Homemade Egg Tofu

Have been hunting for this recipe after eating it at the canteen in the factory. Did saw antoher recipe in another book borrow from the library but found this recipe in this book Hawkers’ Fair Simplified was much easier to do. I did 2/3 recipe with the intention to do experiment on it by deep frying it, so the tray I used to steam it was smaller. Kenny, mum and myself like this recipe, will sure do it again. Maybe I didn't add enough eggs to the soya milk, so the tofu looks abit ugly after deep frying...haha.


Ingredients:
1000ml plain soya bean milk (I use unsweetened soya milk)
5 egg whites
3 egg yolks
1 ½ tsp salt
dash of pepper and chicken stock granules to taste

Method:
1. Combine all ingredients, mix well and strain.

2. Line a 8”/20cm square tray with plastic sheet and pour in mixture.

3. Bring water in steamer to boil, lower the heat and place tray in steamer to steam for 20min or until set. Remove. Let the tofu cool down a little before cutting it.

Braised Wings with Mushrooms and Chestnuts

Did this dish some time ago, with the intention to use up the dried chestnut that was bought long ago, reference from another recipe on Yum Yum magazine.

Ingredients:
8 chicken wings, washed and chopped into 2 pieces
1 tsp chopped garlic
a few slice of ginger
4 black mushrooms, soaked
10 dried chestnuts, soaked

Seasoning:
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
dash of sesame oil
500ml water

Method:

1. Heat up oil, sauté chopped garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add in mushrooms and chestnuts stir fry until aromatic.

2. Add in chicken wings, seasonings and bring to boil. Lower the heat and simmer for at least 20min or till chicken wings are cooked. Dish up and serve.

Family Style Gingerbread People

Bought a few gingerbread man cookie cutter at my daughter's request when I was at twinco in HK.
Since got some time in the afternoon so dig out a few recipe and decided on this one, the dough was quite soft, need to chill it a little before cut the shape for baking. Initially I was thinking of using only the medium size one to cut out the shape but Trenyce suggested to also do some small ones, she said 'Got gingerbread Mummy Daddy, must also have little gingerbread boys and girls.' The kids and Kenny help in putting on the icing, glad that all have fun with doing the icing. Btw, the nicer ones are done by Kenny not by me, I'm quite lousy with icing...LOL. All like this recipe than the other one I did a few months ago.



Ingredients:
125g unsalted butter, softened
60g soft brown sugar
90g golden syrup
1 egg, beaten
250g plain flour
30g self raising flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Icing
1 egg white
155g icing sugar, sifted
assorted colourings

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to moderate 180°C. Line baking tray with baking paper.

2. Cream the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a bowl with electric beater until light and fluffy. Add the egg gradually, beating well after each addition. Sift the dry ingredients onto butter mixture and mix till well combined. Combine the dough with well-floured hands. Turn onto well-floured surface and knead for 1-2 min or until smooth. Refrigerate the dough for 15 min. Roll the dough onto chopping board, between 2 plastic sheets, to 5 mm thick.

3. Cut the dough into shape with gingerbread person cutter. Press the remaining dough together and re-roll. Place the cut out shapes on the tray. Bake for 10min, or until lightly browned. Cool completely on the cooling rack.

4. For the icing, beat the egg white with electric beater in a bowl until foamy. Gradually add the lemon juice and icing sugar and beat until thick and creamy. Scope the mixture into different bowls, tint the mixture with food colourings and spoon into small piping bags. Seal the open ends, snip the tips off the bags and pipe on faces and clothing.

Season's Greetings

Brought a honeybaked ham and a chocolate fudge cake to my in-law's place yesterday. Manageto find a honeybaked ham from my friend. I leaned the cake from a class at CC sometime ago. Its my first attempt doing the cake, looks abit ugly but nevetheless all

like it, and that make me happy.

Honeybaked Ham

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Deep fried Chicken Rolls Coated with Sesame Seed

Has been quite busy at work lately plus went on holiday to Hong Kong early December so didn't update my blog.

Bought some recipe book while I was at HK popular, this recipe was from one of the book title 'Easy Cooking at Home'. Tried this dish reference from the book for Thursday's dinner, run out of white sesame as mention in the recipe, as usual use what's available in my fridge...black sesame...

Ingredients:
300g chicken fillet
Black sesame seed
75g carrot
75g celery
Corn flour
2 egg yolk (beaten)

Marinade:
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce
¼ tsp chicken powder
Sesame oil
Ground white pepper


Method:

1. Thinly slice chicken fillet. Mix with marinade and leave for 15min.

2. Peel carrot and cut into strips. Tear the hard fiber off celery and cut into strips.

3. Place carrot and celery on chicken and roll. Seal with a little corn flour.Coat chicken roll with corn flour. Dip in egg yolk. Coat with sesame seeds. Deep fry until golden brown and done. Serve immediately.

