Nutella swirl cup cake

It is my turn to bring treats at work tomorrow and my stove/oven broke down today! Turned out it was a timer start/stop issue when the land lady's son came to fix it. Earlier, C and I had already taken the oven racks and heating coils apart to clean, thinking it could have been all the goo that had caused a short circuit! So as a backup, I used the mini toaster oven I brought over from Singapore. And given the limited size of the mini oven, I made mini cup cakes!

This is a traditional Chinese egg cake（鸡蛋糕）recipe with a Nutella twist. You could say its a soft kueh bahulu. I love how easy it is to make.

Summary of recipe:

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celcius.

1. Beat 2 eggs + 100 gm sugar + small pinch of salt with handheld mixer, medium speed for two minutes.

2. Sift 90gm flour + 1/2tsp baking powder and fold into #1.

3. Stir in 17gm oil until evenly mixed.

4. Scoop or pipe batter into lined mini muffin pan.

5. Pipe a dollop of Nutella on top center of each muffin. Use the tip of a chopstick to swirl the Nutella into the batter*.

6. Bake for 15 mins.

This recipe makes 24 mini cupcakes (~3cm diameter).

*As you can see from the picture below, I totally forgot to swirl the Nutella into the batter! 

Recipe source: http://rasamalaysia.com/mini-egg-cake-recipe/2/

Quick & Easy Char Siew

C was making Wan Tan Mee for brunch today so I decided to try this new quick and easy Char Siew recipe I saw from the Internet. I didn't realize we ran out of palm sugar half way through cooking so I made substitutes :) 

This recipe results in a pleasant cross between Tauyu Bak and Char Siew.

Summary of recipe:

1. Chop half a garlic and one inch of ginger.

2. In a pot, sauté garlic and ginger with 1 Tbsp of oil.

3. Add 400gm of pork belly to further sauté a bit.

4. Add 250ml water, 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 25gm brown sugar, 1 Tbsp dark caramel.

5. Let it simmer in medium high heat until liquid reduces and thickens.

6. Cut into bite size pieces when cooled.

Recipe source: http://herfrozenwings.blogspot.co.nz/2011/06/palm-sugar-char-siew.html

Mushroom chicken

Part of a quick meal. 

Summary of recipe:

Preparation:

1. Soak 4 dried Chinese or Shitake mushrooms + 1 piece of dried wood ear. When soften, remove from water and cut into strips when soften.

2. Peel and chop half a garlic.

3. Cut 1 chicken breast into bite-size pieces and marinate with 1 swirl each of soy, shaoxing wine, sesame oil and two dashes of white pepper, ginger powder and corn flour. 

Cook:

4. In a pan, add two swirl of oil.

5. When the oil is very hot, pan fry the chicken pieces till 80% brown. Remove chicken from pan.

6. Discard half or more of the oil.

7. Stir fry the garlic for 30 secs, add in mushroom and wood ear strips. Stir fry until fragrant. 

8. Add in the earlier chicken and stir fry for another minute. 

(Optional) 9. Top with toasted sesame seeds. 

Kimchi

Research has found that kimchi is one of the healthiest food to eat. Indeed! I love a good kimchi that isn't too spicy or too sour. I didn't start to like kimchi until I tasted really good ones at some of the better Korean restaurants. Store-bought kimchis with preservatives just don't do this super food enough justice. Fortunately, kim chi is very easy to make and while the initial stage takes quite a few hours, it can be done easily with a little planning ahead.

Oh, and it goes very well with spicy instant noodles too!

The below recipe uses one head of napa cabbage. Half the recipe if there's only one or two in the household. 

