Saba (Mackerel) Bento

I made this for my hubby. He jogs and usually eats a lot after that so I wanted to prepare a great meal for him. I bought this "fatty" saba from Giant supermarket and he likes the fragrance of the yellowish, thick fat. Saba fish is a kind of fish that you either love it or hate it. My family has the extremes. Though I hate the smell of the fish, I still want to cook it for love sake. I wore plastic gloves when I handled the fish to avoid havng the fishy smell staying on my hands for days.

Fried Rice
Fry rice with lots of garlic, mushroom and spring union. Season with 1 tsp soy sauce and salt and dash of butter if you like.

Greens
Any type of vegetables, just clean and pan fry with garlic and season with salt.

Egg Omelet
Beat egg and season with salt and pepper. Pour onto non-stick pan and keep stirring it to give volume in texture. Then fold into semi circle. It only takes 3 - 5 mins to cook both side, don't over cooked it. For the stuffing, it varies to your own liking like dice tomato, mushroom, union, ham or even cheese.

Fried Saba Fish
It is quite easy to prepare. Wash and season the fish with pepper and salt. Fry it with a dash of oil on the non-stick frying pan. Let it sizzle for about 3 mins and you will see lots of oil coming from the fish and its skin will turn into nice, golden brown colour.

Sauce

I choose to use wasabi which helps bring the strong fishy smell down. 2 tsp of soy sauce, 1/4 tsp sugar, 1 tsp of vinegar or lemon juice, black pepper, sesame oil and 1 tbsp water. Mix well and pour it onto the frying pan and let it sizzle. Sprinkle some cooking wine before it is done.

Butter Fruit Cake

Butter Fruit Cake





This cake carries a strong buttery, orange aroma and the citric from the dry fruits. It is not as "solid" as you may think, but the soft texture will suprise you. You must try this if you like fruit cake. According to the book, the taste and texture is better if you keep it for 2-3 days. An instance success! Thanks to the book. Have you bought it? (You could refer to my blog dated 14 Apr.)

Posting their recipe will invade their copyright I think, so I'll hold back before I find out how I can do so. For those who know my e-mail, pls write to me.

I'm looking forward to try more of its recipe because I'll have a heavy duty mixer to ease my work from next week. Just bought one from FHA at a 30% discount. It's worthwhile in view of my usuage - no more egg white whipping excerise ;>

Fried Udon

One of my favourite weekend express meals: Fried Udon with plenty of shredded mixed vegetables of your choice. Certainly this simple and delicious noodles match well with pork or chicken.

Ingredient (serve 1 person):

Udon 1 packet
Chicken stock powder(1/2 tea spoon)
shredded mixed vegetables
Garlic (2 pcs, finely chopped or pressed)
Slice Pork/ Chicken 1 portion est. 70gm (marinated with soya sauce, sugar, corn starch, pepper, sesame oil)
Dark soya sauce 1 table spoon
Light soya sauce 1 table spoon
Thick Dark soya sauce 2 table spoon
water 1/4 cup

Fry udon in a pan or wok with some oil. Then put in the water and chicken stock powder on medium fire. Thrown in Pork/chicken together with garlic. Stir till it almost dries up. Then go the thick soya sauce and dark soy sauce, keep stirring it cox soy sauce is easy to burn the wok. Vegetables should not be overcooked so it'll remain crispy. So only add it when the meat is cooked. Finally, the magic touch... turn to high fire, and let the wok heat up and then sizzle the noodle with cooking wine (beware of the fire hazard if you use frying pan). That's done!

P.S: I like spicy food, so I sprinkle lots of black pepper and Tabasco!
Also if you find the savoury taste is overwhelming, you may sprinkle some sugar
before the final touch! Yum Yum!

My very own Birthday Cake

I'm 1 year older this week - an excuse to practise my skill of making birthday cake and I chose to make a Strawberry Shortcake coz I only had strawberry and fresh cream at home. It was not a fancy cake. However to make a fresh and delicious cake is really not easy.

I also bought a slice of Strawberry Shortcake from Bakerzin to pamper myself. Without trying other great bakers' cakes, you'll never know how to rate yourself. So I spent S$14 on a slice of Strawberry Shortcake and a Dark chocolate mousse cake. I don't usually indulge myself with this kind of pricey dessert - a bowl of red bean soup or sweet potato soup will do just fine.

