Steamed BBQ Pork Buns

I used to buy the pre-mixed blend flour to make steamed "cha siu bao" but when the price of the little bag of flour went from $0.99 to $1.29, I decided to try to make that dough from scratch myself.

Cha Siu Bao (Steamed BBQ Pork Buns)

1 tbsp active yeast
1 cup of warm water
2 cups of flour
3 tsp of sugar
1/2 tsp of baking soda

In a medium size bowl, add water and sprinkle in the yeast. Mix well. Let sit for 10 mins.

In second bowl, pour 1 1/2 cups of the flour, sugar and baking soda. Mix well.

Add the yeast liquid to the flour mixture and incorporate well. If the dough is too wet, add a little flour (from the remaining measurement) at a time. Until you have a dough that can kneaded. Knead for approximately 15 mins.

Larger bowl, add 1 tbsp of oil to coat the bowl, put the dough formed in a ball into the oiled bowl. Cover with saran wrap and towel. Allow to rise -- approx. 2 hours.

After 2 hours, rip dough into baseball size dough balls. Roll each piece on a floured surface and then fill with chopped BBQ pork pieces. Place wrapped side down on parchment paper. Repeat til filling is used up and no dough balls left.

Place in a steamer and steam for 20 minutes.

Pizza and Calzone Night PLUS Dessert!

thin crust personalized pizzas

calzones!!!

raspberry-mango pie mmmmmmmmmmm

Last night, I decided to try to make something we love to order on the weekends...pizza!!! And of course, you can just let your imagine go beyond that...calzone/pastie/pizza pocket! Toppings were going to be different, no doubt. I browned up some ground beef (real ground beef...not like the fake ground beef you get at real pizza shops. Did you know that the ground beef is really soy??) Anyways, I added some mexican seasoning to make the beef become taco filling...mmmmm...

Then whatever I had in the fridge...red peppers, mushrooms, cheese -- lots of that, and pasta sauce.

I let the girls make their own pizzas and said they were delicious. What is better than have the kids personalize their own dinner and enjoy eating it.

For dessert, Karen brought over a raspberry-mango pie from Wanda's Pie in the Sky pastry shop in Kensington Market. She warned us that it was rich...but I thought the tartness of the raspberry even it out. The crust was very buttery. Yum yum.

Pizza Dough --makes 8 good size pizzas

1 1/2 cup of warm water
2 tsp of active dry yeast
1 1/2 tbsp of honey
2 tsp salt
3 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp of olive oil

Put water in large bowl and sprinkle yeast. Whisk in honey until blended or dissolved. You can leave the yeast to bubble -- takes approx 10 mins. But since I can never predict when a baby will give me quiet time, I added the salt and flour right away. Mix in the flour gradually until it forms a dry dough, then you have to get your hands into it to knead it. Knead for 5 mins. Then form into a ball and pour in the olive oil. I flipped the dough in the bowl so that the olive oil coats top and bottom of the dough.

Then cover it with plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours, which it will double in size.

Then punch it, and cover again to rise for another hour -- this step is not necessary.

Preheat oven to 450 F

Cut up the dough into small palm size balls -- slightly smaller than a baseball. The flour your table or rolling surface and roll out to thin or thick for your crust. For calzone, roll out and add toppings to the top half of the circle and then brush with egg on the edges. Fold bottom to the top to make a crescent shape. Seal edges by pressing the edges with a fork. Brush the tops with egg for a nice brown crust.

Pizzas will take around 12-15 mins while the calzones take 20-25 minutes.

One pan dinner - Spanish Rice

You may have noticed that most of my recipes have been on the sweet side. But don't worry, I tested a spanish rice dish that I can share. I would not call it paella because the recipe does not use saffron. The taste is light and excellent for those hot days. The red colour is from tomato sauce. The chicken is my twist to the dish.

Spanish Rice with Chicken - serves 4 plus lunches for the next day. Now, that's a real bang for your buck!

4 chicken legs, skin off and cut into 3 pieces
Pinch of Salt and pepper

3 cups of rice
1 medium onion, diced
1 tbsp of chili powder
3 tbsp of olive oil
1/2 can of 796ml tomato sauce
1/3 water
1/2 cup of chopped scallions -- green onion
salt and pepper to taste

Wash and cook rice and set aside -- you can do this the day before.

In a skillet, brown chicken until cooked. Remove chicken from pan. Pour out excess oil and sautee the diced onion until transparent and brown.
Add the cooked rice and stir constantly. Add chili powder to the rice and stir. Add olive oil and stir thoroughly.
Combine water and tomato sauce and stir into the rice. It will look like wet risotto. But keep stirring to prevent sticking. Cook for 20 mins. Then add the scallions, and add salt/pepper to taste.
Return chicken to the pan and cover for another 20 mins. Lower heat to a gentle simmer. This will further cook and heat the entire dish and evaporate some of the liquid to make the rice less wet.

You can serve in the pan or plate it with rice, chicken and a side salad. You can also add some tiger shrimp as well.

My total cooking time was 1 hour. Not your 30 minute meal kind of dish but just as good and healthy.

Glutinous Rice Balls with Red Bean Paste

Whenever mom or dad goes to the chinese bakery for some bread, they would also pick up a few glutinous rice balls -- the "no mai chee". Just thinking about the chewy texture when you bite into it and the peanut and sugar filling falling off he sides of your mouth. And don't forget the coconut flakes. Makes my mouth water...oops.

As I searched through the internet, I found a recipe that used red bean paste instead of the peanut/sugar filling. I know Dickens enjoys the red bean dessert (hung dao sa), so, I decided to give a try.

