Prawn Squid Bisque and Zucchini Corn Fritters for our lunch and dinner today.

Bisque is a creamy, smooth, highly-seasoned crustaceans soup. You can simply have it on it’s own, or serve it with fritters or any kind of bread.

I made some zucchini and corn fritters which I served together with chevre cheese and the seafood bisque.

The combination suits our taste perfectly. The fritters were soft, salty and sweet while the creamy bisque brought out the delicate taste of the prawn and squid just in the right amount.

Mikael is getting quite picky nowadays. He loves squid very much but often leaves prawn everywhere on the table

Not to mention the vegetable fritters. There’s always a fight whenever I serve vegetable in his plate

Anyway, we enjoyed our late lunch today and looking forward to make those again

Before cooking, I took my little helper to the shop for quick grocery shopping

Zucchini and Corn Fritters

Serves 4

• 1/2 zucchini chopped
• 4 tablespoon corn (in can)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 2 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup fresh milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• some olive oil for frying

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl except the olive oil. Mix well.
2. Heat up 1-2 tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan. Drop the fritters into the pan to the size of your like. Make several at every batch.
3. Cook under medium heat, until both sides turn golden.

Prawn and Squid Bisque Recipe

Original recipe from: Afglez@allrecipe.com

Serves: 5

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup and 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 cups seafood stock (i used chicken stock)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 pound medium shrimp – peeled, deveined and shells reserved
• 5 ounces onions, minced
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon butter
• 5/8 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon tomato paste (I used 5 generous tablespoon)
• 1-1/3 cups heavy cream, heated (I used straight from fridge)

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine 1/4 cup butter and flour. Cook, stirring, until flour taste disappears, about 7 minutes. Stir in seafood stock and season with salt and pepper. Simmer 15 minutes, then remove from heat and set aside.
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook shrimp shells and onion in 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon butter until onion is translucent. Stir in garlic, paprika and tomato paste and cook until brown. Stir in reserved stock, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes (I kept it for 20 min). Strain through a fine mesh or cheesecloth. If you are using chicken stock, simmering for 20 min would be enough before pouring the cream.
3. Return strained mixture to a simmer in the saucepan. Pour in cream.
4. Dice shrimp and cook until opaque in a medium skillet over medium heat. Stir into soup and simmer 5 minutes.
5. Adjust salt and pepper to your taste.

We celebrated our third marriage anniversary nearly two weeks ago.

It has been three most wonderful years of sharing our love, joy and happiness together. May our beautiful blissful life continues for many more years to come.

I made sotong goreng tepung (crispy deep fried squid) with chevre cheese and sweet chilli sauce for appetizer.

I used the similar flour combination as oven fried chicken but omitted the marinating part with cream. The squid was dried, dipped into the flour and fried until they turned golden. Sotong goreng tepung has always been our favourite, we just couldn’t get enough of it every time

For main menu, I prepared this country chicken and deep fried king prawn with creamed spinach.

I fell in love with Whitney Miller’s country chicken and creamed spinach, the menus that brought a total change of her life for winning Masterchef USA. But I couldn’t find the recipe anywhere on the internet

So again, I used the oven fried chicken recipe but pan fried the chicken with some olive oil 4-5 mins on each side. Use chicken breast for this recipe and make sure it is not too thick. For creamed spinach, I used the recipe here. I was happy that eventually both turned out very well

I made butterfly cut on the back of the prawns, seasoned them with some black pepper, garlic powder and salt. Then I deep fried for 2-3 minutes before serving them hot with the chicken, spinach and pomegranate (buah delima).

I also made this vanilla slice for the dessert using a recipe from Masterchef Australia‘s webpage.

I may have made some mistake as my slice was not as good as shown, but rather thick with pastry and kind of heavy too. The custard was otherwise good

We successfully had a beautiful candle light dinner with table for three. We loved it

May The Love That We Share Last Our Lifetime Through. Happy anniversary my sweetheart.

♥I love you with all my heart ♥

Crispy Oven Fried Chicken Recipe

• 4-5 chicken drumstick (or other parts)
• For chicken marinate
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (I used 15%)
• some black pepper
• some cayenne pepper
• some white pepper
• some chilli/paprika powder
• some garlic powder
• some salt (not so much as there is more salt in flour coating)
• For flour coating
• 1 cup corn flour/glutinous flour (or mix 1:1 ratio)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika/chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt to taste
• some chicken bouillon powder (optional)

*you may add or reduce the amount of spices according to your like

This few weeks, I just craze for pumpkin!

These are my favourites: The chubby one (left) and the notty one (right)

I made Sweet Caramel Pumpkin simply by baking the pumpkin,

200 C for 40-50 mins and separately prepared the caramel.

I like Hokkaido type the best.

