Nasi Lemak

Looking back at the old posts, i realised that B is slowly drifting away from my kitchen adventures.  I blame it on the school.  Singapore education system is a killer.  Not becos he felt overwhelmed by the learnings, but school time is a complete time waster.  This is, to him.

If you are a parent, or working in the education industry, you might have followed the series of reports on Finland education system.  There, it teaches children life skills.  Here, it teaches children about compliance.  I can go on ranting what i like/dislike but nothing will change.  Period.

Nevermind if I seemed like a discontented mother venting out on my child's inability to cope with the local system...

Back to this post, it was a very old one but never get to finish it until this staycation weekend when I finally get to relax and visit my little space here.

I found the trick to make nice nasi lemak is the copious amount of salt and coconut milk.  In my case, I use 2 cups coconut milk + 1 cup water for 3 cup rice.  Salt is 1tbsp.  Yes this is alot, but it will not make your rice salty, I promise.  Do try and tell me what you think yah.

Snowskin Mooncake - good soft skin!

A basic snowskin dough is made with kou-fen (fried glutionous rice flour), shortening and water.  If you have made them before, you will know that it is not difficult all all.  If you haven't, then its time to get started.   

Anyway, what i meant to say, the challenge of making a good snowskin mooncake is finding a recipe that gives you soft smooth skin that will withstand the test of time in fridge until it gets eaten.  

I started with this which is very simple but would often struggle to get smooth skin.  Then I found Aunty Yochana's Ice Cream Soda Snowskin Mooncake ... I was rewarded with smooth nice skin, and 490g of tang mien flour to contribute to the landwaste.  Yet, on the 2nd day, while the skin is still soft and pliable i could see the remarkable difference in its texture. 

they say imitation is the most sincere compliment!
Goto Ann's blog to see step-by-step instruction.

I also read from some blogs whose claimed the skin stayed soft for upto a week but I compared the recipe and found the only difference is the slightly higher proportion of liquid to flour.  If you add more liquid to the flour, it gets sticky and chances are you will compensate the stickiness with some kou-fen so that it becomes manageable. Hmm, so you are back to square one ya?

This year I found Ann's recipe - it uses a combination of koufen & snowskin premix and a different method where the shortening and liquid is boiled together before adding to the flours.  I made it on Sunday, and really pleased to report that the skin is still very smooth, soft and tasty when I tried some after dinner just now! 

I am really happy with this skin - its "toink toink" like the Hada Lada ad!

It was really generous for her to share her recipe.  Strangely, she published her recipe 2 years ago... I wondered how I could have missed this!!!



Ann's Snowskin Mooncake

50g    Kao fen (糕粉-cooked glutinous rice flour)
230g  Snowskin flour ( KCT Pinpe Premix Powder ) - do not sift
50g    Icing sugar (I reduce to 25g)
46g    Crisco/shortening
300g Water (boil 500g water with 4 pandan leaves, leave to cool) and measure 300g water.  see note 1
some extra kao fen for dusting

      

Method:

• Combine kao fen and snowskin flour (KWT Pinpe Premix Powder) in a medium bowl and set aside.
• In a pot, add 4 pandan leaves (knotted) water with icing sugar and shortening together and bring them to boil until shortening melted, stir with a hand whisk.
• Pour the hot liquid mixture to the flour and use spatula to stir mixture to soft dough and leave dough to cool (you'll find the dough is quite oily at this time) then knead dough again to smooth, add more kao fen to it if the dough is still too sticky.
• Add different colour dough for different type of filling.
• Measure dough to 21g and wrap in 25g lotus paste or any other filling you prefer.
• Roll it into a ball and dust with some kao fen (kao fen 糕粉) and press firmly into mould ~ unmould it and store in an airtight container.
• Chill snowskin mooncakes before consuming. 

Note 1 :  Boiling water with pandan leaves is a natural way to add frangrance.  But if it is not avail, replace with some flavouring (e.g. banana, orange etc)

Cooking for one: vegetarian mee sua

Last Sunday was my mum's 100th day and also my dad's lunar birthday.  It must be a big bag of mixed feelings for him!

Late ma used to make Mee Sua for every one of us on our lunar birthday.  I just thought that my dad would like one too... But due to the tight schedule that day, I didn't get to serve him the mee sua soup. 

