PORK TROTTERS

      

When we were young we don't get to eat pig trotters or also known as pig's leg.They were considered expensive.

When we all grew out and working,we went outside to the cafe to eat.What I hate most is they put parts of the pig's

weird things and so this puts me off  wanting to eat pig's leg.

When I met my hubby,I ate the most delicious pig's

trotters cooked by my mother in law.From then onwards,I like to eat pig trotters because home-cooked one can 

leave out the body parts away.

When I had family of my own,I learned to cook this for my children'.I'm not saying I like pig trotter a lot,but 

once in a while I will cook especially on special occasions like chinese new year or birthdays.I don't cook pork 

that often.Most of the time,I coooked chicken.

This dish is specially prepared on the eve of the Chinese New year and during Chap Goh Mei. I simply estimate the 

ingredients.If I taste it less salty or sweet,I will add more to it.This,I gathered all the recipes from the internet and 

adjust to myself by looking at all the others' recipes.For all I know,my hubby does not like it too sweet,so less sweet for us.I normally put the leftover in the slow cooker and eat it the next day.This will make the meat more tender or 

else you can also cook it in the slow cooker all along the way up to tenderness.

  (A)

1.5 Liter water

4 pcs ginger,crushed

3 whole garlics,crushed

2 tbsp light soya sauce

2 1/2 tbsp dark soya sauce or adjust to own taste

1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce or adjust to own taste

1  tbsp sweet soy sauce or adjust to own taste

20 g rock sugar cubes

2 dried chillies,(optional)soak and soften

2 tbsp shaoxing wine or adjust to own taste

1 bark cinnamon

3-4 star anise

4 cloves

           (B)

1.45 kg pig trotters

4-5 shitake mushrooms

1.  Blanch pork trotters in boiling water till they are no longer pinkish in colour.

2.  Get ready a pot and pour in A. Then add in B to start boiling in medium heat.

3.  Cover the pot with lid and allow to simmer on low heat for 2 hours or till meat is tender and bones has comes out.

4.  Serve with rice and red chillies in dark soya sauce.

SNOWY CRISPY POPIAH SKIN ROLLS

 

INGREDIENTS;

Popiah Skin Wrapper-small packet

Chopstick for rolling the skin

Milk powder-plenty

egg white for sealing the skin of the popiah

Lots of cooking oil for deep-frying

PINEAPPLE JAM FOR PINEAPPLE TARTS FILLING

 

INGREDIENTS:

572 Gr Pineapple chunks

1/2 cup Sugar

1.. Peel the skin of the pineapple away,Remove  the eyes of the pineapple.Cut the core away. Then cut into chunks.

2.  Put the chunks into the blender/food processor and blend until fine. You can then sieve to take the               juices out,but I don't do that. I straight away pour into the saucepan  or pot to fry.Use medium heat.

3. There is no need to always stir,but keep an eye to  it.When the water has nearly evaporated,then

    pour in the sugar.Stir and stir until it becomes a thick paste.Leave to cool completely.

4.  Leave it in the fridge until ready to use.

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Ondeh Ondeh Cookies

This is a baked version of the original steamed ondeh-ondeh kueh.Steamed ondeh-ondeh is made up of glutinous rice flour and has gula melaka/palm sugar and grated fresh coconut..This baked version is a copy of it,but it is using flour and not glutinous rice flour and dessicated coconut instead of fresh grated coconuts.Please google to find out more.

INGREDIENTS;

200 g superfine/low protein flour(sifted)

100 g icing sugar

115 g butter

20 g gula melaka(grated)

1 egg(grade B)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pandan paste

30 g dessicated coconut

Dessicated coconut for rolling the balls

1.  Beat butter and icing sugar with a hand beater until well-combined.

2.  Add in egg to beat,follow by salt and pandan paste until well combined.

3.  Add in the sifted flour and fold well.

4.  Add in the dessicated coconut as well as the grated gula melaka.. Mix well.

5.  Let the dough to rest in the chiller for 20 mins or until it is easy to handle.

6.  Take a small portion of dough on your palm and roll it into balls and drop the small balls into a plate        of  dessicated  coconuts.Coat all the balls with the dessicated coconuts so that it look like the kueh          Ondeh  Ondeh,

7.  Arrange all of the balls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

8.  Bake in the pre-heated oven 170°C for about 15-20 mins,center rack.

9.  Cool down your cookies and store in an air-tight container.

ONDEH-ONDEH WITH FILLINGS INSIDE;

RECIPE ADAPTED FROM: CHEF CHOO OF ROYAL PLAZA SINGAPORE

INGREDIENTS;

200 g butter

100 g icing sugar

a pinch of salt

5 g coconut milk

5 g green pandan essence

50g ground almond

300 g flour

250 g dessicated coconut

GULA MELAKA SAUCE;

50g gula melaka

50 g water

1 pandan leaf

a pinch of salt

1.  Combine butter and icing sugar Whisk together at a slow speed until they melt together. add in salt and coconut milk to the micture.Continue whisking until mixture is well combined.

