Snow fungus dessert with red dates and lotus seeds 红枣莲子雪耳甜汤

Snow fungus (雪耳/银耳/白木耳) dessert is my love at first taste, which started only recently. It is good for our body, esp our lungs and skin, nourishes yin (滋阴) and remove heatiness. I'm making it as my weekly dessert.

From Hockhua Tonic $3.80 (150g)

I bought this 高山雪耳 recommended by the salesperson at Hockhua Tonic. He told me this is better in quality and the price is also quite cheap $3.80 (150g). No wonder it is also called the poor man’s bird nest!

To prepare:
Soak a small piece of snow fungus (it will expand a lot after soaking) in water for about 30 minutes until soft (or overnight). Gently wash to remove any impurities. Cut away the yellow hard part and discard. Then cut the rest into smaller pieces before adding to your soup.

Cook the lotus seeds in a pot of water about 10 minutes or till soften. Drain, rinse and remove the bitter green germ from the seeds.

Cooking this soup is so easy for me using a slow cooker.

To cook:
Just add water, white fungus, lotus seeds and pitted red dates into the slow cooker. Cook at high heat for 2 hours, then reduce to low heat for 1 hour for soft jelly-like texture (my preference). Turn off and add rock sugar according to taste. If you prefer the snow fungus to be crunchy and not too soft, reduce the cooking time.

I am submitting this Snow fungus dessert to Aspiring Bakers #20 - Asian Dessert Buffet! (June 2012), hosted by by Moon of Food Playground.

Chiffon Cakes: Cranberry Yoghurt and Banana

I have been baking lots of chiffon cakes recently.

This Cranberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake, which I have made many many times. Now in a new 17cm chiffon tin and gives me a very nicely browned crust.

Cranberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake
17cm (20cm) chiffon tin:

3 (5) egg yolks (use large eggs)
25g (40g) caster sugar
40ml (65ml) vegetable oil
1 tsp (2 tsp) lemon juice
80g (130g) plain yoghurt
80g (130g) cake flour

4 (7) egg whites (use large eggs)
55g (90g) caster sugar

60g (95g) dried cranberries, chopped to small pieces and coat lightly with cake flour

Bake 170 deg C, 35 minutes (45 minutes).

This is Banana Chiffon Cake, another chiffon cake from the same book 好吃戚风蛋糕轻松上手.

It is a big challenge to take photos whenever my nieces are at home. This is what happens if you are too slow. :)

Banana Chiffon Cake
17cm (20cm) chiffon tin:

80g (130g) banana, mashed and mixed with 1 tbsp (1.5 tbsp) milk
3 (5) egg yolks (use large eggs)
20g (30g) caster sugar
50ml (80ml) vegetable oil
80g (130g) cake flour

4 egg whites (use large eggs)
40g (65g) caster sugar

Bake 170 deg C, 35 minutes (45 minutes).

Recipe from: 好吃戚风蛋糕轻松上手

Aspiring Bakers #19: Dim Sum Affair (May 2012) - Roundup

Our dim sum theme has ended! Thank you for all the active participation! I hope everyone finds it fun to make your own dim sum at home!

The theme for this month is: Aspiring Bakers #20 - Asian Dessert Buffet! (June 2012), hosted by Moon of Food Playground. The closing date is: 30 June 2012. All entries will be complied and posted by 1 July 2012.

I look forward to your continuous support to the Aspiring Bakers!

If you want to host for Aspiring Bakers, please email me at smallsmallbaker@yahoo.com.sg.
We need as many hosts as we can. Welcome everyone including those who have hosted before.

Homemade Siew Mai

嗨，好久不见！

这个科技发达，还真是让人变得更懒。本来有一手机在手，能让人随时随地上网，照理说应该更勤劳上blogger写写。可是有太多其他的诱惑了，比如手机里的游戏hehe。不过罪魁祸首，还是我add了Instagram (@smallsmallbaker)以后。由于相机坏了，所有的拍照都由手机代劳，而Instagram又可以让我第一时间把照片上载和大家分享，使我忽略了我的blogger和fb。我看我应该还有十多个posts还在等待。至于几时还真的要看心情了。

这烧卖好几个月前就做了。配合Aspiring Bakers，终于献上。:)

Homemade Siew Mai

Ingredients
30 pieces wanton skin
2 steamed salted egg yolk, break into pieces (I substituted with shredded carrot)

Fillings:
400g minced meat
100g minced prawn
4 water chestnut, chopped
1 tbsp chopped spring onion
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp corn flour
1 egg white

Method
1. Mix fillings evenly. Wrap fillings into wanton skin. Sprinkle top with salted egg yolk (or carrot).
2. Arrange in a steamer, steam over high heat for 10 minutes. Remove and serve hot.

Recipe adapted from: 早安你好 Hearty Breakfast Treats

I am submitting this Homemade Siew Mai to Aspiring Bakers #19: Dim Sum Affair (May 2012), hosted by me.

Aspiring Bakers #19: Dim Sum Affair (May 2012)

As some of you may already know, our host for this month, Ann of Anncoo Journal is unwell. So before I start, I would like to wish her speedy recovery and have a good rest.

So I will be taking over the job this month, with the theme that Ann has suggested "Dim Sum"!

As we have discussed, Dim Sum is such a huge category of food, so there will be several restrictions.

