Mochi cheese puffs (pão de queijo)

 

 

It's my birthday today. The little fella treats me a nice sleep in. Instead of waking up at 6am ish, he woke up at 9am, giving me ample time to dress up and bake myself some nice mochi cheese puffs. Now that I'm 3x, I don't have that urge or joy to celebrate it to a great extent, the other reason is also because my grandmother just passed away two weeks ago, so there are no birthday bash this year. It's just a quiet one with my lovely other half and my cheeky little fella eating cheesecake drinking tea in a little café in town.

 

Now, let's get back to this mochi cheese puffs, when my friend Fei Tseh shared about it on FB, I knew I would definitely make it, cos firstly, I love everything that has the mochi texture, secondly, it's a savory item! I am not a big fan of sweet stuffs, but a savory and a cheesy one, that's my cup of tea.

 

Apparently, these mochi puffs are sold at an horrendous price of SGD2.80 for 3 in Sun Moulin Singapore. Interesting.. huh? With that amount, I could have easily baked dozens and dozens of them. I halved the original recipe cos I only had little amount of tapioca flour left, actually, the tapioca flour I had wasn't even enough for half the recipe, I topped up with a little cornflour and it turned out alright. The texture is something like a cheesy Yorkshire pudding, the difference is that Yorkshire pudding isn't made with tapioca, thus this has the mochi-chewiness to it. The little fella had about three for his breakfast!! He clearly loved it. He let out that 'savoring' sound ...Hmmmmmm...(nice).. when he was eating this.

 

Here's the recipe, from here, the following is my halved recipe, which yielded about 5 puffs:

• 1 medium egg
• 1/3 cup milk, top up with grapeseed oil, amounting to 1/2 cup
• 70g tapioca flour + 1tbsp cornflour
• 25g grated cheddar cheese
• 25g parmesan cheese
• punch of salt

Note: Do not be tempted to put in more cheese than stated. Too much cheese will render the puffs heavy and harden its texture.

It's hollow inside, just like a Yorkshire pudding.

1. Preheat oven to 200deg C (my oven is the over-friendly type, so my temperature was 180deg C).
2. Put all ingredients in a blender, I used my baby bullet, cos washing up is easy, and lucky that I halved the recipe. It wouldn't have been able to blend all if it was a full recipe.
3. Grease mini muffin tin with oil. If you're using greased muffin liner or silicon muffin cups like mine, you won't need to grease them. Place in about 2-3tablespoonful of batter in each muffin cup.
4. Bake for 20min or until risen and golden (I baked for 18min).

According to mummymoo, these keep up to 2 days in an air tight container at room temperature. Just like what she also mentioned, it wouldn't keep that long cos it gets eaten up very soon, and I agree with that.

Pac man sandwich (with pesto and mustard chicken)

 

 

 

I called this a pac man sandwich. Don't you think it looks like pac man? Only if you know what pac man is. It was one of those games we played on video player, during my childhood time. Wonder if my boy will know about pac man in future.

 

The bun was made with my usual soft and fluffy bread recipe, and the filling was green Japanese cucumber with healthy and delicious pesto and mustard chicken. I have stopped using mayonnaise in my sandwiches for quite some time. I launched a personal campaign on 'say no to trans fat' which forbid myself and everyone in my family to consume anything with trans fat, ie breads and buns from outside, commercially baked cookies, cakes and tarts and also mayonnaise. I'm not against it for its fat content. I have no problem stuffing myself with good butter and good cheese. But it is the fact that it's sooo commercially processed, making it non-agreeable by our body. Trans fat has been chemically modified. As a result, our body cannot process it nor excrete it. In the end, it stays in our body and the effects are cumulative.

 



It can be difficult in the beginning, cos it takes effort. And homebaked stuffs without trans fat will never taste the same as the ones from outside. But they can be yummy in their very own way. Check out this chicken sandwich filling made without mayonnaise.

• 1 side of chicken breast, steam-cooked and shredded
• 2tbsp pesto paste
• 1tbsp greek yogurt, plain
• 1tbsp cream cheese
• 1tsp coarse grain mustard

Mix all together and serve in sandwich, or with a side salad.

Pumpkin kikaku with homemade mung bean paste

Yes, it's kikaku again. Second time in a week.

 

I loved the texture, it's somewhere in between of mochi and steamed cupcakes. But I wasn't very pleased with my first try, whereby the kikaku turned out to be wrinkly. I suspected that I have either over-proved it*, or I have steamed it for too long.

