Assorted Luncheon Meat & Cheese Buns

We ran out of bread, so i figured it'd be the best excuse to hit the oven again.

This time, my tastebuds are lingering for some good old luncheon meat buns (no luncheon meat here, only spam but just as good. The Wife absolutely loves spam!). I remember that luncheon meat buns were (together with sugared ring/satay stick donuts, pandan chiffon & marble cakes) the mainstay of confectioneries in my younger days but they got replaced with sausages over time. these days, in fanciful bread boutiques a simple sausage bun will most likely set you back almost $2. before we left, we actually chanced upon a stall in serangoon central food market (not chomp chomp, it's the one diagonally oppposite) which sells 5 mini soft chewy-doughy luncheon meat buns for $2.50, incidentally the boss calls them burger buns). so for those of you going for a cheap bite of nostalgia, you might wanna check that out.

i made some 20 buns (16 spam, 4 cheese). following recipe adapted from Jia Lei Confectionery's website.

ingredients:

• plain flour (original recipe called for bread flour. essentially bread flour has more gluten so it's what makes your bread more chewy. i find that plain/all purpose flour works just fine) - 500g
• butter - 30 g
  
• yeast (i used those instant yeast. abt 3 tsp) - 12.5 g
• water - 230 g
• sugar (i used raw sugar) - 90 g
• milk powder (The Wife let me use Avery's milk powder. about 3 baby tin scoops) - 15 g
• 2 eggs (1 to mix, 1 for brush)
  
• salt - 1/2 tsp
• spam, cut to fingers
• hard (cheddar) cheese, cut to small slabs
  

recipe:

• whisk egg and yeast together
• mix in remaining ingredients to form a dough and knead for about 8-10 mins (make sure that dough is not too wet / dry. dough when kneaded should feel 'chewy and bouncy'and not stick to your hands
• brush bowl with some oil and leave dough in bowl for proving
  
• cover with a damp cloth and leave aside to prove for 20 min
• after 1st proving, divide the dough into small portions, approx palm size ball (ok i have small hands). you shld bear in mind that the dough will continue to rise after shaping and will spring furter in the oven
• for spam buns: roll out and coil dough around each spam fingers
• for cheese buns: roll out, put in cheese slabs and pinch to close like making a 'bao'
• line baking tray with grease paper and sprinkle some flour on it before laying buns on pan. leave ample space between the buns for it to spring in the oven
  
• brush with 1 beaten egg
• leave aside to prove for 1 hour
• preheat oven at 200°C
  
• bake for 12 mins at 200°C. i realised that such dough relies on the high sugar content and high heat to provide rapid spring. so the dough will 'grow' very fast in the oven. since its my 1st time at baking such dough, i had underestimated the rate of spring in the oven, thus most of the buns had more 'bread' than filling.
• remove from the oven and set to cool. original recipe suggested brushing surface with melted butter before serving, but i thought they looked good enough as they are
  

the buns were surprising easy to make. The Wife and kiddo liked it and we'd enough for me to dunk into milo for supper later.

Roast Pork Rice

The Wife is a roast pork-roast duck fan, while i'm more of a char-siew-roast duck person.
in fact, it was she who had dug out this recipe from a very notable Uncle Phil's blog and did most of the preparations for this dish (i only chopped the garlic and watched the oven).

My mom had previously used 500g of the slab for braising when she was here 2 weeks back and we thought we'd better consume the other half sitting in the freezer. besides, since my 80 yr old grandma was also here, it'd be too unhealthy to suggest cooking this. we made some adaptations to Uncle Phil's recipe and this serves 2 hungweeee adults.


ingredients:

• 500 g boneless pork loin
• 1/5 cup shaoxing wine (original recipe called for sherry, since we didnt have it we used the shaoxing wine + sugar. i'd also read somewhere that you can use apple juice.)
• 1 tbsp sugar (see above, this was probably the reason why the skin turned out caramalised ie look abit 'chaota' rather than the familiar golden orangey hue)
• 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1/5 cup light soy sauce
• 5-spice powder (we got those bottled ones from woolies)
  
• salt
• pepper
• 1-2 piece of preserved bean curd (豆腐乳)
  
• 1/4 cup oil
• wasabi/mustard paste
  

recipe

preparation:

• score pork skin at regular interval (dun cut too deep) and rub salt, pepper, 豆腐乳 and five spice powder all over the pork. go easy with the salt if you dun want it to be to salty
  
