Cantonese Stewed Pork Paus (廣式扣肉包)

School exams coming in less than 3 weeks time, we (parents) are so stress and everybody has been starting to do their revisions. (Actually mothers are doing the revision)..haha! Hopefully they can do well for this year end exams, and good luck for everyone who are sitting for it..:)

Back to my post today, its a steamed buns (paus) again. Well I like steamed paus and we can have it either for breakfast, lunch, dinner or even supper. Founded a new recipe for the paus pastry and I was attracted by the pictures inside. So no doubt, here's mine..:)


I've changed the fillings inside into stewed pork instead of roasted pork. Just feel like tasting something different this time. But somehow after steaming, there were some brown spots on the paus...wonder was it that I didn't seal the paus properly. Anyway I still got to learn and improve on how to shape the paus properly. Don't they looked like garlic?...LOL

Here's the recipe, (adapted from 快乐厨房别刊)

(A) 4g instant yeast, 160g water
(B) 280g pau flour or low gluten flour, 120g cornflour, 80g sugar, 40g shortening
(C) 10g double action baking powder
(D) Stewed pork (canned)~ drained, 1 tsp char siu sauce, 1 tbsp cornflour, 1/2 tbsp sugar
(E) 10 shallots (finely diced)

Method:
~ Mix (A) together then add in (B) and lightly knead into a dough. Covered with cling foil and leave rest for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
~ Meanwhile remove the fats from the stewed pork and finely diced. Then add in char siu sauce, conrflour and sugar and mix well.
~ Panfry shallots until fragnant and add in stewed pork. Panfry alittle while and let cool.
~ Mix in (C) and knead gently into a fine dough (careful don't over knead) then covered and rest for another 15 minutes.
~ Divide dough into 30g each and wrapped in fillings.
~ Place on prepared parchment paper and steam at high heat for 10-12 minutes.


The pastry was soft and fluffy, that I love it so much. Definitely a keeper. Trust me, try it out then you'll know. You may use red bean, lotus or even peanut fillings too. I'm sure they taste really good!!

Cheers!!

Birthday CakeS

I love birthday celebrations. Like to see the cakes people made and of course I like to bake for them if I have the chance. So this time I got the chance to bake for 2 birthday gals. Yes, 2 cakes in one go!! Anyway both were 2 small cakes, so I need only few hours to made them and further more, not much decorations to do. Then we celebrated both birthdays together last night. Oh yes, we had a great time again!!
First, there is a sweetie girl's 2nd birthday! She was one of our dear friend's daughter. A 4" chocolate cake for the little cutie decorated with fondant. Makes it looks like a mushroom and a little cute bear for her to keep..:)
Does it looks like "Papa Smurf"'s house?...LOL


There was suppose to have a small chimney on top but due to the box I have, which was not tall enough to store the cake so the idea of the chimney was out. By the way, the little girl only attracted by the candle "2" that placed on the cake...haha! My friend said she even doesn't want her present given by her daddy...haha! She's too young to know what is happening...;p

Well, simple as it is. It only took me 1 hour to bake and another hour to decorate. As you can see it was really simple but the other older kids went "Ooo & Ahh" when they see the cake. I was quite satisfied with it..:D

For the recipe of the moist chocolate cake, you can refer to my older post here. I baked it with 2x 4" round pan and a round 5" bowl for the mushroom top.

Happy Birthday dear sweetie!!

Another cake, a tiramisu. Yeah, you'll probably say "HUH...tiramisu again"!!..hehe! This was requested by the birthday gal herself. But too bad due to the limited time (but I was lazy actually...haha!) there was no almond caramel that she wish to have..."OPPS!! Sorry dear friend, but I promised to make her some caramel when I have the time..:)

I stole the idea of our dear friend Bee Bee (Honeybeesweets) on how to display the cake. Well, I just don't want the same old recipe to look so boring..;p

p/s: Bee Bee, thank you for sharing the idea but my work was far too lousy compare to yours. Somehow I took the challenge and praised myself abit for the result..haha!


Please refer here for the recipe if you like...:) See the result here, it seems rather rough but we did enjoy it. Maybe most of us love alcohol and coffee, so that the cake was half gone in few minutes..;p We had a great time and I wish there'll be more gatherings coming soon.
Happy Belated Birthday my dear friend, wishing all the best in everything and healthy always..:)

Cheers!

