3 Egg and chicken Congee(Rice porridge)

1-2 small Onion, slice thin

1-2 tsp Garlic, crush

1-2 tsp Ginger, crush

1 Chicken Breast, dice

1 Century Egg, shelled and diced

1 Salted duck egg, shelled and diced

1 Chicken egg

200g Rice

800-1000 ml Water/chicken stock

Sesame oil

Salt and pepper

Method

wash rice and strain. Heat up a pot with a little oil, fry off ginger garlic and onion till fragrant. add in chicken and seal off. then add in rice mix, add in the water, century egg and duck egg. bring up to boil then simmer till the rice splits roughly 1-1.5 hrs. season to taste. then lighly beat the chicken egg and stir it in to the congee add sesame oil.

Now dig in :)

Enjoy:)

Ideas To decorate or use Gingerbread

Gingerbread house

Royal Icing

Ginger bread, rolled and baked as per the above picture

Candies/lolies/sweets/chocolates

Method

Cut the gingerbread in to desired shape(use a template if not sure if the design of the house would fit), using the the royal icing glue the ginger bread together as the following pictures. oh don't forget to cut out a door and window for the house after all it won't be a house with out a door and window.

you can put candies in to the house if you like or your gift

then decorate as you like

Sample 1

Sample 2

oh i decorated the gingerbread man gave it eyes and mouth, buttons and boots

Royal icing

1 egg white

250g icing sugar

1tsp vinegar/lemon juice

Method

pour in everything in to the mixing bowl, mix on low for 2-3 min then on high for 3-4 min or till white as snow:) scoop it out in to a piping bag :)

uses

Gingerbread house

Gingerbread man

(will add more as i go along)

Gingerbread

Ingredients

1L Honey

0.5kg Sugar

0.33L Fresh Milk(UHT milk can be used)

4 nos Eggs

10g Ginger Powder

13g Cinnamon Powder

20g Baking Powder

20g Baking Soda

2kg Cake Flour(plain flour)

Method

Bring sugar and milk to boil then add the honey and take off the heat. Mix well and set a side to cool. Sift all the dry ingredients together.

When honey mixture has cooled pour in to a mixing bowl(if using a mixer use a dough hook), add the eggs mix well.

scoop in the sifted dry ingredients on a low speed setting till it is all combined,( the mixture was too much for the mixture so i transfered it to another bowl to finish the mixing process by hand) Do not over mix the mixture.

When all is combined, set a side for at least 2 hrs resting time or you can continue the next step the next day.

On a floured bench take out a chunk of the dough, roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 0.5 cm. Then dock it with a fork or a docker(Dock=to make small holes on a pastry)

And use a cutter of your choice to cut the dough( in this case its a Gingerbread man). Place the gingerbread man on to a lined baking tray, brush egg wash over the gingerbread man and bake in a pre-heated oven of 160-170C(every oven is different i set mine at 150C) for 6-7 min then take it out of the oven and brush egg wash over the gingerbread man, back in to the oven for another 6-7 min or till golden brown.

Now you will have left over Scrap dough. What to do with it? well you still can use it, but remember you must not over mix it. So no kneading the dough, just pile the dough together and just press the dough together to form a square or round, and roll it out again like before.

Always try to get as much portions from the first roll.

This yields a lot of gingerbread man. I estimated about 60-70 nos of this size of gingerbread man.

Have fun:)

Golden Syrup

Ingredients

600g Sugar

450ml water

4 slices lemon (as in the picture below)

Method

Place everything in to a pot, over high heat desolve the sugar with out stirring(if it is stirred crystals would form and would not have a great result). bring it to a boil and then simmer for 50 min(soft ball stage, 120C)

Set it a side to cool, then pour it in to a bottle and it is ready to be used the next day.

*yes the sugar has to be made the day before (can be kept for a yr plus(for next yr)) making your moon cake or other recipes that require it:)

*yes i know i put only 2 slices of lemon i did only half recipe :)

My New Toy

As you can see this is my new toy in the kitchen!!!

My trusty hand mixer beater broke after 3 yrs of putting up with me:)

As my Grandfather always tell us, "if the old one don't go the new one won't come:)

now you will see more of it in my pictures:) oh i can do more with it too:)

quick drunken chicken with mien sien (for one)

um where to start....

1/2 onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, sliced

1 tsp ginger, crushed

4-5 chinese spoon chinese rice wine

100-200 g chicken breast, diced and seasoned with salt and pepper

1-2 serves mien sien

some pak choi

200-250mil chicken stock/ water

Method

Put on a pot of boiling water. In another heated pot add a table spoon of oil and add in the onion, garlic and ginger. Fry till fragrant, then add in the chicken to seal. then add in the rice wine, let it reduce slightly and add in the chicken stock and bring up to boil and simmer.

By this time the pot of water would be boiling drop in the mien sien and stir till cook strain. refresh with cold water and then strain of the cold water and in to the simmering drunken chicken soup add in the pak choi and it is ready to eat:)

orange and poppy seed cake

250g Butter, room temperature

300g Sugar

3 Egg

300g Flour, sifted

2 Orange juice

2 Orange rind

2 tbspBlue Poppy Seeds

100mlMilk

3 tsp Baking powder

Method

Cream butter and sugar till white, roughly 4-5 minutes on medium speed. while waiting for the butter, sift flour and baking powder. then add in eggs one by one to the creamed butter. add in the poppy seed, rind and juice of orange and the sifted flour. mix on low speed(fold in), then add in milk and fold.

