I doubt if there is any one who does not like Swiss Rolls. I love Swiss Rolls, the simpler the better. Sugar rolls are always my choice when I buy Swiss rolls.0
I have one post on Swiss rolls previously but as I have used the wrong baking tray, my Swiss rolls were rather thin and I have never ever promoted that post. However, if you are keen to have a look, you can refer to Vanilla Swiss Rolls.
After that trial, I have decided to buy a tray specifically for Swiss roll. Today, I have tried another rather simple recipe from one of my favouriteblogger, Aunty Yochana’s Sugar Roll Recipe recipe. Her Swiss Rolls look good and her ingredients and method are simple . That sums up the reason that I am trying out her recipe today.
Yes, the recipe did not fail me. It yields a soft and fluffy Swiss Rolls that I am looking at. Kids were fighting for the Swiss rolls after I have ended my picture taking session.
Some friends are telling me that their Swiss rolls always cracked and asked me for a reason. Very frankly, I do not know, most of my time, my Swiss rolls did not crack. Cracking, in my humble opinion, will mean the cake is too hard or dry and that could be due to: recipe problem, did not roll the cakes when hot to warm and finally, over bake the cake.
I did not even take any special precautionary measure in rolling the cake. I just roll the cake as long as my hand can handle it. I found that the cake is rather spongy and easy to roll without much a problem.
Additional icing sugar for dusting the Sugar rolls
Whipped Cream
1/2 cups of fresh cream for whipping
2 tablespoon of icing sugar
STEPS OF PREPARATION
Pre-heat oven to 200 degree Celsius
Line a 9” x 12” baking tray with baking paper. Get another one more piece of paper which is about at least 2 cm longer than the first baking paper. Set aside for later use after the Swiss roll is baked.
In a whisking bowl, put the egg whites. Beat the egg whites until foamy, gradually add in the icing sugar tablespoon by tablespoon. The egg white will expand and reach the soft to hard peak in 2-3 minutes. Add in the egg yolk one by one and follow by the condensed milk. Beat for another 3-4 minutes.
Stop the machine and sift the baking powder and cake flour into beaten eggs. Fold carefully until well mixed. Add in the corn oil and fold in until well combined. Transfer the batter to the baking tin.
Bake in the pre-heated oven of 200 degree Celsius for 10-12 minutes until the top turn golden brown. Meanwhile, get ready the other piece of baking paper, dust some icing sugar on top of the baking paper.
After taking out from the oven, take out from the baking tin. Use something to level the cake if necessary. Quickly turn the cake with the bottom of the cake facing you and placed the cake on top of the piece of baking paper dusted with icing sugar.. Tear off the first piece of baking paper. Take the width of the cake and roll the cake (like the way of rolling the Sushi) and make sure that the ending portion is facing downwards. Let it cool completely in this position. (Note that it is important that you do this as soon as the cake is out of oven and as soon as your hand can handle the heat from the cake. You can use a towel to roll together if you want. When the cake dries up, it will be difficult to roll.)
While the cake is cooling, beat the fresh cream with icing sugar until hard peak. Set aside for later use. Keep in the refrigerator if the cake is not ready and weather is hot.
Once the cake is completely cooled, open the Swiss roll and spread the cream on the cake, roll it back and dust with additional icing sugar. Cut into 2 cm thick and chilled the Swiss roll before serving if necessary.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, I did not take precautionary measures in rolling the cake. Therefore, I believed that it is the credit of the recipe . The cake is very spongy, fine texture and easy to roll. Do give it a try and most important of all, roll your cake as soon as your hand can handle the heat when the cake is out of the oven.
Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.
For more recipes, you can refer to myRECIPE INDEX (updated as at 21 March 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.
Yam rice is a fragrant rice usually served with Bakuteh (Pork Rib Tea or 肉骨茶）and I can’t recall if my late mum have ever prepared it. However, it was one of my favourite dish when I am dining in Bakuteh stalls in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Sorry for not being humble, I knew this is a very simple recipe and most important of all, the essential ingredients of this rice dish are mushrooms, small dry shrimps and yam that create a difference with other rice dishes.
I told my personal friends that I blogged what my family are eating and I don’t blog extremely exotic cuisines that nobody will be eating the food after my picture taking session. I blogged practical and easy recipes that may benefits busy house chefs in their daily consumption.
While I was doing my marketing yesterday, I saw some yam in the wet market. Prices are reasonable and appeared to be rather fresh. I have decided to buy one and cooked this rice dish. Usually, when I buy the yam, I will press the yam. If the yam is firm, it is generally quite good. I will ask the vegetable seller to cut the bottom part of the yam for me and most will do as it is a rather standard practise. If I found that the yam is whitish and starchy, I will buy the yam. But yam, though a root plant, cannot keep for long. It is best to prepare it one or two days after your purchase. It had to be kept in a cool airy area.
For today’s post, I have prepared some braised trotters to go with it. If you are interested to know the recipe, you can refer to Chinese Style Braised Pork Knuckles (中式卤蹄膀）
WHAT IS REQUIRED
Servings: 6-8 adult servings
3 cups of white rice – cleaned
250 grams of yam or taro – skinned and cut into cubes
250 grams of minced meat
100 grams of baby shrimps or dry shrimps – soaked
100 grams of winter mushroom – soaked and sliced into small pieces
4 shallots – sliced thinly
3 stalks of spring onion – White portion only – chopped
3 tablespoons of cooking oil (not in picture)
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce (not in picture)
1 tablespoon of light soya sauce
1 teaspoon of white pepper.
