CNY is around the corner.... Part 3

A big hello to my fellow readers... its nearly CNY this year!! (3rd FEB) and guess what?! ITS MY YEAR =) I happily welcome the year of the Rabbit. Apparently this is a good year for the rabbit to be in a relationship *fingers crossed*??

Anyways, just another update of my CNY cooking. This week, I bring to you one of the most famous traditional dessert that HAS to be eaten during chinese new year.. the Pineapple Tart. The tart itself comes in many many various forms from a flat cookie with jam on top to ones that are wrapped in pastry or even shaped in the shape of a mandarin ball. The tart that I made was rolled up and I felt a little 'creative' so I decided to put tiny crosses on them (being Christian and all).

The recipe was an adaptation of many many different kinds on the internet. But most of the credit does go to http://www.malaysiabest.net/ as that was the main source of inspiration and the pastry that was recommended is really really REALLY crumbly... but it melts in your mouth so quickly so its worth the pain and effort rolling it!

PS: I should really work on my presentation. But it was nearly gulfed down in 1 day anyway -_- so .... well... it must have tasted really good.

close up view of 'my' pineapple tart

army of pineapple tarts going to battle....the empty stomach

Ingredients
Filling

2 cans of pineapple rings
sugar&honey
spices(cinnamon,star anise,clove)
cornflour

Pastry
400g flour (made of 300g plain flour,  50g cornflour, 30g custard powder, 20g milk powder)
250g butter (in little cubes)
2 tbsp of caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 egg yolks

Steps
1) You would want to prepare the filling a day beforehand so it actually sticks a lot better. But I prepared mine on the morning itself (no difference to me... so... up to you).
2) Take out the rings from the can and mash them up well (you can also use a food processor if you prefer). After mashing, put the pineapple mush in a saucepan to simmer. Here you add the sugar and honey to the sweetness that you prefer. For me, I added roughly 100g of sugar and 1tbsp of honey and 1/2tsp of cinnamon powder. Once the fluid is nearly gone, add 1tsp of cornflour to thicken up the mixture.
3) After simmering, remove the pan from the heat and put the jam into a bowl to cool. Afterwards, leave it in the fridge to cool for about 2-3 hours.
4) To make the pastry, add the flour, sugar and salt together. Then, add butter and knead till you get an even spread (looks like breadcrumbs). At this point, put in the egg yolks and mix well until the dough sticks together. If it looks too dry still, you can add 1 more egg yolk (if its too wet, add more flour).
5) Soft dough is REALLY hard to work with. So if required, you can leave it in the fridge if the day is too hot. For me, I left half in the fridge first while I worked with the other half.
6) Now, prepare a baking tray lined with baking paper.
*7) Pinch a small ball of dough (depends on how big you want it to be) and flatten into a 3x1cm strip and put a bit of the jam in the middle and roll it into a cylinder then put aside on the baking tray. Glaze the tarts with egg white so it looks shiny and brown when it comes out of the oven.
**8) When you are nearly done, pre-heat the oven to 180celcius and bake at this temperature for 20mins on the middle tray of your oven. Best to take it out and rotate the tray if you dont have a fan-forced oven.
9) When it is done, it should be just slightly brown because of the egg white. You can taste test it if you prefer too..

Tips
* Mine was the rolled up version of the egg tart.. Reason being I don't have a cookie mould. If you prefer, you can roll the dough flat and use the cookie mould to make different shapes and put the jam in the middle.
** Heat variations can lead to cooking time differences. Its always recommended that you have a look at the tarts 10mins in to make sure that the tart is evenly cooked.


And thats it... A relatively simple, easy and delicious recipe. This has been taste-tested by a few lab rats in my house and they approve of it! I'll let you know what my 'english' work buddies think of this!

Your Masterchef buddy,
Doug.

CNY is around the corner.... Part 2

Chocolate Macarons (Walnutcarons)

Credits for this recipe goes to ( http://www.chocoparis.com/chocolate-macarons/ ). Thank you for helping out with making my 2nd attempt a success.


