My Cooking Escapades

Home Made Spicy Chorizos

2011-10-26T21:31:00.008+08:00

I should and I must!

I have laid off blogging for quite a while now due to work that limits my time for enjoying my favorite hobby of baking and cooking. I have been so tired and utterly drained after each day at work. Three months back, I had a change of portfolio which enables me to squeeze in a bit of baking, cooking and attending culinary classes. One of them is a sausage making workshop which prompted me to make some myself.

If you have been following my blog, you will know that this is not the first time I am making sausages abeit a different kind. A couple of years back,I had attempted to make Chinese Sausages or Lap Cheong. It was fun but tedious at the same time as all I had was a funnel to feed the meat down the casing. It was a slow and laborious task. So I am so glad I invested in a sausage extruder attachment that works with my good ole Kenwood Major. It makes filling the hog casings a breeze and in a blink, they are ready to be twisted into links.

My first batch of Spicy Chorizos. There is nothing like biting into a freshly made, 100% wholesome sausage. There is no fillers and gritty bits like those you find in some prepacked sausages. Of course, gourmet sausages is a different species. You may pay a little more for the few links of sausage but the quality is so different.

The sausages are best eaten a day later to enable the casing to have a snap. If eaten immediately, the casing can be chewy and hard to bite through.

The spices that goes into the Chorizos

The seasoned sausage mix ready to go into the casings

Extrusion

Ready to do the twist

Com'on baby, let's do the twist

Twisted into the familiar links

Yummy Spicy Chorizo served with a cold beer

Dutch Apple Cake

2010-11-29T23:12:00.002+08:00

Caught Rachel Allen on cable TV a couple of nights ago and she was teaching a bunch of students to bake this Dutch Apple Cake.

What attracted me was the way the butter and milk was incorporated into the eggs. The eggs and sugar was whisked to the usual figure of 8 stage and then the hot melted butter/milk misture was whisked in before the flour was folded in. Apple slices were then laid over the batter and sugar sprinkled over the top just before baking.

The only thing that 'went wrong' was that the apple slices did not sink to the bottom of the cake. Yes, it was supposed to sink into the batter and not sit prettily ontop of the baked cake. I do not know why? Perhaps my apple slices were too light or sliced apples were just contented to float happily on the spongy batter. Whatever the cause, the cake turned out very moist and buttery with a delicious hint of cinnamon.

Just for the fun of it. I packed some slices into these pretty Chinese Take Out boxes for the gang at the office.

A Baby Shower Cake

2010-11-29T22:47:00.002+08:00

I have not decorated a fondant cake for ages. So when I received an invitation to a baby shower, I took the opportunity to make one. As I am no good in making fondant figurines. I dropped the idea of making fondant baby or cutesy teddies. The only thing that I am comfortable with in making is the baby bootees. I have made them several times and I was confident that although I have not made them for a long time, I would not have a problem doing so.

Here is my very simple Bootee Baby Shower Cake for Jing Ying, the adorable baby girl of my colleague.

The cake is a moist and fudgy chocolate cherry cake sandwiched with a cherry buttercream.

Caramelised Onion & Prosciutto Quiche

2010-11-09T21:28:00.004+08:00

Is it an Onion Tart or is it an Onion Quiche. Anyway, it does not really matter so long as it tastes great.

These tartletts are really good. It is an explosion of flavors ~ sweet from the caramelised onion, tangy from the sour cream and salty bits from the prosciutto ham. As I was making alot of the mini tarts/quiche for a party, I took the lazy way out by using store bought frozen shortcrust pastry, which have been pre-rolled. I am glad I 'cheated' as the rolled pastry is a cinch to use! Just defrost it slightly, cut out the rounds with a pastry cutter and then line the disposable foil cups.

Making the fillings is a bit more time consuming though as the onions needed to be sliced ever so thinly. It does not help that I tripled the recipe and so you can imagine how much my eyes teared as I laboriously slice away. Cooking the onions needed a bit of tender loving care as you have to stir it every so often to prevent sticking and burning. In fact, I did burned my onions black! I was attending to something else and have happily forgotten about the onions. By the time I remembered, a layer of onions had turned black at the bottom. I had to empty the nice onions onto a plate and then spent the next 20 minutes scrapping and srubbing at the pan before resuming the cooking. However, once the onions are caramelised, the rest is easy peasy.

This was made the next day, finishing up the balance onion fillings. This is when I decided to add some mustard to the fillings and I think it greatly enhanced the flavor too.

This is for you Joanna.

Caramelised Onion & Prosciutto Quiche

Ingredients for the Pastry:
185g plain flour
125g cold butter, chopped
1 egg yolk
1-2 tbsp icy cold water

Method:
1) Process flour and cold butter until crumby. Add the egg yolk and the cold water and process in short bursts until the mixture comes together.
2) Turn out onto tabletop and gather into a ball
3) Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes

Ingredients for the Fillings:
800g onions, thinly sliced
75g butter
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
185ml sour cream
2 eggs
1 tsp dry Mustard powder (optional)
Pepper and sea salt to taste
50g Prosciutto, cut into strips
40g grated mature Cheddar cheese
2 tsp thyme leaves

Method:
1) Blanch the onions in boiling water for 2 mintues. Drain very well.
2) Melt butter in a pan and cook the onions over low heat for 25 minutes or until soft.
3) Add the brown sugar and cook for a further 15 miunutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Onions are ready when they are a light toffee color.
4) Preheat oven to 200 deg C and grease a 22.5cm loose-based quiche/flan pan.
5) Roll out the pastry to fit the tin and trim off the excess using a sharp knife.
6) Cover base with baking paper and weigh it down with some baking beads or dry beans.
7) Bake the pastry blind for 15 minutes, remove paper and continue baking for a furter 5 minutes. Cool slightly.
8) Lightly beat the sour cream and eggs together, add the prosciutto, cheese and thyme leaves. Season with salt and pepper.
9) Fill the pastry shell with the mixture and bake for 40 minutes or unti set. If the pastry overbrowns, cover with foil.

Note:
1) I made them into mini tarts and skipped the step of baking the tartletts shell blind.
2) I just filled the uncooked shells with the fillings and bake for 20 to 25 minutes till fillings is set.

Kahlua Souffle

2010-09-26T19:58:00.003+08:00

The first time I had a Souffle was during lunch with my boss at the Les Amis French restaurant. That was like ten years ago. After that first time, I had the opportunity to lunch there a couple more times and each time, I would ask for the same souffle that was served with a light vanilla sauce.

I have heard alot of 'horror' stories about how intimidaing it can be to make one, the main setback being the souffle doesn't rise or collapsing the moment it leaves the oven.

Yesterday, I had the chance to learn how to make this from Chef Daniel Tay, the owner of Bakerzin, a very popular patisserie here in Singapore. After seeing how easy it was to make one, I plucked up enough courage to do it myself today.

What a sophisticated dessert? All with just 1 egg, 1 tablespoon each of sugar and Kahlua and a perfectly straight sided cup. What could be simpler and easier?

Teochew Spiral Yam Mooncakes

2010-09-18T22:56:00.006+08:00

I finally tried my hands at making this Teochew Spiral Yam (or Taro) Mooncakes.

I am pleased with the overall results and how the spirals turned out. The pastry is very crispy and slightly sweet. I do feel however, that it lacks a certain 'omph' in that it is very flat tasting possibily because it uses only shortening. It just lack the richness in taste from the store bought types. Perhaps a mixture of butter and shortening or pure lard would up the taste factor.

The yam filling which is made from scratch is nice ~ not too sweet and a bit chunky as how I want it to be. The addition of shallot oil makes it very fragrant.

I made a total of 16 pieces.

These are two pieces failed me in terms of the spirals as the layers are too far apart.

I still have another 18 pieces of nicely rounded yam fillings waiting to be enrobed in pastry. I may just try another pastry recipe instead of using this same recipe.

Added on 19 Sept 2010 @ 4.30pm
I just made a second batch of the Spiral Mooncakes using a different recipe for the pastry. This pastry uses butter and has salt added. Texture while crispy, it is still 'short' and crumbly and has richness in taste I was looking for.

You can see that I am able to cut quite nicely through the pastry. I was not able to cut through Version 1 above as that pastry was too crispy. The moment I tried to press a knife through it, the whole pastry threatens to flatten and in the end, I tore it into halves with my fingers.

Tea-Smoked Yellowtail Fish

2010-09-11T21:38:00.005+08:00

Dinner tonight was Tea-Smoked Yellowtail Fish.

I was watching Food Trip with Todd English on the Asia Food Channel and Todd was preparing a meal of tea smoked fishes. It looked simple enough and without much fuss. I decided to try it for dinner and so popped over to the supermarket for the fishes. I chose two Yellowtail Fish, each about 22cm long and here is how it is made:

Tea-Smoked YellowTail Fish
Ingredients:
2 yellowtail fish (each about 22cm long)
100gm Demerara sugar
100gm tealeaves
100gm rice grains (dry, unwashed)
Salt & black pepper
Olive oil
Aluminium foil

Method:
1) Pat dry the fish and season with salt and pepper both inside and outside. Set aside.
2) Prepare the smoking mix by combining the Demerara sugar, tea leaves and rice grain together.
3) Place a heavy pan over high heat and lay large piece of aluminium foil to cover the entire base of the pan all the way up to the sides.
4) Pour the smoking mix onto the foil and spread it out well.

5) Place another piece of foil over the smoking mix and drizzle with olive oil and place the fish ontop. Drizzle with more olive oil.

6) Cover pan tightly with the lid and smoke the fish over high heat for 15-17 minutes.

7) Test with a chopstick for doneness. Serve fish with a wedge of lemon and some sauteed or roasted vegetables.

Although the smoke has permeated into the flesh, the fish was still moist and flaky, almost like a steamed fish but with a hint of smokiness.

This is how the smoking mix looks like after the heat treatment. Do not attempt to do this fish without laying the pan with alumimium foil otherwise your pan will be ruined.

Madeline & Madeleines

2010-09-11T09:00:00.004+08:00

If you have read my last post, you would have known by now that my daughter Sylvia got married in April. She moved into her new home in Holland Village in July bringing with her most, well actually really only some, of her belongings. I am still trying to declutter her old room that has been stashed with her collection of books, toys, clothings etc etc collected over the years. It is like a mini Salvation Army store with some pretty good stuff that she doesn't want anymore and I am setting them aside for the charity.

Found amongst her books is this stack of Madeline theme kiddy invitation cards, serviettes and paper plates. I remembered buying this for her when she was eight years old. It was actually a box set consisting of the party invitations and a CD game relating the the adventures of a little French girl by the name of Madeline. I remembered Sylvia would spent hours intrigued by Madeline and learning a few French words and phrases along the way! The CD and box has long gone but she could not bear to use Madeline paper plates and serviettes and has been keeping them since.

And this reminded me that I have a Madeleines tray somewhere. If my memory is correct, my brother bought me the tray some 4 years back but it has never been used. And so this was what prompted me to bake some Madeleines.

There are many versions of how this pretty scallop-shaped teacakes came about. I used a recipe from the The Australian Women's Weekly magazine and this is the brief one-para write-up on it:

"Legend has it that this recipe was developed by a peasant girl named Madeleine who lived outside the castle of Commercy, in a small village in Lorraine. The ruler at the time, Stanislaw Leszcyriski, was so taken by the cakes, he made them a part of the royal repertoire"The Australian Women's Weekly, March 2010

Here are my baked Madeleines. What I like about this recipe is that it is not as sweet as the store bought ones as it has lemon juice added to it. It has a citrusy tang and fragrant with the addition lemon zests and also seeds from a whole vanilla bean.

Madeleines ~ What a perfect accompaniment to a nice cup of espresso!

Wedding Cupcakes

2010-06-21T20:48:00.005+08:00

Time flies! It has been almost two months since my daughter got married and I have been too busy with work to blog about this happy event of mine.

Sylvia and Andrew were married at the Church of St Mary of the Angels on the 24th of April 2010 and the wedding banquet was held the next evening in the Grand Ballroom of The Regent Hotel.

Hubby walking Sylvia down the aisle.

Friends asked if I will be making the Wedding Cake. I would really really loved to except I know I will not have the time to do so due to work commitments and the wedding preparations running up to the day itself. However, I could not let the wedding pass without giving it my personal touch could I? And so I made cupcakes for the buffet after the Church wedding ceremony. I know that if I do not ‘deliver’ the cupcakes all would still be well. I shiver to think what would happen if I could not ‘deliver’ the Wedding Cake that is to be cut in front of all the guests at the Banquet!! Brrrrrr……

The 200 cupcakes were made to the theme of butterflies and lavender hues as that was what my daughter wanted. For three weeks prior to the wedding, I would come home from work and start making the butterflies and roses at night. The weather was horrid. There was so much rain especially during the week immediately before the wedding. My roses did not dry well and I had to resort to buying the readymade ones. Luckily though, the butterflies dried well as they are much thinner. Although many did break at the wings, I just used royal icing to mend them.

I was actually quite nervous about making these cupcakes as I have never made them covered in fondant. My previous cupcakes were just simply frosted with swirls and topped with sugar ascents. I had no idea how it would turned out but when they were all completed, I was beaming like the moon. The oohs and ahs from the guests were rewarding enough to tell me that I had done a pretty good job.

I was also glad that I had made a wise choice of choosing a buttermilk lemon cupcakes instead of plain butter cupcakes. Buttermilk cakes are very moist and soft. Though I made them two days ahead, they remained exquisitely moist and soft. The citrusy lemony flavor also paired well with and cut down the sweetness of the marshmallow fondant.

I also had some pretty cupcake wrappers custom made with the bridal couple’s initials of “A & S” and theses were couriered to me from the United States . They cost me a bomb but it was worth every dollar as they are so beautiful.
I was too busy to take any photos of the cuppies myself as I was too busy entertaining the guests. Fortunately for me, the photographer did and he did a beautiful job of it too!

Getting ready for their Grand Entrance into the ballroom with the six Guard of Honor.

The couple making their first entry into the ballroom.

Riding a Harley Davidson into ballroom for their second entry.

Cake Cutting

Hubby and I dancing.

"Thank You For Your Guidance"

2010-03-24T22:47:00.007+08:00

That was the subject heading of an email I received recently.

It was a mail from Joyee, a visitor to my blog. She had written to me previously to asked for tips on decorating a cake with sugarpaste as she wanted to make one for her son's year old birthday.

All I did was to share some of my past experience on how to give sugarpaste the ''tender loving care'' needed to give the cake a smooth finish.

She wrote to thank me for the tips and attached some photos of the beautiful cake she made. Joyee did a wonderful job of decorating a two tier cake with Anpanman figurines, insects and fencings. I tell you, for a first timer, she blew me away.

So appreciative is she that she had to send me 'Thank You' pressie. It was a pack of Basler Lackerli cookies which she had asked her husband to bring back for me from Switzerland. She had read from one of my earlier posting

that I have not tasted the real cookie before and to quote from what she wrote on the gift card: "Here's a treat for you to show my appreciation". Wow! It is really a great treat. The cookie is really good. It is sweet, but not cloying sweet and it has the nicest citrusy flavor from the dried citron.

I just want to say to Joyee again, you are the one that made it happen, not me. You have a hidden talent which you are just discovering.

Okay now to the cookies. Hmmm...comparing what I have made to this, I would say I am pretty close to it in taste except mine was sweeter from the too thick sugar glazing ontop (a comment that was also given by my niece). It is addictive! For me, the chewiness just makes me want to eat one, two and then three cookie. Thank you Joyee.

Here is the Real McCoy

The cookie. You can see that the sugar glazing is much thinner than mine.

Cashew Chicken Cheesecake

2010-03-21T22:27:00.004+08:00

What a whole lot of Cs?

A Cashew Chicken Chessecake that has even more Cs:~ Cream Cheese, Cheddar Cheese and Parmesan Cheese. Yup there are three kinds of cheese in this very unique cheesecake.

And there three layers to the cake too!

Layer one at the bottom has chopped roasted cashews in the cheesecake batter.

Layer two is a filling of minced chicken, mixed vegetables, button mushrooms, onions and parmesan cheese.

Layer three is cheesecake topped with grated cheddar cheese.

What an explosion of taste! It is savoury, sweet, cheesy and nutty all at the same time.

Japanese Style Belly Pork

2010-03-21T21:39:00.002+08:00

A couple of Sundays ago, Tan Hsueh Yun in her weekly food column Hunger Management (The Sunday Times, March 7, 2010), wrote about this belly pork from Japanese cook, Yoko Arimoto. Unlike the usual Hokkien Kong Bak which is braised in dark soya sauce with aromatic cinnamon bark, anise seed and cloves, this version is cooked with Japanese sake and whole garlics till meltingly tender.

I am not a lover of belly pork but what made me try this dish is the fact that it was cooked over two days. Day 1 is simply braising the parboiled sliced pork in cooking sake and water with a whole head of garlic for two hours. It is then left to cool and refrigerated overnight. On Day 2, Japanese shoyu and sugar is added to the pork and braised for a further 45 minutes.

The result? A very tender pork that is garlicky and 'sweet'. Not sweet sweet from the sugar but sweet from the condensed sake and the garlics. If you do not care for the taste of cinnamon etc from the Hokkien kong bak, then this Jap Style Belly Pork is for you.

Served with steam Leaf Buns

Year of the Tiger Chinese New Year Bakes

2010-02-08T00:20:00.006+08:00

These are my first bakes for the Chinese New Year. Blossom Pineapple Tarts.

I made these again for CNY this year as it is such a breeze to make. Unlike the traditional open face tarts that you either need to crimp the tart pastries or slowly mould the pineapple to fit the hollow of the tarts, these Blossom Pineaapple Tarts are really quick to make.

Since last year, I have been receiving emails on and off from visitors to my blog asking if I needed a special mould to make them. Nope! I don't! I just cut the pastries with a petal cutter (I use the rose cutter from the Wilton sugarpaste cutter set) and then put a ball of pineapple jam onto the centre of the pastry and place it into the paper cases for baking. It couldn't be easier. Aren't they pretty. I have made a short video to show how easy it is to shape the tarts. Here is is:

Told you it was simple right?

The second cookie I made was a Cheesy Bak Kwa Buttons. Using the same shortcrust pastry recipe from the pineapple tarts, I added grated cheddar cheese, chopped bak kwa (barbequed meat) and some black and white pepper to the dough. These were shaped into tiny marble-sized balls and then flatten with the prongs of fork before baking.

What can I say? Ummmh...yummy yummy!

Bamboo Charcoal Challah Bread

2010-01-18T21:38:00.009+08:00

Made a Challah Bread with Bamboo Charcoal powder on Saturday. The recipe is from Alejandra Ramos , a blogger from New York. She was using bamboo charcoal powder which she had crushed with a mortar and pestle at home. I communicated with her and offered to send her some Bamboo Charcoal powder as this was not readily available in the US. I am now waiting to see her beautiful Challah.

The six-braid Challah, when nicely braided is really stunning. However, my braiding skills are zilch and I really had a difficult time trying to braid the six rolls of dough together. If you look at the top left of the loaf, you would be able to see where I have wrongly overlap the dough instead of going underneath it.

Next to Alejandra's beautifully braided Challah, mine looked so deformed. However, do not be misled by looks alone as underneath that awful and digusting looking braided lump of a bread is a very tender loaf which is rich with the flavor of olive oil and slight hint of sweetness. The sesame on the crust gave it a nice nutty fragrance and crunch too.

The star ingredient, the Bamboo Charcoal Powder, only gave it the rich black on the crust and a purplish-grey on the insides. I had used only 2 teaspoons of the charcoal powder and you can see how black the crust is. You don't taste the Bamboo Charcoal at all but you know it is working its miracle as a detoxifying agent as that is what it is good for.

