Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Lesson never learnt: Matcha cupcakes

Following the somewhat successful attempt to convert a butter cake recipe into cupcakes and adding some orange flavor to it, I proceeded to test out some pound cake recipes, remaking it into cupcake sizes.  As the picture below clearly indicated, I had not really learnt my lesson with regards to the amount of batter to fill my cupcake casing.  My greed to fill each case as much as it can hold based on my miscalculation that it won't overflow basically resulted in the batter overflowing like the red hot lava of an angry and explosive volcano, only this lava is green and speckled with grains of chocolate rice.

Green molten lava expanding beyond the capacity of my cupcake casing.
Apart from the unfortunate episode of green lava disgorging from an otherwise comfortable cupcake casing, putting this pound cake recipe together was delightful both aromatically and visually, though somewhat challenging to my limited knowledge in baking.  
For a start, I was left with only slightly less than 100g of salted butter.  The pound cake recipe called for 100g.  Still, I wanted to just test out the recipe and decided to go ahead with it based on my best approximation for the rest of the ingredients.  Next, I had run out of cake flour, but I still had some Hong Kong flour left from the snow skin mooncake making sessions in October.  Since Hong Kong flour is superfine and low in protein, I suppose this would be a reasonable substitute for cake flour, which is supposed to be low in protein and well, very fine.  With these two variables, or rather uncertainty in mind, I set to work on measuring out the ingredients.
Slightly less than a 100g of salted butter, to be precise, 85g, will need the equivalent amount of sugar.  So 85g of caster sugar was measured out.  The flour and matcha powder was a little tricky for me.  The original recipe said 110g of cake flour and 10g of matcha powder.  That makes 120g of flour in summary.  Since my butter and sugar was reduced, I had to reduce the flour component.  I wanted to keep the 10g of matcha powder, so I reduced the Hong Kong flour to 90g.  The smell of matcha powder filled the kitchen as I measured that out and sprinkle it over the mountain of pure white Hong Kong flour.  The mound of flour looked like an inverted snow-capped mountain: snow at the bottom, lush greens for the cap.

Next comes the eggs in which I swap 2 large eggs with 2 medium sized eggs.  The rest of the ingredients pretty much stayed the same, 1 tsp of baking powder and my particularity, 1 tbsp of low fat yoghurt for that extra moist texture.  
This was how the batter looked like when all the flour get mixed into the butter, sugar and egg mixture.  The vivid green really looked appetizing and smelt heavenly of matcha even when it was still unbaked.


The only thing left to do was to fill up the cupcake casings, sprinkle in a little chocolate rice at the top and pop these little green tops into the oven to bake.


I was anxious about how the texture of my approximation for the batter would turn out, so upon adequately cooled, I took one out of its casing and tear it apart into half with my fingers.  As I tear at the soft and moist cake, I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear.  The texture was of course soft, that means the Hong Kong flour worked well (probably like cake flour too).  I used the whole egg method, without separating the egg yolks and whites like what I did for those orange cupcakes, so visually and comparatively the air pockets were slightly larger.  However, it came with a slightly spongy feel that I could not achieve when I used the egg separation method.   


I am happy with this attempt, which gave me about 8 cupcakes, but I think I could increase to 10 if not for my greed and miscalculation.  Here's the recipe.

Matcha cupcakes
Makes 10 souffle cups measuring 2.5" diameter, 1.5" height
(Adapted from "Desserts Collection No.12: Pound cake", by Misato Tanaka, edited by Daiso Shuppan K.K., published by Daiso Japan) 


85g salted butter (I used Gold Leaf)
85g caster sugar
2 medium eggs 
90g Hong Kong flour
10g matcha powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp low fat yoghurt
chocolate rice for sprinkling (not really necessary, on second thought)

Method 
1. Preheat oven to 170degC.
2. Shift Hong Kong flour, matcha powder and baking powder together and set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Lightly beat the eggs and add 1 tbsp to the butter/sugar mixture, beat this in thoroughly.  Divide the beaten egg mixture into 3-4 portions, beating each portion in completely before adding the next portion.
5. Fold in the flour mixture gently, spoon by spoon, until all are used up and well mixed into a smooth batter.  Finally fold in the low fat yoghurt completely (ensure that there are no white streaks of yoghurt visible).
6. Spoon about 1.5 tbsp of batter into each casing (I made the mistake of adding just a touch more here and there which resulted in overflowing).
7. Sprinkle some chocolate rice if desired and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack.

