Festive Shortbread Squares

festive shortbread squares

An old recipe that I found in a free booklet from B&P Butterfly cornflour booklet. Easy to make and nice to look.

Ingredients :
250 g butter
170 g castor sugar
150 g cornflour
50 g rice flour
200 g plain flour
60 g red cherries
60 g green cherries

Method :
1) Grease a 32 cm x 26 cm shallow baking tray.
2) Sift together the cornflour, rice flour and plain flour.
3) Cream butter and sugar till creamy. Fold in flour and mix into a dough.
4) Press dough evenly onto greased tray. Cut dough lightly into 5 cm squares.
5) Decorate each square with cherries.
6) Baked in preheated oven at 170 deg. C for 20 minutes.
7) Leave to cool before cutting into squares

Hup tou shou or walnut cookies

Hup thou shou (walnut cookies) for the Lunar new year

More than a week since I posted anything. Been busy preparing for the lunar new year - baking, shopping for stuff for new year visits, etc... stopped bothering about getting new banknotes for red packets two years (so long as it is legal tender, don't see why should it have to be crisp new banknotes).

Baked this hup thou shou or walnut cookies last Friday. Puzzles me why they call it 'hup thou' (walnut) since the original 'hup thou shou' don' have any walnuts in it, and it is not shaped like a walnut either. However, in some recent recipes, somebody decided to add some walnuts in it, and it is what I have done.

Ingredients :
140 g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ammonia powder
1/4 tsp salt
60 g butter
30 g shortening
20 g cooking oil
60 g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
30 g walnuts (chopped and roasted)

for glazing (beaten) - 1 egg yolk and 1 tsp water

Method :
1) Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, ammonia and salt.
2) Add in butter, shortening, cooking oil, icing sugar, egg yolk and mix well. Add in the walnuts.
3) Shape into small balls of 4g each. Place on a lined baking sheet. Make a small depression in the centre of the cookie by using a chopstick. Glaze the surface.
4) Bake at 180 deg C for 10 - 15 minutes until cooked.

Note : Lard was used for making 'hup thou shou', but many have stopped using lard for a healthier alternative. Ammonia is used to 'loosen' the texture of the cookies. Found this recipe in Alan Ooi's New Year Cookies.

Chinese chives (kau choy) pancake

Chinese chives (kau choy) pancakes

Another pancake recipe today. Had forgotten about this childhood comfort food, until I saw a friend making it.

Ingredients :
250 g flour
1 egg
350 - 400 ml water
1 tbsp oil
salt
3 tbsp dried shrimps (soaked and chopped coarsely)
6 shallots (slices thinly)
1 bunch of Chinese chives (kau choy), cut into 1 - 2 cm lengths

Method :
1) Heat up 2 tbsp oil and fry the shallots and shrimps until fragrant. Set aside.
2) Sieve flour into mixing bowl. Add in salt, egg and 1 tbsp oil. Pour in water stirring all the time to make a pancake batter. Add in fried shallots, shrimps and shallots. Mix thoroughly.
3) Heat up a tsp oil in non-stick pan. Pour in a ladle of the pancake batter and cook both sides of pancake until golden colour.


The pancake batter

NB : Serve pancake with chili sauce (I think it goes very well with Lingham's chili sauce).
Old housewife's tip : To dislodge fish bone stuck in throat - wrap strip of uncut Chinese chive around a lump of rice and swallow. Not sure whether it worked or not, but I remembered my brother swallowing this as a child when he had a fish bone stuck in this throat!

(Today's blog is dedicated to the memory of my good friend, Fei Jie who taught me how to make this pancake, and who is now spreading her good cheer and cooking in God's little kitchen. "Fei Jie, May God Bless You and Keep You Safe In His Arms" and I dearly missed the hours spent yakking away in your kitchen)

fragrant spicy rice

fragrant spicy rice for dinner

This fragrant rice tastes rather nice , and I think it goes rather well with coleslaw, salad and fried chicken. Have seen something like it at fast food outlets, but without the raisins.