Basler Lackerli

2010-01-18T20:18:00.006+08:00

My niece was once given a pack of cookies by a visiting business associate from Switzerland. She was relating to me how delicious these cookies were. The cookies are sugar glazed on top and they were dense, nutty, chewy with candied fruits, spicy and tasted gingerbread like. Oh yes, they are quite sweet in a nice way. It was a good thing that she had snapped a picture of the package on her camera phone. Though the picture was not very sharp, I could make out the words on the package to be Basler Lackerli. And so I started to Google for the recipe.

As usual, googling turned up tonnes of Basler Lackerli recipes. The common ingredients are almonds, chopped candied citrus peels, honey and an assortment of ground spices ~ cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, ginger, mixed spice. I chose a recipe from Pierre Herme that had white pepper and black pepper in it as I was intrigued as to how these two peppers will taste in a cookie.

The baked cookies were really good. The finely chopped candied peels and lemon zest gave it a citrusy fragrance which combined well with the spices. The peppers gave them just a slight warmth in the mouth. I added kirsh and lemon juice to the sugar glaze to give the cookie more tang and to cut down the sweetness.

The two cookie bags you see in the background are for my niece as only she could tell me if my cookie tastes like a Basler Lackerli.

Her comments: "Hmmm yum yum. It tastes the same but not the same if you know what I mean." Well what she meant was like Chicken Rice. Although each stall is selling the same chicken rice, the taste of the chicken rice will differ from stall to stall, though the 'main' taste of the dish will not be far from each other.

Oh well okay. I am still very please to be able to replicate the closeness although I have never tasted the original Basler Lackerli myself.

Christmas Bakes

2009-12-26T14:49:00.009+08:00

My Christmas bakes started quite late this year.

Normally, for the fruitcake, I would soak the dried fruits in the first week of November and then bake it in the second. I will then let the fruitcake mature slowly and lovingly brush them with liquor every few days apart till decorating them near Christmas. This year however, I had about ten days in all to soak, bake and mature the cake

I made four 7cm round cakes in all. Two were covered and decorated with fondant. One was decorated simply with dried fruits. And the last.......it is still wrapped in clingwrap and brown paper to mature further.

Sleeping Santa ~ Well, Santa has lots of work to be done on Christmas Eve distributing Christmas pressies to all the kids and of course to you and me. So he really needed to sleep well to have enough energy to run around town.

Another Sleeping Santa ~ Sorry for the blurry photo. I have a fantastic Nikon D90. Unfortunatly, I have yet to master how to take good pictures with it. Sigh!

The Plain Jane

I also made some Gingerbread Men, Hearts and Stars for my colleagues and their kids. They were decorated simply with sprinkles and mini M&Ms.

Cookie Bouquet

2009-12-12T20:41:00.003+08:00

This is the cookie bouquet which I made last week. The sugar cookies were decorated two ways. Some were first outlined in medium consistency royal icing and then flooded with thin royal icing. The others were decorated with sugarpaste which were 'glued' on using piping gel.

Christmas Themed Cookie Bouquet

The Classic Poundcake

2009-11-10T00:57:00.002+08:00

Saturday morning and I was goggling aimlessly for cake recipes - any cakes it does not matter as I have nothing specific in mind ~ sponge, butter, angel, brownie, chocolate, mud, ……. Pages and pages were uploaded and finally I settled on something quintessential, the classic Orange Pound Cake.
As the name implies, a true pound cake uses butter, flour and sugar in equal ratio of a pound each which by the way, is how the cake derives its name (as though this is some marvelous new news to you). This just has fresh orange juice added to it for the citrusy flavor and to lend it a rich golden color.
I made half the recipe, followed all measurements but just held back 30gms of sugar and the cake turned out perfect - moist, buttery, fine crumbed and not sweet. Perhaps the sourness of the orange juice has given it a good balance.
I baked them in a six-hole mini bundt pan and once baked and cooled, they were drizzled with a simple frosting made with fresh orange juice and icing-sugar. The result? Perfect paired with a cup of hot Earl Grey tea.

Alas it was only while uploading the photo to Photobucket that I realized I had forgotten to take a cross-section of the cut cake to show you how fine the cake was.

A Wedding Cake for a Birthday Celebration!!

2009-10-20T23:45:00.005+08:00

What in the world is a Wedding Cake doing in a Birthday party you may ask.

I made a Croquenbroche, which is a traditional French Wedding Cake for my extended family's mass birthday celebration which falls in October. Croquenbroche which literally means "crunch in the mouth" is a tower of profiteroles stacked into a conical shape and drizzled all over with toffee. When you put one of these profiteroles into your mouth, you will bite into the crispy and crunchy toffee, which gave the cake its unique name.

Well October is the month in which there are so many of us in our family celebrating our birthdays and it has become an annual tradition whereby we will have a mass birthday party. My Croquenbroche is an updated version which I shamelessly copied from a very popular bakery in Singapore. I first laid eyes on this beautiful creation when I attended my boss's housewarming party in late September. As his wife had just celebrated her birthday a day earlier, the hardly touched birthday cake was also brought out for all of us to enjoy. That was where I got the idea to make this cake for my mass birthday party. Whilst hers was a 20cm/8inch cake with 40 profiteroles stacked on top, mine has to be much bigger for there were so many of us.

For the base, I made a 10inch square chocolate cherry cake covered with a layer of yummy and sinful rum-laced dark chocolate ganache. It was then topped with close to 80 pieces of plum-sized custard-filled profiteroles.

About half of these profiteroles were frosted in melted dark and pastel-colored white chocolate. They were then decorated with handmade sugar flowers, chopped almonds and silver & gold Nonpareils. The completed Croquenbroche was given a finishing touch with three handmade sugar Gerbera Daisies and fresh Physalis.

My, the whole cake weighs a tonne and am I glad I had the foresight to drive eight dowels into the cake to support the entire creation. I dread to think what would have happened had this not been done and I am pretty sure the cake base would be squashed from all the weight pressing down on it.

Until the next mass birthday party, my sincerest best wishes to my brothers Clarence and Charles, sister Yvonne, sister-in-law Betty and Susan, nephew Alvin, niece Joey, niece-in-law Riana and her toddler daughter Krisalyn, nephew's girlfriend Michelle, my daughter Sylvia and to ME. Yes me! I am an October baby too!

More Moonies

2009-09-13T22:05:00.005+08:00

More Moonies. Chocolate Moonies this time. The first time I made this was two years back with the fillings made out of lotus paste and chocolate. This time around I used Dou Yong, which is green bean paste. There is no real taste difference between lotus paste and bean paste though. For the skin, I had used Dark Muscovado Sugar instead of the normal brown sugar and it gave a richer molass taste. For decoration, I added a strip of pure gold foil to the skin.

Chocolate Snowskin

Moonies

2009-09-12T21:40:00.008+08:00

It has been ages since I updated this blog. As usual, I have been submerged under piles of work and meetings that took me away from my desk most of the time which resulted in even more work piling up.

Last Saturday, I finally found some time in the evening to make my first batch of mooncakes. I made a Nutty Bacon Mooncake which is the traditional baked type and a Mint Snowskin with white lotus paste, which is the chilled type.

The Nutty Bacon Mooncake is a quite similar to the Five Nuts Mooncakes except that it uses streaky bacon fried to a crisp instead of using the sweeter bakwa. The bacon lend the mooncakes a savoury smokey flavor and crunch. It is also not as oily as the commercial type as some bakery also add diced cooked pork fats to the fillings.

Nutty Bacon Mooncake

The chilled Snowskin is really refreshing with the added mint essence. As you swallow each bite, you could feel the cool mintiness gliding down your throat.

Mint Snowskin Dome

Mini Mint Snowskin

This is the Basic Snowskin Recipe I used:
150g Kou Fen (cooked glutinous flour)
180g to 200g icing sugar
40g shortening
220g chilled boiled water
Food color and essence as desired
Prepared lotus paste, bean paste or other fillings.

Method:
1) Sift kou fen and icing sugar together.
2) Rub in the shortening till evenly distributed.
3) Add the water and knead into a smooth dough.
4) Put into a plastic bag and let it rest for about 20 minutes before using.
Note: If using essence and color, mix it directly into the water before adding to the kou fen.

Wrapping:
1) For the mini snowskin above, I scaled the skin into 20g and fillings into 30g.
2) For the dome shaped snowskin, I scaled the skin into 150g and fillings into 70g.
3) Roll the scaled skin into a ball. Put it into a plastic bag and press with your palm to flatten.
4) Wrap fillings with the skin and press into moulds.
5) Chill in an airtight container before serving.

Excuse Me, Are You A Cake?

2009-07-26T15:51:00.005+08:00

Cupcakes: “Errh excuse me, are you a cake?”
3-Tier Cake:“Well yes, of course I AM a cake. Isn’t that obvious? I look every inch a cake don’t I?

Single Tier Cake: “If you are a cake, why don’t you smell like us? You do smell funny. You know that don’t you?”
3-Tier Cake:“I don’t smell like you only because I have a big bottle of baby powder tucked right in my middle! And quit being so rude to me, I am much taller and stronger than you guys and you know WHAT that means don't you?”

Edna Faith: "Hey you cakes, quiet down. This is my party and don't steal my thunder or I will have you all eaten up. And Diaper Cake, I am not done with you till I finished MY BUSINESS on your smug face."

Ha Ha! I can imagine this conversation going on at the table amongst the Cupcakes, Single-tier Cake and Diaper Cake, as they eyed each other with suspicion.

It was Edna Faith’s Full Month party and I made this Diaper Cake for J, the baby girl’s mummy. Knowing that L and G will be bringing some lovely edible cakes to sweet Edna's party, I opted for a conventional baby gift presented in an unconventional way. A Baby Diaper Cake.

The baby diapers are rolled up individually and arranged in rings and then finally stacked into three tiers to look like a cake. The cake was decorated with other ‘ingredients’ like roses made with baby socks, pacifiers, toys and a pretty headband.

Diapers all rolled up and fastened with ribbons and rubberbands.

Roses made with baby socks.

Diaper rolls adorn with a butterfly

The whole 'confection' is topped with a You’re Sooo Sweet cake topper.

S-M-L Cupcakes

2009-07-10T23:41:00.012+08:00

If you are expecting to see cupcakes in Small, Medium and Large sizes, then you have been mislead by my post title.

S-M-L here refers to the Strawberry, Mint and Lemon frostings atop the cupcakes.

I first came across the recipe for crusting buttercream about three years ago and about how you can achieve a real smooth frosted surface on a cake by using Viva paper towels. Being one with really shaky hands that can make cake decorating with any types of cream turn out looking like earthquakes, I never bothered to test out the crusting buttercream. Not until now.

Two Saturdays ago, I strolled into the basement of the Paragon Shopping Centre and spotted a popular deli there. Inside their refrigerated showcase, were some brightly frosted cupcakes that seems to be beckoning to me. The Lemon Cupcakes looked so darn pretty delicious that I had to buy one to satisfy my desires to bite into them.

It was love at first bite when I realized the frosting was a Crusting Buttercream. And so this is how it tasted! The exterior of the frosting has dried into something slightly softer then that of royal icing and it does not stick to your fingers when touched. Beyong the crusted surface, the insides are still soft. It was a much neater eating as you do not get cream sticking all over your lips. The cake though, was really nothing to shout about. DH and DS who had a bite each commented that my cupcakes tasted better. I should be pleased with the compliments but my focus then, was diverted to the frosting and not on the cake. I imagined how it would taste with different flavors added.

The following week, I had the chance to test out a batch of the Crusting Buttercream on some cupcakes for a family weekend gathering.

I flavored the frosting with strawberry syrup, mint essence and lemon paste. The results were good especially the mint and the strawberry. They crusted nicely and although it is made mostly with shortening (oh I can hear some gasps in the background), it tasted neither oily nor waxy. After the frosting has crusted, it was a breeze to handle the cupcakes. You know how fiddly it is to handle cupcakes that have been iced in regular frosting or creamcheese frosting. There is this tendency that the cream will get smudged!

Strawberry - Using Alteco #853 Deep Cut Closed Star Tip

Mint - Using Wilton #48 Basketweave Tip

Lemon - Using Alteco #195 Special Decorating Tip for Drop Flowers

The feedbacks were good compared to regular icing although some still preferred the usual creamcheese frostings that I usually make.

All packed and ready to go in my Cupcake Courier.

Postscript (1 August 2009)
At the request of several requesters, I have added information of the icing tip used for the different designs.

Berry Nice Strawberry Bars

2009-06-28T00:24:00.000+08:00

I have so far only tasted Lemon Bars which I loved for its citrusy flavor. So when I came across a recipe for Strawberry Bars I told myself that I have to try it out for myself.

If you can imagine eating a buttery shortbread that is spread with strawberry jam then you are almost there. The Strawberry Bar is one notch better as the 'jam' part is part custardy and sticky at same time. Lemon juice and zest gave it the tangy kick while the distinctive strawberry makes this a 'berry nice' bars.

My Beef Stew

2009-06-26T12:50:00.004+08:00

This was last Sunday's lunch which I only found time to post now. I did not follow any recipe but made a shopping list of the ingredients I think I need. I ended up with 2 trays of beef chuck tender, 2 bags of carrots, 1 bag each of large onions and potatoes, 1 bottle of Virginia Dare Cooking Sherry, 2 boxes of chicken stock, a 3-pouch pack of Masterfood Bouquet Garni. On an impulse I added two cans of stewed whole tomatoes into the trolley. Not wanting to have any vegetables leftover from cooking, I proceeded to use up everything in sight. So in a way, I created my own recipe as follows:

My Beef Stew
Ingredients:
1.7kg beef chuck tender, diced into cubes
500gm large onions, chopped
1kg carrots, diced in big chunks
1kg potatoes, quartered
12 garlics, smash and remove skin
375ml cooking sherry
2 litres chicken (or beef) stock
2 x 411g canned stewed whole tomatoes (I added the juice from only one can of tomatoes)
2 tbsp maple syrup (also added on an impulse to balance the sourness of the tomatoes)
2 pouches bouquet garni
4 tsp black pepper
4 tsp worchestire sauce
Flour for dusting
Olive Oil

Method:
1) Dust the beef in flour and brown in batches in some olive oil. Set aside.
2) In a deep pot, sweat the large onions in some olive oil. Add garlic and continue sauteing until the onions is almost caramelised.
3) Add the browned beef, black pepper and worchestire sauce and stir for a while. Add in the cooking sherry. Let it simmer for a while to evaporate the alcohol.
4) Add the bouquet garni, carrots and 1 litre of chicken stock. Bring to the boil and then lower heat. Simmer for about 45 minutes stirring occasionally.
5) Add the potatoes and the balance 1 litre of stock and continue cooking till beef is tender.
6) Adjust seasoning. (At this point, I added the maple syrup!).
7) Serve hot with a crusty bread and a green salad.

Washed down with a glass of refreshing Mint Lemongrass Lemonade Chiller

Note:
1) You may wish to thicken the stew if you find it too watery. I made a roux by melting approximately 100gm of butter in a small saucepan over low fire. Add 1 heap tablespoon of flour and fry till the flour turns slighty brown. At this point remove the saucepan from the flame and pour in a 1/2 cup of water and stir till smooth. Bring saucepan back to the flame and stir till thick and shiny. Temper the roux with some gravy from the stew before adding it to the stew to thicken it.
2) I did not add any salt to the stew as the chicken stock is already salty as is the bottle of cooking sherry from Virginia Dare.

Cupcakes for my Daughter

2009-06-26T07:12:00.002+08:00

Today is the last day of work for my daughter at a designer furniture company. She has worked there for slightly over a year and she decided it is time to make move to a position that has more relevancy to her Mass Communications Degree.

These cupcakes are for her to bring to the office as a farewell treat for her colleagues.

Vanilla Cupcakes using a recipe from the Magnolia Bakery and with a Creamcheese Frosting that I put together with some icing sugar, butter and vanilla extract.

Saying Ciao

Apricot Cheesecake Ripple

2009-06-23T23:59:00.003+08:00

I bought a tray of lovely luscious golden apricots from the supermarket last night and made these yummy Apricot Cheesecake Ripple which was adapted from a recipe originally using plums.
The cake has a very nice caramel flavor coming from the dark muscovado sugar and a slight salty flavor from the creamcheese ripple. Once baked, the apricots were bursting with juice, was cottony soft and it felt like with each bite, tangy apricot conserve oozing into your mouth.
It would be a good idea after filling the tray to drop the tray a couple of times onto your table top to remove any trapped air bubbles. I did not do that as you can see from the picture below – two big holes in the cake.

Apricot Cheesecake Ripple
Ingredients:
250g cream cheese, softened at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-3/4 tbsp sugar
5 eggs
220g butter, softened at room temperature
220g dark Muscovado sugar
250g plain flour
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
400g fresh Apricots, halved, stoned and diced
Method:
1) Preheat oven to 175 degree C.
2) Grease and line a 20x30cm lamington tray making sure the paper is extended about 5cm above the tray on all sides (this is to add removal of the cake after baking).
3) Cream the cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and 1-1/2 eggs together till smooth and free from lumps.
4) In another bowl, cream the butter and Muscovado sugar till creamy. Add the balance 3-1/2 eggs and continue creaming till light and fluffy.
5) Beat in the sifted flour and baking powder for approximately 2 minutes till well combined.
6) Spread half of the flour mixture onto the tray, dot with half the cream cheese mixture and scatter with half of the apricots.
7) Repeat with the balance flour mixture, cream cheese and top with the balance apricots.
8) Bake for 30-35 minutes in the centre of the oven till just firm to the touch. The cream cheese ripple will firm up further when cool, so do not overbake.

7-Up Bundt Cake

2009-06-15T00:49:00.004+08:00

My brother bought this Kitchen Aid bundt pan for me quite a while back and, like the few other baking pans which he bought back from the US, they have yet to be used.

So yesterday, I googled for a Bundt recipe and I came across this 7-Up Bundt Cake which sounded very interesting and pardon the pun, refreshing too. All the reviews for this cake were good except some said it was sweet.

I made some adjustments to the sugar and also used a combination of plain flour and cake flour for this recipe. I also added lemon zest and some lemon juice abeit insufficient, to perk up the lemon-lime flavor of the 7-Up.

Even though the pan is non-stick, I gave it a good coat of baker's grease as I want to be sure the cake can be removed without any problem. Sticking is an inherent problem with Bundt cake pans due to the intricate designs.

The cake was very soft and with tender crumbs. However, despite reducing the sugar, it still tasted sweet to me. The taste of 7-Up is not very apparent in the baked cake although you can still taste it faintly.

I will bake this cake again some other time however the sugar must be reduced further and more lemon juice added.

I am glad I did not make the icing sugar glace to drizzle over the cake otherwise the cake would taste even sweeter. I cannot however, resist the temptation of sifting a wee bit of snow sugar over the cake though.

7-UP BUNDT CAKE
(13 cup capacity bundt pan)
Ingredients:
425g butter
690g sugar
6-1/4 eggs
350g plain flour
120g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp lemon essence (or 1 tsp each of lemon and vanilla essence)
225ml 7-up
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Zest from 1 lemon

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 165 degree C.
2) Grease Bundt pan very well making sure all the nooks and crannies are greased.
3) Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
4) Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition.
5) Add the 7-Up to the lemon juice to make up 225ml, then add in the essence and zest.
6) Fold in the sifted flour alternating with the 7-Up to the creamed mixture.
7) Spoon mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 60-75 minutes.
8) Skewer test near the centre of the cake. Cake is ready when no crumbs stick to the skewer.

Baker's Grease:
Mix equare ratio of shortening, flour and vegetable oil into a smooth paste. Use this to grease the Bundt pan. Balance grease can be stored in an airtight container for future use.

Milk Squares

2009-06-13T18:42:00.002+08:00

This is one of those recipes which I copied a long time ago and in my 'to-do list'. Finally had the chance to make it last night.

This bread is kneaded and allowed to proof in the fridge overnight. I made the dough close to midnight yesterday and stayed up till around 2.30am for the 1st proofing while I finish up some office work. This morning, after returning the dough to room temperature, it was then shaped and cut into squares and given a final proofing before baking.

