Mango Pudding

Mango season is here and the other day, one kind mom from school gave me 3. She got them real cheap as they were very ripe and had some blemishes. And they were so sweet! I ate one and asked Hubby if he preferred mango pudding or a mango cake. He voted to turn the last 2 mangoes into mango pudding.

I'm quite an experimentative person especially if I'm in a situation where I have to adapt. This time, a can of near expiry condensed milk in the pantry is the reason for my creation! 

Most mango pudding (the kind you find in chinese restaurants) recipes calls for evaporative milk. But as explained above, I want to use condensed milk. At the same time, I can also save on adding sugar. For added flavour, I decided to stir in a mango flavoured yogurt ice-cream as well. I didn't see any recipe that used yoghurt before so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will not affect the jelly setting.

Phew, the experiment turned out well. Creamy, smooth and full of mango sweetness.

I'm posting the recipe here for my own reference but if anyone should try it, let me know if you like it too.

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe mangoes, take out flesh and dice
• 200ml condensed milk
• 1 tbsp unflavoured gelatine
• 225 ml hot water
• 1 stick of mango yogurt ice-cream

Method:

• Puree about half the amount of mango in a blender. (If you want it yellower, add in more mango)
• Dissolve the gelatin in the hot water, stir in the condensed milk.
• Add mango puree and stir well.
• Stir in the ice-cream until it melts completely.
• Add in the last bits of diced mango.
• Pour into moulds and chill until set.

Hmm....this is a really nice dessert on a hot summer day.

Xiao Long Baos

That day we ate the Xiao Long Baos (Shanghainese Dumplings) in Sydney's Ding Tai Fung is the day I made up my mind to make my own. These dainty XLBs cost about $1.50 each and my elder son can eat as many as 10-15 by himself. I figured out it makes a lot of "cents" to DIY.


Previously I'd made XLBs before but I always used store bought dumpling skins instead. Yes, I was lazy. Making and rolling out each individual dough skin seemed so daunting. Regardless, my XLB fan of a son enjoyed it thoroughly but I know they're no good. The skin is too thick and it hardens quickly after taking out from the steamer. This time, I'm persuaded to attempt making the skin from scratch. I know it'll be a lot of work.

Uncooked Xiao Long Baos

Being my first attempt, my skills were really lousy. I had problems getting them to roll out into a perfect circular shape. I also tried to make the side thinner to make it easier to wrap. Later, I realised that I need to roll the sides little by little, turning the little disc of dough as I go. Traditionally, there's supposed to be 18 folds but initially I could only do about 13. Subsequently, after about 30 XLBs, I finally managed 17 folds.

Steamed Xiao Long Baos

Well, it didn't turn out so bad afterall but it sure was time consuming. The dough is nice to knead and it can be made to stretch very thin, with skill. When steamed, it looked a little translucent, which is very authentic! I made about 37 XLBs from that batch, of which KK ate about 30%. He was really delighted and enjoyed it so much. Even XX loved them. The thinner skin sure makes a difference, it doesn't feel as starchy and heavy as previously. It's definitely worth the effort.

One of my 'masterpiece'

Here's the blog where I adapted the recipe from: http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/2008/10/xiao-long-bao.html

Surprise Menu

Ever had those days where your fridge is full of food but you just don't know what to cook?

Well, today was just that. Up till the time I was preparing dinner, my head was still swirling around several ideas about the menu. I had so many ideas, yet no concrete action plan. I had just returned from the supermarket and added to my fridge lamb cutlets, scotch fillet steaks, whole fresh chicken, chicken thigh fillets, italian pork sausages, bacon, salami, mushrooms and many other yummy ingredients. There're so many possibilities that I can't decide. Should I make an improvised bacon and salami pizza? Or chicken rice? Maybe a creamy pasta? What's more, waiting in my fridge were some pre-softened shitake mushrooms, a quarter cauliflower that's more than 2 weeks old and a slab of defrosted salmon fillet. Sometimes, too many choices is bad....heheh.

