Chinese Fried Rice & Beanshoots Fried Noodles

As its the holiday seasons, visitors do pop by now and then and the fastest way to whip up some tummy filling food is to fry some noodles or rice (that's if you are lucky enough to have overnight rice in your fridge).  I am also pretty happy when these 1-dish meal turns out to be yummylicious and my guests ask for seconds. Here's two photos which we took before we gobbled up these 1-dish meals.  I am trying to improve my photo taking and one of my friends suggested for me to have a red background....it looks pretty good, ya?!  *wink*

Simple Chinese Fried Rice

Beanshoots Fried Bee Hoon

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New Project - S E W I N G

Yup, you heard right. Besides cooking, I am going to start sewing. My other half bought me a Toyata Sewing Machine. He said that its time for both of us to start sewing....ha!ha! Well, I have sew a few simple clothes before...a recon of my other half's Polo Shirts to toddler's pants, onesies to dresses, etc. That really saved lots of money for me as kids' clothing is as and even more expensive than adult clothing.  So, what's on my sewing list so far:

a) Ben10 printed pants for my prince
b) Dora printed dress for my princess
c) Jeans pants for my prince and princess
d) Summer dress for little old me

Wish me luck!!!

Strawberries

I am not a person who has a green thumb in the family...my other half has that. He said that its true relaxation when he does the gardening. For me, baking is my true relaxation. He has been trying to create his own magical garden at the back of our house which he can show his kiddos.  Too much of Better Homes and Gardens...ha!ha!

One of the first plants he wanted to grow were strawberries.  He did his research and ta-daa....here's the outcome of his hardwork. Our own strawberries... Verdict - Very Sweet!!!

Gingerbread House made from Sugar Cookies Dough

My little prince of 4 years heard so much about gingerbread houses from TV, school, friends, etc and he wanted to decorate one this year.  He was very insistent and since no one in the house likes gingerbread cookies, I decided to build a gingerbread house with sugar cookies dough.  It was quite sturdy and it really made my prince and princess's day.  My little prince commented that it looks like the witch house he watched at Super Why - Hansel and Gretel!!!  As my 2 precious are still young, I did not want to spend the rest of the day cleaning up my carpets. So, I decided to use a tray....ha!ha!....lazy mummy, ain't I.

Here's a photo where my 2 precious started decorating the house.  As you can see, I did not buy much decorations.  I only used what's in the house ~ M&Ms, Candy Canes and Wafer Rolls.

Here's another photo where my 2 precious started eating the M&Ms and wafer rolls and left the house unattended...ha!ha!

Here's another photo where my 2 precious decided that they have finished decorating the house and enough is enough...ha!ha!

I must say that I am really happy that the sugar cookies dough turned out quite sturdy and seeing my 2 kiddos happy faces really worth it (spending so much time in the kitchen baking the walls, roof, assembling the house, icing the house, etc). One of my buddies commented that its so plain looking, nothing to shout about, etc...well, I really don't care coz this is just something for my 2 precious to play with and experience the whole process of decorating the gingerbread house.  Its pretty magical watching my 2 kiddos at work.. :)

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Cinnamon Rolls and Mixed Fruits Ring Bread

I wanted to try something more creative with my bread dough and I decided to add in more sugar to make it a sweet bread dough. This enables me to create cinnamon rolls and mixed fruits ring bread.  My other half and my 2 kiddos really wallop these babies in a day. Hmm...I guess they got tired of my plain old breads....ha!ha!

Talking about cinnamon rolls, a buddy of mine calls it honey buns. It sounds delicious and she made some for me recently. It really taste and looks like cinnamon rolls. So, when I baked some cinnamon rolls and gave some to her, she thought it was honey buns...ha!ha! Oh well...cinnamon rolls, honey buns, cinnamon buns, cinnamon snails...whatever...it just taste delicious.  Here's a photo of my cinnamon buns...

Here's a photo of my mixed fruits ring bread.  I cut it into 2 as my kids wanted to look at the fruits inside of the ring bread....curiosity kills the cat as they say...ha!ha!