Mango Jelly

Whenever there's a function or gathering, I always like to make this konnyaku jelly simply because its very easy to do. It was my nephew's 1 yo birthday and I don't have time to do other things other than this dessert. Make use of the opportunity to use up last pack of the jelly powder from Anna Culinary. My friend S recommend her jelly powder cos its of better quality, and true enough it would 'produce' water after placing it in the fridge overnite.


Ingredients:

900ml mango juice
160g sugar
1 packet of konnyaku powder (for redman brand is 10g/pkt)
1 can of syrup longan (optional) - can use other type of fruit per individual preference

Method:
1. Mix the konnyaku powder with the sugar in a bowl.
2. Pour the juice in the pot, then pour in 1. and turn on the stove fire and stir continously to prevent the powder from cuddle. Stir over medium fire then the mixture boils.
3. Turn off fire. Place the 1 logan in each mould, pour in the jelly mixture. Let it cool down at room temperature then place in fridge to let it set and chill.

Lemongrass Chicken Patties with Pickle Onion

Learned this dish at the CC a few months ago, didn't want to do it earlier because this dish require to make some spice paste and that take at least half hour to prepare, so since there were some left over kafir leaves and lemongrass, and am free the whole Saturday afternoon, decided to make the spice paste for this dish, and freeze the rest for another dish if I have the mood to cook that next day.
Didn't expect this dish to be well received by my family, was worry that my 4 yo daughter can't take the smell of the spice but she said it a little little hot but taste nice, so she ate it with white rice and a cup of water beside her, she even refuse the other dishes....LOL

Paperlined Cup Sponge Cake

Its either that I have other things to bake in mind or that I totally forgotten the intention I bought these paper cups long ago. This cake suddenly float in my mind last friday, manage to find time on Saturday nite and done this cake. After reading a few other bloggers recipe, I decided to combined 2 recipes in one of my book. The top of the cake was abit burnt, due to the temperature of my oven...

Ingredients:
(A)
4 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup

(B)
1 tsp vanilla essence

(C)
4 egg whites
50g caster sugar

(D)
80g cake flour
40g corn flour

(E)
30cc milk
30ml melted butter

Method:
1. Beat A till pale yellow colour, add in B and mix well.

2. Beat egg white till forming, add in sugar over 3 intervals and beat till egg white becomes soft peak.

3. Sift D twice.

4. Mix 1/3 portion of egg white into egg yolk mixture, mix well, add in ½ portion of D, mix well, add in 1/3 portion of egg white into egg yolk mixture, mix well, add in the other ½ of flour and mix well, pour the egg yolk mixture back into the egg white and mix well.

5. Add in E and mix till well combined.

6. Pour the batter into lined paper cup. Bake at 180°C for 15-20 min. Remove the cake from the cups after its out of the oven.

Note:

The idea to lined the cup is from jo deli.

Thai style Hot and Spicy Fried Bean Curd

Its being a quite a while since the last time I cook tofu as a dish for dinner other than placing it into soup. So flip thru one recipe book and did this quick and simple dish for last Saturday's dinner...

Ingredients:
2 tube egg bean curd, cut into 2 cm thick slices
100g mince meat
oil for deep frying

Ingredients A:
½ onion, peeled and chopped
1 piece kafir lime leaf, shredded
1 stalk lemongrass, slice and ground finely
1 tsp chopped chilli padi

Seasoning A:
1 tsp light soy sauce
dash of pepper
1 tbsp corn flour

Seasoning B:
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp sugar
150ml water

Method:

1. Marinate mince meat with seasoning A for about ½ hour.
2. Heat up oil for deep frying, deep fry beancurd until golden brown. Dish and drain. Set aside.
3. Heat up 2 tbsp oil, sauté all ingredients A until fragrant. Add in minced meat and stir well. Add in seasoning and bring to boil. Add in the fried beancurd, stir for a minute, remove on plate and serve warm.

Deep Fried Wanton

This dish was done on Deepavali holiday, on top of my mum's sour vegetable duck soup, Kenny suggest to make some deep fried wanton, this round I twist the ingredient a little to give the wanton a different taste....



Ingredients:
200g mince pork
200g prawn--remove the shell, devein and chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped chinese parsley/coriander
1 tsp finely chopped ginger

Seasoning:
1 tbsp wine
1 tbsp light soy sauce
dash of pepper
1 tbsp tapioca flour

wanton skin
oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Mix the ingredients in a bowl, add in the seasoning and mix well till meat is abit sticky. Set aside for ½ hour.
2. Wrap about 1 tsp of ingredient in 1 piece of wanton skin.
3. Heat up wok with oil for deep frying. Deep fry the wanton till golden color. Dish and drain. Serve with chilli sauce.

