Missing in Action

I have been MIA for the past month and I thank my supporters for emailing to check what is happening. I have been kept rather busy at work and have been working late quite frequently too. So by the time I reached home, I want nothing more than to slump myself on the sofa.

Anyway, I was away in Shanghai for a few days in late January for some company training and my Shanghai colleagues hosted me to a most wonderful dinner at the Xiao Nan Kuo, which is located just next to the Pearl Tower. Business in the restaurant was very brisk but the service staff were still attentive and quick to respond. I really enjoyed every single dish served and I was particulary intrigued by the Glutinuous Rice Stuffed Lotus Root. Coincidentally, just a couple of days before leaving for Shanghai,I saw this recipe while browsing through a cookbook at a bookstore and I remembered asking myself then how would this dish taste? I never imagine that it would taste so good. The lotus root has been boiled long enough to be soft while still retaining it's bite and the starchy glutinous rice gave it a nice contrast. Drenched with a sweet syrup flavored with Osmanthus, it was really an awesome combination. Strangely, instead of being served as a dessert, it was served as part of several appetisers that included Duck's Tongue, Drunken Chicken, Braised Tofu with Peanuts and preggy Fried Fish which is different from the Japanese Shishamo.

(Opps pardon me! I had completely forgotten to adjust the camera to suit the indoor lighting condition and my first few photos turned out with a yellow tinge)

Duck's Tongue, Braised Tofu with Peanuts, Fried Fish, Drunken Chicken


Some of the other dishes served following the appetisers:

Fried River Shrimps, Tofu with Roe of Hairy Crab, Saute Beef Slices


Sweet Sour Squirrel Fish, Fresh & Preserved Pork Soup with Bamboo Shoot, Grandmother's Braised Belly Pork


Minced Vegetables with Bamboo Shoots, Spring Onion Pancakes, Red Bean Puree with Glutinuous Riceballs


I also had the chance to try some streetside food:

Xiao Long Bao, Shanghai Meen Chang Kueh with Crispy Sugar Crust, Assorted Sweet Cakes & Ba Bao Rice.


How about a bowl of steaming hot Ba Bao Porridge for about S$0.20?


By the way, I liked the lotus root so much that I recreated this dish when I got back to Singapore.
(L)The one which I made, (R) The one served in the restaurant


The roots are stuffed with glutinuous rice.


The "end caps" are secured with toothpicks to prevent the rice from dropping out during the boiling process.


After boiling in syrup.


Chilled and sliced for serving.

Here's me, after a satisfying dinner, posing in front of the Pearl Tower.


Some of the goodies which I brought back from Shanghai: Duck's Tongue, Duck's Wing, Candied Hawthorn, Porkballs, Minature Candied Walnuts.....and when I saw the Yoghurt Flavored and Corn Flavored Rabbit Sweets, I could not resist the temptation.



For the Chinese New Year, I did not managed to do any baking as I had to use whatever available time left to carry out the spring cleaning. However, I did managed to steam some nice Koi-shaped Sweet Glutinuous Cake (Nien Gao) as gifts for friends and relatives. I lost count of the number of fishes I have steamed. Perhaps a dozen?






And for guests visiting during the new year, they were served pan-fried HongKong Style Radish Cakes.

If you have been visiting my blog you would have noticed that I have not been updating it as much as before.

Lately, my work has been keeping me very busy during the day and by the time I reached home, I am brain dead. I am still baking though, and I am still trying out new recipes about 2 or 3 times a week as this has always been my way of relieving stress. It is just that I have not been taking pictures of them or uploading them to the blog. Hopefully thing will return to normalcy for me and I can start to blog actively again.

Here is a roundup of some of the stuff that I have made the past week.

