Yu Sheng

Ingredients: (A)
100g shredded daikon (white radish)
100 g shredded mango
50 g shredded carrot
6 pickled onions (B)
10 g picked red colored shredded ginger (from Japanese grocery shop)
1 pomelo segment, loosely broken into smaller parts
300 smoked salmon
Sauce
50 gms chopped candied melon
100 ml  plum sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp veg oil
Garnish
2 sprigs coriander leaves
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp crushed roasted peanuts
½ tsp roasted white sesame seeds
10 pieces of wonton wrappers, cut into fine strips, deep fried to form golden crackers
2 tbsp lime juice
white pepper
¼ tsp five-spice powder

Method:
Shred daikon, mango and carrots and place on plate. Place all other (B) ingredients in centre of plate.

To serve, add garnish on top of middle ingredients and add sauce to top.

Enjoy your lo hei!

                                         Bought this from Amazon to get my shredded vegetables

Chocolate cake with coconut flour

My  youngr grandson is gluten intolerant but he loves chocolate cake, so I thought I would try baking a gluten free cake for him.

Verdict was good from everyone!

Ingredients

• 6 oz dairy-free bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• ½ cup virgin coconut oil
• 6 large eggs
•  1/4 cup xylitol*
• ⅓ cup well-stirred, full-fat coconut milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• ½ cup coconut flour
• ⅓ cup natural cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Grease a 9-inch square baking pan (or 9-inch round, or 11x7 rectangular pan) with coconut oil.
2. In a medium, heavy-bottom saucepan, melt the chocolate with the coconut oil over low heat, stirring until melted and smooth. Transfer to a large bowl and whisk in xylitol, coconut milk, vanilla and lemon juice until blended; let cool for 5 minutes and then whisk in the eggs until blended.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the chocolate mixture, whisking until well-blended and smooth. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs attached.

Note: Original recipe asked for 1/2 cup maple syrup but as this recipe is for myself on LCHF, I have changed it to xylitol.

Merry Christmas

Wishing my friends and readers here a Very Merry Christmas!

Black sesame seed paste icecream - eggless

 Ingredients:

2 cups cream - 1 used low fat

1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup black sesame seeds

Method:

1. Combine 1 cup of the cream, the sugar, and salt in a large bowl and whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved.

2. Stir in the remaining 1 cup  cream, the milk, and vanilla extract.

3. Grind the sesame seeds in a clean spice grinder for about 5 seconds until they turn into a coarse powder. Don’t grind for too long as the seeds will turn into a paste.

4. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and slowly pour in the ground black sesame. Churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer the ice cream to a freezersafe container and freeze for at least four hours or overnight.

Note: The ice cream will be rock hard, but remove it about 30 - 45 mins before you want to eat it, and it will soften enough to scoop.

For those without an ice cream maker, here's how:
If you don’t have an ice-cream maker, you can still make ice-cream. After you have made up your mixture, transfer it to a lidded plastic box (a shallow one enables the freezing to happen more quickly and also makes whisking easier as the beater can go down straight into the box) and put it in the coldest part of the freezer for two hours, or until the contents become firm at the edges. At this stage, empty out the box into a mixing bowl and whisk the ice cream with an electric hand whisk to break down the ice crystals. Return the box to the freezer and freeze for another two hours, then repeat the whisking process. Refreeze the ice-cream ( if making a sorbet that contains a generous quantity of alcohol, freeze overnight ) until 30-45 minutes before you want to serve it, at which time you should transfer it into the fridge to soften. Incidentally, it’s a good idea to arm yourself with a digital kitchen timer to remind you to remove the ice cream and whip it at various stages

"Naked" Nonya dumplings aka pie dumpling

This is just a post to show what you can do with left over glutinous rice or when you don't have the leaves to wrap your dumplings with. Whatever the reason, you can still have your "zhang" and eat it,

Ingredients - can be found in my dumpling recipe here http://peranakanandmore.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/nonya-dumplings-aka-nonya-bak-chang.html

Put glutinous rice in a microwaveable bowl and add water just to the top of the rice. Microwave on high for 5 mins and then take out and stir. If the rice is not fully cooked, add a little bit more water and cook for another 3 - 5 minutes.

Remove and add salt and pepper.

Line the container with cling film and add cut pandan leaves and then add a layer of rice

Add the filling

Finally, add the last layer of rice

Cut and eat!

Salted egg white chocolate chip cookies

What do you do with the extra salted egg whites after using the yolks to make my liu sha baos? Shame to throw them away, so googled to see if there I anything I could make with them.

Found this recipe, although it used normal cooked egg whites, so I thought I would make the cookies but using salted egg whites instead.

They actually turned out ok and you don't really taste the saltiness. Only thing is that you will see that my cookies are a bit smashed up. I rolled them into balls and then like other cookies, I thought they would expand out, but they didn't and when I tried one, it was a little soft in the centre. So, while they were still hot from the oven, took a fork and pushed them down, hence the ugly appearance!

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold (113 gms)

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt (No need as using salted egg whites)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

whites from 1 1/2 hard-boiled eggs, broken into small pieces ( I just chopped them up)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons whole milk

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F, 170 deg C

Using an electric mixer, beat butter on high speed until you have a bowl full of little butter crumbles.

Mix in flour until completely combined with the butter. 

Mix in  rest of the ingredients.

Mix in the vanilla extract and milk.

