Put Chai Kou - Red Bean Steamed Rice Cake

I had been wanting to make this steamed rice cake for a while but the other day when I wanted to make, I was out of rice flour and I spent half a day trying to make my own rice flour that totally spoiled the entire dish.

Finally this time, with the right proper ingredients, it is good and yummy.

This is with the red bean paste that I blended for the mooncake

Wondering how it taste with strawberry jam, yum yum too...

Ingredients:

*Just for the cake itself

• 40g rice flour (A)
• 13 wheat starch (A)
• 55ml water (A)
• 35g sugar (B)
• 115ml water (B)

Method:

1. Mixed all ingredients for A till smooth (preferably use a whisk).
2. Heat up ingredients B in the double boiler to melt the sugar. Once all sugar dissolved, remove from heat.
3. Leave the water to boil.
4. Slowly add in item B to the A mixture and stir till even.
5. Greased the mould (I uses 4 ramekins, or u can use teacups).
6. Pour the mixture into the ramekins or teacups and put it into the boiler and steam for 15-17mins.
7. Turn off the fire and leave the cake to cool down.
8. Remove from the mould and served with some red bean paste. 

* If you dont want to serve it separately, u can just scoop some red bean (cooked till very soft) into the mixture prior to steaming.

Oat Muffin with Strawberry

Today I just thought maybe I should bake with oats instead of flour to get some healthier option bakes that can be served to people with high cholesterol. Anyway, do note that oats are not gluten free unless you bought gluten free oats.

Ingredients:

• 200g oats
• 1/4 tablespoon of baking powder
• 100g butter
• 100g sugar
• 2 eggs (white and yolk separated)
• 90ml milk
• 30ml low fat cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 3 tablespoon cream cheese
• 3 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoon low fat cream
• 4 strawberries, cut to half

Method:

1. Blend the oats with the baking powder till the oats become powder.
2. Cream the softened butter with sugar till pale and fluffy.
3. Slowly add in the yolks, one by one and mix till even.
4. Then add the vanilla essence, milk and low fat cream.
5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg white till firm peak (as in it wont move even when I reverse the bowl).
6. Fold the egg white into the cake mixture till even.
7. Scoop into the paper cups (3/4 full), makes 8 here.
8. Bake for 180C for 10mins on the air fryer.

* If using oven, please preheat oven and bake for at least 15-20mins at 180c.

1. Beat the cream cheese, sugar and cream till it is fluffy and well mix.
2. Pipe it to the middle of the muffin, and decorate with half the strawberry.

Chocolate Muffins with Salted Caramel

Ever since the end of My Kitchen Rule 2013, I havent been watching tv much but recently Sophie got me into watching Master Chef Australia. Few days back, they were having the host and some guests cooking and the one that got me interested is this Chocolate Muffins with Salted Caramel by Matt. But he actually uses a little different ingredients and dusted it with sparkling red food glitter which of course I didnt have it.

Ingredients:

• 185g softened unsalted butter
• 130g caster sugar (he uses 160g raw caster, me out of stock for this)
• 2 eggs (I use XL, not sure what size he uses, cant remember, not stated on the website either)
• 230 plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 60g milo (he uses dutch cocoa powder.. hehehe of course I dont have stock, that's why substituted)
• 85ml low fat cream (he uses thickened)
• 85ml water
• cubes of wonka caramel chocolate (he uses caramel chews which I can't find)

Method:

1. For those using oven, preheat the oven 180C. I use airfryer, which of course I dont bother preheating.
2. Cream butter and sugar till pale and fluffy.
3. Slowly mix in the eggs, one by one.
4. Mix the dry ingredient separately till even (flour, baking powder, soda, salt and milo) before adding in the mixture and stir till even.
5. Slowly add in the cream and water and mix till they combine.
6. Scoop the mixture into the muffin tin lined with papers to 3/4 full. I didnt use the muffin tin coz cant fit in my airfryer, I use the tart single tin.
7. Gently push in the caramel chocolate cubes to the middle of the muffin mixture, not to push all the way to the bottom.
8. Bake for 20mins or till cook. I bake them for 10mins for each batch of 4 at 180c on the air fryer.

