Bak Kwa (22 January 2012)

Hi guys, today I am making Bak Kwa. I started preparing the marination yesterday while I prepared the ingredients for making Pineapple Tarts (see yesterday post HERE). :)

Today is Chinese New Year's eve so I had to make some Chinese New Year's goodies! I wanted to make something yummy for Hijiki and I know he will surely like Bak Kwa!

The end product doesn't look like the real thing but it definitely do taste like the real thing!! :))) Try and enjoy!
(I got the recipe from HERE. I doubled the portion (from 230g minced pork to 500g) because I thought the original portion was too little for us; we are Bak Kwa lovers! :D)

 Ingredients (makes 10 rectangular pieces, each 5cmx7cm):

• 3 Tbsp of fish sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp of light soy sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp of oyster sauce
• 230g minced pork
• 70g sugar
• Optional: Honey mixture for glazing (for 500g minced pork portion I used 3Tbsp of honey with 1Tbsp of water) 

Preparation:

• Mix all the sauces and sugar into a bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves.
• Add the minced pork into the bowl and marinate the meat well. Leave the marinated meat for at least two hours. You can choose to leave it overnight in the fridge.(I marinated it for over 24 hours :D)
• Preheat the oven to 120C for 20 minutes. Grease the baking tray or wrap it with aluminum foil.
• Use a tablespoon to spread the marinated minced pork thinly (no thicker than 0.5cm) over the tray. (I used a roller to even out the meat instead. If you use this method, I suspect the meat would not be as cruncy.)
• Place the tray into the oven set at 150C for one hour. Use the grilling function in your oven.
• After half an hour has passed, the meat would be semi-cooked.
•  Take out the tray from the oven and using a tablespoon spoon, cut the meat into rectangles. Then flip the meat over to the other side and pop the tray back into the oven. (I glazed both side of the meat before putting the tray back into the oven.)
• Once the full hour passes, the bak kwa is done. You can eat it immediately, but for extra crunch, put it into the toaster oven for 3 minutes before consumption.

 

 
 
 

 

Pineapple Tarts (21 January 2012)

Happy Chinese New Year guys!!! Today I am going to make Pineapple Tarts!

Pastry Ingredients (makes 18 tarts):

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 125 g butter
• Some salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp cornflour
• 1 egg yolk (lightly beaten for egg wash)

Stuffing Ingredients:

• 2 Cans (110g each) mashed pineapples
•  4 Tbsp sugar (more or less to taste)
• cornflour slurry

Preparation:

• Drain the mashed pineapple and using your hands, squeeze out the extra juice.
• Using low heat, cook the pineapple and sugar until most liquid has evaporated, and the filling turned golden. Stirring constantly using a wooden spoon to avoid burning.
• When about done, add in the cornflour slurry. Continue stirring until the cornflour slurry has evaporated. Let it cool in the fridge.
• Combine the dry ingredients into a medium bowl.
• Add the dry ingredients to the soften butter and egg yolk. Knead to form dough.
• Divide the dough and pineapple filling each into 18 equal rounds.

• Flatten the pastry dough with the palms and put the pineapple filling in the middle and use the dough to cover the filling. Use your palms to round it up and then brush it with the egg wash.
• Preheat the oven for 180 degrees and bake for 25 minutes or until light brown.

Beijing Beef Pancake (20 November 2011)

I enjoy making this as it can be quite fun kneading flour into dough. 

This recipe is not as yummy as I have expected...   :-(   ...thinking back, I should have added some salt to the flour and some Maggie seasoning to the beef (or more soy sauce).....but it did inspire me to make Roti Prata next week! :-)

Ingredients (makes 3 pancakes):

• 300g minced beef
• 2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tsp salt
• Some white pepper
• A few drops sesame oil

Preparation:

(1) Add water to the flour and mix well.

 

(2) Spread some flour on your working area and continue kneading it there until the dough becomes smooth. Let it seat for about 15 minutes.

(3) Beat egg and combine with beef, salt, sesame oil and white pepper. Mix the ingredients for two minutes. Then add onion and soy sauce.

(4) Cut the dough into three pieces. Flatten each pieces and spread the beef mixture onto the flatten dough.

(5) Cut the dough four times and fold it. See pictures on method to fold. :-)

(6) Fry the pancakes in medium low about 8 minutes or until the pancake becomes golden.

 

Stew Pork in Soy Sauce (17 November 2011)

Ingredients (serve 4):

• 300g pork steak cut in cubes
• 2 Tbsp peanut oil
• 1 thumb size ginger, chopped
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 cup water
• A pinch of sugar
• 2 big potatoes (or 4 small), cut into 8 pieces (or 4 piece) each
• 1 carrot stick, cut into thumb size pieces

Note: In this recipe, I have decided to include potatoes and carrots which will help thicken the stew. You can exclude these two ingredients and instead include cornflour slurry.


Marination:

• 3 Tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp Maggie seasoning
• some White pepper (depending on preference)
• A few drops sesame oil
• A few sprinkler salt

 

Note: If you don't have Maggie seasoning, you can substitute with dark soy sauce. Marinate for at least 15 minutes. I started marination in the morning and left it in the fridge.

Preparation:

(1) Heat pan with oil, stir-fry garlic and ginger till fragrant.

(2) Add marinated pork together with the remaining sauce during marination, dark soy sauce and stir-fry for two minutes.

(3) Add 1 cup water, sugar, potatoes, and carrots and covered the pan and let it cook over low heat for 30 minutes.

 

Ready to serve!

Singapore Chilli Prawns (16 November)

Ingredients (serve 4):

20 prawns/ 550 grams prawns, peeled and deveined
2 chilli, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 thumb size ginger, chopped

1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten

2 Tbsp peanut oil
50 grams baby spinach (optional)

50 grams straw mushrooms (optional)

 

Singapore Chilli sauce:

8 Tbsp tomato sauce
4 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 Tbsp white vinegar

2 Tsp salt

1 Tsp sesame oil
2 Tsp sugar
Cornflour slurry (1 Tbsp cornflour with 1/4 Tbsp of water)

 Preparation:

(1) Combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.

(2) Heat pan with oil, stir-fry garlic, ginger, chilli and onion till fragrant. Then, add prawns. Fry for about 2 minutes.

 

(3) Add the sauce mixture (spinach and mushrooms) and bring it to a boil.

 

(4) Quickly stir in lightly beaten egg and continue stirring until egg is well mixed and cooked, about 1 minute.

Done!

Egg Tarts (16 November 2011)

Pastry Ingredients (12 tarts)

• 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 150 grams butter
• 1/2 egg, beaten

Stuffing Ingredients

• 1/2 cups sugar
• 11/4 cup water (300 ml)
• 4 eggs
• 80 ml evaporated milk

Preparation:

(1) Firstly to prepare the pastry: mix together the powered sugar and flour. Mix in butter with a fork until it is in small crumbs.

(2) Stir in the egg until the mixture forms dough. Spread some flour on your working area and continue kneading it there.

(3) Refrigerate the dough for about 20minutes.

(4) Now to prepare the stuffing:  Bring water to boil and add in the sugar. Leave the sugar water to cool.

(5) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

(6) When the dough is ready, shape dough balls into cupcakes tin to form a “tart” shape. The dough balls are about 1 1/2 inch.

(7) After the sugar water has completely cool, mix in the milk and eggs.

(8) Sift the mixture and pour it into the tarts at 80% full.

 

(9) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown, and the filling is puffed up a little bit.

 Done! :)))