Mother's Day lunch at The Bee @ Publika

The husband being away and since we haven't seen him for over 2 weeks, me and the little one decided to go pick him up at the airport and off we went for a day out.
Publika was a 30 minutes drive from Subang airport and we reached fairly early, about 10.30 am.
Finding a parking at that hour was so easy.

Shweta started demanding for ice-cream, knowing we're out 'shopping' and we gave in and got her a scoop of World Class Chocolate at Baskin Robbins (her favourite btw).
Then off she and the husband went to JKids for some playtime while mummy got her toes done ;).
Then the husband took us to The Bee for lunch where he had made a reservation. It wasn't too crowded and they had a baby chair as well as a kids menu so we're quite happy on that.

I ordered the Moroccon Shredded Lamb Pasta - cooked perfectly, tasted good and a big portion too.
The husband had the Spicy Chicken Burger which he enjoyed and sausages and fries for the kid (ended up being finished by the daddy).

Food was fast, tasted good and importantly Shweta behaved throughout the meal ;)

After the meal, we made some groceries shopping for dinner at Ben's Independent Grocer and headed home with a sleeping toddler ;).

You can check out more on the outlet here : http://thebee.com.my/

Hummingbird Bundt Cake

Happy Mother's Day to all readers/bloggers. Here's a special cake I baked for the occasion, a new favourite of mine, baked in a bundt pan. The whole house smelled wonderful while it was baking and one good thing about using a bundt pan is that I don't have to bake it in 2 layers like I usually do and lesser frosting needed.

This is a flavourful, moist and delicious cake, prefectly paired with cream cheese frosting. The humid weather didn't help at all while I was frosting it thus the not so perfect piping. Nevertheless, we enjoyed it for dessert and loved by all. That's the important thing, right. ;)

Hummingbird Cake

Here's what you need :

3 cups cake flour

1 cup castor sugar

4 medium bananas, mashed

8oz can of crushed pinapple, not drained

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup conola / corn oil

1 cup pecans, baked for 5 mins at 170C and chopped

3 eggs

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method : 

Prepare and grease a bundt pan.

Sift flour with baking soda and salt. Keep aside.

In an electric mixer beat eggs and add in oil, mashed bananas, crushed pineapple, mix and add in sugar and vanilla. Mix well to combine.

Slowly add in flour mixture and beat on low till combined. Do not overmix.

Add chopped pecans. Mix.

Pour into greased bundt pan and bake at 170C for an hour or till toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting :

4 oz cream cheese

4 tbsp butter

1 1/2 cup icing sugar

Beat all together in a electric mixer and pipe on cake.\

Adding this post to :

Cook for Mother's Day

Bake Along Challenge

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Here's a bundt cake I made this week.

Recipe from by scrapbook cookbook collection.

250 gm butter

8 oz cream cheese

6 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

3 cups cake flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 tbsp lemon rind

vanilla extract

Preheat oven 160C.

Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Keep aside.

Add eggs one by one to butter mixture and beat between each addition.

Add flour mixture with the mixer running slow.

Add in vanilla, ginger and lemon rind. Mix well but do not overbeat.

Pour into prepared bundt pan. Bake for 60-85 minutes/ till done.

It's a golden moist cake with soft crumbs. Great with a hot cup of tea or coffee.

This joins the May Week 2 Cooking from Cookbook Challenge Group.




Bake Along Challenge : Bundt Cakes

Our Princess Turned 2

My, how fast time flies....my little angel turned 2 in March and that called for a celebration. The theme this year was her favourite cartoon character : Minnie Mouse. When I asked her what cake she wanted for her birthday, she told me : 'Minnie Cake'. So, mummy started researching and came up with a design for her cake and successfully organized her party.

We had it at an indoor playground with close family and friends. It was a sweet party with lots of happy faces. I received compliments from the other parents who attended and it made my day ;). Importantly, the little one had so much fun and not even tired after playing for 5 hrs!

Here's some pics from our party :

Mummy's labour of love

Minnir cookies

Kit Kat

Gifts for the kids

Us

With our close friends

Rice Cooker Chicken Rice

I've been looking for easy to do dinner recipes for weekdays and ways to avoid take-out dinner. This one pot chicken rice cooked in a rice cooker surely fits into the category and was a comfort food on a rainy day.
It is best eaten hot and can be paired with some stir-fry vege or soup.

Serves 4

You need :

2 cups basmathi rice, soaked for 30 mins
1 skinless boneless chicken breast, chopped
8 fresh shittake mushrooms, sliced
3 cm ginger, sliced thickly
spring onion, chopped

Marinade :
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp thick soy sauce
2 cm ginger, grated
salt and pepper, according to taste
few dash of sesame oil

Method :

Combine together chicken pieces and sliced shittake mushrooms with the marinade mixture and set aside.