Chow Mein (Stir-Fried Noodles)

Noodles like rice is a staple food in my family. So, its very common to see us eating rice and noodles every single day. In Chinese, chow means stir-fried and mein means noodles. One can really get creative when you want to whip up this 1-dish meal. You can go from plain vegetarian to assorted meat and seafood combo. Today my kiddos requested for a wetter version of the chow mein. I saw this chow mein at safeway and decided to buy a packet to try...just to see if my kiddos will like it as much as the fresh noodles.

Here's the photo of the dried chow mein which I bought.

As I was rushing for time, I made the simplest version. Fried some garlic, ginger and onion and add in chicken meat and fishballs and stir-fry till its fragrant. Next, I add in the sauces, carrot and cabbage and lastly the noodles.  When its boiling, I add in the beaten eggs and sauce cornstarch water to thicken the sauce. Here's a photo of the final product.  Verdict - my 2 kiddos loved it...ha!ha!  That's what every mother will want to see and hear... :)

Bread...Plaited & Focaccia

I love making my own bread as I will not use any preservatives....not too good for my 2 kiddos. My princess was asking for plaited bread as she loves the pattern. When one of my buddies came to visit us, she commented that I made a nice looking challah but how come I made only 1. Silly me did not know much about challah and I googled to feed my curiosity. I found out that its a traditional shabbat meal on a Friday night meal begins with blessing over 2 challahs.  This is indeed very interesting.

I also made focaccia bread and from what I know, its a flatbread from Italy.  It might be similar to a pizza but it actually is not.  Most of the time, focaccia is baked flatbread with toppings of olive oil, herbs and salt.  Of course, you can be creative and you can make your own creation.

Here's a photo of my plaited bread and focaccia.....

Pita Bread

Pita bread is also known as a flat bread and I believe that its eaten everywhere. No matter which country we have visited, we have found this little baby.  When we were in Greece, we found out from the waiter that pita means "flat".  I was very excited to try this in my little oven...just wanted to test and see if it will separate to form an internal pocket and thus creating pocket pitas.  Well, well, well...amazingly, my little oven did a good job with it....here's some photos!!!

Pita bread baking in the oven...

Here's a photo of the end result....

Hong Kong Egg Tarts

Egg tarts....now, this is something which my whole household love.  When I made it for my friends, one of my Caucasian friends told me that they call it custard tarts in her homeland. For us, we call it "dan tart".  Its a really simple tart to do...just a pastry crust and fill it with egg custard. Plonk it into the oven and bake till golden brown. Most of the time, you will find these babies in dim sum places.

Here's a photo of the dan tarts....

Christmas Stollens

Its Christmas soon and one our last class we made stollens. It looks like a loaf of bread and it has mixed fruits in it and its covered with a rain stormed of icing sugar.  According to my lecturer, its a tradition from Germany.  Once we take it out of the oven, we actually soaked it in a bowl of melted butter.  Once the stollens are cooled, we will shower it with icing sugar.

Here is a photo where the stollen is soaked in a big bowl of melted butter....

Here's a photo of the end product.... we actually ate one loaf in class...ha!ha!

Well...one thing for sure...this stollen is really good and delicious.  Don't mind making it for Christmas this year...

Brioche

My lecturer explained to us that brioche is an enriched bread which has high egg and butter content in it. This makes the bread rich and tender. Even though its a bread, it taste more like pastry as it has a sweet flavour and flaky texture. One thing about brioche, it suppose to be "retarded overnight".  However, when we did it in school, we used the prover box instead...short-cut way.

Here's a photo of my little brioche... we only made 6 per bench and we ate it as soon as it came out from the oven...ha!ha!

Frangipane Tarts

Frangipane...sounds like a word from fairyland... Actually frangipane is a filling made from almonds.  I never made frangipane tarts before but I must say that its one tart which I will make again. Its just plain delicious. Even Junior Master Chef here has a recipe for it....ha!ha! 

