Lemon Souffle Pancakes

Post Christmas, for me, is a time to chill, to lounge around the couch watching TV and contemplating when is a good time to check out the post Christmas sales in town.... Heaven forbid that I should have to mess up my kitchen again with ambitious cooking... I am still reeling from the Christmas Day dinner I hosted. It was literally Masterchef Challenge mode the whole day, prepping and cooking one dish after another... all the while consciously trying to keep things neat in the kitchen while I worked... I almost succeeded until guests decided to saunter into the kitchen to 'help' and I had to cook while 'baby sitting'  them.... It had just dawned on me that I am truly the mistress of my kitchen. Only I know how to groove around my kitchen, how to put things away, where to reach for my tools....

So after a feast of Laksa, Ayam Goreng, Tauhu Tek, Morimoto Tuna pizza, Hawaiian Pizza( for the kids)  and Ondeh Ondeh... post Christmas breakfast is best kept light and simple. These feather-light, citrus flavoured pancakes from Bill Granger's Bills Sydney Food are just the perfect way to greet a cool breezy morning. Paired with strawberries left over from Christmas Day's Summer Sangria, I am almost tempted to embark on a low fat detox program... maybe after New Year...or more realistically, after Chinese New Year... :)

Hail The Holidays! Enjoy!
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Lemon Souffle Panckes
Recipe :
3/4 cup                   Buttermilk (I used normal milk)
2                             Egg yolks
3 tsp                       Grated Lemon zest
2 tbsp                     Lemon Juice
1 tsp                       Vanilla Extract
25g                         Butter (melted)
3/4 cup                   All purpose flour
1 tsp                       Baking powder
3 tbsp                     Castor sugar
A pinch                  Salt
2                            Egg whites

To serve
Strawberries, halved
1 tbsp            Honey
Icing sugar for dusting

Method :

1. Mix egg yolks, milk, vanilla essence, lemon juice and lemon zest together in a bowl. Add melted butter and mix well.

2. Sift flour, baking powder, caster sugar and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the  flour mixture and pour in (1) gradually and mix flour with milk mixture until the dry ingredients are moistened. Be careful not to overmix.

3. Place egg white in a clean bowl and beat until soft peaks are formed.  Fold in egg white into (2).

4. Melt a small portion of butter in a heated non-stick frying pan.  Place 2 tbsp of the batter from (3) into the pan. Cook until the cake turns golden brown on the underside and looking dry on the edges. Flip over and continue to cook the other side.  transfer to a plate and keep warm while cooking remaining batter.

5. Toss fresh strawberries with honey and a light dusting of icing sugar.  Dust pancakes with icing sugar and serve immediately.

Nagaimo Soy Pudding : 山药豆乳布丁

When I was in Taiwan a few weeks ago, my favourite cold appetizer dish at meal time was the Nagaimo. (山药/淮山) Prepared and served in a variety of ways, they were crunchy and totally refreshing. Long known for its medicinal values, the Chinese have always used them to balance the yin and yang energy in the body. It has been used to treat digestive, repiratory and diabetes problems ... in short, this is  a healthy root vegetable and is often featured in macrobiotics diet.

I have not exactly been a big fan of this root until recently. I recall my first encounter with it was at a Japanese restaurant almost 20 years ago. My Japanese boss had ordered a Chirashi Sushi topped with a white gooey blob- the musilaginous consistency of which was not appetising at all. Then many years later, my Taiwanese colleague invited me to his house for dinner. His wife prepared a bland looking porridge with sliced Nagaimo-it was dull and tasteless. I recall her raving about the nutritious value of the root but I was not quite impressed.

When I was in Taiwan a few weeks back, the Nagaimo was in season and we practically had it for every meal as a cold starter. Usually prepared simply by chilling the cut roots, they were served like a salad drizzled with a fruity, tangy plum sauce. With a pear like crunch, it was absolutely delicious. This time round, I became truly hooked. When I got back, I started to look for recipes that feature the Nagaimo. I found a couple in my Japanese cookbook (Delicious Macrobiotic Meals) and I couldn't wait to experiment with them.


