Taiwan Style Braised meat rice （台湾肉燥饭)

Yesterday WEC was having retreat cum work plan seminar during our monthly meeting. I was requested to cook something for our makan session. As I also needed to prepare dinner for my family, I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone by cooking my family's favourite Taiwan braised minced meat rice.

Recipe

Ingredients:

~500 g minced meat (I used 300 g minced meat and 200 g meat strips)

~1 teaspoon chopped garlic

~50 g shallots (sliced)

~1 tablespoon pepper

~1 teaspoon cooking wine (hua tiao)

~1 tablespoon rock sugar

~200 ml premium soy sauce

~500 ml water (adjust to your own taste, may add more water if you think is too salty)

cooked plain rice

Method:

1) Heat up wok, put enough oil to saute the shallots until light brown and crispy. Dish up.

2) Saute garlic until fragrant, add in minced meat and stir fry until the meat turns white. Add in fried shallots, pepper, cooking wine, soy sauce, rock sugar and water cook until boiling, turn to slow fire continue to simmer for 30 minutes.

3) Serve hot with rice.

ENJOY!

Soft Sweet loaf

Bread making again. I have gained more confidence of bread making after my hot dog bun turnd out to be a success.

Today I chanced upon Angel's house, I like her cottony soft sweet loaf. But my bread turned out to be not that cottony soft so I dared not put this blog post title as "cottony soft". I still need alot of practice to improve my skill of bread making.

But it is indeed very delicious - soft and sweet. It tastes as good as, if not better than, those that you see at xx bread . I dare u to try!

Click here for the recipe.

Angel, thanks for the recipe.

Hot Dog Bun

As bread making is not my forte, in my earlier post my Hokkaido milk toast was not done very satisfactory to the standard. The bread was not very soft as the other bloggers had described. I am very sure there were mistakes during fermentation. So today I followed strictly to the recipe and the method to make another bread. To my expectation, the bread turned out to be soft and springy. I am really happy and satisfied with the efforts I had put in.

Recipe

Ingredients:(makes 6)

150 g bread flour

50 g plain flour

40 g fine sugar

1/2 egg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon instant dry yeast

85 g cold water

30 g soft butter (room temperature)

Method:

1) Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix well to form a rough dough. Then knead the dough until elastic, smooth and non-sticky.

2)Put the dough in a greased bowl and cover with cling wrap. Let it ferment for 35 to 40 minutes. Different brand of flour, time for fermentation may vary. As long as the dough becomes one and the half size bigger .

3) Take out dough and punch out the air, the divide into 60 g each, shape the dough into round balls. Covered with cling wrap and leave them in the fridge for 10 minutes.

4) Use a rolling to flatten the dough (not too thin) slightly bigger size than the hot dog. Place the hot dog on the flatten dough, roll it up.

5) Place them on a grease baking tray and let it ferment for 45 minutes.

6) Preheat oven at 180 degree C.

7) Egg wash the surface, put in the oven and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

Kuih Bahulu (with ovalett)

Kuih bahulu again. Finally, I bought 2 kuih bahulu moulds. I could not wait any longer, I wanted to bake these little sponge cakes with my new moulds. I am happy to see the little sponge cakes coming out so nicely shaped. This time the little cakes had the beautiful appearance and were easy to remove from the moulds. I am delighted and satisfied with the efforts I had put in.

Recipe

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

120 g fine sugar

110 g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ovalette

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1) Put the moulds in the oven while it is preheating (about 10 minutes) Grease the moulds and leave in the oven while you prepare the batter.

2) Sieve flour and baking powder 3 times.

3) Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, beat at high speed until it becomes thick and foamy.

4) Fill the heated moulds 3/4 full of batter and put in the oven to bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 180 degree C.

Hokkaido Milk Toast北海道牛奶面包〔 汤种法）

Recently Hakkaido Milk toast is a hot issue among the bloggers. Everyone is talking about making bread with "tangzhong method" . I am no good at all in making breads. In my life I have not made bread for more than 20 times . But this time I am really and truly interested in making this Hakkaido-milk-toast with "tangzhong" method, because I want to know whether the bread is softer than the normal/usual method.

I made 3 small rectangular loaves, and 12 small hot dog rolls with this recipe. The bread is soft and tastes sweet. The bread would have been softer if I had reduced the baking time in the oven. Click http://www.christinesrecipes.com/2010/10/hokkaido-milk-toast.html for the recipe.

