In conjunction with the month of Ramadan, celebrity MasterChef Dato’ Fazley Yaakob shared his amazing dishes specially crafted to befit IDEAL® full cream evaporated milk.

I was honored to receive a special invite to attend this cooking workshop, which was held at TESCO, Mutiara Damansara, earlier this week. Indeed, I was curious to find out more about IDEAL® itself since I rarely use condensed milk (or creamer) and evaporated milk in my dishes.

About IDEAL®

IDEAL® Full Cream Evaporated Milk is a premium quality product that offers the perfect creamy taste suitable for cooking and producing the ultimate desserts. IDEAL® is your best friend in the kitchen, whether it is for cakes, desserts, drinks or even main courses.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I haven’t watched MasterChef Malaysia before. I know, I know, this coming from someone who loves to cook and peruse new cooking styles/recipes/techniques. Then again, I’m not a person who would watch series, be it cooking or otherwise *shrugs*

Since I’m not too familiar with MasterChef Malaysia, I obviously do not know who Dato’ Fazley Yaakob. A quick Google-scan online got me enough info to be impressed indeed. Here are some information about him, in case you’re as ignorant as I am:

• He is the winner of Malaysia’s first season of Masterchef Malaysia.
• A singer, entrepreneur and a motivational speaker, Dato’ Fazley Yaakob is also a proud father of 3 children.
• He owes his inspiration and cooking skills from the two special ladies in his life: Mother and Grandmother
• IDEAL® was and will always be his childhood accompaniment.

So what can we expect from today’s workshop? Well, for one, IDEAL® will be incorporated into the dishes served (derp duh~!). The unique selling point is that IDEAL® will either be used as a flavor enhancer, or a substitute for other ingredients in these dishes.

This workshop was officiated by Mr. Tan Hock Beng (Managing Director of Dairies Malaysia), Ms Eileen Chan (F&N Dairies condensed milk category head), and of course, Dato’ Fazley Yaakob himself. How was the workshop launched? These folks were to pipe the words IDEAL onto the cupcakes. Pretty neat, eh?

Three dishes were presented today. They are:

• Lemon Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry
• Puteri Mandi
• Butterscotch Pancake with Strawberry

Some tips and tricks I had managed to glean off Dato’ Fazley Yaakob as he prattled on and on while whipping up a storm at his workstation.

• When mixing up a batch of cake batter, always make sure the batter is glossy (it has a nice sheen to it). This ensures that your batter will be cooked to perfection; fluffy and nice instead of dense and sticky. In this case, Chef had whisked his batter for about 5 minutes only.
• Why use IDEAL® in the cake batter? The texture of this full cream evaporated milk ensures that the mixture is properly incorporated in a short time (and the creaminess makes it taste even more awesome!)
• For a “melt in the mouth” icing texture, first whisk the butter until its color becomes slightly paler (mixing machine is used for this) before adding in the icing sugar slowly. IDEAL® helps create that extra fluffiness and creaminess without being too sweet.
• For the buttercream icing, this method is used to ensure that the result is fluffy and creamy:  Butter -> icing -> IDEAL® -> icing -> colouring and flavour.
• For Puteri Mandi, IDEAL® is used instead of santan as over-consumption of santan may cause consumers to feel nauseous of the food (mual = nauseous. I seriously hope my translation is correct hahahaha)

Remember when I mentioned earlier that Dato’ Fazley Yaakob is a singer? Well, he most certainly is! I managed to record not one, but two songs that he had serenaded us with.

Of course, the first song (sung at the very beginning of the workshop) is an original creation by himself entitled “Ku Mohon Maaf Sayang” in conjunction with the month of Ramadan. Why this song, you ask? Watch the video to find out 🙂

The second song, much to my shame, I do not know what the title is. (yes boo boo to this lil’ Chinese girl). But hey, I like how he sang it 😉

Of course, what is a cooking workshop without the Chef himself showing off his masterpiece? He hold a plate of Butterscotch Pancake (aka Lempeng) with Strawberry on his right, a bowl of Puteri Mandi sweets on his left. The workstation displays his Lemon Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry, and of course, the cupcakes from the launch officiation.

(Of course, I couldn’t resist taking a photo with The Man himself too! Plus I got myself an autographed recipe book as well yay!)

P/S: TESCO is having a promotion right now for IDEAL® (RM2.95 per can). Head over and stock up while the offer is still valid k? 😀

BONUS

I couldn’t resist making the pancakes for myself by the way, and I had followed Dato’ Fazley Yaakob’s advice as I whip up a batch for myself. The results? Delicious!

My only gripe is that I was forced to use Artificial Pandan flavouring (which is horrible by the way. Never EVER get it lol) cause I couldn’t get a hold of fresh pandan leaves myself T_T

I had obviously substituted strawberries with other condiments instead (them berries are so expensive omg!) since this cookout session was somewhat an impulsive action on my end hahahaha. But it was still delicious right to the very last bite. I’m not a big fan of sweets (odd but true, sweets tend to make me gag) so which I was skeptical about this dessert, I was pleasantly surprised that the creaminess from IDEAL® helped to balance out the sweetness of the entire concoction. So that’s a plus one in my books for sure!