Thai Pomelo Salad with crispy Onion

I rarely make salads at home. Why? Because I suck at doing it that even my usually uncomplaining man truthfully admits . My vinaigrette's either too sour, too sweet, too bland or too much! He even prefers eating my father in law's salads. And the old man idea of cooking is marinating strips of meat in Knorr and Maggi concoctions! That does it! No salad making for me.

Then, I saw  Thai Pomelo Salad on the Internet . It looks seriously appetising, mocking and  almost daring me. Try me if you can, I could almost hear it taunt me behind the PC screen.  I dared test the unruly waters and ventured in the world of salad making. I  was testing and seasoning the salad dressing again and again, making sure it tasted like it should be. Sweet, sour, tangy, salty, spicy. I might have used all my teaspoons in the kitchen that afternoon. But oh boi! It was more delicous than I thought!  FF was digging into the salad like his favourite ice cream! Hurrah! Join the happy dance!

Ingredients:

1 Pomelo, peeled and break into  serving pieces

2 tbsp. desiccated coconut

2 tbsp. roasted peanuts

a handful of coriander

1 chili pepper, more if you like it hot

1 small onion mix with 1 tbsp. flour

oil for frying

Salad dressing:

1/3 cup lime

4 tbsp. coconut milk

1 tbsp. Palm sugar

tbsp. fish sauce

1 tbsp. Thai Chili Paste

Method: 

Heat desiccated coconut in a pan until lightly brown and aromatic. Set aside.

 In a bowl, whisk dressing ingredients together. Feel free to add a tablespoon or more of any of the ingredients  to suit your taste.

Add salad dressing into the prepared pomelo. Toss until well combined.

Cut onion into thin strips. Toss in flour. Fry until golden brown. Drain in paper towel.

Add onion into the pomelo salad. 

Toss in the sliced clilies, roasted peanuts and coconut. Done!

Moist Pineapple-Coconut Cake with Lemon Glaze

I have a rather bad habit of buying too much foods that end up in the bin and feeling very guilty every single time it happens.  Mouldy cheese at the back of the fridge, hardening leftover rice , milk turning sour , rotting fruits and many others.

The swarming fruit flies on the kitchen counter is like an alarm bell ringing, a nasty reminder that I have yet again, long- forgotten fruit to dispose. Lo and behold, two mangoes are sadly unsalvageable with flesh already black-tinged.  The pineapple however, was still edible yet became overly sweet for my liking. Instead of throwing it away, I simply used it on this super easy recipe. The cake turned out fantastic , FF and I  thoroughly enjoyed it   , not a single crumb wasted!

Ingredients:

400 g flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 and 1/2 tsp. salt

60 g desiccated coconut

4 eggs

350 g sugar

250 g softened butter

500 ml butter milk 

1 medium sized pineapple ( about 500 g)

250 g powdered sugar

juice of 1 and 1/2 lemon

Method.

 1. In a large bowl whisk flour, baking powder, salt , sugar and desiccated coconut.

 2. Add eggs, softened butter and butter milk  until well combined.

 3. Peel pineapple and cut into about 1/2 inch cubes. Add into the batter.

 4. Pour cake batter into a baking pan lined baking pan. I used a 15.5 in x 10.5 in jellyroll pan.

5. Bake cake in a preheated oven ( 180°c) for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

 6.  Juice 1 and 1/2 lemons.

 6. Add icing sugar into the lemon juice. Mix until sugar dissolves.

7. Once cake is done, allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Pour lemon glaze and using a spatula or the back of a spoon, spread  evenly.

Cut into bars and enjoy with your morning coffee ,  afternoon tea or sneakily at night when your spouse is sleeping.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cake

My blog turns 5 today!

What better way to celebrate this milestone than indulging in one of my favorite food combinations?! Chocolate and Peanut Butter!

Not only did I thoroughly enjoyed this decadent and rich treat, but I got to lit a candle, made a wish and blew it too! Made me feel like a kid again.


Now back to my blog, what ought to be spur of the moment past -time became a long-lasting and enjoyable hobby. 5 years , 2 laptops , 4 cameras and  161 posts later my baby, The Babbling Spoon,  is still here with number of supporters continuously growing.


It was an interesting 5 years and I got to bask in  occasional quirks that came with food blogging.   I might not earn a penny from this but doing what I love the most ( cooking, eating , travelling, photography ,  talking to people , eating some more) and sharing it in this blog is gratifying and rewarding enough.

So, thank you dear readers and followers for continuous support support!

Moist Chocolate cake

600 ggranulated sugar

360 g flour

160 g unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. salt

3 eggs

175 ml vegetable oil

350 ml milk

1 tbsp. vanilla

instant coffee powder dissolved in 300 ml boiling water
butter for greasing

1. Put dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and whisk together until well combined.

2.  Then add eggs, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla into the bowl. Beat using an electric mixer until  cake batter  is thick and homogenous . I let my big , mean kitchen machine do the dirty works for me.

