Stuffed Tofu GuangXi Style ( 广西酿豆付 )

The next time when i make these again, i'm going to make more. Do not underestimate this plain looking dish,
they are very nice to eat. These tofu puffs are very moist and one bite into these puffs, you will know how juicy it is. I guess the secret lies in the steaming method whereby the steaming dish itself is filled with water, yes..the tofu puffs are sitting on the water during the entire steaming process. Not a single piece of this that i find it dry, very nice.

I'm sure many of you are also gearing up for christmas with last minute shopping and wrapping of presents, enjoy doing that and wishing all of you here Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, have a wonderful celebration!

Recipe ( from Table for 2..or more )
100gm minced pork
50gm fish paste
50gm chives, chopped
1/4tsp salt
1tsp cornstarch
Dash of pepper
8 pieces of tofu puff ( may vary depending on the size of the tofu puff/tofupok)

Method:
1. Mix all of the ingredients above except tofu puff to form a pasty filling.
2.Cut a hole in the tofu puff, stuff in the fillings and fill the tofu puff till full.
3. Arrange the stuffed tofu on a deep steaming dish and fill the dish with boiling water ( half way up)
4. Steam on high heat for 20 minutes.

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest ( Pahang Month ) hosted by Wendyinkk of Table for 2...or more

Ayam Golek Pahang ( Pahang Style Spicy Grilled Chicken )

Very glad that i tried this dish, it turned out really good. I havent tried cooking ayam golek other styles, other version so i cant tell the difference but if compared to the ayam percik Terengganu style, also another type of grilled spicy chicken, i think i like this even more. It uses a lot of onions in the gravy and together with the lemongrass and coconut milk , it makes a very tasty dish. If you cant really take hot, i would suggest you reduce the amount of dried chillies, to me i'm fine with this. I referred the recipe from Phong Hong's post here and she mentioned that she finds the sauce is a little sweet so i was very cautious about the sugar, i just added little by little. The gravy is delicious and as usual, most malaysians i believe will not forget our rice, so be sure to cook more rice unless you want to go on a diet. Also be prepared to use your fingers to eat the chicken unless you cut the chicken into bite sizes otherwise just break them apart and pick the flesh off them, finger licking good too! You will be forgiven for not practicing table manners ..at least for this dish..LOL!

it may appear dry but it isnt really...

the meat is just nice and tender..keep basting the chicken with gravy a few times in the oven. 

Recipe ( from Phong Hong Bakes, adapted from the book Rasa Malaysia ) with some adjustments made
Ingredients:
for marinating chicken
1 whole chicken, about 1.5kg ( i separated the wings and thighs and the rest cut into quarters )
2.5tsp salt

sedap!

1tsp turmeric powder

for gravy
1.5tbsp meat curry powder
2.5tsp salt
1.5tsp sugar
3 small pieces asam gelugur/ tamarind pieces, soaked in hot water for 5 mins
200ml thick santan diluted with 150ml water

Blended ingredients
20 dried chillies
300gm shallots
2 stalks lemongrass
1 thumbsize piece of ginger

Method:
1. Marinate the chicken with salt and turmeric powder for 15 minutes.
2.Mix blended ingredients, curry powder, asam gelugur, santan , sugar and salt in a small pot and simmer over low heat until thick. Turn off heat.
3.Grill chicken in oven until both sides are cooked. ( i grilled mine at 200C for 20mins ). Spoon the gravy onto chicken and continue to grill for 5 minutes. ( i reduced the temp to 180C , spoon the gravy over and grill for 5 minutes. After that, i continue to spoon the gravy again over chicken and grill for 10 minutes.Lastly , i brush the chicken with gravy and grill for another 10 minutes ) Note that i still have around 1/2 bowl of gravy left which i then use to further spoon over chicken upon serving.

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest ( Pahang Month) hosted by Wendyinkk of Table for 2 ...or more

Green Tea Shortbread Cookies

Alan from Travelling Foodies has chosen Creative Christmas Motifs Baking as the theme for Aspiring Bakers this month. Creative i'm not one. Motifs..err..not in my usual baking resume...but i still want to make something to give my support to Alan. I intended to make use of my cookie cutters this time to save work..and to save embarrassment .. i'm pretty sure for me using cookie cutter the result will be far more better than moulding a design using my hands..

