Pandan Chiffon

I baked this and the family liked it cos the boys couldn't stop eating. I got the recipe from Connie at Kitchencapers. The cake turned out really soft and fluffy.
I adapted the recipe and modified the steps a little so that I need to use only one mixer bowl ;-)

Ingredients:
(A) 4 nos. large eggs yolks
1/4 tsp pandan paste
1/4 tsp salt


(B) 85 mls sunflower/corn oil
125 mls pandan juice
( 8 pandan leaves blended with 125 mls water, sieved)

(C) 150 gm cake flour
1 tsp baking powder

(D) 4 nos. large egg whites
140 gm caster sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
Pre-heat oven at 170 degree C.

Separate egg yolks from whites. Use a fork and beat up (A) till well mix.

In a mixer bowl beat up (D) till stiff peak forms (i.e. when bowl is inverted the beaten egg whites remain inside).

Add in (A) into the mixer bowl and mix well, then add in (B) and also stir well.

Add in (C) and fold in gently till well blended.

Pour batter into a 20 cm. chiffon cake pan lined at the bottom.

Bang the pan on a hard surface to release the bubbles.

Bake for 35-40 mins.

When the cake is ready, remove from the oven and give it a bang on a hard surface. Then invert the pan and cool the cake. When the cake is completely cool, remove cake from the pan.

Duo Mushrooms

I found a packet of shitake mushrooms in the fridge. I think it must have been sitting in the fridge for a week. I took out the ones that were rather soggy and threw them away. The rest were still good , so I halved them and added in some canned button mushrooms to cook up a dish.

Ingredients:
Half a packet of fresh shitake mushrooms, halved.
12 pieces of button mushrooms, halved.
1 no. tomato, wedged.
1 bunch green onions, cut into 3 cm lengths.
5 slices ginger

Sauce :
half a cup of hot water
1 tbsp Chinese wine
1 tbsp ginger juice
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
half a tsp salt

Cornflour mixture
1 tbsp water
2 tsp corn flour

Method:
Heat up 3 tbsp oil and fry ginger slices till fragrant.

Add in the shitake and button mushrooms together with the tomatoes and stir well for a minute or two.

Add in the sauce mixture and let the ingredients simmer for a minute of two till the tomatoes soften.

Add in the cornflour mixture and throw in the green onions and stir till sauce thickened.

Serve hot with white rice.

Anything Soup

My friend B shared with me the recipe of her family's favourite soup. It's a refreshing soup using the vege Wong Bok. I did a simplified version of her recipe and the soup tastes just good enough for me.

Ingredients:
200 gm minced meat, season with salt, sugar, pepper, Chinese wine, sesame
oil and corn flour. Roll them into meat balls after half an hour.

1 piece of dried pork skin, blanched and soaked in hot water, shredded.

Half a round of Wong Bok vege, shredded.

1 packet of Fuchou fish ball.

Method:
Fill and pot with about 2 litres of water and let it boil.

Add in the meat balls and Fuchou fish balls and let it cook for about a minute or 2 minutes.

Scoop up the meat/fish balls and set aside.

Add into the boiling soup, the shredded Wong Bok vege and the pig skin and let them boil till vege is cooked.

Return into the pot the meat and fish balls.

Season with a little salt, pepper and sesame oil if you like.

Serve with white rice.

Peach Buttercake

Since it's a rainy boxing day, I decided to bake this for supper. It's a buttercake recipe taken from I Love Butter Cake by Kevin Chai. It's pretty simple to make and the peaches provide a refreshing taste from the usual buttercake that I bake.

Ingredients:

160 gm salted butter
160 gm caster sugar
3 nos. eggs
1 tbsp lemon juice
160 gm plain flour/cake flour
60 gm ground almond
sliced peaches, enough to decorate the top

Method:

Grease a 9" pie pan. Pre-heat oven at 190 degree C.

Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add in eggs, one at a time and mix well.

Stir in the lemon juice and fold in the flour with the ground almond.
Mix till well blended.

Pour batter into prepared pan and decorate the top with slices of peaches.

Bake for 30 mins.

A Blessed Christmas to One and All !

