Surplus Princess

It's more than a year since I last wrote on my blog. When I read people's blog, it seems fun. So I started a blog too. But then I found that it is not easy to have a blog. First I'm at a lost of what to write. As most of the blogs I follow are cooking blogs, so I decided to write about cooking. Actually I should have said baking as that is what I did most.

So that's what I did but I found that my photos are not nice enough as I only took with my handphone camera. After a while I stop writing because I have become lazy. Not that I did not bake, it's that I'm really lazy to write. Whenever I'm on my laptop, it's FB and FB games. If not on FB, I'll be doing my knitting and watching TV dramas (HK and Korea). Nowadays, I'm more into Korean dramas. Maybe it's because HK TVB dramas have become boring lately. Last time was Korean dramas and I never manage to finish the whole drama. I'll become bored half way through the drama. But there's exception for 2 K-dramas and that is Full House and My Girl. Maybe it's because of the leads, beautiful girls and handsome guys......

Well, I got to know about Surplus Princess while searching the net for new dramas. After reading the preview, it seems an interesting drama. I guessed it must have been the princess mermaid that attracted me. Just like Disney Little Mermaid. The story do really started off as the Disney one. Because the mermaid fell in love with a man and she wants to grow a pair of legs so that she can be with the man she love. 

Well, maybe no. I think it's this picture which made me curious. 

Yes, the underwater kissing scene. It kept popping up on my computer screen, so I just have to check it out. The 1st episode is quite interesting and the actress who play the mermaid is pretty and cute. But as the drama progress, I think whoever wrote the story got lost too and ran out of ideas to write. The show just become well, not boring but just straight forward. Nothing interesting that will keep you hook.

Aaah, not actually because they try to twist the story by changing the partners. The  mermaid, Kim Ha-Ni, fell in love with Kwon Shi-Kyung and become human so that she can be with him. If she wants to be with him forever, she will have to make him love her back within 100 days, if  not she will disappear. Then they put in another man, Lee Hyun-Myung and his ex-girlfriend, Yoon Jin-Ah who like Ha-Ni and Shi-Kyung respectively. 

So in the end, Ha-Ni found that she like Hyun-Myung more. That's why I don't like the ending. Maybe I'm old minded, that I want her to be with Shi-Kyung. That's why she wanted to be a human right? That's what she set out to do in the first place, right? That's why she was trying so hard to get his attention, right? But just because of timing and Hyun-Myung happen to be in the right place at the right time that Ha-Ni like him more just as Shi-Kyung started to like her too. 

Then there are An Hye-Young and Big. Hye-Young started out as having a crush on Lee Sun-Kyu and made no secret of it and Big with another girl. When the girl left for overseas, and Hye-Young comfort him, he started to fall for her and she him. They made quite a cute couple and it was funny looking at their height difference when they hug.

This drama is good for easy viewing only with nothing much to expect. Actress Jo Boo-Ah made a cute princess mermaid. This is the first time I watch her drama. In fact, I never watch any of their drama before except for Song Jae-Rim in Inspiring Generation and Kim Seul-Gi in Bel Ami (I don't recognize her until I read somewhere that she is in Bel Ami). The ending is so-so, ok, ok.......I said I like Ha-Ni to be with Shi-Kyung. So I don't like the ending.

Onigiri

I never heard of Onigiri before. All I know about is Sushi, Sushi and Sushi. Though I like Japanese food, I never made the effort to learn more about them. I only know to go to a Japanese Restaurant and order what's on the menu. Then I eat, okay, taste good, then great, I'll come again. I also never made the effort to learn the name except for Sushi. Okay, I know what Bento is. I also know what is Tempura. But that's almost all.

I don't know what got into me one day, when I surf the net for Japanese recipes. I think I was searching for Bento. That was when I come across Onigiri and got interested in it. So I start looking up in the net for it. I learned that it was cute little rice balls. Normally, it was shape into triangular shape with or without fillings. The traditional fillings are Umeboshi or salty pickled plum, Okaka, that is bonito flakes or Katsuobushi, also bonito flakes but are usually used for making dashi stock and Shiozake which is salted salmon which is grilled and flaked.

Onigiri nowadays come in various shape and taste. You can just add anything you fancy to it and made in into various shape like bunny, round, star, love etc. You can also made it into Panda, bunny, Teddy Bear, Hello Kitty etc. It can also be sprinkle with sesame seeds, gomashio (sesame seeds mixed with salt) or furikake (mixed savory sprinkles).

Actually, there are a lot of articles in the net about Onigiri. The one I found most useful and full of information is by Maki. But it was mention that the article was originally appeared on justbento.com

 My heart shape Onigiri with ebiko on top

 My heart and star shape Onigiri mixed with furikake

 This is not plain rice ball. It has kimchi fillings. The Korean has this type of rice too. It is also triangular shape with Kimchi fillings and wrap with seaweed.  It is called Sam Gak Kim Bap.

