Cheese Temptation

Am I overrated myself? I never bake a cheesecake or see a making of cheesecake and I choose the most tedious and complicated cheese cake in the recipe to bake! Part of the reason, my friends jokingly requested me to bake this for them. Yes, I love baking, the more I bake, the more confident I feel, making me more daring to take challenges. Baking also a very good way to release my stress and kill my boredom during weekends…

I failed making this cake on my 1st attempt, fail terribly… the mousse was too watery and damped the biscuit base, the cheese smell bad too. I was thinking maybe I shouldn’t pick this at the very first place. But since I have a lot of left over ingredients, I give this a second chance last weekend.

This time, I was trying to take things slowly… read the recipe book carefully, line by line…

Digestive Biscuit Base

Ingredients
160g digestive biscuit (finely crushed)
80g melted butter

Method:
Mix all the ingredients until well-blended. Press it onto bottom of 20cm loose bottom pan. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or until firm.

Cheese Layer

Ingredients A
500g cream cheese
140g sugar
20g corn flour

Ingredient B
3 eggs

Ingredients C
50g orange juice
1 orange zest

Ingredient D
150g whipping cream

Method:
1. Cream Ingredients A until light. Add in Ingredient B, cream until smooth.
2. Add in Ingredients C, cream until well-combined.
3. Add in Ingredient D, cream until well incorporated.
4. Pour the cheese mixture onto the prepared biscuit base. Cover the outside of the mould with aluminum foil.
5. Place it over double boiler, bake in water bath at 160˚C for 60 minutes.
6. Refrigerate the cake for at least 4 hours.

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredient A
60g milk

Ingredients B
20g sugar
1 egg yolk

Ingredient C
80g dark couverture (chopped)

Ingredients D
2 tsp gelatin
30g water

Ingredient E
150g whipped topping cream

Method:
1. Cook Ingredient A until boils. Add in Ingredients B, mix until well-blended. Continue to cook for 1 minute. Add in Ingredient C, mix until well-combined.
2. Mix Ingredients D until well-blended and place it over double boiler, cook until gelatin melts. Add it into the above mixture, mix until well-blended.
3. Cool it over ice water to 30˚C. Whip Ingredient E until the soft peak stage. Add it into the above mixture, mix until well incorporated.
4. Pour it over the baked cheesecake. Keep it in the fridge for 2 hours or until set.
5. Pour the chocolate glazing over the chocolate mousse. Keep it refrigerated for 20 minutes to let it set.
6. Unmould and cut to serve.

Chocolate Glazing

Ingredients
150g cooking chocolate (melted)
40g milk
40g whipping cream
5g butter

Method:
Cook the milk and whipping cream until boil. Add in the melted chocolate and mix until well-blended. Add in butter, mix until well-combined. Set aside to cool to pouring consistency.

I felt so nervous when I unmould the cake... I was so happy and touched when I see the cake turned out exactly like what the pictures shown in the recipe book!!! The happiest moment is when my dad asked for another piece after he finished his 1st slice. (my dad has slight lactose intolerance, so, he usually don't like dairy product and never like a cheesecake!). Strongly recommend this recipe book, Baking Code by Alex Goh for amateur baker!!

2011 Father’s Day Dinner

This was another dinner that I cooked for my parents during father’s day. Well, I mentioned I need practice and apparently, I still need a lot of training and practices. These 3 dishes were actually quick simple, compare to the dinner that I prepared for mother’s day.

Comment from parents: Both of my parents can’t stand very spicy food. I’m too careless that I prepared all 3 dishes which were spicy. They actually didn’t make a lot of comment during the dinner, mainly because they didn’t want to discourage their daughter.

