My very first home-made soy drink!

Hehe...I'm @ home again!

Yesterday, I had soaked 500g soy bean before going to bed in order to make soy drink today. To be honest, I just learned that from my dad. >,< Did you know? I still remembered how he made the soy-drink though it happened really, really long long long time ago! Besides, we were using the traditional way of making soy-milk. It was definitely not an easy process and time consuming too. Therefore, I would definitely enjoy them to the fullest.

Guess what? One thing that I missed out was the screw-pine (what we called as pandan leaves) :( We were not able to get them in Australia.

If you asked me, how it taste? Of course, I couldn't compared the one I bought from market as mine is:

- a total fresh (without preservative)

- full of bean aroma

- using raw brown sugar

That's absolutely a very good experience for me.

Coffee Cake & My Plants

A quick question, are you a coffee lover? I just love the strong aroma every time I walked pass the coffee shop. Undeniable, I love the pastry, bakery or dessert that's made of coffee. Therefore, I would love to share the recipe with you here..

Ingredient

180g soft butter chopped

150g caster sugar

1/3 cup honey

3 eggs

225 self raising flour

1/3 cup strong espresso coffee (liquid)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.

2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Add honey and beat until well combined.

4. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each.

5. Lastly, add flour and coffee 

6. Bake for 45minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the center.

---@-@-@---

Here are some of  the vegetables in my garden. They are purely organic plantation, only utilizing water with sunshine and horse-dung (and left-over fruits and veg. compose)

   

空心菜 Water spinach

大小洋葱 Spring Onion

番薯叶 + 胡萝卜 potato leaves + carrot

还在多多努力@番茄 tomato

也在加油@葡萄 grapes

Homemade Pork Jery (肉干)

Chinese new year is around the corner, I missed my aunt "Bak Kwa" so much. Since I'm not going back , why not I just try making one? Finally, I found the recipe from Sonia

Ingredient

1. 450g minced pork
2. 100g sugar
3. 1tbsp light soy sauce
4. 1/2tbsp Chinese rice wine
5. 1/2tbsp fish sauce
6. 1tbsp oyster sauce
7. 1tsp dark caramel sauce
8. 1/8tsp Chinese five spices powder
9. A dash of Pepper
10. 1/2tsp salt
11. 2tbsp honey

Method
1. Mix all ingredients in a big bowl. Blend and stir the mixture in one direction until the meat becomes gluey. Store in the fridge for several hours.
2. Spread the marinated minced pork thinly onto the baking tray (using fingers to spread).
3. Bake at pre-heated oven at 160C for 20mins. Remove from oven. Increase the oven temperature to 240c.
4. Wait to slightly cool, cut into your desired size and place them in the same baking tray.
5. Grill one side at 240C for 10mins, remove from oven.

6. Flip over another side, wait oven back to 240C and grill for 7mins or until golden brown with slight burnt.
6. Once done, let it cool and enjoy!

P/S: First attempt is always awesome for me! >,< If I could get rid of the 猪肉味, that will be absolutely perfect (I should put more five spices powder to cover up the smell)

Orange and Poppy Seed Cake

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I  threw a cake straight to the bin.

Because of my positive mind, I wish to bake this cake again!

Anyhow, this recipe was shared by a friend- Susan Koh (a credit for her)

and I would like to share the recipe with my friend here.

I guess she wouldn't mind me doing that ;)

Here you go...

Ingredients:

1. 2/3 cup poppy seeds
2. 1 1/4 cups milk
3. 3 3/4 cups plain flour
4. 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
5. 1/4 teaspoon salt
6. 300 g softened unsalted butter
7. zest of 2 oranges
8. 2 1/2 cups white sugar
9. 5 eggs
10. 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

1. Soak the poppy seeds in the milk for at least half and hour.
2. Preheat oven to 170°C.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In another bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the orange zest and beat for 1 minute. Add the sugar a third at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition. After the last addition, beat until the mixture is light and fluffy and the sugar has almost dissolved.
5. Add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.
6. Add a third of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half of the milk and poppy seed mixture and beat until combined. Repeat this process. Add the remaining third of the flour mixture and beat until thoroughly combined, do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture.

Hope you guys love it! Cheers.

>,<

Green Tea Ice Cream

In Malaysia, I never thought of making own ice cream because they are really cheap. The cheapest one I could get it was RM1/pac from the groceries shop (that was really a long time ago). [My grandma, sis and I used to walk to the groceries shop, mainly was to get some ice cream. My grandma is a vanilla/corn ice-cream lover. Unbelievable right?]

