Old Recipe: Dakgalbi 닭갈비 (Spicy Grilled Chicken and Vegetables)

I was reading old entries in my personal mobile blog (Yeah don't judge. I'm pretty sure everyone does that too okay *shift eyes*), and chanced upon an old recipe I blogged about 1 1/2 years ago back in May 2014.

I will be posting everything exactly as I did in that post, partly because I think the way I wrote the recipe was quite funny lah wtf. Please don't mind the crap photos I took back then as I never intended anyone to read those entries....

Now please feast your eyes and hopefully you'll think I'm funny too wtf.

______________________
27 May 2014:

Chef Ajeng exploring new recipe today! I keep seeing my friend checking into Uncle Jang Dak Galbi ah babi all I have is pizza and kebabs here.

The recipe is not that hard I realised. Cooked two portions so I can keep half for tomorrow.
(Tips: Always cook double portion so you don't have to cook for the next meal or if you're hungry at night then this can be your supper. It's up to you rofl)

These are the ingredients: Chopped chicken, chopped garlic, chopped onion and chopped sweet potatoes.

Just remember to chop everything and you'll be fine. Lolol

This is the essence of the dish!

I don't really use any measurements here cause I've learnt the art of 'agak-agak' lol. What's in the bowl: Red pepper paste (Gochujang), red pepper flakes (the spicier you want, the more you put), sugar, sesame oil, pinch of salt, soy sauce.

The actual recipe calls for cabbage too but I just used whatever that was in my fridge cause gurllll ain't nobody got time for that.

Oh forgot to mention this: add chopped scallions too (2cm length approx) for flavour.

If you don't call this a masterpiece, I don't know anymore. Hahaha kid kid

The finished product!

Oh the steps? Haiya just throw in whatever ingredients you think should go in first la. If it's wrong then, like what one of my friend always say to me, 'OH SUCKS TO BE YOU HAHA' :P

Omg it was so yummy. Same standard as Uncle Jang's, if not better! Cause I added onion for more flavour and adjusted the taste to my own liking ^_^

_-End- ______________________________

Oh wow this might just be the most useless recipe anyone has ever read. Well at least the way I wrote it was not pretentious at all, no? *self comfort*

Anywayss, thank you for reading! 

Recipe: Sesame Balls with Red Bean Paste Filling

I have always wanted to attempt to make this local Malaysian Chinese snack and so since I had crazy cravings (again) for deep fried food one night... instead of waiting for no one to bring me food...... :(
I decided to make these!

There are few versions of recipes with slight variations on how to make these. I usually choose the one which has the most precise steps? and also the least ingredients used lol #lazy


Ingredients
1) 112 grams sugar + 118ml boiling water
2) 60 grams potato flakes + 118ml boiling water
3) 240 grams glutinous rice flour
4) 1 tablespoon rice flour
5) 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
6) 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
7) White sesame seeds (Enough to coat the sesame balls)
8) Frying Oil
9) Red bean paste*

(*To make the red bean paste, rinse the red bean, then boil the red bean with water for about 45-1 hour [you make need to refill the water during the process] until it is fully cooked. Turn off the stove. Mash the red bean and gradually add sugar to the level of sweetness according to your liking. You you have a blender, use it to blend so the paste will be even more fine. Return the red bean paste to the stove under low heat and stir the paste until it becomes sticky. Be careful about burning it! Once done, leave it aside.) 

Steps
First, add ingredient (1) together, mix and set it aside. 
Secondly, add ingredient (2) and stir it until fully incorporated . Potato flakes are instant potato mash. If you may do without this ingredient if you don't have it but apparently it helps to keep the sesame balls in shape even after they cool down. 

  Now add the glutinous rice flour, rice flour and baking powder, vegetable oil and ingredient (1) to the potato flake mixture. Start mixing using your favourite spatula! 

 A soft dough should slowly form. After that, you may use your hand to knead the dough together. The dough may be dry so you may add water one tablespoon at a time while kneading. Do not add too much water. You will know the dough is moist enough when you take a small amount of dough and you stretch it out, it does not crack. It should neither be too dry nor too wet. 

Now the original recipe asks to rest the dough for 1 hour (cover the dough with cling film) but then again since I was making this at an ungodly hour, I only let it rest for around 20 minutes. #aintnobodygottimeforthat

 Roll the dough into a log that is approximately 12 inches long, then cut them up into 12 small doughs. 

Roll the red bean paste which you made into 12 balls. 

Then take one of the small doughs, shape it into a bowl shape and add the red bean paste ball onto it. Seal it and shape it into a ball. Repeat the same thing for the other 11 sesame balls!