Chocolate Macaron Recipe
Ingredients:
90g of egg white
125g of almond flour
125g of icing sugar
25g of cocoa powder
125g of castor sugar
125g of dark chocolate
100ml of heavy cream
25g of unsalted butter

Steps:
1) Mix the almond powder, icing sugar and cocoa powder together. Sift the mixture into a large bowl and set aside.
2) Beat the egg whites till it is slightly fluffy and then add the castor sugar slowly. Continue beating all the while adding the castor sugar till you see stiff peaks form.
3) Mix the almond mixture into the egg whites and fold gently. Once all the dry ingredients are mixed with the egg whites, beat it up a little bit to get most of the air out (so it doesnt puff up like a pavlova). They liken it to a 'molten lava' like consistency... Look it up on Youtube to get it right.
4) Add the mixture into a piping bag and pipe onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Pipe out about a 10cent piece leaving about 1 inch apart from the mixture. Let the mixture then sit for 20-30mins to form a 'skin'. The skin means that when you touch it you dont get anything sticking to your hands.
5) Bake for 20mins or longer depending on your oven @ 160celcius. Use fan oven as it spreads the heat more evenly. The macaron is ready when the top does not move when you touch it and should remain completely on its food.
6) Remove and leave to cool.

Next up, the sauce!
7) Chop up the chocolate and butter into fine pieces for melting.
8) Heat up the heavy cream in a pot and pour on the chocolate+butter mixture when it boils.
9) Let it cool and then add it to the macaron like a burger filling :)

I have only ever had the Macaron's from Haighs.... so I am not sure what macaron's are really meant to taste like. But according to 'someone' it tastes fine :D. So all in all, a success....not really on the presentation part. BUT WHO CARES!!!

Enjoy reading and have a good day.

PS Christine thinks these look like walnuts. And she hath named it WALNUTCARONS!

Your MASTERCHEF buddy,
Doug.

CNY is around the corner.... Part 1

Hi all. As every Chinese person knows, Chinese New Year is around the corner. More precisely, this year, it lands on the 3rd of February.... and also, it is finally my year again. The year of the rabbit!!! Hopefully, this year will be a lucky year for us 1987 kids!! And rightfully so! I've actually been succesful in cooking my macaron's again the 2nd time around. Thank you God for these blessed hands

Just to let you guys know as well. I am actually trying to make all different sorts of new year desserts in the coming weeks leading up to chinese new year. This allows me to enjoy my chinese new year away from home and also allows you to have an insight into what family traditions we have in Malaysia over the new years celebrations. Food of course is only one part... but visiting family and friends and playing with firecrackers are what really makes up our Chinese New Year in Malaysia.

I'm probably boring you guys now... Without further ado!

CNY Almond Cookies

 The recipe can be found on this blog ( http://www.malaysiabest.net/2008/02/03/recipe-almond-cookies-for-chinese-new-year/ ). All credits go to this awesome mother blogger. I merely halved her recipe to make mine. And it actually makes 2 trays full...As a bonus, its REALLY easy to make.

CNY Almond Cookie Recipe
Ingredients:
200g roasted almonds (no skin, blended in food processor)
200g flour
170g castor sugar (the finer the sugar the better)
a pinch of salt
50g of unsalted butter
sufficient oil to hold the product together (I used 1/2 cup of peanut oil - might have used too little...)
egg white (to glaze)

Steps:
1) Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut butter into small cubes and add to the flour mixture. Knead till it looks like bread crumbs.
2) Add in the blended almond and mix well.
3) The next step is to add in the oil till it binds the mixture together so you can mould it into a ball. Do not add too much oil otherwise it wont taste as good.. (and really unhealthy too).
4) Glaze the top of the cookies with egg whites. Then put it in the oven for 15-20mins at 200celcius.

Enjoy! These cookies are REALLY addictive. I shall warn you now... I bear no responsibility for you gaining weight =)

 

Following on....

I am So excited! My pastry is actually a success this time around. Refer to the previous post to see what I mean... The only difference that I made this time was to leave the pastry to sit overnight. In addition to that, I rolled and folded the layers at least 5 times to make sure that there are more layers that have butter incorporated in them. All in all, MISSION SUCCESFUL! =)

I have also changed the previous recipe somewhat.... and I have received good comments from it =) Thank goodness.

