in my studio | category | in my kitchen

Aug
24
2011

raya madness // peanut cookies

Its Eid! If you’re a traditional malay, you’d probably spent hours in the kitchen making traditional Eid cookies. Growing up in Malaysia, you’ll find hundreds of variety of cookies. From the traditional bahulu and kuih bangkit to the more modern ones like chocolate marble and london almonds, you could not celebrate Eid without at least having one of each, after all, they are only tiny bite size cookies!

So for this Eidul adha, I decided to go somewhere in between. Not too traditional and not too modern. Something easy and simple to make. Of course my all time favourite – peanut cookies…the ones that melt in your mouth, yum!

PEANUT COOKIES
Adapted from Do what I like with slight modifications

Yields: 40 cookies
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 20 mins

Ingredients

100g unsalted peanuts (skin off)
100 g salted peanuts (skin off)
200g plain flour
100g icing sugar
100g veg oil or peanut oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 egg yolk,lightly beaten with 1 tsp water for eggwash

Method

1.Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Grease and line a baking tray.

2. Put 200g peanuts in a wok and dry fry over low heat till just about brown. Then put into a blender and blend till it forms into a smooth powder.

3. Mix flour, baking powder, ground peanut powder, icing sugar and salt in a big mixing bowl till well combined.

4. Add in 100g oil and mix till a piable dough is formed. In a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle (tip), spoon the mixture and pipe them into tiny drops about 2cms (width)

5. Apply egg wash and put in the oven for 20mins or until golden brown.

Note: These cookies are meant to be very soft due to the icing sugar used. Once you remove them from the oven, do not disturb them. Let it cool down.

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Category: cookies, desserts, in my kitchen

Aug
22
2011

raya madness // choc almond cookies

Raya madness translates to ‘Gila Raya” which means Eid madness. Eid marks the end of Ramadan and is a celebration for all Muslims around the globe. This is my first year (ever!) making eid cookies/biskut raya. I wanted to re-create the spirit of eid like we have back home in Malaysia, especially now that I have a child. Growing up in Malaysia, we always looked forward to celebrating eid. The food. The visits. The money. The atmosphere. Its such a huge celebration and one that I will surely treasure forever. I know my daughter will never experience that kind of eid (or maybe one day inshallah), but at least she can enjoy my homemade cookies.

So this Eid, my sister, step mum and I will make a few batch of cookies each. Different varieties of course, and share them amongst ourselves. So in total, each of us get 10+ variety of cookies. Yay! The cookies that I have/will be making are choc almond, peanut cookies and choc chip cookies. (edit: links added)

In spirit of this year’s eid, the next few posts will be in relation to malay traditional food commonly served during eid/raya. Enjoy!

RECIPE FOR CHOC ALMOND COOKIES
Adapted from Jom Masak Jom Makan-Makan

Yields: 150 cookies
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 15 mins, per tray (these made a lot of trays!)

Ingredients

300g flour*
250g butter
250g chocolate, melted
200g caster sugar
200g cornflour*
2 tbsp cocoa powder*
200g almonds
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg

*Sift these ingredients into a bowl

Method

1. Beat the sugar, butter and vanilla essence until fluffy.

2. Put the egg and chocolate and continue beating until well combined.

3. Add the sifted ingredients and using a spatula, gently fold the mixture.

4. Add the almonds and combine well. Do not over combine or almonds will start to break.

5. Put some mixture into plastic wrap and shaped them into a square long train (see photo above)

6. Once all the mixtures have been wrapped tightly, put them into the fridge for 2 hours until it sets.

7. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease a baking tray lined with baking paper.

8. Take out the cookie dough and remove plastic. Cut into 2cm thick and place on the baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes.

Click ‘Read More’ below to print out the recipe and leave a comment.

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Category: cookies, desserts, in my kitchen

Aug
20
2011

leftover chicken turned sandwich

Roast chicken is what they call ‘a meal for today and tomorrow’. That is why I love making it. You can make so many things with leftover roast chicken. The easiest is a sandwich since you’d probably have all the ingredients sitting in your fridge to whip up this very quick and healthy lunch. This makes one tasty sandwich because the flavours from the chicken were just popping in my mouth with every bite I took. Not to mention, the sauces just oozes with yumminess. I think without the them, it would be a little dry. Drizzle with a bit of mayo, or thousand island or sweet chili, or anything else…oohh yummo! Other meal ideas using leftover roast would be, chicken pies, chicken salad, chicken couscous, bbq chicken pizza, chicken fried rice, chicken baked pasta, chicken wraps, chicken soup, chicken nachos, chicken fritters, chicken and vegetable lasagne…hmmm the ideas just keep on rolling.

