Revisiting Old Charms

Fellow blogger Honey Bee Sweets ask me for this recipe of the teochew Soon kueh. So here it is, not just for her but for all who might be interested.

My dear mother-in-law taught me how to make this years ago. She measured every ingredient by 'gut feel'. Just pour, just grab! To my dismay, nothing was actually measured to the last gram or dash. I had to re-do and re-test it a few times before I figured out what or how much which ingredient was more or less or the ratio of flour to water.

After 6 months of struggling, I finally did it!

Showing you too..the photos of Ah Mak(whom we affectionately address her) making soon kueh. Hers were in the shapes of UFOs..I cheated and did the hawker style which was half moon shape.









Her original UFOs shaped



My half moons shaped, pan fried the next day till crispy, drizzled with sweet sauce.



A family tradition that must be handed down...getting my younger girl, Melody to make some too:






Our little girl Melody's soon kueh. Making her granny very proud of her



TEOCHEW SOON KUEH
Recipe by Gina Choong

Makes 24 pieces
Ingredients
500g turnip, skinned, shredded
100g dried shrimps, soaked in water to soften
5 pcs dried black fungus, soaked in water to soften, shred
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar

300g Rice Flour
80g Tapioca Flour
450ml boiling hot water
1 tbsp corn oil
1 tsp salt

Method:

1. In a wok, add 2 tbsp of corn oil to heat. Add dried shrimps to fry till fragrant. Then add black fungus and turnip and stir fry for 5 minutes over high heat.
2. Lastly, add light soya sauce, sesame oil, sugar to mix. Remove and leave it aside to cool completely.
3. In a mixing bowl, add sifted rice flour and tapioca flour, salt and hot water. Stir quickly and it should look lumpy. Add corn oil to mix. Cover the bowl and leave it aside for 15 minutes.
4. Remove and knead into a smooth dough. Divide the dough into 24 portions.
5. Flatten each ball, add a tablespoon of cooked turnip in the centre of the flatten dough.
6. Seal by picking up the sides. Brush with corn oil before steaming.
7. Steam in a steamer over high heat for 10 minutes. Serve hot with sweet sauce or chilli sauce.

Enjoy!!

Bowling Good Time!

I had a student for a private lesson with me yesterday. She wanted to bake a cake and decorated it with fondant. The theme is Bowling. She already had in mind what she wanted to do and achieved by the end of the lesson.

I taught her 3 recipes for cakes. All good for use with fondant. The one she covered with fondant was my famous Nutella Chocolate cake recipe. The other two was a new recipe called the Yuzu Fruit Cake and a Raisins Cupcake which uses fresh orange juice to make.

These are what we did yesterday..

Photos showing the cake. In the background you see all the white bowling pins..she made it herself. The cake was covered with Chocolate fondant that was tinted a bit off dark brown with white fondant. The taste and fragrance of the chocolate fondant was still evident.

She also learn how to do 'marbling' effects in fondant modelling. She said her friend had a bowling ball that was black and pink marbling colours. So we created the look alike in the ball too.



The wooden panelling was done with marbling effects too.




These were done at my place..then she had to bring it home and finished up with the rest of the decorations. I also taught her how to make shoes, boots, etc. So she could do a pair on her own to put on the cake.

These 2 photos were emailed to me yesterday. I am VERY SUPER Impressed! She has never work on Fondant before. It was her first try yesterday. And the whole cake was very impressive. I think her friend will either faint or kiss her silly!

By the light of the silvery moon

I loved the movie..no wait, I loved that old song that it had by Doris Day.

By the light of the silvery moon


This is by far the only thing I like about 'moonies'..the song..not the 'cake' though. I still find it too sweet for my liking. But customers have been asking me to run a demo on moon cake making. At least a simple one like snow skin mooncakes. And also to show them how to use the various moulds we have in store.

So make a date on your calendar, this Sunday from 2pm to 3pm. Come down and watch a live demonstration by my friend, Amy Ou of Chef Secret's Cooking Studio on how to make these delightful little 'moonies'. She will be baked some traditional mooncakes for sampling.



