Winter Melon with Chinese Almonds Soup 南北杏冬瓜汤

My mum is a Cantonese so from young I am used to drinking Cantonese-style soup. To bring out the full flavor of  Cantonese-style soup and enjoy soft tender pork ribs we always cook the soup for at least 2.5 hours. I am still practicing this way when I cook on weekends, however for weekday the soup needs to be less time-consuming. So in order to achieve that I have replaced the pork ribs with anchovies.

 南北杏冬瓜汤，清凉润肺止咳喘 

Although lately it hasn't been so hazy but I believed that we had lodged in a fair amount of particles into our lungs during the hazy period when PSI shot up to 400. Brewing some cooling beverages and soups will help to relieve the heatiness and sooth our throats. Winter melon is good in relieving heatiness, it has a cooling property and the Chinese almonds will benefit our lungs and throats.

Ingredient

1 piece of winter melon 400-500g

1 carrot

Handful of dried anchovies (rinsed and put inside soup stock/filter bag)

1 honey date

6 red dates

3 tsp sweet Chinese almonds (nan xing)

1 tsp bitter Chinese almonds (bei xing)

Salt to taste

 Method

1) Bring a pot of water to boil.

2) Cut winter melon into cubes and slice the carrot.

3) Add all ingredients (except for salt) to the boiling water and boil for 5 mins.

4) Reduce flame to medium-small, cover the lid and cook for 30-40 mins.

5) Add a pinch of salt to taste.

Other dishes I have cooked to complete the meal, stir fry bayam spinach with egg and bulgogi.

  

Polka dots swiss roll

Ingredient
(A) YOLK BATTER
3 egg yolk
35g castor sugar
60ml water
40ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
70g sieved cake flour
1 tsp corn flour

(B) MERINGUE
3 egg white
30g castor sugar

(C) PATTERN
Food coloring

(D) FILLING
Whipped cream/ jam/ cut fruits

Method
1) Hand whisk egg yolks, add 35g sugar followed by water, oil, essence and mix well.
2) Add sieved cake flour and corn flour, whisk till smooth batter.
3) Mixer whisk egg white till foamy and add sugar until firm peak achieved.
4) Fold the meringue into the yolk batter in batches of 3.
5) Color a small amount of batter with food coloring and pour into piping bags. Pipe out the design either on parchment paper/ silicon mat placed inside a baking tray.
6) Baked at pre-heated oven of 180-190 degree Celsius for up to 4 mins depend on the design.
7) Once cooled, pour the remaining batter into the baking tray.

8) Knock out any bubbles by gently tapping the tray on the table.

9) Bake for about 10mins or until the cake is springy when touched.

10) Prepare another parchment paper and cover it over the tray, invert and remove the tray. The cake should be easily removed. Peel off the parchment paper/silicon mat carefully revealing the designed layer.

11) Prepare a new parchment paper and cover the designed side, invert the cake again so that now the designed side is at the bottom.
12) Spread a layer or whipped cream or jam and add cut fruits if you like.
13) Holding the parchment paper and roll the cake. Twist both ends of the parchment paper like a candy wrapper and place into fridge.
 

Lychee Lime Yogurt Mousse Cake

 

 It was my mum's 67th birthday and I wanted to bake her a cake. Spent the whole Saturday to work on this cake since it has 3 layers and requires hours of setting before you can proceed to the next layer.

  

I adore the color combination, very refreshing and lovely. Thanks to Nasi Lemak Lover for sharing the recipe (http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.sg/2013/04/lychee-lime-yogurt-mousse-cake.html). 

I did quite a bit of modifications to the cake especially the base and the lychee quantity.

 Here's a mini version using a muffin liner since I don't have any cake ring. Just want to try out the taste of the mini cake before I gave it out as a gift. Mini one can see the 3 layers very clearly with vanilla sponge cake as the base, lychee lime yogurt mousse at the center and pink lychee jelly as the top.

