Vegetarian Bak Kut Teh

The only reason that this is called Bak Kut Teh is that I used the herbal premix.  As I was cooking this for my brother's family who has converted to vegetarian since my mum's passing.

I seldom make vegetarian soup as always wonder how to make the soup tasty without adding any meat or onion.  And since my dad used to like BKT (he's 'half vegetarian' who doesn't consume meat these days), I decided to make something similar.

I rather call this a herbal soup as the packet contains herbs & spices like Yu Zhu(玉竹), Don Gui (当归), wolfberry, star anise (八角), liquorice (Gan Cao甘草) and clove.  I see GOODNESS!

I forgot to take photo of my soup as I was too busy serving the guests, but nonetheless like to document what I cooked for my future reference.

Vegetarian BKT/ Herbal Soup

Ingredients:
Enoki mushrooms
Fried tofu packets
Chinese cabbage
Shitake mushroom
Canned mushroom
Beancurd Sheet, abt 2 pcs, soaked and cut into small pieces
Honey Date, 1 pc (optional)

Some caramel/thick dark sauce for flavour

Method:
1. Boil a bag of BKT premix with 1.2 L of water.  Once boiled, turn down the fire and let it simmer for 45min min, or upto 2hours.  This will allow the flavour from the packet to intensify.  I transferred the boiled water and packet into the slow cooker and left it unattended for the next few hours.

2. Half hour before eating, add the all the ingredients into the pot and bring it to boil.

3. Taste - add salt, some caramel/thick soy sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce for flavour.  Without these, the soup can taste rather flat.

4.  Served piping hot with fried cuddle (油条, optional), green lettuce and coriander/pasley (for garnishing) .


Note:
(a) It may seem to have lots of mushrooms but it is fine to use less or just add what you like.

(b) Honey date is optional but in the absence of meat, this adds 'sweetness' to the soup.

Apple Crisp

I just happened to have 10 granny smith to clear off - usually the odd 1 or 2 will go into my pork rib soup.  But 10?  

I was thinking of apple crumble or apple muffin but I came across this recipe - Apple Crisp.  As I read I thought it is not unlike Apple Crumble, a popular dessert in UK.  So what's really in the name?  I looked up the internet and, ta-da, Huff Post has the full details:

• A crumble is a baked dish of fresh fruit (apples, berries, plums, etc.) that is topped with an oat-based streusel.
• A crisp is exactly like a crumble, except there are no oats in the streusel. That makes the crisp topping more like sweet, buttery, crumbled pie crust.

But since this recipe contains oat, shouldn't it be called Crumble?  

Apple Crisp
Recipe adapted from here.

5 cups all-purpose apples, peeled, cored and cubed

1/4 cup white sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup quick-cooking oats (i used rolled oats)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:

1.            Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degree C).

2.            Place the sliced apples in a 9x13 inch pan. Mix the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and ground cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples. 

3.            Combine the oats, 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.

4.            Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 45 minutes.

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.

Overnight Oat - Good for your Soul!

I love oat... something I learnt to enjoy years back when i was first diagnosed with high cholesterol.  I turned to oats for easy breakfast - just add milk to oat in a mug and few minutes in the microwave gave me a quick and cheap breakfast back in those days when money was tight.  LOL.  

I can't say that the oat diet alone normalised the cholesterol level as I did make a conscious effort to avoid the not-so-cholesterol-friendly food like prata and char kway teow.  I also hit the gym at least 3 times a week back then.  Having said, it never hurt to know that there are some food "better" than others. 

For all the benefits of oat, check out this site.

Back to this overnight oat... I didn't know what take me so long to discover this... if not for my blogger friend, Ann.   Believe me - there's nothing, absoutely nothing, easier to prepare yet contains so much goodness!

The basic ingredients are just milk and rolled oat.  Just mix these 2 in a sealable container, and leave it overnight.  For added flavour and nutrients, add whatever you fancy: think yogurt, fresh/dried fruits and honey. 

I added raisin, dried cranberries, chia seed, mangoes and pistachio nuts as these are what I have in the stash.  What would you add to yours?