Cheese Brownies

Was at a hubby's colleague's house for BBQ and his wife served cheese brownies, just fall in love with it and decided to google and try it out. After the first attempt, I made the second with raspberry which is harder (the first was more gooey).

Ingredients:

• 85g unsalted butter
• 115g dark cooking chocolate, break to small pieces
• 120g sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 70g flour
• 1tbsp milo
• a small pinch salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 80g chocolate chips
• 200g cream cheese
• 1 large egg yolk
• 60g sugar
• a splash of vanilla extract
• a small handful of frozen raspberry

Methods:

1. Line a 9" square pan with foil, mist with non stick spray or grease lightly. I uses my lovely air fryer, so, I lined the basket instead and used only 2/3 of the ingredients. If you prefer the gooey version, used all the ingredients and smaller pan.
2. If using normal oven, preheat it at 180C. Airfryer, just add 2mins to the baking time later.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat and stirring till it is smooth. Remove from heat and add in the 120g sugar and heat and stir.
4. Next stir in lightly beaten 2 eggs. Mix in flour, milo and salt, then vanilla and chocolate chips. Stir till even and pour over the baking pan, spread evenly.
5. In a separate bowl, cream the cheese, yolk, balance of sugar and vanilla until smooth.
6. Use a spoon to scoop the mixture and drop by dollops on top of the brownies mixture the lightly swirl it. If you adding the raspberry, pop on top of the mixture not too close to each other.
7. Bake for 30-40mins till the side set (the middle will still be soft and wobbly like). If using airfryer, I set it at 180C for 17mins.
8. After baking, take it out to cool before popping in the fridge to set, cut and serve.

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Home Made Almond Milk

Ingredients:

• 150g (approximately, didnt weight) almond (I used those with skin, so got to waste time removing, try to get those without), soaked overnight to remove the skin, then soaked for at least another night
• 5 cups water

Method:

1. Soak the almond for at least a night to ease the skin removal. Remove the brown skin. Then soak for another night. The reason I remove the skin is cause I wanted to use the almond meal later for baking. If you are just throwing it away (try not to waste), dont bother then. 
2. I uses the magi mix, but I guess should be the same with the other food processor or blender. Just sieve off all the water and blend it for about 20seconds and slowly add in water. Blend till you see the entire mixture is smooth and fine.
3. Use those fine sieve or cheesecloth to sieve the milk. Press the almond meal till dry so you get all the milk. Leave aside the almond meal for other recipes. Can use it for baking or make some vegetarian food dishes.
4. I then double boil the milk for bout 20mins and ready to be served. 

Cinnamon Rolls

I have gotten this recipe from Weight Watchers magazine though the second time making it, it is no longer weight conscious :p

First time, I used plain flour only but for the second time, I mixed it with self raising wheat flour, replaced the chocolates and nuts and raisins with shredded cheddar cheese.

This is the Cinnamon Cheese Wheat Rolls

This is the Chocolate Cashew Nuts Cranberries Raisin Rolls

Ingredients:

• 7g of yeast powder
• 125ml warm water (since it is cold now here, 60ml cold water and the rest hot water)
• 1 egg
• 250g plain flour (for the cheese rolls, I replaces 35g of plain flour with self raising wheat flour)
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp raw sugar
• 2 handful of cashew nuts (lightly break it with the pestle and mortar) - for the version 1
• 1 handful of dried cranberries
• 1 handful of raisins
• 4 pieces of dark cooking chocolates (the square on the chocolate pcs) - melt it in a double boiler with the sugar and yogurt, stir till smooth
• 1 tsp of raw sugar
• 1 tbsp yogurt
• 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 tbsp of cinnamon powder

Methods:

