guest blog #2 fails: this is supposed to be...

this is supposed to be ma lai go

this is supposed to be a cookie

i made soy sauce chicken!

ahhahah and it was delicious.

Unfortunately I used a blogger's recipe so i cant copy it onto our blog but i can link you.
http://www.christinesrecipes.com/2009/07/soy-sauce-chicken.html

the other unfortunate thing (esp for our fail king alvin) is its in chinese.. so i'll make a translation w/ personal updates of the recipe



Ingredients:
some chinese cooking wine (Blogger Christine uses 'siu hing', i didnt have any so i just used rice wine)
1/2 cup of light soy sauce
1/3 cup of dark soy sauce.
1 cup of water
1 piece of chinese rock sugar (i used a piece about the size of a.. golf ball.. probz smaller..i think its really up to you how much sugar you wanna put in.. how big the chicken.. how much soy sauce blah lbah
ginger (some for the chicken, some of the pan, some for the sauce)
spring onions/scallions (1 sprig for the chicken, a couple for the pan and 2 or 3 for scallion sauce)
couple cloves of garlic, smashed but not chopped
2 cloves of star anise Blogger Christine puts chinese dried citrus peel, but since i had none, i used 2 cloves of star anise, completely different aroma, but nice

warning! this recipe may be pretty easy to do, but it takes a little bit of time depending on the size of your chicken. Luckily for me its usualy just me and colin, so i got a small 2 lber from the farmer's market. Chinese people really like to use really fresh chicken for steaming, because frozen chicken loses its 'chicken' taste. I think your best bet other than going to china town to find live chickens (which is scary and i would never do) is to buy one from a farmer's market.

Prep: 10 mins

- rinse/clean chicken. You wont be needing any of the gizzards for this recipe if your chicken comes with it.
- wipe chicken dry with a paper towel
- put a few slices of ginger and a sprig of scallion into chicken cavity
- The blog says to 'wipe' the cooking wine onto the chicken... couldnt figure out/be bothered to find something to 'wipe' it with, so i just made sure the chicken was dry and the bowl was dry, then pour some wine over the chicken, and rolled the chicken around so the whole body was covered (dont soak that chicken though! AHHAH)

Prepping the pan: 10-15 mins

the blogger uses le creuset and swears by it.. well i'd love to have one too but too expensive! hhahah so i used a non stick pan. my chicken was small, so i used a 3" deep pan to cook it in.. any bigger and i'd probably HAVE to find a damn le creuset since my other pot is isnt nonstick lol.

-slice up some ginger, scallions and garlic for the pan.
- heat up pan with some oil. 'pop' pan with ginger, scallions and garlic. (chinese people call this 'bao hoong" - like.. exploding red ahahhaha - because your heating up the oil and flavoring the pan, almost all cantonese recipes call for this.)
- pour light+dark soy sauce, water, star anise into pan and bring to a boil, add rock sugar.
- when sugar has completely dissolved, turn heat down to low and add your chicken with the breast towards the pan. take a serving spoon and SERVE THAT CHICKEN SOME SAUCE. no i mean cover the chicken's body with soy sauce. be sure to put some soy sauce in the cavity too! cover the pan with lid and set your timer for 10 mins. now leave it alone.
- after then mins unlid, turn the chicken to its back side, now 'dress' the chicken again with sauce, then put the lid back on, set timer for 8 mins. leave
- unlid, turn chicken to side, dress, lid on for 13 mins, repeat for other side
- unlid, turn chicken back onto breast side, and bring soy sauce to a boil. While it is doing so, dress your chicken some more :D when sauce has come to a boil, turn heat off and quickly put the lid back on. depending on the size of your chicken, this last part will cook any bits that you've missed. My chicken was small, so i only did this for 5-10 mins and my chicken was well done. Make sure that when you cut into the chicken (ie the thigh) the juices that run are clear, not red.

scallion and ginger sauce:

- mix chopped scallions and fresh ground ginger together, add a little bit of salt for taste
- heat up some oil in a small sauce pan. when oil begins to smoke (a little) pour hot oil over scallion/ginger mix and voila. sauce. :D

Be sure to keep the soysauce left over from the chicken! :D i used it to cook some vegetables.. and i think i'll use it to make some stir fry udon today. that soy sauce is really delicious and totally reusable for another dish like fried rice etc. :D

oh doing posts first thing in the morning makes me HUNGRY :D ahahhaha

i want a kitchen aid mixer!

