Hainanese Kopi-O A place to share, keep events and thoughts.

December 24, 2012

Shanghainese Hot Scallion Oil and Soya Sauce Tossed Noodles

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 8:57 am

Missing Shanghai noodles after reading Fiona Reilly’s 葱油拌面.

Shanghainese

September 1, 2011

Butter Cake from the Pan

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 6:44 am

Butter cake experiment to bake with anodised pan. The perfect recipe is from Chan Lilian. My problems are I only have normal flour and milk powder. I made self raising flour from  one teaspoon of cream of tartar and half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to one cup of plain flour [link]. Approximately mixed 2 tablespoons of milk powder to half cup of hot water, when lukewarm or room temperature, added 2 teaspoons of vanilla.
Wished you were here to experience baking in a pan. I started with fairly high temperature to heat the pan, smelt heat from the pan before baking. I should’ve kept temperature at this stage same as baking temperature. As wonderful butter and vanilla aroma wafted through the house, steam gathered at top of the glass cover. This time I choose not to watch time (the lady demonstrator did the same), I choose to try evaluating baking period’s steam release, aroma and browning.
The butter cake burnt about 20% but the texture is spongy and delicious.
DSCF9461 DSCF9465 DSCF9469 DSCF9473 DSCF9475 DSCF9476

March 29, 2011

Egg-cellent Party Food for Kids

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 2:38 pm

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October 18, 2010

Day Off to Learn Rohani’s Mrs Tan’s Popiah at Bayan Indah ;)

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 6:03 pm

Lemon poppy seed cake for breakfast... very delicious.... :) The kitchen before class... Quiet and relaxing... Table set for the day :) Table flowers from garden.... Herbs and chilli from garden too... of course the vase of flowers and  plants from Bayan Indah garden too... Roselle.... Roselle flower.... we had cold Roselle refreshment from Bayan Indah garden :) Peaceful and cool Bayan Indah The Dominator of Bayan Indah Keep turning away from camera... Even closed its eyes.... :( Gotcha!!! Class starts soon.... Practising popiah skin making Cooking popiah filling 3 types of sauces.... very different from "West Coast" of Peninsular Popiah... Cooked filling  Lettuce.... Wrap.... Wrap.... Special Sauce... Yummy!!! Ready for serving... Taaa Daaaa Yummy Popiah ala Mrs Tan from Trengganu Sweet Potato Steam Cakes in Progress :)Sweet Potato Steam Cakes :)Makan Time!!!

October 17, 2010

Mad About Eggs

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 2:42 am

MSE Eggs Benedict Family-Style Rolled Omelet with Spinach and Cheddar MSE Souffleed Omelet with Goat Cheese Asparagus and Ham MSE Egg White Omelet MSE Cheese Strata MSE Mini Frittatas MSE Souffled Frittata with Leeks Tomatoes and Goat Cheese MSE Tomato and Leek Frittata MSE Crustless Broccoli-Cheddar Quiches MSE Mini Quiches

October 15, 2010

Happy Children’s Day

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 4:16 pm

Children's favourite is soya sauce... with soft boiled eggs.... packed in gift bags...

October 14, 2010

October Chocolate & Jelly Triathlon

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 1:30 pm

2 kgs 60% bitter sweet chocolateKids favourite DSCF4940DSCF4924Cointreau 40% alcohol, pandan flavouring  Castle colours Dreamy coloured castle in pandan flavourCointreau jelly - kids dislike it, alcohol is in jelly. We love it ;)

October 3, 2010

Steam Egg

Filed under: Kitchen,Let's Salivate — agnes @ 11:52 am

steam egg 1 steam egg 2

Almost mirror finish surface steam egg. I watched an aunt preparing it. I just followed her way, altered a little bit.
1. Boil water: Today i added a little chicken stock as yesterday’s was steamed bland for Christopher (was sick) to dissolve, hot water to egg ratio is 1:1
2. Cracked 4 eggs to mix gently of yolk and egg white, then strain away albumen for even colour smooth texture
3. Pour no.2 into the steaming bowl, add boiling water and mix gently
4. Place no.3 in a pan/wok of cool water with steaming rack
5. Turn on medium low gas/fire with cover open slightly – take care angle of cover doesn’t touch bowl as water may drip on egg mix.
6. Keep an eye every 3-4 minutes to tilt the steam water away from bowl back into the steaming pan/wok. Steam should rise gently, steam water bubbles should not break voraciously…
7. Keep fire/gas the same strength
8. Check done-ness by viewing from side angle, surface starts to look solidified, use a fine pick/skewer to pierce in the deepest part of the bowl: when liquid is clear, it’s done.
It should be done abt 15-20 minutes depending on the amount of egg to steam.