Common sense prevailed and I decided that I should use up the 'older' ingredients that cannot be kept first. But how? As I was preparing the ingredients, KK asked me what's for dinner. My answer? "Actually, I don't know. Surprise!" I wonder what he thinks of mummy then. Mysterious, creative or clueless?

At the last minute, I adapted a Shitake Teriyaki Tuna recipe, using salmon instead and adding cauliflowers to the teriyaki mushroom sauce. I also grilled some Italian Pork Sausages wrapped in bacon as a side and made a Spaghetti Alio Olio as the staple.

Ta-da! Dinner is served. Phew, I'd manage to pull it off!

Pumpkin Porridge

I have never cooked or even eaten pumpkin porridge before. But what prompted me to cook this today is 1 bowl of leftover rice, balance half pot of pork, corn and carrot soup stock, a quarter pumpkin in the fridge (thanks to XX who insisted I buy it at the veg market even though he has no idea what it is) and a curiousity about "南瓜粥" after watching one of the F4 character in the Korean drama "花样男子" eat them.

A quick search on the internet confirmed that "南瓜" is indeed pumpkin. In Korea, they call it "Hobahk Jook" or "Hobakjuk", and they actually use glutinous rice or even glutinous rice flour to cook it. They also blend it to make the texture more velvety and they add sugar! I think it should taste more like a dessert than a main meal cos it must be very sweet and gooey, like those chinese red bean soup dessert.

Anyway, I didn't follow their recipe, perhaps next time since I've still got some more pumpkin. I decided to do it my own style, using up the leftover stock and rice and adding some wolfberries. The result? I didn't know pumpkin can taste so nice. I should have made some pumpkin puree and porridge for my children when they were babies. The pumpkin literally melted into the porridge, making it naturally sweet. The pork and an added teaspoon of salt balances the flavour to make it more savoury. XX seemed to like it, he finished his portion. I quite like it too though sweet porridge is an acquired taste. Hubby, I can tell, he didn't really fancy it.

Nasi Lemak

Was missing Nasi Lemak the other day. This popular malay dish is readily available in Malaysian/Singaporean restaurants around Glen Waverly and Doncaster, but that's 1 hour's drive away from where we live now. Anyway, I had on hand a kilo of chicken wings, half a packet of Seah's fried chicken spices, some dried anchovies, a can of coconut milk and most importantly, a jar of Nasi Lemak Sambal chilli that has been sitting in the larder for a long time, compliments of my sister in S'pore.




So some oily frying of chicken wings and sambal ikan billis with onions later, I have made myself a simple Nasi Lemak dinner!





The lemak rice is actually quite easy to make, just add the coconut milk (165ml to 2.5 cups of rice for me) and a teaspoon of salt into the rice, top up with water to the usual level, and cook in rice cooker. I added some veggies into the meal with a tomato omelette as I know the children would not take raw cucumber and tomatoes.




The dish brings back memories of S'pore's hawker culture, except the weather is not quite the same. I remember eating Nasi Lemak in Changi Village, feeling hot and sticky outside but warm and yummy inside. Nevertheless, the husband and I enjoyed the meal tremendously. I was quite worried about the rice as I actually 'hum-tumped' the proportions, but it turned out just right. Unfortunately, both the kids didn't like the lemak rice... :( I guess Nasi Lemak is just not good without the sambal chilli, ya?

饺子

My little family has grown fond of my homemade 'jiaozi' or chinese dumplings. Over the past 2 weeks, I'd made it 3 times. Hubby and I can gobble up about 18 jiaozi each for dinner while KK can do about 4 - 6. I'm not boasting, but they are very yummy. The meat is fragrant and very tender. I tried to make minced pork balls or wantons before but the meat is always tough. Hubby asked me what I added this time that makes it so good and I don't know why. The seasonings are all pretty normal stuff that most chinese families use.







