Merry Christmas to all...

I never thought that turkey could taste so nice till I tried the sample portion done by Chef yong at his class. Thanks to my friend S who help hunted a small turkey for my oven and Kenny who helped to bought the turkey and some other ingredient. Tried making it on Saturday for family gathering at my in-law's place, all like it and the mushroom sausage.

First attempt making logcake, the swiss roll (yochana's recipe) was not so well done, need more practise to get better roll. Kenny also help to decorate the cake.

Kuih Angku

Tried this recipe (from Agnes Chang's book), quite happy with the shape and colour, but the skin's tend to turn hard after a few hours. The advise from fellow forum friends were to mix in mash sweet potatoes for the dough for better texture kuih skin, will try with sweet potatoes next time.




Skin:
50g rice flour, mix with 210ml water and 3 ½ tbsp oil, stir and boiled, cooled
300g glutinous rice flour
a little red colouring
enough water to mix into dough (about ½ cup)

Filling:
150g mung bean washed, soaked for 4 hours or overnight, steam and mashed
2 tbsp oil
3 shallots, flattened
100g sugar
¼ tsp salt

1 big piece banana leaf, cut into oval shape(to the angku)
½ cup oil, for brushing skin

Method:
1) Filling: Heat up oil, stir fry shallot till golden brown. Discard shallots. Add mashed mung bean, sugar, salt and stir fry until it can leave the side of pan. Remove and leave to cool. Form into the small balls as filling.
2) Skin: Mix and knead all ingredients until it form into a pliable dough.
3) Wrap 1 part of filling(20g) with 1 part skin(30g), press into angku mould and knock out. Line with a piece of grease banana leaf and steam with high heat for 5min.
4) Remove and brush with oil.
(Make: 18-20)

Note: Mould from Phoon Huat.

Sweet Sour Pork

Always ate this dish and heard from others who have done this dish said its very easy to cook but have not been successfully cooking this dish to the right kind of crunchiness. On Sunday, decided to try this dish again, and this time I got it right! Yay.....

I added pineapple because I like the natural sweet sour taste of it.

Ingredients:
300g Lean Pork Shoulder
1 tsp salt
2tsp sugar
a little pepper
1 tbsp cooking wine

1 cucumber
1 medium onion
2 tomatoes
1 capsicum
2 wedge of pineapple
½ tsp vinegar
3 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tsp chilli sauce (optional)
½ tsp sesame oil
½ cup water

5tbsp cornflour
1 egg white
Cooking oil for deep frying
½ tsp cornflour, blended with 2 tbsp of water

Method:
1) Clean and cut pork into 2cm square, 1 cm thick. Season pork with salt, pepper and wine. Leave pork to season for at least 30min.

2) Skin cucumber, remove the soft centre, cut into cube. Cut onion into segments, quarter tomatoes, remove seeds, remove seeds from capsicum and cut into irregular 2cm pieces. Mix together the sugar, vinegar, tomato sauce, chilli sauce and sesame oil with water for gravy.

3)Add egg white into season pork. Heat cooking oil for deep frying. Roll seasoned pork pieces in dry cornflour and deep fry in hot oil till cooked and crisp. Drain off oil and set aside.

4)Remove oil from the wok. Add 1 tbsp oil in the wok, fry onion for a while, add capsicum, tomatoes and cucumber pieces, stir fry for a minute, pour in the gravy in 2). Thicken gravy with cornflour mixture. Then add in the fried pork cubes and stir till pork are coat with gravy. Turn off heat at once. Serve warm.

Orange Juice Chiffon Cake

Made this cake over the weekend, didn't keep a good watch on the machine while it was beating the egg white so it was abit overbeat, manage to mix it the egg white to the egg yolk batter, but still can see trace of white in the cake...

Ingredients:

A. 5 egg yolks
50g sugar

B. 60g corn oil
15ml rum

C. 80ml orange juice
Orange peel of 1 orange

D. 90g cake flour/low protein flour
3g baking powder

E. 7 egg white
60g sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar


Method:

1)Preheat oven at 175°C.

2) Mix A in mixer till it turns pale yellow colour.

3)Mix B in a bowl and warm it till over double boil, pour it into 1. and mix till well combined.

4)Add in C to 2. and mix till well combined.

5)Seive D for 2 to 3 times.

6)In a separate bowl, add in egg white and beat till foamy then add in cream of tartar and beat egg white start to turn white and and sugar in 3 interval and beat further till stiff peak form.

7)Add egg white in 3 intervals and item D in 2 interval into egg yolk mixture, it should be: add egg white mix till well combined → add flour and mix till well combined → egg white mix till well combined → add flour mix till well combined → add egg white mix till well combined.

8)Pour batter into chiffon pan, spread the batter evenly, give the pan a light knock on the table. Bake for about 45 min or till done.

9)Remove cake pan from oven, invert the cake pan to let the cake cool completely. Remove cake from pan and serve as desire.

Note:
-I think 6 egg whites are workable for this recipe.

Hae Bee Hiam (Fry dried shrimps with dried chilli)

Once in a long while I will do this dish, either is craving for the dish or just need it for other dishes.

Recipe was based on estimation of how I did the dish...

Ingredient:

30 dried chillies (I just take a plastic bag and use one hand to grab the amount, never check how much I bought...use less of the chillies if want it to be less spicy)
3 or 4 slice of ginger (each slice about 3mm thick)
about 6tbsp of water
500 gram of dried shrimps
50gm buah keras (candlenut)
about 6-8 shallot
about 6-8 garlic
oil for fying

Mehod:

1) Soak the dried chillies in tap water for about 2hours or till soft. Cut into smaller pieces, remove the seed. Drain away the water. (I did not have enough time...so never remove)

2)Soak dried shrimps for 1hour with tap water, just to soften it abit. Drain away the water.

