Rocky Road Bites

In our zeal to make and bake lots and lots of sweet treats, my sisters and I often buy ingredients and forget about them soon after. This eventually leads to panic when we discover them a couple months down the road and find out that their expiry date is coming up soon. A pack of marshmallows were one of these forgotten ingredients, and so, we had to find a recipe that uses marshmallows. This is harder than it sounds because we all actually don't like marshmallows all that much. Goodness knows why we bought them in the first place, or what we were planning to make with them. :P

In any case, we finally found one, so here we go!

What you need:
125g milk chocolate - we used plain chocolate
50g mini multi-coloured marshmallows - we used large ones, chopped into quarters. But they were multi-coloured. :D
25g chopped walnuts - we used a handful of cashews instead
25g no-soak apricots - we used Jacob's Weetameal biscuits instead, broken up into small pieces

PS - I know, it seems like we changed *ALL* of the ingredients, haha. But that's the beauty of this recipe! You can adapt it to your taste

What you do:

1. Line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside. (We used mini cupcake cups instead)
2. Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool.
3. Stir in the marshmallows, cashews and enough biscuit pieces so that it is well-covered but not too liquidy from too much chocolate.
4. Place heaped teaspoons of the marshmallow mixture on to the prepared baking tray (or cups, as we did). Sprinkle with sprinklables, if you so wish.
   
5. Leave the sweets to chill in the refrigerator until set.

And that's it! Supreeeemely easy sweet treats! And let me tell you, these are a real treat. We used plain chocolate instead of milk mainly because we didn't have any milk chocolate handy.... but I quite liked it, as its less sweet with more of a chocolate flavour rather than sugar. You get enough sugar from the marshmallows anyhow.

Anyway, I really really liked these. The chocolate-covered marshmallows turn into something really really nice and not so marshmallow-y... slightly chewy, even, while the biscuits give a nice crunch. Again, you can use any biscuits you wish, we just happened to have the Weetameal ones handy. :D

We decided to place them in the paper cups to make them easier to handle, but if you wish, you can also make them on the baking tray and then place the bites into paper cases before serving. They just look prettier, is all. Also, after a few failures in getting people to eat unidentifiable chocolate things, we decided to sprinkle some rainbow sprinkles to ... well, make them look prettier, hehe. These are highly optional.

The best thing about this is that its so easy. Little kids can definitely help, I think, though not without making a huge mess. :P You can use any ingredient you happen to have at home. And they're delicious! Nothing much you can complain about that combination. :D

Quote of the day: Chocolate is nature’s way of making up for Mondays.

Chocolate Tiramisu Layers

One of my siblings' favorite dessert to make (and eat!) is a tiramisu made of, of course, cream cheese and sponge fingers and liberal sprinklings of milo. It's hugely popular with the rest of the extended family as well. Surprisingly, one of the most adept at making this dish is one of my brothers, so when me and my sister decided to make tiramisu for a recent family gathering, we were struggling to remember how to make it. I never made it myself.

We did manage to track down the recipe in the end, but because we were unsure as to the freshness of our eggs, and this was an unbaked recipe... it might have not been a good idea. So we decided to make this one instead... here we go!

What you need:
(serves 6)
150mL double cream
300g plain chocolate
400g mascarpone cheese
400mL black coffee with 4 tablespoons caster sugar, cooled
36 sponge fingers
Cocoa powder (we used milo), for dusting

What you do:

1. Whip the cream until it just holds its shape. Melt the chocolate, then leave to cool slightly. Stir in the mascarpone cheese and cream.
2. Pour the coffee into a bowl. Dip the sponge fingers into the mixture briefly so that they absorb the coffee but do not become soggy.
3. Place 3 sponge fingers on 3 serving plates.
4. Spoon a layer of the masacarpone and chocolate mixture over the sponge fingers.
5. Place 3 more sponge fingers on top of the mascarpone layer. Spread another layer of mascarpone and chocolate mixture and place 3 more sponge fingers on top.
6. Leave the tiramisu to chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Dust with a little cocoa powder just before serving.
   

