Gooey Caramel - Nigella Style!

Really wanna get hold of this Stylist-December Issue with Nigella Lawson on the cover. Yupp, that's her dripping with gooey caramel and closing her heavily-made eyes. Mamma mia, anyone in the UK can help me get this? Thanks in advance! xoxo

Snack To Your Heart's (errr..Uterus) Content?

Do you snack a lot? I am sure guilty of snacking all the time but I try to tell myself to snack the right stuff. (Read : I'm hungry all the time!) (Read again: No! Garrett popcorns & McD's Chicken Mcbites do not count as the right stuff!).

Ok, ok, despite all that bad stuff, I do have good stuff on my table to snack on. Few months back I was diagnosed with ademonyosis and endometriotic cysts. Yupp, doc said I gotta go for a surgery right away. Told her I had work commitment and would like to postpone it. So she ended giving me an injection. On top of the RM1.2k jab (Lucrin) to control the growths, the doctor gave me apricot kernels and mulberry to take every morning and evening. Was told that the apricot kernels contain vitamin b17 which is now slowly known as the supplement to suppress the big C. No, I wasn't diagnosed with the big C (na'uzzubillah) but b17 in the kernels is believed to help control/prevent the growths from further growing. While mulberrry is to kill the "oh-my-god-you're-not-kidding-me" bitter taste of the kernels. On top of that, my genius friends at work have discovered this Blood Type Diet and we've been trying as much as possible to eat what is right for our blood type. So I've been snacking on prunes a lot and taking apple cider vinegar, virgin coconut oil and all types of berries (they're known to contain high antioxidants).

Forward, forward -> after about 2 months - via an ultrasound routine with the doc, guess what, the growths had shrunk by more than 50%! I was so over the moon, so was the doctor! Alhamdulillah. Am really glad that I do not have to go under the knife now. Yupp, the progress is tremendous that the doctor told me no surgery is required! Well just thought you'd find this inspiring. And yes, Godwilling, these stuff really work, peeps! And yes, head to the organic stores nearby to check these goodies out. Snack on!!

Tis The Season (To Bake Sugee)

I recently baked sugee cakes. I remember exactly at this time last year, a dear friend of mine, Carol requested that I bake her a sugee cake and I immediately said yes. Only to realise after that, that I've never had sugee cakes before. I love sugee cookies though but never tried the cakes and have never baked one before too!

So, when in doubt, google! Haha. Whoa!! Was really surprised when I saw the ingredients. The number of eggs and amount of sugar used! Super-thigh food. That's what my friend would call this. I ended up with the so-called 'healthiest' and 'figure-friendliest' recipe. Passed it to Carol for tasting and nahh! Even I didn't like it. Brown sugar for sugee, nahh! It doesn't go that way. Plus the recipe called for the use of almond essence. Nahhh, that didn't work either. I finally settled for one recipe I got from an old magazine. That was ok lah!

Carol wanted the cake again last week for her fiance's birthday party (yupp! he's not a fan of the fancy schmancy looking cake!) and I scrambled looking for the recipe I used last year. Didn't find it but call me lucky, I managed to nab an authentic Indian sugee cake recipe from MIL's neighbour, whom I call Aunty. But the thing was, I could feel my waistline expanding just by looking at the recipe alone. So, tweaked it a bit. Made a mock-up cake for my fave girls at work to try. Was over the moon when they said they liked it. And to my delight, after I handed Carol the cake, she said it passed with flying colours. She added that the cake didn't make it to the birthday party. It went down their tummies even before the party started. Haha! That news sure made my day!

I was told to guard the recipe dearly by the Aunty though but if you want the recipe, leave a comment here with your email add and I'll revert to you ok. Hmm..gonna bake some for Deepavali. Want some? :)

Holy Guacamole (!) - The Blogger MasterChef Finale

Holy guacamole (!) - the very first thing I said when I saw two ripe avocadoes in the mystery box for the Invention Test at the finale! Am not quite a fan of this fruit. Wait! Is it a fruit or a vege huh? Haha. The only thing I've made with avocadoes was guacamole, in an attempt to copy Nigella Lawson's "Roquemole" - a roquefort-based guacamole. Roquefort is sheep's milk blue cheese and I ended up throwing the whole bowl I made because it was just too strong to my liking!

We were given 2 minutes to pick 10 things from the pantry upon checking the stuff in the mystery box. I simply grabbed bread, mushrooms, lemons, shallots, garlic etc. not knowing what to make. The only thing I thought of that time was to use the avocadoes shells and stuff them with errrr, stuff?

