The cheesecakes story

Hah, baru you all tau betapa ensem nya cikgu Miss 10!

Tu sebab kat Insta I, ramai followers yang giler bayang everytime I tayang gambar cikgu tu.

Nasib baik lah I tak ikut giler bayang angau sekali kaaaaaan….

Hahahahahaha

Mana I nak letak jelmaan Vin Diesel, Bruce Willis and Pit Bull I tu nanti kan, jeles dia nanti kalau I ikut angau sama, hehehehe….

Anyway….

Update hari ni nak letak entry tertunggak about the mini cheesecakes yang I had been making for the past 2 weekends.

I made them for 2 birthday parties, the first one was a 50th and the second one was a 21st.

Ni bday party Emak and anak lah, diaorang buat selang seminggu.

The first one, they ordered only 30 mini oreo cheesecakes ni.

And they said, semua suka sangat2 sampai ada yang nak go for second piece tapi dah habis.

So, for the next one, they upped the order to 50 pieces.

Nak buat cheesecakes ni sangat lah senang nya tapi yang jadi problem nya…

I cuma ada 1 acuan mini cheesecakes aje yang cuma boleh buat 12 cheesecakes at one go.

So, I had to make them over 3 days!

This is the acuan that I used to make the mini oreo cheesecakes.

It has a removable base so easy to keluarkan the cheesecakes the right way up.

It says it’s non stick but I still need to grease it a bit so the cheesecake batter tak stick to it bila nak keluarkan.

Kalau tak grease it, tengok lah apa jadi, melekat2!

Yang leceh nya buat dlm bekas mcm ni, selepas dimasak, you have to leave them in the tray and chill them for an hour or so then only you can take them out and they’ll stay in shape.

And baru boleh decorate.

 

Tu sebab it took me a few days to make 50 pieces aje!

And this is the recipe I used for the mini Oreo cheesecakes:

Mini Oreo cheesecakes

(makes 24 mini cheesecakes)

Ingredients:

Base:
-20 Oreos, including the cream filling (process until very finely crumbed)
- 4-5 tablespoons melted butter

Mix together and divide it equally and press flat into each lightly greased mould/pan. (I used an ice cream scoop and then press it firmly using the handle of a rolling pin ).

Bake at 150C (fan forced) for about 10 minutes.

Let it cool while you make the cheese filling.

Filling:
-500g softened cream cheese at room temperature
-1/2 cup sour cream
-1 cup caster sugar
-2 tablespoons lemon juice
-1 teaspoon vanilla essence
-4 eggs (59g each)
-14 pieces Oreo, broken into chunks.

In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla essence until thoroughly mixed and smooth.

Add eggs, one at a time and beat between addition until just combined.

Mix in the broken Oreos and stir until well combined.

Using an ice cream scoop, fill the moulds/pan nearly to to top or 3/4 full. Gently tap the pan on the bench to release air bubbles.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until they are not wobbly anymore.

Let it cool in the pan and chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before taking it out of the pan.

Decorate it with whipped cream, melted choc drizzle and mini oreos.

I used the cheesecake filling without the Oreos as the basic of my other mini cheesecakes.

I guess you can add other things to replace the Oreos if you want to or leave it bare if you want a ‘pure’ cheesecake.

Black and white and the meatballs

I’ve accepted a request from a friend of a friend to make some desserts for her daughter’s 21st birthday party.

And the theme is Black and White.

Miss 10 said, “what about that black rice dessert with the coconut milk that you sometimes make. that’s black and white”.

Kalau majlis melayu, ok lah kot I buat bubur pulut hitam.

Ini majlis Mat Saleh yang still so young.

Not many Mat Salehs like the texture of pulut and I dont want to ruin her big day so I think I’ll skip that suggestion, hehehehe.

I think I’ll stick to western desserts yang not so complicated to make Cos I am HOPELESS when it comes to decorating.

They have already asked for my mini cheesecakes with strawberry coulis.

Sebab they loved them so much the last time they had the cheesecakes at our friend’s birthday party.

And they want another dessert to go with it.

And the birthday girl requested something chocolatey.

I’m thinking of making black and white cake pops/ cake balls or something with oreos in it or meringues dipped in dark choc or black n white meringue swirls.

