Chocolate Moist Cake

Ingredients A:

- 250 gm Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate (break into fine pieces)
- 125 gm unsalted butter
- 1 cup of hot boiling water


Ingredients B:

- 2 cups of sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp vanilla extracts


Ingredients C: (sift together)

- 2 cups of plain flour
- 1/2 cup of Hershey's cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt


Method:

1- Preheat oven to 170 - 180 degree celcius


2- Melt chocolate (using double-boil method), then add butter. Finally pour in hot water and stir/combine well. Leave aside

3- Whisk together sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a big bowl. No need to use hand-mixer =)

4- To whisked ingredients B, add ingredients C. Stir/combine well with a wooden spoon.

5- Finally add the chocolate mixture (Ingredients A).

6- Pour on to a greased baking tray or muffin cups. Bake for 30-60 minutes (depends on your baking molds)

7- Leave to cool before adding the ganache


Ganache:

- 250 gm Cadbury's 'Milk Chocolate' Cooking Chocolate
- 180 mL heavy cream
- 2-3 tbsp butter

Method: Heat the heavy cream until it boils. (Do not over-boil!). Melt chocolate (double-boil method), add in cream and stir the mixture well. Finally stir in butter.

Gulai Jantung Pisang (Banana Flower)

• jantung pisang, shredded
• bawang putih, dihiris
  
• bawang merah/Thailand, dihiris
• sedikit lada kisar (1 tsp)
  
• lada merah, dipotong
• sapak gulaian: either udang hidup, lokan or tahai
• udang kering, ditumbuk halus
  
• santan
  
• garam, ajinomoto dan lada sulah
• air secukupnya
  

1. Jantung pisang direbus sebentar untuk menghilangkan getah, kemudian di toskan.
   
2. Tumis bawang merah, bawang putih dan lada merah/Thailand dan lada kisar hingga naik bau.
3. Masukkan sapak gulaian dan udang kering yang telah ditumbuk, tumis lagi sebentar.
4. Masukkan jantung pisang, di kacau, kemudian masukkan air secukupnya. Biar sehingga mendidih
5. Tambah garam, ajinomoto dan lada sulah secukupnya
6. Masukkan santan dan biar sehingga mendidih.
7. Rasa; tambah apa yang kurang

p/s: jantung pisang can be substituted with gulaian tibadak (cempedak), or sayur umbut.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Ingredients
1 (2-pound) chicken
1 scallion, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 slices fresh, peeled ginger
6 tbsp vegetable oil or chicken oil rendered from chicken fat
6 to 8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 cups long-grain uncooked rice, washed and drained
1 tsp fine salt

Mix together for Chilli Sauce
2 to 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice

5 tbsp finely chopped fresh red chilies

5 cloves garlic, chopped

3 tbsp finely chopped ginger

1 tsp fine salt

1/2 cup boiling hot chicken soup

Method
Boil a large pot of water. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with scallion and ginger. Add chicken to boiling water, breast side-down. Lower the heat to a simmer just under boiling point and cook, covered until just cooked through, about 40 minutes. Bathe the chicken in an ice water bath till chicken is cold to create a tender, springy texture. Heat oil in a rice cooker, add garlic, stir fry till fragrant. Add uncooked rice, stir fry for two minutes, add salt and enough chicken soup to cover 1/2 inch above the top of the rice. Boil on high heat, lower heat when steam holes form, cover and steam for 30 minutes till rice is cooked. Chop chicken and serve with steaming hot rice and chilli sauce. Dark soya sauce is the ideal accompaniment.

p/s: I got this recipe from the Uniquely Singapore website. Nyaman nie Nasi Ayam nya ah... sudah ku cuba buat... enak sehingga menjilat jari lols~... the chicken meat is verryyy tender.... the rice is very fragrant and the chilli dippings.. Fuh! Hehehe btw since this recipe does not give the preparation method for making the dark soya sauce..try this:

• kicap cair, a dash of sesame oil, boiling chicken soup (yang dari atas atu..)
• mix together well =D

Classic Mashed Potatoes

• 7-8 biji ubi kentang, dikupas kulit and direbus
• 1/2 cup full cream milk
• 2-3 tbsp double cream
  
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 4-5 tbsp butter
• sal & pepper to taste
• parsley flakes

1. Ubi kentang yang telah direbus, dilenyek using potato masher (Caution: PANAS!)
2. Mix milk and cream in a pan, panaskan on medium heat. Do not boil
3. Pour the milk-cream mixture onto the mashed potatoes, stir in butter.
4. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in sour cream.
5. Garnish with parsley flakes. Ready to serve

Marinara Sauce

• your choice of pasta

• garlic, chopped
• onion, chopped
• olive oil
• butter
  
• canned tomatoes (Hunt's)
• fresh seafood (calamari, prawns, fish fillets, half-shelled mussels, clams etc)
• fresh basil
• salt and pepper
• base stock (water or chicken stock)

1. Heat oil in a pan. Saute garlic and onion until tender
2. Add in mussels and/or clams. Cook 3-4 minutes.
3. Add in tomatoes and base stock. Bring to boil.
4. Add in the remaining seafood (prawns, calamari, fish fillets etc)
5. Season with salt & pepper, throw in fresh basil. Cook for another few minutes. Stir in butter.
   
6. Serve with your choice of pasta (e.g. Spaghetti, Linguine, Fettuccine etc)

Cream Cheese Icing

From Anna Olsen of Sugar

• 1 lb cream cheese, room temperature
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup icing sugar, sifted
• 4 tbsp sour cream

1. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in butter
2. Reduce speed and add icing sugar, and beat until smooth
3. Stir in sour cream
   

Types of Pasta

Pasta anie banyak macam... a wide variety of them. Italian pasta (yang selalu tani makan atu!) can be generalize into different categories (source: The Nibble)

• Long form pasta or strand pasta. Eg spaghetti, angel hair, bucatini

• Ribbon pasta. Eg: Fettuccine, lasagne, linguine and tagliatelle

• Tubular pasta. Eg: Elbows, manicotti, penne and rigatoni

• Shaped pasta. Eg: Farfalle (bow ties), fusilli (corkscrews), ruote (wagon weels)
  

• Stuffed pasta. Eg: agnolotti, mezzelune, ravioli, tortellini and gnocchi.

L to R : Angel hair, Bucatini, Spaghetti



L to R : Lasagne, Fettucine, Linguine, Tagliatelle

L to R : Penne, Elbow, Rigatoni



L to R : Route, Fusilli, Farfalle

L to R : Tortellini, Agnolotti, Ravioli, Gnocchi