 

I also did a little adjustment to the recipe after reading up a little about it. Tada!! Check out the photos! Texture wise, I love this even more. It still has that chewiness, which I love, and it's softer this time.

 

 

Here's the adjusted recipe (this recipe makes about 9 kikaku, weighing 55-60g each, without the filling)

 

• 125g all purpose flour, sifted
• 125g glutinous rice flour, sifted 
• 60g brown sugar, sifted
• 1tsp instant active dry yeast
• 100g pumpkin puree
• 120g water
• 1.5 tbsp. oil  

1. Mix all ingredients, except for veg oil, until texture turns into a dough. Slowly drizzle in veg oil and knead till smooth.
2. Grab about 55-60g of the dough and knead into small ball. Roll it into a flat round disk using a rolling pin, wrap about 1-2tbsp of mung bean filling in it, seal and form a round shape.  
3. Place on baking paper (or banana leaves, in my case, I used cupcake liner).
4. Cover up and let it proof for 30min. (In my case, I let it proof in an enclosed oven, not on)  
5. Steam on medium low heat for 10min.

*Note

• Do not poof for too long, over-proved dough will turn wrinkly. Some sources from the other bloggers proof for 30min. But the problem is they never mention how to know when the kikaku is ready to be steamed.  
• Once the kikaku has been steamed for 10min, lift the lid to a little gap to allow the steam to release, this is to avoid sudden drop in temperature which will turn the kikaku wrinkly.

Homemade mung bean paste filling

• 1cups of mung bean
• 100g pumpkin
• 2-3tbsp molasses sugar (adjust this to your own preference)

1. Soak mung beans for 2-4hours prior to cooking.
2. Cook pumpkin and mung bean until soft and mushy. In a blender, puree both pumpkin and mung bean. Sweeten with molasses sugar.
3. Keep in refrigerator.

On the way to nanny's, this is what he does when I asked him to smile for the camera :)

食为奴咸鱼包 (Salted fish bun)

I didn't watch this drama食为奴. But the 咸鱼包 Salted fish bun was all over the blogosphere and facebook. I checked out the recipe, it didn't seem difficult to make and it would be quite an appetizing one with the incorporation of salted fish in it. So I made it for breakfast this morning. Just like what it says in the drama (apparently, anyway), it has to be consumed right away, leaving it long before consumption will make it tough and dry. Therefore, if you're gonna make this and won't be finishing all, just dry-fry however much you wanna eat and leave the rest in the fridge.

 

I managed to divide the dough into 13 pieces, each weigh about 35-40g, but somehow I only had filling for 11 buns, so I wrapped two with pumpkin puree, and those were for my little fella.

 

Pumpkin dry-fried bun for my little fella 我儿子的金瓜干煎包

 

Dough

• 300g all purpose flour
• 150g boiling water
• 60g cold water

Pour boiling water into flour. Combine all. Add in cold water and knead into dough. Rest for 30min in fridge.

Filling

• 300g minced pork
• 50g salted fish, pan-fried to release the aroma
• 1tbsp chopped ginger
• 3tbsp chopped scallion
• 1tbsp chopped onion

seasoned with

• 3tsp soy sauce (I used liquid amino)
• 3tbsp sesame oil
• black pepper poweder
• 1tbsp brown sugar
• 2tbsp xiaoshing wine (I used 1tbsp cognac)

1. Divide rested dough into 35-40g pieces. Roll dough into thin round disk with rolling pin. Place about a tbsp. of filling and seal the bun.
2. Pour about 2tbsp cooking oil into wok. Place the salted fish bun in the wok. Adjust the heat to medium heat. Add in 1tbsp water, pan fry both side till golden (till water is all dried up).

Japanese noodle salad with steamed soy tofu

No, this wasn't my dinner. It was his, the little fella's. His dinner looked and tasted soooo much nicer than mine! It was a quick one that I whipped up for him in about 45 minutes.

Japanese noodle salad w/ avocado

• Brown rice noodle, cooked in a pot of boiling water 
• 1/2 avocado, chopped
• 1tbsp Japanese goma dressing, refer here for recipe

Steamed soy tofu

• 80ml soymilk, unsweetened, organic (you may use fresh ones or those from carton)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp liquid amino or anchovies powder 

1. Gently whisk egg and soymilk with a pair of chopsticks. Season with liquid amino or anchovies powder. Whisk to combine.
2. Strain the egg mixture through a sieve to remove any egg blobs.
3. Divide the egg mixture among 2 ramekin dish.
4. Option: add in fish or minced meat.
5. Cover with lid or aluminium foil.
6. Steam for 15-18min.

