Min Jian Kueh (2)

This is my favourite kueh and I'd never get tired of eating this. In fact I'm always on the lookout for different versions from different stalls. Dear2's neighbourhood has two stalls selling this so I often get to eat it. :D Though I'm quite particular about eating a nice Min Jian Kueh, so far I'm quite satisfied with many except for one thing - it must be freshly made, on the spot! Or at least within the first hour or so. Otherwise the peanuts will turn soggy. I think I love Min Jian Kueh cos' I love peanuts. I can't understand why I love peanuts so much! lol...

I've made Min Jian Kueh previously using another recipe and the steps were rather tedious. I decided to give this recipe a try from Fiona's blog and surprisingly this so easy recipe turned out to be no less inferior! In fact I prefer this probably because I made it thinner this time. After leaving the batter for 2 hours to rise, I could see the honeycomb-like texture as the batter was cooking.

I made a peanut paste by processing ground peanuts with sugar. I would try using ground peanuts with sugar next time. Yes I'm definitely gonna make it again! :)

Two "Yammy" dishes

Have I ever mentioned before, that I love eating yam. I love the taste, and the texture that's similar to sweet potatoes, potatoes, chestnuts, etc.

Yam desserts such as Orh Nee (a chinese dessert where yam is mashed and cooked into puree, usually with pumpkin and ginko nuts) or yam fritters are usually too sweet for my liking even though I like it. I love yam rice or some very good yam cakes where I can bite into chunky bits of yam. However my mum never cook yam at all cos' she says it is not easy to clean and peel it.

Recently I bought this food magazine 'Food & Travel . Kitchen Culture' from the supermart. This magazine has quite an extensive number of articles on cooking tips, recipes, food reviews and travel articles of personal accounts from travel writers revolving around food and culture. It's quite interesting. I just bought another issue of it yesterday and shall see if this is worth my monthly read. ;) Heh ok what I wanna mention about is this fried yam rice in the magazine.

I bought a packet of pre-packed yam which had been peeled and washed. Great! Heh, good for lazy people like me. I did'nt know things are so convenient now. :D On that very day itself, I made this steam yam cake, for my mum to bring to her karaoke sessions with my aunties (hoping it'll be successful) and my myself and dd to try. I followed Happy Mrs Kwok's recipe. However, for the seasonings, she only mentioned "as desired" and I'm poor at gauging how much I should use as I don't cook often. So the yam cake turned out too bland! Heh... luckily with some sesame oil, sesame seeds and soya sauce, it was still edible. Haha! My mum said my aunties were hungry so it was still well received. LOL!

Do note that you've really got to wait till it's completely cooled before slicing as it was very soft and mashy immediately after steamed. I did not pan fry it, too much of a hassle for me, but I believe it would taste much better.
I saved some of the yam for my bento fried rice the next day. As long as you prepare the ingredients in advance, cooking time took less than 20 minutes. The yam rice was very fragrant and I really like the chunky yam. :P

Fried Yam Rice (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
1 cup cooked rice
1 tbsp oil
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup cooked yam, cut into large chunks
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp oyster sauce
35g toasted dried shrimp
55g sliced Chinese sausage
20g dried scallop, pre-soaked in water to soften

For garnishing:

10g coriander leaves
10g toasted sesame seeds
10g sliced red chilli

Method:

1. Heat oil in a wok, then stir-fry the onion and garlic till fragrant.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients one by one, except the rice.
3. Toss the mixture while stir-frying for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Add the rice to the mixture and mix well.
5. Garnish the fried yam rice and serve immediately.

Recipe Source: Food & Travel - Oct 2008 Issue (Pg 43)

Note: Do add the chicken stock a little at a time. I do not know how much their 1 cup of rice constitutes. 1 1/2 cup stock intially seemed too much for my 1 cup of rice so I only added about 1/2 cup. However, as I was stir-frying the rice, I found that the stock actually absorbed well into the rice (probably because of the yam), hence I added more sesame oil to make it less dry. I also omitted onion, dried scallop, and coriander leaves.

Worth giving this simple one-bowl dish a try!

Easy Shanghai Pancakes

I was in the mood to make myself breakfast yesterday. I browse through my recipe books and decided to make this shanghai pancakes. This is so easy and I have all the ingredients on hand. It doesn't require milk or buttermilk which I'd run out of so this recipe is just perfect!

Shanghai Pancakes

Ingredients:

110g All-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg, beaten

250ml water

2 tbsp white sesame seeds, roasted

Cooking oil

Red Bean Paste/any fillings of your choice

Method:

1. Sift flour and salt into a deep mixing bowl.
2. Make a well in the centre, then add beaten egg and half of the water.
3. With a wooden spoon, gradually work in the flour from all sides.
4. Pour in remaining water and sesame seeds and mix until batter is smooth. Allow batter to stand for about 30 minutes.
5. Heat about 2 tsp oil in a small frying pan.
6. Add about 3 tbsp batter and cook pancakes for 1 minute on each side until both sides are brown. Transfer to a plate.
7. Repeat until all batter is used up (Add more oil as required).
8. Spread pancake with bean paste and fold in half. Pan-fry each folded pancake on both sides quickly to make them crisp.
9. Serve immediately.

Recipe Source: Mini Cookbooks Series - Desserts

This makes about 5 pancakes depending on your thickness. The pancake is plain so when eaten with the red bean paste, it is not overly sweet. I added chunky peanut butter as well. :) Do eat it immediately while it's hot cos' that is when the pancakes are very crispy.