I myself prefer green tea flavor (but not my  hubby, will make him choc ice cream next time), that was after my visit to Japan in 200X. You hardly find any green tea  ice cream in  the supermarket. Today, I finally made my own green tea ice cream and it's absolutely super duper easy [without using ice cream maker]

Ingredient:

2 tablespoons of green tea powder

2/3 cup granulated sugar

3 egg yolks

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup heavy (thickened) cream

Steps:

1. Mix the green tea powder with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar in a bowl
2. Mix the egg yolks and remaining sugar in a separate bowl.
3. Gently heat the milk on pan (not to let it boil). Remove the milk from the heat and mix a few spoonfuls of the warm milk with the green tea powder and sugar in a small bowl. When you have a smooth paste, add it to the remaining milk in the pan, then gradually combine with the egg yolk mixture.
4. Return mixture to the stove and heat slowly over low heat (not let the mixture boil). Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely.
5. Lightly whip the cream and then add it to the cold green tea-milk mixture.
6. Transfer the mixture to a large container and then put it in the freezer. As ice crystals start to form, remove and mix well with a spoon (use a spoon to stir vigorously) to break them up and return the mixture to the freezer. Repeat this a few times as it freezes to ensure that the ice cream is smooth.


Note:
a. 2/3 cup of sugar seem a little sweet to me.
b. This recipe was adapted from Spoonful Blog.

Green tea powder from Busan- Too much expensive! 
The color of the powder seem much much lighter

[AUD7.69 for just 40g]

That's my masterpiece.....

I hope you'll like it....

Cheers..

>,<

Receipe but no photos

I had promised to share the recipe

a) kimchi stew recipe

b) kongnamul muchim recipe

Honestly, I have no idea about Korean dishes at all until I found this website. In fact, they are easy to prepare (I'm someone who is always looking for something easy and do  not need to crack my head) and  I could easily find the ingredient here in Perth. To those who have been tired of cooking Chinese dishes (I'm a Chinese), why not try out something different? I am a little surprise, because Korean too are using sesame oil . :)

Asides hot pepper flake, they are using hot pepper paste!

Notes:

a. I replaced pork with chicken and added some potatoes & mushrooms to the stew too.

b. It's a little spicy (hot) but definitely it's a perfect match with plain rice.

c. I'm not sure the real taste (because this was my first time.)

Please share your experience if you did try out!

Cheers..

>,<

Kimchi 김치

I was a little emotional unstable yesterday- that's why thing go haywire!

Due to all sort of reason, my blog exits! "述说我的心情, 我的故事"

(I'm not someone who is happy all time, I do have unpleasant day as well)

After pouring it, I feel much more refreshing! >,<

However, I  would like to share something nice today!

As I mentioned earlier, I made my own kimchi (is a traditional fermented Korean dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings- extracted from wiki). Find the recipe here

 

 * This is the red hot pepper flakes (powder)

* This is the packing (AUD13.90) from one of the Korea store

'Butter' cake recipe

Ingredients:

125g cream cheese block
125g butter, softened
* 1 cup of castor sugar (I'm using white or granualated sugar)
3 eggs
2.5 cup self-raising flour
2/3 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven 180°C fan-forced.
2. Using electric mixer, cream cheese, butter and caster sugar in a medium bowl on medium high-speed
until light and fluffy.
3. Add 1 egg at a time, beating to combine. Add half the flour and milk, stir to combine. Repeat with remaining flour and milk.
4. Spread mixture into pan.
5. Bake for an hour until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. Leave it on the pan with door ajar.

Note:

- Supposed it's a butter cake receipe, but I'm not a true fans of butter cake. That's the reason I made some 'adjustment' with the original recipe.

- As I don't have vanilla essence @ home, so that's optional to me! (it might taste even better with the vanilla I guess)

My cheesecake!

Guess what, I woke up at 5.00am just to watch the series.

Anyway,  I have finished watching the series and successfully baked the cheesecake! :)

Besides, I had a short nap & cleaning of my room-> that's what I want! :)

 

Ingredient A (as base)

• 1&2/3 cups plain flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 large egg
• 4 tablespoon ice-water

Ingredient B

• 3 packages of cream cheese (750g)
• 1&1/4 cups of sugar
• 3 large egg (separate the egg yolk & egg white)
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil (or cooking oil)
• 1/4 cup of cornflour

To make the base (Ingredient A)

Step 1: Add flour and salt into a large bowl, cut in butter until resembles crumbs (base)

Step 2: Mix in the sugar, egg and ice water to make the dough

Step 3: Press into ball and wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Step 4: Roll out to fit a 10-inch pan and place the dough in the pan.

Step 5: Preheat oven to 175C (350F)

Step 6: Beat the cream cheese until smooth.

Step 7: Add the remaining sugar, egg yolk, milk, oil, cornflour.

Step 8: In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until stiff.

Step 9: Pour into cream cheese mixture (* whisk the mixture with a spoon ~ no beating anymore!)

Step 10: Pour the mixture to the pan.

Step 11: Bake for 50~60 minutes until center is set.

Step 12: Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake in the oven with the door open slightly.

Step 13:  Remove cheesecake from oven and serve or refrigerate.

Note:

1. Can replace the plain flour with biscuit to make the base (crumbs)! 
~ the plain flour still tasting fine!
2. Serve cold or else the cream cheese get melted easily!

Pop Corn

Interested in making your own pop-corn?

