DIY Spam

 

Ingredients:

600 g. minced pork (more fat)

8 g. salt

8 g. granulated sugar

1 g. garlic powder

1 g. onion powder

1 g. red rice powder

1 g. five spice powder

2 g. chicken stock granules

12 g. oyster sauce

12 g. rice wine

50 g. potato starch (sifted)

30 g. plain flour (sifted)

180 ml. water

20 g. corn oil

Methods:

1. Add minced pork and salt into the mixer bowl; use the beater of a stand mixer to mix using low speed until sticky.
2. Then add sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, red rice powder, five spice powder, chicken stock granules, oyster sauce and rice wine.  Continue to mix until combined.
3. In a bowl, combine water, potato starch and plain flour.  Add  half of the water flour mixture into the meat and continue to mix, and check on the texture of the meat mixture, scrape the sides with a spatula to ensure even mixing; add the rest of the water and flour mixture and continue to mix on low speed for 10 minutes.  Add in the corn oil and mix until well combined for another 5 minutes.  Remove and use spatula to scrape the sides down.
4. Apply thin layer of oil onto a baking tin.
5. Scoop the meat mixture into the tin and press tightly; add a little oil on the spatula to make the surface smoother as we continue to smooth the top of the meat mixture.
6. Place an aluminium paper over the top to cover.
7. Steam using medium heat for 40 minutes.
8. Remove from steamer and leave it to cool.
9. After cooling, remove the aluminium foil and put in the refrigerator for 3 hours before cutting.
10. Remove from pan, and the Spam is ready to be cut and fry.

I adapted this recipe from 'Karen Ling's Kitchen' with a slight adjustment to suit my cooking preference.

Spicy Sweet And Sour Eggplant

Ingredients: (serves 2)

2 eggplants 

Dashes of salt and 2 1/2 tbsp. cornflour (for marinating, 20 minutes)

3 garlic cloves (peeled and chopped)

1/2 onion (peeled and roughly diced)

1/2" ginger (peeled and chopped)

2 bird's eye chilis (sliced)

Sauce:

1 tbsp. light soy sauce

1 1/2 tbsp. tomato ketchup

Salt and sugar (to taste)

Methods:

1. Wash and cut the eggplants into 1 1/2" pieces; marinate with salt and cornflour for 20 minutes.
2. In a heated pan with enough oil, deep-fry the marinated eggplant in batches until golden crisp; do not over crowd the pan.  Dish, drain and set aside.
3. Remove excess oil from the pan, leaving 2 tablespoon, saute garlic, ginger and chilis until fragrant.  Add onions and stir-fry until softens.  Add in the sauce ingredients, stir to combine.  Then add in the eggplants, mix until each pieces are coated with the sauce. Switch of the heat.
4. Dish onto a plate and serve with warm fluffy white rice.

This recipe is adapted from Youtube Dapur 2020.

Wool Roll Bread With Milky Coconut Filling

This unique bread captures my heart, the moment I saw it online.  True enough, I keep making them over and over; either with the same recipe or with other recipes.  It is real FUN, starting from preparing the dough, watching it rise, creating it into beautiful rolls and watching it comes out of the oven; beautifully baked and yummy to the taste buds.  Finally, I've decided that it is time for me to add into my Blog and share it with everyone who loves baking it and enjoys this healthy home-baked bread in the comfort of their sweet home.

Ingredients: (makes 1 round 8" pan)

(A)  Bread Dough

2 cups plain flour (sifted)

2 1/2 tbsp. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. instant yeast

1 large egg

1/2 cup warm milk

2 tbsp. (28 g.) unsalted butter (room temperature)

(B)  Milky Coconut Filling

6 tbsp. (3 oz.) unsalted butter, very soft

2 1/2 tbsp. granulated sugar (add another 1/2 tbsp. if you prefer sweeter)

3 tbsp. plain flour (sifted)

1/4 cup milk powder (sifted)

1/2 cup desiccated coconut 

Methods:

(A)  Bread Dough

• Combine flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl.  Add egg and warm milk.  Using a dough hook with low speed, mix until it becomes a dough.
• Add butter and continue to mix using medium speed until fully incorporated.  It will be messy at first, continue to mix until the dough becomes smooth, elastic and not sticky.
• Remove dough onto a pastry mat.  Shape into a dough ball.  Drizzle a bit of corn oil into a large bowl, place the dough ball into it, roll and turn over to coat the dough with the corn oil; cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and place in a warm area until the dough is doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.