Overnight Oat
taken from Ann

6 tbsps Organic Rolled Oats
1/2 cup Fresh Milk
1/2 cup Plain or Greek Yoghurt
1 tbsp Chia seeds
some blackberries, blueberries, strawberries(halved), (rinse with water and pat dry with a kitchen paper)
Orange segment from one orange
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
some honey

 Method:

• Using a clean sterilized glass jar, add rolled oats, chia seeds and yoghurt.
• Pour in milk, drop in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and gently stir the mixture with a clean spoon to loosen the oats at the bottom of the jar. Add a little more milk if the mixture is too thick.
• Lastly add in berries and orange, give a few stirs.
• Cover the jar and leave the mixture overnight in the fridge.
• In the morning, before having your oats, drizzle some honey to sweeten the taste.

Lao Ban Beancurd copy-cat version (老伴豆花)

I have been wanting to make this for a long time cos my niece likes this new style beancurd.  I am abit old fashion who rather have the beancurd (my fav is Rochor Beancurd) which is made with gypsum powder (shi gao).  Having said, i can't make imagine making the traditional tou huay at home - too much hard work soaking, grinding and de-skin the soy before cooking it.  I helped my mum to make soy bean drink when i was younger, so I do know a few things huh.

Anyway, I digress.  

I have been reading so much about this copy cat recipe which is 99% (or 98.99%, but who cares) similar to the famous 老伴豆花 at old airport road market.  The important thing is that it is really easy to make... all the stuff easier avail at the supermarket and Phoon Huat.  Granted I have some grieve trying to get the "secret ingredient" from Phoon Huat but I guess that's still easier than to traveling from Jurong to Old Airport Road Market!

I made 1 starter batch last Friday, and my sister and niece raved about it.  I always think that behind every good cook, there's a hungry family! :-)

--------------

Lao Ban Beancurd  (copy-cat version)
source: dejiki

What you need:

For detailed and step by step instruction, pls see Dejiki - I really don't see the value of reinventing the wheel.

My modifications were:

1) My family has never been a big fan of sweet stuff so although 20g is not so sweet, I still have to do a token reduction to 18g.  

2) I like the wobbly type of beancurd, so again, I cut the jelly powder by a little (1g).  This gives really really soft beancurd - it sort of melts in your mouth which is perfect for me but I would nonetheless try making it with 13g to see the difference next time.

3) The 2 types of soy powder - Pollency & Unisoy - are high in protein.  What I find is that protein dissolves better in cold water.  So I actually mix the 2 types of soy powder in cold water and sieved before heating it up.  

4) Once the mixture is hot enough (but not boiling yet), sugar, coffeemate and jelly powder went in. Stir then off fire.

5) Because the mixture has been sieved before, I directly used the Magic Oil Sieve when pouring the liquid into the plastic containers and had no problem with slow flow. 

I got B to be my little Ratatouille Chef to do the mixing and stiring for me... and I thought he's the next best thing to the new Kenwood Cooking Chef which comes with the induction function.  Hmm, no open fire, and stiring to mess up my life... Oh well, let's just save that for the next investment!!!

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)

Jamie Oliver Chicken in Milk

Whenever I need to feed a big group of people and do not want to spend too much time in the kitchen, I go to this recipe.  It is very easy to make, the only work involves pan frying the chicken, and some cutting.  Everything else is then poured into  oven-safe casserole and bake till you are ready to serve.

Who knows that milk and chicken can give you such satisfaction.

The only thing to take note is frying the chicken.  The last time I gave my sis this recipe verbally, I told her to pan-fry till it brown.  So she skipped this step at her discretion.  It ended up her dish has a thick layer of yellow liquid floating on top.  Quizz her further than realised that's the chicken fat that should have been take off after pan-frying.

The photo was taken during my recent vacation in UK, cooking for my friend's family. The original recipe uses whole chicken but I used thigh which is relatively cheaper there!  :-)

Also, I added vegetables (whatever I can find in the fridge which happen to be carrot and fresh mushrooms) to make the meal complete.



Chicken in Milk

1.5 kg chicken parts

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

olive oil

½ stick cinnamon

1 good handful fresh sage, leaves picked

zest of 2 lemons

10 cloves garlic, skin left on

565 ml milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5.

2. Marinate chicken with black pepper and fry it in a little olive oil, turning the chicken to get an even colour all over, until golden. Remove from the heat, put the chicken on a plate, and throw away the oil left in the pot. This will leave you with tasty sticky goodness at the bottom of the pan which will give you a lovely caramel flavour later on.

3. Put your chicken back in the pot/casserole with the rest of the ingredients (including vege if you are using), and cook in the preheated oven for 60min. The lemon zest will sort of split the milk, making a sauce  which is absolutely fantastic.

Enjoy!