Chawamushi

Chawamushi or Japanese steamed egg in cup is one of my Husband favourite Japanese Food. My youngest daughter had also recently fell in love with this snack. She is a fussy eater and there is hardly any food that could catch her attention.

Today, I found great motivation to make this as afternoon tea break for my little family. I was slightly rusty as I had not cook anything for quite a long time... Fortunately it did not take me long to warm up.

There are many versions on the Internet  on making chawamushi, I adapted my own recipe with some modifications to keep it as simple as possible.. 

Here are the ingredients:

(Makes 5 cups)

[A]

- 4 eggs

- 2 cups chicken stock* (room temperature)

- 1 teaspoon soya sauce 

- 2 tablespoon sake (Japanese rice wine)

You can mix and match any of these below to your preference:

[B]

- 5 cubes chicken breast / thigh meat

- dried shiitake mushroom slices

- enoki mushroom

- crab stick cut in twos

- naruto (Japanese fish cakes)

*You can mix half a cube of chicken stock cube in 2 cups hot water

Method:

1. Bring water in a steamer to boil, reduce heat to a simmer.

2. Whisk eggs in a big bowl, pour in chicken stock, sake and soya sauce

3. Gentle stir the mixture till there is no more bubbles

4. Arrange [B] in cups, transfer egg mixture gently into the cups with a ladle

5. Cover the cups with their lids and place it in the steamer. Cover the steamer and steam for 12 minutes exactly. (Do not open the steamer during the 12 minutes so do check the water beforehand.)

I find that the most important tip of all to get a really smooth egg is to invest in proper chawamushi cups. We need good cup with lids so that air will not get into the cup during steaming. (You can get these cups at any Daiso store) 

I think we can make egg puddings with this method too :)

Enjoy!

HappyCall Claypot Rice

This is the dish that I had always wanted to try on my HappyCall Pan for almost a year. I remembered how fascinated I was to know that we can make "Claypot" Rice with HCP. As a FTWM, we can be "spoiled" for choices when it comes to cooking... because there's so many dishes we want to do but we only have a weekend! So on this fine day, I had finally stop procrastinating and get my hands down to materializing this simple yet comforting one-dish-meal.

I found 4 different recipes for Claypot Chicken Rice from the Internet and Recipe books. The recipes are more or less the same, with slight variation to condiments for marinating the chicken meats and whether to cook the rice with chicken stock or plain water. Some recipes call for Dried Shiitake Mushrooms (Chinese mushrooms), some do not. I was initially confused which one to follow, then I realized hey, I could just adapt my own recipe to my husband and kids' liking!

I am using the HappyCall Orcher (Deeper) Pan in brown colour. It can cook up to 2.5cups of rice to feed 4-5 adults.

Below is my own adaption of this easy to prepare meal. You can cook it with Rice Cookers and Claypots too!

Ingredients:

- 2 Cups White Rice (Washed and Drained)

- 3.5 Cups Hot Water 

- Half a Cube of Chicken Stock

- 320g Chicken Parts Chopped (About half a small chicken)

- 5 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms (Soaked in hot water till soft, cut to slices)

- 2 Chinese Sausage (Remove skin and cut to slices)

- 5 Bunches Xiao Bai Cai (Wash and Cut)

- 1 Clove Garlic finely chopped 

- 2 Tbsp Cooking Oil

- Dark Soya Sauce 

Marinate for the Chicken:

- 2 Tbsp Corn Flour

- Dash of Pepper 

- 1 Tbsp Chinese Cooking Wine (Hua Diao Jiu)

- 1 Tsp Sesame Oil

- 1 Tsp Light Soya Sauce

- Half of Thumbsize Ginger, grated 

*Marinate for at least 1 hour 

Method:

1) Disolve Chicken Stock in Hot Water 

2) Place the Rice and disolved Chicken Stock in the HCP, cook the rice on medium fire on medium headstove (snap closed the pan) till boils. Water level should recede to the brim of the rice

3) Turn to low fire. Arrange the Mushroom Slices, Chicken Parts and Chinese Sausage Slices on top of the rice, snap closed HCP and continue to cook for 10 mins

4) Add in the Xiao Bai Cai, snap closed the pan and continue to cook

5) While the rice continue to cook, we shall prepare the Shallot Oil. On a small pan, Heat up cooking oil and fried the chopped garlic until golden brown.

6) Open the pan and check if the chicken parts are fully cooked. Turn off the fire, drizzle the shallot oil, together with dark soya sauce over the rice. Ready to be serve :) 

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This is my first attempt, I am happy with the results. I will definitely cook this dish again and I will try to get some Salted Fish to spice up this dish further. My Claypot Chicken Rice may not be as good as those available outside, but nothing beats the satisfaction of seeing both my kids cleaned up their plates in a short span of time without any nagging from me!

