Shark's Fin Soup

First of all, I wish all the mothers out there a Happy Mother's Day - hope you all had a wonderful time today :)

Cooking this soup since there's dried shark's fin and dried shitake mushroom been lying in the drawer since Chinese New Year time hehe...

What you need:

30g shark's fin - soaked in warm water

15pcs dried shitake mushroom - soaked in warm water til soften and cut thinly

200g pork loin - cut small

200g chicken breast - cut small

1 onion - julienned

5 cloves of garlic - crushed

1 medium china wongbok - discard the leaves, cut small

6 breakfast ham, cut thinly

a pot of water, oil, salt, pepper, light soya sauce, sugar, chicken stock powder, a few dashes of chinese cooking wine, cornflour mixed with a little water

On a medium fire, bring a pot of water to boil

Heat oil in a pan, stir fry garlic and onion til fragrant - pour in the pot with boiled water

Add in pork and chicken, stir and cook for a few minutes

Add in shark's fin and mushroom, stir well and cook for a few more minutes

Add in salt, pepper, light soya sauce, a little sugar, a little chicken stock powder, cooking wine - adjust the taste

When it's about to boil, add in cut wongbok - stir well, bring to boil

Pour cornflour mixture - stir well til thicken

Adjust the taste again, bring to boil

Off heat

Sprinkle cut ham on the soup before eating

I'm not sure whether it's the original recipe - got the recipe from my mum, but the whole family enjoyed this soup so much - it's good enough :)

Chocolate Pudding With Mocha Sauce

This dessert is seriously yummy - especially if you love chocolate :)
Abby enjoyed this pudding to the max and Ian who usually don't fancy sweet stuff - he asked for more after a bowl, but no sauce please :P
Mummy - busy holding on to the great detemination of not muching this again and again in order to see blink blink on the weighing scale *grin*
Daddy - with extraordinarily high digestion system, happily eating this more and more and still not putting on weight, not even a gram! *envy*

Adapted the recipe from Dida's site (translation below), a little modification here and there, also the amount of water used cos in Singapore, the amount of agar agar in 1 packet is slightly more = 12g

What you need:

For the pudding:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 packets white agar agar powder
120g dark cooking chocolate - cut small
50g cocoa powder
2 egg yolks
1600 ml water
1 tsp chocolate emulco
4 tbsps caster sugar
1 small pinch of salt

For the sauce:
500ml fresh milk
50g sugar
50g milk cooking chocolate - cut small
1 tbsp mocha paste
1 tbsp instant coffee
1 tbsp (heaped) cornflour - mix with a little milk
1 egg yolk
1 small pinch of salt

To make the pudding:
Mix cocoa powder with 10 tbsps of water (taken from the required amount of water) - mix well and strain
In a medium pot on medium heat, cook the remaining water, condensed milk, agar agar powder, chocolate chunks, sugar, cocoa mixture, salt - stir continuously with whisk
In a small bowl, ligtly beaten egg yolks, add in 3 tbsps of pudding mixture - mix well
Add in egg mixture into the remaining of pudding mixture - do it bit by bit gradually while whisking continuously
Add in mocha paste, whisk fast
Bring to boil, pour into mould - let cool and set in the fridge

To make the sauce:
In a medium pot on low heat, cook milk, sugar, coffee powder, mocha paste, chocolate chunks and salt - whisk til mixed well
In a small bowl, mix egg yolk and cornflour mixture, add 1 tbsp of sauce mixture - mix well
Cook and stir continuously til boiling - let cool

Pour the sauce over cut pudding
You may add some fruit cocktails (like what Abby prefers :P)

I'm submitting this pudding to Aspiring Bakers #7 – Chocolate Delight (May 2011) hosted by DG from Tested & Tasted at this LINK

More Of Homemade Pizza - Jamie Oliver Recipe

Adapted from The Batter Baker, another excellent pizza dough recipe from Jamie Oliver, my all time favorite chef

What you need:
(12" thin pizza dough)

130ml lukewarm water

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp instant yeast

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

200g bread flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

Sprinkle sugar and yeast over water. Set aside for about 10 min till frothy

Pour yeast mixture and oil into flour and salt

Knead dough till smooth and springy

Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl. Proof for about 30 min till double in size

Knock back dough and roll out to a 12" circle

Place on a greased and floured baking pan

Pile on your favourite toppings, and bake at 220degC for 15-20 min till the crust is brown and the cheese is bubbly

As boring as we can be, the old same topping still made us enjoyed the pizza so much! :)
Prego pasta sauce parmesan roasted garlic, ham, button mushroom, pineapple chunks, grated cheddar cheese and grated mozarella cheese :P

Okay, probably it's time to think of another topping! :)

Chocolate Chips Chocolate Bread

Remember my chocolate loaf I made the other day?
This time I followed exactly like the original recipe - with different filling
Hers used peanut butter chocolate chips, mine used semi sweet chocolate chips
And for variety, I made another shape and used cheese filling :)
Soft and fluffy bread!
             