Since all the stuff were already in fridge, I made them for my work day lunch instead.

Simple stuff like tow gey, choy sim, hard boiled egg (it may look like fishball, but its egg) and mock mini sausages served with mee sua, but to me, this is the taste of our family tradition.

What's your family tradition?

 

Eggless Pineapple Tarts - new recipe

I make pineapple tarts every year.  This year, I saw it from Facebook that many of my friends also decided to make their own pineapple tarts.  Ha, I am just glad that I have a good 5 years head start!!!

 

What's more?  This year, I decided to be a good girl and grate my pineapple instead of leaving them to spine endlessly in the electric blender.

 



See how fibrous the grated pineapple are!

When I attended the formal baking lesson, the chef actually use the same jam for both open and close tarts.  But I always feel that they should be different:  the jam  for closed tart should be drier or else the dough will crack while the dry jam will be harden on the open tarts. 

So I made 2 different type of jam:

For the dough, i use the interesting recipe from Kitchen Tigress (whom, btw, has much a wonderful blog!).  After using the creaming method and rub-in method, I am only too excited to test-drive the boiling method!

KT was kind enough to advice that this recipe is only suitable for close tarts as "it is very delicate and crumbly", and the pattern made mould was indeed puff-up in the oven and all I got was a fat characterless blob.   But I really wanted to keep this buttery pastry for my sister who has a penchant for both all-things-buttery and open tarts.  Stubborn.  My problem lah.

To cut the long story short, I had a fun time playing with the dough, and after using up 1 kg of Elle Vire butter (yes, I am a slow learner as far as baking is concern =p), I figured out the trick to make it more pliable for open tarts and retain its form after baking.  You wanna know...  c'mon, send me some Elle Vire!

 Swee boh?

  

Just as KT put it - 101% buttery and melt-in-your-mouth!

 

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RECIPE - Pastry for Pineapple Tarts
(from David Lebovitz via Kitchen Tigress)

360 g unsalted butter
60 ml vegetable oil
75 ml water
60 g sugar
½ tsp salt
600 g plain flour

1. Put all ingredients except flour in a pot. Over high heat, bring to a boil. Continue boiling till foam subsides and colour darkens.  Alternatively, weigh pot and contents before heating, then boil till weight is reduced by about 65 g.

2. Turn off heat. Tip flour into pot. Mix thoroughly and leave till just cool enough to handle. Knead to make sure mixing is even, adjusting with 1-2 tbsp water if mixture is crumbly, or 1-2 tsp plain flour if sticky. Use a cookie scoop to divide the dough into equal parts.

 

Unbearable lightness of Keiko's Chocolate Cake - Die die must try

Life can get a little lonesome when you work from home too often.  I know what I am missing - the long coffee breaks when you argue over how the European crisis going to unfold next, the excuse of having extended lunch when the afternoon rain comes unexpectedly, the "alarm" telling you its time to go home when the building air con gets turn off (yes, when I work from home, things somehow goes non-stop until B arrives home, and that's well past 9pm).

To make up for the "loss", I took out my copy of Keiko Ishida's "Okashi Sweet Treats Made With Love" and went baking during my lunch break.

It is good enough to make me want to stay home and bake this everyday and chomp all day.  But again, I think if I do that, i probably end up never be able to walk out of my door - 4 eggs and 160g of sugar is far from being a recommended daily diet =p

Everything is good in moderation.  Pls try this once if you love japanese sweet - this is one rich chocolatey cake without the heaviness of cake that are baked with creaming method.  The meringue, when done correctly, always lift the cake!!! 


Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
35g pastry flour (I used cake flour)
50g cocoa powder (I use Valrhona)
100g sweet chocolate 55% cocoa (I use Ikea's milk chocolate) 
80g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
50g superfine sugar
4 egg yolks

50g whipping cream (I use President)
4 egg whites
110g superfine sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Line 7" cake pan with parchment paper.  (I made a mistake of baking it in a muffin pan without the paper liner.  Idiot makes mistake, the smart one, please, learn from it) 
2. Sift flour and cocoa powder twice
3. Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a double boiler
4. Once chocolate and butter have melted, add sugar, egg yolks and cream and mix well using a whisk. Set aside
5. Make meringue. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half of sugar and continue beating for a few minutes, then add remaining sugar and beat until egg whites are glossy and stiff peaks form
6. Add one third of meringue to chocolate mixture and fold with a whisk
7. Add flour and cocoa powder and fold in thoroughly
8. Add remaining meringue and fold until just incorporated.

9. Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for about 50mins (or less if you are baking in muffin as i did). When cake is done, remove from pan and leave to cool on a wire rack

Steamed Pau - 莲蓉包

It's been a while since I pick up this packet of lotus paste. I used to think that we use the same type of lotus paste for mooncake and for the pao but obviously I was wrong. So when I saw this packet that was meant for pao filling, I grabbed a pack... and it sat in my fridge until now I need to clear the fridge before we leave SG.

My sister and brother are taking their family over for a swim last evening, so the grand plan is to have the piping hot steam bun ready when they are back from the swim. Imagine holding the scorching hot bun when the body is shivering... Agh, good plan.

Only that I didn't get the timing right. The pao was over an hour late... and the first tray only ready when they are having dinner. Haha, just in time for dessert!

Luckily my family is always supportive and finish up praise eveything that I make. I only keep 2 for my phototaking today (will be uploaded soon).

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Basic Yeast Dough
Recipe Source: cookingmomster

Ingredients:
500gm pau flour, sifted ( I use Blue Key Brand Pau flour )
6gm instant yeast (I used 11g)
100gm sugar
50gm shortening (I used crisco)
250gm water

Method :
1. Mix instant yeast in the water. Sprinke some flour (from 500g) over it. Wait till it is frothy (about 15min). The orginal method provided was to dissove the yeast with sugar and water. But I am a little skeptical so I followed the my same old method. Her method may also work, so it could be just a personal choice.

2. Mixed all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour the yeast liquid. Mix well with a spatula (or your hand). Slowly work the shortening into the dough. knead until it is smooth and elastic. I used a little more than 250g of water but it all depend on the type of flour and few other factors. So "feel" as you work the dough.

3. Leave the dough to proof until it doubles in size. Cooking Monster divide into small piece then proof. Again, I think it is a personal choice.

4. Deflate the dough and divide them into 40gm piece (you can get about 18 portions). Flatten it into a small round disc. Place some lotus paste onto the centre and pleat the top. Place each dough on a piece of baking paper. Set aside and let it prove again until double its size. Estimated about 10 minutes.

5. Steam pau with high heat (with rapidly boiling water) for about 15 minutes or until the pau is cooked. Serve hot.

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Notes:

• I added a few drops of Lemon Emulco (from Phoon Huat) to make it the bun pale yellow. This also gives a light citrus flavour.
• The lotus paste for pao is softer and "wetter" than those for the mooncake. It is not as sweet as the mooncake lotus paste.

Vegetarian Poon Choy 佛山吉祥盆菜

Poon Choy literally means Basin Dish cos in the older days, this dish is served in a wooden basin (盆). I suppose this is how the name of the dish come about.

Poon Choi is associated to events that affect the entire community. It is a symbol of village cohesion, i.e all who eat from the common pot are equals.

All of the poon choy offered by the restaurants are non-vegetarian. So when Chef Warehouse offered this class, I signed up quickly with the grand plan to make this for my family reunion dinner.

Closer the the dinner, I heard my mum telling all my siblings potluck. Imagine every of my 5 siblings bring 2 dishes to the dinner, we are going to run out of space on the dinner table. Poon choy is a "comprehensive" dish. Most of the time, people only need 1 or 2 other dishes to go with the meal.

So I scrapped the idea.

Anyway this is another vegetarian dish that the instructor demonstrated at the class: Stir fried vegetarian liver.

The liver really looks and taste like the real liver but too salty for me.

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CHEFS' WAREHOUSE
Blk 148 Toa Payoh Lorong 1 #01-927
Singapore 310148
Tel : 6252 2260 / 9105 5461 (Mrs Chua)

Bubur Terigu (大麦)

It is interesting how 1 blog can inspire the 2nd, then the 3rd... Haha, I made this 大麦 after reading her post, which she did after reading it in 阿豐 .

It's good isn't it? I hope more people will take time to cook for their beloved family. I was a little sad when my hong kong colleagues told me the "normal" family do not cook at home. That explains why all the restaurants in HK are doing a roaring business!

Anyway I derailed.

I bought the wheat from NTUC. Had wanted to use her recipe but was too lazy to write it down or to connect my notebook to the printer. I started to thumb thru my collection of the recipe book.

