Chinese Potato Puff

What're u eating? 在吃什么?

吃不饱的. 想当 Hollywood 著名演员

Culinary finest gem

food quote:   鹹魚返生:  "Salted fish becomes alive", a second opportunity. (Cantonese)

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

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Soon Kueh 5 - Non-Teochew (starchy version)

There are two camps of soon kueh eaters hovering in my social circle. This recipe is for the non-Teochew clan.

Recipe:

100g wheat starch
40g tapioca starch
35g potato starch
25g rice flour

1/4 tsp salt
1/2 sugar
2 tbsp oil
340g boiling water

Dough and filling Preparation Directions: 
Read Teochew Soon Kueh

Workshop available @ Palate Sensations Singapore 

- tel 65 64789746

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Soon Kueh 3 - Hakka

A friend's request for this unknown soon kueh is talk of the town lately. Many would say,"never heard of" while fried abacus seeds is a hot fave of many, even you can't utter a vowel of Hakka. Yam is used in many of their cooking. Rarely this yam dough soon kueh is purchasable, reason likely to be the high cost of yam. 

Again we have another of get-together cooking session. A game of mahjong may appeal to many women as an excellent socialising activity, likewise a morning of kueh making with your buddies enrich the friendship and strengthen the bond. While waiting for the dough to rest and shredding the vegetables for filling, there is ample time  for conversation and catching up with each other's busy lives around the table and occasionally roar in laughters to some silly jokes.

From some research efforts, this soon kueh dough can also be achieved by the hot water method of mixing the mashed yam with tapioca flour, but the Hakkas are more fond of pinching out a small dough and boil it till it floats . The boiled dough is then kneaded into the main dough. I enjoyed eating this interesting texture from boiling method - it's spongy and slight chewy with the aromatic smell of the yam. Florence has such a recipe to share , so check her out .

Recipe @ Florence Blog

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Huaiyang Pastries 1 : Spiral Curry Puff

What're u eating? 在吃什么?

吃不饱的  想当SQ空姐.

Dozens boxes of Huaiyang pastries mainly with sweet fillings such as red bean paste I had devoured since the birth of a sweet tooth, however the culinary aspect of the pastry remained a mystery to me till I read Shoonyin Home Cooking. The reads educated me on the pastry's versatility and the dominance of the Huaiyang cuisine (四大菜系) in China culinary heritage. Soon the excitement send me to enroll in a scurry at the Prima Baking School where professional bakers (one excluded) are trained to prepare dim sum delicacies with this pastry. Two insanely popular snacks in Singapore: spiral curry puffs and siew baos shine through the local gastronomic sphere with the Huaiyang pastry encasing everyone's favourites - potato chicken curry, tomato lime sardines. Or prepare a sweet filling of kaya flavoured with salted yolks...a new sweet discovery.

tummy warming curry

Huaiyang pastry build on one similar fundamental with the western puff pastry; both pastries use the technique of fat lamination. From the pockets of air between the pastry sheets arise the layers of flakes in a hot oven. 

Chinese bakers took a step further to laminate the divided dough individually and through this laborious method creates more ways of rolling the smaller doughs and shaping them differently. And also through using different flours and fat proportions in both the water and oil doughs, a spectacular spread of bings饼 and baos包 are delicatedly crafted in different provinces of China: lao por bing老婆餅, tau sar piah, siew bao, char siew soh, tai yang bing 太陽餅, beh teh soh, phong piah, radish puff, mooncakes and the list goes on and on....a dynasty 朝代 that stills exists.  

Many home-bakers have a nagging interest in this pastry - often cumbersome being the main reason. But what they're ignorant of is that this technique brings a magical diversification of the final piece. 

oil dough in water dough

Shoon Yin  had penned down the dough preparation in details . It would be a waste of time and boring for me uploading similar information. While at my training stinct, some important do's and don'ts were highlighted and would be useful for those who are passionate over this pastry. A primary importance is not to wrap the water and oil doughs tightly, allows some gaps for the flakies to rise during baking. Another area to note down is allow the dough to rest at least 15 mins after lamination and the swiss rolling. Cover the doughs with plastic sheet to prevent dryness on the surface. I even rolled them in my lightly oiled palms before placing them under the plastic sheet. Lastly, pinch off the excess dough after closing up the edges otherwise the base of the bing is thick and not fine craftmanship.   

Use fork to combine flours and shortening   till crumbs-like. Add in the water to form soft dough. Do same for the oil dough except no water to be added.

In this curry puff recipe , I prefer not using any cake flour in the oil dough and use some bread flour in the water dough. I like the flakes to be sturdy and distinct. The fat proportion to flour that I'm recommending for this spiral dough is 30% and 50% for the water and oil dough respectively. 

Allows water and oil doughs to rest at least 1/2  hour.

Divide each dough into 4/6 portions and rolled them into balls.

Place oil dough in centre of water dough and seal loosely. Cover them and rest for 15 mins.

Roll the rested doughs into long rectangle and roll up like a swiss roll twice. Let the rolled up dough rest again 15 mins before the second roll. Rest another 15 mins after second roll in cool area or fridge. It's hard to roll into shape when the fat is melting, may even lose the flakes.

Rest another 15 mins covered before cutting it into two pieces.

close embrace

manipulation by sinister

Come discover me

Final stage is to get them  deepfry in hot oil. To get nice flakes, scoop them up after 30 seconds in the hot oil and cool for another 30 seconds. Repeat this dunking process three times . Continue the frying over low fire till light golden. Increase the fire just before lifting them from the oil. Drain them well.