(B)  Milky Coconut Filling

• In a bowl, combine the softened butter, sugar, flour, milk powder and desiccated coconut.  Stir them well until a chunky paste is formed.  At first, this will be gritty and crumbly.  Continue to mix until the mixture is moist and can cling together when pressed with your fingers.

(C)  Assembly

• Grease pan with butter.  Line the bottom with parchment paper.
• Remove dough onto the pastry mat/work surface.  Punch down dough to release the air inside.  Divide dough into 8 pieces.  Shape each piece into a ball, cover with a kitchen towel, and set them aside for 15 minutes.  
• Using a rolling pin, roll out each piece into an elongated shape.  Press down the dough around the edges with your thumbs to keep it from stretching back.

• Cut out thin strips of dough along the top 2/5 part of the dough (lengthwise), and spread a layer of the milky coconut filling over the remaining part of the dough (see picture below).

• Fold 1/4" from 3 of the dough edges over the filling.  Then start rolling towards the dough strips from the opposite end to form a log.  Repeat with the other leftover dough to get a total of 8 logs.  Place dough logs into the prepared pan as per picture below. 

• Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm area for 1 hour.

• Gently brush the dough with milk.  Bake in a preheated oven of 170 degree Celsius for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

• Let the bread sit inside the pan over a wire rack until the pan is cool enough to remove the bread from the pan, remove the parchment paper, and let it cool completely over a wire rack.

This recipe is adapted from two sources: (1)  The bread dough recipe from 'spoonfulpassion.com' and (2) The milky coconut filling recipe from 'womanscribbles.net', both with slight adjustments to suit my baking preferences.

Matcha Pancakes

I have made Matcha Pancakes before, but I will always try out other recipes, as Matcha is one of my favorite ingredients in my pantry.  This time around, I am using NIKO NEKO Yuri Matcha Powder.

Ingredients: (makes 8)

1 cup milk

1 egg

1 1/4 cup rolled oats

2 tsp. Matcha Powder

1 tbsp. Chia Seeds

1 tbsp. honey (add more if you prefers sweet)

1/2 tsp. baking powder (sifted)

Pinch of salt

White chocolate chips (to add over the batter during frying)

Methods:

1. Prepare and measure all the ingredients.
2. Add all ingredients into the blender bowl; adding the wet ingredients first for easier blending.
3. Mix everything at high speed until you get a smooth texture.
4. Taste the pancake batter and add additional honey if you prefer much sweeter.
5. Pour the batter into a large bowl.  Let the batter rest for few minutes.  Oats will soak some of the moisture, and pancake batter will become denser.
6. In the meantime, heat the pancake pan over medium heat and coat/drizzle with some cooking oil.
7. For each pancake, drop about 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and add  some white chocolate chips over the top.  The amount of batter depends on your preferred size of the pancakes.  Cook for 1-2 minutes until pancake is lightly browned.
8. Flip the pancake and cook for another minute.  Remove the pancake and place on a wire rack over a plate.  Repeat the process with the remaining pancake batter.
9. Sprinkle some Matcha powder over the top of the pancakes, and serve.

I serve the Matcha Pancakes for my breakfast, with a glass of Matcha Green Tea Latte. To obtain the Matcha Latte recipe, click here

Grilled or Pan-Fried Pork Belly With Lemongrass

This pork belly marinated with lemongrass is so tasty, and I am pan frying some of it for my Summer Rolls.  The rest of it is served with rice as a meat dish. 

Ingredients:

500 g. pork belly (remove skin and sliced)

Marinade:

2 tbsp. minced lemongrass 

2 tbsp. granulated sugar

1 1/2 tbsp. fish sauce

1 tsp. ground black pepper

2 shallots (peeled and minced)

2 cloves garlic (peeled and minced)

1/2 tbsp. sesame oil

1/2 tbsp. cooking oil

1 tbsp. sweet soy sauce

Methods:

1. Mix all marinade ingredients in a bowl.
2. Add pork belly, mix to combine well.  Place them into a container or zip-lock bag and leave it in the fridge to marinate overnight.
3. Discard excess marinade before grilling or pan frying.

This recipe is adapted from 'rasamalaysia.com' with some adjustments to suit my cooking preference.

Banana Muffins

 

Ingredients: (makes 12)

(A)  Banana Muffins

3 bananas, medium (over ripe)

2 eggs

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup unsalted butter (melted)

1 1/2 cups plain flour (sifted)

1 tsp. baking soda (sifted)

1 tsp. baking powder (sifted)

1 tsp. ground cinnamon (sifted)

1/2 tsp. salt

(B)  Crumble Topping

3 tbsp. plain flour (sifted)

2 1/2 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. unsalted butter (cubed)

Methods:

(A)  Crumble Topping

1. In a small bowl, mix together flour and brown sugar.
2. Add the butter to the bowl and use a fork to mix the ingredients together until you have a crumble.  Set aside.

(B)  Banana Muffin

1. In a medium bowl, mash bananas until smooth with a fork.
2. Add the eggs, brown sugar, melted butter to the mashed banana.  
3. Use a whisk to mix all the ingredients together until combined.
4. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon and salt with a wooden spoon until combined.
5. Pour the wet ingredients of (2) into the dry ingredients, and using the wooden spoon, fold the batter together until you no longer see any dry flour.  Be careful not to over mix the batter.
6. Use an ice-cream scoop to divide the batter between 12 lined muffin tin.  Top with crumble.
7. Bake in a preheated oven of 180 degree Celsius for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the center comes out dry.
8. Leave muffins to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. The banana muffins are ready to be served...

I adapted this recipe from 'recipesbycarina.com' with slight adjustment to suit my baking preference.

Summer Rolls

Ingredients: (makes 3 rolls)

50 g. rice vermicelli

40 g. shrimps (peeled and deveined)

2 fresh lettuce (washed and sliced)

3 sheets Vietnamese Brown Rice Paper

28 g. carrot (peeled, cut into matchstick strips)

Grilled pork belly with lemongrass (for the recipe click here)

Hoisin-Peanut Sauce:

2 tbsp. hoisin sauce

1/2 tbsp. creamy peanut butter

2 tsp. vinegar

1 tbsp. warm water

Sugar (to taste)

1/2 tbsp. roasted peanuts, roughly chopped

Methods:

1. Cook rice vermicelli, drain, rinse under cold water and set aside.
2. Combine all ingredients for Hoisin-Peanut Sauce.  Whisk to mix well and garnish with peanuts.
3. In a small pot, bring some water to a boil, cook shrimps until cooked, drain, let cool and slice in half lengthwise.  Set aside.
4. Divide the vermicelli, prawns, lettuce and carrot into 3 equal portions.
5. To assemble: Dip 1 sheet of rice paper in a big bowl (big enough for the rice paper to fit in).  Shake off excess water and quickly place it on a large flat plate or any flat kitchen counter-top or chopping board. 
   Starting from the rice paper nearest to you, leaving some space for folding, place the rice vermicelli on the bottom part, add lettuce and carrots; follow by shrimps and pork belly.  Fold the edge nearest to you down over the fillings; then fold the left and right sides over, making sure the filling is secured tightly.  Continue to roll the summer roll over and repeat the same until everything is used up.  Cut the Summer Rolls in the middle into halves, place them on a platter, and serve immediately with the Hoisin-Peanut Sauce.

I adapted this recipe from 'rasamalaysia.com' with slight adjustments to suit my cooking preference.