Cold Tofu (Hiyayakko)

Chanced upon this at a friend's place. An avid Japanese cook, she never fail to impress me with her creativity and energy. In this day and age where mothers are often busy and distracted, you hardly meet many young mothers who are dedicated to the children and kitchen all at the same time. Janet is one such gem.

Inspired by her, I went in search for the necessary ingredients to make this quick sure-won't-go-wrong dish.

Went to j-Mart at Star and bought a pack of bonito flakes. I even went as far as to call Unicurd to check out their tofu range and to make sure they are safe to be consumed raw and cold. Of course, the organic tofu would be better for anything raw I reckon. And it'd be doubly-best if I can get my hands on their Yakko Tofu. Unfortunately, they are not readily available at all supermarkets. So I settled on Extra Smooth Silken Tofu.

I like it. Boys love it. Man is cool about it (eyeballs roll skyward). Boys been asking for it and wanted more -- after they have reconciled the savory taste with a cold tofu. Took them two mouthfuls to 'register' the chill because they were half expecting a warm dish, liken a 'tau hwei'.

Here's what you'd need:

* 1 block of Silken Tofu (I used Unicurd Extra Smooth Silken Tofu)
* Spring onions (diced to small bits)
* Grated ginger (small amount; optional)
* Bonito flakes
* Soy Sauce (use a good one, Kikkomann Soy Sauce is recommended)

This is what I did:

1. Remove Tofu from the box*. Rinse and cut to size (one piece per person per bowl)

2. Place cut tofu on a serving bowl. Drizzle some soy sauce over it.

3. Place grated ginger on it, and sprinkle diced spring onions over.

4. Top with bonito flakes.

5. Serve with a sweet Japanese doll smile.


Psst psst... * ok how to do you remove tofu from box in one perfect block?!
i. Slice away the top plastic cover
ii. Run the box under running tap water, at the same time, open up the 4 sides and let water run into box.
iii. Off tap. Turn the box upside down onto your palm and lift box away from tofu. Perfect.

Muah Chee

Brings back so much childhood memories.

I thought muah chee is a real toughie thing to make. Only now then I realise, it's a piece of cake really. Thus I shan't yak too much here. Let's get down to making it.

Here's what you'd need:

200gm Glutinous rice flour
250gm water
2 tsp granulated sugar
Shallot oil / cooking oil

Ground peanuts
Sugar
(ratio of peanuts : sugar is 2:1)

This is what I did:

1. Mix flour and sugar together with water. Stir and mix till there is no lumps.

2. Steam for 15-20mins till cooked. Test the centre with toothpick to be sure it's cooked through. Remove from steamer and brush some shallot oil / cooking oil on it. Let it cool completely.

3. In the meantime, prepare the peanut powder. Mix peanut powder with sugar. Taste and adjust sugar accordingly to taste.

4. When ready to serve, scoop small piece of muah chee with a fork and cut them in the peanut powder mixture. Serve.

Psst psst... To store, keep the leftover (uncut) muah chee tightly in a container (or wrap a clingwrap tightly over the steam pan) in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before cutting and tossing in peanut powder mixture. I find it doesn't keep well beyond two days, one day is the max it should go.

Dinner Rolls

It just occurred to me that this is my first post of the year. Oh my oh my!...

I wasn't loafing around for sure. This year has been a hectic one I must say. My helper left in Feb, and since then I have been managing the chores mostly on my own. It sure was a h*ll of a ride. No wonder I lost my password, and my mind along with it; no wonder I haven't had much chance (or time) to try out new recipes / dish, lest to talk about blogging them here.

Now that I have recovered my lost memories, (it feels like I have emerged from some black hole really), I better put this down as fast as I can.

Dinner rolls!... Love them? I do. I loved the warm small tear-apart buns. Soft and fluffy. Warm and nice. Love it in the mornings, in the afternoons, I love it in the evenings, under the moon*... on its own, with butter, or with stew. They are really your best best friends once you master them. Cross my heart.

This recipe is a sure keeper. It cuts away the proofing and 2nd proofing and trust me, all's done in less than an hour.

All I had to do was the dump the shaped dough into a preheated oven for 15-20mins.

Really, you should give this a shot.




Here's what you'd need:

* 3/4c milk
* 60gm butter
* 3/4c warm water (warm enough for you to retract your fingers from the heat)
* 4 tbsp sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 sachet yeast (I used active dry yeast)
* 4 - 4 1/2c plain flour

This is what I did:

1. If you have a microwave, heat up the milk and butter together. Or boil the mixture over low fire to melt the butter in the milk till it is bubbling slightly. Turn off the fire and remove saucepan from the heat.

2. At the same time, preheat your oven to 75degC (ie. gas mark 1/2)

3. Into your mixer bowl with the dough hook, add in the toasted milk/butter mixture, warm water, sugar, salt and 2c flour. Mix on low for a minute.