2.  Add in pandan paste,flour and ground alnonds. whisk until mixture has a dough-like consistency.

3.  Leave the dough at room temperature for half an hour.

4.  Put the dessicated coconut in a bowl and combine with gula melaka.

5.  Each ondeh-ondeh balls weighs equal weight,roughly about 15 g.

6.  Fill each dough ball with a ball of gula melaka and coconut mixture.Roll each filled ball into the dessicated coconuts.Coat each one of them.

7.  Place on a lined tray with parchment paper and bake at 160°C for about 20 mins.

8.  Take out from the oven and cool on wire rack.After cooled,store in an air-tight container.

sugar cookies

Hey! I made this before christmas.It's just a simple shape joined sugar cookies.I do made a few different shapes,but my computer suddenly crashed and I have to re-format it and couldn't save the rest of the pictures.This is the only picture that I have on my phone.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com and I adjust the sugar to my taste.

 INGREDIENTS;

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup butter,softened

1 cups white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

METHOD;

Pre-heat oven 190°C.In a small bowl,sieve together flou,baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl,cream butter and sugar until creamy and smooth.Beat in egg and vanilla extract.

Gradually,add in dry ingredients.Roll rounded balls,put on ungrease cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 mins in pre-heated oven until golden brown.Let stand on cookie sheet for 2 mins before removing to cool on wire rack.

FRUIT CAKE

 

Christmas is coming near and what I'm thinking for christmas is a fruitcake.This fruitcake is very easy to make.It is like making a butter cake,but mixng in extra ingredients like spices and mixed fruits.Nuts like almonds can also be added in.Sugar can be substituted with brown sugar. So,this marked my first year end cake for 2020.It is a big cake.I used a round 8" cake tin with removable base for easy take out.

INGREDIENTS;

250 g Butter

230 g Caster Sugar

300 g Plain Flour

25 g Corn Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

5 Eggs

400 g Mix Fruits - add 2 tbsps flour

1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

1 tsp Ginger Juice

1 tsp Warmed Honey

1 tsp Grated Nutmeg

METHOD;

1.  Pre-heat oven to 150°C.

2.  Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.Add in eggs one at a time.Beat well after each addition.

3.  Sieve flour,corn flour and baking powder together.Add flour mixture into creamed/butter mixture.

4. Just roughly stir for a while,then add in the mixed fruits.Mix well.

5.  Pour the cake mixture into a tray lined with parchment paper or greased baking paper.8" or 20cm

     tray(round or square)

6.  Bake in the pre-heated oven for 1 1/2 hours or insert a cake inserter into the center of the cake to

    check whether it is fully baked or not. If the inserter comes out clean,the cake is done.Let cool for a  

      while before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

SARAWAK SALAD CHICKEN RICE

 

Salad chicken rice is merely a fried chicken rice top with salad dressing and is therefore simply called salad chicken rice.Normally served together with sweet cabbages or salad leaves,cucumbers,baked beans and adding or squishing salad dressing on to it as well as condiment like tomato or chilly sauce.Some people do not like baked beans,so leave it out.I use thousand island dressing ,but some people may use mayonnaise instead.Adjust to your taste.

Enjoy cooking at home during this pandemic.

INGREDIENTS;

2 cups rice

 

1 Shallot

4 pips garlic

2 lemongrass

1 small pc fresh ginger, I use ginger powder cos I can't find fresh one

1 tbsp Salt

2 tbsps Oil

water for cooking the rice, 1:1

2 chicken thighs

Oil for deep-frying the chicken 

FOR GARNISHING:

cucumber

baked beans

cabbage/salad leaves

DRESSING:

Thousand island salad dressing

CONDIMENT:

tomato

chilly sauce

METHOD:

1.  Wash the rice.Drain the water.

2.  Prepare non-stick pan for frying. Add oil.Add in the shallot,garlic,ginger and lemongrss.Cook till           fragrant.

3.  Add in the ready washed uncooked rice. Fry until fragrant.Add in salt. Fry until rice is a bit yellow.

4.  Take the rice out into the rice cooker to boil like you normally cook rice. For my rice is 1:1, Some

      rice might not be the same. Use old method by finger measurement for more accuracy.

5.  In a pot full of oil,deep-fried the chicken thighs when the oil is already hot.Fry until turns brown             and cooked through.

6.  Cut the chicken to pieces.

7.  When the rice is already cooked,serve the rice together with the fried chicken,baked beans,cabbages

      or salad leaves,cucumbers and top with the salad dressing.Tomato or chilly sauce is optional.

