Very Fluffy Donuts :)

I eat them as is :D

When I first moved into my apartment, among the first things I learned how to make was these fluffy donuts. I learned how to freeze them and gave them to my sisters.. My nieces love them so I bought this really tiny donut mold and have been making frozen fluffy donuts since. :)

They are perfect for tea.. late night supper... those unexpected guests.... They are so darn easy to make.. but they take a bit of time to make as the recipe calls for yeast and you need time to let it rise.. but the result is very fluffy donuts.. who wouldn't want that? :D

I usually fry the donuts and eat as it is. My nieces do that also.. but feel free to sprinkle with icing sugar.. or dip it in chocolate.. ;) it uses condensed milk.. but you may substitute it with milk plus a bit of sugar. :)

Ingredients:

1kg flour
11g instant yeast (1 pkt)
2 tablespoon condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
550g water (room temperature)
oil for frying

Method:

1. Mix salt, milk and water. Use water at room temperature only.
2. Mix yeast and flour well. 
3. Add oil to the flour mixture well until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. 
4. Add the milk mixture to the oil-flour mixture and mix them well. It will become a very moist and sticky dough but no problem. Knead a bit and let it rest for 15-20 minutes
5. Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes. Add flour if necessary. Not too much or the donuts will be tough if too much flour is used. 
6. If you have a donut mold, roll the dough on a floured surface to about 1 cm thickness and cut out using the mold. Let it rest on floured plate before frying it. 
7. Otherwise divide the dough into mini balls. Press the dough balls and make holes using your finger. 
8. Fry the donuts until light brown. 
9. To freeze the donuts, fry the donuts quickly to stop the yeast from rising. Cool them and keep them in a tightly sealed container. Freeze them. It can last for a long time in the freezer. Defrost them completely before frying :D

Lightly fried so I can freeze them :)

Easy peasy...  Enjoy!

Easy Chocolate Pistachio Sultana Fudge

cut into little squares and keep in freezer. 

it tastes heavenly! 

I have a breakfast tweetup on Saturday and I thought I should probably bring something for the tweetup. Someone once told me it's polite to bring something if you go to someone's house.. and I've tried to that everytime ever since. I wasn't usually like this. haha :p but now it feels like a necessary thing to do.. :) At first I thought of buying some fruits or something.. as the main menu is Nasi Lemak.. but ermm.. that'd be boring. LOL. Then of course I flipped through Nigella Lawson's magical recipe book.. Nigella Express.. and I saw the Chocolate Pistachio Fudge recipe. It's so easy only the ingredients are quite expensive. But it's fudge. I doubt people would go for seconds. It's too sweet. Right? ermm.. I hope so. hihihi :D

I added some sultanas as I still had some in the fridge. I bought already shelled roasted pistachios. Definitely more expensive but it saves time.. and energy by like a mile. I am not sure if we can substitute the nuts.. why don't you try and tell me about it..? :D

I've altered the recipe a bit. The recipe can be found here.. :)

Ingredients

350g Chocolate Buttons
3/4 can condensed milk (1can = 505g)
30g butter
150g Pistachios
a handful sultanas
salt

Method

1. Put the Chocolate Buttons, condensed milk, butter and salt in the pan at low heat and stir until melt. 
2. Chop the nuts. I did what Nigella did. I put them in a bag, and bash them with a rolling pin. Not only it makes you feel great, it gives the nuts different textures.. :) cool :D
3. Add the nuts and sultanas into the chocolate and condensed milk mixture and mix well.
4. Pour the mixture into a foil tray (23cm square) and smooth the top.
5. Let the fudge cool and then put it into the refrigerator to set. Once set, cut into squares.
6. Keep the squares in the freezer. TO be eaten cold! 

Enjoy!

Seared Madras Fish & Green Beans with Peanuts & Shallots

I now love green beans.. like seriously! 