Ingredients :
300 g rice
1 tbsp margarine
1 tbsp oil
1 clove garlic
4 shallots, sliced thinly
1 cm pc ginger, crushed
3 cm pc cinnamon stick
5 cardamoms
5 cloves
1 star anise
2 pandan leaves
1 3/4 cups water
2 tbsp evaporated milk
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp chicken stock granules

50 g raisins

Method :
1) Wash rice, drain and put into rice cooker. Add in the pandan leaves.
2) Heat up oil and margarine, saute shallots, ginger and garlic. Add in cinnamon sticks, cardamoms, cloves and star anise and continue to fry until fragrant.
3) Add in water, milk, salt and chicken stock granules. Bring to boil and add to the rice cooker. Switch on rice cooker, and when rice is cooked, switched off and leave rice to stand for 10 - 20 minutes.
4) Remove the spices, and add in the raisins. Mix well and serve.

Note : Instead of margarine, you can also use ghee. If evaporated milk is not available, use fresh milk. I have even used milk powder before. A friend add 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder to the rice, and let it stand for 30 minutes to get a nice yellowy color in the rice. Use basmathi rice if you have it at home.
When I am short of ideas as to what to cook, this makes a great dinner. I fry some chicken (instant frozen chicken from the supermart!), prepare coleslaw and another salad, and dinner is done.

kaya and butter on toast

Michael of (http://doyouhateittoo.blogspot.com/) commented that I did not have a picture of the home made kaya for the recipe that I posted the other day.

Well, went out and bought a loaf of bread and slathered it with the kaya, and here is the pix!

My favourite morning breakfast - kaya and butter on toast and milk tea

excessive use of packaging materials

Bought some new clothes for the children recently, and while unpacking them, it just come to mind the excessive packaging the manufacturers used for the clothing.

Take for example, the packaging for the school uniforms I bought for the new school year.

The materials used to pack the long sleeve shirts - 1 strip of cardboard and 2 strips of plastic to hold up the collar, and 3 plastic clips to keep the shirt in place in the plastic bag and a little plastic string to hold the price tag, the cost of which would be passed to me, the consumer! This is the packaging for just 1 shirt, so imagine the amount of packaging wasted.


Then there is this label for a pair of jeans . The manufacturer has fixed together a piece of plastic to their cardboard label with a small metal eyelet . As far as I can see, the plastic serves no purpose at all, and is just another waste of plastic.


The cardboard for the pyjamas. The pair of pyjamas had 2 pieces of cardboard and 2 plastic clips to keep the clothes in shape, so 4 pairs of pyjamas meant 8 pieces of cardboard and plastic clips in the recycle bin.


Then there are these little plastic strings to hold the price tags! How many among us would be careful enough to separate them for recycling. They are so small, that they probably would end up all over the floor, to be vacuumed up!

So, can I hope for some wake up call for clothing manufacturers out there. When will they do away with all the unnecessary packaging, the cost of which are borne by us. In my view, there is no need for the plastic strips and cardboard to hold up the collar. Just fold up nicely and put in individual plastic bags, and if possible do away with the plastic bags, too!

Home made kaya (coconut egg jam)

One of my earlier childhood memory is of my mum stirring the pot of kaya over the firewood stove. My mum ran a small coffee shop, and she used to make her own kaya for the toasts that her customers ordered. She learnt to make her kaya from the Hainanese sifu that worked for us. Most of the coffee shops in the town were ran by the Hainanese, and we were the only Cantonese coffee shop owners.
In fact, in the little town, most of the businesses were along ethnic lines. The Cantonese ran the sundry shops, the Hakkas the textile business, and the Hokkiens were mostly rubber dealers.

Ingredients for the home made kaya :
600 g sugar
4 eggs
2 egg whites
5 pandan leaves
a slice of young ginger
1 1/2 coconut - squeeze for thick santan.

Method :
Beat eggs and egg whites until foamy. Add in sugar, and place in double boiler. Stir until sugar dissolved. Strain mixture for lumps. Double-boil again. Add in pandan leaves and ginger. Keep stirring and add in the thick santan. Kaya is cooked when the santan has thickened. Remove ginger and pandan leaves.

