Quick and easy Soba Noodle Soup

There are  many ways of eating Soba noodle, whether it is cold , with a soup base or simply pan fried them with any ingredients you like,  absolutely up to your imagination.

Pasta with Pesto

We had this last night.  It took me just a short moment to get a delicious simple meal done. One thing good about homemade ingredients is that it is indeed tasted way better than ready made Pesto sauce from store bought.

Healthy Snowskin Mooncake ( Matcha and Rose Syrup)

                   Matcha...........    Rose syrup air bandung........MOONCAKEeeee!

I had such fun making this. I never thought I could make Mooncake so I was really excited when I saw those cute babies sitting right in front of me!  My husband and my children love my mooncake a lot!

Steamed Sponge Cake ( Ma Lai Go)

This is a classic cake that we always eat at the Yum Cha place, the flavour of this recipe is very similar to it,  tasted, tested and I love it ! I have been following "SiuKitchen" for some time now,  her recipes are usually healthier, with less sugar and less oil.  Just perfect for my family.

Ingredients ( for 6" mould pan):
2 eggs
20g oil
Brown sugar  80g
Evaporated milk  150g
Custard powder  10g
Corn flour  25g
Baking powder  6g
Bicarbonate of soda  4g
Self raising flour   100g

Method:
1.  Sift all flours, set aside.
2.  Whisk eggs until foamy, add sugar in batches.  Whisk until batter slightly thickened (about 5 to 8 minutes).
3.  Gradually add in evaporated milk and continue to whisk. ( change Mixer to medium speed).
4.  Fold in flours gently until no lumps.
5.  Take a small portion from the batter and mix with the oil.  This is to lighten the texture of the oil.  Pour the mixture into the batter and mix well.
6.  Pour eveything in the pan.
7.  Cover pan with cling wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
8.  Steam with high heat for 30 minutes.
9.  Done!

                           

French cheesecake

Yummy!!!!!!!!

This is my first attempt of baking a cheesecake.  It is quite an easy task.  Thanks to "Todd's Kitchen" (youtube). He is really good with Cheesecakes and ice cream recipes.  It is always simple, straight forward and yummy!

                  Spring is approaching and I enjoy walking around my garden at this time of the year..


Ingredients:
Base:
185g plain sweet biscuits
90gbutter, melted


Filling:
750g cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoon self-raising flour
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup milk

                                      In my backyard..


Methods:

1.  Crush up biscuits in a bowl.  Add in melted butter  and mix until all well combined.
2.  Prepare and lay parchment paper onto the Springfoam pan, greased.
3.  Place biscuits crumbs on top of the pan, using a cup firmly push it down so to get a firm base.
     Let it set in the fridge for later use.
4.  Whisk in 2 egg whites in a mixer, add sugar in batches and whisk until glossy stiff peak.  Set aside.
5.  In another clean mixing bowl, pour in cream cheese and whisk until it is nice and smooth.
6.  Whisk in sour cream, 2 yolks, all purpose flour, lemon rind and milk, one after another.
7.  Add egg whites mixture into the yolk batter and continue to whisk on high speed for another 10 seconds.
8. Bake in pre-heated oven 150 deg for about 50- 55 minutes until the top slowly turning brownish.
9. When it is done, leave it sit and cool in the oven for 30 minutes with oven door slightly open. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight to set.

                                          Yummy..........



Note:  A fresh make cheesecake will stay good in fridge for 5 to 6 days.  You may store in freezer for 6 to 8 months.

Matcha chiffon cake

There are so many variations baking chiffon cake,  this is one of the most popular one.
Matcha is my favourite, anything that is Matcha, I will sure love it.

