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09 Jun 2017

Ramadan Cooking: Potato Croquettes

By Faizah

Ever since Ramadan started, I’ve been taking my quick breaks walking through the aisles of Ben’s Independent Grocer (B.I.G.) almost every working day.  Sometimes (very rarely) I leave empty handed, but most of the time I would buy some fruit at half price or bread or some ingredient I could use to make something small for buka puasa.  So this time I bought a bag of panko breadcrumbs, and made another recipe from Chef Kamarul’s book.

These croquettes were lovely, and reminded me so much of the snack I love back in Japan.  I noticed that mixing the ingredients using the potato masher wasn’t so effective for me, so next time I’ll switch to a spatula or wooden spoon instead.  I’ll also stuff them with cheese or meat to make them more hearty.

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25 Dec 2016

GobbleFest 2016: Pull-apart Stuffing Rolls

By Faizah

When having roast turkey, one usually would have it with stuffing.  Even though I butterfly my turkey and therefore there’s nothing I can stuff my stuffing into, I usually would still make stuffing on the side.  So far I haven’t found any stuffing recipe that Rudy actually liked, and dinner wouldn’t be complete without dinner rolls, so I decided to combine the two and make these stuffing-esque dinner rolls, based on the recipe by Serious Eats.

I hit a stumbling block when making this.  The store-bought pizza dough I had turned out to be pre-cooked, not raw, and was therefore unusable.  I had to make the dough from scratch and lost quite a bit of prep time, but all turned out well in the end.  The 9 by 13-inch tray was just slightly too big for the rolls even after they doubled in size, so I think I’ll use my round pie dish next time and let the rolls expand all the way to the edges.  Even though the rolls came out a bit too brown this time, Rudy and I really liked the flavor, and I couldn’t stop eating them!

I’ll definitely make this again, and try to get it right.

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25 Dec 2016

GobbleFest 2016: Mashed Sweet Potatoes

By Faizah

December 24th, 7 p.m. Malaysian time.  I can’t believe a year went by so fast.  Once again it’s GobbleFest, and Rudy and I decided to have the Round Knights over for dinner.  We bought our turkey early this year, and managed to get a 6-kilogram turkey for RM29.99/kg from Cold Storage.  Yay! Then we saw them selling at RM24.99/kg in Tesco…

Aaanyway, our menu for this year:

Roast Turkey (updated) | Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup | Emerilized Green Bean Casserole (updated) | Mashed Sweet Potatoes | Pull-apart Stuffing Rolls

I’ve made mashed sweet potatoes before, as an accompaniment to my Honey-butter Baked Chicken.  This version by Serious Eats uses minimal ingredients in comparison, and is intended to let the sweet potatoes speak for themselves.  This, however, means that the sweet potatoes you use must be top grade stuff, and I’m not sure how good mine were.  Substituting golden syrup for the maple syrup probably didn’t help either.  I also couldn’t get the potatoes to be as fluffy, and I wonder if it was due to the dryness of the potatoes, or I just didn’t beat them enough.  In the end the potatoes were still quite nice, but not exactly spectacular in my opinion.  I’ll make this again if I don’t want to use too many ingredients.

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12 Jan 2016

Potluck: Stovetop Mac and Cheese

By Faizah

Over the weekend Rudy had a few friends over for a potluck hi-tea of sorts, and given that it was Sunday afternoon I wanted to make something really simple and quick.  Mac and cheese came to mind, and up until then I never could find any recipe that I would make again.  This one was actually decent, without having to spend a ton on exotic cheeses or do anything particularly difficult, and was well received.  I added some additional ingredients to jazz it up a little, but this one is definitely a keeper.

Based on the recipe by The Food Lab.

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20 Dec 2015

GobbleFest 2015: Classic Sausage Stuffing

By Faizah

Since turkey is conventionally served with stuffing… well, here we are.  I don’t really know what “good” stuffing is supposed to taste like, or what the texture is supposed to be, but I’m told it is supposed to have a pudding-like texture.  This recipe definitely had a soft texture, very much like a savoury bread pudding, and taste-wise it is quite decent, but Rudy still doesn’t care for it so maybe my search for the perfect stuffing recipe continues.  My conclusion for this recipe: the taste of your sausages will greatly determine how your dish will taste, so pick a sausage you really like!

I made this a day ahead; after transferring the stuffing to the baking dish, I let it cool before wrapping it with aluminium foil and sticking it in the fridge.  I let it sit at room temperature for over an hour, before finishing it in the oven.

Based on the recipe by SeriousEats.

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20 Dec 2015

GobbleFest 2015: Mashed Potatoes

By Faizah

We need our filler for Gobblefest, and I can’t make everything in the oven because the turkey’s gonna be roasting there, so I decided on this super simple, super basic mashed potatoes recipe.  Guests totally kicked it up by adding bacon bits, spring onions, the turkey gravy, even the cauliflower soup.

Based on the recipe by SeriousEats.

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02 Aug 2015

Dinner Club: Parker House Rolls

By Faizah

For last night’s Dinner Club session, I needed a few good sides to serve with my roast lamb shoulder, and while surfing around the Net I came upon this site which lists out some really good side dish suggestions.  Who can resist good dinner rolls, let alone rolls completely coated in butter before baking.  I just had to try this out, and they did not disappoint.  I don’t think I’ll be making dinner rolls any other way from now on.

Updated 25 Dec 2017 with new photos.   Made this again for this year’s TurkeyFest.  I was reminded the hard way how my Kenwood mixer really wasn’t for me when it comes to making bread dough, so I ended up going old school and kneaded the dough by hand.  The dough was still wet and I used a bit more than 5 cups of plain flour.  I’m going to try using bread flour next time to see if this yields better results.  I also decided to divide and shape the dough by hand instead of using a cookie cutter, which saved me a lot of time and avoided any wastage.  Delicious!

Based on the recipe by the Kitchn.

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12 Jul 2015

Weekend Cooking: Caprese Salad

By Faizah

I’m virtually a carnivore, and naturally salads don’t feature often on the menu whenever I decide to make dinner.  However I felt that I needed something fresh to accompany my Bayou chicken pasta for dinner tonight, and I decided on this lovely Caprese Salad, using the fresh parsley I happened to have on hand, and the basil I have growing in the garden.  I used cherry mozzarella since that’s all I could find at the store and didn’t bother dicing them, which I think was a mistake; I think the flavors would mix better if the mozzarella was in smaller pieces.  This was excellent when paired with the creamy pasta.

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22 Mar 2015

Weekend Cooking: Mac and Cheese

By Faizah

I wanted something to go with the peri-peri wings I made yesterday, and decided on a comfort food classic – mac and cheese.  I’ve tried all sorts of recipes before, and honestly not a single one of them blew my mind, even though they were generally good.  This time I based my recipe on the one on Epicurious, and while I find the crusty topping a good complement to the creamy pasta, the taste was still not mind blowing.  Maybe I need to use better quality cheddar, or maybe it’s the seasoning.  I’ll need to keep experimenting to find out.

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