Pi Pa Tofu in Crabmeat Sauce

I have tried to recreate this restaurant favourite tofu dish of mine for many times but failed. The sauce is tasty but the tofu fritters were not

I have added plain flour to the masked tofu which I should not have done so. But the mashed tofu looked so watery..............

I will try again.....

Muachi - Sweet Glutinous Rice Balls

Left (top and bottom) : Black sesame seeds paste coated in toasted dessicated coconut
Right (top and bottom) : Peanut praline coated in toasted crushed peanuts

I love eating these glutinous rice balls either boiled in syrup stock flavoured with pandan or made into these QQ balls.

Steamed and mashed sweet potatoes is used in the skin hence the orange hue (all natural no colourings used). The skin is still soft after keeping for 3 days.

Skin ingredients:

1 sweet potato (doesn't matter what size)

glutinous flour

Method:

1. Cut the sweet potatoes into cubes and steam it on high heat for about 10 minutes or until soft enough to be mashed using a fork.

2. Add glutinous flour to the mashed sweet potatoes while still hot. Continue to add while kneading the dough until the mixture can be formed into a ball and does not stick to the hand. Add water if dough is too dry.

3. Cover the dough with a cling film and set aside until cool.

Black sesame paste filling:

100g black sesame

sugar (please put according to your taste)

20g butter, melted

Method:

1. Wash the black sesame, dry on kitchen towel.

2. Heat up non-stick saucepan on low heat and dry toast the black sesame until you can hear the sesame making 'pop pop' sound (stir the sesame seeds every now and then to ensure even distribution of heat).

3. Remove from heat and let them cool down before whizzing in food processor together with sugar until fine and powdery like. Add in melted butter, combine well and refrigerate until required (also makes it easier to mould)

4. When paste has harden in the fridge, form them into small balls so it's easier to wrap into the skin.

Peanut praline filling (I never measure make as much as you like):

Peanuts (with skin on), washed and dry on kitchen towel

Sugar
Melted butter

Method:

1. Roast peanut in a preheated oven at 170°C for 12 to 14 minutes.

2. When peanut has cooled, deskin by rubbing in between your fingers.

3. Take a portion of peanuts and whizz them until fine (do not overdo or else you'll end up with peanut butter!). Put aside.

4. The rest of peanuts whizz them until coarse like.

5. Return to the pan and sprinkle over the sugar and stir fry until sugar dissolves and become paste like, add in melted butter.

6. Refrigerate till hard enough to form into balls.

To form into balls:

1. Roll the skin dough into longish strip and divide and cut them according to the size you want.

2. Flatten the divided dough and put 1 ball of filling on top and shape into balls.

3. Bring a pan of water to boil and cook the glutinous rice balls until they float to the top. Remove and quickly roll in dessicated coconut or peanuts. Let them cool completely before storing in airtight container.

Cloud like afternoon tea - Heavenly Souffle Cheesecake (updated with recipe)

Light cheesecake with green tea (in the cup not the cake)

Originally posted 6/9/2005.

It's very hard to describe the texture of this cake. I felt like I was eating cotton wool, er no, cloud more like.

I have tried so many recipes all either failed or does not come up to my taste. Finally success smiled on me when I came across this recipe from EUPHO Cafe

The top still cracks a little bit, my heart sank when I saw the crack, I thought to myself,"Oh no, another failed cake". Nevertheless, I still let the cake cooled and refrigerate overnight before eating it, forbidding Big King to touch it and warned him,"You can only eat it for breakfast the next morning." His face sank.........

I was still enjoying my sleep when Big King charged into the room the next morning and exclaimed, "The cheesecake, chin ho jia (translated: very yummy)". I was so excited and cut myself a piece for breakfast and entered cloud nine (I normally prefer hot food for breakfast). Then I have another piece for tea, another piece when Big King came back from work, yet another piece for dessert. I couldn't stop. The cake was gone in a record 2 days! Normally 1 cake will last us a week!

