Banana Ogura Cake

There is an ogura cake frenzy going on in one of the home cooking forums on FB. Irresistible cake photos have finally lured me to the kitchen to bake one today.

 Marshmallow looking egg white meringue

Submitting to the ogura cake frenzy, I put together the following, adapting from Jeannie Tay's blog at https://jeannietay.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/banana-ogura-cake/. I made some minor adaptations and the recipe below are my final adaptations.

60g vegetable oil
100 g mashed bananas (about one Del Monte banana)
Pinch of salt
80g top flour (Any plain flour will do)
5 egg whites
70g sugar

Whisk egg yolks with egg and oil till well mixed
Add in mashed bananas (I used 10g more of banana and reduced 10g of sugar from original recipe)
Fold in sifted flour with salt and mix batter well
Using electric mixer, whisk egg whites and add sugar. Whisk till stiff
Mix 1/3 of egg white meringue into yolk mixture using whisk, followed by another third and remaining meringue using spatula
Pour batter into lined tin with water bath below and bake at 170 deg C for 70 min

What I enjoy about baking this cake is it doesn't involve butter. Butter is often a hassle to handle as some recipes call for softened butter, which means thawing the frozen butter for a couple of hours prior to preparation. Butter is also a greasy affair which I want to avoid in my kitchen. It just means too any utensils and crockery to wash. Besides, using vegetable oil seems a little healthier.

Enjoy.

Boiled wantons

Using my excess minced pork from the steamed tofu recipe, I wrapped the minced pork with wanton skins that can be easily purchased at supermarkets.

Simply make chicken stock by boiling chicken meat/bones or use ready made stock which can be found in all supermarkets. When it is boiling, drop the wantons in to cook for about 10 min.

Drain them out and place on the bowl with some soup drizzled on it. I prefer less soup with it but you need to have some soup to keep it moist, otherwise they will stick.

It is a very easy dish to prepare but you need to dedicate some time for wrapping. But it is definitely tasty and you cant stop at two.

Enjoy!

Steamed tofu with minced pork

Steamed tofu with minced pork

I was running out of dishes to prepare for dinner and was getting tired of cooking the same old dishes.

Fortunately with the help of social media, I managed to jump start my interest and got all excited again. I came across this site from FB called foodforlifetv.sg. It is an initiative by NTUC Fairprice which I find is very useful for amateurs like me. It consists of a lot of nice recipes ranging from local dishes to Western cuisines in all very achievable steps done mainly via videos. The video captures the essence of cooking in very easy steps.

I started off with a very simple dish of steamed tofu with minced pork.

All you need are:

A tube of egg tofu
Some minced pork
(I mixed the pork with some minced prawns, water chestnuts and chopped spring onions)
Chopped spring onions - 2 sets

 Chopped water chestnut

Minced pork

Tofu ready for meat topping

Seasoning
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Some pepper

Oyster sauce mixed with some water and corn flour

• Marinate pork with the seasonings and set aside for 10min
• Cut the tube tofu into even sizes and lay on a flat plate
• Cut out a small hole on top of each tofu
• Put a tsp of marinated pork on top of each tofu
• Drizzle the oyster sauce mixed with water on the dish
• Steam for 10-15min till meat is cooked
• Remove from steamer and drizzle some sesame oil and sprinkle some spring onions (add some fried shallots if desired)
• Serve with rice

Almond cookies

It was Chinese New Year. After seeing all the delicious posts that many had posted on SHC, I was very tempted to start baking and heat up the oven of mine.

I tried my hand at Almond Cookies. It is one of my favourite CNY cookies as I love the almond fragrance. It was a lovely treat for me and friends!  

This is a very simple and straightforward recipe and about 25-30 cookies can be done in one night with no fuss. No kidding!

I adapted the recipe from Dequeen Kitchen.

30g almond meal, 45g plain flour, 30g fine sugar, pinch of salt, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 30ml canola oil, 1 egg (I doubled this recipe, but use only 3/4 of the sugar required)

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl with the oil being the last (I used a metal spoon to mix)

Mix well

Scoop 1/2 tbsp of mixture and roll it into a ball (texture should be somewhat easy to knead and roll without breaking up into crumbs too much)

Place balls on paper lined tray and press down the top gently

Do a light egg wash

Bake at preheated oven of 180deg C for 17 minutes (17 is my ideal time)

Cool cookies on a cooling rack before packing

Creamy durian puff

 

 

Had a gathering for the weekend so I decided to make some durian puffs. It's been something I've wanted to make for a long time but never got around it.

Picked up some durians at the stall outside NTUC Supermarket. Quality is just so so but the guy gave some discounts so why not. I bought 2 packs for about $13. If it is to be for self consumption, I would have gotten Mao Shan Wang and pay good money for it. Cos I believe if you want to eat good durians, we must pay good money for the sinful calorie consumption. Otherwise we are just wasting calories.

For the durian fillings, I extracted the flesh from the seed, and mix it with some whipped cream and castor sugar. I might want to try using yoghurt next round for health reasons. Or better still, maybe we dont even need anything other than the flesh!

Not sure how many durians these 2 packs translate to, but its about 280g for about 15-18 puffs.

Anyway, puff pastry recipe is very easy.

For the choux bun / puff
65g plain flour (sifted)
2 eggs
50g butter
150ml water

Method for Bun

Preheat the oven to 220 deg C. Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Cut the butter into cubes and put it into a saucepan of the water over low heat. As soon as mixture boils, take it off the heat. Quickly put the flour into the saucepan and mix well till it forms a dough ball. Add a litle egg and stir well until all the eggs are in. The mixture should be light.

 

 

Spoon the mixture onto the lined trays and bake them for 10min. After 10min, bake them for another 25min at 190 deg C till puffy and golden brown. Remove the buns and poke them to remove extra steam. When the buns are completely cooled, cut a slit in the buns and insert the filling.

Thats it!

Simple easy asparagus dish!

After some grocery shopping I realised there are different types of asparagus! I am a noob in cooking so it took me a while to realise this.

I would have preferred the thick American type of asparagus but anyway here is a simple recipe of the thin asparagus I bought.

I got together some fresh prawns (deveined, washed and chilled in ice water to maintain crunchiness), sliced capsicum and diagonally sliced asparagus.

Stir fry some garlic in heated oil, before frying the prawns. Once they turn pink, remove them. Stir fry the capsicum and asparagus for a while. Then add back the prawns, with some soya sauce and sesame oil. You may add any stir fry sauce/dressing if required.

Dish is ready in a jiffy!

Hainanese Pork Chops

This is a very common dish in Singapore, usually found at the economical rice stalls at hawker centres/coffeeshops. Apart from the distinctive pork chops, lots of curry gravy is poured over piping hot rice.

I like tomato sauce pork chops and they will remain one of my favourites for a long time.

Here's my version of it, which is very easy to accomplish. Enjoy!