Kueh Salat second attempt

This one's better. I'm fairly happy now. The approximate recipe is below. Quantities given can probably fill a 24cm cake mold, but I used a 20cm one.

 1. Make a concentrated pandan juice from 200g of deep green pandan leaves only. This is overkill - i think I need less, but having more juice is better than having less. Just blend with cut up pandan leaves with as little water as possible in batches, then squeeze/sieve the lot.

2. Make the rice. Steam 250g of glutinous rice (there will be excess) with a cup of half/half mix of coconut cream and water. Add 1/2 tsp salt. steam the lot for about 20 mins. Take out, fluff and mix the rice (coconut milk will not be evenly distributed). Then ladle rice to the mold (20cm dia) and tamp it down with a oiled potato masher (flat end). Should fill about 1/3 of the depth.

3. Make the custard.

3a. Mix about 150ml coconut cream + 250ml of pandan concentrate + pinch of salt and 120g sugar. Add a few drops of vanilla essence.

3b. Beat 5 eggs + 1 yolk (cold eggs from fridge). Sieve to get smooth egg mix.

3c. Gently heat mix from 3a until sugar is dissolved. When mix is hot (about 70C to 80C), add a roux (slightly runny, so use a bit more butter) made from 2 tablespoons of flour, slowly stirring it in. Stir until the mix thickens a bit and coats back of spoon. Do not over heat and boil.

3d. Pour a dribble of the mix into the egg a little at a time and stir continuously to tamper the eggs. Then when half done, combine all together. Stir to mix completely.

4. When 3d is started, put the mold into the steamer to steam another 5 mins or so to get the rice hot.

5. when 3d is ready, take the mold out of steamer and pour the mix into the mold through a sieve to catch any lumps.

6. gently steam (about 87C) until a instant read thermometer inserted into the kueh reads about 77C. Note to self: egg custard hardens at about 82C.

7. Take out and rest until kueh is cool (about 2 hours). Unmold and store, or eat.

Kueh Salat First attempt

I tried doing a kueh for the first time - this is a kueh salat. Tastes ok, but nothing like the sublime concoction I ate the other day at a function. The main difference being the wobbly texture of the top custard layer. Well... there's always another time.

I adapted a recipe from http://kitchentigress.blogspot.sg/2012/02/kueh-salat.html

What's the difference? Well, the most visible difference is lack of bunga telang
(this gives the distinctive blue color streaking the glutinous rice base). First I did not know where to get it, and second, I figured I would leave it out for the first try as not significantly affecting the taste of a first time preparation. Another significant difference is using coconut cream and not milk.

Other differences. The recipe does not mention sieving of the warm custard prior to laying on top of the rice. I did it - otherwise there'd be lumps. Instead of just adding in flour, I first did a roux (I was doubtful of just adding in the raw flour into a non-oil based liquid) with butter and flour and put it in (however, it probably did thicken it a bit too much). I did not bother with the multi-step procedure for the rice - I simply steamed it for 25 mins with a coconut cream and water mix in a separate container, then added it in, tamped it down and steamed for another 5.

Mistakes?

• I think I followed the quantities given, but I still ended up with a slightly too thin top layer.
• The top layer is over cooked. First, probably because the thin layer was too thin and the cooking time is shorter. Second, I was using my thermometer to check on it, but I forgot to set the alarm - by the time I got to it, it had hit 83C - too hot.
• I think I needn't thicken the custard that much before adding it in. A mild thickening would have done.

Prata with scrambled egg and dill

Got frozen prata dough in the fridge. Leftover dill.

So what do I do? Scrambled eggs on prata with dill as garnish, for breakfast. Tastes decent. Needs a bit more dill (the dill isn’t too strong now).

quickie lunch

Stir fry large sliced mushrooms and pine nuts in butter. Then pour the whole thing on top of salad leaves.

Pasta with home made tomato sauce and basil leaves from the balcony.

All done in 20 mins.

Stir fried garlic prawn

From vague memory, I think might be similar to an Italian dish. Anyway....

