Oreo Truffles

Truffles! It's basically making a chocolaty ball that looks like balls of dirt, then you roll in on melted chocolate and you let them set in the fridge. It takes quite a lot of time to make, but it's a good family time snack to make, because you can get the kids to help you out.

Ingredients:

250g cream cheese, softened (leave it for 2 hrs at room temperature)
450g Oreos (You can use mint or peanut butter Oreos if you like)
Enough best quality white chocolate and dark chocolate for the coating (around 250 g of each block)

Directions:

1) In a mixing bowl, beat your cream cheese with a fork or whisk to break it down for a few minutes.

2) Blend your Oreos in your food processor as shown above. Nice sandy texture.

3) Add a quarter of your Oreos to the cream cheese mixture and mix. Then add in quarter by quarter slowly. Mix well. You will get a dark coloured mixture like below.

4) Press them down firmly onto the bowl.

5) Cover this mixture and chill in fridge for 3-4 hours.

6) Take out and roll them into balls like above. This is the fun part where kids can help out. Arrange on trays and keep in fridge to firm. Usually takes about 1-2 hours.

7) Get ready to melt your white chocolate and dark chocolate. Chop them into pieces for easy melting. I use the microwave for this task. Usually 30 second bursts will be enough.

8) Stir your white chocolate to a melted consistency or until no solid chunks. I must say I wasn't very happy with the quality of the white chocolate here as it's too runny. It will be difficult to have a smooth coating. My dark chocolate is alright at least.

9) Drop those tasty chocolate balls into your melted chocolate. One by one.

10) Roll it around with your fingers to coat evenly (It's better if you wear gloves but I was lazy). This will be the messiest and trickiest part!

11) Set them on a tray with parchment or baking paper, the type of paper used for paos (since I didn't have any, I just coat my trays with little bit of oil but parchment paper is preferred)

12) Put the trays inside the freezer to set. 30 minutes should be enough.

Things can get pretty messy like I say. To wash, use warm soapy water. You simply can't wash chocolate properly with just plain tap water.

The cow loves those Oreo Truffles!

Look at the Oreo centre! Nyum! Tasty and lots of fun!

Home made Peanut Butter!

When I shop in the supermarket, peanut butter is not only overpriced, they are also full of hydrogenated oil, chocked with too much salt and preservatives and loaded with sugar. People buy these because they did not have to put it in the fridge and they can last very long. If you can make a tastier peanut butter yet healthier and cheaper as well, why would you buy them anymore?

One packet of these peanuts can make you four batches of tasty home made peanut butter! So cheap!

They are not toasted yet, so just toast them in your 180 degree celcius oven for around 8-10 minutes. Or you can just roast them on your wok, taking care not to burn them.

Roasted and ready to go! Make sure to let them cool down.

Ingredients

2 cups roasted shelled and skinned peanuts (if they are already salted, omit the salt in this recipe)
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons honey (add ½ teaspoon more if you feel you want a sweeter one)
2 tablespoons peanut oil (I noticed we can’t find peanut oil in Brunei, so just use canola or sunflower oil)

Directions

1) Place the peanuts, salt and honey into the bowl of a food processor. Process for 1 minute first.

2) After that, open the lid and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

3) Place the lid back on and continue to process while slowly drizzling in the oil and process until the mixture is smooth, this should take 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.

Smooth texture with a crunch!



Will you look at that!

4) Place the peanut butter in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

Just use your old peanut butter containers!

Spread on your slice of wholemeal bread and toast it. Yum!

Restaurant Review: JinChiew Kopitiam

You can never be truly Bruneian if you never eaten at Jin Chiew Kopitiam. It is so popular that parking is hard to find. I really like their Roti kahwin kuning. Basically it's fresh baked yellow bread, with a slice of butter and kaya in the centre.

Very rich and tasty breakfast or tea, though not good for your arteries!

They also have freshly baked buttermilk buns and peanut buns which is usually sold out if you are late. I usually go around 2pm to enjoy them.

What you see here is their version of french toast, where they dip their yellow bread and then pan fry them. You can also request to have a sunny side up egg on top of your french toast. Then you put your choice of chili sauce or tomato sauce. Yum~

Last but not least, recently, my friend recommended me to order this, roti kahwin kacang. Instead of only the traditional butter and kaya, they put their chunky peanut filling as well. This is officially one of my favourite things to eat for tea. Too bad it's too fattening but you can always indulge once in a while~

Jin Chiew, always a good place to hang around with friends and chill. Have a nice cup of Teh Tarik India and chew one of those tasty buns, while chatting and laughing with your mates. Good food at cheap prices. A truly special place in the hearts of many Bruneians.

Edited: For those who live overseas and miss those buttermilk buns, one of our very own Bruneian blogger Ihsan has attempted to make some. Here's the link to her buttermilk buns recipe. Give hers a shot!

Home made Mayonnaise

I've been wanting to try and make mayonnaise for a long time. Finally decided to make it today. Basically the ingredients are egg and oil and you beat them to make a thick emulsion.

Here's the picture of ingredients.

1 tsp dry mustard (see picture)
1 tsp salt (fine grains)
1/4 tsp sugar
1 egg yolk and one whole egg.
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vinegar (I used red wine vinegar, avoid dark coloured vinegar)

Put the above ingredients into your blender and pulse it five times at least.



Measure two cups of corn , sunflower or canola oil. Don't use olive oil as it doesn't give it a nice taste.



