After googling for inspiration, I came up with this. I did not follow any one recipe… more of created my own and taste it on the way while I cook. This recipe uses up at least 3-4 oranges… more if you use more chicken

Ingredients:

2 Chicken breasts (cubed) / thigh + drumstick (de-boned and cubed)
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp Cornflour
3 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 tbsp garlic, chopped fine
1/2 tbsp shallots, chopped fine
1/2 tbsp ginger, chopped fine
3-4 Mandarin Oranges
1 cup orange juice
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp Wine (I used Shao Xing Hua Tiao wine because that is the only wine I have on hand! It should taste nicer with red wine)
A dash of white vinegar
2-3 pcs birds eye chilli, chopped fine (optional)
Salt to taste

Method:

1) Cubed the chicken to about 2cm cubes.
2) Marinate with salt and pepper for at least half an hour.
3) Use the peeler to peel the rind of 2 Mandarin Oranges carefully. Set it aside.
4) Cut all oranges in half lengthwise(so that it looks like an orange wheel) and remove the seeds.
5) Peel off the skin off 4 halves(2 oranges) carefully and separate the orange into individual slices. Remove as much as you can the white fiber. I used my kitchen scissors to cut them off. Set them aside.
6) Squeeze the juice out of the remaining Mandarin oranges and set it aside.
7) Coat chicken with corn flour(dry).
8) Heat up cooking oil in wok and once the oil is hot, brown the chicken.
9) Dish up the chicken and set it aside. Use remaining oil to saute the garlic, shallots and ginger until fragrant.
10) Pour in the Mandarin Orange Juice + Orange Juice. If you have extra Mandarin Oranges, you can omit the Orange Juice and use all Mandarin Orange Juice instead.
11) Add in dried rosemary, bird’s eye chilli(optional – if you want it spicy), dash of vinegar and the wine. Bring it to a boil.
12) Add in the sliced Mandarin Oranges. Stir it, bring it to a boil for 1-2 minutes, not too long or the Mandarin Oranges will get mushy.
13) Dish it up, garnish with coriander if you like and serve it hot!

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #28: Chicken Feast (February 2013) hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker.

I made these Chicken Rolls for our Reunion meals and it was certainly a hit! I have actually eaten these chicken rolls in buffet dinners but somehow could not imagine how it was done. It was really baffling…. until I came across Lily’s blog. The rolls in Lily’s blog are steeped in wine but the one I tasted in buffets are herbal based. Thus, I used Lily’s way of rolling but my own recipe to steep the rolls. See here on Lily’s blog on how to roll the chicken rolls. The only difference I made is I added some wolfberries (kei chi) that has been pre-soaked in Hua Tiao wine in the middle of the chicken before rolling it up. After all, I am making steeped herbal chicken rolls instead of wine steeped chicken rolls like Lily

Ingredients:

6 de-boned chicken thigh + drumstick
Salt
Pepper
A handful of Wolfberries(Kei Chi or Goji berries)
Half a cup of Shao Xing Hua Tiao Wine
For Chicken stock:
Bones from de-boned thigh + drumstick
About 5-6 Red Dates
2-3 slices of Tang Kuai (A type of Chinese Herb)
Half a handful of Wolfberries (Kei Chi or Goji berries)
2 tbsp of Shao Xing Hua Tiao Wine
1.5 cup of water
Salt to taste

Method:

1) Soak the Wolfberries in Shao Xing Hua Tiao wine until it is soft(about half an hour).
2) Roll the De-boned chicken as shown in Lily’s blog. The only difference is add on the wolfberries in a line in the middle of the chicken before rolling so that when you cut, the wolfberries can be seen in the middle.
3) After rolling them up, steam the chicken for 30-45 minutes. Do not oversteam them as overcooked chicken does not taste as nice. Let it cool down first before unwrapping them.
3) Put all ingredients(except the wine) under Chicken Stock into a pot and bring it to boil. Then simmer on low fire for about 45 minutes. Pour in the wine and simmer for 2 more minutes before switching off the fire. Let the stock cool down.
4) Unwrap the chicken rolls and put it in a container. Filter the Chicken Stock and make sure that the rolls are immerse totally in stock. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.
5) Next day, the stock will have turned into gel. That is normal. Remove the rolls carefully, and cut it up in 1/4 inch thickness. Use a sharp knife! Arrange it nicely on a plate.
6) The stock can be reheated and boiled down until thick and drizzle a little over the cut rolls. The remaining can be used as dip if you like.

** Tip: To save you some time and frustration, you can ask the Chicken seller in the market to help you de-bone the chicken. Make sure you bring back the bones for the stock!

