Chinese Steamed Savory Cake

This is a traditional Chinese steamed cake, but with ground pork and fried shallots makes it taste totally different. It is very easy to make, and the result is never disappointing every time I made it. One of the best part of this recipe is that unlike all other Chinese steamed cakes that typically take at least 45 minutes for steaming, this cake takes 16 minutes to steam (see recipe below)– which means it takes no more than 1 hour from start to finish! The flavor is very acceptable among Asian (unless one doesn’t like fried shallots); even my ‘guai low’ husband likes it too. Every time I make it for potluck, at first people are hesitated to try it because it’s not common, and the cake doesn’t look pretty, but after they have it they want the recipe …

Steamed Savory Cake Recipe (makes 1 square cake)

Ingredients:
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 flour
2-3 tbsp fried shallots– drained oil
3/4 rice bowl of ground pork
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar

8″ x 8″ glass baking dish– lined with plastic wrap (see note #3 below)

Methods:

1. Season ground pork with some salt, ground white pepper, sesame oil, cornstarch and little water (it’s just like regular seasoning before you cook it). Fry ground pork with some oil in a heated pan. Keep stirring and breakdown the meat with spatula so the pork is loose. Add sugar and soy sauce, continue frying until pork starts to brown. Dish out and cool.
2. Add eggs and sugar in a medium bowl. Beat using a electric hand mixer until increase in volume and pale in color, 10 minutes. Scrapping the bowl 1-2 times with a rubber spatula. To have a fluffy cake texture, you have to use electric mixer and beat at medium/high speed for 10 minutes.
3. Sift in 1/2 of flour to the batter, use a rubber spatula to gently mix the flour on the top then gently fold in to mix together. Repeat with remaining half of the flour.
4. Pour 1/2 of batter into square glass dish, smooth the batter and steam for 8 minutes on high heat. Take the cake out of steamer and sprinkle 1/2 portion of ground pork and 1/2 portion of fried shallots evenly on the top. Pour in remaining 1/2 batter, smooth the top and sprinkle remaining 1/2 portions of ground pork and fried shallots. Back to steamer and steam for another 8 minutes until cooked.

Notes:

1. Use good homemade fried shallots as it is the soul of this yummy cake. Store bought prefried shallots usually doesn’t have a nice aroma as homemade ones but still ok to use.
2. To save time, turn on steamer when you start beating the eggs– the steamer will be ready when you’re done with the batter.
3. I like to use plastic wrap because the it makes cleaning the pan easy. However, plastic wrap will stick on glass pan but not on plastic or non-stick cookware. Also, be sure to push out any air bubbles trap in between wrap and cookware when lining, or your cake will look distorted after steaming.
4. Other variation: spicy ‘hae bee hiam’ flavor, XO sauce or sambal flavor, five-spice & nam yee flavor…

Baked Curry Puffs

I made curry puffs and Chinese steamed savory cake for my son’s year-end potluck party at his Chinese school, and both of them were big hits! This is a baked version of curry puff. I’m not sure if it’s any healthier than the fried version, but at least it’s convenient as the puff pastry dough is available in American grocery stores, in frozen foods section. So all I do is just cook the filling, assemble and bake!

Curry Puffs: before baking

Curry Puffs after baking: all puffed up nicely!

Baked Curry Puffs Recipe (makes 36 puffs)

Ingredients:
2 packs of frozen Pepperidge Farm ready-to-bake puff pastry (4 sheets total)
1 1/2 lb potatoes
1/2 small yellow onion– diced into pea size
1 chicken breast– diced into pea size, seasoned with salt, pepper and sesame oil

Seasoning to taste:
curry powder and/or curry paste
chicken essence powder
chili powder (optional– for extra kick in flavor)
salt

egg wash (optional)

Method:

1. Thaw puff pastry according to package instructions. Cut each sheet of pastry into 9 small squares, for a total of 36 squares. Roll out each square to size of 4″ x 3.5″. Cover and chill all pastry dough in the fridge until ready to wrap in the filling.
2. In a big pot boil potatoes (skin on) until just cooked. Drained and cool. Remove the skin and dice into pea size.
3. Heat up pan, fry onion with some oil until fragrant. Add chicken and stir until chicken is cooked. Add potatoes and seasoning to taste. Cook until all seasoned evenly, adding a little water if it gets too dry. Dish out and cool.
4. To assemble: Scoop a heap tablespoon of the filling and place along the short side of pastry. Fold the dough over, use a fork to press along 3 edges to seal. Pastry dough contains lots of butter so it can’t be at room  temperature for a long time. Chill all the puffs until you’re ready to bake.
5. Make 1-2 slits on top of the puff to let the air out, brush with egg wash and bake at preheated 400°F oven until they puff up and golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Cool on the rack.

Notes:

1. Since the puffs are not very big, I have to cut  ingredients into pea size to make wrapping easier.
2. You can substitute chicken with ground beef and make it beef curry puffs, or skip the meat for a vegetarian version.

The first time I saw Zebra Cake on Baking Bites, the pattern is so beautiful that I told myself I want to bake one too. And so I did, with some changes– I added in some more oil because the cake batter was not as liquidy thin like what I read on some comments. Originally the cake batter is supposed to spread out on its own, but I used a spoon to “help” spread out the batter . Oh, I also added some grated orange peel to the batter. For some reason the cake took me a lot longer time to bake than suggested in the recipe. The top was cracked but the center was still not cooked. Finally when the cake was done, I couldn’t wait to slice a piece to reveal the zebra pattern– it was beautiful wasn’t it? However,  my cake was greasy as a result of more oil used in the batter. Flavor wise, I find the cake kind of bland (hmm, could it be lack of almond flavor as I didn’t add almond extract??…) other than the hint of orange, so I poured some orange syrup (heat up fresh OJ with sugar till sugar dissolves) onto the cake (while the cake was still warm), and it tasted better.

Overall I’m happy with the look but not with the taste… will try the zebra pattern again, maybe with sponge cake or chiffon cake for a lighter texture. Wish me luck!

Zebra Cake -- before baking

Zebra Cake

Zebra Cake recipe from Baking Bites.

I got the idea from Chinese stewed duck ‘Lor Ark’ posted by pablopabla in his blog Hochiak! Delicious Asian Food. I made the stewed duck before and it turned out delicious, so I did it with chicken wings this time. I also added some chili powder for a little kick in flavor. Overall this dish turned out delicious too, and with the leftover sauce and some tofu and hard boiled eggs, I got another yummy simple dish– stewed eggs and tofu.

Stewed Chicken Wings

Stewed Chicken Wings Recipe

Ingredients:
15-20 chicken wings (mid joints)
1 inch ginger
1/2 inch galangal
4 cloves of garlic
8 shallots
1 tsp five-spice powder
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
salt to taste
chili powder (optional)
4-5 cups hot water

Methods:

1. Clean chicken wings and season with five spice powder for 30 minutes.
2. Blend ginger, galangal, garlic and shallots in a blender, adding just enough water to facilitate blending.
3. Heat up a wok and add some oil. Fry the blended paste until fragrant, add dark soy sauce and sugar, stir well.
4. Add chicken wings and stir until the skin is cooked and shrink slightly. Add hot water and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to medium and cook until the wings are done and sauce thicken slightly. Turning occasionally so the wings won’t stick to the bottom. Add salt and chili powder to taste. (if the wings are done and the sauce is still watery, remove the wings and continue cooking the sauce, until it thicken slightly).

Note:

I didn’t have fresh shallots this time so I used fried shallots in my pantry, just added it after I added the chicken wings to the wok.

Tarte aux Noix

I searched tarte aux noix online but couldn’t find out much about it because a lot of search results show the websites are not written in English. All I know is that it is a French tart. A lot of pictures online shows the tart is made with walnuts, but the recipe I followed uses almonds. Maybe there are several versions of tarte aux noix??…

Anyway, this recipe is from one of my cookbook titled “Oishiixtu!! Yakikashi” by Ikuko Omori (mine is Chinese version). When I was making the tart shell, I made a boo boo: I thought all tart pans are pretty much standard size, it’s only until I rolled out the dough that I realized my tart pan is quite larger than the suggested 18cm diameter by the recipe. Since the dough could barely cover the bottom of my large tart pan, I opted to use 2 small personal size tart pans instead. Next time when I make it again, I will increase the original recipe portion by 1.5. One thing worth mentioning: the tart shell recipe is very easy and doesn’t require chilling at all, and yet it is crispy and full of almond flavor even the next day. I think I might keep it as my default tart shell recipe.