The main difference between this recipe and the one we originally wanted to make is that this recipe uses mascarpone cheese instead of cream cheese. Plus, this one also has a boost of chocolate added into the cheese, which makes for a really creamy, really chocolatey dessert. Which is just perfect...

Or at least it would be, if we didn't use too many sponge fingers and spread the cheese mixture too thin! See... this was supposed to be individual servings, as you can see from the recipe. But to make it stretch, we used enough sponge fingers for two containers about 8 x 5 inches in size. The first container wasn't so bad, but the second container was quite dry because the sponge fingers, of course, had swelled up in size, leaving very little cheese in between them.

That being the case, these still proved popular, so if you're looking for a new tiramisu recipe to try, why not this one? :) I shall have to try their signature tiramisu someday, but for now, this will suffice.

Quote of the day: There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate.

Prawn with Broccoli

Wahey! My very first post with prawns in it. No, I still don't eat prawns, but this was a special request. :)

So... unlike me, most of my siblings love prawns, crabs, satak and any other crustacean they can get their hands on. One of their favorite dishes (apparently) is this, prawns cooked quickly with broccoli, since they like prawns and they like broccoli. :P Recently, Ibu brought this to a family gathering where it proved to be very popular and one of my cousins wanted to know how to make it. So... here we go.

What you need:
Prawns
Broccoli, chopped into small florets

Salt, for seasoning
Cornflour
Oyster sauce
Oil, for frying

What you do:

1.  Heat enough oil in a frying pan to shallow fry the prawns. Meanwhile, season the prawns to taste with salt and add a little bit of cornflour. Once the oil is hot, fry the prawns until cooked and crispy, then set aside.
2. Place about a tablespoonful of the oil used for frying the prawns in a large wok and heat. Add in the broccoli and oyster sauce, and stir fry until cooked to your liking. If you desire a sauce, add in some water.
3. Finally, tip in  he prawns. Stir quickly to mix and serve immediately, with steamed white rice.

Sorry about the measurements, but they really are all "to taste". If you want to make this more of a veggie dish, you add more broccoli and less prawns. On the other hand, if you want to make this into more of a main dish, you do the opposite. :) Babah likes it dry without the sauce, but for my sisters, the sauce is one of the best parts, so... its up to you. The great thing about such simple recipes is that you can modify it till it suits your taste.

And ... um, since I didn't really eat it, I can't say much about it, so I'll see you next time!

Quote of the day: The only kind of seafood I trust is the fish stick, a totally featureless fish that doesn't have eyeballs or fins.

Chef Wan's Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know. I said I've found my perfect cookies and don't really want to bake a different chocolate chip cookie recipe anymore. But I've had this recipe written in my book for ages already, and I figure its time to cross it out. :) Someone I knew used to bake these cookies as her signature cookies, but her cookies were always too large and too... hard. You felt like your teeth would break everytime you bit into one, haha. So me and my sister decided to make our cookies bite-sized instead. Easier to handle. :) So... here we go!

What you need:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons milk
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

What you do:

1. Grease a baking tray lightly and preheat oven to 175 C.
   
2. Cream the butter with an electric mixer. Add the vanilla and sugars. Beat until fluffy.
3. Add in the egg. Decrease the speed and beat in the cocoa powder and milk.
4. In another bowl, stir flour and baking soda with a wooden spoon. Fold mixture into the butter and sugar mixture. Add chocolate chips to the dough and mix well.
5. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough onto prepared baking tray and bake in oven for 12-13 minutes. Cool on trays for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
   

Truth be told, I prefer *my* signature cookie recipe. Its so much easier, no need for an electric mixer. :P This particular recipe is fairly similar to the various other chocolate cookie recipes I've tried... Chunky Chocolate Drops, in particular. These cookies are not quite as rich as that one, though they are still quite chocolatey.

