Muah Chee (Glutinous Rice Snacks with Peanut and Sugar)

Muah Chee the soft and chewy glutinous rice cake coated with peanut and  sugar... it was not my childhood favourite snack. I only get to try out this Asian snack when I was living in Singapore. My hubby loves this snack very much, I can remember we always buy it from a stall in Chinatown whenever we go there. 

I made Muah Chee years back using microwave method, it was very easy. This round I'm using the recipe which need to cook and fold the dough until it is done. When I was trying out this recipe, I discovered it was hard for us to judge when we should stop folding the glutinous rice dough, it took me a while to exercise my fingers! ^^ The ratio for flour and water has to be 1:1. I'm over joy with the end result. If you make too much and can't finish consume it within a day, you can store it in a airtight container on the kitchen top overnight, reheat in the microwave for a 25 seconds will bring it back to the softness just like freshly make.  


You can watch Loft48 video on how she cooked and folded the dough here. 

yield: 6 serving

Ingredients: 
2 cups glutinous rice flour
2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
250g ground peanut powder
100g sugar (to your liking)
3 tbsp peanut oil (cooking dough) + 2 tbsp gradually add when folding the dough

Method: 
1. In a container, mix the ground peanut powder, sugar and salt together. Cover and set aside for later.
2. In a bowl, mix the water with glutinous rice flour, mix well.

3. Heat up a non-stick pan at low heat with 3 tbsp of peanut oil, pour in the flour mixture. Using a plastic spatula, gently stir the mixture, keep stirring until the mixture thicken. Use the spatula to pull together the mixture and form a rough dough. 

4. Use a pair of chopstick, each side of your hand handle one and start folding the dough inward, drop a few drops of peanut oil on the dough while you are doing the fold to prevent the dough sticking on the pan. Continue until the dough totally pull away from the side and bottom of the pan, and form smooth dough. 

5. Cut the dough with greased scissors into smaller dough and place it into the peanut mixture container, cut the dough into smaller pieces and coat it with more peanut and sugar. Serve warm. 

Takoyaki (Japanese snack)

First time making Takoyaki, I'm using a recipe given by a friend. The ingredients used are a bit different from the traditional Takoyaki as there are Parmesan cheese and milk in it. 

When I recount how I had tracked and bought the Takoyaki machine, I laugh at myself and I believe the friends who went through that moments with me will still laugh together with me too. That's how the life I had in Qatar, miss you all over here.

Yield: 38 pieces

Ingredients:
1.5 cups cake flour
1 tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup full-fat milk
1/2 tsp peppers/salt
1 tbsp salad oil or vegetable oil
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
3 tbsp shredded carrot
4 pieces of baby octopus, cut into small

Topping:
Roasted sesame sauce
Bulldog Ouchide Honkaku Okonomi sauce
some Bonito flakes 

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, add cake flour, corn flour, baking powder, egg, milk, peppers/salt, vegetable oil, and Parmesan cheese. Mix well. Then add shredded carrot.

2. Heat up the Takoyaki machine with some oil coated on each holes. (As my machine not able to adjust the heat, I switch it off when the machine is over heating, or else you should use medium-low heat to cook the Takoyaki balls) 

3. Pour the batter into each of the holes, top with a piece of octopus (if the octopus piece is very small you can put 2 or 3 pieces), use two skewers to flip the excess batter inwards to the hole, in the mean time, turn and flip each balls to 180 degree, you will see it starts to form nice round shape and keep turning until the ball is evenly brown. 

4. Top with some roasted sesame sauce, bulldog Ouchide Honkaku Okonomi sauce and sprinkle with some bonito flakes, serve warm. 

Sweet and Sour Sticky Short Ribs

This sweet and sour sticky short ribs is one of my family favourite dish! The original recipe called it Gao Sheng Pork Ribs (高升排骨）because of the portion of its ingredients. One part rice wine, two parts sugar, three parts Chinese white vinegar, four parts the light soy source, five parts water, the increase of its ingredients ratio, that's why they name it. I didn't follow the quantity of the original recipe because I don't want to add too much light soy source and sugar in it.  

It is a very delicious short ribs dish, and easy to prepare from our home kitchen. The secret for a delicious plate of sweet and sour sticky short ribs is you have to first deep fry the short ribs with low heat then turn to high heat before stir fry it with seasoning. This will ensure the short ribs is cooked and tender. 

Ingredients: 
500g short pork ribs
50g rice wine
90g sugar (to taste)
100g Chinese white vinegar
100g light soy source
250ml water 
a dash of black peppers
1 tsp of fermented red bean curd 

cooking oil enough to do deep fry

Method:
1. Wash the short ribs properly. Marinate the short pork ribs with fermented red bean curd, 30g of sugar and a dash of black peppers, cover and set aside for at least an hour in fridge. 

2. Heat up a small pot with cooking oil enough to do deep frying. When you lower a pair of chopstick, there will be bubbles appears beside the chopstick that mean the oil is ready for deep frying. Lower the heat to medium-low, place the marinated short ribs in. Deep fry for about 4 mins or until the short ribs turns light golden brown. Turn the heat to high, continue to deep fry until the short ribs is cooked. Fish out the short ribs on the kitchen paper to drain excess cooking oil.

3. In a bowl, stir together the remaining 60g sugar, rice wine, vinegar, light soy source and water. Heat up a wok with 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, place the deep fried short ribs into it, add the seasoning mixture, stir fried with medium heat until the source thicken. Taste the source, add sugar if necessary. Serve warm.