Gougère

I am a fan of eggy batter, and choux pastry is a perfect snack when I feel a little peckish. I tried to make choquette, but the Nestle chocolate chips burned, so it was not a sucess. So I quickly grated some gruyère cheese, mixed them into batter and piped them on the cookie sheet. I sprinkled more cheese on top before baking.


flour 1 cup
water 1 cup
butter 90g
a pinch of salt
2 handfuls + more of grated gruyère
4 eggs (room temp)

Preheat oven to 200C.
Bring water, butter and a pinch of salt to a boil in a pan. Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Add flour and mix vigorously using wooen spoon. Let it cool for 5 mins.
Once the dough has slightly cooled, add one egg at a time, mixing well. Add cheese to the dough, reserving some for sprinkling on top.
Pipe the dough on the sheet, about a walnut size, 1 inch from one another.
Sprinkle cheese on top.
Bake for 25-30 mins in the oven till golden brown.

Best served warm with wine or beer.

It is raining outside and I am listening to Leslie Cheung's 為你鍾情. Such a classic. -0-

Lemon yoghurt cake

I had some leftover plain yoghurt in the fridge that was nearing expiry date. I googled for a light yoghurt cake recipe, and noticed that everybody seems to rave about Dorie Greenspan's recipe. So I tried, and I was very happy with the result. It is light and lemony, perfect with a cup of tea on a summer's day. It is also very simple and easy to make, so much so that I can memorize the whole recipe.

1 1/2 cup AP flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil (non-fragrant oil like grape seed oil)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 lemon
2 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
4 tablespoon icing sugar
Preheat oven to 175˚C

1. Put sugar and zest of one lemon in a bowl, and mix them together to make fragrant sugar mixture.
2. Add eggs, oil and vanilla extract to sugar mixture. Whisk well to achieve lemon curd-like mixture.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt to 2. Mix well.
4. Line muffin tins with cupcake paper. Fill upto 2/3. Bake for 25 mins or until the toothpick comes out clean.
5. Mix juice of 1 lemon with 4 tablespoon. Prick holes on the cakes with toothpick. Spoon lemon and sugar mixture over the cake when the cakes are still warm.
6. Enjoy with a cup of tea.

* Dorie Greenspan's recipe calls for warmed up marmalde glaze, but I replced it with lemon-sugar mixture.

Oatmeal, Pecan & Choc Chip Cookie

11 mins

13 mins

Can’t believe how long I’ve been ignoring my blog, or more like OUR BLOG if the other writer is still around to update, yes, I’m talking to you Banya~

I have suddenly had a brainwave that I odd to try out and train myself for a marathon someday. This is because I’ve been only running on 2-6 hours sleep for coming close to 3 months now. I had a long battle with assignments, and now exams (+ falling down the stairs and a fever in between all of that jazz). It’s really been pushing my limits both mentally and physically. I never thought I could last that long (trust me, when I was 18 I could but I'm VERY far from that age right now!).

In addition, I'm now busy playing hide and seek with my dissertation supervisor…my fear in stepping in the school of law is so immense I’ve really been avoiding that area of the building. I’m even avoiding that escalator that lead to the school…argggh…pathetic~~ So I've ended up writing an email to him and ask to take leave for an extra semester so I can squeeze out this painful labour of dissertation. I've yet to wait for his favourable response and really, it better be favourable!

So – question for today is “what does a girl do when she’s under so much stress and with so little time in her hand?” The answer is “bake some cookies!!” yes, that’s right! I’m a poor student who can’t afford for holidays and retail therapy so let’s just bring on some baking therapy!

This time, what will be in our cookies? Oatmeal, pecan AND CHOCOLATE CHIPSSSSSSS!!! No offence to raisin, but I’ll take the chocolate chips instead please! Again, I’ve reduced the amount of sugar because my lovely mother loves complaining about my cookies / dessert being too sweet! So if you like your cookies sweeter, by all means add more sugar in it.