It really started when KK mentioned about his classmate having that for lunch and asked me what it is. I asked him if he would like to have it and when he nodded, the 'filial mother' in me started looking for its recipe.

Though I've eaten jiaozi before and quite like them, I've never ever made one myself. The recipe wasn't hard to find really and it turned out really good even on my first attempt. Ok, I took the short cut of using ready-made dumpling skin. But at only $1.70 for 500gm of consistent thickness and size, really, I shouldn't bother. Besides the texture is quite good.

Here's the recipe for the fillings:


Ingredients

• 350 - 450g minced pork
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp Hua Tiao Wine
• 1 tbsp Light soya sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• some pepper
• a bit of chives, coriander and spring onion (all chopped up)
• 1/4 small cabbage (chopped to small bits)

Method:

Preparing
Mince/chop and mix everything up. If you have a food processor, great. If not, happy chopping. Allow the meat mixture to sit and marinade in the seasoning while you chop up the veg. (Make sure the veg are not too wet and apparantly when mixing, stirring the meat slowly and in the same direction helps not to break the fibre that holds the meat together.)



Wrapping
Put a lump of minced meat in the center of the skin and fold over. Wet the edge with a little water. Fold pleats on the edge starting from right to left. Make sure you press it hard to seal the pastry together. Practice makes perfect, the more you wrap, the prettier it'll become.



Boiling

• Put a large pot of water to boil. Fill up the pot only about 50% full, leaving room for adding of more water as you cook.
• Put gently dumplings into boiling water. Try to stir them around initially to prevent them from sinking and sticking to the bottom of the pot. When the water boils again, pour in 1 cup of water and cover. When it boils the 2nd time, pour in another cup of water and cover. When it boils for the 3rd time and the dumplings float up, they are done. (You have to do this ritual to make sure the dumplings are properly cooked. Pouring in cold water each time prevents the dumpling from 'exploding' as it cooks.)

Eating

• Taste best when eaten hot!
• Eat them plain or with whatever sauce you like - soya sauce, vinegar, chilli, or those ready-mix dumpling sauce from Taiwan.

Catching Up

My parents arrived 2 Mondays ago and since then, we have been playing catch up. They are busy catching up on the developments of their grandsons, marvelling at how tall KK has become and how many words XX can say. They also now physically experienced for themselves how cold and windy Melbourne can be and how there are all kinds of Chinese groceries readily available here.



In the meantime, I have been catching up on some of my mother's cooking. Already, I have had my fix of cantonese desserts like beancurd barley soup with ginko nuts and sweet potato soup. (Red bean soup is coming up this Friday.) Not to mention my mum's 'famous' fried rice and homemade Lotus root soup.



Grocery shopping here can be a fruitful outing, as we sometimes discover genuine bargains. The savvy 'marketer' in my mother immediately picked out fresh beef, pork and chicken here that cost much less than those in S'pore. The other day, they went to a vegetable and fruit seller and brought back bags of red chilli/peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, apples, potatoes and sweet corn, all at $1/bag. These items were all for 'clearance' as they were either very ripe or does not appear beautiful. We turned the tomatoes into pureed pasta sauce, apples into apple pie and the potatoes, we've still not finished them after 2 meals of baked potatoes and stewed potatoes. Hubby was so delighted to buy back 2 kgs of grapes at $1.99/kg. Another night, we also could not resist buying a big watermelon from Coles at $0.95 per kilo.








I've learnt a new way of cooking eggplant from my mum. I don't normally buy eggplants because I don't know how to cook it. But now I know one way and it's very yummy too! It's a simple, yet complete dish, in that there's meat and veg all-in-one and goes well over plain rice. I love all-in-one dishes! Would like to share this recipe with people who love all-in-one dishes too!






