Peanut Butter Indomie Goreng - Happy New Year 2013

Wanna crank your Indomie Goreng up a few notches?
Add 1 tbsp peanut butter mixed with 1 tsp hot water, freshly chopped chilli & a touch of lime juice.
My first breakfast in 2013.
Happy new year, everybody!

Ps. Excuse the iPhone photo, my DSLR is in Canon hospital :(

Peanut Butter Brownie

Sigh... if only every failure looked this good!

You may not believe it... but I failed this brownie recipe. This was my second attempt and I still failed.

Sobs. But at least I ended up with......this beautiful failure.
In my first attempt, I mistakenly melted dark chocolate chips into the batter, and ended up with burnt top + jiggly bottom.

In this second attempt, I carefully followed the recipe, covered the baking tray with aluminium foil to prevent from burning. The top's done beautifully, but the bottom was never set no matter how long I baked it for. 

I really don't know what I did wrong...

But rich melted chocolate + savory peanut butter?

Failure or not, still tasted pretty bloody amazing.

Here's the recipe if you wanted to give it a try, many have succeeded, I am sure I failed because of my own stupidity. Thanks Mrs Ergul for sharing the recipe with me. I still licked the tray clean :)

Fruity English Muffin Breakfast

I'm a huge savory girl, especially for breakfast. I just can't have sweet muffins for breakfast. No matter how sweet it will make my day...

So. I made these as the "dessert" of my breakfast. The savory version's the one with smoked salmon & cream cheese.

Don't you love English muffins? They're wonderfully chewy and even more delicious when buttered and toasted!

Even when I do sweet version, it needs to have a bit of savory touch, so here we go.. the vulgar shot!

What's in this sinful breakfast?
"Recipe"
Butter and toast English muffins, slather generously with peanut butter, add hazelnut spread (e.g. Nutella), add fresh berries (I used strawberries and blueberries), dust a bit of icing sugar, and serve. I like mine with black coffee or unsweetened tea.

I still have more English muffin combos... please bear with me ^_^
I bought a pack and there are only 3 of us, so we had to eat them a few days straight. Not that we're complaining. We love English muffins!

Nutella Cheesecake with Peanut Butter Crust FAIL

Failure is merely a delayed success.
That's what I keep telling myself every time.

The idea is not too bad, but the execution is crap. I made too much crust (I used only half of the whole thing I made, and look at it, it's half of the whole cheesecake!) and it falls apart even after a night of staying in the fridge. Ugh. And I didn't put enough Nutella in the cheesecake batter. Sigh...

Ah well...better luck next time ^_^

Easy Roasted Pumpkin Cheesecake with Peanut Butter Oreo Crust Recipe

Halloween is coming and I feel obligated to do something pumpkin to compensate the lack of slutty costume planning. So this is what I did.

You know my baking is the exact opposite of refined. No cute decoration, it's not a super smooth cheesecake, not done in a proper cake mold. It's pretty rough around the edges with bits of roasted pumpkin in it...or maybe I should call it "rustic".

And don't ask me what's with the peanut butter. Why did I think that peanut butter plus roasted pumpkin plus oreo would be a good idea? I don't know. But, luckily, the end result was pretty damn delish. Phew!

Recipe
- 1 block of cream cheese
- a quarter of a small (around 15cm diameter) pumpkin, remove seeds, remove skin
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp cream
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 1 whole packet of oreo
- 2 heaping tbsp peanut butter
- 1 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 180C, roast pumpkin until soft. Meanwhile, prepare crust. In a food processor, pulse oreos + peanut butter + butter until smooth. Pour into lightly greased pan. Set aside.

Once soft, remove roasted pumpkin, set aside to cool down, cut into chunks. Cut cream cheese into chunks, throw it into food processor, add the rest of the ingredients, pulse until everything's combined. Don't worry about little bits of pumpkin. Pour batter onto the crust, bake in 150C oven for about 20 minutes. Cool down and refrigerate.

Or spoon the custardy warm batter fresh out of the oven with a spoon, and ofcourse, lick the spoon clean.
Yum!

Now tell me more about your slutty Halloween costume...

