In my kitchen - Silicone Tongs

Tovolo Silicone Tongs

I love to use tongs for cooking. I'm not exactly the most "nimble" person in the kitchen. In fact, I need my husband's help to flip a pancake. ;p

With tongs, I can easily flip any meat, "gently" place food into the pan for cooking and move around any hot food . It's like having super heat resistant hands! Praise the guy who invented tongs.

Having non-stick pans, it's only natural that I buy tongs that are safe for them. Normally, they are made of nylon or silicone. The most commonly found ones are made of nylon. However, I find nylon cookware normally melt under extreme heat or they "stripped" over time. I don't appreciate having nylon "threads" in my food so I convert to silicone cookware.

Silicone feet

Recently, I bought a pair of Tovolo silicone tongs from Amazon.The tongs come with a little silicone rest on the side which allows the tongs to rest easily on the counter top.

Silicone tip

The tips are also heat resistant. I left them in a pan of hot oil and they survived. They are also hard and does not bend easily resulting in a good grasp on the food.

Tong Lock

There is a lock at the top which allows for easy locking and unlocking of the tongs. When unlock, the tongs open up to 9-inches.

One downside for this tongs is that it's missing non-slip grip on the side. I am ok without the non-slip padding on the slip and didn't have my tongs flying off my hands during cooking. However, I think this would be a good option to have.

On the overall, for less than $10, the Tovolo tongs is a good buy. I may try the progressive ones next time which cost about $15.

Fried Carrot Cake

Fried Carrot Cake

Have you ever tried fried carrot cake? This is a well-loved breakfast item in Singapore and Malaysia.

For me, it's a well-loved breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper item. I used to work near Lau Pa Sat and would get a pack of this high calorie supper once a month.  There's something about the soften carrot cake and aromatic eggs that makes me craved for more.

While shopping for noodles at a local Asian supermarket, I came across a pack of ready-made carrot cake. I supposed that's the "divine" sign for me to make my favourite dish. =)

It's in the sauce!

Recipe

500g carrot cake
2 tablespoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons preserved radish
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon chili paste (optional)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 dash of pepper
3 large eggs
3 1/2 tablespoon of oil
2 tablespoon chopped green onion


1. Rinsed and soaked the preserved radish for 10 minutes.

2. Chopped and diced the preserved radish into small pieces.

3. Mixed the preserved radish with sesame oil and set aside.

4. Use a fork to break the yolk of the eggs. Add in 1/2 tablespoon of oil. Beat lightly.

5. Cut the carrot cake into cubes - approximately 1 cm each.

6. Heat up a non-stick pan with 1 tablespoon of oil over high heat.

7. Fry carrot cake till soften and lightly brown. At this stage, you should see all liquid from the carrot cake have completely dried up. Remove from pan and set aside.

8. Heat up non-stick pan with 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Add in garlic and preserved radish. Fried till fragrant and lightly brown.

9. Add in chili paste, if desired.

10. Add in carrot cake. Stir-fry lightly for 1 minute.

11. Add in fish sauce, soy sauce, pepper and sugar. Stir-fry until well-combine for 3 minutes.

12. Spread the carrot cake around the pan and use the back of a spatula, lightly press down on the carrot cake.

13. Turn the heat back on high and pour eggs over the carrot cake. Swirl the pan to spread the eggs. Do not use the spatula to stir or move the carrot cake.

14. Once the eggs set, divide the carrot cake into 4 pieces using the spatula. Flip the carrot cake and cooked the other side for 2 minutes on medium high heat.

15. Plate and serve with green onions.

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Recipes Back Splash

I "inherited" my kitchen when I moved to the states. My in-laws oversaw and paid for our home renovations while we were still working in Hong Kong. Saving on both time and money, I have little to complain about.

With little counter space to work on, I found myself fighting for space with my recipes. Often a times, my recipes cards end up wet and dirty. I often have to rewrite them or use cling wrap to wrap them up to prevent stains.

Kitchen Back splash

It happened one day when I randomly grab some post-it to copy a recipe that I saw on TV. I stuck the post-it on my back splash and it worked like magic. Now I can read my recipes, keep them clean and free up counter space. =)

How do you keep your recipes while you are cooking?

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

I'm so "out-dated"! According to the internet, it seems that these little cupcakes can be easily bought from  bakeries in Singapore and Malaysia. However, despite my many trips back to Singapore and Malaysia, I am ashamed to say I've never tried them!

