Scones

A perfect scone creates an appetizing atmosphere be it on a sunny or rainy afternoon. It is normally served with Tea, but my preference is coffee.  Freshly baked scones which are still warm with a generous spread of Strawberry Preserved and a slice of butter which slowly melts and spread over the warm scones is really heavenly.  I am trying out this delicious recipe from MiMi Bakery House and here's to share....

Ingredients:

180g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of baking soda

1 tsp sugar

55g salted butter (cold)

120g milk

Methods:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients into a big mixing bowl.
2. Cut the cold butter into small cubes and add into the dry ingredients.  Rub the butter with fingertips until fine crumbs.
3. Make a well in the center of the mixture, add milk, use a fork to mix the ingredients until well incorporated.
4. Remove from the mixing bowl and knead into a soft dough.
5. Roll out the dough to about 2 cm thick, using a 5 cm round cutter cut out the biscuits, brush the top with milk.
6. Bake in a preheated oven of 200 degree Celsius for about 15 minutes until you get a golden brown top.

To obtain the original recipe click here

Fried Henghua Beehoon

As the name tells, this Henghua Beehoon is a dish of the Henghuas.  During the days of my parents-in-law this dish is often cooked in their kitchen, but today, how many younger generation Henghuas know how to prepare and cook them.  I am glad that I have the opportunity to learn to cook this dish from my late mum-in-law and continue to enjoy this special and unique dish.  Why is it unique?? Well, the beehoon used is not the normal type, instead its the 'fine' type.  Have you ever seen or cook it before??

I bought this beehoon from a friend's grocery shop at 3rd mile and she told me that she have made several attempts to cook this fine noodles but failed, as the beehoon will lump and stick together.  Extra care have to be taken when cooking because of its fine texture. Most home-cooked will assume that to loosen the noodles you need to soak them in water like the normal beehoon, but it's not the case.  What is required is just wash them in running tap water with a colander underneath, at the same time use our fingers to loosen out the beehoon and drain. Soaking it will makes it lump and stick together during cooking.

So, that's it, let me get on with the cooking....

Ingredients needed:

• a packet of Hsinhua Fine Beehoon (picture above) - washed and drained
• chye sim (washed and cut into 1" pieces (separate the stems from the leaves)

• 4 pieces dried mushrooms (soaked and cut into pieces)
• 3 onions (peeled and sliced)
• 3 cloves garlic (peeled and chopped)

• 2 eggs 

• Stewed pork (cut into chunks, put the meat and sauce into separate bowls)

Seasonings:

Salt (if needed)

Grounded white pepper 

Methods:

1. In a large wok, add a tbsp of oil, swirl the sides of the wok, lightly beat the egg and add into the oil, scramble, dish and put aside for later use.
2. In the same wok add 2 tbsp cooking oil, fry the onions and garlic, just before brown add in the mushrooms and stir-fry till fragrant.
3. Add in the stewed pork, give it a quick stir, then in goes the beehoon and stir to mix. Add in 1/2 of the sauce and stir to combine.  Taste for correct seasoning, for my case my sauce is tasty enough, so I do not add extra salt to season the dish.
4. Add in the rest of the sauce as and when necessary, then in goes the stems of the chye sim follow by the leaves. For information I use the whole bowl of sauce.  In this case my noodles are not soaked, so it needs more sauce to cook the beehoon, taste the beehoon to ensure that it is fully cooked.
5. Drizzle grounded white pepper over the dish and stir to combine.
6. Off the heat, dish on a serving plate.
7. Serve with sliced chillies, juice of small limes and light soy sauce.

Notes:  For the older version this Henghua Beehoon is served topped with fried peanuts, black seaweeds and slices of fried eggs.  

Stewed Pork Belly

Today, I am stewing one slab of pork belly using my slow cooker for purpose of stir-frying Henghua Beehoon for our dinner tomorrow.  As I am preparing the meat a day ahead I prefer to use slow cooker or else I can also use claypot to stew.  So, let's get on with it....