 Then dip the ball into a bowl of water (or you may spray water on it) *so the sesame seeds can actually stick onto it* and then roll the ball in a bowl filled with white sesame seeds. 

You can see my workstation in the photos above is quite messy since this was my first attempt in making these baboons. 

 Heat up the oil in a deep frying pan. Keep the heat at medium. Once the oil is heated up (you'll know it's hot enough when you place a chopstick into the oil, small bubbles form around it), chuck the sesame balls into the pan! Cook the sesame balls until they are evenly browned. Original recipe calls for 8-10 minutes but I took slightly longer than that. 

AND YOU'RE DONE!!

 THEY WERE SO YUMMYYYYYYYY :Q__________

So glad I am slowly learning how to make local Malaysian delicacies and I actually can't wait to have another crazy cravings night for some other new dessert/snacks/anything edible so I can share it here on my blog! 

And again just to put a disclaimer out there, I am not a professional baker/cook. I do this purely out of passion and I am more than willing to help if you have any enquiries. 

Thank you for reading and please try this recipe out!  \(^_^)/

Recipe: Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

This recipe is really simple! I started baking this when I suddenly had mad cravings and frantically went searching around for the best chocolate chip cookies recipe.

I was specifically looking for the chewy type of cookies cause that's my personal favourite. I enjoy chewy ones more than the usual crispy chocolate chip cookies as I feel the former is more packed with flavours? I don't know but this may be just my own personal preference. :)

(This recipe is not of my own. I also do not claim to be a professional baker)
Original Recipe: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/05/13/chewy-chocolate-chunk-cookies/

I mentioned that this recipe is simple because you barely need any baking utensils (ie mixer). You probably just need to equip yourself with a spatula, 2 mixing bowls (or any regular big bowls) and kitchen scale.

Ingredients
1. 280 gram Plain Flour
2. 1 teaspoon Bicarbonate Soda
3. 1 and 1/2 teaspoons Corn Flour
4. 1/2 teaspoon Salt (no need if you're using salted butter)
5. 170 grams Unsalted Butter at room temperature
6. 135 grams Brown Sugar
7. 100 grams Caster Sugar
8. 1 Large Egg + 1 Egg yolk, at room temperature
9. 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
10. 180 grams Milk Chocolate Chips or Chocolate Chunks

Directions

Sift together plain flour, bicarbonate soda, corn flour and salt into a large bowl. Set aside. 

Mix the butter, brown sugar and caster sugar in another bowl. You may choose to whisk it but I find using a spatula works just as fine. 

Make sure it is fully incorporated like the picture above! 

Now add the eggs. Mix them again until fully combined. 

Once you're done, combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Again, using the spatula, combine the ingredients until it forms a dough. 

Moving on from there, fold in the the yummy chocolate chunks(or chips)! It's slightly difficult folding in but don't worry so much about that, just try your best! 

Oh no nope you can't pop them in the oven yet. :( 

Cling film the dough and chill it in the fridge for at least 2 hours (or up to overnight). Apparently, this increases the chewiness of the cookies plus the cookies will turn out more flavourful! 

Preheat the oven to 162 degree celcius. Once the wait is over, line your baking trays with baking paper. and mould your dough into around 16-25 cookie doughs. If it's 16 cookies, one cookie dough is about 3 tablespoon whereas for 25 cookies is around 2 tablespoon. I was not crazy enough to measure accurately and being Malaysian myself, I just agak-agak lah! actually I was just lazy

('agak-agak' is a typical term used by local cooks/housewives in Malaysia which means 'simply estimate') 

You can see from the photo above that my doughs are rather "tall"? That was cause I wanted my cookies to be thicker than wide. So I made them taller instead of moulding them into round shapes. You may top the cookie doughs with extra chocolate chunks or chips, like what I did above. 

Now you're almost done! Pop the trays into the oven for 8-10 minutes for smaller cookies, 8-12 minutes for larger ones.  Remove them from the oven once the time is up, but don't touch the cookies yet as they will still be soft. Allow them to cool on the trays for about 10 minutes. 

Now you may enjoy the fruits of your labour!

These cookies are so sinful (but SOOO GOODDDDD) so make sure you share them with your friends or you can just have them all by yourself actually to soothe your broken little heart after finding out your favourite korean boy band member is in a relationship. *shifty wet eyes*

That's all for now and ask me anything if you have any queries.

Thank you for reading!

