Friday, 13 February 2009
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Bak Kwa
Bak Kwa
Made Bak Kwa last Sunday but only posting it today. Kris, these pixs for you!
Taste wise, quite similar to the real thing but looks wise, they look like the real mckoy don't they? Got the recipe from Lily's blog. Thanks Lily!
The only changes I made to Lily's recipe was that I halved it to 500gm and halved the rest of the ingredients as well and then as I didn't have kam cho powder - omitted that and used Chinese rice wine instead as again I did not have the Rose wine.
Ingredients:
1 kg ground pork
Marinate:
1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 1/2 tbsp soya sauce
175 - 200 gm sugar (I used 150)
1/8 tsp 5 spiced powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp kam cho(licorice) powder
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp msg(optional)
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp rose wine
a big drop of red food coloring
Method:
Season ground pork with the marinate and leave in the fridge overnight or at least 4 hours.(marinating is more flavorful but so often i have made without marinating and the result is just as good.
Turn oven to 150C.
Oil baking sheet, put a chinese bowl of marinated pork on baking sheet and try to spread meat as thinly as possible to cover the whole sheet.
Bake in oven for 10 mins or until firm to the touch.
Remove from oven and using a scissor cut meat into pieces.
Repeat (3) to (5)
Meat is now ready for grilling or wrapped in foil and freeze until needed.
On the grill - pixs are a bit dark as forgot to use the flash and too lazy to retake!
Ready!
Made Bak Kwa last Sunday but only posting it today. Kris, these pixs for you!
Taste wise, quite similar to the real thing but looks wise, they look like the real mckoy don't they? Got the recipe from Lily's blog. Thanks Lily!
The only changes I made to Lily's recipe was that I halved it to 500gm and halved the rest of the ingredients as well and then as I didn't have kam cho powder - omitted that and used Chinese rice wine instead as again I did not have the Rose wine.
Ingredients:
1 kg ground pork
Marinate:
1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 1/2 tbsp soya sauce
175 - 200 gm sugar (I used 150)
1/8 tsp 5 spiced powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp kam cho(licorice) powder
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp msg(optional)
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp rose wine
a big drop of red food coloring
Method:
Season ground pork with the marinate and leave in the fridge overnight or at least 4 hours.(marinating is more flavorful but so often i have made without marinating and the result is just as good.
Turn oven to 150C.
Oil baking sheet, put a chinese bowl of marinated pork on baking sheet and try to spread meat as thinly as possible to cover the whole sheet.
Bake in oven for 10 mins or until firm to the touch.
Remove from oven and using a scissor cut meat into pieces.
Repeat (3) to (5)
Meat is now ready for grilling or wrapped in foil and freeze until needed.
On the grill - pixs are a bit dark as forgot to use the flash and too lazy to retake!
Ready!
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Update of Mr Snowman
Update on Mr Snowman
Poor Mr Snowman. Let the pictures tell you about him. They were taken 2 and 3 days after the snow storm.
4/2/09
5/2/09
Poor Mr Snowman. Let the pictures tell you about him. They were taken 2 and 3 days after the snow storm.
4/2/09
5/2/09
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Let it snow
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...
First time that the weather forecast predicted has come true. Woke up on Monday morning with tons of snow.
Heard on the radio that tubes, trains and buses not running. But still got up and took my shower and got ready as usual. Then at 7.30 called my boss to say that don't think I would be going in to work and he said the same, so asked me to send an email round to tell everyone not to go in.
Worked from home instead replying to emails, etc and from looking at the news, saw that almost all of London had come to a standstill. Schools were shut and most offices only had sketeton staff!
Flights were cancelled as runways were too icy, etc.
Liana said how come she had to work when I didn't. I replied because she was working from home! haha.
Anyway, when she finished in the afternoon, she got me to go out to the garden and help her build a snowman.
A little joke to share with you - our cleaner normally comes on a Monday and she came as usual, except that Pat had to tow her up the hill to our house. Reason? Our house is almost at the top of a little hill (that's the reason why I cannot go out when it snows as well) anyway - as she turned into our driveway, her car slid sideways all the way to the bottom of the hill. She tried driving back up but to no avail, so Pat had to go out and tow her back up to us!
These are some of the pictures that were taken.
Picture of the garden in snow
Picture of garden from bedroom window - looks hazy because it was still snowing
Pat and Liana having a snowball fight!