Fruit Enzyme

Read about this enzyme sometime ago in another blog which trigger my curiousity to read up more about it. After seeing it again in HKChoo's blog, and her detail explaination on the whole process of making it. I also ask another blogger Nicole for other details as she has some experience in making it.

Finally decided to make it two weeks ago, all the ingredients was just estimation as I didn't expect it to be successful. I use 4 oranges, 1 1/2 lemon, 11/2 pack of brown rock sugar this round. The content of the bottle of fruits on day 1....



I didn't stir the content everyday as I only go home during weekends, so only manage to stir it once a week later. Nicole did warn about content getting mouldy if not stirring it after 3-4 days. It taste and looks ok after 1 week.

This is how it looks after 2 weeks...

The enzyme looks ok and taste sweet with a slight wine smell. Probably the sweetness is from the amount the sugar added, think I added too much sugar. Think it didn't spoilt cos my family got no problem after drinking it....haha.

Durian Glutinous Rice

My intial plan for the durian pulp was interupted as the ingredient for the intended dessert was spoilt, so I have to do something to used up the durian pulp before it spoilt or stinks the whole fridge. Got this recipe from one of those small books that's available in major book stores.



Ingredients:
300g glutinous rice
150ml thick coconut milk
200g durian pulp

Seasoning:
40g sugar
50ml pandan juice

Method:

1. Rinse and soak glutinous rice in water for 2 hour. Rinse, drain and steam for 20-25min.

2. Combine steam glutinous rice with coconut milk and seasoning. Cook till fairly dry in pot then
add the durian pulp and cook till the mixture becomes a sticky ball. Remove and let it cool.
Spoon mixture into a small cup.

-Pandan juice, blend 4 pieces of pandan leaf with water, strain the mixture.

Wife Cake (Lao Po Bing)

This is the second time I did this recipe and still the same problem, the skin is abit too thick, I did reduce the sugar for the filling because I feel the wintermelon strips are quite sweet already. Will try another recipe next time when I have the mood...

Chilli Sotong

I always like sotong dish no matter how its cook and want to cook this dish long ago. Kenny bought 2 sotong when we were at the market last weekend. He suggest to cook sotong fritter but I thought cook it with chilli will be better match the briyani dishes. Cook the sotong with the sambal chilli that I done sometime ago.

Nasi Briyani

Want to use up the pack rendang paste before it expire, thinking that since have some balance basmati rice, so try cook the briyani rice from scatch, after putting the colour into the rice then realise that I have totally forgotten about the saffron. Reference from Leong Yee Soo's recipe, I cook about half the recipe, as for the pickle I create my own with reference from another recipe.


Chicken Rendang:

Cut the ½ kg chicken into big chunks, rinse and set aside. Pan fry the chicken with a little oil till brown. Pour in Brahim rending paste and pour in 250ml water and let it simmer for 20min or till the meat is tender.


Rice:

Ingredients:
A)
A few slice ginger
1 tbsp chopped garlic
4 shallots, thinly sliced

B)
5 cm cinnamon stick
8 cardamons, lightly bashed
6 cloves

600g Basmati rice, washed and drained
55g ghee

Seasoning:
1 ½ tsp salt
1.1 litre boiling water

Colouring for rice:
Mix 1 tsp yellow food colouring with 4 tbsp water

Method:
1. Heat wok with ghee to fry A) till lightly browned, add in B and stir fry for ½ minute. Add in the rice. Stir the pan till oil is absorbed into rice.



2. Pour in the boiling water and the seasoning. Cook rice in an electric rice-cooker till dry and fluffy. Do not stir while cooking.

3. Remove lid and sprinkle the yellow colouring mixture over rice. Wait for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, loosen rice, mix colour evenly. Serve with chicken and pickle.


Pickles:

Ingredients:
200g pineapple ( cut into wedge)
200g cucumber (sliced)
100g carrot (sliced)
2 chillies (discard seed and sliced)
50ml water
50ml vinegar
2tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Method:
Stir together water, vinegar, sugar and salt. Mix pineapple, cucumber, carrot and chilli in a bowl. Add in vinegar solution and mix well. Set aside in the fridge for ½ hr before serving.

