A Tale of 4 Home Diners #1

Holding a day job tends to feed me with excuses of not having time to cook at home on a given weekday, but I certainly relish the opportunity of a home cooked meal when I do get one. Soon enough, the weariness of eating out everyday finally sent me off to the supermarket for some dinner ingredients.

Fuss free dinner is key and the Baking Mama will find ways to amortize the investment of a prolytic oven and her under-utilized steam oven. These two dishes are as simple as they can get:

Baked Chicken with Mushrooms

Ingredients

4 pcs Skinless Chicken Thigh

2 packets of Mushrooms.

Seasoning

2 tbsp Oyster Sauce

1/2 tbsp Soya Sauce

Pepper

A dash of Cooking Wine.

Preparation:

1. Season chicken for 30min (I normally season the night before)
2. Lay a piece of foil on baking dish.
3. Slice mushrooms and lay over chicken
4. Wrap chicken and mushrooms with aluminium foil and baked for 35-45min at 220 deg C.

Steamed Eggs

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 salted egg yolk
1 century egg
1/4 cup of water

Preparation:

1. Crack 2 eggs in a steaming bowl and whip lightly
2. Cut salted yolk and century eggs into small cubes and add into egg mixture.
3. Add water and mix gently.
4. Steam for 15 min. Serve hot.

What kind of cook are you?

You Are a Learning Cook

You've got the makings of an excellent cook, and the desire to be one. But right now, you're just lacking the experience. You couldn't be a top chef yet, but you could be an apprentice.

Are You A Good Cook?

This is so uncanny.

It never occurred for me to take up Home Economics in school, and I would rather saw and chisel a piece of wood than to hold a spatula for that matter. In fact, I had never cooked a meal in my life prior to getting married. The Hub was a much better cook than I am. I used to observe in awe as he prepared his beef stew, or a tantalising pot of Japanese curry.

To me, flour is flour. It means nothing to me whether they are artisan flour, wheat flour, high-gluten flour, cake flour, self-raising flour, corn flour or just plain flour. Ok, you get the point.

These days, I tend to have mild discomfort if my fridge doesn't stock up slabs of unsalted butter, cream cheese, good baking chocolates such as Valrohna, or just good old flour. Suffice to say, I have enough flour to make 3 cakes, 24 muffins or several dozens of cookies now.

The kitchen used to be an unchartered territory for me. These days, the kitchen is my domain. If anyone in the Household steps in, it's mandatory that they abide by my rules.

The Hub said I have come a long way; my cooking skills have improved by leaps and bounds. Well, I have him to thank for a well-equiped kitchen, and many bestest gadgets he had bestowed on me.

Mango Sago Dessert

This sweet decadence is one of The Hub's all-time favourite. I couldn't resist a nice sweet manago when I see one, especially when it's the mango season. I found the recipe here when I was blog hopping. This recipe uses pomela pulps but I omitted this and modified the recipe slightly to suit the palates of The Household.

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1 large mango

2 cups of mango juice (I used Marigold Peel Fresh)

1 cup of evaporated milk (I reduced to 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup cooked sago

Cornflour mixture (mix in a bowl) - 1 tbsp cornflour + 3 tbsp water

Method:

1. Bring 1 cup of water + 1/4 cup sugar to boil until sugar dissolve. Add in cornflour mixture. Stir over low heat until the mixture is smooth. Switch off fire and leave sugar syrup to cool down.


2. Cut the mango from both cheeks. Cube the mango fresh. Slice the remaining mango and put in a bowl. Set aside.


3. Add the blended mango, cubed mango, package mango juice and evaporated milk to the sugar syrup. Add in cooked sago and stir, if it is too thick, add either more water or evaporated milk. Put in the fridge to chill and serve it cold.

Portuguese Egg Tarts

I had this sudden craving for egg tarts of late and I resisted in settling for something off the shelf for a quick fix. I procrastinated for days before I finally decided to seek help from my best friend, Mr G.

I settled for this recipe as my fridge had all that was needed. The result was more than encouraging. The Hub who is not a big fan of tarts walloped 4 in a go. So much for eating in moderation.