Here are the ingredients:




Eggplant with Pork in Oyster Sauce

• Minced pork (about 200g or less will do)
• Garlic (chopped)
• Onions (chopped)
• Eggplant (sliced)
• Red Pepper/Capsicum (cut into strips or squares)
• Oyster Sauce
• Dark Soya Sauce

Method: (as described by my mum)

• Lightly fry the sliced eggplants and set aside.
• Heat some oil and fry the onions and garlic until fragrant.
• Add in the red pepper and fry for a minute.
• Add in the minced pork and fry till cooked. Add in the eggplant.
• Stir in some water and allow to simmer for a while.
• Add oyster sauce and dark soya sauce to taste.

Voila!

Wild about Mushrooms

Did two new dishes using mushrooms that day. Reason being I bought quite a big box of mushrooms on sale and is looking for recipes to utilise them. I found out that amongst my limited collection of recipe books, I have "The Ultimate Mushroom Book" by Peter Jordan & Steven Wheeler, which contains a complete guide to mushrooms and recipes. Hubby is a great fan of mushrooms and he got this book on offer in Popular Bookstore many years ago for only $5.

I had some cream from my baking leftover, so I bought some Tarragon herb to make Mushrooms in a Tarragon Cream Sauce for brunch. It was very tasty served with toasted wholemeal bread.

With the leftover Tarragon, I bought some ready-made puff pastry and pork sausages and made a Pork Sausage Puff with a Seam of Wild Mushrooms for lunch the next day. Actually the original recipe calls for thyme but I didn't want to keep buying fresh herbs when tarragon should worked just as well. It was pretty fun making this dish, cutting the slits on the pastry. I learnt that sausages need not always be cooked nor eaten in its skin. You just put it in water and the skin will sort of loosen. Then you just tear the skin and spread the meat like minced pork. The puff pastry I bought are those already rolled, frozen ones. You just need to take out one piece and defrost it before using. Very convenient and it's not expensive here.

Do let me know if anyone wants the recipes!

Since I've got more puff pastry and some more leftovers of the pork sausage and mushroom, I made another version for KK as his after-school snack the next day. But this time, I skipped all the elaborate wrapping and just do a simple rolled puff style. I cut the puff pastry into half and each half, I divided it some more into 4 rectangular pieces. For one half, I used the savoury pork sausage and mushroom mix. For the other, I decided to make some sweet puffs. I was kind of craving for Delifrance's kaya puff, so I took out my kaya from the fridge and spread it on 2 portions of the puff pastry, then roll it up. I did another 2 with chocolate hazelnut spread, just to experiment and see how they turn out.

I must say the kaya version turned out better looking than the chocolate ones. They taste great too! They were shared between XX and me, too bad for Hubby by the time he woke up from a nap.

Indian Tonight

I've been wanting to blog about my Indian cooking adventure but either I didn't have time or I didn't have access to the computer as KK was hogging it to watch cartoons at this newly found website.


It all started when I read about my cousin making aloo goobi in her blog. Aloo goobi is Hubby's favourite Indian dish and we always order it whenever we eat at Indian restaurants. I asked my cousin for the recipe and got some potatoes and cauliflower to try it out. Of course, there is also this process of acquiring all the indian spices required by the recipe, many of which I've not even heard of. See how new to cooking I am?


At the same time, I was visiting the supermarkets and checking out the Indian groceries they carry. I found a lot of ready-to-eat Indian curries and sauces. All you need to do is add the meat. There's even instant Basmati rice and pre-baked naan! I bought 2 jars of sauces to try - Tikka Masala and Butter Chicken. (Butter Chicken is my personal favourite!)


So it was Aloo Goobi and Chicken Tikka Masala with basmati rice for dinner. First time cooking all these for me. Verdict?


The Chicken Tikka Masala was a huge success. The sauce tasted very authentic, just like those we had in restaurants. Aloo Goobi was also not bad but slightly on the bland side. I think I may have misinterpreted the amount of spices and I also did not add any salt. The basmati rice was too wet. The next time I cooked it again, I reduced the amount of water and washed it more thoroughly and it turned out better.

