我猜我猜，我猜猜猜！！

Guess what am I ?! ...
Clue : I'm Red, Sweet & Sour!....

Should be an easy guess I think :P...will disclose the answer when I use them to bake for my son's birthday cake!! stay tune!

the answer is......

STRAWBERRY!!!

How does the strawberries becomes this kind of state? ^-^ Oven-dry sliced strawberries in preheated oven at 120 deg cel for 1 hr till dried and then process till fine, going to incorporate these dried strawberries into cake batter to see how the cake turns out to be :)

Steamed Spicy Mussels

Looks appetizing right?...Recently bought a bottle of good quality Tuna Fish Sauce, costing 200ml for $4.50! indeed taste better than the normal range of fish sauce available in the supermarket!! no strong fishy smell & not so salty also :) Instead of using fresh mussels, I bought these frozen mussels from supermarket which I find it just as fresh and save me the trouble of cleaning the mussels also :)

Ingredient

• 500gm frozen Green Mussels
  
• 2 bunch coriander, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  
• 2 red chilli, sliced (remove seeds if do not want too spicy)
  
• 3 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2 tbsp good quality fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  

Method

1. Combined, garlic, chilli, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar & black pepper. Mix evenly & set aside.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil, add in mussels & blanched for 3mins. Do not overcook. Drain well.
3. Arrange mussels on a serving plate. Sprinkle coriander & drizzle sauce over. Serve immediately.

Blueberry Crumble Cake

Light tasty crumble cake, great with a cup of hot tea! :) Besides using blueberries, other berries like raspberries, blackberries can also be substituted...the daunting part of making this cake is the crumble topping ><...make sure the butter is cold & hard & cut into smaller cubes before rubbing into the flour if not you will get a sticky lump of dough instead!

Ingredient

• 100gm unsalted butter
• 60gm sugar (u may increase to 80gm if u have sweet tooth!)
  
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
  
• 75gm self-raising flour
• 75gm plain flour
• 90ml milk
• 125gm fresh blueberries

Crumble Topping

• 40gm plain flour,sifted
• 20gm unsalted butter, cubed & chilled
• 30gm rolled oats
• 25gm light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
  

Method

1. Using a electric whisk, cream butter & sugar for 2mins. Add in eggs & beat till light & fluffy.
2. Fold in flour, alternate with milk in 3 batches till batter form.
3. Spoon mixture into a lined 7" cake pan. Spread mixture evenly. Spread blueberries over batter. Press lightly into the batter.
   
4. To make crumble topping : Rub cold butter into plain flour till mixture is breadcrumbs liked. Stir in oats, brown sugar & cinnamon powder.
5. Sprinkle crumble topping over the blueberries evenly.
6. Baked in preheated oven at 180 deg cel for 35-40mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
   

Dulce de Leche Pound Cake

A pleasant looking loaf!! :)

The amount of Dulce de Leche left in fridge just nice for making this pound cake! Loves the caramel fragrant lingering in the kitchen during baking process! Seems that the Japanese Flour works well with most type of cakes! So far I've tried using this flour for making steamed cake, chiffon cake and now pound cake! what's the next experiment? muffins? genoese sponge?....

Recipe modified from All That Matters & Bakericious

Ingredients

• 180gm unsalted butter
• 50gm light brown sugar
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp vanilla essence
• 3/4 cup dulce de leche
• 180gm Japanese flour / plain flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 3 eggs
  

Method

1. In a bowl, using an electric whisk, cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in salt, vanilla essence and dulce de leche, whisk till incorporated.
2. Sift over flour & baking powder. whisk on low speed. Scrap down the sides and whisk till the batter is smooth and not lumpy.
3. Add in the eggs, 1 at a time, whisk well.
4. Pour the mixture into a lined 9" x 5" loaf pan and bake at 160 deg cel for 50 mins.

