Being able to make my own bao is a bonus. It means I can stick some into the freezer and can have bao on tap, so to speak. Today I made some duck bao. I have a deep love for duck cook any which way EXCEPT soup. I cooked the fillings a day before I want to wrap.

Division on labour makes for a stress-free cook. My daughter is also on holiday so I have a chief bottle washer. I am using my old recipe but reduced the yeast to 1 pkt and added 1 tsp of sugar. In doing so I have to wait a bit longer for it to proof but it works the same. – Easy Char Siu Baozi (叉烧包) – Just Julie (julieolive.co.uk)

Cooking and baking is a forever learning process. If for any reason you think you are good enough then you are wrong. Recently I learned something new so am sharing another TIP.

New TIP – After wrapping and shaping your bao do not wait too long before steaming. 10 minutes is more than ample. I find the longer you wait the bao shape will sink a little and not stay in the same sexily shaped you wanted after steaming.

Beef rendang is one of the most well known of Malaysian dishes. It is as synonymous to Malaysian cuisine as nasi lemak.

We, the Malaysian have adopted and embraced this dish from our neighbour Indonesia and made it our own.

Living in the UK we will never make as nice a beef rendang or nasi lemak as we could in Malaysia. This is because we cannot get nice fresh coconut milk. Some may say that the tin coconut milk is just as good but in my opinion, I beg to differ. However as a Malaysian living in the UK I do not really have a lot of choice. I have a coconut shredder chair (yes the old school one) please refer to pic) but I still cannot buy nice enough coconut to give me any worthwhile coconut milk.

To cook beef rendang it not difficult. The hardest job is frying the kerisik kelapa (shredded coconut strands) Please do not buy the ready fried ones. They taste of stale coconut oil – yikes. Buy the frozen coconut strands and fry it yourself on a dry non stick clean pan/wok.

I would have used more galangal but I did not have more. I really love the taste of galangal. You can find it normally at any Chinese supermarket. Galangal is not hard to find.

TIP – In all my curries and cooking I prefer to make my own paste and I always prefers to blitz some of the lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves etc with my paste. This not only gives any dishes more uuumph but thicken the sauce without the need of buah keras (candlenuts)

As for my DIY lemang there is a long story of trial and errors. When I first tried to make it in UK I made tons of mistakes and this is the closest I can get to the real thing now.

Basically it is just mix the drained soaked glutinous rice to a tin of coconut milk, mix in the salt, the pandan leaves, stir and steam for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and remove the pandan leaves.

Then scope some onto your ready banana leaves and more pandan leaves, wrapped and steam again for another 15 minutes. This will cause the banana leaf taste to seep in.

Remove and use a blow torch to torch the banana leaves (you can use gas stove or BBQ) for this to achieve the smoky taste. This give me the closest taste I can get to the real lemang minus the bamboo. When you served your lemang you will see light green on the sides. That’s the taste and look you want.

Again as I have stressed before use my recipe as a guide and create your own to your own taste.

I still recall most embarrassingly the first time I tried to make lemang I actually boiled the glutinous rice then roll them into tube using cling film and of course it tasted nothing like lemang!

TIP – Do not add your gula Malacca till the last hour to limit the chance of sticking.

TIP – Taste and season with salt if not salty enough or add more sugar if too spicy during the last 30 minutes.

TIP – Add some fresh cili padi (birdeye chilli) if not spicy enough

TIP – Cook rendang the day before and let it steep overnight. Then the next day you only need to steam and make the lemang.

Today we are still in lockdown in the UK due to Covid-19. This morning I woke up in a cooking mood. At first I wanted to cook 3 meals for today, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

However I ended up only cooking 2 meals. Brunch of roast chicken with noodles and dinner is traditional old British stew.

So early in the morning I phoned my mother in law and went over with her the steps for cooking this dish. I have watched her enough time cooking it but it’s nice to hear her instructions kekekekekeke She did give me a very crucial information that I did not know before!!! Then I realised why I don’t like cooking stews. It sticks to the bottom of my pan and I need to soak overnight to wash!

