RICE DUMPLINGS

 
I am just extremely busy this month ( well who is not ) . Sigh .. Being an Accountant by professional , this month is a crazy month given is Australia End of Year reporting. Honestly, things should not get that bad but is the start of winter too. Winter is NOT my kind of weather . Australia winter is too dry , too icing cold even when we have sun around us. You do not feel any warmness. The winter start of with rain , wet and strong wind. Just make thing a little bit difficult for me. I should not be complaining anymore , June is going to over and I just need to get more use to this .

Rice Dumpling festival fall on 12/06/2013 this year. ( Is a Chinese Festival so it goes according to Lunar calendar) . I promise myself I will do my best to celebrate ALL Chinese festival even I am in Australia. So here is it, my happy rice dumpling experience this year.

I had done the normal Cantoneses style rice dumplings last year but I would love to do more this year. I spend one short afternoon making some sweet red bean rice dumpling and another weekend doing the all the savoury rice dumplings. Always wanted to try out Nyonya Rice Dumpling , so this year I take this opportunity to make some for myself ( Is an acquired taste, I realised not many people like it )

There are so many recipes on the internet, I realised that is so many style even with the same style the result for each one of us will be different. The reason is you are going to do a style that is from your family . I would say Rice Dumpling is indeed a family dish , the way you did it probably is the way your mom did it. Your mom surely got her recipe from her mom and needless to say , grandma got it from her mom too ^^. Hence this make the rice dumpling so special for each one of us.

My mom did not do Nyonya Rice Dumpling ( as we are not Peranakan ( Nyonya)) so I got the recipe from the internet ->Annielicious . However I make some changes. I cannot find any blue flower in Australia, basically not sure how it looks like and where can I get it I do not bother myself too much to find it. I add pandan essence into my rice and make it the "green" version instead of the blue version. The result still great, it make the smell of pandan stronger in the rice dumpling and I omit the part that put a pandan leaves in the rice dumpling while wrapping it.

For the Sweet Red Bean Rice Dumpling the recipe is as below :

Ingredients :
400g Glutinous rice ( soak overnight)
1Tbsp of Lye Water ( Alkaine water)
120g of Azuki Bean ( Ok I play cheat, I have no time to prepare the red bean hence used the can bean)
20 pieces of small bamboo leaves

Method :

1. Soaked glutinous rice overnight , till water come out clear.
2. Mixed the lye water into the glutinous rice , till the rice change to yellowish color. Be ensure all the rice is mixing well as too much of lye water will have a taste of bitterness in the rice. So do not use too much of it.
3. Wrap the rice dumpling as per the link ->Table for 2 or more. She show a very good video in how to wrap rice dumpling.
4. The portion to for this rice dumpling, place 1/2 tbsp of rice into the leaves and 1 tsp of red bean then top with 1/2 tbsp of rice.It really depend no how big/small your leave is.
5. Tie the rice dumpling well and boil it in hot water for at least 2-2.5 hours. I make a mistakes , I thought such small rice dumpling need not to boil for that long , so it turns out the inside part of my sweet rice dumpling is not thoroughly cook .

I realised once the rice dumpling is undercook is hard to get it cooked through even if you put it back to the pot to re boil . So make sure it is done well the 1st round.

As for my Bak Zhang - meat rice dumpling , the recipe is from my mom . I simply love it the way she did cause is family food. So I will share the recipe is some other time as family recipe is always goes with your gut feelings , we do not have exact measurement. I got to work it out .

All my friends has a rice dumpling from me. This is how I share my love and blessings from GOD to others. They love it and enjoy it much . I have make total of  15 Sweet Red Bean Rice Dumpling , 15
Nyonya Rice Dumpling and 59 Cantonese Style Rice Dumpling.

One of the friends love it so much , beside what was given to them , they bought the extra dumpling from me. Some suggest that I do more and they want to place order from me. They simply love it ! I guess the different from what is selling outside compare to what I did, is the way a family will make it for their close one.

Chinese Pan Fried Chive Pork Bun ( 韭菜猪肉煎包）.

Another Chinese bun ( Bao) moments. It has been awhile I was thinking to make this Chinese Pan Fried Bun ( 菲菜猪肉煎包）. Is another type of savory bun . It is wrap with meat , vegetable or both. This time round I choose to use chives and pork to be the fillings.

