Lasagna

Lasagna Lover? You might want to try this =)


Ingredients

 

(butter is not in the picture)

Minced beef
Chopped Fresh tomatoes (optional: tin tomatoes)
Sliced Mushrooms
Chopped onion
Smashed garlic (2 cloves)
Butter
Lasagna sauce
Lasagna sheets

For the White sauce you need:
Milk
Butter
Cheese (I use grated cheese and mozarella)
Plain flour

Baby Steps
Beef sauce ( I do advise you prepare this first before the white sauce)
1. Melt butter in a pan.
2. Fry chopped onions and smashed garlic.
3. Add mince meat and fry them well.
4. Stir in tomatoes and mushroom.
5. Add lasagna sauce. (other option: spaghetti sauce)
6. Cook until thick and rich.

White sauce
1. Melt butter in a pot.
2. Add milk, grated cheese and mozarella.
3. Add a tbsp of flour.
4. Stir until thick and rich (It's easier if you use a whisk to stir)
    * it is very important that your white sauce is thick enough for the lasagna.

Prepare the lasagna
1. Start with the meat sauce.
2. Then the lasagna sheet.
3. The white sauce.
4. The lasagna sheet.
5. Repeat them according to your size of dish.
6. End the layer with white sauce.
7. Sprinkle grated cheese and mozarella on top of the white sauce.
8. Bake in the oven about 200C/Gas 6

I add a little bit of coriander leaves but I don't suggest this.

Have a try! It took only 30minutes out from the oven for my housemates to finish this =)

Mr Rogers at home!

Big fan of Kenny Rogers? Well, you might want to try this. Big fat thanks to Popo who first introduced me this recipe. You can get the full and authentic version of this roast chicken with potatoes recipe from Jamie Olivers' website!

Ingredients
1 whole chicken (cleaned inside)
Potaoes
1 bulb of garlic
1 lemon
Black pepper
Salt
Turmeric (kunyit)
Roasted herbs
A handful of thyme
A handful of rosemarry
Olive oil

p/s: Thyme and rosemarry might be quite hard to find in certain countries. I'm still in searching what can replace rosemarry and thyme best. I'll share with you once I find one.

Baby Steps
1. It is best to marinade your chicken with black pepper and salt and keep it inside the fridge at least 8-10 hours before.
2. Rub a reasonable amount of salt and black pepper inside and out of the chicken.
3. Boil a large amount of salted water.
4. Cut potatoes into wedges-sliced, peel 1 bulb of garlic and make holes on the lemon using a fork.
5. Boil the ingredients above in the salted water for about 12-15 minutes.
6. Drain the water and allow them to steam (this will make the potatoes crispier)
7. Take out the chicken and rub  reasonable amount of olive oil, tumeric and roasted herbs inside and out the chicken.
8. Push the garlics, lemon and thyme inside the chicken.
9. Put the potatoes around the chicken and place the rosemarry on the potatoes.
10. Roast the chicken and potatoes gas 6/204 degrees celcius (but I prefer gas 7 because it roasted faster and crispier)

11. Once cooked take out all the inside ingredients of the chicken, cut and serve according to your preference. I normally cut the chicken into 4 parts and served them with the roasted potato and salad.

Cheesecake

Fancy Secret Recipe cakes? Why not have one fresh from your oven. Surprise your mom and your love ones with your own homemade cheesecake. Besides, you have a full control on how much sugar and calories you put in. Big fat thanks to Choco and KK who first introduced the recipe to me.

Ingredients
Rich tea biscuits (other options: digestive biscuits)
2 tupperwares of 300g Philadelphia original full fat soft cheese
1 soured cream (300 ml)
1 double cream (300 ml) (Other options: whip cream)
2 eggs
Vanilla flavouring
Butter
Lemon
Sugar

Baby Steps
There are 3 stages for this cake.

Stage 1: The crust
1. Blend the biscuits until you get biscuit crumbs. (depends on how thick you want the crust to be)
2. Melt butter in a pan.
3. Add sugar and stir until it melts.
4. Add melted butter and sugar into the blended biscuits and mix well.
5. Carefully coat the bottom of your baking tin with the mixture.
6. Use the bottom of a glass to press the crust flat and even.
7. Bake for about 10 minutes (gas 4/ 180 degrees celcius) and keep inside the fridge for about 10-15   minutes.

Stage 2: The filling
1. Mix well and beat Philadelphia cheese, eggs, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and 200 ml double cream in a bowl. 
(you decide the quantity of sugar and lemon zest according to your taste and diet)
2. Take out the crust from the fridge and pour the above mixture over the base.
3. Bake for 1 hour (gas 4/ 180 degrees celcius)

Stage 3: The topping
1. Mix well and beat soured cream, sugar and the remaining double cream in a bowl.
2. Once the filling is baked, let it cool down about 10 minutes and then pour the above mixture over the filling.
3. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Finally, once your cake is baked, keep it inside the fridge at least 6 hours before you start to serve.

