9.5.11: Making pancakes

As his tooth was still hurting, E asked for pancakes instead. I found an easy pancake recipe online here and followed the recipe. 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• cooking spray

Directions

1. Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

Source: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/fluffy-pancakes-2/Detail.aspx

I was surprised at how easy it was to do such fluffy pancakes, similar to the ones sold at McD. It's so much cheaper to make our own than to buy outside. 2 pancakes plus coffee / tea costs RM8++ at McD and a box of pre-mixed pancake flour costs around RM8+ and can only make 6 pieces of pancakes. Thus, it's better to make our own. 

2.2.11: Preparing meals

E loves to help me prepare our meals. 

Whisking eggs

We made coleslaw for our CNY family gathering. 

Preparing coleslaw

Mixing the coleslaw

1.2.11: Preparing vegetable nuggets

E is helping me to mix the flour for vegetable nuggets. He enjoys helping me to prepare food. 

His face has a meditative quality about it. 

30.1.11: Making cupcakes

We made these tiny cupcakes. It was easier and faster to bake these tiny cupcakes, compared to the larger ones. With the larger ones, I find that although it is baked on the outside, it is still not baked, on the inside.
It contained a lot of ground almond and chocolate sprinkles.

After eating some cupcakes, that evening, I found that E started to have spots on his body, especially his legs. I wasn't sure if it was the almond or the peanuts that he ate the day before or whether it was Roseola. He had Roseola when he was just 6 months old. Previously, when I made almond milk, he started itching on his body. So, I stopped making almond milk. The spots went away after 4 days. I figured that he may be allergic to nuts.

28.1.11: Making kuih keria

I had a surplus of sweet potato in the house and wondered what to do with it. I wanted to make sweet potato doughnut, but in in the end it turned into sweet potato balls (aka kuih keria). This is the first time the boys tasted it. The boys loved to eat them.

Ingredients 

Pouring the flour

Mixing the dough

Make into round balls

Ready to eat!

24.12.10: Making Tang Yuan (Kuih Ee)

The boys helped Grandma make Tang Yuan (or called Kuih Ee, in hokkien). It is a Chinese dessert that is made from glutinous rice flour and served in sugar water. It is usually prepared to celebrate Winter Solstice or Dong Zhi in December, according to the Chinese culture. 

Scoop the glutinous floor onto the tray

Mix it with water and then knead the dough

Roll it into small balls

Once the balls are ready, pour them into a pot of water and boil it. Pandan (screwpine) leaves can be added into the water, to give it some fragrance. At first the balls will sink. When cooked, they will float up.You can even add food colouring to the dough to give it some colour. Some people put fillings into larger balls. We usually make the red and white, plain ones.   

Ready to be eaten

9.9.10: Making monster truck pancakes

9 September 2010

I made some pancakes in the shaped of monster trucks for the boys. I used a box of pancake mix that I bought it without looking at the ingredients. When I was about to make it, I read the ingredients and noticed that it contained a bleaching agent. Is it to make the flour white? The pancake mix came out nicely.

The next time I make pancakes, I won't be using the pancake mix. The pancake mix was too sweet as well.

I used a doughnut cutter to cut out the "doughnut" wheels. 

Making Curry Puffs

We made curry puffs 2 weeks ago, a few days before we went to Taiping. I used my mother's recipe to make the curry puffs. For some unknown reason, it is easier for me to use my mother's recipe instructions than following cookbook. She makes the steps very easy. She usually uses a lot of intuition, when measuring the ingredients and so do I.  I find cookbooks quite complicated and difficult to follow. I prefer to watch video instructions online.  

Out from the oven

Making the fillings     

·        Garlic
·        Onions 

·        Potatoes

·        Sweet potatoes

·        Salt

·        Sugar

·        Curry powder (1½ spoon)

Steps:
Boil 4 potatoes and 1 sweet potato

Peel skin the skin

Dice the potatoes into small chunks

(I used the other variation, where I peeled the skin first, dice them, then boiled them.)

Saute the garlic and onions

Add in the boiled potatoes

Add adequate salt & sugar 

Let it cool

Making the dough

·        150 g butter

·        ½ cup milk or water

·        1 egg

·        300g wheat flour 

·        ½ tsp baking powder

Steps:

Mix the remaining ingredients into dough

Knead dough

Roll flat

Cut with cutter

Put it on the mould

Heat the oven to 190 degree celcius 

Put into oven and bake it until it is golden brown.

Remove from oven.

Rolling the dough flat

Carefully lifting the dough

Careful, careful!

Putting it on the mould

Adding in the potato fillings

Pressing shut

Peeling off the excess dough 

Placing the curry puff into a tray

E also wanted to help out

Peeling off excess dough

Ta-daah!!!

Enjoying the fruits of their labour

Buttering bread

Once in a while, I would make brown bread, which is healthier as it doesn't contain preservatives. Yesterday, S for the first time, showed an interest in buttering his bread. Usually he doesn't like to butter his bread whereas E loves to butter it. He didn't like the coarse peanut that was in the peanut butter, and would remove it one by one.

Buttering bread for his brother