Siew Mai

I always love siew mai, a must dish I gotta eat everytime I go for dimsum
The recipe is from my late grandmother whom was a real avid cook
She always made the sauce too which tasted fabulous :)

What you need:

wanton wrappers
mould for Indonesian style steamed cupcake (optional)
canola oil
egg white from 1 egg

Filling:
500g minced chicken
250g minced prawns
2/3 large China wongbok - used only the stem, sliced thinly, mixed with 1 tsp salt, squeezing them by hands til soft
2 tbsp chopped fried garlic
salt, pepper, sugar
4 eggs
400ml water
8 heaped tbsp plain flour

Mix all ingredients above, the batter should be soft and not thick, but not too runny either
If it's still too thick, adding of egg / water is fine
Adjust the taste

To assemble, I'm using mould for Indonesian style steamed cupcake to maintain the consistency of the shape and size
I googled for the picture and here's what I got, it's something like this but mine is square...

I oiled the inner part of the mould, lay wanton wrapper inside, brush with egg white and spoon in the filling
Put a little of grated carrots on top and steam for around 30 minutes or til cooked
Remove from mould

For the sauce:

3 large red chillis, remove seeds and cut
5 tomatoes, cut
salt, sugar
tomato ketchup
potato starch / sago flour / corn flour mixed with a little water as thickener

1. Boil a small pot of water with cut chillis and tomatoes
2. After boiled, off heat and let it warm
3. Transfer to a blender and blend til smooth
4. Strain, add salt, sugar, and tomato ketchup
5. Adjust the taste, and mix with thickener as desired

I'm submitting this post to  Aspiring Bakers #19 Dim Sum Affair (May 2012) hosted by Small Small Baker

Bake Along #25 - Anniversary Chocolate Coffee Kahlua Layered Cake (Barefoot Contessa)

Wow! How time flies! Bake Along is 1!

It has been a joyous experience to be able to take part in this event
Thank you to the hosts, Joyce, Lena and Zoe for the wonderful idea and the continuous effort and making superb recipe choices :)
Great experience to meet many new friends sharing the same passion, learning together doing what we love... Isn't it just wonderful?
It is so coincident that today, 29 May, is my 8th wedding anniversary :)

So, for these two wonderful events, I baked this chocolate coffee cake from Ina Garten which has made me salivating when I saw Zoe and Kit baked this cake
Agree with them, this cake is superb!
Moist, fine texture, chocolatey, the sweetness is just right, the coffee fragrant is a plus point and I added with a hint of kahlua, it's a pleasant bonus :)
I used Valrhona cocoa which makes the chocolate cake tastes so much better :)
Another pleasant surprise is the buttercream
It's so smooth, creamy and yummy! Really a keeper!
And another plus point - which is my favorite, it's relatively easy to make!

What you need:

For the cake:

210g plain flour
400g caster sugar
3 eggs
85g Valrhona cocoa
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
250ml buttermilk
125ml vegetable oil (I used canola)
1 cup hot coffee (I used 3 tsp Nescafe instant coffee powder mixed with 250ml hot water)
1 tbsp kahlua

1. Preheat oven to 180degC
2. Grease 2 x 20cm round pans, line with parchment paper and butter + flour the pans
3. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in one bowl
4. Mix buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla in another bowl
5. With mixer on low speed, add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients
6. Still on low speed, add in coffee and kahlua, stir just to combine, scrap the bottom occasionally
7. Pour batter into pans, bake for approximately 45 minutes, til skewer comes out clean
8. Cool in pans for 30 minutes, turn onto cooling rack, cool completely
9. Place 1 layer, flat on top, spread frosting on top, place second layer on top, rounded side up, spread frosting all over cake as desired

For the frosting:

(I made 1/2 of the recipe below and it's sufficient)
170g chopped dark chocolate (70%)
226g unsalted butter, room temperature
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp instant coffee powder, dissolve in 2 tsp hot water
1 tsp kahlua

