Fried charcoal noodle with dried shrimp

Ermmm.... now.. how should I start.. I haven't been blogging properly for the longest time ever, so many things had happened, and I have no idea how I should summarize all in one short blog post. Okay.. most things that happened are good stuffs... so it's worth a mention.. let me do them in point form:

* I have finally bidded good-bye to my Samsung S2 which I've been using for 21month (I remember the date clearly, cos it was a pre-give-birth pressie from my dad) and gotten myself a mi3 (aka xiaomi) which I'm quite happy with 

* We have also bidded good-bye to TM internet and treated ourselves with Yes 4G which should allow me to enjoy 5x the speed of the conventional 3G. Fingers crossed it would :) 

* I made a business trip to Korea for a week and left the lil' fella at home with the hubby. The hubby managed it fantastically, and life went on normal (more than normal.. according to hubby, the lil' fella behaved better without me around :~ ) when I weren't around. I aint sure if I should be happy or not knowing this. Hahahaaa... but one thing I'm sure, I can plan more biz trip or girls trip in the future. LOL.

* The lil' fella has much more vocab now. He knows majority of the animals he sees on the animal video or the animal book, crocodile, monkey are his favorite. He somehow is fearful of gerbil but he's okay with guinea pig. He also started saying 一二三 in Mandarin and one, two, three, four, five in English. And I haven't properly taught him that. He could have picked them up elsewhere.

* I am back to zumba-ing.

* I have been addicted to instagram-ing. Not that I'm instagram-ing, but I am addicted to checking out beautiful posts on other people's instagram.

* I finally settled my car loan of 7 years. So my suzuki swift is now all mine :D

* My brother is leaving for Japan for further studies in September. We are all proud and happy about it, cos it gives all of us one more destination to fly to in the future. In fact we were already planning the trip to Japan way before he was confirmed with the uni-acceptance and scholarship. LOL  

* Mom's back in Sandakan, which I'm super chuff off, she hasn't been back here for over half a year. This fried charcoal noodle brekkie was made by her. Somehow it tastes much more delicious than the ones I make.

See?... you know what I meant by so many things had happened in such short time? There are more.. but I better stop here. I shall share on the recipe for this simple yet delicious fried charcoal noodle with dried shrimp (I still think the reason it's delicious is because it's made by my mom.. you know how all of us always miss mom's cooking?) 

Recipe (serves 4 adults and 1 baby)

*1tbsp dried shrimp (soaked in water till soft and chopped finely) 

*3 clove garlic, minced

*Half an onion, thinly sliced 

*Half a carrot, julienned 

*Half a zucchini, julienned 

*Few cabbage leaves, julienned 

*Charcoal noodle, cooked in boiling water till soft

 Instructions:

1. Heat up 1-2tbsp rice bran oil in a heated wok. Fry half of the minced garlic, onion and dried shrimp till fragrant. Stir in and stir fry the charcoal noodle for about 3-5min. Set aside.

2. In a clean wok, heat up a tbsp rice bran oil. Stir fry remaining garlic, carrot, zucchini and cabbage until veg turns soft. Stir in fried noodles. Season with Bragg's liquid amino and salt.

Durian chiffon cake

I have been MIA from my blog for a very long time. Feeling bad about it. Been travelling and my laptop failed on me. So all the nice buns and cakes I have done recently haven't been blogged nor recorded.

I did this durian chiffon cake last night and I told myself by hook or by crook I have to put it onto my blog. As you notice from the quality of the photo, yep.. photos were taken using my phone.

I have been a big fan of durian but I'm afraid of it.. eating it I meant. It's pretty hefty in terms of its sugar and cholesterol content. I was initially thinking to bake durian butter cake with it. But I didn't. Instead I baked a lighter and 'healthier' one.

This recipe was adapted from Fong's Kitchen (link is here http://fong-kitchen-journal.blogspot.com/2013/08/durian-chiffon-cooked-dough-method.html?m=1). I have always loved baking chiffon using the tang mian method. Love that it remains soft and fluffy.