Ready for baking in the oven

The nice bloat

Yummilicious end product

Ingredients:
500g ready made puff pastry

Filling
200g whipping cream
300g milk
80g sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Defrost; Roll out into 3mm thickness, cut with an egg ring/round cookie cutter into 12 large circles and press unto tart mould. (I used a muffin tin)
2. Cook whipping cream and milk until 70 degree C. Stir in sugar and cook until sugar dissolves.
3. Add into the beaten eggs and egg yolks and mix until well blended. Lastly add in the vanilla essence. Set aside to cool.
4. Pour the filling into the pasty tarts and bake in preheated 200 degree oven for 15-20 minutes; or until custard in the center bloats up and is beginning to turn a golden caramelized brown.

Strawberry Sponge Cake

This was my first attempt in baking a cake. No kidding. Ok, it wasn't the best shot (taken at night). There was no art direction to bring out the best of this cake. But still, it looked quite pretty, isn't it? I stumbled across this pic (which I have no idea that I ever took one) while I was doing housekeeping of my photos folder. It was probably stashed aside since it was not worthy of any airtime. I wasn't even remotely thinking of starting a blog then.

I chanced upon this recipe while browsing through one of the many cake recipes in Happy Home Baking. The cake looked so lovely and refreshing, plus it didn't seem too daunting to attempt for a novice baker like me (Note: I have NEVER baked a cake before). Oh, it has fresh cream which I preferred, and the best part, no frosting skills required (how convenient!). I used strawberries and sponge fingers to disguise the imperfection of frosting.

Verdict: The cake was not as soft and moist as I had hoped, but the fresh cream and tangy strawberries made this cake light and refreshing.

The Daughter savoured the fresh cream on her plate, while the Son was happily swiping off the strawberries. Even a non cake person like the Hub said it was good for a a first attempt.

Moral of the story: Nothing from the alchemist's kitchen is deemed unworthy in the Household.

Ingredients:(makes one 18cm sponge cake)

100g cake flour
3 eggs, room temperature
90g unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons fresh milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Sift cake flour, set aside. Line bottom and sides of an 18cm (7 inch) round pan with parchment paper, set aside. Pre-heat oven to 170degC. Position rack at the lower bottom of the oven.
2. With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar on HIGH speed for about 5 to 7 mins, until the batter double in volume and is ribbon-like (the beater should leave a ribbon-like texture when the batter is lifted up). Turn to LOW speed and whisk for another 1 to 2 mins. Whisking at low speed helps to stabilise the air bubbles in the batter.Add sifted cake flour into the batter. With a spatula, gently fold in the flour until well blended. Take care not to deflate the batter.
3. Add the melted butter, fold with spatula until well blended
4. Add in fresh milk and fold in gently with spatula.
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30~35 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Unmold and invert onto cooling rack, cool completely.

Assemble the cake:

1. With an electric mixer, whip the whipping cream still stiff.
2. Slice the cake horizontally into 2 layers. Place one of the cake layers cut-side down on a cake plate. Spread the whipped cream over the layer.
3. Arrange rings of strawberries to cover the whole layer.
4. Fill with some more whipped cream. Top with the other cake layer, cut-side up.
5. Spread the whipped cream over the top and side of the cake. Decorate as desired.

First post, first Hokkaido Milky Loaf

This blog celebrates food. Nothing fanciful, just numerous experiments of feeding the Household comprising 2 growing kids, a Hub who loves good food, and yours truly, a skinny cook.

The blog also documents all my kitchen experiments so that the Household can have a library of reference. (And just in case someone in the Household gets poisoned, we know why, and how).

Now, with that out of the way, let's get a move on. Here's my first loaf of Hokkaido Milky Loaf, created with the newly bought Kenwood BM350 bread maker. Compliments from (who else), the Hub himself.

Many food bloggers have been raving about this recipe, so I guess it should be a safe bet to start with my breadmaker. It surely churned out a nice and fluffy loaf. However, this bread is best eaten in the first 2 days, as by the 3rd day, the texture is no longer as soft.

This is a half recipe that yields a smaller loaf, which is just nice for the Household:

Ingredients:
270g Bread flour
30g Cake flour
1 tsp Dry active yeast
15g Milk powder
40g Sugar
½ tsp Salt
1 egg
125g Fresh milk
80g Whipping cream (heavy cream)

Method:

1. Put all the liquid ingredients into the pan of the bread machine, followed by egg. Add sugar and salt. Cover with the flour and sprinkle the yeast over.
   
2. Fit the pan into the bread machine and set to Sweet. Select 1 lb or 1.5lb loaf size and set to light or medium crust setting (depend on your preference).


3. Once baked, remove the loaf from the pan and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing.