Dried Beef Noodles

Okay, this is a deceptively short post, because to make this dried beef noodles, all you need are some potato starch, dark soy sauce and sesame seed oil. And beef stock from the post I did on pho.

But that's really it! Once you have a good beef stock, it's possible to churn out decent dried beef noodles home away from home.

Ingredients
Home-made beef stock
Thick vermicilli or egg noodles, cooked till al dente
cooked beef slices
bean sprouts, canned or fresh, scalded in hot boiling water
Sesame seed oil
dark soy sauce
potato starch solution

Steps

1. Make the beef stock like in making pho. Heat it in a pot.
2. Add some dark soy sauce to the stock, enough for the colour you desire. Adjust the taste of the broth accordingly with salt, sugar and pepper if necessary.
3. While the stock is boiling, add in the potato starch solution little bit at a time until it is of thick consistency, like lava.
4. In a bowl with the prepared noodles, add sesame seed oil and toss it well and arranged the beef slices on top before pouring the gravy over. Top with some fried onions and chili padi if desired.

 

Vietnamese Beef Pho

The ongoing Project Foodblog by Foodbuzz saw quite a few participants attempting to make Vietnamese Beef Pho during the second challenge where you were asked to try something not from your culture. Well, I did the steam rice rolls, then I thought I will try making Pho also. The recent trip to Malmö Asian shops yielded one of those seasonings for pho that comes in a pack, but I also took a few tips from here, I think her way of writing is pretty fun and easy too. I won't use the packet seasoning next because I actually have all the actual spices but what I wanted to show you after is how I managed to convert this version to Singapore dried beef noodles! You know, the kind you used to eat at Scotts food court which has moved to ION? I won't say mine is as good but I think it comes pretty close in this faraway land ;)

Ingredients
1kg beef with bones
2-3 large onions
3-4cm of ginger, unpeeled
rice noodles
canned/fresh bean sprouts
salt and sugar to taste
Thai basil for garnish
Pho spices (which includes pices include cinnamon sticks, cloves, coriander pods, star anise and cardamom)

Steps

1. Clean the beef and blanched in hot water first to remove the scum. Boil a clean pot of water and placed in the blanched beef.
2. On a hot pan without adding any oil, roast the onions and ginger (unpeeled) until they are slightly charred along the sides. Add it to the stock pot along with the pho spices.
   
   
   
3. Boil over medium low heat for about an hour or until the beef is tender. Remove the meat from the bones and sliced thinly and set aside. You can put the bones back to the soup to continuing boiling for flavour. Add salt and sugar to taste. You should expect a clear, light soup with that unique pho beef soup fragrance.
   
   
   
4. To serve, cooked the rice noodles separately until done. Set a portion of noodles, sliced beef and bean sprouts and scoop the hot pipping soup over. Garnish with basil leaves and/or mint leaves, along with a side of sliced chili padi with fish sauce and enjoy this hot pipping pho in the cold weather - BEST!
   
   
   
   
   
   

Äppelkaka med citron och kardemumma - Apple cake with lemon and cardamon

Den har är en riktig bra recept från ICA's 'Billiga Veckan!' magasin för att det är lätt att göra men smacka mycket bra, särskilt med höst äpple. Det är också mycket svensk att använda kardemumma i bakelse.

This is a really good recipe from ICA (a major supermarket chain in Sweden) magazine called 'Billiga Veckan! - Economical Week which recommends recipes that is cheap and economical for the whole week. I have never followed it for one whole week but I tried a sample of this cake while shopping at ICA and got hooked. I did it for the first Supper Club@Nöbbelövs, where we opened our place to have a cell group session watching DVD sermon from New Creation Church Singapore and it was a well-received dessert.

 It's also quite Swedish because of the use of cardamon, which is quite common in confectioneries in Sweden.

Ingredients (8 pieces)

125g butter or margarine

1.5dl of castor sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

2 eggs

2.5dl flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoon milk

Filling and garnish

4 medium apples, peeled and sliced thinly

1 teaspoon ground cardamon

1 tablespoon castor sugar

Steps 

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C and grease a pie mould with a loose bottom or a gratin form is also fine otherwise about 24cm in diameter with butter or magarine.
2. Melt the butter/margarine and let it cool before use. Stir in the sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest into the melted butter/margarine. 
3. Add 1 egg at a time into the butter/margarine mixture until incorporated. 
4. In another bowl, mix the baking powder and flour together with the milk and add to the butter-egg mixture gradually, ensuring there are no lumps. You should end up with a smooth, thick, yellow batter and pour it into the mould.
   
