Nancy Ho

With mooncake festival over for a week, I am left with many ingredients - lotus paste, flour, syrup etc
I am adverse to making more mooncake as I seriously do not think I will want to make them anymore.
While surfing, I found a unique recipe for walnut moonecake, its skin is the "crispy" type that is different from the traditional ones.
So i took the plunge and finished up all the lotus paste in one afternoon ....
Personally, I am not someone who enjoys kneading dough or shaping pastries .... somehow its not too bad this time.









Here's the recipe from e joise who extracted from baking mum

Ingredients A
25g icing sugar
25g shortening
110g salted butter
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ammonium (can be omitted)

Ingredients B
1/2 egg

Ingredients C
190g plain flour
13g custard powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

Method :
1. Cream Ingredients A together till slight white and well mixed.
2. Gradually add in egg and mix well.
3. Sift Ingredients C together and add into mixture and form a dough. Do not knead.
4. Leave the dough in a plastic bag or cling wrap and leave in the fridge overnight or for a few days.
5. Weigh out the skin to 20g and 25g filling
6. Wrap lotus paste in the skin and decorate with Walnut (I stick walnuts to the side of the dough).
7. Apply egg wash and bake at 160ºC for 10 mins.
8. Bring out and leave to cool for 10 mins.
9. Apply egg wash again and bake for another 15 mins.

Its been a long while since i bake new things, that's why my blog have been so quiet.
Foccacia has been in my to do list for a long while, somehow i never quite get my hands as i am adverse to kneading dough.
Its only when i came across a website site that shows how to handle stick dough and fould it in a bowl, that tempted me to try.
Taking the recipe from Peter Reinhart's book "The Bread Baker's Apprentice"



The picture on the right are "hawaiian pizza" using left overs as a base

Have been drooling on other people's blog, especially those that are hosting baking events.
Many things are on the to-do list, finding inspiration and motivation is not easy.
Here's what i have made after looking at My Kitchen Snippet's blog



I had added wholemeal flour in replacement for the bread flour

Ingredients:

200 gram of bread flour (50g wholemeal flour added in replacement)
20 gram sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tsp dry yeast
140 ml milk
20 gm butter


1. Simply put everything into the bread machine and set for dough setting
2. Roll the dough and use a doughnut cutter to cut out the dough
3. Allow dough to rest till 2 times before frying in oil
4. When its half cooled, coat with sugar (its easier to coat when half cooled)

Do note that the oil cannot be too hot as it will make the crust very hard.

Review: My girl like this version as its less sweet compared with those sold outside

This Chinese new year i kena "baking jinx" my usual pineapple tarts dont taste as good.
probably because i use lower quality butter and the jam was to sour for some people.
Then, the fruit cake i made, refused to come out of my nordic mould despite all the preparation. Sigh

I buy bread almost every other day for family breakfast, everytime it comes up to over $10.
After coming back realising everything is so expensive!! Inflation at 6%
At the rate that my family eats bread, i think i will go "broke"
So i pluck up courage to request for a breadmachine from my CFO (Chief Finance Officer).
Actually have been looking at it for years but never buy as it was too expensive. This time managed to get it at promotion price!! Yippee

Here's my 1st bread:

Its so much softer than my older breadmachine, also the crust is very thin too.
The only problem is we are not used to the milk powder taste

Making bread at home is much more cost effective, and a great way to add whole grain into our diet.
This breadmachine makes a 500g loaf only, just enough for all of us 2 adults and 2 kids.

After CNY, mum's friend will give us Nian Gao .......
The traditional way of eating it for us is to sandwich them with yam and batter fry it.
This year I happened to browse a blog, so sorry i have forgotten where its from and could not acknowledge her recipe.
So here's what i have made
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The centre is nian gao wrapped around with a layer of steam yam and coconut before wrapping up with a sheet of po piah skin.
This way of eating nian gao is a ehole new experience as the mashed yam is more salty and it reduces the sweetness of nian gao.
The popiah sikn also makes it crispy on the outside and soft inside. Best eaten warm

Its been a long while, many months have passed by but i have not be lagging in real life.
Having gone through another move, renovation, new year, children's school reopen .......
Cleaning the house has taken a new experience, yes i used to hate doing housework and others, but now its taken a new experience!

With the coming CNY, will start my engine to do some baking!! Yippee

Tea over in China is like coffee over in Singapore, there are coffee shops wheareas we have tea house in China.
Tea house unlike coffee shop can be in places like garden ... where u can drink your tea the whole day and forget about everything.
All i know about tea was the few variety like pu er, jasmine, tie guan yin ......?

Do you know there are floral tea here too .... unlike the western floral tea where you have rose, camomile etc
The resturant use here use a combination of flower and tea leaves to make tea ......
One which i came across was osmanthus (remember gui hua) with tie guan yin, the fragrance of osmanthus and the flavour of tea was just great .... a change from the usual tea

Another tea is chrysanthemum tea which many locals are aware of, usually we would put in sugar. Over in china they do not put sugar in the tea ...
Sugar is being replaced by natural sweetener - wolfberries. It addes natural sweets and yet does not affect the taste buds.


These floral tea was brewed in a glass pot, and there is a sieve made of glass where u will put your osmanthus and tea leaves.
The art of drinking that is not to allow the leaves to soak, in other words remove the sieve once u have brewed the tea. Use the sieve again when you need to brew another pot

When it come to tea i am still new, just sharing with you what i saw when i dine ......