Either use this like me, or the easier way ....



One of those plastic ketchup or soy sauce bottles that you can buy cheaply at 1.99 shops. The key here is to add the oil SLOWLY, very slowly! If you add too fast, you won't get an emulsion.



Add slowly slowly at first, then let it go like a stream....



Ta daa~~ home made mayo! You can store in the refrigerator for up to one week. Make sure your container is tightly closed.

Variations:

For Japanese style mayonnaise, use rice vinegar for the vinegar component, a neutral flavored oil such as canola , and increase sugar to 1/2 tsp.

To make Aioli, add 1 to 2 crushed garlic cloves in the beginning with the eggs.

If you add more lemon juice, say 2 tablespoon instead, the mayo will be more saucy, which is good for salad dressings and seafood. Yummy~

Need: Junket Rennet Tablets or any rennet

I need to find this stuff. If anyone can locate this in any Brunei supermarket or they can actually buy them for me, I would be a very happy person. Please leave your comments here or email me at thanislim@hotmail.com . Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Wanted: Rennet Tablets

Stir fried Lor Bak Kow (Raddish Cake)

Dim sums Dim Sums~~ one of the popular things we love is the stir fried lor bak kow with sambal belacan (prawn paste) and taugeh(bean sprouts). Decided to make some lor bak kow from scratch, so here it goes.

Stir frying the tasty raddish cake on the wok

Ingredients

550g shredded white radish

25g Chinese sausage, chopped finely, you can leave this out or substitute this with halal dried beef (bah kua)

25g dried shrimps, soaked, roasted and chopped finely

25g dried shitake mushrooms, soaked and chopped finely.

Mix together to make a watery batter:

300g rice flour

50g 'tung mien' flour (or known as dim sum flour, find in supermarkets)

650ml water

Seasoning:

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp chicken stock powder

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

4 small red onions (shallots) , sliced thinly and fried till crispy

Method
Steam radish for 15-20 minutes. Then mash it.

Add in dried shrimps, sausage and watery rice batter. Mix in seasoning and shallot crisps and stir the mixture well.

Cook mixture for two to three minutes over medium low heat, stirring all the time, until the mixture turns to a thick paste.

Pour the paste into a greased cake tin or oven safe container. It's better to be a low square or rectangle container, so you will have thinner slices and also easier to cut into squares.

Smoothen the surface with a spatula. Place it in the steamer and steam over high heat for 35 to 45 minutes.

Pan fried version - serve with chili sauce or on its own

Remove the cake and allow it to cool thoroughly before cutting into slices. If you plan to shallow or pan fry it, then cut into bigger slices. If you want to stir fry it with taugeh and sambal, cut into smaller cubes. Basically, just stir fry your garlic, onions and belacan, then add in your taugeh. After that toss in your raddish cake cubes, add in your seasonings: dark soy sauce and light soy sauce, ground black pepper, chopped green onions - and maybe one egg or two if you wish. My version is the light version (no sambal and dark soy sauce cause dad's not taking these stuff)

Chocolate heaven

How to achieve Chocolate nirvana? Have a rich moist chocolate brownie and sip Italian hot chocolate (it's like creamy chocolate soup).

The batter for the chocolate brownie - notice it looks more like frosting instead of your typical wet liquidy batter from chocolate cakes.



It will rise during cooking



Hmm... warm brownie.



They will finish in no time. Moist and richly chocolatety!

Italian hot chocolate~ Scoop onto small cups and eat with small spoons.

Recipes for both chocolate brownies and Italian hot chocolate to follow soon~~

Japanese style Tuna Bruchetta

Just bought another french loaf from giant at only $1.29 but I wasn't really impressed with it. I prefer the one from supasave that costs $2.00 and tastes a lot better. Felt hungry so I decided to make little tuna bruchettas.

As usual, slice the french loaf with a bread knife (makes it a lot easier - it's the ones with 'teeth' on them for easy cutting of bread). Then toast them in your toaster oven or oven.

While waiting, toast some sesame seeds on your wok. On a hot wok, it'll take only a few seconds. They'll add texture and of course a nice Asian flavour to bruchettas.

Open a can of tuna flakes in water, drain all the water away first. I use flakes rather than chunks because flakes are easy to use for sandwiches.

Take our your Japanese Mayonnaise, now this is my favourite one as it is more eggy than typical ones we usually use for Roti Johns. It tastes eggy and rich, unlike the slightly sour and sweet mayonnaise from Krafts.

Give a generous squeeze, yummy~~

Add your toasted sesame seeds and some freshly ground black pepper. At this stage, you should add some finely chopped chives (bawang hijau) but I ran out so I omit them. It would make a good difference to the flavour and colour. Mix them up nicely and then microwave (with a lid if possible to prevent spillage) for 2 minutes.

Ahh nice and toasted from the oven. You see that garlic? Nicely peeled and ready for....

Rub garlic on the surface of all your slices of french loaf. This will add a natural garlic bread taste to your bread. Don't be shy - rub it nice and hard.

After that, scoop your delicious tuna mixture onto them.

At this stage, you can choose to add shaved parmesan cheese to enhance the flavour but I don't have any (due to the stupid prices of cheese nowadays). I add some extra freshly ground black pepper, since I love the kick.

Tuna Bruchetta - Japanese style.

There you go, a simple and easy snack to enjoy your tv shows and movies. Beats potato chips or corn chips anytime. They are also great as finger food for dinner parties.