Chinese Reunion Dinner 2011

Bunny hop, hop to the lunar year of the Rabbit. It's feasting time again with my parents and brother, my sister and her family and my family. This year, I decided not to prepare steamboat. Instead, I whipped up a feast. On the menu were coffee pork, my mum's speciality - "ngoh hiang", braised mushroom (got this recipe from my friend Christine) with broccoli, steam pomfret, steam prawns and stir-fried leek with beancurd and button mushroom. Preparation work started the night before and ended just before dinner started. What a long day! But it's all worth it. This is the first time I have cooked so many dishes at one go. Must give myself a pat on the shoulder for a job well done. Haha .....



Coffee Pork

Got this coffee pork recipe from watching the Chinese 三菜一汤 cooking show. It's pretty simple to prepare and yummy ..... 


Braised mushroom with broccoli

What is Chinese New Year feast without abalone and fatt choy? Got this scrumptious recipe from my golfing buddy, Christine. However, I omitted the dried oyster as I don't like the taste. This dish can be cooked earlier as it takes two hours to simmer the braised mushroom, dried scallop and pork belly.


Teochew steam pomfret



Stir fried leek with beancurd and button mushrooms

My mum told me I have to include leek as a dish as eating leek during lunar new year means having lots of money to count that year. I don't eat leek and have never cooked one. So it's a challenge for me. In the end, I decided to just stir fry it with panfried firm beancurd. I happen to have lots of button mushrooms which are going to rot soon if I don't cook it. So I just added them to the dish. This simple dish turned out to be yummy and I love it. Everyone, including my mum, gives me the thumbs up.

My brother, nephew and niece, and my son Ryan

My parents and hubby enjoying the feast



Chinese New Year Baking Adventure

It's Chinese New Year again and I get a little ambitious this year. For the past few years, I just baked the open-faced pineapple tarts and almond cookies for my mum, sister and my family only. I tried baking the closed pineapple tarts (with modifications to the open-faced tarts) last year after all the CNY frenzy frizzled. It turned out to be good (approved by my daughter). Haha .... It has a buttery texture that just melts in the mouth. Are you drooling already? So I decided to bake the closed version this year, with a few open-faced ones for my son. Can guess the number of pineapples I cooked this time? TWENTY EIGHT. Of course, I did not cook all at one go. I think I cooked them over 4 separate sessions. It's real hard work. No wonder homemade pineapple tarts are so expensive. Since I baked more this year, thus have more to give out to friends and relatives.

Next comes the kueh bangkit. This small, white little biscuit is a little temperamental. Not easy to manage. But I still manage to bake two successful batches of these little morsels that melt in the mouth. I tried with both fresh coconut milk bought from the market and the one bought from the supermarket. The verdict : fresh coconut milk won.

What did I do with those that do not have the melt in the mouth texture? Still eat them and treat them like eating biscuits ...........

Almond cookies. This is the easiest one to make and the healthiest. No butter and eggs. Just toasted almonds with skin on ground coarsely, flour, icing sugar and corn oil. Easy. Isn't it?

Here's all that I have.

Marble cake in coffee buttercream frosting

It's my cell group Christmas get-together on 8 Jan 2011. Decided to bake a marble cake with silk meringue coffee buttercream frosting. The texture is lighter than just pure buttercream due to the addition of stiffly beaten egg whites. It is worth the extra effort put in as it definitely tasted better. I also thought that buttercream will be easier to frost and decorate than fresh cream.  But not really due to our hot weather. So you can see the imperfections in my frosting in the pictures below. Need more practice in a cool room next time. Didn't have the chance to take a picture of a slice to see the marbled pattern in the cake.

Ingredients:

12g cocoa powder
24g hot water
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
45g milk
55g heavy cream
¾ tsp vanilla essence
150g cake flour, sifted
113g sugar
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
134g unsalted butter, softened


Preparation:
Preheat oven at 170°C.
Grease and flour a 7” x 3” round cake tin. Line the base with parchment paper.

Method:
1. Dissolve the cocoa powder into the hot water and mix well. Leave it aside to cool.
2. In a medium bowl, lightly combine all the eggs, ¼ cup each of the milk and heavy cream and vanilla essence.
3. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into the mixing bowl and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend.
4. Add the butter and ¾ cup each of the remaining milk and heavy cream into the above mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.
5. Increase speed to medium (high speed if using hand mixer) and beat for 1.5 minutes to aerate and develop the cake’s structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
6. Gradually add the egg mixture in 3 batches into the mixing bowl, beating for 20 seconds after each addition to incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure. Scrap down the sides.
7. Remove about 1/3 cup of the batter above and mix into the cooled chocolate mixture. Blend well.
8. Pour ½ of the non-chocolate mixture into the cake tin followed by all the chocolate mixture and lastly, followed by the remaining non-chocolate mixture. The pan will be about half full.
9. Smooth the surface with a spatula. Use a tablespoon to gently swirl the batter to create the marble pattern.
10. Bake for 25-35min or until a tester inserted near the centre comes out clean and the cake springs back slightly when pressed lightly in the centre.
11. Remove from oven and rest the cake in the cake tin in a wire rack for 10 minutes before unmoulding.



Chocolate Mousse Cake

Made this cake for a family New Year Eve's party at my brother-in-law's house. This cake comprises a layer of praline feuilletine at the bottom, followed by two alternating layers of chocolate sponge cake and chocolate mousse and topped up with a layer of chocolate ganache. The praline feuillentine gives the cake a crunchy bite, which goes very well with the chocolate sponge and mousse.
Glad that everybody loves it. But I need more practice and finesse in putting them together. Will try again next time.

Christmas 2010

It's Christmas Day and it has been quite some time since I invited our family friends over for food and fellowship. Since we got back from our year-end vacation (we went to Brussels and Paris this year and the kids got to see, feel and play snow) early this year, I had the time to plan. Guess what? One of the dish I cooked was Belgian beefstew, known as Carbonnade Flamandes in Brussels. It's easy to cook. Another new dish I tried was Italian seafood stew. It turned out delicious. Only gripe is the fish meat got all broken up. Don't use fish meat next time or put in the fish meat last. We also had roast chicken legs and everyone gave this a thumb up. It's my perfected recipe and definitely a keeper for parties. Not to mention, we must have some salad greens to balance the heavy meal. I made a rocket salad dressed in balsamic vineagar, sesame and honey mustard dressing. Everyone enjoyed the food and we had a great time. Cheers to friendship and food!

Double chocolate macadamia nut cookies

Melted chocolate and cocoa powder go into these cookies, making them double chocolaty for chocoholics. Blended oatmeal and macadamia nuts are added for extra crunch.

Marble Cupcakes

Have not been baking for quite some time. Baked these mini marble cakes in a silicone muffin pan after returning from family vacation in Paris and Brussels. It was freezing cold and the children got to see and feel snow. They were simply ecstatic and had a good time making snowballs and having snowfight. We were so lucky to get home the day before the snowstorm started. 

It's so crusty on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside.