Glutinous Rice Balls (Tangyuan)

Winter has arrive....yes, but for the coolest day in China (according to my grandma), it has to be 22 December (that's why we eats Tangyuan, the Glutinous Rice Balls).

I am not going to wait till then, and decided to have some fun doing this with my girl at home. My method of making:

Ingredients:
glutinous rice flour
water (cold and scaling hot)
food coloring
brown sugar

Method
1. Start to make a small little dough with hot scaling water (for bouncy purposes)
2. Mix it into rest of the flour and add cold water to make the dough
3. Separate into a few sections (for few colours) and roll them into balls
4. Boil water on pan and cook them.
5. Take them out, rinse with some cold water.
6. Boil the soup with brown sugar ( or coconut sugar)
7. Put the balls into the sweet soup
8. You can see the balls floating on the surface once cooked.

For variation, you can even add paste into the balls. Wait for my red bean glutinous rice balls ...

Discount Oven

It is really fun purchasing online with coupon. 2 days back, I had a great saving when I purchased a hosting plan through the online coupons and this time I am going to see if I can get something which I have always wanted to buy, with coupons too.

See what I have found at couponchief.com. It is a Maytag white oven that even comes with a Free $300 Gift Card from Best Buy deal. There are even more kitchen appliance for Sears coupons too with great discount. Before I really spend a large sum on my kitchen, I better go check it out here how much I would be able to save through coupons.

Steam Yam cake

Guess what’s the taste like ? Haha….of course it is YUMMY!! (with full supervision from a teacher)

Ingredients :
1 yam, cubed, 5 cloves garlics
(A) Mix Well 1 packet blended rice flour, 2 tbsp tapioca flour
Water Seasoning – salt, 5 spieces powder, sugar to taste
Garnishing – shallot crisp, dried prawns crips

Method
1. Heat oil and sauté shallots and dried prawns (separately) till crisp. Dish out and set aside.
2. Saute garlic with remaining oil, add in yam and stir-fry till fragrant.
3. Mix in water and bring to boil.
4. Add in mixture (A), cook batter becomes thick.
5. Pour out batter into a greased tray to steam (30minutes).
6. Once yam cake is cooled, add garnishing and serve with your favourite sauce (I use sweet black sauce from the market).

Payperpost

Payperpost has been the talk for almost all blogger I know, for it’s abundance of opportunities, especially for blogs with own domain or higher PR. I know it is going to be a challenge, monetising this cuisine blog, as there will be less related topics that I could write on. Nevertheless, I feel happy now it has been approved. That means I could have a change to make some income, while blogging and share my joy in this food blog.

I actually found out payperpost for quite sometime, but did not take the initiative to find out more what it is all about. Lots of friends are telling me that they actually made quite a good income from their blogs, but it really doubts me a lot. Now that I am log into the site, I can see it for myself how true are the word.

Being stays at home mum, having some extra income is definitely a great idea. With the money I earn from De’Cuisine, I hope to set up my own baking corner with a new oven, perhaps the latest baking tools in town, or even best if I can earn on of those from here. Plan to make some income like I do, come join payperpost.

2 In 1 (ABC & Stir Fried Vege)

This is a short cut dish. Why short cut, because by just cooking one ABC soup, I get 2 dish (see above picture). Get what I mean? Read further...

Ingredients for soup
chicken (or anchovies), carrots, potatoes, onions, tomatoes

Ingredient for Stir fried Vegetables

Soup:
1. First, throw all the ingredients for soup and bring to boil.
2. Simmer under low fire for an hour or so.
3. Once ready, take out all the ingredients.

Stir Fried Dish:
1. Fry garlic till frangant.
2. Add in mince meat and boil vege to stir fried.
3. Add in some boiled brocolli (I boiled brocolli in my ABC soup)
4. Add some soup and oyster sauce to taste.

Salted Egg Fried Chicken

What do you think of this black chicken picture? Probably my picture doesn't look that good, but I tell you, this is the best chicken that you will keep asking for me.

A modified dish from the Salted Egg Fried Prawn or Salted Egg Fried Crab (Ham Tan Hai in Cantonese). It is also very easy to cook.

Ingredients:
Chicken
Steam salted egg yolk
Marinate: soy sauce, oyster sauce, pepper powder
Coating: flour (I used self raising flour mix with some corn flour)

Method:
1.Marinate chicken (best if marinated overnight)
2. Spoon some flour mixture into the chicken and mix well.
3. Deep fry chicken.
4. Remove chicken from oil.
5. Use very little oil to stir fry the mashed egg yolk will you see bubbles.
6. Add in chicken and stir well.

Sesame Balls

Want to get a munch on something for tea? This is what you can do very easily at home.

Ingredients
Red bean paste (optional)
Raw sesame seeds
Glutinous rice flour
Sugar

Method
1. Add some sugar to the glutinous rice flour.
2. Add water and make into a dough.
3. Prepare some little balls with the dough.
4. Make a few balls with the red bean paste.
5. Wrap the red paste with the little dough.
6. Roll little balls onto a bowl of sesame seed to cover up the surface.
7. Deep fried the balls.

Delicious Pork Chop

A very simple must-try recipe. I used pork (not sure if it taste the same as on chicken or beef)
strong

Ingredients:
Pork chop slice (just tell the pork seller in the market and they will tenderdize it for you)
Marinate: soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, black pepper (optional)

Method:
1. Marinate the meat over night.
2. Lightly pan fried on low fire

Tips: You only need to pan fried for a short while if you prefer a tender chop.

Orange Chiffon Cake

This is my 2nd time trying to bake a chiffon cake. And yahoo…manage to do it successfully this time (using recipe from Alicia).

Ingredients
A- 6 egg whites, 1T cream of tartar, 4oz castor sugar (takde castor, so i blend normal sugar)
B- 6 yolks, 6T sunquick, 6T oil, 4oz self-raising flour

Method
1. Cream B well in one direction
2. Beat A until stiff (high speed). Slowly add in sugar once egg white formy. Must ensure container very clean.
3. Fold B into A slowly, making sure the mixture does not collapse.
4. Bake in preheated oven (+ chiffon tin) at 160C for 30mins till lightly brown. Change to 180C and bake till golden brown.

Special Melting Moments

My little helper and I did a simple baking last week.

Ingredients:
200g margerine (I uses Planta)
80g icing sugar sifted
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp sugar

120 self-raising flour, sifted
120g corn-flour, sifted

Method:
1. Cream butter, icing sugar, vanilla essence and salt till just combined.
2. Add both sifted flours and mix into a soft-dough.
3. Spoon mixture into piping bag with star nozzle.
4. Pipe them into a shape of a rossette.
5. Bake in pre-heated oven at 170C (20mins) till light golden brown.
6. Cool on rack, sprinkle some icing sugar on top.

Tips: You can also ignore step 3&4. Instead just spoon them onto the tray and top them with honey star for decor.