Strawberry & Orange Sorbet

Yummy sorbet recipe shared by my friend Esther Tho, they are really yummy! Thank you!

2 cups of strawberries - I used 280g 

1 orange,  juiced - I used 100ml 

Sugar to taste

Blend all the ingredients in a blender. Seive out the strawberries seeds then transfer to a freezing container.  Leave in the freezer for a few hours until mixture completely frozen, scope to serving glass / bowl & serve cold. 

Bon appétit ! 

Chin's notes: 

1. I will add more strawberries in future. ;) 

Pickled Cucumbers

Joanne Lee, from SHC shared her wonderful recipe. Thank you!! They are really yummy. 

I made some adjustment to the recipe as I like them more sourish & sweet. 

Pickled Cucumber Recipe 

Ingredients 

1 large cucumber

1 tsp salt

Seasoning 

3 tbsp white vinegar 

1 tbsp sugar

2 bird eye chili / chili padi - thinly sliced

1 tsp sesame oil 

Toasted sesame seeds

Preparation steps: 

1. Clean the cucumber, halve & remove the seeds. Slice the cucumber about 1cm thick or thinner.  Put them into a large bowl. Evenly coat with salt. Leave for about 10 mins. Then drain the water accumulated. 

2. Add in all the seasoning, mix well & keep in the fridge for at least 30 mins. Mix again before serving. Serve cold. 

Voilà ! 

Chin's notes: 

1. I garnished with extra sesame seeds before serving. 

2. Do not wash the cucumber after they were seasoned with salt. If washed the cucumber will not be crunchy. Salt is to remove the excess water in the cucumber. 

Chiffon Cupcakes Again

I'm very pleased with my bake today. :) Tried the following method and it seems to give me a nicer chiffon cupcakes after they have completely cooled. 

Fill the cake mixture to about slightly more than half full in the baking liners.

Baked at 165 degree C for 20 mins then lower oven temperature to 160 degree C for another 25 mins. 

After 4hrs, the cupcakes still looks good. 

Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe: 

Ingredients 

A 

6 egg whites 

80g sugar 

1/2 tsp cream of tartar 

B 

6 egg yolks 

100g sugar 

100g plain flour 

1 tbsp pandan extract 

1/4 cup / 50g coconut milk 

1/4 cup / 50g vegetable oil 

Preparation steps: 

1. Whisk ingredients for A until stiff peak. 

2. In a separate bowl, mix well all the ingredients  for B. 

3. Gently fold mixture A into B. 

4. Transfer mixture to muffin tray lay baking liners. Fill to slightly more that 1/2 full. 

5. Bake on the lowest rack in a preheated oven at 165 degree C for 20 mins then 160 degree C for another 25mins. 

6. Remove from oven, & leave cupcakes to cool upside down on cooking rack. 

Voilá! 

Chin's notes: 

1. This is the same recipe that I used for the normal chiffon baked in the chiffon pan. 

2. For normal chiffon bake, bake for 55 mins to get the lovely crust on the side. Turn baking tin upside down for cooling. Remove cake from baking tin. Slice the cake into serving portion before serving. 

3. Other chiffon bakes 

http://fromchinshome.blogspot.fr/2014/09/earl-grey-chiffonc.html?m=1

4. These were baked in March 2015. 

I did not get the nice dome then. 

5. Added on 26 April 2015 - baked more cupcakes by halving the ingredients. I managed to get 17 cupcakes. I also got the same results with nice dome & they stays nice. 

Middle & bottom racks were used for these bakes. 

Ku-Chye Kuih ( Steamed Chinese Chives Dumplings )

Ku-Chye Kuih ( steamed Chinese chives dumplings), one of the many Nyonya's snacks that I love! 

This is my first attempt to make these. It was not difficult but a bit time consuming to make the fillings, skin & wrapping. It was worth it all for my craving!! 

I need to work on my wrapping as they broke during the steaming process. 

I followed the skin recipe from Rasa Malaysia - link below. 

http://rasamalaysia.com/chai-kueh-steamed-vegetable-dumplings/2/

Makes 30 dumplings

Ku-Chye Kuih Fillings ingredients: 

500g Chinese Chives, thinly sliced. 

6 cloves of garlic - minced 

30g dried shrimps - clean 

3 dried mushrooms - soaked & thinly sliced. 