Disaster Cake (Steamed Cheese Chocolate Cake)

This is my disaster cake. No, it's not a cake that turn out wrong and have to be throw away. In fact, it's delicious which is a relief to me. Though it don't turn out nice when coming out from the steamer. It's like the moon surface, got hills and valley.

I call it a disaster cake because my mixer broke down half way through when creaming the cream cheese. I think it's a nightmare to most bakers. So what should I do? Beat the other ingredients with my hand? No way am I going to do that. Anyway, I don't think I'm able to beat the egg white until fluffy. So what should I do? I choose the easiest way. That is just dump everything in. I'm not so worry that the cake will not turn out right because it's a steam cake, so it should turn out right. Well I was right, it did turn out alright except for the moon like surface.

I got this recipe from Yochana blog - http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2008/08/steamed-cheese-chocolate-cake.html. She has lots of nice recipes.

See, it don't look nice. The surface is not smooth. And the marble effect, well I'm not good at that. See what happen to my Hoon Kueh, and now this. But the most important thing is that it taste very nice. Well, I'm going the make this again and again when I change my mixer (it's still under warranty). The cake was all finished the next day.

Shiki Yoshi Japanese Cuisine Restaurant

Last week, my friend and I decided to go for Japanese food. One of them mentioned Shiki Yoshi Japanese Cuisine as one of her friends brother is working there. I've never notice Shiki Yoshi Japanese Restaurant before. My friend said that it is open for quite some time. Maybe I seldom went to Tanjong Tokong area. Or maybe, it don't have much decoration on it premise. Also signboard not very attractive. It's just a simple bungalow with no decoration. Inside is also the same. Nothing to catch my attention except maybe a low table with all the menu spread out. When we went inside, we noticed that there are no guest in the restaurant. I think to myself that maybe we are early. We reached there at about 6.40 pm. As in most Japanese restaurant, the staff are quite friendly with greetings when we enter.

When we are seated, again our thoughts turn to why there are no other guest as it is a Saturday. We became a bit worried that maybe the food is not nice. But we order anyway. As we were served green tea, a Japanese family came in. One of my friend mentioned that the food should be alright as there are Japanese guests. We waited for a while for our food. The first to arrive is the salad,

This is the Tofu Miso Salad. The vegetables are all raw including the bean sprout but all are crunchy. The tofu taste nice. This plate is price at RM15.00.

Nest to arrive is the Cranky Salmon Roll. Then followed quite closely by the others except the Teppanyaki Salmon and Seafood fried rice.

This is the Cranky Salmon Roll which cost RM22.00 for these 6 pieces.

 I've been craving for gyoza for a few weeks already. Since I did not go for any Japanese meal, these craving has go from days to week until I was thinking of making my own at home. So today no matter what, I'm ordering gyoza even without asking my friends if they agree or not. But these Gyoza are too small. Maybe I'm a big eater or maybe I like big portion, these 6 pieces dumpling appear tiny to me. The filling is too little, not enough to satisfied me. But at least after eating these, my craving is not that great anymore. This cost RM15.00.

 My friend suggest ordering this and it is the most expensive. This Ikura cost RM18.00 for this 2 pieces. RM9.00 just with one swallow. I don't even taste it properly and it was gone into my stomach.

This is the Mix Fry. It has 1 Shishamo, 1 prawn, 1 fish fillet, 1 brinjal, 1 lady finger, 1 sweet potato. I think that's all. I'm not very sure as I'm busy eating and didn't notice what other vegetable my friends ate. The price for this plate is RM22.00.

After the above arrive, the other food stop arriving. After about 10 minutes, the waiter brought out the Teppanyaki Salmon.

 The salmon taste nice. It is accompanied by lots of vegetables. This one cost RM18.00. This Teppanyaki Salmon goes along well with a bowl of rice.

The last to arrive is the Seafood Fried Rice. As with most Japanese fried rice, this one taste good. I wonder if it is the rice because all the Japanese fried rice I ate taste good. Like all the fried rice I ate in Thailand taste very good. I think it must be the rice they used. The price is RM12.00

They serve free flow of green tea. The wasabi they serve are tasteless. It don't have that spicy or whatever to call that power that rush up to your nose when you take wasabi. Anyway, the food is quite satisfactory except for the gyoza. Ah, I forgot to mention that half way through our meal, a couple came in.

This restaurant is at No 5G Jalan Tanjong Tokong, Penang.