Recipe (from Jo the tart queen):

Ingredients:
GroupA:
1.  5 large egg yolks, room temperature
2.  150g granulated sugar
3.  85ml  neutral flavoured oil, grapeseed or canola
4.  35ml milk
5.  40ml water
6.  160g cake flour
7.  3/4 tsp double acting baking powder ( I used normal baking powder)
8.  1/4 salt
9.  25g matcha powder




Group B:

1.  5 large egg whites, room temperature
2.  A pinch of cream of tartar ( I used 2 tsp of lemon juice)
3.  100g caster sugar

Method:
1.  Pre-heat oven to 180 deg.
2.  Whisk yolks with sugar until pale and light. Add in oil and whisk until incorporated.
3.  Add in milk and water and whisk in sifted ingredients.  Whisk until there are no lumps. Let is sit aside.
4.  Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peak.  Add in sugar in 2 or 3 batches.
     Whisk until you just get the stiff peak.
5.  Add 1/4 of meringue to mixture A, to lighten the texture.
6.  Add 1/2 of the remaining meringue to mixture.  Fold gently and make sure all thoroughly folded into the mixture without lumps.
7. Pour batter into chiffon tin ( make sure it's un-greased). Tap gently the pan twice to remove air bubbles.
8. Bake at 180 deg for 1 hour 5 minutes.
9. Remove cake from oven, invert it immediately and let it  to cool completely ( I take 2 hours).  Unmould it.

Cantonese egg tart

My first two batches of egg tarts were a total failure until my classmate sent me this recipe, she told me it is the simplest and one of her favourite recipes.  And that I will surely succeed in only one attempt.  I was really excited and gave it a go right away.  It sure was,  thanks to Seok Ting!

3 Toned Marble bread

I was really excited and couldn't wait to start baking when  I found out I could still use the bread machine to knead the dough for a marble bread ! ( meaning a short 20 minutes and further 10 more minutes after turning the machine on and off for another).  Lalalalala... thanks so much to "Happy Home Baking"for the information and inspiration.

before rise

I should have let the dough risen with a open loaf pan  (without a lid / cover) as you the see , sort of crushed 

Here's my ingredients:

1.  Milk and egg add up  250ml.
2.  Tangzhong  190g.
3.  Oil  2 tablespoon ( I used grapeseed oil)
4.  Honey  3 tablespoon.
5.  Salt  1 teaspoon.
6.  Skim milk powder   2 tablespoon.
7.  Bread flour  600g.
8.  Instant yeast  2 teaspoon.


 (A) 1 tablespoon matcha powder, some chopped walnuts ( for the green dough).
 (B) 1 tablespoon cocoa powder,  1 tablespoon molasses ( for the brown dough).
  (C) 1 tablespoon fine grinded red yeast,  some cranberries ( for the red dough).

Methods (bread machine):

1.  Wet ingredients go in first. Sugar on one side, salt of the other side. Lastly, add in yeast before flour.
2.  Set  menu to" dough"and press "start".
3.  Stop the machine after 20 minutes.  Re-start the machine and run for another 10 minutes.
4.  Sit dough on a working surface, deflate to release air bubbles.
5.  Roll into a ball and relax gluten for 10 minutes.
6.  Weigh the dough and divide into 3 equal parts.
7.  Knead green dough with (A) ingredients.  Knead brown dough with (B) ingredients. Lastly, knead red dough with (C) ingredient.
8.  Rest the 3 different doughs in seperate bowls for 10 minutes.
9.  Shape each of them into a long roll of the same length ( check your loaf tin size so you know how long you need to go for).
10.  Plait them.
11.  Place them inside the pullman tin.
12.  Bake in 180 deg oven for 25 minutes.  If you have a lid on, take off the lid now and bake for a further 5 minutes.
13.  Enjoy!

White Steam Rice Cup Cake ( Buut Chai Go)

This was one of my favourites when I was little,  I still love it now!  I am glad that I now know how to make them. Reason, it is not easy to get them here in Australia!

Recipe from Christine's recipes

Ingredients
85g rice flour
55g wheat flour
110g castor sugar
2 cups water
Cooked sweetened red beans

Methods:
1.  Add rice flour and wheat flour into 1/2 cup of water, stir well.
2.  Dissolve sugar using the remaining 1/2 cup water on medium heat. Bring to boil.
3. Very quickly pour the boiled sugar into the flour mixture.
4.  Continue to stir while pouring. Stir until well combined.
4. Transfer mixture into small bowls and steam over high heat for about 20 minutes.
5. If you like,  half way of steaming, add read bean paste onto the surface of the rice cake and continue to stem until cooked through. ( Use a stick and go through into the cake and check, if it's comes out clean, it's ready to removed from the steam).

