Salmon with pesto served on peas risotto

I made this for dinner few weeks ago. We just felt like having something not too heavy and healthy for dinner hence I made this. My family loved it, simple, easy and nutritious.

I just simply love foods that are healthy, delicious and easy to prepare. Especially for working moms or dads who are often caught up at work and got home a bit late, all of us need a few recipes up our sleeves that are quick and dinner will be ready in 30 mins. This is one of those recipes. Hope you like it too. Maybe you can share you easy simple recipes with me too. =)

Salmon with Pesto served on Peas Risotto

Ingredients:

• 4 pieces of 200 grams salmon fillets
  
• Homemade pesto ( please click on the link for recipe)
• 3 cups risotto rice
• 6-7 cups chicken stock- keep warm in separate saucepan
  
• One brown onion- chopped
• 5 cloves garlic- chopped
• 1 cup frozen peas- thawed
  
• 4 tablespoons dried mixed herbs
• salt and pepper to taste

Methods:

1. Make a few slits on the skin of the salmons. Season salmons well with salt and pepper and brush with some oil on both sides.
2. Heat up your grill pan ( if you don't have grill pan, normal frying pan will do too) and put the salmons on the pan skin side down first.
3. Once the skin becomes crispy, flip over to cook the flesh side of the salmon.
   
4. Cook the salmons around 3-4 mins on each side. Make sure not to over cook. The flesh of the salmons should still be slightly pink on the inside.
5. Once the salmons are ready, set aside.
6. Keep the chicken stock gently simmering in a saucepan
   
7. In another pan, heat up few tablespoons of oil. Once the oil is hot, put in the onion and garlic and saute for few minutes
8. Add in the rice, stirring to coat the rice with the oil.
9. Add a ladleful of stock and cook, stirring, until the liquid is absorbed. Continue stirring and adding stock one ladleful at a time, waiting until the liquid is absorbed each time before adding more, until the rice is tender and creamy yet still a little al dente
10. When the rice is almost cooked, add in peas, herbs and season with salt and pepper.
11. Place rice on a plate, top with salmon and pesto.
    

Chocolate Babka

I have been so busy at work that I have not been posting for almost one week now. Just started a new job and it's been quite busy but fun. Lots of learning and new experiences.

I made chocolate babka last Sunday for tea at home. I first had my Babka at a chocolate shop in melbourne call Max Brener. My neighbour then invited me over to her place few weeks ago and she bought chocolate babka from one of the bakeries around here, but it was made differently. The babka I know is always made into a big loaf or in roll form like cinnamon rolls. But the ones she bought was made into small little rolls and stick them together to make a round cake pan size chocolate babka. It was so delicious. Super duper chocolatey and yummy. Almost like chocolate croissant but with more chocolate punch in it. That started my venture into looking for chocolate babka recipe and I found it from smittenkitchen. But instead of making them into loaves form, I made them into small little rolls and sticked them together. It was delicious with lots of chocolate and looked cute too. All my guests loved them. It was so easy to serve, just cut the edges where the rolls stick together and serve individually. Hope you like it too.

I halved the recipe because it looked too much to do the whole recipe for me. Halving the recipe will be more than enough for 8-10 people.

Chocolate Babka
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 1 1/2 cups warm milk, 110 degrees farenheit
  
• 2 (1/4 ounce each) packages active dry yeast
• 1 3/4 cups plus a pinch of sugar
• 3 whole large eggs, room temperature
• 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
• 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups (3 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, room temperature, plus more for bowl and loaf pans
• 2 1/4 pounds semisweet chocolate, very finely chopped*
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream

1. Pour warm milk into a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast and pinch of sugar over milk; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

2. In a bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, and egg yolks. Add egg mixture to yeast mixture, and whisk to combine.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour and salt. Add egg mixture, and beat on low speed until almost all the flour is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Change to the dough hook. Add 2 sticks butter, and beat until flour mixture and butter are completely incorporated, and a smooth, soft dough that’s slightly sticky when squeezed is formed, about 10 minutes.

4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead a few turns until smooth. Butter a large bowl. Place dough in bowl, and turn to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

5. Place chocolate, remaining cup sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl, and stir to combine. Using two knives or a pastry cutter, cut in remaining 1 1/2 sticks butter until well combined; set filling aside.

6. Generously butter a pyrex pie pan or round cake pan. Line them with parchment paper. Beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon cream; set egg wash aside.

Punch back the dough, and transfer to a clean surface. Let rest 5 minutes. Cut into 3 equal pieces. Keep 2 pieces covered with plastic wrap while working with the remaining piece. On a generously floured surface, roll dough out into a 16-inch square; it should be 1/8 inch thick.

7. Brush edges with reserved egg wash. Crumble 1/3 of the reserved chocolate filling evenly over dough, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Refresh egg wash if needed. Roll dough up tightly like a jelly roll. Pinch ends together to seal.

Cut rolls into small 3cm pieces and stick them to each other in prepared pan

8. Heat oven to 350 degrees farenheit / 180 degrees celcius. Brush the top of each loaf with egg wash. Loosely cover each pan with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place 20 to 30 minutes.

9. Bake loaves until golden, about 55 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees farenheit / 165 degrees celcius and bake until babkas are deep golden, 15 to 20 minutes more. Remove from oven, and transfer to wire racks until cool. Remove from pans; serve. Babkas freeze well for up to 1 month.

* After chopping the chocolate into moderately sized chunks, I used the food processor to pulse the rest of the chocolate in two batches to small bits. It saved a lot of time!

That was the tips and recipes from smitten kitchen, modified slightly by myself just with regards for the arrangement of the rolls.

Try and make it, you won't regret it.

Chinese Style Steamed Fish

My mother in law made a great steamed fish dish for our reunion dinner and I'm going to share it with you today.

