Christmas parties... never too many

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2008

After we returned from our HK trip on last Friday nite, time seems to be running too fast. There's no time for xmas shopping for family and friends, no time for preparing food for xmas parties, no time for tiding up the house for the festive season. However, i managed to do a couple of things within three days.

For the office xmas party, we planned to have a potluck, and i chose to make cream puff. It was quite a daring choice cos the last 2 times i did cream puff, i didn't have much luck! Although the outcome was not fantastic, i was lucky that it didn't flop!

The chocolate cookies and lemon custard cookies i planned to pack as little gifts for my family and friends turn out to be disaster! All end up in the trash after 2 (late) nites of last minute baking! My contingency plan was to replace it with chocolates bought from supermarket. I think i won't be able to get them ready on xmas eve without the help of T. He's kind of sweet isn't it?

We had two family parties, one on the eve and the other one just yesterday. I actually wanted to bake something for the xmas eve party, but there's simply isn't any time for me to do anything. For the Sat party, i managed to do a dessert and log cake ( that looks like a 'block' cake instead). Nevertheless, the 'block' cake got rave feedbacks. As for the cream, i've got the idea from HappyHomeBaker, and true enough it tasted very nice and it's a quickie.

Corn & raisin bun, & a bad sore throat

I've been wanting to bake a simple bread for the longest time, but has put it off as bread making seems to be the toughest thing and most time consuming in the baking world. I've tried looking at many bread recipes, and the steps always seem daunting. Couple of days ago, Kitchen Corner did a Onion Sweet Corn Roll, which i thought, at last a recipe which looks simple enough. And since Monday was a public holiday, i can afford the time to try a bread recipe.

There's alot of waiting time ('proofing') in making bread, and i decided to brew some cooling drink cos i've just got this very sore sore throat. What a bad timing, as we are flying off for our holiday this saturday. Anyway, this chrysanthemum ginseng and "luo han guo" drink is what my mum used to brew ever so often when she was around. She would fill them up in various water bottles like 'recycled' soft drink bottle, or mineral water bottle, or her tupperware, whatever that could be used to store the drink and let us bring home. There's no specific recipe for this herbal drink, just put in whatever quantity of 'ingredients' you like, plus a small cube of rock sugar, and you get a very nice flavoured drink.

Back to the bread making, it was a total flop! Look at the pictures, they say a thousand words.....

Kueh Dadar

Recently, there's a new show on tv8 "The little nyonya" which is very entertaining, educational & informative, especially on the peranakan traditions and their food. I'm one that sadly do not support local productions, but this is one show that i would not want to miss. The show is always 'promoting' their kueh-kuehs, amongst other things, and they really look yummi-licious on tv.

Maybe i'm under influence of the tv show, i was contemplating to do either kueh dadar or oneh-oneh for the past week. Also, i've some left-over coconut milk which has to be consumed by this weekend. I've got both recipes in my 'old recipes file', and decided to make kueh dadar since i've not did these for a very long time (should be more than 10 years ago). Don't mistaken me as an old hag, just that i started baking/ cooking very young... hahaha

Here the recipe for kueh dadar with some modifications, but i can't remember where the source is as i didn't jot it down.

Ingredients/ Method:

(A) FILLING
200gm grated coconut, without skin
6 tbsp gula melaka
4 pandan leaves

(B)
10 pandan leaves
350gm coconut milk


(C) PANCAKE
3/4 cup flour, sifted
3 eggs
1 1/2tbsp oil
a pinch of salt


1) Melt gula melaka with some water in non-stick pan over low flame until dissolved.
2) Add in grated coconut milk and pandan leaves and stir fry until almost dry. Set aside and allow to cool before use.
3) Blend (B) and squeeze out the pandan coconut milk.
4) In a bowl, beat eggs lightly, add in coconut milk, flour, cooking oil, and salt. Work into a smooth batter.
5) Heat a non-stick pan and grease with a little oil. Pour 1/4 cup batter onto pan and spread thinly. Cook over low flame. Repeat with the remaining batter. (*Amount of batter depends on size of pan.)
6) Fill each pancake with 2 tbsp coconut fillings. Fold in sides of pancake and roll into a spring roll.
7) Best to consume when completely cool, or few hours later.