Wanton Noodle

I just love all sorts of dumpling and sui now plus wanton is definitely my other love. So recently I had this craving for it and I had some high fat content minced in the fridge that I want to use up before it spoils..so I make wanton for dinner.

Noodle is definitely to go with it and I decided to make my own instead of buying from the store since I don't have much stuff plan for the day and I need some extra exercise.

This recipe is definitely a keeper since boss compliment that it tasted just exactly like the noodle from the hawker stall, what more, it was seasoned with pork lard.. hehehe...

Ingredients:

• 240g plain flour
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1 teaspoon of lye/alkaline water
• 2 XL size egg
• 1tbsp water

Steps:

1. Mix the flour and salt evenly in a bowl.
2. Then mix the lye water and egg separately in another smaller bowl.
3. Create a hollow in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid mixture and slowly knead the mixture. For me it is too dry and hence I added another 1tbsp of water. If you need more, please do so, but a little at a time. The dough should be very dry and crumbly.
4. Wrapped it up and set aside to rest for 30mins in room temperature.
5. After resting, you will realise that it is much easier to form the crumbly dough into a smoother dough. Instead of kneading it, I press it down with the rolling pin. Not rolling it, not beating it, but press it down. It is just like how those bamboo noodles are made.. (google for info if you not sure how it is).
6. After pressing it around for 5-6mins, let it rest another 30mins, before repeating step 5. By now, the dough is much smoother, but still very heavy and dry.
7. Rest another 30mins (i left it much longer coz i was out to pick up kids and run some errands). 
8. Divide the dough to 3/4 parts. Roll the dough out as thin as you can. I use the pasta roller. Starting with no 1 and stop at no 7 level.
9. After that is done, roll it over the noodle cutter. If you do not own one, just sprinkle the dough with some flour, then fold up and cut with a big knife or noodle knife.

For cooking, I just boil some water, put in the noodle to cook for bout 2mins, then rinse with cold water.

Ramen Tonkatsu Broth with Soy Egg and Charsiew

Hubby had been sort of asking for Ramen for a while and since it is winter, I guess this is a must cook dish. So bought some ingredients and start doing it... extra can be stored to be used for other cooking.

 Ingredients for stock:

• 1+kg chicken carcass
• bout one big take away box of prawn shell (air fried min 10mins on 200c or fry it till crispy and smells good)
• a small piece of gula melaka, 
• a big handful of peppercorn
• one carrot
• pork hock (blanched with hot water to remove impurities and then air fried for 10mins)
• 4pcs bone marrow (blanched with hot water to remove impurities and then air fried for 10mins)
• 6 chicken feet (blanched with hot water to remove impurities and then air fried for 10mins)
• 1 roasted leek
• 1 roasted big onion
• a big handful of dried big anchovies, roasted
• water to cover the pot, roughly 2l
• salt to season to your preference

Steps:

Place all ingredients in the pot and set it to boil for 6-8hrs. Or use the pressure cooker to cook for 2-3hrs.

Note: my pressure cooker can't fit in all the ingredients in one go, so what I did was split it to half, pressure cook half the time then remove the ingredients, place the other half and pressure cook another half the time.

Next the charsiew.
Ingredients:

• 1 slab of pork belly (roughly 800g-1kg)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sake
• 1/2 cup mirin
• 2tbsp sugar
• few slices of ginger
• 1tbsp minced garlic
• few pieces of spring onion white
• string to tie to the pork belly

Steps:

1. Measure roughly 3x the length of the pork. Roll the pork belly up and place the string underneath the belly. Start with the middle of the string at the very end of the belly, inter twine the string and roll tie it upwards, try to tie it as tight as possible as the pork belly will shrink after cooking and you want it to hold on to the round shape. 
2. Prepared some hot boiling water and blanched the belly all sides.
3. Then place all ingredients in the pot. If using pressure cooker, cook for 30mins. If normal pot, cook it for 2-3hrs till tender soft. Try to turn the pork around to absorb the sauce if the pork is not fully submerged in the sauce.
4. Once done, remove and cool it so that it is easier to slice.