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Grilled Spicy Chicken Kebabs

Ingredients:

• 1 piece chicken breast meat, cut into cubes
• 2 onions, cut into pieces

• ½ cucumber

• some satay skewers (bamboo toothpick)

Marinade:

• 2 tbsp chilli bean sauce (Toban Djan)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp corn flour
• 1tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp water

Method:

1. Mix chicken breast meat with marinade and marinate for 1 hour.
2. Skewer the meat on satay stick and grill in a preheated oven at 200˚C for 20 minutes. Remove and serve hot.

p/s: this is quite yummy if you like spicy

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Fried Eggplant with Fermented Soya Bean Paste

Ingredients:

• 2 cups oil for deep-frying
• 2 (400g) eggplants, cut into strips
• 50g minced pork
• 3 tbsp dried prawns, soaked and chopped coarsely
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 red chilli, seeded and chopped

• ½ tbsp fermented soya bean paste (I changed this to chilli soya bean paste, which I think I shouldn’t)

• ½ tbsp sugar

• 1tsp light soya sauce
• dash of cornstarch water, for thickening
• 2 stalks spring onion, chopped

Method:

1. Heat up oil for deep-frying, deep-fry eggplant until cooked. Dish and drain.
2. Leave 2 tbsp oil in wok, saute chopped garlic and dried prawns until aromatic. Add fermented soya bean paste, sugar and soya sauce and stir-fry until fragrant.
3. Add in minced pork, eggplants, chilli and stir-fry until well mixed. Thicken with cornstarch water and sprinkle with chopped spring onion. Dish up and serve.

p/s: The eggplant that I bought was too “old”, even after I’ve fried the strips and saute for so long, the skin was still plastic-like. I also make a big joke out of this dish, my mom asked me, where’s the seed? I answered, seed can eat mer? Both of my parents shook their heads. Then my mom checked the rubbish bin, found out the seed was actually quite big, as big as sesame, then she agreed, maybe the eggplant was really very “old”.

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Braised Pig’s Stomach with Salted Mustard

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 6 slices ginger
• 300g local salted mustard, soaked and cut into pieces
• 8 dried oysters, cleaned
• 1 pig’s stomach, about 400g, cleaned and cut into strips

Seasoning:

• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• dash of pepper
• 1000ml water

Method:

1. Heat up oil, saute chopped garlic  and ginger until fragrant. Add in salted mustard and stir-fry until aromatic.
2. Add dried oyster, pig’s stomach, seasoning and bring to boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 1½ hours or until pig’s stomach is tender. Dish up and serve.

p/s: I didn’t expect to be so tedious to clean a pig stomach. 1st of all got to flip over to clean all the mucus-like on the lining under running water, use salt to clean until the lining is less slippery, then soak in boiling water until the yellowish skin near the top of the stomach detach… I am so lucky to have my mom with me when I’m cleaning the stomach… or I can’t imagine how would I turn the kitchen upside down again.

But one thing I don’t get it, this dish was spicy too, although there wasn’t anything spicy in the ingredient. Probably the spiciness was due to the Sarawak’s pepper.

 

Recipe copied from Yum Yum book 52 & 63.

Chocolate Moist Cake 4 June Babies

Cake

Ingredients:

150g Butter

300g Brown sugar

2 Eggs

200g Boiling Water

45g Cocoa powder

250g Plain flour

1tsp Baking soda

½ tsp Baking powder

Methods:

1. Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add in eggs slowly, cream until smooth and light.

3. Dissolve cocoa powder in boiling water. Add in cocoa liquid and flour (premix with baking soda and baking powder) alternately, mix until well-blended.

4. Pour it into greased and lined 23cm mould.

5. Bake at 175˚C for 30 minutes and test it with skewer. If it comes out clean, allow it to cool for 5 minutes. Unmould and set aside.

6. Cut cake into half and sandwich the cakes with ganache. Cover the whole cake with ganache.

Ganache

Ingredients:

250g Whipping cream

500g Cooking chocolate (chopped)

30g Butter

Method:

Cook whipping cream until it boils. Add it into the cooking chocolate, stir until it has melted completely. Add in butter, mix until well combined. Leave aside to cool and set for at least 24 hours.

My hand was not stable while drawing the line

I baked 2 cakes at a go, this is another pattern but unfortunately I forgot to take the picture before sending half to my neighbour

Cake is solid solid and moist

One of the cake was dedicated to both pretty June babies.

