Venturing into Kueh making... SOON!

Gonna venture into Kueh making soon... Well, I'm a typical singaporean that loves to eat kueh.. Even though it is relatively cheap to pick up a kueh or two, but I guess it'll taste even better (or perhaps not) if it's homemade..

So recently I've been very hardworking in searching for Kueh Recipes and yeah, I've got a book that features recipes of local kuehs (Courtesy of B's dad, Thank U uncle!). So I'm so gonna make some kuehs for my family, B's family and to satisfy my munching pleasure.. Keke!

Stay tuned for the 1st kueh product from my humble kitchen!

Steamed Tofu for Dinner...

"Contributed" this dish for dinner last night.. It was a real simple and fail-proof dish.. Simple and healthy.. Suitable enough for my family's diet (woppes, or rather mine) keke!

Got the inspiration from my Aunty.. She used to make this dish for me and my cousins to have for lunch. So I recreated this dish based on my memory..

My Aunty's version uses Egg tofu, century egg, salted egg yolk and minced chicken. But of course, I just make use of those things that are available in the fridge.. Don't wanna make another trip to the market.. (yes... I'm lazy..) Hehee..

Steam Tofu

1 packet tofu/ 2 tubes egg tofu
3 prawns
50g minced pork
1 egg
1 tsp chicken stock
Spring Onion
Chilli

Seasonings (suitable amount of:)
Soy sauce
Pepper
Sesame oil
Hua Diao Jiu (chinese cooking wine)

Methods

1. Carefully remove tofu and rinsed under water. Pat dry.
2. Cut tofu into 9 equal pieces and arrange them on the steaming plate.
3. In the middle of the tofu, scoop up some tofu, creating a "hole".
4. Cut prawns into smaller pieces and mix with the minced pork. Mix in the seasonings.
5. Form small balls out of the meat mixture and place onto the tofu. Garnish with spring onions and chilli.
6. Beat an egg with some sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper and chicken stock, pour onto the steaming plate.
7. Steam over medium heat for 15 mins.
8. Serve hot.
   

A promise made... LONG TIME AGO...

Yes.. Finally brought a promise into actuality.. I made a promise to B 1.5 yrs ago that I'll cook for him a bake rice..


Baked Rice.. His ultimate favourite food! I tried to imitate those restaurant to create a set lunch specials.. So here's my set lunch menu:


1. Main Course- Seafood baked rice


2. Sides- Grilled chicken and Capsicums on stick


3. Drinks- Homemade Icy Lemon Tea


4. Desserts- Ice cream... Serve in a special way

He has an "Ang Moh Soul" trapped in an asian body.. Haha! He will choose western food over any chinese-style food.. And since today's theme is western food, I guess he'll enjoy the food as much as I do.. Keke!




The seafood baked rice, before baking.. I top the dish with lots and lots and lots of cheese.. whole packet actually.. =p


After baking.. I did not wait for the cheese (in the middle) to brown.. Simply because my dad and B was waiting at the dining room, and my dad was rushing me to be quick.. Guess he was really hungry.. Nevertheless, the taste is still great!

I use sotong, fish, prawns, ham and potato for the baked rice..

Meanwhile, I use the other oven to grill this chicken.. That's the good side when you've a 2nd oven (even tho it's smaller).. You can use it to bake multiple things at the same time.

This is how I serve the chicken.. Actually I wanted to do some decoration to the food before serving, but like I've said, I was running out of time.. *Need a better time management*

The Ice Lemon Tea, made by yours truly..

Dessert of the day.. Crispy Biscuit base top with Ben and Jerry's Ice-cream + milk chocolate coated strawberries..

So... the verdict from the "food tasters" is that the baked rice is good! YEah, B gave me 10/10!! I was really over the moon when I heard that! *Maybe he was just being kind??* Hehe!

2nd attempt.. cooking my comfort foodie..

Did this lovely dish for dinner again.. Only difference is that I replaced the lean pork with roast meat, uses long beans & egg plant for the vege.



The pearl-y white uncooked rice grains.. I did dry fry them after washing.. I feel that it'll make the rice more fragrant..





