5 Apr 14 (Sat) - Seafood Paella and Orange-Lemon-Honey Drink

Had this craving for seafood paella for quite a while and finally decided to make it today. Made some adjustments to the amount of ingredients that I had used previously and the result turned out to be much better.

I made the seafood broth using four mussels with shells and 400ml water. Brought the broth to a boil before simmering it for about 10-15 minutes. While simmering the broth, grated half of the yellow onion, one small tomato, minced two cloves of garlic, washed the mussels, scallops, cooked crab meat and rice. Previously I used 300g of rice so this time I reduced it to 200g and soaked it for about 10-15 minutes before using.

After the broth was done, I started the actual cooking using the Happycall Pan as a paella pan. Heated up the pan, pour in some olive oil, fried the grated onion till soft and brown before adding the tomato pulp, minced garlic and rice. Fried on high heat for a couple of minutes then spread the rice across the pan before adding in the broth. I used some broth to dissolve the seasoning before adding into the pan and then added the rest of the broth into the pan to cover the rice. Brought it to boil before lowering the heat to let it simmer and this time I didn’t shift the pan much during the cooking. So I was able to use the time to make the detox juice – Orange-Lemon-Honey drink.

Seafood Paella in Happycall Pan

Orange-Lemon-Honey Drink

When the rice was soften, arranged the scallops and mussels on the rice and cover the pan again to cook for a few more minutes. Finally added in the crab meat, covered the pan, cooked it for another minute before turning off the heat and let it stand.

Orange-Lemon-Honey Drink (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 Sunkist Cara Cara Oranges, peeled and cut into small pieces

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

2 tbsp honey

Method:

1.  Blend oranges and lemon juice together till smooth

2.  Add honey and blend for 1 minute before serving

The seafood paella looked good and tasted better than my previous attempt. Took some photos of the fruit of my labour before eating it together with my detox drink.

20 Jul 13 (Sat) - Seafood Paella

Bought a box of five sachets of paella seasoning during my recent trip to Spain and wanted to try cooking paella. I know that the rice used in paella is different from the normal rice and I had the impression that I would be able to find it in Singapore so I didn't buy the Spanish rice when my friend told me to. How wrong I was. Google about the rice used and found out that Spanish rice are not widely available outside of Spain or Europe. So I had to look for substitute. Some websites recommended long-grain rice while some recommended short-grain rice and that got me really confused. Read the descriptions of the various Spanish rice used for paella and realized that they are short-grain rice hence decided to use Japanese short-grain rice which some websites recommended.

On the box of the paella seasoning was some English instructions but they were vague while those on the sachets were detailed but they were in Spanish. Tried to translate them using Google Translate as well as searched for paella recipes online, hoping to make sense of the instructions and modify them according to my needs. Found one which looked really good and wrote down the ingredients needed. Went to Giant to get the rice, prawns, mussels, white fish, scallops, yellow onion and tomatoes after work yesterday and did my cooking today.

As one sachet is enough for six servings, I used only half to cook for three because I didn't have a big paella pan. Then I realized that I forgot to copy the quantity of ingredients needed in the recipe which I remembered was for four to six servings. So I had to use my own estimations for the entire cooking session. Made the seafood broth as required by the recipe using four mussels with shells, shells of six prawns and 750ml of water. While simmering the broth, grated half of the yellow onion, one small tomato, minced two cloves of garlic, cut the fish into thin slices, washed the rest of the prawns, mussels and rice. The instructions on the sachet stated 600g of rice for six servings, so since I’m only using half the portion so I cut the rice down to 300g.

After the broth was done, I started the actual cooking using the Happycall Pan as a paella pan. Heated up the pan, pour in some olive oil, fried the grated onion till soft and brown before adding the tomato pulp, minced garlic and rice. Fried on high heat for a couple of minutes then spread the rice across the pan before adding in the broth. Used 90ml of broth to dissolve the seasoning and added into the pan. Then went on to add another 450ml of the broth into the pan to cover the rice. Brought it to boil before lowering the heat to let it simmer, constantly shifting the pan over the flame to make sure that all sides are cooked.

Didn't keep track of the timing and added the mussels, prawns and fish in that order when the rice was on level with the broth. Didn't manage to add in all the ingredients I had prepared due to the size of my Happycall Pan. As the rice got cooked and the broth reduced, the mussels were cooked; the prawns and fish slices were half cooked. So covered the pan hoping that the trap heat would cook the prawns and fish slices but only prawns got cooked. The fish slices were still slightly raw. So in the end I had to manually flip the fish slices, covered the pan and turned on high heat for a couple of minutes. Finally the fish slices got cooked but the prawns were overcooked and they became hardened. Off the heat, covered the pan and set aside to let it stand as instructed in the recipe. Went on to pan-fry a few scallops and then topped the paella with them.