For a nice caramel colour, caramelize about 50 g of sugar in a small saucepan and add to the kaya mixture, while it it still cooking.

Note : The whole cooking process will take over an hour. The water in the double boiler should not exceed 70 deg. C . If the water is too hot, the eggs will curdle and little lumps will form on the kaya.
It is a long tedious process, but the result is certainly worth it!

Fraser's Hill

Braved the long and winding road to travel to Fraser's Hill (http://wikitravel.org/en/Fraser%27s_Hill). The only way to travel to the hill is by car since the old bus that serviced the route broke down and they have not bothered to replace it. Driving to Fraser's Hill is the furthest that I have ever driven myself, and it is the first time that I have ever driven along such a winding road. The last 8 km, I had to keep my hands firmly on the wheel, as the road was so winding. The weather is not as cool as I remember from when I first went there 26 years ago. Global warming????


The Sungai Selangor Dam Regulating Dam. Diverted from the Kuala Kubu road to visit this place. I don't remember seeing any signboards, but shortly after leaving Kuala Kubu town, you can see the junction on the left.


Probably the most photographed clock tower in Malaysia! Every visitors to the hill seems to want a pix in front of the tower.


This quaint old building is the local post office.


The local police station built in 1919.


Pix from Fraser's Pine Resort.


Early morning at Pine Resort.


Dining room at Pine Resort Apartment. Rented a 3-room apartment at Pine Resort at RM338/- per night. Rates included a set dinner and buffet breakfast for 6. Food is average, but you can ask for extra rice and Chinese tea. If you can't live without the internet, there is wifi at the reception area. The apartment has a kitchen, but don't plan on doing your own cooking unless you are willing to lug your stove up the hill! Night entertainment is non-existent so remember to bring your own entertainment....

Lunch was at Restoran Hill View in Fraser's Hill. Seems to be about the only restaurant around. Of course, there is the Ye Old Smokehouse which serves western food. Actually, had wanted to eat there, but the manager looked so haughty and unwelcoming, we decided to give the place a miss. Well, their loss was Restoran Hill View's gain, and we certainly did not regret it. Nice decent food, and rice is unlimited. Our sumptous lunch for seven cost us RM74/-, and we had sweet sour pork, baby kailan, tofu, egg foo yong and lemon chicken (tasted more like orange chicken, though).


One of the oldest golf course in Malaysia


On the way back, stopped at Ulu Yam for lor mee. Also had steamed lala, stir-fried sweet potato leaves, fried mee sua, and fish cakes. Total bill : Rm66/-. After Rasa, look out for the junction to Hulu Yam (turn left). There are many outlets selling 'lor mee', and we just choose the most crowded outlet!

Steamed Chinese sponge cake

The first time I ever saw my mum making this sponge cake was for prayers at my father's grave. I remember her using an old brass hand held scale to weigh out the ingredients for the sponge cake and beat the eggs and sugar in a big aluminium cooking pot using a big spring whisk (7" dia. spring). The egg batter would then be steamed in a 14" dia. steaming tray in our big wok on the firewood stove at the back of our home. Having put the cake mixture to steam, she would lit a joss stick, and the cake would be done when the joss stick burned out!

My steamed sponge cake :
Ingredients :
6 eggs
120 g sugar
220 g flour (sieved)
130 ml ice-cream soda or 7 Up (aerated water)

Method :
1) Whisk eggs and sugar till thick and bubble less
2) Fold in flour. Then add in the aerated water
3) Pour into a 8" dia. bamboo basket lined with a piece of grease proof paper.
4) Steam over high heat for 30 minutes.



steamed Chinese sponge cake

Crispy Dumplings

Crispy dumplings (pix taken from "Delightful Snacks and Dim Sum" by Agnes Chang)

Dong zhi was yesterday, and together with tang yuan, I also made crispy dumplings and sui kow (soup dumplings) for the occasion.