I was inactivated for the last couple of days due to a stomach flu but managed to recover in time to do my baking gifts. Here's the lot of quickloaves that will be given to the extended family tonight at the dinner gathering. This year I baked three recipes. I have Apple & Pecan QB, Cranberry & Pecan QB and Carrot, Apple & Walnut QB. I hope they like them.

...And here comes the GINGERBREAD MEN

I managed to find a gingerbread cookie recipe that my family likes to eat and it's easy to do. It's actually hard work to roll out the dough and cut-out the gingerbread man one by one. I prefer to eat those without the icing sugar. The recipe is from Ellena's blog .
Please click HERE for the original recipe.

Here's my gingerbread men without their clothes.

Here they are with their icing clothes.

Tom Yum Baked Snapper

I used this as a seasoning for the white snapper fish and baked it.
The result is a spicy and tangy kinda dish.


Ingredients:

1 packet tom yum paste
500 gm white snapper fish
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp fish sauce
kaffir lime leaves, enough to put into the fish cavity and also sprinkle a handful on the baking pan
1 no. yellow onion, wedged

Method:

Marinade fish with all the above ingredients for about an hour.

Place fish on aluminium foil and cover with another piece of aluminium foil.

Bake fish in a pre-heated oven of 210 degree C for 30 mins.

Serve hot with rice.

Dd is 4 yrs old today :-)

I made her a cake and stuck 2 ballerinas on it. The round sponge wasn't a perfect round and I coudn't find inspiration to decorate it. The whipped cream topping was not easy to work with and in the end I just did a simple piping and decorated it with m&m's. I wasn't too happy with the result . I definitely need a lot more practise on my piping and cake decorating skills.

Just hope that the whipping cream will hold till you've finished blowing off your candles darling.

Pan Fried Selar Fish ...headless & tailless.

This is my ds's B favourite kind of fish. The Selar fish can be quite meaty but it has small bones so it takes quite a bit of patience to eat this kind of fish. I'm always very cautious when eating this kind of fish.

Here's sharing with you how I usually cook this fish.

Ingredients:

800 gms Selar fish (processed at the supermarket)
4 nos. ginger slices

Marinade fish with ..... (for about an hour)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp chinese wine
1 tsp salt
a dash of pepper
1 tbsp shrimp paste powder
1 tbsp corn flour

Method:

Heat up about 8 tbsps of oil in a shallow frying pan.
Add in the ginger slices when oil is hot.
Add in the marinaded fish and pan fry till the sides are golden brown and the top slits of the fish whitened.
Turn the fish over and pan-fry the other side.
Dish up and garnish to serve.

Creamcheese Cookies

I've baked this cookie recipe quite a number of times and the children love it. It's a soft cookie but the raw cookie dough is a challenge to handle. I made the first batch using the X'mas tree cookie cutter and decorated the cookies with m&m's baking bits, red sugar crystals, red and green diced cherries. These decorations indeed make the cookie X'mas trees colorful. For the second batch, I just scoop a tsp of dough and hand rolled them. Then I pressed the round dough down with a cookie press pattern plate and decorated it with m&m's baking bits.


I adapted the recipe from the Kraftsfood website.

Ingredients:
250 gm Cream cheese (1 packet), softened
200 gm Salted butter, softened
160 gm Caster sugar
320 gm Plain flour
1 tsp Baking soda
2 tsp Vanilla essence
1 packet M&M's Baking bits
Red sugar crystals for sprinkling

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C.

Beat softened cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla essence till well blended.

Add in the flour and baking powder and mix well till a soft sough forms.

Cling wrap the dough and refrigerate it for about 30 mins.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and use cookie cutters to cut out the flattened dough.

Decorate with M&M's baking bits and sugar sprinkles.

Place all decorated cut out cookies on greased baking sheets ( I used the silicon paper mat).

Bake for 15 mins of until the cookie browns.

Remove from tray and cool.

Keep cookies in air-tight containers.

Stewed Chicken with Ginger and Onions

This is another favourite chicken stew recipe for the family. The recipe is adapted from the book Secrets of Nutritional Chinese Cookery by Ng Siong Mui. You can say it's a kinda Cantonese chicken dish.