Glutinous Rice Balls with Red Bean Paste Centre

Rice ball layer

• 1 1/4 cup of glutinous rice flour
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 3/4 cup of milk (or coconut milk -- this would probably make it taste better)
• shredded sweetened coconut for rolling rice ball

Red Bean Paste

• 1/2 red beans (washed and soaked for 3 hours)
• 1 1/2 cup of water
• rock sugar to taste -- you should taste for your preferred sweetness

Method
To make the rice ball layer, mix well rice flour, sugar and milk. You will make a wet paste like dough. Using a flat plate (makes the steaming time shorter), brush some vegetable oil unto the plate to prevent the dough from sticking when it is done. Pour batter into the plate. And steam for about 30 minutes. To check if it done, use chopsticks and poke the dough, if the dough does not stick to the chopstick then it has fully cooked thru. Test a few areas to make sure.

Set aside and let cool before using.

Red Bean paste
Boil the red beans until soft and grainy/sand like in the water. This means that the red bean has broken up and the bean has incorporated much into the water. Then add the rock sugar. Boil until the sugar has dissolved completely and let cool. Water should have reduced enough to form a thick porridge consistency. Cooking time should about 1 hour. But only use as a rough guideline. Time can vary depending if you soaked the beans. I didn't so, the cooking time was 1.5 hours to soften and for beans to break.

Set aside and let cool before using.

Rice dough preparation
Roll the dough into a long roll then rip into 12 equal pieces. Then roll one into your hand into a ball then using your thumb to start making a round disk by pinching the middle and working your way outwards. Dough should resemble a flat circle. Place the red bean past in the centre and then fold the sides up to enclose the filling. Final shape should be a ball. Roll the ball into the coconut flakes and then place in paper muffin cups.

For a new twist to this chinese dessert, use cookie cutter shapes. After the ball has rolled in the coconut flakes, press the ball into the cookie cutter (I like the heart) and you get heart shape glutinous rice dessert.

Guarantee to sweet anyone's heart.

Refreshing "Ice"Tea

The forecast called for high temps for today. I decided to make a popular Singapore treat that quenches the thirst and have tons of health benefits for you. It is a Chrysanthemum Tea Slushie. Ok, maybe not that popular in slushie form. I was intending on making the flower tea into jello but my ratio of tea to gelatin was way off. The jello never set after being in the fridge over night. So, I used my head -- which sometimes works, and put it in the freezer. Every hour, I would use a fork to scrape the ice and the eventually, I got my chrysanthemum tea ice.

Chrysanthemum ICED Tea

1.5 L of water
handful of dried chrysanthemum flowers (rinsed)
1 piece of rock sugar the size of half your palm -- but you can adjust the sweetness to your preference
1 tbsp of honey

1. Bring water to a boil
2. Add flowers and bring to a boil
3. Steep for 1 hour.
4. Use a strainer and pour tea into another container -- square cake pans would work
5. Let cool completely before putting in freezer.
6. After freezing for 1.5 hour, use a fork and scrape. Put it back in the freezer. Repeat every hour until all liquid has become ice.
7. Scoop and serve.

DIM SUM Lesson 1 - the Siu Mai

Last night, I decided to make dinner a little more extraordinary. DIM SUM. What? Dim sum is usually a morning or brunch thing but for dinner? Of course, this extends the meaning of ALL DAY BREAKFAST we are all accustom to. So why not with dim sum?

My menu:

Pork and Shrimp Siu Mai*
Glutinous rice with lap cheong, shiitake mushrooms and chinese parsley
Vegetable Chow Mein noodles

*see recipe and photo

Once again, I found the siu mai recipe online but I had to modify it because I knew what taste and texture I was looking for in a siu mai. The seasoning can be adjusted if you like a more robust flavour otherwise, the current measurements give an adequate taste for your tastebuds.

TIP - to make meat softer to the bite, add some water to the meat and mix well. It should be close to a paste than pieces of ground meat.

Pork and Shrimp Siu Mai (Shao Mai)
Makes 25 pieces
1/2 package wonton wrappers, round**
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound shrimp, deveined and finely chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 egg, beaten, for egg wash
1/3 cup of water

Garnish: Orange roe or 1 small quarter of a carrot, minced or some green peas
**If all you have on hand is square wonton wrappers, stack about 10 together at a time, place a round cookie cutter or drinking glass on top as a guide, and slice into square with a small knife.
In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the pork, shrimp, soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil, salt, pepper and water. Spoon a heaping teaspoon into the center of a wonton wrapper. Lightly brush the sides of the wrapper with egg wash. Squeeze the sides up until the wrapper forms a cup, tucking in the sides and leaving the filling exposed on top. Repeat with the rest of the wrappers. Garnish with orange roe/chopped carrots or 2 peas.
Line a large bamboo steamer with parchment paper. Fit steamer in a wok and fill water until 1/2-inch below bottom of the steamer. Steam for 12 to 15 minutes, until filling is firm to the touch. Serve hot. Optional condiments: soy sauce, chili sauce, chili oil.
For better texture, use a fattier type of ground pork.

Welcome to my New Blog

Welcome..welcome to my newly created blog just for those who enjoy reading about food and recipes. I have named this blog as Cooking Adventures - DIM (which stands for Do-It-Myself) because I wanted a blog dedicated to what I love to write and do -- trying new recipes or sharing a tastey experience.

If only Blogs can incorporate a "smell" button then you will not only see my success and failures but also give your nose a sniffing addiction or NOT. However, I will try to keep this as a joyful experience as much as I can.