Traditional Mooncakes

I am sure you have noticed the past few weeks or days many food bloggers have been marathon baking mooncakes as our mid Autumn Festival falls on 19th September this year.

I have never bake traditional mooncakes before nor have I made the snow skin types too.  I am not a fan of mooncakes as they are usually very sweet if buy from the shops.  So I seldom buy it unless someone gave this for me.  I can't remember when was the last time I had mooncakes.  Well, seeing so many bloggers made so beautiful mooncakes on the blog it has inspired and motivated me to do so this year.

I have been going through from one blog to another and another, reading the steps again and again trying to make this mooncakes.  Until I really can't decide which one to follow.....and still so indecisive so I used Jessie of CookingMoments  on her Taro Mooncakes recipe as well as using Anncoo Journal recipe on her Traditional Mooncake as reference.

TRADITIONAL MOONCAKES

Recipe reference source from Jessie-CookingMoments & Anncoo Journal

(made 10pcs)

(Plunger mould 6cm diameter /80gm)

Skin Ingredients

200g Hong Kong Flour

130g Golden Syrup

50g Vegetable Oil

6g Alkaline Water, available in Chinese Grocery Shop

Yolk Ingredients

5 Salted Egg Yolks

Filling Ingredients

45g x 10 White Lotus paste, store-bought

Egg Wash Ingredients

1 Small Egg yolk + 1tbsp Water

Whisk until well-combined. Pass through a fine sieve, set aside.

Method:

1.  Remove salted egg yolk whites and rinse under gentle running water.  Place yolks on

     steaaming plate, add 1 tbsp cooking wine and a drop of sesame oil, mix well with

     yolks.  Steam for 5 minutes at high heat.  Leave to cool and cut to half.

2.  Weight white lotus paste to 45g and wrapped half of yolk inside.  Roll into ball again.

      Repeat the rest.

3  . To make the “skin,” mix golden syrup, oil & alkaline water with a whisk until well-

      combined.  Rest for 1 hour.

4.   Place flour in a big bowl, make a well in the center. Pour syrup mixture into the flour.

      Mix with a spatula until a soft dough is formed. Cover with cling wrap and & rest for

      40 minutes to an hour.

5.   Divide dough into 10 equal portions, roll into balls.

6.  Grab one dough, flatten into a disc, then wrap a filling inside.  Roll into a ball again.

7.  Dust mooncake mold with some flour. Pour out the excess flour.

8.  Place the dough ball in the center of the mold. Gently press from the center until the

     dough fill up the mold completely. Release the ring & unmold carefully, place the

 mooncake on a lined tray.

9.  Repeat for the rest of the ingredients.

10.  Lightly spray the mooncakes with some water and bake in a 160C-preheated oven at

       lower middle level for 10 minutes.

11. Remove to cool down for 10-15 minutes. (Important to let mooncakes to cool down) .

12. Brush egg wash on all sides of the mooncakes. Bake for another 5 minutes or until the

      egg wash are dried & the mooncakes look golden.

13. Remove to cool down on a wire rack completely. Wait for 2-3 days for the

      mooncakes to become soft again (to release oil) before consuming.

 

 

 

Remember to let the mooncakes to rest for 2-3 days before consuming.... this is to let the skin to turn soft.

My first attempt of baking mooncakes and much cheaper than store bought!

Xi Pan 喜粄

This is my second attempt to make this "Xi Pan.  The first time my Xi Pan after steaming it is more like a kuih or you may called it plain angku kuih instead...lol.  Probably that time it didn't proofed well enough because of the cold weather in NZ that time.  Or probably I've been using the expired yeast...I don't know.

And now back home here, I try again.  I made a small batch instead, but I made this using the overnight sponge.

XI PAN 喜粄 
Recipe sourced from Wendy of Table for 2...or more

Ingredients for sponge dough: (A)
1 tsp. yeast
150 gm. plain flour
125 ml. water

Ingredients: (B)
150 gm. Plain flour
150 gm. glutinous rice flour
125 gm. sugar
150 gm. water
a few drops of pink colouring

Banana leaves - grease with oil (I used greased proof paper)

Method:
(1) Mix all the ingredients for sponge dough, cover and keep overnight.
(2) Mix all the ingredients (A) and (B) together into a soft dough and proof for another 4 hours.
(3) Divide soft dough into 50 gm. each (rub palm with cornoil) and place on top of a greased banana leaf. Leave to proof for another 15 mins.
(4) Steam over moderate heat for 15 mins.
(5) Remove from steamer and leave to cool. 