Personally, I think Chinese language is a beautiful language. You can describe very complex emotions or situations in 4 very simple words or a simple phrase. If you watch chinese dramas, they often use phrases to describe feelings, emotions etc. It's difficult to understand sometimes but somehow the phrases can just translate the emotions in a very poetic and descriptive way.

There's a Chinese saying " nien nien you yu" which means prosperity/surpluses every year. The yu for this phrase is pronounced the same way as yu for fish. Hence, we often serve fish on special occasions or chinese new year which symbolizes prosperity for the coming year. It's a symbolic thing. But I'm not a supertitious person, I'm a believer that all blessings come from God. I just appreciate the beauty and complexity of Chinese language and its culture. However, I do believe that our tongue is powerful. Whatever comes out of it carries power. So instead of saying "I'm doomed" why don't we say "I'm blessed" or nien nien you yu instead....=)....there's nothing wrong with proclaiming good things for our life.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone. Wish all my readers prosperity and joy for the coming year.

Chinese Style Steamed Fish

Ingredients:

• 1 Barramundi weighing around 700 grams or any other fish will do too eg: snapper, tilapia
• 1/4 cup julienned ginger
• 1/2 cup sliced spring onion
• chopped red chilli- optional

Seasoning:

• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons rock sugar
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon chicken stock powder
• 2 tablespoons shao tsing wine
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

• Extra 1/3 cup shao tsing wine for steaming
• 2 tablespoons oil
  

Methods:

1. Put all ingredients for seasoning in a small saucepan except the extra shao tsing wine and oil. Boil all the seasoning ingredients until sugar is melted. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly
2. Clean the fish and put on top of a plate. Put half of the julienned ginger and spring onion on top of the fish
3. Pour the extra shao tsing wine on the fish and steam for 10 minutes or until fish is cooked through.
4. After you finish steaming, pour away the water collected at the bottom of the plate
5. Pour all of the seasoning mixture on top of the fish and top with the remaining half of the julienned ginger and spring onion
6. Heat up oil and pour on top of the fish. Garnish with chopped red chillies
   
7. Serve with rice
   

Choon Kuen aka Chinese Meat Rolls

Gong Xi Fat Chai!!!!

Wishing all my readers and followers Happy Chinese New Year. May this coming year be filled with God's blessings and joy.

I love Chinese New Year. Not just for the food and angpao....but the family. I love having family reunion. Everyone gather together on this special occasion, catching up with one another and just enjoy each other's company.

Usually we have the big reunion dinner before the first day of Chinese New Year. But my wonderful family decided to wait for me to get back to Melbourne because I was posted to Ballarat and we had our reunion dinner yesterday. Of course, we also had the honour of having one of our beloved friend from Malaysia visiting us in Melbourne as well. It was such a wonderful time. We also celebrated my wonderful father in law's birthday. So many celebrations. We really enjoyed it.

The menu for our reunion dinner was:

Yee Sang

We just prepared the vegetables. My mother in law bought
the prepack from Malaysia. It came with all the condiments.
What a great idea. Tasted just like the ones from restaurants

Dried Oyster and Radish Soup ( sorry, brother in law forgot to take photos of these). But it was so good, prepared by my mom in law who is a great cook.

Chinese Style Steam Fish, again prepared by my mom in law. Very nice! Will share the recipe tomorrow so stay tuned.

Kau Yoke with Yam - typical Hakka Dish, collaboration of me and my mom in law


Choon Kuen aka Chinese Meat Rolls by yours truly....=)

My mom always makes Choon Kuen for Chinese New Year. I remember never getting enough of them. She only makes them once in a while and it's one of our family's favourite. The traditional way is to roll the meat mixture in bean curd sheets, steam them and then deep fry in hot oil Or steam the meat rolls ( without beancurd sheets) and coat in flour before deep frying. But I hate deep frying and decided to try the healthier option. I used the same recipe my mom gave me for the meat rolls, but instead of deep frying them I coated them with panko breadcrumbs and baked them. The result? FANTASTIC. I don't think I'll go back to deep frying option in the future. Very nice and crispy and the best part of it? Much healthier option for the family.

Choon Kuen / Chinese Meat Rolls
Ingredients for meat rolls:

• 500 grams minced pork
• 500 grams minced prawns
• 1 small can water chestnuts, chopped
• 1 carrot, diced finely
  
• 1/2 brown onion, finely chopped
  
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon cornflour

Seasonings:

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon five spice powder
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper

Coating:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• Plain flour
• Panko breadcrumbs
  

Baking paper and aluminium foil for rolling.

Methods:

1. Place all the ingredients ( except the ones for coating) and seasonings together in a big bowl and mix well until the mixture becomes rather sticky
2. Take a piece of baking paper around 25-30cm long. Take a portion of the meat mixture, place on top of baking paper and shape it into long cylinder of around 3-4cm diameter and 15cm long.
   
3. Roll the meat mixture tightly with the baking paper. Tie the ends of the baking paper tightly.
4. Then, take a piece of aluminium foil also around 25-30cm long and use it to roll the meat mixture that is already covered in baking paper.
5. Repeat the same process for the remaining of the meat mixture. You should be able to make around 5-6 rolls
6. Steam the rolls for around 30 minutes until cooked through.
7. Take the rolls out of the steamer. Unwrap the rolls and let cool
   
8. When you are ready to eat, place the flour, eggs and breadcrumbs in 3 separate plates
9. First coat the meat rolls in flour.
10. Then dip in beaten eggs and lastly coat well with panko breadcrumbs.
11. Spray the rolls with vegetable/ cooking oil
    
12. Bake in preheated 220 degrees celcius oven for 30 minutes until the breadcrumbs become cripsy and golden
13. Slice the meatrolls diagonally into 1cm thick pieces

Tips:

• To taste the seasoning of the meat rolls before steaming them, take a small portion and put in microwave for around 1-2 minutes. If not salty enough can add more salt.

