Glutinous Rice Peanut Puff / Lor Mai Kok Chai

糯米角仔/炸米饺

I learnt to make this cantonese sweet treat from my late mother in law. It is a must have in our family for Chinese New Year. Unlike the traditional peanut puffs which are made using plain flour, this is made using glutinous rice flour and wheat flour. They are super crispy and you can't stop at one!

Ingredients

Dough

300g glutinous rice flour

75g wheat starch 澄面粉

25g sugar

1/2 tsp salt

75g pork lard (semi solid, softened, room temperature. NOT liquid lard)

270ml boiling water (=244g)

1 spoonful of love

Filling

150g coarsely chopped/grounded roasted peanuts 

30g lightly toasted white sesame seeds

50g sugar

1 pinch of salt

Method

1. Sieve the glutinous flour and wheat starch into a mixing bowl and mix in salt. Add the pork lard and use a dough scrapper to cut it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse sand.

2. Boil the water in a covered pot to minimise steam/evaporation loss. Add the boiling water into the mixing bowl, and use chopsticks to mix in quickly at the same time. Then use hand to  knead until you get a smooth dough. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and rest the dough for 30 minutes. 

3. Mix the ingredients for the filling and set aside.

4. Remove some dough and keep the rest covered under damp cloth. Roll the dough flat to about 2mm thickness and use a round cookie cutter to cut the dough. My cookie cutter size is 4.5cm in diameter. 

5. Take one of the round dough, put half to one teaspoon (depends on the size of your cutter) of peanut filling in the center of the dough. Gently seal and pleat the edges of the dough into mini "curry puff" shapes. Use a plastic sheet/damp cloth to cover the puffs until all the dough has been shaped. 

6. Gently place the puffs into the oil one by one to avoid them sticking to one another. Fry the puffs in medium-low heat until light brown.  Then, increase heat to medium and fry for a few seconds until the puffs are golden brown. Transfer the puffs to wire rack to drip excess oil. Cool them completely before storing them in air tight containers.

7. For the dough scraps, instead of re-rolling them to make peanut puffs, you can cut into strips and fry them. These can be used in place of the crispy crackers for the CNY yusheng / lo-hei dish.

Steamed Radish Cake

萝卜糕

Bought a big white radish from market. Half went into beef stew and the other half for this savory dish. Some call it steamed carrot cake. Recipe below extracted from my favourite cookbook. I doubled the portion as I love the texture and flavour of this radish cake. Taste good on its own but I like it pan fried (only need to lightly coat with potato starch) with crispy sides. 

Ingredients

500g radish

300g rice flour

80g potato starch

900ml water (I used chicken stock)

14g dried shrimps. You can add chinese sausage too if you prefer.

2 tsp salt

2 tsp chicken powder (I replaced this by using chicken stock)

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp sesame oil

1 spoonful of love

Method

1. Soak dried shrimps for at least half hour. Chop into smaller pieces thereafter.

2. Cut the radish into thin strips.

3. Heat up wok and stir fry dried shrimps until fragrant. Add the radish and stir fry until radish is soft.

4. Pour in 400ml of chicken stock, salt, sugar and sesame oil, and stir to combine. Bring to boiĺ and simmer the radish under low heat for 7-8minutes.

5. Mix the rice flour and potato starch in a large mixing bowl. Pour in remaining 400ml of chicken stock and use spatula to stir until you get a smooth mixture i.e. no lumps of flour.

6. Pour the radish into the flour mixture and stir thoroughly to mix.

7. Transfer the radish to steaming tray. Steam over high heat for 1 hour and remove from steamer when done.

Beef Stew

炖牛肉

Ingredients

700g beef (well marbled, don't buy those prepacked and labelled for beef stew as I find that the meat is not as tender. Can use oxtail too.)

3 pieces of smoked bacon (cut into 1cm strips)

1 large onion (cut into wedges/slices)

3 garlic cloves (smashed lightly)

200ml red wine

600ml beef broth (plain water also can, reduce accordingly if more red wine is used)

3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon tomato paste

Fresh or dried thymes

Vegetables (carrots, radish, potatoes and celery)

1 spoonful of love

Method

1. Sprinkle beef (700g) with 1/4 tsp salt and dashes of black pepper.

2. Fry smoked bacon under medium heat in wok with 1 tablespoon oil until edges are crispy. Remove bacon to serve as topping. 

