Carrot Cake

The past two weeks, I have been enjoying watching Donna Hay's cooking show on the cable in bkk; "fast, fresh,simple." by Donna Hay. I have been one of her fans for a while now. However, this is my first time watching her show, and I'm in love with it! Everything she does on TV looks so easy and simple, just like her style. It makes you want to get up and start cooking. After my oven was out of service for quite sometimes now, I'm craving for homemade bake goods.

And of course, for this Easter holiday, why not baking a carrot cake?

After searching for a good carrot cake recipe, I decided to use Donna Hay's Carrot Cake. She didn't disappoint me at all. I'm very much enjoying it. It's so easy to make and turned out to be so delicious and not too sweet and oily. If you are looking for a simple carrot cake that tastes great, try this! I garantee that you will fall in love with her and her recipe, just like me.

Note: the only thing that I adapted from the recipe is using walnuts instead of pecan.

14.02.12

Roasted Pumpkin & Mini Squash Soup

My good memory of the pumpkin is not the one in the Cinderella's Story when she turns a pumpkin into a golden carriage, but it is a memory of a dish that was used to serve at lunch time when I was in a elementary school. This nice simple dish is made with pumpkin, eggs, garlic and some seasoning like soy sauce, sugar, and grounded black pepper. I tried to recreate the dish at home many times, but it still doesn't taste as same as the one that I had when I was a child. It is one of those dishes that always gives you sweet memories.  

  

Pumpkin is one of those vegetable that you can use to cook for both savory dishes and also sweet dishes. Other pumpkin dishes that I like to make are grilled pumpkin dipped with thai sweet chille sauce, roasted pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie and last but not least, a thai sweet dessert, boiled pumpkin in a coconut cream syrup. I bet there are many ways you can enjoy with these beautiful sweet yellowy-orangey vegetable that are filled with vitamins and nutritions.

And, I have a very easy recipe for you to enjoy. Roasted Pumpkin & Mini Squash Soup. It is my no-recipe kinda soup. Easy to make and of course delicious! And, don't forget to have it with some crunchy toasty croutons!

Hello 2012!

Hopefully, it's not too late to say "Happy New Year's 2012!" to you all. It's the best time of the year to start doing new things. And for me, it's probably my new exciting interior design job that I recently started. Well, after spending time working at a food magazine for almost a year, I decided to keep my love for food aside and do it in my own pace. It's time to get serious about working and I'm glad to be back into the interior design world. This new year, I "finally" decied to buy new lens. Yes, it's a new year's gift for myself! I don't know why I spent so much time making this decision because it took me almost more than 2 years to finally buy it. Even though it's only a 50 mm 1.8f canon lens, I'm pretty happy how everything turns out so far. Now, I get nice blurry backgrounds that I always want!

For this 2012, my goal for this blog is to do more of photographing. It's a lot of work to do from making food from the scatch to taking and editing photos. I believe you all understand this!. But this year, I promise to find time to do more practicing on photographing. If I have no time to bake or make something, I will just simply take photos of basic beautiful things around me.

Well, I'm starting my 2012 with these simple beautiful fresh strawberries that are grown in the northern of Thailand. During the month of December and January, it's the coolest time of the year in Thailand. So, there are lots of fresh local strawberries all around. I'm enjoying them all. 

Homemade Milk Bread

One type of the bread that I heart is Asian-style bread. The texture is different from the western-style bread. It has a softer texture both the outside (the crust) and the inside. It does have a sweeter taste. Perfect for toasting. Crushy a little bit but still soft and chewy. One of the technique that I found when making the Asian-style bread soft is " Tangzhong Method". It's a mixture of bread flour and water, cooked on the stove to get a thick paste. This paste keeps the bread moist. So, you end up with a softer bread. It is added into the wet mixture when making. This is my first time of making this Homemade Milk Bread. I would say it's the softest bread that I have been making so far and I'm very much loving it. I got this recipe and adapted into a hand-kneadling method. It turned out very well.