I tried sweet ginger steam egg with the same technique, added brown sugar and ginger juice into hot water. No bad but not smooth as Hong Kong Australia Dairy’s. I went there every morning while on holiday in Hong Kong recent July. I know I am crazy but it feels so good to have a bowl of hot ginger milk egg pudding, egg sandwiches and milk tea every morning. Just visit Lots of Cravings post to find out why, I have a feeling you will agree too. I didn’t photograph breakfast there, I would feel like a wagamama diner :}

October 2, 2010

Agar-agar Experiment

Filed under: Eye Candy,Kitchen — agnes @ 6:28 am

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September 28, 2010

Mad about agar-agar

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 6:34 pm

AGAR-AGAR pelangi Agar-agar-coklat Classic Favour Agar-agar (8) Khanom Luk ChubDSC01067-1024x460
agar-agar kering * longan jelly * jelly without belly * agar-agar milo * agar-agar cendol

July 20, 2009

Inspiration: Highly Organised & Effective Kitchens

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 6:27 am

Susy's Perfectly Organized Kitchen Open Storage in Small KitchensOpen Storage in Small KitchensForgot where i got this pot-rack-x pic..

July 19, 2009

Sunday Lazy Lemon Cake

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 7:52 am

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Ingredients:
2 large lemons:
– Zest of 2 lemons, juice of 1 lemon for cake flavouring
– Juice of another lemon to be mix with 4 tbsps icing sugar
Half block or 125g of unsalted butter – cut into small cubes

1-1/4 cups or 275g soft brown sugar
1-1/2 cups or 225g self-raising flour
4 eggs: Separate egg white and yolk into 2 mixing bowls

What I did:
For mixing bowl A, I cut half a block of unsalted butter into small cubes, about size of cube sugar, put all the egg yolks and supposed to leave all the brown sugar as well. While I was measuring 1 cup of brown sugar, my mind went into day dreaming mode accidentally poured the 1 cup of brown sugar into bowl B where egg whites were. As for the last 1/4 cup of brown sugar, it ended up in bowl A – its original destination. I left bowl A aside while tending to bowl B.

Heat up the pan with a rack with medium fire, prepare paper cups.

In bowl B, I tried to manually whisk up egg whites, now with brown sugar into “the soufflé’s egg white result”. I stopped at the point where it could produce a light brown tinted thick ribbon. Then I went back to bowl A.

With the same balloon whisk, I whipped ingredients of bowl A until well mixed, add on flour – a little at a time. Then bring on mixture of bowl B into bowl A, mix well. Spoon into paper cups. Place onto rack inside the hot pan.

Once you smell lemon in the air from the pan, check for doneness. Before I open the glass cover, the cakes are browning on its top, used a long skewer or bamboo stick to check its inside for doneness.

What I wanted to achieve initially:
I like Genoese sponge cake from Michel Roux’s book Eggs which is heavy to hold in hand but light, airy to eat. I wanted to create a “Genoese” sponge cake with lemon flavour bake in a pan on gas. I took part of lemon cake recipe ingredients from Women’s Weekly Cakes, Biscuits & Slices, methods based on Michel Roux’s “Genoese” sponge cake from Eggs page 268.

Result:
The first batch is spongy, a little crispy top. burnt bottom. Baking time is very short, less than 15 minutes. I reduced fire very slightly for second batch which doesn’t burn on the bottom but longer baking time.

Difficulties:
More lemon zests stuck on the grater. My stupid mistake of adding brown sugar into egg whites instead of yolks failed to produce airy texture of Genoese sponge cake. Manual whisking requires great arm muscle consistent strength.