3. Turn up the heat for wok to very high (i.e. starting to smoke) and sear the beef in wok until nicely browned on all sides. Transfer to the pot used for stewing later.

4. Turn down the heat for wok to low, add some oil (if required) into same wok and saute onion and garlic cloves until light golden on the edges.

5. Pour red wine into wok to deglaze the beef bits in the wok. Add beef broth, tomato paste, bay leaves and thyme (3-4 fresh sprigs or 1/2 tsp dried) to the wok. Once boiled, transfer the liquid to the pot of beef and simmer for 1 hour.

6. Add your favourite vegetables (eg potatoes, celery, carrot, white radish) and continue to simmer for 1 hour.

7. Prepare roux to thicken the beef stew. (Melt 10g butter and stir in 10g plain flour; stir under low heat until slightly browned.)

8. Take a bit of beef broth from the pot and mix into the roux. Then pour back into the pot to combine with rest of the broth. Stir gently until thickened.

9. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Steamed savory and sweet glutinous rice

 

We like to take steamed savory glutinous rice dish for our breakfast.  It is easy to make with just a few ingredients: glutinous rice (also called sticky rice), dried shrimps, fried shallots and spring onions. Recipe adapted from Lucinda Lau.

I recently discovered my late mother in law's handwritten recipe for sweet glutinous rice. By applying similar method for making savory glutinous rice, I think I managed to recreate the sweet glutinous rice we used to buy from "Famous Glutinous Rice" stall in Chinatown Complex Food Centre. This stall has closed down in 2012.

I understand that back in 1950s-1960s, sweet and savory glutinous rice was a common breakfast staple sold by street hawkers in Singapore. Now, it is very difficult to find stalls selling BOTH savory and sweet glutinous rice. But I don't have to worry as I can cook it anytime we want now. 😅

A. Savory Glutinous Rice 

Ingredients

300g glutinous rice

290ml water (includes water for soaking dried shrimps)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 spoonful of love 

Toppings

dried shrimps

Fried shallots

Sping onions

Fried/crispy peanuts

Method

1. Soak dried shrimps for at least half hour. Drain after that and keep the water for cooking glutinous rice later. 

2. Soak glutinous rice for at least 3 hours. Drain the rice and discard the water (can use it to water your plants too).

3. Fry the shallots and dried shrimps separately. Remove them from wok and keep about 1 tablespoon of remaining oil in the wok to fry the glutinous rice. Stir fry the rice well under medium heat.

4. Pour in the water (including that used for soaking dried shrimps), add salt and sugar. Continue to stir fry for about 1 minute.

5. Transfer the rice to steaming tray and steam over medium heat for 10minutes.

6. After 10minutes, loosen the rice with rice paddle and continue to steam for another 15minutes. 

7. Wait for rice to cool down.

8. Garnish with toppings and serve.

B. Sweet Glutinous Rice

Ingredients

100g glutinous rice

90g water

25g sugar

1 spoonful of love

Method

1. Soak glutinous rice for at least 3 hours. Drain the rice and discard the water (can use it to water your plants too).

2. Spread the glutinous rice in the steaming tray and add water.

3. Steam for 10 minutes under medium heat, then loosen the rice with rice paddle. Continue to steam for another 10minutes.

4. Sprinkle sugar over the glutinous rice immediately and use rice paddle to mix the sugar in. Ready to eat! Best eaten together with the savory glutinous rice.

Fried Spinach Tofu

 菠菜豆腐

Have you tried making homemade tofu from scratch? It is very simple to make.

 

Ingredients:

50g spinach (leaves only)

Unsweetened soy milk

4 large eggs

1 spoonful of love 

Note: ratio of eggs to soy milk is 1:1.5 e.g. 230g eggs to 345g soy milk

Method:

1. Line steaming tray with parchment paper.

2. Cut spinach leaves into small pieces, sprinkle 1 teaspoon salt, mix and set aside for 15minutes.

3. After 15minutes, squeeze water from spinach leaves and spread the on the bottom of steaming tray.

4. Lightly whisk eggs, add soy milk, whisk to combjne and sieve egg mixture into the steaming tray.

5. Cover steaming tray with aluminium foil and steam over medium heat for 30minutes. Make sure water is boiling before you start to steam.

