Post Raya Depression

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

 

Amboi tajuk..tak agak2..haha. My Solat Apps says its 27th Syawal, and I've been back to work since 10th Syawal, so I came back at the time all the open houses are about to start. My FB timelines are filled with people either hosting or attending open houses.

 

I hosted one (can't really say its an open house) the previous weekend. Cooked mee rebus, rendang daging with pulut kuning, roti jala with kari ayam, and for dessert I made chocolate brownie and kek suji CMG. Nak kata puas makan, macam kenyang jugak la, siap ada leftovers which took me almost 2 weeks to finish, but still I craved for many other foods as well.

 

I just realized, on each of my trip back, I've never really go for 'jalan-jalan cari makan'. Normal catch up with friends and family pakai main tangkap muat nak makan kat mana. Waaaa... As of now, my cravings include:

1. Pasemboq
2. Durian - not so much of cravings per se, but more of teringin dok tengok orang post gambaq durian dalam FB..huhuhu

I have another 3 days to go for puasa 6. I will finish on 29th Syawal, insyaAllah. Am seriously thinking of making pasemboq as a mark for my 'raya' celebration..hehe.

 

Malam ni kena rendam kacang hijau for the tauge, and maybe by Sunday I will be able to enjoy my pasemboq, that is, if I didn't change my mind in the course of this week. Haha.

 

On another note, am sponsoring the fun run this Thursday. The menu would be:

 

Appetiser :
Cucoq udang with kuah kacang

 

Mains :

1. Nasi putih
2. Sambal kering - kentang, tauhu, fucuk, suun (made the tauhu last weekend, now sitting nicely in the fridge, and I just realized, I have tooo many fucuk and suun, so better start consuming now.
3. Kerabu daun selom - I cannot NOT have this :)
4. Snake gourd kootu - Snake gourd is a vegetable that is of peria, petola family, originally came from India, I used to have it in my garden but somehow it refuses to grow anymore. Will share the recipe if its a success.
5. Ayam goreng berempah.

 

Dessert:
Kuih sagu

 

That should be it. It looks a lot, but its not actually. The previous fun run I had a theme going on, but this time I didn't really have a proper plan, so the theme is 'wing it'! haha. We'll see.

 

Until next time. Wassalam.  

Weekend round up : Kerabu Daun Selom

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

I have tonnes of things to settle over the weekend (over every weekend actually). But I keep on postponing and the list keeps piling up. The only thing that I am more than willing to do during weekend is cooking and trying out new recipe, and invite people over for lunch/dinner.

The other week, I had Annie and Geoffrey, Pak Anton and WK for dinner on Saturday and just yesterday I had Chiew and Theresa, with Lirang and her husband, Ignace for lunch. I've had successes with few recipes :) but too bad I was rushing it most of the times that I did not managed to take proper pictures.

For last weekend, here are some that I tried.

Sedihnya gambar blur... :(

I have been collecting chicken carcass in the freezer, there must be like 4 of them. So how best to use them, except to make chicken stock ! The recipe is super easy, taken from one of the earliest JO's book. I ended up with 3 containers of chicken stock, and quite a considerable amount of boiled chicken flesh mix with vege. It should taste good when I made into sandwich filling or pie filling or something. For now all goes into the freezer. Mental note: Beli rosemary, it was required in the recipe. but I did not have it then, to lazy to go to the shop, so less one ingredient there. 

Off late, I have been seeing a lot of kitchen hacks posting, mostly on FB, one of those is this, so instead of throwing the top of the carrot away, I want to try growing it... we'll see how it goes, this is day-1. 

Vanilla Ice Cream with crushed ground nuts

I have come to be accustomed of having something sweet after main meal. Salahkan mat saleh dan orang-orang di sini..hehehe.. mesti nak ada dessert. When I had my open house last year, one of the guest brought me a 4L tub of vanilla ice cream, freaking 4L!! How am I supposed to finish that? I did not touched it last year, until I hosted the fun run the other day. I made Eplekake and served with vanilla ice cream :)

I still have half of the tub, and somehow it feels not right just having the ice cream as it is... Childhood memory kicks in, I blended coarsely some ground nuts. You would not believe the things that I stocked up in my pantry. I have almost everything..hahaha... Sprinkle the nuts on top of my ice cream and voila!! Sedapnya....

