Homemade Char Siew Bao (叉烧包)

The past few days were really warm and sunny days perfect for making breads and buns. It is really rare to see such nice summer weather in Belgium, most of the time we are faced with an unpredictable, rainy and windy weather year in year out. Then all of a sudden, the weather god up there seemed to have heard all our pleas and took pity on us and decided to bestow us a few good days of sun. Only 3 or 4 good days, while stocks last. :)

Anyway, I decided to steam some char siew bao (or char siu pau) using the leftover home-made char siew which I kept in the freezer 2 weeks ago. This time round, I decided to divert from my basic bao recipe and use another recipe for the bao dough. 

As I look back at last year's pictures of my humongous steamed meat buns, I realised I have not improved much in my pleating. Yes, this time I managed to close the top for most of my char siew baos, but still they looked pretty ugly. 


Ugly but delicious. My hubby said they tasted almost the same as those served in the chinese dim sum restaurant in Antwerp Chinatown. He is my biggest supporter, and he alone gobbled up 10 out of 18 char siew baos for dinner. I ate only 5 and my stomach was already bursting at the seams, and I couldn't sleep that night because it was too hot and my stomach was too full. :-)


Here is the recipe, adapted from Yochana's blog. Makes about 17 to 18 char siew baos.

Ingredients (Fillings)
250g char siew, chopped
1 onion or 2 shallots, chopped
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
150ml water + 1.5 tbsp corn starch
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp castor sugar
1-2 tbsp oil for frying 

Method (Fillings)
1. Heat up a wok and add in 1-2 tbsp oil for frying. Add in chopped onion or shallots, followed by  chopped  char siew, oyster sauce, light soya sauce and sesame oil. Season with salt and sugar.

2. Fry for 1-2 min, then add in the cornstarch solution and continue to stir until it thickens. Remove from heat and set the char siew aside to be cooled.

Ingredients (Bao Dough)
300g bao flour *
60g castor sugar
2 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp double action baking powder
35g corn oil *
120ml water

* Original recipe used hong kong flour and shortening. 

Method (Bao Dough)
1. Sieve the bao flour and double-action baking powder together. 

2. Add the flour, baking powder, sugar, yeast and oil into the mixing bowl of the bread machine, and start the dough-kneading function. After a few seconds, add in water and let the bread machine knead for about 10-15 min. If you do not have a bread machine, you can knead with a cake mixer with a dough hook or even with your own hands until a non-sticky dough is formed, about 15 min.

3. Remove dough from bread machine or cake mixer and let it proof for 30 minutes in a big bowl covered with clingwrap or kitchen towel. You do not have to wait till the dough is doubled in size, 30 min will do.

4. Weigh and divide the dough into pieces of 30 grams each. This will yield 17 to 18 pieces. Sprinkle some flour onto the table top and rolling pin and roll out each dough into a small circle. The corners of the circle should be thinner than the centre.

5. Scoop about 1 small spoonful of char siew fillings into the dough, pleat it and seal it tightly. Prepare 18 square pieces of greaseproof/baking paper. Place each char siew bao onto each piece of greaseproof paper and leave it to proof for another 30 min. 

6. In the meantime, prepare a bamboo or aluminium stacked steamer over high heat.

7. Once the baos have finished proofing, steam them over high heat for 10 min.

Note : 
- If you use vegetable oil instead of shortening like what I did, the skin of your baos will turn out to be a bit yellow instead of white, but the quality and taste remains the same. 
- If you do not have bao flour, hong kong flour or any low gluten flour, you may use plain flour which is not really recommended as it has higher gluten level, and hence will not yield the best results.


This post has been submitted to YeastSpotting.

Rotiboy Bun (Mexican Coffee Bun)

Here are some pictures of the Rotiboy Buns (otherwise known as Mexican Coffee Buns) which I made earlier this week. Will post more pictures and the bun recipe which I have no idea where I have misplaced...


These buns were very famous in Singapore and Malaysia a few years back. In fact, at one point in time, many bakeries in Singapore were producing Rotiboy buns and nothing else and they were selling like hot cakes. But that was a passing fad just like the taiwanese bubble tea and the MacDonalds Hello Kitty craze. Nowadays, you will probably find only 1 or 2 bakeries selling Rotiboy Coffee Buns in Singapore, one of which still exists in IMM Jurong East.

