Cottage Pie or Shepherd's Pie?

Alloooo mate, 

Lately, iol macam malas nak masuk dapur masak. Sangat tak teruja nak memasak walaupun keinginan nak masak itu ini meluap-luap *bunyi nafsu serakah sangat khennn... iol guess it is because iol started to get busy with my actual job routine. Tuh yang kepenatan sangat bila fikir nak masak. But, iol cannot demotivate my lovely readers. The reason iol created this blog was to encourage people to cook in tender loving care for their love ones. So, kalau iol bermalas-malasan untuk ke dapur, nanti peminat-peminat fanatik blog nih *dah ramai sangat kerrr peminat???... kecam iol tak beri semangat untuk diorang. 

"We are fans of mrhotmuffins' blog! We love you!"

Cupcakes for Princess Kate Middleton

Oooh La laaa..

Sedih iol dengar bila my beloved, Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine Elizabeth Middleton aka Kate Middleton terpaksa menyambut Valentine's Day sorang-sorang tanpa Kanda William di sisi kerana tugasan berjuang (bukan berperang yerrr) melawat di Falklands...ala-ala perwira gitewwww. Tapi Kate tak sunyi, kerana beliau membuat kerja amal dengan melawat dan men-support pertubuhan amal seperti di Alder Hey Children's Hospital di Liverpool. Sangat berhati mulia, uolsss*matilaarrr tetiba jadik jurucakap Buckingham Palace.

"Kanda tak der tak aper, baca blog mrhotmuffins untuk
hilang kesunyian. Blog tuh best Dinda!!"

So, iol mulalah selingsing lengan ke dapur untuk mem-baking dengan penuh kasih sayang, sempena V-Day bagi meraikan cinta agung William and Kate. 

"To my Kate, this is for you, love." 

- mrhotmuffins aka Royal Chef at St. James Palace.

Kate's Romantic Vanilla Cupcakes with 

White Chocolate and Butter Cream Frosting

The Ingredients.
 "Baking for Royal kene guna Royal baking powder jugekk."

Step 1

In a jug, macam jug pirex iol nih *jug kedai 2 hengget pun bole gak, mix the sour cream, eggs and vanilla pod/extract. Mix them well.

Step 2

Put the dry ingredients (castor sugar, ground almond, self rising flour and baking power) into a large bowl and make a well in the middle.Whisk to mix the ingredients well. 

Step 3

Meanwhile, melt butter in a saucepan and let it cool down for a while. Then, add the melted butter into a sour creamy mix and stir them well. Nanti uolss akan dapat mixture macam buat telor dadar.

Step 4

Pour in the wet mixture into dry ingredients and quickly fold in with a spatula. Make sure you do not overwork it. *jangan lak mengacau macam nak mengacau dodol!

Step 5

Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown, risen and springy to touch. The oven must be pre-heated to 190C/gas5.

Step 6

To make the white chocolate and butter frosting, melt the white chocolate in the microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes, stirring halfway. Leave to cool. Beat the butter and icing sugar in a large bowl until creamy.

Step 7

Then, pour in the melted chocolate into creamy butter mixture and beat it for 30 seconds.

Step 8

When the cakes are cooked, cool for a few minutes, then lift the cakes onto a wire rack to cool completely.*Gebunyerr..gebu dan curvy macam mrhotmuffins oppssss.

Step 9

Spread the creamy frosting over the cakes. You can decorate the cakes in your own way. iol tak pandai nak decorate nih. Ini je lah hasilnya. In the end, masuk dalam mulot jugak khennn.

Here is the cupcakes for my lovely Princess Kate, Duchess of Cambridge on Valentine's Day :-).

"Thanks uolsss for the lovely, tasty and devine cupcakes uolss untuk iols.
 Princess Beatrice of York jeling je kat  iols lepas dinner malam tadi
bila dapat bungkusan special.Dengki khenn. muahhhs to uolllss."

Ciao Bella!!!

Asian Food Feast

Sawatdee Khrab!

Tulen kahhhh???

Merasa tetiba cakap bahasa Thai. Sesekali ubah dasar pandang ke Asia Tenggara apa salahnyerr. Walaupun iol kerap di cela sebagai penjajah, atau kerap kompang pasal negara Union Jack, iol tetap tak lupa masakan dan makanan dari negara uolsss di Asia *matilaaa nanti dikecam tak sedar diri...yang full of wonderful mix flavors.

