Cook: Soft Flowy Ramen Egg

Ramen egg is one of our favourite and only now I realise it is not hard to make. You can make in advance and keep in fridge up to 3-4 days. So, can just pop one into your ramen/udon noodle anytime of the day :)

The softness of the yolk depends on the time that you cook the egg. If you like the yolk to be really soft as shown in the photo, it takes 7 minutes. If you like it slightly less flowy, do cook it for 8-9 minutes. 

INGREDIENTS (Makes 4 eggs):

1. 4 large eggs

2. 4 tablespoon of soy sauce

3. 4 tablespoon of miring

4. 4-6 tablespoon of water (adjust saltiness according to taste)

METHODS:

1. Combine the soy sauce, miring and water in a plastic bag and set aside.

2. In a saucepan, add enough water so that it will cover the egg later, bring water to boil.

3. Once the water is boiling rapidly, add in the eggs straight from the fridge using a ladle to prevent the eggs from breaking.

4. At the same time, reduce the heat so that the water is just simmering with small bubbles as shown in the picture.

5. Simmer the egg for 7-9 minutes depending on your preference of the egg's texture.

Simmering

6. Once the time is up, remove the eggs and place them into a cold water bath that you have prepare in advance. Leave them in the cold water for 3 minutes.

7. Then slowly peel the skin. Be careful as the egg is very soft. 

8. Place the peeled egg into the plastic bag with the soy sauce mixture. Place them in the fridge.

9. Keep them overnight or at least for 3-4 hours so that the egg absorb the soy sauce. Consume within 3-4 days.

Cook: Hong Kong Style Ma Lai Gao (Steamed Egg Cake)

Ma Lai Gao :) Yum!

Soft and fluffy!

My second attempt-more soft this time

Difficulty: 4/5

I am in search for a Tim Ho Wan lookalike and taste-alike Ma Lai Gao recipe because it is my daughter's favourite dim sum! Everytime we visit she ate at least 2 servings and then will takeaway one piece home. Each piece cost $3.80 and it is certainly not cheap.

A lot of recipe that I find online doesn't require fermentation and after steaming, it certainly doesn't look like the one at Tim Ho Wan. Not sure whether it taste alike but the look definitely doesn't. If i were to serve that to my daughter, don't think she can relate to her favourite Ma Lai Gao... so, after searching for sometime i found this recipe with fermentation and the look definitely very close to the one we had at Tim Ho Wan (Ma Lai Gao )...This is definitely not a quick recipe, it takes at least 1 1/2 days before you can enjoy the labour of your love. 

What I did was to make the starter paste on Wednesday night, let it ferment for 24 hours. Then add the rest of the ingredients (except baking powder and bicarbonate soda) on Thursday night, let it ferment overnight in fridge and steam them on Friday morning.

I did not reduce much sugar for this recipe as sugar is the "food" for the yeast!

The texture is soft and fluffy but doesn't have as much air pocket as the one served at Tim Ho Wan. Taste-wise, according to my MIL and SIL who are die hard fan of Tim Ho Wan's Ma Lai Gao, they said its nice but if compare to Tim Ho Wan, it lacks a certain unique taste, they are guessing  maybe Gula Melaka? I am not too sure but will definitely give it a try with Gula Melaka and see if it works :)

** UPDATED: Upon hubby's request, made a second batch. This time round, i fermented for 48 hours instead of 24 hours. The texture is softer this time with more air pocket, also it takes shorter time for steaming to achieve the brown colour, 1 hour compare to the previous 1.5 hours.

***UPDATED AGAIN: Received a feedback recently that Tim Ho Wan Steamed Egg Cake doesn't use yeast as fermentation. Instead they used natural fermentation... so far, i haven't find a recipe that uses this other way of fermentation but if i do, i will try it out and share :)

INGREDIENTS:

Starter paste

1. 160g of Hong Kong Flour

2. 35g white sugar

3. 1 teaspoon of instant yeast

4. 75ml of warm water

Hong Kong Flour-low protein flour

Cake mixture

1. 150g of white sugar

2. 35g of bread flour

3. 35g of custard powder

4. 20g of milk powder

5. 5 eggs

6. 50g of melted butter

7. 100g of vegetable oil (tasteless oil)

Before steaming

1. 1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

2. 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda

METHODS:

Starter paste

1. Mix flour, sugar, yeast and water together to form a dough (as shown)

2. Place the dough in a bowl and cover with cling wrap (Do note that the dough will increase in size about 2-3 times so put in a bigger bowl).

3. Let it ferment at room temperature for 12-48 hours. ( I ferment mine for 24 hours but i did notice that after 12 hours there is not much changes in the paste in term of size so i guess that is why the minimum time to ferment is 12 hours)

Initially, this is how the dough looks like after mixing the ingredients together.