Recipe
(chiffon pan size: 18cm)

(A):
30g butter (I omitted this and replaced with rice bran oil)
20g corn oil (I used rice bran oil)
70g milk
1/4 tsp salt

(B) Sift together:
90g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

(C) Mix together:
4 yolks
100g durian puree (if durian flesh is too dry, add 1 to 2 tbsp milk)

(D):
5 egg whites (I only used 4 whites)
70g sugar (I cut down to 60g sugar)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I omitted this)

Method:
1) Combine (A) together in a small sauce pot and bring it to gentle simmer.  Once it starts to simmer, remove the pot from heat and stir in (B).  

2) Pour (C) into step 1 and mix till combined.  Set aside the batter.

3) Whisk (D) till peak form.  Fold the meringue into the prepared batter (fold 1/3 portion of the meringue at a time).  Pour the batter into an ungreased chiffon pan.

4) Bake in preheated oven at 170C for about 45 minutes (I baked mine at 140C for 35min in my Fotile oven).

Sent via Xiaomi

Overnight oat

Overnight oat with chia seeds 

Overnight oat with chia seeds, mulberries and kiwi. 

Gimme a LIKE, will ya? :p

Overnight oat is the IT 'trend' lately. You'll see posts of your friends having overnight oat on facebook, instagram, blogs, twitters.. everywhere. It's like a self-proclaimation that 'I'm now on a clean-diet'. Come gimme a LIKE. Hahaaa.. I just did it this morning. So no offence seriously. If you do ponder about it, you'll realized that soaked oat has been here for a long time. The lil' fella and I have been eating warmed-up soaked oat with fruits for the longest time ever. The difference now is that we don't heat it up and we serve/ prep it in a tall glass jar. It looks more pleasing to the eye.

Now, let's compare it with the warmed up soaked oat that the lil' fella used to eat. Won't you agree that the 'NEW' overnight oat is definitely looking much prettier?

Here's the recipe for a pretty overnight oat served in a glass jar:
*1/2 cup rolled oat, organic
*1 cup fresh milk
*1/3 cup plain yogurt or greek yogurt

Combine all and soak overnight in glass jar in the fridge. The next morning, prior to serving, top with chopped fruits.

OR this is a yogurt-free recipe which I prefer:
*1cup rolled oat, organic
*1 cup fresh milk

OR  here's the recipe for black sesame and chia seed oat pudding 

*1cup milk 

*1tbsp black sesame powder

*2tbsp chia seeds 

*1 cup rolled oat 

Combine all and soak overnight in glass jar in the fridge. The next morning, prior to serving, top with chopped fruits.

Overnight oat with oat crispies, chopped salted almond and fresh mango.

Banana and jackfruit muffin

A friend made this and shared about this on FB. She was commenting on how fragrant they were while baking in the oven. I was intrigued. I have never cooked nor baked with Jackfruits (or more commonly known as Nangka here) and almost forgot how it smells. Hahaa.. so I decided to give it a try.

The lil' fella didn't like eating nangka. I realized that he's at this phase where he would double consider when comes to anything slimy or chewy, eg nangka, lychee... er.. and what else. Suddenly I got brain-freezed. Pardon me.. I'm writing this post at 3:14am. Yes it's 3:14am! I have been really occupied at my shop lately and with all my electronic gadgets failing on me (my personal laptop died due to the frequent electric surge or electric cut that's been happening in Sandakan, my Android phone has been half dead for over a few months.. its battery won't charge till over 50% and refuse to charge on powerbank) I have been quite lagged in terms of updating my cooks and bakes on my blog. I know that I won't be doing them if I get this delayed any further. So I woke up after about 6 hours sleep to do up this post.

I can still remisnesce the nice aroma of this cupcake looking at these photos. They turned out quite sweet, cos I actually pureed the banana and jackfruit. I wouldn't have done it if the lil' fella eats the jackfruit in pieces. I preferred having some textures in this muffin. So if you're keen on this recipe, try having a mix of pureed jackfruit with chopped jackfruit. I am sure they will turn out great, taste and texture wise.