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Roll dough into small balls (or big ones if you like bigger cookies) and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat. Remember to squash them down as they will not expand. This way, you get nice crispy cookies.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly browned.

Liu Sha Bao aka salted egg custard bun

Ever since I had this in Singapore 2 years ago, I have been wanting to make this. So bought my salted eggs from the Chinese supermarket and here goes....

Trolled the internet for recipes and for the custard, it all seems the same, except for the buns. There were 2 recipes that caught my eye end decided to make both just to see what the difference was.

So here is my experiment and the results.

Ingredients

80g salted egg yolk (6 yolks)
110g caster sugar (I used icing sugar)
55g custard powder
55g full cream milk powder (I used 50 gm coconut paste)

60g coconut milk

20g corn starch (1 tablespoon)

110g butter, room temperature

Note: While getting all my ingredient ready to make the custard, I realised that I had run out of milk powder. How, how? While out shopping, I saw a new product (to me, that is). It said coconut powder (satchets of 50gms each). So I bought a packet to try and was I lucky to have it on hand. 

Basic Chinese steam bun doug

Method
1. Some recipes call for steaming the salted eggs, but I just cooked them like you do for hard boiled eggs. Left the eggs in hot water for 10 mins.

2. Let the eggs cool and then separate the yolks from the whites and mash the yolks.
3. Next, In a mixing bowl, cream the butter slightly and mix in the rest of the ingredients.
Refrigerate the mixture until firm. Portion into balls and freeze till solid. 

Steam on high heat for 10 mins.

Recipe 1 - adapted from http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/char-siu-bao-using-water-roux.html

Water Roux

Using water roux makes a difference to the texture of the bao.

Ingredients

25 gms flour

125 ml water

Method:

Whisk the water and flour together, sieve and gently cook (stirring all the time) till thicken like pouring custard. Cover and leave to cool.

Dough
0.75 tsp quick (instant) yeast
75 - 100ml water

1 portion of water roux as above
300g plain flour, all purpose or HK flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
15g cooking oil or melted lard
50 - 60g sugar
0.5 tsp salt

extra flour for dusting

Method:

1. Mix the yeast with water and leave aside for about 10 - 15 minutes while the roux is cooling.
2. Mix the water roux with yeast liquid, sugar, salt and oil.
3. Sieve the flour and baking powder together.
4. Either using a bread machine or mix by hand, mix the liquid with the dry ingredients together till combined. Add the last few tbsp of the liquid bit by bit, stop when a soft but not sticky dough is formed. Do not knead. Leave for 10 - 15 minutes. Then give it a quick knead till the dough is smooth, do not over knead. If the dough is very sticky add a bit more extra flour.
   
5. Cover and leave to rise for about 1.5 - 2 hours at room temperature till dough is about 1.5 in size.

Recipe 2  - adapted from http://foodmanna.blogspot.sg/2012/08/basic-chinese-steam-buns.html#more

Ingredients
Dough starter

300g hong kong flour

1 packet instant yeast = 2¼ teaspoons

2½ tablespoon sugar

125 mL full cream milk

1 portion of water roux

Method:

Add flour, yeast, sugar and water roux into a mixing bowl and pour the milk. Roughly incorporate water roux into the flour and set aside covered with damp tea towel for 15 mins to let the flour absorb the water.

Mix the flour mixture to a dough, add more milk or flour if required. The dough will be a bit sticky at first, knead until it's soft and smooth. It takes approximately 20-25 minutes depend on how you knead it. Coat a mixing bowl with oil. Place dough in a mixing bowl, cover the bowl with wet cloth or cling wrap and let the dough rest for 45 minutes or until it double in size.

When dough is double in size about 45 minutes, punch air out and knead into a ball. To maximize the flavor. Proof a second time round in the fridge left overnight.

Ingredients for bao

Dough starter (recipe above)

80g Hong Kong flour or plain flour

40g corn starch

3 tablespoon lard (I used butter)

½ teaspoon ammonium bicarbonate (I omitted as I did not have)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon white vinegar

Method

1. Add all the ingredients to the dough starter. Knead well for 10 mins to form dough. 
2. When the dough is ready, divide into 10 portions. Meanwhile, set water to boil in a steamer.
3. You can either flatten the dough pieces with your hands or roll out the dough and use a cutter to cut rounds , and place a frozen custard filling ball in the center. Pinch up the sides of the dough to completely enclose the filling.
4. Place each bao on each paper cup liner or a small piece of baking paper with its seam sides down. Rest the bao in warm mist for 10-15 mins.
5. Steam baos for about 8-15 mins until done. The steam timing varies if you have multiple layers of baos to steam. The layer that is closest to the direct steam will take 8 mins to cook.

Notes:
Beware! Please DO NOT over-steam!!! Otherwise, the custard filling will explode out of the bao.

Serve immediately but beware that the molten filling is steaming hot!

You can keep any unused filling in the freezer and use them anytime when you make any bao dough.

**Both recipes worked well for making the liu sha bao but recipe one was a bit soft. I had left over dough and made char siu baos and for that, recipe 1 did not work as it was soft and I could not get the pleats. Recipe 2 is a longer and more time consuming recipe but works well if you want to make char siu baos.

Liu sha baos before steaming

Liu Sha Baos cut with 2 doughs 

Char Siu baos with 2 doughs. The dough at 1 o'clock is mishappen as it was too soft to pleat

Cross section of char siu bao. Nice and fluffy