Slow cooking Oriental spare ribs

In an earlier post, I've mentioned that I had tried a recipe that came with the operating manual of my 3.2L slow cooker.  This is it: Oriental Spareribs.

  

It couldn't be easier and it tasted pretty good too.  I guess I can categorize this as a one pot dish, just serve it with rice or for my case, soba salad.

Soba salad

Now that I am writing this up, I think I could even add some cucumber, tomato and pineapple chunks into the thick sweet and sour sauce that's cooking the spare ribs.  I bet it will taste sweet (pineapple, provided you've chosen the sweet ones), tangy (tomatoes I buy are always tangy) and refreshing (cucumbers always add a refreshing touch to rich food, don't they?) too. 

Unlike the Easy sausage and beans, this cooked faster since the heat used is HIGH.  It took only 4 hours to cook.  But I guess the cooking time can be extended to 9-10 hours using LOW heat to produce the same result.  I am just guessing, I have yet to try this out in LOW.

But why this sudden interest in making things using the slow cooker?  There are two main reasons.  So far, I had been using my slow cooker to make soup.  Of course there are many types of soup that can be simmered in a slow cooker, but I'd like to make dishes other than soup.  I like to make braised meat dishes and stews that either need to cook for long hours on the stove top or bake in the oven for 2-3 hours.  To me, there is a problem.  Making stew or braised meat dishes on the stove top spells wastage for me.  You see, I am those traditionalist who is still sticking to her guns by the blue tank, 12.7kg of LPG.  Yup, I still order my gas for cooking.  And every time I cook things for long hours, I can practically see the gas level depleting in the tank (^_^) okay, I can't, but I can feel it!  Right, I am stingy in that sense.  How about letting the oven do the job?  Stews and casseroles are no strangers to ovens.  Yes I know that too.  But my humble oven is a 20L baby, don't think my pots can fit in without scratching the top and sides of the oven.  So oven is also a no-go for me.  To solve this, slow cooker seems to be the answer.

I have also been secretly (now that this is published, no longer a secret) nursing a plan to rejoin the workforce.  I didn't want to just rejoin the workforce full-time, leaving the kids at a student-care centre or get a domestic helper.  I mean there is nothing wrong with the two options.  But these are not what I want for the family, or for that matter, how I would like to contribute to the family.  I want to be there for the kids when they are at home and I want to place homemade food, made by me, on the dining table for them and the Hubby.  The Tiny Man will be joining my girl in primary school next year.  The school operates in single session, so that means I have the morning free, until school is over.  That means there is a chance to fit in some part-time work and still be there in school to fetch them, get home and make dinner.  Of course there are other housework to do, but I suppose those can wait a bit.  Dinner is more important.  Stir-fries top the list of quick-cooking meals I could slot in between the time I imagined I would get home to the time for dinner, with possible delays from some imagined episodes of the kids throwing tantrums about homework or fighting about the slightest thing.  But 5 days a week of stir-fries is no joke.  I think I will run out of ideas faster than they get sick of my cooking.  In this sense, I'd like to think that someone up there is helping me along in my planning. "The Complete Slow Cooker" book "jumped" into my sight at the library.  This basically provided me with a platform for experiments to turn some of the braised meat dishes I make into slow cooking meals that do not need to be watched over while cooking.
Okay, enough ranting already.  On with the recipe.  

Oriental Spareribs
(adapted from Recipe cookbook, Takahi Slow Cooker)
Ingredients
750g pork spareribs
280ml sweet and sour sauce (I made mine which I'll share below)
2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch


Sweet and sour sauce
(using a 200ml capacity cup)
2/3 cup rice wine vinegar
8 tbsp soft brown sugar
2 tbsp ketcup
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp cornstarch mix with 4 tsp water


Method
To make the sweet and sour sauce
- Mix the vinegar, sugar, ketchup and soy sauce together in a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Mix cornstarch with water and add to other ingredients.  Stir until thicken.


To make the Oriental spareribs
1. Trim off excess fats from the spareribs and blanch the ribs.  Rinse and set aside.
2. Place the ribs into the slow cooker.
3. Mix the cornstarch with teriyaki sauce and stir this mixture into the sweet and sour sauce.
4. Pour mixture 3 into the slow cooker.  Press any pieces of spareribs that may be jutting out above the sauce.
5. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours.  

This is the result of that 4 hours of cooking on high heat in a slow cooker.  A note on the sweet and sour sauce.  When preparing it, I thought the acidity from the vinegar was so overpowering.  But after 4 hours of cooking it down, it actually mellowed out a little.  It wasn't as sour as when I was preparing it.  
The meat was really soft, practically tearing away from the bones.  Kids and the Hubby liked the taste especially paired with this soba salad.
This is actually the second time I am making this soba salad, this time with a slight variation.  I introduced stir-fried vegetables into the noodle salad.  The first time I made it, it was just soba and dressing, sprinkled with nori and sesame seeds.


Soba Salad
(inspired by "Soba salad with tempura fish fillets", Today and modified to include some fiber for that night's dinner)
Ingredients
200g soba
1 small stick of carrot, julienned to matchstick fatness
1 king oyster mushroom, julienned, slightly fatter than matchstick
10 pieces of sugar snap peas (cut into 2 or 3 parts)
1 tbsp vegetable oil


Dressing
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp Gold kiwi vinegar (optional, can be replaced with lemon juice, or just rice wine vinegar)
1/2 tomato ketcup
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp honey


Method
1. Heat vegetable oil in a fry pan and stir-fry the carrots and mushrooms for about 2 minutes.  Add in the sugar snaps and stir-fry for another 2 minutes.  Lightly season with salt and pepper.
Turn off the heat and set aside.