Other than that, I’m stumped for ideas.

Any good suggestions?

I still have a month before the big day but I have to email the person with dessert ideas.

Lainlah kalau I ni memang dessert maker kan, surenya idea bertimbun2, hehehe.

Kalau setakat untuk makan sendiri, boleh lah I buat, tak cantik sangat pun takpe.

Nasib baik lah untuk 60 people aje so tak lah gabra sangat.

Lain lah kalau diaorang mintak I buatkan swedish meatballs like what we had for dinner last night.

Yang ini gerenti I boleh buat dengan senang hati sebab tak payah decorate bagai!

The only leceh part is panfrying them on the stove top sebab mercik2 sikit.

But you can always pop them in the oven for a healthier less mercik version.

But rasa dia lain sikit lah, yang panfried version sudah tentunya lagi sedap.

I used this recipe as my base.

But I increased the allspice to 1/4 teaspoon and I added 1/4 teaspoon of paprika to the mince mixture.

And I also chopped the onion and the garlic in the food processor so they are a bit finer.

We had the swedish meatballs with creamy sauce and parmesan mashed potatoes, with a side of salad.

For the sauce, you can follow the above recipe or you can do it the way I made it.

Use the same pan that you use to cook the meatballs WITHOUT washing it.

And DO NOT throw away all the leftover stuck bits of meat and oil in the pan.

They are the best bits that make your gravy/cream sauce tastes oh so amazing.

Creamy sauce recipe:

-To the pan, on low heat, add about 3 tablespoons of plain flour

- stir it into the oil and crunchy bits and cook for 2-3 minutes until everything is combined together nicely and the flour is cooked.

-if there’s not much oil left in the pan after frying the meatballs, you can add some butter to it before you add the flour.

-if there’s too much oil in the pan after frying the meatballs (which will happen if you use mince that has a lot of fat in it), you might need to drain the oil a bit or else the sauce will be too oily.

-then add some liquid to the pan, around 1 cup. You can either use beef stock, chicken stock or water.

- I used water but I added powdered chicken stock to replace the salt.

-stir and cook until the sauce has thickened a bit.

-add 1/3 cup of cream and stir some more.

-add 2 teaspoons of worcesteshire sauce and taste. If it’s not salty enough, you can add chicken stock, beef stock or salt.

-let it simmer for about 5 minutes and it’s ready to be poured onto the meatballs.

 

Some people put the meatballs into the sauce in the pan because they want the meatballs to soak up the sauce.

But I prefer pouring the creamy sauce onto the meatballs on top of the mashed potatoes.

You can put as much sauce or as little as you want .

I still think this is much better than the IKEA’s meatballs!

Habislah kena lahar! Hahahahahaha

WACE, VSC and SDS ;-)

After school tadi, The Other Half and I and Miss 14 had a meeting with one of the school teachers for a course counselling session.

Miss 14 will be in Year 11 next year which is the senior year.

And mula dari sekarang, they have to start thinking of the subjects they need to take in Yr 11 and Yr 12 that will enable them to get into the course they want at uni.

At the end of Year 12, they have a big exam called WACE(Western Australian Certificate of education) which is the make or break exam untuk masuk Uni.

Lebih kurang lah dengan I dulu masa masuk Form 4 and Form 5 kan (tapi itu dah berpuluh puluh tahun dulu lah. Cerite sekarang I tak tau).

Dulu I ambik aliran Sains and ambik geography instead of Sejarah.

Tapi untuk budak2 kat sini, they have more freedom to choose what they want for their final subjects in high school, tak macam I dulu.

And it depends on the school jugak, bukan semua subjects will be offerred at each school.

Ada 52 WACE subjects so memang tak boleh lah the schools nak offer all the subjects kan.

Sape yang nak mengajar nya.

Macam masa tahun I dulu, ambik 9 subjects untuk SPM kan and aggregate SPM ditentukan dari 6 subjects aje.

Macam Miss 14 pulak, they have to do a minimum of 20 units within that 2 years and so many hours of class time.

But kalau nak ambik lebih dari tu pun takpe, as long as you can manage the extra workload lah.

And ada banyak lagi lah rules that they have to follow before they can be awarded the WACE.

