Egg tofu with seafood

I love tofu. Especially the egg tofu (a.k.a japanese tofu). The texture inside the tofu is silky smooth. And the sauce in the dish is totally delicious. *drool* This is cooked in many ways. But one of my favourite ways of cooking it is to prepare it with seafood, specifically prawns and crab meat. Make sure you have some of the sauce with your rice! Have a try! :)

Egg tofu with seafood

Ingredients:

• 2 packets of egg tofu
• 250 - 300g of prawns
• 1 small can of crab meat
• a head of broccoli, blanched
• 3 cloves of minced garlic
• 3T of vegetable oil
• half a cup of vegetable oil
• Salt to taste
  

Method:

1. Slice the egg tofu into 1.5cm pces (it'll be in circular "disc"-like shapes)
2. Fry the tofu in the half cup of veggie oil and set aside
3. In a separate wok, heat the 3T of oil and add in the minced garlic
4. Add in the prawns and stir fry till almost cooked
5. Add in the broccoli
6. Add in the tofu
7. Add in the crab meat
8. Add the salt and serve!

Chinese Egg Tarts

Don't you just love going to the Chinese Dim Sum restaurants and picking out your favourite dim sum? If so, you are probably be familiar with one of the perennial favourites - the egg tarts. And you can imagine how much more scrumtious egg tarts fresh out of the oven is compared to the cooled ones typically found in the restaurants! So here's the recipe which will enable you to enjoy these delightful tarts at home. Enjoy! :)

Chinese Egg Tarts
Makes 15 tarts

Ingredients for the egg custard:

• 3 eggs, whisked
• 75g castor sugar
• 225ml hot water
• 100ml evaporated milk
• 1/2t vanilla essence

Method for the egg custard:

1. Melt the sugar in the hot water.
2. Add the evaporated milk to the whisked eggs and mix well.
3. Add the sugared water to the egg mixture and whisk to combine.
4. Strain the egg mixture into a pot to remove foam and clumpy egg mixtures.
5. Set aside.
   

Ingredients for the crust

• 225g plain flour
• 125g butter, room temperature
  
• 20g icing sugar
• 1 egg, whisked
• 1t vanilla essence

Method for the crust and to make the tarts:

1. Cream the butter and sugar until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
2. Add in the whisked egg slowly. Mix well and add in the vanilla essence.
3. Sift in the flour into the butter/egg mixture, and ensure that all ingredients combine well.
4. Knead into dough.
5. Pre-heat oven at 180C.
   
6. You can roll the dough into a log and cut into pieces which is subsequently flattened, or take a lump of dough and flatten with your palm (I did this). Line this flattened piece of dough into tart tin and press edges to the wall of the tin. This is to create a hollow with hold the egg custard. Repeat with the remaining dough.
   
7. Pour the egg custard into the tart shells (this can be done as each shell is made to prevent the dough from drying out).
8. Insert the baking tray into the oven and bake for approximately 25mins.
9. Cool egg tarts on a wire rack and enjoy! :)

Tip: Do NOT let the custard puff up too much while being cooked in the oven else it'll sink when cooled. Check after 20mins. If the custard is starting to puff up, pull open the oven door by 1-2 inches and continue baking till the tarts are cooked. The custard will still have some jiggle when done.

Orange Cheesecake

I love cheese be it in the form of cheese slices, cheese platter or even a cheesecake. The rich creamy taste of the cheese is just heavenly. :)

Decided to make myself a cheesecake. An orange flavoured one. I just have this feeling that the orange and cheese blend will go well together. And to add "warmth" to the orange cheesecake, I reckon ginger will do nicely. I am not disappointed! :D Be warned however, that this cheesecake is lethally rich and creamy... YUMMY!! :)

Orange Cheesecake
Ingredients for the crust:

• 180g Ginger Nut biscuit, crushed
• 100g macadamia nuts, chopped
• 115g butter, melted
• 1t ground cinnamon
• 1/2t ground clove

Method:

1. Mix the spices, nuts and biscuit crumbs well.
2. Add in the melted butter and mix well
3. Line the crust ingredients on the pan base. It can also be lined up the sides of the pan if preferred. Press the crumbs into the pan.
4. Set crust aside.

Ingredients for the cheesecake:

• 750g of cream cheese
• 200g of pure cream
• 3 large eggs
• 155g sugar
• 1.5 orange zest
• 1.5 orange juice
• 1T vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 180 Celcius.
2. Use a (hand)mixer and combine the cream cheese and sugar till smooth.
   