2. Cook the soba according to instructions on the packaging.
3. When the soba is ready and drained dry, transfer over to the fry pan of stir-fried vegetables.
4. Toss the soba and vegetables without turning on the flame.
5. Pour the dressing over mixture 4 and toss to coat everything as evenly as you can get.  Taste along the way to find out if the soba and vegetables are well coated.  But do make sure enough is left for the family to eat at the dining table!

There really is no necessity to use Golden Kiwi vinegar for this recipe.  I just bought a bottle of this vinegar and was excited to try it out.  

Rice wine vinegar would do just fine, and if preferred, lemon juice can be added too.
The Golden Kiwi vinegar was so sour that it practically burned my throat!  There wasn't any golden kiwi taste in the vinegar.  But doesn't matter, it still looks exotic to me.  Maybe I can use it in dressings for seafood salad and chunky vegetable salad.  There are suggestions printed on the label, so it is only a matter of time before I try them out.

Claypot rice: 锅巴比较香!

The girl and Tiny Man are scrapping away at the burnt rice crust (锅巴) at the bottom of my clay pot.  The Hubby told them that this is the best part of the clay pot rice eating experience.  

And kids, being kids, took his words literally; they dug in.  They both agreed that the rice crust tasted good.  But I was very sure the rice itself with the rest of the ingredients was not any less delicious.  I am also certain that the hands-on scrapping of the pot together was comparatively a lot more fun for them then just popping spoonfuls of rice and meat into the mouth.

The Hubby had suggested clay pot rice for dinner.  I remember my first clay pot rice was introduced by none other than the Hubby who was my boyfriend back then.  It was that popular store at Chinatown food centre, the one that you'll have to wait patiently, eyes popping from their sockets due to increasing hunger whetted by the fantastic aroma wafting from the clay pot rice store.  That was the first time and the last time I had clay pot rice from that store.  The rice was fantastic, no doubt about that.  But in my family, I am not famous for patience.

So when Hubby made the suggestion, the image of Chinatown food centre clay pot rice, although pretty vague by now, inevitably surfaced.  Told Hubby that I will try my best to recreate that clay pot rice.  It was a Monday and normally, my fridge is quite empty by then.  Rummaged through the ice-box and found one piece of boneless chicken thigh meat.  That will come in handy.  I have a packet of ready to eat chicken in teriyaki sauce.

That is most helpful.  I have some chinese sausages (lap cheong), that will go into the clay pot rice too.  Great!  The only thing left to buy will be some leafy greens, not difficult at all.  Ingredients are gathered and the only thing left to do is to make that rice.
The Chinatown clay pot rice is always served with meat and vegetable piled on top of freshly cooked white rice, with a bowl of dark colored dressing to be drizzled over before eating.  I wasn't too confident of doing that.  Simply because I was afraid that if I prepared the dressing (or should I call it seasoning) this way, it may end up either too salty or worse, not salty enough.  So I decided to lightly flavor the rice in the process of making it and prepare a small quantity of dressing to be drizzled over the rice, toss to coat  before eating.

My final product

I am sure the whitish looking meat is extremely obvious.  Those are the boneless chicken thigh from my freezer.  In the process of marinating them, I forgot to add dark soy sauce for color.  The taste is not hindered in anyway, but the sight doesn't blend in too well with the rest of the chicken in teriyaki sauce.


Clay pot rice with chicken and leafy greens
(recreated, with countless modifications, from some vague memory of my "part-tor" time clay pot rice) 
Ingredients
2 cups rice
650ml water (for cooking the rice)
1 piece of boneless chicken thigh, cut into bite size (optional)
1/2 packet of CP Glazed teriyaki (chicken in teriyaki sauce)
1 Chinese sausage (lap cheong), thinly sliced
4 dried shiitake mushrooms, softened and thickly sliced
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
Some leafy greens (up to individual preference, I used chye sim)
oil for frying (about 2 tbsps)


Seasoning A
1 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce (this is what I have in the pantry)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce


Dressing/Seasoning to be drizzled over rice before eating
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp hot water
1 tbsp vegetable oil


Method
1. Wash rice and drain.  For my 2 cups of rice, I measured 650ml of water to cook them in the clay pot.  To this water, add Seasoning A and stir to mix well.
2. Season the boneless chicken thigh meat.  Actually this is optional if using the whole packet of CP Glazed Teriyaki Chicken is preferred.  I wanted to clear out my fridge so I added this and halved the amount of CP Glazed Teriyaki Chicken used.  Of course using the whole packet is not a problem at all if more meat is preferred.  Season chicken thigh meat with 1 tsp light soy sauce, dash of pepper, 1/2 tsp of sesame oil and 1/2 tsp of grated ginger, add in 1/4 tsp dark soy sauce to make it blend in with the teriyaki chicken pieces.  Otherwise, these will stick out like sore thumb, like mine did!
3. Heat up some oil in the clay pot and saute the thinly sliced shallots until slightly golden.  Add the chinese sausage, shiitake mushrooms and saute for about 1 minute.

When shallots are slightly golden, 

add both lap cheong and mushrooms

4. Add the rice and saute for about 1 minute.

Then add the water mixed with Seasoning A and bring to the boil.  What I did here is actually experimental.  I've never cooked rice using a clay pot before.  I was basically worried that the rice would be under-cooked or that the liquid would dry up and the rice will burn before it is cooked.  Anyway, after the rice came to a boil, I lowered the flame to medium-low and let the whole pot bubble slowly for 20 minutes.
5. 10 minutes into the bubbling, add the raw chicken thigh meat, return the cover and continue to cook for 10 more minutes.
6. 5 minutes before the 20 minutes is up, layer the CP Glazed Teriyaki Chicken and let it steam for the rest of the 5  minutes. 