The first tray was spoilt because the oven temperature and timing indicated in the recipe was faulty. It stated to bake for 20 minutes at 230 degree C. Looking at the 4cm x 4.7cm cubes of bread, I decided to bake it at half the time. However even before the 10 minutes was up, all the milk square were baked to a burn. As I do not have the source for this recipe, I am unable to ascertain from the orginal blog if it was my mistake to copy the wrong baking temperature or if it was a genuine mistake of the original writer and if she has had the chance to update this error on her blog. Anyway, I lowered the temperature to 180 degree C and baked the second tray for 8 minutes and they turned out perfect.

The bread is soft, fluffy and mildy sweet. Just remember that the dough has eggs, milk powder and condensed milk in it. So please put it in the fridge for the overnight proofing. With our (Singapore) kind of hot weather, the rich dough can turn bad easily.

MILK SQUARES
Ingredients:
210gm bread flour
90g plain flour
3g baking powder
9g instant yeast
27g fine sugar
3g salt
75g condensed milk
9g milk powder
Half a beaten egg (approx 30g)
111g water
21g softened butter

Method:
1) Mix beaten egg, water and condensed milk together
2) Combine all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl, add the liquid and knead for 9 minutes.
3) Add butter and continue kneading for a further 12 minutes or until not sticky.
4) Form into a ball. cover and let it proof for 1-2 hours or until double in size.
5) Knock out the air and shape into a ball. Place in an airtight container and leave in the fridge overnight.
6) Next morning, put the dough on a table, cover lightly with plastic wrap and let it return to room temperature (approx 30 - 40 minutes).
7) Knead lightly and shape/roll into a rectangle shape measuring 14cm x 28cm.
8) Cut into squares measuring 4cm x 4.7cm.
9) Place on a greased or parchment lined tray and proof for 20 minutes or till double in size.
10) Bake at 180 degree C for between 7 to 10 minutes till light brown.

Longans Muffins

2009-06-03T22:30:00.003+08:00

A couple of weeks back, Dolly, my friend from Taiwan was in town on business. She brought me a box of lovely muffins and muah chee from Gui Yuan Cake(www.guiyuancake.com.tw). They are well known for their Dried Longan Muffins and have won several awards for them too. The shop takes its name after the dried longan which is called Gui Yuan in Chinese. Dolly mentioned that the Taiwanese believe that eating these muffins, especially during the colder months, has a warming effect on the body.

The muffins are choked with hydrated dried longans and chopped walnuts. The dark brown cake has a rich molass flavor and is moist though dense. Biting into one actually reminded me of eating a very fragrant Huat Kueh.

I did some googling and found a few recipes for this muffin and finally settled for one which I felt was a good representation of the ingredients and method I imagine.

Although the original recipe uses cake flour, I replaced that with top flour as I felt it would yield an even more superior product.

Come on, give this recipe a try and you will be enchanted by the taste of this dried longan muffins.

Longan Walnut Muffins
Ingredients
150g Top flour
2 tsp double-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp fine salt
110g dark brown sugar
70g dried longan
3/4 cup hot water
2 eggs
70gm butter, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup longan water
75g walnuts, roasted and chopped coarsely

Method
1) Hydrate the dried longans in the 3/4 cup of hot water for 20-30 minutes. Strain the hydrated longans and squeeze lightly to remove excess water. Reserve 1/2 cup of the soaking liquid.
2) Sift top flour, salt and baking powder together.
3) Combine cooled longan water, melted butter and vanilla together
3) Whisk eggs and brown sugar till creamy. Add the butter/water mixture and whisk till just combined.
4) Fold in the flour lightly, add 50g of the chopped walnut and the dried longans.
5) Mix well and spoon batter into muffins/cupcake cases, top with the balance chopped walnuts.
6) Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 30-35 minutes for medium sized muffins and 20-25 minutes for mini muffins. Skewer test for doneness.

Note:
1) The batter is quite runny.
2) Pulverize your brown sugar if necessary to remove any big lumps.

Updated 6 June 09
I have corrected the walnuts to 75gms (50gms in batter + 25gms for garnishing. I had earlier indicated 150gms as I had doubled the recipe. Thousand apologies for the mistake.

Another Semolina Cake with Honey Citrus Syrup

2009-05-25T22:37:00.003+08:00

Some weeks back, I made a Semolina Cake with Honey Citrus Syrup from a recipe found in the Australian Women's Weekly (AWW).
I had several requests for the recipe and I had promised to come back to the requester as soon as I can find the recipe. Unfortunately, I could not find the original recipe. I thought I had tore off the pages from the magazine and filed it away. No matter how many times I searched through the four arch files of recipes, I could not find it. I then started to search for the magazine hoping that perhaps, I have not torn out the recipes but I could not find it. DH who noticed me rumagging through the book shelves, drawers, coffee table and even the stack of old newspapers enquired what I was searching for. When I told him I was searching for that particular magazine he gave me a sheepish grin and said he remembered throwing it out. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrh!

So what to do? I trawled the net hoping to find THE recipe but I had no luck finding it. I even wrote to AWW in the hope they will send me the recipe (and I am still waiting hopefully).

Anyway, something good did turn out from the internet trawling. I found another variation of this cake that looks quite promising. The fact that it uses separated egg yolks and whisked stiffened eggwhites tell me that this would be an even lighter cake than the original one. So yesterday, I test-kitchened this version and the result did not disappoint. In fact, this second cake tastes much better than the first as it has dessicated coconut and marmalade added to it. So before I start to loose this recipe as well, I am quickly posting it here.

I hope this recipe will do for the few ladies who wrote to me for the original recipe.

Honey Citrus Semolina Cake II
Ingredients:
6 eggs, separated
100g sugar
100g dessicated coconut (I used 75g)
140g flour
270g semolina
25g ground almonds (I used 50g)
20g baking powder
240ml cornoil or canola oil
300ml freshly squeezed orange juice
60ml lemon juice
1 teaspoon each grated orange and lemon zest
240ml orange marmalade

Honey Citrus Syrup
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
(You can use 3/4 cup orange juice and omit the lemon juice but I prefer a mixture of orange and lemon juice)

Method:
1) Heat oven to 180 degree C
2) Grease and line a lamington panwith parchment paper making sure the paper extend 3cm above the pan.
3) Sift flour and baking powder together. Add in the coconut, ground almonds and semolina and stir to combine well.
4) Mix oil, beaten yolks, marmalade, juices and zest together. Stir in the dry ingredients.
5) Meantime, whisk egg whites and sugar till stiff peaks form.
6) Fold the egg white to the flour mixture taking care not to deflate the egg whites too much.
7) Pour mixture into the prepared tin and sprinkle with some almonds slivers if desired.
8) Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean with no sticky crumbs.
() While cake is baking, prepare the syrup by boiling the liquid till it is reduced to slightly more than half a cup.
9) Pour hot syrup over the cake the moment you remove the cake from the oven. Cool in the pan. Cut and serve.

Pumpkin Ginger-Nut Muffins

2009-05-25T21:08:00.002+08:00

Remember after last week's pumpkin mee suah cake I had this piece of pumpkin leftover? Well I made some Pumpkin Ginger-Nut Muffins a couple of days after that. I did not know what to expect of the final results as I was either short of this or short of that. After steaming whatever pumpkin I had, I realized that it yielded only one third cup of puree instead of the required one cup. I did not have plain flour and so substituted it with half-and-half of cake flour and self-rising flour plus another half teaspoon of baking powder. I have no ground nutmeg and so used only the allspice, cinnamon and ground ginger. And perhaps due to the shortage of mashed pumpkin, the mixture turned out very dry. I then added 75ml of unsweetened soya milk to loosen up the mixture. The muffins turned out super nice though! They smelt heavenly and the texture was just nice with a nice crunch coming from the chopped roasted walnuts and candied ginger. It was especially good eaten warm and just as good when cold. Best of all, they remained soft and moist even after 24 hours.

Pumpkin Ginger-Nut Muffins
Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups flour (3/4cup ea of cake flour + self-rising flour + 1/2tsp baking powder)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cooked pumpkin purée (1/3 cup)
1/3 cup melted butter
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water (plus 75ml unsweetened soya milk, if needed)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I did not have this)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans (I used pecans)
2 Tbsp well chopped candied ginger
Method:
1) Preheat oven to 175°C.
2) Sift the flours, baking soda, baking powder and spices together. Stir in the sugar, chopped nuts and ginger and mix throughly.
3) Mix the pumpkin, melted butter, eggs and water together. Stir well to disperse the mashed pumpkin and then combine with the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Do not over-mix. If the mixture looks dry at this point of time, then stir in the soya milk.
4) Spoon mixture into a prepared muffin cups and bake for 25-30 minutes.
5) Check for doneness by inserting a skewer into the center of a muffin. If it comes out clean, it is done.
6) Cool on a rack.
Note: Ingredients in brackets are the changes made by me.

Pumpkin Mee Suah Kueh

2009-05-17T22:57:00.004+08:00

Made this savoury Pumpkin Mee Suah Kueh for Saturday's breakfast. This is about the third or fourth time that I have made this. The first was in this earlier posting in August 2007.

This time around, I added some five spice powder to the pumpkin-pork mixture to give the kueh a better fragrance.

Now I am wondering what to do with the leftover piece of pumpkin sitting in my fridge??!!

Orh Ku Kueh

2009-05-10T14:09:00.009+08:00

To translate directly from Hokkiean dialect, 'Ku' means tortoise whilst 'Kueh' means cakes. The Ku Kuehs comes in a myraid of colors:- Purple, Green, Yellow and the very popular Red. The cake is shaped like a tortoise and therefore Ku. The 'Ang'(Red) Ku Kuehs are commonly used during celebrations like weddings, baby's full month and birthdays to signify longevity as tortoise are known to live till a ripe old age. The purple, green and yellow are the more 'modern' creations in the recent years with purple yam, pandanus juice added to give the skin the distinctive purple and green. They are usually filled with a sweet filling of mashed mung beans or peanuts. The Yellow Ku Kueh are usually filled with sweet mung beans to which mashed durian flesh has been added.

The mini Kus, each measuring 6cm long and 4.2cm across.

The 'Orh' (Black) Ku Kueh or Black Tortoise Cake which I have here could have been a Hakka snack. I am just guessing as these black ku kueh gets it black hue from the leaves of the Rami, Choy Yip or Mugworts plant. These leaves are favored by the Hakkas and widely used in their traditional cakes to give them their distinctive black and I believe, for their medicinal properties too!

Anyway,this is the second time that I have attempted this kueh and the skin is much softer than the first attempt which was more chewy. I had added a spoon of rice flour to reduce the chewiness that comes from a skin made with 100% glutinous rice flour. Some recipes for the sweet Kus has mashed sweet potatoes or yam added to give the skin a softer bite while retaining the chewiness.

These black Kus are different from the usual Red, Purple, Yellow or Green Kus as it uses a savoury fillings of chai por (preserved radish) and minced pork which is fried till fragrant and then given a kick with liberal doses of white pepper. The skin however is sweet. In fact, the skin is much sweeter than the sweet ku kuehs. I suppose this is tactical to give the snack an interesting balance of taste from the salty preserved radish.

Fresh or dried, tt is quite difficult to find mugwort leaves here in Singapore. I got the dried leaves shown here from Johor Bahru. The fresh leaves are even more difficult to come by unless you are living in areas where there is a large community of Hakkas.

Traditional Black Angku

Filings:
100g minced chai poh, soaked to remove excess salt
100g minced pork

Seasonings:
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp pepper

Marinade:
1/4tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil

1) Mix the marinade with the pork and leave in the fridge for one hour.
2) Heat a work with a little oil and saute chai poh till fragrant, then add the minced pork and seasonings. Drizzle in a little water and stir fry well. Dish up and cool.

Skin:
150g choh yip/fresh rami leaves
130g caster sugar
200g glutinous rice flour
25ml cooking oil
125-150ml water

Glazing:
2 tbsp pre-cooked oil

Banana leaves cut into shapes slightly bigger than the mould you intend to use. Brush leaves with oil.

Method:
1) Wash the rami leaves and boil with water for 30 minutes. Remove, drain off excess water and leave aside to cool before blending into a paste.
2) Place the glutinuous flour into a mixing bowl.
3) Boil the water and sugar till melted. Add in the paste and stir to distribute the paste.
4) Pour the hot syrup into the glutinous flour and quickly stir into a dough.
5) Place the hot dough onto a clean table, add the oil and knead till you get a smooth and shiny dough.
6) Scale dough into pieces and roll into ball.
7) Flatten each piece and wrap with the fillings, seal the edges and roll into a ball.
8) Dust with extra glutinous flour before placing into the mould. Press the ball into the mould with your palm and knock the mould to dislodge the kueh. Place on a greased banana leaf.
9) Steam over low flame for five minutes, uncover steamer cover, glaze kueh with cooked oil, Cover and steam for another 2 minutes.

Note:
The original recipe suggested to 'wash' off the excess glutinuous flour from the shaped kueh under a tap (slow water). I did not do it as I use minimal flour to dust the kueh.
As I mentioned, I added some rice flour for a softer skin. What I did was to remove 1/2 tbsp of glutinuous flour and replace with 1/2 tbsp of rice flour.
I used 10gms of dried choh yip which has been soaked overnight to soften before boiling. I cut off the hard stems before weighing the leaves and also to avoid having hards bits of stems in the skin.
You may wish to reduce the sugar for the skin, I find it too sweet.

Featherlight Sponge Cupcakes

2009-05-06T23:24:00.004+08:00

I bought these pretty cake cases some time back and I had entirely forgotten about them until last week when I was looking for some cake cases to put the Chocolate Mayonnaise Cakes.

As the cases are rather big, I decided against making muffin as I have never like them baked jumbo-sized. A featherlight sponge would be ideal as you can finish the whole cupcake and yet not feel stuffed.

They turned out pretty nice and I love how the cakes can be removed so cleanly without sticking to the insides of the cases.

A slight tug at the corners and the case unfolds easily to reveal the cake.

If the photos seemed a bit blurry, well you are right! I bought a new cammy, a Nikon D90 over the weekend and I am still struggling with the instruction manual and learning how to use it. So until I master how to select the correct aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings, be prepared for more out-of-focused pictures.

Chocolate Cake with a Difference

2009-05-02T23:25:00.003+08:00

This is one of my favorite chocolate cake. It is a cinch to make. No mixer is required and once all the ingredients are measured, it takes just a stir with a hand whisk and the cake is ready to be baked in two minutes flat.

What I love about this chocolate cake is that it is very soft and moist although no egg or butter is used. The secret to the softness and moistness comes from the mayonnaise and buttermilk. It may sound gross as you will hardly associate mayo with cakes but this is truly one cake which you have to try to believe how wonderfully the ingredients meld together to give you a chocolate cake with a difference.

For a more luxurious treat, frost the cake with a chocolate ganache.

MAYONNAISE CHOCOLATE CAKE
Ingredients:
110g mayonnaise
125ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla essence
120g all-purpose plain flour
20g cocoa powder
1-1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
110g sugar

Method:
1) Line a 7" square baking tin with parchment paper (no need to grease).
2) Sift flour, cocoa and bicarbonate soda together.
3) Place the sugar and sifted flour mixture into a bowl.
4) In a separate bowl, mix the mayo, vanilla essence and buttermilk till smooth.
5) Add mayo mixture to the flour and mix till the batter is smooth.
6) Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake at 170 deg C for 20-25 minutes.

Note:
a) If you have no buttermilk, you can add 1-1/2 tsp of lemon juice to a glass of milk to make up to 125ml.
b) For a taller cake, make 1.5 times the recipe above and bake 40 minutes.

Lychee Martini Cake

2009-04-14T22:48:00.004+08:00

Made this Lychee Martini Cake on Sunday in celebration of my son's 24th birthday. His birthday is actually today and because it also coincides with the first of his six exam papers, we then decide to have an early celebration for him.

I do not have the actual recipe for the Lychee Martini Cake but having tasted a slice of it late last year, I set out to create my own version of the cake.

I soaked some well drained, diced canned lychees overnight in a mixture of Lychee Liquer, Vodka and Limoncello. The 9-inch sponge cake was torted and each layer brushed with a syrup that has been laced with more Lychee Liquer and Vodka. It is then assembled with a filling of whipped cream and the 'drunkard' lychees.

The whole cake is then covered in whipped cream with toasted almond slivers on the sides. I did make a mistake of using the wrong shade of pink for the icing. I had wanted to simulate the very light pink/ivory color of the lychee fruit. The end result was a much brighter pink that would be more suited for a girl recipient than a guy.

So here is my Pink Lychee Martini Cake.

The insides.

This morning, I participated in a contest organized by the radio station Class95 . In the past couple of weeks during the Morning Express program, listeners are encouraged to SMS in birthday greetings to people they know who are celebrating their birthday on that particular day. The prize each day is a birthday cake sponsored by Bakerzin, . You guess right! I participated in this SMS contest and this is the cake which I won for my son. Bakerzin has been very generous to allow the winner to select whichever cake that is available at the outlet and you are even free to choose whichever size you want.

I chose the Ambroisa, a heavenly confection of crunchy walnut dacquoise with Jivara chocolate ganache and nuggets of caramelised bananas.

A big Thank You to Bakerzin and the Morning Express Show for selecting my entry.

Another yummy treat for the birthday boy.

Hits and Misses

2009-04-07T23:11:00.007+08:00

Over the last few weeks, I have had some hits and misses. Actually more miss than hits.

The first miss was the Japanese Soft Cheesecake. I had wanted to bake this for the longest time but never really got round to doing it for fear of failure. I have heard so many 'horror' stories like the cake collapsing the moment it came out of the oven or even midway through baking and also the texture being very dense and heavy. Hearing all these make me nervous to even attempt it until two weeks ago. I was so careful to follow the recipe to the T (or so I thought). After popping the cake into the oven, I started to clear the tabletop and lo and behold, tucked behind the jar of sugar was the little plastic bag of cornstarch that I had measured out but forgotten to add to the batter. For a second or two, I was debating whether to just leave the cake as it was or to remove the pan and dump everything into the bin. What the heck! I then decided to just pour the batter back into the mixer and give it a quick whisk with the cornstarch. By then, the egg white which I had so nicely whisked up were all deflated. I just poured the batter back into the pan, slam the oven door shut and twiddle my thumbs and hope for the best.

This was how the cake #1 turned out.

Feeling extremely angry with myself, I attempted the cheesecake again the next evening. This time, fearful that I will leave some ingredients 'hidden' away, I place everything in full view.

This is cake #2.

Honestly if you asked me, I preferred the texture from cake #1 which is closer to the ones sold in the bakeries. Cake #2 was way too light and it felt too 'airy' in the mouth.

The second miss was the Hongkong Smiling Paus. Recently two bloggers had tried with great success the recipe posted by me in 2006 at a cooking forum. Their positive feedback to me prompted me to make some myself. It turned out a disaster. I had failed my own recipe. The Paus did not 'smile' at all. In fact they were rather dismal looking. Fortunately, I had only wrapped and filled six paus and then to do a test steaming. I threw away the rest of the dough as I did not want to waste the beautiful char siew fillings on the sad looking paus.

An hour later (and still feeling angry), I mix up a batch of oil and water dough to make the baked Siew Paus. They were terribly difficult to wrap. Despite being careful not let any of the fillings come into contact with the sealing edges of the pau skin, the shaped paus kept popping open the moment I put them on the baking tray. I managed only a few nice ones. I placed those that insisted on popping open into disposable muffin cups to bake.

Ugly looks aside, they were really good. The skin was crispy yet melt-in-the mouth and the fillings juicy.

The only hit I had was this Semolina Cake with Honey Citrus Syrup. Semolina cakes are known to be quite dry. However, this cake is really good. Honey, lemon and blood orange juice is boiled till syrupy. This is then drenched over the cake the moment it came out of the oven. The syrup helps to keep the cake moist without being soggy.

