aromatic earl grey madeleine

I have fallen in love deeply with Madeleine and also French baking recently.  Apart from the previous Madeleine I made, I found a few other recipes on different flavours Madeleine and I'm going to make Earl Grey flavour Madeleine today.  I found this recipe from Eugenie's Kitchen Blog and I really like her method of making these Madeleine.  Feel free to browse through her blog.

donuts delights

I really do not have any confident in making donuts after a horrible failure long time ago.  I admit that I was still quite timid and fear failure repeats itself again, hence, I bought a packet of premix from supermarket and made them.  Dusted with icing sugar, its a great afternoon snack with a cup of hot green tea.  

pretty madeleine

I always have a missed conception about these beautiful Madeleine and have never ever wanted to make these little one until I suddenly saw the Madeleine Pan from Daiso and I decided to challenge myself in making some of those.

I got my recipe from Joy of Baking and went straight off to get all my ingredients.  So, here we go...

ingredients

- 113g of unsalted butter

- 1 cup of all-purpose flour

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/8 teaspoon salt

- 3 large eggs, room temperature

- 2/3 cup granulated white sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

method

- melt the butter and allow it to cool.

- prepare the madeleine cake tin by greasing it with butter and dust with some flour.

- sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

- in a bowl, beat egg, sugar until volume double and forms a thick ribbon when the whisk is lifted up.

- add in vanilla essence and beat to combine.

- sift in small amount of flour into the egg mixture and fold till well combine.

- sift in the the rest of the flour and make sure not to over-fold the batter.

- whisk a small amount of the batter into the cooled melted butter to lighten it.

- pour in the rest of the cooled melted butter and fold in well.

- dropped spoonful of the batter on madeleine mould.

- baked in pre-heated 190 degree celcius oven for 11-13 minutes.

- remove from oven, and remove the madeleine from the mould and let it cool at cooling rack.

- best eaten on the same day with nice cup of coffee. enjoy...~~

not so adventurous apple pie

I always wanted to make a pie and especially after watching the movie "Waitress", I really hope I can make such delicious pies like what the lead actress made in the show...  But... well, I'm not that adventurous.  I decided to start simple and easy and instead of making my own pie skin, I used frozen short crust pastry found in super market.

I found the apple filling recipes online over at here at taste.com.au, then I realised that I don't have lemon juice at home, hence I omitted it.  I strongly recommend you all to add the lemon juice as it help to lessen the sweetness from the apples and sugar and give the filling a tangy taste.

I don't have much recipe to show here, just cut 2 sheets of short crust pastry to the pan size you are using, one as the base and another one for the top.  You may use the remaining pastry to do some decoration on the pie like what you see here, sis actually made a cross.  Slit the top of the pie so that to allow the steam to escape from the apple fillings while cooking in the oven.  And oh, before you put into the oven, please brush it with some egg wash from 1 beaten egg.

Enjoy...     

attempting baked japanese cheese cake

I have never tried making bake cheese cake before and I happened to got this recipe from a cookery book which sat at my bookshelf for years and when today I suddenly open this book, I decided to challenge myself to make this.

ingredients

- 80g cream cheese

- 60mls fresh milk

- 2 eggs separated

- 80g castor sugar (original recipe called for 90g but it turn out a bit sweet)

- 3 tablespoons plain flour

- 1 & 1/2 tablespoons cornflour

- 1/3 teaspoon cream of tartar

method

- preheat oven to 180 degree celcius.

- sift flour and cornflour together.

- cook milk and cream cheese over low heat till cream cheese melts. set aside.

- beat egg yolks and half of sugar till creamy. fold in cheese mixture and fold in flour and corn flour.

- beat egg white till soft peak, sift in cream of tartar and sugar in 2 separate time while beating.

- beat until stiff peak form. fold in egg whites into batter in serveral times and mix well.

- line cake tin with baking sheet, pour in batter.

-pour water on baking tray until half full.

- place cake tin in tray.

- bake in oven for 20 minutes.

- reduced to 150 degree celcius and bake for another 15 minutes.

- let it stand for 10 minutes before taking out from oven.