Gong Xi Fat Chai
May this year be filled with joy and happiness.

Date and Walnut Scones

Well I have a problem and it's quite serious. I have a craving, and I really need to find a solution to satisfy my cravings. I'm addicted to scones!....*blush* I have been making scones after scones, and searched up and down for the best scone recipe because I love those scones at my workplace so much ( I believe I mentioned this many times before in my previous posts....). Since I'm going back to Melbourne next week, probably won't be coming back to Ballarat anytime soon, I need to find a recipe I can replicate at home and make scones whenever I want to.

I think I've found "The One". The scone recipe that I shared last week was great. But date and walnut? The best so far...Well I might change my mind when I come up with a new combination, but so far this one is the best for me and my hubby. Well I found out that hubby doesn't like savoury scones. But he loved these date and walnut scones. He thinks they are better that bakers delight's. I'm not sure if they are better than bakers delight's but they sure were yummy. I used the same basic recipe that I used for my savoury scones, except that I added sugar, a little bit more butter and used dates with walnuts instead. The tops stayed crispy after 1-2 days which was great, and we just put them in the microwave for about 2 mins to warm them up and they were as good as coming out fresh from the oven. Hope you like them as much as we do.

Date and Walnut Scones

Ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour, sifted
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder


• 100 grams cold butter, cubed


• 1/4 cup dates, chopped


• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts


• 1/3 cup sugar
  
• 180mls or 3/4 cup thickened cream


• Pinch of salt


• Milk to glaze prior to baking
  

Methods:

1. Add flour, baking powder, salt and sugar to mixing bowl. Mix well.


2. Add in cubed butter and mix together until small clumps form. You can use hand or food processor if you have one


3. Then add in dates and walnuts.


4. Add in thickened cream and use a fork to mix together until the dry ingredients are moistened


5. Pour out all the ingredients onto floured surface and lightly mix until the dough comes together. Be careful not to overmix the dough or the scones will become really hard


6. Form a ball and cut into 6 triangles or you can use cookie cutter and cut into small rounds as well.


7. Glaze the scones with milk before baking


8. Bake in preheated 220 degrees celcius for 15-17 minutes until tops are browned and crunchy


9. Serve with butter
   

Tips:

• I found that my scones spread out a little bit when I baked and became a bit flat. What I noticed from this cafe at my workplace was they flipped the scones sideways halfway through baking. I will try this next time. So halfway through baking maybe after 5-6 minutes, I will try to change the position of the scones so that the sides are facing up. This might help to keep the scones tall. I have not tried this before but saw the owner of this cafe doing this and has maintained good height for their scones. =)
  
  

Chinese New Year Bake #2 - Kue Putri Salju

This is another traditional Indonesian Chinese New Year cookie. I don't think I have ever seen this sold in Malaysia. But I might be wrong. It's called kue putri salju ( snow white cookies) because it's dusted with icing sugar which makes it looks like it's covered in snow. Why snow white? I have no idea, maybe Indonesian loves fairy tale....?? ahhaha....I'm not sure but I guess it makes sense to call it snow white cookies as it looks pretty covered in snow-like icing sugar....=)

These cookies are usually shaped like a moon or we call it bulan sabit in Indonesian. If you feel lazy to make it moon-shaped then just make small rounds like peanut butter cookies. Try to leave some space in between cookies when you bake because it will expand in the oven and might stick to one another which will be troublesome to separate later on. What I did to shape these cookies was to roll a dough longitudinally and then bend it to make them look like moons. Also, just like my recipe for peanut butter cookies, the dough is quite sticky especially if you make it in hot Malaysia/Singapore weather. I suggest you get a bowl of flour handy next to you and dust your hands every now and then to make it more workable for you.

I'm also submitting this to Aspiring Baker #3- My favourite CNY cookies hosted by Jess' Kitchen.

Kue Putri Salju- Snow White Cookies

Ingredients:

• 250 grams unsalted butter
• 100 grams caster sugar
• 250 grams plain flour, sifted
• 200 grams ground roasted cashew nut

Icing sugar for dusting

Methods:

1. Beat butter and sugar until soft and fluffy
2. Add in ground cashew nuts and plain flour alternately until well combined
3. Leave dough in fridge for 1 hour (I didn't leave it in the fridge when I made it and it still came out well). I guess leaving in the fridge will make the dough easier to work with.
   
4. Shape dough into moon shapes. Dust your hands with a pinch of plain flour after rolling 3-4 cookies to make it more workable.
   
5. Bake in preheated 160 degrees celcius oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown
6. Leave cookies to cool
   
7. Once cookies are cooled, dust both sides with icing sugar

Wish all of you a wonderful and Happy Chinese New Year

Chinese Herb Salt Baked Chicken - Dong Quai Hong Cou Yim Kok Kai

I love Yim Kok Kai. When I was young, my dad would buy special " salt chicken " from a famous shop in Jakarta whenever he went there for business trip. We call it "Kiam Ke" in Hokkian aka salty chicken. I believe it's similar to yim kok kai in Malaysia. It was so delicious and my mom being a great cook herself would use the left over bones to boil the best chicken congee ever. I think it was the saltiness of the chicken and the fragrance of salt in it, it was just so good to have it with plain rice. And the congee that was made out of the bones was divine. I always looked forward to have the chicken congee the next morning for breakfast. Gee, can't believe I have been a foodie since I was like 10 years old.

