French Pear Tart (II)

Baked a pear tart for Good Friday. This time, I've arranged the pears the proper way. To quote Dorrie Greenspan: 'Thinly slice each pear half crosswise. Lift each half on a spatula, press down on the pear to fan it slightly and place it over the almond cream, wide end toward the edge of the crust. The 6 halves will form spokes'. (Although, I think I've sliced them abit too finely). Recipe here.

Hope you had a great Easter weekend x

Soy happy!

In the past, this is how I make soy milk at home. It's messy, and time consuming as you have to blend the soaked beans, stand in front of the stove to cook the milk, and I haven't mentioned the amount of washing up after! I love soy milk, but this is much too fussy.

One day, after hearing me out, my colleague who's from China suggested: 'Why don't you get a Jo Young soy milk machine? Everyone in China has one! And everyone drinks fresh soy milk everyday!!!'. I did my research online and was intrigued- all you need to do is add soaked beans and water, and the machine will work its magic. Wow! I wanted it, but it was expensive and I can only buy it online.

Fast forward 3 years later, I took the plunge and 'invested' in a soy milk maker (mainly because someone imports the product to Melbourne now and I can see it in person, and plus.... I have a soft spot for kitchen gadgets)!

The machine looks good and doesn't take up much space on my kitchen benchtop. All you need to do to get soy milk is:

Ingredients
1000ml water
1 cup of soy beans, soaked overnight

(1) soak a cup of soy beans overnight in the fridge
(2) add soaked beans and water to machine, press 'soy milk', then 'soaked beans'. Wait 20 minutes, and voila, fresh soy milk!

I experimented a little last night, by mixing in the following:
 
Ingredients:
5 Tbsp black sesame
1/2 rice bowl of white rice
1 Tbsp white sesame
4 Tbsp caster sugar
900ml water

(1) Press 'rice paste', wait 20 minutes, and voila, instant smooth and velvety black sesame pudding!!!

Boy was I pleased, and soy happy! :D

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.

Nian Gao with Coconut 椰丝年糕

I am not a fan of Nian Gao, and if you are not too, you're going to be left with a pile of Nian Gao after Chinese New Year. What to do with them? I decided to prettify it to make it at least abit more appetising to the eyes. So I coat the steamed sticky sweet rice cakes in desiccated coconut for a simple dessert to go with dinner. The result was a yummy dessert which tastes alot like  'Nyonya Kuihs'. The recipe below, as you can see, is incredibly simple.

Ingredients

1 round block of 'Nian Gao', cut in to 2 cm x 2cm pieces

Some desiccated coconut + pinch of salt

1. Steam desiccated coconut for 10 minutes to rehydrate.

2. At the same time, steam Nian Gao pieces for 10 minutes as well.

2. Toss in desiccated coconut. Serve warm.

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.

Confinement Food, Yum!

Chinese believe in the healing properties of post partum confinement food. After the birth of baby ε, mom fed me delicious confinement food - laden with ginger, sesame oil, and DOM for the entire month post partum! It was DELICIOUS!

I recently cooked a few dishes for my friend after she gave birth ... and the smell of the food cooking was just incredible. Reminds me of home and comfort.

I'm also thinking of sharing these recipes in a confinement food series, so do watch this space!

From Top clockwise: Chicken Wine, Chicken Wine kept warm in thermal pot, Pork trotters vinegar.

Baby ε's congee

This congee is baby ε's favourite. The chicken and carrots gives it a sweet taste; the dried scallops, sesame oil, mushrooms and anchovy powder makes it umami!

Ingredients:
250g of chicken mince
1 cup rice, washed
5 cups water
1/2 cup of enoki mushrooms, chopped
2 medium carrots
1 t anchovy powder
1 large Japanese dried scallop
1 egg
2 t sesame oil
small dash of soy sauce (omit if your baby is <1 year)

(recipe yields 3 portions of baby food)

1. Marinate chicken mince with the sesame oil and a small dash of soy sauce
2. Wash rice and dried scallop in medium sized pot. Add water to rice and bring to boil.  Add chicken mince.
3. Lower heat and let simmer for 30 minutes. Do not close lid. Stir regularly (every 10 minutes).
4. Add carrots, enoki mushrooms, anchovy powder and let simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
5. Lastly stir in the egg.
6. Let cool and store in 3 baby food containers.

Baby chicken fingers with apple

This recipe was passed around in my moms group. It's a super easy and yummy snack for babies (suitable from 7+ months). Baby ε loves munching on it!

Ingredients
1 cup chicken mince
1 carrot, chopped finely
1 apple, chopped finely
1/2 garlic clove, chopped finely
1/2 brown onion, chopped finely
1 egg yolk, beaten
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
pinch of thyme
ground black pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 200 Celsius. 
2.Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Scoop small balls of mixture using an ice cream scoop (to ensure even size), and roll into 8 little sausages.
4. Place into oven and grill for 10 minutes on each side.
5. Allow to cool.
6. Serve, or store in freezer for future use.

Part 3: Nasi Lemak - Coconut flavored rice + condiments

One of the most important components of Nasi Lemak is fluffy fragrant coconut rice. I've tweaked this recipe many times, and it is now heavenly! My preference is to use medium grain rice, and have it all cooked in an electric rice cooker (not over a stove as it burns easily).

