Cantonese Style Radish Cake - Turnip Cake - Daikon Cake - 粵式蘿蔔糕 - 菜頭粿

Turnip Cake is a famous cantonese dim sum which made by shredded white radish and rice flour, despite the name, turnip is not an actual ingredient, hence the less commonly-used but more accurate name of daikon cake. It is very easy to make it, and most of the chinese will make it during chinese new year. Taiwanese version add only dried shrimp and dried shitake, cantonese style will add chinese sausage (lap cheong), dried shrimps and also dried shitake for the filling and malaysian-singaporean style will first make it plain and when it is done and completely cooled, it will be stir-fry with tauge (bean sprouts), kucai (chive), egg, light soy sauce or even with some dried shrimp or any extra meat. I made this cantonese style during chap goh meh (last day of chinese new year), my family in law love it so much and told me it taste just likes that one sold in dim sum restaurant. So, my parents in law asked me do it again and again, between one month I need to make 4 batches (double recipe) for them. Proud huh? but too tiring .... may be need to tell them I'm tired........

Source: A cookbook --- Dim Sum by Chan Chen Hei

Ingredients:

1.5- 1.8kg radish
3 liters water
115g chinese sausages, skinned then diced
50g chinese mushrooms, soaked till soft then diced
115g dried shrimps, soaked till soft then roughly chopped
6 shallots, sliced
12 tbsp oil, for frying
Extra oil for greasing
600g rice flour
115g wheat starch (tung min flour)

Seasoning:
3 tsp salt
3 tsp sugar
1.5tsp chicken granules (optional)
Few drops of sesame oil
Dash of pepper
Hoisin sauce or chili sauce to serve

Method:

1. Heat oil, saute dried prawn, chinese sausages and mushroom until fragnant. Add season to taste.
2. Stir in 2.5 liter water and bring to boil.
3. In the meantime, combine rice flour and wheat starch with the remaining water to form a paste.
4. Combine sauted ingredients and paste till well combine.
5. Steam over rapid boiling water in a greased pan for about 1 hour or till done.
6. Serve with some chopped spring onion, fried shallots and red chilies, or you may pan fry it for more extra crunchiness.
Notes:

1. I grate my radish in stead of cutting it, it is easier and faster.
2. You may store it in refrigerator and pan-fry it before serve.
3. This recipe is quiet much, suggest cut to half amount for normal portion.

Japanese Souffle Cheesecake

Cheesecake, my favourite cheesecake is the light version or known as japanese cheesecake. This is my second time baking japanese cheesecake. This time I use fresh milk in stead of whipping cream and add some cake flour. It is still soft and moist, just a slightly different but of of them are keeper. It is worth to try both of them.

Source: Diana's kitchen

Ingredients:

140g fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100 ml fresh milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
60g cake flour /superfine flour
20g cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp salt

Methods:

1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture completely. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well. Leave aside.
2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form. Don't overbeat it.
3. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and mix well. Pour into a 8-inch pan lined with parchment paper.
4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath (au bain marie) for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degrees C.

Notes:

1. The key to make a foft, moist cheesecake is never and don't overbeat your egg whites.
2. If you don't have cream of tartar, use vinegar or lemon juice to neutralized the egg whites PH and ensure you get good result.
3. This is another version japanese cheesecake http://fcngoleong.blogspot.com/2007/08/japanese-cheese-cake.html

Croissant - Crescent Roll - 羊角麵包 - 可頌

A croissant or also known as crescent are made of a leavened variant of puff pastry by layering yeast dough with butter and rolling and folding a few times in succession, then rolling. Making croissants by hand requires skill and patience. It taste really nice and you may find it at any bakery. Some of them will sell it with fillings, but I prefer the plain one which I can taste the originale taste.

