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!