Spiral CurryPuffs

I remember helping my aunt twisting the sides of curry puffs till my thumb hurts so bad for 2 days =( More reason to skip school!
She made hundreds of them and she'd call me to help her on school holidays. I was probably 9 when she taught me to do this the traditional way.

I suppose that's the last time I ever touched an uncooked curry puff waiting to be 'twisted' =p

Today my beloved fiance mentioned about making them. Not that he knows how to but the way he talks about them, intrigued me to making them again (good strategy, huh)

And here they are.


finished version waiting to be deep fried

I've never tried making curry puffs from scratch. I only know how to twist them. So my first attempt turned out horrendous! The oil was too hot, later I learned. As if the basic is not a disaster enough for me, I tried my hands on making the spiral types. And it turned just right!

Many, many thanks to people whom put step by step pictures online =) =) I've searched too many websites to include them all in here (and to remember, actually) =P Sorryy..


time to tuck in!

To Mamafami, actually my beloved Khairul did the fillings for these puffs. (Yep, unfortunately he has good hands in cooking! =D ) Here's how he did the filling his way:

250g minced meat
1 potato, cubed small pieces
1 small carrot, cubed small pieces
1 tsp cIli boh, to saute (omit if you can't handle heat, or just put a small amount, as the curry paste is already hot)
1 onion, cubed
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 curry leaf
1 tbsp curry powder
sugar to taste
salt and pepper to taste
bit of water if the potato and carrot takes a while to cook

Marinate the mince with curry powder while preparing other ingredients.
Saute the cili boh with oil, add onions til soft, then add garlic.
Throw in curry leaves and mince til half brown, add in potatoes and carrots and bit of water enough to cook the carrot and potato.
Leave filling to dry on medium heat but keep an eye on it. Add bit of sugar, salt and pepper to taste.

*I personally love Worcesterchire sauce, so I may add some to the marinade but it won't taste traditional, eh =)

Mashed Potatoes with Parsley

One of the simpliest dish I've learned to make since living on my own.



Mashed potatoes.

Simple ingredients:
Potatoes, cubed and boiled soft with salt
Milk
Butter
Salt and Pepper

I added parsley to give it a different look and taste. Leftovers? Can be used to make Shepherd's Pie or potato bread. OR even better, cover leftovers bowl with cling wrap and microwave it the next day! =)

Homemade Pita Bread

There's some gravy from the fish head curry we had last night. It was honestly too good to throw them away. So I purposely woke up early to make these and eat with the leftovers.

Red Beans filled Donuts/Buns

Phew!

At last, the second attempt at making these sweet filling donuts turned to success!
Following Zack's advise, these sweet "pau goreng" as my fiance and my friends here calls them are very very filling. I barely could finish my dinner after having few of these late afternoon =)

So here's how mine turned out to be =D



From the success of last night's red beans filling (the one fiance altered) we ended up having extra red beans mash so I gathered my confidence to try again on Zack's recipe and wallah!! As mom always say, never give up =D I up-ed the liquid amount little by little to almost 200mls, and man, was I so worried the dough would end up in the bin. But as advised, I continued kneading (though the dough started to stick everywhere on our kitchen counter) and kneading and in the end, I got myself an almost soft dough. It wasn't as soft as other bread doughs I tried making before but enough to shape them and fill them well =) So as usual, the filling was not enough so I filled the remaining 4 balls with sugar, and the other remaining 3 dough with honey (fiance loves the honey they produce here) Well the honey filled actually leaked out after the second proofing =p As for the rest of the balls, here they are..



filled with red beans!! Yum! Thanks Zack!!

Blueberry Jam Steamed Buns

Oh me oh my.. my bomb-sized steamed buns! =)

I got the recipe from Mamafami, while they were nice, round and honestly, I thought my paper cutting as the base were too large, but once they get into the steamer, they rose so much that my first batch almost burst out and as if the steamer basket were not big enough!! Well let alone the paper, they almost couldn't be seen anymore =D !

These are what homemade baking are all about, I've always only eaten pau bought from stalls or bakery shops back in Msia but today, was definitely an eye-opener =)



There were red kidney beans leftovers from making chilli corn carne the other day and I was running out of ideas what to make, I've not gathered enough confidence yet for a second attempt to Zack's red beans filled donuts so darling fiance suggested "steamed buns"! Searched for a simple recipe and found it! So I gathered all the ingredients and started combining and kneading and filling, only to find halfway through, my filling was not enough oops!! There are some dried red beans so I quickly boil them accordingly and in the midst of everything, the beans were still hard and couldn't be prepared! Annoyed, I searched the fridge in the hope of finding some "kaya" (hell, there's no kaya available in Aust but crossed my fingers anyway) and what do you know? I found some blueberry jam which has not been so famous lately.

And here they are.. blueberry jam filled pau!



Yummy eh?

Nutty Coffee Scrolls

I have to say, I should have taken a picture of them before they were baked to show you all how hillariously funny my scrolls turned out! They were cute and petite, nicely cut into scrolls just to fit the muffin cups, then once they went into the oven, they huffed and puffed and turned HUGE !!

Anyway, the best part is their taste. Not too sweet with a coffee-ish twist to them and crunch of nuts on top. Took this recipe from Zack's webpage (which also has no name to it, so I creatively create a name for your creation, Zack hope you don't mind) So here's how mine went!

Yummy!


Thank you dear Zack for the lovely recipe =)

Thai Beef Dumplings Soup

Jacket Potatoes with Chilli Corn Carne

This is what we had for dinner tonight. Jacket potatoes with chilli corn carne. I've been meaning to try this out and had actually saved some chuck steak for the chilli corn carne so since my fiance didn't go to work today, I tried my hands on making these.

It was actually pretty easy. Just takes a bit of time to roast the potatoes and make the corn carne.

Complete Homemade Burger

Found a burger bun recipe but my buns didn't turn out as I hoped for *grunts* Oh well, but that didn't stop me from making burgers for dinner =)



I made everything from scratch from the buns to the burger to the mushroom sauce. Here's how I did it.

Minced meat
Onions, finely diced
Worcestershire sauce
Breadcrumbs
Fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

Almost all recipes I looked for calls for an egg in the mixture but I omitted it and added a bit extra breadcrumbs. The shape held just fine =)

As for the mushroom sauce, just garlic and thick cream. Then rocket leaves and a piece of cheese! Because my buns were small so I made mini burgers and it reminded me of Son of Mac (a smaller version of Big Mac they are offering at MacDonalds here) =D