My verdict... Bakerzin will score 8 out of 10 point* and I fully understand why they can charge a pc of tiny cake @ S$6.5 and my cake will be around 3-4 point :<

1st, my cake looked OK if you're not particular. Steady hand and turning table are required when u make fresh cream cake but I don't have any of those. Knowing my deficiency, I chose not to do a smooth surface for the cake. 2nd, the cake base is rough. I should have used chiffon cake base instead of sponge cake base. 3rd about the cream - I bought those whipping cream which can't be over whipped. It tasted a bit unnatural compared to UHT whipping cream. The cook book called for a 70% whipped cream which became very hard to handle.

Anyway, I'll post some of the photo and let you judge. I'll not give up but will try again!!! Jia Yu!

*This scoring is really subjective. Like I said I don't really try out many baker's creation like those in 5 stars hotel. I may not know what is better out there.

P.S. If your want to have a higher chance of success, Mango mousse cake will be a better choice because the cake mould helps a lot!

Dumplings

I usually make dumplings in bulk and keep them in the freezer and they are always ready for a quick lunch or supper. It is healthy because I used Jiu Chai, pork (belly), egg yolk, prawn (diced and minced) and dry mushroom as the filling. Just marinate everything with salt, sugar, sesame oil, corn starch. Lastly add an egg yolk and mixed them well. Remember to keep the egg white as "glue" to close up the dumpling skin. Although the wrapping part may take some time, I guarantee it is worth all the hard work. Simply boil or pan fry them like Gao Tia. My girls can eat a few at one time with white noodle.





Let me know if anyone interested in the recipe. I don't have the exact measurement at this moment. I'll keep records the next time I make it.

The book that can improve your baking skills

2 weeks ago I bought a cook book titled OKASHI DAIHYAKKAI I (CAKE ENCYCLOPEDIA), translated and printed by a Taiwanese publisher. It was originally published in Japan in 1998 by Japan Broadcast Publishing Co., Ltd. It has lots of detailed and systematic explanations of how to make cakes.

I was initially hesitant over buying this book as because of the Taiwanese translation. Some terms used in Taiwan are different from that in Hong Kong. I decided to buy the book at the end, knowing that it would help me improve my baking skill as the book captures a lot of essential and yet easy-to-follow steps.

Sharing my agony of cake making is the best way to convince how this book helps me. Remember I had hard time whisking the egg white to stiff perks? The book teaches you through photos of how to hold the whisk and how the egg white turns into different texture over each stage.

When I was making the mango mousse cake, I tried to follow all the steps mentioned in the book. I overlooked one minor step (or I thought it was a minor step that I chose not to follow) i.e. to brush sugar syrup (with a dash of liquor) onto the sponge layer cake. The moment I ate the mango mousse cake, I knew that next time I must follow the book diligently, because the cake was obviously too dry and you could feel that it was not blending well with the moist and the refreshing mango mousse. I believed the sweetness and the fragrance of the liquor will also helps blend well with all types of cake fillings. Seldom do I find so many great hints and tips written in such details in other cook books.

So for those who really wants to save some money spent on attending expensive baking classes, self learning with this book would be a great alternative.

Chicken Roll & Stew Soft Boil Egg (Japanese Style)

This chicken roll recipe was inspired by Gordon Ramsay from the F Word show. Though he portraits an image of a bad-temper chef in his reality cooking show, his cooking skill is really professional. This dish is good for parties and you can prepare them in advance. It is easy and quick to make and the result is an impressive superb gourmet.


I use big deboned chicken drum sticks and marinate them with garlic, salt, sugar, ginger juice and sesame oil. Mash or dice a potato, onion and smoked bacon for the stuffing. You can vary the stuffing to your own liking, eg. celery, green pepper. Then fry with black pepper, salt and sugar, mixed well with mashed potato, then stuff them into the drum stick. The most important part is to wrap it tightly with microwavable cling wrap followed by aluminum foil. Steam or poach for 15 - 20 min. Cool and chill for 3 - 4 hours. This process will give you a nice and firm sausage like chicken roll with stuffing. Remove the wrap and fry the drum sticks in a pan for a few mins and put them into a oven or toaster to grill for 15 - 20 mins. The skin will turn golden and crispy. The filling is so tasty and yummy.





