Scones

Wanted some change of taste for breakfast, made some scones which is fast to do and good to eat...

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cup (310g) self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
40g chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 cup (250ml) milk


 Preheat oven to hot 220 deg C (425 deg F) and lightly grease baking tray or line it with baking paper. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Rub butter briefly and lightly with fingertips until mixture is crumbly and resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mixing in 1 tbsp of sugar at this stage will lessen any floury taste. Make a well in the centre. Pour in some milk at time and mix with flat bladed knife, using cutting action, until the dough comes together in clumps. Rotate the bowl as you work. Handle the mixture with great care and very light hands. The dough should feel slightly light and sticky. With floured hands, gently gather the dough together, lift onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a smooth ball. Do not knead. Pat or lightly roll the dough out to 2cm thick. Using a floured 6cm cutter, cut into round. Gather the scraps together and, without handling too much, press out a before and cut out more rounds. Place close together on baking tray and lightly brush the top with milk. Bake in oven for 12-15min, or until risen and golden.
As scones contains little fat, they dry out quickly so are best eaten soon after baking. They freeze successfully.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

The thought of trouble shoot the failure cake on the old pan from making the cranberry yougurt chiffon cake kept dwelling in my mind, the following I made another cake from the same book using a new chiffon cake tin. The tin is bigger than the old one thus the cake is shorter but result was satisfactory therefore I concluded that the problem lies in the tin and not the oven.

Cranberry Yogurt Chiffon Cake

My friend recommended this recipe from this book, but some problem with my old chiffon tin thus the cake didn't turn out as presentable as expected. Nevertheless the cake taste good, not sweet at all, will try other recipe from the book...

Ingredients

20cm chiffon tin

5 large egg yolk

130g castor sugar

65ml corn oil

2tsp lemon juice

130g plain yogurt

130g cake flour

7 large egg white

95g dried cranberry mix with some cake flour

Method:

1. Mix egg yolk and 1/3 portion of sugar and oil till well combined.

2. Add in lemon juice, yogurt mix well, add in cake flour, use a whisk mix till smooth texture.

3. Beat the balance sugar with egg white till stiff peak. 

4. Take 1/3 portion of beaten egg white and mix with egg yolk mixture. Pour the egg yolk mixture back to the remaining egg white and fold till well combined. 

5. Fold in the dried cranberries.

6. Pour batter into chiffon tin, hold the tin up and drop the tin on table with a bang to knock out the big air pockets in the batter.Bake at 180 deg C for 40min or till skewer come off clean.(temperature is a reference, I bake at 170 deg C for 50min for my oven)

Stir fry prawn with ketcup

This is a easy and common dish to do. Did my own version of this dish with the prawn given by mum in law some time ago.

Ingredients:
about 500g Prawns
chopped garlic
corn starch

Sauce:
6 tbsp ketcup
1 tsp vinegar
11/2  tbsp sugar
6 tbsp water

Method:
1. Rinse and trim prawn. Cut slit at the back of prawn, devein and marinade prawn with sugar, salt and pepper for 15min.
2. Coat prawn with corn starch. Fry in hot oil for 1-2 min. Remove and set aside.
3. Pour sauce ingredients in wok, stir fry for a while, then pour prawn back into sauce, stir fry the prawn till sauce thicken and dried. Dish and serve.

Breaded Fish Fillet

This is one of my preferred brand of frozen sutchi fillet, found it sometime last year at ntuc supermarket, thought that the packaging looks much appetising the the rest in the freezer, so bought it and did fish and chips, to me as long the fish didn't have the mud smell like some other brand its good enough. If there are stock of this brand I will buy and keep in freezer as the stock is not so frequently available.

Simply marinade it with salt, pepper and some sesame oil for about half hour, then coat with flour, egg and bread crumb,  then deep fried till golden color.

Assam Sotong

Craving for sontong or squid so I use my mum-in-laws chilli paste and cook some spicy sour squid.

Ingredients:
500g sotong/squid - weight is before cleaning and clearing the unwanted parts
1 tbsp chilli paste- the paste is quite spicy for me so i only use 1 tbsp
2 tbsp assam paste mix with half cup water- not sure how much to use but add in a few tbsp of the mixture and taste it before adding more
2 tbsp sugar

Method:
1. Clean and cut squid into smaller pieces.
2. Add squid into wok, stir for a while and there will alot of water in the wok. Throw away the water. Remove squid and set aside.
3. Add in a little oil, fry the chilli paste for a while, then pour in squid and a little assam juice and sugar. Taste the sauce, if not sour enough, add more assam juice. Dish and serve.