Pulau Ubin! We're baaa~ck!!

This trip got off on a horribly embarrassing start, for the organizers that is.  And yes, my Hubby and I were the organizers.  Flashback to that day when we sat foot on Pulau Ubin again, this time with our "quarterly-outing-to-celebrate-birthdays-for-every-quarter" bunch of friends; four families in total, distributed largely to the eastern and north-eastern side of this tiny island we call home.
It was a Sunday, 6th November 2011, to be exact.  The precise timing is beyond any recollection for at that time, I was still dazed from a slight sleep-in.  I was getting ready to drag myself out of bed to start the day when the Hubby's phone rang. The caller on the other side sounded apprehensive.  "Are you guys here yet?"  the caller asked.  "Friend, it's tomorrow," my Hubby replied.  "Is it?  But the other family's here too!" the caller informed the Hubby.  I couldn't believe my ears, neither could my Hubby.  So two out of our four families of friends were at the meeting place, how about the last family?  My mind started wondering if they were by any chance making their way there.  The Hubby called, and was reaffirmed (to our amusement and a trifle bit of relief) that the outing was to be tomorrow, 7th November.  What's happening here?  What sort of coincidence was it that caused 2 families to assemble on time at our meeting place on the wrong date, while the other 2 families happily got on with their lives (one family sleeping-in, and the other doing some house-cleaning), oblivious to the fact that the start of an adventure was brewing around the corner?
Basically, the date for our outing and birthday celebration for the 4th quarter was sort of settled a couple of months back, verbally.  At that time, we set the date as the day after Hari Raya Haji holiday, which fell on a Sunday, and that means the outing was meant to be on Monday, 7th November.  Somehow, in the midst of email exchanges to suggest a venue and activities, wait for replies and tidy down the details, the main organizer (which is the Hubby) got the date wrong.  After filtering through his tons of emails, the Hubby located the source of our embarrassment.  He had typed "6th November" instead of "7th November" in one of the emails.  The two families who were already at the meeting place had worked on "black and white" mode, while the house-cleaning family and us worked on a "memory" mode.  Well, no body's at fault (except for the fellow who typed the email ^_^ ).
After confirming that no one's interested in coming back the next day (personally I would not want to pack up and go home and then drive all the way back to Changi Village again the next day just to execute an outing, especially when I wasn't the one committing an input error), and the house-cleaning family was able to concede to such last minute demands, our 4th quarter outing to Pulau Ubin proceeded with no further hiccups.
Four families, 15 of us in total made our way via two bum boats to Pulau Ubin.  It was lucky the weather was kind to us.  A couple of days before this trip, blankets of dark looming clouds had been regurgitating tons of aquatic refreshments upon us, causing flash floods in many pockets around Singapore. We were worried that more refreshments would be served on our outing day, but luckily, the sun decided that some dehydration was due.  
There was a light breeze blowing across the sea surface, but the ride to Pulau Ubin was pretty smooth.  We divided ourselves into two groups, 7 of us over at this bum boat, and the other 8, over the other boat there.
When we reach the jetty, we were actually quite worried about the kids alighting the boats that were bobbing up and down a little alongside the concrete stairway of the jetty.  But natural instincts of any parents put such worries to naught.  All the Papas valiantly lent a helping hand...
Busily disgorging ourselves from the boat...
Since this was my second visit to Pulau Ubin, I was in a better composure and had more time to observe the surrounding more carefully before embarking on our journey into the island.  This was what I saw when I turned around to face the sea by which we came in.  
Bum boats queue: wait for their turn to unload their human cargoes.
When all of us were done unloading ourselves from the boats, we gathered, in a typical tourist-like manner, in front of the "Welcome" sign, to capture our presence on this island digitally.