Tekak mengada pulak...lama tak makan masakan pedas kekdahnya, and my daun kunyit in the garden has slowly turned yellowish, so might as well I made something out of it. I was very lazy to take out other protein and thaw it, so the easiest is to make Masak Lomak Tolo. No cili api, only cili afrika yang pedas nak mamps!! I underestimated the hotness level, and hamek kau, super podeh!! Should know how to estimate next time :)

For dessert yesterday, I made banana cake, the batter is fine, but I wanted to lined the bottom of the cake with sliced banana. I was not sure how it would turned up, so I made a testing batch using this ramekin :) It does not turned out good. Then I thought of lining the top with slice banana, but seeing that the cake rise quite a fair bit, I scraped the idea. So in the end I just bake the whole cake without any sliced banana anywhere, and since I halved the sugar content, the cake was not sweet. To add a bit of sweetness, I served it with my vanilla ice cream..hahaha.. selagi tak habis, selagi tu la any kind of dessert, will be served with ice cream :P

Ginger torch flower or Bunga Kantan

This is not from my garden, I had some planted, but no flowers yet. This was taken from the activity center. Its growing everywhere here and most of the time it just died there. So when I saw some good ones at the activity center, I took some and have it frozen. I took some out just to take photo..hehehe.. and used one to make kerabu daun kesum.

Lauk semalam, Lirang and Ignace love the kerabu, and of course all of them loved the Sambal Terung Pipit. I can live with these two dish every day and not a single complaint :)

Sharing the recipe so that I won't forget.

Kerabu Daun Selom :

Ingredients:
3 red chillies (*)
2 tbsp dried shrimp (*)

Half of red onion (*)

Half cup of grated coconut

3 tbsp of kerisik (#)

Lime juice

Salt

Brown sugar

Daun selom (sliced coarsely) (~)

1 stalk ginger torch flower (bunga kantan) (sliced thinly)

1. Pound all the (*) together. Saute without oil, add a little bit of water, to make sure that chili is well cooked.
2. Add in the coconut and kerisik, stir well and use low heat.
3. Add in lime juice and salt to taste, its ok if the taste is a bit strong as this will be added to the chopped daun selom and ginger torch flower
4. The original kerisik would have a hint of sweetness to it, but the packed one that I bought was not sweet. I suspected they used the coconut that has already been extracted out the milk, that is why it was not sweet. So to balance the flavor, I added in some brown sugar.
5. Cook until it is dry. Let it cool and mix with the chopped daun selom and ginger torch flower. Ready to serve with white rice and all other dishes. 

(#) Kerisik is another coconut derivatives. Its easy to make, but a bit labour intensive, Take grated coconut and saute without oil on low heat. Stir continuously to avoid the coconut from getting burned. When all the coconut has turned brownish, pound (using mortar and pastel) until it becomes oily (shiny). Pounding it while its hot helped to extract the oil better. Use it as additive in various types of Malay dishes. Instead of pounding it, you can also use the dry blender, or food processor, but the result would be a bit different, I guess.

(~) Daun selom is mainly found in South East Asia, but its not a common vegetable. In Malaysia, those that are familiar with Malay dish will be used to it, but I know some (many non-malay Malaysian) that don't even have a clue about the leaf. The taste is bland by itself. We used it as ulam (ulam is any raw vege that you eat with pounded chili concoction - sambal belacan). 

In the north (Kedah) where I came from, we used daun selom as one of the condiments in Laksa Kedah. 

Initially I don't know what is the English name for daun selom, but thanks to Google here it is water dropwort. But I bet, the mat saleh also would not be able to recognize this leaf. I brought it all the way from KL and planted it here. As I said, I can eat it everyday, so I do need the constant supply :) 

After quite sometime not posting pictures, I realised, I am losing my photography skill. (Not that I am super talented in photography to begin with). So, new year resolution (yeah right!!) I need to get back on with my DSLR and take better pictures. Sedih doh tengok gambaq tak semenggah tu... huhuhu..

Till next time, wassalam...

Meroyan part 1

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.....

Pejam celik pejam celik dah sebulan kat sini.....sebulan juga chek tak makan ikan keli berlado, asam pedas, ayam goreng (KFC ka, ayam penyet ka....), karipap, mee, bihun, kuetiaw (ok, kalau sambung lagi mesti histeria!!)