Baked Brinjal, Zucchini wif Mushrooms

A fast & simple way to make use of balanced pasta sauce :)


Ingredients

• Brinjal, sliced thinly
• Yellow Zucchini, sliced thinly
• Fresh Shitake Mushroom, sliced thinly
• Olive oil
• Dolmio Pasta Sauce Tomato, Onion & Roast Garlic
  
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese
  

Method : Layer brinjal in a baking dish, drizzle some olive oil over, spread some pasta sauce over, layer shitake mushroom over, drizzle with some olive oil, spread with pasta sauce, layer zucchini over, drizzle olive oil and spread some pasta sauce. Top with a thick layer of shredded cheddar cheese. Bake in preheated oven at 200 deg cel for 25mins until golden brown. Serve hot.

Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies

So excited when found this recipe online yesterday nite!! could not wait, since is cookie making, nothing complicated in the making process, therefore quickly went ahead baking though is already almost 10pm!! ^-^ waited patiently for the cookie to cool down....took a piece and taste it....crunchy & sweet caramel taste! :) took another piece & spread with my Dulce de Leche....oh so addicting but is SWEEETTTTT !!! >< maybe I seldom take so sweet stuffs, I prefer munching on the plain caramel cookies instead :P

this picture reminds me of my failed macarons did previously hahaha...

Ingredient (30 sanchwich cookies)

• 150gm plain flour, sifted
  
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 110gm unsalted butter
• 100ml dulce de leche, plus more for filling
• 60gm light brown sugar
• 40gm sugar
• 1 large egg

Method

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
2. Using a electric whisk, beat the butter at medium speed until just softened and broken up a bit. Add dulce de leche, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg, beating to incorporate.
3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients all at once. Mix only until the flour is just combined.
4. Spoon the dough onto the lined baking sheets using a heaping teaspoon of dough (do not drop too large dough if not you will get a jumbo cookie!) for each cookie. The dough is soft & spread a lot during baking therefore leave 2 inches of space between each cookie for the baking spread.
5. Baked in preheated oven at 180 deg cel for 10 to 12 minutes. The cookies will be honey brown with a light crust, but still very soft when they come out of the oven. Let them rest on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before removing to cool.(will harden upon cooling)
   
6. Once the cookies are cooled completely, spread them with dulce de leche and sprinkle with a bit of sea salt if you like. Keep well wrapped for up to four days.

Recipe source with slight modification : JoyTheBaker

Fragrant Mixed Mushrroms

Ingredients

• 250gm fresh shitake mushrooms
• 250gm king oyster mushroom
• 250gm boiled bamboo shoots
• 3 slices ginger
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp oil
• 3 tbsp dark vinegar
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp light soya sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp water
• dash of chilli pepper oil (optional)

Method

1. Slice king oyster mushroom. Cut shitake mushroom into 1/2 if too large. Slice bamboo shoots.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add garlic & ginger & saute until fragrant.
   
3. Add mushrooms & stir fry for 2-3mins until soften. Add bamboo shoots & mix evenly for 1 min.
4. Add all seasonings & stir fry for another min. Serve.
   

Princess Food Diary 3

Snack time! munching on rice cakes...

My lil gal is turning 9mths tomorrow!! try to introduce porridge but she rejected, no choice now still on rice cereal! Since 39weeks she has been taking 1/2 egg yolk each day, increasing to 1 egg yolk per day now. One egg yolk seems a lot right? no is not as I giving her 'newborn' egg (初生蛋) instead the normal eggs, see the difference in size in the below picture :)

first taste of egg yolk, served with prune oatmeal at 39 weeks...

where is the cooked egg white? inside Mummy's tummy! hahaha....

Does not like porridge so I stock up a variety of rice cereals in the food pantry!!

This is the latest food puree I've introduced to her : baby spinach with homemade ikan bilis powder. As I afraid that she will reject the taste, I combine with a couple cubes of carrot puree during feeding time, and she managed to accept it well. But alas, who knows after taking for straight 2 days, her poo is so hard and pebble like! Then I found out from my friend that spinach will cause constipate and mix with carrot worst as the latter will also cause the same problem! After I stop the spinach, her poo backs to normal :) tonight will serve the spinach with wild yam and monitor what's the result...

