Apple soup

This is cough remedy #2.


I used to adapt Sister E "recipe" for apple "soup", basically it's just green apples, chinese almonds and candied dates. But I googled and found out that dried figs are good for cough too so I decided to cook it the savoury way ie to add in some meat.


It is essential for me to cook a big portion and freeze, economies of scale and minimise cooking. But of course, you can always half this recipe easily.


Apple Soup
(serves 6 - 7)

Ingredients
5 - 6 red delicious/gala apples (don't use China Fuji apples)
500g ribs/lean meat (blanched)
30g chinese almonds (南北杏) *
4 candied dates (蜜枣)
70g - 80g dried figs (无花果) #
2000 ml water
Salt to taste (I did not add this as the soup is naturally sweetened)

* I bought the premix pack, if you are mixing on your own, use 2 南杏 : 1 北杏
# I use a combination of both US and Chinese dried figs

Method

1. Peel and core apples, cut into wedges.
2. Rinse chinese almonds, candied dates and dried figs.
3. Blanch ribs/lean meat.
4. Bring water to boil and add all ingredients. Using medium fire, bring water to boil again, reduce to small flame and simmer for 2 hours. Serve warm.

Double Boil Pear with Fritillaria

Of late, it seems that I've been cooking/baking more that I could blog. I always wonder, how do other bloggers keep up with their blog or are they facing the same problem as me?

For my next few entries, it will be on some TCM cough remedies which I've prepared for my children last week.

Despite being on antibiotics, the 2 younger ones were still coughing away and they're moving into week 4 now. We have seen the doctor twice and I was resistant to bring them for another visit. IC has many soup recipes so I asked if she had one for cough. The next day, she emailed me a few recipes and I shortlisted the easiest one to try out.


When I went to one of our local chinese medical store, I was advised not to give fritillaria to a young toddler. Instead, he recommended another product which I kindly decline. I visited a 2nd store and was given the green light to go ahead. With 2 different messages, I was in a dilemma if I should go ahead with this recipe. Nevertheless, I bought the fritillaria (better quality ones) thinking I could still give my 2 elder children.

This recipe originally calls for 1 large pear but I cooked 3 small ones instead. With the uncertainty of fritillaria's usage for my 20 months old toddler, I used 1 recipe for 3 pears instead. Of course, the effectiveness will be compromised but I just couldn't think of a reason not to make this.

No water needed for this recipe and despite reducing sugar, it was way too sweet. I cut a small chuck for DD3 and she grimaced at first bite. Sigh... With the pathetic "soup" base, I added some warm water to dilute the sweetness and offered her a drink. Again, she spitted it out and wouldn't go for a 2nd sip. Instead, the 2 older ones enjoyed themselves and kept asking for more.

Double Boil Pear with Fritillaria (川贝蜜梨)
(Original recipe in Chinese, thanks to IC for the translation)

Ingredients
3 Ya Pears (鸭梨)
3g Fritillaria, crushed (川贝母)
10g rock sugar

Method

1. Wash Ya Pear and measuring 3cm from the top, make a horizontal cut into half.
2. Dig a small hole in the centre of the bottom half of the pear and decore.
3. Place rock sugar and crushed fritillaria into the hole.
4. Cover with the top half of the pear and seal with toothpick around.
5. Double boil for 2 hrs and serve warm.

* 有清热解毒、润肺润喉、消痰止咳的功效。
Effect of clearing internal heat, detoxify, moist lunch/throat, subside phlegm & suppress cough.

* 适用于声音嘶哑，干咳无痰、或常需说话或唱歌者、或吃过多燥热食物以至咽喉干燥者
Suitable in use for:
1) hoarse voice
2) dry cough without phlegm
3) frequent speaker or singer
4) eating too much heaty food which caused dry throat

Steamed Matcha Sponge Cake

Sister E wanted to finish up her expiring matcha and gave me an idea to add matcha into steamed sponge cake. I made this yesterday since Sister E came by in the afternoon to help me out for a few hours as DH was still in Philippines.

The batter was rather thick after adding the flour. I should have reduced the flour accordingly since I've added in 5 teaspoon of matcha. Instead of sprinkling sugar to make the cross, I used a chopstick dipped into oil and "cut" the batter prior to baking. It didn't work hahaha!

Everytime I make this, I replaced hong kong flour with cake flour. But I got slightly adventurous and decided to use plain flour instead. I sifted the flour 3 times before mixing into the beaten eggs, hoping that it will turn out soft and fluffy.