American Lemon Cheese Cake

Last week, Philidelphia cream cheese was selling at $4.60 per block at the Shop N Save Super mart. I couldn't stop myself from buying because it was unsually cheap. I bought 4 blocks without any hesitation. So here I go baking a cheese cake again.

This cheese cake is slightly different from the the Japanese Cheese cake or light cheese cake. You will tell the difference when you taste it. It is very cheesy and the texture of the cake is not cottony soft as Japanese cheese cake or light cheese cake. I am very sure you will like it.

Here is a gentle reminder for you - if you are just like me who do not exercise. Please just eat one piece per day only and distribute the rest to your friends and neighbours because 他们肥好过你肥.ha..ha..

Recipe

Ingredient:

A)

500 g Philidelphia Cream cheese

80 g caster sugar

375 ml whipping cream/thickening cream

3 egg yolks

Juice of 1/2 lemon (medium size)

B)

3 egg whites

80 g caster sugar

C)

15 g cornflour

60 g plain flour

Method:

~1) Beat the cream cheese and sugar (80 g) until fluffy.

~2) Add in thickening cream gradually and beat well.

~3) Combine lemon juice and egg yolks, add into the batter. Set aside.

~4) Whisk egg whites in another bowl until foamy. Slowly add in the sugar and whisk until stiff.

~5) Fold this mixture onto the cream cheese batter.

~6) Mix in the sifted cornflour and plain flour.

~7) Pour batter into a lined and greased 10" bottom round cake tin . Stand the cake tin over a baking tin filled with water until it reaches 2/3 level. Bake in a hot oven, 180 degree C approximately 1 - 1 1/2 hours. (for 1/2 recipe use 8" bottom round cake tin and bake for 45 minutes -1 hour)

~8) When cooled, spread a layer of fruit gel and decorate as desired. (optional)

Enjoy!

Luncheon Meat And Spices Cupcake

I thought this recipe was a bizarre combination. Who in the right mind would mix butter cake with luncheon meat and black pepper? With some degree of trepidation, i still decided to give it a go.

As each fairytale would end, this was really a case of happily ever after. The most bizarre of combination actually was akin to the union of the toad and the princess. Instead of spoiling the taste of butter cake, the luncheon meat turned out to be the prince and really galvanised the cake. The saltiness of the luncheon meat turned out to blend really well with the sweetness of the cake. With a dash of black pepper to provide some tinge of spice taste, it really provides the extra dimension to bring it to another level.

Before the first bite, i was really apprehensive whether i could finish even half of the cake. After just half a bite, i was already looking forward to a second one. This cake really took me by surprise and i'm glad i tried this out.

I further recommand to eat while is warm, it tastes better.

Recipe

Ingredients:

250 g cold salted butter, cut into pieces

160 g caster sugar

250 g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 large eggs

120 ml milk

some ground black pepper

some dried parsley ( I used Italian herbs)

1/2 tin luncheon meat, cut into small cubes/pieces

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 200 degree C. Arrange some paper cups onto muffin pans. (about 16 - 18).

2) Put butter and sugar into a mixing bowl beat until the mixture is creamy and fluffy.

3) Add egg one at a time to the creamed butter mixture. Beat until well blended.

4) Fold in sifted flour, baking powder and milk alternately and mix mixture till blended.

5) Spoon the batter into paper cups. Add in luncheon meat, sprinkle black pepper and dried parsley on top.

6) Bake in preheated oven at 200 degree C for 15 - 18 minutes .

(Recipe adapted from Yum Yum 2010 Oct. Issue No. 69 )

Agar-Agar Gula Melaka (palm sugar)

Recipe

Ingredients:

~ 1 packet powdered agar-agar

~ 1000 ml water

~ 4 pandan leaves

~ 280 g - 300 g gula melaka (palm sugar)

~ 150 ml water

~ 1/2 teaspoon salt

~ 200 ml concentrated coconut (santan) from one coconut or Kara Brand packet coconut milk

Method:

1) Boil gula melaka with 150 ml water until sugar dissolves, strain.

2) Boil agar agar powder, 1000 ml water, pandan leaves , gula melaka water and salt. Stir half way through cooking.

3) Add coconut milk and boil for few minutes.

4) Pour into jelly mould. When slightly cool chill them in the fridge.

ENJOY!