The look of the seafood paella was rather good; however, taste wise it was not fantastic. It was a little too bland, rice was a bit too soft and prawns overcooked. My guess was that firstly, the seafood broth wasn't tasty enough, meaning I didn't use enough prawn shells and mussels to cook the broth. Secondly, maybe I had used too much rice and the tasteless broth so ended up with diluted seasoning. Thirdly, the timing of putting in the seafood was not well planned. Oh well… this is after all my first attempt, I shall improve on it with those modifications on my next attempt.

At the end of the cooking and eating, I rewarded myself with loads of summer fruit. Strawberries!

14 Oct 12 (Sun) - Pistachio Cupcakes with Two Tone Buttercream Frosting

Last week I bought a packet of dried rose buds, a packet of pistachios and a set of three icing nozzles. I was quite excited about it because I thought I can experiment on making pistachio rosewater cupcakes with two tone buttercream frosting. So looked at my basic cupcake recipe and started modifying. Decided to make rose-infused milk so that I can use it for the cupcakes and use the balance for steam milk custard. Hence, the night before I prepared the milk and left it in the fridge overnight.

Ingredients for Rose-infused Milk (140ml):

160ml milk

10g dried rose buds, rinsed

Method:

1.  Combine milk and dried rose buds in a saucepan
2.  Bring to a gentle boil then off the heat and leave to cool
3.  Pour the milk and rose buds into a container with cover
4.  Leave it in the fridge overnight to infuse
5.  Take out from fridge and strain the milk

I was so looking forward to the experiment today that I woke up extra early this morning. Took out the food processor and blitzed 20g of shelled pistachios using the pulse setting till rough then set aside a small portion for topping. Strained the rose-infused milk and set aside 15ml for the cake batter while leaving the rest for my steam milk custard.

The Dried Rose Buds

The Purple Pistachios

Followed the usual steps but this time I baked the cake for 15 minutes and then left them in the HCP for another 3 minutes. Turned out the bottom of the cakes were not as black as my few previous batches. Was very happy with the results and decided to continue with the two tone frosting. I chanced upon this frosting technique on the website called Instructables while searching for ideas to recycle old CDs. Ok, no connections between the two of them. I got tired of the search so went on to browse the cupcakes section and that was when I saw this frosting technique.

Pistachio Cupcakes Before Frosting

Ingredients for Pistachio Cupcakes (Makes 7):

50g self-rising flour 50g butter - soften 50g castor sugar

20g shelled pistachios - coarsely ground                                                          15ml rose-infused milk                                                          1 egg

Method:
1.  Line 7 foil muffin tins with cupcake cases
2.  Sift the flour, mix in the ground pistachios* and set aside
3.  Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk till off white color
4.  Add the egg and milk then mix well
5.  Fold in the flour mixture in 3 batches
6.  Arrange the cake batter into the cupcake cases
7.  Arrange the tins into the Happycall Pan**
8.  Cover and lock to bake for 15 minutes over low heat, shifting the pan left and right every 2-3 minutes to ensure even baking
9.  Off the heat and leave the cakes inside the pan for another 3 minutes
10. Open the cover and do the toothpick test
11.  If the toothpick comes out clean, transfer the cakes to a wire rack and allow to cool

* Set aside a small amount enough for topping
** Happycall Pan can only bake 6 cupcakes at a time 

Followed the frosting steps closely and also using blue since I only have blue food coloring but I used my own buttercream recipe and the results were very good. Ok, maybe not as good because of my poor frosting technique that render some parts of the cupcakes not covered and some gaps in between the icing. Still it was a good attempt. Then went on to sprinkled some ground pistachios on the icing before taking photos.

After Frosting

Frosting with Ground Pistachios

Ingredients for Two Tone Buttercream Frosting (For 7 Cupcakes):

30g butter - soften 50g icing sugar - sifted

1/2 tsp rosewater                                                       1 drop of blue food coloring

Method:
1.  Whisk the butter, sugar and rosewater till smooth and creamy
2.  Divide the buttercream into two portions
3.  Mix one portion with a drop of blue food coloring
4.  Prepare 2 pieces of 15cm x 10cm cling wrap
5.  Spread the first color onto one of the cling wrap in a long stripe
6.  Roll the cling wrap to make a thin sausage of icing
7.  Repeat step 5 and step 6 with the second color
8.  Cut off one end of each sausage
9.  Prepare a piping bag with a star-tip nozzle
10.  Put the icing tubes into it and arrange them so that both icing colors fit into the piping tip
11.  Squeeze the air out of the piping bag and test out the icing by piping a small line
12.  Both colors should be visible and if they are not, rearrange the icing sausages and try again
13.  Pipe a two colored simple swirl onto a cupcake by starting at the outer edge of the cupcake and squeeze out the icing while slowly twisting your wrist clockwise, coming into the centre to finish off
14.  Sprinkled a bit of ground pistachios onto the frosting

~~ Adapted from Instructable

Tasted one of them and could not really taste the rose flavour because it was overpowered by the butter and the buttercream. Fortunately, I could still bite the pistachios in the cake.