The first recipe I have chosen to work on is a dessert dish where the Nagaimo is grated and cooked with soy milk and agar powder. Very low in calorie, this dense, mousse-like dessert is delicious when eaten with a drizzle of maple syrup. 0% guilt and 100% goodness - I have just found a new favourite addition to my diet plan!

Recipe :

Nagaimo                 50g
Powder agar           1 tsp
Soy Milk                1/2 cup
Maple syrup           To serve

Method :
1. Peel the skin of nagaimo. (Wear gloves as you do this as the sap on the skin will cause skin irritation) Wrap peeled nagaimo in plastic wrap and microwave for 3-4 mins.
2. Mash (1) while still hot with a fork.
3. In a saucepan, add (2), soy milk and powder agar. Cook over low heat until mixture is smooth and thickened.
4. Pour (4) into molds and chill in refrigerator until set.
5. Demold and serve with maple syrup.

Chickpeas, Garbanzo Beans... Kacang Puteh

This is an extremely lazy and easy post. There is really no recipe involved but you would wonder why we don't make this more often since it is such a delicious and healthy snack... I couldn't stop gobbling them up as I was watched The Mentalist last night. (Love the twinkle in Simon Baker's eyes every time he smiles.)

To oldies like us, chickpeas are Kacang Puteh. I did not learn about the term Chickpeas until when I got much much older. As for Garbanzo beans? I only started seeing the term a few years back when Organic grocery stores started to offer the organic version of these humble beans....

Kacang Puteh, in the old days were sold by Kacang Puteh Men - usually cart venders from South India. They would normally park their carts / stalls outside a cinema. Those were the days before we saw the influx of Caramel Popcorns, Nachos and Cheese and possibly the ubiquitous potato chips.

Kacang is 'nut' in Malay and Puteh means 'white'. One would find a variety of chickpeas, peanuts, sugar coated tapioca chips and muruku at the stall. Most of the nuts are either deep fried or roasted. This Kacang Puteh shown here today is boiled and has a soft and slightly powdery texture. This has always been my favourite at the stall where we would pick and choose what we wanted and the Kacang Puteh man would then unscrew the cap of the glass bottles and scoop the nuts into a cone fashioned out of torn out pages from magazines. Depending on the type of nuts one chose, each cone would cost about 20cents to 50cents.Today? Not only has the Kacang Puteh man become a rare sight, the kancang puteh cone now costs about $2 - so I have been told.

I got these chickpeas for 95 cents at the supermarket and they boil up to pack a pot big enough to fill up many many paper cones to be enjoyed with nostalgia over a DVD screening....



Recipe :
Dried Chickpeas         
Salt
Tumeric powder ( Adding tumeric power will make it more yellow. I did not add this for this preparation)
Baking soda (this will help to soften the peas)

Method :

1. Wash the chickpeas and place them in a pot. Cover with water. Add a little baking soda (roughly 1/8 tsp for 100g of chickpeas)  and let chickpeas soak overnight.

2. Drain away water. Rinse with fresh water and soak chickpeas in fresh water for another 10mins to remove the alkalinity. Drain.
3. Fill pot with enough water to cover the chickpeas. Add tumeric powder if you wish. Boil for about 25mins until softened. (alternatively, you can boil this in a pressure cooker - it will cut down cooking time.)

4. Drain and season with a little salt.

Tauhu Goreng - Deep Fried Tofu With Peanut Sauce

If  I ever have to pick a favourite food, I would choose Tofu (bean curd) without even the slightest momentary hesitation. My colleagues have all come to know that whenever we choose to eat at an Asian restaurant during our travels, I have to have a Tofu dish. It is fortunate that Tofu is a common and popular ingredient in most Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean restaurants. It is even more fortunate that so far, none of my travel companions, are averse to Tofu dishes in Asia. Tofu has to be the most neutral and comforting ingredient one can work with. On its own, its taste is so neutral that it is impossible for it to offend any palate.