To be honest, iol not good at cooking Asian food especially Malay food. Not that iol hebat masak western food, but at least, when iol read western recipe, it is so much easy to follow, prepare and cook. Dapur tak rasa kotor and tak risau pasal rempah naik bau ke tak, bila nak masuk santan or pecah minyak ke tak. However, Malay food has an exquisite taste that often never failed to impress the eater. In Malay cuisine, fresh aromatic herbs and roots are always used. The spices or rempah are always be the key ingredient in Malay cooking that brings up the flavor to the maximum *ayoooo dah macam host rancangan memasak..who knows in the future kann..mode verangan ON!.. Sebab tu kalau mat saleh makan masakan Melayu, macam iol selalu bawak my international affairs..ehh?? to Malay Restaurant, they always love and enjoy the food although some of the food might be spicy to them. 

iol was watching one of the programme on Astro's Asian Food Channel (AFC) called Best Wan!..iol very sure uolss know who the chef is in the programme.Tak yah laa nak glamerkan dia lagi kannn. One thing I was very impressed to say, the programme is really up to an international cooking programme standard and more important, it made me wanted to try the recipes!!! So, iol googled the website and found the recipes. I called some of my "a friend in need is a friend indeed" friends (ye lahhh, takkan nak panggil musuh pulak khenn) to try my cooking and had night in together. I chose two recipes from the programme as a backbone of the dinner. Let's see how they look like.

Grilled Calamari and Young Green Mango Salad with 

Fresh Lime Juice and Palm Sugar Dressing 

Technically, this is not a Malay food but originally from Thai. The famous Thai salad that always serve perfectly on the table with Tomyum when you crave for Thai food. Dalam bahasa senang, kalu tergeliat lidah nak sebut, kerabu sotong dan mangga. Sangat mudah untuk disediakan. However, the hardest part would be to peel the mangoes and cut in julianne manner. iol sure that you already knew the taste but this one is more tasty than one iol had in restaurants because the calamari was grilled instead of blanching it. Tak caya, try!!!

Spicy Grilled Chicken with Thick Coconut Sauce

Another recipe iol took from the programme and never tried it before is Spicy Grilled Chicken aka Ayam Percik. Pada uolss mungkin biasa and selalu makan dan nampak orang bakar ayam percik ni kat pasar malam atau lebih famous waktu bulan Ramadhan. Masa tu berebut-rebut orang beratur nak beli macam esok nak Tsunami ..oppsss nauzubillah. iol was very fascinated by they way this chicken was prepared and the herbs that  were used to marinate the chicken. Of course, it will be more authentic if the chicken was grilled on a charcoal grill but if you do not have one, like iols, just grilled the chicken in the oven. *merasa lepas tuh jenuh nak menyental, cuci the oven...the best part is the thickened sauce for the chicken is from the remaining  marinated mixture for the chicken. Just splash the mixture before you grill the chicken, and cook the remaining mixture in a pan to make a sauce and serve together with the chicken. Smashing!!!!

Baked Barramundi with Lemon and Fresh Aromatic Herbs

This fish dish was not from the programme. iol wants to share this dish with you because iols love seabass. iols cooked seabass a lot when iols lived abroad *tetap tak lupa nak mention hihihi..because it is juicy and easy to cook. What iol normally do was to put the seabass in an aluminium foil, squeeze some lemon juice, drizzle some olive oil, season with salt and paper and wrap the foil, make like a bag and bake in the oven for 12 minutes. When it is cooked, just eat it straight away. Love it!!! 

For this recipe, iol guna barramundi, an asian seabass that is easily found in any major supermarket. Nak guna ikan siakap pun boleh. With the same method above, but i put the fish in the oven dish and tip in some aromatic herbs like lemongrass, ginger, garlic and onion as well as carrots and tomatoes. Then wrap the top of the oven dish with a foil.

Steamed Pak Choy with Garlic and Oyster Sauce

Kalau makan tanpa sayur tak bestkann. So instead of frying or cooking vegetables in coconut milk, iol steamed the pak choy, then drizzle with oyster sauce mixed with chopped garlic. Senang kann! All of these dishes are incomplete without steamed rice ya. So, jangan lupa :-).

Macam serve kat hotel tak???

So, who says *tetiba lagu Selena Gomez terngiang-ngiang..ehh.. iol cannot cook Malay food hihihih. I enjoy cooking these dishes and will do it again. Walaupun penat laa jugak menyediakan bahan2 tuh especially to marinate and grilled the chicken, my friends enjoyed it and impressed with my Malay culinary skills. More important, no matter how good your food is, food that has been prepared with tender loving care, always tastes better. That's what I believe in!