Up to this point, everything went well for me.  The rice was cooked (I tasted it immediately after I turned off the flame), and there was no burning smell.  But one thing wasn't quite right.  The rice was too soft and a little too wet, unlike the clay pot rice from that "part-tor" memory.  I brushed it aside, reasoning that the rice is just cooked.  Let it rest until dinner time (my favorite "aging"), the wetness should dry up a bit and we'll have something that resembles that clay pot rice.  
Well, truth is, the wetness did not reside.  It stayed slightly moist, which Hubby immediately commented on.  "But it still taste good", he encouraged.  Before tucking in, I blanched some chye sim in salted water and toss it about in one tablespoon of vegetable oil to give it some gloss.  
The sharp person will question, "So if your rice did not burn, how did you get your 锅巴?"  ^_^  I reheated the whole pot right before dinner.  That created the burnt rice crust.  Off the heat and drizzle over the dressing.  I love hearing the liquid sizzle between burnt rice crust and the piping hot clay pot.
Would you like to have some?

Hot pancakes for breakfast

This was what we had for breakfast on Deepavali morning.  The kids had been asking me for pancakes for the longest time, and I had been procrastinating.  I made pancakes once, I think it was last year.  And I didn't like it though my kids said they tasted great.  I got the recipe from the net, as usual.  It's a buttermilk pancake and it wasn't those fluffy pancakes I had thought it would be.  At that time, I added some chocolate chips, so I think that is why the kids loved it.  

For me, pancakes have to be soft and fluffy.  

Don't they look soft and fluffy? 

It should not be too oily or have a strong milky taste.  So I guess the buttermilk pancake didn't work for me.  This recipe however suited my taste.  The kids were thrilled when I announced that I'll be making pancakes.  There is also a bottle of maple syrup that Hubby lugged back home from his business trip.  He is the adventurous hero when it comes to food.  

Anyway, I digress again.  This recipe came from my copy of "Nigella Express".  I had read this recipe many times, but well, the less than pleasant experience with the buttermilk version has put me off pancakes for quite a while.  What's more, milk is the liquid used for this recipe.  I am not a huge fan of milk, so I thought about alternatives.  I didn't think replacing milk with water is going to produce a remotely delectable piece of pancake.  In the end, I settled for soya milk. 

The original recipe is a preparation of "Homemade Instant Pancake Mix" that can produce about 60 pancakes of about 3 inches in diameter.  I don't think I need that much, nor do I think I want to prepare so much pancake mix and store it.  So I did some amateurish reduction to the recipe to make only 15 mini pancakes.

Homemade Pancakes 

(Original recipe from Homemade Instant Pancake Mix in "Nigella Express: Good food, fast", Nigella Lawson, Hyperion, 2007) 

Reduced to suit my quantity preference

(I used a 200ml capacity cup)

Pancake mix

1 cup plain flour, loosely packed (I used 2/3 plain flour, 1/3 Hong Kong flour)

1 tbsp baking powder (I used 1/2 tbsp double-acting baking powder)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp sugar

To make the batter, add the following ingredients to above dry mix and whisk together

1 egg

1 cup milk (I used sweetened soya milk)

1 tbsp butter, melted

Method

1. Prepare the dry pancake mix.  I prepared mine the night before and left it in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

2. Beat/Whisk the egg, milk (or soya milk) and melted butter in a bowl.

3. Tip the dry pancake mix into a large bowl, add the wet mixture from (2) and whisk until no lumps are visible.  Gently whisking will suffice.

4. Heat a dry griddle or pan.  I used a frying pan, and there is no need to oil it.

5. Spoon 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of batter onto the hot pan.  When bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake, flip them over to make them golden brown on both sides.  My frying pan is 28cm, so I could make 3 pancakes each time.  The pancakes take about 1 minute aside to be cooked and browned.

6. The amount of batter should be able to produce 15 pancakes if the number of spoonfuls for each pancake is adhered.

The kids had a lot of fun eating these mini snacks and drizzling them all over with maple syrup.  In fact, I had fun eating them too!  It was fluffy and the slightly smokiness of the sweet maple syrup just taste so good with it.  And no milky taste to deal with.  This recipe is a keeper.  I don't the kids need to wait that long for their next pancake fix.  In fact, I had already thought about making some rolled pancakes with peanut butter filling...

Friday's Special #2: Slow cooking Easy sausage and beans

My first slow cooker was a lucky-draw gift that I had won at my Hubby's annual company dinner.  That was at least 7 years ago.  It is a 1.5L cute little cooker, small enough to simmer soup for two.  That is exactly what I did with my prize.  Made soups and the occasional dessert of white fungus, pears and almonds.  But as the family got bigger, my prize cooker could not handle the amount I needed to make.  So I bought another cooker, a whooping 5.2L at Hubby's suggestion.  His rationale is that it is better to get something bigger.  There will be more space to make more.  This will come in handy when the kids grow older and need to eat more.  But the problem with slow cookers is that the inner pot has to be at least half filled for best result.  Can you imagine the amount if this 5.2L is filled to half its capacity?  It proved to be too spacious for a family of four.  Because the 5.2L cooker is wider in circumference, I find that my ingredients always looked like they are having a swim in a giant pool.  The kitchen counter top looked pretty crowded too.  
I have finally settled on a 3.2L slow cooker, and had made simmered soup many times, much to my girl's delight.  She loves soup, and the white fungus with pear and almond dessert. However, I felt that I could make better use of this slow cooker, apart from just making soup and the one and only dessert. 