Plan B: Lemon & Poppy Seed Cup Cake
Ingredients:
5 tbsps of poppy seeds.
2 large lemons & 1 orange:
– Zest of 2 lemons and 1 orange, juice of 1 lemon and 1/2 orange for cake flavouring
– Juice of another lemon and another half orange juice portion to be mix with 4 tbsps icing sugar
Half block or 125g of unsalted butter – cut into small cubes in mixing bowl A

1-1/4 cups or 275g soft brown sugar
1-1/2 cups or 225g self-raising flour
4 eggs: Separate egg white and yolk into 2 mixing bowls A & B

What I am going to do:
Bowl A
– Cut half a block of unsalted butter into small cubes, about size of cube sugar,
– Put egg yolks, brown sugar

Before proceeding to Bowl B, heat up the pan with a rack with medium fire, prepare paper cups.

Bowl B:
– Put egg whites here.
– Whisk until egg whites stiff, turn bowl upside down to ensure stiffness – nothing flows out of the bowl.

Back to bowl A:
– Whisk butter and sugar till evenly distributed.
– Add poppy seeds, zests and juice, whisk till well mixed.
– Fold in egg whites.
– Spoon into paper cups
– Place onto rack inside the hot pan.

Check for doneness:
– When you smell lemon in the air, check for visual doneness.
– If the cakes are not browning on its top, wait for another few minutes.
– Once you are satisfied with the shade of cake’s brown top, open the glass cover.
– Use a long skewer or bamboo stick to check its inside for doneness.
– The stick should come out clean and easily.
– Brush the cooled cup cakes with sweetened citrus mix.

Serving ideas:
– Eaten along preserved lemon or/and orange peel.
– Vanilla ice cream.
– Warm custard sauce
 
Warm custard sauce:
(Source)
1 Egg
1 Egg Yolk
1 tbsp Sugar
Vanilla Pod (or Lemon Rind)
1/2 pint Milk

To Make the Custard:
– Lightly wisk together the Egg and the Egg Yolk in a large bowl.
– Into a saucepan add the Milk, Sugar, Vanilla Pod (or Lemon Rind) and gently bring to the boil.
– When ready, remove the Vanilla Pod (or Lemon Rind).
– Allow to cool down a little. Pour this mixture onto the wisked Eggs. Gently stir. Set aside.

Pour the Custard down the side of the dish – avoiding covering the cake – it should come just below the rim.

 

May 21, 2009

Marvellous Makan Month May 2009

Filed under: Eating Out,Kitchen — agnes @ 6:38 am

The start of May marked some eventful makan (means eat in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia) time though this is my most “bankrupt” month for makan escapades. A wedding dinner buffet at Avanti Sunway Hotel has one of the best roast beef, stew lamb, salmon, pasta, grilled vegetables and lovely salad service. Some guests, non western food diners had great time refilling their carnivorous appetite while lovely ladies had endless visits to the grilled vegetable, salad, seafood and never forgets the dessert bar. My dad never had true Italian food in his life, almost wanted the entire plate of huge vanilla pudding for our table. Congratulations to Julie and her Italian beau (whoops.. I forgot the groom’s name as food piled up into my head). Julie has a beautiful wedding cake made by her good friend.

To find Avanti Italian Restaurant, Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa in Petaling Jaya, go to Google Map,
copy and paste the following sentence Malaysia Petaling Jaya Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa
to figure out the exact location.
avanti-1 avanti-2

Breakfast at TTDI KL (forgot name of the Malay restaurant) but will never forget a unique combination of local humble ingredients for a meal. I promise to post the name and Google map later. Steamed or boiled ubi kayu (cassava roots) is the main meal accompanied by sambal (the same as nasi lemaks’), freshly grated coconut flesh and half of a fried ikan masin (kembung?).  100% local food. 🙂
ttdi-ubikayu

Some lazy office lunches: Soft boiled egg salad, Village Park nasi dagang.
Officepicnic_0101 Officepicnic_0102 VP_nasidagang

No so happy McD Sundae takeaway for my kids. Less than half filled. I did not complain on spot, too angry at that time. I felt belittled by the staffs. One of staffs filled a cupful of sundae for his dinner and darted out of the service area while I have waited for a while. Other staffs were busy laughing and talking. 🙁
LousySundaeSection14 (3) LousySundaeSection14 (4)