Its quite easy to do...
Firstly, make the pastry - add in flour, sugar and butter until resembles breadcrumbs.  Add in egg. Do not over mix the dough. Cling wrap it and let it rest in the fridge.
Secondly, make the frangipane - cream the butter and sugar, add in eggs and lastly the almond meal and a little bit of rum.
Next, take out the dough and line the moulds. Brush some strawberry jam onto the bottom of the tart and pour in 3/4 of the frangipane.  Do not fill it to the top as the frangipane will raise up. Scatter almonds on top of the frangipane and bake @ 180 degrees C till golden brown.
Some people will brush some apricot jam after post baking it.  Other will just sprinkle icing sugar on top before serving it.
For us...not time for all that....just waiting to eat it...ha!ha!

Managed to take a few photos before the whole batch entered our tummy...

Fresh from the oven...

From the plate and soon into our tummies....

Babas & Savarins

We made babas and savarins in our yeast product class the other day.  It seems that some people calls babas as savarins  and vise-versa. Oh well...I guess to each its own...

For my lecturer, babas are baked in a tall baba cylindrical moulds and have raisins in it. Savarins on the other hand looks like a donuts. Once its baked, it will be soaked into a syrup solution and the centre will be piped with whipped cream and decorate with fresh fruits.

Here's a photo of the babas that we made in school. It taste pretty nice, actually.

 Now, for the savarins...here's how we did it.

We piped it into the savarins donut moulds and baked it.

Here's a photo of our savarins after its baked.

The next step is to submerge it into a pot of syrup solution.

Let the syrup solution drip dry.

To finish it off, pipe whipped cream in the centre and decorate it with glazed fresh fruits.

Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice)

Nasi lemak is a dish which is another favourite in my family...even my prince and princess love eating nasi lemak ( of course with the sambal as its pretty hot).  Some of my friends eat nasi lemak for breakfast, other will eat it for lunch or dinner. For us, its normally dinner.  Yeah...I know, it pretty fattening....

When I was young, my Grandaunt would steam the rice on a layer of banana leaves in a steamer slowly and flake it with chopsticks. Today, I just boil the rice in the rice cooker....lazy, huh?!  However, I still do my own sambal (hot spicy sauce).  This is a MUST!!! With the sambal, nasi lemak is NOT nasi lemak.  I also fried some turmeric chicken, fried anchovies (ikan bilis), slice some cucumber, deep fry the egg, etc.  Here's a plate of nasi lemak which I plated for my other half...he ate 2 plates of it....its good that he loves it.  As everyone tells me...the way to a man's heart is through his stomach...is that really true?

Nasi Lemak....

Sausage Rolls

In our pastry class, we made sausage rolls out of puff pastry.  Its a common pastry here. Sometimes you will find just a sausage being rolled with a sheet of puff pastry. However, in school, we made the sausage itself using minced beef. Seriously...its just plain delicious. So much better than the commercial sausages....yum!!!

Sausage Rolls with freshly made minced beef rolls before we popped it into the oven.

Freshly out of the oven and we were drooling.....yum!!!

We also made apple strudel too on the same day. We had lots of fun making the Filo Dough. We had to stretch and stretch the dough till its paper thin but it was so fun.... we looked like Mohammad Ali...ha!ha!

Apple strudels before these babies goes into the oven...

Yummylicious apple strudels....delicious!!!

Marble Cake

My other half was complaining that I don't make enough cakes for him to accompany his tea time with.  Therefore, I decided to try and bake another marble cake. This time around, I tried to drop a few spoonfuls of batter mixed with cocoa powder in a circle in the middle of the cake and just went round and round with a knife.  Here's the effect of it... Did not expect any visitors but ta-daa....my other half's buddies came for a visit.  Thank goodness I made this cake....ha!ha!

Donuts, Donuts, Donuts

It has been awhile since I last posted....
Been so busy....work, school, etc...
A little catch-up...
Over the last few weeks, we made donuts...yup, donuts in school. This was the very first time that I used "pork fat" for the donuts. You heard it right...its fat from the little piggy (some calls it lard).  It does smell a little but boy oh boy was it fantastically nice after its done-do....We made jelly donuts, ring donuts, long johns, etc.  Here's some photos which I took at school.

Assorted Donuts Ready To Be Brought Home

Assorted Donuts

Assorted Donuts

Plaits Became Wreaths....

