Stuffed pumpkin flowers

Have you ever watch any cooking show (Jamie O?  Gordan R?) that teaches you to stuff stuffs in the delicate, paper-thin zucchini/pumpkin flowers and then deep fry them?  Ever wonder why so fancy?  And maybe sounding a bit pretentious?  I thought so too....

But not if you have lots of pumpkin flowers growing like weeds in my vege patch!!!

Growing zucchini/pumpkin was my goal at the community plot this year. These members of the cucurbita family LOVE sun, which was why it was something I can never achieve in my shady courtyard garden.

I harvested some gorgeous yellow pumpkin flowers today- they are the large yellow male flowers- without the baby pumpkins attached. And made stuffed pumpkin flowers for dinner. There were plenty of leftover prawn paste, so I made fried wontons as well!

Boss man and toddler gobbled everything up in 2 seconds. Thank goodness I managed a quick snap before serving.  They are not just fancy but actually tastes great!

Stuffed pumpkin flowers recipe (original version by Luke Nguyen here)

4 pumpkin flowers, stems intact with stamen removed

150g tiger prawns (shelled and deveined)

2 egg whites

1 cup potato starch (or cornflour)

1 T fish sauce

1 garlic clove, finely diced

Sprinkle of dried dill

Vegetable oil for deep frying

Pinch of salt & pepper

1. Pound prawns in mortar and pestle into fine paste. Mix in sprinkle of dried dill, fish sauce, garlic, salt and pepper.

2. Take a teaspoon of paste and stuffed gently into pumpkin flower petals.

3. Coat each flower with egg white, followed by potato starch.

4. Deep fry flowers until golden and crisp. Place on absorbent paper towel.

Yummy dipped in sauce (fish sauce + sugar + chilli + garlic + lemon)!

Cauliflower Soup

This recipe by Neil Perry is truly delicious and is a success (Thanks to recipe tip off from mom's group friend!). I'll definitely be making this again and again. It is perfect for cold and rainy days. The recipe below is slightly tweaked for my future reference.

Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Parmesan (For the original recipe, click click!)

1 whole cauliflower, roughly chopped

1 large brown onion, peeled and diced

2 fresh garlic cloves, finely diced

900ml vegetable stock

50g light cream

1 T unsalted butter

2 tsp Dijon mustard

Parmesan cheese, finely grated

sea salt

pepper

1. Heat butter. Add garlic, onion, salt and pepper, saute for 10 minutes.

2. Add cauliflower and sweat over low heat for 10 minutes, until florets are soft and golden (the browning of cauliflower is essential for flavour of soup).

3. Add stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered for 15 minutes or until cauliflower is very soft.

4. Process soup until very smooth.

5. Over low heat, stir in cream. Add mustard and cheese in batches tasting as you go. Add more stock if necessary to give the desired consistency. 

6. Serve with warm bread. Enjoy!

ps: Dinner roll in the picture above was a homemade addition from the Boss man. I'll get him to write it up one day =)

Steamed Chicken Bun (Gai Bau)

This steamed bun project ranks pretty high up on my to do list because the boss man loves 'Dai Bau' (translation: 'Big Bun') and other Baus from Nam Loong.

I got the following bun skin recipe from a Chinese cook book.  I have altered the original recipe so that I can use the usual supply in my pantry and I don't need to buy any extra ingredient from the Asian grocery.  That is, I have used low-gluten flour instead of "Hong Kong" flour; I also have used rice bran oil instead of shortening/lard.

Ingredients for 16 buns

(A) Bun Skin
300g low gluten wheat flour
7g dry instant yeast (1 satchet=7g)
5g baking powder
70g sugar
25g light oil (I used rice bran)
120ml water

(B) Filling
500g chicken mince
Half an onion, diced finely and stir fried till soft
1/2 cup sweet corn
Seasoning (Salt, sugar, oyster sauce, sesame oil, pepper)

1. Combine ingredients (B) for filling in a large bowl and set aside for later use.

2. Combine all ingredients (A) for bun skin in a large bowl and knead until smooth. Divide to 16 equal parts, press and roll flat, thicker in the middle and thin at sides.  To make the paper base, just cut baking paper into the size you want.

