Pizza Pockets

Made another patch of pizza pockets for school lunch. Kids love these pockets as it is soo yummy!

Yorkshire Puddings

Yorkshire Puddings are one of the traditional English pudding which is usually eaten with roast beef, veges, mash, turnips and gravy on sundays. I make alot of such meal with this pudding as it is well demanding in the household. It has very simple ingredient; much similar to a pancake mix but to get it puffy, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside is another story. Too ashame to mention how many times axactly it turned out flat and compact for me.. Or even all puffed up!

I clearly remembered the first time I made the pudding. I was in Malaysia then. As there were no muffin tin available at that moment in time so the batter was baked in a big round baking tin. When it came out of the oven, waw! it was so puffy and round. Not kidding, it is so round that it looked like a half round football! big! Eagerly I porked a fork into the pudding longing to taste the success, what a laugh to see the inside. It was nothing but a big balloon! absolutely nothing inside, honestly, it was so funny!

Well according to my soo many trials, it would turned out much much better if you can make the mix many many hours before hand.

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour

1 cup fresh milk

2 eggs

1tsp lard

pinch of salt

Put flour, milk, egg, lard and salt in the bowl and use a cake mixer to beat until smooth. Leave it sit for few hours and beat now and then with the mixer until bubbles formed. Preheat oven to 220 or max. Grease the muffin tins with 1 tsp cooking oil in each muffin mould, as this is vital for the rising of the pudding. Bake the tin in the oven until oil is really hot. Give the pudding batter one last mix with cake mixer until pubbles formed. Remove tin from oven and pour the batter immediately into each mould. Fill only one third or one quarter full to each mould only. Bake in the oven for 14 minutes. Remove and serve hot.

Tips: Years ago, I would put the batter mix in a closed container such as a pop bottle. Shut the lid tight and shake it vigorously now and then over few hours. Do not put batter back into the fridge during this period as it requires warmth to help in its rising too.

Vindaloo Prawns

In cold winter night, nothing beats a hot and spicy vindaloo prawns for dinner. It goes very well with coconut rice or simply tortilla wraps.

Mini Dounuts

Mini Dounuts maker in the stores are inexpensive. Its a good idea to encourage kids to make dounuts at home when they said" Mum. I am bored!". It works a magic to keep their little minds occupied for a while and it is also very creative for them too.

When the dounuts just came out of the maker, it looks like this. It havent have those deep fried dounut look and tastes much less greasier too.

At this stage, I normally dig in my baking ingredients and sourcing out all the bits and bobs which I can provide for them to decorate the dounuts. I will also make up some butter cream for them to spread on the dounuts before decorating.

This is done by Nicole and Noni, my newphew's girlfriend. They had a fun time putting all the colorful coated chocolate drops and hundreds and thousands on. A bit of a mess but it is so worth the trouble.

Ingredients

75 g Plain flour

50 g Sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

75 ml Fresh milk

1 large egg

2 tbsp melted butter

Preheat the dounut maker. Mix all ingredients together in a big bowl. When maker is ready, fill the dounut mould half way to the top. Close the lid and allow to bake for 5 minutes or until desired color formed. Remove and set aside until cool before spreading any butter cream for decoration. For dusting, put dounuts in a bowl of caster sugar immediately after removing from maker. Dust them well and removed to cool. serve.

Note: If children are involved, do take care when dealing with dounut maker, as it can get rather hot

Mini Spring Rolls

My daughter Nicole had a food tasting day in her school. She opted to make some mini spring rolls for her school mates. As the preparation has to be done the night before, so I helped out. It was quick and relatively fast when two of us do the job. We had to wake up early the next morning to fry and ready for school. That afternoon she came home and said her spring rolls was one of the favourites and seconds was requested!

Pretty Cake

My daughter's friend came to play yesterday. They suddenly decided to make a cake on their own. So Stephenie and Nicole made this Fairy sponge cake dotted with chocolate rocks. very pretty to look at. They were so proud of it. Stephenie took half home for her family to sample too. They even made some home made lemonade to go with the yummy cake!