Find out more at our website about Amy Ou.

Ice Cream Demo

What to do on a hot hot afternoon? Make ice cream, of course!

I will be showing everyone how to make ice cream this Sunday at my store.
2 flavours, without eggs and using Konnyaku jelly powder as the binding ingredient.
Chocolate Overload Ice Cream and Mango Ice cream.


6 September 2009 Sunday
From 2pm to 3pm



You will get to sample both types of ice cream. And also to bring home a sample box to freeze at home.

Its something new I have discovered while trying to make ice cream without an ice cream maker and without the use of eggs. After days of freezing, the ice cream was still soft and creamy. So far, I have made a strawberry ice cream using Hershey's Strawberry syrup and have been feeding my students with it. They love the creaminess.

Come down and watch how its done.

Here's the map to my store:

Pots of Gold

I promised all to give the recipe online. Actually I did..on my forum. But this is for everyone who may not be a member at my forum.

Thanks to all who came to support me during this demo. It was a such a hit! So much so that the trays with piping hot egg pots were bought along with the tray. 2 Malay muslims who are fasting bought 2 trays of mini egg pots. When they broke fast that evening, the trays of mini egg pots were reheated by roasting in the oven again. They came by the shop 2 days ago to tell me the whole family ate 48 pcs of mini egg pots. Now they have to stock up on eggs and tuna for this.

I hope you enjoy it too. Its really easy to make and you can prepare the ingredients ahead of time..only to be baked when you are ready to eat. Best to eat this piping hot!

yums!






Baking in progress...



Just out of the oven..It rises very high. Leaving it to cool slightly.


When its cooled, it will sink slightly below the muffin tray




Mini Egg n Tuna Pots
Recipe by Gina Choong

Ingredients
120 ml water
300 ml Thickened cream
10 eggs
2 medium brown onions(chopped)
30 g butter(salted)

1 cup Cheese(I use Pizza Plus*)
1 can of tuna flakes in oil (from NTUC supermarket)

Method
1. Mix water, egg and cream together.
2. Use a hand whisk to beat the egg till its fused with the milk and cream.
3. Set aside.
4. Saute onions in butter till cooked. Set aside to cool.
5. Pour custard cream in mini muffin tray till 50% full.
6. Add 1 tsp saute onions, tuna fish flakes and chedder cheese.
7. Pour more custard to fill up.
8. Bake in preheated oven 200C for 20 mins.
9. Remove when the tops are slightly browned.
10. Serve immediately.

Notes:
Pizza Plus is a prepack of 3 types of cheese: Mozzarella, Cheddar and Parmesan.

You can replace with other types of cheese.
You can prepare the custard cream ahead of time, store in a container and keep in the fridge for upto 3 days. Before using, give it a good stir before pouring into muffin trays.

You can replace tuna with other types of meat like ham or bacon bits. For bacon bits, just pan fry with butter, onions till crispy and cooked.

Teach me to fish

Today many local schools in Singapore have a mini celebration for Teacher's Day. At the store yesterday, we had pretty good sales of all things gift packs wise and baking ingredients too.

Melody warned me ahead of time what she wanted to do for her teachers. At first it was Cookies..then I managed to change her thoughts to having cupcakes and fondant. As I don't have the time to whip up icing and pipe it out. I find royal icing more wasteful as we are not doing alot.

So I baked 30 Chocolate Cupcakes on Saturday night after returning from the store. Left it to cool overnight. The next day, I had to wake her up to do the decoration. And found some cuppies missing from the tray!

Luckily, she only needed 6 for school. So the leftovers were brought to the store for sale. In case there are customers who are busy and just wanted to get something nice for their kid's teachers too.

These are what we did together..great bonding time as I missed out many days bonding with Melody since I open shop.

These went to the store for sale


For S$1.00 each. Please don't ask me to do this. I am just doing this for fun only. If you want a full order, I will give you my friend's contact for cuppies.

Melody's cuppies which she made herself. Which she holds all the pride for:



Melody is all cheerful early in the morning to do this..in good spirit, I'll say




Close up for some of the cuppies we did