Yim Kok Kai really reminds me of this kiam ke from Jakarta. I always wanted to try making it. Then I saw this recipe from the malaysian cuisine and I set my mind to make yim kok kai for dinner yesterday. I made my own adaptations to the recipe. I added some chinese herbs to it, namely dong quai and red dates. You can get them from any asian groceries. I just thought it would add a really nice fragrance to the whole dish. Something different from the traditional one. And boy was I right, the dish came out delicious. My whole family enjoyed it so much. It was so simple to make, yet so tasty and went so well with a bowl of rice. I would definitely keep making this again in the future. I also took some step-by-step photos on how I wrap the chicken in baking paper and aluminium foil with coarse salt. Hope you enjoy it.

Chinese Herb Salt Baked Chicken - Dong Guai Hong Cou Yim Kok Kai

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken marylands - each chopped into 3 smaller pieces OR 8 chicken drumsticks
• 500 grams coarse salt
• Baking paper and aluminium foil
• 15-20 pieces of red dates
• 8 pieces dong guai
  

Marinade ingredients:

• 1/3 cup shao tsing cooking wine
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce ( I used ABC kecap manis)
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon five spice powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic ginger paste ( you can refer to yau fan for recipe OR you can just use 1 tablespoon grated ginger)

Methods:

1. Marinade chicken with all the marinade ingredients for at least 2 hours
   
2. When you are ready to bake the chicken, preheat oven to 220 degrees celcius
3. First of all take a big piece of baking paper and put the chicken pieces ( without the marinade sauce) on it. Then add the dong quai and red dates.
   
   
4. Put another piece of baking paper on top and wrap the chicken pieces by folding in the sides, top and bottom. I used stapler to staple the folded sides so that they stay in place like this.
   
   
5. Place the aluminium foil in a baking tray and spread half the coarse salt on the foil. Then, add the wrapped chicken on top of the salt.
   
   
6. Add the remaining of the salt on top of the chicken.
   
   
7. Lay another piece of aluminium foil on top of everything and wrap it all up.
   
   
8. Bake in oven for 60 minutes
9. Take chicken out of the baking paper and serve with rice.

Tips:

• You can reuse the salt if you want so that you won't waste it. The only thing will be to wrap the chicken in another layer of baking paper if you really want to recycle the salt because the sauce from the chicken sometimes will leak out of the baking paper and the salt might become wet from the sauce. So to prevent that I'll just wrap the chicken with another layer of baking paper before putting it on top of the salt.

Another CNY bake coming up tomorrow. Kue Puteri Salju - Snow White Cookies, another traditional Indonesian CNY cookies.

Scones take 2 - Chives, Bacon and Sundried Tomato

My second attempt on savoury scones. This time I put chives, bacon and sundried tomatoes. I tried a different recipe this time. The last one was adapted from Masterchef of which did not require butter. But I was really curious if it will make any difference with butter added as that seems to be a usual ingredient in scones. The verdict? I prefer the ones with butter in them...ahhahahaa....It just somehow tasted better, lighter, fluffier with a more crunchy top. I think it was the butter that made the difference.

You can certainly make them into sweet scones, just add 1/3 cup of sugar and cut down the salt to the dry ingredients and the rest remains the same.

Chives, Bacons and Sundried Tomatoes Scone

Ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 90 grams cold butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup dried chives
• 1/4 cup diced bacons
• 6 pieces of sundried tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
• Pinch of salt and ground black pepper
• 180mls or 3/4 cup thickened cream
• Milk to glaze prior to baking

Methods:

1. Sift flour and baking powder to mixing bowl. Add in cubed butter and mix together until small clumps form. You can use hand or food processor if you have one
2. Then add in chives, bacons, sundried tomatoes, salt, pepper and mix well
3. Add in thickened cream and use a fork to mix together until the dry ingredients are moistened
4. Pour out all the ingredients onto floured surface and lightly mix until the dough comes together. Be careful not to overmix the dough or the scones will become really hard
5. Form a ball and cut into 6 triangles or you can use cookie cutter and cut into small rounds as well.
6. Glaze the scones with milk before baking
7. Bake in preheated 220 degrees celcius for 15-17 minutes until tops are browned and crunchy
8. Serve with butter

Tips:

• Other variations: Cheese and chives ( just add one cup of cheddar cheese), cheese and olives, mediteranian ( olive, cheese, sundried tomatoes and bacon). Sweet scones: date and walnut, apricot and coconut ( use shredded coconut), etc etc. Just need to change the ingredients added and you can make a whole lot of different varieties.
• If serving the next day, just put in microwave for 30 seconds to warm it up.
• For plain scone: just add 1/3 cup sugar with pinch of salt. Serve with whipped cream and jam....perfect for afternoon tea.

Kue Kacang Skippy - Peanut Cookie

I have a confession to make. I love peanut and this is my favourite peanut butter cookies.

My wonderful mommy passed this recipe down to me. It's one of my favourite Chinese New Year cookies ever. I'm sure my sister mydatewithfood will agree too. It's a bit different from the usual peanut cookies we find in Malaysia or Singapore I think. In Indonesia we just use peanut butter, good old Kraft Skippy Chunky Peanut Butter. Hence the name Kue Kacang Skippy. I'm not sure if you only find this in Indonesia as most of the peanut cookies recipes I read from foodblog use roasted peanuts that are processed to powder form ( which is equally delicious too). Call us Indonesians lazy...ahhaha...but these cookies are oh so good and easy to make. Only 4 main ingredients needed. The moment you put them in your mouth, it just melts away. That's one of the difference with the peanut cookies using roasted peanuts, I find those to be a bit on the crispy crunchy side which is really yummy too, but this one is more on the "melt in your mouth" side. Give it a try and see if you like it. It definitely saves me the time roasting and grinding the peanuts.

I'm also submitting this recipe to Aspiring Bakers #3: My favourite CNY cookies hosted by Jess' Kitchen.

