Shilme's Fried Chicken

Was 'skype-ing' with my dh the other day, he was saying about halal KFC in Jo'burg, and remember talking to a friend in Germany she had a halal KFC there too. I hope they'll have one halal KFC in Dublin too.. How nice. So i was like blog hopping this few days for the 'right' fried chicken recipes...and I like this one the most Jeni Fried Chicken . I've been following her blog for quiet a while. And to me her recipes are more 'make sense' kinda cooking, nothing fancy or 'showy' , just whatever your daily cooking is all about! She actually the founder of Resipi.net.


As for my fried chicken i added a few more spices, which will go like these :


4 pieces chicken (i used drumsticks & wings)
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp coriandep powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 small eggs beaten
Enough fresh milk to cover the chicken
Salt to taste
Corn flour & plain flour - whisk together.
Enough vegetable oil to deep fried

- Marinate the chicken with all the spices, milk ,egg & salt. I did for 2 hours. Where Jeni did overnite.
- Heat oil to medium heat.
-Coat chicken pieces with flour deep fried in medium heat till brown or cook through.
-Drain on wire rack then paper towel before serve.

* I like mine spicy. Adjust the amount of spices to your tastebud.

I should say, maybe the milk did wonder... I love it...so yummy and I manage to have 1 wing , my Tisha finished the rest. Anyway Jeni thanks for the recipe.

My Kind Of Comfort Food - Gnocchi

21 April 09,

Found a fresh packet of Gnocchi in Tesco, so I had it a go. Nothing fancy, i just sauteed garlic & onion..in butter. Add Gnocchi, off the fire, add about a tablespoon of garlic & herbs philly creamcheese, some pepper to taste.Garnish with chopped parsely & parmesan.

Tish loves it!

Cheese Brownies

I think Tish has a craving too... In a day she could for so many different cakes... 'Mommy I want cheesecake" couple of hours later "Mommy we chocolate cake in fridge?! then "I want cupcake! I want cupcake!

I think she's bored, its been raining all day long for the last few days, no park, no playground, only TV, toys & Mommy.

So i decided to bake with her... found this Marble Cheese Brownie recipe but halved the batch and bake in bun pan instead... so Tish could have it all, chocolate, cheese & cupcake!

Missing, Craving...and Arrrggghhh Karipap (Curry Puff)

A few days ago.......

Missing my DH soo much and leads to a severe craving! I'm sooo wanted some Karipap (Curry Puff) right now, this instance!! It was cold and raining outside...."what about some crepe instead?"said my DH on skype "Crepe over a karipap?? No no way!" after a few seconds.. "Well, not today, at least!" ;-).

Ok, Thinking that I have all the ingredients...lets get going, I told myself, what so hard about karipap making, right? Wrong! Wrong! I'm sooo wrong!!!!

potato & carrot cubes

The stuffing first:

1 tbs ginger paste
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
250 g minch beef
3 large potato - peeled, cut into small cubes
1 large carrot - peeled, cut into small cubes (optional)
1 large onion - chopped
1 tbsp of chopped spring onion
1 tbsp of chopped chinese flat leaves parsely
Salt & peper to taste
2 tbsp Vegetable oil

-Heat oil, sauteed ginger & garlic paste till brown, then add beef followed by coriander and garam masala powder.
-Add the cubes potato and carrot, add some water, cook till the potatoes and carrots are tender and till fairly dry. Season with Salt and pepper.
-Throw in chopped herbs and onion. Off the fire. Cooled.

the minch beef bubbling away

The decided to try out, a new recipe for the skin/pastry: I dont remember which site I got this recipe from but here it goes :

flour & margerine

2 cup of all purpose flour
2 heaped tbsp of margerine
1/2 tsp salt
Enough cold icy water.

- Put flour in a mixing bowl add salt, stir to combine
- Add in margerine, rub to resembles a fine breadcrumbs.
-Add water, just enough till it all clump and not sticky.
-Knead a little. Ready to use..


