Hong Kong Wanton Soup

17.11.2012 - BATAM.  I love Wanton Soup.  I make this wanton soup a none porky wanton soup!! It is with chicken & prawns meats fillings.

Whenever Im making or eating wantons.   Wanton soup can flesh back those good old memories with my former F&B Director Mr. Tso from Hong Kong.  I remember him complaining to the chef and teaching him how to make a bowl of good wanton soup as good as his description of a delicious cantonese / hongkong wanton soup that he had before.  After all that trial and testing, he finally satisfied with a good bowl of wanton soup of his expectation from the Chef, i remember one secret ingredient in that wanton, that is the WATER CHESTNUT!! believe it or not, that thing makes magic in your mouth.

Ok, so now everyone knows the secret recipe! I have no problem to share, come lets all make one good bowl of wanton soup and share with your family!

Happy Cooking.

Wanton Fillings Ingredients:
2 pcs of chicken breast ( cut in small cubes )
1 bowl of medium size prawns, ( no proper measurement, is about a bowl, rice bowl )
1/2 teaspoon chicken granules powder
dash of sesame oil
dash of light soya sauce
1 small pinch of salt
3-4 or more water chestnut (chopped finely)
1tbsp teaspoon corn starch
1pkt wonton wrappers

* I used choy sum vegetable.  Vegetable of your choice, vegtable can be added in after wanton is cooked thru or before served.
* chopped chives

Waton Soup/ Broth  Ingredients :-
cups water
few pcs of chicken legs or 1 chicken tigh
chicken premium stock / chicken granules to taste
Salt & Pepper to taste
1tbsp of Sesame oil to taste
10 cups water


Method:

Clean shrimps/prawns through.  Traditional way, put prawns and cubes chicken breast on the chopping board and chop it very finely and mixed in other ingredients.  The modern, quicker and easier way is to use a hand blender to blend them all.

You can blend the meats first then add in taste ( chicken granules powder, light soya sauce, sesame oil, salt & pepper ) or put in meats with taste together in the blender and blender them then transfer to a mixing bowl add in water chestnuts and con starch.

Place a wonton wrapper on your palm and put about 1 teaspoon (about 3-4 pieces) of the shrimp filling in the center of the wonton wrapper. Gather the corners of the wrapper with the other hand and give it a twist in the middle to “close” the wonton. Repeat until the filling is used up.

Prepare the broth for wanton soup, first by boiling chicken feet or any parts of the chicken in a deep stockpot. Bring it to boil and skim off the scum that surfaces until the stock is clear. Simmer on low heat for a couple of hours. Pour the stock through a sieve and set aside. Add chopped yellow chives into the stock, add salt, white pepper powder, and sesame oil to taste and set aside.

Heat up another big saucepan with clear water. As soon as it boils, drop the wontons into the water. Stirring gently so the wontons don’t stick together. For a few minutes, you will see wontons are cooked and float to the surface. dish up and continue to boil the choy sum vegetable for few second.   * Do not over cooked the wanton, or else the wanton skin will breakdown into pcs.

Transfer the wontons & vegy into the a bowl of chicken stock cooked and serve immediately.

Fried Apple Pie with Puff Pastry

22.02.2013 - Batam.   Yes! i do miss McDonald Fried Apple Pie.

I used puff pastry sheets. Making Fried Apple is not difficult at all.  Just a hard work of cooking the apple fillings, but with that crunchiness and deliciousness apple fillings, all your hard work pays off.  Duh....hahaha :P

Here are the ingredients.

Ingredients:-
5 pcs - Green apple, peel & cut into square small pcs
1tbsp - Cinnamon powder ( if you like more cinnamon taste, you could add more )
1tbsp - Butter
3tbsp - caster sugar ( taste and add as you desire )
1tbsp - flour
1/4 cup - water

Icing sugar / confectioner sugar for dusting

Method :

* Heat Pan, add in butter, stir to melt and add in cut apples cubes mixed well.
* Add in caster sugar and cinnamon powder stir and cook slowly with slow heat till apple become soften.
* Apple will become watery from sugar syrup, add in 1tbsp flour, mixed well and dish up.
* Set aside wait to cool.
* Roll out a sheet of cool puff pastry, dust a little flour if necessary, roll a little and cut in any shape or size as you desire for your apple pie. ( do not cut the pastry sheet too big as it will expand when deep-frying.
* With a pastry brush or small pastry spatula, spread water around the edge of the wrapper. Spoon two spoonful of cooked apple filling on pastry sheet and cover.  Press the side with fork so as it could sealed the fillings properly and give a nice shape at the edge like a pie.
* In a wok, heat cooking oil for deep frying.  with a medium fire deepfried apple pie to gold brown and dish up immediate.
* Dust with confectioner's sugar, serve with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream! Perfect!

Happy Eating!!

Heat Pan, add in butter, stir to melt and add in cut apples cubes mixed well.

