I cooked: Macaroni with Cheese and Bacon

I love eating macaroni and cheese. I think most kids will love it too, so decided to make it for my own kids to try. It's the first time I've made it for my family. Baby C enjoyed it since she loves cheese and Hubby also gave this his thumbs up.. so a first time success for me. :)

You can make a side salad with a balsamic dressing -- the vinegar will help cut through the richness of the macaroni and makes very pleasant eating.

This recipe is fairly simple though it is quite time consuming. So it's a good dish to make over the weekend when you have more time.

Macaroni with cheese and bacon and a side salad


Macaroni with cheese and bacon
Preparation time: 10-15 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves 4


250g macaroni
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
150g streaky bacon, chopped into small pieces
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, diced

For the Bechamel sauce
40g butter
40g plain flour, sifted
600ml milk
250g mature cheddar, grated
50g Parmesan
Freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

For the salad dressing
1 shallot, diced finely
1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, add some salt and few drops of olive oil and cook the macaroni according to the packet instruction. Drain and rinse under cold tap to prevent it from cooking any further.

2. While pasta is cooking, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan, and add the onion and garlic and cook for 2-3 mins, or until softened. Add the bacon and cook until it is golden brown and crisp. Remove from heat.



3. To make the sauce, melt the butter in a pan over low heat. Stir in the flour to form a roux, and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes. Gradually stir in the milk, a little at a time. Cook for 10-15 minutes until you have a thick and smooth sauce. Stir in 175g of grated cheddar cheese and season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.


4. Place paste and 130g of bacon into a well-buttered ovenproof dish or you can use several ramekins for easier serving. Pour the sauce over the ingredients in the dish and mix it a little so that the sauce coats the pasta evenly. Then top with remaining Cheddar and Parmesan.


5. Place in a pre-heated oven (200C) for 20-25 minutes until the top is nicely browned and the sauce bubbling. Meanwhile, you can make your salad dressing by combining all the ingredients in a bowl and toss the salad leaves and cherry tomatoes with the dressing. (Optional: You can also add some bacon to the salad)

6. Garnish with some bacon on top of each serving. Serve with a side salad.

Side salad

Macaroni with cheese and pork bacon

Yummy!

Full set of photos available to view here.

Home Made Cake from Kluang, Johor

My mother just came back from Kluang with few boxes of this cake.Jo has actually thought of this cake when my mum were in Kluang to visit her sister.My Aunty Kim in Kluang remembered that Jo likes this cake and she was the one who reminded my mother to get some back to Kuala Lumpur.Everyone in KL loves this cake, all my immediate neighbours got the chance to savour it and all like it very much. I just wonder why and tried myself....nothing that really excite me. Maybe I am not a cake person.But they like it very much because it's not oily, soft and very tasty. I goggled "home made cake Kluang" & I managed to get this blogspot " http://kluangcakes.blogspot.com/ " . I wonder whether there is any connection with the cake & Jennifer the home cake maker. Hopeful! ly someo ne can enlighten me on this.

Cake Pops


After teaching a kids cooking class and nearly burning down a building from making rice krispie treats, I had to give them a recipe the did not need the use of an oven or stovetop. This recipe requires no danger besides little kids infected hands playing with food that needs to be eaten.

Cake Pops

1 pre-baked, unfrosted cake
1 can frosting
lollipop sticks
white chocolate, melted
sprinkles

What you do:
In a large bowl, break up the cake into small crumbs. Fold in the frosting until it is a big mess. Pinch out little pieces of cake out and roll it into a ball, place it on a cookie sheet with parchment paper lining it, and stick a lollipop stick in the center. Chill for a couple minutes. Drizzle the pops with the white chocolate and top with sprinkles. Chill until the chocolate hardens.

VIDEO: Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy Note!

Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy Note!


Any comments on the Samsung Galaxy Note?


Bentong Chicken Rice @ Yat Yeh Hing Restaurant, Kelana Jaya

Kee Kee Bentong Chicken Rice @ Yat Yeh Hing Restaurant Corn fed chickens from Bentong, Pahang, crispy roasted chicken fresh from the oil bath, the crunchy bean sprouts sourced from IPOH (!), and fragrant oiled rice perfumed with the aroma of ginger, garlic and shallot. Oh, and that plate of chili sauce + grated ginger was magnificent.

Barely a few weeks after the last post on chicken rice from Loke Yun Ampang, heres another onslaught on all senses. And regardless of whether youre a fan of chicken rice or not, the omnipresence of this quintessentially Hainanese creation cannot be denied.

Lets not argue over the origin of Hainanese chicken rice. Bear in mind that this combination is based loosely on the famous Wenchang chicken dish from Hainan, China. The Chinese uses free-range chickens fed with coconut and peanut bran; resulting in a slightly more prominent yellow hues on the skin.

Wenchang chicken is usually served without the oiled rice, and with a condiment of chopped ginger and salt. Unlike the Hainanese chicken rice commonly served in Malaysia and Singapore; whereby we prefer chili sauce with a piquant touch from the mashed/grated ginger.

Fat, yellow-skin chicks hanging from the hooks. You can roughly guess which version of their chickens is the more popular choice.

If youre in PJ, and dont fancy going to Ampang, or even Solaris Dutamas for Loke Yuns famous chicken rice, try Kee Kee Bentong Chicken Rice at Yat Yeh Hing Restaurant in SS4; immediately before the Kelana Jaya exit on LDP.

Freshly grated ginger every morning, and a sweetish chili sauce came together in harmony; a perfect blend of flavours to accentuate the taste of the chicken. The soup with chicken feet is self-served, hence dont rely on the 7-odd workers there.

A platter of mixed roasted chicken and poached chicken; should be half a chicken for two pax.

A jelly-like texture of the yellow skin provided a wobbly crunch without the unpleasant soft bits of fats underneath. The skin of the chicken is generally more yellowish because the chickens were fed with corn in the farm in Bentong.

We arrived 5 minutes shy of 11am. To push our luck, since most hawker stalls were not opened during the odd hours between breakfast and lunch. We went rounds in Damansara Jaya to no avail as the renovation/demolition of Wisma Atria left the workers around the area with NO alternative option to park their v! ehicles.

This stall at Yat Yeh Hing had this unwelcoming appearance initially, with NO chicken at all hanging from the glass display counter.

This plain sucks. I am already dying of hunger . and without my compulsory shot of caffeine this morning. How am I to survive another round of searching for food?

Succulent and sticky cuts of pork barbecued to a caramelized finish; the charred bits at the ends were crispy with a smoky aroma imparted from the fire (presumably charcoal-fuelled), and the almost inseparable layers of fat and lean meat got me sinking my teeth with relish. I mean, if I could not separate the fats from the lean, it lessens the guilt, no?

But the staff kept beckoning us to go in. There were already a few tables seated and waiting for their food. Only then, I saw the staff hurriedly carrying dozens of chicken from the kitchen on hooks, towards the front counter. And the chopping started almost immediately ..

Wei wei leng jai .. what happened? Why you take photos?!

Gulp. I was reprimanded. Been ages since the last suspicion on why this pesky guy was shooting away without a care in the world. But of course . heres some tips from this seasoned amateur;

- Just act nonchalant and dont back off. Unless of course he was brandishing a weapon in front of your face or sheer anger/unpleasant look on his.

- Just smile in your most naive/innocent/pathetic manner, and say Oh .. Im a tourist. Just taking photographs for fun/own collection. Did I bother you?

- Just admit that youre a food blogger and you love sharing good food with the readers.

- Or runaway and never look back. Highly NOT recomm! ended th ough. (you chicken .)

If the name sounds familiar, this restaurant doubles up as a dai chow Chinese restaurant at night. They used to serve steamboat, but seemingly they have stopped according to the chicken rice stall ladies.

Verdict? Above average. The corn-fed chicken was tender; the poached one being slightly more impressive than the roasted counterpart. Since the roasting/bathing with oil process might have affected the delicately firm texture of the flesh. The chili sauce with freshly-grated ginger was a winner in my books. None of the other stalls come close, so far.

The oiled rice was just okay, being neither here nor there. Loke Yuns version was top notch when it comes to the rice, in my opinion. The fat bean sprouts got me suspicious over their origin; could not have been sourced locally. And my doubt was proven to be in place. They got the bean sprouts from Ipoh; the land of tauge, so to speak.

Certainly a place that I will find myself returning time and again, given the acceptable distance from my place, and the abundance of parking around the vicinity. They have been around for more than a decade though, previously operating from somewhere across the road. Only for lunch though, so dont push your luck if you seek for chicken rice during supper hours.

Lunch came to about RM18/USD6 for two pax, the char siew was from another stall at RM5/USD1.70 per portion, refills of chili sauce and ginger is FOC only if you reuse your own saucer plates.

KEE KEE BENTONG CHICKEN RICE
@ Yat Yeh Hing Restaurant
33, Jalan SS4D/2,
Peoples Park, 47301
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel No : +6016-251 8787, +6012-629 4807, +6017-249 0086
Opens from 11am 3pm (or until everythings finished) daily.
Closed on one Tuesday per month.
GPS Coordinates : 3.11296,101.599108

Google Map to this place
* Almost directly opposite of the church on LDP, a junction before the Kelana Jaya exit if coming from SS2/Taman Megahs direction towards Puchong. After passing by the Kelana Jaya LRT Station, stay to the left and once you see a row of shops on your LEFT, slow down and turn left at the junction. The restaurant can be seen from LDP itself.


Orient8 (French and pan-Asian Cuisine)

Opened in 2009, Orient8 is the French and pan-Asian restaurant of the 5-star Hotel Mulia, in Senayan. I visited it with a friend in November 2011, and only tried their French food.

With a Frenchman managing the restaurant, and another one as an Executive Chef, more focus has been put on French cuisine, and the menu is now much more diversified: Alongside some classics, such as the Soupe l'Oignon, you have original creations (Foie Gras Burger for instance) and other more elaborate items that may require some familiarity with fine dining to be fully appreciated.

I found the food to be affordable, considering the service, taste and experience you get. In particular, if you are on a budget, you can visit Orient8 f! or lunch and get one of their set menus, which start at Rp120,000++. Actually, this is even less than what you would pay in France for the same meal.

If you don't care how much money you'll spend though, you can also indulge yourself with much pricier dishes consisting of caviar, lobster, foie gras and other delicacies. Add a decent bottle of wine and you'll end up paying at least Rp1,5 million per person.

We tried about 7 or 8 dishes, but I don't remember the names and prices of all of them. Here are a few pictures:

Note that they have a great selection of impor! ted Fren ch cheese, perfect to finish the meal.
The design and dcor of Orient8 is surprising and worth mentioning. At first, you are striken by how classical it looks, with some imposing pieces of furniture that date back from a time when France was still a Kingdom. It is only after you sit down that you will start noticing some artsy details: A Napoleon with Ray-Ban painting on the ceiling, a black and white portrait of Louis XIV, some upside-down lamps in the private rooms, as well as some work by a Vietnamese artist (if I remember correctly).

Overall: We loved the food in Orient8 and we can only recommend you to visit it, especially if you prefer a ceremonial feel over something more laid-back. For this reason, the restaurant is even more appropriate for dates or formal dinners.
Opening hours:
Everyday, from 12am to 3pm (lunch) and from 6pm to 11pm

The Orient8
Hotel Mulia Senayan
Jl. Asia Afrika, Senayan
Jakarta 10270

Tel: +62-21 5753278
Email: orient8@hotelmulia.com
Twitter: Mulia Hotel