Went on to make the steam rose-flavoured milk custard and I could smell the rose flavour. I had expected the milk custard to have a darker tint of red or pink but it turned out to be a very, very faint tint of pink. Since I still have blitzed extra ground pistachios on top of those needed for the cupcakes, I sprinkled some on top of the milk custard and took a couple of photos before putting it into the fridge to chill.

Steam Rose-infused Milk Custard

After dinner, I poured the rest of the ground pistachio onto the milk custard to eat. While eating, it reminded me of how similar it is to the Middle-Eastern milk pudding known as Malabi in Israel or Muhallibieh in Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Perhaps the main difference is that I used egg white and they use either rice flour or cornstarch.

---------------- Edited on 15 Oct 2012 ----------------

Brought the rest of the cupcakes to office and as usual, I could count on my food buddy, CC, to give me honest comments. She said that the taste of the buttercream frosting overpowered the original taste of the cupcake. Although could still vaguely taste the pistachios, it lacked the crunch. Would have been good if the pistachios were not ground till so fine.

She then went on to give me idea on my next experiment. She said I can try to modify the buttercream frosting to something like the cream used in the moo moo cake. Then use that cream as the filling for the hokkaido cake. Sounds like a good idea. Time to brainstorm!

Recipe submitted to Munch Ministry

7 Oct 12 (Sun) - Red Dragon Fruit Jam Cupcakes and Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes

Have many ideas for cupcakes but there's only so much time per Sunday. Today's experimental baking were Red Dragon Fruit Jam Cupcakes and Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes. Next Sunday will try some other flavours. Hehe... Besides baking, I also tried making some rosewater using the dried rose buds I bought on Friday. Hopefully will turn out well so I can get to use it next Sunday.

Red Dragon Fruit Jam

Red Dragon Fruit Jam Cupcake

The inside with some seeds

Red Dragon Fruit Jam Cupcakes (Makes 6)

Ingredients:

50g self-rising flour 50g butter - soften 50g castor sugar 30g red dragon fruit jam

1/3 tsp vanilla extract                                                      15ml milk                                                      1 egg

Method:
1.  Line 6 foil muffin tins with cupcake cases
2.  Sift the flour and set aside
3.  Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk till off white color
4.  Add the egg and mix well
5.  Add vanilla extract and milk then mix well
6.  Fold in the flour
7.  Stir in the red dragon fruit jam
8.  Arrange the cake batter into the cupcake cases
9.  Arrange the tins into the Happycall Pan
10.  Cover and lock to bake for 18 minutes over low heat, shifting the pan left and right every 2-3 minutes to ensure even baking
11.  Off the heat, open the cover and do the toothpick test
12.  If the toothpick comes out clean, transfer the cakes to a wire rack and allow to cool*

*The cupcakes may sink a little after cooling, it is normal

Apple Cinnamon Cupcake

Eat it plain or...

with apple cinnamon syrup

Caramelized Apple Cubes

Ingredients:
1/2 red apple, washed, cored, skinned and diced
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tbsp white sugar
15g butter

Method:
1.  Heat sauce pan over low heat for 1-2 minutes
2.  Melt butter in the pan and swirl it around to spread it and prevent it from burning
3.  Place apple in pan and stir them around till they are completely cover with butter
4.  Add sugar and cinnamon powder then continue to stir and cook for another 5 minutes or till apple begin to soften
5.  Remove apple and syrup separately from pan and set aside

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes (Makes 7)

Ingredients:

50g self-rising flour 50g butter - soften 50g castor sugar caramelized apple cubes

1/3 tsp vanilla extract                                                          15ml milk                                                          1 egg

Method:
1.  Line 7 foil muffin tins with cupcake cases
2.  Sift the flour and set aside
3.  Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk till off white color
4.  Add the egg and mix well
5.  Add vanilla extract and milk then mix well
6.  Fold in the flour
7.  Stir in the caramelized apple cubes leaving 1/2 tbsp as toppings
8.  Arrange the cake batter into the cupcake cases
9.  Arrange the tins into the Happycall Pan*
10.  Cover and lock to bake for 10 minutes over low heat, shifting the pan left and right every 2-3 minutes to ensure even baking

11.  Open the cover and arrange the rest of the caramelized apple cubes onto the cakes then close and lock the cover again

12.  Bake for another 7-8 minutes, shifting the pan left and right every 2-3 minutes to ensure even baking
13.  Off the heat, open the cover and do the toothpick test
14.  If the toothpick comes out clean, transfer the cakes to a wire rack and allow to cool

*Happycall Pan can only bake 6 cupcakes at a time

Both cakes have distinct flavours. Personally I prefer the apple cinnamon ones because I like cinnamon. I find that the red dragon fruit jam ones have very strong jam taste and a tad too sweet but the seeds gave them an interesting texture.