   
   
5. Stick the thinly sliced apples in the batter in a circular pattern around the whole mould.
   
   
   
6. Mix the sugar and cardamon in a small bowl and using your hands, sprinkle them onto the cake batter from a height ensuring it is distributed evenly and bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden brown.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Serve with ice-cream, custard sauce or lightly whipped cream while warm.
   
   
   

Aglio Olio

When I was working in Singapore, the company I was with moved from a central town location to a business park in the West. Not all of us were happy with that as it severely limited our lunch options. A cafe opened up nearby and it quickly became a destination when we feel like splurging.

Very traditional Aglio Olio is just olive oil, garlic and chili flakes with spaghetti. I like some bacon and mushrooms with mine but it's equally simple.

Ingredients (for 2)

Spaghetti portion for 2, cooked till al dente, reserving some of the pasta cooking water

2-3 slices of bacon, fried in its own fat till crunchy, broken into large chunks

2-3 button mushrooms, sliced thinly

2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly

1 teaspoon of chili flakes, vary according to taste

Olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

grated Parmesan cheese for sprinkling over

Steps

1. Pre-cooked the pasta and bacon and set aside to cool.
2.  Heat up about 3 tablespoon of olive oil with the garlic slices in a frying pan over medium heat. When the garlic starts to brown a little, emitting a fragrance add in the chili flakes and stir fry for a few seconds. You may choke a little from the chili fumes so be a bit careful on that.
3. Add in the button mushrooms, mix well for about 10 seconds and add the pasta. Add in some pasta cooking water to help move it along in the pan.
4. Add in the bacon, then season with freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste.
5. Serve warm with some fresh parsley and sprinkling of cheese.
   
   
   

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

I haven't disappeared but just been quite busy writing my 3000-5000 words philosophy of science assignment and now that I am near 'the light at the end of the tunnel', I wanted to share with you one of my favorite cheesecake, and from my favorite baker, Alex Goh of course!

I remembered I first tasted this cheesecake when I was 19 years old, at my first holiday job while waiting to enter university. This cake is so soft that it is referred as cotton cheesecake (not because there's cotton added to it :p). It's sort of like souffle - although I have not tasted one before but I can imagine it. A slight change I made was to use 50-50 ratio of milk and cream or you can stick to either one if you like but I used to buy one and leave in the fridge to enjoy a small piece the whole week. I think it was at first only available at Raffles City basement supermarket, they had a small counter outside and under Fiesta. Now I think it has changed it's name but what's distinctive about it is the cute cow embalm on top of the cake. I haven't figured out how to do that yet (Evelyn! maybe you can teach me!) but once I do, I'm going to put Singlish Swenglish on it! Heh! I did a green tea version before this too and it's really good too!! It will come up soon but stick with this one first.One step you should do properly is the beating of the egg white because that's the only thing that's helping it to raise. I find this website very useful if you want to be a bit more scientific about baking.

Ingredients
160g cream cheese
25g butter
60g milk
60g whipping cream
40g flour
30g cornflour
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
100g sugar
pinch of salt

Steps

1. Place in the bowl which you will be using over a pot of boiling water the cream cheese, butter, milk and cream. Using a whisk ( I like this one from Ikea, gets out all the lumps), stir over the double boiler until it is thick. Remove from the heat and set aside.
   
   
   
2. Mix the flour and cornflour in a separate bowl first, then add it gradually to the cheese mix, making sure to whisk constantly and ensure all the lumps are gone before adding more.It should be a smooth mixture after all the flour is added in.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees or 170 degrees if your baking pan is dark-colored.Separate the egg yolks and place the egg whites in a clean stainless steel mixing bowl. Add the egg yolk one by one into the cheese/flour mixture. Make sure each yolk is well incorporated before adding the next one.
   
   
   
   
4. Next, beat the egg whites with the mixer until it is foamy first, then add the cream of tartar, and then the sugar one tablespoon at a time until it is all added in. The eventual result should be at soft peak.
   
