My KitCHEn Experiments

New Year's food tradition in our family has always been to serve round and sticky food items. Round shapes represent money and sticky food items is said to keep the bond of the family tight and so this year I made (among other things) california maki rolls - it Is made with sticky Japanese rice and is round! perfect to welcome 2012!!! Wealth, Happiness and Family Bond in a roll!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

I have always liked anything with Blueberries in it - muffins, pancakes, cheesecakes, donuts, crepes and what have yous, but have never tried baking or cooking with it,  Blueberries are just too darn expensive to use for my kitchen experiments that am scared I will just waste money if the end product turns out inedible - that is my one fear when experimenting actually and the reason I have never tried making cheesecakes. This weekend though I had the chance to buy fresh Blueberries because they are on sale! they are priced at half off that grabbed (after carefull scrutiny) a couple of those mini mini plastic boxes. I didn't want to begin making something too ambitious (like a cheesecake) but opted for something simple so I decided to make muffins with streusel topping.  Blueberry Streusel Muffin Ingredients: - 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour - 3/4 cup white sugar - 1/2 teaspoon salt - 2 teaspoons baking powder - 1/3 cup vegetable oil - 1 egg - 1/3 cup milk - 1 cup fres...

I learned about cake bites and cake pops about a year ago and I thought they were just amazing! I mean cake, chocolate and candy rolled into one what could be better??!! I have actually made a 'version' of these bite size babies long before they became popular - I baked a cake that sadly was undercooked in the middle. It was useless for my planned layer cake but I didn't want to waste it so I rolled them into balls and dipped it in melted chocolate. They were yummy! not a hint of a failed cake bite after bite! It became my favorite sweet treat to make for occassions - and today I had just finished making a couple dozens of cake balls for a friend who was craving for them after she finished the packages I gave her last Christmas. Cake Balls Ingredients: - home made or store bought cake  - home mad or store bought frosting - candy coating or chocolate melted as per package directions - candy sprinkles How to: - reduce cake to crumbs - mix cake crumbs with fr...

Wouldn't it be nice to live in a house made of cookies and candy? think Hansel and Gretel minus the evil witch don't you think it would be pure bliss??!! well minus the mice and the candy spoiling and the... or the... well you get my point!! For Christmas dessert I decided to try and make a 'ginger bread house' but since I didn't have molasses I improvised and used my sugar cookie recipe instead - so make that sugar cookie house. I didn't want to make the royal icing as 'glue' and used melted chocolate instead and it worked out fine - I am guessing for more elaborate structures royal icing is a must. basic and bare licorice wreath!!! roof decorated and add-ons added let it snow! let it snow! let it snow!!! I am so happy with my sugar cookie house! experiment success!!! HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

I love giving home made gifts for and with Christmas just a few days away, am afraid I won't get enough time to make the goodies for them to be delivered in time - I guess I should be crackin' then!!! here is a basic sugar cookie recipe. yummy treat you can get creative with!!! Sugar Cookies: Ingredients - ¾ cup butter softened - 1 cup sugar - ½ teaspoon baking powder - ½ teaspoon salt - 1 egg - 1 teaspoon vanilla - 2 -1/2 cups all purpose flour - Powdered Icing sugar - milk - Assorted candies - Food coloring How to: - In large bowl beat butter with electric mixer on medium to high for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat or stir in flour. - Divide dough in half. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill 2 to 24 hrs or until easy to handle - Roll dough into ¼ inch thickness. Using cookie cutter cut into desired shapes. Place on ungreased cookie sheets. - Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 6 to 8 minutes or ...

Nothing beats the comfort of homemade cookies with milk, tea or coffee. The whole house feels very homey with the wonderful aroma of the baking cookies, putting you into a relaxed kind of mood. I like munching on them while watching a movie or reading - needless to say I have to keep the cookie jar as far away as possible from the couch or bed I am in or else I'd finish the lot Classic Oatmeal Cookies Ingredients: - 1 cup rolled oats - 3/4 cup all-purpose flour - 1/2 cup packed brown sugar - 1/4 cup granulated sugar - 1/2 teaspoon baking powder - 1/8 teaspoon baking soda - 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or ground cinnamon - 1 cup raisins - 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans How to: - Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. - Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or nonstick foil. - In a large mixing bowl, stir together dry ingredients with 1/3 cup softened butter, 2 eggs, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla until well combined (dough will be soft). - Drop by rounded ...

This is the recipe for the second kind of cupcakes I made for Shan's Birthday. I made chocolate cupcakes - a dessert buffet won't be complete with out chocolate, and added a touch of funny by making monkey faces with cookies. Monkey Cupcakes Ingredients: - 2 cups all-purpose flour - 2 cups white sugar - 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder - 2 teaspoons baking soda - 1 teaspoon baking powder - 1/2 cup vegetable oil - 1 cup milk - 2 eggs - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract - 1 cup hot milk - ready made red gel writing icing - mini M&M's - small drop cookies - store bought or homemade chocolate frosting How to:   - Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  Line muffin pan with paper cups - In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the oil, milk, eggs, and vanilla, mix until smooth. Stir in the hot milk last. pour into prepared pan.   - Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a t...

Very seldom do I cook fish at home, not that I don't like fish - I do, but my brother (who complains a lot about my cooking) finds eating fish risky and a lot of work, what with the business of picking off all those small fish bones. So I am limited to using fillets and am glad I found one recipe that I tweaked to make a version of: Saucy Fish Fillet Ingredients: - half kilo fish fillets - 1 medium red bell pepper cut into cubes - 1 medium green bell pepper cut into cubes - half a cup broccoli florets - salt - pepper - 1 onion chopped - 2 cloves garlic minced - 2 tbsp hoisin sauce - 2 tbsp oyster sauce - 1 tbsp chili garlic sauce How to: - cut the fillets into one inch squares, season with salt and pepper then dredge with flour - pan fry till golden brown, drain on paper towels as set aside - heat wok with little oil and stir- fry onion and garlic until aromatic, add the veggies. - add the 3 sauces with half a cup of water, stir fry until veggies are crisp te...

This is a basic chocolate cake recipe that I've tweaked a bit to make it a cappuccino cake. I just replaced the milk required with cappuccino and viola! a new recipe is born! Cappuccino Bundt Cake Ingredients: - 2 cups all-purpose flour - 2 cups white sugar - 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder - 2 teaspoons baking soda - 1 teaspoon baking powder - 1/2 cup vegetable oil - 1 cup milk - 2 eggs - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract - 1 cup hot, strong coffee - 1 cup powdered sugar and 2-3 tbsp of milk - melted chocolate How to:   - Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a medium sized bundt pan - In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the oil, milk, eggs, and vanilla, mix until smooth. Stir in the hot coffee last. pour into prepared pan.   - Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. cool cake and invert into serving plate -...

My godson Shan had just celebrated his 2nd birthday, and as a gift I made rainbow and chocolate monkey (recipe on the next post) cupcakes for his dessert buffet. Rainbow Cupcakes Ingredients: 1 and 1/4 c. plus 1 tbsp. of cake flour 1 tsp. of salt 3/4 c. of vegetable oil 3/4 c. of sugar 1 large egg 1/2 c. of buttermilk 1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional) 3/4 tsp. of baking soda 1 tsp. of white vinegar food colors How to: - Line a 12-hole muffin pan with cupcake liners - Preheat the oven to 350F  - Sift together the flour and salt. - Beat the oil and sugar. Add the egg and beat until incorporated. - Add the flour and buttermilk alternately by thirds mixing well after each addition. If using vanilla extract, stir it in. - Mix together the baking soda and vinegar (it will fizzle). Add to the cake batter and mix in. - divide into 4 bowls, color batter with food color  - alternately pour colored batter into muffin pan and bake for 15-17 minutes or until toothpi...

... I guess nothing beats waking up to the smell of a hearty breakfast on a weekend. With the scent of bacon, eggs, fried rice and coffee wafting and enticing you out of bed after more that eight hours of well deserved sleep who would not have a great day ahead!?! ... last friday (weekends in Abu Dhabi, UAE or in the Middle East for that matter is on friday and saturday as opposed to saturday and sunday in other parts of the world) in an attempt to put a twist on the standard morning fare, I decided to make a breakfast 'muffin'. Nope don't be scared, I did not attempt to bake on a lazy friday morning - I just skipped using my frying pan... Bacon and Egg 'Muffins" Ingredients: 2 strips of bacon 2 eggs 2 slices of white bread salt and pepper chopped steamed veggies (optional) How to: - grease 2 holes of a medium sized muffin pan - flatten the bread with a rolling pin, and cut to fit the bottom of the muffin holes - line the bacon strips along the insid...