However, I do realise that the nutritious protein component has acquired a somewhat irksome reputation in the west as a tasteless, uninteresting health freak food. Here in Asia, we use Tofu in more interesting and creative ways. There are countless recipes out there that feature the humble ingredient. Off the top of my head, I can already recall posting at least 4 or 5 Tofu dishes in this space.


The recipe I feature today is a popular tofu snack in SE Asia.  This can be served as an appetizer or a tofu salad dish. For myself, a larger Tofu square would be enough to be my meal. The slightly spicy peanut sauce is the integral element that lends an exotic appeal to this otherwise plain and simple dish.

Totally easy to prepare and great to be served at parties. I used the recipe featured in Shermay Lee's The New Mrs Lee's Cookbook Vol. 2. The instructions are simple and easy to follow but the peanut sauce turns out a tad too thick. I could possibly thin it down a little more with water and add a dash of lime juice to it the next time I prepare this again.



Recipe :

Bean Sprouts          100g
Cucumber               1
Firm Tofu                400g (2 pieces) (If you purchase this from an Asian grocery store, look for Taukua)
Oil for deep frying

Peanut Sauce
Garlic                     4 cloves
Red Chilli               2
Palm Sugar             2 tbsp (can be replaced with brown sugar)
Salt                        1/4 tsp
Rice Vinegar          1 tbsp (those used for sushi is fine)
Dark soya sauce     2 tbsp (try to use the darker version. This is different from the light soya sauce commonly
                              used for flavouring)
Water                     8 tbsp (I would suggest to add more water to adjust the flow of the sauce)
Roasted ground peanut 160g

Method:

1. Blanch bean sprouts in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain and keep aside.
2. Wash cucumber and slice it.
3. Place garlic and chilli in a food processer and grind it to a paste.
4. Place (3) in a saucepan with the rest of the peanut sauce ingredient. Heat up and cook until sugar dissolves completely. (if you like your sauce to be smoother and less chunky, you can process the cooled down sauce in the food processor again)
5. Heat up,in a wok, enough oil to at least half immerse the tofu. The oil needs to be very hot. Normally, we insert the tip of a wooden chopstick to check for small bubbles before we put in the tofu.
(before deep frying, sandwich the tofu between 4 pieces of kitchen towel and lay a heavy tray on the the tofu. This will dry out the excess moisture in the tofu and prevent too much splattering when you deep fry it)
6. Deep fry tofu until golden brown. Be patient and do not try to turn the tofu before it has formed a crust - otherwise the tofu will crumble.
7. Lay a plate with sliced cucumber. Lay fried tofu on top (pre-cut) , top with bean sprouts and peanut sauce.

Fried Bittergourd With Salted Duck Egg - 咸蛋炒苦瓜

I do go to Taiwan very frequently for business but as with most business trips, your activities tend be circumcribed within a certain convenient perimeter around the hotel and office. This last vacation in Taipei with my friends has really helped me discover places that I had never been to.  I am already earmarking certain eateries and shops for revisiting when I return again.

I first ate this dish Fried Bittergourd with Salted Egg last year when my distributor took me to his friend's restaurant for lunch. I fell in love with it and had wanted since then to try cooking it at home. This time in Taiwan, I ate this again when we went up to Wulai (乌来) for a bit of hiking. (We had originally wanted to cycle there but the terrain was too steep and demanding for amateur cyclists like us) It was done wetter than  the version I had earlier and was less fragrant. Then, during our cycling trip from Taipei to Danshui （淡水）we passed by GuanDu Temple (关渡宫) where we were told to stop and buy their local specialty - salted eggs and century eggs. For those who wonder what salted eggs are, these are preserved eggs prepared by soaking, usually duck eggs in brine or densely packing the eggs with salted damp charcoal. In Singapore, it is common to find these black mud coated eggs in the market. We would usually then need to remove the black charcaol paste and hardboil the egg for consumption. The salty egg white is a perfect accompaniment to plain porridge and the egg yolk is the jewel that lures with its savory fragrance.

