Happy Jellies

Recipe for the 2 layer agar-agar:

BROWN LAYER AGAR-AGAR:

* 2tsps agar-agar powder
* 500ml water
* 100g gula melaka, chopped finely
* 2 pandan leaves

WHITE LAYER AGAR-AGAR:

* 2tsps agar-agar powder
* 100ml coconut milk
* 100ml evaporated milk
* 350ml water
* 100g sugar
* 1/2 tsp salt

1. Put all brown layer ingredients into a pan. Bring to boil over medium fire. Stir with a whisk until agar-agar dissolvesand mixture is smooth. Turn off fire. Removes pandan leaves.
2. Fill jelly mould half full with the brown mixture. Cool for 1 min, then leave to set in the fridge for 20 mins.
3. Prepare white layer the same way. When the brown layer is partially set, remove from the fridge and pour the white layer over. Put it back to the fridge to set for at least 30mins..

Green tea soy bean milk jellies

Palm sugar jellies

Chrysanthemum jellies

Coconut milk jellies

Yellow sweet potatoes layered jellies

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

Red bean paste.

Green tea fresh cream.

My first green tea chiffon cake.

 

Turn the chiffon cake upside down to cool.

Couldn't resist the urge to peek & see whether the cake is ok and still attached to the mould.

Separated from the mould. (Haha..I forget that usually, chiffon cake is turned upside down after being separated from the mould. No wonder I find it hard to spread the fresh cream over the top as the skin keep sticking to my spreading knife.)

 

Nice? I totally love this chiffon cake. Had intended to spread the cream all over the cake but in the end, settled with this 'design'. Not bad also right?

Could't wait to cut through the cake to see whether the inside is ok. Its perfect. Added a scoop of the red bean paste that I prepared earlier. Its a nice combination always.

The texture is light, soft & spongy. When I cut it with the spoon, the cake will spring up to the actual height. I am absolutely satisfied.

I bought this book and had tried the green tea souffle swiss roll and it was great. So today, I decided to give the green tea chiffon cake recipe a try. You will see me trying out the various recipes in this book. I am not sure if its alright to copy the recipe here as this seems a bit unfair to the author. The recipe is written in detail and very easy to follow. Its a good book. Do try to get it and happy baking!

Tomyam Mee Goreng

Ingredients for tomyam mee goreng:

1 pc firm/hard toufu - diced

some bean sprout (its S$0..20 as shown in the pic above)

900g cooked yellow noodles

1 tomato - cut into quarters

1 big onion - cut into quarters

fishcake - sliced thinly

1 red chilli - shredded

8-10 fresh prawns (squid/diced chicken fillet)

1 stalk of fresh green spring oinon cut lengthwise

paste :

3tbsp maggi tomato sauce

2tbsp maggi chilli sauce

1tbsp oyster sauce

2tbsp tomyam paste

2tbsp light soy sauce

a dash of maggi seasoning

1 tsp sugar

a dash of fish sauce

3-5 tbsp water

(mix all in a large bowl and set aside)

Usually when I want to fry noodles, I will prepare some fried shallots and mashed garlics in oil till light brown. Take out and set aside. Leave the oil in the wok and once the wok is hot, add in the diced toufu and stir fry til light brown. Add in the prawns, fishcakes, onion and tomatoes. Give it a quick stir then add in the bowl of tomyam paste mixtures and mix well. Lower the flame here as the sauce will get burn easily if the fire is too high.

Add in the yellow noodles in portion, mixing with the sauce constantly until every strand is coated in the sauce. Turn the fire to medium flame and lastly add in the beansprout and green spring onion. Mixed well. Done.

On a plate, topped the noodles with some shredded red chillies, fried shallots or thinly cut fried egg sheets(I didn't put today). Squeeze some lime juice. Garnish with some parsley. Ready to serve.

Fried Bitter Gourd With Eggs



Cut the bitter gourd in thin slices, marinate with some salts & leave it in the fridge for an hour or overnight(as I just did bcos I bought a large bitter gourd, cleanse & cored and used half to cook with spareribs for dinner last night, keeping the other half for this dish today.) When ready to cook, just wash the salt away & squeeze out all the liquid(that way, the bitter gourd will remain crunchy & nice even after frying). This is ready to mix with the eggs.



Fried bitter gourd with eggs.

I used to be afraid of eating bitter gourd. Right, from its name 'bitter' gourd, it sure tasted bitter. Its after I read from cooking books and learn to prepare this dish that I started to enjoy eating it.

Ingredients:

Half a large bitter gourd (prepared as shown in the first pic)
3 eggs beaten
Pinch of salt
A dash of fish sauce
3tbsp of Corn starch

Method:

Mix all ingredient in a large mixing bowl. Heat up the wok and add in 2tbsp of oil. Fry the eggs in small portion and under medium flame so that the bitter gourd gets cook evenly & the eggs don't get burn too easily. Don't be too impatient to turn the eggs or it won't turn out nice and crispy.

Enjoy!

Layered Fresh Cream Japanese Purple Sweet Potatoes Sponge Cake

I must be addicted to decorating cake with fresh whipping cream. I prepared the sponge cake batter and divided it into 2 portion.  One portion, I baked it in original flavor, spread with fream cream & strawberry syrup and practice the rolling method earlier. The other portion, I added in some mashed purple sweet potatoes and instead of rolling up, I decided to cut the baked cake into half and spread with fresh cream then layered the other half on top. Then I cover the whole cake with fresh whipping cream. Hmm... yum! The kids simply love the fresh cream.

I find the cake a bit plain after spreading it with just fresh cream. Since its already a purple sweet potato sponge cake, I don't want to add any other ingredients. Hmm... I still feel lack of something when I smell something sweet and aromatic. Yes! Its the palm sugar syrup that I prepared earlier. It really match with the sweet potatoes. So after cutting a piece and displaying it on the plate for the camera,  I drizzled some palm sugar syrup over the top.

Done with the photo-taking. Tasted the cake. Yum, its nice! So I pick up my hp again and snapped another close up look of the cake. Don't mind my lousy spreading skill. The cake is yummy & smells really good.

Sponge Roll With Strawberry & Chocolate Syrup

I am practising to roll a sponge cake. Still not very good. Will try to do it again. I also enjoy decorating the cake with fresh whipping cream. Having fun in the kitchen. 

Must Haves In My Kitchen

Fried Shallots Oil (Prepare some thin & evenly sliced shallots and fry in oil. Makes soup, porridge and vegetable dishes taste better when added)

Raspberry in rum. (For Baking)

Raisin in rum (for baking)

Pickled Ginger (Cleans, deskinned and pat dry the ginger, slice as thin as possible + rock sugar + white vinegar)





That's the purpose of the pickled gingers. Eat with century eggs.



Pickled green & red chillies. (Clean, dry with kitchen towel, sliced the green chillies and sieve away the seeds with basket + rock sugar + vinegar. The red one will be blended with fresh garlics as dipping sauce to go with other dish like steam chicken etc.)



Refrigerated Palm sugar syrup/Gula Melaka syrup (Good for baking and dessert)



More to come...