Nak buat macam mana..dah nama pun merantau, kena la pandai pandai bawak diri dan kena bawak banyak bersabaq...hehehe..Meroyan part ni cuma mukadimah ja..lepas ni banyak lagi episod meroyan yang akan menyusul :) Disebabkan la ni masih lagi hidup di guest house, takda dapoq sendiri dan barang masak of coz la takda langsung, so kena la redha ja.

Dalam redho-redho tu, gatai tangan jugak pi cari resepi macam-macam. Waktu ni la dok teringin nak itu ini. Siap la nanti, dah dapat masuk rumah sendiri, kita tengok 'rajin' tara mana tuan tanah ni. Azam dok tempat orang, 'maintain makan makanan malaysia'..hehehe..amacam, ok tak azam? Bukan apa, time ni la nak test diri sendiri mampu tak nak mandiri ( independent kata orang kampung chek). Jangan main-main, dah siap kopipes resepi mee kuning + kuetiaw home made tau nak habaq kat hang...

image credit to google and the original link as in picture.

Tapi yang ni susah sikit kot nak buat...mana nak cari petai tengah tengah bumi Afrika ni...habaq mai sat...!!

Sekian meroyan episod 1. Wassalam...

p/s: kalau dah pos bahasa ibunda tu, paham-paham ja la tahap rumah sakit (home sick le tew!!) macam mana 

The Farewell Begins

Assalamulaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh...

It has finally started. I am now going around saying thank you and good byes to people. Last weekend, I visited an ex-colleague, Kak Safura and her hubby Razif at their new house. And on Sunday I managed to hang out with the girls and later round up few of my squad from batch 21 ROTU UiTM. We had a small potluck get together with our respective small families. Yours truly of course la sorang kan.. :)

The view from 29th floor, Twins Damansara

The spread: kebab in saffron sauce, kuih cara, garlic rice, chicken something-something..all are yummeh!!

The highlight of the day : Homemade cream cheese and cookies ice cream, extremely good, I had more than one serving of this. Enough said.  

With the man of the house

The lovely couple. 

On Sunday, few of my girlfriend gave in to my request to take a shot at archery. We went to Stars Archery, Sunway Pyramid. It was definitely fun as later after the session we went for Hunger Games 2. Semua feeling Katniss Everdeen sat..hahaha...I am guessing we are going to do it again.

Ready to rumble...?

All suited up!!

Katniss versi melayu in action.. :p

Our last shot...nak jugak amik gambar...

13 out of 15 arrows made it onto the board..not bad.. not bad at all. The sharp shooter feeling datang balik...hehehe...

Later the same day, I rushed over to Shah Alam, to meet up with my blood sisters and one brother ex ROTU UiTM batch 21. We had a simple potluck and chatted over till it was almost Maghrib. Of course, they knew that I am leaving, hence we have that gathering. I will definitely miss this bunch, next 4 years or so I will not be seeing them again. But the world is such a smaller place now, with all the social media available, I would still be in the loop.

Kumbang nan seekor..tu pun sebab we have it right at his apartment..kalau tak dia pon tak datang... ;p

The whole lot.

Yesterday, we had a farewell session for two ladies, yes, I am not the only one leaving. The Finance Manager is leaving to Miri, end of month and I will leave end Dec. The reason I am being celebrated much much earlier as the office would be quite a deserted place come Dec, people would most probably be clearing their leaves then.

Helping ourselves with the food

Mei Li, (in front of me) is leaving as well.

This is probably when the story about 'the chair' came out. SRC's own urban legend...

I was asked to give a speech..nak nanges dah time ni... ;(

Sweet cuppies ;)

main actress je nampak...extra kena overshadowed..hehehe..

Lunch buddy minus one. She's out on course.

All the SWAN ladies!! gonna miss them :(

Amek kaw...dah lama tak update, sekali letak dekat 20 pictures. You would expect more with the next coming weekends :)

Cerita Basi~~

Well, almost..hehehe..after being kept preserved in my laptop for more than a month now, here it is. My last working day before raya was 25th. So, just for fun, I organised an iftar session with the singles the day before. I made one 'new' dish, as none of the girls have tasted it before.