Well, it's time for you to try now!

Homemade Mixed Seed Bread



Finally, my bread making skill is getting improved. In the past, I always ended up getting a heavy dry hard bread. Recently, I found a place where I can learn how to make bread. So, I decided to take a bread making class couple weeks ago. Even thought it was only 2-day classes, but it was worthed. The class was all about bread making by hands. So, everyone can go home and can easily make bread at home. So, this weekend I tried to make bread again. Ta-da! It worked! I finally get a nice soft bread and it doesn't have weird smelling too. This Homemade Mixed Seed Bread is perfect for breakfast. I added black and white sesame seeds, sunflower seends and pumpkin seeds in it. They gave a nice little crunchy and are good for health too! Now, I feel that making bread is not as hard as I think anymore!

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

Finally, finally....after many years of watching other people bake the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies aka. New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies, I finally got a chance to try it myself! First of all, yes it is good like everyone say so. The texture is perfect...soft and chewy. I made mine with semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of chocolate chunks. It's still good. However, there is one thing that I would like to try. I want to make them a little bit less sweet. Not sure whether if I decreased the amount of sugar, it would effect the texture of the cookies or not. If anyone had tried this, please let me know! But for sure, the original recipe is already great, so maybe I shouldn't change a thing! just eat less so I dont have to feel quilty!

Recipe: New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies



Notes: Love this photo...I took it with my iphone.
The application is so cool. It looks like photo from dslr!



Sticky Date Pudding

It is nice to be back on here again...doing all the baking and a quick photo shooting. It has been a long time to be on here and I'm very much missing it all! Last week, one of my best friend was back in BKK. She brought back a box of dried dates from Qutar as a gift for my parents. So, I stole them to make these little yummy Sticky Date Pudding! It was delicious, nice & soft...not too sweet. Great with a cup of tea for the afternoon. Enjoy!

(I'm currently so into the lomo app on the iphone these days. It's fun to take photos with it. The photo always look good and you don't need much of the skills! Fun Fun! Here is the lomo of my sticky date pudding)

Beijing & Hong Kong Trip 2011 (Part II)

Great Walls

These are some of the photos  from my trip in Beijing. We went to many places including The Great Walls, Olympic Stadium The Bird Nest, Summer Palace, Forbidden City, and many more. I feel bad that I couldn't remember all of the places. I felt like we went to so many temples and palaces and at the end I got confused because they all look similar to one another. lol. Anyways, I took many photos but these are some of the highlight that I like to share with you. Enjoy!



The Olympic Bird's Nest



Inside the Olympic Bird's Nest




Summer Palace

 


Summer Palace



Oops...I forgot the name of this place...

Street Food & Peking Duck in Beijing

Beijing & Hong Kong Trip 2011 (Part I)

I'm appologize for my absence and my very late photo update on my Beijing and Hong Kong Trip back in February. I have been very busy at work and pretty much have no time to do anything on weeknights and for the last weekend I was away for the business trip to Samui too. Anyhow, let get started!   

Flower Market @ Victoria Park

I took so many pictures during my trip, so here are some of the highlight that I would like to show you guys. I was in Hong Kong during the Chinese New Year. It was wonderful! I got to experience and learn lots of new things regarding what people in Hong Kong do and prepare for their New Year's. Above are pictures from the "Flower Market @ Victoria Park". One of the must-do things for the Chinese New Year is to go to the flower market. It is their tradition to go to the flower market and pick up lovely flowers such as orchids, orange trees, daffodils, Nipple Fruits (lower left), peach blossom and many more. The bloomings of the flowers symbolize prosperity and fortune. That's why all Hongkongers buy lots of flowers to decorate their houses. 



The Must-Eat HK Snacks

Of course, my HK trip is always like a non-stopped eating marathon. Above are the must-eat snacks that you need to try when you're in HK. Starting from the top left (clockwise): "traditional candy & coconut wrap", "egg custard tarts", "HK style egg waffles" and "HK milk tea". I wish I could get all of these right here in Bangkok. Even though we have something that are similar,but nothing is better than the ones from the origin.
 