5 water chestnuts (optional) - cut into small cubes

1 tbsp oyster sauce 

1 tsp sugar

Salt & pepper to taste 

3 tbsp vegetable cooking oil

Dumpling skins ingredients: 

165g wheat starch 

85g tapioca flour

420g hot water 

5 tbsp vegetable oil 

Preparation steps: 

1. Prepare all the ingredients. 

2. In a wok, heat up the oil, then add in the garlic. Fry until fragrant. Set aside some fried garlic for garnishing. 

3. Add the dried shrimp. Fry until the dried shrimps are fragrant , add in the mushrooms, then add in the Chinese chives.

4. Add in all the seasonings & fry until vegetable is cooked & set aside to cool. 

5. Prepare the dumpling skin, recipe & methods from Rasa Malaysia. 

6. Wrap the dumplings. 

7. Place dumplings on parchment paper on the steamer tray. Steam for 12 - 15 mins on high or until dumpling skin is translucent. 

8. Garnish with fried garlic & your favourite chili sauce. 

Bon appétit ! 

Chin notes: 

1. Take note to seal the dumplings with a bigger sealed allowance to avoid breaking of dumplings.

2. I added water chestnuts, normally water chestnuts were not added.

Added on 24 April 2015 

3. Leave about 1 to 2 cm gap between dumplings on the steaming tray. The dumpling will expand slightly.

4. They freeze quite well too. Made extra to freeze. No thawing is required, I steamed them directly out from the freezer. 

Frozen dumplings

Baileys Buttercream Icing

My first attempt in making buttercream & decided to give a little twist. Added Baileys, just enough for the alcohol to lingers in the mouth. 

Great for dressing up any chocolate/coffee cake & have the cake with a cup of coffee / tea! 

Baileys Buttercrram Icing Recipe 

Ingredients : 

250g soft butter at room temperature

250g icing sugar sifted

4 tbsp baileys

Preparation steps : 

1. Cream butter until light & fluffy in an electric mixer. 

2. Add the icing sugar & baileys, give it a bit of stir with a spatula before you start the machine to prevent the icing sugar flying all over. 

3. Cream until light & fluffy. 

Voilà!

Fried Rice Noodles

Fried rice noodles ( char bee hoon ) for today's lunch. Someone mentioned that anything cooked with Thai fish sauce will be yummy. Yes, indeed they are yummy noodles. 

Fried Rice noodles : 

1 packet of rice noodles - persoaked with cool water until soft - drained & set aside 

200g fried fish cake, thinly sliced

4 cloves of garlic - minced

Thumb size ginger - thinly sliced

Vegetables of choice - I prefer cabbage / bak choi 

Dried enchovies - fried until golden brown with some oil & set aside. 

Thai fish sauce to taste. 

Preparation steps: 

1. Use the oil for from frying the enchovies. Heat up the oil & add in the garlic & ginger. Fry until fragrant the add the fish cake. Fry a little while. 

2. Add in the vegetables & fry until almost cook. Add in the noodle , add seasoning & mix well. Add some water, close the lid & let it simmer a few mins. Check if noodles is cook & fry a few more minutes to mix it well. 

3. Dish out & garnish with fried enchovies, spring onions & cut chili with light soya sauce / sambal. 

Bon appétit !

Chin's notes: 

1. Pre-fried some omelettes & sliced them thinly. Great for garnishing. 

2. Alternative sunny side up egg will be perfect too. 

3. I like to use the oil from frying the enchovies because the give the noodles more flavours. 

"Steamed" Lady Fingers

I love fast & easy meal without much cleaning after meal.

I baked the 2 dishes in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 20mins. Voilà! My dinner is served within 1 hr including preparation time. :) 

1. Lady Fingers with Fried Garlic: 

One packet lady fingers - cleaned & cut the ends. 

One sheet of aluminum foil enough to wrap the lady fingers. 

1 tbsp water

Fried garlic for garnishing

Soya sauce

Preparation steps: 

1. Place the lady fingers in the middle of the foil & add 1 tbsp water. Wrap it up. 

2. Baked for 20mins. 

3. While baking the vegetables, minced some garlic & fry them in a pan with some oil until golden brown. Set aside. 

4. After 20 mins remove the lady fingers from oven. Garnish with light soya sauce, fried garlic & some oil from garlic before serving. 

2. Sambal Fish : 

Fish fillets - I used tilapia fillets 

Premix sambal paste - refer to picture above. 

