MY VALENTINE'S DAY

As the February 14 is a day for all lovers and is time to celebrate it with love. I always with the mood when comes to this day and here's sometime I wanna share with all my friends.

A table with full of inspiration of foods and chocolate. Will share all these recipes on my blog soon....so keep tuning in =)

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Fried Cheese Ravioli

Lemon-Butter Green Beans with Pine Nuts

Roasted Chicken with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Gianduja Souffle / Hazelnuts Chocolate Souffle

HAPPY RABBIT YEAR...GONG XI FA CAI !!!

People celebrate around the world as the Chinese Lunar New Year began on February 3. 2011 marks the start of the Year of the Rabbit, according to the Chinese zodiac.

This year while celebrating the new year, I've make a special dish which is so famous in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong....is called 'Yee Sang' /鱼生 or 'Yu-Sheng' /余升 . It's also considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.

To prepare this dish is quite simple but it have a lot of preparations. The ingredients include shredded radish, shredded carrot,finely julienned fresh young ginger, shredded green papaya, shredded green mango, finely julienned green onion, finely julienned fresh chilies, red pickled ginger, sushi pink ginger, thinly sliced sushi grade salmon, roasted crushed peanuts, roasted sesame seeds, fried wanton wrappers, sesame oil, extra virgin olive oil, limes, five spice powder and white pepper.

As for the sauce, you need plum sauce and kamquat paste/Korean citrus tea paste. Mix together and add some sesame oil and hot water.

All ingredients been added and it's time to have fun. Have everyone standing at the table and toss the Yee Sang into the air with chopsticks while saying various 'auspicious wishes' out loud. It is believed that the height of the toss reflects the height of the diner's growth in fortunes, thus the diners are expected to toss enthusiastically.

'GONG XI FA CAI'

SUPER MARIO CAKE

I was requested to make this cake for a special friend son's birthday. I came out with this idea of making this Mario cake by searching through the websites.

I'm so happy to see the finishing touches and the birthday boy was full of joy when he sees his cake =)

CHWEE KUEH (水粿) / STEAMED RICE CAKE WITH PRESERVED RADISH TOPPING

This is one of my favorite kueh where backs in Malaysia, we used to buy them in Pasar Malam or at Petaling Street. They are so flavorful with preserved radish which been sauté until so fragrant.

I make this yesterday for the first time and it turn out to be a perfect one. All my chwee kuih were gone this morning and I'm going to make it again next week =)

INGREDIENTS :

Kueh:

150 g rice flour

20 g wheat starch

300 ml water

2 tsp garlic oil

1/2 tsp salt

800 ml water

METHODS :

1. Place the rice flour, wheat starch in a mixing bowl and add the 300 ml of room temperature water. Whisk it while adding the water to the dry ingredients until there are no lumps.

2. In a heavy saucepan, add the 800 ml water, oil and salt. Heat it until just begin to boil. Turn the fire off.

3. Slowly pour in the flour mixture into the boiling water while whisking continuously to prevent lumping. The mixture will turn to be thick to a gluey consistency.

4. Spoon the gluey paste into the chwee kueh molds or muffin pans and steamed in a over boiling water for about 15 minutes.

5. Let it cool completely and remove the chwee kueh from the molds and served it with prepared preserved radish.

Prepared Preserved Radish ( Chai Poh )

200 g vegetable oil

300 g preserved sweet radish, washed and drained

50 g garlic, chopped

30 g dried shrimps, washed and drained

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

METHODS :

1. Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan. Sauté the preserved radish, dried shrimps and chopped garlic until fragrant in a medium heat.

2. Add the sugar, salt and dark soy sauce for seasoning. Turn off the heat and add the toasted sesame seeds. Mix it well.

ORANGE BUTTER CAKE

Butter cake is always the best dessert for tea-time or snack with some milk, tea and coffee. You can used this recipe with any flavor of your choice. Just replaced the orange juice to milk or any kind of juices of your favorites. Here's one of my new recipe for butter cake that I would like to share =)

INGREDIENTS :

360 g chilled butter ( I used 'Kerrygold' or any European butter )

220 g chilled fine granulated sugar ( chilled in the refrigerator for overnite )

11 large eggs, separated

300 g self rising flour, separated

1 tsp fine salt

60 ml fresh orange juice

zest of an orange

1 tsp of orange essence ( optional )

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

DIRECTIONS :

Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit and greased a 10"x10" square pan with some butter and flour.

In a mixing bowl with a flat attachment, add the chilled butter and chilled sugar. Beat them until light and fluffy. Scrap the bowl frequently and make sure that the sugar dissolved before continue to another step.

Then add the yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition and then add the orange juice with the zest. Add the sifted flour into the batter in 2 batches and beat until incorporated.

In another mixing bowl with a whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites with cream of tartar until a soft stiff peak appear.

Then fold in the egg whites mixture into the butter mixture until well-blended but don't over do it or the whites will deflate.

Pour the batter into prepared cake pan and bake for at least 1 hour 15 minutes or until wooden skewer plunged into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Cooled the cake on a wire rack on cut it when it's completely cool. Enjoy !!!!