The cake was soft but not exactly fluffy (then again, I've bought some from stalls with such texture too). I suspect it was due to the addition of matcha or probably my weighing scale has gone bonkers (I'm using a cheap kitchen scale) and I've added more flour then needed. For my family, they ain't fussy eaters so they don't mind this texture ;-)

Steamed Matcha Sponge Cake (抹茶鸡蛋糕)
Ingredients
(A)
4 eggs
180g caster sugar

(B)
230g plain flour
5 heaped tsp matcha
*sifted 3X

(C)
75ml Sarsi (or any fizzy drinks)

Method

1. Use high speed beat eggs till fluffy.
2. Add in sugar gradually and continue beating till well- blended, turn off the power.
3. Fold in the flour in 3 portions.
4. Add in Ingredients C and mix well.
5. Pour mixture into 20cm round bamboo basket lined with glass paper till 90% full.
6. Sprinkle a handful of sugar such that it forms a cross on the surface of mixture.
7. Steam over high heat for half an hour.

Proud Mother

Scenario 1
Date: Sunday, 8 Nov 2009
Venue: Victoria Theatre

DD1's ballet teacher organised a ballet concert for her students. I wasn't looking forward to it as I was literally home alone then and there were just too much chores to be done. Also, it was my first time to bun up her hair but I haven't got the time to scout around for the hair net and bobby pins. OMG! It was a mad rush. I finally bought the hair net on Friday night and did a trial hair do on Sat. It wasn't that difficult after all.

The hair net and the U bobby pins.

Her hair wasn't too long, barely touching her shoulders and the ends and sides kept falling. I didn't bother to gel her hair since it was just a trial and had no wish to spend too much time washing her hair. Relatively easy as I took less than 10 mins to complete the bun and used only 3 U bobby pins :)

All ready for the concert.

This was taken after her concert and her bun was intact after 12 long hours ^-^

The concert was great and I'm truly very proud of her. I didn't expect her earnest attitude towards ballet as I do understand my girl is always going around disturbing her friends during lessons or dreaming in her own world and the teacher feedbacked she needs to be very strict with DD1. Also, during the ballet open house, we only get to watch some exercises and not a full dance performance. But when she performed on stage that day, she was full of seriousness in expression and attitude. As far as I'm concern, she did a great job and it was a memorable night for us.

Scenario 2
Date: Wednesday, 11 Nov 2009
Venue: Home

DS2: Mummy, you are a good cooker.
Me: Huh? What is a good "cooker"?
DS2: You cook nice food for us, chicken rice, char siew, nice fish and yummy soup.
DS2: You are also a good homebaker.
Me: Why do you say that?
DS2: Because you bake nice bread, cakes, cookies, brownies and muffins for us.

I smiled and gave him a big kiss and hug. He is such a sweetie :) Now, who says I'm wasting my time in the kitchen and neglecting my young children?

Enough of my raving and now back to baking. Some time back, I saw this Cinnamon Sugar Bread in Irene's blog and it went into my To-Do list. I'm not exactly a fan of cinnamon but since the review was a good soft loaf, I decided to give it a try but reduced the ground cinnamon accordingly.

The dough was very sticky and I had to add in another 2 tablespoons of flour. I shaped them into 5 equal portions and baked in my loaf pan and baking tray.


Verdict: A very soft and light loaf :-)

The girls in the family enjoyed this loaf but unfortunately, my son doesn't like the taste of cinnamon and grimaced at his first bite. I thought the next time I bake this, I might just omit cinnamon altogether.


Cinnamon Sugar Loaf
(original recipe adapted from here)
Ingredients
240m milk
55g butter
1 egg
410g + 2 TBSP bread flour
100g sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons yeast

Method

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Let the machine knead for 15mins, stop the cycle and re-start the machine and let the dough knead for another cycle.
2. Let it proof in machine for 1 hour or till double in size.
3. When proofing is completed, punch down the bread dough to release the air.
4. Divide dough into 5 equal portions and shape into balls. Let the dough rest for 15 mins.
5. Roll out each portion into a long flat oval shape, then roll up lengthwise, swiss roll style. Pinch to seal all sides.
6. Place dough (seam side down) in lightly greased bread tin/pan. Proof for another 1 hour or until dough is double in size.
7. Bake at pre-heated oven at 180C for 20 to 25mins.
8. Remove bread to cool on rack completely.
   

Deep-fry Pork Shoulder Collar

Another gift from Japan :-) Thanks MO!

Still kept in suspense as I do not read Japanese.

Noodles! I can't read Japanese but from the pictures, it can be eaten either hot or cold. For serving it cold, maybe something like soba? Pardon the little hand as my youngest was trying to "help".