Semolina Cake with Honey Citrus Syrup topped with dried figs.

C is for Crabsticks

2009-03-18T23:15:00.002+08:00

C is also for chiffons. Two chiffons in fact.

Baked two chiffons tonight. The darker colored cake is a Cheese Chiffon whilst the lighter colored one is a Crabstick Chiffon.

I am really surprised how light and fluffy these two cakes are as they were baked using normal plain flour for the Cheese Chiffon and self-rising flour for the Crabstick Chiffon. I remembered back in the 70s, when chiffon cakes were in vogue, the only flour used to make them was the SoftasSilk flour. This is equivalent to the top flour used in baking nowadays. The SoftasSilk flour disappeared from the supermarket shelves in the 90s and even now, you can only find them only in a few selected supermarket outlets.

Crabstick Chiffon - speckled with shredded crabsticks or crab filament sticks.

Cheese Chiffon - I had used a mixture of cheese slices and edam cheese to add more flavor.

On a Whim and a Fancy

2009-03-14T23:58:00.003+08:00

I return from dinner this evening feeling dead tired as I was nursing a slight flu and sorethroat.

A good sleep would do me good actually. Instead, I took out some recipe books and started flipping through them aimlessly until I came to this Yoghurt Apple Buttercake. Looks tempting enough except that I do not have any apples at home. The urge to bake this cake was strong. So inspite of the grogginess from the flu medication, I started to measure out the ingredients.

In place of the apples, I used diced dried mangoes which have been reconstituted in some hot water to soften them.

This is my version of Mango Yoghurt Buttercake.

Ingredients:
100g dried mangoes,
250g butter
230g caster sugar
5 eggs
120ml yoghurt
315g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3tsp bicarbonate soda
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 175 degree C.
2) Dice the dried mangoes and reconstitute with 2 tbsp of very hot water to soften.
3) Sift flour, baking powder and bicarbonate soda together.
4) Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy.
5) Beat in the egg, one at a time, and cream till smooth and light.
6) Mis in the yoghurt and flour alternately and finally add in the mangoes.
7) Pour into a greased and lined 9" round tin and bake for 60 minutes or till a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8) Cool cake in tin for 10 minutes before removing to a rack to continue the cooling.

Note: I baked mine in three disposable paper trays for 35 minutes.

Semla - The Swedish 'King Killer'

2009-03-08T19:52:00.007+08:00

A month ago, I was driving to work one early morning when I received an SMS from Joanna. She had just queued at Ikea for this Swedish bun and she was having this over the moon satisfaction after eating it. Having lived in Sweden for a while, she really misses this bun big time. I called her and we had a good fifteen minute conversation about Semla, a cardamon spiced bread that has a creamy almond filling and whipped cream topping. I was so entralled by her description of it that I wished I was driving to Ikea and not to work. I have never visited Sweden before, must less heard of this bun and good ole Jo aroused enough curiosity in me to do some googling.

The Semla, originated in Sweden as far back as the 16th Century and it is usually eaten on the last day before Easter fasting starts. As the fasting could last as long as 40 days, the Swedes would indulged in a super rich feast which is topped off with the Semla.

I managed to google for the recipe which looks easy enough. However, not having seen nor tasted the real thing, I really did not know what to expect. I then made a trip to Ikea, where this special treat is sold at their restaurant for a limited period. The bun cost S$3.50 each. Pricey I would say. The bun was light and fluffy. The cardamon nuance was not overpowering and the almond fillings was smooth and creamy. My only grouse is that they are stingy with the fillings. It would have tasted better, in my opinion, if there were more of the fragrant almond paste.

So having tasted the real McCoy, I attempted the Semla today.

A triangular piece is cut off the top of the bun and the insides hollowed out to be filled with the almond paste. The lid is replaced on a ring of whipped cream and then dusted with snow sugar.

A cut-up viewed of the Semla

The Semla fillings, made with ground almonds, sugar, thickend cream and mashed potatoes.

Oh, if you are wondering why the Semla is a King Killer, it was said that on 12 February, 1771, Swedish King Adolf Frederick, had consumed a huge feast of seafood and champangne. After that, he had topped off the meal with 14 servings of Semla as this was his favorite dessert. He later died of stroke that day. What a way to go!

For those interested to try this, here is the recipe:

SEMLA

Ingredients:
70gms butter
1 cup milk
11gms instant yeast
Pinch of salt
80gms sugar
380gms plain flour
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 egg, beaten (for glazing)
Whipped cream for decoration
Icing sugar or snow sugar for dusting

Fillings:
200gms ground almonds
55gms icing sugar
100gms fine sugar
250gms mashed potatoes (use the fluffly Russet Burbanks)
2 tbsp coffee creamer powder
120 – 150ml cream
1 tsp almond essence

Method:
1) Melt butter in a small saucepan, add milk and heat till lukewarm.
2) Mix a small amount of the milk mixture with the yeast into a paste before mixing it well with the balance of the milk.
3) Remove approx 2 tbsp of the flour to be used for dusting the table and add the balance flour to the yeast-milk mixture.
4) Knead dough will smooth and shiny. Form into a ball and proof in a covered bowl for 40 minutes.
5) Punch down and shape into 50gm ball and place on baking tray to proof for a further 30 minutes.
6) Glaze with beaten egg and bake in a preheated oven at 250degC for 10 minutes.
7)Leave to cool on a rack.

Fillings:
1) Combine all ingredients for fillings together.

To Serve the Semla:
1) Just before eating, cut a triangular flap from the top of the bread. Hollow out the bread.
2) Fill with the almond fillings.
3) Pipe a ring of whipped cream around the hole.
4)Replace with the lid and dust with icing sugar.

Note:
a) You may wish to halve the ingredients for the fillings as this recipe yields quite a big portion.
b) The bread recipe is the actual one which I goOgled online. I found that it hardens substantially by the next morning and was not as fluffly. I would suggest you just use your own favorite soft (sweet) bread recipe but add a some ground cardamom to it.
c) I use canned Nestle sterilized cream for this. The amount of cream used would depend on how ‘wet’ your mashed potato is.

Happy Niu(Ox) Year

2009-02-04T21:22:00.004+08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai.

The days really flew and we are already into the 10th day of the Ox Year. Just wanted to share in this post, what I have been up to in baking and cooking for this new year.

I managed to make three kinds of cookies this year. The first, Blossoms Pineapple Tarts as I made the tarts into pretty little flower shapes. These tarts are actually Nastar, the Indonesian version which uses grated Edam cheese in the pastry. I love the subtle taste of cheese in the buttery melt-in-the mouth pastry. Paired with the tangy pineapple jam, the tarts are a sure winner amongst the many bottles of cookies jostling for attention.

I also made some Hearts of Roses. Again, the name which I coined myself will give you a hint of what is to be expected. Using a trusted shortbread cookie recipe, I added pulverised dried rose buds to the dough. The idea to make this is not original I must admit. I was out at the mall doing my bit of new year shopping and had stopped by a cookie kiosk. The array of cookies offered by this vendor is mind boggling. They had unique flavors like Japanese Sweet Potato, Jackfruit, Lychee, Champagne Raisin, Black Cookies which is made with soya and sunflower seeds to the commoner ones like Green Bean, Durian, Cashews, Almonds and Pistachios. The Rose Tea Cookies was one of those which I sampled and I loved how the light rose fragrance perfumed the cookies. Not wanting to splurge $23.80 on a tin of 72 cookies, I decided I could easily make them myself. Besides adding pulverised rose buds, I added rose syrup which I happened to have half a bottle in the larder and decorated the cookies with a sprinkling of pink sugar crystal. For less than $10, I ended up with three and half bottles of Hearts of Roses.

The last cookie I made were Cranberry Cookies, the recipe of which I goggled off the internet. Nothing spectacular about this drop cookie except that it has a bit of chewiness in it as the cranberries were blended rendering it into something like gummies.

I also made some Pickled Lotus Roots. The paper thin slices of lotus roots are pickled in a vinegar sugar syrup and given a spicy kick with the addition of fiery birdeye chillies and liquorice strips. Served cold, this pickle really refreshes the palate. Everyone needs to eat something like this with all the gorging and bingeing.

Pre-Reunion
I don't usually prepare Reunion Dinner in my own home as DH prefers to just have the yearly Do at his mum's home. However, this year, I did make an auspicious pig trotter, albeit German style, pre-reunion dinner. We Chinese believe that having pig trotters during new year period will bring in lots of luck and money. The usual way to serve the trotter would be to braise it in soya sauce. Instead of braising, I prefer to roast it and hence, Golden Roasted German Pork Knuckle, served with whole grain mustard and relish. The crackling were meltingly good and the meat just nicely cooked. Yum.

Pork Knuckle just roasted

Plated to be served

Succulent, yummy

I also made this rich soup of pork bones, dried cuttlefish, scallops, leeks and Winter Bamboo Shoots. The Bamboo Shoots here is the star ingredient. A good friend had actually couried the Bamboo Shoots to me, all the way from Taichung, Taiwan. I don't usually take bamboo shoots as they sometimes have this strange ammonia smell that is not unlike, pardon me, urine. However these winter shoots are so different, they are so tender and they do made the soup so umami sweet tasting. I can imagine how stomach warming this soup can be on a cold wintery night if I was in a cold county. With her instructions over the phone, she suggested the ingredients to be used and the 'Mother-in-Law's lesson" on how to prepare the fresh shoots. It seems that in Taiwan, any Mother-in-Law worth her salt would remind their new daughter that bamboo shoots must be cooked over rolling boiling water, uncovered, for the first 15 minutes of the cooking time. This is to ensure that the shoots will taste its best and retains the crunchiness. By the way, Winter Bamboo Shoots are a prized ingredient in Taiwan.

Here is my Pork Ribs Winter Bamboo Shoot Soup

First Day of CNY
For the obligatory rounds of Pai Nien（拜年), I had made these delightful mini Fish and Gold Ingots Nien Gao （年糕） to be given away with the pair of Mandarin Oranges. These steamed glutinuous sweet cakes were given a luxurious touch with gold foil. I must have made close to 150 of these mini fishes in total. Some were given to my colleagues and my husband's colleagues just prior to the new year while the rest were given away on the first day of new year. Although tiny, the fishes were well received by all as Nien Gao literally translate to mean Year (Nien), High (Gao) and eating them will assure one of a job promotion every year for the working adults and high grades for the school kids. It is also traditionally offered to the Kitchen God as prayer food to 'seal' his mouth with the sweet sticky cakes so that he will not carry a bad report but only sweet stuff of you when he makes his yearly report to the Jade Emperor.

Fishes Galore

Second Day of CNY
This is my cookout day. I will usually invite my in-laws (from my husband's side) and my children's friends home for dinner on the second day. This year, I had prepared an eight course buffet style dinner for the close to fifty guests. My Prosperity Menu includes: Imperial Herbal Steamed Chicken, Wasabi-Mayo Prawns, Mongolian Pork Ribs, Steamed Wong Bok with Scallops in Superior Stock, Saute Pork Slices with Black Pepper, Braised Mushroom & Dried Oysters in Black Moss, Fried Brown Rice Vermicelli and Mini Fruit Tartletts. All these are in addition to the assortment of traditional cakes and cookies served.

The Properity Menu -I made a menu so that my guests could see for themselves what would be served for dinner.

Mongolian Ribs - marinated in red fermented bean curd for three days, deep fried and the tossed in a cheese sauce.

Imperial Herbal Chicken - three pots of fresh chicken thigh, steamed with herbs and Shao Xing wine.

Steamed WongBok smoothered in a sauce made with superior stock and dried scallops.

The Black Pepper Pork Slices - tender slices of pork,fried with large onions and black pepper.

A perennial favorite, Braised Mushrooms & Dried Oysters with Black Moss.

Wasbi-Mayo Prawns - lightly battered prawns served with the wasabi-laced mayo sauce on the side.

Fried Brown Rice Vermicelli with julienned vegetables - for the carbo-deprived.

Mini Fruit Tartletts - cocktails over custard

The Dessert Tray = more cakes for the sweet toothed!

Celphy is One

2009-02-03T23:03:00.003+08:00

Aunty Ginny, can you help my friend make a birthday cake for her daughter's 1st birthday. Wtihout thinking, I said Yes to Tricia, a neighbour of my brother's.

I did not think twice about making this cake as it has been quite a long time since I last made a fondant cake.

It was to be a two-tiered cake with the name C-E-L-P=H-Y spelt out on the top tier and MY 1ST BIRTHDAY on the lower tier.

I made a cranberry buttercake with a tangy orange curd fillings for the lower tier and a chocolate cherry cake with chocolate cream cheese fillings for the top tier.

Making this cake was a bit 'stressful' for me but not in a bad way though. As it is still within the lunar new year period, it was a challenge to juggle the many visitations, work, the sugarpaste and marshmallow fondant preparation and with the pre-molding of the flowers and alphabets.

I was told little Celphy loves Elmo. I thought I could mould Elmo from sugarpaste to be used as a cake topper. As this is my first attempt to mould cartoon figurines I was pretty panicky when it did not turn out the way I wanted it to. In fact my daughter commented that my Elmo looks constipated.

In the end, I bought a set of the Wilton Sesame Street cake toppers to be used instead. (The little hole you see in the middle here is where the centre dowel was driven in to hold the two tiers in place. It will be covered up when the '1st' candle is positioned over it.)

I had no particular design or theme in mind but just let whatever ideas that comes along lead the way as I decorated the cake in marshmallow fondant.

I am pretty pleased with the end result and I was happy that the cake was much prettier than what Tricia and Celphy's mum had expected.

Oh, and this is the side order of cupcakes which Celphy's mum ordered as well.

Bring Home the Bacon, Pleaz........

2009-01-15T00:50:00.015+08:00

Or should I just say, bring home the belly pork and make your own bacon. After reading Carl Skadian's interesting article on making your own bacon(Sunday Times,3 August 2008), I started on my hunt for Insta Cure #1, the crucial curing ingredient for making the bacon.

According to the article, Insta Cure #1 or pink salt, "preserves color,keeps rancid flavors away and most importantly, prevents many bacteria, particularly those which cause botulism poisoning, from growing."

I was able to get a colleague returning home from the US to bring me a pack of this curing salt in late November. Next was the hunt for the Kosher salt. I visited four supermarkets across the island and most of them were out of stock for this item. I finally managed to track it down at the new Cold Storage at East Coast Mall a couple of days before Christmas. As the meat needs a week to cure, I made double the proportion in the hope that I could share the bounty with my siblings.

The Pink Salt, what a sweet color!

Insta Cure #1 and Kosher Salt

The instructions were simple enough, rub the curing mix into the meat, put into a ziplog and chill for seven days, rinse off all salt, pat dry and roast in the oven (for lack of a smoker).

The Dry Cure, a mixture of Insta Cure #1, Sugar and Kosher Salt

After mixing up the dry curing mix, I split the meat into two portions and salted them differently. One would be a plain basic bacon. The other half, I added smashed garlics, black peppercorns and thyme.

Bagged separately into ziplogs and into an airtight box, I started on my seven days wait for the magic to take place.

The Bacon that never was. (Top) Garlic-Thyme-Black Pepper, (Bottom)Plain Bacon

After the long wait, I approach the salted belly pork with much excitment thinking that I will have my own homemade bacon in about two hours. All was fine with the garlic bacon but when I opened the ziplog on the plain bacon, I detected a faint offtish smell. I wasn't sure if my nose was confused with the garlic-thyme bacon earlier and proceeded to rinse both portions of bacon and placed them on the same plate ready for the roasting (big mistake).

In goes the meat at a slow 95 deg C oven. As the heat started to hit the meat, I had this whiff of that offtish smell again. This time I asked my son and hubby down to the kitchen. Without telling them anything I just asked them to take in a deep breath and asked if they smelt anything "nice". They confirmed my worst fear that they too detected a strange smell. Without hesitation, I pulled out all the four pieces of the bacon-wannabes and threw them away before anyone of us would die from food poisoning. Gosh! My heart cried out for the S$44.50 worth of meat going down the rubbish chute. The only funny part I felt was I that I was like a murderer disposing bits of body parts in a plastic bag. LOL!

I gave the oven a good wipe down both inside and out with kitchen bleach and then set the oven at the maximum temperature for about half hour to make sure I bake any bacteria to death. Don't want to take any risk there.

Post Mortem: I recapped each step of the preparation process to figure out what when wrong. My conclusion is that two days before New Year, my fridge was stocked to the the brim with food for a party. Perhaps the fridge was just not cold enough with all the food, wine and drinks jostling to keep cool. The meat could have turned bad at that point. I have written to Carl to see if he can shed any light.

I have not given up on this home made bacon but it will have to wait till after the Chinese New Year, when I have more space in the fridge. Just like my repeated attempts in making Chinese Sausages or Lup Cheong, I will not give up. Next time however, I will not be greedy. I will start with a single portion of belly port to see how it goes before attempting a bigger quantity.

Until then, someone has to continue to bring home the bacon (excuse the pun).

PostScript (4 Feb 09): Carl is baffled too! However he did mentioned that I should turn the meat over every other day to ensure the meat is evenly coated and that the curing mix must be well rubbed in. He has kindly provided me with a Savoury Bacon recipe which I will be trying out very soon. Thanks Carl.

Back In Business - Part 2

2009-01-04T16:59:00.002+08:00

On the 11th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, eleven Pipers Piping.....

It took me this long, eleven days to be exact, to upload photos of the Christmas Cakes which I made this year. Some were orders, some are for colleagues and the rests, for friends and relatives.

I marinated a total of five kilos of dried fruits in a mixture of brandy, rum and Kirsh. I did not use the usual mixed fruits which are nothing more than glaced cherries, citrus peels and raisins. I have never liked fruitcakes made with such mixed fruit as it makes the cakes overly sweet. I opted instead for apricots, cranberries, dried sour cherries, dates, prunes, candied ginger, sultanas and currants instead.

Moist and dark, not the usual 'doorstopper' kind of fruitcake. I called them the 'Not Your Usual Fruitcake'.

Decorated, packed and tagged with a personalised gift tag.

Back in Business - Part 1

2009-01-02T15:41:00.010+08:00

Yup! After my dementia episode last night, I am back in the business of blogging. I guess I really needed someone to push me a little to get me going.

During the last few months, I did make some stuff on and off. So just give me some time now to rattle off what I have made and upload the pictures now before I slip into dementia again and forget the password to my Photobucket account.

******
I was on a day's leave to finish up my Strategic Management project and boy was I stressed up. In the midst of 'thinking strategically' and squeezing out every ml of brain juice available, I just needed to let off some steam and what better way than to bake a bread. Bread baking is therapeutic with all the kneading and punching. Was I imagining myself to be punching my lecturers for the never ending projects that have to be submitted days within each other? I rumaged through my larder to see what I have on hand and hey presto, I had everything needed to make this Rustic Country Bread Loaf that is brimming with flaxseeds and oats

*******
Another bread episode is this Mochi Bread which nearly caused the early demise of my Kenwood Major. The bread dough had to be mixed and kneaded with a cooked mochi paste and my dough hook was resisting so much that I was afraid the spindle would snap any moment. As the hook drags and works hard incorporating the resilient mochi paste into the bread dough, I had to hold the the neck of the mixer tightly to reduce the exaggerated movement and pull it had on the mixer. So this is recipe is definitely not for those who owns one of those puny cake mixer.

The cooked mochi paste in the mixing bowl.

Mixing the mochi paste into flour.

The bread dough and mochi paste before kneading with the dough hook.

The dough after some huffing and puffing by my mixer.

Ready for 1st Proof.

After the 1st Proofing.

Proofed dough, ready for the air to be knocked out.

Shaped and ready for 2nd proofing.

Baked and in all its golden glory.

Another view of the buns.