I settled on this from late Mrs Leong Yee Soo's "The best of Singapore Cooking".

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Bubur Terigu

A
115g sugar*
285g palm sugar
225ml water
8 pandan leaves

B
55g quick cooking oats**
285ml water

C

680g grated coconut ***
¼ tsp salt **
285ml water **
285g biji terigu
1.7L water

D
Thickening: 3 tablespoon flour to mix with 170ml water

1. boil A for 10min and strain
2. mix B and cook for 5-7 minutes.
3. squeeze coconut for no. 1 milk. Add salt and set aside.
4. add 285 ml water to coconut and squeeze for no. 2 milk.
5. soak biji terigu in cold water for 10min, drain. Pound to break up the terigu. Bring it to boil with 1.7L water. Cook until terigu is tender and swelling. Reduce heat.
6. pour (1), (2) and thickening into the pot. Add no. 2 milk and boil for 2min. remove from heat.
7. serve in individual bowl with a topping of 2 tbsp No. 1 milk. Serve hot.
   

My notes:

* I didn't use white sugar. Only use palm sugar cos it has a better aroma. Also I do not like it too sweet.

** I used rolled oats instead of quick-cooking oats cos this is what I have at home. It just take a few more minutes to cook.

*** I used Kara ready to use coconut cream. I always keep a pack at home for cooking in a whim!

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Adding the oat may seem a little strange initially, I was glad I didn't omit. It makes the bubur more creamy and gooey. There's no oat taste at all, if you are concern.

Although I only made 1/4 of the recipe, it is still relatively huge amount for me since I am the only person eating these. Had wanted to bring some to mum, but only after cooking I found out that she has gone travelling! Wow, she more happening than me.

The balance went to my colleagues; they confirmed this is better than those sold in the dessert stall.

Mango Pomelo Sago Dessert 杨枝甘露 II

Last Saturday was teh mid autumn festival, what were you doing... and what's the celebration like in your household.

It was pretty much "business as usual" in my family. No special regime but a simple dinner at my parents' place.

Oh yes, on the same afternoon I was invited to my muslim friend's open house. And since it was a Mid Autumn, I told it makes sense for me to bring some festive items to share with the folks. I had a pomelo at home, so the choice is clear.


My blogger friend YY suggested at the previous post that i can try with carnation milk. Why not, sure this is a healthier option than coconut milk!

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Mango Pomelo Sago Dessert 杨枝甘露 II

Ingredients:
Mangoes ~300g, puree
Mangoes ~200g, cubed
Pomelo 300g, segmented
Sago 100g
Marigold or any Mango Drink 500ml
Sugar 5 tbsp
Evaporated milk, 100ml
Tadpole jelly (optional) - available at phoon huat

To make:

1. prepare sago: soak rinsed sago in a pot for 30min. Add it into a big (I mean BIG) pot of boiling water. You need a big pot cos the sago will expand thrice the volume when done. Leave it to boil until the sago turn translucent, off the fire. Run the cooked sago under running water. Drained and set aside. (see notes * below)
2. Dissolve the sugar in evaporated milk & mango juice.
3. Add (1) + (2) with mango puree, mango cubes, pomelo and sago into a big pot.
4. Chill well before serving.

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Notes *:
I re-post the points on cooking sago here cos my colleague told me her's turn out to be soft and mushy:


1. do not soak for more than 30min. It will all turn mushy if too long. Can skip this step if no time, its ok; will just take a few more minutes to cook.

2. The water must be boiling when adding the sago, otherwise it will again turn all mushy.

3. The pot must be big – I use my tefal wok to cook 100g of sago. Besides having a large surface area, the back base also makes it easy for me to check if the sago has turned translucent.

4. Once it turn translucent, run it under cold/tap water to stop the cooking. This is to ensure the sago maintains the QQ texture.



Incidentally, I find that the pomela has a slight bitter taste. Likewise in the previous pomelo I had. Not sure if you had the same experience. If so, do you know how to get rid of the bitterness?

Baileys Tiramisu Snowskin Mooncake

Made some more mooncake to try out the snowskin premix.

• Bailey's Tiramisu
• Rose snowskin

For the Bailey's: I simply followed the instruction on the package; but replaced 50% of the water with bailey's. As for the filling, I used the tiramisu paste.