Aluminum foil 

Preparation steps : 

1. Placed the fillet in the middle of the foil, add 2 tbsp of the sambal paste on the fish & wrap it up. 

2. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 20 mins. 

3. Remove from oven & serve with rice. 

Bon appétit ! 

Chin's notes :

1. All baked in single session. At the end of 20 mins both meat & vegetable are ready to be served with rice. 

2. Cleaning was easy too. :) 

3. I will start to cook my rice when I start preheating the oven. 

4. Alternatively you can steam the lady fingers in the rice cooker while cooking the rice. Or steamed the fish on a steamer. 

Simple Chocolate Cake

Someone shared this recipe of the cooking forum today & I decided to give it a try & a chance to practice my piping skills. Not quite there yet!

Made a slight change to the icing. Added 4 tbsp of Baileys ( :P ) instead of 2 tsp pure vanilla extract. At least can taste the Baileys.

Made some small cupcakes & a 26cm diameter cake. I think my baking pans were a bit too big, didn't get the cake volume intended.   23cm would be better. 

Here is the video link to the recipe  from Joyofbaking.com

http://youtu.be/vsSz7t5lqzw

Baileys Buttercream Icing: 

Ingredients: 

250g soft butter at room temperature

250g icing sugar

4 tbsp Baileys  

Preparation steps: 

1. Cream butter until creamy with an electric mixer. 

2. Add the icing sugar & Baileys. 

3. Cream until light & fluffy. 

Voilà ! 

Shrimp Wontan

Made some shrimp wontans for tonight's dinner. There are many ways to eat them. :p

Shirmp Wanton Recipe: 

Makes 25 - 30 wontans

200g of medium size fresh prawns / shrimps. Remove shells & minced. 

5 pieces of water chestnuts - diced

1 stalk spring onions finely sliced. 

3 cloves of garlic - finely chopped 

2 dried mushrooms - soaked & sliced

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp corn flour

3 - 4 leaves of Napa cabbage / Chinese cabbage - boil to soften, sliced thinly & squeeze out the water from the vegetables. 

Salt & Pepper to taste

Wontan skin 

Spring onions / fried onions for garnishing. 

Preparation steps: 

1. Mixed all the ingredients in a bowl. 

2. Take some mixture & put in the middle of the wontan skin & seal the edges with some water. 

3. Fill up a pot & add some salt, bring to boil. Put the wontans in, once they floats, they are ready. 

4. Dish them out & put them in the their respective serving bowls. 

Voilà ! Now you can have them with noodles or just with soup or dip in black vinegar. Bon appétit !! 

Chin's notes: 

1. I made simple soup, just chicken stocks & nappa cabbage, season with salt & pepper. Add the wontans to the soup. 

2. Cook some wontan noodles, add the wontans & served with soup. 

3. These are nice to eat with black vinegar & sliced ginger.

Yakitori Meatballs

Just a little twist from the usual chicken version. 

Use the same sauce : 

http://fromchinshome.blogspot.fr/2015/04/easy-yakitori-chicken.html?m=1

Yakitori Meatball recipes: 

Ingredients: 

300g minced pork 

2 tbsp corn flour

2 stalks of spring onions finely chopped

A dash of pepper

Oil for cooking 

Preparation method:

1. Prepare sauce in advance refer to the link above. 

2. Combine all the about ingredients & shape them into balls & skew onto a skewer / bamboo sticks. 

3. Heat the pan and add some some oil. Pan fry the meatballs until almost cooked turn occasionally. 

4. Put generous sauce to coat the meat, cook until you get a nice glossy shine & meat fully cooked. 

Bon appétit ! 

Chin's notes: 

1. I did not put enough sauce to get the nice glossy shine. 

2. Here is how I prepared my Yakitori.

Glutinous rice in Rice Cooker

Margaret ( from SHC ) shared a yummy glutinous rice recipe. I love glutinous rice, been wanting to try glutinous rice recipe for a long time but did not get around it until today. 

I decided to give it a try by cooking in rice cooker instead of steaming. It turns out quite well & I saved half the cooking time. ;)  

Glutinous Rice Recipe - adapted from Margaret Goh's recipe & doubled the portion. 

Serve 5 - 6 people depending on your appetite! ;) 

Ingredients :

500g of glutinous rice, soaked for 1.5hrs

8 dried mushrooms soaked & sliced thinly - soaked in 2 1/2 cups of water, water to be used in cooking the glutinous rice. 

