Kueh Splendour 6: Kuih Loyang (honeycomb ) 蜂窝饼

What're u bingeing? 又在吃什么?

吃不饱的.

Stars Galaxy

A CNY Star...A last hour decision to pick up a loyang mould from the store and headed back to the kitchen to fry a small batch to satisfy a year long craving, after a thumb down to the commercial ones. They all smell of bad oil!!  It makes better sense to eat few good clean ones than a big container of them swimming in dark smelly oil. The adding of muah chee powder makes them more "pang". Love the star shape more than the rose. Once you have master the art of making this snack, with same technique you could learn to make Kueh Pie Tee.

Read earnestly the below pointers to avoid the mistakes I made and you can get the light crispness texture..

looking fabulous in container

Kuih Loyang (honeycomb )  蜂窝饼
Recipe:

• 50g rice flour
• 10g top flour
• 60g white sugar
• 1 cup thick coconut milk
• 1  60g egg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp muah chee powder **
• Oil for frying
• Star mould

Method:

1. Whick egg and sugar till pale
2. Mix santan and salt into egg mixture
3. Fold in the two flours and then the muah chee powder till runny smooth.
4. Let the batter rest for at least an hour.
5. Heat oil in heavy bottomed pot and the mould to be heated up in oil as well.
6. Use medium low fire
7. Dip mould into batter till before the top of mould.
8. Lower the mould into hot oil
9. Give a little shake to loosen batter or use awith a pointed chopstick to assist.
10. Fry till light golden and drain on paper towel.
11. Leave to to cool before storing .
12. Store in air-tight container.

Pointers

1.      Well whisked egg lighted batter.
2.      Batter should coat back of spoon thinly, adjust  accordingly  with coconut milk.
3.      Do not submerge the mould totally in batter.
4.      Stir batter before each dipping.
5.     Count 5 seconds before bringing up .
6.     Let the excess batter drip totally before putting  into the oil.
7.     not fry too many pieces at one time..allow  moving space in oil.
8.     Need not flip during frying.
9.     Scoop up once light color...they continue  browning out of oil.
10.     Reheat mould again after each fry. Cannot  overheat either, batter gets cook n break away.  Underheat, batter drip down n won't stick.

Workshop available @ Palate Sensations Singapore 

- tel 65 6589 8843

food quote: The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.” ― E.M. Forster

Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste.  PaulaCookingFingers

snacks

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Dim Sum 6: Xiao Long Bao 老面小籠包

What're u bingeing? 又在吃什么?

吃不饱的.

d prettier ones

Size don't matters

dissolve gelatine in cold water

pour boiling stock to gel

xiao xiao long bao

hilarious moment

food quote:   姜还是老的辣, jiāng háishì lǎo de là “the ginger gets more pungent with age” the older and wiser you get

Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste.  PaulaCookingFingers

Workshops @ Palate Sensations Singapore - tel 65 6589 8843

yeast

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Ah Ma's Collection 2: Yam Glutinous Rice 芋头糯米饭- steam method

你吃了吗? Nǐ chīle ma?

吃不饱

A grainy splendor

Teochew Chu Bi Png...One of my favourite breakfast is the dark soya fried rice vermicelli, topped with an egg and a crispy deep fried chicken wing. Whichever fave vendors I patronised, they will also offer a tray of glutinous rice next to the rice vermicelli that I could have queuing for 15 mins on weekend morning peak, never ever I get drawn drooling over the rice. The glutinous rice was just cooked in dark soya sauce with a meagre amount dried prawn and some red peanuts sprinkled at the top...farcry from my Ah Ma 's version. 

Ah Ma, an immigrant from Swatow, province of the Teochews sailed to Singapore to escape from persecution by the Communists. Along with her packed a luggage of recipes she fed her family since her teen years. This dish is the simplest of all her cooking and kueh making. I, being a passionate lover of yam and a true blue Teochew, it is a vegetable root that I try not to exclude in my chinese cooking unless someone can persuade the vendor to blacklist me. Here I am, throwing in a handful of them into the oil to seal the "powderish" texture and product differentiating from the other Ah Chews' chu bi png. The more wormy purplish lesions you see when the root is halved, you're in luck for a gastronomic bliss. 

Most recipes would instruct you to soak the glutinous rice overnight or 4 hours, pls XXXX that line off. A 1 :1 ratio rice to liquid and using the steaming technique sets you sailing to a delicious bowl in half an hour. And should my appetite takes another direction in one of my abnormal hormones days, I can use this yam rice later on as a filling for the making of Or Png Kueh or wrap with beancurd skin and panfried. A 3-in-1 recipe...hey you got a good deal here!

