Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐!

Time flies and tomorrow we shall usher in the year of the Dog. So it's bye-bye Rooster, and Hello Doggy! (not Hello Kitty *lol*) New year, new beginning... with this hongbao ecard, I send my best wishes to all my friends and readers here.

迎春接福賀新歲　萬事勝意慶吉祥

Wishing your days be filled with happiness & good health… all through the coming year!

Happy New Year!

新年快乐

Gold Fish Making

As per request, I shall post different views of the Gold Fish here. I am not very good in giving the step by step narrative on how to make it, so I just dismantle one of the experimental fish and show here. Hope it helps!

Number of red packets used: 7
1 for Belly; 2 for Right & Left Side of the Head; 3 for Tail and 1 to cut 3 fins(from corners).

Size of red packet: 120mm x 80mm, hence measurement of drawing is also in mm.

Belly drawing:


Right & Left Side drawing (Mirror)


Fins drawing:


Belly (Exterior View)


Belly (Interior View):


Right Side (Exterior View):


Right Side (Interior View):


Head (Front View):

After taping with the belly.

Head (Hind View):

Do not seal the back until you have inserted the tail.

Tail:


Tail (Top View):

The three parts are taped together. The one in the centre must be slightly higher than those two at the sides.

Tail (Under View):


Tail (Side View):

Notice that the tip to join to the head is cut slightly at an angle? This is to ensure that when you join tail and head together, you can lift the tail at an angle to make it point up.

Gold Fish Belly:

After joining head and tail together.

Gold Fish Hind:

Notice that the tail is lifted up at an angle.

Gold Fish Side:


Gold Fish Front:


Note: For the Belly, Right & Left Sides of Head, there are thin cardboards inside the red packets. Use scotch tape to tape all parts together. For the eyes, just print and paste with glue.

Nian Nian You Yu

Every Luna New Year, hubby and I would make some handicrafts to display. I liked to use red packets to make lanterns in the past, but not anymore. In recent years, hubby made fish. All fishes in the photos were made by him few weeks ago.

Why fish? Because the Mandarin pronunciation of fish 鱼 is "Yu" which has the same sound as 餘 - 剩 餘 "sheng yu". The Chinese phrase 年年有魚/餘 (nián nián you yú, or "every year there is fish/leftover"is a homophone for phrases which could mean "be blessed every year" or "have profit every year".

Chocolate Mint Cookies

This Chocolate Mint Cookies recipe is from Florence's blog. The colour of the cookie is lighter when it is freshly out of the oven, somehow when it cools off, the colour turns darker. I make 3 times the recipe and it yields about 58 cookies. Very addictive cookies.



Chocolate Mint Cookies

Melt-in-the-Mouth Pineapple Tarts

I have been itching to bake this Pineapple Tarts since I saw Janny's photo. But I have heard and read numerous comments that it is an extremely tedious job. Since I love Pineapple Tarts so much and this particular recipe by Joshua have had rave reviews, with the encouragement from fellow bloggers like Ching and Judy, I thought why not.

After gathering all the ingredients and a brief consultation with Joshua, I embarked on my mission. The part about cooking the jam is a real killer!!! It took me two and a half hour, instead of one hour as stated in the recipe, to see the golden colour. Perhaps I did not squeeze the juice dry enough which resulted in that.

The second part was much easier. I chose to make the enclosed-type. Mixing the dough was easy and wrapping the pineaple jam with the dough was blissful. After the first tart was out of the oven and cooled, I popped it into my mouth and I was like "Oh my god!!! I need to spank Josh!" *lol*

In case you are wondering why spank Joshua, the reason is, I couldn't stop after the first tart. I popped quite a few and had to force myself to stop! *lol* No regret for the hard work. It is worth the effort.





Melt-in-the-Mouth Pineapple Tarts (2005 Version)
黄梨酥

Pineapple Filling:

Ingredients:
4 pineapples
9 cloves
caster sugar (I used 150g caster sugar and about 4 tbsp of honey)


Method:

Peel the pineapple.

Grate the pineapple using a grater or using a juicer (grater better).

Squeeze out the juice from the grated pineapple fibre.

In a frying pan, put the pineapple fibre and heat using low flame.

Add cloves and fry till water has dried up halfway.

Add sugar to taste. (Amount depending on how sweet pineapple was originally and how sweet you want filling to be)

Continue frying till filling starts to dry and turns golden in colour (abt 1 hr later)

Note: While frying, you have to stir continuously and remember to keep the flame small. Its easier to add sugar by dissolving it in some of the unwanted pineapple juice and adding this to the grated pineapple.


Dough:

Ingredients:
250g golden churn butter
170g cream (I used Nestle UHT cream in the can)
75g caster sugar
400g Top flour or Cake flour
30g Corn flour50g cream cheese (Using Kraft Philadelphia)
3 egg yolks
1 additional egg yolk + 1 tsp caster sugar (for glazing)


Method:

Sift Top flour and corn flour together.

Using a cake mixer, blend the cream, butter, cream cheese and sugar together till you get a creamy mixture. (10 mins on speed 2)

Add the 3 egg yolks and sifted flour into the creamed butter mixture.