Banana Dulce De Leche Chiffon

Trying to be adventurous & luckily did not turn out disastrous hahaha...I found a banana chiffon and subsitute some of the sugar with homemade Dulce De Leche I've made few days back, and plain flour with Japanese Flour! The texture I've got nothing to pick on as it is soft & fluffy, like biting onto a piece of cotton :P, but the taste of Dulce De Leche is untraceable, still it is ok to me as the banana flavour is there! hahaha, trying to comfort myself :P

first time took a pic on the stiff egg white :) see... so stiff it did not drop from the overturned bowl!

Ingredient

• 6 egg yolks
• 60ml corn oil
• 100gm Dulce De Leche
• 160gm banana, mashed
• 120gm Japanese Flour, sifted
• 6 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 50gm sugar
  

Method

1. Whisk egg yolks, corn oil, Dulce De Leche & banana till smooth. Fold in flour till batter forms.
2. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar till foamy. Gradually beat in sugar on high speed in 3 additions till stiff peak formed.
3. Fold in 1/3 of the egg white foam into batter. Mix evenly. Pour the batter into the balance egg white foam and fold in gently till combined.
4. Pour into ungreased 9 inch tube pan and tap the pan on hard surface to release excess trap air bubbles and bake in preheated oven at 180 deg cel for 40 mins. Invert immediately to cool completely before removing from pan.

Dulce De Leche

Dulce De Leche on Toast

What is Dulce De Leche? Extract from Wikipedia : Dulce de leche is the most common name for milk caramel in Spanish. Made as both a thick jam and a caramel candy, it is prepared by slowly heating sweetened milk to create a product that derives its taste from caramelised sugar. Its origin is widely debated, and it remains popular throughout Latin America, where it is known by this name in Argentina,..."

The first time I come across this term is from Tartelette's Dulce De Leche's Macarons 2 years ago when I was crazing over making macarons. Not until few days ago browse through a few blogger's site and come across this term again :) Therefore I decide to follow Table for 2 method of making Dulce De Leche. Though her method is safe and successful, I could not help worrying the can of milk will explode during the boiling process hahaha...

More Reading on How to Make Dulce De Leche

Boiling Method...

1. Put the can of condensed milk in a pot, on an over turned steaming metal rack. (see pic above)
   
2. Bring it to a boil and lowered it to a simmer and check frequently to ensure the pot didn't dry up and water level is at least 1.5 inches above the can. Pls take extra note on it cos if the pot dry up, the can will be exploded!
   
3. Simmered the can for 3-4 hours.
   
4. Cool the can completely before open it. Do not attempt to open a hot or warm can!!!!
5. Stir the content and transfer to an air-tight container and store in fridge.
   

Homemade Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients (30 meatballs)

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 300gm ground beef
• 250gm ground lean pork
• 3 slices wholemeal bread (processed in food blender till fine)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp italian mixed herbs
• 1 tsp paprika
• 3 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 2 sachet Swedish meatballs cream sauce mix
• 200ml cooking cream
• chopped fresh parsley for garnishing

Method

1. Heat some oil in pan. Saute onions until soft and translucent. Set aside and let cool.
2. In a large bowl, combine onions, minced meat, breadcrumbs, egg and seasonings. Mix thoroughly. Cover and chill in fridge for at least 30 mins.
3. Shape mixture into 30 round balls. Heat some oil in a medium saucepan. Add in meatballs, in batches, fry until evenly brown. Drain well on kitchen paper.
4. Meanwhile steam sliced potatoes till soften. Prepare cream sauce mix according to package. 
5. Serve meatballs with gravy, steamed potatoes and lingonberry jam.

Cute Cookies

Melts in the mouth cookies! This dough is also easy to handle without sticking to the hands :)




Recipe adapted from Y3K Free Recipes
Ingredient

• 180gm unsalted butter
• 30gm egg whites
• 80gm icing sugar
• 180gm plain flour
• 80gm rice flour
• 80gm cornflour
  

Method

1. Using a electric whisk, cream butter, egg whites & icing sugar till creamy.
2. Using a spatula, fold in plain flour, rice flour & cornflour. Lightly knead to a soft dough.
3. Place dough between plastic sheet, (I used a large ziplog bag), roll flat. Keep dough sheet in the refrigerator, chill dough till semi-hard.
4. Remove dough from the refrigerator. Stamp out cookies using different cartoon moulds.
5. Arrange on lined baking trays. Bake in a preheated oven at 160 deg cel for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool well and store in air-tight container.