Crispy Fish Roll

Wanted to do some change to the usual fish dish hoping that the kids will like the change as they don't really like steam fish nowsaday, so adapt the recipe in Fu Pei Mei's book. As I don't have the recommended tofu skin from the look of the picture in the book, so just use tofu skin for wrapping nyoh hiang. Well....Randal still prefer steam fish to this one and Trenyce only ate about a quarter of a roll, think I better stick my usual way cooking fishes...

Ingredients:
400g white meat fish fillets
4 water chestnuts
Dry beancurd wrapper
1 tbsp flour
½ tbsp cold water
oil for deep fry

Seasoning
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tsp chopped ginger
2 tbsp egg white
1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp wine
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp sesame oil
¼ tsp black pepper

Method:
1. Cut fish into thick strips (about 2.5cm long). Place into a bowl. Add chopped water chestnuts, and seasoning. Mix thoroughly, let it rest for ½ hour.

2. Cut the dried tofu wrapper into a rectangular shape. Whip the wrapper surface with a clean wet cloth to remove the salt on the surface of it.

3. Place some fish mixture on it, roll it into a tight roll, fold in the two side and seal the edge with flour paste and then place on a plate (with the edge side face down to seal it tightly).

4. Heat the oil in a pan to about 140°C. Deep fry the fish roll over medium heat until it is thoroughly done and golden brown.
Remove it from oil and cut it into 4 cm pieces. Serve warm with some chilli sauce.

Fried Chicken Fillet with Black Vinegar

This is one of the two new recipes I tried for Saturday's dinner, taste of the dish was not sour compare to smell when cooking it...

Ingredients
4 pieces of chicken thigh meat (debone)
2 star anises,
50g toasted sesame seeds

Marinade
½ tbsp ginger juice
½ tbsp shaoxing wine
½ tsp sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon powder
½ tsp salt
½ tbsp light soy sauce

Sauce (mix well)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsp “chik kong” black vinegar
1 tbsp chilli sauce
300ml water

Method:
1. Rinse the chicken thigh meat and pat dry. Cut thinly into slices, mix with marinade for 1 hour. Deep fry into hot oil over high heat until golden in colour. Remove and drained, set aside.

2. Preheat the wok, pour in the sauce and add in the star anises, bring to boil, place in prefried chicken slices, stirring constantly over high heat until the chicken pieces are well coated with sauce, and slightly absorbed. Dish up and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve hot.

Pickle Onion with Mango

Kenny suggested to add some mango to the pickle onion when I did it last time, manage to bought a not so ripe mango last weekend. He said the dish taste better with mango...

1 large Brown Onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp sugar
1 red chilli – remove seed and chopped
1 unripe mango - slice into strips

Toss onions with lime juice and sugar. Allow to steep for an hour, tossing at the intervals. Drain the pickle onion, toss in the chopped red chilli and mango stips and mix well.

Orange Cup Cake

Trenyce kept asking for cup cakes after watching it on TV last week, tried my best to fulfill her request with my not so good icing skill, she say she want to help so I let her sprinkle the colourful beads/alphabet and top with the flowers...

Ingredients:
120g unsalted butter, soften
120g caster sugar
185g self raising flour
125 ml orange juice
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
3 tbsp grated orange rind

Icing (used 2 portion to do piping on the cake)
60g unsalted butter, softed
90g icing sugar
1 tbsp orange juice

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line muffin tray with paper cases. Place butter, sugar, flour, juice, vanilla and eggs in a bowl and beat with electric beaters on low speed for 2 minutes, or until well mixed. Increase the speed and beat for 2 min, or until smooth and pale. Stir in orange rind. Spoon batter in to cases and bake for 20min, or until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

2. For the icing, beat the butter in a bowl with electric beater until pale. Beat in half the icing sugar, the juice, then the remaining icing sugar. Spread over the cake, or decorate as desire.

Stir fry Clam with Bulgogi sauce

Was craving for spicy la-la few weeks ago, so use the balance bulgogi sauce in the fridge to cook this easy to cook and taste delicous dish.

I add some shredded ginger to blanch the clam in order to make sure the sand in it was clean thoroughly. Then saute some chopped garlic with a little oil and pour the clam back to the wok and add in bulgogi sauce, 1 tbsp water and 1 tbsp wine. Let the clam simmer for a while till the clam are all cook and dish up.

Marble Chiffon Cake

Have not done chiffon cake for a long time. Got some free time during last Saturday afternoon, so try this recipe which was in my to do list long ago...


Ingredients:
A)
5 egg yolk
50g castor sugar

B)
80ml corn oil
80ml water
½ tsp vanilla essence

C)
6 egg white
70g castor sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

D)
105g superlite flour / cake flour
3g baking powder

E)
15g cocoa powder
30ml hot water


Method:
1) Beat A till light yellow colour.

2) Warm B over hot water then add into A and mix well.