Ingredients: (just halved it)


Steps: (follow previous post)
When you start doing the folding, just fold the dough as before... flip the dough over, flatten it, and then fold again. Do this at least 3-4 times to make sure that there are a lot of layers that have butter incorporated into them and that actually makes it softer and flakier.
What I recommend to do is also to leave the dough overnight in the fridge so that it has time to set... The following day, just cut into mouldable pieces and follow the recipe before.

Might sound a bit confusing, if it does, just let me know and I'll follow up! Thank you for reading =)

Double delight Monday! Part 2

As mentioned in last post, I have made 2 different desserts for the day (mainly because I know I will fail at making the puff pastry for the portugese egg tarts) AND I HAVE! :( Such a sad day for mankind. Thankfully, though, I have the egg whites left over to actually make macaroon's again!! So hopefully, we will see succesful macaroon's the next time I do my cooking! This recipe I actually found off youtube and apparently it is 'authentic' but who knows.... she was not 100% clear on the steps of making the pastry itself so I blindly assumed a few things. Could've also been the mould/quantity of dough that I was using. But nevertheless, it looks brilliant and really pretty. Just the pastry being a bit too hard I guess...

looks can be deceiving =(

This recipe originated from a youtube video link here ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USeKSLon0n8&feature=related )


Ingredients:
(makes 16)
500g of flour (1tsp of salt)
125g of butter combined with 125g of margarine
1L of milk (2 slices of lemon skin, 1 cinnamon stick)
60g of flour + 20g of cornflour
375g of sugar
7 yolks + 1 whole egg
3/4 cup of water
muffin tray/egg tart tray

Steps:
1) Make a hole in the middle of the flour and add the water slowly while stirring with your hands. Knead and leave aside for 10mins.
2) Cook the milk using low heat adding the lemon skin and cinnamon stick for flavouring. Cook till warm and leave aside to cool. Then add the flour mixture and sugar and stir till dissolved.
3) Flatten out the dough to make a large rectangular shape. Spread enough of the butter+margarine combination to cover the dough (careful to avoid the edges). Then outline the dough into 3 smaller rectangles and fold over each other. Wrap in clingwrap and leave in the fridge for 15minutes.
4) Take out the pastry, roll it flat into a large rectangle again, and add the rest of the butter/margarine mixture.
5) Now instead of folding, take the edge of the rectangle and start rolling it into a cylinder (as if you were rolling a playdough into a snake).
6) Cut enough of the dough to fit into your muffin tray/egg tart trays and flatten the dough to the outline of the tray. The bottom should be thin and the top should be thicker.
7) Now take your milk mixture and add the eggs to it. After mixing, add the mixture to your premade dough skins and fill it.
8) This part is an assumption.. Put the oven to the highest temperature (mine went up to 260celcius) and cook the tarts till they become brownish in color. Take out of the oven and leave to cool. Serve warm.

Good luck with making this! I know some people have failed! But I will endeavour to try this recipe again! Anyone able to help me find the perfect puff pastry recipe? Let me know! =)

Douglas out!

Double delight Monday! Part 1

I've decided to make my double delight monday in 2 posts (reason being the portugese egg tarts are still cooling and I have no idea if they are good or bad).... So here it goes. I actually skipped going to the gym today to be able to make the two dishes because I wont be able to make anything for the next week because I'll be quite busy. Plus, living alone kinda drains all life out of you with housework.... and I HATE A MESSY HOUSE!

Anyways, I actually made some chewy chocolate brownies in the morning and ended the day with making some portugese egg tarts in the afternoon. If I failed making the chocolate brownies, I think I would be such a loser. But it did turn out VERY yummy! I love it! =)

yummy, chewy and sweet

This recipe is actually copied from a site that I really love. She has 3 kids and still has lots of time to make recipes! RESPECT!  ( http://homekreation-recipes.blogspot.com/2010/11/chewy-brownies.html )

Ingredients:
115g of butter
115g of chocolate
1.5cup of sugar
2tsp of vanilla essence
2 large eggs
128g of plain flour
2 tbsp of cocoa powder

Steps:
1) Line an 8 inch tin with some baking paper.
2) Melt the butter and chocolate in seperate pans. Cool slightly then combine the two ingredients. Then add the sugar and vanilla essence. Blend in eggs one at a time and then lastly, add the plain flour and cocoa powder.
3) Preheat oven to 180celcius and pour the mixture into the baking tin. Heat in oven for 35-45 mins. If you prefer chewier, cook it for less time. Use a toothpick to check the consistency. You want the toothpick to come out a little dirty

Thats it folks! Easy recipe to make and so delicious too! Kudo's to Roz for her lovely blog. Everyone should have a look at the hundreds of recipes she has! Look forward to Part 2 soon!

