Recipe: Buttermilk-brined Fried Chicken

I was flipping through my favorite recipe book when he suddenly said "Oooh, that looks good," pointing to the picture on the recipe book. "You want it?" I asked, and he replied "sure, I haven't eaten fried chicken for a long time, and I'm craving for it."

Poor hubby, he has sensitive stomach. He often gets diarrhea when he eats outside, even at the fast food restaurants. He once got stomach problem from eating at the KFC restaurant, and he hasn't gone there again since. 

So this chicken was specially made for him. Hoping it was good enough for his appetite and taste :D

Brining makes the meat juicier. I always do it when I roast chicken or turkey, and this is the first time I do it for frying chicken. The taste? It was awesome! brining in buttermilk brings out such flavorful and wonderful taste. I have never thought it would taste that good considering I only use buttermilk for baking. I was wrong,  and I would use it again whenever I'm going to brine our favorite poultry meats :D

Buttermilk-brined Fried Chicken (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook
book)

For brining
3 cups buttermilk (3 cups milk combined with 3 tablespoons vinegar)
1/4 cup salt (or less)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 pound chicken

For the coating
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
a dash of thyme
3/4 cup buttermilk
Cooking oil
*you can add dry breadcrumbs to make the chicken crunchier, or add chili powder for spicier taste.

Direction


1. Combine chicken, 3 cups buttermilk, salt, sugar in a large Ziploc bag . Chill for 2 to 4 hours, remove chicken from brine. Drain chicken and pat dry. Discard brine.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, black pepper, and thyme. Place the 3/4 cup buttermilk in a shallow dish. Coat chicken with a flour mixture, dip in the buttermilk, and coat again with the flour mixture. Fry chicken for about 15 minutes or  until cooked. Enjoy! :D

Click here to print the recipe

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My baking tips

I would consider myself 95% self-taught baker, and the rest I learned from baking classes. Baking is not difficult, but it is not that easy either. There are few times the goodies that I make don't turn out to be the way I expect them to be, and I could only know it from the customers feedback (so you see it is important to give me feedback so that I can improve the desserts).

Many people have asked me if I offer baking classes, sadly with my current commitment I could not do so. This post will be my honest tips and advise for baking, even though I am still an amateur haha. 

Always use butter - no substitute

I always use butter for baking, unsalted preferably. It makes the cakes and frosting creamier and tastier. Even though it is a bit pricey, it is more delicious and healthy. I can give you a scholastic journal article showing how bad margarine/shortening/non-dairy substitute products if you don't believe me, but then again you can simple type on Google of the health risks using the substitutes. To me, quality is the main important thing, so you have to use real, fresh ingredients so that the sweets turn out nice. 

 

Use good quality baking soda and baking powder

Kinda funny right, but this is my honest advise. I used to purchase this so-so quality baking powder and soda because they are cheap, and they are sold in large amount. You can find these types in the bakery supply stores where they pack them in plastic bag in a big bulk. What I noticed (from my customers feedback), my cakes tasted bitter. I do know that too much baking soda makes cakes taste bitter, so I reduced the amount of baking soda and hence my cakes didn't rise that much. I was frustrated so I went to buy Arm & Hammer baking soda and Royal baking powder. The result- no more bitter taste so far! The cake rise beautifully and I am happy with the result :D

Reduce the amount of sugar and salt by half - if you use the recipes from other countries

I lived in the United States for four years, and I was actively cooking and baking during those years. This is what I noticed, the sugar and salt are not as sweet and salty like the ones in Malaysia. So I had to use large amount when I was cooking. My Brazilian friend, who was studying agriculture, told me sugar is less sweet in the US because the sugar is made from corn, and the one in Malaysia is produced from the sugarcane. There might be scientific explanation about this, but I didn't search for it. As for the salt, it might be due to the fact that the salt produced in the US is finer than the one in Malaysia. So based on my experienced, all the recipes that I found online especially from the US, UK or Australia, I would reduce the amount of sugar and salt in half, and I would add more if I want to make the cake sweeter.