I found this cake while searching on the internet for an easy recipe to use up all my left-over custard cream from my earlier cream puffs experiment. Combining two of my husband's favourite chiffon cake and custard cream - this cake is perfect for using up my cream fillings.

OMG!!! This cake is heavenly. Fluffy soft cake with smooth creamy custard... It's so good! For a baking novice, I do say mine turn out beautifully. I can't wait to try one of these when I next return to Singapore. =)

Fluffy soft cake with smooth creamy custard

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Recipe 

(Makes 8 cupcakes)

For chiffon cake
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
35g corn oil / vegetable oil
60g milk
70g cake flour

3 egg whites (at room temperature)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)
25g sugar

For custard cream
1 box of French Vanilla Pudding
1 1/2 cup cold milk
1/2 cup cold heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon of extra-fine sugar / powdered sugar (optional)

For Custard Cream
1. Mix the french vanilla pudding with milk. Set aside in fridge.

2. Whip cream, vanilla extract and sugar with cold mixing bowl and whisk until stiff.

3. Fold in 1/3 of the cream into the french vanilla pudding. Add this mixture into the rest of the cream and fold in gently until all cream has been mixed into the pudding. Set aside in fridge.


For chiffon cake
1. Pre-heat oven to 330F.

2. Arrange paper liners on baking tray.

3. Hand whisk egg yolk and sugar till pale in color.

4. Add in corn oil and milk, continue whisking till combined.

5. Sift in cake flour, continue whisking till combined.

6. Using either stand mixer with whisk attachment or electric hand beater, beat egg white and cream of tartar till foamy.

7. Add in the sugar in 3 separate additions while beating at high speed till just firm peaks form.

8. Take 1/3 of egg white and fold into the egg yolk batter with a spatula.

9. Make a hole in the center of the remaining egg white and pour in egg yolk batter.

10. Fold in all the egg white into the egg yolk batter until well combine.

11. Scoop batter into paper liners until 3/4 full.

12. Bake for 30 mins or when toothpick comes out clean.

13. Remove from oven and use a small knife to poke a 1 cm hole in the surface of the cake.

14. Leave cakes to cool.

Serving Instructions
1. Pipe custard cream into the cupcake using the hole poke earlier.

2. Dust with powdered sugar.

3. Left-over cakes should be refrigerated.

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Tips and Tricks

1. Do not overbeat the egg white. You can refer to the Kitchn for guide on egg whites.

2. Poke the hole in the top center while the cake is hot.

3. Make sure the cakes are completely cool before piping the cream. Otherwise, cream will melt. So make the cakes 2 ~ 3 hours in advance.

3. Pipe the cream just before serving.

4. Use free standing muffins cups for these recipes.

Adapted from Forbidden Garden.

Simple Cream Puffs

Cream Puffs

Have you ever had cream puffs from Beard Papa? Those crunchy puffs filled with vanilla cream are one of my favourite dessert. The first time I tried these puffs was ten years ago, during a holiday in Hong Kong, with a close friend of mine. The aroma of the vanilla cream filled the supermarket at SOGO. It was this aroma that led me to try my first puff.

At US$2 a pop, these yummy puffs don't come cheap, but I never thought of making them. That was until I came across its recipe while searching for custard recipe. The puff recipe was so simple, I had to give it a try!

The final verdict from my family - Taste just like Beard Papa! =)

Custard Cream Puffs

Recipe (Custard Cream Puffs)

Makes appx. 16 cream puffs


(For Puffs)
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter (cut into cubes)
1 cup flour
4 large eggs

(For Custard Cream)

1 box of French Vanilla Pudding
1 1/2 cup cold milk
1/2 cup cold heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon of extra-fine sugar / powdered sugar (optional)

For Custard Cream
1. Mix the french vanilla pudding with milk. Set aside in fridge.

2. Whip cream, vanilla extract and sugar with cold mixing bowl and whisk until stiff.

3. Fold in 1/3 of the cream into the french vanilla pudding. Add this mixture into the rest of the cream and fold in gently until all cream has been mixed into the pudding. Set aside in fridge.

For Puffs / Shells
1. Whisk salt and sugar into water.