"Babe, nanti uolss masakkan untuk iol rendang macam rendang daging Mak uolss
dengan lemang skali yer. iol suka rendang  tuh." *matilaarrr raya tahun ni!

Ciao Bella!!!

Mulberry Hazelnut and Chocolate Cake

Hola, 

Semakin hari semakin ramai yang membaca blog nih *ayooooo PERASAN sgtss...lihat sajer the number of people visited this blog has increased dramatically since it was first launched. Thank you all for reading my blog. Follower pun makin ramai bertambah. This shows that what I shared here has inspired people to start cooking or baking (I very much hope so yehhh) or maybe pembaca blog nih kaki langot and suka jer buang masa kat tempat kerja jadi pembaca blog yang setia hihihihih...ok jer kann dari tengok benda yang tak berfaedah :-)

"Iol follow blog uolss tapi tak nak mengaku, voleh??
 Takut peminat iol tahu nanti diorg tak follow twitter iol tapi follow your blog."

Ok..cukuplaa iol memuji diri sendiri khennn...jijik pulak orang membacanya hihihihi. For this entry, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite cake that I baked almost every month since I came back dari negara Union Jack terchenta ..*matilaaa pembaca iol menyampah statement nih..masa Raya pun mesti kene buat cake nih..tapi sejak dua-menjak, dah lama tak buat sebab banyak recipe cake lain yang iol kene cuba. So, let's scroll down.

Mulberry Hazelnut and Chocolate Cake 

The Ingredients

Step 1

Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Kalu tak der Kitchen Aid, beat pakai tangan dengan spatula kayu pun boleh tapi jangan beat sampai jadi kuih bahulu lak.

Step 2

Then, add the eggs, one at a time, beating well followed by vanilla pod. If you do not have vanilla pod, you can substitute with vanilla extract or essence. Vanilla pod tuh mahal. Kat kedai bakery satu aje dah RM9. But if you go to Indonesia, you can buy a handful of vanilla pod sebab tersangat laa murahnye. Tak bubuh vanilla pun tak per tapi tak de laa jiran sebelah dapat bau yang uolss tengah baking cake yang sedap *matilaaa riak

Step 3

Mix the flour and ground hazelnut. Tip in the mixture into the bowl. Whisk slowly until all the ingredients combine well. Kalu nak guna ground almond pun boleh. Tapi kacang tanah is a no no yehh.

Step 4

Pour the cake mixture into greased and lined baking paper cake tin. Spread the mixture evenly with spatula.

Step 5

Scatter the almond blanched over the top of the cake mixture. Put it in the pre-heated 160C/300F oven and bake for 45minutes.

Step 6

When the cake is cooked, let the cake cool down for 15minutes. Take out the cake from the tin and serve on the plate.

Step 7

Melt the milk chocolate in the microwave for 2 minutes and drizzle the melted chocolate on the top of the cake.

Okay tak???

Ciao Bella!!!

AJL26 - Parti Kisah Hati

Tiap-tiap tahun, Anugerah Juara Lagu adalah paling dinantikan. Mostly, kebanyakan orang akan cancel segala appointment termasuk PS..opppsss semata-mata nak mengadap depan TV and nak tengok artis mana pakai lawa, persembahan mana yang meletop dan lagu mana yang akan menang. Tak terkecuali nak tengok, suara siapa yang terkucil masa nyanyi. Yang lebih meriah, mereka-reka ini akan menjadi Ketua Juri mengalahkan Ooi Eow Jin (hidup lagikah??) yang pernah jadi ketua juri selama lebih 10 tahun *tak nak lepas takhta sangat ko kannn.. mengomen itu ini sejurus artis tuh habis buat persembahan...overkann?? :-).

Well, apa yang iol nak citer kat sini is not about AJL, but the party that we had at Mulberry Cottage..sekali lagi iol punyer cottage dipilih sebagai venue party (dah jadi macam dewan FELDA Merak Kayangan), for watching AJL this year. Alhamdulillah, iol punyer soulmate bermurah hati untuk mensponsor party ini sepenuhnya semuanya kerana LOVE dengan kengkawan tercinta and iol pun seperti selalu akan memasak dengan penuh kasih sayang...Thank you so much, soulmate!!! May Allah Bless You Always.Amin.

Apa yang dihidang pada malam AJL tuh?? Let's take a look!