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #28: Chicken Feast (February 2013) hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker.

I was baking a batch of pumpkin and sunflower seed cookies and it requires 8 egg whites!! So what am I supposed to do with the yolks??? It would be too wasteful to throw it away! And if I don’t use it today, it is going to not so fresh tomorrow! So, although I am tired, I forced myself to make another kue lapis!

I’ve said before I’ve never made kue lapis before. So I went and google for a recipe. And I followed this one because it looks simple.

http://life-at-homemaker-inc.blogspot.com/2011/11/recipes-kue-lapis-legit.html

Kue Lapis Legit

6 egg whites
3 tsp vanilla essence
220 gm icing sugar
15 egg yolks
400 gm unsalted butter at room temperature, softened and beaten
120 gm plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp all-spice powder(I omitted this)
2 tbsp brandy (I omitted this)

- Whisk egg whites and vanilla to soft peak. Gradually add icing sugar till stiff peak form
- Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well between each yolk
- Add butter and beat till well incorporated.
- Sift the flour, baking powder & spice powder together
- Fold in the flour mixture in three batches. Then stir in brandy
- Grease a 20-22 cm square cake tin with a lift-up base and line outside of tine with foil so batter does not leak through any gaps
- Turn oven to grill function
- Warm cake tin in oven for about 1 minute as this this helps to spread the 1st layer evenly compared to a cold tin
- Put about a third of a cup of cake mixture onto base of cake tin and spread evenly
- Put the tin under the grill for about five minutes or the top turns golden brown (Roughly takes about 3-5 minutes)
- Remove from oven and scoop the same amount of batter for 2nd layer. (No need to wait for the cake to cool between layers)
- Repeat the same process. Keep going until you have finish all the batter.

And as I was tired and rushing for time, I did not bake each layer enough! So my layers became invisible layers

And worse still! I thought my cake tin is big enough for the recipe… turns out it is too small and I’ve got leftover batter!!! So, what to do? I took out a mini 5 inch baking tin and continue for the second cake… So now it takes me twice as long!

This time round it looks a little better, at least can see some layers? Haha….

Taste wise, it is a tad too oily and sweet for my taste.

And since I already made this, might as well submit it for the Aspiring Bakers Challenge too!

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #27: Through Thick and Thin – Kue Lapis Classics hosted by Sam of Sweet Samsations

So, when I saw Aspiring Bakers theme for January 2013 is layer cakes, I told myself, give it a miss! But then again, if I don’t take up the challenge I guess I never will And so here I am!

I have NEVER made kue lapis before. And so, I googled for recipes… OMG, the amount of eggs and butter that goes into this type of cake!! And luckily I found one that does not use so many eggs! Here is the link: http://blog.macake.com.au/2010/07/lapis-surabaya-indonesian-sponge-cake-recipe/

I did the Economic version. And it took me sooooo LONG!!! Reason is because I have a small oven and can only bake one layer at one time Took me over 2 hours to bake this cake!

Oh, and since I do not have any ovalette or SP or emulsifier in the house, I omitted that and I think still came out good! Soft and moist till the third day! And since my kids do not eat any fruit jam, I layered it with peanut butter and Nutella instead. It’s YUMMY!

Here’s the recipe I used:

Now for the economic version :

Yellow layers : (You need two of this recipe to make 2 yellow layers)

• 5 egg yolk
• 3 egg white
• 75 g caster sugar
• 35 g plain flour
• 15 g milk powder
• 100 g melted butter

Chocolate layer :

• 5 egg yolk
• 3 egg white
• 75 g caster sugar
• 25 g plain flour
• 15 g cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp chocolate paste
• 10 g milk powder
• 100 g melted butter

1.Grease and line 3 of 8 inch baking tins

2.Pre heat oven to 175C (fan forced)

3.Prepare the yellow cake mix : Beat the egg whites to until stiff peaks form and set aside. Beat together sugar, egg yolks, sifted flour, milk powder until pale and thick. The cake mix will expand to around three times the original volume.  Put the melted butter into the cake mix and fold in thoroughly. Finally fold in the egg whites.

4.Pour the mix into the cake tins and bake for about 10 – 15 minutes until springy to the touch.

5.Place cake tin on a wire rack and leave to cool for 10 minutes.

6.Carefully remove cake from tin and place on rack to cool completely.

7.Prepare the chocolate layer in the same way as the yellow layer except beat the sifted cocoa powder together with the other ingredients.   Put the melted butter and chocolate paste into the cake mix and fold in thoroughly. Finally fold in the egg whites.