 

p/s: Recipe taken from Alex Goh Baking Class

Black Sesame Swiss Roll

Ingredient:

Cake: 5 eggs, 30g plain flour, 1tbsp water, 100g caster sugar, 30g black sesame seed powder, 25g cornstarch, 30g melted butter

Filing: 200g non dairy whipping cream, 100g canned kidney beans (sweetened)

Method:

1. Whisk egg and caster sugar until fluffy. Add water and stir well.

2. Slowly add in plain flour, sesame seed powder, cornstarch and mix well. Add melted butter and stir well.

3. Pour the batter into a lined 14” square tin. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven. Leave to cool before cutting into 2 equal pieces.

4. Whisk non dairy whipping until stiff, spread the cream onto the cake and sprinkle sweetened kidney beans on top. Roll up the cake carefully into a swiss roll. Chill into a fridge for 1 hour before serving.

There’s a very small mistake that I made, for unknown reason, I mistaken corn starch as corn oil (I swear, I’ve been looking at the recipe for non lesser than 5 times, and my mom helping me up too, but non of us notice this mistake), that’s why my cake was super moisture, and make it very very difficult to come out from the tin. When my mom sending some to my neighbour, she was saying the cake tasted good and she wanted to copy the recipe, then only she corrected me the starch mistake. I must be blind or something…

Recipe copied from YumYum issue 71 (Feb 2011)

Chocolate Indulgence

I was motivated by the previous successful tiramisu cake that I made, this time, I thought of challenge making cake with chocolate glazing.

First of all, prepare a 20cm round chocolate sponge cake. Making of sponge cake kindly refer to: http://unprofessionalphotography.blogspot.com/2011/03/lemon-peach-mousse-cake_29.html (instead of using 100g plain flour, mixed 85g plain flour with 15g cocoa powder)

Chocolate Cream
Ingredients:
60g dark couverture (chopped)
30g sugar
2 egg yolk
180g whipped topping cream

Method:
1. Place dark couverture over simmering water, stire until it has melted.
2. Place sugar and egg yolks over simmering water, stire until it thickens. Remove it and whisk until cool.
3. Add in dark couverture, mix until well-blended.
4. Add in whipped topping cream, mix until well incorporated.

Chocolate Glazing
Ingredients:
300g cooking chocolate (melted)
75g milk
75g whipping cream
10g butter

Method:
1. Cook the milk and whipping cream until boil.
2. Add in the melted chocolate and mix until well-blended.
3. Add in butter, mix until well-combined.
4. Set aside to cool to pouring consistency, serve immediately.

Chocolate Indulgence Cake
Method:
1. Cut the cake into 3 layers. Place 1 layer of cake onto the cake board and spread a layer of chocolate cream onto the cake. Top with second layer of cake and spread another layer of chocolate cream onto the cake.
2. Cover the whole cake with a thin layer of chocolate cream. Keep in the fridge for 2 hours.
3. Remove the cake from the fridge. Pour chocolate glazing over the cake to coat it evenly, leave it aside for 10 minutes to let it set. Place it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Remove the cake from the fridge and pipe the edge with cream shell.

Beautiful coating with chocolate glazing, but it is not as easy as I think, a lot of glazing was wasted. Lesson learnt: need to really let the glazing to cool to almost room temperature, hot enough to be able to pour and cool enough to be able to coat the cold cake.

Due to the side was not coating evenly, I decorated the cake with nibbed almond. (roast the nibbed almond until crunchy and frangrant before decorating the cake).

I always very eager to cut the cake and see the layers... nice nice!! Another boost of confidence!

Recipe taken from Baking Code by Alex Goh

Lemon Peach Mousse Cake

Seems I've stopped baking for quite some time, since I was clearing my leave brought forward from last year last Friday, and we girls were having birthday celebration for 2 March babies, so, I think it's the best time to polish up my baking skill again...