Wow.. it's been a while huh? I haven't done much cooking the past week or so.. I've gained too much weight :p Anyway, to make up for the missing days.. I'll put up 2 recipes. They are actually recipes from my favorite chefs on AFC, Nigella Lawson and Laura Calder. :) I saw Laura Calder made her green beans recipe and I thought.. urghh who eats green beans! yucks.. I know right? but this recipe is to die for. It's sooo good! She used hazelnuts but ermm.. it's expensive. Peanuts are cheaper. I used that ;) The other recipe I found in Nigella's book, Nigella Express. It's called Madras Fish for a reason. It uses MAdras curry powder .. I didn't have any. Didn't even know what that was until I saw some sold at Cold Storage. So I changed the recipe a bit. Used the normal fish curry powder instead. I used some kind of white fish .. I have no idea what it was. LOL but I guess any of your favorite fish would do. Just make sure that the fish is defrost thoroughly and doesn't smell. if it does wash it with turmeric juice. that should do it. Nigella used Salmon .. and fried it using garlic infused oil. Don't worry if you don't have it.. hahaha :) I used vegetable oil.

Seared Madras Fish (inspired by Nigella Lawson)

Ingredients:

white fish
2-3 tbsp fish curry powder
salt, pepper
oil for frying

Method

1. Mix the curry powder, salt and pepper together in a bowl. Rub the mixture on the fish thoroughly. 
2. Heat the pan with oil and cook the fish on high heat for 2-3 minutes a side. Sear the sides if the fish is too thick. 
3. Serve on a plate. 

Green beans with Peanuts and Shallots

Ingredients:

Green Beans
2-3 tbsp fried peanuts (chopped)
2 shallots (minced)
salt, pepper
lemon juice to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

1. Boil the green beans in salted water until tender. Drain and rinse in cold running water to set color. 
2. Heat oil in skillet. Add the shallots for 1 minute.
3. Toss in the green beans until heated through
4. Add salt and pepper. Squirt a bit of lemon juice. Remove from heat
5. Toss in the chopped peanuts. 
6. Serve with the madras fish. 

Madras Fish & Green Beans with Peanuts & Shallots

It's so elegant and so easy that no one would know you spent less than half hour to make this dish ;) Have fun in the kitchen!

Caramel Bread Pudding

my favorite recipe book ever! 

I was a bit down today and decided to meet up a friend of mine. She's just given birth to a beautiful baby girl and I haven't even paid both the baby and the proud mummy a visit. As the decision was last minute. I decided to make a quick dish. Something that a mummy in confinement and a grandmother can eat. Something simple and delicious. I took out my Nigella Express book .. there it is.. caramel croissant pudding.

I didn't have croissant.. not even stale croissants.. but I did have white bread. The recipe also called for full milk and heavy cream for the custard.. I didn't have either. But I did have lots of low fat milk. :D Nigella also added bourbon.. she said if you don't have bourbon.. use sherry.. ermm.. I don't drink. So vanilla essence it is :p 

I'm going to give my version of Nigella Lawson's recipe. But here is the link to her recipe. 

Ingredients:

5-6 slices of white bread

100g caster sugar (less than 1/2 cup) 

2 tablespoon water

250ml low fat milk (1 cup)

a splash of vanilla essence (1 tbsp)

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup raisins/sultanas/cherries for toppings

so divine! 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180degC
2. Tear the bread into pieces and put in a small dish. I used a small 6" aluminum foil. 
3. Put the caster sugar and the water into a pan. Swirl around to dissolve the sugar before putting the pan on medium/high heat. Don't stir!
4. Caramelize the sugar and water mixture by letting it bubble away, DON'T STIR!, until it all turns a deep amber color. It takes about 3-5 minutes. Don't be too timid.. but keep looking to avoid the caramel to burn :D
5. Once you have that amber color, turn the heat down low and add the milk. Ignore the spluttering, and whisk away the milk. The solid toffee that forms in the pan will dissolve if u keep whisking over low heat.
6. After the toffee has dissolved, take the pan off the heat, still whisking, add the beaten eggs. 
7. Congratulations you've just made caramel custard. :) 
8. Pour the caramel custard over the bread and leave to steep for a few minutes if the breads are very stale.
9. Sprinkle with raisins/cherries/sultanas.. whatever you like. I had lots of raisins so I used those. :) 
10. Bake for 20 minutes in the heated oven.  
11. Like Nigella said in her book.. Prepare to swoon! :D