1. I used the salmon belly rendered oil left over from my previous dish.
2. Heat pan till hot. Maintain high heat.
3. Drop in a generous handful of chopped garlic and quickly fry.
4. When garlic starts to look it might brown, drop in the prawns. Add in salt and chilli flakes.
5. Vigourously stir fry prawn, flipping the saute pan to avoid bruising the prawns.
6. When prawns are fully colored, fry several seconds more. Then squeeze in a generous squeeze of lemon juice.
7. Drop coriander on top, mix a bit. Then serve.

This dish was a hit, not sure how much was due to the use of the salmon belly rendered oil from step 1.

For #1, probably can just use regular oil with a high smoke point. Probably can experiment with dressing the prawns with a spritz of extra virgin olive oil after it leaves the pan.

Salmon Belly with Dill and miso

Fairly quick dish. Quite nice, worth repeating.

1. Dry the skin of the salmon on paper towel.
2. Heat pan till very hot. Oil is optional - but it you use any, just a small sheen will do.
3. Place belly skin side down. Lower heat to medium high.
4. When skin is browned and crispy, turn belly over and fry the other side for 20-30 seconds.
5. Place still hot belly on a plate.
6. Spread miso (use a mild tasting white miso) in a thin layer on the top.
7. Drop finely chopped dill on top.

The "No Knead" bread recipe adapted for Singapore and for complete novices

This post was inspired by a meeting with friends. It is aimed at people who

1. Who are complete novices
2. Like Ang Mo style breads.
3. Like to save money on above breads.
4. Prefer food where they control the ingredients (including preservatives).
5. Have minimum equipment.
6. but is relatively easy to do.

The "No knead" term is from a recipe that is famously available on the internet. However, it needs adaptation to the Singapore climate and lifestyle, and I've added step by step instructions for the complete novice.

Must have equipment
A weighing scale accurate to 1g. This is essential. Recipes that use cup measures are inaccurate (depends on how you pack the flour and other stuff).

A large bowl made of glass or steel.

A large tray (fits in oven). Even if the tray is non-stick, I suggest baking parchment paper to lay on top of it. Bread has been known to stick even on supposedly non stick surfaces.

At least one oven mitt.

A fridge with enough space for the bowl.

An oven with max temp 250C. As low as 220 should hopefully be ok - just use your highest setting basically.

Good to have equipment (cheap stuff)
Vegetable wash. This is a food safe way to clean your counter top and anywhere you have remnants of sticky dough/flour. It loosens the stuff and makes it much easier to deal with.



Dough scraper. Makes it easier to  clean flat surfaces. Also comes in handy to handle dough if necessary (though this recipe doesn't need it).



Ingredients (makes one medium loaf)
400g bread flour. No need to buy fancy flour, but do get bread flour.
4g instant yeast
8g fine salt.
300g cool water (from tap is fine).

Ice cubes

Method
Takes almost 2 days to complete (with an overnight). But mostly spent waiting.

This sequence assumes starting the night before bed and that you use air conditioning to sleep. Technically the dough needs 12 to 18 hours at about 22C to develop. We come close by first putting the dough into the fridge to practically stop the development. Then take it out and let it develop overnight with you in the air conditioning. The last bit of development can be normal Singapore room temp. If the weather is very hot, adjust timing.

Step 1 - mix initial dough and refrigerate

1. Mix salt, flour well in the bowl. 
2. Using your hands, make a hole in the center of the flour.
3. Pour in water in center. Pour in yeast on water and stir the yeast into the water a bit.
4. With your hands, slowly incorporate the flour into the water, getting faster as more flour collapses into the water.
5. Continue turning and pressing the dough until nearly all loose bits of flour have been incorporated into a ball and the bowl is mostly free of flour/dough. 
6. Cover the bowl e.g. with a large wet towel or plastic wrap.
7. Put into the fridge for 1-2 hours. Longer is ok. At 1-4C, development is very low.

