Baby Spinach with Century Egg

Baby spinach... a staple in my family's fiber diet. The easiest to dish out. Is perfect as a soup or as a vegetable dish. And thankfully, is my Boys' favorite.

I am not talking about those Chinese Spinach, or those Rounded and Sharp Leaf Spinach (ya! there are many types of spinach... wonder which is Popeye's version...). I'm referring to Baby Spinach here. Its leaves are rounder and tinier.... hmmm... exactly like its baby.

This time, I tried it differently with a century egg. Exactly the way they do it in Zi Char store. Except I skipped the salted egg, which incidentally is a lot unhealthier than century egg. The lesser of the two evils, if you must have.

Needless to say, it is a lot better on its own. We should not compromise the spinach's goodness. If you absolutely must do something, like my itchy hands, throw in some wolfberry for color interest, also to enhance the dish's nutritional value.

Occasionally, I will deep fry some small bait fish to sprinkle on it. Else, baby spinach is good on its own.

Panini Sandwich

A toastedly, meltedly, crunchily, divine no-brainer.

Panini is an Italian pressed toast that's put together by any bread, typically Ciabatta. To it, one usually add prosciutto, ham or other deli, and cheese. It is served warm after toasting or pressing them together in a panini press (liken a sandwich toast).

In United States and UK, it's been adopted to be called "toasted sandwich". Ahhhh... doesn't it sound less foreign now?

Since I only have a grill pan, I improvised. Just two slices of bread of any kind, I would usually use ciabatta. Slice half horizontally. To it, spread your pesto, and some olive oil,add your vegetables, cheese and a meat. With a spatula, press them together and toast on your grill pan. Flip and toast it lightly on both sides.

Be sure that the meat is cooked before sandwiching it. Grill toasting does not cook the meat, it merely heat up to melt the cheese.

So what did I toast it with?
* Slices of honey baked ham
* Shredded chicken with mayonnaise
* Mushroom with cheese (resembling mushroom swiss)
* Sausage slices

So why ciabatta and not sandwich slices? Hmmm... I personally find ciabatta holds it together better without becoming overly soggy. When I pack this for my son's recess, the toast remain pretty fresh even after 3 hours. Quite unlike a normal sandwich bread.

But of course there are days when sandwich loaf is more readily available. So in a hurry to have my carb-fix, I make the simplest ever with sandwich bread -- as you can see from the picture, quite taken in a rush (hmmm... actually I have some tomato slices in it... can you spot them).

Simple, fast and easy. Even a boy can make this.

Milomisu

Kids friendly version of a caffeine-laden tiramisu.

An encore to the much raved Tiramisu. This time, I set aside some tiny portion for a non-alcoholic, non-caffeine version for my boys.

I replaced espresso with thick brew of Milo. And to 'compensate their motor-skill' or there lackof, I filled them in cups.

Da dah! Milo-misu is birthed.

Psst psst...
I like the custard tall and thick. It does magic to the tiramisu. Hence I find a tub of 500gm mascarpone portion just barely enough to fill 7 glasses or a 10" round tin. 

Crispy Prawns

"Gate crashed" at this year's National Day Rehearsals. On 3 consecutive Saturdays! Refused to buy tickets, nor book a room at the hotels nearby, so we lugged our boys, neighbors, friends and rough it out on the field at the rehearsals. Boys LOVED it, begging for an encore next year. Pant.

But it was fun. I had a immensely good time myself. There is something magical about sitting unassumingly on the ground in the public with everyone else.

On National Day itself, Aunt Eileen graciously fried a big tray of crispy battered prawns from home and pot-luck to the dinner at my in-law's.

Wow!!! How I love these prawns! It's my next true love after the cows. The crispy batter was fragrant and perfect! Swear I have to make the same at home too.

So I rather shamelessly begged for recipe and viola! Sometimes all you have to do is open your mouth and ASK!

Here's what you'd need

* 150gm self raising flour
* 30gm corn flour
* 230ml water
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 2 tbsp oil (best to use vegetable oil I heard, I used Canola)
* prawns (shelled, deveined, only with tail on, season lightly with s&p)

This is what I did:

1. Mix two flours and salt together.

2. Drizzle oil round the mixing bowl into the floor, and with a ballon whisk, stir it continuously.

3. Add in water slowly next. Continue to stir as you add till a smooth batter resembling milk shake is formed. Make sure there is no pocket of unmixed flour in batter. Batter is almost ribbon-state.