I must say that usually I’m not a fan of cinnamon but I quite liked the taste of it, if you eat it fresh the scent doesn’t really come out as strong as when it’s cooled. My mother, my meanest critic (yet) has “ordered” me not to put in cinnamon and reduce the amount of orange zest next time. So I’m thinking to halve the cinnamon and orange zest by half next time. This little monster if you want on the crispier side, then you can flatten it slightly at around 6 minutes with a spatula, and bake it for a little longer (but watch out for burnt cookies!). I did two batches, one at 11 minutes and the other at 13 minutes to test the texture. I like the 11 minutes one better at fresh but preferred the 13 minutes one when cooled. Cooking it’s all about trial and error…let’s get baking.

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature


• ½ cup sugar (white / caster)


• ¾ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed


• 1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1 large eggs, 1 egg yolk


• ½ cup bread flour


• 1 cup multi-purpose flour


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg1 cup quick-cooking oats


• 1 ½ cups chopped pecans


• 2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest


• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Instruction:

1. Using an electric mixer to beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy.


2. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and beat until well mixed, about 3 minutes.


3. Stir in egg and yolk.


4. Then sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a separate bowl.


5. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter with the mixer on low speed. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the second half.


6. Stir in the oats, pecans, orange zest, and chocolate chips


7. Put the mix in the fridge for an hour (can be kept overnight) – I did not bake this fresh so I can’t compare the result but I’d experiment next time when I have more time.


8. Preheat oven to 170˚C


9. Line a baking paper onto the baking tray. Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10-13 minutes or until golden. (the cooking time really depends on your oven!!!)


10. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack.


11. Cookies can be store at room temperature in a cookie jar or any airtight container.

Keeps gettin' better and better - Leite's chocolate chip cookies

I just have no idea why I am so obssessed with chocolate chip cookies. I am not American and I did not grow up or study in America. I certainly was not brought up on those. My mom did bake them for me time to time, but not so much that I should be obssesed with it.

I baked chocolate chip cookies many many times, tried classic Toll House recipe and Jaque Torres's many times. But I could never get the ones I pictured in my mind until I tried Golden Syrup chocolate chip cookies. Even than, I had to squash the cookies a bit to get the shape I wanted. Then I came across Smitten Kitchen's. Leite is the one who actually came up with the recipe, and the pictures in Smitten Kitchen seemed very nice, so I gave that a go.

It was perfect. I am so happy with it that I can confidently sell those delicious cookies at the cafe that I dream to have one day. (Wishful thinking it is)
It was buttery, cripsy, had a slight touch of toffe. It stayed chewy after cooling down. Crackly, rippled top was attractive.

I did make some change from the original recipe. I did not add all the chocolate I was supposed to, but instead, put in about 80% of the original recipe. Not that I have anything against chocolate, but I always felt that Torres' recipe is a bit overloaded with chocolate.

Leite’s Consummate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen / David Leite via The New York Times

*** I halved the original recipe. It makes around 16-17 cookies.

1 cups minus 1 TSP cake flour
5/6 cups bread flour
5/8 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons coarse salt
140g unsalted butter
5/8 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 TSP granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
200g bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content
Sea salt

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and try to incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. [Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.]

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Keeps gettin' better - Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you have been reading my blog, you must be very familiar with my obsession about chocolate chip cookies. Till now, I thought Jaque Torres'schocolate chip cookie was it, but I found very simple but very satisfying - crispy on the outside, chewy centre- recipe which uses Lyle's Golden Syrup.

Finding the recipe was out of pure luck. I was searching recipes for sticky toffee pudding (my brother's request) but did not find any. So I decided to look for golden syrup pudding instead in memory of boarding school meals. I came across Mademoiselle M's recipe. in the process. It does not use any eggs, so I was a bit apprehensive at the beginning, but this seems to be the recipes I have been waiting for. I am so happy with this that I wish there was a school fete to sell these.





The recipe yields 12 cookies.

Ingredients

175g flour+ 1tsp baking powder and a pinch of baking soda
75g golden caster sugar
2 TSP Golden Syrup
100g butter
75g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

1. Mix soft butter and sugar.
2. Add goden syrup.
3. Mix flour with baking powder and baking soda. Add to 2.
4. Add chocolate chips.
5. Divide the dough into 12 balls. Bake for around 12 minutes. The cookies may look uncooked, but when it cools down, it will be OK.