- enjoy with a cup of nice hot green tea.~~

baking an apple cake

beautiful, yummy and moist apple cake

cooking the apples with cinnamon, raisin and butter, simple smell so nice

creaming in process

It has been quite a while since I last bake due to the busy work schedule.  I decided to follow a recipe from a book "Fruity Cakes" by Alex Goh and make this yummy Apple Cake.

In the recipe itself, it was made into cupcakes, but you can use loaf tin too.  So with the batter I had, its more than enough to fill up one loaf tin and 1 small round tin which I bought from Daiso.

ingredients

- 300g apples, peeled and diced (E)

- 100g raisins (E)

- 30g raisins (E)

- 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (E)
- 250g unsalted butter (A)

- 220g sugar (A)
- 3 eggs (B)

- 100mls milk (C)

- 300g plain flour (D)

- 1 tablespoon baking soda (D)
- sliced apples (F)

method
- place all (E) in a pot cook until the apples becomes tender. set aside to cool

- cream (A) until light and fluffy, add in (B) one at a time while beating and beat until smooth

- add (C) and (D) gradually and alternatively.  mix well and add in (E) and mix until well incorporated

- pour in greased cake tin and decorate the top with (F)

- bake in 175 degree celsius pre-heated oven and bake for 40-50mins

- cool completely and serve. enjoy ~~

japanese chicken bites

Chicken Bites with Japanese flavoured sauce was what I made for that night dinner.  I shall not say it's a success as my initial intention was to make chicken balls than what it turn out to be Chicken Bites as what sis said.  Though she likes it, I did shared my failure thoughts with my best friend - Meow whom is someone who went through a series of cooking lessons during a school days.  

I was told by Meow that in order to prevent the texture to be too sticky which caused me unable to form them into uniform ball size pieces is to add in some vegetables, be it frozen peas or just diced onions.  Well, I learned from my mistake but at least I created a sauce that causes sis to go gaga over it...

ingredients

(chicken bites)

- 200g minced chicken

- 1 egg white

- 2 tablespoons corn flour

- salt & pepper for taste

(please do add in vegetables like onions or frozen peas to make the texture less sticky)

(sauce)

- 2 tablespoons soy sauce

- 2 tablespoons mirin

- 1 teaspoon sake

method

- mix all the ingredients for the chicken bites and pan fried it till golden brown

- pour in the sauce mixture and reduce it till the sauce is thick

- serve hot with rice... enjoy~~~

traditional chinese pancake on busy weeks

thickly spreaded pancake

Its has been a busy week trying to rush for deadlines and making sure all things are in proper at work.  Being a super workaholic at times, I find myself falling sick twice within 3 weeks.  Fever, throwing out and cold shivering, I think its a way that my body is telling me to slow down my pace. 

Anyway, I made Traditional Chinese Pancakes on last Sunday with sis and it's only until now that I realized I forgot to post it up.  Bad me, bad me... Anyway, this Traditional Chinese Pancake is a very well-known Singapore snacks which we usually called it as (Bee Chian Kueh) and the usual filling is crushed peanuts and sometime shredded coconut.  But sis love to eat it with red bean paste, I got the recipe from a Happy Call Pan Fans Group on Facebook and decided to give it a try.
So there we go.... Red Bean Paste Bee Chian Kueh. 

ingredients

- 150g plain flour

- 1 egg

- 30g sugar

- 185mls water

- 1/2 teaspoon yeast

- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- some red bean paste (depends on what you like for the fillings)

method

- mix everything except for the red bean paste into a bowl

- mix well and cover the bowl and leave it for 45 - 60 minutes

- make sure the batter bubble-ed up, otherwise leave it a bit more longer

- pour the batter onto Happy Call Pan

- cook on low heat for about 6-8 minutes

- remember to move the pan to the left than right then left for even coloring of the pancake

- don't have to flip the pan

- remove from pan and cool

- spread the red bean paste or crushed peanut or anything you like~~

crazy over muah chee

soft, hot & chewy muah chee topped with aromatic crushed peanut

This local snack that makes my sis go crazy about is called - Muah Chee.  You can find this easily at local snack shops or night market where you can see the lady snipping some white sticky dough in a pan of crushed peanuts.  My sis always could not get enough of it, so today we decided to make this together at home and you should see how we enjoyed one big plate of the hot Muah Chee together with our family.

