Terbaik - Jo Cendol Pulut!

After roaming around Thailand, my mates and I were taken to a restaurant near the Bukit Kayu Hitam highway to have a refreshment drinks and some food before we hit back to the hotel in Alor Star. I personally recommend this place as a pit stop because the food was so great. Things you should try are the Cucur Udang and the restaurant's specialty, the Cendol Pulut. Simple food but it taste marvelous! The Asam laksa there was delicious too! If I am not mistaken, the restaurant was not for from the Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). FOLKS, YOU SHOULD GO HERE TOO!

Cucur Udang

Cendol Pulut

Welcome To Thailand!

Saje je nak cerita...Well, this is my first time step my foot on Thailand's soil. Wohoo! Exited even though not that far from Malaysia. Just across the border. Anyway thanks to Datuk for bringing us to Dannok although it was really a short trip. Seriously I'm not satisfied because there are so much interesting things there. memang best. They said the night life there were awesome (only for men I guess). But it is okay, no need to be there at night because I think it is quite scary. For only 3 hours of roaming around Dannok, this is what I found interesting and mainly about foood! I wanted to go there again next time!

Welcome to Thailand...Sempat ambil gambar budak kiut!

Fruits look great!

Corn... first time seeing the purple color. 

Coconut drinks and flavored glutinous rice.

Kak Izan and Ain

Usus? Seriously?

Pulut ayam goreng siap dengan logo Halal :D

Pekan Rabu and Ikan Pekasam

Last week I was in Alor Star, Kedah. Of course it a working trip. But I managed to go to Pekan Rabu literally know as Wednesday Market at the heart of Alor Star. It is an old market and has been standing there for 37 years. Older than I am! My main goal is to buy Ikan Pekasam...Yummy! My favorite although it has some ewww fermentation smell. Ikan pekasam is fish fermented with lots of salt, rice and tamarind for few weeks (normally for 2 weeks).

Kak Izan berposing =)

Fermented fish known as "Ikan Pekasam"

Recipe - Ikan Pekasam Goreng

Ingredients: 

  2 Ikan Pekasam
  1 Onion
  3 Dried Chillies

Methods:

1. Cut onion and dried chilies.
2. Heat the oil and fried the 'Ikan pekasam' until cooked / crispy.
3. Sere a little bit the onion and chilies with a spoonful of oil form frying the fish.
4. Sprinkle the fried onion and chilies over the fried fish. Done =) 

Happy Birthday Kak Yati!

On 22.06.2012, I like to wish Happy Birthday to Nor Haryati Ali a.k.a Kak Ti. May Allah bless you always! Always happy and will be loved by others around you.

          Specially for her, I bake a new cake that I have modified and Alhamdulillah They said it taste great! Not too sweet as for my previous recipes. I am glad that she love the cake.Phew~ I know her favorite color was pink, and I made a Custard Layered Cake with bits of Chocolate Chips. Looks very delicious!

Birthday girl cutting the cake :)

          So, this time I like to share with you guys the recipe. It was simple and surely you can do it too. The important tip for this recipe is to layer the cake white the custard is still hot. Before pouring the custard, grease your 8 inch spring form pan with butter so that the cake will came out easily and will not stick to the pan. To ensure the is no bubble trapped in the custard, you have to press the cake a little bit to the custard. Good luck!

Pink Vanilla Layered Sponge Cake

 Sponge Cake
   Ingredients

     125g Cake Flour
     1tsp Baking Powder
     160g Castor Sugar
     5 Large Eggs (A Grade)
     75g Vegetable Oil (I used corn oil)
     1tsp Ovalette
     1tsp Vanilla Essence
     2tbs Fresh / Evaporated Milk
     Red colorant

   Methods

1. Preheat oven at 180˚C.
2. Sieve together flour and baking power in bowl and put aside.
3. In a large bowl, mixed together all the ingredients except the flour. Beat the ingredients with electric mixer at high speed until the mixture increased and fluffy.
4. Put in the flour to the mixture and mixed until the mixture combined.
5. Divide the cake batter into three (~200g) and mix with colorant (you can choose any color you wanted for your cake). 
6. Greased three of 8-inched spring form baking pan with butter and put in the batter.
7. Bake for 15 minutes.

Custard

  Ingredients

     800g / 2 cans Evaporated Milk
     250g Castor Sugar
     85g Instant Custard Flour
     250ml Water
    10g Instant Agar-agar Powder
    1tbs Vanilla Essence
    Dessicated Coconut
    Chocolate Chips

Method

1. Combine together all the ingredients in a pan 
2. Cook the custard at medium heat and stir the mixture until thick. 
3. Pour in the custard mixture in 8-inch spring form baking pan and layered with the sponge cake. 
4. Refrigerate the layered cake in fridge for at least 2 hours (overnight would be better). Decorate the cake with desiccated coconut and ready to be served. 