Went to husband’s favourite chicken noodle stall only to find they stopped selling chicken as other stalls are selling the same. I should credit the former chicken noodle by detailing its serving and quality. A single serving of poached chicken presented in Chinese fine banquet style cut, served on an old fashion oval plate. As for noodles, our usual order were normally hor fun(mine) or Hakka noodle(husbands’) tossed with minced beef sauce. The minced beef sauce is cooked whenever an order comes in. The husband and wife Hakka noodle team is such humble and innovative.  The good news is they are now beef noodle specialist – different cuts, parts and also cook a hearty peppery pig stomach soup noodle. Heavenly…
BeefHakkaNoodle BeefHakkaNoodle (1)
BeefHakkaNoodle (2) BeefHakkaNoodle (3)

Condiments in Hong Kong Chinese restaurants are not free flow but charge separately, per condiment plate. There is a humble Chinese restaurant in Sungai Buloh which has 2 excellent condiments that makes the start of a meal, an enjoyable experience for the palate before savouring the actual dishes. Pickled green chillies – sweet, sour, spicy with fresh crunchy bite goes well with medium weight flavour dishes. Good on its own to whet ones’ appetite in a hot day. The poached chicken comes with a unique condiment – minced garlic, ginger shallots poached in a combination of peanut oil and chicken fat. I could have bowls of steaming rice mixed with this unique dipping sauce all day.
SgBulohCondiments SgBulohCondiments (1)

During weekday lunch, we visited Vincent’s new food stall Bijan at Ali Bawal Building in Petaling Jaya Old Town, to join the Ali Bawal Food Court opening celebration. Nestled in the old industrial area, brand new Ali Bawal Food Court environment is closer to a relaxing resort, luxurious treat for factory workers in this area. Vincent’s new food concept never cease to amaze me. Fried calamari, fried crab, banquet style dishes and super silky steamed egg will render you speechless upon setting on your tongue. 🙂 A bit exaggerating? We are talking about different grade of local Chinese economy/mix rice. Tell Vincent you got to know Bijan from my blog. You may get a surprise.

To find Wisma Ali Bawal, go to Google Map,
copy and paste the following sentence Malaysia Petaling Jaya Ali Bawal
to figure out the exact location
AliBawalOldTownCampbell (1) AliBawalOldTownCampbell (2)
AliBawalOldTownCampbell (3) AliBawalOldTownCampbell (4)

One of my husband’s favourite family dish-fish fried in shallot oil, topped with Chinese pickled onion bulbs, plum sauce and cucumber, made an appearance. A dish cooked by his demised maternal grandmother, who was an excellent cook, recreated by my talented FIL. The other two dishes pictured below are my FILs’ favourite.
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May 7, 2009

Kaya from a Bread Machine

Filed under: Kitchen,Let's Salivate — agnes @ 2:41 am

From the genius “kaya” blogger: http://khngyi.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/khangkhang-made/

Ingredients you need:
1 cup Coconut milk
1 cup Eggs(about 3-4 medium to large size eggs)
1 cup sugar(already reduced from 2 cups)
10-15 pieces of pandan leaves, washed and wiped dry.

(This recipe makes roughly about 1 and 1/2 cups of kaya)

1. Wash, dry and tie up bundles of about 5 pandan leaves in each bundle(like in the pic above)
2. Measure out eggs, then beat lightly till yolk and white mixed.
3. Pour all(as in sugar, coconut milk and eggs) into breadmaker tin(like in picture above) and throw in bundles of pandan leaves.
4. Set on ‘Jam’ function.
5. Check on kaya after some time and make sure sides are mixed too.
6. When the breadmaker completes the function, take it out and cool for a while, remove all the pandan leaves, then put into a blender and blend lightly till it is smooth.

Notes:

*edited* The kaya will look like lumpy curdy chunks in a watery substance once the breadmaker has completed its cycle. This is NORMAL. You are supposed to blend it to acheive the smooth texture, ie, what we buy off the shelves. You may find that there might be quite a bit of water(this is just sugar water), so drain out some of this water and blend the remainder. You may add in more sugar water if you find your kaya too thick while blending. I hope this will iron out any misunderstandings about the product!

1. You may blend it till it is completely smooth too. I like my kaya with a bit of bits in it, so that you can taste the kaya bits rather than a smooth paste.
2. If you prefer a little sweeter, add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup more sugar.
3. If you cook this over the stove, you may not need to blend it since you are constantly stirring the kaya.
4. You may put in more pandan leaves if you want it to be greener… Alternatively, you may pound or blend a portion of the pandan leaves and strain it for the pandan juice and put it into the mixture before cooking.
5. If you’re cooking over the stove, the pot you’re using should NOT be warm/hot when you place the ingredients in to mix. If the pot is hot, the eggs would cook immediately, resulting in scrambled eggs!