For the bun dough, pls refer to my sweet bread dough recipe. Note that you need to prepare the dough starter at least 12 hours in advance. I kneaded the dough using the dough cycle of my bread machine (2 dough cycles of 20 min each hence a total of 40 min), then proofed it for 1 hour and then divided the dough into 50 grams each (which would yield 18-20 buns) and then covered the buns and let them rest and proof for another 10 min before piping the coffee topping.

Here is the recipe for the coffee topping :

Coffee Topping (makes 18-20 buns)
125g butter
125g icing sugar
2 eggs
240g plain flour
1 tbsp instant coffee powder + 1 tbsp water
1 tbsp Amaretto or other coffee liquer

Method
1. Cream butter and icing sugar till smooth, using a cake mixer. 

2. Add in eggs, and mix well.

3. Then add in flour, instant coffee, and amaretto and mix until well-combined. 

4. Put the coffee topping into a piping bag and pipe a spiral pattern on each bun. I cut open one corner of a ziploc bag and used that as a piping bag, which I attached to a decorating tip, Wilton round tip number 10.(The picture above is not really a good example as there was too little coffee topping. I only piped 6 rings and still had some coffee topping left. On hindsight, I think the coffee topping should cover 3/4 of the top of the bun, about 8 rings for each bun, if you are using a Wilton decorating tip like mine.)

5. Proof for another 20-30 min. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius.

6. After proofing, bake the coffee buns in the oven for 12-15 min.

Note : I prefer a stronger coffee flavour hence the next time I would probably add 2 tbsp instant coffee powder instead of 1 tbsp and perhaps also an additional pinch of cinnamon powder. 

I made a total of 18 buns which I placed 12 onto a big tray (a bit squeezy) and another 6 onto another smaller tray. I thought of giving away some to a chinese friend who lives nearby but in the end there were just not enough to go around. In fact, I gobbled 4 buns at one go when they came piping hot out of the oven. My little son also ate 4 buns (he ate them at 5 pm and was too full to have anything else for dinner) and my hubby another 2 and my FIL had 4. So only 4 buns were left for the next morning for breakfast. :)

This post has been submitted to YeastSpotting.

Pictures of A Humble Belgian Dessert Called Rice Tart

I have always wanted to post more pictures of my most famous belgian rice tart recipe (I am quite proud to be able to make quite an authentic version), but somehow I have never had the chance to snap a picture bcos the tart was always finished before I could grab my camera. 

I made it again on Wednesday and had the chance to snap a few fotos of the baking process. Alas, it was brewing a thunderstorm outside and the fotos were not well-lit. Nevertheless, here are some pictures which will hopefully guide you in making your very first belgian rice tart, if you have neither tasted one nor made one before.

I asked my hubby how it tasted and he replied nonchalantly: " You have made this so many times already..."

Surely, I deserve some praises if it tastes good even though it is something you have eaten many times already?

Forgot to take a picture of the cross-section of the tart when it was sliced into pieces, you would have to click here for the picture and the recipe itself. :)

Steamed Sweet Potato Rice with Apples and Chicken (地瓜炊饭)

I happened to see this sweet potato rice recipe from Violet Fenying's facebook page and immediately bookmarked it for trying cos I love sweet potatoes and I have been looking for a recipe similar to my pumpkin rice or cabbage rice, but involving sweet potatoes. Finally I found this dish and it didn't disappoint me in terms of taste!

Here is my adapted recipe (for 1 adult and 1 child)

Ingredients
2 tbsp butter
1 small sweet potato (skin removed and cut into 1 cm rings)
1 shallot or small onion, chopped finely
3 deboned chicken drumsticks (with skin, washed, drained and chopped into small pieces)
1/2 a red apple (peeled, cored, and chopped into pieces)
1 cup thai rice (rinsed and drained of water), about 100g
1.25 1 cup water
1/4 tsp salt

Method
1. Remove the skin of the sweet potato, and cut into rings 1 cm apart. For the bigger rings in the middle, cut each piece further into 2 or 4 pieces. Similarly for the apple, remove the skin and seed and set aside 1/2 an apple. Cut 1/2 the apple into 5 thin slices and for each slice, further cut into 2 pieces.