3. Add eggs, one at a time. Ensure each egg is well incorporated before adding the next and scrape down the bowl between eggs.
4. Add the pure cream, orange zest, orange juice, vanilla essence and blend till smooth and creamy.
5. Pour the batter into the crusted pan.
   
6. Knock the pan on the bench a couple of times to remove the air bubbles.
7. Place the pan into a larger pan. Fill larger pan with water until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan (ie. create a waterbath). Ensure the cheesecake pan's bottom is secured before adding water so as not to get the crust soggy.
8. Bake for approximately 45mins (depends on the oven). Check that there is still jiggle in the centre of the cheesecake.
   
9. Leave the cheesecake in the waterbath inside the oven for at least another hour, with oven door closed, to continue cooking with the oven turned off.
10. Bring the cake out to cool completely on the counter.
11. When completely cooled, move the cake into the fridge and chill it.
12. Serve chilled.

Hope you enjoy this cake as much as I did! :)

White Radish with Dried Oyster Soup

I love soups. It's tasty and satisfying. Especially the ones my mum made for me as a child. Mum's cooking is often the most memorable isn't it? Thinking of this always reminds me of one of my favourite - white radish with dried oyster soup. I love the oysters!! Totally yum! My ma always add in extra oysters just for me. :)

Other bits in the soup are tasty as well - the white radish, the pork bones (ok, not the bones, but the little bits of flesh that's stuck on it is YUM!). And the soup itself, infused with the sweetness of the radish, oysters and the pork. Delicious!

For those of you familiar with the Chinese concept of heatiness, this soup's meant to be cooling. Or should I say, the white radish is considered cooling. So for those who are on the watch for what's heaty/cooling, take note!! :P


White Radish with Dried Oyster Soup

Ingredients:

• 1kg pork bones
• 500g pork loin
• 1 large white radish
• At least 8 pces of dried oysters
• Half a dried cuttlefish (increases sweetness of the soup)
• 12-15 red dates
• Salt to taste
  

Method:

1. Boil a pot of water (about 1.7l)
2. Cut the radish into large cubes. You can pit the red dates as well if you prefer.
   
3. In a separate saucepan/pot, boil some water and blanch the pork (bones and loin).
4. When the pot of water is boiling, add in the pork, the white radish, oyster, cuttlefish and dates.
5. Lower the gas and leave to boil on low fire for at least 2 hours.
6. After around 90mins, check the amount of water. Add more hot boiling water if necessary and continue to boil the soup. If water is added, boil longer than 2hrs due to the dilution.
7. Salt to taste.

Enjoy!! :)

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been itching to try out my new cookie cutter!! It's an absolute cutie. :)

So I decided it's cookie day today! It'll give me something to munch on while I get some studying done as well...

The added benefit of making my own treats - I can adjust the sweetness to taste!! I often find store bought sweets/desserts too sweet for my liking, so this is my chance to indulge my sweet tooth without being overcome by the sugar content! :)

For the store-bought level of sweetness, simply increase the amount of sugar by 20-25%. Yes, it's that ladden with sugar! :P

So here's the recipe.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 20-25 cookies, depending on the size of cookies.

Ingredients:

• 125g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 large egg
• 180g brown sugar
• 1t vanilla essence
• 225g plain flour
• 1/2t baking powder
• 100g dark chocolate, chopped
• 100g white chocolate, chopped
• Pinch of salt

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven at 180 celcius.
   
2. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer.
3. Add vanilla essence to the egg and add it to the creamed butter. Beat mixture to mix well.
4. Add in the flour with baking powder (use a sift to rid the flourof clumps) and a pinch of salt.
5. Fold the mixture.
6. Add both types of chocolate into the mixture and mix evenly.
7. Use a spoon to scoop the dough onto lined baking tray if you want a conventional small "round" cookie. You can also flatten a roll of dough with your palm to get a larger cookie, or use a cookie cutter on the flattened dough to get shaped cookies like I did.
8. Bake cookies for 12-20mins (the thicker your cookie, the longer the time. If you prefer harder/crunchier cookies, it'll be at the upper-end of the indicative time as well. There will also be some variance depending on the oven). Allow some space (at least 2cm gap) between the cookies as they may expand slightly.
9. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to stand/cool for 5-10mins before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. Note that cookies straight out of the oven will still be soft but will harden as it cools.

Note: You can add chopped nuts to the list of cookie ingredients. Just fold nuts in at the same time as the chocolates. Pecans, hazelnuts, macadamia, walnuts should all go well with this cookie.
Enjoy!! :)