Steam Minced Pork with Salted Fish Paste

My steam minced pork with salted fish paste. Taste yummy! My family loves it! only comment from my husband was: more generous topping of the paste next time please.... :)

Recipe as follows:

Ingredients:
300g minced pork
2 tbsp shredded ginger
2 tbsp fragrant salted fish paste
1 tbsp chopped spring onion

Seasoning:1 tsp light soya sauce
dash of sesame oil and pepper
1 tsp corn flour
2 tbsp water


Method:1. combine minced pork, seasoning and mix well. Arrange onto a steaming plate.

2. Sprinkle shredded ginger on top of the minced pork and spread over salted fish paste.

3. Steam at high heat for 15 minutes or until cooked.

4. Sprinkle chopped spring onion on top and serve hot.


Recipe source: 大牌档酱 （郭子仁著)

Snow Skin Mooncake 冰皮月饼

My first homemade snow skin mooncake in my life! Think snow skin mooncake is more manageable for a beginner like me.

I got all the necessary ingredients like, "Kao fen", shortening and the lotus paste plus the plunger from Sun Lik on Monday. After running through all the mooncake recipes files, decided to use Amanda's recipe. Her recipe is much simpler and like me, that was her first mooncake! :)

Well, unlike her who made her own lotus paste, I bought a ready pack. No regret! the paste is very good! Not too sweet to my liking. :) However, the paste is not cheap! $13.00 per kg! The shop won't sell half kilo to you! :(

Thinking that I might fail in my trial today, I attempted half the recipe (make 5 pcs). The plunger is a breeze to use. I finished the 5 pcs in no time (less than half hour?). A pity that the plunger only got 1 plate! How nice to have a few to interchange......

Guess I'm too generous with the melon seeds.

By the way, you need to roast the melon seeds . For me, I fried the melon seeds in my wok. Easier for me.

Understand that for snow skin mooncake, you need to make it fast and chill immediately otherwise the skin will harden!?

As for the mooncake, it tastes super soft after chilling. The softness of the skin and the crunch from the melon seeds is simply delicious! My two kids love it very much. :)

Going to make another batch later so that my mum & sisters can taste tomorrow.

Oh yes, before I forgot, I added half teaspoon of banana essence into my snow skin. It actually blends well and enhance the whole mooncake.

Fragrant Salted Fish Paste 咸鱼酱

This salted fish paste was made on the same day as my "Jing Du Sauce". The "Jing Du Sauce" was a breeze to make whereas this salted fish paste need some patience. You need to peel and chop the shallots (which I dread). Though all the hard work, the salted fish paste turned out to be very nice and fragrant. It tasted especially good with fried rice. My husband gave a thumb-up for this sauce. :D

Recipe as follows:

Ingredients:
150g Mui Heong Salted Fish (梅香咸鱼), wash & chop
10 shallots, peel & chop
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp sugar
100ml water
100ml oil

Method:
1. Heat up oil, saute chopped shallots and garlic till fragrant.
2. Add in chopped salted fish, sugar and stir well.
3. Add in water and cook for 3 minutes.
4. Remove from heat.

(Storage time: 1 month in the fridge)
This sauce is also good for "steam minced meat" which I'll try sometimes next week.


Recipe source: 大牌档酱 （郭子仁著)

Jing Du Prime Ribs 京都排骨

Jing Du Sauce

Made my very first "Jing Du Sauce" for my "Jing Du Prime Ribs". The sauce was simple and straight forward to make.

Ingredients:
100ml dark vinegar 浙醋

2 tbsp worchester sauce

5 tbsp tomato sauce

5 tbsp plum sauce

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp five spice powder

100ml water

Method:
Combine all ingredients and bring to boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
(This sauce should be kept in the fridge for 1 month.)
The recipe for the ribs as follows:

Ingredients:
1 kg spare ribs, cut into pieces (I used prime ribs)

150ml Jing Du Sauce

Marinade:
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame Oil
1 egg
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp custard powder
3 tbsp water

Method: 1. Mix ribs with marinade for 3 hours.
2. Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown. Dish and drain.
3. Bring Jing Du Sauce to boil. Add in the ribs and mix well.
4. Thicken with corn flour water and dish up.

My elder son and husband love it very much! My little one didn't like it because of its sourish taste. I think the "sourish" taste comes from the plum sauce. Anyway, this sauce is a real keeper! I like it too! Sedap! :D

Recipe source: 大牌档酱 （郭子仁著)

Cheese Bacon Roll 培根乳酪捲

Our breakfast last week. Recipe from “孟老师的一百道面包".

This recipe only uses 50g of water plus 70g of egg white. Hm... interesting recipe to try. What to do with the egg yolks you may ask? I used them in my fried rice.