2. Heat up a wok at medium-high heat. Add 2 tbsp butter followed by chopped onion, chicken, sweet potato and apple. Stir-fry everything together until the chicken pieces are browned on the outside.

3. Add in the rice, and mix evenly for a while. Add salt to taste. (I would consider adding another 0.5 to 1 tbsp light soya sauce).

4. Finally transfer everything into a rice-cooker. Add sufficient water to cover the rice mixture. Press the COOK button and wait for the rice to be cooked. When the rice is cooked, open the rice-cooker, stir the rice a little and keep the rice inside the rice-cooker (using the KEEP WARM function) for another 10 min. Serve while hot. 

Verdict : I find my rice a bit wet when I added slightly more than 1.25 cups cup of water. So next time I would have to reduce the water slightly so that the rice is not that wet. Tastewise, it is very delicious especially with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes and apples. It tasted just like home-cooked comfort food. 

I didn't manage to take a good foto today as I was famished and this rice dish was only ready at 1.30pm, way beyond my normal lunch time. So I quickly snapped a foto under non-optimal light conditions in the kitchen (it has been raining for the past 1 week and the sun has gone into hiding again), and I gobbled up everything within 5 minutes. But trust me, this is a very delicious and wholesome dish, which I am gonna cook again tomorrow for my 3 year old boy. I am sure he will love it!

Notes on 20 July 2012 : I made this dish again today and instead of 1.25 cup of water, I used 1 and 1/8th cup of water and the rice is still a little wet, like risotto. I believe that has got to do with the sweet potato and apple which release quite a fair bit of moisture into the rice. I would advise to use roughly 1 cup of water to 1 cup of rice if you like your rice to be not so mushy. But if you are cooking this for children, 1.125 cup of water to 1 cup of rice is fine as the rice texture then becomes very soft. This dish is also suitable as a porridge for babies, just increase the amount of water accordingly for making porridge, and omit the salt and light soya sauce as baby meals are not supposed to be seasoned.

Lucky Dog Beer - Belgian dogs really have a good life!

To be honest, this is very old news, something that I read in the local newspapers Gazette Van Antwerpen more than a month ago, on 6th June 2012, to be exact. But I thought it would be interesting for dog-lovers to know that there is such a thing as dog beer for your canine friends. 

Now, I will try to translate this article as accurately as possible, pardon me if you see any nengels (dutch english) as I am not a dutch-speaking native and it is also not easily to translate certain Dutch expressions into English. Even Google translation doesn't do a good job. :)

Ben Verbeeck from Brasschaat has launched a beer for dogs in the market. The beer contains no alcohol but it looks very much like beer from the malt and foam.

It is a very first for our country. For Ben Verbeeck, who has already been active in the real estate world for 20 years, this was a change. When I was in Netherlands walking with my 2 dogs along the beach, I was thirsty and so I went to sit at a cafe to drink a cold pint of beer. There I saw the cafe boss pouring a beer for his dogs. The man who sold it has never really done much effort to promote it. But he could do much selling. It was indeed very successful with the dogs. I decided to take over the dog beer. I have given it another name and completely re-styled it, said Ben who launched the dog beer in the market.

Lucky Dog Beer is made by the Lucky Animal Factory and is sold in bottles. You open the bottle and you shake it well while holding your thumb on the opening. Then the extract will come to the top. Lucky Dog contains vitamin B, mineral oils, chicken and beef, explained Ben Verbeeck.

Every time the dog does something positive, he deserves a drink. Dogs are by the way part of the family, so let them also share in the pleasures of life. It must be motivating, it is pure indulgence, the slogan is "Share the Moment". The drink contains of course no alcohol, said Ben who produces his product in Meer, near the Dutch border.

Guō Tiē (锅贴) Jiān Jiǎo (煎饺) or Pot Sticker ?

I was ransacking my fridge yesterday and came across this packet of "Happy Belly" frozen gyoza skins (made in Singapore!) bought sometime ago from Antwerp Chinatown, which I had conveniently forgotten and chucked in a lonely corner in the freezer. 

