Noodles and Pasta, Western

Mac and Cheese

7shasha7

I love pasta. I love cheese. It’s no wonder that I’m obese.

Cheesy.

I have cooked mac and cheese many times, each time using a different recipe. For this version, I used (shock and horror to both my waistline and tender heart) full fat cream. Sigh.

So instead of making bechamel sauce for this mac and cheese recipe, I poured cream in a saucepan, added two different kinds of cheeses (cheddar and emmantel), a bit of dijon mustard, salt and white pepper. Pour that over boiled macaroni in a casserole dish and top with  gourmet breadcrumbs. Bake in the oven and enjoy! Totally creamy, totally fattening and totally satisfying.

Cakes and Cookies, Desserts

No Bake Simple Cheesecake

7shasha7

I was surfing on the internet again and got reconnected with cheesecake. More specifically, the no bake variety and I discovered it’s simply cream cheese mixed with whipping cream. And what do you know? I have a whole packet of whipping cream that needs to be used before it expires. Furthermore, I learnt that my trusty food processor is able to whip up some cream in no time.

The original recipe calls for two packages of cream cheese but I only used one. With that one, I creamed it with half a cup of icing sugar and put that in a bowl. After which, I whipped up some cream and then folded that into the cream cheese mixture, adding in two teaspoons of honey.For the base, I used apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies and they were divine. The end result? Not very cheesy, definitely fresh creamy and altogether not too bad. Something I’ll definitely make again, especially when time is short. I made this in less than 20 minutes. Of course, the chilling takes hours.

Blitz this with about 100g of cold butter.
Press evenly into a small (9inch) springform pan. Chill.
Whip whipping cream till soft peaks form.
Put whipped cream in the bowl together with the whipped creamed cheese and icing sugar mixtire. Add honey.
Stir the mixture well. Little Girl insisted I take her photo.
Pour mixture into the pan. Spread well.
After it's completely chilled, carefully remove. Enjoy!

I finished one big slice!

I forgot to mention I used about 500 ml of whipping cream. The next time, I’ll use 2 packets of cream cheese so it’ll be cheesier. Overall, I was very happy with this simple recipe.

Asian Dishes, Poultry

Soy Sauce Chicken Wings

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Chicken Wings when grilled in the oven using a rack comes out real crispy. My chicken wings turned out reeeeal good today. The marinade was simply dark and light soy, ginger slices and garlic. The secret is to put them on a rack and they’ll crisp up.

Push the wingtips inside so that they won't burn.
After they're done on one side, turn them over so now, the wingtips will get cooked too.
I had them with plain rice and fried baby kailan.
Bread and Batter, Meat

Beef Roll

7shasha7

What do you do when you have extra beef? You put it in a roll, add some cheese and toast them. Mmmm… OR, you can make an open-faced sandwich using a panini bun, slather some pesto sauce and pesto, you get a lovely quick fix! At Melvados, I bought a tub of ready-made pesto. Not bad, at all. Convenient and tasty.

I love the smoked jalapeno sauce over the melted cheese. YUMMY.
Asian Dishes, Poultry

Ayam Bul-Bul

7shasha7

OK, nobody I know have heard of this dish. It even has a weird name. The worst part is that my mom told me that she got this dish from my father-in-law’s mother so I proudly cooked a batch years ago and he’s never even heard of it! Strange, right? I checked with my aunt, who is my father-in-law’s sister-in-law (it’s complicated) and again, she said that she learnt to make this dish from her mother-n-law which my father-in-law has not even heard of nor tasted! I still don’t get it.

Well, whatever the story is, this is one fabulous dish. It starts with frying small winglets and baby drumlets till cooked. Then, in a wok, you fry curry leaves, dried chillies, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, finely diced onions, garlic till really fragrant. And then you add in the fried chicken. And then you add a bit of brown sugar and chilli powder. Stir till everything’s well-coated.

I cooked this again recently but I used chicken thighs instead. The loveliness actually comes not from eating the chicken but all the lovely spices with hot white rice.

The oil is wonderful!