I did cook some, but the girls also brought more food to top up :)

The menu were:
from yours truly:

• Nasi putih
• Ayam Bakar
• Ikan Bakar
• Mix vege
• Sambal tumis kentang
• Cokodok smashing pumpkin
• Dates
• Hot tea

from bazaar:

• Ayam bakar (yes, she did not asked what I was cooking)
• Kuih-muih
• Murtabak
• Twister orange juice, air tebu, air kelapa

We also had extra dessert~ the next day was one of the girl's birthday and we decided to surprise her!! :D

It was a great catch up session, especially most of the girls works in various department. Normally we would do catch up during lunch (more like once a month) but in Ramadhan, iftar is the only time and I think by second week, we were all scratching our heads what food to buy next :P

Minus 1 is because the amoi is not single, her husband has been posted elsewhere, and she is single for the time being until they are reunited sometime later this year ;)

Simple Life

My simple pleasures :

• Eating a hot steaming plate of white rice berlaukkan sardin dalam tin yang dimasak dengan kentang
• Listening to guitar strumming songs (Oasis-Wonderwall, Nidji-Laskar Pelangi, Glee Cast - Over the Rainbow, Greenday-21 Guns, Time of My Life)

• Watching the rain lapping on the ground
• Dancing in the rain
• Strolling aimlessly in some shopping complex (or somewhere crowded yet nobody knows me)
• Able to watch 2 (or more) movies in cinema back to back without anybody pastering me to go home.

This is a living list. Anytime when the going gets tough....I'll try to remember what are the simple things in life that I treasure :)

What the Box Had Taught Me

Its undeniably true that I am a hardcore, true die hard (any other word?) couch potato. I have devoted my time to the box since I was 4 y.o, waiting for cartoon show to start and never failed to stand up straight each time the channel starts with Negaraku.

And lately there has been too many shows that focuses on one of my interest, cooking :) !! There is Masterchef S1, Top Chefs S1-S4 and having a whole channel dedicated to food and cooking adds more to me spending time in front of the TV.

I have expanded my culinary knowledge across the normal Malay cuisine. In within one year, my list of “to try recipes” increases in two, maybe three fold. For a start, let me list down what I am planning to try this year, might not be that much, but at least it’s a start. 

1. Red velvet Cake – am confused by the chocolate cake description but comes in RED colour. I actually tried this one, but didn't turned out red, so have to find a new recipe
2. Chocolate soufflé – after watching Masterchefs S1 semi-final, I am tempted to try this intricate, most challenging and apparently hard to master desert. Is it really that hard? I guess we will soon find out, once I buy that ramekin (which I always call soufflé cup before) !!
3. Koeksister – this is after tasting it during my Waka-waka trip last June. Got the recipe, will get this one done soon!!
4. Bread making!! – I have few failed attempts, am still not giving up; will keep on trying until I get the perfect recipe.
5. Gnocchi – after so many seasons of Top Chefs, this one keeps appearing off and on, so the simple dumpling cum pasta must be good then?

Anymore stuffs that I should try?

p/s: I know what is sous-vide now, and how to pronounce it as well ;) and I have learnt the art of poaching eggs, just never put it into practise just yet.

p/p/s : foie gras sound tempting, but I have tasted paté before, not really my pallet (hahaha...cakap pon dah macam judges on Top Chef..)

Merdeka Edition Meal

For this PH, I decided to have a feast of tradition (my family that is) . Did not took leave on Monday, so not worth my money to go back KL on 31st Aug. Already planned to cook for iftar and invite few friends over. So what did I cooked?
 Menu:
Nasi Kerabu ala Utara
Asam Pedas Keladi
Sambal Terung Belanda a.k.a Terung Pipit
Ikan Cencaru Goreng

That is the main ones, the rest are supplied by the guests. I only managed to snap few pics of the ingredient, by the time I finished cooking, it was already maghrib and I was too tired (could not be bothered actually) to snap anymore pictures..hahaha... But the highlight is of course Nasi Kerabu ala Utara. This is not at all the same as Nasi Kerabu that you normally get elsewhere. Only people in Kedah still eat this, though I saw one stall in Cheras sells this, but did not buy for I scared that it would not meet my expectation.

raw material...

So lets go to the recipi ;)

Nasi Kerabu ala Utara
Bahan-bahan:
1 mangkuk besar nasi putih
1 sudu makan halia + serai : ditumbuk halus
1 biji bawang besar : dihiris halus
1 sudu teh lada hitam : ditumbuk halus
1 sudu makan ikan kering (talang) : digoreng dan ditumbuk halus
2 sudu makan kerisik
Segenggam ulam-ulaman : diricik halus (this part I failed miserably..but anyhoo...)
Garam untuk perasa

Cara membuatnya:
Nasi putih dicerai-ceraikan(betul ke ni?) supaya tidak berketul dan dibiarkan sejuk. Dah sejuk,campurkan kesemua bahan-bahan di atas dan gaul rata. Hidangkan bersama asam pedas keladi...
Ulam that was used : daun cekur, daun pegaga, daun gajus...and another 1 more that I did not know what that is..