Garnishes (optional)
Some deep fried peanuts
Some cooked or ready made chestnuts
Additional deep fried shallots
Some chopped coriander/Chinese celery/spring onion
STEPS OF PREPARATION
In a hot wok, put the oil and add in the chopped garlic and white part of spring onion. Sauté under medium to high heat until fragrant but before turning golden. Add in the mushroom slices, baby shrimps and white pepper. Stir fry until the shallot are golden. You should smell a mixture of aroma from the dry shrimps, mushrooms and shallots. Add in the minced meat, stir fry until well mixed (about 1 –2 minutes). Add in the taro and and uncooked rice.
Stir fry until well mix. Add in all the condiments (oyster sauce, light soya sauce, sugar or seasonings of choice, dark soya sauce). Stir until well mix. In this stage, you can adjust the colour of the rice to see if it is too light to your preference. If yes, do add in a bit more dark soya sauce. This recipe’s provide you the minimum seasonings. You can also take this opportunity to take a grain of rice and taste whether it suits your family’s taste buds.
Once done, transfer the rice to the rice cooker. Add in about 2.5 cups of water stir well and cook according to your rice cooker instruction. Note that the water of the rice have to be slightly less as it had already absorb part of the liquid from what you have stir fried earlier. Otherwise, your rice can be rather soggy.
If you want, you can continue to use the wok to cook your rice. Add in the water and cook under medium heat, occasionally stir fry the rice. Cook the rice until it dries up and becomes soft. For this method, it is best that you use a non-stick wok.
For serving, have your rice in a serving plate or bowl, top with garnishes such as chopped spring onion, peanuts, chestnuts and additional shallot. Can be a standalone rice dish or part of the dish in a typical Chinese set meal.
CONCLUSION
This is a simple recipe. Whether or not your rice is fragrant will very much depend on the first part of stir frying your shallots and dry shrimps. That is the critical part of the recipe. Remember to use slightly less water to cook your rice if you prefer beautiful grainy rice.
Flexibility of the dish is there, you can always add Chinese sausages instead of minced meat and if you are game enough, use lard instead of normal cooking oil will provide you a totally different fragrance..
Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.
For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 21 March 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.
So Let’s Get This Party Started!!Share your food creations, gardening, clever projects, tablescapes, decorations, party themes, and inspirational knowledge … Ok, you get the point. Join us every Thursday (opens Wednesday evening at 6:00 pm). Please stay for awhile and show some love to the guests, join us in the fun and grab a button.
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Featured Bloggers
This week we are featuring a blogger who we always look forward to seeing what she has been up to each week! Every Sunday evening she hosts See Ya in the Gumbo party. Please stop by and check out her blog and say hi while you’re there. Meet Michele Menche whose blog is a “. . . story of life in Louisiana, told through Cajun & Creole food. It’s my story of rediscovering Louisiana after living out of state for 12 years. I hadn’t realized the uniqueness of my culture…the people, the food, the music, until I was no longer surrounded by it. Hope you find it unique too.“
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For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 21 March 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.
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Siu Mai Dumpling （烧卖） and Prawn Dumplings (虾饺）are two of the items that the family never miss ordering when we frequented a Dim Sum restaurant. My kids especially my boy love siu mai. Since I have not prepared siu mai for quite a while, I have decided to prepare today and share with my readers this simple recipe of siu mai.
Yes the recipe is simple and most recipe in the net are of almost the same ingredients. Therefore, taste of the siu mai is rather standard, some springy minced meat full of aroma of minced pork and prawns.
I have intended to get some crab roe for the siu mai. I try 2 supermarkets and a wet market, I gave up and decided to use the more economical green peas and wolf berries for the decoration. This siu mai was prepared using minced pork, however, you can always used minced chicken if you prefer.
This siu mai is rather big (about 75 grams) each and of course you can prepare a smaller one if you wish. The rationale of preparing this huge siu mai is because it is easier to serve my family and serve my time of preparation. Normal siu mai should weigh about 50 grams.
WHAT IS REQUIRED
Servings : About 9-10 siu mai of 75 grams
400 grams of minced pork belly (or lean meat) or chicken drumstick*
200 grams of raw prawns – coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon of corn starch
2 teaspoons of light soya sauce
2 teaspoons of Chinese cooking wine
2 teaspoons of sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon of white pepper
1 winter mushroom , soaked and cut into small pieces (optional)
Pinches of salt
10-12 sheets or round wanton skins
* Note that the minced pork / chicken have to be as fine as possible. You can ask the butcher to mince twice or thrice for you. In this illustration, it is slightly coarse because it was minced once. I can always use a food processor to mince it again but I prefer some coarser meat to bite.
Garnish
Some green peas
Some crab meat (optional)
Some wolf berries
STEPS OF PREPARATION
Chopped the fresh prawns coarsely. Note that I have used cooked prawns for this illustration. Add to the minced meat. Add all the ingredients except garnishes and wanton skins. Use a chopstick to stir well and marinate for about 1 hour in the refrigerator.
Get ready a small Chinese tea cup. Put a piece of wanton skin as centre as possible. Press down to follow the shape of the cup. Fill the cup /wanton skins will the minced meat. Take out the siu mai from the cup, pat the sides with some water to ensure that the sides stick to each other. Top with the desired garnishes. Transfer to the steamer tray. You can either have some carrot or cabbages or even baking paper in the steamer tray. Place the siu mai on top of the carrot/cabbages/baking paper (aim is to prevent it from sticking to the steamer). Note: This is how I do it for this illustration. The reason is to ensure consistent sizes of the siu mai prepared. However, you can always just put 1-2 tablespoon of minced meat on top of a flat piece of wanton skin, pull up the edges with the centre expose.
