It's the last day of 2010. Other people would be out on the street shopping or partying while I chose to stay home to spend it quietly and doing the thing I enjoyed most, cooking. Earlier this week, I reflected on what I had done for the past one year. I made a resolution to attend at least one cooking class this year and I did, in fact, I attended more than one and even did some creative cookings on my own, be it main course, desserts, Chinese, Western, Japanese or Korea.
For the coming year, I intend to refine my cooking skills and focus on cooking Chinese desserts with the possibility of exploring Japanese and Korean desserts. With this in mind, I surfed the Internet for recipes on a few Cantonese desserts such as red bean soup with lotus seeds, steamed egg custard (炖蛋), steamed milk custard (炖奶) and so on.
Had wanted to try them out slowly next year but being the impatient type, I decided to try the simplest ones today. So went to NTUC after work to get the ingredients and hurry home. Set the laundry to wash and started with the easiest which was the steamed egg custard.
Looked at the few recipes I had found on the Internet and modified their steps for my version. Just when I was ready to steam the egg, I realised that I had used up the aluminium foil so I used cling wrap instead. It was after a few minutes when I opened the cover to let out some steam that I found out that the cling wrap was torn. Hence quickly removed it and continued with the steaming process. Off the heat after 12mins and the surface of the steamed egg custard (炖蛋) was not as smooth as it was supposed to be and the sides were starting to dry.
Brought it out of the pot and took a few photos before tasting my creation. It wasn't as bad as I thought. The taste was just right and as for the texture... It wasn't watery but yet it wasn't very solid either. I couldn't remember how the texture of steamed egg custard should be like. Anyway, it was my first attempt and I was thinking that perhaps if I had used aluminium foil while steaming, it probably would have turned out right. Shall do that in my next attempt of the steamed egg custard (炖蛋).
Steamed Egg Custard (炖蛋)
Ingredients:
1 egg
150ml milk
20g sugar
Method:
1. Beat the egg in a bowl
2. Warm the milk in the microwave but do not boil it
3. Add the warm milk into the beaten egg then add sugar and mix well with a fork
4. Use a spoon to remove the foam on the surface of the egg mixture
5. Cover the mixture with foil
6. Steam it for 12mins in a pot with a lid on using medium-high heat
7. Lift the lid up a bit to release some steam every 4mins
8. Off the heat after 12mins and serve hot or chilled
After I was done eating, started on the second recipe which was steamed milk custard (炖奶). I found a couple of versions and being lazy, I tried the simplest one that only uses milk and sugar. Followed every step and at the end of it, the recipe said the milk should set after 5-10mins. So while waiting, I tried another recipe on chocolate flakes crisp.
Last month, my younger niece, Lyn, borrowed a cookbook for beginners and we tried one of the recipes in it which was called chocolate flakes crisp. It wasn't successful coz we when we were about to attempt the cooking, we realised that we had run out of maple syrup. We tried to improved by adding sugar instead but it didn't work.
Wasn't happy with the failed attempt so googled for similar recipes on the Internet and modified the steps that I saw from Lyn's cookbook. Instead of first melting the chocolate directly on a saucepan then add margarine and maple syrup, I put the chocolate, margarine and maple syrup in a heatproof bowl and placed it over a saucepan with hot water. The heat from the hot water melted the ingredients nicely and after that, added in the crushed cornflakes and mixed well. Finally, scooped the mixture into cake cases and waited for them to cool before putting them into the fridge.
 NTUC Corn Flakes and Mountain Valley Maple Flavoured Syrup |  Van Houten Chocolate Buttons,Planta Margarine and Cake Cases |
Chocolate Flakes Crisp
Ingredients:
110g chocolate
25g margarine
1.5 tbsp maple syrup
70g cornflakes
Method:
1. Place chocolate, margarine and maple syrup in a heatproof bowl
2. Place the bowl on top of a saucepan of simmering water (bowl should not touch the water)
3. Melt the chocolate, margarine and maple syrup and stir well until smooth
4. Remove the bowl from the heat and add the cornflakes, 1 handful at a time, stirring until they are thoroughly coated
5. Place a heaped tablespoon of mixture into each cake case and refrigerate until set
Returned to check on the steamed milk custard (炖奶), it didn't set as stated in the recipe so drank the milk and washed all the stuff before hanging my laundry and settling down to blog about my afternoon. I guess the next attempt on the steamed milk custard, I would have to make use of egg whites as stated in the other two recipes.
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