Also see here for other designs...

Double Choc & Nuts Brownies

Crispy crust & moist in the centre! I loves anything that is chocolaty! but only can indulge once in a while if not I will have sore throat!! :P


Ingredient

• 115gm dark chocolate, chopped
• 115gm unsalted butter
• 3 eggs
• 200gm sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 150gm plain flour
• 175gm semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 75gm white chocolate chips
• 75gm walnuts, toasted & chopped

Method

1. Melt dark chocolate & butter over a pan of simmering water. Cool.
2. Beat together eggs, sugar, salt & vanilla extract. Stir in the chocolate mixture.
3. Sift over the flour and fold in. Stir in chocolate chips & walnuts.
4. Pour batter into a lined 8" square pan and spread evenly. Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg cel for 35mins. Leave to cool in tin before unmoulding.
   

Stuffed Aburage

What's inside the stuffed fried beancurd? sushi rice, flaked salmon, seaweed & pickles!

Korean Sushi Rice unlike normal Japanese sushi rice which uses sugar & vinegar. Cook 3 cups calrose with 3 cups water & 1 1/2 tsp salt. After rice is cooked, fluff up the grains & mix in 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds & 1/2 tbsp sesame oil. Cool down before use.

Chwee Kueh aka Rice Pudding

Quite happy with the texture of the rice pudding, though not as soft as the famous Tiong Bahru stall one :) at least they do not turn out hard! I twisted the filling by adding some minced pork on top of the preserved radish. They are not oily as what selling over the stall as you can see from the pics below!

Ingredient (makes 10 kuehs)

• 180gm rice flour
• 25gm corn flour
• 800ml water
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 200gm Chai Poh (preserved radish)
• 100gm minced pork (marinated with 1 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp light soya sauce)
  
• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• dash of thick dark soya sauce
• pepper
  

Method (Chwee Kueh)

• Sift rice flour & corn flour together. Stir in 300ml water. Strain mixture.
• Bring remaining 500ml water, oil & salt to boil. Pour in the flour batter and stir well till thickens. Remove from fire. (to do over boil if the mixture will curdles)
• Grease chwee kueh mould. Scoop mixture into each mould and place over a preheated steamer. Steam over high fire for 10mins.
• Cool down slightly, use a knife run through the edge to remove the kueh. Serve with topping.
  

Method (Filling)

• Rinse preserved radish well to remove excess salt. Drain well.
  
• Heat 2 tbsp oil in pan, add garlic and preserved radish. Stir fry till fragrant.
• Add in minced pork and mix evenly. Add in sugar, dark soya sauce & pepper to taste. Stir fry for another 5mins.
  

Steamed Apricot Jam Cake

My 2nd experiment on Japanese flour and my cake surface is flat as pancake!!! hahaha did not form a dome as what my friend has did :P But then it did not affect the texture at all! is still light & fluffy..

Ingredient

• 4 eggs
• 80gm sugar
• 150gm Japanese flour / cake flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 100gm apricot jam (or any jam you like)
• 10gm margarine
  

Method

1. Melt margarine & jam together over low fire.
   
2. Sift flour and baking powder.
3. Whisk eggs and sugar until light and creamy with mixer until ribbon stage formed. Reduce to low speed, add in jam mixture and mix well.
4. Using a balloon whisk, gradually fold in sifted flour
5. Scoop batter into cupcases and fill just to the rim. Steam in preheated steamer at medium heat for 20 mins until cooked.

Noodles with Luncheon Meat

午餐肉公仔面 - Simple lunch for myself as hubby & son are not at home. Instant noodle cooked with chicken stock, seasoned with sesame oil, pepper & light soya sauce.