The making of this continental cake is divided into 2 parts:

1. The making of sponge cake

Ingredients A:
4 egg yolk
15g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Ingredients B:
4 egg white
100g sugar

Ingredients C:
100g plain flour
50g corn oil

The ingredients for sponge cake

Method:
1. Egg yolk mixture: whip ingredients A until light and fluffy.
2. Egg white mixture: whip egg white until soft peak, add in sugar in ingredient B, continue whipping until stiff.
3. Mix the egg white mixture with egg yolk mixture until well-blended.
4. Fold in flour, mix until well-combined. Add in corn oil, mix until well incorporated.
5. Pour it into a greased and lined 20cm round mould.
6. Bake at 180 degree Celsius for 30 minutes. Remove the cake immediately when baked.

Tada… the cake turned out great!

2. The making of Lemon Peach Mousse

Ingredients A:
50g lemon juice
70g sugar

Ingredients B:
1 egg yolk

Ingredients C:
1 1/2 tbsp gelatine
70g water

Ingredients D:
250g whipped topping cream
adequate sliced peaches
Topping: 150g whipped topping cream

The ingredients for the mousse

Method:
1. Cook ingredients A until boil. Pour it into ingredient B, mix until well-blended. Continue cook for a while.
2. Premix ingredients C and melt it over double boiler. Add it into the above mixture mix until well-blended.
3. Let it cool over cool water to 30 degree Celsius, immediately add in ingredients D and mix until well blended.
4. Slice the sponge into 3 layers. Place one layer of cake onto a 20cm loose bottom round cake mould. Pour half of the lemon mousse over the cake and place some peach slices on top.
5. Top with second layer of cake, then pour the remaining lemon mousse onto it and place some peach slices on top.
6. Top with third layer of cake, and keep it refrigerated until firm.
7. Cover the whole cake with shipped cream. Dust the top with some cocoa powder, pipe some chocolate cream to decorate. [To make chocolate cream, just mix the whipped topping cream with some chocolate paste until evenly blended.]

Sniff… sniff… I felt so touched when I see the outcome

Hand shook when I was drawing the lines…

Since initially the cake was for 2 birthday girls, so, I put 2 strawberries on top as part of the decoration

The inside…

The happy receiver! (one of the birthday girl didn't come, so, she can have the whole cake)

Caramel Apple Almond Cake

Woohoo!!! I would say this is my most popular cake… I baked 2 big and 2 small cakes in a week, but yet, all sapu habis every time they came out from oven…

As I’ve promised to some friends, I’ll share the recipe here.

(Recipe taken from YumYum issue 69)

Apple caramel:

100g caster sugar

1tsp cinnamon powder (because I personally don’t like cinnamon, so, i didn’t put this in)

25g butter

2 green apples, cut into thick slices and removed core

Cake:

(A)

125g butter

4 eggs

150 caster sugar

(B)

120g dairy whipping cream

180g plain flour

45g high protein flour

45g ground almond (you can also get almond powder from bakery ingredient shop, but I still prefer grounding the fresh almond)

8g baking powder

Method:

1. Line a 8” round cake tin with greaseproof paper. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

2. Apple Caramel: Put caster sugar in a saucepan, stir over low heat until lightly brown. Add in butter, cinnamon powder, sliced apple and cook until soft. Remove from heat. Arrange apple slices and caramel sauce onto the prepared baking tin.

3. Cake: Whisk butter and caster sugar until soft. Add in eggs and whisk until fluffy. Add B and mix well.

4. Pour the batter into the baking tin. Bake in preheated over at 180 degree Celsius (depend on what kind of oven, because I’m using big oven, I actually put 150 degree Celsius) for 45-50 minutes.

5. Remove cake from oven and unmold carefully. Cut into pieces and serve warm.

My first attempt (might not look very pretty, but smell real good)

My 2nd attempt (I used smaller tins, and red apple, I think green apple make the cake tastier)

Where is my 3rd attempt? Hot cake from oven, was rushing to send to my ex-colleague as her birthday gift… so…

My 1st Tiramisu Attempt

This cake involves a lot of steps, and it's the most complicated and expensive cake that I've ever made. The actual size of the cake, shown in the recepi book is 23cm in diameter, but I have no confident in making the size, so, instead of making 1 big cake, I made 2 small cakes.