---------------- Edited on 8 Oct 2012 ----------------

Brought five red dragon fruit jam cupcakes and five apple cinnamon cupcakes to office and most of the colleagues opted for the former because of the unique flavour. E took the red dragon fruit jam cupcake because she is not a fan of cinnamon. Told her that the cupcake might be a bit too sweet for her because of the jam. Surprisingly, the feedback from her was that the taste was just right, not too sweet.

My food buddy, CC, took both and true to her promise, she gave me the honest reviews below.

"testing apple cinnamon tastes moist except base dry cos charred flavour nice but stronger apple possible bad considering dried base but doesn’t taste burnt for mine"

"testing dragon fruit jam          quite cute.. the seeds give it a crunch          first bite felt sweet          but subsequently, tastes alright          i like dragon fruit more than the apple          maybe cos its jam, so also more moist.          two thumbs up!"

Other feedback include

NLK:
"it's a most interesting cupcake!
I can’t taste much dragon fruit, but the seeds make it interesting to eat
the base is slightly burnt
but *** for creativity!"

JT:
"it is really good, not too sweet and most importantly, not too oily"

TYY:
"very moist and nice! i gobbled it up already"

Guess red dragon fruit jam cupcakes win hands down for the day.

Recipe for Red Dragon Fruit Jam Cupcakes submitted to Munch Ministry
Recipe for Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes submitted to Munch Ministry

23 Sep 12 (Sun) - Lemon Flavour Cupcakes

My dear little big sis has been busy baking these few days and it prompted me to do some baking today. She told me that by sifting the flour and doing the folding method will make the cakes fluffier. Didn't want to make the usual plain cupcakes and so searched for a lemon flavour cupcakes recipe.

Found a few and they mentioned incorporating lemon zest into the batter and using the lemon juice to make the lemon flavour glace frosting. So adapted those into my usual recipe and made a few modifications. The cakes turned out to be pretty fluffy indeed with a faint hint of lemon. As I had used up all the butter for the cakes, I wasn't able to make the lemon flavour glace frosting.

I think the cakes would taste better with the lemon taste enhanced if they have the glace frosting.

Lemon Flavour Cupcakes The inside

A close-up A close-up

Ingredients (Makes 5):

50g butter - soften
50g castor sugar
50g self-rising flour
1/3 tsp vanilla extract

zest of 1/2 lemon
15ml milk
1 egg

Method:

1.  Line 5 foil muffin tins with cupcake cases
2.  Sift the flour and set aside
3.  Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk till off white color
4.  Add the egg and mix well
5.  Add in the vanilla extract, milk and 2/3 of the lemon zest and mix well
6.  Fold in the flour
7.  Arrange the cake batter into the cupcake cases
8.  Arrange the tins into the Happycall Pan
9.  Cover and lock to bake for 8 minutes over low heat, shifting the pan left and right every 2-3 minutes to ensure even baking
10.  Open the cover and arrange the rest of the lemon zest onto the cakes then close and lock the cover again
11.  Bake for another 7-8 minutes, shifting the pan left and right every 2-3 minutes to ensure even baking
12.  Off the heat, open the cover and do the toothpick test
13.  If the toothpick comes out clean, transfer the cakes to a wire rack and allow to cool

---------------- Edited on 24 Sep 2012 ----------------

Brought two cakes to office and let E and another food buddy, CC, to try. The feedback from both of them were that the cakes were nice. Can taste the lemon and not too overpowering. To quote CC, "cos if the lemon is overpowering, it usually has a v strong pungent aftertaste. that me no like". But for this cake of mine, she ate it and gave me good feedback.

Recipe submitted to Munch Ministry

1 Jul 12 (Sun) - Caramelized Apple Slice Pancakes

Have not made pancakes for quite a while and since I have an apple in the fridge so decided to do experimental cooking today. Bought a box of instant maccha pudding some time back from NTUC and decided to make that too. Since I still have two pieces of tuna steak in the freezer so cooked them as well.