1. Mix the yeast with the warm water and leave it to rise. It should bubble to shows that the yeast is active and not dead.
2. Crack the egg into the yeast once it bubble and lightly whisk it.
3. Pour the liquid into the flour (mixed it well with the ground cinnamon and raw sugar in advance).
4. Use your hand to knead the mixture till it becomes a nice smooth dough. That should take about 15mins.
5. Leave it to rise for 30mins (covered in hot warm towel). If the weather is too dry and cold, leave it on top of a pot of hot water.
6. Punch and knead the dough. Cut it to half.
7. Use the rolling pin, roll it to a long flat pieces.
8. For version 1, spread a layer of the chocolate paste and sprinkle it with the nuts, raisins and cranberries. Then roll it up, cut it into 1.5inch slice. Leave it on top of the baking sheets to rise for another 20-30mins.
9. For version 2, sprinkle it with the cinnamon powder and cheddar cheese, roll it up and cut it into 1.5 inch slice too. Similarly, leave it to rise for 20-30mins. * I had also sprinkle some parmesan cheese powder.
10. I uses the airfryer to bake it at first 2 mins 140C and another 4 mins on 180C (for second batch onwards, only need 3mins). If you uses the normal oven, dont bother pre-heating it. Leave the bread in there and bake for 30mins (reduce the rising time to 10mins will do) at 180C.

Japanese Beef Curry

Ingredients:

• 150-180g of beef cubes
• half carrots cut into chunk
• half potato cut into chunk
• half a pureed apple (I used the shredder to shred it to it is mushy too)
• 1/4 cup peas
• 1/4 onion cut into thin slices
• 1/4 tbsp oil
• 120ml water
• 1 tsp garam masala
• a small pinch of salt
  
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp Worcester sauce
• a pinch of freshly grounded pepper

Methods:

1. Heat up the oil in a sauce pan and fry the onion till golden and caramelised, used medium fire.
2. Once the onion brown, add in the beef cubes to brown it.
3. Add in the carrot and water. Turn the fire high.
4. Once at boiling stage, add in the potato, apple and garam masala. Simmer on low fire for about 20-30mins.
5. On a separate pan or saucepan, melt the butter, add in the flour and stir constantly.
6. Add in garam masala, curry powder, tomato paste, pepper and Worcester sauce.
7. Continue to stir till the mixture becomes dry and crumbly.
8. Add in the mixture into the pot of beef stew and stir till it mix well. Season with salt and done.

* amount for one person's lunch box, so multiply based on person eating.. :D

Home Made Crackers

Gotten this recipe from http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2010/05/homemade-crackers.html and done a little adjustment coz I was just too lazy to wait till the next day, so the soaking process was reduced to 3hrs instead... hehehe... not sure if that affects the nutrition or taste or not.

Ingredients:

• 3.5 self raising whole wheat flour
• 1 cup yogurt with 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup of coconut oil (melted)
• 1/4 cup of butter (melted)
• 1 tsp salt

Methods:

1. Mix the flour with the yogurt and apple cider vinegar. Leave it aside, covered in a piece of cloth for about 3 hours.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and knead till it forms proper dough.
3. Roll it out and cut to the shapes you like. Line it on the baking tray of the air fryer (180c), bake for 3mins. The first batch was 5mins coz the airfryer is still cold and needs to heat up.

Frittata with Airfryer

This is for someone's lunch box tomorrow :D

Another of air fryer cooking that I found online, ingredients customised based on supply in fridge.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• a pinch of salt and pepper
• a handful of peas
• a handful of corns
• a big handful of mixed salad leaves, slightly shred with hand
• a handful of julienned capsicum
• a handful of julienned carrot
• 1.5 sticks of chinese waxed sausage, cut to side way long slices
• one tablespoon of chopped onion
• 1/8 teaspoon of oil

Methods:

1. Pour the sausage and onions into the baking tray and set the airfryer to 180C for 4mins.
2. Mixed the rest of the ingredients and mix it before pouring into the baking tray.
3. Set the airfryer to 180C for 4mins and then 200C for 1mins.