Recipe below:-

Souffle Cheesecake

8" round cake tin

Ingredients:
A. Plain cream cheese 250g, fresh cream 50ml, milk 100ml, butter 80g
B. Cornflour 25g, milk 50ml
C. Egg white 150g, cornflour 10g, sugar 100g
D. Egg yolks 138g, butter and plain flour (for buttering the mould)

Method:
1. Melt A. over a pan of simmering water until the mixture liquefies (stir every 3 minutes), use spatula to stir the mixture well.
2. Mix B. until cornflour dissolves and pours into 1, stir until well-combined. Add in beaten yolks and strain the mixture.
3. Preheat oven to 150°C/300°F. Line bottom of mould with baking parchment paper. Butter the sides of the mould and coat it with plain flour, remove excess flour. If using loose bottom cake tin, cover the outside of the tin with 2 layers of aluminium foil.
4. In a clean bowl (make sure oil less and waterless), beat the egg whites till foamy and add in sugar and cornflour in 3 batches and beat until soft peak.
5. Take 1/3 egg white and stir into the cream cheese mixture to loosen the batter. Pour the cheese batter into the remaining egg whites and using cut and fold method quickly fold in the egg whites, do not over fold or else the air in the egg whites will escape.
6. Pour batter into cake tin. Sit the tin in a bigger mould or baking tray. Bake in a bain-marie (water-bath). Water must be boiling hot when poured into the baking tray or bigger mould. Water level should come up to ¾ of the height of the cake tin, at least half if you cannot manage ¾.
7. Put in oven and bake for about 25 minutes or when top is brown, reduce the heat to 125°C/260°F, continue to bake for another 1 hour or until a cake skewer comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the cake tin and remove from tin when cooled and refrigerate (it’s ok to leave the cake in the tin and refrigerate).

Note:
I normally use 4 eggs (4 whites and 4 yolks) for this recipe. It’s cumbersome measuring out the whites and the yolks.
It is natural that the cake will contract when it’s cooled leaving a small gap between the cake and side of the cake tin. The top of the cake should not sink and should be smooth.
You can also omit buttering the side of the cake tin and line it with baking parchment paper instead.
If your cake came out dense or separated into layers, it could be:
a. the oven temperature is too low, use an oven thermometer, do not believe what it says on the switch dial;
b. the water bath is not hot enough, remember to pour in boiling water just before baking;
c. the egg whites have not been folded into the batter completely.
Remember to check the height of the water every now and then, add in more boiling water when necessary.

Bread and Butter Pudding Recipe - at sister's request

Ingredients:
200ml cream
200ml milk
6 tbsp sugar
3 eggs
3-4 pieces bread
A little butter
A handful of currants/raisins (I omitted here)

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

You will also need a 2 pound loaf tin (one of the oblong kind) or use the disposable aluminium container as I have done here, well buttered.

Method:
1. Butter the bread and cut each slice of buttered bread in 4 (triangular shape) – leaving the crusts on. Now arrange one layer of buttered bread over the base of the baking dish, sprinkle the half the currants over, then cover with another layer of the bread slices and the remainder of the currants.

2. Combine the cream and milk in a saucepan and heat up using a low heat (do not boil), test with finger remove from heat when it’s just warm.

3. In a bowl, stir the sugar and eggs together. When they are well-combined pour the cream and milk mixture into the eggs, stirring all the time.

4. Strain 3 and pour over the bread. Rest for 5 minutes before putting into oven.

5. Bake for 20 minutes. Lower the heat if top is too brown.

Taiwan Delicacy - Salted Crispy Chicken

This is on my 'must eat list' when I visit Taiwan. Thank goodness this is easily replicated at home.

Marinate the chicken with salt, sugar, five spice powder, rice wine, white pepper and a splash of dark soy sauce for colour. Leave to marinate for at least 4 hours.

Coat the chicken with a layer of egg wash and then with tapioca starch before deep frying.

Delicious! I love fried chicken!

Nasi Lemak - Coconut Rice with Spicy Chicken and Condiments

It's been ages since I had nasi lemak! I miss it so much so I DIY again.......

If it wasn't for the coconut rice, this is a very healthy version.

Both peanuts and ikan bilis (dried anchovies) were roasted in the oven with just a spray of oil to prevent sticking. Result is still crispy!

I serve the nasi with Korean spicy chicken which make this a Korean nasi lemak???

Noodle Soup with Roast Duck

Ingredients include pork slices, fish balls, chye sim all dumped into water. Topped with roast duck and shallots.

My type of comfort food.

Princess taken on 24/9/05

One happy chick!

More Bargains from TK Maxx.......

Bread pan £2.99
Apron £3.99 (down from £13.99)
Oven Glove £3.99 (also down from £13.99)
Laguiole cake server £4.99 (RRP about US$25)
Star buy - Wedgwood Wild Strawberry scallop dish £4.99 (RRP £39.99!!!)


Big King told me he can eat cereals using the scallop dish. 'Perfect size', he said. I was mortified !!!

Assorted Green Tea Bread (pic only)

I finally found green tea powder for baking from an online store, Mount Fuji. While I was browsing, decided to add green tea sprinkler (finely milled sincha-new tea) to my order as well.

