Traditional Mooncake: 1st Trial

This year I have the urge to make my own mooncake. I have made some snowskin mooncake and am liking it. Last weekend I tried baking some traditional mooncake based on recipe from Lily of Lily's Wai Sek Hong.

The process is quite tedious as I started with making my own golden syrup as per Lily's recipe. Then a mixture for the dough need to be rest for an hour before mixing with the flour. The dough as per picture below will then be left to rest for 30minutes before it can be used.

The mooncake ready for their 1st bake/broil until brown. After which it needs to be cooled for 10-15 minutes before applying the egg wash and continue for 2nd bake.



The finished product.........

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ta da... my 1st batch of mooncake looks UGLY!!!!!

and I used the Mickey Mouse cutter for some of the dough but then the portion is too small... the Mickey's ears looks like cutted-off!!! Hubby said very creative but gotta try harder!

Mom and dad say the taste is ok but gotta improve on the look. And I promise myself I will.

My second batch look better and is still in the container. As advised by some blogger, baked mooncake taste better 2-3 days after it is baked. So I will wait till tomorrow before I taste my second batch. Will keep you posted ;)

Ondeh-ondeh: My comfort food on a Sunday afternoon

Last Sunday hubby was out meeting some soon-to-be neighbours while I spend the whole afternoon with Angel at home. We share a red bean pau for breakfast with a cup of spirulina cereal drinks. Put some cloths in the washing machine and prepared our lunch - chicken porridge. After putting Angel to her nap, I can't resist the temptation to make myself some kuih as I have not yet visited any pasar ramadhan.

I drove the car out while hubby and Angel are sleeping, just to get some freshly grated coconut to complete my kuih in mind - ondeh-ondeh. Its a kuih made from glutinous rice flour filled with palm sugar/gula melaka. I used a bowl of flour and make some 26 pieces of ondeh-ondeh for myself. Hubby does not like sweet stuff and glutinous is not suitable for kids, so I have all the ondeh-ondeh with a cup of coffee. MMmmmmm...

Clockwise from top: A packet of glutinous rice flour, two uncooked ondeh-ondeh, some cutted dough, a piece of palm sugar on dough (unwrapped) and pieces of palm sugar.

Angel looking at my unfinished task and though mummy is playing Play-doh!!!

My plate of hot ondeh-ondeh coated with fresh grated coconut!

Bagan Hailam Restaurant

My brother suggested to have dinner at Bagan Hailam, somewhere in Klang, last Saturday. Did some research on the net and found a few bloggers recommended this restaurant - Bagan Hailam Restaurant (BHR).

Tried calling a number stated on one of the blogs. The man who pick-up mentioned that he WAS the chef at BHR but now a chef at SK Seafood Restaurant just beside BHR. So, me not knowing whether to believe him or not, booked a table for 7 adults.

On the day, after a long journey from my brother's house in Puchong to Klang (Northport) we arrived at Bagan Hailam. There are a number of seafood restaurants but we decided to follow the bloggers' advice and look for BHR. Once there, we saw SK just next to BHR. The place look like Pulau Ketam but not as smelly.

I will let the pictures tell you the story from here...

A man came back with his catch. Can't see what??

There is a yatch club or something nearby

The place is surrounded by house like above.

The sky getting dark. A nice view my Angel, with my dad, don't wanna miss!

1st dish what else but mee hailam! Almost all the tables order this.
Taste... so so only

Stir fried mix vege Hailam style.
This is something.. :)

House specialty - fried tofu with sweet and sour sauce
Nothing special :(

Fried Bamboo clams with dried chili
Taste ... ok ok

Fried prawn mantis
Not very good :(

House specialty - Steam prawn
Not as nice as recommended.

BBQ Crab
Not bad.

The sky is almost dark when we finish

Happy Angel with daddy

The Kitchen of BHR - a few ladies instead of man

I guess we went with a high expectation and get disappointed with the food. Its not as good as described.

My Little Helper

I baked some muffin two weekends ago - this time I tried some apple muffin. Angel was around and wanted to help, more play than help actually. I took out the paper cups and asked Angel to arrange it on the baking tray while I measured and mix the ingredients.

To my surprise she did a good job, although some have got 2 cups sticked together.

My Angel working on the paper cups

When she completed the task, she shouted "Mommy, I'm done. Angel know how to!"

The muffin on the way in to the oven.

The apple cinnamon muffin

On my work table as my breakfast on Monday morning.

Reunited with my Angel!

After a long 3 days, I'm finally reunited with my Angel. She is as excited as I am when I went to pick her up at my mom's place. Shouting away when mom announced that I have arrived.

Only 3 days apart from her and somehow she look different. Taller, chubbier and more talkative. She is now talking in a sentence of more than 5 words. We speaks to her in mostly Mandarin and sometimes English. She will usually speaks in Mandarin even if we ask her question in English.

When Hubby saw her at home, he also commented that Angel look different. On Saturday morning, he said Angel is very zhi zha - very talkative or noisy :).

I was busy baking some muffin on Sunday while Angel is busy talking to me (Daddy is not at home at that time). Up to a point I didn't asnwer her, to my surprise she walk up to me, hug my leg (that 's where she can reach now) and say "wo de bao bei" (my precious!). How sweet of my girl!

My little Angel is growing up fast. She is full of surprises nowadays.