A sprinkle of chocolate powder would be nice!

Bake your own cheesecake today!

Basic Chocolate Chip Cookies

My first experience with home made cookies was during my teen days. Thank you to my aunt because she introduced me a very basic chocolate chip recipe from hershey. It's simple, easy and tasty! You don't even need any baking experience to start!

Below are the ingredients and directions which I copied from hersheys' website. (I'm saving my own words for my essays.lol)

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (unsaltened butter)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (white sugar)
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs (I suggest egg yolks only)
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (any type of chocolate chip will do)
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Baby Steps

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
   
2.  Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Add eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
   
3.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 5 dozen cookies. 

Choc chips with almonds (before)

I hosted a tea party last few days for my swimming mates. Although it wasn't a typical English tea party but we all had a lot of fun at the party. Cookies is great for tea party I believe and I managed to prepare 2 jar of them for the party.

p/s: I hide the other jar as there were cookies-thieves in my house.

P/S: I started to learn baking because I used to like someone who really loves home made cookies. It tickles me a lot each time the memory comes. Well, those were the days =)

Healthy Snacks

I love snacks especially between meals and movie time. A box of chocolate, a packet of doritos, a jar of cookie and the list goes on. They already taste yummy by just typing them out. But everytime I finished snacking I felt this terrible guilt. All the extra calories, sugars, fat and etc.


I tried to control my cravings and replaced them with fruits salads. I prefer to prepare my healthy snacks early in the morning. I'll cut the fruits into small pieces and keep them in a tupperware. So, instead of having a bar of chocolate I'll just grab my fruits tupperware! I love to have them with honey and I normally would change my choice of fruits from time to time just to add variety. Plus, I love to see colours in my food =)

Healthier choice but still taste fabulous!
 

This is my favourite. A combination of small slice apples, oranges and strawberries. Try to have them with honey. It tastes better!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Living with 6 British girls for a year I had to learn to eat less belacan, ikan bilis, chillies, fried foodie and etc. The smell sometimes made them felt uncomfortable. The easiest meal to have besides takeaway and microwave foodie would be spaghetti. And yes, meatballs and spaghetti are like soulmates completing each other! However, to get halal meatballs here would be a great difficulty. So, a very good friend of mine helped me out by introducing a very simple yet tasty meatballs recipe.

Meatball

Mince meat
Onion
Parsley leaves
Egg
Bread
Cheese (I prefer cheddar cheese but i think it's ok to use other kinds)
Black pepper
Salt

However, there's no mince meat and bread available in my house today. So, I decided to use a similar recipe from the normal one (above) and it still worked. Please mind that the steps are similar just the ingredients are slightly different.

Todays' ingredients
Mince meat is replaced with chicken
Bread is replaced with flour and bread crumbs

Sorry, I didnt put cheese in the picture.

Baby Steps
1. I replaced the mince meat with chicken. Chop the chicken into small cubes and blend them.
2. Chop parsley leaves and onion into small cubes.
3. Mix together all the above ingredients in a bowl.
4. Whisk an egg. (depends on the quantity of meat/chicken you used)
5. Add reasonable amount of black pepper and salt.
6. Add egg and mix well.
7. Add reasonable amount of flour and bread crumbs.
8. Cut the cheddar cheese to small pieces and add them into the ingredients.
8. Use 2 spoons to help you make round shape meatballs.
9. Roll the meatballs in flour.
10. Fry. (You can bake them in the oven if you prefer - healthier choice)

Note: If you use bread, you don't have to use any flour and bread crumbs. Simply cut the bread to small pieces and add them with all the other ingredients. Make round shapes and straight way fry them. (It's almost the same like making 'begedil')

chickenballs (before fry)

Spaghetti with sausages and mushrooms

Ingredients
Olive oil
Sausage (Cut thin slices)
Mushroom (Cut thin slices)
Onion (Chop small cube sizes)
Garlic (Crash)
Spaghetti sauce
Black pepper
Pasta seasoning
Butter
Cheddar cheese (Grate/ Parut)
Pasta water (Air rebusan spaghetti)
 

Baby Steps
1. Heat your pan with olive oil.
2. Add onion and garlic. Fry.
3. Add sausages.
4. Add mushrooms.
5. Mix them well.
6. Add spaghetti sauce.
7. Add pasta water (reasonable amount)
8. Mix and cook them for a few minutes.
9. Add pasta seasoning.
10. Add butter (option)
11. Add salt and pepper.
12. Cook until it's dense enough.
13. Turn off the heat.
14. Add grated cheese.

Mix your spaghetti with parsley leaves and serve with sauce and meatballs.

Have fun making your own homemade spaghetti and meatballs!

Waffle

The same ingredients for pancakes are also wonderful for waffle. You just need a waffle maker and have a go!

Serve with fruits, ice cream, chocolate sauce, peanut butter or anything you like! Juicy gossips with friends shall be a perfect combination with your waffle on tea time =)