Maccha Pudding Caramelized Apple Slices

Tuna Tataki Caramelized Apple Slice Pancakes

Caramelized Apple Slices

Ingredients:

1 red apple, washed, cored and sliced

2 tbsp white sugar

30g butter

Method:

1.  Heat Happycall pan over low heat for 1-2 minutes

2.  Melt butter in the pan and swirl it around to spread it and prevent it from burning

3.  Place apple slices in pan and stir them around till they are completely cover with butter

4.  Add sugar and continue to stir and cook for another 10 minutes or till apple slices begin to soften and brown slightly

5.  Remove apple slices and apple syrup separately from pan and set aside

Caramelized Apple Slice Pancakes (Makes 8 pieces)

Ingredients:

8 caramelized apple slices

1 cup self-rising flour

2 tbsp butter, melted

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

Method:

1.  Mix all ingredients except apple slices together till well combined

2.  Preheat Happycall pan for 2 minutes over low heat

3.  Place an apple slice in the pan and pour 3 tbsp batter around it

4.  Once the bubbles on top start to break, flip the pancake over and cook for another 1-2 minutes

5.  Repeat till batter is finished

6.  Serve with apple syrup and butter

Note: You can serve pancake with anything from fruit jams, honey, icing sugar to whipped cream

Recipe for Caramelized Apple Slice Pancakes submitted to Munch Ministry

10 Jun 12 (Sun) - Rosti (Happycall Version #2)

About three months ago, I tried cooking rosti using the Happycall pan and commented that it was no difference from using normal non-stick pan coz I still had to put oil and flip the rosti using the usual method. Recently, while browsing the Munch Ministry website, I saw a rosti recipe cooked using the Happycall pan posted by a member. The recipe states that potatoes don't have to be cooked beforehand and no oil is added. So I tried it out today and the result?

The rosti was was very soft and there were a lot of water droplets on the cover of the pan when I opened it after four minutes. Tried to flip the rosti over by flipping the pan and the rosti was still stuck to the top side of the pan. So had to flip the pan back and try to unstick the rosti from the pan. Then drizzled some oil over the rosti before flipping the pan over and cooked with the cover open. It took quite a while for the rosti to be crispy and the end result was not the same as those from my own recipe.

Also after I was done with the first rosti,  when I wanted to add the rest of the shredded potatoes into the pan, I saw brown liquid collected at the base of the pot where I put the shredded potatoes. I wonder what has caused that to happen. Could it be due to the types of potatoes used or coz of the fact that they were raw? Overall, the method of cooking didn't differ much from my own. I would prefer to cook the potatoes beforehand coz I find that the resulted rostis have a lighter texture instead of being compact and dense.

Shredded Potatoes

First Rosti

Second Rosti

3 Jun 12 (Sun) - Pan-fried Fish with Korean Sweet & Spicy Sauce Pasta

It has been a few weeks since my last cooking session. Been brainstorming about what to cook and had a few ideas in mind. Put three ideas to test today and only two were successful. The three ideas were:

1.   Pan-fried Fish with Korean Sweet & Spicy Sauce Pasta

2.   Wasabi Potato Salad

3.   Sweet Rice & Pumpkin Tteok

The first one was quite good surprisingly. The sweet and spicy sauce went really well with the savoury pan-fried fish.

Pan-fried Fish with Korean Sweet & Spicy Sauce Pasta

Ingredients: 75g angel hair 1 piece fish fillet 1/2 onion, cut rings 1 red chili, cut strips some spring onion, cut into 2"                                             salt and pepper 2 tbsp oil cornflour

Ingredients (Sauce): 2 tbsp sugar dash of pepper 1 bowl of water 1 tsp minced garlic 1/2 tsp light soya sauce 2 tbsp Korean red pepper paste

Method:
1.  Rinse and pat dry fish fillet with kitchen towel
2.  Marinate fish fillet with salt and pepper and set aside
3.  Cook angel hair in salt water and arrange on a serving plate
4.  Coat fish fillet with cornflour
5.  Add 2 tbsp oil to Happycall pan
6.  Fry fish fillet each side for about 5 minutes over low heat
7.  Turn off the heat and arrange fish fillet on the same serving plate
8.  Mix all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and pour into Happycall pan
9.  Cook over medium-low heat and stir constantly till sauce thicken slightly
10.  Add onion, red chili and spring onion and cook for another 1-2 minutes
11.  Turn off the heat and pour sauce over the angel hair
12.  Garnish with more spring onion and serve

The second one was basically just adding wasabi paste to my original potato salad. The third one was an epic failure. Managed to make the pumpkin paste using the Japan green pumpkin and perhaps the rice dough but it was the handling of the dough and wrapping the pumpkin paste that gave me problem. So in the end, I got very ugly tteok and fortunately, I didn't make a lot.