Filling for the dumplings :
300 g minced pork
150 g prawns (diced)
1 tbsp shredded carrots
3 dried Chinese mushrooms (diced finely)
1 tbsp spring onions (diced)
1 tbsp cornflour
salt and pepper to taste
dash of sesame oil

20 - 30 pcs dumpling skin
2 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 cup water

Method :
1) Combine the ingredients for filling. Mix in one direction until well combined.
2) Wrap some filling in dumpling skin, and shape into dumplings.
3) Heat up cooking oil in a non-stick pan, arrange dumplings on top and fry on low heat until base of dumpling is golden brown. Add water, cover and cook until water is dry. Serve with sliced ginger and black vinegar.


As compared to the crispy dumpling I made yesterday. What a great difference....sigh..

NB : Found the original recipe in Agnes Chang 'Delightful Snacks and Dim', but have modified the recipe to suit my children's taste buds. I cooked half of the dumplings in a soup stock to make sui kow (soup dumplings)

Dong zhi - glutinous rice dumplings

Yesterday was the dong zhi festival or the winter solstice festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongzhi_Festival).
As is the tradition, I marked the occasion by making tang yuan (glutinous rice flour balls). Made the flour balls by kneading glutinous rice flour together with water, and then making into little balls which i filled with sugarcane candy (pian tang), and then cooked in a sweet broth of water, sugar and pandan leaves, and of course, not forgetting, the slice of ginger!




Tang yuan for Dong zhi

Tang yuan is normally eaten by Southern Chinese, and Northern Chinese eats dumpling to mark the festival. So in honor of the occasion I also made pan fried dumplings, and sui kow (soup dumplings) served with wanton noodles.

I took a trip back to my old hometown .........(Part two)

And, of course, a trip back to my old hometown would not be complete without the food ..... had wanton noodles, toasted bread with kaya and iced milk tea, and of course, the "Kow Po special" (ABC with peanut butter ice cream) at Kow Po Ice Cream Parlor. Only remembered that I should have taken pictures after I finished eating, but it has been so long since I had them, so the moment the food were placed in front of us, we dug in..

(Note to self : On my next trip, I must remember to take pictures before I eat them)

Then of course, I had to ta-pau some foods back to sustain myself until my next trip.......


Fried taufu balls stuffed with minced pork and Chinese chives. A local speciality of the Guangxi people, which I have yet to find in any other places that I have been . Can only be made with the local taufu balls because they are soft and big enough to be stuffed. It used to be the size of tennis balls but too bad they have reduced the size!


Apom balik. Sadly it turned soft and soggy after the journey home. Can be found everywhere, but I think the ones in my old hometown are the best.


Steamed dumplings - a rice flour dumpling stuffed with shredded yam bean, dried mushroom, wood fungus, and dried shrimps, seasoned with a heavy dash of pepper. Yummy....


And, of cos, my stash of Sempalit roasted groundnuts. Can hardly find Sempalit roasted groundnuts in Kuala Lumpur (so far seen them in only 2 places - a stall in KL Chinatown and Thean Hou temple).

I took a trip back to my old hometown.....(Part One)..

The old hometown looks the same, and yet...Been many years since I have been back there. My family moved away from there in 1986, and since then I have been back only a couple of times.



The old pre-war shop house where I grew up. Below was a coffee shop, and we stayed upstairs. It is now a clothes shop.
Horrors of horrors, they have replaced the wooden shutters on the windows with glass, and the air-conditioners. Haiyah..... Sure spoils the look of the place. Wish they would implement a law legislating against this!


The back lane of my old home. Glad to note that they have cleaned up the rubbish. It used to be a nightmare walking through the place, especially after a public holiday, when the garbage disposal truck took a break.

The local market. Downstairs is a wet market, and upstairs is a hawker centre.

My former primary school which dates back to the colonial era. The old wooden block that I studied in has been replaced by the concrete building on the left. Facing the school field is the old assembly hall. Luckily they have left the classrooms in the background intact. Fond memories...

As with every place with Chinese, there is always the temple. Every lunar new year eve, at midnight, the place would be brightly lit and crowded with the townspeople praying for a bountiful new year. Can remember watching Chinese opera on the makeshift stage during the annual festival in June, I think. As a grand finale, the 'toong chi' would go into a trance, and pierce needles through their cheeks. The chief 'toong chi" would be carried on a chair of knives, and they would take the gods on a parade through the town. The residents would place tables with offerings at the front of their homes for the gods.

