Quinoa Whole Wheat bread

What a healthy bread, Quinoa and mostly Whole Wheat flour.
The dough may be a little sticky due to the moisture from the cooked quinoa. Barely any kneading to do here, just a little dough folding will do.

Korean Pork Bulgogi (cheater's version)

My son's favourite, he always ends up having two large plates of rice for this. I have to thank my Korean house painter for giving me such a good idea.  It is so simple, great for busy or lazy nights. Only 4 ingredients involved, yet is still a very tasty meal.


Ingredients
1 kg Pork neck
( thinly sliced, it would be the type that you use for Korean BBQ, I got it from local Korean grocery shop).
2  extra large onions (3 medium large), sliced thinly
1 big bunch of spring onions, cut them into about 3cm long.
1 bottle Pork Bulgogi marinade sauce (228ml), use it all. ( see picture below)

it is fairly cheap, cost me below A $3 actually

4 main ingredients

to marinade and rest in the fridge for a few hours

half way through, it will show up liquid all over the pan.
Don't worry, keep going, it will absorb back to the ingredients.

after 20 minutes, it is done,
very tasty meal

Method
In a large mixing bowl, mix in all prepared ingredients. Toss and mix well.
Wrap with cling wrap, keep in the fridge for a few hours.
Heat up oil on your nonstick pan, pour in everything. (use medium high heat all the way).
Set your timer to 20 minutes.
Stir and mix every now and then so that the meat get into the sauces.  Half way through, you see liquid appearing in the pan, don't do anything, just keep stirring and mixing...
When timer beeps, it is done.

Dark brown sugar pumpkin mantou

             A small batch of Mantou for my Shanghainese neighour again, just good for their breakfast.

Beef Pancake ( Bing)

Dark Banana Ginger Cake ( Dan Lepard)

Sesame crispy Bing ( baked)

                                                                Simple, tasty "Bing"

Stout, Oat and Honey knots ( Dan Lepard)

I always love the beer flavour in this bread, the soft texture and all of the oats used here, certainly made me full for the whole half day.

Walnut butter cake

                                                            A very quick-mix cake.
                                                            Rich topping, lots of walnuts.                                            

Recipe from Womens' weekly
Ingredient
125g butter, chopped
220g castor sugar ( I reduced to 190g)
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour
35g plain flour
60ml milk
240g chopped walnuts

Rich Chocolate Glace Icing
90g dark chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
60ml water
320g icing sugar mixture, approximately

Method
Combine chocolate, oil and water in medium saucepan, stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Gradually beat in enough sifted icing sugar to give a smooth, spreading consistency.

ready to be baked

whipped cream 

rich chocolate glace icing

Method
Grease 23cm square cake pan, cover base with baking paper.
Pre-heat oven to 180C.
Combine butter,sugar, eggs, flours and milk in a bowl.
Beat on low speed until ingredients all combined.
Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth and changed in colour.
Stir in nuts.
Spread mixture into prepared pan.
Bake for about 40 minutes.
Turn onto wire rack to cool.



Additional extra (optional): 
Split cold cake, fill with whipped cream.
Top with rich Chocolate glace icing.
Sprinkle with extra walnuts.

Fry Bread

                                            

Inside is airy, puffy, moist and light. Outside is crispy. A very tasty bread. The method used here is slightly different from the usual Indian fry breads, I noticed.  A satisfactory experiment for me. 

Bibingka

Binbingka is a type of glutinous rice cake from the Phillippines, traditionally eaten during the Christmas season.  It comes with beautiful flavour of coconut and glutinous rice,  inside is chewy while the outside is crusty. If you like mochi, you will sure like this. Just be sure that you use a premium coconut cream.

Dual colour Huajuan (mantou)

                        I made this for my Shanghainese neighbour again, pumpkin Mantou.

Tomato bread

Strong aroma from the tomato sauce and sundried tomato, a tasty bread.

Bo Lo Pao ( Pineapple buns)

I made Matcha Bo Lo Pao awhile ago, using the same recipe but without the matcha powder.
As usual, we make a slit and slot in a slice of salted butter, goes really nice. Just make sure the bun is gently warmed in the oven.

Chinese " Bing "

"Bing" is a wheat-flour based chinese food with a flattened or disk-like shape.  It is usually a casual food eaten for lunch, or also can be incorporated into formal meals.  Bing are commonly cooked on a skillet or baked.

Red bean bread

                                              I like to have it toasted, what a delightful bread.

Curry bacon bread

Beautiful aroma from the toasted bread, enjoyed this very much..

Matcha red bean bread

Time to run my bread machine! It has been sitting at my counter for some time now...again.

 I have to admit the Bread machine comes in handy especially when you want to laze around and not do anything :)

Stir- fried glutinous rice

     This is one of our favourites whenever we go to Yum Cha at Dim Sum restaurants.
     Hong Kong Cantonese style is usually very light in colour. Being homemade is great as we can
     be generous of the ingredients used. Make lots in one go, wrap them well and store in the freezer
     for emergency run out of food days.
   

    Ingredients:
    2 cups glutinous rice
    5 chinese sausages (lap cheong)-   soak, cut into very small pieces
    5 tablespoons shrimps-   soak,cut into small pieces
    7 dried scallops-  soak,shredded by hand
   10 medium large dried mushrooms-cut into very small pieces
    Spring onions (scallions),  chopped for garnish
    1 egg

    Seasoning
    2 tablespoons light soya sauce
    2 teaspoons dark soya sauce
    2 teaspoon sugar

    Inspiration from here
    Method
    1.  Glutinous rice preparation:
         Soak the glutinous rice for at least 3 hours or overnight.
         Place them on a shallow pan, spread them out thinly. Set up steamer, over high heat, steam for 20 minutes. Set aside for later use.
    2.  Dry ingredients preparation:
         Rinse and clean the ingredients, with just enough water over the surface of the ingredients, soak the shrimps, mushrooms and dry scallops till softened ( on separate bowl for each).  Reserve soaking water from the dry scallops and shrimps for when you needed it in your stirring later.

   3.  Egg preparation:
        Whisk in one tablespoon of water to one egg, season with a pinch of salt. Heat oil in a nonstick pan, spread out the beaten egg. Move around the pan, spread out the egg into a disc. Fry both side until golden. When it is cooled, cut into thin strips (mine is not good enough:))
        

   4.  Using nonstick pan, over medium heat with 2 tablespoons of oil, fry the chinese sausages till fragrant, relying on the excess oil from it continue to fry the shrimps til fragrant, mushrooms and dry scallops in the same manner.  Now, add in the rice and the seasonings.
Start with a tablespoon water ( your soaking water) to add in and soften and unclump the rice. Just make sure you go one tablespoon at a time.  Be very careful for if you pour in too much water at a time, the rice texture would turn soggy or lumpy. 
    
    4.  For my own preference, I use lots of spring onions and toss in the rice after turning off the heat.   It brings out such a wonderful aroma when you actually eat it.  Otherwise, use it to garnish just like the eggs.

TIP: Rice should be soft, not over dry, chewy texture is not right .  Each grain should be cooked through inside, grain separated individually.

the aroma is wonderful

Chocolate chip hot cross buns ( with potato)

 
Hot cross buns sold in the stores tend to be heavy and dense, I had to make sure mine is not.  Gentle warm it up in the microwave is just as good as the first day baked. Mashed potatoes makes it so much lighter here.