Oh, tang yuan, why are you so white?

Hey kiddies, I'm back in the kitchen again finally....after a while off cooking. I must admit, I've gotten a bit rusty. My attempt was to make zi ma tang yuan which basically is a tang yuan with black sesame within it. HOWEVER, after a few failed attempts and a few successful ones, I decided to make only the normal one as it is so so so so so sooooooooooo much easier to make. Trust me, this recipe is DEAD easy.

Firstly, a little history.... (got you! you can just go on wikipedia and search up tang yuan if you want a bit of history). The gist of it is, is that you can get it in many assortment of flavours, colors and fillings (peanut butter, brown or black sesame, red bean.. etc. etc.). In addition, it also comes in different soup bases as well... some people like the ginger syrup and some people prefer just to use pandan (thats me! ginger... ugh)

Anyways, a photo:

how white, pure and precious!

Ingredients:
(tang yuan dough)
225g of glutinous rice flour
3/4 cup of water

(pandan syrup)
3 pandan leaves
5 cups of water
3/4 cups of sugar

(if desired, black sesame paste)
1/4 cup ground sesame seeds
1/4 cup sugar
3tbsp of butter

Steps:
1) Roast the sesame seeds under medium heat till aromatic. Then remove from heat and grind till fine. After this, melt the butter and sugar together with the ground seeds till it is thick in texture then leave aside to cool.
2) Next step, would be to then make the syrup. It can just sit there anyway. This is easy. Just pop everything into a small pot and dissolve the sugar. The longer you leave it, the better the pandan aroma.
3) Mix together the glutinous rice flour and water and knead till it no longer sticks to your hands. Then, roll them into small balls. Do not make them too big as they may taste disgusting. (If following the black sesame recipe, just flatten the dough and put a teaspoon of sesame paste and fold back the skin and then roll to make the ball).
4) It is best if you heat up a pot of water as well till it boils. When the balls are ready, just pop it into the water. Once the tang yuan floats, remove from the water immediately. Cooking it any longer will make it too sticky and not firm.
5) Dump some of the tang yuan in the ready-made HOT syrup. Serve hot and enjoy!

I told you it was easy! (Except the wrapping part)
My way around this was just to use a seperate spoon and spread the black sesame on top of the tang yuan! Best of both worlds! LOVE IT =)

Douglas out!

Photoshop power

This is a story I like to call 'possession'. The story begins with Steven. He is your stock-standard, everyday sort of pharmacist that loves dispensing and helping elderly men with erection problems. But his life turned for the worst when he met three new friends Douglas (Douglas Lau), Terence (Terence Khoo) and Christine (Christine Quek) who invited him to midnight parties. But that was only the start of his worries. Truth or dare was just an everyday sort of game but in the hands of his friends, have gone all wrong. The parties were getting more horrific each time they played this game. It started off with his best friend Rubin (Rubin Ng) having to kiss another male called Steve which eventually lead to the latest party which he attended on New Years Day to be his last. It was thought to be just another simple harmless party but it turned out all wrong. As he approached the house, everyone was looking dark, gloomy and dead. Then, one by one, his friends started getting possessed by the power of pharmacy and went on to get hallucinations and seizures. Steven, being the nice person that he is, tries to resist the power and save his friends but ends up being possessed by the devil himself. However, no one knows that Steven is actually the son of God and has the power to bring out the possession. Unless he knows this, he would not be able to save his friends. But, will Steven succeed in bringing out his inner angel? Or will the devil finally succeed in his rampage on humanity..... Let the hauntings begin!

COMING TO PHARMACIES NEAR YOU! WATCH IT

Famous Quotes (vol1. Christine)

Just a short one today guys because I just want to make fun of her!