Peanut Butter & Nutella Muffins - I'm A Blue & White Junkie

In between crazy work days, checking out the new flat's progress and mad rush packing, I still had the time to smile happily at my blue and whites, stroking them with love, as I carefully, painstakingly wrapped them, individually with bubble wrap. I just love them so much, it is surprising that I didn't paint my whole new flat blue and white.

Look what I've found at the bottom of my harddisk?
Peanut Butter & Nutella Muffins

How could I keep these babies in the corner? PB & N, they are one of my favorite combos ever!
Recipe
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp peanut butter (and more for filling)
- 2 tbsp nutella (and more for filling)
- 1 egg white (you can include the yolk if you want to)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- a dash of vanilla
- 2/3 cup plain yoghurt

Preheat oven to 180C. Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl, except peanut butter and nutella. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mix a bit, add peanut butter and nutella, whisk until just combined. Pour batter into muffin tray lined with paper cups half way, spoon a bit of peanut butter and nutella in the middle, top off with more batter until 3/4 full, bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Imagine biting into them, right in the middle where the warm peanut butter and nutella filling are...that's sick!

Blue and White Addiction
Now, how do I feed my blue and white addiction? Gawd, Hong Kong is a heaven full of them! Living here feels like a drug addict passing by numerous dealers offering goods at unbelievably low prices all the time, and it ain't easy resisting all the temptations.


This is one of my favorite blue and white joints, look at all those adorable beauties. They look so sad not being bought...all of them are calling my name, begging me to take them home...


Maybe after I get myself a bigger storage so that you can all live more comfortably, my babies...so long...

The shop is in Soho's Elgin St, Central.
Go on, but don't go crazy like me.

Griddle Cakes, Peanut Butter and Plum Jam: All Homemade!

I've never fancied myself to be so absolutely domestic...pranching around the kitchen (and not tripping) producing home made everything. Nonono. If I could get away with something store-bought, I would.

However, after I started this low-iodine cooking...which require most food to be prepared at home to avoid forbidden ingredients (e.g. iodized salt, dairy products, yolks, soy based products, etc), it got me hooked. At first I couldn't imagine orchestrating 3 meals per day at home. It's just ridiculous and almost impossible to execute with a full time job, hobbies such as blogging and shopping, obligation to exercise regularly, and other addictions such as Top Chef, Jamie's at home, America's Next Top Model, etc.

But once I started...I couldn't stop! It's crack-like addictive! I kept blurting homemade goodies out of my kitchen like how I blurt stuff I should not have said in girls-only gossip night. Hehe! These holiday season, I even ignored my "underground" cupcake supplier, didn't order a thing! I felt that I should be able to make them at home, and not only that, increase the challenge and make them low iodine! HAH!

The recipe book from www.thyca.org helped me a lot. Those who had gone through this experience shared that breakfast is the most challenging meal to prepare. Hell yeah! When we think of breakfast...we think milk, cheese, eggs, and all sorts of yummy goods with high iodine. Check out some of my favorite low iodine breakfast treats. Take extra care, it's gonna be a rough ride.

Homemade Peanut Butter

Peeling the skin of the nuts was kinda theurapeutic. It tested our patience and persistence!


The beautiful scent of roasted peanuts made us feel better.

Recipe
(from www.thyca.org), halved
- 2 cups unsalted peanuts
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
If nuts are not roasted, preheat oven to 180C. Place peanuts in a single layer on baking sheet
and place in oven. Cook until peanuts are toasted, approx. 6-8 minutes. Shake pan a couple of times
for overall browning. Remove pan from oven.
Place roasted peanuts in food processor (they can still be warm from roasting). Add salt and sugar.
Turn on processor and drizzle in oil. Process until smooth.
(Contributed by Kim S. of New Jersey)

This is soo easy to make, absolutely delicious and it multi tasks! It's not only fantastic accompanying home made bread and cakes for breakfasts, it can be turned into muffins, cookies, and sauces!

Homemade Plum Jam

Look at the sparkles of ruby reds...how gorgeous!