What I didn't like so much about these were they were more ... crunchy, rather than crisp. I like my cookies crisp, almost like potato crisps in texture. ;) These were crunchier, heavier. Not so bad, but still... not so nice, in my opinion. They were very chocolatey though.... that I liked. :D

However, we brought this to a family gathering and found that although the adults liked it, the kids found it too bitter, haha. One way to make sure they don't eat too much cookies, I guess? In the end, the jar of cookies we brought was finished off by the adults, not the children. That is something that rarely happens!

Its a good thing that this doesn't make a huge batch. Probably about half the amount of the v6.5 cookies. Even so, with no boys around to eat them, it was a bit difficult to finish them off. :P In the end, we used it in out next recipe... so I'll see you then! ;)

Quote (Joke) of the day: This guy found a bottle on the ocean, and he opened it and out popped a genie, and he gave him three wishes. The guy wished for a million dollars, and poof! there was a million dollars. Then he wished for a convertible, and poof! there was a convertible. And then, he wished he could be irresistible to all women... poof! he turned into a box of chocolates.

RasaMas Restaurant, Kiulap

Oops, this post is a bit late... apologies again. *^_^* I've been too busy with random stuff these days.

Anyways, I first heard of RasaMas restaurant back when I was studying in Bristol. A Malaysian friend of mine mentioned that Ayamas had a restaurant franchise called RasaMas. I was a huge fan of Ayamas back then (I think their products have since deteriorated) and was desperate to find one. I tried looking for one in Miri, in KL, but was always unsuccessful.

Cut to two years later. Now, Brunei has its own RasaMas restaurant. Two, in fact, with the newly opened one in Kiulap. Before I came back from the UK this year, the rest of my family had already tried out the one in Giant. When I heard that, I was desperate to try, but they all claimed that they had a horrible meal there with bland food and did not want to go back there. So I thought... okay, fine. Seven people can't all be wrong, right?

Then, last month, there was an advertisement about the new branch in Kiulap. After a bit of dithering and dathering, we finally finally decided to try it out one weekend. And boy, was I glad we did!

I had been craving nasi ayam (chicken rice) and luckily, that is RasaMas' speciality dish! They have chicken rice served with either percik, golden or pepper roasted chicken. We decided to go for a set meal for 4 people that had the chicken rice and assorted accompaniments - all for less than $20. Not a bad deal!

Here's what you get...

A chicken soup of some sort. The croutons look pretty, but were a bit weird tasting... like airy chicken fat, if you can imagine that, haha.

Japanese tofu... quite nice when hot. They kind of taste eggy and crispy. The sauce tasted like sesame oil. You also get a plate of veggies, but I didn't have the chance to take pictures of that. It was mostly made up of beansprouts.

And of course... the chicken. We got the pepper roasted flavour. Very very yummy. I couldn't really taste the pepper, but it was flavoursome all the same. A bit oily, but very very very juicy. Very delicious! Seriously. Mmmmmmmmmm!

Here's a shot with the rice. The chicken rice was also rather good. A bit blander than I would like, but really not bad.

The rest of the menu is pretty simple, since I think these roasted chickens (or Roasters, as they are called) are their main dish. They do offer other things though, some of them basically Ayamas products cooked up for you. Like these sausages.

Babah also ordered a bowl of.... erm... kari laksa noodles, I think. I am no expert in ths, but he said it wasn't too bad and was actually better than the one he had at La Mee a couple of weeks back. He wasn't too impressed with that particular one, but quite liked this one. :)

So there you go... my review of a restaurant I almost didn't get to eat at. Seriously. Everytime I suggested going to RasaMas, everyone would shout out "No!". I think they were feeling sorry for me in the end, and finally decided to go... and were pleasantly surprised. I guess if you already have low expectations, you can't be disappointed. :P But I liked it, so that's that! Hee~

Right... hopefully, the next post will come in a more timely fashion!