Blog Ave: January 2005

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Tofu & Punkin Cake

Tofu & Punkin Cake

My tofu cake is very successful, but my punkin cake totally fail. The tofu cake is very delicious, I can taste the flavor of soy and wheat germ.

2 eggs
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 pieces of tofu (crumbled)
2/3 cup Soya milk
1 and 1/2 Tbs oil

1 Tbs wheat germ

Sifted:
1 cup flour
1 and 1/2 tsp baking power
pinch of salt

Use the electronic whisk to whisk the eggs and sugar first for 5-8 minutes. Add tofu, oil and Soya milk, whisk 2 more minutes. Then add the wheat germ and the other dry ingredients. Slowly combine together. Pull in the prepared tin, bake 45 minutes in 350F.

The punkin cake is burnt especially the raisin on the bottom. I used same ingredients as the tofu cake just change the tofu to one cup of punkin puree and the Soya milk to water. The cake is too wet. Maybe it is because the punkin puree contains more water. I am going to make it again.

Corn Soup

Corn Soup

I think the traditional corn soup always has milk or cream and butter, but my husband is sensitive with any milk products. So I use the Chinese way to make it.

1 can Green Giant creamy corn
1+1/2 can water (same can of above)
1 cup of extra frozen sweet corn
100g of the smoke turkey breast
4 pieces of dry mushroom
one egg
1 tsp of salt
some cilantro or green onion for decoration

Everything is in the pot. Bring it to broil, add scramble egg and salt, green onion for decoration.
Sweet and tasty.

Monday, January 10, 2005

Bun

Bun

This first one is Chinese steam beef bun, the second one the taro bun.

For the steam bun, I like to add 1/2 tsp of baking powder in the regular sweet bread dough. Change the flour to half Ap flour, half cake flour. The dough needs less time to rise, around 45 minutes for the first time and 20-30 minutes for the second time. I use ground beef for the filling this time. Anything can be added in this kind of filling like ground pork, dry mushroom, Chinese cabbage. Filling is marinated. I stir fry it first, make a small bun after the first rise of the dough. Then rise another 20 minutes, put on the boiling water to steam for 15 minutes. They are very nice for breakfast or lunch.

For the taro filling, I steam and mash the taro, mix with sugar, a little bit butter to make it smooth. Fill in the regular sweet bread dough. Bake for 15 minutes in 350F. The taro filling also can be put in the steam bun.

Eggplant with Fish Cake

Eggplant with Fish Cake

My favor vegetable again, eggplant. This dish must use the long and skinny eggplant. Cut and filled with fish cake. Pan fry until cooked. Take them out. Hot pan with oil, garlic, black bean sauce, sugar, cooking wine and a little bit water. Bring it to boil then pull onto the eggplant. De-licious~

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Seafood Combination

I really like seafood. In Asia, our seafood are live and they are swimming before they are put in the cooking pan. But after I came to North America, I could not taste that kind of freshness any more. All the seafood are frozen and packed. My husband always tells me: don't be picky, you can choose eat or don't eat. Well, I am not that kind of picky. It's better than nothing, right?!
We use cuttlefish and shrimp today, they all just need a few minutes to cook. I use garlic and Chinese celery to fragrant the lightly oily pan. (Chinese celery has stronger flavor than American celery.) Seafood are in, salt & pepper. Of course, the cooking wine. I think seafood cook with alcohol can enhance their flavor. Lastly, 2 big teaspoon of chili sauce. (Spicy! Spicy!) Stir until all the seafood are done.

Braise Winter Melon

Winter Melon, a cheat but delicious vegetable. And it's good for you. I use smoke ham and small dry shrimp to braise with it. One small shredded carrot, and one bunch of enoki mushroom are added for more flavor. Slow cook for about 20 minutes. Before serve, drop in 1tsp of salt. This dish is so good to eat with plain rice.

Fresh shitake with Tiger Shrimp

Not everyone likes the flavor of Shitate, but in my family, shitake mushroom can be put in every dish. We always have dry shitake in stock. In market, we found some fresh shitake these days, we decided to make seafood plate with it.
Fresh shitake has much stronger flavor than the dry ones. We use black tiger shrimp to let the mushroom absorb the seafood flavor.
As usual, heat the pan with garlic and oil, stir in the mushroom and any vegie you like, stir fry for a while, then the shrimp (marinated with salt and pepper for a while), 2Tb of rice wine, salt & pepper and some sugar. Cover until the shrimp is tender. Lastly, coriander is in and few drops of Soya sauce. Then, the dish is ready!

Braise Chicken

Fresh whole chicken (around 2-3 pound), wash and drain the excess water.
A big pot, pull in enough water for covering the chicken. Bring the water to boil. Add some whole pepper corn, a big piece of ginger (lightly mashed), 2 scallion, coriander, around 2tsp salt, 2-3 Tb rice wine. Put the chicken in. Bring it to boil again then turn the heat to low. After 30 minutes simmering, turn the heat off, don't open the lip of the pot, cover another 30 minutes.
Before serve, cut the chicken in pieces, serve with mash ginger, chop scallion and Soya sauce.
This is a traditional Chinese dish. I think there are lots of different ways to make it, but just lightly different. The important parts which are simmering and covering the chicken won't change. This will make the chicken very juicy and tender.

