Hong Kong Sausage Roll (Wheatmeal Version) 香港肠仔包

Hello everyone,

I have been missing in action for a super long time and finally picking up with baking after enjoying a baking session with one of my dear friend, Nicole. We baked the Hong Kong sausage roll and it turned out edible but it was a little hard as we didn't let it rest long enough.

Today, I wish to bake sausage roll and improvise it to a healthier version by replacing white bread mix to mixed grain bread mix. I got this sausage roll recipe from Rasa Malaysia.

The ingredients are as follows:

300 gms Mixed grain bread mix
7 gms Allinson Easy Bake Yeast
10 gms sugar
7 gms salt
1 whole egg + whole milk, about 230 gms
30 gms unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg white + 2 tsp of water
8 pieces of hot dogs
Small amount of plain flour (for dusting and shaping the dough)

Method:
 
1. Put together half portion of mixed grain bread mix with Allison easy bake yeast, sugar and salt. Combined these ingredients well.
2. After that, add the egg and milk mixture into the bread mixture;  mixing it using a pastry scraper.
3. Slowly add the remaining mixed grain bread mix into the dough and combine well.
4. A soft dough will be formed. Then add in the butter. Once the dough is not sticky anymore, remove the dough from the bowl and knead until it is elastic.
5. Then, put the dough onto a slightly butter bowl/plate and cover it with a cling wrap/damp cloth; allowing it to rest for about 1 to 1.5 hours to double its size.
6. After resting, separate the dough into 8 small portions and roll them into the shape of balls. Leave them to rest for another 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, wash and wipe off the excess water on the hotdogs.
8. Put some flour in a clean surface amd hands. Start to roll each small dough into a cylinder form to about 35 - 40cm. Wrap it onto the sausage and make sure that the ends of cylinder is facing down. After wrapping all the hotdogs, cover the sausage buns with a cling film and leave it for about 10 - 15 minutes.
9. While waiting for the sausage rolls to rest for the last time, preheat the oven at 200 degrees. After resting, sweep a layer of egg wash onto the sausage rolls and bake them for 10 - 12 minutes. And you're done!

Malaysian Homemade Kaya

Kaya has always been my favourite while I was in school . My mom always made them for us to eat with steamed white bread. Sometimes, we would eat kaya with toasted bread (Kopitiam-like method with coffee).

I was shopping for groceries at various places on Monday so that I can avoid going out in the snow in a week or two. I was so delighted that I found these screwpine leaves (pandan leaves) because I have been hunting for them for weeks!!
Everything seems to be paused due to the snow.
Food supplies or ingredients that is usually easy to be bought from Chinatown does not seemed to be easy anymore.

This recipe for Homemade Kaya is tried and tested from My Asian Kitchen.

The ingredients are:

• 200 grams granulated sugar [TIP: May be reduced to 150 grams if you prefer less sweet]
• 100 ml water
• 6-8 screwpine leaves
• 4 eggs
• 200ml coconut milk

 Method:

1. Pour the sugar in a small pot, set the fire on low heat until the sugar caramelised (Brown in colour). 
2. Then add in the water and pandan leaves. Continue to stir until all the sugar has caramelised. 
3. Next, add in the coconut milk and beaten eggs. [TIP: Make sure that you have sieved the coconut milk and eggs a few times to prevent it from having clumps.]
4. After the mixture has combined perfectly, bring the small pot to another pot which is slightly bigger. Make sure the water is boiled as it is used to double-boiled the mixture.
5. Keep stirring the kaya mixture for about 30-45 minutes. Make sure that its a little sticky (Jam-like texture). 

And you are done!!

Good luck!

Malaysian Homemade Kaya

Malaysia Peanut Pancake: Apam Balik

A sudden crave for this Malaysian delicacy.
I wanted to make a crispy version but I made both versions out using the same recipe.
Recipe adapted and tested from My Asian Kitchen.

