Malaysian Pan Mee

Here is another kind of Malaysian food which I have made during this weekend. Its a good try and all my friends enjoyed it. The recipe is adapted and modified from a random blog called Food Made Simple.

Ingredients A: Dried Chili Paste

One of the most important ingredient but it is alright if you prefer to eat without the chilli paste.  

• Dried Chillies - stem cutted and soaked - 2 handful (approximately 25 pieces)
• Fresh Red Chillies - 2
• Dried Shrimp - 1 palmful
• Shallots or onion - 5 shallots or 2 mid sized onion (shallots preferred!)
• Garlic - 3 cloves
• Oil - 4 tbsp

 Method:

1. Blend all the ingredients together.
2. Heat up the wok with low fire and stir fry the ingredients until dry and golden brown. [TIP: Make sure you keep an eye on the fire and make sure that it will not be overcooked/burnt]

 Ingredients B: Minced Meat Sauce

• 500gm of minced pork - marinade with salt, pepper and a dash of soy sauce and some starch
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Dark Soya sauce - 1 tbsp
• Oyster Sauce - 1 tbsp
• A pinch of Salt
• A dash of pepper
• Some light soya sauce
• Some water [Tip: If you preferred a drier texture, you can adjust the content of the water accordingly]

 Method:

1. Heat up the walk and fry some shallots.
2. When the shallots are about to turn its colour to golden brown, put in the mince meat and stir-fry it until cooked.
3. When all the mince pork are cooked, add in some dark soya sauce, oyster sauce and some water.
4. Finally, stir to blend all the sauces and add some salt and pepper to taste.

Ingredients C: The Soup and other condinments

• Fried Anchovies (Ikan Bilis)
• Chicken stock
• Poached /Fried egg (Optional)
• Some vegetables

 Method:

1. Heat the wok and fried the achovies.
2. Reserve some anchovies to be used as dressing in the end. Scoop up the excess oil as well if you do not want your soup to be too oily.
3. Pour some boiling water to be boiled with the anchovies in the wok and let it boil for about 10-15 minutes in low heat. Add in some chicken stock if the flavouring is not enough.
4. For the poached egg: Crack an egg in another pot of simmering water and leave it until its cook. Another pot is used because I do not wish to contaminate the soup that was prepared earlier with egg. ( I personally think that egg is not a neccessity for pan mee but if you are like poached egg, this is the way to do it.)
5. Finally, add some vegetables into the soup for a more healthy and balanced meal! 

Ingredients D: The Noodles/Dough

• 300 grams plain flour (sieved) [TIP: 100 grams of plain flour is equivalent to one person's portion.]
• salt water [TIP: add it bit by bit][
• an egg 
• 1/2 teaspoon oil (makes the texture smooth)

Method:

1. Sieve the flour and dig a hole in the middle. Add in an egg and start mixing the flour with the egg.
2. Add in some salt water bit by bit and start kneading the everything until it becomes a dough.
3. Once the dough is ready, it is good to let it sit a while before you start cooking. 30 minutes is fine. Remember to cover the dough with a wet cloth so that the surface of the dough do not crack up.

[TIP: Make sure that your dough is not too soft if you are making the dough into strands of noodles] (I preferred pan mee which is flat and they are torn according to the sizes othat I like.

THE WHOLE PICTURE

1. Finally, to put everything together!
2. I will scoop some soup from the anchovies soup into another pot to prepare the noodles.  
3. Put in the noodles in the soup, let it cook for 2 minutes then scoop up the noodles into a bowl.
4. Then, I will follow by putting in the condinments which are the poached egg, fried anchovies, mince meat sauce and the dry chilli paste.

Yummy...

New York Cheesecake

This New York Cheesecake Recipe is adapted from the BBC GoodFood.
I have changed the quantity or weight of some ingredients, knowing that it is not enough for a 23cm or 9 inches springform. 

Ingredients:
FOR THE CRUST

* 85ml butter melted, plus extra for tin
* 200g digestive biscuits , made into fine crumbs
* 1 tbsp sugar , granulated or golden caster


FOR THE CHEESECAKE FILLING

* 3 x 300g/11oz pack full fat soft cheese (Philadelphia is good)
* 250g golden caster sugar
* 3 tbsp plain flour
* 1½ tsp vanilla extract
* finely grated zest of 1 lemon (about 2 tsp)
* 1½ tsp lemon juice
* 3 large eggs , plus 1 yolk
* 284ml carton soured cream

FOR THE SOURED CREAM TOPPING

* 142ml carton soured cream
* 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
* 2 tsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Position the oven shelf in the middle and preheat the oven to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. 
2. Line the base of the springform with a baking/greasepaper. 
3. For the crust: Melt that butter, crushed the digestive biscuit and add some sugar. Make sure that they are all evenly moist. (TIP: They should not be to moist/wet because it will be quite hard to press the mixture.) I would recommend that the mixture is pressed by a glass with some water so that all the crust mixture will have a even height. Bake them for 8-10 minutes. Let it cool on the wire rack.
4. For the cheesecake filling: Oven temperature should be increased to fan 200C/conventional 240C/gas 9. Beat the soft cheese at low to medium speed for 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar, then the flour and a pinch of salt with the mixer of low speed. Scrap down the sides of the bowl and the paddle twice. 
5. Use a whisk and continue to add the vanilla, lemon zest and juice. Whisk in the eggs and yolk, one at a time, scraping the bowl and whisk at least twice. Stir the 284ml carton of soured cream until smooth, then measure 200ml/7fl oz (just over 3⁄4 of the carton). Continue on low speed as you add the measured soured cream (reserve the rest). Whisk to blend. (TIP: don't over-beat). The batter should be smooth, light and somewhat airy. 
6. Brush the sides of the springform with butter. Pour the filling and smoothen it with a knife; bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to fan 90C/conventional 110C/gas 1⁄4 and bake for another 25 minutes. Your cheesecake should be slightly wobbly after 25 minutes. Let it cool in the oven for two hours. Close the oven door if you prefer a drier texture. 
7. For sour cream topping: Combine the remaining 142ml of soured cream, sugar and lemon juice for topping. Smoothen it and close it with a foil and refrigerate it for at least 8 hours or overnight.  

After it's out from the oven after cooling. There is a little crack on it.

Tada!!! The end-product!!!

I hope you all will love this delicious New York Cheesecake! Adios!