All in a pot cooking

Yam Glutinous Rice 芋头糯米饭

Recipe: for 1 person

• 1/2 cup glutinous rice
• 1/2 cup water
• 25g yam
• 50g minced pork
• 1 mushroom
• 5g dried prawns
• 1 tbsp red peanuts
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 shallots
• 2 springs chinese celery
• 1 1/2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp mirin
• salt sugar pepper to taste
• fried shallots /parsley for garnish

Method:

1. Rinse glutinous rice (no soaking)
2. Chop into small pieces...yam, mushroom, dried prawns
3. Fry garlic and onions till light brown
4. Add in yam, mushroom, dried prawns and minced pork and seasonings.
5. Continue frying till fragrant n lightly browned.
6. Add in rice and quick stir
7. Off fire immediately .
8. Pour in the water.
9. Give a stir of all the ingredients.
10. Add salt sugar pepper to taste
11. Scoop to serving bowl and steam 15 mins.
12. Stir in chinese celery n cover 15 mins before serving.

Cook's pointers:

• 15 mins steam time is sufficient. Keep cover on the next 15 mins and the rice will grainy soft and fluffy.

Workshop @ Palate Sensations Singapore - 65-6589 8843

food quote:   巧婦難為無米之炊： "The cleverest housewife can't cook a meal without rice ：Nobody can accomplish anything without the necessary means.

snacks

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Crystal Skin Shui Jin Bao 1 潮州水晶包 ...hot water dough

要刻苦  不要吃喝拉撒睡

Symphony of flavours

Hot water dough technique...We're back again to making some snacks using non-gluten flours. In last few postings of soon kueh and png kueh, we used boiling water to partially cook the starch and knead them into a dough which is equally same here except the use of different mix of flours. I prefer the use of sago flour to achieve that crystal clear shiny surface of this dumpling. The pork filling is same as that of teochew dumplings ,or you may use red bean paste with sweetened gingko nuts instead. This dumpling must be eaten steamy hot to enjoy the softness of the dough. Once the temperature drops, the starch start to set and texture turn a little leathery. 

Being able to see the filling in the dumpling is a feast to the eyes as well. Below, I'm sharing 3 recipes of the skin dough for you to choose because sago flour may not be easily available in some regions. This can be substituted by sweet potato flour or potato starch.

A typical teochew pork filling includes small diced yellow bean curd, long beans and chinese celery and some red peanuts tossed into it lastly. Fish sauce is another favourite seasoning of the Teochews. These dumplings are served in good dim sum restaurants, and not a food street item. The art of the making this skin dough requires light handling during wrapping.

Teochew Pork Vegetable Filling

Crystal Skin Shui Jin Bao 1 潮州水晶包

Dough Recipe 1: 

• 100g sago flour
• 10g wheat starch
• 15g tapioca flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 150g boiling water direct from stove
• 2 tbsp oil

Dough Recipe 2: 

• 100g wheat starch
• 10g potato starch
• 40g tapioca starch
• 180g boiling water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp oil

Dough Recipe 3:

• 100g potato starch
• 100g sweet potato starch
• 240g boiling water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tbsp oil

Pork Vegetable Filling -

• 200g roughly minced pork
• 1/2 pc yellow bean curd
• 3 strings long beans
• 3 sprigs chinese celery
• 2 tbsp red peanuts
• 1 water chestnut chopped
• 2 shitake mushrooms
• 1/4 tbsp salted radish (chai poh)
• 1/4 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tbsp soya sauce
• a dash chinese cooking wine
• salt sugar white pepper to taste

Method:

Dough Making:

1. Mix the flours together.
2. In boiling water add salt .
3. Pour boiling water all over flours and mix with chopsticks to a little shaggy dough.
4. Rest dough 5 mins to cool down
5. Pour oil and knead dough till smooth.
6. Adjust with little water or cornflour when necessary.
7. Mixing bowl must be clean.
8. Rest dough again 60 mins.
9. Divide dough into 30g each and lightly floured with corn flour.
10. Put small dough between plastic sheet and flatten into thin round sheet.
11. Scoop 1 1/2  tbsps filling and placed in center. 
12. Seal the edges by pinching n placed it downwards.
13. Grease steaming tray or place baking paper and steam kuehs for 10 mins medium high fire and 5 mins low fire.
14. Brush shallot oil on kuehs after first steaming.

