No Bake Strawberry Yoghurt Tart 草莓酸奶挞

Actually I planned to make Yoghurt Cheesecake…. a Secret recipe copycat.. But I didn’t get hold of cream cheese and my yoghurt’s coming to it’s use by date.. And I got a lot of fresh strawberries in the fridge (just went to Camerons the week before, Strawberries were on sale, RM20 /2kg @ 4 big boxes).

So, this came as a sudden idea. I planned to use digestive biscuits for this, but the minimart nearby didn’t have it. So, I changed plans to use Oreo and Weetameal instead.


No Bake Strawberry Yoghurt Tart Recipe

Ingredients:

Weetameal Crust
130gm Jacob’s Weetameal (1 small pack)
2 Tbsp honey
65 gm melted butter

Oreo Crust
150gm Oreo (1 tube)
50 gm melted butter

Yoghurt Filling
500gm / 2 cups good creamy strawberry yoghurt
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp sugar
1 ½ Tbsp gelatin
2 Tbsp water

Topping
2 cups of strawberries (cut into halves)
1 cup water
2 Tbsp sugar
½ Tbsp gelatin

Method:
1. Weetameal crust: Blend biscuits in a food processor, mix in honey and melted butter. Mix well.
2. Oreo crust: Blend whole cookies in a food processor and mix in melted butter. Mix well.
3. Press crumbs into a deep dish or tart foils. Freeze.
4. While tart cases are freezing, prepare filling. Bloom gelatin in water. Boil milk and sugar. Pour onto bloomed gelatin. Stir until gelatin is totally dissolved. Leave to cool down.
5. Pour yoghurt into milk, mix well. Ladle yoghurt mixture into chilled tart cases.
6. Place tarts into the fridge again to set and then prepare topping.
7. Boil water and sugar, remove from heat and sprinkle in gelatin. Stir to dissolve. Leave to cool until syrupy consistency.
8. When yoghurt filling has set, arrange strawberries on top of filling and spoon in a 5mm layer of gelatin mixture.
9. Chill in fridge until everything is set.




The tarts I made, 2 big and 2 small




Weetameal crust






Weetameal crust cut up







Oreo crust







Oreo crust cut up



****

I personally prefer Oreo crust

Vegetarian Stuffed Crust Pizza 素食比萨

I was given a large oval aubergine/eggplant/brinjal on my trip to the Camerons the week before. My vegetarian colleague had earlier asked me whether I know how to make pizza, and, it had been ages since I last made pizza. So, I’ll make pizza with this aubergine.

Vegetarian Stuffed Crust Pizza Recipe (for two 12 inch pizzas)
Crust (for 2 12 inch pizzas)

Ingredients:
3 ¼ cups High Protein Flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 ½ tsp yeast
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Dissolve yeast in water. Mix flour with salt. Pour in yeast mixture and olive oil. Knead until dough is no longer sticky. Leave to proof until double. Punch down and shape into pizza.
**
Well, I kept the dough overnight in the fridge after punching down (no shaping) because I wanted the pizza for lunch instead, and I’ll be waking up late.

Toppings (for 2 12 inch pizzas)

500 gm mozzarella cheese (some grated, some cut into strips)
1 cup tomato pasta sauce
1 red onion, sliced
1 green capsicum, sliced
1 yellow capsicum , sliced
1 big red tomato, sliced
1 big aubergine, sliced and pan fried with a bit of olive oil.
½ cup button mushrooms, sliced
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Assembly.
1. Roll out dough, pulling the edges until it’s bigger than the pan.
2. Arrange mozzarella strips on the edges and wrap them up by folding in the edges. Place shaped dough into an oiled pan.

3. Spread 1 Tbsp olive oil onto dough surface evenly.

4. Spread 4 tbsp of pasta sauce onto dough.

5. Arrange toppings starting with the heaviest, aubergine, tomato, onions, capsicum and mushrooms.

6. Sprinkle salt and pepper over pizza. Bake in a preheated oven at 190C for 15 minutes or until the crust is slightly golden
7. Take out from oven and sprinkle on grated mozzarella. Bake for another 12 minutes or until the crust is golden and cheese all melted and golden.

8.Cut pizza while it’s still hot and enjoy the stringy cheese dripping from the sides of the pizza.

****
I made 1 for lunch, and baked another the next morning to bring to work.

****
Crust recipe and tips for baking adapted from annamariavolpi

Pandan Sponge Cups

My hubby was complaining why I'm making fancy cakes nowadays.

He wants me to make simpler cakes for him instead.