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/shop/electrics/mixers-attachments/index.cfm?cm_type=lnav

omg.. i want a kitchenaid mixer. you know why? because they make an attachment for EVERYTHING EVER ie ICECREAM MAKER, PASTA, SAUSAGE MAKER, CITRUS JUICER! omg. lol seriously.. seriously.. well mainly i want the icecream maker attachment.... but a mixer would help me make bread/piecrust/batter! ahahhaha

well
i can have dreams. someday i will have that mixer. ahhaha

alvin fails. i made apple pie.. soup?

lol so colin and i decided we would make apple pie last night. well mainly it turned into me making apple pie and colin bought some greiere (sp?). anyways I think i kind of failed... because the filling turned really watery... it actually tastes really good and the crust is great but.. it just started pooling when i cut it! i think i will stick it in the oven again when i get home tonight. well. after doing some research we found out that maybe our pie is so soupy becuase i didnt put enough flour.. sofor those using the following recipe.. i advise more flour in the filling? or just maybe in the oven longer than 40-45 mins...

UPDATE:

oh i forgot to explain how i did it! hahhaha

ok

so i followed the instructions for the pie crust.. which is relatively easy.. but i used half real butter and half I CANT BELIEVE ITS NOT BUTTER!!! "FOR BAKING"hahha i love that.. anyways. pretty easy.. just broke the butter up with my fingers in the flour.. kind of like.. making apple crumble. then wrapped it up. since i didnt use shortening, i put the dough in the fridge to cool, i think i left it in there for a while because i didnt roll out the dough until after dinner.. which was.. maybe a couple of hours later.

then i cut all the apples into thin slices.. colin had found a recipe for 'all american' and told me to buy fuji apples.. which now that we look back on.. maybe we shoudlnt haev just cos everyone says to use granny smith + those are more tart and sour whereas fuji is more sweet. anyways.. mixed it all.. blah lbah.. i think this is the part that i messed up.. becuase i think there was excess water at the bottom.. and that might have contributed to the soupyness hahah

ok. so then. i rolled out the crust.. with a cup! rolling out pie dough with a cup is much easier than rolling out spring onion pancake dough.. probz cos its so much more buttery ahhaha :D

well the pie crust was delicious. and i'm going rebake it tonight to boil out more of the water.. i hope it'll be less soupy.. cos the taste is good. ahhahahha

OH i added greiere to the crust, an idea my old roommate and i got from pushing daisies and its relaly good because greiere is mild and it mkes the crust really crispy and delicious.

Happy pie day!

*sigh* i'm sad for my soupy apple pie.. but..

alvin fails for not blogging again. HAHHHAHHAHAHHA

alvin fails. i made apple pie.. soup?

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup shortening 6 tablespoons cold water

Directions: (continued)

1.	In a bowl, combine flour and salt; cut in shortening until crumbly. Gradually add water, tossing with a fork until dough forms a ball. Divide dough in half so one ball is slightly larger than the other.
2.	Roll out the larger ball to fit a 9-in. or 10-in. pie plate. Transfer pastry to pie plate. Trim pastry with even with edge of plate. Pour desired filling into crust.
3.	Roll out second ball; cut slits in pastry. Position over filling. Trim pastry to 1 in. beyond edge of pie plate. Fold top crust over bottom crust. Flute edges. Bake according to recipe directions.

ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup shortening 4 tablespoons cold water FILLING: 7 cups thinly sliced peeled baking apples 2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup sugar 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 tablespoons butter or margarine 1 egg yolk 1 tablespoon water

Directions:

1.

