Flourless Nutella Souffle Cake - Nutella week #2

Sometimes I am greedy.

I saw Nutella going ‘Buy 1 Free 1’ and so I grabbed 4 and paid for 2. I knew the expiry is in 4 month’s time. Usually this is a Fast Moving 'Edible' Good in my household so 4 jars is no big deal. But no no no! During Christmas season and then all the pre-CNY preparation has left these jars of deliciousness untouched in the cabinet. By the time I remembered them it was 1 month to expiry.

I had to bake with them in order to use them up ASAP.

This is my first bake with Nutella, no joke. Usually I am too scroogy to use this in bakes as Nutella is quite expensive. The Nutella Chiffon cake was baked a week after this cake.

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Nutella Chiffon Cake - Nutella Week #1

Sometimes..... I buy too much Nutella when it's on offer... that's when the expiry date is near. But I'm usually not bothered about it. It's cheap!

I just saw the price for a 750gm bottle yesterday and it was selling at the regular price of RM32.++.
So expensive.

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Urab Bali @ Balinese Salad - Indonesia AFF #3

An addictive salad that made me keep on munching.

I remembered an urap on my Balinese Rijsttafel that I had in Kunyit Bali restaurant that was quite unforgettable, but I forgot the name, not the taste. Haha. After cooking this... I found that it wasn't what I was looking for. Nonetheless, it's still a very nice dish.

The dish that I was actually looking for was Jukut Urab, oh... too late too late. Never mind, I'll save the recipe for another day to cook. The problem of not knowing the local name makes google search soooo difficult.

The difference between the two is that Jukut Urab has a refreshing taste of naturally sweet coconut milk with no grated coconut in it, whereas Urab Bali has the wonderful aroma of a fried coconut sambal. I remembered my husband looking at me slurping up all the gravy from the Jukut Urab, hahaha!

Urab Bali
Reference: Cooking Tackle 

7 pcs long beans
1 cup bean sprouts
4 stalks water convolvulus (kangkung)or amaranth (bayam)
1 cup grated coconut
2 Tbsp coconut oil or cooking oil

Blend to a fine paste
5 shallots
3 clove garlic
2 candlenuts
Birds eye chilli and chilli according to your preference
Galangal, lesser galangal, shrimp paste, eye ball 1 tsp each
3 young kaffir lime leaves, midrib removed

Seasoning
1 tsp brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt

1. Toast coconut in pan until slightly golden. Remove and set aside. Heat coconut oil in pan and saute the paste until it starts to release oil. Add in salt and sugar and then the toasted coconut. Combine it well. Taste it, it should be very slightly over salted.
2. Lightly blanch all the vegetables, dunk them into cold water and cut into preferred lengths.
3. Put the cut vegetables into a bigger bowl and put in all the spicy coconut. Toss it around with hand and if you can, using a gentle squeezing motion, as if you are marinating the vegetables.
4. Serve with some crispy shallots if preferred (I didn't put).

The aromatic coconut sambal that is going to dress the blanched vegetables

I realised all the Balinese food I cooked for this week's postings all looked shreddy. And so, the photography looks a bit boring.. believe me, it's no fun taking pictures with dishes with the same visual characteristics. I'm not a creative person to come up with different settings, and I am seriously bored with taking pictures nowadays.

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Indonesia Month, 

hosted by Alice of I Love. I Cook. I Bake.

Sambal Bongkot Bali - Indonesia AFF #2

Bongkot is Balinese for torch ginger or what we know as bunga kantan locally.

Sambal Bongkot is a special sambal from Bali that uses the shoot of the torch ginger, yes the shoot. Now, that is something that isn 't easily available in Malaysia, not in the market, any market for sure. The buds are easy, but not the shoots. Unless you have access to the plants

In Malaysia we use torch ginger bud to cook assam laksa and asam pedas fish. I used to think that the flower is not 'edible', as in 'swallow-able', but when I saw my ex colleague eating 2 buds in a row in her assam laksa, I knew it can be swallowed. Some things are meant to flavour and season and not everything is edible.

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Ayam Pelalah @ Balinese Shredded Chicken - AFF Indonesia #1

I have been to Bali once, and that's for my honeymoon in 2005
Indonesia is the only country that I have ever traveled to, besides Singapore.

I love the friendliness of the people in Bali and most of all, I love the local cuisine.
There's a whiff of similarities as there's chilli, lemongrass, shrimp paste, galangal, shallots and garlic in the things that I eat..but, there is always this different smell in all their sambals. I couldn't figure out what was that special unfamiliar smell, until I got to know it's the lesser galangal, known as kencur in Indonesia, cekur in Malaysia and 沙姜 in Chinese. It is a type of ginger that we usually use for confinement purposes because of it's health properties.

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Dangshen Pork Rib Stew 党参焖排骨 - Pork Ribs #3

Today.... is my first day back to work.
After 5 years of staying home, my child care leave has ended and I'm back to my teaching career.
There are many concerns, particularly about my kids, and my in laws are currently taking care of them while I'm at work. It's going to be tiring as I might work 6 days a week at times.

Cooking will be greatly reduced at home, probably to once or twice a week, as I only reach home by 7.15pm. But this blog will still be running with new recipes weekly. As some of you know, I always have too much back logs to clear. I hope I can still bake in the morning before I leave for work. The blog goes on... as this blog was born back in 2007, when I was teaching.

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Pork Rib Noodles - Pork Ribs #2

When I was a kid, there was this noodle stall next to my family's coffee stall, that was known as "Har Look". We were operating just next to the town field. The noodle stall was always busy busy busy and the couple would work until they were quarrelling all the time. Sometimes, when the day is less busy... then they will joke, "no quarrel, no money", hahaha!

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