*******

Then there was this great tasting spicy Mentaiko Spaghetti with a hint of citrus from the addition of lemon rind. This is really a easy-peasy recipe that you can whip up in a jiffy.

And then the Plum Ribs, which is similar to Hugbear's 123 Ribs. I updated the recipe by added mashed chinese sour plums and cola to the marinade. When the ribs were tender after the slow braising, I popped the ribs under the grill to give it a more caramelised taste.

The melt-in-mouth meat with a hint of tangy sour plums.

********
I have a couple more pictures but I guess I will just stop here for the moment and continue later with the rest of the pictures.

Dementia Setting In

2009-01-02T10:44:00.004+08:00

Last evening I was short-messaging with LY and she reminded me that my blog is getting rusty from the absence of blog entries.

I have to admit that I am really getting rusty and lazy to boot. I thought that the moment my studies are completed, I would quickly start blogging about my cooking escapades again. Alas, none of that happened. As you can see, my last entry was in June 08. I completed my degree in the first week of November 08. And then.......nothing happened. At least not until now when I was prodded by LY. Thanks chum, you have woken me up and had given me the mojo to start blogging again.

So last night, close to midnight actually, I started first by editing some photos of stuff which I have cooked and baked over the last few months and I was about to upload the photos to my Photobucket account and HORRORS! I have forgotten my login password. Worst still I could not remember which email address I had the Photobucket account registered to (some email accounts are no longer in use!). What a serious case of Dementia!

So there I was, staring blankly at the "!Incorrect Username or Password" screen contemplating what's next? Ah....go to bed!

This morning, I sent a long email to Photobucket, answering eleven questions supplied by Photobucket to verify and ascertain that I am the rightfulowner to my photo account. For now, I shall just sit and twiddle my thumbs as I wait patiently for Photobucket to reactivate my account.

Well, no harm slacking a little bit longer right?

Bustier Cake: Post-Mortem

2008-06-08T18:04:00.014+08:00

After the birthday song, here are the step-by-step pictures of DH cutting into the cake.

First, he had to choose a left or right breast. He picked right.

Gingerly does it!

Bingo! The right 'Right' breast!

DH just missed cutting the cherry into half. Talk about precision!

You can see the circular mark left by the cherry and the indentation on the wall of the other half.

That's DH with his prize. The Cherry!

So your question. What if he picked the wrong side? Well nothing actually. He will just have to eat up both breasts. It was just for the fun and suspense.

The Prune Butter Cake

Me and the Birthday Boy.

Notes added on 17 Aug 08: I have received several emails asking if my bustier cake was baked in a bustier-shaped cake pan and where can the pan be purchased.
Nope! No bustier-shaped pan was used.
The bodice was sculpted from a 7" x 10" rectangular cake and the boobs were baked in mini half-ball pans. The whole cake was then assembled and covered with different layers of marshmallow fondant.

A Bustier Cake for Hubby

2008-06-07T23:06:00.008+08:00

DH will be celebrating his birthday next week. I thought I will make him something special. A Bustier Cake

It has been a really long time since I last made a fondant covered cake and it took me half a day to put this whole thing together. The effort is well worth it when it was finally completed. The cake is a Prune Butter Cake and the Marshmallow Fondant is flavored with Yoghurt candy oil. The most difficult part of putting this together is the skin toned area and the lace bustier. And as I slowy mold the fondant to take the shape of the breasts, I secretly wish to myself that I am the owner of these beauties.

Oh! There is a surprise instore for DH when he cuts the cake. I have buried a cherry in one of the breasts. Let's see if he prefers the left or the right!

A Week of Asian Food

2008-06-07T22:25:00.004+08:00

Not planned, but it happens that what I made last week hails from various parts of Asia.

West Malaysia: From Sarawak, the land of the Ibans, I made a Steamed Sarawak Kaya Cake. I received two different recipes for this cake. Though they have different ingredients, the name is similar. So to avoid confusion, scribbled SSKC-Version I and SSKC-Version II on the recipes for ease of differentiating them. I shall not go into details of the ingredients of the two versions for the time being until I have experimented with both recipes.

This is SSKC-Version I . A very soft, moist and fragrant cake that is redolent with the richness of kaya.

East Malaysia: This savory layered steamed cake, which I have made many times, is made by layering cream crackers with a spicy mix of luncheon meat and large onions. What prompted me to make this Oriental Lasagne again is that the cans of luncheon meat had started to make its appearance on the supermarket shelves again after vanishing almost overnight due to a food recall by the health ministy. My rationale is that if it the supermarket is allowed to sell them again, then they must have been given the all clear signal.

Indonesia: Chendol Avocado Smoothie with avocadoes purchased from Batam. They were really cheap! 5 big fruits for approximately S$2.00. The smoothie was layered with chendol strips and sweetened red beans and topped with palm sugar syrup.

Philippines: I first tasted Polvoron more than ten fifteen years ago when a business associate brought us some during one of his visits. I am not sure if I should classify this as a cookie or a sweet. Anyway, when Elaine, my colleague returned to the Philippines for a holiday, I grabbed the chance to ask her help me buy the Polvoron plunger. Here is my Peanut Butter Oreo Polvoron.

Something Old....Something New.....

2008-05-29T23:50:00.007+08:00

Stealing a line from the popular prose, I thought I had better post some of those photos which I have saved in my temporary folder since December 2007. I was really busy during that period and could not find the time to post up the pixs. So here goes..

But first, let me do the New.

Steamed Honey Cake

I just love the slightly chewy texture and the honeycomb structure. This Honey Cake or Ma Lai Koh is different from the usual Ma Lai Koh in that the batter has to go through two stages of proofing totalling more than 17 hours prior to steaming. I suppose that is why this cake has the lovely vertical tunnels versus the conventional type which is more like a dense sponge cake.

Ingredients:(Adapted from Traditional Koh Kuih, Lap Mei & Cookies, Y3K Publications, Malaysia)
(A)150g low protein flour or Lily flour
150ml water
1-1/2 tsp instant yeast

(B) 200g castor sugar
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp salt

(C) 7 eggs
60g low protein flour
50ml corn oil

(D) 1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
2 tsps water
1/8 tsp alkaline water

Method:
1) Mix ingredients (A) in a big mixing bowl. Cover with cling wrap and proof for four to six hours.
2) Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl and add in ingredients (B) and beat till sugar is dissolved. Add in the eggs and beat well. Add in the remaining ingredients (C) and continue to beat well. Strain mixture into a basin and proof a second time for 10 to 12 hours.
3) Prepare an 8" bamboo steaming basket by lining with two layers of cellophane paper and securing it firmly with twine.
4) Mix baking powder, baking soda and water from (D) together. Mix it into the proofed batter. Add alkaline water, mix well.
5) Pour into the steaming basket and steam over high heat for 30-35 minutes. Cake is done when skewer inserted comes out clean.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes
Thank you Jenny for sharing the lovely, yummilicious recipe with me. I have made these cuppies thrice and each time, I get rave reviews from friends, relatives and colleagues who just can't get enough of these soft and lemony morsels topped with a tangy lemon frosting. Two variants here, with Chopped Walnuts and with Dessicated Coconut.

Now for Something Old ~ Circa December 2007 and February 2008.

Mini loaves of brandy infused Christmas Fruitcakes for giving away to friends. This is my favorite fruitcake recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly. It is really more fruit than cake and is not overly sweet as I reduced those sickenly sweet glaced cherries, mixed peels and increased the more acidic fruits like sour cherries, cranberries and apricots.

For the Chinese New Year, I gave the Koi Fish Nian Gao (Sweetcakes) a miss and made some auspcious Gold Ingot Sweetcakes instead. It was really a tough act trying to balance the pointy ends of the plastic moulds during the steaming process without toppling them over.

The Ingots, with the moulds removed and ready to be served.

The rest of the Ingots were packed (with their plastic moulds) into traditional wooden boxes as gifts for relatives during the rounds of Chinese New Year visitation.

Oh and I did managed to bake some cookies and made some Fried Spicy Peanuts too.

Buttery melt-in-the-mouth Belinjau Cookies. They are both good and bad at the same time. Good because you just cannot stop at one. Bad because, with each piece you pop into your mouth, you are mentally totalling up the additional calories and promising yourself 'this will be the last piece'.

The shelled and skinless peanuts are marinated in a five-spice and red fermented beancurd mixture and then deep fried to a golden brown. The crispy crunchy nuts are definitely a good accompliment to a mug of ice cold beer!

Making Up for Lost Time

2008-05-11T23:16:00.013+08:00

Having gone out of action for many months, I seems to be making up for lost time. I made two cakes last week. Nothing new as these were tried and tested, fail safe bakes for me.

Cranberry Apricot Buttercake

Chocolate Anonymous Cake sans fudge

Made these Mango Mochi today after seeing them on Florence's blog.

Luscious Thai Honey Mango enclosed in a soft, yet chewy glutinous skin

Golden Oreo Cupcakes

2008-05-04T21:50:00.003+08:00

Yippee! Exams are over and I have approximately two months to relax before the last semester begins.

My first bake. something to warm-up the oven, Golden Oreo Apricot Cupcakes.

The Golden Oreos were bought in the US a couple of months back but I had chucked them in the pantry till now. I am not sure if they are available in Singapore yet as I have not been shopping much but I am sure they will be available here pretty soon.

The Oreos were chopped and added to a basic Vanilla Cupcake batter along with some diced apricots.

Just for the fun of it, I decorated a few of them with an underwater scene.

Gimme Another 3 Weeks

2008-04-20T23:00:00.002+08:00

As you see, I have not updated my blog since January. In fact, I hardly visited my own blog as I was kept real busy both at work and my studies.

I did receive numerous emails for recipes and I have tried to reply as many as I could. If you did not hear from me, I offer my sincere apologies. Give me another three weeks. By then, my exams will be over and I should be able to get into some action (well at least for a month till my next semester begins).

Until then, thanks again all for your continued support.

A Whole Lot of Flip Flops

2008-01-03T00:15:00.000+08:00

Here is a batch of cupcakes which I made two weeks ago for my niece's betrothal day.

The idea was to topped the cuppies with the Chinese character of Xi or Double Happiness. Initially, I had thought it would be just a simple matter of rolling out the paste and then cutting out the shapes with the Xi character vegetable cutter. How wrong was I! The paste stuck so badly to the cutter that there was no way to remove it without tearing it apart or distorting it's shape in the process. I tried dusting the cutter with cornflour and icing sugar. I even used a very fine artist brush to give the cutting edge a very thin coating of shortening. All to no avail as the sugarpaste just refused to bulge from the cutter. In the end, I had to lightly press the cutter on the sugarpaste to get an imprint and then cut out the shape manually with a penknife.

This laborious process took me from 11am till 7.30pm and I only managed 16 Xi characters in the end. Boy! Was I tried after that.

After an hour's rest, I decided to make flipflops out of the balance sugarpaste. This is much easier and I managed quite a few pairs of flipflops within the hour.

Three Weeks of Goodies

2007-12-09T19:31:00.000+08:00

I have baked a little during the past weeks but was really lazy to post or blog them. So here goes, three weeks of goodies.

Three Weeks back.....Green Apple Kiwi Muffins. Baked with chopped green apples and kiwi jam, these were tangy, moist and soft at the same time. Behind the apple muffins are the Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes. Fragrant, chocolately and bittersweet at the same time, these cupcakes are your perfect companion with a cup of hot coffee.

Two Weeks back....Taiwanese Pineapple Tarts. In reality, the fillings is a mixture of Wintermelon & Nata De Coco. I bought the fillings from Taiwan a couple of months back and only got round to making tarts recently. The fillings were really good. They were not sweet, have many crunchy nata de coco bits inside and free from any artificial fragrance. Strangely, it tasted like pineapple. The lovely melt-in-the mouth shortbread crust was a recipe from another blog.

The Tarts packed in the cookie bags which were also bought from Taiwan.

Another bake were these vanilla cupcakes amd cherry chocolate cakes. We have this SFS2010 training in the office and I thought it would be cool to decorate the cakes with the company and training logo. Through Zu, a friend from a cooking forum, I had her help me print these edible icing sheets with the logos.. The cakes went down extremely well with the Management and colleagues and many were intrigued as to how the logos were made.

Last Week....Fruit Pastry. Chockful of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and chopped apples. This recipe is from Vi, who mentioned that this is extremely popular in Belgium. This was confirmed by my colleague Ilse, who hails from Belgium. Doing the taste test, Ilse gave me a thumb up and an A for authenticity.

Finally today.....Custard Peach Bread. It was really not a good day for making bread as it was raining cats and dogs and the temperature has dropped tremendously. Not ideal for proving bread actually but I just had this tremendous urge for making some bread.

Extremely Lazy

2007-12-04T00:26:00.000+08:00

I have been extremely lazy lately. I had thought that after my exams, I would go into a baking frenzy. Surprisingly, I went on snail's pace. I was not motivated to bake nor blog. Ummh....something must be wrong with me! It has been almost a month now and I have only just started to crawl a little. I had better speed up before the next term starts in January as I do have many new recipes to try.

I was really glad to have four very good friends over for dinner last evening. Though it has been only close to five months since we started our course in July, we had became firm friends and a really dynamic project team to boot.

For my bunch of serious at times but mostly crazy, lively and funny groupmates I made:

Mee Siam - Topped with chives, beanpuffs, prawns and crispy shrimp skin.

Yam Cake Wannabes - The correct name should be Bread Pudding I supposed but everyone was stumped to realise that these are not Yamcakes but savory puddings made with bread. It tasted so yam-like that I had to call them Wannabes.

Frosted Cupcakes - I just loved this Vanilla Cupcakes. Soft and fluffy with a heavenly vanilla fragrance.

Mars Bar Velvet Cheesecake - I had this recipe for the longest time and this is the first time I have attempted this cake. It has chopped Mars chocolate bars inside and I also added some shredded canned pineapple to give it a little bite and some sour tang. Amazingly, the caramel within the bars oozes out like molted lava in little pools on the surface & when you slice through the cake. Personally, I do not really like this cake as it was way too creamy for me.

To wash the spiciness of the Mee Siam down, a refreshing minty Lime Mochito.

To Maria, Lai Foong, Joanna and Rayson, thanks for being such good pals. Knowing the bunch of you makes studying fun and I am really looking forward to the day when the five of us will parade ceremoniously on stage in our splendid convocation gowns and mortar-boards to receive our well-deserved scrolls.

Honey I Shrank The Doughnuts!

2007-11-20T23:04:00.000+08:00

Aren't these mini doughnuts cute. They are each about the size of a normal door key which makes eating them so much easier.

The Doughnut Factory is a belated birthday present from Danny, my daughter's boyfriend, who came home from Australia for vacation. It was really sweet of him to remember that I was looking for this mini doughnut maker as the last time he and my daughter were unable to get hold of one in Bangkok as it was out of stock.

The doughnut maker is fantastic! However, the recipe that came with the instructions was a disappointment as the doughnut turned out more cake-like than normal. Although it still tastes delicious, I would have preferred it to taste closer to the real thing. So I shall be going in search of a recipe that will do justice to the doughnut maker.

Another belated birthday present which I just received from my daughter over the weekend is a BlowTorch. I have been contemplating for the longest time if I should buy one as I do not have many recipes on-hand that would require it's use. So if you have any recipes besides Creme Brulee/Baked Custard and browning the Meringue, do let me know.

Excusez-Moi

2007-10-14T12:47:00.000+08:00

Please excuse me if I have not been answering your emails or comments. I am currently preparing for my exams and am buried in my books. My last paper is on the 7th of November and I promise to come back to all who have left comments and emailed me in the last couple of weeks after that.

Thanks for your patience, understanding and support.

Ginny

A Brief Respite from Books

2007-09-30T21:25:00.000+08:00

Lectures have ended for this semester and I am giving myself a weekend away from books before starting on my revisions for the exams.

There are lots of stuff that I wanted to make but in the end, I made only a couple of sweets: Coconut Sweet Potato Tarts, Vanilla Sponge and Candied Pomelo Skin.

The original version of tarts from AuntyYochana were made with coconut and durians. As could not find any durians yesterday morning, I substituted with Japanese sweet potatoes instead. I brought them to a birthday party last evening and they were very well received.

Make friends with your neighbourhood minimart owner. They keep these empty pretzels cartons for me to use as cupcakes holder. See how convenient it is to transport the tarts! I just clingwrap them. No mess! No fuss!

Pomeloes are in season now. Do not throw the skin away as you can turn them into Candied Pomelo Skin. When I was a kid, my mum used to buy this candied pomelo skin which comes in little earthened pots. The made in China type is drier and quite 'chewy' from lots of maltose. The candied skins are placed in between layers of rice paper to prevent them from sticking to each other. They no longer comes in earthen jars but are packed in boxes now. It is not easy to come by them but if you are lucky, you may find some at the Yue Hwa Emporium.

As I did not cook mine till the sticky stage, the skin retains some moisture and were slightly juicy. Very nice served chilled.

Made another simple Vanilla Sponge but turned it into a luxurious version by filling them with Hazlenut Praline that has crunchy feulleutine in it. Tasted like a 'naked' Pralet in the end but nevertheless delicious.

And more bakewares to add to the collection: a Victoria Bundt pan from Kitchen Aid some festive silicon bakeware and a Cinderella Waffle Maker. All brought back from USA by my dearest brother, Michael.

Precious Choya Snowskin

2007-09-08T23:39:00.002+08:00

My second moonies this year. Snowskin that is flavored with Umeshu Choya, a Japanese liquer that is infused with sour Ume plums.

I could have named them Double-Wine snowskins as the fillings are a Red Wine Cranberry-Lotus Paste. However, I prefer the fancier name of Precious Choya Snowskin as each moonie is topped with a flake of edible gold leaf. It took a lot of hunting on my part before I finally found the gold leaf at the Chinese Medical Hall.

Apparently, these gold leaves have a medicinal value (I do not know what??) and they can also be used on the face to beautify the texture of our complexion.

These moonies are definitely not for the kiddies as I had used quite a lot of the wine in place of the water called for in the recipe. I love how the sourish wine offset the sweetness from the skin and how it enhances the taste of the cranberry paste.

Black Gold

2007-08-26T22:14:00.000+08:00

During my trip to Taiwan in April, I bought a mooncake presser from a bakery supplies shop there. I have seen similar plastic presser in Singapore however I was attracted to this particular one at it comes with interchangeable plates for different designs.

It was a breeze making these Chocolate Snowskins as I had only 'stamp' it out. I do not have to be very precise in measuring the weight of each dough covered lotus paste as the presser is able to accomodate as tall a mooncake as you want. Unlike the traditional moulds, each piece of cake has to be of the same weight. Too big and it will overfill the mould. Too small and you will have a very short mooncake. The best part of using this presser is that I did not have to make a ruckus with all the knocking and banging of the mould to dislodge the cakes.

Here are my Chocolate Snowskin Mooncakes, some dusted with edible gold luster dust.

The presser with the interchangeable plates.

Steamed Pumpkin Mee Suah Kueh

2007-08-26T21:34:00.000+08:00

This is for LingLing, who requested for the recipe

STEAMED PUMPKIN MEE SUA KUEH
(Recipe adapted from Y3K Magazine)

Ingredients
240g mee suah
300g pumpkin flesh (shredded/grated)
4-5 Chinese mushrooms (soaked & sliced)
50g hae bee (soaked)
5 shallots – sliced
5 garlics – minced
120g minced pork or chicken
700ml water

Seasonings
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp chicken granules
2 tsp light soya sauce

Garnish
1 red chilli, diced
1 stalk spring onions, diced

Method
1) Place mee sua in a sieve or colander, rinse with water, drain and keep aside.
2) Heat 3 tbsp oil in a wok and sauté shallots till golden brown. Reserve for garnishing.
3) Fry minced garlics, mushrooms, hae bee, minced meat and pumpkin shreds.
4) In another clean wok, add in some water to boil and blanch mee sua till water is absorbed. Add in the fried ingredients and seasonings. Stir well and adjust to taste.
5) Press mee sua firmly into a greased 9” tray and steam for 35 minutes
6) Garnish with red chilies, spring onions and fried shallots.

