Cubaan membuat roti 2

I baked again on Saturday. and I got better results this time - success rate of 75%. The bread's no longer moist, the fluffiness improved but not yet satisfactory. Khalis was neutral about my bread - he didnt mind eating it and he appreciated the effort.

This time
1-Proofing of 2 hours.
Did the dough miracle! It was a lot less stickier and easier to shape!

2-Baked longer with lower temp
The dough was slightly burnt (I mean now I got the brown colour on top)

3-Dissolved all small-quantity items in water
No more lumps!

Honestly I dont know what else to do to get better bread other than
a) buy a bread maker
b) buy new oven

For now I just make do with my bread ni je lah

Cubaan membuat roti

I was very ambitious today. I could hardly bake a cake but I skipped that and went straight to bread.

I baked roti paun

Verdict: 65% success
The taste was ok..But the texture definitely x jadi. Wasnt really fluffy and its slightly moist.
I wonder what the prob could be..
1 - The Oven?
I used microwave oven so I dunno where the heat came from. top? bottom? sides? all direction? (ok, tipu la x tau kan..the heat comes from top..but the distribution? ok, I dunno what I'm talking about) mebi when it comes to bread, the heat must come from specific direction
2-The Kneading
I used my hand. And I could still feel lumps of butter+flour.. Will try using mixer next. But dunno if mixer's strong enough for the dough
3-Too much flour?
I didnt weigh the ingredients.. Just campak2 je..
4-Didnt allow enough time for proofing?
Ok, will try 2 hours next time

One of my friends is a bread+pastry+cake expert. Was planning to ask her what went wrong but found out today that she's been diagnosed with cancer. Explains why my recent emails were not replied to. My heart goes out to her.................

Note:
Beza Bread Softener &Bread improver
Dua bahan dlm membuat roti adalah Bread (atau dough) Softener dan Bread Improver. Dough Softener melembut dan menggebukan roti sementara Bread Improver membuat ia mudah kembang.

Today's gotta be one of my happiest days this year. On Thursday, I ran an errand for Khalis. So after I was done, I said - you have to bring me shopping this week. So he agreed.
So this morning, we went to 1U. And for the first time (I'm thinking in my whole life) he just followed me as I entered and exited the shops in 1U. He didn't complain, not one word and even gave me suggestions!! You see, Khalis hates waiting - 5 mints late and you'll see him fuming. and hates doing pointless things - like go shopping without having any idea what to buy or trying out clothes and end up buying nothing. I did all those 3 today and he was still ok and even drove that extra miles to Kinrara R&R so that we could have our satay. Yes, guilt is a powerful tool, ladies and gentleman.

Anyway, what made me super happy was not that he brot me shopping. But...
because I found this one thing that I'd been looking high and low for in the last 2 years!!
All in all, I'm very happy with the stuff that I bought today.

I'm not kaki shopping.. Usually I buy like, 1 top/month..I'm a minimalist and I hate having too many things. I use all my shoes/handbags until there's no more wear left then baru beli new ones. But sometimes (like today) I just feel like gatal2 tangan nk shopping..

Cameron Highland Trip: Day 3

We checked out at 1000 and drove up to Kea Farm. First we bought fried mushroom then we bought lotsa vegie (some still in the fridge at the moment), strawberries, corn and another bottle of honey. Then we said goodbye to Cameron.
Khalis drove down the hills and when we reached Tapah, I took over and drove until Tanjung Malim. We stopped at Tanjung Malim en route for the famous Yik Mun pau. This Yik Mun pau is so wait for it..LEGENDARY (How I Met Your Mother, anyone?) and maybe the best in Malaysia. I never had a pau any softer and fluffier. The filling's generous too. Having the pau really brot back memories. I remember eating the pau with Khalis in Tanjung Malim, tepi longkang summore, during our college days.

Office Warming

On Thursday, we had office warming party at where else, our office la rite. Actually not my office, their office la..coz me, I'm just menumpang je kan..It was during lunch and they invited about 50 ppl. They had been planning this for weeks and my colleague who's sitting in front of me called the caterer (almost) everyday in the two weeks I've been here. So naturally ppl thot that I was part of the team and I only clarified this to the ppl I knew. I didnt want ppl to start asking why I'm here when I'm not supposed to.