Use good quality milk and vinegar to make buttermilk

Another observation- making buttermilk require good quality milk and vinegar. Previously, I used locally produced white vinegar to make buttermilk, but it didn't turn out right. The milk didn't thickened, and if I put too much it would turn out too sour. So I started buying the imported vinegar. I'm currently using vinegar from Heinz, and the buttermilk turns out exactly the way I wanted it to be :D

Heat is cakes best friend

In fact, it is also the best friends for cupcakes and pavlova. Always bake your cakes in batches (meaning you put the amount of the batter in two or three pans). Turn on the fan, this helps circulating the hot air and your cakes will rise nicely. And only bake the cake(s) using one tray, and place it in the middle. Unless you have humongous oven and the heat circulating really well you can put multiple trays. My oven is small, and it is an electric kind. Before this I used to bake using two trays because I wanted to save time baking many cakes. In the end, my cakes did not rise well, and some of them turned out to be bitter (might be due to the baking soda did not work properly). I stopped doing that and I didn't face that problem anymore.

Reheat your oven for at least 10 minutes, and when you put your cakes, do not open the oven door for the first 10 minutes or the cakes won't rise that well.

Use cling wrap to make cakes moist

After I finish baking a cake, I always let it cool for few minutes and straight away wraps it with cling wrap and stores it in the fridge. This will maintain the moistness of the cake. Just be extra careful when you are handling the cake, you don't want the cake to crack etc :)

Homemade sauce is always the best

This is the last tip for this post, just do let you know that every sauce that I make is homemade. Toffee, caramel, chocolate - you name it. It is tedious, but it taste WAYYY better that store-bought sauce. Trust me  :)

Okay I hope some of these tips could help other home/hobby bakers out there. Let me know if you have any questions :)

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Recipe - Meatloaf

My other half likes to call me a carnivore. He's wrong, I do eat vegetables even though the portion is usually smaller than the protein serving :D

Despite being a 'meat-lover', I try my best to cook healthy well-balanced meal for both of us using fresh ingredients. I don't like to use processed food, and try my best to avoid buying it. I LOVE preparing my own food, and rarely you can find us eating outside. The only bad thing about it is that I am not a full time homemaker. I am a Master student during the day, and a home-based baker at night. Owh, and a full-time wife :D

Juggling my time to cook and prepare food is not easy; therefore, I like to cook simple, fast and yet delicious and hearty meal for both of us can enjoy.

This meal is one of our favorite. It is easy to prepare and taste delicious. I recommend to use food processor to make it as it makes your life easy. In fact, I recommend you to buy a food processor if you don't have one. You don't know how one machine can do wonders to your life.

If you like spicy food, I recommend you to add some chili powder to make the meatloaf a bit spicy. Or you can adjust the recipe based on your liking :)

Meatloaf (Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens)

The loaf
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup dry bread crumbs or 2 cups soft bread crumb
1/4 cup sweet onion
2 tablespoon fresh parsley (or you can use 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley)

1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon sweet basil (or 1/2 teaspoon dried basil)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 pound lean beef (or lamb, chicken etc)

The sauce
1/4 cup tomato ketchup (I used 4 fresh tomatoes, diced)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon mustard (or 1/8 teaspoon ground mustard)

1. Combine all the ingredients to make the loaf (except the ingredients to make the sauce) in the food processor, and grind until everything is mixed. Put it into a loaf pan (8x4x12 inch)

2. Bake in 180 °C for 1  to 1 1/4 hour. Spoon out the fat if you want too. In a small bowl combine all the sauce ingredients (if you want to use fresh tomatoes, combine everything with 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour). Spread the sauce over the meat and bake for 10 minutes more.

Click here to print recipe 

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Recipe - German cuisine for hubby's birthday :)

This post has been in my draft for ages, don't have time to write it up until now. 

Last February was his birthday, I wanted to make something special for him aside his favorite marmokuchen (marble cake). I flipped through the pages of the German recipe book that we got from his relatives for our wedding gift. The cover of the book has delicious looking cuisine - rouladen . The 'carnivore' me knew that this is what I had to make for his birthday dinner. I had craved to eat it since the first time I heard how his country mate been talking and drooling to eat it in Malaysia.