3)Put half the dried chillies and 2 slice of ginger into blender add some water and blend into smooth paste, must be very fine paste, pour it into a bowl and blend the remaining half chillies with ginger and water till paste.

4) Use a food processor, use the chopper, scope about 1/3 of the dried shrimps and a few shallot and garlic and a few table spoon of chilli paste. Grind till fine, the shrimps should be very fine. Scope it into a big bowl. Repeat till finish all the shrimps. The hae bee hiam should be dry not wet.

5)Heat up wok, pour about 1 cup of oil, put the uncooked hae bee hiam in it and fry it over medium low fire, too high heat will burn the hae bee. In between may need to add more oil in case the hae bee hiam looks too dry. It take about 20min to fry the dish. Fry until it turns draker red color, then should be ok.


Note:

-Although garlic and shallot gives very nice fragrant but don't put too much cause it contains water and it will make the hae bee hiam not lasting and easily spoilt.
-if cannot finish the dish, just keep in the fridge and fry again next day(no need or use little oil), the taste will be even better.

Pork Ball

I have always wanted to learn this dish whenever I ate it at my granny's place during CNY since long time ago but always can't get it right after numerous try. About 2 years ago came across the book 阿鸿上菜 and took reference from the way he did the 狮子头 dish and finally got pork ball right.

Ingredients:

1kg mince pork
3tbsp light soya sauce
2tsp white pepper
3tbsp corn flour
2tbsp sesame oil
8-10 pc of waterchestnut (chopped)


Method:

1. Use the chopper to pound(chopping action) the mince pork, this is to break up the vein that
usually is not done properly by mince machine.

2. Mix the mince meat with the above ingredients then marinate it for a few hours.

3. Heat a wok will sufficient amount of oil.

4. Wet hand with water, scoop about 1 tbsp of meat onto hand, form the meat into ball then throw it between both hands(thisaction is to remove the air in the meat ball) then gently put meatball into oil.

5. Deep fry till golden brown then remove and drain.


Note:
-Can mix 1 bowl of rice(fried with some mince ginger) to the mince pork, the starch in the rice does give the meat ball better texture.

Wuxi Short Ribs (无锡排骨）

Wanted to cook ribs for Saturday's dinner but because Kenny also bought some prawns that day, thinking that it would be too many dishes for dinner if I cook the ribs so postpone the decision and cook the ribs on Sunday evening.

Took the recipe from the book Pork Ribs （好吃的排骨） by Novum Organum's Joy of Cooking series.

Ingredients:
500g short ribs
1 red chilli
1 green chilli
½ large onion
3 stalks spring onion
3 slice ginger
10 cloves garlic
800ml water

Marinade:
2 tbsp light soy sauce
a little dark soy sauce
a little pepper

Seasonings:
Stewing spices (5g pack: ½ tsp Sichuan peppercorn, 2 clove star anise, 1 cinnamon stick)
A little dark soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp hua tiao wine/cooking wine
35g rock sugar
1 tbsp tomato sauce

Method:
1. Wash ribs. Marinate for about 1 hour. Remove the seeds from the chilli and cut into half. Cut onion into big pieces and spring onion into sections.

2. Heat 500ml of oil in wok. Deep fry ribs for about 5 minutes till golden brown. Drain oil.

3. Heat about 1 tbsp of oil in wok, stir fry chilli, onion, spring onion, ginger and garlic till fragrant. Add in pork ribs. Pour in water and seasonings to cook for about 1 hour over low heat. Dish up when meat is soft and cooked.

Note: Ask the butcher to cut the ribs into shorter sections when buying the ribs.

Muffins

Muffins are one of my first successful bakes, only failed once if I remembered correctly. I like this recipe because its not very sweet and easy to make.
For the below batch, I used chocolate milk instead of the usual fresh milk...





Basic Muffin (make 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

2½ cup (310g/10oz) self –raising flour
½ cup(125g/4oz) caster sugar
1½ cup (375ml/12fl oz) milk
2 lightly beaten eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
150g(5oz) unsalted butter that have been melted and cooled

Method:

Preheat over to moderate hot 200°C(400degF/gas 6)

Sift flour into a bowl to aerate the flour and ensure a light muffin. Add sugar to bowl and stir through the flour. Make a well in the centre.

In a jug, mix together the milk, eggs and vanilla essence.Pour the liquid into the well in the flour and add cooled butter.

Fold the mixture gently with a metal spoon until just combined.

Be careful not to overbeat or the muffin will become tough and rubbery.The mixture should still be lumpy at this stage.

Divide the mixture evenly among the holes of tray using metal spoon, fill each hole to about ¾ full.

Bake the muffin for 20-25min, or until they r risen, golden and come away from sides of the holes. Test them by pressing lightly with fingertips-they r cooked when they feel firm, and spring back. Another test is to insert skewer into the centre – if come out clean they r ready.

Most muffins should be left in the tin for couple of minutes once out of oven. Using a flatp bladed knife, loosen the muffin and transfer to rack.


Simple variation

Choc Chip
Add 1½ cups(260g) choc chip to flour and replace the caster sugar with ½ cup(95g) soft brown sugar.

Blueberry
Add 300g blueberries to the flour. If fresh blueberries are unavailable, frozen ones can be used. Add while frozen to avoid streaking the batter.

Banana
Add an extra ¼ cup(60g) caster sugar and ½ teaspoon mixed spice to the flour and 1 cup (240g) mashed ripe bananas to the batter. Use only 1cup milk. Proceed with the recipe.