Is excited to know other food bloggers through food blogging , I am submitting this blog for Aspiring Bakers #31 - Bao Ho-Chiak 包好 by Miss B Everyone Eats Well in Flanders.. Thanks for her sharing and showing me some of the substitute for different flours. I have bought some Chinese bun flour ( 中筋面粉）to make some bun, so this is the 1st attempt for my Chinese bun ( bao ) journey.

I have used another bun recipe from the same cookbook I used for my Baked Char Siew Bun. Dim Sim Inspiration ( 一点心意）by Choong Su Yin for my bun recipe , as for the filling is my own recipe.

 Serving 12 bao

Ingredients :

Chives & Pork Fillings

350g mince pork
150g Chinese chives (cut into small dice)


 Seasonings
11/2 Tbsp of soya sauce
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of sesame oil
3/4 of corn flour
Adequate pepper
Adequate chicken powder ( I replace the MSG in the original recipe , this is an option)

Method :
1.Combine mince pork and chives with all the seasonings and mixed well. Marinate at least 30min ( I did overnight)

Bao Dough

300g Chinese Bao Flour ( You can used plain flour)
3 tsp of baking powder ( original recipe is 2tsp of double action baking powder )
55g Sugar
6g of yeast
70g fresh milk
70g cold water
20g shortening

Method :

1. Stir flour with baking powder in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle add in sugar , yeast, milk and cold water.
2. User electric standing mixer , knead to form dough. After 10min add in shortening and continue to knead to smooth and elastic dough
3. Roll the dough to form a long strip, divide the dough into 40g each . Flatten the dough , wrap in the fllings and mould it into bao shape and flatten it as per the pan fried bun .
4. Set aside to proof till the size doubles ( about 1.5 hours)
5. Pan fried the bun on low fire. When is lightly brown at one side, turn to the other side continue to pan fried. Add 1tbsp of water when the bun is cooked to steam the bun for moist.

 Be careful as the fire should be low if not the bun will be burn outside and yet uncooked inside. Keep your eyes close when you pan frying the bun.

I did pan fried the bao in low fire , it take sometime to cook through. So to make it easier for myself. I steam the bun for 10min in a hot steamer then pan fried it to crisp the bun.So the fillings is easy to cook through.

I have this as my weekend breakkie. It was so yum. This dough method does not require double proof. As the bun is not very thick ,to me is the dough is soft and yum . It can be heat up in an oven the next day , it still taste crisp and tasty.

If you never make any bun  like me before, maybe you can try this out.The method seem easy and not too difficult to follow.

Happy making and enjoy the fruit of your hand :)

Baked Char Siew Bun (BBQ Pork Bun)

Yup is always good to keep the recipe in a place that is easy for me to revisit and perhaps in future bake again

Happen to know that Aspiring Bakers #31 is calling for Chinese bun entry. Would like to take this opportunity to have this blog submit for Aspiring Bakers #31: Bao Ho-Chiak 包好吃 (May 2013) hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders.

I have the recipe from the cookbook title - DimSum Inspirations ( 一点心意）by Choong Su Yin
This cookbook was a gift from a friend in Singapore. Her thoughts is really precious, when she asked her sister to post it to me when the sister on tour in Australia Perth. How sweet to have friend who remember us even when we are far.

So here are the recipe :

Ingredients :

Char Siew Fillings

300g minced pork
300g chopped char siew (bbq pork)
3 cloves minced garlic
1 onion ( cut into small pieces)
100g green peas ( I omit this as I do not like green peas)
1 bunch of coriander finely chop ( I added this as I like the fragrance of this herbs)
1 tsp of corn flour
1 tsp of oil

Seasonings
1Tbsp of oyster sauce
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
Adequate sesame oil
Adequate pepper
Adequate chicken powder ( I replace the MSG in the original recipe , this is an option)

Starch solution

1Tbsp of corn flour
5Tbsp of water

Method :
1. Blend minced meat with corn flour and oil.
2. Heat up 4 Tbsp of oil, fry garlic and onion till fragrant . Add in minced meat ,char siew and seasonings. Stir fry evenly. Thicken the gravy with starch solution and sprinkle in coriander. Dish out and set aside to cool