I bought the ingredient from Cold Storage, my favorite grocery place to hunt for international ingredients. I started to cook for dinner in the morning, since there were many dishes to cook. The rouladen took a long time, so did the marmokuchen. Making spaetzle was not easy as I expected. The batter was thick, and I had to use all my energy and 'muscles' to stir the batter until foamy. Not to mentioned I had to modify the spaetzle cutter using the potato masher since there is no way I could find one in Malaysia.

I decorated our humble home to make it look more romantic. Candles were placed every corner of the living room, and we enjoyed eating our dinner as my parents in-law having fun recording us via Skype.

He was impressed, never he would have imaged eating traditional German food in Malaysia cooked by a Malay, not to mention the taste of the food was similar to the traditional German food.

I was happy to hear his compliment. I've never eaten the food before and never knew how to cook it. The clear instructions in the recipe book really helped me out. I told him to thank his relatives for giving the recipe book, but I wonder if he had told them so until now ;)

Beef Roulade (adapted from German Cooking Today)

4 thin slices of beef topside

Pepper

Mustard 

Beef streaky

4 onions (thinly sliced and cut into quarters)

Gherkins (thinly sliced)

2 carrots (cut into quarters)

2 leeks (cut into quarters)

2 stalks celery (cut into quarters)

cooking oil

1 cup (or more) stock or water (I used turkey stock)

1 teaspoon cornstarch

3 tablespoon water

Cooking string (I used normal string)

1. Pat the slices of beef dry with a kitchen paper towel, season with salt and pepper. Spread mustard on the slices of meat. Put the beef streaky on top of the meat, put thinly sliced onions and gherkins in the middle of the beef streaky, and roll it up (like you roll up sushi minus the sushi mat). Secure the beef with string.

2. Put oil in a pot. Add the roulades and brown briskly on all sides. Add onions, carrots, leeks, celery and saute for few minutes. Add 1/2 cup stock. Cover and cook roulades over small heat for about 1 1/2 hour. During this time, keep checking if the stock is dry, and add up more stock.

3. Turn the roulades over now and again. Gradually replace the evaporated liquid with more stock. Take out the roulades, and removed the string.

4. Rub the cooking juices through a sieve. Add about 2 cups of stock, and add cornstarch mixed with water.  Season with salt and pepper. Stir until thick (or you can add more cornstarch add with water). Serve the roulades with gravy.

Click here to print recipe

Spaetzle (adapted from German Cooking Today)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 medium eggs

salt

pinch of nutmeg

Spaetzle cutter (in my case I used potato masher) 

1. Combined flour, eggs, salt, nutmeg and a little water/milk. Stir all ingredients with a wooden spoon (about 3 minutes) until the dough has acquired a thick, semi-liquid consistency and makes bubbles.

2. Put water in a pot and bring to boil. Add salt. Push the dough in small serving through the potato masher so that the spaetzle fall into the boiling salter water. Cook until spaetzle float, and rinse. Leave to drain. Brown butter in a pan and toss the spaetzle in it. 

Click here to print recipe

Cauliflower with butter and breadcrumbs (adapted from German Cooking Today)

3 1/2 tablespoon butter

3 tablespoon breadcrumb

500gm cauliflower 

Water for boiling

Salt, ground nutmeg and pepper to taste

1. Boil water in a big pot and put cauliflower into it and cook for about 10 minutes. Drain the cauliflower, and cut into small pieces

2. Melt butter on a frying pan and combine with breadcrumbs. Put the cauliflower in the frying pan and coat it with the butter mixture.  Put salt, a pinch of ground nutmeg and pepper to taste

Click here to print recipe

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Elmo cake and mini cupcakes ordered by Eqa

Few weeks ago my relative, Eqa, ordered few cakes from me for her adorable son's birthday. I personally love the Elmo cake the most  since it was my first time decorating such cake. Initially I wanted to do the same thing for the mini cupcakes too but it was too small (bite size) that I put edible image of Elmo on them instead.

Elmo cake- red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting

Most of the Elmo cakes that I saw online use fondant for the nose, eyes and mouth. However, I wanted to make my cake fondant-free thus I used cream cheese frosting to decorate the cake (including the eyes, nose and mouth part).