Using the cake mixer's dough mixer, mix till it becomes a smooth dough that is oily enough to not stick to your hand

Allow the dough to stand for 10 mins. (Chilling helps if you are making the pineapple on top kind)

Divide dough into small balls and the pineapple filling into balls roughly 1/2 the size of the dough.

Wrap filling ball with dough ball and shape as desired.

Glaze with the glazing mix.

Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 15 mins in a oven. (If using convection oven with turbo fan, lower temperature to 160 degrees celsius)

Remove from oven and reglaze again before baking for another 5 mins till golden brown on top.

Tazz's Note: It yielded 110 Tarts. Totoal weight of the dough was about slightly more than 1 kg. I divided the dough into 10 equal parts, then subdivided into another 11 parts. My advice is to roll the jam into balls first before starting to mix the dough because if one is too slow, the dough will ooze oil.

Kueh Bangkit

I had been following the discussion on this Kueh Bangkit recipe at Ching"s blog. With the step-by-step guide, it emboldened me to give this a try. Because I do not have a microwave oven to heat up the flour and was too lazy to fry the flour in the wok, I simply baked the flour and some cut pandan leaves in the oven at 160 degree Celsius for about 35 minutes, stirring with a wooden spatula at about 10 minutes intervals. My dough was quite dry and I had to add in some extra coconut milk and about an extra teaspoon of melted butter to knead into a pliable dough. After that, I followed Jaschin's example by letting it rest for 30 minutes before proceeding with the next step. The dough was very easy to manage and I only needed to flour the roller and the board lightly to roll out my dough. There was no difficulty in cutting with the cookie cutter as well. I ran out of parchment paper and I remembered my mum's method of greasing the cookie tray while baking her Kueh Bangkit last time, so I simply did that as well. I baked mine at 180 degree Celsius for 20 minutes. When it was done, I gave a light tap to the tray and all the cookies popped out swiftly.

Verdict? My Kueh Bangkit is the crispy and not exactly the melt in the mouth type. The smell is also not that fragrant compared to those my mum baked decades ago becasue she used fresh coconut milk. Though it might not be the melt in the mouth type, I am delighted with the taste. I will continue to follow all discussions on the baking of Kueh Bangkit so that by next year, I hope to perfect it. Hmm.. have to be next year because I have other plans in the coming days.



Note: If too lazy to cut the dough with cookie cutter, can simply roll into balls and flatten with a fork. See the round cookie in the centre? Not bad right? *lol* Naughty Tazz sharing lazy tip here.

Qi Ku Chips (Arrowroot Chips)

The first photo below is what the Cantonese called Qi Ku. The English name is Arrowroot (thanks Josh for the information!). It is only sold in the market around the new year season. When placed in a shallow vase with water, after a couple of weeks, it will grow into a young plant, which is considered as an auspicious plant for the Lunar New Year. It is also edible. Some use it to boil with pork ribs soup or stir fry with dried shrimps and simmer till softened. The taste is like potato. It can be deep fried into chips and it tastes exactly like Potato Chips. My hair stylist gave me some Qi Ku Chips few years ago and that's when I learnt about turning these into chips.

Actual name in Chinese is called 塘菇 (pronounced as tang2 ku1), Cantonese called this 池菇 (pronounced qi ku) because 池塘 means pond. Therefore 塘菇 and 池菇 are the same.





Qi Ku Chips (Arrowroot Chips)

Ingredients:
Arrowroots, Qi Ku in Cantonese
Some salt
Oil for deep frying


Method:

Wash and peel the skin with a peeler.

Slice thinly and marinate with some salt.

Spread the slices in a big tray and place under the sun to dry. Alternatively can also air-dry it.

Deep fry the chips in hot oil till you are happy!

Drain and place on absorbent paper to soak up excess oil.

When cooled can be kept in airtight container.

* See the golden colour? Hehe... all the Lunar New Year goodies symbolise something auspicious, so I shall name this 黄金满满, meaning filled with gold. *lol*

Beer-Battered Chicken

It has been raining continuously for so many days, and the cold weather is making me lazy and sleepy. To make matter worse, some kitchen tiles popped out yesterday due to the extreme change in weather, which really dampened my mood. My spring cleaning is half done and being a hygiene freak, I am feeling extremely uneasy if I don't give everything a thorough wash before the coming new year. The weather is wet and I hate to see wetness at home as well, so I have to KIV most of the washing until the sunny days are here again, *sigh* but don't know when!!!! New year shopping is also half done despite the fact that I have been running around like crazy. I am a fussy shopper and all the clothes and other accessories for my family are subjected to my approval, hence, I have to make every single shopping trip with them personally. Can't trust them to pick the correct designs and materials for every single item. *Aiyoh!* I am so fedup with myself for being such a control freak!!! That's why I have always asked hubby whether he feels like strangling me! *lol*

Enough ranting! Let's talk about food again.

This Beer-Battered Chicken recipe is from a cookbook - Fabulous Fried Chicken. I did not follow the recipe as I found the instructions quite ambiguous. I also reduced the amount of salt, for the marinade, from 1 tsp to 1/2 tsp and added some 1/2 tsp sugar so that the dish would not taste so salty. Verdict, my family likes this as it taste different from my past chicken wings recipes.