Note:
Although original recipe calls for 700ml water, I suggest you use 500ml boiled water first and then adjust accordingly to prevent mee sua from turning too soft and mushy.
I use Maicar brand of mee sua which is not salty and the strands are thicker. Each pack is about 280g (slightly more than the original recipe). I use the whole packet without changing the amount of water.

Ensaymada

2007-08-19T22:59:00.000+08:00

The other day, Elaine, my Filipino colleague brought back some Ensaymada from her hometown.

That was my first encounter with this cake-like bread. Actually, I am not sure if it is a cake or a bread. Anyway it was really delicious. It was covered entirely with grated cheese and it came in four flavors – original cheese, Ube (purple yam), Macopuno (young coconut) and Chocolate.

I googled for the recipe and found one which I tried today.

Mine turned out more like a very soft and fluffy bread and not dense like the one which Elaine brought back. It was nevertheless delicious with it’s rich butter taste and the generous shavings of cheddar cheese. I had made three flavours. Cheese, Angle Coconut Flakes and Chocolate.

The fillings were rolled inside the flattened dough and then coiled into a snail shape before baking. After that, they were slathered with softened butter, topped with cheese and good sprinkling of sugar.

If I had not been successful in creating anything close to an Ensaymada, I had definitely found myself a recipe for soft fluffy bread that is a keeper for sure.

Proofing the bread.

Ensaymada ~ Plain Cheese, Chocolate, Angel Coconut

Another shot of the bread.

Inside, very soft and fluffy. This is plain, sans fillings sans topping.

Chocoholic Anonymous

2007-08-12T15:24:00.000+08:00

I am almost dying of cold turkey from not making a cake or a muffin. I have not been baking for quite a few weeks now. So I took the opportunity last weekend to bake a blueberry chocolate cake for my niece's housewarming. As it looks too plain without any decorations, I decided to whip up a devillishly sinful bitter-chocolate garnache to top off the cake. A slice of this cake can send your heart racing as it is so..ooo rich in chocolate. I christened the cake Chocoholic Anonymous.

Over the National Day holidays, I attempted doughnuts. I had great ambitions. My thoughts actually went wild with all sorts of toppings and fillings:- strawberry glaze, creamcheese filling, sour cream & onion, orange curd and almond-chocolate toppings. Alas, it was not meant to be. The dough was quite soft to handle and I lost patience as I could not get a nice doughnut shape. The frying part also put me on wits ends as it browned too fast even after I have lowered the flame.

In the end, I just made some odd looking shapes and tossed most of it in a simple cinnamon-sugar or have them chocolate-dipped with a sprinkling of almonds bits and angle coconut flakes. Oh yes, I made some cute little hundreds & thousands sprinkled hearts for the little girl next door. The doughtnuts tasted good but I guess I just lost patience in making them.

With so much oil left in the fryer, dinner was Vegetarian Pork Cutlets. Boy these were good! You just sandwich two pieces of mock ham with cheese, batter them and coat them with breadcrumbs before frying. It was real good served with mayonnaise, cold tomatoes and lettuce.

Here Comes the Bride (& Groom)

2007-07-20T22:45:00.000+08:00

The last two weeks were a blur of activities at work and schoolfront. As the last time I attended lectures was 6 years ago, it was rather difficult to re-start my 'engine'. Mine! What a difference these 6-years made. I was struggling to stay alert during classes and was trying my best to 'save' the theories and concepts to the rundown CPU in my head! My notes taking skills had also deterioriated tremendously as before I could finished jotting down a point, I would have forgotten what the lecturer just said! Ah! That is but a sign of old age!

Anyway, as the course had just started, I could still squeeze in a little bit of time to do some baking. As promised to my niece Audrey a couple of months back, I made some 'Thank You' wedding cookies to be given to her guests at the solemisation of her marriage to Marvin at the Masonic Club today.

The sugar cookies were baked in a cascading size, tiered and decorated to look like minature tiered-wedding cakes. Individually packed, these were presented to her 50+ guests at the lunch reception after the couple's 'I Do'.

Blushing Bride and Dashing Groom

Isn't this bouquet of Purple Callas lovely? They are quite difficult to come by in Singapore and Audrey had these specially flown in from Holland.

The Masonic Club is really a queer old place. Stepping inside the club, I feel as though I have been transported back to the Medieval times. I was half expecting a Knight to come charging through the heavy doors on a horse any moment. On every available inch of the wall, there were these framed up old pictures, maps and something-something(like Coat of Arms??) which gives the place a very cosy and antiquated atmosphere. In the member's area, there is even a soldier all garbed up in a very fine suit of armour!

The Solemisation Ceremony was held in this lovely garden behind the Club

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Earlier in the week, I managed to squeeze in a brownie order for a friend and a tirimisu for a colleague returning from the USA for a home visit.

I just had to call these Supernatural brownies as they are so devillishly chocolately, fudgy and well, supernatural. I had a chocolate high just looking the batter being poured into the baking tin.

Packed

And ready to go

Oh no! Not another picture of a Tirimisu! This could well be the sixth or seventh Tirimisu in my blog!

Semi Retired from Blogging

2007-06-24T16:58:00.000+08:00

Going forward, I guess I will have lesser time to bake and blog as I will be fully occupied with my studies for the next 18-months. Time will be tight as I will still be holding on to my fulltime job in an extremely fast-paced organization. I hope to be able to bake at least once every other week, more if time permits. Guess I will just go with the flow.

These are some of the stuff which I made the past week. I have been rather slack and was too lazy to take pictures of the Fruit Pastry and Morello Cherry Chocolate
Cupcakes which I made. Lazy me only managed to take photos of these which were made from whatever ingredients I could find in the kitchen.
Strawberry Yoghurt Cheesecake. This was made for my colleague's husband who is celebrating his birthday.

Almond Biscotti.

Panfried Glutinous Rice Packets.

Class of 77 Reunion

2007-06-17T12:08:00.000+08:00

How time flies! In a wink of an eye, it has been 30 years since we graduated from Fairfield Methodist Girls School.

The Class of 77 Reunion tea party was mooted as a result of invitations to attend an Alumni Dinner in celebration of our school's 119 Founder's Day in August. As I know I will be busy during that period, I suggested for some of the girls to come over to my house for a gathering instead. It was quite tough rounding up the old girls as many of us have not been in contact since graduation. I must thanks Angeline (Yuet Yong) for making contact with some of the girls whom I have not met since 1977. We did managed to contact quite a number of them but due to work, prior personal commitments etc, some of them could not attend.

Anyway I am really happy for those who turned up. Thanks Angeline, Carolyne (Cheng Sim), Gina (Chay-Ling), Isabelle, Jenny (Wei Tin), Lay Khim, Linda (Lai Chan), Mary (Mui Eng)and Prudence (Mun Yee) for making the party a success. I truly enjoyed catching up with all you. It was really fun talking about the good ole days, the pranks and 'bullying' we did to each other and how some of us literally 'sucked the blood dry' of our Maths teacher Ms Lau.

Since we graduated, our school had gone through numerous changes. In 1983, the school was relocated to her present site in Dover Road from Neil Road, and in the same year, FMGS broke away from a 94-year tradition, it was the first Methodist School in Singapore to go co-educational.

We Fairsians are proud of our 119-year heritage and we are indeed grateful for the fantastic allround education we received from our teachers who are so dedicated in their profession.

And how could we forget the Fairfield School Song it has such meaningful lyrics and an upbeat tempo. Here is the final chorus: (Note: the original lyrics of the school song has been changed slightly in 1983 to reflect the co-ed status):

Here's to Fairfield, to Fairfield
To every student here
To every happy Fairsian
And to every teacher dear.
Oh! It's Fairfield, at Fairfield
Where all our hearts are light
Where love is in the sunshine
And all the world is bright.

Let's make time for a gathering again and the next time round, lets pray for more girls to join us in reminiscing the good old times.

Yearbook from our graduating year, ELDDS performance and class outng pictures.

The centrepiece, Class of 77 Tirimisu Cake. This is our original FMGS school badge. It has since been changed to FMSS. The badge, school uniform and letters are made from a combination of sugarpaste and marshmallow fondant.

Whipped up all these food myself. Hey, I was not a distinction Home Economics student for nothing you know! I have Ms Viswalingam to thank for this. Issuing her instructions in a military-style way, she taught us all we need to know about whisking, folding, creaming and baking. She was so strict with us that none of us dare as much as to whimper during her lessons. Those were the days when we had to manually beat in teaspoon full of eggs into our choux pastry till our palms developed blisters.
Class of 77 Tirimisu, Baileys Cheesecake, Strawberry Buttermilk Cake, Mango Mousse Cake, Fudgy Chocolate Blueberry Cake, Durian Swissrolls, Cupcakes with Creamcheese Frosting, Almond & Cranberry Chocolate Clusters, Chicken Curry, Fried Vermicelli & Chilled Cucumber Pork Rolls. The steamed Glutinous Rice is compliments of my mother-in-law.

One for the album, group photos (yours truly in the brown top)

Happy Birthday Hubby

2007-06-10T21:54:00.000+08:00

DH will turn 50 tomorrow. To celebrate the birthday of this 'half a century egg', I made him a Tirimisu Cake.

Happy Birthday Dar.

Nothing elaborate about the decorations. Just some simple flowers, butterflies and the number 50 in sugarpaste.

Crystal Tau Suan Cake

2007-06-03T20:23:00.000+08:00

A piping hot bowl of Tau Suan (mung bean) dessert with You Tiao (cruellers) on a rainy day warms the body.

But how about a slice of chilled Crystal Tau Suan Cake on a hot sunny day. The quivering jelly-like texture of this cake cools as it glides down your throat.

I had on Saturday, bought a slice of this Tau Suan Cake from a stall located at the Amoy Street hawker centre. Liking it so much, I had a go at it making a tray for myself today. I adapted a waterchestnut cake recipe and used cooked mung beans to replace the chopped waterchestnuts. Although the piece which I bought did not have you tiao (cruellers) in it, I decided to add some myself. With the addition of cruellers, the cake tasted so much more like a bowl of Tau Suan.

CRYSTAL TAU SUAN CAKE
Ingredients
100g mung beans, soaked for 1/2 an hour and steamed till cooked
½ piece crueller, cut into small pieces.
120g waterchestnut flour
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1 cup water
200g sugar
2 blades pandan leaves
2-3/4 cups water

Method:
1) Mix the waterchestnut flour, tapioca starch with the 1 cup of water. Strain to remove all lumps.
2) Boil the 2-3/4 cups water, pandan leaves and sugar till the sugar is dissolved and the syrup is fragrant.
3) Measure out 2-1/2 cups of the syrup or make up with more water till you have 2-1/2 cups.
4) Add the steamed beans to the syrup, stir in the water chestnut starch.
5) Boil over small flame and stir non stop till mixture is translucent making sure the mixture does not get burnt.
6) Switch off the flame and stir in the crullers bits.
7) Pour into a greased 7” square tin and steam for 20 minutes.
8) Cool thoroughly before cutting with a lightly greased knife.
9) Chill in an airtight box to prevent the cakes from drying out.

Chee Cheong Fun - Recipe

2007-06-02T10:09:00.000+08:00

This is for Anonymous who requested for the recipe:

(Recipe reproduced with the kind permission of CWL in the USA):
CHEE CHEONG FUN
Ingredients:
150g Rice Flour
1-1/2 Tbsp Wheat starch flour (Tang Mien)
2 Tbsp Cornflour
1 Tbsp Oil
2 cups Water
1/2 tsp Salt

Method:
1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Slowly add the water, mixing as you add. Strain to remove lumps.
3. Lastly add the oil and salt and mix thoroughly. Set batter aside for at least an hour.
4. Prepare your steamer and place an oiled stainless steel plate inside.
5. When water is boiling, ladle and spread batter onto the plate. Steam for about 4-5 mins.
6. Roll it tightly. Place rice rolls on a plate and brush with a little oil. Continue with the rest of the batter.

Sweet Sauce (Thim Jeong):
1/2 cup water
7 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
3 Tbsp soya sauce
3 Teaspoon black soya sauce

Mix all ingredients together and cook over medium flame until slightly thick.

Garnishings:
Toasted sesame seeds.

Chocolate Bread

2007-05-31T19:09:00.002+08:00

The name Chocolate Bread is a misnomer as this is really a very rich chocolate pound cake. It is probably called a bread as it resembles a dark rye bread.

The bittersweet coming from the Dutch processed cocoa powder and a good brushing of Kahlua syrup makes this pound cake so deliciously aromatic. (Recipe taken from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Berandaum)

CHOCOLATE BREAD
Ingredients:
23g Dutch processed cocoa powder
44g boiling water
6g vanilla
150g eggs (without shell)
125g cake flour
175g sugar
3.7g baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
184g unsalted butter (room temperature)

Method:
1) Mix cocoa powder with the boiling water till smooth.
2) Let mixture cool and stir in the eggs and vanilla.
3) Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the sugar to the dry ingredients and stir well to distribute the sugar.
4) Put the flour into a medium sized mixing bowl, add half the cocoa mixture and the butter. Mix well with the paddle attachment for 1 minute and scrap down the sides.
5) Gradually add in the balance chocolate mixture in two batches, beating well after each addition.
6) Pour mixture into a greased and floured loaf pan (8" x 4") and bake at 175degF for 50 to 60 minutes or till a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
(cover loosely with a buttered foil after 25 minutes to prevent overbrowning.
7) Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out to cool further.

Kahlua Syrup (Optional - for brushing to add extra moistness)
Boil 1/4 cup water with 2 tbsp sugar till rolling boil. Cool and add 1-2 tbsp Kahlua
Brush onto the top of the cake (still in the pan) immediately on removal from the oven. After 10 minutes, turn out the cake and brush the sides with more syrup and leave to cool

In Memory of Mum

2007-05-27T15:36:00.000+08:00

Here is the Zebra sandal atop a Shoebox Cake which I made for my mum's death anniversary yesterday. The shoebox was a Red Velvet Cake sandwiched with a Peanut Butter buttercream and covered in Marshmallow Fondant. The Shoe and barcode are made out of gumpaste. The shoe is branded Lilly after mum's name.

I had intially intended to make a pink sandal with a bow that was dusted with pearl luster dust.

Alas, the shoe collapsed and I had to redo everything from scratch. It was a good learning experience though because for the pink shoe, I did not make a very good template to dry the sole. The sole was rolled too thin and I had only used a cardboard folded into shape to support it while it was drying. So the gradient was too sharp and it looked weird. I also removed the cardboard circle supporting the toe cap too early which resulted in it collapsing.

For the Zebra shoe, I had cut a block of styroform into a drying platform for the sole.

The sole was rolled thicker and marked with stitching marks. Straps were attached and supported with crunched cling wrap to hold it's shape while drying.

The Zebra shoe atop the Shoebox.

Close-up of the front.

The front of the shoebox with it's barcode.

The insides of the Shoebox, Red Velvet Cake with a Peanut Butter buttercream.

A Bailey Good Cake

2007-05-27T13:01:00.001+08:00

I have a very nice no-fail buttercake recipe given to me by Hugbear. The other night, I decided to give it a twist by adding Baileys Irish Cream to it. The result was a lovely moist buttercake, richly perfumed with the liquer. So what should I call this cake? A Baileys Buttercake? No....! Immediately I wanted to play on the word 'Baileys'.

I recall as kids, how we like to use a certain colloquial line to taunt each other, especially when we are punished by our parents, teachers or any adults for that matter. It goes like this: "Balley Good! Ang Moh Jiak ChooRoot". Roughly translated, it means "Very Good. The Westerners are Eating(Smoking) their Cigars". This 'You Deserved It' taunt is usually accompanied by an exaggerated action of putting the left palm underneath the right armpit, and then pumping the right arm up and down against the left palm. A very silly and comical action I must say. Honestly I do not know what is the connection between being punished and the Westerners having a smoke! Puzzling isn't it! But it was then, as a kid, a fun way to gloat over your friend's misfortune.

So with this funny thought in my mind, I named the buttercake a Bailey Good Cake.

BAILEY GOOD CAKE
Ingredients:
300gm sifted self-raising flour
250gm butter
220gm fine sugar
6 eggs (large)
1tsp Tiramisu flavor
1/2tsp Capuccino flavor
1/2cup Bailey's Irish Cream Liquer

Method:
1) Grease and line an 8" or 9" square tin. Preheat oven to 180degC.
2) Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3) Add the eggs, one at a time and beating well between each egg.
4) Add the flavoring essence & Baileys and beat well to combine.
5) Fold in the flour.
6) Bake for approx 40mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Breakfast Treat

2007-05-20T19:01:00.000+08:00

Tried my hands at making Chee Cheong Fun or Steamed Rice Sheets this morning. My CCF were real mini measuring only 18cm in length and 1.5cm in diameter. The commercial ones are about 25 to 30cm in length and 3-4cm in diameter!

The batter being steamed in a stainless steel cooking pot.

All rolled up.

Smooth and slippery CCF served with a Hoisin-Chilli Sauce.

Chewy Mochi Bread

2007-05-20T18:29:00.000+08:00

I was reading the Sunday Times today and came across an article titled Doughnut or Puff? Just chew on it. The article is about a new food fad called Chewy Junior. According to the reporter, "the pastries look like doughnuts without holes and are filled with cream inside......but unlike cream puffs and doughnuts, these baked foods have a pleasantly chewy dough". Hmmm this sounded like just what I have made on Saturday afternoon. I cannot confirm this fact as I have not tasted the CJs but my guess is that these are none other than Baked Mochi.

I had purchased two packets of this mochi premix from Taipei a month ago. I had the Mochi Bread (as this is what it is called on the label) baked in muffin cups. Some were filled with redbean paste before baking and others had custard 'pumped' into the hollowed centres after baking. They were crispy on the outsides and chewy on the insides.

The CJs sold at the shop came in various toppings:- strawberry dream, oreo chocolate crunch, coffee muesli crunch. These offerings surely gave me an idea what to do with the 2nd packet of mochi premix that is sitting in the larder.

Roll & Slice

2007-05-13T20:40:00.000+08:00

At last, I was able to turn out a decent swissroll that DH & DD gave their stamp of approval. My previous attempts were not exactly failures but they were not that fine in texture. Thanks to Lucy who shared her recipe, the Ariana Swissrolls turned out soft and silky. I was so happy that I quickly make one more to be shared with my colleagues tomorrow. Thank you Lucy. Muack!

Something else which I made last week was the Black Forest Chocolate Slice. I simply mixed melted butter with some crushed Marie biscuits, chopped dried cherries and chocolate chips together. The mixture is then pressed into a square tin before chilling. Melted chocolate was then drizzled over the top and voila! Black Forest Chocolate Slice.

A Traditional Weekend

2007-04-05T22:01:00.000+08:00

It was a traditional weekend for me as I attempted three traditional Asian snacks.

The first was a Black Angku. Angku actually means red (ang) tortoise (ku) as this cake is red in color and shaped like a tortoise. They are usually filled with a sweet paste of greenbean or peanuts. The Black Angku though, is sweet and savory at the same time as the skin is sweet while the fillings, which is a mixture of minced meat and radish, is savory. The black is not artificial coloring but comes from Choh Yip (Rami leaves), a kind of herb, used widely in Hakka snacks.

It was not easy for me to buy the fresh Choh Yip and it took me five trips to Johor Bahru before I finally found the dried leaves in a bakery mart there.

The dried leaves need to be reconstituted in water and boiled, before being blended into a paste to be added to the skin.

Another traditional cake I made was the Fa Gao or Huat Kueh as it is popularly known. ‘Huat’ means To Prosper in the Hokkien dialect. The Huat Kueh is an all-important cake taking centrestage in most of the Chinese festivals or religious rites at it is believed that by eating the Kueh, it will bring the person lots of money-luck through Prosperity (Huat).