Flarky Dough

Ingredients

600g Flour
75g sugar
190g Oil
1 Tbsp golden syrup
270g water

Method :

1. Dissolve sugar and golden syrup in water.
2. Mix flour and oil, pour in syrup mixture and knead to form a smooth dough.
3. Knead the dough to form a long strips and divide into 70g each


Shortening Dough

Ingredients

150g Shortening
300g Flour

Method :

1. Mix flour and shortening till even .Keep it into freezer and set for 20min . Remove and cut it into each 35g

To make the Char Siew Bun

1. Preheat oven to 170 C .
2. Wrap the shortening dough with flaky dough. Roll it out into long strip . Roll the dough up and once again roll it out into long strip.
3.Fold the dough into 3 layers. Roll  it flat and wrap the char siew fillings shape the dough into pau shape
4. Brush egg wash onto the bun and sprinkle some sesame seed
5. Bake in oven for 20 min or till golden brown.

I share this bun with few good friends. Forget to take the pic of the inside when we ate it. Argh always food over picture.

As my skill of wrapping up the fillings is not that good, the top part of the bun is thicker then those sold outside the Dim Sum cart.

Well for the 1st time making this bun , I would say is not too bad of the result.

Hope the step will not scare you off , is not as difficult as it sound.

Baked Avocado CreamCheese Cake

Is it avocado season again ? Not quite sure, as I seem to see avocado all year round in Aus now and the price is just so expensive that keep me away from getting them.

Avocado is a very rich fruit that provide healthy fat and anti oxidants which is good for health. However given the fat factor ,is best consume in the morning and have whole day to utilize it as energy.
It will be wonderful when a day come we can ate as much as we can and never never put on weight. Yup One day ...

Ok enough of melancholy for the day. One of my girlfriend , happen to grab a bag of avocado with only 0.09 per each !!! Can you imagine the excitement we all have. She bought more than what she can consume ( of course given the price ) . I am so blessed that she gave me $1 ( total 10 piece) of avocado to enjoy. It can be kept  and is too much to finish before it rot. Since I have done a few cake with avocado , I decided to try out by making a bake creamcheese cake .

I can not find any bake avocado creamcheese cake in the net. So using what I knew I have created my own recipe and here is it :

Ingredients

250g Cream Cheese
200g Avocado ( mash into fine and sieve + 1Tbsp of lemon juice)
100g Sour Cream
200g Pouring Cream ( Whipped)
20g cake flour
2 eggs
80g caster sugar
1/2 Tbsp lemon rind

125g Oreo biscuit with cream
30g melted butter


Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
2. Crushed Oreo biscuits till fine crumbs.
3.Combine the biscuits and the melted butter well and press evenly into a 8"inch square loose base baking tin.Put in the fridge let it chill and set for later baking
4. Cream creamcheese with sugar till creamy
5. Prepar a chilling metal bowl and whipped the pouring cream till firm soft peak .
6. Mixed the avocado mash with sour cream well then fold in the whipped cream
7. Mixed in the egg one at a time into the avocado mixture.
8. Mixed the cream cheese with lemon rind into the avocado mixture till well combine.
9. Pour the mixture into the oreo biscuit base tin.
10. Steambake the cake in oven for 60min or till is cooked.

The cake is creamy and as usual avocado is not a strong smell or taste of fruit. However it does have slight bitterness taste in the cake. Not sure is it cause by the lemon rind or I might have scrap the outer green part of the avocado when getting the flesh from the fruit.

I share this cake with the girlfriend who blessed me with the fruits. Of course we all love it and enjoy it much. How can one resist a creamy cake.

I do not have a chance to take the picture when the cake was slice to serve. Too tempting and we just engross in talking and forget about my blog updating  :). I should have bake this cake in a smaller tin perhaps 6" tin so the cake will be taller.

If you are avocado lover , give this a try . Is creamy and the texture is soft and light.

Japanese Cream Buns with Pork Floss

Another of my bun moment. I wanted to try out another bread baking experience. I did this back few months ago. Always bake when we will have visitor. Is good to share the baking and one can remind slim afterall sharing is caring. I would like to show my care and love in the food I am baking .