Add in caster sugar and cinnamon powder stir and cook slowly with slow 

heat till apple become soften. Apple is cooking and starting to caramelize

Apple will become watery from sugar syrup, add in 1tbsp flour, mixed well and dish up.

The apple filling is ready, set aside to cool 

Press the side with fork so as it could sealed the fillings properly and give it a nice 

shape at the edge like a pie. It is ready to deep-fried 

 Apple pies fried into golden brown and ready for sugar dusting

 Dust a table spoonful of confectioner's sugar on top and served hot

 you can see how beautiful it is inside, a few layers holds the apple fillings equally. 

Ta-Da!! my own version of McDonald Fried Apple Pie!! BUT mine is better than 

McDonald Fried Apple Pie. Sorry to say!!

However, Thank you Mcdonald inspire me to make my own!! hAAA...Yumm!!

First Homemade Kaya ( Coconut Egg Jam )

25.01.2013 - I love homemade Kaya.  Interestingly i wanna try making one myself this time!   Never make one before in my life, its quite challenging to me.  Have been watching so many Kaya making on Youtube, looks easy but need patience.  Gather a few recipes from google and created my own combined with the correct steps from youtube.  steps definitely by watching youtube helps alot. and im ready to go!

INGREDIENTS :-
175g sugar = 12 tbsp ( half caster sugar and half palm sugar )
250ml coconut milk
3 pandan leafs
5 eggs ( 3 whole eggs & 2 yolks )


METHOD:-

METHOD:-

melt palm sugar with a table spoon of water on sauce pan. let it cool

heat water for double boiler.

beat in 3 whole eggs and 2 yolks and coconut milk whisk with baloon whisk till combine

When melted palm sugar already cool down, add sugar into eggs mixture with a whisk constantly stir until well combine.

Strain the mixture into a clean bowl that will be used for double bowl, make sure no lumps from egg whites or palm sugar.

add in pandan leaves to egg mixture. put the bowl on the double boiler.  keep stirring until the mixture has become thicken and start curdles up. don't worry,  the sign that your kaya is ready.

Discard the pandan leaves and pour cooked kaya into a hand blender and blend 1 to 2 second only the kaya will become very smooth.

Put aside let it set and cool and transfer into a clean jar!

Kaya can keep up to 2 weeks in the fridge.

 beat in 3 whole eggs and 2 york and beat/ whisk with hand

 Get Pandan leaf ready 

 Melt Palm Sugar / Gula melaka with some warm water

 Mixed in 4tbsp caster sugar mix well and add in coconut milk and add in melted palm sugar.  pour into the standless bowl strain the mixture.  add in pandan leaves. put into the double boiler.  

 put into the double boiler.  keep stiring until the mixture 

 stir until kaya start curdling and it is about to ready

 Not to worry when you see this condition. 

 Transfer to a hand blender and blend it for few minutes 

 The curdling kaya now has become a smooth kaya!!

 Transfer to a air tight Jar or container

This kaya is so delicious, very delicious with toast bread and butter!! 

Can't believe is that easy and i successfully execute it! and so good and delicious! 

Pan-fried Chicken & Cabbage Jiaozi

21.01.2013 - Batam.  Seriously Im missing Jiaozhi very much.  Can't get here, so i make myself to satisfy my craving!  Almost all using Pork, but i modified the recipe into chicken. because i don't eat pork.  Here are the recipe. Its simply easy to make because i bought skin from supermarket.  My jiaozi simply delicious!! love it.


Method:-

Dumpling wrappers: got my wrappers from supermarket, see the label, get the jiaozi（饺子) instead of for wontons (馄饨).). They are a hassle to make at home, but if you really want to give it a try, go get yourself the recipe.

For the filling, mix all ingredients together in a large bowl : 1 lb ground chicken meat finely chopped, 1 cup shredded round cabbage, 2 tablespoons minced shallots, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 2 teaspoons salt or 1 tablespoon soy sauce, a pinch of ground pepper.

Egg wash: Gently beat 1 or 2 eggs.

Folding dumplings can be very tricky.  Is my first time of making jiaozhi but i have no problem with the folding process when i go along the way with a few.  if you don't understand a single word below folding instruction, please go to youtube and search yourself Jiaozhi making and see how it been wrapped.  Below are the steps of folding.

1. With a pastry brush or small pastry spatula, spread egg wash around the edge of the wrapper. Place a small spoonful of filling in the middle. (Be careful not to put too much; it’ll leek out during the folding process.)

2. Pinch the edge of the wrapper and make a fold like you see in Step 2. (If you’re a beginner at folding, place the wrapper on a flat surface while you work. Otherwise, keep it in your hand.)

3. Make 2 more identical folds in the same direction, until you end up with 3 folds, as shown in Step 3.

4. Bring the folded side together with the no-folds side, and press to seal.

 look at my lovely jiazhi, i am not a profession and its my first time making jiazhi but they look just perfected.

Pan-frying*: Have about 1/2 cup water, a large skillet, and a lid for the skillet handy.  Heat the skillet with about 1 to 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil over high heat. 