HappyCall 2-in-1 Marble and Chocolate Cake

Whenever I am feeling down, I'd like to bake myself a very big cake to eat. I am a diehard cake lover. I have been in a dilemma for a long time if I should bake a Chocolate cake for my kids or a Marble Cake (my favourite) and if I bake a big HappyCall Pan (HCP) size of Chocolate cake, I am only seeking trouble for myself. My kids are very prone to mouth ulcers and sore throats... Finally I found a solution: I shall bake a 2-in-1 cake!

How about I divide the HCP into 2, like those "Yuan Yang" Hot pot? After all, Marble Cake and Chocolate Cake share almost the same recipe!

So here's how I bake the 2-in-1 cake...

1) Grease the HCP with cooking oil (around 50cents size)

2) Fold a piece of baking paper into half, then fold again to create a divider

3) On one side, proceed to pour in the chocolate batter, on the other side, the marble cake batter

4) It does not matter if the divider got "hidden" inside the cake after baking

Separate the 2 cakes carefully and you can enjoy best of both cakes once they are cooled :)

Below is my recipe for this 2 cakes, I use HappyCall Orcher (Deeper) Pan:

Ingredients:
- 225g salted butter softened
- 225g caster sugar
- 225g self-raising flour
- 4 eggs
- 3 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:
1. Whisk butter and sugar until soft and creamy, add eggs into the mixture, one egg at a time (if the mixture start to curd, you may add 1 tsp of flour into the mixture and continue whisking)

2. Fold in the flour in 3 batches until well mixed

3. Add in milk and vanilla essence in 2 batches

4. Divide the mixture into 2 bowl by the ratio 1:3 (1/4 to make Vanilla batter and 3/4 to make chocolate batter. This one you can only estimate, do not have to be very precise)

5. Add all the cocoa powder into the 3/4 flour mixture and fold well until the whole batter become brown in colour

6. Grease the HCP (top and bottom pan) and put the folded baking paper into the HCP (see pictures above)

7. Pour 2/3 of the chocolate batter into half the HCP to bake a chocolate cake, keep the remaining 1/3 for the marble cake

8. To make the marble cake you need to use 2 spoons to scoop the chocolate batter and vanilla batter into the other half of the HCP alternatively (1 scoop vanilla batter, follow by 1 scoop chocolate batter, repeat till done)

9. Using a chopstick, skewer, or clean finger, swirl around the batter to create a marble effect

10. Smooth the top of both cake batters and bake it on medium stove-head on medium-low fire.

11. Bake for 20-25 mins, shifting the HCP from sides to sides to evenly bake both the cakes. On the last 5 mins, flip the HCP to bake the top of the cake, shift to all 4 sides to create an even brown top.

12. Using a skewer to test the readiness of the cake. If the skewer come out clean, the cakes are done. Enjoy! :)

Hokkien Noodle

This is one of the first few dishes I had cooked for my in-laws and the first one to earn a compliment from them. I wonder if I am the only Mum out there who feels anxious and worried every time I whipped out a meal for my in-laws. I am a very competitive person... almost a perfectionist. I don't like failure and I will get upset at myself if things don't come out the way I had planned.

So on one fine day I decided to give this traditional Hokkien dish a try. I do not have a recipe for this, this was done from the sheer memory I had from my childhood... My Mum used to cook this for us when we were kids. Luckily this dish is simple enough for me to attempt.

Ever since that attempt, I had cooked this dish most frequently and after so many attempts, I can say my noodle is very near to perfection! My parents tried it once and immediately gave me the thumbs up! The real proof of my success in this dish comes from my Husband one day when he requested me to cook this for his classmates Pot Luck Dinner :) that was indeed a very happy day for me!

Here's my Hokkien Noodle... Cooked by a pure blood Hokkien...

Here's my recipe for this simple one-dish-meal, this recipe is re-created from my childhood memory. Hope you like it!

Ingredients:

(Serve 5 adults)

- 1 kg Yellow Flat Noodles (Hokkien Noodles)

- 400g Fresh Prawns

- 2 pieces Fishcakes

-  300g Pork Lean Meat (Can substitute with Chicken Fillet)

- 3 to 4 bunches of Malaysia Chye Sim 

- 3 cloves garlic

- 3 tbs of Fried Dried Onions

- 3 tbs cooking oil

Seasoning:

- Pepper

- 2 tbs Oyster sauce

- 5 tbs Dark Soya Sauce (or lots more depending how dark and salty you prefer)

Preparations of Ingredients:

- Wash Prawns, Remove heads and shells, keep the tails and devein

- Boil a medium pot of water with the Prawn Heads and Shells till bubbling hot and fragrance, switch to lowest fire. (We need the broth later)

- Slice Pork and Fish Cakes to thin slices

- Marinate Pork with some corn flour and light soya sauce

- Wash and cut Chye Sim to about 2.5 inches long

- Wash Noodle with Tap Water and drain dry

- Chop/Mince Garlic

Method:

- Heat wok, add 1tbs oil and half portion of garlic, fried until fragrance then add in prawns and fried until it turn pink. Remove from wok and set aside.

