Homemade Fried Chicken

Now I can make my own Kentucky fried chicken, W/OUT any instant flour or any MSG added... Just simply marinate your chicken with any spices of your choice. I just marinate mine with oyster sauce , crushed garlic and a few pounded spices. If its big chunks of chicken, its better to stab the flesh here and there and leave in for a few hours before frying. If its just small bits of chicken, a few minutes of marinating it would do.

Next, which is the main reason for all the crispiness is the extra cold beaten egg/s and some shortening in the cooking oil as stated in this link http://chefgunawanmalaysia.blogspot.com/

I simply had my own version, as usual. Instead of mixing some ice cubes in the beaten egg/s, I just put in the beaten egg/s in the freezer a few minutes, then dip my marinated chicken in it. Next is to roll the dipped chicken into the flour (1 multipurpose flour : 1 cornflour ) and here' s where you can add other extra flavors to it such as paprica powder, oatmeal, or just be creative with your taste buds. :-)  then simply shake off the extra dry ingredients, make sure that each and every chicken is fairly coated, then fry them using any cooking oil of your choice. I simply add a little planta in my oil for that extra crunchness.. Fry till golden brown. Toss it and enjoy your homemade finger lickin' good chicken.. Here's how mine turn out... :-)

Chicken/Beef 'Begedil'

I've been craving lots of stuff lately since entering my end of 2nd timester. :-)  I'm a BIG fan of begedil, one of our local cuisine dishes, made of mashed fried potatoes. It's a hearty snack too hen eating on its own. I've always tried to figure out myself before and ended up in the 'wrong version' of begedil. Till I followed the recipes from these sites. :-)  Beef begedil and chicken begedil .

If you are stick to rules type like me when it comes to cooking, the measurements are not an issu for me. I just see 'begedil recipe' as a mixture of mashed fried potatoes and fried beef/ chicken of your choice. Just roll them into balls and dip into beaten eggs prior to frying. Then its up to you t add in flavours of your choice. It could be some simple fried onions like I did, or other spices, chilies, paprica pepper of choice, etc. No that hard at all for a homemade family treats. Here's how mine turn out. Just potato, chicken, fried onions. :-) My fussy kids LOVE it! Happy cooking...

Cheese cake and sauce

Cheese cake 'leleh' is in trend now here. Ever wonder ho they make it? Its actually the cheese sauce topping n shredded cheddar that makes it a hit. Mostly sold in the market today are using cheese flavoured spongecakes ( barely any cheesy kick in it i you are a cheese lover like me). Glad to finally made it for my kids and myself. I made my favourite cotton soft cheese cake as the basic cake and later garnish it with colourful rice sprinkles and grated parmesan over the sauce. Here's the recipe. Happy baking ! :-)

Cotton Soft Cheesecake

A

250g cream cheese

50g butter

100ml fresh milk / cream

6 egg yolks

1 tbsp lemon juice /tartar powder

1/4 tsp salt ( you can skip this for any health reason)

60g cake flour /superfine flour

1/4 tsp double action baking powder ( or just double up the normal b.p. you have)

20g cornflour 

B

140g granulated sugar

6 egg whites

3/4tsp lemon juice /tartar powder

METHODs

1. For A, melt cream cheese, butter and milk/cream using the double boiler method. Let it cool. Then add then remain ingredients in A . Mix well with a wooden spoon.
2. For B, beat egg whites together ith juice/tartar till foamy. Then add in sugar and continue beating until you achieved soft peaks.
3. Add A batter into B and mix well. I just pour A into the mixer and continue beating to get that soft structured cake. Line an 8 inch round tin. ( I'm the lazy person when it comes to lining baking tins. I simply just wipe some marjerine/ Planta around  the tin. It works as well :-)  )
4. Bake cake using au bain-marie-waterbath method for approximately 1hrs at 160°C. I usually use the bottom heat to avoid the top of cake being burnt easily. Here's my final cake. (see how the marjerine trick makes it non-stickable to the sides)

Cream Cheese 'Leleh' sauce

250g cream cheese

120g condensed milk ( or more if you are the sweet tooth person) 

50 ml fresh milk/ cream 

Grated cheddar cheese as garnish ( you can substute this with any flavours that suits your tastebuds)  

1. Incooperate the above ingredients well. Pour on cake and sprinkle garnish of your choice. ( if you still have some lemon juice, mixing it to the sauce would add some professional taste to it ) . Here's the final cake of mine... :-) 

Black Devil Chocolate Cake with a 'moist' look

This is an all time favourite recipe of mine. Used to start making this during my teen until now, for my kids. It's crispy on the outside and nice and soft in the inside. You can modify it however you wish, making it into cupcakes and pouring some ganache with colourful sprinkles on it to have that extra chocolaty taste and look to it. Be creative.. :-)  Here,s the recipe :