Yes, I know that the slow cooker comes with an operating manual and a couple of recipes.  The problem with me is that I basically ignore all forms of operating manuals and that inevitably included the recipe.  It was not until recently when I chanced upon a book called "The Complete Slow Cooker" that I realized that you could cook up a feast with a slow cooker.  Of course I borrowed the book.  How else would I be able to make something out of it and share the recipe here?  But this "discovery" (a bit late isn't it, but better late than never, I'd like to think) led to another.  I finally pulled out the operating manual and flipped to the recipe portion.  They looked do-able; in fact I tried one earlier in the week which I'll be putting that up later.  But since it's Friday, I reckon I should do Friday's Special first before it joins the queue in the draft list.

This slow cooking meal was meant to be a hearty start for the day: breakfast. But most of the time, we do not take heavy breakfast.  So I've decided that it will be our dinner.  I chose it because I think my kids will love it.  It has baked beans, 2x410g of baked beans (that's two cans)!  I think they will go crazy at dinner time.  Actually, though the recipe said baked beans, I am not sure if it meant baked beans in tomato sauce, like those we have here in Singapore.  For me, baked beans in tomato sauce is the only type of baked beans I know, so this is it for me. 

See the frankfurt at the back?  It's only 250g so I added
some Japanese sausages that is rich in smoky flavor

Frankfurt is another ingredient that got me scratching my head.  My hubby asked me if I could use hot dogs.  And my reply was: "I don't think it's hot dogs, like those that we wedge between a hot dog bun.  I think it's those raw sausages."  ^_^  Country bumpkin I am!  Frankfurt is hot dog!  A search on Google yielded results showing images after images of hot dogs of various sizes.  Okay, hot dogs it will be.  At least this country bumpkin learned something.  At least I know the country of origin is Germany...
It's a slow cooking dish, to be simmered on LOW for 9-10 hours.  Yup, eyes not playing tricks there.  Nine to ten hours.  Remember, it was meant to be a breakfast dish.  Prepare it the night before, whack the whole thing into the slow cooker and forget about it until you wake up the next day.  Sounds like a good deal doesn't it?  The heat is low and gentle, no danger of liquid boiling over or scorching while you visit dreamland.  The main ingredients, baked beans and frankfurts, are already cooked and ready to eat, there is no danger of under-cooking.  I put the whole dish together this morning, left it in the cooker and went about my chores.  Went out to get some bread as I intended to pair this with some toast.  Came back with a country loaf, as I loved the rolled oats dotting the whole loaf.  Think I'll toast this, drizzled with some olive oil and a sprinkling of dried oregano.  Maybe some coleslaw would be good, we need vegetables.  There are some cabbage, carrots and apples waiting to be used in the fridge...


Easy sausage and beans
(Recipe from "The Complete Slow Cooker: Packed with recipes, techniques and tips", Sara Lewis, Hamlyn, 2010)

Ingredients
1 tbsp sunflower oil (I used corn oil)
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (I omitted)
2 x 410g cans baked beans
2 tsp wholegrain mustard (I used fine wholegrain mustard)
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
6 tbsp vegetable stock (I just used water)
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped (I used about 10 cherry tomatoes, halved those large ones)
1/2 red pepper, cored, deseeded and diced
350g chilled frankfurters, thickly sliced
salt and pepper


Method
(Note: Some slow cookers need to be preheated, do so if necessary, check manufacturer's handbook for information)
1. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and fry, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened and just beginning to turn golden.
2. Stir in the paprika (if you are using) and cook for 1 minute.  Mix in the beans, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and stock (I used water, about 90ml).  
3. Bring to the boil, then stir in the tomatoes, red pepper and a little salt and pepper (I did not add in any more salt as I felt that the baked beans is adequately salted).

This is how my bean mixture looked like.

4. Add the frankfurters to the slow cooker pot and tip the baked bean mixture over the top.  Cover with the lid and cook on low for 9-10 hours or overnight.


That will be all for the time being.  Will be back to add more photos of the end result plus my coleslaw and toasts.

28 Oct 2011, 15:50hr

The frankfurts and beans had their full 9 hours.  Time for the unveiling.  This is how the dish looks like.

  

My photo-taking skills cannot do justice to the flavor of this dish.  Despite being subjected to heat (albeit at a gentle temperature), the beans did not turn mushy, the tomatoes and red pepper are soft and juicy.  I was afraid the long hours of simmering would make the frankfurts soft and soggy.  I should have more faith in the recipe and the wonderful gentle heat of slow cookers at LOW.  The frankfurts still retain a slight crunchiness and remained filled with smoky flavor.

For the toast that I mentioned earlier in the day, I simply drizzled them with some olive oil and sprinkled on dry oregano before shoving them into a hot oven at 220degC to toast for about 5 minutes.  

When I was toasting them, I got the kids to help with setting the table.  Both of them walked into the kitchen and ran out into the dining area excitedly: "Mummy! Mummy! The kitchen smelled like pizza!" said the Tiny Man.  The girl shared his observation.  I walked back into the kitchen and almost burst out laughing.  They were right. The kitchen did smell like pizza baking away.  The scent from the mixture of olive oil and oregano heating up in the oven is irresistible.

Coleslaw was prepared about 30 minutes before our dinner.  I used a quarter of a head of cabbage, slicing it very thinly.  One small carrot coarsely shredded and two small Fuji apples, cut into very fat match-stick size.  The dressing is equally simple. 

Coleslaw dressing

3 tbsp low fat yoghurt

1/2 tsp fine wholegrain mustard

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

a tiny bit (okay, about 1/2 tsp) maple syrup, this is optional  

I love the color of this coleslaw, a tinge of green here and there amidst a generous sprinkling of orange.  The apples offered additional sweetness and refreshing crunch.

Assembling all three dishes together, this is what we had for Friday's Special tonight.  The hubby had 3 helpings.  I guess this is the best indication that this slow cooking meal is a keeper and a success.