Steam in the steamer for 8-10 minutes. Use a skewer to insert into the centre and if it comes out clean, the siu mai is consider as cooked. Best served warm as a snack or a side dish of a family meal.
CONCLUSION
A very simple recipe to share. Nothing to shout about. This recipe is rather standard, what actually attract one is the neatness of the siu mai and the garnishes. If you are able to get hold of the crab roe, use it and it will immediately transformed into a classy snack. If you can’t and I have not think about it until now, use salted egg yolk, that is an equally good alternatives. Lastly remember that you can reduce the size to the size that you want.
Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.
For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 21 March 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.
I had always wanted to prepare this bread but I have never take a move to prepare it as I have either forget to buy cream cheese or cranberries. Since I have both items at home yesterday, I have decided to give it a try.
In the internet, most recipes have called for the use of tangzhong (water roux method). However, I am rather reluctant to try since I prefer a simpler recipe. In the process of searching, I have stumbled across this rather quick recipe with simpler ingredients and method…
When I was preparing the bread, I knew it will be a soft bread. For the first proofing, it requires to proof until 3 times bigger. In addition, the bread dough is very sticky and shaping handling is quite a challenge. But when I took the first bite, it confirmed that it is a very fluffy soft bread, resembled those that I have purchased from the famous bakery chains Bread Talk or Barcook Bakery.
As the original recipe requires about 250 grams of cream cheese, what I have on hand is only about 120 grams of cream cheese, therefore some of the buns have no fillings in it.. I thought it might also good to prepare the buns to show readers how the fluffy the buns are.
150 grams of condensed milk (substitute with 100 grams of icing sugar)
STEPS OF PREPARATION
Put all dry ingredients (except butter) in the mixing bowl, use a tablespoon to stir and make a well in the centre. Crack the egg and put in the lukewarm water. Use the tablespoon to stir until a sticky dough is form. Transfer to the mixer with a dough hook, beat the dough at medium speed until the dough are smooth (about 5-6 minutes). Add in the soften butter, beat using high speed until the dough leaves the side of the mixing bowl (about 10 minutes). Add in the cranberry and “beat” until well mixed (about 1-2 minutes).
Transfer the dough to a flat floured surface, lightly knead until it is smooth. Proof in a greased bowl until it is TRIPLE in size (it took me about 40 minutes in the hot morning). Note that this dough is rather sticky, if it is difficult to handle, add in bread flour tablespoon by tablespoon until you can shape the dough.
While your dough is proofing, cream the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add in condensed milk and beat until well combined. Chilled in the refrigerator. Chilling is to facilitate the wrapping process. After you beat the cream cheese, please take some and taste if it suits your taste bud. You can either add some castor sugar or more condensed milk if you found that it is not sweet enough.
Once the first proofing is done, transfer out to the floured surface, divide the dough into 75 grams per bread (or your desired size). Lightly knead the dough, flatten it using a rolling pin. Put 1-2 tablespoons of cream cheese on the dough, seal the edges and use the rolling pin to flatten the dough as flat and as round as possible. Transfer to the greased baking tray and let it proof until double in size. Leaves adequate space for the expansion.
Pre-heat the oven to 190 degree Celsius.
Once the second proofing is done, bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the top of the bread turns golden brown. (Subsequent to the issuance of this post, some readers have highlighted that in order to make it flat, topped the tray with the dough with another baking tray, as such, the dough will not rise above the height of the baking tray. In this case, you will need to grease the bottom of the top baking tray).
CONCLUSION
This is a rather simple recipe except the dough is slightly soft and more difficult to handle. Add more flour if you feel that it is too sticky. Do give it a try and let me know about the outcome of your bakes.
Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.
For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 21 March 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.
I think I will not do justice to my blog if I did not blog one of my favourite childhood dishes, curry chicken and potatoes.
When I was young, my late mum used to prepare this dish once in a while. She will go to the backyard to pull out some fresh lemon grass, turmeric, galangal and pound using a mortal and pastel together with some common household herbs such as shallots, garlics, chilli, ginger and etc. Preparation was rather fast and then there was no premix available. Therefore, every family will have their own concoction of spice mix or rempah.
Yesterday, I have decided to replicate what my mum have prepared years ago. However, I have also decided to add in a few more spices that I have at home. Having homemade curry paste have one advantage, I can easily adjust the spiciness of the curry to suit my kid’s taste buds. In addition, you can prepare 5-6 servings in one attempt, cooled and keep it in the fridge.
After the dinner, I prepared a bread dough and wrapped the leftover curry inside the bread dough, baked and become a curry chicken bread commonly sold in Singapore and Malaysia.
The bread recipe that I have chosen are simple 40 minutes bread roll recipe. It is faster and suits this recipe well because curry can turn bad rather easily in Singapore and Malaysia’s hot weather.
The curry looks very spicy but it is not. I did not actually knew the reasons but I believed it is due to the brand of chilli powder that I used. I don’t usually used fresh turmeric and chilli in the blending with other ingredients with fear of staining my blender and difficult to wash. Therefore, I usually resort to the use of ready made chilli and turmeric powder.