Yum Yum.. I love the taste of dried shrimps (Hae Bee in hokkien).. They taste excellent when cook in curry.. And they've a very nice fragrance! But do remember to soak them in water, else they'll be very salty..





Long Beans (Cai Dao in hokkien).. My dad commented that I should fry them longer before adding them to the rice to cook.. Cos he don't like them to be crunchy.. He likes it soft and mushy..



And this applies to the egg plant too..









The roast pork are my dad's favourite.. I dry fry the roast pork first.. And it secretes some "roast pork oil" which I use it to cook the vegetables..





I fry the pumpkin and yam together, towards the last 10minutes of frying, I add in the roast pork cubes.. And the flavor of the pork kind of like magically fused into the yam and pumpkin..



Last of all, in the wok, combine all of the above ingredients to fry together for 2 - 3minutes before transferring to the rice cooker to cook till done.

Kiam Peng (Hokkien food- "salty rice")

Ingredients

600g yam, cut into cubes

400g pumpkin, cut into cubes

2.5 cups rice (I use rice cup to measure)

9 stalks of long beans, cut to 4cm long

5 egg plant (short and slender type), sliced

150g roast pork, cut to slices
60g dried shrimps, soak in water for 20mins

6 shallots, chopped

2 - 3 garlic, chopped

8 - 10 dried scallops (Gan Bei, in chinese)

Oil

Seasonings

3 tbsp abalone sauce

1 tsp Sesame oil

1 tsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tsp chicken stock granules

Some salt

0.5 tsp Hua Diao Jiu (chinese cooking wine)

Methods

1. Soak dried scallops in hot water for at least a hour (it will swell up in size), reserve the water and shredded the swelled up scallops.


2. Heat up 1 tsp sesame oil and fry the washed rice for 1 mins. Remove the rice and set aside.


3. Heat up wok till hot, dry fry the sliced roast pork till hot and fragrant.


4. Remove the pork from the wok and set aside. DO NOT WASH the wok, heat up 50ml oil and deep fry the yam and pumpkin cubes till crispy. Towards the last 5mins, add in the roast pork and fry together.


5. Heat up 1 tbsp sesame oil in wok and fry shallots and garlic till fragrant, before it browns, add in the soaked dried shrimps and fry till fragrant.


6. Add in the long beans and egg plants to fry for 3mins. Add in the shredded scallops to fry for 1min.


7. Pour in the scallop water and give it a stir. Cover wok and continue cooking for 1min.


8. Add in yam, pumpkin, roast pork, rice and seasonings to the wok, cooking it for 1mins. Transfer the contents into the rice cooker and add in suitable amount of water to cook till done.


9. Lastly, dish up rice and serve hot! ENJOY!

I'm so sorry that I did not take any pictures of the end products.. I was busy as a bee serving the food to the "Food critics", my family members actually..

I also pack 2 box of this for my paternal grandparents to try.. Happy that they enjoyed the food!

Randommm..

Just a sudden random thought...

If I've my own house in the future..

I want...

1. My Kitchen...

• To be bright and BIG
• Be RED in colour
• Equip with kitchenAid (In this colour/ or white)
• A really good oven
• A microwave
• A big big fridge (Yes, you read it right, must be a big big one to store all those barang barangs)
• An island
• In modern stylish design

But first of all, I must earn alot alot of money in order to make a dream come true.. Hehe..


I guess only the KitchenAid, Oven and a basic fridge is a Need, whereas the rest are Wants.. =p

Yummy Cookies!

Baked this Cream Cheese Cookie sometime back... Just that I'm just too plain lazy to update my little bloggie.. Keke!

This cream cheese cookie taste like those Commercial Danish Cookies that comes in a round tin box.. It is slightly crispy on the outside, but soft and melt in the mouth inside.. So it's quite an interesting texture..

I made the cookies in different shapes.. Flowers, heart, star, pig... Etc..

I colour part of the cookie dough GREEN, while the rest plain. I had such a fun time rolling out the dough, cutting them and assembling them together.. Haha!

I'm so childish I know.. =P But doing cut out doughs reminds me of playdough/ plasticine.. Something I enjoy playing during the childhood days..

Spot the heart shape cookie with eyes and a smiley mouth?? Yes, that's my favorite of all, so cute right? The "saddist" within me pinch the eyes and the mouth to eat first before munching up the rest of the heart.. Hahaha!