Kue Kacang Skippy - Skippy Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

• 500grams Chunky Peanut Butter
  
• 900 grams plain flour, sifted
• 400 grams vegetable oil
• 400 grams pure icing sugar, sifted
• Pinch of salt
  

2 egg yolks to glaze the cookies before baking

Methods:

1. Put all the ingredients ( oil, peanut butter, flour, icing sugar and salt) except egg yolk in a big bowl and mix well.
2. Form the dough into small balls of 2-3cm diameter
3. Glaze with beaten egg yolks and bake in 180 degrees celcius oven for 15-20 minutes until the tops are browned.
4. Well, that's all you need to do really. SEEEEEE??? Told ya it's easy...=)

NOTES:

• The dough will be on a sticky side. So get a bowl of flour ready just next to you, and after rolling 3-4 cookies, dust your hands very lightly with just a pinch of flour. Justttt a pinch, like this. Repeat dusting every 3-4 cookies.
  

Dust your hands with a bit of flour after rolling 3-4 cookies.
This will make the dough easier to handle.

• With the full recipe I managed to make 3 big containers like this. And a bit more to munch before CNY..=)...

Molten Chocolate Cake

Who doesn't love a good serving of molten chocolate cake? Unless if you really hate chocolate or allergic to it or had bad experience with it, I really can't find a reason to NOT like molten chocolate cake. Personally, I think it's the best way to serve chocolate in all its glory. Sweet, warm, melty, goey, all in one serving of this wonderful dessert. Whoever created this cake would be a GENIUS.....I was thinking maybe it came out as an error.....Maybe the founder did not even plan to make it molten but took out the cake a little bit too early and was still a little undercooked in the middle and thought " MMM...it actually tastes even better than getting it fully cooked...." Whatever it is I'm glad this cake was created.

Molten chocolate cake is my favourite cake of all times. Whenever I go to restaurant, I will always choose this over any other deserts if it's available. I found this wonderful recipe from again, Ree " The pioneer woman ". The recipe was actually shared by one of the members of Tasty Kitchen ( Ree's food recipes sharing website). I have to say, it's absolutely gorgeous. You can whip it up in less than 15 minutes, and just need to bake in oven for 12 minutes and you've got yourself the BEST dessert of all times. It's elegant, tasty and sofisticated. Your guests would adore you and asks for more dinner parties at your place. =)

Molten Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Tasty Kitchen

• 112grams Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate
• ½ cups Butter
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 whole Egg Yolks
• 6 Tablespoons Flour
• 2 cups Real Whipping Cream (seriously It's So Much Better!)
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
  

Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees celcius
2. Spray 4 custard cups with oil or butter the custard cups and place on cookie sheet.
3. Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted. whisk until chocolate is also melted.
4. Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour.
5. Divide between cups.
6. Bake 12 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft. Let stand 1 minute.
7. Combine sugar and heavy cream and whip until stiff.
8. Invert cakes on dishes and top with whipped cream.

Tips:

• The baking was stated as 13-14 minutes on the original recipe, but for my oven I found that 12 minutes is perfect. Just the right amount of goeyness and set on the outside
• I served with vanilla ice cream. I prefer ice cream better than whipped cream. But that's just my personal preference...=)
• Sorry the dessert was too good that I finished it all up in like 5 minutes and didn't get or bother (*blush*) to take the photos of the cake when it was out of the oven. So impatient of me, but I promise if I make it again I'll post it up. So the photo was actually taken before it went to the oven. It was that good you see? You just can't wait to dig in.

Hope you enjoy it too

Garam Masala Noodle

This dish was inspired by Neil Perry's pressure test recipe on last year's masterchef " Garam Masala Poached Fish with Semolina Noodle". What a long name ha? But I adapted this recipe from his recipe and make little adjustments here and there. Of course, I don't have the patience to make my own noodle so I just bought the usual yellow hokkien noodle from any asian groceries. It's still really satisfying. A bit of fusion between Indian/Thai flavour. I served this for one of the dinner parties we had at home and my friends loved it too.

I didn't cook it as long as Neil's recipe, and I made some changes to it as well. The colour looks a bit different too from his recipe. Haahahahha... but it's still good. I used Basa fillet, I kinda like this fish as it has nice firm flesh and a distinct flavour to it. I don't need to be afraid of overcooking it really. But you can replace it with any white flesh fish you like. Neil used snapper fillets.

The recipe I made is for about 8 servings. But you can cut it down to half of course.

Garam Masala Noodle with Fish

Adapted from Neil Perry's Masterchef pressure test recipe

Ingredients:

• 1kg Yellow Hokkien Noodle
• 200-300 grams snow peas
• 5 Basa Fillets, cut into 5-6cm pieces
• 5cm piece ginger, shredded
• 1L coconut milk
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 can diced tomato ( you can just use fresh tomato if you want. I was too lazy...=)..)
• 10 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 bunch Thai sweet basil leaves
• 1.5 big piece of palm sugar ( mine was a 5cm diameter piece, you can adjust accordingly)
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons salt

Spice paste:

• 2 red shallots
• 5 cloves garlic
• 5cm piece ginger
• Red chillies, optional ( you can add more if you like it spicy. I didn't add any chillies for mine)

Dry spice:

• 2 heaped teaspoon garam masala ( you can get it at any big supermarket or asian groceries)
• 1 teaspoon tumeric
• 1 teaspoon whole black pepper, dry roasted
• 8 green cardamom pods - dry roasted, cracked and black seeds removed
• 2 cloves, dry roasted
• 2 star anise, dry roasted

Methods:

1. Grind all the dry spices together until fine. Make sure you dry roast the cardamom/cloves/star anise and black pepper first before grinding. And crack the cardamom pods with your mortar and pestle to remove all the black seeds after you dry roast them before grinding.
2. Process the shallots, ginger and garlic into smooth paste and mix in all the ground spices
3. Heat up oil in frying pan, and fry the shallots/spice paste on low-medium fire for 10-15 minutes until fragrant.
4. Then add in the canned tomato and fry on low fire for another 5-10 minutes until slightly dried up.
5. Add in the coconut milk, water, kaffir lime leaves, shredded ginger and boil on medium fire for another 20-30 minutes until all the flavour of the ginger and lime leaves are infused into the stock.
6. Add in seasoning ( sugar, salt and fish sauce). Adjust seasoning accordingly.
7. You can just switch off the fire now if you're not ready to eat yet and put in the fish whenever you're ready to serve the noodle.
8. When you're ready to serve, reheat the stock and put the fish into the stock and simmer on low fire for another 15 minutes until the fish is cooked.
9. Blanch your noodle and snow peas in hot water until soft
10. Arrange noodle and snow peas in a bowl

11. Put all the basil leaves into the curry stock and switch fire off.

12. Pour the stock with some fish on the noodle and serve warm

Bon appetit!

Thai Style Risotto Ball

It's been a great weekend for me. A fun-filled weekend with great company and lots of cooking, just the way I like it. I really enjoy having friends over for dinner actually. We had dinner party at home on Saturday with some of my husband's uni friends and my friends as well. We had such a great time. Was really good to meet up with all of my husband's friends. Such a lovely and friendly group. Also got to meet up with some of my friends which we have not had a chance to meet up for a while. Really nice to catch up with all of you. And on Sunday I invited another group of friends over for dinner. A smaller group this time and I made these risotto balls to serve as started. I was inspired to make this after having dinner at one of the restaurants at Ballarat with my collegues last Tuesday. I loved it so much I had to make this for my friends too. So I made my own variation of it. It tasted wonderful, all of them loved it.

It's basically making risotto and rolling them into balls and covered in panko breadcrumbs. See, I love my panko breadcrumbs, it has never failed me yet. For those authentic Italian food lovers please forgive me for making a twisted version of risotto. =)...it still tastes nice though. A bit of fusion Thai-Western food.

Great as starters or finger food in your party next time round.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Thai Style Risotto Balls

Makes around 18-20 medium-sized risotto balls

Ingredients:

• 2 cups uncooked arborio rice
  
• 4-5 cups beef or chicken stock


• 1/2 chopped brown onion
  
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped


• 2 tablespoons tomyam paste


• 150 grams mince pork


• 1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetables


• 1/4 cup canned tomato


• 1 egg
  

Seasonings:

• 1.5 tablespoons sugar ( you can use shaved palm sugar if you want)


• 1 tablespoon salt
  

Coating:

• 1-2 eggs, beaten


• Plain flour


• Panko breadcrumbs
  

Methods:
To make the risotto

1. Heat up oil in frying pan. At the same time warm up the stock in another saucepan, keep warm on low fire.
   
2. Once the frying pan is hot enough, add in onion and garlic.
   
3. Fry for a few minutes until soft. Then add in tomyam paste.


4. Stir for 10-20 seconds, then add in minced pork


5. Once the pork is cooked through, add in arborio rice and mix well

6. Next step requires a bit of patience. Add in stock to the rice one ladle at a time, wait until the stock is absorbed before adding in the next ladle. Stir well after each addition and make sure you check the bottom of the pan so that the rice is not burnt. Make sure you keep the stock warm in the saucepan over low fire as well. Cook until the rice is al dente.

7. When the rice is almost cooked to al dente, add in the canned tomato, all the seasoning and mixed vegetable. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until the liquid is absorbed. Set aside and let cool. It should be a little bit sticky at this stage.

8. Once the rice is cooled, mix in 1 egg and stir thoroughly. This is to bind the mixture together so it's easier to form.

9. Form the rice into 18-20 pieces of 4-5cm diameter risotto balls.

10. First coat the rice balls in flour, then dip them into beaten egg and then the breadcrumbs. Line them on baking tray and spray with a little bit of olive oil.

Risotto balls ready to go into oven

11. Bake in preheated 200 degrees celcius oven for around 20-25 minutes until the breadcrumbs become crunchy and golden.

12. Serve with Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Cinnamon Rolls

The weather in Melbourne has been really humid and a bit yucky the past few days. Non-stop rain. I'm sure those who live here in Australia have all heard about the flood in Brisbane. Please keep Brisbane in prayer and pray that the rain will clear away soon. For those who are living there, I pray for strength and comfort during this difficult time. It's quite a shock to the whole nation at this stage to have this flood happening but I'm sure everyone's keeping Brisbane in prayer and the sun will surely shine again after the storm.

Back to this post, I believe that if one person would claim her recipe to be the best, that will be HER. Ree, from the pioneer woman. What a genius! I tried her cinnamon rolls recipe and oh wow, they did take me up to cloud 9. It was the easiest bread I have ever made, and they were so tasty and soft. I was just so amazed I could make cinnamon rolls so easily, without using up my biceps and triceps much at all and yet the result was phenomenal.

I love this recipe. I sure am going to keep making them in the future. My husband and brother in law love them too. The only advise I'll give is to make sure you put the pre-baked rolls into a tight fitting pan, like a square pan or round pan. I put some of them on baking tray, and instead of proofing upwards, they proofed sideways. So the buns did end up flat and a little bit dry. The other batch where I put the rolls in a square pan, proofed so well and I guarantee you they were oh so soft and nice. It was not the dough's fault. It was my fault for not putting them in the correct pan. So choose a pan where you can JUST fit the rolls in, of course giving a bit of space in between the pre-baked rolls to have their final proof. When they have their final proof they'll start sticking to each other and proof upwards. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say, I do have the tendency to be unclear sometimes...=)

Instead of making the maple flavoured icing as per her recipe, because I didn't get to buy maple flavouring, I made lemon-flavoured icing. The result was still satisfying. Oh yea, I halved the recipe as well. The full recipe probably yields around 60 cinnamon rolls, don't think my family can finish that much of cinnamon rolls. So half recipe yielded around 30 rolls. Still a lot but trust me, it's just enough for a family of 3-4 coz they're that good.