Note:  be sure to grease the little bowls before pouring batter in for steaming.

A  good gift for my neighbour during New Year..

Black glutinous Rice Chiffon Cake

I like the color of this Chiffon cake,  a deep greyish color that delivers such a beautiful aroma of coconut, soft and light texture too.
A very good recipe indeed.

I like to invest money on a slightly smaller size of Chiffon Cake pan so I can get a handsome taller cake.  I owned the largest size of it.

Recipe ( Wendy's BGR Chiffon Cake)
Ingredients A
5 egg yolks (95 g)
35g sugar
30g corn oil ( I used grapeseed oil)
100g coconut milk
1/3 tsp salt
67g black glutinous rice ( I grinded them into "fine" powder using coffee grinder)
33g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Ingredients B
5 egg whites ( 190g)
85g sugar
1/3 tsp cream of tartar ( I used 2 teaspoons of lemon juice)

Methods
1.  Pre-heat oven to 180C.  Prepare a 22 or 25cm chiffon tube pan.
2.  Mix egg yolks, sugar and corn oil together.  Add in coconut milk and salt.
3.  Add sifted flours, baking powder and  black glutinous rice powder into the yolk mixture. Set aside.
4.  Beat egg whites until foamy, add in cream of tartar and beat until soft peak. Gradually add in sugar and beat until stiff peak.
5.  Take a small portion of egg whites into the yolk mixture and mix ( to lighten the texture of the batter).
6.  Fold in 1/3 egg whites into the  batter.  Repeat the remainder whites and fold until all well combined without lumps.
7.  Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes.
8.  Remove cake out from oven and invert immediately to let it cool down completely.

Red Yeast buns ( Walnuts, Sultanas, Cinnnamon)

Soft and fluffy rich red yeast rice buns..

Loving this deep red yeast color, this time I used my white bread loaf recipe and made 10 good sized buns.  If you like, you may bake it as a 1 kg loaf of bread.  The fillings are actually the leftovers from the Monkey Bread that I tried to bake 2 days ago. I was silly enough to have find that I'd forgotten to put any yeast in the dough! So,  I had no choice but to dump the dough in the bin!
Anyway at least I have not wasted it at all with the ingredients, the buns turned out really good. :


My bread machine has a bit of a problem, instead of using my mixer, I thought I could give it a go with my food processor. I bought it last year December and have not really used all the functions provided.  I saw a lot of Japanese bakers using it so I was curious and wanted to experience it myself.  It did such a quick kneading job in a blink of an eye! The dough was rising really well and the texture of the bread was soft and fluffy!

Combination of Walnuts, Sultanas, Brown sugar, Cinnamon and Butter.

Here's the recipe ( 1 kg loaf / 10 good size buns):

Water, lukewarm   325ml
Butter or Margarine    25g  ( I used grapeseed oil)
White Sugar     2 and 1/2 teaspoon  ( I used Honey)
Skim milk powder    1 and 1/4 teaspoons
Red yeast rice   1 tablespoon ( grinded into powder using coffee grinder)
Salt     1 and 1/4 teaspoons
Bread flour    470g
Dry yeast     1 and 1/2 teaspoons

Wrap ingredients and roll in a ball shape

Yumm......

Methods ( food processor):

1.  Mix lukewarm water, sugar and yeast together.  Whisk until all the yeast has dissolved.  Wrap and leave it aside for 5 minutes until it becomes foamy.
2.  Wrap and let it chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
3.  Meanwhile, add all dry ingredients, the flour, skim milk powder, salt and red yeast rice powder into the food processor.  "Pulse" the machine 2 to 3 times so that it is well mixed.
4.  Pour in oil while the machine is running.  "Pulse" 2 to 3 times.
5.  Gradually pour the rest of the yeast mixture into the food processor.
6.  "Pulse" very briefly until dough comes together.
7.  Remove dough onto a clean working surface, deflate air bubbles.
8.  Roll it into a ball shape and let it rise for an hour or until size doubled.
9.  Divide into 10 pieces and shape into ball.
10. Wrap with ingredients and let it rise in the pan for about an hour or until size doubled.
11.  Bake in pre-heated oven 180 deg for 35 minutes or until golden brown.
12.  Happy baking!