3. Add in the sachet of yeast and mix it further for a minute.

4. Add in flour a cup at a time, mixing the dough as you go. Once the dough starts to pull away from the bowl and is no longer tackily sticky, you have added enough flour. (I used about 4 1/2c flour).

5. Knead on medium (KA speed 5) for another 5-8 mins (h o l d onto your precious KA; it can walk!)

6. Use a cloth or cling wrap to cover the bowl for a minute. This is to trap the heat and at the same time, allowing the dough to rest.

7. Take dough out on to your lightly floured worktop and cut the dough into portions. I manage to cut 20 portions of 50gm each, or 30 portions of 30gm (ya, I know it doesn't add up. Plus and minus a bit here and there. Uniformity is not a rule here.)

8. Shape them into round balls and place them on the roasting pan about an inch apart; barely touching each other.

9. Place pan into the oven at 75degC for 15mins, till the dough has risen and doubled in size.

10. Without removing the pan from the oven, turn the heat up to 180degC for 20mins. This 20mins include the time it takes for the oven's temperature to rise.

my little baker @ work

11. When the buns are nicely browned, remove pan from oven and brush butter onto the bread buns to given them that healthy, glowy, glossy finish (see see see the gloss!!!)

12. Let it cool and serve. Curtsy!

Psst psst... I tried substituting 1/2c plain flour with cake flour. And the result was a batch of ever fluffier buns. Lovely.

My newly found blog: Jamie

Unbelievable!

Can you believe it?!!

The reason why I was silent for so long was because I FORGOT MY PASSWORD!! And USERID!!!

Appalling

Sunflower & Pumpkin Seed Buns (No-Knead)

Need I say more?

On those days that you are short of time but crave for some homebaked buns, this is it. The no-knead bread. Prepare the dough a day ahead, pop into fridge for the night. The next day, take it out and shape, proof and bake. All done in less than an hour. Breezy.

Banana Walnut Bundt Cake

An encore to my 'accidental success'.

This time, I tripled the amount and bake it in my 10" bundt pan.

Yummily unbelievably deliciously fanta-bulous! All gone in 2 days.

I'm convinced, the secret lies with the yogurt. it yields a very moist and tender cake. I usuallyu use Vanilla yogurt and not plain yogurt. My reasoning was Vanilla yogurt is sweeter than plain yogurt hence i can reduce the sugar in the cake, and I can omit / reduce the need for vanilla essence too!

Two birds.

I proudly declare it is no longer accidental if you can repeat the success. hahahaaaaaaa...

Here's what you'd need:

* 150gm unsalted butter
* 170gm sugar
* 2 1/2 eggs (room temperature; lightly beaten)
* 325gm plain flour
* 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp baking powder (heaping)
* 1 1/4 tsp salt
* 200gm yogurt
* 325gm banana (mashed; about 4 long bananas; fully ripen)
* Handful of walnuts (toasted / dry fried; coarsely chopped)


This is what I did:

1. Lightly grease the bundt pan, making sure the funnel is greased as well. Sprinkle some walnuts in the pan.

2. In a mixer, cream butter and add sugar gradually in 2-3 batches. Make sure it is well combined before each addition.

3. Add in egg little by little. Beat till creamy.

4. Add in salt and mix well.

5. Mash bananas with a fork and add into mixture. Mix well gently.

6. Sift together the dry ingredients: Flour, Baking Soda and Baking Powder

7. Add in 1/3 flour mixture and mix well, followed by yogurt and mix well.

8. Add in remaning flour. Use a spatula to fold into mixture till you do not see any more traces of flour. Be careful not to over stir the batter. Once flour is incorporated, STOP.

9. Add in chopped walnuts and mix well.

10. Pour into bundt pan. Give it a slight knock to release air bubbles, and even out the mixture accordingly. [If you had sprinkled some walnuts in the pan, you'd need to tap more rigorously, else, you will end up with those pockets of holes like mine (see pictures); it didn't bother me, just in case it bothers you...]

11. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180degC for 60 - 70 minutes, till golden brown and thoroughly cooked. Check doneness with a toothpick. (I had to bake this long cos of its sheer size)

12. Remove it from oven and let it cool slightly in the tin for 5-10mins.

13. Remove cakes from tins and serve warm. Or you may even prepare some chocolate ganache and pour over the cake. That would be lovely! (slurp)

Pandan Chiffon Cake

As you can see, I am on the chiffon roll. In less than 10 days, I have done all that I have ever wanted to do... Coffee Chiffon, Chocolate Chiffon, Orange Chiffon*, Mango Yogurt Chiffon*, and this -- an all time Singapore signature -- Pandan Chiffon!

No chiffon baking is complete without this really. Whether you succeed is secondary, the FAQ will always be "Have you baked a Pandan Chiffon?"

The most informative site I found was from ieatishootipost. He writes really well (ahem, of course, he's a d-o-c-t-o-r alright!). I learnt a lot from his analysis of this temperamental cake. Yet when it comes to my turn to put my hands on this, I totally forgot to 'revise' his notes and I happily went with Wendy's. With all due respect to my Guru, my cake didn't turn out as well as I had anticipated (my bakes from her always succeed). Sorry Wen, I don't know what went wrong. I followed you to the T.