Black Sesame Angku with Coconut Fillings

It's almost the end of the week again, and school will starts on Monday. Well, before I get into my daily routine next week, I better do something that I longed for. I miss this angku kuih that my mum taught me. I love the chewy texture when biting and I like the bean paste fillings but this round I'll make it with coconut fillings which my husband loves.
My mum gave me some black sesame powder which she made herself weeks ago. It smells so nice and I dare to say that those black sesame powder my mum made is much much much better than those selling outside. Love it, thanks MAMA!!
Without any hesitation, I tried it on the angku recipe she taught me with some changes in it.


Ingredients for Black Sesame Pastry:

200g Local White Sweet Potatoes (steamed and mashed)
290g glutinous rice flour
10g black sesame powder
1 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsps sugar
3 tbsps cornoil
210-220ml water

** May need more water depends on the quality of the sweet potatoes used.

Method:
~ Mix all ingredients together and mix by hand. (add water slowly)
~ Knead lightly until a soft dough forms and leave for 20-30 minutes before using.
~ Wrapped in fillings and sealed tight.
~ Dust alittle rice flour
on the mould and press the angku onto the mould and knock out gently.
~ Brush alittle cornoil on the prepared banana leaves and place the angku on it.
~ Steamed at high heat for 5-8 minutes (smallest size of the mould) / 8-10 minutes (for medium sizes)
~ Brush alittle cornoil on top of the kuih right after steaming to prevent from sticking to each other.

For the details of the fillings you can refer to my older post. (Bean paste or coconut)

If you ask me, I prefer the beans paste fillings than the others, I can eat at least 5-6 pieces in one go...haha! Crazy me!!

This new pastry recipe was a good one. And it was actually my mum's idea too. The taste of the black sesame does not overlap the fillings and it has a nice aroma of the black sesame...:) So far, I've tried this pastry with orange sweet potatoes, pumpkin, taro, beetroot and now black sesame. I wonder what else can I use...;p

Cheers!!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节快乐

Its Mid-Autumn Festival today!! Wish everyone has a great day and a good celebration with family and friends. During this festival, we'll have lots of food and snacks to celebrate under the beautiful moon. (Hopefully there is a beautiful one tonight..;p) Well all kinds of food and of course not to mention, there must be mooncakes!! Lots of choices nowadays, huh.....and lots of flavours to choose too. By the way, I've just did 2 types this year and both with the same fillings (lotus paste with yolk). And both mooncakes were already sent to family members and friends...none for myself...haha! Anyway, I'm not so keen on eating them this year...:)

Here's my (new) recipe for this year, the other one was the flaky type which I did last year.


The name of this mooncake is so classy and I love it once I read the ingredients....hehe! Yup! This was easy to prepare with a classy name....."Golden Drops" (莲蓉核桃金露酥).

Ingredients:
270g Cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
30g custard powder
90g icing sugar
1 egg
75g shortening
75g butter

Deco:
50g walnuts
some white sesame seeds

Method:
~ Mix all ingredients together into a dough. Leave aside.
~ Prepare any fillings as you like and wrapped up with some baked duck egg yolks.
~ Divide pastry into 30g each and wrap with the fillings.
~ Brush with egg yolk, sprinkle some sesame seeds and top with one walnut.
~ Bake at preheated oven at 180'C for 20-25 minutes.


Nutty Ham Mooncakes & Piggy biscuits (below) from my mum....yummy!

Not to forget some ice cream mooncakes during this hot weather. A gift from my friend from Haagen-Dazs...:)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone!!!

中秋节快乐

Long Bean Rice ~ My Mum's Style

Finally my hubby has recovered, means I can cook something alittle oily for him..;p Anyway, he still need more rest and healthy food to boost up his antibody..:)

Its alomost another week pass since school starts, but my daughter is looking forward to next week's holiday again. *Gosh*...why so many holidays??? That's because the school doesn't have a hall for the Standard 6 (UPSR) examinations, so the lower grade got to miss their lessons...:( This will make the kids getting lazier, but in another way, I have another week break...;p

Right, back to my post. this a dish / rice that I used to have since I was a kid. My mum used to cook this quite often for us. Maybe its easy and she only need to whip up everything in a pot then serve....haha! There are alot versions that I read from other bloggers about "long bean rice" but I just love the way my mum did...:)

Mom's recipe.....
2 cups rice (washed and soaked for 1 hour)
2 tbsps dried shrimps (soften)
200g long beans (cut into 1")
150g pork belly (thinly sliced)
10 shallots (diced)
550ml-600ml water (might not need all)

Marinade the pork belly with:
2 tsps sesame oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce
a dash of pepper