Chicken Sausage in a Golden Blanket

This is very easy to make. You just buy ready made chicken sausage, roll with white bread and then you soak in the egg. Then, you deep-fry. I like to tip fresh basil, paprika and a pinch of salt in the egg to give a little extra taste to the sausage.

Potato Croquettes

Another party-munchy-bingy food. You can prepare them in advance, freeze and when it is ready to serve, bake in the oven for 20 minutes.It is breaded mashed potato that is fun to make. Nice to dip it with homemade mayo or just chili sauce. Yummmmm.

Crab and Tuna Stuffed Yorkshire Pudding with 

Mozarella and Fresh Basil 

Yorkshire Pudding, again??? Yes, it is season favorite food. This idea only came up 2 hours before iol started cooking. I thought about making classic British food, Toad in a Hole. Tapi, sebab dah ada sausage kat atas, so I decided to stuff the Yorkshire Pudding. Crunchy and tasty with chewy mozarella. Macam makan pizza lak rasa :).

Homemade Meatballs with Rich Tomato Sauce

A request from the guests after they read this lovely meal in my previous entry. So, I made it again and they loved it a lot!. Tak yah laa nak explain bebanyak. nak tahu, bacalah entry sebelum ni. :)

Sticky Dates Pudding

This gorgeous pudding made by my loveable cottagemate. I asked him to make something for the dessert and he baked this. The cake is very nice and moist. It is baked to perfection.

It was just a simple party meal yet elegant and delicious. More important, the night was about connecting with one another over meals, sharing lots of LOVE, CARE and JOY, hopefully.

This is what we called L.O.V.E.. well keep veranganssssssssss, yehh!

Ciao Bella!!!

Cooking for A Yorkshire Lad

Agak lama jugak iol tak post anything here sampai kene carutan dalam keindahan dari pembaca tegar blog ini. Kata pelangot blog I nih  "You all dah baca latest blog mrhotmuffins??" kat MukaBuka memberi tamparan wanita pada iol. iol feel so tired last week and iol do have some materials to write here but my fingers are so lazy to type.ehhh?? sampai George Clooney pun whatsapps iol bila nak update blog  nih. *mode verangan ON.

"Babe, update blog hari-hari yek. Boleh abang baca  kat Iphone4 abang masa
Academy Awards nanti untuk hilang bosan masa  tunggu results. Love your blog to death !!"
*Ko mampooo???

Last week, my best friend came to visit me at my cottage. He asked me to cook dinner for him. Katernyerr welcome home dinner since he came back from his study leave. Yang diminta makanan western sebab katernyer rindu his time kat Leeds, UK ehhh??...iol faham sangat perasaan dia...hihihihihi. So, iol bukak kitchen cupboard nak tengok apa yang ada. With the recipe provided by my mentor, Jamie Oliver, here is what I served for my Yorkshire friend :). I will also show how these fantastic meals were prepared.

Main

Linguine & Meatballs with Rich Tomato Sauce

The Ingredients

Tip all the ingredients: mince beef, chopped onions, breadcrumbs, parsley, dried oregano, Dijon mustard and egg yolk into a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Mix them all well with a wooden spoon. Boleh gak guna tangan janji bersih yer.

This is how it looks like after I mixed them well

With your hands, roll the mince mixture into a golf-size meatballs. Drizzle the top of meatballs with olive oil and fresh thyme (optional). Put in the pre-heated oven to 200C/gas 7 and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. You can  pan-fried the meatballs until brown with olive oil if you do no have an oven.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the garlic and onion and sizzle for one minute. Then, tip in chopped celery and cook until it begins to soften. Stir in chopped tomatoes, parsley, tomato puree and seasoning. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until slightly thickened. Please, don't you forget, I beg *macam lagu Adele tak? you not to use sauce from a jar like Prego. It tastes horrible. Make your own sauce from scratch, ok? 

Also,do not forget to boil the pasta (I use linguine here). I think everybody knows how to do it. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and put aside until it is ready to serve. Sorry, tak ada gambar sebab lupa nak ambil :-)

When the mince turns into brown in color, take out from the oven. Pour the tomato sauce over the cooked mince and sprinkle some parsley.

People like to eat with some bread. Well, for a change, I ate it with Yorkshire pudding to scoop out every bit of sauce left in the bowl. :-)

Ta daaaa :)

Dessert

Sticky Toffee Pudding with Vanilla Ice-Cream

If you asked me my favorite dessert, this one surely will be on my top list. Sticky toffee pudding is a classic British steamed dessert consisting of a very moist sponge cake, packed with chopped dates, covered with hot toffee sauce and often served with a vanilla ice-cream or vanilla custard. *terliur already???