Summary of recipe:

Prepare the cabbage:

1. Chop a napa cabbage one inch wide from top to bottom. Discard the bottommost inch.

2. Dissolve 1/4 cup of salt into 1/2 cup of warm water. 

3. Drizzle salt water over the cabbage. 

4. Toss the cabbage to distribute salt water. Repeat every half an hour or so.

5. After 4 hours, the cabbage will shrink to about half its amount. 

6. Rinse the cabbage thoroughly to get rid of the earlier salt. Repeat 3 times.

7. Add 4 spring onions, sliced diagonally. 

Prepare the marinate:

8. Mix 1/4 cup of Korean chili flakes/powder into 1/4 cup warm water.

9. Prepare 1 Tbsp minced garlic + 1 Tbsp minced ginger + 2 Tbsp fish sauce (optional).

10. Blend half an apple + half a pear + half an onion with 1 cup of water.

Make the kimchi:

11. Toss marinates with vegetables with a thong or use your hands in plastic gloves. Make sure everything is well-mixed.

12. Bottle the kimchis up to one inch below the lid. Close the lids.

13. Leave them out at room temperature for 24 hours before refrigerating. 

The kimchi can be eaten at anytime and will keep for a month or so. The longer it ferments, the more sour it gets.

Recipe source: http://drbenkim.com/how-make-kim-chi.htm

Butter cup cakes

I always love a good butter pound cake. These days I like to make cakes into cupcake size for two reasons - easier to eat and faster bake time. Here's an easy version - no need to separate egg yolks and whites or making/folding egg white meringues. 

Summary of recipe:

1. Preheat oven 165 degree Celsius.

2. Sift together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt.

3. Using a large mixing bowl and hand mixer, cream 230gm softened butter and 1 cup sugar for 5 minutes. 

4. Add 4 eggs - one at a time, mixing for 1 minute after each addition.

5. Add 1 tsp vanilla, mix well.

6. Add in #1 flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time, mix in low speed. 

7. Pour into lined cupcake pan and bake for 35 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. 

This recipe yields 16 cup cakes. Tastes heavenly straight out of the oven!

Recipe source: http://adobodownunder.blogspot.kr/2011/07/perfection-pound-cake.html

Easy banana muffin

This is one of the easiest banana muffins I've made. No need to use the hand mixer and there's only one pot to wash! 

Summary of recipe for 12 (cupcake size) muffins:

1. In a pot, melt and stir together 125gm butter, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla in medium heat. 

2. Remove from heat when melted and mixed.

3. Mash 2 super ripe bananas into pot - mix until just blended.

4. Add 1 egg and mix well.

5. Stir in 1.5 cups self-raising flour*.

6. Stir in 1/4 cup milk.

7. Line cupcake pan and fill each cup 1/3 full, place 3-4 walnut pieces in each cup, then fill until 2/3 full. 

8. Top the batter in each cup with almond slivers. 

9. Bake at 170 degree Celsius for 30 mins or until skewer comes out clean. 

*Self-raising flour substitute:

- 1.5 cups of plain flour + 2 tsp of baking powder

Alternatively, you could bake this is a round or long pan for 40 minutes. Remember to line the pan with parchment or grease proof paper. 

Recipe source: http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/easy-banana-cake-L1581.html

燴饭 (Brocolli chicken in silky egg on rice)

This is quite a versatile dish and can be served with rice, flat noodles, or deep fried vermicelli (my favorite!). If it is served on noodles, it is called 滑蛋河, or Cantonese noodles.

Summary of recipe for two:

1. Marinate 1 chicken breast (sliced) with a swirl each of soy, oyster sauce, shaoxing wine, few dashes of pepper and corn flour.

Optional: marinate 8 shrimps with dash of salt and pepper.

2. In a wok,

- brown the chicken in hot oil and remove from wok when almost cooked

- stirfry half a garlic (chopped) in existing oil in wok

- add half a broccoli (cut to bite size)

- season with a swirl each of oyster sauce, soy, shaoxing wine

- add 2 cups of chicken stock

- add shrimps and/or sliced fish cake (optional)

- add browned chicken

- add corn flour mixture (mix half tsp corn flour with 1 Tbsp of water) to thicken

- beat 2 eggs and slowly swirl into the wok, stirring it slowly.

3. Serve on jasmine rice with chopped chili in soy on the side.

Healthy & quick chicken rice

Another favorite hawker food of ours is the chicken rice. I usually fix this as a quick but balanced meal.

Summary of recipe for two:

1. Boil 1.3l of water in a pot.

2. Exfoliate 450gm of free range chicken (one drumstick and one breast; skin on, bone in) with salt - on the skin only.

3. Prepare 1 carrot (cut into bite chunks), 5 spring onions (use only the white part) and one inch of ginger (sliced). 

4. Rinse chicken from salt and together with the carrot, spring onions and ginger, place into boiling pot and cook for 25-30 mins. Skim off impurities. Chicken temperature should be 77°C (or 170°F) when cooked. 

5. Take chicken out of the broth, throw away the spring onions and ginger. Slice chicken when it's slightly cooled. Garnish with chopped parsley and soy sauce.

6. Add cabbage and later optional 1 tomato (sliced) to make a clear vegetable soup. Salt to season.

7. Garnish soup with chopped spring onions and parsley.

As this is a quick meal, I did not make the special chicken oil rice nor chilli dip. We usually do with jasmine rice and Tabasco sauce!

Walnut raisin bread

I love my bread machine! It's a compact 750gm loaf size one (Sunbeam BM2500) with a single paddle - just the right size for a small loaf to be finished within 2-3 days.

Here's a recipe that I make a couple of times a week. It is a soft milk bread that can be made plain or with nuts or fruits of choice.

Summary of recipe 

- place ingredients in bread machine in the following order, I.e., liquid first unless your bread machine works otherwise:

125ml or half cup water roux*

125ml or half cup fresh milk

1 egg

45gm or 3 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

3 1/2 Tbsp sugar

2 1/2 cups high grade flour/bread flour/high protein flour

2 1/2 tsp Edmond's Surebake active yeast mixture

Select French setting (goes for a total of 3hrs 36mins)

When the bread machine beeps to add fruits, add the following optional item(s):

- 3/4 cups walnut; or 1/2 cup walnut + 1/4 cup raisins/cranberries; or 1 Tbsp linseed; or a combination of nuts/fruits/seeds to make up 3/4 cups or no more than 1 cup.

Cool completely before slicing although I know sometimes warm bread is hard to resist!

*Water roux:

Mix 25gm bread flour + 125ml water and cook in medium heat until the mixture reaches 65° Celcius (when mixture starts to thicken and lines appear; the texture should be like yogurt). Remove from heat and let it cool before using.

Prawn beehoon

C requested prawn mee today and since we didn't have mee (yellow Hokkien noodles), I made it with beehoon (vermicelli) instead.

Followed this recipe (http://www.foodcanon.com/2011/06/auntie-rubys-prawn-mee-penang-hae-mee.html). 

It is quite a good recipe and I made a few changes - skipped the chicken stock and rock sugar, added some palm sugar (gula melaka) and used baby bok choy instead of morning glory (kangkung). I also fried the hard tofu (tau kwa), fish cake and prawns. Forgot to prepare some hard-boiled eggs though!

During the prep, I was apprehensive about blending the stock ingredients as I've never blended prawn shells before and it feels funny.. Ha! I asked C if he were ok with that idea. He said yes after a longgg pause haha. Remember to strain your stock prior to using it!

Summary of recipe for two: 

1. Peel 250gm of prawns.

2. Prepare the stock ingredients: In a pan, toast a bunch of dried anchovies and dried shrimps, half a garlic (chopped), 2 lemon grass, an inch of ginger (sliced) with a swirl of oil. Add prawn shells to toast further. Add a cup of water. Blend everything.

3. Prepare the stock: Bring a pot of 1.5litre water to boil and add blended stock ingredients, small piece of belacan and gula melaka. Simmer for 45 mins with the lid on or place in thermal pot for a few hours. Salt to taste.

4. Prepare garnish: Soak the beehoon with tap water until soft. Fry the garnish ingredients if you like. Otherwise, cook them in the stock in this sequence - green vegetables, fish cake, prawn, beehoon, bean sprout. 

5. Plate and serve with eggs, sambal and fried shallots.

How to prepare hard-boiled eggs:

Place eggs into a pot and fill with tap water to cover about 1cm above eggs. Bring it to boil on the stove top. Once it is rolling boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot. Let it sit for 20-25 mins. Then, drain the hot water and fill your pot with cold water to cool the eggs. This also makes it easier to peel the egg shells. 

Sunset

Taranaki Beach at sunset

Hello

We've been in NZ for almost a year now and it's been fun cooking and baking most meals at home. I thought I'd document the recipes and experiences here as a way to record our adventures. Recipes may not be perfect and I'd love to hear from you of any constructive feedbacks!