Tai O Fisherman Village

If you have one free day to spend, I recommended you to go visit "Tai O fisherman village" ( the oldest fisherman village in HK) and also "the Big Buddha" on the same day. Since we were there during the Chinese New Year, there were TONS of people visiting the big buddha. So, we weren't able to take the 360 cable car to the top of the mountain, instead we took the bus. It was a bumpy ride since we have to travel ups and downs the hills. I almost got sick on the bus, but fortunately to be able to get the front row seat later on. It was a closed call.



The Big Buddha & Lovely Scenery

Another lovely place to visit is "Nan Lian Garden". You will see lovely traditional Chinese architecture in the ancient style of the Tang dynasty and also the Chinese garden. Inside the garden, there is a very lovely vegetarian restaurant called "Chi Lin Restaurant" where you are able to eat delicious vegetarian dishes prepared by using traditional methods. They also have a lovely gift shop if you happened looking for some souvenir or gifts for someone. Next to the Nan Lian Garden, you can also visit Chi Lin Nunnery, another lovely Chinese architecture.



Nan Lian Garden



One Year Blog Anniversary with Coriander Root & Garlic Shrimps

I believe that most people probably say the same thing on their one year blog anniversary that they can't believe it's already here. Yes, I am one of them too! Time goes by quickly. I have learned many things through out the creation of this blog and can't wait to learn more things in the coming years. This blog also lead me to the great opportunity that I'm about to tell you below, so keep reading...

At first, I wasn't sure whether I would be back in time for my blog anniversary(Oops, I couldn't remember the exact date of my first post! Only knew that it was sometimes close to the Valentine's Day, but now I know!). The past couple weeks, I have been pretty busy. I was away for my Hong Kong & Beijing trip with my family for two weeks as you know and just got back on Tuesday night. Yes, I still need to post interesting pictures from the trips. Please wait!

Right after got back, I finally started my first real job that I have been dreaming for! (Yes, it is the great opportunity that I'm talking about.) I'm so exciting about it! I got a job at a food magazine in Bangkok, working as a foodstylist and luckily I will do some writing too. I still can't believe that I got a job in this field. Thank you for my editor, who has given this great opportunity to me and believe that I can do well in this field. Now, I know that if you want something badly and have great passion for it, just work really really hard and you will have what you have been waiting for. I know I'm still new to this, but I will do my very best and will work very hard on it.

Last but not least, I'm ending this with this lovely Coriander Root & Garlic Shrimps recipe. Coriander Root is one of the important ingredients in Thai cuisine. It gives lovely strong fragrant and flavour. I'm not sure whether it's hard to find elsewhere outside Thailand, but if you happen to find the coriander roots at your Asian grocery store, please don't forget to buy them and try this recipe. Or, if you happen to have coriander in your garden, please go to your garden and try this. I believe that if you are already a fan of garlic shrimps, you will love this one. Enjoy!

One year ago: Chocolate Spice Bread

Coriander Root & Garlic Shrimps

(for 1-2 servings)

6 large shrimps ( shell on, slit the back of the shrimp and deveined)

2-3 cloves garlic

2 coriander roots

2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp chopped finely red chili

1 tbsp green onion, chopped

1 tbsp Chinese rice wine

1 tbsp soy sauce

1-2 tbsp canola oil

2-3 tbsp of water, more if needed

To make coriander and garlic paste:

Smash the garlic, the coriander roots, black pepper and salt together in a mortar and pestle until all crushed up and incorporated into a paste. Divided the paste in halves. Marinate the shrimps with half of the coriander-garlic paste for 2-3 hours or overnight. Set aside the remaining in a small bowl, covered.

Note: if you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can use a mini-food processor to make the coriander and garlic paste.