Here's the ingredient list:

1. Sponge cake ingredient:

5 Egg
140 g Sugar
90g Plain flour
20g Coco powder
60g Corn Oil
1tbsp Coffee Paste


Method:

1. Separate egg yolk from egg white
2. Whip ingredient egg yolk and 20g of sugar until light and fluffy
3. Whip egg white in another bowl until soft peak. Add in 120g , continue whipping until stiff.
4. Mix the egg white mixture with egg yolk mixture until well-blended.
5. Fold in plain flour and cocoa powder, mix until well-combined. Add in corn oil and coffee paste, mix until well incorporated.
6. Pour it into a greased and lined round mould. (I pour it into 2 small round mould).
7. Bake at 180 degree celcius for 30 minutes. Remove the cake immediately when baked. (because 2 of my cake were smaller in size, so, I only bake for 15 minutes)


2. Cheese layer ingredient:

1 Egg
1 Egg yolk
70g Sugar
1.5tbsp gelatine
50g water
250g cream cheese
1tbsp coffee paste (1tbsp instant coffee powder + 2tbsp water)
100g whipped topping cream
200g whipped whipping cream


3. Coffee Syrup ingredient:

80g Water
40g sugar
2tbsp instant coffee powder
2tbsp kahlua


Method:

1. Slice the coffee sponge into 2 layers.
2. Whip egg, egg yolk and sugar over simmering water until thicken.
3. Premix gelatine with 50g water and melt it over double boiler. Add it into thickened egg mixture, mix until well-blended.
4. Beat cream cheese with 50g of sugar until light. Add in instant coffee paste, mix until well-combined. Add in the above mixture, mix until well-blended.
5. Add in whipped topping cream & whipped whipping cream, mix until well-incorporated.
6. Moist the sponge cake layers with the coffee syrup. Place 1 layer of the cake onto the ring mould, pour half of the above cheese filling on it.
7. Top with 2nd layer of cake. Pour the remaining cheese filling on it and make it level, keep refrigerated for 5 hours.
8. Remove the cake from the fridge and coat with nuts praline.


4. Nuts Praline ingredient:

200g Sugar
60g Water
50g Walnut
50g Pecan
50g Almond
50g Macadamia nut


Method:

Cook sugar and water until they boil and turn light brown. Add in nuts and cook until golden brown. Pour it onto a greased pan and set aside to cool. Crush it into fine particles.

================================

I'm sure by now you should know how complicated to make a Tiramisu.

Turning these into a cake took me a day


tada... the output

what do you think? I think it's kind of cute!

I think before the cheese layer is too hard, so the nuts didn't coated nicely on the cake

Why you see there's whitish and brownish colour in the cake layer? because I forgot to mix the coffee paste in the mixture before pouring it into the mould... then the darker brown is due to kahlua.

Taste wise... I would say, I will give myself 60%. The cheese layer is too hard and the praline layer is too sweet. My dad said should put more coffee paste to make it more fragrant.

Room for improvement:

- I made 1 mistake when doing the cheese layer...

- I bought the liquid topping cream and whipping cream, so, I should whip before adding to mixture, but I missed out the step.

- Then I made another mistake when making the praline too, I crushed the nut before coating them in sugar syrup... :(

- Then I find the sugar content is too high, so, in the following attempt, I will try to use lesser sugar.

Marbled Chocolate Cheese Cake

Ingredients A:
180g butter
20g cocoa powder, sifted
180 - 200g castor sugar
3 eggs
20g self-raising flour, sifted

Ingredient B:
250g cream cheese
60g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup water

Methods:

1. A: Melt butter in a saucepan, add cocoa powder and mix well. Cool slightly and beat in castor sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Lastly, mix in flour. Pour into a greased and lined 20cm square/ round tin. Bake at 170 degree Celcius for about 15 minutes (half cooked).

2. B: Mix all the ingredients together and beat well. Pour over A and swirl through with a small knife for marbled effect. Return to oven and continue to bake till golden brown. Remove and leave to cool. Slice and serve.

Note: If the cake is too cooked before pouring in B mixture, the marble effect will not be ice

Long time never bake, I'm quite impressed by how the cake turn out to be

p/s: recepi copied from one of the baking books by Agnes Chang.

