented baking the muffins using my Healsio Steam Oven (SuperSteam Convection, preheat). Stood in front of the oven the whole time, watching the baking process very closely.

Was very happy to see the muffins rising and expanding steadily like mushrooms. And then, DISASTER STRUCK!! The batter overflowed and slided out of the cups like a volcano spilling out it's lava. eeiikk!!!



Results :

Muffin texture was fluffy and moist, which was nice .. but the top was a bit 'crusty' and had slight bitter taste. Next time kena lower the oven temperature kot??

psstt ... pssttt ...

meet my new toy ...

Princess Egg Boiler & Mini Steamer


Comelnya dia.... I like!


Pagi ni breakfast ala-ala omputih ... Toasted Roti Benggali (Bread) disapu dengan butter and jem, pastu pecahkan one half-boiled egg letak atas roti, sprinkled with black pepper and sedikit kicap masin. Wah!

Tak payah nak keluarkan periuk .. nak masak air .. pastu tunggu eggs to be half-boiled berapa minit... and then cuci periuk .. etc..

Dengan boiler ni, air yang digunakan pun 'se-ciput' jer. Nampak tak measuring cup kat sebelah boiler tu? tapi, water measurement tu untuk 4 eggs. Masa I measured for 1 egg, I was thinking to myself, "Biar betul air banyak ni?".

Tu sebab bila air kering in just a few short minutes dan indicator berbunyi menandakan telur dah siap, I was amazed. At the same time, roti dalam toaster pun dah nicely toasted. Serentak, cepat dan convenient without messing up the kitchen!! Penting tu!!

The boiler comes with a Steamer Rack, sesuai untuk steam small amounts of vegetable and 1-2 sausages. Sarapan yang lengkap!. Again, not messing up the kitchen!! Penting tu!!

Firdaus is back, balik cuti seminggu starting 12 - 20th March. Faiz and I ambik kesempatan bawa dia pegi shopping cari tilam for his new room. Biar diorang pilih mengikut selera masing-masing. Bilik pun dah hampir nak siap tu ...

The beginning of a CRAPPY DAY, yesterday....


Went to check on kitchen cabinet installations at my new house.



Plates rack were way too high up till I had to tip toe to use it ??
(engkau pikir ni rumah Mat Salleh ke aper?).

Squeezed right underneath it, was the glass rack??

The glass rack is supposed to have a gap of more or less 10-12inches below the plates rack with the water drip tray right underneath it and not this way!!

I was like... ? ? ? ? ?!!!!!

Coffee cups can la squeeze thru ( though it's not supposed to be doing that!! ) ... but how about the coffee mugs and glasses? Lay them horizontally to dry, ka?? When I pointed out the mistake done, the carpenter said:

"Lu pakai itu glass minum size kicik punya, cukup la.. atau U letak lain tempat kasi keling (kering)".

Immediately called the ID to come meet us at the house to rectify the matter before I kill somebody.

..... NIGHT !

Still crappy mood.

Slept early.

"Wake up!" ... "Wake up!" ... "

"Everybody home already aaa??,"

I was jolted up

from my deep peaceful sleep,

dazed....

and blinking hard

looking at the clock on my wall

to check out the time.

It's past midnight.

How was I to know...

if everyone is back?

Aren't there other better ways

to find out the answer

to that crappy question?

Thank you

to all the crap-tastic persons

today

who successfully created

my crappy day

and crappy night.

As always...

"I'll keep the crap to myself"

not the first time

taking this crap

anyway

... life goes on ...

Feel better, Dolly?

Crap-lah!!

Cream Puff

My latest trial ...

Cream Puff

Ingredients:

Milk 200 g (7 oz.)
Butter 80 g (2.8 oz.)
Flour 140 g (4.9 oz.) - sifted
Eggs 200 g (7 oz.) 4-5 eggs
Sugar 2 teaspoons
Salt ½ teaspoon

First, eggs (at room temperature) mix well.

Next, cut butter into small pieces. Put it into a pot together with milk, sugar and salt. Bring mixture to a boil. The liquid must be boiling rapidly so that the fat is dispersed in the liquid and not just floating on top.

When the milk starts to boil and the butter is fully melted, add the sieved flour and stir rapidly to form a dough ball and easily pull away from the sides of the pan.

Watch the VIDEO to see how to do it the right way.

Put the hot dough into a bowl and add the eggs a little at a time. Keep beating until the liquid of the egg is completely soaked up by the dough before adding more eggs.

The paste is ready when you have a smooth batter.

Tip:
If the batter is clumpy then you may have ignored one of these points:
* Add all the flour at once.
* Eggs must be at room temperature.
* Add egg little by little and stir until the liquidity of the egg is absorbed before adding more.

Fill the paste into an pastry bag and pipe out round mounds of dough of about 4 cm in diameter onto the baking paper. If you have no pastry bag, you can drop the dough from a spoon, instead.

Spray the puff shells with water right before baking.

Preheat oven to 200 °C (390 °F). Bake for 30 minutes.
When the puff shells turn brown, lower the heat to 170 °C (340 °F) and continue baking for another 20 minutes.

NEVER open the oven during baking.

For the Cream:
Milk 500 g (17.5 oz.)
Butter 30 g (1 oz.)
Sugar 100 g (3.5 oz.)
Egg yolk 100 g (3.5 oz.)
Flour 40 g (1.4 oz.)
Vanilla essence

Mix egg yolk and 3/4 of the sugar in a pan until perfectly smooth. Add the flour and mix again.

1/4 of the remaining sugar add with butter and milk. Bring it to a boil. Pour half of the hot milk into the bowl with the egg/sugar. Stir and then return the mixture back into the pot. Keep heating and stirring until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Remove from heat. You’re finished when you spot big bubbles of air in the custard cream. Finally, add vanilla essence.

Pour the hot pastry cream onto a baking pan or another shallow pan, so it cools down quickly. Before using the pastry cream as filling, whip until it is smooth again. It’s thick and shiny…and really delicious.

Cut the top 1/3 of puff shell and fill it with pastry cream.

On top of that, add some whipped heavy cream.




Put the top of the puff shell back and powder with icing sugar (tak buat, sebab takder icing sugar).


And then…



p/s:
Comments from Julia - Mama, puff shell ni keras skit la.

Mama: Ok, noted.

(Eh! tapi kan, bila dah letak cream inside, after awhile, shell tu dah tak keras lagi dah. Camner, eh?)


EXTRA NOTES:

The second time I tried this recipe, I baked using Healsio Steam Oven (Convection, with preheat). Lowered temperature to 180°C, baked for 30 minutes. When the puff shells turn brown, lowered the heat to 150 °C and continue baking for another 20 minutes.

Wet & Dry Kitchens

The Wet Kitchen is beginning to take shape ...













..... and so is the Dry Kitchen .....

Bird Tweets