Pan Fried Nian Gao

This is the time of the year to enjoy snacks like Bak Kwa, Fried Nian Gao, Pineapple Tarts and many many other festive goodies. It is a yearly routine that we fry nian gao at home. It is a cake made from glutinous rice and consumed in Chinese cuisine. It is considered good luck to eat nian gao during this time because "nian gao" is a homonym for "every year higher and higher." 年糕 - 年高 (Source: WIkipedia)


All you need:

300g Nian Gao (brown colour looking cake)
3 eggs
3/4 cup plain flour (sifted)
Some water

Dip cut pieces of nian gao in the egg batter (not too thick nor watery) and fry in hot oil. Serve with Chinese tea. If anyone has a better alternative recipe to what I have, pls feel free to share as mine may not be the best :)

Pineapple Tarts

Everyone around me was making pineapple tarts. My online blogger contacts, my friends and my relatives. I've only recently attempted baking but I thought, why not give it a shot? I first tried it at my friend's place. It was pretty easy and fun! So I decided to do it my own, my way. So here's the recipe for everyone.

The equipment needed...

Pineapple Filling (150 tarts)
3 pineapples (grated and sieved to drain off pineapple juice)
300 g sugar (I reduce this by 20% to make it less sweet. Can use partial brown partial castor sugar)

Cook and stir for about 20min. Add sugar and continue stirring till it becomes sticky and dark yellow. Whole process would take about 30-45 mins. When cooled, roll them into small balls.

Pastry

300g butter

130g margarine

100g icing sugar

80g milk powder

1 egg

800g cake flour/plain flour

Preheat oven to 180deg C. Cream butter/margarine in a large mixing bowl until light and creamy. Add egg and beat well. Sift sugar, powder and flour into the mixture. Fold to incorporate all ingredients into a smooth pastry. Let it set for 30min. Mixture should be a bit crumbly. Roll on a flat surface with a rolling pin and use the cutter to cut into tart shapes. Glaze with an egg. Place balls onto each tart and bake for 10-12 min.

Glazing with the egg

Viola! Finish it with a Fu sticker on top, with compliments from my friend Jaime :)

Matcha Cake

I was in one of my 'baking mood' again. So with some leftover green tea powder bought a while back, I whipped up a chiffon cake with green tea, with referecnce from Alex Goh's Fruity Cake book. I added some dark chocolate for the extra added flavour. You can't really go wrong with chocolates in anything. :)

Mix 70g milk, 1 1/2 tsp green tea powder together till well blended, then and add 70g (I use margarine as my butter was hard as a rock) and cook till butter melts. Sieve in 90g of plain flour till well combined. Add in 4 egg yolks and mix well. Separately, whip 4 egg whites until foamy, then add 100g sugar and 1/8 tsp cream of tartar till soft peaks form. Add a third of this meringue into the green tea mixture and mix well, then add remaining meringue into it. You can add 120g of chestnuts if required (but I didn't). Bake at 170 deg for 35mins. I added additional 2 squares of dark chocolate (melted) and swirl it on top.

Remove cake when cool from the mould. Optional: cover cake in whipped topping cream if desired and dust with some green tea powder.

Food haven in Japan

Had just come back from my 6 day trip to Kyushu, Japan. Lovely sights and onsen - hot spring.

Singapore > Fukuoka > Nagasaki > Kumamoto > Kagoshima > Mt Aso > Beppu > Fukuoka

Of course you can't miss their delectable Japanese food!

There were lotsa stalls along the streets selling Adzuki pancake (red bean pancakes) and rice crackers. I couldn't decide what to eat so I tried almost everything I saw. They tasted yummy, but food is expensive in Japan.

Mochi

Japanese have a low mortality rate. Reason? They eat lotsa fish and seafood. They drink green tea which helps fight cancer. I enjoy eating Japanese food (only cooked ones) but they are rather salty... even for snacks

You won't miss the vending machines in Japan. Even in Kyushu, there are vending machines everywhere. It's an interesting vending machine culture.. They sell coffee, tea, juices (hot and cold), hot soup and even cigarettes. it's said to provide convenience to residents and it actually has an added feature of forewarning natural calamities and provides weather reports. In case of emergency one can also get drinks and food out of convenience. Crime rate is actually low in Japan hence the proliferation of vending machines.

Piping hot sweet potato (weather was about 5 deg)

"Black pork slices" ready to be pan fried

Do you believe that these are fake?

Thats all folks for the food pics from Japan.. keep tuning to my blog :)

I have a photo gallery website at flickr.com/missyjoan. Enjoy!