           I wakes up at 5am to make this........just for breakfast!  

                                   Soft and chewy in texture! 

Brownies

The other day, out of a sudden I craved so desperately wanted to eat a piece of cake.  Thought I could make a quick bake for a cheesecake.  So I look into my fridge, duh....no cream.  So I've to forget about baking a cheesecake as it was already 5pm and doesn't want to go out to just buy cream.  And another quick tinkle came to mind, what about brownies?  So go back to the fridge to search for all the ingredients, duh.....I run out of chocolate.  So I told myself forget all about baking a cake for that day.  So, no cakes to eat and instead I just grab a Copycat Famous Amos chocolate chips cookies to munch.

While searching in the web for brownies the other day, I have bookmarked two sites but I ended using the Joy Of Baking instead.

Brownies
Ingredients
150g semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used VH semisweet dark chocolate)

113g unsalted butter, cut into pieces

15g cocoa powder

200g granulated white sugar  (I used 140g only)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs

95g all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

125g  semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

* I add 50g of chopped walnuts 

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and place the rack in the center of the oven. Butter (or spray with a nonstick cooking spray) an 8 inch (20 cm) square pan, and line the bottom of the pan with parchment or wax paper.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a large stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa powder and sugar . Next, whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, stir in the flour, salt and chocolate chips (if using).

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a little batter and a few moist clumps clinging to it. Do not over bake. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve at room temperature or chilled. These freeze very well.

Makes 16 brownies.

  Oh.....it is indeed yummy!  And I love it.  I believe these brownies taste much 
  more delicious after its aged for a day or two!  But don't think it can last for that long.....

  Do give this a try if you feel like having brownies and add some nuts for some crunchy bite.

Kampar Beef Brisket Noodles ( 金寶牛腩麺)

I love to eat beef.   Previously I very often used to take beef noodles for breakfast and would go for one particular beef noodle stall here in JB town but eversince that owner decided to close down his famous noodle shop, I can't find any good beef noodle here anymore.  One day I found out that there's another similar beef noodles stall in Kluang and it was run by that beef noodle's siblings.   And so, since I love their version of beef noodle, I go all the way to Kluang to have one bowl of beef noodle for breakfast and drive back home!

When you love to eat one particular food, you wouldn't mind to drive all the way there no matter how far it is, right?

While I loves to eat beef noodle, the funny thing is I hardly buy beef from the market and cook at home.  But now it has changed my view now eversince Wendy's and Alan  posted their Beef Brisket Noodle.  I remember I ate this Onn Kee's Beef Brisket Noodles since I am young (my dad's shop is just less than a 2 minute walk to the stall). 

(Sigh).....don't know why this MFF Perak month only come till now or else I can have and cook this long long time ago.....  hehehehe.....

Kampar Beef Brisket Noodles
Recipe copy from  Alan of Travelling-Foodies
Original recipe by WendyinKK of Table for 2....or more
Ingredients
600g beef brisket, tendons & tripe (stomach)
300g  daikon (choose the long slender type, fat ones lack in flavour), peel and cut into chunks
2 star anise
2 inches cinnamon stick
1 small piece of dried tangerine peel
10 pcs of white peppercorn, cracked
20g rock sugar, adjust to taste
Salt to taste
Spring onion, chopped

Method
1. Bring 2.5 litres water to boil.
2. Put whole piece of brisket,  tendon and all the spices into the boiling water.
3. Add salt and seasonings with daikon after 3 hours and let it simmer for another hour or two (or until it is tender)
4. Fish out the brisket chunks and let it cool down. Slice it and put it back into the pot.
5. Serve the beef brisket soup with a sprinkling of spring onions.

Dry Tossed Noodles
Loosen single portion fresh egg noodles/fresh wantan noodles. Put the noodles in a noodle strainer. Cook in boiling water for 15 seconds. Rinse it under running tap water. Blanch it again for another 15-30 seconds depending on the thickness of noodles. Put noodles in a plate. Top with 1 Tbsp of renderings, some dark caramel sauce (or dark soy sauce), light soy sauce according to taste. Toss the noodles. Garnish with some blanched baby bok choy or mustard green.

Express Cha Siu renderings
100g of very fat pork belly (those that you won’t want to eat it as it is)
1 heaped Tbsp of sugar
1 Tbsp of light soy sauce
Slice the fat pork belly thinly. Put in into the wok with 1 Tbsp of oil and slowly fry until it is very slightly golden. Add in sugar and light soy sauce and cook the belly until it turns dry and dark. Discard the belly bits and retain the renderings.

