懒惰病又来了！

唉！又是一段时间没更新这灶了！前些时候，因为想把这灶布置得得体点儿，却不小心把辛辛苦苦放上的一些widgets给删掉了！那可是我这个电脑白吃花了很多时间摸索出来的成果啊！结果就因太过假厉害而全军覆没！之后，热忱就减了一大半。懒惰病又悄悄找上门了。这些时候，我都没闲着呀！我的灶脚还是冒着袅袅的火烟，哈哈！是又拍照啦，但就是懒得放上。趁今晚还有点儿闲情，就决定把照片放上了。

甜面包

蔓越梅面包

番茄面包

番茄面包

紫番薯发糕

叉烧包



紫米粉土司









咖啡戚风蛋糕



豆奶土司



打响第一炮！

这是我开灶后的第一个作品-金瓜鼠包。用了蒸熟压烂的金瓜泥做包子，然后把它整型成老鼠。但是我的整型功夫还是不到佳，老鼠都变样了！还好我不是专业整型医生，不然可惨了！

重新开灶！

我把在旧博克上所上载的都搬来。可能自己不知量力，用英文发表，每每都碰上欲言又止的时候。这次决定用华文写博克，希望能更好的表达自己所要表达的。

我很佩服那些屹立不倒的网友。他们总能坚持在自己的博可上发表。不像我，一开始兴致勃勃，但没多久就像消了汽的轮胎，无法启动。唉。。。真失败！也许是自己摄影技术差透了，又或许是自己太懒，总之就是无法象许多网友一样坚持到底。这次，我决定另设灶炉，重新开灶，希望这次能一直保有那热忱。我要坚持到底！

World Cup aftermath

I have been laxed in updating my blog after the world cup fever. It is true that after all the excitement ended, a void is left in the heart. Though tired, I do miss waking up at 2am in the morning just to catch a match. Well well, it is back to normal again.

This a a ugly cake which I made for my sis for her birthday. Look how messy the slices of mangoes were arranged. I hate cutting mango because I simply could not cut them uniformly, what's more with a knife that is so blunt? But taste wise, I am quite satisfied with it. I use yoghurt to make the mousse and it turned out fine.

Yesterday, I wanted to try baking one kind of bread I frequently saw at one of the bakeries near my home. The salesperson claims that the bread is especially soft. By the look at it, it does look soft to me. So I decided to concoct my own recipe and imitate after it. While I was mixing the dough, I sensed something amiss the dough seemed extraordinary dry to me. I was using my usual recipe, so it should not have such problems. Now, when I put the bread into the oven, it suddenly struck me that I had, in fact, forgotten to add sugar! No wonder the dough felt different! So, I got this 'healthy' bread without sugar. Fortunately,  I still have my kaya available. The generous spread of kaya was able to mask the absence of sugar in the bread.

Today, I set on to make 老婆饼. This pastry is extremely popular in Hong Kong. Somehow, my 老婆饼 are much puffy than the normal ones. Hmm.. the husbands must have fed them well. Ha ha....

World Cup Fever II

I have not been updating my blog due to the world cup fever. For the past 2 weeks, I have ben naping in the afternoon so that I will be able to stay up for the 10pm game and then go to bed, wake up at 2.30am to catch the next game. It has been a routine for me and I have zilch energy left for blogging.

Watching football has its ups and downs, highs and lows. I was left heart broken when my beloved Italy did not even got into round 2. Then there was my 2nd team- England, which has performed below par for this World Cup. I was not shocked at the exit of the England team but certainly find the scoreline of 4-1 loss to Germany unacceptable. Much criticisms have been aimed at the egregrious mistake made by the referee, which has drawn the ire of many. I, too, was irked. While no one would know for sure what the final result for that game would be had the goal been allowed, I am quite sure that England would never lift the cup this year, judging by their performances. They are just dismal and pathetic.

Ok, so much for the world cup. The world cup is taking a respite for a day and that means, I have the time to post whatever I had wanted to for the past few days. Let me recall what I have been doing in my kitchen for these few days. Bread, as usual, some more kaya, this time using gula melaka and swiss roll!( to be continued...)

Mashed Potato Bun and Sweet Corn Bread

World Cup Fever- cooling it down

What is the hottest topic in town recently? Definitely the World Cup! Ok, I confessed. I am one of those who has caught the fever, staying up late nights and waking in the wee hours to catch 22 men chasing one ball (that is how non football fan view this world's most loved game, isn't it?) I must say after more than 2 weeks of ball chasing (not on the pitch but by the side of my TV set), the regime has taken a toll on my body. I find that my throat is starting to parch and the heat in my body is rising. I guess the yin and yan are not in sync now. Sigh... so today's soup of the day is vital. Well, it may not be the best remedy, but it helps in abating the heatiness in my body albeit not the soul in the ball chasing... Come on!!!

Apple Soup (vegetarian version)

Ingredients:
3-4 red apples (try not to use China Fuji apples)-cut into chunks
1 large carrot-cut into chunks
a handful of nanxing and beixing (sweet and bitter almonds)
2 honey dates
10 wu hua guo
1 /2pc tangerine peel (optional)
mock meat
water

Wash all ingredients.  Boil sufficient water in pot. Put in all ingredients and boil for 2 hours over low heat. Before serving, add salt to taste.

This soup is healthy and easy to make. Enjoy!