Pumpkin Paste and Wasabi Potato Salad

Recipe submitted to Munch Ministry

19 May 12 (Sat) - Chocolate Vanilla Marble Cupcakes

After knowing that my darling niece, M, will be coming down to visit during this weekend, I went to bake some cupcakes using the Happycall pan. Don't recall that she ever has a chance to taste my baking coz I don't have an oven at home. After the previous three attempts at baking using HCP, I have slightly more confident and so decided to try something different from the basic vanilla cupcakes.

As I didn't have any cocoa powder so I melted some dark chocolate buttons with a bit of evaporated milk and set aside. Again I forgot to buy fresh milk so I substituted it with evaporated milk but at a reduced amount since I used some to melt the chocolate buttons which I would add to the cake batter later.

Follow the usual vanilla cupcake recipe and then swirled in the melted chocolate before distributing the cake batter amongst the cupcake cases. Baked the cakes for 10 minutes, then opened the pan to add some ground peanuts to the cakes and continued to bake for another 5 minutes. Left them cakes to rest in the pan for a few minutes before taking them out to cool.

I hope they taste good and M will like them. Pending feedback from her and I look forward to her visit!



---------------- Edited on 20 May 2012 ----------------

M came to visit me about 9+pm last night and when I showed her the plate of cakes, she made a face that she couldn't eat any more. So gave her a plastic bag and said she can pack the cakes home to eat. We sat down in the kitchen to chat and few minutes into the chat, M automatically took a cake to eat.

As we continued to chat for the next 3 hours, M ate one cake after the other till she finished the whole plate of cakes by the time we were done chatting. Asked her how she finds the cakes and she gave a two thumbs up. I was happy and I believed that M has given me a truthful feedback and not just patronising me because I'm her aunt.

16 May 12 (Wed) - Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Chips (Happycall Version)

Will be meeting SWT for lunch tomorrow and so baked some cupcakes for her to try. Forgot to get fresh milk so substituted with evaporated milk instead. Baked the cakes over low heat and shifting the Happycall pan now and then for about 8 minutes before opening it to add in the chocolate chips. Then continued to bake for another 5 minutes before flipping the pan over to bake for another 3 minutes.

Turned out the top of the cakes got a bit browned and slightly flatten due to direct contact with the pan. The chocolate chips still sank to the bottom even when I added them only after 8 minutes of baking. After I was done, googled about using evaporated milk in baking and read that if one added equal amount of water to it, one can use that as substitute for fresh milk. Oh dear, I hope the cupcakes will taste ok. Will only know tomorrow.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Chips

On another note, ever since my little big sis introduced me to The Dr. Oz Show on Ch 5, I have been checking the website for information quite regularly, especially on how to lose weight. Saw the video clip on "Rev Your Metabolism in 2 Minutes" and one of the methods is to drink matcha tea while another is to do simple exercise using an exercise belt, which I have. So today I actually brought my exercise belt to work and did a few minutes of the exercise shown in the clip during lunchtime. And after work, I went to get the matcha tea from the Yamakawa Supermart in Tiong Bahru Plaza which cost S$12.50.

Matcha Tea

---------------- Edited on 17 May 2012 ----------------

Feedback from SWT was that the cakes were moist but I didn't put enough chocolate chips. Another colleague also gave the same feedback. As for me, I was just glad that by doing a direct substitute of the fresh milk with evaporated milk didn't result in bad tasting cakes!

13 May 12 (Sun) - Vanilla Cupcakes (Happycall Version)

Had planned to do major cooking today but in the end, due to the cooling weather, I decided to cook something simpler and then try my hands on baking using the Happycall Pan. Used the basic vanilla cupcake recipe that I always use. Unlike the previous attempt which I only used cupcake cases to bake, this time I used two muffin liners and lined another four muffin tins with cupcake cases to do the baking.

Set the timer for 10 minutes and baked over low heat while shifting the pan left and right at a few minutes interval. Checked the cakes at the end of 10 minutes using a toothpick and it didn't come out completely clean. So set the timer for another 5 minutes and repeat the process of the baking. After the 5 minutes were up, off the heat and left the cakes inside for another few minutes. Then checked again using a toothpick and this time, it came out clean.

Took the cakes out to cool, I noticed that the top of the cakes were soft and yellow, unlike normal baking using the oven which results in light brown and slightly harder tops. Turned over and saw the bottom of the cupcake cases were slightly blacken while the bottom of the muffin liners were slightly browned.

Overall, this attempt is much, much better than the previous attempt.

Muffin tins One blacken, one browned

Muffin liners Final results

Wonder if I had greased the pan or the muffin tins, would the cupcake cases and muffin liners still be blacken and browned. Perhaps I should try it out next time.

