I Love Mr. Hines

I have been slaving for hours over the hot stove to make this chocolate cake (it looks good, doesn't it?). You need to measure the amount of ingredients you use carefully. Nah!!! Actually this one is my cheat chocolate cake. All you need is Duncan Hines ready cake mix & follow the instruction on the box. LOL. I don't bake. I have yet to successfully make cake from scratch. Though I did the icing myself (actually it is from Hines too, but I put it on myself & still need a lot of practice to get the smooth, shiny looking icing). Ready mix or not, this cake is delicious. Give it a try and thank me later ;)

I Cook Therefore I Flip

Another thing I love other than food (and cooking) is cookbooks. I have a vast collection (is 65 cookbooks qualified as "vast collection"?) of it. I hardly use them recipe though. I just flip over them and look at the pretty picture and drool. Some people read porn magazine, I read cookbook. Whatever get you going right?

When I get a bit homesick, I'll flip through my Malaysian food collection. Thinking of my Mom's & Gran's cooking (and of course of them too). They are the best cook in the world. No one can do Malay meal like those two (to me at least) and unfortunately the talent stop there. I can't cook Malay food. I did try (and fail miserably). Maybe because I'm so used to my mom & gran cooking so anything else taste like shoe (or crap). I would love to learn how to make a proper Malay meal but I'm just too lazy. All that roasting your spice, grinding, marinating etc. So much work! I say, leave the Malay cooking to the pro.

Ok, I'm off to read some cookbook now. Till the next meal!

Pumpkin Soup

I love soup. One of my favorites is this easy-to-make pumpkin soup. I always use fresh pumpkin but tinned is an easier option if you don’t like the hassle of peeling & cleaning them. Here is what you need and how to make this healthy & scrumptious soup:

You need about 350 g pumpkin (peeled & cubed), 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic (sliced), one medium size onion (thinly sliced), 2 tsp curry powder, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 bay leave, 4 cups vegetable/chicken stock, salt, ½ cup cream.

Start by heating olive oil and sauté the onion and garlic. Be careful not to burn your onion and garlic, cook it on low heat for about 5 minutes until translucent. Add in curry powder, turmeric, bay leave, pumpkin and stock. Add salt if you like (I don’t normally used salt for this recipe as the stock is normally has salt in it). Let boil and turn down the fire. Cook pumpkin till tender (for about 15 minutes). When pumpkin is tender, fish out the bay leaf and let the pumpkin cool down a bit. Puree pumpkin in food processor until smooth. Pour puree back into a clean pan and let it boil gently. Add cream just before serving. Serve immediately with garlic or French bread. Bon Appétit!

Food & Photography

I love photography and definitely love my food. I'm not much of a writer so there's not going to be elaborate writing in here. I'll keep it simple but with colourful (and hopefully appetizing) shots of food that I cook and/or made myself or stated otherwise. The photos featured in this web is also made by me.