1. Melt chocolate over a pan of simmering water, stir til just melted, let cool completely
2. Beat butter on medium high speed til yellow and fluffy - approximately 3 minutes
3. Add in egg yolk and vanilla, continue beating for another 3 minutes
4. Turn mixer to low speed, gradually add icing sugar, beat in medium speed, scraping down the bowl if needed, til smooth and creamy
5. In low speed, add chocolate and coffee, as well as kahlua to the butter mixture, mix til blended
6. Spread immediately on cooled cake

I'm linking this to Cook Like A Star blog hop event, hosted by Zoe, featuring Barefoot Contessa as the celebrity chef for the month of May

Happy anniversary to Bake Along, also to me and my dear hubby XOXO

Below is more layered cake from other Bake Along friends....

Gluten Free Cassava Fudgy Brownies

Good knowing for once I can make gluten free bake
I read many times, gluten takes the longest time to digest, it can be as long as 3 days!
This brownies used modified cassava flour I got from Indonesia
It has perfect texture, fudgy, a little gooey, with flaky crust on top... my kind of brownies
Taste wise, nobody will know it's gluten free.
The usage of Valrhona cocoa made this brownies taste even better. Simply delicious!

A little description about the flour adapted from Ricke's site where the recipe comes from...

Modified cassava flour (mocaf) is made from cassava made into powder form, and then processed using enzyme from yeast whom able to break down cassava flour cells resulting in finer texture, brighter white color and trace of cassava odor can be minimized to 70%
Mocaf is different from cassava flour or tapioca starch
The characteristic is very close to plain flour so it can be used for cake making
But it's gluten free, unlike plain flour, resulting in shorter cake
Replacement to mocaf can be done 100% or only partial - combining with plain flour
Only for bread making, certain percentage of high protein flour must be present, since gluten is essential to reach elasticity and to help the bread to rise well, too
What you need:

225g butter
125g dark cooking chocolate
200g mocaf
50g Valrhona cocoa powder
20g full cream milk powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 medium eggs
300g caster sugar
For topping: walnuts and chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 180degC
2. In a pot over low fire, melt butter and chocolate, set aside
3. Grease 24cm square pan (height 4cm), line with baking paper, grease again, set aside
4. Sieve mocaf, cocoa powder, milk powder, baking powder, set aside
5. Whisk eggs and sugar til dissolved (need not to expand)
6. Add in mixture of butter and chocolate, also vanilla, mix well
7. Add in sifted flour mixture, stir til just combined
8. Pour batter into pan, sprinkle with chocolate chips and walnuts, bake for 45 minutes or til skewer comes out clean

I'm linking up this post to :
* Allergy Free Wednesday #18
* Sweet Treats and Swanky Stuff Thursday
* SweetTooth Friday
* Sweets For A Saturday #71

Avocado Coffee Dessert

One favorite dessert my mum always made for the family :)
Besides avocado juice, this is another great way I love to enjoy avocado as dessert :)
Keep it chilled in the fridge, perfect for Singapore's recent hot humid weather!

Very simple to make...

Halve avocados, scrape the meat in a bowl
Prepare a glass or two glasses (depending on how much avocados you use) of plain coffee with brown sugar
Pour the coffee into avocado meat, mix well and store in covered container and keep in the fridge
Serve cold

Homemade Chicken Burger

I've made this recipe before, please view HERE
But this time, I really did everything homemade, including the buns :)

Recipe is from Sonia's site

For the chicken patties:

What you need:

500g minced chicken
1 onion, finely chopped
3tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
3tbsp fresh milk
1/4tsp white pepper powder
1/4tsp black pepper powder
1/4tsp chicken stock powder
1tsp salt or to taste

plain flour - enough for coating
1 egg - lightly beaten
fresh breadcrumbs - enough for coating