Taadaa, my first batch of green tea creation was born............

Kway Teow in Eggy Sauce (Wat Tan Ho)

My 2005 Birthday Meal

Lunch

Vegetable curry on garlic bread

I made garlic bread from the Pain Normandy I bought from Dumouchel. Cooked onion, carrot and potatoes Japanese curry (from instant S&B curry cubes) and spread it on garlic bread.

Possibly the best bread I've ever tasted! It's made from flour from Normandy (which Dumouchel has to ask permission from local authorities to 'export' it out of the region). Sourdough starter was used instead of yeast and the loaf really benefit from the slow proving process. The end result was simply stunning, bread is chewy, springy yet soft. I'll never be able to replicate this at home in a million years! At £2 per loaf, it ain't cheap...........

Dinner

1/2 duck and 1/2 chicken, £14.50

This was bought from a restaurant called 'Lucky Dragon' in Leeds chinatown. It's also the only place which serves decent dim sum fare in town but cannot compare to my all time fave - Glamorous.

Their version of roast duck and yau kai are simply divine, I have to admit they are far superior to Glamorous version after having tasted both. Glamorous called their roast duck 'The Ultimate Roast Duck', I guess that makes Lucky Dragon's duck 'Beyond Ultimate Roast Duck', hehe.

Spicy Chicken Korean Style

The recipe is adpted from Julia of AromaCookery.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts or 4 chicken drumsticks, deboned and cut into strips
½ onion, sliced
2 tbsp go chu jang (see pic below)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
a few drops of sesame oil
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch

Method:

1. Combine everything and leave in the fridge to marinate overnight.

2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a non-stick skillet and put in the marinated chicken and onion.

3. Stir-fry until cooked.

4. Serve with cucumber slices.

This dish is incredibly easy and tasty. I find the sauce tasted a lot like nasi lemak chilli.............

Korean Spicy Paste: Go Chu Jang

Pearl Meat Balls

珍珠丸子

Marinated meatballs (pork or chicken) covered in glutinous rice (pre-soaked for 4 hours) and steam for 15-20 minutes.

Birthday Pressie from Big King

A package arrived yesterday afternoon destined for me.

Turned out it was my ASUS W5 laptop in white, it was only purchased online the day before!

It has DVD RW, built-in camera, flash memory reader and a matching wireless mouse, best of all it is only 1.6kg.............

Loving it at the moment

A big thank you to my beloved Big King

New Toys - Matstone Juicer and Morphy Richard Compact Breadmaker

Dumouchel Cakes

Pretty packaging from Dumouchel

I am not going to bake my birthday cakes, nooooooo.................

I came across an article in the September issue of Olive (eating/makan magazine which I STUDY religiously every month hehe) on patissier Thierry Dumouchel.

Hailed from Normandy, Dumouchel has worked all over the world and finally settled in Leeds (hurray!) after marrying his wife from (yes you guessed it) Leeds.

He produces exquisite chocolates destined for Harvey Nichols. If it's good enough for Harvey Nichols, it's good enough for me! I told Big King he must drive me there to have a look see and pick up a cake or two........

A tiny shopfront with magazine features (several) pasted on the door. Tacky, I thought to myself........

When I entered the shop, only two trays of cakes greeted me :( plus odd pieces of quiche and one danish. It was only a little after 11 am! Surely that's a good sign that they are almost sold out so early...........

I went home with 2 slices of cakes, 1 danish and 1 Pain Normand (Normandy loaf I think).

The cold pastry was still crispy! Only fresh and seasonal fruits are used, nice............

Left: White chocolate mousse and raspberry slice
Right: Raspberry or strawberry? mousse slice

The cakes are delicious! Easily one of the best or the best I have tasted so far! Even Big King (whom sometimes I think has lost all taste sensation....) gave a thumbs up

I will definitely return for more! Oh, L'Opera wait for me...............

Lemon Curd Madeira Cake

A twist on the traditional madeira cake. I reduced the butter and substituted with lemon curd.

There is still lemon curd left in the fridge, I must find yet more ways to use them up..............

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival - Snowskin Mooncake

Left: Custard with salted egg yolk in pandan snowskin
Right: Red bean in pandan snowskin

The shops here do not sell mooncake mould and ping pi mooncake, like that's going to stop me from making my own ping pi (direct translate: snowskin) mooncake.............The fillings were also made from scratch........

So using my ramekins, I moulded these ugly mooncakes

Nonetheless, they tasted delicious, not bad for my first attempt

Birthday Cards

Cards I received from my beloved siblings and Big King.

Thank you so much, I love you all!