So we had yee sang from Maju Palace.
My colleagues were preparing yee sang...

And nasi minyak + ayam goreng berempah + daging masak biryani + sambal udang + acar + fruits..

Food was great and I took some home for dinner. We had dinner at 830 and the food was still good. No signs of its gonna go stale in the next 4 hours or so

Cameron Highland Trip: Day 2

Ok..now we move on to our 2nd day in Cameron Highlands.
We went Ee Feng Gu Bee Farm first thing in the morning. No breakfast whatsoever. The bee farm was located further up Kea Farm .
Well yesterday I suggested to him that we go to one of the bee farms in Cameron. and Khalis just said no without much thinking. Said that bees would sting us..yeah, right. I didnt know what got into him that night but he suddenly googled for bee farms in Cameron and was adamant that we visited the biggest one (Ee Feng Gu) first thing in the morning

Small boxes (cant have hives here, can we?) for bees were everywhere.. The bee farm was ok2 la..nothing like fairytale..I dont know, but I think that there're not enough flowers for that many bees in the farm. Before we left we bought one big bottle of wild honey and one small jar of royal jelly
Khalis: Tgk, lebah ni posing utk kita lah!!


Then we went to Kea Farm market. Parking was a bitch. We had to go up and down the road twice before we found a spot behind a bus. Again, I bought fried mushroom. We just pusing2, see what they got there and before we went to our next destination, we bought bebola2 and corn cup. I must say this - Its the best corn cup ever!! The corn itself was reallllllllllllyyy sweet. When I bought corn cup in KL or where ever, I always asked for extra susu pekat.. I dont usually take sweet things - but in the rare occasion than I do, I prefer them to be super2 sweet.

Then we went to Big Red Strawberry Farm - Taman Agrotourism Cameron Highlands. Its big, but its really steep going up the hill and even steeper going down... (if its not steep, it aint Cameron).. Good thing was we were allowed to drive up the hill. So we saw lotsa veggie and fruits, some at their peak, some seeing the world for the first time. The cactus here was so cheap - small ones: 6 for RM10. I actually wanted to buy a few, but I wasnt so sure where to put them. There's a shop at the top and I ordered fresh strawberry juice. And guess what? Big mistake. Yes, strawberries in Cameron might look soo red, juicy, and so enticing. But they're anything but sweet. So I had no choice but to finish my RM4 sour strawberry juice (sayang duit ok!!). Khalis had strawberry milkshake which was really good.
Some pics from the farm..



Khalis had been mentioning KFC since yesterday, so when we got to Brinchang, we went to KFC. I got myself toasted twister and Khalis plak ordered this new set with shrimp nuggets. After KFC, we decided to go to Air Terjun Sungai Bisik only to be greeted by locked gate. So we went back up and stopped for a while at Cameron Valley Tea Shop (Bharat). Seriously, do not buy anything here. They sold 2 scones for RM12. There's absolutely no way a scone could cost more than RM2. Just flour, milk, sugar, salt, raisin and butter. No imported cheese whatsoever.

Then we went back to our room. We lepak2 and at night we went out for dinner. We went to the same Indian restaurant we went the night before. I ate cheese nan and chicken tikka and khalis ordered plain nan and chicken tandoori..Then we watched this Brit movie 'An Education' in our room. The movie's not bad at all. Everyone with teenage daughters aged 14-20 should make their daughters watch this at least once. Preferably with Taylor Swift's Fifteen played on the background.

Cheap lunch

There's this place downstairs where I can get Lunch for RM3.50. RM3.50!! Where else in KL can u get lunch for RM3.50???.. ok la..kat stalls by the roadside can la right?? but proper restaurant with aircond??No, right?
So this place has aircond, tables and chairs made of solid wood and half the of crews are Malaysians..Would you say no to a place like this that serves lunch for RM3.50?? I, for a fact, tapau my lunch from there like 4 days a week..saves me lotsa money..
Khalis never spends less than RM7 for lunch..and thats with just plain water.