1. Mix fresh breadcrumbs and milk in a mixing bowl, set aside for few minutes
2. Fry the onions till soft, and mix into minced chicken
3. Add the rest of ingredients and seasoning, mix till well combine, form into patties
4. One by one, dip patties in plain flour, next coat in beaten eggs, then transfer to breadcrumbs and coat thoroughly
5. Pan frying with little oil until golden brown on both sides. Drain with paper towels

For the burger buns:

(combine au Lait and water roux method)

 

Water roux starter method:

 

50g High protein flour/bread flour

250g water

1. Combine water and flour in a pot, cook over low fire, keep stirring till become thick and no lumps, the texture is something like baby porridge (still a little runny)
2. Remove from heat, cover loosely with plastic wrap to prevent from drying. Keep in the fridge after completely cooling down for later use

Burger dough (combine au Lait and water roux method):

 

450g bread flour

55g sugar

1/2 tsp salt

170g fresh milk (cold)

40g egg white

1½ tsp yeast

50g butter (soften in room temp)

100g water roux starter

1. Using breadmaker, put all the ingredients except butter in breadmaker pan, and start 'dough'programme - approximately 1 hour 30 minutes
2. Remove dough from the bowl, punch out the air, equally divide into smooth round shape each 50g, arrange on baking pan lined with non stick baking paper, rest for another 20mins
3. Apply egg wash
4. Bake at a pre-heated oven at 180c for 25mins

The buns were soft, a little chewy, a bit too compact, but definitely better than the first burger buns I made
It turned a little harder the following day, but warming it up in microwave solved the problem :)

I used tomato, lettuce to put together with the chicken patty in the bun, spread a little tomato ketchup, dijon mustard and chilli sauce
Yum! :)

THB #3 Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake

I baked these cuppies last Saturday, and was busy with family outings only today I can post :)

Another great cake best to serve during tea time, from the book Coffee Cakes by Lou Seibert Pappas, the third bake for The Home Bakers event :)

I made 1/2 recipe, and I didn't add any nuts nor ground cinnamon
For me personally, I believe it would have tasted better with both nuts and ground cinnamon powder added, too bad DH and the kids don't like it, so gotta ommit them, if not I would be the only one finishing all LOL

For the cake, I reduced the granulated sugar by half, added baking powder to 1 1/2 tsp instead of 1, while reducing baking soda to 1/2 tsp instead of 1 (I'm talking about full recipe here)

Also, I used cake flour to replace whole wheat flour. The next time I bake this cake again, I'll stick to whole wheat flour to know how different the texture will be
Using cake flour gave finer texture and spongy too

The use of blueberries here did help a lot in giving the moisture to the cake, which I like
Furthermore, I used 1 1/2 cup blueberries for my half recipe, so much juicy blueberries in the cake...yum!
I didn't use mixer for this recipe, all mixing done by wooden spoon and balloon whisk, such an easy cake to prepare, less things to wash :P

For full recipe, please hop over to Bizzy Bakes

Please visit The Home Bakers, you'll see other members' bakes and really hope you can join in the fun too!

Bake Along #24 - Baked Thai Chicken Meatballs

Another bake from 4ingredients
This is the third recipe I tried and all three have made me going wow....
Yummy and simple recipes they have!

This recipe is in my favorite list when I browsed through the site and again I was impressed with the result!

Each piece is so juicy and full of flavor I couldn't stop at one, really! :)

Since I don't have coriander, I changed to parsley

What you need:

500g minced chicken
1/4 cup Thai sweet chilli sauce
2 stalks of spring onion
1 tsp chopped parsley

1. Preheat oven to 180degC
2. Mix all ingredients. With wet hands, shape into balls
3. Arrange on lined baking tray and bake for 15 minutes
4. You'll see the oils were separated from the meatballs
5. Change oven to grill function and grill both sides til brown, each side around 5 minutes, or less (please observe during this time)
6. Serve hot with Thai sweet chilli sauce (I ate without additional sauce, it's yummy enough)

Below are bakes with only 4 ingredients from wonderful blogs, do check it out!