Recipe
- 2 cups of plums (remove core, cut into sections)
- 2 cups of caster sugar
Process plum in food processor, pour into a pot, add sugar, cook on low heat until the color goes deep red and it's thickened, transfer into sterilized jars.

A pot of bubbling gorgeousness.

This baby also multi tasks. It's not only perfect with homemade bread, cakes, or paired with home made peanut butter, it's perfect for glazing grilled meat (chicken, pork, beef), as sauce for stir fry dishes, or even dilluted in water or soda as drinks (hot or cold)!

Homemade Griddle Cakes

Recipe
(from www.thyca.org)
Beat:
- 2 egg whites with
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
Add
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Stir in:
- 1 cup flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Then add:
- 1/2 cup water (more as desired for batter
thickness)
Stir until the batter is the consistency of thick cream. Spoon batter onto hot griddle which has been
greased with a bit of vegetable oil. Excellent hot with homemade jam or real maple syrup. Freeze leftovers and pop in toaster. Also excellent with breakfast sausage recipe.
(Contributed by Susan L)

Phew! It's almost the end of sous chef's low iodine diet, I'll just have to spill all my low iodine beans out ^_^

As for holiday snap of the day...

This was taken in front of Prince's Building, Central, Hong Kong. They have one of my favorite Christmas tree ornaments this year.

Now, I must go and catch up on my last minute Christmas shopping...the list goes longer and longer, as always ^_^

Yolkless Milkless Butternut Squash, Peanut Butter and Raisin Muffins

Restricted cooking. Boy, don't we all hate it?

In a perfect world, there will be no restriction. But my world is a gigabazillion (ref: no such word) miles away from perfect. Out of the 1000000001 variations of different restrictions (or lame excuses), the typical restrictions can be summarized into the following categories:
Ingredients
Especially those which are rarely used, thus, rarely available in Hong Kong. I could probably only get them in luxury supermarkets nowhere near me (a bus, a train, and a boat ride away to get a piece of fresh duck meat???!!! No way, Jose!).
Kitchen Accessories
Sometimes I select recipes to try based on...whether or not I have the appliances/gadgets required. I normally select recipes measured in cups, rather than grams, cos I don't have no kitchen scale, my friend! (Thank God for online converters ^_^). Sometimes it is fun trying to figure out a creative way to get away with not using the required gadget...like using normal bowls instead of muffin tray...but it is NO FUN chopping my arms off before (just like before I had my food processor) or whisking the bejezuz outta me (just like before I tried a hand mixer).
Financial Resources
Some ingredients/tools/gadgets are so freakin' expensive, I might have to sell my soul to buy them (oh well, so I exaggerated it a little, sue me!). Ehm, maybe they are not really THAT expensive...but it is just my Chinese-Javanese super stingy nature. It's in my blood! I can't help it!
Human Resources
Namely culinary skills or lack thereof. My biggest problem is...my inability to follow recipes. No, I am not an arrogant little bitch who only trust my own recipes. I just have a problem with following recipes. I guess this is just a nicer way to say that I am normally too lazy/impatient and always try to find shortcuts and skip some parts of the recipe (e.g. Oh, Come on!...do I really need to let the cookie dough chill for 1 hour? I think I can get away with cutting them NOW. Oppps, no, wait. It looks like I can't).

I never had to cook with dietary restrictions. This low iodine diet is something new to me. It is really challenging as well as interesting. If I had to name one ingredient that I miss the most...it has to be soy sauce. It's like breaking up with someone you still like. You've taken the person for granted, and you don't miss him/her until he/she is gone. Thennnn...you realized you can't live without this person and uh-oh! It's too late! Oh yeah, Mr. Soy Sauce. I miss you so so so much! I can't wait for us to get back together again in three weeks (I am counting the days).

Meanwhile, I will try the best I can to produce better-than-just-edible-despite-the-restrictions treats for sous chef, to facilitate his speedy recovery. This time, I am doing an adaptation of Jamie Oliver's Butternut Squash Muffins recipe...I call it an "adaptation" simply because...surprise, surprise! I can't follow the recipe exactly, as always.

