Let's Make Acar !!

Acar aka Pickles - my favourite appetizer ... *slurp*

We don't like Malay styled acar --> too blend

We don't like Peranakan acar --> too strong

We don't like M'sian acar --> turmeric powder?

We don't like Taiwanese acar --> just vinegar

Mum has improvised the recipe and here we have our very own Acar ..
Recipe :
(A)
1 Large spanish turnip (mangkuang)
2 Large cucumber
1/2 pineapple
1 large carrot
3 tbsp of salt
Instruction: cut them into slices. Add salt and mix well. Put a side for approximately 20 minutes. Salt will make them crunchy and you will see quite a lot of water after that, remember to pour them away after the vegetables become softer and make sure they are dry before adding (B).
(B)
6 scallots
6-8 fresh red chili
some sesame
Instruction: Slice the scallots and blend the chili. Heat up your wok and start frying the sesame, followed by scallots and lastly, the chili. DON'T COOK THEM ALL TOGETHER! One after another.
When (B) are ready, add them into (A) and mix well. Don't forget to add in approx. 200gm sugar together with half a bottle of white vinegar. Mum said is ok if add too much sugar, because we can always pour more vinegar. If you think is too sour to your liking, then you can add more sugar. Like I've said before, there is no exact amount of ingredients when come to cooking (for my mum only) so sometimes, you need to taste your cooking using your fingers. Haha..

Hong Kong Styled Chee Cheong fun 猪肠粉 - Failed badly

After the lousy prawn dumpling, here I have terrible CCF. Maybe these days I shouldn't try cooking, I mean shouldn't have cooked when I am not really in the mood. Bad rolls...

Again, nothing is wrong with the recipe, must be the measurement! I think I need a pair of specs..Margaret suggested me to pour everything in and steam it, yeah, like carrot cake.

Recipe extracted from Baking Mum
Ingredients :
150g Rice Flour
1 ½ Tbsp Wheat starch flour
2 Tbsp Corn flour
1 Tbsp Oil
450mls Water
½ tsp Salt

Method :
1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Slowly add the water, mixing as you add.
3. Lastly add the oil and salt and mix thoroughly. Set batter aside for at least an hour.
4. Prepare your steamer. Grease a swiss roll pan or any aluminium tray with oil and pour the batter directly on the pan and steam for 5 mins.
5. After steaming, using a plastic scrapper roll the ccf up. If you are using ingredients like char siew or prawns, you can sprinkle it over the steamed ccf and then proceed to roll it up.
6. Place in a plate brushed with a little oil. Continue with the rest of the batter.

Sauce
Ingredients :
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp sugar
a few slices of ginger (optional)
½ cup water
4 tbsp mushroom flavoured soy sauce or normal light soy sauce
½ to 1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1. Place ginger with oil and sugar in a pot. Cook over small fire until sugar turns brown.
2. When sugar is brown, add in the rest of the ingredients. Cook over medium fire for about 5 mins. Taste the sauce and adjust taste accordingly. If you find the sauce too sweet, you can add in a bit of salt.

Sweet sauce (cwl's recipe)
1/2 cup water
7 tbsp Hoisin sauce
3 tbsp soya sauce
3 tsp dark soya sauce

Mix all ingredients together and cook over medium heat until it thicken slightly.

甘香葱油饼 Onion Pancake

Using the same recipe from my Taiwanese Pancake. I know, the style is incorrect, I'll try again next time, ok? I prepared extra dough for the taiwanese pancake too, I prefer this one!

Tau Suan 豆爽

There were mung beans in the cabinet and pandan leaves from our corridor garden. Mum decided to cook dessert for us - Tau Suan 豆爽 !

Fellow friends, forget about recipe, mum never measures or weights the ingredients before cooking for all these years. Sigh, that's why is tough to learn from her.

Crystal Prawn Dumpling 水晶虾饺

This is such a super dupper big failure, think I have to discard all, after eating the filling..hehe..The skin is super thick and chewy, don't get me wrong, the measurement is correct, it was me that lazy to use the weighing machine and everything was like agaration and here I have - lousy prawn dumpling !

Crystal Prawn Dumpling (recipe from BakingMum)

Ingredients for the dough
110 gm wheat starch
220 gm potato starch
160 gm boiling water

Ingredient A
3 water chestnut (minced)

Ingredients for the filling
300 gm fresh prawn
3 gm msg
3 gm salt
6 gm sugar
5 gm potato starch
1 tsp sesame oil

Method
1. Combine filling ingredients until elastic. Add in A.
2 Pour in the boiling water to the dough ingredients until half-cooked. Knead into a dough.
3 Knead dough into a long strip. Divide into equal parts, each 15 gm. Roll into flat round piece.
4. Wrap in 20 gm filling and fold into a har kow shape. Steam over high heat for 5 minutes.