The local Hindu temple. During the temple's annual festival, they would have a chariot pulled by cows, and go round the town. The faithful would follow barefoot behind the chariot.

The road leading to the Chinese village. Went through this place quite often to visit my cousins who stayed in the village.

Pancakes with shredded chicken

Pancake with seafood (pix from Joy of Making Dimsum)


Pancake with shredded chicken (pix from Joy of Making Dimsum)

Dear FM,
Now that finals are over, thought you might be interested in trying out this recipe. Reminds me of the California Rolls that we used to make.
Actually, its a combination of 2 recipes, one is a pancake with shredded chicken, and the other seafood in an omelet roll. Think it will be interesting to combine the two recipes, though I have listed the ingredients for both the shredded chicken roll and also the seafood roll for you.
Going to make this for dinner tonight. FJ will love it, as she loves pancakes!

Ingredients for the pancake batter :

300 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
50 g sugar
2 eggs
350 ml water

Method :

1) Mix ingredients for batter into a smooth batter. Let it stand for 30 minutes.
2) Heat up non-stick pan and oil with some margarine. Add in a scoop of batter and cook pancake until brown on both sides.
3) Fold pancake into a cone shape and fill up with filling.

Ingredients for filling with shredded chicken :
100 g shredded chicken
100 g shredded cucumber
100 g shredded lettuce
100 g sliced tomatoes


Ingredients for seafood filling :
crabsticks
shredded cucumber
shredded carrot
shredded lettuce
enoki mushroom

salad dressing ) mix together
mayonnaise )

Method :
Place seafood filling on pancake. Add in the salad dressing and mayonnaise. Roll into cone shape. Serve with mayonnaise.

BTW, i found the two recipes in Joy of Making Dim Sum by Patsie Cheong. Have got many interesting recipes in there. Another recipe you would be interested will be the pan fried dumpling. Saw the pix of the dumpling you made. Looks delicious!

Flirty flowers - Knitting pattern for a child's cardigan

another old knitting pattern...too long to type out here and i don't have one of those modern scanners/printer to convert into a word document to edit


after 21 years, the cardigan still looks good.

I fell in love with this knitting pattern when I saw it because of the embroidered flowers on the cardigan. Knitted it for Niece Andrea 21 years ago. I knitted in "Robin Bambino" yarn, and embroidered the flowers in normal acrylic yarn.

Brownies

Brownies

Niece Andrea gave me this recipe, which she found in a book that she borrowed from the British Council. A very simple recipe which we have made many times for parties and fund raising events.

Ingredients :
125 g butter (lightly salted)
45 g cocoa powder
2 eggs
230 g fine sugar
60 g self raising flour
90 g walnuts (lightly chopped)

Method :
1) Line base of 20 cm square cake tin.
2) Melt butter, then add in cocoa powder until well blended. Set aside.
3) Beat the eggs. Add in sugar, and continue beating until light and fluffy.
4) Stir in the cocoa and butter mixture.
5) Fold in flour, and then fold in the walnuts.
5) Pour mixture into cake tin, and bake in preheated oven at 180 deg. C for 30 - 35 minutes, or until just cooked through and springy to the touch.
6) Cut into small squares when cooled.


NB : Brownies are at their best when moist, so be careful not to over bake them. They can be a bit sweet, and normally i reduce the amount of sugar to about 180 g.

Pan mee/min fun kuih

Min fun kuih with fried ikan bilis and meat sauce

Had min fun kuih for lunch, and this time I made sure I took a pix before the noodles got eaten! Only 2 bowls because CK and FJ are not awake yet, and I will cook theirs when they wake. Min fun kuih are best eaten hot!

streamyx.com driving me crazy....