• mix other ingredients in a bowl/cup. this is the marinate
  
• put the pork into a ziplock bag and pour in the marinate
• marinate overnite in the fridge

roasting:

• preheat oven at 250'C
• rub in oil and salt on skin to ensure crisp crackling skin in the roast
  
• place the pork on a baking dish lined with aluminium foil with skin facing the heating element in the oven
• sprinkle some water into the baking dish
• roast for 45 minutes at 250'C, or until the skin begins to crackle and bubble
• reduce the heat to 180'C and continue to roast for another 45 minutes (you will need to approx increase the roasting time proportionately if you have a bigger slab of meat)
  
• pierce the meat with a skewer. if there should be some juice oozing out but it should not be bloody)
  
• once done, remove from oven but do not cover the pork or the skin will soften
• set aside for at least 10 minute before cutting/serving
• use wasabi/mustard as dip
  

we actually used the leftover gravy and marinated some chicken wings for grilling too. turned out ok if you like 5-spice powder. :)

Baked Rockling with Ginger & Onion

my folks left on sunday after spending a week here.

they'd seen some highlights of the city, gone on day tours on The Great Ocean Rd+ Phillip Island (Penguin Parade), The Tesselaar Tulip Festival and most importantly spent precious moments with Avery. i wonder if they'd enjoyed their visit but i reckon it's the family moments that they'd all been looking forward to.

my mom was particularly remindful of getting fish for Avery & The Wife (for it's believed that fish improves lactation. me on the other hand, simply prefers white meat over red). possibly cos cod and salmon are expensive back home, she (& my MIL too) tend to have this idea that these are best for babies. not that they aint but there are certainly more choices here and some more inexpensive than others. so before my mom left, our freezer was stocked with rockling, monkfish and salmon (for the baby). a pity that they didnt get to try the former 2 cos they dun come by easily back home.

i'd never tried rockling but heard it's got very firm texture n holds its shape well when cooking. i didn't wanna fry/grill so i looked up some recipes for baking it with whatever ingredients i had in the kitchen. adapted the following recipe that's originally for flake. serves 2-3 pax.

ingredients:

• 2-3 1" thick rockling fillets
• salt n pepper to taste
• 3-4 tbsp of finely chopped ginger
• half finely chopped onion
• 1tbsp oil/olive oil
• 200ml fresh milk
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• szechuan powder (dash)
  
• chopped/dried parsley for garnish
  

recipe:

• marinate fillets with salt, pepper for about 10 minutes in casserole dish
• mix in chopped onion, ginger and olive oil
• mix flour into milk and pour gently over fillets
• you may wanna scoop some of the chopped chopped onions n ginger onto the fillets
• add dash of szechuan powder on fillet for colour
• preheat oven at 180'C
• bake for about 25-30 minutes
• milk will curddle when baked, serve with parsley as garnish

The Wife who usually don't fancy milk in her cooking (other than curry) didn't quite mind the milk curd sauce cos it was sweet and gingerly. The Wife also whipped up my MIL's glutinous rice dish with ikan bilis/peanut belachan paste today...yummy....

Simple Banana Cake

My 2nd attempt at baking a cake from scratch. the 1st - a butter cake didn't turn out rite. didnt get cooked thru n was too wet. this was ok but not great. the edges were too cooked but at least the insides are good enuff. adapted this recipe from a couple of sites.....

ingredients

• ½ cup butter
• 50 ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 large bananas (ripe & ugly)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
  
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• ½ cup sugar (caster was suggested...but snce i only had raw sugar....)
  
• 1½ cups self-raising flour (OR 1 ½ plain flour/all purpose flour + 3 tsp of baking powder....i made a booboo of not mixing the latter into the flour before adding to mix. The Wife was totally exasperated....)
  

recipe

• mix butter, sugar and vanilla with food processor (recipe called for 'creaming' the lot which i dont understand....cos all i did was to beat it too its glue-y)
• add each egg separately, mixing well
• mash bananas and add to mixture
• dissolve soda in milk and add to mixture
• add flour to mixture
  
• preheat oven to 180°C
  
• bake in 1 9"x5" tin at 180°C for 35 minutes or until cooked (poke to find out....i actually had it in there for 55 minutes).

i think i'm gonna have a slice for supper......

Grilled Chicken Wings

i prefer grilling over frying. cos it's probably healthier, easier to manage and clean up (always hate to have to think about how to recycle the leftover oil from frying). all you need to do is marinate, line the grilling tray with aluminium foil, turn up the heat and chuck the whole darn thing in.

