20 Feb - 正月初七是“人日”

２０日是农历正月初七。民俗专家介绍说，正月初七是中国传统习俗中的“人日”，即“人的生日”。

后世关于人日来源的：“正月一日为鸡，二日为狗，三日为猪，四日为羊，五日为牛，六日为马，七日为人。正旦画鸡于门，七日贴人于帐。”

I didn't prepare anything special at home, just steamed up some 鸡蛋糕 (no picture taken)

On this day 正月初七 “人日” Guillemard Village Food Court resturant was having this grand dragon, lion dance and 财神爷 ...

Ah girl said why the lollipop so big...

Lion Dance formation - 招财进宝

Steamed Milk Cake

This is sure a simple steaming cake, as it doesn't require any machine for the beating. Unfortunately it wasn't popular call at home, personally i don't really like it. My daughter commented why the texture like so sticky. All of us prefer the Steamed 鸡蛋糕

I managed to make 8 cuppies from this Steamed Milk Cake

Ingredients:

170 gm Fresh Milk

60 gm sugar

100 gm cake flour

20 gm rice flour

2 tsp double-action baking powder

Method:

(1) Use a hand whisk to whisk fresh milk with sugar until the sugar has dissolved

(2) Add in remaining ingredients and stir well

(3) Spoon int small cups lined with paper cups

(4) Steam at high heat for 10-15 mins or until cooked

(5) Remove and cool on wire rack.

虎年开工大吉

今日大年初四, 开工咯 !

公司上下都分发了一对柑和一封开工利事, 象征着大吉大利

Mini Cheese French Bun

I've always long to make this tempting mini cheese french bun (picture on the recipe book looks really tempting and yummy), but I held back due to the long proofing time require.

Today i took my biggest courage and started this new recipe bread making journey at 9am and out of the oven at 2.45pm. It's a new challenge for me (chinese written recipe), cos i got some steps in the wrong order :(

Ingredients (10 pieces)
200g bread flour
100g plain flour
2tsp Instant Yeast
1tsp sugar
1tsp salt
180ml warm water
1/8 portion extract of lemon juice

1cm cube chedder cheese (per perference)

Method (using BM)

1. Mix Bread flour and plain flour together and give it a lift so that air can get into the flour
2. Put water, lemon juice, sugar, salt, flour and lastly yeast into the BM dough function (Knead + Proof) estimate time is 1hr 30 mins
   
3. Cut ready dough cut and roll into 10 portion and let it rest for 20 mins in a enclose area or cover in glad wrap
4. Each dough wrap with 4-5 cube of cheese cube and shape it like a ruby ball
5. Put it on a tray cover with cloth and glad wrap for the 2nd proofing for 60-70 mins (to allow the cloth to absorb the water)
6. 
7. Sent dough into the oven for 5 mins at 230-250c, after use a knife to cut the dough and brush some butter on the cut portion so that the cut will look nice when baked
8. Spray some water on the dough so that the bread can absorb the mist and immediately sent to the oven to bake at 230c for 15 mins

Wow ! the effort is all worth it. The texture of the french bun is good, very crispy on the outside and soft inside. Next time i will do French Loaf using this same recipe but minus the cheese

Chocolate Coco Crunch

Princess school has a CNY celebration, I made this on Friday for her to bring.

The making of this is really easy. Just bring chocolate and some butter to double boil. Next mix the coco crunch and scoop it into cuppies.

Size ~~~ Bigger than Usual

Got this big mandarin orange for S$3.80 from Sheng Siong on 5 Feb 10 . Yesterday pass by there again, the price drop until S$2.80, but I didn't buy any though is cheaper.

Bought this from the high class fruit stall yesterday. This super BIG chestnut is from Korea, 1 packet for S$10

Will update this place when i get it cook.

Kueh Dadar

Today our office suppose to have a mini high tea. Unfortunately 2 of our dear colleagues has lost their beloved mum & grandma respectively, so the session didn't take place. I've prepared some kueh dadar, cheese bread & cashew nut cookies to share around. For those in the office still get to eat them, though it's not in a mode of hi-tea (*^*)

Anyway, I've prepared this Kueh Dadar using a long long time ago hand written recipe book from my antique collection.

Ingredient
Batter
100g plain flour
280ml coconut milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp pandan paste

Method

1. Sift the flour into a bowl
2. Add in egg and give the flour a good mix
3. Pour in the coconut milk and beat till mixture are smooth
4. Add in pandan paste and leave it to stand for a while

Filling
1 cup grated white coconut
1/2 cup chopped gula melaka
1 tbsp sugar
3 pcs of pandan leaves (knotted)
1/2 cup water

Method

1. Mix all ingredients together and cook till the sugar melts and the mixture becomes fairly dry. Cool
2. Heat a clean frying pan and grease with a little oil
3. Pour in 2 tbspful of batter. Turn the frying pan round so that the batter forms a thin layer like a popiah skin
4. When cooked, remove from the frying pan
5. Put a tspful of the filling on the skin and roll neatly tucking the end in
6. Repeat until all the batter is used up
   

Princess Mini Concert - 6 Feb 10

This is a mini concert at Princess enrichment class - My World 2010

Princess is performing an indian dance, when the young explorer reached India. The song of the dance really very happening meh...

My New Toy - La Gourment Thermal Cooker

I've been eyeing on a Thermal Cooker for months, at the same time I'm looking out for a mini rice cooker to cook brown rice for my hubby (All of us loves white rice but health conscious hubby wanted brown rice) All in all i need to get is 2 pots.... finally got a good deal from Robinson last Friday 5 Feb 10.

I bought a 7 litre thermal pot and get 1.5 litre pot for free. The small pot is ideal for cooking brown rice.

Btw this pot is made in Korea and Swiss brand.

This paper cutting is from Tang, same price S$129 but no ECO bag from purchase at Robinson

This is a Wonder Cooker, my mama loves it so much and keep praising it. It's easy to use, save gas, no need to worry about over cooking and watch over fire. It's "Safe and friendly" to use.

I've cooked a simple dish using this wonder pot

Ingredient
1 pc lean meat (cube)
1 pc old cucumber
a handful of wolf berry
4 big bowls of water (per own consumption perference)

Method
Put all ingredients into inner pot and bring to boil
Remove from heat and place inner pot inside the outer layer pot
Cover and let it cook thru' stewing by its own
Soup all ready to consume in less than an hour (The meat is very tender)