Air Fryer

Hehehe... I had just make my kitchen another step closer to a completely furnished kitchen with the addition of a new member, the Philips Airfryer.

I was contemplating between the Philips Viva Airfryer vs Tefal Actifry and concluded that I'll get the Airfryer for the following reason:

• I dont need a non stick slow cooker but a fryer
• Lots of complain online bout the Actifry for being easily broken (most of them break within 2years) and some even complaint that it will set the unit or stuff nearby on fire... ops... I dont want to turn into a human bakar or burn down the rented house.
• It can serves as a mini oven, which I need coz my oven is really slow and not powerful and we dont have the space to get a proper oven unless we move in to a place of our own.

The first two items that I had tested was the fries and fried chicken. For the fries, I have yet to perfect the skill to get it right, just like those deep fryer fries and will keep attempting. 

Meanwhile for the chicken, I guess this is finally good after two attempt though it makes the cleaning of the wire basket really tough.

Ingredients:

• 4 drumsticks (large one)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• a small pinch of mixed herbs
• 2 tablespoon of bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon of oil (I uses spray so it could be lesser and more even)

Methods:

1. Marinade the chicken with the seasoning and coat it with bread crumbs. Leave it to marinade as long as possible, I had it marinated for about 4hrs or more.
2. Spray the drumstick with oil.
3. Leave it on the basket, set the airfryer at 180C for 13mins.
4. Turn the chicken and set the airfryer at 180C for another 10mins and finally 200C for another 2mins to give the chicken the crisp.

Cranberry cheese cake

Another version of the cranberry cake, with cheese to make it fluffier, yummier and tastier... kekeke

Ingredients:

• 90g sugar
• 100g butter
• 35g cream cheese
• 250g self raising flour
• 125ml milk
• 2 medium size egg
• a teaspoon of vanilla essence
• a big bunch of dried cranberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 180C.
2. Cream sugar, butter and cream cheese.
3. Add in the milk, vanilla essence and egg little by little while mixing.
4. Add in the flour little by little and fold in the mixture.
5. Stir in the dried cranberries.
6. Scooped in the cake tray or cups and bake for 20mins at 180C.

Meat Floss Cheese Bun

There are some meat floss lying in the kitchen for a while, opened, and I remember seeing Han Ker post her cheese breadstick and decided to do a combo. Did some modifications to meat the weather condition here.

Ingredients:

• 254g Laucke Crusty White bread flour
• 175ml warm water (I uses 100ml warm from my thermos that is at 80C and 75ml from the filter)
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 80% of the 1tsp salt (I want it less salty)
• 80% of the 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan
• 1 cup of plain flour (this depends, it was raining and was kinda humid, so the dough was rather too watery and soft to work on)
• 60ml water
• 12 tsp of meat floos
• mayonnaise 
• 1 tablespoon of milk to glaze

Methods:

1. Add in the yeast to the warm water and let it rise (I like to do this first to avoid wasting effort and material just in case the yeast is dead). This will take roughly 5-10mins).
2. Scoop out 2 tsp flour and mix with 60ml of water. Cook till it turn a little creamy, stirring occasionally. Quickly turn off the heat and still mix, it should get a little thicker.
3. Sieve the flour on to the mixing bowl. Add in salt and sugar and mix well.
4. Pour in the yeast water mixing and constantly stirring and add in the creamy stuff (it is supposed to be tangzhong with specific measurement, but mine is always this way... hehehe), all of it.
5. Mix the mixture till it forms a dough and continue to kneed till it is not sticky. If it is, add in little by little flour.
6. Leave it to rest for an hour. For me, while resting, I leave the mixing bowl covered with wet towel on top of a hot pot of water coz it was rather cold here yesterday. The dough requires some heat to help it double up.
7. After an hour, punch the dough, give it a little knead. Cut it to 8pcs and flatten them on the table top.
8. Scooped 1.5tsp of meat floss on each flatten dough, squeeze some mayo on it and fold up and form a ball. Leave it on the tray to rest for another 30mins. This time, I was cooking dinner and I leave it near to the stove to provide some heat.
9. Preheat the oven to 180C (if you using a brand new electric fan oven, should be 160C). While waiting, sprinkle the cheese mixture on top of the bun.
10. Place the bun into the oven. After 5mins, increase the oven temp to 200C (again, the electric fan oven should be 180c). After 10mins, glaze the top with milk and then bake for another 5mins.
11. Take it out and cool and devour... hehehe