So tadi, we all pun berbincang lah pasal whether the subjects that Miss 14 have chosen will be enough.

She’ll be taking 6 subjects for her WACE which is not that many but they only take the highest 4 results anyway for the final score.

The Other Half and I would rather she scores in all the subjects than take too many and tak larat nak buat, hehehehe….

Tapi ramai gak yang ambik sampai 10 subjects+ and aced them….

Budak2 yang dah sah2 pandai lah tu kan, heeeee….

We all including Miss 14 pening jugak masa nak choose the subjects for her, berminggu2 jugak lah we all fikir.

Bila anak2 makin membesar, kenalah fikir about schools and unis kan.

Anyway, semalam I managed to bake Victoria sandwich cake (VCS) yang dah lama sangat I nak try buat.

Ye lah, cake ni kan tengah famous ya amat kat Msia and semua memuji2 kesedapannya.

And tak lah susah nak buat nya so tu yang I buat.

And memang terbukti kesedapannya!

Even The Other half yang tak suka spongy type cake loved this cake.

I used the simplest recipe which requires you to measure the weight of the eggs (still in the shell).

Then, measure the butter, caster sugar and self raising flour to the exact weight of the eggs.

Semalam I guna 4 eggs which weighed 247g so I pun measure 247g of softened butter, 247g of caster sugar and 247g of SRF.

In a large bowl, crack the eggs, add all the other ingredients, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 2 tsp vanilla extract and beat using electric mixer until they are well combined and smooth.

What I read from UK cooking sites (which this cake originated from), the cake batter has to be soft enough that you can drop it into the cake pans.

Kalau keras kejung tak nak jatuh, add a bit of milk and beat some more.

Grease and line two 20-cm cake pans and dollop the cake mixture into both pans.

Bake at 190C (170C for fan forced oven for 20-30 mins or until brown and springs back when you touch).

Semalam I had to bake it at the longer time sebab tak brown lagi.

After that, let the cakes cool on a wire rack.

Bila dah sejuk, baru lah boleh sapu dengan jam and letak whipped cream.

I had to use raspberry and blackcurrant jam semalam sebab dah sapu separuh raspberry jam, I baru perasan yang I takde jar baru so kenalah topped up with blackcurrant jam, hehehe….

And sekarang kan tgh musim strawberries kat WA ni so tu yang hias dgn sebesar2 straws .

I made the cake for afternoon tea semalam, petang tadi dah habis dimakan.

And ini pulak, the sandwich I made for Miss 9 pagi tadi.

Serunding daging sandwich (SDS) with cheese and lettuce.

Miss 9 kata sedaaaaaap sangat! Tak sangka betul dia!

Hahahahahaha….

25 days in

Tak sangka betul ramai yang terliur tengok the swedish meatballs and creamy gravy I tu, hehehe.

Biasa lah kan, bila tengah puasa, segalanya nampak sedap kan! .

I used this recipe for the meatballs but obviously guna 100% beef mince lah.

I also used the same recipe for the gravy but I tak masak the meatballs in the gravy at the last step tu. I cuma tuang gravy on top of the meatballs and mash aje.

Making gravy in the same pan as the one you fry your meatballs is the best thing to do.

Jangan bersihkan pan tu, the burnt crunchy bits tu lah yang membuatkan gravy anda sedap!

And the most important thing is, you have to adjust any recipe according to your taste lah ye.

Macam swedish meatballs tu, I added a bit of paprika for a bit of spice. But jangan tak letak allspice or nutmeg tu sebab those are the spices regularly used by the Swedes I guess.

Kalau you all nak letak chilli powder sbb you all suka pedas, it’s up to you but tak boleh lah panggil swedish meatballs kan .

For the creamy parmesan mashed potato pulak, it’s like any other mashed potato recipe.

Once you have cooked and mashed the potatoes, masa tengah panas2 tu, I added loads of butter, cream and parmesan and salt and pepper to the mash. And mix it really well.

But don’t forget to adjust the seasonings according to your taste ye.

Like The Other Half, he would love it if I add more butter to the mash but nanti I kena tukar nama the mash potato tu heart attack mash potato instead of creamy mash potato pulak nya kan!

hahahaha….