It was really fun decorating the cake! Now I can't wait for someone to order other Sesame Street character cakes (especially Cookie Monster) :D

Mini cuppies- Oreo chocolate cake with Oreo cream cheese frosting with edible image of Elmo

Thanks for the order Eqa, really happy that you give your trust to me :)

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New pie available at Muniroh's Bakery: Engadiner Nusstorte (Swiss Caramel Walnut Pie)

We received Ladlust magazine every other month from my hubby's godfather for our wedding present. Despite being in Deutsch and I know ein bisschen (a little) of it, the pretty pictures in the magazine never failed to make me flip the pages until the end. Sometimes I asked my hubby to translate the nice recipe in the magazine, even though most of the time the ingredients are not available in Malaysia.

For the winter edition, the magazine featured walnut as the main ingredient for its cooking section. What caught my eyes was the delicious torte (pie) picture - Engadiner Nusstorte (walnut pie). The pie looks so good that I know I must make one someday.





Engadiner Nusstorte is a traditional Swiss pie, but the pie is also famous in other parts of Germany. It is made with rich butter pastry with caramelised walnut. My hubby said that the pie is sweet, so I reduced the amount of sugar to suit our liking.




After the pie was done, I was hoping not to eat it until the next day but my curiosity beats my determination. From a small slice it became large slices as my hubby asking for more helping. We ate half of the pie in just one day, that shows how good the pie was. The best part was when my hubby said that it tastes similar to the traditional one. Knowing where he comes from, it was definitely a compliment ;)

This pie is definitely a must try for nuts lover :) It is as good as pecan pie, but different :D

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My first experience making wedding cake using cream cheese

Hey guys, I haven't updated my blog for a while. Was busy writing up my thesis and I'm pretty glad that I've finished writing. Just need to edit and submit my thesis alhamdulillah :D

A while ago a friend of mine asked if I could make wedding cake for her wedding. I've never done it but I was really eager to make one. I am a buttercream person so I don't make fondant cakes. Fondant is pretty, and I am amazed with beautifully crafted fondant cakes, but I don't like the taste of fondant. Besides, it takes a lot of time to make a really pretty and neat fondant cake, which is not suitable for a night-time baker like me.

My friend was okay with the cream cheese frosting, and I told her the design that I could make for her. We discussed over several things; the height, design, price range, color etc. I didn't sketch the design, because I always imagined it in my head (aside from the fact my drawing talent has been declining after I graduated from high school), but my friend was okay with my idea.

I have very small oven thus I have to wait long hours baking the cakes. Because of that, it took me 11 hours to finish making her cake. I was happy with the product though, and she was too after receiving the MMS of her wedding cake.

I am glad that she liked it, and I am happy that I was given an opportunity and trust to make one. Someone said that a wedding is not complete without a cake, and I agree with that even though I don't have one at my wedding :)

Thanks Ermi Lihan for your order, and you were a beautiful bride :)

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The nervous wreck

I woke this morning with a nausea feeling. My body trembled thinking about the Final Seminar presentation that I'm going to have in few hours. I practiced for the last time before I went to shower so that my presentation will be smooth and I sound articulate.

By the time I was at the car I was jumpy thinking I would be late for the Final Seminar. My husband, a very calm person, tried calming me down. In my head I was hoping that the seminar would start using the 'Malaysian time' - a.k.a not punctual.

The time I arrived the room, I was surprised to see only one lecturer and the first presenter hasn't presented yet. I felt a lot better and went outside to enjoy a cup of teh tarik (delicious Malaysian milk tea) with kuih kaswi (a type of dessert that Malay always has for breakfast or tea) provided by the Faculty.

I was a nervous wreck when I looked at the first presenter. 'Why in the world we have the same pictures and literature reviews on the slides,' those words came across my mind as his slides pass from one to another. It was not a coincidence since we are doing studies on vitamin E, but using different genes. So the moment I had to present, I told the audiences that there will be similar pictures and literature reviews on my slides.

