Mushroom Dried Scallop XO Sauce 香菇瑶柱XO酱

My husband had to go China every month for their company's new project and half a year ago, one of their partners in China gave him a big pack of Dried Scallop and Dried Shitake Mushroom each.

Dried Mushroom                             Dried Scallop   

One of the stuff I have been experimenting using them is the XO sauce. It's an great condiment to have. We love it with fried rice and I add it to some of the dishes I ate for dinner too. As much as I like ready-made XO sauce, they are either to spicy or too strong for the kids to handle. It's best if you can made your own XO sauce adjusted it to your own taste.

There isn't any hard and fast rule on my homemade XO sauce. If you prefer it more oily (ingredients will be softer soaked in oil), add more oil during cooking. If you want it hotter, add more Dried Chilli.

I'm using the Happy Call Pan to do this. You can use a regular non-stick pan too. The biggest difference is that the HCP cooks faster and is more moist. I used the HCP to steam cook the dried scallops too. If you do not have the pan, you will have to soak the dried scallop and steam it for an hour before you can shred them.

Ingredients:

• 60g Dried Scallops, soaked with 4 tablespoon water
• 1 1/2 tablespoon Dried Shrimp, soaked to soften and chopped
• 3 Red Chilli (replace with Dried Chilli if you want it spicy)
• 3 tablespoon Chopped Garlic
• 3 tablespoon Chopped Shallot
• 5 Dried Shiitake Mushroom, soaked to soften and chopped
• 5 Dried Shiitake Mushroom, soaked to soften and sliced
• a dash of Pepper
• Sugar or to taste (optional)
• 4 tablespoon Oil

How to do it:

1. Pour dried scallops with water into the pan after soaking it for 15 minutes.
2. Close pan and cook it in medium low heat for 4 mins or till water is almost dry.
3. Use the back of the spoon to press the dried scallops. They should be soft enough to break into pieces. If not, add a bit more water and cook longer.
4. Remove the dried scallops, tear into smaller shreds if necessary or give it a pause in the blender and set aside.
5. Heat oil in the same pan in medium low heat but not smoking.
6. Add in the garlic and shallot and saute till fragrant.
7. Add in the rest of the ingredient except shredded dried scallops.
8. Saute till fragrant by covering and shaking for 2 minutes.
9. Add a tablespoon of mushroom water.
10. Cover and continue cooking for another 2 minutes.
11. Add in shredded dried scallop.
12. Stir-fry till mixed well.
13. Cover and continue cooking for 4 minutes, shaking the pan to prevent burning. I open the pan occasionally to give it a good stir too.
14. Add pepper and sugar to taste if necessary, stir-fry to mix well.
15. Dish and store for later use.

Note:

• The dried scallops I used are very small (pls refer to photo above). Hence, it's easier and faster to steam and shred it. If you are using larger one, you might need a longer time to soak and soften it.
• The mushroom I used are slightly larger than a 50cents coin. If you are using larger one, you might want to reduce the number of mushroom.

My simple fried rice with homemade XO Sauce for extra flavours

Cupcake with Buttercream 奶油小蛋糕

It was winter solstice yesterday and incidentally it was my birthday too. :P Nope, obviously I'm not 4 years old but 10 times older. ;)

I decided to bake myself cupcakes and make buttercream (for the first time) to top it. I will have to practice piping more to do it better. Other than that, both the cupcake and butter cream was a successful.

Ingredient:

• 125g Butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 150g Caster Sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 225g Self Raising Flour
• 60ml Milk

Vanilla Buttercream

• 125g Butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 200g Icing Sugar
• 2 tablespoon Milk

How to do it:

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
   Add vanilla extract.
2. Add one egg at a time and continue beating.
3. Add in flour and beat well till mixture is smooth and pale.
4. Spoon batter into muffin cup.
5. Bake for 20 minutes in preheat oven at 180C.
6. Turn cupcakes top-side up on wire rack to cool.
7. Meanwhile prepare the Butter Cream.

For Vanilla Buttercream

1. Beat butter and vanilla extract till pale.
2. Gradually beat in half the icing sugar.
3. Add in milk and continue beating.
4. Gradually beat in the remaining icing sugar.
5. Add in a drop or colouring if you like.
6. Use it to spread on the cupcakes or put into a piping bag with star nozzle to be used.

Recipe adapted from Women's Weekly Cupcakes & Cookies