Alfredo Portobello Spaghetti

I was not feeling well for the last whole week. I dozed off in bed most of the time. I lost appetite and turned a little bit moody. I didn't even feel want to cook. The Alfredo Portobello spaghetti was the only meal I prepared. Even then, it was tasted too bland for me. My taste buds were not working properly. So, I can't tell if this is delicious.

I'm sharing this dish with Presto Pasta Night #170 that is hosted by Ruth from Once Upon A Feast.

Alfredo Portobello Spaghetti

for two

Ingredients:

spaghetti, portion for 2, cooked per the instruction on packaging
1 can of Campbell's Alfredo Portobello sauce
150gm white button mushroom, quartered
Lettuce, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
50ml water
2 tbsp of olive oil

Steps:

1. Heat up olive oil in a wok. Saute garlic till fragrant. Add the button mushrooms and saute till soften.

2. Pour in the Alfredo Portobello sauce and water. Leave it simmering for a while. Toss in spaghetti to mix well. Dish out and garnish with chopped lettuce.

The Prosperity Cake (Brown Sugar Huat Kuih)

"Huat Kuih" is its Hokkien name, while in Cantonese, it is known as "Fatt Kou". "Huat" or "Fatt" in both dialects carry the meaning of prosperity. The traditional method of making "Huat Koay" requires long hours of fermenting, which bring the result of "smiley face" to the cake after steaming . Can you see the cake is smiling with widely open mouth? Yes, that's the reason the cake has a such auspicious name - The Prosperity Cake. 

This recipe that I got from 妮可斯爽闹厨房 calls for a twist to the traditional way of making "Huat Kuih". Instead of using rice flour and yeast, both are replaced by self raising flour. It simplifies the making process.

The Prosperity Cake (Brown Sugar Huat Kuih) 

Recipe adapted from 妮可斯爽闹厨房
Yields for 3 cakes in 3" diameter ramekin

Ingredients:

130gm self-raising flour
35gm brown sugar
35gm white sugar
25gm coconut cream
100ml hot water

Steps:

1. Bring a wok of water to boil.

2. Dissolve the brown sugar and white sugar in the hot water

3. Sieve the self-raising flour in a big bowl. Mix with coconut cream. Sieve in the syrup slowly and mix until you get a gluey batter.

4. Line paper cups in ramekins. Fill the batter into paper cups. Steam for 20 minutes. If you use smaller ramekin, the steaming time can be reduced to 10 -15 minutes.

Chicken and Veggie Tortilla Wrap

Tortilla wrap is one of my favorite light meal at home. Get any type of salad, cheese, cooked meat or seafood and wrap it up in a tortilla, and my meal is done. I've tried garlic and wholemeal tortilla before, so this time I chose potato tortilla. Taste wise, this is the best.

Chicken and Veggie Tortilla Wrap 
Yields for 2

Ingredients:

2 tortillas
2 hard boiled eggs, shelled and smashed
1 tomato, chopped
1 small onion, diced thinly
cooked chicken breast (barbecued, roasted or pan-fried)
Lettuce leaves

Steps:

Arrange all the ingredients in the middle of the tortilla and wrap it up. That's all!

Strawberry Moment @ Cameron Highlands

Strawberry Moment Dessert Cafe

24, Jalan Angsana Satu, Brinchang Point,39100, Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia.

605-4912061

Website: http://www.strawberrymoment.com/

Click here for my previous review

Visiting Strawberry Moment is a must when we go to Cameron Highlands. Enjoying yummy desserts or drinks in a cool ventilated ambiance is so relaxing. Relax, yes, that's the purpose we planned the short holiday anyway. We felt so refreshing in that 2 days. No worries and no stress. Cool...

This time, we went there after our lunch. We just order yogurt and hot chocolate. The Tri-color Fruit Yogurt looked nice, but it's too sweet.

