Whipping Cream Bread

Aaahh…finally back to baking buns again. Guess I can’t stay away from buns making for long…heehee , am really addicted to the freshly baked bun smell whiffing from the oven. I love the smell of freshly baked buns…I really feel great inhaling those aromatic smell of baked buns and the smell lingers even after the buns disappeared into our stomach.

Whipping Cream Bun has a cottony soft texture and it has a light fragrant. The dough has to be prepared the night before . Do not be push off by it just becoz you have to do it the night before. It is very easy to prepare and it doesn’t take much time. I used the cake mixer with the dough hook and managed to make it in just 20 minutes. Leave it overnight in the fridge and after dinner the next day, I took it out and started shaping them into small batards. It took me about 25 minutes to do 12 batards. While waiting for them to rise the second time , I went about washing up the plates and by the time I finished cleaning up the kitchen, the buns were ready for baking. The baking time took about 12 –15 minutes or till it turned golden brown. Easy..right

and yummy too! Worth trying it out...you won't regret and lotz of fun as you wait in anticipation how the bun will taste like ;)

 

As usual, Daddy will be the first to try out the bun and he told me that it was delicious…^___* I knew it will be yummy when I first read it from Dailydelicious’s blog and I have been wanting to try it out and I am glad that finally I had done it and I would say this to buns lover, it's a thumbs up for sure and a definitely a keeper

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the cutting of the dough with a sharp scissors was fun :p

the freshly baked buns waiting to be devoured

the texture of the bun is soft and cottony...

a keeper for sure

Click here for the recipe

* Thanks dailydelicious for sharing such a wonderful recipe :)

Reminiscene

I love to watch my Piggies playing away on the piano. Duets especially. Jazz music filled the air ...oohh how I envy them. I never had the opportunity to learn playing the piano when I was young. So when I had my Piggies , I make sure they both have the privilege to learn to play the piano as soon as they know their ABC and numbers. I remembered after I gave birth to my Piggy gal, the first thing I looked for, when the nurse handed her to me in the delivery room , were her fingers....whether they were complete and long. I know you guys must be thinking now what a monster momsie I was then ....plans of music lessons already filled the mind before I was wheeled out of the delivery room 20 years ago (",) Fingers that were long enough for the piano . I started them at the age of four (",)

It was worth all the sacrifices to send them for their piano lessons, as I now see them play duet on the piano. It was never easy to play duet but they did it and it brought back memories of yester years when Momsie had to sit with them to see that they practice their pieces and had done their theory homework.... and today, I am sure they are glad that their preseverance through their ten years of learning how to play the piano paid off as they can sit together and play duets.

Playing the piano is a form of relaxation and it helps the child to de-stress in today  exam-orientated culture of Asian school :)))

*** I can't help stealing a shot of the most treasured moment in my life, watching them seated at the piano playing duets and finally I was able to enjoy their playing ^____*.

Carrot Cake

Juz wanna share here how happy I am to receive this smses from my Piggies. They have not forgotten Momsie’s birthday ;))))))))))))) ( smiling the whole day) Enjoy all this while it last….. Piggy Ernest famous line….

Yup, TODAY is Momsie’s Birthday ! Heehee I am celebrating my '25th birthday 'today * every year I am 25 years old…can? (“,)

I slept well last night, most probably grinning the whole night thru and woke up beaming this morning becoz they remembered Momsie’s birthday!

Piggy Boy to Momsie at 23:59:23 on 10-20-08 (before I slept)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I m the first….things will be better this year….

Piggy Gal to Momsie at 6:54:14 on 10-21-08 ( when I woke up)
Happy birthday 2 u…happy birthday 2 u, happy birthday dear
Mummy….happy birthday 2 u! hehe, see I wake up first thing sing u birthday song :)

Heehee… thanks Piggies for the birthday wishes :) and thanks Daddy for the very nice dinner:))

The night before , I baked for myself a carrot cake from Baking : From My Home To Yours ” by Dorie Greenspan . Simple to make and very delicious . I reduced the sugar by halve and used Muscovado sugar instead of castor sugar and I used melted butter ( 125 gm butter – melted) instead of canola oil. Haha, guess I like to twist the recipe to my taste. I don’t like my cake to be too sweet and the muscovado sugar will give the cake a coarser and darker texture as you can see from the photos. I normally reduced the sugar by half, depends on the type of cake. Carrot cake has got raisins and the cheese frosting is slightly sweet ( I reduced the icing sugar by half too ) . In one and half hours, I got the cake baked and frosted.