Liana and Mr Snowman
Liana action shot
Poor Mr Snowman 2 days later
First time that the weather forecast predicted has come true. Woke up on Monday morning with tons of snow.
Heard on the radio that tubes, trains and buses not running. But still got up and took my shower and got ready as usual. Then at 7.30 called my boss to say that don't think I would be going in to work and he said the same, so asked me to send an email round to tell everyone not to go in.
Worked from home instead replying to emails, etc and from looking at the news, saw that almost all of London had come to a standstill. Schools were shut and most offices only had sketeton staff!
Flights were cancelled as runways were too icy, etc.
Liana said how come she had to work when I didn't. I replied because she was working from home! haha.
Anyway, when she finished in the afternoon, she got me to go out to the garden and help her build a snowman.
A little joke to share with you - our cleaner normally comes on a Monday and she came as usual, except that Pat had to tow her up the hill to our house. Reason? Our house is almost at the top of a little hill (that's the reason why I cannot go out when it snows as well) anyway - as she turned into our driveway, her car slid sideways all the way to the bottom of the hill. She tried driving back up but to no avail, so Pat had to go out and tow her back up to us!
These are some of the pictures that were taken.
Picture of the garden in snow
Picture of garden from bedroom window - looks hazy because it was still snowing
Pat and Liana having a snowball fight!
Liana and Mr Snowman
Liana action shot
Poor Mr Snowman 2 days later
Saturday, 31 January 2009
Gyudon
Liana requested for Gyudon and Chawan Mushi so here it is.
Gyudon
Ingredients:
2 cups steamed Japanese rice
500gm thinly sliced beef
1 onion
1 1/2 cups dashi soup
5 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp sake
*benishoga (red ginger) for topping
shichimi mixed 7 chill and spices
Method:
1. Cook Japanese rice.
2. Slice onion thinly. Cut beef into bite-sized pieces.
3. Put dashi, soysauce, sugar, mirin, and sake in a pan. Add onion slices in the pot and simmer for a few minutes.
4. Add beef in the pan and simmer for a few minutes. Serve hot steamed rice in a deep rice bowl. Put the beef topping on the top of rice. Place some benishoga (red ginger) on the top and shichimi (optional)
Chawan Mushi
Ingredients:
3 eggs
3 cups dashi (1 tsp hondashi in 3 cups boiling water)
2 tsps shoyu
2 tsps mirin
prawns )
dried shitake mushrooms ) marinate in 2 tsps sake
ginko nuts )
japanese fishcake )
mistuba leaves (optional)
Method:
1. Beat eggs with fork or chopsticks. Do not beat too vigourously as you do not want to create bubbles in the final product. When dashi has cooled down, add to beaten eggs. Add shoyu and mirin to egg mixture.
2. Sift egg mixture through muslin cloth or if no cloth available then through a fine sift.
3. Add ginko nuts and fishcake at bottom of chawan mushi container. Then pour egg mixture in. Steam egg custard for about 8 mins till lightly cooked, then place prawns and shitake mushroom on top of this. Add the mitsuba leaves as well if available. Steam for another 8 - 10 mins and then it is done.
Note: The reason for placing the prawns on top of the custard is purely for decoration purposes or you can just put it at the bottom of the container and let it be a treasure hunt!
Gyudon
Ingredients:
2 cups steamed Japanese rice
500gm thinly sliced beef
1 onion
1 1/2 cups dashi soup
5 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp sake
*benishoga (red ginger) for topping
shichimi mixed 7 chill and spices
Method:
1. Cook Japanese rice.
2. Slice onion thinly. Cut beef into bite-sized pieces.
3. Put dashi, soysauce, sugar, mirin, and sake in a pan. Add onion slices in the pot and simmer for a few minutes.
4. Add beef in the pan and simmer for a few minutes. Serve hot steamed rice in a deep rice bowl. Put the beef topping on the top of rice. Place some benishoga (red ginger) on the top and shichimi (optional)
Chawan Mushi
Ingredients:
3 eggs
3 cups dashi (1 tsp hondashi in 3 cups boiling water)
2 tsps shoyu
2 tsps mirin
prawns )
dried shitake mushrooms ) marinate in 2 tsps sake
ginko nuts )
japanese fishcake )
mistuba leaves (optional)
Method:
1. Beat eggs with fork or chopsticks. Do not beat too vigourously as you do not want to create bubbles in the final product. When dashi has cooled down, add to beaten eggs. Add shoyu and mirin to egg mixture.