My internet connection is driving me nuts again. Take for example, Tuesday, was doing something on my computer, when suddenly, the ADSL light on my modem went off again, the 2nd time in 3 weeks. Then there are the almost daily occurrences of 'timed-out error' and "page failed to load" appearing on the screen.
Every time this occurs, I would call tm.net customer service, go through the whole rigmarole again and again. Each time, some one would pick up the call, i would relate my problem, "adsl light blinking", "timed out error", "connection not stable", blah..blah.... and the voice at the other end would go through the standard questions again "have you tried making a direct connection"?, " are the other lights on the modem on", blah...blah... and I would answer "yes", "yes".... Then they will tell me to switch off my modem, wait for 15 seconds, switch on again....and they will reset my modem, and if the problem persist to call them again!
When I call them again...problem still persist and insist they open a report - they will say "ok, please take down this report no...-------, and wait for 48 hours , at which stage i will give a big gasp (FJ and CK will be making fainting motions beside me), and insist they fix it pronto.
The next day, at 9.00 am..i call them again...their reply, "Madam, we are looking into it. No updates on your problem yet. Please wait for the technicians".
So, I stay at home, and by 12.00 pm the van is at my door. In they come with their modem (it is always my modem that is at fault), come in, look at my phone wiring and say " wiring not done correctly, too many extensions, (2 phones, 1 modem), too long"blah... blah...anything but their connection, and when I insist that there is nothing wrong with the wiring, they will reluctantly take out their modem, hook it on, and hey...the ADSL light is also flickering...so it is back to their office again to remedy the connection or whatever they do, and then a couple of hours, my streamyx connection is back on again until the next time...sigh...

home style pasta (pan mee or min fun kuih)

Some people call it pan mee, some call it min fun kuih. Personally, I think if it is rolled into strips it should be call pan mee, and if it is torn into pieces then it should be call 'min fun kuih'. It's one of FJ's favourite, and whenever, we eat out at hawker centres, this would be the dish that she would order. Despite eating it ever so often outside, every few days she would request that I make it for lunch.

Ingredients for the pasta :

300 g flour
15 g cornflour
3/4 cup water
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp cornoil

Method :

1) Dissolve salt in water. Add solution to flour, cornflour and oil. Knead dough until smooth.
2) Place dough in plastic container, cover and leave to rest for about 2 hrs.

Ingredients for soup :

160 g ikan bilis (anchovies)
120 g shallots (sliced)
5 dried Chinese mushroom (soaked and sliced)
2 litres water
1 bunch choy sum (Chinese mustard greens)
1 ikan bilis stock cube

Method :
1) Fry shallots until golden brown and crispy. Drain. Fry half of ikan bilis until crispy. Drain.
2) For the soup : Bring water to the boil. Fry remaining ikan bilis and add to the water. Add in stock cube and sliced mushroom. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3) Cook the pasta : Bring soup to boil. Flatten the dough and tear out pieces and add to soup. Add in the vegetables when pasta is cooking.
4) Serve the pasta in individual bowls, and garnish with the fried shallots and ikan bilis.

NB : By the way, FM, if you can't find ikan bilis at where you are, you can omit the ikan bilis and add in slivers of chicken or pork. You can also cook a meat sauce with minced meat, sliced mushroom and wood ear fungus. Stir fry the mushroom and wood ear fungusm then add in the minced meat. Add in oyster sauce, pepper, black sauce and salt to taste. Thicken with corn starch.
Again, no photo is available as the pasta gets eaten before I get around to taking a shot. FJ thinks I am weird sometimes for wanting to take a shot of the food I make!

it's the holidays...

Yes, have been lackadaisical in posting on my blog. It is the school holidays, and FJ and CK are home, which means that they are glued to the computer, and that leaves very little time for me to use the computer. We have two computers, but somehow, that is not enough. When they wake up, first thing they do would be to log on to their computers. Not that, I am not guilty of that too!

During the holidays and weekends, the only chance I have of getting to use the computers is to wake up early! But then, I don't have much time in the morning being busy with my daily house chores. By the time I finish my chores, they are awake, and demanding their time on the net. Of 'cos I can demand to use the computer, but somehow, they will have a mournful look when they are not facing the computer. Withdrawal symptoms, I think!!!

Looks like I will have to get another computer, but then, when they are in school, one of the computers will be idling there!