Poppy Pattern Again!

I was mad about poppies and yes, the same pattern too! This It turns out great! Plus pattern embroidery layers of  blue papers looks amazing. It is an experiment because just bought the puncher from Papier Love. Exited to use them for the first time. To my dearest Khairul, thanks for the memorable and sweet adventure! Hope you like this!

Have you changed your skin?

He bought a really nice tumbler for me from Starbucks last month (I guess) and the stated on the tumbler "CREATE YOUR OWN TUMBLER" with some instruction on it. So, I decided to create new skin for my tumbler and happily can called it my own. Only takes a day to finished up the work. The interesting part is, you can put my name on it. Means that no one can steal it from me for sure unless he/she will take out the tumbler's skin of course. Attention people, let us make something that we can be PROUD of because we MADE it! 

Before the MAKEUP!

I choose to have red poppies as the theme because really it was one of my favourite flower besides hydrangea, peony and ranunculus. See at the layout, it was easy rite? Bet you can do it too with your own creative designs!  Go go, change your tumbler's skin now!

     

Yeay! What a cute tumbler!

Thinking of You!

Now they have new owner and new home. 

Although it was simple but meaningful (I hope so).

Hello Friday! Hello to June! Happy holiday to all. Actually, most of my office mate are taking their leave today! Well, I don't want to waste my annual leaves yet because I may need them later on. I do love FRIDAY! Short working period although there are so much work to be settle before the audit starting 12 June 2012! I do hate auditing, feels like vomiting blood! The most annoying thing is, every year the university keep on changing all the forms. Crazy! So, here at the office, I have main file in the PC and the hard copy is just to satisfy all the new forms. Really, phew~

I do love the colors from the picture below. I hope I can have that color patone for September! Pray hard! Well, let's move on to hard work and make our dreams came true. InsyaAllah. 

Recipe: Lebanese Flat Bread

Yesterday, I went to one of mini shops at Serdang just to look around and found Lebanese flat bread on the shop's rack called Roti Sihat. I bought it and of course it wasn't as fresh as when you dine in some Arabic restaurant. But I like the chewy texture. From the packet, it is recommended to serve the bread as a pizza base, substitute to pita bread or dip the bread with any gravy including humus or baba ghanoush (I miss Samaneh's baba ghanoush - SEDAP!). The most important is, from the bread tag line - Roti Sihat. The ingredient and the recipe that I have found really proves it is healthy. Less sugar, less fat, less salt! Below is the recipe found on the net. Looking forward to test it!

Make this delicious, exotic accompaniment a part of your Springtime barbecue feast.  

Ingredients

(Makes: 8 bread)

7g sachet dry yeast
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 1/3 cups warm water
4 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

1. Place yeast, sugar and 1/3 cup warm water in a jug. Stir to dissolve yeast. Set aside in a warm place for 10 minutes or until foamy.
2. Sift flour into a large bowl. Add salt. Stir to combine. Make a well in centre. Add yeast mixture, 1 tablespoon oil and remaining warm water. Mix to form a dough.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead, adding remaining oil, for 20 minutes or until smooth. Place dough in an oiled bowl. Cover. Set aside in a warm place for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
4. Using your fist, punch dough down. Knead for 2 minutes or until smooth. Divide into 8 balls. Using a rolling pin, roll each ball out to a 22cm round. Layer rounds between baking paper. Set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until slightly puffed.
5. Heat an oiled barbecue plate on high (230˚C). Reduce heat to low. Cook bread, in batches, for 2 minutes each side or until lightly browned and puffed. Serve.

Jungle Tracking - Lintang Organic Valley, Sik Kedah

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to have a look and roaming around in some jungle at Lintang Organic Valley, Sik Kedah. Really its a jungle!

Excited - Have to get through them to reach The Lintang Organic Valley 

          But I am surprise that in the middle of the jungle, there is a paddy field. All the paddy there was organically planted with the SRI (System of Rice Intensification) method. Worry not! There are more people there and all of them are interested with the SRI Rice. On that day, from the SRI method, the total rice yield is 7.16 tonnes/hectare for MR263 rice variety. From my point of view, thus is such a good technique and the total rice yields increased compared to the conventional method. Plus it is ORGANIC! Such a good stuff.

1) The participants - most of them are students and researcher from the universities. 2) Won the gold medal for Malaysian Invention and Design Society. 3) Paddy sample for MR263 variety is about to be harvested. 4) Participants are counting the rice yield.