When I finally had some inkling of what to do later, I ended up making antipasti. Called my creation - Quattro Avocado Antipasti - 4 types of dips stuffed in the avocadoes shells and served with canapes. Tadaaaa! Was given pretty good reviews by the judges, but no, I didn't win the contest. But to be in Malaysia's top 10 list, was just priceless! A damn good and fun experience for a pretend chef like me! Thanks Astro & Nuffnang for organising this. Till next year? Haha, I sure gotta cook more at home, buy more cook books, watch more cooking shows and enroll in cooking classes ay?

The Finale

Big day today! Masterchef Blogger finale. I just hope that I'll survive the day and won't end up making a fool out of myself in the public! For those of you who wish to support us the finalists, come and join the fun at SACC Mall, Shah Alam @ 12.30 pm! Come one, come all!

These Suffice

Don't need all the crystal ware and expensive antique stuff to deco my wall at home - these suffice! These babies make my day just by looking at the yummilicious and beautiful colourful covers. I know I'm weird :)

The Dish That Got Me Through

Believe it or not, I made it to the finals guys! Yupp, for the Masterchef Malaysia BLOGGERS Challenge. Didn't believe it myself! There were prawns, pineapples, egg, flour and spices in the mystery box and I ended up making what I call Spicy Tropical Shrimp Lollies (after sweating profusely not knowing what to make!) Anyway, here's the pic of the dish that got me through. Wish me luck for the finals this week! xoxo

A Nervous Wreck

OMG! OMG!

Peeps, got chosen to proceed to the semi-final stage of the MasterChef Malaysia Blogger Contest organised by Nuffnang and Astro! (Wrote about it in my previous entry) Attending a real cook-off tomoro. My heart's palpitating right now. Am such a nervous wreck! Wish me luck peeps!

xoxo


- Jabberholic babbles from her iPhone

MasterChef : A Little Secret Wish

I think I was a chef in my previous life! Haha!

When I am in control of the TV remote at home, everyone else will have no choice but to watch all the food related shows with me. When no one is looking, I weep with joy over how brilliant and skilful the Junior MasterChefs are on TV. When I am alone at home, I will host my own cooking show in the kitchen – Yes! Call me crazy but I will suddenly turn into this TV chef and start to verbalise every action I make, sometimes pretending that I am in the MasterChef’s Mystery Box or Pressure Test challenges. Haha! When I crave for something sweet, I have no qualm walking in the rain to go to the nearby shop when I run out of raspberries and cream to make that panna cotta and raspberry coulis I saw they made in MasterChef Masterclass. When I travel, I am constantly on the look out for must-try eateries. Oh, I love everything about food and psst! psst! I am secretly dreaming of becoming a MasterChef (and now hoping to become Malaysia's first Blogger MasterChef!). I spend a big percentage of my pay-check on cook books. I spend my spare time experimenting recipes and my food testers are people around me; family and friends. It is always a delight when they give good words about the stuff I whip up for them. (Though I hope they’re not just being nice) ;)

One thing I love making all the time is something I call Crunchy Cone Salad, a recreation of a favourite salad of mine from a California-based restaurant, but with a twist! The twist lies in the presentation, which is something I nabbed from the celeb chef Bob Blumer (whom I’ve met and lucky to be friends with now ;) ) Name dropping huh? Haha. Ok, back to the recipe. Usually, you will eat the wontons out of the crispy, crunchy salad. But now you get to eat the salad of out the crispy, crunchy wonton. Wanna know how you can make this?

What do you need?

Salad dressing

• 1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
  
• 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 1/2 teaspoons water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Salad and cone

• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 1-2 boneless skinless chicken breast(s)
• A pinch of salt
• 1 1/4 cups peanut oil
• 9-10 wonton pastry wrappers
• 2 cups sliced and finely grated romaine lettuce
• 2 cups sliced and finely grated red cabbage
  
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped roasted cashews
• 1/3 cup chopped canned mandarin slices
• 2 onions
• Paper cones or use card boards to make your own 9-12 cones of 4-5 inches diameter

How ?

• Season chicken breast with salt. Cook chicken with 1 tablespoon of peanut oil for about 5 minutes per side. Reserve the cooked chicken aside.

• Preheat oven to 180°C.
• In a bowl, set out peanut oil along with a pastry brush. Brush both sides of each wrapper with peanut oil.
• If you do not have with you ready-made cones, make yours with card boards. Simply cut circles out of the card board and fold them into cones.

• Wrap 1 wrapper around each cone and press seams together. Then set out the cones on a baking sheet.

• Bake for 5 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy. When cones cool, pull them off the cones and reserve.

