Homemade Pumpkin Noodles 南瓜手工面

When come to buying a kitchen tool for myself, I'll not always go for the latest or advance technology. That day when I want to buy the Imperia hand roll Italian pasta machine I was standing in the shop for a long times, because I have the KitchenAid machine and is so convenience for me to attached the pasta cutter gadget to the KitchenAid body! The price difference between the hand roll machine and the gadget for attaching to KitchenAid is not a lot. Eventually I opt for the hand roll machine and wooden pasta drying stand.

I have to said that it is fun making your own noodles with hand roll pasta machine. I saw many hawkers in Singapore selling the hand made noodles 手工面 using this type of hand roll pasta machine, until I used it myself then I know how good the machine is! I love the fact that it is able to adjust the noodles dough into six thicknesses and you are able to attach varieties of cutter to the main body as you wish.

First thing come to my mind is using the pasta machine for pumpkin noodles! I love it, just love the fresh and no chemical egg noodles! There is a recipe used by many bloggers on pumpkin noodles, I know Carol the Taiwanese famous blogger has one recipe in her noodles book too. As I was running short of plain flour and didn't want to swing out at the middle of the day, I added 50g of bread flour to my noodles. It turned out well and I love the soft bouncy noodle texture I made! 

Pumpkin Tomato Anchovy Soup

This soup is suitable for a busy day as it is fast and simple. Three main ingredients are needed: pumpkin, tomato and anchovy. It is catered for toddler, the clear soup is filled with natural sweetness. 

Ingredients:

150g butternut, peeled and cut into chunks

3 big tomatoes, cut into quarters

a handful of anchovies ~ 5 tbsp, washed

800ml water

a dash of freshly ground black peppers

a pinch of salt

Method:

1. Boil water and anchovies in soup pot, add in butternut and tomato, cook until the water boiling. Cover and let it simmer for another 15 mins or cooked until the butternut is tender.

2. Add black peppers and salt to taste. Serve warm.  

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (Oct 2014 Event: PUMPKIN) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Eileen (Eileen's Diary).

Hakka Yam Abacus Seeds 客家算盘子

My first attempt on yam abacus seeds was three years ago, really missed the chewy and bouncy texture! I want to make this for long, eventually the right moments come. Making this dish take lot of time, need to knead the yam dough then divide it into individual small seeds. I enjoyed the whole process, especially when scooping out the abacus seeds from the boiling water, too excited to find out the texture, I gobbled down a few pieces of pipping hot yam abacus seeds! Munching the chewy texture, I grinned widely and felt like dancing! 

Today, read a post by a blogger, she mentioned she was hiding from blogging when her creations get public attention. She afraid people might judge and comment on her thought, that's why she hide. Luckily, now she comes to realize that she shouldn't do that. I was touched by what she mentioned about "Having enough courage to share that piece of your heart and soul with the world." 

When I began my blog, it was not like what it is today. I continue, stop and continue, this repeated many times. Most of the time feel like stop blogging because the people who know me come to know the existence of this blog. This deter me from writing my thought, yes, I afraid people judge me too. Some friends asked me what this blog for? Why you do it? ... Sometimes, really hard to explain why and they simply couldn't accept the simple intention I have on blogging. This blog is all about me growing up in my baking and cooking journey, record down the days I spend in the kitchen, feeling love by my friends and family, sharing that small piece of my heart with you who read my blog. Yes, we need to have enough courage to do that.   

Handmade each of them, I got two big trays

Yam Abacus Seeds after cooking in the boiling water, chewy and bouncy texture! 