Tarte aux Noix

Tarte aux Noix Recipe (makes 1 tart of 18cm diameter, or 2 small personal tarts)

Ingredients:

Tart shell:
2/3 cup cake flour
3 tbsp ground almond (with skin)– toasted
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp unsalted butter (room temp.)
1 tbsp beaten egg

Almond cream:
1 tbsp cake flour
2/3 cup ground almond(with skin)– toasted
1/3 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp unsalted butter (room temp.)
1 beaten egg

2 tbsp raisin– soaked in rum, drained
2 tbsp chopped walnuts– toasted
1 tbsp rum
extra almond flakes to sprinkle on top

apricot jam for glazing (I didn’t have apricot jam, so I brushed the tart with remaining beaten egg from tart shell before baking)

Method:

Make tart shell:

1. Combine cake flour and ground almond then set aside. Using a whisk, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Slowly add beaten egg, whisk to combine.
2. Sift in 1/3 of flour mixture. Using a spatula gently mix the flour on the top, then press down the flour to the bottom of the bowl to combine. Repeat with the remaining flour in 2 batches. When all mixture starts to form a dough, take it out and shape it to a ball with both hands (avoid kneading the dough!).
3. Put the round dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap, roll it out large enough to fit tart pan. Remove plastic wrap and transfer the dough to tart pan and fold inwards any extra dough so all sides have same thickness.
4. Brush the edge with egg wash, prick the bottom and side of tart and blind bake at preheated 350°F oven for 10-12 minutes. Cool the tart in the tart pan.

Make Tarte aux Noix:

1. Cream butter and brown sugar with a whisk until fluffy. Slowly add beaten egg and whisk to combine.
2. Add ground almond. Using a spatula, mix until all incorporated. Sift in cake flour and mix gently until just combined.
3. Add raisin, walnuts and rum and mix gently.
4. Pour filling into baked tart shell. Smooth the surface and sprinkle almond flakes on the top. (I brushed the top with remaining egg wash before baking since I don’t have apricot jam for glazing)
5. Bake at preheated 350°F oven for 15-20 minutes until almond cream is nicely browned. Cool in the pan on the rack. When completely cool, glaze tart with apricot jam.

Steamed Chives Dumplings

I made soon kueh and had some leftover soon kueh skin dough, and I happened to have all ingredients needed to make chives pocket… so this was what I did:

Soon kueh skin dough + Chives filling = Steamed Chives Dumplings

I found the dumplings are not as soft the next day after heating up in microwave, maybe I should use a steamer instead… but I think I’d prefer pan-frying so the skin gets crunchy.

Moist Banana Nut Bread

Tired of making same old same old banana waffles so I gave this recipe a try, and it turned out to be a keeper! This recipe is from Martha Stewart. The bread is very moist (even the next day) because the use of sour cream. It is sweet but there’s also a hint of saltiness which makes it very flavorful. I like extra crunch so I added some more (well… alot more ) walnuts on the top, mmm… yum! No doubt the bread will make it back to our kitchen whenever we have overripe bananas.

Moist Banana Nut Bread-- see chunks of bananas in there?

Moist Banana Nut Bread Recipe (makes 1 loaf 9×5x3 pan)– Recipe from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (I used 2 large bananas)
1/2 cup shredded coconut (optional)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I used toasted chopped walnuts to mix with the batter, and some extra untoasted walnuts to sprinkle on top)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, and beat to incorporate.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture, and mix until just combined. Add bananas, coconut, sour cream, and vanilla; mix to combine. Stir in nuts, and pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle extra nuts on top if using.
3. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.

Regina’s tips:

• Bake the bread on medium low rack so it is position at the center of the oven.
• Rotate the pan half way through baking to ensure even browning. If the top browns too quickly, cover with foil.