I thought, hmmn, His Majesty (my 3 year old son) is in childcare today and Her Majesty (my 5 month old daughter) is snoring away in her baby cot, now is the best time to make some 锅贴 (guōtiē) or 煎饺 (jiānjiǎo) or pot stickers or gyoza, whatever you call it. So what am I waiting for? 

I quickly jotted down the ingredients I need, checked out a few youtube videos on how to pleat or crimp the dumpling skin, washed my hands clean, put on my apron and started flouring my hands. From start to finish, it took me 60 min to finish the dumplings (2 min per dumpling!). After crimping and wrapping up 30 pot-stickers at one go, I can proudly declare myself a graduate of the pot sticker academy! Practice makes perfect, it's not that difficult after all, provided you use ready-made dumpling wrappers, hehe :)

Ingredients for Dumpling Fillings
300g minced pork
100g minced prawn
100g spring onions or chinese chives, finely chopped
1 tsp salt 
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp chinese rice wine or sherry
1/2 tbsp light soya sauce

Method
For how to pleat or crimp the dumpling skins, you can either refer to wendy's blog or this youtube video. 

For the dumpling skins, I used store-bought frozen gyoza wrappers which were taken out of the freezer a day in advance, and left to thaw in the fridge overnight.

Make sure your hands and work surface of the table are floured and prepare a small bowl of water for wetting and sealing the dumpling skins.

I used a metal teaspoon to scoop out 1 teaspoonful of pork/prawn fillings each time, and the total amount of fillings were just right for wrapping all 30 dumplings. Try not to be too greedy and scoop in too much fillings, otherwise you will have a big problem closing the dumpling wrapper each time. 

These dumplings are meant to be fried in the pan, that's why they are known as Guō Tiē (锅贴) Jiān Jiǎo (煎饺) or Pot Sticker. All of them meant the same thing. For cooking these pan-fried dumplings, heat up a non-stick wok or frying pan at medium heat, add about 2 tbsp cooking oil. Pan-fry the dumplings (with the flat surface facing down, and the crimped surface facing up) for about 2 to 3 minutes until the flat surface becomes crisp and slightly browned. You do not have to turn the dumplings over, continue to let the flat surface face down. Then add 1/2 cup of water, cover with a lid and let the dumplings continue to cook at medium heat until the water dries up. Check every now and then to see if the water has dried up, and if the dumplings are nicely browned. If not, continue to let the dumplings bask in the remaining oil until they are crisp and nicely browned.

For the sauces, I prepared 3 simple dipping sauces 
1) chinese black vinegar with julienned ginger
2) light soya sauce with julienned ginger
3) homemade chilli paste (1 big red chilli, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp sesame oil and 1 tbsp light soya sauce - blend in food processor until it becomes chilli paste)

My hubby said they were very lekker and I think so too! 

Cashew Nut Cookies (腰豆饼干)

There is still half a kilo (yes, 500 grams !!!) of butter sitting in the fridge that is expiring soon, was bought by hubby when I asked him to buy some butter from the supermart. It was the 2nd time that he bought the bigger piece of butter and I always have to make lots of extra cakes and cookies in order to get rid of it. :S

Anyway, I decided to make some cashew nut cookies this time round, so 200g of butter was gone like the wind, but there is still some 300g left, what should I do with it?  Bake a rich butter cake, hmmn...

These cashew nut cookies are very buttery and they literally melt in your mouth, just like my favourite almond cookies. Though they are lower in sugar compared to other cookies, can't bake them too often cos they are high in butter! 

Recipe adapted from Violent Fenying's 我的厨房笔记
(Makes about 90-100 small cookies)

Ingredients A:
200g butter
80g fine sugar

Ingredients B:
1 egg yolk
¼ tsp vanilla oil

Ingredients C:
280g plain flour
20g custard powder

Ingredients D:
* 150g roasted unsalted cashew nuts
1 beaten egg (for glazing)

* if not roasted, roast in oven for 10 min at 180ºC

Method:
1. Mix butter and sugar till well combined.