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It came out nice..evenly browned and aromatic..hmmm
After it cooled down, cut into half and sandwiched them
with half of the cheese frosting

Tada...it's finished..put it in the cake box and into
the fridge it goes till ready to serve ;)

This is a very delicious carrot cake
by Dorie Greenspan

** Shout out to My Piggies & Piggy Ernest – when you guys are back this weekend, we will have a big party..most probably this Saturday…BBQ ?????

Crystal Prawn Dumpling

Last week , I was browsing through my book shelf that housed my collection of cookbooks which many of them have been sitting there for years, and I found this Delicious Dim Sum book which I haven’t had the chance to try out the recipes yet. I bought it for drooling purposes at that time. I flipped through the pages and to my delight , the book has pictures of delicious looking dumpling of all choices. Haha, needless to say , the urge to try it out was great and it goes to my To-Do List :)

Thus, last night, I had the opportunity to test it out. After watching “ Moonlight Resonance ”a HongKong TVB drama , ( I am watching this drama at the moment – a good drama indeed and the casts are all my favourites – thus, I am glued to the idiot box most night – lesser baking I guess, kidding :p ) Daddy and I were feeling hungry after the drama coz we both had light dinner of ‘Fried Koay Kak ’ , a kind of rice cake.

Daddy asked what’s for supper…and I took the opportunity ( by the way , I am an opportunist ) and told him this “ Oh, if you can wait about half an hour , I will deliver dim sum to you “ and he said “ Dim Sum…what dim sum are you making ? ” “You wait , juz give me half an hour ” . * he doesn’t know what he is into – anyway Uncle Burger did not open for business since the fasting month started , so my dim sum sounded great when one is hungry * wink,wink , I got him as my guinea- pig to taste my 1st prawn dumplings (“,)

Actually, it is very simple & easy to make , I chose crystal prawns dumpling from the book coz it is the easiest of the whole lot and I have all the ingredients in the fridge. I halved the recipe and managed to get 9 dumplings . It turned out not bad but it must be eaten steaming hot or else the dumpling skin will turned slightly stiff . Over all , it is not too bad but I won’t say it is very good either. I will have to find a better dough recipe :)

For the fillings I gave it a twist and added in century egg (",)

shredded carrots and chopped spring onions.

I added sesame oil to give a nice aromatic smell....

I know this piece of dumpling looks horrible but for a first timer ,

I considered it not bad looking , still got room for improvement (",)

Steamed it for 5 minutes on high fire..tada... a plate of crystal prawn dumplings

Eat it steaming hot with hot chilli sauce/wasabe as dippings hmmm o-la-la

Crystal Prawn Dumpling

Dough Ingredients ( adapted from Delicious Dim Sum)

100 gm wheat starch
120 gm potato starch
160 gm hot water

Ingredients A
3 water chestnuts (minced)

Fillings

300 gm fresh prawn
3 gm salt
3 gm MSG
6 gm sugar
5 gm potato starch
1 tsp sesame oil

Method:
Combine filling ingredients until elastic. Add in A
Pour in hot water to wheat and potato starch until half cooked. Knead into a dough.
Knead dough into a long strip
Divide into equal parts , each 15 gm. Roll into a flat disc.
Wrap in 20 gm filling, fold both ends into a comb shape
Steam over high heat for 5 minutes.

* Note: I tweaked the fillings a bit, added century egg, scallions & shredded carrots. Get everything ready before you start on the dough coz the dough will dry fast. The dough should be soft and slightly moist. Cover the rest of the dough with a wet towel while wrapping the dumpling. Do not oversteam the dumplings to avoid the dumpling from cracking.

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Baked Aubergine With Corned Beef Toppings

I love aubergines and I have read from many blogs the different ways of preparation. And I came up with my own creation :)) I was thinking , whether to juz stir fry it with prawns or juz steam it and add fried onions on it and eat it simple. But the creative mind starts to work overtime . Yessss…why not baked the aubergine with some corned beef as toppings and to make it cheesy , add cheddar cheese…hmmm a very good idea and I can imagine already how it would taste like before I even gathers the ingredients together.

Of course, fantastic is the word and the cheddar cheese blends well with the Italian herbs and corned beef….DELICIOUS!

**Piggy gal - "I am sure you will like this...gooey cheesy and yummilicious aubergine , your favourite veg, salivating already...yes ? " (",)

Baked Aubergine With Corned Beef Toppings

Heat up the oven to 200º C
Grease the baking pan with olive oil.

