28 Mar 20 (Sat) - Huat Kuih (发糕) and Dalgon Coffee

Saw someone posted her Huat Kuih photos on the Facebook group "Home-cooked Delights 家常便饭" page. Her Huat Kuihs looked very pretty in yellow and pink. The kind lady shared her recipe in her post and I decided to try it out myself this weekend since I just bought a pack of self-rising flour. Then saw many other people posting their Dalgon Coffee photos in the same group page and found it to be very interesting. Googled about Dalgon Coffee and realized that it is a current trend in Korea with very simple ingredients and steps to do. Just need instant coffee, white sugar and hot water at a ratio of 1:1:1, whipped till thick and foamy then pour over milk. So decided to try it out this weekend too. It was a crazy first quarter and I really need some cooking therapy to keep myself sane and happy.

Went to the market to get breakfast and finally I broke away from my usual routine of yong tau foo bee hoon mee dry and went for the pig intestines porridge which I haven't eaten for a long, long time. Felt very happy and took my own sweet time to savour the porridge.

Then went on to start my cooking of the day: Huat Kuih. Followed the steps closely and towards the last few steps where I had to mix the colouring, my mobile phone rang and I got a shock. I ended up with a big splash of red colouring in my batter. Continued to fill the cake cases with the batter while cursing. Finally put them into the steamer to steam for 15 minutes on high. My pot has a glass cover so I was able to see the Huat Kuih rose and split at the top. So happy!

After the Huat Kuih was done and left on a rack to cool. I went on to make the Dalgon Coffee using those sachets of instant coffee that I had collected during my last trip. Only managed to get 1 tablespoonful and 1 teaspoonful. Added them to a bowl, measured the same amount of sugar and poured in. Lastly, heated up the black coffee that I had set aside earlier in the morning, measured the same amount and poured into the bowl. Used the mini electric hand mixer which I had gotten from Daiso few years back to mix the ingredients.

Mixed them for quite a long time and still didn't manage to get the thick, foamy consistency. I almost wanted to give up, yet I was too stubborn to give up. So continued to mix in a slightly different way hoping that it will thicken and foam up faster. Finally my patience was rewarded. Poured some soy milk into a glass and topped it with the whipped coffee. Overestimated the amount of whipped coffee I had and thus underestimated the amount of soy milk poured in. In the end, the overall presentation wasn't as nice as I had imagined. Next round I shall try the matcha version.

Nevertheless, I managed to succeed in doing what I had planned to do for cooking to day and that's a win for me already.

15 Mar 20 (Sun) - Tteokbokki and Mini Oreo Cheesecake

Craved for tteobokki and I had rice cakes and sauce in the pantry. So went to get some flat fishcakes and wongbok to cook. Threw everything into the pot and let it boiled then simmered for another 10 minutes. Yummy!

Saw someone posted this Mini Oreo Cheesecake recipe in the Facebook group "Home-cooked Delights 家常便饭" recently. Watched the video and it seemed simple enough to follow. So went to get the cream cheese and cake cases.

As usual, I played around with the recipe. Instead of using the full 250g of cream cheese, I used 225g and topped up the balance 25g with greek yogurt. Had some blueberries in the fridge, so popped a couple of blueberries in each cake case.

Baked them in the pre-heated oven of 160 degree Celsius for 16 minutes. Took them out to check and popped them back in for another 1.5 minutes. Took them out and left to cool on the rack. Should have keep the duration as 16 minutes, by adding 1.5 minutes, the top of the some of the cheesecakes started to crack. Took one to check and taste. Noticed that it was a bit damp on the bottom, there was condensation. Should have removed them from the silicon cases before letting them cool on the rack.

Should have keep it at 16 minutes.	Just out from the oven.
After removing from the silicon cases.	After removing the cake case.

The cheesecake tasted great and easy to do, so the recipe is a keeper.

14 Mar 20 (Sat) - Baked Korean Spicy Chicken and Black Glutinous Rice [Bubur Pulut Hitam] Kueh (黑糯米糕)

Bought a bottle of spicy hot sauce from my trip to Busan last year and decided to try it out. Not very sure how to use it so just experimented with the usual chicken wings. Marinated the mid-joint wings overnight with some salt and sauce then baked at 200 degree Celsius for 25 minutes.

Not sure if it was because I was using it in the wrong method or cooking the chicken wings in the wrong method, the taste wasn't great. Just very spicy. Maybe next round, I will try cooking something else with the sauce.

Found a pack of coconut cream which was expiring soon. So had been googling the Internet for easy recipe to use. In the end, I decided to try modify some of the kueh recipes I found online. First, I used the bottom layer recipe from this Seri Muka recipe by Rasa Malaysia. For the top, I adapted the Steamed Coconut Custard recipe from Steam & Bake because I didn't have all-purpose flour to create the top layer from Rasa Malaysia's recipe.

The result was... I also don't know how to describe. The bottom layer was ok, the top not so much. Partly because it was very soft and also I was using the wrong baking tin to steam. When I tried to remove the kueh, the top layer was stuck to the side of the tin. The baking tin was the extendable type so when I extend the sides, the top layer broke.

Taste-wise, I guess I should have used the egg whites instead of the yolk, the yolk taste was a bit overpowering. Found some gula melaka in the fridge, so poured some over the kueh, turned out the taste improved when everything was mixed together.

Will I try again, I guess not.

07 Mar 20 (Sat) - Hakka Mei Cai Stewed Pork Belly (客家梅菜扣肉)

Was watching "On the Red Dot" last night. The theme was "The Food That Made Me" and the episode was on Chef Pang searching for his Hakka heritage food.

From the episode, I learnt more about the origin of the Hakka folks and their traditional dishes, most of which I like to eat. Dishes such as Yong Tau Foo (酿豆腐), Lei Cha Rice (擂茶饭), Suan Pan Zi (算盘子), etc. Out of the few dishes featured in the episode, decided to attempt the easiest of all, Hakka Mei Cai Stewed Pork Belly (客家梅菜扣肉).

Immediately googled for recipes on my mobile phone while still watching the show. My mum used to cook mei cai but her cooking method was stir-fry with chili padi and minced pork. Found one recipe by Kenneth Goh, the admin of the Facebook group "Home-cooked Delights 家常便饭". His recipe seems easy enough and in his post, he suggested the use of store-bought roasted pork belly.

Went to the wet market to buy the mei cai and some roasted pork belly. This was my first time cooking this dish and first time buying these ingredients from the wet market so was a bit blur. Asked the roasted meat stall uncle how much roasted pork belly will $10 get me and he said about 400g so bought $10 worth. Then headed to the other stall to get the mei cai. Aunty recommended me to get the salted ones since this was my first time cooking with it. She asked me how many people eating and I told her just myself. She estimated the portion for me and the mei cai cost $0.60. Aunty even told me how to prepare the mei cai for cooking. So nice!

Happily came back from the wet market and started preparing the mei cai before I ate breakfast. Aunty said shake off the sand and salt then soak the mei cai for 30 minutes. After that rinsed and repeat for another 30 minutes.

Salted Mei Cai

Store-bought Roasted Pork Belly

While soaking, ate breakfast then prepared the other ingredients. After the soaking and cutting were done, started cooking. Basically was just stir-frying then simmering the minced garlic and mei cai with the seasoning. Then arranged the roasted pork belly in a steaming bowl with skin facing the bowl and stacking the mei cai on top before steaming over high heat for about 1.5 hours.

Mei Cai after stir-frying and simmering

Packed roasted pork belly and mei cai into a bowl

The result was pretty good and tasted great. As the dish can be kept for a few days, it will be my dish for lunch over the next few days.