You can visit Ree's page for step-by-step instructions which are really helpful. I suggest that you have a look at the step-by-step instructions first actually.

The Best and Easiest Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Adapted from the pioneer woman's recipe

Ingredients:

for the dough:

• 2 Cups whole milk
• 1/2 Cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 Cup sugar
• 3/4 tbsp instant yeast
• 4 Cups flour
• Extra, 1/2 Cups flour
• 1/2 heaping tsp baking powder
• 1/2 scant tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tbsp salt
  

Filling:

• 1 Cup melted butter
• 1 Cup sugar
• 1/2 Cup cinnamon (or more depending on preference) or chocolate chips ( I made a different batch with chocolate chips. I prefer the cinnamon ones)
  

Frosting:

• 1/2 bag Powdered Sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/4 cups Milk
• 1/8 cups Melted Butter
• zest of 1 lemon
• pinch of Salt

Methods:

1. Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Scald the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in instant yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 4 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.
2. After rising for at least an hour, add 1/2 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down. I just let it rise for another hour and the result was beautiful)
3. When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1/2 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.
4. Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it. Finish up the other half of the dough in a similar way.
5. Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.
6. Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 375 degrees farenheit until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.
   

For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls.

Tips:

• The photo below showed the ones I put in the wrong pan. See how they're quite flat in comparison to other batch on top left corner of my first photo where I put in a square pan? So yea, put the rolls in the correct pan.
  
  
• I used instant yeast for this recipe. If you want to use active dry yeast, then just use 1tablespoon of active dry yeast. The proportion for instant:active yeast is approximately = 0.75 : 1. So 1 tablespoon active dry yeast = 3/4 tablespoon instant yeast.

Make these rolls! You won't regret it. Takes no time to prepare, and I assure you you can even get your ironing done while waiting for the dough to rise. =)

Tofu with Minced Pork and King Oyster Mushroom

I prepared this dish for dinner last Saturday. I had some left over king oyster mushrooms that my mother in law bought when she was here. So I invented this recipe because I was craving for silken tofu and at the same time am a big fan of mushrooms as well. Any kinds of mushrooms will make Leny happy. But king oyster mushroom has really nice texture and flavour to it. Sometimes I even just bake them in oven with some homemade japanese marinade. It's simple and good for health.

I also love all kinds of tofu. It's a great source of protein and tastes wonderful as well. There are many different kinds of tofu that you can get in asian groceries. Unfortunately as we live overseas we don't have the luxury of buying fresh tofu from the market. But I suppose the ones we get from asian groceries which are sold in packets are as good as well. I'm not sure if I can really taste so much of a difference. I prepared this dish with a bit of salted fish as well. Just add that extra taste to the whole dish. Hope you enjoy it too.

Tofu with Minced Pork and King Oyster Mushroom

Ingredients:

• 1 small block of silken tofu


• 300 grams minced pork
  
• 3 pieces of king oyster mushrooms, cut into long slices
  
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped


• 1 tablespoon chopped ginger


• 1 tablespoon dried salted fish, diced into small pieces ( you can substitute with dried prawns too if you're not a big fan of salted fish, or just omit it altogether)
  
• 1/2 cup water
  
• Mixture of 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and a bit of water to thicken the sauce


• 1/4 cup chopped spring onions and a bit extra for garnishing
  

Seasoning:

• 2 tablespoons shao tsing wine
  
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
  
• 1 teaspoon sugar
  
• pinch of salt and ground white pepper
  

Methods:

1. Steam the whole block of tofu for 5 minutes and set aside. I used a deep pyrex pie dish so that it can hold all the meat sauce without spilling them all over the place


2. Heat up oil in a wok


3. Once the wok is hot enough, add in garlic,ginger and salted fish. Stir fry until fragrant.


4. Then, add in minced pork. Stir fry until the pork is cooked through


5. Add in king oyster mushroom and cook until slightly softened


6. Add in water and all the seasonings.


7. Once the seasoning is done according to your liking, add in the cornstarch/water mixture to thicken the sauce


8. Lastly add in chopped spring onion and cook for another minute


9. Once the meat sauce is ready, pour them on top of the steamed tofu
   
10. Garnish with extra spring onion and serve with rice

Garlic Rice ( Yau Fan)

I made Bak Kut Teh for dinner yesterday night. For my readers who don't know what Bak Kut Teh is, it's basically a soupy pork dish where we usually use premade herbal packet to cook cubed pork meat and add in some mushrooms or fried tofu puffs. Bak Kut Teh basically means "pork bone tea" if you translate it directly from hokkian to english. Why is it called bak kut teh? I'm not sure myself. Probably should do a bit of research around it, but one of my friends told me it's because pork is usually a little bit oily, so after having this dish the perfect accompaniment is to have a cup of hot chinese tea to wash the oiliness down. It does make sense to me. Maybe that's why they always serve jasmine tea at Bak Kut Teh stall in Malaysia? =).....But if you know why the dish is called Bak kut Teh, do share it with me. I'm curious to know as well.

It's a popular dish in Asia, especially Malaysia and Singapore. I'm not going to share the recipe for Bak Kut Teh today as it is pretty easy to prepare with the premade packet, which you can get in any asian groceries. There's no rocket science to it, just put some meat and the herbal packet with a pot of water and let it simmer for 1-2 hours. You can add mushrooms ( usually shitake or enoki) and fried tofu puffs. My favourite brand is Seah's Singapore Bak Kut Teh mix.