(yield: 4 plates)

Ingredients for yam abacus seeds:

800g steamed yam, mashed
400g tapioca flour
1 tsp salt
250ml boiling water 
2~3 tbsp corn oil

Ingredients for stir-frying the yam abacus seeds:
4 clove garlic, minced
4 shallot, sliced
4 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked and finely chopped 
250g minced meat 
6 mushroom, soaked and thinly sliced 
6 black fungus, soaked and thinly sliced 

Seasoning:
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
a dash of peppers
some salt (to taste)
1 tbsp sesame oil
Some cooking oil
250ml water

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients together and knead till the dough able to form soft smooth dough. Make sure the flour is well incorporated. (If the dough is very wet, add more tapioca flour)

2. Wet the hands with some cooking oil (to prevent the dough stick on hands), divide the dough into small balls about 5g each. Press your thumb print for the imprint. 

3. Boil a pot of water with a dash of oil in it.

4. Add the abacus seeds one piece at a time to prevent it from sticking together. 

5. Once the abacus seeds is floating, it is cooked. Drain the water and put the abacus seeds into a bowl. Add some oil to prevent it from sticking.

6. Stir-fry the yam abacus seeds: Heat cooking oil and saute shallot and garlic till fragrant. 

7. Add dried shrimps and continue to fry till fragrant.

8. Add minced pork, mushroom, black fungus and fry till everything is thoroughly mixed.

9. Add seasoning and water, bring to boil. 

10. Add the abacus seeds and stir fry till the liquid dried up. Serve hot.

Lor Mee in Balsamic Vinegar (Chinese Braised Noodles) 卤面

Lor Mee or Chinese Braised Noodles is one of the Penang street food I love since young. Usually the hawker sell the Lor Mee with braised egg, a few pieces of thinly sliced pork, and if you are lucky you will see one or two small pieces of Ngor Hiang or Lor Bak (fried pork roll) and it goes with yellow noodles, you can request to have yellow noodles mixed with rice vermicelli or only rice vermicelli by itself. For me, I always eat Lor Mee in rice vermicelli and without beansprouts, it is still the same until today. 

Fish Head Crab Bee Hoon 鱼头蟹米粉

The good thing about buying seafood from the fish market here is they are very generous! The fishmonger always throw a few more smaller fishes into my plastic bag after they have weigh the good we selected. I got many free small crabs, may be just half of my palm from the fishmonger too. 

I have a few big red snapper fish heads sitting in my freezer, as they have taken up lot of freezer space, I decided to clear some of them by cook-up the Fish Head Crab Bee Hoon dish.

The recipe is using my previous Fish Head Soup with adding four small crabs in it. By the way, I cut the crab into half to clean them, when taking photo I placed two side together and covered it with the shell so it looks nicer! I'm not that lazy, ok! Lol! This type of a-pot-dish is easy, fast and delicious! 

Easy Tom Yum Soup

This is an easy version of Tom Yum Soup or Hot and Sour Thai Soup I made last week. Beside shredding some fresh herbs with food processor to make the tom yum soup base, I cheated by adding 2 heaped spoonful of store bought tom yum paste. The soup base is very flavourful with the aroma of lemongrass, galangal and the most I love is the fragrance of kaffir lime leaves. It has the aromatherapy effect when I was taking this soup! Lol! It is good just by taking this soup alone or it goes well with steamed rice too! 

Homemade Salted Eggs 自制咸蛋

A few more days will end the long holiday for Eid's break. I love this kind of relaxing holiday with no rush to do or go anywhere. Sort out lot of things for kid and also clear the fridge as much as I can. The best is time come to harvest this homemade salted eggs!  

Pumpkin Yakult Jam

When I was still wonder how am i going to do with my pumpkin, Ann from Anncoo Journal posted her healthy yummy Pumpkin Yakult Jam! I'm happy to give it a try as I have yakult in my fridge but the yakult here only have two types, one is original and one is low fat yakult. 

Homemade Fish Balls 自制鱼丸

I have to learn making fish balls as they are not selling fresh fish balls in Carrefour, Geant and Megamart here. (If you happen to know any shop selling, please let me know) What we can get here is frozen fish balls. The good thing about homemade fish balls is Gabriel can eat as much as he likes because there isn't any chemical stuff in the fish balls which can trigger food allergy that cause skin rashes. I have made these fish balls a few times and he is totally alright after eating fish balls.