Curry chicken

Thanks to the post in FB few days back by Malaysia Kitchen, I decided to cook curry chicken... hehehe... my own version. I used deboned drumstick (bone reserved for my little sweetheart's chicken soup).

This is before the sauce reduced to the thickness I want

Ingredients:

• 3 pieces of drumstick without the bones
• 2 potatoes, cut to small cube
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped small
• 1 teaspoon of the sambal
• 1.5 tablespoon of oil
• 1 tablespoon of curry powder
• 1/2 tablespoon of dried cumin powder
• 1 star anise
• 1 small piece of cinnamon stick
• 2 pieces of cloves
• a small pinch of fennel seed
• 1.5 cups of water
• 1/4 cup of santan  (coconut) powder
• a small pinch of salt
• a dash of pepper

Methods:

1. Saute the onion with oil till soft and add in the garlic.
2. After stirring bout 1mins, add in the herbs (dried cumin powder, curry powder, start anise, cinnamon stick, cloves and fennel seed and stir till it is even.
3. Stir in the potato and chicken. Make sure the chicken is lightly fried and coated with the mixture.
4. Add in water, sprinkle the santan powder on top and stir till it dissolved.
5. Leave it to simmer for bout 30-40mins or till the potatoes are soft and tender.
6. Season with salt and pepper.
7. I added a little sliced chillies and parsley :D

Sambal Prawn Thai Salad

Simple easy yummylicious salad...

For the prawn:

Ingredients:

• one cup of shelled and deveined prawn
• 1/2 onion sliced
• 1 teaspoon of sambal (uses the one I posted earlier)
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil

Methods:

1. Saute the onion till it is soft and turn brown.
2. Add in the sambal and then the prawn. Lightly stir after 2mins and let the prawn cooked well on both side (dry and slightly brown and crispy).
3. Set it aside (best leave it on the pan you use to fry it).

For the tong fun (bean vermicelli):

Ingredients:

• one packet of the bean vermicilli
• 2cups of hot water
• 2 birds eye chilli (chopped to small pieces)
• 1 lime (juiced)
• 1 teaspoon of fish sauce
• few dashes of sesame oil
• 2 teaspoon of soy sauce
• 1.2 teaspoon of brown sugar

Methods:

1. Soaked the vermicelli in the hot water for about 20mins
2. Mixed all the rest of the ingredients.
3. Once the vermicelli is soften and break when u try to bite it, it is ready, drained off the water.
4. Mixed the sauce with the vermicelli and set aside

Rest of Ingredients:

• 2 cups of mixed salad leaves (washed and dried)
• 1/2 big tomato, cut to cube
• half carrot, shaved julienned
• 1 cup of thinly sliced wombok (chinese cabbage)
• 1 tablespoon of lime juice
• 1 tablespoon of fish sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon of brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce
• 1 handful of chopped mint leaves and parsley

Methods:

1. Pre marinate the carrot, wombok with lime juice, fish sauce, soy sauce and brown sugar. Set aside for at least 2hours.
2. Tossed all the prepared ingredients, the prawn, carrot, wombok, and the vermicelli with the salad leaves and tomato in the mixing bowl.
3. Served... :D

Nutella Cupcakes

When you have a party to attend the next day with BYOF, last minute notification and not sure what to cook, fridge that is almost empty coz you gonna travel the day after that and even the sugar level is running down, there you go, whatever is in the kitchen... nutella cupcakes.