I got the recipe from Ellena at her blog Cuisine Paradise.  Over at her blog, she has a step by step photo guide to follow.  We used Happy Call Pan to make it, but in Ellena's blog, she also have links to the recipe for those who do not have Happy Call Pan.

ingredients

- 1 cup glutinous rice flour

- 1/2 teaspoon sugar

- 3/4 cup to 1 cup of water

- 4 shallot, thinly sliced

- 2 tablespoons of oil

- 2 cups of crushed peanuts (I used ready made crushed peanut with sugar)

method

- saute shallots and oil on HCP over low heat until golden brown, remove the shallot and leave the oil in the pan

- mix glutinous rice flour with sugar

- slowly add in water and mix with whisk until smooth, I used about 3/4 cup of water

- pour the mixture into the pan and stir it with a wooden spoon

- continue to toss the dough at low heat and cook until the surface of the dough become transparent.

- coat the bowl you intend to place the dough with some oil

- remove the dough from the pan and place it into the oil-ed bowl

- in another bowl, pour in the ready made crushed peanut

- use a scissor and cut the desired amount of dough into the crushed peanut 

-snip the dough as you coat it with the peanut and serve it while hot.  Enjoy~~

aromatic banana cake

banana cake in the process of cooling down

freshly out from the oven

The bunch of banana placed on the dining table gave me an idea on making Banana Cake for my family.  This is not the first time I'm making Banana Cake, however, this time round I tried to use this recipe from Wen's Delight.  I did a little bit, just tiny bit of modification to the recipe but it still turns out alright.  Here you go..:

ingredients

- 200g of ripe bananas, cut into small pieces

- 130g of brown sugar (you may use granulated white sugar)

- 3 medium sized eggs

- 150g of plain flour

- 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

- 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

- 100g of vegetable oil (in Wen's recipe, she stated any oil except olive oil)

- 1/8 teaspoon of banana essence (optional)

method

- grease baking with butter, you may use 8" round cake tin, I used loaf tin

- pre-heat oven to 160 degree Celsius

- sieve plain flour, baking powder and baking soda and leave a side

- whisk sugar and banana

- add in eggs, one at a time and whisk till smooth,

- whisk the mixture until stiff or ribbon state

- fold in the flour and mix well

- add in the oil and mix until batter is shiny and smooth

- add in banana essence and mix well

- pour the mixture into cake tin

- bake it for 40 - 45 minutes

- insert a toothpick into the centre of the cake, if it comes out clean, the cake is done

- remove cake from cake tin, cool completely before cutting it. enjoy~~

street galore : hoddeok - korean sweet pancake

just out from the frying pan

sweet yummy cinnamon and sugar filling

Hoddeok 호떡 (Korean Sweet Pancake) is a very popular street vendor food in Seoul, Korea.  Sis who just came back from her holiday in Korea was craving for it and after seeing that Maangchi also made this on her Youtube video, I am eager to try my hand on it.

The last time I handle yeast was when I was still in my secondary school.  All I can remember is how I need to spent time for the yeast to rise and beat off the air, everything in my memory about yeast was troublesome.  The way Maangchi handed the yeast seems quite simple, so after many years later, I decided to abandon my laziness thought and just do it.

ingredients (make 8)

for the dough

- 1 cup of lukewarm water

- 2 teaspoon or 1 packet of dry yeast

- 2 tablespoons of sugar

- 2 pinches of salt

- 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

- 2 cups of plain flour

for the fillings

- 1/4 cup of brown sugar

- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder

method

- in a big bowl add in lukewarm water, dry yeast, sugar, salt and oil and mix well

- add in plain flour and mix well into a sticky dough

- cover the bowl with a cover or cloth and leave it for an hour

- after an hour, mix the expanded dough and beat off the carbon dioxide out of the dough

- leave it for another 10 minute

- make the filling by mixing the brown sugar and cinnamon and leave a side

- on table top, dust some flour, place dough on it and knead lightly till smooth

- divide dough into 8 equal size dough

- flatten the dough, place filling in the centre and warp up

- heat the frying pan, place one filled dough on the frying pan with the wrapping side facing down

