Cook: 3 Ingredients Korean Seafood Pancakes Base

Korean Seafood Pancake

INGREDIENTS (Makes 4 pancakes)

Three ingredients base:

1. 2 cups of plain flour

2. 2 cups of water

3. 2 eggs

For fillings:

1. chopped scallions

2. thinly sliced carrots

3. prawn

4. squid

5. any other favourite fillings

Dipping sauce (important bits of the dish):

1. 1/4 cup of soya sauce/seafood soya sauce

2. 1 stalk of scallions

3. 1/2 cloves of garlic

4. 1/2 teaspoon of sugar

5. 1 teaspoon of sesame oil

METHODS:

1. Blend together all the ingredients for dipping sauce and set aside.

Dipping sauce

2. In a mixing bowl, add flour and water. Mix well and then add the eggs. 

Prawns and squid - I cut into smaller pieces so that easier for kids to eat. 

3. Add in the scallion, carrot and seafood.

4. Heat up a frying pan. Add a thin layer of oil. 

5. Pour the batter into the pan and cook for 6 minutes or until the bottom is browned. 

6. Then turn over and cook for another 6 minutes. Repeat for the rest of the batter.

7. Cut into 8 pieces and serve warm with the dipping sauce. 

Korean Seafood Pancake

Cook: Perfect for Party Hotdog Pretzel

Amazing hotdog pretzel

This is a twist from the previous pretzel recipe and with the addition of hotdog, both kids and adult love it! Great for a simple breakfast, afternoon tea or even party. Made this on a few occasions and was a hit every time!

INGREDIENTS (makes 8 hotdog pretzel):

1. 150g wheat bread flour (can be substituted with plain bread flour)

2. 100g plain flour

3. Half teaspoon of salt

4. One tablespoon of sugar

5. One teaspoon of yeast

6. Half tablespoon of sunflower oil

7. Eight hotdogs

8. One tablespoon of bicarbonate soda

9. A pinch of sea salt and some parmesan cheese for the topping

METHODS:

1. Dissolve one teaspoon of yeast into 150ml of warm water. Leave it for 5 minutes and add the sunflower oil.

2. Place the wheat bread flour, plain flour, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl.

3. Add the yeast mixture into the flour mixture and knead until a dough is formed.

4. Place the dough into an oiled mixing bowl and cover with cling wrap and wet towel for 2 hours until it has doubled its size.

5. Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead for a few minutes and divide into 8 parts. 

6. Take one part, roll it into a long cylinder and wrap them around the sausage as shown. 

7. Leave the sausage roll on baking sheets and cover with oiled cling film and wet tea towel.

8. Leave them to puff for 30 minutes.

9. Dissolve the bicarbonate soda in 1 litres of water and poached the hotdogs. Then dry the poached hotdog using tea towel and sprinkle them with sea salt and parmesan cheese. 

10. Bake in preheated oven (200 degree Celcius) for 15 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve warm. 

Best eaten warm....

11. Had them warm or keep in airtight container.

Cook: Pretzel

Our homemade pretzel

I have always loved Auntie Anne's Pretzel and one afternoon, I decided to make some pretzel for afternoon tea. Look how cute my boy modelling our homemade pretzel.

I am quite happy with this recipe and planning to make different variety next time with parmesan cheese or sesame seed. For this round, I only use sea salt as that is the only topping I have at home.

INGREDIENTS (makes 16 pretzels):

1. 350g white bread flour ( I only have wheat bread flour so I use those instead so my dough is brownish in colour as seen)

2. 150g plain flour

3. 1 teaspoon salt

4. 2 tablespoon of caster sugar

5. 2 teaspoon of dried yeast

6. 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil

For glazing:

1. 1/4 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda

2. Coarse sea salt/parmesan cheese/sesame seed

3. 1 egg, beaten

METHODS:

1. Sprinkle yeast over 300ml of warm water. Stir, and leave it for 5 minutes. Then add oil into the mixture.

2. Place the bread flour, plain flour, salt and sugar into a large mixing bowl.

3. Gradually pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture, mixing them to form a soft dough.

4. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until it is soft and smooth. Then transfer to an oiled bowl. 