2 . In a small cause pan, boil water and dissolve coffee powder. 

3. Add the hot coffee into the cake batter . Keep on beating the batter under high speed for 2-3 minutes. 

4. Grease bakings pans. (3  8-inches or 4 6-inches, like I did.) Evenly divide cake batter into your well greased pans. Bake in a preheated ( 180 °C) over for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Peanut Butter Frosting

150 softened butter

275 g Philadephia cream cheese

1 tsp. vanila

1 whole jar ( 350 g) peanut butter

250 g icing sugar

3-6 tbsp. cream

1. Using a kitchen machine or electric mixer , beat together butter , vanilla and cream cheese until pale and thick.

 2. Beat in peanut butter ( I used the chunky peanut butter just to play with textures ) and icing sugar.

 3. Gradually beat in cream until desired consistency is achieved.

4. Frosting should be thick but spreadable.

Chocolate ganache

150 g bitterchocolate

1 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. cream

 1. Place a heat-proof mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water. Do not let water touch the mixing bowl. Put chopped chocolate and butter and allow to melt.

 2. Take mixing bowl from the heat and stir in cream.

3. Allow ganache to cool down a bit. About 10-15 minutes.

Assemble cake!

Put a layer of chocolate cake on to your cake platter. Smooth a generous amount of frosting , spreading it evenly. Carefully put another layer of cake. Top again with frosting.

Spread frosting on top as well as the sides of the cake. I suck at cake decorating and frosting, but it tasted great nevertheless. plus the crunchy texture of the peanuts certainly add some  character to it. Pop cake in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to solidify it. You can use this time to make your ganache .

Carefully pour ganache on top of the cake, let it sexily drip to the sides.

Hold on to your horses, look at the fruit of your labor, appreciated....

And eat! Do not forget to share with the people you love. 

Pumpkin Lasagne

If there's a part in my human anatomy that I tend to overexert/overuse or abuse,  then, it's probably my eyes. My  love for reading until the wee of dawn, short duration of sleep and over exposure to LED and all things bright and electronic are really taking its toll. The strain that I put to my ocular organ is confirmed by  my the ever worsening eyesight.


Without my eyeglasses, I could not drive , read street sign or see a crossing kangaroo even if my life depends on it. I can not recognise people standing 3 meters away from me and I hopelessly possess a nocturnal vision of an aging bat . My frownies is alarmingly deepening. Blame it on habitually  glaring I do every time my eyeglasses isn't on. Before this premature aging worsens, I really have to so something.

More healthy foods, more sleep and less reading time. Good luck!

Beta carotin is known to be helpful to the body, esp . our eyes. My granny, Lola Pilar, used to coax me into eating carrots and squash saying it could brighing my eyes like a flashlight at night. I never really believed her after checking it out several times in infront of the  mirror. Bless her for trying though.

I have been cooking many Beta carotene rich pumpkins this past weeks. After all, my eyeballs really need some pampering. This  is one of my favorites pumpkin based recipe so far. It's meatless, healthy and quite yummy. Hope my eyeballs are appreciating the effort.

Pumpkin Lasagne 
serves 4

Olive oil

1 pumpkin ( about 1 kg)

4 cloves garlic

1 chili pepper, seeded

2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1 can ( 400 g) of your favourite tomato sauce

400 ml water

60 g Parmesan cheese

 lasagne sheets as needed

400 g cottage cheese

100 ml milk

1 tbsp.  sunflower seeds

a handful Rosemary

salt and white pepper

1. In a small sauce pan, heat milk until scalding  hot. Turn off the heat . Stir in cottage cheese, 30 g of grated Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and white pepper.Set aside.

 1. Preheat oven to 180 °c. Cut off the hard stem of the pumpkin. Cut pumpkin into half. Scrape out seeds. Cut pumpkin into 1-2 cm  slices. Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until tender. Use baking paper to make cleaning and your life easier.

2.  Heat olive oil in a sauce pan. Saute chopped garlic and Chili pepper.

 3. Add your favourite tomato sauce. I love meatless   bolognese sauce with  mediterranean vegetables ! Add  in water. Bring to a boil, season with Worcestershire  sauce. Let the sauce simmer for 15 minutes or until it thickens up a bit. Season with salt and pepper.

 4. Put 1/3 of the tomato sauce in your lasagne form. Cover with lasagne sheets.

6.Arrage baked pumpkin over lasagne.

 7.Sprinkle with with Parmesan cheese.Pour 1/3 of sauce over Pumpkin. Add in rosemary leaves.

9. Repeat and make second layer. Carefully arrange the last Lasagne sheets over pumpkin and tomato sauce layer. Carefully pour milk-cottage cheese mixture over the lasagne sheets.

 9. Sprinkle with sunflower seed. Bake for about 40 minutes.

Serve pipping hot and with greed salad.