4. In a pot of deep frying oil, heat oil up in medium heat.

5. Drip in one tiny droplet of batter. It will sink to the bottom of the pot. The droplet of batter will float up once the oil is ready for frying. Reduce fire to small.

6. Coat your prawns generously with the batter, deep fry them till golden brown.

7. Dish up and drain off oil. Serve it warm. To heat up, you may do so in the microwave oven for a quick minute.

Psst psst...
* if your oil is too hot, the crust will turn golden brown too soon while the inside crust will appear undercooked. What you want is to deep fry them real slow and steady, to achieve consistent crust throughout. Hence always reduce fire to small once the oil is ready, this serves to maintain the temperature of the oil too.
* the batter can also be used for fish and chips
* I used Tiger Prawns, about 1kg.

Pork Ribs Pear Soup

It is the air we breathe!

Cracked my head for some g o o d soup for cough. Did a Pumpkin Pork Ribs with Apricot Seeds (ya, I should post this)... Done Lotus Roots Pork Ribs (ya, post this too...)... Tri-Colour Carrot Pork Ribs (alright, and this too...). What else can I do?

Then I saw some pears lying idle in my fridge, wasting its life away. Such a sin.

So I chopped the pear up in big chunks, and dump them in my pork ribs soup, throw in a honey date, and some apricot seeds. And viola! A soup is born. Headache solved.

Amazingly, Boys love it!! Including my not-so-enthusiastic eater, Son3.

The soup is very refreshing I must say. And it taste just slightly on the sweet side, possibly coz of the honey date.

What pear did I use? This time, I used this called Yuan Huang Li (its big like Fuji apple, brown skin, pearly white flesh, and it's said to be cooling). It is important to put in some dates I heard, as the pear is cooling. Red dates will serve to 'warm it up' a bit. To non-Chinese readers, I'm sorry if you are a bit lost here. Chinese cuisines are divided broadly into Heaty and Cooling... yay, I know I know... I should explain... Some day some day, when my cough is better and I find my vocal back.

Till then...

Here's what you'd need:

* Pork Ribs (blanched)
* 1 pear (I used Yuan Huang Li)
* 1 honey date (or 6-8 red dates; I used both)
* Apricot seeds (Nan Bei Xin; handful)
* Wolfberry

This is what I did:

1. Prepare your pork ribs soup. Let it simmer for a while and throw in the date.

2. Keep pot in Magic Cooker and let it self-cook for as long as you are happy... (or if you are not using Magic Cooker, let pork ribs soup simmer over low fire for 2 hours or so till porky is soft and tender).

3. Cut pear into chunks and remove core and seeds. Keep the skin on.

4. Add in pear and wolfberries and salt to taste (to totally infuse the flavors together, I added the pear 4 hrs before serving time).

5. Serve

Egg-less Tiramisu

Let me tell you what is my next love. Tiramisu!!

 Of all the types of cakes I have tasted though not attempted to bake, Tiramisu scores a high top 3. In fact, safely the first in place.

I like the way the cocoa marries the coffee, and the light fluffy mascarpone custard, with that hint of coffee in the lady fingers sponge biscuits. It is utterly yum, yum and yum.

My boys tasted one forbidden spoonful at Pepperoni one fateful afternoon, and they fell madly in love. So I silently swear I shall attempt to make this one day soon, hopefully it will pass the jury's taste buds and make it for this Christmas. I shall omit the liquor but never mind the coffee. Whahahaha... I can always dope them later with other concoction. Evil evil.

We all must know, Tiramisu is Italian. It is an Italian trifle dessert, coz of its layers. It is translated to mean "pick me up". Quite rightly so, with the Masala / Rum / Tia Maria / Kahlua, and the strong coffee / espresso, and not forgetting the good quality cocoa powder for dusting. It should really 'perk you up right'!