The objective of my visit is actually to know and learn what is ubi gadong or scientifically known as Dioscorea hispida. At first, I thought it was as same as tapioca plant but it was as closed to the yam family. Ubi gadong has the potential to act as an organic bane towards the parasitoids (such as Scirpophaga incertulasdan and Scirpophaga innotata) and the golden apple snail. The active compounds are toxic alkaloids known as dioscorine and dioscorine N-oxide that retards the development and insecticidal activity (act as depressants in the nervous system to the insect). The tuber is cut, put in a blender and then soaked in water for 24 hours. The soaked water were used to spray on the paddy plant. Meanwhile, there is another active component known as saponin that can be used to kill the golden apple snail. But in a large doses, saponin can kill any type of fish in the paddy field. I think further research is needed towards this matter before the tuber is use for reducing the golden apple snail invasion.

Ubi Gadong

Ubi gadong vines.

Besides ubi gadong, I was introduced to akar seruntun or also known as patawali, brotowali or batang wali. Scientifically it is known as  Tinospora krispa (miers) or tinosprora tuberculata. They said that the vine of this plant is so bitter and can be used as repellent for parasitoids. The preparation of the vine is as same as the ubi gadong. The soaked liquid is sprayed on the plant. Both of the vine and the tuber can be mixed together too.

Akar Seruntun

          The findings are much more interesting. I wonder, why should we go for chemical pesticides etc while there are abundance of natural sources that are much more safer for the environment. Let's think again!

References:

1. Two Isoquinuclidine Alkaloids of a Tropical Yam, Dioscorea hispida (Dioscoreaceae) as Antifeedant and Toxin Against Lepidopteran Insects.
2. Padi SRI Selangor
3. Wild Yam (Dioscoreaceae)

Cleaning Day!

While writing this, my muscle started to ache and I felt really tired. Cleaning the lab was a really hard work really. But I'm glad finally have have a clean space to work.Yeay! Happy. These are the happy faces that I took during the cleaning session :)

{LovelyIdeas} Paper Roses

Seriously, I am so fond of paper and I have tonnes of colorful paper at my house. The appetite for paper are much more worst than food! While scrolling up and down into the web, I found this such an inspirational tutorial on how to make a paper roses...It was gorgeous and yet so simple. The tutorial was shown by Rachel Grace at Heart of Light. I copied the tutorial just in case I need it for future reference...huhu. Enjoy and be creative people!

1. Cut the paper into squares 

 

2. Fold the paper into half and trimmed into petal shape (the imperfect shape is ok!)

3. Once you have a nice pile of trimmed petals, start rolling them between your fingers. Form them into little tubes.

4. Roll the petal back up (over the glue) and hold for a few second so it can set up. This will be the center of the flower.

5. Repeat the same steps as with the second petal. You're holding the flower in your left hand, spreading out a new petal with the lower fingers and applying glue to the base corners.

6. Growing flower. Continue to add more petals. You'll want the petals to flare out more and or as you work your way along. Eventually, you'll end up with a nice full flower.

7. There's really no exact finishing point. You can add fewer petals if you don't want your flower completely flat on the bottom or if you want it narrower. You can add more to make it extra full.

{LovelyIdeas} Pink Salmon

I have locked my eyes for the color of  salmon pink for quite some times. I do love pink pretty much but it was a bit boring. Something new and fresh would be best to boost up a cheerful day! So, I have been searching through the net for the color scheme and YES...I don't know which one to choose.

Salmon Pink
Hex #F69795  

Light Salmon Pink
Hex #F09990  

Salmon
Hex #F8A693 

Salmon Rose
Hex #F0636C  

Light Salmon Rose
Hex #F27A82 

Salmon
Hex #F69680 

But after a while seeing these colors, I think that the Salmon color looks more warm than the rest and I love it too. So, how can I choose which one is the best. I REALLY NEED HELP!

Strawberry Cheesecake

It has been a while I didn't bake cheese cake due to the unhealthy oven. The oven has been coughing smokes and lucky it doesn't went KABOOOM!!! Phew~ I am still alive!!!..huhu

The great thing is finally I found the 7 inch cake tin. I felt really happy to have it at first but after baking the cheesecake, the result, emm wasn't that great. Such a disappointed feeling. The cheesecake was a bit soggy in the middle. Kesian bile tengok cheesecake tu. I think to overcome this problem is just stick to the 8 inch pan or   bake for an hour at 150˚C and let the cake settle down in the oven for 30 minutes.

In 7 inch tin - Petite and look yummy!