I like the Ramen at Sakae Sushi Restaurant. Next time you try it, pay attention to the stewed egg. I am so impressed and amazed by how the Japanese turn the egg into an unforgetable snack. After some thoughts, I try to make something close.

To prepare soft boiled eggs:
Put eggs in a pot of cold water and start boiling. Switch off the fire immediately after it reaches the boiling point. Leave the eggs in the hot water for 2 mins. Then plunge them into cold water and remove the shell. The key word here is SOFT. Don't fully cook (or worse over cook) the eggs.

Next, prepare the stew sauce. I must admit I cooked based on estimation as I didn't really measure how much water and what exactly I've put in. Most importantly, taste your marinate sauce and make sure it tastes right. The easy way is to buy a bottle of stew sauce - Lee Kum Kee Chinese Marinade - and add some spices to your liking.

Below are some of the spices that I've put in:
Water est. 1 ltr, dark soya sauce (thick type), rock sugar, Cao Guo (Tsaoko), Star Anise, Cinnamon, Pepper corn, Black pepper corn, Gan Cao (Licorice Root), Hua Jiao and Sha Jiang and salt. Boil for 15 mins. Let it cool and set aside.

Put the soft boiled eggs into the cool solution and soak them over night in fridge. To keep the eggs soft, don't boil the eggs again, before your meal. Simply cut them into halves and put them on top of the steaming instant noodle. Or you could reboil the stew sauce, without the eggs in it. And simply pour the hot soup/stew sauce on the eggs to make them warm.

Mango Mousse Cake

Happy Birthday Christine!!!

We are in the mango season these two weeks in Singapore and my good friend, Christine, likes mango too. So I picked Honey Mango to try on Florence's mango mousse cake. I had lots of fun making this cake and a unbelievable sense of achievement. It was a instant success. Thanks to Florence.

However, it was really not a smooth sailing journey. Hear what I say below but do not be despaired. It is an important journey to go through. See the photos you'll agree that it is worth all the hard work.

First of all, I tried baking the orange chiffon cake 2 days in advance - that was a Tues. Texture is good but I missed out 1/2 of the sugar content. So it tasted a bit bland. Also I had hard time whisking the egg white to stiff perks. I thought something was wrong with my mixer. Somehow it cooked the egg white while whisking it. So I switch to manual mode (good work out for my arms for about 45mins). I knew something was wrong after almost an hour. So I poured the egg white in the drain and started again by using hand whisk only. Before I re-started, I studied a book which I bought last week. It gave me detailed steps with photos illustration! (I'll share the book title so that green horn like me can have a better understanding of all kinds of cake making process in detail.) Instantly, I can hand whisk the egg white to stiff perks within 15min.




Secondly, on Wed, I needed to bake a vanilla chiffon cake as cake base and needed to make the mango mousse. I was over-confident and didn't have enough mango puree to make mango mousse to fill up the whole cake. So I need to rush to the bakery supply shop again(time is ticking, stress...). Fortunately, I managed to get what I needed to fill up the cake in order to decorate the cake on the day (Thur).

The final product is quite pleasing and satisfactory. I'm surprised that I can make a cake as good looking as from a commercial/professional bakery shop. My skill needs to be refined in many areas, for example, how to add in more fillings to enhance the flavour and how to prepare a cake neatly in the kitchen (it was a big mass), also my word piping skill needs to be improved.

Honey Lemon Aloe Vera

My friend once told me Singapore has 3 seasons: Hot, hotter and hottest. So I guess now is in the hottest season. Typical tropical weather: very sunny and warm in the morning, cloudy, humid in the afternoon, then followed by thunder storm and heavy rain.

So really needs something light and refreshing to keep you cool! Also my girls are down with flu now. Honey lemon drink with aloe vera would be great to soothe their sore throats.

Aloe Vera is rich in vitamin E. Lemon is refreshing, and honey is soothing. They're the best mix. It is easy to do. It only takes half an hour to get it done. My eldest girl took 2 glasses the moment it was done...