Pumpkin Sweet Potato Carrot Soup

The Eid Holiday started from today, everyone is at home and I need to whip up a fast meal to feed the hungry tummy! Google the Internet for a while and a recipe which used lime zest in pumpkin soup attracted my attention. I want to know what it tastes like to have lime zest in pumpkin soup! The original recipe is using white wine in the soup but I omitted it because of Gabriel. I added about 100g potatoes and 1 tbsp turmeric powder into the soup to add that extra flavour. Love this thick soup to go with toasted bread, yes the lime zest in the soup really really taste good!! 

Guacamole

When I was living in Australia, one of the "must pick up" item from Coles is Avocados Guacamole. I love the taste of Aussie avocado, we are still able to get Aussie avocado here but it is much more pricey then Kenya or Syria avocado. 

Steamed Pumpkin Buns aka Pumpkin Bao with chicken filling

好久没弄包子了，前几天看到好漂亮的Butternut 就搬了好几粒回家。这个月是Eileen的 Little Thumbs Up：pumpkin! 我也来参加骤热闹！

It has been long since my last making of bao (steamed bun), this month I have a good reason to make steamed pumpkin bun or bao because of Eileen's Little Thumbs Up is pumpkin theme! I made two batches yesterday, in the first batch of my pumpkin baos, I pleated the baos, the bao turns out with not so obvious pleats and I don't like the look of it. So I made the second batch with round shape. :) The dough of the pumpkin bao is a bit wet with starter dough in it, but the bao texture turned out with very soft texture! 

Recipe adapted from Honey Bees Sweets with changes
Ingredients for filling:
3oog chicken, chopped into fine cubes
6 shallots, sliced thinly 
120ml water
4 tbsp char siew sauce 
1 tbsp tapioca flour
1 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp plain flour
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp cooking oil

Method:
1. In a big mixing bowl, add all ingredients together (except shallot), mix well.
2. Heat up cooking oil in a frying pan, add sliced shallot, fried until slightly brown. Add in (1).
3. Stir Fried until the chicken is cooked and the gravy thicken. Set a side for later use.

Ingredients for bao/ bun:
starter dough:
120g plain flour
1/4 tsp dried instant yeast
80ml water
pinch of salt

Method:
Mix everything together to form a rough dough. Cover and let it rest in a greased bowl to proof into double in size.

Main dough:
180g pumpkin, steamed and mashed
100g starter dough
300g cake flour / top flour
1/2 tsp dried instant yeast
20g milk powder
20g sugar
20g olive oil
1/8 tsp salt
50ml water (this depends on how wet the mashed pumpkin is, you may need to add more or reduce water)

Method:
1. Knead everything in a mixer (except water and oil, add gradually), until it is not sticky and form a rough dough, add oil and continue knead until it form elastic film.
2. Cover the dough and let it proof to double it size.
3. Prepare steamer and cut out grease paper.
4. Punch out the air in the dough, cut the dough into desire portions (~12 portions), roll the dough into round, cover and let it proof for 10~15 mins.
5. Take a dough, flatten it into round disk, place a small heap teaspoon of filling in the center and then wrap up the dough with seal side down on the grease paper.

6. When the steamer is boiling, lower the heat to medium and arrange the bao in the steamer and steam for 10~12 mins. Make sure the cover of the steamer is wrapped with kitchen towel to prevent water from dripping on the baos.

7. Once done, lift the cover to open a small gap, let the baos sit in the steamer for another 5 mins before take them out for serving. 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (Oct 2014 Event: PUMPKIN) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Eileen (Eileen's Diary).


Also submitting this post to "My Treasured Recipes #3 - Taste of Autumn (Oct/Nov 2014)" hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders and co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House.