Bowl with unmixed flour

good enuff

Step 2 - develop the dough

1. Take out the covered bowl and bring it into the air conditioned room with you. Obviously place it somewhere safe where you won't knock it over.
2. In the morning, just wake up normally. If the dough has not fully developed, which it probably won't unless you sleep an abnormally long time, leave it developing in a cool place in the house but no need aircon. It will develop faster if the air temperature is warmer - just keep an eye on the roughly 12 hours needed and/or its appearance (see point 3). Technically, the longer it takes, the more flavor is developed.
3.  When developed, the dough will be about doubled in size and have almost translucent bubbles all over.

It has doubled and there are bubbles

Step 3 - fold once and do a second ferment.

1. Flour your hands well.
2. Carefully tip out the dough onto a well floured surface. Do not break any strands - try to keep the dough whole, gradually breaking its hold on the container a bit at a time if necessary.
3. Gently (you don't want to break up any internal bubbles too much) stretch the dough into a rough circle or rectangle. You can dust the dough with flour to make it easier to handle. Use as little as necessary.
4. Start lifting and folding the dough inwards.
5. Finally get it into a rough ball. Pinch any seams shut.
6.  Putting the ball of dough with seam side down, use the edge of your hands (the "karate" edge) to push the bottom of the ball inwards, tightening the ball.
7. Cover the ball loosely with a towel and let it rise for about 1 hour until it fully proofs.
8. You can do the following test to check for final proof. Poke your finger into the dough about 1cm. If the dough springs back immediately to fill your hole, it is not yet proofed. If the dough does not spring back at all, it is over proofed. What you want is a dough that slowly fills back your hole.

 

see the indentations? They are slowly filling up.

Step 4 - Bake

1.  About half an hour before baking (ie about half an hour into the second ferment), you probably want to preheat your oven to 250C.
2. Even after your oven reaches 250C, you still want to make sure your dough is adequately proofed (see step 8 previous section).
3. A few mins before putting in the bread, toss a 4-5 small cubes of ice into the oven and close.
4. Use a sharp knife, or a razor blade (you may not have a properly maintained sharp knife, then a razor is more reliable), do a couple of cross wise slashes. This is not purely decorative - when the dough first hits the oven, it is going to spring up - you are directing that spring.
5. When ready, put the tray of dough into the oven. Toss in another 4-5 small cubes of ice (keep clear of dough of course). BE CAREFUL OF STEAM. When opening the door, wear a oven mitt and keep your face away for the first second or two. At the same time do not linger or all the steam will escape.
6. Wait for 12 mins.
7. Dial down temp to 190C. Then open the oven door for about a minute to let some heat and steam escape.
8. Close oven door and continue baking at 190C until the bread is deep brown. About 30-40 mins. Longer if you like more crust.

 

Step 5 - cool down 

Take the bread out, but resist the temptation to cut a slice. You need to let it cool in open air (do not cover) until it is merely slightly warm. If you cut a slice or cover, you risk losing water or steaming the bread respectively.

Storage tips
This bread has no preservatives. It will taste less than optimal as soon as the second day and may develop mold within 3-6 days (probably depends on how you store it and how you handled it), from experience. To preserve taste and quality, you can immediately freeze sections of bread you cannot consume. When ready to consume, you can defrost the bread and then bake it in oven (covering up the exposed internal portions with foil) about 150C for about 15 mins until done (no preheating, just start from cold). It will taste almost as good as fresh baked.

Omelette and couscous lunch

Am busy.... This effort barely counts, but on the other hand is a easy peasy method of doing a reasonably healthy lunch. Tastes ok too!

Mix 3 eggs with a splash of milk, grated Parmesan, salt and pepper. Heat pan to high heat and turn to medium. Saute a mix of chopped bell peppers and mushrooms until mushrooms are nicely shrunken and fragrant.  Pour in egg mixture and stir it around until eggs are semi solid and glistening. Wait for a bit, then fold in half and complete browning at higher heat.

Couscous: boil 1/3 cup of water with some basil leaves and olive oil. When boiling, add in 1/3 cup couscous. Cover and briefly bring to boil. Then turn off heat to steam about 5 mins or more. Fluff and serve.

Baba ganoush

Ate Baba Ganoush at Ataturk (a pretty good restaurant on Bussorah Street). Decided to try to replicate it. Unfortunately, doesn't taste like that version, but still decent quality.