Enjoy them warm with cold milk or coffee. When the cookies cool down, the flavour of caramely golden syrup comes through more. I think the cookies will be as delicious without chocolate chips. Pecans and cranberry will be good substitutes.

Pudding au Caramel (Caramel Pudding) - Recipe

Puddings are amongst one of my best love dessert, I love all types of pudding from Chinese steamed milk pudding, Japanese milk pudding, Panna Cotta (or the Italian milk pudding LOL), Mango pudding, Baked Sago pudding, Soya Milk pudding…I LOVE PUDDINGS!

Because this recipe is done to suit my taste, therefore, it is perfectly ok to adopt your own preferences to it. E.g. some might prefer using skimmed or semi-skimmed milk instead, some might prefer using vanilla seeds instead of essence, some might prefer to use more sugar or some might prefer it to have more caramel with the pudding. So just do what you like to it but this is what I have done with mine!

Ingredients:

• 500 ml Whole Fat Milk
• 3 eggs
• 110g Sugar (I used caster sugar instead because I just bought a new bag.)
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
• 35ml Water

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 160-180˚c (again, depending how hot your oven it, mine tends to burn EVERYTHING I cook…so 160 was enough for me!).

2. Place water and 70g of sugar into a heavy bottom pan or pot to make the caramel sauce. This is a quick process so have your glass / ceramic pudding mold stand by to pour the sauce in when it’s done. The colour of the caramel depends on you, some like it to be a dark amber colour some is happy with honey colour. The darker you want it, the long you stir the caramel in the heat, but be careful not to burn it. Pour in the equal amount of caramel into each bowl. (A tiny bit is usually enough)

3. Whisk the egg with 40g of sugar, you can use more sugar than that if you wish. Heat up the milk and for 2-3 minutes and slowly pour in some of the milk into the egg before mixing it. Remember NOT to pour in all the milk at once and do it in at least 2-3 separate go. Each time more milk is added, stir gently to mix both egg and milk until adding more milk in it.

4. Use the sieve to sieve the pudding mix at least 3 times before pouring it into the glass / ceramic pudding mold. Spoon out gently any bubbles before covering it with aluminum foil.

5. Place the pudding on to the bottom tray of the oven, place a piece baking paper in the tray and fill up 2/3 of the tray with water before placing the glass / ceramic bowls on it. Bake at 160 - 180˚c for 45 – 60 mins.

TIPS:

• You can use the handle of a knife gently tap the mold / bowl for checking if the pudding is cooked or not. If a pudding is not ready the top would have a ripple effect, whereas if it was cooked and ready, it’d just wobble instead.
• After the pudding is done, take it out to soak in water for about 50 mins before placing into the fridge. It taste a lot nicer when chilled.
• To serve the pudding, just run the tip fo the knife around the mold, turn it onto a plate and ready to serve.

Wing Lai Yuen - Sichuan food (Hong Kong)

Address 1: Wing Lai Yuen (Yeung's Kitchen)Shop 106-107, Site 8, Wonderful Worlds Of Whampoa, 7 Tak On Street, Hung Hum, Kowloon

Address 2:Wing Lai Yuen Sze Chuen Noodles RestaurantG/F, 15-17 Fung Tak Rd, Wong Tai Sin, Kowloon

Szechuen Szechuan Sichuan food, however you wanna spell it is known for its spice and chili!

Wing Lai Yuen in HK is best known for its Spicy Szechuan Noodles (Dan Dan Mian) mostly because of the texture of the noodles (handmade). The Szechuan noodles in Hong Kong have all be altered to less spicy and added in more wonderful flavours, the original version have often been described as blend which I have never tasted before.

I for one always love the peanut sauce used in Dan Dan Mian and the preserved pickled vegetable in it (This pickled veg tend to have more savory flavour to it rather then acidic taste and is usually slightly spicy but there are ones that go without the chili). At Wing Lai Yuen you can have this noodles in mild version (without chili), but because I love my chili so I have never tried this one before. But I admire that they would try to accommodate their customers though I do not know if they’d have to compromise with the taste in order to do so or not.

My order was as follow:

Spicy Szechuan Noodles (Dan Dan Mian 擔擔麵)

- The soup base is thicker than the usual broth you see with other Chinese noodles in soup because of the peanut sauce. Don’t let the colour frighten you, it looks hotter than it taste, the spiciness is not overwhelming at all but just enough to give you little tinkle feeling, the noodles is very thin and smooth but not soggy.