What you need is the butter, sugar and corn-kernel where you could purchase them from the supermarket!

Pour them into a saucepan (without oil) over medium heat. (Stir them to avoid over-cooked!)

When one of the corn starts popping, cover with a lid and shake the saucepan gently. (Note: The rest of the corns shall continue popping) 

Remove from heat temporary when corn stop popping.

Whisk the butter and sugar(and/or honey) to the popping corn. (Note: Ratio of butter and sugar is depends on individual preferences) 

Stir until the pop-corn is coated.

Transfer them into a tray or bowl. Set aside to cool. Serve.

 

Honestly speaking, this is the best snack ever! Besides, it only takes about 10~20 minutes to cook.

P/S: Thanks to SH Lau for the perfect recipe. ;)

Homemade Butter Cookies (Shortbread)

Ingredient:

3/4 cup of butter

1/4 cup of sugar

2 cup of plain flour

Step:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 C (350 F)

2. Whisk the above mentioned ingredient in a large bowl ~ End up becoming a dough! (Note: make sure the dough is smooth)

3. Cut into pieces and transfer them to the baking pan.

4. Bake for 20 minutes ~ until light yellow. Cool on rack.

P/S: The cookies are full of butter aroma!

Classic Scones

Ingredients:

- 3 cups wholemeal self raising flour (or self raising flour)

- 1 tablespoon caster sugar

- 80g butter
- 1 cup milk

- Extra 1/4 cup wholemeal self raising flour (or self raising flour)

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Cooking Method:

Step 1: Preheat oven at 220 C.

Step 2: Combine the self-raising flour and sugar in a large bowl.

Step 3: Use your finger to rub the butter into flour until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Step 4: Pour in the milk & baking powder at once.

Step 5: Knead gently until smooth.

Step 6: Pat the dough & make them into 12 pieces.
Step 7: Sprinkle the extra self raising flour on top of them

Step 8: Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden and well risen.

Step 9: Serve with jam, whipped cream or butter. (The scone itself is tasteless actually!)

Homemade Oats Biscuits

I would like to thank Soak Hoong 雪芬 for the recipe....

Ingredients:

- 150g of butter (melted)

- 1/2 cup of sugar

- 1 cup of self raising flour ( I'm using wholemeal self-raising flour)

- 1 cup of almond/peanut/ macadamia  (Should try out next time!) 
- 1/2 cup of corn flour

- 1 egg

- 1 cup of quick oats

Method: 
Step 1: Mix all the ingredient into a bowl ~ no mixer required!

Step 2: Bake at 175C for 15~20 minutes.

Note: Though this was my first attempt, still I'm satisfied with it! (* biscuits wihout the nuts!)

Enzymes(酵素)

 

I wanted to prepare Enzymes (酵素) since long ago.  According to Angie, I might be doing the wrong way! In that case, I'll be wasting 3-bars of the brown sugar. Anyway, No worries. Since result will be seen after 3-weeks ~ that is 26th Nov 2009, we'll see how. (Perhaps it tastes well, who knows?) 

Ingredients:

- 2 Lemons

- 1 bar of brown sugar (cut into pieces)

- A cleaned bottle

- Plastic wrapper

My method:

Step 1. Cut the lemon into circles.

Step 2. Put the lemon in the bottle. (half of the bottle)

Step 3. Add in the brown sugar on top of the lemon.

Step 4. Lay a piece of plastic wrapper before tighten the container.  


Pray for me! Hope that my enzymes is working...

My Recipe- Herbal Tea Egg

Do you notice that nowadays cooking can be easy? Trust me! Taking the herbal tea egg as an example, anyone including me and you can prepare them so easily! ;)

Ingredients:

a) 2 sachets (pronounced sa-shay) of herbal tea egg spices

b) 4 tablespoons light soy sauce

c) 1.5 tablespoons dark sauce

d) dark brown sugar (optional)

e) 15-30 eggs

My cooking instruction:- 
Step 1. Rinse the eggs with water and put them into a pot of boiled water. 

Step 2. After 10 ~15 minutes (medium heat), rinse them with cold water (egg with shell). 
Step 3. Crack the eggs by using the spoon (leaving the shell together). 
Step 4. Boil another pot of water with the above ingredients. 
Step 5. Add those eggs to the boiled water. 
Step 6. Reduce to medium heat and allow the herbal soup to simmer. 
Step 7. Serve hot after 2~4 hours.

My suggestion: Let it stays overnight. I bet they taste much more better! (Of course, it depends on individual preferences) 

~@**~@** 

If you wish to prepare the herbal tea egg (by replacing the sachets), these are the herbs required:

- 10g mo yi cha (tea leaves)
- 8g star anise
- 10g cloves
- 29g sok tei
- 13g sou or
- 15g chun kong
- 10g tong kwai tau
- 16g kum cho
- 18g chan pei (dried mandarin peel)
- 13g fah chiew
- 11g cinnamon bark
- 12g kwai chi chim
- 8g heong kam soe  

(extracted from The Stars- Kuali)