A brief search online yielded very diverse recipes. Some used egg yolks, use used whole egg, some are eggless... Some use whipping cream along with mascarpone, whilst others did not. Some steps are so complicated, and others make it look literally like a piece of cake. I was truly lost. Even recipes from trustworthy blog-bakers like Stephanie, Gordon, Nigella, Ree differ! From their list of cast to the steps involved. Argh...

After A LOT of studies and research that took away precious hours of sleeping time, I think I figured it out. And this what I learnt...

1. Egg. You must know this is a non-bake cake. So quite naturally to lessen the risk of salmonella and other health hazards from consuming uncooked eggs, I decided to leave eggys out.

2. In place of eggs, they started using heavy whipping cream. I understand this is to stabilize the cake and enable it to bind and hold together better after chilling (?). Don't quote me here, I don't really know what I am talking about.

3. Traditional recipes use zabaglione custards. Quite simply, it is an italian custard that consist egg yolks beaten with sugar and masala liquor. But since we talked about point 1 above, we shan't do this, shall we?

4. Oh well, if you m u s t make this with eggs, then I'd strongly suggest that you get really fresh, pasteurized eggs. As fresh as you can find. I would also recommend that you cook the egg bain marie. And finish the cake within one day, particularly in our humid weather.

5. Liquor? Safely omitted. Can't have that with young children. Next life time.

After examining and cross-examining maaaaaaaaaaaaany, and I really mean, countless recipes, I finally settled on Happy Home Baking. From a trusted home baker in Singapore. Someone whom I have adapted recipes from. Someone whose blog I follow. And for the benefit of 'visual assistance', I like to refer to Bing's, her photos are beautiful! Pictures speak a thousand words indeed.

You should always trust your own countrywomen. From time to time.

Here's what you'd need:

For the Coffee / Espresso:
* 1 cup of good coffee (I brew a double shot espresso; else buy one from Starbucks or 3-in-1 coffee will do)
* Sugar to taste

Cream Filling:
* 500gm Mascarpone Cheese
* 6 tbsp icing sugar
* 2 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
* 1/2 tsp Coffee Emulco (I could have used 3 tbsp coffee but I didn't want caffeine in my cream, I needed my children to sleep)
* 400gm Whipping Cream (I used Emborg Whipping Cream that comes in 200gm/carton)

Sponge Fingers / Others
* about 30 sponge fingers (I used Savoiardi from Phoon Huat)
* Cocoa powder (for dusting)
* Blueberry, Strawberry, Passion Fruits (optional)

This is what I did:

Prepared your pan. I used a 10" round tin with removable base. I lined the side of the round tin with a strip of plastic to better hold the side of the cake.

Coffee
1. Make a good cup of coffee, add sugar to taste. Pour out onto a shallow plate and leave it to cool. Set aside.

Cream Custard:
1. In a electric mixer, cream your Whipping Cream till stiff peak (I stopped the moment the cream comes together and is no longer 'watery'). Be careful not to overbeat.

2. While mixer is whisking away, prepare another bowl and add in Mascarpone Cheese, Icing Sugar and Essences. With a hand whisk, manual whisk this mixture together till well blended.

3. Fold stiff Whipping Cream into the Mascarpone Cheese mixture in 2 additions.

4. At this point, I ran out of arm power, so I returned the mixture to the electric mixer and gave it a quick 30sec whisk, just to be sure that all are well incorporated together.

To assemble:

1. (A) Dip sponge fingers one by one, briefly and very s-w-i-f-t-l-y into the cooled coffee. Place at the base of the tin. You may have to break some fingers in order to cover the round base.

2. (B) Scoop some Cream Custard onto the fingers and level it.

3. (C) Dust cocoa powder over the cream custard.

4. Repeat steps A to C above. Be sure to ration your custard as you will need to end off with it (I managed to get 3 layers of A-C). Dust with cocoa powder as the final step.

5. Cling wrap and chill in fridge for at least 24 hours.

6. When ready to serve, remove cake from the tin pan. Remove the plastic strip that was lined on its side. Dust a layer of cocoa powder as the day old powder would have been wet by now. Top and decorate with strawberries/blueberries/passion fruit.

7. Sing a song, dance around the cake,... slice and enjoy!