• Dice chicken finely. Reserve.
• Whisk together peanut butter, vinegar, honey, water and soy sauce.
• Stir in sugar, salt and cayenne pepper.
• Add oil and continue whisking until smooth.
• Drizzle the dressing on the salad.

• Assemble salad in the wonton cones. Top with sliced chicken and mandarin slices. Walla! They're now ready to be served.

Isn’t this a more fun way to serve your salad? Well, you can put virtually anything in the cones though. Imagine your curry puff fillings served in these cones or even your popiah. What else? The sky is the limit when making these!

People say everything good is free, but I’d say everything good is fried! Haha. Still on the topic of wontons, I have another recipe to share. Choc Wontons (Thanks Bob Blumer!). Deep fried wonton skins filled with dollops of peanut butter, slices of ripe bananas and chocolate. There are certain foods that make my eyes grow large and the corners of my mouth go up. Any recipe mentioning of these ingredients goes right into my “to cook” list. So, these babies are what I’ve been making every time guests come for tea. Wanna know what they taste like? Imagine this, when you bite the crispy wonton, the peanut butter, banana and chocolate just ooze out where you get to savour the sweetness of the banana and gooey chocolate with a hint of saltiness from the peanut butter. Isn’t that just divine? The recipe as follows :

What do you need?

• 15-20 wonton pastry wrappers
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 4 bananas, peeled and sliced into ¼-inch-thick slices
• 15-20 chocolate balls or bar segments
• Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)
• Peanut oil for deep frying

How?

• Place a slice of banana onto the centre of a piece of wonton wrapper.
• Place 1 teaspoon of peanut butter on the banana and top with chocolate.

• Wet your finger with water and trace the wonton wrapper around the ingredients.Pinch and seal wrapper around the ingredients tightly.

• Pour oil into a pot. When oil is ready, fry the wontons for about 1 minute or until wonton wrappers are golden brown.
• Remove and place on paper towel to absorb excess oil. Dust with powdered sugar. Let cool before serving.

I first served these babies at a potluck, and guess what went missing from the plate in a blink of an eye? (Refer to the white container in the photo). Hehe.

Easy peasy right? Not only these are pleasing to the eyes, but they would tickle your taste buds with fancy. Simple recipes infused with wow! factors – these are what you call MasterChef worthy huh? ;) Speaking of which, it is now official that the reality show will be shown on TV in less than a month. Yeay! The cooking reality show which does not require viewers votes are now breaking viewership records in US and Australia (remember MasterChef Australia? MasterChef USA?) Associated with big names such as Gordon Ramsay and Gary Mehigan, MasterChef is a success because not only is food something everyone is very passionate about but the show is only opened to amateur home cooks and it is an avenue to turn home cook hopefuls into culinary stars. Now Malaysians who love cooking but never had a chance to really showcase their skills and be appreciated, get the opportunity! Guess who have been announced as the MasterChef Malaysia judges? Our own big guns in the industry, of course - Chef Riz, Chef Jo, Chef Zubir, Chef Yahaya and Priya Menon!

Yupp, you got that right, MasterChef-Malaysian style! So if you fancy some cooking throwdown the Malaysian way, do block your diary. Details as follows:

• Launch date : 22nd October 2011
• Show times : Starting from 22nd October 2011, every Saturday – Wednesday, 9pm. Master Class will be on every Friday, 9.00pm.
• Program channel – Astro Ria (Channel 104)

To find out more about the show, you can also check out :

• Official Site URL – http://www.astro.com.my/MasterChef/
• Facebook Page Link- http://www.facebook.com/MasterChefMalaysia
• Twitter Link– www.twitter.com/MasterChefMY

So, are you ready for the MasterChef phenomenon to take over the country soon? My junior chefs and I are definitely are!

Tweet Tweet!

What do you do when a superstar celeb chef follows you on Twitter?

- You jump up and down?
- You tweet about it?
- You update your facebook status about it?
- You blog about it?
- You talk about it non-stop?

Hehehe, am guilty of all the above! It's JAMIE OLIVER, peeps!! Ooooh, I sooo love this thing called Social Media :) Don't you guys too?

Moo ! !

One of the things I looked for in Spain few months back was this thing called Dulce de Leche. Having learnt that it's something that Lionel Messi (the footballer, people! Hehe, and whom I met in Spain) loves, I got curious and hit the mercato to look for it. There were so many brands, but I ended up buying Havana after reading that it is the best brand in Argentina! Since, Messi's from Argentina - hence the purchase ;) (I'm so easy, right? Haha!)