In a bowl, combine flour and salt; cut in shortening. Gradually add cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing lightly with a fork until dough forms a ball. Chill for 30 minutes. On a floured surface, roll half of dough into 10-in. circle. Place into a 9-in. pie pan.

2.

In a bowl, toss apples with lemon juice. Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg; add to apples and toss. Pour into crust; dot with butter. Roll out remaining pastry to fit top of pie; cut slits in top. Place over filling; seal and flute edges. Beat egg yolk and water; brush over pastry. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F; bake 40-45 minutes more or until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.

cookie time!

Herrooo!!

right now i'm watching "Hoarders" on A&E and its amazing. I'm afraid i'm going to be like these ppl someday! i hope not.

anyways so today i made these cookies. the recipe is really really easy. I'll take pictures in a little bit. and yes. they are really delicious :D Happy!

update:
Prep Time: 30 min
Inactive Prep Time:1 hr 0 min
Cook Time:12 min
Serves:25 to 30 cookies

Ingredients

Cookies:

• 6 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Icing:

• 2 to 3 tablespoons just-boiled water
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
• Food coloring, preferably pastes
• Special equipment: cookie cutters

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and moving towards moussiness, then beat in the egg and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and eggs, and mix gently but surely. If you think the finished mixture is too sticky to be rolled out, add more flour, but do so sparingly as too much will make the dough tough. Form into a fat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place disk of dough on it, and sprinkle a little more flour on top of that. Then roll it out to a thickness of about 1/4-inch. Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the cookies a little apart on 2 parchment or silpat lined baking sheets.

Bake for 8 to 12 minutes; obviously it depends on the shape you're using and whether they are on the upper or lower shelf, though you can swap them around after about 5 minutes. When they're ready expect them to be tinged a pronounced gold around the edges; they'll be softish still in the middle, but set while they cool.

Remove the cookies with a flat, preferably flexible, spatula to a wire rack. When they are fully cooled, you can get on with the icing. Put a couple of tablespoons of not-quite-boiling water into a large bowl, add the sieved confectioners sugar and mix together, adding more water as you need to form a thick paste. Color,as desired. I think pastes are much better than liquid, not just because the range of colors is better but because they don't dilute the icing as they tint. Ice cooled cookies, as desired.

i wanna make steamed egg custard!

I really want steamed egg custard.. everytime i do it i seem to fail!
the recipe i have in my book has milk, but since i dont drink milk i have none and since its 10.20 at night i cant be bothered to run out and do it.

however, i dont ever recall my aunt using milk in the recipe.. so i did some research and most ppl dont use any milk at all! So i think i will try 2 cups of water and 1 egg and see how that goes.

heres recipe i'm going to try:

ingredients:
1 cup of beaten egg (will update when i know how many eggs that is) 4 eggs
2 cups of water
4oz of rock sugar (100g) not sure how many crystals this will be, but i think i wil just guess lol.

instructions:
- dissolve rock sugar in hot water. Make sure water is fully cooled before adding it into egg.
- online sources suggest lightly beating the eggs to make sure we dont overbeat or add too many bubbles into mixture.
- strain mixture through a wire strainer before pouring into container to strain out any unbeaten whites or bubbles :D
- mixture should make 4 bowls. Steam over gentle heat for 15-20 minutes. I read online that after putting the bowls into the steamer, you should stir the mixture for about 1 minute, and then let it steam for 15-20 mins. Since i'm not using a bamboo steamer, this is be faster, but those who are using bamboo, its recommended to steam longer.

apparently since i'm steaming with a metal steamer i should wrap the bowls with glad wrap to avoid watervapor. i think i will give that a try.