Special Chocolate Cake. This is one of my favorite no fail recipe taken from the Australian Women's Weekly and of which I have been using for years. It is easy to do, tastes rich and stays moist up to three days. I did not take a picture but it looks similar to the Cherry Chocolate Cake below minus the cherries.
Here is the recipe for my colleague Sharon who requested for it and for also for Annie from RH:

Special Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
500ml water
660gm caster sugar
35g cocoa powder
250g butter, chopped
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
450g self-raising flour
4 eggs, lightly beaten

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 175 degree C.
2) Grease a 10" x 13" cake tin and line base with baking paper.
3) Combine water, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate soda and butter in a pot and heat without boiling till sugar is dissolved.
4) Increase heat and bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.
5) Transfer to mixing bowl and leave to cool till lukewarm.
6) Stir in sifted flour and eggs and beat till mixture is smooth.
7) Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick/skewer in the centre of the cake. Cake is done when no crumbs sticks to the skewer.
8) Cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool.

During the weekend, I tried a Steamed White Radish Cake taken from another blog. The ratio of radish versus rice flour/water initially scared me. I was apprehensive as to how the cake will turn out. Surprisingly, it was very good. It was robust, full of flavor and it tasted even better when lightly pan-fried. However, due to the large amount of white radish used, there was a tinge of bitterness in it. I made note on my recipe card that when making this cake again, I must squeeze out some of the radish juice to reduce the bitterness.

From the same blog, I tried a very innovative pseudo Tiramisu cake made from Cocoa Puff biscuits. You add cream, which have first been mixed with rum and vanilla essence, to the layers of cocoa puff biscuits. Then you top with more cream, some cocktail fruits and set the top with jelly.


The original recipe calls for Alsa Gulaman, a quick setting crystal jelly popular in the Philippines. I supposed I could find this at Lucky Plaza which is a haven for Filipino food products but I was too impatient to wait till my next trip into town. Since I do not have this on hand, I had substituted it with instant jelly dissolved in cranberry juice. It tasted real good. The biscuits have soften to a stage that it tasted like a rum soaked sponge and because I have added some Cheesecake candy oil to the cream, I feel as though I am biting into a cream cheese concoction..

This last cake, a Cherry Chocolate Cake is a bonus because I have been begging this lady for the recipe for the longest time. She had refused to impart the recipe to me and preferring to make me one each time she visits. However I think my patience paid off after all these years of nagging and bugging her. She finally relented but not without making me promise not to share the recipe. I just love the moist and chocolately flavor of the cake and juiciness that comes from the cherries. Yum!

Getting To Know You

What a great time I had on Sunday!

It was a day of getting to know the members of Imperial Kitchen (IK), a newly set up food forum.

It was really like Christening ceremony as IK is just over a month old and Lucy, an IK member, made the perfect cake for the occasion.

Chocolate Cake made by Lucy (Yochana)

There were easily 30 of us gathered over Lucy's humongous kitchen table which was laden with a good spread of food contributed by the members. We had Green Tea Cheesecake, Chestnut Mousse Cake, Kueh Lapis, Tri-colored Swissroll, Jellies, Cream Puffs, Durian Puffs, Tiramisu, Brownies (wait....let me catch my breath)...Mango Strudel, Curry Puffs, Banana Chocolate Muffins, Iced Vanilla Cupcakes, Fried Chicken Wings, WaterChestnut Dessert, Black Glutinuous Rice Dessert, Walnut Raisin Cake......(another deep breath needed)....Vietnamese Springrolls, Quickbread, Cinnamon Rolls, Lemon Rolls, Nonya Cakes, Otah, Tao Suan, Chicken-Corn Patties......am I missing anything?

Food, Glorius Food (photos reproduced by kind permission of Jo-Karlskrona)


My contribution was the Japanese Style Chinese Salad Rolls. Japanese Style because the recipe uses Japanese Vermicelli (tang hoon) which is thicker than the Chinese tang hoon and 'Japanese' Sichuan Bean Paste to fry the minced meat. To eat this, you take a piece of lettuce leaf, pile it up with vermicelli, minced meat and assorted vegetable sticks & honey-baked ham, then roll up or fold over the edges of the leaf to enclose the fillings into a roll.

I am sharing the recipe here at the request of some of the members.