As I still have some beef brisket left over, I make noodle soup instead of dried noodle the next morning for breakfast.

I am submitting this to Malaysian Food Fest Perak Month hosted by

 WendyinKK of Table for 2 or more

Kampar Lor Mai Fan (Savoury Sticky Rice with crunchy peanuts & roast meat)

There are so many recipes that I have bookmarked I wanted to try out but sometimes when I am not in the mood to cook, I have to tell myself it is better not to do it at all.  I wanted to eat this "Lor Mai Fan" so desperately and have been eyeing it since Wendy of Table for 2...or more posted her Lor Mai Fan 3 weeks ago.  

One failure I made is the roasted char siew.....duh.....I made it in a jiffy as I was not prepare to cook this lor mai fan at all that day.  I took out the meat from the fridge and prepare to marinated it.  I didn't marinate it for long and just go ahead to bake it.  Call that impatient and resulted the meat wasn't nice to eat at all.

But nevertheless, the glutinous rice is so yummy and fragrant.  I like it.  Of all the food I have during my childhood time in Kampar, this is the food, Lor Mai Fan that I don't prefer to put the curry sauce in it.  There was a time, many many years ago, I was back to Kampar for a visit, and went to buy the lor mai fan near the market, the seller just go ahead to add the curry sauce to my lor mai fan........oh.....I don't know, I just don't like to eat with the curry sauce in.

Kampar Lor Mai Fan 
Recipe sourced from Wendy of Table for 2....or more 

Ingredients 
300g glutinous rice (sticky rice)

1 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked and chopped finely

2 shallots, minced

1 garlic, minced

1 tbsp premium oyster sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp dark caramel sauce (I used ABC Sweet Sauce)

Salt, if needed

Some boiling water

Garnishing

½ cup fried peanuts

Red roasted char siew

Chopped spring onions

Method

Soak the sticky rice for at least 1 hour.  Drain.  Prepare your steaming vessel.

Heat wok/frying pan with 1-2 tbsp oil.  Add in the minced shallots and garlic.  Lightly sauté till light brown, add in the chopped dried shrimp.  Fry till the shallots golden brown and the dried shrimp fragrant.  Add in the rice and the seasonings.  Stir to thoroughly coat.  Keep tossing till the rice a little sticky.  (Taste the rice and add salt if you require).

Dish up to a steaming plate and level it.  Pour in sufficient boiling water to slightly above the surface of the rice.

Steam on high heat for about 20-30 minutes till the rice is cooked.

Let the rice cool and fluff with your chopsticks.

Serve the rice with fried peanuts, sliced char siew and spring onions.
(You can drench the sticky rice with curry sauce, if you like). 


Red Roasted Char Siew 

200g lean pork, cut into 1cm long strips
40gm sugar
20gm light soy sauce
Pinch of salt
½ tbsp rose wine
Few drops of red colouring

Mix everything together and marinate overnight or at least 4 hours.
Place the meat on a baking tray with grease proof paper and bake at 200C until it is cooked.

If you want to cook the curry sauce, please go to Wendy's site.

 

               

The fragrant glutinous rice can be just eaten as its own even without the char siew but I like it with the fried peanuts..... just like the crunchy taste with the rice!

I am submitting this to Malaysian Food Fest  Perak month hosted by

 Wendyinkk of Table for 2....or more  

Kopitiam Buns With Curry Chicken & Potato

Eversince Sonia posted her Kopitiam Milk Buns I been seeing alot of bloggers baking along with this Milk Buns.  In fact, I can say that this Milk Buns is so easy to make and it stay soft till the next day too.

Sonia has indicated that the Overnight Sponge Dough can be made and keep it in the fridge upto one week and you can use it whenever you feel like baking the buns.  

I made this Curry Chicken & Potato buns the other day thinking that I wanted to give this a miss of posting it to my blog, but I wanted it to share to my sister in Auckland so that she can give this delicious buns a try too.  

Chicken & Potatoes Curry Milk Buns

recipe source from Sonia of NasiLemakLover
*makes 11 buns

Chicken & Potatoes Curry

3 potatoes, small cubed
200g chicken breast, small cubed
2 sprig curry leaves

½ onion, chopped finely

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
3 shallots, chopped finely

Mix to form a paste

1 and 1/2tbsp curry powder (meat type)
1/2 tbsp red chili powder (I didn't add this)
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
4 tbsp water

Method

Heat oil in a wok, sauté onion, garlic and shallots till aroma.