Chicken Rice Balls

My mummy is a good cook! I am so proud of her and that explained why my weight rose up 72 kg 8 years ago. Thanks to hubby who constantly reminded me that "health is wealth" few years back and I've learnt how to control my diet and most importantly, control the amount of food I consumed, no matter how nice it is. Okay, sorry for digressing, one of mum's signature dish is Hainanese Chicken Rice. As mentioned many times(in my blog) that we are pure Hainanese, how can we not know how to cook authentic chicken rice and make rice balls? We tried the famous chicken rice balls in Malacca but find it too oily and it is not handmade. It is very tedious to prepare as my mummy used her bare hand to roll the steaming hot rice with a little bit pressure to form into ball shaped. After rolling, her palms were all red and sore. Some may ask why must it be steaming hot? "so that the rice will stick onto each other and hold the shape nicely", said mummy.

Salmon Puff

It took me less than 5 minutes to prepare this today!

Why Pizza?

Margaret has been pestering me to bake something these few days, be it a cake or a kuih. Not only that, she also kept insisting that we had promised her to go shopping at Causeway Point together and dine in at PASTAMANIA. Well, we went there at the end despite much reluctance but we didn't go to Pastamania.

M : OK, then we go home and make pasta tonight?
D : Need to buy minced meat and spaghetti. I am not sure if there is any pasta sauce at home. Don't forget we need to buy mushroom as well.
M : Well, then we bake pizza will do.
D : That's a better idea and much easier as I have flour and yeast at home. Go grab some ham, cheese and tomatoes paste.

We headed home and I start searching for some recipe online and found this from small small baker . There are plenty of recipes online but I choose her as I don't have bread flour at home, well, I have no idea why must it be bread flour as the original recipe for pizza dough use only flour or semolina flour. Anyway, so long as my dough does raise and doesn't collapse, I shall thank her for the recipe!

Simple ingredients..

Sinful baked ham & mozzarella cheese

This one for Margaret !

This one for Ben !

French Toast

I woke up this morning..a bit late but everyone was still asleep. I do laundary, mop the floor, water the plants, throw rubbish, clean up the war zone and prepare breakie for everyone. While preparing the breakie, M woke up and took over as my stomach was a little bit cramp. Thankie!

Nasi Lemak

It has been years since we last cook NASI LEMAK at home. Many thanks to my mummy who helped me to get all the ingredients, cleaned up the kunning fishes, washed and dryed the peanuts and ikan bilis(anchovies) and tied the pandan leaves for the rice. Mostly fried food, easy to prepare and simple to cook, except the sambal chili. I can't share much about the sambal recipe as the some of the ingredients eg. chili powder was given our Indian neighbour whose mummy brought back from Sri Lanka. It is really very tasty !

Ta dah!! We have sunny-side-up egg, fish ball, sambal sotong, kunning fish, fried chicken, otah, peanut and ikan bilis !!

Goodies/Party Bags

Nat and I busy preparing these goodies bags for Cheryl's schoolmates There are chocolate cookies, sanrio characters' cookies, gummy sweets

My First Pandan Chiffon Cake

My mood is super good today so I decided to bake something.. Many thanks to LeeLee who shares her recipe online! *Extracted from her blog*

Ingredients:
75 gm plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
75 ml coconut cream/milk
4 egg yolks
5 egg white
100 castor sugar
1.5 tbsp corn oil
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp pandan paste **

Methods:
1. Cream egg yolks, 70 gm of sugar until it is creamy and thick.
2. Add in sifted flour and baking powder, vanilla essence, coconut cream/milk, corn oil, pandan paste into the egg yolk mixture. Use machine to mix it well.
3. In a clean dry bowl, beat eggwhite, remainder 30 gm of sugar, cream of tartar and a pinch of salt until stiff.
4. Mix the eggwhite into the flour mixture and mix it thoroughly using a spatula. Pour into the chiffon pan and bake in a preheated oven at 175C for 45 mins. (My oven doesn't have 175C so I baked it at 170C.)
5. When cake is baked, invert it immediately to cool down for about 10 mins. After 10 mins, use a sharp knife to loosen the side and then the bottom to release the cake. Leave it on a wire rack to cool down further.

Look at the texture!

Cook Book...again

It was only SGD4.90, go grab it at any bookstore!

My sister, Juliana got me this at Giant. Oh yah, we went to the old turf club, did some shopping and had our dinner together with the Lian's family.

Joy Of Making Dim Sum

Festive Cook Book

My Collection

My First Cook Book

Bought at Kinokuniya, Sydney

I always dream I will have a beautiful English Styled Kitchen with a island table in the middle, where I can bake my cakes and cookies. My lovely mixer on the tabletop and my collection of cook books...
*day dreaming*

Where is my Wilton Year Book?!?

I hate this feeling, I hate it so much when I couldn't find my favourite book! I know is not very expensive but is MINE and I WANT IT BACK...so badly...