Aloo goobi

The success of the Tikka Masala led me to surf for the recipe online. I chanced upon this website: http://www.recipezaar.com/ which has quite a lot of recipes with comments from people who has made them. There's even a nutritional information box accompanying the recipe so you know how much cholestrol you are eating...keke.



I made one of their recipe (http://www.recipezaar.com/38203) - Tandoori Chicken on another day. For this dish, I added another 2 more types of spices to my larder. Looks like I'll be cooking indian food more with all the spices I'm accumulating!


The Tandoori Chicken was fantastic. The chicken meat was flavourful and tender. It goes very well on a bed of lettuce, tomato and onion accompaniments. In fact, I think it will go well with bread too, like a Tandoori Chicken Sandwich? I'll try it and let you know :-)


I marinaded the 2 fillets of chicken thighs and 1 fillet of chicken breast with the lemon juice, spices and yogurt the night before. The next day, I fried one of the chicken thighs on the grill pan. The recipe actually said to bake it first before grilling but I found it very troublesome. I found out that grilling it direct gives you a better colour, just like on a bbq. However, because of the thickness of the meat, you got to watch out that the center is cooked thoroughly. Of course, there's also the fume and the chicken is slightly drier.


For the other 2 pieces, I baked them in the oven for 30 mins. There were some oil+juice of chicken on the pan which I kept aside. Then I put the meat on the grill pan for a while. You can see the difference in colour in the photo. The chicken breast on the right is baked/grilled while the thigh on the right is grilled only.

Tandoori Chicken

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day. I've always thought Father's Day was celebrated universally around the world on the same day, apparantly I was wrong. S'pore had ours in June and for Australia, it was September. I wonder who decides on when is Mother's Day, Father's Day, Teacher's Day etc? No matter who decides, the people who MOST LOVED to celebrate these occasions must be the retailers. More than a month ago, all the mailers/catalogs we received from every major departmental store has been using Father's Day as their theme, featuring all kinds of products that you can buy as gifts for Dads and enticing you to spend more money. I should know, haha, I was one of these marketers back in S'pore long ago!


Well, even though we've already celebrated the occasion back in S'pore, I'm one of those 'sentimentalist' who couldn't resist making this day a little bit more special than usual. I decided not to buy anything for Hubby, since it will be coming from his pocket no matter what I buy. I decided to reward him for his efforts in being a good father by making some of his favourite food - Lor Mai Kai and spicy fried Chicken Wings.


I marinated the chicken wings and soaked the glutinous rice the night before. After breakfast, I fried the seasoned chicken mushroom rice and put it to steam. Actually I'd the Lor Mai Kai recipe some time ago. I couldn't make it as I couldn't find the right sized bowls for steaming. I finally found some suitable ones last week at an asian supermarket in St. Albans. The recipe can be found here. It made about 5 bowls. Hubby loves it. His only comment was the mushroom was chopped too small. He said those he saw had it in large slices placed at the bottom of the bowl. Alright, point noted.




The chicken wings were marinated with Seah's seasoning, so it couldn't go wrong. I used to hate frying chicken wings because it took so long and used so much oil. Well, surprisingly it didn't take too long this time, maybe because I used a big wok (which also means using more oil), so I could like fry 8 pieces at one time. I had 26 pieces. By the time I finished, it was almost 1pm. I packed the food into boxes and we took the children to a nearby park for a picnic.



It was a cloudy day and a little windy and chilly. But the park was quiet, peaceful and the view was beautiful. XX ate the Lo Mai Kai while KK attacked the chicken wings. After lunch, the kids went to the playground to play. There was a lot of big open spaces there for the kids to run around. There was also a lake (not sure if it's man-made or natural) with some ducks swimming around and a pathway for you to take a stroll around. Best of all, it's only like 5 mins from our place. This is indeed a nice neighbourhood. We had to leave when it started to rain.

Here are some pictures. I will post more pictures in Facebook.