Woppes! Zillions of sorry for the lousy pictures.. Hehe.. I baked these at night, and it was close to 2am by the time I'm done, so I'm really tired by then.. hee

I adapted the recipe from Aunty Yochana.

Cream Cheese Cookies

ingredients

150g butter

80g cream cheese

125g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

200g plain flour

1 egg yolk

80g cornflour

0.5 tsp baking powder

Dash of colouring of your choice

0.5tsp strawberry emulco (I omitted this)

Methods

1. Cream butter, sugar, and cream cheese till soft and creamy.
2. Add in vanilla essence and egg yolk
3. Add in plain flour, cornflour and baking powder. Mix till a soft pliable dough is formed.
4. Take some dough and mix in colouring of your choice (and emulco if using).
5. Chill both dough for 30mins to harden them alittle.
6. Roll out the uncoloured dough on floured surface and cut into shape of your choice.
7. Roll out the coloured dough and make into shape of your choice and add onto the plain cookie dough (as a design). May use some egg whites to stick the details on.
8. Place onto baking tray and bake in preheated oven at 150C for 20-25mins, or till slightly browned.
9. Cool well before storing in airtight containers.
10. Munch and Enjoy!!

My Comfort Food..

If you ask me what's my comfort food, it has got to be Kiam Peng (direct translation from hokkien is 'salty rice')


Actually wanna cook yam rice, but in the end, I add in lots of other stuffss.. So my dad corrected me that what I've cooked today is not yam rice, it's KIAM PENG + YAM. *Faints*


As some of you might have already know, I really hate eating plain rice, but eating this kiam peng and fried rice is ok for me.. In fact, I ate 2 serving of kiam peng! Really Yummy!


Went out early in the morning (7.30am) to the market to get some yam, lean pork and cabbage.. Bought a really nice big yam, something my dad loves to eat!


Afterwhich, came home and start to prepare the ingredients and cook the kiam peng, so just nice its ready for lunch. Heee, and this dish is my own concortion.. Geez


Look at my mix-and-match rice... I know it's really messy..

In it goes into the pot with sufficient water to cook..

End result.. Really nice and super fragrant... Exactly the same taste as my grandma's! But I find that it's not salty enough, and because of this my dad jokingly said that my kiam peng is not the authentic one.. Haha

But something that really made me hopping mad is that after I dump the content into the rice cooker, I happily leash my dog out for a walk.. And when I reach home, guess what my helper told me? "No electricity!" The 2nd shock falls in.. I walk to the kitchen, I saw my sis adding a big cup of water into the wok.. and yeah, my rice sort of like "transform" itself into loh mai kai texture.. But still taste good!

I used lean pork in this kiam peng, but what I suggest is to use roast pork, it definitely makes a whole lot of difference to this dish.

Variety of buns...

Made some bread the day before my sis's wedding, using Baking Mum's sweet bun recipe..

Use small cheese cocktail sausages for the smaller buns

The soft and fluffy interior of the buns..

Whole tray of sausage buns sauna-ing in the oven.. I sprinkle some spring onions at the top of the buns to beautify it.

The recipe really yields lots lots of buns.. I made quite alot of sausage buns, 6 plain buns, and approximately 9 cinnamon rolls.. So if I were to attempt this recipe again, I'll definitely keep some dough in the freeze, or do half of the the recipe.

But I guess I won't bake any bread in the next few months.. Sigh, reason being, I really can't knead well.. And I attribute my failure to produce bread that stays soft to without owning a breadmachine/ heavy duty mixer...

Yes, my bread came out of the oven fluffy, soft and absolutely delicious, but after a few hours (5 hrs?) it starts to work it's way to become a rock..

And what I did was to munch on the sausages and dump the bread.. Which I consider that as real wastage.. =(

So I work it out that buying my bread from a bakery is better (and muchX1000 more efficient) that producing your own bread (considering the fact that you knead the dough using your bare hands).

For your information, I woke up at 5am in the morning to prepare the ingredients, and knead the dough for 1.5 hours (I'm afraid that I din knead it enough). I complete the whole bread baking process in 5 hrs time..