Min Jiang Kueh

This is one of my favourite kueh. Be it crispy, thin, thick, traditional...I love them all; so long as my favourite peanut fillings is there. ;) I think each type has its own unique taste and texture; preference goes to the individual. I do not know exactly where it originated from though it seemed to originate from Malaysia and Singapore, made by the Hokkeins. I remembered eating these since young. Traditional ones which I've eaten since young usually comes with loose peanut fillings, and were smaller and thinner; while the upmarket ones we see now are usually peanut fillings that have been grounded into a creamy paste, taste sweeter, thicker and made using a large flat iron skillet and sliced into portions.

For me, I like both as long as the peanut fillings is generous..*yum yum*, although I do look at the texture of the pancakes.

I had wanted to try this recipe but had been putting it off as the process, though not difficult, seemed rather long, looking at the lengthly post written by Seadragon - Cafe of the East. I finally get down to making it as the grated peanuts I bought will be expiring in a few days time! I also had a packet of red bean paste from Daiso and would be a good time to try it. ;)

Ingredients for pancake:

150 g plain flour
1 tsp instant dry yeast
35 g caster sugar (I used 30 g)
1/4 tsp salt
200 ml tepid water (water that is lukewarm to touch)
2 eggs at rom temperature, lightly beaten
60 ml canola oil (I used 50 ml)
1/2 tsp alkaline water (If you have no alkaline water, one of the tips Seadragon shared is to replace with 1/2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1/2 tsp water - it seemed ok as I did not know what would be the difference if i had used alkine water)
extra tepid water if neccessary

Ingredients for sesame peanut mix:

100 g peanuts
25 g white sesame seeds
50 g caster sugar, or to taste

Method:

1. Mix together flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.
2. Add in 200 ml tepid water and stir to mix well. Put in a warm place, cover loosely with cling wrap, and let proof until bubbly and double in size.

This is how it looks when double in size

1. Once the batter double in size, add lightly beaten eggs, oil and alkaline water.
2. Beat to mix in well. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before cooking. (The batter at this stage should be of pouring consistency. You can check when cooking the first pancake; the batter should immediately flow into a circle as soon as you pour into the pan. If it is too viscous and takes a little while to flow into a circle, mix another tbsp or so of tepid water into the batter.
3. Heat a non-stick crepe pan (top about 20 cm diameter) until hot. Pour a little canola oil, then wipe over the surface with a paper towel.
4. Pour about 125 ml (or more to make it thicker).
5. Cover the pan with a lid and cook over medium to low heat for about 3 to 4 minutes, or until the top is bubbly and just set.
6. Spoon sesame peanut mix onto half of the pancake, lift the other side and fold over.
7. Best serve hot or warm.

Method for sesame peanut mix:

1. Dry roast peanuts (in skin) over moderate heat in a frying pan for about 5 to 8 minutes, until fragant or lightly brown. Cool, skin the peanuts.
2. Dry roast sesame seeds in the same way for about 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Blend or ground peanuts and sesame seeds into powder, mix in sugar and store in an airtight container until ready to use.

Note: I used grounded peanuts which is so much more convenient. If you want the creamy peanut paste, blend in with the sugar.

Do refer to the recipe source: Cafe of the East for more tips.

Overall, I find this recipe is worth trying. It may seemed tedious but it's actually not. The only waiting time is the proofing. Mine did not appeared to have a good honeycomb structure; probably cos' I did not pour enough batter to make it thick enough. I filled half with peanut mix and the other half with red bean paste. I liked this red bean paste from Daiso, as it has chunks of red bean in it, whic is often found only in Japanese desserts. Yummy!

If you like this type of pancakes and have the ingredients, try it for yourself at home! ;)

Steamed 9-layer kueh and spinach stir-fry

I made this steamed 9-layer kueh the day after I made the pandan chiffon with the leftover coconut milk but had been too busy to post. I thought I had all the ingredients on hand, so it would be great to utilise the remaining packets of tapioca flour, glutinous rice flour which I had left from previous festive bakings.


Only as I was reading from the recipe and measuring out the ingredients, I realised that what was needed was rice flour and not glutinous rice flour! Actually I was not sure of the difference between the 2 types of flour. I even went to make a search to make sure they were different. Oh well, since the rest of the ingredients were out already and would have gone to a waste, I might as well tweaked the recipe a little bit to see if it works. So, I increased the amount of tapioca flour and replaced some rice flour with plain flour (which I saw was used in some kueh recipes).


There I began..steaming layer by layer...These were the only colours I have :) It was a very relaxing task, not much strength needed unlike beating or creaming or the heat from the oven.


Surprisingly I was able to get a quite decent-looking 9-layer kueh. :) :) Taste wise, I felt it could be sweeter, I would not reduce the sugar in future and would probably follow the amount as indicated in the recipe. Only downside was it was rather tough, and chewy...which was expected as I did not follow the recipe at all! My mum still liked it.. haha, she's too easy-going. Anyway I got the recipe from Florence's blog - Do what I like.


By the way, there's this kind of kueh sold in Bengawan Solo, a small piece of brown kueh (don't know what it is called) which I think was made from brown sugar and probably coconut? Does anyway have the recipe for that? My mum loves those and would be great if I can try that ;)

It was a lazy Sunday for me that week. Didn't go out after an outdoor activity the previous day. So I offered to help my mum cook some dishes, with a little supervision from her..haha..have not cooked for quite some time. Here's my piece of work : Spinach stir-fried with canned mushrooms. Was quite pleased with the results. :)


Hopefully I will have the chance (provided I'm not going out or lazy :P) to cook more in future.