From same basic recipe, I make three different flavors of the kueh. The brown ones are flavored with Palm Sugar. The purple, with Taro Paste and the green, with Pandan Paste. I was a too heavy-handed with the paste and the steamed cakes look like a bright piece of artwork!

Finally, using the balanced of the minced meat & radish fillings from the Black Angku, I churned out a batch of Bowl Cakes or Wa Kueh. A batter made from rice flour & tapioca flour is cooked till thickened and mixed with a portion of the minced meat before being steamed in rice bowls. Midway, they are topped with more minced meat to complete the steaming process.

Soft and silky smooth in texture, these cakes are really delicious when served with a dollop of vingared garlic puree.

Wa Kueh

Ingredients for the Kueh:
2-1/2 Chinese ricebowls of rice flour
4 tbsp tapioca starch
6 Chinese ricebowls of water
1/2 - 1 tsp salt

1) Add the salt to the two flours. Mix with 3 bowls of water till free of lumps.
2) Bring the balance 3 bowls of water to the boil. Add in the rice flour mixture, stirring all the time to prevent lumps.
3) Cook till you get a very soft paste.
4) Add 1/3 of the cooked toppings and mix well.
5) Steam in pre-heated bowls over high heat for 15 minutes.
6) Top with the balance toppings and steam for a further 10 minutes.
7) Serve warm or at room temperature.

Toppings:
200gm minced pork
200gm preserved radish (Chai Poh), soaked to remove excess salt, drain well

Sauce:
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp dark soya sauce
1 to 1-1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp Taiwanese Aged Soy Paste
1 tbsp Chinese Wine.
3/4 bowl water
1 clove garlic, minced

1) Marinate pork for 1 hour with 1 tsp sugar, 2 tsp soy sauce 1 tsp sesame oil.
2) Heat some oil, saute the radish till fragrant. Dish up and set aside.
3) Heat some oil, saute the garlics till fragrant and add the minced pork. Stir fry till they change color and add the pre-fried radish.
4) Add the seasoning ingredients and drizzle in the wine.
5) Fry for 2-3 minutes and add the water, simmer for a while till you are left with about 1/2 a bowl of sauce.

Vinegared Garlic
Grind 2-3 garlics till very fine and mix with 1/2 tbsp of white vinegar.

Note:
Add the sauce ingredients gradually and taste as you go along as different brands of chai poh has different levels of saltiness.

Yum Yum Tom Yum

2007-03-26T23:19:00.000+08:00

I was in Phuket last week for a meeting. Hotel food in the Patong area were so so. At the end of the 3-day meeting, I had requested Sandy, the local guide, to bring us to a good restaurant serving authentic Thai seafood. She recommended Danang Restaurant at Chao Fah Road, which is along the Charong Beach. Now Danang is a restaurant that is patronised mostly by the locals unlike the restaurants in the Patong area, which serves the tourists mainly. So the price was reasonable and the food really authentic unlike the watered-down versions we had earlier in the week.

We had the most incredible S$110 meal that fed the five of us ladies silly.

Best ever Seafood Tom Yum, chockful of prawns, mussels, flower crabs, fish, squids and abalone mushrooms. The soup has a lovely tang and was spicy enough to make your scalp sweat.

Giant Spicy Tiger Prawns the length of your palms, with a sauce so good that makes you go for a second and third helping of rice.

Fresh and sweet Steamed Fish in Lemon Sauce.

Fresh Oysters twice the size of your sauce plate and harvested off the Andaman Sea. As it was so big, I had to take three bites as I cannot slurp it down as with a normal oyster. It was super-delicious and had a 'crunch' to it. The Thais served them with seven kinds of condiments ~ fried shallots, chilli sauce, fine salt, sweet & spicy chilli/bean paste, garlic slivers, prik nam-phla and lime wedge. You add a little bit of each condiment to eat with the oyster.

Mud Crab with Tang Hoon. Springy mungbean vermcelli that has soaked in all the goodness and flavors of the crabs.

The ubiquitous Pineapple Rice.

We also had two different types of stir-fried vegetables, fresh coconuts all round and another round of fresh lime juice to douse the fire at the end of the meal.

Ummh...Danang will now be in my highly recommended list of restaurants.

Takoyaki

2007-03-26T21:24:00.000+08:00

It has been almost a year since I last used this Takoyaki Hotplate, which was a present from my brother after one of his trips to Tokyo. After receiving this new toy, I had agreed to help Joanne to buy one should my brother visit Tokyo again. That was almost a year back.

My brother did not forget! Just two weeks ago, he lugged back another Takoyaki Hotplate for Joanne. It was also a reminder that I have left my own hotplate sitting forlornly in the cupboard, out of sight, out of mind. Having used it only twice previously, I thought it was high time I made some Takoyakis (is there a plural form for takoyaki???)again.

The Takoyaki batter cooking in the hotplate.

After turning them over

Served with Japanese mayonnaise, Otafuko sauce and Bonito flakes. Oishi.

It's Blooming Roses

2007-03-15T22:02:00.000+08:00

Tried my hands at making roses out of sugarpaste. There is much room for improvement though. I have to roll the paste thinner and learn to overlap the petals at the right position. Now, my rose seems to be lopsided because the petals are concentrated on one side. Nevertheless, I am quite pleased with the results.

Drying the centre buds.

I tried dusting the pink rose on the right with some shimmer dust but instead of creating an overall sheen, what I got were patchy petals.

Back view of the sepals.

A bouquet of roses

Chilled Pork & Cucumber Rolls

2007-03-14T23:06:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, I attended yet another gathering organized by members of the Imperial Kitchen forum. As usual, each one of us brought a dish to share. My contribution, Chilled Pork and Cucumber Rolls, served with a sweet, piquant dip.

Chilled Pork & Cucumber Rolls

Ingredients:
Lean pork
Cucumbers

Sauce:
1/4 cup Char Siew Sauce
1 tbsp hot broad bean paste
2 cloves garlics - chopped finely
3-4 tbsp sugar
1/8 cup Worcestershire Sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sweet Thai chilli sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
Toasted sesame seeds for garnishing

Method:
1) Slice pork thinly into strips approximately 4cm x 8cm wide.
2) Bring a pot of water to rolling boil and cook the pork slices in batches.
3) Run the cooked pork slices in cold water, drain well and chill in the fridge till required.
4) Mix all sauce ingredients together and chill in the fridge.
5) Using a vegetable slicer, slice the cucumbers very thinly lengthwise. Place on a napkin-lined plate to absorb any water.

Assembly:
Place a slice of pork on the cucumber.

Roll tightly and secure with a toothpick.

3) Chill all rolls in the fridge.
4) Dip into the sauce just before serving.

Note:
1) In place of lemon juice, you can use plum sauce.
2) Choose medium sized cucumbers. Avoid cucumbers that are too fat as the core will be thick and too seedy.
3) Slice on one side of the cucumbers till you reach the core, stop and then continue slicing from the other side. You do not want slices of cucumber with too many seeds on it.

Two Cakes

2007-03-13T18:10:00.000+08:00

The first, a Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, was made specially for Leana who loaned me her winter coat recently.

The cake was to be decorated with walnut halves and miniature sugarpaste carrots which I made the previous evening. The sugarpaste carrots were added just before photo-taking. As I was taking the photo, I noticed that they started to slide down the cream cheese frosting, leaving behind a trial of unsightly green and orange.

I had no choice but to do some quick rescue work. I removed the carrots, scrapped out the stained portion of frosting, and then patched up the holes with whatever frostings I could scrap out of the mixing bowl. It was fortunate that I have some leftover roasted walnut halves and in the end, I had to use them to hide the repaired area.

Lesson learnt ~ sugarpaste are not buddies with cream cheese (oily?). Next time, use marzipan carrots instead!

Here is the Carrot Cake with the original design:

After the rescue work:

The carrots that never got to see the day!

The second cake which I baked was a Butter Cake that was studded with canned logans and dried logans. The two contrasting texture of logan makes for a very interesting cake. The canned logans were crunchy and juicy, while the reconstituted dried logans were soft and chewy. I will definitely bake this again as it is a nice departure from the usual raisin butter cake.

Toss For Good Luck

2007-03-05T22:42:00.000+08:00

It was the last day of the Chinese New Year yesterday and we had our traditional Yue Sheng (Raw Fish Salad) Party at home.

As there are always so many of us, we will usually just throw a piece of new and cleaned plastic sheet over the entire dining table to be used like a giant serving platter. All the veggies will be piled onto the plastic sheet and we would all just toss away for good luck amidst loud shouts of 'Fatt Ah' (Cantonese for Prosperity).

Last year, we had shaped the salad into the outline of the Singapore island.

This year, being the Year of the Golden Pig, we decided to shape the salad into the Chinese character 'Zhu', which means Pig.

The salad, before adding the condiments.

With the condiments scattered all over the character. We added a heart outline to the character as the 15th day is also believed to be a Valentine day of sort whereby, if an unmarried lady were to toss a mandarin orange into a river, she will be blessed with a spouse quickly.

Ready! Set! Go! We have to hold up the sides of the plastic sheet to prevent the 25 overly enthusiatic diners from tossing the salad onto the floor.

Tossed and ready to be eaten.

And after the salad, a nice bowl of Abalone & Chicken Shreds Porridge.

Missing in Action

2007-02-26T21:21:00.000+08:00

I have been MIA for the past month and I thank my supporters for emailing to check what is happening. I have been kept rather busy at work and have been working late quite frequently too. So by the time I reached home, I want nothing more than to slump myself on the sofa.

Anyway, I was away in Shanghai for a few days in late January for some company training and my Shanghai colleagues hosted me to a most wonderful dinner at the Xiao Nan Kuo, which is located just next to the Pearl Tower. Business in the restaurant was very brisk but the service staff were still attentive and quick to respond. I really enjoyed every single dish served and I was particulary intrigued by the Glutinuous Rice Stuffed Lotus Root. Coincidentally, just a couple of days before leaving for Shanghai,I saw this recipe while browsing through a cookbook at a bookstore and I remembered asking myself then how would this dish taste? I never imagine that it would taste so good. The lotus root has been boiled long enough to be soft while still retaining it's bite and the starchy glutinous rice gave it a nice contrast. Drenched with a sweet syrup flavored with Osmanthus, it was really an awesome combination. Strangely, instead of being served as a dessert, it was served as part of several appetisers that included Duck's Tongue, Drunken Chicken, Braised Tofu with Peanuts and preggy Fried Fish which is different from the Japanese Shishamo.

(Opps pardon me! I had completely forgotten to adjust the camera to suit the indoor lighting condition and my first few photos turned out with a yellow tinge)

Duck's Tongue, Braised Tofu with Peanuts, Fried Fish, Drunken Chicken

Some of the other dishes served following the appetisers:

Fried River Shrimps, Tofu with Roe of Hairy Crab, Saute Beef Slices

Sweet Sour Squirrel Fish, Fresh & Preserved Pork Soup with Bamboo Shoot, Grandmother's Braised Belly Pork

Minced Vegetables with Bamboo Shoots, Spring Onion Pancakes, Red Bean Puree with Glutinuous Riceballs

I also had the chance to try some streetside food:

Xiao Long Bao, Shanghai Meen Chang Kueh with Crispy Sugar Crust, Assorted Sweet Cakes & Ba Bao Rice.

How about a bowl of steaming hot Ba Bao Porridge for about S$0.20?

By the way, I liked the lotus root so much that I recreated this dish when I got back to Singapore.
(L)The one which I made, (R) The one served in the restaurant

The roots are stuffed with glutinuous rice.

The "end caps" are secured with toothpicks to prevent the rice from dropping out during the boiling process.

After boiling in syrup.

Chilled and sliced for serving.

Here's me, after a satisfying dinner, posing in front of the Pearl Tower.

Some of the goodies which I brought back from Shanghai: Duck's Tongue, Duck's Wing, Candied Hawthorn, Porkballs, Minature Candied Walnuts.....and when I saw the Yoghurt Flavored and Corn Flavored Rabbit Sweets, I could not resist the temptation.

For the Chinese New Year, I did not managed to do any baking as I had to use whatever available time left to carry out the spring cleaning. However, I did managed to steam some nice Koi-shaped Sweet Glutinuous Cake (Nien Gao) as gifts for friends and relatives. I lost count of the number of fishes I have steamed. Perhaps a dozen?

And for guests visiting during the new year, they were served pan-fried HongKong Style Radish Cakes.

2007-01-20T19:01:00.000+08:00

If you have been visiting my blog you would have noticed that I have not been updating it as much as before.

Lately, my work has been keeping me very busy during the day and by the time I reached home, I am brain dead. I am still baking though, and I am still trying out new recipes about 2 or 3 times a week as this has always been my way of relieving stress. It is just that I have not been taking pictures of them or uploading them to the blog. Hopefully thing will return to normalcy for me and I can start to blog actively again.

Here is a roundup of some of the stuff that I have made the past week.

Special Chocolate Cake. This is one of my favorite no fail recipe taken from the Australian Women's Weekly and of which I have been using for years. It is easy to do, tastes rich and stays moist up to three days. I did not take a picture but it looks similar to the Cherry Chocolate Cake below minus the cherries.
Here is the recipe for my colleague Sharon who requested for it and for also for Annie from RH:

Special Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
500ml water
660gm caster sugar
35g cocoa powder
250g butter, chopped
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
450g self-raising flour
4 eggs, lightly beaten

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 175 degree C.
2) Grease a 10" x 13" cake tin and line base with baking paper.
3) Combine water, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate soda and butter in a pot and heat without boiling till sugar is dissolved.
4) Increase heat and bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.
5) Transfer to mixing bowl and leave to cool till lukewarm.
6) Stir in sifted flour and eggs and beat till mixture is smooth.
7) Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick/skewer in the centre of the cake. Cake is done when no crumbs sticks to the skewer.
8) Cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool.

During the weekend, I tried a Steamed White Radish Cake taken from another blog. The ratio of radish versus rice flour/water initially scared me. I was apprehensive as to how the cake will turn out. Surprisingly, it was very good. It was robust, full of flavor and it tasted even better when lightly pan-fried. However, due to the large amount of white radish used, there was a tinge of bitterness in it. I made note on my recipe card that when making this cake again, I must squeeze out some of the radish juice to reduce the bitterness.

From the same blog, I tried a very innovative pseudo Tiramisu cake made from Cocoa Puff biscuits. You add cream, which have first been mixed with rum and vanilla essence, to the layers of cocoa puff biscuits. Then you top with more cream, some cocktail fruits and set the top with jelly.

The original recipe calls for Alsa Gulaman, a quick setting crystal jelly popular in the Philippines. I supposed I could find this at Lucky Plaza which is a haven for Filipino food products but I was too impatient to wait till my next trip into town. Since I do not have this on hand, I had substituted it with instant jelly dissolved in cranberry juice. It tasted real good. The biscuits have soften to a stage that it tasted like a rum soaked sponge and because I have added some Cheesecake candy oil to the cream, I feel as though I am biting into a cream cheese concoction..

This last cake, a Cherry Chocolate Cake is a bonus because I have been begging this lady for the recipe for the longest time. She had refused to impart the recipe to me and preferring to make me one each time she visits. However I think my patience paid off after all these years of nagging and bugging her. She finally relented but not without making me promise not to share the recipe. I just love the moist and chocolately flavor of the cake and juiciness that comes from the cherries. Yum!

Getting To Know You

2007-01-07T21:39:00.000+08:00

What a great time I had on Sunday!

It was a day of getting to know the members of Imperial Kitchen (IK), a newly set up food forum.

It was really like Christening ceremony as IK is just over a month old and Lucy, an IK member, made the perfect cake for the occasion.

Chocolate Cake made by Lucy (Yochana)

There were easily 30 of us gathered over Lucy's humongous kitchen table which was laden with a good spread of food contributed by the members. We had Green Tea Cheesecake, Chestnut Mousse Cake, Kueh Lapis, Tri-colored Swissroll, Jellies, Cream Puffs, Durian Puffs, Tiramisu, Brownies (wait....let me catch my breath)...Mango Strudel, Curry Puffs, Banana Chocolate Muffins, Iced Vanilla Cupcakes, Fried Chicken Wings, WaterChestnut Dessert, Black Glutinuous Rice Dessert, Walnut Raisin Cake......(another deep breath needed)....Vietnamese Springrolls, Quickbread, Cinnamon Rolls, Lemon Rolls, Nonya Cakes, Otah, Tao Suan, Chicken-Corn Patties......am I missing anything?

Food, Glorius Food (photos reproduced by kind permission of Jo-Karlskrona)

My contribution was the Japanese Style Chinese Salad Rolls. Japanese Style because the recipe uses Japanese Vermicelli (tang hoon) which is thicker than the Chinese tang hoon and 'Japanese' Sichuan Bean Paste to fry the minced meat. To eat this, you take a piece of lettuce leaf, pile it up with vermicelli, minced meat and assorted vegetable sticks & honey-baked ham, then roll up or fold over the edges of the leaf to enclose the fillings into a roll.

I am sharing the recipe here at the request of some of the members.

Chinese Salad Rolls (Japanese Style)

Ingredients:
300g minced pork or chicken
3 tbsp chopped canned bamboo shoots
6 Chinese mushrooms, soaked overnight, chopped finely
1 medium sized large onion, chopped
1 small pieces ginger, chopped (about 1 tsp)
12 tbsp water
5 - 6 tsp sugar
6 tsp Hua Tiao wine
3-4 tbsp Japaneses Sichuan dou pan jian (spicy beanpaste - Youki brand)
4-6 tbsp light soya sauce (more or less depending how salty your soya sauce is)
12 tbsp water
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Oil

Method:
1) Heat wok and put in 1 tsp of oil and saute mushrooms till fragrant, dish up and set aside.
2) Reheat wok and put in tsp of oil and saute bamboo shoots for a few minutes, dish up and set aside.
3) Reheat wok, add 2-3 tbsp oil and fry garlics, onions and ginger till fragrant.
4) Add meat and stir fry continuously to break up the meat. Add the mushrooms & bamboo shoots.
5) Add the beanpaste, followed by the rest of the seasoning ingredients and water and cook till meat is cooked and the water has been absorbed.
6) Dish up and set aside to cool.

Accompliments:
Japanese cucumbers*
Carrots*
Celery
Red, Green or Yellow Capsicums
Chinese Lettuce or Butterhead Lettuce
Honeybaked ham or chicken ham
1 packet Japanese Vermicelli (Mitsukan brand) - boil in water till soften and soak in cold water. Strain well before using.

Cut vegetables & ham into thin sticks about 4cm in length and display on serving dish.

*Prepare a big bowl of water and add some sugar to it. Soak the cut carrots and cucumbers for about 10 minutes. This helps to make them crunchier.

To Serve:
1) Wrap some meat and your choice of vegetables in the lettuce.

Note:
1) The Youki bean paste is not so beany in taste as the Chinese dou pan jiang and it does not have a raw chilli taste like some Chinese brands.
2) You can purchase both the bean paste and vermicelli from the Japanese section of Cold Storage.
Youki Sichuan Beanpaste

Mitsukan Vermicelli

3) If you are using minced pork, you may use less oil for frying as the meat will ooze oil by itself.

A New Year, A New Beginning

2007-01-02T00:27:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year one and all.

2007 will be a challenging year for me as I embark on new responsibilities and different roles at work. I have much to learn and I have to learn them fast. There is always the initial apprehension and I must psyche myself to overcome the fear of the unknown as only by overcoming this fear will I then be able to perform well. Wish me luck.

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My first bake to usher in the New Year is the Chestnut Tartlets. The insides of tart shells are brushed with melted chocolate before being filled with Cream Patissiere. A dollop of whipped cream is then piped on top of the Cream Patissiere. Finally, chestnut puree is dizzled all over. The whole concoction is then topped off with a single chocolate almond. The rum-laced Cream Patissiere is silky smooth and the chestnut puree is very fragrant. Absolutely wonderful with a cup of black coffee.