3. Place a tablespoon of filling on bun skin and wrap. Set aside for 30 minutes to let rise.

4. Steam over high heat for 15 minutes (Put a few drops of white vinegar in the water in the steamer. This will prevent the buns from turning yellow!)

This is my 1st attempt, so please pardon the lack of bun wrapping technique.  As I practice more, I hope to make the buns into rabbit-shape, pig-face-shape, or basically any shape that could entice my little boy to eat more of these buns.  The dough is really forgiving, and can be stretched and patched as you please!

For the filling, I've used minced chicken and sweet corn.  But you can use pretty much anything you like.  Here are some ideas:

- Jap Chae (Health Score= 9 out of 10)
- Red bean or sesame paste (7 out of 10),
- Curry (5 out of 10)
- Chocolate (3 out of 10)
- Peanut butter (3 out of 10)
- Braised pork belly and mushrooms (1 out of 10)
- Nothing (a.k.a. "Man Tau") (0 out of 10!!!)

Enjoy!

Mini Quiches

We were invited for a picnic yesterday, and were each asked to bring a plate.

Inspired by Julia Child's Quiche Lorraine, I decided to bake a mini version for the kids! And because it's only cream, eggs, and bacon, I thought it would be healthier if there's some veges in it as well.
These were served cold. The children, or rather, the parents gobbled most of it down. We had a lovely time!

 

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C thickened cream
3 eggs
3 slices of bacon , cut into little squares, simmer in water for 5 minutes and browned slightly in skillet.
One onion, diced finely
Handful of diced pumpkin, roasted with olive oil
Handful of spinach
Pinch of salt
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of pepper
1 T butter, diced finely
1 T butter, for cooking
Puff pastry x 3, cut into 4 rounds per sheet

1. Preheat oven to 200c. Butter the inside of a 12 hole muffin pan and line with puff pastry rounds. Weigh it down with pie weights. Partially bake the the puff pastry for 8-9 minutes.
2. Turn oven down to 190c.
3.  Press bacon pieces into bottom of pastry shell.
4. Cook the onions in butter. Add spinach and stir over moderate heat for several minutes to evaporate all its water. Stir in pumpkin, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and taste carefully for seasoning.
5. Beat the eggs and cream in a mixing bowl to blend. Gradually stir in the onion, spinach, pumpkin mixture. Check seasoning.
6. Pour into pastry shell and dot with diced butter. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in oven. A knife plunged into the center should come out clean. It will stay puffed for 10 minutes in the turned off hot oven with door ajar. As it cools, it sinks down.

BBQ Honey chicken wings

OK - these are heavenly! This is probably THE dish to bossman's heart (via the tummy). He hehe! It tastes better than KFC, in fact it's so easy to make that it's easier than going out to buy KFC. The cooking time is 20 minutes, the prep time is 5 minutes. can it be easier than that?

Ingredients
2kg chicken wings/wingettes/drumettes
4 T oyster sauce
4 T fish sauce
dash of black pepper
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
thumb size ginger, chopped finely
4 T honey
2 T olive oil

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and let marinade overnight.
2  Bake in 200°C preheated oven for 20 minutes until golden brown, turning once.

Lunar Chinese New Year 'Yee Sang' (Sashimi Salad with Plum Sauce Dressing)

Where I grew up, Lunar Chinese New Year wouldn't be complete without 'Yee Sang'. It is a salad of sashimi, various thinly julienned fresh and pickled vegetables, crunchy crackers, nuts, with plum sauce dressing. I have been planning this dish for a while as there are a lot of ingredients to shop for.  Magimix did most of the work for me. The end result is an extremely fresh, yummy, and healthy salad!