Quick & Easy Walnut Cake

Ingredients:
250g butter
200g fine brown sugar
4 eggs
300g self-raising flour, sifted
5 tbsp milk
6 tbsp chocolate paste/ Nutella spread
60g walnut, chopped coarsely

Method:
1. Put all the ingredients for cake into a mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
2. Pour 2/3 portion of the cake mixture into a greased and lined baking mould/ paper cup and spread to level.
3. Spoon the chocolate paste/ Nutella spread on cake mixture. Top with the remaining 1/3 portion of the cake mixture, (optional: swirl with skewer), then smooth the top.
4. Sprinkle walnut on top and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree Celcius for 45 minutes - 1 hour or until cooked and golden brown.
5. Remove, leave to cool before cutting into pieces and serve as snack.

Tips from the recepi book:
- This can be baked into a big cake or small cup cakes for easy serving.
- During baking, cover the cake with a piece of aluminium foil if it starts to brown too quickly.

I tried this recepi twice, the first time I don't remember I baked for what occasion, but the second time was for Qiaoyi's birthday. Because I couldn't find Nutella in my kitchen, so, I melted the baking chocolate. Then the second time, my mom bought a different chocolate recommended by the bakery shop, and the shop owner said the chocolate will melt by itself in the oven when baking, so, I didn't pre-melted it. But it was a wrong wrong decision... the chocolate still in pieces after the cake was done. :(

Overall, I still the cake very much... it's very easy to bake even for 1st timer... I guaranteed.

Marble Cheese Tart

A. Pastry

Ingredients:
150g butter
70g icing sugar
1 egg
260g plain flour
1 tbsp milk powder

Method:
1. Mix butter and icing sugar until well-combined.
2. Add in egg and cream until smooth.
3. Add in sieved plain flour & milk powder until well-blended.
4. Keep refrigerated for 30 minutes to let it firm.
5. Remove and roll between 2 plastic sheets to 3mm in thickness, line it onto the tart mould.

B. Cheese Filling

Ingredients:
250g cream cheese
60g sugar
1 egg
50g whipping cream
1 tbsp milk
15g melted chocolate

Method:
1. Prick some holes on the pastry shell and bake at 190 degree Celcius for 15 minutes or until light golden brown. Leave to cool.
2. Mix cream cheese and sugar until light and smooth. Add in egg, cream until well-blended.
3. Add in whipping cream, mix until well-combined.
4. Take out 60g of the cheese mixture and, mix with milk and melted chocolate until well-blended.
5. Deposit the cheese fillings onto the baked pastry shells. Place some chocolate cheese fillings on it and make swirls with it.
6. Bake at 200 degree Celcius for 10 - 12 minutes.

Well, you can see my pastry was too thick... and I think I over-cooked the chocolate and that's why the chocolate tasted a bit bitter. But I had fun swirling the chocolate on the cheese fillings. Although I don't eat cheese but cream cheese for me is still acceptable.

I still remember I baked this tart after my trip to Broga Hill (9th August 2009), and I was baking for my A33 gathering dinner. Erm... Maybe I should try this again... it seems I haven't bake for months.

Mother's day dinner

Gosh... mother's day was 3 months back... and now only I post up this. pai seh pai seh...

Like last 2 years... this year, besides than the top that I knit for my mom (actually that was suppose to be CNY present, haha), I cooked for both of my parents too.

As usual 3 dishes + 1 soup... let's check out the recipe book!

The weather is getting hotter... so, first thing crossing my mind was, make something more cooling, less heaty

Roasted Pig's Trotter and Dried Bai Cai Soup
(recipe from Quick & Easy Hawkers' Fair by Alan Kok)

Ingredients:
1 roasted pig's trotter (500g), cut into pieces
(of course I ask the butcher to help me)
1 dried cuttlefish, cleaned
200g bai cai, cleaned
50g dried bai cai, soaked and cleaned
1500ml water
salt to taste

Methods:
1. Blanch roasted pig's trotter and pork in boiling water for a short while. Dish up and cleaned. (this can also help to remove some of the oil too)
2. Place all ingredients into a double-boiler. Double-boil at high heat for 3 hours. Add salt and taste. Serve hot.