Ingredients List:

Water dough :

50g bread flour

50g  top flour

1/8 tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

30g  shortening

45g water

Oil dough:

60g top flour

30g shortening

Quick Potato Chicken filling:

150g diced boiled potato

75g diced chicken breast

30g rough chopped onions

2 sprigs curry leaves shredded

50g instant chicken curry paste

3 tablespoons coconut milk

1 tsp soya sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt

Filling Directions:

• Stir fry the onion and curry leaves till fragant.
• Add in the curry paste and fry for 1 min.
• Then add in the chicken pieces, soya sauce, salt and sugar. 
• Cook for about 3 mins.
• Pour in the coconut milk and cook till lightly dry
• Cool thoroughly for use.

Food Quote:  一毛不拔鐵公鶏：”You can’t get a feather from iron cock.” Somebody very stingy and never give; or miser

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

Workshop available @ Palate Sensations Singapore 
- tel 65 64789746

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粽子 Galore 1 : Steam Bak Chang - cooked within an hour

必须要吃

The month of May, Baking Kakis' obsession with snack foods snowballed horrendously beyond Singapore shorelines thousands of kilometres to a country in North Asia -Taiwan. It is actually an innate craving when the stores start to display abundunt Bak Chang's ingredients in our presence. The celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival falls in the early month of June. Kaki Yu , in one of her late night goggling, sniffed out an interesting bak chang recipe at blogger Guai Shu Shu which uses calrose rice mixed with glutinous rice. Bells ring merrily for those with weaker digestive system. I, in particular most eager to taste it. What's more drawing to the recipe is the cooking hour of the dumplings requires an hour compared to traditional arduous boiling of three hours. 

The very next day after reading the post, we headed to market and packed up the shopping bag: dried bamboo leaves, dried shrimps, dried shitake mushrooms, japanese fresh chestnuts, dried peanuts, salted eggs and the two kinds of pearlescent-grainy-white rice. All these ingredients has to be prepared a day ahead as most needed soaking or boiling. Somewhat, don't know why; the dried peanuts sold here take an hour and half cooking time plus hours of soaking time to soften unlike Mr Guai's, so is the calrose rice from Australia requires soaking time prior to cooking.  Whichever and whatever reasons, we carried back the best quality we could possibly scoured at the stores.

The night before the assembly of the dumplings, 3-hours-soaked dried peanuts and fresh chestnuts were boiled for an hour, drained and kept in the fridge. The freshly-cracked golden orange salted egg yolks were chilled too. **Bamboo leaves were rinsed first, then dipped in boiling water to remove a strong chemical smell that caused a slight burn to my left eye when I tore open the plastic bag . They were then soaked in fresh water overnight, that went for the mushrooms as well.

 

The next morning, we soaked the glutinous rice for four hours and an hour for the calrose rice (as per instruction on the bag). Seasoning of the pork slices was prepared while the rice were soaking.  We chose the "aeroplane" cut of piggy as it gives a fatty springy bite. The cubed yam were fried first and simmered in half cup water till dry. Since we do not enjoy the luxury of having a rice-cooker with a capacity of more than three cups grains, we cooked the yam and peanuts separately and mixed to the partial cooked rice. Anyway, we skipped use of rice cooker totally, confined the cooking to the stove area...cleaning management.

Once the yam were done, the chopped garlic, shallots, thick-sliced mushrooms and rinsed dried shrimps were fried till a aromatic smell filled the kitchen. Then the thicked-sliced seasoned pork were tossed in and fried for five minutes before braised in three cups light chicken stock for 20 mins. Season to taste with soya sauces, sake, white pepper, five-spice powder, salt and sugar. Put them aside and keep the remaining broth for cooking of the rice.

With the use of the same wok (one item less to wash), we fried the soaked drained rice for two minutes and pour in three cups water and a cup pork broth. Season to taste with light soya sauce , white pepper , salt and let all cooked covered over very low fire. Once the liquid being soaked by rice, we mixed in the yam and peanuts. They were scooped to a big bowl to be wrapped.

The grand moment we waited for - wrapping and tying the dumplings. Kakis Qi came to our aid and hastened the wrapping efforts to an hour and the dumplings went to the steamer immediately for an hour.  The gong struck..lunch is ready !!!

more rice pls !

 

dainty knots

alas!

Baking Kakis@Work

labor of love

an hour steaming over high fire

Besides the garlic sauce recommended, I also enjoy eating the dumplings with sambal belachan, chee cheong fun sesame sauce and goyza sauce with wasabi.

a humble lunch

Recipe @ Guai Shu Shu
you'll get 30 small-medium dumplings

Serving Sauce:

1 bottle sweet sesame sauce    - choose premium brands
5 shallots   - finely chop
2 cloves garlic    - fine chop
1 tablespoon cooking wine
1 tbsp light soya sauce
3/4 cup water
1/2 tbsp potato starch

• Fry garlic shallots till light brown.
• Pour in wine and soya sauce
• Stir water with starch and blend with the rest in pot.
• Once thicken, off fire.

Workshop @ Palate Sensations Singapore - 65 64789746

fun quote:  人心齐，泰山移 rén xīn qí, tài shān yí - When people work with one mind, they can even remove Mount Taishan.

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

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