Moist Vanilla Cupcake

Ingredients:

150g butter, room temperature

150g caster sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla paste or extract 

150g all purpose flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbs full fat milk or half & half

• In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt until well combined.
• Preheat oven to 180 °C, line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
• In a mixing bowl, add butter and sugar. With a standing or a hand mixer beat them until light and pale, around about 5 minutes.
• Add egg one at a time, mix well on every addition. Add vanilla, mix until well combined.
• Add the milk. Gradually add in the flour mixture, with a spatula or a hand mixer on medium low speed fold the batter just until incorporated. 
• With an ice cream scoop fill batter about 3/4 full evenly into cupcake liners. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
• Let it cool before you decorate the cupcakes with frosting. I halved my lemon buttercream frosting recipe for these cupcakes frosting. I piped with Wilton #104 petal decorating tip.

Spicy Lemongrass Chicken

Ingredients:

500g chicken fillet (breast or thighs), cut into bite size pieces

3 large cloves of garlic, mince 1 clove of garlic and bruised 2 cloves of garlic

3 tbs fish sauce

3/4 tsp chicken stock powder

4 tsp sugar

2 red chillies or Thai chili, sliced

3 stalks lemon grass, white parts, sliced

salt and white pepper to taste

Cooking oil

• In a bowl, add chicken, minced garlic, fish sauce, chicken stock powder, sugar, mix them until well combined and marinate for at least an hour.
• In a food processor, add lemon grass, the 2 cloves of garlic, chillies, a little bit of salt, white pepper and about 3 tbs of cooking oil. Process just until it's finely chopped. 
• In a cooking pan, fry the finely chopped ingredients until crispy and golden brown, remove from heat, place fried ingredients on a plate lined with paper towel. Set aside.
• On the same cooking pan preheat 2 tbs cooking oil over medium high heat, stir fry the chicken until golden brown. Make sure that the chicken is cooked through.
• Place the cooked chicken on a serving plate, garnish with fried lemongrass, garlic and chili. Enjoy over steamed rice or vermicelli.

Note: If you are going to use chicken breast, do not overcook it or it will end up being tough and dry.

Pandan Chiffon Cake (Kue Sifon Pandan)

Ingredients:

7 egg whites

6 egg yolks

15 pandan leaves + 2 tbs water

250g super fine or caster sugar (divided, 200g for egg yolks and 50g for egg whites)

About 2 cups or 200g all purpose flour + 1 tbs corn starch, sifted

1 tbs baking powder

130 ml coconut milk

120 ml cooking oil

A little bit green food color (optional)

1/2 tsp white vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

• Cut the pandan leaves into small pieces, in a food processor finely chop the leaves, add 2 tbs water, puree the ingredients and after squeeze through a sifter to get the juice, we need about 50ml pandan juice. Pour and mix it with 130 ml coconut milk. 
• Mix the sifted flour and baking powder until well combined. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat the yolks and 200g sugar until light and pale. Add in the coconut milk mixture, cooking oil and the flour mixture. Add green food color if desired (i add about a drop of green paste food color from wilton), beat with a mixer on low speed or with a spatula just until smooth and well combined.
• Preheat oven to 170 °C, line the bottom a 25 cm bundt cake pan with a round baking paper     (see pictures below). 
• In another large bowl beat the egg whites until foamy, add vinegar and salt, beat until soft peak and gradually add the sugar (50g) while beating until it reaches stiff peak form. 
• Gradually fold in the egg whites in 3 additions. Fold it gently until fully combined, pour to a prepared cake form. Tap the pan few times to remove air bubbles on the batter, and run a chopstick around the batter to remove the rest of air bubbles. Bake for about 1 hour or until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
• Get a bowl or a glass ready, immediately turn the pan upside down against a bowl or a glass to prevent the cake from collapsing, let it stand for at least 1 hour. To remove the cake, run a knife  or spatula to release the sides, the baking paper should help the cake slide out easily.

How to make a round baking paper for bundt pan:

Spicy Tofu Stir Fry with Crispy Anchovies (Cah Tahu Teri Pedas)

Ingredients:
1 pack tofu, cut into squares
2 tbs dried anchovies, crispy fried
2 tbs cooking oil
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
Thai chillies (i used 2 for this recipe), diagonally sliced
2 stalks spring onions, white parts, diagonally sliced
40 ml water
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar

• You can fried the tofu until slightly brown, but i like mine baked, so here is how to bake the tofu. Preheat oven to 180 °C, in a bowl add the tofu, drizzle about 2 tbs cooking oil and mix until evenly coated. put them on the baking tray covered with baking paper and bake for about 15 minutes or until they are slightly brown. 
• In a wok or a pan, preheat 2 tbs cooking oil over medium high heat. Add the shallots and garlic, fry until fragrant. Add in the chillies and spring onions. Cook for about 1 minutes, add water, let it cook for another minute. 
• Toss in the tofu, season with salt, pepper and sugar (i used about 3/4 tsp of salt), gently stir until all just combined, remove from heat, sprinkle the fried anchovies on top. Serve it with steamed rice.

Lemon Buttercream

Ingredients:

200g unsalted butter, room temperature

100g salted butter, room temperature

350g powdered sugar, sifted

1 tbs vanilla extract

1 1/2 to 2 tbs lemon juice

In a mixing bowl beat the butter with hand or stand mixer until white and fluffy. Add gradually powdered sugar, add vanilla extract and lemon juice. Add food coloring if desired, mix until well combined. 