For the rose, I add 1 tsp of Nielsen Massey rose water to the otherwise plain "skin". I thought this would have the mooncake "feminine"... but surprise surprise, my nieces told me the mooncake smells "yacky". =p

In anycase, i am happy to achieve 50% hit rate; my buddy D sms to tell me the bailey's snowskin is YUM!

More Snowskin Mooncake

Cranberries Snowskin:

replace water with some cranberries juice.

Pandan Snowskin: add 1 tsp pandan paste to the skin

Banana Snowskin (white ones):
add 1tsp of banana essence to the "skin"

Traditional Mooncake

The first time I baked mooncake was more than 10 years ago...when I still couldn't afford to pay for the classes. It was a free class that comes with purchase of National microwave oven, I remembered quite vividly.


A decade later, I decided to try my hand on the baked mooncake cos the snowskin, though easier and prettier, contains far too much sugar.

Traditional Baked Mooncake
What you need:



Recipe is from http://wlteef.blogspot.com/search?q=mooncake Florence:

Ingredient: (10 standard mooncakes-150g and 8 mini ones-25g)
300g plain flour (I used Hong Kong Flour)
90g peanut oil
195g golden syrup (I used Abram Lyles)
1.5 tsp alkaline water

Filling:
1kg lotus seed paste
10 salted egg yolks (optional)
toasted melon seeds (optional)

Egg wash:
1 yolk + 1 tsp water lightly beaten and strain (I used super glaze)

Method:

1. Mix peanut oil, golden syrup and alkaline water together in a big cup and stir till mixture is well combine. (It will mix better if you warm them slightly)




2. Sieve flour into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour and pour in the warm syrup. Mix till a dough is formed. Cover the mixing bowl with a wet towel and rest the dough for 15 -20 minutes.




3. Divide dough and filling according to the size of your mould. Shape the dough into a round flat sheet with sides thinner than the centre.




4. Wrap in the filling and mould it into a ball shape. Coat it with flour. (I find it essential to coat with flour. The one with flour does have a clear imprints on te mooncake after baked)




5. Dredge wooden mooncake mould with flour, brush away any excess. Put the mooncake into the mould. Flatten it with your floured palms and make sure that the mooncake fills up the mould nicely.




6. To dislodge the mooncake, bang the mould on a hard surface with equal force in the north, south, east and west direction.




7. Place mooncakes on a lined pan and spray the mooncakes with some water. Bake at 180C - 190C for 18 - 20 minutes. Remove from oven, cool the cakes for 15 - 20 minutes then apply egg wash and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes or till golden brown. As every oven varies, please standby to check on your mooncakes. This temperature and timing is for a 150g standard size mooncakes. (I didn't bother to check the timing, just look out for the browning, also I only glaze the mooncake after it is baked and cooled)




8. Store cooled mooncakes in an airtight container and serve only after 3 days.
   
   

Notes:
Salted egg yolks
I soaked the yolks in Chinese wine (紹興酒 or 玫瑰露) for 15 minutes.
I used raw yolks but you can bake it at 160C for 2 - 3 minutes.
If you are adding in egg yolk, wrap the yolk in the lotus seed paste.
(I steamed the salted egg for few minutes but find that it turned rather dry. )




I made these mooncake using the mould from Elyn... it is such a breeze to use. No need to knock and catch!

Made these few Pooh mooncake using the leftovers dough. Sheen loves them;


I used the white lotus filling from Phoon Huat this time... cos KCT was already closed when I reached there at 6 plus!!!

I do think that KCT has better paste!!!

Updated 2/10:

I am so happy that the skin turn out to be thin enough. And the yolk was quite central. Heehee. My only complain - should have cut the mooncake with a sharp knife!

Pandan Snowskin Mooncake 中秋月饼

The Mid-Autumn Festival (or in Chinese Zhongqiu Jie 中秋节) is a popular harvest festival celebrated by chinese people dating back over 3,000 years with dances, feasting and moon gazing. Mooncakes are indispensable delicacy on this occasion.

Since I used the disney cookie cutter to make puen kueh in Jun, I have been waiting to use them to make the snowskin mooncake! Finally get to make them today; planned to go Bird Park but the Sunday rain kept us all in!

Sheen, together with his cousin Gwen In, busied themselves with the new Ice Age 3 game which I just bought. So i am able to get on with my mooncake session pretty fast.