Coconut flavored rice

Ingredients:
5 cups of rice, washed
250ml thick coconut cream
2.5 cups water
3 pandan leaves, washed and tied into a knot
2 stalks lemon grass, bruised
2 kaffir lime leaf
4 t salt
(Serves 10)

1. Place all ingredients in a rice cooker and cook until all liquid has evaporated.
2. Allow rice to stand for 30 minutes.
3. Fluff rice up with chopsticks before serving.

Part 2: Nasi Lemak - BBQ Turmeric Chicken Wings

Sometimes, the simplest ingredients make the best dishes. Turmeric chicken wings is my favorite go-to recipe for no fuss accompaniment to Nasi Lemak. Absolutely perfect to put on a summer barbeque.

Easy BBQ Turmeric Chicken Wings

Ingredients
1 kg chicken wingettes
1 T turmeric powder
1 t coriander powder
1 T salt
Juice of one lemon
(Serves 6)

1. Marinate chicken wings with all ingredients in a large container overnight.
2. Cook chicken wings on a BBQ until golden brown and cooked through.
3. Serve with coconut rice.

Part 1: Nasi Lemak - Sambal Udang

A Nasi Lemak Feast

We had 40 guests over last weekend for baby ε's 1st birthday, 40!!! I almost went nuts with the overwhelming task of shopping + preparing food for so many people on my own. Luckily everything went smoothly. There were quite a few components to my Nasi Lemak feast, most of them could be prepared several days in advance.

Part 1:  Sambal Udang (Prawns n Sambal Sauce) *
Part 2: BBQ Turmeric Chicken Wings
Part 3: Coconut Rice +  Condiments (Toasted Anchovies and Nuts/ Cucumber slices / Hard boil eggs)
Part 4: Curry Chicken
Part 5: BBQ Satay chicken

Watch out for Part 2 -5 in the next few weeks.

* Part 1: Sambal Udang (Prawns in Sweet Sambal Sauce)

Master Sweet Sambal Sauce

Ingredients:
(A) 1 large brown onions, chopped
(A) 2 shallot, chopped
(A) 6 cloves of garlic
(A) 4 long red chillies
(A) 1 T toasted shrimp paste (belachan)
(A) 4 small dried red chillies (seeds removed)
4 T tomato sauce
1 T tamarind puree dissolved in 1/4 cup water
6 T caster sugar
1 T salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil

(The above ingredients yields approx 1 cup, I was catering for 40 people so I quadrupled the above ingredients).

1. Blend ingredients (A) using a stick blender into a rough paste (The traditional method would be to pound it using a large mortar and pestle).
2. Heat oil to medium heat, add rough paste, and reduce to low heat. Cook the paste for 15 minutes stirring regularly until the mixture is fragrant.
3.Add tomato sauce, tamarind liquid, sugar and salt, and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring regularly until red chilli oil appears.

Tips:
(1) When frying sambal, watch it like a hawk and stir regularly. I learnt this the hard way in the past by accidentally burning batches of sambal, one too many times.
(2) I toned down the level of chilli in the recipe. If you prefer your sambal spicy, I suggest replacing the dried chillies with 6 heap tablespoons of chilli powder.
(3) You can cook this days in advance and store it in a sterilised jar in the fridge.

Super Easy Sambal Udang (Prawns in Sweet Sambal Sauce)

Ingredients:
1 brown onion
500 g prawns peeled with tail left intact, diveined
1 cup of Master Sambal Sauce
2 Kaffir lime leaves, rolled and sliced finely
2 t vegetable oil

(Serve approx 8-10. To serve 40, I quadrupled the above ingredients).

1. Heat oil, and fry prawns and onions until prawns start to cook (turn opaque).
2. Add sweet sambal sauce and toss with kaffir lime leaves, let simmer until cooked.
3. Garnish with sliced kaffir lime leaves, and serve with rice/coconut rice

Enjoy the beautiful (to me at least, pungent to some :p remember to close your kitchen doors and air your house thoroughly) south east Asian flavors wafting through your kitchen! ;) 

Christmas Roast Turkey with Ricotta Stuffing

I have always wanted to roast a turkey for christmas. This year, I did it! This recipe from Neil Perry was so delicious with the ricotta and butter rub- only thing was his recipe was for a very very big bird (7.6kg!), so I tweaked the oven cooking time/method to suit the 4kg turkey I ordered.

