Rum Infused Prawns with Caramelised Onion

I can call this dish rum infused prawns with caramelised onion, which sounds like a name of a dish in a posh restaurant; or it can be called fried prawns with soya sauce (si-chap har or 酱油爆虾), which will then probably not catch your attention, but means same thing, without the glam.

This fish monger in the wet market was trying to sell us these big prawns which he claimed were caught fresh the evening before. I thought I'll stock up for Chinese New Year reunion dinner before the prawn price sky rocketed, so we bought 1Kg.

Back home, I took out six to cook for lunch just to try if it was as fresh as the fish monger claimed. There was a bottle of rum at the pantry which hubs recently bought for me to use for cooking/baking. So I thought, maybe I can try to use the rum on the prawns.

♥Recipe for Rum Infused Prawns with Caramelised Onion (or fried prawns with soya sauce)♥
My own creation

You will need :

6 palm size prawns (size is from head to tail)
1 tsp rum
1 shallot sliced
1 tbs soya sauce
2 tbs oil
Method :

1) Deveined the prawn
2) Heat oil in wok, toss in sliced shallot and fry until, well, caramelised (i.e. soft and slightly brown)
3) Put in the prawns to fry, try to move the shallots to the top of the prawns, so that when the prawns are fried, the shallot does not get burnt. Fry the prawn about 1 minute on each side.
4) Pour in the rum, and stir fry everything in the wok, so that the prawns and shallots are infused in the rum
5) Pour in the soya sauce, and stir again, so that the prawns are evenly seasoned

So the fish monger was right, the prawns were very fresh. Hubs like the hint of rum taste in the prawns, and I like the fragrant of the caramelised onion.

Fried Chicken - Momofuku Style

I love fried chicken, actually, who doesn't? So when I saw the Momofuku Fried Chicken recipe posted by Ellie, my first thought was I had to try it.

We have been doing our fried chicken the same way, i.e. season the chicken with salt and pepper, then fry it. Sometimes, we'll add some tumeric powder, just to give it a 'twist'.

The Momofuku recipe, calls for the chicken to be steamed first, then only fried. This mean, the frying time is reduced, making the chicken more tender and juicy inside.

My photos are not as nice as Ellie's, you should check out how she captured the simple fried chicken dish.

Zaria, my youngest, who's the biggest fan of fried chicken, loved every bit of it.

♥Momofuku Fried Chicken♥
Adapted from Ellie of Almost Bordain, who has adapted the recipe from Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan. My chicken was half of Ellie's portion, so I adjusted the recipe accordingly.

You'll need

2 cups lukewarm water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup sea salt
5 drumsticks
Cooking oil for frying

Method

1) Mix the water, sugar, and salt in a container with a lid and stir until the sugar and salt dissolve.
2) Place the chicken into the the brine, ensuring it's covered by the brine, refrigerate for 1 hour.
3) Drain the chicken and discard the brine.
4) Steam the chicken in medium heat for about 30mins, remove and let it cool on a rack for 1 hr (recipe calls for cooling it in refrigerater on a rack for at least 2 hours or overnight).
5) Heat oil in a wok and fry the chicken until crisp, 6 to 8 minutes.
6) Remove and place on wire mesh or kitchen towel to drain.

Cupcakes - For Kathy's MIL

I made these for my neighbour, Kathy's MIL's birthday, the design is exactly the same as the cupcakes I made for the girls' school party.

And glad she liked it.

Vanilla Cupcakes - The Girls' Joined Birthday Cupcakes

Cupcakes are easy to make, if you burnt one or two in the process, you still have the rest of the lot to fall back on. Unlike a cake, if you burnt it, you'll have to make them all over again.

I always make mine using butter vanilla flavour. My hubs and I like them plain. My girls love them decorated; here is the recipe :

♥Vanilla Cupcakes♥
Makes about 12 muffin size cupcakes, and 30 mini cupcakes

You'll need :

225g butter
225g castor sugar
225g self raising flour (sifted)
4 eggs
1tsp vanialla essence

Method :

1) Heat the oven to 180C
2) Cream butter and sugar until pale.
3) Beat in the eggs one by one, making sure it's well beaten and mixed before adding the next.
4) Add in vanilla essence.
5) Stir in self raising flour.
6) Spoon batter into cupcake casing.
7) Bake cupcake for 20minutes in oven or until done.

(You can also bake a 20cm round cake using the above recipe, but the baking time will be ~55mins).

For my daughters' recent joined birthday celebration in school, I made sixty over cupcakes, and that's double of the above amount, and I used store bought sugar flower (which tasted rather corn-starchy) for decoration.

Mermaid Cake for Zara's 5th Birthday

My 5 year old is very into mermaids these days; ask her who her favourite princess is, and she'll say it's Ariel; and she always pretends to be one by 'swimming' (more like slithering actually) around the house with a cloth over her legs (that's her tail).

For her 5th birthday, I decided to make her a cake with mermaid figurines and undersea creatures using fondant. This is my first attempt doing figurines and it took me a while to get the mermaid done. Unfortunately, the 1st mermaid figure that I made melted, I blame it on the hot and humid weather. This did not dampant my spirit, and I made a replacement, but I wasn't confident in making any sea creatures.

This is her cake covered in fondant and topped with a mermaid, surrounded by cupcakes for the children.

I used Pettinice ready to roll fondant, and it tasted much much better.

Fairy Cupcakes For Zara's 4th Birthday Party

Cupcakes are great for parties; as the individual cake makes serving convenient, even more so when there are children among the guests.

For my daughter's 4th birthday, I was looking around for someone who could make nice looking cupcakes for a reasonable price. I needed about 60 of them, it would cost me a lot if the cupcakes were priced RM5 or RM8 per piece.

Eventually, I decided to make them myself, and decorate them using butter cream frosting.

(Btw, I prior to this, I made a batch of cream cheese frosting just to try out the taste, but no one in the family liked it, so butter cream frosting it was.)

Here is the recipe for butter cream frosting :

You'll need :
240g (1cup) butter
300g (3 cups) icing/confectioner's sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1 to 2 tbs whipping cream

Method :

1) Whisk together sugar and butter on low speed until well blended then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3mins.
2) Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium for another minute or more, adding more cream for spreading consistency.

There's no raw egg (salmonella?) nor shortening (composition is close to plastic?) involved, but just butter and sugar, and hence the frosting is a little more sweet than those you find in shops.

My daughter called them her fairy cakes.

Donna Hay's Chrismas Pudding

Many were interested in getting the recipe of the pudding I made, I got it from Donna Hay Modern Classics Book 2.

Click on the pix to read the details.

In my case, I made them in individual sizes.

So the cloth size should be 30cm (12inch) squares x 8.

Each pudding should be holding ~250g mixture.

Cooking time : 1hr 30mins. Reheat time : 30mins boiling (that's what the recipe suggested but I steam for similar amount of time instead).

Enjoy.