3) Sift D 2 to 3 times. Add into step 2 and mix well.

4) Mix E till well combined.

5) In a separate bowl, beat egg white till bubble, add in cream of tartar and beat till white form, then add in sugar over 3 interval, then beat the egg white till stiff peak.

6) Add 1/3 portion of egg white to the egg yolk mixture, lightly mix it together, then add the egg yolk mixture back to the rest egg white and lightly mix well.

7) Remove ¼ portion of mixture from step 6 in a bowl, add in cocoa mixture and mix till well combined.

8) Pour some plain batter into tube pan, then pour some cocoa mixture into pan, follow by rest of plain batter, then pour in the rest of the cocoa mixture. Level out the batter with a spatular.

9) Lastly hold the tube pan few inches away from the table and drop it on the table with a ‘bang’.
Bake the cake in preheated 180°C oven for about 40min or till fully cooked.

Siew Mai

Did this dim sum dish again with the intention to practise perfecting the wrapping of the dumpling. Randal like it so much that he ate about 10 pieces within a few minutes...LOL. This time I use Leong Yee Soo's recipe with a little modification.



Ingredients:
A)
1 tsp cooking wine
1 tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp sesame oil
2 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp ginger juice
1/2 small egg
1 tbsp chopped spring onion

B)
250g minced pork
100g prawns, shelled, deveined and cut

some chopped carrot
square egg skin (wan tan skins), obtainable from local supermarket


Method:
1. Mix A in a bowl. Add B. Mix well and let it rest in the fridge for about ½ hour.

2. Cut off the four corners of the egg skins. Place about 1 ½ tsp of the meat mixture in the centre of the each skin. Enclose filling with egg skin, so the top filling is seen. Flatten base of each siew mai. Spoon some chopped carrot on the top as garnish.

3. Steam over rapid boiling water for 7 min or till cooked. Serve hot with chilli sauce.

Crispy Chicken Wings

Almost forgot that I have tried this recipe before, this round I added wine and some ginger juice to marinade it, it taste better than last time. Recipe from Danny Cheok's class.

Ingredients A:
5pcs. Chicken wings marinate with 1 tsp salt, ½ tbsp sugar, ½ tsp pepper, 1 tbsp cooking wine and 1tbsp ginger juice for at least 1/2 hour.

Ingredients B:
1 egg whisked

Ingredients C: (mix well)
100g self-raising flour
25 g rice flour
1 tsp pepper powder
2 tbsp chicken stock powder

Method:
1. Dip chicken wings in ingredients B and coat with ingredients C.
2. Drop into hot oil and deep fry till golden brown.

Teriyaki Prawn

Kenny suggested to cook this dish last Saturday, actually wanted to do a yakitori style but found that the satay sticks were all spoilt, so just cook it with the usual DIY teriyaki sauce...

Traditional Mooncake

Finally pluck up the courage to make lotus paste on Friday nite with much encouragement from my friend S. Took reference from Agnes Chang's VCD, began to feel discourage while removing away the brown skin of the lotus seed as it was quite difficult to wash off all the skin on every seed. Didn't manage to wash off all the brown skin or was it that i didn't boil the seed long enough. The other thing is that can't really get the same kind of texture as saw from the VCD.

Those who ate the mooncake say its fragrant and not so sweet as compare to the commercial ones, but maybe the paste was a bit dry so its abit crumble after cutting it into smaller pieces.

This round I use yochana's recipe to make the skin.

Lotus Paste

A)Ingredient:
600g lotus seeds (use xiang lian zi)
1 tbsp alkaline water

Method:
1) Add lotus seed into a pot of boiling water, add in alkaline water. Boil for 15min.
2) To test, take a seed and see if the outer skin can be remove easily.
3) Throw away the water in the pot. Put the seed into a pot of tap water, rub the seed with both hands, the skin should come off easily.
4) Cook the lotus seed till soft using the pressure cooker, the amount of water should be just cover the seeds, cook for about 15min.
5) Mash the hot cooked lotus seed into paste form using a food processor, takes about 2-3 min with a good machine.