Is preparation difficult? It is not nowadays, with the help of blender, ready made herbs powder, the process of preparation can be shortened significantly. The recipe lists out quite a number of the spices and I have to highlight that it will definitely not a complete list but most are optional . Quantities used for these herbs and spices may needs only 1/2 a teaspoon or less, therefore you can safely omit it..
WHAT IS REQUIRED
Servings: About 5-6 adult servings
Spice mix (Rempah)
10 cloves of garlics
10 shallots
2 stalks of lemon grass
2 cm long of fresh galangal
2 fresh chilli/10 dry chilli or 2 tablespoons of chilli powder (depending on taste buds)
2 cm long fresh turmeric or 1 tablespoon of turmeric powder
1 tablespoon of coriander powder (serbuk ketumbar)
1/2 teaspoon of cumin powder (serbuk jintan manis)*
1/2 teaspoon of fennel powder (serbuk jintan putih)*
10 candlenuts – soaked (buah keras)*
2 cm long of shrimp paste (belachan)
Others
4 large potatoes – cut into smaller pieces
4 chicken drumsticks – cut into smaller pieces
2 stalks of curry leaves
1 packet (200 ml) of thick coconut milk
3-4 tablespoons of cooking oil.
Items marked * are optional
STEPS OF PREPARATION
Peel the potatoes, clean and cut the chicken into desired sizes (best to be about 3 cm x 3 cm or bigger so that it can withstand long hours of cooking). Marinate your chicken and potatoes with some of the turmeric powder if you wish for half an hour. In recent years, I have by passed this step and cook with freshly cut chicken and potatoes. However, I will leave the curry to rest for at least one hour before i serve the curry. Then the meat will be flavourful enough.
In a blender, put all the spice mix (rempah) ingredients in the blender, add some water just enough to cover the ingredients, blend until fine. Set aside. Meanwhile, add some water to the dry powdery spices to make a paste.
In a big pot, heat up 3-4 tablespoons of cooking oils. Put in the rempah ingredients and the spices paste.
Use medium to low heat to stir fry these herbs and spices until the colour had darkened, aroma starts to permeate the house and volume has starts to shrink due to loss of water vapour. It will take about 10-15 minutes. If in the initial stage of stir frying process, you find it hard to stir fry, add in more oil. Once the rempah is cooked and it will become drier and oil will be secreted out.
Add in the curry leaves, meat and potatoes. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes until it is well mix. Add water to cover about 3/4 of the chicken and potatoes (more water will be secreted out during the cooking. Therefore, you can monitor and add more water in the process). Bring the curry chicken to boil and turn to medium heat to simmer the chicken and potatoes until it is soft (about 15-20 minutes) . Add in the thick coconut milk and seasonings (suggested: salt and sugar). Once boiled, off the heat. Cover the lid and let it rest in the pot for at least 1/2 – 1 hour for the meat to fully absorbed the flavour.
Preparation of Curry Chicken Bread Aka Golden Pillow
I will not share the bread recipe here, but if you are interested, my suggested recipe is 4o minutes bread roll recipes here. In my humble opinion, a quick bread recipe is preferred as curry cannot be in room temperature for too long as it can turn bad rather easily. Therefore this recipe is suitable. Since most are able to eat curry with French Baguettes, therefore, texture is of second consideration. Due to the weight of the curry chicken, the bread is a bit dense in the bottom which is totally acceptable. Though dense, it will help to absorb the curry sauce and become soft.
Get ready a container of your choice, put 2 layers of the aluminium foils followed by 2 layers of non stick (water proof) baking paper. Shape the foils and paper follow the shape of the container. Put the curry in the bowl.
Seal the the baking paper with a string followed by wrapping with aluminium foils. Roll your bread dough into a big flat shape. Size of the dough should be adequate to cover or wrapped the curry chicken. Put the wrapped curry chicken on top of the dough.
Wrap the curry chicken in your desired shape, proof and bake in the oven in accordance to the instructions as stated in the bread recipe. Remember, you can always get the simple bread recipe: 4o minutes bread roll recipes here.
CONCLUSION
Homemade curry chicken is not difficult. It is just the assembly of ingredients, blend and cook. However, it provides you with an advantage of tailoring the ingredients to suit your family’s taste buds. You can always prepare 5-6 servings of the rempah (spice mix), cool and keep in fridge for future use.
If you are game enough, try to prepare curry chicken bread to impress your guest.
You can always chose your preferred bread recipe or my suggested quicker bread recipe. But it should be best consumed as soon as it is baked as it can turn bad rather easily. Is it not the 40 minutes bread rolls recipe clearly suits this purpose?
Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.
For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 21 March 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.
I am cracking my head what should be my breakfast tomorrow. I have been neglecting the preparation of breakfast bakes the last two days as I was rather busy. Therefore, the kids have ended up having breakfast beverages with saltine crackers as breakfast for the past two days.
I am looking a simple bread recipe that I can prepare fast and easy. Since I have a bottle of coconut jam (kaya) in the my fridge, I have decided to locate some white bread recipe. Yes, I do have a lots of white bread recipes but I am also constantly looked out to try new recipes. Suddenly it reminded me of the traditional bakery pull apart bread rolls, a rather classic simple bread that goes well with jam and butter.
The first recipe that appeared in my searched list is this golden pull-apart butter buns from King Arthur Flour website. I looked at the picture and it is very “seductive”, appeared to be a very soft bun. Therefore, I have decided to try it out.
