Many years ago I got into a pizza-making craze, and I made many different types of pizzas and calzones almost every weekend. After that other crazes followed, and I just simply stopped making pizzas altogether.
This Ramadan I finally dusted off my old pizza cookbook to make Prawn Panzerotti, a dish I tried many many years ago before I started blogging my cooking adventures. This recipe requires a batch of calzone dough, which I have now modified for making in my Kenwood BM450 breadmaker using the Pizza Dough program.
It’s been a month since the Movement Control Order (MCO) officially started. I said ‘officially’ because Rudy and I have been on self quarantine since about 10 days before that, after coming back from our trip to Hokkaido.
I had imagined life under lockdown would allow me a lot more opportunities to try out new recipes, but having no real differentiation between work and off hours, this was surprisingly not the case. Getting groceries did get a bit more challenging, though, so MCO became a good opportunity to clear out the freezer and be creative with whatever ingredients you have on hand.
Found turkey, lamb, and wagyu beef patties. Thankfully I have bread flour and butter. Burgers for dinner tonight, then!
When making most of the recipes in this blog which calls for chicken stock, I usually go for the quick and easy method by using store-bought stock cubes. However, for or when you have some extra time on hand, or when the flavor of the stock is truly the heart of a dish, here’s a simple recipe for you to make your own batch at home.
It’s been a very long time since Kak’mbang and I made pau. Back when we were still living in Terengganu, every so often we would buy boxes of Blue Key flour and make chicken mushroom pau. Kak’mbang made the filling and I was on dough duty. Freshly steamed buns would then be sent to friends and relatives for their afternoon snack.
I wanted to make pandan coconut breadrolls, and naturally the recipe called for pandan extract.
All of the stores I scouted only carried artificial pandan flavour, some with and some without artificial alien green coloring. Mummy does have a lot of pandan growing in her garden, so I might as well set some time aside to make my own extract.
We sometimes need Italian Seasoning for our pastas and such, so if you don’t happen to have any on hand, you can always make a batch of your own using herbs and spices you might already have in your pantry.
This recipe is based on Emeril’s Italian Essence recipe, and used when making Sausage Meatballs with Gravy. As with any spice mix containing onion or garlic powder, which does not keep well at room temperature in this hot, humid Malaysian weather, I always keep this spice mix in the freezer. This should keep it from masuk angin and clumping up.
I use this buttery crust for my Steak and Mushroom Pie. One recipe is enough to top one 9-inch round pie. Be patient when rolling it out; at about 1/8-inch thickness there is definitely enough dough for your pie. I recommend rolling the dough out onto a very well dusted, thin, flexible cutting board. You can then flip the board over and gently peel the dough off onto your pie.
The most rewarding moment will be when you hear the beautiful crunch of the freshly baked crust, as you cut into it. Yum!
Have you guys ever tried Llaollao frozen yoghurt? It’s absolutely divine when you have it topped with their signature Lotus caramelized biscuit sauce. Must. Try.
Aizat gave me the brilliant idea of stuffing plain roti paung with Lotus Biscoff Spread, which is pretty much the same thing used in Llaollao’s biscuit sauce. The reason I love Llaollao’s froyo so much is because the rich, sweet biscuit sauce went so well with the tangy creaminess of the froyo, so I decided to simulate this wonderful flavor combination by also adding a cube of cream cheese on top of the biscuit spread.
While waiting for the rolls to finish baking in the oven, a thought occurred to me. The filling is so fancy, yet the rolls look so plain on the outside. What if I drizzled it with the caramelized biscuit sauce to jazz things up a bit?
Since pretty much everything can be found on the internet nowadays, I looked it up and found a recipe by The Cafe Sucre Farine. I cut the recipe by a lot, and subbed with ingredients I had on hand, but the results were quite amazing. I botched it a bit and heated the Biscoff Spread together with the rest of the ingredients instead of stirring it in at the end, which may have effected its texture, but I’m not sure. Will try to get it right the next time.
Glad I still have quite a bit leftover after drizzling the rolls! Need to get some ice cream to use this sauce as a topping…
My original creation: Roti paung with cream cheese and Biscoff spread, drizzled with the caramelized biscuit sauce.
I’ve been meaning to try out Eman’s kabuli rice recipe for a while now, but that dish requires Saudi spice or baharat, which I didn’t have on hand nor can easily get at stores. Finally got around to making it over the New Year’s Day long weekend.
I only toasted the spices for about 5 minutes, because I noticed my cumin seeds were getting really brown. I wonder if it would be better if I toasted it for a full 10 minutes as suggested. My spices were a bit lumpy after grinding, and I wonder if it was because I didn’t dry the grinder jar well enough, or if it was because there was still some moisture in the spices. In any case, I stored this in my freezer to make sure it keeps longer.