- after 30 seconds, flip the dough over and flatten it with spatula

- pan-fried till both side of pancake are golden brown

- eat it hot.  Enjoy~~

my fave - molten lava cake

serving you - molten lava cake

while waiting in their own containers

I have been feeling unwell since yesterday, it does not seems to get any better, so I went to see a doctor for some medication so that the uneasiness can go away.  Though being sick, I thought of making some nice little dessert to cheer my family up especially for my little nephew and niece.  I decided to make my favourite, Molten Lava Cake.

A.H. shared this recipe with me via Pinterest and she herself has made it for her family before.  She told me that it is actually very easy to make, so today, with my courage and the time I have resting at home, I'm going for it!

ingredients (makes 8 cakes)

- 4 ounces of Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate baking Chocolate Bar

- 2/3 cup (~150g) of butter

- 4 eggs

- 2/3 cup (~130g) of granulated sugar

- 1/2 cup of plain flour

methods

- greased 8 aluminium cup with butter

- melt butter and chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water, stir till smooth and leave aside to cool for at least 15 minutes

- beat sugar and eggs till thick and pale

- fold in flour

- then add in chocolate mixture while beating

- equally distribute the batter into the aluminium cups and chill

- when ready to serve, bake in 200 degree Celsius pre-heated oven till the top is set about 14-15minutes

- cool for about 5 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate

- best serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Yum!

rollin' good time: tamagoyaki

tamagoyaki

Today, I'm trying my hand on making Japanese Egg Roll - Tamagoyaki.  In Japan, there is sweet egg roll and salty one and personally, I can't get used to eating the sweet egg roll, therefore, I'm making the savory egg roll - Rosa's style.

In Japan, there are a special pan used for making Tamagoyaki.  You may use a normal frying pan, for me, I bought my Tamagoyaki pan at Daiso for only $2.  It's kinda small compared to the normal one, but still it do make the effect.  You may take a look here on how the professional in Japan make Tamagoyaki

ingredient (serve 1-2)

- 2 eggs

- 1/2 teaspoon KNORR Hao Chi (All in one seasoning)

method

- mix all the ingredients together

- heat up frying pan and grease lightly with oil

- pour a little bit of the egg mixture, enough to coat the pan

- let it cook for a while, then start to roll with a spatula or chopstick front ward

- once you reached the end, pull the egg to the another end of the pan nearer to you

- grease the pan again

- repeat the procedure until all the egg mixture is used up

- place the egg roll on a chopping board and slice into bite pieces.

It might be a bit difficult to roll up the egg, it really takes a lot of practice to master it.  I'm still working hard on it too.

refreshing citron tea on hot sunday evening

glass of cooling yuzu soda on a hot sunday

sis bought this box of yuzu tea from seoul

I have fallen so in love with Yuzu recently and also tried Yuzu Soda in restaurant recently.  On this hot Sunday evening, I decided to make this refreshing beverage to cool myself with the Korean Citron Tea  which come in individual packed form that was specially bought by sis from her holiday trip to Seoul, Korea.  If you can't find this, you can buy a big bottle of Honey Citron Tea from supermarket which cost less than $10 a bottle.

ingredients

- 1 can of club soda water, chilled

- 1 packet of korean citron tea

method

- pour the korean citron tea into a glass

- pour in chilled soda water

- stir slightly and enjoy your drink.

my first korean dish : chamchijeon (tuna pancakes)

hot chamchijeon goes well with plain rice

This is my very first attempt in making Korean Cuisine.  I learn about this dish from Maangchi on Youtube.  She cook a lot of Korean dishes and they way she cook it is like so simple and makes me want to try making it.  