Ingredients:
(Serves 10)

Part A (Body)
500g sashimi grade salmon, thinly sliced (I got mine fresh from a local Japanese wholesaler)
5 granny smith apples (2 cups), thinly julienned
1 sweet potato (2 cups), thinly julienned
6 carrots (4 cups), thinly julienned
1 cucumber (2 cups), thinly julienned
150g of instant natural jelly fish, drained and coated with sesame oil
1 cup of pomelo

Part B (Garnish)
few stalks of coriander
sprinkles of sakura denbu powder (pink fish floss)
1 cup chinese fritters, grilled lightly and sliced thinly
Toasted and coarsely ground cashew nuts
1 T of toasted sesame seeds
1 lime halved (half juiced, half for garnish)
8 pieces of candied winter melon, finely

Part C (Dressing)
1/2 cup plum sauce
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 t ground white pepper
1/4 t five-spice powder

1. Assemble Part A on a large platter as per picture.
2. Garnish with Part B (Garnish).
3. To serve, drizzle with Part C (Dressing).

4. Gather everyone around the table, and toss the salad with chopsticks ('Lou Sang')!!! The higher you toss, the better your luck will be! Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Tips:
1. There are some preparation work that could be done a few days in advance - toasting cashew/sesame seeds etc. There's also alot of ingredients to gather, so definitely plan ahead.
2. Use a food processor for perfectly julienned veges/fruits (I used the Magimix julienne disc).
3. Leave the julienned sweet potato, carrots and cucumber to dry in fridge 1 hour before assembling.
4. To stop apples from browning, soak julienned apples in salt water for 10 minutes and squeeze the water out.
5. Experiment with different combinations. For this recipe, I substitute the traditional toasted peanut for cashews, (yummier), peanut oil for extra virgin olive oil (healthier), deep fried crunchy crackers for toasted fritters (easier). I also garnished with 'sakura denbu' to give it an extra pop of color, for the wow factor.

Karen Martini's Son in law eggs

This is one of my favourite Thai appetiser! Restuarants like 'Chin Chin' and Gingerboy generally charge a hefty A$8 for 2 eggs. When I saw Karen Martini's recipe published on the Sunday Age couple years ago, I HAD to make it. To make at home, this would only cost A$8 for all the ingredients, and will yield triple the portion + lots of Nam Jim sauce left over for future meals.  So easy, and mouth watering delicious! My husband absolutely love it!!

Nam Jin Sauce

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic, peeled

3 pinches salt

12 red chillies (long, skinny), seeds in and sliced

350g caster sugar

320ml red wine vinegar

2 T tiny dried shrimp

1 T fish sauce

1. Pound garlic and salt to paste. Add chilli and pound to rough paste. Place paste in saucepan with sugar, vinegar.

2. Pound dried shrimp until fluffy. Add shrimp to saucepan.

3. Bring saucepan mixture to boil over medium heat.

4. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 8 minutes or until slightly syrupy. 

5. Add fish sauce and simmer for 1 minute, then transfer to sterilised jar and allow to cool.

Son-in-law Eggs

Ingredients:

5 soft-boiled eggs, peeled and cooled to room temperature

4 kaffir lime leaves, finely julienned

1 / 2 bunch watercress, trimmed

1 / 4 bunch mint, leaves only, torn

5 T Nam Jim Sauce

2 t crispy shallots

juice of 1 lime

1. Cut eggs in half and place on serving plate.

2. Sprinkle lime leaves over eggs and scatter with watercress and mint.

3. Spoon Nam Jim sauce and lime juice over salad, then spinkle with crispy shallots and serve.

 

Tips:

1. For perfect eggs, I used the Cuisinart eggcooker. It was a gift from the Fat Rascal (bestfriend) many years ago, extremely handy tool which I use all the time.

2. You can make the Nam Jim sauce few days in advance. On the day of the meal, only assembly is required. Sauce can keep up to 2 weeks in the fridge. Such a versatile sauce, I've even used it in place of tomato sauce for BBQs.