Pour in to a baking vessel, bake in a pre-heated oven of 160C and bake for 45min or until its cooked. To check if its done, use the skewer method where by the bamboo skewer is stuck in to the middle of the cake and comes out clean.

yes it didn't rise at the sides my oven was a bit too hot.

Happy trying:)

Bread pudding

Ingredients

1lit milk

8 eggs

2 egg yolks

150g sugar

Left over Bread*

Butter

20-50g sugar, just for coating

Method

Butter the baking dish that your using and coat it with the sugar. Cut bread in to cubes and place in to buttered dish

Place the eggs in to a bowl and in another pot bring the milk and sugar to the boil. Then whisk the eggs and add a ladle of the milk mixture and mix well, now pour in the milk in a long thin stream while whisking the mixture together. then pour the mixture in to the buttered dish with the bread, and soak for at least 1 hr.

Bake in a pre-heated oven of 150-140C for 30-45 min or till cooked. To test if its cook give it a little shake if its still jelly like in the middle it not done or you could use a small knife to poke in the middle and see if there is still liquid that has not set.

To be served warm. with a side of ice cream/ berry compote/ vanilla custard

Have A wonderful Day!!

Drunken chicken my style

2 bottles Shau xing rice wine

200g chicken feet, cleaned and nails cut

10-15 dried mushroom, soaked in hot water till soft, remove stems

1 bulb garlic

1 thumb size ginger, smashed with a cleaver

3-4 small onions, peeled and halved

1 whole Chicken, cut up

2 tbsp chinese wolfberries

water just enough to cover the chicken

Salt and pepper

Method

Put everything in to a pot and bring to boil. then simmer for 1.5-2 hrs or till chicken feet falls off the bone.

Serve with a bowl of rice or freshly cooked mien sien(chinese noodle)

This dish/soup goes well with hard boil egg:)

* a chinese spoon of Rice wine can be added to the bowl of soup just before serving to give it an extra boost

Hope you enjoy what i enjoyed.

Lamb with home made mint sauce

Mint sauce

Lamb chops

Garlic, crushed

Salt

Pepper

Desire Potatoes(any potatoes will do), cut in to bite size

Oil

Dried mix herbs

Fresh/ frozen vegetable of your choice

Butter

Marinade the lamb in the mint sauce, garlic, salt and pepper for 2 hrs or over night.

In a bowl mix potato, oil, a bit of garlic, mix herbs, salt and pepper. place in a baking tray and roast for 20-35 min or till cook in a pre-heated oven of 180C.

For the Lamb heat a pan with a little oil till smoking point is reached, place lamb in to the pan and cook it 2 min on each side. set a side to rest. while its resting, blanch the vegetable in hot water (you can boil water in the kettle and pour it in to a pot). then transfer the vegetables to the pan, over high heat toss the vegetables with some butter and season to taste:)

Plate the food up, eat it while its hot:)

Enjoy:)

Mint Sauce

I did some gardening and found a whole lot of mint growing wild. So decided to harvest it.

But what to do with it???

well mint sauce(jelly)

We start off with the Apple Stock

2.5kgs of cooking apples(granny smith)rough chop, skin seeds and all

1.25lits of water

1.25 lits of white vinegar

Method

Place apples and water in a pot and bring to boil and simmer for 45 minutes or until soft and pulpy. add vinegar and cook further 5 min. then strain the liquid thru a muslin cloth or tea towel and with pulp and all let it stand for 3-4 hrs or over night.

2-3 tbsp mint leaves, blanched, chopped fine

1 lit apple stock

0.75 g sugar

Bring the stock and sugar to boil and boil for 5-10 minutes, take it off the heat. then test if it has reached its setting point by placing a bit of the stock on to a plate to cool. once cooled when you run your finger thru the plate it should crinkle up, if not then return it to the boil for another 5-10 min and retest it again.

when setting stage has been reached skim off the scum and stir in the mint and pour in to sterilised jars and cover immediately with plastic wrap and cover or vinegar proof covers.

Baked Sambal Fish (flat head)

I manage to catch this fish the other day and baked it:)

to make the sauce

1 fish

2-3 small onion(1/2 if onions are big)

2 tbsp garlic chopped

150ml lemon/lime juice

2tbsp chili paste

2 tsp shrimp paste

2 tbsp sugar

salt to taste

Method

pan fry onion and garlic with a little oil, add chili and shrimp paste. fry till fragrant, add sugar mix thru and add lemon/ lime juice. season to taste.

lightly season the fish in side and outside the fish. Fill the cavity of the fish belly with some of the filling, place the fish on baking tray line with baking paper. pour the rest of the filling/sauce over the fish. bake in preheated oven at 180C for 20-30 minutes. (well depends on how big the fish is) serve with steamed rice.

yum yum!!

All gone...