Why nutella? It is sweet enough to compensate for the lack of sweetness in the cake due to my shortage of sugar supply.

Ingredients:

• 125ml milk
• 73g sugar (this is all I have in the kitchen at that time)
• 2 eggs
• 250g self raising flour
• 125g butter
• 12 teaspoon nutella

Methods:

1. Preheat oven at 180C.
2. Cream sugar and butter till fluffy and creamy.
3. Add in the egg one by one and mix slowly.
4. Add in the milk and give a light stir.
5. Slowly fold in the self raising flour till well mixed.
6. Scooped in 1.5 teaspoon of batter into the paper cups. 
7. Drop a teaspoon of nutella on each and top up with another 0.5 teaspoon of batter.
8. Bake for 20mins.

*The batter should be enough for 12 cupcakes of medium size.

Pizza with home cooked tomato sauce

The big and small bosses both wanted pizza and hence, pizza we make. Hehehe...
Instead of the normal bread dough, I googled for some inspiration and ended up with this olive oil dough which is yummy, with some accidentally modification.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 1.3cups of lukewarm water
• 0.75 tablespoon of yeast
• 0.5 tablespoon of salt
• 0.5 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/8 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 4cups of self raising flour (this is the accident)
• 1/2 cup flour for kneading or shaping use

Method:

1. Premix all the ingredients in a bowl, except the flour.
2. Have the flour in the magimix and slowly add in those wet ingredients till they mix well. Let the mixture mix for about 5mins. 
3. Take it out and leave it in a container with cover to rest (not air tight) for roughly 2 hours.
4. Take it out, give it some "boxing" and kneading. Refrigerate overnight if possible, otherwise at least for 2-3hours. 
5. And it is ready to use. Take the amount required and flatten it. Give the bottom of the pan or paper or pizza stone a spray of olive oil before putting on the pizza dough. This will avoid sticking and gives the dough a soft fluffy taste.

For the topping, I have some home cooked tomato sauce and other toppings like mushroom, pepperoni, sliced chilli, fresh spinach leaves, surimi.

To prepare the tomato sauce (if you want enough for the above):

Ingredients:

• 8cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 10 tomatoes (leave it in a pot of boiling water for about 3-5mins to help removed the skin), cut and chopped, keep about 1cup of the water
• 3 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/8 teaspoon of pepper
• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 tablespoon of finely chopped bacon

Methods:

1. Saute the bacon and garlic with the olive oil till the bacon is crispy and brown (medium high fire).
2. Add in the chopped tomatoes and season with the rest of the ingredients. Add in the water from the tomato and simmer it for about 5-10mins.
3. If you like your sauce to have the tomato texture, use it directly. Otherwise, you can blend them till smooth before using it to smear all over the top of the pizza dough.

Bake Chicken Nugget

A friend had posted her nuggets in facebook and that reminded me to give it a try again and indeed, it tasted yummylicious except that I make a small mistake, I should have let the ginger and onion blend till fine first coz the girl detected them and kinda reject it.. :(

Ingredients:

• 400g chicken breast (approximately coz I'm not quite sure the weight too.. hehehe)
• half a small apple (for the moisture and yummy texture)
• one small onion (yellow)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of cumin powder
• 4 small slices of ginger (really small pieces)
• a pinch of pepper
• 2 tablespoon of shredded cheddar cheese
• 1.5 cups of bread crumbs (for coating) + a pinch of salt + a pinch of freshly grounded pepper + a pinch of curry powder
• 2 eggs, lightly beat (for coating)
• olive oil for baking

Methods:

1. Mixed all the ingredients except those for coating in the blender and mix it till even. It does not need to be super fine caused you will want to have some texture for the nugget. But like in my case, do blend the onion and ginger in advance so that it is fine caused some kids can be quite sensitive and detect those flavour on its own.
2. Spray some olive oil on the tray lined with baking sheets. Preheat oven at 180C.
3. Wet you palm, scooped bout 2 teaspoon amount of the mixture on your palm and for the shapes you like. 
4. Dip the shape into the egg and then to the breadcrumbs. Lined them on the sheets.
5. Once all done, spray the top of the nuggets with oil and bake at 150C for 20-25mins. I sprayed a little more oil on the nuggets after 10mins baking to avoid it from getting too dry.
6. Served with ketchup or any sauce of your choice.. :D

Home Made Ramen

I love ramen and so does the little girl. Since this week, I managed to get the chicken carcass and pork bones, we are cooking ramen today.

For the broth:
Ingredients:

• 2 chicken carcass, roughly 300g
• 1 pork ham leg, roughly 800g
• 3 tablespoon of salt
• 1 onion, cut to 4wedges
• 6pcs of garlic, smashed with skin intact
• a pinch of crushed pepper
• 8 slices of ginger
• 1.5l water

Methods:

Washed the chicken carcass with salt (scrub) and hot water. Rinse the pork leg with hot water. This is to remove all the dirt and smell if there is any.

As usual, I try to save some gas or electricity, so I used the thermos cooker. Dump all ingredients in, bring it to boil on high and then lower the fire and leave it to boil for 25mins. Moved it into the thermos cooker. Leave it overnight. Boil it again for another 25mins on the next morning and I uses it on the next day though the recipe I found online cook it for 2-3days. It is really up to you how thick and flavourful you want the broth to be. Anyway, no salt for the soup since I'm using the pork ham leg that is already salty.

For the noodle, the original recipe found online asked for kan sui (alkaline water) but I dont have it and dont like it, so I'm using egg yolk and soda bicarbonate to substitute it.

Ingredients:

• 600g of bread flour
• 4 egg yolk
• 300ml water
• 1/2tablespoon of soda bicarbonate

Methods:

1. Pulse the bread flour and soda bicarbonate with the yolks, one by one. 
2. Add in the water, little by little caused you don't want the mixture to be too moist. The dough should be crumbly and gravel like.
3. Remove the dough from the mixer. Use the hand to press the mixture together to form proper dough balls. I have bout 8 balls. 
4. Flatten each ball and run it through the largest setting of your pasta roller a few times, folding it each time. Do it till the dough is smooth out. 
5. Fold it till square and stack up in a container, covered with wet towels. Store it in the fridge. The recipe called it for overnight, but I had it for about 5hrs.
6. Use the pasta roller and use the thinner setting to flatten the dough. Then use the pasta machine to cut the dough. I had two types, one the thinner one for the girls, at her request and the thicker one for us.
7. Upon cutting up the noodles, dry them on rack or hang it on the chopstick to dry. Now with the cool weather, it takes about 20mins to dry them up.
8. After drying, you can either cook it directly in a pot of boiling water or store it in the fridge. But prior to storing, do dust with some flour. Since it is dried, it requires a lot lesser flour to keep them apart. 
9. On the cooking part, after cooking it on the boiling water for about 3mins, pour the noodle into cold water to give it a springy taste.

My Version of Bimbimbap

After looking at someone posted her bimbimbap on Facebook, I felt like eating it, but since I'm not a fan and dont quite like bean sprout, let's do without it and have this instead.

Ingredients (to make two plate of medium eater):

• 1 cup of rice, cooked like normal
• a handful of choy sum (washed, cut to small pieces and you can either blanch in hot water or lightly fry in oil)
• a handful of julienned carrot (either blanch in hot water or lightly fry in oil)
• a handful of chinese cabbage (either blanch in hot water or lightly fry in oil)
• 250g of sliced pork (marinated in Korean BBQ sauce for at least 30mins in advance)
• 2 eggs (sunny side up)
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce (for the sauce)
• 1 teaspoon of brown sugar (for the sauce)
• 2 teaspoon of sushi rice vinegar (for the sauce)
• 1 tablespoon of chopped spring onions (for the sauce)
• 3 cloves of minced garlic (for the sauce)
• 3 tablespoon of siracha chilli sauce (for the sauce)

Methods:

1. Prepared the rice and vegetables and arranged them either on a bowl or plate (your preference).
2. Pan friend the marinated sliced pork with a little oil till cooked, and arrange it on the plate too.
3. Top the arrangement with a sunnyside up egg.
4. Mixed all the ingredients for the sauce together and pour over.
5. Served. To eat, mix everything evenly and bon apetit.