We do need two shots to make sure that everyone's part of the picture.  We had decided that all of us would rent a bicycle and head straight to Chek Jawa, climb up the viewing tower, tour the boardwalk and then head back to mainland for our lunch.  Without much ado, we headed straight for the first bicycle rental shop that comes to view, not bothering to compare prices.  
Bicycle selection: test the brakes, style is not an issue.
The older kids, having learnt to cycle, were enthusiastically choosing their bikes.  The rest of the younger ones, having no say over the style and make of their rides, stood by the side while the Papas and Mummies checked for braking efficiency (that's safety for you) and accessories (meaning a front basket to dump our haversack in).
Once we were properly equipped with a bike, and back-load duly distributed (meaning which parent to take which child), we set off towards Chek Jawa.  I was initially allocated my girl, but I have to admit, despite unwillingly (for she remains petite and tiny in my eyes), that she had grown beyond what my strength could cope.  I could hardly balance her as my back-load, and was not able to cycle an inch without both of us veering dangerously left and right, and many a times into somebody's path, nearly causing a collision of metal and flesh.  If you had ever driven a manual car, it was like having the engine dying off on you before you could even move.  After umpteenth failure to edge forward, while the others sped off ahead of me, I switched back-load with the Hubby.  The Tiny Man was considerably lighter.  After a minute or so of getting adjusted to a different weight at the back, I was cycling off towards our destination decently, trying to catch up with the rest, who by now were no longer visible but remained audible in the distance ahead. 
The ride on the tar-covered track was relatively easy.  I would say it was quite a breeze compared to having to walk under some sweltering heat which we did on our first visit to this island.  For the speed and ease on bicycles, I would say the opportunity to take in the surrounding scenery was sacrificed.  But that didn't really bother anyone as we, especially those parents with back-loads, busied ourselves physically and mentally with focused determination to reach our destination and avert any accidents like flinging our back-load off their seats as some of us occasionally lost our balance.  Along the way, a father-and-son's conversation provided some momentary relief from the arduous task of paddling.


"Daddy?" the son called out to his father.  He is, if I am not mistaken, 4 this year.
"Yes, son?" answered the father, panting from the paddling effort.
"Are you tired?" The son asked.
"Er, no." The father replied, and later told us that he felt a loving surge of warmth and pride for the son, who had shown such concern for him.
"Then why aren't you paddling fast?  Paddle faster."  


As we neared Chek Jawa, the smooth tar-covered road gave way to meandering, sloping paths covered with mud and stones.  We had to get off our bikes and push along for quite a distance until we reached the entrance to Chek Jawa.  It was along such medieval paths that I had second thoughts about renting a bicycle (albeit too late).  It was really easier to trudge along, leaving the kids to do the same sulking, then to trudge along while pushing the bike with the back-load still mounted and enjoying every bit of such luxurious treatment.  But luckily, in no time, we reached the entrance to Chek Jawa.  This was where we parked our bikes in a somewhat haphazard manner, and continued on foot towards the wetland and the boardwalk.  On this visit, we had the chance to let our eyes feast on more varieties of flora and fauna compared to our first visit.  
For a start, a family of wild boars, Mummy and three babies, crossed the narrow pathway from one side to the other to check out the mess of parked bicycles.  I was excited about the family's decision to pay a gentle visit to "human-infested" area of the island, despite a small amount of apprehension that they might attack us.  I always have the image that wild boars would come charging at you especially when they felt that their lives or their babies' lives are threatened.  When I saw the family, I was torn between walking far away from them (lest I get bitten or snout-butted on my rear) and getting closer to them to get a decent picture of this rare view.  The family though both curious and wary of their surrounding, were rather gentle in their approach to view us, the humans.  They kept close to each other and an amicable distance from us.  They were pretty nifty in their pace, and I couldn't get much of a good picture out of the family.  Below is the best shot that one member of the boar family could bear to bestow on me.


Having whiled away some time getting excited over the wild boar family, I hurried to join the rest of the group.  They had freshened up slightly and were raring to go. Look at them!
"Over here, over here! Will you hurry up?!"


Our first stop was the viewing tower.  All 15 of us made our way to the top, where we made this our first and only pit-stop to replenish.
  
The view was still as breathtaking as it had presented itself on my first trip here.  But the kids were rather preoccupied with something else to take in the view.  I know one of mine was busy "foraging".  The Tiny Man had worked up quite an appetite from being a die-hard supporter of his Mummy's cycling ability, cheering and encouraging me on unabashedly along the way with "妈咪加油!妈咪加油!", only breaking off at certain points along the medieval paths to race down the path with his sister and some of the older kids from our entourage.  As a reward to their cooperation and efforts for coming such a long way, one of the mummies started handing out goodies to satisfy all the kiddies' sweet-tooth.
Tiny Man "foraging", a group of Mummies and Daddies at the back of the picture
taking in the view and trying to revive themselves.


Some of the parents were by now quite "shattered" by the exertions earlier on, so we decided to extend our pit-stop to revive ourselves adequately before embarking on the observatory part of our outing.  The kids on the other hand, took the opportunity to socialize, silently that is.  Standing across the stairways, I saw them at their relaxed self.  Some seated comfortably, and others plastering themselves neatly on the hand-rail of the stairway.  I couldn't resist it and took two pictures of our kids behaving candidly in a social gathering.  I wonder if adults are able to achieve this.  I suppose I would be stiff as a log in such occasions.




Having amply revived and ready for more, we moved out of the tower onto the boardwalk, eyes peeled, vocal utterances kept to the lowest decibel possible in order to catch sight of life in the mangrove swamp.  Our efforts at such self-restraint was immediately rewarded with this.


Sorry, this shot is really blurred.
It was observing us with equal fervor: eyes peeled, vocal utterances, zilch.  Both parties observed each other: with us breaking off in a mime of excitement, pointing out to the kids and "oohing" as silently as we could possibly manage, and the monkey maintaining its lofty surveillance of the lot of us.  When we could do no more than gesture in excitement at it, the monkey bored with our monotony, turned away lazily and nonchalantly to offer its gaze at some other point of interest in the faraway horizon.  Encouraged by our find, we moved on ahead and this time, it was something on the muddy swampy grounds that caught our attention.  


Abundant as they were further down the boardwalk deeper into the mangrove, this particular mud-skipper was big and more accessible to our eyes.  With its bulging black eyes, and gleaming brown looking scales, the mud-skipper seemed to have held its breath and tried with every ounce of effort to blend into its background of brownish mud and rotting leaves.  It failed miserably for we had spotted it and were all crouching as near to it as we could without falling off the boardwalk into the muddy swamp, observing it.  For the whole time we were at it, I thought how the mud-skipper would have thought of us.  As much as we thought the creature queer in its structure, from its perspective, we probably were a rude and gibbering bunch of big and little oafs, some come equipped with a silver box protruding out of its eyes (that's me with my camera) ^_^
Having had enough of the mud-skipper, we moved along the boardwalk, hoping for more exotic finds, but life in the swamp is as unpredictable as ours.  We could find nothing else (perhaps we did not look hard enough) apart from more mud-skippers, this particular fungus, which one of the mummies informed, is called the bracket fungus, and swamp crabs.  
Bracket fungus, some teeny weeny minute flies were buzzing around it.
Made an otherwise interesting find rather disconcerting.
For the swamp crabs, there was a huge colony of it further down the boardwalk, at the Seagrass Lagoon.  Over here, the adults and kids enjoyed some time admiring more mud-skippers skating across the mud and the countless numbers of claw-wrestling matches put up by the colony of crabs dwelling there.  




The matches were really hilarious to watch.  Of course the match would involve two crabs, but there will always be some onlookers by the side, waving their disproportionately large claw excitedly as the match proceeded.  It was as if the onlookers were cheering the participants, and I would love to imagine that there is some sort of betting system on each match.  The participants clash their claws, and with rapid movement, tried to jostle the other party out of some imagined boundary and into submission.  The rapid claw movements looked like some form of arm rubbing, massaging gesture that it appeared cute rather than menacing to the human onlookers.  As the participants clash their claws and moved in their version of belligerence on the mud, the onlookers would be pursuing the match diligently, sometimes in circles until a winner is decided, with the loser retreating dismally into a hole.  It was these matches that kept all of us entertained endlessly for a while on the Mangrove Boardwalk above the Seagrass Lagoon.  
As we had allocated some of our time to sort out a confusion over outing date and time, we found ourselves running late for lunch and (I still feel apologetic about it) the organizers' next appointment.  With that, we ended our exploration of the Chek Jawa Wetland from the boardwalk and retraced our footsteps back to the entrance of the wetland on another side road.  This path was also interesting in terms of the cooling effect offered by the overhanging foliage.  Among the leaves of a plant along the side road, a friend spotted this colorful little insect and busied himself snapping away at it with his camera.  I joined in the snapping fun too.