Actually, I should put the roasted pig's trotter at the bottom, so the soup taste can taste better and more salty, because the bai cai & dried bai cai taste slight soury.
Then I was too greedy, wanted to put everything in but my double-boiler isn't big enough. I should at the beginning reduce a bit of meat and bai cai. End up, this bowl is just "ngam ngam" for 3 of us, some soup flowed out when it boiled.

My dad is a typical cantonese, he loves this soup very very much... as much as I do!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following 3 dishes need plenty of garlic... garlic in different shape...


Chopped garlic, garlic slice and peeled garlic in small pips

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Crispy Garlic Flakes with Plum Sauce Chicken
(recipe from Hawkers' Fair... Best of All Time Favourites by Chef Phang Fah)

Ingredients:
2 chicken whole legs, cut into pieces
(I learned from my previous mistake, I don't dare to chop, so, I ask the man chop for me)
10 pips garlic, peeled and sliced thinly

Marinade:
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing wine

Sauce (mixed well):
4 tbsp water
4 tbsp plum sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
salt to taste

Methods:
1. Mix chicken with marinade and marinate for 30 minutes.
2. Deep-fry sliced garlic in hot oil until golden brown and crispy. Dish and drain.
(when you see the color is slighly lighter than expected, should start dishing up, or it will be very dark after cool down)
3. Deep-fry chicken in hot oil until golden brown and cooked. Dish and drain.
(I didn't really deep-fry it, I only fry with oil until cooked)
4. Cook sauce in a wok until thick and sticky. Put in chicken and mix well. Dish up, sprinkle fried garlic flakes on top and serve.

I sprinkle some spring onion on too too! Make the color to be more interesting

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Fish Head with Garlic & Roasted Pork
(recipe from Hawkers' Fair... Best of All Time Favourites by Chef Phang Fah)

Ingredients:
1 fresh water fish head (I use "Wan Yu")
100g roasted pork, sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled
10 slices ginger
2 stalks spring onion, cut into 3cm length

Seasoning:
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp shaoxing wine
dash of pepper and sesame oil
200ml water
1 little corn flour water for thickening

Methods:
1. Rub fish head with 1 tbsp ligh soya sauce and deep-fry in hot oil for 2 minutes. Dish up.
(my mom said, if you doesn't want your fish to look so dark, can just ignore the soya sauce)
2. Deep-fry garlic in hot oil until golden brown. Dish up.
(in stead of deep-fry, can saute with a little bit of oil until fragrant)
3. Leave 1 tbsp oil in wok, saute ginger until fragrant. Add in the remaining ingredients, fish head, seasoning and cook for 5 minutes. Remove fish head, thicken the gravy with corn flour water and pour over fish head. Serve hot.

The head is too big... the head and the meat broke into 2 when I was trying to dish up... hahaa
I put them back before I pour the gravy.
Because head is big, meat is thick, there's some part of fish has not fully cooked yet. I should cut the meat, so it can be cooked faster.

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Stir-Fried Spicy Assorted Beans
(Hawkers' Fair Simplified by Alan Kok & Bryan Ong)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp dried prawns, soaked
100g long beans, cut into 3cm length
100g sweet peas
100g lady's finger, sliced
100g egg plant, sliced
1 red chilli, shredded

Seasoning:
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
dash of chicken stock granules

Methods:
1. Deep-fry long beans, sweet peas, lady's finger and egg plant in hot oil for 1 minutes. Dish up.
2. Heat up 2 tbsp oil, saute chopped garlic and dried prawns util fragrant.
3. Add in the remaining ingredients, seasoning and stir-fry until well-mixed. Dish up and serve.

I failed this dish... too much oil d... I should have use the kitchen tissue to reduce the oil before step 3.

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The mother's day dinner!!!
It's not easy to make a dinner... that's the reason why I usually rather go home for dinner, unless I told my mom in advance I'll be eating out with friend, so she doesn't need to cook so much and most importantly, effort will not be wasted.

THANKS MOM FOR TAKING GOOD CARE OF ME & DAD.
AND I WISH HER HEALTHY AND HAPPY!