Ingredients (Makes 6):
50g butter - soften
50g castor sugar
50g self-rising flour
1/3 tsp vanilla extract
15ml milk
1 egg

Method:
1.  Line 4 foil muffin tins with cupcake cases
2.  Place the butter, sugar, flour, vanilla extract, egg and milk in a large bowl
3.  Whisk the ingredients till smooth
4.  Arrange the cake batter into the cupcake cases and 2 muffin liners
5.  Arrange the tins and liners into the Happycall Pan
6.  Cover and lock to bake for 15 minutes over low heat, shifting the pan left and right every 2-3 minutes to ensure even baking
7.  Off the heat and let the cakes rest for a few minutes
8.  Open the cover and do the toothpick test
9.  If the toothpick comes out clean, transfer the cakes to a wire rack and allow to cool

---------------- Edited on 14 May 2012 ----------------

Feedback from colleagues were that the cakes tasted yummy. One of them commented that the cake was soft and moist.

12 May 12 (Sat) - Capcicum Eggs with Sausages and Celery Salad, Japanese Sweet Potato and Butternut Pumpkin Paste

Saw the link on bell pepper egg posted by the Munch Ministry a few days ago and decided to try it over this weekend. Met up with a friend on Thursday for the movie, The Avengers, and told her about the recipe. She suggested doing it as scrambled egg with toppings rather than sunny side up. Wanted to try cooking celery for sometime so figured that I could add celery bits as part of the recipe.

While doing marketing in NTUC last evening, I saw a packed quartered butternut pumpkin and bought that without knowing how to cook it. Googled for recipes on how to cook butternut pumpkin and most of them were either roasting or making it into soup. In the end, I decided to cook it as a dessert with the Japanese sweet potatoes in the fridge.

Set off to work after eating breakfast this morning, cut the capcicum into 1/2" rings, diced some of the leftover capcicum, carrot and celery. Then heat up the Happycall Pan and started cooking. My cutting skill wasn't fantastic and so the sides of the capcicum ring were not really even, hence, when I poured the beaten egg into the rings, it leaked and spread across the pan. Fortunately, as the base started to get cooked, I could continue to top up the rings.

Conitnued with the cooking of the sausages and salad, then arranged everything on a serving plate to take some photos.

From these...

... to this.

Capcicum Egg with Sausages and Celery Salad

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 sausages
1 red capcicum
2 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper
sliced celery
diced carrot and red capcicum
some finely diced celery, red capcicum and carrot

Method:
1.  Slice red capcicum into two 1/2" thick rings and remove the inner part
2.  Crack eggs into a bowl, season with salt and pepper
3.  Add the finely diced celery, red capcicum and carrot to the egg and beat together
4.  Heat 2 tsp olive oil in the Happycall pan over low heat and cook the red capcicum rings for 2 minutes on one side
5.  Flip the rings over and pour the beaten eggs very slowly into the middle of the rings till full
6.  Cover and lock the pan to cook for 4-5 minutes
7.  Open the cover to check that the egg is firm
8.  Flip the egg rings over, add the 2 sausages into the pan and cook for another 2-3 minutes
9.  Remove egg rings and sausages from pan, arrange onto a serving plate and wipe the pan clean with a kitchen towel
10.  Add the sliced celery, diced carrot and red capcicum into the pan and sprinkle some salt over them
11.  Cover and lock the pan to cook for 1-2 minutes
12.  Remove the vegetables from the pan, arrange them onto the side of the same serving plate and drizzle some mayonnaise

After that, I went on to peel and cut the Japanese sweet potatoes and the butternut pumpkin. Boiled them in a pot of water till they became very tender. Took them out, mashed them, added some sugar before using the Happycall pan to fry them with some oil.

Butternut Pumpkin also known as Butternut Squash

Butternut Pumpkin Paste

Japanese Sweet Potato Paste

The ultimate combination!

Japanese Sweet Potato and Butternut Pumpkin Paste

Ingredients:
2 Japanese sweet potatoes - skinned and cut into cubes
1/4 butternut pumpkin - skinned and cut into cubes
2 heap tbsp sugar
4 tbsp oil
some sliced shallots

Method:
1.  Boil the sweet potatoes and butternut pumpkin cubes in a pot of water till tender
2.  Remove the cubes from the water and separate them into two bowls
3.  Mash the sweet potatoes with a fork and fold in 1 heap tbsp sugar*
4.  Do likewise for the butternut pumpkin
5.  Heat up the oil in Happycall pan to fry the shallots till they turn brown
6.  Separate the fried shallots from the oil
7.  Add the mashed sweet potatoes into the oil and start stirring with the spatula till it absorbs all the oil and forms a smooth paste**
8.  Remove the paste from the pan and set aside
9.  Add the mashed butternut pumpkin into the pan and stir for a few minutes till it thicken slightly into a paste
10.  Remove the paste and set aside
11.  Scoop some sweet potato paste and pumpkin paste into a serving bowl and garnish with fried shallots