LEFTOVER ROAST CHICKEN TURNED SANDWICH
Roast chicken from this recipe

Makes: 1 sandwich
Prep time: 5mins
Cook time: none!

Ingredients

Handful of shredded chicken (leftover roast chicken)
Handful of shredded carrots
2 slices bread (I used soft Rye bread)
2 slices cut tomatoes
1 slice cheese
1 large lettuce leaf, cut
pinch of salt and pepper
drizzle with any sauce you like (I used mayo and sweet chilli)

*There’s no particular way of assembling a sandwich. Just do it the way you like it. And then put it in the grill/sandwich maker.

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Category: bread, chicken, in my kitchen

Aug
19
2011

chocolate ripple bites

I’ve been attending Aussie Muslims (forum) iftaar for 3 years consecutively now. And at every single iftaar, a sister (May Allah reward her) never fails to make these super cute bite size dessert. Though, she puts a bit more effort into them by drizzling over some chocolate for that finishing touch. I just topped mine with a slice of strawberry. Now these are on their way to my sister in laws house, for iftaar. Impressive much?

RECIPE FOR CHOCOLATE RIPPLE BITES

Makes: 25
Prep time: 20mins
Chill time: min 6 hours (recommended overnight)

Ingredients

400g Arnotts chocolate ripple biscuit (1.5 packets)
600ml thickened cream
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
5 strawberries, sliced

Method

1. Using an electric mixer, whip the cream sugar and vanilla essence until thickened.

2. Lay 25 biscuits on a tray and put a dollop of cream mixture then sandwich it with another biscuit on top. Do this for the remaining 24 biscuits.

3. Using a star nozzle, put some mixture into the nozzle bag and squeeze the cream to form a nice shape.

4. Top with a strawberry slice and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, but I recommend refrigerating overnight.

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Category: cake, cookies, desserts, in my kitchen

Aug
15
2011

roast chicken with garlic, thyme and lemon

A good’ol roast chicken is a family favourite in our home. So easy and yummy. Literally all you have to do is just clean and season it, then chuck it in the oven. Its so simple that I make this quite often especially when my dad gives us his home grown organic purple carrots!

*The above photo was added on 18th March 2014*

The secret for creating fresh recipes is using fresh ingredients. Thyme from our garden. I just leave them like that.

The best part about roast chicken is, when you have leftovers, you can make a chicken salad sandwich for your lunch the next day! I will blog about this sandwich in my next entry, so stay tune. Here it is. For now, this is the recipe. Nothing fancy, just really simple. But yummy of course.

RECIPE FOR ROAST WHOLE CHICKEN WITH GARLIC, THYME AND LEMON

Serves: 2
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 kg chicken (small-medium size)
8 cloves garlic (for paste), pound in mortar and pestle
5 cloves garlic, whole unpeeled (optional)
3 medium potatoes, quartered
3 carrots, halved longways
1/4 cup olive oil
6 sprigs of thyme (or 3 tsp dried thyme)
1/4 cup vegetable stock paste (I use homemade)
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp black pepper
3 tsp salt
10cm long cotton twine string (to tie the legs)

Method

1. Clean and rinse the chicken inside out and pat dry. Do not remove the chicken skin.

2. Marinate the whole chicken with garlic paste, vegetable stock paste thyme, salt and pepper. Rub it thoroughly and put the stuffing in the cavity. Drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil then tie the legs together with a cotton twine string. Refrigerate overnight or at least 2 hours.

3. Heat oven to 200 degrees. Lightly grease a roasting pan, place a roasting rack and put the chicken on top.

4. Bake for 30minutes then swap the chicken the opposite way. Add in the cut vegetables and unpeeled garlic underneath the chicken rack. Bake for another 30minutes until golden brown (you can see the crunchy skin).

5. Stand chicken for 5 minutes before serving and don’t forget to remove the string.