Ingredients

1 aubergine - cut into ¼” thick slices
Italian herbs – Sprinkled on the surface of the aubergine
A few prawns – shelled and devein
Cheddar cheese
A pinch of salt

Mixed together (A)
Some mashed up Corned Beef – amount depends on how many slices of aubergine
1 big onion – diced
2 pips of garlic – finely chopped
3 bird eyes – chilli padi

Place the slices of aubergine on the greased pan. Sprinkle some salt and Italian herbs on the surface of the aubergine. Put a tbsp of A on top of the aubergine slices. Top with a prawn each and some cheddar cheese on top.

Put into the hot oven and baked for 25-30 minutes till the aubergine is cooked.

Served while still warm.

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BBQ Nite For The Piggies

We had shoulder lambs , chicken wings , pizza sausages and prawns for our BBQ nite on the 1st day of Raya ( told you looks like this year we are taking advantage of the festive season to have BBQ coz the whole family was able to be together again and that was FUN. I enjoyed the fellowship very much too.

We normally had it on Christmas Eve but becoz everyone managed to get off during this festive and were back together , we took the opportunity to have charcoal grilled feast for dinner . It was good. Daddy made his special BBQ sauce and it goes well with the grilled meat especially the shoulder lamb….it was finger-licking good but, of course , it was also artery clogging bad for our health (“,) . We only eat this once a year so I guess it was okay to indulge in this sinful mouth-watering meat.

juicy shoulder lambs with Daddy famous bbq sauce (",)

Momsie Salad.....the toasted sesame

gave extra fragrance to the salad :)

I made a bowl salad to go with the meat and it was good too. The Pizza Cocktail Sausages was even better for it was a first time for us. Piggy Ernest bought it from Jusco..hmmm didn’t know it tasted so good. We had a wonderful time tucking in the charcoal grilled meat plus the fantastic Daddy famous BBQ sauce which I will be sharing with you later.

Not much pictures here coz either I was busy eating or busy bbq-ing the meat . We took turns taking care of the meat while they were being grilled over the amber charcoal.





Daddy Special BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:

½ bottle Kimball tomato sauce
10 tbsp oyster sauce
10 tbsp chilli sauce
10 pips of garlic – chopped finely
8 shallots - chopped finely
3 tbsp of cooking wine
1 tbsp of brown sugar

Method:

Mixed together the above ingredients n leave it to rest for 1 hr so that the ingredients can get to know each other well (“,)

Brush on the meat only when they are almost cook. Do not marinade the meat with the sauce. Just brush the meat with salt n pepper 2 hrs before bbq-ing


Momsie Special Salad

Ingredients:

1 iceberg lettuce
1 big lettuce
1 pack of cherry tomato
2 cucumber remove the core
2 carrots
black olives

a bottle of salad cream
toasted white sesame
2 tbsp of olive oil
cheddar cheese - the amount up to individual

Method:

Wash & drain dry all the lettuce and cut it to bite size. Peel the cucumber and cut into half length wise and removed the core . Cut vertical into semi circle strips. Cut the carrots into strips and scald in hot water for a minute ( if you want it to be a bit softer ) hard to chew on raw carrot for older people like me :) . Cut the tomato into half, easier to bite…children won’t get choke on it. Put all the vegetables and cut black olive into a big salad bowl. Add in the salad cream and olive oil and cheddar cheese and toss till well mixed. Sprinkle the toasted sesame on top. Serve together with the BBQ meats.

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Crab Meat Omelette

We had some left-over steamed crabs when we had our seafood feast during the Raya festive and since everyone had enough of them, I decided to flake off the meat and kept it in the freezer for further use .

And it came handy as I wanted to make omelette for my lunch. I took out some for omelette and the rest I will use it for making fried rice which I am going to make for our dinner tonight. The crab meat was sweet and fleshy too. Excellent for omelette and salad and fried rice , don’t you think so ? :))

I love omelette…easiest dish to prepare and nutritious too. But for me , I can only eat it once a week…have to control the artery clogging stuff , at my age :(

Crab Meat Omelette

Ingredients:

½ cup flake crab meat
1 egg – beaten
a dash of white pepper
a pinch of salt
some cut chillli padi (bird eyes)
some cut scallions
a pip of garlic – chopped finely

Method:

Beat up the egg with a pinch of salt, pepper. Leave aside.

