Churros 西班牙炸油条切洛斯

Churros is like our fried dough stick (油条）except it's much easier to do compared to our Chinese version. From what I gather, Churros was originated from Spain and is a rather common snack in Philippines as it was pass down during the time when Philippines was a Spanish colony. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Which ever it was, I'm glad someone somehow brought Churros to Singapore. *smiles* I just love it! I used to buy Churros from one of the stalls in Bugis function. That was many years ago and that stall is no longer there. I have not find another place selling it since. Hence, I have to do it myself. Oh, you will need thick gloves to do this, unless you have thick (hand) skin and can take the heat.


Ingredients:

• 250ml Water
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 125g All-Purpose Flour, sifted
• 250ml Oil
• Icing Sugar or Cinnamon Sugar for dusting

How to do it:

1. Put flour in a heatproof bowl and set aside.
2. Combine water and salt in a saucepan.
3. Bring it to a boil.
4. Pour it over the flour.
5. Stir till a smooth dough is formed and it separates from the sides of the bowl.
6. Spoon the dough into a pastry bag with a large tip.
7. Pipe into hot oil.
8. Alternatively, pipe on greased and floured baking paper.
9. Deep fry till golden yellow.
10. Drain on paper towels.
11. Dust with icing sugar.

Note:
It's too soft to pick up the piped dough. So pipe directly to the hot oil will be easier. Or you can piped it on a floured baking paper then slip it to the hot oil.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe.

* before dusting *

Pandan Chiffon Cake

This is my daughter's favourite! Everytime we go pass Bangawan Solo, she would insist on having a slice.

This recipe comes together with other recipes like this and this, when my hubby bought me my first oven. They were all so good. I knew I can trust this recipe and just had to do it.

I didn't have the baking pan. So I used muffin cups instead. Hey! Not a bad idea too. It was less messy and was easier to store.

Ingredients:

Bowl A:

• 6 Egg Yolks
• 100g Sugar

Bowl B:

• 6 Egg Whites
• 100g Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar

Bowl C:

• 150g All-Purpose Flour aka Plain Flour
• 1 tablespoon Baking Powder

Bowl D:

• 200ml Coconut Milk
• 2 tablespoon Cooking Oil
• 1 teaspoon Pandan Paste (not Pandan Essence)

How to do it:

1. Whisk ingredients in Bowl A until sugar melts and mixture is creamy.
2. Mix ingredients from Bowl D before adding into Bowl A.
3. Mix well.
4. Sift flour and baking powder before adding into Bowl A.
5. Mix well.
6. Use mixer to whisk ingredients in Bowl B.
7. When egg white is stiff, fold in manually to Bowl A and mix well.
8. Preheat oven at 180C and heat up Chiffon Cake Tin together.
9. When oven is preheated, remove cake tin and pour mixture into it.
10. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden brown.
11. When cake is is ready, turn tin upside down allowing it to cool slightly before removing it from cake tin.

Note:
The recipe posted was as what was given to me. However, I didn't follow a few steps as I used muffin cups instead of chiffon cake tin. Plus my chiffon cake took lesser time to bake as the mixture was much less.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe.

* Soft and Fluffy *

Pig's Trotters with Ginger and Black Vinegar 猪脚姜醋

This dish might be familiar to ladies who have gone through confinement. It's a very popular dish to be taken during confinement as it said to help disperse wind and to help tighten the uterus. Erhmm ... my hubby likes this too but no uterus to tighten leh. My confinement lady said men or women, nevermind. All also can eat lah. *giggles*

I believe the authentic way to prepare this dish is to have the gravy prepared in a clay pot at least a month before it is to be eaten and the gravy must be heat up at least once a day, everyday. When it is ready to be eaten, just add the gravy to the pig's trotters and hard boiled eggs to be cooked together. Notice I mentioned, add the gravy to the pig's trotters and not the other way round. Well, this is because the gravy prepared can usually last for the whole confinement period. It got to last that long because it takes soooo long to prepare. At least, that's how my late grandmother-in-law does it.

I doubt many people will go through the hassle to do it. I for one just do it on the day I want to eat it. BUT, I'm also one of those lucky ones who had the chance to have it the authentic way because my mother-in-law prepare it for me. *smiles* Hmm ... I must try to probe her to give me her secret recipe and correct way to do this.

My confinement lady cooked this for me on my second confinement using her recipe. It's not as super as what my mother-in-law did but it's still very good. I tried the recipe myself some time ago and it's not even half as good compared to what my confinement lady did. Must practice more!

Maybe you can do better than me. Try this some time!

Ingredients:

• 1.5 litre Sweet Rice Vinegar
• 2.25 litre Water
• 1/2 kg Yellow Rock Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Salt or to taste
• 2 teaspoon Sesame Seed Oil
• 1 kg Ginger, slightly smashed
• 1.5kg Pig Trotter or other leaner meat

How to do it:

1. Blanch meat and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a pot (preferably clay pot).
3. Saute ginger till fragrant.
4. Add vinegar, water, rock sugar and salt to the pot with ginger and oil.
5. Bring it to a boil.
6. Reduce to a simmer and continue simmering for an hour.
7. Add in the meat and simmer for at least an hour or till the meat is tender.
8. Serve hot with rice.

Note:
You can save half the gravy (before adding the meat) for the next day if you are eating alone. Just heat up at the end of the day and heat up again the next day. Ie, heating at least twice a day. No refrigeration needed. When it's ready to be eaten, just add meat to the gravy and cook.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe

* Pig's Trotter with Eggs *

Additional Notes:

Had a chance to check with my mother-in-law. She uses brown sugar (Chinese called it black sugar) instead of rock sugar. If you are cooking this to be eaten for the day or next day, half the amount of water or lesser, so the gravy will not be so diluted. She didn't specify the amount required for her recipe. She uses and add the ingredients based on her gut feeling. *giggle* In her words, 'agak-agak' (gauge) how thick and how sweet you want the gravy to be. Don't want it to be too 'spicy', add lesser ginger. *giggle*

One of my visitor, Eleanor, had also advised on the cutting down of water and she gave a very important tip too. Replace the sesame seed oil with normal cooking oil if it's not eaten for confinement as using sesame seed oil will make the dish heaty. You won't want to fall sick after eating this. *wink*

Thanks for the great tip, Eleanor! ^_^

Extra Crunchy Chocolate Chips Cookies

This is one cookie I have been baking for Christmas and Lunar New Year as gifts for my family and friends. I baked these again for my son's Lunar New Year's celebration in school.

However, I did some adjustments to the last recipe to make it less sweet but extra crunchy.

Ingredients:

• 200g Butter, soften
• 200g Brown Sugar
• 2 Eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
• 200g Chocolate Bits
• 30g Corn Flour
• 220g Top Flour or All Purpose Flour
• 3 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt

How to do it:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Cream butter and sugar till pale and creamy.
3. Add in eggs and vanilla essence and beat well.
4. Fold in shifted flour.
5. Fold in chocolate bits.
6. Scoop spoonfuls of mixture on tray lined with baking paper or pipe on baking paper.
7. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, depending on size of cookie, until lightly golden.
8. Cool completely on wire racks before storing in air-tight containers.

Note:
You can use Self-Raising Flour instead of All-Purpose Flour. Do not add Baking Powder and Salt if you are replacing the flour.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe

Baked Cod with Garlic Mayonnaise

You know I'm really hard pressed for time these days especially with Chinese New Year just less than a week away. Hence, I used my (water) oven a lot so I can work on other stuff while my trusty helper do the rest of the cooking.

You need an oven or toaster to make this dish. If you don't own one, you can steam it but the dish will be 'watery'. Not that nice plus you won't have the brown top effect.