Hmmmm…., I should say this is a rather classic bread recipe and nothing much to shout about. Ingredients and preparation are rather simple and standard, no long hours of overnight proofing and no excessive use of yeast. Taste is rather basic and it really reminds me of the traditional bread rolls that I have been eating when I was young.
Preparation is rather fast especially in Singapore and Malaysia’s hot weather and it took me about 2 hours to get ready the buns.
Servings ： About 18 50 grams pull apart dinner rolls
400 grams of plain flour (bread flour can be used if preferred)
8 grams of instant yeast
20 grams of corn flour or potatoes flour
20 grams of milk powder
50 grams of sugar
50 grams of butter
1.5 teaspoons of salt
265 grams of lukewarm milk
Additional 20 grams of melted butter for brushing
STEPS OF PREPARATION
Lightly greased a 9 inches diameter round baking tin or any desired tin.
In a mixing bowl, mixed all the ingredients (except butter) together. Use a spoon to slightly stir it until it form a sticky dough. Use the dough hook in the machine to beat the dough at medium to low speed (speed 2 in Kenwood Chef or Kitchen Aid) for about 5 minutes. Add in 50 grams of butter and beat the dough at medium to high speed (speed 4 in Kenwood Chef or Kitchen Aid) for about 7 minutes until the dough is smooth and leaves the side of the mixing bowl.
Transfer the dough out to a lightly flour surface. Lightly knead for 1-2 minutes and let it proof until it double in size. Cover the dough with some clingy wrap.
After the first proofing, transfer the dough out and divided equally into 18 portions. (Each portion of this dough is about 50 grams). Shape the dough into a round ball and arrange in the round baking tin. Cover the tin and let it proof until double in size (about 40 minutes depending on day’s weather).
When the dough is almost ready, pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Once it is ready, bake in the oven at 180 degree Celsius for 20-25 minutes or when the aroma of the bread starts to permeates the house and the top turn golden brown. If you prefer, use an oven thermometer, insert into the middle of the buns, as long as the internal temperature reaches 90 degree Celsius, the buns are considered as cooked.
While the buns are hot, brush with melted butter sparingly. Transfer out to a cooling rack. Cooled completely before serving as bread rolls for breakfast or teatime.
CONCLUSION
I am sure you can concur with me that this is a simple basic pull apart bread recipes. Variations are many, you can always sprinkle with white sugar, cheeses on top of the proof dough before baking and transform it into a sugar pull apart bread or cheese buns. Feel free to explore with this basic recipes with side ingredients that your family prefers.
Hope you like the post today, Cheers and have a nice day.
For more recipes, you can refer to myRECIPE INDEX (updated as at 21 March 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.
So Let’s Get This Party Started!!Share your food creations, gardening, clever projects, tablescapes, decorations, party themes, and inspirational knowledge … Ok, you get the point. Join us every Thursday (opens Wednesday evening at 6:00 pm). Please stay for awhile and show some love to the guests, join us in the fun and grab a button.
We will share your posts in a variety of ways on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. We will also have features of the week! Be sure to follow our Four Seasons Board on Pinterest! By participating in this linky party, you agree to have your posts shared on social media and Pinterest and to receive email and Google notifications for reminders about the party. If you don’t want to receive notifications, please let us know.
Featured Bloggers
This week we are featuring three bloggers!
Catherine Cappiello Pappas andTammy Pappas, believe “The heart of our home is the kitchen. To us, it is so much more than a place where meals are created, it is where memories are made over meals that are meant to be shared, and laughter is spread. It takes more than just fresh ingredients to formulate a meal. We mix together care and affection and sprinkle each serving with love.” And every recipe they post is a demonstration that each serving is sprinkled with love!
Click and stop by for a visit
Vashti Quiroz-Vega a Fiction Writer and blogger who enjoys “ . . . making people feel an array of emotions with my writing. I like my audience to laugh one moment, cry the next and clench their jaws after that.” We enjoy Vashti’s stories and posts as much as she enjoys writing! Stop by and visit her blog at
For more recipes, you can refer to myRECIPE INDEX (updated as at 21 March 2014) here and you can follow me atPINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE .
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Dragon Boat activities are basically carried out during the Chinese Rice Dumpling Festivals (Duan Wu Jie (端午节）in Mandarin）and during these festival, rice dumpling were prepared for offering to the famous ancient Chinese Poet, Qu Yuan (屈原). Though the origin of rice dumpling is from China, however, overseas Chinese have incorporated each countries local elements into their version of rice dumpling. A peranakan lady is also called a nonya and their cooking blends both Chinese traditional and localized Malay elements. This post will detailed the process of preparing the Nonya version Chinese Rice Dumpling (hereinafter refer to as “Chang” or “Nonya Chang”).
This is Part II of the Nonya Chang series and will provide a simplified method of preparing the Chang. Part I of the series talk about the history of Chang and Nonya Chang, the reasons why less and less Chang prepared at home and the reasons why Chang command such a high premium. You can read it HERE.
The process of preparing the Chang will involve the following processes:
1. Cleaning of leaves;
2. Preparation of rice;
3. Preparation of fillings;
4. Wrapping of Chang;
5. Steaming of the Chang
The recipe below is a rather simple recipe that both my wife and myself likes. I have been using this recipe for more than 5 years. Both my wife and myself do not like other ingredients in the commercial Chang like chestnuts, dried shrimps etc.. and in our first attempt, we agreed that we shall only have 3 main ingredients, pork, mushrooms and candied winter melons and we have been using the same ingredients since then. Therefore, this is a very good starting basic recipe for Nonya Chang.