We took a short breather at the entrance of the wetland, to answer nature's call and replenish on the liquid.  Some of us poke our heads around House No. 1, an English cottage that was built in the 1930s by the then Chief Surveyor, Langdon Williams.  It was meant to be his holiday retreat.


Between the outpost to answer nature's call (in other words, toilets) and the magnificent House No.1 were some shrubberies bearing beautifully pink flowers.  It was relaxing to take in such a vibrant color if not for its awkward location.


Once we had briefly cleaned ourselves up and adequately watered, we made our way back to the jetty.  The ride back was just as we rode towards Chek Jawa: lots of pushing to get up those challenging slopes and beyond the stretch of medieval muddy stony paths.  The sense of relief when we finally made it to tar-covered roads was beyond description, at least for me.  For the rest of the ride on the tar road, the Tiny Man resumed his fervent support for my cycling again, and we made it back happily, peppered with the occasional imbalance, unscathed, to bicycle rental shop.
Before leaving for mainland on our bum boat rides, we took two parting shots at the jetty.  8 adults and 7 kids ranging from as old as 12 to as young as 4, I think we fared pretty well for a bunch of city dwellers.






Back at mainland, those hungry kids charged hungrily to Charlie's Corner, with the adults who made it there first ensuring that we had a table long enough to take all 15 of us, in-separated.  Charlie's Corner did, simply by joining up whatever tables they had laid out for the lunch crowd.  We took one corner of the corridor and busied ourselves with our own activities: kids studying the menu intently, some of the adults making their ways over slowly, not the least bit worried about their possibly growling stomach, and I, snapping away happily at all the activities.






We made pretty fast time deciding on our orders and settled down to laugh over the confusion in the morning, marveled at the kids performance for the day and lament on how age had took its toll on our bodies.  Some of us thought that we would probably be lying in bed for the next two days, nursing the sore joints and aching muscles back into function.  In no time, our lunch was spread out before us as accurately as we had ordered.  The parents inevitably leaped into action, portioning out the food for the kids and salvaging those morsels of greens that their offspring refused to have any contact with.
I had enjoyed myself thoroughly, even though it was the second time within the span of about a month.  I am not sure about the rest, but for me at least, being able to paddle, push and heave the bikes along rocky paths together with our bundle of back-loads is a sign of health and youth (despite  our youthfulness physically diminishing every day, bit by bit).  To be able to enjoy a day not worrying about anything, but just getting to the destination, with whatever means you have chosen, taking in the surrounding, whatever that's been offered to you, is a gift that should not be taken for granted.  As I paddled my bicycle, as I tried to keep my balance to prevent the Tiny Man from falling off and getting hurt, stopping many times along the way to regain my balance, I thought about the similarity this had with life in general.  Moving along in my life, responsibilities either thrown at me or chosen by me, test and tribulations to throw me off the course.  With focus and some pig-headed determination, I suppose I could make it to where I intend to be, and back, unscathed.  Just as I had done with paddling, pushing and heaving the bike with the Tiny Man, lumbering and bumbling along bumpy roads, touch down on my destination and making our way back.
I wonder if the kids are ready for more visits to Pulau Ubin ^_^  
  
       

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Test-drive and the actual race: Orange flavored cupcakes

