Homemade Japanese: California rolls and Inarizushi

Brown rice california rolls and inarizushi

Homemade sandwiches

Panini with mushroom, basil and cheese

Vegetarian burger

Vegetarian burger - veggie ham, tomatos, eggs and avocado

Sandwich with fried egg, mushroom and zucchini

Recipe: 湯種麵包 Chinese soup bread

First time making bread at home with the bread maker

Mmm, soft warm bread!  Too bad we always finish the entire loaf every time, so still no bread left over to eat!

 
1.  湯種 (flour soup base) :  Needs to be made a few hours before or a day before.

High protein flour 50g

water 250g

***Add 50g of flour to the water, then put on stove and stir until dissolved.  Measure temp until it reaches 149F and the flour soup appear viscous.  Remove from stove when temp is reached and cool completely, or refrigerate.

Making of the bread:

1.  Add the following into the bread machine container:

High protein bread flour 237.5g (~1.75cup)

Rapid yeast 5g (1.5 teaspoon)

Salt 2g (1 teaspoon)

Sugar 20g

Milkpowder 7.5g

2.  Then Add:

湯種 (flour soup base) 78g

Milk 97.5g

Butter 22.5g (1.5 tablespoon)

***Start the bread machine at the soft bread setting, takes about 3 hours.

Homemade noodles

Making hand made pulled noodle for first time, very time consuming!

All the noodles I pulled.

Almost ready to cook.

Cooked noodle, actually really soft and yummy, but not sure when I will have time to make this again!

Noodle with mushroom and sausage

Japanese ramen, we finally were able to make the soft egg with undercooked center

Sesame noodle with vegetarian ham, eggs and cucumber

Homemade desserts

Rose house waffles sprinkle with powdered sugar and maple syrup

Korean mochi bread

Ice cream made from one frozen banana with chocolate syrup and nuts

My favorite way of eating strawberries - with condense milk!

Tried my aunt's chinese cake recipe, yummy!  Layered it with my homemade strawberry jam.

Chocolate mousse cake

Chocolate mousse pie

Pancake with raspberry syrup

Tried my aunt's chinese soft cake recipe, layered with my homemade strawberry jam and fresh whip

Homemade meat dishes

My first homemade Char Sui, actually quite successful!

Char Sui with sautee mushrooms and brocolli

The Char Sui lasted for a couple of days, so we ate for many meals

Alex made steak, very nicely seared and still slight pink in the middle

Alex made BBQ ribs

Our favorite breaded chicken, learned from my mommie

Lettuce with steak

Alex currently makes my favorite porkchop!  So juicy and flavorful

Steak with mushrooms and fluffy eggs

Wild salmon with lettuce

Bang bang shrimp

Indian curry

Chicken with pesto pasta

Vegetable curry

Recipe: Japanese Soft Cotton Cheesecake

Simple plain cheesecake, super soft

Added a little fresh whipped cream with raspberry and pistachios

The cake mixture before going into the oven, the slight yellow one on left is coffee flavored.

Getting baked in the oven.

Almost ready!  With a nice browned top.

Japanese Soft Cotton Cheesecake

Makes 1 (8-inch) cheesecake, 12 servings. 

Ingredients:
140g/5 oz. fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
50g/2 oz. butter
250g/9 oz. cream cheese
100 ml/3 fluid oz. fresh milk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
60g/2 oz. cake flour /superfine flour
20g/1 oz. cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp. salt

 
Directions:
1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.
2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.
3. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and mix well. Pour into a 8-inch round cake pan (Lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper).
4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degrees C (325 degrees F).

Recipe: Chocolate cupcakes with less sweet frosting

 

 

Chocolate cake (makes about 2 dozen)

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup neutral vegetable oil, such as canola, soybean or vegetable blend

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups water

2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Fill your cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine them well. Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water. Blend in the vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure the batter is well mixed.

3. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Let cool for about 20 minutes.

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Swiss Meringue Buttercream (less sweet)
Makes about 4 cups (enough to frost 24 cupcakes)

Ingredients
4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions
1.  Put egg whites and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees).
2.  Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes.
3.  Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. 

4.  Reduce speed to low; add vanilla extract and continue beating 2 minutes to eliminate air bubbles.

For Chocolate SMBC: Reduce vanilla extract to 1 teaspoon. Add 1/2 cup melted and cooled semisweet or bittersweet chocolate and 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder while beating on low speed.

Recipe: Banana bread

 

Ingredients

Beat these ingredients together:
1 stick softened butter
1 cup sugar (1/2 cup white sugar, ½ cup brown sugar)
2 large eggs
  
Mix in:
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2-3 Bananas (super ripe is better – black even)
½ cup vanilla low fat yogurt
½ cup chopped walnuts

Directions  
1.  Pour mixture into a greased bread pan.
2.  Bake at 350 F for about 1 hour and 10min, or until knife inserted in middle comes out clean

Recipe: Chinese caramel pudding 焦糖布丁

Caramel espresso pudding

Before going into the oven, used a double broiler

Ingredients for the caramel
granulated sugar 260g
water 50g
warm water 80g to cool down caramel

Directions 
1.  Add sugar and water to a pan, heat until sugar melts and turn brown.  Then add warm water to cool down caramel.
2.  Pour caramel to ramkins and wait until cool, becomes a little gelatinous.


Ingredients for pudding mix 
milk 1000g
granulated sugar 150g
vanilla bean 10g or vanilla 1.5 teaspoon
9 whole eggs

Directions 
1.  Mix all the eggs, avoid bubbles.
2.  Heat up milk to 122F, add sugar and vanilla.  
3.  Pour milk into egg mixture in batches, mix well.
4.  Filter pudding mix using a strainer, then pour pudding mix into the ramkins containing caramel sauce.  Put ramkins in a try filled with water.  Bake at 345F for 30-35min.

Recipe: Chocolate & walnut cookie

Chocolate & walnut cookie recipe:  Yields about 16 cookies

Ingredients

1/4 cup old-fashioned oats (blended to fine)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour or whole wheat flower

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

slightly less than 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup), room temperature

1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2  teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/2  cup of Guittara semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  

2.  Finely chop the oats in a blender.  Transfer the oats to a medium bowl. Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3.  Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips.

4.  For each cookie, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful of dough onto sheet, spacing 1-inch apart (do not flatten dough). Bake until the cookies are golden (cookies will flatten slightly), about 14 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes.