Carrot Rice (Nasi Carrot)

This delicious Carrot Rice pairs really well with the Ayam Masak Merah and not to mention, it is extremely easy to make as well.

CARROT RICE (NASI CARROT)

* This recipe serves 5-6

INGREDIENTS:

Rice	3 cups
Carrot, grated	2 cups (approx. 2 medium carrots)
Onions	3 (1 spanish onion + 2 red onion)
Garlic	5 cloves
Ginger	1 inch piece
Screwpine leaves/Pandan leaves	2, knotted
Kurma curry powder	3 tbsp
Cubed chicken stock	3/4 cube
Cinnamon	1 stick, broken into pieces
Star anise	3
Cloves	5-8
Cardamom	8-10
Ghee	4 tbsp
Water	3 3/4 cup
Evaporated milk	1/4 cup
Salt to taste

METHOD:

1.   Rinse the rice and keep it aside.

2.   Grate the carrots.

3.   Grind the onion, garlic and ginger with a little water to make a paste.

4.   In a pan, melt the ghee and once the ghee is melted, add the cinnamon, star anise, cloves and cardamom and fry for about 1 minute.

5.   Add in the onion paste, knotted screwpine leaves, kurma curry powder and cubed chicken stock and continue to fry for about 3  to 5 minutes until fragrant.

6.   Stir in the rinsed rice and fry for about another minute or so.

7.   Lastly, add in the grated carrot and continue to fry for about a minute.

8.   Transfer the content of the pan into a rice cooker. Add water, evaporated milk and salt and mix well. Cook as usual.

NOTE:

1.   If you can't get screwpine leaves, you may substitute it with bay leaves.

2.   If you are cooking the rice on the stove, cook until the rice has absorbed all the liquid.

3.   You may omit the cubed chicken stock to make this as a vegetarian dish.

Vegetarian Orange Cupcake with Orange Buttercream Icing

My first recipe entry after the hiatus! I was actually supposed to post the recipe for the carrot rice which went along the Ayam Masak Merah. However, I thought I should start off with something sweet and hence recipe for these lovely cupcakes. For the very first time I tried making the cupcake batter and also the buttercream icing in a food processor and I was indeed very pleased with the results.

VEGETARIAN ORANGE CUPCAKE WITH ORANGE BUTTERCREAM ICING

* This recipe yields 28 mini cupcakes

FOR THE CUPCAKE

INGREDIENTS:

Self- rising flour	250 g
Fine granulated sugar	200 g
Salted butter (at room temperature)	200 g
Evaporated milk	1 3/4 cup
Orange juice	1/4 cup
Rind of 2 oranges
Baking powder	1/2 tsp
Vanilla extract	1 tsp
Honey	1 tsp

METHOD:

1.   Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius.

2.   Sift together the self-rising flour and baking powder.

3.   Finely grate rind of two oranges and squeeze the juice of those oranges.

4.   Mix the orange juice with the evaporated milk and keep aside.

5.   Cream the butter and sugar in the food processor until fluffy.

6.   Mix in the sifted flour and milk mixture alternately.

7.   Lastly, mix in the orange rind, vanilla extract and honey.

8.   Pour the batter into cupcake cups about 2/3 full.

9.   Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until when a cake tester/toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.

10.   Once the cupcakes are done, remove from oven and let them cool completely before icing it.

FOR THE BUTTERCREAM ICING

INGREDIENTS:

Icing sugar	3 cups
Salted butter (at room temperature)	3/4 cup
Orange juice	1 tbsp
Vanilla extract	1 tsp
Rind of 1 orange Orange juice	1 tbsp
Orange food colouring (optional)	1-2 drops

METHOD:

1.   Pulse the icing sugar to break up all the lumps.

2.   Add in the butter and beat until it is well incorporated.

3.   Mix in the orange rind,orange juice and vanilla extract. Mix in the food colouring as well, if desired.

4.   Place the buttercream icing in a disposable icing bag with any tip of choice and pipe as desired. I did a two-toned icing and I followed the method in this video.

I AM BACK!!!

Hello everyone! I am finally back from my extremely long hiatus, 574 days to be exact, from by previous post(just assuming that someone actually noticed that I was MIA was that long a period!). 

For the past 574 days I got so caught up with work and my tiny little blog suffered in consequence. I thought that in order to give my 100% at work, I had to sacrifice my two very most favourite hobbies, which are cooking and blogging about my cooking adventures. Oh boy! I was so wrong and I cannot believe that I talked myself into it. 

I did miss blogging very much. I still cooked but it wasn't very exciting given that I longer write about it. Finally, I quit making excuses and decided that if I really wanted to write I could make time no matter what. So, here I am after all these time.

That is all for now. Here have a cupcake :) (recipe coming soon).