I was trying to "replicate" a dish I saw on TV some time back. It was crispy pork shoulder collar deep-fried with garlic. I fried them in 2 batches, the first batch was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. While I was frying the 2nd batch, I was washing up the dishes and didn't quite watched over the fire. The 2nd lot was darker in colour and extremely crispy. I prefer the 1st lot but kids and DH like the 2nd batch with extra crisp.

As I've not tried the one featured on TV, there was no benchmarking. Also, if you have been following my blog, you know I don't take good pictures and couldn't be bothered with presentation but since DH and the kids like this, I suppose it is a good enough dish for me to share here :P

Ingredients

(A)

300g pork shoulder collar, sliced thinly

1 - 1.5 tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp dried thyme

some pepper

(B)

1/2 - 3/4 cup rice flour

2 garlic bulbs, peeled into cloves

(C)

Oil for frying

Method

1. Wash and pat dry pork shoulder collar with kitchen towel. Slice thinly and marinate with soy sauce, dried thyme and some pepper for 2 - 3 hours.
2. Coat each strip of pork shoulder collar with rice flour.
3. Heat up 1/3 pot of oil over medium flame, deep fry garlic and coated pork shoulder collar till golden brown. Dish and serve.

Sweet Potato Bread II

The baking bug was here to bite! I've been baking bread after bread despite doubling the recipe, and there was none left for freezing. For every bake, there were 2 loaves. 1 loaf was eaten up fresh from the oven by my 3 gluttons (and myself :P) and the other loaf for our breakfast the next morning.

Some time back, I've made this Sweet Potato Bread. At that point in time, I've got 2 recipes on hand but I decided to adapt Honey Bee Sweets' recipe first. Today, I decided to try out the other recipe from hidehide's blog. Again, it's a purple sweet potato recipe but I changed it using orange-coloured sweet potato instead.

Both recipes yielded soft loaves. Sister E tried a sweet potato bread recipe from her breadmachine's recipe book and gave good reviews too. I guess we can't go wrong with sweet potatoes ;-)

Made 3 small porcupines with this recipe, it was cute to look at but when shaped into small buns, the bread somehow lost it's texture, it became dry but my children love it to bits for it was just too cute for them (at least for the 2 elder ones).

While I was updating this blog, I just realised that both recipes are very similiar except that for this recipe, it uses less butter and sweet potato. For texture wise, both tasted great and stayed soft on 2nd day.

Sweet Potato Bread
Ingredients
400g bread flour
3/4 tsp salt
40g sugar
2 tsp yeast
150ml warm water (I use tap water)
1 egg
40g butter
200g purple sweet potato, steamed and mashed

Method

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Let the machine knead for 15mins, stop the cycle and re-start the machine and let the dough knead for another cycle.
2. Let it proof in machine for 45 - 60 mins or till double in size.
3. When proofing is completed, punch down the bread dough to release the air.
4. Divide dough into 3 equal portions and shape into balls. Let the dough rest for 15 mins.
5. Roll out each portion into a long flat oval shape, then roll up lengthwise, swiss roll style to form a long rope. Pinch to seal all sides.
6. Place dough (seam side down) in lightly greased bread tin/pan. Proof for another 45-60 mins or until dough is double in size.
7. Bake at pre-heated oven at 170C - 180C for 25 to 30mins.
8. Remove bread to cool on rack completely.

Peanut Butter Bread

It had been a while since I last bake a loaf of bread. When I don't bake, I totally forgot about it but once I get started, I couldn't myself from baking :P

Attempted HHB's Peanut Butter Bread since my peanut butter had been sitting in my fridge for the longest time.

Originally a breadmachine recipe but I had it plaited and baked it in my oven instead. . And instead of using powdered milk since I don't have any at home, I replaced water with full-cream milk.

Baked it in my 9" x 5" loaf pan as I don't have a pullman loaf pan.

Here's another one plaited but slightly longer.

And it went into my 4" round pan.

The bread was soft and airy, BUT I thought the bread tasted rancid but kids love it. Again, another recipe that couldn't please everyone.

Peanut Butter Bread

Ingredients

300ml milk

3 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter

1 tablespoon oil

450g (3 cups) bread flour

1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons caster sugar

1 & 1/4 teaspoons instant or fast-acting dried yeast

Method

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Let the machine knead for 15mins, stop the cycle and re-start the machine and let the dough knead for another cycle.
2. Let it proof in machine for 30 - 45 mins or till double in size.
3. When proofing is completed, punch down the bread dough to release the air.
4. Divide dough into 2 portions (optional). Shape as required and let it proof on lined or greased baking tray for another 45-60 mins or until dough is double in size.
5. Bake at pre-heated oven at 180C for 30 to 35mins.
6. Remove bread to cool on rack completely.