8.To assemble the cake place one yellow layer on a cake board and spread the top of the cake with thin layer of strawberry jam to stick the layers together.  You can put as much or as little jam you like.

9.Place the chocolate layer on top.  Spread with jam

10.Place yellow layer on top

After assembled, it looks like this!

Oh.. and I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #27: Through Thick and Thin – Kue Lapis Classics hosted by Sam of Sweet Samsations.

This is what came through my mind when I was trying to put together my panna cotta dessert for Aspiring Bakers #23. Oh, by the way, I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #23: Desserts on a plate (September 2012)hosted by Swee San of The Sweet Spot.  I think my entry will probably be the “ugliest” entry? Haha…

See what I mean about “ugly”? The wafer is too big! And I have no idea how to arrange it on a plate… So, I just simply stuck it in! On hindsight, I could have made it in a small heart shape And also maybe melt some chocolate and make some chocolate stick? Sigh, anyway, that is for my next project, when I feel adventurous enough!

I took the recipe for Panna Cotta here but I modified it a little by adding in more gelatin. I prefer it to be firmer

And the red sauce is NOT sambal though it sure looks like it from the picture. It’s Strawberry Compote. Made up this recipe myself after browsing online for some inspiration… so I can’t include a link of the original here as I did not follow from any one recipe!

Also made some vanilla wafer, or at least I meant it to be wafers! My son say it’s vanilla biscuit since it is so much thicker than wafers! But it tastes nice and that is what is most important to me! As this is also my first time in making these wafers, so I think I can be forgiven for the ungainly sight of it But then again, I just wing this after searching online for recipes. I guess the nearest one that I followed would be from this recipe here.

Lastly, I drizzled it with a little honey (not visible from picture) and the result tastes great! Sweet, Sour, Crunchy, Soft… all tastes and flavours blends well together!

And now, let’s move on to the recipe…

Panna Cotta

500ml Thick Cream/Whipping Cream
2 tbsp milk
50gm sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tsp gelatin powder
3 tbsp cold water

1) Mix gelatin with cold water and let it rest for 10 minutes.
2) Mix Whipping Cream, Milk, Sugar and Vanilla Essence in a saucepan and heat it up over low fire. Do not bring to a boil. Turn off the fire just as you see that it starts to bubble.
3) Pour Whipping Cream mixture into the gelatin and stir it well, making sure that all the gelatin has melted. If you see lumps, then filter it.
4) Pour into cups/moulds and let it cool down. After it has cooled down enough, chill it in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Strawberry Compote

150gm strawberries (approximate)
1 tbsp orange juice
1/2 tbsp sugar (can be more if you like it sweet)

1) Slice the strawberries and put it in a saucepan.
2) Add in sugar and orange juice.
3) Heat it up over medium fire, stirring it often until strawberry softens and mixture is mushy and thick.
4) Turn off the fire and let it cool down. Chill it in the refrigerator and serve as required.

Vanilla Wafers

50gm flour
Pinch of baking powder
Pinch of salt
30gm butter, softened to room temperature
25gm sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 egg
1 tbsp milk

1) Cream butter and sugar. Then add in milk, egg, flour, baking powder and salt.
2) Mix till well combined.
3) Drop dollops of batter on a piece of parchment paper and shape it as desired, the thinner the better.
4) Bake in oven(preheat to 160 degrees) for about 10 minutes or until sides are brown.
5) Remove from oven and let it cool down. When it is hot, the wafers will be soft. It will harden when it has cooled down.
6) Store in air tight containers once it is cooled.

And so… here you are! All the recipes are provided. All you need now is some creativity to put it all together and drizzle a little honey on it! And voila… it’s done! And I am sure you can do better than me in terms of decoration!

Hehe, mine looks a little charred at the top because I forgot to monitor my cake and cover the top with aluminium foil when it is golden brown.

OK, the modifications I have done. Instead of plain flour, I changed it to half(or nearly half) wholemeal flour, half plain flour. I also reduced the sugar by 1/3 and used olive oil instead of butter. And the bread/cake still taste great! And if you follow the original recipe and add in nuts, it will be even healthier

The way to make this is so simple and I do not even need to start up my Kitchenaid mixer. And kids can help too! My 7 year old son helps me sift the flour into one mixing bowl while my 4 year old daughter had fun mashing up bananas in another bowl!

Here’s my modification.  I did not add in nuts so I increased the amount of my flour and banana accordingly so that it will fit into my 8 inch loaf tin nicely.

