Quest for Matcha Chiffon Cake

Chiffon cakes are pretty nice tea time snacks, not too unhealthy, just a bit of sugar :) I'm on a quest to find a nice matcha chiffon cake right now. I'm thinking this is will be a perfect not-too-sweet, great to eat cake.

Will be updating this blog with some photos of my quest until I find the right recipe :)

Here is Take #1:

Buttermilk Pancakes

I think pancakes fIor breakfast, fresh and fluffy are the best starts to a day. Big Grin :) I've tried making pancakes before but it either turned out dense or tough so I decided to go out looking for ways to make those super cafe-style fluffy pancakes.

For those that want a great recipe and tips for pancakes, I recommend Martha Stewart's Buttermilk Pancakes recommended on Smitten Kitchen. I only used half of her ingredients and it was just enough for two, bare in mind we're big pancake eaters so it was like three pancakes each.

I think its important to sift the dry ingredients first - makes it easier to mix together and I think sifting incorporates a bit more air into the batter. It's really easy to just get the ingredients ready, put the oven at 80 degrees Celcius to keep warm the pancakes and start rolling them out.

Leave the eggs and the buttermilk out for a while so it is not so cold, I find if its too cold, the melted butter hardens when you mix the wet ingredients together.

So here is the recipe for these perfect pancakes (this is enough for 2 people):

1. Mix the Dry Ingredients first

• 1 Cup Flour
• 1 1/2 TBS Sugar
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt

2. Mix the Wet Ingredients

• 1 Large Egg
• 1 Cup Buttermilk
• 2 TBS Butter (melted in microwave)
• 1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

3. Whisk the dry and wet ingredients together (only briefly)

• There should be small and medium lumps
• Be careful of over-mixing because this will give you horrible dense pancakes

4. Heat a pan up on medium-high heat

• Test it with some water drops, it should spatter
• Pour in your batter
• Lower the heat to low-medium, this will give you nicely brown coloured pancakes
• Cook one side for about 2-3 minutes depending on the size of your pancake - then flip to the other for 1 minute. 
• Put it in baking paper in your oven to keep warm

Getting excited about Peru!

We'll be heading over to Peru next year - it's still a long way away, but I can't wait. So I'm going to keep track of the list of things I have to try and make sure I don't miss any ! We'll also be visiting La Paz in Bolivia.So I'm on the hunt for some good info. Found a really good Peruvian blog (Canela and Comino) and some info on La Paz (see here) right now for my trip plan. There is a Peru Food Magazine called Diva Kozina and also a fast chain burger joint called Bembos!




I'll be posting more things up soon...


For now, I think I definitely have to try a traditional Peru Ceviche. Its a dish with citrus marinated fresh fish with accompaniments added. There is also Peruvian-Chinese fried rice.

Sweet Sausage Bread (Asian Style)

Asian style bread is a sweeter, softer, more puffier type of bread in comparison to the bread we normally get in Australian supermarkets. I think it has something to do with the amount of milk and butter that gets added that gives its texture. There are many types of Asian style sweet bread and you can normally see a few shops in any china town selling red bean, tuna, chicken and our favourite, sausage.


The sausage bread ("Bao" in chinese means bread) is basically just a frankfrut in a bread. Like a hotdog but sweet. There are many dough recipes on the net and for my inspiration, I got the details from Warm and Sweet Home. I modified it a bit by using evaporated milk instead of normal milk and it turned out more similar to the ones we can buy in the asian bakeries.

I used a kitchenaid for mixing the dough. For anyone who likes to cook and bake, its a very good investment. Saves you time at the bench kneading and really helped a beginner like me because I always find dough kneading to be really tricky. A kitchenaid is especially handy for asian sweet bread because the dough is wetter and stickier. 

Ingredients

• 250g High Protein Flour
• 4g Yeast
• 20g Sugar
• 182g Evaporated Milk
• 25g Butter

Method

1. Mix ingredients together until it is smooth and satiny (Speed 2 of Kitchenaid)
2. Oil bowl with olive oil and cover dough for about 45-60 minutes (until it is 2-3 times bigger)
3. Punch out air
4. Divide Dough into 6 portions and leave it for 15 minutes
5. Roll individual dough portions into a long 'log' shape
6. To add the sausage, wrap the dough around the sausage over about 3 turns or more
7. Cover and leave dough to rise again for 45-60 minutes
8. Brush with evaporated milk or egg 
9. Bake for 180 degrees celcius (or 160 in a fan-forced oven) for 12-15 minutes

There is another method of making the dough using a 'starter' then mixing in the remaining 'main dough' ingredients (dough and sponge method). This makes it fluffier and has more flavour. Jo's Deli Bakery has a bit on tips about this. I think the next time I try it will be using the dough and sponge method, lets see how it goes.