So, I used the sponge recipe from Strawberry Mirror Cake to make him this pandan sponge for midnight supper.

Pandan Sponge Cups Recipe

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

150gm sugar

1 tsp pandan emulco

3 egg whites

1 pinch cream of tartar

1 tbsp sugar

75gm sifted cake flour

1. Preheat oven to 190C.

2. Beat eggs whites until foamy, then add in cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks, then add in 1 tbsp of sugar and beat until stiff and glossy.

3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, egg yolks, and sugar until creamy, pale and light. Beat in pandan emulco.

4. Sift cake flour. Fold into egg yolk mixture.

5. Stir in 1/3 of beaten egg whites into egg yolk mixture. Then fold in the rest of the egg whites.

6. Spoon batter into muffin cups until 1cm to the rim. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

****

This recipe yields 12 sponge cups.

Eggplant with Fragrant Topping 香口茄子

Eggplant or brinjal is one vegetable that many people either love it or hate it, it's the extreme of either ends. I love eggplants... but less oil please.

In Chinese cooking, eggplants are usually deep fried before cooking with other ingredients. They do this to "strengthen" the structure, so that it won't be all mushy. But it's a bit too oily, cos, eggplants are good oil 'suckers' !!!

I have a few creations that doesn't require the eggplant to be fried. This is one of them.

I know there is another version... that boils the eggplant til soft, peel them, torn to small pieces, and topped with sambal, soy sauce and lime juice.... This is not the same.. not the same..

Eggplant with Fragrant Toppings recipe

Ingredients
1 long eggplant
3 shallots
2 cloves garlic
1 red chili
1 Tbsp dried shrimp (washed, dried, chopped finely, but I used very small dried shrimps, so there’s no need to chop them up, the drier the shrimp, the crispier they'll be)
½ tsp salt
2 Tbsp oil

Method
1. Chop shallot, and garlic finely. Separately chop chili finely too

2. Boil a small saucepan of water. Cut eggplants just to fit the width of the pot.
Blanch eggplants until they are cooked and soft, but not soggy. This takes less than 2 minutes

3. Drain egg plants and cut into strips.

4. Arrange nicely on a plate.

5. Heat wok and put in oil. Saute garlic and shallots until slightly golden.

6.Put in chopped chili and dried shrimp, and sauté until everything is golden and very fragrant

7. Put in salt, and stir.

8. Place fragrant toppings over blanched eggplants

Assam Prawns 阿萨虾

This is another family favourite from Grandaunty.

When grandaunty made this dish last time, she’ll divide the prawns equally among family members. The children have lunch and dinner at home, and the adults only have dinner. If we’ve eaten all our prawns by lunch, then it’s no more by dinner. No stealing!!! So, we’ll eat half of our portion and save the rest for dinner. We learn to cherish our assam prawns.

This is a slightly different version that most of the assam prawns that I’ve eaten in restaurants. Ours is slightly carameled, rather sweet and made with very simple ingredients.

Ingredients:
300 gm prawns (as thick as my index finger when shelled, about 200gm)
3 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp tamarind paste
½ tsp salt
1 red chili, finely chopped.
2 Tbsp oil

Method:
1. Shell prawns, leaving on the tail.
2. Add in sugar and salt.
3. Marinate for 30 minutes.
4. Add in tamarind paste. Combine well using fingers, removing seeds (if there is) as the fingers rub the tamarind paste onto the prawns.
5. Add in chili. Mix well.
6. Heat wok, add in 2 Tbsp oil and wait until the oil is hot, pour in prawns.
7. Fry them until prawns are slightly caramelized. Dish up.



***
The remaining oil is best used to fry kangkung… or other belacan based dishes.

***
Cook prawns immediately after adding in tamarind. If not they’ll taste half rotten later.

Barazek (Middle Eastern Pistachio Sesame Cookies)

My hubby's aunt brought these wonderful cookies back from Australia, and I fell in love with it.
And I found out that they were middle eastern cookies.



I found a recipe on the internet with pictures that matched what I ate because I saw many barazek pictures that didn't look like what I ate.



Ingredients
3 cups sesame seeds
1/2 cups honey

1 1/4 cup ghee (clarified butter)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 cups flour
2 cups sugee (semolina)
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup chopped pistachios

Method:

Topping
Mix the sesame seeds and honey.

The dough
Cream ghee, eggs, sugar and salt.
Sift in flour, sugee and baking powder.
Mix well.

Assembly
1. Take 1/2 tbsp dough.