For lunch, I had prepared three dishes.

The first is Prime Ribs with Bittergourd in Homemade Glutinuous Wine. The wine was made by DH's colleague. The hearty dish tasted sweetly of wine and is fantastic with a bowl, no make it two, of steaming hot rice.

The next dish is something which I saw during my last trip to Malacca. I was walking past this coffeeshop and saw a newspaper cutting on one of the famous Muar Otah Fishpaste. Accompanying the report was a picture of a dish of longbeans that were fried with the otah fishpaste. I did not get a chance to try this dish as the stall was closed but I had imagine it to be cooked in the same way as longbeans with sambal dried prawns. This dish can be prepared in a jiffy as you do away with all the pounding of spices and dried shrimps for the sambal. All you need is to fry the longbeans in otah fish paste and the dish is ready in a flash.

The final dish is Honey Marmite Chicken. I first tasted this during lunch at Far East Plaza. I liked it so much that I went back a second time just to try to figure out what goes in. I think I have pretty much got it down to pat and dare say I that it tasted even better than the original.

If you want to give it a try, here is my recipe:

Honey Marmite Chicken
3 chicken thighs
Wash and drain the thighs well. Chop each into 4 (or 5 if the thighs are big) pieces. Marinate for half to one hour in 2 tbsp light soya sauce and 1 tbps Hua Tiao wine.

Gravy:
1 rounded tsp Marmite yeast extract
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp light soya sauce
Mix everything together.

1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp Hua Tiao wine

Method:
1) Deep fry the chicken pieces in batches till golden brown and skin is crispy. Drain on paper towels to absorb excess oil.
2) Heat 1 tbsp oil and saute garlics till light brown.
3) Add the gravy ingredients and cook till glossy.
4) Add the fried chicken pieces and quickly toss to coat well.
5) Splash in the wine from the side of the wok just before dishing up the chicken.

Note:
If you want a bit more gravy, you can increase gravy ingredients by 50%. There should be just enough gravy to coat the chicken (they should not be 'swimming' in it.)

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T08:19:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas Folks! Ho! Ho! Ho! Greetings from Santa and Rudolph.

The year had zoomed past so quickly and it is Christmas again. My extended family had the usual Christmas bash at my brother's house. This year, instead of having it potluck style, we had the food catered. I also took a 'sabbatical' from roasting the turkey this year and instead, ordered one from the supermarket. I say 'sabattical' because I have been appointed as the official turkey roaster for the family and have been the one roasting the turkey for the past 6-7 years!

Knowing that I will have some free time pre-party, I had planned in advanced to decorate a Christmas fruitcake. In fact, I had baked three fruitcakes ~ two 6" in size and one 9" in size. The mixed fruits were soaked in orange juice and rum well ahead of time and the cakes were baked at the end of November. I had faithfully stippled the cakes twice a week with Grand Marnier to keep them nice and moist.

You can see the 'bumps' on the surface as I did not 'seal' cakes with marzipan as is usually done. I merely covered cakes with Marshmallow Fondant directly.

The two smaller cakes are simply decorated with some store-bought figurines and were given away to the family of my children's significant other.

For the 9" cake, I had handmade the Santa and Rudolph figurines with sugarpaste. It was such fun seeing jolly Santa take shape. The biggest challenge was to get the heads of Santa and Rudolph to stay in place. Even with a toothpick embedded, they still flopped somewhat because they would not dry fast enough due to the wet weather. The antlers were another problem too as they refused to stay on Rudolph's head.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the end results as this is the first time that I have shaped figurines entirely with my own hands.

A Rolling Good Time

2006-12-21T21:59:00.000+08:00

I had a rolling good time the last two days as I tried my hands at making a swissroll. I have never been really successful at doing it. My previous tries resulted in once, a cracked roll and on another occasion, a sponge that was ultra dry. I had followed the instructions to a T. I just could not understand why I had failed so badly. I recall that I had been more successful during my school days making the humble swissroll with a layer of strawberry jam. I wouldn't say I am very successful this round but well at least I am getting somewhere.

Chicken Floss Swissroll. Not too bad ~ the roll was soft, the mayonnaise-buttercream paired well with the floss. However, I had envisaged something even tastier. Perhaps using a spicy meat floss would perk it up further.

The second roll I tried was the Black Forest Swissroll. I have seen these rolls oozing with whipped cream and I shudder at that very thought. Although I have a weakness for desserts, I decide to put in less cream than normal. My mistake was that I did not brush the cake with enough cherry-Kirsh syrup to compensate for the reduction in cream, otherwise the roll would have been perfect. At least perfect in my eyes.

With just a couple of days to Christmas, it is time to make my favorite Gingerbread Boy. I just love the heavenly smell of ginger and cinnamon wafting through the air and the taste of black molasses. From past experience, I realised that many people do not take to a cookie which is too heavily spiced which is why I left out the ground cloves. If you are thinking of making some gingerbread this Christmas, this is a definitely must try recipe.

Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients:
63g butter, room temperature
85g light brown sugar
180g dark molasses
438g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves (which I omitted)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 180 degree C.
2) Sift flour, soda, salt & spices together.
3) Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy, add molasses and cream till well mixed.
4) Add in the flour and water alternately and mix till combined.
5) Rest mixture for 10-15 minutes.
6) Roll dough on a very lightly floured surface or waxed paper and cut into your desired design. Decorate with currants or chocolate chips (or decorate with royal icing after cookies have cooled).
7) Bake for between 10 - 12 minutes depending on the thickness of your cookies. Cookie is done when it springs back lightly when pressed.

Sunday's Food

2006-12-19T00:19:00.000+08:00

At the request of my daughter's colleague, I attempted to 'write' a recipe for my Shepherd's Pie. I usually just make them based on 'feelings' ~ a little bit of this, a dash of that. So Vanessa, here is the Shepherd's Pie recipe to the best of my abilities:

My Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients:
1.3 kg russet burbank potatoes
1 can Campbell's Condensed Soup - Cream of Mushroom or Chicken
50gm butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper

Boil potatoes till soft, mash and add the soup, butter salt and white pepper. Mix well, cover and set aside

500gm minced meat
270gm chopped large white onions
2 garlics - chopped
150gm mixed frozen vegetables
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tsp dark soya sauce
2 tsp Marmite
1 tsp light soya sauce
Pinch of salt
3 tbsp olive oil
150ml water
1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbps water.

Method:
1) Heat 1 tbsp of oil, 1/3 of the chopped garlics and saute the frozen vegetables for 2 minutes. Dish up and set aside.
2) Heat the remainder oil and saute the garlics and white onions till fragrant. Add the minced meat and keep stirring to loosen the meat.
3) When the meat is cooked, add the mixed vegetables, seasoning ingredients and water. Stir fry for a while, adjust seasoning and thicken with the cornflour mixture. Dish up and set aside.
4) Scoop meat into a heat-proof casserole or inividual size loaf pan. Top with the mashed potatoes.
5) Roughen the potatoes with a fork, dot with butter and bake at 180 degree C for 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of your tray) till top is slightly brown.

As this Sunday was my dad's death anniversary, we had a memorial session for him at my brother's home. Dad was an avid angler. In memory of him, I made a fish-shaped buttercake and covered it with Marshmallow Fondant. The whole fish is then painted with a mixture of silver, gold and pearl luster dust. I had also made a fish rod and hooks out of sugarpaste to go with the fish. Unfortunately, due to the wet weather, the rod and hook did not dry on time and the rod actually broke into three parts. In the end, I 'told' my dad: "Sorry old guy, no fishing for you today. Just a steamed fish for you".

Saturday's Food

2006-12-18T23:37:00.000+08:00

Over the weekend, I finally attempted Jo's (of JoDeli's) Glutinuous Rice Sausages . It was her Glutinuous Rice Sausages (GRS) that started me on a mad frenzy to find the sausage casings in Singapore to make the Chinese Lup Cheong. As I had some casings leftover, I decided to try the GRS. I have added two other ingredients to make it into a luxurious version - Chinese Scallops & Chinese Ham and also added Aged Soya Paste to season the rice in addition to the soya sauce.

Luxurious Glutinuous Rice Sausages

Ingredients:
500gm glutinuous rice - soaked overnight
8 Chinese mushrooms - soaked till soft, squeeze dry and chop finely
3 Chinese sausages - diced finely
3 Chinese scallops - soaked in a little hot water, torn into shreds when soft
35gm Yunnan Ham - diced finely
40gm dried shrimps - soaked and chopped finely

Seasonings for rice:
40-50gm shallots, sliced thinly
2 garlics, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp Aged Soya Paste
2 tsp five-spice powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp light soya sauce
4 tbps oil

Method:
1) Heat 1 tbsp oil and fry Chinese mushrooms till fragrant. Dish up and set aside.
2) Heat remainder oil and fry shallots till brown, scoop up the brown shallots and set aside. Leave oil in the wok.
3) Add garlic and saute till fragrant, add shrimps and fry for a couple of minutes till fragrant. Add the five spice, ham and scallop, fry for a while and then add the sausages.
4) When the sausages starts to exude it's oil, add the mushrooms. Stir fry for a while.
5) Add the rice,fried shallots and season the rice with the seasoning ingredients bit by bit*
6) Scoop up and leave the rice to cool.

Assembly:
1) Tie one end of the casing and using a funnel, fill casings with the rice mixture till 3/4 full and tie the other end.
2) Run a loop of twine in the middle to create two links of sausage.
3) Steam over boiling water for about 1-1/2 hours till cooked.
4) Cool befoe cutting.
Before steaming:

After steaming:

Note*:
As the sausages, shrimps, scallops and ham are salty on their own, add the seasonings bit by bit to avoid over-salting the rice.

For dessert, I made an Aloe Vera Snow Fungus boiled with some pandan leaves. Very refreshing served cold.

New Office, New Friends

2006-12-09T21:47:00.000+08:00

Phew! The office move went smoothly without a hitch and am I glad it is finally completed. I can now heave a sigh of relief.

My thanks especially to Andy who ensured that our computers are up and running so that operationally, there was no downtime. Thanks too to Hui Ni. She was a tremendous help to us, coordinating the move at this end. So it was literally, all systems go the moment the final carton was unpacked and it’s contents stored away.

It has been a week now since we moved in and I have settled in comfortably and made many new friends at the office. Everyone is friendly and had been immensely helpful to orientate us around the various departments.

I was making my daily fix of coffee the second morning when I was invited to try a dessert made by Amy. Although I have made many different types of desserts, I have not made one with the milk of the Chinese Almonds. Amy taught me how to make this delicious Snow Fungus with Almond Milk. Chinese Almonds are known to ease coughs and reduce phlegms. Learning how to make his dessert is a blessing. Thanks Amy. It could not have come at a better time than now as everyone at home is nursing a cough.

Chinese Almonds are actually not almonds but apricot kernels. There are two types, Pak Hng (北杏)Northern Almonds which is bitter and slightly toxic if eaten raw, and Nam Hng (南杏)Southern Almonds which is sweet. The almond milk is extracted by liquidising them with water and added to snow fungus, fresh ginko nuts and barleys. This is indeed a smooth and fragrant dessert and is best enjoyed warm.

Midweek evening, I decided to bake a simple Pistachio-Mint Chocolate Cake for my new colleagues to express my thanks for the warm welcome received. Pistachio paste was added to the mint portion to give it a subtle nutty flavor. Nothing fancy, each piece is topped with a chocolate fudge rosette and sugar flower. I hope they have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed baking it for them.

Sunday's Lunch

2006-12-05T21:33:00.000+08:00

This was lunch on Sunday.

Saute Cabbage with Black Fungus.

Sambal Tumis Prawns

Deep Fried Beancurd with Okonomiyaki Dip

And a Chinese Roast Pork that only meets 70% of my expectation.

While preparing the belly pork, I knew immediately that I would not get a good crackling on the roast. The skin was extremely tough and it took a lot of effort to prick the surface when usually, it would be a breeze to do so. Normally, it would be very easy to prick the skin all over with the special 'skin piercer'. This time, I had a hard time pushing the nails of the piercer in. There were just too much resistance. As expected, I did not manage to get the skin as crispy as I would normally be able to achieve.

Piercing the skin after salting the meat.

Vinegar is applied to the skin and left to dry. This process is repeated 4-5 times to soften the skin.

To get a good crackling, a thick coat of coarse salt is piled onto the skin.
After 10 minutes of roasting, the salt would harden and form a crust that must be removed.

The pork is left to roast till the skin bubbles and meat is cooked through.

A Simple Token of Appreciation

2006-11-29T22:59:00.000+08:00

The Banana Muffin recipe from Cecily came at the right time as I was looking for something to bake for the security guards and office cleaners at our office building.

The muffins are made as my small and simple token of appreciation to them, and especially to Aunty Ah Yan who cleans our office, for helping us get rid of the never ending bags of rubbish to be disposed as a result of our impending office move on Friday. Mind you, the bags are real heavy as most of them are filled with old catalogs, reference materials and trade directories etc. As far as possible, we will try to fill the black garbage bags only half full so that it is easier for the cleaners, who are mostly in their 60's, to bring them down to the central disposal bin.

The muffins are nothing to shout about really but I hope through these morsels of sweet bites, I am able to show them that their help are deeply appreciated.

Banana Muffins with assorted toppings of sliced bananas, almond slivers, walnuts and chocochips.

Handbag Cake for Sophia

2006-11-26T22:38:00.000+08:00

Sophia will be 10 tomorrow. I had promised my colleague that I will make her daughter a handbag cake for her birthday.

Since Sophia's fav color is blue, I decided on a blue bag.

I had wanted to incorporate her initials on the cake but in the end decided to make hanging gold charms instead. The letters 'S' and 'K' are made from gumpaste and then painted with edible gold luster dust.

Starting with two 8" vanilla sponge sandwiched with strawberry filling, I began to sculpt away. I did not have any particular design in mind and I just went with the flow as I covered the cake in blue MMF. As she is still a kid, I decided that the finished bag must not be too mature for her and so decided to use pink trimmings (due to lighting conditions, the pink turned out looking white in the pictures).

My only concern now is that the cake would topple over during my drive to work tomorrow. I am crossing my fingers (and toes) that the cake will remain upright at the end of the journey.

My First Cake Sale

2006-11-25T17:06:00.000+08:00

Since setting up this blog in July, I had received several enquiries if I sell my bakes. I would love to except that I am holding on to a fulltime job and I am really afraid to say yes lest I have to back out at the last minute due to work committment.

After posting the cake which I made for my grand-niece's full month, I received an enquiry to make a similar cake for a baby boy. I had initially said no. But after rechecking my schedule (I am in the midst of preparing the office move), I agreed, hence my first cake sale.

The weather these last couple of days are really not sugarpaste-friendly as the sugarpaste accents takes forever to dry. I was also worried that the sugarpaste accents may turn soft and gooey due to the increased moisture in the air. Luckily for me, except for a few buttons that turned wet, the rest were okay.

Here is the cake for Baby Naaman, a two-tier chocolate buttercake sandwiched with strawberry buttercream fillings. Cake is covered with Marshmallow Fondant (MMF). Buttons, booties and bears are sugarpaste. Bows, ribbons, baby clothings are all MMF. The nameplate is sugarpaste with the name Naaman written with edible food marker.

Side view

Back view

All packed and ready for collection

On Roller Coaster For Two Weeks

2006-11-25T16:25:00.000+08:00

Phew! I finally made it through the last two weeks! Life had been realy hectic for me the last couple of weeks. I (we) are preparing for the big office move which will happen on 1 December. There is the packing of files, shredding of old documents, arrangements for communication lines to be relocated etc etc, I can go on and on. It is physically draining for my colleague and myself having to juggle between routine work and the packing part. We still have a little bit more to be packed before the move and I just cannot wait to get it over and done with, and for life to return to normalcy.

This is the reason why I did not update my blog as often as I would like to as I would reach home dead tired. I still managed to squeeze in a little baking here and there though and here are some of the stuffs:

Belgian Chocolate Cake, this is a premix which I bought from a bakery supply shop in JB. I had only to add eggs and butter to the mix. Very rich, dark and moist. Would have been perfect with a scoop of ice cream.

Sugar Rolls ala Polar Cafe, fluffy sponge with a hint of vanilla.

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms, my superquick dinner coming home famished from work one evening. I did not remove the stalk as I love the contrast of texture between the soft spongy cap and the slightly thick, chewy stalk. I topped the mushrooms with minced garlics, grated spicy gouda cheese, parmesan cheese, a shake of McCormicks Spicy Montreal Steak Seasoning and then drizzle them with olive oil. MamaMia! Give me more!

Finally, had to retry the Xiao Long Bao again after Mefee's unsuccessful attempt. I had the same problem as her when I first made them. This time around, I used 85gm of water for the skin and the dough was much easier to handle.

I also made a small batch of cupcakes for my nieces. They were iced simply with chocolate fudge and topped with almond slivers and assorted sugar toppers. I had entirely forgotten to take photos of the cupcakes. A sign of dementia? Shucks!

Steamed Cheese Cupcake/Muffins

2006-11-17T07:45:00.000+08:00

Cupcakes? Muffins? Whatever! Mei was asking around for a Steamed Cheese Muffin recipe. I wasn't sure if this is quite what she wants!

I have had this recipe scribbled in my notebook for the longest time and I really cannot remember the source. I had to try it first before posting to ensure that it works. So last night I attempted it for the very first time.

Steamed Cheese Cupcakes

Ingredients
4 slices cheddar cheese spread
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
35gm butter
180ml milk

Microwave or doubleboil the above ingredients till all the cheeses are melted and leave aside to cool.

200gm cake flour
4 tsp baking powder
75 - 80gm sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp ovalette

Method:
1) Sift the baking powder with the cake flour.
2) Whisk the egg and ovalette slowly (to disperse the ovalette, otherwise you will have yellow specks in your cakes).
3) Add the sugar and whisk till frothy
4) Drizzle in the cooled creamed cheese mixture whisking all the while.
5) Fold in the flour.
6) Pour into cupcake/muffin cases and steam over high heat for approx 13 minutes.

Note:
The cupcakes are supposed to have a nice round dome and not split open like the traditional huat kueh

Xiao Long Bao

2006-11-13T22:31:00.000+08:00

This is specially for Lance, Sspaks, Anonymous1, Anonymous2. My apologies for taking so long to post this.

Xiao Long Bao (Soupy Dumplings)
Recipe reproduced with the kind permission of LeeLee.

Ingredients for the Fillings
250g minced pork
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp chicken stock granules
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp potato starch
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
2 tbsp water
1/2 sugar

27gm gelatin powder
450gm water or chicken stock

Method:
1) Bloom gelatin in water/chicken stock. Heat gently till gelatin is dissolved.
2) Chill in fridge.
3) Dice set jelly into small cubes.
4) Mix minced meat with the seasoning ingredients.
5) Mix in the diced gelatin and leave filling ingredients in fridge for later use.

Ingredients for the Wrapper:
150gm plain flour
20gm potato starch
85-90gm water (original 115gm)
5gm shortening

Method:
1) Mix all ingredients till combined.
2) Leave aside to rest for 10-15minutes.
3) Pinch off small pieces of dough, flatten with rolling pin and wrapped with the fillings.
4) Place the wrapped dumplings on a small square of lightly oiled greaseproof paper. Alternatively, you can place the dumplings onto small cut-out rounds of iceberg lettuce.
5) Steam for about 5-6 minutes.

Wrapping the XLB
Mine are not the most beautiful of XLBs as I just gather up the dough and pleat them like a normal char siew bao. I have nontheless trawled the net for some illustrations and I found this XLB Tutorial. http://eatingchinese.org/xlbtutor/xlbtutor.html

This is the type of Potato Starch I used. It is commonly known as Windmill Flour here in Singapore and Hongkong.

Hope this will give you a better idea. Enjoy.