With chocolate chips filling

With cheese filling:



For the ingredients needed and how to make by bread maker, please view here

For manual way and step b step instructions on shaping with chocolate chips filling, please view here

For the cheese filling, I mixed 2 clench of grated cheddar cheese with 3 tsps of sugar and 3 tsps of milk powder

Shape exactly like the one with chocolate chips filling - after rolling, cut into 3 and place on the mould

I'm submitting this bread to Aspiring Bakers #7 – Chocolate Delight (May 2011) hosted by DG from Tested & Tasted at this LINK

Cheese Puff

This puff is so good you can't stop at one...and still can't stop at ten *grin*
So cheesy, so yummy!

Original recipe is from Vivi's site with a little modification to suit my family's taste

What you need:

250ml water

100g unsalted butter

a pinch of salt

150g plain flour

3 large eggs

100g grated parmesan cheese

a pinch of ground black pepper

For topping:

beaten 1 egg

grated cheddar cheese

Heat water, butter and salt on low fire til butter hot and melts 

Add in flour while stirring continuously til forms dough that's not sticky

Off heat, set aside til warm - around 5 minutes

Transfer to mixing bowl - add in eggs and pepper

Beat in high speed til smooth and thick

Lower the speed, add in cheese - around 1 minute

Transfer dough into piping bag, choose medium size star or flower tip, and arrange on cookies pan with parchment paper

Brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle grated cheddar cheese

Bake in preheat oven of 210degC for 15minutes

Once you pop, you can not stop!

Homemade Pizza - Another Recipe

Adapted from my breadmaker recipe book, quite good but I still prefer my first recipe
This one is a little less fluffy even though it's still soft

After bite:

What you need:
(3 pizza base of 10")

250ml water
1 tbsp olive oil
450g bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried instant yeast

Put the above ingredients in the above order except yeast in the breadmaker pan
Make a well in the centre but not down as far as the liquid and add yeast
Insert the breadpan in the breadmaker and lock, select pizza dough programme from the menu
Press start. Lightly oil a pizza pan or baking sheet
At the end of the cycle (1hour 30minutes) turn the dough out onto a lightly floured  surface
Gently knock back the dough. Roll out into a 10" round and place in the prepared pan or on the baking sheet
Preheat oven to 220degC
Spread the tomato base over the pizza base (I used Prego pasta sauce - roasted parmesan garlic)
Sprinkle the rest of the ingredients ( I use ham slices, button mushroom slices, diced pineapple slices and grated mozzarella cheese)
Bake for 15minutes or til golden and serve immediately

Green Banana Roll Ice Dessert (Es Pisang Ijo)

This is a famous dessert originally from Makassar - South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Nice and refreshing - nowhere to be found in Singapore though
Only can use king banana (pisang raja), the kind of banana which not easy to find in Singapore - again luck is on my side, managed to find it and it's a good quality one :)

Saw the recipe at Ricke's site and decided to give this a try
Easy to make the dough, but I really need further practice in shaping them
The end result is not so smooth and cracked a little here and there and I think the green color could be lighter :)
However, the taste is wonderful - especially with the hot humid Singapore weather lately

If you view Ricke's lovely picture, you can see how smooth her green dough is - really need to practise to rolling and shaping them :)

Nice to eat with crushed ice and special syrup - we Indonesian call it "campolay syrup" - originally from Cirebon - West Java, Indonesia

Managed to google the picture - I have a bottle in the fridge but too lazy to take picture of it :P

What you need:

For the dough:

5 ripe king bananas - steamed and peeled

125g plain flour

300ml coconut milk (I used 200ml Kara + 100ml water)

1/2 tsp lime stone paste / slaked lime water (details HERE (in Indonesian = air kapur sirih -> can omit)
1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsps sugar

1 tsp pandan paste

2 drops green food coloring (optional - I added and I found its a little too dark green)

1 tbsp butter

clingwrap

For the coconut sauce:

400ml thick coconut milk

1 pandan leaves - torn

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp vanillin powder

2 tbsps sugar

3 tbsps corn flour - mix with 4 tbsps water

Mix  coconut milk, lime stone paste, salt, sugar, pandan paste, green coloring - stir til well incorporated

Put sieved flour in a pot

Pour the coconut milk mixture slowly while stirring continuously til smooth

Cook on low fire - always stir

Add in butter, stir til butter melted and well mixed with the dough

Keep on stirring til the dough is smooth and is not sticky

Off heat

Brush clingwrap with a little oil

Add on 3 tbsps dough, flatten

Add 1 banana on it, roll tight with the clingwrap as you do on swissroll

Shape like a banana - wrap tight

Arrange on a steamer and steam fo 20 minutes on medium heat

After cooked, open up the clingwrap, let cool

For the sauce:

Mix all ingredients except cornflour mixture, bring to boil

Add in cornflour, stirring continuously til thicken

How to eat:

Arrange cut green banana with the sauce and crushed ice (as shown in the picture)

Mix and pour syrup over it

Eat immediately