I will always remember how I celebrated Children's Day when I was still in primary school.  On the eve of Children's Day, we would gather in the school hall for assembly and watch a Children's Day Concert put up by fellow pupils from the various performing ECA (back then it was known as ECA, extra curricular activities) groups.  At the end of the concert, all of us would stand up and sing along to some songs, songs which I have no idea why these were chosen to be sung as a way to celebrate Children's Day.  What were some of those songs?  Di Tanjong Katong and Chan Mali Chan were two songs we sang every year.  Imagine I sang these two songs for six years on two occasions each year, National Day celebration and Children's Day celebration!  ^_^  It may not had made much sense to me back then, but now hearing these songs warms the heart because now I had categorized these as my childhood songs.  Every time I hear them, I'll always recall how my school hall looked like and remember a fuzzy happy feeling: the anticipation of Children's Day celebration we would be having back in our classroom.  The final one hour on the eve of Children's Day was always reserved for a little in-class party.  This precious one hour was set aside by our form teacher for all of us to celebrate with games and food.  I would always request Mum to make something for me to contribute as party food.  And Mum would always make pandan chiffon cake for me to bring along.  So when my girl requested me to bake something for her class party on the final day of the school term, I agreed without hesitation.  We toyed around a couple of ideas before finally deciding on cupcakes and cookies.  Cookies and cupcakes are not difficult items to prepare and most importantly, relatively easy to handle, that is for my girl to carry them to school without too much worry of damage.
I have a couple of cupcake recipes that will make 12 cupcakes with roughly 3 inch diameter in size.  But I think that would be a little too big for children, especially when they would be having other nibbles and snacks.  So I decided on converting a butter cake recipe that I always liked to use into cupcake size.  I didn't want to use the usual 3 inch diameter paper cupcakes casing that I always do, so I got hold of some souffle cups that are 2.5 inch in diameter and 1.5 inch in height.  Since I'll be using a new cupcake casing measurement, a test-drive was necessary.

Test-drive
On the day that I tested out this recipe, I halved the original butter cake recipe and that produced 8 souffle cups of cupcakes.  But I think I filled the cup too much and some of the cakes overflowed (that means I could get more than 8 cupcakes for a halved portion).  See the picture below, the cupcake on the forefront, to the left side of the cup.  That's where the batter flowed out.  The butter cake recipe I used applies egg separation method, so that was probably why the batter overflowed.  For this recipe, I added orange zest, since it was intended to be orange flavored cupcakes, and I also added about 1.5 tsp of strawberry jam as filling.  I didn't have much expectation, just the hope that these cupcakes would turn out tasting acceptable.  But much to my surprise, the combination of butter, orange and strawberry actually tasted great.  The sprinkling of chocolate rice also added another layer of texture (the chocolate rice remained slightly crunchy) and flavor to the cupcakes.




We had these cupcakes for breakfast the following day, and the kids loved this combination too.  However, the strawberry jam filling did not stay at the middle of each cupcake even though I made it a point to put in the jam near to 2/3 full position.  I suppose the jam is simply too heavy and upon heating up sank to the bottom.  But at least these did not sink all the way to the bottom!




Actual race
Having done a test on taste, appearance and quantity, I felt more at ease and confident of producing 30 cupcakes for my girl's party.  30 cupcakes may be just a piece of cake (what a pun here ^_^ Not intentional!) to many people, but to me, this is not an easy feat.  It meant that I have to be prepared to make at least 2 batches, maybe 3 batches in case one of the batches failed for whatever reason, throughout the day.  Just to recapitulate on the calculation, halved portion of butter cake will probably give me 10 cupcakes using the souffle cups I bought.  That means whole portion of my butter cake recipe should give me 20 cupcakes.  That means if everything goes well, I just need to make 2 batches, once in the morning, once in the afternoon.  And to cut the whole story short, that was exactly what I did.  Which was pretty lucky for me as all the cupcakes behaved well (meaning I did not overfill each cup), no overflowing, no shortage of strawberry jam or chocolate rice (^_^ I worry too much, I am getting to be a hypochondriac!).  The only problem I had was with slightly deflated cupcakes.  The two pictures below are actually the same, but I was just toying with them with a photo editing software.  I love how the cupcakes had rose, such smooth dome they had.  But unfortunately, these cakes sank a little after removal from the oven.  But again, fortunately, the reduction wasn't too much as the top of each cupcake still stay near the rim of the casing.
Once the cupcakes were completely cooled, my girl and I spent about an hour packing them into little cookie bags together with some butter cookies I made in advance.  While the packing job was very tiring (we did that after dinner, around 8pm), it was actually very satisfying to see my bakes neatly allocated and packed in cute looking bags, ready for 28 children and 2 teachers to enjoy.  I wondered if my Mum had felt this way more than 20 years ago when she put her pandan chiffon cake into a container for me to carry it all the way to school to be shared with my classmates and teachers. 

Cupcakes and cookies, all packed and ready!