If I were to make it next time, I'd use slightly less tahini and raw garlic to bring out eggplant taste more. When refridgerated, the raw garlic intensified. The tahini added a bit too much sesame taste to it - leading one consumer to say "I thought this was hummus" (another taster said she hated eggplant normally by implication saying the eggplant wasn't obvious.... uh ... ).

Used the recipe from : http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/02/the-best-baba-ganoush-recipe.html

Ekmek Bread

Made some ekmek bread using this recipe :
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/21106/ekmek-turkish-bread/

Works well. No completed product pic coz I forgot to take it, but it tastes good, with a mild sourdough taste. Served it to classmates in my leadership & teamwork class and they liked it.

The starter used in the recipe needs a modified instruction for our hot and humid climate (triangulated by searching for starter techniques in hot climates). You can feed the starter every half day, not one day. This means starting at the evening of the 1st day and ready to start on the bread on the morning of the 3rd day.

The starter was bubbling on the 3rd day and smelled weird, almost like old socks. But a search of the internet showed that starter can have strong, weird smells.

Beef Stew and my fav tomato sauce recipe

This marries my favourite tomato sauce recipe found at

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/09/the-best-slow-cooked-italian-american-tomato-sauce-red-sauce-recipe.html

With beef.

essentially, brown some bacon. Take out the bacon, then brown the beef. Then for the rest of the way, use the tomato sauce recipe. I also added a cup of syrah (may not have been necessary).

Live Prawns are devilishly hard to peel

This is not a metaphor or some s**t. I found out the hard way.

Chanced on a NTUC Income selling live prawns, so I bought some. Some of these prawns were still alive when I got home. Heck, some of them were still moving after I cut the heads off.

I'm not a tyro at this. I've separated my fair share of prawn meat and shell. But man, the meat on these prawns stuck on the shell like velcro. After some huffing and puffing, I had to give up on having nicely non-mangled prawn flesh - gotta find some way to disguise them tomorrow.

This must be a reason why restaurants serving fresh prawn dishes never take off the shell. (the other reason being that the shell itself should be a thermal shield mediating the heat cooking the prawn).

Live and learn.

Homemade Yoghurt

The ordinary yoghurt we bought in the supermarket in Harbin was superior to the yoghurt we get here. So I decided to see if homemade yoghurt can replicate the effect.

To do this, need some yoghurt with live culture (you are going to provide the medium to grow the bacteria). You are supposed to start off with store bought yoghurt, but once you make your yoghurt, you can use that as a starter. 1 portion by weight of live culture yoghurt can be used to 20 portions of milk to make yoghurt.

Basic model
1. 25g of yoghurt with live culture. 500g of milk.
2. Bring the milk to a 82C temp in a pot. Stir the milk to make sure its the same temp throughout.
3. Let it cool till about 43C.
4. Spoon some of the cooled milk out to the yoghurt and break up the yoghurt with a spoon.
5. Pour the yoghurt/milk mixture back into the main body of milk. Mix it.
6. Heat the mixture to 42C for 7 hours.
7. Refridgerate to let it set. 24 hours seems to be better.

Result: the texture is good and creamy. But slightly acidic to my taste. I added about 3-4 tablespoons of honey and mixed it in. Tastes pretty good for a first try. 

Good for breakfast with fruit and spelt cake. But also good with toasted pine nuts in a shot glass, as a after dinner dessert.

Seems to me this can go 2 ways going forward. I can experiment with adding in the additional ingredients in the beginning. And I can experiment with adding heavy cream, for the fat. Also, there's a possibility of turning this into an ice cream.

In a shot glass with toasted pine nuts on top. The pine nuts lend texture, and a long finish at the back of the tongue

The break in the surface is due to me testing its texture before I took the pic.

Not all yohurt comes with this. Also apparently the more types of bacteria the better for the starter.

Seafood soup

Done it before, but this version seems nicer, so documenting it.