Workshop @ Palate Sensations Singapore 

food quote:  藕断丝连(ǒuduànsīlián), means can break a lotus root in half, the fibers and skin remain connected. Someone who has broken up with a lover but remains connected.

 Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste.  PaulaCookingFingers

dim sum

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Chinese Pastries: Jiaozi Panfried 饺子 - hot water dough

What're u bingeing? 又在吃什么?

吃不饱的.

A bundle of catalysts

 

Hot water dough....I'm back with another recipe for this technique. Jiaozi, commonly eaten boiled in China and the preparation method is usually the use of tap water to mix with the plain flour to form a dough. Boiled jiaozi has a layer of slogginess on the surface while I prefer a one with a soft QQ and smoothier surface which is a characteristic of gyoza. Preparation time is shorter for boiling method but you 'll get a slacken taste. More effort is required in this recipe: partially cook the flours with boiling water followed by panfrying the uncooked dumplings and then steaming them in some water. Level of water not exceeding half height of dumpling. All in all - 3 cooking techniques and the result is a  delightfully, light golden crispy bottom complementing the rest of the steamed dumpling skin and a sensational experience swirling in your head when eaten with a ginger vinegar sauce.

My first encounter with these little ones goes back to the year 1994 before the influx of China immigrants, these delicious dumplings were found in very few chinese restaurants in Chinatown @ xx prices. A business trip then took me to Beijing and Shanghai for a week and got me into a frenzy indulgence there. They're the staple of every individual as I saw a plate of them at almost every dining table. Even so in workers' canteens , a bowl of steaming jiaozi was a happy meal for them. Finally, I begged my China collegeaues to share the recipe. "Easy easy easy to make!" all said so. "Add water to flour only". "how  much to add ? i asked. " Until you get a dough." That's was the recipe.

The weekend upon return was "jiaozi playtime" figuring out the proportion of water to flour. The final finding is 1 cup flour to 1/3 cup water. Am i spoonfeeding here ? Happy to do so...it is also a personal reference when memory fail me one day. I've also simplified the preparation of the pork / vegetable filling...skip the osmosis process for the vegetables. Cut the vegetables finely and mix with the  marinated pork works perfectly. The squeezing of water from the vegetables far too cumbersome and loses some good nutrients as well. Let the vegetables sweat in the minced pork and the fluid makes the dumplings juicy.

Recipe:

Filling:

• 200g minced pork
• 5 springs ku chai - chinese chives
• 1 big leaf pak choy
• 5 pcs carrots
• 1 stalk chinese leek (white portion)
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp soya sauce
• 2 tsp chinese wine
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp corn flour

1. Shred the vegetables finely
2. Marinate the pork with all the rest.
3. Combine vegetables and pork and mix well.
4. Set aside for 1- 2 hours and proceed to prepare dough.

Dough:

• 100g Top flour
• 65g hot water + 1/2 tsp cooking wine
• 1/2 tbsp oil
• 1/8 tsp salt

1. Dissolve salt an wine in hot water
2. Pour hot water all over flour
3. Mix them gradually with chopsticks
4. Cool 5 mins
5. Use hands and drizzle 1 tbsp oil and knead till smooth dough
6. Rest 1/2 hour
7. Divide into 15g balls
8. Flour the ball before you roll into small circle
9. Fill and seal. see shape above

15g each

Finale:

1. Heat oil in non stick pan first.
2. Place dumplings with a gap between them
3. Fry over medium low fire 3 mins
4. Pour warm water over them and cover.
5. Steam 15 mins.
6. Lift up cover , low fire, cook till water dries up
7. Serve with ginger vinegar sauce.

Ginger Vinegar Sauce:

• lots of young ginger thinly sliced
• black vinegar to cover ginger
• a big pinch sugar
• few drops sesame oil
• few dashes chinese wine, soya sauce
• szechuan chilli sauce (optional)

Cook's pointers:

• Use extra fine flour
• Avoid hard stem of vegetables.
• Prefer use of non stick pan for frying dumplings.
• Pour warm water up to half height of dumpling.
• Cover during steaming.
• Glutinous rice wine - my fave

Workshop @ Palate Sensations Singapore - 65-6589 8843
food quote:  哑巴吃饺子,心里有数 (yǎ ba chī jiǎo zi, xīn lǐ yǒu shù) - When a mute person eats dumplings ( 饺子 jiaozi), he knows how many he has eaten, even though he cannot speak. We use this saying to point someone knowing the situation quite well, yet saying nothing.


Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste. PaulaCookingFingers

dim sum

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