Al dente spaghetti

Many people are afraid of making pasta because of their earlier, failed experiences of boiling the perfect pasta and especially spaghetti.
Some expensive, high class restaurant still failed in this art of getting the spaghetti to be just al dente, i.e. not too hard and not too mushy. There is nothing more turn off than to pay for a lot of money and when you ask for ‘al dente’, the waiter goes…”huh? our sauce is tomato”. *roll eyes*
Al dente means –

The term comes from Italian and means “to the tooth” or “to the bite”, referring to the need to chew the pasta due to its firmness. The term is also very commonly used as a name for Italian restaurants around the world. (source : wiki)

Both hubby and I are very particular in getting our pasta to taste just right the right bite. Therefore, if you are buying pasta, always pay more for pasta from Italy with durum wheat as the ingredient. Never settle for cheaper ones from the hypermarket. I had got a batch of mushy macaroni and swear off forever from buying pasta that costs two bucks cheaper.

The other thing that most people have problem is figuring out how much pasta is needed per person. A regular pack of say, spaghetti usually weighs 500 grams. 500 grams normally can feed 6 regular (Asian) eaters. However, if you look at recipe books, they normally say it is enough for four.
I had been to Italy for almost a month and after looking at the portion those Italians serve, I think I will grow very fat if I eat like them.
Boiling long pasta like spaghetti needs the right pot. I do not have that. So I normally use my wok and fill it with water and let it boil vigorously. Then, I add in a teaspoon of salt and generous amount of olive oil. After that, add the spaghetti.
Now, the tricky part is following the instructions on the packet. Many of the brands use marketing gimmicks like ‘quick boil, serves in five minutes’ etc to get people to choose their brands. The best way to know if you spaghetti if just al dente is to keep testing it.

It shouldn’t have a hard middle part. So, keep testing, strand by strand until you feel a nice bite to is and strain the pasta immediately. Pour some olive oil to keep it from sticking together.
Boiling smaller size pasta takes lesser time and it is only with some trials you get to learn how long it takes to get the right pasta.
When you have mastered the art of boiling spaghetti, you will discover that it is one of the easiest food to prepare. Just a sprinkle of salt, pepper and olive oil with some cheese on top will make it delicious already.
IN BRIEF :
1) Use lots of water
2) Leave water to boil vigorously before adding pasta
3) Keep checking and tasting if the pasta is cooked

Recipe : Baked macaroni cheese with meatballs

If you have watched enough Jamie Oliver’s shows, cooking Western dishes become really easy. Recently, there is a new Jamie Oliver’s show on Discovery Travel and Living channel call Oliver’s Twist. He teaches Americans cooking British. There was one which he slapped a freshly deep fried fish in beer batter on a newspaper and I can see the faces of the American’s cringe.
Anyway, this recipe is not from Jamie Oliver. Just that I am now used to throwing things together to make a dish in a carefree way like Jamie.

The baked macaroni cheese with meatballs or baked macaroni with meat balls and cheese is a collection of leftovers found in my fridge.

I boiled some pasta and use some leftover pasta sauce. I used about 300 grams dried macaroni, boiled for a while till al dente (not too soft because it will cook further during baking)

I made the beef balls from 300 grams Australian minced beef, 3 slices of bread (soak the bread in some milk to mush it), 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of cornflour. Seasoned with dashes of Worcestershire sauce, HP sauce, pepper and salt.
To get firmer meatballs, mix all the ingredients and then, whack the blob of meat against a metal basin or large bowl. Then you can easily spoon them and pan fry.

If you are baking the pasta, use a little milk so that the pasta doesn’t dried up and become hard. I use 250 ml of milk, 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 bay leave, some oregano, salt. I heat up the milk with all the herbs and butter and leave it for a while.

I assembled all the above into a baking dish. Note that I am using an oven proof glass dish, not your regular glass bowl. Actually, you can eat them as it is.

But it is more fun to bake and serve. I grated some cheddar and mozarella cheese on top and bake the dish for about 15 minutes at 190 deg celcius. Then, I leave it in the oven to keep warm.

