Wednesday, February 27, 2008

This is how I eat my instant noodle

Instant noodle - good or bad? I eat instant noodles occasionally likewise my kids. Sometimes when I am just too lazy to cook or have no idea what to eat, instant noodle is my answer *LOL* Who doesn't love the salty, msg laden soup that accompanies the springy noodles which can be prepared in under 5mins? Now, there are msg-free instant noodles available which we stock up for our lazy days and late night light supper.


Vegetables, fishballs, fishcakes, prawns, meat slices etc are usually added to the noodles to turn it into a more wholesome meal. If I run out of veges to add, I will dump a handful or two salad mix into the bowl then pour the hot noodle onto it. Very satisfying and healthy I should say *LOL* This is inspired during my trip to Vietnam as this is how they eat their noodles, always accompanied with a plate of fresh veges and lime slices .. This is how I usually eat my noodles.


Thursday, February 21, 2008

Mango Mousse Cake

I made this for my hubby last year, his 35th year mini celebration but didn't have the time to upload until today. It's a simple mango mousse cake with sponge base. I didn't bake the cake specifically for this cake but used my leftover sponge cake that I had.



A slice of the cake


This recipe is adapted from Rock Melon Mousse cake shared by Lucy (auntyyochana). I replaced the rock melon with mango because that is the only thing i have with me. I will only share the mousse recipe. For the base, you can use any sponge cake bought or made and put a layer before pouring the mousse over.

Ingredients
Mousse
200g mango puree
1 Tbsp gelatine powder + 50g water (soak together for about 5 mins)
2 egg yolk
30g sugar
150g Non-dairy whipped cream
Some chopped mangoes

Method
1. Boil mango puree and sugar together till boiling , take off from the heat
2. Add in egg yolks to the puree+sugar mixture and stir till smooth
3. Put back onto stove and then add in gelatine mixture and stir till dissolved
4. Leave to cool till lukewarm
5. Add choppped mango and fold in whipped cream
6. Pour on top of chocolate sponge cake and leave in the refrigerator to let it set
7. Serve chilled

Nice matters ...



Thanks maya from http://maya-kitchenette.blogspot.com/2008/02/nice-matters-award.html for this.

I would like to pass this award to:

playing with my food
bakingmum

Monday, February 18, 2008

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Hokkaido Milk Loaf

This has been in my to-do list for quite sometime until I decided to bake it 2 weeks ago. It got lots of good reviews about it being soft even after 2 days and I have to vouch that because it is still soft even after 3 days !

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The recipe is taken from here but I changed it slightly by adding more cream and reducing a little bit of the milk. This bread uses cream to replace the fat in butter/oil and I used my breadmachine to knead the dough for me. This recipe yields quite big loaf. You may want to make sure that the pan you have is big enough.

Ingredients
1 egg, lightly beaten
220g fresh milk (original is 250g)
180g whipping cream (heavy cream) (original is 150g)
9g salt
80g sugar
540g bread flour
60g cake flour (high ratio flour)
30g milk powder
10g instant yeast

Method

1. Put the ingredients to the breadmaker pan according to the list
2. Select dough function and let the machine knead the dough
3. Once the machine beeps, take the dough out onto a lightly floured table and punch it down
4. Shape the dough into a rectangular shape using your hands (try not to punch too much air out)
5. Roll it out into a swissroll and place it in a butter pan and leave it to rise till double in size
6. Brush the bread with milk or egg wash and bake in a preheated oven at 170C for about 40mins

Friday, February 01, 2008

Homemade Chicken Sausages

I finally made my own sausages!!!! Yay!! I have been wanting to make them for quite sometime but had a hard time looking for halal casings. After checking locally and the internet, I finally got it! Honestly, this is a pretty expensive sausages because I had to order the casings from Europe. But it's all worth it though. My family can enjoy their sausages free from preservatives and God knows what else they dump into it.


Here is the picture of the sausages I made

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I didn't have the sausage stuffer so at first I tried using the funnel but give up halfway. It's too time consuming! I bought myself a cheap piping decoration set (will update photo later) as a backup and true enough, it was easier using that! After the stuffing, I left the sausages in the fridge overnight.

My stuffed raw sausages

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After which, I steamed them for about 10-15mins.

The cooked sausages (the meat turns white)

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Then they are ready to be pan-fried either with butter or oil (I used olive oil).

Here is my simple trial chicken sausage recipe.

Note: For those who do not have the casing, you can use a plastic wrapper and shape the sausage mixure into a sausage. Tie the ends with kitchen string, leave it overnight in the fridge and then boil it till the meat cooks through and remove the plastic wrap before grilling/pan frying it. I haven't tried it personally but this is what I have read in some sausage recipes.

Ingredients
300-400g chicken fillet
1 medium onion
2 clove garlic
1 tsp garam masala
salt & pepper to taste
Enough sausage casings

Method
1. Blend all the above ingredients will paste like
2. Stuff the casings with carefully not to overstuffed them
3. Twists the filled casing into portions
4. Rest sausages in the fridge overnight
5. Steam the sausages
6. Once cool, you can freeze it or pan fried/grill and enjoy !