28 October 2011, 21:25hr

Peanut butter pound cake

"Sara Lee... 谢谢你..." 

Remember this jingle from the Sara Lee pound cake advertisements?  I became aware of Sara Lee through this advertisement.  Nestled in a rectangular aluminium foil cake tin, the cake would glimmer at you, full of moisture and extremely soft.  I remember only two flavors at that time, all purpose butter and chocolate.  

I cannot remember how the advertisement went, my memory had failed me many times, this is yet another example.  But the jingle, the last bit, and the tune along with it cannot be erased from my memory.  The image of a lusciously moist looking cake nestling snugly in the rectangular aluminium foil tin lingered on till today.  

Honestly, as a child, I would stare longingly whenever the advertisement was aired.  We could not afford such a luxury.  I do not know how much it cost back then.  To my childish mind, anything western is luxurious.  Anything western is expensive.  Sara Lee pound cakes fell into that category and it was inaccessible.  My air-steward uncle would buy the butter pound cake for my maternal grandfather.  I used to look forward to his visits whenever he came home from flying.  There would be exotic treats and the Sara Lee pound cake was one of them.

I still love these pound cakes.  But now, I prefer the chocolate swirl pound cake.  All chocolate pound cake had become too sweet for me, but my kids love both flavors.  Every time I walk past the portion of the fridge stashed with Sara Lee pound cakes in any supermarket, I will stop and engage in some mental debate.  Should I buy some?  Pound cakes as the recipe goes, is laden with a pound each of flour, butter, eggs and sugar.  Even though the portion is much smaller, the ratio of 1:1:1:1 remains.  This is quite enough to subdue my urge to grab one. 

Having said that, the itch to bake pound cakes refused to be subdued.  One fine day, while shopping at Daiso (that wonderful $2 shop!) I saw some recipe books stashed on top of a shelf displaying different types of aluminium foil cake tins.  And a copy featuring two slices of delicious looking pound cake stared at me.  The title is even more alluring: 「おいしくかんたん　パウンドケーキ」 "Delicious & Simple Pound Cakes", it says.  Grabbed it off the shelf, flipped through the thin book and was completely bought over.  You are easy to please, some might say.  Perhaps so.  There are 13 pound cake recipes featuring different flavors like chocolate, peanut butter, matcha, black sesame, lemon and milk coffee just to name a few.  It also comes with beautifully inspiring photos of each bake and a simple glossary of baking terms, so how can I not be moved to add this to my shopping cart?  Most importantly, it is in Japanese.  ^_^ I get to bake and do a bit of revision at the same time, and it is only $2.  Kills two birds with one stone (book I mean)!
Since I had been wanting to bake something involving peanut butter, naturally, the first attempt from this book will be the peanut butter pound cake.  Firstly, some visual shock.  This is how my bake looked like.

The slit along the centre was achieved by cutting the batter, which had been baking for 7 minutes, with a wet knife.  According to the recipe book, it is supposed to improve the appearance of the bake.  The photos in the book looked great, and mine only bear 60% resemblance.  I need to improve on the slit.  Here are two pieces of sliced peanut butter pound cake to share.

Besides using peanut butter, peanuts and pecan nuts are also added.  See the bits and pieces of nuts embedded in the cake?  This gave me a good opportunity to clear a packet of pecan nut which I bought some time back from a supermarket in Bangkok.  It had been banished to the deep freeze for a while as I didn't quite know what to do with it.  Yes, I sort of kicked myself after I bought it. 
When the cake cooled, I hastened to take some photos and give it a taste.  The crust was a little crispy, I wonder why.  And the area about 0.5cm from the crust all around the cake tasted a little dry.  If you look carefully, you will notice that the outer portion of the cake is slightly paler in color than the inner portion.  That's the 0.5cm area I am talking about.  It was not as moist as I wanted it to be.  Basically, it was no Sara Lee pound cake standard.  Maybe it was my way of beating the butter and egg, or maybe it was the way I stirred in the flour.  I did not put the cake in the fridge for fear that it will turn rock hard, what with so much butter and peanut butter in it.  By the next day, the crust actually softened and the cake was comparatively moister.  What a strange pound cake...


Peanut butter pound cake   
(Adapted from "Desserts Collection No.12: Pound Cake", by Misato Tanaka, edited by Daiso Shuppan K.K., published by Daiso Japan)

Ingredients
(8x18cm pound cake tin)
Group A
Unsalted butter  100g
Peanut butter  100g
Group B
Cake flour 120g
Baking powder  1/2 tsp
********************
Cane sugar  100g ^
Eggs (Large)  2 pieces
Peanuts  30g
Pecan nuts  20g


Method
1. Bring the eggs and Group A ingredients to room temperature.  Grease and line cake tin.  Preheat oven to 140degC.  Sift Group B and set aside.
2. Roughly chop the peanuts and pecan nuts and toast them in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, then set aside to cool.  Increase the oven temperature to 170degC in preparation to bake the pound cake later.  For me, I toasted the nuts first before chopping them up roughly.

Cannot resist putting up this picture, loved the color
of the pecan nuts.  Roasted the nuts first before chopping.

3. To make the batter, place Group A into a bowl and beat with a mixer till creamy.
4. Add the cane sugar (I used light brown sugar instead) and beat the mixture until light and fluffy. 
5. Lightly beat the eggs, add 1 tbsp to mixture 4 and beat well.  Add the remaining eggs in 3 to 4 batches, beating well after each addition.
6. Add Group B into mixture 5, using a plastic spatula fold in the flour mixture until no lumps are visible.  Add the chopped nuts and fold evenly.
7. Pour the batter into cake tin, ensure that the batter reaches the four corners of the cake tin.  Raise the batter at both narrow ends of the cake tin.  This is supposed to produce a better looking pound cake that has a nice convex dome.  I think the next time I make another pound cake, I will take a picture of what this step means.  Drop the batter filled cake tin from a slight elevation to remove any air bubbles in the batter.
8. Bake in a 170degC preheated oven for 40-45 minutes.  7 minutes after placing the cake tin into the oven, remove it once and make a slit along the centre of the batter with a slightly wet knife (not dripping wet, just slightly wet the blade).
9. Remove the cake once a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.  Remove the cake from the tin and remove the baking paper immediately, cool completely on a wire rack. 