Taro Hokkaido Chiffon

Lately I have been crazy over baking chiffon cakes. It used to be a nightmare for me as I simply couldn't get it right. It was really very dishearten to see failed cakes but now is different after I mastered the techniques! Hehehe now I can try all the different flavors for the chiffon cakes. Meaning more to come ;)

Here's something new from the original Hokkaido Chiffon Cake.I used Kevin Chai's yam chiffon cake recipe to make into Hokkaido Chiffon cake with cream heavily infused with yam taste, yes with real yam ;)

Check out my DIY mini cake stand, just use a saucer and invert the cup. That is all you need! 

Isn't it lovely to see 2 sweet little Yorkshire Terriers as decoration?!

Recipe adapted from Kevin Chai

Ingredients
(A)
6 large egg yolks (I used 7 small ones)
150 g mashed yam (steam, mash/blend)
150 g coconut milk
1/4 tsp salt
60 ml vegetable oil (I use corn oil)
1 tsp yam paste
50 g castor sugar
180 g cake flour (sift)
few drops of purple coloring (optional)

(B)
6 large egg whites (I used 7 small ones)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
100 g castor sugar


(C)
Whipped cream as filling (add in your favorite flavoring)
Icing sugar

Method
1. In a wide mixing bowl, mix egg yolks, mashed yam, coconut milk, salt, vegetable oil, yam paste, sugar and lastly sift in the cake flour. Mix well.
2. Whisk egg white with cream of tartar until foamy, gradually add in sugar and whisk till close to stiff peak form.
3. Gently pour in 1/2 the meringue into the yolk batter and stir until combined with a large spatula.
4. Gently scoop in the balance meringue and use FOLDING method to fold in the meringue. Do not deflate the meringue.
5. Scoop into cup liners until 3/4 full.
6. Bake in 140 degree Celsius (top & bottom heat with fan at lowest rack) for 25-30mins or until skewer comes out clean. If your oven is without fan mode, you will need to adjust the temperature to 20 degree higher.
7. Remove and cool on rack.
8. Make your favorite whipped cream and insert the piping tip into the cake and pipe the cream all the way in and decorate the top as well.
9. Sift some icing sugar at the top and serve.

Tips on chiffon
Please refer to previous chiffon post at http://yukiecody.blogspot.sg/2013/05/cranberry-mixed-tea-chiffon.html

 

It was fun to invite a few friends to bake the same cake over the weekend. No, we didn't get together to bake, we merely agreed on a baking theme and each of us baked the same cake but different flavors. See what we had come up with. I did the cranberry mixed tea chiffon, Cindy baked the colorful rainbow & raspberry chiffon. The meringue gets deflated very easily, really admire Cindy's skill of baking to challenge the rainbow chiffon. And we also have Molly who tried on the pineapple flavor, Rafidah on the orange flavor. Of course we didn't miss out the all time favorite pandan chiffon by Daphne. Really fun girls, hope to play another round ;)

Easy Meatball Soup

Weekday is also a rush rush affair when it comes to cooking dinner after work. Usually I will cook my soup and leave it inside my thermo pot overnight and the next day the family will get to enjoy very flavorful soup. But sometimes I will just feel like having some light soup to go with my meal. This meatball soup is one of it, easy and fast to whip up.

Ingredient
MEATBALL & Seasoning (marinate for at least 30mins, I leave it overnight)
200g minced pork (can use chicken too)
1/2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp corn flour
Pepper

SOUP
Handful of dried anchovies
4 seedless red dates
1-2 tomato
Spring onion as garnish
Any other ingredient like carrot/yam/mushroom/etc (I used yam since I am left with a bit of it)

Method
1. Fill up half a pot (18cm) with water and boil.
2. Put the anchovies inside a stock filter bag, tear the red dates into small pieces for quicker release of flavor. Place both ingredient into the boiled water, boil for 5 mins and another 15 mins in small fire.
3. Cut the tomato into wedges and add in.
4. Switch to high fire and use a small spoon to scoop the marinated minced meat into a ball shape and add into boiling soup. Let the meat cook for 5-10mins.
5. Garnish with shopped spring onions.