It's baking time

Being bored reading and studying these few days, decided to bake something 'complex' but nice, what came to my mind: Pineapple rolls. This is kind of expensive cookies, in Malayisa, it is selling for over RM20 per box or more. No wonder considering the amount of work involved. Since canned pineapples are so cheap here, we won't even consider using fresh pineapples for the filling. We chopped the pineapples and cooked in the its own syrup until soften with a stick of cinnamon. This will take some time, from half an hour to one hour. Do this with low heat and lot of patient. Adding sugar at the end and fried the filing with high heat until it caramelized. The filling will turn to golden brown. Now, let the filling cool down while preparing for the dough.

Making the dough is actually the simplest part of all. Just add 250g butter to 250g flour, a packet (60g) of pudding powder, one egg yolk and 50g icing sugar. Knead the dough until all the ingredients are well mixed. You don't have to do this for too long, the dought shouldn't be too hard. Now it is time to form the pineapple rolls. We used to do this one by one by hand. This time I bought a new toy, with it I could form the dough for the rolls much easier within some minutes. Then we just roll the dough around some pineapple filling. We could make around 30 rolls with the dough. Brush the rolls with egg yolk and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. We used three cans of pineapples and there is still a lot left over, will make some more again tomorrow. The pineapple rolls turned out very yummy. Share some photos with you.

Merry Christmas

First of all, wishing you all Merry Christmas. Though we didn't use to celebrate Christmas, but since I am here in Germany, we will definitely enjoy the holiday season and will not miss the chance to share the joyful atmosphere with the others celebrating. I used to compare the atmosphere here before Christmas with our Chinese New Year. Though not quite the same, but somehow the feeling is similar as everybody is preparing for a family get together and a long holiday. While everybody is preparing for the Christmas eve dinner, we thought of making steam boat. It is something we like to do since it is the simplest way to prepare a feast and one can not do much wrong in this. We have been buying the ingredients a few days ago. We didn't eat much that afternoon as we have prepared a lot of food for that evening. We couldn't wait until evening so we started around 5 pm. Having steam boat is not just about stuffing ourselves full since there are a lot of time to chat while waiting for the food to cook in between. Afterall, it was a nice evening and we were as expected so full.

Today I made 'Gai Choi' with the left overs from yesterday. I actually prepared too much yesterday evening so that I have enough 'left over' for my Gai Choi today. Tonight, HK prepared a western style Christmas dinner. Pumpkin soup and butter bread as appetizer. Roasted chicken with popatoes wedges and salat as main course. No desserts, too full, just some fruits. Oh. we also exchanged presents in the evening... ... Hihi

So, Christmas is over and it is time to prepare for my exams and assignments. Have to make good use of this two weeks holiday.

Banana Cake

Last few weeks I tried to bake a banana cake because we like this cake. It is too difficult to bake banana cake like the taste like we eat in Malaysia since we could not find the kind of small and sweet banana here. The recipe is as below:

Ingrediennts:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2 cups flour, sifted
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp. baking soda (add to pureed bananas)
3 pureed bananas, very ripe

Method:
1. Cream butter, sugar and eggs. Sift flour several times, then add the salt and baking powder to the flour.
2. To the creamed butter mixture, add the milk and flour (alternating, beginning and ending with flour).
3. Add vanilla and mashed bananas (with the baking soda added to the bananas) to this mixture.

Stuffed Squid

22.12.2008

Yeah.... finally I can enjoy my 2 weeks holiday. Most of the people think that I can relax in this holidays, but unfortunately I am very busy during this holidays for my another 2 presentations, 1 paper analysis report and for the german test. So pity for me!!!

After 3 hours shopping in the town with PWei, I bought some Christmas presents for my dear and PWei. So happy :)

This evening I prepared some red paprika and squid. Then I marinated pork mince with spring onion, carrot, corriander, pepper, salt, sugar, sesame oil, osyter sauce, cornflour and rice wine for half an hour. After that the pork mince was stuffed into red paprika and squid. Then, I steamed the stuffed squid at high heat until cooked and baked the stuffed paprika at 180°C for 20-30 min. It was so delicious. Besides that I also prepared 'black pepper with pig stomach' soup. This is my favourite soup. Will ask my mum to cook this everytime I am coming home. The soup looks not so appetizing but if you like it, it doesn't really matter.

Claypot Crabs with Tong Fun

This evening I cooked Claypot Crabs with Tong Fun since we just bought 1kg crabs yesterday. This dish is my dear`s favourite dish because my dear and his family always eat this in Ipoh. I just found this recipe from Lily`s blog . Thank you for sharing this recipe.

I just used some chicken bone to boil the soup instead to use seafood stock and I added some tou fu before serving. Somemore I used more slices of ginger and added 2 1/2 tablespoon hua tiau (rice wine). Haha..... so yummy. We like it so much!!!

Tschüss Weihnachtsmarkt 2008!!