1/2 slab of butter (125g)
2 cups castor sugar (you can substitute it with brown sugar like I                                     did, just for a much healthier cake)
3eggs
2 cups of flour ( it can be multipurpose or superfine flour)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 leveled tsp bicarbonate of soda
2/3 cup cocoa/chocolate powder
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup of cold water

How to:

1. Cream butter and sugar with mixer
2. Add in eggs one by one, still in the mixer
3. Add in vanilla essence, salt. This would be your 'wet ingredients'
4. Sieve flour, cocoa/choc powder, b.p and b.s and set in a bowl as 'dry ingredients'
5. Now add in dry ingredients and cold water to wet mixture alternately. Make sure you end with the dr ingredients. I usually use the mixer till the end process of baking cake o tht the cake would be soft and nice.
6. Bake for 45min at 180°C or till its cracked at the surface and when poking a fork through the cake comes out clean. Then you'll know that the cake is perfectly baked.

As for the chocolate ganache topping, all you need is just some chopped block chocolate, melted using the double boiler method. After it's melted, all you need is just some cream. Whisk in cream little by little until you get the right conistency of your ganache. Then just sprinkle any decoration of your choice. (This is the fun part your kids can help you with ) :-) Here's my version of cake. Cute, moist look cupcakes for those kids of mine...

Chicken Pox

Chicken pox, may it be Small Pox, or Big Pox, it could turned out to be a disastrous new experience, or became one of our never ending learning process in motherhood. It turned out moderately for me, even though it was my 1st plight. Then again,you need to work hard towards it. I went through it on my own, learnt through my own experience and that is the most valuable knowledge I gained so far. Here's my story and how I did it. =)

Early and later stages of Chicken Pox

Blister - Papule - Ulcer

It was somewhere towards the end of year 2013 when i noticed red spots mushrooming on my 6yo 's back. One key here, the pox can really mushroomed FAST. It looks more like small rashes at first, then it grew bigger n watery inside. So, that's the1st conformation that IT IS Chicken Pox you are about to deal with for the next few days. Then they would high fever that would accompany it for the 1st three consecutive days. This is where my advices starts. DO NOT stop the heat. DO NOT consume any kind of antibiotics to stop the pox. (If you do not mind having chicken pox a few times in your life, then go ahead Its your choice). The virus somehow needs the heat to breed out all the pox and at the same time the building up of your child's antibody towards Chicken Pox for a lifetime. Instead, EASE the heat. And there's no other short cut to it, diligently check on your child's temperature for the first 3days. (Yes, I am referring to a lot of sponging, or bathing, or any other natural ways to ease the heat.) Make her/him drink plenty too. Water, fluids are crucial essentials during this hot period. I find it worth it because at the end of the day, all the pox will come out forever, and you wouldn't have to worry about them getting exposed to others who have chicken pox. That's one great relief, right? At the same time of the first day of its outbreak, I diligently feed them with a Mexican homeopathic remedy called Hoitzia coccinea for 1/2hour daily. Then followed by remedies called 'Bacillinum' and " Mercurius - Hydrargyrum" for my 6yo and 2yo. And 'Antimonium Tartaricum' and 'Mercurius - Hydrargyrum' for my 4yo. It depends on your Homoepath Doc on the prescriptions given. But the main remedy for Pox is called 'Hoitzia' ,as shown in the picture below. 

Hoitzia coccinea

To dry up the pox and fade off the scars, besides depending on the homoepath remedies itself, I use Neem leaves ( 'Semambu as called by the locals). It is well know among the Indians here. Usually, go and ask them and they will eventually lead you to the nearest tree. Grab a bunch of it, then bath your child with the last rinse. I simply crushed the fresh leaves with my bare hands and dump them in the bath tub for the last rinse during bath time, starting from day 1. The leaves might dry and curled up towards the end of the week. Do not discard it, I just blend it with the dry miller and dump it in their last tub rinse. No need to waste. Tuck a few stems under their mattress an pillows for a cooling effect during the fever period. I even make juice with the leaves and add them to 'bedak sejuk' (small balls made from crushed dried rice) and apply them on the whole body after each bath. By the 3rd day, you will notice that no new pox will appear any more. Then its all about drying up and de scar the ulcers..

Neem tree . (Eventually, it appear the same as any other trees, so you need to get a close up at the leaves, or simply as the locals to guide you)

A close up of Neem leaves

This is just my own simple tips on curbing Chicken Pox. Hope it will beneficial to other first time experienced mommies like. My 1st experience was a bit though as all the 3 of kids had it back to back. So it was like a few months of 'hard work' for me. After everyone is well, make sure you clean up the whole house, wash the bedsheets, blankets and pillows too. Dry them up well as you wouldn't want a hidden spores anywhere. 


Try not to let your kids scratch the papules . Let them dry up naturally. If needed, you can simplytie a bunch of neem stems, and bit them lightly onto the skin whenever it ithces. Make sure to cut their nails short during these crucial stage. You wouldn't want things to get worst from what they are now.