SHANGHAI MOONCAKES

 

One of the few mooncakes that I like are Shanghai mooncakes,Teowchew La Pia and Feng Cui Ping.

I got this recipe from Baking Tai Tai blog.I leave out the salted egg yolk,and I replace the sesame 

seeds with pumpkin seeds for the decorations.For the filling,at first I wanted to use red bean paste,

but then decided to use green bean paste instead.

I can assured you that this is a very good recipe.The Shanghai mooncakes tasted great and everyone

loves it.Compared to my previous Shanghai mooncakes recipe,this one is a winner.

This recipe yields 12 mooncakes.

INGREDIENTS;

300g plain flour

40g custard powder

1 tsp baking powder

80g icing sugar

1 egg,lightly beaten

150g butter/unsalted or salted(skip salt if use salt butter)

1/4 tsp salt(if using unsalted)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract/essence

a few pumpkin seeds for decorations

Measure dough 57g each

FILLING;

 Green bean paste or paste of your choice,preferably lotus paste(52g each)

EGG GLAZE;

1 egg yolk

1 tsp milk

METHOD;

1.  Sift flour with baking powder,custard powder,and salt into a mixing bowl.

2.  Sift icing sugar and mix well into the flour mixture.

3.  Add in butter..Rub till it resembles like breadcrumbs

4.  Make a well in the centre,and add in lightly beaten egg.Combine into a soft dough without

     kneading.Let it to rest for 30 mins.

5.  Divide dough into 57 grams each..Roll into balls.

6.  Divide paste into 52 grams each..Roll into balls.

7.  Wrap the filling and shape into dome.Arrange them into lined baking tray with parchment paper

     or lightly greased baking tray.Decorate with some pumpkin seeds.

8.  Bake in pre-heated oven 180°C with top and bottom heat for 10 mins.Take out from oven and

     let rest for 5 mins.

9.  Brush them with egg glaze and return to the oven and bake for another 25-30 mins or until

     golden brown.

MINI FLAKY MOONCAKES

I love this mooncakes.Among all those mooncakes,this is the one that capture my heart for eating mooncakes.I don't quite like mooncakes.It never interest me.I have said that before in my previous

mooncake's post.Mooncakes are sweet and has only a thin crust filled with sweet fillings.

This flaky mooncakes is of Teochew origin as is what I heard.I'm not a mooncakes expert,but people said it is a Teochew mooncakes,so it is a Teochew mooncakes then. It is often sold in long tubes and

every year I would buy this type of mooncakes.and that's the only mooncake that I eat,but then I've

come to like other mooncakes too as time goes by.My taste has change to many

other types of mooncakes too.Not only that,after becoming a mother,I began making my own mooncakes year after year.My children all love mooncakes and during mooncake's festival,we would

celebrate it and bring various types of mooncakes to the outside front porch of our house to eat and

enjoy gazing at the moon.The moon would usually be full on this day.We would also hang some lanterns on a pole and if it's not enough,we would go to a park where dozens of people frock there

to hang lanterns on the trees which make it more merrier.Sadly,this year we will not be going to that

park to hang the lanterns on trees because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This mini flaky mooncakes is usually sold in paper tubes and has 10 pieces inside There is also a 

bigger one like the shape of a disc,but thicker than the disc and usually is of mung bean filling,but

can be red bean filling too or green peas paste filling.I've made 2 disc shape(pic shown with red marking).

INGREDIENTS;

WATER PASTRY;

200 g Plain Flour

100 g Shortening

100 ml Water

OIL PASTRY;

200 g Plain Flour

130 g Shortening

FILLING;

840 g Mung Bean paste

EGG WASH;

egg + water


1.  Mix water pastry ingredients together and let rest for 10 mins.

2.  Divide into 30 small balls.

3.  Next mix the oil ingredients together and divide into 30 small balls too.
 
NOTE: You calculate your dough and divide into how balls you want.I want a smaller mooncakes
like the store bought one,so I made smaller mooncakes.If you want bigger mooncakes,you make
bigger one.The oil pastry maybe smaller portion a bit than the water pastry.

4.  For the fillings,I used about 29-30 g each.

5.  Wrap one ball of oil pastry to water pastry.Seal the edges and shape into a ball.Roll flat with                   rolling pin and roll into a swiss roll.Then roll flat with rolling pin again and roll like a swiss
     roll again.Now make round shape and put the filling in to wrap and seal.Use hands to shape
     into round ball.Lightly flatten the ball with your hand.Can chop red mark on top of it if you want.