Portuguese Chicken Rice

Today Mr. K felt like having Portuguese Chicken Rice (葡國雞, Galinh a Portuguesa), its a mild coconut curry served baked with cheese and dessicated coconut. If you can, please go to Macau to try the real deal :)

As for us, who had the sudden craving, we had Portuguese Chicken Rice for the first time. The recipe is actually not as complex as I thought. I combined the recipe from my Dad and used paprika and tumeric on the chicken (see Sunflower's Blog). Before, the chicken was good but lacked a bit of texture. Coating the chicken in the flour mixture before frying gave it a bit more flavour and character. You would eat the chicken and the curry rather than just having the curry with chicken inside.

Ingredients

• 7 Garlic Cloves
• Ginger
• 900g Chicken Pieces (cut into bite sized)
• 1.5 tablespoon tumeric, 2-3 tablespoon paprika, 5 tablespoon flour
• Cacciatore or chorizo cut into small bits
• 1 Leek or 2 Onion (or both)
• 1 Celery stalk
• 1 can of chicken stock
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 tablespoon salt, 2 tablespoon curry powder
• 2 tablespoon butter
• Coconut Milk (400 mL)
• 2 Potato (If frying, keep half unfried to add into curry in the beginning)
• 2 Carrot (If frying, keep half unfried to add into curry in the beginning)
• Whipped Cream (300 mL)

Preparation

1. Marinate chicken with salt and pepper for 30 minutes.
2. Mix tumeric, paprika and flour in a plate and coat chicken with it
3. Fry chicken for a short while. This is just to sear the chicken.
4. (Optional) Fry potato and carrot if preferred to add into curry later

Method

1. Heat pan and add garlic and ginger until fragrant
2. Add cacciatore or chorizo
3. Add leek and onions. Cook til almost soften
4. Add potato, carrot, celery and chicken stock
5. Add curry powder, salt and sugar. Can vary the quantities to your liking.
6. The liquid should cover all the contents (2 parts water and 1 part 'stuff), add water if not enough
7. Add butter for flavour
8. Cook on medium heat to reduce for about 10 minutes
9. Add chicken and coconut milk and cook for another 10 minutes on medium heat
10. Add remaining vegies (already pre-fried ones)
11. Use cornstarch (3 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 tablespoon of water) to thicken if required
12. High heat and bring curry to boil
13. Stir in cream at this stage if you prefer a richer, creamier curry
14. Don't need to boil again, just take it off the stove and serve

The curry turned out a bit too sweet as I added too much sugar at the start. As the curry cooled down it became sweeter than before. The sugar quantities I have listed contain about half of the sugar that I used on my first try so hopefully this will bring about better flavours.

The Last Hazelnut Roll

January 2nd, 2010 was a memorable day. The last Hazelnut roll has been eaten. We were lucky enough to have bought a box (the last box) from a friend who's dad owns a deli, now they're all gone and the last one has been consumed. I couldn't keep it any longer because the ice was starting to frost the inside of the icecream. Nonetheless, it has been my favourite icecream of all time.

For those that haven't heard of them or want to relive the taste of them. Remember the soft melty chocolate coating on the outside. A light vanilla icecream in the inside surrounding a hazelnut flavoured icecream which sort of tastes a bit like nutella but not as sweet. 

Remember those chocolate bits falling off all over the place. I remember when I was a kid, my mouth wasn't big enough to bit the whole roll bit by bit. So it was so hard with all the chocolate bits falling everywhere, so I developed a technique to eat it. Now I still do it and did so for the last time. I would wrap the wrapper around the hazelnut roll so that the foil would catch any fray chocolate bits. Gross as it may sound, any bits that fall on the foil will be subjected to my licking after I finish. Ah, not one wasted bit.

Why did you discontinue them!! Nestle!!