Notes:
^ The sugar used in this recipe is called きび砂糖 (kibi satou), which is cane sugar.  Guess it means sugar made from sugar cane.  Further check on the internet did not yield much explanation specifically on this term kibi satou, but did unearth tons of information on how cane sugar is processed from sugar cane and how these are refined and crystallized at different stages to produce sugar of different shapes, sizes and sweetness.  Read somewhere some time ago that light brown sugar is good at retaining moisture, hence used this sugar for this recipe.  Worked pretty well, but I still cannot explain the strange behavior of the crust.

Fried Banana Kueh

No, these are not fried banana fritters.  They don't look like it anyway.  The texture is kueh-like, chewy and a little sticky.  I think this is going to be the fastest I take to compose a post, patch it up with my extremely amateurish photography and publish it.  I usually take about 3-4 days, from making a dish to downloading the photos, sitting down in front of the computer and write.  In between, I would be busy with cleaning the house, running about fetching the kids and making dinner. 

Anyway, this is not the main point of this post.  The thing is, why did I make such a blackish and not so appetizing looking snack right after my Hideous Kueh Serimuka fiasco?  

The answer is simple.  This is a childhood homemade snack.  Whenever there are bananas sitting around for too long and had started to spot black polka dots on their deep yellow skin, Mum would mash them all up, add plain flour and deep fry the batter.  I love the slightly smoky taste on those spots where the natural sugar in the banana caramelized after being fried.  

There was a bunch of nicely ripened banana hanging from the window sill in my Mum's kitchen.  That was a beckoning sight.  It seemed to be telling me that the time is right to introduce this childhood snack to my kids.  And as if to help me along, Dad asked if I wanted those bananas.  Five of them in total, I can have them all!  Furthermore, my Aunt, who visited for a dinner gathering last night at my parents' place "announced" that she made fried banana kueh two days ago.  "And it was delicious!" she said.  "All right!  That's it!  I am having those bananas and making the fried kueh tomorrow!" I decided.

This is probably the fastest cooking I've made from scratch, 30 minutes flat.  But of course this is no match for Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals.  His is a full course, 4-dish meal while mine is just a snack.  But that's not a problem to me, he is a chef, I'm a housewife ^_^

Okay, on with this snack.  Ingredients are extremely simple, here they are.

Aunt mentioned to avoid over mashing the banana, leave some chunky bits for an extra bite.  And I agree with her on this as it taste better to have some chunky fruits standing out from the banana-flavored kueh portion.  Another tip Aunt taught me; add a pinch of salt.  It seems that adding a pinch of salt will work at balancing out the sweetness and encourages the flavors in sweets to develop.  Actually this is what I always do to my sweet bakes, add a pinch of salt.  One last tip Aunt shared is to add some cornflour to the mixture.  The fried crust will be crispy and stayed so even when the kueh cools down a bit.  But I guess the crispiness disappeared when the kueh is totally cooled.  So I guess I will make it a point to finish all up when these are lukewarm! 

My childhood fried banana kueh

(the recipe below recapitulates the amount I used when I made these)

2 medium (fat) ripened bananas

2 1/2 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp cornflour

pinch of salt

oil for frying

Method

1. Mash the banana with a fork, try to leave some chunky bits for extra bite.  The bananas I used today are medium in length but quite fat.

2. Add plain flour spoon by spoon and check consistency with each addition.  Stir the plain flour into the mashed banana using a fork.  Add the cornflour and stir to mix well.  The batter should not be too dry.  This is how my batter looked like.

3. Using a tablespoon, scoop batter and drop into preheated oil and fry till browned.  I do not think it is possible to achieve golden brown since the natural sugar from the banana will caramelize.  I remember my Mum's version was as blackish as mine.  But do make sure that the heat is not too high as the sugar will get burnt quickly but the batter is not cooked through.

I gave these to my girl after fetching her back from school.  She seemed to like it.  She is quite a picky eater, and if she downed three at one go, I think she likes it.  The Tiny Man has yet to taste this, he had one large bowl of instant noodle for lunch and is now busy playing with his car games.  He is crazy about cars...

Hideous Kueh Serimuka: A learning journey

See the bumpy and rough surface?  Meet my hideous kueh serimuka.  I wanted to forget about writing this.  But I wrote, just to remind myself of the experience I had preparing for this attempt and the process of making it.  A momentary despair quickly dissolved into dogged determination to ensure that this kueh gets made.  The experience brought back a gift from my primary school form teacher.  It also showed me that a habit, multi-tasking, one which I've always practice, may not always be useful and efficient.   
The recipe for this kueh looked simply enough.  The ingredients required are quite easily available, not just from the supermarket, but also at home.  I had almost all of them available on hand, except for the glutinous rice. Well, that is not a problem, I'll just have to buy it and all will be ready to make this kueh that I loved very much as a child.  

I think someone up there has no intention to make my first attempt at Kueh Serimuka easy: I could not get hold of glutinous rice after two visits over three days to two supermarkets.  They were out of stock.  I entertained the idea that the whole of Singapore might be attempting Kueh Serimuka at the same time.  But I know I am just being ridiculous.  I know this whitish grain is always available every time I visit my frequent supermarket haunts, each time having no needs for them.  But now I need these frantically, but alas, these grains have decided to test my tenacity.  It was not until I went to the wet market with my girl that I remembered the existence of dried food grocers there.  Determined to make this kueh, I asked "Uncle" if he has glutinous rice by any chance.  Yes he did!  And it is sold in a very user-friendly amount of 1kg packaging.  Yippeee!!!  I think my girl is my lucky-charm.