I have been longing to experiment with fondant for a while now - and today I finally did!! I didn't make it from scratch because all those cups of powdered sugar required intimidates me so when I saw ready made fondant icing on sale I grabbed a pack!!! perfect for birthday cupcakes I plan to give my very good friend connie!!! It was like playing play-doh and is was soooo much fun!!!!!

I am never really fond of cooking fried chicken. For one I think deep frying is unhealthy and a waste of too much oil and second the process just takes too long (for me) because you have to fry the chicken pieces (particularly the leg and thigh part) in low heat to make sure it gets cooked thoroughly. Sometimes, just for good measure, I wrap the chicken in foil and broil it in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Some people I know pre-boils the chicken before frying, while there is nothing wrong with this method, I kind of think the chicken gets dried out when you fry it after boiling. Browsing the net, I chance upon this recipe which 'second-cooks' fried chicken in a combination of soy sauce, honey and lemon - resulting in a perfectly cooked finger licking chicken!!! Sweet n Spicy Finger Lickin' Chicken Ingredients: half a kilo of chicken pieces (leg and thigh part) 1/4 cup of soy sauce 1/8 cup of lemon juice 1/4 cup of honey 2 pcs birds eye chili chopped (more depending on you...

I remember my dad and mine's attempt to re-create at home the baked potato with cheese and  bacon that we had at a restaurant at one time - it was not quite a success... We baked the whole potato with the skin on, not thinking much about seasonings or such because we thought the topping will be more than enough to flavor the otherwise bland potato so when the spuds were cooked, we slit it on top and smothered it in cheese and bacon.  It looked almost the same as the one we had at the restaurant, proud and happy we dug in. After a few bites it was evident that we declared success a little too soon, we ran out of topping before we ran out of potato - and there was much left. The potatoes were bland on its own but it was a bother to have to refill your toppings again and again and suffice it to say we never attempted to make another baked potato. It was not until recently that I found a way to make the perfect - well in my opinion at least, baked potato! here is what you need ...

what is the correct term really? kebabs or kabobs??? I have seen this terms alternatively in restaurant menus. I guess they mean the same thing, in any case I prefer using kebabs because the other term just sound like... you get what I mean! haha! In any case, the other day I just put together a simple shrimp dish made from left over shrimps that I had frozen from two or three days prior. I had about a quarter kilo left and it seemed that it won't be enough for a decent filling meal. I finally decided to make kebabs using tomatoes, onion and bell pepper (some of my veggie staple, along with carrots and potatoes!). I remembered how good grilled onion and tomatoes are with lamb kebabs but feeling lazy to grill just a few sticks of kebab, I decided to just pan fry it.  Shrimp kebabs Ingredients: 1/4 kilo large shrimps, shelled and deveined 3-4 peeled onions, quartered 1 bell pepper, cut into cubes a bunch of cherry tomatoes salt and pepper to taste How to: - skewer shrimp...

I deviated from the usual green salad that I make as a side dish for Thursday night dinners where we usually have some fried or oven grilled meat because I had run out of dressing and couldn't find my favored bottled Balsamic Vinaigrette. I had a big bottle of mayonnaise though and thought of making kani (crabstick) salad instead.  The recipe for kani salad I found requires fresh mangoes, fish roe and sesame oil - all of which I don't have but I still went on to make the salad and the result was a no fuss yummy salad!!!  Kani Salad  Ingredients: 1 carrot sliced into matchsticks size 1 cucumber sliced into matchsticks size 1 small head of lettuce shredded into bite size pieces 3-4 sticks kani (crabsticks) shredded 3-4 tbsp of mayonnaise (more or less depending on your taste) How to : - just toss everything in a bid salad bowl and enjoy!!!! super easy right!!! so easy it was featured in Abu Dhabi Tempo's Dishes for Dummies the crabstick and fresh carrots gave the s...