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken thighs
8 slices old ginger
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 stalks of green onions cut into 5cm lengths
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 small can of button mushroom
1 small carrot, wedged
300 mls water
3 tbsp oil

Marinade for chicken ( one hour)

1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp chinese wine
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp oil

Method:

Heat 3 tbsp of oil and fry ginger and garlic till fragrant.

Add in spring onions, yellow onions, carrots and mushrooms and fry for about 2 minutes.

Add in the marinaded chicken pieces without the liquid and fry for another 5 mins or till the chicken pieces brown a little.

Add in 300 mls of water, cover and bring ingredients to a boil.

Lower heat and simmer for another 40 mins.

Dish up and ready to serve.

Baked Pasta

I've baked this many times especially when I have gatherings and yesterday I had a mini gathering at my friend B's place. My dd will not touch macaroni and for this pasta I used macaroni. B's ds S who is the same age as my dd really seemed to enjoy eating it and it was a joy seeing him eat. I remembered I got the recipe from a mom in m4m.

Ingredients:

250 gms uncooked pasta, cooked al dente with a tsp of salt and a tbsp of oil.
1 can cream of mushroom soup
4 medium size tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp garlic, chopped
1 small can of button mushrooms, sliced
half a can of luncheon meat, cubed
1 cup mixed veges
1 packet grated mozzi cheese mixed with 1 packet grated cheddar cheese

Method:

Stir-fry onions and garlic in 3 tbsp of hot oil till fragrant.

Add in tomatoes and cook till they softened.

Pour in mushroom soup and add in 5 tbsp water and mix well.

Add in the sliced mushrooms and mixed veges.

Cook over low heat for about 5 mins and season with 2 tsp of sugar and a dash of pepper.

Switch off the fire.

Add in the drained cooked pasta and mix well.

Scoop the mixed pasta into 2 nos. 8" square aluminium pans.

Sprinkle over the top with the grated cheese mixture.

Bake in a pre-heated oven 200 degree C for 40 mins. or till the cheese layer browns.

2-2-2 Pork Fillet in Sesame Oil

I remembered my friend B shared this recipe of hers some years ago and I've been cooking it eversince. This is also a favourite dish of my ds J. This dish is named 2-2-2 cos it just requires 2 tbsp each of seame oil, light soya sauce and dark soya sauce.I adapted it a little and used pork fillet instead of collard pork. Thanks B for sharing this ....

Ingredients:

400 gms pork fillet, sliced
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tbsp dark soya sauce
2 tbsp fine sugar
a tsp pepper
a tbsp corn flour

Method:

Marinade the sliced pork fillet with sesame oil, light and dark soya sauces , pepper, sugar and corn flour for about an hour.

Heat up 2 tbsp cooking oil and add in the pork slices and fry for about 2 minutes.

Add in a quater cup hot water and simmer the pork slices for a good 10 minutes, covered.

Dish up and serve hot after garnishing with green onions or chillis.

Ikan Bilis Spinach Soup

This is my dd's favourite soup. The funny thing is that she will eat the leaves of the round spinach vege, the fish ball but will not touch the soft bean curd. Now if someone would give me an idea how to make her eat the soft beancurd.

Ingredients:

a handful of ikan bilis, rinsed with water
3 cloves of garlic, smashed and skinned
3 slices of ginger
1 no. tomato, wedged
1 bunch of round spinach, rinsed and plucked
2 nos. preserved plums, squeezed
1 packet of fresh fishballs
1 packet soft beancurd
1.2 litres of water

Method:

Fry the garlic and ginger in 3 tbsp of oil till fragrant.

Add in the ikan bilis and fry for another minute or two.

Pour in the water and let the water in the pot boil for a another minute or two.

Add in the wedged tomatoes and the plums and let the soup simmer for about 45 mins. covered.

Add in the fish balls and after they are cooked, add in the spinach.

Once the spinach is ready, add in the soft beancurd and switch off the fire.