- Add 2 tbs oil and remaining garlic, fried till fragrance, add in pork, follow by fish cake and fried till pork well cooked

- Add in half the broth, then add in noodles. (At this moment, the fire should still be at the highest)

- Check if the broth fully cover the noodles, if not, add in more broth till noodles are completely covered 

- Add in all the seasoning and stir till well mix

- Add in Vegetables. (Vegetables must be submerged under the broth)

- Let it simmer for a while till broth become thick, add in Fried Dried Onions and Prawns (previously set aside)

- Simmer till broth dried up till noodles is no longer submerged but still quite wet (as the broth will be absorb further by the noodles even if its cooked)

- Done

Notes:

1) You may add in squids 

2) You may want to taste the noodles while it simmer so you may i increase the pepper or dark soya sauce

Microwave Cookies

This is the the perfect "Lazyman" baking cookies... Baked using normal Microwave Oven. The cookies are cooked from the inside hence they look pale (unlike oven baked cookies). The taste resembles English shortcakes and its very buttery. The chocolate chips provide crunchiness and contrast well with the shortcake texture.

These are my daughters' favourite! They always wait by the microwave oven as the baking time is only about 2 to 3 mins and they eat it as soon as it slightly cooled down.

I like to bake this shortly after dinner on weekdays as its easy and fast, best of all, minimum cleanups! We have lots of fun making this cookies together.

I followed this recipe from Ochikeron's YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoLStf_-HgU

You can find the original recipe from her at her blog here

Peanut Cookies

This is the first Chinese New Year that I attempted baking my own festive cookies. I had never thought once in my life I could achieve this feat! So here's proudly presenting... "Melt in your mouth" Peanut Cookies!!

I am very happy with the outcome. Peanut Cookies baked very well using Happycall Pan because the top does not cracked, unlike conventional oven. The egg wash turn out very well too!

After baking...

 

Before baking... 

I followed this simple recipe by Esther Leow, a member of Munch Ministry here

Below is my adaption of the original recipe. I had lessen the sugar and add on Peanut as topping :)

Ingredients:
- 100g pure peanut powder (no sugar)
- 100g plain flour
- 70g icing sugar
- 100ml peanut oil (or Knife Brand cooking oil)
- Egg yolk for glazing
- Salted or unsalted roasted peanut

Method:
1. Mix the peanut powder, flour and icing sugar till well combined

2. Add in peanut oil gradually and knead the mixture into a dough.

3. Cut baking paper into small sizes around 20 cm by 15 cm, so it would fit nicely into the HappyCall Pan (HCP) (you may need around 3 to 4 pieces)

4. Mould them into ball and slightly flatten it on a piece baking paper.

5. Add half a piece of roasted peanut on top of each cookie. Glaze the cookies well. (The egg yolk glazing is important to hold the cookies together so it will not "Shattered", so be very generous with the glaze.)


6. Place a doubled layered (folded) baking paper into the HCP (this will add as a base and prevent cookies from being burnt).

7. Preheat HCP for 3-4 minutes, then transfer the small piece of baking paper with cookies on top carefully into the HCP. Place this on top of the doubled layered baking paper.

8. Bake for 8-10 mins for the first batch and 5-8 mins for subsequent batches.

9. While baking, using a pair of chopstick, gently lift up the cookies to check the colour of the bottom (of the cookies), if it is brown and cookies appeared to be firmed. It is done. Lift up the small piece of baking paper with cookies on top carefully, leaving the doubled layered baking paper in the HCP. Repeat step 7 for the rest of the batches.

10. Cool the cookies well and keep in air tight containers.

About this blog...

I am a full time working mum who loves to bake and cook occasionally. I enjoy handicrafts and loves making doll clothes. My secret wish is to open an Art school that teaches children’s art and craft. I have a supportive husband and two school-going daughters, their ages 7 years apart. 

In the corporate world, I command a team of people and together, we “get things done”. At home, when it comes to parenting and mothering… I often find myself at my wit’s end. I believe the best life lessons I had learnt come from my children. I never truly grow up until I became a mother.

This blog is created to document my baking and cooking adventures, and perhaps some of my handicrafts.

Stop trying to perfect your child, but keep trying to perfect your relationship with him

Enjoys making Doll Clothes... 

Pls view my creations at:

http://www.facebook.com/IrisCreation