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.