Same picture, just toying with my editing software.

My cupcake peeking out at me!


Orange flavored cupcakes 
Makes 20 souffle cups measuring 2.5" diameter, 1.5" height
Ingredients
Group 1
250g salted butter, I tried a new label called Gold Leaf
85g caster sugar
200g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 egg yolks
1.5 tsp orange flavor
Zest of 2 oranges
2 tbsp low fat yoghurt

Group 2
85g caster sugar
4 egg whites

Filling
Strawberry or raspberry jam

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160deg C.
2. Make sure butter and eggs are at room temperature.  Sift cake flour and baking powder together and set aside.
3. Beat butter and caster sugar from Group 1 until light and fluffy. 
4. Add in the egg yolks one at a time, making sure that each yolk is well beaten in before the next addition.
5. Add the orange flavor and orange zest and beat until well mixed.
6. Fold in the flour mixture, spoon by spoon, until all are used up and well mixed into a smooth batter.
7. In a clean bowl, process Group 2 in the following manner.  Beat the egg whites until foamy, add the caster sugar and beat until soft peaks form.
8. Add 1/3 of egg white mixture into butter batter in Step 6 and fold until incorporated (or no streaks of egg white is visible).  Fold in the remaining egg whites until well incorporated and smooth.
9. Gently fold in the 2 tbsp of low fat yoghurt until well incorporated (i.e. no streaks of yoghurt is visible).
10. Fill each up with batter until about 2/3 full, drop in gently 1 tsp of preferred jam and top with batter until 3/4 full.
11. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #13: Enjoy Cupcakes! (November 2011) hosted by Min of Min's Blog.


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Friday's Special #4: Slow cooking cidered pork with pasta aglio olio

Slow cooking cidered pork with paster aglio olio
We had a simple affair for dinner on a Friday two weeks ago .  I'd chosen a slow cooking one pot dish to make just so that I get a little more time to relax and maybe catch up on my television watching.  From "The Complete Slow Cooker" book, I'd chosen a pork dish with an ingredient that I am totally not familiar with; it is dry cider.  I had no idea how it would taste, or what it looked like.  I had wondered if it had anything to do with apple cider vinegar.  Of course I turned to the net to find out what this was.  It's practically the one and only help I turn to every time a strange looking ingredient made me stumble and hesitate in attempting a recipe.
And so what is dry cider, and does it have any slightest connection with apple cider vinegar?  Well, yes and no.  Yes, because apple cider vinegar is made from cider, which in turn almost always comes from apples.  And no, because dry ciders are not vinegar, simple as that.  Dry ciders just meant that the natural sugar has been fermented out, which means it is not sweet, or for some brands, not that sweet.  Pardon my ignorance, but to my surprise, dry ciders actually has an alcohol content of between 5%-7%.  I'd also found out that dry ciders are usually used as a beverage rather than an ingredient in cooking.  These bits of information really aroused my curiosity about this slow cooking dish and how it might taste.  Just in case I could not find dry cider in the supermarket I had in mind to visit, I'd also found out that apple cider can be used as a substitute but there is a need to cut back on the sugar in the recipe.
I went to the supermarket which boast of its selection of imported international food products.  That means there is a high chance of finding dry ciders there.  True enough, I found it.  It came in a large glass bottle, 1 litre to be precise.  The bottle was green in color, making it look like a bottle of beer.  Naturally, I procured one bottle, got back home, poured myself a glass and took a sip.  Pondered on the taste.  Not very fruity as I thought it might be.  No subtle taste of apples, maybe my tongue was not sensitive enough for delicate things.  Bubbly, yes.  Like sparkling wine, but not sweet.  So much for my anticipation; mystery demystified.
On with putting my slow cooking cidered pork together.  I bought a large chunk of pork shoulder butt weighing about 750g from my favorite butcher in the wet market.  I love to use shoulder butt as mince meat.  I find them more juicy then using lean meat, but of course there is the fats to get rid of before using them.  For this dish, I had to curve out the fats and sinews (a bit of a tricky knife job) before cutting it into cubes for cooking.  One of the best ways to curve out the sinews is to slide the knife as close to the sinew as possible and run it along the sinews.  Something I picked up from watching Jamie Oliver cook. 
Curving out the sinew
Next is to chop up all the vegetables into bite size chunks, even though the recipe calls for the vegetables to be diced.  I didn't want the vegetables to end up losing their shapes.  Apart from cutting the vegetables and processing the meat into roughly 1.5 inch chunks, there really is nothing much to prepare to get this dish together.  The only thing left to do is to brown the meat and fry up the vegetables before chucking the whole mixture into the slow cooker.  The rest of the job, my trusty slow cooker will take over for the next 9 hours.