Am putting this up cos my sis's asking for the recipe. there're probably 1 gazillion methods to go about doing grilled wings so it's not something terribly exceptional but i wld say it tastes better than those u can get at a certain 'grilled chicken franchise'. always something useful & fast to have around when it's your turn to churn up some finger food for some birthday potluck thingy.

ingredients

• 10 wings
• sesame seed oil
• chinese cooking wine (i used shaoxing wine...actually any alcohol shld do. i'd done it with beer and stout before)
• ground pepper
• fish sauce
• dark soy sauce
• sugar
• szechuan powder (i used this. got it in a bottle from Woolworths)/ mild curry / chilli powder

recipe

• marinate wings with all of the above ingredients
• set aside for no less than 30 min
• preheat grill at 120'C
• line wings on tray and grill for about 8 minutes on 1 side
• flip over when side is nicely crackling and slightly burnt. grill for another 8 minutes
  
• remove from tray when cooked, serve with condiments
  

Braised Whole Chicken

My folks are here for a week of visiting. i can't help be think that their focus is not the sites that melbourne offers but Avery. i certainly hope that they'd have a good time here despite being stuck at home most of the time (cos BB's resting/sleeping).

I made them braised whole chicken based on (meaning i made some adaptation) my mum-in-law's recipe for dinner. 2nd time doing it but according to The Wife it's as good as her mom's (yipee). i had always preferred braised soy chicken to roast chicken. i remember that my dad used to tabao the Cheung Kee Soy Chicken from Upper Cross Street in Chinatown for dinners. there're 2 shops that sell similar chicken along the street i think. while this is not anywhere near their standards....it's not too bad i reckon.

This recipe serves 4 and takes up at least 50 min to prepare & cook.

ingredients

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 chopped onion/ 5 chopped shallots
• 1 chopped chilli
• 5-6 cardamon pods
• 2 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• dried orange peel (about 2 x 50 cent size is good)
  
• 5-6 slices of ginger
  
• white pepper (whole) handful (to taste)
• ground pepper
  
• 5-6 cloves of chopped garlic
• dark soy sauce
• light soy sauce
• salt
• sugar
• 1-2 cup water
  
• oil
• hard boiled eggs (optional if you want to make braised eggs)
• taukwah/taupok (optional...darn i wish i had some)
  

recipe
step 1

• scald chicken with boiling water
• rub salt on chicken and marinate whole chicken with pepper, dark soy sauce & light soy sauce
• set aside for at least 30 mins. turning occasionally so that the skin gets the pigment from the sauces.
  

step 2

• fry the chopped onions,/shallots+garlic, ginger until the onions are soft & fragrant. do not brown the onions cos you don't want to have a burnt smell/taste
• add in spices. fry for a short while until you can smell the spices then add half cup water
  
• add dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar to form a thick gravy. stir occasionally. taste if it's ok. it should taste fairy salty but light, with tinge of spiciness
• add marinated chicken to gravy in wok. keep heat at medium
  
• rinse the gravy on chicken occasionally and scoop some spices into the chicken
• close wok and simmer this side of chicken for 5 mins
• after 5 mins turn over and rinse the other side with gravy occasionally and let simmer for 5 mins
• repeat this process for at least 20-30 mins depending on size of chicken. taste gravy and add salt/sugar/dark/light soy sauce to taste. add additional 1/2 - 1 cup water if gravy is drying up. be careful that you do not burn the gravy
• once cooked (use satay stick to poke the thigh/breast area. if no bloody ooze come out then it's cooked but 30 mins is way enuff), cut/chop & serve
  

step 3

• if you r braising eggs, use a toothpick to prick the hardboiled eggs before adding them to gravy
• rinse the eggs with the gravy and turn them around so as to get an even coat of brown
• do the same for the taukwah. make sure that you scald the taupok before adding to the gravy.
  

leftover gravy?
fret not, use it to sirfry veg/ simply drizzle over a plate of dry instant noodles n you've have a wonderful snack!

Grilled Beef Steak

what do you do with meat that ain't looking too good (ie you know its edible but not quite in its prime...probably cos i'd bought it as a 'clearance item' from woolworths)? you marinate it with spices and be generous with it. bet it's what spices were used for in pre-fridge days (read: spice trade). besides, i like grilling cos it's easy to clean up afterwards, just wrap up the foil and chuck it into the bin. following recipe's for 4 slices of 1-cm thick beef steak. i grilled it on top of celery sticks (they were on sale too 2 big bunches for $2), so yah lazy me won't need to whip up the celery as a separate veg dish.

ingredients:

• 4 slices of 1-cm thick beef steak
• celery sticks/ any vegs that can be grilled. i think brinjals and boiled beans may actually work well too. but use apples for pork.
  