Pumpkin kikaku 南瓜喜板

Even though my mom is Hakka and she cooks lots of great Hakka delicacies, and my husband's family is Hakka, and they too cooks superb Hakka dishes, I have never tried kikaku before (they call this a Hakka dish)..hmmm... I wonder.

 

But both my son and I fall in love with it the first time we tried it. It's not exactly fluffy like pao, it's more to chewy and soft. I cut down the sugar content from the original recipe, and I made this in the morning for our breakfast. I must have been rushing, that's why my kikaku didn't come out smooth, arghh.. but it tasted good still nonetheless. One recipe yielded about 15-16 kikaku, so we had them for breakfast, left some for hubby and maid and brought the rest to the nanny's. Must thank my friend Yunicko for introducing me the recipe.

 

 

 

Here's the recipe, this recipe yields about 15-16 kikaku

• 150g all purpose flour
• 125g glutinous rice flour
• 80g sugar (I only used 60g brown sugar)
• 1tsp instant active dry yeast
• 120g pumpkin puree (pumpkin, steam-cooked and pureed) 
• 100g water
• 1tbsp vegetable oil (I used grapeseed oil)

1. Mix all ingredients, except for veg oil, until texture turns into a dough. Slowly drizzle in veg oil and knead till smooth.
2. Grab about 50g of the dough and knead into small ball and place on baking paper (or banana leaves, in my case, I used cupcake liner).
3. Cover up and let it proof for about an hour*. (I let mine proof in an enclosed oven, not on)
4. Steam for 10min.

*Note:

I did a little research after seeing that my kikaku didn't turn out to be smooth like how it should be, here's what you should take note on:

• Do not poof for too long, over-proved dough will turn wrinkly. Some sources from the other bloggers proof for 30min. But the problem is they never mention how to know when the kikaku is ready to be steamed.  
• Once the kikaku has been steamed for 10min, lift the lid to a little gap to allow the steam to release, this is to avoid sudden drop in temperature which will turn the kikaku wrinkly.

 

 

Coral glass jelly pudding (sea bird nest pudding)

 

This is my second healthy pudding for the week. The first one was made with just chia seeds and milk or soymilk. This one is made with just seaweeds, also known as sea birdnest or poor man's birdnest, as they resembles birdnest in terms of their dense collagen and high nutrients content.

 

According to an info by Matanjun et al, 2009, this coral glass seaweed (or sea birdnest) contains 10 times richer amount of collagen than birdnest, 37 times more calcium than cod liver. It is low in fat and calories but bursting with nutrients like magnesium, iron, sodium and calcium. In other words, to me, it's a cheap, nice, non-fattening dessert that helps to provide good nutrients for the skin, for my boy it's a healthy nutritious dessert that provides fiber and an array of great nutrients.

 

This coral glass seaweed or sea birdnest is available for sale at Just Health, Sandakan.

 

 

 

 

Preparation:

1. First rinse the sea birdnest with water a few times.
2. Soak the sea birdnest in clean filered water for about 3-4 hours (change the water in between for 2-3times).
3. After soaking, rinse away the water, it is now ready to be consumed or cooked.

In Sabah, they are normally served as:

• Salad - the sea birdnest is chopped into pieces, mixed in with julienned cucumber and carrots, marinated with vinegar or lemon juice, salt and sugar.
• Jelly - see below for recipe
• Sweet dessert (tong sui 糖水）- the sea birdnest is boiled with dried longan, red dates, white fungus, water and rocksugar.

Recipe for sea birdnest jelly

 

Longan, goji and kanten jelly

• 1 kanten brown sugar cube
• 4 cups of water
• 1/2 tbsp. wolfberries (goji)
• 3 dried longan
• 25g sea birdnest, soaked and cleaned

OR

 

Soy and almond milk jelly

• 4 cups of water with 2tbsp almond powder and 3tbsp soy powder
• 25g sea birdnest, soaked and cleaned

1. Boil all ingredients in a pan, stirring continuous, until sea birdnest dissolves.
2. Pour into a jelly mould or a shallow container.
3. Chill for at least 4 hours or until jelly firms up.