To cook:

Heat up a wok with oil over a medium-high heat. Lightly saute the remaining coriander-garlic paste until aromatic. Add shrimp into the wok and stir well with the coriander-garlic paste. When the shrimps are slightly pink, add in Chinese rice wine, soy sauce and a little bit of water. Cover the wok with its lid. Allow it to cook and steam for 1-2 minutes or until the shrimp completely cooked. Add in chopped green onion and red chili. Stir well. Transfer on to a serving plate and serve immediately.

Note: It's best serving with a bowl of rice and maybe with some vegetable stir-fry. Easy idea for your weekday dinner. Or, you can have this by itself for a cocktail dinner party.

Jalapeno Poppers, Test #1

For the past a few year, I have tried to plan for a trip to visit, a place that I've ever been, at least once a year. I love to experience new things, getting new inspirations for life, by just being in a different city or country. Next week, my parents and I are visiting Hong Kong and Beijing for 2 weeks. Even thought I have been to both places before, I am still looking forward to go there again. For HK, I have visited so many times. Eating is the main activity that we do when we get there. My mom's friends always take us for Dim Sum and many other things which I can't remember all. It always feels like an eating marathon when I go to HK. lol. However, this year will be a little bit different. I will be in HK for the Chinese New Year's in a nice cool weather. I am so excited to see lots of events, take lots of photo, and eat lots of food in HK.  We have also planned to go to Beijing for 4-5 days, directly from HK. Three years ago, I went to Beijing to visit a friend from University. At that time, it was during the summer time, so it was very hot. Luckily, I get to visit Beijing again but in a different season. It looks like it will be below zero! ohh...I missed all the snow and the freezing weather. hahaha. I can't wait to hear what my parents think about the cool weather since they definitely don't get use to this kind of cold weather!

Well, I'm finishing this with this jalapeno popper recipe. This is my first time making it at home. It turned out to be 'okay', but not as good as one can get at a pub. I heard one said to use pickle jalapeno to make it, and it tastes close to that. If you have any good recipe for the jalapeno poppers, please share with me!  Anyhow, I'll see you again in 2 weeks and definitely be back with lots of stories and photos to share with all my dear readers.

Jalapeno Poppers

8 Jalapeno, halved and seeded

3 tbsp cream cheese, softed

3 tbs cheddar cheese, shredded

1/2 C milk

1 C crushed panko

1/3 C flour

oil for deep frying

In a small bowl, mix the cream cheese with the cheddar cheese. Spoon the mixture into the jalapeno halves. Dip the stuffed jalapeno first into milk and then into the flour. Wait for several minutes for the flour dry out slightly. Then, dip it into the milk again and now into the crushed panko. You can repeat the milk & panko step twice to get a nice thicker panko crust. Wait for the coat to dry out slightly between the steps. In a medium pan, heat the oil to 365F and deep fry the jalapeno for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. 

Homemade Samosa



This year, 2011, I have a plan for my blog. I know that this past year most of my posts are more on the sweet side. So, my plan is to try to bake less and cook more for a healthier diet. One of the main reason is that I don't want my parents to have lots of sweet thing even though they love what I bake . My dad has a sweet tooth and usually eats everything and all of what I bake. So, I have to  be careful of what I make for him. If not, he will have high blood sugar.

So, I'm starting my 2011 recipe with savoury snack called, Samosa. I know it's not that 'healthy healthy' because it is deep fried. But, since mom requested for this, I have to make it. My mom is pretty tiny, 5 feet high (i think lol) with 92 lbs. She's a pretty healthy person, eat lots of veggies and tofu and less meat and poultry. However, her guilty pleasure is fried food, especially Thai's fried tofu, taro fritters and corn fritters. She also have a big love for Indian things. She loves spices especially Indian spices like garam masala and also loves chai tea. So, homemade samosa should be her perfect guilty pleasure food since it is deep fried and contains lovely Indian spices. 