I remember this would be my dessert, everytime, after having a Sunday roast years ago (tak yah la mention bila and di mana, kang ada yang letak tangan atas bahu, mata naik ke atas). It is quite rare to find this pudding in a restaurant around KL. I had it once in a very famous restaurant in the city centre but I did not like it so much because the cake was dry and it served with very little toffee sauce. It is very important to serve with a generous amount of sauce so you can scoop out the cake with the sauce into your mouth. It is very sweet, I warn you, but it tastes really good.... yum yum yum.

So, it was my first ever attempt at making the pudding. My friend loves it and he took all the left-pudding home, and I had to make an extra sauce for him. Sorry, no pictures how it was done but if you really want to know, maybe i will show you next time :-).

Ciao Bella!!!

Mulberry Classic Chocolate and Walnut Brownies

"Mana sambungan post sebelum nih haaa?? tak sabar iol nak baca laaaa."
*ayooo mode Angry Bird betina sgtsss

Yelaaa, nak cite laa nih. tak sabar-sabar nih. 

Okay. Ini laa sambungan daripada entry sebelum ni, *matilaa kemaruk post dua entry dalam satu hari!!...

Tak lengkap rasanya bila dah makan-makan tapi tak der dessert. It is also incomplete when people come to Mulberry Cottage without having dessert. Dessert is a MUST!

So an hour before the guests arrived, iol went into my heaven's kitchen to find out what I have for dessert. So I decided to bake brownie. And also found an easy brownie recipe in my cooking binder. The results reveled that *macam bentangkan hasil scientific research ..the guests loved the brownie I baked so much..sampai ada yang bawak balik and had breakfast with it the next day *mode naik stage dah ON :)

Iol had some positive comments *which is great..BUT iol also have  my own comments and feelings about the brownie I baked. So, Iol decided to bake again and improve the recipe. The results?? jeng jeng jeng.. I LOVE this one MORE!!

Here iol show you guys how it was done.

The Ingredients

Use the best quality ingredients if you can. Kalau tak, yang murs-murs pun ok but you have to try the recipe until you get the taste that you expected :))

Step 1

Cut the butter into small cubes and break the chocolate into small pieces. Then, tip them into a medium bowl. Sit the bowl on top of a small saucepan fill with a quarter full of water with a low heat to melt the butter and chocolate. You must ensure the bottom of the bowl did not touch the hot water.

Step 2

Occasionally, stir the mixture to mix them well. When it is done, leave the melted mixture to cool to room temperature

Step 3

While waiting for the chocolate mixture to cool, break the eggs into a mixing bowl and tip in the sugar. Using an electric mixer *well mine is Kitchen Aid..*matilaa riak :), whisk the eggs and sugar in a maximum speed until they look thick and creamy. How would you know? The mixture volume will double in size and they look pale.

Step 4

Sieve the the cocoa powder and flour into a bowl. This is to ensure that we get rid off all of the lumps.

Step 5

Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggs and sugar mixture. Then, gently fold together with a rubber spatula until the mixture color  is a mottled dark brown.

Step 6

Tip in the flour and cocoa powder into the bowl. Gently fold them together with the chocolate mixture. Avoid overdoing the mixing.

Step 7

Stir in the chopped walnut and chocolate chunks into the mixture until they are dotted throughout.

Step 8

Prepare a shallow 20cm square tin and line the base with baking parchment. Pour the mixture into prepared tin and scrap out every bit of the bowl with the spatula. Put in the heated oven, 160C/gas 4 for 25-30 minutes. 

Step 9

When it is cooked, leave it in the tin until it is completely cold. Then, take it out from the tin and remove the baking paper. Serve on a plate and cut the brownies into squares.

Yummmylicious! A fudgy and decadent brownies, studded with
extra chunks of chocolate and chopped  walnut.

What I like about this batch of brownies is the runny extra chocolate chunks in the middle (see the pic above) when I cut the brownies. It soft and dense in the middle but firm outside. It surely melts in your mouth and best to serve with a scoop or two good quality vanilla ice-cream. Heavenly!!! I sure make this brownies over and over again. :))

"Bole tak uolss buatkan untuk mek punyer 30th Birthday??
Kanda William suker sgts Brownies tapi mek tak reti buat"
*Boleh uolss..sambil sujud merafak sembah

Ciao Bella!