Ingredient:

600 gm Aloe Vera
2 Ltr Water
Rock Sugar (2 pcs medium size)
Honey 3 - 4 table spoon
Lemon (2 - 3 slices)

Clean and dice Aloe Vera (see photo). You may need to change water a few time in order to get rid of the slime. Drain and set aside.
Boil water in the pot with rock sugar. When rock sugar dissolved, plunge in aloe vera. Switch off the fire when it reaches boiling point.

Squeeze lemon juice and rind till you can see the zest spraying out. Best do it while the solution still hot and let it infused in the solution. Add honey but remember hot water will dissolve some of the nutrients in honey, so only add in when it becomes warm.

Variation:

You may add in lemon grass if you fancy the unique flavour when boiling the water, remove them before adding aloe Vera. However, I'll omit honey in this case, cox it overwhelms the lemon grass flavour.


P.S.

Oh, don't throw away the aloe vera skin. Keep them for your facial or rub on the hair. It helps nourish your hair. My helper has black and healthy hair. She says she has been doing this since young. One more magic with aloe vera: when my girls hurt their lips and swell badly, I use the aloe vera skin to rub gently on the wound and it soothes the lips. The red and full lips will soon return to normal. Thanks to the rich vitamin E.

Mango Pudding

I like to make mango pudding during weekends so that my girls will get to enjoy this special treats if they're behaving well. Chinese believe mango is a kind of "heaty" fruit though, but this is really tempting in a hot sunny day.


Ingredients:

Mango 1pc (Dice)
Mango Flavor jelly (1 box)
Gelatin 2 tbs
Mango Puree (2 Tbsp, I used Phoon Huat's unsweetened mango puree)
Fresh Milk (3/4 cup)
Water (225ml, I usually use a water mug to measure)
Egg Yolk (2 Pcs)
Sugar (Optional, also depending on the mango sweetness)


Method:

Dissolved Mango jelly and gelatin with 225ml hot water in a pot*, beat egg yolk in large mixing bowl. Pour the dissolved mango jelly into the egg yolk, whisk repeatedly to prevent egg yolk curdles (sift it if there’s egg white or egg yolk curdles). Add fresh milk and mango puree, lastly diced mango. Pour the finishing into a big plastic mould or a smaller jelly cups. Chill for 3 hours before serving. You may serve it with fresh cream.

*Try out your mango to see if it is sweet or sour, then add sugar at this point if the mango is sour or you prefer a sweeter pudding.

My Favorite "Carrot Cake" (Radish Cake / Law Pak Ko)

Carrot Cake (Radish Cake)


Pan Fry Carrot Cake


Yam Cake


Pumpkin Cake



The radish in the supermarket looked good. So I decided to buy some and made my favorite "Law Pak Ko". I have not made it since end Jan '08.

I missed this famous CNY speciality since I moved to Singapore and all these years I could only eat it when I went back to visit my parents. Or when my friends' mum cook it then I get to eat. The change happened sometime in 2004 when I was pregnant and I had craving for some quality Law Pak Ko and only discovered that not many Law Pak Ko out there in the market met my expectation. I only like the one made by my mum and those in Crystal Jade. I called my mum and asked for recipe and started doing it since.

My hubby will rave to it whenever he sees it and eats it whether hot or cold, he doesn't have the patience to pan fry it. I also tried to vary the version to pumpkin and yam cakes.

Because I make this very often, hence I've invested on a food processor to ease the chopping and shredding process. This helps me cut down lots of preparation time. Don't be afraid if you don't have one. You just need to exercise your arm and do some shredding of radish. Watch out for your fingers when u do it.

Well, gauging the water quantity is the most difficult part during my trials. Radish's quality varies a lot. Some are very juicy while some are rather dry. The end result doesn't turn out quite the same each time. Then I studied some cook book and learnt that one must use measuring cup to limit water portion from 3 - 5 cups. Based on your own liking, you could put more water if you prefer it to be soft and eat steamed. It is very difficult to slice and pan fry it if it is too soft. If you understand what I'm talking about, you must have tried making it before. Let me know if you are interested to know the recipe. Presently, I make it based on estimation ("agaration").. Ha ha, need to crack my head to pen down the exact ingredient and process.