I plan to do a western roasting dinner for the night. Thought of baking some small bun and have it serve before the main. Yup , I still do not quite understand in the fine dinning restaurant , we always been serve some fresh bake bun before our main course come. Perhaps the portion of a fine dinning is always small, so is good to fill your tummy up with some carbo so the end of the meal you will feel full.

My friend recommend me this recipe and told me the result is fabulous and is easy to bake. So here are the recipe from one of my favourite blogger ->Japanes Cream Bun

Ingredients for cook coux ( Tang Zhong)
120gm bread flour
85gm boiling water

Ingredient for bread (A)
380gm bread flour
75gm sugar
6gm salt
8gm instant yeast

Ingredient for bread (B)
120gm cold milk
100gm whipping cream
1 cold egg
40gm butter

1 beaten egg for glazing

Method:
1. Preparing the tang zhong ( cook coux).,add the boiling water into flour, mix until well blended to form dough..Cover with cling wrap and set aside to cool.Keep it refrigerated for at least 12 hours
2.Mix the ingredient for Bread (A) until well blended. Add in all the wet ingredient for bread (B) except butter and knead to form rough dough. Add in the tang zhong and knead until well blended.
3.Add in butter and knead to form elastic dough.that passes the window pane test.
4.Let it proof for 40minutes. Divide dough into 50gm each , mould it round and let rest for 10minutes.
5. Place onto greased pan and let proof for another 50minutes.
6. Brush surface of bun with egg wash
7. Bake at preheated oven at 170(fan)/190C for 15minutes.


I also make some bun into oval shape and prepare to put some pork floss like the pork floss bun I always love for my breakfast next day.

I got the recipe to make the cream to go with the pork floss on this bun.

Ingredient for Cream :

2 Tbsp of Condense Milk
2.5 Tbsp of mayonnaise
200g Pork floss

Method :
1. Mixed the condense milk and mayonnaise together , slice half way down  the middle of the oval shape bun, spread the cream and sprinkle pork floss according to your liking.

The bun is really soft and creamy . It smell really good when baking . Of course my guest love it. I prepare one night before the dinner and have the plain bun heat up in the oven before I serve it. So is like fresh bake bun :)

I will definitely make it again .

Potato Sausage Bun

Well , I have been really into making bread. Why? Honestly I am a very carbo person . I love bread ,especially those Asia sweet bread. Asia bread are more fluffy, soft , moist and sweet compare to the western bread. Which is more heavy and you can said is more filling as well.

When I first got to Brisbane, there is not so many "famous" Asia bakery around. We did try to bake our own bread however given the hassle and I am still not into baking, it really is a chores rather than an enjoyment to me. Maybe my body has been really good and absorbing really well now in take of too much carbo make me "blow" out quite a lot . So I did try to cut down from bread and have a more healthy breakfast.

As I mention , from my last Sydney trip I bought a couple of recipe book so one should try out the recipe book if not what is the point of getting them . Here is another bread recipe from the Taiwan baking teacher -孟老师的100道面包。

Ingredients :

110g Bread Flour
40g  Cake Flour
15g Caster Sugar
1/4 tsp salt
70g ice water
2g ( 1/2 tsp ) dried yeast
18 -20g egg yolk
30g mash potatoes ( steam the potatoes and peel off the skin and mash it )
15g butter
5 sausages

Method :

1. Place the wet ingredient ice water, egg yolk , mash potatoes in the mixer. Follow by dried ingredients bread flour, cake flour and caster sugar. Make a well in the flour and place the yeast in it.
2. Mix all the mixtures with dough hook in slow speed when a rough dough is form and put the butter in and continue to mix it on medium speed till a smooth dough form .
3. Knead to form elastic dough that passes the window pane test.
4. Place the dough in the bowl and cover with cling wrap and let it proof for 60min. ( To fasten the process , put the dough in the oven with a glass of hot water)
5. Divide dough into 5 portion , mould it round let it rest for 10min.
6.Roll out the dough in long rectangle shape, place a sausage in it. Roll the sausage well and seal the bottom of the roll .
7.Shape it according to your liking. Brush with egg wash and let it proof for another 25min.
8.Preheat oven to 175C and place the bun on the tray and bake for 18min.