1. about 600g of shells (half prawn, half crayfish). 5 garlic cloves (diced). 1 medium onion (diced). 1 small leek (diced). sprigs of thyme. Brandy. Teaspoon of dried fennel. Tablespoon tomato paste. 1 cup of homemade tomato sauce. 1 lime leaf (Kaffir). 1 teaspoon gelatine. half teaspoon fermented fish sauce.
2. Pour a couple of tablespoons of oil and saute onions and leeks with the fennel until fragrant and almost translucent. Add in garlic and saute about a minute or two more.
3. Turn heat to high, put shells in pot. Saute until shells turn pink and there's a heady fragrance coming from the pot.
4. Add in tomato paste, stir it in and mix well. Saute for tomato paste to caramelise.
5. Pour in brandy - maybe a tablespoon or to taste.
6. Add in tomato sauce, thyme, fish sauce and lime leaf. Pour in enough water to cover the shells.
7. Bring to boil. Turn down heat, cover, and simmer for 40 mins.
8. Strain soup to remove solids.

To use the seafood soup as in pic, boil soup. When boiling, individually cook seafood till just done. Serve with soup separate, or pour warm (not boiling) soup back over seafood. Alternatively (and I'm going to try this next), use the seafood soup for a steamboat.

Back to basics: the (almost) no fuss french baguette

To make a really great french baguette takes great painstaking care. Probably a less humid climate also helps 8-).  I don't think I want to do that.

I'd like to make a good enough baguette (better than the average I can purchase) with no undue fuss. The result is quite tasty, but the crust texture is still not to my satisfaction. On another occasion, I shall sacrifice my baguette to science and try baking longer and leaving the step 12 to be longer as well.

I haven't made one in a long time, so I'm doing it again.This variation is for 1 medium baguette. Scale appropriately.

1. Bread flour 200g (2/3 AP, 1/3 bread flour), salt 4-5g, yeast 2-3g, room temp water 140g (70% hydration). 
2. Make a well in the bowl and pour water and then the yeast. Gently mix the yeast into the water, then slowly incorporate the flour with a spatula. For larger amounts, use a mixer, but do not overmix.
3. Let the dough stand for 60 mins. Then cover and refridgerate (spritz water to keep it moist) overnight.
4. Take out dough and let it stand for 2-3 hours depending on weather.
5. Tip out dough. Gently stretch and fold for a bit. Then for a final stretch and fold and shape the dough.
6. Leave the dough to prove a 2nd time for about 60-90 mins (depending on weather). Keep the dough moist.
7. preheat oven to 250C. 
8. Just before putting in dough, slash the dough, throw a few ice cubes into the bottom tray and start steam injection for highest level.
9. Put in dough and bake for 10 mins with steam.
10. Put temp control to 190C, turn off steam injection and open the oven door for 30-40 secs.
11. Close the oven door and continue baking until well browned.
12. Open the oven door, turn off oven and leave the bread in the oven to continue to develop the crust.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Could not resist buying this book at long last.

The movie "Julie and Julia" is a really great movie for cooks. Saw this movie twice (once at home) and both times, it seemed so inspiring (Meryl Streep was marvelous).

smoked duck breast soup

Had 2 smoked duck breasts from Phoon Huat.

Also had some duck bones from before.

So I made smoked duck soup.

1. Make duck stock the usual way like I do with chicken except with the duck bones.
2. Pour into pot, the duck stock over the smoked breasts.
3. Bring to a vigorous boil. Put in thai fish sauce for the saltiness.
4. Put pot in oven at 62C for 2 hours.
5. Take breasts out. Boil the soup again and put in the veg.
6. When veg is done, put duck back in, sliced.

Variation of original spelt cake

This is nicer according to mw.

1. 150g of flour, but this time 2/3 spelt and 1/3 whole wheat.
2. 35-40g of flaxseed plus half handful of dried raspberries and prunes (chopped).
3. 120g of liquid comprising lemoncello, lemon juice (one whole small lemon) + maple syrup and brown sugar (as usual my measuring system is "a dollop" and 2 tablespoons.). There's more lemoncello this time (prob about 6 tablespoons).
4. 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
5. dash of cinnamon powder + nutmeg powder.
6. 1 teaspoon each of baking powder and baking soda.
7. 180g unsalted butter (soft)
8. Solution of lemoncello + icing sugar for after baking.