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:
150gm wholemeal flour
170gm plain flour
150gm sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:
3 eggs (lightly beaten)
1/2 cup olive oil (or any unflavoured oil)
600gm bananas (ripe and mashed)
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1) Put all Dry Ingredients in one mixing bowl. Stir it around and mix well using a spoon.
2) Put all Wet Ingredients into another bowl and mix well using a spoon.
3) Mix both Dry Ingredients and Wet Ingredients together. Mix well using a spoon. Be careful that you do not overmix as this will make the cake rubbery after baking.
4) Pour into a 8 inch loaf pan and bake at 180 degrees Celcius for about 1 hour. If the top gets brown too fast, put a sheet of aluminium foil over the top and switch to bottom fire only and continue baking.
5) To check whether the cake is cooked, stick a satay stick into the cake and if it comes out clean, it is done!

This cake is so easy to make and so yummy, even with wholemeal flour. Using wholemeal flour, the texture is a little coarser but it still tastes pretty good!

Best of all is if you could not finish it, you can wrap it up nicely in foil and then in cling wrap and put it in a tupperware and then freeze it. When you want to eat it, defrost it to room temperature and re-heat it in the oven at 100 degree Celcius for about 10 minutes.

Easy to make, Yummy to eat, Simple to keep….

I always meant to post the recipes here but somehow, cooking/baking these delicious food seems more important than posting recipes. Sorry! Anyhow, I will post a recipe today. But what recipe shall I post? I think this round I will post something simple. I posted a char siew recipe some time ago but for that recipe it is supposed to be marinated in advance(overnight) and skewered and roasted in the oven. Quite complicated and messy.

Since then, my mum has taught me a better, simpler way to make char siew! No need to marinate overnight, no need to skewer and roast and only a wok to clean up after cooking! And best of all, the Char Siew is YUMMY!

Ingredients:
1 strip of pork belly (about 8 inches in length and 1-1.5 inches thick) – weight of pork should be about 300-400gm
** Should cut off the skin of the pork belly as it will be hard.
3-4 cloves garlic chopped fine
200gm coconut palm sugar/Gula Melaka (chopped into pieces)
100ml water
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoon Shao Xing wine
2 tablespoon light soya sauce

Method:
1) Heat up the wok and put in the oil. Fry garlic until fragrant. Don’t let the garlic burn.

2) Put in the strip of pork and fry it in the oil a little.

3) Add in chopped coconut palm sugar and light soya sauce. Flip the pork around to coat it with the palm sugar and soya sauce. Be careful and do not let it burn.

4) Add in water and make sure that all the palm sugar has melted before covering the wok and let the meat simmer.

5) Open the wok every 5 minutes to flip the meat so that it cooks evenly. Simmer it over low fire for about half an hour till the meat is just cooked and tender. Don’t overcook it until the meat is “drop from the bone”. Char Siew should be a little chewy. If your fire is too big and water dries up too fast, add on a little water, about 1/4 cup (don’t add too much at one go!) each time it looks like it is drying up but the meat is not cooked yet.

6)  Here’s how it looks like when it is cooked and the sugar has caramelized. The bubbles bubbling outside is actually boiling oil as I have not switched off the fire yet.

 7) When you scoop out the meat from the wok, don’t scoop out the oil as well. If your meat is fatty, there will be quite a lot of oil in the wok.

8) And ta-daaaa…. here’s my Char Siew all done!

 9) When it has cooled down, slice it to bite sized pieces.

** Please note that I have forgotten to remove the skin of the pork belly in my pictures. So it was actually hard and not chewable. I had to remove it before consuming it. So, remember to remove the skin if you are making Char Siew ya!

And here is my recipe on making this Lazy, Yummy Char Siew! Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Oh, and if you are self conscious, just replace pork with chicken (deboned Chicken thigh + drumstick). It is just as yummy!

First up, the prize!!! Up for grabs is this lovely recipe book that is bilingual in Mandarin and English. This book comprises of over 80 recipes and among them are: Nyonya Angku, Prawn Crackers, Home-made Chinese Sausages, Pineapple Tarts, Preserved Ginger Almond Cookies.

This is really a treasure to have if you are interested in Chinese style cooking and baking. Even if you are not a fan of Chinese style cooking and baking, there is a section on cookies where you can try out!

So, how do you win this fabulous recipe book? Simple

1) Like us on our Facebook page.

2) Share this with your friends by posting this phrase on your wall, making sure that you tag Sassezz BakeShoppe. You can only tag AFTER you “LIKE” Sassezz BakeShoppe page, so be sure to do so first!

“I am participating in Sassezz BakeShoppe Challenge #1  . There’s a fabulous recipe book to be WON! I hope I win!”