Kueh Pisang

This is one of my favourite nonya kueh when I was a teenager. However, it is difficult to find this kueh nowadays. Even if you can find, most of those sold are not palatable, either the kueh is too hard or it is not fragrant enough. I have this recipe which I think makes the kueh to a perfect T, not too hard nor too soft. At least, to me, this is the most perfect recipe that I have gotten for this kueh. So I am sharing this recipe for those who would like to try. It is pretty easy. So do give it a try.

Ingredients:

(A)

200g Thick coconut milk

350g water

80g sugar

(B)

90g Hoon Kueh Flour

200g water

(C)

4pcs of bananas cut into slices

Banana leaves cut into 15cmx20cm

1. Mix (B) till smooth.
2. Boil (A) till sugar melts. Slowly pour in (1), stirring all the time with low heat.
3. When the mixture thickens, remove pan from heat.
4. Spoon about 2tbs of mixture onto banana leaves. Top with a slice of banana. Spoon another 2tbs of mixture on top of the banana.
5. Wrap the banana leaf up into a rectangle parcel.
6. Chill in the fridge till set. Enjoy!

      

Soft Plain Bread Loaf

I am into the mood of making plain loaf breads recently. Part of the reason is due to the dumpling festival which falls on today. I cannot eat dumplings for breakfast as they may cause bloatedness and are a tad too oily. My family and I, we all have pretty weak digestive systems. Thus, our diets are normally more prone to less oil and healthier versions. So, I made this plain bread loaf which will go well with my kaya. This is really soft and nice. I really like the texture of the bread.

Coffee raisin buns

As I have mentioned before, coffee buns are one of my favourites and I never get tired making or eating them. Perhaps it is due to the fact that I am a coffee lover and I find bread made with coffee are just so versatile. You can add raisins, almond, prunes or without anything and it still tastes just as good. So, these are the coffee buns for my breakfast with a cup of what else but Coffee!

This recipe is made with 'tang zhong' (water roux). Somehow or other, I always feel that coffee bread made with water roux are not as soft as other breads made form water roux. I wonder why. But as long as they are not rock buns, I still love the taste.

I would also like to mention here that most of my recipes easily available from blogs of other bloggers. That is why I seldom post up recipes. Another reason is I am really slow in typing so please excuse me. But if I find a particularly good recipe which I obtained somewhere, I would post it up and share with everyone.

Dumplings galore and kaya (碱水粽, 娘惹粽, 咖椰）

It's Dumpling Festival again this Wednesday. Nowadays, there are dumplings with a variety of flavours with some really exotic ones. I have never tried those innovative creations and still prefer the traditional type. As my dad is a Baba, I would consider myself a half nonya. From young, I have grown up eating nonya dumplings made by my mum and somehow or other, I cannot accustomed myself to accept other types of dumplings. But I like the teochew style dumplings which my maternal grandmother used to make. The teochew dumplings encase ingredients like pork, chestnuts, mushrooms and most importantly, tau sar. However, ever since my grandmother passed away many years back, I rarely have the chance to savour the teochew dumplings again.

One other must have in my family is 'kee chang'. It is healthier and does not contain any traces of oil. For me, 'kee chang' goes really well with kaya and I cannot do without kaya if I were to eat 'kee chang'. Without kaya, I would rather not eat 'kee chang' at all! That's how fussy I am with my affair with 'kee chang'. I must confess that I do not know how to make nonya dumplings and kee chang. It was always my mum who does the frying of ingredients, preparation and wrapping. I am just her assistant for such occasions, helping with washing of leaves and cutting ingredients. I started learning the wrapping skill about 3 years back. Now, I have been promoted (by myself) from just helping with the cutting to wrapping the dumplings. So knowing that my mum will be making the dumplings this weekend, I decided to make my kaya to accompany my kee chang. Making kaya is a tedious task which requires patience, stamina (to keep stirring constantly for an hour or more) and the sheer love of it. The irony is, I am not a great fan of kaya. The only time I can't do without it is when eating 'kee chang'. Weird, isn't it?

These are the 'kee changs'

And nonya dumplings

Mantou

Mantou is just like plain bao without any filling. Like bread, it tastes good if you spread jam or peanut butter on it. But I like it just plain so that I can taste the aroma of fermented dough. These mantous are made using the same recipe as the one I used for making the porcupine baos some time back.

Hamburger buns, brown sugar plain loaf and.... whoof.... whoof....

I am getting a little lazy in posting these few days but still enthusiastically engaged in my baking rituals. So what have I baked? As usual, I cannot get by without baking breads. I have just bought a bottle of peanut butter spread and thus decided that I should bake something simple and plain so as to make good use of the peanut butter. These humdrum hamburgers may look unenticing but they surely will taste different with a generous spread of peanut butter sandwiched between. The brown sugar plain bread alike... yummy!

And then there are these cute little doggy cookies that I simply had to have my hands on making them. They are just so adorable and tasty!

Ingredients:

180g butter
80g horlicks
200g plain flour
25g corn flour
25g milk powder
some chocolate rice, chocolate chips and Koko Krunch

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 140deg C. Sieve flour, corn flour and milk powder.
Cream butter and Horlicks for about three minutes at low speed. Do not overbeat.
Mix in flour, cornflour and milk powder to form dough.
Divide dough into 10g each and roll into balls.
Use two pieces of Koko Krunch to form the 'ears', chocolate rice for the "eyes", and a chocolate chip in the centre for the 'nose'. Bake at 140 deg C for about 25 minutes.