Kitchen Antics

Lemongrass Tea

2012-01-23T22:09:00.001+08:00

I went visiting for Chinese New Year and was lucky enough to be given two recipes that are beneficial for health. The first one is lemongrass tea.

Three months ago, my friend went to the doctor complaining that she felt pain in her right feet whenever walked. The doctor said that it was due to inflammation. Doctor gave her a jab and also asked her to go for a medical checkup (just in case).

From the medical checkup, results showed that her cholesterol level and gout is borderline, thus the doctor advised her to start taking medication to lower her cholesterol level and gout. She refused (my friend is a very, very stubborn woman) and decided to seek alternative medicine i.e. traditional medicine. Promised the doctor she'll be back within a month with a lower cholesterol and gout level. Doctor gave her 3 months.

She googled and found that lemongrass tea helps to reduce the cholesterol level, reduce gout and also helps fight against cancer cells. And decided to give it a try.

Just in case you didn't know, this is how a lemongrass tree looks like.

Her recipe:

Lemongrass leaves (the greenish freshly cut ones) cut into 1-inch long, measured to 1/4 of a cup.
2 cups of water.
Boil the leaves and water for 3 minutes.
Leave to cool.
And drink (the water not the leaves; you may throw the leaves into the bin once you've emptied your cup)

Use only the leaves.

And not this one. This one is used for cooking.

She continued this for three months, and with some 30 minutes of cycling (the stationary bike, not the normal BMX kind) every couple of days in a week she lost 12 kilos, in three months. Meaning, 1 kilo per week (by this time, I was already planning on making the tea once I get back home).

A few weeks ago she went back to the doctor and voila! reduced cholesterol level and reduced gout. And now that she's 12 kilos lighter, no more pain in her foot. Other side-effects of the drink that she claimed was:

1. Better sleep (i.e. easier for her to fall asleep)
2. Helps in managing water retention problems
3. Flushes toxins (helps her to sweat)

A word of caution though, she also claims that in the beginning of her trying out this new recipe, her throat would feel a little dry after drinking the tea. But a few days later, once getting used to it, dry throat no more!

Oh yeah, how often should you drink this tea? She said initially she drank the tea everyday, now she's only taking the tea once in every couple of days.

I tried taking the tea just now, it's actually not that bad. And this is what I found from googling the benefits of lemongrass tea.

Try it!

xoxo Mrs Fashionista

Brownies

2010-09-03T13:21:00.000+08:00

I have always loved brownies and when I found this recipe I certainly felt a need to share. I plan to serve this for our Eid-ul Fitr celebration =)

Ingredients:

3 1/4 cups of flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter

1 packet of cooking chocolate

1/2 cup of sugar

1 tbsp of cooking oil

1 tsp of vanilla essence

About a handful of chopped nuts (you can opt for walnuts or almonds)

A pinch of salt

How to do it?

Whip eggs, butter, sugar, cooking oil and vanilla essence. In another pan, melt cooking chocolate. Then add in flour, cooking chocolate, salt and nuts to the mixture.

Leave it in the oven for 30 minutes at 200 degrees celsius.

Simple right? Have fun!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Oreo Cheesecake

2010-09-03T12:53:00.000+08:00

Ingredients:

Crust

12 digestive biscuits (blended finely)

2 tbsp of margarine (melted)

Cheesecake

1 cup of thickened cream

1 1/2 cup of cottage cheese

10 pieces of oreo cookies (blended finely)

Ready to start? Let's go!

Melt margarine (you can substitute with butter if you like) then add in the digestive biscuits and mix them well. Flatten the mixture (it should be dough-like and kinda sticky) at the base of your casserole dish or your cake pan. Then leave it into the oven for 10 minutes at 150 degrees.

For the cheesecake, whip the cream and cheese until the mixture looks fluffy. Add in a half a handful of blended oreo cookies into the mixture and mix well. Then pour the mixture over the crust. The balance of the blended oreo cookies on top of the whole cake (like some sort of deco on top of the cake).

Done it all? Leave your cake in the fridge and voila! You've made an oreo cheesecake =)

Yummy!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Famous Amos Cookies

2010-09-02T13:47:00.000+08:00

This is one of my favorite cookies to bake. I really love it and it really does taste like those sold at Famous Amos at the airports.