What I'm going to share today though, is the perfect accompaniment to Bak Kut Teh. The garlic rice or we call it in cantonese " yau fan". This rice is perfect to have with bak kut teh or hainanese chicken rice as well. It's simple to make and it's one of my family's favourite. I can eat bowls of it if I want...ahahha...but I have to watch my waistline I suppose.

Garlic Ginger Rice ' Yau Fan '

Ingredients:

• 3 cups uncooked rice. Washed and drained well


• 2.5 cups low salt chicken stock or if you want to use chicken stock powder, use 1 tablespoon chicken stock powder with 2.5 cups water


• 3 tablespoons sugar


• 1/2 tablespoon salt


• 1/2 cup fried shallots ( I told you I love fried shallots....;)..)


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil, extra for frying garlic paste

Garlic Ginger paste:

• 10 cloves garlic


• Two 5 cm knob of ginger


• 2 tablespoons vegetable/cooking oil

Methods:

1. Process the ingredients for garlic-ginger paste in food processor or mortar and pestle until smooth.


2. Heat up the extra 1 tablespoon cooking oil in wok or frying pan over low-medium heat. Add in the garlic ginger paste and fry over low heat until slightly browned and thickened.


3. Once the paste is ready, add the uncooked rice into the wok/frying pan and mix well.


4. Put the rice into your rice cooker. Add in stock, sugar and salt.


5. Cook rice in the rice cooker as per manufacturer's instructions.
   
6. Once the rice is ready, add in fried shallots.


7. Adjust seasoning. The rice is meant to be a little bit on sweet side. So you might want to add a little bit more sugar/salt if you want


8. Serve with bak kut teh or chicken rice

Tips:

• You can make extra garlic-ginger paste and keep in the fridge or freezer so that it's ready to use anytime you want to cook this rice. You can use the paste to steam fish or chicken as well. Just add a bit of salt and chicken stock powder to the paste and layer on top of the fish/chicken. Add a bit of shao tsing wine and steam. Awesome dish to serve with rice.


• Be careful of the type of chicken stock you use. If you use normal chicken stock liquid ( not low salt ones), then i will suggest to add the salt after the rice is cooked. Just so that it's not overly salty. At least you can adjust the seasoning after it's done.
  

Thai Basil Mince Beef

I am actually a big fan of Thai food. Thai food has very complex flavour that somehow works so well together. The combination of palm sugar, fish sauce, tamarind and various herbs just makes such perfect combination that the moment you have a bite of your favourite Thai dish you just get immediate satisfaction out of it. Regardless of what dish it is, whether it's green to red curry, tomyam, Thai food is definitely one of my favourite cuisine of all time. I am yet to find a dish I don't like.

This dish is one of my favourite. I remember first having it at one of the most popular Thai restaurant here in Melbourne, Ying Thai. The moment I had my first bite I immediately fell in love with this dish and wanted to recreate it at home.

Hope you will enjoy this recipe as much as I do. You can put some chopped red chillies in this dish if you like hot food.

And oh ya, I saw some leaves coming out of my herb garden. So exciting. Hopefully it will start to sprout soon. I planted some sweet basil too. Hopefully it will grow well and I can just take some basil from my herb garden and use them in my cooking anytime I want. =)
Thai Basil Mince Beef

Ingredients:

• 400grams minced beef ( again, if you don't like or eat beef, substitute with any kinds of mince meat)
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 red capsicum, sliced thinly
• 1/2 cup basil leaves
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 birds' eye chillies, finely chopped ( optional)
• 1/4 cup chopped spring onions
  

Seasoning:

• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons ABC kecap manis ( thick soy sauce)
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar ( you can use regular sugar as well)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Methods:

1. Heat up oil in your wok.
2. Once the oil is hot enough, add in the shallots, garlic and chillies (if you are adding them)
   
3. Stir fry until fragrant
4. Add in minced beef
5. Stir fry until the beef is cooked. Then add in water, capsicum and all the seasonings
6. When the capsicum is cooked, add in the basil leaves and chopped spring onions, and stir fry for another 1-2 mins until the leaves have all wilted
7. Adjust seasoning.
8. Serve with warm rice.
   

Thai Style Beef Patty

I was in the mood for Thai food yesterday. Just got back to Melbourne from Ballarat and was thinking of what to cook for dinner. Kinda miss having Thai food, haven't had it for a while so I decided to cook Thai basil mince beef and this beef patty. Will post the recipe for basil mince beef tomorrow.

Just for your information, I have just started my herb garden. I actually grow them in pots. Really looking forward for it to grow. Will keep you posted on the progress. Nothing seen yet so far as I just sow the seeds last week. Hopefully will start to see something in the next few weeks.



Thai Style Beef Patty

Ingredients:

• 400 grams mince beef ( you can use mince pork or chicken as well, even fish paste will be nice)
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped and stir fried till soft and fragrant. I always stir fry my garlic to cook it a little bit before mixing them into patties / meat balls mixture because I don't like the raw taste of garlic. So by doing this you will avoid the raw taste from garlic when you cook the patties.
  
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped spring onion
• 10 green beans, cut to 3-4mm pieces
• 1 stalk lemongrass, white bottom part only - finely chopped
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoon tapioca starch
  

Seasoning:

• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons ABC kecap manis / thick soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon salt

Methods:

1. Mix all the ingredients for patty together with seasoning. You can add a bit more tapioca starch if the mixture is too watery.
2. Form mince beef mixture into small patties of 10-12 cm diameter. You should be able to make around 10-12 patties


3. Pan fry on frying pan until cooked through or you can also use your grill pan if you want.

I made a side dipping sauce for this, but you can omit this. It's actually really nice with thai chilli sauce.

Dipping sauce:

• 1/4 cup ground peanut
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1.5 tablespoons lemon/lime juice

Mix all the ingredients together and serve with beef patties.

Hope you enjoy it. Bon Appetite. Basil mince beef recipe coming tomorrow.