Source: Lily Wai Sek Hong

Ingredients

125g plain flour
375g bread flour
25g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp milk powder
1/2 tsp bread improver
11g instant dry yeast
1 egg
300ml cold water
50g softened butter

Combine and chill until slightly hard
80g butter
80g shortening

Glaze (beat together)
1 egg
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp water

Method:

1. Sift flours, add milk powder, sugar, salt, bread improver and yeast. Then stir in water, egg and butter, use a dough hook to beat till it turn into smooth and firm.
2. Remove, knead lightly on a floured table into a ball and cross in the center.
3. Put the combined butter and shortening in the cross, fold over each section to enclose the combined fat, press the sides to seal the edges. Ensure that the combined fat is completely enclosed.
4. Roll the dough to rectangle and fold the rectangle to a third of its size, by first folding up the bottom portion and then folding the top portion over it. Repeat.
5. Place the dough in a plastic bag dusted with flour. Chill for 30 minutes.
6. Roll and fold llike step 4 and chill it for 30 minutes. Repeat.
7. Roll out dough into rectangle, trim the edgesand cut lengthways into half. Cut and roll into cresent shape. Place on paper-lined baking pan and brush egg wash. Leave to rise till double size (about 30 minutes)
8. Brush egg wash and bake in preheated oven at 220 degree celcious for 15–20 minutes or until golden. Remove and cool on wire racks.


Notes:

1. My husband asked me why I make crossaint at home while I can buy it at bakery or supermarket, he said I can buy the ready croissant and bake it at home which can save my time a lots. What he say is true, but I love to make my food by my own and when it is done----- it gave me a great satisfaction and more is when everyone enjoy it. Don't you agree with me??

Sesame Bread

Sesame bread in ring shape, finally I made it. Taste good, soft even after days. I make it with basic seet bread dough and shape it in ring and then lastly coated with sesame seeds. I use my kitchen aid to help me knead the dough, so simple and taste so good and no more hand kneading.

Source: Jo's Deli and Bakery, kitchen aids, Koopsman

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

480g bread flour,
70g castor sugar
20g soya flour
6-7g bread improver (optional)
5g salt
10g instant yeast
25g butter/margarine
1 egg
220ml water ( I used milk)

Methods:

1. Combine all except butter, use hand or mixer to knead it till smooth dough.
2. Add in butter, knead till smooth and shiny and elastic.
3. Place the dough in greased bowl and cover with damp clothes, leave in warm place to rise till double in size.
4. Punch down the dough, divide the dough as wished. Rest 5 minutes and shape it. Cover with damp clothes and let it rise till double size.
5. Brush the tops of the buns with some milk or egg wash (egg and water)
7. Coat the buns with sesame seeds. Bake the buns in a preheated oven at 175 degC for 30 minutes. When done, leave the buns on a wire rack to cool.

Notes:

1. If you are lazy, buy a packet ready mix white bread and coated it with sesame seeds.

Steamed tapioca cake ( kuih ubi kukus)

Kuih ubi kayu again?????? Yes, I make it again but this time with steamed version. Everyone just love it. Well, this version is almost same if compare with baked version. The differents is this version is softer and baked version is fragnant with it's crispyness. My kuih is gone less than half hour cause everyone love it.

Source: Little Corner Of mine, My Kitchen Snippets, Seadragon

Ingredients

500 grms of grated tapioca/cassava - squeezed out all the water
1 cup of sugar
4 tbsp of tapioca flour
2 tbsp custard powder (optional)
1 1/4 cups of coconut milk (enough to cover the cassava)
1 few drop of pandan essence or vanilla essence or pandan juice

Methods:

1) Mixed all the ingredients of the bottom layer. Pour into a greased pan and steam for 40 minutes or till done.
2) Cool completely before cutting into it.

Notes:

1. I add some custard powder for yellownish colour effect and also for fragnant. You may omit it.
2. I didn't use pandan paste because I prefer yellow colour than green colour. So, I use pandan juice and you may subtituted it by vanilla essence or pandan essence.
3. My baked version ---- http://fcngoleong.blogspot.com/2007/03/kuih-bingka-ubi.html

Kuih Sago

Sago is a powdery starch made from the processed pith found inside the trunks of the Sago Palm Metroxylon sagu. The genus name Metroxylon is derived from Greek and means heartwood, while the species name sagu is from a local name for the food. But, why peoples always confuse it with tapioca pearls which made from tapioca starch. Anyway, they taste quiet same, and you won't recognise it.

