Sunday, August 14, 2011

Sugi Biscuit





We are midway through Ramadhan and naturally we have to start thinking about sweets and biscuits to serve our guests for our Eid celebration. Thanks to Azi Colling who shared with me this oh so simple recipe but so delicious!




Sugi Biscuits/Biskut Arab

1 cup ghee
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
Powdered sugar

Mix the ingredients. Turn into small balls and flatten slightly. Bake for 12 mins in a preheated oven of 180C.

When cool, sprinkle powdered sugar over the biscuits.

How easy is that!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Easy Oven Baked BBQ Beef Ribs





Its the weekend and I really had no idea what to prepare for iftar, so off we went to the butcher to stock up on our supply as we were fresh out of everything, I could see the back wall of my freezer!


The butcher offered me a good deal on the beef ribs and I thought, sure I could make some stew and soup with them. But Amir & Sabrina suggested I make BBQ Ribs as they have been craving it for a while. We normally go to the local restaurant to have these and they cost $15.00 per plate which coincidentally is the cost of the 2 kg ribs we took home.


I trolled the net for the easiest recipe I could find and settled on this one from Cooks.com. As usual I didnt have all the ingredients and tweaked it a bit but was pleasantly surprised with the end result....soft succulent, falling off the bone ribs....as my kids and hubby calls it "best ribs they ever tasted"...oh they can be biased...but trust me, it is a richly flavoured dish, best of all the $15.00 fed all 4 of us and I saved half of it in the fridge for the next round.


Ingredients:



4 lbs. short ribs of beef
4 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
4 tbsp. olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
3 tbsp. honey
3 tbsp. cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. dry mustard or Dijon mustard
1/2 cup Heinz Chili Sauce or any BBQ sauce (I used Masterfoods BBQ sauce)
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce


Use a cast iron or other heavy wide skillet or pan that is also ovenproof with a lid.Remove any membranes (or silverskin) from short ribs.
Combine flour, salt, and pepper and rub into the ribs.
Brown them in the olive oil in a large skillet, turning as they brown. Add chopped onions, garlic and parsley.
When browned, pour off all but a small portion of the drippings remaining in pan. Add remaining ingredients.
Bring the sauce to a boil, then cover the pan and transfer to a preheated 325°F oven and bake for 90 minutes. Reduce heat to 250°F and bake for another hour or until ribs are fork tender, basting occasionally.
If you have time you can cook these ribs on the grill or in a smoker but I just left mine in the oven so I could work on desserts.


Bismillah and enjoy!

Stuffed Mackerel/Jackfish with Chili & Lemongrass


The fish all prepped and ready for baking

This dish brings so much memories of my childhood. I will help my mother clean and gut the fish from the back. This is because we are stuffing the fish from the back, naturally.

We normally used Jackfish or what we normally call "cecaru" in Malay. I believe it is from the same family as the Amber Jack.

I have tried making this with a table sized trevally, amberjack or the mackerel. I believe any firm flesh fish without a lot of small bones or what they commonly refer to the Y bones.

Mum used a a string fashioned from the dried banana leaf stalk (the middle part of the leaf) but you can easily use a kitchen string to tie up the fish.

Although mum deep fries the whole fish in hot oil I felt like a healthier option will be baking the fish. True enough it tastes just as good as I remember it. Alhamdulillah.



Ingredients:

I table size mackarel (cleaned & gutted from the back)
Kitchen string


for the stuffing

4 fresh chilis
3 stalks lemon grass (only use the white part)
1 clove garlic
1 onion (large)
2 tsb sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Method:

Pre heat oven to 375 F or 190 C.
Process stuffing in a food processor until fine, taste the balance of sugar and salt and tweak if necessary.  Pour into the opening in the fish. Tie the up the fish to secure the stuffing and place on an oiled baking tray.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes and let rest for 10 minutes before digging in.




Quick & Easy Sponge with Jam




After I swept up the cobwebs, I finally have the time to sit down and share yet another quickie in the kitchen :) It's been a very busy time at work and  I have not been spending much time experimenting in my science lab.

This one is a keeper...and I love how soft the sponge is. Its great for Ramadhan, all you really need is 10 minutes to whip this up and while its baking in the oven, you can work on other dishes.

So please do try this, its too easy not to :)


Ingredients

  • Melted butter for greasing
  • 1 cup self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp cornflour
  • 1 cup caster sugar
  • 3 Tbsp milk
  • Extra 2 Tbsp melted butter
  • 3 x 60g eggs
  • Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
  • 1 tsp baking powder

Filling

  • 4 Tbsp raspberry jam
  • 200ml thickened cream, whipped
  • Icing sugar, for dusting
  • Fresh raspberries, to serve

Method

1 Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease two 20cm round cake tins with melted butter, then line each with baking paper.
2 Sift flours into the large bowl of an electric mixer. Add sugar, milk, extra butter, eggs and zest and whisk on high for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Fold in baking powder.
3 Pour mixture into prepared tins. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden and cooked when tested with a skewer.
4 Remove cakes from oven and leave in tins for 5 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks. Cool.
5 Spread jam over 1 cake. Spread cream over jam, then top with other cake. Dust with icing sugar, top with raspberries and serve. Or alternative you can use strawberry jam or canned cherries for the topping, be as creative as you can be :)

Author:
Better Homes and Gardens Magazine - April 2011