I know, I know...its Halloween but since we do not celebrate it in our family, we still went for a family outing. I was surprised to see brochures, leaflets and other promo about Christmas. Yup, you heard it right...its about Christmas. That got me thinking...bread wreaths on dining table for Christmas Eve dinner. It was a nice decor and a yummy bread for my family, relatives and friends last Christmas.

So..I decided to make some today. Got to get the plaits right to make the wreaths stand out during Christmas, you know? :) Well, after I plaited it like I would do for my Princess, I just pinched the ends and it becomes a wreath. My other half had other ideas though....gloss it with jam and sprinkle A1 sugar after baking it. So...here's the outcome of our breadmaking...

Danish Pastry

Our lecturer was so good to us...brought half a dozen of these babies home after making it in school and boy oh boy...it was finished within an hour. My other half said that its from Denmark but after doing my research, I discovered that it is originated from Vienna. But I am sure, others will have other versions too.

Danish pastry is another variation of Puff Pastry. I found out that the most important thing is to keep the dough cold. We made pinwheels, envelopes, pockets and bear claws.

 Envelope 

Pinwheel

 

Pocket

 

Bear Claw

Assorted Danish Pastries

Quiche - Bacon & Mushroom Quiche

Quiche is an oven-baked product. We have to blind bake the shell first and then add in the custard and other ingredients and bake it again the second time. This is an open pie and the only covering is the set custard.  For our pastry class this time, we made bacon and mushroom quiche.  Do you know that quiche is not French either. It originated from Germany. We use the short-crust pastry for the shell. Some people who does not have time can actually buy the short-crust pastry from the supermarket. If you want to keep these quiches in the freezer, just take it out 5 mins before the ending time of the baking, allow it to cool and then freeze it accordingly. Here's a photo of the bacon & mushroom quiches that we made in school.

Puff Pastry... Apple and Blueberry Strudel

Puff pastry and croissants... both uses the "laminated dough" technique. However, it is NOT the same. Croissant uses yeast, therefore, it need to be proofed. But...the amount of fats that being used in these two...really have to think twice before I bite into one of these babies again...ha!ha!

Had another wonderful time at my pastry class. We made puff pastry and this is where silly me found out that puff pastry and croissants are NOT the same. My lecturer even cut off one side of the dough on each turn to show us the lamination of it. Here's some photos.

This is how it looks like after we did our 1st turn.

This is how it looks like after we did our 2nd turn.

This is how it looks like after we did our 3rd turn.

This is how it looks like after we complete all four turns.
We use the dough after this turn to make our strudels.

Here's a photo of the apple and blueberry strudel which my lecturer did. It was delicious. Our puff pastry is in the freezer waiting for us to come in and continue next week.

Apple and Blueberry Strudel

Croissants....is it French?

Had a wonderful day in my yeast products class the other day. I also learn that croissants are NOT from France. According to my lecturer, croissants are from Budapest, Hungary. Google it and I am sure there will be stories about it. However, there's several versions to this story though....ha!ha! So, I am all confused once again...

Croissants are not that easy to bake though. I found out that there are several problems when making croissants. We had croissants that did not puff up fully when baking. I found out that the possible causes are "under proofed", "lack of humidity" or "oven too cold" from the internet. My lecturer also commented that it might be due to "lack of yeast" or "to much pressure when we roll the dough out between turns". Here's some photos - before we baked them and after we baked them...

Croissants before we sent them into the oven to be baked.

Hot, Hot, Croissants!!!

Finger Rolls, Plaits and Scrolls ......Sweet Bread

I had a wonderful time in my bread making class today. We made 3 kinds of sweet breads - finger rolls, plaits and scrolls. Its really yum!!! We made our sweet dough and from there, we came out with Finger Rolls, Plaits and Scrolls. We used bread improver to speed up our bread production and its commonly use in commercial breads.  The basic sweet dough ingredients are bakers flour, yeast, salt, sugar, bread improver, butter, milk powder, egg and water.

Plaits without Toppings

Plaits with Almonds Topping

 

Finger Rolls with Coconut Topping

 Scrolls with Sultanas, Raisins, Cinnamon Sugar and Apples.