Red's True Barbecue, Nottingham

Been having cheat meals almost everyday for the past few days -_- #somuchfail

Went to an American diner after Church today which specialises in all things greasy. And of course, since it's the weekend, the place was packed to the brim. We had to wait for 30 minutes before we could get a table. 

Make sure you're extremely hungry before you enter this place or else you'll end up like me only finishing 1/4 of my meal D:

The menu may seem overwhelming at first so my tips is to check out their menu online first on their website at the comfort of your home and in your snuggly duvet, while sipping on a hot cup of Japanese green tea.  :PPP

AND BEHOLD:  THE DONUT BURGER. (£12.95)

I cannot imagine the amount of calories in this beast. A donut alone is already about 300 calories. I had a small bite of this burger and am surprised the donut didn't taste as sweet as I expect it to be? I don't think they glazed/coated the donuts with sugar. So yeah, if you're bored of the traditional cheeseburger, I would recommend anyone to try this! (unless if you have cholesterol, then don't.)

I'm that unadventurous friend who orders the same thing over and over again. I always order ribs whenever I see ribs on the menu in any restaurants. 

MEMPHIS-DRY ST LOUIS FULL RACK OF RIBS (£24)

I thought I ordered half rack but full rack came (din't know it was full rack until I asked for the bill). Other than the fact that I unconsciously burned a hole in my purse T__T, the ribs still lived up to my expectations! It didn't have the weird porky smell to it (that somehow British pigs tend to have). One thing though, it would have been better if the meat is more tender? 

We only ordered tap water since the food itself is already quite expensive for students but I have say that their milkshake looks quite tempting though! Quite a number of customers ordered that while I was there. 

Will go there again if I feel carnivorous! :B

Website: 

http://truebarbecue.com/

Address:

11 Queen Street,

Nottingham NG1.

Time Out Cafe, Nottingham

Waaa someone's on a roll this week. I had the luxury of time to do quite a lot of non-academic related activities this week because I only had one day of class for the week \(^_^)/ #somuchwin

I came to know of this Cafe from a friend who posted  a photo  from this Cafe on Facebook and I knew I had to visit it asap because:
1. This is an Asian Fusion Cafe (Probably the first in notts);
2. It just started operating few weeks ago so of course I want to be one of the early birds lololol;
3. It serves Pho (This alone is enough to convince me!);
4. and also a variety of other Asian snacks and light meals.

The cafe is situated along Wheeler Gate street, next to Poundland, on the first floor. It should be easy to spot, just look out for the blackboard sign in the above picture!

 Interior of the cafe. 

You can tell from their decorations and furnitures that all those are picked personally by the owners. 

(Sorry for the bland descriptions btw lol)

Newspaper-looking menu! And there's free wifi! Any cafes that provide wifi deserve credit. (Y)

My friend ordered Hong Kong Milk Tea (£2.50) and I had Thai Milk Tea (£2.50).

The taste was pretty spot on but my only issue was that my milk tea was lukewarm (instead of cold). The owner (I suppose?) though did explain that this could be due to the fact that the milk tea was just brewed and did not had the chance to sit in the fridge for long.

Finally this was the reason why I was there. BEEF PHO (£6.95).

The broth was good! I don't want to be nitpicking but I was hoping for more ingredients? Eg. Beansprouts, Basil, Mint leaves, Chilli peppers. But for the price, I think this is overall still a great bowl of pho. 

My friend ordered Mentaiko pasta (£6.95). Anyone who loves Japanese food will equally love this and I believe this dish is great for supper! Speaking of supper, another selling point for this cafe is that it opens till 11pm on weekdays and on Saturdays. Now I finally have a place to go for snacks in the evenings yay :3

Overall I had an enjoyable time dining there. It definitely stands out as compared to other cafes in Nottingham. Will be back there again to try other dishes in their menu!


Their link:
Time Out Cafe's Facebook

Address: 
First Floor,
14-16 Wheeler Gate,
Nottingham,
United Kingdom.

Recipe: Rose Scented Macaron (Italian Method)

This recipe is not of my own. I also do not claim to be a professional baker.

Original source: http://loveandmacarons.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/macaron-recipe-italian-meringue-method.html

I have baked macarons for quite a few times now and I am afraid that my macarons are still not as delicate and perfect as I want them to be. However, each time I bake, I learn something new on how to perfect these little yummy creatures! 

I stumbled upon the Italian method of making macarons while reading an entry on dayre (a mobile blogging app) and the writer claimed that the Italian method is a lot better than the French method. Now all these while, I have been using the usual French method. What's a French method? Those are the usual macaron recipes you find on Google just by searching 'macaron recipe'. 

