Fried Enoki

Someone was craving for fried enoki!!! Bought enoki mushrooms at 3 packs (400 gr) for $5. And finally had the time to make them yesterday. It's not hard (at all) because it doesn't involve marinating for hours. I just used the leftover seasoned powder that I made for crispy chicken fingers. Fried enoki is great for snacking or eating with rice or porridge (my ultimate favorite at Ta'wan).

Ingredients:

• 300 gr enoki mushroom
• Dry ingredients: check out my Crispy Chicken Fingers recipe
• 100 ml water
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander seed
• Vegetable oil for frying
• Chilli flakes, salt, and black pepper

How to make:

1. Prepare the enoki mushrooms. Shred mushrooms on the root with your hands.
2. Make a batch of the dry batter.
3. Mix water, garlic powder, and coriander seed in a separate dish (you can add 1/2 tsp salt too).
4. Dip the mushrooms into the seasoned water, then dip into the dry ingredients. Cover the mushroom with generous amount of dry ingredients.
5. Fry the mushrooms in hot oil until crispy.
6. Sprinkle chilli flakes, salt, and black pepper for added taste.

Tea Tasting

Woolworths was having specials on Twining's Tea 10pk. Just out of curiosity, I bought one pack of Pure Peppermint and a Lady Grey variant. Turned out I loved the Lady Grey so much. It was a unique taste of tea to me, since all I had in my life was Teh Botol, Teh Poci vanilla, and Sariwangi. Afterwards, I went to Woolies again and bought almost every variant that they have. I'm not a big fan of tea, but I quite enjoy it, especially if they have unique taste that tickles your taste buds.

Now that I had packs of them, some I have not know what it tastes like, I came up with the idea of doing a tea tasting! For this round I only did the black-tea tea tasting, which consist of: Prince of Wales, Earl Grey, Chai, Chai with vanilla scent, and Darjeeling.

First test: The Black Tea test

Each tea bags are put in individual glass. Each glass is filled with the same amount of hot water plus two cubes of sugar.

What I think:

Prince of Wales: tastes nice, like the usual black tea. Not bitter.

Earl Grey: you can really taste the bergamot (somewhat citrus-y flavor), but it's too strong for my liking. It feels like drinking tea and smelling my husband's strong perfume scent at the same time. Lady Grey tastes almost similar, but more mild.

Chai: I can definitely taste the cinnamon and cloves. It's nice but I like Indian green tea better.

Chai with vanilla scent: tastes like Chai but with added vanilla scent.

Darjeeling: the least that I liked. It's bitter and sepet.

Second test: The Milk Tea test

Each glass of black tea is added with 1 tablespoon of milk.

What I think:

Prince of Wales: great with milk! Very recommended to add milk.

Earl Grey: after milk was added, the bergamot flavor is still too strong.

Chai: you can make your own Chai latte!

Chai with vanilla scent: very nice! I might ditch my instant vanilla chai latte for this mix.

Darjeeling: adding more milk doesn't help to level down the bitterness. So, I guess it is supposed to be the characteristic of the tea. Hubby likes it though.

Bonus test: Mixed up!

With the leftover milk teas, I combined Prince of Wales and Earl Grey. The result? Adding Prince of Wales tea toned down the strong citrus-y flavor of the Earl Grey.

The verdict:

Lady Grey is still my favorite! 

With added milk, it tastes like the Japanese milk tea I used to have :)

Oatmeal Cookies

I never thought oatmeal cookies are soooo good. I had my first oatmeal cookies when me and my parents were staying at a hotel in Jakarta and we got a welcome plate of oatmeal cookies. I finished it off... myself :P. I couldn't stop munching though I didn't know what exactly I was eating. Later on, I learnt that those cookies were called oatmeal cookies.

A couple of days ago, I was cleaning up my kitchen cabinet and found plenty of instant oatmeal left (anyway, this isn't the oatmeal you're supposed to use for oatmeal cookies). Out of the blue, I just thought of making oatmeal cookies with it. So, here we go...

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, well beate
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 3/4 chopped pecans (optional)

How to make:

1. Combine the eggs, raisins, and vanilla. Let it sit for one hour.
2. Cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.
3. Add flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda. Mix well.
4. Blend in egg-raisin mixture, oatmeal, and chopped nuts. The dough will become stiff.
5. Take a heaping teaspoon of the dough and roll into a ball. Place the balls onto a baking sheet, give some room to expand. Flatten each ball slightly.
6. Bake at 175 degrees Celcius for 10-12 minutes.

Notes:

• I used the instant minute oats, which is WRONG. Hehe. Use regular oatmeal for this recipe.
• You can substitute pecans with other nuts of your choice. Maybe walnut, almond, or macadamia would do great.
• The baking time is kinda tricky. I usually set it up to 10 minutes and check on the color first. If it looks too lightly brown, you need to give it another minute. Otherwise the cookies will be too soft. But also, be careful not to over bake it (like some of the batches I did, pic down).
• Once it comes out of the oven, let it cool before removing it from the pan.

Source

Chewy Chocolate Brownies

Last week me & hubby went for takziah at Wiley Park. One of the women who came brought a plate of yummy chocolatey brownies. The brownies texture and taste is almost similar to my favorite brownies ever, which is the "Primarasa" brownies! So I thought if she can make it in a short time, it must be easy. I searched for brownies recipe, and, in fact, found many five-star rated recipes. So, I went for a recipe that made sense to be delicious in my imagination (yes, I can imagine how a recipe would turn out by reading the ingredients list -- kidding :P).

I warn you, this brownies tastes so divine... it's crunchy on the outside and unbelievably chewy in the inside. And most importantly, it's very very easy to make. No mixer needed.

Ingredients:

• 125gr butter
• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1 cup of chocolate chips/choc bits (optional)

How to make:

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan
2. Add in sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla essence, and salt. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
3. Whisk in the eggs one by one.
4. Fold through sifted flour and baking powder with a spatula.
5. Mix in the chocolate chips/choc bits, if you'd like.
6. Pour the batter on a pan covered with parchment paper. Spread it out until it's about 1 inch thick. Bake at 170 degrees Celcius for 25-30 minutes.
7. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Notes:

•  If you don't use parchment paper, grease your pan and sift a bit of flour so the brownies won't stick to the pan.
• You can also sprinkle almonds on top of the batter before putting it in the oven.

Source

Feeling Japanese

:: Feeling Japanese ::

Maxwell & Williams Kimono cup & saucer (Myer)

Sweet sakura black tea

Finally I am watermarking my pictures!