Soy Egg:
Ingredients:

1. Eggs
2. Water
3. Soy mixture from the charsiew

Steps:

1. Place eggs in cold water, bring it to a boil and cook (entire process takes 4.5 mins for gooey yolk, 5mins for moist yolk, 5.5 mins for just cooked yolk - this is for winter time... during summer, reduce time by 30seconds).
2. Remove the eggs from the boiling water and run it over cold water.
3. Remove shell, soak the eggs in the soy sauce mixture for min 30mins, the longer the better it absorbs the color and taste to the eggs.

Once done, assemble the noodle, charsiew, egg with the other condiments such as spring onion, seaweed, ginger slice, bamboo shoots, etc.

Layered Kaya Steam Bun aka Asian Mille Feuile

I was looking online for something different to make besides the typical oven bake kinda food for either breakfast or lunchbox and stumble upon this interesting photo. Hence launched into a search for the recipe. It is actually not cake but steam bun layered up with kaya in between each layer. This is soft and fluffy and smells great too... glad my no 1 likes it.

 Trying to make it more "chinese" so added the prosperity word on it... with my home made stencil (mom was wondering since when I can do such pretty chinese word).

Recipe:

Kaya

• 40 g sugar 
• 40 g palm sugar 
• 200 ml undiluted fresh coconut milk (I used coconut cream in the can)
• 4 young, light green pandan leaves wash and cut 5 cm long (no fresh one, dried one, still smells good)
• 4 yolks (make sure there's no egg white at all)

Steps:

1. Dissolve sugar, palm sugar and coconut milk (along with the pandan leaves) on medium high heat, maintain and gentle simmer stage. 
2. Once the sugar melted, scoop partial of the mixture on the beaten egg yolks, little by little (roughly 1/3 to half).
3. Then continue stirring the coconut milk mixture while slowing add in the egg yolks with partial of the coconut mixture all into the saucepan. Stir it at low heat till the mixture thicken to your desired thickness. As I wanted to use it for this recipe, I make sure it is rather thick. It should take roughly bout 4-5mins.

*This is a quick so called 5mins kaya recipe but I had spent longer as I it thick.

Bun

• Part 1: Starter or Sponge dough
• 250g pao or low protein flour
• 200g water
• 1/4tsp (1g) commercial/instant yeast

1. Mix and set aside over night, roughly 12-13hours (room temperature - timing depending on the weather, if hot, not more than 12hrs)

• Part 2: Bun Dough
• 150g pao or low protein flour
• 50g sugar
• 1tsp baking powder
• 40g cooking oil (I don't like shortening and so I substituted it with oil)

1. Knead all ingredients from part 1 and 2 together to form a soft and smooth dough. It takes roughly 5-10mins to achieve that with hand. The dough is rather soft and a bit hard to handle.
2. Leave it to proof for bout an hour.
3. Prepare a baking tin roughly 9inch, layered with non stick baking paper.
4. Divide into 10portions, shape into ball before flattening and roll to round disc (roughly bout 8inch so as to allow space for it to proof).
5. Stack the first piece into the baking tin and spread the kaya over it. The original recipe asked for a tablespoon, but I was greedy, I put in more coz I prefer it to have more of it.
6. Continue stacking the bun doughs and spreading the kaya jam on every layer (except the last top one). Cover with a cloth and let it proof for another 2 hrs.
7. Heat up a pot of water and steam the bun. It should takes bout 30-35mins on medium low heat.
8. Once done, take it out to cool before slicing in... the bun should rise and filled up the entire cake tin, looks really fluffy and felt really light.

Bon apetit 

Note: you may choose to use jam or any other spread if you don't like or too lazy to make the kaya jam.