The Finale Post

After coming home and checking my blog comments and chatbox - I've decided to close this food blog. My intentions of this blog were good and meant as a place to share recipes I had found and mostly tried and tested. I never intended to offend anyone by not crediting their recipes.

I posted many recipes from www.kitchencapers.net and used pictures and photos from that site as well as other sources from other websites. I offer Gina and other members of kitchen capers my apology. I took their recipes and pictures without their permission and I am wrong for doing so.

If anyone else has been to this site and realized that I took photos or recipes from their website, I am sorry as well.

From today onwards, Cookie Monsterz blog is no more. I will close this blog as an apology to those that felt unhappy because of my blog. Thank you for those who had been supporting this blog and I really enjoyed updating and writing this blog.

Tomatoes In Vinegar

This is a healthy tomato snack called Vinegar Tomato, it uses cherry tomatoes. Basically it's like Acar - marinated veggies in vinegar kept in a bottle. Basically this recipe involves making the vinegar liquid and then soak ur tomatoes inside the liquid, usually in a glass jar.


Ingredient:

1 bag of Cherry Tomato/Honey Tomato
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar/white rice vinegar
1 cup of water
1/2 tbsp rock sugar (estimate)
1-2 red chilli (chopped)
1 tbsp black peppercorns
2 tsp salt

Method

1) Wash tomato and drip dry, use a toothpick to poke holes on the tomatoes.
2) Place water, sugar, sea salt, red chilli(better to cut open), black pepper in a pot, heat up the pot of ingredient till sugar and salt dissolve, turn off fire and set aside to cool.
3) Pour the cooled contents into a glass container, add in vinegar and tomatoes, leave it in fridge for 6 hour. Can be kept in the fridge for 1 week.

Try not to eat more than 6 tomatoes per day as they are quite acidic.

Note: Recipe taken from Kitchen Capers.

Marinated Guava (Jambu)

Sorry for not updating for a hell of a long time. I was surfing around for something new and stumbled on this marinated guava recipe from Kitchen Capers. I tried it and I can't stop eating till I am finished with it! My mum is now probably eating the new batch as I am updating this blog. You will need -

3 guavas, seeded and sliced very thinly-about 2mm thick
2 packages of dried madarin orange skin sliced thinly into strips
1 red chilli sliced thinly (optional)

Marinate everything together and leave overnight or about 6-8 hours in the fridge. Eat it while it's chilled.

You do not need to add any salt and pepper nor any water since there's sufficient flavouring from the mandarin peel and enough natural moisture from the guava! Seriously good stuff! Don't even wait - give it a shot!


YUM YUM!!

Photos and recipe are from Kitchen Capers. Thanks for the pictures and recipe.

Rambutan 3 course meal

I didn't update for some time due to personal reasons and I was also on a trip to Lawas Hotsprings. It's the rambutan season and one thing we noticed when we were there was that there were so many rambutan trees full of fruits, no one seemed to even bother picking them.

I guess I'll follow the mood of the season and post some nice rambutan recipes. It will be a nice way to get clear out your rambutans. We'll have a complete full course meal using rambutans as the main ingredient!


Appetizers

Rambutan and Longan Salsa
10 longans and 10 rambutans, sliced,
One yellow capsicum or red capsicum, sliced
Three stalks green onions
One small bird's eye chili
3 tablespoons lime juice

Mix and toss the salad with the lime juice - this is a fruity salad with some kick from chilies and onions.

Main Course

You'll probably never tried this curry I am posting and I assure you, it will be tasty. Some cultures add sweet and sour fruits into their curries and it will add a nice aroma to the curry.

Rambutan, Pineapple and Tofu curry


500 g firm tofu, cubed
75 ml peanut oil
2 inches gingerroot
2 red chilies
2 cardamom pods
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
2 slices pineapples
5 rambutans (seeded of course)
1 pineapple, juice of
200 ml coconut milk

1. Shallow fry the tofu and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a thick based saucepan.
3. Add the ginger, chilies, cardamom pods and garlic and sauté.
4. Add the garam masala, coriander, cumin and turmeric and lightly fry.
5. Add the salt, tofu, pineapple, rambutan and pineapple juice and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add the coconut milk.
7. Serve with rice when cooked.

This recipe was from a Thai forum and I made some modifications. I add in some large prawns while simmering. This gave it a nice aroma and the curry was fantastic!

Dessert
This sorbet is an exquisite finish to our rambutan course meal. Once the main course is being served, take it out from the fridge to soften. Then scoop into nice bowls to serve.

Rambutan Sorbet

3 Limes, grated rind and juice freshly squeezed
1/2 cup of sugar
3 teaspoons of honey
500g Rambutans, peeled and stoned

1. Place the lime rind and juice in a saucepan with the sugar and honey.

2. Stir over a moderate heat until the sugar has dissolved.

3. Place the rambutans and lime syrup in a blender and blend until smooth.

4. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and process following the manufacturers’ guidelines.

*Alternatively, pour into a freezer-proof container and freeze for 2-3 hours, stirring every 1/2 - 1 hour to break up the ice crystals. Remove from the freezer 30 minutes before serving.

Notes: For an exciting twist to the recipe, add 1-2 red chiles with most of the seeds removed to the rambutans before blending for a delicious heat to the sorbet.

Making buns Video

How to make fresh baked buns? I was searching around and found this cool video. Unfortunately, it's in Japanese but you can see the way they knead the dough and learn some techniques here.

Have a view and if anyone can decipher Japanese, I wouldn't mind a transcript!

Japanese Video: How to make freshly baked buns