Blueberry Lemon Chiffon Cake - Berry Week #1

A bluish purple cake is such a pain the neck to produce without food colouring added. Natural pigments like anthocyanins found in fruits and vegetables seem to not remain prettily purple after baking. So, I tried to play around with its colour. The colour of the pigment can be easily altered by either adding an acid or an alkali. Acids like lemon juice, vinegar and alkali like baking soda.

I also found that South American blueberries tend to have a redder hue, compared to the ones planted in US. When I cooked the blueberry paste, I found that it turned magentaish, something like the colour of Barney the Dinosaur because I made it with SA blueberries, grown in Chile. I tried another batch with Argentinean blueberries and they too, turned to the colour of Barney. When I made my Blueberry Ripple Yogurt Ice Cream last time with American blueberries, the colour was more bluish. Which was why I realised the colour difference. Your opinion may differ from mine, this is purely my own opinion. So, in order to turn it to become more purplish, I added some baking soda bit by bit to turn it into the colour I want. Don't get it too blue as when it gets made into a batter, it turns bluer. Which might explain why some blueberry bakes turn greyish. Too alkaline already. I guess that is more rampant with northern blueberries. To counter that, add in some lemon juice.

Actually at first I didn't think of turning this into a lemon flavoured chiffon. But when I mixed the blueberry paste with the yolk batter, it turned blue!!! Oh.. now I'm starting to worry that it'll turn grey instead when baked. And that was why I added in some lemon juice and zest in the end to counter it. This chiffon cake was bluer when fresh out from the oven, I peeked at the crack. But as it cooled down, it turned to be a soft lilac coloured chiffon. Oh well, better than a grey chiffon. Hahaha!

The pictures do not look sharp with high noise due to my hubby adjusting the ISO to the highest and I didn't know.

I only knew he clicked on the settings after I complained that all my pictures weren't sharp with weird light exposures and they all gave me a hard time editing and he checked the settings. A lot of up coming post with high noise problems were all taken during this period of time.

Blueberry Lemon Chiffon Cake
Recipe source: Wendyywy

Blueberry paste
125gm blueberries
50gm water

Cook blueberries in the water over low heat until it turns mushy. Puree the cooked berries together with the liquid. Set aside to cool down.
The cake
4 egg yolks
70gm corn oil
50gm sugar
135gm blueberry paste
125gm cake flour
½ tsp baking powder
1tsp (packed) lemon zest
½ Tbsp lemon juice
(some baking soda for colour adjustment)

4 egg whites
1 tsp lemon juice
90gm sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160(fan)/180C. Prepare a clean 22/25cm tube pan. Do not grease it.
2. Combine the yolk, sugar and oil and mix. Mix in the blueberry paste.
3. Sift flour and baking powder. Mix into (2)
4. Mix in lemon zest. Use lemon juice to adjust colour. If it turns too pink, add some baking soda. It the batter is too blue for you, use more lemon juice. It's hard to say how much as natural pigments varies in different berries.
5. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Put in lemon juice and beat until soft peaks.
6. Gradually put in sugar and beat until stiff peaks.
7. Put 1/4 of the egg whites into the batter. Fold. Repeat with another 1/4 of the egg whites.
8. Pour batter into the egg whites and fold.
9. Pour folded batter into prepared tube pan and lightly shake it left and right to level it.
10. Bake for 40 minutes or until done.
11. Invert immediately upon removal from oven and let it cool down totally before removing from the mould and slicing to serve.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers March 2011 Fruity March

Clams in Broth 上汤蝲蝲

Lala is the local name for the clams used here. It's a thin shelled clam that is not found countrywide naturally. But sold countrywide. Maybe for the peninsula only. I'm not sure. East Malaysians, would be glad to get your clarification on this.

I'm not the type of person that consumes all molluscs. I don't like mussels and oysters. But I like them in soups, but don't ask me to bite into one. I CANNOT comsume cockles, no matter how tasty they are, no. I'd be in the toilet the whole day. I like scallops but they are too pricey. So, the cheapest and tastiest for me is Lala.
Used to be cheaper, but recently due to low supplies, prices hit RM8kg, which is considered rather pricey.

Lalas are very sweet, but they are dirty. They live in mud, not sand beds. So, you must wash them internally before cooking.
How to wash the insides? Soak them in salt water(as salty as the sea), not fresh water. If not, you'd kill them. You don't want to eat dead clams. When they sense there is salty water around them they will open up their shells and this way, the mud in them wil be spit out as well. Soak for a few hours at least. And never ever chill your lalas, you'd kill them too. Buy them the day you want to eat. If you intend to cook it for dinner but bought it in the morning, keep them alive in salt water. After cooked, do not eat any closed clams. Only eat opened up clams.

If you intend to cook them with a thick gravy, do not dump them straight into your wok. They'd release so much moisture you will have soup at the end and not thick gravy. Parboil the lalas before adding into you favourite gravy. You can check out my Spicy LaLa post.