Chinese Salad Rolls (Japanese Style)

Ingredients:
300g minced pork or chicken
3 tbsp chopped canned bamboo shoots
6 Chinese mushrooms, soaked overnight, chopped finely
1 medium sized large onion, chopped
1 small pieces ginger, chopped (about 1 tsp)
12 tbsp water
5 - 6 tsp sugar
6 tsp Hua Tiao wine
3-4 tbsp Japaneses Sichuan dou pan jian (spicy beanpaste - Youki brand)
4-6 tbsp light soya sauce (more or less depending how salty your soya sauce is)
12 tbsp water
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Oil

Method:
1) Heat wok and put in 1 tsp of oil and saute mushrooms till fragrant, dish up and set aside.
2) Reheat wok and put in tsp of oil and saute bamboo shoots for a few minutes, dish up and set aside.
3) Reheat wok, add 2-3 tbsp oil and fry garlics, onions and ginger till fragrant.
4) Add meat and stir fry continuously to break up the meat. Add the mushrooms & bamboo shoots.
5) Add the beanpaste, followed by the rest of the seasoning ingredients and water and cook till meat is cooked and the water has been absorbed.
6) Dish up and set aside to cool.

Accompliments:
Japanese cucumbers*
Carrots*
Celery
Red, Green or Yellow Capsicums
Chinese Lettuce or Butterhead Lettuce
Honeybaked ham or chicken ham
1 packet Japanese Vermicelli (Mitsukan brand) - boil in water till soften and soak in cold water. Strain well before using.

Cut vegetables & ham into thin sticks about 4cm in length and display on serving dish.

*Prepare a big bowl of water and add some sugar to it. Soak the cut carrots and cucumbers for about 10 minutes. This helps to make them crunchier.

To Serve:
1) Wrap some meat and your choice of vegetables in the lettuce.

Note:
1) The Youki bean paste is not so beany in taste as the Chinese dou pan jiang and it does not have a raw chilli taste like some Chinese brands.
2) You can purchase both the bean paste and vermicelli from the Japanese section of Cold Storage.
Youki Sichuan Beanpaste

Mitsukan Vermicelli


3) If you are using minced pork, you may use less oil for frying as the meat will ooze oil by itself.

A New Year, A New Beginning

Happy New Year one and all.

2007 will be a challenging year for me as I embark on new responsibilities and different roles at work. I have much to learn and I have to learn them fast. There is always the initial apprehension and I must psyche myself to overcome the fear of the unknown as only by overcoming this fear will I then be able to perform well. Wish me luck.

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My first bake to usher in the New Year is the Chestnut Tartlets. The insides of tart shells are brushed with melted chocolate before being filled with Cream Patissiere. A dollop of whipped cream is then piped on top of the Cream Patissiere. Finally, chestnut puree is dizzled all over. The whole concoction is then topped off with a single chocolate almond. The rum-laced Cream Patissiere is silky smooth and the chestnut puree is very fragrant. Absolutely wonderful with a cup of black coffee.


For lunch, I had prepared three dishes.

The first is Prime Ribs with Bittergourd in Homemade Glutinuous Wine. The wine was made by DH's colleague. The hearty dish tasted sweetly of wine and is fantastic with a bowl, no make it two, of steaming hot rice.


The next dish is something which I saw during my last trip to Malacca. I was walking past this coffeeshop and saw a newspaper cutting on one of the famous Muar Otah Fishpaste. Accompanying the report was a picture of a dish of longbeans that were fried with the otah fishpaste. I did not get a chance to try this dish as the stall was closed but I had imagine it to be cooked in the same way as longbeans with sambal dried prawns. This dish can be prepared in a jiffy as you do away with all the pounding of spices and dried shrimps for the sambal. All you need is to fry the longbeans in otah fish paste and the dish is ready in a flash.


The final dish is Honey Marmite Chicken. I first tasted this during lunch at Far East Plaza. I liked it so much that I went back a second time just to try to figure out what goes in. I think I have pretty much got it down to pat and dare say I that it tasted even better than the original.

If you want to give it a try, here is my recipe:

Honey Marmite Chicken
3 chicken thighs
Wash and drain the thighs well. Chop each into 4 (or 5 if the thighs are big) pieces. Marinate for half to one hour in 2 tbsp light soya sauce and 1 tbps Hua Tiao wine.

Gravy:
1 rounded tsp Marmite yeast extract
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp light soya sauce
Mix everything together.