Westernized Otak Otak

Not sure what got into me, I just got a bit bored with pan frying the fish fillet and wanted something different, so I ended up with a westernized version of otak otak.

Ingredients:

• 300g of basa fish fillet
• quarter carrot, cut to smaller pieces to be able to blend easier
• a handful of spinach
• a handful of shredded cheddar
• 2-3 cubes of ice
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of pepper
• 1 teaspoon of curry powder
• 1 teaspoon of tumeric powder

Methods:

1. Mix all ingredients in the blender and blend till the fish turn pasty and ice is well crushed.
2. Scooped paste on aluminium foil and shaped and keep in fridge.
3. Either pan fried with a little oil or covered in foiled and bake in oven at 180C for 20mins.

The picture above is served with some salad leaves and pan fried potato slices.

Milo Muffin Brownie

With Easter round the corner and lots of egg chocolate in the fridge from the Easter Egg hunt the kindy organised last week, I decided to do the Milo Muffin Brownie. I had been collecting some egg shells and decided to use it as mold for the girl's snack while the rest go into the muffin tin, with the yummy chocolate eggs as the filling.

Ingredients:

• 113g butter
• 160g brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon of milo
• 2 eggs
• 90g flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• a pinch of salt
• mini chocolate eggs (qty depending to how many of the muffins you want to have it with the chocolate in it)

Methods:

1. Preheat oven at 180degree celcius.
2. Cream butter and sugar till creamy. Add in milo and continue mixing till even.
3. Slowly add on one by one egg and mix till even.
4. Add in vanilla essence, flour and salt slowly while mixing.
5. Scooped the batter to the mold, either the egg shell or the muffin tin.
6. Insert the chocolate egg in the middle of the mixture.
7. Bake for 15-20mins at 180C. Check if it is done with the skewer.

Savoury Pumpkin Muffin

Yes, another muffin recipe again. This time, it is savoury with lots of healthy goodness in it. It has pumpkin, spinach, cheese and onion. This is so yummy... taste better than the sweet version I think.. hehehe...

Ingredients:

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 large egg (beaten)
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1.5 cup of milk
• 1/8 cup of julienned mini red radish
• 3/4 cup of shredded cheddar
• 1/2 cup of chopped pumpkin + 1/2 cup of shredded pumpkin
• 1/2 cup of shredded spinach

Methods:

1. Preheat oven at 180C.
2. Mixed all the ingredients together except the flour. Mix till it is well blended.
3. Then add in the flour and give it a quick fold.
4. Scoop batter into the muffin pan, 24 minis here... (I lightly oil the tin)
5. Bake for 25mins at 180C.

Yogurt Muffin

While the little one was napping, I decided to make something healthy, yummy and pretty for her kindy snack tomorrow. So, colourful chips yogurt muffin. And the rest, with the blackberry jam that the relocation bought for us when we first arrived.

Ingredients

• 2 cups Self Raising Flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup of yogurt

Methods:

1. Preheat oven at 180C.
2. Lightly mix the sugar, milk, yogurt, egg and olive oil till well mixed.
3. Add in the flour and lightly fold it. Just a quick one will do, no need to be extremely well mix coz that will overmix the mixture and it will be too hard.
4. Pour in the muffin cups. Make 22 small size cups. Each cup should be 3/4 filled.
5. Scooped in 1 teaspoon of jam for each muffins. Those without, sprinkle with the colorful chips.
6. Baked for 15mins at 190C.