IBU Family Bazaar : Young Chefs Academy

IBU's 10th Family Bazaar was held at 1Mont Kiara mall from 14-19 May 2012. 

Many activities were lined up throughout the entire week. We attended the Young Chefs Academy cooking class where the kids learned how to prepare a frittata.

I also set up my stall on the last day of the bazaar - and met with lots of mummies and daddies who bought lots of books! Sorry no pic cos was busy!

Kappa Maki

Prepared bento boxes for dinner one day. Made some kappa maki too. It wasn't very difficult. Need a wooden bamboo mat, roasted nori, sushi rice and a long thin slice of cucumber. Arrange as below and roll up tightly! Then cut into bite size pieces. Cucumber can be substituted or supplemented with frankfurters, carrots etc.

 

As for sushi rice, it's also very easy to prepare. Calrose short-grain rice can be purchased from hypermarts. Cook in rice cooker as per instructions. Once done, scoop out into a large wooden plate and add in sushi vinegar. Five portions of rice for one portion of vinegar. Then mix it together using a slicing motion. Finally, fan the rice to cool it down before using.

Parent-Child Sushi Bento Class

One fine Saturday morning, Evan & I found ourselves at The Cooking House.... again for yet another round of parent-child class. It's the school break and it's the Agong's birthday too - hooray for holidays!

All the ingredients were already prepared - including the sushi rice.  We watched a demo on how to roll makis and how to pack a simple bento lunchbox.

We used lots of bento tools e.g. cutters and moulds to decorate the bento. Evan had fun decorating the lunchbox while eating some leftover seaweed.

Ta-daaaa! Our completed bento boxes filled with cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, sushi rolls (maki), hard-boiled eggs, cheese, pasta salad and potato salad.

The instructor should have shown us how to make sushi rice and the salads. Anyway, it was a simple but fun class to attend.

Sausage Puffs

Just to share a simple recipe on sausage puffs - ideal as appetizers for parties, tea time or just because. I really like this cos it's simple, fast and delicious too!

Ingredients :

1) Nutriplus Cheese Chicken Franks - 4pcs (Each pack contains 6)

2) Borg's puff pastry or butter puff pastry - 1 sheet (Each pack contains 4-7 sheets)

3) An egg - lightly beaten

4) Heinz mustard or for a sweeter taste : Honey mustard (see pic below)

Equipment:

1) Silicone baking sheets

2) Pastry brush

3) Bowl/Fork

4) Knife

 Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees Celcius.

Remove a sheet of puff pastry from packaging and place on silicone baking sheet.  The puff pastry should be still cold from the freezer. Do not thaw it or it will be difficult to handle. Make sure the chicken franks are thawed though. You can choose any chicken franks/sausages e.g. garlic, mushroom etc. but I find the ones with cheese are juicier to the bite!

Divide the puff pastry sheet into 4 equal squares. Squeeze a dollop of mustard on the center of each square and spread evenly using a fork or the pastry brush. Then place the chicken frank on top and roll it tightly.

Use a knife to slice each roll into 4 parts. After that, arrange them on the baking tray lined with silicone baking sheet or baking paper so the pastry doesn't stick on the tray. 

Using the pastry brush, cover the pastries with the egg. This will make the bake the pastry golden brown. Pop them in the oven for 20 minutes or more until golden brown.

Cool them on a wire rack and eat them whilst hot so they are super crunchy!

Of Birthday Cakes & Cupcakes

Marissa's 3rd birthday will be in June and I am planning a simple birthday do for her at home. Just order a cake and have family members come over. Marissa said she wants a Cinderella birthday cake. OK..... so I bought a Precious Moments Cinderella figurine holding a birthday cake from ebay USA as the cake topper. The figurine is still in transit - hopefully will arrive here in one-piece! Paid about RM130 for it - which is much cheaper compared to buying Precious Moments figurines here in Malaysia - would cost approx RM200 plus or more. Anyway, couldn't find this particular figurine here to compare the exact price but similar ones are expensive.

I asked for quotations for a butter cake covered with fondant - similar to the cake on the figurine. 

At 19 Culinary quoted me RM180 for a 6" round cake. The Haute Food Co. quote me RM390 for an 8" round cake. Lillian Wong's price list states : RM300 for a 2kg fondant sculpted cake. Since I have a brand new kitchen and a brand new oven.... I thought I might as well bake & decorate the cake myself! And if I am good at it, I will bake Evan's 6th birthday LEGO cake too! By the way, I was quoted RM400 for a 2kg Lego brick fondant sculpted cake by Mama Min.

I tried baking my very first butter cake and it turned out well - hooray! Then I felt adventurous and experimented with cupcakes this time. Got the recipe from MarthaStewart.com. Phew! It turned out well too. Evan ate butter cakes and cupcakes for three days in a row for snack time at school. Marissa also loves snacking on the cupcakes.

Now I need to learn how to make fondant and decorate the cakes/cupcakes..... maybe I can join a baking/decorating class. Done some research and wow.... quite a number of places offer classes.

Oh and I need to buy a stand mixer too! Too many colors.... which one is nice?

Yummy Breads & Croissants!

Finally tried baking the breads and croissants which I bought some time back at the Freeze Bake Eat workshop conducted by At 19 Culinary Studio. The croissants were the most delicious! Very buttery and absolutely delectable! They are sold 5 in a pack.

These are the bread rolls - an assortment of 4 in a pack. Also very nice and yummy! Just thaw the breads/pastries and then pop them in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. Fast and convenient! Gotta go order some more croissants!

Freeze Bake Eat Workshop at 19 Culinary

At 19 Culinary Studio is a new cooking school located on 19, Jln Dungun, Damansara Heights.... hence their name. I recently attended one of their Freeze Bake Eat Workshop on a Sunday afternoon while hubby and the kids check out the dinosaurs at the National Science Center nearby. 

Cost is RM20 for the workshop and each participant received a goody bag of frozen bread and pastries worth RM10. The workshop was conducted by Han, the resident cake decorator. Helen and Angelin who are the owners of the culinary studio were also on hand to assist and promote their cooking classes (of course!).

Helen started off by introducing the various frozen breads and pastries they have in stock. These frozen foods are fully imported from Switzerland - all freshly baked and quick freezed to retain the flavours with no additional preservatives. Ideal for busy moms to whip up a gourmet breakfast or tea in a jiffy. Great for unexpected guests. Just remove from freezer, thaw, bake and eat.

The range of breads and pastries available is quite extensive. Photo above shows three types of danish pastries : apple strudel, pineapple danish and hazelnut swirl. All breads and pastries need to be thawed for about half an hour to one hour before baking. Pre-heating of the oven is also necessary at 180 degrees. The pastries are all in dough form. To ensure it's tasty and crunchy, place it inside a steam oven to bake. If you have a conventional oven, spray some water on top of the breads and pastries and also place a tray of water in the oven to steam bake.

As for the loaves of bread, they are 75% baked. Same procedure applies, pop them in the oven for 12-15 minutes and ta-daaaaaaaa the fresh aroma of gourmet breads will fill your entire kitchen! 

Yummy and delicious bread rolls, croissants and chocolate pastries. The breads are all crusty on the outside but soft on the inside. All participants got to taste the various breads and pastries. Another tip that was shared during the workshop is the use of apricot glaze on the danishes for a shiny and more appetizing look but then, it's just another layer of sugar and most people will do without it.

At the end of the workshop, I bought RM25 worth of bread and pastries to try out at home. The loaves of bread are quite big so I was told that I could just thaw the bread, cut the amount that I need, then re-freeze the balance. How convenient. Each loaf of bread costs RM8 or RM9 depending on the type. Each bread roll/pastry/danish/croissant costs approx RM1 each. These are usually sold in a variety pack of 4 or a pack of 5. If purchased from gourmet bakeries, the price is about RM10 for the bread and RM1.50-RM2.00 for the pastries. If you are interested to attend the workshop, there are a few more scheduled throughout March and April. Just go to their website and check out their class schedule. You can find them on facebook as well. Members and Kuali readers pay RM20 while non-members pay RM30. I booked my workshop online at their website and quoted 'Kuali reader' to enjoy the lower price. Payment can be done via M2U or cheques.