Miso Soup with Vegetables

I came across a Tonjiru recipe in one of the blog I'm following. Then when searching the net for miso soup, I came across a soup called Kenchinjiru. As I'm new to Japanese cooking, both these soup looks similar to me except that Tonjiru contain pork and Kenchinjiru is a vegetarian soup. After reading the Kenchinjiru recipe, I realised that it did not contain miso. I cooked Tonjiru once and as my family don't usually eat the pork cooked with soup, I decided to do away with the pork the next time I cook this soup. The taste is still the same as the soup flavor came mostly from the dashi and miso.

Miso Soup with Vegetables

1.5 litre water
2-3 tbsp Dashi granules (or to taste)
2-3 tbsp miso (or to taste)
6 - 7 inch gobo (slice thinly)
1 small daikon
1 carrot
4 - 5 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 pc silken tofu

Method

1. Soak the mushroom until soft and squeeze out the excess water and cut into half.
2. Boil the water and add in the Dashi granules.
3. Put in all the vegetables and cook until tender.
4. Put in the tofu.
5. Lower the heat to maintain a simmer and add in the miso. Using a sieve will help the miso to dissolve. Turn off the heat and serve.

* Other vegetables can be used, such as pumpkin, leek, onion, potato etc.

Marble Green Bean Kuih

The other day, I went to buy breakfast at the road side. It's a lady selling kuih. I bought some chai kuih, cream puff and curry puff. As I was paying, I saw a lady pick up what looks like a hoon kuih. Since I'm late for work, I quickly take my things and left. Since then, I've been thinking of hoon kuih. So I decided to make hoon kuih myself.

I've never made hoon kuih before. But I remember that I have a hoon kuih recipe from the newspaper cutting years ago. So again, I have to search for the recipe but it's easy to find as I have filed it up.

Wan Sek Fah Mun Koe
(Marble Green Bean Kuih)

Ingredients
For the syrup:
400ml water
350g castor sugar
3 pandan leaves - knot

125g green bean flour (lek tau hoon of lok tau fun)
200ml water

1 ltr water
Tinge of yellow colouring
Tinge of green colouring

Method :
To make the syrup : Boil water with pandan leaves. Add sugar to dissolve. Set aside. ( I omitted this step as I cooked the sugar together with the 1 ltr of water)

Combine green bean flour with water and mix well. Leave aside for 10 minutes, Strain to remove impurities.

Boil litre of water. Add boiled syrup and simmer until water comes to a gentle boil. Pour in green bean flour mixture and stir briskly until mixture turns thick and is crystal clear.

Place two ladles of cooked mixture into two separate bowls. Add different colours to each portion. Leave the remaining mixture plain.

Pour two small ladles of plain mixture into a wet tin (22cm X 15cm). Add a coloured portion followed by a ladle of plain mixture. Mix im another coloured portion and top up with the rest of the mixture.

Use a chopstick to swirl the mixture to create a marble effect. Leave aside to set. Chill well in the refrigerator then cut into diamond shapes.

#Note : You can opt to use only one colouring for the kuih.

Baked Macaroni & Blueberry Muffin

Last 2 weeks, I found that I still have a packet of Blueberry Muffin ready mix which I bought from the market many months ago. So I decided to make it. Well, it turns out nice and tasty. Not what I was expecting at all. I thought it will not taste good. I was wrong except that it was a bit on the sweet side.

This is the first tray of muffins

This is the second tray of muffins which looks funny, not nice

This is the third tray of muffins which luckily turns out nice

The next day, I decided to make Baked Macaroni, which I have cooked once many many years ago. I looked through my recipes book, paper cutting and all but couldn't find the one that I made many many years ago. So I have to settle for this one....

Baked Macaroni

Before baking

I did not exactly follow the recipe. I did not use chicken stock but only water. I also did not follow the measurement and use more macaroni and other ingredients than required so the eggs mixture which I used exactly as the recipe are not enough to cover up all my macaroni.

After baking but excuse the middle which don't look nice because I used chopsticks to dig it to see if it's cook

Baked Macaroni
Ingredients
200g macaroni
125g chicken sausage, sliced thinly
100g buttons mushrooms, sliced thinly
1/2 cup mixed vegetables ( I used onion only)
1 tsp chopped garlic
3 tbsp oil
75g cheddar cheese, grated

Combine
4 eggs, beat
350ml chicken stock, 3/4 to 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper

Method
Bring water to a boil in a pot. Add a teaspoon of salt and a few drops of oil, Put in macaroni and boil for 8 to 9 minutes or until al dente. Drain.

Heat oil and saute garlic till golden and fragrant. Add button mushrooms, sausage and macaroni. Mix well. Dish out into a mixing bowl. Stir in mixed vegetables.

Grease a deep square casserole lightly with corn oil and pour half of the cooked macaroni mixture into it. Sprinkle with grated cheese and top with the remainder of the mixture. Sprinkle with cheese sparingly all over. Pour the eggs mixture over the macaroni and bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 30 to 35 minutes or until egg mixture sets. Remove and serve either hot or cold.