KK eating his chicken drumlette and hiding from the wind under the table.

XX at the playground

KK trying out his skills at climbing

Bak Chor Mee, no Tur Kwa

On the day I made bread, I also made Bak Chor Mee (Mince pork noodles) for dinner. It was, thankfully, less trying and successful on the first attempt. Hubby gave it the thumbs up.



Well, I didn't manage to find the black vinegar, otherwise it would taste even more authentic. And I used 'bean mee' (aka 'mee chiam') as a substitute for mee pok, which is not too bad as the noodles is soft and not too starchy. I got these noodles from Malaysia.

I adapted the recipe from here. For anyone who wants to DIY, here's the list of my ingredients:

(the portion here is for 2-3 pax, some ingredients have no quantity, it's up to you to use how much you like.)

• Bean Mee (if you don't have fresh mee pok, or you can also use linguini)
• 10 Dried Mushrooms, soaked overnight, sliced (Keep the water!)
• 300g Minced Pork (you can add in some slice pork loin too)
• 1 Shallot, sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp of dark soya sauce
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp ginger paste (I used ginger paste, which contains some vinegar, so it sort of replaces the black vinegar)
• Fishballs
• 1 Fish Cake, sliced
• Vegetables, cut
• Tomato Ketchup
• Sesame Oil
• Chilli Padi/Soya Sauce

Method:

The Mushroom Stew & Sauce

- Fry shallots and ginger with oil until fragrant, add mushrooms and stir fry till cooked. Add in dark soya sauce and oyster sauce. Add in the mushroom water and simmer for a while.

- Dish it out and put into a slow cooker to stew further.

- Fry garlic and add in minced pork. Separate the mince as you fry. After it's done, put it into the mushroom stew pot.

The Noodles

- In a bowl, mix some tomato ketchup and sesame oil.

- Cook the noodles according to instructions. It may be neccesary to blanch it into cold water (to stop the cooking) and back into the hot water again (to warm it back) before dishing into bowl.

- Mix it and serve immediately.

The Soup

- Make some soup using veg/chick stock.

- Add in vegetable, fish ball and fish cake when it's boiling.

To Serve

- Scoop mushroom/mince pork & sauce over noodles.

- Arrange fishballs, fish cake slices and vegetables on top of noodles OR serve it in a bowl of soup.

- Cut one chilli padi and add soya sauce in a separate condiment dish.

Miss it? Make it!

You may have noticed that recently I have been more adventurous in my cooking. Indeed, I have been visiting quite a few food blogs, researching for recipes from 'minjiang kueh' to 'sweet corn bread' and even 'bak chor mee'. Along the way, I also strayed into other interesting recipes like 'kimchi fried rice' and 'earl grey chiffon cake', which I'll want to try making, as soon as I get hold of a tube pan.


Besides keeping my idle mind active and expanding the menu for dinner, much of this interest stems from one of us (usually me) missing some of the Singapore local delights. Interestingly, besides the usual homemaker/bakers, many of the recipes for local delights are contributed/written by Singaporeans who are living overseas. Then again, if you are living in S'pore, why would you even bother making 'min jiang kueh' or 'bak chor mee'. Just go downstairs and get some from the coffeeshop! But when you are living overseas, many of these food that we take for granted previously are not readily available. So the only way to satisfy those cravings would be to MAKE IT!


Tonight, I tried to make Kimchi Fried Rice (Kimchi Bokkumbap). Hubby and I enjoy Korean cuisine alot and we have found this Korean mart in Victoria Street which sells everything that we want - Korean Tofu Soup base, Korean instant noodles, Bimbimbap Sauce, Bulgogi marinade, Enoki mushrooms and Kimchi! They have so many different types of kimchi that I was lost at which one to buy.

The recipe is taken from "My Korean Kitchen" (http://mykoreankitchen.com/2007/01/03/stir-fried-kimchi-and-rice-kimchi-bokkumbap-in-korean/). Incidentally, the blog owner is a Korean living in Brisbane, Australia.