Ingredients:

1 slab pork belly (with skin)

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 cup cooking oil

Seasonings:

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Water

Methods:

1. Clean the pork belly, cut into 3 sections, blanch with boiling water, drain and place them in a plate.
2. Sprinkle the light soy sauce over the pork belly, give it a good rub and set aside for at least half an hour.
3. In a clean wok, add in cooking oil, when oil is heated up put in the pork belly, reduce the heat to medium-low, fry with lid on to prevent the oil from splattering, turn over at least once until both sides have achieved the nice golden colour, dish and place the meat in ice water for about half an hour.
4. Put all the seasoning ingredients into the slow cooker with about a cup of water, and give it a good stir.
5. Drain the pork belly from the ice water and place them in the slow cooker.
6. Add more water if necessary (water should cover the meat to ensure the meat are well cooked) and give it a stir.
7. Put the lid on and switch on the slow cooker to high for the first hour, then change to low and allow it to stew overnight until the meat is cooked to perfection.

The nice golden colour after frying

after stewing.....

This stewed pork belly is ready for cooking my next dish Henghua Beehoon.  To obtain the recipe do check it out in my next blog article.  See yea...

Braised Pork Knuckle served with Mantou

A favourite of my children, this braised pork knuckle is enjoyed with mantou rather than rice. This recipe is my very own and I cooked it overnight using a slow cooker and before noon we all gets to enjoy this yummylicious dish with a grin on our faces ~ smiles ~

Ingredients:

1 fresh pork knuckle (deboned and omit the feet)

Braised seasonings:

1/4 cup light soy sauce

1/4 cup oyster sauce

1 tbsp dark soya sauce (add slightly more if you prefer it darker)

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tbsp salt

1 tbsp sesame oil

Enough water to cover the meat

To thicken:

Cornflour mixture

To serve: 

Mantou

Methods:

1. For the fresh pork knuckle, I requested the butcher to debone, separate the feet and clear off the hairs.
2. Clean and wash the pork knuckle, blanch in hot water, drain and put aside.
3. Add all the braised ingredients into the slow cooker with some water and stir to mix.
4. Let the pork knuckle sit in the center of the cooker, add more water to ensure that it covers the meat, give it a stir and cover with the lid.
5. Switch on the slow cooker, first I set to high for about an hour, then I switch to low just before I go to bed and let it slow cook until morning.
6. In the early morning I turn the meat over and continue to let it slow cook until the meat is tender and the skin is soft but springy.  Switch off the heat.
7. To serve, take out the whole piece of meat and put it into a deep dish.
8. Pour the sauce into a heated wok, as it starts simmering thicken the sauce with cornflour mixture until the consistency of your liking.
9. Pour the sauce over the pork knuckle and serve with mantou on the side.

"Let's dig in!"

Kacama Chicken

Kacama Chicken is one popular dish in Sarawak and a must-have to serve the confinement mothers after they have given birth.  Today, this dish is commonly cooked and served in any normal Chinese meals for the whole family.  Apart from the Chinese, this dish has also been made popular among the local Dayaks.  However, the methods of cooking this dish differs from one home-cook to another.  Here is my version of cooking this yummylicious chicken dish.....

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken (cut into bite-size pieces) - not in the picture
• 275g chicken feet (clean, cut into half and boiled until almost soft)

• 225g chicken gizzard (clean and halved)

• 1 cup kacama leaves (fry in a pan using low heat until light brown and slightly crispy, smashed using the back of the spatula if the leaves and stems are not too big, if so, then lightly pound with mortar and pestle, but don't over-pound until powder form.

• 250g ginger (peeled, cut into smaller pieces, blended with 1/2 cup of water, squeeze out the ginger juice and separate the juice and pulp)

• 1 1/2 bottle rice wine - the amount used depends very much on individual preference. When cooking for confinement purposes normally no water is added to the chicken except rice wine.  For normal cooking some water can be added, which means slightly less rice wine is used. 

Methods:

• In a low heated wok, fry the ginger pulp (without oil) until dry, fragrant and light brown.  We have to continue stirring as it will stick onto the bottom of the pan. Dish onto a bowl and leave aside for later use.