I find the Italian method easier and much more foolproof as compared to the French's! And the shells are not hollow at all! It's like biting into a mini cake :3 

Ingredients:

150g Almond Powder (*important* Remember to sift this! Alternatively you can process it in the food processor)

150g Icing Sugar

2 Large Egg Whites

Food Colouring (Optional)

2 Teaspoon of Cornflour (For humid place)

A Pinch of Salt

Meringue:

2 Large Egg Whites

35g Caster Sugar

120g Caster Sugar

40g Water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 150 Degree Celcius. Sift the almond powder and icing sugar together into a large bowl. Then add the 2 large egg whites and mix them thoroughly, followed by food colouring, salt and corn flour. 

Note: If you're using food colouring. It is advisable to use gel food colouring and please add more colour than usual as the colour will lighten as you combine all the ingredients in the end. 

*Mixing*

It will look like this in the end. Put it aside and now it's time to make the meringue!

 Put 120g sugar and water on the stove over medium heat. Wait until the mixture becomes bubbly all over the pan with no sign of unboiled water.

(Image from Google) It should look something like this. 

Once you start boiling the sugar water, beat the 2 large egg whites in a bowl until it becomes foamy then add 35g of sugar to it and continue beating either using a stand/hand mixer on low speed. Please make sure you do not over beat the eggs! 

Now add in the sugar water slowly while still beating the egg, and turn the mixer on high speed. 

Beat until stiff peaks are formed and then STOP RIGHT THERE (because we do not want to over beat the eggs :p)

After that, add 1/3 of the meringue to the almond mix until fully incorporated. After that, you may add in the rest of the meringue. Fold the mixture and you have to be careful about this step. Do not undermix and do not overmix. Make sure the batter is flowy enough (when you lift your spatula the batter runs down from it) but not too runny! I counted that I probably folded around 20 times?

Now the fun part! Pour the batter into a piping bag (For anyone in UK, you can get cheap £1 piping bags from Poundland!) and pipe them onto your baking tray which is lined with baking paper. 

You can pipe your macarons in any size that you want.

Then tap the baking tray few times on a table or kitchen counter to release the air from the macarons. *important*

Let the macarons rest for an hour. I usually will place them near the windows where there's wind. After that, you should be able to touch the shell with your finger and it will not stick onto your finger.

Now you're ready to pop any of the trays into the oven! I usually pop them in one by one to ensure even heat when baking these babies. Leave them in oven for around 13 minutes.

 AND YOU'RE DONE!

Do not remove the shells as soon as you take them out of the oven. Allow them to cool down first. 

Then you may assemble the macarons with your favourite filling!

I used rosewater buttercream. It's very easy. Around 150g to 200g of butter which is whipped at high speed until it becomes white, then fold in 100g of icing sugar. Whip the mixture again and last but not least, add 1 tablespoon of rosewater. 

I know macarons can be very tricky, which is why I think commercially it is an expensive dessert but I believe after a few trial and errors, anyone can attempt to bake them successfully!

Please try baking them and don't hesitate to ask me anything if you have any queries. 

Thanks for reading!

As cliche as this sounds... FIRST POST!

First post! I've always wanted to start some sort of a food blog/channel so I can keep my recipes with me whenever I want to use them but never found the time *cough excuses* and law school is insane. But I've have had my fair share of failed recipes mainly due to the fact that I NEVER save my previous recipes which I found usually by googling, so no more excuses this time!

I don't think I will have as much time as other *professional* food bloggers so unless if you're lucky, the photos I take will be clear and nicely edited :P
(All photos taken/will be taken by my trusty Iphone 4s)

I love food hunting too! I've been living in the city of Nottingham, UK for almost a year now and I've tried almost every single restaurants and cafes here. I love the cafe and tea cultures in UK. It's very.. how should I put it, unpretentious? I'm very grateful to my friends who always trust my tastebuds, and they're one reason why I am confident enough to create this blog.

As a true foodie myself, whenever I travel, the first thing I research on is not on which tourist attraction should I go to, or how do I travel using their public transportation, but it's ALWAYS which local restaurant has the best ratings & reviews in town .  *who's with me? :D*

AND I can't wait to go back to Malaysia and start introducing the local food there because (I may be bias) MALAYSIAN FOOD IS THE BOMB.

I don't know what my next post will be. Probably recipe for my favourite dessert? or review on the last few cafes/restaurants I've been to?? It'll be up in the next few days so you'll find out then!

Here's a glorious photo of a bowl of Sarawak Laksa to end the post. :P