Tuesday, March 31, 2009
AMC Mee Goreng
Hokkaido Milk Bread - Nutella Plait
Marie Biscuit Steam Cake
Just the other day, my gf MH sms-ed me to ask for a steam cake recipe as she doesn't want to bake for one very simple reason:- baked cakes have trans fats.
Trans fats are found in thousands of food items, eg margarine, cakes, pies, pastry etc... I understand that small amounts of natural trans fat can also be found in meat and butter. However, I still THINK home-baked products are more superior than commericially bought food since we use quality ingredients. In addition, we don't add preservatives to our bakes and there are some ingredients (chemicals) we can choose to omit.
Back to this steamed cake. DD1 didn't like the taste when I first made this. A few months later, I made it again, hoping that she'll enjoy the cake. When she took her "first" bite, she smiled and says it's nice :)
MH, this is for you.
Recipe from here
Ingredients A:
300g marie biscuit (crush)
10g double action baking powder (sieve)
Ingredients B:
4 eggs
240g sugar (I use 160g)
240g milk
Vanilla oil : ¼ tsp
Ingredients C:
160g melted butter
Ingredients D:
15g cocoa powder (sieve)
Method:
- Mix Ingredients B into a mixing bowl stir till sugardissolves, strain
- Add in Ingredients A and mix until well combined
- Add melted butter and mix well
- Divide batter into 3 portions. Add cocoa powder into oneof the portion and mix till well combined
- Grease baking tin (20cm) and line with baking paper
- Pour 1st portion of plain batter into baking tin andspread neatly. Steam with high heat for 15 mins. Removebaking tin from steamer, prick
- Pour in 2nd portion of brown batter and spread neatly.Steam with high heat for 15 mins. Remove baking tinfrom steamer, prick
- Pour in 3rd portion of plain batter and spread neatly.Steam with high heat for 15 mins. Remove baking tin from steamer and let cool.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Brioche with Yogurt (Bread machine recipe)
For this loaf, I used the recipe for Brioche as I do like the texture of this bread.
I don't usually stock up on pork floss but DS2 had been asking me for pork floss bread so when I was out running an errand last week, I bought a pack of pork floss from 美珍香.
Note: This yields a very sticky dough so if you are baking this outside your breadmachine, do remember to oil your hands ;-)
A very nice French lady - Nad18 shared her recipe in Kitchen Capers and I've written to her to seek permission to share this wonderful recipe in my blog.
Brioche with Yogurt
Ingredients
2 beaten eggs
125ml plain yogurt
320ml milk
1 sachet/8g vanilla sugar (I omit)
75g sugar
500g flour
2 teaspoons yeast dry
4 tsp butter (optional)
Method
Put the ingredients into the breadmaker machine according to manufacturer's instruction. Program white bread, average crust, to stop front 20mn.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Homemade Yogurt
For this homemade yogurt, I can make 3 batches from the initial starter.
When I first introduced homemade plain yogurt to them, they didn't quite like the taste but after they finished their first serving, they asked for more. Ever since then, I've been making yogurt on a regular basis :)
I couldn't resist buying fresh strawberries especially the ones from Korea!
Ingredients
Method
- Heat the milk till just warm, stir in milk powder.
- Add in starter yogurt and mix well.
- Transfer to thermal flask/any container, close and leave to set in a warm place for 6 - 8 hours.
- Once set, put the yogurt in the fridge or the yogurt will turn too sour.
Ham and Cheese Ring Bread
- The bread doesn't look appetising.
- Due to the mayo, it makes this a mushy bread and DS2 doesn't like his bread moist. He had a hard time trying to finish up his breakfast then.
AMC Claypot Sliced Beef Rice
I'm not sure if kids and DH ever get bored eating this dish but I'm tired cooking the same dish so regularly. Just the other day, I was on MSN with SL and she shared with me that Auntie A cooked this with sliced beef too. For a health reason, DH is unable to consume too much red meat so I can only cook this when he is not in town.
The way of cooking is the same , just that you replace chicken with sliced beef. Also, instead of adding chinese sausage, I added 2 big onions (oh, I love onions!) and stir fried some french beans to go along. I could have added fresh mushrooms too but with the unpredictable weather, it's difficult for me to lug 3 kids to the supermarket. I can live without the mushrooms in exchange for some peaceful moments.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Cheese Brownie
Alright, I must admit this picture does not look appealing but trust me, this brownie taste heavenly! I'm not a fan of brownie but this really rocks!
My sister E first made this and her boys love it, especially so from the freezer. I'm not a chocolate fan so I never bake with any chocolate. It's a different story now that I have kids. They love chocolates. Instead of buying brownies which are always overly-sweet, I decide to bake them this since sister E gives so much rave about it.
Recipe from here
Brownie Ingredients
180 gm. Butter - melted
275 gm. brown sugar (I use 180g)
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla essence
120 gm. self-raising flour
70 gm. cocoa powder
Cheese filling:
250 gm. cream cheese
45 gm. butter
80 gm. icing sugar (I use 60g)
1 egg
Some chocolate chips to sprinkle on top
Method
- Mix melted butter with brown sugar until well combined.
- Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in vanilla essence.
- Gently fold in flour and cocoa powder and stir till smooth.
- For cheese filling: beat cream cheese, butter and icing sugar until well combined. Add in egg, beating well.
- Pour half of brownie batter into loaf pan, then pour in cheese filling. Then pour the balance brownie batter on top of cheese filling. Sprinkle top with chocolate chips.
- Bake in preheated oven 170C for 40 min.s or until cooked.
Own Notes:
Tecno TEO 3400: Bake at 160C for 40 mins.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Butter Walnut Ice Cream
The texture is rich and creamy, just the way I like my ice cream to be. After DH finished his ice cream, I asked for some feedback. He says it's nice and asked me which brand I bought. To think that my home-made ice cream actually tasted like store bought ice cream, this means it's successful ^-^
Unfortunately, my mixer died on me while I was making this. So now I'm in search of a new mixer. Though I'll very much like to get a Kenwood or KitchenAid, there's no space at my counter top so I'll have to pass. I'm still going to get myself a small and handy handheld mixer.
Method:
- For ice cream base: Heat up the cream and milk in a pot till warm.
- Whisk egg yolks with sugar until smooth.
- Pour in the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks mixture and stir till smooth.
- Pour the egg and milk mixture back into the pot and cook over medium heat till mixture thickens. Add in vanilla extract and leave it to cool then put in the freezer to freeze for about an hour.
- For butter walnuts, melt the butter in a saucepan. Then add in chopped walnuts and fry for about 2 mins. before adding the dark brown sugar. Stir and switch off heat and leave it to cool.
- Beat the ice cream base either in an ice-cream maker or use a whisk to whip up.
- Mix in butter walnuts and then pour into an ice-cream tub. Put in the freezer to freeze for at least 4 to 5 hours.
- Scoop the ice-cream into a glass and pour chocolate sauce over it. Sprinkle some roasted walnuts on top. Serve and Enjoy!!
AMC Claypot Chicken Rice
I still remember I cooked this once for sister C and kids when they came by during one of the school holidays and my nephew N likes this. Ever since, I've been cooking this whenever they visit :P
N: If you're reading this, I hope you've enjoyed your dinner last Thursday :)
This recipe is good for my family of 2A + 2C (not taking into consideration of what DD3 can eat since she's eating so little)
(A)
(B)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
(C)
(D)
- Heat up pot till needle reaches Red, stir fry shallot and ginger with some oil.
- Add mushroom to stir fry till fragrant. Add in rice and fry till well mixed. Add water.
- Cook rice till 11 o'clock, add chicken on top and cook till 2 o'clock. Reduce medium heat to small fire and simmer for another 5 - 7 mins.
- Food is ready to be served when needle retracts to 12 o'clock.
Rice Cooker Method
- If you are using rice cooker, you can either stir fry the ingredients first and transfer to your rice cooker to cook or the lazy way is to just dump everything into the rice cooker and add in the amount of water required.
- Stir the ingredients to mix well.
- Cook as per how you'll cook your plain white rice, with a stir in between the cooking cycle (that's what my Mom does). When the cooking cycle is completed, let stand for 10 - 15 mins.
- Fluff up the rice and the dish is ready to be served.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Buttermilk Pancakes
This is not the usual flat pancakes but it's thick and fluffy. I have been using Nigella Lawson's pancake premix recipe as I can prepare the premix in advance and fridge it. But when I stumbled upon this recipe, I tried and like it alot (kids are neutral though). I personally feel that it's quite similar to MacDonald's Hotcakes, which is what I like.
My bottle of maple syrup just expired so I replaced it with 2 TBSP of cooking honey instead as I was worried it may be too sweet. I was right about the sweetness as 2 TBSP honey is still too sweet for us.
I can't remember where I've copied this recipe from so if you know the source, pls let me know so I can credit the originator.
Buttermilk Pancakes
Ingredients
2 cups Self-raising Flour
1 egg
1-1/2 cups Buttermilk (I replaced with 1 1/2 cup milk and 1 1/2 TBSP lemon juice, let it stand for 10 mins before using)
2 tbsp Sugar
pinch of salt
Method
- Mix all the ingredients together to form batter.
- Grease non-stick pan with butter/oil and using a ring mould, pour 2 tbsps of batter into the ring. Cook both sides. If not using a ring, try to use a small pan, so that the batter will not spread and pancake becomes flat at the sides.