During my presentation I was focusing on Farzaneh, my labmate. Not because I felt comfortable with her, but because she was focusing on my presentation and I assumed she understood a part of my research. Not many people in the room understand my research even my husband and labmates, and I could see big question mark written on their faces as I spoke. I was glad that Dr Shikin from another department came to my presentation as she has some knowledge in what I'm doing, at least there is someone else besides my supervisor that can comment on my work.

My supervisor looked calm, meeting her the day before really helped. She had the same expression when Amir presented, and that was a big relief for both of us.

By the time for Q&A session, I was surprised not many questions being asked. And there I was, worried the whole week for something that didn't happen. The only question related on my work was on the technical part, which I could answer easily.

So now, one worry is over, and another one coming in - Thesis submission! I have finished my labwork and I am going to concentrate on my thesis writing. So wish me luck on that ;)

And here you go, pictures from my previous orders. Do check Muniroh's Bakery Facebook Page as we are more active updating the pictures there compared to this blog ;)

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Researcher at day, and baker at night ;) And yes, pictures from previous orders ;)

If you are wondering, I'm still blogging  just not actively like I used too. In the meantime, if you like to see the latest photos from my home-based bakery, do check out the photos and updates at Muniroh's Bakery Facebook page. I have lots of new pictures which I upload regularly ;)

Rainbow cake- 6-layer colored cake with lemon Swiss meringue buttercream

Some of you might know that I am a full time master student during the day time. I am not sure when I will be finishing my study though. If you have done your labwork in Malaysia you will know why, if you haven't done it...I advice you to nicely shut up instead of commenting and criticizing- sometimes we need someone who can empathize with our situations ;) 

12 pieces 3.4' pavlova with strawberry, kiwi, whipped cream and chocolate shave.

Dark chocolate cake with walnut, vanilla frosting and chocolate frosting

Doing labwork is quite similar with baking. Surprise? Well not really....both fields require some adjustment to get the perfect 'ingredients' (or you can say optimization). For instance in my research I need to adjust the conditions of the PCR reactions to get the desired bands (if you are not doing molecular works this video can help you to get some idea). The same goes for baking, I have to do lots of adjustments to get the taste and texture that I like.

Dark chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and creamy chocolate frosting

L-R: Pecan pie, dark chocolate cake, chocolate truffle pie

The oven is just like the PCR machine - both use heat to react the ingredients. For baking, I mix up all the ingredients, put it in the oven and wait until the baked desserts are ready. The only difference is that I don't require a gel viewer or even ethidium bromide (or something similar) to see the 'products' as I can clearly see the desserts with my naked eyes. 

Delicious pecan pie :D

Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting

The thing about my research is that I need to do lots of PCR reactions, that sometimes I am so frustrated to the point that I cried...a lot! It is even traumatizing to see cars with PCR as their registration number. The worst part is that there is a car nearby my house with that registration number (and I feel like puking whenever I glance at it hoho).

On the other hand, I don't feel that way whenever I bake lots of cakes. The only person who might feel uneasy might be my husband because he doesn't have a sweet tooth so he feels a bit traumatized to open our fridge and see lots of desserts ;)

So as promise, here are some of the old photos that I haven't uploaded yet. 

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Creamy banana layer pudding ordered by Huda

It is raining heavily right now. I don't feel like going back and yet I have to. I know I haven't been updating my blog for a while, but rest assure I will still blog when I have free time. 

At the meantime, do check Muniroh's Bakery Facebook page from time to time to see the latest photos. 

Huda, a friend of a friend who is an avid baker as I am, ordered this delicious banana layer pudding. She could make it by herself if she wants to, but she ordered from me instead because it saves more time. It makes sense, I would have done the same thing too if I were in her shoes. 

She loves this pudding, as she is a big fan of banana. This is my favorite too because I love vanilla pudding so much, and this pudding goes really well with banana. I made two big trays of this banana pudding during last Eid, and it finished so fast that I could not believe it. Yes, that shows how good this banana pudding 

I made a new chocolate version- filled with biscuit, chocolate cream cheese, chocolate pudding and chocolate shaved, and the taste is fantastic! Really recommend to you who love chocolate.

Okay, I think that's enough for today haha. I am not really in the mood of blogging, and yet I feel pity at my almost abandoned blog. Hope you guys the enjoy the rainy season, I'm not that's for sure.

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