As i've no intention to flood my cookies using royal icing, i decided to use green tea powder to 'green' my christmas tree. Really i just wanted a simple design as i  know how 'good' my decorating skills are! LOL! I decorated the cookies using royal icing made from meringue powder which i made a day earlier, just 2 colours, white and yellow. I have also used a portion of the dough using another cookie cutter to pipe out snowflakes design. I think my snowflakes looks better than the christmas tree, i also find it easier to pipe the snowflakes design. As for the flavour, this is really something very matcha. As you can see, the colour of the green tea powder is quite intense and the flavour too. If you love green tea, i think you will like these cookies too. Then again, you will have to see the quality of the green tea powder that you use. Some will not turn out as green or strong using the same quantity..oh, i'm sure you know what i mean..

i hope these look like at least some snowflakes to you...not spiderweb..or something..
look at the left one..i thought it looks like some fish bones spreaded out! LOL!

Recipe( from marthastewart.com)
half of the original recipe, with some adjustments made
Ingredients
11/8cup plain flour
9gm green tea powder
1/8 tsp salt
113gm butter, slightly softened
30gm icing sugar

Method:
1. Sift flour, green tea powder and salt into a small bowl, set aside. Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment and cream on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add sugar and continue to beat until light, about 2 mins more. Add flour mixture, on low speed scraping sides of bowl if necessary until flour is just incorporated and dough sticks together when pressed with fingers.
2. Divide the dough into 2 portions and roll each portion between 2 plastic sheets into a disc with a thickness of 1/4 inch, chill in freezer till they are firm about 30 minutes.
3. If the dough is too hard, let them thaw for a while before cutting them into shapes. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and cut out desired shapes. Transfer them onto the baking sheet and chill them for about 15 minutes before baking. Bake in a preheated oven at 160C at 25-30mins ( mine for 30 minutes) rotating halfway through. Cool completely on wire rack and store them in an airtight container up to 3 weeks.

i'm not going to provide the recipe for royal icing here as you can find all over the internet. My recipe is based on the packaging label provided on that small tub of meringue powder.

I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #26- Creative Christmas Motif Bakes! hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies

Also linking this post to Cook Like A Star ( Martha Stewart ) hosted by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, together with Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out and Riceball from Riceball Eats

Frosted Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes

Pardon the super glaring photos today. Think i have pressed some 'wrong' buttons on my camera while trying to fix the glare while shooting. I've painted the photo blue hoping to reduce the glare. Sorry if these bring pain to your eyes!

Even though these photos might be painful to look at, the chocolate cupcakes here are definately not painful to eat LOL!.well, .i dont mean that they are spectacular but they are good considering not much of an effort to make these cupcakes, they are tender and light too. Instead of making some cream cheese icing for frosting in the original recipe,i made a simple buttercream icing. I didnt want to get a block of cream cheese just to make this frosting. You know, many times i was not able to finish the whole block of cream cheese on time and the remaining block will turn moldy even before expires. Has anyone of you tried freezing cream cheese before? Can it be freezed?

Recipe ( from marthastewart.com )
Ingredients
95gm cake flour/all purpose flour
110gm sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8tsp salt
6tbsps unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably dutch processed ( i got no dutch processed)
45gm melted butter
6 tbsps buttermilk
1 large egg
1 large egg white

Method:
1.Preheat oven to 350F/177C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper liners. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.
2.With an electric mixer, combine cocoa and 3tbsps ( or 4 tbsps) hot water till thick paste forms( this process intensifies the chocolate flavour ). Add melted butter, buttermilk, egg and egg whites and beat until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until combined.
3.Spoon batter into prepared cupliners. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcake turns out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool down completely. Decorate if you wish.

I'm linking this post to Cook Like A Star ( Martha Stewart ) hosted by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids along with Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out and Riceball from Riceball Eats
Recipe Box hosted by Chaya of BizzyBakes
Food on Friday by Carole's Chatter

Chocolate Eclairs

Making chocolate eclairs are pretty much the same as making cream puffs or profiteroles except that they are shaped into long shapes instead of round. From our previous bake along with cream puffs as the theme in september, i've seen beautiful puffs baked by those who had  joined us. I decided to use Jasline's cream puffs recipe to make my eclairs this time. The puffs had risen well in the oven and i followed the recipe to bake a little longer to ensure that they stay puffed and crispy. Instead of splitting the choux buns to fill in the filling, i have used a nozzle here to poke hole at the back of the puffs and the pipe in the filling. If the buns have risen well and puffed well ,there will be no problem poking holes onto them and fill them. I have also used the same filling as what i did with my cream puffs the other time , vanilla custard cream . As these are called chocolate eclaires, i have made a simple chocolate sauce just to spoon it on top of the puffs. Eating these were such a treat!

these are the unfilled choux buns after baking..

