Golden Mushroom Glass Noodles Salad 凉拌冬粉金针菇

I start to like eating salad when I get to know that it can help to regulate our immune system if we eat it right. Enoki or golden needles mushroom is one of the mushroom which contains high quantity of protein which helps in the regulation of our immune system. By short, the mushroom contain antioxidants. 

To create a flavourful and delicious salad you need the right ingredients then salad is no more equal to boring or plain flavour. This is the salad you should try as it is flavourful and delicious, can eat it as its own. I'm stuck again when comes to name my dish as it contains so many main ingredients, so this round just make a short one: Golden Mushroom Glass Noodles Salad :)

Recipe from Ah Tze's Kitchen Play
Ingredients:
100g golden/enoki mushroom, cut the root and wash
40g black fungus, soak, cut into thin slices
1/2 medium carrot, shredded
1/2 small cucumber, shredded, remove any excess moisture
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 slice of ginger, minced
90g glass noodles

Seasoning:
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp sesame oil
6 tbsp Chinese vinegar 
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt (to taste)

Method: 
1. Warm up the vinegar and sugar in a small pot, stir well. When sugar melting remove pot from heat, add light soy sauce and sesame oil, taste before add salt. Set aside.
2. Heat up water in a pot, blanch the enoki mushroom and black fungus in boiling water for 2 mins, drain and set aside.
3. Cook the glass noodles in boiling water for 5 mins or until soft. Drain and keep the noodles warm. 
4. In a big bowl, pour in the (1) and transfer the cook glass noodles, shredded carrot, shredded cucumber, sliced shallot, minced ginger, sliced black fungus and enoki mushrooms into the bowl. Toss the dressing through the salad and garnish with sesame seeds. 

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up event, hosted by Joyce, kitchen flavours, organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids and Doreen for my little favourite D.I.Y.

Golden Mushroom Winter Melon Seaweed Soup

This is a quick cooking soup suitable for all seasons, a big pot and just dump everything in! What more can we ask for with a hot soup in hand in this cold weather. A quick and simple way of retain most of the nutrients in all ingredients, the soup is rich with freshness of sea and it is flavourful, I used clams as the soup base. I'm using frozen clams but you can used fresh clams if you want to. 

To chose a name for this soup is difficult for me, because it used golden/enoki mushrooms, winter melon, seaweed, tofu and carrots, anyway as I want to join the Little Thumbs Up and the theme for this month is Mushrooms! so here it goes, Golden Mushroom Winter Melon Seaweed Soup :) Love to see my son drinking a big bowl of it!

Recipe from Ah Tze's Kitchen Play (as always cup measurement)
Ingredients:
100g firm tofu
1 carrot, thinly sliced
300g winter melon, cut into big cubes
15~20 clams, wash and rinse
a handful of golden/enoki mushroom, chopped away the root, wash and rinse
50g dried seaweed, wash
1.5 tbsp soy bean paste, white type (can get from Asian Groceries shop)
1300ml water

Method:
1. Place water into the soup pot, add carrot, winter melon and clams. Bring to boil over high heat.
2. Then add tofu, dried seaweed, golden mushrooms and soy bean paste. Simmer over low heat for another 20 mins. As I don't like my soup to be too salty, I didn't add salt, you may add according to your taste. Serve hot. 

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up event, hosted by Joyce, kitchen flavours, organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids and Doreen for my little favourite D.I.Y.

Marble Chocolate Cheesecake

This marble chocolate cheesecake  is a special bake for my sister's family, they love the green tea cheesecake and mixed berries cheesecake which I baked previously. I'm using the previous recipe. This round I used 2 tsp of cocoa powder and mixed it with 5 tbsp of batter to make the chocolate swirl. Personally think I should reduce the cocoa powder to 1 tsp and mixed it with lesser batter as I don't want the top of the cheesecake to fill up with brown :)

The feedback from my nieces are very good, they said their friends tasted the cheesecake and would like to buy it from me! Today I baked four 4" cheesecake and packed it into small boxes, just to let you know I still can't get a cheap cake box here, the small 4" cake box below is price at AUD$1.65! so looking at the high cost in packaging this really not a good business :) 

Recipe adapted from 幸福甜点81道， 星期天的烘焙时光

60g or 10 pcs of biscuits
20g unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
320g cream cheese
70g sugar (used 50g if you don't want it to be too sweet)
2 eggs
70g sour cream (used thickened cream)
80g butter, soften
15g corn flour

2 tsp cocoa powder

Method:
1. Place biscuit in a plastic bag and crash it into small crumbles, stir in the melted butter.
2. Place the baking paper in the cake pan and add in the biscuit crumbles. Press down the biscuit to the cake pan. 
3. Double boil the cream cheese and sugar in a big bowl, until the sugar is melted and mix well with cream cheese. Take the bowl away from the heat, add the egg, one at a time. Mix well.
4. Gradually add in the thickened cream, butter and corn flour. Stir well.
5. Sieve the batter and pour in the sieved batter to the cake pan. 

6. Set aside 4~5 tbsp of batter to mix with cocoa powder, mix well and pour into the cake pan, use a chopstick and make a few swirls.

7.Prepare the water bath, place the cake pan in the water bath. Bake at 120C for one hour.

8. When the cake is done, take out from the oven and let it cool down before put in the fridge. Dislodge the cake only when the cake is harden.