Triple Chocolate Cookies

 
Chocolate or chocolate chips cookies are always on a high demand all year round, aren't they? This weekend I made one big batch of this triple chocolate cookies which recipe I posted last year. But this time, I made a little modification on the white sugar, the chocolate chips and also the presentation.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour or cookie flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped milk chocolate

 

 Let's bake'em!:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree Celsius
2. Line baking tray with grease paper or silicone mat
3. Whisk the flour, salt and soda in one big mixing bowl, you can also sift it if you want instead of whisking it.
4. Using electric mixer, cream butter and both sugars until white and creamy. Add the vanilla pudding mix and beat for 1 minute. Add eggs one by one and mix just until combined. Pour the vanilla extract.
5. Fold in the flour mixture with the mixer running at low speed. 
6. Fold in the chips using a spatula.
7. Spoon the batter onto the baking tray, an inch apart from each other. I used an ice cream scoop to get an even size. Slightly press the chopped chocolate on top.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes, turning the tray after 3/4 baking time.
9. Let the cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer them to wire rack to cool completely. 

Lamb Curry - Step by step

Ingredients:
500g lamb cutlets
1 medium sized cinnamon stick (kayu manis)
4-5 pieces of star anise (bunga lawang)
7-8 pieces green cardamom (buah pelaga)
4 shallots - finely sliced
4 garlic - finely sliced
2 inch ginger - finely julienne
2 stalks of curry leaves
1 tbsp ground dried chilli or chilli powder - more if you want it extra hot!
1/2 cup meat curry powder
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
300 ml water
500 ml coconut milk
1 tbsp brown sugar or gula melaka
Salt to taste
3 tbsp vegetable oil
Asam gelugor/asam keping
2 medium potatoes - quartered

Instructions:

Heat the vegetable oil in a cast iron dutch oven or a large pot. Stir in all the spices, shallots, garlic, ginger and curry leaves until the shallots and garlic turning slightly golden brown.

Add in the chilli and stir together. Then, add in the curry powder, stir for a minute and add the broth.

Let it simmer for 5 minutes and add in the cutlets along with some salt and the brown sugar. Stir and mix together the ingredients making sure the curry paste coating the cutlets. Add in the water and asam keping, cook for about 15 minutes on medium heat.

Pour the coconut milk and let simmer for about 10 minutes, regularly stir.

 

Add in the potatoes and let it cook for about 10 minutes, regularly stir.

Add in some tomatoes, if you like. Let it boil for a minute before switching off the heat.

Serve warm with steamed rice or chapati.

Hot Tuna Pasta

 

I went to watch Iron Man 3 today on 3D Imax. Well, it was good...good closure I would I say, but not great. I definitely still love RDJ though and definitely love the first 2 films. Maybe, because this time it was not directed by Jon Favreau  who played Happy, Tony Stark's driver in the 1st and 2nd film....so I guessed it didn't connect with me, I don't know. But Guy Pearce was really bad-assed villain...I love him in this. But the human torch superpower that mimicked the Fantastic 4 guy or Cyclops of the X-Men???....what is that???  Anyway, I still love Iron Man..it's just that the closure was not even close to Deathly Hallows Part 2 or Return of The King.

 

Ingredients:
500g penne pasta
5 liter water
2 tbsp butter

1 onion - diced
1 tsp chilli powder or ground dried chilies
400g tomato/bolognaise pasta sauce
1 cup chicken stock
2 small cans of chunk/flake tuna
1 small carrot - diced
4-5 button mushrooms - sliced
1 small green pepper - diced
Salt & pepper to taste
Olive oil

Instructions:

1. Heat the water in a large pot to a boiling point. Add the pasta and butter and cook until al dente. Drain the water.
2. Put some olive oil in a sauce pan or dutch oven, saute the onion until translucent. Add the chilli and pepper.
3. Put in the pasta sauce and chicken stock, stir and let it simmer. Add the vegetable and cook for about 3 minutes.
4. Fold in the tuna and add salt to taste. Cook for another 5 minutes. Serve with the pasta and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top.

Classic Chocolate Cake

I stayed up until 3am last night to watch and get the full result of our Malaysia's 13th General Election. Luckily, I have already applied for an annual leave for today so after my dawn prayer, I continued to get my beauty sleep...until like 9am.. :). 

On the result of the election, the main party, Barisan Nasional (National Front) won 133 parliamentary seats however did not get the two third majority (148 seats). My congratulations to the ruling party. Later in the afternoon today, Najib Razak sworn as Malaysia's Prime Minister. This is his second term. Hope for the best and may Allah blessed us always!

The Cake
Ingredients:

125g semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup boiling water
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups caster sugar
4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C /350F. Butter two 9-inch(23cm) round spring form cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment paper.
2. Place chopped chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. Pour boiling water over the chocolate and stir to melt. Set aside to cool.
3. Sift together the flour, soda and salt onto a plate. Set aside
4. In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light in color and fluffy about 5 minutes at medium speed. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla, then beat in the cooled chocolate mixture. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
5. Using a silicone spatula, gently fold in 1/3 of the dry ingredients until almost fully incorporated. Fold in half of the buttermilk, then fold in another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, followed by the remaining buttermilk. Add the remaining dry ingredientd and fold in until the batter is smooth and all ingredients are fully incorporated.
6. In a clean mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment, beat the egg whites until medium peaks form. Using a silicone spatula, gently fold in the egg white into the batter.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pans, dividing evenly. Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cakes come out clean.
8. Transfer to a wire racks and let cool for 5 minutes before removing the pan. Let cool completely on the racks.

Chocolate Frosting
750g bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Place the chocolate and butter in the top pf a double boiler placed over simmering water. Heat, stirring often, until the butter and chocolate melt. Remove from the water and set aside to cool.
2. Sift the icing sugar over the mixture, whisk it along with vanilla essence until smooth.

To assemble the cake:

1. Cut each cake in half horizontally to get 4 layers.
2. Using an icing spatula, spread equal amounts of chocolate frosting evenly between layers.
3. Transfer the cake into a serving plate, frost the sides and top.
4. Sprinkle some grated chocolate on top

Hometown Visit

It was my hometown visit last weekend, in conjunction with the upcoming wedding of one of my nephew at the end of May. Had a small gathering on Saturday with some of the relatives and neighbors nearby and also a family meeting with the caterer for the wedding.


 

Foggy Sunday morning

Well, the whole country is busy with the upcoming election, posters and banners are everywhere, and there is no exception to my small village.
 

In front of the house

 The kids are always excited and happy when it's 'balik kampung' time....

Rest & relax di bawah rumah

  This particular swing has been a favorite spot for the kids everytime during the hometown visits...

Lepak spot

 On Sunday, these kids 'volunteered' to repack the tapioca chips into small packs for the goodie bags.

Managed to repack 4 big bags

Spot the old and the new one...