But today, I intend to cook this with something light and clear. With broth. My hubby was estatic when he knew I was cooking lala for dinner, but when he saw I cooked it in broth, he said, 'Ohh Wasted. I thought you're going to cook spicy lala." But in the end, he slurped every bit of the broth, took 2nds and 3rds. Licking the bowl clean each time. Hahah! Never judge a book by its cover, or maybe a broth by it's colour.

This dish is inspired by Shogun. A Japanese buffet restaurant in Klang Valley. I know it's not one of the best places to eat Japanese food, but just close one eye for the price that one pays. They have this 'clams in superior stock' that I'd eat by the bowlsful each time I go there. My hubby wonders why. Hahaha. I did not use superior broth, but just frugal dried anchovies and this is good enough for us. The soup was cleared up by only 4 adults. MSG free and absolutely SWEEEEEEEEET!

Clams in Broth
Recipe source: Wendyywy

1kg lala clam
1/2 bowl dried anchovies, rinsed
1 L water

2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed, do not chop
2 shallots, sliced
2 inch ginger, julienned
2 Tbsp goji berries (wolfberry)
Large handful of Chinese Celery / Kan Choy/ Daun sup
2 Tbsp Shao Xing Wine
Salt to taste

1. In a small pot, put in 1 tsp oil and saute rinsed anchovies for a while. Put in water and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook until broth turns whitish.
2. Soak lalas in salt water for few hours. Wash and rinse a few times in fresh water just before cooking. Removing clams with only mud in them. Some clams were long dead and the shells were filled with mud instead.
3. Heat a bigger pot /wok and put in 1 Tbsp oil. Put in smashed garlic and sliced shallots and cook until fragrant, no need to be golden.
4. Put in rinsed lalas and pour in hot strained broth. Add more water if needed. Put in ginger.
5. Bring a boil and season with salt.
6. Put in goji berries and cook until clams have opened up. Turn off the heat and put in Chinese celery and Shao Xing Wine.

Don't forget that I'm posting Mon-Fri.

See you on Monday.

Berry Week

Cheese Baked Rice with Prawns - Seafood Week #4

It’s been long long time since I had mozzarella cheese on my dinners, besides pizza.
Today I’m yearning for some. And the week before, I’ve just bought 500gm of mozzarella.
I was thinking of doing seafood with the rice, but my squids are all frozen in one lump, so I can’t get some out. I only have prawns, that were separated into portions. So, I only used prawns.

Baked rice needs a creamy sauce, and what’s better than béchamel sauce. Bechamel sauce needs milk and I don’t have milk, then I went to the nearby Indian eatery to get some fresh cow’s milk. You can use any milk you like, just that this fresh milk is the only milk available by now within walking distance as all the shops are closed on a Sunday evening. For baked rice, the sauce is not as thick as those used for baked pasta, so, you might find this to be much more liquidy than the original version.

Bechamel Sauce
20gm butter
1 Tbsp flour
350ml milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat butter on medium low heat in a saucepan. With a whisk in hand, put in flour and stir until no lumps are seen. Let it cook for a while then pour in milk and gently whisking all the while. Bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside. Stir the sauce once in a while, to prevent a skin from forming on top.

The Rice
Adequate rice for 2 persons

As many prawns as you like n
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 eggs
1 medium sized carrots, finely diced (5mm)
Salt and pepper
Cooking oil
As much sliced spring onions as you like
As much mozzarella cheese as you like

1. Preheat oven at 180/200C.
2. Heat wok on high. Put in 1 Tbsp of oil and put in prawns, spread around in a single layer. Do not toss them around. Let them cook until they start to curl and turn pink, then flip them over to fry the other side. When both sides are cooked and fragrant, dish up and set aside. Wash wok.
3. Heat wok and put in 2 Tbsp of oil. Put in garlic and cook until fragrant and slightly golden.
4. Put in carrots and rice and toss until rice is hot.
5. Push rice aside and put in eggs.
6. Push rice back onto eggs and toss everything until eggs are cooked. Season with salt and pepper, make sure it’s not as salty as your usual fried rice.
7. Place rice into individual baking vessels.
8. Top rice with béchamel sauce. Then arrange prawns on top of sauce. Then sprinkle spring onions and finally the mozzarella cheese, as much as you like.
9. Place the baking pans into a large shallow pan and put into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

See the sauce in there?

I was delighted with the outcome of the rice. The sauce was the right thing to add and the extra step of frying the rice made everything more flavourful. The spring onions were the best addition (never see anyone adding this), as when baked right under the cheese, it imparted a wonderful fragrance to the baked rice.
But let me warn you, if you are on a diet, just put that aside when you savour this rice. Definitely calorie laden, but definitely satisfying (IMPO).

See the stringy mozzarella cheese? Yummm

I wonder if you noticed the different coasters? My girls love to play with them and they always get missing.

Which is why you see mismatched coasters. I can't find matching ones!

Crab Cake Burgers - Seafood Week # 3

I never ever thought I’d make crab cakes. Never! Simple because crab meat is pricey.