- Serve with apple & raisins maple syrup and some butter.
Topping
Ingredients
2 large apples
3 tbsp maple syrup
45g raisins
Method
- Bring to boil the apples and syrup till apples are softened. Add in raisins. Set aside.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Swensen's 1-for-1 Lunch
Fried Pasta
Baguette + Eggs
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Hokkaiko Milk Bread
I bought a pack of dairy whipping cream to make Butter Walnut Ice Cream. I had wanted to make another batch of chocolate ice cream but my mixer died on me! From now onwards till I get a new mixer, no more sponge/chiffon cakes and ice cream :( With the left over whipping cream, I decided to bake some milk bread instead.
60 g Cake flour
10 g Dry active yeast
30 g Milk powder
80 g Sugar
9 g Salt
1 pc Egg
250 g Fresh milk
150 g Whipping cream (heavy cream)
- Mix all the ingredients in the bowl of an electric stand-mixer. Remember separate the yeast from salt and sugar to avoid the dehydration.
- Knead until gluten is fully developed and the dough is elastic, smooth, non-sticky and leave from sides of mixing bowl. Cover with a damp towel and allow the dough to ferment until double in size, about 60 minutes.
- Take out the dough and press out the gas produced during the proof. Divide it into 4 portions. Round up and let rest for about 20 minutes.
- Roll each dough out and roll up and place in a 13x33x12cm loaf pan. After shaping, let the dough rise up to 2/3 full. Brush with egg wash or milk. Bake in a preheated 170C/340F oven for about 40 minutes.
Own Notes:
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Family Gathering
I decided to fix up some food for them and these are what I've prepared.
Chick Peas
Remember "kachiang puteh"? This used to be a must have for movie-goers then, I miss those good-old-days.
九层糕
Does this look like agar agar/jelly? Well, it's not. It's the Nyonya 9 layer kueh.
I made this once and I told myself I need to use a smaller casserole but I forgot and used the same size again. I managed to get 9 layers but I don't have the height.
I was also told not to keep this in the fridge as it will alter the texture of this kueh. I decided to do an experiment. I cut out a small piece of kueh and kept it in the fridge for 2 days. Instead of just thawing it to room temperature, I re-steam the kueh for 5 mins and leave it to cool. The texture is as good as the day I made this.
Recipe from Fenying
Ingredients
(A)
210g sugar (I use 150g)
150g water
6 pcs pandan leaves
(B)
50g rice flour
180g tapioca flour
480g coconut milk
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp Vanilla oil
Method
- Put Ingredients B into a mixing bowl and mix well.
- Mix Ingredients A and bring to boil. Pour into Ingredients B and mix well, strain.
- Divide batter into 2 equal parts. Add red coloring in 1 part.Leave 1 part white.
- Heat up a 16 - 18 cm steaming tray, pour 100g of whitemixture into the steaming tray and steam for 5 mins.
- Pour 100g of red mixture on top of the white layer andsteam for 5 mins.
- Repeat until the last layer, steam for 10 mins.
- Remove, leave to cool completely before cutting into pieces.
Own Notes:
I steamed each layer for 2 - 3 mins before pouring in the next layer
Mango Chiffon Cake
I don't have a chiffon cake pan so I used my regular 8" round cake pan to bake this. It cracked very badly while in the oven.
There seems to be a white line near the base of the cake but there isn't any actually.
Ingredients
(A)
5 egg yolks
30g castor sugar (sugar already reduced to suit my family)
110 g cake Flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
50 ml milk
80 gm mango puree
50ml corn oil
(B)
5 egg whites
30g castor sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Method
- In a bowl, using hand whisk, whisk egg yolks and sugar till sugar dissolves.
- Add in milk and mango puree to mix well. Mix in the corn oil to mix.
- Fold in sieved flour and baking powder. Set aside.
- In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites till the whites are frothy. Add in Cream of Tartar and beat till soft peaks.
- Add in sugar gradually (in 3 separate additions) and beat till stiff peaks.
- Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture using a rubber spatula till incorporated.
- Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.
- Pour the batter into a 21cm chiffon tube pan. Bang the pan on the table to get rid of bubbles.
- Bake in preheated oven of 170C for 50-60 mins or till done.
- Remove pan from oven, invert pan to cool well before removing.
Own Notes using Tecno TEO 3400 oven:
1. Cover the pan loosely with a piece of oiled aluminium foil. Bake at 170C for 15 mins.
2. Reduce heat to 160C and continue to bake for another 15 mins.
3. Remove aluminium foil and check for doneness. Reduce heat to 150C and bake for another 10 - 15 mins to brown the surface.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Pumpkin Rice
Sweet Bread - Hamburger
Having to prepare 3 meals a day is not too difficult but to have variety is a challenge. I hate cooking 3 dishes + 1 soup dish as this means I need to think of more combination. 1 pot dish is my all time favourite but in terms of nutritional value in the long run, is it enough for us? I really don't know.