Cake mixture

1. After 24 hours, you will notice that the paste has become more soft will lots of hole and has at least increase in size by 2-3 times (as shown)

After 24 hours of fermentation

Closer look-can see a lot of hole

And this is how it looks like inside, lots of air pocket

2. Sieve the flour, custard powder and milk powder. Set aside

3. Place the starter paste in the mixing bowl and mix using a stand mixer at low speed for 1-2 minutes (I do not advice using hand mixer because it was quite hard to mix as the mixture is quite sticky based on my personal experience)

Mixing the starter paste

4. Add sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes on low speed until sugar is incorporated.

5. Add flour mixture spoonful by spoonful and beat to mix well. Once the dough started to get really sticky, add one egg. Then continue to add more flour and beat, adding eggs in between once it gets too sticky.

Super sticky mixture

6. After all the flour is added, add the remaining egg, one by one and mix well.

7. After all eggs are incorporated, scrap the side and bottom of the mixture as a lot of thick mixture still stick to the sides and bottom. 

8. Turn the speed to medium and mix for 5-10 minutes until the mixture smoothen. 

9. Add butter and oil, mix well at low speed.

After adding eggs, butter and oil, mixture is smoothen.

10. Cover with cling wrap and ferment in fridge overnight or 12-24 hours.
11. After 12 hours of fermentation, you can see that the mixture thickens slightly, also can observe a lot of small bubbles. There is no significant change in size after second round of fermentation.

Bubbles forming after overnight fermentation

Thicken mixture, compare to pre-fermentation overnight in fridge

12. Before steaming, add bicarbonate soda and baking powder. Pour into a bowl and steam. Do note that the cake will rise to almost double its size.
13. Steam for 1 to 1.5 hours or until the cake turns brown.

Slowly, the yellowish cake is turning brownish

14. Do not attempt to open the lid at least 30 minutes during the initial steaming stage. Monitor water level and add if required.

15. Cool down for 5-10 minutes, cut and serve.

16. Enjoy and have a piece!

Have a piece, or probably more :)

Cook: Brighten up your day with a Smiley Face Omelette

Smiley Face Omelette

Difficulty: 2/5

Serve half a smiley face to each of my kids, with brown rice and soup. They love it and it is also one way for them to eat their vegetable, by cooking it with their favourite egg.

Fluffy inside :)

INGREDIENTS

(Make one smiley face)

1. One egg

2. 50ml fresh milk

3. A handful of mozzarella cheese

4. A pinch of salt and pepper

5. One tablespoon of butter 

Fillings (can be substitute with any vegetable and meat)

1. A handful of shredded carrot

2. A handful of cubed chayote

3. A handful of minced mini corn

4. A handful of cubed tomato

5. A handful of salmon, cut into small pieces

Garnish

1. 2 blueberries

*Egg Ring to make the round shape

Fillings

METHODS:

1. Beat the egg with the milk, add salt, pepper and cheese.

2. Heat the pan, melt the butter.

3. Stir fry the chayote, carrot and sweetcorn until the chayote change from opaque to slightly translucent. Add tomatoes and salmon, stir fry for another minute.

4. Separate the ingredients into two parts, and place the egg ring to enclose each portion.

Separate the fillings and enclosed them using egg ring

5. Add the egg mixture, let it set.

6. This part will require some skills, cause the bottom will cook faster and if the sides of the egg is not set, don't remove the egg ring. 

7. Check on the egg slowly and ensure that the sides are cooked before removing the egg ring.

8. They will be some egg that leaks but as long as most of them stays inside then it is ok.

9. Set aside those egg that leak, can be used for the nose and mouth of smiley face.

10. Once the egg in the ring is set, slowly remove the ring, and turn the egg to the other side to cook them.

11. Then arrange on plate and top up with blueberries for the eyes.

Cook: Chawanmushi (Chinese Style)

Chawanmushi

Difficulty: 2/5

Chawanmushi is a popular egg custard dish that is served in most japanese restaurant. It is relatively easy to make and instead of flavouring the dish with the usual soy sauce, mirin (rice wine) and dashi(japanese soup base), i use chinese soup as the soup base. 

Most of the recipe that I found calls for packet chicken broth, but since i am cooking soup for dinner, i make use of the soup i cook for the soup base instead of the commercialised chicken broth for a healthier version of chawanmushi :)

If you do not have the japanese tea cup with lid, one alternative will be using ramekin covered with aluminium foil like i did :)

INGREDIENTS:

(2 servings)

1. 2 medium sized eggs

2. 100ml of soup base (i uses winter melon soup, alternative will be packet chicken broth that can be found in most supermarket)

3. 3 medium sized prawn, peeled and cut into small pieces

4. a small piece of salmon (about 3cmX5cm), remove skin and cut into small pieces

5. 3 shitake mushroom , remove stem, cut the cap into small pieces

6. a dash of salt and pepper

7. a handful of gou qi zi (wolfberries)

METHOD:

1. Marinate the prawn, salmon and mushroom with salt and pepper,set aside.

2. Mix the egg with the soup base and gou qi zi (wolfberries)

3. Place the marinate prawn mixture into ramekins.

4. Pour the egg mixture into the ramekins.

5. Cover with aluminium foil.

6. Steam over boiling water for 10 minutes or until the egg is cooked.

Egg mixture and prawn mixture

Lots of yummy prawn, salmon and mushroom

Ready to go into steamer

Ready!!! Serve hot!!

Yummy! Love the runny soup...