WHAT IS REQUIRED
The table below summarizes the ingredients required for making about 30 Chang from 1.2 kg of rice or about 40g of uncooked rice per Chang.
Column one shows the ingredients or material required. Second column shows the measurement in box. I have purposely used the box as a measurement unit as it is easier for me to measure and can keep my material systematically. I have also included the weight equivalent that I measured during the process for your reference. But my recommendation is to USE THE BOX MEASUREMENT AS IT IS QUITE ACCURATE.
Another way of measuring based on the variable measurement, weight measurements and my experiences are in the following ratios:
White sugar, dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, salt (白糖，酱清，酱油，盐） (h)
to taste
Cooking oil （食用油）(i)
0.5-1 cups
Bamboo Leaves (竹叶） (j)
100 leaves
Reed strings or cotton strings （草绳） (k)
5o strings
Pandanus leaves（香兰叶） (l)
20 leaves
Butterfly pea flower （蝴蝶豆） (m)
10 flowers
NOTES:
(a)Pork Belly Meat
Traditionally, the pork were being boiled in the water and after cooked, it was manually diced into about o.5 cm cube. However, in order to save time, I have used a mixture of minced pork and diced pork that were sold in the market.
(b) Mushrooms
Instead of dicing the mushrooms into cubes, I have buy the cut mushrooms, soaked it and use a blender to process the mushrooms into small biteable chunks. I know older generations are very particular about the dicing of mushrooms into cubes but for me it is acceptable because all the ingredients will be cut into very small pieces.
(c) Winter melons
This will also be diced into small cubes of 0,5 cm. Usually, the size of meat, mushrooms and winter melons are of the same size. These I have manual diced it instead of using food processor because if winter melons are too small, when cooked, you will not be able to “find “ it when you bite the fillings.
(d) Glutinous rice
Meat to uncooked glutinous rice ratio should be 1:1. This may sound a bit unbelievable because rice will expand when cooked whereas meat will shrink in volume when cooked. The shrunk volume will be made good by volume of mushrooms and winter melons.
(e) Coriander powder (divided into 2 packets)
Coriander powder IS A MUST in Nonya Chang. It is this ingredients that make Nonya Chang its unique flavour.
(f) Five spice powder and white pepper powder (divided into 2 packets)
These two items are rather optional. It is traditional that we put the white pepper powders but for five spice powders, just a bit (to your taste) will do. Five spice powders is the usually used in the other Bak Chang, it should not be too much until it over “shadows” the aroma of coriander powder.
(g) Chopped Garlic and Onion (divided into 2 portions)
This again is optional but for my recipe, we used lots of chopped garlics and onions. It is my personal opinion that both the rice and fillings should have the fragrance of garlics and shallots. Just chopped it using a food processor.
(h) White Sugar, Dark Soya Sauce, light Soya Sauce, Salt (h)
Most recipes in the net will give you minimal seasonings and all these seasonings are OPTIONAL and should be adjusted accordingly to suit your families palates. One thing that I have to highlight is that seasonings are important to ensure your rice and fillings are tasty. In additions, if you are boiling the Chang instead of steaming the Chang, even more seasonings are needed as the water will dilute your rice and fillings. You will not want to prepare something that is tasteless and only you know exactly the taste for your family.
(i) Cooking Oil (divide into 2 portions)
These oils will be needed to fry the rice and the fillings. You can adjust the oil quantity accordingly. Depending on the type of meat you are using, if it is pork belly, after you fried for a while, fats will be converted to oil and you only need oil just enough to fried the garlics and shallots. Any excess oil can be drained off before you wrap the Chang.
(j) Bamboo leaves
You can either use the fresh bamboo leaves or the dried bamboo leaves. However, it is difficult to get big size bamboo leaves nowadays. You will need to prepare at least 2 times the number of Chang to be wrapped plus another 10% for spoilages. E.g, using my recipe above, since I am making 40 Chang, I will need 40 x 2 = 80 leaves plus another 20 leaves set aside for reserve use.
You have to clean and soak the dry leaves in water for at least about 1 hours or until you feel the leaves are soft and easy to be twisted in any shape. If you want it to be faster, you can used hot water. Alternatively, just soak it overnight.
Traditionally, Nonya Chang uses the big Pandanus leaves for the wrapping and it is one of the things that differentiate it with other Chang. Even in Kuching, Sarawak, people still uses these Pandanus leaves. However, in Singapore, it is very hard to get hold of these leaves and one leaf will cost you about SGD1 which can be cut into 3 pieces for the wrapping.
It is hard to find the images for big Pandanus leaves. I have managed to get hold of some pictures from www.sgkopi.com to share with readers. If we are using Pandanus leaves to wrap the Chang, more works are required. Firstly, you have to cut the leaves into the sizes that you like. It will be followed by dethroning the leaves and you have to peel off certain veins such that the leaves are softer. It will then be washed and “blanched” in the hot water to soften the leaves.
So, in order to save time, the big bamboo leaves imported from China is still preferred.
(k) Strings
Since I managed to get hold of the reed strings or straw strings, I preferred to use them. The reasons no other than preserving the traditions. If you can’t, just use cotton strings (as used in the cross stitch or knitting of table cloths or dish cloths)or nylon strings. If you are a newbie , I would advise to USE THE COTTON STRINGS as it is the easiest to tie and reed string will break. as for the nylon strings, you have to make it thinner and it is not advisable to boil under high heat.