Steam Black Tiger Shrimp

We like to steam fresh seafood or meat to taste the freshness and sweetness. This time we choose black tiger shrimp. It must be heads on because all the goody are all on the heads. When the water is boiling, put the the shrimp in. It only takes 4-5 minutes, otherwise the shrimp will lost the tenderness. I think this time we over cooked it for just 1 minute, my husband and I also can taste it out.
The shrimp is excellent with Soya sauce and fresh ginger or chilly if you like. The the taste of seafood is all over your mouth. You can feel the ocean is just beside you~ ;)

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Punkin bread

Same method as the purple sweet potato bread, this time just change the sweet potato puree to punkin puree. (steam and mash) I also put some wheat germ, wheat bran, quick oak in the dough too. This bread was made in Halloween (too much punkin left at that time).

Purple Sweet Potato Bread

I know the colour does not look right. :) But it's really the natural colour. I use purple sweet potato to make the bread. Around 2Tb of warm water to active the dry yeast, one medium purple sweet potato (steam and mash), 1Tb of brown sugar, then enough flour to knead into a smooth and elastic dough. 2 hrs for first rise, 1 hrs for second rise. 350F to bake 15 minus.

Different challenge, different taste. It's fun~

Double Eggs Bread

Same as the Black Sesame Bread. Same method, Same ingredient except change the warm water in the dough to one more egg. The bread smells so good. I like to put lots of grain into the bread, it's healthy for my family.

Black Sesame Bread

Tasty and healthy bread is always at home by handmade :)

Sponge:
280g of the flour
120g warm water
1tsp yeast

Dough:
120g of flour
2Tb of wheat germ
2Tb of wheat bran
2Tb of minute oat
3tsp of black sesame powder
1Tb of dry milk power
2Tb of brown sugar
Pinch of salt
3-4Tb of warm water
1 egg
1Tb of extra virgin of Oliver oil

Sponge is made the night before in the fridge. The next day I take it out an hour before I make the dough. When the sponge is back to normal temperature, I put everything including the sponge together expect the Oliver oil. After the dough is formed, add the oil by twice. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Put in the lightly grease bowl to rise until double volume. Punch it down, cut into six pieces, cover to relax for 15 minus. Roll them up, put onto the baking tray with parchment paper, cover to rise until double volume again. Preheat oven 350F, bake 15 minus. Then cool on the wire rack.

Sweet Potato Cake (rice cooker)

This is a very special cake because I use my rice cooker to cook it. The cake has different texture compare to the baking method. It contains more moist.

A:
1/2 medium to large sweet potato (steamed and mashed)
2 eggs
2Tb brown sugar
2Tb vegie oil
2/3 cup warm water

B:
one cup flour
1Tb dry milk powder
pinch of salt
2tsp baking power

I use the electric mixer to whisk the eggs and sugar well (about 5 minus), add the rest of A, mix well. Change to rubber spoon, fold in the B mixture. Then pour in the lightly grease rice cooker. Some black sesame seed on the top (optional). Turn the rice cooker on, after the machine is off, turn it on again.

I think everybody has different kind of rice cooker, I use the bamboo stick to check the cake if I need to cook the cake one more time.

Simmering Eggplant

simmering eggplant

This dish is my husband's specialty. Every time he makes this dish I always miss the chance to see how he does it. All I know is he saw a Japanese recipe and decided to give it a try. He said there is no grease. He used fish sauce in stead of the Japanese Dashi Stock, water, salt, a little bit more sugar, rice wine to simmer until the eggplant and sugar pea tender. I like this dish, maybe it's because I like the sweeten eggplant very much. :)

Friday, January 07, 2005

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Cinnamon Raisin, my favourite match. My husband does not like the smell of cinnamon, but I think he is just one of the minority. I made this bread with sponge method. I make a sponge (70% of the flour and 40-45% of the water with yeast) the night before, put it in the fridge overnight. The next morning, I take it out an hour before I make the dough, the dough needs shorter time to rise for the first and second time compare with the straight forward method. This method is my favour. The bread it much softer and moister. Even two days later I reheat it with oven, it still tastes the same as the first day.

Potato Bread

potato bread

A very strong potato taske bread. The first time I make potato bread was totally fail. It's because I was too greedy. I put too much mash potato in the dough. The dough ended up too wet to handle, and I was too tired to keep putting more flour in to knead the dough. This time, I used two small Yukon Gold, around 350g flour, 2Tb warm water to active the yeast. I meant to make it salty, and put some herb in it. but I was too nervous about the water percentage of the dough, I forgot to put anything but the potato, flour and that 2Tb yeast water. When I noticed it, I had finished the dough kneading. So I decided to just knead in some raisin to make it a little bit sweet. This bread is very delicious. If you like potato, you will like the bread.