“Altered version” Spicy Szechaun Noodles ("改良版"擔擔麵)
- The only different in look is that there were more minced meat and pickled vegetable in this and there’s a layer of oil at the top. The soup here is more diluted in texture as well as in taste. I personally cannot tell any drastic difference between the two except I preferred the usual one because the soup smelt and tasted better. I was anticipating the layer of oil to give it some wonderful aroma or something but it just didn’t happen! In fact, I find the altered version does not stand out at all. I guess my price was the extra $10 to find out the differences.

Dumplings in Chili oil (紅油抄手)

- The sauce is sweetened soy sauce based with chili oil and with plenty of chopped garlic (raw). There is no particular rule with the filling of the dumpling except it’s pork based, this one have added some (Chinese) celery in it. I love the taste of the celery and thought it actually brought the whole dish alive. The only improvement I find is that the skin of the dumpling is too large, therefore the fold of the dumpling is thicker and when it’s cooked some of it goes hard. Where the sauce tasted good enough already, except I find the sweetness was just one tad too much. Also if a few drops of Chinese dark vinegar could be added to it would taste a lot better.

Sautéed Eel slice with (Chinese) Chives (韭王炒鱔糊)

- This is in fact a Shanghainese dish, so I was really curious why there are so many Shanghainese dishes served in a Szechuan restaurant. My mother told me it is really common, just like my grandmother who is not originally from Shanghai but cooks Shanghainese food really well. The look and taste of this was really right on spot and very Shanghainesy. Well it is oily enough, the sauce and flavour was strong and wonderful but not salty, the sweetness was right and certain part of the eel is slighly crispy. The only criticism I had with this dish was that the chive was a bit too old and chewy~

- I am unsure if everyone is familiar with this but in certain cities in China (mostly the southern part), we put sugar (or anything sweetly flavoured) in savoury dishes, best known example would be Sweet and Sour pork LOL.

Cucumber and thin bean starch noodles with Peanut sauce (青瓜粉皮)

- This is a cold dish but usually with shredded chicken as well as cucumber. The bean starch noodles is a bit like rice noodles (Ho Fun) but it is semi-transparent. The peanut sauce was given at a very generous portion, which you may well appreciate at the first couple of bite but it gets a bit sticky and uninteresting. But adding some sauce from the spicy dumpling really helped it and it tasted even better than before. Mind you I love mixing food and different sauces together, so it might have just been me doing my own thing there and the whole world find this completely off putting!

Steamed Soup Dumpling (小籠包)

- Have you not heard of the infamous Steamed Soup Dumpling from Shanghai? Ever been to a Din Tai Fung before? If you haven’t maybe you should! In theory, what they do is use (supposingly) thin dumpling skin to wrapped up minced pork and a frozen cube of broth then steam it. During cooking, because the meat would be steamed in the soup so it is usually softer and flavour in the soup would infuse to the meat. The dumpling is usually served with vinegar with thin ginger slices. But if you prefer you can have it on its own. The dumpling here doesn’t have as much soup as other places I’ve tried before, but the overall flavour and quality was not bad. The dumpling skin is vital key to this dish, it cannot be too thin otherwise it'd burst and lose all the juice, but if it is too thick then it'd taste chewy once it cool off slightly and takes away the flavour. The dumpling skin here was just slightly on the thick side but luckily it was not overingly dry or too chewy. I would personally prefer this dish at other places but this one is not bad.

Sautéed veggie with garlic

- Everyone needs some fibre with their meal!!

Soy Milk
- I don’t like the taste of the soy milk here, there are tons of places that do better soy milk then this. In fact, the one that are sold in the supermarket taste better.

Overall the environment is FAR from fine dinning, well the price is too! It only cost around $80 - $150 per head (with the current currency exchange would be around GBP 7 -14). On a busy day you may have to share the table with others, but I was lucky enough to get a table of my own.

It is always good to have some spicy food to spice up the rainy day, the weather have been terrible for the past few days!! So miserable~~ Nowww I better get back to work (even more miserable!) and do some research on public policy and enforcement --- Arrggh!