Note that the 1st picture is using Pandanus leaf plus a bamboo leaf and uses nylon strings; the string used in the second picture is using a cotton string and the 3rd picture is my Chang wrapped using Bamboo Leaves and reed strings.
(l) Pandanus leaves
As it is hard to get the big Pandanus leaves, I have used some small Pandanus leaves which was cut into small pieces for uses in the cooking of rice and can be recycled by wrapping inside the Chang.
(m) Butterfly Pea Flower (optional)
The butterfly pea flower shall be used for the colouring and it is optional. As far as I know, besides colouring the rice into blue or indigo, the flower do not have any other purposes in the cooking. If you plan to use this, soaked the flowers in hot water for 1-2 hours, let the colour diffuse into the water and use these water to soak the rice before cooking. In my demonstration, I did not use these flowers.
These are the pea flowers that I just pluck this morning and after submerging into the water for an hour, the colour of the water become bluish. After one hour of soaking the rice, the rice is slightly bluish. As I have only used 4 flowers for demonstration purposes, therefore the colour is slightly lighter. If you insist to have blue colour but do not have any pea flowers, then, use blue colouring.
STEPS OF PREPEARATION
Cleaning of leaves and strings
Clean the leaves using a new sponge and wipe the leaves. Soak the leaves in hour for 1-2 hours. Use hot water if you want the leaves to be soften faster.
Preparation of Glutinous Rice
If you looked at the recipes in the net, they are likely to advise you to soak the uncooked rice over night or at least a few hours. However, as this is the short cut method, I have steamed the Chang instead of the boiling the Chang. I will cooked the rice and therefore no soaking of uncooked rice is required.
Wash your rice with clean water and sieved it when done.
If you want to use the pea flower, you will have to soak the rice in advance the let the blue colour penetrate into the rice.
In a big frying pan, pour in some oil and put half of the chopped garlics and shallots. Stir fry over medium fire until the fragrance begins to spread in the kitchen;
Add in half of the coriander powder, white pepper and five spice powder to the mixture and continue frying until the garlics and shallots start to turn brownish. This is pretty fast and you have to carefully monitor it, otherwise, it will get burnt.
Add in the glutinous rice and fried until well mixed (not cooked and it should be quite fast). Add in seasonings and take a few uncooked rice to taste.
I have to remind again that you should be rather heavy handed with your seasonings, otherwise, the rice will be tasteless.
Cut the Pandanus leaves into small pieces and throw into the uncooked rice. Transfer half to your rice cooker. (Half of the rice is about 4 cups which is just nice for my rice cooker. However, if your rice cooker can cook 10-12 cups of rice, you can just put all the uncooked rice and cooked it once)
Add water (about 1 cup of uncooked rice with 1 cup of water). Stir it to mix well. (Glutinous rice is sticky and when you fried it, your seasonings may be stick just one part of the rice. Therefore, this step is required to ensure all seasonings are evenly spread to the rice).
Select “glutinous rice” function in the rice cooker and it will takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to cook. Occasionally stir the rice to see if the bottom of the rice is burnt, if yes, stir it to prevent further damage;
After about an hour, the rice is cooked. Transfer to a big container, set aside and let it cool before the wrapping starts.
If you are unsure about the water needed, add less water first, Then add more water when you find that it is not cooked or start to get burnt. It is ok to have a bit of rice uncooked because you will continue to cook them when you steam the Chang later on.
Try to take a small spoon and scope some to taste. If you find that it is not tasty enough, add more seasonings at this stage to salvage your rice. But use liquid seasonings rather than solid seasonings. E.g. use light soya sauce instead of using salt at this stage.
Preparation of fillings
In a big frying pan, pour in some more oil and put the other half of the chopped garlics and shallots. Stir fry over medium fire until the fragrance begins to spread in the kitchen;
Add in the older half of the coriander powder, white pepper and five spice powder to the mixture and continue frying until the garlics and shallots start to turn brownish.
Add in the chopped mushrooms and fried a few minutes over medium until you can smell the fragrance of the mushrooms.
Add in the diced pork belly and fried until say 50% cooked. It is not necessary to be fully cooked because the frying will continues.
Add in the minced meat and fried to say about 70% cooked. Note that the minced meat was not added together with the diced pork belly because minced meat is easier to cook.
I preferred to add in the seasonings along long the process because I want the fillings’ colour to be dark brownish. The earlier you put it your dark soya sauce, the easier your meat will become darker;
Add in the diced candied winter melons. Mixed well and add in sugar and other condiments.
Remember that the fillings is quite a lot and you have to be heavy handed with your seasoning.
Off the heat when all the fillings are well mixed and the colour is even. Not need to be extremely concern whether the fillings is well cooked. Any uncooked fillings will be cooked again during the steaming process.
By now you should note your filling is quite oily. Get ready a container, place two spoons on the bottom and put another bowl upside down on top of the spoons. Transfer the fried fillings to the box and let it cool before you wrap the Chang.
The main purpose of this step is to let the oil dripped down to the bottom so that your fillings on top will not be greasy. You can then throw the oil away. This is the traditional method that my mum used to do. However, you can try just to sieve it and let the oil dripped out.
Before wrapping the Chang, let’s recap what you should have in the table.
Wrapping of Chang
The following pictures was taken by my daughter as I only have two hands cannot capture the image. So it may not be that clear.
Well, since you are using cooked rice, that makes your life easier, you can shape the Chang first
On a cutting board, roll the Chang into a long roll, divided it into about 60 g each and shaped it into a ball.
Take two bamboo leaves and make it in a shape of a cone.