2. Add in Ingredients B and mix well.

3. Mix in Ingredients C to form into a pliable dough.

4. Place dough in between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll into ½ cm thick.
Cut into crescent shape using a cutter. (I used cookie cutters of other shapes)

5. Place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Press half a cashew nut on top of each cookie and glaze with beaten egg. (There is no need to grease the baking paper as the cookies are high in butter content and will not stick to the baking paper.)

6. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180ºC for about 20 mins till golden brown. Remove from oven and let them cool before storing in airtight containers.

AV Avocado Milkshake - Shiok Ah!

It is beginning to feel like summer, finally. I thought summer would bypass us and we would jump straight from spring to autumn, but these few days I can finally wear T-shirt and shorts outside. I wonder how long this nice sunny weather will last.

Yesterday I bought 2 avocados, planning to do the AV avocado milkshake that I have been drinking lately. AV, by the way, stands for Alexandra Village. If you have been reading my blog, you would know that I love to go to Alexandra Village Food Centre in Singapore, cos there are plenty of good food there. One of my favourite beverages which I would always order while I was there was avocado milkshake. There are 2 competing stalls side by side at that hawker centre, and both of them claim to be the one-and-only authentic avocado milkshake. One of them is called Mr Avocado and the other is called King Avocado. Dun ask me which is better cos it has been ages (5 years?) since I have been to that place.

Anyway I try to replicate the Alexandra Village avocado milkshake again today. I remember my first attempt few months ago was just mixing avocado with milk and honey, easy peasy. Then the second and third time I turned adventurous and started experimenting by adding milo powder, brown sugar or gula melaka (palm sugar) and instant coffee powder. It was a trial-and-error process, there were hits and misses but the rule of the thumb is always put in the ingredient one at each time and taste it after each addition so that you get the taste right.

I know I will probably never be able to replicate the same AV avocado milkshake as Mr Avocado or King Avocado. But if you don't try, you never learn. So here is my improvised recipe for Avocado Milkshake.

Simple Avocado Milkshake with Honey

Ingredients
1 ripe avocado, cold from the fridge
125ml fresh milk, cold from the fridge
2 tbsp honey

Method
1. Choose a ripe avocado, and use a knife to remove the skin and seed, cut it into huge chunks.

2. Put the avocado, milk and honey into a food processor and blend it until a thick smoothie is formed. 

3. For the best effect, just before making the milkshake, put the ripened avocado into the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours (together with the milk which has to be in the fridge anyway), so that the milkshake is cold without having to add ice cubes. My milkshake is always prepared without adding ice cubes, I like it thick, creamy and undiluted. :)


AV Avocado Milkshake with Gula Melaka and Milo

Ingredients
1 ripe avocado, cold from the fridge
125ml fresh milk, cold from the fridge
1 tbsp honey or condensed milk - adjust to taste
1 tbsp grinded gula melaka (palm sugar) or brown sugar - adjust to taste
1 tsp milo or ovaltine or 1/2 tsp cocoa powder

Note : For additional "shiok" factor, you can also add a little Nescafe Gold instant coffee powder, but you need to adjust the sugar to taste after adding instant coffee otherwise it would be too bitter, the same applies when adding milo. If you find it not sweet enough, just increase the honey or condensed milk or sugar accordingly. If you want a thicker milkshake, reduce the amount of milk to 100ml. The photo I posted above is that of the simple avocado milkshake with honey as the recipe with gula melaka and milo will produce a milkshake with an ugly shade of khaki colour (which doesn't look very good on photo) instead of a light green colour.

Useful Tip 

1) How do you know if avocado is ripe? An avocado is ripe when it can yield to gentle finger pressure. Avocados, like bananas, do not ripen while still on the tree. So if you happen to pick an unripe avocado which is still green and firm, don't fret. Just let the avocado sit in a cool place away from direct sunlight, and place it in a loosely shut paper bag to expedite the ripening process. The bag will trap ethylene from the ripening avocado and speed up the ripening process. To speed up even faster, you can place an apple, which is an ethylene-heavy fruit, in the bag together with the avocado.

2) Once the avocado is cut open, it will oxidise quickly. Hence always prepare the avocado as close to consumption as possible. To slow down oxidation, you can coat the flesh in lemon or lime juice. So if you have cut open an avocado and found it to be unripe, just sprinkle the exposed flesh with lemon or lime juice, place the 2 halves together and cover with tightly pressed clingwrap, before placing in the fridge. Then check the avocado periodically to see if it has ripened. 