Ingredients:
(A)Dough:

180 grams plain or all purpose flour

20 gm rice flour

30 gm corn flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda (I added 1 tsp by mistake)

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

250ml milk/santan(coconut milk)

Water (add 2 tbsp at one time for the right thin crepe consistency)

100 grams castor sugar

(B) Filling:

50 grams melted butter
100 grams castor sugar
200 grams roasted crushed peanut (roasted for 8-10minutes)
7-8 tsp cream sweet corn

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients(A) into a mixing bowl. Beat well with mixer. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
2. Heat a 7" or 8"non-stick pan at low heat. Check the batter, if it's too thick. [TIP: Add 2 tbsp water to adjust the thickness]
3. Used a measuring cup to pour some the dough into the non-stick pan to form pancake shape. Let it cook for a while and then sprinkle some sugar on the top. Cook until lightly golden brown. Sprinkle some crushed peanut, butter or any filling you prefer, fold crepe into half.
4. Remove the crepe and serve warm.

Thick version

Crispy and Thin version

Enjoy!!

Longan Dessert/Longan Tong Sui (龙眼糖水)

Recipe tried and tested from Rasa Malaysia.


Ingredients:
2-3 oz dried longan
6 cups water
6 dried red dates
12 ginkgo nuts
5 pieces snow fungus (soaked until soft)
Sugar to taste

Method:
Bring water to boil. Add the dried longan, red dates, ginkgo nuts, and snow fungus. Boil in low heat for 30-45 minutes or until the water turns brown in color. Add sugar to taste. Serve warm or cold with ice cubes.

Malaysian Pan Mee

Here is another kind of Malaysian food which I have made during this weekend. Its a good try and all my friends enjoyed it. The recipe is adapted and modified from a random blog called Food Made Simple.

Ingredients A: Dried Chili Paste

One of the most important ingredient but it is alright if you prefer to eat without the chilli paste.  

• Dried Chillies - stem cutted and soaked - 2 handful (approximately 25 pieces)
• Fresh Red Chillies - 2
• Dried Shrimp - 1 palmful
• Shallots or onion - 5 shallots or 2 mid sized onion (shallots preferred!)
• Garlic - 3 cloves
• Oil - 4 tbsp

 Method:

1. Blend all the ingredients together.
2. Heat up the wok with low fire and stir fry the ingredients until dry and golden brown. [TIP: Make sure you keep an eye on the fire and make sure that it will not be overcooked/burnt]

 Ingredients B: Minced Meat Sauce

• 500gm of minced pork - marinade with salt, pepper and a dash of soy sauce and some starch
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Dark Soya sauce - 1 tbsp
• Oyster Sauce - 1 tbsp
• A pinch of Salt
• A dash of pepper
• Some light soya sauce
• Some water [Tip: If you preferred a drier texture, you can adjust the content of the water accordingly]

 Method:

1. Heat up the walk and fry some shallots.
2. When the shallots are about to turn its colour to golden brown, put in the mince meat and stir-fry it until cooked.
3. When all the mince pork are cooked, add in some dark soya sauce, oyster sauce and some water.
4. Finally, stir to blend all the sauces and add some salt and pepper to taste.

Ingredients C: The Soup and other condinments

• Fried Anchovies (Ikan Bilis)
• Chicken stock
• Poached /Fried egg (Optional)
• Some vegetables

 Method:

1. Heat the wok and fried the achovies.
2. Reserve some anchovies to be used as dressing in the end. Scoop up the excess oil as well if you do not want your soup to be too oily.
3. Pour some boiling water to be boiled with the anchovies in the wok and let it boil for about 10-15 minutes in low heat. Add in some chicken stock if the flavouring is not enough.
4. For the poached egg: Crack an egg in another pot of simmering water and leave it until its cook. Another pot is used because I do not wish to contaminate the soup that was prepared earlier with egg. ( I personally think that egg is not a neccessity for pan mee but if you are like poached egg, this is the way to do it.)
5. Finally, add some vegetables into the soup for a more healthy and balanced meal! 