• In the same wok, re-heat the wok using medium heat, drizzle about 1 tbsp. cooking oil into the wok, swirl the oil over the sides of the wok.
• Add in the chicken pieces, stir-fry until chicken meat has turned white (sprinkle some salt over the chicken when stir-frying to give some seasoning to the chicken), add in the chicken feet and gizzard.  Continue to stir-fry for few more minutes, then add in the ginger juice and 1/2 cup of rice wine, stir to combine and cover with lid to let it simmer until the meat and chicken feet are tender. When simmering if the liquid has evaporated and almost dry, you can either add some water or add in more rice wine, depending on whether you prefer a stronger taste of rice wine or not.
• Add in the ginger pulp, stir to mix and at this point more rice wine needs to be added as the sauce will be soaked up by the ginger pulp.  Always remember, this is a soupy dish, so the dish should not be too dry, and bear in mind that this dish is packed with the flavours and taste of rice wine.
• When the dish is almost done, finally add in the kacama, give it a good stir, again once the kacama is being added the soup will again thickens up, so more rice wine needs to be added to obtain that soupy consistency. 
• After a gentle simmer of about 1 to 2 minutes, off the heat and drizzle some more rice wine over the dish, stir to mix and dish into a serving bowl and serve hot!  The reason for the drizzling of rice wine after the heat is off is because, rice wine when evaporates during cooking looses its wine flavour and taste.

Notes:  

When preparing this dish for confinement purposes the steps differ slightly as well as some of the ingredients:

• no salt is added into this dish
• no water is used to cook this dish except rice wine BUT for some reason if the confinement mother is not able to consume much rice wine, then it is advisable to use boiled water to add into the dish during the cooking process.
• more ginger and kacama is used to cook this dish
• the double-boiling method is used to complete the final cooking of this dish, meaning after stir-frying all the ingredients in the wok, omit the simmering part, dish the half cooked dish into a double boiler and double-boiled until the chicken is fully cooked.

The above tips are handed down from my mum and mum-in-law.  However, in this modern world it is rather doubtful that the younger generation would follow accordingly.

BBQ Lamb Chop

It has been two consecutive years that our family gather for BBQ in the comfort of our sweet home during the Christmas Season.  This is the time of the year when my children takes their break and is back home to enjoy great celebration and feasting.  Lamb is among one BBQ favorite which we will include and I have adapted this simple marinating recipe from Celebration Cooking page 79, with slight amendments.

Ingredients:
12 pieces lamb chop 

Marinade:
1 tbsp garlic (minced)
3 tsp cumin powder
1 tbsp dark soya sauce (amount depend on the darkness of your soya sauce)
1 tbsp rice wine
1 1/2 tsp grounded black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil (to be added before cooking)

Methods:

1. Wash, clean, trim off excess fat, drain on colander and place them in a large bowl.
2. In a bowl mix all the marinade ingredients together except the olive oil.
3. Pour the marinade ingredients onto the lamb and combine well to ensure that the lamb are well coated.
4. Arrange them in an air tight container and place in the fridge to marinate overnight.
5. Just before BBQ sprinkle olive oil over the marinated lamb and toss to mix till well coated.
6. The lamb is ready for BBQ.... enjoy!

Ready to be BBQ

Ready to eat....

Chewy Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

This delicious cookies just couldn't get off my mind the moment I saw it being posted by Diana Gale of Domestic Goddess Wannabe.  If my children are around I would have bake it straight away, but I simply have to wait until just before Christmas when they are all back for the holiday.  This is one cookies to die for and right after Christmas I have to bake another batch for them to bring back to their work station to enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup plain flour

3 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)

1/3 cup caster sugar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 large egg (room temperature)

1/3 cup Nutella

1 tsp salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Methods:

1. Cream butter, caster sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add egg and nutella, mix to combine using the cake mixture.
3. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients : flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in 2 batches until just combined.
4. Fold in the chocolate chips and stir with a spatula until well combined.
5. Transfer the dough into a bowl, cover with cling film and chill overnight.
6. To bake, use an ice cream scoop to form balls of dough and place them on a lined baking tray.  Leave more space in between as the dough will spread out while baking.
7. Bake in a preheated oven of 180 degrees Celsius for about 10 to 12 minutes (depending on the type of oven we are using) and a few more minutes if you want the cookies to be more crispy.  Do note that these cookies will not be totally crispy through.
8. When baked, allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray for about 5 minutes before transferring them onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Cookies can be stored 7 - 10 days in an air tight container in a cool, dry place.