   
   
5. Add about 1/5 of the beaten egg white into the cheese mixture first to loosen up the mixture. Then fold it back to the egg white mixture. Don't mix it like you are stirring coffee! Be gentle and use a figure 8 motion. This should be what it looks like:
   
   
   
6. Pour it into a round 24cm pan which you have greased and lined. Wrap the outside of the pan with aluminum foil because its going to be baked in a water bath. Bake for about 40-45 minutes. I find that it does matter if you are using a light colored or dark colored baking pans because the latter requires a bit more time. And this is how I set up my water bath, by filling up one baking tray with hotwater and placing the cake pan in the middle of it.
   
   
   
7. Once it has turned firm (test with a skewer through the middle of the cake) and golden brown, remove the cake from the oven and from the mould immediately to let it cool. It will shrink if you let it cool in its mould.
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Be patient and wait for about 30 minutes if you can before slicing it. Here it is:
   
   
   
   
   and here
   
   
   
   and here's one that while I was eating it, it sort of just peel away showing the creamy softness, so I had to show you again!
   
   
   
   Ok, I got to go have one piece now :)
   
   
   
   
   
   

Beef with Cumin

I've only tried making this dish once but Johan seems to like it - reason being the cumin taste reminded him of Mexican food. It was a tad too strong by my taste but if he request for it, it can be easily whipped up even as you use the kind of beef usually reserve for braising by just cutting it against the grain. This is taken from Dunlop Fushia's 'Revolutionary Chinese Cooking - Recipes from the Hunan Province'

Ingredients

340g beef, sliced

2 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely chopped

1 tablespoon garlic, finely chopped

2 fresh red chilies, seeds discarded and finely chopped, or 1 chili padi, chopped finely

2-4 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

2 teaspoon ground cumin

salt to taste

2 spring onions, green parts only finely sliced

1 teaspoon sesame seed oil

400ml cooking oil.

Marinade

1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon light soy sauce

1 teaspoon dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon potato flour

1 tablespoon water

Steps

1. Marinade the beef for about 10-15 minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.
2. Heat the cooking oil to about 140 degrees C, or on high. Add the beef and stir gently. Once they have separated, remove from the oil and drain well.
3. Pour off all the oil leaving about 3 tablespoons and heat over high flame. Add the ginger, garlic, both chillies and cumin and stir fry briefly until fragrant. 
4. Add the beef into the pan and stir well so it coats evening, seasoning with some salt.
5. When all the ingredients are sizzling fragrant, add the spring onions and toss briefly. Turn off the heat and stir in the sesame seed oil and serve.
   
   
   

Mum's Soda Bread

No, it's not my mom's but Tony Tobin's mum's recipe for soda bread. I've always wondered about this bread which I've heard quite often and finally made it two months ago. It's not as daunting as it seems and actually keeps quite well. If its your first time making bread, this should be something you can master pretty easily. I got this recipe from a collection of recipes of UK cooks in a book called 'Saturday Kitchen Cookbook - The Top 100 recipes from the TV series'. I didn't get to see the show since I'm in Sweden, but some recipes seems quite interesting. The only thing is not all the recipes come with a picture, which I kinda of like in cookbooks, because you have something to expect and maybe less easy to go wrong? Or I'm just a picture person :)

The interesting tidbit about this bread is about the cross that's made on top. According to Wikipedia, it was suppose to a) ward off the devil or b) let the fairies out of the bread (??) or c) help air circulation so the cook rises and cook better or d) helps when slicing the bread to even out the portions. Which would you think it's true?

Ingredients (for 1 loaf)

450g wholemeal flour

225g self-raising flour or if you use ordinary flour, add 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder plus 1/4 teaspoon salt to every 140g of flour. (I got this tip from Joy of Baking)

1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of sugar

600ml milk

250ml plain yoghurt

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Mix the wholemeal flour in a bowl with the self-raising flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar, salt and sugar.
2. Mix together the milk and yoghurt in a separate bowl and add to the flour to make a soft dough. Flour your hands generously and the work surface and knead lightly until the dough is smooth.
3. Shape the dough into a circle about 4cm deep, take a sharp, floured knife and cut a deep cross on the top.
4. Place on the baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes until crusty and brown, it should be ready when you hear the hollow sound when you tap on the bottom of the bread.