Siew Bao (Crispy BBQ Chicken Bun) 鸡肉烧包

This flaky BBQ chicken bun, Siew Bao was made for my friend farewell gathering. I made it in two batches as the original recipe just yield 21 big Siew Bao. In total made 39. 

To update the information on my 22 January 2014 post, I have found the shortening! :) Glad that all ladies at the farewell gathering like the flaky Siew Bao \^o^/ This round I made a slight change on the chicken filling recipe.

Today is a happy day for Gabriel as well as us as parent, he got to play in a big playground at MIA park. Another thing worth record is his shaky lower front tooth eventually drop off by itself ... after he had a good dinner! I'm sure tooth fairy will come to visit him tonight!! Bravo Gabriel, you hit another milestone!  

the pastry dough after resting should be soft, when poke the finger into dough it made an indentation.

Ingredients for filling:

500g chicken, sliced into small

1 tbsp of minced garlic

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsps cornstarch

1 tbsp of dark soy sauce

4 tbsp char siu sauce

3 tbsps cooking oil

150ml water

Method:

1. Marinade all the ingredients (except water and cooking oil) for an hour.

2. Heat wok, add cooking oil. Add the marinade chicken. Stir-fry the mixture for 2 mins, add water and let it simmer until cook and the sauce thickening, about 8 mins. Set aside to cool completely. Is good to make the filling a day before use.

Ingredients for pastry:

water dough:

400g plain flour

100g butter, soften
2 tbsp sugar

180ml water

oil dough:

400g pastry flour

100g shortening, some melted butter (make sure the oil dough can come together to form rough dough ball, if not you need to add a bit more butter, and the dough should be easy to handle but not sticky. If you prefer to use butter or cooking oil, you can refer to my previous post)

Glazing:

1 egg lightly beaten + 1 tsp golden syrup

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix ingredients for water dough (except butter), slowly add in water. Knead into a rough dough, add butter and knead to a smooth dough. Cover and set aside in fridge for 30 mins. (When you take the water dough out from fridge, it should be soft and bouncy when you press on it)

2. Mix ingredients for oil dough. Use fingertips to lightly rub the butter with flour until mixture look like fine breadcrumbs (add melted butter if the dough can not form rough dough). Lightly press together the oil dough. Cover and keep in fridge for 30 mins. 

3. Divide water and oil dough into the portions as you wish respectively. 

4. Flatten the water dough, wrap the oil dough in it. Flatten the dough ball with rolling pin, roll up swiss roll style. Cover and let it rest for 15 mins. Flatten from the long side, roll up swiss roll style. Cover and let it rest for 10 mins.
5. Use finger to pull up two end of the dough and press into middle. Flatten the dough into circle and stuff filling, egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

6. Bake at 210 C for 30 mins.

Sambal Belacan

It has been very long since I last made my own sambal belacan, last week I have to make this sambal belacan thinking to go with the grilled calamari. Of course this condiment is good to go with plain rice too, a habit my mother and I always enjoyed. As I can't really take spicy food, I always make the sambal belacan more to the sweet and sour side with added tomatoes and lime juice. If you prefer more spicy version, just add more chili or chili padi (the small chilies) 

This is the first time I use the blender to blend my chili paste, as my pounder is too small for this quantity. The pause function on the blender really did a good job. 

Honey Char Siu 蜜汁叉烧

To be honest with you, I'm not a big fan of eating Char Siu, when I was living in Singapore whenever I ate Wanton Noodles, I would ask the hawker not to add Char Siu but add more wantons. Just because I don't like the red colour meat!! Never cross my mind one day I will making my own Char Siu with my own red rice wine :) My Char Siu is with strong rice wine aroma!

Has been marking Carol's Honey Char Siu recipe for sometimes, I love her recipe because she didn't add food colour in her meat. To make a succulent Char Siu, you have to get your meat right! I have no choice but to use pork lion, I cut away the skin but purposely leave behind some fat portion, but still some portion of the Char Siu is too dry for me. If you have choice use the fatty meat portion to make this Honey Char Siu. This is another easy recipe which I recommend you to try!

Last week, I made this Honey Char Siu for a friend farewell gathering. She is leaving Doha for good, going home to the country where she comes from is a happy thing. For us as friend we are happy for her on the other hand we are sad as she is a kind and great friend for many! In Doha, time always move too fast, people come and go. This round I'm the one staying behind. Cheers for friendship! 

Wanton 云吞

I never pay any attention to fold my wanton into any shape until one day a friend of mine came into my kitchen and saw my wantons! She told me there is certain ways to fold the wanton into fancy shapes! 

I google on the Internet and found out how to fold these two types of wanton. Love both of them, if you fold them properly, the wanton won't open up its fold while cooking in the soup. This post is just to record my beautiful wantons.

The filling of wanton is using prawn and pork.

Sweet Potato Angku Kueh (Red Tortoise) Nov 2014

This month is packed with activities, baking and cooking a lot too! A few more days will be the end of month November, Christmas is near and I have not prepare anything for Christmas! My son has listed his Christmas request to Santa Claus and hopefully Santa will come through my oven to deliver his present! :) 

This angku kueh was made early month November for a friend baby girl full month celebration. Initially intended to make 20 mini angku kueh but I made too much filling and decided to make 20 normal size angku kueh. It is using my previous recipe and glad that all friends gave the thumbs up for the soft chewy angku kueh texture. The recipe is a sure keeper as the pastry doesn't turn hard on the second day. No re- steam is require on next day.

Hakka Style Salted Pork Belly (Taiwanese Cuisine) 客家咸猪肉

In life we always encountered a lot of people who are so critical to judge other by what they see. For instance, appearance, your job, your social status, what you have right now, etc. How long it takes you to discover who are your true friends? When you are down to no social status, who will accept you as who you are? A big topic for us to ponder. Friend no need to have lot of them, just one or two friends who really accept you as who you are is good enough. I'm glad I found the answer early and I missed lot of my friends who are not here with me.

Discovered this awesome Hakka Style Salted Pork Belly recipe in Carol's recipe book. An easy and consider fast to prepare if not counting the days to marinate the meat. ^0^ Succulent meat, simply delicious!!

Side track a bit, I love to take food photos. Because behind the camera lens is the true character of me. As I don't edit my photos I pushed myself to produce the perfect standard that can captured by the lens. And usually, this only can be done when I'm alone at home. It has therapeutic effect too! \^O^/ 

Homemade Green Tea Noodles 绿茶手工面

Trying out something new today. Making my first green tea noodles. The pumpkin noodles dough is softer and more sticky to handle because of the water contains in the mashed pumpkin. So, I add 2 eggs and 5~6 tbsp water in the green tea noodles just to make up the water contains to get the soft noodles texture. I like the strong green tea fragrance in the noodles, the noodles is harder if compared to the pumpkin noodles. I think this type of noodles texture is suitable for frying too, it doesn't break easily.

Green Tea Bao and Black Sesame Bao

Learning to pleat the perfect bao, making a lot these few days. Will not share bao recipe until I can get the pretty pleat I want. Most of the time, the bao pleats all gone after steaming. Anyone can share how to resolve this issue? Is the dough recipe? Is the proofing too long? 

Love the green tea bao!!!