Resipi tart nenas yang I selalu guna pulak is recipe Princess Haryati sbb I suka yg gebu2 .

Weekend ni I pulun buat biskut raya sebab nak bagi kat Ustazah2 the girls at Sunday school.

Bukannya buat untuk we all, hahahaha…

But gambar biskut tak ambik lagi so you all layan aje lah gambar our dinners for the past 2 nights.

On Thursday nite, I made fettucine in walnut sauce.

Makan pulak dgn honey mustard drumsticks and pear salad.

The walnut sauce is basically like pesto but thinner and creamier.

I love this kind of pasta much more than tomato-based ones.

And last nite since Miss 14 reminded me that Friday nite is pizza nite, I made ‘pizza’.

But I made the Turkish pizza version called samsun pide.

It’s a boat .

Kat Msia, orang sibuk buat biskut sampan lah, tart sampan lah sebab nak raya.

I buat roti pizza sampan, hehehe.

And I also made chocolate hazelnut melting moments semalam for our buka snack.

Malam ni we all makan leftovers and whatever we can find in the fridge and freezer aje so tu yang boleh pulun buat biskut .

Homemade lebanese bread

We like to eat kebab and its sedara mara.

And we normally would have it with lebanese bread (well, what they call lebanese bread here in OZ lah). Kat tempat lain I tak tau panggil apa.

But ada jugak yang I jumpa called yiros bread.

Tapi we only like this one particular type of lebanese bread yang cuma dijual kat Woolies aje.

So, bila2 I nak buat kebab, I will always have to go to Woolies to buy the bread lah.

A few days ago, I nak sangat buat lamb kebab sebab baru beli lamb mince.

But bila pergi Woolies, they didn’t have that particular lebanese bread in stock.

Nak pergi Woolies lain semata2 nak cari that bread, tak kuasa pulak I!

So, I went home googled for the recipe that I think resembles the kind I like most.

Project haritu sebelum Iftar was making lebanese bread lah .

Dah lah I nearly forgot that I had to take Miss 14 to the orthodontist after school that day!

Kelam kabut lah sekejap lepas balik from the dentist tu.

Nasib baik sempat siap sebelum waktu berbuka!

I baked the bread one by one in a very hot oven (240C) on a pizza stone.

Makan pulak dengan lamb kebab, garlic sour cream mix and lettuce.

Memang sangat lah sedapnya! The bread is soft and fluffy and sangat senang nak wrap.

And this is the recipe that I used to make the lebanese bread.

Lebanese bread

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon/15 mls olive oil
2 1/2 – 3 cups bread flour

Methods:

- Dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water and set aside until frothy.
- Add 1 cup of bread flour and olive oil to the yeast mixture and mix well. Leave aside to rise for about 30 minutes.
- After it has risen, add the rest of the flour and the salt and knead until it is not sticky anymore and smooth. Depending on where you are, you might need less flour or more flour.
- Cover the bowl with gladwrap or tea towel and leave in a warm area for the dough to rise until double its size.
- Once it has doubled, punch it to knock the air out of it and divide the dough into 10 balls.
- Leave the balls to rise for about 15 minutes.
- While the balls are rising, preheat the oven to 240C and put a pizza stone on the lowest rack. If you havent got a pizza stone, you can use an oven tray. Pizza stone is better because it doesn’t warp at high heat.
- On a clean floury surface, roll the balls very thinly (just like the photo above). Make sure there’s plenty of flour so the flattened dough does not stick to each other when you stack them up before baking it.
- Once the oven has reached temperature and the pizza stone is hot, put the flattened dough onto the pizza stone, one at a time.
- Once it has puffed up which is about 2 minutes, take it out and bake the next one.

Basically the recipe sama aje macam recipe nak buat pizza but the measurement is a bit different.

And now sebab I have proven that I can make lebanese bread yang kena dengan tekak semua orang kat rumah ni…

The Other Half said, “Now I won’t want to eat the bought lebanese bread anymore cos the homemade ones are really good!”

Seafood linguine for dinner

I did stick to my seafood menu tonite.

Even though I know my seafood dish is not as healthy as some but at least we are decreasing our red meat consumption kan.