Asam Pedas Keladi
3 keladi (1 keladi ada ~3-4 batang) : siat dan buang lapisan luar, rendam dalam air
10 biji cii kering
1 sudu teh halba
1 sudu teh jintan manis
1 sudu teh lada hitam
4-5 keping asam
1-2 cm belacan
Segenggam daun kesum
Air secukupnya
Garam untuk perasa

Cara membuatnya
Rebus batang keladi dengan 2 keping asam hingga masak. Tos dan ketepikan. Rendam halba, lada hitam dan jintan manis ke dalam air panas, tumbuk sampai lumat. Kisar cili kering dan masak bersama belacan dan rempah tumbuk tadi. Apabila cili sudah masak, masukkan air, asam keping, daun kesum dan garam. Masak hingga mendidih, kemudian masukkan keladi. Siap untuk dihidang..
 p/s: SMS my mom to get the two recipies..hahaha..baru nak belajar, previously I only prepared the stuffs and she will do all the cooking and what not...

Game Day!! Portugal vs Spain

29th June 2010

After first day not going according to plan, we decided to consult the admin of where we stay, they also provides services to book certain trips and activities. So second day we decided to stay in the city since we don't want to be late for the game ;)

We started to climb the Signal Hill (the starting point is like 10 minutes walk from where we stayed) around 10 pm. Bumped into one local guy. He was asking us where to go. Turns out he is concerned about us. We were told to keep our cameras in the bag, the actual place is safe, but getting there, the road is a bit quite. We were also told to be vigilant, do not let any strangers talk to us.

We were the first one that gets to the hill, it was windy and freezing cold, then hill overloking Cape Town city, waterfront and Green Point Stadium. The Noon Gun ceremony was initially intended to signal the sailor, such that when the gun is fired at 12 pm, sailors around Cape Town waters will reset their watch.These days, it was continued in honour of the ceremony.

with one of the navy on duty, Alistair

The other tourists arrived in taxis and vans, seems like we were the only two that climbed by foot ;p After the ceremony, we went down and make way to Bo Kapp, a supposedly Muslim area. There is one restaurant, and we decided to have lunch there. The tagline is 'Malay Cape Food' but when I looked at the menu, only one that I can identify with Malaysia, Pienang Curry (yup, spell that way). The rest is more Indian than Malay, lots of other curries, and main dish is beriyani. But the thing that ticks me the most is this. Anybody ever heard of this?

We didn't even finished lunch when the rain started pouring, and both of us did not have neither rain coat nor umbrella. After lunch, we decided to find a mosque, but most of the mosque are locked, we made way by foot to the city, and bought ourselves raincoats before heading to stadium. The day was getting colder and it was only 2.30pm. Passed by waterfront and the Japanese-Paraguay was shown on the big screen. Not many people as it was still raining.

So we made way to stadium and waited till we can get in. 3 hours before kick off, the gate is opened. There is a fan zone that consist of sponsors camps set up all over. I was like a kid in a candy store jumping from one camp to another. 1.5 hour before kick off, we went to look for our seat. We got the second tier seating despite paying the Category 1 ticket. I saw from my place that Eduardo, Portuguese goalkeeper came out for warm up.

I quickly ran down trying to get a closer look. I got a close up look on the whole team ;)

too bad that my favorite no 6 did not come close..so lelaki ini je la yang enterframe..hehehe...

It was an entertaining game despite the bummer that is only one of my favorite team will advance to q-final. I really enjoyed the live game experience. I was lucky that the ticket that I bought one year ago, is for this particular match. Where and when again I get to see Spain vs Portugal, only Allah knows.

We went back exhausted, partly due to the endless walking, which is compounded by walking in the rain, but satisfied ;)

Real Survivors

I've been blogwalking, (which I happens to do a lot lately) and stumbled on pretty amazing blogposts though..