• 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1-2 tbsp sugar
• light soy sauce to taste
• chopped onions (half onion), would be great if i've had lemon grass too.
• pepper
• 3 tbsp curry powder (with chilli powder optional)
  
• sesame seed oil

recipe:

• marinate beef with all the condiments & spices & chopped onions. set aside for 15 minutes.
  
• lay chopped celery sticks/ whatever vegs on foil
• lay marinated beef on vegs. make sure there is space between beef n foil so that the juice+oil from the beef will help cook the veg when the grill kicks in
• preheat grill at abt 120'C
• grill for about 4-5 minutes on each side. onions will give off its fragrance, once u smell that, can flip. grill till u are happy with the caramelisation on the beef. i had the beef in the grill longer at abt 6 minutes on 1 side n 4 min on the other cos i wanted it well done
• serve with the grilled veg (shld be crunchy still) & rice
  

Mother's Day SuperBaby Issue

decided to date this post on 09.09.09 as it's our wedding anniversary.

we didn't have a getaway that day, neither did we have a romantic candlelite dinner...we did however have a really feverish baby to take care of and i'd to go off to monash uni at caulfield to find out more about a master of design course for next year's enrolment. i'd then bought japanese bentos from this small joint near caulfield station and rushed back home to check on the lil one. in the midst of my concern for the lil one, i'd left the key outside the door for 2 whole days (yah we holed in for 2 days cos she took that long to recover, luckily nothing unfrtunate had happened from my moment of carelessness).



so i thot it's rather fitting to rehash this for the post...it's something i put together a while back as a pressie for The Wife on Mother's Day....and on our anniversary i'm glad that she's been such a great mum to our lil one and an exceptional wife.

guess if the kiddo can speak, she'd probably make those cheeky lines too!

Okara Short Bread Fingers

i reallllly like butter. & personally i dun think magarine can be considered food.

i think there r 3 ingredients in the world that we can't do without - salt, fish and butter. & the best thing about this recipe is that it's got 2/3 of what i'd just mentioned! my dad too loves short bread and he'd buy those Walkers Shortbread and eat it with cold milk before he got spooked with hi-cholestrol level.

take note that this IS butter shortbread and it is oily-fatty-etc (okara just provides some amt of fibre) & this is by no means a health food...so dun chomp down the whole lot at 1 go. go ahead and share the guilt. i'm sharing mine with The Wife.
this makes approx 12 fingers.

ingredients

• 140g shifted plain flour / pastry flour
• 60g okara (see my previous post on soy bean milk). the original recipe i adapted from called for ground rice. i was too lazy to grind flour at 11 pm. okara turned out to be quite fragrant and gives a husky texture
  
• 50g caster sugar (i used raw sugar)
• 140 butter (cut to pieces & softened so u can pinch easily later). if you have only unsalted butter, add salt to taste (1/2-1 tsp will be fine)

recipe

• mix everything in a mixing bowl. use ur hand, easily done.
• mix till everything is blended and u can form a ball
• roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface
• cut & shape fingers and place them on grease paper on baking tray. allow space in between, they expand abt 10-15% after baking
  
• prick fingers with fork (lightly)
  
• put fingers in fridge for 30 min
• preheat oven at 180'C and bake for 20-25 min
• after baking, cool then serve.

now i better find time to hit the gym......

Simply bread

it's 2.30 am. & The Wife & I had polished off 1/3 of it.
the loaf was done at 2 am after about 4 hrs of kneading, rising/waiting and baking.

we'd ran out of bread earlier today and i gungho-ly stated that i'd go about baking one (even after my failed attempts at getting a decent butter cake out of the oven last week. you guys didn't see any documentation rite, cos it's too hideous to show). so i got the bread recipe off here. strictly for beginners (though i must admit that i may have kneaded/punched too much for the second round/held back on the amount of yeast, causing the air pockets to be rather smaller than expected). just make sure you get the consistency right. guess my training in ceramics (gauging dampness, consistency, kneading) did help a great deal.

but the taste is good. the crust was right, with a nice hint of saltiness...and went served warm with hummus...was simply a heavenly supper. now with the warm bread in my tummy, i think i should go to bed.