Take one ball and try to make a hole in the middle. If you find that it is sticky, just dip your finger into some clean water and pat it on the glutinous rice.
Take a spoon and scope some fillings to fill the cavity;
Take another ball and flattened it and cover the fillings. If you want to add Pandanus leaves, add it now;
Put some water in your hand and press the rice downwards until you feel that there are no air between the rice and the fillings.
Press the tail of the bamboo leaves to cover the top portion and shape the tail like a swallow tail;
Twist it side wards to follow the shapes of the Chang. By now, your Chang should be in triangular shape and you should be able to hold the Chang with one hand.
Take a string and looped around the Chang tie using a live knot.
If you find that Chang are not really in the shape you want, try to adjust it now. Loosen the string or adjust the bamboo leaves to shape it to the desired shape.
After wrapping, check that there are no holes resulted from rough handling and there are small areas that are not covered with the leaves. These are “loopholes” that will create problems for you. If you boiled it , the rice will flow out (not all of course) and all the seasonings will be diluted with the water. It will also become sticky. JUST ENSURE THAT THERE ARE NO HOLES IN THE CHANG.
If you are newbie, don’t be greedy. Wrap a smaller Chang first, smaller is easier to wrap.
I hope that you can understand what I have described above and I have a YouTube video below to show you how to make the Chang at Zhong Zi- How to wrap Chinese sticky glutinous rice dumpling. Note that this video is sourced from YouTube and courtesy of Ms. Brenda Chiew.
How to wrap Chineses Sticky Glutinous Rice Dumpling
If you are still not confident to wrap the Chang, why not try this:
I press my Chang in the shape of a bowl and steamed it. If you are not particular about the shape, you can still taste the Chang.
Steaming the Chang
Steam the Chang for about 10-15 minutes to let the glutinous rice to take shape. Note that unlike the traditional method where you will need to boil the rice which shall take at least 2-3 hours.
Your Chang will be ready and serve it when cool such that the glutinous rice will not be overly sticky.
If you look at the Chang that I have prepared, you will note that the rice stick to each other meaning the rice is very soft. This will be better for those that have gastro intestinal problems.
The light greenish colour at one of the corner is the green tea bean paste that I have added since I have some at home. There are a lot of Teo-Chew adding “Oni” or “芋泥” (a type of yam paste) to the Chang and the taste is awesome.
CONCLUSIONS
This post has taken me 2 days to write and its getting longer. I may have a supplementary short post to highlight to you some tips on making the Chang. Once again, I have to stress again and again that my way of writing food preparation series is not really asking you to follow exactly my recipe. I would shared with you my steps in a simplified manners. I hope that readers can via my post, learn some thing, incorporate some of my steps for your convenience and create your own versions.
I hoped that readers can try the method as mentioned in this post to make your own Chang and clear some misconceptions of Chang making. This method have several advantages:
1. Considerably shortened the preparation time.
Using the rice cooker to cook the rice and steaming the Chang will at least saved 4-5 hours of preparation time;
The usage of food processors to process your garlic, shallots, mushrooms and meat will save at least another 2-3 hours;
The usage of box measurement will cut short your measuring time.
2. Using cooked rice instead of raw rice will increase your chances of success.
Cooked rice is easy to wrap into your desired shape and it will not leak out from the leaves. Tying the cooked rice Chang will be much easier than the raw rice Chang as it is softer.
Usage of cotton strings will also help to ensure the Chang can be tied and no hole in it.
Usage of bamboo leaves instead of traditional big Pandanus leaves will also shortened the process of cleaning the leaves and easier to wrap;
Take your first step to make some Chang for your family today. Whatever the output will be, your family will appreciate your thoughts and giving all the supports you required. Cheers.
Just wrapped 15 cups of rice, altogether about 45 dumpling. Pictures are new pictures taken.
For more recipes, you can refer to myRECIPE INDEX (updated as at 21 March 2014) here and you can follow me atPINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE .
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 1800 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers:FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.
You can also join the Food Bloggers and Foodies United Group Facebook Group to see more recipes. Currently there are about 7,900 members sharing various food photos . I would be more than happy if you can post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from this Guaishushu’s blog.
Lightly grease a 8” square baking tin and preheat the oven to 175 degree Celsius.
Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until well combined. Transfer to the baking tin and baked in the oven at 175 degree Celsius for 30-45 minutes or until the top turn brownish. The custard shall be soft but not soggy. If it is soggy, you will have to extend the baking hours. You can also use water bath baking method if you wish but the colour will not be that brownish.
In the process of baking, you will witness the centre puffing up which is normal and it will level when you take out from the oven. Transfer to the cooling rack to cool completely before cutting with a knife to ensure sharp edges. Best served with some fresh fruits or sauces and as a snack item for tea time.
If you don’t have a blender, melt the butter, beat the melted butter+ sugar + egg+flour+ milk (either use a mixer or manual whisking), sift to the baking tray and bake.
CONLCUSION
I believed this should be one the shortest recipe that I have ever issued. Though simple, taste is good. It can be an rather addictive sweet treat ..
Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.
For more recipes, you can refer to myRECIPE INDEX (updated as at 21 March 2014) here and you can follow me atPINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE .
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 1800 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers:FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.
You can also join the Food Bloggers and Foodies United Group Facebook Group to see more recipes. Currently there are about 7,900 members sharing various food photos . I would be more than happy if you can post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from this Guaishushu’s blog.
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GUAI SHU SHU 