See, all my life I live in Malaysia. So I never experienced living in any other countries (well, a one week trip could not be considered as living rite?) . My first overseas trip was to Phillipines, and back then I was already worried about food. Pinoys have pork in almost all of their dishes. It is almost impossible to find a halal eateries in central Manila. I went to an outskirt area, about 2-3 hours drive from Manila, Tabangao, where there is no Muslim at all. Strict vegetarian is close to non-existence, said my Pinoy colleague. So to prepare for the trip, my colleague and I packed ourselves loads of Maggie Mee, crackers, squashed bread and Campbell Instant soup, good for one week ;) We survived just fine.

See, I came across many blogs that belongs to Malaysian living abroad, and more often than not the blogs talk about what else? Malaysians top craze, FOOD. Living in different countries, they have shared how they managed to whipped up some Malaysian food. Most of the things that we totally take for granted. Those things that when I crave for it, it will be just a 10-15 minutes drive away.

For instance, there is this one lady who lived in Doha, made her own mee kuning!! We here in Malaysia bought the yellow mee in market, and off late many consumer reports came up with findings that higher bromic acid are detected in these products. Plus, there has been too many consumer reports exposing unhygenic premise producing such product. Now, making it from scratch is a much better options right? I think so.

I also found about a lady who made 'apam balik' , something that is available on daily basis (at least in most part of peninsular Malaysia). Just the other day, I read about some Malaysian student in UK craving some 'cendol' and a colleague just explaining during lunch time on how she used to help her cousin make cendol when she was small.

Living outside their comfort zone has caused these people to be creative, going the extra mile just to savour the exact same delicacies that we can get anytime we want. So what does this tells me? Instead of just buying it, why not try to make it?

Suddenly I feel the urge of making something, ideas?... ;)

Carrot Cake

I almost forgot!! To Cik Aida, here's the recipe. Very easy and I think you'll pass in no time ;)

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups grated carrot, about 3-4 carrots
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

How to make it:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (~175 degC). Grease and flour a 9 inch square baking pan. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until creamy. Stir in the vegetable oil until well combined. Add the grated carrots, orange juice and walnuts and mix well. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir until just combined. Pour into prepared baking pan and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool and then frost.

Normally carrot cake is glazed with cream cheese frosting. Just beat the cream cheese, with some sugar and lemon juice (ni main agak2, no specific measurement, to suit your taste bud), but I normally serve as is, malas nak sapu cream cheese, nak-nak kalo buat cuppies, banyak keje.. :)

Selamat mencuba ye puan-puan ;)

What's Up Doc?

When I'm bored....I bake, when I feel like I need to do something...I bake, when I feel like tasting something different....I bake and definitely when I'm happy, guess what? I bake too ;)

My catalyst loading went well yesterday, and I decided to bake something as a reward to myself. I actually had this oven quite some time already, made few stuffs on it already, namely my almost famous Eggless Pinwheel cookies and what else, my favorite, carrot cake.

(rupa ada sikit buruk..coz yours truly masih in beginner stage, but the taste is superb!!)

So went back after Maghrib, head to PD town to buy the ingredients. Nothing fancy just the normal flour, sugar, carrot and stuffs. I was making carrot cake, and the only exquisite ingredient is walnut. PD town only have 2 main supermarket (cowboy town, what do you expect?) So I went to The Store, and suprise, suprise...they don't have walnut, not even almond, what more pistachio. The only nuts that they have is kacang panggang cap tangan, stocks for CNY ;p

So I tried the other store, Billion, and they have it, just that 50 gm cost RM 4.50!! I would need 200gm, easily RM18. So the next best thing is salted cashew..hahahaha...belasah la, janji bukan kacang panggang cap tangan.

I went back, make the batter and started baking.

I used my 'tried and works' recipe and instead of baking it in a pan, I bake it in small cups. To ease the eating process later ;) So I bake two tiers, set for 20 mins. The lower one took more than 20 mins to get done. The top one only took like 15 mins and it starts to crack.

I took it out, sample one of it, tasted weird though.... The carrot is not cooked and even the bottom is not browned yet.

The lower tier was done in ~30 mins. So I have to re-bake the top layer to make it cooked nicely. At first I thought because it was much smaller compared to pan, it would take shorter time to cook, but boy was I wrong. So lesson learnt, carrot cake is carrot cake, it will need the time to properly cook the carrot, irregardless the size.

And this morning this is the results. The biggest is for Ops, blue container for Lab people and smallest for Shafiq & Jignesh.