Ingredients:
2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsb. baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder)
24 oz. chocolate chips
1 tsb salt
1 8oz. Cadbury bar chocolate (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsb. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla

Got the ingredients? Let's get baking!
Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Cadbury bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Puding Sha Na Na

2010-09-01T21:16:00.000+08:00

This is one of my favorite desserts as it is not only yummy, but it is terribly easy to make. Puding Sha Na Na is a two layer pudding, the bottom half is butter pudding and the upper half is chocolate.

The Ingredients

Ingredients:
Bottom layer 1 packet of agar-agar powder
5 tbs custard powder
7 eggyolk
1 can of ideal milk
1 1/2 glass of sugar
250g butter
1 litre water

Top layer
1 glass of milo
3/4 glass of sugar
1 packet of agar-agar powder
7 egg whites
3 glass of water

Separate the egg whites and the egg yolks

Directions:
Bottom layer
Heat water in a medium-sized pot. Add in agar-agar powder. Stir until the water heats up to boiling point.

Some mixin' in action

In the meantime, mix egg yolks, butter and sugar until the mixture looks fluffy. Then add in custard powder (you might want to mix the custard powder with a bit of water first to make sure that there'll be no lumps in your mixture.

Then, add your butter mixture and such into the boiling water. Add in ideal milk and stir until the mixture reaches boiling point (tip: it looks kinda thick and looks like a broth). Finally pour your mixture into glass containers (or wherever you like) and let it cool.

The bottom layer is ready

Top layer
Heat water and add in agar-agar powder (like what you did for the bottom layer). Add in milo to the mixture.

In another bowl, mix egg whites and sugar until its fluffy (similar to what you did with the bottom layer). Once the water starts to boil and the broth is looks thick, add in your mixture of egg whites and sugar into the water. Stir until the mixture reaches boiling point and then add in your mixture into the glass containers on top of the bottom layer (duh!). Let the whole thing cool prior to serving.

Voila! The upper layer, ready to eat! =)

Tip:

Prior to adding in the top layer, you might want to scratch the surface of the bottom layer with a fork. This will make sure than both layers are well stuck to each other prior to serving, otherwise the whole thing might slip apart once you slice the pudding and serve.

Cheesy Banana Fritters

2010-08-08T10:16:00.000+08:00

Absolute delish is what comes to mind whenever I think of this dessert. It is absolutely easy to make which is why I like it.

Ingredients:
Bananas (it wouldn't be called banana fritters without bananas!)

Rice flour

Water (straight from the pipe will be fine)

Sweetened milk

Grated cheddar cheese of any brand

Cooking oil of any kind

Got the ingredients? Let's get a-cookin'!

Firstly peel of your bananas from their skins.

Then slice them (not-so-thinly).

Heat oil onto wok.

Prepare dip. It is a mixture of rice flour and water. Just a spoonful or two of flour and then mix evenly with water.

Dip bananas into mixture then fry. Make sure your oil is sizzling hot!

Out from the frying pan. Then add in a drizzle of sweetened milk.

Like this;

Then sprinkle some grated cheese on top.

Voila! Ready to be eaten~

Yummy!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Spaghetti

2009-05-20T14:30:00.000+08:00

This is actually one of the most easiest recipes to try on. And in my opinion, it easy to cook since during Raya there are so many people serving spaghetti instead of rendang nowadays.

So, the ingredients are:

1. 6 diced onions

2. 1 can of tomato puree

3. 2 packets of minced meat

4. 4 tablespoon of olive oil

5. Half a bottle of chili sauce (the smaller bottle ya)

6. Half a bottle of tomato ketchup (also the smaller bottle)

7. 1 can of sliced button mushrooms

8. Salt (as much as your heart desires)

9. Pepper (also as much as you want)

10. Cheese (usually a packet will do but if you want it to be more cheesy, then by all means, it's your cooking)

11. 2 packets of spaghetti (vermicili or fettucine) itself

Got your ingredients ready? Let's start cooking then!

Firstly, warm your pot on the stove for a minute or so, then put in the olive oil (I sometimes substitute olive oil with butter coz butter smells tastier). Then put in your onions and let them turn brown a bit. After the smell of nicely cooked onions have wafted into the air (be careful not to burn them, if they've turned black that means that it's burnt), then put in your minced meant. Make sure the meat have cooked nicely and evenly, then put in the tomato puree, followed by chili sauce and tomato ketchup. The reason for chili sauce it coz I like my spaghetti to be a wee bit spicy and sweet. Then add in the mushrooms and stir them all to blend all the ingredients together.