The recipe is adapted from my favorite banana muffin recipe. I have made so many variations of it, and it has not failed me so far, unlike my phone and my laptops :p

Ingredients:

*2 eggs 

*50g brown sugar (original was 100g)
*1 ripe banana and about 8 pieces of Jackfruits (chopped or pureed)
*100g top Flour (or plain flour/superlite flour/cake flour)
*1/2 tsp baking powder (original recipe had baking soda, I omitted it)
*60g grapeseed oil (this time I used rice bran oil)
*1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (I omitted this)

 

Topping (Optional)

*1tsp of cinnamon and 2tsp of brown sugar. Combine and sprinkle on top of cupcake batter prior to baking, OR 

*Rolled oat, OR

*Walnuts 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170deg C. 
2. Sieve flour and baking powder together. Set aside.
3. Whisk eggs till frothy. Whisk in banana and jackfruit puree, and brown sugar.
4. Fold in flour, baking powder and mix well with spatula.
5. Add in oil and mix well.
6. Spoon batter into cupcake liner. Decorate with topping (see above).
7. Bake for 20min, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Crustless cheese and carrot quiche (Gluten free)

Call this a quiche (French) or frittata (Italian). I basically thought this dish can be called either, with the exception that this would be a crustless / baseless quiche. I always make this for the lil' fella, as a simple dinner or snack, whenever I have leftover pasta or rice (in this case! - making this dish gluten free).

This is a re-visited recipe. The one I previously did was Zucchini quiche with onion and cheese. You can really do it with any sorts of vegetables you have in the fridge. Another good one would be grated pumpkin or chopped broccoli (I would probably blanch the broccoli prior to putting them in this dish).

The ingredients and steps are easy. Basically I just prep up everything. Put them all on a shallow bowl, combine all evenly and pour into cupcake liner or mini ceramic dishes for a quick bake. It takes about 15-20 minutes in the oven. If you're like me, love to peep into the oven while they are baking, you'll notice that the quiche or frittata will gradually puff up over the duration, at this stage, you know it's almost there. Give it a couple of extra minute to get that golden color coat and they can leave the oven.

Here's the recipe

For the recipe of baby quiche, you'll need:
(This recipe makes 4 baby quiche or frittata in 4 ceramic dishes)

• 1cup grated carrot
• 1egg (large) or 2 medium eggs
• 1/2 small onion, finely diced
• 1clove garlic, finely minced
• 1/4 cup Cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/4 cup cooked rice or cooked quinoa
• pinch of salt and black pepper (optional)

Instructions:
1. Combine the egg, minced onion, garlic, grated cheese and carrot cooked rice, salt, and pepper. Stir until evenly combined.
2. Pour evenly onto 4 ceramic dishes *If the mixture appears to be too dry. You may add in another egg, beaten.
3. Bake at 175degC for 18-20 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool slightly before removing to a wire rack to cool. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Reheat at 170ºC for about 8-10 minutes, until heated through.

Steamed oat milk bun/ mantou 奶香燕麦蒸包/馒头

The lil' fella loves pau. Whenever we're out having breakfast at a place that serves pau, if he sees the pau, he'll be making noises, wanting the pau eagerly. But interestingly, he doesn't like the pau's filling, be it savory or sweet. He'll make sure he doesn't eat any bit of the filling. I ended up walloping the filling while he savor his pau. So for today's breakfast, I made him his favorite pau using a soft and fluffy mantou recipe I've previously tried out. It was originally a recipe for soymilk pumpkin bun with red bean filling. But I didn't use the pumpkin puree nor the soymilk this time. Neither did I have any filling for it. I just made it plain with milk and rolled oat soaked in fresh milk. It turned out surprisingly fragrant. It smells a little like custard bun even though this recipe hasnt got any egg nor butter (I replaced the butter with rice bran oil).

I left him with his breakfast while I prep up other stuffs in the kitchen. When I went back to check on him (in just less than 5 minutes), he had already finished up everything, including the chopped banana. It shows he really loves his steamed bun. Guess I'm making more steamed bun for breakfast this week.

Here's the recipe

Recipe modified and translated from Carol.

*old dough 100g (see following for preparation of old dough) *I did this step too, according to her, it improves the fragrance and texture to great extent. But I had to leave mine in room temperature for about 3hours for it to double its size. It didn't proof when in the fridge.