Pumpkin Roll Loggie

I had another go at making the pumpkin spice roll and this time added the sunflower oil into the batter. The sponge turned out good enough to be rolled without breaking into pieces. Also I added to the top of the sponge a handful of chopped pecan nuts and sunflower seeds and the filling has got whipped cream with pumpkin flesh puree and chocolate rice. The recipe here is adapted from the one at the Kraftsfood website.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon spice
1/4 tsp salt
30 gm sunflower oil
3 nos egg
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup chopped pecans
a handful of sunflower seeds

Whip up 300 gm non-dairy topping cream and use enough for the filling. The rest to be stored in a box and put in the fridge for further use.

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 190 degree C. Line a baking pan (10" x 14"x 1") with greaseproof paper.

Beat eggs and sugar in a bowl using mixer at high speed till the ribbon stage.

Add in the pumpkin puree and mix well.

Add in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and mix till well blended.

Add in the sunflower oil and mix well.

Spread evenly on the prepared baking pan and sprinkle with the pecan nuts and sunflower seeds.

Bake for 15 mins or till the top of cake springs back when touched.

Remove and allow sponge to cool till warm enough to invert the sponge out to remove the paper below.

Transfer sponge on to a clean piece of grease proof paper larger then the baking pan size.

Spread the whipped cream filling evenly and sprinkle with the pumpkin puree and chocolate rice.

Roll the sponge with the help of the paper starting from the longer side and then tightened the sponge using the cling wrap.

Leave the roll in the fridge for about two hours before cutting and decorating it with snow powder and Christmas ornaments.

Carefree Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think it has been quite a while since I baked chocochip cookies. I received a telephone call from ds A asking me to bake him chocochip cookies cos if I'm not baking them then he'll buy a box of chocochip cookies to eat. Ah...such a request, how can a mother refuse. So here it is ....presenting my chocochip cookies and I adapted the recipe from Zu's blog.

Ingredients:

125 gm softened salted butter
1/3 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 large egg
2 cups self-raising flour
100 gm mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup evaporated milk

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C.

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add vanilla and egg and mix till well combined.

Add the flour, chocochips, and milk and mix till a dough form.

Scoop a tsp of the dough, round them in your palms before placing them on the baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Leave a three cm gap between dough balls.

Bake for 10-15 mins or until cookie top browns.

Allow cookies to cool before placing them in an air-tight box.

This recipe can make about 60 pieces of cookies.

SF Cabbage with Fermented Red Beancurd

I love doing this vege dish cos I can keep it overnight and eat it for days. This dish always tastes best the next day cos the tasty gravy gets soaked up by the veges and makes the dish tastes better.

Here's sharing the recipe with you ....

Ingredients:
Half a head of shredded Beijing Cabbage.
1 bundle bean thread, soaked in hot water till softened.
A handful of dried shrimps, soaked till softened.
5 pieces of dried chinese mushroom, soaked till softened and sliced.
3 pieces of fried bean sticks, soaked till softened and chopped.
3 pieces of ginger slices, juliened.
1 tsp chopped garlic.
2-3 cubes fermented red beancurd.
1 tbsp tau cheo (soya bean paste)

Method:
Stir fry ginger, garlic and dried shrimps in 3 tbsp hot oil till fragrant.

Add in the fermented red beancurd and tau cheo and fry for a minute.

Add in the mushrooms, cabbage and bean sticks and mix well.

Add in a cup of mushroom water and simmer the veges for two minutes.

Season to taste with a tbsp of sugar, a dash of pepper and a tbsp of sesame oil.

Add in the softened bean threads and mix well.

Dish up and ready to serve.

My Sugar Roll Loggie

Using the sugar roll recipe, I sprinkled some chocolate rice on the baking pan before pouring the batter over it. I wanted to use the sponge with the choco rice as the top, however the end result didn't look too good. I just spread the pink buttercream over the choco rice sponge and rolled as per normal. After that I used a long ruler to tightened the roll. This little tip, I learned from the Phoon Huat baking class and definitely made the roll better looking. Now, how do I make a yellow roll to have the semblance of a log? So I decided to sprinkle a mixture of cocoa powder and snow powder on the roll. With a little help from the Christmas decorations, the loggie does look better than I expected ;-) With the chocolate rice as the inner layer, a bite into the buttercream sponge gives it a crunchy texture.