In Taiwan, almost all salted eggs are sold cooked. A little strange for me and to be honest, I didn't find the salted eggs at Guandu Temple impressive. The egg yolk is too dry for my liking. In my opinion, salted egg yolks should have a golden oily sheen to it.... Anyway, each of us bought like 10 salted eggs and a pack of century eggs, chuck them into our backpack and went back to complete our cycling route to Danshui...



So at last, I decided to try my hand at cooking this dish at home yesterday. Again, I had no recipe to follow, I just minced up the salted eggs and fry it together with the bittergourd. It tasted different from the ones I had eaten last year - I thought the salted eggs wasn't as fragrant. Perhaps I should try it with local Salted eggs again...


Recipe

1        mid size bittergourd
11/2   cooked salted egg, minced.
1/2     fresh chicken egg, beaten
2        cloves garlic

Method

1. Cut the bittergourd and remove the pith with a spoon. Cut bittergourd into slices. Blanch the bittergourd in boiling water for 2 mins and drain.
2. In a frying pan/ wok, heat 2 tbsp of oil. Add the 2 cloves of garlic and fry for a min until fragrant.
3. Add minced salted egg and fry until 'foamy' and fragrant. Add blanched bittergourd and fry to coat with salted eggs. Add the beaten chicken egg and fry quickly to set.

Bean Curd Chawan Mushi - Soy Steamed Egg

I tread perilously every time I get ready to photograph for my blog. Through trial and error, I have vaguely gotten the knack of capturing the right lighting in my kitchen. I have graduated from using craft paper as my background to fabric (table cloth, placement mat. dish towels...) which gives a softer finish and has a lesser tendency to bounce harsh lights around. However, photographing food for me now, can only, at best be considered a hit or miss exercise. I still get exasperated when the still shot ,which appears sharp and polished on the tiny camera display screen, turns drab and blah when projected on the computer screen.

Styling for me is especially challenging as I am not blessed with 'the eye'. I sometimes feel that the way I style my photos is quite similar to the way I dress - there are days where I can throw a few disparate pieces of clothing together and look good in them and others where my garbs selection just make me feel like an awkward duck. Today is one of those days when I am having a bad pictorial day - photo block, whatever you call it for I stood there staring for quite a long while at the 2 bowls of egg custard, not knowing what to do with them....

Consolation came after I put away my camera and started digging into the Chawan Mushi. It tasted simple, honest and totally unpretentious. I felt purged. I have always loved Tofu and have on a few occassions made egg tofu from scratch. This particular recipe was published in one of the old Japanese food periodicals I bought in Japan a few years back. This particular issue featured 100% on tofu. What got me excited is the idea of steaming dried bean curd skin ( Yuba, 湯葉、腐竹，Fuchock) in egg tofu. The egg tofu is made by mixing egg with soya bean milk. The stock used can be kept light with a Kombu Dashi, Mushroom stock or for those who prefer a stronger flavour, chicken stock. The tender bite from the bean curd skin provides a textural contrast to the soft, custardy tofu. A very pleasant, serene experience.... unfortunately, this did not come through in the photos.

P.S. : I made the mistake of adding the bean curd skin into the egg/soy liquid. This actually displaced air in the liquid and resulted in bubbles. I would try to place the bean curd skin in the bowl next time before gradually pouring in the egg/ soy  mixture.
Recipe :

1            egg
1/3 cup   mushroom dashi stock ( I used the porcini mushroom powder to make the stock.)
1/2 cup   unsweetened soya bean milk

10g         dried bean curd skin (use the thin version commonly used for chinese desserts)

1/4 tsp     Soya sauce
1/4 tsp     Salt

Method :

1. Soak dried bean curd skin in water for 3 mins to soften. Drain water.
2. In a bowl, beat egg very lightly to avoid creating too many bubbles.
3. Add the soya sauce and salt into dashi stock.
4. Add (3) into (2)
5. Add Soya bean milk and mix well.
6. Use a fine mesh, filter the egg mixture into 2 small bowls. Add softened bean curd skin.
7. Steam (6) over strong boiling water for 1.5mins. Reduce heat to low boiling and continue to steam for 8 mins.  Insert bamboo skewer into tofu. When cooked, you should not see any milky liquid surface.