Rubin: They say not to eat mung bean these days because of the chemicals.
Christine: What is mung bean?
US: It is 'tauge'.
Christine: REALLY? I didnt know that.
*Classic Christine*


Truth or dare time?!
Truth: Would you rather an attractive+poor guy or a rich+ugly guy? Please speak honestly.
Christine: (after much contemplation) A rich+ugly guy. Because at least he has the money to undergo plastic surgery and he will become attractive.
US: (shocked)
*Genius Christine*

And thats it for today folks! Till I can find out how many other stupid things she can do! :P We shall wait for it.

Boxing Day & New Years Eve Part 2

New Years Eve
Wow.... what to really say about new years eve. The night was sooooo freaking.... interesting. The night started off at about 9pm because of having to stay back at work and having to fix up scripts for claims! Not the greatest way to start off new years eve! Got home at about 8.20, have to sort out the things we had to bring to steamboat at Sally's and Fran's place and also having to find some alcohol to bring for the occasion. Arrived at their place at nearly 9 and started eating till nearly 12am.

Following this, Terence decided to play another game of truth or dare (now downloaded on his iPhone). The dares now are not as 'dangerous' as the ones that we played before with Christine's cards but now the option of an 'open dare' is so so so so dangerous. Catherine ended up just calling Steve but for me, they wanted me to say ' i miss you ' to Michael! As if things weren't awkward enough between us -____-! But the interesting part is just about to start...wait for it...................... TERENCE DROPPED HIS IPHONE 4 INTO THE SOUP!!!! Man, when it fell in, we were just staring at it but then reality struck and we quickly fished it out of the miso soup. He was so worried that night but thankfully, his case protected it quite a bit and the iphone seems to be functioning well... with maybe some slight damage to one of his speakers... but at least it still works right?

12AM came, and so did the fireworks... exchanged greetings with each other and sent a few messages out to friends for the new year! Let me tell you, the fireworks here are not as great compared to the ones that we have in Malaysia for Chinese New Year. It went on for about 10minutes and it just ended! COME ON!! We need at least an hour worth of fireworks!! It only happens once every year.

After that incident with Terence, we continued playing truth or dare... (so insistent on finishing it). But really, the other dares were not as good as the one Christine brought over. After playing another 30mins or so, we went on to play Monopoly.... This game..........didnt end.......... till about 4.30am in the freaking morning!!!! I had to change the rules to my own 'modified version' where they lose 10million everytime they pass go! As if the bank has to pay money if you pass go :D It was soooo political that game. They had to trade, auction, mortgage and merge in order to win! But in the end, the bank was richest!! Here comes the monies.

I shall stop talking now and let the pictures do the talking for me. I hope everyone else had a great New Years Eve and New Years Day as I did! Good luck for everything in 2011. Special shoutout to all my friends that celebrated that night with me (Terence, Christine, Steven, Catherine, Fran, Sally, Edmund (sallys Bf) and Rubin).

Boxing Day & New Years Eve Part 1

There have been lots of celebrations going on for the past few days. All credits go to Sally and Fran for providing us with their apartment and lots of their time for us to be able to do this for 2 events in a row. Not to mention being on the top floor of the apartment that gave us spectacular views of the NYE fireworks!!!!

Boxing Day
Boxing day celebration was a blast. Late late late dinner from Domino's because they decided to not tell us that there is a 45minute wait on the pizza so that was that. Never again ordering to be delievered. Also, on that unfortunate night, Christine introduced us to 'Truth or Dare' the most dangerous game ever invented. The truth's were all too easy to play with so we only ended up doing the dares for the whole night..... it all ranged from acting like animals, having weird concoctions mixed up.... to..... licking stuff off my stomach and bothering the neighbour for 5 minutes............*awkward* I still cant believe how daring Catherine is for doing that dare. If it was me I would be so nervous but we did get free sugar at the end of the day.. hahaha....... The most awkward one of the night for me really was where the two guys kissed. Not that there is any evidence left of that. As they say, whatever happens in the apartment, stays in the apartment!

 scandalous

 watching a grown man cry

Catherine and her dares!

Concentrating and worrying

*singing* the night was sooooooo scandalous *hums*hums*hums*