Curry Puffs

Curry Puffs are relatively easy to make. Especially when I can purchase different kinds of pastry sheets from the supermarket. Now and then I will take the affort to make home made puff pastry sheets. Of course the satisfactory on the result will be greater. Nevertheless, ready made is just as good.

Ingredient

1 packet of defrosted large puff pastry sheets(about 6 sheets). Cut into four square on each sheet(hence you will have 24 little squares)

1 large potoato cut to cubes

1 cup mince beef or pork

1 curry sauce (ready in tins)

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

dash of pepper

egg wash for brushing pastry

olive oil for frying

In a wok, fry onion and garlic till fragrant. Add in mince beef or pork and stir fry until redness is gone. Add in potatoes, curry sauce and dash of pepper. Allow the potatoes to cook and the curry sauce is reduced to a thick and almost dried sauce. Remove from wok and allow to cool.

Take one square sheet of pastry, put one table spoon of curry mince diagonally to the square and envelope it into a triangle. Press on the sides to seal the pocket. Fold the side of the triangle up and inwards to form edgings. Use a fork, pork few holes on top of the curry puffs, egg wash and bake in a 220 c oven for 16 minutes. Remove and allow to cool before serving.

Note: Curry Puffs are great for freezing. When completely cooled, pack in air tight container and freeze. Good for storing up to a week.

Pak Chang

Making Pak Chang is a pass down traditional home recipe my super cook mum taught us when we were still young. She didn’t allow me to use her precious rice and meat so she gave me few pieces of bamboo leaves which she boiled and asked me to wrap up some wet sand. I did just that and eventually sort of cracked the technique. I have never forgotten what she has taught me. This is one of many things my mum teach me in life. She is also the one that teach me how to sew initially. Love her to bits…


Home made Pak Chang


Ingredients
1 kilo chicken tight meat de-boned and cut into cubes
8 medium size mushrooms soaked overnight and boiled to tenderized before hand
3 cups sticky rice soaked over night with water
1 Chinese Lap Cheong (sausage) slice thinly
3 Salted eggs boiled and quartered before hand
4 clove garlic roughly chopped
1 large red onion chopped
25 pieces of dried bamboo leave soaked overnight with hot water
Nylon strings
Note: I replaced chestnuts with egg as my family is not keen in the nuts. If use chestnuts, it has to be pre-boiled and set aside.

Seasonings
2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
2 tbsp Dark Soya sauce
2 tsp Chicken Essence
2 tsp Sesame Seed oil
2 tbsp Chinese rice wine
2 cups water
Olive oil for frying

In a wok, heat olive oil to fry onions and garlic. When fragrant, put in chicken meat and fry till semi cooked. Add Chinese rice wine and let to reduce a little. Add Sesame oil follow by chicken essence, oyster sauce and dark Soya sauce and water. Let it simmer until liquid is very minimal and thick. Remove from wok and let to cool. Assemble all other stuff for wrapping Chang. Wrapping as follows:-

Pak Chang

Pak Chang Cont'...

Tied up Pak Chang should look something like the above. Use a large pot and put all the wrapped chang into the pot and fill water till slightly submerge the chang. Add some salt into the water. Boil with high heat for an hour. Keep adding boiling water if water in the pot run low. Remove chang from liquids when cooked and serve

I use pressure cooker to boil the chang which will only need 30 minutes.

Ingredients prepared for the wrapping of Pak Chang.

Take two piece of bamboo leave with the leave end(not the stock end) facing you. Overlap the leave half way.

Make a cone shape as in the photo.

After placing all the stuff into the cone, (i.e. One spoonful of rice; 11/2 spoonful of chicken; one lapcheong and one quarter egg; lastly 2 spoonfuls of rice on top) Use right hand to press down the leaves towards you and hold in place by the left hand. Use right hand pinch the leave pointing towards you and bend it towards your left thumb according to the shape of the underlying cone. Hold it in with the left thumb. When in place, use a nylon rope to tie around the portion that is facing you.