Within 2 hours, all the mooncake were done up and washed up. Now, Sheen & Gween In are asking to go to Kids Amaze at the Jurong Safra!

...ok ok, I am done...

Ciao!


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Snowskin Mooncake

To make the Snow Skin:
150g Fried Glutinous Rice (Kou-Fien)
200g icing sugar (Iused 150g)
50g shortening (e.g. crisco)
1 knot of Pandan leave
180~200ml of water
Green Pandan Paste for colouring

First prepare the Pandan Juice:
Boil 180ml water with few pc of pandan leaves. Let it cool before weighing. Measure 175ml for the "skin". Chill well.
Prepare the snowskin:
1. Mix glutinous rice flour, icing and shortening together.
2. Add in pandan paste and juice.
3. Mix into smooth dough. Let it rest for 15-30min in the fridge (can skip if the juice is well chilled).
4. Divide to weight required and wrap in the filling.
5. Press into mooncake mould and chilled for 1-2 hours at 4-8C.


Filling
1kg white lotus paste
150g melon seed

1. Toast the melon seed in the oven until you hear the popping sound. Leave it to cool before use. 2. Roll out the lotus paste and sprinkle the melon seed. Roll it up like swiss roll.
3. Flaten the paste and roll it up once more. Ready to use.

To use the PH’s disney mould, use 20g skin + 12g filling.

Variation:
· use the disney (pooh, mickey etc) cookie cutter for this.
· Replace equal amount of water with champagne, bailey or rum.

All the ingredients are avail at Phoon Huat


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Baker's Note:

• I saw the snowskin premix on the shelves at phoon huat; an alternative if you wish but it is just as convenient to make from scratch. Anyway, i also bought a pack. Will let you know how it taste after I made a batch with it.


• I find the commercial lotus paste too sweet for my liking. Much as I wish to cook my own lotus paste filling, I dun want to add to my working woes... so I better just live with it.

Honeydew Sago 蜜瓜西米露

When I was making mango pamela sago (杨枝甘露) sometime back, J commented he rather have honeydew sago. He thinks that dessert should be "cooling" or "ying" effect, hence honeydew fits the bill better than the "heaty" mango.

When i was at the supermarket, saw this big yellow sun melon, so I immediately thought of making this dessert.

Disappointingly, the sun melon is not very sweet, though it has a nice crunch. Better stick to the trusty rock melon from down under. Trust me, it is sweeter.

Honeydew Sago

adapted from here

1 honeydew melon (approx 1kg)
175g sago, soaked
1 1/2 coconuts, grated
1/2 tsp salt

Syrup:
150g castor sugar
125ml water
2–3 screw pine leaves, shredded and knotted

Method
1. Remove the skin from the honeydew melon, halve then scoop out the seeds. Shape the honeydew melon into small round balls using a metal scoop. Put any remaining melon into an electric blender and process until liquidised. Pour the juice into a jug and chill in the refrigerator.

2. Next, cook sago in a pot of boiling water until transparent. Squeeze thick coconut milk from the grated coconut, add salt to taste and set aside. Pour the cooked sago into a sieve then place under running tap water. Drain well in a fine sieve.

3. Combine sago, chilled honeydew juice and thick coconut milk in a bowl. Add syrup to taste. Place the honeydew melon balls into individual bowls and add ice shavings or ice-cubes before serving.

4. To prepare the syrup, place sugar, water and screw pine leaves in a saucepan. Boil until sugar melts. Strain the syrup before use.

Notes:

I used the commercial ready-to-use coconut cream; i find it increasingly difficult to find the grated coconut unless I make a point to wake up early in the morning and get to the wet market.

Healthy Mango Pomelo Sago Dessert 杨枝甘露

I made this dessert today cos the sago is almost approaching expiry date...

In my personal opinion, 杨枝甘露 = 蜜瓜西米露 in the eighties. Every decade will have their signature dish, and their due glory until a new dish comes along. Wouldn't you agree that life is pretty much the same too!

The original recipe uses coconut milk which impart a very sweet and aromatic flavour to the dessert but is very high in saturated fat. So I replaced it with yoghurt drink + fresh milk.
As I was tasting the dessert, I had the impulse to dash out of the door to get a pack of coconut cream... but again, its a choice - good food or healthy food.