When it comes to home cooking, there is no rules to stick to. Sometimes, people who are not familiar with cooking will get intimidated with all those recipes with strict measurements and methods.
Reading them gives me headaches and total confusion. I looked up a BBC recipe for baked macaroni and meatballs and oh boy, I lost my way after a few para. So, I decided to simplify things.
Briefly, what needs to be done are :
1) Boil pasta and mix in some pasta sauce
2) Make meatballs
3) Make some milk/herb sauce
4) Add all into big baking dish
5) Cover with cheese
6) Bake
7) Eat

Penang Road Teochew Cendol

I hate crowds. I hate fighting and jostling with the crowd for foods. It makes me feel like I am a refugee in a war torn country grabbing food rations. And if I have to pay for that, it makes me even more turned off.

During Christmas, there were this huge group of people at the Penang Road famous Teochew cendol stalls. There are two stalls. One is call the Teochew cendol, the other the Raja Uda cendol. To me, they taste both the same. But probably, the Teochew one is clever to rub shoulders so he has better business.

See? The taukey sat with the famous people and the photos are all over the wall in this little coffeeshop. You just need to walk a bit further down, look for the green and white quaint coffeeshop belonging to the Teochew Cendol. They don’t sell any foods, only rojaks.

But I teach you a trick. Just go straight to the Teochew Cendol coffeeshop, sit down and ask the Indonesian worker to bring you what you want. No need to scream and shout, jostle and shove with tourists. It was a breeze! The rojak is not bad in my opinion. I hate eating rojak and I think in a year, I ate like once or twice only. So, if I say it is good, it is good, ok? Penang rojak has cucumber, turnip (sengkuang), green mango, pineapple and tau pok slathered with their stinky rojak sauce and covered with grounded peanuts.

I saw someone having the ais kacang and it looks pretty. Eventhough no one wants a bowl, I ordered it nevertheless because I know it makes a good photo. So, here is a bowl of ais kacang loaded with a lot of red beans, sweet corn, attap chee, leong fun and sago balls.

And what makes people throng to this cendol stall? The gula melaka syrup with coconut milk plus the fragrant green thread are simply the best.

Unlike some cendol, this stall cendol does not hardened. You may want to try their daun pegaga juice too. I don’t like the taste but I heard daun pegaga gives women beautiful complexion.
You should be able to find this cendol stall if you are in Penang Road. The stalls are located at a tiny lane call Leboh Keng Kwee but we call it Penang Road Cendol.

Chinese New Year traditional cakes – Bee hive

I had made this bee hive cake before but it was too tedious. So, after one attempt, the brass mould is getting mouldy. In fact, I cannot even remember where I stuffed it.

Many years later, I have one kid who likes this bee hive cake. Otherwise, this is never a feature in our home during Chinese New Year. In Hokkien we call it phang-siew koay. I think the Malay name is kueh ros?
It is actually quite easy to do. If you get your batter right, it is a breeze. Just dip the very hot mould (you heat it up by dipping it in hot oil) into the batter. Immediately put the batter covered mould into the hot oil. The batter will detached from the mould.
You need to use a chopstick to gently shape the batter and make sure it has even brown tone by turning it in the oil without making it out of shape. Usually, if there are two person doing it, then, it is much easier and faster.

No one is so patient at home to do these tasks. I am also one of those impatient one who cannot concentrate for long on tedious tasks like these. So, all I need is to fork out some money and buy a container.
I bought one from Him Heang. It costs RM12.50 but it is sooooo crispy and nice. My youngest boy loves this. Now, I am considering making it myself.
But that means:
1) Dig out the mould
2) Find a reliable recipe
3) Find someone willing to stand by the hot, boiling oil to fry it
4) Find willing guinea pigs to finish them if I can’t get it tasty and crispy.
On second thought, I think I will just waste another RM12.50 should my kids want more. Life is too short to be bothered with hot boiling oil.

Gingerbread man toy, gingerbread man cookie and cutter

Few days ago, my little boy went to kindergarten for the first time. Before he started kindie, I told him I will buy him a gingerbread man soft toy if he doesn’t make a fuss at school. He saw one gingerbread man toy and loved it so much. So, on the first day of school, right after we dropped him in kindie, we went to buy the toy for him. Oh well, that is what they call pampering.

He calls the gingerbread man Gin Gee, like Gingy in Shrek 3. Since he is so attached to his Gin Gee, my eldest son bought two gingerbread man cookie cutters today. That makes my little boy so happy. He came to me while I was working online and asked me to bake gingerbread man. Then, before I can reply, he made another remark, “Oh, mommy you are busy, right? Never mind, tomorrow when you are free, can you make gingerbread man for me?”
Awww…with that kind of considerate child, how can I not do what he wishes? So, we started baking gingerbread man. Except that I do not bake the real gingerbread man recipe but make do with Kellog’s cornflakes chocolate chip cookie dough. I added cornflour, icing sugar and some custard powder to the dough to make it firm enough to handle. (You can find the recipe on Kellog’s cereal box. Or if I am not too lazy, I will post it next time.)