Or, you may like to knead it by hand / using your Mixer.

Black glutinous rice bread

You get a beautiful color bread!

I noticed if you use cooked rice for bread making it results in a very moist and chewy texture. Very straight forward recipe.  I boiled the rice in advance and used my food processor to grind it before adding it with my other ingredients. I also added 50g coconut milk, thinking it would go nice with it.  After tasted the bread, I think I should go for 100g coconut milk, 50g was just not enough to bring out the flavour.

I have been obsessesed these few days with using my food processor to knead the dough.  As long as you chill your yeast mixture ( wet ingredients) in the fridge for 10 minutes, you are ready to "pause" a few times on the food processor! In short...very short moments, you get your dough perfectly done. Just make sure you do not "pause" the machine too long. When the dough comes together like a ball, it's done.


Ingredients:

3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar ( I did not use honey this time as I do not want the strong honey flavour over-powering the coconut milk.
1 teaspoon yeast
1 cup cooked black glutinous rice ( processed in the food processor)
1 cup lukewarm milk ( I added 1 egg to come as 1 cup all in all)
1 tablespoon of skim milk powder
50g coconut milk





























Methods ( I used food processor):

1.  I prepared the sponge.  Yeast and sugar in the lukewarm water, well whisked. Covered and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes until you see the foam appears on top of the mixture.
2.  Mix into the rest of the wet ingredients and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
3.  Meanwhile, pour in  cooked glutinous rice and all other dry ingredients into the food processor ( "Pause" 2 to 3 times).
4.  Add in oil and "Pause" 2 times.
5.  While "pausing" on the machine, gradually pour in all wet ingredients into the food processor.
6. Very quickly, when everything comes together, you are done.
Note: Do not over do your "pausing", you do not want to overheat or over- knead your dough.
7. Remove dough out into a big bowl. Oil your hands, in the bowl, deflate air bubbles and roll dough into a ball shape.  Rest gluten for 10 minutes.
8. Roll dough like the way you do as in swiss roll, tuck two ends in.
9. Place dough into a loaf pan for further second rise, about an hour or, until it doubled its size.
9. Bake in pre-heated oven 180 deg, 30 minutes or, until golden brown.
10.  Good luck, I am sure you will like this bread!

Rice bread

We often have left over rice from dinner, instead of wasting it I now used it to make bread. I replaced water to light milk and a little more honey to replace sugar.  It gives me milky beautiful strong honey flavour hence not overpowering the aroma of the rice.  It has an interesting texture as it is chewy, you just don't feel like you are eating a slice of bread but a slice of cake!
The bread is absolutely yummy, no regrets.

Simple recipe here:

1.  3 cups of bread flour
2.  1 tablespoon oil
3.  2 tablespoon honey
4.  1 teaspoon salt
5.  1 tablespoon skim milk powder
6.  1 cup of lukewarm milk
7.  1 cup cooked rice ( any kind of rice, with one tablespoon of water get it blended or processed with food processor).
8.  1 egg as counted into the water.
9.  1 teaspoon yeast

Method( I used food processor):

1.  Mix liquid ingredients and refrigerate until cold ( 10 minutes).  Wet ingredients are refrigerated to counteract the heat of the food processor, which otherwise might kill the yeast.
2.  Put dry ingredients into food processor with blade attached and mix well with a short pulses of the blade.
3.  Add wet ingredients while blade is running and process "briefly" just enough to come together, forming a smooth and soft ball. Dough should easily come away from sides of the bowl of the blade.
5. Remove dough from food processor and proceed with first rise for about one hour or until it doubled its size.
7. Oil your hands for easy handling of the dough.  Deflate air bubbles and shape it into a ball. Rest gluten for 10 minutes.
8. Roll it like the way you would for swiss roll and tuck 2 ends in.
9. Place it in the loaf pan to rise for one hour or until size doubled.
10. Bake in pre-heated oven 180 deg, 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Note:  You may also choose option to use bread machine or hand / mixer for kneading.

Wholemeal rolls

Sometimes I shape the dough into buns so my children can have some varieties of what I've made for them, they like it that way.  I try to roll lots of seeds and grains onto the top to "trick" them to eat, that's the way I do it.