Slow cooking cidered pork   
(Recipe from "The Complete Slow Cooker: Packed with recipes, techniques and tips", Sara Lewis, Hamlyn, 2010)
Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable sunflower oil (I used corn oil)
750g pork shoulder steaks cubed and any fat discarded
1 leek, thinly sliced; white and green parts kept separated
2 tbsp plain flour (to thicken the liquid)
300ml dry cider (substitute with apple cider, reduce sugar)
300ml chicken stock
200g carrots, diced (I just chunk them into bite size)
1 dessert apple, cored and diced (I used red Fuji apple from China, chunked)
2-3 stems sage
salt and pepper


Method
1. Heat oil in frying pan, add the pork a few pieces at a time until all the pieces are in the pan, then fry over a high heat until lightly browned.
2. Lift the pork out of the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer it to the slow cooker pot.
3. Add the white leek slices to the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes or until softened.  Stir in the flour, then gradually mix in the cider and the stock.
This is the appearance of Step 3 before adding liquid.  After liquid is added,
need to stir continuously as lumps will form.
4. Add the carrot, apple, sage and some salt and pepper.  Bring to the boil, stirring continuously.  Stirring continuously is necessary as I find that the flour formed quite a number of lumps when liquid is added.  I used a whisk to help in breaking up the lumps.
This is how Step 4 looks like.  I love the colors!
5. Pour the mixture into the slow cooker pot, cover with the lid and cook at LOW for 9-10 hours.  In the last 15 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste, add the green part of the leeks and cook until softened.


I made pasta aglio olio to go with this slow cooking meat dish.  I had intended to spend a bit of time catching up on my television programmes, I had opted for a simple carbohydrate dish to accompany this meat dish.  The ingredient for this accompaniment is very basic and easy to gather.  Olive oil, good quality, if it can be afforded.  I just use extra virgin olive oil bought from my neighbourhood supermarket.  Garlic, chili (I used chili padi) and pasta.  Actually, so much being said about wanting to keep things easy to give myself time to stay attached to the goggle box, I just wanted to try out a recipe in another of my list of cookbooks ^_^  For the pasta shapes, I used a mixture of two types of pasta: fusilli and spaghetti.  The Hubby likes spaghetti and the kids love fusilli, they think spaghetti is boring.  The pasta tasted okay, the chili gave it a bit of heat which proved a little too spicy for the kids.  And after eating the pasta, I think salt has to be added in the process of making the olive oil sauce.  It tasted too bland and the amount of salt added to the water to cook the pasta was not enough.  


My Pasta Aglio Olio
(adapted from "Pasta with garlic, chilli & pine nuts" in "Pasta: 100 Great Recipes", Jacqueline Bellafontaine, Silverdale Books, 2005)
Ingredients
400g pasta (mixed shapes)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 red chillies, seeded and chopped 


Method
1.  Cook the pasta in plenty of lightly salted boiling water according to cooking instructions on the pasta packaging.  I like mine al dente, so I normally cook my pasta for about 8 minutes.
2. In the meantime, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic for 2-3 minutes.  Before turning off the flame, sprinkle in the chilli and stir around a couple of times.  I do it this way to prevent releasing too much heat from the chilli, I just wanted a hint of heat but this is still a little too spicy for the kids. 
3. Keep about a small cup of cooking liquid before draining the pasta.  Add the pasta into the frying pan of garlic and chilli infused olive oil, toss to coat evenly.  If it is a little dry, add 1-2 tbsp of the cooking liquid.  
4. Serve immediately.


See the mixture of spaghetti and fusilli?
Just to satisfy the Tiny Man, the girl and the Hubby.
Notes:
* Next time I make this pasta again, remember to add in some salt to the oil as it tasted pretty bland apart from the garlic and chilli.