1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp Hua Tiao wine

Method:
1) Deep fry the chicken pieces in batches till golden brown and skin is crispy. Drain on paper towels to absorb excess oil.
2) Heat 1 tbsp oil and saute garlics till light brown.
3) Add the gravy ingredients and cook till glossy.
4) Add the fried chicken pieces and quickly toss to coat well.
5) Splash in the wine from the side of the wok just before dishing up the chicken.

Note:
If you want a bit more gravy, you can increase gravy ingredients by 50%. There should be just enough gravy to coat the chicken (they should not be 'swimming' in it.)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Folks! Ho! Ho! Ho! Greetings from Santa and Rudolph.

The year had zoomed past so quickly and it is Christmas again. My extended family had the usual Christmas bash at my brother's house. This year, instead of having it potluck style, we had the food catered. I also took a 'sabbatical' from roasting the turkey this year and instead, ordered one from the supermarket. I say 'sabattical' because I have been appointed as the official turkey roaster for the family and have been the one roasting the turkey for the past 6-7 years!

Knowing that I will have some free time pre-party, I had planned in advanced to decorate a Christmas fruitcake. In fact, I had baked three fruitcakes ~ two 6" in size and one 9" in size. The mixed fruits were soaked in orange juice and rum well ahead of time and the cakes were baked at the end of November. I had faithfully stippled the cakes twice a week with Grand Marnier to keep them nice and moist.

You can see the 'bumps' on the surface as I did not 'seal' cakes with marzipan as is usually done. I merely covered cakes with Marshmallow Fondant directly.

The two smaller cakes are simply decorated with some store-bought figurines and were given away to the family of my children's significant other.




For the 9" cake, I had handmade the Santa and Rudolph figurines with sugarpaste. It was such fun seeing jolly Santa take shape. The biggest challenge was to get the heads of Santa and Rudolph to stay in place. Even with a toothpick embedded, they still flopped somewhat because they would not dry fast enough due to the wet weather. The antlers were another problem too as they refused to stay on Rudolph's head.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the end results as this is the first time that I have shaped figurines entirely with my own hands.

A Rolling Good Time

I had a rolling good time the last two days as I tried my hands at making a swissroll. I have never been really successful at doing it. My previous tries resulted in once, a cracked roll and on another occasion, a sponge that was ultra dry. I had followed the instructions to a T. I just could not understand why I had failed so badly. I recall that I had been more successful during my school days making the humble swissroll with a layer of strawberry jam. I wouldn't say I am very successful this round but well at least I am getting somewhere.

Chicken Floss Swissroll. Not too bad ~ the roll was soft, the mayonnaise-buttercream paired well with the floss. However, I had envisaged something even tastier. Perhaps using a spicy meat floss would perk it up further.

The second roll I tried was the Black Forest Swissroll. I have seen these rolls oozing with whipped cream and I shudder at that very thought. Although I have a weakness for desserts, I decide to put in less cream than normal. My mistake was that I did not brush the cake with enough cherry-Kirsh syrup to compensate for the reduction in cream, otherwise the roll would have been perfect. At least perfect in my eyes.


With just a couple of days to Christmas, it is time to make my favorite Gingerbread Boy. I just love the heavenly smell of ginger and cinnamon wafting through the air and the taste of black molasses. From past experience, I realised that many people do not take to a cookie which is too heavily spiced which is why I left out the ground cloves. If you are thinking of making some gingerbread this Christmas, this is a definitely must try recipe.


Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients:
63g butter, room temperature
85g light brown sugar
180g dark molasses
438g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves (which I omitted)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 180 degree C.
2) Sift flour, soda, salt & spices together.
3) Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy, add molasses and cream till well mixed.
4) Add in the flour and water alternately and mix till combined.
5) Rest mixture for 10-15 minutes.
6) Roll dough on a very lightly floured surface or waxed paper and cut into your desired design. Decorate with currants or chocolate chips (or decorate with royal icing after cookies have cooled).
7) Bake for between 10 - 12 minutes depending on the thickness of your cookies. Cookie is done when it springs back lightly when pressed.

