Heavenly Paradise@AdelineAng.com

Calla lilies, meaning magnificent beauty. Simple, yet elegant and gorgeous flowers. Both the white and purple, are simple stunning and captivating :)

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
ghee

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl to make a smooth dough. Next, divide dough into golf-ball-size pieces. On a smooth surface, knead individual dough pieces.
2. Smooth on some ghee on dough, using hands. Place dough balls into bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave for 8 hours or overnight at room temperature.
3. To cook, roll out each dough ball on a lightly floured surface, as thin as possible. Roll up rough. By holding the roll vertically, flatten it down to make a circle. Spread ghee on dough generously.
4. On a heated, greased pan, fry both sides until golden brown. Serve roti with curry and/or dhal.

What comes into mind when you see a picture like the above? ROTI CANAI!! Yes, it’s the yummy comfort food that we’re familiar with, for those of us who grew up in Malaysia. Being inspired by his very first local meal in Malaysia–roti canai, he determined to make a reproduction of mamak style roti canai.

Miles. The Roti Canai Chef.

Roti canai, served with traditional dhal and curry sauce. Yummm…..a taste of home :)

Want to find out more about the secret recipe? Stay tuned ;)

Craving for chocolate chip cookies? They are simple to make, and yet, can be tricky at times. They can be either chewy, crunchy, chocolatey, extremely sweet etc.

This recipe is my favourite thus far. The secret behind it? No all-purpose flour involved! Loving it :) Keep in mind that this recipe makes a huge batch of cookies. Be sure to share with others! 

Ingredients:

1 lb unsalted butter, soften
1 + 3/4 cups white sugar
2 + 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups + 2 tbsps pastry flour
3 cups bread flour
1/2 tbsp salt
2 tsps baking powder
2 tsps baking soda
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1.5 lbs chocolate chips

Directions:
1. With paddle attachment on a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugars until smooth. Add pure vanilla extract and mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix together both flours, baking powder, and baking soda. On a low speed, add these dry ingredients into the stand mixer bowl.
3. After ingredients are well incorporated, add chocolate chips into cookie batter. Stir just enough to mix well.
4. On a large, lined cookie sheet, place cookie dough (~ 1.5 tbsp each) about 2 inches apart. Bake it preheated oven at 350 F for 15 minutes or until lightly brown along the edge.

* Yield: ~ 8 dozens
Adapted from MarthaStewart.com

It was the grand opening of Fredericton’s authentic Vietnamese restaurant on Dec. 30th 2011. Vietnamese food is rarely found in this city. This is the second restaurant that claimed to offer authentic Vietnamese food, after the existence of Asia Beef Noodles in downtown (Queen St) since a few years ago.

Located at the corner of Prospect and Symthe (at the Fredericton Dental Centre), Saigon Noodle House surely has its advantage to attract clientele from nearby businesses and passers-by. The restaurant opens 7 days a week for lunch & supper, offering a wide variety of Vietnamese and Thai cuisine at an affordable price. It’s a franchise restaurant; there’s one in Saint John and another one in Moncton.

“Please wait to be seated.”

The restaurant’s dine-in menu. Take-out menu is available too.

Rice paper roll with tofu, with sweet fish sauce as dipping sauce. $5.99.

Rare beef pho (noodle soup). One of the best clear broths I’ve had! $9.99.

Lemongrass shrimp with rice, served with crispy spring roll, side salad, fragrance rice (molded in star shape), and soup. $14.99.

There was a promotional discount of 15% for their grand opening, with complimentary jasmine tea and mint ice-cream for dessert. Overall, it was a great experience. It’s highly recommended to anyone who enjoys or would like to try out some delicious Vietnamese food in town.

Anything that I’d really want to pick on? More bean sprouts in the noodle soup will be great. I also noticed that mint leaves were left out. I’d actually prefer a separate plate of bean sprouts, cilantro, and mint leaves to go with noodle soup. That way, I can add the desired amount of veg into the soup. This seems to be the way that most Vietnamese restaurants will present their pho dishes. Preference of serving size will be greatly appreciated too, e.g. small, medium, large. I won’t complain about the generous serving size of pho, but given a choice, I’d have opted for a smaller portion to avoid wastage.

The only complain that Miles had for his dish was that  it could be spicier!

Address: 1012 Prospect St, Fredericton

Reservation no: 506-206-3494

Christmas baking was started three weeks ago. Sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, and pinwheel cookies are the three main cookies on my list. Baking these cookies was a multi-step project; preparing dough, refrigerating dough, rolling out dough, cutting into various shapes, baking, cooling, preparing icing, decorating, air-drying, storing etc. Before Christmas, most of these cookies had been given away to family and friends. Of course, there’s always some for home consumption ;)

Recipes of cookies to be followed…

It was an extreme weather this year compared to last year’s green Christmas in Malaysia; 30+ degrees Celsius weather. Today, on Christmas Eve, it’s -20 degrees Celsius. It had snowed pretty much all day yesterday, light and consistent, just enough to have the thin coat of snow for us to enjoy a white Christmas.

I’ll have to say, taking photos in the -20 C weather, started from cold, very cold, freezing cold, numbing cold, burning cold… very painful “thawing” process to get my hands warm up to room temperature again after staying out for just a mere 10 minutes. Oh well, that’s not the point.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

First Christmas tree ever!

Mango sticky rice is a popular Thai dessert; prepared with glutinous rice (sticky rice), coconut milk and fresh mango. It’s best served with freshly steamed rice and juicy mango, drizzled with fragrant coconut milk. I’ve tasted it in Thailand and absolutely loved it! I prepared homemade mango sticky rice for the very first time and it turned out great. Here is the recipe for sharing:

Ingredients:

(A) Rice
1/2 cup glutinous rice (sticky rice)
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp sesame seeds, toasted
1 ripe yellow mango, sliced

(B) Topping sauce
1/4 cup coconut milk
pinch of salt
1 tsp white sugar

Directions:
1. Pre-soak glutinous rice in warm water for at least one hour prior to cooking.
2. Steam rice on medium high heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until cooked.
3. Meanwhile, on a lightly heated saucepan, add 1/2 cup of coconut milk (well shaken from can) together with 1 tbsp sugar and 1/4 tsp salt. Stir mixture on low heat until fully dissolved.
4. To prepare topping sauce, mix together 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1 tsp sugar, and pinch of salt in a separate saucepan on low heat. Again, stir mixture on low heat until completely dissolved.
5. When rice is cooked, pour coconut mixture from step (3) onto it. Stir well. Allow rice to absorb coconut milk for 10 minutes.
6. Place sliced mango beside the rice, and drizzle desired amount of topping sauce from step (4) on them. Garnish rice with toasted sesame seeds.

The annual Highland Games was held in Fredericton, at the Old Government House from July 22nd to 24th this year. Miles and I waited till last Sunday to join in the fun as the first two days would have been too hot to stay outdoor for a long period of time.

Besides from piping, drumming, and highland dance, the heavy events interested us the most. Heavy events included men and women categories, in which Weight for Distance, Hammer, Caber Toss etc. were involved.

We watched the men’s “28lbs Weight for Distance” event. ” Below were some action shots that we managed to capture. Enjoy!

Most people have heard of, or experienced the dreadful, brutal cold winter in Canada. Has anyone wondered how hot does it get in the middle of summer? Heat wave could very well happen. Last Friday, it was 39 degrees Celsius in Fredericton! Of course, when the weather gets that hot, thunder shower will follow. It was certainly a very Malaysian-like weather. I didn’t mind it too much, since we don’t get it all that often here. It sure beats -39!

There is no free lunch in this world, is there? How about providing free lunch instead? What’s unique about this special donation is that, instead of monetary donation, you’ve to get the correct answers for a few questions online in order for the organization to provide free rice to the needy. Isn’t that cool?