5. Cover the bowl loosely with cling wrap and leave it in a warm place for 1-2 hours until it is doubled.

6. Then, place the dough onto a lightly floured table, then gently knock the flour back and cut the dough into 16 pieces. 

7. Take each piece and roll them into log shape around 45cm long.

8. Take each end and cross them over, then twist the end and secure the ends to the sides.

9. Place the pretzel on baking sheets and cover with cling wrap and tea towel. Leave them for 30 minutes. 

10. Preheat oven to 200 degree Celcius. 

11. Meanwhile, mix the bicarbonate soda in 2 teaspoon of boiling water. 

12. Brush the pretzel with the bicarbonate soda mixture. This will gives pretzel dark colour and chewy exterior.

13. Add the toppings (sea salt/sesame seed/parmesan cheese). 

We added sea salt

14. Place the pretzel into oven and bake for 15 minutes. 

15. Remove them from oven and brush with eggs. Then bake for another 5 minutes.

And it is done! Let it cool down and enjoy!

Enjoying it with a cup of mint tea.

Cook: Virgin Mojito

It's a really simple mix and blend recipe.

What you will need for one cup:

1. 15 mint leaves

2. Juice from two fresh limes

3. Ice

4. One cup of sprite or sparkling water (If using sparkling water, add sugar syrup to taste)

Just need to blend them all together and its done. For alcoholic version, add vodka :)

Virgin Mojito

Yumzz

Cook: Simple Naan Bread

My children and me had some prata and Naan bread the other day and it is the first time they enjoyed the Naan so much. So I have decided to make some myself for simple meal at home.

Naan bread is very much less oily and prata so I feel it is an alternative and healthier choice for the kids. The recipe is pretty easy and this gets done within the hour (as sometime is needed for the yeast to work the flour).

Not the most authentic way but it is our way of having some simple Naan at home

INGREDIENTS:

(Makes 8 Naan bread)

1. 1 1/4 cup of warm water

2. 1 tablespoon of sugar

3. 2 teaspoon of instant yeast

4. 4 cups of plain flour

5. 1 teaspoon of salt 

6. a little oil 

METHODS:

1. In a bowl, mix warm water, sugar and instant yeasts. Let it stand for 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in another mixing bowl, add plain flour and salt.

3. Add the warm water, sugar and yeast mixture into the plain flour/salt.

4. Mix thoroughly and knead them until combine. Add more water/plain flour if needed.

Dough ready .. next step- let it rise!

5. Add some oil to the dough and place them into a bowl and covered it with a damp cloth. 

6. Place the bowl in a warm place to rise for 30-45 minutes. The dough will rise a little.

7. Take the dough out and cut it into 8 pieces. Roll them flat on oiled workspace.

Time to place the Naan bread on frying pan

8. Heat up the frying pan. Place the Naan bread into the drying pan and pan fried for a couple of minutes and it is done!

9. Enjoy it over Tandoori chicken, fish or curry or any favourite topping like us.

P/S: Do not keep the cooked Naan bread for the following meal or overnight. When reheat, the Naan bread becomes very chewy and hard to bite.

Cook: Melt in the mouth Kuih Bangkit

Kuih Bangkit has always been one of my favourite cookies during Chinese New Year. Love how it melts in my mouth with a hint of coconut fragrance. Oh... yummy!!!

My melt in the mouth Kuih Bangkit

I find it hard to get a good recipe for Kuih Bangkit and I kinda give up four years ago when the batch that I made turns out to be hard. It tasted ok but the texture is a total disaster. So for the past few years I did not make any Kuih Bangkit for Chinese New Year because as many of you know, it is very tedious to make Kuih Bangkit and when it turns out badly, it just kinda spoil the mood...

I don't know what got into me this year but after making two batches of peanut cookies, I decided to give Kuih Bangkit another chance. Popped into Phoon Huat to get some baking supplies and off I go to try out another Kuih Bangkit recipe...