2. Sift egg mixture through muslin cloth or if no cloth available then through a fine sift.
3. Add ginko nuts and fishcake at bottom of chawan mushi container. Then pour egg mixture in. Steam egg custard for about 8 mins till lightly cooked, then place prawns and shitake mushroom on top of this. Add the mitsuba leaves as well if available. Steam for another 8 - 10 mins and then it is done.
Note: The reason for placing the prawns on top of the custard is purely for decoration purposes or you can just put it at the bottom of the container and let it be a treasure hunt!
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Amarylis
These are pictures of my amarylis that I have been taking to show how quick they grow once the bud is out. Look at the shorter bud and see how fast it is shooting! This is the 3rd year that it has flowered and 1st time that I get 2 blooms!
Dated 19/01
22/01
23/01
24/01
27/01
Dated 19/01
22/01
23/01
24/01
27/01
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Chinese Peanut cookie
This is a back dated post. Made 2 kinds of cookies for CNY. This is peanut butter cookie. Easy to make using peanut butter rather than roasting the peanuts and grinding them. Recipe to follow soon.
Peanut Butter cookie
Peanut Cookies
Ingredients:
200g smooth peanut butter
50g chunky peanut butter (optional)
200g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
100g peanut oil or more/corn oil
Egg wash:
1 egg yolk lightly beaten with 1 tsp water
Method:
1. Mix flour, baking powder, both peanut butters, icing sugar and salt in a big mixing bowl till well combined.
2. Add in 100g peanut oil or more and mix till a piable dough is formed. (Do not pour in all the oil at once, as flours may absorb more or less oil)
3. Traditional method is to shape in balls and place on baking sheet. For me, I roll out the dough and use cutters.
5. Apply egg wash.
6. Bake on a lined tray at 165C for 20 minutes or till golden brown.
Kueh Bangkit - makes about 40 - 50 depending on size
Ingredients
200g tapioca flour
50 g butter, softened
100g icing sugar (sifted)
50ml coconut cream (more or less as necessary)
1 egg yolk
cut pandan leaves
Method:
1. Line a plate with kitchen towel, spread the tapioca flour evenly, add the cut pandan leaves and microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove, sift into a mixing bowl and cool and set aside. Preheat oven to 160 deg C.
2. Mix icing sugar with cooled tapioca flour, mix in softened butter and egg yolk. Grudually add in coconut cream until you get a soft, pliable dough. You may need more or less coconut cream than suggested (depending on the absorption of the flour)- Note too much coconut cream makes the cookie spread)
3. You could roll out the flour and cut with cookie cutters or use the traditional Kuih Bangkit moulds.
4. Bake for 20 mins or until dry but still light in colour. Cool and store in airtight container.
Peanut Butter cookie
Peanut Cookies
Ingredients:
200g smooth peanut butter
50g chunky peanut butter (optional)
200g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
100g peanut oil or more/corn oil
Egg wash:
1 egg yolk lightly beaten with 1 tsp water
Method:
1. Mix flour, baking powder, both peanut butters, icing sugar and salt in a big mixing bowl till well combined.
2. Add in 100g peanut oil or more and mix till a piable dough is formed. (Do not pour in all the oil at once, as flours may absorb more or less oil)
3. Traditional method is to shape in balls and place on baking sheet. For me, I roll out the dough and use cutters.
5. Apply egg wash.
6. Bake on a lined tray at 165C for 20 minutes or till golden brown.
Kueh Bangkit - makes about 40 - 50 depending on size
Ingredients
200g tapioca flour
50 g butter, softened
100g icing sugar (sifted)
50ml coconut cream (more or less as necessary)
1 egg yolk
cut pandan leaves
Method:
1. Line a plate with kitchen towel, spread the tapioca flour evenly, add the cut pandan leaves and microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove, sift into a mixing bowl and cool and set aside. Preheat oven to 160 deg C.
2. Mix icing sugar with cooled tapioca flour, mix in softened butter and egg yolk. Grudually add in coconut cream until you get a soft, pliable dough. You may need more or less coconut cream than suggested (depending on the absorption of the flour)- Note too much coconut cream makes the cookie spread)
3. You could roll out the flour and cut with cookie cutters or use the traditional Kuih Bangkit moulds.
4. Bake for 20 mins or until dry but still light in colour. Cool and store in airtight container.
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