Random cooking notes

I just cook a huge dinner for my beloved D...to make up for our vday. The recipes I followed are as follows. Didn't take any picture as I did not spend the slightest effort to dress them up...or they just simply not looking good enough lol. They taste great though - brilliant recipes!

Grilled pork with lemon grass 

Vietnamese grilled prawn 

Tofu Dengaku

English Onion Soup

Hong Kong - style egg tart (蛋撻)

This is a story about trial and error. After a failed attempt to produce a decent looking egg tart a few weekends ago, I have worked on it for a couple of times. Following the exact recipe everytime, and finally get the hang of it of when to change the heat, and when to stop baking. Persistence do pay off! :)

D gave me a 90/100 for this. I am happy :)

This recipe scaled down from Christine's. Her recipe is always brilliant..such a savior for beginner like me.

To make 6 egg tarts:

Ingredients:

For the pastry:
-Flour 112.5g
-Butter 62.5g
-Icing sugar 27.5g
-Egg 1/2
-Vanilla oil 1 tsp

For the egg:
- Eggs 1.5pcs
- Caster Sugar 55g
- Water 112.5g
- Evaporated Milk 42.5 ml
- Vanilla oil 1 tsp

Methods: 
1) Butter leaves at room temperature. Cream it with icing sugar and mix in egg and vanilla oil.
2) Add in Flour, mix to form and dough.
3) Leave in fridge while preparing for the egg.
4) Boil water to dissolve sugar
5) Add milk and vanilla oil into milk, add to sugary water.
6) Filter to obtain a smooth egg mix.
7) Put dough into tin case
8) Pour in egg mix
9) Put in pre-heated oven (200C)
10) When the cookie turns golden, switch oven to 180C until the egg mix starts to expand, open the oven door (1-2 inch).
11) Bake for 10-15 min until the egg is cooked.
12) Allow egg tart to cool down before removing from case.

Cookies, cookies and more cookies

I have made cookies a couple more times since my last attempt. 

Butter cookies
This is the best cookies I have ever made. The exact taste and texture I have craved for....The original recipe is from here. 

Ingredients: 
Plain flour 150g
Corn flour 30g
Unsalted butter 160g
Icing sugar 50g
Vanilla oil 1/4 tsp
Baking powder 1/2 tsp

Method: 
1) Leave butter at room temp and cream it with sugar
2) Add in flour and vanilla oil and baking powder and mix well.
3) Mix into dough and put into fridge for about 15 min. Preheat oven at 180C.
4) Bake cookies for 15-20 min. Leave to cool. 

Chocolate cookies
The original recipe claimed it is a Ben's cookie recipe but it did not taste it Ben's at all...it taste more like those huge cookies from Tesco (and alike).It is chewy and sweet - still taste great but just lack the cake-like texture that makes Ben's cookies unofficially the king of all cookies. 

Ingredients: 
300g caster sugar

200g unsalted butter

275g self raising flour

1 egg

75g cocoa powder

Chocolate chunks

Method: 

1) Leave butter at room temp and cream it with sugar

2) Add in flour and vanilla oil and baking powder and mix well.

3) Mix into dough and put into fridge for about 15 min. Preheat oven at 180C.

4) Bake cookies for 15-20 min. Leave to cool. 

The Chinese sweets challenge (2) - Steamed rice cup cake with red bean (缽仔糕)

My beloved gran used to make these for me - although she like to make the "white" version. I still love this childhood snake so much that I still nag my mom to get that for whenever she sees it while I am home for a break.

Ingredients:
- Rice flour 42.5g
- Wheat starch 27.5g
- Brown cane sugar 1 pcs
- Glutinous flour 1 tbsp
- Water 250 ml
- Japanese azuki beans (red beans) 1/2 can
- Coconut milk 1tbsp (optional)

Method:
1) Boil half of the water with sugar to melt completely.
2) Mix remaining water with flour and starch, add in hot sugary water and coconut milk.
3) Pour into small bowls. Add in red beans and STIR WELL.
4) Steam on high heat for 20-30 min.

Bench notes: 

First attempt did not work too well. I am too impatient and try to flip it over before it is cooled...

Second attempt much better :)

Happy new year!

Today is Chinese New Year. I have a very quiet one since D went off to travel - oh well, just cooked Bak Kut Teh for myself so I am all warm and happy now. Have a great year of the snake everyone :)

Been busy in the kitchen these days so more recipes to follow :)

The chemistry of baking

As much as I was classically trained as a biochemist, I have this stupid tendency to tweak recipe just to " round  the numbers up". This makes my cooking unpredictable as I cannot guarantee the same taste everytime! While I am waiting for my baking genes to get switched on, I start reading up what to avoid and  actually makes baking work.

The secret of successful cooking all lies in chemistry.

Flour
- Proteins in flour give structure through the network of gluten.
- Lower protein flour creates a more tender texture for cakes and pastries.

Baking powder/yeast
- Blow air into bread
- Fermentation of yeast creates CO2 that balloons the bread up

Eggs
- They glue things together and add moisture.
- Need to be at RT for the chemistry to work!
- Prevent air bubbles from bursting

Fats
- They coat protein in flour to prevent the texture to become too bread-like.
- Thus butter needs to be creamy for the gas to get into the fat, and the fat coats air bubbles.

Sugar and Milk
- Gives moisture, soften proteins
- Sugar carries air into the mixture

Salt
- Gives a more elastic texture by strengthening the gluten network
- Helps enhancing flavours

Creaming (Mixing butter and sugar)
- This process blows air into the dough.

Gentle folding in the flour 
- Prevent from breaking the air bubbles

And finally...
there are rules to follow.

1. The sugar must be equal to or less than the flour (in weight, that is).
2. The eggs and liquids (milk) must equal the flour.
3. The fat must equal the eggs.

Isn't that neat? 

Vietnamese Fresh Spring Roll (Goi Cuon) with Peanut Sauce (Nuoc Leo)

We had this fresh spring roll in Cay Tre Soho and I was hooked. What a brilliant and healthy idea for lunch! I did a lot of research and this is so far the best recipe: 1) it uses peanut sauces, 2) it is from Gordan Ramsay!

Ingredients: 

For the spring roll
- Juice of 1 Lime
- Coriander
- Mint leaves
- Cooked King Prawns, peeled
- Salad lettuce leaves
- Rice vermiceilli
- Rice paper

For the dip
- Garlic clove, peeled, finely chopped
- Peanut butter
- Coconut milk
- Hoisin sauce
- Tamarind paste
- Fish sauce, sugar

The Chinese sweets challenge - Pan-fried sweet red bean paste soft cake

Making these red beans cake is like taking a walk down the memory lane. They are one of those first things I tried to make back at school...cos they are so easy, sweet and chewy...simply addictive.

Ingredients:

150g Glutinous rice flour

30g Sugar

135g Water

2 tbsp Oil

Ready-made red bean paste 150g

Methods:

1. Dissolve sugar in boiling water, add in oil.

2. Mix with flour and make into dough. Divide into small balls.

3. Wrap up red bean paste using dough. 

4. Heat the pan with low heat and fry each side until golden brown. 

Bench notes: 
Mix flour with hot water makes the cake more chewy.

And the next up....the steamed red bean rice cake!
Erm...I hate to say it....but it was an epic fail....:(

Our bake-away weekend...

Last weekend was bit of a snowed in. Or maybe we are just too lazy to brave the cold and do anything that needs to leave our cosy hide. And I brought my first cake tin and tart tin...to honor my new purchase, I immediately look up for egg tart recipe :)

Cantonese egg tart is always my favorite guilty pleasures. Definitely not the healthiest dim sum...but I crave for it from time to time so it would be handy to finally learn the way to master it. I scaled down the recipe from Christine (as usual, always the easiest-to-follow recipes!) to do a trial run of two tarts. Well they don't look amazing, in fact they looked like being in a fight (ouch!). Taste is fine but the proportion of egg and cookie is not right. Well...there is always next time...