Char Siu with Egg Noodles (Bakmie Babi Panggang Merah) and Chili Pickle

Ingredients:
For the noodles
1 package dried egg noodles
2 slices bacon
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbs cooking oil
2 tbs soy sauce
2 stalks spring onions, thinly sliced for garnish
Char siu pork
Pork Wonton (optional)
Chili Pickle

• In a pan fry the bacon (without oil) until brown and crispy, set the bacon aside. Do NOT discard the grease from the bacon. In the same pan, preheat 3 tbs cooking oil over medium low heat and add the garlic. Stir constantly, fry until slightly brown, be careful to let the garlic burn. immediately remove from heat and set aside. 
• Boil water and cook the egg noodles according to package direction. Prepare a large bowl, add 2 tbs soy sauce, add the fried garlic and the oil. Strain the noodles, toss noodles into the bowl. Mix until well combine. 
• How to assemble: Take a portion of noodles, top the noodles with some of sliced char siu pork, wontons (optional), sprinkle with sliced spring onions and enjoy with chili pickle on the side.

Chili Pickle

Ingredients:
2 large red or green chillies, cut diagonally
5 to 6 Thai chillies, cut diagonally
1/2 cup water
2 tbs white vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

• In a bowl mix water, vinegar, salt and sugar until incorporated. 
• Add all the chillies, let it stand for few hours in the refrigerator before serving.

Wonton Soup (Pangsit Kuah)

Ingredients:

500g ground pork or chicken

250g Shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped

1 pack of wonton skin 

4 to 5 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 tsp grated ginger
3 drops of sesame oil
1 1/2 tbs maizena (corn starch)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 liter homemade chicken broth*
3 stalks green onions, chopped
Coriander leaves for garnish

1. With about half cup cooking oil, fry the garlic until golden brown and crispy over medium heat. Stir continuously. Be really careful not to burn the garlic as it can be very bitter. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. To make homemade chicken broth*, you'll need about  to 1 kg chicken parts that have very low flesh such as necks, backs or bones. In a large bowl filled with 3 liter of water add the chicken parts and bring it to boil. Once boiled reduce heat to low, with a spoon skim the residue floating on surface. Cover the cooking bowl, simmer for about 2 hours. If you are using bones simmer for about 5 hours. Strain to get a clear broth with a fine strainer or cloth.
3. For the wonton filling; In a mixing bowl combine the meat,  shrimp, corn starch, half of the fried garlic without the oil, grated ginger, sesame oil, half of the chopped green onions, salt and pepper (i used 1 and 1/2 tsp of sea salt). Mix until well combined.
4. Wrap the wonton, here is how to wrap a wonton.
5. Bring about 2 liter chicken broth back to boil, once boiling add the wontons one portion at a time (about 10 per portion or as desire). Take out the wonton with a large strainer, put it in a bowl. Pour the broth over the wontons, garnish with spring onions, a little bit of fried garlic with oil and coriander leaves. Serve it immediately and enjoy it with chili soy sauce.

Indonesian Fried Chicken (Ayam Goreng Kuning)

Ingredients:
1 kg chicken, any parts, preferably bone-in
2 stalks lemon grass, white part only, bruised
2 bay leaves
2 to 3 kaffir lime leaves
2 tbs cooking oil
Enough water to cover the chicken
Spice paste:
10 shallots, halved
10 cloves garlic, bruised
6 to 8 candlenuts, pan roasted without oil
1 tbs ground coriander
2 tsp turmeric powder
1 1/2 to 2 tbs galangal powder
2 to 3 tbs palm sugar, grated
Salt and white pepper to taste (i used about 2 tsp of salt)
2 tbs cooking oil

• Pierce your chicken parts with a fork a couple of times on each side.
• In a food processor puree all the spice paste ingredients until smooth.
• In a cooking bowl, preheat 2 tablespoon cooking oil over medium heat. Add in the spice paste puree, lemon grass, bay leaves, lime leaves and cook until fragrant. Add the chicken parts, stir to combine, add the water just enough to cover chicken parts. Once boiling cover the cooking bowl and turn the heat to low. Simmer for about 45 minutes remove from heat and let the chicken sit in the sauce for another few hours or overnight for better flavor.
• There is two options, you can either deep fry the chicken or roast it. If you want to bake the chicken like i did in this recipe, preheat your oven to 190 °C upper heat. Prepare baking sheet, line it with parchment paper, place the chicken and roast them for about 15 minutes on each side or until crispy golden brown.
• Serve it with steamed rice, sambal terasi and sliced cucumber or tomatoes.

Sambal Terasi

Ingredients:
3 big red chillies
4 or more red thai chillies
2 Shallots, peeled
1 tsp shrimp paste ready to use
1 to 2 tbs lime juice
Salt to taste

• Deep fry all the chillies and shallots or bake them in the oven. To bake, preheat oven to 180 °C, place chillies and shallots on a baking tray. Drizzle with cooking oil. Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes or until fragrant.
• In a food processor or you can use mortal and pestle. Process all the ingredients except lime juice until well mixed and ground but not smooth, you want to leave some texture.
• Drizzle with lime juice.