After 4 hours in kitchen, I finally found a successful recipe!!!! But I must say it is hard work and super tiring...from baking the flour to moulding the cookies which takes ages as the dough really dries up fast so have to keep adding coconut milk/water.

All in all, I am satisfied with my batch but I am not sure if I would like to do another batch this year... maybe next year :p 

But this recipe is definitely a keeper hence sharing it here with all :)

INGREDIENTS:
(Makes 4 small red bottles of cookies- about 200 pieces)

1. 400g of sago flour
2. 400g of tapioca flour
3. 100g of rice flour

4. 8 pandan leaves (washed, dried and tear into small pieces)5. 350g of icing sugar
6. 200ml of coconut milk
7. 6 egg yolks 

METHODS:

1. Place the sago flour, tapioca flour, rice flour and pandan leaves onto a baking tray (as shown).

Place the three flour onto the baking tray.

2. Preheat oven to 150 degree Celcius and turn on the oven fan function , place the tray into the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. I would stir the flour every 5-10 minutes.

3. Once the pandan leaves dries up and the flour appear to the more fluffy and light, it is done. 

Light and fluffy

4. Remove the tray from oven. Then remove the pandan leaves and sieve the flour. 

Sieve the flour.

5. Once that is done, leave the flour aside to let it cool down.

6. While waiting for the flour to cool down, place the icing sugar and the egg yolk into a mixing bowl. Using medium speed, blend it into a mixture. 

Icing sugar and egg yolks.

7. The mixture should appear to be pale yellow when it is done. 

Egg yolk and icing sugar mixture.

8. Next, add in the coconut milk bit by bit while mixing it in. 

Added coconut milk.

9. By now, the sieved flour should be warm and not too hot now. Add the icing sugar/egg yolk/coconut milk mixture slowly into the flour, mixing them up as you added the mixture in. The dough will be a bit crumbly and doesn't stick much.

10. Take a portion of the dough out, add some coconut milk so that the dough is workable. As long as it can be moulded, it is fine. Roll them using rolling pin and cut out using cookie cutter. The dough is quite crumbly so when push the cookie out from the cutter, have to be careful.

Ready to bake

11. Preheat the oven to 150 degree Calcium and bake for 10-15 minutes. Once the bottom turns slightly brownish, it is ready. 

12. Remove from oven, let it cool down and store in airtight container.

Ready for Chinese New Year

You may also like these for Chinese New Year:

Peanut cookies using peanut butter

Green Pea Cookies

Sugee Cookies

Baked Crab Stick

Cook: Homemade Ginger Tea (姜母茶）

The weather has been really cold lately with the rain and chill. I was in Taipei last month with a couple of my secondary school mates and came across this ginger tea which is really good to warm the stomach in the winter. I was chatting with the auntie who is selling the tea and she told me what is the ingredients inside the tea so I have decided to make some myself....

It turns out to be really good and I have made a concentrated version of it so that I can just add hot water when I want to drink it....

Homemade ginger tea

INGREDIENTS:

1. 300g of old ginger (remove the skin and cut into small chunks)

2. 20 red dates (cut into small pieces as shown)

3. 40 dried longans

4. Black sugar (to taste)

Ingredients for the ginger tea

METHODS:

1. In a pot, add the old ginger, red dates and dried longan. 

2. Then add 1L of water.

3. Bring to boil and add the black sugar.

4. Continue to simmer the soup using medium heat, adding water in between if the water level gets too low.

5. Add more sugar if needed to by tasting the tea.

6. Let the tea simmer for one and a half hour then leave it to cool.

 The ginger tea...

7. Sieve out the ingredients into a bowl.

All the goodness...

It is ready...

8. Keep the ginger tea in a bottle and place in fridge. When required, take out and add hot water. 

With my ingredients, I manage to make 650ml of concentrated ginger tea and have about 8 cups of ginger tea. I kept in fridge and drink it within 2 weeks (might be able to keep beyond two weeks but we have finished it by then). Very warm and nice for the weather. 

Enjoy...