Whenever I bake bread, I always do a large batch. 600g running in my bread machine as usual, it usually makes about 16 buns of my ideal size of buns. 

Here's the simple recipe ( some ideas from kimmy cooking pleasure):

1.  Milk and egg added up to 250ml lukewarm water.

2.  Tangzhong     190ml

3.  Oil     2 tablespoons

4.  Honey   3 tablespoons

5.  Salt  1 teaspoon 

6.  Skim milk powder   2 tablespoons

7.  Bread flour   600g

8.  Instant yeast   2 teaspoons

9.  Lots of grains and seeds

Methods:

1.   Mix and whisk well the milk, egg and tangzhong in the water.

2.   Wet  ingredients go in first.  Sugar on one side while salt on the other side.
3.  When complete ,  deflate the air bubbles on working surface, rest dough for 10 minutes.
4.   Shape dough into bun shapes, place them in the pan and let it rise for about one hour or, until double it's sizes.
5.   Have a quick spray of water on buns before sprinkling grains and seeds all over.
6.   Bake in pre-heated oven of 180 deg for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Korean / Japanese Soba Cold Noodle

We had a very light and simple meal of soba noodles for dinner tonight.  It is still Winter here but cold Soba noodle is still good for us.  I think, this meal would be really refreshing to have in Summertime. Anyway, my children love it so much, I saw them happily slurping all the way through dinner.

Coconut Pandan bread

I still had quite a bit of home made pandan paste left in the fridge after making the Pandan chiffon cake, so I made this wonderful bread.

It had absolutely delightful aroma wafting from the kitchen during baking session from the machine.  The texture is very soft and fluffy, I am sure you will love it too.

Here's the recipe ( from Happy Home Baking):

100ml coconut milk + 50ml water
35g egg
25g caster sugar
5g salt
250g bread flour
4g instant yeast
38g oil ( I used grapeseed oil)
1/4 teaspoon pandan paste
( I also added cranberries)



Method:
1.  Wet ingredients goes in first. Sugar on one side while salt on the other side. Yeast comes last just before flour.
2.  Select "Basic" menu,  light crust and 500g for size loaf.  Press "start".
3.  Leave it in the pan for 10 minutes after it is completed.  Transfer to let cool on cooling rack.

Multigrain bread 1

I like to add a few extra ingredients into my daily bread making, using a variety of grains and seeds would be quite nutritious.


I used to buy commercial breads and was kind of tired of the same taste and texture of it. I was also not happy to pay for a chia seed bread or quinoa seed bread for such a ridicuously high price where I can just easily add in my bread making.

For this, I sliced it very thin sandwich sizes, yum..

Recipe :( 750g loaf)

Water, lukewarm:          205ml
Butter or margarine:      3 teaspoons  ( I used grapeseed oil / tahini / olive oil for the same amount)         Salt:                               1 teaspoon
Brown Sugar:                3 teaspoon
Skim milk powder:        3 teaspoons
Bread improver:             1 teaspoon ( I used yogurt instead, 2 tablespoons)
Mixed grain:                  1/3 cup ( combination of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds,pepitas,                                          linseed, chia and coarse polenta)
Sultana:                          3 tablespoons ( I like to have a bit of sweetness).
Plain flour :                    240g
Wholemeal plain flour :  120g
Dry yeast:                      1 1/2 teaspoons

Methods:

1.  Wet ingredients go in first.  Sugar on one side while salt on the other side.  Last add in  the yeast just before you add the flour.
2.  Select menu " Wheat",  "light crust",  750g.  Press "start".
3. When complete, leave bread in the pan for 10 minutes.  Rest on cooling rack after that.  It's best to slice your bread a few hours later.



Note:
Be sure to take a quick look during first 5 to 10 minutes.  Dough should look smooth, soft, slightly sticky and have a tendency to flatten and catch the sides of the container.  Dough which is too stiff will have ragged edges, it will not stick to the sides at all and form a tight round ball.  In such a case you should add one tablespoon of extra water.  For dough which is sticky and reluctant to form a ball, add one tablespoon of flour.