6.  Glaze with egg wash.

7.  Bake in pre-heated oven 180°C for about 20-25 mins.

The result you get after baked is flaky skin mooncakes and when you bite,some flakes will drop drop as you bite.Enjoy eating mooncakes."HAPPY MOONCAKES FESTIVAL"

BURNT CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE

INGREDIENTS;

440g Cream Cheese

105g Caster Sugar

4 Eggs

200ml Whipping Cream

120g Melted Dark Chocolate

50g Cocoa Powder

10g Corn Flour

1.  Line 8" tin with parchment paper.

2.  Melt the dark chocolate.

3.  Crack the 4 eggs into a jug or bowl.

4.  In a mixing bowl,beat the cream cheese till it turn creamy.Add in the caster sugar and continue

     beating till well-mixed.Then add in eggs slowly till well combined.Add in whipping cream.

    Beat again till all are well mixed.Then add in the melted dark chocolate.Mix well again.

5.  Lastly,add in the cocoa powder and corn flour.Mix well with a spatula.

6.  Pour into lined baking tin. Shake tin a bit to loosen air bubbles trapped inside.

7.  Bake in oven at 220°C for 30 mins.Turn on upper heat to bake for another 5 mins so that the

     cake looks burnt.

8.  After the cake has cooled down,put inside the fridge and chill for several hours or preferably

     overnight.Enjoy!

SPIRAL TEOCHEW YAM MOONCAKES-BAKED AND DEEP-FRIED METHOD

These are Teochew Spiral Yam Mooncake

 I baked two versions of mooncakes 3 days ago.One is the deep-fried version and one is the baked versions.Both turned out fine,but I must say the baked version tasted more like mooncakes than the
deep-fried version.

I think it looked like roses and snail.Compared to other bakers,mine look very different from theirs
from the top.Such a pity that mine don't have the Jupiter look.I'm just happy that I can achieved the
spiral look rather than not looking spiral at all.I will be trying once more and I hope to get a better
look.

My mooncakes here is just using yam as the filling and no salted egg yolks.Our family dislikes
salted egg yolks inside the mooncakes,so I opted it out to make everyone happy and be able to enjoy

the mooncakes,.I know a lot of people like to put salted egg yolks in the center of the filling and it 

also looks like it represents the moon and it does look more prettier.

The baked one is more whitish in colour.I didn't expect the baked one to have the obvious spiral,because people say if you bake rather than deep-fried, the spiral won't be that obvious,but

 here it is proven that it is spiral as well.Perhaps I should use colouring to make it more colourful and beautiful.

INGREDIENTS;

Skin:

Ingredients A

240 g high protein flour,sieved
1 tbsp castor sugar
130 ml water
50 g shortening
1 tsp lime juice

Ingredients B

240 g superfine flour,sieved
170 g shortening/lard

1.  Mix in ingredients A to a bowl.Leave for 20 minutes. Divide into 8 portions.

2.  Mix ingredients B to a bowl. Form a dough.Divide into 8 portions.

3.  Flatten dough A to wrap up dough B.Flatten lengthwise and roll up like Swiss roll.Flatten
     lengthwise again . Cut into half and stack up. Flatten lengthwise and roll up like Swiss  roll  again.

     Leave for 10 minutes and divide into two.This makes 16 portions.

Filling:

1 kg cooked yam,(steamed and mashed)

400g sugar

180g oil

16 cooked salted egg yolks(I skip)

Oil for frying

Filling:

1.  Cook mashed yam with sugar and oil till dry and leaves sides of wok.Leave to cool.

2.  Divide into 100g portion and wrap up with one salted egg yolk(if Using).

3.  Flatten skin and wrap up filling. Deep-fry till golden brown. 

Notes: I take 5 out to bake in the oven.Temperature and time is 180°C for 25-30 minutes.
             The skin is still white after baking,but still flaky.
            Recipe adapted from Her World magazine many years ago and kept until now.

POTATO CHICKEN SCONES

INGREDIENTS;

270g plain flour

3 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

90g butter

90g cooked chicken,chopped

2 sprigs coriander leaves,chopped(I skip)

180g mashed potatoes

1/4 cup milk

FOR GLAZE-BEATEN TOGETHER

1 egg yolk

1 tsp evaporated milk/fresh milk

METHOD:

Sift flour and baking powder and add salt.Rub in butter with a pastry knife until mixture resembles
fine breadcrumbs.Stir in chicken and coriander.(I skip the coriander).

Add potatoes and mix well.Stir in milk to make a soft dough.

Turn on a lightly floured board and roll out on a sheet of plastic wrap until 1 1/2 cm thick.Cut into
5 cm triangles with a knife dip in flour.

Place on tray lined with parchment paper. Bake in 200°C oven for 20-25 mins until golden brown.
Remove from oven and brush scones immediately with egg glaze.

NOTE; This recipe was adapted from the book by BETTY YEW