Kalau nak betul2 healthy, I should have made steamed fish makan dengan brown rice or grilled fish makan dengan salad aje kan….

But if I were to masak like that, the girls will memberontak and diaorang akan lagi rela makan toast aje for dinner, hahahaha….

But the dish I made for dinner tonite, everyone seemed to like it a lot.

I made  creamy saffron seafood and vegetable linguine.

First I sauteed some dices onions and loads of garlic and fresh basil.

Then after they have wilted, I added 3 fresh tomatoes, chopped up, 1 carrot sliced thinly, 2 swiss brown mushrooms sliced thinly and 1 diced yellow capsicum.

Cook covered until everything is tender.

Add a bit of saffron which has been soaked in hot water to the vege mix.

Then add about 1/4 cup of cream and season with salt and pepper.

Set aside.

While the vege mix is cooking, cook the linguine until al dente and drained and set aside.

In a big frying pan, pan fry some marinara mix in garlic and salt and dried chilli flakes until cooked to your liking.

Tip the cooked pasta and the creamy mixed vege sauce into the marinara pan and toss all of them together until all the pasta and the marinara are well coated with the sauce.

Season again with salt and pepper.

Serve it with fresh basil, shaved parmesan and a big sprinkle of chilli flakes.

If you like your pasta to have more sauce, you can increase the amount of whipped cream used or you can add a bit of water to the sauce when you are cooking it.

If there’s a lot of sauce, a big chunk of crusty bread is a good accompaniment to the pasta .

Senang aje nak buat dia kan…

And kalau you present the dish nicely and ‘artistically’ on the plate, boleh kalah restaurant nya pasta!

hikhikhikhik…..

One of her favourite food

Malam ni, muka budak tu tak pasrah lagi….

Berseri2 muka dia makan dinner sebab it’s her favourite, hahahaha….

Siap tambah lagi tu, so memang feveret lah kan.

Kenapa I cakap muka dia muka pasrah bila dinner time?

Sebab dia ni jenis yang only suka certain food aje.

Kalau food yang dia tak suka and I dah masak and hidang, dia tetap akan makan….

She won’t say anything…..cuma dari air muka dia I tau yang dia ‘pasrah menerima makanan dan makan sebab Mak dia dah masak and tak mau kena marah and makan sebab lapar’.

Hahahahaha….

Tapi kalau makanan yang dia suka, dia akan mintak banyak or akan tambah sendiri kalau tak cukup…

And tadi for dinner, by the time I baru habis tertonggek2 ambik gambar my dinner plate, dia dah on her second serving…

Maknanya dia suka lah tu .

I nak tunjuk a few steps of how I made her favourite food ni ye.

What’s her favourite food?

It’s enchiladas (at the moment anyway. It might change again next month, hehehe).

First step kenalah ada all the ingredients for it kan.

The wrap, the beef mince filling, the home made enchilada sauce and the grated cheese and an oven-proof tray to put all the enchiladas.

(But for the beef mince filling recipe link tu, I tak buat banyak tu lah and I substitute the red kidney beans dengan canned baked beans and I tak letak capsicum, I letak grated zucchini).

Then you put the filling in the wrap, put a little bit of grated cheese on the filling and fold the wrap into parcel shape.

Buatlah sampai i. habis all the wraps ii. habis all the filling .

Sebelum you letak all the enchilada parcels into the tray, pour a bit of the enchilada sauce into the base of the tray macam ni.

And then isi lah the tray padat2….

The next step is to pour some of the enchilada sauce on top of the wrapped parcels.

And then, pour all of the grated cheese on top of the sauce.

The last step is to bake it in the oven at 200C until the cheese has melted and the enchiladas are a bit brownish.

Untuk kurang kan rasa guilty sebab makan cheesy things, hidangkan lah dengan salad.

I made a mixed salad again. Kali ni guna grapes, capsicum and cucumber from our garden.

kalau kita buat sendiri, we can put as much filling as we want kan….

Tapi kalau letak banyak sangat, susah nak roll it into parcels…

Memang sedap!

Sebab tu Miss 13 suka sangat2, hehehe…

Ada one week tu, she asked for it for lunch at school every day for 5 days!

And obviously dia still tak jemu lagi kan .