Yolkless Milkless Butternut Squash, Peanut Butter and Raisin Muffins

I removed the egg-yolks from the recipe (low iodine diet), reduced the recipe to half (some of my regular guinea pigs are on business trip), added nutmeg (because I love nutmeg & cinnamon combo), added my home made peanut butter and raisins instead of walnuts (walnuts are expensive hehe), and removed the whole frosting part (no dairy products allowed - low iodine diet). Is there anyyyy part of the recipe that I still follow???

Recipe
- 1 cup of butternut squash, leave skin on, remove seed, chop into chunks
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 2 egg whites (you can include the yolk)
- non iodized salt (you can use normal salt)
- 1 & 1/4 cup plain flour
- 1 heaping tsp of baking powder
- 3 tbsp home made peanut butter (you can use normal peanut butter or a handful of peanuts)
- lots of cinnamon, and a couple sprinkles of nutmeg
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- a couple handful of raisins

Preheat oven to 180C. I threw all ingredients into my food processor (I didn't even bother with the sequence, apparently, I blame it on my lack of attention to detail) and blend until everything's mixed. Pour batter into muffin tray lined with paper cups, bake for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

I was wondering what do egg yolks do for this recipe if I could just take them out and they still taste fan-bloody-tastic? Hmmm....interesssting. The skippy jar is just to show that I made these babies with peanut butter. I actually used my home made peanut butter....whose jar isn't as photogenic as skippy. My bad, it is probably now suffering from low self esteem. I am gonna submit this to Nick's Peanut Butter Lover’s Month

...and....let me just shut up and wish you all a...

Super Easy Peanut Butter Oreo Mousse

I am losing it. Totally losing it. I meant my waist line (sob-freaking-sob), and I only have myself to blame. OK. I've never been stick thin. I always have chunks of meat here and there, but there were at least kinda at the right places ;). I had quite a waist before. Boy, I miss it.

There are a few (or a lot) of reasons behind the disappearing waist line....namely:
SOUS CHEF
Yes! I wrote this in capital letters. Plus, he can't argue against it here, so I am gonna blame it all on him. HA HA HA! Seriously. If you had a partner in crime, who shares the same flaming passion for tasty treats, the temptation gets too great to resist. Sous chef loves desserts, (despite all the denials) especially anything rich and chocolatey and I received regular, if not daily requests or demands to bake something decadent. A huge chocoholic myself, how could I resist? When faced with chocolates, my will power to resist automatically reduces itself to sub zero.

I am not really a couch potato. Unbelievable as it sounds, I actually enjoy physical exercises. However! If it's a situation such as:

An hour of body combat class (even if taught by Mr. Super Sexy Instructor)

-VS -

Mr. Super Sinful, Rich, and Gooey Dark Chocolate Cake

What is it gonna be?
Right.....(PS. If any one of you chose the class, kindly click the X button to exit this blog right now. Hehe)

I faced such situation almost daily now...and what made it even worse? Midnight Snacking! I guess, the more we eat, the hungrier we get. Yesterday, at around 11 pm (after having a proper dinner at around 7 pm, and a bite of dessert at 8) I mentioned that I fancied a bowl of the (again) sinful Indonesian Indomie Goreng (dry instant noodles), and then I thought better of it and decided not to go for it. However, my sweet sweet sweet loving Sous Chef, ever so kindly, insisted to cook the noodle and brought it to my already embedded on the couch lazy ass. Tell me how to say no to THAT?!!! My will power...I probably didn't even have one in the first place. LOL!

Aaaanyway...as long as I am enjoying every second of it...it's worth it!

Here's another worthy reason to indulge...
Super Easy Peanut Butter Oreo Mousse

Recipe
(yields 4 small cups)
- 1 cup of whipping cream
- 2 tsp sugar (you can omit if you don't want it so sweet)
- 3-4 tbsp peanut butter
- 4 oreo cookies, crushed

Mix cream and sugar in a mixing bowl, beat the heck outta them until fluffy, add peanut butter, beat until well mixed, fold in oreos, pour into small cups, refrigerate to set. No egg, no bake, easy peasy.

I am submitting this to...