This recipe is something that we came up. It is the first time what we made and it tastes wonderfully. Samosa is not a typical thing that can be found easily in Bangkok. We know a place near Indian town that sells this, but mom said ours is better. It's an easy recipe using pre-made frozen spring roll wrapper. So, let's try this and let me know what you think!

Lovely photos from New Year's 2011

Happy New Year 2011!

I hope you all have a lovely new year holiday. I spent my new year's holiday at Pattaya with my family this year. Luckily, we got to see New year's Eve firework up close from the Ambassador hotel which locates just beside our condominium. It was worth to wait until midnight! The weather was nice, not too hot. I also got some lovely photo of the sunset and parasailing. I hope you all enjoy!

Firework on New Year's Eve

Sunset on New Year's Eve

Cool actions from Parasailing

Santa has arrived!

Finallyyyy, Santa (aka Mr.Mailman) arrived at my house this morning! We all have to understand that he has been working hard for all of us. He had to fly all the way from "the almost north pole country" (aka Canada) to Bangkok, Thailand. So, we have to forgive him for his delay. :D

I have been looking forward to getting my sister's Christmas package! Thank you, Sis! xoxo We all love the presents that you sent, especially your homemade christmas cards! I felt like a little kid when I was opening the hugh DHL box. hahaha

Well, now it's time to tell you what I got! 

First, a lovely beautiful card that is made by my sister! I wish I know how to use illustrator as good as her! My sister specially made a card for each of us. So, the first one (below) is for me, the second is for my dad, and the third is for my mom. Since I love baking, she made a gingerbread house for me! :D I think she should start making cards and sell them on Etsy!

 

My second present is Starbucks's nesting tea cups. They only have this in States and Canada, I believe. Starbucks's Christmas merchandises here in Bangkok is totally different from North America. So, I'm happy to get these lovely tea cups! New props for my photos!

My third present is the cake tester from Crate and Barrel. The top of the tester is in the shape of cupcake. It's so cute. I wanted this for while now. So, I finally get it! Now, I don't have to use little toothpicks that never long enough to test the cake. hahaha. Sweeeet!

Last but not least is the candy & deep fryer thermometer. I'm so excited to use this to make some homemade salted caramel, peanut brittle, pates de fruits, and many more! Stay tuned. I will make them soon!

After all, I have to give a biggest thank you to my beloved sister! xoxo

Happy Holiday!

Happy Holiday to you all. I wish you all have a wonderful

holiday filled with love and sweetness!

Canadian Butter Tarts

" Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer

had a very shiny nose.

And if you ever saw him,

you would even say it glows.... " 

Oh, Christmas is almost here. Can you believe that? I'm still remember this time last year I was baking orange and pecan rugalach and nanaimo bars for my school's Christmas party. A year has gone by so fast!! It's scary to think about it.

Since it's holiday shopping time of the year, there are different events happened around Bangkok. Couple weeks ago, there was a shopping fair at a mall near my house. They had booths held by different countries around the world. Each of them sell food and products from their country. And of course, I had to stop by the Canadian booth! The booth was quite small compared to States and UK, unfortunately. They had the good old Canadian maple syrup and some baked goods. And they even had the Canadian butter tarts. It was so tempting to buy, but I didn't because I knew I can bake them easily.

My first time eating these lovely butter tarts was probably 10 years ago when I first moved to Canada for high school. I lived with a lovely host family for 3 years before I moved to Kingston, ON for the university. They are pretty much my "Canadian" parents. My host mother who is such a good cook and also the best baker made these butter tarts for Christmas.

This year, I'm sharing this lovely Canadian butter tart recipe to you all. I hope you enjoy my special hand-drawn recipe too. For those of you who never have the butter tarts before, I hope you enjoy them.

Happy whisking holiday, Everyone!   

Strawberry Shortcake

Sometimes, life can be so chaotic. Everyone do deserve a break. So, today I have a quick dessert idea that all of you will love it. Who like Strawberry Shortcake put your hand(s) up? Yes, I am one of them!