Alrightly. 1030 pm going to try making some custard! yummmm wish me good luck.

update: 10.50

ok i realised after doing all the prep i should have dissolved 1cup of water with the sugar first and then poured in another cup of water to make it cool down faster. lol well we'll see how long it takes for the mixture to cool down.. dont want any scrambled eggs! so i measured how many eggs would be in 1 cup and i used large brown eggs and 4 eggs is about 1 cup. But this probably varies, so you should still just break the eggs into the measuring cup and see how many eggs it will be. Since dont wanna wash any extra stuff, i'm going to use my rice cooker. but since my rice cooker cant fit multiple bowls at once, i'm going to use a big glass bowl and see how that goes. lol.

update: 12.18

no bubbles! perfect! the texture is a little soft in the middle.. maybe next time i wil let it cook longer since the container was bigger.. but it tastes delicious! a little too hot ahhaha cos i was too quick to try! ahhah i think when it cools down it wont be so sooo soft.

ps! i didnt bother with the stirring over the hot water thing because it was in the rice cooker.. but it came out fine :D maybe it owuld have cooked faster if i did that

maybe next time i will try making the salty kind with shrimp and scallions! ahhaha but this is very very soft.. i think if i do the salty kind it will be less water..














ahhaha the missing bit in the bowl is me trying it. Its a little sweet cos i put a really big piece of rock sugar in since i didnt know how to judge portions! hahahha it will be REALLY sweet when its cold but its ok! the point is i got the texture right! :D happy :D

pear-mint thought experiment

David: what are your thoughts on pear-mint icing?
Phyllis: hmmm
Phyllis: i dont know
Phyllis: pear and mint is a great combo
Phyllis: but icing is a little heavy
Phyllis: i think maybe a pear mint glaze would be better than icing
David: what about a pear-mint meringue
Phyllis: hmm
Phyllis: is this for a cake
Phyllis: or just on its own
David: I was inspired a few minutes ago
David: it's more of a thought experiment
Phyllis: ok
Phyllis: well
Phyllis: hmm
Phyllis: i think part of whats really delicious about a cooked pear with syrup and mint is becuase its so light and cool for the summer
Phyllis: so the weight or texture of a meringe or icing just seems so heavy to me
Phyllis: because the freshness in the pear would be so important
Phyllis: but a meringue could be good
Phyllis: i think as a sorbet it would be heaven
David: oooh yes
David: a sorbet
David: good call
Phyllis: it would also be a really great summer dessert
Phyllis: poach pear with mint vanilla ice cream
David: perhaps with a light date/fig sauce sprinkled around?
Phyllis: oh yeaaaaaaaa

guest blog #1 miss chung

i am going to make korean potato shrimp pancakes

check out the recipes

http://blog.naver.com/pride0123?Redirect=Log&logNo=110066723459

wayyyyy too much chocolate cake.

ahhh

the title is self explanatory.. i made WAY to much chocolate cake. in typical me + failing to bake a cake fashion.. i misread one very important ingredient.. i thought there were 2 cups of coffee instead of 1! to fix the problem colin ran out to buy me more sugar and more flour.. so i ended up with double the amount of cake!

on top of that.. i made a butter cream frosting thats a little.. well.. too much.. so i'm hesistant to put the frosting on the cake.. i want to run out and get some heavy cream to make a ganache glaze instead but my mom really doesnt want me to do it..

anyways heres a retarded picture for you guys to take a look.














update. it might not be very pretty. but it taste pretty good. still think this cake shoudl have a ganache glaze though..

omg i'm starving!

i really want some chocolate cake! ahhaha

yesterday i watched julie and julia and loved it. hilarious :D but hahah i couldnt help but feel like maybe i'm copying julie powel ahahha but i'm sure there are so many ppl out there that do the same thing. plus i didnt actually know about julie powel when i started this blog so.. i guess its ok.

i think i'm going to attempt this recipe today, i got it from the food network website.. its called beatty's chocolate cake from the barefoot contessa.. i mean.. well i've never read julia child but i <3 ina garten from her perfect hamptoms cottage to her perfectly coiffed bob ;P

there is something i REALLY wanna try from the movie thats a famous julia child recipe.. the duck!!!! ahhaha it looks amazing! maybe someday alvin and i will attempt that! ahha

alvin is out of town this weekend camping so he cant do the challenge so its all me! wish me good luck :D

Ingredients

nocoupons

• Butter, for greasing the pans
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions

Chocolate Buttercream, recipe follows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

Chocolate Frosting:

6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (recommended: Callebaut)

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.