Mix all dry ingredients well.
In a mixing bowl mix all wet ingredients.
Then mix in the dry ingredients just enough to get them all mixed. Do not overknead.
Bake in 170C oven. First 10 mins on light steam injection. Then about 20 mins or so without steam.
Watch the whole thing brown nicely, then take out and measure temp. Unfortunately, this time my thermometer was spoilt so I aga aga.
Let the cake cool a bit.
Poke holes all over.
Spoon over the lemoncello/sugar solution well and watch it sink into the cake.

Serve warm (not hot).

Breakfast of champions

Interesting color combination. Dragon fruit and homemade yam cake.

Steak dinner

steak was from chuck, the toughest but most flavourful meat. The toughness was taken care of by cooking it at 58C for 24 hours with a bit of butter, salt, oregano and rosemary.

Steak sauce was bacon and finely chopped onions sauted. Then add chicken stock and wine. Finally add butter to mount. Salt and pepper to taste.

Fairly nice.

For the salad, stewed dried prunes in sweet wine, then chopped the prunes. The leftover sweet wine is augmented by lemon juice, then mixed with olive oil. The veg is spinach and chopped bell pepper. Add hard boiled egg with soft center and foie gras (bought in France 2 years ago in a can). Turns out it is easier to blow torch the foie gras than to sear it in a pan. When I tried the first sear, a lot of smoke and a thin black skin formed. Luckily I could remove the black skin and restart, which I did with a blow torch.

The foie gras, sweet prunes and the sweet wine vinegrette was very good and went well with the wine, a Barolo we bought 10 years ago in Italy. The Barolo also went well with the meat.

Had to decant the Barolo in the morning to let it breathe in the fridge.

Green bean soup with tumeric

We had this green bean soup with ginger fairly recently in Bintan. It was quite nice, only a minor variation of our version, and I thought I'd recreate it but with fresh tumeric.

It actually isn't too bad, but the amount of fresh tumeric I used was a bit too little. Fresh tumeric only has a slight gingerish taste. Need to add more next time.

For a 1/2 cup of green beans, I used 1-1.5 cup of water and an amount of tumeric about half an index finger. Next time I'll try one full thumb worth. Sugar used was cane sugar (gula melaka is probably better). Only a bit of coconut cream was used - just enough to give a hint of the coconut.

Roast pork belly with crackling (after a long hiatus)

I've tried getting a good crackling on my pork belly before, but never did do it quite so to my satisfaction.

This version seems good for both crackling and meat. Unfortunately, I cocked it up later when reheating.

1. Dry brine the meat (next time I will wet brine with skin above fluid to try for more juiciness) with salt and 5 spice for about 24-48 hours.
2. Prick the skin deeply all over. Then also score the skin about 2cm apart (will make for easier cutting).
3. Wipe down the skin (but no special effort, just normal wipe down. The long cook will dry it out).
4. Cook in 115C oven until internal temp reaches about 80C (i think it was 2 hours or so).
5. Reduce oven temp to 90 and cook until meat is tender but still chewy (I think it was 2-3 hours).
6. Take out meat, and let a fan blow over the skin for about 15 mins.
7. Store in fridge for at least 3 hours to let the skin dry out further. Overnight is fine - I was extra paranoid by making sure the only things touching the (already sterile) pork was clean.
8. Turn the oven to 300C and preheat. Once it hits 300C, switch to broiler on high. Let it heat for several mins more.
9. Place pork close under broiler. Watch it carefully! Took it out when the skin is starting to turn black in places (bottom pic).
10. Let the pork cool. Then using a small knife, scrap the black char off.

Up to now, it was good. Then I stored some of the pork overnight to reheat the next day. When I reheated, I was afraid the pork would dry out and turned on some steam - big mistake. I tried to recover by re-broiling: unfortunately, I didn't watch it carefully and the crackling burnt badly. Ah well..... this was luckily a cheap cut I had in the freezer for a while. I cut off the skin and all good, just no crackling.