Like smallsmallbaker, I also encounter sticky doughs using the bread machine on many occasions even though I'd tried opening the cover :( To counter this problem, I normally take out the dough and knead from my table-top plus "throwing & banging" （摔打） it on the table-top. Find that this "throw & bang" method actually develop the elasticity of the dough faster. Of course, you must have some patience lah!
(Make 5 pcs)
Ingredients A:
200g bread flour
15g Castor Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
70g egg white
2g (1/2 tsp) instant yeast
50g water

Ingredients B:
15g unsalted butter

Fillings:
5 pcs bacons
5 pcs cheddar cheese (cut into half each)


Method:

1. Using low speed of your mixer, mix all ingredients A till it forms a dough. Change it to medium speed and knead till dough becomes smooth.

2. Using low speed, add in the unsalted butter. Change to medium speed and knead dough till it becomes elastic.

3. Place the kneaded dough in a mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap. Let it ferments for 80 minutes.

4. Divide dough into 5 equal parts. Round them up and cover with cling wrap. Rest for 10 minutes.

5. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle shape (16 cm x 10 cm).

6. Flip the dough, place bacon follow by 2 pcs cheese on top. Roll up the dough like swiss roll style. Use a sharp knife to cut a slit through the centre. Gently fold the cut side up and place in a baking tray.

7. Lightly press the dough and cover with cling wrap. Final proofing: 25 minutes.

8. Glaze with egg wash. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 deg C for about 20 minutes.
We find that bacon baking this way does not taste as good. However, this is only personal preference. This roll remained soft even after 2 days.

Red Beans Buns

Have been lazy blogging lately...

Managed to get hold of this book “孟老师的一百道面包”when my brother went to Taiwan a couple of weeks back.

Saw two very unique bread: "bamboo charcoal Cheese Toast"“竹炭乳酪土司” and "Garlic Squid Buns" ” “墨鱼香蒜面包” in her book. Bet you can't find in Singapore! The two bread are all in black! Real BLACK!!!

Anway, I decided to bake a simple "Red Beans bun" using my homemade red beans paste which I made a few weeks back.

This "Red Beans bun" recipe was taken from “孟老师的一百道面包". I was surprised and pleased that this recipe uses very little sugar and butter. One thing I like about this book is that the recipes all yield about 8 pieces (just nice for a family of four).

I made these buns on Thursday and it still remained soft on Saturday morning after I warm it in the oven! My little son commented that the bread was delicious than the fillings... !

Recipe as follows:
(Make 8 pieces)

Ingredients A:
Bread flour 200g
Cake flour 20g
Castor sugar 25g
Salt 1/4 tsp
Instant yeast 3g (1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp)
Milk powder 15g
Egg 25g
Water 115g

Ingredients B:
Unsalted butter 15g
Red beans paste 200g

Ingredient C:
White Sesame Seeds 20g


Method:

1. Using low speed of your mixer, mix all ingredients A till it forms a dough. Change it to medium speed and knead till dough becomes smooth.

2. Using low speed, add in the unsalted butter. Change to medium speed and knead dough till it becomes elastic.

3. Place the kneaded dough in a mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap. Let it ferments for about 60 minutes.

4. Divide dough into 8 equal parts. Round them up and immediately put the fillings inside. Shape the individual dough. Cover with cling wrap and let the shaped dough rest for 15 minutes. After the resting period, use your hand to slightly flatten the rounded dough.

5. Using a scissor, cut an inch at 8 sides of the flatten dough:
- First, cut the top & bottom, left & right. Follow by a cut on each portion.

6. Brush the doughs with egg wash. Wet the tip of a rolling pin and coat it with white sesame seeds. Imprint the rolling pin (with the sesame seeds) onto the dough.

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 deg C for about 15 minutes.


Recipe source: “孟老师的一百道面包"

Milo Chocolate chips & rice Muffins

Get "xian" eating bread everyday.... :(

I'm not a muffin lover. But I'm gradually liking it. They are so much easy and straight forward to bake than breads! Had tried store bought muffins but sad to say they are either too dry or too oily to me!!

Searched through my files and found this muffin recipe from Happy Home Baker. She has a wide collection of muffin recipes worth trying. :)

Decided to try her "Milo Double chocolate chips Muffins" as I needed to use up my chocolate chips. Since I didn't have any white chocolate chips on hand and my leftover dark chocolate chips were only about 70g, I topped up the remaining balance using chocolate rice. So total chocolate I used was about 160g! I used a fairly big paper cups and my muffins were quite huge! I couldn't finish one whole piece!

This milo muffins turned out very nice: soft and moist, very chocolaty (may be because of the chocolate rice, I think.) My family members like it very much. The three of them can't resist chocolate!

Thank you Happy Home Baker for all your wonderful bakes! :)