*  You can adjust the amount of sugar according to your taste
** You can add more oil if it still doesn't form a smooth paste

Recipe for Japanese Sweet Potato and Butternut Pumpkin Paste submitted to Munch Ministry

Article on Happycall Pan and Munch Ministry

Checked in on Facebook this morning and got a really nice surprise! Munch Ministry (MM) posted a link on an article about the Happycall Pan and an interview with the two creators of MM by Yahoo! Singapore. As I scrolled down the article, I saw the photo I submitted to MM for the Tuna Tataki with Butter Soya Sauce Pasta and I was overjoyed!

There are so many recipes and food photos submitted to MM everyday and I never expected one of mine to be featured. I even saw my initials written beneath the photo! I was so happy that I started telling those closer to me in the office about it and even Whatsapp my dear little big sis about it.

This piece of news sure cheers me up the whole day and makes me want to try to come up with more creative cooking using Happycall Pan. Look forward to more surprises!

To read the article, please click here

For the recipe of the featured photo, please click here

For Munch Ministry Website, please click here

For Munch Ministry FB Page, please click here

14 Apr 12 (Sat) - Spicy Pork BokkEum

Looked through the list of recipes that I intend to try and decided on this spicy pork bokkeum, a Korean spicy fried pork dish that I found in Aeri's Kitchen website. As I didn't want to follow the portion in the recipe so I reduced the amount of ingredients used as well as made some adjustments on my own because I didn't have certain ingredients. Instead of using apple juice, I used packet grape juice; instead of red and green chilies, I used red and green capsicums because the recipe stated red and green hot peppers so I thought it was refering to capsicums and also I added shallots which wasn't asked for.

Tried to follow the recipe closely and I made the silly mistake of adding exactly one tablespoon of light soya sauce that the recipe asked for instead of reducing the amount. Hence, I had to add more sugar to counter the effect. The recipe also asked to marinate the pork for at least 3 hours but I didn't wait for 3 hours and only marinated for about 1 hour.

Tried to cook using the Happycall Pan and the result was a very dark brown color dish. The appearance wasn't even close to the picture on Aeri's Kitchen website. Taste was a bit salty because of my silly mistake so had to eat the dish with rice.

Spicy Pork BokkEum

10 Apr 2012 (Tue) - Tuna Tataki with Butter Soya Sauce Pasta and Steamed Milk Custard (炖奶)

Recently read about this article on Japanese pasta, or wafu pasta in the April issue of Her World magazine and got to know that it actually meant the pairing of "Italian noodles with Nippon flavours". Looked at the few dishes recommended for the different restaurants and decided to attempt to cook something similar by combining the two of the five dishes I saw. A new term that I learnt from the article is Tataki, which means the searing of meat or fish briefly over a hot flame or pan.

Cooking the pasta and the tuna was fairly easy, the difficult part was getting the sauce right. It was only on my second attempt that I managed to get it about right. Tried to slice the tuna thinly but failed coz my knife just wasn't sharp enough. Oh well... At least the whole dish didn't taste too bad and the sliced tuna goes well with the wasabi-mayo sauce.

Tuna Tataki with Butter Soya Sauce Pasta

Close-up

Ingredients:
a bunch of angel hair pasta
some ground peppercorns
some chili flakes
1 piece tuna steak
1/4 tsp light soya sauce
30g butter
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar
some dried shaved bonito
8g mayonnaise
2g wasabi

Method:
1.  Rinse tuna steak and pat dry with kitchen towel
2.  Cover the tuna steak with ground peppercorns and chili flakes then set aside
3.  Cook the bunch of angel hair pasta in a pot of salt water till soften
4.  Drain the pasta and arrange on a plate
5.  Melt the butter and sugar in a pan over low heat
6.  After butter is melted and sugar is dissolved, add the light soya sauce and cook for 1-2 mintues
7.  Off the heat and pour the sauce over the pasta
8.  Heat up the Happycall Pan on high heat for 1-2 minutes then lower the flame
9.  Sear the tuna on all sides briefly
10.  Off the heat, remove the tuna steak and slice it thinly
11.  Arrange the sliced tuna on the pasta and top with some dried shaved bonito
12.  Mix the mayonnaise and wasabi till well combined, pour into a small bowl and serve with the pasta

Note: You can adjust the sugar and light soya sauce according to your taste

After cooking the pasta, I went on to make steamed milk custard since I haven't had that for quite some time.

Steamed Milk Custard

Recipe for Tuna Tataki with Butter Soya Sauce Pasta submitted to Munch Ministry