I am not sure whether I can say it is Winter in Thailand now even though it is still 30C in Bangkok, lol. But, the weather in the northern of Thailand is much cooler (maybe around 17C and even cooler if you go up on the top of the mountains). We start to see some fresh strawberries from Chiang Mai, and I am excited to see them.  I have to buy them!

Here is some notes I have for the recipe. The recipe I gave below has no measurement in it. Since we want something easy and fast, why bother mearsure out all the ingredients. Right? If you like lots of strawberries, go ahead buy a lot and cut in halves a lot. If you are a big fan of whipped cream, just keep whipping it!

I hope this will be one of the perfect ways to end your day. Hope you all enjoy the recipe!







Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberries, halved
honey
Balsamic vinegar
Whipped cream
Store-bought pound cake, sliced

In a medium bowl, cut strawberries in halves. Add a little of honey and balsamic vinegar; 1-2 tsp is just fine for 10-12 strawberries. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 30 mins. This allows strawberries to release all the yummy juice. To serve, place a piece (or more) of the pound cake on dessert plate. Top with strawberries and whipped cream. Don't forget the juice!

Homemade Granola

My morning hardly starts with a bowl of cereal anymore. There are so many options for breakfast that I can choose here in Bangkok. I can say that typical thai breakfasts always involve with rice. You can have congee with ground pork and ginger, sticky rice with bbq pork or chicken, or even a bowl of rice with curry for breakfast. That's why I barely touch cereal at all. So, this morning I decided to come back to my good old homemade granola. My favourite way to eat granola is just to simply topped on a plain natural yoghurt. That's is how I started my day. Have a good day everyone!

Homemade Granola
(my baking without a recipe!)

1 C Quick cooking oats, toasted
2/3 C Almonds, coursely chopped and toasted
2/3 C Unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted
1/3 C Sunflower seeds, toasted
1 C Mixed dried fruits (your choice; I used dried strawberry, apple, mango, and banana)
1/4 C honey
1/4 C brown sugar
3 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven at 325F.

In a large bowl, combine oats, almonds, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, and mixed dried fruits. Set aside. In a small sauce pan, combine honey, brown sugar, butter, and salt. Bring the honey mixture to a boil over the medium-low heat. Stir. Let it simmer for 1-2 minutes or until all the butter and sugar are melted. Remove from the heat. Pour the honey mixture over the oats mixture. Mix well. Spread the granola on a baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 mins or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool completely.

Tea Time @ Lenotre, Bangkok

After spending the whole afternoon checking out furniture stores with my mom around Bangkok's downtown area, we decided to stop at Lenotre at Siam Paragon for our tea break. It was my first time here. I didn't know that there is a Lenotre store existing in Thailand until my previous visiting at Siam Paragon. The place is nice, not too many people at the time.  There aren't many tables offered in the store which might be bad for the weekend traffic. But, I'm glad that I visited on the weekdays, so I can just sit and enjoy the cakes with pots of tea with my mom, without feeling rushed. 

There are so many cake selections. It was hard to decide what I want, believe me. The only negative comment that I have is that there should be a desciption for each cake. It was hard to know what it is inside by just looking at the cake and its name. I did ask the server to explain couple of them to me. Just feel a little bit bad if I have to ask for all of them (lol). So, I ended up ordering the cake called "Emeraude" which is layers of pistachio cake with vanilla bavarian cream in between. At the center of the cake, there is raspberry gelee which is quite tangy refreshing and works very well with the sweet pistachio cake and vanilla bavarian cream.  On the top, they decorated with raspberry coulits, half raspberry macaron and a small piece of chocolate with their signature. For my mom, she ordered this tasty peach tart which is also very good. I also ordered a pot of vanilla rose tea for myself and hers is mint green tea.

Last but not least, I came home with a box of macarons. The flavours are chocolate, pistachio, raspberry, vanilla, and coffee. Surprisingly, it cost 3$ (CAD) for the box! That's pretty good deal!

PS. I can't wait for my next visit!