Well, the fried rice turned out looking quite nice, with the reddish kimchi colour and was slightly spicy. Despite the strong flavour of fresh kimchi, the final rice product is suprisingly mild. I actually expected this dish to deliver a punch when you eat it, like tom yam but the taste of kimchi was kind of diluted. I followed the portions closely, in fact, I think I end up draining the whole jar of kimchi juice and I even added some salt when I found it too bland. I don't know, I've never eaten this dish before so I have no comparison of the 'benchmark'. Perhaps I used too little kimchi? Or was it too much rice? Or perhaps the kind of kimchi I bought? Haha...think we should seriously visit a proper Korean restaurant and try it from the professionals one day.

Last Saturday, I also made this "Prata Sausage Roll" for brunch. Since I bought a whole bag of frozen pratas from Footscray, I thought I should try this recipe (http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/2008/08/prata-in-bento.html) out. The preparation was rather easy and I used the pan-fried method, as I think it's not so dry. Just fry the prata (thank God they sell frozen pratas here or I'll have to make the pratas from scratch!), fry the sausage, roll together and put it into the oven for a while before serving. I made the second one with egg on the prata. But when eating it, I can't taste the difference. So unless you want the nutritional value of the egg, don't bother.

Speaking of making egg prata with the frozen pratas, I read some smart alec comment that she tried to cut a hole in the prata when it puffs up and carefully pour in the egg mixture. Well, my prata did puff up, but unevenly (as in, some parts didn't puff up at all). And as soon as I made a hole, the puff deflated! Urrgg...I still poured it on nevertheless and the egg flowed right over and outside the prata! I then tried the other method, which is to fry the egg, then when it's slightly cooked, put the prata over it. This one looks like a half omelette but at least it was round and I used it for the sausage roll. I ate the ugly one with sugar and enjoyed it still, cos egg prata with sugar is my all-time favourite!

Tomorrow, I'm gonna try making an adapted version of 'bak chor mee'. There's no 'mee pok' here, so I'll have to find some other noodle substitue. I also hope to find the black vinegar in Footscray, otherwise, I'll just do the tomato sauce version. I'm gonna skip the 'zhu you zar' (fried pork lard?) for sure. Wish me luck!

Ah E's Pancakes

I've been wanting to make these pancakes since the day KK told me he missed 'Ah Long pancake'. For the less enlightened, this 'Ah Long pancake' is actually your traditional peanut pancake or 'min jiang kueh', creatively modified (by Ah Long, I presume). The same pancake batter is used but instead of peanuts fillings, cheese, egg, sausages, ham, tuna and even sweet corn is used. The pancake is served open and cut into wedges like a pizza. We never thought that 'min jiang kueh' would taste nice with such 'radical' fillings but once we tried it, we were converted. It is actually quite nice with its savoury toppings. KK's favourite is the one with cheese and sausage and we used to drive down to Tampines' S11 foodcourt to buy it for him.


After some research and preparation, I finally made it today. (applause!)


I googled, found the recipe from Baking Cottage's blog (http://mybakingcottage.blogspot.com/2007/12/min-jiang-kueh.html) and started to gather all my ingredients gradually since 1 week ago. The ingredients may seem rather standard, but for me, I had to start from scratch, buying flour, baking soda, yeast etc. I also had to look for the right size crepe pan as both the pans I had were either too big or too small. I finally bought a 20 cm non-stick frypan from Big W.




I made two types of pancakes, the traditional one with peanuts for myself and hubby and the 'Ah Long' type for KK when he came back from school today. My first attempt and I am quite satisfied with the results. The pancakes were fluffy and had a nice aroma. It tasted almost like those they sell in Singapore.