Now....to assemble those......there come the problems.... after my pastry is ready to be rolled I realized that I dont have a rolling pin and I dont even have the karipap mould! oh dear! Oh dear! oh dear! Okay, Relax... I could find some bottle or something to roll...haaah Malaysia Boleh!!!! thank to the ketchup bottle.

the mighty ketchup bottle that saved my day

And as for the absent mould...okay! okay! such a lousy excuse...i know I should have try to do the seams by my bare hands a long long time ago...hmmmm after a few attemps ... I opt for these shapes:

But sadly, the problem just not end there.... When all the horrendous looking puff are ready to be fried, I realise i have less than a quarter of 1 liter bottle of vegetables oil !!! Its needs to be deep fried!! Arrrgghh! Karipap...why are you doing this to me???????????

Hmmm , i just pour the oil in the tiniest sauce pan i have ! And fry that karipap away!!

the end result...horrendous looking curry puff

thanks to this happy customer!

And I should say, the new pastry that i tried is kinda nice.... and a after a few karipap later.... I think I'm ready for a crepe again...!

P/S: My dear DH, I froze some for you! Dont worry!

Banana Cake & Almost Vegetarian Stir Fried Glass Noodles

Make this banana bread just to send over to my neighbor, she sent over some cookies for Tish the other day, in return this banana bread goes to her.
Made this stir fry for lunch. Called it almost vegetarian since I added some chicken stock.
Stir Fried Glass Noodles

1 small pack of glass noodles - soaked in water for 20 mins, drained.
2 cloves garlic - crushed
5 bird eyes chillies - or less.
1 bunch bok choi - cut into 2 cm, separate leaves and stems
1 carrot - julienned
A handful of shredded cabbage
A handful of sliced fresh button mushroom
Half a cube of chicken stock
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp of cooking oil

- a heat a wok till smoky, put in oil and throw in garlic.
-add chillies and bok choi stem, stir for a minute
-add carrot and cabbage, stir then add mushroom.
-add chicken stock, if too dry add about 2 tbsp of water.
- throw in the noodles, follows with bok choi leaves. Season with salt & pepper.
-stir fry for further 2 minutes. (if the noodles still firm add some more water)
-done.

Serve with a wedge of lime, fried shallot and chopped spring onion.

* u could add in chicken breast or beef for extra flavour. And it works well with almost any asian stir fry vegs. I wish I had bean sprout!

I'm Back!

Finally, after saying goodbye to Cairo, 3 months of holidaying in Malaysia and a month moved to Dublin, The Adams are back!

Got a call from Nurul on Wednesday last week, saying that she and Isha wanna stay over for the weekend, and its Isha's Birthday falls on that Saturday, so Nurul ask me to bake just any cake to surprise Isha before the real party on Monday. Well I dont have any 'tools' for a cake yet, my mixer, baking pan etc, all still in Malaysia waiting to be delivered soon. What I can think of was only banana or carrot cake. She said any cake will do.

Well I baked carrot cake, thinking it wont go wrong with Cream Cheese Frosting. And thank God, Carrot Cake is the Birthday Girl all time favourite. And they dug out the frosting first...before get to the cake....lol.

the ingredients

fresh from the oven

Personally I like this cake too, its 'light but moist enough to my liking. It just that next time I'll bake in smaller pan....I like a thick cake! I got this recipe from Group Recipes. Its called Carrot Cake For Those Who Hate Carrot Cake.

1 cup sugar (I used frimly packed brown sugar)

1/2 cup canola oil ( I used corn oil)

2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups fresh grated carrots
1 cup unsifted all purpose flour (I used Odlum's Cream Plain Flour)

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup ground or grated coconut (I omitted this)

• Wisk dry ingredients together in a bowl.
  Combine sugar and oil. Add eggs. Mix well. Add grated carrots. Scrape bowl and mix well agian.
  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and slowly mix until combined. Add ground coconut. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x9 square cake pan.
  *Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 - 30 minutes until the cake tests done (about 155 degrees in the middle). When cool, spread with your favorite cream cheese frosting.
  If you want to add 1/4 cup ground raisins and 1/4 cup ground walnuts, you can. Add these in with the coconut.
  Try to use real cinnamon. That stuff you buy at the store isn't usually real cinnamon. It should say cinnamomus cassia on the container. If it says something else, it is a cinnamon imposter. It tastes ok, but the real stuff tastes sooooooo much better!

* I bake at 140 degree C with Fan Forced Oven at about 25 mins.*

And my recipe for Cream Cheese Frosting.


1 tub Light Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Whisk all together. Done.