21 Jan 18 (Sun) - Salted Egg Bittergourd and Durian Butter Cupcakes

Was tidying up my drawer of recipes last weekend when I saw a newspaper cutting on a recipe called "Salted egg white bittergourd". Recalled that I still had two salted eggs sitting in my fridge so went to Giant supermarket last Friday to get two mini bittergourds. As white bittergourd is hard to come by, I had to settle for the green ones.

Followed the recipe as closely as I could, however, I didn't know what is red finger chilli nor green bird's eye chilli so I replaced with three red chilli padi instead. And because I didn't have enough garlic, so I added a shallot. Was happily cooking and excited to see the whole dish coming together nicely. After I had assembled the dish on a serving plate, then I realised that I had forgotten to add a dash of ground white pepper at the end of the cooking. Oh well... Not sure how soft the bittergourd was supposed to be for the dish, mine still retained some crunchiness which I rather like. Taste-wise, fortunately, it still tasted good without the ground white pepper. Heh.

In the short write-up that accompanied the recipe, it was mentioned that the dish goes well with rice or porridge. Therefore, I cooked some brown rice porridge and added some seaweed that I bought from my last Okinawa trip to eat as lunch. What a healthy meal.

Still had some leftover durians in the fridge and decided to use them to bake durian butter cupcakes since the durians weren't of very good quality. The preparation was easy and very happy that the cupcakes turned out very well. A good start to the first bake of the year. Ate one while it was still warm together with a dollop of chilled durian and it was heavenly! My healthy meal was, therefore, spoiled by the unhealthy dessert. LOL.

Durian Butter Cupcakes (Makes 5)

Ingredients:

58g self-rising flour 63g butter - soften 43g castor sugar

pinch of baking soda                                                      63g durian flesh                                                      1 egg

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 160 degree celsius

2.  Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk till light and fluffy

3.  Add egg and beat thoroughly

4.  Stir in durian flesh

5.  Fold in self-rising flour and baking soda

6.  Fill cupcake cases till 2/3 full with cake batter

7.  Bake for 18 minutes or until cooked

8.  Do the toothpick test, if the toothpick comes out clean, transfer the cakes to a wire rack and allow to cool

9.  Serve cakes with dollops of chilled durian or eat them on their own

14 Jan 18 (Sun) - Baked Marmite Chicken Wings, Steamed Chicken Thigh with Essence of Chicken and Kimchi Fried Brown Rice

Was given a small bottle of marmite few weeks ago and after seeing some posts of marmite chicken wings on a Facebook group, finally I decided to try my hands on the dish myself. Searched the Internet for the recipe and found one "Baked Marmite Chicken Wings" by Noob Cook. The difference between those on the FB group and the one by Noob Cook is that the former ones are done using an Airfryer while the latter one is baked in an oven. Given that I don't have an Airfryer, I have to make do with the oven-baked on. Followed the recipe closely and marinated the mid-joint chicken wings the day before. The mid-joint chicken wings turned out to be rather good, would have been even better if I had shortened the baking time slightly further than I already have.

Found a bottle of BRAND'S® essence of chicken and searched the Internet for a recipe on cooking chicken with it. Found two, one "Steamed Chicken in Chicken Essence" by Noob Cook and the other "Steam Herbal Chicken With BRAND’S® Chicken Essence" by Cuisine Paradise. Studied the two recipes and modified them to suit my cooking needs. I don't like to drink essence of chicken, however, it became more palatable after being cooked together with the chicken thigh and the herbs.

Steamed Chicken Thigh with Essence of Chicken

Ingredients: 1 small chicken thigh 5g cordyceps flower, soaked 1/2 tbsp wolfberries, soaked 2-3 red dates, soaked and sliced

Marinade:                    1 bottle essence of chicken                    1/2 tbsp Chines hua diao wine                    1/2 tbsp Chinese rice wine                    1/2 tsp light soya sauce                    1/2 tsp ginger powder

Method:

1.  Rinse the chicken thigh and pat-dry
2.  Combine the marinade and marinate the chicken thigh for at least 1 hour in the fridge
3.  Arrange the marinated chicken thigh, cordyceps flower, wolfberries and red dates on a plate
4.  Cover the plate with aluminium foil and steam for 30 mins

My brother-in-law passed me a box of kimchi, which he bought from a restaurant recommended by a friend, couple of weeks ago. The quality of this kimchi was much better than those found in the supermarket. Used some to try to cook fried brown rice. Taste-wise was rather good, however, the rice was slightly soggy. Till now, I still have problem cooking that perfect fried rice. Sigh...

7 Jan 18 (Sun) - Matcha Ice Cream

Happy New Year! Haven't been posting for a while. Been really busy during last year end. To get the cooking engine started, I made something simple - ice cream. However, instead of the usual egg-less ice cream, I attempted the custard-base ice cream instead. Searched the Internet for basic custard-base ice cream recipes, found a few and modified them to become something of my own. The result was creamier than the egg-less one but required more churning. The matcha taste was strong and the chocolate rice enhanced the flavour.

Ingredients:

200ml whipping cream

100ml fresh milk

2 egg yolks

75g white sugar

8g matcha powder

Generous amount of chocolate rice

Method:

1.  Prepare ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice cubes and some water, then place another smaller bowl on top of the water and put a fine-mesh strainer inside. Set aside.

2.  In a small pot, simmer milk, sugar and matcha powder. Stir constantly till sugar dissolves. 

3.  In another bowl, whisk egg yolks.

4.  Whisk slowly but constantly some warm milk mixture into the egg yolks, then pour the mixture back into the small pot of milk mixture.

5.  Cook the mixture over med-low heat till it thickens to coat the back of a spoon. Stir constantly, scrapping the bottom and sides of the pot.

6.  Pour the mixture through the strainer onto the bowl in the ice bath. Scrape whatever is on the base of the strainer into the bowl and remove the strainer.

7.  Whisk the whipping cream till soft peak and stir into the egg-milk mixture.

8.  Cool the mixture completely, pour into a container of your choice and chill in the fridge overnight.

9.  Transfer the mixture from fridge to freezer and churn* with a fork every 2 hours.

10.  Churn for another 5-6 times and mix in the chocolate rice during the last churn.

11.  Freeze the ice cream overnight.