If you have been following my blog, you might know my son only eats Cod (expensive taste buds). So for this dish, I used Cod as usual. You can use other white fish instead but I must say Cod tasted a lot better. It tasted sweet.



Ingredients:

• 1 Cod (I used the tail part and it's about 7" long)
• A dash of pepper and salt
• 1 teaspoon Olive Oil if not using Cod

Garlic Mayo:

• 3 clove Garlic
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder (optional)
  
• 2 tablespoon Mayonnaise (I use Japanese Mayo - the one with the baby)
• 1/2 teaspoon Olive Oil
• A pinch of salt

How to do it:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Rub a dash of pepper and salt on Cod.
3. Place Cod skin down on a baking dish, if you are not using Cod rub oil on the base of the fish before putting it on the dish.
4. To prepare the sauce, chop or blend garlic till paste like.
5. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
6. Spread the mixture over the fish.
7. Bake fish for 15 minutes or till cooked.
8. Served immediately.

Note:
If you are using Cod, you may notice a lot of oil at the base. It's from both the Cod and the Mayo. Just dish it out and serve on another dish. Oily it may seems but it's not oily but moist instead inside (see pic below). However if you are using other white fish, it will not be as moist inside.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe.

* Juicy Baked Cod *

Pineapple Cocoon 凤梨酥

I had no idea what these are called. I just made up a name for it (because it looks like a cocoon). In Chinese, it's called 凤梨酥.

I meant to post this last week but I really couldn't squeeze out time to blog. Sorry if you have been waiting for this post.  Hopefully, you are still in time to make this. I know I wouldn't have the time now. I'm still cleaning the house and it seems like I haven't done any cleaning. Sigh! That's the problem if you have active young kids at home.

I'm using the same ingredients as what I did with my Pineapple Tarts. So you can see the Cocoon crust (above) is flaky and almost cookie-like. My family and friends prefer this than the Pineapple Tart. Their comments were the pineapple jam was more moist and not as dry as the Tart as it's not exposed to baking. I prefer the Tart for just the opposite reasons! *laughs* Whatever the case, they still taste 99% the same.


Ingredients:

• Please refer to Pineapple Tart

How to do it:

1. Beat butter, sugar and salt till creamy.
2. Add egg and vanilla essence.
3. Mix evenly.
4. Fold in the flour and mix into a dough.
5. Roll dough and pineapple jam in balls of 10g and 8g each respectively.
6. Flatten the dough with your palms.
7. Place the jam in the middle and fold the dough to cover it.
8. Roll the combination into oblong or ball.
9. Gently flatten the top to get marks, if you like.
10. Brush with egg yolk.
11. Baked in tray lined with baking paper for 16 minutes or till golden brown in preheated oven at 180C.
12. Cool on wire rack before storing.

.:: Pineapple Jam ::.It's simple to make your own pineapple jam but it takes a lot work to do it. Home made pineapple jam is better if you do not have a sweet tooth as ready made jam tends to be very sweet.

You will just need Pineapple (fresh or canned) and Sugar. If you are using fresh pineapples, you have to skin it, remove any 'eyes' (black spots) and core it. If using canned pineapples, drain it from the syrup.

Then grate or blend the pineapple into a puree. I blend cos I'm lazy to grate and I prefer it to still have some tiny pineapple bits. Using canned pineapples will be more expensive as you have to get a few cans just to make enough jam.

After you have the blended or grated pineapple, cooked in a wok preferably a non-stick type, keep stirring it so it will not get burnt. When the liquid has almost dried up, add sugar to taste. The amount of sugar used depends on the type and amount of pineapple you used. You can add cinnamon powder if you like but I don't cos we don't like it. :P  Continue stirring till the jam becomes thick and sticky and no longer wet. Let it cool and it's ready to be used.

It's very important that that jam is not wet as it will affect the texture of the tart or cocoon. You won't want your tarts or cocoon to be soggy.

Okay, not much time left. Quick! Heat your oven and get baking!

Have fun!