2. Place water and butter into a saucepan and bring to a boil. (Do not use non-stick pot / pan).

3. Remove pot away from heat. Add in all flour at once. Stir until combined.

4. Place pot back onto stove and continue mixing the flour until dough comes away from pan, forming a thick smooth ball. (about 1 minute)

5. Place dough  in a mixing bowl. Allow to cool for 2 minutes.

6. Once the dough is lukewarm, use either a stand mixer with paddle attachment or electric hand beater, whisk in the eggs one at a time.

7. Continue mixing until you have a smooth thick paste. (see video)

8. Spoon dough onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

9. Place in pre-heat oven at 400F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F and continue baking for 30 minutes or until puffs have a nice amber color.

10. Remove shells from oven. Poke 2 holes on the sides of each puff.

11. Turn off oven. Place puffs back onto baking sheet and back into oven. Leave the oven door slightly ajar.

12. Let puffs completely cool inside the oven.

13. Place custard cream into a piping bag and pipe in the cream into the holes of cooled puffs. OR cut the cooled puffs into half and use spoon to scoop cream into the puffs.

14. Dust with powdered sugar and served. (Optional)

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Japanese Chasu

Japanese Chasu

Japanese Chasu is quite different from the Chinese Chasiu. Japanese Chasu is mainly roast pork in soy sauce while Chinese Chasiu is a barbecue pork with soy sauce and hoisin sauce. Japanese Chasu often uses the pork belly meat while Chinese Chasu mainly used the pork loin meat.

I love the round Japanese Chasu that you often find in a bowl of delicious ramen. After all, what's not to love about this juicy dish - with layers of fats and tender meat melting in your mouth at every bite. Yummy-licious is the word for it.

Japanese Chasu rice

One of our favorite Chasu from Santouka. We never failed to order an extra bowl of Chasu rice when we visit Santouka. The Santouka's Chasu uses mainly pork cheeks meat which is one of the fattiest meat of the pig but the most tender. You can get pork cheeks meat at many Chinese supermarket. It is sometimes also called pork neck meat. However, it's difficult to achieve the round Chasu shape with pork neck meat, so I chose to use pork belly meat for my Chasu recipe.

After searching through various blogs, I combined and tweaked the recipes from Just One Cookbook and No Recipe to come up with my easy to make Chasu recipe.

Japanese Chasu with rice

Japanese Chasu

Recipe

2 piece of pork belly meat (2 pounds each - request your butcher to remove the skin)
2 tablespoon of Konbu Cha or salt 
3 cup water
4 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoon miso
6 tablespoon soy sauce
8 tablespoon mirin
8 tablespoon sake
30 grams ginger (slice into 4 ~ 5 pieces)
8 cloves garlic (smashed)
1/2 tablespoon of white pepper corns
1 stalk of green onion (cut into 4 inches)

1. Rub the pork belly with Konbu Cha or salt.

2. Roll the pork belly into a round shape. Using the pork belly skin, wrap around the meat and secure with string. If you don't need the round shape, cut the pork belly into 4 quarters.

3. Put all ingredients into a pot. The sauce or water should cover 3/4 of the pork.

4. Cover the pork with an Otoshibuta. Make sure that all corners of the pot is covered and steam is only coming out of the holes of the Otoshibuta.

5. Cooking over medium high heat for approximately 10 minutes. Once it starts to simmer, lower the heat to medium low and cook the meat for approximately 2.5 hours.

6. Check the meat occasionally after 2 hours. Turn off heat when there is only 1 inch of the liquid left. The liquid should have thicken and is shiny.

7. Wait for meat to cool completely before slicing.

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My Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer

Kitchen Aid Mixer Package

 It's finally here! I was making dinner, when my husband brought in the mixer. Excited, I told him to open the package. After approximately 5 minutes of "struggling" with the boxes, we finally got it out.

My pink Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer

Weighing at 27 pounds, the mixer is not a light-weighted item for the pint size me. We checked the attachments and were pleasantly surprised that they were made of steel. When we saw the picture of the white flat beater and the dough hook... we thought it was made of plastic! Yes, I wanted a KA mixer so much, I didn't even checked it out at the store before I bought it... =)

At first look at the mixer, my husband went "No professional cook uses a PINK mixer"... Hahaha ... I'm glad I'm just no professional cook. =) I'm a happy woman with a pink mixer.

With it's arrival, I'm planning a week of baking to test out the mixer. So look for more baking posts coming up soon. =)