Yuzu Tea Chiffon Cake (柚子茶戚风蛋糕)

There was a bottle of Korean Yuzu Tea (Citron Honey Tea) sitting in my fridge with only 2 to 3 tablespoonfuls left so I decided to make good use of it to bake a Yuzu Tea Chiffon Cake  (柚子茶戚风蛋糕) this morning. The recipe was adapted from the same recipe which I used to bake the orange chiffon cake 2 months ago. The only differences which I made to the recipe were : (a) 100g of all purpose flour + 15g cornstarch instead of 115g cake flour since I didn't have any cake flour on hand, and (b) 2-3 tbsp of Yuzu Tea mixed with warm water topped up to a total of 90ml, instead of 85ml of warm orange juice.

The Yuzu Tea Chiffon Cake turned out to be light, soft, springy, and moist and there was a sweet yuzu tea fragrance lingering in the whole kitchen afterwards.

This chiffon cake rose quite high, so to avoid the cake from collapsing and losing its height, I turned off the oven heat when the cake was ready after 45 min, but kept it in the oven with the door slightly open to maintain a gradual instead of drastic drop in temperature (our room temp was only 20 degrees). This was something that I read from a baking book and indeed that helped in preventing the cake from shrinking and collapsing.

I am still not an expert in unmoulding chiffon cakes, as you can see, the area near the centre is a bit bald after unmoulding. :)

Recipe adapted from Florence

Ingredients

115g cake flour (I replace with 100g all purpose flour + 15g cornstarch)

3/4 tsp baking powder

60ml corn oil

2-3 tbsp Yuzu Tea + warm water topped up to 90ml
finely grated zest of 1.5 oranges 

1 tsp rum or vanilla essence

5 egg yolks + 30g sugar + 1/4 tsp salt

5 egg whites + 50g sugar + 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method

1. Sieve flour and baking powder together in a big bowl.

2. In another big bowl, use electric whisk to whisk egg yolks with sugar and salt till light and creamy, about 1 min. Add in 60ml corn oil followed by 90ml yuzu tea mixture and 1 tsp rum and mix well.

3.  Add in the flour mixture from step (1) into the egg yolk mixture from step (2) and fold in swiftly and lightly using a spatula.

4. In a dry and clean bowl, use electric whisk to whisk the egg whites until there are big bubbles appearing. Add in 1/2 tsp cream of tartar and beat till it turns white. Add in 50g sugar over 3 times, a little at a time and beat until stiff peaks. (Note that it takes about 5 min at high speed for me. The peaks should hold and point straight without collapsing when you turn the bowl upside down. However do not over beat the egg whites. Note that in order for stiff peaks to be formed successfully, the bowl must be dry and clean without any stains and the egg white mixture should not be stained with any yolks)

5. Pour 1/2 of the egg white mixture from step (4) into the egg yolk mixture from step (3), and use a spatula to fold in swiftly and lightly.

6. Pour the combined mixture from step (5) into the rest of the egg white mixture and again use a spatula to fold in swiftly and lightly.

7. Pour the batter into a 8-inch chiffon pan and bake in a preheated oven at 175 degrees celsius for 45 min or until cooked. Do not line or grease the chiffon pan. Before putting into the oven, use a spatula to smooth out the top of the batter, and bang the cake pan on the table a few times to remove any big bubbles. (When my cake was baking, the cake rose too high and became too close to the top of the oven, so I used an aluminium foil to cover it loosely in the last 10-15 min to prevent it from getting burnt.)

8. When the cake is cooked, turn off the oven and leave the cake to cool in the oven with the door slightly open. Then remove the cake from the oven, invert it and allow it to cool. To unmould the cake, use a sharp serrated knife to first loosen the edges of the cake while it is still inverted, followed by the bottom of the cake, and unmould it slowly and carefully.

Note : This yuzu tea chiffon cake is adapted from an orange chiffon cake recipe which used 85ml of orange juice, hence it is not as sweet as the original orange chiffon cake. If you have a sweet tooth, you need to increase the sugar accordingly.