But it’s so difficult to find it here. They have several types but most are for decoration

More pumpkins, I later made this pie. Incredibly easy recipe with great taste

Really really like this pie. But I would reduce the amount of the spices to half next time.

For a crunchier bottom, I used digestive biscuits + butter instead of ready made pie crust.

Perfect Pumpkin Pie Recipe serves 8

By: Allrecipe.com

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin – about 1.8 cups
• 1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk – (I used diff. brand, 1.7 cups)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I would reduce each spice amount to half next time)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• For the crust: 80 g digestive biscuits + 30 g melted butter) OR ready made pie crust
• *I used bread loaf baking dish for this amount of crust. Double it for bigger dish size.

1. Preheat oven to 210 C.
2. Prepare the crust: mix biscuits and melted butter. Press crumb mixture over bottom of prepared pie dish. Bake crust until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Keep aside.
3. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 170 C and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish as desired. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.

*I prepared half of the ingredients and used bread loaf baking dish for my pie.

Made this long name peanut butter pie on my birthday.

Not really a birthday treat, more for iftar purposes

Suddenly felt like eating peanut butter (PB)…

I started googling for recipe and found THIS. Great rating with good comments, I decided to give it a try.

Since I don’t have too much PB left in jar, I had to divide the recipe to 1/3

It didn’t have as much as a pie look, but the taste was phenomenal.

My husband said this might be one of the best desserts I made this year. hahaha

So, I’m keeping the edited recipe here for my future reference. ‘My regular customer’ doesn’t want me to change anything about it.

Please go the link below for full recipe

Black-Bottom Peanut Butter Mousse Bar Recipe

Original recipe from: Epicurious

25 cm x 11 cm baking mould (bread loaf size)

80g ground digestive biscuits
30g unsalted butter, melted

1/3 cups bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips/dark chocolate
1/4 cup whipping cream
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup + 1/3 cup chilled whipping cream, divided
2 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 180 C. Spray 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish with nonstick spray. Mix the ground digestive biscuits with melted butter. Press crumb mixture over bottom of prepared pie dish. Bake crust until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine chocolate chips/dark chocolate, 1/4 cup cream, honey, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium heat until chocolate softens, about 3 minutes. Whisk until melted and smooth. Spread chocolate mixture over bottom of crust. Freeze 10 minutes.

Whip peanut butter with sugar until creamy. In a different bowl, whip also 1/4 cup cream until soft peak is formed. Add the whipped cream into the peanut butter-sugar mixture. Mix well. Beat remaining 1/3 cup cream in medium bowl until very thick but not yet holding peaks; fold into peanut butter mixture. Spoon mousse over chocolate layer. Chill at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.

For a pretty presentation, drizzle with melted chocolate and sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

After one hour of baking, it became really sticky and caramelized.

A simple yet delicious with distinct sesame taste.

Oven Baked Sesame Chicken

• 1 whole chicken (about 1 kg)
• 4 tbsp thick soy sauce
• 4 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• salt
• roasted sesame

1. Boil the chicken with water for about 20 min (you can do more if you like). Remove the water.
2. Mix all the ingredients (except sesame and chicken) in a bowl. Mix well.
3. Brush the sauce all over the chicken and marinate for 30-60 min. Keep the remaining sauce for next step.
4. Preheat the oven to 150 C.
5. Bake the chicken for 1 hour. Every 15 min, take the chicken out and brush the chicken with the remaining sauce. repeat the process until 1 hour is reached.
6. Spread some sesame over the chicken and serve warm.

Another easy and great tempura recipe.

Those are bunch of mixed prawns, squids, shiitake mushroom, avocado, capsicum, crabmeat and sweet potatoes.

For the dipping, I made some sweet and spicy soy sauce which I think serves great for the tempura.

The tempura seemed not to attract much of his attention.

He ended up biting the tail of the prawns instead of the ‘body’

Thanks to Bing for the wonderfully turned out tempura. This recipe is definitely a keeper

Seafood and Vegetable Tempura

adapted from: Bing

Tempura Batter:

1 egg yolk

1 cup iced water

1 cup cake flour, sifted

½ teaspoon baking powder

• Lightly beat the egg yolk and pour in iced water gradually in a mixing bowl, stirring (preferably with chopsticks) and blending well. Add flour and baking powder all at once, stroke a few times with chopsticks until the ingredients are loosely combined. The batter should be somewhat lumpy.

• Heat the vegetable oil in a deep fryer.  Flavor it with a tablespoon of sesame oil. Dust the prawns in flour to soak up remaining moisture.  Shake off excess flour.

• Dip the prawns in the batter one by one.  Do not overcrowd.  Fry until golden brown, turning once, about 3 minutes.  Drain each tempura on a paper towel for a few seconds. Serve with sauce.