Sort of a buta kakuni

A loose version of this Japanese fav. The only commonality is the pork and the use of sake, and soya sauce in the braising fluid.

Braising fluid :
1. 3 cups homemade chicken stock
2. half cup or so of sake
3. 2 tablespoons soya sauce + 2 tablespoons sugar
4. 3 cloves garlic
5. generous dash of fish sauce (recommended by serious eats to add umami to meat braises)
6. Had some scallop powder, so added to the mix.
7. Boil the lot together (missed out ginger - did not have it on hand. Did not seem to be missed)

Braise the pork belly for about 4 hours at around 90C.

Take out meat. Put aside.

Cook cabbage and potatoes in braising fluid till done. Reassemble with meat (sliced).

I think it was fairly nice.

Second try yam cake

I had a variety of feedback on the first try. Overall, I think impression was taste was ok (with different people liking or disliking slightly different things), but the texture was crumbly.

With my other yam, repeated again. The texture is much firmer this time. I also think it tastes better. What I did different this time was.
1. Same amount of flour, but about 20% of it was glutinous rice flour. The yam was slightly more this time so it amounted to less flour.
2. Slightly more lap cheong. Also sprayed a touch of Apple cider vinegar into the fluid used for the rice batter (to give it a longer finish).
3. After rendering the lap cheong for the oil, mix in the diced yams and stir them both around to coat with oil.
4. When moulding the cake, use a potato masher to tamp down the mix to compress it.
5. Used more Sakura prawns for the topping. After putting it on, tamp it down as well.

Chee Cheong Fun redux

The texture is better. Also, I found that the batter can be made overnight, and kept in the fridge without harm to taste or texture.

Makes for 2 person breakfast.
1. 1/2 cup rice flour + teaspoon glutinous rice flour + generous pinch salt.
2. Mix into batter with 1/2 cup water + 1 tablespoon neutral oil.
3. Pour in 1/3 cup (slightly more for thinner batter) boiling water and continue mixing.
4. Stand for 40 mins or refrigerate overnight.
5. Put well oiled tray in 120C oven to heat it up. Tray is about 20cm by 15cm.
6. Beat the batter again, then carefully pour some over the tray. Do not over pour - holes in the surface are ok. Pick up the hot tray and tilt it to slosh the batter over the holes. The hot tray will Ensure the batter sticks.
7. Steam for 3-4 mins.
8. Take out, cool for abt 3 mins on counter.
9. Using a flexible silicon spatula, slowly edge all around the noodle. Then slip one end over. Use fingers to complete rolling.
10. Serve with spring onions, toasted sesame seeds, soya sauce and a dash of sesame oil.
11. Repeat steaming for second batch. Make sure you reoil the tray and put it in 120C oven briefly.

First attempt at yam cake

I think its a decent first try.

1 piece of Thai yam reduced to about 500g of small dice plus 200g of rice flour, about 40g dried mushrooms (soaked, pressed and sliced), 40g dried shrimp (soaked, pressed, and sliced), about 3 lap Cheong (small dice), one small onion, and scallop powder.

First, fried the lap Cheong to render the fat. Took it out, added to the yam and then sauted the onions till soft and added all to the diced yam. Then fried the sliced mushrooms and dried shimp, and added it to the yam. Add about 1 teaspoon of 5 spice to the yam mix. Add about 400g of water + soaking liquid from shrimp/mushrooms + scallop powder (abt a tablespoon) + soya sauce + dash of fish sauce. Bring to boil and scrape the wok. Add in the flour and stir until no lumps left. Add the fluid to the yam mix and mix well. If this is a little dry, add some boiling water a little at a time.

The water is an estimate.

Ladle the lot into a oven safe dish, flatten it down. Sprinkle with Japanese dried shrimp (Sakura prawn). Steam for 40 mins. In my case, turns out the cake was a little wet. So I popped it into a 160C oven for 15 mins.

Ideas from Paul @ takashimaya

Baguette with emmenthal cheese, garlic and olive oil.

Roast beef on caramelised onions and toast with a dab of balsamic vinegar