B)Ingredient:
400g sugar
500g peanut oil
2 tbsp malt sugar

Method:
1) Add about 4-5 tbsp of sugar into wok (small fire), do not stir it, let the sugar melt (takes about 2-3min)
2) Add in the lotus paste, add in the rest of the sugar and keep stirring to prevent it from getting burnt, stir to the bottom to prevent paste from sticking.
3) Add the oil in 3 portion.
4) It take 45 min to cook the lotus paste. Paste should become light brown color.
5) Add oil and keep stirring.
6) Add malt sugar and stir continuously.
7) The paste will reach a stage where it does not stick to the bottom of wok, it will not drop from spoon when scoop up. Looks shiny.
8) Remove paste from wok and leave to cool. Leave the paste for 1 day before use.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancake

Wanted to use the buttermilk before it expires, so made some pancake for breakfast. I use frozen blueberries as I always keep some in the freezer just in case I need it. Picture is abit ugly but taste was ok...
Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
3 tbsp melted unsalted butter
125gm of blueberry

Maple syrup, honey, or jam and butter

Method:
1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter to blend thoroughly. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix with the whisk till everything is just combined. Add in blueberry and mix till combined.
2. Heat up a frying pan, lightly oil the pan, spoon ¼ cup of batter onto pan, allowing space for the spreading. When the undersides of the pancakes are golden and the tops are lightly speckled with bubbles, flip the pan cakes over and cook until the other sides are lightly brown. Serve warm with maple syrup and butter or as desire.

Redwine Snowskin Mooncake

Saw fellow forumer doing this flavour, tried it too. But can't really taste the redwine compare to the choya flavour ones.

Choya Snowskin Mooncake

Found a small bottle of choya wine in the fridge, want to try out the new mould bought couple of weeks back, so made some snowskin with the mould in two flavour. Prefer this flavour to the rest...

Pandan Snow Skin Mooncake

Wanted to try the new mould bought last week, so made some pandan snowskin flavour wrap half with red bean paste and another half with pandan lotus paste filling...

Flaky Yam Paste Mooncake

My first attempt on such mooncake but was quite disappointed with the final result, suppose to deep fried the pastry in the final stage but the skin turn out very ugly, so bake the rest of after trying deep frying 4 pieces. The spiral was not as uniform as expected, think maybe due to trying to wrap too much filling with the amount of pastry. Recipe adapt from Agnes Chang's mooncake vcd...

Filling:
1.5 kg mashed yam
350g sugar
160g oil
150g almond nibbed (roasted at 180 deg for 15 min)

Method:
1) Steam the yam till soft, mash it with food-processor or the side of knife blade. Texture should be very smooth.
2) Add oil, sugar and yam into wok and stir fry till its smooth dough, about 15min.
3) Leave it aside to cool.

Skin:
A: Water Dough
240g plain flour (sifted)
1 tbsp castor sugar
70g shortening
1 tsp lime juice/lemon juice
130ml water

Method:
1) Add shortening and sugar to high protein flour.
2) Press the shortening into flour lightly. Make a well.
3) Add lemon juice into water. (Lemon juice help to make the flour become gluten easily)
4) Add lemon water into center of flour mixture.
5) Form into a dough, knead till a smooth dough.
6) Cover the dough and let it rest.

B: Oil dough
240g hongkong flour (sifted)
170g shortening

Method:
1) Add shortening to plain flour.
2) Gently press the shortening into flour with hand. Form into dough.
3) Roll into a long tube and divide into 8 pieces.
4) Roll into ball of each piece of dough.

To make the pastry skin

1) Roll water dough into long tube and divide into 8 pieces.
2) Flaten the water dough, wrap a piece of oil dough into water dough.
3) Roll the dough out from the middle into thin and long shape.
4) Do a swiss roll.
5) Turn the dough 90° and roll the dough flat into long thin oblong shape.
6) Fold it to half lengthwise.
7) Roll it very flat and long. Do swiss roll.
8) Let it rest for 10 min.

9) Add almond nibbed into yam paste and knead it to make the nibbed evenly distributed.
10) Divide yam into 16 portions and roll into a ball, each 100g of yam paste.

11) Flour table top. Hold the dough disc with circle facing left or right side. Cut the dough disc into half.
12) Press the dough with circle face up, press with palm to flatten it a little. Roll the dough disc side edge till very flat and thin.
13) Wrap the yam filling with the circle pattern facing out, and gently close it up.
14) Bake it at 180 deg C for 20-25min or till skin turn brown.

Longan Jelly Mooncake

Bought the mould last year but no chance to make till this year, didn't follow the recipe cos don't have some ingredient at home so did a little change, still it taste nice. Recipe from the mid autum mooncake book by one publisher...

Filling ingredients:
(A)
5gm Agar-agar powder
250ml longan syrup

(B)
150gm longan flesh (diced)

Pastry Ingredients:
(C)
7.5gm agar-agar powder
340ml water
70 gm castor sugar

(D)
100ml Evaporated milk
10gm custard powder
3 drops of yellow colouring

Method:
1. Bring (A) to boil till dissolved, add in (B), mix even.