Meanwhile , saute the garlic with a tsp of canola oil till fragrant on a non-stick pan on medium heat. Add in the crab meat and stir fry a few seconds. Take out and mixed together with the beaten egg. Pour back the egg mixture on the non-stick pan and add in the cut chilli and scallions. When the underside is lightly brown, flipped over and cooked till the other side is lightly brown. Take it out and served hot.

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Spicy Garlicky Minty Tofu

I know I have not been baking anything lately, in fact since the Raya holidays :( But I will start my baking again soon coz I have a very very long ' To-Do ' list. Can’t wait to test out a few recipes that I have in mind to do….by the way I have put on 1.5 kg so for the next few weeks I have to go slow on food :(

Well, I have been enjoying my Raya holidays with my Piggies and the best part was , my boss approved my leave during the Raya festive thus a long stretch of holiday ( normally the nons will not be allowed to take leave ) :) And Piggy Ernest took leave too so we had a wonderful time together. From brunch to dinner , we ate out most of the time. We had a jolly good time together , no doubt. From BBQ , Seafood feast , Japanese food to Night Market (Pasar Malam) food ( can you believe we spend about RM100 just for dinner from the night market ?(pasar malam) We went to the 1st Garden night market (pasar malam) and to my disappointment the food was not good at all. The one near Tesco is much better. More choices of course and more organized.

As for me, I love the fermented Tofu and one type of special deep fried tofu with mint leaves…it’s heavenly. I have been yearning for this special tofu since I eaten it a week ago . I watched them as they prepared it and mentally figuring out how to do it since. Thus ,this post on this special tofu. It turned out quite like the one selling at the pasar malam, The only difference is their tofu is specially made for them harder in texture and more flavorsome, whereas mine was softer and bland. Anyway , it tasted good except the tofu is softer than the one sold at the pasar malam ( night market ) .

Will definitely try this again the next time my Piggies come back for the weekend. Hmmm maybe I should try out the harder type of tofu and soak it for a few hours with salt water. Well , no try no gain as the saying goes :))))) A good try anyway. It was quite close to the one sold at the pasar malam anyway! (",)

Mixed the fried tofu with the oil scalded mint leaves and raw garlic

together

Sprinkle chilli powder ( Babas brand) on the
mixed tofu

The finish result after tossing all the ingredients together .

The scalded mint leaves and raw garlic gave this dish

the oomph :) a nice snack

Spicy Garlicky Minty Tofu

Ingredients:

5 pieces of white tofu ( preferably the hard compact ones )
Cut into bite sized cubes and soaked in salt water ( 1 hr)
Drain dry and coat with corn flour
A few pips of garlic – chopped finely
Mint leaves – ten sprigs – washed and drain dry
1 tbsp of Babas chili powder
A dash of white pepper
Oil for deep frying

Method:

Heat up oil in the wok and deep fry the coated tofu till crispy. Add in the mint leaves and scald it till half cooked. Take out the tofu and mint leaves together and place them in a big bowl.

Add in the garlic and sprinkle the chili powder and white pepper to the tofu mixture and tossed it till well mixed. If it is still bland , sprinkle some salt to taste. a simple and delicious snack.

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Mint Leaves Omelette

Mint plants are sprouting everywhere in my dad’s backyard garden and especially if it rains the whole week, they flourishes like nobody business :) Makes it so convenient for me whenever I feel like eating mint leaves omelette , I just jump over the fence and harvest as much as I can as required to make an omelette ! And recently I found that I could use the mint leaves for making mint chocolate ice cream....haha sounds wonderful, isn't it (",)

This omelette is easy to prepare and lotz of goodness in it and grandma told us that it removes wind from our body and has a lot of medicinal values to it.

Mint Leaves Omelette

Ingredients:

2 large eggs,
julienne ginger,
julienne chilli padi,
dash of ground white pepper,
a pinch of salt - to taste
1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil

Method:

Beat up two eggs, add a dash of white ground pepper and a pinch of salt to it. Julienne some ginger and chilli padi ( bird’s eye ) and chopped up 2 pips of garlic. Heat up some sesame oil in a non-stick pan, add in the julienne ginger , chopped garlic , chilli padi till fragrant. Add in the washed and drained dry mint leaves. Fry a minute, take out all the ingredients and put into the egg mixture. Stir and mixed well. Then pour the mixture into the non-stick pan till it is cooked properly. Flip over the other side and when it is lightly brown, dish out onto a plate and garnish with some julienne chilli.

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