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
Saturday, 16 February 2013
Monday, 11 February 2013
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
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.
Sunday, 10 February 2013
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 :)
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 :)
Been busy in the kitchen these days so more recipes to follow :)
Sunday, 3 February 2013
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?
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
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.
And the next up....the steamed red bean rice cake!
Erm...I hate to say it....but it was an epic fail....:(
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.
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....:(
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