3) Guess the 3 missing ingredients under section (A) as shown in the picture below. This is the recipe of this steam Chinese cake called “Honey Ma Lai Koh”. Picture of the finished “Honey Ma Lai Koh” is as shown on the cover of this recipe book!

Email us your answers and Facebook profile name to info@sassezz.com titled “Sassezz Challenge #1 – Answers”.

Sample Answer:

Facebook profile name: SweetYoungThing
Answer: 200gm toasted peanuts, 1tbsp chocolate syrup, 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

This Challenge will end at 11:59pm Malaysian time(GMT+8) 20th May 2012. The first person to complete all the steps with the correct answer will win

So, make sure you’ve completed all steps because we do check before we announce the winner.

Good luck, everyone!

And so, I decided to cook this porridge with 10 condiments! Porridge is actually very versatile as it is up to you what you would like to put in. If you fancy fish porridge, then slice up the fish thinly and add it in. And voila! You have fish porridge. Anyway, today, I decided to make a hodge podge pot of porridge with pork, innards, cuttlefish and century egg.

Ingredients:

From top left (clockwise):

Minced pork (about 2 tablespoonful, marinated with a dash of black pepper and salt)
Innard – pig’s kidney (sliced thinly)
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1 century egg (diced)
3 cloves garlic (chopped fine)
Approximately 30gm cuttlefish
1 piece of dried cuttlefish (wash and cut it using kitchen scissors into thin strips)
1 slice of ham (cut into small pieces)
1 slice of bacon (cut into small pieces)
2 pieces of fresh shitake mushroom (slice thinly)
30gm pork belly(sliced thinly)
1 cup of rice

OK, there are 12 ingredients there, but the garlic is not to be cooked together with the porridge but more of a garnishing So, not counted. And rice is not a condiment… So not counted as well

Method: 

For cooking porridge, I would always recommend the double boiling method. Meaning put the pot containing the rice (for cooking porridge) in another pot half filled with water and boil the outer pot. This somehow, makes the porridge more fragrant(at least, that’s what I think) and also you do not have to worry about the porridge getting burnt when it is almost cooked (unless it is stirred frequently).

All right, so, cooking porridge is simple… but look at the condiments you have… some cook faster and some cook slower and some are already cooked. So the trick here is to know which condiment to put in first and which last so that all will cook at almost the same time

For this recipe, add in the minced pork, pork belly and dried cuttlefish strip to cook together with the rice. Proportion of the rice and water will be 1 cup rice, 3 cups water.

When it is halfway cooked, add in cuttlefish.

When it is almost cooked, add in the rest of the condiments (except for garlic). Bring it to a boil, give it a good stir and you are done!

So, what is the garlic used for? Fry the chopped garlic in a tablespoonful of oil under low fire. Switch off the fire as soon as the garlic turns golden brown. Do not overfry it!

Use the fried garlic as garnishing. If you happen to have scallions, you can finely chop them and use those too

Bon Apetit!

Yes, I promised you the recipe for my first try on the Fried Chicken Indonesian Style, didn’t I?

Here it is…. On a scale of 1 to 10, my first try, I would rate it maybe 4? Why? Because my son said that mine still not nice enough. He ate only 1 drumstick and not 2! My daughter ate half only… hehe… I still need to perfect this recipe but I think it’s a good start for now…

Ingredients:

4 cloves of garlic
4 bulbs of shallots
4 pcs candlenut
1 tablespoon coriander seed
2 stalks lemongrass
1 inch of galangal (peel and slice thinly)
2 pcs bay leaves

1 tsp salt

4 pcs chicken drumstick

1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp self-rasing flour

Oil for deep frying

Grind garlic, shallots, candlenuts and coriander seeds in mortar and pestle.

Grind everything to a fine paste (mine’s not too fine yet)

Place lemongrass, bay leaves and sliced galangal into a pot

Combine it with the chicken and ground paste. Add some water (covering about 1/2 the chicken) and salt. Simmer it over medium fire about 30-40 minutes, covered. Turn over the chicken occasionally making sure that it is cooked evenly.

Remove the chicken and set aside.

Strain the leftover chicken stock and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Mix in the flour and self-raising flour. Mix it well into a watery batter.

Heat up the oil for deep frying. When the oil is hot enough, scoop a ladle of batter into the wok. Do not overfry the crunchy batter. Repeat until all batter is finished.

Deep fry chicken until golden brown!

It’s yummy! But not yummy enough I’ll make some modifications the next round I make this… and share with you here Meanwhile, if you do have any suggestions, feel free to leave your comments!

Oh, and this is a rather tedious process… and the deep frying really does messes up the kitchen! So be prepared to spend some time preparing and cleaning!