North Carlton Canteen

New cafe in Lygon St. North Carlton Canteen, Melbourne. Good food, good coffee, good place to hang out.

Recipe: Butter-less Pandan Cake

My craving for Pandan cake can best be described...like a volcano that is about to erupt! Haha. So I woke up this morning with a great feeling that today is the day that I'm gonna bake the cake but only to find that I did not have any butter at home! Why oh why. :(

So because of that I quickly googled recipe for a basic pound cake that uses no butter. I know there are lotsa 'em but I want something that is quick and easy to make and requires basic or less ingredients, without compromising the taste and moist-ness of the cake. So I found one, a recipe from Mayuri's blog and I tweaked a bit to my preference. :)

Butter-less Pandan Cake

Ingredients: 

2 eggs

3/4 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1/2 cup of milk

1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 tbsp of baking powder

1/2 tbsp of Pandan paste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Beat eggs well in a bowl. Add sugar and beat well.

3.. Add oil and milk and beat well.

4. Sieve flour and baking powder into the mixture and fold it.

5. Add pandan paste and fold the mixture. 

6. Grease your baking tin (I used 8 inch round tin) and pour the mixture into it.

7. Once done, drop the cake pan a couple of inches onto the counter the knock out all the bubbles. 

8. Bake it for 50-55 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe: Pasta with Naked Tomato Sauce and Homemade Meatballs with Creamy Sauce and Raspberry Jam

I've been missing IKEA meatballs and few of its menus couple of days ago because the one we got here is a no-no as the meatballs are mixed together with minced pork. So in order to feed my craving, I thought I might as well just recreate my favorite menus from IKEA. Pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs with creamy sauce and lingonberry jam. But...apparently I am lacking of breadcrumbs and lingonberry jam at home. No biggie at all, as I can just replace it with raspberry jam and make no breadcrumb meatballs instead. Lol. *pat self on back*

So here goes my version of my favorite menus from IKEA.

Naked Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 big onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 can of diced tomato

2 tbsp of mixed herbs

1 cube of beef stock

salt

black pepper

sugar

olive oil

Instructions:

1. Pour oil in pan and saute onion and garlic until brown.

2. Add diced tomato and all the tomato liquid into the pan.

3. Add beef stock into the sauce.

4. Add mixed herbs, salt, pepper and sugar.

5. Let it simmer and put aside.

Meatballs (With no breadcrumbs)

Ingredients:

700g of minced beef

1 onion

4 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp of cayenne pepper

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

1 egg

salt

olive oil

Instructions:

1. Mix everything together in a bowl.

2. Using your hand, shape the beef into the forms of meatball.

3. Pour oil in pan and fry the meatballs until it perfectly cooked.

Creamy Sauce

Ingredients:

100ml of cream

200 ml of beef stock

Chinese soy sauce (1 tsp of light soy sauce + 1 tsp of dark soy sauce)

1 tbsp of plain flour

salt

white pepper

Instructions:

1. Cook the beef stock over medium heat.

2. Add cream, soy sauce and thicken with flour if preferred. Season well with salt and pepper.

Recipe: Tomato Rice with Ayam Masak Merah

Made tomato rice and ayam masak merah couple of days ago and...ahhhh it was really good. *pat self on back* So here goes the recipe: 

Tomato Rice

Ingredients: 

1/2 medium-sized onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic

100g of butter/ghee

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anises

2 cardamom pods

3tbsp of tomato sauce

1 cube of chicken stock/250ml of liquid chicken stock

milk

3 small pots of long grain rice/basmathi

*I used long grain rice as I don't have basmathi rice at home, so the measurement of water is 2 1/4 small pots of chicken stock + 1 small pot of milk/evaporated milk

**If you're using basmathi rice, let the rice soak in water before starts cooking, for about 20 minutes. And for every 1 small pot of basmathi rice = 1 1/4 of water

Instructions:

1. Melt butter in pan and saute onion and garlic until brown. Add cinnamon stick, star anises and cardamom pods.

2. Add pre-washed rice into the pan and stir thoroughly until all the rice is well-coated with butter. Then add tomato sauce and stir gently.

3. Remove the pan from heat and pour everything in rice cooker. Add chicken stock and milk in it. Stir for one more time and cook rice as usual.

Ayam Masak Merah

Ingredients:

4 Chicken Drumsticks

1 big onion

2 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp of blended chili

1 lemon grass

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 cup of tomato sauce

3 tbsp of chili sauce

3 tbsp of oyster sauce

1 cube of chicken stock/250 ml of liquid chicken stock

1 tomato

1 tbsp of flour

turmeric powder

salt

sugar

Instructions:

1. Clean chicken and pat dry. Marinate chicken with flour, turmeric powder and salt. 

2. Fry chicken until half-cooked. Put aside.

3. Saute half of onion and garlic until browned. Add blended chili, cinnamon stick and lemon grass.

4. Add tomato sauce, chili sauce, oyster sauce and chicken stock into the pan. Let it simmer.

5. Add the chicken, tomato and another half of the onion.

6. Season with salt and sugar according to taste.

Recipes: When You Got No Fancy Schmancy Ingredients at Home

Phew! My 'dark and gloomy cloud' has went away, I guess. Apology for my previous uber emo posts. I just miss me dad but I'm more redha to Allah over all matters. :)

So I've been quite productive over the past few weeks. I baked, I cooked and I sewed. And yes I've found it to be very therapeutic compared to writing technical paper. Lol. Some more, since it's spring in Melbourne, with bountiful sunshine and great weather, me and my husband have been such an avid (and responsible) picnickers almost everyday since the Fitzroy Gardens is just less than 5 minutes walk from our house. Oh what a life! Alhamdulillah.

Well here goes few simple and easy recipes that I've been whipped in my kitchen over the past few days.

Basic Chocolate Chip Muffin

Source: Best Recipes

Ingredients:

2 cups of self-raising flour

1/2 cup of sugar

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup of oil

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl. Mix until combined.

2. Bake at 180C for approximately 20 minutes.

Verdict:

Moist and fluffy 'nuff, just the right texture for muffin. Will definitely use this recipe as a muffin base for any flavouring or filling.

Egg-less, Butter-less & Milk-less Chocolate Cake

Source: All Recipes

Ingredients: 

2 1/4 cups of sifted all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups of white sugar

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups of water

1 1/2 tsp of baking soda

1/4 tsp of salt

1 1/2 tbsp of vanilla extract

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 175C, grease and flour 8 x 8 inch pan.

2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, soda and salt. Add sugar and mix together.

3. Add oil, water and vanilla and mix thoroughly.

4. Pour into 8 x 8 inch pan. Bake at 175C for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Verdict:

Very moist, very chocolaty, simple ingredients. Not to sweet. Since I'm a bit rajin at that time, made vanilla icing to compliment this cake. And...it's perfect!

(Apology for the not-so-beautiful photos. I just took it from Instagram)

Good food at home

Husband's good food. :)

Self-hand-cut Potato Pop with Home-made Salsa Sauce, Beef Pepperoni & Mozzarella Cheese

I'm super hungry, so my husband was kind enough and made these for both of us.

Self-hand-cut Potato Pop with Home-made Salsa Sauce, Beef Pepperoni & Mozzarella Cheese

THE BEST EVER!

Which I already tweeted about it just now. ;)

HUSBAND PLEASE, CAN I WANT MORE OF THIS? @_@

Melody Beef

My husband's signature dish, The Melody Beef (don't ask me where did he gets the name). ;)

A simple dish

One of the menu I cooked for my husband. 

Spicy beef curry with sambal tempoyak and ulam timun. Delicious! :)