Check This Out! / Culinary Smackdown November 2010

Yesterday was a lazy and exciting Friday, all in one! Firstly, it was a holiday in Malaysia, being a public holiday for the celebration of Diwali, a celebration known as 'The Festival of Lights" for the Hindu community. I would  like to wish all my Hindu friends and family "A Happy Deepavali".

Since it was a holiday, we woke up later than usual.  The kids was still sleeping and I made some french toast for breakfast. They woke up to the yummy smell of the french toast with a happy face!  And since we had a late breakfast, I whipped up some fried rice for an even later lunch, though I should probably call it tea-time!  Then in the late evening, we went out to McDonalds, I don't really care for McDonalds, but the kids are all smiles, and it is conveniently opposite the store where I wanted to go, and I was rushing for some extra time before the store closes and after that comes the exciting part...... right after this!

Crunchy French Toast Sticks

Crunchy French Toast Sticks
This was taken from Allrecipes.com.  There was mixed reviews about this, just adjust to your own liking, though I think that the original will be quite bland. I add some salt, sugar and vanilla essence. And I use cooking oil to fry the bread instead of butter.
Ingredients :
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 cups corn flakes, crushed
4 slices bread, cut into thirds
1 tablespoons butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (my add-on)
pinch of salt (my add-on)
2 tbsp sugar (my add-on)

Directions :

1. Whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla essence, salt and sugar together in a bowl.  Spread the crushed corn flakes onto a plate.
2. Dip each piece of bread into the egg mixture and then press gently into the cereal, turning to coat completely.  Place the breadsticks onto a plate while breading the rest: do not stack.
3. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat, cook the coated breadsticks in the melted butter until golden, about 4 minutes each side.

Anchovies Fried Rice

Anchovies Fried Rice
(Just use whatever leftover veggies you have)
Ingredients :
3 cups cold cooked rice
50gm anchovies, split and cleaned
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small green capsicum
2 fresh red chillies
2 eggs, beaten, season with a little salt or soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon powdered anchovies
salt and pepper to taste
cooking oil

Method :

1. Fry anchovies in hot oil till crispy. Drain on paper towels and keep aside.
2. Saute minced garlic and onion till fragrant.  Add in capsicum and red chillies and stir for a minute or two. Scoop everything on to a plate and keep aside. (I usually do the lazy way and just put everything on one side of the wok).  
3. Pour the beaten eggs and scrambled fry till light brown. 
4. Add the cold rice and the ingredients from no 2 above. Fry till evenly mixed. Add powdered anchovies,salt and pepper to taste, continue frying for about 3-4 minutes.
5. Lastly, stir in fried crispy anchovies, stir and enjoy. Garnish with some chopped parsley or spring onions.

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Alright!  You've waited long enough!  Have you got your recipe going and ready for Culinary Smackdown Let's Get Tangy with Citrus November  2010 ? Remember, the challenge ends on November 29th, 2010 at 12.00 noon, Malaysian time.  

The exciting part is after our quick meal at McDonalds,  we went to the bookstore and I have picked the PRIZE for the winner of this month's Culinary Smackdown Challenge! 

CHECK THIS OUT!

The winner for this month's Culinary Smackdown Let's Get Tangy with Citrus November 2010 will receive this fabulous cookbook , HOME COOKING by RACHEL ALLEN

For more info on this fabulous book, check it out at Amazon.co.uk to read up on the fantastic reviews.  This book is suitable for what it was meant to be, home cooking!  There are lots of simple and yummy recipes that would make a good and satisfying meal in your house. You can also read this interesting post on David Lebovitz's blog on Plum and Rhubard Crisp from Rachel Allen.   So come on, send your entry and if you do not have one yet, dig out your recipes books, newspaper cuttings, magazines, whatever.... just whip out one yummy citrus treat, post it, submit and keep your fingers crossed that you will win this fabulous cookbook!

After all, one can never have enough of cookbooks, can we?  

To know more details and submit your entries, please click here

Good luck, everyone!

Culinary Smackdown November 2010 Challenge

Let's Get Tangy With Citrus!

This month's Culinary Smackdown theme is "Culinary Smackdown Let's Get Tangy With Citrus November 2010"!

Come on everyone, share your favourite citrus recipe! Anything citrus! Lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, any citrus fruits, it's up to you! It can be sweet or savoury, in any form of dessert or in your favourite dish! So put on your apron and tangy away! Or if you already have your favourite citrus recipe posted in your blog, you can use that too.

"Culinary Smackdown Lets' Get Tangy With Citrus November 2010" is now open, and will ends on November 29th, 2010 at 12.00 noon, Malaysian time, please refer here, the world clock,  for different time zones in your area.  I will announce the winner on December 1st, 2010! 

The winner will be hosting the next Culinary Smackdown Challenge December 2010. And there will be a prize for the winner! I have something in mind which I will be announcing later this week! So stay tuned!

Please remember to mention this Culinary Smackdown in your post and link it back to my site. And also please kindly leave a comment on this post that you have submitted your entry.

This is gonna be a fun ride. I can't wait to see all your delicious yummies!