Finally, armed with my prize, I made a final check on the list of ingredients required.  Thick coconut milk: Check; pandan leaves: Check; cornflour: Check; plain flour: Check; glutinous rice: Double check!  And so, my Kueh Serimuka journey begins.

Two nights before I attempted this kueh, I was busy sorting my glutinous rice.  Sorting? That is correct.  Sort out those normal long grain non-sticky rice from the glutinous sort.  I know there are those ready sorted glutinous rice, but remember, luck had not been with me from the start.  I am just glad that I can sort out the rice.  Anyway, this rice sorting activity reminded me of those times when Mum would make me do so.  Not for this kueh, but for those glutinous rice dumpling cooked in alkaline water (碱水粽).  I hated this process, but I could never escape it; and I like the dumpling dipped with kaya jam.  Mum would be making these for relatives, and I would be the one sorting two or three kilograms of these grains.  Perhaps it was more, I cannot remember now, only the exhaustion caused by straining the eyes to differentiate transparent looking rice from whitish looking ones remained etched in my memory.  Now, I am just glad that only 400g is required.  The girl helped; she is getting more and more interested in such kitchen activities. 

One night before my attempt, I was in the kitchen pounding the life and juice out of two large bunch of pandan leaves.  The recipe required 150ml of pandan juice.  I was very much tempted to just pound a couple of leaves, extract one or two tablespoons for the green hue and top the rest of the amount with water plus a touch of pandan essence.  "Hey!  That's cheating!" my conscience yelled at me.  Okay, I surrender.  I will dutifully extract 150ml of pandan juice.

Pound, pound, pound, I did for 30 minutes in the kitchen (or was it longer?), using my mini set of mortar and pestle.  Intermission came in the form of encouragement from my girl, "How's it going Mummy?  Every thing coming along fine?" she asked.  "It smells great Mummy.  I think it will taste good too!" she consoled me.

"Yes dear.  Everything's going okay." I replied as calmly as I can manage.  But in a dark corner of my mind, expletives are plentiful.  The pandan juice is making my hands itch, it is splashing all over the place coloring things green far and wide, and the liquid is not accumulating fast enough!  But if you think it's gotten me, think again.  This Mum's making that kueh, by hook or by crook!

Perseverance, an advice my form teacher gave me as a parting gift in my autograph book when I left my primary school.  I'll always remember it, and I did this time.  30 minutes later (I am pretty sure it was longer), with lots of washing to clear the itch and wiping to prevent my kitchen wall near the wash basin from turning into some extract art piece, I've got my 150ml of pandan juice. 
The day to put all the ingredients together finally arrived.  It did not start well.  Sent the Tiny Man to school only to be denied entry.  The cause?  Suspected hand foot and mouth disease.  Tiny Man's in K2 and there was a reported case one or two days ago.  I didn't think he would contract it again.  He should have developed some form of immunity after being hit twice before, but alas, his body seemed to welcome the bacteria with open arms.  It is a suspected case, there are only 2 red dots on the back of his throat.  No fever, runny nose, diarrhea, vomiting or any other symptoms associated with HFMD.  But to be safe, we visited the family doctor.  Take lots of water, rest at home, don't touch anyone, don't kiss Mummy, don't kiss anybody.  Those were the doctor's order.  Okay, there goes my plan to have a quiet day to work on my Kueh Serimuka.  Never mind, I can handle this: try out a new recipe and entertain two kids at home.  The girl is at home too, school's out for PSLE marking.  At least, the two of them have each other for company.  That means they will not bother me, I hope.
I followed the recipe and steps faithfully.  It all went well until the part when I have to heat the mixture for the top layer over low heat to thicken it.  The top layer is a mixture of plain flour, corn flour, sugar and eggs, my precious 150ml of pandan juice and thick coconut milk.  Before applying heat, it was a little runny but very smooth.  I was practically smiling to myself the whole time I was stirring it while letting the glutinous rice steam.  I wanted to take some pictures to remind myself of the consistency proper mixing would yield.  Then I remembered that the SD card in my camera has limited capacity and that capacity has been breached the night before.  The multi-tasking fiend in me reared its head.  I thought that I could set up the computer and download the pictures quickly, while I set the pot of top layer mixture over extremely low heat to thicken with my girl stirring for me continuously.  My girl was most willing to do so, and thus I left her to it.  She understood that the stirring cannot stop.  The computer was cooperative today, it started speedily.  Camera connected, program to download running, click and the pictures travelled from camera to PC.  "Another file with the same date is found, do you want to overwrite that file?"  The program asked me.  Of course not!  Thus the distraction and I busied myself with correcting this duplicate.  
"Mummy, are you done yet?"  The girl reminded me that there is a pot of liquid bubbling away and she is the one stirring.  "Almost, give me 1 minute."  But it stretched to 3 minutes.  By the time I rushed into the kitchen with a camera ready to make more visual documentation, it was too late.  The pot of smooth mixture that is supposed to just thicken had started to solidify!  There were lumps of almost cooked green kueh floating in thickened liquid which the heat had yet to conquer!  I almost screamed at my poor girl.  But I stopped myself.  It was not her fault.  The fault lies with me.  Had I been more organized in getting my equipment ready, this would not have happened.  But I was devastated.  The glutinous rice had cooked beautifully.  I am so close to completion.  I was supposed to pour a smoothly thickened coconutey green top layer onto the glutinous rice, steam for another 20 minutes to solidify it and the whole experience would be completed!  Why didn't my girl tell me that there were lumps forming!?  No, it was not her fault.  The fault lies with me and it is now up to me to decide how my Keuh Serimuka journey would end.  
Should I just throw the pot of lumpy goo away and make a new set?  There is this 150ml of green juice that I've got to prepare; the resulting itch is not comforting.  The worse thing is, I haven't got anymore thick coconut cream left.  I don't want to be dragging my possibly HFMD infected Tiny Man around.  On the verge of desperate tears is an under-statement to describe my appearance and psychological well-being at that moment.
Perseverance, the advice rang in my ears again.  Okay, the recipe did say that the thickened top layer mixture has to be strained.  Right, I'll strain it.  I'll strain it and cross all my fingers and toes that the lumps would pass through the sieve obediently.  Since I could post a completed kueh serimuka at the top, yes, most of the lumps surrendered to my relentless pushing against the sieve.