Today is the last day of Christmas market in Oldenburg. Christmas market is a traditional market for German to celebrate Christmas. Actually 1 month before Christmas day, there will be a Christmas market almost in every town or city in Germany. Normally people will go there to have a Glühwein with their friends, family or colleagues in the evening. Glühwein is usually prepared from red wine, heated and spiced with cinnamon sticks, vanilla pods, cloves, citrus and sugar.

We went there twice in these few weeks. Everytime we will buy the pork chop with bread there because it is so delicious and my dear sure will buy some chestnut for me. Haha...

This afternoon, PWei and I went out for shopping and I purposely brought along my camera to snap some photos and share with all of you!! There are a lot of stalls selling very fine art decorations, candies, toasted almonds, traditional Christmas cookies, bratwurst and others. Actually I would like to buy some fine art decorations, but it is so expensive. Nevermind, I will start to save some money and buy it by next year!! See you next year.....

冬至快乐！！！

21.12.2008

昨天下午，HK的母亲提醒我們明天就是冬至以及吩咐我俩煮汤圆。因此今早我就煮了一大锅红豆黑糯米配上昨天我们从亚超买的红豆汤圆及黑芝麻汤圆，美味可口。其实HK很喜欢吃汤圆，有时候我们也会煮红豆汤配汤圆。

午餐后，HK回去医院做他的研究实验，而我就去久违了的Fitness Studio做运动。出了一身汗后，我就做个桑拿浴。桑拿浴可以让肌肉放松，把毒素排除，彻底清洁身体，而且其缓解压力的效果也非常卓著。真舒服！！其实我想做个蒸气浴，但是那个浴室不能操作。由于我不能忍受桑拿浴室的高温，一般桑拿浴室的温度保持在75℃左右，十分钟后我便走出去了。哈哈。。。。

晚上，我们煮了美味好吃的Satay鸡，豆腐冬菇羹以及西兰花。在此祝大家冬至快乐！！！

Felt sick

This is the time when everybody falls sick. Mainly due to the weather, it is getting cold and wet. Virus starts spreading around. Pei Wei falls sick, me too. I got flu and sore throat. I hate sore throat, so painful when swallowing and even talking. My nose got stucked and could not sleep well the whole night. Now I feel better, luckily... I have my case study presentation this week. I stayed here in Hamburg this weekend for discussion and meeting with my group members. Yesterday and today again. My dear is here accompanying me. We went for Dim Sum yesterday night after my meeting. It was nice and not disappointing at all, tasted very local and authentic, we will head back to try next time.

While Pei Wei and I were sick last weekend, my dear prepared the classical meal for us. Porridge and "fish with salted black beans". We also cooked some Tofu Teow Chew style.

汉堡下雪了!!

03.12.2008
早上起床后，窗外飘着雪，我的心情非常快乐。手上拿着一杯怡保旧街场白咖啡的我，一边享受窗外美丽的景色，一边吃美味的叉烧包。这样的享受真令人羡慕！窗外的大树，高楼大厦，马路以及汽车都披上了一层薄薄的白衣裳。路上的人们都露出笑容，因为汉堡是不常见在十二月下雪。我好喜欢这样的景色！！！非常开心！

星期三我不用去上课，所以我待在我的温软小狗窝温习国际金融。这课真难倒我呀！！！因为我把以前所学的知识都还给老师，真坏蛋！！我必须加油。不久,我与我的朋友及旧同事在网上聊天。从他们口中知道大马的经济放慢了脚步，而且有一部分的大公司要求员工放假或自愿辞职。这儿也有一部分的行业开始裁员。

吃了午餐后，我撑着雨伞慢步的走去REAL买疏菜及水果。路面上的雪开始溶化，感觉非常的寒冷。我看见很多圣诞装饰品，好美丽。我告诉HK我要买圣诞树及美丽的圣诞装饰品放在家里，他也同意了。哈哈，再上两个星期的课，我有一个长假。因此我们可以一起去购物。

今天我的目标必须复习完成一个单元。加油！！

Pre-Christmas weekend in Hamburg

I could not go home this weekend since I have a case study discussion in Hamburg on Saturday. So my dear came here on Friday after work. On Saturday, Pei Wei arrived as well in the morning and we went for a walk in the town. Then, it started snowing ... ...

Since my case study starts at 2p.m, we decided to have a lunch buffet before, only realizing that it opens only from 12p.m. after we arrived at the shop at 11.30a.m. We changed our plan and decided to come back for dinner buffet. Then we headed to the Christmas market in front of the Rathaus to grab some food.

It was so packed in the market that we have to squeeze ourself through the crowd. We couldn't find anything at the end and decided to get into a mall. It was a good ideas as it was warm inside at least. Unlike in Malaysia, the mall here does not provide so many options for dining. We wanted to have something simple since we want to leave some space for the buffet that night. So, we decided for some bagels. The first time I tried since I don't fancy this kind of fats food, with plentyful of cream and cheese. Anyway I gave it a try and order the chicken bagel. My dear had the tuna and Pei Wei went for the smoked salmon. I chose spinach bagel to go with it. It tasted suprisingly good and fresh although not what I expexted. The chicken was blended with some fresh cheese and herbs. Together with some salat and tomatoes, not so bad. I could just finished half of it and my dear got the rest done.