As for the peanuts, I had a big bag of it left over from my glutinous rice 'project'. The day before, I patiently shelled them, then pan-fry them in their skin, remove the skins before grating them in the blender. Much as I don't want to over-grate them into fine peanut powder, I think I made the mistake of putting all the peanuts, which was too much, into the blender all at once. Some of the nuts were uncut while some were already being grated into powder state. Finally after shaking them around, all got chopped but the texture was quite fine. Nonetheles, the smell of the roasted peanuts was awesome! Luckily, the next day, I found a packet of chopped peanuts in Coles. So I mixed them together to get the crunchy feel.





For KK's pancake, I simply pour the batter into the pan, then when it was almost set, I placed a slice of cheese and scattered some chopped shaved ham over it. Cover it for a few minutes till the cheese melts, and it's done! Although I omitted the egg (I think the original version had them), the taste was authentic enough and my heart beamed with joy as I watch my dear son enjoy it thoroughly.

Now that I've started with all these baking ingredients, I guess I will be looking out for more recipes to bake and make.

My Leatherjacket

Two weeks ago, I found the Leatherjacket fish in Footscray and bought two home. I like this fish's texture and most importantly, I like the way my mother cooks it with salted soya bean sauce. Thanks to the jar of salted soya bean and some instructions from her over video conference, I'm able to recreate the dish for dinner tonight. Yummy!

Cooking Adventures

I don't claim to be a good cook. To me, success is when I'm able to whip up something delicious and nutricious for my family without too much fuss.

Since moving here, the biggest change for me is in having to cook all meals for my family. Actually I'm enjoying it. I've been experimenting and trying out new recipes in an attempt to perfect my cooking skills and increase the variety of food that I can bring to the table. The abundance and freshness of the ingredients here is a great source of inspiration. Usually, I go for "all-in-one" kind of dishes which is faster and yet fulfill nutritions from all the different food categories.


It's an adventure as I eagerly sample the output and think of how I can cook it better. Part of the fun is also in looking for the right ingredients. Recently I was so delighted to find my chinese herbs, dried mushrooms and red dates in Footscray, I think I'll be going there quite often.


Here're some results:


Minced Pork with Enoki mushrooms and Tofu

Evaluation: My mother used to make something like this. A simple and delicious dish with meat and veg plus proteins/calcium from tofu. Quite successful on my first attempt. Hubby loves it because it's got his favourite mince pork and enoki. I think the mince pork here taste very good. I fried the tofu first and put it aside, then I cook the marinated pork with garlic, adding the enoki mushrooms later. Season it simply with oyster sauce and abit of dark soya sauce, sugar. The 2nd time, I mixed the tofu in without frying and it's also not bad.







Beef Steak with Roast Potatoes and Capsicums


valuation: Well balanced meal with meat, veg and starch all in. The beef was simply marinated with some salt, black pepper and red wine. Taste good but the beef was too thick and the center of the beef was still quite rare. We had to return it to the grill again. I cooked the roast potatoes following a recipe I found on a website. It was quite good except that I need to give it more salt next time. It was a lot of work though (for my standard). Had to peel and cut all the potatoes, boil it, then shake it with salt, lastly bake it in olive oil, turning them regularly. That's why I don't really like to cook potatoes but once you buy a whole bag, you've got to think of ways to consume them. I actually cooked alot and froze half for next time.

Glutinous Rice (Chu Bee Peng)

Evaluation: I followed this recipe on "cookbakelegacy.blogspot.com" which my sis in-law sent me. But because I didn't cook as much, I modified the seasoning quantity and end up, it's not salty enough. Also, I missed out on the dried shrimp. However I added 'lap cheong' instead. End results is still very edible but next time, it'll be perfect when I:

1) Add more salt/soya sauce.

2) Add dried shrimp. Although both me and hubby don't really fancy them, I think it makes a difference to the taste.

3) Try not to burn the peanuts while roasting them :-)

4) Steam it instead of cooking in rice cooker. The glutinous rice is still soft and fluffy but the bottom was burnt and stuck to the cooker.