2. Drop dough onto chopped pistachios that has been placed on a flat plate.Lightly press dough onto pistachios.

3. With the dough sticking on the back of the spoon, drop the dough pistachio nut side up onto the sesame honey mixture.Lightly press the dough

4. Spoon out dough with generous amount of sesame sticking at the bottom.

5. Place dough sesame side up pistachio side down onto baking tray. Lightly press them flat.

6. Bake at 170C for 15 minutes

7. Cool on baking tray for 2 minutes before transfering to wire rack to fully cool down.

Yummy yummy!!

***

I made this for Chinese New Year. Hub's side of family loved this, my side who were not sesame fans... were just so so about this.

Wendy's Lasagna

This is a backpost, way back to Chinese New Year 2008.

I had open house for my friends, and I made lasagne for them, they are fans of cheese and all things close to the cow.



Did some research and I find that the cheeses that they use is kind of rare in Malaysia, and the most important is they are darn pricey here.

I saw on pioneerwomancooks the way she does hers was easy, but finding hot sausages is rather difficult here. She uses cottage cheese, mozarella and grated parmesan... I just downed it all to mozarella. Used fresh tomatoes and did away with the hot sausages. I added cream to the white layer to make it creamier... Some of my friends can't take beef, so I changed it to chicken... the rest of it, stayed kinda similiar.

So, here's my way of doing it, using easier to find ingredients.

Wendy's Lasagna Recipe

Tomato base
1 Kg minced chicken
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1 bulb Big onion (finely chopped)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp dried basil
2 Tbsp dried parsley
2 cups pureed fresh tomatoes
1 large can San Remo tomato paste (I think it's around 500gm)
2 tsp salt

Saute garlic and onion in olive oil. Put in minced chicken and cook until brown. Add in tomato puree, tomato paste, parsley, basil and salt. Cook mixture until it is almost dry. Dish up and let mixture cool down

White Sauce base
1 cup whipping cream
2 eggs
300gm grated Mozarella Cheese
2 Tbsp dried parsley

Mix everything together well.

Final Assembly
1 Packet of instant lasagne sheets (250gm)
200gm grated mozarella cheese
1 Tbsp butter

1. Butter the base of a 9 X13 inch baking pan.
2. Lay a layer of lasagna sheets on the bottom.
3. Spoon carefully half the white base onto the lasagne sheets.
4. Spoon 1/3 of the tomato base onto the white layer, making sure not to disturb the white base.
5. Lay another layer of lasagne sheets on top of the tomato base layer.
6. Repeat step 3, 4 and 5.
7. Top the lasagna sheets with the final 1/3 of the tomato base and sprinkle grated mozarella on top generously.
8. Bake at 170C for 30 minutes.

I made this 2 days in advance and kept it in the fridge until my friends arrived. Made them wait for lunch..... hahaha!!!

Char Siu Bao 叉烧包

Cha Siew Pau, Cha Shao Bao, or Char Siu Bao... whatever romanization it is still the same old bbq pork steamed buns.

There’s this Cha Siew Bao in Tanjung Tualang, which the pau skin is the traditional type, yeast raised, and it is called Hainan Pau.
I prefer this type of pau skin to the Dimsum shop types, which are raised by double action baking powder.

My all time favourite cha siew pao is from Kam Ling Restaurant in Kampar. Their filling is just yummy. Super yummy! I’d say this filling that I’ve recreated based on the memory of Kam Ling’s Cha Siew Pau is…… 80% to 90% similar. I didn’t put in chopped coriander, but Kam Ling does. This cha siew filling doesn’t have hoisin sauce in it…. Which is why it just taste different from most recipes… yummy

I used to make pau by just assuming the proportions, and they come out with different textures each time. So, this time, I want to standardize my pau skin recipe.

This is the outcome.

Pau Skin recipe

A) 600gm pau flour
120gm sugar
¼ tsp salt

B)300ml warm water
1 sachet instant yeast
1 tsp sugar

60gm shortening (melted, but not too hot)

1) Mix B together and wait for the mixture to froth.
2) Mix A together. Pour B in.
3) Knead until it becomes smooth and doesn’t stick to the side of the mixing bowl.
4) Pour in melted shortening, and knead until the oil is fully incorporated. (It may seem to be very oily, but don’t worry, just knead)
5) Shape into a ball and cover mixing bowl with cling wrap and let sit until dough has doubled. (I knead in a pot, so I just cover up with the pot lid)
6) Punch down and knead. Divide into 50gm balls.