The aftermath...

80%.  8 out of 10 lumps got through.  I managed to salvage about 80% of that disastrous pot of mixture.  I scraped the thick liquid onto the square tray of glutinous rice and tried my very best to smooth it.  The liquid has an opinion of its own and will not concede to my wish.  The tray was returned to my wok-steamer, adorned with a rough bumpy surface.  20 minutes did not smooth out its bumpy face, neither did cooling.
  

Bumpy surface that refused to smooth out.

All these I have psycho-ed myself to accept.  But what about the taste and the side view?  Was the top layer too thin since I've lost 20%?  Here's the pictorial verdict.

The glutinous rice layer was adequately salted complete with a smooth yet not oily coconutey flavor.  It did not flake but offered a firm bounce against my teeth as I sink them into my kueh.  The tip about compressing the rice firmly really does work.

My gratitude to my primary school form teacher.  Perseverance.  The top layer turned out just fine.  Smooth and soft, not those chewy type that some kueh serimuka come with.  I like the texture, it has some resemblance to thick kaya jam.  Even losing 20% did not interfere too much on the overall balance of bottom rice layer and top green layer.
My gratitude to my girl.  For giving me the chance to learn self-control, to be reminded that multi-tasking is not a virtue sometimes, and for showing me that she can carry out my instructions diligently (I did not tell her to inform me immediately if she sees the top layer mixture change its appearance).  She is the perfect helper and she is now playing with the possibly HFMD infected Tiny Man.  Tiny Man is still perfectly well, still showing no signs of HFMD related symptoms.

Kueh Serimuka
(Recipe from 怎么做必学热门粿与糕点, my notes in blue)
Ingredients A (Base layer)
400g glutinous rice
200ml thick coconut milk
1 tsp salt
3 pieces pandan leaves
1 piece banana leaf (I omitted)


Ingredients B (Top layer)
150ml pandan leaf juice
70g corn flour
50g plain flour
4 eggs
300ml thick coconut milk
200g sugar (I reduced to 150g, caster sugar)


Method     
To prepare the base layer
1. Rinse glutinous rice and soak for about 2 hours.  Do not soak more than 2 hours as the rice will break easily.  For me, I love to see each distinctive grain of glutinous rice in my kueh serimuka. 
2. Drain and add in the salt and mix well.  
3. Boil water in the steamer.  I didn't have a proper steamer, so I boiled water in my all purpose wok with my handy steel stand in it.  I placed the glutinous rice in a large tray, spreading the rice out thinly so that it can cook evenly.

This is how my steel stand looks like

4. Place glutinous rice in, add pandan leaves, and steam over HIGH heat for about 20 minutes.
5. After 20 minutes of steaming, slowly add in coconut milk and mix well.  I added the coconut milk in two batches.  After each addition, I fluffed the glutinous rice with forks to coat each grain with coconut milk as evenly as I can get.  Fluffing the glutinous rice with forks prevents each grain from breaking; at least this is what I discovered in this exercise.  Addition of coconut milk and fluffing took place with the tray of glutinous rice still keeping warm over the boiling wok of water. 
6. Continue to steam the glutinous rice until cooked (about 10 minutes).  To check if the glutinous rice is cooked, take one grain and press it with fingers.  If it breaks easily and the center of the grain is clear with no white particles, it is cooked.  Another method is to just pop one or two grains into mouth and taste it, if it is not gritty, it is cooked.
7. Remove from the steamer and loosen the glutinous rice.  Place glutinous rice in a square steaming tray.  Transferred mine into a 9" square cake tray.
8. Use banana leaf to compress the glutinous.  Using banana leaf to do so is supposed to give it added fragrance and at the same time doing away with glutinous rice sticking to any utensils used for compressing.  I didn't have any banana leaves.  I simply used a large plastic spoon, those that came with my rice cooker and pressed away.  There wasn't any sticking.  At the end, I pressed the glutinous rice down firmly with my palm.  

9. Continue to steam for another 5 minutes.


To prepare the top layer
Method
1. Sift corn flour and plain flour together.
2. Beat eggs and sugar together lightly.
3. Add thick coconut milk, beaten eggs and pandan leaf juice to flour and mix well.
4. Cook mixture over low heat till it turns thick.  Remember, over low heat, watch over it, do not take your eyes away, not even for 1 minute (this has a danger of stretching and you'll regret it).  It thickens faster than you can imagine.  
5. Strain the mixture.


Completion
Pour the mixture over glutinous rice.  Steam over MEDIUM heat for about 20 minutes, till the top layer solidifies.  Set aside to cool and cut into pieces before serving.

I feel pretty shy about this but anyhow, here goes.  I am submitting this Kueh Serimuka to Aspiring Bakers #12: Traditional Kueh (October 2011), hosted by Small Small Baker.