This is nothing special, just the normal hot chocolate. :)

Uncle Chow Kopitiam @ Cameron Highlands

Uncle Chow Kopitiam 
Address: C2-G-01 Block C2, Taman Royal Lily, 39000 Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia.
Tel: 6012-205 2778

There's no one eatery cafe in Cameron Highlands that you can find a typical Cameron Highland's food. The famous food there is either steamboat or strawberry desserts. We've tried most of them. So, for the recent trip, we went to hunt for some "homey" food instead.

Uncle Chow Kopitiam is one of the highly recommended eatery at Tanah Rata. The cafe is operated by a retired couple from KL. Here you can find a variety of home cooked food. Their concept is like the Old Town White Coffee style, but they have a wider range of better quality food. Aunt Chow is a good cook. All the food is home cooked by her. She makes yam cake, curry puffs, kaya, all types of Malaysia street food and desserts. I'm so amazed by the cleanliness of this place.

Hubby opted for the popular nasi lemak. He commented that this is a very satisfying breakfast. The serving is generous and most importantly, the rice cooked with fresh coconut milk is really tasty.

I tried the prawn noodle which suits my taste buds very much. The big bowl of prawn noodle consist of prawns, chicken strips, hard-boiled egg, fish cake, convulvulus and noodle in flavorful prawn soup.

We also ordered toast and half-boiled egg to share.

We'll definitely revisit this place.

Alkaline Dumpling

These are my mom's home made dumplings. She made more than 100 pieces of it, which used up 3kg of glutinous rice. This is the only alkaline dumpling that I trusted.

Alkaline dumpling contains of glutinous rice that is premixed with alkaline water. The rice is  then wrapped in bamboo leaves and boil for hours. It tastes bland, that's why it is served with palm syrup. Many people eat it with coconut jam too.

Happy Dumpling Festival to all!

Veggie Patties

Not feeling like to have a "proper" lunch today, I just made several veggie patties to go with some raw vegies and bun. Unlike meat patties, vegie patties are more difficult to handle. It is so soft that I need to handle it with extra care. Otherwise, it will be out of shape. May be for the next trial, I should add some bread crumbs to firm up the dough.

For my first attempt, here's the outcome. The patty has a thin layer of crunch outside, and it tastes like a flavorful mashed potato inside. Overall, it resembles a hash brown - my hubby's all time favorite! For the left over patties, I stored it in the freezer. I'll just heat it up in the oven for our next meal. :)

Veggie Patties
Yields for 6 patties

Ingredient:

500gm potato, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, peeled and diced
2 onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
4 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 pearl corn, kerneled
half egg, lightly beaten
Japanese bread crumbs
salt and black pepper to taste
cooking oil

Steps:

1. Steam carrot and potato under high heat for 8 minutes. Leave it cool. Mash it with potato masher. Set aside.

2. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a wok. Saute onion and garlic under low heat until onion turn soft. Remove from wok and add to the mashed potato.

3. Combine the mashed potato and carrot with sauted garlic and onion, beaten egg and corn kernel. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Mixed well. Pat 1/6 of the mixture into burger and sprinkle the surface with bread crumbs. Continue the make the balance 5 patties.

4. Heat up a pan with some oil. Pan-fry the patties until each side turn golden yellow.

Jicama Lettuce Wrap

Although this is more like an appetizer, but I always like to make it as our main meal. This happen when I'm reluctant to consume high carbohydrate food. As usual, I use stir-fried jicama as the filling here, but you can have whatever filling you like. It is a versatile appetizer indeed.

I found that eating this type of lettuce wrap is fun, as everyone hands on to wrap their own food. :) Fair enough right?

Jicama Lettuce Wrap

Ingredients:

200gm of jicama, peeled and julienned
1 carrot, peeled and julienned
80gm of minced pork or chicken
20 of small-sized prawns, peeled, deveined and cut into 4pcs each.
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
lettuce leaves, washed
cooking oil
some water

Seasoning:

1 tsp of light soy sauce
dash of pepper
salt to taste

Steps:

1. Marinate the minced pork/chicken with dashes of pepper and 1 tbsp of light soy sauce. Leave it for 15 minutes.

2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a wok. Scramble the eggs and set aside.

