Fragrant Tea Leaf Eggs 茶叶蛋

The weather has started to get wonky again, sunny for two days and then rainy for the rest of the week. And this morning, after coming home from sending both Meng off to the station and SW off to school, I came home and rain started to pour. In such weather, all you want to do is curled up in a blanket infront of the TV! I've also felt like having some tea-leaf eggs... The first time I made it was six months ago and I can still remember how tasty it was. 

I have seen it in "Mummy, I can Cook's" blog and was really amazed at just how easy it seemed and since I have all the ingredients in my kitchen, there is no reason why I can't do it. I brewed my 茶叶蛋 (Tea Leaf Eggs) for a good 3-4 hours. The longer you brew/marinate, the better it taste.

The end result : Beautiful marbling effects and tasty goodness all in one egg! I will always remember how its fragrance will draw me into the Chinese Herbal shops in Malaysia, always buying more eggs than I can eat. But really, who am I kidding? I will always be able to finish all of them, even if it means eating it the next day.

(Shean Wenn enjoying the tea leaf eggs I made in April) 

I have followed Shu Han's recipe here.

Baking craze : Chiffon cake

I have always ALWAYS loved eating chiffon cakes, this has been going on for many years since my teens. Such a simple cake right? I guess I like its light, fluffy texture and that it isn't too sweet and seems pretty guiltless eating it. I could probably devour a whole cake on my own in a day if I have less self-control!

When I was working in BP, a colleague of mine, a very good friend & neighbour who used to carpool me home and who happens to be a super cook will bake my favourite ORANGE CHIFFON! Her chiffon cake is really light, airy & fluffy. And she is really generous too. On my trip back to Msia in Dec/Jan, she brought over the BIGGEST chiffon cake I've ever seen! Anyway, she has attempted to teach me but at that time (6 years ago), the instructions & ingredients seem a little too intimidating so I have just been contented eating those lousy and not to mention EXPENSIVE chiffon cakes I can get in London (usually sold by chinese bakery).

Anyway, one day I stumbled upon Rasa Malaysia's Nyonya site which had the most tempting chiffon cake recipe. I looked at it & pondered about it for many days. Sigh, first and foremost, I don't even have the appliances - electric mixer & the tube pan. But reading the recipe for almost a week, I decided it is too easy not to do it so I borrowed both stuff from a friend.



My first attempt was an Orange Chiffon cake and it was a GREAT success. Well, at least the texture was right although the cake didn't look too nice. I found out later that you need to use the right tube pans, those aluminium ones and they cannot be non-stick (else it will not "drop out" when you turn it to cool). Over the next few weeks, whenever I can get my hands on my friend's tube pan, I'd be baking chiffon cakes. Shean Wenn & I can eat one cake every 2 days, sometimes I bring it out if we're meeting friends for playdates.

Anyway, a week later we bought extra pandan leaves & I decided to give the Pandan Chiffon cake a go and oh boy, the aroma is brilliant. I didn't use any food colouring for it and its green came from solely from the pandan leaves.

Pandan Chiffon Cake : Made from All Natural Ingredients

Upon request from Shean Wenn, I have also baked a Chocolate Chiffon Cake for her. It too, was a great success! I've been baking it a few times for her and she really loves it. (Shean Wenn's favourite wink, ala the Hello Kitty wink!)

Now, I'm thinking how I should get a tube pan from Msia/US. They don't sell the same ones here in UK - here they sell the non-stick ones and they used it to bake Angel Cake, instead.

Resepi sedap! (Delicious recipies)

12 June 2009

The past few weeks were hectic for me : studying for the "Life in UK" test for application of the UK Permanent Residency & while in the midst of studying, I have also discovered a highly addictive FB game as a destress regime- "Bejeweled Blitz" (BJB). For days, I will be playing BJB whenever I can find the time amongst studying, housekeeping, housework & caring for baby. Well, all games are addictive but this is highly addictive because on the right of the screen, you get a scoreboard with your friend's highscores updated LIVE. So everytime I play, my goal was to GET TO THE TOP!

Anyway, because I am quite fed-up with eating almost the same food every week, I thought I should bring out my trusty recipe book, an aptly titled "Hawker's Fair Simplified" (which is basically depicting all the delish hawker food of Malaysia) and looked at which recipe I should try. I decided on the "Nam Yee Spare Ribs" (Name Yee = fermented red bean curds). We usually buy streaky pork so I used streaky pork instead of spare ribs.

The hubs's feedback was SO good that he requested for it 2 days later.

(My nam yee streaky pork)

NAM YEE SPARE RIBS/ STREAKY PORK

Ingredients
Meaty spare ribs/ lean streaky pork cut into any size you wish
Oil for deep frying (I shallow fry instead)

Marinade
1 tsp bicaronate of soda
2 pcs nam yee (I used 1.5pcs)
chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp nam yee juice
chopped garlic
light soya sauce
shaoxing wine
1 tsp of sugar, 1 tbsp oyster sauce
five spice powder
1 tsp sesame oil
dash of chicken stock granules
2 tbsp plain flour, 6 tbsp corn flour
1 egg, 100ml water

Method :
1. Combine pork with marinade & marinade for 3 hours.
2. Heat up oil for deep/shallow fry, put in pork and fry until golden brown & cooked.
3. Dish & drain. Serve.

Easy peasy!


And today for lunch, I decided to make some salmon fish cakes/patties for Shean Wenn since I think she's probably quite sick of eating the same kind of food every week. This is a recipe I got from my friend MZ who is a nanny to 2 M'sian kids. I modified it as well.

SALMON FISH CAKES/PATTIES (for kids)

Ingredients
Salmon
1 big potato
Dollop of butter
Diced shallot (make sure you dice it into tiny pieces)
2 tbsp of corn flour
2-3 tbsp of plain flour
some Cheese - Grated
some Carrot - Grated
Egg : separate yolk from white. Both will be used.
Diced Coriander
Salt & pepper to taste


Method :
1. Boil the cubed potatoes until cooked. Drain & mash with butter.
2. Add some olive oil in pan and pan fry salmon until cooked.
3. Squeeze some lemon juice onto the salmon. Use a fork to mash up the salmon with the egg yolk.
4. Mix the potatoes & salmon together.
5. Add in diced shallots, cheese, carrots, some salt & pepper to taste. Also add in coriander.
6. Pour in the egg white. Mix in about Corn Flour & Plain Flour (add in gradually to adjust to the egg consistency).
7. Make sure the consistency is not too "watery". Scoop up a spoonful using a tbsp and coat with some bread crumbs mix with a little cornflour.
8. Heat up some olive oil in a pan. Pan fry the Fish Cakes/Patty until brown & cooked.


Shean Wenn's reaction?

Can't wait to dig in!

She takes a big bite into the Salmon Patty! YUMMOS! She polished up everything!