So from this experience, I derive the conclusion that cake baking is much much more easier.. Yes, I might try making bread again, if next time I own a kitchenAid, or bread machines.. Hehe

Enough of my grumbling.. Sharing with you the recipe (From baking mum)

Sweet Bread Dough

Ingredients

(A)

480g bread flour

120g plain flour (I used cake flour)

110g castor sugar

20g milk powder

4 tsp yeast

(B)

1 egg

300ml cold water ( I used cold milk)

(C)

60g unsalted butter

10g salt

Methods

1. Mix (A) till well blended. Add in (B) to form a dough. Add in (C) and knead till dough is elastic and smooth.
2. Gather dough to form a ball and cover dough with cling wrap and let it rest for 1 hour or double in size.
3. Divide dough into portions of 60g each. Shape into balls and leave it to rest for about 10mins. Roll out dough and wrap with desired fillings. Shape as required and let it proof on greased baking tray for 60mins or double in size.
4. Apply egg wash on dough and sprinkle some spring onion on it. Bake at 180C for 12mins.
   
   
   
   

Maiden attempt in making bread......

YEAH!! If anyone is beside me right now, he/she cand definitely see me beaming away with joy.. Reason being: my attempt in bread making today is successful!

And yes, I'm really really happy!

Anyone ask me if the kneading process is a tedious one, I'll definitely be the first of all to exclaim "YES"! And what I gain from this process is a basket of freshly baked bread, and some formation of arm muscles! Seriously speaking, I've no idea kneading bread dough can be so so so tough and tiring.. BUT, I enjoy every bit of it.. =)

Alright, Pictures time!

The batch of bread baking away in the oven.. Someone please remind me that my dough is shaped in a super duper ugly way.. Esp the cinnamon rolls.. After the 2nd proofing, everything literally "un-roll" itself.. =(

Any kind souls out there can provide me some tips on shaping bread?

The "family portrait".. Although my sis, helper and I ate about 2 square buns, and 4 cinnamon roll away b4 taking this picture.

Up close view of the cinnamon rolls.. Lovely right? And I actually prefer this to the cheese ones..

The cinnamon rolls is crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside.. So yeah, I like this combination!


I wrap in some cheddar cheese slices into the big fat round buns, and for the spiral ones are actually sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. However, I suggest it will taste better if it's a cinnamon powder + sugar + butter mixture.. I believe that the taste would be strongly enhanced.

Recipe adapted from florence's blog.

Wonderfully Soft Bread (Sweet bun)

Ingredients

310g bread flour
60g cake flour
40g Nestle CoffeeMate/ Milk powder
115mL skim milk
20g condensed milk
55g castor sugar
3g salt
7g instant yeast
1 egg + 2 egg yolk
40g butter (I use corn oil)


Egg Glaze: 1 egg + 1 tsp water


Methods

1. Sieve flour mixture into a large mixing.
2. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and add in the rest of the ingredients except butter.
3. Mix till a dough is formed and knead in the cornoil till you get a smooth dough (I did the membrane test in this step).
4. Prove dough for 50mins or till double in size.
5. Divide dough into 12 portion (60g each) and shape it or wrap in the fillings.
6. Prove the shaped dough for another 50mins or double in size.
7. Brush with egg glaze and bake at 190C for 15mins or till cooked.

Hmm... Bit of thoughts.. I think bread making is really time consuming.. But nothing can beat home bakes..

And yes, my family enjoyed every single bit of it. Within 1.5hours, the bread are all gone from the tray! I gonna try making different types and flavor of bread!

Wanna try out bread making!

Ok, the next challenge for myself is to try my hands on bread-making! Without the help of bread machines, Kitchenaid, high duty machines etc... Just rely on my bare hands! Wish me LOTS of luckSSS!

Actually wanted to try it out today, but its raining.. Which is bad for proofing.. So next time whether my family can have a fresh loaf of bread or not will have to depend on the weather!

A gift form heart

Went over to my maternal grandma's house today.. The family knows that I can and I love to bake.. But they don't have much chances to try my bakes.. Mainly it's because we're staying too far apart..

