Chocolate Eclairs

After watching Paula Deen of the Food Network channel making chocolate eclair on the television, I'm just itching to get my hands on those big, chunky eclairs but I keep putting off buying it. So one day, I said to myself, 'buat lah sendiri!'

The whole process was tedious, since you have to make three different things - the pastry, the filling and the chocolate icing. My kitchen was a mess.

However it's worth all the hard work baby! Look how it turned out:

Messy I know, kasi chan lah, this is my first attempt. My housemate took 1 piece, and when I asked him how it tastes like, he simply said 'okay lah'. Rasa nak baling periuk kat dia.. Penat2 aku buat, dia kata okay jek??

'Sedap lahh, sedap gila actually' and took 2 more eclairs from the kitchen. Hehehe Alhamdulillah....

There are so many chocolate eclairs recipe online, but this is the one I use:

Pastry:
1 cup water
1 stick margarine or butter
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
4 eggs

Filling:
3 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla

Icing:
2 (1-ounce) squares chocolate
2 cups sugar
1 cup whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat water and margarine or butter to boiling point. Add flour and stir constantly until mixture is smooth and forms a ball when tested in cold water. Remove from heat and let cool. Beat in 4 eggs, 1 at a time and once incorporated, place into a pastry bag. On a greased cookie sheet, pipe out dough in thick lines that form eclairs. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until light brown. Set aside to cool. Prepare filling by combining milk, sugar, salt and flour. Cook slowly until thickened. Add 3 beaten eggs and continue to cook until mixture is even thicker. Remove from heat, cool and add vanilla.

With a serrated knife, slice pastry puffs lengthwise, but not all the way through. Pipe custard mixture into the center. Melt chocolate for icing, add sugar and cream. Cook over medium heat until soft ball stage. Let cool and beat until smooth. Ice tops of the eclairs.

(Source: FoodNetwork.com)

CUCUR KURMA

Mak would always make cucur kurma in Ramadhan, so since I'm away from home, I gotta learn how to do it myself lah kan. It's really easy to make, really.

CUCUR KURMA (for approx. 24 small-sized fritters)

6 large dates, cut into quarters ( I cut my dates into quarters because I like my fritters small)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup coconut milk
Water
A dash of salt

-Heat oil in pan

- In a large bowl, pour coconut milk into flour. Mix batter well. If batter is still stick, add water until batter is runny, but not too runny lah okay (macam batter cekodok pisang tu, geddit?)

- Add a dash of salt to taste

- Drop a piece of date into batter, and form a small ball shape. Fry until golden ball. Repeat lor.

RAISIN SCONES

Greetings from NY! Sorry for the long silence, I haven't really been adventurous in the kitchen due to ehem..budget constraints and lack of motivation to try something new. However, I tried these when I invited two of my friends for the other day, and when Yanti heard the word 'teatime', she laughed. 'Oh, sounds very British. Are we going to have scones with jam and buttah?

So I browsed the Internet for a good raisin scones recipe, and found it here.

The recipe calls for buttermilk, but if you don't have any, just try these:


For each 1 cup buttermilk called for in a recipe, use 1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream;

OR

1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar plus enough milk to make 1 cup


Anywayyy, my scones turned out heavenly, eventhough it looked a bit like fritters. Eat it with strawberry jam and butter - peghhhh!

Ugh I can feel flabs on my waistline already.

bubur lambuk ayam

• 100 gm rice
• 1 medium onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp finely chopped ginger
• 200gm chicken (chopped/minced)
• 1 pc sup bunjut adabi
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 liter water
• 3/4 cup of coconut milk
• 1 pc chicken cube
• 1 cup of mixed veggie.
• salt and pepper
• spring onion and fried shallots for garnishing

1. heat the oil, and brown the onion, garlic and ginger.
2. add chicken, stir in the rice, sup bunjut, chicken cube and water.
3. when the rice is cooked pour in the milk and bring to boil. salt and pepper to taste
4. served with the garnishing

bolognese edited

Every year during Eid I will prepare this dish in addition to my mom's traditional rendang and kuah kacang. This sauce is ideal for spaghetti, but also can be used with any kind of pasta (tri-color spirals and shells are my fave)- great for Lasagne as well. This is not a true original bolognese though, but quite a variation. Usually, I tend to prepare large amount and freeze it up for later use. It can be saved up to a month in the freezer. (or until it taste weird and the color turn green..:P.. which is usually the case if u have a large freezer and don't know exactly what have u put in there half a decade ago.)



Here's a serving for 5 to 6 people.

• 500g minced beef
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1½ cup chopped onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 can tomato puree
• 1 cube beef stock (try the “no msg by Maggi”)
• 1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
• 2 cups mixed vege of carrots, celery,green capsicum, mushroom, or broccoli.
  and milk (a quarter of the tomato can) to rinse out the leftover tomato puree.
  Salt and pepper

how to:

1. Pour olive oil in a large saucepan. Brown the onion and garlic.
2. Crumble in the beef cube.
3. Add the meat, stir well until meat is browned.
4. Pour in the tomato puree, fresh tomatoes and milk. let it simmer for about 20 min.
5. Add the vegetables and cook for another 15 mins. or u can add the vegetables later ifyou want them crunchy.
6. add the oregano, salt and pepper.
7. Meanwhile, prepare the pasta as instructed on the packaging. add a tsp of oil to the water before draining out the pasta so that they wont stick together.
8. serve sauce over pasta. add grated parmesan if desired.