Affair with Prata

The week was more eventful than normally since my brother is living with us now. Since my parents are here to visit for a while, we have been eating out a lot for the past couple weeks to show the food heavens in the GTA. Last week we were invited to eat the famous crab at Saigon Star .What very interesting about this always full seating restaurant,they presented pratha and french baguette for dipping the crab sauce, an unusual trade for a bowl of rice in a Vietnamese restaurant. 

Eversince I have been wanting to eat those delicious fluffy Prata. During his days in Malaysia, my brother said the norm is to eat Prata/ Roti Canai with sweet condensed milk. Although he did not get to satisfy his sweet tooth, he got a fair share of Prata for dinner ( maybe next time). I took out a bag of frozen Shana Paratha and toast it with a little butter in a pan untill those layers of flour and fat is bubbly and turned golden brown.

To accompany the Prata, chickpea dipping is the way to go. Some left over cherry tomatoes can serve the dipping well too. I bet its not the most authentic Indian style of eating prata with a dal , since my chickpea dipping is thicker almost like hummus. But it was faster to cook and bursting with flavor!

My husband is a carnivore, so does my brother. The meal is incomplete without a piece a meat on their   plate. I decided to make a simple pan seared garlic basa fillet ( if it counts as meat, since I already defroze them). So a meal is complete with a last touch of apricot syrup. I give the sweet portion for my brother sweet tooth ( part of it), well not really. It would be  a perfect marriage of sweet earthiness.

Chickpeas Dipping

A can of chickpeas

1/2 red onions diced

1 tbsp of olive oil

1 tbsp of turmeric

a handful of cherry tomatoes/ 1 tomatoes if you will

1/2 tbsp of cumin ( if you like more it more spicy you can add more)

salt and cracked pepper to taste

In a pan heat up the olive oil and throw in the red onions untill it softens, put in the spices, tomatoes ,add the chickpeas with the juice. Simmer untill the water is absorbed. You can use a fork to mash the chickpeas, and serve!

Pan Seared ( Garlic) Basa fillet

2 Basa fillet

2 garlic cloves minced,

1 tbsp of butter

Flour , cayene peper, and salt for coating

Make the basa fillet into 4 portions each. Pat dry the the fillet with towel. In a bowl mix flour, cayene pepper, and salt for coating. Coat the fish uniformly ,set aside. Warm the butter in a pan, if the heat gets too hot, add some canola oil so the butter will not get burned. Sautee the garlic so the oil is infused with flavor.Take out the garlic and pan fry the fish 3-5 minutes per side untill cooked. Assemble the meal, dont forget the apricot syrup!

and Have a good Eat!

wednesday awesomeness: birthday cake for the lover

It was a perfect scenario, he went for biking with his pals and there I was on Wednesday night , blasting my internet radio channel in the kitchen, and started making some birthday cake batter for the very first time. All is due to the Mayan Chocolate that my sister brought me from Mexico. Its been staring at me for weeks and I felt bad for not trying to make something good out of it.

 It was right for staring at me and put the thoughts in my brain.

Although I failed the suprise ( he opened the fridge before I attempted to secure and hide the cake), I am glad for the real good suprise:

Velvety.         Smooth    . Yummy.    Chocolatey.     Coffee.      Rich. Orange     . Love.         Creamy. Cheese    .  Dark Chocolate.  Soft.      Tangy.          Mocha.

                                       Love.       Love.  Over the Moon Lover~

So here I share with you my recipe for Wednesday night awesomeness, just in case you celebrate the birthday on Wednesday, or any other day will do!

Adapted from dark chocolate from Allrecipes

Cake:

• 2 cups boiling water

• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoon of instant coffee

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1 ¾ cups white sugar

• 4 egg and don't  forget  1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract  for some heavenly goodness

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 2 - 9 inch round cake pans. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa , and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Last put in the instant coffee and mix batter gently and throw it into the 2 greased pans.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool.

Icing:

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 table spoon of orange rinds

• 2 table spoon of orange marmalade jam

• In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the powder sugar. Put in the orange rinds and marmalade jam the last.Store in the refrigerator after use.

Once you prepared the cake and the icing, take out the cake from the pans and flatten the uneven sides of the cake by carving the cake horizontally. Cover the top with cream cheese icing and put the other cake on top. Cover the whole cake with cream cheese icing and finish it off with shaved chocolate, orange rinds, and coffee!

Good luck : good Eat!

Passion + Patience *Gastrobutterfly* A food to your soul.