I’ve come to learn that FreeRice is a non-profit organization run by the United Nations World Food Programme. Their main goals are to give out free rice to help end world hunger and provide free education to everyone.

“Who then are donating the free rice?” You may ask. It turns out that the sponsors who place their advertisements on the website are generously donating the rice. Answer some questions, opting from wide span of subjects, such as English, Math, Geography, Chemistry, Humanities etc. Difficulty levels range from easy to hard. Visit FreeRice today and help donating rice to those in need!

It’s that time of year again, strawberry picking season. Yay! After the tiring moving, unpacking, organizing, cleaning etc., enjoying some freshly picked strawberries might not be a bad idea. On top of that, I’ve moved closer to the u-pick farm. This year’s season is a little slow starting, due to the cool weather and consistent rain in the spring.

Miles and I visited the Sunset U-pick farm this week. Strawberries are sold at $1.30/lb or $2.10/quart basket. Pre-picked berries are available at $3.50/quart basket. I think the whole idea of visiting the farm is to be able to pick my own berries; as many as I want! 

Fresh berries are great for making strawberry shortcakes too! Home-baked tea biscuits with whipped cream and generous serving of fresh berries. Yummm….

Winter blues will soon be gone; snow is melting and ice is cracking. Wouldn’t it be nice if the four seasons spread out equally throughout the year? Spring from March till May; summer from June till August; autumn from September till November; winter from December till February. In reality, winter lasts up to six months in most parts of Canada.

This year, however, it hasn’t been too bad of a winter, considering major snow fall didn’t take place till January. It started raining last week with the fluctuating temperatures hovering around freezing point. Rain or snow? Be prepared, because you can never tell till the day comes.

Rivers are found frozen in New Brunswick during the winter months, covered by a smooth layer of ice. The depth of ice varies according to weather. The cracking and breaking of ice layer results in ice pans that slide past and collide against each other in the slow moving water, until smaller ice chunks are formed. They will further be melted away by the “warmer” river flow and disappear.

The formation of ice pans.

Three days later…Ice pans were broken down into ice chunks.

The unbelievable “shrieking” sound from the collision with ice pans. It’s an analogy of earthquake, doesn’t it?

The snow condition as of last weekend outside my apartment building.

The thick snow was observed one month ago, in mid-February!

I was anticipating the appearance of  “Supermoon” last Saturday, on March 19th. The moon was said to be significantly larger and brighter due to a closer (than usual) proximity from the earth. There was prediction from an astrologer that it might trigger natural disasters such as earthquakes, storms etc. There were numerous heart-breaking disasters that happened around the world these few weeks, was “Supermoon” the one to be blamed for, or was it just a mere coincidence?

I always wonder how does the surface of moon look like…

An unedited picture of the moon taken to show its surface (click to enlarge). Doesn’t it look like a melon?

How many of us here experienced food cravings? Hunger? Dieting? Reality shows that food can bring us fulfillment, but also regrets. Too much or too little, is not doing us any good. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I suffer from food withdrawal every time, after a major trip back to Canada. From my observations, this could due to over exhaustion, jet-lag, and most of all, I went all out savouring my favourite food items during trips. Food then, back in Canada, seems so blend and not very appetizing. Even though I might loose some weight from staying active while traveling, my eating habit (a.k.a. food withdrawal) contributes much of my lighter weight after trips. It might sound weird, but it happens….

After the first few weeks of food withdrawal, my body finally clued in that it needed food regardless. Gradually, food can be enjoyable once again.

The horseshoe-shaped German pastry topped with buttercream and chocolate, from the Farmers market. Flaky pastry and delicious icing. It’s not too sweet.

Spicy food, spicy food, where are you? Miles and I visited the “New York Fries” at the mall one day and decided to get a poutine, featuring “The Works.” French fries were topped with beef chili, cheese sauce, sour cream, green onions, and bacon bits.

To add on a spicy kick to it, some hot peppers were added on the poutine. Forget about the unhealthy part, it was an appealing delicious snack!