It is quite easy to make this - the qty is used as a guide only. I add more sugar, less milk, more mango along the way until it taste the way I like!

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杨枝甘露
adapted from YumYum Magazine

What you need:

Haha, I forgotten about the mangoes!!!

Ingredients:

Mangoes ~300g, puree

Mangoes ~200g, cubed

Pomelo 300g, segmented

Sago 100g

Mango Yogurt Drink 500ml

Sugar 2 tbsp

fresh milk, 100ml


To make:

prepare sago: soak rinsed sago in a pot for 30min. Add it into a big (I mean BIG) pot of boiling water. You need a big pot cos the sago will expand thrice the volume when done. Leave it to boil until the sago turn translucent, off the fire. Run the cooked sago under running water. Drained and set aside.

1. Dissolve the sugar in fresh milk.
2. Add (1) with mango puree, mango cubes, pomelo, sago and yoghurt drink into a big pot.
3. Chill well before serving.

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BTW, I just decided to get some coconut milk tomorrow =p

Notes:

Pls use the above quantities as a guide. I have made so much changes as I progressed; expect the proportion may be way out.

Puen (饭) Kueh

If you blog-hop regularly, you may know of the not-so-recent mayhem of this recipe; I was so tiltillated by the blogger's beautiful Puen Kueh yet no recipe was posted for anxious ones like me to try it out.

A classic let down.

I was relating this disappointment to my colleagues over lunch, and a few days later, she sent me this recipe - one that her mum uses... Thanks R.

Took this pic in the dim kitchen... hence the ghastly colour!

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Puen Kueh

Makes 20 pcs
Ingredients for the Dough

150g Rice Flour
50g Tapioca Flour
250ml Boiling Hot water
very tiny pinch of Pink food colouring powder (see right)


Ingredients for the fillings:
200g White Glutinous Rice, wash and soak for 3 hours
25g dried shrimps - soak, drained and chopped
2 pcs dried mushrooms - soak, drained and diced
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp Fish Sauce
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup water
1 tsp chicken grandules
1 tbsp Sesame oil
1 tin of Braised Peanuts

Method for Filling:
1. Heat some oil in wok. Fry the dried shrimps until frangrant. Remove from wok and set aside.
2. Stir fry mushrooms with oyster sauce for 1 minute.
3. Add glutinous rice, some water, fish sauce, chicken grandules and pepper. Continue to fry it in the wok until the water dries up. Add more water if necessary. The rice is ready when it is fully cooked. The rice should taste just a little saltier than you usually like, as the bland dough will mute the taste.
4. Add sesame oil and braised peanuts. Mix briefly.
5. While waiting for the rice to cool, prepare the dough.

Method for making dough:
1. Sift both flour & colouring into a mixing bowl and stir briefly to mix them well.
2. Pour boiling hot water into flour mixture and stir well with a spatula.
3. Cover the bowl with a plate. Let it stand for 10 mins (to cool it)
4. Remove and add colouring and knead to form a dough.

Assemble the kueh:
1. Divide the pink dough into 20g portion.
2. One at a time, flatten the dough into a round disc and place 1 tbsp of rice on the centre of the dough. Compress the rice first.
3. wrap up the filling to form a ball. Put the dough in the cookie cutter, press to flatten and spread to form the desired shape.
4. Press the cookie stamp over the dough to form the details.
5. Place each formed kueh onto the parchment paper placed in a bamboo steamer. Brush it with a little oil.
6. steam over boiling water for 8 mins.

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I brought this to my MIL birthday BBQ, and everyone goes "so cute"!
After a few "so cute", the 2 bamboo steamers were empty!

Sweet Potato Sweet Soup

I remember in my childhood that mum always have some sweet potatoes at home. Whenever I was hungry, I helped myself to those sweet potatoes- skinned them, throw it into the boiling water, and add a few slices of ginger + some rock sugar. I first did this from primary 3, about 9 years old!

It is unfortunate that none in my family likes this... despite my effort trying to make this as pretty as I could, Sheen ain't the least tempted!!!

I ended up having gorging myself, with some refrigerated for supper, and some to my parents. Parents are GREAT - they like to eat everything that I make :-)

Sweet Potato Sweet Soup

sweet potato, skinned and cubed
some gula melaka/rock sugar/white sugar
water
slices of ginger, optional
a knot of pandan leaves, optional

1. Boil the water, throw in sweet potato, gula melaka, ginger and pandan leaves. Taste to add more sweetener as required.
2. It is ready when the sweet potato is softened, about 30min.