Source: Mamafami, Wikipedia

Ingredients:

150g sago
1.5 cups water
1/2 cup white sugar
pandan leaves
coconut ~ grated and mix with a bit of salt
color ~ red or green


Methods:

1. Slightly wash sago and drained.
2. Boil sugar, water and pandan leaves, add in sago. Stir constantly till thicken.
3. Remove heat and pour into mould, cool before served. Best served with fresh grated coconut.
.

Notes:

1. I use tapioca pearls, and it is just taste like sago. Hahhah.....

Longan Jelly

Agar-agar, 洋菜, 瓊脂、石花菜、大菜, 寒天， is a gelatinous substance chiefly used as a solid substrate to contain culture medium for microbiological work. It is an unbranched polysaccharide obtained from the cell membranes of some species of red algae or seaweed. Agar can be used as a laxative, a vegetarian gelatin substitute, a thickener for soups, in jellies, ice cream and Japanese desserts such as anmitsu, as a clarifying agent in brewing, and for paper sizing fabrics. The word agar comes from the Malay word agar-agar (meaning jelly). It is also known as kanten, agal-agal (Ceylon agar), or China grass. In Asia, peoples use it commonly for dessert. Today , I make it with some longans cause my kids love longans.

Source : Chow Time

Ingredients:

1 can longans
20g agar-agar stripes/ strands
100g sugar
1 litre water
sufficient food colouring

Methods:

1. Seperate the longans and save the syrup.
2. Soak the agar-agar in cold water for 15 minute to soften it. Drained.
3. Boil sugar, water and syrup and add in agar agar, stir until the agar-agar and sugar is dissolved.
4. Add in food colouring and it before pouring into moulds.
5. Place a few longans in several moulds. Pour in the agar-agar mixture. Let cool and chill in the refrigerator before serve.

Burdock Soup

Burdock (牛蒡) or known as klit in dutch is a very healthy vegetable.Burdock root is very crisp and has a sweet, mild, and pungent flavor with a little muddy harshness that can be reduced by soaking julienne/shredded roots in water for five to ten minutes.Japanese dish is kinpira gobō, julienned or shredded burdock root and carrot, braised with soy sauce, sugar, mirin and/or sake, and sesame oil; another is burdock makizushi (sushi filled with pickled burdock root rather than fish; the burdock root is often artificially colored orange to resemble a carrot).Burdock is a traditional medicinal herb that is used for many ailments. Burdock root oil extract, also called Bur oil, is popular in Europe as a scalp treatment applied to improve hair strength, shine and body, help reverse scalp conditions such as dandruff, and combat hair loss. Folk herbalists consider dried burdock to be a diuretic, diaphoretic, and a blood purifying agent. The seeds of A. lappa are used in traditional Chinese medicine, under the name niupangzi (Chinese: 牛蒡子; pinyin: niúpángzi; Some dictionaries list the Chinese as just 牛蒡 niúbàng.)Burdock has been used for centuries as a blood purifier clearing the bloodstream of some toxins, and as a diuretic (helping rid the body of excess water by increasing urine output), and as a topical remedy for skin problems such as acne, eczema, and psoriasis. While, I likes to cook burdock soup cause it is very good for our immune system.

Source: Wikipedia, my sis

Ingredients:

1 burdock (peeled, cut)
1-2 carrot( peeled, cut)
10 red dates
500g pork ribs or chicken
3 liters water

Methods:

1. Wash the pork ribs, boil it for awhile. Remove heat, strain the 'dirty' water.
2. Put clean water and the rest of ingredients into the pot and bring it to boil, then turn into low heat and simmer it for at least 2 hours. Put some salt to taste.


Notes:

1. I put all the ingredients into slow cooker and let it cook overnight. Sometimes, when I'm in hurry, I will use pressure cooker and cook it for 1 hour.
2. Please adjust the amount of water.