Again, I'm using Happycall Pan in making this.  My first batch of pancakes were a bit scattered as I flipped the whole pan and making all the half cooked batter clumped together.  Hence as I tried to salvage them, most of it scatter as it cook.  So, if you are using Happycall to make this dish too, I suggest that you don't flip the Happycall Pan, but use a wooden spatula to flip the pancake one by one.

ingredients

- 1 can of tuna, drained

- 1/2 onion, chopped

- 1 egg

- 1 teaspoon of salt

- dash of pepper

- 1 teaspoon of sesame oil

- 1 tablespoon of flour

method

- mix all the ingredients together

- heat oil in happycall pan

- scoop a small spoonful of batter into the pan 

- let it cook for about 2-3 minutes

- flip the pancake with wooden spatula

- cook for another 2 minutes or until both sides are golden brown

- serve hot and enjoy. :)

happy pancaking

pancake & scramble egg

I have always wanted to make fluffy pancakes and for the past few experiences I had with pancakes, they all turned out thin and not as brown as what I had made today.  Since then, I had been trying and looking through different recipes from Youtube and finally I came out with my own modified Rosa's pancake and it just feel so great to see my little nephew enjoying every bite of it.

For this pancake, I used Happy Call pan which sis bought for mom as Mother's Day gift and we are so thrilled about it and had been trying to figure out how to use it to create more nice cuisine.  Anyway, if you do not have Happy Call, just use a normal non stick frying pan will do.

ingredients (makes 4 pancakes)

- 100g plain flour

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- pinch of salt

- 1 egg

- 100mls milk

-  1 tablespoon of honey

- melted butter

method

- whisk egg and milk

- add honey and mix well

- sift in plain flour, baking powder and salt and 'cupped' it till smooth, do not over mix it

- place in fridge for 30 minutes

- heat up happy call pan or frying pan

- lightly brush with a bit of melted butter on frying pan or for happy call, 2 sides of the pan

- pour in a scoop of batter and wait for about 3 minutes, when you see bubble.

- close the happy call and flipped to another side and cook for another 3 minutes.

- flip happycall over and open the lid, serve pancake.

tangy sweetness: rosa's apple crumble

the crumble

slices of caramelized apples with the crumble topping 

Simply homemade treats for my family.  It's my first attempt trying to make something with apples.  Not that I don't eat apples, but its quite difficult to handle it when cooking.  Just when I was trying to core these apples for my dessert, I accidentally cut my finger.  But I'm glad that I made this first attempt and realised that it's not so bad to deal with apples when cooking, just need to be more careful when cutting it.

Anyway, there is quite a few recipe on Apple Crumble and I learn this from twish1999 and I topped with my left over cornflakes (yes, I'm still trying to use up my cornflakes).  It turns out so delicious and all I need is just a scoop of vanilla ice-cream to go with it.

ingredients

for the crumble

- 1 cup of plain flour

- 50g melted butter

- 1/2 cup of brown sugar

- some cornflakes

for the apple mix

- 4 green apples

- 1/4 cup of brown sugar

- cinnamon powder

method

- for the crumble, just mix everything together and leave aside

- peel the green apples, core it and slice it thinly and place it on baking dish

- spread 1/4 cup of brown sugar

- dash cinnamon powder depends on your liking.

- spread the crumble on the apple mix

- bake in 180 degree celcius pre-heated oven for 30 minutes

- serve hot with vanilla ice cream~~

tuna croquette | rosa's way

golden tuna croquette

I get to learn about this recipe from Ochikeron but I did some modification, mainly trying to make use of the tuna I have for sometime and the left over corn flakes.

ingredients

- 6 eggs

- 800g potatoes

- 300g tuna in oil 

- 200g onion

- plain flour

- cornflakes

- salt & pepper

method

- peel potatoes and cut into chunks and boil till soft, drain water and leave it aside.

- boil 4 eggs

- remove shell of hard boiled eggs, take out the egg yolk and add it in the potatoes.

- minced the egg white and leave a side

- mash the potato and the egg yolk

- minced the onion.

-saute onion a while, not too long as so it remain crunchy

- drain out the oil from tuna, mashed it slightly with fork

-add tuna, onion, minced egg white into potato and mix it well, add salt and pepper for taste

-shape the potato into bite-sized balls

- coat with flour

- coat in egg mixture (2 beaten eggs)

- coat in crushed corn flakes

- place in fridge for at least 30 mins

- deep fry the patty and enjoy~~