6. After 30minutes, check for doneness by poking a skewer into the tofu. It is done when skewer comes out clean.

7. Carefully lift the parchment paper with tofu from steaming tray and place it on cutting board to cool for half hour.

8. Once tofu has cooled down, cut into small pieces, dab dry and fry until edges of tofu are golden brown.

9. Serve whilst tofu is hot and crispy.

Taiwanese Castella Fluffy Bread

 

Baked this bread with leftover eggwhites. It is so light, fluffy and pillowy soft that it reminds me of Sun Moulin's Queens bread we used to buy when the bakery was still in Isetan Scotts (Singapore). 

So happy with this recipe from Chef Chu's Kitchen. It is definitely a keeper.

Ingredients

330g bread flour

75g eggwhites (room temperature)

55g sugar (I reduced to 45g)

4g salt

4g instant yeast

150g fresh milk (warm)

12g milk powder

50g unsalted butter

1 spoonful of love 

Method

1. Put all ingredients except salt and butter in a mixing bowl and use dough hook to mix at medium speed until a dough is formed (around 10minutes).

2. Add butter and salt, and continue to mix until dough is elastic and smooth, and you can get window pane when you sttetch the dough.

3. Shape into a ball, cover with plastic sheet/cloth and proof until double in size (around 40minutes).

4. Divide the dough (weight 665g) into two and shape each into a ball. Cover the two balls of dough and bench rest for 10minutes.

5. Shape/roll the dough into desired shape and put into bread pan. Proof for 50minutes.

6. Brush top of bread with egg wash or milk, and Bake in oven (preheated @ 160 degree celcius) for 20minutes.

7. Cool the bread on wire rack.

Crackling Skin Roast Pork / Siu Yuk

 脆皮烧肉

Ingredients

1kg fresh Indonesian pork belly

Spice rub: 1 tsp five spice powder, half tsp salt, dashes of white pepper, pinch of tumeric powder (optional)

1 spoonful of love 

Method:

1. Boil the slab of meat for 10 minutes, put into ice bath to bring temperature down as fast as possible, remove and pad dry, and use meat tenderiser to poke holes (as many as possible) on the skin. Do not poke too deep as otherwise, meat juices will flow up into the skin during roasting and affect the crispiness of the skin (step 9)

2. Make small slashes or slits on meat side to get more seasoning into the meat (also prevents the meat from curling up ).

3. Apply the spice rub evenly all over the meat (not the skin).

4. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp Salt and 1 Tbsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) on the skin and spread it evenly. Let sit for about 20 mins until you see lots of water drawn up out of the skin. Dab it dry with kitchen towel, and brush off any remaining grains of salt.

5. Place pork into a container, cover loosely with baking paper (so that air can circulate and dry the skin) and place in refrigerator, overnight or for at least 18 hours.

6. Remove the meat from fridge at least one hour before roasting.

7. Brush a thin layer of white/rice vinegar on the skin and repeat this half hour later. This will neutralise the baking soda. This step is optional.

8. Insert one/two skewers crosswise into the meat. This will prevent it from curling during the roasting process.

9.  Cover the skin with a thin layer of salt (to further draw out moisture during roasting). 

Roast the meat in oven (2nd rack from bottom, fan mode) at 150°C for 30mins. Place a tray of water under the rack. After 30mins, remove tray of water and the meat from the oven. Note: Do adjust the roasting time based on the type and accuracy of your oven.

10. Switch the oven to grilling mode at 250°C. 

11. Scrap off the salt from the skin and dab the skin dry with kitchen towel. Grill the meat until skin is puffy, bubbly and golden brown. Keep a close eye on the grilling. There may be uneven browning of the skin if there are hot spots in the oven. In this case, rotate the tray and/or use aluminum foil to cover those part of the skin which has already puffed up.

12. Let the meat rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy the crispy roast pork belly! Sometimes, we make sandwich with them.