NO BAKE!
by The Peanut Butter Boy

Shoot. Sous chef is probably now flexing all of his IT related muscles trying to find a way to delete this blog. I should stop blaming lol

Ebony & Ivory Banana Baked Goodies

Q&A SESSION

Q: Why two different kinds of banana baked goods?
Bullshit A: There are two sides on every coin, there's good and there's evil, there are plusses and there are minuses...yada yada yada...blablabla...(absolute rubbish LOL)
Real A: My oven capacity only allows me 1 batch of 6 servings at a time, and I have 10 small emperor bananas (1 batch requires 5) *_^

Q: Why Ebony and Ivory?
A: Because I was being a smart ass, thinking that combining all my favorite ingredients, peanut butter, nutella, chocolate chips and bananas, which resulted in the Ebony version would be pure genius, and...nope! All the additional ingredients overpowered the poor banana. We still kinda like 'em, though. Loved the touch of peanut butter and they were still moist, just don't bite into any choco chips, or that would be all you can taste.

The "less is more" version turned to be this perfect pale shade of Ivory, soft, moist, and very banana-ey. I am not taking sides here, but the crowd (i.e: a handful of people) loved the Ivory more

Q: Why "Baked Goodies"?
A: The last time I tried calling something "muffins", they turned out to be a "cake". I was contemplating calling the ebony ones "bread" but I am not even sure what "bread" or "cake" is, and for once I didn't feel like looking it up. So, guys, tell me know what they are from the recipe....I was THIS close to calling them banana thingy

Recipes

Ebony
- 1 cup self raising flour, sifted
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp peanut butter, melted, 1 tbsp nutella
- 1 tbsp oil (mine is olive & canola mix)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 handful of semi sweet chocolate chips
- 5 small emperor bananas, roughly mashed

Preheat oven 175C. Mix flour, sugar and salt in 1 bowl, mix the rest of ingredients in another bowl, make a well in the middle of flour, add the liquid ingredients, mix well. Brush cake mold with oil (I was using rectangular aluminium disposable mold, this was before I got my muffin tray), pour mixture into mold (3/4 full), bake for 25-30 minutes of until toothpick inserted into the "thingy" comes out clean.

Baking Blooper #1
I missed out 1 MAJOR ingredient here, guess what was it and win a little something?...^_^


Ivory
- 1 cup self raising flour, sifted
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup tbsp oil (mine is olive & canola mix)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup milk
- 5 small emperor bananas, roughly mashed

I made these the same way as the ebony version, just using different mold (I finally bought me a little muffin tray! YAYYYY!!!) with muffin paper cups

Baking Blooper #2
Those who watches "Top Chef Season 1" might remember that in one of the challenges, Miguel confused salt for sugar...I watched that episode NOT thinking "This could happen to the best of us" but bitchily thought "How could THAT happen?!! I bet that won't happen to me". Yeah yeah, I should've kept my arrogant little mouth shut, cos doing this Ivory version, I too pulled a Miguel and had to throw a batch of flour. LOL! Luckily I realized it before mixing all the ingredients or going ahead baking it....or my sous chef's family would have to nod and smile their way pretending that the super salty banana thingy was tasty! LOL

I am submitting this for the Banana Bread Bake Off at Not Quite Nigella

Peanut Butter Chicken Wings

The name says it all...how could this be not yummy? I think almost impossible hehe. This is a part of my continuous effort to keep my sous chef hooked on chickens *wink*. Luckily, I didn't have to put too much effort, as this peanut butter chicken wings are sooo easy peasy to make.

Ingredients
- 10 chicken wings (I could eat all 10, but I have a budget to stay within)
- peanut butter (a few tablespoonfuls)
- salt, pepper, sugar
- garlic, shallot, ginger (you can skip this altogether if you want)

I love boiling my chicken wings until they are pretty much thoroughly cooked before grilling to brown/crisp the skin, mainly because the sight of bloody undercooked chicken meat will make my sous chef swear off chickens forever and that is not good for me *grin* but you can skip this step if you wish.

Boil chicken wings with garlic, shallot, ginger, salt, pepper until thoroughly cooked, drain. Sprinkle salt and sugar, rub peanut butter all over the wings, grill until golden brown...and indulge. :)