Wait! Wonder what's Dulce de Leche? It's caramel-like milk based spread. Literally translated, dulce means sweet and leche means milk. Its consistency, flavour and texture are ideal for baking, desserts or just on toasted bread. So, what have I "milked" out of this "yum-moo-licious" treat? Besides eating it straight from the jar and spreading it on toast, so far, I've made :

Bannofee Dulce de Leche cake. Just google for any bannofee cake recipe. Layer the cake with dulce de leche spread and make dulce de leche ganache.


Messy, lazy, banana dessert smothered with Dulce de Leche. No brainer. Haha.


Dulce de Leche Brownies. Made this based on David Lebovitz's recipe! Yummms!


Dulce de Leche Bread Butter Pudding. Made this using the normal bread butter pudding recipe but top it with dollops of dulce de leche in heated milk!


Am down to my last jar now. Need to scout around for a new bottle. Anyone going to Spain? Argentina?

Jabberholic 2.0 - The Trotting Gourmand

I've been contemplating on moving on to another blog site and start afresh. I think I whine too much here and wanna talk more about stuff that makes sense (?!) instead. But then again, it is gonna be such a hassle to start from scratch and build new relationships etc. Plus, I've made so many new friends in this blogsphere as Jabberholic. So, my decision? Am gonna continue writing here, perhaps with a small twist on what I would like now to be known as ;) I wanna talk about my two most favourite things i.e. Travelling and Food and I'd like to rename this blog The Trotting Gourmand to reflect this. No more babbling about anything and everything. No more whining, I promise. Hmmm, maybe you'll cut me some slack once in a while ay? Haha. Ok, so, hello again World! It's been a while!

Cobwebs

This blog is sure collecting cobwebs and dust now! Hmmmmm..

May

Oh dear, just realised I haven't posted any blog entry for the month of May!

Well, updates? I'm back from the States now. Am still thinking and talking about the awesome time hubby and I had there though. Ok, ok, will surely squeeze some time to update soon, guys!

- Jabberholic babbles from her iPhone

Experience of a Lifetime

Heading to the States for the Experience of a Lifetime!




- Jabberholic babbles from her iPhone

iMAStravel Giveaway Winners

The contest has ended! Unfortunately my giveaway tidak menerima sambutan hangat (tsk!tsk!) but thanks to 3 lovely readers who had left their comments in my earlier blog post, you guys are the obvious winners!

Screamingmommy
JeM
Lady of Leisure

To these 3 lovely ladies, kindly forward your details (name & address) to my email : emmr76@gmail.com. I will get in touch with you guys soon and will courier your gifts after my return from the US mid May ok. Thanks guys! Appreciate it loads! xoxo

iMAStravel Giveaway

To all my dear readers, no matter where you are.

I had just recently made an attempt for a travel blog contest organised by mastraveller.com. As such, I would like to humbly ask if you guys could help me to vote for my entry. How?

1) Please click on the link provided at the end of the entry or on the iMasTravel widget on the upper right side of this blog.

2) Then click LIKE on the LIKE button at the bottom of the entry.

3) Would also like to get your cooperation to promote the link to your facebook pals. Oh yeah, one would have to have a facebook to be able to vote. I'm sure everyone has one right? ;)

4) And once you've done voting/promoting, please leave your comment on this blog post so I would be able to track for a giveaway.

Yupp, this does not end here. To thank you for your kind gestures, I like to organise some sorta giveaway and will randomly select at least 5 lucky readers to receive special thank you gifts. What will you get? I will personally hand pick nice gifts during my upcoming US trip and will courier them to you once I'm back from US in mid May. How does that sound?

And to those who would like to try your luck with this contest, it's still not too late. The contest ends on 15th April. Do check out mastraveller website for more details ya.

Thanks loads for your help guys! You guys rock! Hugs!

The Just

Scene
After dinner with the in-laws. Adam (our nephew) refused to part with me when it was time to go home. After I finally handed him over to his parents :

Me : Seeing how Adam is attached to me makes me feel so loved.
Mr Hubs : Not only Adam you know, Alia and Amyra (our nieces) love you loads too.
Me : I know. You know what, I feel so blessed. We may not have our own kids but our nieces and nephew are so close to us that sometimes it makes me forget that it's still just the two of us, you know. Allah is fair, kan?

Mr Hubs smiled and then we both were lost in our own thoughts. I started to tear, but those were the tears of gratitude to Al-Adl.....Alhamdulillah....