I made this little cuties a while back but didn’t get to blog about it till now. I got the recipe from Corner Cafe, but mine are not as pretty as Corner Cafe as I had problem piping the dough, so I end up with a hamburger look instead … These little guys are so mini– they are the smallest cookies I have ever baked, which is good for our little ones at home because they can just pop one in the mouth without crumbs falling everywhere. Flavor– the cookies are very fluffy and buttery and really melt in the mouth (I can just eat them plain with a cup of tea), with the pineapple jam filling the cookies is sweet and tangy at the same time, much like pineapple tarts but without lots of work. Don’t have pineapple jam? Make it with raspberry jam, lemon curd, nutella etc… you name it. Cookies can be made ahead of time but put in the filling a few hours before serving, otherwise the cookies won’t be as crispy.

Pineapple Melting Moments

Pineapple Melting Moments (makes 120 mini cookies quarter dollar size, or 60 pairs). Recipe from Corner Cafe.

Ingredients:

(2 sticks) 250g butter, softened
(5-6 tbsp) 55g icing sugar mixture
1 teaspoon pineapple essence, or vanilla extract (optional)
(1 1/2 cup) 225g plain flour
(2/3 cup) 75g wheaten cornflour (wheat starch)

Filling: 60 portions of Pineapple jam rolled into size of small marble balls. Click here for pineapple jam recipe.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Sift plain flour and cornflour together and set aside.
2. Cream softened butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in pineapple essence if using. Add sifted flour mixture and stir through; mixing well.
3. Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle. Pipe 3cm-wide rosettes, about 3cm apart, onto oven trays. (I had problem piping the dough so I just divided the dough into 120 mini balls and use a fork to make impression on the top).
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until firm and lightly golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on the oven trays.
5. When the biscuits are cold, sandwich a pair of biscuits with a ball of filling; pressing lightly to stick together. If you want to taste the initial crispiness of the biscuits, fill them only a few hours before serving, as after one day, the filled biscuits will begin to lose their initial crispiness as they start to absorb some of the moisture from the filling and will become softer but still melt-in-the-mouth.

I made this dish for dinner the other night. While my boys were having diced chicken, shrimp and corn kennel medley, Richard and I were enjoying rendang chicken. It was so mouth watering good with a bowl of steamed rice! Rendang chicken was one of the dishes I learned from a cooking class couple of years ago. I am proud of it as I made it all from scratch including the rendang paste. Just like many other Southeast Asian food, it took me quite some time to cook the chicken, mainly because to thicken the sauce and to cook the meat throughly… the result is worthy nevertheless.

Rendang Chicken

Rendang Chicken Recipe (serves 4-6 people)

Ingredients:

8 pieces chicken pieces (legs, thighs, wings, breasts)– trim off extra fat

1 can coconut milk (14oz)

salt to taste

2 stalks lemon grass– use only the white part, bruise or cut into 2 inch length with some slits

2-3 tbsp tamarind juice

Rendang paste:

3-4 tbsp sambal chili paste ( or use 20-30 red dried chilies pre-soaked in water)

15 small shallots

1/2 inch galangal

1 inch ginger

6-8 cloves garlic

Method:

1. Make rendang paste: grind all paste ingredients in blender until smooth, adding enough water to facilitate blending.
2. Heat oil in deep frying pan and fry rendang paste  and lemon grass until fragrant and the paste is quite dry. Add 1/4 can of coconut milk and salt and cook until the paste is bubbly and oil starts to come out. (Do not attempt to fry paste with lots of oil even it looks a little dry because more oil will form later when chicken is cooking in coconut milk).
3. Add in chicken, stir till the meat is lightly brown on the outside. Add remaining coconut milk and cook until the gravy is thick and chicken is cooked thoroughly. Stir occasionally to prevent burning. Add tamarind juice and cook until oil appears. Dish out and serve hot with steamed rice.

Oatmeal Raisin & Nut Cookies

This is one of my family’s favorite and it is much healthier than chocolate chip cookies. The recipe is from the back lid of Quaker oatmeal container. I reduced sugar a bit, and I also added toasted chopped walnuts to give it some crunch.