Notes:

• You can use any type of sweet potato though I prefer the japanese variant.


• Gula Melaka gives an aroma which is irreplaceable with other sugar.


• Likewise for pandan leaves, it is added for aroma only. Omit if not available.

Optional:

• to get the flower variation here, steam the sweet potato first so that it is soft enough to be pressed out with a cookie cutter. Have fun playing with your cookie cutter!

Guava Lava

If you ask around, I am sure not many will count the humble guava as their favourite fruit. Some people eats slice guava with the sour plum powder which I think it is more for the sour plum than the fruit.

I am among the guilty ones, btw... and you can't blame me cos the guava on it's own is bland and hard.

But lurking beneath, it is a super fruit - it contains 5 times more vitamin C than an orange, cholesterol, saturated and sodium free, plus low in fat and calories, high in fiber. It also contains key nutrients like: carotenoids, folate, potassium, fiber, calcium and iron. Calcium is typically not found in high amounts in many fruits.

You do not need me to tell you that diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol and rich in fruits and vegetables that contain dietary fiber may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease!

With such benefits, all we need to find a palatable way to eat it :-)

I was in seventh heaven when I found this is a very simple yet so addictive creation from kitchencapers . I have to thank Yvne for sharing this recipe! She's right, no one (except Sheen) can keep their hands off the tub of guava!!

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Marinated Guava




What you need:
3 guavas, de-seeded and sliced very thinly-about 2mm thick
2 pack dried mandarin orange skin sliced thinly into strips
1 red chilli sliced thinly (optional - I omit)

How to do this:
Marinate everything together and leave overnight or about 6-8 hours in the fridge. Eat it while it's chilled.


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I made this 2 weeks ago... when the temperature was a scorching 36C! Nothing beats snacking this delightful fruits on a day like that!


Preserved Mandarin Oranges : I bought this from Prime Supermarket in Jurong West for $1.25 (for 4 packets). I have never not tried using other brands... but as in any recipe, the basis rule is that it must taste good on its own. Don't use the dried mandarin oranges from medical hall - it is bitter.

Guava: I generally get the thai seedless version. It cost a little more, but I find the "flesh" to be softer and not so "siap-siap". Only it says seedless, I still remove the core before slicing... all for my fussy eaters at home.

It may look dry initially- there's no need to add water. After the hours sitting in the fridge, guava itself will gives out the juice to marinate itself!

The only trick is to make sure you get the right proportion of guava to dried mandarin oranges. Too little, your guava will be bland. Too much your guava will be overly salty. It is not rocket science, so much taste and adjust along the way. Simple! For myself, I find the best ratio to be 1 packet to 800g of guava.

BTW, I first made this 2 weeks ago... when the temperature was a scorching 36C! What is like snacking on this fruits?

Shiok!

Lemongrass Ginger Tea

If you have been to Aramsa Spa, you must have tried the tea which they served in the lounge. The tea soothes my tired soul so much so that I suspect that's the tea rather than the massage being the reason for me going back again and again.

Once, i even bring my SIGG water bottle there to ta-pao. *Shhh*

On my own, I had been wanting to make some Lemongrass Ginger Pandan Tea for the longest time but never seem to be able to get all the 3 items together. Not sure if it’s jinx or what, I could never get the stars to line up!

Instead of continuing to wait, I just made do with whatever I have:

Simply bruise the lemon grass before adding them into some water and bring to boil. When ready to drink, add sachets of instant ginger tea.

Ummm, the aroma from pandan leaves will complete the whole experience!

The Mini Clearance 2: Double Boiled Nourishing Soup

I used to make nourishing soups on weekends regularly but ever since I busied with baking, the stock pot had been under-used, and the soup premix over stocked.

I defroze some spareribs to make this nourishing soup. I didn’t take any picture cos the colour of base stock is black like charcoal.

I brought the entire crockerpot to office the next day. The ladies were so happy to have some tonics!



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PS: My mum thinks these premix are overpriced but to me, it's heaven-sent convenience. It saves me so much time to think what to mix with what. Haha, I am not so creative when it comes to soup!