So today my sis is going over, so I quickly whip up a cake in 1 hour time! Wanna make an orange chiffon cake, but looking at the limited amount of time I've (not enough time to prepare the orange peels), I abort that thought.. and settle for some bakes that I'm familiar with.. So decided on Cinnamon Teacake (Yes, again I know..).

Recipe for Cinnamon Teacake can be obtained from HERE

The specks of brown-y stuffs are not "chao-ta" patches.. It's the cinnamon sugar that I sprinkle onto..

I love the fragrances of this cake, it's really comforting.. But comments from uncle:

1. Slightly too sweet
2. Should use finer flour, like top flour. As he finds that the texture of the cake is quite rough.
3. Use LESS LEss less cinnamon sugar sprinkles.
4. He prefer something that's more buttery in taste.

I would definitely take his comments into consideration next time when I bake some more stuffs for them to feast on. Will definitely lessen the amount of sugar use.. Cos I forgot, his family is same as mine, non sugar-holic.. Hehe!

Double Chocolate Mint Cookie

Bake some cookies for B.. As a gift!

Bake some cookies for him.. Yes, He likes crunchy chocolate cookies.. So I used Gina's (Kitchen Capers) Double chocolate mint cookie recipe, but I made some modifications to it to suit B's tastebuds..

My apologies for the blurred pictures.. It was taken by B.. I forgot about taking pictures, and I only remember that when I reach home at night, so I quickly smsed B and ask him to take a pic for me..

Hmm.. I have no idea on how to describe the cookie... it wasn't insanely crunchy like Famous Amos, but the crunchy-ness is good enough coming mainly from the nuts and chocolate chips.

It has a distinct fragrance cos the itchy hand of mine added some drops of coffee emulco and vanilla essence. I read from a tread in KC (by stephanie) saying that in famous amos cookies, they beat the eggs with coffee oil (which I don't have, so replace with some drops of emulco) and vanilla essence to get the special fragrance that is "so special yet couldn't tell what is it from".

This recipe also uses crushed peppermint sweets (polo), but trust me, I really cannot taste the mint at all, maybe the mint fragrance is being musked by the vanilla+coffee combination.. If I'm trying it out again, I would use fisherman's friend sweets which are really very minty..

The ones that are highlighted in Red are the changes that I've made to the original recipe

Double Chocolate Mint Cookies

Ingredients

115g butter
180g self-raising flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
80g castor sugar (I use 10g)
50g light brown sugar (I use 80g)
1 egg (I beat the egg with coffee emulco and vanilla essence and left it to stand for 1 hr)
1 tube polo mints (I use 1.5 tube)
1 cup chocolate chips
0.5 cup almond nuts, coarsely chopped (optional)
3 tbsp gound almond

Methods

1. Crush polo mints in a bag. ( I suggest not to crush it till powder form)
2. Cream butter and sugar till creamy.
3. Add in eggs to beat till well mixed.
4. Turn off mixer and fold in flour, chocolate powder, chocolate chips, nuts, and crushed mints.
5. Line baking tray with baking paper.
6. Use a piping bag to squeeze out tiny spots on the paper. (I couldn't pipe out nicely, so I roll a tsp of dough and flatten them slightly)
7. Bake in preheated oven 180C for 15minutes.
8. Remove and cool completely on wire rack.

I seriously salute Gina, and any other people that can pipe out cookies nicely... Cos I seriously can't do that, I will end up with dough that looks like sh*t.. Literally the shape I mean.. Any tips from the pros out there in the cyber world?? I wanna achieve the famous amos style cookies as well!

But nevertheless, B commented that he love this cookie, he said its very nice! But personally next time round I wanna leave in small bits of crushed mint.. I'm sure it would taste heavenly!

Moist and Chewy Chocolate brownie!

Sharing with you guys my favorite brownie!


These brownies are really moist and chewy (the way I like mine to be)!

Add in some chopped walnuts to the extra crunch and textures.. I feel that either walnuts or pecan nuts goes well with brownies.. Absolutely not peanuts or green peas right?

Pack up in a box of 6, really to zooommm off for B!

Recipe adapted from KC, posted by Sophie.