For CNY this year, my FIL went on a seafood spree. Bought this and that and this and that. My MIL looked at the pack of crab meat and asked me, “Do you know how to finish this up??”
Haha, of course I do! The easiest way is crab cakes. It uses a great deal of crab meat.

And then few days before the day I was supposed to cook this (hey, I need to buy and gather ingredients ok, it’s not like I want to cook now, I can cook now), I then had the idea of making burgers out of the crab cakes and then hahaha, make my own mayo!!! Lime mayo with crab sounds good eh??? This crab cake burger is 100% homemade, except that I didn’t make the raw ingredients myself, didn’t plant my own lettuce, didn’t plant my own wheat, but then, all made from scratch.

I’m not that always that particular about my food, but I take it as a learning experience. Of course, buying buns and mayo is like.. walking next door only. Yes, I do mean that literally. My current neighbour, front and side are grocery stores and 2 more few doors away. But then, it’s a good chance for me to add more ‘posts” to my blog. Kekekekeke. But in the process, I do learn something new of course. I’ll talk about my mayo next time. And my burger buns too.

Today it’s only about the crab cake burger.

These are the crab cakes

The recipe initially called for 1 pound of crab meat, so then I reduced everything accordingly and skipped most of the seasonings as I can’t be bothered to go get mustard that I don’t’ really consume.
I too, like the other try-ers of this recipe found it too wet, even when I skipped the lemon juice and the mayo. My crab meat were moist but they weren’t wet as they weren’t frozen in water as some in supermarkets are. I found it so so hard to form into patties and flour them before frying. So, in the end, I threw the flour that I prepared to coat the patties with into the whole mixture itself. Phew, life is easier then on. I could form soft balls of it and gently place them into the pan. Life is full of contingency plans. Just don’t sit there and cry. Crab meat is very expensive to be wasted.

Crab Cake Burgers
Crab cake recipe loosely adapted from Paula Deen

350gm crab meat
1/3 cup chopped red capsicum
1 cup chopped spring onion (green and white, 2 large sprigs)
1/3 cup finely ground Ritz crackers (can use more actually)
1 egg
3 Tbsp all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp black pepper powder
8 burger buns
Some butter for spreading
2 cups of coarsely chopped iceberg lettuce
Some homemade lime mayo (recipe to be posted don’t know when) as dressing or any other dressing of choice

1. Mix all together and form 8 balls.
2. Heat a pan on medium low heat and put in some cooking oil.
3. Place balls of crab mixture into pan, and with an oiled spatula, carefully press the mixture down to form a patty.
4. Fry until both sides are golden.
5. Dish up and drain on absorbent papers.
6. Split burger buns into half and lightly butter them before toasting on a clean pan.
7. Place crab cake onto the lower half of the toasted bun, top with a tablespoon of lime mayo and then some coarsely chopped lettuce before covering with upper half of bun.

All packed into a large Tupperware and will be transported to my in law's place to be chowed down together

Squids in Sambal - Seafood Week #2

These squids have been in my freezer for………… 5 months. I bought them before I got to know I was pregs, and after that as you all know I haven’t been cooking for a long time.

So, I finally thawed these and cooked them for dinner. Served them with piping hot nasi lemak. Being the understanding wife (*coughs), I cooked extra rice knowing that dear hubby will definitely ask for seconds. And truly he did. He can never resist my nasi lemak. Hahaha. Hey, not that nasi lemak Seringgit or 20 sen type ok, don’t stain ur brain. If you don’t understand the relation of nasi lemak and a woman, please refer to your Malay friends. It’s equivalent to our Chinese saying of Siao Loong Pau, Cha Siew Pau or Big Pau. Now I guess you know what is the relation of nasi lemak and a woman. Hahahaha!!!

Squids in Sambal
Recipe source: Wendyywy

300gm cleaned squids, cut into rings or whichever way you fancy
10 dried chilli
100gm fresh chilli (mine were really huge ones, so I don’t know how many regular sized ones, they were about the length of a del monte/dole banana)
50gm shallots (5 pieces)
10gm garlic (2 cloves)
7gm belacan (1 pinkie sized piece)
1 tsp tamarind paste (I used Adabi ready to use paste)
2 Tbsp coconut milk
2 Tbsp sugar (might need more)
1.5 tsp salt (don’t put in all first)
1 red onion, sliced
3 Tbsp cooking oil

1. Snip dry chillies into halves and rub them to remove the seeds. Soak the chillies in water for 10 minutes at least.
2. Remove seeds from fresh chillis, peel shallots and garlic.
3. Mill/Grind dried chilli, fresh chilli, shallots, garlic and belacan until fine.
4. Heat a wok and put in cooking oil. Carefully pour in the chilli paste and on medium low heat,
5. Cook until paste is almost dry. Put in coconut milk and cook until the milky colour disappears
6. Put in tamarind paste, salt and sugar. Adjust the taste.
7. Turn heat to high and put in sliced onions and cook until wilted.
8. Put in cleaned squid rings and cook until the squids firm up, it will only take 1 minute. (Take note that squids will release moisture, so do not put in water in the chilli paste earlier on)
9. Dish up and serve.