Add in curry paste & curry leaves, stir till fragrance. Add in chicken and potatoes, mix well.

Add in enough water to cover the chicken and potatoes, cook over low medium heat till potatoes tendered. Set aside to cool.

To prepare Chicken & Potatoes Curry buns

Overnight sponge dough

215g high protein flour
125g full cream milk (cold)
2g instant yeast (1/2 tsp)

Method

Mix all ingredients till a rough dough, cover with cling film and store in the fridge for overnight.

To prepare basic dough

1 quantity of above overnight sponge dough
90g high protein flour
30g egg (1/2 large egg)
4g instant yeast (1 tsp)
3g fine salt (1/2 tsp)
60g sugar
45g butter (room temperature)
1 tbsp milk (cold)

Pandan leaves

Curry leaves
Toothpicks
Egg wash – balance half egg (from the basic dough) + 1tbsp milk

Method

Tear the overnight sponge dough into pieces and add all ingredients except butter in a mixing bowl, knead till smooth dough.

Add in the butter and knead until dough is smooth, shinning and elastic.

Cover with cling film and set aside to proof till double in size.

Punch down the dough to expel air, divide into 50g portions and mould into round balls, rest for 10mins.

Flatten the dough ball into a round disc, spoon filling in the middle, wrap and seal. Roll in ball shape and gently press to form a disc shape. Place on a baking tray. Let it proof for another 45mins.

Wrap each bun with pandan leaf that secured with toothpick. Egg wash the top of the buns, and place a piece of curry leaf on top.

Bake at pre-heated oven at 180C for 15mins.

                            This bun is one day old ~ it still stay soft in texture!  And I can still smell

                            the pandan aroma too....

        

                             Wonder what I should make filling next time round?  

Kampar Claypot Chicken Rice

I was borne in Kampar Perak.  And if you might have known of this small town Kampar, though it is just a small tiny town, but it has many many famous and well known food and delicacies.  

When I am still a little girl, my grandma and mum used to buy those yummy food at the stalls at the wet market.  To name a few of these goodies food that I used to indulge in are "Lou See Fun", "Fun Jai" (never had this eversince my family and I left Kampar in the 80's), "Chee Cheong Fun in curry sauce" (oh, this is my favourite....  and I remember the first time my Johorean brother-in-law had this, he is so stunned that chee cheong fun drizzle with curry sauce!"), Claypot Chicken Rice, Chicken Biscuits, "See Hum Dan Fun",  oh....there are so many and even the desserts like agar agar and cakes like "Kai Dan Koh" are so yummy!  (Apologise that I had to mentioned all these food in Cantonese).

Many years ago, I remember there was a time I was craving to eat Claypot Chicken Rice, and I had this for 3 consecutive nights.  Oh, that was the time I bought it at the food stalls. 

Today I like to share with you one of my favourite dish from my hometown and that is Kampar Claypot Chicken Rice.

Kampar Claypot Chicken Rice 
Recipe adapted from "Scrumptious Rice & Porridge"

Ingredients A

210g raw rice

1 tsp olive oil

260g water

¼ pc chicken

1 piece Chinese Sausage (washed with hot water and slice it slant)

Chicken marinade

30g ginger (Scraped and chopped)

1/8 tsp salt

¼ tsp sugar

1 tsp oyster sauce

A dash dark soy sauce

½ tbsp Shao-Xing wine

A dash pepper powder

1 tsp starch

A dash sesame oil

Seasonings

½ tbsp fried onion oil 

1 to 2 tbsp Fragrant Cooked Soy Sauce (see below for ingredients)

 A dash rice wine

Some chopped spring onion

Fragrant Cooked Soy Sauce  (Do this sauce first)

Ingredients

40g oil

½ pc big onion (cut to 3 portions)

2 stalks white part spring onion (pat)

40g ginger (pat)

1 tbsp Shao Xing Wine

1 tbsp oyster sauce

120g water

½ tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp light soy sauce

3 tsp dark soy sauce

½ tsp pepper powder

20g sesame oil

Method to do the Fragrant Cooked Soy Sauce

Heat 40g oil in wok, add big onion, white part of spring onion, ginger and fry till fragrant, sizzle Shao xine wine, oyster sauce and fry for a moment.  Add water and remaining Seasonings, bring to boil.

Reduce to low heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Preparation

Wash rice, soak in water for 60 minutes.  (I didn’t do this part).  Drain thoroughly.  Mix with olive oil.  Put aside at least 1 hour.  (I didn’t do this part too.)