My Gift of Pumpkin Pecan QBread

This is a favourite recipe which I've baked as gifts to my relatives during the previous year Christmas gathering. It's very easy to bake and all you need to do is to make the pumpkin puree a day ahead and freeze them till your next bake.

Making the Pumpkin Puree.
I usually buy a half cut pumpkin from the supermarket.
Remove all the seeds and fibres and give a quick rinse.
Line a baking tray with aluminium foil.
Put the entire half pumpkin, cutface down on the tray.
Bake it in a pre-heated oven of 180 degree C for 50 mins or until all the meat in the pumpkin has softened. Cool the pumpkin.
Using a spoon, scoop up the soften pumpkin puree and pack them in plastic bags at 200 gm each (about 1 cup).
Unused puree can be frozen.

Recipe for the Pumpkin Pecan QBread.
(For 4 loaves in 6"x 3"x 2" loaf pans)

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients
Caster sugar ..........1 3/4 cup
Pumpkin puree ......2 cups
Self-raising flour ....3 cups
Salt .......................1 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon .............1 tsp
Pecan, chopped ...... 1 cup

Wet ingredients
Evaporated milk .... 1/2 cup
Oil ..........................1 cup
Eggs , beaten ...........4 nos.

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients till well blended.
Pour batter into the aluminium loaf pans.
Sprinkle pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds on top of the batter.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 50 mins or till top turns to a golden brown.
Cool the loaf before putting them in the freezer.
The loaf needs to be left in the fridge for about 2 hours before cutting.
This will allow the loaf slices not to crumble.
Loaf can be frozen in the freezer for up to three months.

Making the biscuit base....darling!

Ah....dd loves to do what I do in the kitchen and always insists on having a hand at whatever I do. So this afternoon I handed it to her to do the biscuit base ... ah...like real :-) Of course I had to supervise lah ....if not surely will mess up the table area.

My probable pizza bread

My friend shared this recipe with me and it's taken from the Phoon Huat demo class that I missed. I like the bread base and it's different from the pizza base that I used to make. It has almost the same texture as the Pizza Hut pizza base.
Soft and spongy, that's how I'll describe it .....

Ingredients:

Plain flour ......300 gm
Bread flour .....100 gm
Cold water ......240 gm
Caster sugar ......12 gm
Dried yeast ..........6 gm
Corn oil ..............72 gm
Salt .....................10 gm
Ham, chopped.......200 gm
Mozzi cheese, shredded ....250 gm

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together except for the oil and the salt.

Slowly add the oil and the salt and mix into a dough.

Add plain flour if you find the dough still sticky.

Rest the dough for 30 mins.

Weigh out the dough into 60 gm each, flatten them and poke holes into them using a fork. Proof for 3o mins. Pre-bake the dough for 10 mins at 180 degree C.

Remove and spread tomato paste on top of dough.

Arrange chopped ham on top and sprinkle with shredded mozzi cheese.

Bake at 210 degree C for 10 mins.

Passionately Baked Pumpkin Slices

Every year end, I would bake with pumpkin. I remember my SIL loved the baked pumpkin I did a couple of years back when I had a Christmas gathering at my place. So this year, I'm using the bake pumpkin recipe again but I added in a biscuit base to give it a little more texture. So here are the pumpkin slices for you to enjoy ....

Ingredients and method for the biscuit base:
Marie biscuits, crushed 150 gm
Brown sugar 50 gm
Unsalted butter, melted 70 gm

Mix all the ingredients together.
Press evenly on an 8"square baking tin lined with greaseproof paper.
Chill in the freezer for half an hour.

Ingredients and method for the top:
Unsalted butter, melted 2 tbsp
Pumpkin puree 1 cup
Self-raising flour 1/4 cup
A pinch of salt
Sugar 1/2 cup
Evaporated milk 1/2 cup
Egg 1 nos.
Vanilla essence 1/2 tsp
A sprinkling of cinnamon sugar for the topping

Mix all the ingredients together in a mixer.
Pour onto the prepared biscuit base.
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on the top.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 20-30 mins at 200 degree C.
Remove to cool.
Cut into slices and refrigerate.