Ingredients:
4kg whole turkey
extra virgin olive oil
1 small brown onion, finely chopped
8 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup baby spinach
200g fresh ricotta, drained
1 T chopped thyme
1 T chopped flat leaf parsley
90g raisins, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes and drained
75g unsalted butter, finely diced (room temperature)
1 egg
sea salt and white pepper

Serves 6 adults with plenty of leftovers

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Rinse the turkey and pat dry with absorbent paper.
2. To make the stuffing, heat a little olive oil in a frying pan. Add onion and garlic and cook over low heat for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
3. Microwave the spinach in hot water for 2 minute, drain and rinse under cold water. Squeeze the excess water from spinach. Chop coarsely.
4. Combine the onion mixture with the spinach, ricotta, herbs, raisins, and butter in a medium bowl. Add the eggs, season with salt and pepper and mix well.
5. Spread the stuffing between the skin and breast/legs, until it is firmly packed in. Rub the skin with plenty of olive oil and season the turkey inside and out with sea salt and white pepper.
6. Place the turkey on a greased wire rack in a large baking tray, and roast breast side down, on top, cover with greased aluminium foil and roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
7. Turn turkey, breast side up, and roast uncovered for a further 20 minutes or until cooked (When tested with a meat thermometer, the internal temperature of the breast should be 74°C and the legs 80°C).

Tips:
1. If the turkey was frozen, start defrosting in fridge at least 2 days before cooking.
2. For gravy, heat up the juices from turkey in a pan with 20g butter, 3 T plain flour, 2 cups of water. Stir and let reduce to gravy consistency. 
3. When seasoning the skin and inside of turkey, rub with ALOT of salt (I used at least 1 Tablespoon).
4. Meat thermometer is essential to make sure the turkey's cooked perfect.

Glutinous Rice Balls 湯圓 in sweet ginger syrup

Becoming a mom this year got me thinking of the value of rituals and traditions, and I would love to create some for our family. Winter solstice festival fell on the 22nd of December this year, so glutinous rice balls are the 1st Chinese tradition I'm starting us with! This brilliant recipe was passed on to me from my mom and aunties. Using a variety of sweet potatoes gives it lovely colour, much healthier than the usual food colouring.

Ingredients:
250g of glutinous rice flour (divide into 3 parts)
1 cup purple sweet potato, diced.
1 cup red sweet potato, diced.
1 cup white sweet potato, diced.
2 stalks pandan leaves (screwpine)
3 T white rock sugar
4 cup water
3 thin slices of thumb size ginger

1. Steam sweet potatoes in separate bowls until soft, then mashed finely or puree.
2. Mix glutinous rice flour into separate puree bowls until 'play doh' consistency.

3. Shape the 'play doh' into little balls (1-2 cm in diameter)
4. To prepare the ginger syrup, boil pandan leaves and ginger in water for 10 minutes. Lower heat and add sugar.
5. Put the glutinous rice balls into the bubbling ginger syrup. When the balls float to the surface of the water, you're done.

Tips:
1. If you could not reach the 'play dough' texture, try mixing in more glutinous rice flour if the dough is too wet, or mixing in some water if the dough seem dry. You'll get it in the end by process of trial and error, keep trying.
2. Use an ice cream scoop to divide your dough into equal parts, shape into thin rolls, cut rolls into 1-2 cm sections then shape into little balls.
3. You can also use steamed pumpkin, or any other fruits to get a variety of colours (beetroot?!).

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.

French Pear Tart

This is a fool proof recipe for french pear tart by Dorie Greenspan (Baking from my home to yours). I've baked this a dozen times, and it always comes out perfect! The recipe is really detailed, Dorie's style, which is brilliant. Always bake the tart case earlier to avoid the mad rush during the day of serving (frozen tart base can be kept up to 2 months). I also like to make the almond cream several days in advance, so all I need to do is assemble the tart before a meal//party. This tart is delicious served with vanilla ice cream, and a cup of earl grey tea!

Partially baked tart base made with sweet tart dough
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/4 t salt
110g very cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

1. Put flour, icing sugar and salt in food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in - you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas  Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in log pulses- about 10 seconds each - until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change - heads up! Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.
2. Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly into the pan. Using all but a little piece of dough, which you should save to patch any cracks after the crust is baked.
3. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.
4. Preheat oven to 190c.
5. Butter the shiny side of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust (Since the crust was frozen, you can bake it without weights). Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon and patch the crust if necessary. Let it cool completely (keep it in its pan).

Almond cream
Ingredients
3 canned whole pears, drained.
80g unsalted butter at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup almond meal
2 t plain flour
1 t cornstarch
1 large egg
2 t dark rum or 1 t vanilla extract

1. Put the butter and sugar in a food processor and process until mixture is smooth and satiny. Add almond meal and process until well blended. Add the flour and cornstarch and process to blend, then add the egg. Process for 15 seconds more, or until almond cream is homogeneous. Add rum and process just to blend. You can either use the almond cream immedietly, or scrape it into a container and refrigerate it until firm, about 2 hours (can be frozen for up to 2 months).

Assembly
Ingredients
3 canned whole pears, drained.
icing sugar for dusting, or some jelly for glazing.
partially baked 9 inch tart base made with sweet tart dough, cooled

1. Preheat oven to 180c.
2. Fill the cooled partially baked crust with almond cream, spreading evenly with an offset metal icing spatula.
3. Thinly slice each pear and arrange it over the almond cream (I hadn't arranged it the traditional way)
4. Bake the tart for 50-60 minutes, or until almond cream puffs up around the pears and browns. Transfer to rack to cool to just warm or to room temperature before removing the sides of the pan.
5. Right before serving, dust the tart with icing sugar or warm jelly with water and brush this glaze over the surface of the tart.