poke 3 holes at the back of the puffs and pipe in the filling

Recipe ( from foodie baker )
Ingredients for choux buns
100gm milk
40gms butter, softened and chopped
1tsp sugar
1/2tsp salt ( i omitted )
70gms plain flour ( sifted )
100gms eggs , at room temperature whisked together

Method:
1.Combine milk, butter and sugar in a pot. Heat the mixture over medium high heat , stirring it with a wooden spoon and bring to a boil. The mixture should be boiling and bubbling until the layer of butter is no longer floating at the top.
2.Add in the flour all at once, turn off the heat and stir quickly with a wooden spoon. Turn on the heat to medium low and continue mixing with the wooden spoon until mixture turns into a soft dough  and that you can see a layer of dough at the bottom of the pot. Remove from heat and allow dough to cool down a little before adding in the eggs.Once cooled down a little, add the eggs little by little to ensure the dough absorbs the eggs fully. The dough will seem to separate but will come to a smooth paste and piping consistency.
3.Fill the paste into a piping bag with a 1cm wide hole and pipe a squashed 's' shape one on top of another.
Bale at a preheated oven at 200C for 20 minutes, reduce the heat to 175C and bake further for 20 minutes till the puff is golden brown and well risen. Turn off the oven and let the puffs sit in the oven for further 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and  let the cool completely before putting in the filling.

Filling : vanilla custard cream from Quay Po Cooks
Using a pointed nozzle  or a knife, poke three holes at the back of the cooled puffs and pipe in the filling .
Then spread the chocolate sauce over the top of the eclairs, scattered some chopped toasted pistachios over.

Chocolate sauce
60gms chocolate chips
3tsp whipping cream

heat the chocolate chips over barely simmering water with the whipping cream. Keep stirring until choc has melted. Once cooled a little, spread over the tops of the eclairs.

This will be our last bake for our bake along this year. Thanks to everyone who has joined us baking along this year. We will come back in January with a cream cheese pound cake as our chosen recipe. The recipe can be found at Cake Keeper's Book by Lauren Chattman Page 114 and also here Now let's see how my baking buddies, Joyce and Zoe did their chocolate eclairs and also the rest of who are joining us for this round of bake along.

get the InLinkz code

Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas

Cook Like A Star blog hop event is back with Martha Stewart, the nominated chef for the month of December. For those of you who are new to this event, it is a blog hop whereby a chef will be nominated and based on the nominated chef, we will be cooking his or her recipes and then link it back to the event.
I'm sure everyone if not, most of us know who Martha Stewart is but not until this event, that i really took a look at her website. I must say that she really has an extensive list of recipes in her website..and then from one recipes it leads to another. With so many recipes to choose from, I actually got no problem finding something to make. It's only time..not that i'm very busy but as year end is approaching, i'm getting lazier and lazier and already in holiday mood. Will see.

Picked a few quick recipes to make and this is one of them. I always enjoy eating tortillas and quickly grab my hands to make this while i was still have the mood to make something. If you look at the picture in martha's site, there's a jar accompanying these quesadillas but it didnt mention what was that. Some said that it's salsa verde and i thought of making that too, bought the ingredients but forgot to make them. I only remembered after eating the quesadillas! Told you i'm in holiday mood..ha!But even without the salsa, i still enjoy eating these a lot. Btw, i just knew that Martha Stewart turned 70 last year when i was googling for her recipes on the website. Doesnt she look amazing at her age? i thought maybe she looks like 15-20 years younger!

Ingredients ( from marthastewart.com )
amount of ingredients was altered to serve 2-3 
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
11/2 cup button or cremini mushroom, thinly sliced ( i used white button)
3 cups spinach, roughly cut or torn
coarse salt and pepper
4 flour tortillas
shredded cheese ( i used cheddar )
canola oil

Method:
1.Preheat oven to 400F/205C. In a skillet or pan over medium heat, pour a little oil and cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until light golden. Add the mushrooms, cook until they are tender about 5 minutes.
2.Add spinach, let cook until completely wilted and mixture is dry, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
3.Brush one side of tortilla with some oil and place oiled side down on a baking sheet. Layer each tortilla with cheese, spinach mixture and more cheese, dividing evenly.Top with another piece of tortilla, oiled sides up and lightly press to seal. Do the same for the remaining 2 pieces of tortilla.
4.Bake until cheese is melted, turning them once, about 10 minutes. To serve, cut quesadillas into quarters or  more.

I'm linking this post to Cook Like A Star organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, co hosting with Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out and Riceball of Riceball Eats
and also Recipe Box 26 hosted by Chaya