Sunday's Food

At the request of my daughter's colleague, I attempted to 'write' a recipe for my Shepherd's Pie. I usually just make them based on 'feelings' ~ a little bit of this, a dash of that. So Vanessa, here is the Shepherd's Pie recipe to the best of my abilities:

My Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients:
1.3 kg russet burbank potatoes
1 can Campbell's Condensed Soup - Cream of Mushroom or Chicken
50gm butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper

Boil potatoes till soft, mash and add the soup, butter salt and white pepper. Mix well, cover and set aside

500gm minced meat
270gm chopped large white onions
2 garlics - chopped
150gm mixed frozen vegetables
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tsp dark soya sauce
2 tsp Marmite
1 tsp light soya sauce
Pinch of salt
3 tbsp olive oil
150ml water
1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbps water.

Method:
1) Heat 1 tbsp of oil, 1/3 of the chopped garlics and saute the frozen vegetables for 2 minutes. Dish up and set aside.
2) Heat the remainder oil and saute the garlics and white onions till fragrant. Add the minced meat and keep stirring to loosen the meat.
3) When the meat is cooked, add the mixed vegetables, seasoning ingredients and water. Stir fry for a while, adjust seasoning and thicken with the cornflour mixture. Dish up and set aside.
4) Scoop meat into a heat-proof casserole or inividual size loaf pan. Top with the mashed potatoes.
5) Roughen the potatoes with a fork, dot with butter and bake at 180 degree C for 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of your tray) till top is slightly brown.



As this Sunday was my dad's death anniversary, we had a memorial session for him at my brother's home. Dad was an avid angler. In memory of him, I made a fish-shaped buttercake and covered it with Marshmallow Fondant. The whole fish is then painted with a mixture of silver, gold and pearl luster dust. I had also made a fish rod and hooks out of sugarpaste to go with the fish. Unfortunately, due to the wet weather, the rod and hook did not dry on time and the rod actually broke into three parts. In the end, I 'told' my dad: "Sorry old guy, no fishing for you today. Just a steamed fish for you".

Saturday's Food

Over the weekend, I finally attempted Jo's (of JoDeli's) Glutinuous Rice Sausages . It was her Glutinuous Rice Sausages (GRS) that started me on a mad frenzy to find the sausage casings in Singapore to make the Chinese Lup Cheong. As I had some casings leftover, I decided to try the GRS. I have added two other ingredients to make it into a luxurious version - Chinese Scallops & Chinese Ham and also added Aged Soya Paste to season the rice in addition to the soya sauce.

Luxurious Glutinuous Rice Sausages

Ingredients:
500gm glutinuous rice - soaked overnight
8 Chinese mushrooms - soaked till soft, squeeze dry and chop finely
3 Chinese sausages - diced finely
3 Chinese scallops - soaked in a little hot water, torn into shreds when soft
35gm Yunnan Ham - diced finely
40gm dried shrimps - soaked and chopped finely

Seasonings for rice:
40-50gm shallots, sliced thinly
2 garlics, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp Aged Soya Paste
2 tsp five-spice powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp light soya sauce
4 tbps oil

Method:
1) Heat 1 tbsp oil and fry Chinese mushrooms till fragrant. Dish up and set aside.
2) Heat remainder oil and fry shallots till brown, scoop up the brown shallots and set aside. Leave oil in the wok.
3) Add garlic and saute till fragrant, add shrimps and fry for a couple of minutes till fragrant. Add the five spice, ham and scallop, fry for a while and then add the sausages.
4) When the sausages starts to exude it's oil, add the mushrooms. Stir fry for a while.
5) Add the rice,fried shallots and season the rice with the seasoning ingredients bit by bit*
6) Scoop up and leave the rice to cool.

Assembly:
1) Tie one end of the casing and using a funnel, fill casings with the rice mixture till 3/4 full and tie the other end.
2) Run a loop of twine in the middle to create two links of sausage.
3) Steam over boiling water for about 1-1/2 hours till cooked.
4) Cool befoe cutting.
Before steaming:

After steaming:

Note*:
As the sausages, shrimps, scallops and ham are salty on their own, add the seasonings bit by bit to avoid over-salting the rice.

For dessert, I made an Aloe Vera Snow Fungus boiled with some pandan leaves. Very refreshing served cold.