Yummy Yam Rice



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 Ingredients :

1. Half a yam (diced and fried)
2. Half small bowl of dried shrimps (soak with hot water for 30mins, then pat dry and chopped finely or just grind it finely)
3. 2-3 dried shitake mushroom (soak with hot water till soft, then pat dry with a kitchen towel and finely diced)
4. 1 chicken breast meat (cut into small cubes or shredded, marinate with some corn flour)
5. 2 cups of pearl white rice. (washed and drained)
6. 1 clove of minced garlic
7. 4 shallots (shredded)
8. Finely chopped fresh spring onion or chinese parsley

Seasoning :
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
Fish sauce
Pinch of sugar
Light soy sauce
Dark soy sauce
White pepper powder
Sesame seeds oil

Methods :

Heat up some oil in the wok,  fry the shallots and minced garlics till lightly browned and frangrance. Add in the grinded dried shrimps and keep tossing till the shrimps are cooked and add in the mushrooms and chicken meat. Mix well. Lastly add in rice and keep stirring and add in the seasoning according to preference. Add some sesame oil to enhance the flavor of the rice.

Scoop up the rice and put to cook with the rice cooker. Add water to the level where the water a just slightly over the top of the rice(or just enough to cover the rice completely). Don't put too much water or the rice will turn out too wet and affect the taste and texture.

Easy right? I always prepare this dish when I don't feel like cooking for dinner later.  Just keep the rice warm in the rice cooker and serve it hot with some fried shallots, garnish with some chopped fresh spring onions and home cooked sambal. Yum, yum...

Fried Prawns with Black Fermented Beans

Fried Prawns with Black Fermented Beans.

Ingredients :

Fresh king prawns 1kg (marinate with a small pinch of salt)
5 slices of ginger (shredded & cut finely)
Half clove of garlic (smashed & chopped finely)
1 red chillies (shredde & cut finely)
I stalk of fresh green spring onion (cut finely)
1 small pkt (about 1 tbsp) of dried fermented black bean (put into a small bowl & soak with hot water, drained & squeeze away the water then chopped finely)

Seasoning :
 1tbsp oyster sauce
2-3tbsp premium light soy sauce (Adjust according to the type of soy sauce you have)
1tbsp sugar
a few dashes of sesame seeds oil
3/4 cup hot water
1/2 tbsp of corn starch
(mix everything well in a bowl and lastly add in the corn starch)


Method :

Coat the marinated prawns with some corn flour and fried till cooked. Set aside.

In a clean wok, heat up some oil, add in the gingers, follow by the minced garlic and the chopped black fermented beans and stir fry till fragrance. Add in the chopped red chillies and stir fry for awhile.  Add in the bowl of seasoning and keep stirring till the sauce thicken. Throw in the chopped green spring onion & chinese parsley (optional), off the fire and add in the pre-fried prawns and mix well. Make sure all prawns are coated with the sauce.

Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Spicy Sweet & Sour Honey Fried Prawns With Tomatoes & Onions.

I have been busy recently and couldn't get to write down the recipe to share with everyone. So sorry for that. Below is the recipe for the honey prawn dish as shown in the picture above.

Ingredients :
1/2kg of fresh prawns (Devien and make a slit at the back of the prawns from the head to the tail. Clean and marinate with a pinch of salt)
2 big red onions (quartered)
1 big tomatoes (quartered)
Finely shredded ginger
Half clove of finely chopped garlic
1 stalk of fresh green spring onion and some chinese parsley(chopped finely, for garnishing)

Seasoning :
2tbsp honey
3tbsp Maggi tomato sauce
1tbsp Maggi chilli sauce
1tbsp oyster sauce
1tbsp soy sauce
3/4 to 1 tbsp L & P sauce
1tbsp or more (if prefer sweeter) sugar
4tbsp plain water
(Mix all the seasoning in a bowl, adjust the ingredients to suit your taste.)

Firstly, coat the marinated prawns with corn flour (pat off excess flour) and deep fry till the prawns are cooked. Set aside. Clean the wok, heat it and add in some oil. Fry the finely shredded ginger till golden brown, take out and set aside. Use the ginger oil to fry the chopped garlic till lightly browned then add in the onions, follow by the tomatoes. Stir-fry for awhile then add in the bowl of seasonings. Let it boil and once the tomatoes softens, thicken the sauce with some corn starch.

Pour over the pre-fried prawns, topped with the shredded gingers and garnish with the green spring onion & chinese parsley. Serve while hot.

Enjoy!

Muffins

Fresh blueberry muffins.

Banana & walnut muffins.

The recipe is as follow :

375g self raising flour
75g plain flour
115g soft brown sugar (I use less as I prefer not so sweet)
150g fresh or frozen blueberries
2 eggs
250ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract (I omitted this)
125g unsalted butter, melted
icing sugar, to dust

- Preheat oven to 210 C. Shift the flour into a large mixing bowl, stir in the sugar and blueberries, and    make a well in the centre.
- Whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla together in a jug and add to the well in the dry ingredients. Add the butter and stir with a metal spoon until just combined. Do not overmix. The misture should be lumpy.
- Spoon the mixture into lined muffin tin, filling about three-quarters full. Bake for 30 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the muffin. Leave the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes before lifting out onto wire rack to cool. Dust generously with sifted icing sugar before serving.

I find that the recipe is simple and easy to follow. I have tried using banana and finely chopped walnut and also strawberries to make the muffins. Its yummy! You can try to substitute with raspberries or blackberries or a combination of these. Gently folding them in to keep them whole. Serve it for breakfast or tea time.

Vietnam Purple Yam Sponge Cake.

I found the purple yam (refer to the first pic) at the market few days ago. I thought its the ubi keledek at first glance but upon checking with the vege seller, the aunty told me its a type of yam from vietnam. Very rare in local. The flesh is very sticky and looks exactly like huai shan (chinese yam, which is good for cooking soup with chinese herbs) and its as sticky too. I love the tinge of purple around the flesh and decided to buy it and see what I can make with it. The market aunty told me that usually, they make it into sweet dessert but I got an idea boiling in my mind. Hee...

Here I use the same recipe for purple sweet potatoes but substitute the sweet potatoes with the purple yam. I used half of the yam (about 600g), shave away the hard skin and cut into smaller cube & steam at high heat till cooks. Its sticky when raw but surprisingly soft and fluffy when its steamed and cooked. Mashed it up and add into the sponge cake mixture lastly. Put to bake at 180C and bake for 1hr and 20mins to cook. I used an 8" tin so that the cake is thicker and moist inside but at the same time, need more time to cook. Cover the top of the cake after 50mins, with aluminium foil to prevent the top from getting burnt.

I always like to experiment with different type of ingredient with one simple recipe. This one is really nice and I hope others can try it out too. It tastes even better on the next day when I take it out from the fridge.

Enjoy!

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!