2. Pour into small cup mould, let it set.

3. Bring (C) to boil till dissolved, add in (D) mix till even.

4. Pour into about half of mooncake mould, let it set.

5. Place the agar-agar from (2) into mooncake mould, then pour in rest of agar-agar in step 3. and place in fridge to chill.

Sponge Cup Cake

Wanted to make a soft and quick cake, saw this recipe in a book, so try it with a little change.

Ingredients:
A.
100g egg yolk
65g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence

B.
125g egg white
50g caster sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

C.
70g cake flour
30g corn flour

D.
40g milk
75g melted butter

Method:
1. Beat egg white till bubble, add in cream of tartar, beat till form then add in sugar over two time and beat till soft peak, remove into another container and set aside.

2. Beat egg yolk and sugar in A till pale yellow in color ( should be double in volume).

3. Mix some egg white to egg yolk mixture, mix lightly till combined, then add the egg yolk mixture to the rest of egg white and mix lightly till well combined.

4. Sift C and mix into egg mixture. In order to avoid flour sinking to the bottom, flour should be add over a few interval.

5. Warm the milk and add into melted butter. Mix D into step 4. Pour mixture into grease tart mould or lined muffin tray.

6. Bake at 180°C for about 20min.

Kuih Dadar

This is the 2nd recipe I tried and have made adjustment to the liquid, still the pancake was a bit on the chewy side, not sure is it due to the control of the fire or the flour used, I used the orchid brand flour bought from NTUC, will use Prima plain flour next round.

Ingredients:
180g plain flour
1 egg
1/3 tsp salt
200ml coconut milk
170ml water
1 tsp pandan paste

Filling:
200g palm sugar, roughly chopped
140ml water
2 pandan leaf, knotted
200g grated coconut


Method:
1.Sift flour and salt into mixing bowl. Pour in the eggs, coconut milk, salt and pandan paste. Using a balloon wisk, gradually incorporate the flour into the liquid, making a smooth batter free from lumps. Cover the bowl and allow the batter to stand for 20-30 minutes.

2.To make filling, cook palm sugar and water in a pan and cook until sugar dissolves. Simmer for 10min until liquid start to thicken and become syrupy. Add the pandan leaf and grated coconut and continue cooking over low heat for 10-15 mins until the coconut fillings is thick and glossy. Most of the liquid should be evaporated. Remove and set aside to let it cool.

3.To fry pancakes, heat a small frying pan (preferably one with a non-stick surface) over medium heat. Dip kitchen towel with a little oil and brush the pan with it. Ensure the pan is sufficiently hot.

4.Stir batter. Pour a tablespoonful of it into the pan and immediately rotate the pan so that the batter covers the base in a thin layer. Allow batter to set and just begin to brown. Flip the pancake over and allow the other side to cook, just for a few seconds.

5.Turn the pancake out onto a plate or tray. Continue making the pancakes till batter is finish, you might need to thin down with a table spoon or two of water as you go.

6.Place a spoonful of filling in the center of the pancake, fold both sides towards the middle and roll the pancake away from you, neatly enclosing the filling and creating a parcel.

Wasabi Mayo Prawn

Have been quite reluctant to try this dish because am afraid that Kenny and the kids may not like to taste of wasabi. Was quite careful when mixing the wasabi and mayonaise, adding the wasabi bit by bit to avoid making it too hot, Kenny said that such dish taste nicer with the big prawn and luckily I choose the right type of prawn...

Ingredients:
500g of prawn
dash of salt and sugar
1 egg white
5 tbsp corn flour
2 tsp wasabe
200g mayonise
sesame
oil for deep frying

Mehtod:
1. Shell and de-vein prawn. Marinade it with salt and sugar and egg white for half and hour.

2. Heat oil in wok, coat each prawn with corn flour, shake off any excess flour. Deep fry the prawn till prawn is cooked, remove and drain.

3. Mix wasabe and mayonnaise together in a bowl.

4. Add the cooked prawn into the 3) and mix well, remove on plate and sprinkle some sesame on it.

Braised Pork Ribs with Mushrooms and Chestnuts

Bought some ribs over the weekend but not sure what to cook with it, didn't want to deep fry the ribs so do a simple braise dish with it...


Ingredients:
300g pork ribs
6 dried mushrooms – soaked
12 dried chestnuts – soaked
6 tau pok – deep fried bean curd
some ginger slices
1 tsp minced garlic
6 shallots – peel and sliced
3 cups of water

Seasoning
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp wine
1 tsp sesame oil
a little light soy sauce

Method:
1. Heat 2 tbsp of oil, fry ginger till fragrant then add in shallots and garlic and stir fry a while. Add pork ribs and fry a while then add in oyster sauce, wine and some water. Stir well.
2. Transfer pork ribs and the rest of the ingredient except tau pok into a pot. Braised over medium heat for 15min. Lower the heat and simmer for another half an hour. Add in tau pok and simmer for another 15min.