Marketing is a challenging task for me over in GZ, there are many things that my family do not eat eg, fresh water fish, chicken
Planning meals is more problematic as each has their own taste.
So my shopping basket is usally filled with vegetables, yes vegetables are very fresh over here.

Over in Singapore, i have a marketing day, i will buy whatever i need on that particular regardless if there are leftovers.

Now my marketing habits has change considerable, i will only buy food/do my marketing when my fridge is cleared.
This is to ensure that i cook all the food that i bought, at the same time it reduces wastage
I do not need to throw away food that has expired and also i am forced to cook things to ensure nothing is wasted
So far i am managing pretty well ... although its very stressful sometimes trying to cook somethings out when you do not have much choices

When cost of living is high (esp in Singapore, over in GZ is also getting expensive) we as housewife needs to be an expert in cutting cost and wastage

Another tip which i had learnt from another forum is to plan your meals and decide on what to cook before buying any ingredients for it ..... its a bit difficult for me as i only plan what to cook when i see the ingredients.

Over here in China, online shopping is very convenient ..... you can get many things online but you can get cheated too!!
Anyway i managed to get a dorayaki pan from japan via online shopping
Realised that its so easy to make dorayaki!!

Need to control the temperature ....



As for the filling, its homemade red bean paste ...... btw the red bean here are huge and very sweet too

The cantonese are very particular about their soup ......
In fact the mothers here will brew different soup according to the weather changes here ......
For me i get all of the soup idea from books ....
There is this famous author call Xu Ziqiang who writes a column on the local newspaper on recipe for soup .... his recipe have since been rpinted out into many books and different edition. Some of the things that he suggested are not available in Singapore and many would find the ingredient totally unfamiliar with it. One thing in Guangzhou, when it comes to soups there is no end to its variety.

Below is one of my faviourite soup for the hot summer ..... during summer its good to eat bitter gourd
Frankly i really hated bitter gourd to the core ..... but i am really surprise by this soup .... no bitterness but "kam" sweetness



Ingredients are soaked soya bean, bittergourd, fresh lily buds (add later), two slice of ginger and pork ....
Just brew for 1hour, add lily buds at the last 10 min.

I just realised that i have not blog for so long!!!
Hmm ... have i been cooking and baking ?

Yes ii am cooking everyday for meals!!
Baking ... that's very limited
I just dont have much time ............. need to find time!!

Baking is a relaxation ......
Always enjoys the thought processes and research that went in ...... searching through internet and books to be inspired
With limited access to blogspot, i depend on books very heavily.

The motion of weight ingredients .....train my mind to multitask ....
This somehow looks messy ... taking out ingredient, weighting them and packing back
In order to reduce washing up too many bowls, i will also plan how i incorporate the ingredients together.

Finally .... after all the workout on the mind. Its time to put everything into the oven
Watching the cake rises in the oven .... is a visual and nasal treat!
Finally when you cut the cake ... its just heaven!

Bought a few chinese baking book translated from japanese ....... and made this cake
Its a very fragrant cake as the sesame paste and grinded sesame seeds were great .....

I have learnt not to waste my ingredients since i came over to China, I will try to use leftover to make another dish
From the pizza, with left over pineapple ... I made pineapple friend rice!
Btw if you use fresh pineapple, the fried rice will taste even better!!



Here's the brief recipe:
Cooked rice (leftover even better)
prawns
egg x2
fish sauce
green peas (i omitted that)
pineapple in cubes
pork floss
cashew nuts roasted/fried

Method
1. Fry the garlic till fragrant
2. Stir fry prawns till cooked then removed
3. Put 2 eggs into the wok and break up the yolks, add in the rice and stir fry
4. When the rice is dry, add in pineapple, prawns, peas and fish sauce
5. Remove the rice and add in pork floss and cashew nuts for garnishing

Its a simple one dish meal!

It has been my favourite pizza dough recipe.
Although it take time to make the dough .... but the texture and flavour are great!!
Finally i have the chance to take photo for the pizza are gone once they are out from the oven .... I had no chance to take picture

Do you use chopsticks to eat? Do you know what material are your chopstick made of?
Using chopstick is very much unique to Chinese eating culture. It is also a learnt skill that requires alot of fine dexterity of our hands.
I never really think much about these two stick until i was surfing for some chopsticks.

The making of chopstick is a very tedious process ... from what i had read, it seems to require at least 18 steps (in handmade chopsticks)
Anyway, chopsticks are made of different material - wood, bamboo and stainless steel.
From what i read,
These material are porous, germs can hide in these pore. More so with wear and tear on the chopstick.
Therefore, it is important to change your chopstick frequently, just like toothbrush.
Frequent does not means every 3 months, its like a year or up to 3 years.
If the paint came off, you need to change immediately for health reasons.

Wood also seems to have medicinal values in traditonal chinese medicine .... different wood produced different effect on your organs.
From my limited translation, ebony (hei tan mu) can treat throat aliment while mahogany (hong tan mu) treats stomach aliments.
So using different types of chopsticks could potentially be good to your health.

Btw chopstick cannot take high heat (use of dishwasher or disinfectant cabinet) otherwise, they can go out of shape.
They behave just like any wood ......
Many a times we use chopstick to take food in steamboat or in hot oil?... its is not advisable.
There is one type of wood call tie mu (metal wood if direct translation) that can be use in steamboat.

So be very careful when you choose your chopsticks afterall, its something that you put in your mouth frequently!!

For that!! I have just changed my chopstick after using it for "i don't know how long".