My boy doesn’t like chocolates so it is just cornflakes dough. The above are the gingerbread man before they are sent into the oven. My five years old boy took the above photo while my hands were greasy with cookie dough.

This is Mr. Gingerbread Man after baking. He almost turn into Michelin Man with the baking soda and eggs.

And this is one happy child. Do try making your own cookies with cute cookie cutters for your child. Just find any butter cookies recipe that calls for cookie cutter. Homemade cookies are not that difficult to do because you basically need good butter, flour, sugar and eggs.

BigBoysOven ma lai koh recipe

I mentioned about making ma lai koh the other day. The previous batch of malaikohs I made were from a Nyonya kueh recipe. Though it is more like the ma lai kohs sold by the stalls, I find it too tedious to prepare the ma lai koh as I need to leave the yeast to ferment overnight. The recipe also use a lot of oil which make the ma lai koh rather oily.
So, I google around for other recipe and like the one posted by Sidney of BigBoysOven. The recipe looks easy and the recipe uses less ingredients.

That’s what I steamed this morning. The texture and taste of the steamed coconut milk and palm sugar cake is good. My two younger children who dislike the one I made with yeast told me this ma lai koh is yummy. However, it must be my lousy palm sugar because the colour is not dark nor smell of palm sugar.
I shall copy the ingredients from BigBoysOven but you shall need to read their post to find the method. The comments in brackets are my reference notes.)
Ingredients for ma lai koh
70ml palm sugar (Crush about 70 grams of palm sugar and mix with a bit of hot water to dissolve it. I have to give it a quick boil. You should yield about 70 ml.)
2 large eggs
100gm castor sugar
(Beat the eggs and castor sugar till really whitish and stiff.)
160gm cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda (I do not have baking soda so I used baking powder. That’s why my ma lai koh did not ‘fatt’ like BBO version. My son told me later that if I am substituting powder with soda, I should double the quantity of the baking powder.)
200ml thick coconut milk (200 ml of coconut milk is about RM2 if you buy from the wet market)

I do not have the ceramic cups so I used cupcakes paper casings in egg tarts aluminium casing.
I get 20 nice, soft, moist, lemak, non sticky ma lai koh. Except that my malai is a rather fair koh. This recipe is certainly very easy to do.

Recipe : Chocolate chip corn flakes cookies

Recipe for chocolate chip corn flakes cookies (from Kellogg’s)

Preheat oven to 170 deg celcius
Prepare cookie tray by putting parchment paper.
PART A
One and 3/4 cup of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda (or 1 tsp of baking powder)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Mix all the above together in a big bowl.
PART B
1 cup butter (about 225 grams)
1 cup sugar
In another bowl, whisk sugar and softened butter till white, light and fluffy.
PART C
2 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
Beat the eggs with a fork, add vanilla
PART D
5 cups of corn flakes
Crush the corn flakes till you get half the volume, i.e. two and half cup of crushed cornflakes.
1 cup of chocolate chips
__________________________________________
Easy method.
Once the butter and sugar are white and fluffy, add in the eggs mixture.
Mix well. Add the flour mixture.
From here on, use your hands to mix it into a dough.
Add in the corn flakes and chocolate chip. Give it a quick mix.
Spoon a tiny ball with a teaspoon and use another teaspoon to push the dough into the cookie tray. Put the cookies far apart because the cookie will spread and flatten when baked.
Bake in 170 deg celcius for about 20-25 minutes.

Check my previous post on how to make cookies crispy. I have another corn flakes cookie recipe with almond powder.
Corn flake is very tasty when use in baking cookies. You can also crush the corn flakes, mix with a bit of self-raising flour and a pinch of salt to use to deep fry foods. I have also added crushed corn flakes into meat balls for extra texture and flavour.
The above corn flake chocolate chip cookies recipe yields a big batch of very crunchy, tasty and delicious cookies. The only tricky part is to get the cookie crispy and nicely brown. Do keep an eye your first batch of cookies while they are baking in the oven to ensure that the timing and temperature are fine with your oven as not all ovens give the same result.