Then I went for my discussion. My dear and Pei Wei waited for me in a cafe. The discussion took longer than I thought and my dear was a bit angry at me :( since they have to wait for almost 3 hours in the cafe. We then headed to the restaurant again for their dinner buffet. I visited this restaurant before around 1 month ago with my dear and a course mate. The restaurant is opened by a Taiwanese and it offers lunch and dinner buffet with lots of sushi and dim sum. Here one can only compose the ingredients by himself and decide the way it is prepared, either sweet and sour, spicy or satay, anything you like. The sushi varieties was plentyful and I like the rolls the most with butter fruit and salmon. Though the dim sum was a bit disappointing. Anyway, we had a lot of stir fried shrimps, squids and oysters. My dear got some satay lamb with bean sprouts. At the end, we were so full and satisfied.

Before Pei Weil went back to Oldenburg, we had a walk again at the Christmas market. It is just different from the day in the night when the lights are on and the christmas tree twinkling. It feels like Chritmas. We grabbed a lot of photos. My dear and I also went home after Pei Wei train left as we were all so tired after a long day. I enjoyed the day very much and hope that three of us could spend some days together here again.

Nasi Briyani

Last Wednesday after my fatburner class, I arrived home and cooked nasi briyani with curry chicken. This is because my dear likes to eat Indian food. The recipe is as below :

Ingredients
500g rice, wash and drain
2 tbsp oil
2 3/4 cups water
1/4 cup evaporated milk or yoghurt
1 1/2 tsp salt

Spices (A):
6 cardamoms
1 star anise
6 cloves
2 stalks lemon grass, smashed
2cm piece cinnamon stick
2 pandan leaves, knotted

Fry in oil till crispy:
15 shallots, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly

Heat oil in a wok and fry spices (a) until fragrant. Add rice and stir-fry well for about two to three minutes, then transfer rice into an electric rice cooker.Add water, evaporated milk or yoghurt, pandan leaves and salt, then switch on the rice cooker.When rice is cooked, dish out to serve with a sprinkling of shallots and garlic.

After that, I cooked some Indian curry chicken. We cooked this very often and posted before in this blog. We added this time some Masala spices to give it an Indian touch.

Enjoying my long weekend!!

I have a long weekend, so I came back to Oldenburg after my lecture. I rushed back to my domitory and packed all my stuffs. Hihi...feel happy because I can cook some delicious foods for my dear and Pwei. I cooked some simple dishes for dinner: a bowl of herbal chicken soup with San Yao (山药). After that, I fried belacan chicken wings and stir fried tofu floss. I found this recipe from a cooking magazine.

Stir fried tofu floss recipe:

Ingredients:
2 blocks Japanese tofu
30g dried shrimp (chopped)
2 eggs (beaten)
1 carrot

Seasoning:
½ tsp salt & pepper
2 tsp corn flour

Boil the tofu first and crashed into small pieces. Beat the eggs and mix with the tofu floss and add seasoning. Then heat up the oil to fry the dried shrimps and carrot, pour in the egg mixtures and fried until cooked.

It is really a simple dish with cheap ingredients. Therefore my dear called it "Kampung fried egg" and called me "Kampung girl" ... haha ... he liked it though..

Busy Weeks

We were so busy for the last few weeks. This is because I took 10 subjects for this semester and I have to attend block lecture for Interkulturelles Wirtschaftkommunikation in the 1st weekend. Tiring and scared because this is the only one subject in German. During these few weeks I am busy researching information for my Case Studies- Truck Tires in China Market. Besides that, I am busy for my International Finance, Introductory for EU System, Research Method, International Organisation and Management and International Accounting (five block lectures coming soon).

My dear was busy for his PhD research project because he needs to submit 2 papers before end of this year and somemore he needs to find out more new ideas and result to prepare for a conference next year. Now he works as fulltime Medical Physicist in the hospital. Therefore we didn´t update our blog for some time... ...

Yeah...it is snowing here!!!

My dear went to Jena (a small town in East Germany) for attending a seminar yesterday and today. Since yesterday it is snowing here almost in whole Germany. I stand in front of the window and enjoy the view outside. I feel so happy because it was really nice. My dear called me to make sure that I don't miss it . He knows that I like snow very much. I still remember when I was in Szeged (Hungary) during winter 2002, one week before Christmas, we started our Europe semi backpack trip, while we were walking to the bus station, the snow fell down heavily, this was the 1st time I saw snow in my life. I felt really happy.

When we visited Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna (Austria), my dear showed me that the snow has a repeating cystal shape. I was so surprise. Thus, at every destination – Brussel, Prag and Amsterdem when it was snowing, my dear sure would show me the shape of the snow again. Unfortunately, in Paris and Rome we could not see any snow because the temperature there was higher compared with other Europe country during winter.

According to weather forecast, it will continue snowing until next week. The Christmas feel is coming ... ...