The Little Chefs

Let me let you on a little secret - I get very emotional when i watch the Junior Masterchef (Australia) show. I find myself always trying very hard to hide my face when I start to cry with joy over how brilliant and skillful the kids are. Don't you think they are amazing? There's this one segment of the show called the mystery box challenge when these kids would have to come up with dishes from the given raw materials and ingredients. They are simply genius, knowing what to cook and always whipping up impressive looking gourmet dishes at the end. The way these kids describe how a dish tastes like is unbelievable too. Not only they are great cooks but great food critics as well. The confidence they exude at such young age is simply incredible.

I don't have any favourite contender on the show because I simply believe each and every one of them is equally super talented. I refuse to google to find out who has emerged as the champion, too. Biar suspense sikit. Do you guys watch this show? I keep telling Mr Hubs that if ever we are blessed with mini 'us', I definitely will train at least one of them to be my little chef, my own junior masterchef ;)

Weekend Sugar Fix

These luscious macarons sure made me weep with joy! Have a good weekend everyone!

- Jabberholic babbles from her iPhone

Barcelona's Best

It has been more than 3 weeks since I got back from Spain and I still miss the place. Barcelona would be the place I miss most, I would say. Why? Here are my top 10 highlights of the beautiful city :

1. 'Gaudi'sm - Antonio Gaudi is Barcelona's most celebrated architect. You can see that he has touched every possible corners of Barcelona. The architect, which worked during the Art Noveou (Modernisme) period in early 1900's, had a style believed to be way advanced than his time. His masterpieces include Casa Batllo, Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia. It is not just the buildings he had built, but the story of the man himself is inspirational. His dedication to the city, his hard work, optimisim and forward thinking makes one think of him in absolute admiration.

2. Casa Batllo was designed by Gaudi for an aristocrat Josep Batllo. The house mimics skulls, bones and marine life. One thing that was truly fascinating about this house is that it was designed with no plan to start with.

3. Parc Guell is a park for Barcelona specially dedicated by the former aristocrats of the city. This park has a heavy Gaudi influence, evident from the stunning stone structures and mosaic tilings. Colourful dragon tiling, tree-trunk-like twisting rock pillars fill the park. Once up on the terrace, one can overlook the beautiful Barcelona city.

4. Sagrada Familia - Gaudi's gothic giant temple/church still under construction since 1882. When Gaudi died in 1926 and could not finish what he had envisioned the church to be, it was estimated that it would between 30 to 80 years before the construction of this place to complete. By the look of it, I don't think it will complete any soon. Do you know that the architects of our KLCC had an inspiration to build our megastructure from this tourist must-see? It is indeed a unique, one-of-its-kind structure one would say they have set their eyes on.

5. La Rambla is one of Barcelona's landmark. It's a street of over 1 kilometre and filled with shops, kiosks, flower stalls and street artists. It's a lively street and you can just go there to people watch.

6. La Boquiera is one of the interesting places on La Rambla. It's a fresh produce market but let me tell you something, it is nothing like the wet markets we have here in Malaysia. It is so colourful, buzzing with activity and of course, tourists like me with cameras in their hands. I was like a kid in a candy store, excited to see all the local produce which I had never seen before. All that fruits, vegetables, seafood, spices and chocolates made me feel right at home. We stopped for lunch at one of the seafood bars they have there. And my, I don't think I had ever tasted seafood that fresh!

7. Zara & Massimo Dutti - I don't think this needs further elaboration. But one thing for sure, I totally went bonkers with Ms Zara and Mr Dutti. Imagine that you can get the latest arrival for at least 40% cheaper than what you can get here. They are everywhere in Barcelona and I came out with at least 2 tops at every store I stopped at.

8. Shoes - The Spaniards are shoe lovers I guess. Barcelona is full of shoe shops. They've got the varieties, the quality and price is rather reasonable. Ballerina flats, espadrilles, boots, flip flops. One can go crazy with all the interesting colours and designs they have.

9. Nou Camp - The real reason why we were there in the first place - football! The city is really big on football and if you could see how footballers there worshipped, you'll know what I mean. Move aside, English football, I think Spanish football is definitely bigger! The stadium is almost double of the English stadiums all over England and the training ground is superb! We were told that over hundreds locals fans wait outside the training ground every day just to catch a glimpse of their favourite footballers.

10. Food - Churro, succulent seafood, coffee, paella, chocolate, fresh fruits, caramel, endless choices of pastries..need I say more? I was in foodie heaven!

I remember telling myself about 13 years ago when I first stepped onto Barcelona's soil that I would definitely be back. To have the opportunity to be one with the culture and beauty of the city again was great indeed. And to be there with my loved one was definitely a cherry on top!