Cha Siew Filling Recipe
A)600gm pork
3 soup spoon sugar (Chinese soup spoon)
1 soup spoon dark soy sauce
2 soup spoon light soy sauce
1 soup spoon chinese rose wine (mui gwai lou)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water

B)
1/2 cup water
1 heaped Tbsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp oyster sauce

1. Marinate pork with all ingredients in (A) for 4 hours at least. (I do it overnight)
2. Pour pork and marinade into a heavy bottom pan or pot and cook on medium fire until the sauce thickens into honey like consistency.
3. Let cool in pot and chop cha siew into small cubes around 5mm X 5mm.
4. Mix B together. With the same pot that has the thickened sauce in it, pour B in. Bring to a boil and put chopped cha siew in and cook until gravy has thickened and reduced.
5. Put cha siew on a plate and let it cool down. When cha siew has cooled, chill in the fridge.

** this filling can be prepared days in advance and refrigerated. Take note that filling turns saltier after being steamed in the bun.

Assembly:
1. Take a ball of dough weighing around 50gm each, flatten it into a circle.
2. Place a table spoon of chilled cha siew filling into the centre of the circle.
3. Gather sides of the circle carefully and pinch the top together.
4. Place onto a piece of paper.
5. Let sit for 30 minutes and steam on high fire for 10 minutes.

***
By the time I finish doing the last one, it’s more than 30 minutes, so I just prepare the steamer and steam the first few paus. No need to wait.

Egg Tarts 蛋挞

This a cookie crust egg tart..not puff pastry like with layers, neither is it firm or crunchy.. It's a rather fragile egg tart. I'd recommend eating this with a spoon.

I've tasted something like this from Bee's Bakery in USJ Taipan, they call it Hong Kong egg tart.

My colleagues love this. My family loves this too... Maybe you'll like it too...

Please don't substitute this with margarine or "Buttercup" or "Farm Cows".. It will not taste the same, definately.

Egg Tart Recipe

Pastry
250g plain flour

2 tbsp castor sugar

1 egg yolk

150g butter,

Filling

150g castor sugar

150ml hot water

250ml milk(1 small pack of milk)

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

3 large eggs

1 egg white (From the same egg where the yolk was used in the crust)

Method

1. Cream the butter with the egg yolk and sugar.
2. Add in flour. Mix well. (If the dough is sticky for you , well maybe your yolks are larger than mine, add in extra flour by the teaspoon until it no longer feels sticky, but got a slight flour feel to it, but not too much though, as it will toughen the crust. the borderline of stickiness and dry feel is very thin.. so, add extra flour with caution)
3. Roll out pastry in between two sheets of plastic into thickness of about 4mm. Stamp out 9–10cm circles of pastry with a pastry cutter.
4. Lightly press the pastry circles into foil tart cases(I’m lazy to wash up the tart tins).
5. Refrigerate the lined foil cases for 2 hours (I left them overnight)
6. Melt the sugar in hot water, add milk, salt, vanilla essence. Beat all the eggs lightly and mix in all together.
7. Sieve egg mixture and pour into the cold tart crust.
8. Bake at 180C (fan)/200C for 25 minutes.

**

I used disposable foil tart cases... this pastry is rather difficult to be removed from the regular tart moulds. They cost me RM6 .25 for 125 pcs, bought from Bake with Yen.

Chinese Cabbage with Pacific Clams 珍珠鲍元宵白

I bought a can of pacific clams for Chinese New Year and I didn't use it that time.

Ingredients:

5 leaves of Yuan Siew Pak (Chinese long cabbage, imported from China, it does taste different than local long cabbage)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 can pacific clams
1/2 cup of clam brine (from the can)
1/4 cup water
3/4 tsp corn starch
1 Tbsp cooking oil

Method:

1. Boil a pot of water. Add in salt.
2. Blanch Yuan Siew Pak for 1 minute. Drain and cut into desired length. Arrange on a serving plate.
3. Mix clam brine and water with cornstarch. Cook mixture until it boils.
4. Add in pacific clams, and simmer for few seconds. Off the fire and add in cooking oil.
5. Dish up clams with gravy onto Yuan Siew Pak.

Corn and Carrot Soup 玉米红萝卜汤

Corn and Carrot Soup Recipe

2 ears of corn, cut into 4 chunks
1 medium sized carrot, cut into slanting chunks
300 gm pork ribs (scalded)
1.5L boiling water
10 white peppercorns (smashed)
½ tsp salt

Just bring everything to a boil and simmer for 2-3 hours, and season with salt.