So what happened?

First, it says to mix coconut milk with pandan juice, which I did. And to it, add the flour, which I also did. Instead of a well mixed batter, I get a dough! I gasped and slapped my forehead. I read and reread the Steps again, checked and counter-checked my measurements, umpteen times, just to doubly sure I understood it right. No mistake about it. That was what it said. And so I discarded the dough, and collected a new set of ingredients and I went back to the drawing board.

This time, I did it my way.

Beat egg yolk with sugar till very pale, ie, ribbon stage. Then I added the coconut milk, then the pandan juice, and then the flour in 3 successions.

And the whites, and the folding, and the knocking and the blar blar blar...

Popped into the oven, and went on my life. For 45 mins.

Peek-a-Boo... Can you see the cake up there? 

It hung sooooo dearly onto the pan when cooling inverted. I was happy.

But it wasn't browned. And it shrank a lot as it cools. I left it hanging for about 2 hours before unmolding the cake. And the top cracked, though many will tell you it doesn't matter coz you serve a chiffon upside down.

Taste? Very good I must say! I reduced the sugar from the yolk to 50gm and it tasted just right. But my Mother said it wasn't light and airy like a chiffon ought to be. It is dense and heavy (well, not exactly d-e-n-s-e dense but just denser and heavier than a chiffon), and I don't know why... This is when my doggedness come in, TRY AGAIN!

I have a tall glass of freshly squeezed pandan juice in my fridge, and so I believe I will try another pandan chiffon recipe, once I re-gain my courage.

I ought not quit till my glass of Pandan Juice is depleted, or till I succeed in achieving an air-borne chiffon.

(*Not posting coz it didn't pass the Jury's test)

Here's what you'd need:

Egg Yolk
* 5 egg yolks
* 50gm sugar (original recipe uses 100gm)
* 150gm cake flour (or plain flour)
* 180gm coconut milk (I used Kara, will use UHT coconut milk next time)
* Pinch of salt
* 70gm freshly squeezed pandan juice (concentrated)
* Droplet of Pandan essence or Green colouring (optional; to heighten taste and colour respectively)

Egg White Meringue
* 5 egg whites
* 1/4tsp cream of Tartar
* 100gm sugar

This is what I did:

1. Preheat your oven to 170degC.

2. Separate your eggs into two mixing bowls. Yolks and Whites.

3. With a paddle attachment, beat your egg yolk till light and add in the sugar. Till very pale in colour (liken softened butter; ie, ribbon stage).

4. Add in Coconut milk. Stir on KA Speed 1. Add in Pandan Juice on Speed 1. Drop in a droplet of pandan essence or colouring. 

5. In 3 successions, add in flour and on Speed 1, stir to mix. Set batter aside.

6. With a whisk, beat your egg whites till frothy. Speed 6.

7. Add in Cream of Tartar, and continue to beat till runny. In 3 successions, add in the sugar. On Speed 8, beat till stiff peak.

8. Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk batter, and another 1/3. Eventually, the reminder. Fold gently and be careful not to deflate the meringue.

9. Pour into an ungreased chiffon pan. Level the batter and gently tap the pan to release any trapped air bubbles in the batter.

10. Bake for 40-45mins. Midway (once the cake is puffed up), reduce temperature to 160degC and continue baking.

11. Check doneness with a toothpick.

12. Invert the chiffon to cool completely in the pan. Upside down. Let it cool completely.

13. Unmold and serve. 

Eggless Tiramisu with Kahlua

The time has come finally for my Tiramisu to see the living daylight (rather, the night). I have thought long and hard on what to bring to a friend's dinner. Can't quite go to a dinner emptyhanded. I could bring wine, but someone has volunteered that. Oh lucky she!

But I wondered how the Tiramisu would fare really. Considering the weather in Singapore and the distance I have to travel to bring this to a friend's place... I was rather apprehensive.

I wondered if I should add gelatin to my cheese mixture... in hope to just set the cheese a bit tougher. Or should I use a ice box? That would be rather ridiculous looking, won't it? But I couldn't afford for my tiramisu to 'melt'. Perhaps I should immediately send it to friend's freezer or chiller for a quick 30mins before serving it at dessert.

Then I became anxious if it would pass the taste test. These friends have travelled the world countless times over, tasted endless delicacies and seen a million sights, why would they be 'wow' with a home-made Tiramius?! Sighz... sometimes I think I too much. Just Serve It, Nike would say.

And so I did. This time, I added Kahlua to the cake since there will be NO kids at the dinner. HURRAY!!! It is an all adults night! YIPPIE!!!

Just one more picture. Had to do this coz the cake really looked very happy!

As always, no one rejects a Tiramisu. As a dessert to a tummy bursting dinner, the light Kahlua-ed mascarpone cheese joyously "pick you up"! I could have added more Kahlua next time.