In the mean time, boil a pot of water until you can see the water bubbling (that basically means that it's at boiling temperature) and put in your spaghetti. To avoid the spaghetti to clump to each other, add in a few spoonful of cooking oil into the pot. The oil will help the spaghetti to soften separately instead of sticking together. After the spaghetti noodles has gone limp & soft (make sure it is cooked thoroughly) then take then out of the water and let them dry for a bit in a serving bowl.

After your spaghetti sauce has simmered nicely, you can either choose to add in cheese together in the sauce (to avoid kids from fighting over who gets more cheese) or you can choose to grate the cheese and let everyone have as many or as little cheese as they want later on.

Voila! Your lunch is served *grin*

Hope you like it!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Beef Pie

2009-05-09T11:01:00.000+08:00

This is a very simple dish but very delish! I've had some comments liking the dish so much that they wanted me to cook it whenever I have friends over for dinner or lunch. So, here goes...

Ingredients:
4 onions
2 packets of mince meat
1 tblspoon of oil
2 beef stock cubes
3 carrots
6 potatoes
A pinch of salt and pepper
2 tblspoon of butter
A bit of corn flour

Directions:
First dice the onions. In the mean time de freeze your meat. Meanwhile, boil the carrots and potatoes in a pot. Carrots just only have to be soft and chew-able. For the potatoes, they must be very soft (you are going to mash them later). Add in a pinch of salt and pepper into the boiling water.

Prepare a frying pan (a pot can be used as well). Put in the oil, then fry the onions (in malaysian we call it tumis). After onions, comes the minced meat. Add in the beef stock. Make sure the meat is fully cooked then, add in a pinch of salt and pepper. Finally add in some corn flour to thicken your dish.

For the dish itself, after the meat is cooked, put it in a casserole dish (or whatever that you feel is equivalent). Then add in the carrots. The carrots should be sliced thinly or moderately thin. They are arranged on top of the beef. That means you have a bottom layer of beef and an upper layer of carrots. Finally, spread the mashed potatoes as the topmost layer. Make sure that it is spread evenly. Finally, spread a very thin layer of butter on top and heat the dish to make sure that the butter melts. Heating could be done by using a simple microwave.

Don't forget to add some seasoning, salt & pepper cause potatoes can be quite bland without it. So, make it flavorful with some mixed herbs or italian herbs!

Have eating!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Mashed Potatoes

2009-05-04T23:22:00.000+08:00

Let's start with the basics. This dish seems to be my favorite whenever I visit the nearest KFC cause it's soooo yummy!

I bet you can't wait to know the recipe right? The ingredients are:

For the mashed potatoes:

1. 300g potatoes

2. 1 tbsp butter

3. Salt & pepper to taste

4. 1 - 2 tbsp plain UHT milk

For the sauce:

1. 600ml chicken stock

2. 1 small stalk celery, chopped finely

3. 1 big onion, chopped finely

4. 1/2 tsp mixed herbs

5. 35g butter

6. 35g flour

7. 1/2 tbsp tomato puree

8. Salt & pepper to taste

9. 1/8 tsp dark soy sauce for coloring

Ready? Let's do this!

For mashed potatoes:

BOIL washed potatoes in a pan of lightly salted water. Cover and simmer for 20 - 25 minutes until tender. Drain well, peel off the skin then mash the potatoes while hot until you get a smooth mash. Beat in butter and enough milk to obtain a soft consistency. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

For the sauce:

PLACE chicken stock in a saucepan together with celery, big onion and mixed herbs. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain the stock.

Heat butter and cook the flour over very low heat, stirring constantly until it comes away from the sides of the saucepan. Gradually add in the stock, stirring until smooth.

Stir in the tomato puree and dark soy sauce and bring to a boil.

Simmer for about 50 minutes to thicken the sauce to the desired consistency. Season to taste.

It might seem a bitty hard to make at first but I assure you it's actually quite easy. After a while, I just tend to measure stuff according to either a tablespoonful or teaspoonful. For the sauce I normally add in sliced button mushrooms to add in the mushroom flavor to it.

Happy cooking peeps!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Hullo

2009-05-03T00:01:00.000+08:00

Here we are, back in the kitchen none-the-less. Amazingly people don't relate fashionistas and cooking do they? I'm here to prove that myths do come true as I'm going to share my recipes, those that I've tried before and they haven't KILLED ANYONE (so far).

So gear up your cooking utensils as we are going to go through a culinary adventure that's absolutely SAFE even for those who can't even cook to save their own lives.

Let's get yummy peeps!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo