A day of cooking

What do you do when it’s a rainy Sunday? As tempting as it was to turn up the electric blanket and turn on Netflix, I decided to have a productive day in the kitchen! The Bear joined me and we whipped up:

1. Nasi lemak with chicken rendang and prawn sambal. This is a popular Malaysian dish and is a labour of love. It took me 2 hours to cook everything you see on the plate (bar the cucumber 😄)

2. Pandan cake which is my favourite cake. The Bear enjoys is too and was more than happy to help me whip it up.

3. Pisang goreng or banana fritters. The Bear is a big fan and was delighted to find it on a menu at a lovely Indonesian restaurant in Lisbon!

We spent the whole day in the kitchen paying absolutely zilch attention to the dreary weather outside. The Bear and I agreed today was by far the best day in a long while.

How did you spend today?

Have a great week ahead.

Saturday baking

Parents are a child’s first teachers. I am constantly wrecked with guilt that I am not fulfilling my responsibilities to the Bear in this regard.

We are ardent fans of cooking shows on telly and often hear of how people were inspired by childhood memories of cooking with their mums/nonnas/dads etc. Apart from making memories, I’d like the Bear to know the basics of cooking.

With this is mind, we attempted a simple pound cake recipe with an Asian twist.

Note: Pandan leaves are widely used in Southeast Asian sweet and savoury cooking. For this recipe, I used flavourings from a bottle, bought from an Asian grocer.

Pandan Pound Cake:

Ingredients:

• 225g salted butter (I never use salted)
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp pandas flavouring (it is also green which provides the basis for colour)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 225g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius
2. Grease the base and sides of an 8 inch springform baking tin
3. Line the base and sides of the tin with parchment paper
4. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy
5. Add an egg, mix until combined and repeat for the remaining eggs
6. Mix in the pandan flavouring and vanilla extract
7. Add in the flour and gently mix to combine
8. Pour mixture into the baking tin and place in the middle rack of your oven
9. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove cake from the oven and gently stick a toothpick into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, leave to cool on a baking rack. Otherwise leave the cake in the oven to cook for a further 5 minutes
10. Once cake is cooled for 10 minutes, gently remove the springform and tin and leave to cool further on the rack before serving