Wait about 1 minute for the oil to heat up. (You can also use a small piece of extra dumpling wrapper or bread to test whether the pan is hot enough; it should sizzle immediately upon being placed in the pan.)  Once the pan is hot, place the number of dumplings you want to cook smooth side down in the pan. 

Allow them to sear for about 1 to 2 minutes, until the bottoms turn golden brown. 

Add the water.

immediately cover with a lid, and let the dumplings steam for another 3 to 4 minutes.

Uncover the lid to allow any extra water to evaporate before turning off the heat.  Loosen the dumplings with a chopsticks and transfer them to a plate. Whatever you don’t cook can be frozen for later.

Ta-da!! Its good and ready to eat.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

10.06.2013 - Batam.  Its Deedat 3 years & 4 months old birth-date celebration.  As we celebrating his birth-date every 10th of the month.  So this month, i decided to make him Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting.  Carrot cake is so easy to make and simply delicious.

I have everything ready at my pantry except for walnuts or pecans.  so i used cashew nuts instead. The taste is just as good as walnuts.

Ingredients :-

1 cup (100 grams) chopped cashewnuts
3/4 pound (340 grams) raw carrots (about 2 1/2 cups finely grated)
2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated white sugar
1 cup (240 ml) safflower, vegetable or canola oil (or other flavorless oil)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cups (230 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (outer yellow skin) (optional)

METHOD:-

Carrot Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter or spray cake pan and line the bottoms of the pan with parchment paper.  If you have a bigger oven, you can eventually use two round - 9 x 2 inch (23 x 5 cm) cake pans and sandwich them together when frosting. My oven is slightly small, so i used 1 pan for this recipe.

Toast the cashewnuts until cooked and browned, let cool and then chop coarsely.

Peel and finely grate the carrots.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon.

In bowl of electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs until frothy (about 1 minute). Gradually add the sugar and beat until the batter is thick and light colored (about 3 - 4 minutes).

Add the oil in a steady stream and then beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. With a large rubber spatula fold in the grated carrots and chopped nuts.

Transfer batter into the pan, bake 25 to 30 minutes or up to 50mins until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. After about 5 -10 minutes invert the cakes onto the wire rack, remove the pans and parchment paper, and then cool completely before frosting.

To assemble: place one cake layer onto your serving plate. Spread with about half the frosting. Gently place the other cake onto the frosting and spread the rest of the frosting over the top of the cake. If desired, garnish with toasted nuts on the top of the cake. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers.

Serves 10 - 12.
Cream Cheese Frosting: In bowl of electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the cream cheese and butter, on low speed, just until blended with no lumps. Gradually add the sifted powdered sugar and beat, on low speed, until fully incorporated and smooth.  Beat in the vanilla extract, and lemon zest.

Peanut Butter Cups

19.09.2013 - Batam.  I Love Peanut Butter and so as my son.  He loves Reese's Peanut butter cups too very much.  Today son has a special request after he watched Utube, he came up to me and asked me to make him Peanut Butter Cups a.k.a Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  I didn't reject him, well i say ok! because recently i've got the recipe.  so i get the recipe ready and to the kitchen do my stuff.

As i always don't have a complete things needed for the recipe as such in a hurry.  so instead of using silicon cups or paper miniature cups.  I used ice cubes mould to fill the peanut butter chocolate or whatever i could think of! at least that could hold them together.  And as always, i don't follow the exact amount of measurement used in the recipe......( thats me...) i always come out my own idea and measurement to use what i have....and no exact measurement again. Just hoping it will be right.

Overall, came out so well.  and so easy to make. I just love it!! and my son too.  The Peanut butter cups aren't hard to chew or bite, its not over freeze, its not over sweet, the harden of the whole peanut butter cup just at the right temperature. can easily scoop with a teaspoon. like what my son did in the pic below.

Below recipe is my own recipe that i have already modified. And the pic finished result you see it was a success. Yummy!

Anyone who doesn't love sweets or chocolate might not  knowing how does Reese's Peanut Butter Cup look like, here are some picture for you. and that is what im making.

Ingredients:-

130g Milk Chocolate
2 tbsp ( spoonful of peanut butter and another 1 1/2 tbspoonful to add in the chocolate)
1tbsp confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon unsalted butter, softened (5 g) or 1 small pc squre hard butter about a tsp
pinch of salt


METHOD:-

Scoop 2tbsp full ( mean really a spoonfull ) of peanut butter, salt, butter, and confectioners’ sugar. And stir and mix well, gently press the butter if your butter is hard and put it in a plate of hot water to make it softened and continue stirring until everything is well mixed.

Prepare a double boil, add peanut butter in the chocolate and melt or in the microwave oven. And stir until smooth.

Drop a teaspoonful of chocolate mixture in each mould / silicon miniature or paper miniature cups.

Drop teaspoonful of peanut butter over the top of the chocolate layer. Let cool for 10 minutes in the refrigerator.

And finally top with teaspoonful of chocolate mixture. Let completely cool in the refrigerator.