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UPDATED : THE NEWS YOU ARE WAITING FOR :

The winner of "CULINARY SMACKDOWN LET'S GET TANGY WITH CITRUS NOVEMBER 2010" shall receive this fabulous cookbook , HOME COOKING by RACHEL ALLEN 

To know more about this fabulous book, click Amazon.co.uk  So what are you waiting for? Hurry up and submit your delicious entry.

Please submit your entries to the linky below. Good luck everyone!

Double Reasons For A Celebration!

This is my 100th post! When I started blogging,  I never knew that I would carry on to my 100th post, at first I thought that I would give up after a while, but no, I'm still here, blogging away! It has been a lovely 100  fun and yummy posts and there's more to come! Along 'this journey' of my 100 posts, I have read hundreds of other delicious and fabulous ones from all of you, of which I have tried out some of your recipes, but have not got round to posting them yet! I will!

I have been wanting to make this cake for months. Whenever a recipe calls for the egg whites to be beaten separately, I always put it off "until I have the time"! I'm really lazy at beating the egg whites separately because that means I have to wash my stand mixer bowl after that and use it again to mix the other ingredients! There's no other bowl to fit my stand mixer. See how lazy I am? So for recipes like this, I always put it off again and again. But then, I kept going back to this recipe again and again, finally I told myself that I'll bake this cake for my 100th post!  Made it yesterday (phew, that's one off the list!) and this cake turns out to be really delicious!  More about this cake after this exciting news!

The exciting news is.......I'm the winner of "Culinary Smackdown Battle Chile October 2010" hosted by Rebecka of At Home With Rebecka!  Yahooooo! It is really exciting! I never thought that I would win this! I have never won anything in any contest or anything, except when I was in my 3rd or 4th grade, I won 2 sets of story books for my entry in a radio contest! LOL!

My winning entry Sambal Petai with Eggs

All the other entries in the Culinary Smackdown are simply fabulous! To take a look at other delicious entries, please hop over to At Home With Rebecka. To make this even more exciting, Rebecka has been so kind and sweet to present the winner with this fabulous gifts, a Teapot and Cup set for one, and a tin of Apple Spice Tea!

This is like putting icing on a cake! A fantastic way to 'celebrate' my 100th post!  Thank you, Rebecka! I would pass a slice over to you if I could!

Now as the winner, I'll be hosting the challenge for November. Gosh, I have yet to think of a theme for this month's challenge! So stay tuned for this, I'll be announcing it real soon!  

Now, back to this cake. This is really a delicious cake. The bottom layer is chocolate sponge and it is not at all dry as some other sponge cakes, and the best thing is it refrigerates well.  The top layer is made up of cream cheese and a little amount of sour cream, but I use my own homemade yoghurt instead.  There's a wonderful fragrant smell of the orange zest and together with the orange juice, gives a light delightful taste of the orange and cheese, all blended into one yummy cake. 

I refrigerate the cake overnight and had a slice this morning. Goodness, it is so yummy! The top layer is really moist and creamy. The bottom layer is chocolaty. They are perfect together!  I highly recommend that you try and bake this!

I'm sharing this fabulous cake with Cookbook Sundays at Brenda's Canadian Kitchen

Orange Baked Cheesecake
(adapted from "Baking Code" by Alex Goh)

For the Chocolate Sponge Cake layer, 23cm round :
Ingredients A
5 egg yolks
20gm sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Ingredients B
5 egg whites

Ingredients C
120gm sugar

Ingredients D
90gm plain flour
20gm cocoa powder

Ingredients E
60gm corn oil

Method :

1. Whip ingredients A, until light and fluffy.
2. Whip ingredient B, until soft peak forms.  Add in ingredients C, continue whipping until stiff.
3. Mix the egg white mixture with ingredients A until well blended.
4. Fold in ingredients D, mix until well-combined.  Add in ingredients E, mix until well incorporated.
5. Pour it into a greased and lined round mould.
6. Bake at 180 degrees C for 30 minutes. Remove the cake immediately when baked. Cool on a wire rack.

For the Cream Cheese Layer

Ingredients A

250gm cream cheese

20gm sugar

1 orange zest

Ingredient B

3 egg yolks

Ingredients C

30gm orange juice

80gm sour cream (I use my homemade yoghurt)

Ingredient D

25gm plain flour

Ingredient E

3 egg white

55gm sugar

Method :

1. Grease and line the sides and bottom of a 23cm round springform mould.  Base a greaseproof paper.  Wrap the outside of the mould with aluminium foil. (extending over all around).
2. Cream ingredients A until light.  Add in ingredient B, cream until smooth.
3. Add in ingredients C, cream until well-blended.  Add in ingredient D, mix until well-combined.
4. Whip ingredients E until the soft peak stage.
5. Mix the whipped egg white with the above cheese mixture until well incorporated.
6. Place a layer of sponge at the bottom of the mould.  Pour the cheese mixture over the cake.
7. Bake in a water bath (Bain Marie method) at 160 degrees C for 1 hour.

(my notes : the sponge cake will shrink slightly upon cooling. I suggest using a smaller springform mould, about 20-21cm when getting ready to bake for the top layer.)