3 Chinese sausages (lup-cheong) sliced 

50g dried shrimps cleaned

6 cloves garlic - finely chopped

Oil for frying 

Spring onions, fried shallots, peanuts & chili for garnishing. 

Seasoning 

1 tbsp light soya sauce 

2 tbsp sweet soya sauce 

2 tsp sesame oil 

2 tsp Chinese cooking wine

Salt & pepper to taste. 

Preparation steps: 

1. Soaked rice in advance & drained. Set aside. 

2. Pan fry Chinese sausages without oil in a wok until you get a nice browning. There will be some oil from the lup-cheong.  Dish out lup-cheong & set aside. 

3. Add a little oil if there is not enough oil from the lup-cheong. Fry the garlic until fragrant, then add the dried shrimp, fry until the shrimp is golden brown. Then add in the mushrooms, fry for a few minutes. Don't have to be cooked. 

4. Finally add glutinous rice into the fried mixture & fry a little while. Add in mushroom water (2 cups) & all the seasoning. Bring to a slight boil then transfer to the rice cooker pot immediately. Start to cook per normal setting for rice.  Once rice cooker is done cooking , let it keep warm for 15 minutes. Do not open the lit, let the steam continues to cook the glutinous rice. 

5. Give the cooked glutinous rice a good stir, dish out per serving. Garnish with fried lup-cheong, fried shallots, spring onions, peanuts & chili. 

Bon appétit ! 

Chin's notes: 

1. Do not fry the glutinous rice for too long just a few good stir to mix the ingredients well. 

2. Do not boil the rice mixture for too long. Can immediately transfer to rice pot once you see the signs of boiling. 

3. I used water from the soaked mushroom in cooking the glutinous rice to give it some flavouring. Alternatively 2 cups of water. 

Glutinous rice and other ingredients in rice cooker

Cooked glutinous rice before garnishing

Easy Yakitori Chicken

In a cooking forum, many shared this easy recipe.  Refer to the link below to see how easy it was done.

http://youtu.be/lu0_RSJdq_s

We all had a great time cooking together & they were yummy! 

Chin's note: 

1. I halved the sauce ingredients so I don't have to deal with the left over sauce. ;) 

2. You can also prepared the marinade  ahead & used when needed. 

Korean Raw Salmon Salad

Last Monday, my Korean friends brought me to a Korean restaurant & introduced me to this yummy salad. I just fell in love with it. Recreated this dish at home. Easy to prepare & just simply delicious!

If you like raw salmon, give it a try!

Korean Raw Salmon Salad Recipe: 

Ingredients: 

Raw Salmon for sashimi - sliced

Korean Spicy Cocktail Sauce (see picture below)

Romanian lettuce cleaned & thinly sliced. 

Toatsted sesame seeds for garnishing

Preparation steps: 

1. Lay the Romanian lettuce neatly on the plate. Place the salmon on the lettuce. 

2. Spread a good amount of Korean Sauce & garnish with toasted sesame seeds. 

Voilà & Bon appétit ! 

Chin's notes:

1. This sauce is also very yummy with fried rice or as a dipping sauce!! :p

Fried "Carrot" Cake

No actual carrots were used in this dish. White radish ( daikon ) were used to make the cake.

Recipe for the cake is from Rasa Malaysia. Here is the link to the recipe:

http://rasamalaysia.com/fried-radish-cake-recipe/2/

Steamed cake

l

Then fried with the following ingredients: 

Garlic, sweet chye-por (pickled radish), egg, dried shrimp, spring onions, sweet black sauce & light soya sauce. 

Preparation method: 

1. Heat up the oil in the hot pan (non-stick is preferred). Then add the garlic & dried shrimps , fry until fragrant.

2. Add the diced raddish cake. (1" cube approx.). Fry a little while. 

3. Add the sweet chye-por. Fry a little while. Then add some oil, then cracked some eggs into the mixture. Let them cook for a while before stiring the mixture to get the slightly burnt eggs.

4. Season with light soya sauce & black soya to taste. Stir in the spring onions before dish out. 

5. Serve with your favourite chili sauce / sambal.

Bon appétit ! 

Chin's notes: 

1. The radish cake is best to prepare a day ahead. 

2. I did not wait for the radish to cool before adding to the rice flour mix. 

3. I used the water from cooking the daikon instead of plain water. I'm sure there are some nutrient from the cooking the daikon. :)