Sheen's new toy...

Sheen was taken on a vegetable farm visit recently, and brought back a pack of Hydroponic Kit consisting of a sponge foam, net pots, packet of Kang Kong seeds and nutrient solution.

This is how we started a new hobby at home.

This is how it looked on the 3rd day. Some seeds already sprout. The gaps are the "early bloomer" which have been transferred to the net pot. Those are didn't sprout remain status quo for the next 2 weeks.

Incidentally, it's Earth-Hour today. I am joining the intiative with other cities around the world to turn off our lights for Earth Hour, from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm. Switching off our lights is a small act on our part, but that means we give our vote to Earth.

Did you?

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Oh Chin Huat Hydroponic Farms (Pte) Ltd
14A Bah Soon Pah Road Singapore 769970
Tel: 6753-8011
http://www.ohfarms.com.sg/

the secret of the muffin dome

I was a little obsessed about creating the dome on muffin. Today I am trying out the little trick that i learnt... and I think I am getting close!



As posted in the last post, the trick is to preheat the muffin tray. When it reaches 200C, take out the tray then fill it up with batter all the way to the top.

The muffin is still as moist and soft as the previous... Yum Yum.

One Pot Rice

I used to be quite helpless at cooking rice despite it being my staple food. Some days I am lucky, but most of the time it is gluey and sticky. Then I started to pick up some tips from cooking class:

• Rinsing rice helps get rid of any starch and impurities. Rinse until the water is clear and not cloudy.
• Use 1 cup rice to 1.5cup water.
• Remove the lid to allow steam to escape when the rice is cooked. This allows extra moisture to evaporate and for the rice to be tender and separated.
• Fluff up the rice with a fork before serving.

This is the quick meal that I cooked up when Sheen asked for some food on a lazy Saturday noon.
I used ingredients like dried shrimp, chinese sausage, bak-kwa, chinese mushroom and mixed vegetables to come up with this one-pot rice in a flash.

Sheen likes it very much cos it taste just like his favourite glutinous rice, except it is using brown rice and with add veg!

Eggless Strawberry White Chocolate Muffin

I find myself going for easier & simpler (often healthier too) recipe of late. Muffin comes top of the list being fuss-less, egg-less and becos it uses oil (instead of butter), it is also healthier.

Grapeseed oil is my preferred veg oil as I read from a study that it raises HDL (the good cholesterol) and reduce LDL (yep, bad cholesterol).

It costs more than other veg oil as the grapeseed has a lower yield i.e. it gets a lower percentage of oil as compared to other oil-producing seeds, nuts, or beans.


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Strawberry White Chocolate Muffins (eggless)
Adapted from To-Die-For Blueberry Muffin
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1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup white sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup grapeseed oil
2/3 cup strawberry milk
75g cup chopped dried strawberries
75g white chocolate chips


DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease bottom of muffin tray or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and/or soda).
3. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add enough milk to fill the cup.
4. Add the wet ingredients (oil+milk) into dry ingredients (as in step2). Fold in strawberries & choc chips. Fill muffin cups right to the top.
5. Bake for 18 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Bake notes:

• ensure the oven was very hot at >200C so that the muffin will not overflow. You may need a oven thermometer to do this - my temperature knob had to be tuned to 250C to reached 200C)



• I had a nice dome out of the muffin this time round! But the white choc toppings got burnt after 10min, so I had to turn the oven to bottom heat only, and tent the muffin top.
  


• I learnt that another trick to get those high dome rises is to heat the muffin tray inside the oven while it is preheating... I will try this next time round.

I eat pulot hitam out of my coffee machine...

I am kidding not. I was packing my breakfast this morning, and the raw black glutinous rice caught my attention. I just feel like having it today. I grab the pack and left for work.


While driving I was working out in my head; how to fix it with the microwave in the office pantry. When I step into my room, I saw the coffee percolater... why not?



The only problem is that it only turn mushy after lunch.... about the same amount of time required in slow cooker. Anyway, it was in time for my afternoon break so I can't complain!

My sad sad Vegan Tofu Cheesecake

This has been a constipated recipe that took me a long long while to figure out. Far challenging than I thought!

This is my fourth attempt at it and I am and embarassed to say that the recipe is still a WIP; the cake is still lack structure. The problem is either too little konnyaku powder or I have not processed this correctly. I stirred in the saucepan over low fire until it dissolved. I do not know if it's necessary to bring it to boil for it coagulate.

Sorry Chunpman , after the long wait this is all you get :-(


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Vegan Tofu Cheesecake *

* Recipe still under construction. Use it at your own risk :-)

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70g digestive biscuits (I made my own vegan shortbread)
30g butter (see note1)
250g siken tofu
180g pineapple juice
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp konnyaku powder
30g honey
50g lemon juice (3tbsp+1tsp)

1. preheat oven to 180C. lightly grease a 6” springform pan. (or 5" if you want it taller)
2. crush biscuit and press biscuit & butter into the pan. bake for 10min. leave to cool.
3. in a pot, heat pineapple juice to near boil. Dilute cornstarch with some hot pineapple juice in a bowl. Then add to the pot. Add konnyaku powder gradually, and stir until dissolves. leave to cool (~30min).
4. in a blender, combine tofu, honey, lemon juice with pineapple juice mixture and blend for 1 min.
5. pour the blended mixture onto the baked crust and refrigerate 3-4 hours.
6. serve cold, and enjoy plain or decorated with fruits.

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Note 1: I must confess that using butter rendered this cheese non-vegan though it can be easily addressed by using margarine. My colleague told me he gets non-hydrogenated margarine (which means it contains no trans-fat) in Melbourne but I have yet to find them on our shelves.

Incidentally, I find it convenient to use the individually packed butter when the recipe calls for small amount. Each pack is 10g, so I just take out the number required each time.

Macaron Tartlette: where's my feet?

I have to say upfront that I do not like to eat Macaron. It is so sacchariny sweet that acts on my sensitive teeth, making me grimace!

I only take this as a challenge... you know how tricky it is to make macarons; the batter cannot be too thick or too thin, cannot make on a rainy day, oven cannot be too hot, cannot use fresh egg (who keeps stale egg at home, btw) blah blah blah....

I thought the macaron tartlet will be just right for me since it is half challenge (macaron top) and half to savour (tart).

As it turned out, my macaron had no feet... which does not qualify as macaron... As to why there's no feet; I honestly do not know. I had followed the recipe to a T; egg white was aged for 48 hours, full quantity of sugar; weather was hot and sunny day....

Anyway while you are at this, take a look at Aunty's beautiful Tartlette. YES, it is mean to be this beautiful!

PS: Am not posting the recipe cos Aunty Yochana is conducting classes on these tartlette, so it is inappropriate for me to post the recipe.