Clean and cut chicken into bite size pieces.  Season with Chicken marinade for 30 minutes.

Method

Put rice and 260g of water into claypot, cover with lid and cook over high heat until boiling when water almost dried up and small holes start appearing.

Open lid, arrange chicken pieces and sausage on the rice,  cover with lid and cook over low heat for 12 minutes.  Turn off heat, keep warm for 5 to 10 minutes.  Turn claypot every few minutes while it simmers at low heat.

Add Seasonings accordingly to your taste before serving, mix thorough and serve with chopped spring onion.

                         This is the Special Fragrant Soy Sauce..... to drizzle to the Claypot rice

Would you agree that one pot dish is so convenient and less pot and plates to wash up?

I am submitting this post Malaysian Food Fest Perak month hosted by 
WendyinKK of Table for Two....or more 

Plain Milky Buns (Kopitiam Milk Buns)

I guess most of you all would agree with me that given a choice you would prefer to make your own bread and buns at home.  Nowadays store bought bread and buns are too commercialized.  You can taste the difference in their texture and you will notice too that the bread that kept at room temperature for more than a week and they don't get moulded at all. 

Well, while I'm in Auckland that few months, there are so many choices of bread to choose from at the supermarket shelves.  And that, I called is real bread, even it is store bought but the texture is so different and they taste so wonderfully good!

Saw this at Sonia's post and thought of give it a try.  No doubt about it, it is such indeed soft in texture.  

Plain Milky Buns / Kopitiam Milk Buns

Recipe sourced from Sonia's

*makes 9 buns

Overnight sponge dough

215g high protein flour
125g milk (cold)
2g instant yeast (1/2 tsp)

Method

Add all ingredients in a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients to a rough dough by hands , the dough is dry and rough and don't need to knead till pass window pane. Cover tightly with cling film and immediately store in the fridge for overnight (at least 12 hours).

To prepare milk buns

1 quantity of above overnight sponge dough
90g high protein flour
30g egg (1/2 large egg)
4g instant yeast (1tsp)
3g fine salt (1/2tsp)
60g sugar (I used only 50g)
45g butter (room temperature)
1 tbsp milk (cold)

Method

Tear the overnight sponge dough into pieces and add all ingredients except butter in a mixing bowl, knead till smooth dough.

Add in the butter and knead until dough is smooth and elastic. Cover with cling film and set aside to proof till double in size.

Punch down the dough to expel air, equal divide the dough to 9 portions, shape into round balls. Place dough in a square pan. Let it proof for another 30-45mins.

Bake at pre-heated oven at 170C for 20mins.

As advised by Sonia, I have kept the left over in an air-tight container!  Thank you!

Fallen Almond Pound Cake

Hot! Hot! Hot!  Yes the weather is getting terribly unbearable HOT to me!  From 4Celcius to 36Celcius and how's that?  And yes, I am back home sweet home and I am still on jet lag.  I wakes up at 3am every morning and feeling not knowing how to spend the wee hours away, so I thought of baking away and make use of my new 12 hole bundt pan.  

I have been eyeing this 12 hole bundt pan for so long and when this pan caught my eye while shopping in Auckland, it was way too expensive to own.  So my sister and I waited till for the next offer/discount and yes.....finally it was buy one free one.

I have previously used this bundt pan while I'm still in NZ, but it was used to make agar agar......  And now I am using it for baking pound cake instead.

Fallen Almond Pound Cake 

Recipe from sophistimom

Ingredients

225g unsalted butter, softened

225g package of cream cheese, softened slightly
285g cups sugar (I added only 220g)
4 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
250g unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons kosher salt

sliced almonds, for garnish
confectioners’ sugar for dusting
2 cups sour cherries (or another kind of berry)

1. Preheat oven to 165 degrees celsius. Butter 2 8 inch cake pans, and line with a round of parchment paper.  (I used 12 hole mini bundt pan and 1 small loaf pan)

2. In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and cream cheese. Pour in sugar and mix until smooth. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing well until each is incorporated.

3. While ingredients are mixing, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly add flour mixture to the wet ingredients.

4. Distribute batter evenly between the pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes.  Let cool and cut into slices. Sprinkle with almonds and dust with confectioners’ sugar. Toss cherries or other berries with about a tablespoon of sugar (depending on the sweetness of the fruit), and spoon over the top of the cake. Wrap any extras tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to one month.

  Using mini bundt pan usually shorten the time of baking.

 

Just love this mini bundt pan so much......isn't it sweet to make Agar Agar in it too?