So here is my sausage bun. I double the portion of the ingredient and have make 10 bun in total. Have it for breakfast and share with some of the friends.

As the bun is not the using the "tang zhong" method is not that soft and moist. However if you have it heat up in the microwave for 20sc before having it , it still remind soft and taste yum.

Do give it a try . I might improvise this recipe using the "tang zhong" method next round when I do it .

Durian Mousse Cream Cake

Is my love birthday on 02 April. Interestingly I do not think I have make a birthday cake for him for the years we have celebrate together. Reason is , he does not seem to fancy any cream cake, not that he is picky , I might have influence him that we always prefer light and fluffy cake.

To ask him what is his favourite cake is another pain . Almost to him everything is great. I guess for a novice baker , I am not good in create just from anything . Is better to have an core ingredients to look out for or even some flavor one prefer. After an argument , I give up and decided a cake I want to bake for him. I guess this will set the precedence for his birthday cake now onwards  ^__*.

I chose Durian Mousse Cream Cake. Is so blessed to be able to find Malaysia frozen durian here. Which is pack in the packet.Though we have durian fruit that is frozen here but is mostly product of Thailand. I still prefer Malaysia durian.

It is such an excitement to bake this cake , not only it has been a long time we have durian but also the cake does not use any durian essence is just pure fragrant from the fruit itself.

Here is the recipe for the Durian Mousse Cream cake. I adapted from the recipe as the link I attached

Sponge Cake ( adapt from Wen Delights)

Ingredients

4 Eggs + 1 egg yolk
 80g Sugar ( I used brown sugar and reduce from original 100g)
100g CakeFlour
100g Butter, melted

Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
2. Grease & line 2  8" inches round baking tin with paper.( I am looking to make 2 small layer )
3. Whisk eggs and sugar until stiff. or double in volume. ( Draw a ribbon on the mixture ,it stay on the surface mean is right)
4. Fold in shifted flour by hand using spatula with an upward circulating motion.
5. Take some of the mixture mixed with the melted butter in a bowl, once well mixed pour into the batter and combine well until batter is shiny.
6. Pour into baking tins & bake for 30-35 mins
7. Once bake let it cool for awhile and take it out put on the rack to cool further.

Durian Mousse Cream ( I have 2 recipe mixed and I am totally satisfied with the result )
-> gracekitchencorner & WenDelights

Ingredients :

300g Durian Flesh ( pureed)
200ml Whipping Cream
100g Fresh Milk
2 egg yolks
40g Sugar
5 Tbsp Water
18g Gelatin

 

Method:

1. Place a metal bowl in freezer for used of cream whipping

2. Sprinkle the gelatin onto the water in a bowl , let it bloom . Then place the bowl in a bigger bowl with hot water in it to melt the gelatin

3. In a sauce pan, warm the milk with sugar until the sugar completely dissolved. In a large bowl, mixed the egg yolks then gradually pour the warm milk to the yolks mixed well. Mix in the durian flesh until well combine.

4. Add in the gelatin into the durian mixture and make sure all the gelatin combine well into the durian mixture. Leave it aside to cool down.

5. Take the metal bowl out and whipped the cream till soft peak.

6  Fold in whipped fresh cream into the durian mixture whisk well to combine by using a hand whisk.The durian mousse cream is ready to be used.

 

Assemble :

 

1. Have the 2 sponge cake ready to assemble, place 1st layer into a detachable 8" cake tin, spread the mousse on the cake 

2.Cover with another layer of cake. Press the cake down a bit as it will tend to float up. Then spread remaining mousse.

3. Leave cake in the fridge to set.

4. I mixed another 50g of durian puree with 100g of whipped cream to make some decoration on the cake 

 

 

The egg yolks does help to make the cream yellowish which is close with durian flesh color . Love this cake , as we have another couple join in the celebration , which the husband birthday is just few days apart. They both enjoy every bite of the cake.

Simply love the durian mousse cream. Is rich and creamy , as I used brown sugar in the sponge cake it looks brownish compare to white yellow sponge cake. However I do find the sponge cake is a bit on a heavy texture is not as light and fluffy as the sponge cake would be. 

Surely will bake this cake again, might try different type of sponge cake recipe then.

If you are durian lover , definitely must try this and enjoy the fullest of this beautiful fruit.