In a rice cooker pot, place rinsed rice with enough water, ginger slices and some salt and switch on the cooker.
When rice is 3/4 cooked, add in the marinated chicken mixture on top with spring onions, close lid and let rice cook fully. Once cooked, mix all together and serve hot.

Bake Along Challenge # 8 : Bundt Cake

Hi everyone!

Here's a new Bake Along Challenge and this time around the theme is
  Bundt Cakes .
It's my first time making a bundt cake. I've always wanted to try it out so will make use of my new bundt pan soon ;).
Pls do join in and the bake some lovely cakes.

The rules are :
1. Follow my blog, you may do so by email too.
2. Bake cake in a bundt pan...any size will do.
3.Add your post to the linky tool provided and also post a link of this event in your post.
4. Usage of logo is mandatory.
5. Any number of entries are allowed.
6. Event runs from 23/4/15 till 31/5/15.
7. To those who bake but do not blog, feel free to send in the images of your baked goods by email to : resh_82@hotmail.com. I will add it to the round-up.


Add your link here : Happy Baking!!!

Brunch at The Yellow Brick Road

It's been like a wave of cafes lately in the Klang Valley and you hear of new places opening up every week. This is also a fairly new kid on the block. With an interesting name and an even interesting caption (Built by Dreamers for Dreamers), this cozy cafe with lovely setting has been attracting the crowd. Me, the husband and my dearest friend decided to check out this place for brunch a couple of weeks ago.

Yellow Brick Road is situated in Jalan Batai, Damansara Heights, opened by the same owners of  The Red Beanbag. Jason Loo, the 2013 and 2015 Malaysia Barista Champion is the brew master.

The cafe was easily found via Waze. There was ample of parking in front of the cafe, which was also free. There was a queue outside and we sat and waited about 15 minutes before being shown to our table. The setting was fresh, lively and definitely cozy.

The food offered were of a fusion with interesting names. We ordered Balik Kampung (a dish with Ayam Percik), a plate of  Poached egg with quinoa rosti which was served with avocado slices, smoked salmon and passion fruit hollandaise sauce and an Omelette served with sambal ikan bilis and sugar cured prawns. For drinks we had the Mocha , Cappuccino and Piccolo Latte.

The food was well presented and tasted equally good without being too filling. We then decided to share a dessert and chose 'I Wanna Be Kaya'..pretty interesting name. It was Crusty French Toasts with Poached 
Pear and Coconut Kaya Sauce. It was lovely and rich.  I had a red apple and dragonfruit smooshie to go with it. It was sssoooo refreshing. It even came with a chilled glass ;).

I Wanna Be Kaya

Smooshie

                Overall a lovely brunch place with good food and great coffee...a Sunday well spent.

Bakmi Goreng Ayam

This is an Indonesian style fried noodles with chicken I made for dinner yesterday and it brought fond memories of my years in Yogya during uni. You can get this in most restaurants and stalls there.

Me and my housemate used to rent a house in a residential area when we were there and during the rainy days and exam time, we opt to dine in rather than going out for dinner. Dine in meaning you wait for this 'tok tok guy' who pushes a cart and cooks for you at your doorstep. Yes, you heard me right.

We will wait for the sound 'tok tok' and call out to him and he will stop in front of your house and cook friend noodles or fried rice, served on the plate that you give him. He adds crackers and pickles as well. The cart and utensils he uses are very clean and food tastes good too.
Hmm...I miss my door step chef. How convenient it was especially during the 2 weeks exam time when we didn't have the time to go buy food.

So, I tried making bakmi goreng yesterday but used yellow wet noodles rather than the dried egg noddles we used to have in Indonesia. To achieve the taste I used Kecap Manis by ABC (made in Indonesia). I bought it at Tesco.

Bakmi Goreng Ayam

You need :

1 onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
350 gm yellow noodles, washed and drained
1 small skinless, boneless chicken breast, cubed
some white chinese cabbage, sliced
some mustard leaves (sawi), sliced
2 tbsp Kecap Manis ABC
1 tbsp oyster sauce
salt and ground pepper to taste

Method :

Heat oil in a wok and saute onion and garlic. Once aromatic, add in diced chicken and cook till 3/4 cooked.
Add in the vege and stir well. Now, add in the sauces and mic well. You can cover and cook for a while. Then add in yellow noodles, salt and pepper. Coat well and cook.
Serve hot with fried shallots.

This is not a spicy dish so you can add chillies or modify according to your taste.