Baking, Making and Cooking

It was a day of baking cherry cap buns, making muah chee and cooking some honey braised pork belly. The first two were a success, but the latter was a total flop!

The cherry cap buns were using the recipe from my BITC workshop. Basically, it's just a sweet dough bun with pre-fermented dough by adding a sweet crust on the buns. However, instead of using the recipe for the topping, I use crumbles as the toppings and decorated it with cherries.

Then I procceded to make some muah chee. I used the recipe from The Little Teochew, which was really fool-proof and simple to make. My time spent was on toasting the peanuts, and grinding them. It was quite difficult to grind them as I had overly done it and it became peanut paste. I had to do them rather carefully. Those that turned into paste, I kept them separately and intend to use them as peanut spread. It's also not easy to grind them so finely. I really wonder how Grace did it so well. The microwaved muah chee turned out very well, thanks to Ju's detail instructions.

After making the muah chee, I attempt on making honey braised pork belly for dinner. However, due to my over-sight on the size of the pork belly being used, it turn out too dry and hard, and close to being charred. The pieces of pork belly was almost solid hard! See how good I am to turn it solid hard?  I used 500g of the pork belly. So you can say that I practically fed the bin with 500g of pork belly, plus all those seasonings. It's so disappointing!

Coffee Gelato

I borrowed this book - Italian Ice Cream, when I brought my children to Bishan library lately. The recipe looks interesting and I thought of attempting it. I tried it and was glad it turned out well. Otherwise, I would not have shared the recipe. :p I made this before I discovered my daughter has HFMD, and I was glad I did. I fed her with this to numb her pain from the blisters and ulcers.

Recipe for Coffee Gelato, extracted from Italian Ice Cream: Gelato, Sorbetto, Granita and Semifreddi.

Ingredients:
500ml Whole milk
2 tbsps Coffee powder (I used very finely grounded coffee beans, you can use instant coffee granules)
500ml Whipping cream
2 tsps Vanilla extract
7 medium Egg yolks (original was 6 large egg yolks)
225g Sugar

Method:
1. Place the milk and coffee in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the cream and vanilla.
3. Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until very pale and creamy.
4. Pour the hot milk and coffee mixture over the egg mixture, beating constantly with a wooden spoon.
5. Return the mixture to the saucepan.
6. Simmer over very low heat, stirring constantly, until it just coats the back of the spoon. Do not let the mixture boil.
7. Remove from the heat and pour into a chilled bowl. Let it cool completely, stirring often.
8. Transfer the mixture into two 500ml ice cream containers.
9. Freeze for at least 12 hours before serving.
10. Once the gelato is frozen, scoop into serving bowls and decorate with coffee beans and whipped cream.

Satay Chicken Skewers

I prepared satay chicken, not knowing that my girl's HFMD has worsen. Anyway, she didn't like it and didn't eat it. I grilled the satay chicken for dinner this evening. I also made pandan rice, which was much nicer than the previous time. My helper cooked other delicious dishes too.

Here's sharing how I made the satay chicken.

Recipe for Satay Chicken Skewers
Makes 12 skewers

Ingredients:
740g Chicken fillets, diced to about 1" each
1 tbsp Brandy
1.5 tbsp Curry powder
1.5 tbsp Turmeric powder
2 tsp Fine salt
1 tbsp Corn flour

Store-bought satay sauce

Method:
1. Marinate the chicken with the rest of the ingredients and refrigerate overnight (or at least 2-3hours).
2. In each skewer, poke through 6 pieces of marinated chicken fillets.
3. Heat up the griller. Brush with some oil.
4. Grill the chicken in two batches with medium heat. Turn over after about 5-7mins.
5. Served with rice and satay sauce.

I also went to buy some mung beans to make Tau Suan. I just felt like eating them, after seeing and hearing some of the bloggers making them, like Jess and Edith. As I haven't make them for so long, I soaked the mung beans for too long and the beans were too soft which just melt in the mouth. Not my ideal kind of desserts though. Simple foods like this, also required skills actually. However, when eaten with "you tiao", it did satisfy my cravings though.

HFMD

This is the third time my daughter has HFMD. With each different strands, it gets worse. This time, the blisters were all red, unlike the previous time when they were just simple water blisters. She has all those reddish spots on her hands and feet. According to her, it is quite painful on the limbs. Fortunately those in the mouth are not affecting her. Her appetite is normal.

I'm at home keeping her company, and to separate the boys from her, and to ensure hygiene amongst them.

Steamed Pandan Mantous

My youngest boy didn't have to wait that long. It was on a lazy Saturday when I decided to make steamed pandan mantous for him. Sorry to disppoint all of you. I didn't make the swiss roll kind. I chose a simple way out.

Instead, I made the steamed pandan mantous from Wendy's blog. I have everything that was required. And from the instructions and her pictures, it looked really good. It's like calling out to me to make it. So I couldn't resist trying it out.

In between the proofing, I took out my fondant and decided to do some practice. Rolling and moulding. I couldn't decide what else to bake or cook for that day, otherwise, I would have been tolling in the kitchen, rather than sitted at the table playing with my fondant.

The steamed pandan mantous were soft and fragrant. The fragrant came from the coconut milk I used. The pandan smell was there, but couldn't taste it. Probably I didn't use enough leaves to blend it, therefore the smell was not strong. The mantous were actually light green, it didn't showed up in the pictures though. They were also not as nicely rolled as Wendy's. So what was the verdict from my youngest son?

He said,"mummy, it's very very nice. Hmm..." He took two, and asked for third one. I rejected it flatly, and told him it'll be too much. Well, his actions speak louder than words. He is satisfied now. He shall have them all during school holiday next week.

Cookies & Cream Cheesecake

First, I fulfilled my youngest son's mantou request. Next, I need to decide between nutella cupcake, or oreo cheesecake. The former was requested by my daughter, and the latter, by my eldest son. This is what happens when you have too many children. Not only do I have to fulfill each of their "wish", whenever I buy presents or toys, I cannot buy one, nor two. Because in their dictionary, there is no such word called "share". Therefore, in everything I buy, I need to buy THREE! One-two-three. This is how my household is like. Worse is, I need to buy double since the twins started school. Two English textbooks, workbooks, Maths textbooks etc etc... So, if anyone of you have P2 school books to give away end of this year, please think of me first. I'll be more than happy to collect hand-me-down stuff! PLEASE!!

Okay, back to my eldest son. He has been a great fan of Oreo cheesecakes since he started eating cheese. Luckily for him, I was in the mood to make some cheesecake though, not a big cheesecake. Fortunately for me, there is this Cookies & Cream Cheesecake from Shirley which looks just perfect for me! He was delighted when he knew I was going to bake a cheesecake. He helped me throughout the whole process. That is the time when I appreciate I have so many children. *wink*

The recipe made eight. Too few to feed three tiny mouths with big appetites. Instead, I made 12. I made 1.5x of the recipe. However, as I did not have sour cream, I replace it with whipping cream. With the extra cream cheese batter after scooping into the muffin cups, I made a mini cookies and cream cheesecake instead.

The cheesecake turned out to be slightly soft, but taste nice. My children loved the cheesecake. That was great for me (as I don't have to repeat it!) At least I have fulfilled another wish. Now, the last two again...