Moist and Chewy Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

125g butter

200g dark chocolate (use good quality ones)

3 eggs

1¾ cup caster sugar ( I use 50g caster, 50 brown sugar)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 ½ cups plain flour (sifted)

1/3 cup cocoa powder (sifted)

2 cups chopped walnuts

Methods

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Brush a shallow 8 x 11 inch tin with melted butter/oil and line the base with baking paper, extending over the two long sides.
3. Double boil butter and dark chocolate till melted, add in sugar and mix well. Remove the bowl of mixture and cool it slightly.
4. Add in eggs, one at a time and mix thoroughly with each addition. Add in vanilla essence and mix well.
5. Add in sifted flour, cocoa powder and nuts. Mix well.
6. Pour mixture into the prepared pan, sprinkle some chocolate chips on top, and bake for 30 minutes, allow the brownie to cool in tin before cutting into pieces.

This is really a good recipe that's worth keeping! I really love chewy brownies, actually the love for such brownies starts when I bought a piece of Fudgy Chewy Gooey Brownie from The Brownie Factory at takashimaya basement (its a really small stall, keep your eyes open or you might just walk pass it w/o realising it's pressence!).

The brownie that I tried is their's no.1 best seller! Sticking to the bestseller ensures nothing goes wrong, and yes, the brownies are really chewy! Really nice! Selling at $3.10, it comes in a big piece, so I got only a pc and I shared it with B, and he too thinks that it's nice.

So if you guys likes chewy and moist types of brownies, do try this! You'll love it!

Betty Cocker's Premix

Sometimes the laziness within me forces me to use premix..

Yes, I'm lazy I know.. but what to do when you're lack of basic ingredients to make cookies, but only left with a stick of butter and a bag of premix? (And FYI, I can get a tub of freshly baked, and absolutely delish cookies in 1 hr! (We love things to be speedy, right?)

So say YES to premix, esp Betty Cocker's! I like the one above, as the taste is really good.. Except that its slightly whineeyy bit too sweet..

I usually drop big tablespoon of cookie dough to bake.. It will spread out by itself (thanks to the butter). To get a crispier cookie, bake it for a few more minutes.


So purpose of this post is to share with all, the brand of cookie premix I like to use, and if there's a day where you're stuck in a situation like me, you might want to consider using this to satisfy the cravings for freshly made cookies that are still warm!

Durian/ chocolate cuppies!

My family was invited to go to my uncle's baby full month celebration. As my sis is sponsoring 3 duckies as an add on to the buffet dinner, I wanted to bring along some food as well.. So in the end decided to stick to my forte- baking..

Wanted to bake 40 cuppies, but couldn't decide on the flavor.. I wanted to to bake a variety, but couldn't afford the time, wanna bake a single flavor, but I'm afraid it'll be too boring... So in the end bake 2 different flavors.. DURIAN N' CHOCOLATE!

Bake the Little Devil Chocolate Cupcakes and top with lots of coarsely crushed digestive crackers.. Quite a good move actually as it add on crunchy-ness to the cuppies, and yes.. This cupcake is addictive!

Didn't have time to pack them nicely.. So hehe.. Just stack them up all together in a box and lug them to my uncle hse..

Next up on the list is Durian cupcakes..

Add a tablespoon of cake batter and top with 1 full teaspoon of durian puree..

After baking, I like the golden colour on the cupcake, and yes, its crunchy on the surface, soft inside... And a well hidden "surprise".

Tadah! Surprise revealed! Lots and lots of durian puree! Hmm.. Looks like custard cream right? Hehe..

First bit, your teeth will be welcomed by the crunchy crust, and hit by the softness of the durian flavored cake, then followed by the soft, creamy and slightly bitter durian center, that fills your mouth with the durian fragrance!

*One complaint though... Should triple the amount of durian filling!*

Using a template, I dust the durian cupcakes with cocoa powder.. Tried using Hershey's, but it the colour is too light.. And doesn't complement the colour of the durian cupcakes well.. So I used valhora's cocoa powder.. Nicer contrast.

The guest praises the cuppies! I'm really so glad that they enjoyed the cupcakes (as much as I do)!

On a side note, the durian cupcakes was gone by the first hour, and it was quite a hit among the guest! As for the chocolate cuppies, those who tried gave their comments that it's very chocolate-y, moist and not too sweet.. Even my fussy cousin took 3 piece! Achievement eh? HEHE!