April 16, 2009

Dinner April 15, 2009

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 6:26 am

Sweet minced meat with chinese style preserved soya bean
[W] Stir fried asparagus with garlic and salt
Stir fried dark soya sauce pork fillet with stir-in spring onion
[W] Fried black pomfret with tomato, onion sweet and sour sauce.

[W] Green radish, white radish, carrot, dried octupus tentacle with pork shoulder bone soup.

April 10, 2009

Office Picnic Lunch

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 4:07 am

Music: Striking a Romantic Chord 愛 在 和 弦 間_ -  Tchaikovsky 

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April 9, 2009

Office Picnic Lunch

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 4:11 am

Audio enjoyment – The Magic of Mendelssohn ( 孟 德 爾 遜 雋 永 錄 音 )
Lunch April-9-2009

April 6, 2009

Project Steam Tapioca Cake with Brown Sweet Crusty Top

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 4:22 am

Yesterday I bought the yellow flesh variety of tapioca, mashed, salted and steamed. I even tried to bake its top, sprinkled with generous amount of white sugar, hoping that it would turn out to be creme brulee topping like. You know, the brown crusty sweet top as in creme brulee and crema catalana. Forgot to take pictures. In fact I tried steaming tapioca twice with different successful result, except yesterdays’. The oven heater wasn’t working well, hence I got this tapioca cake with burnt sugar on its left and right, the center remains transparent with melted sugar.

A few links to tapioca cake, as a reminder and reference:

http://www.google.com.my/search?hl=en&q=steam+tapioca+cake+recipe&meta=
http://nonya-kueh.blogspot.com/2006/02/tapioca-kueh.html
http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2005/05/kuih-bingka-ubi.html
http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/2008/04/steam-tapiocacassava-cake.html
http://cuisineparadiseindex.blogspot.com/
http://www.geocities.com/mystecurious/recipe2.htm
http://notecook.com/desserts/cakes/secrets-of-indonesian-cuisine-recipes-steamed-layer-tapioca-cake/
http://lynns-recipes.blogspot.com/2008/05/steamed-tapioca-cake.html
http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/2008/02/tapioca-cake-kueh-ubi-kaya.html
http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2009/01/kuih-talam-ubi-kayu-tapioca-tray-cake.html

Not exactly tapioca, it’s a beautiful sago pearl recipe
http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2009/01/steamed-tapioca-red-bean-cake.html

Yam cake
http://roseskitchen.wordpress.com/2007/03/10/steamed-yam-cake/

February 20, 2009

Hot Chocolate

Filed under: Kitchen,Travel — agnes @ 2:20 am

Angelina Hot Chocolate

Hot chocolate recipe examples and posts from…

Divina Cucina, Ilva from Lucullian Delights, Famous French Desserts, Seattle Bon Vivant, David Lebovitz, Gridskipper, Recipezaar, Paris Breakfasts, Dessert Comes First….

serve with home made simple crusty bread…. heavenly 🙂

February 16, 2009

Valentine Fragrant Laksa Chilli Chicken Version 1.0 :-)

Filed under: Kitchen — agnes @ 11:29 am

On Valentine morning market walk about, bought 4 ripe tomatoes, chilli paste and finely chopped onion for one and a half free range chicken, laksa leaves(daun kesum), torch ginger flower (bunga kantan)… Leftover assam paste in the kitchen.

2-3 tbsps of oil to cook onion till fragrant, follow by quartered tomatoes untill soften – then add chilli paste according to taste and cook till chilli oil appears on the side of the pot. Add assam paste water according to degree of sour taste preferred. Add chicken to cook until the meat tenderness desired. Add finely cut laksa leaves and torch ginger flower.

My mother like laksa without sambal, coconut milk and the usual spices. She loves to serve this version of laksa gravy with steam or fried fish. I like it as it is less hassle than the full version of asam laksa, laksa lemak and kari laksa. I love the fragrance of laksa leaves and torch ginger flower. Next round I should garnish this dish with finely sliced torch ginger flower, red chilli and mint leaves. Mental note: Next time fry the chicken a little on the outside before cooking & remember to shoot photos. 🙁

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