On the next day I tried to bake something again - this time with a cake mix. It is bit of a cheat so there is nothing too exciting about it. Just the cake was mega tall....so that was my breakfast for an entire week.

Our dinner that evening was a roast - Cantonese style of course. Roasted pork (Siu Yuk) made by d! It is the first time he was trying to make it and it was amazing. I made the soft-boiled eggs  =D (yay...finally something successful!) xx

Tiramisu (egg-free)

Tiramisu is one of those evil things that I could not possibly resist trying whenever I saw it on the dessert menu. It is such a simple pudding (or shall I call it a cake?), yet every cook has its own interpretation which makes it exciting every time it comes onto the table.  Endless possibilities for improvisation...so as a proud owner of a new hand mixer, I have to give it ago!! 


Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp instant coffee powder ( I use some instant capuccino powder I brought over from Rome...)
• 60 ml hot water
• 60ml Port wine
• 150 ml double cream
• 2 Tbsp icing sugar mixture
• 150g  Mascarpone cheese
• 6 pieces sponge finger biscuits
• 2 Tbsp grated black chocolate
• cocoa powder, for garnish

Method: 

1) Dissolve coffee powder into water. Cool and mix with half of the wine.

2) Mix cream and sugar with handmixer until mixture before fluffy. Mix with cheese and rest with the wine with a spoon.

3) Layer finger biscuits, pour coffee mixture to soak the biscuits. Layer with cheese and cream mix. 

4) Garnish with cocoa powder and chocolate. 

5) Put into fridge overnight. 

Bench notes: 

This recipe is modified from christinerecipe.com, since I could not find any thickened cream in the UK :( It is such easy to follow recipe that I adapt without any difficulty, and it tastes great! I will probably add less cheese next time though. 

P.S. So sorry with the chinese style plate!! 

(Danish) Butter cookies - beware of the calories!

Both my boyfriend d and I absolutely adore butter cookies, especially the piped one sold by Cherikoff in Hong Kong. Although it is probably the simplest recipe ever existed, I have actually never attempted to bake any cookies.

Ingredients:
120g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
45g icing sugar
135g plain flour
2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking tray.
2) Cream butter and mix with icing sugar. Mix with flour  followed by vanilla essence.
3) Place dough on tray. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
4) Allow cookies to cool. Done :)

Bench notes: 
- I failed to get hold of any star-shaped pipe in Waitrose so I decided to make random shapes instead.
- This recipe actually tasted more like shortbread than butter cookies. Perhaps the ratio of butter to flour is not optimized? Anyway I like butter shortbread too :) Just they made me even feel more guilty...

Ajitsuke tamago (Japanese soft-boiled egg) 味付け玉子

Ajitsuke tamago is one of the essential topping of a good ramen. While making tonkotsu seems like a daunting task, one could start by taking one step at a time - attempting the flavoured soft-boiled egg. The internet is full of all kind of recipes, the key is to control the timing of boiling the egg to ensure the yolk is still runny. Before I get my hands dirty, I have spent ages researching for the easiest way to do it...partly because I was lazy, and party because I would rather not wasted food as consuming too much eggs is no good for heart. 

1) Bring eggs to room temperature.

2) Put water and eggs to pot. Bring to boil.

3) When the water starts to boil, count to 4 min.

4) Transfer egg to cold water for 5 min. Remove shell under cold water. 

5) Put egg in marinate (1tbsp each of mirin, soy sauce and sake) for 6 hours in the fridge. 

Fool-proof and fuss free :) 

Yet Another Blog

On the night from our end-of-year trip from Belgium the telly was showing "Julie & Julia", the story about a young girl fed up with her daytime job taking up the challenge of cooking all 500 sth recipes of a French cookbook within a year. I was thinking...maybe I could do sth similar and learn to cook properly. Cooking everyday is probably asking too much of me, I am being easy on myself :P

So...another blog for the brand-new year. :)