However due to my mother in law’s tip I cooked the best stew ever and nothing stuck to the bottom of my pan. My son woofed down 5 dumplings when he came back from. I will definitely cook this for him again! His ‘so good mum’ makes me so happy.

It is seldom that I cook stew because I am also not a big fan of stew but today I cook for my son as I know he loves a good stew with dumplings, lots of my special dumplings. Also when he last went out to do shopping with his Dad a fortnight ago he bought a stew pack – a packet from the supermarket containing the root vegetables for stew. I think that is a big HINT!

I have a few potatoes left so I decided to add them in too to bulk it up a bit. Both the hubby and the son were really happy!

Note – Traditionally you can serve this with mashed potatoes but I prefer to stew the potatoes as well. One step of work less.

A crêpe or crepe is a type of very thin pancake. Crêpes are usually of two types: sweet crêpes and savoury galettes. Crêpes are served with a variety of fillings, from the simplest with only sugar to flambéed crêpes Suzette or elaborate savoury galettes.

My hubby actually prefers them with lashing of butter and just a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. However he wouldn’t say no to eating them with a scope of vanilla ice cream. He also likes them with lashing of salted butter and maple syrup aka like caramel.

My mother in law sprinkle a bit of sugar on hers with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

My son love his with maple syrup and crispy bacon. This way is actually very good! There’s something amazing when the crispy salty bacon marries the sweet maple syrup.

Crêpes Suzette is not the only way to eat them. make your own way. I like mine with fresh fruits especially pineapple or mangoes with fresh cream!

I made a load of crêpes because I was given a box of 24 pints of semi skimmed milk and I don’t want to waste any. After making they can be wrapped nicely and keep for a week or so in the fridge.

I would love to make a Mille Crêpe Cake with traditional Pastry Crème Filling but being in lock-down due to this deadly virus I rather not go to the shops. Stay home, stay safe.

“Its surface is the softest canary yellow evenly dimpled with pale gold. Its edges are as frilly as old French lace. It is so delicate you can barely pick it up. This is the perfect crepe” – Nigel Slater (one of my more favourite chef)

Cekodok Pisang or Banana Fritters is one of Malaysia’s best-love snack. It’s one on my favourite.

I am almost embarrassed to post this as this is so easy to make. However I have since been persuaded that it is not everyone that can make it so here’s a post on my blog.

Living in the UK, I have never found it taste quite the same as in Malaysia for we do not have that much choice of bananas here. I always leave my bananas to go to almost rotten before I use them to get as close a taste to home as possible.

However I do not make this often even though hubby loves them. He will eat this till the cows come home but he will never on his own eat a fresh banana. Go figures.

I don’t make this often because bananas when ripe contains so much sugar and as a diabetic I cannot afford to use up my sugar rations.

Shepherd Pie brings back a lot of memories. This is because I have to make a potato mash for it.

Two and twenty years ago my ex boyfriend went to Malaysia to meet me. The very first Western dish I made for him is mash potatoes. He was telling me how to make it nice as he finds the ones in Malaysia, funny tasting. I still remembered he said taste like chicken?

He was mashing the boiled potatoes but for some reason I can’t remember why, he had to pop to the sundry shop and left me to continue. So like a true Malaysian I sat on the floor and mash the boiled potatoes adding in butter slowly, alternating with a milk, a pinch of salt, some freshly ground pepper like I was told.

When he came back from the shop I had finished and he was shocked to discovered I added in the entire 250g of butter Well I was not told how much to add in! I was tasting as I was adding and it tasted better and better with more butter and so I added more and more butter until the whole block was gone!

The silly things we do that now seems so funny. Nowadays I am only using half a block but I have moved from using milk to cream for that really rich taste.

Just for some extra information –

If you use lamb mince it’s Shepherd Pie

If you make with mince beef and red wine it is Cottage Pie.

This is a very easy leeks side dish. When I cook this I do not make a sauce for the steak as the leeks will be saucy enough.

This makes for a quick satisfying dish and all can be ready in under an hour as the beef steak is just pan seared in a griddle pan.

Just be a bit more careful with washing the leeks as they tends to trap and hide a lot of dirt when growing. Many a times I find myself having to wash again and again as I slice them.

p/s You should have about half of bottle of white wine left to drink after.