Parent & Child Cooking Class

 The Cooking House at Desa Sri Hartamas

 Parent & Child Cooking Class - Petit Cakes

16th Jan 2011 from 3-5pm

RM100 per pair. Additional RM50 charged per additional child/adult

First up, we watched the demo on how to bake the butter pound cake. Really simple recipe. This is something beginner cooks can do easily.

There were over 10 pairs of mommies & kids. Most of the kids were girls too. Pic above shows demonstrator pouring the cake batter into the cake tin.

The recipe calls for 175g of pure butter - we used Anchor pure salted butter so no need to add salt to the batter already. Add 100g of sugar or less if desired. A mixture of brown sugar can also be used. Then mix the butter and sugar together until it's pale & fluffy. Then add 3 eggs one by one into the batter, mixing after each addition. After that, half a teaspoon of vanilla essence goes inside the batter.

Next comes the 'snow'! Sift 120g of plain flour with one third teaspoon of baking powder. Sift half of the quantity then fold before sifting the rest of the flour in. Lastly add 2 tablespoons of milk. Lined the baking tray & pour in the batter. Bake in a pre-heat oven 165 degrees celcius for 20 minutes. Insert a skewer inside the cake & it should come up clean.

While waiting for the cake to bake, all the kids were given a cake box and crayons to decorate.

Once the cakes are ready, use a round mould or cutter to cut the cake and stack them up on each other.

We then watched another demo on how to prepare the cream. Pour 1 cup of whipping cream and whip the cream until stiff.

 Spread it on the cake and decorate it with M&M's and jellybeans

At this point, Larry & Marissa came along and joined the class briefly, as it was almost 5 o'clock already. Evan happily ate all the sugar decorations in the bowl.

We munched on the butter cake & it was delicious! We brought back 5 of our creations! Whipped cream needs to be refridgerated though. Another alternative is to use buttercream which is sweeter. To make buttercream, just combine butter and sugar together. Then the cake can be kept at room temperature.

Overall - very informative, practical hands-on class for the novice baker - just like me & Evan.

The Cooking House

This is The Cooking House - a cooking studio located in Desa Sri Hartamas. I went there recently to attend a complimentary cooking class from Panasonic. I bought an oven from Harvey Norman and got to know about this promotion which is still on-going.
There are a few classes to choose from and I decided upon 'All About Pies'. The cost of the class is actually RM120 per pax! Upon arrival, I registered myself by handing over the Panasonic Oven's warranty card and filling in my details.

Total 11 participants on that day. Chef Collin Edward Lim was on duty. We were divided into 4 groups. Each group had to tackle 1 recipe. 

My group's recipe was Seafood Pie. We had to prepare all the ingredients for our recipe and when we were ready to cook, everyone came to observe. Chef Collin gave pointers and answered questions.

The other recipes include : Shepherd's Pie, Mediterranean Vegetarian Pie and Chicken & Mushroom Pie.

My fellow group member cooking the creamy seafood filling for the pie.

Chef Collin demonstrated how to make the shortcrust pastry. He also showed us how to place the pastry in the pie cups. I really felt like  a frog under a coconut shell during the class but the majority of ladies there were also first-timers at a cooking class!

More pastry needed to cover the pie.

Chef Collin demonstrating how to seal the pie using a fork

Yummy seafood pie : filled with prawns, mushrooms and dory fish!

After baking in the oven!

Everyone had a break - drinking tea or coffee while waiting for the pies to bake. Indeed the pies were delicious! So happy with all the hard work! Chef Collin also gave lots of cooking tips to all of us there.  Very informative and hands-on class I must say. I would definitely go for another class next month and would recommend these classes to anyone who's interested.

In the mean time, I need to go buy a digital kitchen scale, a rolling pin and a kitchen brush and then, try out the recipes! Hopefully will be able to bake some pies for makan makan at the new condo!