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.

Dinner gathering at Kumar's Ara Damansara

Last Sunday we had a dinner gathering at Kumar's Ara Damansara, PJ and celebrated the birthdays of our 2 dear friends. I've never been here before but heard good reviews about this South Indian fine dining place.
Finding the place was quite easy, being loacated at Oasis Ara Damansara and near Citta Mall.

There's ample of parking space with a relatively cheap rate around the shop lots. Lots of eateries including fancy restaurants, coffee places, cafes and such with a lovely water feature at the courtyard.
It's a pity I didn't get any shots outdoors but plan to return there soon with the husband to try out the other places ;).

We had a combination of South and North Indian food, paired with a bottle of crisp white wine : Italian Torresella S. Blanc. The spicy food complemented well with the wine, I would say.

Now, to the dishes we ordered :

Fish Tikka

Prawn Masala

Vegetable Korma

Shark fish Puttu

Cheese and Kashmiri Naan

Plain Briyani

Yummy spread of Indian delicacies

All the dishes were served together and service was quick. Portions were okay and tasted good. Our favourite dish of the day was the shark fish puttu. Kashmiri naan was good too and went well with the gravy. It was filled with fruits, nuts and was soft. The fish tikka was juicy and the prawn masala was good too.

Buttermilk Berries Layer Cake

US

Birthday girls

Love this candid shot

For dessert, we had the cake I made and I was glad everyone enjoyed it.

Surprisingly they were playing Tamil songs at the restaurant and not your usual Indian fusion music or Hindi songs. Though the songs added to the authenticity, I would have preferred some new numbers.

Overall a great dinner meet up and we are planning to check out more places in the near future ;).

Valentine's Dinner at Vin's Restaurant & Bar

This year for Valentine's Day we chose to dine at Vin's Restaurant and Bar at Kuala Lumpur after reading good reviews on Trip Advisor. My husband made the reservation and we went there on the 13th Feb. We found the place using Waze but It was a little difficult to find a parking around the area.

The ambience is cool and cozy though a little dark for nice pics (so my shots didn't turn out great *sobs*).
We ordered a bottle of my favourite wine : Moscato ;)

Now to the food we had :
We shared a starter of Vin's Fish Cakes upon the waiter's recommendation, which was yummy. Only problem was that they messed with the order in the beginning and brought us a plate of chicken wings but apologized for the mix up and agreed to bring the fish cakes we ordered when we refused the wings.

Our mains : I had the Baked Scottish Salmon with Honey Lemon Soy and the husband tried the Barbeque Chicken Fillet.

The mains came a little late (probably coz it was a full house that day), tasted fairly well but nothing to shout about.

For dessert, the husband made a special order for me and it came lighted with a candle and all!! A yummy warm chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream..my kinda dessert ;)

Overall a pleasant evening with the husband ;)

You can check out their page here : http://www.vins.my/

Tuna Cutlets

I made these yummy treat for dinner yesterday and it was a hit, even my 2 yo ate them. Here's the recipe :

You need :

1 can tuna flakes in water
1 medium red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 small potatoes, boiled and mashed
1 egg
salt, pepper and dried oregano, according to taste
oil for pan frying

Drain tuna flakes and put in a bowl. Add mashed potatoes, onion, garlic, lightly beaten egg, salt, pepper and oregano. Mix to combine.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Make tuna patties and pan fry till both sides are golden.
Serve warm as snack or with rice.


Sending this to : Anniversary Mela

Dining at Twenty.one Kitchen + Bar

Some long overdue posts coming your way...
Twenty.one Kitchen + Bar is at the most happening place in KL : Bukit Bintang. A lovely restaurant + bar with yummy food and great drinks. I gave a treat to the husband here for his birthday in January and we were glad to be seated within minutes at the only empty table available (we didn't have a reservation). So, I guess it will be best to make a reservation as the place is busy all the time.

We loved, loved, loved the food...my favourite of the day was the pasta..it was a fusion of Italian and Indian with tandoori style chicken and delicious yogurt sauce. It was like a burst of flavours with each mouthful. I wish I could create something like that.

The desserts were superb too. We took lemon meringue tart and a chocolate combo with ice cream and delicate cake. It was soooo good that we were glad we took both desserts and not shared one..lol.

One other lucky thing was we reached just before 8pm and we were able to make the Buy 1 free 1 drinks order. I didn't quite enjoy my apple martini though.

Overall a lovely dinner and we were happily on our way to the Whiskey Bar down the road for more drinks ;).

This is their site : http://www.drbar.asia/

Creamy Chicken Pasta

Hi there. I was craving for some creamy pasta and since I'm not a fan of canned carbonara sauce, I came up with this dish for yesterday's dinner after reading up on options for creamy sauce. It was relatively easy to make though I wish I had more ingredients on hand. The end result was a delicious light yet creamy pasta, packed with flavours. Even my 2 yo enjoyed it.
Do give it a try and you can improvise it with more ingredients which I plan to do next.

I used :

Angel hair pasta, enough for 2 people, cooked al dente. Drain and keep aside.

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, rubbed with salt, ground pepper and italian herbs.
Leave chicken aside while you prepare other ingredients.

Sauce :
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, sliced thinly
3/4 cup low sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup thickend cream (I use Paul's)
Italian herbs
Chiili flakes (to taste)
Olive oil for cooking
Salt (if needed. I did not add any salt as the stock had salt in it)

In a non stick pan, heat some olive oil and cook chicken breast till the middle is not pink (do not overcook). Turn off fire, cover the pan and keep aside.

In another pan, heat olive oil, saute onion and garlic till aromatic. Add chilli flakes and dried Italian herbs. Mix well.
Add in chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile slice the chicken breast. Add it to the sauce.
Pour in the cream on low fire, mix well. Taste for flavour and add salt if needed.

Now add in the pasta and coat well. Turn off fire. Serve warm with grated parmesan.

* You may add sliced button mushrooms after the onion and garlic.

Easy pasta ready to serve. Enjoy!!!