3. In the same wok, top up some oil and fry the firm tofu until it turns golden yellow. Drain and set aside.

4. Clean the wok. Heat 2 tbsp of oil and stir fry garlic until fragrant. Stir in prawns and minced pork. Stir fry till the minced pork separated.

5. Add jicama and carrot strips. Stir fry and mix well. Add some water, and let it simmer. The cooking time differs based on the result that you prefer. If you want the crunchy texture of turnip, don't cook too long.

6. Finally, toss in the scramble egg and firm tofu. Add salt or light soy sauce to taste and dish out.

7. Wrap some stir-fried jicama with each lettuce leaf and serve.

Linguine Aglio Olio

Pasta Aglio Olio is a hot topic in food blogs. I've seeing lots of "flogger" cook up their innovative pasta Aglio Olio. I couldn't wait a second longer to try making one of my own. Personally, I prefer my version with lots of seafood, but unfortunately I had none, except prawns. So, I added lots of vegetables. It's another option boost my meal with more greens.:)

When I told hubby I wanted to cook pasta for our dinner, he expected the pasta with gravy. Too bad, he's not fancy over pasta in this Aglio Olio style. He has not get used to it. But for me, as long as it's spicy, I can gobble down a big plate of it. :P

It's time for me to contribute to Presto Pasta Night founded by Ruth. The host of the PPN# 167 is Kirsten.

Linguine Aglio Olio

Serves 3

Ingredients:

Linguine, quantity enough for 3
1 bulb of garlic, peeled and sliced thinly
10 dried chilies, dehydrated and cut into 2-3cm length
Half of yellow capsicum, seeded and sliced
18 medium-sized prawns, shelled and vein removed
5 Brussel sprouts, washed and diced horizontally
Olive oil
Salt to taste

Steps:

1. Cook linguine in a pot of boiling water until al-dente. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat enough olive oil in a wok. Saute the garlic until low heat. Do not brown the garlic. Add dried chili and swift to medium heat. Stir in prawns. Follow by Brussel sprouts.

3. Toss in the linguine and capsicum. Stir fry to mix well. Sprinkle sea salt to taste before dish out.

Tandoori Masala Chicken

The other day when I was shopping in a hypermarket, I stumbled upon the Tandoori Masala instant powder, so I bought a packet to try. Those Tandoori Masala chicken sold in Indian stall or restaurant is  either  roasted or baked in tandoor. But, for my home cooked version, I roast the chicken in my table top oven. :)

Tandoori chicken is normally served with naan. Here, I twisted it a bit. I prepare baby potato salad as a side dish to accompany the Masala chicken.

See? A plate of flavorful roast chicken leg with potato salad.

Tandoori Masala Chicken

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 chicken leg, excess fat discarded

1tbsp of olive oil

Seasoning:

2 1/2 tbsp of Tandoori Masala seasoning

1/2 tsp of salt

100gm plain yogurt

1 tsp brown sugar

juice of 1 calamansi

Steps:

1. Marinate the chicken with all the seasoning for at least 6 hours. Preferably refrigerate overnight.

2. Preheat oven at 180 deg C.

3. Place the chicken leg in a baking tray. Pour 1 tbsp of olive oil over the chicken. Roast in the oven at 180 deg C for about 50 minutes or until the chicken is brown.

Strawberry Oatmeal

Oatmeal for breakfast, anyone? If you think of having some simple and healthy home made breakfast, this is one that you can consider. It can be easily prepared even you are in a hurry.

Last Sunday I made this for our breakfast to kick start a nice day. Since I made a bottle of low sugar strawberry jam the  night before, I used it as the topping sauce for the oatmeal. Let the pictures tell how yummy it is. :)

Strawberry Oatmeal

(for 1 mug)

Ingredients:

5 tbsp of instant oats
1 cup of fresh milk
1 tbsp of sugar
2 tbsp of strawberry sauce

Steps:

1. Heat up the milk in a sauce pan. Add a tbsp of sugar and bring to a boil.

2. Pour the milk over the oats in a bowl or a mug.

3. Top with strawberry sauce. Serve warm.