HEART Strawberry Cheesecake

Tried this cake last weekend, its very easy to make, and all like this cake very much...

Steam Bake Chocolate Pudding

Learn this dessert at Phoon Huat a few weeks ago. This is the second time I tried cos the first time I failed as I didn't know that the batter is not suppose to fill the whole mould, my friend S help to find out that the batter only fill half the mould. This pudding is taste best when serve warm with ice cream.

3x 8 ½ inch savarin mould

Ingredients:
175 gm unsalted butter
A) 90gm caster sugar
8 egg yolks
150g dark chocolate couverture – melted

8 egg whites
B) 90gm sugar

175gm ground hazelnut
50gm bread crumbs

Method:
1. Cream the butter with sugar A until creamy.

2. Add in egg yolks and melted chocolate, mix till well combined.

3. Whip up egg white and sugar B until soft peak, add into step2.

4. Lastly mix in ground hazelnut and bread crumb.

5. Pour into savarin mould and steam bake at 200°C until set.

Note:
-Fill the batter till half the mould.

Homemade Braised Duck

First attempt on braised duck, didn't cook a whole duck partly because I haven't master the skill of chopping a whole duck or chicken, so I just bought those ready chop and packed fresh duck from supermarket. Kenny help me to add the dark soy sauce so the amout in the recipe is my estimation. The recipe was combination of a few of the similar dishes and the taste was pretty up to my expectation.


Ingredients:
½ duck – chopped
1 tsp dark soy sauce
6 dried mushrooms (soaked)
few slice of ginger
2 tsp chopped garlic
6 shallot – peel and slice

B)
2 slice of dang gui
1 piece of cinnamon
1 piece of star anise
4 cloves
2 pieces dried orange peel

Sesoning:
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
pinch of salt
2 tbsp rock sugar
500ml water

Method:
1. Blanch duck into boiling water for 5 min, dish and drain. Rub duck with dark soy sauce and set aside.

2. Heat oil in wok, sauté chopped garlic, ginger and shallots until fragrant. Add in duck, mushrooms, seasoning, ingredients B and stir-fry until well mixed. Lower heat and simmer for 1 hour.

Braised Beancurd with Prawn

This dish was from another tofu dish from a book with a little change on the ingredient to make it non-spicy...

Ingredients:
1 roll egg beancurd
1 tsp chopped garlic
200g prawns

Seasoning:
½ cup water
1 tbsp spoon oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
pinch of pepper

Method:
1. Trim and shell the prawns leaving tail intact. Devein the prawns, wash and drain. Season with a little sugar and set aside.

2. Cut egg beancurd into pieces. Pat dry the tofu with kitchen towel. Deep fry in hot oil till fragrant.

3. Heat some oil. Add chopped garlic and stir fry till fragrant. Add in prawn and stir fry for about 1 min.

4. Add seasoning and fried beancurd. Bring to boil and let it simmer till the sauce is thick. Dish and serve.

Steam Raisin Cake

Wanted to use up the raisins in the fridge so make this cake, recipe from Alex Goh's book. I reduce the sugar according to my own taste, but think the sugar plays an important part in the texture of the cake...


Ingredients
A)
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
150g sugar
¼ tsp salt

B)
½ tsp vanilla essence

C)
230g Flour
1 tsp baking powder

D)
2 tbsp milk
21/2 tbsp corn oil

E)
100g raisins

Method:
1. Whip A) till light and fluffy. Add B) and mix till well blended.

2. Fold in sieved C) and mix till well blended.

3. Add D) and mix till well incorporated.

4. Add E) and mix till well blended.

5. Place cup cake papers in patty tin.

6. Pour batter into the cup cake moulds and sprinkle some raisins on top.

7. Steam it for 20min. Serve.

Grill Chicken with Pickle Onion

Recipe was from Chef Yong's class but I alter it to my taste and the available ingredient I had at that moment. Kenny don't really like onion unless its well cooked in certain manner, but suprisingly he like the pickle onion after tasting it.

Marinade:
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp course ground black pepper
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 pcs boneless chicken leg
oil for cooking

Pickle Onions:
1 large Brown Onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp sugar
1 red chilli – remove seed and chopped

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together. Use it to marinade the chicken meat for at least 1 hour.

2. Toss onions with lime juice and sugar. Allow to steep for an hour, tossing at the intervals.

3. Heat oil and pan fry chicken till just cooked, about 10-12 min.

4. Drain the pickles and toss in the chopped red chilli and mix well. Serve chicken with pickle onion.