Seasoning:
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp thick / black soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
~ add those seasoning into the rice (as shown below)

Method:
~ Panfry the shallots and dried shrimps until fragnant. Add in pork belly and stir fry alittle while.
~ Add in long beans and mix well.
~ Add in the rice with seasoning and mix well. Lower the heat and add in water (about 300ml) until just covered the rice (shown above). Simmer at low heat.
~ Stir rice every 5 minutes to prevent from sticking the wok or burn.
~ Add in water little by little and stir well while simmering.
~ Continue adding the water if the rice is not cook, and always simmer at low heat until cook.
~ Total cooking time is about 25-30 minutes.


We love this rice, and I usually cook this once every 2 months..:) Then till now I notice I did not post this before..hehe! Hope that you'll like this recipe as much as I do.

Cheers!!

Roasted Drunken Salt Chicken 酒香盐烤鸡

School has started today, and I was rushing my daily schedule as usual again. Today was abit too much for me, which I have to take care of 2 person in 1 time...;p Cook for my daughter and sent her to school of course, but my hubby is sick. So I have to wake early today, prepared 2 different breakfast and lunches... then office work...then dinner...*tired*!! Then when I'm ready to give myself a break with some facebook games...it was under maintenance......:(


Anyway, I'll be patient and try to relax with some other things then. So here I am...blogging..:) Sharing with you this super yummy recipe which I tried last weekend. Trust me, its super duper yummy. A recipe again adapted from "Flavours From My Kampung" by Bryan Ong, with some changes.

Ingredients:
1/2 chicken (I used small little drumsticks)

Marinade (Mixed)
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsps ginger powder
1/2 tsp five spice powder
dash of pepper
5 tbsps Shao Xing wine

Method:
~ Rub marinade all over chicken and marinate for 30 minutes at least.
~ Put marinated chicken onto a piece of aluminium foil and wrap up.
~ Bake in a preheated oven at 200'C for 30 minutes then unwrapped the top and continue bake for another 15 minutes.
~ Remove and serve.

Hope you all like this recipe as much as I do..:)

Cheers!!

Marble Chocolate "Fatt Gao"

Our school 3rd term break / Raya holiday is almost going to end. By next Monday, everything will be back to normal, my daughter is going back to school and I'm going back to my daily schedule..:( How I wish the holiday is longer...;p

Anyway, I still have something to look forward to....hehe! I'm going to meet my dear friend & family next weekend....Ooooo I just can't wait!!!

This holiday, my youngest sister & family came visit. We had a great time shopping and dining outside for 3 days. My daughter had so much fun, well too much actually and ends up she's not looking forward to go back to school. Yes, too much playing makes her lazy...;p Alright, with too much heavy food for almost a week, I've made something which is really light and healthy for our snack today. A "chocolate marble fatt gao" which was adapted from one of my collection book, "Steamed cake & Kuih Muih" by Famous Cuisine.


Ingredients A:
1 egg
140g castor sugar
300g plain flour
1 tsp double action baking powder
180ml water

Ingredients B:
1.5 tsp melted chocolate

Ingredients C:
1 tbsp instant yeast
1 tbsp castor sugar
60ml luke warm water

Method:
~ Mix ingredients C, rest 5 minutes for fermentation.
~ Sift flour and double action baking powder and set aside.
~ Whisk egg and sugar until light and creamy with mixer (as shown on 2nd picture above), add in water, mix well slowly.
~ Gradually add in flour mixture, mix well. Next add in ingredients C mixture, stir until become smooth batter. (as shown on 2nd picture above)
~ Divide batter into 2 portions evenly, mix a portion with ingredients B. Leave aside.
~ Grease 12 small fatt gao moulds with a thin layer of corn oil. Preheat in the steamer for 5 minutes before add in batter.
~ Remove moulds from steamer, spoon in chcolate batter then follow by original batter. Form a marble texture with a chopstick.
~ Steam in preheated steamer at high heat for 20 minutes. Remove and serve.

The texture is so fluffy soft and my daughter had 2 right away. She said this is really nice, haha! Well, kids do tell the truth right...LOL!! The sweetness was just right if you are using semi sweet chocolate here. If not, you may reduce the sugar to 130g in ingredients A.

Notice there are no oil or butter used here except the greasing part. So I guess this is a really healthy snack that you can have anytime you like. I might change to other flavours the next time I make this, with my favourite coffee, pandan, anything will just go right with it....^^

Cheers!!