*300g Cake flour/  superfine flour (I didn't use pau flour, cos I went through the ingredient list, it already contain sugar, shortening etc in it, I didn't want it. I wanted to adjust my own)

*1tsp Instant active yeast

*100g Fresh milk (lukewarm) 

*3tbsp rolled oat in 50g fresh milk (soaked for at least 15min)  

*30g Brown sugar

*1/8tsp Salt

*50g Rice Bran Oil

Preparation of old dough

*120g all purpose flour 

*1/2 tsp instant active yeast 

*80g warm water  

*pinch of salt 

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and knead till it becomes a smooth dough (about a few minutes, max). 
2. Cover bowl with cling film and let proof for 6-8hours under room temperature, or let proof in fridge until the next day.  

• Old dough that is not used up can be kept in the fridge for 3-5 days or in the freezer for at least 1 month. Thaw before use. 

 Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients and knead. I used my Donlim breadmaker to knead. Knead until the dough is stretchy and has smooth surface (about 10min in my bread machine).

2. Leave to proof in an oiled bowl till it double its size. (i did this in the bread machine using the Proofing mode)  

3. On a floured surface, punch the risen dough to knock out all the trapped gas.

4. Using a rolling pin, roll into a thin flat dough. Roll up like rolling up a swiss roll  

5. Cut into 10 equal pieces. (I made some into bun some, since he loves the round bun)

7. Place onto non-stick parchment paper.

8. Let proof for another 30-40min.

9. Steam in vigorously boiling water for about 12min. Wrap the lid with a tea towel to prevent the condensate from dropping back onto the pau, which will uglify the outlook. Do not open the lid right away. Let cool gently so that the skin of the pau wont turn wrinkly.

Mango yogurt chiffon cake with dried fig

It was our favorite day- Sunday again.

It's been a busy week for both myself and the lil' fella as we had lots of visitors from KL. He had lots of fun just playing and 'talking' with his friends (he called Goh Goh Jie Jie) and I brought them to all the places of interests in Sandakan. They left on Saturday. So this Sunday, we get to rest and recuperate. The lil' fella took a long deserved nap of about 3 hours. With that, I get to bake my favorite Sunday's bake - chiffon and prep his lunch.

Today I have decided to bake a mango yogurt chiffon with chopped dried fig. I love the way the figs give the extra bite and texture to this soft and fluffy chiffon. Figs are good sources of calcium and they aren't as sweet as raisins nor dried cranberries. I coated them with half teaspoon of cake flour, so that they will not all sink to the bottom of the cake when baking.

Here's the recipe, adapted from Happy Home Baker. 

Ingredients:(I used an 18cm chiffon pan)

4 egg yolks (medium)
2.5tbsp brown sugar
3tbsp rice bran oil
40g plain yoghurt
50g mango puree
1 teaspoon lemon juice
80g cake flour

4 egg whites (medium)
3tbsp brown sugar

60g chopped dried fig
1/2 tsp cake flour for dusting

Instructions:

1. Sieve cake flour and set aside. 
2. Chop dried figs into small cubes. Coat with flour and sieve to remove excess flour. Set aside.
3. Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl. With a manual hand whisk, whisk the yolks a little. Add in sugar and whisk to combine.
4. Add in rice bran oil gradually, whisk to combine. 
5. Combine mango puree, yoghurt and lemon juice. Add into egg yolk mix. Whisk to combine. Sieve over the flour and whisk till the flour is fully incorporated. Do not over mix. Set aside.
6. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with a handheld electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy and foamy.  Add half of the sugar amount and turn to high speed and beat the mixture. Continue to add in the remaining sugar and beat until the egg whites reaches the soft peak stage.The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites curl over and droop slightly. The egg whites should appear smooth and glossy, and if you overturn the bowl, the egg white meringue doesn't drop.
7. Add the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
8. Add in the prepared dried fig. Fold in until just blended Do not over mix.
9. Pour batter into a 18cm tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
10. Bake in pre-heated oven at 140 degC for 40 mins (every oven differs, my oven has been a very friendly one, after about 20min in the oven, I had to tent an alum foil loosely oven the chiffon to avoid the top from getting too brown), bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, when lightly pressed the cake will spring back. Invert the pan immediately and let cool completely before unmould (I usually wait for at least an hour before I unmould the cake from the pan).  

See the following video to check out how I unmould the chiffon from the pan (Pardon my lil' fella. He just got up from his nap and must be starving).