I always get suggestions from my 2 elder ones on what they feel like eating and I'll see if I can accommodate. DD1 requested for hamburger and DS2 supported the idea. Since I've got most of the ingredients in my fridge (I didn't follow the recipe to a "T") except the bread, I decide to bake it myself.
I had wanted to lay the tomato and cucumber slices on top of the pattie but the burger was too tall and thus making it difficult for little hands to handle. The only option was to serve them separately.
Cheese and Herb Burger
Recipe taken from Family Circle - Kids' Snacks & Lunches
Makes 8 patties
Ingredients
250g beef mince
1 egg, light beaten
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup dried breadcrumbs
2 tsp low-salt soy sauce
2 tsp low-salt tomato paste
2 tsp finely chopped coriander
2 tsp finely chopped chives
30g low-fat cheese, grated
1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs, extra
Method
- Combine mince, egg, onion, breadcrumbs, flavourings, herbs and cheese in medium mixing bowl. Using your hand, mix well. Divide mixture into eight equal portions.
- Roll mince portions in extra breadcrumbs. Press mixture into egg rings to give a patty shape.
- Heat medium non-stick frying pan. Brush pan with a little oil if necessary, to prevent burgers from sticking. Cook burgers over high heat 2 - 3 mins each side. Remove from pan, drain on absorbent paper.
Sweet Bread
I used Alex Goh's recipe but instead of baking the full recipe, I only baked half (yields 9 burgers). The burger is relatively small so if you want a bigger burger, I'll suggest using 80g - 90g dough instead of 60g dough.
Ingredients
(A)480 gm bread flour
120 gm plain flour
110 gm castor sugar
20 gm milk powder
4 tsp instant yeast
(B)
1 egg
300 ml cold water
(C)
60 gm unsalted butter
10 gm salt
Method
- Mix (A) till well blended. Add (B) to form a dough. Add in (C) and knead until dough is elastic and smooth.
- Gather dough to form a ball and cover dough with cling wrap and let it rest for abt 50-60 mins or double in size.
- Divide dough into portions of 60 gm each. Shape into balls and leave it to rest for abt 10 mins. Roll out dough and wrap with desired fillings. Shape as required and let it proof on lined or greased baking tray for another 50-60 mins or until dough is double in size.
- Apply egg wash (1 beaten egg) on dough and sprinkle some shredded cheese on it. Bake dough at 180-190ºC for abt 12 mins.
Own Notes:
Tecno TEO 3400: Bake at 170C for 12 - 15 mins
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Wolfberries Bread
When I first saw this recipe, I was really skeptical about this bread. Wolfberries in bread?? What an unusual combination.. or is it just me being ignorant? Nevertheless, my curiousity got the better of me and I baked this.
When it's time to roll up the dough, I realised I forgot to drain those wolfberries! Damn! I tore a few pieces of kitchen towels to pat dry and rolled them up. I did a messy job as the wolfberries were all cluttered at one side of the bread and refused to spread since they are still relatively moist. Nevertheless, I have them rolled up and sent it into the oven.
I was disappointed when I sliced the bread. The bread just look so wrong... took a bite and was taken by surprise that this combination actually taste good.
Ingredients
270 g All-purpose flour
6 g Dry active yeast
140 g Warm milk
½ tsp Salt
2 tbsp Sugar
½ pc Egg
35 g Butter, at room temperature
40 g Chinese wolf-berries
½ tbsp Sesame seeds
Method
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk and let stand for 5-8 minutes. Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Soak the Chinese wolf-berries in water for about 2-3 minutes. Drain and divide into 3 portions.
- Add yeast mixture and egg into the flour mixture. Mix quickly to obtain a soft dough. Then add in butter. Knead the dough vigorously (either by hand or in an electric mixer, using dough hook) until smooth. Cover bowl with a clean, damp kitchen towel and let ferment in a warm place for about 60 minutes. Fermentation is complete when the dough has just about doubled its initial volume: if you press your finger into the dough, the indentation should remain visible for a few seconds.
- Punch the dough down to release the gas and divide into 3 portions. Round up and let rest for about 10 minutes. Roll each dough into an oval shape and place each with one portion of prepared Chinese wolf-berries. Roll up and place in a greased loaf pan and leave to rise again for 50 minutes.
- Brush with egg wash to ensure a golden glaze and bake in a preheated 180C/350F oven for about 25 minutes.
Own Notes:
Tecno TEO 3400: Bake at 170C for 25 - 30 mins