We accept all Dim Sum that are

1) Steamed 蒸 - like dumplings (*update - cooked dumplings accepted too), xiao long bao, siew mai, chee cheong fun, etc

2) Fried/deep fried 炸 - like potsticker, spring roll, jian dui 煎堆 or taro dumpling 芋角, etc

3) Flaky pastry 酥 - like char siew pastry, etc

4) Dishes that are steamed - like steamed glutinous rice, steamed spare ribs, chicken feet, etc

We do not accept

1) Paus/Baos (I know there will be some disappointment here... what's dim sum without the char siew pau, custard pau, but hey, we will be doing this as a separate theme in future.)

2) Tarts and Kuehs (since we have already done this in previous AB before)

3) Desserts/Tong Shui (we will be having this theme soon)

4) Cooked dishes like congee, rice, noodles

Another thing to note is I will be doing this month's AB differently.
Have been wanting to try out this link tool.
So for this month, you will submit your entries differently.
Very easy. Please read the instructions below.

Looking forward to all the delicious dim sum!

Who can join?
Everyone with a blog!

How to join?

Step 1 :
Make any steamed 蒸, fried 炸 or flaky pastry 酥 dim sum in the month of May 2012. You may submit more than 1 entry.

Step 2 :
Post it on your blog between 01 May 2012 and 31 May 2012.
Your post must include the recipe or link to the original recipe. If you are using a recipe from a book, please include the title of the book too.
Any entries that are posted outside the date range will not be accepted.
Any entries that do not include a recipe or link to the original recipe will not be accepted too.

Step 3 :
Please mention that you are submitting your post to Aspiring Bakers #19: Dim Sum Affair (May 2012) hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker and provide a link back to this post HERE.
Entries will not be accepted if the above is not included.

Step 4 :
- Click "Add your link" icon below.
- Enter the URL of you blog post, the name of your dish, and your email (will not be visible to the public).
- Insert an image of your dish
- Done! Your entry will appear immediately.

There will be no roundup this month. As the link tool will automatically update all the entries submitted. This format is for this month only. We will be back to the usual roundup next time. :)



If you want the same link list to appear under your blog post, click "get the InLinkz code" below, copy and paste the codes in "Edit HTML" mode in your blog post.
get the InLinkz code

***
If you are interested to find out what's on the previous Aspiring Bakers #18: Layers of Love (April 2012), hosted by Sam of Sweet Samsations, see the roundup HERE.

Bake King Chocolate Desserts Demo Class

I attended a Chocolate Desserts Demo Class at Bake King last Sunday (18 March). The baking instructor is Mr Louis Tanuhadi who is an Ambassador for Tulip Chocolate from Indonesia, which is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in Asia. He has several years experience as a pastry chef in Germany and Indonesia and has won several chocolate competitions in the region.

A candid shot before the class starts

Mr Louis Tanuhadi is a very humourous person and very generous in sharing his knowledge about baking. My friend and I are very glad to attend his class and I definitely learn a lot more about baking with chocolates. The class lasted for more than 3 hours from 10am to 1pm plus and desserts were served throughout the class, one after another. :)

These were the 4 chocolate desserts that we learnt in this demo class.

Steamed Brownies

Chocolate Lychee Mousse
My favourite dessert of the day

Chocolate Lava Cake

American brownies

The American brownies that we brought back, with a piece of steamed brownie.

We also received a door gift of one 250g of Tulip chocolate compound and a chocolate mould.

Thank you Bake King for inviting me to this demo class. :)

** Sorry for the quality of the photos. Time for my camera to retire soon.

Some homemade meals and a short break

Normally my mother decides what to cook for vegetable dishes (my parents are vegetarian and we cook vegetable and meat dishes separately). The meat dishes are forever the same. If there is fish, we steam or pan-fry; if there is prawn, we stir-fry; if there is chicken, we braise. We seldom eat pork cos we have a helper at home. If I'm eating alone, I like to steam chicken with red dates and wolfberries - quick and delicious. Or just steam minced pork and egg.


This was the rare time I cooked something special. Homemade Char Siew from Baking Mum - a non-baked version. I bought wu hua rou （五花肉） which is recommended for making char siew. But I still find it a little tough. But the braising sauce was really sweet and nice.

This was Mashed Potatoes with Eggs 偷师 from Wendy. Using a simple ratio of 1 russet potato : 1 hard boiled egg : 1 tbsp butter, the taste was so good! Definitely going to keep this recipe well.

Lastly, this Chicken Macaroni Soup with Wolfberries was my eat-alone meal. I don't really have a recipe, just anyhow cook. Writing it down for my own reference and for future adjustment.

(serves 1)

1. Boil 1/2 cup macaroni with water till almost cooked.

2. Add 50g chicken fillet (sliced thinly).

3. When the chicken is cooked, add in 10 wolfberries, some sesame oil, salt and pepper to taste.

* Sorry if you find the recipe too simple. It is strictly according to my boring tastebuds, which prefer plain food... garlic, spring onions, shallots are out for me, and I don't need chicken powder or other extra seasoning. The wolfberries are added to make it healthier, it is very good our eyes especially.

***

Lastly, as I foresee myself not going to update this blog very often, just treat me as if I'm taking a short break. I will still write some post but it will be slow and taking my own sweet time. Meanwhile, I just rest and relax, recharging and be back with goodies.

我要放轻松，闭关修炼廖。。。