Beer-Battered Chicken

Ingredients:
500g mid-joint wings
6 tbsp self-raising flour
1 egg white
120ml beer
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil

Marinade:
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp wine
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar


Method:

Wash the mid-joint wings and pat dry. Add in marinade, mix well and set in the fridge for about an hour.

Combine flour and egg white. Then add in beer, salt and olive oil. Mix into a batter.

Coat the wings with batter evenly.

Heat up Half a pot of oil and deep-fry mid-joint wings over low heat for 3 minutes before switching to medium heat. Continue to fry and when they turn golden brown, remove and drain.

Note: The full-bodied flavour of beer helps to create a subtle aroma in the dish!

Nutritious Chicken Pot

This is the third recipe that I have tried , after Fried Dry Mee Siam and Pork Chop Cutlet, using Jingle's recipes.



Nutritious Chicken Pot

Ingredient A:
3 chickens thighs

Ingredients B:
10 dried mushrooms, soak in water to soften
1 big yellow onion, cut into halves
1 tomato, cut into halves
1 carrot (about 150g), cut into cubes
2 potatoes (about 200g), cut into cubes

Marinade (for the chicken thighs):
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp cooking wine
1 tbsp ginger juice
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp pepper powder
1 tbsp cornflour

Stock:
500ml of chicken stock or water
1/2 tsp salt .


Method:

1. Wash and chop chicken thighs into pieces. Marinate for 2 hours.

2. Place ingredients B in a pot (claypot or stainless steel pot), add the stock and bring to boil.

3. Once boiled, lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

4. After 45 minutes, add chicken, then continue to simmer for another 15 minutes before serving.

Note: I have made minor adjustment to the marinade to suit my taste.

Egg Tarts

I went to Leisure-Cat to drool over their festive food photos, all looked so awesome. Then I came across a number of threads with Egg Tarts photos and the forummers were so helpful, they pointed the link to this Egg Tart recipe. This recipe is said to be provided by the famous 聖安娜餅屋 Saint Honore Cake Shop Ltd. I have never tasted the Egg Tarts from this bakery, so I can't tell whether they taste the same. Anyway, I did not follow the exact method to make the tart shells. The original recipe said to roll the dough to 6mm thick and use a cutter to cut out the desired shape, but I just divided the dough into 10 and pressed into the tart moulds.



Egg Tarts

Yields 10 tarts

Ingredients for tart shells:
90g butter, room temperature
40g icing sugar
12g egg
170g cake flour
8g evaporated milk

Ingredients for egg filling:
160g eggs
80g castor sugar
50g evaporated milk
210g water

Stir the egg filling ingredients thoroughly till well blended. Filter and set aside.


Method:

Cream the butter and icing sugar, with a wooden spatula for 2 to 3 minutes, till white and creamy.

Add in the egg and evaporated milk and blend well with the butter. Add in flour and knead into a dough. Chill the dough for an hour.

After an hour, divide the dough into 10.

Press the dough into the tart moulds, trim the excess dought from the edge. Make sure that the edge of the dough is slightly taller than the mould . Ensure even thickness of the dough.

Place the tart moulds on a baking tray. Pour the egg filling into the tart moulds till 90% full. Bake in preheated oven at 250 degree Celsius for 15 minutes or till done.

Hello 2006!

Happy New Year to all my friends here!

New year, new beginning yet again. Stepping into 2006, I know there will be some uncertainties awaiting me, in the second half of the year. I try not to think about it as there is no point worrying. I will deal with it when the time comes, or just sit back and let events shape my destiny. That has been my attitude towards life for the past two years, and so far, everything has turned up fine.

Okay! Lets talk about food again. I had promised the three unco-operative Food Tasters here that there wouldn't be any Chocolate or Cheese Cakes this week. True to my promise, I made this Chilled Orange Yogurt Cake. Recipe is from Leisure-Cat. A very refreshing cake and I could see the grins on the faces of my three Food Tasters.



Chilled Orange Yogurt Cake
橙香乳酪蛋糕(8" cake pan)

Ingredients for the base:
crumbs from 8 pieces of disgestive biscuits
40g melted butter (I used 50g)

Ingredients for the filling:
100g sugarless natural yogurt
150ml orange juice
1 tbsp lemon juice
150ml non-diary whipping cream
1 tbsp gelatin
3 tbsp sugar
150ml water
Grated orange zest (optional)


Method:

Mix the digestive biscuits crumbs with melted butter, and press firmly to the base of the cake pan. Chill for later use.

Dissolve gelatin and sugar with water. Set aside to cool.

Beat yogurt, orange juice and lemon juice until well blended. Add cooled gelatin solution and mix well.

Whip the non-diary whipping cream till mousse state.

Add the yogurt mixture to the whipped cream and mix well.

Add the grated orange zest.

Pour the combined mixture onto the cake base.

Chill in the fridge for 3 hours.

Note: I think can use a 7" cake pan to get a taller cake. If use other fruit juice can get Chilled Yogurt Cakes of different flavours.