Ingredients D: The Noodles/Dough

• 300 grams plain flour (sieved) [TIP: 100 grams of plain flour is equivalent to one person's portion.]
• salt water [TIP: add it bit by bit][
• an egg 
• 1/2 teaspoon oil (makes the texture smooth)

Method:

1. Sieve the flour and dig a hole in the middle. Add in an egg and start mixing the flour with the egg.
2. Add in some salt water bit by bit and start kneading the everything until it becomes a dough.
3. Once the dough is ready, it is good to let it sit a while before you start cooking. 30 minutes is fine. Remember to cover the dough with a wet cloth so that the surface of the dough do not crack up.

[TIP: Make sure that your dough is not too soft if you are making the dough into strands of noodles] (I preferred pan mee which is flat and they are torn according to the sizes othat I like.

THE WHOLE PICTURE

1. Finally, to put everything together!
2. I will scoop some soup from the anchovies soup into another pot to prepare the noodles.  
3. Put in the noodles in the soup, let it cook for 2 minutes then scoop up the noodles into a bowl.
4. Then, I will follow by putting in the condinments which are the poached egg, fried anchovies, mince meat sauce and the dry chilli paste.

Yummy...

New York Cheesecake

This New York Cheesecake Recipe is adapted from the BBC GoodFood.
I have changed the quantity or weight of some ingredients, knowing that it is not enough for a 23cm or 9 inches springform. 

Ingredients:
FOR THE CRUST

* 85ml butter melted, plus extra for tin
* 200g digestive biscuits , made into fine crumbs
* 1 tbsp sugar , granulated or golden caster


FOR THE CHEESECAKE FILLING

* 3 x 300g/11oz pack full fat soft cheese (Philadelphia is good)
* 250g golden caster sugar
* 3 tbsp plain flour
* 1½ tsp vanilla extract
* finely grated zest of 1 lemon (about 2 tsp)
* 1½ tsp lemon juice
* 3 large eggs , plus 1 yolk
* 284ml carton soured cream

FOR THE SOURED CREAM TOPPING

* 142ml carton soured cream
* 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
* 2 tsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Position the oven shelf in the middle and preheat the oven to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. 
2. Line the base of the springform with a baking/greasepaper. 
3. For the crust: Melt that butter, crushed the digestive biscuit and add some sugar. Make sure that they are all evenly moist. (TIP: They should not be to moist/wet because it will be quite hard to press the mixture.) I would recommend that the mixture is pressed by a glass with some water so that all the crust mixture will have a even height. Bake them for 8-10 minutes. Let it cool on the wire rack.
4. For the cheesecake filling: Oven temperature should be increased to fan 200C/conventional 240C/gas 9. Beat the soft cheese at low to medium speed for 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar, then the flour and a pinch of salt with the mixer of low speed. Scrap down the sides of the bowl and the paddle twice. 
5. Use a whisk and continue to add the vanilla, lemon zest and juice. Whisk in the eggs and yolk, one at a time, scraping the bowl and whisk at least twice. Stir the 284ml carton of soured cream until smooth, then measure 200ml/7fl oz (just over 3⁄4 of the carton). Continue on low speed as you add the measured soured cream (reserve the rest). Whisk to blend. (TIP: don't over-beat). The batter should be smooth, light and somewhat airy. 
6. Brush the sides of the springform with butter. Pour the filling and smoothen it with a knife; bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to fan 90C/conventional 110C/gas 1⁄4 and bake for another 25 minutes. Your cheesecake should be slightly wobbly after 25 minutes. Let it cool in the oven for two hours. Close the oven door if you prefer a drier texture. 
7. For sour cream topping: Combine the remaining 142ml of soured cream, sugar and lemon juice for topping. Smoothen it and close it with a foil and refrigerate it for at least 8 hours or overnight.  

After it's out from the oven after cooling. There is a little crack on it.

Tada!!! The end-product!!!

I hope you all will love this delicious New York Cheesecake! Adios!